TURIN, Italy — After AAA’s ‘Noche de Los Grandes’ took over Monterrey, Mexico last night, the WWE continued its historic international weekend today with the ‘Clash in Italy’ Premium Live Event at the Inalpi Arena in Turin, the first time The Boot country has hosted a PLE.
Here is a live match by match breakdown of this stacked WrestleMania worthy card, which is being powered, as usual, by the relentless European crowd.
WWE Clash in Italy Results
Cody Rhodes (c) defeats Gunther to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship
This is a WrestleMania main event worthy match that happened to be the opener for Clash in Italy. It certainly had that important feel to it, as there was a looming mystery as to who would come out on top, contrary to most of Rhodes’ title matches. Gunther is still running off of the momentum of having retired John Cena and AJ Styles, so he was certainly a real threat to defeat Rhodes.
It looked like he would at a certain point, as after hard-hitting combat early in which both men hit their finishers to no avail, Gunther put Cody in the sleeper choke for what felt like forever. ‘QB1’ refused to quit, and got back up eventually, which is when he regained the momentum with a Cody-Cutter, before hitting the Cross-Rhodes, and pinning Gunther to earn the win.
Gunther was visibly upset after the match, which is when the replay showed his foot under the rope for the first two seconds of the pin, but nothing was called by the referee. Therefore, Cody beats Gunther, not clean, but by confusion, probably the WWE’s only way to protect both stars, which does take away from the otherwise excellent match, that looked like it was about to really take off. It’s likely they’ll run it back soon, but with Randy Orton looming to take his 15th world title from Rhodes, it’s hard to see Gunther beating Cody. Either way, a high-profile and solid start to the show.
Rhea Ripley (c) defeats Jade Cargill to retain the WWE Women’s Championship
This feud has blossomed from one with little story or hype before WrestleMania, to a must see weekly saga on SmackDown.
Both women brought their A-game on Sunday, with Cargill dominating the early goings of the match. She took the match outside and handled Ripley, before the match returned to the ring and took off. They delivered heavy blow after heavy blow, including a razors edge from Ripley and a Riptide beautifully countered into a DDT from Cargill.
That is when ‘the others’ got involved and added even more to this match. Cargill’s posse, Michin and B-Fab came to save her from being pinned after eating a Riptide, before Rhea’s frenemy Charlotte Flair took them out, before saving Rhea herself from a ‘Jaded’. Rhea then took over, hit Riptide for the win, seemingly ending this feud.
Brock Lesnar defeats Oba Femi
Wow.
Many were upset that the WWE ‘ruined’ a perfect Lesnar retirement at Mania by having him come back, but all of that went out of the window the second these two made their entrances in Italy. The crowd roared and strutted with Femi, and was in awe at seeing Lesnar in front of them. Now, before you read the details of the match, just know that nothing is an exaggeration.
Lesnar attacked Femi before the bell rang, and once it rang, he hit Oba Femi with four F5’s. Femi did the impossible and kicked out. Lesnar then synched in the Kimora lock, and delivered a fifth F5, to which Femi kicked out. Femi finally got off some offense and hit a chokeslam, when Brock took over outside and hit an F5 to Femi through the announce table. After nearly being counted out, Femi shot back up and went into the ring, hitting a flurry of his running shoulder tackles on Brock, and attempint his patented ‘Fall From Grace’ power slam that took Brock out at Mania. Brock was ready this time, jumped over Femi, picked him up for another F5, this time putting the Ruler down for good, and sending Turin into a frenzy.
If Oba Femi wasn’t already looked at as a beast, and the future face of the company, then he sure does now, even after the loss. The WWE made sure it took seven of one of the most devastating finishers ever to put him down. Some are already upset that Oba took a loss, but if this is going where it should, and it ends with Femi standing tall over Brock in a grudge match, indefinitely taking the place of the new Grim Reaper in the WWE, then I’m okay with Oba losing this one.
Realistically, if he didn’t lose after taking seven F5’s, how could he ever lose? Brock is still Brock, Oba isn’t invincible, but is as close as can be, and we likely get one more, where Oba will be crowned for good. Well played, WWE Creative.
Sol Ruca beats Becky Lynch (c) to win the Women’s Intercontinental Championship
Sol Ruca comes from the first class of the WWE’s NIL program, and has been an absolute star since starting out in NXT. The WWE has booked her no differently since she arrived to the main roster, and that was made evident in Italy.
After having a short match that ended in DQ last weekend, these two put on a full show this time around. Sol Ruca got to fly around and show off her gymnastics background, and Lynch did what she does so well, playing the villain who tries to stop Ruca’s offense.
In a match that many thought Lynch would win, and maybe lose the title to Ruca later on, the WWE universe was pleasantly surprised, as Lynch went for a second Manhandle Slam in the corner, but it sent Ruca onto the turnbuckle, from where she launched into the Sol Snatcher and landed it, then pinning Becky 1…2…3.
Sol botched her finisher a few times in the recent weeks, but when it mattered most, the newcomer stepped up and dethroned the veteran much to the liking of the crowd, in a feud that is likely to continue throughout the summer.
Roman Reigns (c) defeats Jacob Fatu (Tribal Combat) to retain the World Heavyweight Championship
After an excellent card leading up to this point, the main event came around, and it was time for the family feud between Reigns and Fatu to wrap things up. In a build that has seen a mix of the old Bloodline drama, with the originality of Fatu’s desperation to win the Title, Tribal Combat seemed like the only way to go.
It didn’t take long for this match to spill outside, as the stipulation means no count outs. The two battered each other all over ringside and into the crowd as well. Fatu locked in the Tongan Death Grip that has repeatedly done damage to Roman, but once the ‘OTC1’ got out of it, he grabbed a toolbox from under the ring, and brutally smashed Fatu’s hand with it, so that he couldn’t use it later for the submission.
After a Reigns spear through the barricade, a crazy frontflip spear by Fatu, Roman countered the Death Grip and hit another spear that shattered a table in the ring. Fatu then got up quickly again, when Roman ran the ropes to hit one final avalanche spear, winning ‘Tribal Combat’, and as Michael Cole said, “neutering the Samoan Werewolf”.
The Uso’s then came out and crowned Roman with the “Ula Fala” to which Cole announced that Fatu would now have to acknowledge and serve Roman and the bloodline, beginning tomorrow on Raw. Solo Sikoa and the MFT’s appeared ringside, to which Roman told the Uso’s “he’s next”.
We’ll see where this goes, but for now, Roman reigns supreme, and has another impressive title defense.
Once again the European crowd, this time Turin, showed out, bringing the energy from opener to closer, upholding the standard for what a PLE crowd should look like.