After some video of various wrestlers arriving to the arena began, including hometown hero Randy Orton, the show began with Jacob Fatu defending his United States Championship against LA Knight, Damien Priest, and Drew McIntyre. This was a fun opener and the crowd was red hot. This wasn't the best 4-way match ever or anything, but if you're a fan of modern WWE, there's no way you wouldn't enjoy this. Priest and McIntyre went through a table on the outside towards the end, Jeff Cobb made his debut as a potential new member of the Bloodline, and Jacob Fatu took a few more steps towards his inevitable babyface run. I'll give credit to LA Knight too as, despite being on the losing side at Mania and, prior to that, being something of an "also ran" throughout 2024, he has managed to stay over with the live crowds. Highlights included the aforementioned table spot, Fatu hitting a Samoan Drop on Priest into the top of the barricade, and LA Knight hitting his springboard elbow drop, which is a thing of beauty. I wouldn't consider this "must see," but it was very good. (3.5/5)
Next up - Becky Lynch challenging Lyra Valkyria for her Women's Intercontinental Championship. With Lynch, you're not going to get a fireworks show of insane moves and sequences, but you are going to get an emotional, dramatic match that has intensity and a clear story. Here, the story was all about Lynch's experience and veteran craftiness and Lyra being the underdog. That's not to say this was a Lynch dominated match as Valkyria got in plenty of flashy offense, including some painful-looking submissions and high-flying. The low points of the match might've actually come in the somewhat clunky and overbooked final 4-5 minutes where we saw multiple false finishes including Valkyria kicking out of at least two Manhandle Slams and the referee, Jessica Carr, being out of position for a Valkyria pin attempt that would've won her the match because she was busy trying to put the pad back onto the top turnbuckle. To be clear, I thought that spot was clever and really well-executed...but I was bothered that it didn't lead to anything. I'm a big fan of "Chekhov's Gun" in wrestling, but the gun needs to be fired for it to be worth the effort. In this match, the finish came rather abruptly and not really tied to anything else. Lynch's post-match attack felt a bit unnecessary too as it didn't leave to the expected Bayley return or to some other storyline-pushing development (unless that happens on Raw and Lynch is "suspended" or faces some other consequence). Still, all in all, a very, very good match that put Valkyria map, but certainly wasn't the same level of excellence as, say, the Bayne/Storm match from a few months back or the Rhea/IYO/Belair match from WrestleMania. Good, but not an all-time classic. (3.5/5)
Dominik Mysterio defended his Intercontinental Championship against Penta in the next contest. Good lucha-inspired action here with highlights including Mysterio hitting a great tornado DDT on the floor, Penta diving over the referee's back to take out Carlito and JD McDonough, and Penta hitting a Mexican Destroyer on the ring apron that looked gnarly. I don't think anyone would mistake this match for the Rey/Eddie classic from Halloween Havoc 97', but that match is an all-time classic and this was just a solid 10-minute outing, slightly better than you might get on an episode of Raw but nothing I'd consider "must see." What helped this match, like the two that came before it, was a really hot crowd that was fully invested - though there were audible chants for "Dirty Dom" at one point which makes one wonder if he, like Jacob Fatu, is headed for a face run. (3/5)
GUNTHER took on Pat McAfee in the next match. This was not my cup-of-tea, though I'll admit, it was hard to get into this because I'm not a McAfee fan in the slightest and think this whole storyline is awful and a waste of not only GUNTHER's talents but the countless talents that were left off the card so that McAfee could be spotlighted. Michael Cole's commentary was also super lame. I'm not sure if Cole and McAfee are real, true best friends, but if so, good lord, I'm not sure who is more pathetic - the 56 year-old lifer who has somehow managed to not build or sustain any friendships longer than 5 years or the ex-NFL player whose best friend is almost 20 years older and whose whole life revolves around work? Anyway...this was only passable because GUNTHER could probably pull a 3-star match out of a broomstick. Pat McAfee's facial expressions and selling were good, but in 2025, you need more than that to really keep me interested. This match benefited from a hot crowd (is that a line straight from Total Extreme Warfare?) more than it did any of the specific moves or moments. I try not to rate matches on what they "should've" been so I'll steer away from saying this should've been even more one-sided (even if it should've been even more one-sided). This just wasn't particularly interesting or fun to watch and Cole's commentary was annoying. Here's hoping they throw a dart in the locker room tomorrow night and have GUNTHER feud with whoever it hits instead of extending this storyline any further. (1.5/5)
Main event time - John Cena vs. Randy Orton for Cena's WWE Universal Championship. As expected, this was a bore. At one point Michael Cole noted that every time these two wrestled, it was an "instant classic"...and yet I don't think anyone could name more than 1 or 2 specific matches these two guys had that were great (and certainly not without a stipulation to make things interesting, like their Last Man Standing match that included Orton trying to blow Cena up with pyro). They did a whole lot of nothing for the first 10-15 minutes, very simple offense, no real twists or turns. Then they went into finisher-spamming mode. The best spot of the match - and arguably the whole night - was Orton countering an AA into an RKO. This match collapsed under the weight of countless referee/WWE officials bumps. R-Truth showed up because why not? Cena hit a low blow and hit Orton with the title belt to steal another victory, a repeat of the way he won the championship at Mania against Cody. I don't think there was ever a moment in this match - or storyline - where anyone believed Cena might lose so there was very little drama in this match and the ridiculous amount of ref bumps and finishers made it even more of a farce. Again, the hot crowd really lifted this match from being pretty bad to at least watchable. (2.5/5)
Starting out strong with a very good fourway for the United States Championship, this show slowly creeped into "so-so" territory as it went, eventually earning an overall Kwang Score of just 2-out-of-5, one of the lowest-rated WWE PLEs in several years (in fact, the last time a show scored this low was SummerSlam 2021). At this point, the level of talent that the WWE (and AEW for that matter) have is arguably higher than at any other times in the company's history. Unfortunately, this show is why talent isn't always enough to carry bland stories and unimaginative match layouts. The main event was yet another unremarkable Orton/Cena in a catalog of unremarkable Orton/Cena matches. The GUNTHER/McAfee match was nothing special despite the entire purpose and hype around the match was that it should've felt like something special and different. Mysterio/Penta was fine for what it was: a filler match after the lengthy Lynch/Valkyria contest (which was strong, but not so strong as it carry an entire show).
FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver
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