WWE’s PLE ‘Bash in Berlin’ took place this past weekend on Saturday August 31st, live from the Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany. The crowd was ruckus, the action was nonstop, and the matches themselves mainly delivered. So, let’s get into it and break this bad boy down!
The show opened up with one of the biggest matches of the night as Cody Rhodes defended his Undisputed Championship against his longtime friend and war buddy, Kevin Owens. The crowd was on fire from the jump here and were equally behind Rhodes and Owens, loudly cheering for both men through the majority of the match. This was a really well done, put together back and forth between 2 very experienced vets of the game. A lot of focus was put on Kevin and if he was still able to pull out that mean streak and intensity when it was necessary to win the title, even if Cody was one of his closest friends. After a few finishers and near falls for both competitors, Owens went to the top rope and attempted a Swanton onto Rhodes, who got his knees up at the last second and was able to plant Owens with a 3rd and final Cross Rhodes to seal the deal and retain the title. Owens was made to look like he could’ve won the belt a couple different times throughout this match if he could’ve pulled the trigger and went to that extra level with Rhodes, but he just wasn’t able to do it and hurt his friend. After the match, Cody tried to shake a frustrated Kevin’s hand and console him and eventually he gave in and hugged Cody and congratulated him before exiting the ring clearly upset.
Next, the Women’s Tag Team Championships were on the line as the defending champs of Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn aka Unholy Union took on Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill. This match got a decent bit of time which is cool to see for the women’s tag team division and gives me some hope for the future of it. Fyre and Dawn had a pretty good showing here and dominated the middle portions of the match after stunting the overpowering competitors’ offense and isolating Bianca from her tag team partner Jade. Once Jade made her way into the match she took over and the pace of things started to speed up and break down. A late save from Jade, pulling Bianca off of Dawn’s knees sent Fyre crashing into the knees of her own partner on a failed Senton attempt and set up the finish for the challengers, who did their really cool but unnamed tag team finisher and got the victory. Sorry, that description was terrible, but believe me, you know it if you’ve seen it before. This was a rather unfortunate and predictable outcome in my personal opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that Bianca and Jade are the bigger draws most likely to the average follower of the product, but Unholy Union just picked up these titles a couple months back from none other than Bianca and Jade and that in itself leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes me think the titles were only put on them in the first place for the cheap pop in Scotland just to have the rug pulled out from under them. Unholy Union also feels like a more legit and less forced tag team, don’t get me wrong I’ve always been impressed with Bianca, and I want to like Jade, but her in ring work has felt forced and ill paced for a while now and this match didn’t do much to make me feel different in that department.
Next, we moved to onto the strap match between the hate fueled, bitter rivals themselves, CM Punk and Drew McIntyre. The hard-hitting action of this contest started before the bell even rang, as McIntyre took the fight to Punk as he made his way into the ring. Punk absorbed and dished out a tremendous amount of punishment in this match in what was easily his best physical showing since his return to WWE by far, in my humble opinion. McIntyre rocked him with a Claymore, scoop slammed him through a table set up on the outside of the ring, and cracked the belt over his back, as did Punk to him as well. But, in the end the fighting spirit of CM Punk was too much for Drew to contain that night as Punk rocked Drew with a Go To Sleep between touching each turnbuckle on his path to touching all 4 turnbuckles and winning the strap match. Before touching the final turnbuckle Punk stopped and grabbed the bracelet with his wife and his dog’s name on it, off of the lifeless Drew’s wrist so hopefully that puts an end to that part of the story, and we can shut up about the damn bracelet now. This was the right call and a much-needed victory for the veteran Punk here on his final run with the company. Drew sold everything for him really well here as well and took care of him in there, safely tossing him down through the table in a really neat spot of the match and eating 4 GTS’s like a man on the path to Punk’s victory. This story feels like they could go one more round, especially since both men have a victory over one another now so we will see what looms around the corner for these 2 and what’s next.
Next the new Judgment Day/new “power couple” of WWE, Dominik Mysterio and the Women’s World Championship Liv Morgan battled the angry Terror Twins themselves, Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley. Damian and Rhea couldn’t wait to get their hands on these 2 and were ready to tear their heads off when they finally got the chance to lock up with them, dominating the early portions of this match. The heel couple was able to reign Priest and Ripley in though, and isolate Priest from his corner and not allowing him to tag Ripley into the match for a moment, with Liv even connecting on multiple cheap shots to Priest when the ref was distracted angering Ripley, the fans, and even the announcers in the process. They couldn’t contain Mami forever though and she eventually got the hot tag and started clearing house, running through Morgan and getting her hands on Dominik much to the excitement of the German crowd in attendance. Dom tried his best to ask for a hug, but Rhea handed him a whooping instead, locking him in a head scissors and nearly hitting him with a Riptide before he was saved at the last moment by Liv. This distraction gave Liv the opening to take over though as she landed a series of moves culminating in a crucifix bomb for the near fall. Priest got the tag back eventually though and took control back over, with him and Ripley hitting matching Razor’s Edges to Dom and Liv and nearly sealing the deal until the rest of the Judgment Day members made their way to ringside. Dom and Liv nearly won the match when Liv disposed of Rhea ringside with a sunset flip on the outside and Dom hit Priest with a 619 in the ring, but Priest kicked out at 2 and a half. The Terror Twins got everything back under control though as Damian dispatched of the Judgment Day members on the outside of the ring and Ripley planted Liv with a Riptide in ring for the 3 count. I feel like this rivalry is far from over though as well, Rhea still wants that title from Liv and Damian is far from done with Finn. It’s just going to be harder to see the Judgment Day as actual threats to these 2 without some underhanded tactics after they disposed of them so easily here tonight.
Then it was main event time as The Ring General and the World Heavyweight Champion Gunther put his title on the line against the living legend himself, The Viper Randy Orton. The crowd was behind both of these men quite heavily as well as they cheered and sang along to Orton’s music during his entrance and gave a nice hometown welcome pop to the champ during his entrance as well. The crowd got even louder as Ludwig Kaiser introduced Gunther in German moments before the match began. This was a fun and physical back and forth meeting between 2 of the most solid competitors in today’s WWE, with Gunther trying to solidify and further prove his spot as one of the most elite competitors and champions in WWE and Orton trying to prove that he’s still got it and can hang with some of the very best even in the veteran years of his career. Orton’s reactions to Gunther’s chops early on in the match were great and really sold what it’s like to step into the ring with Gunther and the sheer physicality and punishment he dishes out to his opponents. Orton drove Gunther hard into the steel steps on the outside of the ring and Gunther had a noticeable bruise form on his shoulder that he nursed and sold for the rest of the match, not having as much strength or power in that arm for the remainder of the contest. Gunther was able to sway the tide of the match back in his favor though and delivered a thundering powerbomb to Orton who kicked out at 2, so Gunther went for another one, but Orton was able to counter out and deliver an RKO outta nowhere! Gunther was able to get the shoulder up at 2 and a half though keeping his title safe for the moment, Orton would waste little time though as he drug Gunther to the outside of the ring to continue the assault. Orton put Gunther through the announce table with a backdrop and tossed his limp body back into the ring looking to set up another RKO, but Gunther had other plans as he locked Orton in a backpack sleeper hold and pulled it in deep. Gunther held the hold till the fading Orton eventually passed out and The Ring General was crowned the winner by submission and retained his World Heavyweight Championship. After the match the beaten and winded competitors shook hands symbolizing a certain passing of the torch and Gunther celebrated in front of his home crowd in Berlin.
This was overall a really well put together and fast paced show. The German audience showed up and showed out as most of these PLE’s overseas have proved in recent history, there’s fans of the WWE product everywhere that are just dying for a chance to see their favorite superstars and cheer them on live so it’s neat that WWE has started to spread the wealth around a little more to their foreign markets and give all these countries a chance to have a big show hosted in their countries. Even if that means they don’t come to my little city of St. Louis as much anymore, I’m there every time they do, and it warms my little wrestling nerd heart to see the French, Scottish, and German crowds lose their minds for 3 hours.
