WWE has delivered plenty of quality shows during the red-hot run the company is on, but Bash in Berlin will fall into the more disappointing pile.
The first WWE premium live event from Berlin, Germany was bad, just unremarkable outside a very fun mixed tag team match and compelling story told by Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes from Uber Arena on Saturday.
It was bogged down by a tediously slow main event, a title change that fans could see coming being the only real newsworthy thing that happened, and a strap match that didn’t quite conjure up the level of emotions it needed to.
With big expectations for what’s to come at Bad Blood in Atlanta next month, here are five takewaways from Bash at Berlin.
Made Man
It was a long, dragging and sometimes arduous road, but WWE got Gunther to the destination he needed to after his last two big matches didn’t end with the dominance we are used to seeing from the Ring General.
Gunther closed the show in his adopted hometown with Randy Orton passing out in the sleeper hold after a few attempts to break the lock. It was the right result after their King of the Ring final match ended with the Viper’s shoulder up and Judgment Day helping him win the World Heavyweight Championship from Damian Priest at SummerSlam.
But man did this match seem to take forever, especially in an era that values work rate.
Orton, whose entrance felt like it took forever, called and paced this match like it was 20 years ago. He effectively worked Gunther’s arm to take his powerbomb away, but took what felt like 10 minutes to clear the announce table, stack the ring steps and climb them to throw Gunther through the table. Orton took his sweet time getting in the ring after to attempt the RKO — after Gunther kicked out of his first attempt earlier – and paid for it as it opened the door for the champion to get the sleeper on.
Despite the pace, this was a clear passing of the torch-type moment as Orton shook Gunther’s hand after and said a few words to him.
Mami’s Revenge
The mixed tag match was the most fun thing on the card and maybe the one the fans were the most invested. It also likely had its best moment when Rhea Ripley had a sweet callback by choking Dominik Mysterio with her legs in the corner before she and Damian Priest got some payback before they headed off into their single feuds in this story.
Priest and Ripley got the bulk of the offense and the crowd ate it up — but it may have been a bit too much at times as Liv Morgan — your Women’s World champion — and Mysterio looked helpless and hapless in a few sports, but that might be nitpicking. Morgan often found herself having to save Mysterio from being pinned — which did feel on brand.
Things finally turned when the rest of Judgment Day interfered but Ripley and Priest were able to fend them off. Priest got treated like a main eventer when he was kicked out after taking a Finn Balor Sling Blade and a 619 and Frog Splash from Mysterio.
A Riptide from Ripley to Morgan allowed her to signature stack-pin the champ. This has to break into a title rematch for Ripley versus Morgan and Balor vs. Priest now. Ripley’s intensity and facials throughout this match really made it.
Friends Forever
Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes put on as good a babyface vs. babyface championship match as you could ask for. They perfectly played out the story of Owens being gun-shy about truly exploiting Rhodes’ injured knee — despite kicking it a few times — to win the Undisputed WWE championship. Outside of him not dropping Rhodes on the apron to really take him out, this could have been played it up even more potentially.
While being conflicted, Owens did hit a Stunner that Rhodes kicked out of. The challenger was able to kick from the first Cross Rhodes he took and was able to counter later on thanks to Rhodes needing more time with his knee to keep him from delivering a third consecutive Cross Rhodes.
Ultimately, the fourth one Owens took after his lack of conviction on a second Stunner allowed Rhodes time to counter him it and win.
The two shared an embrace when it was over and Owens refused to have his hand raised by Rhodes, raising the champs again instead, Owens even pushed away the camera trying to show his face on the hug as if to say there is nothing secret going on here.
For now, Owens and Rhodes are friends. But Owens’ character remembers everything and it is hard to believe his reluctance to do what he needed to win a world championship won’t stick in his craw for the next time he is in that situation.
Trilogy bound?
For a while, it felt weird that CM Punk and Drew McIntyre’s great friendship bracelet feud would end in a match where hitting the turnbuckle in four corners and not pinning and submitting your opponent would end things.
But Punk tapping out McIntyre in the Sharpshooter and him delivering four Go to Sleeps on his way to hitting those corners put some of that to bed. He grabbed the bracelet with his wife and dog’s after the final GTS and hit the final turnbuckle with it in a nice touch
Still, at one win apiece are we headed for a rubber match we really do not need after Punk was able to retrieve the bracelet for good?
The match was physical and mostly entertaining and the two did a few cool corner spots — the best being Punk hitting them after McIntyre did while the Scotsman carried him on his back. Even so, the more these guys wrestle the harder it feels to get emotionally invested, so we need it to take up a slot on the third straight PLE, which has so few spots anyway.
Running it back
Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair’s second Women’s World tag team championship reign needs to be the beginning of their ultimate breakup because the single feud is where the money is. It’s often the same babyface tag team formula with Belair taking the brunt of the punishment early, then hot tagging in Cargill, there is a moment that gets cut off, before a small opening — this time Cargill pulling Beliar out of harm’s way — gets them to their tandem finisher. Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre — who won the belts without pinnng Cargill or Belair at Clash at the Castle — impressed with how they worked early in the match, keeping the pace moving with a few innovative offense spots.
Biggest Winner: Gunther
Biggest Loser: Kevin Owens
Best match: Rhea Ripley and Damian Preist vs. Dominick Mysterio and Liv Morgan
Grade: B-
