WWE Roadblock 2016 Results: Top Highlights and Low Points
WWE Roadblock is in the history books, and as is the case with any major production by the biggest sports entertainment promotion in the world, the show had its fair share of ups and downs.
Triple H successfully retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in an extraordinary match against Dean Ambrose. The contest was the culmination of an intensely fun broadcast, complete with championship clashes and a trip to Suplex City, courtesy of The Beast Incarnate.
Brock Lesnar pummeled Luke Harper as WWE baited and switched its audience, robbing them of the advertised bout between Lesnar and Bray Wyatt. Still, the crowd in Toronto enjoyed watching the former WWE and UFC champion tear through the imposing Harper, even as Wyatt watched from ringside.
Natalya and Charlotte tore the house down, proving women's wrestling is alive, well and thriving, while tag teams dominated the early portion of the broadcast.
With the road to WrestleMania back in full force, make a pit stop to relive all of Saturday's action, including these six highlights and low points from the WWE Network presentation.
Highlight: The New Day Kicks Off the Show
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Saturday's Roadblock kicked off with WWE tag team champions The New Day hitting the ring for a promo prior to their match with The League of Nations. While it was no surprise that they were over with the rabid Toronto fans, what was a bit shocking was the extent to which the fans up north accepted them in the role of babyfaces.
From the moment Big E came over the PA system with his trademark "oooooooooooh Toronto" to the group's introduction of Booty-Os cereal, they were incredibly popular with the fans.
The beauty of the segment was that the trio never once deviated from the personalities and traits they have shown since they turned heel. There was no pandering to the audience, no joking for little kids. They were still the same group they have always been. Their undeniable entertainment value necessitated that they be the babyfaces in the match with their one-dimensional opponents Sheamus and King Barrett.
If their performance was a test run for a potential babyface run, they passed with flying colors. The fans are ready to accept them. Whether they should be turned when the company has a hot act like Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady ready to step up and be the heroes of the tag division is the real question.
Low Point: Heat-Less NXT Tag Team Champions
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While there was no denying the popularity of Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady as they took to the ring to challenge for the NXT Tag Team Champions, there was plenty to doubt when it came to their opponents The Revival.
Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder are a skilled tag team that regularly draws comparisons to great old-school tandems the likes of the Andersons, and with good reason. But they entered the arena to total apathy on the part of the WWE Universe.
Worse yet was the fact that they never did anything to generate heat as the match went on. Any team could have filled their spot and the outcome would have been a molten-hot match, thanks to the love that the audience has for Amore and Big Cass.
Imagine for a moment how much better the match would have been with heel champions fans legitimately cared about. The reaction for the bout would be even stronger than it already was Saturday night.
NXT Creative absolutely must focus on developing the characters of Dash and Dawson if there is any hope of them getting over with audiences going forward. The work is there on the part of the performers themselves. Now, the writing staff and Triple H must come up with a reason for fans to genuinely hate them or risk a situation where they continue to go over significantly more interesting acts to the dismay of the NXT faithful.
Highlight: The Divas Revolution Continues
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Longtime fans of NXT know the magic Charlotte and Natalya are capable of when programmed against each other in a WWE Network special. Following Saturday's event, the entire WWE Universe is aware.
The Divas champion and her third-generation opponent delivered a fantastic match that had the audience biting on every spot. The story was exceptionally told, and the in-ring action was exactly what one would expect from two performers of their caliber.
The constant tease of the Sharpshooter built anticipation for the maneuver. By the time Natalya finally locked it in, the audience popped. When Ric Flair interfered and cost the resilient challenger the match, the audience became apoplectic, the exact emotion that finish was supposed to elicit.
Charlotte once again proved why she has been entrusted to carry the Divas division in WWE, while Natalya reminded fans that she is among the most underrated and underutilized talents in the industry.
Low Point: Luke Harper Joins Bray Wyatt
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WWE absolutely deceived its audience by advertising Brock Lesnar vs. Bray Wyatt when it absolutely had zero intentions of delivering that match Saturday night. As Wyatt revealed during the pre-match promo, he "made a deal with the devil," and as a result, his partner Luke Harper would join him in a 2-on-1 Handicap match against The Beast Incarnate.
The problem?
Wyatt never officially entered the match. Instead, he watched from ringside as Lesnar took his "brother" to Suplex City, punishing him with dangerous falls on the back of his head. Despite a brief moment of control, Harper found himself squashed and finished with an F5.
The match was the typical house show squash WWE has booked Lesnar in of late, rendering the extra effort put into booking Saturday's match useless.
Wyatt never got his comeuppance, and now a storyline is left dangling in the wind without a satisfying conclusion as the biggest event of the year approaches.
You know, the one traditionally used to wrap such issues up.
Except Lesnar is fighting Dean Ambrose on that card while Wyatt will be doing...whatever it is WWE Creative comes up with for Wyatt to do.
Low Point: A Toronto Screwjob for Dean Ambrose
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The main event of Roadblock was a brilliant match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship between Dean Ambrose and Triple H.
But more on that in a moment.
As superb a bout as it was, there was one moment that will live in infamy, and that was the contrived false finish that saw The Lunatic Fringe pin Triple H's shoulders to the mat for three, only to have the official wave off the decision because he saw Ambrose's feet under the rope.
There are only so many times that an audience can be teased, that they can be handed what they want on a silver platter before having it yanked away before they can enjoy it. Saturday night, they believed they had seen the consummate underdog unseat the King of Kings and win the title.
Only to have it ripped away from them.
The idea is likely that it would intensify Triple H's heat while simultaneously lending further sympathy to Ambrose. Instead, what it did was telegraph the finish. When Ambrose's win was teased, every fan in that arena knew his odds of leaving with the title had vanished, likely because they had seen it happen so many times before. From John Cena to Daniel Bryan to Roman Reigns, that style of booking had been leaned on far too heavily throughout the course of The Authority storyline.
That it was executed poorly, with Ambrose too far away from the ropes for the finish to work effectively, only made matters worse.
Highlight: The Main Event
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Now that we have the one negative of the match out of the way, let's celebrate what was a phenomenal main event to cap off the Roadblock special.
From the very get-go, Dean Ambrose and Triple H had a clear vision for their match. It started slow, building with every passing minute. In-ring psychology was the focus of the early part of the bout, with Ambrose targeting the knee of his opponent while The Game focused on the ribs and back of his smaller opponent.
The action intensified, the spots increased and the result was an incredibly dramatic closing few minutes. From the false finishes to the call-back to the women's bout earlier in the night, with Ambrose breaking out both the Figure Four and Sharpshooter to a thunderous ovation, the bout was a masterclass in escalation.
There will be some that are upset at the finish, unsatisfied by Triple H's victory. He was never going to lose, so stressing that point is worthless. Instead, enjoying the match for how great it was rather than damning it for not delivering the finish you wanted is the surest way not to be disappointed.
Ambrose may not have the WWE Championship in his possession, but he came out of Roadblock with something much more valuable: main event momentum and crowd adulation that his former Shield brethren Roman Reigns would love to have.
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