WWE Roadblock live results: Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns
Preview by Joseph Currier
WWE’s final pay-per-view of the year takes place tonight as Roadblock: End of the Line emanates from the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
We’re looking for your thoughts on the show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
The smart money has come in for the show, so if you’re looking for the probable winners ahead of time, the daily update has that information.
The show will be headlined by matches for the WWE Universal Championship and Raw Women’s Championship. The Universal title will be on the line, while Roman Reigns’ US title will not be, as Reigns challenges Kevin Owens for Raw’s top championship.
In the other headliner, Sasha Banks will defend the Women’s title against Charlotte Flair in the first ever WWE main roster women’s Iron Man match.
The rest of the card will feature Seth Rollins taking on Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn finally getting his chance to step into the ring with Braun Strowman, The New Day putting their record-breaking tag title reign on the line as they defend against Cesaro & Sheamus, Rich Swann defending the Cruiserweight title in a triple threat match against TJ Perkins and Brian Kendrick, and Big Cass facing Rusev on the kickoff show.
Our live coverage begins with the first pre-show match before the main card kicks off at 8 p.m. ET.
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By Dave Meltzer
BIG CASS VS. RUSEV
After a bunch of mic work the match started. Cass dominated. Most of the match was during a commercial break which tells you how much they trusted the match. The two were brawling in the stands. Lana shoved Enzo and Rusev then blindsided Enzo with an elbow. Cass was tending to Enzo and got counted out of the ring. Not a good start to the show.
NEW DAY VS. SHEAMUS & CESARO FOR THE TAG TEAM TITLES
Really good match with lots of false finishes. The finish saw Cesaro not tag in and Kingston used trouble in paradise on him but Sheamus was the legal man and he tackled Kingston and pinned him. The New Day lhande Cesao the belt and hugged him. Sheamus then grabbed both belts and celebrated on his own. Cesaro then jumped into the stands and celebrated with the Cesaro section. Cesaro was hte star of the match doing all kinds of great moves, The New Day did a lot of heel spots where Cesaro made Kingston tap to the sharpshooter but Woods had distracted the referee. Woods interfered from the outside to set up the big ending but Cesaro kicked out. Another time Cesaro had the sharpshooter and Sheamus ran in and the idea was Kofi was supposed to sidestep but it looked like Sheamus just broke it up as Cesaro had it won.
Kevin Owens interview. He noted he was the longest reigning Universal champion in history. Of course it’s a short history. Charly Caruso asked Owens about Chris Jericho but blew it off. Owens said he and Jericho were unconditional best friends, tonight, tomorrow and forever. Jericho was there and gave Owens a nasty glare. Owens said we should be tag team champions but it was Seth Rollins’ fault. Owens said jhe wants to make things up and gave him a present. It was a holiday scarf. Jericho threw it on the ground.
SAMI ZAYN VS. BRAUN STROWMAN
Mick Foley, who was supposed to be off until 1/2, was evidently called in for this match after all. The original idea was Foley’s role in the angle was to end at Raw. The match saw Strowman throw him around for several minutes with the crowd pretty much dead. At about 7:30 or so, Mick Foley came out with a towel and wanted to throw it in. Zayn begged him not to. Zayn eventually grabbed the towel from Foley and threw him into the stands. Strowman went to tackle Zayn outside the ring, but Zayn moved and Strowman went through the barricade and nearly got counted out. Zayn did some speed moves and used a Helluva kick just as the 10:00 ended so Zayn was awarded the win because he lasted the ten minutes.
They announced the U.K. tournament dates on the network and showed the press conference including announcing Nigel McGuinness as the new announcer saying working for the WWE was his chiildhood dream.
SETH ROLLINS VS. CHRIS JERICHO.
This was a weird one. The crowd was dead most of the way, like the previous match. It started slow but ended up being what you’d expect out of these two, particularly the last five minutes or so with lots of near falls and reverses. They got the crowd finally in the last few minutes but it was a struggle. Rollins hit a frog splash but was selling it and Kevin Owens came out. Rollins went after Owens. Jericho cradled him but the ref was distraced by Owens so he was slow getting the count. Jericho was furious at Owens. Rollins did a jumping knee but Jericho went for the codebreaker, Rollins blocked it and hit the pedigree for the pin.
They announced Cass vs. Rusev in a rematch on Raw tomorrow.
RICH SWANN VS. BRIAN KENDRICK VS. TJ PERKINS FOR THE CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE
Austin Aries is in the commentary booth in Byron Saxton’s spot. He’ll probably blow Saxton away. Short match. There was no heat and the work looked smooth and solid. Swann superkicked Kendrick out of the ring and then used the spin kick to pin Perkins.
Neville came out after the match and turned heel on Swann. Perkins stood up for him and Neivlle laid out Perkisn and superkicked Swann and Neville did a running kick. Neville threw Swann to the floor and threw him into the barricade. As Neville was destroying Perkins and Swann, some of the crowd woke up and chanted “Thank you Neville.”
Owens tried to talk to Jericho but Jericho kept the door locked. Owens said he was just trying to help threw the door. Owens said our friendship is stronger than this and started pounding on the door. Owens said to put his name on the top of his list if it makes you feel better. Owens said that friends make mistakes but best friends forgive each other and aske if we’re best friends. Jericho still wouldn’t unlock the door. Owens said I guess I got my answer, we really aren’t best friends anymore. Owens said that hurts his feelings a lot. So I guess Jericho will be involved in the Owens vs. Reigns main event. They specifically said Owens vs. Reigns was the main event if there was a question.
Mick Foley is now scheduled for Raw tomorrow. He agreed to work after originally being given a few weeks off.
SASHA BANKS VS. CHARLOTTE FOR THE WOMEN’S TITLE
They worked what would have been a good match somewhere else but the crowd was so dead it really hurt it. Banks was up 2-1 with time running out but Charlotte got the tap with the figure four at 29:57. So they were tied after 30:00. They went to sudden death and Banks’ leg was hurting and her nose looked all busted up as well and Charlotte got the figure right on Banks. Banks tapped uot. They pushed it that this was the end of the rivalry that put the women’s division on the map. Charlotte won the first fall with natural selection off the top rope at 19:14. Banks won the second fall with what was supposed to be a La Magistral cradle or something similar but they kind of messed it up, but made it work at 21:36. Banks won the third fall at 23:55 with the bank statement after a missed moonsault. Charlotte was like the babyface trying to get the tying fall. In that sense, from a psychology standpoint, the last few minutes of regulation were booked backwards. It didn’t really matter since the crowd wasn’t really reacting anyway. It was a good performance but really this was not the crowd to do an Iron man match in front of.
KEVIN OWENS VS. ROMAN REIGNS FOR THE UNIVERSAL TITLE
Long match, with Owens winning via DQ when Jericho gave Owens a codebreaker after Reigns and Owens were laid out. Owens had gone for a belt shot and Reigns speared him but both were selling as Owens gave him a pop up power bomb but Reigns had gotten his foot on the ropes. They announced Owens as the winner via DQ and then Jericho smiled and hugged Owens, although Owens acted surprised. So after the match, Rollins came out and Reigns speared Owens and then they gave Jericho a Shield power bomb on the Spanish announcers table and the show ended with them giving Owens a power bomb on the English announcers table. So they did the Shield reunion spots to make people happy after a flat finish to a long match. As far as the match itself, once again the crowd was pretty flat although they did come up by the end. Owens did a splash off the barricade onto Reigns through one of the annnoucers tables, which didn’t break the first time, so Owens did it again and it broke the second time. It was like a typical Owens vs. Reigns match except less heat.