WWE No Mercy 2017 Review: Top Highlights and Low Points of Raw PPV

Anthony Mango@@ToeKneeManGoX.com LogoFeatured ColumnistSeptember 25, 2017

WWE No Mercy 2017 Review: Top Highlights and Low Points of Raw PPV

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    Credit: WWE.com

    Going into WWE No Mercy 2017, it was hard not to feel like it was a two-match card.

    Outside of John Cena vs. Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar's title defense against Braun Strowman, everything else felt pretty standard and nowhere near as important.

    However, history has proved that these types of shows can be surprising, as sometimes those two important matches stink up the joint or the others far exceed expectations.

    Now that No Mercy has concluded, it's time for us to look back on what happened and assess the damage, talk about the ups and downs and see where the chips fell.

    Presented in order of appearance, here are those standout segments of the show, for better or worse.  

Mixed Bag: Pre-Show Kickoff Hour

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    Credit: WWE.com

    Per usual, unless you needed the panel to refresh your memory on the feuds, you could skip the pre-show.

    Alexa Bliss in the social media lounge had a laugh when she was responding to someone asking her to marry her, but nothing else with that material was special.

    All the analysis and video packages were as bland as normal and no ground was broken in any regard.

    This is to be expected, though, so any complaints about that have to be weighed against the already low expectations you have to have prior to going into the pre-show.

    At least Elias was able to have another musical performance and a decent enough match with Apollo Crews to help add a positive to the mix.

    Still, none of this was necessary to follow along with, and if you missed out on it, you didn't truly miss anything.

Highlight: Intercontinental Championship Match

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    Credit: WWE.com

    On top of being a decent match from start to finish, the Intercontinental Championship match between Jason Jordan and The Miz also ended with the right call.

    There is definitely some potential to the idea of Jordan holding the title, but the crowd simply isn't being receptive to it.

    With that in mind, and considering the amount of boos that he received tonight, the better choice was keeping the belt on The Miz, so that in itself is a highlight.

    The ending of the match, with The Miztourage interfering, was also a way to help protect Jordan going forward if this feud is going to continue.

    However, judging by Jordan's lackluster promo after the match, that may not necessarily be the best decision unless the former American Alpha is being primed for a heel turn.

    In any fashion, this particular match was solid, and the right person ended up winning.

Low Point: Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt

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    Credit: WWE.com

    Finn Balor and Bray Wyatt first had a match on Monday Night Raw to set up the idea of their follow-up at SummerSlam.

    That match was only special because Balor brought out the face paint, but if you ignore that aesthetic, it was the same basic confrontation as before.

    This time around, WWE took a step backward and tried to get out of it by billing it as "man vs. man"—as if that somehow made things more interesting.

    It didn't, which meant this match had nothing going for it that we haven't seen before, rendering it one of the most forgettable of the entire night.

Highlight: Raw Tag Team Championship Match

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    Credit: WWE.com

    Wow, this was a good match!

    The previous Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro and Sheamus encounter at SummerSlam was one of the better fights of that card, so it was to be expected that this would be at least good. Instead, they stepped it up a notch and delivered even more.

    This was hard-hitting and brutal, with Dean Ambrose working his shoulder being just the tip of the iceberg.

    One of the highlights of the entire pay-per-view, not withstanding this match itself, was Cesaro's dental injury.

    Knocking out some of your teeth is going to be awful for the person dealing with it, but as far as the entertainment value of the show itself goes, it certainly helps sell the danger of the ring.

    This could have easily been a run-of-the-mill rematch with nothing all that interesting happening, rather than the brutal, action-packed brawl we thankfully got.

    Kudos to these four men—particularly Cesaro—for going the extra mile to put on a fantastic match.

Highlight: Fatal 5-Way Raw Women's Championship Match

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    Credit: WWE.com

    The five women in the Raw Women's Championship match worked exactly the type of style they needed in order to pull off this gimmick, especially since Nia Jax was such a dominating factor.

    With her four opponents teaming up on her repeatedly, Jax was written out of the win in the most realistic way possible.

    Another fun aspect of this fight was the tension between Bayley and Sasha Banks, as their friendship has been a running theme for so long that it is interesting to see them at odds with one another.

    Admittedly, Emma was more of an unnecessary element, but her inclusion didn't take anything away from the match, so there's no reason to dislike her contributions.

    All in all, though, this match followed the same concept of the Intercontinental Championship bout, where the right decision was made to have the champion retain.

    Here's hoping Asuka takes it easy on Alexa Bliss at TLC!

Middle of the Road: John Cena vs. Roman Reigns

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    Credit: WWE.com

    This match between Roman Reigns and John Cena was a no-win situation WWE booked themselves in, since there was criticism all across the board for the bout and plenty of reasons to hate it—particularly if you're not fond of Roman Reigns.

    Naturally, there will be complaints about how this match did nothing but put Reigns over and prove that he's the next John Cena in the sense of kicking out of everything.

    However, the match itself was great, so if WWE was dead set on doing this, at least it was wrapped in a great and exciting package.

    If you had no horse in this race, you probably loved it, but if you were hoping for a Cena win, you're probably upset.

    The real test of how this is viewed in the future will be how WWE follows it up, since this could be everything from Cena passing the torch to even potentially stepping out of the ring for a while.

Low Point: Enzo Amore Wins Cruiserweight Championship

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    Credit: WWE.com

    It isn't the end of the world, nor is it something that was even done in a way to make him look good, but the idea of Enzo Amore being the cruiserweight champion just seems strange.

    For the better part of a year, Neville has been building up the idea that the Cruiserweight Championship is a wrestler's title, which is something different from most of the other belts in the company.

    Granted, this has been part of their storyline leading up to No Mercy, with Amore being an unfit candidate to hold the title and represent the 205 Live division, but that doesn't mean there isn't some truth to the matter.

    Over the past few months, Amore hasn't had the same response from the crowd that he used to, so making him the figurehead of a show that struggles to get viewers may not be the best decision.

    We'll have to see what the response is to the title change and if it affects things positively or negatively, yet an immediate response to the new champion is an underwhelming sigh.

Low Point: Brock Lesnar Retains the Universal Championship

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    Credit: WWE.com

    Braun Strowman has built up some of the best momentum that any Superstar has had in years, but the game plan of doing Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns at WrestleMania next year is just too embedded in WWE's mindset to go with anything else.

    This means Strowman ended up having exactly the same outcome as Lesnar's feud with Samoa Joe, where he was built up to look like a threat just to come up short and keep the status quo.

    What's unfortunate about this is that it does no good other than to give an extra rub to Lesnar, who doesn't need it, while also hindering Strowman going forward since he has a glass ceiling he can't break through.

    In the end, this isn't going to be the crowning achievement for Strowman, nor is it going to be a contributing factor to fans really wanting someone to defeat Lesnar.

    All this is going to amount to is a disappointment that when another guy got over with the audience, WWE didn't have the guts to go with the flow and put the belt on him.

    Here's hoping WWE's creative team knows what its doing and we aren't looking back on this in April with our palms on our faces.

    Tell us what your favorite and least favorite points of the night were in the comments below!

            

    Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.

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