6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Saturday Night's Main Event (25 Jan - Results & Review)
3. Fatu Flattens Strowman
While the official match between Jacob Fatu and Braun Strowman was a pretty straightforward, underwhelming affair, the post-match action was anything but.
Following a script that Bronson Reed perfected last year, Fatu decimated Strowman with a series of violent hip attacks, throwing the referee aside to draw a disqualification while continuing the assault. When security tried to intervene, he threw a chair at one and battered another before continuing to pummel Braun, who was bleeding from the mouth and/or nose.
As referees and officials flooded the ring, Jacob became even more enraged, hopping to the top rope and nailing a moonsault. Tama Tonga tried to calm him down, but Fatu delivered another moonsault before walking away… only to return once more and hit a third moonsault on a prone Braun. Fatu left the ring to fans chanting his name, which you’d have to rule as “mission accomplished” for WWE.
True, this was WWE copying its own homework from Bronson Reed’s sudden ascension last year, but that clearly worked with a guy who didn’t have a bunch of momentum behind him before that incredible moment, so why not try it with Fatu, who has an aura and reputation about him? This saved a disappointing match and probably will be the visual from the show that gets replayed the most going forward.