10 Big Mistakes WWE Can't Afford To Make At Roadblock: End Of The Line
How to close 2016 on a high note.
Another weekend, another WWE pay-per-view. Sunday's Roadblock: End Of The Line event will be the company's third PPV in six weeks, but the last until the 2017 Royal Rumble hits San Antonio on January 29th. For better or worse, 2016's PPV logjam comes to an end this weekend, and fans will have time to recover ahead of 2017 - a year that threatens to be just as hectic.
Raw's superstars had a mixed night at Survivor Series last month. The women and tag teams were able to overcome their SmackDown cousins in the event's elimination matches, but their men's singles counterparts failed, and Sami Zayn was unable to take The Miz's Intercontinental Title to Raw. They'll no doubt be out to leave SmackDown's recent TLC PPV in the dust this weekend, and the card has bags of promise.
Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns has great potential as a main event, and Charlotte and Sasha Bank's 30-minute Iron Man match should burn the house down. Chris Jericho vs. Seth Rollins pits two of Raw's finest performers against each other, meanwhile. None of the matches feel misplaced, and each has a reason to take place.
WWE can close 2016 on a high note if they overcome their propensity to mar Raw's post-Draft PPVs with screwy finishes and inconsistent booking. Will they pull it off? It all depends...
Here are 10 big mistakes WWE can't afford to make at Roadblock: End Of The Line.
10. No Cruiserweight Showcase
As topsy turvy as WWE’s post-Brand Split pay-per-views have been, the company have done a solid job in providing some fun, disposable Cruiserweight action on the Kickoff Show. Both Hell In A Cell and Survivor Series saw some of the division’s finest produce fast, exciting six-man tags that stood among the show’s best matches, but there’s nothing announced for Roadblock yet.
WWE are going to be short of time on Sunday night, but the Kickoff Show looks a little barren so far. Renee Young and Booker T will struggle to fill airtime with Lita and Jerry Lawler gone, and Rusev vs. Big Cass is the pre-show’s only match so far. They need something else to fill the gaps, and they could do much worse than call on the Cruiserweights.
This would be an excellent opportunity to introduce guys like Akira Tozawa and Gran Metalik to the audience, as well as utilizing underused talents like Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali. As mediocre as the division has been thus far, these Cruiserweight matches always provide a fun distraction from the night’s bigger stories. Let them go out and put on a spectacle, and Roadblock will be off to a great start.