32 WTF Moments From WWE No Mercy 2016
When does a main event not become a main event?
The rumour mill was going like the clappers in the hours before WWE SmackDown Live's second ever Network Special took to the air. Would Goldberg be the man to come back and face Curt Hawkins in the former Edgehead's second WWE debut? (Of course not. But I've got to fill 200 words for this intro you know!)
Would Becky Lynch be able to compete on the night? Rumours were rife ahead of the show that a mystery injury that had nothing to do with wrestling was to put her defence of the SmackDown Live Women's Championship against Alexa Bliss on hold. If true, what would the night have in store for number one contender Bliss?
Then we have the talk surrounding the Bray Wyatt/Randy Orton match. Would Luke Harper make a comeback to help The Eater Of Worlds to victory? Was Erick Rowan no longer a Wyatt after a video that saw the bearded beauty burying his sheep mask in a field emerged on Twitter? And finally, and most importantly in my mind, would Bray Wyatt finally win a big PPV match after losing what feels like his last 100 back-to-back. For the sake of career, let's hope so.
You all know the card so I won't bother going through it. Without further ado, here are all the WTF Moments from WWE No Mercy 2016...
32. The Main Event!
Yes! The main event of No Mercy was Flip Reversed and moved into the curtain jerker spot.
WTF, right? Wrong. There was a massive presidential debate on during No Mercy that would have taken away a large chunk of the audience. WWE moved the main event to the start of the night so as many eyes as possible would have seen it before real life important stuff got in the way. Of course, with the network being the network, the pressure to watch WWE PPVs live is off completely as the option to watch them moments after the fact is there.
This got me thinking. Since the business model of the WWE Network isn't dependent on live viewing figures but subscription numbers, was there any need to move the main event up first at all? The masses will still have paid their money for this month no matter what time the match went on. What's the difference?
For me, this match came too soon in the night and left the rest of the card - Miz/Ziggler aside - laying in its wake.
Was there any need? I think not. Then again, I'm not a billionaire called Vince McMahon. Who am I to doubt him?