Bully Ray believes Roman Reigns’ WWE World Heavyweight Championship defense against Penta on Raw surpassed Reigns’ WrestleMania match with CM Punk. On the September 15 episode of Busted Open, the WWE Hall of Famer also rejected criticism that Reigns no-sold Penta’s Mexican Destroyer.
Bully opened his analysis by arguing that the entire Mexico City broadcast reached a standard WWE should pursue more often.
“If I’m anybody and everybody in that company, from the very, very top to the guy that sweeps up for the company once the ring is torn down, I am saying to myself, this is what we need to aspire to be every week. This is what we do when we swing for the fences. Last night was an Attitude Era-esque Monday Night Raw.
Every segment hit on all cylinders. That was two and a half hours of balls to the wall, all killer, no filler pro wrestling. Last night’s show would be a show that I would show a non-wrestling fan.”
He then made his direct comparison between the Mexico City main event and Reigns’ WrestleMania bout with Punk.
“Speaking of that main event and speaking of WrestleMania, here’s my hot take for today. Hold on to your butts. Roman Reigns versus Penta last night was a better main event and a better match than Roman Reigns and CM Punk at WrestleMania.
That’s saying something because Roman Reigns versus CM Punk, a lot of people call a modern-day classic. Last night was better.”
Bully said the false finishes convinced him Penta might win even though Reigns entered the match as the expected favorite.
“Last night, during one of the false finishes deep into the match, I found myself sliding in my chair to the edge of the seat. I was like, holy shit, they got me. I thought Penta was going to win.
We kind of in the back of our mind knew that Roman was probably going to win. But they suspended the disbelief. They had us buying into it at least two or three times with credible, perfectly executed false finishes. Nothing beyond the realm of believability.”
He focused on the sequence in which Reigns absorbed a Mexican Destroyer, fell into the corner and answered with a spear. Bully argued that the turnbuckles kept Reigns upright long enough for the champion to find one last burst of energy.
“It was the Mexican Destroyer where Roman got knocked all the way back into the turnbuckle. If it wasn’t for the ropes holding him up, he would have went ass over tea kettle, and then was able to catch that breath, get a shot of adrenaline, come back with the spear.
A lot of people are talking about that moment in time. But I bought in so hard because of the performance of Roman and Penta.”
For Bully, the sequence followed a familiar wrestling tradition in which the right character can briefly overcome damage at the dramatic peak of a match.
“This is where the moments in time for a match, when the time is right, with the right character, you can get away with a moment in time like they did last night. Roman Reigns did not no-sell the Canadian Destroyer.”
Reigns retained the championship in the main event, as detailed in WrestlingHeadlines’ complete WWE Raw results.
Source: Busted Open, “Raw Review: Incredible Penta-Roman Match | New Champ Sami Zayn is Here!”; transcript accessed via Podscan.
