Emanating from the Inalpi Arena in Turin, on Sunday WWE hosted the first ever PLE in Italy aptly named ‘Clash in Italy’. The show had a tough act to follow as the previous night, AAA hosted the first night of Noche de Los Grandes. Which culminated in the incredible Mask vs Mask match between El Grande Americano & The ‘Original’ El Grande Americano, where in a shocking twist no one could have ever seen coming, The ‘Original’ El Grande Americano was forced to unmask and reveal that he was actually Chad Gable this entire time, explaining his months long absence from our screens after he travelled to Mexico to learn about the art of Lucha Libre after his loss to Penta in January of last year. So expectations were high for WWE, and also of the Italian crowd as traditionally, European crowds are seen as louder/better crowds than you often see in the US.
Opening the show, we saw Cody Rhodes defending his Undisputed WWE Championship against Gunther. Gunther got this match/move to Smackdown as a favour from Paul Heyman after he defended Heyman from multiple attempted attacks by Seth Rollins prior to Wrestlemania, and he promised that he would defeat Cody just like he did AJ Styles/John Cena in recent months and take the title from him. Gunther did have Cody in his fatal ‘Sleeperhold’ multiple times during the match yet Cody continuously managed to find a way to escape or get to the ropes forcing Gunther to let go. Ultimately, much like at Crown Jewel in 2024 Cody was able to overcome ‘The Ring General’ but not without controversy. After hitting a Cross-Rhodes and securing a 3 count, Gunther immediately was clearly furious with the official. And replays showed that Gunther had his foot under the bottom rope which usually would result in any pin attempt being invalid/broken, but the official clearly hadn’t seen this. One would assume that Gunther will want a rematch due to this mistake as that pin attempt should not have stood, but on the night ‘The Career Killer’ fell victim to his own personal (American) Nightmare.
Next, we saw Rhea Ripley defending her Women’s Championship against Jade Cargill in a rematch from Wrestlemania. Jade was the one going into this match with more momentum, having defeated Rhea as well as Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair alongside Michin & B-Fab at Saturday Night’s Main Event last week. Both women have been at eachother’s throats for months now and the intensity between them was clear as both women looked to definitively put the other in the past. At one point Rhea looked to have Jade beat, however an interference from B-Fab & Michin cost Rhea an earlier win as they dragged Jade’s foot onto the bottom rope to break the pin. They were quickly taken out by Charlotte Flair, who did the same thing to Jade putting Rhea’s foot on the rope to prevent Jade stealing the match. In the end it was Rhea who won out in the end, once again defeating Cargill to retain her title.
Following that, in what once seemed impossible to see, Brock Lesnar was in the Middle of the card as he once again faced off against Oba Femi following WrestleMania. Following his supposed retirement after losing to Oba previously, Lesnar decided he wasn’t going to let his career end like that and he promised to give Oba a similar beating to the one Oba gave him and to rule over the ruler. And Brock, clearly held that grudge really strongly assaulting Oba before the bell rang and hitting 4 F5’s in rapid succession yet Oba Femi still kicked out (for reference, 3 F5’s was enough to break The Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak). A fifth F5 still wasn’t enough to defeat Oba, and even the Kimura Lock was not enough to defeat ‘The Ruler’ as Oba continued to take everything Brock threw at him and come out the other side seeming more annoyed than hurt when this similar level of offense from Lesnar would obliterate anyone else. Brock then reversed an attempted chokeslam on the outside, with a SIXTH F5 through the announce table, and seemed happy to accept the count out victory after everything. But even this wasn’t enough and Oba still managed to beat the count to get back into the ring. Ultimately an attempted Fall from Glory wasn’t possible due to lasting damage to his arm from multiple Kimura lock’s and a SEVENTH F5 was finally enough to keep Oba down long enough for a three count to tie the score at 1 win each. And with SummerSlam fast approaching, and just happening to take place in Brock Lesnar’s hometown of Minneapolis, everything lines up perfectly for a third & final bout between the two to once and for all determine if Oba is truly ready to take Brock’s mantle as one of, if not THE most dominant force in WWE.
Penultimately, we saw Becky Lynch defending her Women’s Intercontinental Championship against Sol Ruca. Ruca has drawn the ire of Becky Lynch ever since she debuted on the main roster following Wrestlemania. And this of course was a rematch from Saturday Night’s Main Event last week, where Becky won by DQ after pulling the official in the way of an attempted Sol Snatcher to force a DQ, where she was quickly put into this title match as a punishment since it was clear what Becky’s endgame was doing that. The two women were evenly matched throughout the affair. At one point, Becky once again used the official as a weapon of sorts using Jessika Carr to knock Sol Ruca off balance while on the top rope. Ultimately, Becky got cocky & attempted to give Ruca a taste of her own medicine with an attempted Sol Snatcher, yet Ruca countered this into hitting Becky with her own Manhandle Slam, before hitting a proper Sol Snatcher to defeat Becky and become the new Women’s Intercontinental Champion. This is less than a month into her time on the main roster, so what an introduction to the audience this is from Sol Ruca, not only so quickly becoming a champion, but defeating a guaranteed future Hall of Famer in Becky Lynch to do so.
And in the main event, we saw a high stakes rematch from Backlash. With Roman Reigns once again putting the World Heavyweight Championship on the line against Jacob Fatu. But this was no ordinary match, as Jacob Fatu in the build-up invoked ‘Tribal Combat’, meaning the match would now have no count outs as well as no disqualifications. As well as this, whoever won would not only be declared the World Heavyweight Champion, but the loser would have no choice but to fall in line and acknowledge the winner as The Tribal Chief. The two fought all over the arena, including outside the ring as well as through the crowd. And again Roman Reigns was constantly forced to desperately do everything he could to avoid the Tongan Death Grip much like Backlash. The tide started to turn when Roman repeatedly struck Fatu’s hand with a metal toolbox, clearly aiming to weaken Fatu and any future Death Grips. This proved to work as when Fatu tried applying the Death Grip later in the match, his hand meant he couldn’t properly synch it in. And ultimately, with the help of multiple exposed turnbuckles, and a final spear through a table. Roman Reigns was able to defeat Jacob Fatu, and re-establish his dominance as the Tribal Chief. And despite at one stage hitting a low blow on Fatu to kick out of an attempted pinfall, apart from that Roman Reigns overcame Jacob Fatu without bending any sort of rules/moral guidelines. And he most notably won without any outside interference just like when he beat CM Punk at Wrestlemania which would have once seemed impossible during his previous 4 year reign as World Champion. This is all to set up tonight’s episode of Raw, also from Italy where Jacob will as per the rules of Tribal Combat be forced to acknowledge Roman as his Tribal Chief. And as the show closed, we saw all of this family tension was being observed from the front row by Solo Sikoa & the MFT’s, implying we may soon yet again see a Bloodline Civil War start to some degree.
