One of the better WWE "premium live events" in recent memory, WWE Day 1 offered a major shake-up to the card with news breaking that morning that Roman Reigns (who was the sole wrestler on the original promotional poster for the event) had tested positive for COVID. This caused the cancelling the scheduled main event and adding challenger Brock Lesnar to fatal four-way match making it a fatal five-way as WWE seemed determined to get a major title on Lesnar no matter what.
The unexpected shake-up of the card helped wake WWE from it's sleepwalking booking style of the last six months (although sadly the practice would resume once Roman Reigns returned from his short hiatus). The result was some genuine surprise over a WWE show which fans have seen damn little of recently.
Half the card featured tag team action. The Usos and The New Day offered another solid tag team match, going a bit longer to help fill a bit of the card now missing one of its biggest matches. The tag teams have wrestled far too often to get anything new here, other than the Usos pulling out a surprise finisher, but the teams continue to have good chemistry. And RK-Bro defeated The Street Profits in a solid match. An unexpected injury to Ridge Holland didn't stop Sheamus from getting the victory over both Ricochet and Cesaro (whose one brief moment as a main event star seems to be very, very far away at this point).
In a pair of solid mid-card matches that provided some moments even if they never lived up to their potential, Edge defeated The Miz, despite some outside interference, and Becky Lynch successfully defended the WWE Raw Women's Championship against Liv Morgan. The only real blemish on the night was Drew McIntyre defeating Madcap Moss in a match that lived down to expectations when McIntyre didn't put away Happy Corbin's joke sidekick immediately forcing fans into a bored stupor that sucked all oxygen out of the arena.
- Title: WWE Day 1 (2022)
- IMDb: link
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