Worlds Collide: Battle Royals: All Those People In Search Of Something To Do
IMG Credit: WWE
Worlds Collide: Battle Royals
Date: May 1, 2019
Location: Pier 12, New York City, New York
Commentators: Vic Joseph, Percy Watson
Yes it’s a fourth one of these things and no I don’t get it either. As the name suggests, we’re looking at a pair of battle royals here (one for the men and one for the women) with almost everyone from the previous three shows plus a few bonus entrants. Your guess is as good as mine as to why we need to see this nearly a month after Wrestlemania. Let’s get to it.
The audio commentary is really low here for some reason.
Women’s Battle Royal
Bianca Belair, Taynara Conti, Kacy Catanzaro, Deonna Purrazzo, Io Shirai, Marina Shafir, Jessamyn Duke, Jesse, Lacey Lane, Xia Li, Kavita Devi, Kay Lee Ray, Mia Yim, Piper Niven, Reina Gonzalez, Vanessa Borne, Aliyah, Toni Storm
Everyone gets an entrance, which I’ll certainly take over having to go through all the entrance in a big group shot. We start the same way most battle royals start, with a variety of teased eliminations and people saving themselves. Lane tries a double springboard due to reasons of not seeming that bright and gets kicked out, as she should be. Shafir and Duke get together again to eliminate Jesse and it’s back to more brawling on the ropes.
Niven dumps Ray, who seems to swear revenge. Conti gets knocked off the top but hangs onto the post and gets back in for this match’s Kofi Kingston save. Purrazzo gets rid of Li and Kacy does a crazy handstand on the top into a headscissors on Reina, who forearms her out a second later. Shirai tosses Purrazzo as the ring is starting to clear a lot. Gonzalez and Storm slug it out as Niven drops Conti with a hard forearm.
Devi and Gonzalez do the hoss fight with Devi getting kicked out. Almost everyone but Gonzalez is down for a bit until Niven and Storm get together, only to fail to eliminated Conti. Shafir accidentally knocks Duke out and then intentionally tosses Yim. Shirai sends Conti to the apron and dropkicks her out as the field is clearing out a lot. Belair forearms Shafir out and we’re down to Belair, Storm, Shirai, Aliyah, Niven, Gonzalez and Borne.
Niven Hulks Up on Borne and Aliyah but misses a charge and gets tossed. Excessive celebration lets Shirai and Storm get rid of Borne and Aliyah and we’re down to four. Niven chases the two of them out as Belair and Gonzalez’s alliance lasts all of fourteen seconds. Gonzalez sends Belair and Storm into the same corner for shoulders to the ribs. Shirai sends Gonzalez to the apron and forearms her out to get us down to three.
Belair fireman’s carries Storm and swings her into Shirai before dumping her out. We’re down to Belair vs. Shirai with a hard forearm knocking Shirai down. A headscissors sends both of them to the apron but Belair slides back in and avoids a springboard dropkick. The gorilla press toss eliminates Shirai to give Belair the win at 18:27.
Rating: D+. Well that was long. Belair winning is fine, though it doesn’t make her any better or fix any of the problems that have held her back so far. There isn’t much to say about something like this because it’s a bunch of standing around until the finish, which is always the case in battle royals. Gonzalez and Conti looked good here, but they’re more people who aren’t getting much of a chance anywhere.
Men’s Battle Royal
Ariya Daivari, Brian Kendrick, Dave Mastiff, Drew Gulak, Fabian Aichner, Eric Bugenhagen, Humberto Carrillo, Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, Dominik Dijakovic, Ligero, Matt Riddle, Rinku Singh, Saurav Gurjar, Roderick Strong, Wesley Blake, Steve Cutler, Akira Tozawa, Travis Banks, Tyler Bate
It’s a brawl to start with Bugenhagen and Riddle heading outside for a jam sessions which makes way more sense than it should. Back in and it’s another standard battle royal opening as we wait on the ring to clear out a bit. Dijakovic sends Aichner to the apron and superkicks him out, followed by a toss to get rid of Tozawa. High levels of confidence allow Dijakovic to stop and pose, meaning it’s a group beatdown but so many split off that Dijakovic is able to shove everyone else away.
The cyclone boot eliminates Carrillo and Bugenhagen tosses Daivari for excessive jamming. Gurjar dumps Bugenhagen and you can feel the energy go out of the arena. The Forgotten Sons gets together to eliminate Ligero and Kendrick saves Gulak for no logical reason. There goes Banks as the ring is still rather full. Gulak and Riddle grapple on the mat and wind up on the apron but come back in after realizing they’re wasting their time. Mark Coffey is out and Riddle gives Dijakovic a GTS for another elimination.
Mastiff eliminates Gulak and Cutler but Kendrick (still in the leather jacket) saves himself. Riddle and Mastiff chop it out and Gurjar gets rid of Singh. Kendrick eliminates Blake but tries Sliced Bread on Coffey, earning himself his own elimination. We’re down to Riddle, Joe Coffey, Mastiff, Strong, Bate and Gurjar. Riddle unloads on Mastiff in the corner and knees him out but the backsplash hits Coffey’s knees.
Bate hits the rebound lariat to get rid of Coffey and it’s a four way staredown. Gurjar fights off all three of them with a good side slam planting Riddle. That’s enough to send Riddle to the apron and a big boot gets rid of him in a heck of an upset. Bate uses raw strength to get rid of Gurjar and the fans are very appreciative. Strong and Bate slug it out with Bate hitting an exploder suplex into the nip up. The Tyler Driver 97 is countered into a jumping knee to the face so Bate comes right back with the airplane spin.
That’s not enough for an elimination either so they chop it out with a hard one from Strong knocking him down. A running clothesline puts Strong on the apron but a few more knees let him get back in. More chops don’t get Strong very far as Bate sends him to the apron and blasts him with a dropkick…for no elimination. Strong pulls him to the apron as well and posts Bate, who comes right back with the head fake left hand. They make it back in and strike it out again until Strong sends him to the apron. Bate hits a forearm and tries a springboard but gets dropkicked out to the floor to give Strong the win at 19:30.
Rating: C+. The ending sequence alone made it better than the first match but this was another example of a long match with very little going on until we got to the finish. There were so many people in there until the ending and while the final grouping was pretty strong, there is only so much you can get out of waiting around to get there for half of the match.
Overall Rating: C-. The show was fine, though spending the better part of twenty minutes on entrances alone was kind of a stretch. The biggest thing I got from this was how many people WWE has down in developmental who aren’t likely to get a major push ever. Can you picture the Coffeys on the main roster? Or Xia Li?
They’re talented, but WWE would pick a lot of others before them and it’s just bloating the roster more and more. NXT UK has helped, but there are so many people under the WWE banner that they can run shows like this and still have a ton of roster members left over. That’s probably not good, but neither is running these four shows for the sake of adding content to the Network. We can have this but not Legends With JBL or Royal Rumble Rewind or more round table shows? Anyway, not bad, but really don’t waste your time.
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