WWE has seemingly abandoned the Saturday night specials with the brand split, but before that went into place, we had a terrific pre-WrestleMania 32 show in 2016.
For about one year, WWE ran with the idea of doing special shows that differentiated from the usual pay-per-views. Remember shows like King of the Ring, Elimination Chamber, WWE MSG, and Beast in the East? These were all unique shows WWE ran at either SmackDown tapings or pre-planned live events, like with Elimination Chamber, MSG, and Beast in the East. However, Roadblock may have been not only the last, but best of them all.
No, this is not the Roadblock you saw in December 2016 that felt like an episode of Raw. This was the abruptly made WWE Network-exclusive show from March of that year. It succeeded Fastlane as the last big show before WrestleMania 32, and took place at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada — a place that always provides a hot crowd for WWE shows.
Given how poor the latest installment of Roadblock was, it’s easy to forget there was a show under the same banner just nine months earlier. It preceded WrestleMania 32, similar to how Fastlane is the final show before 33. There’s not much intrigue around Sunday’s show, however, compared to last March.
Triple H vs. Dean Ambrose
Everyone knew Triple H vs. Roman Reigns was inevitable for WrestleMania 32 from the moment the Fastlane 2016 main event ended. Dean Ambrose decided to enter the equation afterward, though, and challenge the Game for his title. It seemed like a way to just get one televised title defense out of the way (probably was the reason for it). Sure, there was no reason to think Ambrose had a chance of winning at Roadblock either.
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However, if you recall the build to Ambrose vs. Triple H at Roadblock, it was arguably better than everything done with Reigns for the WrestleMania 32 build-up. It all started from the day the Lunatic Fringe made the challenge for the title:
His words of “you’re smart enough to know you can’t beat me,” created even a shred of doubt for their match, which may have been enough to sell their Roadblock main event.
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At 46 years old, it was unknown how fast Triple H could keep up with the younger talents. He obviously doesn’t move as well as he used to, and always worked at a steady pace. This actually brought down their Roadblock match for the first five minutes or so, until it went to another level.
It turned into a technical wrestling bout, something you wouldn’t expect out of Corporate Triple H at this point. He and Ambrose told a story for 24 minutes of a challenger who was trying to do everything he could to win his first-ever WWE World Championship and main event WrestleMania 32. You wanted him to because him and the idea of not having the Kings of Kings vs. Reigns at WrestleMania 32 were so easy to get behind. Nobody wanted that to close out the show in Arlington, TX, so you wanted that big change in direction.
Unfortunately, for those rooting for this, those dreams were smashed into pieces when Ambrose raced into the ring to avoid a three-count, only to fall into a Pedigree and lose. It closed the book on the story that was simple to invest in and something the fans wanted to see, which always makes a match or feud more enjoyable. No one wanted Triple H vs. Reigns … and you know how that went.
The Revival vs. Enzo Amore and Big Cass
The NXT Tag Team Division looked very different in the spring of 2016. Everyone pretty much knew that Enzo Amore and Big Cass were going to be moved up, as the title trigger was never pulled on them in NXT and they ran out of opportunities. The Vaudevillains were bouncing back and forth between face and heel, and found no consistency. Blake and Murphy were still a thing, believe it or not as well.
Everyone was also high on American Alpha, the team of Chad Gable and Jason Jordan. They were immensely popular after a sky-high rise from the fall of 2015 into the winter of 2016. Putting the tag titles on them seemed inevitable to make the next top duo in NXT.
However, out in front of all of them was the Revival, a team made up of Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson, that weren’t going to “wow” you or become internet darlings. They were going to go out there, beat the living hell out of their opponents, and leave. It probably made them the best heel tag team in NXT history.
In the Revival’s first tag title run, no one really knew who they were yet. Despite this, they were surprisingly given a main roster platform with Amore and Big Cass at Roadblock to prolong their underrated feud from NXT. They produced a very good match at TakeOver: London In December 2015 and had the chance to replicate this with a likely bigger audience.
Looking back on it one year later, Dash and Dawson may have had their coming out party here in terms of getting people to recognize them. While the Realest Guys in the Room aren’t technical wizards like the former Mechanics, they were big enough names to overshadow their champion opponents. A loss for them would’ve been noticeable and make you wonder “Wait, who just beat them? I’ve never heard of the Revival.”
Well, not only getting a win, but defeating arguably WWE’s most popular tag team at the time (potentially more than New Day) was a huge step in the direction of credibility, even if they were NXT Tag Team Champions. They did so with some flair too, as this was a terrific match for the middle of Roadblock. There was always good chemistry with Amore and Cass, and it showed here.
Charlotte vs. Natalya
Way back in the first few months of 2016, Charlotte hadn’t yet feuded with Sasha Banks or Bayley for the WWE/Raw Women’s Championship. Instead, she had gone head-to-head with Natalya for the now-defunct WWE Divas Championship at Roadblock. This match turned out to be a precursor for their post-WrestleMania 32 feud.
Charlotte and Natalya’s history goes back to their match at NXT TakeOver in May 2014 for the NXT Women’s Championship. Arguably a top five match in the brand’s history, these two women showed off incredible chemistry and pushed the NXT Women’s Division into another stratosphere for the next two years. While their main roster matches never quite met these lofty expectations, they still delivered when meeting in the ring.
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For around 15 minutes, Charlotte and Natalya delivered a fun technical bout at Roadblock, going into both of their lengthy submission backgrounds. This was when the Nature Girl had consistently been using the Figure Eight.
Given there was no build toward this, along with the planned WrestleMania 32 match with Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, Natalya stood no chance of winning. That didn’t stop this from being a quality showing, though, which went right after the Revival and Enzo Amore and Big Cass entertained the masses.
Everything Else
The rest of Roadblock didn’t have marquee matches, but none of them failed or went below expectations. Some of them were even better than expected and provided unique matchups.
Chris Jericho was coming off his heel turn on AJ Styles just a short time before Roadblock. So he stepped into the show with plenty of heat, only to be challenged by Jack Swagger. Not the most exciting bout on paper, but it became the fourth-best match of the show. They didn’t even cross 10 minutes of wrestling, and just had a clean, quality showing to precede the core of the event.
Big E and Kofi Kingston went head-to-head with King Barrett and Sheamus, even after defeating multiple incarnations of the League of Nations weeks before. This wasn’t anything special and didn’t provide much interest, but had New Day get an easy win over two unlikeable heels to open the televised part of Roadblock.
Brock Lesnar vs. Bray Wyatt should have happened at WrestleMania 32, until plans were changed for Dean Ambrose to replace Wyatt. So WWE decided to do the payoff to the Royal Rumble angle, except with Luke Harper wrestling (Wyatt had been injured). It was the usual live event showcase for the Beast Incarnate, who pulverized the Wyatt Family’s Right-Hand Man.
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WWE Roadblock 2016 freshened up the Road to WrestleMania. It probably delivered more than expected, with three very good matches and an average undercard. Doubt had been created toward WrestleMania 32, something there’s not much of before Fastlane with everyone expecting Kevin Owens to lose to Goldberg and Charlotte to win back the Raw Women’s Championship. It follows with the two Fastlane winners potentially losing at WrestleMania 33. Maybe WWE is planning a different direction, but if not, it will be up to the WWE Superstars to create the excitement that Roadblock did one year ago.