Not that long ago, I became an officially-baptized wrestling fan by attending a WWE house show in Stockton. When I heard they were having a pay-per-view in Sacramento with the roster of SmackDown, which has consistently been the better of WWE’s main shows since the brand split took effect this past July, and reviving the event that lent its name to WWF No Mercy, which is still the greatest pro wrestling video game of all time, I practically started salivating over the chance to see it in person. It’d have the electric atmosphere of the house show, but with actual stakes and matches that people outside the arena can actually see! Sadly, as a broke college student who lives over an hour away from Sacramento, I couldn’t make it. But thanks to the magic of the WWE Network, whose $9.99 price point will forever hammered into the audience’s brains, I was able to catch it live and in HD, something I’ve never been able to do with a PPV before. Here’s what went down at No Mercy.

Note: This review is full of spoilers. If you don’t want spoilers, go watch the show and then come back. You have been warned. Also, for maximum enjoyment, please listen to the following while you read this article:

Pre-Show Segment: Curt Hawkins

For a few weeks now, SmackDown has featured vignettes of “Curt Hawkins Facts.” Remember Chuck Norris Facts from like 2006? Yeah, just take those, replace Chuck Norris with Curt Hawkins, and that’s what they are. It was annoying. Fortunately, if this little segment from the pre-show indicates anything, it’s that being annoying was the exact intent. Hawkins’ announcer over the PA was just the right level of obnoxious, and by yelling “San Francisco!” when the show was in Sacramento, he cemented himself as a deluded, obnoxious comedy heel. The payoff was a little underwhelming--all that to announce a debut match on SmackDown this week?--but I suppose there are worse ways to use a pre-show as a means to introduce a character.

Pre-Show 8-Man Tag Team Match: American Alpha & Hype Bros vs. The Vaudevillains & The Ascension

Tag team matches with all the face teams against all the heel teams have been a staple of SmackDown since the brand split, and while they are starting to get stale, at least this match means eight guys are getting PPV paydays. Each of the four teams got a chance to show their unique styles--American Alpha did some technical moves that reflected their amateur wrestling backgrounds, the Hype Bros got in some comedy and flung themselves around the ring like madmen, the Vaudevillains worked their old-school style, and the Ascension provided some raw muscle. The good guys won the match, but the heels got in some of the best moments, and the Ascension, who’ve been treated like jokes ever since they left NXT, got a chance to look stronger than usual by not eating the pinfall. My biggest complaint is that the match cut away abruptly for a WWE 2K17 commercial, which...I mean, come on. You’re not on cable, guys. You can show entire matches.

WWE World Championship Triple Threat Match: John Cena vs. AJ Styles (c) vs. Dean Ambrose

Unusually, the main event of No Mercy actually took place at the start of the show rather than the end, probably because the Presidential debate was scheduled to start half an hour later and WWE wanted as many eyeballs on this match as possible. As far as 3-way matches go, this was phenomenal. Everybody stayed involved throughout--as opposed to the usual “two guys fight while the third pretends to be knocked out” formula--and everybody got some cool moments in; AJ Styles busted out the jaw-dropping aerial attacks that have made him such a joy to watch for over a decade, John Cena made some impressive displays of strength and pulled off one of those “oh my God, how can a guy his size do that?” moves he saves for big matches, and Dean Ambrose kept the mood tense with his unhinged demeanor and a clever move to stop AJ Styles from tapping out to John Cena by literally grabbing Styles’s arm and refusing to let it drop. The screwball finish did sour things a bit, but if the goal was to keep the WWE World Championship on AJ Styles while making Ambrose and Cena look like powerhouses, these guys absolutely succeeded.

Singles Match: Nikki Bella vs. Carmella

This match, which probably would have been the opener under normal circumstances, had some extra pressure on it thanks to what happened right before. Let’s face it, when you go on after three guys as entertaining as Styles, Ambrose, and Cena, it’s hard to top them. Fortunately, Nikki Bella and Carmella put on a damn good match, with some of the best ring psychology--aka “making the match look and feel as realistic as possible”--I’ve seen not just in a women’s match, but in any WWE match this year. Playing to Bella’s real-life neck injury, which she just returned from a couple months ago, Carmella focused her attacks on the neck area and took as many cheap shots as possible, and while Nikki was able to power through some of said attacks--standing up while someone else has their thighs wrapped around your throat is no easy task--she made those hits look convincing, and she acted as though she was in pain, even when the match was over and she was celebrating finally beating Carmella one-on-one. If this match was any indication, Bella vs. Carmella is going to produce some of the best matches in WWE’s women’s division this year, and if that eventually leads to the No DQ match these two teased in the weeks leading up to the show, it’ll be well worth it.

WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos vs. Rhyno & Heath Slater (c)

Heath Slater has been one of the biggest success stories of the brand split, with his free agency storyline taking him to both Raw and SmackDown and turning him from comedic cannon fodder into a seriously popular character and one half of the inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champions with former ECW superstar Rhyno. Honestly, this match with the Usos wasn’t as good as the one at Backlash, SmackDown’s previous PPV. The stakes felt lower, since now Heath’s very livelihood isn’t on the line, and the matchup wasn’t nearly as fresh. That said, this wasn’t a bad match by any means. The Usos looked absolutely dominant throughout, working practically in sync and coming up with spontaneous ways to mock the crowd and their opponents, and Heath and Rhyno added some nuance to the usual “one face gets beaten up until he tags in his partner and the partner cleans house for the win” formula by both getting the crap kicked out of them. While Heath and Rhyno’s title run feels destined to run out soon--in fact, I thought they were probably going to drop the belts right then and there--they put in a decent match, they work well as an odd couple, and hopefully they can stay a team after their championship run ends.

Singles Match: Jack Swagger vs. Baron Corbin

This match had one of the more interesting setups of the night. In their match on the previous SmackDown, Jack Swagger put Baron Corbin in an ankle lock, and when Corbin tried to reach for the ropes, the referee thought Corbin was tapping out and awarded the match to Swagger. Thus, despite being the heel of the fight, Corbin went in with some justified anger, and that anger translated into some solid storytelling. Corbin made sure to target Swagger’s hand with stomps whenever possible, making it harder for Swagger to lock in the same move, and when Swagger did finally put Corbin in the ankle lock again, Corbin reached for the ring apron instead of the ropes, forcing Swagger to release the hold while preventing a repeat of the previous Tuesday. Even though both of these guys are a little dull individually, the continuity with their previous fight elevated what could have been a dull match into a solid one, and if that continuity keeps up, these two have the potential for a well-told rivalry and a consistent high point for SmackDown’s midcard scene.

WWE Intercontinental Championship Lucha de Apuestas: The Miz (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler (Title vs. Career)

Leading up to No Mercy, the feud between The Miz and Dolph Ziggler was just as compelling as the 3-way war of words between Cena, Styles, and Ambrose, if not more so. Both men went all-in building up this match, not just in the two title fights prior to this one, where The Miz got the upper hand by cheating, but in their confrontations, their acting as they eviscerates each other, and the way they built off Dolph’s reputation as a talented guy stuck playing the role of loser. Then, just to make it sweeter, Dolph put his entire career on the line to get one last title shot--and between the way he acted on social media after that announcement and his real-life contract being up soon, there was genuine suspense as to who would come out on top. Thankfully, this match lived up to the hype--in fact, I would argue it was main event material. Ziggler, as usual, put on his theatrics of pain, making your average LeBron James flop look like Tommy Wiseau’s acting in The Room and Miz’s offense look like a million bucks. The Miz himself, meanwhile, put on one of the best performances of his career, proving he has more to him than just his mouth. The storytelling only bolstered Miz and Ziggler’s in-ring chemistry, as Miz pulled out every trick he’d used to stop Ziggler before, only for Ziggler to somehow get up and keep going, and when Dolph finally got the win, saving his career and earning himself the Intercontinental Championship, the arena practically exploded. As Ziggler fell back on the crowd, basking in his moment, The Miz looked absolutely devastated--and that right there is the key. Both of these men fired on all cylinders, both as in-ring performers and as actors, from the moment they appeared on the ramp to the moment they disappeared to the back, and as a result, we witnessed a potential candidate for the best match of the year.

Singles Match: Alexa Bliss vs. Naomi

Unfortunately, this next match had “last-minute filler” written all over it. No Mercy was supposed to feature a SmackDown Women’s Championship match between Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch, but Lynch had some sort of health issue and couldn’t make it to the arena. So instead, the match was postponed to November--in Glasgow, no less--and Bliss instead fought WWE’s most athletic raver, Naomi. While it wasn’t a bad match, it felt like the kind of match you’d put on SmackDown to help keep the #1 contender’s credibility up--only in this case, Naomi managed to roll up Alexa and get the win. Now, don’t get me wrong, Naomi is one of SmackDown’s most talented performers, regardless of gender, and she has the potential to be a top-tier contender for the SmackDown Women’s title. However, having her get the win over Bliss could be damaging down the line, since the latter needs to look like a credible threat for the title fight in Glasgow. Hopefully, the next couple episodes of SmackDown will help alleviate the problems this match had, because the biggest moment to come out of this was when the cameras spazzed out and we had ourselves a time warp.

Singles Match: Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton

Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton, as a PPV match, has been a repeated victim of circumstance. First, it was supposed to happen last month at Backlash, but Randy still wasn’t in any state to wrestle after getting his face punched in by Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, meaning Bray Wyatt fought Kane instead. Then, when it did happen, it ended up closing the show, even though the lack of any title on the line and the way the match actually played out indicated that this match was designed to cool things down in preparation for the main event before said main event was put at the beginning of the show. Keeping with the “mind games” theme of Wyatt and Orton’s feud, their battle was a slower-paced, more methodical affair, with Wyatt trying to get inside Orton’s head and Orton looking for opportunities to land his infamous RKO. That’s not to say nothing crazy happened--Bray Wyatt landed back-first on steel steps, which absolutely had to hurt--but for the most part, this match wasn’t meant to dazzle the crowd. But just when it looked like Bray was going to take an RKO and lose, the Wyatt Family’s supernatural side came into play, as their signature transition played, the lights all went out, the transition played again, and a returning Luke Harper appeared in the ring, distracting Randy long enough for Bray to capitalize and take the win. That plot twist is probably the reason WWE saw fit to leave this as the main event, despite playing out like a chess match rather than a brawl, but more importantly, it gave Bray Wyatt, and the Wyatt Family in general, some much-needed credibility. For a while now, the Wyatts have been stuck losing almost every big match they get into, which makes Bray’s cult-leader antics and declarations of godhood that much harder to take seriously. By coming out on top at the end of a PPV, the Wyatts finally got the kind of big moment they sorely need. If the writers can capitalize on this with more Wyatt wins at big events like this one, the Wyatt Family might finally become the deadly force of mystical evil they’ve had the potential to be for years now.

Final Thoughts

Overall, No Mercy was an enjoyable show, compromised as it was by scheduling conflicts and health issues. There wasn’t a single bad match on the card, we got multiple fantastic matches over the course of the night, and both Dolph Ziggler and Bray Wyatt got huge moments to shine after months of draining credibility. While I’m sad I couldn’t have been there, I’m optimistic that SmackDown will continue to deliver a solid product as we head for Survivor Series, and I’m anxious to see where the show’s various storylines go from here. And if nothing else, watching this was probably better for my sanity than listening to Donald Trump dodge questions and yell about Bill Clinton would have been.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars