By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
-Saturday’s WWE Day 1 event received a majority D grade from 26 percent of the voters in our post show poll. B finished second with 24 percent, and C finished third with 21 percent.
-47 percent of our voters gave best match of the night honors to Big E vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens vs. Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship. Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso vs. Kofi Kingston and King Woods for the Smackdown Tag Titles finished second with 27 percent of the vote.
Powell’s POV: I gave the show a D grade, which had a lot to do with the main event being scrapped due to Roman Reigns testing positive for COVID-19. It was a two-match show on paper, and while no one is to blame for Reigns not being able to appear, it became a one-match show. Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote in our latest polls, which are available following WWE Raw, AEW Dynamite, NXT, WWE Smackdown, AEW Rampage, and pay-per-view events.
That show was, at worst, a C. This is why WWE was smart to go back to ignoring the IWC and start building the company the way it has always succeeded. Let the small, vocal minority talk about match length/quality, move sets, and other meaningless metrics and focus instead on people who are over and look like they can win a real fight.
It shows just how well the show went with the bump in ratings Monday, for the best performance from Raw in at least a month or two.
A D? Seriously? A great opener between the Usos and New Day which will be in discussion for tag match of the year and a main event that will be in the match of the year discussion as well. Good matches like Becky/Liv and Edge/Miz as well with the return of Beth. You’re just looking for reasons to hate with a D. Just be a fan and have some fun. My god.
D is marked as standing for disappointing in our polls. And it was a disappointing show, though it wasn’t anyone’s fault. The show was built around Roman vs. Brock. So what felt like a two-match show on paper became a one-match show. I was disappointed, hence the D for disappointing. You enjoyed the show more than I did. That’s great. We all have opinions.