The New Year-themed PPV – Day 1 lived up to its hype with nearly fourteen thousand fans cheering on at the State Farm Arena. The Usos and Rk-Bro came out victorious in their tag team title matches whereas The Miz and Liv Morgan had to see a defeat to kick off their year. The main highlight of the event was Brock Lesnar clinching the WWE Championship after he was added to the Fatal-4-way match following a positive covid test for his initial opponent and Universal champion, Roman Reigns. Let’s have a look at some of the highlights of WWE’s DAY 1 of 2022:
5. The Usos ruin New Year’s for The New Day
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This match between The Usos and The New Day for the SmackDown Tag-Team Championship was difficult to predict as momentum kept changing sides. New Day had the early momentum with the crowd chanting “New Day Rocks” but the Usos fought back focusing on Kofi and knocking Woods off the apron to prevent a tag. Soon, Kofi was able to tag Woods in and the momentum shifted hands again, After fighting for around 5 minutes Kofi was tagged in, and Kofi landed a boom drop with the crowd chanting “This is awesome”. On Friday night SmackDown we saw that Kofi had some issues with his knee so Jimmy tried to capitalize and kept going for the weak knee. The Usos then landed a double superkick on Kifi followed by a dual frog splash but Woods was there to break the pinfall. The Usos then hit a 3D on Kofi for the win.
4. RK-Bro are turning out to be something special
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Like we have said before, it looks like RK-Bro are the new tag-team sensation as they continue to be the Raw Tag-Team champions after defeating The Street Profits on Day 1. Firstly, one can not forget RK-Bro’s entry! The duo brought out the rap group Migos with them during their entrance. The fight started off with Riddle and Dawkins showing respect towards each other but things got heated when Profits mocked Orton’s iconic taunt. With Riddle in the ring, The profits were profiting but soon Orton was tagged in and things started to fall in RK-Bro’s favor. Orton avoided a frog splash by Ford and Riddle launched him in the air and boom! An RKO out of nowhere sealed the deal for RK-Bro.
3. The Miz Edged out
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This match started off with Edge trying to land a crossface and put an end to the fight but the Miz was quick enough to get out of the way. Maryse then distracted the RatedR superstar which Miz capitalized on and sent Edge into the ring post. The fight then shifted outside the ring with Miz slamming Edge’s face into the announcer’s table. The Miz then went for a skull-crushing finale on the table but Edge countered it with a slam on the table. For the next 10 minutes or so, the two took each other down with huge boots to the face. Soon, when the referee wasn’t looking, Edge was slapped by Maryse and the Miz hit his finisher but it wasn’t enough to end the fight. Maryse’s arch-rival and a good friend of Edge, Beth Phoenix, arrived on the occasion to help Edge. With this distraction, Edge hit a spear and pinned The Miz for the win.
2. #AndStill the Raw Women’s Champion
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For a brief moment in the match between Becky Lynch (c) and Liv Morgan, it felt like we were going to see a new Raw Women’s champion with Liv trying the Rings of Saturn submission on the champ but she escaped. Becky recovered from the submission and launched Liv into the bottom rope to gain control. Liv didn’t give up, she came back and hit a dropkick for the count of two after which Becky went for an Armbar which Liv countered. The momentum kept shifting side until the very end of the fight. Liv got the Rings of Saturn on again but the result was the same this time as well. Becky countered with an Oblivion and hit her iconic Manhandle Slam to retain what belongs to her.
1. The Beast is back on the perch
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Brock Lesnar was initially supposed to take on Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship but the Head of the Table tested positive for COVID19 just days before the fight which led the board to lock in a Fatal-5-Way fight between Brock Lesnar, Big E (c), Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and The Mighty Bobby Lashley.
As the fight started, Owens and Rollins tried to team up on Lesnar but the Beast welcomed them to Suplex city after landing a series of German Suplexes before Big E jumped in to take out Lesnar with a closeline. Lashley then speared Lesnar before the pair of Owens and Rollins took out Lashley and then moved their attention to Lesnar. The duo then drove ring steps into the heads of Lashley and Lesnar. Big E then used the announcer’s table and put Lashley through it. Brock eventually found his way back into the match and took out Rollins, Big E, and Owens with an F-5 only to get caught up by another spear by Lashley for a near fall. Big E then hit a Big Ending on a distracted Lashley. The former champ tried to do the same to Lesnar, but the move got countered and the Beast landed yet another F-5 to be crowned as the #New WWE WWE Champion.
[Featured Image Credit: WWE]
Shashank Iyer