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For the past month, WWE's No Mercy has been billed as having a card worthy of WrestleMania. That was at least partly true with Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman on the card as well as something of a dream match between Roman Reigns and John Cena also on the marquee.
Well, the event has been and gone and it was actually a pretty outstanding night of pro wrestling. Of the seven matches featured on the main card, it would be fair to say that at least five of them delivered and added to the success of the night as a whole.
That No Mercy lived up to the hype is quite surprising in itself, but there were a litany of other surprises littered throughout the evening. Here are the five most surprising things coming out of No Mercy.
#5 Enzo Amore is the Cruiserweight Champion
Enzo Amore and Neville were given the unenviable position of the buffer match between Brock vs Braun and Cena vs Reigns. This was probably a poor choice on WWE's part as the crowd had just been excited by an incredible match between the Big Dog and the Leader of the Cenation.
They made the best of what they were given though, and the end result of this bout was probably the most shocking of the night. Neville warned Enzo that his dirty tactics wouldn't work at No Mercy, but The King was wrong.
Amore grabbed the title while the match was still going on, and when the referee took it from him and removed it from the ring, Muscles Marinara took advantage of the opening, delivering a low blow to the now former champ. It debilitated Neville enough for Enzo to cover him and we now have a new, somewhat unorthodox Cruiserweight Champion.
#4 The women defied their poor booking
Despite the women's revolution being in full swing in WWE, the company's booking of the Raw Women's division has regressed a little. Vince McMahon and co have returned to simply lumping all the women together in one feud.
That's what happened at No Mercy as five women did battle for the Raw Women's Championship. In the past, it would have meant a poor match from the competitors, but today's ladies will need more than a multi-person match to hold them down.
All five women made sure that their No Mercy match was can't miss. All contributed with the highlight of the bout being the powerbomb on the outside to Nia Jax, which all four women had a hand in. Alexa Bliss retained her title, but Asuka is now less than four weeks away from joining Monday nights.
#3 Cesaro is the tougher tag partner
Cesaro, Sheamus, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose proved at No Mercy that whatever New Day and The Usos can do on SmackDown Live, they can do equally as well on Raw. Despite the great match involving the four men, it was something else that became the talking point of the bout.
Midway through the Tag Team Championship match, Cesaro had an unfortunate collision with the top of the ring post, knocking out two of his teeth. Despite the evident pain he was in and the blood that was coming from his mouth, The Swiss Cyborg powered through and finished the match.
Of the two Europeans in the team stereotypes and appearance would have you believe that Sheamus would be the tougher of the two but, clearly, that isn't necessarily the case. Cesaro had to be stitched up after the match, and he had to have emergency dental surgery to fix the damage done.
#2 Roman Reigns is indestructible
It was a match most of us thought we would only ever see at a WrestleMania, yet it took place at No Mercy this past weekend. Roman Reigns versus John Cena. One thing is for certain, the match did not disappoint.
There was a real chance that the match was never going to live up to the promo battles that had preceded it but thankfully that wasn't the case. The only real big surprise from this match was how much Big Match John threw at The Big Dog but still couldn't keep him down.
An AA, a Super AA, two AAs in a row. Nothing John could do to Roman kept him down long enough for a three count. In a WWE landscape where finishers are kicked out of left and right, this was another level. Whenever Reigns gets beaten next, it's going to take an awful lot to make the defeat believable after this.
#1 The Beast defeated The Monster
Okay so the fact that Brock Lesnar defeated Braun Strowman wasn't really a surprise; that was always the most likely scenario. It's just the manner in which it happened. After a night of terrific match-ups, fans expected this one to follow suit and even exceed the others, but it didn't.
Following Braun's epic encounters with Big Show it was assumed that despite the size of these two men, it was going to be a can't miss main event. Plus many had been persuaded that Strowman might actually win the match, but at no point during the bout itself, did the men inside the ring make that seem like a possibility.
The match was a good length considering it involved Brock Lesnar, but then one F5 later it was all over. It seemed rather anti-climactic for an ending to a match this big and a night this great; it was also a pretty shocking outcome considering the amount of time and money WWE have invested in The Monster Among Men as of late.
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