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No Mercy 2017 is in the books and it had a very strong start. The undercard felt like it had plenty of momentum, with solid performances all around. Jason Jordan was involved in a heated opener, Nia Jax looked like a beast in the Women's Championship Match, and that tag bout was a major standout. There was a lot to like early on in this pay-per-view.
The biggest botch came from the Tag Team Championship. Cesaro's injury will go down as one of the most brutal mishaps of the year. It wasn't a highlight for the faint-hearted. Almost as shocking as his gums were, his ability to deliver in the best match of the card earned him a loud cheer from the crowd. His contributions were top notch long after his front two teeth were jammed far closer to his nose than he wanted. Kudos to him.
In addition to The Swiss Superman's altered grin, botches and outrageous moments from this Raw-exclusive show include Roman Reigns' landing on his head while spearing John Cena, Finn Balor's over-the-top reaction to Bray Wyatt's spooky crab walk, and a Dean Ambrose delayed selling of an injury. All that and more lie ahead, but first, let's see some blood on a monster...
5. Braun bled his own blood
Braun Strowman entered the main event with a 100 lb weight advantage over the WWE Universal Champion. It was pretty one-sided from the beginning. The Monster Among Men gave Brock Lesnar a thrashing, so it was a little surprising to see physical damage to Braun and not to Brock.
This was a very Nelson Muntz moment (a reference for fans of The Simpsons). A shock was felt because the much bigger and much stronger competitor in the fight was bleeding. Looking back at the offense before this moment, it's not clear what exactly caused this minor facial injury.
This was one of two incidents of blood from No Mercy. The other one was much more gruesome, but we'll get to that one later in the article.
4. Delayed reaction
The Raw Tag Team Championship Match was one of the brightest highlights of the show. Cesaro will make the list for another reason shortly, but for now, let's look at the Swiss Superman's attack on Dean Ambrose into the ring steps.
Ambrose collided hard against the steel structure and initially laid there motionless. After a few seconds of appearing completely out of his wits, Dean all of a sudden started selling the injuries of left arm and elbow. One explanation for this delayed selling might be that The Lunatic Fringe was initially knocked out cold, then suddenly awoke to his immense pain.
It may have taken a moment for Dean to visibly show the effects of this attack on his arm but it played an important role in the rest of the match.
3. Finn Balor's reaction
Finn Balor left The Demon at home for his rematch against Bray Wyatt. Even though it was supposed to be merely a man vs. man matchup, Bray's pre-match assault assured that he was still facing off against a god.
Maybe Balor bought into all of this deity talk because why else would he express this degree of shock in his facial expression to Wyatt's spider walk? Yes, it's supposed to be creepy but it's beyond played out at this point. In fact, it would have been far cooler if Balor ignored the psychological warfare and instead went for a double foot stomp to Wyatt while he did his over-hyped crab walk.
Thankfully, Wyatt's head games didn't mess with Balor too much. Finn won after connecting with his Coup de Grace to a non-spider walking Bray.
2. Rough landing for Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns and John Cena were advertised for one of the two WrestleMania-level matches on this card. Giving credit where it's due, they delivered a stellar performance. One of the highlights of their bout came when Cena threatened an AA off of one announce table and through another.
Reigns escaped Cena's clutches, then speared the 16-time World Champion through the table. While this was an awesome spot, the botch came on Roman's landing. He somehow managed to land on the back of his neck, which looked gnarly.
Roman went on to win this contest and even got his hand raised by John in the middle of the ring. The L.A. crowd was mostly hostile to The Big Dog on this night but Cena would later say on the Raw Talk post-show that he earned his respect.
1. Does Isaac Yankem still practice?
Cesaro & Sheamus typically wrestle a physical match. Both them and their competitors have been known to get bruised and bloodied, like when Jeff Hardy lost a tooth when he and his brother fought The Bar at Payback earlier this year.
The former Raw Tag Champs suffered another in-ring dental mishap at No Mercy, but this time around it was a self-inflicted injury. Cesaro was catapulted into the corner by Dean Ambrose, forever changing his mug shot. The Swiss Superman's mouth caught the corner of the ring post, destroying his front teeth and making his mouth a bloody mess.
Posing with his tag partner after the match, Cesaro Tweeted out an up-close picture of his injury. It's unclear whether or not he chipped his teeth or knocked them deeper into his skull. Regardless, he's absolutely right that he's in severe need of a dentist.
