WWE CLASH IN ITALY 2026
MAY 31, 2026
INALPI ARENA
TURIN, ITALY
Watch: ESPN Unlimited/Netflix (Non-US)
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Suit Williams: Check out the Main Event Gazette, my review of the big main events of the week, every Monday on SuitWilliams.com. Check out As Good As It Gets, the 1997 retrospective project, every Wednesday on SuitWilliams.com. And in case you missed it, SuitWilliams.com.
The first two matches were on ESPN, as is the norm. I actually saw parts of these matches while I was at the gym on Sunday, which was something. We’re back in Europe for another PLE in front of a rowdy Italian crowd. I’m tired of these European WWE crowds. I’ve talked about this before, but these crowds are more interested in creating an atmosphere than in actually following the work and letting it ebb and flow naturally. It feels put-on and unnatural, a feeling that matches the put-on and unnatural promotion that they’re paying to see.
UNDISPUTED WWE TITLE MATCH
CODY RHODES (3RD DEFENSE) DEF. GUNTHER
At WrestleMania, Cody Rhodes was punted and left lying by Randy Orton, who stood tall with the WWE Championship despite not winning the title. That was the last time Randy Orton was seen on WWE television, whereas Cody hasn’t missed a week of television since WrestleMania. I’m sure the team behind WWE UnReal has a great reason as to why, but it’s a reason I’m currently unaware of.
This match felt like they chopped the opening stretch out and got to business, which I didn’t mind. This was a solid sprint that ended when it was getting really interesting. Cody escaped the Rear-tirement Naked Choke and hit a second Cross Rhodes for the win, but Gunther had his foot under the rope because this feud MUST CONTINUE. So many of Cody’s B feuds for the title end up like this, with a screwy win in the first match to keep the feud going. Whatever happened to the big double-countout brawl to the back? Thought these two were students of the game.
Anyway, Gunther continues to be a jobber to the stars, as his run as the Career Killer has pushed him where he already was. I would’ve run this as the WrestleMania match to capitalize on the Cena and Styles retirements, but given what we’re set to see later on this show, retirements don’t seem to matter that much in WWE. ***1/2
We’ve got dignitaries in the crowd: LA Knight, Montez Ford, the women in the Judgment Day. Oh, that’s it, it’s just wrestlers. I wondered if they flew these people out here just to sit in the crowd, but Raw was in the same building the next day.
WWE WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH
RHEA RIPLEY (1ST DEFENSE) DEF. JADE CARGILL (W/ B-FAB & MICHIN)
If you ever wanted to see Jade Cargill do a big main event-style title match, this is it. It wasn’t that good, but it wasn’t atrocious either. Jade does lack a lot of pop and intensity in her work, and that will always be the case at this stage of her career. But at the very least, she’s proven that she can be useful in these spots, if not excellent.
The finish is where things got messy, as B-Fab blew a spot where she was meant to put Jade’s foot on the ropes. Charlotte Flair made the save for Rhea, allowing her to hit the Riptide for the win as we build to Charlotte vs. Rhea for Summerslam. **1/4
The ESPN hour ended once again with a complete lack of hype for the rest of the show, as the storytelling and hype promotion continue to use this time on the Worldwide Leader in Sports to just run two matches and dip out before the college baseball starts. When this deal ends and people wonder why WWE on ESPN didn’t work out (if they’re not busy acting like the next opportunity Nick Khan finds won’t be squandered again), point to their complete lack of promotion of the content on the actual ESPN Unlimited service as a big reason why.
BROCK LESNAR (W/PAUL HEYMAN) DEF. OBA FEMI
Outside of the night two main event between Roman Reigns and the currently-absent CM Punk, the match that received the most critical acclaim from WrestleMania was the Brock Lesnar/Oba Femi match that saw Femi definitively beat Lesnar in a manner that made Lesnar decide to hang up the boots and retire on the spot. It was a spot that gave Femi instant credibility and a real head start on becoming the new top star that this promotion needs right now, even if the focus was on Lesnar by the end of the night.
Welp, fuck that and fuck you.
Not only did Brock Lesnar not retire, but he also got his win back here. Lesnar’s loss at WrestleMania was only a smokescreen and an attempt at grabbing headlines more than it was about making Oba Femi, which I suspected on the night when the focus was more on Lesnar’s retirement than on Femi’s dominant win. That thought was reinforced when Femi did nothing of note in the follow-up, doing open challenges against the likes of Grayson Waller, Otis, and Los Garza. The most effective use of Lesnar in the better part of a decade has been wasted away as WWE continues to cower at the thought of elevating anybody new into the ranks of the Rhodes, the Reigns, and the Lesnars.
It’s a booking decision that cannot be reasonably justified. Brock Lesnar is bulletproof. He could lose the next 50 matches he has and still have the credibility to take out anybody he’s in a ring with. The only reason you would give Lesnar his win back is to placate him for being so magnanimous as to put somebody over.
This is a decision that’s only done out of malice (to keep Femi’s ego in check as he’s not a top star), incompetence, or cowardice. Either way, it’s another squandered opportunity to truly make somebody new matter. And as WWE is two months away from a two-night SummerSlam in US Bank Stadium (capacity 73,000) with only 18,800 distributed for both nights (per WrestleTix) as of this review, don’t be surprised if decisions like this lead to more TKO meddling as Paul Levesque’s stooge squad continues to drop the ball.
You know what the shame about it is? The way this match was put together would have been perfect if Femi had won. Lesnar broke out of the gate with four immediate F-5s for a nearfall. Femi powered out of the kimura lock and kicked out of a fifth F-5. Lesnar put Femi through the announce table with a sixth F-5 for a countout tease, but Femi stood up at a count of six and made a big comeback. He almost hit the Fall From Grace, and if that ended the match, it would have been a phenomenal way to put Femi over again by having Lesnar empty the tank and still come up short. Instead, Lesnar slipped out and hit a seventh F-5 for the win.
They were so close to truly launching Femi into the stratosphere as a real-deal superstar. Can’t be having any of those. ***1/2
WOMEN’S INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH
SOL RUCA DEF. BECKY LYNCH (2ND DEFENSE)
I am so sick of these Becky Lynch title matches. At least I wasn’t being gaslit about how big a star Sol Ruca was ten years ago, like with AJ Lee. It was the same decent yet forgettable match she always puts on these days, this time with Sol Ruca winning the title with a completed Sol Snatcher. She did almost mess herself up with a Sasuke Special that was too close to the ropes, but there’s a lot of almost in pro wrestling. Sol wins, and I’m sure we’ll see three more of these matches before Becky wins this title again and Sol vanishes to the depths of Raw with Bird Girl and Mad Maxxine Dupri. **1/2
TRIBAL COMBAT MATCH FOR WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE
ROMAN REIGNS (2ND DEFENSE) DEF. JACOB FATU
Here’s a quote from the Allegedly Great Michael Cole after the three count:
“The Samoan Werewolf has been neutered! He’s been domesticated at the hands of the still Head of the Table, still the World Heavyweight Champion, Roman Reigns!”
Michael, I would argue he’d been neutered long before this show.
Jacob Fatu entered this company in the summer of 2024 and immediately popped off the page as a star. The fans knew it. Pundits knew it. The company knew it, as they quickly transitioned him into the star of the MFTs instead of Solo Sikoa. It felt like Fatu was next in line for stardom, right alongside Bron Breakker. And much like Breakker, WWE has continually kicked the can down the road on actually giving Fatu a main event push. It’s less of a rocket pack and more of an RC car with dying batteries.
2025 was a completely wasted year, farting around in the midcard with guys like LA Knight and Solo Sikoa. He touched the main event scene with a short TV program with Cody Rhodes, only for that to end with him slotted with Drew McIntyre for Wrestlemania. He came into this feud with Roman Reigns and got some steam with a quality match at Backlash, before definitively losing this match and having the lead announcer proudly proclaim that he had been neutered and domesticated.
It didn’t help that this match paled in comparison to the Backlash match. It’s fitting that this match happened in Europe, because this was every house show plunder main event you’ve ever seen. No real urgency or intensity, never getting out of first gear, and the closing spot was a spear through a table. This was the Roman Reigns main event that I was worried about getting when he retook his spot as the top champion.
And after Raw, Fatu had his balls fully lopped off when he literally kneeled in front of Reigns to acknowledge him before joining the Bloodline, as we enter the top of the 21st inning in this story and hope the backup center fielder can put a few pitches across the plate.
Between the complete sonning of Fatu, Femi giving Lesnar his win back, and Bron Breakker giving his Backlash win back to Seth Rollins, the next generation of this company is in complete stasis underneath the stale names that have hung at the top of this promotion for the last decade. It’s disheartening to any fans with a clue, and it’s mindboggling to a pundit like myself, who doesn’t even like the promotion.
I did pop for the ref holding the ula fala in the air like a title. **
