WWE Bash In Berlin - 8/31/2024

[Dolfan in NYC]

The WWE celebrates Labor Day... by going to a place where it's celebrated 4 months earlier!  Guten tag from Germany!

(I wish I knew any more German than that, guten nacht, and Wo ist die toilette?  Though I think depending on where you are in Deutschland, they use WC or Service. Stupid Europe.)

...

DIE KARTE~!

FOR THE UNDISPUTED WWE CHAMPIONSHIP - Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Kevin Owens

** FOR THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP - GUNTHER (C) vs. Randy Orton

FOR THE WOMEN'S TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - The Unholy Union (Fyre / Dawn, c) vs. Bianca Bel Air and Jade Cargill

MIXED TAG MATCH - The Terror Twins (Priest / Ripley) vs. The Judgment Day (Mysterio / Morgan)

STRAP MATCH - CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre

 

--

** GUNTHER and Orton will swap shows if Orton wins the championship (lol).

Updated as officially announced. 

[The Natural]

We need CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre in a bracelet on a pole match. ;).

[StuntmanCrowley]

On 8/14/2024 at 6:32 AM, The Natural said:

We need CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre in a bracelet on a pole match. ;).

lol. Poor Drew, but he's still showing he is on another tier.

[The Natural]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Czgh4k1DS6M

Gunther training video package.

[The Natural]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P5qCQSFjzQ0

Gunther and Randy Orton Bash in Berlin Kickoff.

[The Natural]

So fucking refreshing to watch AEW All In 2024 and WWE Bash in Berlin 2024 at a great time, 6pm than what me and my fellow Brits has to normally do:

• WWE RAW, 1am-4am Tuesday morning.
• WWE NXT, 1am-3am Wednesday morning.
• AEW Dynamite, 1am-3am Thursday morning.
• WWE Smackdown, 1am-3am Saturday morning.
• AEW Rampage, 3am-4am Saturday morning.
• UFC PPV Main Card, 3am-6am Sunday morning.
• WWE PLE, 1am-4am Sunday or Monday morning.
• AEW PPV, 1am-5am Sunday or Monday morning.
• AEW Collison, 1am-3am Sunday morning.

You have to be devoted/insane to do this.

Edited August 31 by The Natural

[Infinit]

Randy Orton saying that he found out that he's 70% German and that's why he loves Heineken (a Dutch beer) was freaking hilarious lol

[Shartnado]

5 hours ago, The Natural said:

You have to be devoted/insane to do this.

Why not both? *that gif*

[The Natural]

1 hour ago, Infinit said:

Randy Orton saying that he found out that he's 70% German and that's why he loves Heineken (a Dutch beer) was freaking hilarious lol

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

[blitzkrieg]

This isn't quite waking up to watch Pro and Mania but with my current sleep patterns it's pretty close.

[The Natural]

Good show. Gunther vs. Randy Orton MOTN.

[ReiseReise]

That was great fun to watch. Good German Postshow Promo from Gunther.

He basically said when he was wrestling in Germany together with his friend (Kaiser), WWE called asking him to "get something started." He said OK, but also said he wanted to stay in Germany, because it was always important to him to build something in Europe. HHH told him he can understand, but to build something, first you should become somebody. Gunther closed by basically saying: "I guess I've become somebody."

[Eivion]

Cody/KO was solid from what I caught. Wasn't paying as much attention as normal since I had just woken up.

Bianca/Jade vs. Alba/Isla was good. Dug UU keeping control with double teams and cheapshots. Bianca was a good FIP, and Jade had a nice hot tag with a solid tease of UU still potentially taking the match at least once or twice before the end. 

Punk/Drew was pretty solid, maybe even good. Was happy to see Punk bleed, and the finish was a good exclamation point for the feud. 

Priest/Rhea vs. Dom/Liv was good fun. Thought it played out well with Priest and Rhea looking great by the end end and getting a good win over the new Judgement Day.

Gunther/Orton was good. Slower start than expected alongside Orton having so much control in the first half. Still all of it built to some good drama during the second half and some great drama in the finishing stretch. I liked the respectful handshake at the end.

Dug all the matches with Gunther/Orton being MOTN. Good show.

Edited September 1 by Eivion

[Ziggy]

I'm usually playing catch up as the PLEs are going on but I tried not to get behind during the show. The commercials and ad breaks are long enough to really get you out of it. The matches were solid overall. Owens vs Rhodes was really good as was the Main Event. It started out slow but they made up for the KotR final. The mix tag was good. I'd like for Rhea to get her belt back but then that would end the angle with Rhea and Liv. Rhea will probably continue to beat Liv except for when it actually counts ( belt on the line). I was actually more excited for this as far as the actual match quality expectations than SummerSlam. Punk vs Drew was better than the SummerSlam match. I expected more blood when I saw Punk came out in White tights. If they are going to do a 3rd match at Badd Blood,  Drew is probably going to do something like cost Punk the WHC on Raw in the next few weeks. Punk is Gunther on Raw would be sick. 

[blitzkrieg]

38 minutes ago, Ziggy said:

If they are going to do a 3rd match at Badd Blood,  Drew is probably going to do something like cost Punk the WHC on Raw in the next few weeks. Punk is Gunther on Raw would be sick. 

On the post-show they did show Cathy Kelly interviewing Punk with him saying that he was going after whomever won the main event.

[Sex Machine Gun]

WWE goes to a country that speaks a language I can understand a bit but I didn't know what the crowd was saying besides the two counts and what I think was a song where the chorus was "all is beautiful/good." This main event is very enjoyable so far despite the crowd doing the wave. I'm glad Orton thought of a way to stop it. Only watched Punk/Drew otherwise so far which was indeed better than SummerSlam. 

I never saw a full match of his until coming to the main roster and even then I watch AEW more intently, but goddamn do I like Gunther now that he's in the main event scene. Every motion he makes, it makes sense. Orton also figured out how to be not boring in his late career. 

Disappointed I didn't hear anyone yell "ICH BIN DER TISCH!" during that repeated announcers table suplex spot.

[The Natural]

13 minutes ago, Sex Machine Gun said:

WWE goes to a country that speaks a language I can understand a bit but I didn't know what the crowd was saying besides the two counts and what I think was a song where the chorus was "all is beautiful/good." This main event is very enjoyable so far despite the crowd doing the wave. I'm glad Orton thought of a way to stop it. Only watched Punk/Drew otherwise so far which was indeed better than SummerSlam. 

I never saw a full match of his until coming to the main roster and even then I watch AEW more intently, but goddamn do I like Gunther now that he's in the main event scene. Every motion he makes, it makes sense. Orton also figured out how to be not boring in his late career. 

Disappointed I didn't hear anyone yell "ICH BIN DER TISCH!" during that repeated announcers table suplex spot.

Check out his matches as WALTER in NXT against Tyler Bate at NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff, vs. Ilja Dragunov at NXT TakeOver 36 and vs. Tommaso Ciampa at NXT TakeOver: Stand and Deliver especially WALTER/Bate.

Edited September 1 by The Natural

[Ziggy]

I saw a number of fans didn't like during the presser Jade being asked about AEW and making the change to WWE. She answered it very well. She spoke about how much more often she working matches. Just this recent tour alone. When she first signed , I knew that would be the biggest benefit to her coming in to WWE. I see she has been getting better since she actually started really going on the road in March. She's not Kurt Angle or Bianca Belair where she just takes to in a quick as they did and I think everyone including people involved in developmental expect everyone to just take to wrestling so quick if you're already a world class athlete. I don't know who said it but I've heard more than one person say basketball players have a harder time picking up the business compared to other athletes. AEW isn't yet built for wrestlers with no prior experience for wrestling. She would have took forever for her to improve in AEW and they would have had to continue to have her opponents  make he look good and hide her inexperience and she wouldn't have the chance to get better on her own.

[TheVileOne]

Overall a solid show, and overall I enjoyed it more than Backlash France. Nothing really huge in terms of angles or surprises, but the wrestling was good. That said, I still feel like they could've gotten a sixth match on there. I don't get running these super long pre-shows with no action on them at all. Makes no sense to me. The pre-shows are long and kind of boring. 

* Cody and Kevin had a good one. I liked that they impressed upon the idea that Cody was hurt but Kevin wouldn't capitalize on the knee injury, and he wouldn't do more to try and really hurt or incapacitate Cody. Not sure if they were going anywhere with Kevin being too nice and not showing any killer instinct here. But they can definitely go somewhere with that if they want to.

* Women's tag team title match was fine. Jade Cargill at least looked better than she has previously, and she held up her own end this time around. This is a good role for her, and she should probably be kept in the tag division for a while until it's time for her to turn on Bianca and feud with her. That will at least help protect Jade and help her learn the ropes better. Overall, Jade looked a lot smoother this time around. That said, I think she probably should've been kept in NXT for a while before moving to the main roster. She clearly wasn't ready for the main roster when she debuted. Jade did well in AEW, but she was also heavily protected during her entire run and very little was asked of her. If WWE plays their cards right, she can eventually have a fun feud with Bianca.

* Punk and McIntyre at least had a better match than their SummerSlam one, which was dull, boring, and slow. The Strap Match is a good gimmick and definitely helped liven things up. I think making this whole feud about the bracelet was silly after they pointed out Punk doesn't give a crap about the bracelet then oops he does again. Points to Wade Barrett for going full anti-Punk on commentary, making fun of Larry, and selling how pissed he is at Punk for costing McIntyre the title at Clash at the Castle. 

* Mixed tag match was good and everyone looked good. Priest and Ripley are really over and this is a good storyline. I liked that they called back to Ripley choking Dominik out with her legs. There's plenty of gas left in this feud. I think Priest even looks better now than when he did as a fairly lame duck champion.

* Good match for the main event, though, I think it ran about 10 minutes too long. Liked the finish and Orton passing out in the submission, but both guys showing each other mutual respect. Overall, a good payoff to the botched finish from the King of the Ring tournament. Gives Gunther a strong win for his first title defense, and he's well on his way now. 

* If you pair this up together with SmackDown, it was a good pair of shows. Crowds were really full and hot for the whole event. I wish we got a little bit more from Bash in Berlin, but paired together they were satisfying shows.

[Robert S]

2 hours ago, Sex Machine Gun said:

WWE goes to a country that speaks a language I can understand a bit but I didn't know what the crowd was saying besides the two counts and what I think was a song where the chorus was "all is beautiful/good."

(...)

The crowd did a couple of generic chants during the main event. The chant they repeated three times is basically the "this is awesome" of German football (i.e. being that annoying and unimaginative). The chant goes something like "Oh, wie ist das schön. (:) So was hat man lange nicht gesehen, so schön (:).", approx. translation: "Oh, how great is that. Something like that didn't happen for quite some time, so great." When Gunther was selling they did once a "Auf geht's Gunther, kämpfen und siegen." chant - "Let's go Gunther, fight and win." (also a generic football chant) At the start they chanted "Auf die Fresse" - "(hit him) in the face" (I think that's a wXw chant).

[The Natural]

Chuckled at Michael Cole's barb to Wade Barrett which was something like "No wonder two of your factions failed."

[The Natural]

I thought the crowd would be louder but it had hard competition with Backlash 2023 in Puerto Rico and Backlash 2024 in France.

[Mike Campbell]

8 hours ago, Ziggy said:

She spoke about how much more often she working matches. Just this recent tour alone. When she first signed , I knew that would be the biggest benefit to her coming in to WWE. I see she has been getting better since she actually started really going on the road in March.

 

I've seen saying this pretty much since AEW first opened up. They absoltely need to run more house shows and/or let their talent work more indy shots. She always had good chemistry with Red Velvet, just imagine how much better she could have gotten if she and Red were able to work for 10-15 every weekend.

 

Also, that last near fall from Isla from the tricked out crufiix bomb (maybe La Magistral bomb?) really ought to be her finisher.

[Ramo2653]

I think it's technically a secondary one for her, at least in the video games.

[Lawful Metal]

I caught the end of Punk Drew and the rest.  I thought the main event was terrible and in slow-motion. I don't think WWE today is for me.