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WWE Day 1 (2022) -- Results & Afterthoughts

WWE Day 1 was a professional wrestling live event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event aired on pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and was available to stream through Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network internationally. It took place on January 1, 2022, at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, and was the company's first PPV event to take place on New Year's Day. The event's title alludes to its New Year's scheduling and was WWE's first PPV to have the New Year's theme since New Year's Revolution in 2007. Its scheduling also caused the cancelation of the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs event, which was usually held in late December.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Brock Lesnar defeated Seth "Freakin" Rollins, Kevin Owens, Bobby Lashley, and defending champion Big E in a fatal five-way match to win Raw's WWE Championship by pinning Big E. Lesnar was originally scheduled to face Roman Reigns for SmackDown's Universal Championship, but that match was canceled hours before the event due to Reigns testing positive for COVID-19. In other prominent matches, Becky Lynch defeated Liv Morgan to retain the Raw Women's Championship, RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) defeated The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship, Edge defeated The Miz, and in the opening bout, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston and King Woods) to retain the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.

WWE today announced that Brock Lesnar will challenge for the WWE Championship tonight at Day 1 against Big E, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens and Bobby Lashley in what will now be a Fatal 5-Way Championship match.

The first man to score a pinfall against any of the other four men will win the WWE Championship, in what’s expected to be one of the most exciting main events in WWE history.

Earlier today, Roman Reigns tested positive for COVID-19. As we’ve seen with many superstar athletes, this result has left Reigns unable to compete in the originally scheduled defense of his WWE Universal Championship against Lesnar. WWE wishes him well in his recovery.

Live from State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Day 1 will begin streaming tonight at 8 pm ET exclusively on Peacock in the United Sates and WWE Network everywhere else.

-- From WWE.com

Match Results:

Tag Team Match

Sheamus and Ridge Holland defeated Cesaro and Ricochet by pinfall

This match, much like this show was snakebit right out of the gate. Holland suffered a broken nose after being clipped by Ricochet's aerial offense. He was sidelined for the rest of this match while Sheamus was forced to work this entire match solo. I hope Holland doesn't get slapped with the injury prone label. That's a death sentence in this company, no matter what you look like. From his injury in NXT and now this, it seems like Holland has rotten luck in terms of getting the ball rolling.

Tag Team Match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship

The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston and King Woods) by pinfall

As much as I'm sick and tired of seeing this two teams go at it, I can't deny that this was a great match. It was an excellent way to get this show started and firing off on all cylinders. They had me going with a lot of the near-falls here, only to end this match with the Usos retaining with a 3-D of all maneuvers to put down the New Day.

Singles Match

Drew McIntyre defeated Madcap Moss (with Happy Corbin) by pinfall

This was a complete nothing of match that should have been regulated to Monday Night RAW than filling time on this PPV. They gave this match far too much time than what I have given it too, but I understood that they were merely filling time for the rest of this show.

Tag Team Match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) (c) defeated The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) by pinfall

This was another nothing match for me that felt like it was suited for Monday Night RAW. I have no idea who Migos are nor why they were hanging around at ringside for this match. I get that they did the official theme for this show, but they didn't need to be out here. I did like the pop-up assisted variation to the RKO that Riddle helped Orton with for the finish though. During the post-match celebration, I kept thinking that Montez Ford was going to turn on Dawkins as he kept looking back at him but he didn't do a damn thing. You just know their days as an unit are numbered at this point, especially knowing how WWE loves splitting up tag teams. Whenever that happens, you just know that Dawkins' days in WWE are numbered. He doesn't have a leg to stand on without this tag team while Ford on the other hand, has a great singles career waiting for him.

RK-Bro with Migos.

Singles Match

Edge defeated The Miz (with Maryse) by pinfall

Out of all of Edge's matches since coming back to WWE, this is easily the weakest one. I can't say that it was awful, but I can't say that it shouldn't have dragged on and on for what felt like an eternity. I get that The Miz is a former two-time Grand Slam WWE Champion but geez this went on for far too long. What made it worse was that it was painfully obvious that they were waiting on something to happen - which turned out to be Beth Phoenix's arrival. That was hampered by the fact that someone in the production truck forgot to play Beth's music, leaving her standing awkwardly at the top of the entrance ramp, making mean faces like she was on the one of those match-up screen portraits from Punch-Out!! until it finally play for she could take action. Beth would chase Maryse off from ringside, allowing Edge to blindside Miz with a devastating Spear for the win during the confusion.

As of the Jan. 3, 2022 edition of Monday Night RAW, the match was made official for the It Couple (Miz and Maryse) against the "Grit Couple" (Edge and Beth Phoenix) at the Royal Rumble. Like who didn't see this coming a mile away when Beth stepped down from calling the action on NXT.

Beth Phoenix was stuck making these mean faces until someone finally remembered to hit her music in the production truck.

Singles Match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship

Becky Lynch (c) defeated Liv Morgan by pinfall

Going into this match, I was conflicted as I could totally buy into the idea of Liv getting the babyface upset victory over Big Time Becks here but at the same time, I didn't want Becky to lose before Bianca Belair had her shot at redemption from that embarrassment at Summerslam last year. To her credit, Liv Morgan wrestled the best match of her career to date here in this match. That's nothing to be ashamed of in the least, but sadly, this was another losing effort for her going against Becky, even though they tried to make this close on several occasions throughout this match in a very convincing manner.

Unfortunately for Liv Morgan, Becky still got the upper hand and retained the Raw Women's Championship. I can't be mad with the result here as they need to continue the course with of the narrative of Becky Lynch walking into WrestleMania undefeated, only for Bianca Belair to redeem herself from that loss at SummerSlam last year. No other scenario is acceptable at this point - at least not for the RAW Women's Championship.

Fatal Five-Way Match for the WWE Championship

Brock Lesnar defeated Big E (c), Seth "Freakin" Rollins, Kevin Owens, and Bobby Lashley (with MVP) by pinfall

This was the match that was turned upside down due to Roman Reigns missing this show due to getting COVID-19. The last minute changes made for a really fun improvision at the zero hour as we got treated to Lashley and Lesnar facing off for the first time since either man has come back to the company. Lashley has stated on numerous occasions that was the match-up that urged him to come back to WWE after spending a lengthy time in IMPACT Wrestling and he's been dying for them to go at it. Well, on the first night of 2022 he got his wish and boy did this encounter did not disappoint. This match was less than ten minutes but was exciting for every moment of it. Owens and Rollins had their own alliance planned out to deal with Lashley and Lesnar in unison while Big E was ready to take on all comers, like a fighting champion should. What impressed me here was that Lashley thwarted Lesnar at any every exchange they had in this match, including flooring him with a Spear through the ringside barricade. Bobby and Brock would bounce back and clean house, only for Big E to topple everyone - until he ran into that roadblock that was Brock Lesnar. Brock downed him with ONE F-5 and that's all she wrote for the three count and Big E's title reign.

I get that a lot of people are sad and disappointed that Big E fell victim to his title reign being ended in the same manner as Kofi Kingston's, but WWE pulled an audible in this situation. I'm sure that Big E would've walked out of this show with the championship if it was still a simple fatal four-way. Adding Lesnar to the mix merely adds more drama to the Heyman, Reigns, and Lesnar triangle if we're all being perfectly honest, especially if it could potentially lead to champion vs. champion and an title unification match at WrestleMania.

As of the Jan. 3, 2022 episode of Monday Night RAW, Bobby Lashley won the right to challenge Lesnar at the Royal Rumble to sweeten the pot even more, along with the fact that Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman have reunited together as a pairing. I think that they are still going with the notion that Heyman is swerving everyone and he's going to cost Lesnar the title to curry favor back to Roman Reigns and add more fuel to the fire to that feud for WrestleMania. As of the Jan. 7, 2022 episode of Friday Night SmackDown!, Adam Pearce named Seth Rollins to be the challenger for Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble since he was given the right to choose any opponent for Reigns from any WWE roster. I thought that WWE really blew their loads prematurely as they had a golden opportunity to keep Roman Reigns off television for a while and give that SmackDown! brand a chance to step up with the few people they have on that roster. The talent is there, it's just they need better writing and booking on that show.

Afterthoughts

Going into this show, a lot of people (myself included) had this show pegged to be a one match show as the entire premise was centered around where they were going with the Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar, and Roman Reigns love triangle for the finish of the WWE Universal Championship Match between Brock and Roman with Heyman in the middle. With Roman being sidelined due to COVID-19, that unfortunate turn of events threw a monkey wrench into WWE's plans and had to scramble to improvise at the last second. Big E losing the WWE Championship proved to be the principle victim of those changes, but let's be realistic here. Big E isn't walking into WrestleMania as the WWE Champion and he's sure as hell wasn't going to be holding it throughout WrestleMania season. If he wasn't going to lose it on this show, then he would have lost it at the Rumble. Plus, they hotshotted his cash-in anyway with little to no planning outside of popping a rating during those months when Monday Night Football was dragging RAW through the ratings.

The handling of Big E winning and holding said championship wasn't much to talk about. Like previously mentioned, I was happy for him to get that big moment, but everything after that fact was pretty lame if we aren't kidding ourselves. It's sad too when Big E delivered one hell of a fiery promo in the early portion of this show tonight, proving that he's willing and able to take himself seriously. I think a lot of people are ready to see him stop being a traveling goof like the rest of the New Day. It's the same problem I had with Kofi Kingston after he won the championship. Kofi was still throwing the pancakes into the crowd and couldn't get serious nor fired up in any situation after winning the title from Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35, even when Randy Orton was embarrassing Kofi in front of his wife and kids. Big E is doing better in the latter department, but not by much. In time, I'm sure Big E will bounce back from this loss, but right now though? I seriously doubt it that's a priority for this company right now in terms of booking towards WrestleMania. I will admit that I think it would be fun to see him back into the chase for the title though.

SmackDown! Women's Champion Charlotte Flair was absent from this show, but made a ground-breaking announcement on the following week's Friday Night SmackDown! where she entered herself into Women's Royal Rumble match in an in-ring segment. She declared that she would win the match and name her own opponent/challenger for WrestleMania. Too bad they wasted that concept here as it would have been the perfect reason to drop Roman and Brock into the Men's Rumble Match this year. The biggest shocker to come out of this segment was the fact that WWE spoiled a few returns for this match: The Bella Twins (Nikki Bella & Brie Bella), Lita, Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly, Summer Rae (this would be her first match or association with the company since her release a few years ago), and current IMPACT Wrestling Knockouts Champion Mickie James. Mickie's announcement came as the biggest shock for many as commentary announced her as the current IMPACT Knockouts Champion on WWE programming, hence got the talk about Tony Khan's beloved "forbidden door" being kicked open. Who would have thought that IMPACT of all places would be the ones to get to walk through it first with the ladies on WWE's neck of the woods? Sometimes wrestling is pretty wild and this is definitely one of those occasions, but I wish they could have saved some of these surprises for the PPV though. In IMPACT's case, I could see that they wanted Mickie's inclusion to be made public for they could get some buzz around it with their Hard To Kill PPV being the following night where she would be defending said title in the main event.

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