WWE’s Roadblock: End of the Line 2016 pay-per-view is scheduled for this upcoming Sunday night and it appears as though the card has been finalized outside of any last-minute additions, which means it’s time for another look at the superstars on the Raw roster who have been skipped over. For whatever reason, these men and women from the red brand weren’t deemed important enough to find a spot for at the event—at least as far as it’s currently being advertised. Some of those omissions might be justified, while others below are a bit more questionable. Let’s take a look at who will be sitting this show out.
The Bigger Names
It’s no surprise Brock Lesnar and Goldberg aren’t booked for this event, as WWE always holds off on the limited appearances for bigger shows. However, what about Big Show? He just made his return to face Seth Rollins and wasn’t even included on Monday Night Raw this week. Isn’t that quite strange?
Granted, there wasn’t a ton of time to set up a whole feud for him, but that hasn’t stopped WWE in the past from throwing on a random match for the pre-show. I was half expecting Big Show to be booked against a jobber this week on Raw and to follow it up with something similar for Roadblock.
For instance, Mark Henry and Titus O’Neil have been in a bit of a feud lately which hasn’t had a ton of time to develop, nor does anybody really seem to care, but it’s at least something. Those two not having a match here isn’t going to result in a mass uprising of fans not interested in the rest of the card, but it’s still something that could have made an appearance. Perhaps Big Show could have gotten into a feud with equal value or been the next in line for Titus O’Neil to pick a fight with, although that would leave Mark Henry out of the loop.
Pun intended, there’s no big loss here overall, but it’s still a little odd to bring Big Show back for no real reason, and for Mark Henry and Titus O’Neil to not at least be put in a pre-show match to eat up some time.
The Tag Team Division
The New Day have surpassed Demolition’s record as the longest reigning tag team champions in WWE history (yesssssss!) but while many of us assumed it would be a guarantee they’d drop the belts immediately after this was achieved, no title match has been set up for Roadblock. It’s highly unlikely they’ll sit this event out, but as far as Tuesday morning, nothing has been announced.
The Golden Truth and The Shining Stars could be in the title hunt, but I highly doubt it. Since Enzo and Cass are tied up with Rusev, the match could end up being a simple repeat of the triple threat which included Cesaro and Sheamus as well as Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows.
That’s a bit underwhelming, though, isn’t it? We just saw that exact thing on Raw.
I can’t imagine The Revival or any other tag team from NXT would be moving up to the main roster for a title shot since they’re all still working with each other for those tag titles, nor do I think a SmackDown team will make the leap over to the red brand, so the triple threat being redone again is my expectation.
If The New Day aren’t wrestling at Roadblock, I’ll be extremely surprised and very disappointed.
The Midcarders / Jobbers
No real explanation is needed for why Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, Darren Young, Jinder Mahal or Sin Cara are on the show. They never really are. I still maintain that Neville has been grossly ignored and if they have no plans to utilize him in any way any time soon (as indicated by his relative absence since returning from injury) then he should just be sent to SmackDown or positioned to compete in the cruiserweight division. The same goes for Sin Cara to a certain extent, although I’d imagine there’s less of a chance he gets a boost in credibility any time soon, what with his backstage fights working against his reputation.
The Women’s Division
Remember when Emmalina showed up on Raw this week like previously advertised? Nope? Well, I have no rational explanation for that, but it’s gotten to the point where I’m just annoyed about it. The video packages hyping up her return are some of the laziest vignettes WWE has ever produced and they’ve been going on for months now. Clearly, WWE either thinks it’s a good method of teasing everyone so they want her more, or they have no plans for her and perpetually change their minds on what to do. If it’s the latter, they shouldn’t have started this so long ago, and if it’s the former, well, you’ve at least lost me on that train of thought as I no longer care.
Bayley and Alicia Fox have been wrestling the past few weeks over Alicia’s obsession with Cedric Alexander, although it’s such a one-sided feud there’s really no need to have a match between the two. Bayley would simply win a third time and nobody would pay much attention to it other than for a bathroom break.
Poor Nia Jax has been left out of the loop since Survivor Series. I’m not a fan of her by a longshot, but for them to drop the ball so much and get rid of any momentum she built up is definitely a shame.
Also, Dana Brooke doesn’t seem to be a factor in the plans for Roadblock unless she interferes on behalf of Charlotte, although their friendship has been pushed aside for the most part ever since a little before Survivor Series. Is she in the dog house? Is she injured? Do they just not have anything for her?
At least with Summer Rae and Paige, we know their injuries are preventing them from coming back, so they’re excused, but the rest of the women don’t have much to their names at the moment. Things should heat up a bit more after Roadblock, but for this event, it’s a two-woman show.
The Cruiserweight Division
We already have our standard cruiserweight match with the triple threat between Rich Swann, TJ Perkins and Brian Kendrick, but if another is somehow worked into the timeline for Roadblock, my best guess would be Jack Gallagher vs. Ariya Daivari. No other feuds are developed enough to warrant placing them on the card, although WWE does have a tendency to book multi-man cruiserweight matches on the pre-show. Perhaps that will happen again with Gallagher teaming up with Lince Dorado and Cedric Alexander against Ariya Daivari, Noam Dar and whomever Dorado could be paired against (Mustafa Ali?) or there might just be a singles match.
Do you think these men and women or any others not on this list should be booked on the card? How would you utilize them? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
