WWE Clash in Italy 2026 Review, Highlights, & Grades: Roman Reigns Neutered Jacob Fatu

WWE Clash in Italy took place on Saturday, May 31, 2026, live on ESPN Unlimited. at the Inalpi Arena in Turin, Italy. WWE WrestleMania 42 was in the books, as the fans witnessed five new champions in Roman Reigns, Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley, Trick Williams, and Becky Lynch as well as two surprise returns in Bron Breakker and Paige. Night 2 was definitely better than Night 1, as the only match that felt WrestleMania worthy that entire weekend was CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns.

WWE Backlash 2026 was in the books, as the fans witnessed a show stealer for the Vision story between Bron Breakker and Seth Rollins, the culmination to a memorable double turn between Trick Williams and Sami Zayn, an egregious waste of time involving Danhausen and his clone machine, a semi-awkward ending to the Kabuki Warriors storyline between Iyo Sky and Asuka without Kairi Sane, and a boring Bloodline main event between Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu.

And now, WWE SNME XLIV is now in the books, as fans witnessed Seth Rollins drop the ball by not helping Street Profits win the tag titles from the Vision, Paige & Brie Bella controversially retain the tag titles in the worst match of the night, Penta retain the InterContinental Title against Ethan Page in an absolute barn burner, Becky Lynch and Sol Ruca give an appetizer to set up a title match at Clash in Italy, and Jade Cargill pinned Rhea Ripley to score the win for her team of baddies.

WWE decided to book five rematches for Clash in Italy PLE. Those fives rematches were: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Gunther for the WWE Title, Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Jade Cargill for the WWE Title, Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi, Becky Lynch (c) vs. Sol Ruca in a Non-Title Match, and Roman Reigns (c) vs. Jacob Fatu in Tribal Combat. With that being said, it is now time for the WWE Clash in Italy 2026 Review, starting with Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Gunther, which was merely an average contest.

Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Gunther – WWE Title

Result: Cody Rhodes defeated Gunther to retain the WWE Title in a controversial finish with Gunther’s foot under the bottom rope.

Cody Rhodes and Gunther only had twelve minutes for their match on free television when they quite frankly deserved the main event spot. Not only does Gunther deserve that spot on European soil but also his promo battle with Rhodes on the go-home show was immaculate. Gunther is fed up with Rhodes’ obsession with the attention, fame, and spotlight that comes with holding the WWE Title while he is laser focused on enhancing the prestige of the great sport of professional wrestling.

Furthermore, when Rhodes called Gunther out for being a pathological liar, Gunther reacted phlegmatically but still asserted obstreperously that he was not lying when he promised the whole world that he would choke out and retire legends like Goldberg, AJ Styles, and most importantly Rhodes’ noble hero, John Cena. He delivered in those respects and used that precedence to substantiate his claim that he will choke out Rhodes to win his first WWE Title. However, that sound logic did not apply here.

Unfortunately, WWE decided to go with the safe option of keeping the title on Cody Rhodes while protecting Gunther in defeat with a controversial finish. Albeit a clever way to stretch this story out to SummerSlam, the ending of this match came off as anticlimactic and did not necessarily leave the fans wanting more. The match felt rushed and deserved a lot more time to fulfill the seeds Rhodes and Gunther planted in their story. Sami Zayn was also surprisingly not involved in this match at all.

He witnessed Gunther choking out Rhodes on SmackDown and did nothing about it to teach Rhodes a “tough love” lesson after sticking his neck out for him far too many times just to get stabbed in the back. It will be interesting to see if this turns into a triple threat situation on the road to Night of Champions. Hopefully, WWE takes a risk on either Zayn or Gunther as WWE Champion because the safe option of The American Roller Coaster as champ can take away from the thrill of the ride.

Rating (Grade): 3.0 Stars (C+)

Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Jade Cargill – WWE Title

Result: Rhea Ripley defeated Jade Cargill to retain the WWE Title after a plethora of botched interferences from Michin, B-Fab, and Charlotte Flair.

Rhea Ripley and Jade Cargill absolutely killed it in this match until B-Fab botched her spot to put Cargill’s foot on the rope. What does the “B” in B-Fab stand for? Does it stand for “botch”? This was absolutely ludicrous. Stephen A. Smith advised Cargill that she may need to fire her baddies if they don’t get the job done. At this point, he may be right because the fans in attendance would have been better off absconding the arena with some hot Italian pizza than witnessing that embarrassing botch.

Despite that botch, this match was better than their WrestleMania bout. It had impeccable pace and the maneuvers delivered were crisp. This is clearly the end to their feud and Cargill may have found herself a new rival in Charlotte Flair, who screwed her out of this title match by putting Ripley’s foot on the rope. While they feud on the road to SummerSlam, Ripley will await new challengers in the Queen of the Ring Tournament. Iyo Sky, her best friend, is the first contestant that comes to mind.

Rating (Grade): 3.5 Stars (B-)

Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar – WrestleMania Rematch

Result: Brock Lesnar defeated Oba Femi, turning this into a trilogy that nobody asked for at all.

Here’s a real question that most corporate executives in WWE’s creative won’t bother to ask: Where are the stipulations for these unpalatable rematches? In order to make a rematch feel special and different from the initial match, a stip should be added. Whether it’s a hardcore stip or a twist that adds to the storyline, it would have been nice to see these storylines between Ripley and Cargill as well as between Femi and Lesnar juice up a little bit. This match, in particular, really needed that stip.

Furthermore, WWE has marketed this WWE Clash in Italy rematch between Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar as “the biggest rematch in pro wrestling history.” How many eye rolls occurred at that bizarre advertisement? Femi already slayed The Beast on the biggest stage of them all, and Lesnar took off his boots and gloves in the ring to symbolize his retirement. That emotional moment was an effective way to turn him babyface and give him an opportunity to win back the fans on his way out the door.

Instead of booking him to battle top heels like Bron Breakker or Gunther in dream matches on the road to SummerSlam, WWE distastefully made that emotional retirement moment a ruse to turn him heel again in a rematch with Femi, who is already popular with the fanbase as a top face. Hence, this rematch was unnecessary. It is easy to surmise that Brock got lick back to set up a trilogy, but this loss for Femi took away from his aura and nullified the impact of his WrestleMania 42 victory.

On the bright side, Femi looked strong in defeat after eating 7 F-5’s and is the plan to retire Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam. That could prevent him winning the King of the Ring Tournament since that would lead to him a world title shot against either Roman Reigns or Cody Rhodes. However, retiring Lesnar is an incredible honor for anyone on the roster, and the fact that Oba Femi, who just got called up to the main roster in 2026, was chosen to be the “next big thing” is a testament to his greatness.

Rating (Grade): 3.0 Stars (C+)

Becky Lynch (c) vs. Sol Ruca – InterContinental Title

Result: Sol Ruca defeated Becky Lynch to become the new InterContinental Champion in what was the show stealer of the night.

Sol Ruca had a career defining moment against Becky Lynch in what was a spectacular performance. This was a must-win situation for Ruca. She had already picked up two losses on Raw to Liv Morgan and Iyo Sky, and her only victory was against Lynch, which was not even clean at Saturday Night’s Main Event. If Ruca is going to prove that she belongs with the sharks in the deep sea, she needed to do more than surf and she glided so seamlessly on the waters like a dolphin on a Sunday morning.

During her title run, Lynch put over Maxxine Dupri, generously using the InterContinental Title to highlight young talent. Unlike Dupri, Ruca is worth the investment. WWE did not hesitate to pull the trigger on this one, and they should be applauded for that decision. Ruca has more souls to snatch while Lynch can finally move on to the main event scene as a top contender in the Queen of the Ring Tournament. This match stole the show, and the moment of a new star being born made it even better.

Rating (Grade): 4.0 Stars (B+)

Roman Reigns (c) vs. Jacob Fatu – World Title “Tribal Combat”

Result: Roman Reigns domesticated and neutered Jacob Fatu to retain the World Title in Tribal Combat that should not have been the main event.

WWE is standing on the precipice of one of the worst storylines in the history of the World Heavyweight Title with this repetitive Bloodline saga. The creative team in WWE should be trepidatiously shaking in their boots at the thought of the implications this storyline could have on the rest of the division. However, they think this story is established, comfortable, and safe. WWE wants to stick with that they know worked in the past instead of taking a risk on something fresh, fun, and fulfilling.

Granted, there are so many positive platitudes that could be attributed to the Bloodline storyline, but it ran its course three years ago. The antithetical pivots in this story have become completely asinine and come across as a contrived methodology to stretch out a profitable body of work that has already lost its steam. WWE even went as far as to include Solo Sikoa and the Tongans in this story as obstacles for Jacob Fatu, who has proven that he does not need The Bloodline to fight his battles for him.

After this loss, Fatu is no longer the werewolf. He is now a spineless subordinate, like the Usos became after promising that they would carve their own paths as singles stars without the manipulative tutelage of Reigns. Like Sami Zayn was forced to do years ago, Fatu must fall in line, potentially break free at some point, and inevitably be relegated to the mid card after being creatively stifled. Like Zayn, Fatu will have to do ten times more work to repackage his character and rebuild his stature.

Roman Reigns is not a World Champion who elevates. He is a World Champion who eviscerates. Everyone around him does not get better. They are worse off and their stock drops drastically. It’s a zero sum game. When Punk and Rollins lead the division, stars like Finn Balor and Bron Breakker were elevated. When Reigns is champ, it feels like a wasteland, as if he is Scar on Pride Rock. Granted, this Tribal Combat title match was a fun match in and of itself, but it did not deserve the main event spot.

The backstage politicking by Reigns can only go so far, and it is unfortunately harming the product immensely. Reigns has all the power with the world revolving around him within the confines of the WWE, but he irresponsibly hand delivered a boring, repetitive storyline on a silver platter to the fans while selfishly and lazily sitting at the head of the table. Usually, the pride comes before the fall. However, due to the choreographed nature of this business, the Roman Empire won’t falter.

Rating (Grade): 3.0 Stars (C+)

May 31, 2026 WWE Clash in Italy Results:

• Cody Rhodes defeated Gunther to retain the WWE Title in a controversial finish with Gunther’s foot under the bottom rope.
• Rhea Ripley defeated Jade Cargill to retain the WWE Title after a plethora of botched interferences from Michin, B-Fab, and Charlotte Flair.
• Brock Lesnar defeated Oba Femi, turning this into a trilogy that nobody asked for at all.
• Sol Ruca defeated Becky Lynch to become the new InterContinental Champion in what was the show stealer of the night.
• Roman Reigns domesticated and neutered Jacob Fatu to retain the World Title in Tribal Combat that should not have been the main event.
• Solo Sikoa and the MFTs stareoff with Roman Reigns and his Bloodline after the show.

If you’re not down with just that and would like even more WWE PLE Coverage from Mark Justice, check out more of his articles right here on LTW, on Last Word on Sports (LWOS), and subscribe to his popular YouTube channel by clicking HERE.