Every 2017 WWE PPV main event ranked by in-ring value

13. WWE No Mercy: WWE Universal Championship Match

Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Braun Strowman

In a matchup that the WWE Universe had been waiting on for quite some time, Braun Strowman finally got his first one-on-one match with Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship at WWE No Mercy in September, and the result wasn’t quite what everyone was hoping for.

On a night that included a great match between Roman Reigns and John Cena, the main event of the night was quite the disappointment, which was upsetting given the brutality of what we got at SummerSlam. We know that Brock Lesnar matches are never going to be too long, minus that instant classic with AJ Styles at Survivor series, but I was hoping for some length here given his opponent. That’s what I get for hoping.

Even being out with an injury for a portion of the year, Braun Strowman owned WWE in 2017. He’s become a must-see attraction and put himself in position to perhaps be the only person on the roster that could dethrone Lesnar. Well, that obviously didn’t happen.

As for the actual match, it just didn’t do a ton for me. It was nice to see Lesnar not dominating the entire thing as Strowman did get plenty of offense in right from the start by tossing the champ across the ring, which is something you don’t see very often. Lesnar got a quick German in but Strowman popped right up, hit a chokeslam and a powerslam, but it wasn’t enough to keep Lesnar down.

They went back and forth for a while as Lesnar did impress with a number of German suplexes on Braun, which is pretty awesome given Strowman’s size. But it just became another ho-hum Lesnar match. Lesnar eventually kicked out of another powerslam and hit one F5 for the win, which became a trend in 2017. I know what they’re doing with that as one finisher can take out a guy like Strowman or Styles or Samoa Joe but not someone like Roman Reigns in a few months. Sure, there were a few decent spots in this match but I was wanting more.