WWE Clash In Italy 2026: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s review of WWE Clash In Italy 2026, a show that saw three of four champions retain their titles and Brock Lesnar get his win back over Oba Femi! As you might expect, the WINC staff has thoughts about all those things, from Cody Rhodes' controversial win over GUNTHER to Roman Reigns still being undefeated in Tribal Combat.

If you missed the show, don't be too sad — you can read about everything that happened via our WWE Clash in Italy 2026 results page, where the facts are completely objective and untainted by the opinions of the WINC crew! This column, however, is all about the opinions of the WINC crew — or at least, the things that stood out most to us in a positive or a negative way. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about WWE Clash in Italy 2026!

Going into the WWE Championship clash between Cody Rhodes and GUNTHER, I had said that there was surely no way the match wasn't going to be good even if the build had been terrible. Leave it to WWE to do the unthinkable, however, as Rhodes and GUNTHER wrestled an 11-minute bout that felt like the closing stretch of a much longer contest.

Within moments of the bout starting, GUNTHER had caught and dropped Rhodes with his signature powerbomb, but Rhodes kicked out. GUNTHER then caught him in his signature rear choke, which Rhodes reversed into a pinfall for a two-count – looking to do what he did in their one and only match at Crown Jewel 2024 for the eponymous title (not the King of the Ring finals as Corey Graves, man with a script in front of him, claimed).

GUNTHER cinched the hold in again, Rhodes stood up and dropped backwards to break the hold. Only for GUNTHER to then rain down hammer-and-anvil elbows and go back to the choke. But Rhodes got his foot on the bottom rope (more on that in a bit).

Rhodes hit a few clotheslines that did nothing to drop GUNTHER, then receiving one that did drop him. Rhodes then went for a choke of his own, failing to submit GUNTHER and following up with a Cody Cutter.

Then he dropped him with a clothesline, following up with Cross Rhodes – a move that quite literally everyone has kicked out of – and going for the cover for a count of three. GUNTHER had his foot beneath the bottom rope, which didn't break the count although it should, until the last second when he inexplicably just raised that same leg in the air. And that was all she wrote.

This was a bad Cody Rhodes match, a bad GUNTHER match, and a terrible WWE Championship match. It was short without any of the excitement that should come with a match shorter than it should be. The finish was quite clearly designed to scratch an asterisk next to the defeat for GUNTHER, but then that fell flat itself when GUNTHER put the leg in the air before the count was concluded.

It was a spot-fest with boring spots. The match, rather like its build, did very little to establish what became the closing stretch. And one might be forgiven for thinking this was a burial for the man who retired John Cena and AJ Styles.

There was nothing redeemable. One of the biggest matches the company is capable of putting on, for the Undisputed top title, was fumbled for the sake of doing it again at a later date.

Written by Max Everett

While their WrestleMania 42 match was good, I thought Jade Cargill's 'Mania rematch against WWE Women's Champion Rhea Ripley at Clash in Italy today was one of her best matches to date, if not her actual best match I've ever seen. I thought she finally looked like a solid, serious competitor, and it was really cool to see. Ripley and Cargill have incredible chemistry together and I thought this match was great.

It was "Muscle Mami" vs. "Muscle Mommy" and it worked really well. Ripley is super over, and the Italian crowd's boos were as loud as their cheers when it came to Cargill. I thought it was a perfect match to have during the first hour on ESPN in attempts to sell the app for the rest of the show. There were a lot of strong spots throughout this match, including a few that could have gone wrong, like Cargill sending them both over the top rope while she was on Ripley's shoulders, and the fact that they didn't, that one in particular, has me feeling more confident in Cargill's abilities. Sure, she was in there with a solid worker in Ripley, but she held her own.

Cargill got in a ton of offense throughout the first and middle part of the match, absolutely battering Ripley on the outside of the ring. Even when the pair got back inside the squared circle, Cargill held her own until Ripley's time to rally. While I was initially a bit confused by how much offense Cargill was getting in, it ended up really working for me. If she was losing, she might as well look hella strong doing so.

I could have gone without the B-Fab and Michin interference at the end of the match, but at least it happened then, at the very end, rather than the women standing around at ringside and being involved all throughout the bout. Them staying out of things until close to the finish only helped Cargill feel strong. Charlotte Flair coming out to even the odds was fine, if we were already going to have interference anyway.

Cargill may not have emerged victorious at Clash in Italy, but I seriously thought it was some of her best work, and that's something she can be proud of. She looked strong throughout a good portion of the match, and if she's headed into a feud with Flair, that's a really good thing.

Written by Daisy Ruth

This is actually a contentious opinion among the WINC staff, as a lot of us actually really enjoyed Lesnar/Femi 2. Unfortunately, I'm the one who felt strongly enough to write about it, and I thought it sucked. Not just because Brock won — though I do hate that Brock won, even if it was inevitable and predictable — but because the match itself was a living demonstration of how limited a Brock Lesnar match can be in 2026.

I'm sorry, I'm just never going to be into a match that starts with four finishing moves, which a guy then kicks out of, and basically consists entirely of finishing moves for the rest of the match. Lesnar can't even pull out a suplex anymore; all he can do is throw F5s and lock in the Kimura. That's it. That's his entire move set. How am I supposed to care about that?

On a superficial level, I can appreciate the lengths WWE went to try and make Femi look good in defeat, and I understand that we're building to a third match here. The problem is that I don't think a third match is either necessary or interesting, simply because it involves Brock Lesnar wrestling more in 2026. There are a whole lot of ways in which that prospect is objectionable to me, only one of which is the fact that again, he can't really do anything. Lesnar should have stayed retired after WrestleMania and Femi should have gotten to maintain his undefeated (on the main roster, anyway) aura, and those facts are not going to be made up for with a match that required comparatively little of everyone involved. Sorry.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

In 2020, Charlotte Flair unseated Rhea Ripley as NXT Women's Champion. The following year, Flair and Ripley battled over the WWE Raw Women's Championship. Come 2023, they then met once at WrestleMania 39, where "The Eradicator" conquered "The Queen" to claim the SmackDown Women's Championship.

Needless to say, there was no love lost between Flair and Ripley. The key word there is was, however.

Today at Clash In Italy, Flair proved that their hostilities have firmly been put in the past, with Flair taking it upon herself to level two forces standing in Ripley's way: B-Fab and Michin. When Jade Cargill later appeared to have Ripley put away with a Jaded, Flair then positioned Ripley's foot on the bottom rope, forcing the referee to stop the count. This ultimately allowed Ripley to bounce back with a Riptide and retain her WWE Women's Championship.

Flair's actions tonight were significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, they marked a turn in the long-term story between herself and Ripley, suggesting that (at least while they're both babyfaces) they can not only co-exist, but they could also now be legitimate allies to one another. On a more personal level, they served as an indicator of the immense growth that Flair's character has undergone this past year. The once solo-spotlight-obsessed Flair is now sharing it, and on occasion, giving it to others.

Flair's friendly gestures toward Ripley also came at the expense of Jade Cargill, which means Cargill may want revenge. And after two years of teasing it, that could be all the reason we need to make that long awaited Flair-Cargill dream match a reality.

Written by Ella Jay

While I'm never going to be upset about doing well in our predictions contest for the year here at WINC, these predictable WWE shows, after what I thought was a pretty lame and mostly predictable WrestleMania 42, are getting old, fast. I don't know if Paul "Triple H" Levesque is past his booking prime already, but I have to say that I'm borderline bored, even with premium live events.

I thought it was extremely obvious that the most over talent, World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns, WWE Women's Champion Rhea Ripley, and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, were staying over. Meaning, none of them were going to lose their titles, so of course, Women's Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch was going to lose hers to fan-favorite, the super-over Sol Ruca, despite Ruca not yet scoring a victory on the main roster. Something had to happen on this show, and that was the only place it was ever going to. Even though I hated the fact, Brock Lesnar beating Oba Femi was also pretty obvious, as we're going in the direction of a rubber match between the pair for Femi to hopefully officially retire Lesnar in his adopted home state of Minnesota at SummerSlam.

When Fatu walked out to little noise from such a loud crowd, I knew that no matter how much I wanted him to beat Reigns, there was no way WWE was going to book Reigns to lose in front of such a hot, international crowd. I didn't think the match was bad or anything, I just saw the outcome coming a mile away, and even at the end, the reveal of Solo Sikoa and the MFTs at ringside was super lame. Cool, they're on "SmackDown," I guess they just randomly showed up to gloat to Fatu that they were right, or something.

I was hoping for a major return, and I thought that may have been Randy Orton during the opening match pitting Rhodes against GUNTHER. Nope. That match, with its predictable outcome, just had a seemingly quick, lame finish, though at least WWE set up a rematch for "The Ring General." I don't know what Orton is up to right now, but live on ESPN, in front of an international crowd, would have been an excellent place for him to return. Sadly, that wasn't meant to be, and now I guess we're getting Rhodes vs. GUNTHER again somewhere down the line, perhaps at Night of Champions if they're not doing Rhodes vs. Reigns.

I didn't think any of the wrestling on today's show was bad, by any means. I'm just quickly growing bored of everything. Something exciting and unpredictable needs to happen to pull me back in.

Written by Daisy Ruth

The Tribal Combat main event pitting Jacob Fatu against Roman Reigns in a rematch for the World Heavyweight Championship might have fallen just short of their initial Backlash bout, but it delivered on planting the seeds for some Bloodline storytelling moving forward. 

The match itself was fun, chaotic, and continued to make Fatu look like an unstoppable force. But it was when he was finally stopped that things started to get a little more interesting. Per the stipulation, Reigns remains the Tribal Chief, and now Fatu will have to fall in line. As such, when the Usos came out to officially crown Reigns with the ulufala, all three of them stood and stared at their new recruit defeated in the corner.

Meanwhile, Solo Sikoa and his Sequoia, Talla Tonga, stood at ringside staring on. Sikoa of course being the last man to lose Tribal Combat, although he became something of an exile from the group after planting his family saplings on "WWE SmackDown." 

One of those little saplings was originally Fatu, so there was a momentary glance between them that leaned into that, given Fatu had broken out of his Neo-Bloodline just to eventually become beaten into servitude of the OG Bloodline. Sikoa looked as though he had been vindicated, as though he had warned Fatu this would happen, and Fatu looked at him with a bit of conflict; maybe being number two in that group wasn't so bad. 

But that couldn't last long, with Reigns sending Jey Uso back to tug on the "Samoan Werewolf's" leash and bring him to heel. Reigns also noted Sikoa's appearance to the Usos, saying that he would have something in store for them soon. And then as the show turned into the post-show Fatu was stood subservient behind Reigns as he declared he was building an army for the likes of Royce Keys, Cody Rhodes, Oba Femi, anyone who believes they can come for the king. 

This is all rich with potential heading into Monday and beyond, with much of a deal made about Fatu's acknowledgment of Reigns on "WWE Raw" and whether he would fall in line purely to keep his job. The questions around that also include what part Sikoa and co. will be playing, whether the Usos and Fatu can co-exist, especially given Jey and Fatu's positions as singles stars in their own right. 

And that all just provides a reason to tune in and find out. What more could you really want from a main event angle?

Written by Max Everett