Clash In Italy preview: One of WWE’s best events of the year is now a huge question mark

WWE Clash In Italy takes place today (Sun., May 31) from Inalpi Arena in Turin, Italy.

The show begins at 12 pm ET with the free Countdown show, leading right into the main course at 2 pm ET streaming HERE on ESPN Unlimited in the U.S., and on Netflix pretty much everywhere else. The first hour of Clash In Italy will be simulcast on the ESPN’s cable channel and features two of the five advertised matches.

One of WWE’s best events of the year is now a huge question mark

When I first saw a PLE named Clash In Italy on WWE’s schedule, I figured it was a B level show in between major events like WrestleMania and SummerSlam. WWE’s booking then showed I was a dumbass, as they filled out almost every match with past and current WrestleMania headliners like Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, Cody Rhodes, and Becky Lynch. With star power like that, WWE built a card that would have fit right in as a third night of WrestleMania. On paper, Clash In Italy looks like one of WWE’s strongest lineups of the year.

The main event is scheduled to be a high stakes Tribal Combat match between World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu. Roman’s first order of business after winning the belt at WrestleMania was to reunite The Bloodline with The Usos, but Jacob Fatu came over to Raw and tried to take everything away from Reigns. Roman determined there was “no order” with Jacob, and he needed to be gone from WWE.

Reigns cheated to beat Fatu at Backlash, which only made him act even more out of control and go crazy with the Tongan Death Grip. But just as GM Adam Pearce was about to fire the Samoan Werewolf for attacking officials and failing to acknowledge Roman after that match, Jacob saved his job by challenging Roman to Tribal Combat. The winner takes home the gold and also the status as Tribal Chief of The Bloodline. If Roman wins, Jacob must finally fall in line behind him, and vice versa.

Unfortunately, this main event match is now a huge question mark following what looks like an injury to Fatu at a live event in Liverpool a few days ago. The latest rumor I saw about the situation is that WWE assumes Fatu will be able to work at Clash In Italy, but they are ready to pivot to a backup plan just in case he isn’t medically cleared.

Potentially canceling the main event of a PLE at the last second and replacing it with a new one with zero build is a huge deal. Hopefully it won’t come down to that, but we’ll see what kind of backup plan WWE settles on if a change needs to be made. They can’t just replace Fatu with a mid-card guy like LA Knight, I don’t think.

Tune into Clash In Italy to see if Reigns vs. Fatu actually happens, and for WWE to potentially be turned upside down if Roman Reigns loses his status as Tribal Chief. Can the OTC really trust the Usos to have his back again, or is a major swerve on the way?

Here are the four other matches that are currently advertised for Clash In Italy:

Becky Lynch (c) vs. Sol Ruca for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship

It sounds like this title match is also in jeopardy after Ruca was reportedly “banged up” in their first match at Saturday Night’s Main Event.

SNME was a culmination of Ruca’s poor roll out on the WWE main roster, where she lost her first two matches on Raw and botched an attempted Sol Snatcher on Becky. Ruca botched it again at SNME, and their non-title match was over in less than three minutes due to disqualification. The Man took out Ruca with multiple manhandle slams afterwards, so GM Adam Pearce punished her by putting the title on the line in a rematch today in Italy.

Sol desperately needs to win this match with Sol Snatcher to salvage her bad main roster debut, but Lynch claimed this week that Ruca is “not medically cleared” for the event, casting doubt on whether this fight will even happen.

Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar

Oba Femi kicked Brock Lesnar’s ass and sent him into fake retirement at WrestleMania 42. The Ruler quickly realized it’s hard to follow up a win like that when the top champions in WWE are all busy, so he decided to start the weekly Oba Femi Open Challenge.

The open challenge gimmick almost immediately lost steam when everyone in the Raw locker room was either too afraid or too smart to willingly fight him. But everything changed during the third week when The Beast showed up out of nowhere to ambush Oba during his entrance. Brock proceeded to destroy The Ruler with four F-5’s to set up “the biggest rematch in history” today at Clash In Italy.

Heyman and Lesnar are still saying that Brock is retired, which doesn’t make any sense. Can Lesnar get back his win on The Ruler to potentially set up a trilogy at SummerSlam, or is Oba going to kill The Beast for good this time in the rematch?

Cody Rhodes (c) vs. GUNTHER for the WWE championship (ESPN)

After retaining the WWE championship against Randy Orton at WrestleMania and forcing Pat McAfee out of the company forever, Rhodes has come up with a new catchphrase about how he is “easy to find, hard to beat.” GUNTHER gets a chance to prove him wrong during the opening match at Clash In Italy, which also airs on ESPN’s cable channel.

GUNTHER was granted this title match thanks to the magic of Paul Heyman, who owed him a favor after the Ring General solved his Seth Rollins problem at WrestleMania. But GUNTHER is a giant dumbass who delayed signing the contract for this title match, so Royce Keys tried to sign it instead. Aight?

GUNTHER defeated Keys to lock himself into the title match with Rhodes. He then called Cody a mark for himself and promised to choke him out to win the belt In Italy, just like how he promised to make John Cena tap out in his final career match. Meanwhile, Cody maintains that GUNTHER will find out that he’s “just not that good” after Rhodes vanquishes him today.

Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Jade Cargill for the WWE women’s championship (ESPN)

Jade Cargill was out for a couple weeks after dropping the WWE women’s championship to Ripley at WrestleMania, which opened the door for Jacy Jayne and Fatal Influence to debut and gain a major foothold on SmackDown. But Cargill quickly took back the spotlight when she returned with B-Fab and Michin to target Ripley, Charlotte Flair, and Alexa Bliss.

Cargill has laid out Rhea multiple times since then with her Jaded finisher, and also pinned the champ in a 6-woman tag team match at Saturday Night’s Main Event. The stage seems to be set for Ripley to get the last laugh by winning this rematch, which will take place during the opening hour of Clash in Italy and is simulcast on ESPN’s cable channel.

What will you be looking for at Clash In Italy? Let me know your thoughts on the card in the comments below, Cagesiders.