Clash In Italy 2026

WHAT’S POPPINNNNNNNN’

What the FUCK is up Dennys, we are back at it again! Clash In Italy brings us a stacked card, filled with matches that all have high stakes. This could potentially be WWE’s best PLE of the year so far, so let’s see how the event delivers!

Ok so let’s kick this off with a bad joke: How does Roman Reigns keep his breath so fresh? Acknowledge-mints…

Alright folks, I got plenty of those in the chamber! Just some top quality content to start off the pitches!

Let’s dive in

Roman Reigns vs Jacob Fatu

(In Tribal Combat for the World Heavyweight Championship)

At Backlash, I pitched my reasons for why Fatu should go over. And honestly, that pitch still stands for this match here - I really don’t understand what Fatu gains from losing twice, even if he is a “badass” throughout the ordeal. It’s like, we already know he's a badass - going toe to toe with Roman but LOSING doesn’t add to that. And this is truly a tough situation, because you can say that about anyone during any title reign. Did Cody Rhodes derail Drew McIntyre? If you don’t want the challenger to win, is it even a compelling match? How many times can a challenger lose before the fans lose faith? The only thing that saved Jacob Fatu from being fired was calling for Tribal Combat, so what happens when he loses? 

With all that being said, I want to challenge myself with this pitch and take it in a different direction. Because let’s be real - Roman is winning this one. So how do we book ourselves out of the hole of “Pearce wants Jacob Fatu fired” and “Jacob Fatu has lost to Roman Reigns twice now.” Well, Tribal Combat usually means that someone is going to interfere: I pitch that person to be Tama Tonga. Jacob Fatu has been using the Tongan Death Grip to gain the advantage on Reigns over the past couple of weeks. It drives me insane that none of the Tonga family wrestlers don’t use this move and seemingly don’t care Fatu is using it. I want Jacob Fatu backed into a corner. Faced with being fired from WWE and being exiled from all sides of his family, Fatu concedes - he acknowledges Reigns and falls inline.

Does this kill the Jacob Fatu character? In my view: not at all. Reigns is a heel currently but let’s have another “real” moment of reflection: The Original Family is badass. Jacob Fatu is badass. It would literally take a two week build to flip the script. For example, think of this: Reigns faction would now be four people. MTF has Solo and the two Tonga’s. I say throw Shinsuke in the mix. Shinsuke and Tama have had segments where Shinsuke kept telling Tama that he doesn’t need MFT - leading to Shinsuke losing to Talla Tonga and a post match beatdown. Instead of this leading to Shinsuke feuding with MFT, he should join them - having now seen the light and understanding why Tama sticks with his family. This gets us our four man vs four man faction, with the MFT firmly as the heels. This gives the crowd license to cheer Reigns, The Usos, and Fatu - who they want to cheer for anyways. Plus you could make the case the Samoan Werewolf is just hiding in sheep skin for survival, attacking Roman again when the time is right.

Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar

A little peak behind the curtain, I was originally going to pitch Bron Breakker costing Femi. Then we get Breakker vs Femi to hold us over until Femi vs Lesnar 3 at SummerSlam. But as I sit here to type this idea out - I just can’t get over the fact that I do not want to see Femi lose by the hands of Breakker, which would ultimately lead to Breakker losing the mini feud on the way to building up the SummerSlam match.

So here is my idea - no Vision, no shenanigans, no bullshit: just another great hoss match. The playing field should be more even, with Lesnar now with the knowledge of what Femi brings to the table. This time Lesnar is more prepared - but still, he comes up short. Oba Femi winning clean all the way through this feud reminds me of the Shield vs Legacy feud that happened after WrestleMania 30. To get to this Femi vs Lesnar 3 SummerSlam match, we take a detour at Night Of Champions. Oba Femi rides the back to back wins over Lesnar and gets himself to the King Of The Ring tournament, where he wins the entire thing. And for the sake of this pitch, I would have Gunther beat Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship - setting up Oba Femi challenging Gunther for SummerSlam. On route to this match, we get Brock Lesnar attacking both men each week until he is eventually added to the match as well - demanded by both Gunther and Femi. And to lean into the rumors, if Brock doesn’t win this match then he must retire.

I want Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar vs Gunther at SummerSlam, with the biggest price on the line. I think this is much more compelling than a third match of just Brock and Oba, which Oba won twice already. And here is the shocker - Lesnar wins that match by pinning Oba. THIS sets up the real rubber match. The real final encounter between Lesnar and Femi, where Femi wins and sends himself to the very top of the WWE. Let Femi play the role of final boss, the role Brock played in 2016/17, except he is on TV every week. He doesn’t need to wrestle every week but he should be an imposing figure that knocks down a new challenger every PLE.

Becky Lynch vs Sol Ruca

(For the Women’s Intercontenintal Championship)

Becky Lynch is scared of Sol Ruca. During their match at Saturday Night’s Main Event, Becky pulled in Jessica Carr to take the force of The Sol Snatcher in an attempt to get Ruca disqualified. Ultimately it backfired, with Lynch being the one to be DQ’d and Ruca getting a rematch with the championship on the line this time. I loved that match’s psychology - the cocky veteran realizing in real time that maybe she can’t hang with the new wave of talent, and desperately escapes. Going into this match, how does Lynch bypass these desperate feelings? Well, she doesn’t. It’s only been one week since Adam Pearce booked this match, she’s barely had time to stomach that her actions have backfired.

I feel that this match should play out similarly to the Saturday Night’s Main Event, complete with the ref bump by Jessica Carr - except this time, Carr doesn’t call for the DQ like Becky expects. With a DQ, Becky can keep her title regardless of the win or loss. She was planning on this - except it doesn’t come. Instead, Ruca hits the Sol Snatcher and Carr recovers to count the three. Sol Ruca wins the Intercontinental Championship. 

The aftermath see’s Lynch do anything and everything to get a rematch. I think a fun mini story for RAW would be Becky demands the rematch but Pearce forces her to earn it by winning a fatal four way. Which she does, but by taking advantage of capitalizing on another wrestlers finishing move. It doesn’t matter though, as she loses yet again to Sol Ruca at Night Of Champions, once again with Jessica Carr as the referee. Becky Lynch is absolutely convinced that Carr hit her with a fast count, which leads to my favorite pitch on here: Becky Lynch vs Jessica Carr at Summerslam. 

Becky Lynch completely loses her mind on RAW every week. If we are going all the way to a SummerSlam match against a referee, we need Big Time Becks turning into a full-on conspiracy theorist. She should be interrupting matches, hijacking the commentary desk, and bringing out actual PowerPoint presentations with slow-motion footage of Jessica Carr’s counts. We make it so Pearce has no choice but to sanction the match. For Sol Ruca, I would pair her with Roxanne Perez as the challenger to Ruca’s title. This would introduce Ruca as an enemy to The Judgement Day, allowing her to align with whoever challenges Liv for the Women’s World Champion.

Cody Rhodes vs Gunther

(For the Undisputed WWE Championship)

This is going to be a classic, old school match. It's honestly the match I thought could main event WrestleMania. It's certainly the type of match that would main event any NWA event in the 80s. And despite me pitching a Gunther victory in my earlier pitch, the reality is Cody Rhodes needs to win this one because there are essentially ZERO Babyface contenders on SmackDown. Sami has to be turning heel soon, mid card babyfaces are mostly tag team wrestlers, and the one guy they did have in Jacob Fatu went to RAW.

So this pitch is a little out of left field: just as Cody is celebrating this grueling victory, he looks towards outside of the ring to see two wrestlers have sneakily appeared - Bravo and Rayo Americano. A “What the fuck” expression comes across Cody’s face, as it does for every one watching. Before this visual can even register, El Grande Americano attacks Cody. Bravo and Rayo join in, leaving Cody a bloody mess. El Grande stands tall over a fallen Rhodes, holding up the Undisputed WWE Championship.

At the time of writing, tonight is the Mask vs Mask match in AAA between El Grande and the OG El Grande. Ludwig Kaiser’s version (sorry for the spoiler everyone, my bad) is definitely going to win this. I would be absolutely shocked - SHOCKED - if he loses the mask and becomes Kaiser again. And this is mostly due to the fact that the AAA crowd absolutely love his version of the El Grande Americano character. My prediction is he becomes the AAA Mega Champion this year. So while he is a made-man in AAA, he seems to be midcard in WWE. It's time we turn the heat up crazy style on El Grande. El Grande Americano vs The American Nightmare feels like the freshest match up for Cody Rhodes and maybe the most compelling mini feud while we await to see who wins King Of The Ring to get the SummerSlam championship opportunity. Night Of Champions is the week before 4th of July, so you could book the rematch on that Friday (the 3rd) as the main event of SmackDown too. Dammmmn, did I just hit flow state? Smokin’. And even though El Grande will lose this feud, he is now on the main event level and he will stay there with the AAA Mega Championship over his shoulder.

Alright Alright Alright

Well gang, I don’t believe there is any PLEs next weekend - so we will meet again in a few weeks. BUT as a sneaky peak, I do have two Verdict Clubs coming AND a Fantasy Booking of The Summer of Punk. I think I will finish those up tomorrow and sprinkle them out over the next two weeks! Hope y’all enjoy the event! I am going to play some Runescape until AAA tonight, which I will be posting my rating for on Instagram after the event!

Love ya