The Italian job went off the rails faster than a Gremlin on a highway

If you thought the crowd in Turin was loud, you clearly missed the metaphorical screeching of tires as the alliances we spent six months building disintegrated in front of our eyes. Clash in Italy was supposed to be a showcase of European strength, but instead, it became a playground for the biggest collection of backstabbing snakes this side of a Roman Senate meeting. I have been tracking turn-heels since the days of Andre the Giant joining Bobby Heenan, and what we just witnessed was a cynical, glorious disaster of booking.

First off, can we talk about the absolute thievery in the main event? Watching Ludwig Kaiser kick Gunther in the teeth during their tag encounter with The Bloodline was the most shocking sequence I have seen since Seth Rollins took that steel chair to Roman Reigns' spine back in 2014. It was cold, calculated, and entirely unnecessary. Kaiser choosing the exact moment the referee bumped to deliver a dropkick to the Ring General's lumbar spine felt like a personal insult to every fan who spent good money to see technical wrestling.

The undercard was a funeral for trust

The betrayal of Lyra Valkyria by her former Tag Team partner, Tatum Paxley, during the opener was equally egregious. After months of that bizarre, parasitic narrative arc where Paxley followed her around like a lost shadow, she finally snapped. The double-underhook DDT on the steel steps was not just a move; it was a manifesto. She didn't just want to win the match; she wanted to erase the person who gave her a platform. It was savage, it was petty, and it was perfect.

Then we have the middle of the card, where the tag team division went through a meat grinder. The DIY split wasn't even a surprise, but the execution was sloppy. Johnny Gargano standing over Tommaso Ciampa after a botched superkick into a rollup attempt felt like a mercy killing. When you look at the 14-minute runtime of that bout, it’s clear they were rushing to get to the chaos. If you want to see how quickly things can ruin a legacy, look at the recent WWE coverage of declining tag team units across the board.

Referees and partners are just collateral damage now

The six acts of treason committed during this event show us exactly where the creative team is heading. They have realized that modern fans don't want long, drawn-out hero’s journeys anymore. We want the car crash. We want the betrayal. We want the person holding the championship to look over their shoulder and see their best friend holding a sledgehammer. It’s the kind of booking that keeps people refreshing their social media feeds until 3:00 AM.

However, let's be real about the downside. When you have six betrayals on one card, the shock value loses its punch by the time the final bell rings. It’s like eating a meal where every single course is covered in ghost pepper sauce. By the third betrayal—the Solo Sikoa interference on his own stablemate—the crowd reaction had dulled from visceral horror to polite confusion. They didn't feel the weight of the moment because the writers didn't give the first moment time to breathe before burying it under the weight of the fourth one.

The verdict on the Italian Job

We saw Alpha Academy collapse as Chad Gable bailed on Otis during a handicap match, and we saw R-Truth get laid out by a returning heel that I genuinely thought was still on vacation. It’s hard to stay invested in faces when they’re all one bad day away from putting the boots to their own kin. As discussed during the post-show breakdown of PLE trends, the company is chasing high-engagement clips for social media rather than coherent long-term storytelling.

I love a good heel turn, but the 2026 calendar is already bruising. If they keep this breakneck speed up, they’re going to run out of people to turn on each other by the time we hit the end of the year. Maybe let the dust settle before you set the house on fire next time, Triple H. Nobody is going to care about the next big betrayal if the entire roster consists of people who have already backstabbed everyone they’ve ever worked with.