Roadblock: End of the Line was the second Roadblock professional wrestling livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw brand division. While the first Roadblock was streamed exclusively on the WWE Network, this second event also aired via traditional pay-per-view (PPV) outlets. It took place on December 18, 2016, at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The name of the event was a reference to it being WWE's final PPV of 2016. This was the final Roadblock until 2022 when WWE revived the event as a television special for the NXT brand.
Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Kevin Owens retained the WWE Universal Championship against United States Champion Roman Reigns by disqualification when Chris Jericho attacked Owens. In the opening bout, the team of Cesaro and Sheamus defeated The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) for the Raw Tag Team Championship, ending New Day's reign 483 days, the longest tag team championship reign on WWE's main roster until November 2022. In other prominent matches, Rich Swann retained the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against The Brian Kendrick and T. J. Perkins in a triple threat match, Seth Rollins defeated Chris Jericho, and Charlotte Flair defeated Sasha Banks in overtime of a 30-minute Iron Man match to win her record fourth Raw Women's Championship.
Production
Background
In March 2016, WWE held an event titled Roadblock, which was originally a house show that was turned into a WWE Network-exclusive event to further build towards WrestleMania 32. The name was a reference to its position on the "Road to WrestleMania". Following the reintroduction of the brand extension in July, where the promotion again split its main roster into two separate brands called Raw and SmackDown where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform, the promotion brought back brand-exclusive pay-per-views (PPV). On July 25, 2016, the Roadblock name was in turn reused for the Raw-exclusive December event, which was held on December 18, 2016, at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in addition to being available to livestream on the WWE Network, it was available via traditional PPV outlets. This second Roadblock event was titled Roadblock: End of the Line due to it being WWE's final PPV of the year. Tickets went on sale on October 7 through Ticketmaster.
Storylines
The event comprised seven matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live.
After being part of Team Raw's losing effort against Team SmackDown at Survivor Series, Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens got into a heated argument during Jericho's "Highlight Reel" on Raw. Jericho blamed Owens for using "The List of Jericho" as a weapon, whereas Owens explained that he tried to save Jericho from being eliminated. The two finally agreed that Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins were at fault for the loss. The same night, as a reward for having joined Team Raw, Rollins received another opportunity at Owens's WWE Universal Championship in a no disqualification match. Both Jericho, who had repeatedly interfered in Owens's title defenses and cost Rollins the Universal title, and Reigns were banned from ringside. Jericho, disguised as a masked fan, interfered nonetheless, allowing Owens to capitalize and retain the championship.