WWE Main Event 15/04/2014

The fun thing about watching old Main Events is coming across hidden gems that I never knew about. The Wyatts vs Los Matadores/Sin Cara, Ambrose vs Henry, just some good fun matches that had gone under the radar. The opposite side of this is that some episodes feature utterly skippable, pointless matches. This, unfortunately, is one of those weeks...

Los Matadores vs Jinder Mahal & Drew McIntyre

This really sums up what a weak episode of Main Event we have here. On paper, this could have been a really fun tag match, given the abilities of the matadors and McIntyre. Instead, this is more angle than match. Hornswoggle comes out as a member of 3MB to cancel out El Torito, and it’s his distraction that allows McIntyre to take control of a matador. However, El Torito gets involved straight away, leading to both outsiders fighting in the ring and the match ending in a double DQ. Waste of time.

Sin Cara vs Bad News Barrett

This was really short, but at least allowed for a few fun moments. I liked Cara’s suicide dive and Barrett was really good at beating his opponent down with nice looking blows. But the match is only a few minutes long so, after a shitty headscissors from Cara, Barrett avoids a Swanton and quickly hits Winds of Change and the Bullhammer to win.

Nikki Bella vs Naomi vs Cameron vs Emma vs Tamina vs Alicia Fox vs Aksana vs Eva Marie vs Layla vs Natalya

This is a battle royal, complete with shitty “going through the ropes elimination” rules, to become number one contender to the Divas title. Nothing her really worth watching, though I felt particularly sorry for Layla selling the super-slow, super-weak offence of Eva Marie, who thankfully is the first eliminated. The crack camera team totally miss Tamina nailing Nikki with a superkick. Tamina is put over really strongly here, throwing out both Funkadactyl, Nikki and Fox to leave her alone with Natalya, who she also bins off with a superkick. Very skippable.

Jack Swagger vs the Big Show

By default this is match of the night. It’s not great, but it’s perfectly fine and is at least logically worked. I like Swagger in the opening stages, using the ropes to build momentum to attack Show. Swagger grabbing a big boot attempt and attacking the leg makes total sense, both in terms of downing Show and also as he’s got a leg-based submission. Show only needing one smack to the chest of Swagger to start his comeback was great, especially with how much they put over his giant hands early in the match with his chops. Chokeslam is reversed (very slowly) to the Patriot Lock, but Show holds on and is able to land the KO punch to win.