WWE Main Event 16/09/2014

Dolph Ziggler & R Ziggler vs The Miz & Damien Mizdow

Here, R-Truth is cosplaying as Ziggler to counteract the Miz/Mizdow duo. The face team is pretty unexciting in the early stages, so it’s nice when Mizdow breaks their momentum with a headbutt to Ziggler. Liked Miz ducking a superkick to protect his face, allowing Ziggler to roll him up for two. Ziggler briefly plays face in peril, but makes the tag with no real build up. Miz does a terrible job of selling the Fameasser, but Truth does manage to hit Ziggler’s leaping DDT without the need for to slap Miz’s back, making it much better looking. Truth hits a Lie Detector on Mizdow, but Miz is the legal man, and he hits the Skull Crushing Finale to win.

Brie Bella vs Cameron

Surprisingly decent, albeit not particularly long. Both women seem pretty aggressive to start, felt like they were actually battling over moves. Loved the rolling crab Brie gets as Cameron runs the ropes. Cameron gets a brief control that looks decent, hitting a standing splits legdrop and working over Brie’s back. Bella comes back with a diving clothesline and a facebuster to win. Genuinely decent stuff.

Big E vs Seth Rollins

They get a reasonable amount of time – just over fifteen minutes – but unfortunately they don’t make the most of it. A lot of this match sees Rollins in control, and he really drags it out. His beatdown is methodical and not especially interesting, and he fills more time with two long chinlocks. His standing enzuigiri looks nice, but it’s Big E who really impresses here. Aside from his attempt at press-slamming Rollins from the floor to the ring – where Rollins gets stuck in the ropes, and his eventual landing seems him fall not very far – his stuff looks great. He catches a Rollins crossbody to hit multiple backbreakers, he hits full-bodied corner charges, his overhead belly-to-belly and standing splash are both great looking moves, and his spear to the floor looks mental. In the end, Rollins throws him into the corner twice, and the Curb Stomp gives him the win. 

WWE Main Event 02/09/2014

Dolph Ziggler vs Damien Sandow

This is JIP after a Miz TV segment goes awry. I remember these two matching up surprisingly well earlier in the year, and there’s another decent Sandow performance here. He’s got some decent aggression going on, liked his elbows to the neck of a downed Ziggler, as well as stopping him dead with a short back elbow to the face. Sandow does some token arm work before Ziggler comes back with some poor punches, clear air showing between his fists and Sandow’s torso. Sandow tries a figure four, gets kicked off into the turnbuckle, and eats a Zig Zag for the three count in a nice little sequence. Essentially harmless, but unmemorable.

Natalya & Rosa Mendes vs Summer Rae & Layla

God bless Summer Rae, she tries her hardest to make it look like Rosa is doing some damage to her, flying all over for some entry-level armdrags. I think this is the match that was shown on Total Divas where Rosa tried to manufacture a wardrobe malfunction to gain some notoriety, as Layla grabs her by the trunks to prevent her getting in the ring, with the camera suddenly switching angles to avoid showing a full moon. Summer and Layla are a lot of fun on offence, showing some meanness towards Rosa, including an Irish Whip into a neat Summer Rae clothesline. Natalya comes in after a missed Summer legdrop, and runs through her usual offence in a pretty straightforward manner. However, Rosa blind tags back in, and eats a big Layla superkick for the loss. Watchable, almost entirely due to the heel team.

Goldust & Stardust vs Los Matadores

This kind of match is why you sit through the previous stuff, the chance to see 15 minutes of Goldust and the Colons going at it. El Torrito isn’t there, due to a previous post match assault by the Rhodes’, and Los Matadores are suitably aggressive in the opening stages, plastering Stardust. Los Matadores in fact control a lot of the early going on both Rhodes brothers, loved Fernando blocking a sunset flip and stomping on Goldust’s arm to give them a focal point. Ferndando backdrops Diego to the floor onto the Rhodes’, with the heel team unable to get into second gear. Eventually, Stardust pulls Goldust out of the way of a cornersplash to give his team a prolonged advantage. Goldust looks good in control, even dropping a sarcastic “Ole” along the way, before the hot tag to Diego. Looks great coming in too, hitting a neat elbow to the head of Stardust to stun him, before rolling him up for two. Nice top rope cannonball, but Goldust distracts from the apron and Diego turns round into a STO to give them the win. Not quite the tag masterclass you’d hope for, but a nice bit of storytelling with the aggression of the Matadores making them more dominant than usual and controlling of the match.

WWE Super-Showdown 2018

Having this big WWE show take place in Australia was lovely for me, living in the UK. I got up at a reasonable time on Saturday, made some toast and a brew, and could just settle down to watch some wrestling. Lots of people called this a glorified house-show, which may not be inaccurate, but house-shows are generally great, just solid no-nonsense wrestling, so I was looking forward to this show. The end result was a show that wasn't groundbreaking, but was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning.

The Bar vs The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods)

Perfectly decent opener, solidly entertaining stuff. The New Day put forward their quickest team, and they spend the opening stages showing nice flowing teamwork until both get caught on dives by the Bar, and rammed into ringposts. Sheamus nicely stops the 10 Beats halfway through to stop the crowd singing along in a neat heat-gathering spot. Woods gets a nice flurry when he comes in off the tag, but rushes straight into an Irish Curse from Sheamus, which looked great. The Bar have some neat power spots, including Sheamus throwing Woods into a Cesaro uppercut. A Cesaro sharpshooter looks to have things won for the Bar, but Kofi saves and a fun Kofi top rope stomp onto a Woods backcracker gets the pin on Cesaro. Good stuff.

Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair

Both show some nice aggression early on, with Lynch yanking Flair from the ring by her arm (Charlotte splats on the floor, nasty bump). Loved Becky’s tilt-a-whirl into an armbar, with her cruelly torqueing back Charlotte’s fingers. This obviously is to set up the DisArmHer, but Charlotte does less work to set up for the Figure 8. She does a little – at one point stomping Becky’s leg when it’s stuck on the middle rope – but not very much, feels like it’s just being done to pay lipservice to her finisher. Flair’s spear looks like it folds Becky in half, prompting her to try and leave with the title, but Charlotte stops this with a second huge spear. The Figure 8 gets locked in, but Becky hits her in the leg with the title for the DQ. Disappointing finish aside, this was decent.

John Cena & Bobby Lashley vs Elias & Kevin Owens

Obviously, a lot of the post-match talk has revolved around Cena’s sensible dad hair and the fact he wasn’t allowed to bump because of a film he’s shooting, but I thought that kinda helped the match, made the build up to his hot tag feel greater. Lashley taking most of the heat is awkward, because he’s still not over enough to draw any sympathy from the audience, but I thought he was good here (really odd looking Thesz Press aside). He takes offence big here, bumping nastily through the ropes from a missed spear and taking a full-on Owens frog splash. Owens and Elias make a nice team, and Cena’s finally getting tagged in got a good reaction. Cena basically played the hits, finishing with the AA and his ludicrous new backfist finisher. Enjoyed this.

Billie Kay & Peyton Royce vs Asuka & Naomi

The Iiconics didn’t get as big a pop as I thought they would. This was brief, but harmless. The Iiconics are a bit patchy in ring, but Asuka and Naomi made a fun team, and there were a few neat moments. Loved Kay trying to hurt Naomi by catching a boot and throwing her to the floor, only for Naomi to land in a perfect splits, and this was paid off by Billie trying the same moments later with less impressive results. Asuka hits a weak looking German suplex on Kay after a brief Iiconics heat section, and Naomi hits a great split legged moonsault on Royce, before the pin is stopped. Kay drops Naomi facefirst on the apron, and a running knee from Royce gets the victory.

AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe

Remember when Joe fought Roman on PPV, and people claimed that Joe was being forced to work at a ponderous pace to get heel heat vs Reigns? I wonder what the excuse here was, because this was pretty plodding. It started well, both showing their aggression by fighting in the aisle and AJ quickly recovering from being thrown over an announce table to get right back into the ring. But this match goes over twenty minutes, and there’s not enough to this to keep it interesting. For a no DQ match, this is pretty pedestrian, with Joe walking through his offence at a glacial pace, though AJ tries his best to bump it into a more interesting bout. He takes a Joe standing elbow hard, bumps 360 degrees on a clothesline and takes a hard looking uranage onto a chair. AJ throwing Joe through a table looks awkward though, a really messy landing. Joe sells a leg injury from this point, and Styles zones in on it. Liked the springboard 450 he hit directly to Joe’s leg. Joe’s Kokina Clutch suplex is pretty wild looking too. Joe’s leg gives in on a muscle buster attempt, but he locks in the Kokina Clutch again, only for AJ to (clumsily) reverse it to the Calf Crusher for the tap out win. Like the fact Joe was near the ropes for this, but the No DQ stip meant that it did him no good. Other than that, this was disappointing.

The Riott Squad vs The Bella Twins & Ronda Rousey

This was a perfectly fine trios match. The early stages seemed to be setting up a “Bellas vs Ronda” scenario, as the Bellas only tagged each other and Ronda was left on the sidelines. This didn’t really play into the match though. There’s a brief Brie vs Liv section that I can’t imagine was the pairing anyone wanted to see in this match, before Nikki becomes face in peril. Lovely running knee to the face by Sarah Logan. Hot tag is made to Ronda, and she’s a great hot tag. Big judo throws to Morgan and Logan, some big strikes to Sarah and, though Liv saves Logan from an armbar attempt, Ronda soon locks them both into a double armbar for the immediate tap.

Cedric Alexander vs Buddy Murphy

Murphy is the hometown boy here, and gets a great reaction. This is a fantastic sprint, the career resurgence of Buddy Murphy has been one of the joys of 2018 WWE. Murphy hits an insane dive right from the start, and the pace doesn’t really slow from there. Both hit big spots: Cedric times a superkick perfectly and I loved Murphy constantly trying to climb to the top only for Cedric to use this momentum to hit a top rope Michinoku Driver. Cedric also hits his own big dive. For his part, Buddy gets two on a lovely sitout powerbomb (with a slightly sloppy cover, which fits the story of him being too overexcited in his hometown). There’s a neat sequence where Murphy keeps kicking out of some big moves successively, taking a standing Spanish Fly and a huge Lumbar Check. The pop on the kickout is huge. Cedric tries springboarding into the ring, takes a big knee to the face on landing, and the pumphandle driver gets the victory for Murphy. Huge pop for that, felt like a real feel good moment, and the match was really choice.

The Shield vs Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre & Dolph Ziggler

Loved the face masks that the Shield wore to the ring, looked totally badass. This breaks down really early and Rollins gets isolated as the face-in-peril after an early Shield Bomb is thwarted. Of note Ziggler’s first move of the match is the shitty backslap DDT, and we get maybe too much Ziggler vs Rollins in the ring for my taste. I did like that Ziggler’s shit talking led to him doing something feckless shortly afterwards. Strowman misses a crap looking top rope splash and Ambrose gets the hot tag. Loved Ambrose bringing out something new, hitting a fallaway slam on Ziggler. We get a tantalising Reigns vs McIntyre section that made me want to see that singles match even more. Roman muscling up Drew for a one armed powerbomb was really neat. The Shield Bomb is thwarted by Strowman plowing through the lot of them with a big spear. Roman accidentally hits Ambrose with a Superman Punch to continue the hinted dissension, and this led to the big turning point of the match, as Rollins and Reigns are left alone in the centre of the ring with the heels surrounding them. Ambrose gets on the fourth side, hinting that he may attack them too, only to take out Strowman with a suicide dive. Lovely spot where Strowman looks to be about the charge through Ambrose on the floor, but Reigns takes Strowman out with a PERFECTLY timed spear through the barricade. Back inside, Ambrose hits Ziggler with Dirty Deeds to win. Good stuff here.

Daniel Bryan vs The Miz

I’ll be honest, I only kept half an eye on this match as I was making a (shit) omelette. Luckily, this was brief, so I didn’t miss too much. I do love Bryan getting the pin super quickly by locking Miz in a small package. Keeps the Miz looking strong, shows off Bryan as talented wrestler who can win at any time, and created a nice sudden finish.

Triple H vs The Undertaker

I’ve seen this match taking a lot of abuse on line, and I can see why. It’s very long. Too long. Neither guy is in good shape, with Taker looking exhausted on several occasions, and there’s a load of smoke’n’mirrors horseshit to cover up the limitations of both men. However, I didn’t hate this. I’ve never been a big fan of either guy, and I hated their last two WrestleMania matches, but I also had no expectations going into this. For two men with a combined age of basically 100, who are only out there to give a marquee match-up to this supershow, this was ok. I enjoyed Shawn Michaels’ role in this, sneakily running interference and setting up props for use in the match (with a painfully slow Kane easily kept at bay). The fighting outside is fine, bar the blown back bodydrop Undertaker tries on HHH, with admittedly a lot Taker dragging round HHH by the head, and I enjoyed HHH putting Kane through a table by hitting an elbow drop from the apron. The ref bump where Taker punches him out doesn’t make much sense, given the match is No DQ anyway, and Taker bumps embarrassingly for a Pedigree. HHH crushing Taker’s throat by placing a chair around it and stomping it looked nasty, and Kane making the save by pulling the ref out was really well timed. The supporting hoopla includes a load of chairshots, HHH getting out the sledgehammer and spots where Michaels and HHH save each other from tombstones, before a final Pedigree eventually puts Undertaker down. Not a classic match, probably not even a good match, but for trashy nonsense with two veteran wrestlers past their prime, it was still watchable.

WWE Main Event 01/07/2014

Luke Harper & Erick Rowan vs Xavier Woods & R-Truth

Bit of a disappointment here, as not only is this an extended squash, but Woods and Truth look a bit off the pace here, awkward and hesitant in their movements. I did like the big boot to the face that Harper hit on Truth and Rowan’s match-winning sitout uranage on Woods was decent.

The Funkadactyls vs Nikki Bella & Alicia Fox

Another very short match, and this was mostly all angle. Nikki had lost a handicap match to the Funkadactyls on Raw (in the midst of her feud with Stephanie McMahon). Here, she’s been given Alicia as her tag partner, and we’re all just sat waiting for the moment that Fox turns on her. The bulk of this is Cameron “controlling” Nikki with a submission, before Nikki tries the hot tag…only for Fox to shockingly move out of the way and kick her in the head for the Cameron pinfall. Match was barely two minutes, thankfully.

Dolph Ziggler, Big E & Rob Van Dam vs Cesaro & Rybaxel

On the last Main Event, I waxed lyrical about how a six-man tag match is a pretty solid format, making it easier to hide the sins of the less capable performers in the match. Thus, it feels sad that just one episode later I’m pretty disappointed in this one. Cesaro is working an “injured eye” bit, complete with an eyepatch, so it makes it a bit more jarring when “babyface” shitbag Ziggler attacks his eye and rips off his eyepatch. What a cunt. There were a few bits I enjoyed here – Ryback blocking a Big E belly-to-belly with a few headbutts was nice, and the eventual overhead belly-to-belly by Big E was super impressive. But we get a lengthy RVD face-in-peril section that wasn’t very interesting. Ryback hits a snake eyes on him that has visible space between the turnbuckle and his head, and Cesaro works a long chinlock to the delight of no-one. Ryback at least commits fully to missing the top rope splash that leads to the hot tag. Ziggler runs through all his worst offence – the un-countalong corner punches, the back-slap DDT and the dreadful fameasser – before pinning Cesaro with a zig zag. Yeah, this was a bit of a shit episode.

WWE Main Event 24/06/2014

Rob Van Dam, Dolph Ziggler & Kofi Kingston vs Jack Swagger, Bad News Barrett & Seth Rollins

This is almost indisputable proof that the format of a 6-man tag can cover up the faults of almost all it’s participants to create a decent bout. If I had to create a list of my least favourite wrestlers, then Ziggler, Rollins, pre-New Day Kofi and tubby 2014 RVD would all be quite high on the list, and you wouldn’t put faith in Swagger and Barrett to carry them. Yet, this ends up being pretty fun. Swagger is undoubtedly the MVP of the bout: he lays in some nice blows to Kofi at the start and gets great height on a Swagger Bomb when RVD is the face-in-peril. He even manages to make offence from the two least convincing offensive wrestlers in the company – Zigger and Kofi – look believable despite being the largest man in the bout. Rollins and Barrett are also decent at controlling RVD before it all breaks down on the hot tag, leaving Kofi and Rollins alone. A passable little sequence ends with Rollins hitting the Kerb Stomp to win.

Fandango vs Bo Dallas

Not even a match – Summer Rae comes out to fight with Fandango’s replacement dancer Layla, and the distraction lets Dallas hit the Bo-Dog for the win.

Rybaxel vs R-Truth & Xavier Woods

Sometimes you get surprised out of nowhere by a match that exceeds any expectations you had for it. Loved Woods at the start, as he’s paired up with Ryback and lays in his strikes and kicks sufficiently that you buy he’s actually hurting the big guy. Ryback takes control awesomely, catching Woods in the air and swinging him fluidly into a big powerslam that looked great. Rybaxel are really fun shit-talking idiot bullies in this, with Ryback being especially good at it. Axel hits a brutal looking running knee to the face. Woods gets the hot tag and it all breaks down with Woods taking a huge bump over the top to the floor. In the ring, Truth misses a corner splash and Axel swiftly hits the

 Axeliser to win. Really dug all this. 

WWE Main Event 10/06/2014

Jimmy Uso vs Luke Harper

Really fun little match. Starts off really nicely, as both guys are big guys who can move at quite a pace, and both lay in some nice shots. Loved the Uso crossbody with Harper draped over the ropes, and I loved how Harper took control of the match by flinging Jimmy face first into the middle ropes. Uso gets a few hope spots, but Harper is great at cutting them off, be it stopping a corner charge with a big boot to the face or stopping an Uso suicide dive with a big forearm to the face. The end is a bit abrupt, as Uso nails a superkick and gets a quick roll up, but I like that it took a sudden death shot to stun Harper just long enough to pick up the win.

Rusev vs Kofi Kingston

Really interesting to remember how strongly Rusev was pushed in the early days. Right at the start Kingston tries to use his speed advantage to slide through Rusev’s legs, but gets caught and takes a huge clothesline to the back of the head. Rusev hits some great looking driving knees with Kingston in the ropes and though Kofi gets a brief fightback, Rusev hits a great looking sudden superkick and the Accolade finishes. Fun squash.

Seth Rollins vs Dolph Ziggler

So yeah, without including Enzo, who wasn’t on the main roster at the time, this is basically my nightmare WWE match. Two guys who haven’t the foggiest idea on how to put a match together or how to wrestle appropriately for their character. Therefore, I’m pleasantly surprised to say this wasn’t too dreadful. It actually contains a really good Seth Rollins performance for 2/3 of it – here, he grounds Ziggler, wearing out his back with repeated suplexes and ramming him into the turnbuckles with real force. I mean, Ziggler doesn’t bother to sell this damage long term, but I appreciated the effort from Seth. Plus, he acts like a total condescending prick throughout, dismissively kicking Ziggler in the head and talking shit to him. He gets drawn into a “you hit your move, I hit mine” ending, but he was really good here. On the other hand, Ziggler was wretched. Moves on Rollins like a hiptoss or a backdrop seem to happen in spite of Ziggler here, who barely connects with his opponent. His grounded punches are woeful and he hits maybe the worst fameasser of his career. Just terrible stuff. The end sees Ziggler sell a turnbuckle bomb by crawling conveniently into the middle of the ring to eat a curb stomp for the Rollins win. 

WWE Payback 2013

Wade Barrett vs The Miz vs Curtis Axel

This is a triple threat for Barrett’s IC title. Never a big fan of triple threats, but there were a few bits of this that I liked as clever touches. Barrett is always looking over his shoulder, trying to be aware of where the third man is whilst attacking someone, and I like that the importance of Paul Heyman as Axel’s manager is put over by how he’ll constantly tell Axel to take his time on the outside, to pick his spots. Axel is definitely the crowd favourite here, though the portion with just him and Miz in the ring is nothing to write home about. Not bad, but nothing particularly compelling either. Barrett is the guy who feels like he’s bringing energy to the match. Axel gets a huge pop for a Perfect-Plex on Barrett (especially considering its Father’s Day), and the Miz gets booed for breaking up the pin. The ending sequence is pretty hot, and I loved the ending, with Miz putting Barrett in the figure four, only for Axel to sneak in and pin Barrett whilst Miz’s leg are still locked up. Lovely post-match look to the sky by Axel too.

Kaitlyn vs AJ Lee

The backstory to this involved AJ Lee setting up Big E as a fake secret admirer for Kaitlyn and humiliating her, so Kaitlyn is on fire to start, hurling AJ over the Spanish announce table in a hella bump. Aside from that, Kaitlyn isn’t great at expressing her intense hatred. Feels a bit stilted. Kaitlyn is still more powerful than AJ though, so things like her big clothesline and rolling through a crucifix to drop AJ with a stomach buster still look great. Also dug AJ’s chained rolling neckbreakers. Kaitlyn seems to have won the match with a spear, but wastes time blowing a sarcastic kiss at AJ, so only gets 2. Shortly after, Lee locks in the Black Widow to get the tap. This was fine.

Dean Ambrose vs Kane

This is for Ambrose’s US title. I’ve said it before, but I really miss THIS Ambrose. He’s wily, looking for openings, realising he’s not as strong as Kane and therefore trying to pick the right moment to strike. He kind of wrestles around Kane here, taking out his legs with a dropkick and slowly trying to break him down. There’s a nice moment where Dean gets a bit cocky, and tries for Old School on Kane, but he gets countered. This is actually pretty fun for a 2013 Kane singles match…then it ends abruptly, with Dean hitting (what we now call) Dirty Deeds on the floor for the count out win. I appreciate how it makes Dean look a bit cheap and weasely, but it’s a disappointing end to a surprisingly fine bout.

Alberto Del Rio vs Dolph Ziggler

So here we have, in my opinion, the greatest example of a badass, Walking Tall, babyface performance in modern WWE history. A face who, having had his property stolen by a coward who attacked him at his weakest (on one leg after a match with Jack Swagger), came to this match to wreck a singular vengeance on an unworthy champion. Here, Alberto Del Rio was the hero we didn’t deserve (especially those in the crowd who booed him, siding instead with a weak charlatan), but he was the hero we needed.

At the onset of the match, Ziggler is smug, confident, slipping out of the ring and swaggering around the ringside area. When he’s in the ring, he cheapshots Del Rio on a break, but his arrogance backfires as he misses a corner charge and instead takes a big back elbow to the face. This triggers Ziggler’s concussion, an injury which had put him out of action for a few weeks, and Del Rio is happy to repay Ziggler for the cheap shot that cost him the title in the first place. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Del Rio zeroes in on this in an aggressive fashion, cracking Ziggler’s skull with a nasty kick as he tries to enter the ring. Del Rio uses his smarts to get Big E ejected from ringside, trying to create the fair playing field that Ziggler is obviously too scared to want. This match layout means Ziggler spends most of it on defence, and that’s probably for the best, as when he does go on the offensive he hits an impossibly sloppy fameasser. His sleeperhold does look good, coiling around Del Rio and acting as a metaphor for the snake that Ziggler is. Credit where it’s due, Ziggler’s selling is phenomenal here, and the story of the match means he isn’t able to just rebound to his feet to hit his next move. Del Rio hits beautiful kidney shots with Ziggler tied in the ropes, which leads logically to a backstabber. Ziggler tries to make a few desperation comebacks, but an absolutely brutal kick from the apron cracks like a gunshot throughout the arena, vibrating off Ziggler’s head. Ziggler hits a final desperation zig zag, but it’s so weak a move that Del Rio is actually back on his feet first, and he fires a superkick at a kneeling Ziggler’s head to put the wretched champion out of his misery. An expertly crafted match, and though the crowd transferred their affection to Del Rio to Ziggler, for the virtuous among us, Del Rio brought no-nonsense justice to the world of wrestling.

CM Punk vs Chris Jericho

Punk is in his “tattooed Bradley Wiggins” phase here. This is Punk’s first match back since losing to the Undertaker at Wrestlemania and is in Chicago, so he gets a monster pop. You know how much Chicago crowds love chanting for Punk when they know he isn’t there? Just imagine how much they chant for him when he IS there. Sadly, this match is pretty terrible. The commentary team bring up how Punk might have ring rust after his time off, and I don’t know if that was something Punk was trying to play up or not, but he was terribly sloppy here. He stumbles about trying to apply an early armbar, he kind of ambles when being Irish whipped into a corner and he stumbles again trying to apply a neckbreaker. Jericho looks much crisper, though he isn’t without his flaws with some of his punches looking utterly shambolic. There’s a really nice sequence where Punk hits his corner knee, takes too long showing off and gets his bulldog reversed, followed by a Lionsault and swift cover by Jericho for two. Jericho also hits a great codebreaker to counter an attempted springboard clothesline by Punk. It’s just a shame there are too many awkward spots like Jericho trying to apply the Walls of Jericho, and bending really far down for seemingly no reason other than to let Punk clumsily pull himself up and lock in an Anaconda Vice. The end was pretty neat, with Punk hitting the GTS, which sends Jericho into the turnbuckle and bouncing back into another GTS for the win, but overall this was poor.

Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton & Daniel Bryan

Orton and Bryan are mismatched tag partner who’ve got a shaky mutual respect, which makes the tag champ Shield members the favourites. Reigns and Bryan is already a great match up at this point, loved Reigns flooring Bryan with a huge kneelift, needs to bring that back. Reigns sells the fuck out of Bryan’s kick flurry too. Orton looks great when he tags in, hitting everything so crisply, and the transition to the Shield offence looks so natural: Orton reaches through the ropes to grab Rollins and gets nailed by a Superman punch from nowhere. Rollins had a few nice moments in the match, loved Orton starting to make a comeback and Rollins hitting a standing enzuigiri to stop that momentum dead. Orton makes the hot tag after exploder suplexing Rollins into Reigns in the corner (a little too far away, Rollins had to kind of awkwardly headbutt Reigns in the arse) leading to a great Bryan hot tag run. However, Reigns pushes Rollins away from the suicide dive and Bryan wipes out Orton instead. This leads to a red hot ending, as Orton accidentally pushes Bryan into a Reigns spear, then takes Reigns out with an RKO, only for Rollins to shove him out and Curb Stomp a still groggy Bryan for the win. Good little tag sprint, with nice execution and a fun underlying story.

John Cena vs Ryback

This is 3 stages of Hell: lumberjack match, tables match and an ambulance match. This felt like an interesting challenge for Cena: partly because Ryback was unproven as a big match singles worker, partly because they’d have to work 3 different matches and partly because of our knowledge that, obviously, neither guy is going to win the first two stages consecutively, so they need to work harder to make the second stage interesting. Overall, I’d say it’s just about a win.

So the lumberjack match was pretty fun. Interesting to see who was at ringside – Ted DiBiase and Alex Riley (in his own t-shirt! I bet they didn’t sell many of those) stand out as long forgotten roster members. They both threw some big power moves at each other early doors, and Ryback seemed to enjoy throwing Cena out to the hostile lumberjacks, with Cena taking some big bumps to the floor. Loved Ryback pressing Cena onto one side of lumberjacks, but he showed his naivety when Cena throws him out, and he decides to start a fight with the surrounding mass. It led to a big schmozz which ends with Cena diving from the top rope onto the heaving mass of bodies. Really great visual. They re-enter the ring, where Ryback counters an STF by powering up into Shellshocked for three.

With Cena 1-0 down, he was always going to win the tables match. Ryback doesn’t really give the impression that he’s going to win this, as his tactic seems to be to put Cena through tables by hurling the ring steps at him, which always breaks the tables when Cena ducks. Even if I was foolish enough to believe Ryback was going to win two straight falls, I wouldn’t believe he was going to do it by blitzing Cena with a thrown staircase to the face. Ryback also doesn’t seem to take it Cena in this fall, maybe putting over his overconfidence at being a fall up. Inevitably, Cena escapes Shellshocked to hit the AA through a table to even it up.

The ambulance match finishes things off, and I liked Ryback’s tactic of battering Cena, powerbombing him through the announce table, before the match started, and then carrying Cena’s prone body up the aisle to the vehicle. Good logic, and it also meant we avoided the two unnaturally fighting their way to the entrance way. Cena recovers and we get a fun weapons brawl built around the ambulance. Cena whips Ryback into an open door, ripping it from the hinges, before Ryback rips some bodywork off to use as a weapon on Cena. The ending requires both guys to be on the roof, so I appreciated Cena climbing to the top and ripping the flashing lights off the top to use as a weapon, makes the ending look a bit more organic rather than them climbing to the top just because that’s where they need to be. Of course, when both guys seem hesitant to climb onto the roof, you know what’s up and, yep, Cena hits the AA to send Ryback crashing through the roof to win. Not very much of this lagged, despite containing three bouts, and this is an overall success.

WWE Main Event 13/05/2014

Damien Sandow vs Dolph Ziggler

This was better than I thought it was going to be, albeit not something I’d actually call good. Liked some of the things Sandow did, like the vicious little elbow he did on a rope break to take the advantage, which he sadly then followed with some weak blows. They did go to a chinlock very early, but Sandow at least made it fun with some shit-talking. Some bits were off – a drop toehold into the ropes saw Ziggler having to walk two or three paces before falling, but Sandow showed an aggressive side, which led to him dropping a few nasty kneedrops. The aggression proved his undoing, as he puts too much force into a back suplex, with Ziggler flipping to his feet and hitting a flash zig zag for the win. Surprisingly decent.

Emma vs Alicia Fox

The start of this is great, as Fox gets on the mic…and almost immediately hurls it at Emma’s face. She keeps attacking before the ref can ring the bell, then immediately hits a backbreaker when it does. She dumps Emma through the ropes to the floor, which looks nasty. Like Emma selling her wooziness at being beaten down, so she takes too long to hit her corner crossbody, meeting only knees. Suddenly, Emma pulls out a roll up from nowhere and wins. Real shitty ending to a fun match.

Sheamus vs Cesaro

Yeah, there’s no way these two were going to have a bad match, and they both put it all out there for Main Event. Love the aggression from both guys, both happy to take a blow and lay one out at the same time. I loved how evenly this was worked, but in a way that both guys were getting worn down by the beating they’d take. Neither guy gets a sustained advantage as they’re both hurting too much from the damage they’ve taken to fully capitalise. Some nice offensive spots by both guys, loved Cesaro’s draping DDT over the ropes to send Sheamus’ head into the apron, and Sheamus hit a rare top rope dive to the floor. Sheamus misses a Brouge Kick and before he’s got both feet on the floor, Cesaro deadlifts him for a swank German suplex. It felt like an odd time for them to fight – Cesaro just a few weeks into his Paul Heyman run and Sheamus only just winning the US belt – as neither guy felt right losing, so when they both head to the floor, you know we’re getting a double count-out. Really good bout though, as these two always have.

WWE Main Event 06/05/2014

Jack Swagger vs Dolph Ziggler

In typical Ziggler match fashion, there’s good parts of this (the parts where Ziggler doesn’t do much) and some fucking terrible parts (when Ziggler goes on offence). Loved the big Swagger takedowns early on, and there were even moments when you remember that Ziggler used to be a college wrestler, as he looks ok working reversals on the mat. Loved Swagger flinging Ziggler across the ring, sending him over the turnbuckles to the floor – big bump for Ziggler to take on Main Event. Swagger does some fun work on Ziggler’s arm, and I dug him putting Dolph’s hand over his (Swagger’s) chest to do the “We The People” chant. Then Dolph goes on offence…terrible you-can’t-count-along 10 punches in the corner, sloppy fameasser, that abysmal slap-on-the-back DDT. Just awful. Things further fall off a cliff, as Adam Rose comes out for no reason (Swagger has been wrestling cleanly throughout) to bully Zeb Colter on commentary. Literally, Rose and all his Rosebuds come out to swarm Colter, essentially just intimidating a senior citizen for no reason. Swagger, rightly concerned for his manager’s well-being, is distracted, and Ziggler hits the zig-zag to win. First half was decent, but this ended up as utter shit.

Natalya, Cameron & Naomi vs Tamina, Aksana & Alicia Fox

Cameron and Natalya have some tension at the start, based around Cameron losing Nattie’s cat on that week’s episode of Total Divas. Not much to this, though I did like Fox’s big boot to Natalya off a Tamina distraction. Aksana looks pretty bad here, though credit due for fully committing to her missed elbow drop. Naomi comes in with a weird pedigree/piledriver move, which begins with Aksana draped over the ropes, and finishes with a split-legged moonsault. Tamina and Cameron are wisely left out for most of this, but it’s still a bit rubbish.

Goldust vs Curtis Axel

This was the match of the show by some margin. Both guys showed some nice intensity, and I dug Axel’s big running knee. Both guys also seem to have their timing down, as Goldust gets a really convincing nearfall off a jackknife pin when Axel misses a dropkick. This was pretty short, but all enjoyable, and the end sees a nice bit of misdirection. Both were accompanied by their tag partners, and the previous weeks had seen some tension building between Goldust and Cody, based upon Goldust beating people that Cody couldn’t. Here, the action spills to the floor, and it looks like Cody is trying to hit his brother with a Disaster Kick off the barriers, but instead he takes out Ryback who is about to sneak attack Goldie. Back inside, and the Final Cut gives Goldust the win. Dug this.

WWE Main Event 08/04/2014

The Shield vs The Wyatt Family

Bit of a C-show treat to have their feud blown off on Main Event. This wasn’t as good as the Elimination Chamber match the same year, but I preferred this to the Raw match. Dean Ambrose was really good here, kicking the bout off by smacking the sheep mask off Erick Rowan’s face. As the smallest man in the match, this made him look tough as fuck. Following a brief heat section on Rollins, the main heat of the match is on Ambrose, and he excels here. Loved his facial expressions as he sold Rowan’s squeezing of his temples, and as a wild, scrappy face, it allowed him to have hope spots naturally interspersed in the bout. You can buy Ambrose as a “going down swinging” type, and it felt totally in character when he’d make his comebacks. Rather than Ambrose actually making the hot tag, things instead break down when Rollins makes a save, as if this match was a powder keg just waiting to ignite. Loved Luke Harper’s wildman tope, which sent Reigns flying over the announce table. With Reigns down, Rollins does some great work as the face saviour, hitting back-to-back dives to take out Rowan and Harper. More chaos ensures before Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds on Rowan to win. Really great match. Also worth pointing out Reigns’ post-match promo, where he’s so natural on the stick and the crowd just eat it up.

Jack Swagger vs Dolph Ziggler

Really like Swagger, so it’s sad to see him weighed down by Ziggler, who is just wretched here. This started really quickly, to the extent that we saw the Swagger Bomb in the first 30 seconds. Things go to shit as Swagger tries to do some basic leg work to set up Ziggler for the Patriot Lock. Swagger chopblocks Ziggler’s leg from under him, but then Ziggler hits a load of offence that is totally dependent on the leg – knee up to block another Swagger Bomb, dropkick, Fameasser – just totally undermining any attempt by Swagger to prepare for his finisher. Thus, when Swagger does lock it in, plucking Ziggler from midair to grab the ankle, it has less impact when Ziggler taps out. Would have been a better match if Swagger has faced literally anyone else on the roster.

Rusev vs Sin Cara

This is days after Rusev was called up to the main roster, so he’s still called “Alexander” here. Sub-one minute squash, with the leaping kick and the Accolade finishing off Cara.

WWE Main Event 25/03/2014

Pretty disappointing episode of Main Event here. Fuck knows what I did to deserve two Ziggler matches.

Sheamus vs Alberto Del Rio vs Dolph Ziggler

Christian had won a four-way on Raw to face Big E for the IC strap on this episode of Main Event, but had picked up his career ending concussion, so the other three from the match had this triple threat to see who got the match. Nice little one-show angle. The problem this match suffers from is that you’ve got two guys really laying in their blows, putting in a sense of struggle when trying to escape holds, and it clashes with the wrestling style of Ziggler, who’s offence looks milky in comparison and isn’t the kind of guy who puts in realistic touches. Compare Del Rio punching at Sheamus in a failed attempt to prevent the rolling senton with Ziggler hitting his “opponent holds me in the air until I slap his back to let him know it’s time for a DDT” DDT. With Del Rio being the only heel, he controls a good part of this match, working over Ziggler and keeping Sheamus on the outside (I appreciated ADR going back to make sure Sheamus couldn’t get back in, rather than Sheamus mysteriously vanishing for ages as in most triple threats). Sheamus’s comeback is great, he’s a terrific offensive wrestler and I love how he builds up momentum, hitting more and more moves from the ropes so he’s like a big block of muscle crashing into his opponents. The end sees a really hot sequence between ADR and Sheamus, before Sheamus misses a Brogue Kick and ends up stranded on the ropes. ADR hits the backstabber, but Ziggler comes in to hit the Zig Zag on him at the same time. Even though Del Rio landed in exactly the same way that he was going to, this earns the win for Ziggler. Dolph really was a subtraction by addition to this match.

Natalya, Naomi, Cameron, Emma & Eva Marie vs Layla, Alicia Fox, Tamina, Summer Rae & Aksana

AJ Lee is on commentary, as this is just a brief bout to showcase the entrants in the “AJ Lee vs the world” match at Mania. Being so short, no-one really gets the chance to stand out, bar Layla looking awesome as a stooging heel. She’s not afraid to look daft to put her opponent over, even doing a goofy version of the Robot to counter Emma’s terrible dance. Eva Marie becomes face-in-peril, and surprisingly working heat on the least popular and least sympathetic member of the face team doesn’t generate much reaction from the crowd. Naomi gets the hot tag and immediately hits a terrible rana on Tamina. She improved SO much on her heel turn. It all breaks down, leaving Tamina to nail a superkick on Naomi for the win.

Big E vs Dolph Ziggler

This match really doesn’t work, as both guys seem to have trouble clicking. They’re in a strange boat where the bigger face IC champ is taking on a smaller guy who wrestled a ten minute match earlier in the hour, so they need to find a way to make sure Big E doesn’t look like a bully. Seemingly the solution they choose is for Ziggler to sell zero exhaustion from his earlier match, which has the unfortunate side effect of making Big E look weak as he ends up selling more than Dolph in this match. There’s too many odd moments here that don’t work: Big E jams his shoulder on the ring post on a corner charge, but this doesn’t get worked over or sold again in the bout. Ziggler’s offence is reduced to just dropkicks, whilst Big E keeps on hitting clotheslines. It’s just not a very good match, though I liked the ending: Big E throws Ziggler up in the air, causing him to splat on the mat and grabs him as he bounces upwards to hit the Big Ending for the win.

WWE Extreme Rules 2015

Dean Ambrose vs Luke Harper

This was a pretty fun deal, and I liked Ambrose’s high-energy assault to start. The kendo shots on Harper sounded really nasty, but not as nasty as the suplex onto an open chair that Harper hits. Harper lawn darting Ambrose into a chair in the corner was pretty great. I really like that Ambrose has these quick flurries of energy when on the offensive, and the quick offensive burst that ended with his diving elbow drop was fun. There was a lovely spot on the outside where Harper tried to throw Dean into the ring, only for Ambrose to pivot his body on the apron and burst out with a clothesline. Really fun spot. They brawl to the back and, as Harper tries to escape in a waiting car, Ambrose dives into through the passenger window and off they drive…

Sheamus vs Dolph Ziggler

The first few minutes of Ziggler offence were pretty meh, including Ziggler hitting a horrible “carry me round” tornado DDT to the floor. As soon as Sheamus goes on offence though, things quickly improve, as Sheamus hits a lovely knee to the temple of Ziggler. Even a Sheamus chinlock looks great with how he cranks at Ziggler’s neck whilst holding it. Ziggler gets the odd hope spot, but this match is all about great Sheamus offence. I loved him catching a superkick, hurling Ziggler down and just flipping him into the Cloverleaf. Ziggler gets the win with a fluke roll up, but it’s Sheamus who comes out of this looking great.

The New Day vs Cesaro & Tyson Kidd

Xavier Woods was incredibly annoying as a face, so he’s perfectly suited to the role of heel cheerleader here. I actually saw a version of this match at a houseshow in Nottingham, so I wasn’t surprised that this was pretty great. Loved Kidd and Cesaro stomping their opponents to the beat of “New….Day Sucks”. Kidd hits a beautiful dive through the ropes, taking him straight through Kingston. This is actually the most I’ve enjoyed Kofi Kingston, as this heel role has given him a bit more of an edge. Now, he’s using his speed for quick cut-offs, which look more effective than they did as actual match-winning offence. Cesaro whipping his opponent from corner to corner, peppered with uppercuts, is a really neat face spot, whilst Big E spearing through the ropes to send Kidd flying to the floor is an ever-impressive bump. Kingston gets the win with a handful of tights on a roll-up, and I want to see this match every month.

Dean Ambrose vs Luke Harper

….and we return to these two guys as they drive back into the arena. Ambrose hits a great elbow from the top of the car onto Harper and a celebrating New Day, before the match returns to the ring. There’s a great visual as both guys throw chairs into the ring, and suddenly make eye-contact from opposite sides. The match ends with Harper trying an ill-fated top rope move, instead getting hurled from the top onto the chairs, and Ambrose hitting Dirty Deeds for the win. Fun deal.

Rusev vs John Cena

Given the PG nature of WWE programming, this was never going to live up to my ideal of a brutal chain match, but I did hope for something a bit better than this. This was fought under touch-the-four-corners rules, with lights to indicate the scores on each turnbuckle. The problem with this stipulation is that it makes the match pretty repetitive and dull, with lots of drama-free tug of war spots. I did enjoy Cena yanking Rusev into the ring post when they were brawling outside, mainly because Rusev took an insane bump into the steel. However, the match was typified by Rusev, a man not known for his high risk moves, climbing to the top rope solely so that Cena could pull him off using the chain. The match is pretty much a spectacle of watching two talented guys slowly walk between turnbuckles that they’d normally zip between, just to try and create some drama. The end sees both guys somehow tied on three posts each, both needing the same final turnbuckle to win. Rusev goes for it, is pulled back and nailed with the AA for the Cena victory.

Nikki Bella vs Naomi

This heel turn has worked wonders for Naomi. Showing her more aggressive side has slowed her down, eliminating some of the athletic, but sloppy, moves she used to do. Also, her statuesque form makes it convincing for her to boss other women in the ring. I thought her hitting a running bulldog through the rope to send Nikki face first into the second turnbuckle was great. She also hit a slick full Nelson bomb into a pin, which looked good. Nikki’s offence looked a bit weaker than usual here, with a springboard kick looking pretty milky, and we didn’t get to see her awesome forearm smash. Nikki gets the win with the Rack Attack after Brie Bella kicks Naomi behind the referee’s back. This was pretty good.

Roman Reigns vs the Big Show

From the get-go, you could tell this was going to be good, as both guys were clearly not afraid of laying in some punches. I loved Big Show refusing to use weapons, confident enough that his size made him enough of a weapon in his own right. It also allows Reigns to get some big pops whenever he brings out the plunder. Of course, when Big Show only gets an 8 count following the KO punch, he suddenly decides to start using the weapons after all. I like how smart Big Show is in breaking the count by rolling out of the ring, as it gets him back to his feet with the least amount of effort. There is a negative part where Big Show uncharacteristically goes to the top rope, which is clearly only so Reigns can throw him off. Show chokeslams Reigns over the top rope to the floor through two tables in a massive bump. Looked great. Big Show sets up more stuff over by the announce table, giving Reigns time to recover, and even when Show returns to the ring, Reigns can only take control by avoiding a Show offensive move, rather than via his own attack. Show rolls out to his feet again, so Reigns knows he has to down the Big Show outside of the ring. A huge spear through the Spanish announce table looks to have done this, but Show is able to get up at 8. This leaves Reigns little choice but to bury Show underneath the main announce table, which finally gets him the 20 count. Really great match, logically laid out and with some massive bumps by both men. With Reigns now having the match-of-the-night for three PPV’s in a row, can we now just accept he’s actually really great? 

Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton

This is a world title match in a steel cage with the RKO banned. The problem this match has is that no-one believes they’ll take the title off Rollins already, and no-one believe the steel cage will keep anyone out of the match. In fact, most of the match is a background to the drama between Kane, the external gatekeeper, and Rollins. I mean, I love Kane’s new “frustrated middle manager” gimmick, but it shouldn’t be overshadowing your brand new world champion’s first defence. That said, a lot of the action was good here. I dug Rollins, like a chickenshit, fleeing to try and escape at every opportunity, especially from an Orton slingshot. There was another moment where Rollins avoided Orton’s snap powerslam and tried to quickly escape while Orton was regaining his bearings. It also built up the later spot where Orton caught Rollins as he springboarded into the ring with a huge snap powerslam. Orton hit a lovely looking superplex, and I loved him doing the pose for the RKO, but hitting a pedigree instead, as a “fuck you” to the Authority. Ultimately though, it built up to a shitty end, as Kane gets in, J&J Security get in, Kane flip-flops between who he’s going to help and finally Rollins nails Orton with an RKO before escaping. It’s a shame that a decent match ends with the commentators arguing semantics over whether or not Rollins was allowed to use the move.

WWE Survivor Series 2014

I recently wrote another review of this show, which was a little more accessible to non-fans, for www.strangethingsarehappening.com, which you may want to check out if you feel like reading TWO reviews of this show. This is the more nerdy version.

Fandango vs Justin Gabriel
As a Johnny Curtis fan, I really like the aggressive edge to the "new and improved" Fandango. His back suplex onto the apron looked suitably nasty. Gabriel got really impressive height on a springboard moonsault, just a shame only his hands made any connection with Fandango. This was brief, but pretty great from Curtis, nailing Gabriel with a big clothesline, the falcon arrow and the Last Dance to pick up the win.

The Usos vs The Miz & Damien Mizdow vs Los Matadores vs Goldust & Stardust
Mizdow is easily the most over person in this match. I enjoyed Los Matadores in the opening, all quick tags and goofy fun matwork. I love the fact that heels in the match soon realised thet can get great heat by not tagging in Mizdow, even his own partner. I loved Mizdow finally getting in, and Goldust blind tagging him right away. I liked the logic of the Dust brothers, as defending champs, working the heat section just between themselves, not risking getting blind tagged by opponents. Fun series of tombstone reversals between Stardust and a matador leads to a swank looking tornado DDT by the matador. The Usos get in and offer a lot of superkicks, but not much else. There was a really great dive series, featuring both Usos, Stardust, El Torito and finally the Matadores before Mizdow brilliantly blind tagged himself in to get the winning pinfall on Goldust. Hot opener.

Paige, Cameron, Summer Rae & Layla vs Natalya, Naomi, Emma & Alicia Fox
Despite being a heel, Paige gets the second biggest chant from the crowd. The biggest chant goes to Mizdow, who is way more entertaining than this awful match. Naomi sets the tone early with a shitty crossbody, before Cameron obviously sympathises with her former Funkadactyl colleague by hitting a super-bad bulldog on Natalya. Cameron is soon pinned with a roll-up by Naomi, yet somehow removing the worst wrestler from the match doesn't improve it's quality. Normally, the announcers ignoring a match would really annoy me, but here listening to Michael Cole reminise about the Mean Street Posse is preferable to watching the match. Fox pins Layla following a backbreaker. This just goes on for ages and goes nowhere. The only fun part is watching Paige despairing about her awful team-mates, openly calling Summer an idiot. Summer taps to the Emmalock and we get a briefly watchable "Paige vs the world" section, before Naomi pins her. The crowd goes mild. It's unbelievable that they looked at this face team of utter no-marks and decided to have all four of them survive. To be honest, the sooner they release all the non-Paige participants in this bout and promote the NXT girls, the better. Most of this was WEW bad.

Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt
This was a big leap forward in match quality. Really enjoyed the brawling in this one, felt like two guys who really wanted to hurt each other. Ambrose's diving forearm from the apron looked great. Wyatt stamping on Ambrose's hand, a body part he ended up not working on, just made him look really sadistic. Wyatt's big senton was fantastic, he gets great height on it, and I loved Wyatt emphasising his bulk for once by standing like a brick wall in the face of an attempted Ambrose crossbody. I liked the fact Wyatt was able to reverse the rebound lariat after watching Ambrose go through the set-up for it, but later turned his back when throwing Dean through the ropes, and thus got hit by THAT attempt instead. Ambrose hitting a diving elbow when his opponent was still standing really works for his character. The DQ ending was a bit of a copout, but I really liked that Wyatt passed Dean the chair to use on him, and rather than putting the chair aside, Ambrose waffled him with it, then battered him with tables, ladders and a heap of chairs.

Slater Gator vs Adam Rose & the Bunny
Brief fluff that continued the Rose/Bunny split that was never really resolved. Slater Gator don't normally spend too long on offense, so it was fun to see some nice power moves by Titus on Rose before the hot tag to the bunny, who pinned Slater after a second rope dropkick.

AJ Lee vs Nikki Bella
Eh, nothing to this. Brie kisses AJ, Nikki hits the Rack Attack and wins. Still, better than the other divas match.

Seth Rollins, Rusev, Luke Harper, Mark Henry & Kane vs John Cena, the Big Show, Erick Rowan, Ryback & Dolph Ziggler
So, the start of this is pretty fun, I did chuckle at Triple H psyching up Mark Henry, only for him to run straight into a knockout blow from Big Show for the first elimination. I'd rsther have seen Kane go first, but hey ho. Ryback looks really good running wild on everyone, especially nailing a spinebuster on Rusev, which makes his early elimination also seem odd. Harper and Rusev destroying Ziggler is pretty great, loved the big spinning slam from Harper. There's a fun dives spot involving Rollins and Ziggler, before Rusev is eliminated after hurling himself through the Spanish announce table. It was a predictable way to eliminate him, but the execution was terrific. The Rowan/Harper stand off gets a big reaction from the crowd, before Harper eliminates his former team-mate with a huge clothesline. I like the fact that the Big Show turn actually makes sense here - he looks at his two team-mates, sees Cena down and Ziggler barely conscious and makes the best decision he can to keep his job. This of course sees him knock Cena out for the pin and then get himself counted out. This leaves Ziggler against three men, and really is where the match loses any remaining credibility. I can just about buy Ziggler getting one last run of momentum and pinning Kane with the Zig Zag. I struggle to accept him kicking out of a monstrous looking Liger bomb and then being able to roll-up Harper for the elimination. However, one thing that gets totally overlooked in all the hoopla of Sting coming out is the fact that Ziggler hitting Rollins with the least threatening finishing move in the whole WWE somehow knocks Rollins out for nearly seven minutes. I've seen referees recover from real finishers quicker than the "future of the WWE" recovered from being lightly pulled to the mat. Aside from that quibble, it's a fun main event match.