WWE Main Event 19/08/2014

Sheamus vs Curtis Axel

Really good match, worked within their hierarchy. Sheamus lets Axel look really good here, whilst ultimately ending up the comfortable winner. Sheamus is very giving here, letting Axel power out of the 10 Beats, before Axel takes over after sending Sheamus throat first into the ropes. Lovely running knee to the head sends Sheamus out of the ring. Loved Axel putting Sheamus in the tree of woe, then hitting a running boot to the head from the floor. Looked nasty. Even when Sheamus tries a comeback with a slingshot shoulderblock, he gets caught by an Axel forearm to the face. In the end, Axel makes the mistake of slapping Sheamus repeatedly in the face, firing him up for a comeback. Sheamus basically rolls through him from that point, culminating with the rolling senton and a Brogue Kick for three. Well worked to give Axel the shine, but when Sheamus took control, Axel had no answer.

Nikki Bella vs Emma

This was Nikki’s first match after turning heel on Brie. Short, but effective as she runs through Emma pretty easily. Cranks in a front-facelock, rams Emma’s face into her knee then, after Emma misses a crossbody, just whacks her with the forearm and the Rack Attack gets the academic three. Effective.

Los Matadores vs Slater Gator

The Matadores are accompanied by Hornswoggle in a cow outfit as well as El Torito, for reasons unknown. This is fun stuff, with Slater in particular stooging about amusingly for the Matadores offence. Los Matadores make everything look so smooth, just a fluidity to their movement. Titus O’Neill coming in is the gamechanger, as he’s able to overpower Fernando, and send him flying with a big hurling slam. Slater gets taken down with an enormous flapjack, but after escaping a series of roll-ups, he nails a big implant DDT for the win.

The Big Show vs Erick Rowan

Exactly what you’d hope for from these two, nothing pretty, just two big boys battering each other. There’s a small run of Rowan working the Big Show’s leg after a chopblock to the knee, but they wisely decide that the crowd aren’t here for Erick Rowan’s limbwork, they want to see some big boy shit, and that’s what they get. Big clotheslines from both men, massive sounding chops by Show, running corner splashes from Rowan at full speed, even a side Russian legsweep by Show…just full on collision from both guys. Really good fun. Rowan even gets to slam Show for two, but as he tries raising Big Show to his feet, he gets caught with a sudden KO punch for the win.

WWE Main Event 15/07/2014

Emma vs Cameron

Not a match I was looking forward to, but credit where it’s due I thought Cameron showed some nice aggression here. She looked like she really disliked Emma, and getting boots up on the corner cross body looked nicely timed. Emma takes a big bump to the floor when she gets dumped attempting a tarantula. Emma gets the win though, when she gets a small package after Cameron was distracted by taunting Naomi at ringside. Short, but surprisingly effective.

Rybaxel vs Big E & Kofi Kingston

This is pre-New Day, but I think only a week or two before they formed. This was really fun, Rybaxel had become a legit good team at this point. Love Axel grape-vining a free arm with his legs whilst holding Kofi in a side headlock. The inevitable Big E/Ryback big lads face off is great, both guys move really well and it’s a fast paced little segment filled with unlikely leapfrogs and nice rope running. Axel might well be the MVP of the bout though, loved his running knee to the face of Big E and the diving clothesline from the apron that makes E the face in peril. It leads to a hot finishing run and a great end as Big E just hurls Axel upwards, he bounces off the canvas and straight into Trouble In Paradise for the New Day win. Great stuff.

Sheamus vs The Miz

This is right after the Miz came back and was working the “money maker” defending his face schtick. Sheamus is a guy who’ll totally blast you in the face, so this was a fun pairing. Miz works a load of fun avoidance spots that lead to him taking more punishments, like not being able to stop the 10 blows to the chest due to covering his face. Sheamus happily works some meaty sounding body shots whilst Miz is concerned with his face. This plays nicely to the end too, as Sheamus goes for the Brogue Kick, Miz cowers with his face covers, and Sheamus locks in a really tight roll up to win. Fun stuff.

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 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.

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.