WWE Main Event 09/09/2014

Jack Swagger vs Seth Rollins

Liked the opening stages of this, with Swagger overpowering Rollins, sending him from the ring with a shoulderblock and slamming him into the barricades. Rollins takes over, including an odd spot where Swagger was perfectly in place for a curb stomp, but Rollins opted to dropkick him in the face instead. We get a decent spot where Swagger tries breaking a chinlock by twice ramming Rollins backwards into the corner, only for Rollins to side step the third attempt, sending Swagger crashing into the turnbuckle. The Rollins control is pretty uninspiring, but things pick up with Swagger back in control – nice big boot to the face and a huge overhead slam. Liked Swagger countering an enzuigiri by catching it into the Patriot Lock, but Rollins blocks a superplex by hitting a diving knee from the top and hits the curb stomp to win. Pretty impressive Swagger performance, he looked good in there.

Cesaro vs Zack Ryder

Short, but decent match. Ryder hurts his leg early, so Cesaro focuses his early offence on the knee, slamming it into the concrete floor and working a kneebar in the ring. Cesaro misses a corner dropkick and hits the post instead, which not only looks nasty, but also puts him in place for the Broski Boot in the corner. Ryder does a good job balancing selling the leg and trying to hit some big offence, tilting his dive slightly on a pescado so as not to land as heavily on the leg. However, inside he leaps into a Cesaro swing and an inverted cloverleaf causes Ryder to tap. Really good stuff from both guys.

Titus O’Neill vs Adam Rose

This is a waste of time really, and a waste of Titus. Titus looks really good here, nice big boot and a decent dropdown  backbreaker, but then Rose’s bunny comes down, distracts Titus by bouncing on the ropes, beats up Heath Slater and Rose gets the pin by ramming O’Neill into Slater during an O’Connor roll. Only goes two minutes, hard to find Rose and the bunny at all likable.

Los Matadores vs The Ascension

The Ascension are still NXT tag champs here, and it’s odd to hear them talked about as so dominant when they’re barely a factor 5 years later. I like Los Matadores a lot, but this is mainly them selling for the Ascension, and it’s not very exciting. The Ascension cut off the ring on Fernando, and I liked the crossarm clothesline they hit on him, but that’s it. Diego at least looks good on the hot tag (that the crowd barely react to), hitting a clothesline with more meat than anything the Ascension hit, before missing a top rope dive and getting finished off with the Fall of Man. The least exciting Matadores match on 2014 Main Event, and I guess that shows why the Ascension fell by the wayside – if you’re having less interesting matches with a team than Slater Gator are, you probably aren’t deserving of a decent push.

WWE Main Event 05/08/2014

Slater Gator vs Goldust & Stardust

Two really fun teams colliding here, making for a match that’s really enjoyable, even if it’s not technically great. I mean, Goldust IS great here, probably the quickest guy in the match and still blessed with a lovely punch. The chemistry with him and Stardust is palpable, and I love the little touches like Stardust aping the drop-down punch of his brother, but hitting a Pele kick instead. The mismatched Slater Gator team would surely have been turned face by the audience if they’d had a longer run, there’s something ultimately endearing about Slater’s earnest love of the team clashing with Titus actively disliking his partner. O’Neill shows nice strength hitting two backbreakers on Stardust and chucking him, and I like Stardust managing to land on his feet the second time it’s attempted. Goldust is great as the hot tag, hitting a beautiful powerslam, but the ref gets distracted by Stardust as Heath tries a sunset flip, and Titus boots Goldust in the head for the upset win.

AJ Lee vs Summer Rae

This is short and ultimately pointless. It starts with AJ hitting two swinging neckbreakers that both have Summer going down so early that it looks like her giving the move. AJ sells her ongoing neck injury, which does see Summer attack the neck nastily, but this lasts less than a minute before AJ reverses a neck crank to the Black Widow for the tap.

Jack Swagger vs Alberto Del Rio

Del Rio is a guy who always works curiously hard on C-show matches, and this is no exception. The show is in Texas, right next to the Mexican border, so Del Rio plays face with Swagger as the All-American heel. Del Rio bumps big for Swagger, taking a big spill to the floor then getting hurled into the barricades. Swagger has taped ribs from his recent matches with Rusev, and he twice misses corner charges to give Del Rio comebacks, with Byron Saxton highlighting that the injured ribs are causing Swagger pain on deep breaths, slowing him down and causing the misses. Del Rio does some nice work on the arm, including a draped armbreaker over the ropes. Both guys do some nice work here, massive slam by Swagger looks deadly and I loved Del Rio’s kicks to the ribs to launch comebacks. There’s a really nice battle over the cross-armbreaker at the end, and Swagger manages to break it into the Patriot Lock really nicely, getting the tap as he drags Del Rio from the ropes. Nice, competitive bout.

WWE Main Event 22/07/2014

Seth Rollins vs Fandango

Perfectly fine match, with the up-and-coming main eventer getting a clean win over the lower midcarder. Rollins’ kneeling flatliner in the corner looked a bit weak, despite Fandango trying his best to save it with a big sell, but the rest of this was competent professional wrestling. Fandango shows nice fire on his comeback, but gets planted with a buckle bomb and a curb stomp for a quick win

Jey Uso vs Ryback

Decent stuff here, as they work a nice speed vs power section at the start. Uso throws some really nice right hands before using his speed to get two counts from a roll-up and a crucifix. Ryback catches him from the second rope with a huge spinebuster that looked great. Meathook clothesline gets reverse to a big Samoan Drop, but a Curtis Axel distraction allows Ryback to hit a second attempt to win.

Slater Gator vs Big E & Kofi Kingston

Bit of a curio here, as the proto-New Day are accompanied by Xavier Woods in glasses and Brother Love’s clothes, barking orders at them throughout the match. Titus does get to chuck around Kofi at the beginning, but he soon tags out after Slater and O’Neill start bickering. Big E blitzes them both, the New Day hit their own twist on Demolition Decapitation to both (with a Kofi top rope stomp replacing the elbow, looked a bit shit to be honest) and Xavier yells at them to stack Slater Gator on top of each other for the win. Interesting glimpse into what might have been, but I think their current direction was a better choice.

Jack Swagger vs Rusev

Both come into this nursing wounds from their previous matches – Rusev has a bad ankle, that Swagger tries for from the opening bell, whilst Swagger has a suspected concussion from hitting his head on a ring post. We get a break, with Rusev fully in control on the return, kicking Swagger repeatedly in the head and using it as a focal point. Loved Rusev stomping and standing on Swagger’s head whilst holding onto his arm for leverage. Swagger’s comeback is nice, huge overhead bodyslam and he hooks the ankle lock after grabbing the foot on an attempted block of the Swagger Bomb. Ending is a bit disappointing, as they head outside and Rusev uses the Russian flag to draw a DQ, but the meat of this was really fun

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 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 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 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 18/03/2014

Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs The Real Americans

Really fun tag match, with all four guys adding little touches to make this more than just a run-of-the-mill tag match. Liked Cesaro at least trying to stop Cody hitting the Disaster Kick by making for the ropes as he hits it. Goldust was looking terrific at this point, leaping gracefully into the Code Red. A double dive to the floor by the Rhodes Brothers is as fun as it is unexpected. Cesaro’s strength allows him to easily correct spots that nearly go awry, using raw power to catch Goldust and hit a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Loved Swagger’s cocky bullying of Goldust, just shoving him across the mat to get him into place for the Swagger Bomb. The Real Americans work a fun heat section on Goldust, including a great near tag where Cesaro shoves Cody off the apron at the last second. Cody was hot fire on the eventual tag, loved his moonsault press to Swagger. The end was great as Swagger locked in the Patriot Lock on Cody, who tried to break the hold frantically with boots to the feet before escaping and hitting the CrossRhodes for the win. Great stuff.

The Funkadactyls vs Layla & Alicia Fox

Naomi still has her eyepatch on here, so of course Fox aims some early elbows to that eye. My notes state that Cameron hit a “wheelbarrow something”, which tells you how good that move looked. Layla looks great here, loved her fluid takeover into a pin, and she stooges about really well. As per usual, Fox’s Northern Lights suplex looks great. Naomi comes in on the hot tag, and though full of energy, she looks a little sloppy. Her heel turn has really helped her slow down and crispen up her moves. Cameron botches a move where she’s supposed to leap off Fox’s back, before Naomi hits the Rear View and a split-legged moonsault for the win. The heel team looked a lot more capable here.

The Big Show vs Titus O’Neill   

Pretty brief, but there was stuff to enjoy here. Titus shows Big Show no respect early on, earning himself an hilarious tour of chops by Show, who really milks the impact of each one. A chop block by Titus looks great, and is a realistic way for him to take over. Clash of the Titus gets two, despite looking super impressive but Show catches him on a corner splash with the KO punch for the win.

WWE Battleground 2013

Alberto Del Rio vs Rob Van Dam
Man, RVD and Ricardo really aren't a combination that works well together. RVD starts well with a moonsault and a DDT onto a chair in opening 3 mins. Love Del Rio's aggression, with a nasty boot to RVD's face. Since turning back heel again, Del Rio's viciousness has been a joy to behold. Here, he also takes some nutty bumps to make RVD look better, hurling himself into a ladder, then to the floor. RVD's bump when Del Rio kicks him in the head with the ladder landing on him is a bit milkier. There is something a little sad about Jerry Lawler claiming you'd need a clairvoyant to guess what RVD will do next, when he's pretty much just running through his usual spots, only with a ladder involved. This does lead to a nice bump, as RVD misses Rolling Thunder onto a ladder. Ricardo, being the little shit he is, gets involved when ADR has the armbar locked on, and rightly gets kicked shitless by Del Rio. Del Rio proceed to sell a frogsplash onto a ladder (which Del Rio is under) as if his insides have been liquidated. The ending, with ADR destroying RVD's arm in a chair and forcing a tapout to the armbar is more proof that brutal sadist ADR is one of the best guys in 2013.

Jack Swagger & Antonio Cesaro vs the Great Khali & Santino Marella
I think we all know there is only one reason this got booked, but let's give it a chance. That said, I'm not sure people were hoping for an opening section of matwork between Swagger and Marella. Aside from some nice RA double teams, there is nothing here to enjoy until the inevitable moment....Cesaro giving the giant swing to Khali. That's enough for the three, but this match could easily have been dropped.

Curtis Axel vs R-Truth
I like Axel, but he's going to have to uproot trees here, as Truth hasn't been interesting in years. Axel takes a few nice bumps early on to help the challenger look good, before kicking Truth into the barricades to take over. There is a period of Axel offence before Truth starts his comeback, with an awesome glassy eyed sell of a leg lariat by Axel. Scissor Kick gets two for Truth, but Axel avoids a corner charge and hits the Axelizer for the win. Totally heatless from the crowd, but this was perfectly ok.

Brie Bella vs AJ Lee
With her leather jacket at ringside, Tamina gives good Diesel to AJ's Shawn Michaels. I like Brie showing a bit of rage at the start of this match - her offence isn't great, but at least she looks like she wants to hurt AJ. I loved AJ taking over by kicking Bella's knee on the apron whilst on defence, shows her comparative ring smarts. AJ works over the left arm pretty well, and uses it as a weak point to focus on to stop Brie getting on offence. Brie's offence looks pretty milky in comparison. AJ picks up the win with a roll-up after Brie gets distracted by Tamina choking out Nikki Bella at ringside.

Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns
Going into the PPV, this was the match I wanted to watch above all others. It's been said by a lot of people online, but it's true...Goldust hasn't lost a step. He moves smoothly, his punches have real snap and his offence looks crisper than ever. His diving clothesline on Reigns here is immense. Cody also gets to show some fire, which really suits him. Meanwhile, the Shield team continue to show their skill at tag wrestling, wearing down Cody, keeping themselves in between him and his corner and generally looking good. Cody comes back with a top rope moonsault to Rollins and Goldust comes in on fire, love his sharp boot to Reigns' temple. Also got to love mid-40's Dustin Rhodes adding a diving crossbody to his arsenal. The offense run ends as a missed crossbody sends Goldust to the floor, but luckily he's also an awesome face-in-peril. He takes Reigns' awesome flying clothesline like a champ. What helps here is that the fans genuinely like Goldust, genuinely want him to win, so he gets a lot of support when the Shield members wear him down with chinlocks and other holds. Goldust's comeback snap powerslam still looks gorgeous. Hot tag Cody is great at being fired up, and a lot of his offence is better suited to being a face - the Disaster Kick in particular is a great "sudden pop" move. The ending with Dusty stopping some Dean Ambrose interference and Cody nailing the mother of all CrossRhodes is awesome. Tag matches don't get much better.

Kofi Kingston vs Bray Wyatt
Man, I really liked the Kingston gameplan early here, trying to wear down Wyatt with some tough looking kicks. When Wyatt is on offence, I quite like the air of menace he gives off, from his running corner splash to the diving headbutts he hits on a downed Kofi. You get a feel for the cruelty he's trying to dish out. Kofi's comeback is a little uninspired, but the diving crossbody Bray uses to stop it is magnificent. Wyatt's "upside down spider walk" however looks fucking terrible, and I hope he isn't planning on using it regularly. We've just enough time for an insane Kofi tope to the outside before Wyatt hits Sister Abigail for the win. This was better than I'd have hoped for.

CM Punk vs Ryback
Punk actually uses the same plan as Kingston here, wearing Ryback down with kicks, only with more success as Ryback leaves the ring several times to avoid him. It's quite fun seeing someone the size of Ryback playing chickenshit heel. Punk's plan seems to be to hit and run, which works as he gets Ryback to his knees, before peppering him with shots to the ribs. The otherside of a cat-and-mouse style match the occurs as Punk is caught by Ryback and becomes victim to Ryback's power game. Punk is viciously hurled into the corner ringpost. I like Punk trying to break a chinlock with blows to the ribs he'd already worked on. Ryback's offence is methodical, but fun, with a nasty clotheline levelling Punk. A bodyscissors/choke is broken by Punk delivering vicious blows to face. Heyman grabs the mic and distracts Punk, which makes him look like an idiot as Ryback nails him. A soppy clothesline from Punk downs Ryback, which looks a bit shit. I was starting to worry the match was going to be overlong at this point, before another Heyman distraction backfires, with Punk hitting a lowblow to win. Decent, though a few parts really dragged.

Daniel Bryan vs Randy Orton
I was looking forward to this, as I enjoy sneaky heel Orton, and I liked it early on as he went for a test of strength with Bryan, only to grab the rope and kick him in the midsection, with the rope grabbing making him look even more devious. Also, as soon as he gets on offence, he's chasing Bryan round the ring to grind Bryan's face into his boots over and over. Love it. They've got a fine line to tread between keeping Bryan looking strong and putting over the new, more violent Orton, and I think they just about get it right, with Bryan getting nice, aggressive hope spots and Orton shutting them down suddenly. Bryan's got a few set spots that get good reactions, and he's great at mixing them in. This time, he doesn't hit his usual running dropkick after flipping over Orton in the corner. Instead, Orton throws him from the ring, only for Bryan to send HIM out with a headscissors and nail the suicide dive. Little things like that keep him interesting. Orton hitting a vicious back suplex onto the barrier then throwing Bryan into the ringpost puts over his new edge perfectly. Top rope superplex by Orton looks great too. Bryan comes back with a crossbody to the floor which looks nuts, and his series of running dropkicks to the corner is fantastic. In fact, this match is really fucking good, which makes the awful ending all the more frustrating. Big Show knocking out both guys would be much less upsetting if the match had only been so-so. Slap an ending on this, and you've got a match-of-the-year contender. Instead, it just leaves a disappointing taste in the mouth.