WWE Main Event 12/08/2014

Seth Rollins vs Kofi Kingston

Two exceptionally inconsistent wrestlers here, but the stars align and this ends up being a decent match. The big problems Rollins has always had is that he wrestles like a face, but he looks and sounds like a whiny brat heel. Here, he’s a shit to poor Kofi, trash-talking him in the corner, stood on his back and forcing Kofi to look at his MITB briefcase. There’s a nice bit where he stops and smirks at the “You sold out” chants, and this brief pause gives Kingston recovery time to duck a clothesline and hit a neat springboard dropkick and a big dive to the floor. Seth works a brief heat on Kofi after slamming him into the barriers, but Kofi takes over when he evades a corner splash, hitting a pendulum kick as Seth leaps into the corner. Kingston is kept looking really strong, getting nearfalls from a corner crossbody and the SOS, to the extent that I thought he might win. He doesn’t, as Rollins stops a superplex attempt by sunset flipping into a running corner bomb, and the Kerb Stomp gets three.

The Usos vs Rybaxel vs Sheamus & Rob Van Dam

This is for the Usos tag title, and the Sheamus/RVD team really stands out as “We had nothing for these guys this week”. I’m not sure that the team added anything to the standard good Usos/Rybaxel match, but it did add an interesting riff on the psychology. As the heels, Rybaxel end up working a heat sequence, in this case on Sheamus when Ryback catches a Brogue Kick into a powerbomb. To stop anyone tagging in, Rybaxel can’t even cut the ring in half, they basically have to contain Sheamus to their quarter of the ring, and they manage to do this convincingly, with Axel doing this awesome little scrabble for purchase, using momentum to roll Sheamus away from the hot tag. Impressive stuff. In the end, RVD gets the hot tag and goes through the greatest hits. There is a nice rolling senton/rolling thunder spot by Sheamus and RVD, but aside from that Van Dam isn’t cracking out the new stuff. The Usos are slightly marginalised, but Jimmy gets to light up Ryback with a vicious sounding series of chops and Jey hits a big dive to the floor. Neat ending sees RVD push Axel off the top and nail him with the Five Star, but Jimmy Uso had already blind tagged Axel, and he followed RVD with his own top rope splash, getting the pinfall on Van Dam. Overall, good stuff.

WWE Main Event 29/07/2014

Rybaxel vs the Usos

Starting to feel like Rybaxel are one of those great lost teams, really been enjoying their Main Event run. Good match here, really enjoyed the opening with Jimmy laying into Ryback with meaty chops. Meaty enough that you buy them doing damage to a man the size of Ryback. The heat gets worked on Jey, with Rybaxel simultaneously dropping these jackhammer-like kneedrops. Liked Ryback stopping a comeback by just grabbing Jey and hitting a huge spinebuster. Jimmy gets the hot tag after Ryback misses a top rope elbow, landing HARD. Jimmy runs riot, surviving a perfectplex to hit a huge dive on Ryback, and Jey hits Axel with a splash for three.

Slater Gator vs Zack Ryder & Tyson Kidd

Slater bumps like a madman in the early going of this one, going up high on a flapjack, taking a big spill to the floor then eating a Kidd cannonball from the apron. There’s brief heat worked on Ryder, before Kidd is tagged back in with some nice fire. Kidd hits a nice kick combo on Slater, then heads up top. However, Titus hurls Ryder into the ringside barricade and this allows Slater time to hit a top rope powerslam on Kidd for the win. Short, but fun little bout.

Dean Ambrose vs Alberto Del Rio

How good did Dean Ambrose used to be? He’s so fired up here, actually showing some aggression. He’s almost like a one man swarm, moving quickly and never giving Del Rio a chance to rest. He misses a corner charge, however, and Del Rio hits a leaping enzuigiri from the floor to send Dean’s head into the ringpost. Really nice spot. Ambrose is almost feral here, blocking a top rope back suplex by clawing at Del Rio’s face, and trying to block holds by scrabbling at his hands. Love the sequence where Del Rio ends up taking the Fuerza bump and Ambrose quickly follows with a suicide dive. Del Rio evades the rebound lariat and hits a fast German suplex in another nice spot. Lame ending sees Rollins come out for the DQ, but this was a surprisingly hot match. Really good stuff.

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 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 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 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 21/04/2014

Proper good episode of Main Event. Four matches, all worth a watch. Good use of an hour.

Big E vs Alberto Del Rio

Pretty decent little sprint here. Both move pretty quickly to start, with Del Rio showing a vicious side as he tries to wear down the bigger man. Loved Del Rio headbutting his way out of a belly-to-belly attempt, followed by a vicious kick to the head. Also loved a really nice sequence where Alberto escaped the Big Ending, shoved Big E into the corner and immediately followed with an enzuigiri. Big E makes a comeback and, in a rather slick sequence, catches Del Rio on a tornado DDT attempt and hoists him onto his shoulder for the Big Ending. Dug this.

El Torito vs Hornswoggle

The commentary team only play this for comedy, which is a shame, as the match is pretty fun. El Torito in particular is pretty good on the mat, tying Hornwoggle up in a leglock. Torito looked great with a nice top rope crossbody, but Hornwoggle had some surprisingly nice bits too. Loved his vicious running kick to the skull. Torito goes for a moonsault, but is distracted by Heath Slater, causing him to miss and letting Hornswoggle hit the Tadpole Splash to win. Fun stuff.

Sheamus vs Titus O’Neill

This was pretty boss. Considering their respective place on the card at the time, Sheamus was especially giving to make Titus look like a beast. Right away, Sheamus takes a big pinball bump out of the ring to put over O’Neill’s strength. Loved how these two guys were both happy to lay in the blows, with the body shots from both making a lovely thwacking sound. Sheamus takes a big bump, as he tries to hit the slingshot shoulderblock into the ring, but meets a big forearm and tumbles to the floor. Really nice show of strength as Titus catches a top rope crossbody to hit a fallaway slam, which looked great. Even the end helped keep Titus strong, as he spends too long shit-talking Sheamus, holding him by the face, only to meet a quick headbutt and a Brogue Kick for the win. This basically ruled.

Ryback vs Jimmy Uso

Ryback and Jimmy also seem happy to lay in the blows on this match, so we’ve got quite a fun episode of Main Event this week. Really enjoyed Uso going for a big out of control dive early, knowing he’s got to take it to the Big Guy early. It’s slightly disappointing that we go to a break with Ryback out on the floor, and return to find Uso in the same position, takes away from the match a bit. Ryback’s control is pretty standard, punctuated with some really nice bits. Loved his massive spinebuster and the meathook clothesline always looks devastating. Uso kickstarting his comeback by powering out of a Ryback powerbomb attempt feels unlikely. The end sees Ryback hit the Shellshock after Curtis Axel distracts Uso, and this was a perfectly fine match.

WWE Main Event 11/03/2014

Los Matadores vs Rybaxel

Really fun opener here, I’ve been really enjoying Los Matadores on these C-shows. Loved them totally outsmarting Ryback to start here, and Ryback sells the confusion well as the matadors tag quickly and zip around him. Ryback yelling “stupid” at a matador trying to sunset flip him, before missing a sitdown splash, cracked me up. Axel takes control after a clothesline to the back of Fernando’s head, and I really dug Axel’s control here. Everything looked to have purpose behind it, especially a cracking knee to the head. Ryback preventing a hot tag by just punching Diego in the head on the apron was the perfect move for him. Even better, when Diego does get tagged in and runs wild on the hot tag, he makes sure to dropkick Ryback off the apron as a receipt. Axel gets distracted by El Torito, and that’s enough to get him rolled up for the Los Matadores win.

AJ Lee vs Natalya

Divas title match. The problem I had when AJ Lee fought Natalya is that I never bought Lee being able to control Nattie as easily as she would. Against other women, it didn’t feel unlikely that AJ could match them for power, or be able to outsmart or outwrestle them, but I never bought it against Natalya. Natalya is stronger, is at least as capable on the mat and is probably no slower than AJ. Even in the early going here, Nattie is no-nonsense, dominating AJ on the mat with a headlock and resisting all efforts to break it. We cut to a break with Natalya dominant, and we return to AJ in control, though they at least show a replay to highlight this was due to Tamina’s interference. I liked AJ’s plan of trying to put Nattie out with two guillotine chokes, one coming from a great reversal of a slam. Still doesn’t justify the unlikely sight of AJ powering Nattie over with a clothesline (especially as Natalya decides to bump huge for it). Both ladies gets their signature submission holds on, before Natalya badly telegraphs an AJ flying knee by looking over at AJ when supposedly distracted by Tamina, and the Black Widow gets the tap for Lee.

Dean Ambrose vs Mark Henry

Another title match, this time for the US title. There’s a lovely moment before the bell when Henry stares down all three Shield members, and looks like the hardest man on earth in doing so. It is a Shield distraction that allows Ambrose to take over after an early Henry flourish, and I dug the diving knee drop from the apron to Henry’s back from Ambrose. Ambrose works over the left leg of Henry, and it looks really vicious. Kinda surprising, as Ambrose’s execution is a lot more lacking nowadays. Henry’s selling is terrific throughout, really selling the difficulty he was having returning to his feet, as Ambrose hits a beautiful diving punch to the back of the knee. I like Ambrose’s tactic here, as he uses the hurt leg as a vehicle to keep Henry down and then punish him with punches, chokes etc. Henry’s comeback is great stuff too, as Ambrose takes too long getting up to the top rope, so Henry uses a quick blast of speed to get up and throw him off. Sometimes forge just how athletic Henry is. The end sees Henry try a Vader bomb, but gets distracted by Roman Reigns, allowing Ambrose to sweep him off the ropes and hit Dirty Deeds for the win. Loved this.

WWE Main Event 25/02/2014

Decided I'm going to concentrate on Main Event for my C-show watching, Superstars is too much recapping and not enough wrassling for my tastes. Really fun show this week,

Cody Rhodes, Goldust, El Torito & Los Matadores vs Curtis Axel, Ryback & 3MB

This was a real blast. Face Cody was so much fun here, really nice run of offence before Ryback catches the Disaster Kick and plants him with a powerbomb to make him face-in-peril. Loved the spot where Drew tagged out to Mahal, who tagged out right away to Slater, which meant all three were in the ring to quickly each hit a move on Cody before the ref could remove the non-legal men. Ryback hit a great press-slam into a powerslam. The heels attack the faces on the apron, which leaves Cody no choice but to tag El Torito. Really fun offensive run by Torito before everything breaks down with the faces flying out of the ring onto their opponents. This leaves Torito with Slater, which is won by the bull with a flying headscissors that rams Heath’s head into the canvas. Lots of fun.

Natalya & Eva Marie vs Alicia Fox & Aksana

Ha, and to think I was complaining about watching Cameron vs Aksana on the last episode. Natalya and Fox work a pretty good sequence to start, with Fox hitting this great goofy flying headscissors, but you just know we’re killing time until the inevitable Eva/Aksana showdown. Eva comes in and poor Fox hurls herself around for some arm wringers. Fox takes control before Aksana comes in, and goes to hit her eye-busting knee on Eva, but hilariously Eva totally no-sells her beating and starts crawling for her corner right away. Poor Aksana is forced to try and hit a diving missed knee just to keep some forced sense of drama. Natalya comes in and tries a Sharpshooter on Aksana, but gets shoved into the ropes, hitting Eva on the apron and Aksana rolls her up for the pin. Well, three of the four looked competent.

Darren Young vs Titus O’Neill

PPV rematch here, now relegated to semi-main on Main Event. Nice quick tempo to start before Titus takes control. Love the look of disgust on Titus’ face as he looks at his chest after taking control following a few chops from Young. Titus has some great cocky swagger here, and he beasts Young in a really fun way. Sadly, it’s over pretty quick, and Young escapes a slam to roll up Titus for the win.

Sin Cara vs Damien Sandow

This has Sin Cara’s shitty mood lighting, which doesn’t help the viewing experience. Sandow is really aggressive throughout this, and just wails away at Cara with some stiff looking knees to the gut. Even with the Elbow of Disdain, he does the pose, swiftly goes to the mat to repeatedly punch Cara in the head, then drop the elbow. Was there a Cara/Sandow feud I’d forgotten about, because this is pretty heated for the C-show. Cara comes back with some slightly slow-mo lumpy looking highflying, and gets a very close 2 count from a one-armed powerbomb. The swanton gets three for Cara, and this was a pretty fun change of pace, Sandow’s aggression really helped the match.

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.

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.