This week’s Main Event featured another big match in the
spotlight, that allowed a lengthy match to a superstar who would not usually
get it, in Antonio Cesaro, and allowed a superstar struggling to find his feet
as a face get an opportunity to continue to work on the persona in Dolph
Ziggler. It was a shame however that we only got two matches this week, with a
number of recaps from Monday’s Raw, hurting the shows feel.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Antonio Cesaro with Zeb Colter & Jack Swagger
As of late, Dolph Ziggler has struggled to find a definitive
character that suits his new face role within WWE, he has not been helped by
some strange booking decision such as involving Chris Jericho in Ziggler’s feud
with World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio, the cloudy situation with
Ziggler and heel girlfriend Diva’s Champion AJ Lee and a duo of matches with
member of 3MB. However, in Cesaro he had an opponent who is a strong heel who
is also receiving a big push at the moment. Before the contest, Zeb Colter of
course got on the microphone to tell us about the state of America. Zeb seems
to be back on form with these pre-match talks, using a metaphor based around
ladders to talk about how America has changed, calling the fans lazy, which of
course never goes down well.
The match allowed Ziggler to fight from underneath,
displaying his superb selling technique, whilst also displaying the power of
Cesaro well, these was seen best with Cesaro holding Ziggler in a painful
looking submission which stretched Ziggler and looked legitimately painful. Cesaro
controlled for most of the match, with minor come backs from Ziggler throughout
on for Cesaro to quash any attempt with a well placed uppercut or similar manoeuvre.
With Zeb Colter shouting advice for Cesaro at ringside, the relationship
between them seems to finally have clicked into place, with Colter spurring
Cesaro on to be even more vicious in his attack and Swagger there for when
things don’t quite end up going Cesaro’s way.
This was seen in the ending of the match, with Ziggler on
another comeback taking out Jack Swagger with a drop kick, before getting hit
with a thunderous uppercut from Cesaro for a near fall. Cesaro then went for a
suplex attempt only for Ziggler to escape over the top and hit a Zig Zag. With
Ziggler looking to have the victory in the bag, Swagger pulled him out of the
ring, resulting in a Disqualification for Cesaro and giving Ziggler the win. I
was intrigued by this ending as I had fully expected Ziggler to pick up a clean
pinfall here, however having the match end in disqualification could suggest
that WWE has major plans for Cesaro going forward. After the match, Ziggler
managed to out do all three opponents, escaping Swagger’s Patriot Lock, dumping
Cesaro over the top rope with a back body drop, before leap frogging Zeb
Colter, which helped keep Ziggler in line with his Show Off gimmick.
I think now Ziggler has found an in ring formula as a face,
fighing from underneath, using his selling ability, and making flashy
hard-fought comebacks, he could become someone the WWE Universe could really
get behind. However, there is still work for Ziggler to do on his character to
get the fans fully on his side, and we’ll see if Ziggler can manage this on
Sunday at Money in the Bank and going forward. Cesaro on the other hand also
seems on the up, and hopefully WWE officials took notice of this match, as this
could easily have featured on a PPV on it’s own, possibly even main evented
with a good enough story going into the bout.
Best of the Rest (In The World)
The other match on the show was a bizarre six man tag team
match. It was bizarre for a number of reason, firstly the competitors chosen to
take part. Okay, the face team of Tons of Funk and The Great Khali kind of
makes sense to pair together, they’re all big men, who should be booked as
monster but instead choose to spend their time dancing. Now when I saw 3MB head
towards the ring, I automatically decided that Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre and
Jinder Mahal would be their opponents, which I think most people would have
done. Instead they were joined by Team Rhodes Scholars who would be teaming
with Heath Slater. Rhodes and Sandow did some more pre-match talking about how
they are a complete unit, it’s becoming a bit too obvious what is about to
happen at Money in the Bank, yes it’s always good to hear Sandow on the mic,
but maybe this is too much of a good thing.
The match itself took a strange pattern with the face team
controlling most of the match due to their size. Khali stayed on the apron with
Tons of Funk doing the lions share of the work in the match. The heels finally
got the upperhand when a confrontation broke out between 3MB’s Jinder
Mahal & Drew McIntyre and The
Funkadactyls and Natalya who were all at ringside, with the distraction
allowing the heels to take advantage. It wasn’t long however before Brodus Clay
began to get the better of Sandow, leading Sandow to tag in Heath Slater and
Team Rhodes Scholars to leave ringside. Cue Great Khali to enter the match,
hitting Slater with a Brain Chop to pick up the victory for his team. All in
all, this wasn’t a particularly bad match, and everyone did the best they could
in the match (including Khali, who is definitely best used when being kept to a
minimum), but it’s not exactly going to go down in the books as an all-time
classic. For some reason it reminded me of a match you'd see on WCW Worldwide on Channel 5 back in the day.
Finally...
What have learned from this week's edition of Main Event?
1. Dolph Ziggler is beginning to find his feet with the face role, doing a much better job than The Miz who was on commentary.
2. Team Rhodes Scholars are going to split at Money in the Bank. If they don't I will eat my shoes.
3. Main Event doesn't need three different recaps of Raw.
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