WWE Main Event 10th July 2013 Review

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.

WWE Smackdown 5th July 2013 Review

It was funny episode of Smackdown this week, with a lot of regular Smackdown wrestlers on WWE’s tour of Japan, we got to see a rare appearance from CM Punk, whilst a few other superstar got a chance to have a little extra time on the show.

CM Punk vs. World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio

In what was billed as a “Special Appearance”, CM Punk turned up this week on Smackdown, kicking off the show with a promo about his chance in the All-Stars Money in the Bank Ladder Match at Money in the Bank, as well as involving the previous days Independence Day. Punk seems to be able to pull off a good promo with absolute ease and even though this was another good showing, at times it felt like he was phoning it in, possibly because this is Smackdown not Raw, which is a shame because some of Punk’s best work came over on the blue brand back in 2009. In an almost mirror image of the Post-Payback Raw, Alberto Del Rio came out to counter Punk’s claim of being Best in the World. Del Rio has settled back into the heel role well, himself talking about Independence Day and criticising the American people. With Punk pointing out WWE’s continuity errors, with Del Rio’s previous “Born in Mexico, Made in America” vignettes for Del Rio. An obviously confused Teddy Long wondered out to the ring and booked a one on one match for the main event.

Leading up to the match, we got a few backstage segment’s with Paul Heyman. Firstly, speaking to best friend CM Punk, attempting to get Punk to allow him to cancel the match later on, as well asking to accompany Punk to ringside for the Money in the Bank Ladder Match. Punk, of course told Heyman that he didn’t need his help anymore. Later on, we saw Heyman go to Teddy Long’s office, in an interesting twist Long said that Heyman could be at ringside for Punk vs. Del Rio later on, as a guest commentator. It would appear WWE are going with a story where Teddy Long is attempting to usurp Booker T on Smackdown, not sure why they are doing this, WWE should be making the leadership situation clearer rather than complicating it. I am however enjoying the slow build for CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar with Heyman and Punk doing a good job of keeping the story going in Brock Lesnar’s absence.

The match was another decent technical contest between these two, although due to only less than ten minutes, wasn’t close to the match they had on Raw three weeks ago. Del Rio spent a lot of the match controlling Punk, and looked like he might have an upset victory (The World Heavyweight Champion having an upset victory is crazy) when he thwarted an elbow drop attempt from Punk with a huge Enziguiri that looked and sounded impressive. What made this match for me was that there looked to be intent behind the moves, rather than the going through the motions we’ve seen from some WWE wrestlers lately, with both men giving their all in the time they were given.

The ending of the match saw Heyman get involved as the action had spilled to the outside. With Del Rio removing the cover of the announce table, Heyman tried to reason with Del Rio, only to receive a punch from Del Rio. This caused Punk to go over the edge, with some great camera work and facial expression from Punk telling the story before it had even happened. Punk went onto assault Del Rio causing both men to get counted out. The show finished with Punk delivering a GTS to Del Rio, before checking on Heyman. It was a nice piece of development for the Punk/Heyman relationship, revealing Punk still cared for Heyman’s wellbeing and showing their friendship well, making the moment when Heyman finally turns on Punk even sweeter. I’m not sure why Del Rio needed to be involved as it did little for him here and his story with Dolph Ziggler didn’t get the spotlight it needed. I would have much rather seen a different performer get the chance to wrestle CM Punk, who would have gotten more out of the experience.

Christian vs. Randy Orton

Before the match, Randy Orton and Christian were interviewed backstage by Renee Young. Both Christian and Orton talked about the past between the two, with their battles in 2011 lighting up not only Smackdown but the entire WWE. They also spoke about them both competing in the All Stars Money in the Bank Ladder match and how they each believed they were going to win. It was a pretty straight forward segment, with nothing out of the ordinary said between either, it built up the match later well making it feel important, for not only momentum but to settle the feud one last time.

The match took a while to get going with going back and forth, mainly due to face vs. face aspect of the match, with neither man wanting to spend too long on top. I understand that Orton and Christian have got a big match coming up soon, but the amount of rest holds early on in the match was a little silly. The headlocks and similar moves are a staple of Orton’s offence, even more so over the last two years, and it makes it difficult to get into his matches as you can kind of work out what’s going to happen for the majority of the contest. Orton might be bringing a little more passion back to his game lately, but he could really do with mixing it up in ring a bit more often.

The ending saw Orton building for an RKO, really working the crowd well, Christian blocked the RKO and headed to the top rope, Orton ducked whatever Christian had been planning and Christian walked into an RKO to give Christian the victory. It was a nice ending that was worked well by both men. The match here wasn’t quite as good as what we’ve seen in the past from Christian and Orton, mainly because it lacked a lot of the intent that made those matches good in the first place and felt like both Orton and Christian were holding back during the bout.

With both Orton and Christian heading into the All-Stars Money in the Bank Ladder Match on 14^th July, it felt like a strange decision to give Orton the win here. Yes, Orton lost to Daniel Bryan on last weeks Raw, but Christian was the wrestler most in need of a big victory going into the match. He’s only really seen victories over lesser name competitors since his return, with his six man tag victory with The Usos over The Shield not really being capitalized upon, a win here for Christian would have allowed him to look like he was in with a chance, rather than just making up the numbers.

Best of the Rest (In the World)

Elsewhere Number One Contenders for the Tag Team Championships, The Usos faced Team Rhodes Scholars. Before the match, Damien Sandow talked about the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match, talking about how he and Cody would not turn on each other during the match, remaining best friends. The amount of times this has been mentioned on WWE Television you have to believe that Sandow turning on Rhodes will be a focal point of the match, otherwise there would be no need to mention it, I will be extremely surprised if this doesn’t happen.

The match was a short, simple, yet enjoyable tag team contest, with Rhodes Scholars keeping an Uso (I still don’t know who is who) contained, until they went for a double back suplex with Uso escaping, before sending Rhodes to the apron where he received a Superkick, and Sandow got the same treatment in the ring. The Usos brought back a finish we saw them use earlier in their careers hitting stereo Superfly Splashes for the victory. The Shield were shown on the screen, with Rollins and Reigns have their strongest talking appearance on WWE TV, saying they weren’t shaken by the Usos win last week and they’d retain the tag titles at Money in  the Bank kick off. Dean Ambrose spoke about his involvement with Christian, as well as the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank match, the idea of Ambrose holding Money in the Bank seems like a really good idea, fitting the groups character well, but I’m not quite sure WWE will give him this opportunity quite yet.

Number One Contender Dolph Ziggler was also in action this week. Before his match with 3MB’s Drew McIntyre, Ziggler had some time on the microphone. Ziggler did a pretty good job of talking about his rivalry with Alberto Del Rio, with only a few minor tweaks to his character, which is how the best turns should work, especially with Ziggler already a popular heel. Ziggler picked up a quick win over McIntyre after hitting the Zig Zag following a massive tilt-a-whirl around McIntyre. After the match, 3MB tried to attack Ziggler again only to be thwarted by him, twice. The 3MB stuff has worked for me, in terms of getting Ziggler over as a face, but it has meant that the rivalry with Alberto Del Rio has gone a bit off the boil, especially with Ziggler having no part in the main event.

Number One Contender to the Diva’s Championship Kaitlyn was also in action in a rematch from Raw against Alicia Fox. Fox dominated from the outset, but with Kaitlyn making a comeback, Diva’s Champion AJ Lee headed out to ringside. AJ skipped around the ring, causing the eventual distraction that allowed Fox to get a role up victory. Surely, a victory over a number one contender puts you into the title picture, or maybe that’s just me. AJ ran away from ringside with Kaitlyn following. Somehow AJ had shaken Kaitlyn and ran into the Bella Twins backstage, who claimed they were coming for the Diva’s Championship. I know The Bella’s have a new TV show to promote but there must be other way rather than muddying the waters of the Diva’s Championship picture, with Natalya and Alicia Fox already holding victories over the champion and number one contender. It was also teased that AJ might split boyfriend Dolph Ziggler as she as Big E Langston left without him.

Also Fandango was in action against Justin Gabriel. It was essentially a squash match, with Fandango getting pretty much all of the offence in. It was enjoyable to watch and made Fandango look good, whilst allowing Gabriel to show off his athleticism. The ending saw Fandango stop a potential dive to the outside from Gabriel with a kick to the head, before heading to the top rope for a Leg Drop. Fandango heads into the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match, and unfortunately this match won’t do much to convince me he’s going to win the briefcase come the 14^th of July. 

Finally...

What have I learnt from this week's episode of Smackdown?

1. Best in the World is a higher title, than World Heavyweight Champion.

2. Randy Orton vs. Christian was done better in 2011.

3. If you say something isn't going to happen (Sandow and Rhodes turning on each other at the Money in the Bank) so often, it's pretty likely it's going to happen.

WWE Main Event 5th June 2013 Review

This week’s edition of WWE Main Event featured Sheamus in the spotlighted contest once more, this time against another talented European Antonio Cesaro. Elsewhere the Usos took on Team Rhodes Scholars and Justin Gabriel fought the lesser seen Curt Hawkins.

Sheamus vs. Antonio Cesaro

Our main event for Main Event saw two talented Europeans square off for the second week in a row. Last week’s we saw Sheamus face Wade Barrett in an enthralling bout and this week it was the turn of Antonio Cesaro to take on the Celtic Warrior. Both men currently seem in somewhat of a limbo in terms of storyline, with Sheamus’ on-off team with Randy Orton apparently on hold, as well as their subsequent feud with the Shield, with a storyline with Damien Sandow has failed to take off due to some pretty awful segments on Smackdown over the last two weeks. Meanwhile Cesaro hasn’t been seen much of late, mainly appearing on Main Event, and after his unsuccessful run with the United States Championship earlier in the year, it would appear WWE doesn’t know how to handle The Swiss Sensation.

The match, as last week, was a fantastic watch and benefitted from being fairly fresh, as I can only think of handful of occasions these two have faced each other in the past and certainly not recently. Cesaro dominated the early going, firstly slowly wearing down Sheamus with a number of submission holds, and then sending his shoulder crashing into the ring post with Sheamus on the apron, leading to a kick to the head from the opposite side with Sheamus’ head hitting the ring post. This section for me proved why WWE should take more of a chance on Cesaro, as he managed to make this spot look dangerous and important without injuring his opponent. Unfortunately, Sheamus’ selling of this was edging towards the comedic, which would be my only criticism of The Celtic Warrior during this match.

The two then switched momentum frequently throughout the latter half of the contest, with Cesaro showing a number of nasty looking submissions including escaping Sheamus’ White Noise and slapping on a Cross Face Chicken Wing a la Bob Backlund, whilst Sheamus hit his crowd pleasing clubbing blows with Cesaro tied up in the ropes (that moves really needs a name) with Long Island proving they can indeed count to ten. There was a nice near fall when Sheamus leapt from top rope, only to be met with A Very European Uppercut from Cesaro, with at least some in attendance thinking it might be over. The ending came with Cesaro about to attempt his Neutralizer, only for Sheamus to counter into White Noise, which was delivered to the top turnbuckle, once Cesaro got back into the ring, Sheamus delivered a Brogue Kick for the victory. This was a satisfying ending as it at least made Cesaro look like a challenge for Sheamus, unlike Cody Rhodes on Raw last Monday.

Cesaro brings a legitimacy to his matches that is rarely seen in WWE today, he looks extremely tough like a wrestler from the 1950’s, his blows are worked extremely close and his submission holds look painful. Hopefully, this and the number of awful gimmicks that he has taken on will go some way in Cesaro returning to WWE’s good favour as he could really bring something different to the main event scene. Sheamus on the other hand is much better when put in these kind of matches, when he’s taking things seriously against a serious opponent like Cesaro or Wade Barrett he can really put on quite a match.

Best of the Rest

The Usos new push continued as they took on Team Rhodes Scholars. For a tag team match this had a strange dynamic as it saw The Usos dominate for most of the contest. With The Usos making frequent tags, Rhodes and Sandow were rarely in control for very long, including a clever blind tag that lead to Cody Rhodes get dropped on the top rope after a double team. During the small period where Rhodes Scholars had control of the match, we saw a different side from both Cody and Damien, as they looked a lot more aggressive in the ring than what we’ve come expect from the usually precise and calculating duo, including some rather vicious stomps from Rhodes. As the match edged towards its end, there was a great false finish, with Cody slipped out of a suplex attempt and hit his Beautiful Disaster kick, when it looked like it might be over, Jimmy slid in to make the save for his twin. Soon after, Jey hit a Super kick and Jimmy soared from the top rope with a Superfly splash for another impressive victory for the Usos.

I was a little surprised by this match, not at the quality as that was never in doubt with the four individuals in the ring, but that The Usos picked up the victory over a tag team so previously so high up the ranks, so early in their new push. Damien and Cody have been looking like permanently splitting for a while now, maybe it’s finally time to break them up and allow them to pursue singles careers, though with WWE currently stalling on Sandow’s singles feud with Sheamus and Cody seemingly going nowhere it might be a while before their association wears out. WWE clearly believes in The Usos, and I can see why, they put on fantastic tag team match almost every time they get in the ring and seem to know how to work the crowd well, with the right booking and a successful feud with The Shield they have the ability to get over well with the audience.

There was also a singles match between Justin Gabriel and a returning Curt Hawkins. For such a short match this was good fare, with both men playing their roles well. Hawkins looks cocky and confident as a heel, whilst Gabriel’s strong selling ability allows him to work the face in peril role well. The ending however seemed a bit rushed with The Capetown Werewolf kicking a charging Hawkins out of the corner, pushing him to the mat hard, before hitting a 450 splash, even Josh Matthews on commentary seemed surprised. Both of these competitors could benefit from a reignited tag team division, as there really is little for them, however talented they maybe, higher up the singles ladder.

Finally…

What have we learnt from this week’s episode of Main Event?

1. Sheamus benefits from working against a more serious opponent. 

2. The Usos will, deservedly, continue to rise up the Tag Team ranks.

3. Ricardo Rodrigues brings little to the commentary team! 

Announced for next Monday's Raw:

Triple H Vs. Curtis Axel