WWE Battleground Kick-Off Review

We're going to try a different format for these show reviews and see how it works out. If it doesn't work we'll flip back to the “Match of the Day” format, but for now we'll simply be running through each show and giving thoughts.

So, Battleground Kick-Off started with Josh Matthews welcoming us to the 1^st Niagra Centre in Buffalo, New York, USA. Matthews was the host of the specialist panel for tonight's Kick Off show, which featured an underwhelming collection of panelists, with The Miz, Titus O'Neil and Tensai all on hand. They ran through a collection of bouts including Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton for the vacant WWE Championship, The Rhodes Family vs. Tag Team Champions The Shield and Rob Van Dam going after Alberto Del Rio's World Heavyweight Championship in a Battleground Hardcore Match. This panel was painfully awkward, with only Tensai seemingly knowing what he was talking about, with a lot of hesitation and confusion from both Miz and O'Neil. They finished up this segment, by really pushing the idea that Damien Sandow could cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase tonight to become World Heavyweight Champion, but after the booking he's received over the last few months, I'm wondering why I'm supposed to care if this happens. They quickly skimmed over the random bout that was occuring on the show, with Sandow facing Dolph Ziggler, despite the two having very little interaction on television, like ever!

We then head to Renee Young, in the “Social Media Lounge”, which is essentially a sofa and a television. Young capably leads us through how to use a hashtag on Twitter, before talking about how both Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella could walk out of Battleground with gold (or a butterfly atleast) around their wastes. I'm not a massive fan of them using Brie as part of Bryan's storyline, for a number of reasons, firstly because Brie can't act to save her life, secondly it shows that WWE don't really know what their audience likes, and placing a popular character like Daniel Bryan, with a shall we say not so popular character like Brie Bella, just doesn't work. Yes, I know they are a real life couple, and that WWE wants to promote Total Divas more, but I'm not sure if theres much crossover between the viewers of Total Divas and WWE's other programming. The segments finished with Young introducing a WWE.com poll to find out who was WWE's best power couple, with the options being Triple H & Stephanie McMahon, Edge & Lita, Randy Savage & Miss Elizabeth and King Booker & Queen Sharmell. I find it's best not to think too much into these selections.

Josh Matthews then moved discussion onto the CM Punk vs Ryback later on, with them showing a replay of last weeks tremendous Raw segment where Paul Heyman “proposed” to Ryback, followed up by an attack from Punk. Matthews went onto interview Heyman who was accompanied by Ryback, with Heyman once again giving a top quality promo, attempting to portray Ryback as an underdog, claiming that Punk was a bully and that the WWE fans had been brainwashed to follow him. It was short, but sweet and gave a good idea of what to expect later on when Ryback got in the ring with Punk.

Dolph Ziggler 

vs. 

World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Winner 

Damien Sandow 

(10 minutes, 22 seconds)

It was then time to head down to ringside, where our commentary team for the evening would be Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and JBL. They briefly talk about Rob Van Dam and Alberto Del Rio's World Heavyweight Championship bout later on, before seguing onto the idea that Damien Sandow could cash in his briefcase tonight, they're really pushing that idea tonight after weeks of ignoring the fact. Out comes Damien Sandow, mic in hand and cuts the kind of promo we've come to expect from the Intellectual Saviour of the Masses. Sandow quoted Benjamin Franklin, before moving onto to talk more about potentially cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase, personally I would've preferred to hear him talk more about his opponent, rather than everyone continue to sign post a cash in, the promo only proved that this match was entirely pointless.

I can't say I was particularly enamoured with this contest, Sandow and Ziggler just didn't seem to connect in the ring, in what was there first singles match together. The early part of the match especially just didn't seem to flow correctly, with a slow motion replay of a Sandow clothesline that obviously didn't connect and a botched swinging neckbreaker from Sandow not helping the situation. This bout needed some kind of story to draw me into the match straight away, seeing as it had no storyline heading in, and it just wasn't present. The bout did pick up towards the end, when the action gathered some pace, with a succession of pin variations getting near falls for both men. I thought the finish was also strong, when a remnant of a story appear with both men tweaking their knees, before Ziggler slipping out of a powerslam attempt by Sandow, landing a kick to the knee before hitting a Zig Zag to pick up a pinfall victory. Personally, I think Sandow was the one most in need of a victory here, as he's been made to look pretty rubbish since winning the briefcase, and at the most will not make a realistic World Heavyweight Champion, and the loss wouldn't exactly harm Ziggler who is already over with the audience.

After a replay of The Shield's attack on the Rhodes Family on last week's episode of Raw, which was oddly for WWE pretty poorly edited together, we headed back to Josh Matthews for the opinions of the panel. Once again, it was a pretty cringeworthy experience, with Miz and especially O'Neil completely butchering what they had to say, luckily Tensai kept his words short, wishing the Rhodes Family good luck. It seemed a strange decision to have an all face panel, especially with Triple H in charge of WWE, it would have given more balance to the panel.

Then we moved on to the always exciting “Social Media Lounge” where Renee Young read the most generic tweet I have ever heard about Daniel Bryan. She was then interupted by Los Matadores miniature bull, El Torito, who ran around the lounge and appeared to be making sexual advances on Young. It was a little bizarre, and I really want to hate Torito, but this was pretty funny, with Young doing a good job of awkward confusion, although she may have just been awkwardly confused. The segment finished with a reveal of the results of the WWE.com vote for WWE's best power couple, with Edge & Lita winning with 43%, Triple H & Stephanie McMahon coming second with 30%, Randy Savage & Miss Elizabeth in third with 23% and King Booker & Queen Sharmell bringing up the rear with 5%, like I said before it's best not to think about these too much, it's just a bit of fun.

They finished up the show by replaying Randy Orton's attack on Daniel Bryan from last week's Raw, where Brie Bella looked on, with each of the panel giving their opinions on who would pick up the victory, with Tensai even donning a fake beard and failing at getting the crowd to chant “YES!” which is quite an achievement in today's WWE.

Overall, I didn't think Battleground Kick-Off was much good, a difficult bout between Dolph Ziggler and Damien Sandow and a biased and un prepared panel didn't exactly make me want to watch Battleground anymore, although they did do a good job of promoting that the first match would see Rob Van Dam face Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship.  

More Than Five Questions With..."The Funkasaurus" Brodus Clay

We recently managed to catch up with current WWE superstar "The Funkasaurus" Brodus Clay to chat about, among other things, his new movie, "No One Lives" which is out on DVD and Blu Ray over here in the UK now and available from all good DVD retailers.

Profile

Ring Name: Brodus Clay
Age: 33
Hometown: Planet Funk by way of Los Angeles, California, USA.
Height: 6' 9"
Weight: 400 lbs
Promotions Competed For: 

Deep South Wrestling
World Wrestling Entertainment
Florida Championship Wrestling

Championships and Accomplishments:

2012 Slammy Award Winner (Dancer of the Year)
#185 on the PWI 500 in 2011
#74 on the PWI 500 in 2012
#74 on the PWI 500 in 2013

Interview

1. How did you get into professional wrestling and what drew you to the sport? 

I've been along with wrestling since I was about seven, eight years old, was when I first started to catch some of it and over time it just grew and it was always something that I reenacted in my mind a million times. I had no actual family ties, or any "guy who knows a guy" type situation, I was involved in breaking up a bar fight at Universal Studios, Saddle Ranch in sunny California, where Tommy Dreamer discovered me and sent me to Deep South (WWE's old developmental territory) where I met Bill DeMott and it took off from there. I'm pinching myself a lot. It's been a lot of hard work and some ups and downs, but I'm loving where I'm at right now.

2. No One Lives is coming out on Blu Ray and DVD here on September 23rd, it didn't get a cinema release in the UK, so what viewers expect if they purchase the film?

Well, No One Lives was an old school horror movie, an old fashioned blood and guts fest. The title kinda tells you where it's gonna go, No One Lives absolutely. It was a lot of fun to do, and the character I play, Ethan, is brother of Hoag (played by Lee Tergesen of "Oz" and "Generation Kill" fame) and they run a local gang that does some kidnapping and extortion and they kidnap the wrong guy. They accidentally kidnap a kidnapper, who is a psychopath, which leads to a series of graphic, unbelievable scenes. You know, so just family fun.

3. How did your role in No One Live actually come about?

John Lauraitis was the head of Talent Relations at the time and I had just come off a match with Christian and Alberto Del Rio at Extreme Rules, where I got busted open and had about thirteen staples in my head and because of where they were on my head, they said I was going to be on the shelf for a little while. So I was in a little bit of a bad mood that day, and then John said "Hey, we've got his project." and before he could finish I was like "Yeah I'll do it" and he was like "But you didn't let me finish yet" but I said "No, I'll do it", so he was like "Okay, I'll tell 'em". Then he came back to me and he was like "You're going to be in a movie!", I was like "Oh, thank you". I jumped up all over, I didn't even know what it was, so when I found out it was a horror film, I was stoked.

4. Who are your inspirations, in terms of your in ring work and is there anyone that you draw upon when you're in the ring?

Oh yeah. Ring presence, you know, Gorilla Monsoon, King Haku, "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Bad New Brown, "Bam Bam" Terry Gordy, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, we're all huge influence on me, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, Andre The Giant, just guys going forward, King Kong Bundy, just guys going forward, being aggressive. I tape my fingers like King Haku used to do, some guys know him as Meng in WCW, as King Haku in the WWE, King Tonga. I always just a big fan of, so I emulate them quite a bit and I like doing suplexes and power wrestling and those guys all emulated that.

5. You currently work with Tensai as part of the Tons of Funk tag team, what have you learned from working with a seasoned veteran night in, night out? 

Oh yeah, everytime you step into the ring with Tensai you learn something new. His mind when it comes to sports entertainment, and wrestling and tag team wrestling is just vast and vast. He's a tremendous professional. He doesn't get a lot of credit, but he's one of the better in ring performers in the last twenty years. He's just a consummate pro and approaches everything 100%. I really dig it and I've learned a lot from this tag team.

6. If you could have face anyone from wrestling's vast history, who would it have been and why? 

I would have loved to have took Hogan, in his prime. I would have loved to have gone against Andre the Giant. I think that would have been a tremendous honour and then, you know what, I don't know if I'd want to go against The American Dream, because he was such an idol, but I'd have liked to have tagged with King Tonga/Haku. Anyone of those guys would have been a lot of fun. Oh, and I would definitely have loved to beat up "Double A" Arn Anderson.

7. You've portrayed two very different version of Brodus Clay on television, starting off as Alberto Del Rio's bodyguard, before switching to The Funkasaurus gimmick, which one do you prefer to portray? And is there a chance we could see the old mean Brodus back at some point?

Never say never in the WWE and sports entertainment and I would love to put the two characters together at some point. I think as you grow and emerge and situations dictate, you would want almost need that to be a complete package. There is a place for Monster Brodus Clay, I believe.

8. Finally, when will you be returning across the pond on the next WWE tour and is the tour something that you look forward to?

I believe we'll be up there in November. I believe so, I don't have the exact dates. Actually, I was always told that the UK had horrible weather, but everytime I go up, it's sunny, it's beautiful. I always enjoy it, the fans are great. We don't get to see them a lot, so it's always nice to get to go out and see them, interact with them, I love the live events whenever we go to Europe it's always a lot of fun.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We'd like to thank Brodus Clay for allowing us the time for this interview, as well as Fetch Publicity and WWE for setting it all up.

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 Main Event 26th June 2013 Review

The impressive thing about Main Event this week was that it featured two matches that on paper could have held the main event spot, with one cut short by interference, the other was a solid contest that showed off what the men involved can do well.

Chris Jericho vs. Cody Rhodes

For me this match felt like WWE taking a look at what Cody Rhodes can still do when tasked with a longer contest, such as this one. It’s been a while since Cody was in a position to have a match anywhere near this length on either TV or PPV, after kind of getting lost in the mix on Raw and Smackdown after the original break down of Team Rhodes Scholars in February. He hasn’t really been given anything to get his teeth into in terms of a feud, apart from a bit part in the Sheamus vs. Damien Sandow feud. It truly is telling that with Money in the Bank coming round, Cody isn’t being talked about as a potential winner, as he’s been the first name on most people’s lips for the last few years events.

The match was a back and forth type of contest, with each man being given just enough time in control of the match to showcase what they are capable of in the ring. The majority of the contest focussed around an injury to Jericho’s eye, caused after a stray thumb from Cody Rhodes. It was nice twist on the heel taking advantage of an injury type of match, which would usually see the heel work on the arm or leg. Rhodes used a lot of his signature moves throughout the contest including a beautiful moonsault onto a standing Jericho, the Disaster Kick (taking advantage of the Jericho’s eye) a huge Alabama Slam and Cross Rhodes all of which got him a two count. Rhodes managed to keep himself looking strong enough with by getting his foot on the ropes after a Codebreaker.

The end of the match saw Jericho block a kick from Rhodes, and after a long struggle eventually manage to turn it into the Walls of Jericho, resulting in the submission victory. I enjoyed this ending, as with Cody reaching and clawing to get to Jericho’s eye before he was turned over it felt like the storyline running throughout the match had led somewhere and brought a satisfactory conclusion to what was a good contest, for both men.

Chris Jericho has been known over the last few years for helping young talent get over with the WWE audience, mainly due to his selfless style of wrestling which allows his opponents to look as good as possible, as well as years of wrestling knowledge built up from around the world. Cody Rhodes certainly benefitted from being in the ring with Jericho for this amount of time and the psychology and story throughout the contest was spot on. It would seem Rhodes is being positioned for another repackage soon, after a long losing streak and having seen his finishing moves kicked out of by a number of opponent on the way. WWE would be foolish to let a talent like Rhodes go without ever giving him a proper chance to run with the ball.

Best of the Rest (in the World)

 

I mentioned at the start of this review that there was another match that could have potentially taken the Main Event spot, and if the rivalry hadn’t been completely missed from Raw this week it probably would have been. The match in question was Christian against the United States Champion Dean Ambrose of The Shield, it certainly had potential to fill the fifteen to twenty minute slot and with the rivalry behind it could arguably been a bigger draw than Jericho-Rhodes.

The match was essentially a brawl between the two spilling to the outside before Ambrose took control with a nice version of an STF. With Christian hitting a number of familiar moves, this match finally looked to be getting going, but was the unfortunately cut short as Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns interfered to push Christian off the top, to give Christian the disqualification win. It was a shame to have this match end so quickly, especially with a number of Ambrose’s matches having had similar endings recently, he hasn’t had much time to show what he can do on his own as of late. With The Shield beating down Christian, the number one contenders The Usos made the save, seeing off The Shield in style. Whilst both Christian and The Usos deserve to be in this position with The Shield, it’s difficult to see either in the same position as some of The Shield’s opponents over recent months.

Before Tons of Funk made their entrance to face The Prime Time Players, they were given a new entrance with The Funkadactyls and new Diva Jo-Jo (who’ll be appearing on reality show Total Divas in July) sang the entrance theme. It really was awful to watch and I felt pretty uncomfortable watching the three young ladies struggle in the ring, luckily this wasn’t Raw and hopefully it never happens again. Luckily the match was good tag team fare, with both teams looking good in the ring. It’s a shame we don’t see enough of Clay and Tensai as a duo, because as big men go they’re pretty good in the ring. The Prime Time Players needed the win to go into their match on Raw with CM Punk and Curtis Axel looking strong and duly delivered when Darren Young hit Brodus with his afro comb, allowing Titus O’Neil to get the pinfall, in a nice ending to develop the heel duo.

For the first time this week, I was disappointed with a Zeb Colter promo. I was behind the partnership with Antonio Cesaro to start with, if it emphasised how Colter had back tracked from his previous position, however that does not look to be the case. What was presented here was a over long rambling promo that took way too many tangents and seemed to forget that Colter was now aligned with a foreigner. Cesaro attempted to pull it back with a decent promo of his own, but it couldn’t quite paper over the cracks in the logic of their relationship. I'm sure the crowd chanting U-S-A was not the desired reaction! 

Announced For Friday's Smackdown:

Christian & The Usos vs. The Shield

WWE Main Event 12th June 2013 Review

This week’s edition of Main Event was slightly disappointing in comparison to the last two episodes which I’ve reviewed, mainly because the Main Event didn’t quite feel big enough, especially with it being a rematch from Raw two days ago.

The Miz vs. Cody Rhodes

The match between these two on Raw, wasn’t a contest I particularly wanted to see again. It was a short contest and saw The Miz get absolutely no offence in until he managed to find a way into the Figure Four Leg Lock for the victory. I was expecting this match to take much the same shape, only in a much longer more drawn out version of Monday’s Match.

The Miz can have some fairly good wrestling matches at times and it’s clear he’s come a long way since his days in ECW, but his matches are rarely particularly exciting to watch, especially since his face turn. This was much of the same with a lot of what was going on in the ring being fairly good, but nothing that would make you sit up out of your seat, and lacked any particular “Wow” moments throughout the contest. For some unknown reason Cody spent a lot of the match working over “The Awesome One’s” arm, which seemed a strange route to go down seeing The Miz has no real arm based holds and Cody doesn’t really use submission holds! However, the spot with Cody sending Miz’s arm into the ring post was well worked and The Miz did a good job of selling the injury.

Strangely, The Miz was allowed to kick out of Cody’s Beautiful Disaster Kick finishing move, it would seem WWE has no plans for Cody at the moment. The ending saw the Miz duck Rhodes and go for a Schoolboy roll up, only to change the pin into the Figure Four Leg Lock for the victory. The Miz might be no Ric Flair, but he has certainly worked hard at coming up with new was to get the Figure Four locked in and he is definitely more adept at that move than when it was first bestowed upon him.

With the triple threat contest with Wade Barrett and Curtis Axel at Payback for the Intercontinental Championship, it seems like a strange decision by WWE to attempt to build the Figure Four up at this time, when the move is going to be difficult to use, as it should get easily broken up. It would have been more interesting to see Cody injure Miz’ knee and the Miz have to win with the Skull Crushing Finale, which would have built the Miz as more than a one move guy. 

Best of the Rest

Damien Sandow was also in action against Sin Cara. Before the contest, Sandow cut a good promo, berating the WWE Universe, and announcing he plans to get his message across through more physical means, as well as putting over his match with Sheamus at Payback Kick-Off. So, we should be to expect a more aggressive side to Damien Sandow over the next couple of months, hopefully this will not be forgotten too soon, as we’ve seen with numerous competitors in past, Kofi Kingston springs to mind.

While the match couldn’t live up to Sin Cara’s match with Antonio Cesaro on Raw, I think that’s more to do with Cesaro being more aware of Sin Cara’s style of wrestling than anything else. The match was worked well by both men, as Sin Cara is beginning to look a lot more comfortable in a WWE ring and was a good opponent to help make Sandow look strong heading into his match with Sheamus. The ending saw Sin Cara miss a Senton Bomb, and Sandow hit his new Silencer finishing move. It was a quick ending and the match would have benefitted from another four or five minutes, but apart from that it did it’s job well.

The Usos continued their recent push with a match against Tons of Funk. There was an interesting face vs. face chemistry throughout, which at times left the crowd a little confused, especially the younger audience. The match at times was slightly drawn out with Tons of Funks spending a lot of the time dancing, which is fine before the match and maybe once during for a comedy spot but every four or five moves it got a bit tedious. Having said this there was a nice near fall with Brodus hitting a Splash on Jimmy only for Jey to make the save, and a ridiculous Samoan Drop from Jey on Tensai. Inevitably, The Usos picked up the winner after a Superfly Splash on Brodus Clay. Hopefully the Usos push continues until they finally gain the tag team titles they deserve, however I can’t see Tons of Funk moving up much higher in the tag team pecking order with the current gimmick.

Finally...

What have we learned from this weeks WWE Main Event?

1. Focussing on random body parts doesn't lead to a very entertaining match!

2. Damien Sandow works a lot better on the mic when not having to deal with rubbish segments like the Gordian Knot!

3. Wade Barrett is a very good commentator and does a good job of getting over the action in the ring.

WWE Main Event 29th May 2013 Review

For me, this weeks Main Event showed how the concept should be used. To offer lengthy matches to allow superstars an opportunity to show what they can do when given the time to do it. Sheamus and Wade Barrett proved it, this week.

Sheamus Vs. Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett

Now this isn’t a fresh match, we’ve seen these two face off on numerous occasion on both Raw and Smackdown over the last year and a half, with little storyline to propel the match forward other than WWE’s logic that they are both “European” and should be thrown together, however the majority of these match had between these two have been fairly short, usually ten minutes at maximum and involved some kind of dodgy ending involving interference or Countout. This was not the case with this match.

The match was given at least twenty minutes, which was enough time for these two to have a barnburner of a contest. With both men hitting hard and the match going back and forth it was clear to see why the crowd began a “This is Awesome” chant towards the end of the contest, how often do you get one those chants on WWE Television? With each man reversing the others big moves and and number of moments where it seemed the match was over, including the return of Barrett’s old finisher The Wasteland, the match was well paced throughout and each move felt like a natural progression from the last.

Barrett’s aggression brings a legitimacy to his match that WWE sorely needs as of late and even managed to bring a different side to Sheamus than we have seen recently, as he dropped the grating smiling Irishman gimmick and instead focussed on what he does best…fight. The ending of the contest felt fitting with Barrett looking strong throwing Sheamus in the ring post twice, only to get hit with a messy Brogue Kick to the face as both men fell to the floor. Sheamus’ slip during the Brogue Kick didn’t bother me, in fact if anything it added to the contest as both men looked as if they gave their all.

Hopefully WWE finally allows Barrett to break through the “glass ceiling” soon as he brings something different that the Main Event seen seems to be lacking lately. That thing is legitimacy, Barrett’s aggression during his contests helps to drive the contest and you really begin to believe that he hates whoever he is in the ring with. However, they will have to be careful who they choose to have Barrett drop the Intercontinental Championship too, and I don’t think Fandango, who Barrett has been involved with in recent weeks, is the person for the job, just yet.

Best of the Rest

Main Event also present two short contests that did little for the competitors involved. Firsty, Antonio Cesaro took on Justin Gabriel. Now, followers of both men will know that they could potentially put on a fantastic contest, given the time and backing from WWE’s higher ups. However with empathsis being taken of Cesaro recently and Gabriel trapped working on B shows for the last two years, this match did not get the time it needed.

Cesaro is someone who takes longer than five minutes to get going during his contests and this was evident here, as the match felt slow and never really got going. It’s obvious that the Swiss Superman is frustrated with his WWE experience as it felt like he was simply going through the motions of this contest. The finish of the match was also awkward, as Cesaro went from a rest hold straight into his neutralizer finish. It will be interesting to see what happens to Cesaro in the next few months, and I can’t really see a position for him higher up on the card as things stand.

Also we got a kind of rematch from Raw, with R-Truth replacing The Great Khali to team up with Tons of Funk to take on Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal of 3MB in Six Man Tag Team Action. With Tons of Funk of dominating throughout, with some nice moments and an interesting finish, with both member of Tons of Funk charging at Jinder Mahal, followed up with a little Jimmy from Truth. For a short match, (little over two mintues) it was fun to watch and action packed, and goes a long way to show the talent of the guys in the ring. Surely, 3MB deserve some kind of reward for taking to such a terrible gimmick so well?

We also had a brand new commentary team this week, with The Miz, Josh Matthews and Ricardo Rodrigues. The Miz has proven on Main Event in the past that he can be a very competent commentator and I have to say that I’m preferring his commentating to anything he’s done in the ring as of late. Ricardo Rodrigues said very little and didn’t really bring much to the team, other than speak some Spanish. I will be surprised if he remains on commentary next week.

Finally

What have we learned from this week’s WWE Main Event?

1.       Sheamus and Wade Barrett would have an awesome rivalry, if only WWE would stop giving away their matches.

2.       Antonio Cesaro has had too many gimmick in his short WWE stay.

3.       Ricardo Rodrigues is extremely quiet at the commentary desk.

Thanks for reading. Follow us on Twitter @ATPWrestling. Next Review will of WWE NXT later today. 

WWE Main Event 10th April 2013 Review

I've enjoyed Main Event since it debuted in October last year, I originally enjoyed the concept of one big match with interviews and build up before hand, which made it feel worthwhile viewing and something different to the usual WWE programming. However within the last few months it has reverted to a usual WWE format, similiar to that used by Superstars, albeit still using Superstars higher-up the WWE totem pole. That doesn't mean there still can't be some great matches from time to time, just removes a little of the shows originally unique identity.

In this weeks Main Event, The Shield took on Tons of Funk & Kofi Kingston. As well as appearances from Jack Swagger and Big E Langston.

The Shield Vs. Tons of Funk & Kofi Kingston w/The Funkadactyls

Another solid outing from Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. They are steadily becoming one of the best things about WWE programming constantly proving themselves in the ring against a huge variety of opponents. It's especially noticeable how far Roman Reigns has come since the formation of the group. I remember at the time wondering why WWE had put Reigns with Rollins and Ambrose after seeing the pair's previous work on the independent scene as Tyler Black and Jon Moxley respectively, but Reign's has since proved that he belongs amongst this elite group. 

It's also becoming interesting to see The Shield beginning to win their matches in a variety of way, we've seen the Triple Powerbomb, as well as The Flying Antelope, but on Main Event, Seth Rollins picked up the victory with a Leaping Knee Drop. Giving this group a variety of finishes will add to the unpredictable nature of the group that WWE has been running with.

However, we may have a case of too much of a good thing going on with The Shield, who we've already seen on Raw and NXT this week, and I believe we'll be seeing them on Smackdown as well. If WWE continue to have to group on all their programming, they may run out of steam quicker than they should do, which would be a shame after a great few months of build up.

Another point of interest is the fall of Kofi Kingston. After being a foot note in the Fandango and Chris Jericho confrontation on Raw, as well as being relegated to panelist on the Wrestlemania Pre-Show, and then another loss here to The Shield, it would appear Kofi is very out of favour with WWE at the moment, despite seemingly having a lot of support from the fans, both young and old, Kofi seems like someone who could do the rare thing of uniting the fan base, as he is both likeable and competent in the ring. However WWE obviously don't see that in Kingston as he has been stuck in the midcard for what seems like forever and now seems to have slipped even further. May we see Kofi future endeavoured very soon?

Best of The Rest

 

 

Zeb Colter continues to prove his worth to Jack Swagger, after a superb speech before Swagger's match with Yoshi Tatsu. Colter berated the Boston crowd on a number of topics including Boston playing a "Canadian Sport" which seemed to get a ton of heat (although it's difficult to tell on the pre-taped Main Event) Colter went on to bully Tatsu, by asking questions about his culture. This makes for uncomfortable watching, but I'm pretty sure that's the point, the character continues to push the fans buttons in wrestling world where real heat is difficult to come by, it's hard not to hate the Zeb Colter character and his views.

The match itself was quick and pacy, although it did not although either competitor to show much of what they could do in the ring as Swagger picked up an early victory with The Patriot Lock. It really is a shame how little WWE uses Yoshi Tatsu as he's had some of the best matches on WWE TV over the last few years, his match with Tyson Kidd (another under used talent) were completely different to anything on WWE at the time and they even managed to make an Object on a Pole Match worth watching.

There was also another outing for current NXT Champion Big E Langston who faced Zack Ryder. Before the match Langston was interviewed by Josh Matthews about his Wrestlemania match, his Raw debut and Dolph Ziggler cashing in Money in the Bank. Langston proved to be just as impressive on the mic as he is in the ring, switching between humourous and serious with expert pace. The match saw Langston dominate Ryder who barely got any offence in at all. It seems as if the Ryder Revolution truly is over (and not in the way Ryder had hoped)

Finally...

This Main Event was basically a collection of squash matches, there was no doubt who was going to win all three of these matches, something which wouldn't have happened in the earlier episodes. However there was some interesting stuff on the show, The Shield's match was solid, and their Triple Powerbomb of Tensai was impressive, Big E Langston showed us what he could do with a Microphone and Zeb Colter continue to do great work in making Jack Swagger look like a star. However for me, this Main Event was one of the under utilized star, the likes of Kofi Kingston, Yoshi Tatsu and Zack Ryder all extremely talented, but this new Post-Wrestlemania landscape and new stars like Bray Wyatt, Kassius Ohno and Adrian Neville on the horizon how long will it before these Superstars are sent packing by WWE?