WWE Main Event & NXT Review: "A Tale Of Two Fellas"
Since his debut in 2008, Sheamus has run roughshod over the WWE. The Celtic Warrior has used his overwhelming power and unmatched will and determination to get a boot up on all obstacles. However, in the last week, thanks to the wounds of The Money in the Bank the man formerly known as the Irish curse seemed to have found a blessing in a bruise giving him some much-needed vulnerability. This week's Main Event and NXT illustrates the two sides of the same Fella. Let's break down the difference by recapping the Main Event first. The Main Event began as the Irish import battled "The Real American" Jack Swagger in a really good match. Swagger did a great job working the leg creating drama in the match. Quite frankly that match is the best Jack has looked in some time. I like the psychology of this. It does wonders for Sheamus as a babyface. The super human wisecracking mentality doesn't do anything but make him a bully. Vulnerability does wonders to endear him as a character to the crowd. In the end, after close calls where Swagger almost wins Sheamus hits a desperation Brogue Kick for the victory . (I thought we might get a Wyatt family interference after this match, but no.) We see a recap package on the awesome Paul Heyman-CM Punk segment from Monday Night. Great stuff. The Beast Versus the Best at SummerSlam can't wait. The action moves on as the Main Event Sin Cara segment of the week as the masked superstar battles Drew McIntyre from 3MB. When I first saw that these two competitors are paired together, I was a bit surprised. Lately these two competitors have been looking at the lights , albeit in multicolored in the case of Sin Cara. (Why is that is that still a thing for him? Is seeing in that mask still that much of a problem?) But we are in the Lone Star State and there's a heavy Latino influence and we hear Mistico chant all throughout the match. Sin Cara put on his working shoes during the match. Without a doubt the best he's done in quite some time. He even showed a little bit personality mocking 3MB with a little air guitar. The masked man got the victory over McIntyre with an old school Frankensteiner which looks more like a headscissors DDT rather than a hurricanrana. They show a recap of the trials of Daniel Bryan from Monday. And our final match of the night sees ( Red Bull's favorite wrestler because they gave him wings) Justin Gabriel versus Damien Sandow. Mr. Money in the Bank came out and said he is attempting to save the unwashed masses from false idols. That he is the uncrowned World Heavyweight Champion. (Man is that briefcase already in bad shape it won't even close. now . Might want to have him cash in before the case gets destroyed.) The match itself what was something really special. In my opinion, Gabriel got a bit too much offense. In the end, Sandow wins with a full nelson slam for the win. Moving on to this week's NXT, which saw Sheamus in the main event against Wyatt family member Luke Harper. Before we get to that, we have the finals of the NXT Women's Title Tournament. They showed a nice little video package with comments from both Page and Emma before the show opened. We are welcomed by the greatest commentary team in WWE, Brad Maddox and Tom Phillips, who are very excited for the crowning of a new champion. And as they should be because it was a phenomenal match. Paige played the aggressor as Emma battled back against the future diva. Each woman pulled out some amazing stuff including Emma with the Tarantula and page with a superplex. This is without a doubt the longest woman's match you are ever going to see. They went for a good twenty minutes and it felt like five. Great start to the division in NXT. The crowd was definitely divided between the two fan favorites. In the end, the English diva wins with the Paige Turner for the win to become the first-ever NXT Women's Title. After the match, we see page overwhelmed with emotion as she holds the championship. I found it weird that Emma just disappeared. But I guess they wanted to give Paige her moment. However, they brought out all the other divas in the back to congratulate her. Then COO Triple H came out and gave his kudos to the new champion. The segment ending with Paige saying she did it to the fans. We see a promo with Zeb Colter and Antonio Cesaro saying that they couldn't find any proof that Sami Zayn was a real person. They bring up that he was formerly under a mask in his career snuck across the border. Colter and Cesaro say he has more questions to answer from The Real Americans. Antonio says he will make Sami's life a living hell in and out of the ring. (Love the Generico reference. Maybe we will see the masked man in NXT soon?) We go to commercial and come back to see the debut of supermodel Tyler Breeze (the rebranded Mike Dalton) who does a runway walk entrance while taking pictures of himself on his phone. (They couldn't have somebody in the back play cameramen). In the vein of early Shawn Michaels, The Narcissist and the late great Adrian Adonis, Breeze was more absorbed in his own face that his match with the athletic Angelo Dawkins. It's only until Dawkins interrupts a photo op that Breeze goes on the attack. The match itself is nothing really special. Tyler Breeze wins with a spin kick to the face for the pin. Then Breeze goes back to taking photos and looks to take the photo of his down opponent before being cut off by graphics. (I like the character but it just seems like a bargain basement John Morrison) We hear that next week, it will be NXT Champion Bo Dallas and Sami Zayn will be in tag team action against Leo Kruger and Antonio Cesaro..Then we see that the Ascension will be in action next. Ascension 3.0 (Connor O'Brien and Ric Victor) squash Aiden English and Mickey Keegan using a tag team leg drop senton combo for the win Now, the show comes to the main event of the show which sees Sheamus get the better of Luke Harper and the rest of the Wyatt clan. This match illustrates the point earlier of when he is super human it doesn't do anything to help his opponent. And that's the case, here as Harper doesn't get much offense in on the Celtic Warrior making the former tag team champions along with their father so to speak look weaker in the process. Think about all the teams in recent weeks that have tried to defeat the Wyatt family in NXT. And all it took was Sheamus to manhandle them. What does that say about Corey Graves? Kassius Ohno, William Regal and others who've tried and failed? This was a bad booking decision in my opinion. Anytime they create a hierarchy of main roster talent being above being above developmental is not good. I know the Wyatt family is already on the roster, but it doesn't feel right. They gave a little bit of a tease that something was coming next week as Bray Wyatt smiled from his rocking chair while Sheamus stood victorious. All in all, not a bad two hours of WWE action. Definitely check out the Paige-Emma match and Jack Swagger versus Sheamus Everything else was okay but I would skip.