WWE Main Event and NXT Review: Did Dolph Steal The Show This Week?
First off, let me apologize for no Raw thoughts this week. I haven't been feeling that well lately. That's no excuse for not having content up. But I just want to let you know what's going on. Raw definitely saw a lot of interesting things. We saw interactions between Randy Orton and Shawn Michaels setting up Hell in a Cell. Punk beat the clock and put himself in a handicap match with Ryback and Paul Heyman in Satan's structure. Plus, we got great matches from Daniel Bryan and Alberto del Rio and a great tag team title match between the Rhodes family against Rollins and Reigns of the Shield. The title change this past Monday definitely shook up the landscape of WWE. The tag division is getting focused on once again as the Usos are looking for their shot against the new gatekeepers. Along with that the Real Americans are waging the war against the very popular Matadors Diego and Fernando with their tiny toro mascot. How often does that happen we get simultaneous tag feuds going on the same time? Last week, I gave my thoughts on Main Event and said that it felt like WWE was dropping the ball on the Wednesday night program. This week was a definite upgrade in quality. How does it change. Well, I guess they did the Kansas City shuffle. We are welcomed back by the Miz and John Matthews, which is a nice refresher. Although I like Alex Riley I like the Miz and his energy on commentary. We are quickly shuffled into the action as Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler battle for the US title. Kansas City has seen some great United States title matches in its history and this is no exception. Great back-and-forth between the two. Dolph did one amazing off the top rope X-Factor but unfortunately couldn't get the victory. In the end, Ziggler comes up a little short missing the Stinger splash in the corner leads to the bulldog DDT for the win. Really good match. Very worth your time to check out. We get a recap of John Cena's recovery showing that cool time lapse with the WWE poster boy. Regardless how you feel about Cena you have to admire his dedication. Although I have to question him coming back so soon, not just for his health, but for the emotional resonance. He hasn't been gone that long will there be that much of a groundswell for the return? Next up, we get a decent six man tag between the 3MB and Tons of Funk and Santino. Slater and crew get the dominance over the baby faces for most of the match until Santino tags in and gets the upper hand. Just as the master of power walking was getting ready to hit The Cobra on Jinder. McIntyre and Slater grab the sock like serpent stomping Santino from striking. Tons of Funk comes in for the save sandwiching two thirds of the fictional rock band, allowing Santino the at the Cobra on Mahal for the win Even though it ended the one week Main Event winning streak of the trio of 3MB has looked in quite some time. We see a video package showing Monday's tag team title change. Josh Matthews says the COO will address all parties this Monday on Raw. Back to the action, R-Truth and Damien Sandow (who came out without his trademark robe) had a decent little match which saw the intellectual Savior get the advantage after little bit of offense from CM Punk's new buddy. In the end Sandow hits his new finisher The Silencer for the win. They show some highlights from the beat the clock challenge from Raw and talk about the new handicap match in Hell in a Cell. And the night ends with Fandango versus The Great Khali. This match was not as bad as it could of been. Khali gets an early advantage using his size until the ballroom blowhard takes out his leg. When the Punjabi Playboy gets the advantage again Summer Rae tries to get involved. This brings Natalya to the forefront to get rid of Fandango's dancing partner. Khali gets distracted and knocked off his feet leading to Fandango attempting his leg drop but being met with a Khali chop instead. The Punjabi Playboy and friends celebrate Natalya even tries dancing with Hornswoggle and attempting to dip him. But the unlucky leprechaun falls to the canvas as they go off the air. Was this match going to set the world on fire? No, but it a decent effort from all. Given the limitations of the Great Khali, it was better than most. I have to wonder though, given the fact that Summer Rae is getting more and more involved when will we see her in a ring on the main roster? She definitely has the personality and the skills to pull it off as she shows in NXT. I wonder why WWE has yet to do anything with her on the main roster. Speaking of Summer and NXT, let's about this weeks episode. The show began with a video package recapping the back-and-forth between Sami Zane and NXT champion Bo Dallas in preparation for the title match later tonight. We are welcomed the arena by Tony Dawson, René Young and William Regal. The night begins with a tag team title rematch as the Ascension battle the former champions Corey Graves and Adrian Neville. The story of the match sees Adrian Neville and a very aggressive Corey Graves get beat down by The New Tag Team Champions. Neville lands awkwardly on his knee and the Jumping Geordie attempts to make the tag to Graves who himself has his ribs hurt. Corey makes the tag back out to Neville much to his surprise. The man that gravity forgot tried to overcome the odds but a double team total elimination proves to be too much. The champions retain the titles but that's not the end of the story. Graves, who watched on from the outside, comes in visibly upset that they lost their shot. Neville apologizes and Corey Graves helps him up only to hit a chop block on his knee and proceeds to beat him down. The segment ends with Graves standing tall showing off "Stay Down" on his knuckles. It should be interesting to see where they go from here. This can have the makings of a very good little feud. With the limited number of tag team opponents, whose next for the Ascension? I have to say this about the commentary the whole night, a three-person booth is hard to manage and there was no one in control guiding the ship during this episode. While there were great calls made during the main event, a lot of the night was just random goofiness from all involved. You can Tony Dawson knew he was on his way out because he didn't seem like cared all that much. Colt Cabana mentioned on Steve Austin's podcast this week that he's getting another chance for in announcer tryout. And while most of us would love to see him in a WWE ring for certain. I'm actually more interested in the possibility of a Scotty Goldman (because WWE owns that name) /William Regal announce team on NXT. Next up, we get Tyler Breeze and CJ Parker continue their feud and while the match was nothing spectacular, but the characters are great. The announcers didn't seem to not be focused on the match itself. But instead talking about fashion, iPhones and René Young's friendship with the very vein Tyler Breeze. Breeze attempts to get away from his enemy holding onto the apron. He pulls the apron in the middle of the ring. The referee goes to fix this and Breeze nails Parker with a thumb to the eye and then a spinning roundhouse kick for the win. After the match, Tyler tries to take a portrait of victory with his phone, but CJ Parker comes back with an open palm strike, nailing the superficial supermodel in the face then steals his phone. The moonchild takes photos with fans the ringside as they go to break. Up next, Divas action is up next. We get the tag team match set up last week as Paige and Emma battle Summer Rae and her new BFF Sasha Banks. All in all, good match centered around Summer Rae who is excellent in the ring and the very aggressive NXT Women's Champion. Seems like Emma and Sasha took a backseat to those two. Summer gets the victory over Paige with the splits DDT. That woman knows how to use her long legs effectively. I imagine were going to see more matches between the self-professed Queen of NXT and the anti-diva with Emma and Sasha in the background. And finally, we get to the main event an NXT title match between champion Bo Dallas versus Sami Zayn. The match was really divided into two parts. One that was Dallas avoiding his challenger until Sami nails the big boot in the corner and getting the cover on the champion. However, Bo has his foot on the rope which wasn't seen by the referee. JBL comes out and restarts the match . The second part of the contest sees the world traveler Sami Zayn coming close to defeating the champion. Really great stuff. While in the corner Bo holds on blocking a throw by Sami in the process he removes the turnbuckle cover. Seeing this Dallas runs his nemesis head into the metal hook. This leads to separation and giving Dallas room to hit the spear for the win. A really great contest. And I like the callback to how Dallas won the title from Big E Langston. I'm interested to see the next chapter. Overall, a great episode of NXT all the way around. I hope everyone can check out both Dolph and Ambrose on the main events of the main event of NXT this week.