411’s WWE Main Event Report 1.6.15

WWE MAIN EVENT 1.6.15

We begin things with a recap of The Authority’s return last night.

Paige with Natalya vs. Nikki Bella with Brie Bella
Nikki starts off by shoulderblocking Paige down and following it up with a hiptoss. 1..2..kickout. Nikki continues to attack Paige, but Paige nails her with a kick and headbutts. Paige charges Nikki who hits a springboard one leg dropkick. She covers for a 1 count. They run the ropes and Paige slides under on a roll-up. Nikki escapes, but is met with a yakuza kick. Brie tries to give Nikki a pep talk as she retreats. We go to a commercial break.

We return with Paige attacking Nikki with the apron knees. Nikki tries to retreat again, and Paige grabs her hair. Nikki uses that to pull Paige from the ring to the outside. The referee begins the countout. Nikki Bella does some pushups Scott Steiner style inside the ring. The count reaches 7 when Paige makes it back in. Nikki drops Paige’s arm against the apron. Nikki wrenches Paige’s arm in an arm ringer. Paige slowly recovers only for Nikki to lift her and slam her arm on the apron. Nikki does an arrogant boot pin on the throat for 1. Nikki continues working the arm driving it against the post. 1..2..kickout. Nikki keeps Paige grounded with a sitting abdominal stretch. She releases and covers. 1..2..kickout. Nikki follows that up by attacking the arms with some double knees. Paige fights back on some strikes. Nikki ends her momentum quickly with a falling clothesline. Nikki straddles her face with the pin lazily. 1..2..kickout. Nikki smartly keeps attacking the arm pushing it into the ropes. Nikki then grabs the arm and throws her face into the mat. 1..2..kickout. Nikki follows that with a surfboard stretch on the arm. Paige keeps fighting back. Paige hits a thesz press with some punches. Nikki sends her back down with a falling clothesline. Nikki works the arm and blows a kiss at Natalya. Nikki nearly falls on an arm ringer and lazily covers again for a 1 count. Nikki rolls into an armbar. Paige looks to be in trouble, since Nikki has worked the arm all match long. The crowd comes alive for Paige. Paige reverses the armbar into a cover. 1..2..kickout. Nikki attacks again with another armbar. Paige slowly fights out hitting an arm drag. Paige hits a few clotheslines and a running dropkick. They trade whips and Nikki charges into an elbow. Brie distracts Paige up top. Natalya lays out Brie. Nikki kicks Natalya. Paige gets an O’Connor Roll. 1..2..kickout. Nikki counters that into her own O’Connor Roll. 1..2..kickout. Nikki hits the elbow strike of doom, but Paige counters with another yakuza kick. Paige recovers slowly and gets up hitting the Ram-Paige. 1..2..3.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Paige @ 12:00 via pin
MATCH THOUGHTS: This match impressed me actually. Nikki Bella worked the arm really well. Paige probably could have sold it a little better towards the end, but it was nice work regardless. Both ladies got time and made the best of it. This was a fantastic surprise to start the show. Paige continued to sell the arm once the match ended too, which is appreciated.

Lana and The United States Champion Rusev come out. Lana grabs a mic as Rusev poses. Lana does her usual Russian greeting. She tells them to shut up. Lana tells them to shut up again. Lana brings up Ryback’s heartfelt speech. Lana says he was embarrassed when the Authority returned and fired The Big Guy. We get footage of Ryback. Ryback says he’s not sure what the future holds, but The Big Guy is going home. Rusev smirks watching the footage. The crowd chants Feed Me More. Lana says he has worked hard for 10 years and overcome obstacles that no mere mortal would have ever done. Ryback’s reality is that the embarrassment of getting fired compares nothing to the shame he would have received if facing the Super Athlete, Rusev. Rusev says Ryback may be embarrassed, but if he got into the ring with him…he’d be humiliated. Rusev said he’d wipe the floor with him like a janitor wiping the locker room. Rusev says he is going to dominate the Royal Rumble and take his righteous place in the main event at Wrestlemania.

We get exclusive comments from Erick Rowan. Rowan says disappointment comes to mind when asked about being fired. Dolph says guilty of doing everything to be the best, and set bars. Dolph says he felt like he did something great at Survivor Series for keeping jobs for people. Dolph says but he has no job now. He says nice working with you Renee.

Michael Cole will interview Triple H tomorrow at noon on WWE.com.

Jack Swagger will go up against Titus O’ Neil tonight.

Fandango with Rosa Mendes vs. R-Truth
JBL just compared Fandango to Chuck Liddell. Fandango says that Rosa and him will start the year off with a bang and kiss. R-Truth is his opponent tonight with complete theme song. Booker T points out the stupidity of Liddell being compared to Fandango. The new and improved Fandango shoulderblocks R-Truth down and R-Truth quickly fights back. R-Truth momentum is ended quickly with a back elbow. Both men trade punches and Fandango gets the better of it. Fandango chokes Truth with his knee. Fandango continues attacking with a chinlock. Truth starts to fight out with some slaps and a sunset flip. Fandango counters the sunset flip with a punch. Truth still hits it anyway. 1..2..kickout. Truth starts fighting back with forearms and a corkscrew dropkick. 1..2..kickout. Before Truth can get momentum going Fandango hits him hard. He follows that up with a modified Falcon Arrow and guillotine leg drop.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Fandango @ 3:00 via pin
MATCH THOUGHTS: This was a nothing match with an obvious result. The match was nothing inoffensive, but nothing captivating. I think the Fandango experiment should probably be done, but at least it didn’t waste a lot of time.

Titus has a mic before the next match. Titus says we have a new congress, authority, and a cold winter is settling in. Titus says not to worry, because someone can save us. He says no not Swagger, but T I T U dog bark S.

Jack Swagger vs. Titus O’Neil
Titus and Swagger lock-up to start things off. Swagger quickly wrestles him down hitting the side slam. Titus quickly recovers and slowly gets to his feet. The two go for another lock-up and Titus hits some clubbering blows. Titus with corner uppercuts and goes for a clothesline, but Swagger quickly counters. Swagger goes for the Patriot Lock. Titus escapes to the outside as we go to another break.

Titus slams Swagger down as we return. Titus gets a whip and misses a clothesline. Swagger ducks a clothesline and is met with a big boot. Titus grabs Swagger’s hair and hits a few mounted punches. Someone in the crowd does a little dog bark presumably to mock Titus. Titus sends Swagger down with another arm ringer chinlock. Swagger tries to fight back. Titus pulls his hair back down slamming him. Titus sends Swagger into the ropes and hits some stiff chops. Titus lifts Swagger and tosses him aside on a fallaway slam. 1..2..kickout. Swagger retreats to a corner. Titus attacks the back with some forearms. Titus follows that up with some more stiff chops and a short arm clothesline. Titus does the dog bark taunt and some in the crowd do it with him. Titus lifts Swagger by the hair into an abdominal stretch. The crowd is into Swagger trying to will him back. Swagger hits the lifting swing spinebuster slam. Both men are down now. They start slugging it out. They trade whips and Swagger levels Titus with a clothesline. Swagger hits a big boot of his own. Swagger hits a stiff clothesline of his own. Swagger calls for the swagger bomb and hits for once! 1..2..kickout. Swagger gets his own clubbering blows and tosses Titus to the outside. Swagger follows him outside, and Titus drives his back into the post. Both men come into the ring and Titus hits a big boot. Titus follows that up with Clash of the Titus. 1..2..3.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Titus O’Neil @ 8:00 via pinfall
MATCH THOUGHTS: I’m not sure if either man will get any true push, but the match was pretty decent. Swagger seems to get a good match out of any midcarder. If anything, it was better than Fandango and R-Truth. Nevertheless, this was a decent way to end the show.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The show started off alright with a short recap. The Nikki Bella and Paige match was surprisingly good. The Lana and Rusev promo was decent too and it is nice to see Rusev speak more as of late. The following match was nothing to write home about. The main event was decent, but still overshadowed by the opening match. I am starting to notice a trend where the opening match on Main Event is usually the best. Nonetheless, this was a decent enough show. Thanks to all the readers who read this week’s recap!