Leighty’s WWE Main Event Report 1.14.21

-Welcome to your weekly dose of WWE Main Event action on Hulu. Thanks to all who have checked out my Countdown of every match from Main Event in 2020 column. For those interested that column can be found here. What underused talent will add their name to the 2021 list this week? Let’s get to it!

-Announce Team: Tom Phillips and Samoa Joe
-WWE ThunderDome (Tropicana Field), St Petersburg, FL

Akira Tozawa vs. Angel Garza

-Garza is still rocking the red pants to start the match and Joe notes that he may not be taking Tozawa seriously. Garza grounds Tozawa and wraps his up while manipulating the toes in an interesting attack. SMALL JOINT MANIPULATION! Tozawa counters to a leg hold of his own and switches to a standing side headlock. Tozawa pushes off and Tozawa tries a head scissors, but Garza just shoves him off sending him splatting on his face. The pants come off as Garza means business now and he hits a seated dropkick in the corner. He locks Tozawa in The Tree of Woe and connects with a running kick to the face for a two count. Back to the ground game with a modified Bow and Arrow. Tozawa gets to the bottom ropes to break and throws a few shots to create space, but gets caught with a heavy right to snuff that rally. A blind charge runs into a boot from Tozawa and now the comeback is on as Tozawa goes for the Octopus and after hitting a few knees to the face he is able to hook a hanging Octopus. Garza gets an arm free, but ends up eating a spinning head kick for a two count. Garza grabs the Gi to slow down Tozawa, but he lands a kick to the face. Tozawa then makes the mistake of charging and gets caught with The Wing Clipper to end this one at 5:05.

Winner: Angel Garza via pin at 5:05
-Fun sprint with two guys that are used to having matches on this show. Garza is great and I keep waiting for them to get fully behind him on RAW, but until then I will keep enjoying him on this show nearly every week. **1/2

-Back to SmackDown as The Street Profits run as Tag Champions is finally ended by Ziggler and Roode. They held the RAW Tag Titles for 224 days and then switched to SmackDown Tag Titles which they held for 88 days. That gave them a run of 312 straight days of holding Tag Gold. It was time for a change and Roode and Ziggler are solid choices.

-Back to SmackDown as Paul Heyman tells Adam Pearce that he pulled some strings and he is in The Gauntlet Match.

-Back to SmackDown as they recap the Gauntlet Match and it comes down to Nakamura vs. Adam Pearce. Pearce wins due to interference from Reigns and Uso who beat the tar out of Nakamura and then dropped Pearce before putting him on top for the win. If this leads to Nakamura vs. Reigns at some point, I am all for it. If the WWE needs some faces on SmackDown turning Nakamura is a good choice! Oh, and as always, Roman is great!

Humberto Carrillo vs. Slapjack (w/ Mustafa Ali)

-Tie-up to start and Slapjack controls with an armbar. Carrillo fights out and gets an arm wringer. Slapjack reverses and Carrillo counters that by flipping out and rolling through into an armbar. Ali tells Slapjack a loss is unacceptable tonight. To the corner where Slapjack breaks the hold and fires off some chops. “You hurt that man the way this system hurts you,” -Ali. Carrillo fires back with forearms to the back and springs off the middle ropes with a back elbow. He charges and gets sent to the apron, but springs right back with an armdrag. He does do it again from the other side sending Slapjack to the floor. A basement dropkick through the ropes follows. Carrillo heads up top, but takes too long looking out at Ali and gets brought down the hard way by Slapjack. That gets a two count as we take a break.

-Back with Slapjack laying in kicks and then he cuts off a brief rally with a dropkick. Ali continues to motivate from the floor as Slapjack goes to a crossface hold. He goes to the eyes and is forced to break by the ref. He fires off more kicks as Ali asks Joe and Tom if they are watching. Slapjack snaps off a Side Russian Leg Sweep and goes to a Bow and Arrow. Carrillo flips through to break and lands a head kick to break. He catches a charging slapjack with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and then a second one. He rolls into the standing moonsault which gets two. They battle up top and Carrillo pushes off and delivers a flying back elbow for two. Nice! Slapjacks elbows out to escape a hold and hits a Falcon Arrow for two. Ali feels this is enough and wants this ended. The Snapback is blocked and Carrillo lands a back elbow. Up top again, but Ali provides enough of a distraction the apron for Slapjack to trip up Carrillo and then hit the Snapback for the pin at 9:18.

Winner: Slapjack via pin at 9:18
-Technically solid but a little dull. Slapjack winning was the right call, but I don’t need to see the Ali distraction finish every week. **3/4

-Back to RAW 2 weeks ago as Drew successfully defends his WWE Title against Keith Lee and then gets challenged by Goldberg. Drew having COVID has hurt the follow-up, but obviously Drew getting healthy and away from others is the most important thing. Again, I am fine with this match on the undercard of The Rumble if Drew wins and they have a short HOSS fight similar to what Goldberg and Brock did at Mania a few years back.

-Back to RAW as Drew responds from isolation. He didn’t want to accept the challenge at first, but Goldberg put his hands on him, so now Goldberg is Next!

-Back to RAW as HHH is brought in to make up for Drew being out with COVID. He and Orton go face to face and HHH wants to let it be, but Orton goes to the same playbook CM Punk did years ago and asks if HHH can get his balls back from Stephanie’s purse. I will still laugh each time that insult is used. That leads to a fight later in the night to give the show some kind of star power to keep eyes off the College Football Championship. The Fiend’s lights hit and HHH’s sledgehammer ends up on fire as he then disappears, and Alexa Bliss is in the ring. We got Old School Memphis as she throws a fireball in Orton’s face. A fireball to the face is probably proportionate retaliation for setting someone on fire. I actually want to see this end up being a Fire Fly Fun House Match because the Fiend/Cena one was great to watch even if it wasn’t a match.

-Thanks for reading!

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

Solid episode of Main Event with two decent matches and your usual recapping of things that happened in the last 2 weeks.