Leighty’s WWE Main Event Review 01.21.21

Leighty’s WWE Main Event Review: 01.21.21

-It’s Thursday and you know what that means….Main Event on Hulu! Let’s get to it!

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

Angel Garza vs. Akira Tozawa

-These two battled last week with Garza coming out on top. Tozawa calls on Ninja Power this week which he didn’t do last week, so Garza is likely screwed now. Tozawa gets a quick start and heads up top, but gets ripped down by Garza. The pants come off and Garza hits a head kick. He sets Tozawa on top and drops him into the Tree of Woe. The PK follows and that gets a two count due to the cocky cover. Tozawa gets murdered with a sweet basement dropkick. Garza wraps Tozawa up in the corner and looks to be having fun as he tortures our resident ninja. This man is great! To the ground with an inverted calf crusher and then some blows to the spine. A modified bow and arrow into a stomp to head is next. This is a great ass kicking right now. Tozawa fires back, but gets caught with a clubbing blow and then another low dropkick to the head. More ground game as Garza ties Tozawa up in fine fashion. Tozawa continues to fight back, but again gets cut off by a heavy right hand. Slingshot reverse suplex for a two count. Sweet! Tozawa gets a fluke roll-up off a headscissors and looks for an octopus, but gets caught with a superkick. Wing Clipper ends this at 5:24.

Winner: Angel Garza via pin at 5:24
-This was one of the more entertaining squashes I have seen in a while. Garza is great and deserves so much more. He basically SQUASHED Tozawa here and did it with a smile on his face. This was similar to last week’s match but Tozawa got no offense outside a few strikes this time. Last week was more competitive, but I enjoyed this week’s match more. SQUASH

-Video package of the Roman/Pearce saga leading up to what happened last week.

-Back to SmackDown last week for the Reigns/Pearce contract signing and Pearce gets one over on The Head of the Table by noting “Card Subject to Change” and inserts Kevin Owens in his place. If you haven’t, go check out Talking Smack from Saturday as Heyman and Owens were face to face and delivered amazing promos on each other. My recap can be found here.

-Back to RAW with The Dirt Sheet and it sucked. I know that is kind of the point they were making with Morrison getting horrible actors to play Drew and Goldberg. Saying it sucked to cover for it sucking, doesn’t make it suck any less. So we will just move along. Morrison’s “nothing good comes out of Cleveland,” made me laugh though.

-Back a few RAWs as Alexa Bliss returned and threw a fireball in Randy Orton’s face.

-WrestleMania Report show in full and it’s fantastic as HHH, Steph, Heyman, Reigns, Sasha, and Cena all killed it. My take is WWE is making good with Tampa plus they know they can put in fans on 2 different nights. Then hopefully back to normal in 2022 and the WWE will want to put on the biggest show they can and no bigger venue than AT&T Stadium. Finally, they can get to LA in 2023. I would think the new Stadiums in Atlanta and Vegas will likely be getting Manias sometime in the next 5-7 years as well.

Humberto Carrillo vs. Drew Gulak

-Lock-up to start and Gulak gets a quick headlock takeover. Carrillo escapes and we have another go and again, Drew grounds Carrillo. Humberto flips up and turns the hold around into an armlock of his own. They go through a pinfall reversal sequence with each man netting a few near falls and it’s a stalemate. Gulak starts to throw blows and hits a chop for a two count. Carrillo ducks a clothesline and springs off the middle rope with a diving headbutt. To the apron, but Gulak drapes the arm over the top rope and then knocks Carrillo off to the floor as we take a break.

-Back with Gulak in control with a submission hold in the middle of the ring. Carriilo gets to his feet and breaks with some strikes. They fight on the apron as Gulak looks for a suplex on the apron, but they just end up back in the ring. Carrillo snaps off a kick to the face to create the space he needed. A charge in the corner from Gulak catches an elbow. Carrillo connects with a backbreaker for two. They start exchanging blows and Carrillo wins that battle. Carrillo does a handspring off the ropes and on the recoil pulls Gulak up and into an armdrag. Fantastic! Carrillo tries for another springing armdrag, but Gulak is able to pull him down into an armbar. Carrillo is able to just get a toe on the bottom rope to break. Gulak follows with a slam into a modified driver for two. Gulak throws some kicks, but gets caught with a springboard kick to the face. Humberto heads up and hits a sweet moonsault for the win at 7:52.

Winner: Humberto Carrillo via pin at 7:52
-That was just getting good as it ended and the break ate up a bit of the match. Still a solid match between two talented guys. Nice to see Carrillo win a match as well. **1/2

-Back to RAW where Conquistador Randy Orton played with matches.

-Back to RAW as Asuka gets freaked out by Alexa and her playground. That leads to a match between the two as The Main Event and evil Bliss gets the win before transforming back into playground Bliss. Again, I love the character development from Bliss, but weird to see Asuka being intimidated. I am curious to see where it all goes and Bliss getting back in the Title picture works well.

-Thanks for reading!

5.5

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

The wrestling was fine this week if a little short as they crammed in more video packages and the WrestleMania report this week. Angel Garza was great and Gulak/Carrillo were getting into a nice groove before their match ended. The Dirt Sheet segment sucked though and dragged this show down a little bit.