Leighty’s WWE Main Event Review 2.22.24

-Props to my Uniontown Red Raiders High School Basketball team for their second round playoff win over North Catholic last night. Next up in the semis is a tough task as they play one of the Top 25 teams in the entire country (Lincoln Park), but take your shot boys. Let’s get to it!

-Announce Team: Blake Howard and Brian James
-Taped: Honda Center, Anaheim, CA

Apollo Crews vs. Jinder Mahal (w/Indus Sher)

-Not often we get a former WWE Champion on this show. Backstory as Howard tells us these two nearly traded blows over who had the bigger Title Win at WrestleMania. I forgot about Jinder winning a Title at WrestleMania. They trade blows early, but Crews floats over in the corner and lands some chops. Dropkick from Crews, but Jinder stays on his feet and stumbles to the corner. Crews on the apron, but gets caught with a knee to the face as he tried to come through the ropes. Jinder stomps away and uses his knee to choke. More choking as he uses the middle rope. Neckbreaker from Jiner followed by a knee drop for two. 12-6 elbow to the top of the head from Jinder and he follows by locking in a modified chinlock. Crews fights to his feet and they starts trading blows again. Crews hits a series of jumping clothesline and then a straight boot to the face. Crews gets two off a crossbody from the middle ropes. Enziguiri from Apollo and then a standing moonsault gets two. Crews up top, but Jinder rolls out of the way. Stun-gun from Jinder and he finishes with The Khallas for the pin at 4:35.

Winner: Jinder Mahal via pin at 4:35
-This was fine, but after a winning streak on this show, Apollo has now lost three straight. **

-Video package on the roads Drew McIntyre and Cody have taken to get to WrestleMania.

-Hulu commercials!

-Video package of The Rock officially being introduced as part of The Bloodline. HEEL ROCK HAS RETURNED AND IT’S GLORIOUS! “SLAP THE HERPES OFF YOUR LIPS.” This is The Rock we need! Now, saying Cody can’t get a rematch just because he wants to finish a story after losing last week doesn’t really fly as Cody did win The Rumble. However, The Rock is a dick and he can be delusional and believe what he is saying.

-Back to RAW as Cody and Drew opened up the show with a very good match. Drew gets the upset win thanks to help from The Bloodline. That makes perfect sense as Drew needs some big wins under his belt if he is going to be the one facing Seth at Mania and The Bloodline costing Cody adds to their issues. It also reminds fans what happened to Cody last year and what he has to avoid happening this year.

-Cody and Seth will be guests on The Grayson Waller Effect at Elimination Chamber.

-Men’s Chamber Match is set: Drew McIntyre vs. Kevin Owens vs. Logan Paul vs. Randy Orton vs. LA Knight vs. Bobby Lashley.

-Video package running down the women who have qualified: Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Tiffany Stratton, Liv Morgan, and Naomi. One spot remains and that was settled on RAW this past week with a Last Chance Battle Royal.

-WWE2K24 commercial! I will be buying it, but right now I am salivating over College Football returning as a video game for the first time in over a decade. I have been dreaming for this day and it’s coming in July. The value of my NCAA14 for my Xbox 360 will likely be dropping now though. Unless the new game sucks!

-Hulu commercials!

-Back to RAW as we get the closing sequence from The Last Chance Battle Royal. Raquel Rodriguez making her return kind of gave away who was winning this one. It was a Battle Royal that got a lot of women in the ring, which was a plus, and the crowd got into it by the end. This was solid and several women got some shine. Chelsea Green killed it once again before getting tossed to give Raquel the win. The crowd was ready to explode when they teased Chelsea could pull off the win.

-Rhea Ripley defends against Nia Jax on Saturday in Perth! The stadium is going to explode for Rhea, and her reaction is going to be great.

-Hulu commercials!

-Rundown for SmackDown as it’s a taped episode with people being in Australia.

The Creed Brothers vs. Hank Walker and Tank Ledger

-Hank and Tank make their Main Event debut. I have seen all of their matches as singles and as a team on Level Up. Let’s see what they can do here! Julius and Tank start and Brutus holds his own for a few seconds, but the mat wrestling takes over. Tag to Brutus and he controls with a side headlock. James mentions Billy Gunn on commentary and then brings up that Hank is not related to Texas Ranger and Tank isn’t related to Heath Ledger. The Creeds try to one up each other as they beat on Hank and Tank. Tank catches Julius and dumps him on the ropes in the corner. Hank with a body block that knocks Brutus off the apron to the floor as we head to our commercial break.

-WrestleMania XL commercial!

-85 seconds of Hulu commercials!

-Back at 5:01 with Hank and Tank still in control. Double slam followed by a double back splash for two. Hank goes to work on the arm as the crowd starts to rally behind Julius. He tries to punch his way to a tag, but Hank delivers a big boot to the face. Splash in the corner and then some sweet double team offense with a set-up into a belly to back suplex. Tank hooks a chinlock for a bit, but releases to get a two count and then back to the chinlock. Julius avoids a splash in the corner and knocks Hank off the apron. He hits an enziguiri and dives for the hot tag to Brutus. He just clubs and pounds on Hank and Tank. Hank goes flying with a suplex. Dead lift German! Powerbomb on Tank gets two as Hank makes the save. Hank gets dumped to the floor, but comes back to stop a Brutus Ball. Julius with a pop-up superplex as they as sucking the crowd into this one. The Brutus Ball connects on a second try and that gets the pin at 10:06.

Winner: The Creed Brothers via pin at 10:06
-This was fun as they just hit each other hard and threw each other around the ring until the crowd got into it. Good showing from Hank and Tank as this was a step up from what I see from them on Level Up. I enjoyed this as it just felt like a fight at times. ***

-Video package hyping up GUNTHER vs. Jey Uso!

-Elimination Chamber! 5:30 AM!

-Hulu commercials!

-Back to RAW for GUNTHER defending his IC Title against Jey Uso. I know some thought Jey was winning here, but I really think if GUNTHER drops the title it should be on a PLE. Also, they established earlier in the show that The Bloodline were in the building, so you kind of had to know where this was heading. Jimmy Uso rings the bell early to distract Jey and GUNTHER eventually uses that distraction to block a splash and get a pin to retain.

-After the match Jimmy Uso beats the dog out of Jey as they start the hard push to the eventual Mania match between the two. “No matter how big you get, I’ll always be the big brother,” is quality trash talk.

-Thanks for reading!

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

My rule is that if any match gets to *** it is automatically a good show and that is the case here. I may have enjoyed that tag match more than some, but I like bigger dudes throwing each other around the ring. I also enjoy seeing my Level Up kids show up on the main roster and get a chance to show off a bit. The opening match was solid between two pros, but the story was the tag match and how they were able to get the crowd into the match by the end.