Leighty’s WWE Main Event Review 5.25.23

-My latest Retro Review (In Your House: Beware of Dog 1 and 2) can be found here. Give it a look if you can. Let’s get to it!

-Announce Team: Kevin Patrick and Byron Saxton
-Taped: GIANT Center, Hershey, PA

Dana Brooke vs. Tegan Nox

-Saxton refers to Brooke as Ms. Main Event and I remember when I started reviewing this show in 2020 when that title was given to Bianca Belair. Lockup to start and Nox shoves Brooke after a clean break in the corner. Brooke catches Nox’s leg and just goes to a side headlock. Brooke knocks Nox on her ass and then gets several waist-lock take downs. Nox with a standing reverse, but gets caught with a kick to the gut. Nox bails to the apron as she yells that she is going home. She suckers Brooke in and hangs her up on the top rope. Nox slaps Brooke around a bit and uses the middle rope to choke. Suplex gets a two count. This crowd is dead! Nox stomps away in the corner and then gets a modified cannon ball splash in the corner. The crowd finally wakes up a little bit and Dana rallies back with a flapjack which leaves both women down. Brooke throws a bunch of forearms and hits a couple clotheslines. Handspring elbow in the corner and then the bulldog counter for two. Nox slides off Dana’s back, throws her into the middle buckle, and then gets a roll-up with her feet on the ropes for the pin at 5:20.

Winner: Tegan Nox via pin at 5:20
-The crowd being dead didn’t help this one. It was a match and I approve of Nox getting some wins and cheating to do so. *

-Nikki Cross vs. Emma is our Main Event this week!

-Back to SmackDown where The Usos attacks Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn which pisses off Roman as that wasn’t his plan.

-Later in the night things only get worse for The Usos as they lose to Santos Escobar and Rey Mysterio. The Usos can afford to eat losses and it makes for the better story right now.

-Don’t Try This At Home or Anywhere!

-Hulu commercials!

-Back to RAW where Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Riddle get a win over Imperium. Fun match and it gives the Tag Champions some momentum heading into the weekend. GUNTHER isn’t hurt because his flunkies can eat every pin in these matches. He is still going to steamroll Ali on Saturday!

-This Saturday: Night of Champions: Triple Main Event! I don’t know why I chuckle every time they play Brock yelling, “look at my face.”

-Hulu commercials!

-Back to SmackDown two weeks ago where Liv Morgan took a knee to the face from Dakota Kai and now she is injured causing the Tag Titles to be relinquished. This Monday it’s a Fatal 4 Way to crown new champions!

-Also on RAW this week it’s time to start qualifying matches for Money in The Bank.

-Back to RAW as Trish Stratus and Becky Lynch sign the contract for Night of Champions. Trish takes credit for single handily changing woman’s wrestling while Becky was doing Irish jigs in a dumpy bar. Trish notes this is her first contract signing and this will be Becky’s last one. Becky notes that Trish is scared of time passing her by and of the fans remembering her for being better than she is today. Becky references Trish barking like a dog for Vince and finishes with “welcome to the big time bitch. Woof, woof!” A table gets knocked over, but no violence. AEW contract signing last night had no violence either. What is this world coming to?

-This Saturday afternoon at Night of Champions: Roman looks to add 2 more titles to his trophy case as he and Solo challenge Sami and KO!

-Hulu commercials!

Nikki Cross vs. Emma

-Lockup to start and Cross gets an arm, but Emma with a trip. Cross back to the arm and this time Emma pulls the hair to break. Emma uses the ropes to keep Nikki away and then lands a kick to the gut. Nikki tosses Emma into the ropes and drops behind her to trip her up. Emma gets tossed into the top buckle in every corner and then Nikki jumps on her back with a sleeper. Emma tries to break in the corner, but no dice so she decides to drop straight back. Effective! We head to commercial at 2:40.

-WWE Most Wanted Treasures: GOLDBERG! Plus Steve Austin does the weather while swearing! GOLD!

-Hulu commercials for 90 seconds!

-Back with Emma in control as she traps the head, throws some knees, and gets a double underhook suplex. Cross blocks being sent into the corner and fights back with right hands. She looks for a bulldog, but Emma goes to the hair to stop that noise. More hair pulling as she yanks on the hair while having Nikki trapped between the ropes. Emma catapults Nikki throat first into the bottom rope for two. Emma misses a wild swing which lets Nikki gets a roll-up for two. She hits a jawbreaker next and avoids a charge in the corner. Nikkie throws some forearms and gets a knockdown. Cross avoids two clothesline and connects with two basement dropkicks. Splash in the corner and Nikki brings Emma down with a Tornado DDT. Nikki heads up top, but Emma just ducks as Nikki crashes. Running kick to the head gets two! Cross collapses getting tossed into the corner which lets Emma hit the basement cross-body. She misses a charge in the corner and hits her shoulder on the post. Cross hits the swinging neckbreaker for the win at 9:38.

Winner: Nikki Cross via pin at 9:38
-Started slow, but picked up in the final few minutes. They were able to get the crowd into it even if took a bit to get there. *3/4

-Back to RAW where Brock Lesnar destroys Cody Rhodes when he arrives to the arena. He goes after the arm by slamming a beer keg into it as it’s against a garage door. I have a feeling Brock is used to throwing around beer kegs.

-This Saturday a New World Heavyweight Champion will be crowned: Rollins vs. Styles!

-Hulu commercials!

-Prizefighter is the official theme of Night of Champions. KO CAN’T LOSE!

-Back to RAW as EVIL COWBOY BROCK mocks Cody Rhodes and tells the fans he won’t be out here tonight and won’t be fighting at Night of Champions. Cody, with his arm in a sling, heads down to fight as officials try to talk him out of it. I mean, fighting Brock with one arm is certainly a choice. The fans love him for it. Brock easily gets a kimura and breaks Cody’s arm as he screams “fight me” at him.

-Later in the show HHH visits Cody and tries to talk him out of the match with Brock. He tells Cody he can tell his arm is broken. Cody tells HHH he is not afraid and HHH says he is afraid the doctor is going to find the arm is broken and HHH will have to rule him out on Saturday. HHH puts over Cody’s toughness and references last year’s Hell in a Cell. Cody is no coward and says of all people HHH should understand. He will fight this Saturday and HHH just smiles at him,

-Thanks for reading!

4.0

The final score: review Poor

The 411

Well, they took the four women from last week and just had them switch opponents. Last week's results were better. I understand they need to get the new RAW faces on this show, but I am missing the RAW vs. NXT format.