WWE
Harris Bradley Center (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
There was a bunch of fun, little elements squeezed into the six-minutes these ten were given on Main Event.
Goldust begins for the good guys. Within the first 30 seconds he hits this cool, rolling arm drag on Axel and a regular deep arm drag. When Cody comes in, Axel blocks a left-armed hip toss, so Cody spins around and arm drags him down with his right arm instead. I would love to know why and how Cody and Dustin decided that their team should be all about high flying and agility based moves. They are clearly putting a lot of thought into it and both guys are pulling like one new, cool little move per match now.
I loved Ryback blocking and reversing the Disaster Kick with a powerbomb. Dustin’s back-bump to the floor after saving his brother from Ryback’s post-gorilla slam pin attempt was one of those “falling off the face of the earth” bumps to the floor that always gets me. Los Matadores end up on the floor with Goldust, leaving only Torito to take the hot tag from Cody which was a nice touch.
Torito got a nice chance to shine and took advantage of it. Slater took his hurricanranas (almost) flawlessly. Torito gyrates at one point. Slater responds with a combination gyration and air guitar, which leads to a gyrate-off between the two for about 20 seconds. No official winner was declared, but I had Torito. There is a dive train in here with Los Matadores diving onto Jinder and McIntyre (the former whom I don’t think was ever legally tagged into the match), Goldust adding in his running cannonball of the ring apron, and Cody doing the springboard dive to the floor.
Torito gets the win off of a hurricanrana (with Slater on his knees). The WWE is using the former Mascaraita Sagrada much better than I imagined. Not that I even think he needs to be going over guys like Slater or anything. Just using him as a second (he is a very strong second) and occasionally getting into multi-man matches to hit his high spots is a good use for him.
Eight of these ten (minus Slater and Torito) have an eight-man tag on Superstars this week that I definitely want to check out now. This match was a bit rushed but good for the time they did have. They probably have even a strong 10 – 12 minute match (with a Goldust heat segment) in them that I hope we get. If I am booking Main Event, I am sticking Rey & Sin Cara on the face side with Del Rio & Sandow on the heel side and running a cibernetico for an entire episode of Main Event. WWE has already gone outside its usual booking pattern with all the trios and multi-man matches this year, so what’s one more little step?
EDIT: Watched the Superstars 8-man tag that aired last night on the Network. Not as good as this match, which I expected since Slater and Torito were key components of the Main Event match. I still want to see some long-term C-show program between these guys going into WrestleMania. Slater works well with Torito and Ryback’s power offense is a nice contrast to all of the baby face’s flying offense.
Multi-Wrestler Tag | Worthwhile | Quality (Individual Performances – Goldust/Cody Rhodes/El Torito)
