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| The last of a championship breed Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Let this week's episode of Main Event be a lesson to the kids out there: threats work.
After last week's shamatravmockery of a show, it began with an underneath title match and ended with a three-minute Great Khali match (which as any of us will tell you, is about the perfect length of a Khali match besides 6 seconds).
In the middle Damien Sandow and Tons of Funk got much-needed Ws into their respective ledgers, but let's begin with the crown jewel of the show and the kickoff that saw Dean Ambrose's successful defense of his half of the unofficial Television Title.
He and Ziggler have traded back and forth for the better part of the past few weeks, and while this match never quite got to great, it was never boring or an afterthought; in short, a textbook two-segger Main Event match amongst two of the brighter lights of WWE's roster. When seeing Ambrose fly solo, I'm always struck by his precise selling that seems to be his and his alone. He sells counters and transitions logically, not as if he'd gotten punched by the Big Show but rather as an annoyance that still did some damage to him for a beat before he gets angry and refocuses in on laying waste to his opponent. When you're in a match against the man who invented Full Ziggler and your selling is the high point, that's talent in spades. Not to mention nothing we've seen from the United States Champion barring horrific injury makes an observer think he'll get worse over time.
On this Wednesday he overcame an early Ziggler flurry that started with the Best Dropkick in the Universe and most flamboyantly featured a pop-up facebuster to finally hit the bulldog driver to retain. Well, it was really more of a bulldog than a driver in this instance, thus allowing the Ziggler Scale to take a bit of sleep as opposed to other occasions. While the scale didn't even come close to breaking, all the little things Ambrose did from his textbook forearm face rake in the corner to his setup move being "yank him really hard off of the second rope" elevated something good into something really good.
Speaking of which, Tensai has been killing it lately.
No, you aren't high. Or drunk. Probably.
And I'm not either, and I'm dead serious: the Assistant to the General Manager is starting to get the signature moves every star needs (an impressive monkey flip and a delayed underhook suplex) and here, despite the fact he's a bigger guy than everyone on 3MB, his selling on his team + Santino's way to victory again put a little carbonation in something that could've come off flat, in both the necessary/mandatory Santino comedy jaunts that occurred as well as the match when it came down to throwing down. Still don't know how comfortable I am with Team Old School beating up a guy who might as well be called DMC, but hey.
My pre-match worries about Damien Sandow showing up robeless and insultless to his match with R-Truth turned out to be for naught, as he wrestled like he'd gotten a bug in his beard right away. When your headbutts and knee strikes are that good you're forgiven if your elbow drop is a reflection of a reflection of a reflection of a reflection, a lot of hand gestures that translated to Latin mean "to incapacitate the victim of this ostentatious maneuver for somewhere between 1 and 3 beats no matter what". If only his match concluding Silencer could be applied to the Miz--then again I suppose if that had happened I wouldn't've gotten that possible future reference/surprisingly nice callback to the Awesome Truth. Like they could do any better right now!
Who do they think they are, Dean Ambrose?
Not likely.
Welcome back, Main Event. When we remember you in the future, we'll pretend Year 2 started here and I wasn't about to wish you out to the cornfield, okay?
After last week's shamatravmockery of a show, it began with an underneath title match and ended with a three-minute Great Khali match (which as any of us will tell you, is about the perfect length of a Khali match besides 6 seconds).
In the middle Damien Sandow and Tons of Funk got much-needed Ws into their respective ledgers, but let's begin with the crown jewel of the show and the kickoff that saw Dean Ambrose's successful defense of his half of the unofficial Television Title.
He and Ziggler have traded back and forth for the better part of the past few weeks, and while this match never quite got to great, it was never boring or an afterthought; in short, a textbook two-segger Main Event match amongst two of the brighter lights of WWE's roster. When seeing Ambrose fly solo, I'm always struck by his precise selling that seems to be his and his alone. He sells counters and transitions logically, not as if he'd gotten punched by the Big Show but rather as an annoyance that still did some damage to him for a beat before he gets angry and refocuses in on laying waste to his opponent. When you're in a match against the man who invented Full Ziggler and your selling is the high point, that's talent in spades. Not to mention nothing we've seen from the United States Champion barring horrific injury makes an observer think he'll get worse over time.
On this Wednesday he overcame an early Ziggler flurry that started with the Best Dropkick in the Universe and most flamboyantly featured a pop-up facebuster to finally hit the bulldog driver to retain. Well, it was really more of a bulldog than a driver in this instance, thus allowing the Ziggler Scale to take a bit of sleep as opposed to other occasions. While the scale didn't even come close to breaking, all the little things Ambrose did from his textbook forearm face rake in the corner to his setup move being "yank him really hard off of the second rope" elevated something good into something really good.
Speaking of which, Tensai has been killing it lately.
No, you aren't high. Or drunk. Probably.
And I'm not either, and I'm dead serious: the Assistant to the General Manager is starting to get the signature moves every star needs (an impressive monkey flip and a delayed underhook suplex) and here, despite the fact he's a bigger guy than everyone on 3MB, his selling on his team + Santino's way to victory again put a little carbonation in something that could've come off flat, in both the necessary/mandatory Santino comedy jaunts that occurred as well as the match when it came down to throwing down. Still don't know how comfortable I am with Team Old School beating up a guy who might as well be called DMC, but hey.
My pre-match worries about Damien Sandow showing up robeless and insultless to his match with R-Truth turned out to be for naught, as he wrestled like he'd gotten a bug in his beard right away. When your headbutts and knee strikes are that good you're forgiven if your elbow drop is a reflection of a reflection of a reflection of a reflection, a lot of hand gestures that translated to Latin mean "to incapacitate the victim of this ostentatious maneuver for somewhere between 1 and 3 beats no matter what". If only his match concluding Silencer could be applied to the Miz--then again I suppose if that had happened I wouldn't've gotten that possible future reference/surprisingly nice callback to the Awesome Truth. Like they could do any better right now!
Who do they think they are, Dean Ambrose?
Not likely.
Welcome back, Main Event. When we remember you in the future, we'll pretend Year 2 started here and I wasn't about to wish you out to the cornfield, okay?
