wrestling / TV Reports

411’s WWE Main Event Report 07.31.13

July 31, 2013 | Posted by Michael Benjamin

What’s up? It’s time to write down some moves, some thoughts, maybe some star ratings and match times as well!? It’s Michael Benjamin and it’s Wednesday. That sounds like the perfect recipe for a Main Event recap.

Quick Note: I want to quickly apologize for the lack of a Smackdown report last Friday. A family tragedy that happened out of nowhere forced me to miss my report without any warning to Csonka. With that said, do you want me to review it tomorrow so that you guys can compare it to this week’s show or have you had your fair share of ratings and analysis for the show at this point? If a few of you want it, I’d be more than happy to write it.

SHOW… ON!

WWE Championship Roll Call:
WWE Champion: John Cena
World Champion: Alberto Del Rio
IC Champion: Curtis Axel
US Champion: Dean Ambrose
Unified Diva’s Champion: AJ Lee
WWE World Tag Team Champions: Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns

WWE MAIN EVENT 7.31.13

– JBL and Josh Matthews are on commentary.

R-Truth vs. Wade Barrett
Did Wade Barrett get this new theme song during a mini push or did they just throw it at him out of nowhere? I legitimately don’t remember. They circle to start and exchange some hammer locks. Barrett locks in a side headlock and delivers a shoulder block after R-Truth reverses an Irish whip. Truth is back in it with some dancing, followed by a shoulder block of his own. He drops the leg and Barrett rolls to the outside for a breather. R-Truth locks in a waistlock and Barrett corners him and snap mares him followed by a quick cover for two. R-Truth is right back into the swing of things with an arm drag and an arm wringer. Barrett makes it to his feet delivers a couple of knees to Truth. He misses his third attempt and takes another arm drag into a wringer. TRUTH WRENCHES THE ARM~! EYE POKE OF DOOM BY BARRETT~! It’s the opening minutes heat segment! Truth fights back and clotheslines Barrett to the outside. Barrett tosses him into the ring steps and rolls back into the ring. BREAK! These guys are delivering a pretty standard match so far. This was a pretty tame four and a half minutes by Main Event standards actually. Lets see if they pick it up in segment two.

-Commercial Break-

Barrett is in control as we return. Truth is locked up in the ropes getting mauled by a flurry of knees, followed by a big boot to the floor. Barrett follows him out and shoves him into the barricade. He follows that up with a ram into the ring apron. Barrett rolls truth in and goes for a cover. Truth grabs the bottom rope. Barrett hits a suplex and floats over for a two count. He locks in a headlock on Truth. Truth is quick to make it to his feet. He hits the ropes and gets nailed with a knee to the guy and a boot to the face. That’s enough for a 2.5! Barrett lays him on the top rope and clubs at the small of Truth’s back followed by a kick to his midsection for another two count. He stays on him with a headlock. Truth makes it back to his feet again and hits a roundhouse kick! Both men are down and truth struggles to get to his feet. Barrett charges at him in the corner but eats a boot. R-Truth comes out of the corner with a bevy of clotheslines and an inverted suplex for TWOOOO. Truth goes for a scissors kick and Barrett moves out of the way. He hits Truth with a couple of stiff kicks to the head and gets two. Barrett lifts him up and corners him. He throws some punches and misses a clothesline. This allows Truth to his the scissors kick. NEAR FALL! Truth goes upstairs but gets crotched. Barrett slugs him a few times and goes for the superplex! Truth punches him in the gut and hits the sunset powerbomb for a very close two count! Truth beats him up with some punches and charges at Barrett. He gets hit with the Winds of Change. Barrett sets up for the Bull Hammer! R-Truth ducks and hits Barrett with a DDT! Barrett rolls to the outside though! R-Truth tries to drag Barrett in the ring. He hits the ropes for a baseball slide but gets hit with a Bull Hammer by Barrett! Barrett rolls into the ring and covers Truth for three. This match wasn’t anything special. It was pretty standard stuff up until a few near falls towards the end. Barrett has used that finishing sequence quite a few times already as well, so I had my finger on the timer ready to stop it after the predictable finish. Cookie cutter wrestling.

– We get a recap of the Punk/Axel segment on Raw. Good use of Punk with minimal screen time in my opinion.

OFFICIAL RESULT Wade Barrett @ 13:00 aired via pinfall
RATING: **1/2

-Commercial Break-

– Alberto Del Rio picks his World Heavyweight Championship opponent on Smackdown this week!

The Usos vs. The Prime Time Players
Darren Young starts things off with Jimmy Uso. They lockup after Young stalls a bit. He takes down Jimmy with a tug of the hair. Both men are quick back to the their feet and exchange take downs. ARM BAR EXCHANGE~! Jey tags in and goes right for the arm. Young gets out of the arm wringer and makes it to his feet but he’s quick to succumb to an arm drag into an arm wringer again. Jey gets back in and hits a running elbow to Young. He chops Young after a failed comeback and goes back to the arm. Jey tosses Young into Titus. This sends Titus to the outside. Young is pissed and argues with the ref. Another tag to Jimmy after almost a minute of working over the arm. Titus tags in and stares down Jimmy before we head to commercial. A lot of arm work is happening in the early going of this one. The Usos are playing the heel-like role of keeping one member of the opposing team trapped in their side of the ring. Lets see how this thing pans out.

-Commercial Break-

Titus is manhandling Jey upon our return from break. I love how often the announcers avoid calling The Usos name during their matches. It can make doing play by play a bit frustrating at times. Jey fights back with a flurry of elbows on a freshly tagged in young. In comes Jimmy. They hit a double elbow to Young’s face for two. Jey locks in a side headlock on. Darren escapes and tags in Young. Titus tags in and whips him off into the ropes. The ref’s back is turned for a moment and Darren kicks him in the back of the head. Young sends him shoulder first into the ring post and quickly tags in Titus. Titus rolls him in and locks in a headlock. Jey fights out of it but gets manhandled across the ring by O’Neil. Titus lifts him up and gives him a strong Irish whip into the corner. In comes Young. Titus gives slams Young on Jey as he makes his way out. Young covers for two. Jey fights out of another headlock and whips Young into the ropes. He ends up eating a sick looking uppercut to the jaw by a Young in motion! Both men are down though. Double tag! Jimmy cleans house. UUUU-SO. He corners Titus and hits a splash followed by an ass to the face. Things break down for a moment before O’Neil eats a double superkick. A double splash from the top rope picks up a win for The Usos. This was a collection of arm bars and headlocks with little rhyme or reason for about 85% of the match. They went home with the duel hot tag and less than a minute later it was over. Not very good. We’re 2 for 2 on matches that under-delivered.

OFFICIAL RESULT: The Usos @ 10:05 via pinfall
RATING: *1/2

-Commercial Break-

RAW REBOUND: They air a video package glossing over the Cena/Bryan storyline that’s been brewing recently.

= Mark Henry makes his way down to the ring. He’s in action next!

-Commercial Break-

Mark Henry vs. Drew McIntyre
Drew is all alone tonight. Only three minutes left in the broadcast.LOCK UP~! Henry forces him into the corner and tosses him to the outside of the ring. Drew is not pleased! I think a McIntyre/Gabriel combination would make for a pretty fun tag team. Drew makes his way back into the ring and gets hit with a few headbutts. Henry misses a splash in the corner! Drew begins chopping away at Henry with two clotheslines. He gets Henry down with a huge dropkick to the face. He has a nice vertical leap. That gets less than a one count unfortunately. Drew misses a clothesline and gets hit with World’s Strongest Slam. Over. This was nothing but a squash. I’ll take a Mark Henry squash every chance I’m given however.

-Commercial Break-

OFFICIAL RESULT: Mark Henry @ 2:47 aired via pinfall
RATING: SQUASH

OVERALL: Unfortunately, we didn’t get a very satisfying episode of Main Event tonight. Barrett/Truth was paint by numbers and The Usos vs The PTP’s was very underwhelming and rather boring to be honest. Luckily, Henry squashed McIntyre in entertaining fashion to close out the show, though that didn’t make the show anything to go out of your way to see. Hopefully we get back on track with next week’s show. 3.5/10

article topics

Michael Benjamin

Comments are closed.