On Sunday morning, I posted my reaction to the complete justified actions of one Kevin Owens to the American person, Cody Rhodes. I won’t repeat those here and will instead direct you to said post if you want to read on those again. I will add that if Armed Anderson had been around, there’d be some justice ’round these parts.
However, this is more show to talk about and I did watch the rest of the show, which was a bunch of matches within a throwback setting.
So for those who don’t know, WWE brought back Saturday Night’s Main Event into the fold and this is apparently going to be a regular thing on NBC where they do monthly shows or something. They brought back Jesse Ventura to “host” the show and even commentate on the main event and… well, it’s Jesse Ventura. Guy sounds a bit ragged at times – happens to the best of us – but he was still on point.
Heard that there was a bit of an uproar from online folks who were aghast that Hogan wasn’t on the show – hard to be at the show if he was doing the UFC deal that was taking place around the same time. I do find it odd that he wasn’t included in the nostalgic montage of the opening video, considering he was a pivotal player during the prime years of SNME. Regardless of what you think of the guy – and I generally have a low opinion of him these days – excluding Hogan from a video montage for whatever stupid thing he did recently… eh, feels a bit flaky.
I also question the decision to make this a “throwback” show. Use the old WWE logos, use the old red/white/blue ring ropes, put all the refs in the babyblues and bowties, that sort of thing. I don’t get this obsession (no pun intended) to make this into an 80s throwback show. At no point during the Attitude Era or even the Hulkamania era do I recall a time where someone decided “Hey, we need to do a throwback show to the Sammartino days.” I mean, yeah, they brought back the old song. That was cool. I’m just over this whole nostalgia run again.
Other than that, the show was fine. I would argue that this is a better start to a revival than the mid-2000s was when it was just another show to add to the schedule. Whether this keeps going or not is another story, but at the very least, this first show felt special… even if nothing happened.
Drew McIntyre defeated Sami Zayn in a quick opening match. Drew naturally being a bit irked that people wanted to help CM Punk do anything in life, so he went after poor Sami. Speaking of Sami, that guy also helped Roman during his time of need. I wonder if he spoke to his good pal, Kevin, about that piece of business.
Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan got hit with a knee to the face, but still managed to defeat Iyo Sky to retain the title. The match was a thing that happened and mostly because Liv was hit in the face with a knee and seemed a bit out of it. Other than that… eh.
World Champion GUNTHER defeated Finn Balor to retain the title… oh, and Damien Priest was also there as a third wheel because he was added in at the last minute. The match was fine for what it was, but went by a bit quickly for my tastes. Probably would’ve been better off as a one-on-one between GUNTHER and Finn rather than add Priest in there. Priest will have his day down the road. For now, give Finn the chance to be humbled by the Ring General.
Chelsea Green defeated Mia “Michin” Lim to win the new Women’s U.S. title… which is the same ugly US title that the men have, but with a white strap. Again, the match was a thing that happened and that’s all I have to say about that.
And in the main event, WWE Champion Cody Rhodes (sporting what looks like a replica Winged Eagle) defeated Kevin Owens via screwjob due to incompetent referees to retain the title. I swear, Kevin had Cody pinned for almost ten seconds at one point, but the ref was taking a nap during this time and another took his sweet ass time to count the pin. The crowd naturally booed this shitty officiating. Cody retains the title and good for him. I normally have no beef against Cody, but Kevin is right, y’all.
After the show ends… well… stuff happened… but we don’t need to go into that.
Like I said, this latest revival of Saturday Night’s Main Event is off to a better start that the mid-2000s version. My indifference for the nostalgia act aside, the show was a nice, breezy two hours with some quick action. I would’ve liked more to have happened on the show – maybe have a couple long matches and some extra bits for good measure – but this was otherwise a fine show. I look forward to the next one.
dtm666 