Category: WWE News

By Chris Aiken, WrestlingObserver.com

WWE Main Event from Evansville (taped 5-12-15) was part of the go-home of programming leading to Payback. While the previous few episodes featured more angles than usual, this show saw mainly first-run matches with little storyline advancement. The only angle on the show featured the Prime Time Players spoofing Los Matadores. Elsewhere on the show were matches designed to build up those involved in matches at Payback.

Naomi & Tamina Snuka beat Natalya & Alicia Fox

While Alicia is normally a heel, she was a babyface here. Nattie & Alicia gained the advantage at the outset. Nattie went for a sunset flip on Naomi but a Tamina made a blind tag in. When Naomi ducked an attempted clothesline by Nattie, Tamina hit Nattie with a lariat to set up the heat spot. The heels got heat on Nattie for a while until a hot tag to Alicia, who ran wild. Alicia hit a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on Naomi. Tamina jumped in to make the save and break up the pin. Nattie and Tamina brawled out to ringside. Tamina hit a superkick on Alicia and Naomi covered her for the pinfall. The win helped build up Tamina and Naomi for their match at Payback against the Bellas.

Prime Time Players beat Los Matadores (with El Torito)

Before the match, Titus O’Neil cut a promo from the stage while dressed as a matador. He admitted to looking ridiculous. Conversely, he said the Matadores have looked silly for two years now while being Puerto Ricans pretending to be bullfighters. Titus then introduced “El Dyoungo”, which was Darren Young dressed in a bull costume spoofing Torito.

In the actual match, Matadores got heat on Young at the outset by attacking him at the bell. Eventually, Titus ran in to brawl and Young used a gut buster (called the “gut check” on commentary) for the pin.

Luke Harper & Erick Rowan beat Jimmy Uso & Zack Ryder

Uso and Ryder dominated on offense in the early portion until Rowan cut off Jimmy with a spin kick. The heels began to pummel Jimmy and get heat on him. After a hot tag, Ryder ran wild until running into a big boot from Harper. Rowan finished him off with a full nelson slam for the pin.

Dolph Ziggler beat Stardust

The crowd chanted “Cody” at Stardust. There were lots of reversals, leg takedowns and cradles in the opening sequences. After a commercial break, Stardust was getting heat on Ziggler when he fired up for a comeback. Stardust cut him off with a scorpion death drop for a nearfall. Moments later, Stardust used a sit-out powerbomb for another nearfall. At one point, Stardust took off one of his gloves and began slapping Ziggler with it.

Stardust went for a springboard off the top rope only to jump into a superkick from Ziggler for a nearfall. Stardust blocked an attempted zig zag to set up another nearfall. Ziggler sold being knocked out when Stardust picked him up for his finisher. Stardust went for cross roads but Ziggler countered into hitting a zig zag for the pin.  

Submitted by Adam Shinder

– Greg Hamilton and Jojo welcomed the crowd, then William Regal came out to a huge ovation, kicking things off.

NXT Tag Team Champions Blake and Murphy beat Enzo and Cass (w/ Carmella)

Enzo and Cass’ act was massively over with the crowd, everybody singing along with their pre-match shtick. Fun tag team opener, champions won with a roll-up on Enzo with feet on the ropes.

Solomon Crowe beat Bull Dempsey

Nothing wrong with the match, just relatively heat-free. Crowe won with the stretch muffler.

Tye Dillinger beat Jason Jordan

Dillinger’s “Perfect 10” gimmick got over huge. Kept pulling “10” cards from his tights. Jordan stole one, they played tug-of-war with it for a bit. Couple impressive spots from Jordan, including a huge delayed vertical suplex where he walked around the ring four or five times. Dillinger won with a superkick out of the corner, followed by a sliding codebreaker with his kneepad removed.

NXT Women’s Championship match: Sasha Banks (c) beat Charlotte

Just the announcement of the women’s title match got a huge pop. Both women insanely popular, Charlotte may have gotten the biggest pop of the night when she did a Flair flop out of the corner. Lots of submission work from Sasha, some great counters and roll-throughs. Sasha wins with her crossface, bending Charlotte almost completely backwards. Big “That was awesome” chants afterward.

*** INTERMISSION ***

Baron Corbin beat Tommy Dreamer

Huge pop “ECW” chants for Dreamer. Corbin played the bully for most of the match, eventually won with the End of Days.

Bayley and Alexa Bliss beat Dana Brooke and Becky Lynch

Dana Brooke was hated, the other three were loved — especially Bayley, who got chants before her music hit. Fun bit at the beginning where Dana made fun of Alexa’s height, so Bayley put Alexa on her shoulders and Alexa hit a knee. All four looked good, some really impressive athletic spots from Alexa. Faces won when Bayley hit the Bayley-To-Belly on Dana Brooke and Alexa wiped out Becky with a crossbody off the top.

NXT Championship Triple Threat Match: Kevin Owens (c) beat Finn Balor and Tyler Breeze

Technical strangeness here. After Breeze came out, things just kind of froze. Not if it was the lights, the music or both, but things just paused for a bit. Breeze went with it, started asking the ref to raise his hand and give him the win by forfeit. Eventually, Finn came out on the ramp and did his entire entrance without the music, with the crowd popping for every one of his poses. Music finally hit when he posed on the top rope. Owens came out and immediately sat down on the outside.

Great comedy early with Owens and Breeze double-teaming Balor, including a great spot where Owens set up for a double suplex, but Breeze insisted on switching sides. Later, Owens started alternating between putting Balor and Breeze in chinlocks, then hooked them both for a chinlock at the same time and declared it “Chinlock City,” getting a huge chant from the crowd.

Action picked up with Balor hitting a flip dive to the outside on Owens and Balor. Owens and Balor brawled to the stage, Balor got out of a powerbomb attempt and hit a double stomp on the stage, then another from the stage to the floor. Nearfalls picked up back in the ring, including a great spot where Breeze hit a Supermodel Kick on Balor, who hit him with the Pele kick on the way down, then Owens came off the top with a senton bomb on Breeze.

Finish came when Balor had Owens set up for the Coup de Grace, but Breeze hit Balor with a Supermodel Kick while he was on the top rope. Breeze then turned into the pop-up powerbomb from Owens for the pin. Post-match, Balor hit Owens with the Coup de Grace, then grabbed a mic and told Owens he was coming for the title before thanking the crowd and posing in the ring.

– Without a doubt, the most fun I’ve had at a live wrestling show in a long time.

– Crowd was hot for pretty much everything, with the exception of the second match on the show. Couple audio glitches throughout the show (including a big one at the start of the main event).

– King Barrett v Neville: Very good match. Crowd was hating Barrett. Neville won with the red arrow.

– Lucha Dragons beat Los Matadores in a good tag team match. Matadores worked a slow heel turn the whole match and bullied the bull entire time.

– R-Truth beat Stardust in a good back and forth until truth hit him with his finisher for the pin. Crowd loved Truth’s gimmick.

– Ryback def Bray Wyatt with the shellshock after reversing out of Sister Abigail. Worked a good match, crowd kinda liked Ryback.

– Emma def Alicia Fox. Alicia went nuts and yelled at the crowd for a while. Natalya came out and kicked her ass.

– Sheamus def Dolph Ziggler with a brogue kick in a very good back and forth. Ziggler kicked out at 3 but Charles Robinson called for the bell. Sheamus left looking angry at the finish very quickly.

– Street fight: Roman Reigns def Kane in a good match. Finish was roman spearing Kane thru a table for the pin. Crowd loved Reigns, big pop for the win.

– Dean Ambrose b Luke Harper
– Prime Time Players b The Ascension
– Fandango b Adam Rose
– Zack Ryder & Damien Sandow b Heath Slater & Bo Dallas
– US Champion John Cena b Rusev in a cage match
– Bella Twins b Naomi & Tamina Snuka. Brie Bella wrestling pretty well confirms Friday’s injury was an angle.
– WWE Tag Team Champions Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods b Tyson Kidd & Cesaro
– Randy Orton b WWE Champion Seth Rollins via DQ

The Brie Bella injury Friday night at State College in Pennsylvania looks to have been an angle as she worked a tag match on Saturday’s house show. The Friday “injury” set up a Paige run-in.

Submitted By Mark Gurczynski

– Enzo and Cass b. Tyler Breeze and Bull Dempsy via Big splash from the top rope

– Dana Brook b. Alexa Bliss via Firemans Carry into Michinoku Driver

– Baron Corbin b. Tommy Dreamer via End of Days

– NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks b. Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Bayley via Belly to Bayley (Sasha stole pinfall)

– NXT Tag Champions Blake and Murphy b. Solomon Crowe and Jason Jordon via frog splash

– Finn Balor b. NXT Champion Kevin Owens via DQ when Owens grabbed a chair

Notes:

– My wife and I bought last minute, cheap, balcony seats, and were “upgraded” to a section right in the middle, about 6 rows back.

– Balcony was closed, no sellout.

– The theater set up is a very cool way to watch pro wrestling.

– Everyone was treated like a star, besides Dana and Alexa. Typical rude comments from the crowd.

– Jason Jordon really blew me away. Very impressive in person.

– The 4 top NXT woman are all ready for the big leagues in my opinion. Received a standing ovation.

– Bull and Baron are much better interacting with a live crowd than reading scripts.

By Emerson Witner, WrestlingObserver.com

– From State College, PA
– Attendance: About 3,000

– WWE Tag Team Champions Big E & Xavier Woods defeated the Brass Ring Club when Kofi interfered and gave Tyson Trouble In Paradise

– Adam Rose pinned Fandango (w/Rosa Mendes)

– Zack Ryder & Prime Time Players defeated Bo Dallas & The Ascension when Zack pinned Bo.

– Dean Ambrose pinned Luke Harper

– Damien Sandow pinned Heath Slater. Sandow called Slater “the love child of Ronald McDonald and Miley Cyrus” before the match

– The Bella Twins defeated Naomi & Tamina when Nikki rolled up Naomi. During the match, Brie was working with Tamina and landed awkwardly on her shoulder. The referee threw up the X, causing the medics to run over and work on her. After the match the heels double teamed Nikki until Paige, of all people, made the save.

– In a cage match, US Champion John Cena defeated Rusev by escaping the cage