WWE Main Event - December 5, 2012
by Scrooge McSuck
- Taped on December 4th, 2012 from Charleson, SC. Michael Cole and The Miz are calling the action this week. We're immediately informed of the "injury" to CM Punk on Monday Night Raw, but we'll get into that a little bit later in the broadcast.
- Recap of last week, setting up tonight's "Main Event" between Kingston and Cesaro. It's Non-Title, but honestly, making one midcard singles title would be an improvement in my eyes.
- Josh Mathews is backstage with Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston. We recap the bias poll from Raw where the RawActive had the United States Title put on the line in a Fatal-Four Way. Cesaro managed to retain, pinning Kingston, of course. Who didn't see that one coming the second the match was made?
- Video package hyping Antonio Cesaro and his dominance as United States Champion since winning the belt at SummerSlam. He's come a long way since then, like beating Justin Gabriel 8 times and Brodus Clay 3 times.
Kofi Kingston (IC Champion) vs. Antonio Cesaro:
As mentioned earlier, this is a Non-Title Match. Cesaro cuts a pretty cheesy promo before the match for some cheap heat. For whatever reason, R Truth and Wade Barrett join the commentary team. I smell screwy finish. Lockup, and Kingston quickly goes for the arm. Cesaro counters and takes Kofi down with a waistlock. Lockup to the corner, Kofi counters a hip toss and puts the boots to Cesaro, but a kick to the face puts him down on the canvas. Whip to the corner, Kofi leaps into a mounted position and pounds away with rights. They trade uppercuts, won by Cesaro, of course. Headlock takeover by Cesaro. Whip to the ropes, Cesaro with a shoulder tackle. Criss-cross leads to Kofi sending Cesaro to the floor with an elbow. He follows with a sucide dive. Back inside, Kofi covers for barely aone count. Cesaro rolls to the apron, and brings Kofi over with him, dropping his shoulder into the canvas. Cesaro with a waistlock takedown, then goes for an armbar. Cesaro continues working the arm with clubbing blows, then lifts Kofi off the canvas, only to slam him back down. Cover for two. Whip to the corner, Cesaro charges into a heel kick. Kofi to the top rope, but he jumps into an arm breaker. Kofi rolls through into a pinning combination for two. Cesaro with another quick takedown as we go to the first commercial break.We come back with Cesaro having a seated hammerlock applied. Charge to the corner meets a boot. Kofi to the top, and this time he jumps into an uppercut. Cesaro covers for two, then starts pounding away on the midsection. Kofi counters with a body press for two. Cesaro remains in control with his usual stuff. Kofi slingshots Cesaro back in the ring and connects with a dropkick and clothesline. The Boom drop connects, but he chooses to go for Trouble in Paradise. Suddenly, Wade Barrett and R Truth get involved, and it's a shmozz at 11:38 (including commercial break). But wait... it's TAG TEAM EXTRAVAGANZA Barrett charges in, and quickly gets sent to the floor by Truth, as we take a commercial break.
We come back with Killing nailing Barrett off the ropes with a heel kick. Kingston tags in and hits a diving forearm into the corner for two. Cesaro tags in and goes back to working the arm. Kingston turns it around into a front facelock. Double hip toss from the former Tag Team Champions. Truth with a dancin' leg drop for two. Whip to the ropes, and Kofi comes off the top with a clothesline for two. Kingston with kicks, but that only annoys Cesaro, who slams him back into the corner. Barrett with a snapmare and boot to the back. He goes for the arm and goes for a quick cover. He grapevines the arm, followed by slamming it into the canvas. Cesaro with an elbow drop for a two count. Kofi counters a hip toss with a monkey flip. Truth tags in and hits a pair of clotheslines. He hits the silly suplex into a stunner, but it only gets two. The action spills to the floor, where Truth gets suckered into taking the uppercut of doom. Back in the ring, Cesaro covers for two. Barrett takes a boot to the chest, but recovers to nail Truth with a big boot for a two count. He applies a seated chinlock as we catch a replay of the previous spot. Truth fights free, but takes a knee to the midsection. Barrett covers for two as we take ANOTHER break.
Barrett boots Truth through the ropes once we return from the commercial. Cesaro tags in, throws Truth back inside the ring, and grabs a front facelock. He turns it into a reverse chinlock, robbing us of the lame fake hot tag spot I predicted was going to happen. Truth with blows to the midsection, with no effect. Cesaro hits the ropes, and runs right into a jumping heel kick from the Truth. Kingston gets the hot tag and immediately comes off the top with a clothesline on Barrett. He connects with a dropkick and rolls him up for two. Kofi leaps into the corner and comes off the top with a body press for two. Barrett with a boot to the midsection to slow Kofi down, but he quickly takes Cesaro down and connects with SOS. Barrett runs in to break the tag, and gets knocked to the floor by Truth for his efforts. Kofi measures up, but misses Trouble in Paradise. Cesaro runs into an elbow in the corner on a charge attempt. Truth with a blind tag, sunset flip in, and Trouble in Paradise connects, allowing R Truth to pin the US Champion at 19:52. Well, that just went on and on... the singles match was going alright, if not a little slow, before the bullcrap finish that turned this into a Tag Team Match, and sadly, that too seemed to drag on a little too much. I've never been a fan of Kofi/Truth as a team, and there's no tag team chemistry from Cesaro and Barrett. It was OK, but a 45-minute match (or two matches blended together) could've been well spent on something else.
- We recap Monday Night Raw's "Main Event" segment. For those who didn't watch, and judging by Raw's ratings, that would be a lot of people, The Miz did his lame "talk show" where he had CM Punk agree to a lie-detector test. The usual banter happens, Punk points out why does Miz give a crap about anything, and before we can find out if Punk really is in cahoots with Brad Maddox and The Shield, The Shield runs in for the No Contest Finish and triple team Miz. Suddenly, Kane and Daniel Bryan give it a go, but it's not until Ryback evens the odds that the Shield finally gets a taste of their own medicine. After all that, Ryback attacks Punk and puts him through a table, which is the kayfabe reason for his injury. Instead of the WWE Title Match, we'll instead be getting Ryback and Team Hell No against The Shield in a TLC Match, where only pinfalls and submissions count. Decent enough substitution, I must say.
Next Week: Ryback vs. Alberto Del Rio. Huh.
Final Thoughts: The entire show was dedicated to a pretty mediocre string of a "match" that would've been much better had it just been a regular singles match that went 20-minutes, rather than turning it into a tag team match midway through to go over 35. No secondary match, so Ryback vs. Del Rio makes zero sense to happen next week. The Raw Rebound was actually the best part of the show tonight. Next week's broadcast is a special 6:30 start time, by the way, due to a Concert for Super-Storm Sandy Relief.
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