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WWE Main Event - February 24, 2015

by Scrooge McSuck

- Fastlane has come and gone, and I think the universal opinion was “meh”, despite a PHENOMINAL Main Event. An undercard with poor direction, bad finishes, and that feeling of why should I get attached to anyone, when WWE only cares about who THEY want, and not what WE want. No, I’m not going off on a tangent about how Daniel Bryan deserves to be in the WrestleMania Main Event, but the fact the WWE metaphorically put a bullet in the head of Daniel Bryan ever being more than a filler guy at the top of the card kind of makes me not care about where anything is going at this point. If you’re still interested in reading my sulking…

- TAPED on February 24th, but not uploaded to Hulu-Plus until February 25th, 2015 from Atlanta, GA, with Tom Phillips and John “Bradshaw” Layfield calling the action, unless otherwise noted.

The Lucha Dragons vs. Tyson Kidd & Cesaro (Tag Team Champions; w/ Natalya):

Non-Title Match… I guess we know what that means. Kalisto and Tyson Kidd start. Kidd with a waistlock takedown. He grabs a headlock, knocks Kalisto down with a shoulder tackle, then mocks the “Lucha” chant. Kalisto comes back with a spinning head scissors. Cesaro tags in and throws Kalisto across the ring. Cesaro blocks and counters a bunch of stuff until Sin Cara gets the tag and the Dragons take over with double-teaming. Sin Cara gets caught in the Champs corner and worked over. Sin Cara comes off the top with a flying arm drag and Sin Cara springboards in with a dropkick for two. Kidd gets sent to the floor, and hides behind his wife. Meanwhile, Cesaro comes in and takes Sin Cara down with a German suplex. We return from break, with Cesaro in control with a chinlock. Cesaro from the apron with a double stomp, followed by a flurry of forearms. Whip to the ropes, and Sin Cara takes him down with a twirling facebuster. Kalisto with the hot tag. Springboard corkscrew moonsault on Kidd, followed by a head scissors face-buster for two. Kalisto with a hand-spring roundhouse kick. He goes for a plancha, but the Champs catch him. He still manages to take Kidd down, and Sin Cara follows out with a suicide dive on Cesaro. Back in the ring, Kalisto with a flying body press, but Kidd rolls through for two. Kalisto with a victory roll for two. Kalisto with a tornado DDT on Cesaro for two. Cesaro catches a springboard and slams him down for two. Kidd with a jumping heel kick, and Cesaro finishes with a European uppercut at 9:08. Wow, a finish that is logical and doesn’t hurt anyone. **3/4 Started off sluggish, but really picked up for the hot tag and (practically) clean finishes are always welcome.

- Earlier this week on Raw, Roman Reigns went face-to-face with Paul Heyman. What, you were expecting Brock Lesnar? Maybe yes, maybe no. He was at Raw and scheduled to be used, but for reasons that are uncertain (contractual issues, most likely), he was not only left off the show, but went home before the end of it. I have to admit, it’s fun reading stupid rumors that float around, but really, it’s probably something insignificant to what the speculation has been.

Paige & Emma vs. Nikki & Brie Bella:

Speaking of Raw… I’m quite surprised by how big of a deal was made at the use (or lack thereof) of the diva’s. Just to get everyone caught up, we were heading into hour three and the show was running long, so the scheduled tag team match featuring this same quartet was trimmed to a lean, mean 30-seconds. It was the only Diva’s Match written into the show, of course. To make things even more entertaining, in what might be a work, but also might be a shoot, A.J. Lee tweeted a smart-ass remark to Stephanie McMahon about gender “equality”, in response to a tweet from Stephanie applauding such a thing in Hollywood. I’ve said this countless times over the last year, but the WWE Women and the NXT Women are like a night and day comparison. WWE programming treats the Women as eye-candy, piss-break matches, and shallow, while NXT promotes them at an almost equal ground, allows them time to work, and doesn’t make every angle something straight out of 6th grade. I have no problem with most of the women on WWE programming, but WWE doesn’t do a thing to get them over as anything more than softcore pornstars. “What do you mean, wrestle? Go out there, you (Nikki), shake your ass, and you (Paige), crawl all over her seductively, lick her face, and roll up finish.” I can actually see that being a conversation piece during one of the many re-writes of the script for Raw.

Sorry for the rant… we have a match to cover! We actually get “highlights”, which is actually the entire friggin’ segment. What a joke. Paige and Emma don’t exactly seem to be on the same page. Paige and Brie start. Lockup, and Brie with a takedown. Paige with a knee to the midsection, followed by a headbutt. Snapmare takeover, and Emma comes in with a basement dropkick for two. Paige with a shoulder tackle for two. Emma comes back with forearms and a diving clothesline for two. Emma with the Dilemma in the corner (Tajiri’s Tarantula), but a cheap shot puts Nikki back in control. Brie works the arm while Phillips and JBL pay attention to everything in the world, minus this match. Nikki with a hammerlock slam for two. Emma avoids a double-team effort, sending the Bella’s into each other. Paige with the hot tag, and unloads on Brie with a trio of clotheslines and a one-foot dropkick. She goes for the PTO, but Brie fights free. Emma blind tags in and comes off the top with a body press, but Nikki breaks the cover. Nikki dumps Paige, and Paige pulls her to the floor. Brie with the X-Factor on Emma, and it’s good for three at 5:54. At least this lasted longer than it takes me to take a piss. ** Fine work, but it still doesn’t help when the commentary doesn’t give a shit about any of it.

- Hype video for the Man They Call Sting. Clips throughout his WCW career, from the early years with the flat-top bleach-blonde hair, to the latter years as the Icon, the Crow, are shown, along with comments from names such as Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Booker T, Hulk Hogan, DDP, John Cena, and a host of others putting over what Sting meant to wrestling, to fans, and to WCW. As someone who grew up a WWF fan, I have to admit Sting was one of the few reasons I consistently cared about WCW. For a fan who is unfamiliar with Sting, this was an outstanding piece. If WWE has one thing they are practically flawless at, is hype videos like this. I can argue about how much anyone really wants to see Sting vs. Triple H, but I have no problem with it. It’ll be at WrestleMania, Triple H will put his absolute best effort in, and hopefully Sting does the same. It’s really one of the few things to look forward to that makes WrestleMania feel special.

Kofi Kingston (w/ Xavier Woods & Big E.) vs. Stardust:

With the exception of Adam Rose, I can’t think of another act as unover as the New Day. Considering Kofi Kingston is a member of the group, that takes some serious cheese. Stardust is not only coming off a PPV loss to his brother, but a TERRIBLE “distraction” loss to Jack Swagger on Raw. Stardust is back to the body suit, so maybe it was a one-time thing at Fastlane. The crowd quickly gets on Stardust’s case with “Cody” chants. Lockup into the corner, and he gives one of the more bizarre clean breaks you could imagine. Long criss-cross sequence ends with Kofi connecting with a back elbow. He mocks Stardust’s posing and takes him down with a drop toe hold. Kofi lands on his feet on a monkey flip attempt, but Stardust rolls to the floor to avoid Trouble in Paradise. Back in the ring, Kofi takes him over with an arm drag and hooks an armbar. Whip to the ropes, Stardust back drops Kofi to the apron, then snaps the arm across the top rope as we take a break. We return, with Kofi coming off the second rope with a forearm for two. Stardust meets a boot in the corner, but recovers quickly enough to knock Kofi off the apron. Back inside, Stardust stomps away and hooks an armbar. Stardust with a slam and double axehandle for two. He heads to the top again, but takes a fist to the midsection on the way down. Kofi with chops and a dropkick. Jumping clothesline and Boom Drop follows. Stardust escapes to the floor, and Kofi follows him out with a suicide dive. Kofi to the top rope with a body press for two. Stardust avoids a kick and rolls Kofi up for two. A variant of the Disaster Kick gets two. Kofi counters CrossRhodes, but ends up being tripped up from the top rope. Stardust with CrossRhodes on attempt #2, and it’s good for three at 10:09. Another clean finish. Am I alone in thinking they need to rename his finisher if he disowned the name Cody Rhodes? ** Started off really slow and sluggish, but the last few minutes really picked up and saved it from being a complete yawner.

Final Thoughts: Three competitive matches and three clean finishes, all in favor of the heels. The opener between the Lucha Dragons and the NEW Tag Team Champions, Cesaro and Kidd, kicked things off on the right note, having a solid back-and-forth match until the Champions found a way to pick up the victory. The Diva’s didn’t really blow me away with their performance, but at least were allowed enough time to work, and the results were decent. Kofi and Stardust was surprisingly lackluster, but both men are known for hot finishes, and they picked it up late. Not much filler this week, only one recap from Raw, and the Sting video is a must-see.

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