WWE Main Event
WWE Network
Ottawa, ON
July 8, 2014
Photos: WWE.com
Announcers: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, and Eden with ring introductions.
It’s time for the Main Event! Are you ready? We have a couple of things to look forward to as we journey together through this one hour of WWE television exclusive to WWE Network. You can catch this show free this week as part of a trial period for the Network by going to network.wwe.com. Later on the show, Chris Jericho welcomes Bret Hart onto the Highlight Reel. We start, however, with a US Championship defense in Canada!
Last Man Standing for the US Championship: Sheamus defeats Alberto Del Rio via 10 Count to retain the US title. Before the match, Sheamus said he was entering the Intercontinental Championship battle royal at Battleground to unify the US and IC titles. I hope he does just that, honestly. Del Rio interrupted on the Tron, and said he would be the unifier of the two titles. I hope he does NOT do just that, honestly. The first portion of this match featured back and forth wrestling, plus the introduction of a kendo stick! Weapons on the Network is best for business. After a commercial break, more wrestling with weapons including a chair, steps, and the kendo stick some more. Another commercial break later, and Sheamus was building momentum to a victory but missed a Brogue Kick. Del Rio countered with the backstabber for a teaser of a finish, but Del Rio couldn’t get lucky. Del Rio missed his superkick, which Sheamus in turn countered to White Noise. Sheamus, deciding to be more ruthless, went searching for more weapons until he found a conveniently placed table under the ring. Sheamus set up the table in the ring, but couldn’t do anything with it for a bit as Del Rio locked in the armbreaker. Since this was last man standing, that movie did little to help Del Rio’s chances of winning. It didn’t matter, anyway, as Sheamus powered up and powerbombed Del Rio through the table. Alberto, the tough guy, got up at 9 so we continue until Sheamus hits a Brogue Kick to finally put Del Rio out for good. Sheamus retains the title, and we continue to head toward a potential unification of the secondary belts at Battleground.
Video Package: The return of Chris Jericho is highlighted. Jericho goes one on one with Bray Wyatt at Battleground. How could you not subscribe to this WWE Network!?
Backstage: Chris Jericho, talking to Renee Young, compared Bray Wyatt to a big, black spider. At Battleground, Chris says he will squash the spider.
6 on 1 Handicap Match: Cameron & Naomi & Summer Rae & Natalya & Eva Marie & Rosa Mendes defeat Nikki Bella. Nikki Bella came out to the ring as happy as a clam, smiling and doing a normal, cheerful entrance. Her Tron video highlights the word ‘Fearless,’ so I guess that makes sense even though she was going into this massacre of a match. As the match began with Rosa and Nikki, Cameron still had not come to the ring. Byron told us that Cameron is just acting out due to lack of attention. He was also trying to sell that Natalya and Naomi, the babyfaces ganging up on Nikki, really didn’t want to be a part of this match but were just doing what their boss told them. The match itself was not very good, finally ending when Eva Marie hit a DDT on Nikki. That’s so Raven.  After the conclusion, Cameron finally came out and attacked Natalya, who was checking in on Nikki. That was not very Raven. Naomi ran Cameron off to end this mid-show women’s spectacle.
Coming up this week on the Network free trial: WrestleMania on Sunday, and a Saturday Night’s Main Event marathon on Saturday. I already subscribe, but I want to subscribe again just for this awesomeness!
Highlight Reel w/ Bret Hart: Chris Jericho came out for our main event, quickly introducing the Canadian Legend, Bret “Hitman” Hart. Hart said it was huge to be back in Ottawa, and on Main Event for the first time. The crowd sat silently, intently listening to Hart as he told a story about Chris Jericho coming to the Dungeon for the first time and getting stretched by Bret’s sister, Georgia. Hart said his favorite rivalry in WWE was Shawn Michaels, and immediately HBK’s music hit. However, it was not HBK entering the building. Rather, The Heartbreak Sandow came to the ring. Damien Sandow did the HBK entrance, spoke in his best HBK vocal impression, and took Jericho’s mocking about how he was uglier than the real Michaels. Damien went on a tirade, so Bret Hart cut him off with a punch followed by the sharpshooter to the cheers of Chris Jericho and the Ottawa fans. Hart and Jericho stood tall in the ring, reveling in the reaction, as Main Event went off the air.
Final Thoughts:
This show wasn’t your average one hour of WWE filler, although it did feel like it at the end. We had a title match that went plenty of time and featured higher than average effort, a divas match that continued the Steph vs Bellas and Naomi vs Cameron storylines, and a main event talking segment featuring Jericho and Hart. You could certainly say they tried to make this show a bigger deal, but in the end, it still fell flat. We had Hart on Raw last night, so this was a bigger deal for the live crowd than the TV crowd. I don’t think people care too much for the divas angles, either. Then we get to a US title match featuring an easily predictable winner, but two less than over participants who I have soured on greatly over the last two years. I hope the programming over the next few days does a better job at really trying to get the free viewers to plunk down the $60 to subscribe to the Network throughout the rest of the year.
