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The schedule over the last few weeks on Voices of Wrestling has been quite hectic. Aside from the Christmas and New Year holidays, there was quite a rush of excitement over New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 9. Rightfully so, mind you. With that, we took a break from WWE Main Event for a few weeks, but today, I’m back to take you through the end of 2014 and into 2015 with WWE Main Event.  Aided in the background by the soothing tones of Cristin Milioti, the powers of knowing Rusev shows up on at least one of these shows, and many bright lights, I look forward to bringing you the information you need to know about the last few weeks of WWE C-Show greatness.

Episode 117

Your voices for this telecast are Michael Cole and JBL, as Byron Saxton was “on vacation for the holidays.”

Cesaro & Tyson Kidd vs Los Matadores: The Masters of the WWE Universe, Kidd & Cesaro, won via powerbomb blockbuster. Cole, on commentary, brought up something Tyson Kidd had said before the match. Kidd apparently chastised Los Matadores for spending more energy on their entrance than their wrestling. Hot take. The match itself was average, albeit quickly paced, with a cool finish as Cesaro launched un matadore into a Kidd kick, with the combo finisher ending the match immediately after.

Backstage, Big E preached on, brother, as Kofi, Xavier, and Mr. E embrace and share the power of The New Day. As they were speaking, Stardust and Goldust showed up on the monitor that was placed behind them. It was a backstage promo within a backstage promo. Quite the trip.

This episode of WWE Main Event was brought to us by Hulu Plus. You know, the streaming service that airs NXT, Main Event, Superstars, SmackDown, and RAW at a lower monthly cost than WWE Network.

Brie Bella vs Not Torrie Wilson: Brie beat Summer Rae via pinfall. Easily the match I will remember the fondest after this show, Brie took on Summer Rae in a Total Divas match. On commentary, Michael kept defending Summer to JBL’s cracks. Don’t know what JBL has against Summer other than the fact he’s an asshole and she’s a sweetheart. Brie was total dick heel here, mocking Summer and toying with her a bit too much. Brie eventually kicked it into gear and made easy work of the less experienced blonde, beating her with the top rope dropkick. Best spot of the match featured Summer going for the Rainmaker, with Brie ducking and controlling the rest of the match.

An ad played for a 3-Disc DVD set about the true giants of WWE history. Don’t think this one will sell all that great.

New Day vs Gold & Stardust: New Day won when Big E pinned Stardust. Cody is so committed to his new role, it’s insane. Big E & Kofi made up the New Day for this match. The finishing sequence was a little wonky, and the match never got going that much. Less than average, with Big E nailing Stardust with the Big Ending for the win.

Jack Swagger vs Luke Harper: Harper pinned Jack after a clothesline. JBL compared Dolph Ziggler to Rick Grimes, going against the zombie that is Luke Harper. Cole congratulated him on making a reference from this decade for once. NXT head official Shawn Bennett was the referee for this match, which is only notable to me because usually the real new guys get the diva’s matches or quicker male matches. The match was good in the ring, and a little bit sloppy outside of it. In the middle, a funny spot occurred as Harper took Swagger outside near commentary. Harper went to mess with JBL’s cowboy hat, but John instinctively grabbed the hat as Harper approached to protect it. Jack and Luke then proceeded to mess up a reversal spot into the dasher boards. Oh, well. The two got a lot of time, over 12 minutes, and had a heck of a match that built to a Harper clothesline finish. I still cringe at the ‘Clothesline from Smell’ tag they’ve given Harper’s finish. Best Match on the Show.

Episode 118

Michael Cole, JBL, and Booker T took to commentary for this one. This would begin Booker T’s fast track to the RAW announce team, apparently.

Peep Cutting Edge Show: This Main Event featured week-long guest hosts Edge & Christian. This was also the show where we first heard of the Edge & Christian lawsuit against WWE that has seemingly since been forgotten, unless they did something with it on SmackDown. If so, I won’t know. SmackDown is needless. Anyway, main notes from this segment: Tessa Blanchard, Mandy León, and Renee Michelle.

Charlotte vs Sasha Banks: Charlotte pinned Sasha after the Natural Selection. This was a much better main roster showing for Charlotte than that one RAW match she had several weeks ago, but it wasn’t near the level of their NXT Takeover match. The crowd didn’t know who Sasha was, but they reacted very well to Charlotte. The ending was sad for the fact that Michael Cole didn’t know what Charlotte’s finisher was. While knowing her finisher was called the Natural Selection, he didn’t seem to realize what the move actually was. So, like JR calling Nakamura’s win due to “another shot,” Cole called Charlotte’s win with silence, and as Charlotte went for the cover after her finish that Cole ignored, he said, “Charlotte may have Sasha right where she wants her… oh, she got her!” Yeah. Best Match on the Show!

Guess what, Santino was hosting a New Year’s party throughout the episode. No one showed up, except geeks like R-Truth and Rowan.

Titus O’Neil vs Justin Gabriel: Titus won via Sky High. I believe Titus calls his finish the Clash of the Titus, and he hit it with Justin perched on the top rope after Titus stopped the flyer from landing a top rope move. Fine match, albeit short, and it was really just a showcase for Titus.

The Usos vs Gold & Stardust: Usos won via top rope splash. This match happened the night after the Usos won the tag titles. Weird booking, as New Day beat G&SD last week, but its the losers who get the chance to clash with the champs. This was every Usos tag match in 2014 you’ve ever seen, but a fine TV match for Main Event. Goldust took the pinfall after the top rope splash after another miscommunication, or screw up, from the face painted brothers. So, with the Dust brothers costing themselves a win two weeks in a row, I guess that’s the angle? Are they breaking up Gold & Stardust now?

Episode 119

For two weeks in a row, we got Booker, Cole, and JBL on Main Event. There was a four-minute… FOUR-MINUTE… opening video covering the events of RAW the previous night. When the actual Main Event TV show got underway, we were greeted with my everything, Paige.

Paige vs Nikki Bella: Paige pinned Nikki after the RamPAIGE. Natalya came to the ring with Natalya, while Brie accompanied her sister, Nikki. The gimmick is that Paige is way more into Natalya than vice versa, although Nattie does seem content with the pairing. It was seven minutes into the show when the match finally began. The commentary trio spent much of the match talking about the somber feeling backstage now that the Authority was back in power. In the ring, these two had a really good match. Nikki played the cocky champ who could do whatever she wanted, while Paige was the underdog who would put up a small fight before Nikki found an answer to her advances. It was a fun dynamic, especially since Paige has won the Diva’s title the same number of times Nikki has. But what do championship reigns really mean, anyway? Nikki worked Paige’s arm and shoulder for much of the latter stages, but it didn’t hinder Paige from landing her DDT finish to get the win, while Brie fumed at ringside. Best Match on the Show.

Lana and Rusev cut a promo on The Ryback, saying the Authority did him a favor by firing him so he wouldn’t face the humiliation of getting destroyed by the Russian megaheel. Rusev announced his entrance in the Royal Rumble to finish the segment.

Fandango vs R-Truth: Fandango won with the flying leg drop. I’m so glad they repackaged Fandango so that he could toil on the C-Shows like this week after week with no plan going forward. I hope he enjoyed that WrestleMania match in 2013, because he may be without a singles match for his second Mania in a row. It’d take a miracle for him to get on this year’s show unless they do another Andre Battle Royal.

Jack Swagger vs Titus O’Neil: Titus won for the “biggest win of his career” according to Booker T. A battle of the big men. A battle of the guys who think 2015 might be their year. A battle of guys who a year from now will be in the same exact place they are now, if even still with WWE. The match these two had was pretty basic, while hard-hitting, but boy was there ever a screw up during one of the near falls. For a near fall, Jack hit the Swagger bomb on Titus, pinning him a good distance away from any rope. Titus was supposed to grab the rope for a break, but had trouble getting there, so the ref held up his count after two. The announcers would harp on the “blown call” for the rest of the match, so I’d hate to be that referee backstage. Anyway, this was one of those unintended mess ups in a match that might actually play into a rematch, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw Jack vs Titus on Main Event next week, too. The two had a match, taped on Monday, for Superstars, so the timing was very convenient. We’ll see if we get the rubber match next week on Main Event. Titus did end up winning with the Clash of the Titus, closing out this trio of Main Events here on Voices of Wrestling!

By the way, if you’re unfamiliar with my podcast here at VoW, Shake Them Ropes, I encourage you to give us a try. We review WWE RAW, the ongoing storylines, preview what’s next and break down the big news in an intelligent way (at least, I hope so). Our podcasts are all archived here at Voices of Wrestling, and we have a YouTube channel that you can find here, featuring interviews with Nick Dinsmore, Jeff Jarrett, and break downs with Dylan Hales and more: http://bit.ly/1Ip9uIy

Until next time, keep reaching for the stars, America! (And everywhere else!)