It didn’t take us long to get a second edition of the rebooted Saturday Night’s Main Event, and it’s time for the report card for our latest event from San Antonio.
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And, it was really nice to see a bunch of legends in the crowd. Even if one in particular was missing.
Match 1: Rhea Ripley defeats Nia Jax, retaining the title.
Good back and forth action for an opening match. Coming in, I never figured Rhea’s title reign to be at risk. After all, she’s only had the title a few weeks. And, on top of that, we also just had another change with Stratton cashing in and taking the belt off of Nia Jax.
All that adds up to me expecting no changes with the Rumble so close. And I was right. Good strong opening match, but Ripley gets a nice win, clean, over the top challenger Jax. I will give this one a solid B.
Match 2: Bron Breakker successfully retains the Intercontinental Championship over Sheamus
One of these days, Sheamus has to break through. It’s a story I absolutely want to see finished, as do many fans (I suspect). However, tonight would not be that time.
Pretty much a match-by-the-numbers, if you will. Good action, hard hitting, exactly what you’d expect from both Superstars. In the end, Breakker countered a Brogue kick and got the win. For me, a solid C+.
Segment 3: Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes sign their contract
Sure, it was a segment versus a match, but it was here for a reason. Kevin Owens continued to do what he’s been doing. Cody Rhodes did too.
Having a ceremony to sign the contract and have both men “surrender” their belts a week before the Royal Rumble was a bit odd to me. I don’t ever recall WWE doing that before.
But it was all surely a means to have HBK on Saturday Night’s Main Event. In that respect it worked fine. Owens took a shot at Cody, HBK took offense to it. Owens tried to take out the Hall of Famer. Cody responded. HBK dropped KO with Sweet Chin Music.
It was a forced segment, but the fans had a feel good moment, so I will give it a solid B.
Match 4: Braun Strowman gets DQ win over Jacob Fatu
Sure, Fatu “lost” this match, but he was the only Superstar that was able to walk out in decent shape. This was not pretty from the start, as you’d expect.
Things spilled to the outside, with Strowman doing his run around the ring thing, twice to great effect. Third time was not the charm, however, as Fatu countered and things devolved from there. He relentlessly attacked Strowman in the corner, tossed Dan Engler out of the ring and got the disqualification.
He wasn’t done there, with Strowman taking even more abuse before things were stopped. Grade would be an A, because it helps keep the heat on Fatu.
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Match 5: Gunther defeats Jey Uso to retain the title
This was a satisfying match, though I would have liked a different ending. It was a good clean win for Gunther. It was Jey Uso once again proving he could hang with the company’s top stars.
Uso left it all in the ring, throwing every move in his arsenal at the champion, but tonight it just was not enough. One thing is for sure, I doubt Gunther underestimates Jey Uso anymore.
