Leighty’s WWE Main Event Review 8.13.20

-Another Thursday and that means another dive into Hulu’s WWE Main Event. Let’s get to it!

-Announce Team: Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton
-Taped: WWE PC, Orlando, FL

Ruby Riott vs. Billie Kay

-This feud continues! No Royce at ringside here. Lockup to start as commentary talks about Riott beating Royce on RAW for her first win in nearly a year. Kay gets a headlock and take down. Riott fires off shots and shoves off to break, but gets run down with a shoulder. Kay cartwheels away to escape and poses. Riott gets a standing STO and mocks Kay with a pose of her own. They fight on the apron and Riott eats a head kick sending her to the floor. Kay gets a two count after getting Ruby back in the ring and then goes to an armbar. She pulls the hair to maintain control which I always appreciate a heel doing. Kay misses some wild punches and Riott counters with forearms to the chest. Ruby follows with a running forearm in the corner and then a running head kick for two. Ruby heads up top and misses, but rolls through and gets a roll-up off a charging Kay for two. They exchange shots and Kay gets a Straight jacket neckbreaker for two. They fight on the apron again and Kay misses Shades of Kay as she gets tangled in the ropes. That gives Ruby an opening to hit the Riott Kick for the pin at 4:57.

Winner: Ruby Riott via pin at 4:57
-Riott has now pinned each member of The IIconics, but I assume this feud will continue. *

-Video package covering Shane’s RAW Undergound.

-Video package on Bray/Fiend vs. Strowman: Swamp Fight, Return of The Fiend who attacks Alexa Bliss with The Mandible Claw.

-Now we head back to SmackDown last week where The Fiend goes after Bliss again. This time she plays mind games of her own by caressing the side of The Fiend’s face causing him to back off. Braun pops up on the Tron as he doesn’t care about Alexa and only wants to destroy Bray. He tried to fight it, but he was pushed to the breaking point. He is now the thing that nightmares are made of as he is The Monster and says The Fiend can have whatever he wants at SummerSlam.

-Back to RAW with Seth and Dominik signing their contract for SummerSlam. Seth then has a match with Carrillo that he wins and the real story begins. Seth and Murphy attack Dominik and the kid gets destroyed with kendo stick shots. A few things popped in my head during this with Dreamer/Sandman being first and then Hogan whipping the piss out of David Flair with a belt next. Kudos to Dominik, but that had to suck. I guess this was his way of earning his stripes. They also did a good job of covering why Joe couldn’t get involved. Rollins was great calling out Papa Rey and yelling for him to beg for mercy for his son while watching at home.

Angel Garza vs. Titus O’Neil

-Well, this is a unique pairing! Titus wins a lockup battle by using his power. Duh! Garza looks for a leg, but no luck there. He goes get in a few chops, but they eats one of his own that lights up his chest. Another one as Byron questions if Angel owes Titus money or something. Angel goes to the floor to stall and check on his chest. He gets back to the apron and catches Titus with a head kick, but gets caught and slammed. A clothesline sends Angel to the floor as we take a break.

-Back with Titus in control, but Angel finds an opening and chokes Titus on the middle rope. Angel takes off his pants as (is that similar to Lawler pulling down his strap?) and hooks in a STF, but Titus gets to the bottom rope. More choking on the ropes and a chop just grazes Titus. A superkick leaves both men down, but Garza hooks a sleeper. Titus gets to his feet and sends Garza into the corner. Sloppy stuff as Angel continues to fight for the sleeper and Titus drops to a knee. Finally Titus just flips Angel off him and then fires away with right hands. He sends Angel flying across the ring with a throw and hits a splash in the corner. Angel gets a chop block and hits 2 superkicks. A basement dropkick to the side of the face gets the win for Garza at 7:41.

Winner: Angel Garza via pin at 7:41
-Right winner but not a very good match. Commercial ate a lot of the time and this just seemed off. Again though at least Garza won and won cleanly. *1/2

-Recap of Asuka beating Bayley to get another shot at Sasha.

-Recap of Retribution messing with RAW and SmackDown.

-Back to RAW where Orton beats KO in a good match, but again, the real story is what happened after the match. Orton calls Flair a whore for the spotlight and washed up. He is going to be WWE Champion at SummerSlam and that is the only thing Flair should be concerned with, but he is only worried about himself. Flair then cuts a hell of an emotional promo as he shows that he still has it. He admits to liking the spotlight and wants to be there when Orton breaks his record. Not John Cena’s record, but his record. He brings up Cowboy Bob and then brings up his own health issues and how all he wanted to do was let everyone in his life know how much he loves them. Credit to Orton for not breaking during that promo as someone was cutting onions in my house apparently. Orton seemingly understands and then cements his Legend Killer status by hitting Flair in the balls and delivering THE PUNT as the lights go out. Again, creative way to cover the fact that 70 + year old Ric Flair can’t take moves like that. Drew comes out to, I guess make the save though it was way too late, but I it was more than what Dominik got.

-Thanks for reading!