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| The closer managed to somewhat mitigate the train wreck of an opener, but not enough Photo Credit: WWE.com |
The opening segment died on its way back to its home planet now let us never speak of it again.
As for the rest of the Main Event? Well, at least nothing else was so bad Michael Cole could do everything short of bring a gong out from under the table and bang it while railing against how horrible what was happening in the ring was and be correct whilst doing it. The signature that closed out the show was a rubber match of sorts between Jack Swagger and Seth Rollins, both men seemingly eerily familiar in a match that like most of their previous encounters in their battles went to the self-proclaimed Architect and current golden briefcase holder. There was a fine bit of foreshadowing in the opening chunk via a (we don't like you if you're) Mexican standoff between the match participants, Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury, and Unkie Zeb on the floor.
Since he was in the heart of the heartland, Swagger had The People behind him as he mustered up a rally with suplexes and finally the Patriot Lock, only to get distracted by the former Smackdown signatures outside the ring threatening his cornerman in a vague way. That loose bit of thread was all the Authority's golden child needed to unravel the sweater, as he closed out after that in under a couple minutes later even busting out the springboard knee strike along the way to his win before taking on his old buddy Dean-O inside the Cell Sunday.
Oddly enough, between that and the Ishtar of opening segments between the Tag Team Title participants, that was as close to a hard sell for the Network Special in a few days as was going to come. Big E took another step towards getting off the side of the milk carton by defeating Bo Dallas in an all-too-short sprint, and Tyson Kidd got a measure of revenge on R-Truth by beating him in a rematch from last week's program. But that's the problem, isn't it? This is supposed to be part of a bigger push towards getting a fan to part with their money heading into a special Network event featuring the most legendary and feared device in the E's history and what's on display is warmed-over rematches and comedy setups for a title match that looked as if they might as well have been penned by Chuck Lorre on a bender? Not exactly a compelling selling point, and to use that to describe the penultimate Main Event of October would be extremely kind.
NXT, take me away...
As for the rest of the Main Event? Well, at least nothing else was so bad Michael Cole could do everything short of bring a gong out from under the table and bang it while railing against how horrible what was happening in the ring was and be correct whilst doing it. The signature that closed out the show was a rubber match of sorts between Jack Swagger and Seth Rollins, both men seemingly eerily familiar in a match that like most of their previous encounters in their battles went to the self-proclaimed Architect and current golden briefcase holder. There was a fine bit of foreshadowing in the opening chunk via a (we don't like you if you're) Mexican standoff between the match participants, Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury, and Unkie Zeb on the floor.
Since he was in the heart of the heartland, Swagger had The People behind him as he mustered up a rally with suplexes and finally the Patriot Lock, only to get distracted by the former Smackdown signatures outside the ring threatening his cornerman in a vague way. That loose bit of thread was all the Authority's golden child needed to unravel the sweater, as he closed out after that in under a couple minutes later even busting out the springboard knee strike along the way to his win before taking on his old buddy Dean-O inside the Cell Sunday.
Oddly enough, between that and the Ishtar of opening segments between the Tag Team Title participants, that was as close to a hard sell for the Network Special in a few days as was going to come. Big E took another step towards getting off the side of the milk carton by defeating Bo Dallas in an all-too-short sprint, and Tyson Kidd got a measure of revenge on R-Truth by beating him in a rematch from last week's program. But that's the problem, isn't it? This is supposed to be part of a bigger push towards getting a fan to part with their money heading into a special Network event featuring the most legendary and feared device in the E's history and what's on display is warmed-over rematches and comedy setups for a title match that looked as if they might as well have been penned by Chuck Lorre on a bender? Not exactly a compelling selling point, and to use that to describe the penultimate Main Event of October would be extremely kind.
NXT, take me away...