This week’s WWE Main Event was taped at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California before Monday’s episode of Raw.
The first Main Event for 2024 kicked off the year with a show debut for Johnny Gargano. It was quite a boon for this show’s limited audience as he put in a strong showing.
Bronson Reed defeated Akira Tozawa w/Maxxine Dupri (4:04)
This was fine, but was essentially a squash with Tozawa getting in more than most would in this kind of bout.
Reed slowed things down early on, locking in a nerve hold, but Tozawa was keen to pump up the energy so he worked his way out quickly.
He used a headscissors to faceplant Reed into the turnbuckle and then planted him into the mat with a DDT.
Reed kicked out at two and so Tozawa stood tall and tore his shirt a la Hulk Hogan. The crowd dug it and he went up top.
Reed caught him and hoisted him onto his shoulders and threw him off with his death drop driver before coming off the top rope with his Tsunami for the win.
Johnny Gargano w/ Tommaso Ciampa defeated Ivar w/ Valhalla (7:10)
This was a well-paced match until they ended it with a roll-up, but it was fun to see someone as talented as Gargano on this show for once.
I had to look back, but this match marked Johnny Gargano’s Main Event debut. Ciampa has worked the show quite a few times under different monikers, but Gargano has, probably quite rightly, never appeared here before.
They went to an early break after about a minute or so of work in which Gargano had hit a suicide dive onto Ivar, only to get greedy and hit it again and get smashed into the apron.
After the ads, Gargano played cheerleader on the outside as Ivar took to the top rope and missed a moonsault which, frankly, looked like it sucked.
Gargano tried to capitalize and, after a kick to the head, got a two-count near fall. Ivar fought back and used a fallaway slam for a near fall of his own.
Ivar then used a leg lariat and a spine buster but Gargano showed grit to kick out and then caught him with a super kick.
With neither getting it done and the near falls totting up, the crowd was into it and the histrionics from Ciampa on the outside helped to build up the tension.
Unfortunately, it all just ended with a missed charge from Ivar and Gargano stole a cheap one with a quick roll-up.
Hopefully, we get a rematch next week.
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