This week’s WWE Main Event was taped at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, before Monday’s Raw.
Apollo Crews (w/ Commander Azeez) defeated Greg Leslie (4:52)
Crews replaced Veer Mahaan in the spot where you squash enhancement talent each week, but this was really dull.
Since they made so many cuts in the last 18 months, there are fewer lower midcard guys for them to throw on Main Event every week and so we’re starting to see jobbers more and more on this show.
Leslie proved reasonably popular with this post-WrestleMania Raw crowd and he even had his own little chant going as they locked up.
In what ought to have been a straight up squash, Crews ended up using headlocks and wasting time trying to get heat in between moves. They sweetened the crowd noise, which is saying something considering this was the Raw after WrestleMania crowd.
Crews used a fallaway Samoan drop to get the job done and Azeez beat down Leslie after the bell for some further cheap heat. The silence when Crews got the victory said it all: they need to hit the reset button on this act.
Shelton Benjamin (w/ Cedric Alexander) defeated T-Bar (7:07)
Unfortunately, this one also dragged a little with Benjamin getting his hand raised to leave T-Bar winless in his last seven outings.
To say that Benjamin is being wasted on Main Event in 2022 is bad enough, but when you consider that he’s been wasted since late 2019, it becomes beyond a joke.
Apart from a brief Hurt Business run on Raw last year, his match history over the last three years makes for bleak reading.
T-Bar, likewise, must be wondering what he has to do to get some main roster television. He’s visibly improved, but needs to be booked as more of a big man and put over as much more of a threat than he currently is.
T-Bar took most of this one, but again relied on rest holds to further the match minute count. Benjamin kicked out of a modified Eyes Wide Shut and reversed a chokeslam attempt into a German suplex. Benjamin won after hitting a running splash to the corner, followed up with the Paydirt.
A lot of T-Bar’s recent losses have been made to look like he was unlucky, but he sold this one like he was out for the count.
Final Thoughts:
Not only was this post-Mania crowd not interested in these matches, they weren’t interested in hijacking the show either.
Both matches were entirely uninspiring and went a long way to support the argument that the doing the draft post-WrestleMania was the best time in order to freshen things up.
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