WWE Main Event Review - February 7, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Curtis Axel def. Bo Dallas

I'm glad they established the babyface vs. heel dynamic early on with Dallas declining Axel's handshake and subsequently laying him out with a clothesline. At least it gave the crowd an incentive to cheer for Axel, and Dallas deserves credit for trying his hardest to elicit heat from the audience. They wrestled a technically sound match that received an appropriate amount of time and didn't overstay its welcome.

Rusev def. Sin Cara

Apparently Rusev was legitimately hurt in that multi-man tag team match a few weeks ago, but by this point, I'm not sure he's still required to wear the face mask or if it's a part of his "handsome" character. I hope it isn't the latter simply because Cody Rhodes did the same deal five years ago and it feels like a rip-off. Anyway, this was a glorified squash match with Rusev on offense throughout, Cara making a brief comeback, and Rusev ultimately scoring the victory. I appreciated how they picked up the pace down the stretch and Cara's near-fall on Rusev following the Frog Splash was well done.

Overall Show

On paper, I figured this would be another ho-hum edition of Main Event, but it ended up exceeding my expectations. All right, so it wasn't a must-see show by any means, but Axel vs. Dallas was well-wrestled and kept short and sweet while Rusev and Cara had more of a competitive contest than I thought they would. A lively crowd doesn't hurt, either, and this audience didn't sit on their hands the entire time, which helped add to my enjoyment of the episode.