WWE Main Event Review - January 8, 2014

AJ Lee fights Kaitlyn in her final WWE match.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Real Americans def. R-Truth and Xavier Woods

It was hard to take Truth and Woods as legitimate threats to The Real Americans seeing how they have been used as comedy fodder in recent months. However, it was still a good tag team match with plenty of solid back-and-forth action. Woods interrupted Fandango's match with Truth last week on SmackDown, so I guess this was Fandango's way of getting revenge. It is a battle of the dancing gimmicks that I couldn't care less about. Why can't Woods be utilized as a serious mid-carder instead of his garbage? Is that too much to ask for? At least his apparent feud with Brodus Clay appears to be over, but a feud with Fandango isn't much better.


Alberto Del Rio def. Justin Gabriel

This had the potential to be a great matchup, and while it was nice for what it was, it was basically an extended squash for Del Rio. Gabriel is so low on the card that the ending outcome was never in doubt. I appreciate the effort Gabriel put into changing his look, but WWE doesn't seem him anything more than enhancement talent, unfortunately. However, I enjoyed Del Rio's renewed aggression in this bout, which he needs going into this mini-feud with Batista. I can't say that I am all that excited for it, but at least it serves as proper hype for the Royal Rumble match in a few weeks.

---

Alberto Del Rio lands a hard kick on Justin Gabriel.

WWE Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Goldust def. 3MB (Non-title)

It was a standard squash match from the start, but it is always a pleasure to see the Rhodes brothers in action. It was fine for what it was, but nothing notable. If nothing else, it was a fresh match that we hadn't seen before, so at least WWE made an attempt to switch it up for once. On a side note, Heath Slater wasn't gone long enough for this "return" to mean much, but it is nice to see him back on television even if I am no fan of his.


Divas Champion AJ Lee def. Kaitlyn (Non-title)

For anyone living under a rock, this was Kaitlyn's final match in WWE. That being said, the handshake at the start of the contest as well as the hug during the post-match were excellent touches given the history between the two. It was a pretty good match by Divas standards, which is unsurprising since these two had the best Divas match of 2013 at last year's Payback event. Kaitlyn was one of my favorite women's wrestlers in the division, so it is a shame to see her go, but this was a great send-off for her (disregarding the superkick she took from Tamina Snuka) and I wish her the best in all she does going forward.


Overall Show

I would have rather settled for a longer opening match as opposed to the four match format, but the opening contest we got instead was decent. The two subsequent matches were squashes with only the main event match between AJ and Kaitlyn being worth watching, especially since it was Kaitlyn's final WWE match. That being said, go out of way to catch the Divas match (man, it feels weird typing that), but feel free the skip everything else that came before it.

---