WWE Main Event Review - October 20, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Cameron Grimes def. Akira Tozawa

Grimes is loooong overdue for a call-up to the main roster and this gives me hope that we're getting closer to that, along with his appearance backstage on Raw this week. There really isn't anything left for him to do in NXT, as made evident by his lame feud with Schism. He can be a great babyface or a heel, so either role would work. I was surprised he didn't get a bigger reaction from this crowd when he made his entrance, but he and Tozawa had a fun, nicely-paced match while it lasted.

Cedric Alexander def. Duke Hudson

Fun fact: Hudson had a brief main roster run in the early days of the pandemic where he wrestled on Raw a few times alongside Shane Thorne. They were even associated with MVP before The Hurt Business became a thing. Obviously, it didn't work out because Hudson was put back in NXT a short while later. Thorne joined RETRIBUTION and that was pretty much the end of his career. I'm actually a fan of his, but he's been so devalued over the last year in NXT that I don't see another main roster run going well at this time. He had a solid showing here and had a well-wrestled match with Alexander (who was a smart opponent for Hudson because he was able to bring the best out of him).

Overall Show

I'm all for using Main Event as a platform to experiment with NXT stars on the main roster. WWE did that last summer with Bronson Reed, Karrion Kross and Dakota Kai and again earlier this year with Tommaso Ciampa, LA Knight and Pete Dunne. I don't think we're getting Hudson, Fallon Henley or Von Wagner on the main roster anytime soon (and thank God for that), but hopefully Grimes and Carmelo Hayes aren't far off. This was a good show with two quality matches, and even more progression in the R-Truth and Shelton Benjamin storyline backstage.

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