SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
WWE MAIN EVENT TV REPORT
AUGUST 21, 2019
HULU STREAMING TV
REPORT BY MIKE F. MEYERS, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Announcers: Renee Young, Byron Saxton
REASONS TO WATCH…
- Logan and Brooke turn down the finesse, turn up the fire
- Both referees fail at being decent humans
(1) SARAH LOGAN vs. DANA BROOKE
Early on, Logan missed a reverse elbow in the middle of the ring. Brooke paused, and in response screamed, “I hate you!” before violently shoving Logan. Logan missed a short clothesline, then Brooke ran the ropes and took Logan down with a shoulder block. Brooke leveled Logan again with a single-leg leg drop, then yelled at the crowd to “Get up!”
Brooke did her signature handspring reverse elbow against Logan in the corner, then snap mared Logan to the mat. Brooke landed a handspring splash then covered for a two-count. Brooke lifted Logan to her feet by her hair, but Logan leveled Brooke with a big right cross. Logan hoisted Brooke up onto the top turnbuckle in a seated position, then knocked her silly with three forearm shots. Logan suplexed Brooke down from the corner, then maintained the maneuver to lift Brooke again into another vertical suplex. This earned some admiration from the crowd.
The match took a violent, unhinged turn as the women took turns unloading haymakers and forearms upon one another. Logan tackled Brooke in the ring and issued some ground and pound, and the fight eventually spilled to outside of the ring. Twice the referee split the women up for simply having a hockey-style fight, even though they were both safe and able to defend themselves. When the ref pulled Brooke off of Logan, Brooke made a case for her actions by repeatedly telling the ref, “I hate her!” The ref responded, “Calm down, both of you!”
The wrestlers grappled in the center of the ring in a manner reminiscent of a shoot amateur bout. Brooke attempted a somersault senton onto the prone Logan, but Logan lifted her knees and stunned Brooke on the landing. Logan got to her feet and began to fire up, then put Brooke in a suplex position. Brooke immediately slid down and rolled up Logan by surprise for a pin and victory.
WINNER: Dana Brooke by pinfall.
(Meyers’s Analysis: These two have had too many matches in too short a time. With that in mind, the match started as a snooze fest, but the atmosphere changed completely when they switched gears into an angry brawl. Both wrestlers showed a lot of fire, which was clearly too much heat for the referee to handle. Women love when men tell them to calm down, especially during a combat sport. I’m trying to think of a time when a ref has separated two men who were handily exchanging blows to tell them to calm down. The ref’s behavior was laughable.)
-Main Event recap session:
- Replay of Kevin Owens vs. Elias KOTR match from Smackdown
- Recap of the Reigns Murder Whodunit, culminating with the reveal of Rowan lookalike
- Replay of Sasha Banks’s backstage attack against Natalya
(2) LINCE DORADO & GRAN METALIK (w/Kalisto) vs. ROBERT ROODE & ERIC YOUNG
Lucha House Party got the upper hand early against Young, including Dorado striking Young in the skull with a piñata, in clear view of the referee. Eventually Young slowed down their antics by catching Dorado in an attempted high cross body. Young ran to a corner and smashed Dorado back-first, then tagged in Roode.
Roode and Young’s double team attempts were quickly thwarted by LHP, who issued simultaneous drop kicks, knocking Roode and Young out to ringside. LHP then landed dual back flips off the turnbuckles and into the ring, where they posed for the camera as we cut to commercial.
After the break, Young had control over Dorado. Roode tagged in and began slowly issuing kicks to Dorado. Dorado nearly escaped to his corner, but Roode brought him back toward Young and landed a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, and Young leaped from the turnbuckle to hit Dorado with a guillotine leg drop. Young, who had tagged in, covered Dorado for a two-count, then applied a chinlock.
Dorado side stepped a Young attack and tossed Young out to ringside through the ropes. Roode tagged in and tried to stop Dorado again from tagging out, but this time Dorado escaped and in came Metalik. Metalik executed a gymnastic, non-combative floor routine before lightly tapping Roode with a reverse elbow. He then twirled up onto the middle rope and landed a missile drop kick, leveling Roode. Metalik covered but Young entered and busted up the pin.
Dorado punished Young for his interference by performing a handspring into a stunner, knocking him out to ringside. He followed up by flipping up and over the top rope onto Young on the floor. Meanwhile, in the ring, Metalik rolled up Roode for a near fall. Metalik quickly scaled to the top rope, but when he nearly lost his balance, Roode was afforded the time to rush in and knock him down. Metalik landed gut-first across the top rope, allowing Roode to lock him up and land the Glorious DDT for the pinfall.
WINNERS: Robert Roode & Eric Young by pinfall.
(Meyers’s Analysis: Standard LHP match with what felt like extra servings of handspring flips. The “fun and games“ of LHP again goes too far, with the blatant use of a foreign object going unpunished.)
SHOW SCORE (0-10): 7.6
FINAL THOUGHTS: The women’s match brought something refreshing to a seemingly stale rivalry. Nothing new in the tag match. The referees went 0 for 2 tonight, the first for treating the women like they were a pair of drunk, squabbling bimbos in a bar; the second for allowing a piñata to be utilized as a deadly weapon.
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