12/18 Kester's WWE Main Event Live Coverage Review: Xavier Woods and R-Truth vs. 3MB, AJ vs. Kaitlyn, and Curtis Axel vs. The Miz

By Ryan Kester

Main Event on Ion Television
Taped earlier in Austin, Texas.

[Q1] Santa started the show off by passing out toys to the kids at ringside. Santa entered the ring and started to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, but Ryback's music hit and he and Curtis Axel made their entrance. Ryback and Axel made fat jokes about Santa.

Axel stole Santa's bag of toys and Ryback complained that Santa never gave him the weightlifting set he asked for. Ryback attempted to pull off Santa's beard, and The Miz hopped up off of commentary.

Miz went to Santa's defense and did his "Really?" bit. Santa and Miz began to sing a Christmas carol to mock the heels. Santa made a match for Curtis Axel to face The Miz and he offered to be in Miz' corner… [C]

Ryan's Reaction: If nothing else, Foley had fun with his yearly bit of holiday comedy. Not the most exciting open to a Main Event ever, but it was fine for a one off.

[Q2] 1. Xavier Woods and R-Truth vs. 3MB. The babyfaces took an early advantage and quickly began to work over Jinder Mahal. They knocked Mahal to the floor, and Mahal regrouped with McIntyre on the outside… [C]

Back from the break, McIntyre grabbed Woods' legs and caused enough of a distraction to allow his team to take control. 3MB wore down Woods with a series of quick tags.

Woods got the hot tag off to Truth, and he ran through his opponents. Truth hit McIntyre with a Lie Detector for the pinfall victory…

R-Truth and Xavier Woods defeated 3MB in 8:18 of television time.

Ryan's Reaction: Standard WWE formula tag team match. Woods' look and character given by the announcers does nothing for me, but he performed well enough in this match.

[Q3] [C] 2. AJ (w/ Tamina) vs. Kaitlyn in a non-title match. Kaitlyn overpowered AJ in the early going. AJ managed to avoid Kaitlyn's charge and tripped her into the turnbuckle.

AJ immediately went to work wearing down Kaitlyn's neck. AJ locked in a guillotine that slowly caused Kaitlyn to fall to the match. The announcers incorrectly called the hold the Black Widow. Kaitlyn managed to fight out of the hold and went back on offense.

Tamina jumped on the apron, distracted Kaitlyn, and AJ locked in the Black Widow to force Kaitlyn to tap out.

AJ defeated Kaitlyn in 4:37

Ryan's Reaction: Solid women's match, and an outright embarrassing performance from the announcers. I can forgive calling a random maneuver wrong, especially when they can have so many different names, but screwing up a wrestler's finisher is just bush league.

[Q4] The Raw Rebound focused on Randy Orton's night of gathering heat… [C]

3. The Miz (w/Mick Foley) vs. Curtis Axel (w/Ryback). Miz attempted to give Axel a present to start the match, but Axel stomped on the gift. Axel took control early and focused most of his offense on Miz' neck. Miz got in a few hope spots, but Axel maintained control.

Miz finally gained some momentum late in the match, and went for the Skull-Crushing Finale only for Axel to roll through the move. Miz followed with a figure-four attempt but Axel kicked him off.

Axel hit his running neckbreaker for a near fall. Axel set up for the Perfect-Plex, but Miz fought him off and hit his DDT for a near fall of his own.

Foley applied the Mandible Claw to Ryback on the outside with a spare hat. This distracted Axel long enough for Miz to hit the Skull-Crushing Finale for the pinfall victory.

Miz defeated Curtis Axel in 8:31.

Ryan's Reaction: Decent enough match, but it's hard to care about the participants considering the undercard booking they've been mired in for so long. WWE needs to decide if Miz is going to be a heel or a face and stick with that decision because the constant flip-flopping is only making him more meaningless than he already was. Overall, this was a completely skippable edition of Main Event.

If you have any questions or comments or just wish to chat with a fellow wrestling fan about whatever, then feel free to email me at ryan.kester@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.