4/17 Kester's WWE Main Event Live Coverage Review: Battle royal with the winner facing Wade Barrett for the Intercontinental Championship later in the evening

By Ryan Kester

Main Event on Ion Television
Taped 4/16/13 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

[Q1] Wade Barrett made his entrance and started to question the caliber of his potential opponents, but he was interrupted by The Great Khali's entrance. Natalya and Hornswoggle danced around Wade Barrett as Barrett locked eyes with Khali…

1. Battle royal for the number one contendership for the Intercontinental Championship. 3MB, The Usos, Great Khali, Justin Gabriel, Alex Riley, Santino Marella, Epico, Primo, and Yoshi Tatsu were the participants.

One of the Usos was eliminated early, and Yoshi Tatsu quickly followed. Khali eliminated Epico and Mahal and celebrated as the show went to commercial… [C]

Back from the break, Khali continued to dominate the action. The other participants attempted to toss him out together, but he managed to fight them off. The others regrouped and managed to eliminate Khali on their second attempt.

[Q2] The final four was Santino Marella, Primo, Drew McIntyre, and Justin Gabriel. Santino worked his comedy move set and brought out The Cobra. It struck Primo, but Primo went through the middle rope. McIntyre dumped Marella to the floor.

McIntyre and Gabriel battled in the ring and McIntyre tossed Gabriel over the top, but Gabriel skinned the cat. On the way back into, he caught McIntyre in a head scissors and pulled McIntyre to the floor.

Primo attempted to attack Gabriel from behind, but Gabriel turned in time and dumped Primo to the floor…

Justin Gabriel won the battle royal in 12:44 to become the number one contender for the Intercontinental Championship.

Matt Striker approached Gabriel after the match and asked him if he's ready. Gabriel said he and Barrett used to be best friends, but that was long ago. Gabriel said if there's Karma exists, then Barrett's title reign ends tonight. Gabriel said he was going to do the same thing with the Intercontinental title that Kingston did with the United Sates Championship on Raw…

A recap video of the Dolph Ziggler, Antonio Del Rio, and Jack Swagger segment on Raw aired…

Ryan's Reaction: The battle royal was ok. It's hard to get invested in characters that have remained in the undercard for so long. Gabriel is getting better on the mic than he was, but he still has some work to do

[C] A recap of Punk's promo on Raw aired…

[Q3] Cole read a statement from Paul Heyman about CM Punk. It focused on moving attention away from Punk and onto what Triple H's response would be to Brock Lesnar's challenge. Cole said we'd get a response from Triple H on Monday's Raw. Cole then narrated a recap of Brock Lesnar tearing Heath Slater apart…

Matt Striker interviewed Wade Barrett backstage about his recent string of losses and if his luck had taken a turn for the worst. Barrett mocked Striker's career path for a spell before reminding people that he won back the Intercontinental Championship on the Raw after he lost it. Barrett said the Barrage would be taking a turn for the better tonight and its first victim is Justin Gabriel… [C]

Ryan's Reaction: I really wish we could move on from the Barrage. It's synonymous with multiple non-title match losses for Barrett at this point.

2. Wade Barrett vs. Justin Gabriel for the Intercontinental Championship. Gabriel kept Barrett off his feet with a series of flashy kicks, but Barrett rolled to the floor and caught a pursuing Gabriel with a clothesline… [C]

Back from the break, Barrett hit a pumphandle slam for a near fall. Barrett worked Gabriel over with a series of power moves and locked in a rest hold.

[Q4] Barrett hit his high knee and big boot combo to send Gabriel to the floor. Gabriel made it back in at eight, but Barrett pounced on him and continued his assault. Gabriel made a brief comeback, but Barrett hit the Winds of Change for a great near fall.

Barrett went for another pumphandle slam, but Gabriel reserves it into a neckbreaker. Gabriel followed with a springboard moonsault for a near fall. Gabriel set up for the 450 splash, but Barrett rolled away. Barrett raked the eyes of Gabriel and followed with the Bullhammer for the 1-2-3…

Wade Barrett defeated Justin Gabriel in 13:36 to retain the Intercontinental Championship.

The announcers hyped a recap of Ryback's explanation for his actions and his face-to-face with Cena from Raw… [C]

Ryan's Reaction: Decent match. The ending stretch was great, but it felt like they spent the majority of the match in first gear. Gabriel is a talented act that is held back by his mic skills more than anything, and I continue to question why WWE isn't doing more with Barrett.

The Raw Rebound focused on the Ryback vs. Cena rivalry…

Ryan's Reaction: This wasn't the greatest edition of Main Event. It felt like one the pre-WrestleMania hype shows, which is unfortunate considering that Main Event is capable of producing some quality and entertaining matches when WWE wants to do so.

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.