WWE Main Event results: Alpha Academy vs. Shelton Benjamin & Mustafa Ali

This episode of WWE Main Event was taped at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, before Raw

24/7 Champion Dana Brooke defeated Tamina in a non-title match (5:00)

There was a botched finish that they couldn’t really edit out, so this was a match that fell a bit flat.

So, although the 24/7 title wasn’t on the line here, it does at least still exist. Main Event has been the surrogate home for the belt for some time, but it seemed to have been shelved for a while during the changing of the creative guard.

Despite this being relatively short, we still got a reverse chinlock from Tamina on Brooke. The crowd was fairly into it, though, and did try to rally Brooke.

The finish that was messed up came when Brooke dodged a charge to the corner so that Tamina was posted. Brooke rolled her up and the ref counted three, but called it two, presumably because Tamina didn’t kick out in time. The crowd were audibly unsettled by the mistake.

The actual finish came when Brooke hit Tamina with a neckbreaker, but it was nice to see that the commentary team didn’t ignore it and called out bad refereeing. We’ll see if anything is made of this or whether they sweep it under the rug.

Alpha Academy defeated Shelton Benjamin & Mustafa Ali (6:22)

This was a good, solid pre-Raw tag match — perfect for setting the table for this live crowd who were into everything.

They did two backstage segments ahead of this. The first was Ali looking to R-Truth for advice, which had a little bit of comedy, before Gable belittled Ali for asking Truth when he should have asked him. Gable told Ali that Otis hadn’t been fed yet and was going to eat him alive.

Later, they did a piece between Ali and Benjamin where Ali wanted to talk strategy with Benjamin. He was having none of it and listed his achievements before telling Ali to follow his lead. They’re really pushing Benjamin’s “Gold Standard” moniker.

At the bell, Benjamin and Gable shook hands. The story of the match was that Benjamin didn’t really think Ali was up to the challenge, but they actually worked well together, despite the finish.

There was some beautifully worked stuff early on, especially between Gable and Ali and they worked through the commercial, culminating in some miscommunication between Benjamin and Ali.

Otis took out Benjamin on the outside which allowed Gable to come back on Ali. The pair then hit the Alpha Bomb for the win.

After the match Benjamin and Ali argued before Ali walked to the back, licking his wounds.

Final Thoughts:

It’s so refreshing to get some storylines and continuity on Main Event for once. It’s simple stuff at this stage, but backstage segments where we actually learn a little more about the characters of the people performing can only be a good thing.

Tune in next week to see what’s next for Mustafa Ali, Shelton Benjamin and, who knows, maybe even Cedric Alexander. Oh, the jeopardy!