WWE Main Event results: Jose vs. Kanellis, Gulak vs. Tozawa

  • James Cox

The Big Takeaway: After losing to Mojo Rawley on Main Event last week, No Way Jose got his win back here over Mike Kanellis. Drew Gulak and Akira Tozawa also put on a fine match at the top of the show with Gulak notching up a submission win.

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No Way Jose defeated Mike Kanellis (5:10)

After a defeat at the hands of Mojo Rawley last week, No Way Jose beat Kanellis with the pop-up punch. At this point, the decision not to put Kanellis through NXT before progressing to the main roster would seem to have been a questionable one, with Kanellis floundering and without a singles win since July of last year.

There wasn’t much to this, but Jose’s entourage of conga line cheerleaders always gives his matches more of an important feel. Kanellis took most of the match with his aggressive and physical moveset. He started to pose, blow kisses, and even bust a few ironic moves the more he took control of things.

Jose got a near fall from a flapjack and then looked beaten when Kanellis nailed him with a superkick. He looked dazed and staggered into the middle of the ring but snapped out of it in time to catch Kanellis and pop him up for the Fastball Punch.

The conga line went crazy on the bell and we went straight to the Raw recap without a replay of the finish.

Drew Gulak defeated Akira Tozawa (6:44)

The cruiserweight division over on 205 Live has made for compelling watching of late with some solid output. Not only has the content been good, but some of the personas are really developing, too.

When Gulak first came to WWE, he looked a little like a fish out of water, until he walked through the ropes. Looking at him now, he’s so much more confident in his character and really looks the part as he struts to the ring in his hooded boxer walkout robe.

These two worked well together and kept things 50-50 as they paced themselves towards a finish built around Gulak’s dragon sleeper (with a body scissors) submission hold. At one point, Tozawa locked in a modified Octopus, but Gulak got to the ropes. The other high points were when Tozawa escaped a powerbomb attempt and Gulak moved out of the way of a top senton attempt.

The finish looked really strong as Gulak sent Tozawa face-first into the second turnbuckle so that he could snap on the Gu-Lock right in the middle of the ring. Tozawa had no option but to tap to a submission hold that Gulak makes look pretty inescapable and terrifying.