WWE Main Event results: O’Neil vs. Erik, Carrillo vs. Dorado

The Big Takeaway:

This was a subpar show with little to write home about., kicked off by a really dull opener with Titus O’Neil going over against Erik with a slight improvement in the Humberto Carrillo vs. Lince Dorado match.

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Titus O’Neil defeated Erik (5:07)

Trying out the remnants of former tag teams on Main Event is fast becoming a thing. Last week, Tucker (without Otis) tried his luck as a singles performer in a loss against Humberto Carrillo and now Erik of The Viking Raiders, sans Ivar, went out on his own.

With Ivar out for the foreseeable future due to a neck injury that required September surgery, Erik looked quite bereft here. He is still just one of half of the Raiders with the merchandise, the face paint, and the entrance music all telling us that he’s just treading water for now.

Then again, O’Neil is not really the best of ring partners to help you improve your game. As much as O’Neil should be respected for his work outside the ring, he is fairly cumbersome and clunky at the best of times inside it.

Erik fought the match with his t-shirt still on until he nailed O’Neil with a dropkick and, with unintentional comedy, took it off and threw it his opponent. 

The end was unbelievably slow and boring. Erik beat up O’Neil and slapped on a chinlock, not letting go until O’Neil suplexed him. He followed that up with the Clash of the Titus and that was all she wrote. 

Humberto Carrillo defeated Lince Dorado (w/ Gran Metalik) (8:42)

Carrillo used to be a clean cut babyface, but is now sporting a bit of a beard and, well, he looks quite dashing. He’s improving week over week and much like his opponent, he is a seriously athletic guy.

The issue here was that they spent the first half of the match trying to outwrestle each other. They worked on the mat, exchanged holds, and it only got going when they started to trade near falls after the commercial break.

It makes all the sense in the world that if you are working Main Event and know that there will be limited eyeballs on your match, you wouldn’t take your foot of the gas. However, that also means that you have nearly nine minutes to make a statement.

At one point, Dorado tried a splash from the top rope but Carrillo rolled out of the way which must have absolutely killed him — he got so much hang time and height on his dive that he just splatted on the mat. The second time Dorado went for it, he did land it but was bleeding from the mouth when he came out of the kick out.

They traded a ton of moves and got quite intricate and creative. In the end, Carrillo caught Dorado swinging a kick and managed to hoist him into a torture rack position for his, as yet unnamed, sitout facebuster finisher.

This was certainly a bout of two halves, but could have been so much more. Carrillo must be wondering what he has to do to find himself in a regular spot on that bloated three hour flagship show.

Final Thoughts:

With no Ricochet for the first time in a long time, this show lacked something of the quality that he brought to the table. Two relatively dull matches brought Main Event back to the kind of show it always used to be. There was a period earlier this year where it had felt fresh because Performance Center talent were getting a shot, but unfortunately we’re now back to the same small pool of wrestlers trading wins each week.