WWE Main Event results: Shelton Benjamin 20th anniversary celebration

This week’s WWE Main Event was taped at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, before Monday’s Raw. As this is the first Main Event of 2022, happy new year, everyone!

Nikki Cross defeated Dana Brooke (5:30)

This was fine with a cheap finish that suits Cross’ current character.

As she was walking to the ring, Cross had an inset promo of sorts. She paced up and down saying, “It’s going to be mine” before laughing maniacally into the camera.

Under her old moniker of Nikki ASH, Cross was quite a regular on Main Event, but has only made four appearances on the show in 2022 and none since last June.

They went back and forth the whole match with Cross using Brooke’s hair as much as she could to get the upper hand. Brooke kicked out of a spear and Cross kicked out of a backslide.

They both went down after stereo clotheslines until Brooke got up first for the hope spot.

In the end, Cross dodged the charge from Brooke into the corner and then went for a sleeper. With her back to the referee, she used her right hand to rack Brooke’s eyes that allowed her to finish her off with a swinging neckbreaker.

After the bell, they went to a Schism promo backstage saying that Rip Fowler would be facing Shelton Benjamin on his own tonight.

Shelton Benjamin defeated Rip Fowler (w/ Jagger Reid) (5:00)

This was fine and gave Benjamin a nice win after the inevitable interference finish.

Before the match, they played a package to celebrate Shelton Benjamin’s 20 Years in WWE. There were clips of his debut, his ladder matches, and his work with some of the biggest stars in the business. The talking heads were great with Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle being the pick of the bunch. They did a good job here.

The match took a while to get going, drawing a few boos from the audience when Fowler tried to slow things down with a rear chin lock. Fowler booted Benjamin outside as we went to the break and when we came back, the dreaded chin lock was still locked in.

Benjamin fought out with a suplex and then traded blows with Fowler. Reid hit the ring but got nailed with a Paydirt. Fowler then came off the second rope with a Codebreaker and it looked like it was all over.

Benjamin kicked out and fired up with three German suplexes before finishing Fowler off with an old school t-bone suplex.

After the match Benjamin shook Fowler’s hand and then got on the mic to cut a promo. He said he wanted to thank the fans and WWE for allowing him to live out his childhood dream. The crowd burst into a “Thank you, Shelton’ chant before he reassured everyone that he was not done and was still “The Gold Standard.”

Final Thoughts:

The Benjamin video package was great and the fans reaction to his win and promo were tremendous, but none of this should’ve be tucked away on a show like Main Event. Otherwise, there wasn’t much to go out of your way to see this week.