WWE Main Event results: Tyler Bate vs. Dolph Ziggler

This week’s WWE Main Event was taped at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington, before Monday’s Raw. It featured two really good matches that made for a very watchable show.

Nikki Cross defeated Zoey Stark (6:27)

This was good, but probably went much longer than it needed to. The crowd was into Cross as Stark played the heel here.

Although a rest hold is the one thing I detest more than anything in these short Main Event matches, Stark at least used a cravat which played into the story of the match. Stark seems to have a good ring IQ as she and Cross worked well together.

Cross trapped Stark between the ring and the apron and smashed her which the crowd seemed to love. They also cheered when she dodged a third consecutive charge to the corner. Cross used a dropkick to the knee followed by a bulldog to get some separation.

Cross went up top, but Stark had it scouted. She hit Cross with a high kick to bring her down off the top rope and then used a baseball slide for a near fall.

Cross reversed Stark’s attack and came off the second turnbuckle with a tornado DDT. She held on and picked Stark back up to plant her with a neckbreaker to get the win.

Dolph Ziggler defeated Tyler Bate (9:28)

This was very strong, particularly in the last few minutes. Ziggler can work with anyone and Bate has very much become the same. It was a class act all round that marked Bate’s Main Event debut.

This was Ziggler’s first Main Event outing in over a year, but his first singles match on this show since 2020. It was February 2022 when he was last here with Robert Roode. With Roode having gone under the knife at the end of last year for spinal surgery, Ziggler has had to work solo of late.

The crowd was very much into this as you would hope. They did some mat work early on and did the cool spot that Curt Hennig used to do where he would get slapped and sell it by spitting out his gum so it looked like he’d lost a tooth. Ziggler has it down to a tee.

After the commercials, Ziggler was in full flow, posturing for the crowd. He covered Bate with an arm flex and then did a handstand during a rear chin lock.

Bate got the hope when he kicked out of the Famouser and caught the superkick that Ziggler went for. They got a ‘this is awesome’ chant going after Bate used an airplane spin for a near fall. Getting that chant is almost entirely unique — no one ever gets that kind of reaction on this show.

The finish was Bate going for the Tyler Driver ‘97, but Ziggler flipped him over his back and nailed him with a superkick for the win. Bate sold the kick so well here and Ziggler celebrated like he had won an absolute epic.

The work that Bate and Ziggler did buried on a show with such limited viewership is a disgrace, but goes to underline two things: Ziggler is criminally underutilized these days and Bate has a massive future ahead of him.