WWE Main Event Results: Rusev rages at flag malfunction, The Usos vs. The Ascension

Rusev w/Lana def. Neville by submission (15:00)

Fortunately, The Miz was shown backstage watching this on TV (at a preposterous angle of course) with megaphone in hand, rather than shouting through it at ringside. An admission here that that particular piece of this promising nascent Neville storyline did not work on Monday night.

Lots of Neville using his speed to avoid Rusev and employ some trusty arm-wringers to start here – before the Bulgarian caught him off a cross-body attempt and fallaway slammed him leading into the break. Back with Rusev continuing to get the heat, working a slow methodical pace that fails to hold the interest. Neville manages an enziguri to start his comeback and follows up with a missile dropkick and a superkick to set up the Red Arrow.

Rusev rolls to the floor to avoid however, so Neville hits him with a moonsault to the outside instead, before rolling Rusev back into the ring for a second bite at the Red Arrow apple. This is Lana’s cue to climb the ringsteps and point at Neville, which is apparently enough of a distraction to cause him to hesitate and allow Rusev to recover. Rusev slams Neville off the top, before hitting the kick to the head and locking on the Accolade for the submission finish.

Pretty boring heel offence from Rusev here. The match was briefly enlivened by the moonsault highspot, only for it to eventually fall victim to the dumbest of dumb distraction finishes.

Post-match, Rusev shows exactly why he’s so awesome by ad-libbing a fantastically furious reaction to his flag failing to unfurl properly from the ceiling. He grabs his own handheld version and waves it furiously, before handing it off to Lana and cussing out the WWE staff at ringside in Bulgarian instead. Fantastic stuff.

Jack Swagger def. Bo Dallas by submission (12:08)

Alas, Vince McMahon did not appear to call a premature end to this clash of the titans. Bo shows off his jiggle with an early victory lap, before Swagger takes control leading into the break with a vicious running clothesline on the outside.

Swagger is still dominant when we return, only for Bo to kick off his heat with a double sledge off the ropes. Dallas then continues his gimmick of shouting “BOLIEVE!” while applying restholds. One too many Bolieves allows Swagger to recover and shoot for an anklelock, which Bo escapes, only to eat yet another running clothesline.

Bo gets the knees up off a Swagger Bomb attempt, but gets thrown to the outside, where he trips Swagger on the apron and throws him into the steps for a close nine-count. Bo signals for the Bodog, but Swagger reverses it into the Patriot Lock for the submission, to put a merciful end to this disjointed and dull affair.

– We get our obligatory RAW recap, focusing on Roman Reigns’ one-night ascension to the top of the company. Worth noting that they did not show the Brogue Kick kick-out here, but did show the post-match celebrations with the Usos and Dean Ambrose. Still no explanation as to where those guys were on Sunday night, though.

The Usos def. The Ascension by pinfall (5:55)

Jimmy gets the shine on Konnor to start us off, before tagging in Jey – your babyface-in-peril for the evening – who immediately gets caught with a flapjack to start the heat. Viktor tags in and hits an excellent looking STO to Jey on the outside. He applies a headlock inside the ring, before neatly swatting away an attempted dropkick from the Uso. A damn crisp worker is our Viktor.

Konnor comes in and ruins everything by eating a Jey elbow off an attempted corner charge. Enziguri from Jey leads to the hot tag to brother Jimmy, who runs wild on Viktor – hitting him with the usual Samoan Drop and corner hip attack combo.

Double superkicks to both Konnor and Viktor follow, before Jimmy hits the Superfly Splash on the latter for the pinfall victory. Short, by-the-numbers and perfectly acceptable tag match, highlighted by Viktor’s contribution.

Final Thoughts

A pretty bleh show this week, highlighted by Rusev’s ability to think on his feet and react to the overhead flag malfunction. As for the actual wrestling, there’s not much to recommend here. An eminently skippable outing for Main Event, I’m afraid.