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I've given watching Main Event a go again. I've actually thoroughly enjoyed the past two weeks. Well, the matches anyway.
* Adam Rose vs. Jack Swagger was a pretty good match. Rose can talk and work. My enthusiasm for the gimmick died basically as soon as he showed up on the main roster, but you can tell they don't want to give up on him. He's got something there. Swagger was pretty over in the UK for a guy doing an American super-patriot gimmick. The dude can work and has got good size, although he doesn't look "ripped" these days. He also needs to either commit to the beard or not. I think the guy could use a trip through the re-packaging machine. Even if they put him in black short tights and let him be more of a "bruiser" or something.
* Becky Lunch and Sasha Banks had a hidden gem of a match. My God, can Becky go. Banks came out to Naomi's theme, which was annoying, but hers played at the end. I kind of like that advanced presentation. Makes her feel like a more produced deal.
* Brad Maddox made his WWE return! He's good on the mic, but he sort of just danced around saying anything important (he insulted the fans' intelligence, said he dyed his hair because "identity crisis" and that he and Rose wear black because they're "pissed off emos", which actually seemed to get a reaction). In the ring, he really impressed me. He showed good intensity and worked like an old-school heel. I imagined he would be shitter for some reason. He and Rose worked organically as a team. I much preferred them to The Usos, who I feel aren't the hot injection for tag team wrestling that the WWE thinks they are right now. I would have put Beef Mode over. Let Sheamus & Barrett win the tag belts from New Day, turning New Day face, and then have The Usos win the belts from Bad News, setting up New Day to take the titles, since they are the most over team.
* Titus O'Neil vs. Heath Slater was a well put together match. Slater is really good at what he does, folks. No, he's not Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Rock, but he went out there and made Titus look great and got some shine himself. He looks a little loose around the gut these days, honestly, but I don't know enough about physiology to know if that's just a stage of something. If these were the old territory days, Slater would be a tremendous carpenter heel to put over your face acts and maybe even make some money on top himself. He's just been treated as a joke by WWE for so long that we've been conditioned to look past just how solid and valuable he is.
* They gave Titus a really interesting presentation. They had recordings of Batista talking up the guy. Weird stuff. He honestly doesn't come off as well-spoken to me, and his "funny" segment backstage with Renee and Darren Young was pretty ugly. Someone should take out Darren Young and Titus goes to war with them, avenging his tag partner's loss of health. Then bring back Darren Young as a heel that's embarrassed Titus thought he had a right to fight for him.
There's the potential to turn Main Event into its own microcosm of interesting storylines and important matches (relatively). Sort of like NXT Redemption when that thing suddenly became weirdly awesome.
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