Welcome to the “Saturday Night’s Main Event Is MSG” edition of The Wrestling List. Tonight’s Saturday Night’s Main Event returned to Madison Square Garden for the first time in 19 years. A very nice video package opening the show with WWE’s history at MSG. There just really isn’t anything like the tradition of WWE at MSG.
First, a note that I had no idea there was a countdown show cause they never do one for SNME so I didn’t see that at all. The main broadcast opened up with the women’s tag team championship match with Paige and Brie Bella defending against Fatal Influence. I felt like this was probably going to be a title switch here going in. Very fun opener. New tag team champions. I cracked up at the finish spot that Jess couldn’t see the outside interference or the handful of tights either. LOL. Danhausen vs JD. This was a fun match. We knew it was going to have a big Knicks feel with Danhausen’s return to New York after reversing the curse. Lots of spots in the match playing off the Knicks. Dom gets involved. The mini hausens show up. They get on offense but then get taken down. Danhausen returns to his cloning machine and out walks Karl Anthony Towns. He looked like a monster coming out of that that box. LOL. He walks to the ring with Danhausen. He hits two awesome looking chokeslams. One on JD on the mat. The other on Dom through a table. Better chokeslams than I see the full timers do at times. Danhausen gets the win. Very well done. Bayley vs Lyra. I’ve been excited for this one and this one was a slugfest. I love Lyra’s new entrance. Liking the new darker theme music that plays off her original music. I’m hoping this new heel character really works out for her. Bayley accidentally busts Lyra’s nose just a little over a minute into the match with a forward elbow. Lyra powers through with a bloody nose through the whole match. I really liked this match. Good back and forth. The finish has Bayley passing out to Lyra’s new nasty submission move. She was pulling back and cranking on that thing. Post match, Lyra destroys Bayley on the ring steps. Up the aisle, the fans are giving it to her and she yells back “see my nose!” LOL. There’s a heel there. Good stuff there with them tonight! Main event time. CM Punk and Cody Rhodes vs Sami Zayn and Gunther. If Gunther and Sami win, the main event at SummerSlam turns into a four way for the title. I cracked up at the entrances with Punk and Cody playing off each other’s entrance while grinning and laughing at one another. Good stuff. Very fun match. Finish had the ref going down. Gunther gets the belt and nails Cody with it. Another ref comes down. As the ref is about to count three, Aldis pulls the referee out of the ring. Gunther walks to the ropes complaining and Aldis nails him with the belt. Punk hits the GTS and puts Cody on top for the pinfall. What will the fallout be of Aldis and Gunther? Very interested in that. Final segment was the hero’s welcome for Jalen Brunson appearing in MSG. I loved the whole shot of him walking through the back while highlights played. Felt like such a big league thing. But the hero needs a villain and gets one later. Brunson walks out with Roman Reigns. Monster reaction for Brunson. Reigns presents Brunson with his own championship belt in Knicks colors and name and number on it. Seth Rollins music hits but out walks MSG villain, Tyrese Haliburton. He has a chair in his hands. As the attention is on him, Seth runs in nails Roman from behind. Tyrese rolls the chair into the ring and Rollins goes to stomp Roman. Brunson then slowly walks over and stands between them. Seth stops and walks up to Brunson ready to go with him. This gives enough time for Roman to get up and nail the superman punch to Seth. Roman and Brunson stand tall to the end the show. Roman puts the belt on Brunson and also gives him his own championship belt too. They look over at the NBA championship trophy and Roman says can I and Brunson says go for it. Roman holds up the trophy while Brunson holds up the belts to close the show. I really enjoyed this show! Probably better than most of the PLE’s for me.
CM Punk was on this week’s Stephanie McMahon podcast and it’s a very fun watch. He talks training, his very funny marathon, the famous 2011 promo and the behind the scenes of that, and his engagement story to AJ Lee which is must listen. Here is the link to watch it.
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