This past week’s WWE Main Event was taped at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut, before Monday's Raw.
Candice LeRae defeated Xia Li (4:45)
This was a fine opener. Li got some of her stuff in and LeRae seems to be getting over.
Li made her Main Event debut, playing the heel and taking her time over everything that she did. She certainly looked comfortable enough. Byron Saxton noted that she had not quite got going over on SmackDown.
LeRae was at the top of the show last week in a winning debut performance, and seems to have something that the crowd likes. Either that or it was Li as her opponent that they disliked.
Li was methodical and burst into occasional flurries of offense, using a modified suplex at one point to throw LeRae across the ring. She tried a chin lock before LeRae broke loose and nailed her with a series of strikes in the corner.
They worked back and forth until Xi caught LaRae’s leg and got nailed with a kick to the head. LeRae stepped on her back, hit a senton and went to the middle rope for her moonsault finish to get her second win in as many weeks.
Apollo Crews defeated Akira Tozawa (7:09)
This was a solid match that was what you would expect. If Crews is back on the Raw roster, though, this isn’t the way to book him.
Before his run back on NXT, Crews had become quite the regular on Main Event. He and Commander Azeez were often tagging up or Crews would work solo with Azeez in his corner. It was an act that they grew tired of when it actually had legs.
As noted on commentary, Tozawa and Crews have worked together in a previous life and it showed. They were smooth and did the whole power vs. pace thing well.
Crews used a Perfect Plex at one point after having clotheslined Tozawa out of his boots, but as ever Tozawa was plucky to the last. He gave Crews a run for his money with a running headscissors and top rope back elbow.
After a segment where they traded kicks, including Tozawa going to town with a veritable can can of kicks, he tried to go up top for his finish, but got caught and nailed with a Samoan drop to give Crews the win.
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The finish was really neat and the crowd was into it. Crews looked dominant and Tozawa continued his run of being excellent in the curtain jerker role for these pre-Raw crowds.
Final Thoughts:
This was a perfectly pleasant enough show this week. It was nice to see Crews back in action and for Li to make her show debut. The crowd certainly seem to like LeRae, so they should probably do something more with her.