During a podcast appearance, Heath revealed he is under contract with Impact Wrestling until the fall of 2023 as his deal was extended due to injury.
The four-time WWE Tag Team champion said on the Stories With Brisco and Bradshaw podcast that his two-year deal with the promotion was extended by a year due to his hernia injury and subsequent surgery.
“I had two years with them, but my contract extended a year because I got hurt, had surgery, I was out for a year, rehab, therapy, all that good stuff,” he said. “Now, they’ve put Humpty Dumpty back together, I’m ready to go out there and have some fun.”
FKA Heath Slater, he was injured at Bound For Glory in October 2020. At the time, he was reported to have suffered a knee injury. Subsequent testing revealed he was also suffering from multiple hernias and a torn abductor muscle, keeping him out of action for 11 months.
“Working for Impact, I’m doing as many as indies and signings as I can because I literally never, ever, ever had the chance to do these types of things and I’m excited to do them because it’s new for me,” he said.
Heath also said he’s focusing on being a parent and coaching his youngest daughter’s flag football team.
“100%, I can honestly say I’m enjoying life just because I’ve missed a lot during my days and I am not knocking wrestling or WWE,” he continued. “I tip my hat to Vince (McMahon). Thank you for the 15, 16 years I was with you, but I missed a lot of things like birthdays, Halloweens, Christmases. I missed a lot of stuff in my day to where now, I’m not missing nothing and my heart feels full.”
The former Heath Slater is set to undergo surgery for injuries that he suffered in October.
Heath (real name Heath Miller) was supposed to win the Call Your Shot gauntlet match at Impact Wrestling’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view in October, but he was taken to the hospital due to suffering a hernia during the match. The gauntlet match had a stipulation where Heath or Rhyno had to win or they’d both be out of Impact Wrestling. With Heath getting injured, Rhyno instead won the match.
Alright, so I’ve been getting a lot of messages, texts and tweets and everything in between about, ‘Hey, where you at? What are you doing? What’s happening? Are you hurt? Have you had your surgeries? What’s going on with you?’ So, after three different doctors, three different ways to go with this, I finally found a doctor that can do everything at once. Yes, it has taken three months to find this doctor and yes, it has been an up and down rollercoaster ride of crap and… so, finally found the doctor that can do all my surgeries. I have a sports hernia on the left side of my pubic bone, another hernia on the right side that I don’t even know the name of it. My abductor muscle is actually ripped off the bone, has to get re-sutured and I have a rip in my abdomen wall on both sides. So, little bit of a mess. So my spirits are still high. I’m gonna be out for a little while. My surgery is, thank God, March 1. So, after March 1, it’s gonna be the road to recovery. So, yeah, keep me in your prayers everybody.
After being released by WWE during last April’s roster cuts, Heath made his Impact Wrestling debut at Slammiversary in July.
Impact Wrestling returns from Nashville, TN for tonight’s episode, where both the TNA World Championship and Impact World Championship will be defended.
Opening video focused on Eddie Edwards’ successful defense against Trey Miguel from last week. There was also footage of Heath getting a shot at the TNA World Championship, Jordynne Grace’s return, The Good Brothers’ in-ring debut, and ECIII’s warning video.
Self-Proclaimed TNA World Champion Moose defeated Heath to retain his title
Moose started the match pushing around Heath, who had to come back with strikes and a clothesline to send Moose to the floor. They brawled around the ring, ramming each other into the barricades and stomping each other into the apron.
Back in the ring, Heath continued with momentum, striking around Moose. But out of desperation, Moose tossed Heath throat-first into the ropes and cut him off.
Moose worked on the throat for a while, choking Heath against the ropes. Heath tried to strike his way back, but was easily cut off again.
As Moose kept working over Heath, he started getting cockier, talking trash after whipping him from corner to corner. But after talking trash about Heath’s family, Heath fired up and started going at him with running strikes, a running knee, and a sidekick to finally bring down Moose for a two count.
Heath followed with another school boy for a second two count. Heath then accidentally tossed Moose into the referee and hit the wake-up call for a visual pin, but the referee was down. Heath woke up the referee, but Moose took advantage to low blow Heath and steal the win.
Heath will remain unemployed for now, but this was a good showing for Heath, he looked like a completely different person.
Josh Matthews and Madison Rayne ran down tonight’s card, as well as announce the Emergence shows on August 18 and August 25, where Purrazzo defends against Jordynne Grace.
Gia Miller interviewed Willie Mack about Rich Swann’s announcement for tonight. Mack said he didn’t know much, Rich was keeping it to his own. Mack said that he was pissed at Eric Young for what he did to Swann.
We got another promo by ECIII. He said that he achieved all he wanted, but ever since, he got punished by the fanbase and management who were fighting for control of the company, punished because of his last name. He said he would regain the TNA World Championship and finally burn and bury the legacy of that title. He told Moose he was going after him.
Jimmy Jacobs brought out Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin for a sitdown interview. Jacobs asked them about returning to Impact. Shelley said that after all these years, their hard work was paying off and that their separate work had taken them to a lot of success. But after injuries and rehab, they gravitated to each other and started wondering if they could do it again against the Impact roster.
The North finally interrupted them and came down to the ring. Page is still quiet, not even wearing The North’s uniform, so Alexander did the talking. He said that MCMG were being given things by management without earning them, while The North had to earn their shots and keep the titles for so long. Page finally snapped and said that they didn’t beat The North, they beat a North that were not at 100%.
Shelley said that they would give them their rematch whenever they wanted, even now. Alexander said that they would return at 100% and reclaim the titles at Emergence.
Backstage, Kimber Lee walked into Deonna Purrazzo’s locker room. She said that she doesn’t trust Purazzo can retain against Jordynne Grace at Emergence, so she offered to take Jordynne out if Purrazzo gives her a shot at the title.
We got another installment of Wrestle House. Taya is trying to get everyone together for some bonding exercise and get some of these people to take a shower, so she passed around soap for everyone. Meanwhile, Susie and Cousin Jake are flirting, Kylie Rae is trying to get back to Impact for her title match, and Johnny Swinger is antagonizing Alisha Edwards and getting himself into a handicap match. This is still bad, but at least they’re starting to introduce some stories and motivations for the characters.
Wrestle House: Alisha Edwards & Susie defeated Johnny Swinger
Swinger figured he would start the match by showing his guns, but Alisha and Susie teamed up and went for double team moves. Swinger kept hitting on them, so they pulled his legs and hit a double splash for the pin. This was terrible, worse actually.
Back in the house, Kylie Rae tried to get Bravo to take the hints that Rosemary was tossing at him, so they could all go home.
Impact Plus Flashback Moment of the Week was Sami Callihan winning the Impact World Championship from Brian Cage.
Outside the building, The Good Brothers realized that someone had broken into their car and left opened beers on the floor. Sheriff and security approach them, just in time for Ace Austin to trick Gallows into getting arrested when he accidentally punched the sheriff.
We got another vignette for Brian Myers. Still no debut date.
Eddie Edwards came down for his open challenge, which was answered by Sami Callihan. Iin an awesome visual, when the lights flickered during Callihan’s entrance, there was another shadow there with a chair — Rob Van Dam. RVD took out Callihan with the chair until security took him away. Regardless, Callihan still accepted the challenge.
Impact World Champion Eddie Edwards defeated Sami Callihan to retain the title
Eddie tried to talk him out of the match, but Callihan responded with a slap. Eddie hit a tiger driver immediately for a two count. Eddie kept Callihan down with punches and dropping knees. Eddie went for a running shoulder tackle to the corner, but Callihan sidestepped, sending Eddie shoulder first into the corner and out to the floor. Callian followed with a suicide dive. Eddie managed to recover quickly and return the favor with a dive of his own.
They brawled a bit outside and onto the apron where Eddie went for another tiger driver, but Sami blocked and went after Eddie’s eye. Instead, it was Callihan who dropped Eddie with a Cactus special on the apron. Since Callihan couldn’t pin Eddie outside, he decided to keep brawling and tossed Eddie into the guardrail.
Back in the ring, Callihan dropped an elbow for a two count, then went right into the choke. They traded boots until the double clothesline left them both down for the ten count tease. They continued trading strikes, but Eddie was trying to chop a protecting vest, so instead he hit a blue thunder bomb for a two count.
Eddie looked for another tiger bomb, but Callihan blocked. Eddie tried to roll him up instead, but again Sami countered with a kick and a brainbuster for a two count. They traded more strikes. Callihan seemed to try to hit the DVD, but instead hit a version of the GTS and a running forearm for another two count.
Eddie caught Sami with two elbows and a jumping kick and hit the tiger driver for yet another two count. Sami hit a second cactus special, but Eddie was next to the ropes.
Callihan brought out a chair, but had second thoughts. He got rid of it, but all the distraction gave Eddie the opening to hit the Boston Knee Party and a shining wizard for the win. Pretty good match, though this could have been promoted for a week.
Back at Wrestle House, Bravo decided to leave both Taya and Rosemary, who were onto Rae for getting involved. Rosemary asked Dreamer for a match with Rae. See, this installment was perfect! Short and Rosemary and Rae played their parts well.
Wrestle House: Kylie Rae defeated Rosemary
Taya is the referee for the match. She antagonized and distracted Kylie Rae to allow Rosemary to jump her from behind. Kylie recovered and took down Rosemary with a nice headlock, leading to some nice mat wrestling with Rae countering Rosemary over and over. Rae covered Rosemary, but Taya wouldn’t count, saying her hand hurt.
Kylie Rae distracted Rosemary telling her she had stolen her nose, but once again, Taya helped Rosemary to realize that it was a trick. Rosemary blocked a superkick and stomped on Rae for a bit, but as she rushed at Rae at the corner, Kylie dodged and hit a running European uppercut, followed by a cannonball, and once again, Taya didn’t count the pin.
Rosemary hit a spear, but Kylie kicked out at the fast count. At this point, Bravo joined the crowd and by chanting for Rosemary, he distracted Rosemary who took a superkick. Taya was forced to count the pin since Rosemary was completely out. Ok comedy match.
After the match, Bravo looked after Rosemary. Bravo said that he couldn’t choose between Rosemary and Taya since Taya had done so much for him. Taya berated Bravo after.
Backstage, Karl Anderson was on a call with Gallows, telling him that he’s getting things fixed. Ace Austin approached him. Anderson replied with an elbow to the face. Fulton jumped Anderson from behind, taking out Anderson.
Hernandez tried to recruit Reno Scum to help him get his money back from Rhino. Reno Scum agreed.
TJP & Fallah Bahh defeated X-Division Champion Chris Bey & Rohit Raju
Bey and TJP started the match, wrestling for wrist control with a series of counters and reversals. It later transitioned into a sequence of ranas and reversals, but it was TJP who drew first blood when he tricked Bey, locked in a quick Pentagon armbreaker, and snapped Bey’s arm. Bahh tagged in and hit a belly-to-belly on Raju, a falling elbow.
Back from commercial, TJP and Bahh have been working on Bey, but thanks to the distraction from Rohit, Bey manages to dropkick TJP and cut him off, finally separating him from Bahh.
Rohit hit a low superkick for a two count. Pancake and a running dropkick for another two count.
Bey came in, but TJP caught him with a donkey kick and a tornado DDT to get the opening to tag out.
Bahh ran wild over Rohit, but when he went for the running cannonball, Rohit caught him with a great jumping knee.
Bey and TJP tagged in again. TJP hit two amigos and a backplex, then went for a swanton. Bey moved, hit TJP with a spinning kick, then set him up for a flatliner by Rohit for a two count when Bahh broke it up. Bey went for an ozcutter, but TJP reversed it into the cross armbreaker and submitted Bey for the win. Great match.
After the match, Chris Bey threw a fit. TJP vs Bey seems to be where this is going.
Matthews and Rayne ran down some of the matches for next week, including Havok and Nevaeh vs. Tasha Steelz and Kiera Hogan in a No DQ match, Jordynne Grace vs. Kimber Lee, and Eddie Edwads’ open challenge.
Rich Swann came down to the ring for his announcement, back in crutches. Swann said that thanks to heart, love, and support, he was able to become a wrestler. In January, he got injured and was told that he’d be walking with a limp for the rest of his life and thus no more wrestling. He worked hard to rehab and prove that doctor wrong, and finally, he was able to return at Slammiversary XVIII. He managed to pin Eric Young in that match, and EY’s jealousy came back at him and brought him back to seven months ago with a potential career ending injury.
Swann announced that he is retiring. Thanked everyone who supported him, to all the talent in the back who bust their ass for Impact Wrestling. Out came the roster to applaud. Swann made it up the ramp for the final goodbye, and suddenly EY jumped him, broke the crutch on his leg. The whole roster went after EY while Mack and Eddie tended to Swann. Eric Young is making an argument for heel of the year.
Final Thoughts —
Pretty good show by Impact, miles better than last week. Good action inside the ring, several storyline developments as they start to build towards Emergence, and even Wrestle House was watchable.
Next week’s episode of Impact will feature the former Heath Slater’s in-ring debut for Impact Wrestling.
It was announced on last night’s Impact that self-proclaimed TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose will defend his title against Heath on next Tuesday’s show. The match has a stipulation where Heath will get a spot on the Impact roster if he wins.
Heath interrupted a backstage interview with Moose on last night’s episode of Impact. Moose said he was giving out another invitation for someone to challenge for his title. Heath claimed that the TNA Championship Committee gave him a contract for a title shot. When Moose said there is no TNA Championship Committee, Heath said that would mean there’s no TNA Champion either.
After Moose agreed to give Heath a title shot, Scott D’Amore told Heath that he’ll open up a spot on the Impact roster for Heath if he defeats Moose next week.
Moose has been calling himself TNA World Heavyweight Champion since April. On last week’s Impact, Moose retained the title against Fallah Bahh before being attacked by EC3.
Here’s the full list of what’s been announced for next Tuesday’s Impact:
An open challenge for Eddie Edwards’ Impact World Championship
X-Division Champion Chris Bey & Rohit Raju vs. TJP & Fallah Bahh
Self-proclaimed TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose defending against Heath
A sit-down interview with Impact Tag Team Champions the Motor City Machine Guns
Rich Swann will appear and give an update on his status after Eric Young attacked his ankle at Slammiversary
After appearing on Raw only a couple of weeks ago, Heath Slater made his debut for Impact Wrestling tonight at Slammiversary.
In between matches, Heath came out and started to cut a promo. The announcers only identified him as “Heath”. Heath said he was going to answer the Rascalz open challenge, but arrived late. He instead said that he wanted in on the World title main event, where a mystery challenger is set to take part in the match.
Rohit Raju interrupted Heath, saying that he wasn’t going to allow Heath to get the title shot. He attacked, but Heath soon cut him off and took out Raju with a neckbreaker.
Later backstage, Heath reunited with his former tag team partner in WWE, Rhino. The reunion was soon broken up by Scott D’Amore, who asked Heath to leave as it was a closed set and he was not a part of the Impact roster.
Heath, who was released from his WWE contract in April, made a surprise appearance on the July 6 edition of Raw. He called out and confronted WWE Champion Drew McIntyre over not contacting him after he was released. He challenged McIntyre to an impromptu match, but was pinned in seconds following a claymore kick.
Dolph Ziggler, who brought Heath back in the storyline, attacked Heath after the match, but McIntyre made the save. The two resolved their differences and hugged to close out the segment.
As part of the build to Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler’s WWE Championship match at Extreme Rules, a wrestler who was part of April’s WWE releases made an appearance on last night’s Raw.
Ziggler brought out Heath Slater to confront his former 3MB stablemate McIntyre on last night’s show. Slater, who was wearing a “Free Agent” T-shirt, said he called McIntyre every day when McIntyre was released by WWE in 2014 — but where was McIntyre when Slater got released? Slater said he hasn’t spoken to McIntyre since they were on WWE’s The Bump prior to his release.
Slater brought up that McIntyre knows his family and his kids — his two real daughters and not the 22 kids that the world thinks he has. Slater said McIntyre promised to petition to give him a match and Slater wants what he deserves. When McIntyre hesitated, Slater slapped him in the face.
Slater briefly got the advantage at the start of the match due to a distraction by Ziggler, but McIntyre quickly won with a Claymore.
Ziggler berated Slater after the match and then attacked him when Slater stood up for himself. That led to McIntyre coming back to the ring and chasing Ziggler off. McIntyre then helped Slater up and they hugged.
After being released back in April, Heath Slater made an appearance tonight on Raw.
Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler started the show, arguing over Ziggler’s stipulation for their match at Extreme Rules. After some back and forth, Ziggler mentioned that he brought someone from McIntyre’s past. Heath Slater then appeared.
Slater spoke about the long history he and McIntyre had together. He said that when McInytre was released, he called McIntyre every day. But when he was fired, McIntyre never called him.
Slater said he was there to take an opportunity, and wanted a match. After being provoked by a shove and a slap, McIntyre accepted. Following a commercial break, an extremely short match took place. A Dolph Ziggler distraction failed as Slater was immediately pinned with the Claymore kick.
Ziggler confronted, then attacked Slater after the match. McIntyre came to Slater’s aid and took out Ziggler. McIntyre and Slater hugged and celebrated in the ring to close out the segment.
Slater was released as part wide-ranging cutbacks in April. His 90-day no compete is slated to end later this month.
The Big Takeaway: Lacey Evans saw off Dana Brooke in the opener for her third win in a row against Brooke. The team of Titus O’Neil & Heath Slater then defeated Mojo Rawley & Eric Young, leaving Rawley without any kind of a win since May.
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Lacey Evans defeated Dana Brooke (6:00)
Evans and Brooke have had a good little program on Main Event through July and August, with Evans going 3-0 against Brooke. Both Evans and Brooke are certainly improving, but both would benefit from working with stronger opponents.
Of the two, Evans is getting the more even hand. She has been able to work with Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Natalya over the last few weeks, while Brooke has been left to take on Sarah Logan, Nikki Cross, and Ruby Riott.
The match was pretty good, with lots of back and forth, but they did quite a neat finish that let Evans heel her way to the win.
Brooke was looking to lock in a submission hold and dragged her by the leg across the ring. Evans clung on to the apron, which the referee had to pay attention to. While his back was turned, Evans gouged Brooke’s eyes and then landed The Women’s Right for the win. Brooke was left looking completely bereft.
Titus O’Neil & Heath Slater defeated Mojo Rawley & Eric Young (3:28)
Rawley’s WWE career continues to stutter. He debuted a new look back in April, sporting face paint and new ring gear after a series of vignettes were aired on Raw. From there he had a run of matches on Main Event. His last televised appearance was at Super ShowDown back in June.
Here, Rawley was wearing more of the blue-lined face paint and looked a little heavier than in previous months. He didn’t work much in the match and only tagged in for O’Neil’s heat segment, which culminated in him taking a clothesline over the top rope.
Eric Young looked very good, doing a flip over the top turnbuckle and a baseball slide under the ropes in quick succession just before the end. Young took the Clash of the Titus from O’Neil at the end for the pinfall.
Ultimately, this was pretty much what you’d expect from this match with these kind of time constraints.
The Big Takeaway: Natalya managed to scoop slam Tamina in a good back-and-forth match in the opener, then Robert Roode took a ton of near falls from Heath Slater before finishing him off with the Glorious DDT in the main event.
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Sam Roberts was back this week to make it a three-person announce team. They have flirted with this idea over the last few months and must be keen to make it work. It’s already a weak team with Byron Saxton and Renee Young, and adding a third doesn’t help.
Natalya defeated Tamina (6:25)
With no Sarah Logan and Dana Brooke match this week, it was Natalya and Tamina’s turn to put on a good show. And they did a good job with what they had.
Natalya spent the match trying to break down the difference in size between her and Tamina and got nailed outside with a superkick when she had tried to baseball slide Tamina to gain some advantage.
In the last couple of minutes, they played up that Tamina couldn’t be slammed by Natalya and she kept trying but her back would give out. This was all very Lex Luger vs. Yokozuna, but clearly on a much smaller scale.
Eventually, though, Natalya managed to hit a sit-out slam that got her the victory. It was a good way to make this matchup more interesting than it otherwise would have been.
Robert Roode defeated Heath Slater (2:46)
In what was his fourth straight week on Main Event, Roode had to do his best to make a matchup with Slater look interesting. Roode, who is in tremendous shape, seemed to have fun with Slater, who can’t help but make you smile.
Slater is using a “dad bod” gimmick where he doesn’t take his sleeveless T-shirt off because otherwise we’d see his dad bod. What a way to bury a guy who is already six-feet under.
Surprisingly, Slater did, however, take most of the match. He tried everything to finish Roode off, including a high running knee, a top rope diving forearm smash, and a neckbreaker. They did near fall after near fall in the last minute until Roode snatched the win.
Roode dodged the charge of Slater, kicked him in the midriff, and then nailed him with the Glorious DDT to make it four wins on the trot for Roode on Main Event. You have to think, though, that surely there’s room on Raw for Roode?
The Big Takeaway: No Way Jose got the win against Curt Hawkins, taking Hawkins’ losing streak to 0-209. Mike Kanellis teamed up with The Revival against Chad Gable, Heath Slater & Rhyno in an attempt to get himself his first victory since moving to the Raw roster.
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No Way Jose defeated Curt Hawkins (5:27)
Hawkins not only lost again this week, but he was put through a table at the Buffalo Bills training facility. The vocal New York Jets fan did a training session alongside Titus O’Neil and Finn Balor. O’Neil joked on Twitter that Hawkins had started a “Jets” chant and it hadn’t gone down too well.
No Way Jose’s stuttering start to his main roster career continued here. The singing and dancing conga line gimmick would work fine if we hadn’t seen Adam Rose use it in virtually the same way in recent memory. But Jose and Hawkins worked fine together on this show.
Jose hit a crossbody on Hawkins and covered him for two. Hawkins then elbowed Jose in the face and hit a back suplex for a two count. Hawkins charged at Jose, looking for the spear, but Jose had it scouted and hit the pop-up punch for the win.
The Revival & Mike Kanellis defeated Chad Gable, Heath Slater & Rhyno (4:04)
The story of this one was told by Nigel McGuinness on commentary as they made their entrances. He noted that Kanellis had been winless since the Superstar Shakeup and was looking to use The Revival to get him a much-needed confidence boost. With this in mind, it became much more of a squash match than it ought to have been.
Gable got some early stuff in here but was otherwise largely anonymous. The babyfaces got some heat towards the end, with Rhyno hitting a belly-to-belly suplex on Dash Wilder and following it up with a spinebuster on Scott Dawson. Kanellis broke up the pin and then Slater hit a spin kick on Kanellis to send him outside.
The finish started when Wilder sent Slater out and Rhyno sent Wilder, but Wilder only landed on the apron. So Wilder blind-tagged in just as Rhyno was whipping Dawson to the ropes. Dawson then slid under Rhyno so that The Revival could hit the Shatter Machine for the win. Clever little finish to a nothing match.
The Big Takeaway: Curt Hawkins lost to Heath Slater via a small package as they show him getting closer with each passing week to finally breaking his losing streak.
Top billing was given to a cruiserweight six-man tag match that ran at just over two minutes, since the lion’s share of the show was given over to Raw video packages.
This was a lot of fun this week. Hawkins spent the opening minutes trying to find a cheap way to win: he laid down in the middle of the ring urging Slater to pin him, but was playing possum and then went outside and tried to win via disqualification. Hawkins shoved Rhyno and then urged him to retort in front of the referee.
The commentary team is now really drawing attention to Hawkins’ losing streak storyline, while in previous months it had been glossed over. Hawkins was given a number of near falls here and at every opportunity the camera would zoom in on his face to get his despairing reaction — it is really making him look like a sympathetic figure at this point.
After a Pele kick, a pained Rhyno looked on as Slater just mustered enough strength to kick out. Hawkins then went up to the top rope, but Slater rolled out of the way so Hawkins jumped down. As he approached him, Slater rolled him up into a small package for a win that looked more unfair than ever on Hawkins and took the number to 0-188.
Kalisto, Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik defeated Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari & TJP (2:19)
Not only was this a match where the entrances of the six cruiserweights easily went longer than the actual bout, but it also inexplicably went through a commercial break.
TJP and Kalisto were fantastic to watch in the opening minute, but, like the match, it was short-lived as TJP kicked out of a cover and we headed to a break. They had played up the 205 Live storyline where TJP was taunting Kalisto about the division not being as strong as when he was the champion.
When we returned, it looked like we had missed all the action as the ring was full and the luchadores were hitting Nese and TJP with stereo suicide dives.
Dorado then quickly went to the finish on Daivari, superkicking him into position for the Shooting Star Press. The loss leaves Daivari winless in 34 straight.
The Big Takeaway: Gran Metalik beat Tony Nese after a beautiful finishing combination. The Revival then stole a win against Heath Slater & Rhyno to close the show.
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Gran Metalik defeated Tony Nese (5:43)
Nese hasn’t had too much luck of late. In fact, he has only clocked up three singles wins since August of last year. His opponent this week was Gran Metalik, who rarely loses on Main Event as of late.
Nese took much of the early going, stopping to posture to the crowd at any opportunity. His physique is pretty remarkable, and he made throwing Metalik around look easy here.
They built to an excellent-looking finish where Nese was going for a superplex and had Metalik on the second rope in the corner. Metalik countered by crotching Nese and then did a rope-walk hurricanrana off the top rope. Metalik then pounced on Nese to hoist him up for the Metalik Driver for the win.
The Revival defeated Heath Slater & Rhyno (4:14)
It had been Slater and Rhyno who dealt Dash Wilder many of his singles losses last year when Scott Dawson was out injured. But after beating Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson on Monday Night Raw the previous week, The Revival came back to Main Event to notch up another win against some old foes.
Strangely, the heels worked out of what would be considered the traditional babyface corner at the top left of the hard cam screen, but there was no doubt that The Revival were the heels here. Slater and Rhyno took the opening minutes, getting the crowd on their side with Rhyno getting a few ‘EC-Dub’ chants from the expectant pre-Raw crowd.
After the break, Slater had the heat, taking out both Revival men and nailing Wilder with a running high knee and following it up with a neckbreaker. Wilder could only stop the three count by putting his leg on the bottom rope.
After two more near falls from Slater on Wilder, Dawson took out Rhyno to stop the tag and they teased a ref bump where Slater had to go out of his way to avoid colliding with the ref. This enabled The Revival to get the upper hand and hit the Shatter Machine for the win.
The Big Takeaway: Akira Tozawa beat Brian Kendrick in a cruiserweight opener, then Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson saw off Heath Slater & Rhyno in the main event.
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Akira Tozawa defeated Brian Kendrick (6:30)
Brian Kendrick was still without a singles win since August as Akira Tozawa shot off the top rope to finish him with the Drop Zone here. But the following night at the 205 Live taping, Kendrick would submit Gran Metalik to break the streak.
This was a little longer than the usual cruiserweight outings that we are normally treated to on Main Event. The back and forth was more tangible as both men were given time to build offense so that it really looked like either could win.
The final moments were where this was at its strongest as Kendrick looked every bit the man to take the match. He scooped up Tozawa from a near fall and ran to the ropes to hit Sliced Bread #2 when Tozawa shot over the top of him and just grazed Kendrick with an enzuigiri. As he lay prone, Tozawa sold his tiredness to build the tension and made the slow climb to the top rope to hit his finisher.
Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson defeated Heath Slater & Rhyno (3:27)
By contrast, this was far too short and was really all about Gallows and Anderson getting an opportunity to neutralize Rhyno so that they could get the smaller, lighter man in the ring for the Magic Killer.
These two teams faced off last month on Main Event with the same result, but that match was nearly twice the length of this one. Here, Slater and Rhyno took most of the going, with Slater taking Anderson to his corner and cutting the ring in half with quick tags to Rhyno. After Gallows and Anderson were sent packing, we came back from the break for the finishing segment.
Gallows clotheslined Rhyno over the top rope and followed him outside, smashing him into the dasher boards. While Slater tried to take it to Anderson, Gallows came back to help out with Rhyno nowhere to be seen. The tag was made and a furious Gallows gestured to Anderson to hoist up Slater and get this over with. They hit a slightly clumsy looking Magic Killer for the win and went to the back staring Slater and Rhyno down.
The Big Takeaway: Curt Hawkins took the pinfall as he and Dash Wilder lost again this week to continue both of their respective losing streaks. Akira Tozawa also got a win over Tony Nese in a fairly ordinary main event.
I mentioned a few weeks back that Curt Hawkins has been without a win since the night he returned to WWE. Well, he is now playing this up in his ring entrance on Main Event. Over his music, Hawkins’ recorded voice says, “his 118 match losing streak is going to come to an end right before your eyes.” And, of course, it didn’t.
Wilder is also without a win since his Revival teammate Scott Dawson was struck down with an injury in June, and it didn’t get any better for him here. However, his tag partner took the loss — when Rhyno nailed Hawkins with a spinebuster — to take the streak to 119.
Slater and Rhyno fared well with the pre-Raw crowd. They have been performing without each other for a number of weeks now, but, reunited, they went over well here. Rhyno did the power moves, Slater played babyface in peril, and Hawkins brought out the inner trash-talker in Wilder. Overall, this match was fun while it lasted.
The finish started when Rhyno got the hot tag. Hawkins blind tagged in while Wilder was wheeling from the onslaught, but Slater saw it and dumped Wilder outside so that Rhyno could focus on Hawkins, who he nailed with a spinebuster for the win.
Akira Tozawa defeated Tony Nese (4:56)
Tozawa hasn’t been on Main Event since April, but he’s such a pleasure to watch. Here, he was all action and took the match 100 miles per hour. Nese is a good foil for Tozawa’s pace and made it look like he was going to take the spoils until he got caught trying something on the top rope and Tozawa was able to hit the Drop Zone.
There was a spot here where they teased an early finish with Nese lying prone and Tozawa in position for the Drop Zone, but Nese rolled out of the ring. Tozawa’s response was amazing: he leaped off the top rope and — as he landed — began sprinting into the ropes and then dove through them headfirst at Nese. It was both breathtaking and really quite dangerous at the same time.
Otherwise, it was Nese using his physique and strength to try to dominate Tozawa and the match was punctuated by Tozawa’s efforts to get the crowd riled up. When the finish came, it felt a little early, but Tozawa seized the opportunity and got plenty of hang time on his impressive finisher, the Drop Zone.
A big “let’s go Slater” chant kicks things off on Main Event as Hawkins gets some hometown heat. Slater chucks his shirt into the crowd to a big cheer and then atomic drops and scissor kicks Hawkins for two. Rhyno plays cheerleader on the outside, enjoying this hot crowd.
Hawkins slows things down by nailing Slater in the lower back with a running knee and then stomps on his back. The crowd hates it and starts to clap along to get Slater back on top as he kicks out of a sidewalk slam. Hawkins slaps on a rear chinlock and, when Slater works his way out, runs into a big boot and a clothesline.
Slater eventually gets some impetus when he spikes Hawkins with a jawbreaker to get out of a rear chinlock, but Hawkins immediately sweeps him off his feet. Hawkins goes under the ropes with the momentum and celebrates to a rain of boos. When he then rolls back in, Slater snatches a win with an inside cradle.
Curt Hawkins is now without a win in a WWE ring for close to 11 months.
Brian Kendrick defeated Lince Dorado (7:48)
Kendrick looks to be in a foul mood and starts the match off with a cravat and an abdominal stretch. Kendrick spends a long time on the fundamentals trying to thwart the pace and electricity of Dorado. They exchange quick pins until Dorado spins Kendrick to the outside with a spinning head scissors.
Dorado follows him outside and then nails him with the same move on the matting around the ring. He rolls Kendrick back inside, then Kendrick starts to back off and look for the ropes to give himself a breather. Kendrick pulls Dorado’s arm through the ropes as he flies over the top to the outside as we head to a break.
Kendrick is nailing Dorado with a big boot as we return and Dorado kicks out of the cover at two. Kendrick double underhook suplexes Dorado and then goes back to the cravat. He holds on as Dorado tries to create some separation. When he eventually does, Kendrick flapjacks him and returns to the submission hold.
Dorado gets the advantage when he reverses a top rope belly-to-back suplex into a crossbody. He enzuigiris Kendrick and then goes up top for a crossbody. Kendrick takes the impact but rolls it into a near fall. Dorado then gets the heat with a combination of kicks and a spinning heel kick. He gets a two count off of a hurricanrana and then does a handstand stunner for another near fall.
The match builds to a nice crescendo when Kendrick puts his foot on the rope to stop the pinfall. Dorado comes off the top for the shooting star press, but Kendrick gets his knees up. He immediately slaps on the Captain’s Hook for the win. This was a great match for this expectant post-SummerSlam pre-Raw crowd.
