The Ambrose vs Del Rio promo had quite some subtext +++ Xavier Woods was on baby-kissing tour with Dean Ambrose +++ Slater Gator could be fun if done right +++ WWE should re-name Dean Ambrose to Grendel
!["I'm back and I'm in a foul mood. Fresh off my little "promotional tour" last night. Now, shaking hands and kissing babies has never been my strong suit, obviously. But it's an easy way for The Authority to keep me off Monday Night RAW, and away from their precious little darling, Seth Rollins. Oh, but I'm here tonight, and I say let's cut the crap. I'll say this to Seth Rollins, why don't you finally do what's best for business, come out here right now, and get your teeth knocked down your throat in this ring? But I'll bet my bottom dollar that you won't, cause you ain't got no guts. Let's find out if I'm right. Does Seth Rollins want to hang out back there and hide? Behind closed doors, eating protein bars with Triple H, or whatever it is you guys do. Or do you wanna come out here and do you wanna get nuts? -[sits down for some seconds]- Nothing? Yeah, that's what I thought. You're just gonna hang out and hide back there, hide behind Kane, hold Triple H's hand. Meanwhile, I'll be out here in this ring do what I do going through every superstar. Every thug, every goon, every titan, every bull... Every demon The Authority puts in front of me until I get to you, Seth. And when I do, I'm gonna make you pay the price for selling out." --DEAN AMBROSE.](https://eireplusalba.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/dean-ambrose_collage_100.jpg)
The Ambrose vs Del Rio promo had quite some subtext
After we had a Dean Ambrose-free RAW yesterday, most of Main Event today was filled with the slightly unsatisfied man. Without commercial breaks, there were 21 / 54 minutes with Dean Ambrose, and these 54 minutes still include all replays and other promotions. I could still stop time for the indeed original stuff that went on at Main Event but since my time on Earth is limited, I leave that to people who are easily bored and don’t know what to do with their free time. But that’s not really my subject, isn’t it?
Like I said, Dean Ambrose kicked off Main Event with a promo inside the ring. It’s really strange that he still had to sell this “promotional tour” he apparently was at yesterday during RAW when he was part of the Dark Match there. Certainly, he could have still made it back in time for participating in said Dark Match. But there was another sour fruit stinking in the background. Because, people who reported from the show, said that Dean Ambrose wasn’t allowed to join in the celebrations with Big Show after they had won the match. Fine, if this moment should have been all about and for Big Show. Maybe he’ll be fired by WWE very soon and this was his last good-bye. Not fine, if Dean Ambrose’s removal was all about holding his popularity short or don’t make him even more popular than he already is. Maybe there were just some babies waiting backstage he needed to kiss – who knows. The only thing I know is, that most of the time an elephant is made from a little insect.
Now, as for Main Event, Dean Ambrose wasn’t just fed up with The Authority putting him into promotional duty but also with Seth Rollins. Because the man was apparently hiding from him, maybe waiting for Dean Ambrose to give up. But he made it clear that he won’t, that he will finally get his hands on him and not only that – he’ll get an actual match after he’d cleared his path towards him from all obstacles The Authority will throw into his way. He still tried to get this very match right now but since it was only the Main Event show and their match was already announced at RAW, Alberto Del Rio came out.
And what followed could have also be part of some gay porn with an actual story. The looks between both men; Alberto Del Rio desperately in need to get a piece from Dean Ambrose; him demanding attention from Dean Ambrose – it just had everything. Alberto Del Rio even noticed that Dean Ambrose’s shoulder was wrapped up as a beautiful present for him. But in the end he didn’t just pick up the present but kicked it, hoping that this was some advantage for their match later on.
Xavier Woods was on baby-kissing tour with Dean Ambrose
Without notes, the one thing that would have stuck into my mind from the next segment, probably would have been Xavier Woods talking about kissing babies when he was about making clear how ridiculously him, Big E and Kofi Kingston were treated in the recent past. It would have been stuck because it was just mentioned five minutes before by Dean Ambrose. Were these promos written by creatives and they thought that this was some funny image, wrestlers kissing some babies for promotion reason? Or had Dean Ambrose made up this image, Xavier Woods heard it and thought it would be fun if he’d use it again during his commentary? I’m not mad about Xavier Woods using this image; I’m just interested how this works. But after all, I don’t think that Xavier Woods is a brilliant talker. He lacks confidence and voice. And who knows where these three guys are going to. So far, they are just a dark skinned Shield for me. A Shield that don’t really know what they want to be. The targets are the Tag Team title for the team and the WWE WHC title for Kofi Kingston apparently. And Woods mantra-like kept telling that all three of them would be intelligent and not as daft as Rybaxel for example. I’m still not sure if they are face or heel. Apparently they are faces but the talking of Woods was more heel-like.
Oh, yes, and there was a match: indeed it was Rybaxel vs. The Usos. And after seven minutes, The Usos won. A little stare-off between The Usos and The Black Shield finished this segment.
Slater Gator could be fun if done right
It’s quite a bit sad when you look back at what was needed to form this team of Titus O’Neil and Heath Slater: breaking up the team of O’Neil and Darren Young with Young slowly disappearing (has definitely nothing to do with him being gay!) and getting Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal fired with 3MB disappearing and only Heath Slater remaining at WWE. Now they are called “Slater Gator” and they act not really like a tag team: bitching at each other basically like some 80s TV cop team. Their match was against Tyson Kidd and Zack Ryder and within five minutes “Slater Gator” did win their first tag team match. We will see where this is going to.
WWE should re-name Dean Ambrose to Grendel
About the match between Dean Ambrose and Alberto Del Rio, I’ll still write some words. I just need to speak about something else first: this Grendel-gimmick, Dean Ambrose carries around for quite some while now. I have written about it already but since he still needs to sell his left shoulder ‘injury’, I have to say a few more words about it.
For everyone not familiar with the old English mythology: Grendel was this big beast, Beowulf had to fight. During the showdown, the hero could only cut off the left arm of the monster but attached it to the pediment of the main building in town to present the arm to everyone like some – you guessed it – trophy. Later on, Grendel died in his home swamp because of the bleeding from the arm, and Beowulf had to deal with Grendel’s mother from now on.
Except for the mother, this story sounds quite familiar, right? And Dean Ambrose has to deal with this “injury” now since William Regal caused it back in early December 2011. Actually, Dean Ambrose is like Achilles: there is no part of his body that can be injured, except for his left shoulder. Protect the left shoulder, and Dean Ambrose is invincible! So, as for right now, I wonder if this bandage will become part of his ring gear or if he is able to sell some other injury in the far future.
In this match there was a great opportunity to sell an actual head injury, when Dean Ambrose hit it quite hard against the “steel” post. I never really know when he’s just selling something or if some move went a bit too real. But there was also some fun in this match, especially when Dean Ambrose is in quite uncomfortable positions, he makes the most of it, like grabbing Alberto Del Rio’s nose to get him off himself. Maybe when performing his Tornado DDT, he bit himself and bled from the mouth later on. That very much added to his crazy character! Then, after almost 14 minutes, he announced the end of this match with slapping himself. But Seth Rollins came finally out to distract him. A little brawl between both men finished this match with a disqualification win for Dean Ambrose. The brawl went on for almost two minutes with Dean Ambrose finally getting Seth Rollins over the top rope outside the ring. He then hit Dirty Deeds on Alberto Del Rio to send a statement to Seth and with some intense stare-down between these two, Main Event closed its doors.
The Gifs for this review were brought to you by stellarollins / perfectmystic / vivadelrio / deanarmbrose.
Eire + Alba 