WWE Saturday Night's Main Event was up against Game 7 of the World Series, which means the Los Angeles Dodgers, and by extension Kendrick Lamar, weren't the only winners on Saturday night, and the Toronto Blue Jays, and by extension Drake, weren't the only losers.
Yes, it's that time once again, where I break down the winners and losers from the previous night's big event. In this case, Saturday Night's Main Event from Salt Lake City, UT. There were only four matches on the show, but plenty to talk about, as two champions were crowned, and a major tournament to determine John Cena's final opponent was announced. But enough about "what happened," as that's been covered on the results page. We've also broken down what we loved and hated. Which means all that's left are the ones who came out looking good, and the ones who came out looking downright ugly.
There were plenty of winners, like CM Punk, who finally got a crowning moment in WWE with no fuss, no gimmickry, and no cash-ins. There were also losers, like Drew McIntyre, who lost and looked like a loser in losing. But enough bloviating, let's get into the fun stuff.
Just look at that f***ing loser. I mean, really.
There was a time when I believed that WWE felt Drew McIntyre was a world champion, as evidenced by the fact that he has literally been world champion on multiple occasions, but the further we get from the pandemic title reign that earned him a wealth of sympathy, McIntyre is kinda turning into, for lack of a better term, a loser. Like a serious loser. Like just the loseriest loser who ever lost.
I honestly thought he had a chance to dethrone Cody Rhodes. Cody's cooling off with the fans, as Cena's retirement tour gets back on the right track. It feels like people are waiting around for Randy Orton to cost Cody Rhodes the title. The fact that Drew McIntyre is just another loss in Cody's holding pattern until WrestleMania season really hammers home my suspicion: this guy isn't going to be WWE Champion ever again. He might sneak out a few more World Heavyweight Title reigns because pretty much everyone gets that belt, but McIntyre's days as "The Guy" are far behind him, and Saturday's curtain-jerking loss only underlined that fact repeatedly.
I feel for the guy, as he truly does have whatever you could call "The Look." He is the ideal main event talent on paper, but so was Lex Luger. I would love to be proven wrong, in fact I always want to be proven wrong when I'm on here calling someone a "loser," but it isn't just the fact that he's on the wrong side of the match result, there's is just a reeking air of loserdom to The Scottish Warrior.
Just look at how shocked CM Punk is in that picture. He can't believe they're letting him have this moment.
CM Punk's time at the top of WWE is always marred by some kind of injury or political issues or personality clashes or whatever. It feels like Punk has rarely received what one could call a clean "moment" over his tenure, which is why there was something just a little heartwarming about the main event of Saturday Night's Main Event.
Avid Wrestling Inc. readers know that we were certain that there would be some kind of shenanigans or chicanery, likely involving the dastardly Vision, but instead, what fans got was a rather rudimentary main event match, and then CM Punk having his hand raised in victory, ending the night with his title, his dignity, and no one p***ing on his parade. No Vision interference, no surprise from an uninjured Seth Rollins, no Alberto Del Rio, no Kevin Nash, just CM Punk celebrating with the World Heavyweight Championship to close the show.
It's a low bar, but damned if WWE didn't clear it, giving Punk a modicum of the respect his long-time fans feel he's due. While there are legitimate criticisms to be made of Punk's decision to "sell out" and rejoin the corporate behemoth that embarrassed him time and time again, it doesn't change the fact that both parties seem to have grown substantially since they last did business. Saturday's main event might not have been a match of the year candidate by any stretch of the imagination, but it was still a major moment in the relationship between WWE and the prodigal Second City Savior.
John Cena is holding a 16-man tournament to determine who will eat an Attitude Adjustment, possibly in front of President Donald Trump, on December 13. Maybe Cena will lose his retirement match, but there's a certain funereal quality to the upcoming tournament. 16 wrestlers from Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and elsewhere (read TNA) will compete, and I'm sure it will be a fun tournament, just like I'm sure that Cena will deliver the utmost effort in his retirement match, but we are starting to hit the "That's it?" portion of the proceedings. Barring any kind of massive surprise, should reports be believed, it feels like we're on a road to a very servicable match between John Cena and Gunther.
Again, John Cena never gives less than 100%. He didn't even half-ass the half-assed heel turn that Paul Levesque and co. threw at him. It just feels like there's some kind of spark missing from this final match. I don't know what the tournament brackets look like, but I'd imagine that within the next couple of weeks, we'll already have an idea of who Cena will be facing in Washington, DC.
This is going to be one of those situations where, win or lose, someone is about to be able to call themselves "John Cena's final opponent," but the convoluted nature of his retirement means that Cena is really in need of a win to close out his wonky, stop-start final run, which robs this monumental moment of a certain drama and a certain electricity.
WWE has finally committed to the Jade Cargill Project. Always promoted as something of a work-in-progress, both in AEW and WWE, Saturday's win over Tiffany Stratton proved that WWE is finally ready for Jade Cargill to be a star. She's done her time alongside Bianca Belair, she's reportedly been doing her homework since her days in AEW, and now she's finally a world champion.
It is yet to be seen if this reign will come anywhere close to Cargill's dominant AEW TBS Championship reign, but defeating a woman who has defeated WWE veterans like Charlotte is a big show of faith in Cargill. Tiffany Stratton has not exactly been a tomato can in her time as WWE Women's Champion, and that her momentum is being passed on to someone who is arguably as much of a young upstart as her is another step in the right direction for the women's division, which has for so long relied on the likes of Charlotte or Becky Lynch or other stars from WWE NXT's Black & Gold days.
Stratton and Cargill didn't exactly have a five-star classic, but the match was an important step in developing the stars of the future, one that both WWE and AEW can be hesitant to take at times. For any Jade Cargill fan, it can be frustrating to hear her constantly spoken of like an unfinished lump of clay when she's clearly improved over the years, and Saturday was a much-needed reminder that she's closer to the main event than she's ever been.
