WWE Main Event Review – 7.16.2026

Happy Thursday! Time for another 20-30 minutes or so of WWE action with our Thursday night dose of Main Event, exclusively on YouTube.

The last week in WWE: Main Event / Impact / SmackDown / Lucha Libre AAA / Raw / NXT / Evolve

Then, Now, Forever, Together.

We’re at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas (Hail vs Nile and DarkState vs LWO) and The PayCom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as we’re back to matches prior to Raw and SmackDown this week. We have Blake Howard and Vic Joseph on commentary and Alicia Taylor and Mark Nash on the ring mic.

Matt Cardona vs Ricky Saints

This is the Main Event debut for Saints. Cardona has competed on Main Event approximately 100 times, twice this year in a singles win against Nathan Frazier and a tag win with Apollo Crews against Fraxiom. The more interesting fact is that he is one of two people actively competing in the company who can say they competed on the first episode of Main Event, as he teamed with Santino Marella to defeat Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd. The other name? CM Punk, who won a Champion vs Champion match against Sheamus. Punk, we’re going to need you to come back around to Main Event for a week.

Cardona kicks off with a one-arm flapjack and knocks Saints outside before booting him to the floor as Joseph wonders if Cardona is cursed. Saints gets the advantage in the ring as Howard reminds us Saints has defeated Oba Femi in NXT and that neither man in this match is probably in the position they’d like to be. Saints does the Old School and follows with a reverse neckbreaker, soaking in the jeers of the crowd. Cardona catches him with a spinebuster and hits the Broski Boot and Chelsea’s Unprettier for a two count. He tries for the Rough Ryder, Starks ducks under and spins in a tornado DDT and the Roshambo for the pinfall.

Ricky Starks pins Matt Cardona. A pretty basic Main Event match. We’ll see if either main can find their way in better spots on the SmackDown roster.

Thea Hail vs Ivy Nile

Ivy is a regular here, we saw her take on another NXT hand just a week ago against Lizzy Rain. Thea first appeared on Main Event on the December 6th episode when she lost to… Ivy Nile. It’s weird reviewing Ivy’s start on NXT 2.0 and then seeing her years later when they never really found a good spot for her on the main roster. Maybe she needs Malcolm Bivens back. Whatever happened to that guy?

This is also an interesting night for Thea, who technically is competing on two shows for two companies on the same night as she is also competing against Harley Hudson on tonight’s Impact. I’m not sure there are many other names who have competed on a WWE show and a TNA show that both aired on the same night.

Thea takes off early but it doesn’t take long for Ivy to toss her to the mat. Ivy tosses Thea into the corner and nails a charging boot followed by a snap suplex for a two count. Ivy works a rest hold as the energetic Hail lifts Ivy onto her shoulders, Ivy slipping off. Thea smashes Ivy in the corner and hits a nice Exploder followed by a neckbreaker for a near fall. Ivy swings Hail up into the Gain Train and that’s all it takes to put Hail down.

Ivy Nile pins Thea Hail. Hail looked good here and Ivy looked fine. Vic talks about how, much like the main event, this could give Ivy momentum. Will it? Probably not. But it could!

DarkState (Osiris Griffin & Cutler James) vs LWO (Cruz Del Toro & Joaquin Wilde)

The LWO boys have three prior Main Event matches this year and zero wins in them. This is the Main Event debut for DarkState. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the DarkState guys in action, so we’ll see what we get here as Vic hypes up their match this coming Tuesday on NXT. Griffin catches a flying Del Toro but Del Toro slips out the back door to tag in Wilde and his crazy hair. James tags in and runs right into Del Toro on the outside, then the LWO boys each pick a DarkState opponent and hit the ten punches in the corner on them. James slings Del Toro out to the floor while Griffin boots Wilde to the mat.

DarkState double team Wilde for a bit, cutting the ring in half. Wilde fights out in the opposing corner and tries for the hot tag, finally reaching as Del Toro tries to knock James down. Del Toro boots Cutler to the head and dropkicks him from the top rope, Griffin breaking the pin attempt. The fans are enjoy this. Tag team wrestling! The LWO double team Cutler, sending him to the outside and then both hitting topes on the DarkState boys. They roll Cutler in and Wilde hits a moonsault followed by Del Toro with most of a 450 splash, scoring the pin.

Joaquin Del Toro pins Cutler James, LWO defeats DarkState. A fun little tag team match in front of a crowd that was enjoying it. I’m not totally into DarkState yet, but I did enjoy the LWO working the crowd.

A quick show as usual. I’d usually recommend Main Event just as an easy half hour, but you really aren’t missing a thing if you skip this week.