The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #42 – 12.13.25

The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #42 – 12.13.25

Originally written 12.18.25

OKAY FINE I’LL WATCH THE REST OF THE SHOW, GEEZ.

https://www.youtube.com/live/NCVmnQkDUXA?si=c683agFwhm_oBTKj

Live (on YouTube) from Washington, DC

Your hosts are Michael Cole & Wade Barrett

I immediately notice that they’ve given up all pretense of this show being a nostalgia laced SNME tribute and now it’s just presented like a regular WWE show with a normal lighting scheme and color palette.

Cody Rhodes v. Oba Femi

I’m not entirely familiar with Femi’s game but he looks like Absolute Swerve Strickland. Also he’s apparently the NXT champion, so good for him. They fight for the lockup as the crowd is split on who they like, and Cody tries his sliding punch and gets caught in a goozle and backbreakered, which Wade calls a “10-7 round” for Oba. As if UFC judges would ever call a 10-7 round these days. I can suspend a lot of disbelief while watching wrestling but not that far. Femi tosses him with a hiptoss and a FULL BODY LIFT AND SLAM gets two. Wade notes that this might be a precursor to a full generational takeover. GOOD! We’ve had Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns on top for more than a decade now, it’s time to move some of these NXT guys up and push them to justify developmental costs. Oba continues throwing him around, but Cody fights back with forearms and catches him with the powerslam. Cody Cutter gets two. Another try is blocked, so Cody sends him to the floor and dives, resulting in Femi smashing him on the way by. Back in the ring, Cody sends him out again and hits the dive on the second try, but Oba hits him with a spinebuster for two. Back to the floor and Oba runs Cody into the table with a forearm. Back in with a chokeslam for two. Cody is busted open from his ear, which sucks for him, but he springs back with another Cody Cutter for two, at which point Drew McIntyre just runs in for the DQ at 9:08. Well that was quite lame but I guess expecting a real finish wouldn’t be realistic here. They were having a fun match up until then but obviously it didn’t go anywhere. **3/4. Oba reminds me a bit of Ahmed Johnson in terms of his moveset and intensity but seems to be further along at this point in his career.

Bayley v. Sol Ruca

Bayley works a headlock and Sol evades her with a walking handstand and takes her down with a headscissors. Sol with an X-Factor as Bayley retreats to the floor and necks her on the middle rope, but Sol keeps coming with a moonsault that misses. And Bayley finally just slugs her down to take over. Back in, Sol gets a cradle for two and flips into a superkick before tossing Bayley again for a SPACE FLYING TIGER DROP that overshoots a bit. Back in, Bayley comes back with a sunset bomb into the corner and she goes to a chinlock, but Ruca fights out and comes back with elbows and a german suplex. She goes up with a cartwheel on the ropes into a DDT for two. That’s a really good move for a finisher if she goes that way with it. Bayley to Belly gets two. She hangs Sol in the Tree of Woe and drops an elbow for two. Ruca with a backslide for two and she bridges back up and then counters the Rose Plant and hits a knee strike for two. Another Rose Plant gets two. Bayley with a back suplex and she goes up with the flying elbow, but Ruca gets the knees up and cradles for two. The Sol Snatcher follows and Bayley desperately makes the ropes to escape, and a rollup gets two, but Ruca reverses to her own rollup for the pin at 9:31. Why on earth did they not just have Ruca win with that Sol Snatcher move? You’re not topping that and she won right after anyway. Ruca had some really innovative gymnastics here and looked good. ***

AJ Styles & Dragon Lee v. Jevon Evans & Leon Slater

Another team I’m not familiar with on the NXT side of things. Also has anyone made the AJ-Lee joke about the champions yet or am I the first? They immediately start throwing bombs and divingand Slater hits Lee with a flying bodypress into a flying splash from Evans that gets two. Slater with a snapmare for two, but he misses a charge and Dragon fights them off and spins Leon into a powerbomb, and it’s hot tag Styles, as he hits Evans with a sliding lariat and neckbreaker out of the corner. He puts Slater on the floor and tries to dive, but Evans nails him and follows with a missed moonsault. AJ runs him into the railing and then Lee hits Slater with a rana off the apron, as he lands in a Styles Clash, but Evans saves. Back in the ring, Evans with a cutter on AJ and Slater goes up with a 450 for two. Lee catches Evans with a back elbow to put him on the floor and follows with a hangtime laden dive. But Slater tries a Styles Clash on AJ and it gets reversed out, seting up the forearm, but AJ slips and Slater dives on him for two. Good cover from Slater there. Glad he didn’t repeat the spot. Slater goes up and AJ catches him on the way down and hits the Styles Clash at 6:24. Well that was certainly energetic. Wish they would have gotten longer than 6 minutes but it was a great sprint. ***1/2

The Miz joins us and he’s pretty upset at not having a match on tonight’s show and he demands respect. But instead R-Truth interrupts and he saw inappropriate conduct from Miz with Nick Aldis’s balls. And he stole an opportunity from Joe Hendry, and a confused Miz says his name and he appears. And Joe teams up with Truth and beats up Miz and gets a pin as I guess Truth is back to being a comedy guy after all the grassroots stuff.

John Cena v. Gunther

Cena of course gets a massive babyface reaction, which is impressive given how badly they cooked his retirement tour. See, thanks to my daughter, I’m hip to the lingo of the youths, and apparently if you did something good, you “cooked”, but if you did something badly, you’re “cooked”. Also what the fuck is the Drifter doing as one of the featured wrestling luminaries hugging Cena at ringside? Can that dude even afford the ticket prices at a TKO show on a TNA salary? Lillian has a nice old school intro with the ceiling microphone, despite the ring being covered in ads. They fight for the lockup and Gunther retreats from that to annoy the crowd and then puts Cena down with forearms. Crowd is muted while chanting “Fuck you Gunther”, which is really dumb on YouTube, and Gunther hits him with chops and a slam before running him into the corner. Cena fights back with shoulderblocks and hits the Five Knuckle Shuffle, but Gunther suplexes him. Gunther with the lariat and he goes for the sleeper early but Cena escapes and reverses to the STF. Gunther makes the ropes and CREATES SEPERATION before powerbombing John to take over again. He asks the ref to ask Cena, but I’ve been reasonably informed that Cena never gives up so that’s probably a waste of time. Gunther with a clothesline and Gunther wants Cena asked again, but CENA DOESN’T GIVE UP. That’s his whole deal. Gunther with another lariat, and then he waits for Cena to get up and levels him with another lariat. Cena’s taking a bigger ass-beating than Peacemaker did in season 2. Gunther with a third lariat and the crowd wants “Super Cena”, so he makes the comeback with another Five Knuckle Shuffle and an AA for two. But Gunther hooks him in the sleeper, so Cena reverses to his own and Gunther has to make the ropes this time. They fight to the floor and Cena hits the stairs, allowing Gunther to prep the announce table, only to fall victim to an AA through the table. Back in the ring, the guillotine legdrop gets two.

So Cena wants ONE MORE Five Knuckle Shuffle, for the last time, but Gunther pops up and boots him in the face before powerbombing him for two. So they fight to the top and Cena hits him with an AA off the top, which gets two. They slug it out for the Boo/Yay stuff, but Gunther powerbombs him and goes up with the flying splash for two. Cena powers up again, but Gunther puts him in the sleeper again and Cena has to fight out again, but Gunther keeps hooking the move again and again. The crowd tries chanting “Don’t Give Up” while Gunther keeps going back to the sleeper, but Cena hits one last AA for two. But back to the sleeper again we go, and tonight there was no joy in Mudville because Mighty Cena has tapped out at 24:00. I think this was about the best they getting out of broken down Cena and they gave the crowd what they were looking for. EXCEPT for the finish, which sucked. The “time honored tradition” shit is nonsense invented by Vince McMahon to screw over Bret Hart. Also the idea is to make someone a star on the way out of the promotion when joining a rival, not when retiring. For $12,000 a seat or whatever they were charging, WWE should have 100% allowed Cena to win his last match and sent the crowd home happy. But really, given how much the crowd was in on the show with the chants through the match, maybe they were happy to be “Shocked Undertaker Fan” at the end so they could get some camera time? Anyway, the match is well worth watching in the end but I think the Cody match at Summerslam is still the best of his last run by far. ****

I thought this was a fun show and an easy watch, but man I do not know or care about any of these NXT people and it made me feel really disconnected from the product, even moreso than usual.