The SmarK Rant for WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event #43 – 01.24.26

The SmarK Rant for Saturday Night’s Main Event #43 – 01.24.26

Originally written 01.24.26

I feel like a lot of us need a fun, low stakes two hours of entertainment tonight, so hopefully this delivers.

Live from Montreal, QC

Your hosts are Michael Cole & Wade Barrett

Cody Rhodes v. Jacob Fatu

Jacob, upset at Cody because of ill-defined reasons regarding an attack from Drew McIntyre, attacks before the bell and triggers a brawl with a bevy of security geeks, but Fatu moonsaults them on the floor and they fight through the ring and over to the announce desk again. Shouldn’t CODY be the one who’s all angry, since Fatu cost him the World title due to what sounds like a false accusation? Into the crowd as Cody uses a lighting case as a weapon and spits someone’s drink in Jacob’s face. So they head up into the concourse and continue the brawl up there, with Fatu spiking some geek into a merch table. I’m a bit disappointed that Cody didn’t pay tribute to Dusty by fighting into the women’s bathroom, not gonna lie. Back down the stairs and more security geeks get destroyed, but Drew takes out both guys and powerbombs Cody through another table after hitting him in the nuts. He’s awfully miserable for someone who just won the World title in his home country. And with both guys laid out and the match presumably cancelled, we take a break. This was a fun concession stand brawl that’s usually more of AEW’s bag, so it was nice to see them toying with this stuff again.

Meanwhile, Drew has GIVEN NOTICE to everyone in the locker room.

WWE Women’s tag team title: Rhea Ripley & Iyo Sky v. Roxanne Perez & Liv Morgan

The heels double-team Iyo to start, but she fights back with a dropkick on Roxanne to chase her out of the ring. Liv necks her on the top rope to put them back in control again. Codebreaker into a legsweep gets two for Liv. Head kick gets two. They cut off the ring and prevent the tag, but Iyo rolls into the double stomp on Perez and makes the hot tag to Rhea. Rhea with a running boot on Liv for two. Rhea fights the heels off in the corner and tries to powerbomb Perez off the top, but Liv tags herself in and hits a codebreaker for two. Rhea comes back with a Razor’s Edge and Iyo comes in with a missile dropkick on Liv for two, but Roxanne saves. Iyo misses the knees in the corner and Liv hits her with a wacky crucifix for two. But then Sky fights back again and puts Roxanne down with a head kick to set up the moonsault, and that hits knees. Pop Rocks gets two as Rhea saves but that was CLEARLY a pin that they botched. Back to Rhea, who slams Roxanne into Sky’s moonsault for two, but Raquel takes out the ref from the floor and powerbombs Sky out there. But this also brings out Stephanie to brawl with Raquel. And Roxanne gets two on Sky out of that. So it’s back to Morgan, but Rhea tags herself in and hits the Riptide to finish at 13:24. This wasn’t what I’d call bad, as it was very much all action, but it didn’t have any particular storyline or flow to it and just felt like a bunch of stuff happening. But hey, it’s a silly SNME match, and that’s fine. ***

AJ Styles v. Shinsuke Nakamura

Nakamura takes him down with a headlock and blocks a leapfrog with a high kick as we get references to New Japan and the history between them, which always weirds me out. Nakamura wants it brought on, so they slug it out and AJ puts him down with a back elbow and chases him to the floor for a pescado. Back in, Shinsuke puts him on the top rope and hits a running knee for one. Into the corner for Good Vibrations, but AJ comes back with clotheslines and the sliding forearm. Ushigoroshi gets two. Amazingly Word didn’t even try to autocorrect that. Nakamura comes back with kicks and lays out AJ on the ropes, and he goes up with a knee off the middle rope for two. The camera angle wasn’t really clear on that one and it looked like AJ caught him coming down, and the crowd seemed confused too. AJ comes back with the calf crusher, but Nakamura makes the ropes. So AJ takes him down with a dragon screw and goes back to the calf crusher again. And Nakamura fights it for a while, way longer than would be realistic, but Nakamura goes for the ropes and manages to reverse AJ into a triangle. But AJ tries to reverse into the Styles Clash, and Nakamura reverses out. We get a scary spot with AJ seemingly knocking Nakamura out cold with an accidental knee strike to the jaw, but he’s apparently OK. AJ tries the Pele, but Nakamura moves away from it and hits his own knee strike. But then his knee gives out and Styles his own knee strike for two. AJ with a rack bomb for two. They slow down again a lot and Nakamura goes to the floor, but AJ hits him with a knee from the apron to put him down. Back in, AJ tries the forearm, but Nakamura catches him in a death valley driver for two. AJ manages the Pele kick for yet another double down in a series of them. They trade forearms for the big slugfest, but Nakamura takes him down with an armbar and AJ rolls him over for two. Nakamura tries the Kinshasa, but AJ catches him, and we get another double down off that. Nakamura misses a blind charge and AJ hits the Forearm and follows with the Styles Clash to finish at 20:45. Slower paced at times, but it was a good story of two old fighters having one last showdown and Nakamura actually seemed motivated after years of phoning it in between surfing trips. Well worth checking out. ****1/4

#1 Contender’s match: Sami Zayn v. Randy Orton v. Trick Williams v. Damian Priest

Sami is of course the crowd favorite here, but Trick yanks him out of the ring and trips him up long enough for the other two to double-team him. Orton gets rid of Priest and slugs away on Sami in the corner, but Sami fires back until Trick nails him from behind and puts the boots to him. Priest takes Trick out of the ring and goes after Sami again, but Sami hits him with a DDT. Orton cleans house on the others, but Sami cuts him off with the Blue Thunder Bomb for two. Trick cuts off the Heluva Kick with a leg lariat for two. Sami comes back again with an exploder on Priest and the Heluva Kick for two, but Trick saves and argues with the ref about it until Orton suplexes him onto the announce table a few times, presumably in the name of defending our nation’s referees. And then he does the same to the other two guys, although I’m not clear on what point he’s making with those. Back in the ring, Randy tries to RKO Sami and gets rolled up for two. Sami to the top and he misses, but Orton misses the RKO again. A second try hits and Trick tries to steal the pin but Priest saves at two. That’s usually the finish they do so thankfully they didn’t fuck Sami over with that one in Montreal. Trick and Priest slug it out on the apron, setting up a Double Vintage DDT from Orton. A few more years and it’ll be the Obsolete DDT. That’s some very specific humor for people who work with Apple devices. Evreryone else feel free to ignore. Trick cradles Orton for two, but Sami sends him into the corner with the exploder, but misses the Heluva Kick. Trick to the top, but Sami cuts him off, only for Priest to bring him down with a Razor’s Edge and then get rid of Trick. But that leaves Priest open to a Heluva Kick, and that finishes at 16:37 to make Sami the challenger at Royal Rumble. And he stares Drew down in the aisle to end the show. Don’t see Sami realizing his dream at Riyadh Rumble or anything, but this was a really good main event and it was good to see him win the big one in his hometown for once. ***1/2.

Overall, this was an excellent SNME, with four good matches and nothing bad. I still prefer the earlier Peacock shows as a throwback to the 80s version because this feels more like just another WWE TV show at this point, but it was a fun two hours that went quickly.