From the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee
Commentators: Michael Cole & JBL
Championship’s roll call: WWE Champion: CM Punk… World Champion: Sheamus… Intercontinental Champion: The Miz… United States Champion: Antonio Cesaro… Tag Team Champions: Team Hell No… NXT Champion: Seth Rollins… Diva’s Champion: Eve Torres
Michael Cole and JBL open the show, in what has become the Main Event format, in the ring. Layfield towers over Cole; JBL says that the host for the first championship on Main Event. The NASTY Trouble in Paradise from Raw is shown where Kofi Kingston kicked The Miz into next week. Despite Miz requiring six stiches to close the wound, he is cleared to wrestle. The first video package tonight is for Kofi, we get clips of him growing up in Africa and moving to the USA; he’s always wanted to be a WWE Superstar. After that the traditional superstars discussing Kofi with clips of him in the ring, are shown. Back to live television, Kofi is with Josh Matthews; Josh asks about “the kick heard ‘round the world.” Kofi mentions all of the tweets about it; Kingston is insulted at all of the insults Miz slung at him. He adds that Miz lit a fire; Monday was a message, tonight he wins the title. Back to JBL and Cole but the Miz’s entrance interrupts. I guess no video package for Miz tonight. We get a close up of the knot with stitches in his head from the TIP kick. He says if anyone else took the kick he did they’d be fur for months. He calls himself Superman and he’s awesome; he is incomparable and awe inspiring and because of him the IC title means something. He runs over his history… and presents his own video package. Oh, I guess he DOES get the video package. All the WWE Superstars discuss how annoying he is… and that’s pretty much the bulk of his video; that, and his work outside the ring in the pop culture markets. Back to live and in the ring; he tells Kofi to come and get the IC title, which predicates Kofi’s entrance so we move onto…
WWE Intercontinental Championship The Miz vs. Kofi Kingston: We get the world title entrances here making the match and the IC title seem significantly more important; that’s something the WWE needs to do is bring some prestige back to the secondary titles. They’re doing a pretty good job with Antonio Cesaro and the US Title; there just needs to be more people talk about taking the titles from the champions. Team Hell No is working on that with the tag titles too. Bell rings and it feels like a WrestleMania title match. They lock up and they head to the corner where Miz takes the short route and snags him in a headlock takeover. Kofi reverses and hammerlocks the arm; Miz to the ropes for the break. Miz goes for a waistlock takedown segueing into a front facelock; Kingston reverses into another hammerlock and Miz breaks with an elbow to the face and shoulderblock takedown. More feeling out with and Kofi hits the ropes and gets a pair of shoulders and a monkey flip counter to a hiplock. He clotheslines Miz to the floor and sails out after him with a no-hands somersault plancha. Kofi springboards back into the ring with a Superman clothesline, for the first nearfall of the match. He works a side headlock until Miz fires him off and lands a rather STIFF looking elbow to Kofi’s nose. Don’t think that wasn’t a possible legit receipt for the TIP kick from Raw that gave him the six stitches. Miz kick and works him over with a double chinlock; Kofi breaks with a jawjacker and then follows with a stacked sunset off a wild charge, for two. Miz reverses and they go through a nearfall sequence that I haven’t seen utilized in a long while. Kofi looks for a backslide but Miz pushes him into the ropes; Kofi charges and they go through the same sequence from Raw that ended with Miz picking bootlaces out of his teeth for three days but he slips to the floor to avoid Trouble in Paradise. Back from commercial, Kingston is kicking away in the corner. He leaps onto the turnbuckles for about eight of ten punches because Miz counters with the powerbomb for two. He hits a running kneelift as JBL goes through his legit heat he had with Miz when he first entered the WWE; Miz gets two. Kofi crumples into the corner so Miz follows up with the Awesome Clothesline. He follows up, just like on Raw, with the double axe off the top. He goes to the double chinlock. WWE smartly uses this moment to replay the end of the Raw match (for the twentieth time by my count) they cleverly segue into tonight’s replay of the same scenario but Miz escaping. “Lesson learned,” sayeth JBL. Kofi fires back but Miz keeps him at bay with another chinlock. Kingston begins to fire back, escaping a backdrop suplex, and hitting a bodyslam. He tries a big splash but meets knees. Miz mauls Kingston in the ropes and they hit the double crossbody KO spot that Daniel Bryan loves to use. Ref counts them both down to a count of five. Kingston begins a mini-comeback with double chops and a dropkick; Miz to the corner where Kofi lunges at him. Miz moves, Kofi lands on the top rope safely, only to have Miz push him off and go flying onto the floor. Back from commercial number two with Miz holding a chinlock; Kingston tries to use knees to CREATE SEPARATION but Miz closes the gap with a pair of running boots to the face for a nearfall. Miz’s lackadaisical cover allows Michael Cole and JBL to go all Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura complaining about not hooking legs in championship matches. He tries another running boot but Kofi slides back and gets a close two off a schoolboy. Miz goes for the Awesome Clothesline again but Pro Wrestling Rule #43 states that you cannot hit more than one named transitional moves in a single match and Miz’s balls meets the turnbuckles. Miz hangs on the turnbuckles for a while looking like Raj sitting on a chair at Rob’s Place from What’s Happening!! Kofi continues the punishment to the gonads with a Manhattan drop; they exchange blows in a slow, but momentum building, “boo/yay” spot. Kingston gets the better of it and backdrops Miz to the floor. Miz counters the potential backslide by moving and boots Kofi; he tries to toss him into the steel steps but Kingston LEAPS clear over them with a somersault and lands safely with a forward roll. He recovers quickly and lunges off the steps onto Miz with a leaping Superman punch. Back in the ring, Kofi gets a nearfall. He stuns Miz with a pendulum kick and leaps off the top with a frog-crossbody… Miz rolls through, for two. Great match. Miz endeavors to toss Kofi through the ropes but he recoils off the ropes like a reverse E. Honda move and hits another Superman punch; the Boom Drop follows. He readies for Trouble in Paradise but Miz ducks and looks for the Skull-Crushing Finale; Kingston tries to counter into a cradle but Miz blocks and almost steals the match with the trunks but merely gets two. A series of finisher counters ends with an S.O.S. too close to the ropes so Miz is able to get the foot on to save his title. Miz heads to the floor again to break momentum and then decides he’s had enough of this and grabs his IC title and tries to walk out; Kofi halts that possibility with a pescado. He tosses the champion back into the ring but Miz recovers and spikes him literally with the Dangerous DDT. JBL calls “ballgame” but Kofi is out at two. Miz is flustered in his inability to put the challenger away. He readies for another SCF but Kingston counters with an armdrag. Miz scrunches into the corner and floors the overaggressive Kingston with a boot to the face. He tries a Flair Pin but the referee catches him. Miz thinks he’s won and the ref tells him otherwise so Miz lets him know about it; he completely forgets about Kofi and almost gets snagged in a schoolboy but rolls through and then turns right into Trouble in Paradise (a much more glancing blow) allowing Kofi to pick up his fourth IC title. 8.5/10 Outstanding match despite the WWE ruining the result on Twitter last night tweeting the result. Perhaps this is the rebirth of Kofi since being mired in the midcard and then a pair of false tag team starts. He did win tag gold but it’s time for the WWE to give him his change at singles glory. They not only had a great LENGTHY title match, which put some more shine back on the IC belt, but told a great story in the ring, playing off prior spots from the match on Raw, to which Kofi still came out on top, in one of the most difficult pro wrestling rules to break: challenger pins champion just prior to title match.
Here is your winner and NEW Intercontinental Champion… Kofi Kingston @ about 21:00 via
After the match, Matt Striker gets a few words with Kofi Kingston; he says The Miz gave him the fight of his life but he came out on top. He pays respect to the former champions, namely Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat and Shawn Michaels. He makes the moment about the fans as well; he leads the crowd in a “boom boom boom” chant.
In the locker room, The Miz is bothered by Josh Matthews. Miz says the title is still his and it was stolen from him. He calls it “losing a lung,” a “bad dream,” and a “miscarriage of justice.” He wants his rematch and says the title is his. Back to ringside, Vickie Guerrero interrupts the commentators discussing Miz, which leads to this match…
Zack Ryder vs. Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero): They lock up and Ryder gets an armdrag; Ziggler comes back with a shoulderblock. Dolph hits the ropes but runs right into a flapjack. Ryder looks for the flying forearm in the corner but meets a boot right to the face. Dolph hits some stomps and the Showoff Elbow for two. Ryder tries to fire back but eats a standing dropkick. Dolph gets a little too showoffey and gets floored with a short clothesline. Zack begins a comeback with double knees in the corner and second-rope missile dropkick. Now the flying forearm in the corner lands and the Broski Boot connects for a nearfall. Zack tries the Rough Ryder but Ziggler backdrops him into the top turnbuckle; he hits the Zigzag shortly after to fell Ryder. 3/10 Quite the contrast from last year at this time for Zack as he was the HOTTEST act in the company, winning the US Title, and rubbing elbows with John Cena in the main event… now he’s rubbing the canvas jobbing on the Main Event. Squash match that sets up this…
Here is your winner… Dolph Ziggler @ about 2:45 via Zigzag pinfall.
After his match, Vickie Guerrero says everyone should be taking about Dolph Ziggler who might QUITE POSSIBLY cash in his MitB contract at HIAC. Ziggler runs his mouth, says he deserves better competition than Zack Ryder, and issues an open challenge for next week’s Main Event. Ryback answers because he’s hungry. This is interesting since most of Ryback’s matches last about two minutes and Main Event matches are at least fifteen minutes long; must be a test run for the PPV.
OVERALL 8/10 This was another highly entertaining show. High score, I know, but the entire show revolved around the IC title match and it surely delivered. The secondary job match leads to next week’s Main Event, just like last week, which is all good.
