Courtesy of WWE
WWE COMES HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS AT MSG
Rob Williams, Editor In Chief
Elliot Nicodemi, Contributor
World Wrestling Entertainment returned home for the holidays for their annual Holiday event in front of a capacity crowd at The World's Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden in New York City. The event was filled with families, fun, special one night only merchandise, and some good old fashioned WWE wrestling.
The night kicked off with Becky Lynch making her way to the ring to deafening chants of "Becky!", ahead of the entrance of the always impressive Zoey Stark. These two ladies put on a solid match, but it was really the ending series of moves that really stood out. Reversal after reversal of both signature and finishing moves until The Man ultimately hit The Man Handle Slam for the win. What a way to start the night.
Up Next Ludwig Kaiser made his way out the ring sans Imperium as he took on one third of the new day in former WWE Champion Kofi Kingston. This was a highly entertaining match with the contrasting styles, and Kofi having a lot of fun with the holiday decor at the Garden. Kofi would go on to get the win and a huge pop from the NYC crowd.
The Women's Tag Team Championships were on the line as new champs Kayden Carter and Katana Chance defended against former champs Piper Niven and Chelsea Green. Fantastic clash of styles here as the high flying duo of Kayden and Katana never cease to impress. Yet still not to be outdone by the amazing power of Piper Niven and innovative offense of Chelsea Green. The babyfaces would get the win here to retain the gold.
After the Women's Tag Team Championship match, the absolutely BRILLIANT R-Truth made his way to the ring to a huge ovation from the crowd, only to get demolished by Omos who we haven't seen featured heavily on WWE programming in some time. I'm interested to see where this goes with Omos moving forward.
The roof nearly blew off the infamous arena as Rhea Ripley aka "Mami", made her way to the ring. It's only a matter of time before she becomes a babyface by default. Mami defended her Women's World Championship against both Ivy Nile and Shayna Baszler. Ripley had arguably the biggest Pop of the night and deservedly so. She's reached her final form much like Roman, but can still only go up from here.
The Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles were on the line as well, as fan favorites Main Event Jey Uso and Sami Zayn challenged Damien Priest and Finn Balor of The Judgement Day. The crowd was heavily invested in this match, almost willing Jey and Sami to pick up a big win in The World's Most famous arena. Unfortunately interference from JD McDonagh cost them the match, allowing Damien and Finn to retain.
In one of the sub Main Events of the evening, CM Punk made his long awaited return to the Garden. Between entrances and the in ring action itself, the match went about 20 minutes with Dominik Mysterio getting in significantly more offense than expected. Punk looked to be in great physical shape and great ring shape and impressed in his first outing back in WWE in nearly 10 years. Although I have always been highly critical of Punk, it's great to see that he is ready to go and I'm interested to see how he throws said, "Monkey Wrench" into everyone's "Story" going forward.
The next match featured a great clash of styles in the always innovative high flying Ricochet VS. The Super Heavyweight Bronson Reed. The match was exactly what you'd expect, but I did not expect to see Ricochet pull out a huge win here!!
The sub Main Event featured the feuding Shinsuke Nakamura and the ever popular Cody Rhodes. The Bull Rope Match, a nod to Rhodes' father Dusty was highly entertaining featuring cowbell shots, use of the rope, and of course Nakamura's signature red mist. Cody was able to over all of these obstacles and continue his winning ways in the WWE. We'll see where this momentum carries him headed into the Royal Rumble.
The Main Event for the evening saw World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins defend his Championship against the very bitter Drew McIntyre. This was a great match and a great way to end the night with Drew ultimately missing a Claymore, reversed into a power bomb through a table, and Seth hitting the Curb Stomp for the 1,2, 3.
Post-match Seth talked about Brodie Lee passing 3 years ago and the loss of Bray Wyatt recently as well. He said he missed them both but loved to see the fireflies in the crowd. As the night came to an end the lights went down, the crowd sang Seth Rollins' theme, and the fireflies lit up Madison Square Garden. A perfect ending to a perfect night.