WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event XL Results & Review

1 down, 2 to go. NXT Great American Bash is in the books and it was a very fun show. It will be hard to follow Ethan Page vs Ricky Saints.

Now it is time for Act 2 of WWE’s Atlanta takeover, the 40th ever Saturday Night’s Main Event. The main focus of the night is around Goldberg vs Gunther, a match teased last year and now appears to be Goldberg’s retirement match in his adopted home of Atlanta. The entire wrestling world is watching in fear at the thought of Oldberg taking down Gunther with ease like he has done with The Fiend, Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler in the past.

Will Gunther remain on top of the Raw division? Or will Goldberg ruin wrestling with one more world championship victory? Let’s find out.

The show opens with a retro Saturday Night’s Main Event intro with highlights of past SNME shows before fast forwarding to highlights hyping up tonight’s card. Joe Tessitore is with Jesse Ventura. “Well, Mean Joe” Jesse is awesome. He hypes up Drew McIntyre and Goldberg before we head to ringside with Michael Cole and Wade Barrett.

Randy Orton vs Drew McIntyre

This feud is only a week old, but these 2 men have a lot of history together. Orton vs McIntyre was one of the most prominent rivalries during 2020. Drew McIntyre returned last week and mocked Randy Orton for being a shadow of his former self, triggering Orton to drop him with an RKO. Drew went and asked for a match with Randy and he got it. Simple as that.

On Smackdown, we saw Randy Orton come out to defend Pop Country singer Jelly Roll (no seriously) from Logan Paul, but he was attacked from behind by Drew McIntyre. There are growing concerns that this is setting up a celebrity tag match for Summerslam which I don’t think a lot of wrestling fans are that interested in seeing. Jelly Roll will be in Randy Orton’s corner, as he expects Logan Paul to make an appearance here tonight. Great. Maybe he will do a live rendition of Orton’s theme. WWE please don’t read this, we don’t want to see that. Randy Orton is probably going to win here.

Barely anyone reacted to the announcement of Jelly Roll during his entrance with Randy Orton, we will see how they react through the night but I may be right what I said on Smackdown about the audience not being into him. I am a huge fan of Drew and Logan together. The ultimate trolls.

The Match

Drew starts in control with mounted punches, but Orton turns the tide and throws some of his own. Orton clotheslines him over the top rope and follows him to the outside. McIntyre counters him and drops Orton with a pair of back suplexes on the announce table, Orton style.

Back from break, McIntyre is wearing down Orton’s back in the ring, asking “what happened to you Randy?” This gets the legend hot and he starts hitting his trademark comeback. McIntyre goes out of the ring and Orton repays the favour, dropping him on the announce table thrice. Logan Paul helps Drew distracting Orton, but it doesn’t save him from the draping DDT.

Orton goes for the RKO, Logan gets on the apron for a distraction. Randy turns around into a claymore but he manages to get a foot on the ropes. Jelly and Logan argue on the outside. LP shoves him and says he doesn’t belong in here, Jelly shoves him down to the ground.

Drew McIntyre shouts at Jelly Roll, distracting him and he gets dropped with an RKO. Randy Orton wins. Logan Paul rushes the ring and attacks Randy Orton. Jelly Roll saves Orton, punching Logan and knocking him out of the ring. He checks on Orton, but Drew drops him with a claymore! Orton and officials check on a hurt Jelly Roll to end the segment.

Analysis

C+ Grade – A fun little match. It was a pretty basic TV match from these 2. Hot start, heat segment, comeback. The involvement of Logan Paul and Jelly Roll made sense. I thought that Jelly Roll sold the claymore pretty well, better than the average “outsider” taking a wrestling move. He has decent facial expressions and emotionally fits in the the WWE narrative. He is clearly a fan and has a level of understanding and respect for what he is doing.

I just cannot get over the fact his name is Jelly Roll and that is what is going to be announced. Next we will have a debuting wrestler named Juicy Drop Pop.

Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis have an intense argument with Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre, you can’t even hear what they’re saying. We see some ladies at ringside. Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley and Jade Cargill. Jade poses and she is attacked by her bitter rival Naomi! They brawl at ringside until they are separated by security. Nick Aldis announces that their will be a special referee for the match. It is the returning Bianca Belair! What a turn of events. This feud is hot and now an extra layer has been added. This should be awesome.

Solo Sikoa (c) vs Jimmy Uso, US Championship

Solo Sikoa recently defeated family member and former ally Jacob Fatu for the US title thanks to the debuting Tala Tonga. Fatu has been taken out last week after an assault by Solo and what he calls his “MFT’s”. My Family Tree. Another story that has been going on over the last few months is Jimmy Uso trying to make it on his own the same way that brother Jey has. He has won a few singles matches but he is yet to have any major success. Solo Sikoa has been offering his older brother a second chance to take his place beside him and have purpose once again. Jimmy Uso is pretty adamant on not joining this new Bloodline faction.

I am not sure how, when or why this match was set up, I am going to be honest. They just started talking about this match on Smackdown as if it was already common knowledge, which it definitely was not. I guess this is because Jimmy has a victory over Solo in a tag match last week? The match was already confirmed before he actually pinned Solo on this week’s Smackdown. Or maybe it was because Fatu cannot have the match since he is “injured” so Jimmy got it instead? I dunno. Maybe I missed something.

It is way too soon for Solo to drop the title, so he will win tonight.

The Match

Solo offers Jimmy one last chance to re-join the family, but Jimmy doesn’t accept and they exchange blows. Uso sends Solo to the outside and hits a suicide dive. Solo’s MFTs try to help Solo up but he shouts at them that he has this. Solo catches Jimmy in mid-air and lands a Spinning Solo. Big upper cut by Jimmy, he goes for a springboard but Solo punches him to the outside. Tala Tonga drops Jimmy behind the referee’s back.

Back from break, both men are fighting on the apron. Big Jim lands a superplex then a German Suplex on the apron. Diving crossbody by Jimmy for a 2 count. Uso hits a running hip attack, followed by the Uso splash for a near fall. Solo counters a spear with a knee and lands another Spinning Solo. Jimmy dodges the spike and hits a pair of superkicks. He goes up for the splash, but Solo rolls out. Jimmy lands a huge corkscrew from the top onto Solo and his family.

Jimmy tries to take out Tala Tonga with kicks. Solo rolls him up as he enters the ring, Tala uses his long leg to help give Solo extra leverage to get the pin.

The assault on Jimmy Uso continues after the match but here comes the returning Jacob Fatu. He takes out Tonga Loa and JC Mateo before staring down Tala Tonga. Fatu knocks him out the ring and drops Tala and Solo with a big dive.

Analysis

C Grade – This was a solid match but I thought the ending was rather abrupt. After the corkscrew dive from Uso I thought that this was going really well, but then it just kinda ended. I liked the Tala Tonga assist, but the match could have went an extra minute or 2.

Nice to see Jacob Fatu make an appearance. We’ll see how this family feud develops.

Randy Orton and Jelly Roll are interviewed. They make the challenge for Summerslam. They are RK-Roll. Oh my.

LA Knight vs Seth Rollins

Everything involving Seth Rollins and his vision over the past few months has been largely enjoyable. Whilst some weeks it is a repeat of what we have already seen, when the story develops it develops HARD. I wish they would give this faction a name already. I don’t see why they don’t just call them The Vision. Easy.

This feud dates back to Money in the Bank when Seth Rollins got a major assist from his boys to win the match. LA Knight was one of the casualties involved and he is set on getting revenge. Knight and The Vision got involved in each other’s matches during the King of the Ring tournament, LA Knight has prevented Seth Rollins from cashing in his briefcase and has also done run-ins on Raw, escaping through the crowd.

Paul Heyman gave Knight a chance to back down, but Knight refused so he was targeted by Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed with spears and Tsunamis. Just when they thought the problem was dealt with, Knight returns for another sneak attack on Raw and sets up this match. It has been a solid build. LA Knight has been helping carry weekly programming for WWE recently, being used a lot for his popularity but never being pushed. I hope that changes soon.

LA Knight needs a win more than Rollins does so I am choosing him as victor.

The Match

Seth Rollins get into a fist fight early, Rollins is targeting the abdomen which may be injured after the assault from Bron-Bron on Smackdown. Knight starts bouncing Rollins’ head off the announce table. Knight plays to the crowd.

Back from break, Rollins has Knight in a bodyscissors. Knight fights back but Rollins hits a gut buster and a big frog splash for a 2 count. Knight fights back, dodging The Stomp and landing a clothesline. He hits a neckbreaker and then the DDT, setting up the diving elbow drop with theatrics. Knight stomps Rollins out in the corner, following up with a running knee. Seth counters the BFT and goes to the top rope. Knight meets him up there but Rollins counters with a buckle bomb. Rollins misses the stomp, Knight cannot power him up and Rollins superkicks him.

Springboard senton by Rollins, but he lands a springboard crossbody on his feet. Seth Rollins immediately clutches at his knee and he goes to the corner. When he missed the stomp, he winced a little bit but continued. However, after the landing that looked clearly painful to him. After being checked out, Rollins gets back up and is immediately dropped with a BFT for the LA Knight win.

Analysis

B Grade – Poor Seth Rollins, that injury looked legit. The fact they had Knight finish him off immediately makes me think that they had to take it home. This was a good match as I expected. Solid wrestling and a good story told with the ribs. It is a shame that it ended in disaster, who knows where the match could have went from here.

I am glad LA Knight got the win at least. Seth can eat a loss. If his knee injury is serious, I wonder what this will mean for the briefcase. Maybe he hands it to Bron Breakker? That would be cool.

Gunther (c) vs Goldberg, World Heavyweight Championship

The IWC have been complaining for weeks about this match and I don’t really understand why. Sure, Goldberg is way past his prime. Out of the 12 matches he has had over the last 8 years, I think I have enjoyed 4 of them (Lesnar, Lesnar, Ziggler, McIntyre). What cannot be denied though is his legacy and his contributions to wrestling. He made a name for himself as a machine in WCW, one of the last breaths of fresh air the company had before it’s tragic death. His popularity and aura was undeniable. You don’t need to be the best wrestler in the world to be acknowledged as a great wrestler. It is about other things too.

Goldberg deserves to have a retirement match and I cannot think of a better opponent for him than Gunther. The Heavyweight champion has just bounced back from his Wrestlemania loss to Jey Uso and I think a victory over the legendary Goldberg is a great way to re-establish him as the greatest threat in WWE.

I swear to god. If Goldberg walks out of this match with the Heavyweight championship after like 3 minutes, I will be pissed. He done the job for Reigns, McIntyre & Strowman. I have faith that this is going to go down how it should. Goldberg does the hits, Gunther kicks out and puts down the Hall of Famer for good. Gunther will retain.

I thought it was cool that Goldberg’s look walk to the ring featured his son, Ernest ‘The Cat’ Miller and one of the original security guards who escorted him back in WCW. There were 3 more guys there but I didn’t recognise them.

The Match

Goldberg soaks in the crowd noise. They lock up and he throws Gunther to the ground. Gunther throws a kick, grabs a headlock but Goldberg powers out and hits a shoulder tackle. Gunther chops Goldberg and he laughs it off. Goldberg drops Gunther with a rebounding clothesline. Goldberg beats up Gunther in the corner and drops him with another clothesline. He goes for the Jackhammer but Gunther escapes and attacks the knee. Gunther goes up top, Goldberg throws him off the top. He sets up the spear, but Gunther escapes the ring.

They fight on the outside, Goldberg goes for a spear but Gunther dodges, the Hall of Famer going through the barricade hard.

Back from break, Gunther is targeting the left knee of Goldberg in a submission. Both men power up to their feet and trade big strikes but Gunther kicks him to the ground. Gunther mocks Goldberg, but the legend catches a kicks and hits a one-handed spinebuster. Both men continue to trade big strikes. Goldberg counters a powerbomb with a back drop, setting up a spear but Gunther dodges and Charles Robinson gets smashed instead! Poor guy. Gunther rips off the knee brace that Goldberg wears and parades around with it. He uses the brace as a weapon on Goldberg’s exposed knee, then across the back of the head.

Gunther goes to Goldberg’s family at ringside and mocks his son. Security keep Gabe Goldberg away from attacking him. Gunther enters the ring and eats a spear! Goldberg manages to lift up Gunther for a Jackhammer. A new referee comes down for the 1-2-…kick out! What a great near fall.

Gunther manages to lock on the sleeper hold. Goldberg struggles for breath and tries to escape but he passes out in the hold. Gunther retains.

Analysis

B+ Grade – At 58 years old, carrying injuries and limitations, Goldberg just wrestled one of his best WWE matches with a huge thanks to one of the best in the world today, Gunther. Modern wrestling fans are far too obsessed with “work rate” or “move sets” or being the greatest technical wrestler in the world. That is fine if that is your thing, but wrestling is a lot more than that. Wrestling is about the gravity-defying athleticism of Lucha Libre. Wrestling is about the violent blood feuds resolved in hardcore matches. It is also about the story, the grandeur and the spectacle.

This story was about a man who was once the most dominant force in all of wrestling, wanting to go out on his own terms and prove that he still has that beast in him, despite what wrestling “fans” may say. He stood toe to toe with WWE’s new dominant force Gunther and held his own. As the match went on, Goldberg was weakened but that only made him more determined, pulling out his biggest moves to try and capture glory one final time, but it wasn’t meant to be.

As Gunther trapped him in the choke, the aging Goldberg knew he gave it his best but he is no longer the man he once was. Still defiant to the end, Goldberg is put to sleep and Gunther reaffirms he is the new beast in WWE.

This is probably the best possible outcome. Gunther goes over on a legend. Goldberg gets his retirement match and it was a very good one.

Final Thoughts

B- Overall Grade – Let’s get my main gripe out the way first. In total, there was about 35 minutes of wrestling on this 2 hour show. That isn’t a bad thing, on Smackdown we got about 40 minutes of wrestling so that checks out. However, on Smackdown we also video packages and promo segments. We got none of that here. Outside of a few short interview segments and a brief Bianca Belair appearance, the rest of the content is wrestling.

Deducting time for entrances, I think approximately 70 minutes of this show is commercials and ad breaks. That is ludicrous. This greedy TKO presentation is hindering the product greatly.

Show was solid other than that. The first two matches were nothing special. Knight vs Rollins was good even with the tragedy at the end. Who would have thought that a 14 minute Goldberg match would have stolen the show? Not me I tell ya.

Check out my review of Night Great American Bash from earlier in the day.