Penta retained the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Ethan Page at Saturday Night’s Main Event on Saturday night at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, finishing Page with a springboard Mexican Destroyer to close out a physical and competitive match.
Page brought physical intensity throughout, throwing Penta with a back body drop onto the announce desk early in the match. Page also deliberately exposed turnbuckle pads, sending Penta into one of the exposed corners. Despite the advantage, Penta kept kicking out. A Confidence Breaker from Page could not put him away. Page attempted an Egoplex but Penta countered with the Penta Driver. Page went to the top rope and pulled Penta up by the mask for an avalanche Powerslam, and Penta kicked out of that as well. Page then ran into one of his own exposed turnbuckles, and Penta followed with the springboard Mexican Destroyer to retain.
It was Penta’s seventh successful defense of the title in under 90 days. He originally won the Intercontinental Championship from Dominik Mysterio on the March 2 episode of Raw and subsequently defended the title in a six-pack ladder match at WrestleMania 42 against Je’Von Evans, Rey Mysterio, Dragon Lee, Rusev, and JD McDonagh. Page earned the number one contender spot by pinning Penta in a tag match on the May 4 Raw alongside Rusev, defeating Penta and Je’Von Evans. Page had been on the main roster for approximately one month after his call-up from NXT.
In the opening match of the night, Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab defeated Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair, and Alexa Bliss in the six-woman tag team match. The match featured a notable moment when Ripley and Flair, who have had well-documented friction, briefly shook hands and embraced alongside Bliss. Cargill immediately capitalized on the celebration, shoving Ripley into her partners, then connecting with a superkick and Jaded on Ripley for the pinfall. The result sends Cargill into her match against Ripley at Clash in Italy with a pinfall victory over the Women’s Champion on back-to-back nights.
Becky Lynch and Sol Ruca met in what was officially designated a non-title match, though the result set up a Women’s Intercontinental Championship match at Clash in Italy the following Sunday. Lynch dragged referee Jessika Carr directly into the path of the Sol Snatcher, drawing a disqualification victory for Ruca. Lynch then attacked Ruca after the bell. The DQ finish produced the title match WWE and Lynch had spent the week publicly arguing about, with Lynch posting on social media prior to the show that Ruca had done nothing to earn a shot at her title.
Saturday Night’s Main Event XLIV drew an announced attendance of 10,714, marking the first WWE television event in Fort Wayne since 2014. Full results on the homepage.Â
WWE Clash in Italy takes place Sunday, May 31 at Inalpi Arena in Turin, Italy. The show airs at 2 p.m. ET and 11 a.m. PT. In the United States it streams on E! and internationally on Netflix, excluding select markets. The event is presented by Riyadh Season.
