WRestling’s 3R’s PPV Edition 10.13.06: WWE No Mercy 2006

Introduction!

Welcome back to another PPV edition of WRestling’s 3R’s! This is the first of two PPV’s for October, as in two weeks we will tackle TNA’s Bound for Glory. Today we look at the latest WWE offering, which was No Mercy; a Smackdown production. We had two title matches, falls count anywhere, the battle of North Cackalacki and much more. With all that being said, let’s get to work and break down the PPV.

WWE NO MERCY 2006:size=36>

The Matches:

THE BATTLE OF NORTH CACKALACKI: Matt Hardy defeated Gregory Helms @ 13:15 via pin ***¼

WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: London and Kendrick defeated Stevens and James @ 9:45 via pin ***

MVP defeated Marty Garner @ 2:38 via pin (DUD) Trash of the night.

Mr. Kennedy defeated the Undertaker @ 20:43 via DQ **

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH: Rey Mysterio defeated Chavo Guerrero @ 12:12 via pin **½

Chris Benoit defeated William Regal @ 11:25 via Submission ***¾ Match of the Night.

WORLD TITLE MATCH: King Booker defeated Lashley, Finlay and Batista @ 16:55 via pin ***¼

The Right:

Hot Opener – We opened the PPV, which was in Raleigh North Carolina with “the battle of North Cackalacki” featuring Gregory Helms and Matt Hardy. These guys have been working good matches on Smackdown, and in all honesty the feud was cool. Why? It was just a “who is the better man” type of thing. It is so simple and to be honest, rather refreshing. Did I hate that the Cruiserweight Title was not on the line? Yes. It makes the whole, “Longest running champion” deal mean a lot less in my opinion, especially since the title is essentially dead. That all being said, these guys went out there, with the crowd with them and had a damn good match to open the show.

Some may say that the match was a bit overboard for an opener, with the WrestleMania “triple finishes” and all, but I did enjoy things. Hardy gets a BIG PPV win, and yes, for him it is a big win, but the question now will be where do both men go from here? Hopefully they have plans for both because they can go, they just need the proper booking behind them.

The tag teams deliver -While the tag team division is struggling in the amount of teams that they have on the brand, much like Raw and well ECW since they don’t even have tag titles, but I will say that London and Kendrick are busting their asses to put on good-great matches, and they did so here with Idol and James. The first thing that I liked is that Ashley came out with the champs, something I had been a supporter of in the R’s of Smackdown. The match started out quickly with London and Kendrick in control and hitting the old school rocket launcher (MIDNIGHT EXPRESS BITCHES) and stereo sentons to the floor. London would then get tossed to the floor from the top rope and Idol and KC took control. Idol and KC kept control of the match, getting some near falls on London in what seemed like a long beat down, while in actuality it wasn’t. That was actually a good thing as it wasn’t boring, but London was selling so damn well. London would finally get the hot tag and shit broke loose, and the ladies got involved as you could imagine and London and Kendrick would get the win with a sliced break #2 by Kendrick and then London getting a Shooting Star Press off of his back for the duke. Idol and KC aren’t ready for the titles yet but they are coming along very nicely as a team. Idol works for –5 guys still, while KC James works just fine and has the most potential. London and Kendrick seemed to be working for 5-guys each, which is what made the match. Good stuff here, and I have hope for James and Idol…just not the division as a whole unfortunately.

Regal vs. Benoit – Sometimes the unexpected is the best thing for us. None of the matches on this card stood out big time to me, Rey and Chavo did because of their abilities but over all it was just a show to me. William Regal was told he would have a surprise match by Teddy Long, which we’ll explain later. Regal headed to the ring and awaited his opponent, and that opponent turned out to be the returning Crippler, Chris Benoit. Normally I would bitch about wasting a return like this, but I will say that occasionally surprises are a damn fine thing; and this was a great thing. But I will say that occasionally surprises are a damn fine thing; and this one was a great thing. I am a huge Benoit fan, and am a HUGE fan of matches with Benoit and Regal or Finlay as they are always great. These men got just over 11-minutes and let me tell you, they know how to get the most out of their time. Very early on Regal showed his awesomeness by BLOCKING a Benoit chop! They worked the top wristlocks from there, including the Regal bridge spot and kip up. They also worked the sick head butts and were actually both busted open. Now if this makes sense, it was a slow and deliberate match that slowly climaxed, but never got out of second gear and I mean that in a complimentary way. Regal got some great stuff on Benoit, including the surfboard into the dragon sleeper and some wicked T-Bone suplexes. Benoit dusted off the dragon sleeper and it was glorious. Regal fought for the Regal stretch but Benoit would turn that into an arm bar for the near submission. Benoit would finally get the cross face, after a glorious fight by Regal. They battled for the takedown, they battled as Benoit secured the first arm in his legs and then battled as Benoit attempted to lock his hands. Regal was awesome here, and as soon as it was locked in he tapped; which just puts over the hold that much more in my opinion. This was an unannounced match and ended up being the best match on the show. You can’t complain about a surprise like that kids, I loved it!

Regal and King Booker are both Great, Great Men – I decided that Regal and King BOOKA needed their own right, because all through the night they entertained me. First we saw King Booker backstage, telling Queen Sharmell that he needed seclusion to prepare for his battle with the three fire-breathing dragons. He was dismayed and even worried because the odds were stacked against him, and his own night, Sir Finlay was a turncoat. Sir William then appeared and said he would do anything for the King. King Booker told him to find Sir Finlay and tell him to not wish to fight him, to have him put his aspirations aside and have him be the King’s ally.

Then we see Sir William after the tag title match looking for Finlay. He randomly asked people, and then gave an ugly woman the eyes, maybe for the UK she was pretty, I don’t know. He then ran across Vito jumping rope. Obviously he was doing it wrong so Regal had to show him how it was done. He grabbed the rope and started to jump while singing “London Bridge is Falling Down.” Vito started wiping his head with his dress, exposing his junk (covered of course) and this appalled Regal, who back peddled and fell into a cart of condiments. Then, for what seemed like minutes, but was more like 30-seconds, Regal played the keystone Cops routine in the crap on the floor and it was hilarious.

After MVP’s debut we headed to the shower room where Regal’s Penis made it’s PPV debut as he got out of the shower and was wrapping a towel around his waist. Vito was there singing London Bridge and they made dick jokes. Vito asked if the water was cold and Regal, who is just awesome asked Vito, “Was your father a donkey?” Anyway, Regal was afraid of Vito and ran from the locker room, exposing his ass to the camera and various ladies backstage. This is where Teddy Long came and said since Regal was out looking for action he would have a surprise match later in the evening.

After the match with Benoit, Regal headed backstage a beaten and bloody man. King Booker and Queen Sharmell then ran into him and asked if he had found Finlay yet. Regal tried to explain the trials of his evening and says he never got to Finlay. The King was livid because he knew he would have to face three hungry lions and then Finlay walked in. He told the King that he was there to fight, and to win the title. Finlay left and King Booker called Regal pathetic and useless and then slapped good Sir William, telling him to leave his royal sight. Regal had finally had enough and SLUGGED the King and left him on the floor.

I usually don’t enjoy a lot of “skits” on PPV, but occasionally, when they run show long AND make sense they are a lot of fun and useful. I enjoyed all of this due to Regal and King Booker’s greatness. This was all good stuff here.

The King slays his lions – The beginning of this match wanted to bore me. They started right away by doing the typical multi-man formula by tossing one man out to make things easier. This went on for a bit, but then something awesome happened. Finlay took control of the match, and not just in offense, but you just knew he was calling and booking the whole damn thing. Things came together, the flow hit a good stride and I was digging the match. King Booker was his normal self, Finlay was the hard-hitting bastard and Batista and Lashley were the muscle heads. Speaking of those two, you could tell that they were testing the waters for a potential WrestleMania showdown as late in the match they had the ring cleared and they had the big stare-down, which got the crowd going pretty well. They brawled and Batista got busted open somewhere in the braw legit and was bleeding a lot, which honestly I feel added to the drama of the match. I really dug the end of the match. Finlay had some near falls, and then nails the post and Batista nails Lashley, Booker and him with spinebusters. Then he gets the Batista bomb on Finlay. Lashley then spears the hell out of Batista and King Booker slowly crawls over and pins his former knight to retain the title. This was a real good match, with a good finish. King Booker barely escapes with the title while getting some revenge of the man that turned on him, Batista looks like he was robbed and Lashley isn’t weakened at all. The closing scene of a bloody Batista looking on in amazement that he was robbed while King Booker celebrated was excellent.

puRgatoRy:

M.V.P – So MVP made his debut here at the PPV. He came out with a special entrance, like a football game with pyro boxes to look important with some fun entrance music. He then appears in a Flash-Funk/Power Rangers outfit looking beyond ridiculous. MVP then let us know that he is indeed the MVP of Smackdown. His opponent then turned out to be a 190lb jobber, Marty Garner. They went about 2½ minutes and it was what it was. He won with Generic Finisher #3 the Play of the Day/Overdrive and that was that. Woo hoo. Yeah that was it.

I think I get where they are going with the deal. I think that they are portraying him as the “overpaid athlete” that doesn’t deliver and half asses everything. While I get where they are going, they did a piss poor job of getting that over. All Cole could say was, “that was disappointing.” I feel that commentary could have played it up more than they did. They did mention how it was a joke that he faced the jobber and all, but it seemed half assed to me. I am willing to let this play out to see where it all goes, but in the end it didn’t come off like I think they wanted to. Hopefully it picks up on Smackdown this week.

The wRong:

Chavo vs. Rey – We had the Falls Count Anywhere match with Rey vs. Chavo. I had very high expectations from this match. They are such good friends, and friends always work great for and with each other it seems in wrestling. Also, as much as I hate the feud, I think in their mind they are working for Eddie and want to honor him through these matches. Bullshit to me, but whatever. I really thought that the match would be off the charts and that they would do a lot of good things and possibly steal the show. In my opinion it just didn’t do that. I think that people are really overstating how good the match was. To me it was a “TNA Main Event Style” brawl. It was good and they were heated, but some are saying Rey gave a “Foley-like” performance out there, and I really didn’t see that. I saw a pretty heated, average crowd brawl with an anti-climatic finish. Anti-climatic due to the stuttered three count, which REALLY soured it for me and because the “dive” into the cross body wasn’t anything super special to me that would cause a pin. Rey got some offense, got beat down a ton, makes a comeback, 619 and then the dive and that was it. I was just like, that was all? While the match had some heat to it and they worked hard, I just didn’t buy the ending. I expected Rey to finally snap and use a chair, Singapore cane, bag of popcorn, is backpack for school, Dominique or something to show his frustrations. It didn’t seem like it was as heated as the announcers tried to make it out to be, which I will give them credit for as they tried so hard to get it over. In the end, I didn’t like the match that much, not horrible but it wasn’t what it should have been. I also still hate the angle, so there you go.

The Undertaker vs. Kennedy – Yeah, so this is the match I really wasn’t that happy for. Hell, let’s look at my Round Table prediction:

Larry Csonka: Taker isn’t going to lose to Kennedy, I just can’t see it happening. Maybe they can have some spooky effects to make up for that. Yeah…

Winner: The Undertaker via DQ

I am not a prophet since a lot of the staff picked something like this, but the fact remains that this is what we got and BLAH it sucked. Let’s talk about the match. I will say that the first 13-minutes or so of the match was well, pretty damn boring. I knew once we hit about 13-minutes that we were headed for the normal 20-minute Taker affair, and for the most part that is not a good thing. Taker was working the shoulder of Kennedy for a while, doing a mix of old school Taker and MMA taker, it was fine, not horrible, not great, just there to be honest with you. And then, Kennedy goes for and hits a piledriver, and I mean he spiked the FUCK out of Taker in a nasty way. But that wasn’t the end, Taker sits up and we go on with the match. Kennedy escapes the last ride later on and eventually gets the KENTON BOMB on Taker…for 2. Oh yeah, killing the finisher, great work. Kennedy then brings in the US title, which you would think he would get himself DQ’d and then beat down Taker. Nope, Taker gets it, knocks him out and gets DQ’d. So in the end we/I invested 20-minutes into a match with no finish. It is just complete and utter bullshit to me when they do this sort of thing. And to make matters worse, not only did Undertaker kick out of a piledriver, the move not allowed in WWE and not only did he kick out of Kennedy’s finisher, but the big man just HAD to get his heat back by tomb-stoning Kennedy and the ref after the match. Some will say that a match like this still puts over Kennedy because he had so much offense and I say that is bullshit. Taker is main event, Kennedy is not so he will always be booked like this in these matches. The worst part is that the feud is not over. I have a bad feeling that this will be a long Orton-like feud where Kennedy gets a charity win in the middle but in the end still loses, but of course, he’ll be “elevated” just by hanging with the dead man in “his yard.” What a bunch of bullshit. Great way to put over your US Champ folks.

The Ridiculous:

The Miz’s Birthday Celebration – This is where the PPV came to a screeching halt. They had two great matches to kick off the show and had great momentum…but that had to stop. Teddy Long came out and there was this giant present in the ring. Teddy said that it was someone’s birthday and they were going to celebrate the Miz’s 26th Birthday. So the Miz comes out and he was the Miz, which is both great and horrible at the same time. He said HOO-RAH about 57-times and Teddy finally calmed him down. Teddy explained that Miz had been hitting on a diva that didn’t so much like it, but she wanted to help Miz celebrate. This was Layla he was talking about, and she came to the ring and she was SO FN HOT! Oh yes, I like me some Layla. So she proceeded to do a little dance for Miz, and I will say that Miz was hilarious doing his own commentary for the strip tease. Then she pulls out a blindfold and things went down hill even faster. The box was opened and “Big Dick Johnson,” the fat writer who wears the banana hammock appeared and started to dance. He grinded on Miz and Miz was slapping his ass and I about threw up. Miz then realized who it was and freaked out. The big fat man and Layla then danced and we saw way too much man ass here. While this wasn’t as bad as it could have been, well that is a lie it was fucking horrible, this wasn’t something you put on PPV. This was a Smackdown skit and it should have stayed on Smackdown. In all honestly I don’t pay $40 to see the Miz slap a giant fat man’s ass wearing a banana hammock. Keep this shit off of my PPV please.

Closing Thoughts:

So heading into the show it was one of those, “Well, I am not that excited here. It could be good but I don’t see a huge hook for anyone to order the show.” The PPV started off with 2-really good matches and I was happy because good PPV’s bring me joy. Things then came to a screeching halt with the MVP debut, the shit with the Miz and the Undertaker vs. Kennedy match and that made Larry a sad boy. The Regal skits were funny, and then things picked up with Chavo and Rey. Then my day was made as Regal went out for his match, and he got to face Chris FN Benoit in a glorious, glorious match. We then got the good four-way main event and over all I was a happy boy. In the end I will go with a strong 7.0 out of 10 for the show. While there were no MOTY candidates or total blow away matches, for the most part this was a damn solid show. It did drag a bit in the middle, but the matches were mostly really good. I would recommend this show if you want a fun night of action.

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Reader Feedback on WWE No Mercy 2006:

From 411 Forum Member Ray –

Overall, 7.5/10.

A very solid show, with no glaring atrocities, match wise.

I’ll steal your format:

Right: Hardy/Helms: A solid back and forth match, which truly could have gone either way. There were three or four legitimate end-teases. In the end, however, a good decision was made; to give Hardy the PPV victory, and start the crowd off in a good mood.

BENOIT: If I have to explain why Benoit’s return, and subsequent match with Regal, are right, then you shouldn’t be here. By the way, those head butts were disgusting.

Lots of time: None of the matches felt rushed along, which is very nice for a PPV. Everything was given proper time to tell the necessary story. Even the MVP match, which should have been as short as it was.

Commentary: Even Cole was on point tonight. JBL was his usual awesome self, but Cole kept up with him step for step. Every match was treated like a big deal by the table, and that can only be a bonus for the wrestlers involved.

Wrong: Nothing really.

Ridiculous: William Regal’s junk: Very high on the list of shit I never needed to see.

Miz/Layla/Johnson: Seriously? On PPV? Wow. Just, wow.

Anyway, match of the night: Regal/Benoit
Trash of the night: Miz’s birthday party.

From Andrew aka DivasRGr8 from the 411 forums –

Hi Larry, just wanted to drop you a note with my thoughts on No Mercy.

Score: 9 out of 10. I loved this PPV!

-Match of the night: Tie between the 4-way and the Regal/Benoit match
-Trash of the night: Kennedy winning by DQ. I think he should have gone over UT by some kind of sneaky way.

I have some quick notes on the matches as well…

Hardy/Helms was a great opener. I loved this Shining Wizard spot when Hardy was on the top rope

The tag match was A LOT of fun. London and Kendrick are great to watch when allowed to pull out the stops. Stevens & James are pretty good too.

I thought MVP making his debut against a jobber like that was GENIUS! I watched the PPV at a bar and while people were booing this I was laughing my butt off.

Chavo/Rey was all right. I don’t really care a whit about either guy but they put on a really good match for what it was.

Regal/Benoit was fantastic. Obviously they just stiffed the heck out of each other and it was a glorious old school match. I was convinced that Regal was going to face Vito so this was a great surprise and really showed the “anything can happen” atmosphere that the WWE tries to create at their PPVs.

The 4-way match was also fantastic. I thought the star of this match was Batista, much to my surprise. He really looked like “the Animal” that we are used to seeing. Of course, when you have guys like Booker and Finlay in the match it’s pretty hard to screw it up and last night everyone delivered. The ending was just crazy and fun and I loved being the only one in the bar cheering for my King Booker. Some huge nerd was sitting by me at the bar and was really upset about Booker winning, so of course I just laughed in his face. Heel turn for me??

Overall, just a real fun PPV. That should be no surprise as Smackdown is the most fun wrestling show on TV. If it wasn’t for the Kennedy DQ win, I would have given it 10 out of 10.

Oh, and here is my ranking of the Divas from last night in order of hotness:

1. Layla
2. Michelle McCool
3. Ashley

Take care!

From 411 forum member Gary Crimson –

The Right-

1. The Video package for the Main Event. This was great as it didn’t just focus on the Faces Vs the Heals, it was evenly spread out as it highlighted the heat between Batista and Lashley and the heat between Finlay and Booker as well the vice versa.

Further more the backstage segments with Batista/Lashley and Booker/Finlay emphasized the heat between all four of the men and really got over the message that every man is in it for themselves. And we knew that we’d be in for a good Main Event.

2. Benoit’s return was fantastic, as it was very sudden and unexpected and reminded me of 6-7 years ago when anything could happen during a PPV, and there was no video packages hyping his return. It was a great surprise and the match was pretty solid.

The Ridiculous.

1. The ten minutes of WWE hyping the Marine, Mc Mahon DVD and other crap. I was sitting at home saying “I didn’t fork over 20 euro to watch ten minutes of fucking advertisements, I thought that’s why they don’t play advertisements during PPV.” And this was followed by a lame Miz/Layla segment, and although I find Layla really hot, this really pissed me off and I felt cheated out of good money when I could of been watching a kick ass match.

My initial response to this was that Smackdown have only a handful of Wrestlers who you could put on a PPV match and the rest of the roster are a huge risk.

Best match- London & Kendrick VS The Teachers Pets, this was a great Tag Match that actually had me on the edge of my seat. Nice teamwork on both teams part, with some crazy moves by Kendrick & London.

Worst match- MVP VS Jobber, I can’t believe that I actually paid to see this crap. I just took it as a piss break.

From Alan –

Here’s my opinions on No mercy last night

HARDY V HELMS had an good hype video I thought. I never actually watched the whole match as I was just in the door when the ppv started, there was lots of near falls, the crowd was hot for it and at the end JBL and Cole made me wish I’d seen Hardy’s win with their comments that the match could have easily ended the ppv never mind open it.

The Tag Team Championship match was fine, a bit messy in places but still very enjoyable. I think Kid Kash getting bagged set back WWE’s plans for this match. I mean, LonDrick have hardly lost on Smackdown, even in non-title or one on one they weren’t beaten and I couldn’t quite see Idol/James getting gold just yet. They have improved though. LonDrick continue their Title Reign.
The Miz’s in ring skit was very funny, he really enjoyed Layla’s lap dance but somehow didn’t appreciate Big Dicks performance!! Yeah Happy Birthday Miz.!!!

MVP- Mince of the night for sure. The guy doesn’t even have a proper finisher. Every new guy gets that leg over the neck twist slam sort of move. I was very disappointed and so was half of the crowd who either chanted Boring or Power Ranger after about a minute. If somebody’s gonna say “I’m the greatest etc” then they need a great move set finished off with a finisher no-ones seen and looks great. MVP doesn’t have any of these things and he doesn’t look too muscular under that awful ring attire either.

Taker V KKen- The video shown before the match was one of the best I’ve seen in a while from WWE and I was expecting a great match and in my opinion it was a great match, Kennedy took just about everything from Undertaker but still got up, Taker took a hammering from KKen including a piledriver which Michael Cole ballsed up by saying it was a Tombstone!! The piledriver looked great though, but again Undertakers version of putting someone over-i.e.: a dq ending giving KKen the win, totally fucked up the match. I actually thought KKen was going to make history just as he promised and defeat the ‘Taker. I thoroughly enjoyed this match up until the end and I’m really angry about it too.

CHAVO V REY- My god, Vicky G never even got a look in once the match started, I seen her accompany Chavo to the ring then again at the end picking him up after his defeat. That was a bonus. She’s an ugly bitch in my opinion and has terrible dress sense. The match was quite good, a lot of high impact moves in the crowd, over railings, down stairs, up the stairs. Rey’s cross body would’ve been great if Chavo have at least sold it without looking round to see where to land first!! The 3 count was a mess.

BENIOT Vs REGAL was a swerve. I expected Regal to be facing Vito, especially after their hilarious antics backstage earlier. Regal was on form here, when he walked in to see Vito skipping in a dress and high heels, he said “no no no no, your doing it all wrong” before showing him how to skip properly, I’m sure everyone thought he going to rant at Vito for his “attire” .His fall into the ketchup n mustard was so funny. As for the match, it was a brutal affair with Regal on the end of 2 vicious looking head butts that produced blood the hard way and Benoit getting tied in knots by Regal. Awesome fight but I can’t help thinking that these sort of matches go right over WWE crowd’s heads, they watched in near silence and it’s quite sad.

TheFATAL-4 WAY for WHT- As you’ve mentioned, Finlay did most of the work, no Celtic Cross from him though. The match itself was good, a typical fatal 4 way in most ways. Batista cut himself quite badly when he Spinebustered Lashley and he even executed his Batista Bomb on Finlay before being speared to hell by Lashley allowing Booker to crawl over to pin Finlay. Although he wasn’t in the match long periods, Batista does look better now. I do like him so maybe I’m being biased.

I’d give the ppv an 8/10.It was a really enjoyable ppv in my opinion. Apart from MVPs debut joke, the matches were solid, the comedy was really funny and a change from Monday Night DX’s Bore-A-Thon offerings and in defeat, Batista looked strong as did Lashley.

Mince of the night (Trash)- I’m not sure if this is allowed but the ending to the Taker V KKen match was so annoying, what a great match but totally ruined by the dq ending then the Tomstoning of KKen and the ref really upsets me!! If it has to be a match that’s my Trash then of course its MVPs “upset” over the Legendary in-ring genius of Marty Garner.

And finally from Dan –

Didn’t see the ppv, as I was out watching “The (MOTHERFUCKING) Departed”, but I must say how completely shocked I am that Taker kicked out of Kennedy’s finisher, and then got screwed giving his opponent a “win” and then gets his heat back immediately by leaving Ken laying with a Tombstone. This may have shocked someone living under a rock since 1991. The rest of the card sounded pretty good and Benoit is back and that is awesome!

Thanks for joining me for this special edition of the 3R’s, and don’t forget to check out the regular edition complete with all of the other shows from the week!

For more interesting information on wrestling, check out Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly Online, Mike Campbell over at SPLASH MOUNTAIN and Dr. Keith Lipinski over at Puroresu Power!