411’s Instant Access 06.20.10: WWE Fatal 4-Way 2010

Hey kids, I’m Scott, and this is 411’s Instant Access: WWE Fatal 4-Way 2010. 411’s Instant Access is the companion piece to 411 Live Pay-Per-View Coverage and features immediate reaction to wrestling pay-per-views. The focus in Instant Access is on first thoughts and initial reactions instead of play-by-play with the goal of providing you with instant access to one two three writers’ thoughts on the show. Here’s the team for Fatal 4-Way:

• Scott Slimmer, author of Don’t Think Twice.
• Jeremy Thomas, editor of Wrestling’s 4R’s and author of The Hush-Hush News Report.
• Mike Uphoff, author of 411’s WWE Smackdown Report.

Okay kids, enough with the explanations. Let’s get to the wrestling.

Intercontinental Championship Match
Kofi Kingston (Champion) vs. Drew McIntyre
Match Result: Kofi Kingston defeats Drew McIntyre with Trouble in Paradise.
Match Length: 16:30
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: This was fine match, and it would have worked well on any given episode of Smackdown. In fact, it was very similar to many of the matches that we’ve seen on Smackdown over the past few months. And therein lies the main problem with this match; Kingston and McIntyre were unable to raise the level of their performance and make this actually seem like a pay-per-view match. By no means was this a bad match in any way, but it was a very vanilla match. Apart from the overall blandness of the match, I also question the logic behind the finish. Drew McIntyre (the heel) honestly did have Kofi Kingston (the face) beat clean, and then he was legitimately screwed by both Teddy Long and Matt Hardy. Now that could be an interesting story if WWE had the resolve to follow through with the Machiavellian actions of the faces, but instead I’m guessing that WWE will simply treat the faces’ actions as having been completely justified. This could be a fantastic opportunity to tell a somewhat more complex story than our normal fare, but instead I would assume that we’ll just get more of the status quo as Drew McIntyre uses his status as the Chosen One to influence Teddy Long and screw Kofi Kingston.
Thomas: Good match to start off the show, and transitioning from Vince talking NXT to Drew showing up made complete sense. These two guys completely have the ability to deliver on certain levels; clearly, one more than the other but I believe there is still something to Drew and he’s done well in his heel role as a character. The problem is that he can’t seem to pick it up to make his Pay-Per-View matches something special. He’s got the charisma but he just doesn’t have the ring skills to pay off his feuds. This was a technically proficient match that had Kofi and Drew doing solid work but that lacked that spark that would have made it something special. Both men had the right charisma and presence, and Kofi stepped it up nicely but Drew just wrestled the same kind of match he does on SmackDown, only spread out over several minutes. The finish angle was a little goofy and this loses half a star for trying to sell us on the fact that Kofi was put out for like three minutes by the Future Shock. All in all, this was a competent match that didn’t have what it needed to deliver properly on PPV.
Uphoff: Nice match from the two, considering the little build they have had for the match. Drew showed signs of competence when working the arm, and Kofi sold the arm well throughout the match. It had some great near falls to keep the crowd interested, which is what you are supposed to do when you open the PPV. Kofi’s counters and the tornado DDT that would have made Chris Sabin proud were nice. Teddy Long not counting three was a great spot. Good match and great continuation with Hardy running in at the end.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: **½
Thomas: **½
Uphoff: **¾
Average Match Rating: **½

Fatal 4-Way Match for the Divas Championship
Eve Torres (Champion) vs. Gail Kim vs. Maryse vs. Alicia Fox
Match Result: Alicia Fox defeats Maryse after a moonsault from Eve Torres.
Match Length: 5:41
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: These four Divas did their best to put on a watchable match, but unfortunately the WWE Divas division has fallen so far that they simply have no base upon which to built a compelling match. There were no major botches, and the match was kept short enough to prevent excessive stalling. Alicia Fox may seem like an unlikely choice to carry the Divas Championship, but the match did tell the story of Alicia finally breaking away from Maryse and doing what is best for herself. In all honesty, at this point you really can’t argue than any one Diva is any more or less worthy of being Divas Champion, and so I suppose having Alicia win the title tonight really doesn’t change the Divas division
Thomas: ‘ll give them credit here for trying their asses off. Of course, they had their awkward moments in there and when you compare this to the average PPV match this just didn’t stand up. However, this is exactly what I’ve been talking about when I said the Divas need more time to wrestle. We saw the girls trying things we’d never seen, and not botching them either. There was even a little psychology to boot. I’m surprised they gave the belt to Alicia; I really don’t think she’s ready for the belt, but then I didn’t think Eve was either. What’s Gail Kim gotta do to get a title win these days? Or hell, a win period. The girls really worked hard here and I didn’t mind this match at all because it’s definitely progress for the women.
Uphoff: It was OK. I’ve seen worse Diva’s matches, but I have definitely seen better ones as well. I don’t understand why Alicia Fox won, though. It would have made sense to have Eve retain or Maryse regain her title. Oh, well. It was an okay Diva’s match with a questionable outcome. Insert affirmative action joke here.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: *½
Thomas: **
Uphoff: *¼
Average Match Rating: *½

Chris Jericho vs. Evan Bourne
Match Result: Evan Bourne defeats Chris Jericho with Airbourne.
Match Length: 12:02
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: I usually don’t understand the rationale behind having impromptu matches on pay-per-views, but I can almost buy into the notion that Chris Jericho’s recent string of losses would compel him to seek out a high profile win. The most impressive aspect of this match was that unlike the competitors in the Intercontinental Championship match and the United States Championship match, Chris Jericho and Evan Bourne were able to make their match feel like something more special than a standard television match. It wasn’t revolutionary or ground-breaking, but it was fast-paced and consistently entertaining. The story of Bourne trying to get the biggest win of his career by besting one of the best performers of this generation allowed a coherent narrative thread to flow throughout the entire match, and allowing Bourne to pick up the win could obviously be a precursor to a serious push. Of course, we’ve seen potential pushes fade away with little explanation on numerous occasions in the past, but I certainly hope that WWE at least gives Bourne the chance to prove himself as an upper mid-card talent.
Thomas: Call me crazy, but Jericho’s pre-match promo had just a few shades of a potential face turn. “I haven’t made an impact”? “The greatest feud in WWE history with Shawn Michaels”? Those are levels of respect not normally seen from Jericho’s character. I could be imagining it, though Vintage Cole acknowledging the fan’s respect for Jericho by their chants was interesting. This was similar to the Intercontinental Title match in style in that it was technically proficient and both men played their roles well. The difference between the two was that this match had that spark. Chris Jericho once again did a phenomenal job of putting someone over, in this case Bourne. And really, did anyone ever see Evan Freaking Bourne beating Chris Jericho on PPV? This was a great match that both men busted their ass for and it’s definitely a high point on Bourne’s career.
Uphoff: This was a great impromptu match that had the crowd on their seats the entire time. This was an awesome back and forth match between the up and comer and the seasoned veteran. Jericho sold and bumped well for Bourne, and Bourne took his usual good offense and stepped it up a notch. What we got was a great match with a good build towards the finish and what I hope to be a deserved push for Evan Bourne.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: ***¼
Thomas: ***½
Uphoff: ***½
Average Match Rating: ***½

Fatal 4-Way Match for the World Heavyweight Championship
Jack Swagger (Champion) vs. Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk vs. The Big Show
Match Result: Rey Mysterio defeats Jack Swagger with the 619 and a springboard splash.
Match Length: 10:20
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: I suppose this was about as much as you could ask from these four guys, but at the same time there was certainly nothing that we haven’t seen in countless triple threat and four way matches in the past. Kane’s interference was brief enough to not detract from the match significantly, but I would have liked the match to have continued longer after the distraction so that the finish didn’t appear to be quite so random or haphazard. I honestly never expected Rey Mysterio to win another WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship, but since the Draft he really has been the face of Smackdown. His issues with CM Punk were never truly resolved, and I’d love to see Mysterio and Punk feud over the title for a month or two. However, it appears as though Kane has targeted CM Punk and the Straight Edge Society as the prime suspects in his investigation, so Punk may move to a feud with the Big Red Monster. Meanwhile, Jack Swagger is bound to be upset that he essentially lost the title on a fluke due to Kane’s interference, so he may be the most likely first challenger for Rey Mysterio’s newly won gold.
Thomas: Well, this was an interesting match. They had a tolerable little match that served as a Pay-Per-View match well enough but didn’t hit levels of greatness. All four men worked well and seemed motivated and we had some fun spots here. I expected to give this an average rating for a PPV match and then things went all sideways. Kane showed up and got Punk out of the match; I liked this as it means Punk didn’t “legitimately” lose. What surprised me–and surprises me big-time–is the Rey Rey win. With Punk out I was sure that Swagger would be the winner, but they went with the guy who wasn’t supposed to be in the match. Let that be a lesson: if you break the top guy on your brand’s orbital bone, you will get a World Title reign. Seriously though, this was an all right match that benefited from the surprise, and while I wasn’t big on the Kane appearance it served its purpose and was balanced out by the surprise win.
Uphoff: Show palming Rey into the ring was great. I have to say, Rey was honestly the last person I thought that would win this match. Kane running in and taking out Punk kinda hurt the match a little, but as far as Fatal 4-Way matches go, it wasn’t half bad. Each man worked well and we got a decent match out of it. The booking doesn’t really make any sense, though. I guess Swagger invokes his rematch clause at MITB, but where does the Big Show go from here? Decent match, but underwhelming and disappointing main event from Smackdown.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: ***
Thomas: ***¼
Uphoff: **¼
Average Match Rating: **¾

United States Championship Match
The Miz (Champion) vs. R-Truth
Match Result: The Miz defeats R-Truth with a counter pin.
Match Length: 13:21
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: This match suffered from exactly the same problems that plagued the Intercontinental Championship match. This would have been a perfectly acceptable way to spend thirteen minutes of my life on a Monday night, but I simply expect more on a pay-per-view. I don’t know if the current WWE roster has been specifically instructed to tone down their in-ring style or if they simply aren’t able to perform at a higher level on the big stage, but it seems like the vast majority of recent WWE pay-per-view matches have been both passable and completely forgettable. Anyway, the Miz defeated R-Truth again tonight, so it’s hard to make the case that he doesn’t deserve the title simply because he won it in a Fatal 4-Way match. It seems as though we’ve seen Miz and R-Truth battling for months, so I’m more than ready for him to move on to a new challenger. Miz always has had great chemistry with John Morrison, so the Monday Night Delight would be my pick as the next in line to challenge for the United States Championship.
Thomas: This was a mostly acceptable match. It was far from the greatest thing on the card but it worked out well. These guys wrestled a more subdued match than they otherwise would have. With their placement on the card after Bourne/Jericho and the SmackDown Fatal Four-Way, these two needed to wrestle a slower match to avoid burning out the crowd and they did that well enough although it didn’t exactly amaze anyone and the crowd was quite a bit deader during it. Once again, I’m surprised at the result because I don’t think Miz needs the title as much as Truth does, but whatever works. They worked the match they needed to, but the match suffered because of that.
Uphoff: Miz mocking R-Truth’s entrance music and coming up with his own rap was GREAT. I still don’t understand why they hotshotted the title to Miz on RAW. The crowd was pretty much dead for anything the Miz did. It was nice to see the Osaka Street Cutter again, since I don’t really watch Smackdown anymore. The near falls at the end got the crowd into it, but they couldn’t make up for a really slow-paced and boring match. Seeing as how the Miz retained here, what was the point of giving him the title on RAW? It would have been better for both men to have Miz beat R-Truth for the title at the PPV. This really hurts R-Truth. This was not a good match, and considering who was involved, this match was a disappointment.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: **½
Thomas: **½
Uphoff: *¾
Average Match Rating: **¼

Six Person Mixed Tag Team Match
The Hart Dynasty & Natalya vs. The Usos & Tamina
Match Result: Natalya defeats Tamina with a discus clothesline.
Match Length: 9:18
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: This was a good, solid six-person tag team match, and any sort of quality tag team wrestling has become a rarity in WWE. I give a ton of credit to both Natalya and Tamina for looking credible in the ring, and it’s reassuring that not all of the WWE “Divas” are useless in the ring. I also like the decision to not make this impromptu match a title match, because that gives WWE time to put together a more compelling build toward the eventual title encounter between these two teams. I probably would have liked to have seen the Usos & Tamina pick up the win in order to continue to build their momentum and give them credibility as title contenders, but I’ll admit that their loss is mitigated by the fact that Tamina took the fall. These are the two best examples of real tag teams in the WWE at the moment, and I’ll be interested to see if WWE can use these two teams as a foundation to attempt to rebuild their stagnant tag team division.
Thomas: This was a good little match that deserved its spot on the Pay-Per-View. I would have rather seen a Unified Tag Team Title match, but I’ll take what I can get. The Uso Brothers and the Hart Dynasty make a good combination and they worked very well together here; the same can be said for Natalya and Tamina. Why aren’t they in the Butterfly Title division again? I thought they worked together very well and the finish saw Nattie get a rare win by knocking off Tamina. That’s something I’m completely okay with because to WWE fans Nattie is more of a veteran so it was simply a rookie mistake by Tamina. Given enough time, these two teams could have an awesome match I think.
Uphoff: The Samoan Drop into the barricade was a nice spot. This was a pretty good match, considering the little to no build that it had prior to the PPV. It was slow in some spots, but the women proved that they could wrestle, and the men did a good job as well. This was a good wrestling match between two technically sound opponents. Sometimes it’s not all about flashy moves and power moves. These two teams proved that with some good old straight-up technical wrestling.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: **¾
Thomas: ***¼
Uphoff: **½
Average Match Rating: **¾

Fatal 4-Way Match for the WWE Championship
John Cena (Champion) vs. Randy Orton vs. Edge vs. Sheamus
Match Result: Sheamus defeats John Cena after a beat-down from NXT.
Match Length: 17:28
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: I know this is probably an unfair comparison, but I couldn’t help but thinking about the Fatal 4-Way match between John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge, and Shawn Michaels at Backlash 2007. Three of those four guys were also in this match, and yet the Backlash matched seemed many times more cohesive and compelling. Is the substitution of Sheamus for Shawn Michaels really to blame, or is there a more systematic problem at hand? More on that later. Anyway, this match was certainly at least passable… until the inevitable NXT interference occurred. It was a safe bet that the NXT crew would appear at some point, but having them cost Cena the title felt way to similar to the way that Kane’s interference cost Jack Swagger the World Heavyweight Championship earlier in the evening. My guess is that Cena is going to begin to focus on the NXT threat, so that leaves Orton and Edge as the two most likely challengers to Sheamus’ title.
Thomas: You know, there are things I utterly love and utterly hate about this match. I think that as a match it was very good in terms of ring work. Everyone worked their ass off and had a great sense of timing going here. They worked around the fact that Orton wasn’t 100% very nicely and the crowd was hot for the match. On the other hand, the NXT guys coming in and costing Cena the match does Sheamus no favors and was a silly ending to the good match. On the OTHER hand, the crowd ate up the NXT stuff and I very much enjoyed how they played Cena and Sheamus being threatened; the “Oh No!” look on Sheamus face when all the NXT guys looked at him was priceless. But on the other OTHER hand, it made for a very off-putting ending to the show. Ultimately this gets a good rating because of the effort everyone put into it, but I was hoping for more with the NXT development. And what the hell was up with Cole?
Uphoff: This was a good match until the ending. Unlike the Fatal 4-Way that Smackdown put on earlier in the evening, the crowd was heavily into this one pretty much the whole time. Each man dominated part of the match, and they worked the stipulation of the Fatal 4-Way pretty well. It was booked well until the NXT rookies came in and took out Cena, Edge, and Orton. Sheamus won his second WWE title in BS fashion, just like the first one. I don’t really understand the booking, as I assume Edge and Orton continue their feud, and Cena will presumably face the NXT rookies for awhile, but who will Sheamus feud with? Maybe a returning Triple H. Good match until the ending.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: ***
Thomas: ***½
Uphoff: **½
Average Match Rating: ***

Final Thoughts

Match of the Night:
Slimmer: Chris Jericho vs. Evan Bourne (***¼)
Much love to both Jericho and Bourne for being the only two guys on the card that actually seemed to want to put on a good show tonight. This was a star-making performance for Evan Bourne, and it was another reminder that Chris Jericho is one of those rare talents that can make a good opponent look great and a great opponent look like a star.
Thomas: Chris Jericho vs. Evan Bourne (***½)
Bourne got the win of his career and he just clicked nicely with Jericho. I expect that this is the beginning of a nice (if oft-stalled) push for Air Bourne.
Uphoff: Chris Jericho vs. Evan Bourne (***½)
This was a great impromptu match that totally stole the show. This was definitely the best match on the card.

Trash of the Night:
Slimmer: Eve Torres vs. Gail Kim vs. Maryse vs. Alicia Fox (*½)
There was nothing horribly sloppy or botched in this match, but the fact that Alicia Fox can with the Divas Championship with so little build only goes to show how meaningless the Divas Championship really is. This match gets Trash of the Night honors for accomplishing nothing more than to expose the worthlessness of the title in question.
Thomas: Kofi Kingston vs. R-Truth (**½)
The Divas match got less stars but it gave me some hope and didn’t completely kill the crowd like this. Again, I don’t blame them because there had to be a match like that placed somewhere on the card, but this was definitely the lesser of the matches.
Uphoff: Eve Torres vs. Gail Kim vs. Maryse vs. Alicia Fox (*¼)
This really was a clusterfuck that didn’t need to happen. Just have Eve face Maryse or something.

Final Analysis:
Slimmer: This show was middling in every sense of the word. There were seven matches on the card, and six of the seven were between **½ and ***¼ (and the seventh was down at *½). Only Chris Jericho and Evan Bourne gave us anything close to a memorable performance, and all of the other matches just seem to blend into the tapestry of mediocrity formed by the vast majority of WWE’s pay-per-view matches. The real problem here is that it often seems as though WWE is simply on autopilot during pay-per-views. They focus on putting on passable matches, but only a small group of guys ever seem intent on going out there and stealing the damn show. Maybe WWE had made a conscientious effort to scale back their in-ring style in order to begin to address the kind of long-term damage inflicted upon so many professional wrestlers in the past. Or maybe this generation of WWE stars simply doesn’t know what it means to want to steal the show. Maybe this is the new reality in the post-Shawn Michaels WWE. I’ll always buy WrestleMania and probably SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble (and Survivor Series for as long as it’s around). But if something doesn’t change in the WWE at some point, I’m honestly going to have to reevaluate spending $45 dollars to watch three hours of forgettable professional wrestling. ADDENDUM: I wrote my comments, including the above Final Analysis, and then spent some time inserting Thomas and Uphoff’s comments and editing the column. I’ve had some time to reassess my critique, and I find that I’ve gone from disappointed to downright pissed. This promotion charges $45 for three hours of wrestling. That’s a sizable chunk of change, it really is. But I pay it every damn time. With only a small handful of exceptions, I have bought every WWE pay-per-view since 2006. I don’t steal them. I don’t pirate them. I buy every damn show that I watch. I respect WWE’s right to be paid for the product that they produce. But you sure as hell better know that in return I expect WWE to deliver a show that’s worth the money that I paid. And that simply doesn’t happen anymore. It’s like WWE expects us to pay $45 for nothing more than what we can see on free television multiple times each week. Again, I don’t know if WWE management or the WWE talent or some combination of both are to blame. But I do know that it seems at though WWE feels that once they have my money, they are under no obligation to make me glad that I gave them that money. And yes, I will probably prove myself to be a hypocrite, because I’ll probably keep on buying WWE pay-per-views even though I know they most likely will not deliver. I know that the only way to really show WWE how I feel is to stop taking money from my wallet and putting it in theirs, and I know that’s probably not something that I’m going to do. So I guess the joke is on me. But right now I’m pissed, and I simply wanted say so. Last night I paid $15 for the ROH show, and I saw a roster of wrestlers who were fighting to prove something. I saw a promotion hell bent on living up to the standard that Paul Heyman set for ECW a decade ago – giving the fans a show worth twice what they paid for it. I truly would have paid double or triple what I did for that ROH show last night. But tonight I saw a promotion that is either incompetent or apathetic or both. But hey, last night I paid $15 for a show worth $45, and tonight I paid $45 for a show worth maybe $15. So I guess I got my money’s worth for the weekend.
Thomas: Everything was generally good to meh without having anything that was fantastic or terrible. I enjoyed the main event, the Bourne/Jericho match, the SmackDown Fatal 4-Way and the Six-Person Tag Match and would watch those again. The other ones, not so much. This was a very half-and-half pay-per-view and ultimately I can’t give it a thumbs up; it ends up getting a thumbs firmly in the middle.
Uphoff: This show was disappointing in both match quality and booking. Some questionable outcomes lead to me wondering what is going to happen in the coming weeks on RAW and SmackDown. This show was lackluster, but nothing was truly awful. Just lots of disappointment, kinda like dating. Get it for Jericho/Bourne, but skip everything else.

Verdict:
Slimmer: **¼
Thomas: **¾
Uphoff: **½
Average Verdict: **½