wrestling / Columns
Entertainment’s 4R’s Friday Edition – 10.24.08: RetRo Cyber Sunday, Raw and ECW on Sci-Fi
How the 4R’s of Entertainment Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. The column will run TWO times a week. On Tuesdays I will discuss TNA Impact and WWE Smackdown. Also, if there is a PPV, that will be covered in this column as well. The column will run again on Friday’s, covering WWE Raw (with Jeremy Thomas) as well as ECW on Sci-Fi. If there is a PPV that weekend, I will also run the RETRO R’s of the show from the year before as well as address some comments when time permits. I will group my feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and need discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles, Diva searches and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~! This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a “mark” column, nor a “smark” column, my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.
In HD where available…
By: Jeremy Thomas
Raw 10.20.08
TRIPLE K & CANDICE MICHELLE vs. KATIE LEA & JILLIAN HALL: For the first time in quite a while, Raw kicked off with a match…and not just any match, but a women’s tag team match. This was meant for little more than a way to promote the Halloween contest, and while KKK was hot as ever, Candice was wearing a pretty retarded-looking overcoat thingy. Meanwhile, Katie Lea (not Katie Lea Burchill?) and Jillian came out together…to Jillian’s theme music. Stick a fork in the Burchills folks, they’re pretty much done at this point, and that’s a shame. After Jillian gave us some mildly tolerable singing—as much as I hate that gimmick, I won’t deny that it gets her an insane amount of heat—we got into the match itself. While Lawler and Cole gave the all-important information of who was going to be dressed as what, the women had a remarkably good little match here. Candice is getting more and more back into form each day, Triple K looked crisper then she ever has and didn’t rely on the big heavy set-up moves, and the heels were as solid as ever. This was as good of a women’s tag team match as we’ve seen in the ‘E in a long, long time, and I have no complaints with what went on in the ring, or with who went over. My one gripe with this match was with Michael Cole. While Lawler gave his in-depth report of who was going to be what for Halloween, he noted that Katie Lea was going to be a vampire. Cole’s response: “That fits her character.” Her character? Bullshit, Cole…the proper term to use would be “That fits her.” For breaking kayfabe while announcing, Cole gets my Asshat of the Week award. Otherwise, I have no complaints here.
JERICHO SPEAKS: After the women’s match, OUR World Heavyweight Champion and Savior made his way down to the ring. Before he addressed the crowd, he lost his temper on Lillian Garcia, who failed to announce him as World Champion, and made her do so—a nice touch from the champ to get over his point that no one respected him. Besides that, there’s no good way to get heat (not that he needs much more) then by picking on poor Lillian. Jericho then proceeded to talk about how no one, either in the locker room or in the crowd, had any respect for him. Not even Mike Adamle was respecting him—after all, he gave him a joke of a list in terms of biased referees. Jericho is such a great selfish, egomaniacal little bastard, and this was typically solid work from our Savior. He took the time as always to get the little touches off and get pops for the faces he addressed, and heat for himself, and he was on fire as he ever is when addressing the crowd.
Of course, he wasn’t going to be alone in the ring for long, as out came Batista. The Manimal had an intensely huge pop from the crowd as he made his way down to the ring—this feud has gotten him more over then he’s ever been. Now, Batista’s a guy who’s not always great on the mic, but tonight he managed to keep it relaxed and not push the interview. He gave Jericho some building up by pointing out that if Jericho wins, he’d earn a hell of a lot of respect, but was able to include those little touches like a chuckle after saying “If you beat me.” Big Dave has stepped up his game in his promo work against Jericho, and it’s nice to see. Before he could finish up, Mike Adamle came out…and can I just say, Adamle REALLY needs his own theme music, because the Raw music makes him seem generic. He announced that they’d be facing the same three people tonight in a gauntlet match…in a gauntlet match. Why he said it twice, I’m not sure, but the idea sounds pretty strange to me. After Adamle was done, Jericho slapped the Manimal and backed off to end the segment. Outside the silliness of the main event that was announced, this was great stuff all around from two guys who can deliver, and one who always does.
JBL vs. STONE COLD STEVE HAASTIN: You know, it’s really kind of sad to watch JBL at anything anymore. I can barely even stand to listen to his interviews anymore, because he’s just recycling the same shit week after week. This week was no exception, as he talked about how he had been besmirched by having to face Haas Hogan last week for all of six seconds before launching into his “I’m rich, you’re all poor, the economy sucks” speech. At this point, JBL could seriously just bring out a tape recorder to play back his interview from the previous week and it would be about as good.
JBL didn’t quite get finished though, before GLASS SHATTERED! The crowd lost their mind as a bald-black vest-wearing bastard made his way to the ring…Charlie Haas. Seriously, as good as the Hogan impersonation was last week, this week was even better. Lawler sounded like he was about to have a heart attack from laughing so hard and I can’t say I disagree, I was laughing my ass off myself. Haas is getting better and better each week with these impersonations and this was top-notch comedy work. Haas did stumble on his “If you wanna see Stone Cold…” promo, which never earns points from me, but the rest was so classic that I’ll forgive that. What was nice to see was that they even let Haas get some offense against JBL with Austin’s trademark offense—he even almost hit the Stunner before JBL squashed his ass in a matter of seconds. I have some issues with how long the match was, and I’m not a fan of them feeding a gimmick that’s getting over to JBL of all people two weeks in a row, but since they let Haas get some offense and didn’t just destroy him I’m willing to forgive it just slightly. So while it had some wrong to it, there was just enough good for it to slip into the Right.
MIZ & MORRISON vs. KOFI KINGSTON & CM PUNK: We got to see the greatest entrance in professional wrestling to kick this off, as MnM 2.0 made their way down to the ring. I love how Miz even moves in slow motion to match Morrison; it’s an example of the little touches that these two are doing so well. Miz & Morrison gave a nice little promo encouraging the crowd to vote for their match, and getting such great lines as “We have more street cred then K-Fed.” Brilliant! And the pot shot against D-X was great and builds to the already-announced match for the upcoming three-hour Raw. See, when they’re not being asshats at the announcing booth, I’m happy to give them their justly due props. Punk and Kofi came out, nicely over with the crowd, and we got down to the match. They did a great job in this match; Kofi and Punk work better and better with each other every week, and MnM 2.0 of course have that great chemistry. They had some good spots in the match, including that awesome dump of Morrison, and both teams got some good offense in a nice match that was given a good amount of time. One could argue that Punk losing yet again hurts him, but the match did a great job at building up everyone in it and putting over the two individual tag teams—MnM 2 are probably the most credible tag team the ‘E has, and Kofi & Punk taking a loss to them isn’t a terrible thing. So while it perhaps could have been flashier, I can’t argue too much with anything here.
A PAGE OUT OF HAAS’S PLAYBOOK: Glamarella made their way down to the ring, and our Intercontinental champion was looking a little different. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but maybe it was the Piper shirt, Goldust makeup and Elvis hair and guitar. Just maybe. Santino was doing a great job in this interview as he pointed out how each of them was washed up. Rodney the Piper no longer has a hot bod and has a huge gut, Goldendust turned Joe the Plumber’s American Dream into a nightmare by dressing like a woman and letting his career flame out, and the Honky Donky Man is all about the pork chops. This was once of Santino’s better promos in a long time, because it wasn’t massively hammed up—as much as he was in gimmick, he was playing the promo shockingly straight. I was happy to see Santino’s promo work improving, because as funny as he is, he needs to do something to convince the ‘E to let him break out of the “complete and utter joke” category, and his performance tonight spoke toward doing that.
Hacksaw came out to interrupt Santino and speak up about his trashing of his opponents-to-be. He calls Santino the flashiest flash in the pan and gave a tolerable promo before Santino countered with…THE HONK-A-METER! Official count: Honky Donky Man 64, Santino 10. He’s officially in double-digits, baby! Duggan then proceeded to tear down Santino’s reign and called Beth a man, which got Santino in a fighting mood. He undressed and got Beth to distract Hacksaw before slamming the guitar over his head. Now, obviously Santino caught some guitar shrapnel, but I thought it was a blessing, because it made Santino look bad-ass for just a second there. He no-sold the blood pouring out of his mouth and gave us a nice little freaky Halloween image to go to commercial to. Good stuff all around, and hopefully it helps Santino head toward something better, or at least some credibility. Hey, a guy can dream, right?
REY MYSTERIO vs. SNITSKY: Hey, a Snitsky sighting two weeks in a row! One more and they may no longer be considered as rare as a Bigfoot sighting, though Bigfoot will still probably be better in the ring. They gave Snits a little pre-match promo work that, while delivered okay, pretty much just put a neon sign over his head saying “Cheap Kane Clone.” Yeah, as if we didn’t think that already. For a match that was remarkably short, little more than two minutes, Snitsky got way too much offense on Rey Rey. They should have put Rey over Mean Gene the second like a monster to point out just how easily he could beat a big man. Hey, if they’re going to shove Snitsky down our throats as a Kane copy, they might as well have some use to it. It didn’t help that Rey Rey was off his game and appears to hurt himself with a sloppy double-stomp. Add to the fact that the match was way too short and this was largely wasted time on the show.
PRICELESS vs. PUNKS OUT CRYME TYME: This was, ostensibly, supposed to be the counterpart to Punk & Kofi vs. MnM 2.0, but it wasn’t to be. Before the bell had a chance to ring, Manu, Rhodes, and DiBiase just beat the living shit out of JTG and Shad. Gee, buried much guys? Don’t get me wrong, while I’m perfectly fine with the champs getting one over on Cryme Tyme—they need SOME credibility after all—there’s no damned reason that they should be able to punk them out in less than a minute. Now, official ‘E logic states that Priceless is greater than Cryme Tyme, who have been holding their own in a feud with Miz & Morrison, who beat Punk and Kofi cleanly. Thus, Priceless is far greater then Punk & Kofi. Smooth move, ‘E.
MAINSTREAM STARS LOVE CENA: Dear WWE. I don’t give a rat’s ass what Ben Stiller, Maria Menounos, a Playboy Playmate, a volleyball star, hackmaster Renny Harlin and THE GOD DAMNED JONAS BROTHERS have to say about John Cena. Celebrities do not equal credibility. Don’t do it again. Thanks, Jeremy.
THE GAUNTLET MATCH TAG HANDICAP MATCH ONE-UPSMANSHIP SHOW MAIN EVENT STUPIDITY: Oh come on, you knew this was coming. Batista and Jericho made their way to the ring to start off this “Adamle Original,” where both men would take on the same opponents in a Gauntlet match. First off, I have to say, what kind of retarded idea is this? So they both face the same people—how is this earning anyone any respect, as Adamle claimed to Jericho earlier in the show? All it is, is a chance for them to squash several folks, which is exactly what happened. William Regal came out first with Layla in tow and his granny bathrobe entrance outfit on—he lasted forty seconds against Batista and not even that against Jericho. Did Regal get a D- on his last Wellness test or something? Second up was Mark Henry with Tony Atlas alongside him. They did a nice job of putting Henry over, albeit at Jericho’s expense, and Jericho lost by DQ by using the title belt to slam Henry. Probably not the smartest move, as it left Henry weakened for Batista to wipe the floor with Henry in about thirty seconds. Last man in was Kane, and he had a semi-decent amount of time against Jericho before beating him cleanly. Let me say that again. KANE, who can’t beat Rey Freaking Mysterio, beat the World Champion cleanly. Not only did he beat him cleanly, he did it after two missed moves in a row. They covered the second one well, but it was still a miss, and then Batista speared Kane and beat him in all of eight seconds.
Okay, seriously…what in the name of GOD was that shit? Really, ‘E? REALLY? I don’t even know where to begin for a second week in a row. First off, this was a match with no consistency. Adamle put Batista in first, then Jericho, then Jericho again. Have some set rules, ‘E. I know this is wrestling and everything’s rigged, but that doesn’t mean I can’t expect rules to apply. Second, they utterly buried the World Champion here. Don’t get me wrong, his credibility can take it, but in attempting the hard sell to Cyber Sunday they put Jericho over as a guy who beat Regal after Batista already flattened him, then couldn’t beat the guy who can’t beat the ECW champion or the guy who can’t beat anyone above the midcard. Meanwhile, the in-ring portion of the match was absolutely terrible, as no one seemed to be able to pull anything together, particularly that crap between Jericho and Kane at the end. This may have built Batista up—a guy who doesn’t need building up by the way—but it did no one else any favors and was a monumentally stupid way to cap off Raw the week before Cyber Sunday. May we never, EVER see this particular Adamle original again.
SHOW RATING: (**½) While there was a lot more good stuff this week then last week, a show’s main event counts for a lot, and this week’s was nothing short of flat-out stupid, especially considering the talent involved. While a lot of the matches were good, the ‘E still suffers from Short Match Syndrome and can’t seem to put together a consistently decent show for a full two hours, which just backs up what I said in Fact or Fiction this week about not going to three hours on a regular basis. They did get over the Cyber Sunday matches and gave the lesser matches some more visibility, so in that they succeed, but if I never see another Joint Gauntlet Match again, it will be way too damned soon.
By: Larry Csonka
ECW 10.21.08:
Cyber Sunday Preview – Henry vs. Finlay vs. Borne: The one thing I liked about the ECW show this week was the main event. While it was no Chavo vs. Bourne from last week, it was a good match. And not only was the match good, but it plays off of last week’s qualifying matches, Henry’s attacks after those matches and in the end it is the perfect set up for Cyber Sunday, since it was all contenders and keeps Matt on the outside, waiting for the challenger. Finlay looked food as the grizzled veteran, and sold the pec/shoulder/arm injury very well. Henry got to be the monster at times, and then Bourne got to show off some flash and scored the biggest win of his career. I loved the end as it showed that Bourne was a survivor in how he was able to come back and score the win. I won’t call it a star making performance as some have called it as I think last week’s clean win and very good match over Chavo was a little more that, but this one is bigger due to the perceived star power in the match. This was a good main event with the right finish in my opinion. Vote Bourne.
The All-American American Slipped Lance Cade a Roofie so he Could Steal His Theme Music!: The All-American American Jack Swagger did what he has been doing lately and that is come to the ring and kill a jobber. And that is exactly what he did this week. Walked out, killed a jobber and that was that. After the match Grisham went to the ring to ask why he was targeting Tommy Dreamer, to which Swagger smiled and replied, “Tommy who?” He’s a dick; he’s looking fine in the ring and will be feuding with Dreamer. It’s fine for what it is right now.
THE MIZ vs. THE SHAD: In order to hype the “PICK A TAG TEAM MATCH” match at Cyber Sunday, as well as playing off of last week’s angle where Cryme Tyme hid under the ring, the Miz would do battle with Shad. So let me begin by praising the fact that this is a good thing. I appreciate when the angle make sense and go somewhere. But while the angle working is a good thing, the match also has to deliver. This didn’t. It was far from horrible, and in the end became quite passable with both guys working hard. But the beginning portion of the match was BAD. I mean, when you’re blowing a backdrop spot shit is not going very well. The end saw a DQ finish, which I found odd because WWE usually likes to have winners and losers going into Cyber Sunday to get the votes rolling in on one side. I guess with these two teams facing each other they hoped that the interaction was enough. Hell, it was better than the ass beating Cryme Tyme took Monday night.
The Opening Talky Segment: I have to admit, the opening segment really didn’t do much for me this week. And with the opening segment not doing much for me, the rest of the show followed that theme for the most part. It all started with Matt Hardy coming to the ring in order to hype the ECW Title match at Cyber Sunday. Matt gets a huge pop from the crowds live; there is no doubting that. And I will freely admit that I was not only a big supporter of Hardy to ECW but also for him to eventually win the title. That was the whole reason for him going to the brand. To slot a perceived star into the main role so that he could win the title and so that fans would think that the ECW Brand and Title meant something. That being said, Matt bored me to tears here with his little speech about who he should vote for regarding the Cyber Sunday match. Again to put it simply, I was bored. Finlay came out and said that he and Matt came to the brand together, had fought each other, had been partners but had never faced for the title. Evan Bourne would come out, and while the man is talented in the ring he leaves a lot to be desired in the mic skills department. To put it plainly he comes off as a “create a wrestler gone wrong.” Finlay’s little promo on Bourne came off poorly, joking about how tall Bourne was, when he is only an inch or so taller than he was. Finlay is still portrayed as a bad ass at times, but this was completely lame. Finally Mark Henry came out and energized the segment a bit, but again it was not enough to save the segment. Overall this was fine in the concept, but the execution in my opinion was not good at all.
Halloween Silliness: I understand the need to cross promote with Sci-Fi, and the whole Halloween deal, but this week’s backstage segment was painful to watch. We had Tiffany, looking hot I will say, joking with Ricky Ortiz when Hornswoggle and Finaly came in. Hornswoggle was trick or treating, and this brought out Teddy Long. Teddy was supposed to be SHAFT; unfortunately he looked more like Isaac from the Love Boat. Yeah, I liked the Love Boat. Anyway, this was horrible acting (don’t tell Vince) but these wrestlers superstars entertainers failed at their job, which was supposed to be entertaining us. ECW has been great at limiting the bullshit, but this week they didn’t and it failed.
NONE
SHOW RATING: (**) After being so high on last week’s show, it came all crashing down (and it hurts inside) this week. Far from a horrible show, but it was one of those ones that was “just there” for me. They did some good build for Cyber Sunday, which is fine, but after some really good shows this one fell very flat to me.
RETRO WWE CYBER SUNDAY 2007~!:size=36>
The Matches:
STRETCHER MATCH: Rey Mysterio defeated Finlay @ 9:55 ***
ECW TITLE MATCH: CM Punk defeated the Miz @ 8:50 via pin **
NON-TITLE MATCH: Mr. Kennedy defeated Jeff Hardy @ 9:00 via pin **
US TITLE MATCH: Kane defeated MVP @ 6:45 via Count Out * Trash of the Night!
WWE TITLE MATCH: HBK defeated Randy Orton @ 16:00 via DQ **½
STREET FIGHT: HHH defeated Umaga @ 17:30 via pin ***½
WORLD TITLE MATCH: Batista defeated the Undertaker @ 17:25 via pin **** Match of the Night!
STRETCHER MATCH – Cyber Sunday 2007 kicked off with Rey Mysterio vs. Finlay, which I thought was a fine choice. They have had good matches thus far and I think that they can have a break out match under the right circumstances. We had the choice of NO DQ, SHACKALACKI ON A POLE or STRETCHER MATCH. STRETCHER MATCH was selected, which is actually a good nod to last month’s match where the stretcher angle was played. They did already have the SHACKALACKI ON A POLE on the pole in case that was selected and that did play into things later on. They worked hard and played the gimmick rather well. They didn’t overuse it, but when they did it meant something, like when Finlay would slam the stretcher into Rey’s head and so forth. The only problem was near the finish, when Rey was about to wheel Finlay across the line and a cable got caught on the stretcher. Thankfully they didn’t freeze and improved around it well, and Rey got the big win. This was good stuff and a fine way to open up the show.
STREET FIGHT – Good match #2 for the evening was the HHH vs. Umaga match. They did a good job on Monday building heat for this match with an awesome pull apart brawl that was very well done, and since WWE doesn’t overuse that tool, it worked well and I think is what led to the selection of the match, which was the street fight. I had no problem with this, I thought they may pick cage match, but that being said, the chance of the best matches were with the First Blood and or Street Fight matches. You have such freedom in those matches, you can use all of the shortcuts and the gimmicks and with all of the tricks, we know Hunter has been able to do a lot of magic, SEE: HIAC vs. Nash. Not that he particularly needs magic because when he wants to Hunter is great and Umaga has had great matches, SEE: vs. Cena. So you have all of this working for you, and in the end it DID work. They started with the crowd brawling, which I hate these days due to TNA overusing it, but in the WWE confines they DON’T overuse it, so when they do it, it feels different. They worked hard, Umaga finally got a great heat segment on HHH in a match, and when Hunter would make a comeback and get a near fall, the crowd bit HUGE! Umaga did a crazy spot where he took the announce tables apart and laid Hunter on the ECW table and then ran across the other tables and KILLED HHH! The end saw Umaga miss a head butt off the top, HHH tagged in SLEDGY and got the pedigree for the win. I only have one complaint here. This match lacked in drama for the fact that everyone knew that Umaga wasn’t going to win. When he got a near fall there was no sign of relief from the crowd, like they were worried. They were hot for all of Hunter’s near falls because they wanted him to win, knew he would win and wanted him to slay the beast. And that is because until the last few weeks there was no reason to think Umaga could win, and the people there knew that. But this was a good match, and that was just a small complaint.
WORLD TITLE MATCH – The main event of the show was the World Title match between Batista vs. the Undertaker. Yes my friends, the SMACKDOWN CREW GOT THE MAIN EVENT! Praise be to the Lord a prayer has been answered! They did the stuff for the special ref before hand, the JBL political ad and so forth. Foley came out, to NO POP, which was sad, and they brawled. Austin came out and handed out stunners and everyone was happy. The only complaint was no Santino! But I digress. We have a title match to discuss. As has been mentioned by many people, Taker and Batista just seem to have a chemistry. Sometimes you have guys that click and these guys do on every level. They went out there and busted their asses for nearly 18-minutes and had the crowd the entire time. They were biting for EVERY near fall and they were hot for the Taker win. Commentary was great here as they constantly played up the story that the Undertaker was the monkey on Batista’s back because he couldn’t beat him as of yet. Batista got the spear and it wasn’t enough. He got the spinebuster and it wasn’t enough. He got the Batista Bomb and it wasn’t enough! Batista’s facials were great and he got the second Batista Bomb and FINALLY got the big win. Clean in the middle of the ring. This was great, great shit. Austin played his role well, as he was almost absent and never got in the way of the match or the spotlight of the moment. I have NO COMPLAINTS here. This was a great main event.
KENNEDY vs. HARDY – This match was an impromptu match, stemming from them losing the vote for the WWE Title match. I am fine with this because it is much better than the lame “make them face the tag champs, have them win and devalue the titles further” angle they love to run. The first complaint that I have is that Jeff did not come out with the IC Belt. I know that they generally treat the titles like shit, but the man is the IC Champion and should ALWAYS have his belt. Titles don’t mean anything if you don’t make them mean anything. Now these guys had a rather spiffy match on Raw a little while back, showing some good initial chemistry so I had some high hopes for the match. That being said they worked an average TV match here, went about 9-minutes and it was fine. Kennedy got the win off of a Hardy mistake with the win. This does work though because I would assume with this match and their history that we will enter into an IC Title feud. I am fine with that because I don’t think Kennedy is ready quite yet for the WWE Title scene. But a strong feud with Jeff could go a long way because they have shown that they had chemistry. This was good stuff, not great, but good.
ECW TITLE MATCH – Onto the ECW Title match we go. Once again I have to say that the TOP title for this third brands is treated no better than the IC or US Title, and sometimes worse. I just wish that they would put something behind it and I don’t know, make people care! Moving on. The voting for this match was for the opponent, either Big Daddy, the Miz or John Morrison. The Miz was the big winner and people seemed surprised at this, but actually I wasn’t. When you think about it, it makes complete sense that he won. He does have a fan following from his reality show days, and those fans can be very loyal. Also Punk is a baby face champion. The voting fans, for the most part don’t want the face champion to lose. Big Daddy V is a wrecking machine and is a huge danger to the title. Morrison is the former champion and has beat Punk several times, a danger. The Miz is, for the most part the jobber to the stars of ECW. Hence not a real danger and the best choice to vote for when you think about it that way. So then there was the match. I am not that big a fan of the Miz’s in ring work. He has improved, but not enough to be a top guy, or even an upper-mid-card guy. But he is improving. I did not expect a lot from this match, but it was surprisingly decent. Some think it sucked and some thing it was one of Punk’s better title defenses. I disagree, it was fine. It was non-offensive. They messed up one spot when Miz was out of position for a cross body and could have blown out his knee, but other than that it was fine. It was another TV match, non-offensive I stress. But on PPV we shouldn’t have to accept that. The crowd hated a large portion of the match, and not in the GOOD HEAT kind of way. They chanted for Jericho and “you can’t wrestle” during the match, and largely didn’t care. And then again, why should they? They have been conditioned not to.
US TITLE MATCH – The PPV was going pretty well up an until this point in the show. Now I will say that I took into consideration that they had to change the match due to Matt Hardy getting that nasty gash on Smackdown. They had to readjust. That’s fine. They had a vote for a new opponent for MVP, Khali, Henry or Kane. Kane is the safe bet always because he has been around forever and people love him. So he won the vote and was MVP’s opponent. So now we have a match with two guys that have many matches together, they have a form of chemistry and are so familiar with each other that you can expect a passable match. I was wrong. They went out there and had a basic, gear one match that never left gear one. MVP worked the ribs of Kane since they were injured, and Kane then turned the tide and worked on his ribs. He sent MVP to the floor, and then we got a count out in a title match on PPV! LET THE BITCHING BEGIN~! Now I will say that the cop-out loss by MVP does play into his character perfectly, but again we have a non-finish to a title match on PPV. Why are we protecting Kane? He doesn’t need it. He is perpetually over and will be fine. Let MVP use the ropes, something, be creative and allow him to win because he is a guy that they are grooming as a future star. Also, MVP has had next to no US Title defenses, I think it is more important to make him look strong so when he loses to Matt Hardy (presumably) that it looks even better. That’s my opinion anyway.
THE WWE TITLE MATCH – So we finally come to the main event. I would first like to praise what was good about the match. While HBK is pretty banged up and slow still due to the knee injures, he was HBK and he was out there to put on a good match and steal/save the show if possible. That was evident when he busted out a senton to the floor in the opening minutes. They were working hard and working a very clean and smart match. But they were doing everything right, because the crowd was popping for any near fall for HBK, even backslides. They were popping for a backslide. When that happens you know that things are going well. I have no complaint about the match itself, I liked it and it was headed towards great things. And then after 16-minutes they flushed it all down the toilet with a DQ FINISH! Now some of you will either completely agree with me, or disagree with me, but I have the right to complain about this all I want. Why? Here’s my evidence.
-WWE Summerslam: WORLD TITLE MATCH: Batista defeated The Great Khali @ 7:00 via DQ
-WWE Unforgiven: WWE TITLE MATCH: Randy Orton defeated John Cena @ 7:33 via DQ
-WWE No Mercy: ECW TITLE MATCH: CM Punk defeated Big Daddy V @ 1:45 via DQ
Three PPV’s in the last three months with DQ finishes in each brand’s title match. THIS IS BULLSHIT! People do not pay $40 for PPV to see this shit, they pay to see resolution. And the fact is that people are not getting resolution. Part of that is because they insist on having all three title matches on every show instead of staggering the title matches and properly featuring them. Instead they throw all three of them out there, and then when they decide they have to extend the feud, they do bullshit like above. Four PPV’s in a row and four DQ finishes in title matches. Nothing but bullshit. I will say that the DQ finish CAN work in the proper story, like when Taker and Brock feuded and they ran the DQ finish and that led to the HIAC and Brock went over Taker there, that made sense. But them again it only works when they don’t happen every month and that is what is happening here. I cannot explain how pissed that this makes me, and if you paid for this show you should be upset as well because once again WWE rammed it in with no lube and broke it off. That isn’t taking care of the customer, that isn’t pleasing to the fan, that’s just bullshit. Some will tell me that this is the way the DQ is done right, and in theory yes it is. But not when it is done on four straight PPV’s.
In the end this was a much better show than the last three WWE PPV offerings and MUCH better than last year’s effort. They had some direction and while there were still some more “TV” style matches and NON-FINISHES in title matches, which I hate, we had three really good to great matches on the show, which really helped. Overall I will go with a 6.75 out of 10 with the thumbs leaning up. Not a full thumbs up, especially because of the WWE Title match “fuck you for paying $40” match again, it just infuriates me. But I will say that there was some good wrestling and as I mentioned, better than the last three efforts and a good sign heading into Survivor Series. That’s a big show and they thankfully have some momentum heading into it, and I hope for a good show there.
And I’m out of here!
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