Ring Crew Reviews: WWE Night of Champions 2008

• DVD Packaging: Mostly black cover with fairly large promo stills of Edge, Triple H, Matt Hardy, Kane, Mickie James, and Jericho.

• DVD Presentation: The DVD menu is basically the same as the DVD cover. It has a very small montage of various clips of Triple H celebrating with title belts and also focuses on Edge kissing Vickie Guerrero. This is all set to “Devour” by Shinedown.

• Relevant Storylines: Hornswoggle is a tag team threat. Chris Jericho thinks Shawn Michaels can’t afford a plane ticket from San Antonio to Dallas. JBL thinks Dallas has sucked since he left. Triple and John Cena want to create a moment in time.

• Scheduled Card:
1. WWE Tag Team Championship: Fit Finlay and Hornswoggle vs. Miz and Morrison (c).
2. States Championship: Chavo Guerrero vs. Matt Hardy (c).
3. ECW Championship: Mark Henry vs. The Big Show vs. Kane (c).
4. World Tag Team Championship: Ted Dibiase and a mystery partner vs. Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly (c).
5. Intercontinental Championship: Surprise Opponent vs. Chris Jericho (c).
6. WWE Women’s Championship: Katie Lea vs. Mickie James (c).
7. World Heavyweight Championship: Batista vs. Edge (c).
8. WWE Championship: John Cena vs. Triple H (c).

• A video package starts that has various wrestlers talking about the importance of being champion. Then the package focuses on Edge-Batista and Cena-Triple H and smartly leaves out the part where Triple H tripped Cena on the announce table and it was supposed to be badass. Good video.

• JR and Mick Foley are our commentators. Foley is rocking some Texas-Western tassled vest.

• WWE Tag Team Championship: Fit Finlay and Hornswoggle vs. Miz and Morrison (c). Finlay and Morrison to start. Finlay with some shoulderblocks, European uppercuts and a short arm clothesline to start. A slam and an elbow drop. Finlay goes to the dreaded double nerve hold but Morrison counters with a turnbuckle smash. Finlay rolls to the outside. Morrison tries a slingshot splash but Finlay crotches him on the apron. Loved that spot. It’s a shame no one else picked it up. Miz grabs Hornswoggle to threaten and Morrison gets the clothesline from behind. MNM chase down Hornswoggle and throw him in the ring. Hornswoggle throws his coat at Morrison and ducks both and Finlay destroys them with a few clotheslines. Then they hit a few double team moves and a double running Bonzai drop and MNM take a breather. Finlay throws Morrison back in but Morrison dropkicks him off the apron and MNM take the advantage with a double gutbuster. Miz catapults Finlay into a forearm from Morrison. Then Morrison hits a slingshot elbow drop back in for 2. More double teaming. Finlay cuts off with an inverted atomic drop and tags in Hornswoggle. He hits a flying headscissors on Miz (o rly?). A Stunner and a bulldog out of a wheelbarrow suplex. Hornswoggle should thank Miz for all that. Morrison boots him down though and claims to the ref he tripped up in the apron. Nice cheap heel heat. MNM paintbrush and manhandle Hornswoggle a l ittle. They get down on their knees to taunt. Hornswoggle tries to punch out but they clothesline him down. Morrison smacks him around. Crowd is eating it up. Hornswoggle runs through Morrison’s legs and finally gets the tag. Finlay in with clotheslines and a powerslam for 2. A missile dropkick gets another 2. He hits the fucking awesome Forward Roll Slam but Miz breaks up the pin. Finlay dumps him. Finlay hits the Celtic Cross on Morrison and tags in Hornswoggle to set up the tadpole splash but Miz dumps Finlay and Hornswoggle is all alone. Morrison slams him off the top turnbuckle and gets the 3 to retain at 8:48. Decent match. Got the crowd involved and behind the face team. I don’t really like larger wrestlers selling for Hornswoggle though. **1/4

• Cole and JR give us the flashback to WM XXII where Cena defeated Trips. Then they shill the question of the night: Who Will Bring a Championship Back to RAW? John Cena, Batista, Both, or Neither. This was right after a draft and both champs were moved to Smackdown and that always made for some interesting world title booking.

• United States Championship: Chavo Guerrero vs. Matt Hardy (c). Chavo is in La Familia at this point. Foley puts over the upcoming Edge-Vickie wedding then puts over himself by mentioning he won his first title in Dallas 22 years ago for WCCW. Chavo gets a roll up for nothing. Hardy gets a side headlock and Chavo pushes him off and Hardy comes back with a shoulderblock. Chavo with a headlock TD. Hardy reverses and whips Chavo into the corner and gets a slam and drops a fist for nothing. Big “Let’s go Hardy” chant as Chavo gets backdropped out of his shoes. Hardy hits a clothesline in the corner and goes for a bulldog out but Chavo pushes him off and hits a chop block and goes to work on the knee including a rope-assisted leglock and a slingslot forearm to the outside. Nice. Then Chavo hooks the leg around the ringpost and Bam Neely does the same behind the ref’s back. Chavo with more knee work. Hardy kicks his way out and hits a bulldog. Hardy still selling the leg here. Chavo back on offense. Chavo to the reverse Indian Deathlock. Hardy kicks him off and dumps him but Chavo stunguns him and goes back to work. Chavo goes for something off the top but rolls through as Hardy moves out of the way. Chavo runs right into a clothesline. Hardy goes some one-legged offense and drops an elbow for 1. Chavo with some European uppercuts. Hardy counters to a backslide but flips Chavo over and hits the Side Effect but only gets 2. Hardy hits a yodeling elbow off the 2nd rope for 2. Hardy goes for something else but Chavo pulls him off and goes into a half crab. Hardy selling the leg well and the crowd is getting loud. Any time you can make the crowd buy a half crab as a finish. You’re doing your job. Hardy gets the ropes. Chavo kicks away but Hardy gets up and hits a DDT for 2. Hardy sets up the Twist of Fate but Chavo pushes him off and into a Rolling Half Crab/Canadian Mapleleaf. I love it. But Hardy gets the ropes again. Hardy gets an enzuguri out of nowhere just to hang on. But Chavo is back up and sets up the 3 Amigos. Crowd boos. Idiots. Hardy counters on the 3rd suplex to a Twist of Fate and gets the 3 to retain at 9:20. Very good little match. Had nice psychology. Chavo showed some moveset. Hardy sold well. I’m happy. ***1/4

• We get a recap of the time Vince almost kayfabe died. No, not when his limo blew up, the other time. No not when Stone Cold pulled a prop pistol on him. No not when he gushed a 1.4 Muta against Undertaker. No, not when Orton punted him in the head. This is when the set collapsed on him after McMahon’s Millions.

• ECW Championship: Mark Henry vs. The Big Show vs. Kane (c). Mike Adamle and Taz are on commentary. This should be a fun trainwreck in more than one way. Adamle tells us TBS needs no introduction then proceeds to give him a lengthy one. This gets in ring introductions. Kane boots Henry to start then dodges Henry’s Ho Train and sends him into TBS. Kane pounds some more on Henry and gets a dropkick to Henry’s knee off a whip. Kane gives Henry a really slow Batista kick and dumps him to the floor. TBS comes back with a clothesline and a headbutt on Kane. They trade shots and Kane gets a DDT off a whip for 1. Show no sells a whip and dumps Kane. Kane looks to land awkwardly on his right leg but then grabs his left leg and sells it like death on the outside as Henry just watches him. Henry just rolls in and him and Show do a lock up and neither gets the advantage. Off a headlock, Henry tries a shoulderblock and again no advantage. Then they repeat the spot with Show and his shoulderblock takes down Henry. TBS slams Henry and chops away in the corner. Trainers come out to attend to Kane who’s still down on the outside. Henry hits some slow offense as TBS counters with some kicks and a headbutt. Adamle: “Kane still out in front of our broadcast thing.” Taz: “Table.” Adamle: “Table? It’s not a thing? It is inanimate which that makes it a thing.” TBS ducks a clotheline and gives Henry a gut shot. Kane waved off the trainers but he’s STILL down with a cramp or some shit as Henry and TBS do the double clothesline spot. Kane goes up top and hits a decent flying clothesline. He hits some slow running clotheslines on Henry and TBS. Kane gets caught in a bear hug by Henry but elbows and Mongolian chops his way out. Kane whips Henry into a TBS big boot. They hit a double chokeslam on Henry but can’t agree on who should get the cover. Kane with rights and Show with headbutts. Show with a really slow head of steam but runs into a big boot and an enzuguri. Kane up top but jumps into a choke slam but kicks out at 2. Zombie sit up but Show hits some shitty suplex for 2. Show goes up top but Kane counters and suplexes him off the top but Henry runs in with a splash on Kane and gets the 3 to win the belt at 8:16. I’ve seen worse. These guys are slow but what else is new. I could have done without Kane’s worked shoot cramp or whatever. *3/4

• Post-match, Henry does the boyhood dream celebration and really seems excited. Wish the guys would do that more often.

• Batista is interviewed in the back by Eve. Cena interrupts. They shake hands because they are faces. They plant the seeds for the match down the road at Summerslam. CM Punk interrupts and says he hopes both come back to RAW with gold because he plans on using the MITB briefcase soon.

• World Tag Team Championship: Ted Dibiase and a mystery partner vs. Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly (c). Holy shit. It seems like a lot longer than 2 years that Hardcore Holly was doing his mentor crap with Rhodes. Dibiase’s music sucks. It’s the same Priceless hook from later but with a shitty Texas-Western flavor. Ted gets on the mic and says his partner is 10 minutes away and wants a time out. The ref says he can forfeit or go it alone. Cody to start but Dibiase begs off and says he wants Holly. Before he can do anything, Cody DDTs him and cue the evil cackle. Dibiase welcomes his partner and gets tagged in and puts the Million Dollar Dream on and then transitions into Dream Street and gets the 3 for new champs at 1:28. DUD. The funniest part about this whole thing is that Hardcore Holly would NEVER get revenge. I don’t think he was ever seen on TV again.

• JBL cuts a promo in a luxury box. Correction: His luxury box. JBL wants to know why he doesn’t have a match. Todd Grisham tells him it’s because he’s not a champion. That sets off JBL in a quiet rage about his accomplishments. He gets more cheap heat by badmouthing the Cowboys and putting over his team the NY Giants.

• WWE Intercontinental Championship: Surprise Opponent vs. Chris Jericho (c). Jericho gets on the stick and gloats that it won’t be Shawn Michaels because he rammed him into the obscenely expensive JeriTron 5000 and he’s nursing an eye injury. Happy go lucky Kofi Kingston interrupts. Off a lock up, Jericho smacks Kofi. Kofi’s pissed but Jericho gets a rope break. They trade waistlocks and Jericho gets the headlock TD. Jericho gets thrown off but comes back with a shoulderblock and a forearm. Then he just kicks Kofi around more for embarrassment than for causing damage. Jericho smacks him some more and tries to dump him but Kofi blocks it and comes back and tries a flying butt bomb but Jericho takes a breather. Kofi hits a suicide baseball slide and a plancha to the outside. Back in, he gets a top rope cross body block for 2. He mounts in the corner and tries to punch away but Jericho reverses and dumps him. On the outside, Jericho rams him into the apron a few times. Back in, he kicks away some more, hits a few shoulder surges, then whips Kofi down. Kofi rolls to the apron. Jericho tries a suplex and finally gets it after 4 reversals and it gets 2. Jericho hit a backbreaker and goes to the submission bridge. Kofi knees out but Jericho comes back with a basement dropkick. Jericho chokes him on the second rope and rams it home. More paintbrushing from Jericho. Kofi fights back but runs into an ab stretch. Kofi fights it off and hiptosses Jericho. Jericho with a drop toe hold and chokes Kofi more on the second rope and stands on his back like a stool for leverage. Jericho pounds away in the corner and sets up a super back suplex but Kofi floats over into a cross body but it only gets 2. Kofi hits the double chop and a Bluechipper drop kick and a flying burrito. He sets up the Boom Drop but Jericho up and gets a double leg to set up the Walls but Kofi counters to a roll up for 2. Crowd bought that as a finish. Now Kofi hits the Boom Drop for another 2. Kofi gets a whip but Jericho gets up the boot but runs out into a huracanrana for 2. But Jericho comes back with a clothesline and more kicks. Jericho hits the Lionsault and sets up the Liontamer (not the Walls) But SHAWN MICHAELS HAS COME OUT! He gives a truncated Sweet Chin Music to Cade on the outside. Crowd is raucous. Michaels has a giant bandage on his eye. Jericho cuts him off and rams him from the apron to the floor. Kofi hits the Trouble in Paradise from behind and gets the 3 to become new IC champ at 11:00. Nice match. The ending was hot and made sense and kept Jericho strong. ***

• Post-match, Michaels is still disoriented due to selling the eye injury. A trainer and ref help him to the back. Jericho looks to attack but a horde of refs try to cut him off. Jericho feigns disinterest and then gives Michaels a stiff shot to the eye. Michaels sells it overdramatically but effectively.

• Backstage, Vickie picks out flowers for the wedding and Edge prepares. Hawkins and Ryder come in and worry that Edge needs help. Edge retorts with his accomplishments and says not to worry.

• WWE Women’s Championship: Katie Lea vs. Mickie James (c). Katie gets a few roll ups for 1 counts and MJ is distraught. MJ gets a TD and a roll up and Burchill is distraught. Mickie James gets a monkey flip and a clothesline and an hammerlock TD. She preens and Burchill takes a break. She sneaks in and gets a roll up. MJ comes back with a snapmare and a basement dropkick. Katie cuts her off with a hammerlock suplex and some boots. Now, she works the arm. MJ comes back with an elbow from the good arm. Burchill runs the arm into the turnbuckle. Jack Doane WANTS A BREAK! More arm work. Paul Burchill wants her to rip the arm off. MJ forearms out and gets a Thesz press for nothing. Burchill comes back with a single arm DDT and boots away. A whip but MJ gets up the boot and hits an assisted huracanrana out of the corner. MJ is selling decently but inconsistently. MJ calls for a Twist of Fate or something but Katie counters to a fucking badass armbar TD straight into the submission. They roll through it but MJ just stands up out of it. What the fuck? Burchill says fuck this and just rams her back into the turnbuckle. MJ flips out of a suplex and hits a DDT for the 3 to retain at 7:20. This was decent. *3/4

• JR and Cactus are back for the question of the night. Who will bring a belt back to the flagship? Cena 30%, Batista 32%, Both 31%, Neither 7%.

• World Heavyweight Championship: Batista vs. Edge (c). Good video package before the match. Edge getting some great heel heat after his music cuts off but before Batista comes out. He’s just standing there and staring at the crowd but they are booing like crazy. I hope this is better than I remember it being because in my recollection these guys have no chemistry together.

• At the bell, they lock up and Batista casually tosses Edge and he begs off toward the ropes for a break. Again, Edge tries a side headlock but Batista quickly destroys him with a shoulderblock and Edge begs off again. “Ba-tis-ta” chant early. Another lock up and Batista tosses Edge to the floor. Edge takes a lap around the ring as Batista pursues. Edge tries to slide back in but Batista drags him to the floor. Batista smashes him into the apron and the barricade. Batista gets 2 off a back elbow. Edge does a sternum first bump off a whip and that gets 2. Batista with a snapmare and a Batista kick. Batista with a jackhammer and that gets 2. “Goldberg” chant breaks out. Aha. Batista clotheslines Edge to the floor and this is domination. He slides Edge back in but Edge kicks the ropes into his groin and then slams him shoulder first into the ring post and Batista falls to the floor. Edge baseball slides into Batista and he sells it over the announce table and Adamle looks like he’s in the matrix as he tries to get out of the way. Edge taunts. Batista slides in but Edge boots away. Edge drapes Batista across the second rope and runs into a choke. Then gives him an elbow drop on the apron. Batista rams with the good shoulder coming in to get some breathing room and slugs Edge down. Edge counters with a drop toe hold and hits a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Edge to a chinlock. So much for that arm work. Batista just fucking stands up and backs Edge into the turnbuckle. What the hell? Just do a move, asshole and the spot makes 10x more sense. I hate it when they just stand up. Batista comes running in and Edge gives him a drop toe hold into the second turnbuckle. JR informs us: “The center turnbuckle is not covered with barbecue sauce.” Thanks for that. Edge boots away. Batista gets to his feet but Edge remains on offense. Batista fights back but Edge hits another swinging neckbreaker as JR drifts into senility with, “That’s a wrestling maneuver with technique with leverage applied.” And back to the chinlock. Crowd rallies and Batista sort of rolls around and just stands up again. Bastard. He gives a couple of elbows, goes for a powerslam, but Edge slides out. He goes for the Edge-o-matic but Batista throws him over. Batista runs into the corner but Edge catches him with a Jack Brisco roll up for 2. Edge is sick of this shit and just clothesline Batista down. Edge heads up top but Batista punches him off. Yet Edge comes back with a stungun. Back in, he runs into a clothesline and they do a double KO. Batista picks up Edge and plants him in the corner and rams away. He gets a whip and Ho Train. He whiffs on another and Edge goes for the spear but Batista counters into a Bossman Slam and that gets 2. Some in the crowd are visibly up in arms over that count. Batista spears Edge but that only gets 2 and if the marks were upset before, they are pissed now. Off the ropes, Edge conveniently jumps on Batista’s shoulder and that sets up the Bulldog powerslam. Thumbs down time. He preps the Demon Bomb but Edge counters to a Edge-o-cutioner for 2. Edge goes for a spear but runs into a Batista kick. Batista heads up top for whatever and jumps off like a sack of shit and just falls straight into a dropkick. Another double KO spot. Hawkins and Ryder wheel Vickie out. Edge goes for the spear but Batista leapfrogs him. Spinebuster called a Batista Bomb by JR gets 1, 2—Vickie pulls the ref out. Edge goes for another spear and Batista sidesteps and throws him into the post. Ref gets up to 8 on the count before Edge pulls him out and waffles him. Vickie gets on the mic and demands another ref. Out comes Chavo in a ref’s uniform. JR is suspicious and suggests foul play. Batista pulls Vickie into the ring by the hair. La Familia begs him to lay off. He press slams her into La Familia. Batista turns around right into a belt shot from Edge. Chavo slides in and counts the 3 for Edge to retain at 16:47. I dug the initial story but the match sort of died with Edge on the offensive mainly because Batista sucked ass at selling and the comebacks. Surpisingly, the overbooked finish made the match better and JR’s commentary is entertaining is a perverse way. ***1/4. The next night, Batista would take out Edge and Punk would cash in the MITB and win his first World Title.

• Backstage, Trips in serious orange goblin mode tells Todd Grisham he’s going to do what he should have done 2 years ago: not tap out to that shitty STF.

• WWE Championship: John Cena vs. Triple H (c). Video package here is excellent. Cena gave a great promo in the lead up talking about “moments in time.” The montage shows clips of Rock-Austin near WM XVII, Hogan slamming Andre at WM III, Foley winning his first title, HBK on the zipline at WM XII, Bret Hart winning his second world title, Backlund winning the strap, Hogan beating the Sheik, Flair winning the 92 Rumble and cutting the “tear in my eye” promo, and Eddie Guerrero beating Lesnar at NWO 2004. If you’re even a LITTLE nostalgic about wrestling, that series of clips will get to you, despite the fact that it has little to nothing to do with the match we’re about to see. King gives us a whopper as he says Cena and Triple H may be the two biggest fan favorites ever. At the introductions, Cena gets baritone boos and falsetto cheers. Triple H gets a respectable pop but far from overwhelming.

• Trips gets the side headlock and Cena sends him off but Triple H with the shoulderblock early. Triple H stares him down afterwards. Triple H goes from headlock to hammerlock back to headlock. Cena sends him off again and again gets taken down with a shoulderblock. Cena back up quickly, tries a hip toss but H counters to his own and Cena begs off. Interesting. H gets Cena the crotch crop. Cena regroups. H back to the headlock but Cena reverses to his own. H tries to send him off but Cena holds on. The old Bret Hart special. H tries again and sends him off and Cena gets his own shoulderblock. Back up, Trips tries a hiptoss and Cena counters to a clothesline. OK, so they’re even. Cena dickishly salutes Triple H. That doesn’t have quite the same effect. H shoves him and Cena spears him and it’s a brawl. Cena gets a whip and a suplex for 2. H comes back with some shots but Cena cuts him off with a running shoulderblock. He tries another but whiffs on it and falls to the floor. On the outside, H rams Cena into the apron. Back in, H knees Cena a few times and gets a backbreaker and a vertical suplex. He drops a few elbows on Cena’s back. Trips gives him a hard whip and Cena takes it like a man. One more time for good measure and that gets 2. Cena tries to fight back with rights. He whips H but runs into a big boot. Trips goes up for a fist drop but jumps into Cena’s suspended foot. Well at least he put up his fist like he was going to do something. Cena hits a series of shoulderblocks and a Protobomb and his selling of Triple H’s back work has gone out the window. Cena tries the shuffle but H counters with an upkick. They trade whips and H gets the high knee and the jawbreaker. He gets the boot to set up the Pedigree but Cena counters to a shitty Throwback. Crowd is split down gender lines mostly. Cena hits the top rope fame-asser. Both are down and Cena decides that he won’t sell exhaustion either. He’s up and goes for the STF but H kicks him off. Another Protobomb and Cena wants the shuffle. He runs off the ropes right into another Triple H high knee. Spinebuster and H wants the Pedigree. Cena whips him to counter and Trips sells the left knee on the bump to the floor. Another nice example of built-in psychology. One throwaway reference by Cole to the well-known quad injuries and that’s all the backstory you need. On the floor, Cena clips the knee and Cole defends him like an asshole. At least be consistent. Cena gives him a kneebreaker into the stairs and now Cena rams it against the ring post as Cole calls him, “clever and calculating.” Did I black out? What match am I even watching? Cena does it again and even the mark kids don’t know how to react. King tries to tell us this isn’t illegal. Who’s working who here? It’s one thing when he’s selectively being the heel commentary but it’s another thing to put over the top face with that kind of unironic defense. Back in, Cena goes for the STF but H gets the ropes. Cena clips the knee again. H tries to fight out of the STF but Cena hangs on and finally locks it in but H gets the ropes again. Cena taunts and gets booed mostly. He goes for the FU but Triple H slides out and gets the Pedigree but only a 2 because of the delayed cover selling the knee. H still down selling the knee. Double KO. Both stagger to their feet at 8. Cena gets the FU but a delayed cover and also only gets 2. Double KO spot again due to exhaustion. Both up at 8 again and it’s Clash of the Titans as slug it out with the boo/yea sequence. Triple H finally misses one and Cena hits the Protobomb for the third time and now wants the shuffle again. He finally hits it. H gets up into an FU but he grabs the ropes. He goes for the Pedigree but Cena counters to an STF and locks it in. H finally gets the ropes but Cena pulls him back to the middle and Trips counters to the fucking Crippler Crossface but Cena doesn’t know how to sell it. Finally, he gets it right. But just like Batista, he just fucking stands up out of it. He goes for an FU but Triple H elbows out. Triple H hits another Pedigree and that’s enough for the 3 at 19:39. These two characters just go together well. This was the WWE equivalent of The Hulk vs. Superman. The match told a good story of a basically equal power match between two guys who know each other well. It would have been better if Cena was a better seller. ***3/4. Post-match, Lawler won’t shut the fuck up about some phantom pectoral injury that apparently hindered Cena.

• DVD Extras: We gets Todd Grisham interviewing Triple H again and JR’s RAW farewell address from 06/30/08.

The 411: Good show with some title changes and solid matches all around.
Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]