The Contentious Ten 9.28.09: The Top Ten No Mercy PPVs

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There wasn’t much in the way of comments last week, and that’s alright with me. The only one that really stood out to me was the questioning of my choice to do a top ten Unforgivens. However, Guest #5098 pretty much summed up my reasoning behind the list I see nothing wrong with doing a column of the top ten of a lesser known PPV event. Anyone can do a top 10 Wrestlemania’s or Summer Slams, but sometimes its fun to go back and look at the non-major PPV events and see what sort of hidden gems are there… Well, the same logic applies this week as I pick apart each and every No Mercy.

Honorable Mention

No Mercy (May 1999, U.K. Only)

Tiger Ali Singh defeated WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Gillberg in a non-title match.

The Ministry of Darkness (Viscera, Faarooq and Bradshaw) defeated The Brood (Gangrel, Edge, and Christian)

Steve Blackman defeated Droz

Kane defeated Mideon by disqualification

Nicole Bass defeated Tori

WWF European Champion Shane McMahon defeated X-Pac

Billy Gunn defeated Mankind

WWF Champion Steve Austin defeated The Undertaker and Triple H (with Chyna) in an Anything Goes Triangle Match

This edition of No Mercy took place in May of 1999 and was a United Kingdom only pay-per-view. I don’t think it’s fair to rate it with the rest of the No Mercies because it, like almost all of the UK only ppvs, was basically a glorified house show that they put on pay-per-view. Yet, it is technically still a No Mercy pay-per-view, and I needed an honorable mention so it fits the bill.

The Top Ten No Mercies

X

No Mercy 2004

Eddie Guerrero defeated Luther Reigns (with Mark Jindrak)

WWE Cruiserweight Champion Spike Dudley (with Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) defeated Nunzio (with Johnny Stamboli)

Billy Kidman defeated Paul London

WWE Tag Team Champions Kenzo Suzuki and René Duprée (with Hiroko Suzuki) defeated Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam

The Big Show defeated Kurt Angle

John Cena defeated WWE United States Champion Booker T

Charlie Haas, Rico and Miss Jackie defeated The Dudleys (Bubba Ray and D-Von) and Dawn Marie

WWE Champion John “Bradshaw” Layfield defeated The Undertaker in a Last Ride Match

The Good
This edition of No Mercy was simply terrible. The only thing I would describe as remotely good was the match between Paul London and Billy Kidman. Both men did a good job keeping the action fast and exciting. London’s Shooting Star Press was countered by Kidman, who hit his own version and secured the win. Seeing as how neither man ever made much of an impact in WWE, the fact that this is the sole bright spot on the card is pretty indicative of how bad the show was.

The Bad
Since almost the entire show was bad, I’ll stick with the really bad stuff. First and foremost was the main event “Last Ride Match” which was basically just an Ambulance Match with a hearse as opposed to an ambulance. JBL’s WWE Title reign consistently produced some of the worst main events of the past ten years, and this one was no exception. The match was pathetically bad for a pay-per-view main event, and on top of it the end was disappointing as Heidenreich jumped out of the back of the hearse and covered Undertaker’s face with a chloroform soaked rag. The trick didn’t work, just like when Giant Gonzalez tried it, but in the end the two managed to get the Undertaker into the hearse. Even the consistently good performers on the SmackDown brand – Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero – were saddled with lousy opponents, so their matches were just as bad as the rest of the card.

Why it’s Number 10
No Mercy 2004 was just an awful show. SmackDown was practically crippled by Brock Lesnar’s sudden departure from WWE, and they scrambled to find someone to fill the void. Inexplicably they chose Bradshaw. While I’ll admit, I came to enjoy his character he was one of the least qualified men ever to be WWE Champion. The whole brand suffered as a result, and this show is a prime example of just how bad SmackDown was in 2004. Also, I appreciate cruiserweight style matches as much as anyone, but when the best match on the card is fought between two guys that did nearly nothing in their WWE careers you know there is a serious problem. Unfortunately, this show is not incomparably bad to some of the other No Mercies.

IX

No Mercy 2003

WWE Cruiserweight Champion Tajiri defeated Rey Mysterio

Chris Benoit defeated A-Train

Zach Gowen defeated Matt Hardy (with Shannon Moore)

The Basham Brothers (Doug and Danny Basham) defeated the Acolytes Protection Agency (Faarooq and Bradshaw)

Vince McMahon (with Sable) defeated Stephanie McMahon (with Linda McMahon) in an “I Quit” match in which the loser was forced to resign his or her job.

Kurt Angle defeated John Cena

The Big Show defeated WWE United States Champion Eddie Guerrero

WWE Champion Brock Lesnar defeated The Undertaker in a Biker Chain Match

The Good
Although calling it good is kind of pushing it the “Biker Chain on a Pole” match for the WWE Title was a decent enough main event. Although I don’t think it was as good as their match from the year before, Lesnar and Undertaker put together an exciting match. However it wasn’t all good, but I’ll get to that shortly. The best match of the night took place between Kurt Angle and John Cena who had a pretty intense match. Cena was still rising up through the ranks and Angle had just lost the WWE Title to Brock Lesnar. In the end Angle won the match with the Anklelock (so if anyone, like Michael Cole says Cena has never submitted, don’t believe it).

The Bad
The truth is this show was bad. The worst part about it was the McMahon fueled storyline. Vince McMahon had put his daughter in charge of Smackdown, but then decided he didn’t like the way she was running things, and eventually booked himself in an “I Quit” match with her. Predictably, the match was horrible, but the real kicker was Stephanie refused to say “I Quit,” so Linda McMahon threw in the towel on her behalf. I don’t want to seem sexist, but you’ve got a very muscular man in Vince who probably outweighs Stephanie by 100 pounds, yet he can’t beat a (at best) reasonably fit Stephanie into submission. Yet on the same show Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle both got their respective opponents to submit, ergo, Stephanie McMahon is tougher than A-Train and John Cena. I know it’s “sports-entertainment,” but come on.

The Stephanie and Vince stuff apparently wasn’t enough McMahon drama, so Vince decided to screw up the main event. First he turned off the lights just as Undertaker was about to retrieve the chain, then he interfered in the match costing the Undertaker the WWE Title. The chain was involved in the “Biker Chain Match” for about a minute, and all of the hard work of Undertaker and Lesnar did was pretty much flushed down the toilet with the stupid McMahon antics. The rest of the card, with the exception of the aforementioned “good” and the Cruiserweight Title match was pretty awful.

Why it’s Number 9
One pretty good match out of eight is simply an unacceptable level of bad for a show that people have to pay to see. Also, I can’t tell you how much I despised the absolutely ridiculous finish to the “I Quit” Match, it’s not like Stephanie was the next Stone Cold Steve Austin, would it have killed her to “quit?” The only reason it out ranks No Mercy 2004 is because it had one halfway decent match of semi-consequence.

VIII

No Mercy 2005

WWE Tag Team Champions The Legion of Doom (Road Warrior Animal and Heidenreich) and Christy Hemme defeated MNM (Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, and Melina)

Bobby Lashley defeated Simon Dean

WWE United States Champion Chris Benoit defeated Booker T (with Sharmell), Christian, and Orlando Jordan in a Fatal Four-Way Match

Ken Kennedy defeated Hardcore Holly

John “Bradshaw” Layfield (with Jillian Hall) defeated Rey Mysterio

Randy Orton and “Cowboy” Bob Orton defeated The Undertaker in a Handicap Casket Match

Juventud (with Psicosis and Super Crazy) defeated WWE Cruiserweight Champion Nunzio

World Heavyweight Champion Batista defeated Eddie Guerrero

The Good
For the third year in a row No Mercy was a pretty dismal pay-per-view. I hate to seem overly negative, but there really isn’t anything I would classify as good. I would say nearly everything on the show was mediocre to poor. Two very dim bright spots were the World Heavyweight Title match between Batista and Eddie Guerrero (in his last pay-per-view) and the Casket Match (Undertaker’s fourth gimmick match in a row at No Mercy) between Undertaker and Randy and Bob Orton. Both matches were passable, and the World Title match benefited from the dramatic subtext of whether Guerrero, who had tried to convince Batista that he was his friend, would cheat. He didn’t and lost.

The Bad
Once again, everything on this card was mediocre to poor, yet nothing was unbearably bad. Yet just the fact that nothing was good makes the show bad. The end of the casket match pretty much summed up the quality of the show. After the Ortons had locked the Undertaker in the casket, Randy swung at it several times with an axe, covered it in gasoline and lit it on fire; exactly the same thing Kane did seven years earlier. The fact that WWE couldn’t even come up with a new way to “kill off” the Undertaker just showed how little thought and effort they put into the show.

Why it’s Number 8
When people are paying to see a show, and the show offers nothing of any quality I find that to be inexcusable. And for the third year in a row No Mercy offered nothing of quality. It was similar to a horror movie franchise, like Saw, Halloween, or Friday the 13th that just kept (keeps) producing one uninspired sequel after the next. At least this edition of No Mercy was mostly just bland and not bad. That affords it a rank above the previous two, but the show certainly wasn’t any good.

VII

No Mercy 2000

The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) won the Dudley Boyz Invitational Tables Gauntlet Match involving Lo Down (Chaz and D’Lo Brown), Too Cool (Scotty Too Hotty and Grand Master Sexay), Tazz and Raven, and The Right to Censor (The Goodfather and Bull Buchanan)

The APA (Bradshaw and Faarooq) and Lita fought T & A (Test and Albert) and Trish Stratus to a No Contest.

Chris Jericho defeated X-Pac in a Steel Cage Match

Right to Censor (Val Venis and Steven Richards) defeated Chyna and Billy Gunn

Steve Austin fought Rikishi to a no-contest (because Austin was arrested) in a No Holds Barred Match.

WWF European Champion William Regal defeated Naked Mideon

Los Conquistadores (Edge and Christian in masks) defeated WWF Tag Team Champions The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff)

Triple H defeated Chris Benoit

Kurt Angle defeated WWF Champion The Rock in a No Disqualification Match

The Good
Kurt Angle hadn’t even been in the WWF for a year at the time of No Mercy 2000, but had already made his way to the top of the card. In the meantime, with the absence of Steve Austin, The Rock had risen to the status of the number one baby-face in the company. Still, a Kurt Angle victory wasn’t expected by many. Nevertheless, the two put on a such a good match that it became clear that Angle was more than capable of being the WWF Champion, both from a storyline perspective and a business one. In the end Rikishi came down to interfere on The Rock’s behalf, but The Rock got in his face. After an exchange of words Rikishi accidentally hit The Rock with a kick to the face. Angle seized the opportunity and Angle-slammed him and won his first WWF Title.

Some other good matches included a very well put together match between Triple H and Chris Benoit, a decent cage match between X-Pac and Chris Jericho, and some funny stuff with Edge and Christian dressed up as Los Conquistadores a late 80s jobber team, they were forced to impersonate due to the fact that they were no longer allowed to challenge for the Tag Team Titles.

The Bad
No Mercy featured the in ring return of Steve Austin who had been recovering from a neck injury for almost a year. Some major ring rust had set in during his time away from the ring, and his match with Rikishi, the guy who had run him down the year before was pretty bad and became more “sports-entertainment” than anything else when Austin tried to return the favor by attempting to run him over with his pick up truck. Also, most of the remaining undercard (that wasn’t mentioned in “The Good”) was crap.

Why it’s Number 7
No Mercy 2000 is the first No Mercy on the list that I wouldn’t classify as bad. It had a really good main event match that made Kurt Angle into a major star, and had some great matches on the undercard. It also had its fair share of really bland filler and bad matches. In fact I’m not sure I’d really even call Austin vs. Rikishi a match as much as it was the continuation of the angle. It was so bad that they turned Triple H into the mastermind of the whole plot just to save the stoeyline. No Mercy 2000 stands head and shoulders above the previous three on the list, but ultimately it was a pretty basic show.

VI

No Mercy 2002

World Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho and Christian defeated Booker T and Goldust

Torrie Wilson defeated Dawn Marie

Rob Van Dam defeated Ric Flair

WWE Cruiserweight Champion Jamie Noble (with Nidia) defeated Tajiri

World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeated WWE Intercontinental Champion Kane in a Title Unification Match

Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit defeated Rey Mysterio and Edge for the vacant WWE Tag Team Titles

WWE Women’s Champion Trish Stratus defeated Victoria

WWE Champion Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) defeated The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell Match

The Good
While their match at Unforgiven ended rather dismally, it set up a Hell in the Cell rematch between the Undertaker and WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. While it seemed like several matches in Lesnar’s short career were career making matches (matches with Hulk Hogan and The Rock) it was clear that he would be established as the top wrestler in WWE if could put on a good show with the Undertaker inside the Cell. While their match certainly wasn’t the best Hell in a Cell ever (more on that in next week’s column) it was a good main event, that saw Lesnar earn a huge victory over the Undertaker.

While that was a good match the match of the night (and maybe even the year) belonged to the teams of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, and Rey Mysterio and Edge. The two teams met to crown the first ever (SmackDown exclusive) WWE Tag Team Champions. Benoit and Angle had been forced to team together by Stephanie McMahon, yet managed to win the titles when Angle forced Edge to submit to the Anklelock.

The Bad
Just like Unforgiven 2002, No Mercy 2002 was a show divided by brands. The SmackDown side of the show really delivered and the Raw side of the show sucked. Rob Van Dam had a lousy match with Ric Flair in an attempt to get back at him for his betrayal a month earlier, and both the World Tag Team Titles match and the Women’s Title matches were pretty weak. The worst match of the night, however was the title unification match between the World Heavyweight Champion Triple H and the Intercontinental Champion Kane. Thankfully they resurrected the Intercontinental Title a few months later, because it would have been a pitiful end to such a storied title. The match was anti-climactic, predictable, and sloppy. Plus the storyline surrounding it was the infamous Katie Vick necrophilia one.

Why it’s Number 6
No Mercy 2002 was a show of ups and downs, SmackDown brought the ups, Raw brought the downs. In terms of wrestling, when half the show is good and half the show is bad, you as the viewer really aren’t doing too bad, and the good stuff, especially the WWE Tag Team Title match, on this show is really good. The bad stuff is bad, but a lot of it could have been worse. However, Raw would have had to have held up its side of the show for it to place any higher than six in my countdown.

V

No Mercy 1999

The Godfather defeated Mideon

The Fabulous Moolah defeated WWF Women’s Champion Ivory

The Hollys (Hardcore and Crash) defeated the New Age Outlaws (Bad Ass Billy Gunn and Road Dogg) by disqualification

Chyna defeated WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett in a Good Housekeeping Match

The Rock defeated Davey Boy Smith

The New Brood (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) defeated Edge and Christian in a Ladder Match

Val Venis defeated Mankind

X-Pac defeated Bradshaw, Kane, and Faarooq in a Four Corners Elimination Match

WWF Champion Triple H defeated Steve Austin in an Anything Goes Match

The Good
The first annual No Mercy featured the match that quite literally made the careers of Edge, Christian, Matt Hardy, and Jeff Hardy. The two teams had been wowing crowds with their great tag team matches for months when they were thrust into a best of five series to win the managerial services of Terri Runnels and $100,000. Naturally, the series went to the final match, but it was declared that the two teams would decide the winner in a ladder match. I personally feel that the ladder match is far too overexposed today, but in 1999 this was a very special attraction, and the two teams reinvented the ladder match in the process. In fact, I would argue that the reason the ladder match is so overused today is a direct result of the success these two teams had in the wake of this match. The Hardys (as the New Brood) won the match, the money, and Terri, but all four men won the respect of the fans and ensured their place in the world of wrestling for years to come thanks to their work in this match.

It seemed like the rest of the show rode the coattails of the ladder match, as pretty much everything following it was pretty good. The Triple H vs. Steve Austin match was a good but pretty standard match that saw the Rock interfere and accidentally cost Austin the match, setting up the Triple Threat match for Survivor Series.

The Bad
Like I wrote earlier, everything after the ladder match was good, but everything prior to the ladder match was pretty mediocre to bad. The worst stuff of the night was the Women’s Title match that saw seventy year old plus Fabulous Moolah win the Women’s Title, and a disappointing match between The Rock and The British Bulldog. Also, this was the show that supposedly saw Jeff Jarrett hold up Vince McMahon for an exorbitant sum of money, as his contract had expired the day before. Jarrett was paid and lost the Intercontinental Title to Chyna making her the first and only woman to hold that title. While historically significant, the match itself wasn’t so great.

Why it’s Number 5
It is simply impossible to discount the impact the tag team ladder match had on professional wrestling, and on the careers of the four men involved. All four became big stars and the match that really set it all in motion was this one. That alone pushes No Mercy 1999 up the list. The solid main event and a few other decent matches on the undercard help out the show’s ranking. Nevertheless, it took more than half the show before it really got going, and that fact keeps it from going higher.

IV

No Mercy 2006

Matt Hardy defeated Gregory Helms

WWE Tag Team Champions Paul London and Brian Kendrick (with Ashley Massaro) defeated K.C. James and Idol Stevens (with Michelle McCool)

Montel Vontavious Porter defeated Marty Garner

WWE United States Champion Ken Kennedy defeated The Undertaker by disqualification

Rey Mysterio defeated Chavo Guerrero (with Vickie Guerrero) in a Falls Count Anywhere Match

Chris Benoit defeated William Regal

World Heavyweight Champion King Booker (with Queen Sharmell) defeated Bobby Lashley, Batista, and Finlay in a Fatal Four Way Match

The Good
Unlike the three No Mercies that preceded it, No Mercy 2006 was actually a very strong show. Matt Hardy and Gregory Helms set the pace of the show with an exciting back and forth match in front of their hometown crowd. The fast paced excitement continued into the WWE Tag Team Title match. And the main event was led into by an extraordinarily stiff and enthralling battle between Chris Benoit and William Regal. The main event was originally supposed to have been King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley, but at the last minute Batista and Finlay were added do to the fear that a Booker vs. Lashley match wouldn’t draw buys. The Four-Way turned out to be a pretty good match, and was probably much better than just the Booker vs. Lashley match would have been or the Finlay vs. Batista match would have been.

The Bad
While there was nothing terrible on the show, there was some unnecessary stuff. For example MVP made his pay-per-view debut and wrestled a jobber, not a jobber like Funaki or Simon Dean, but (as we called them when we were kids) a “guy in red tights” kind of jobber. This is a pay-per-view not a Saturday morning edition of the old WWF Superstars. The finish to the Undertaker vs. Ken Kennedy match was really stupid as Undertaker simply smacked Kennedy right in the head with the United States Title belt. The Falls Count anywhere match between Chavo Guerrero and Rey Mysterio was alright but was wasn’t anywhere near as good as it could have been. Finally, if you ordered the show live you got to see more of William Regal than you probably ever wanted to see.

Why it’s Number 4
After three straight years of being total crap No Mercy finally redeemed itself. WWE didn’t need to come up with a bunch of gimmick matches to sell the show, and instead put together a very solid show, with a main event that was surprisingly good. Maybe I’ve ranked this one a bit too high, but for me it was like going to see a movie that I thought was going to be terrible and being pleasantly surprised. Maybe it’s just a case of perceptual contrast, but I thought this show was pretty damn good.

III

No Mercy 2001

WCW Tag Team Champions The Hardy Boyz (with Lita) defeated Lance Storm and The Hurricane (with Mighty Molly and Ivory

Test defeated Kane

Torrie Wilson defeated Stacy Keibler in a Lingerie Match

Edge defeated WWF Intercontinental Champion Christian in a Ladder Match

WWF Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) defeated The Big Show and Tajiri

The Undertaker defeated Booker T

Chris Jericho defeated WCW Champion The Rock

WWF Champion Steve Austin defeated Kurt Angle and Rob Van Dam in a Triple Threat Match

The Good
Although it doesn’t compare to the other Invasion angle pay-per-views, No Mercy 2001 was a pretty good show. The best match of the night was fought between two “WWF” wrestlers, The Rock and Chris Jericho over the WCW Title. Up until this match Chris Jericho was an upper-midcard wrestler, so this was his chance to finally break out. By putting the WCW Title on a wrestler like The Rock, the WWF was clearly trying to reestablish the title’s value. Thus when Jericho finally defeated The Rock (underhandedly of course) it was seen as Jericho finally breaking through the glass ceiling. Additionally, this was one of the few feuds that featured internal strife between the two camps of wrestlers, which made for a far more compelling story line than an “evil” Alliance wrestler vs. a “good” WWF wrestler.

While it wasn’t as good as the WCW Title match the Triple Threat Match between Austin, Angle and Van Dam was also a strong addition to the card. Like the opponents in the WCW Title match Steve Austin and Rob Van Dam were on the same team, yet had serious issues with one another, largely stemming from the fact that Van Dam was the only popular wrestler on the side of the Alliance. Many have speculated that the WWF blew their best chance at making Van Dam a huge star by not having him win this match. The other good match was the Intercontinental Title Ladder match between “brothers” Edge and Christian.

The Bad
While the main events were good enough, the bad stuff really sapped the show. The Undertaker and Booker T had a pretty miserable match, as did Kane and Test. While it might seem inappropriate to expect a lot out of these matches, the real problem was the fact that they both seemed to drag on for way too long. Maybe if they had been a little shorter they would have felt like less of a drag on the show.

Why it’s Number 3
Perhaps my criticisms seem overly harsh for a show I ranked at number three. Overall, No Mercy 2001 was a good show that delivered some really good matches and moments, it’s just that when it’s compared to the other Invasion angle pay-per-views it’s just not all that great. Nevertheless, both main events and the ladder match were quite good and some of the stuff on the undercard was halfway decent, making the good stuff better than a lot of the other good stuff on some of the aforementioned No Mercies. Still, there was enough bad stuff to hold the show back.

II

No Mercy 2008

ECW Champion Matt Hardy defeated Mark Henry (with Tony Atlas)

WWE Women’s Champion Beth Phoenix (with WWE Intercontinental Champion Santino Marella) defeated Candice Michelle

Rey Mysterio defeated Kane by disqualification in a match where if Mysterio lost he would have had to remove his mask

Batista defeated John “Bradshaw” Layfield in a number one contender match for the World Heavyweight Title

The Big Show defeated The Undertaker by knockout

WWE Champion Triple H defeated Jeff Hardy

World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho defeated Shawn Michaels in a Ladder Match

The Good
No Mercy 2008 was a pretty mediocre show that was made good by two great main event matches. Triple H and Jeff Hardy put on a great match that continued to dramatically build Hardy up to a world champion caliber wrestler. Although both men were technically faces the crowd was definitely behind the underdog, Hardy. This allowed Triple H to fall back into a bit of a heel role, or at the very least a spoiler role. Although Hardy didn’t win the match was competitive enough that he came out looking like a more than credible challenger. As good as that match was the final match of the night: the ladder match between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels was nothing short of awesome. Their hate fueled feud over the summer was so good that WWE put World Heavyweight Title on Jericho just so they could make it the focal point of Raw. While most ladder matches are typically just a bunch of high-spots thrown together to wow the crowd, this one was a brutal (so brutal Jericho had one of his teeth broken), hate-filled, brawl that saw both men become more concerned with maiming the other rather than winning the title. Of course the ultimate prize was winning the title, and even at the end of the match they brought the intensity as they played tug-o-war with the belt, a war Jericho barely won.

The Bad
Like I wrote above, the rest of the show was pretty uninspired, but none of it was bad. JBL and Batista had a pretty crummy match, but it was still a bit better than I thought it would be. The Rey Mysterio vs. Kane match was also disappointing, but once again nothing was too bad.

Why it’s Number 2
There is no doubt that this was really a two-match show. Both title matches really delivered and made a pretty average show into a really good one. If even one of those matches had failed to deliver this show probably would have sunk down to number five or six. The show’s ranking is also helped out by the fact that nothing on the show was terrible.

I

No Mercy 2007

Randy Orton was awarded the vacant WWE Title by Vince McMahon

Triple H defeated WWE Champion Randy Orton

World Tag Team Champions Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch and Ken Kennedy defeated WWE Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy, Paul London and Brian Kendrick

ECW Champion CM Punk defeated Big Daddy V (with Matt Striker)

WWE Champion Triple H defeated Umaga

Finlay fought Rey Mysterio to a no-contest

Beth Phoenix defeated WWE Women’s Champion Candice Michelle

World Heavyweight Champion Batista defeated The Great Khali (with Ranjin Singh) in a Punjabi Prison Match

Randy Orton defeated WWE Champion Triple H in a Last Man Standing Match

The Good
Whether this show was good or not probably hinges on whether or not you enjoy Triple H matches, or for that matter Randy Orton and Triple H matches. For my money, I’d much rather watch either of their two matches at this event than their disappointing flop of a match at WrestleMania XXV again. The show really started off with a bang thanks to their first match, and they stepped it up even more in their second, Last Man Standing match. In between the two matches Triple H had pretty mediocre match with Umaga, but even that helped to build to the final match of the night. What made all of this so good was the fact that the show had been built around a John Cena vs. Randy Orton match, but an injury forced Cena out, meaning that a lot of this was booked at the last minute. Nevertheless it made for a very exciting and unpredictable show. Most of the rest of the card was good too. The six-man tag was fun, and the Punjabi Prison Match, which had disaster written all over it, actually turned out to be pretty decent.

The Bad
Recently, whenever WWE overbooks a pay-per-view they tend to make one match really short. Usually it’s the ECW Title match. They did it at the 2009 SummerSlam, WrestleMania XXIV, and they did it at this No Mercy. What made it especially annoying is it was immediately followed by a complete waste of time in a pizza-eating contest between Matt Hardy and MVP. The Women’s Title match wasn’t so good either.

Why it’s number 1
When the worst stuff on a show is a really short match and a stupid segment, you know that you’ve got a pretty good show on your hands. No Mercy 2007 was by no means a perfect show, but it was a very good one. The thing it really had going for it was that it told a story. From the beginning, when Orton was handed the WWE Title, to Triple H beating him for it, to Triple H being forced to defend it against Umaga, to Orton winning the title back, the whole show was endowed with a purpose, and was unique. Some might argue that they burned through a month’s worth of storyline in just one night, but it made for a very significant feeling show. Had Cena not been injured, I don’t think the show would have been as entertaining or successful.