wrestling / TV Reports
The No Mercy 2007 Breakdown
October 13, 2007 | Posted by
| No Mercy 2007 by J.D. Dunn Funny how this feud flopped just three years ago with the roles reversed, and now it seems fresh. The same thing happened with Hunter and the Rock. Orton attacks from behind, but Hunter comes back with the high knee. Orton powerslams him to come back and puts the boots to HHH. Hunter clotheslines Orton and gets two off a superplex. Orton charges into a spinebuster. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! They brawl on the outside, and Orton hits his rope-assisted DDT. RK-NO! Hunter shoves him away and goes for the Pedigree, but Orton shoves him away. Orton misses a kneedrop, so Hunter locks in the figure-four. Orton makes the ropes, but Hunter snaps his throat on the ropes and goes up. Orton crotches him but misses a charge and posts himself. Hunter rolls him up with the schoolboy for the win at 11:07. For whatever reason, Hunter decided to mimic Ric Flair with the figure-four and the climb to the top, but it worked in the context of the match. Oddly enough, Hunter’s first World Heavyweight Title reign started in similar fashion, but he actually defeated Ric Flair when Flair challenged him. This kind of exposes a problem. Some people argue, “See, Hunter gets another vanity title reign. Why not use one of the other babyfaces in this role,” to which others rebut, “Well, there aren’t any other major babyfaces.” And *that* seems to be a bigger problem, one that wasn’t exactly solved the following Monday. **1/2 London & Kendrick use their quickness to befuddle the Texans Wit’ Attitude. Jeff tags in and teams up with London for Poetry in Motion. Murdoch comes up with a great counter to a jawbreaker – just don’t fall with him. He boots Jeff in the face. Cade stretches open the ropes, and Kendrick falls through to give the heels the advantage. Kendrick rolls through a cravat but gets cut off. Finally, Brian blocks a charge and hits Cade with a Tornado DDT. HOT TAG TO JEFF! Jeff busts out his sitout gourdbuster on Murdoch. SWANTON! ONE, TWO, TH-Cade makes the save. Jeff misses the rail-runner. Kendrick wipes out Murdoch (with one of the loudest spot calls EVER). That leaves Kennedy to crotch London and finish with the Lambeau Leap at 8:07. Pretty good, but the crowd only cared about the singles wrestlers. **1/4 The “Hometown Rule” is in effect tonight. Vee knocks Punk down and gives him the Prison Rape Crossfaces. Punk sneaks out from under the flabby big-top tent of Vee’s mammaries and staggers him with kicks. That leads to a missile dropkick that takes Vee off his feet. Striker panics and attacks Punk for the DQ at 1:36. This may be the most counterproductive booking of the year, especially considering how ECW is struggling. They want to keep Vee strong so he can move on to Smackdown and face the Undertaker and Batista, so they can’t give Punk a clean win. They can’t bury Punk, though, because he’s either going to be the face of ECW or transition the title back to Morrison and needs to be strong for that. So they half-ass it and kill both guys on PPV only to try and rebuild them on the TV show? Vee crushes Punk’s ribs after the match. O Umaga no-sells Hunter’s flurry but charges and gets sent over the top. Hunter hits a facebuster, again no-sold. Umaga backdrops out of the Pedigree but runs into a spinebuster. Another Pedigree attempt is countered to a Samoan Drop. The Tornado Uranage works Hunter’s ribs even more, and Umaga follows up with a diving headbutt. Umaga misses the buttalanche and another charge, posting himself in the corner. That sets up the Pedigree at 6:35. JR notes that the finish proves that Hunter is the Cerebral Assassin for capitalizing on Umaga’s mistake. Yeah, sure. He had to summon all of his intense Capoeira training to come up with “get out of the way + Pedigree.” Unlike the opener, the structure of this match actually helped Hunter’s opponent get over…for a while. ** Both guys wear black and green for those who care. Rey’s Orlando Thunder green is more peppy, though. KERWIN BELL, FTW! Rey finally seems to have regained his quickness. He targets Finlay’s legs and tries a sunset flip powerbomb off the apron. Finlay blocks and wraps Rey up in the apron cover. He tosses Rey into the post and goes to work on the shoulder. Rey flying mares Finlay into the corner and comes back with a springboard crossbody. Rey sets up for the 619, but Finlay takes his head off with a clothesline. Rey tries a satellite headscissors, but Finlay counters to a shoulderbreaker in mid-move. He unties the turnbuckle cover to distract the ref long enough to grab his shillelagh. Rey kicks it back into him, though, and ranas him to the apron. He hits a 619 to the back of Finlay’s head and hits a legdrop off the top. Finlay’s head smacks on the floor, and he appears to be out (except for when he opens his eyes and looks around to make sure he’s fooled everyone). The ref makes the “X” sign, and the officials put Finlay in a neckbrace and put him on the spine board. Fortunately, they forgot to strap him down onto the spine board, so Finlay hops up and clubs Rey from behind. That’s your sports entertainment finish, I guess. The match was around 10 minutes and pretty good until the non-finish. Why wouldn’t they just have Finlay toss Rey back in and pin him? It’s not like it would kill Rey’s heat, and it would set up a rematch. **1/2 The raver mix of Candice’s music sucks something fierce, and it’s even worse when she spazzes out on the apron. Beth just shoves Candice down. Candice comes up with a weird rollup, but Beth kicks her in the gut. Candice grabs a keylock, which seems like a good idea because my first thought was “Beth will power out.” I think that’s literally the only counter to a short-arm scissors like that. Unfortunately, Candice never got it on properly so when Beth goes to power up, Candice just kind of falls off. Beth settles things down with a shinni no make. Candice kicks her way back and gets two off a spinkick. Beth shoves her into the corner, though, hits a backbreaker, and finishes with the Fisherwoman’s Suplex at 4:38. Candice has shown exponential growth this year, but this was pretty bad. Beth follows up with a tearful interview about the era of the Glamazon. 1/2* “Reinforced steel bamboo,” Cole describes the prison. Yeah, from where – Cybertron? Let me describe it for you if you didn’t see the first one – it’s two steel cages only painted yellow, and then they tied some of those thin sticks from Hobby Lobby around it to make it look like bamboo. Khali pulls an Andre the Giant and gets tied in the ropes. Batista’s all, “I know three words – ‘ball,’ ‘good,’ and ‘rape.’ Guess which one I’m thinking of now!” Khali boots Batista and gets out of the ropes. He beats Batista down and goes for the door, but Batista pulls him back. Batista avoids a legdrop and hits a SPEAR! Batista calls for the door to be opened, but Khali puts him down with a Dragon Sleeper and chokes Batista up against the prison wall. Khali whips Batista with a strap but runs into a spinebuster. He can’t make the door, though. VISE GRIP! He lets go too early, though, and Batista goes low to the Sherwood Forest region. He goes to the door, but Khali smashes the door down on the back of his neck. Khali goes up but gets pulled back. Batista goes up but gets pulled off. Khali makes it over the top of the first cage, surprisingly without scraping his noggin on the top of the arena. Now all he has to do is climb over the 20-foot cage. Batista wakes up and quickly scales the inner cage. Realizing he’s behind, he LEAPS to the other cage and goes over. Batista drops to the floor first and retains the title at 14:49. Hey, not bad, especially when compared to the first one. The door teases were tense, and the match was booked to their strengths. **3/4 Hunter starts to win a slugfest, but Randy goes after the ribs that were hurt in the Umaga match. The brawl spills to the floor where Hunter goes for a Pedigree. Orton flips him onto his back, though. Back in, Randy continues to go after the ribs. Cool spot as he backdrop suplexes Hunter on the railing. I guess they watched ROH: Driven too. Randy sends Hunter into the steps, but Hunter keeps getting up. Hunter breaks the momentum with a facebuster, but Orton comes back with a Stretch Backbreaker. He chokes Hunter out with a spare TV cord. Hunter makes it up at nine. Should’ve used the coaxial. They take it to the floor where Randy sets up for the RKO through the announce table, but Hunter shoves him through the ECW table. Orton is up at nine. Hunter hits a SICK spinebuster on the floor, which was mostly missed due to pic-in-pic, so we get another pic-in-pic of the spinebuster. Good job by the production crew there. Hunter tosses the steps into Orton’s head. Orton makes it up at nine again, looking like Superman thanks to JR’s call. Back in, Hunter introduces a chair, but Orton goes low and DDTs him on it. RKO ON THE CHAIR! Hunter makes it up at nine and tells Orton to suck it. Actually, I was hoping for Orton to haul off and punt him in the nuts for the win, but Hunter falls instead. Orton sets up for the Lights Out Kick, but Hunter catches his foot and HULKS UP! He tosses Orton to the floor and goes for the Pedigree. Unfortunately, he dragged Orton right over to the ringpost, so I think we all see what’s coming here. Yep, Orton counters to a catapult and sends Hunter right into the post. Orton picks up the steps, but Hunter goes low and hits him with a chairshot. Orton is up at eight, so Hunter sets up for the Pedigree on the announce table. NO! RKO! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, EIGHT, NINE, TEN! Randall wins back the title at 20:35. Surprisingly good match that made Randy look like a true gut-it-out monster heel. The booking throughout the night is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, if they had just done this match as for the vacant title it probably would have put Orton over, but you wouldn’t have gotten the same emotional rollercoaster and fan disappointment (in a good way) without it. **** The 411: Better than Unforgiven or Summerslam, but that’s not saying much. Lengthy sports entertainment segments just killed the pace of the show early on, and the undercard (outside of Rey/Finlay) either didn’t get enough time or just didn’t get it done. This is a one-match show, and that one match doesn’t justify the whole thing. Thumbs in the middle, leaning down. |
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