wrestling / TV Reports
The Unforgiven 2008 Breakdown
September 8, 2008 | Posted by
| Unforgiven 2008 by J.D. Dunn Matt and the Miz start. Striker busts out an Ernest Byner reference in relation to Miz. The announcers also credit Pat Patterson with coming up with the concept, thus ruining the whole “Adamle Original” idea. I’m so disillusioned. Miz misses his corner clothesline and crotches himself, but he comes back with the springboard necksnap. Miz slips out of Splash Mountain and hits the Reality Check. Matt rolls to the floor, though, so Miz can’t get the pinfall. Chavo Guerrero comes out at the five-minute mark and hits Matt with a frogsplash for the win and the temporary title at 5:33. Miz jumps Chavo but eats a Kappou Kick (called a “Lyger Kick” by Striker). Miz hits a double crossbody and gets a face pop for it. Matt gets pumped up and hits the bulldog/clothesline on both opponents. That sets up the Side Effect on Chavo at 8:56. Matt now has the title, so he tosses Chavo and decides to grind down the clock with a chinlock on Miz. Mark Henry is out next. Everyone goes after Mark Henry. That goes well… for a minute or so. Henry destroys everything in sight. Press slam to Matt Hardy. Vaderlanche to Miz. The World’s Strongest Slam pancakes Chavo at 11:52. Matt tries a springboard but gets swatted off the ropes like he’s a bi-plane and Mark Henry is King Kong. Chavo gets caught in a bearhug. Matt tries to make the save but gets caught himself. Finlay is the last one in. He jumps Henry with a DDT and gets two. Another one gets two more. Hornswoggle distracts Henry long enough for Finlay to knock him silly with the shillelagh. Matt helps out, and they dump Henry over the top. That sets up the Schwein on Matt Hardy at 16:16. Miz comes in with a missile dropkick and picks up Matt, but Matt hits the Twist of Fate out of nowhere at 16:46. Matt and Mark Henry come face to face, but Chavo sneaks in with a frogsplash. Matt has to make the save. Mark Henry starts hitting slams, but Matt keeps making the save. Finlay catches Matt with the Schwein but gets booted by Henry. Everyone gets desperate, and the whole thing turns into a big scrum. No one can get a pin, though, and time runs out with Matt Hardy still the ECW Champion at 20:00. I’m glad they didn’t do the clichéd “champion gets the title back at the very last second” spot to render the whole thing meaningless. Like an Iron Man match, this gets infinitely more interesting at the end than at the beginning because you know the match can’t end early. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it’s a detriment. *** Cryme Tyme starts out hot, clearing Rhodes and Dibiase out of the ring. Shad overpowers Dibiase as Lawler and Cole discuss the meaning of “Dime Piece.” Cody blindsides JTG on the outside. SP zeroes in on JTG’s arm. They look really crisp – you know, like a real, honest-to-God tag team. Cody cuts off a tag and tries a moonsault. Bet he didn’t learn that one from his dad. It misses. Shad gets the hot tag. It’s breakin’ loose! Cody hits a DDT behind the ref’s back, but JTG gets his foot on the ropes. JTG small packages Cody, but Ted flips them over, and the champs get the win at 11:35. A good formula match is only as good as the heel offense, and Cody and Ted are starting to work like a well-oiled machine. **1/4 Shawn comes dressed in street clothes, Jericho in his skivvies. That tells me that maybe Chris Jericho wasn’t really prepared for this brawl. Indeed, Shawn takes off his boot and smashes Jericho right in the face with it. He catapults Jericho into the post but misses a chairshot and hurts his own arm again. That gives Jericho the opening to attack and slam Shawn into the announce table. Jericho tries a powerbomb through a table, but Shawn fights out of it. Back inside, Jericho wedges a chair in the ropes, but Shawn posts him on the opposite side. They tease Jericho suplexing Shawn through the table, but Shawn slips out and tosses Jericho back in. Shawn comes back with the flying forearm and Picture-Perfect Elbow. He tunes up the band but decides to pummel Jericho some more and put him in the Crippler Crossface. Jericho, no stranger to that move, powers Shawn’s face right into the wedged chair. Awesome! Shawn fights back but gets caught in the Walls of Jericho. Shawn makes the ropes, but it doesn’t matter because this is non-sanctioned. Jericho yanks Shawn back, but Shawn manages to grab a fire extinguisher on the way in. SHHHHHHHHH! Shawn sprays Jericho in the face to get out of the predicament. To the floor, Shawn suplexes Jericho on the floor, hurting both guys. Shawn recovers first and fights off Lance Cade. Cade goes after Shawn’s arm, though, and he and Jericho smash it against the ringpost. To the ring, Cade holds Shawn down while Jericho smashes a chair into his arm. Jericho goes up to Pillmanize Shawn’s arm, but Shawn shoves Cade into the ropes, crotching Jericho. SWEET CHIN MUSIC TO CADE! Shawn picks up the chair and NAILS Jericho, knocking him off the top and through the table. Shawn pummels Jericho on the outside and screams that Jericho did this to him. Shawn tosses Jericho onto the announce table and puts him through it with the elbow. Back in, Shawn takes his belt off and whips Jericho with it. Great spot as he turns Jericho over, ties up his hands, and starts battering him right in the eye. The ref pulls Shawn off, but Shawn goes right back to it. Jericho is unconscious at this point, so the ref stops the match and awards it to Shawn at 26:49. Oh, but Shawn wants revenge, so he jumps Jericho again. This time when the ref pulls him off, Shawn snaps and superkicks him. Then, in a great moment that hopefully spins this all in a new direction, Shawn starts quivering and crying in the ring as if he’s snapped and doesn’t like the person he’s become. That’s some great storytelling right there because you can either turn Shawn into a loose cannon and involve someone else in the feud the way they did with Batista earlier this year, or they can play it as Shawn being retired now that he has revenge but Jericho keeps demanding he come back and face him one last time in retribution for this beating. Just great stuff all around. ****1/4 Jeff and Shelton start. This should be good. I expected Jeff to start out hot and get the crowd back into it, but Shelton stays on top for most of the first section. Brian Kendrick comes in and picks his spot, knocking Shelton off the apron as Shelton is teasing the German Suplex to the announce table. You know, eventually someone has to hit that spot just to keep it interesting. Kendrick misses a corner charge, though, and Jeff Alley Oops him for the first pin at 7:17. Shelton jumps Jeff but misses the Stinger Splash. Jeff rolls him up for two but eats Pay Dirt. Kendrick saves, though, tosses Shelton and hits Jeff with Sliced Bread #2 (no, I’m not calling it “The Kendrick.” That’s stupid.) Kendrick gets the pin at 9:31. MVP is out next, and he cleans house. Kendrick cuts him off with a flying kick, though. Triple H comes out last and Pedigrees his way back to the title at 15:58. MVP jumps HHH from behind, but Jeff picks his spot and hits the Twist of Fate on him to take the title back at 17:11. Kendrick misses Sliced Bread #2, and Jeff goes up. HHH crotches him and Pedigrees Kendrick. Man, Brian is his bitch tonight. That sends the title back to Triple H at 18:00. Oh, but he stops to rest, so Jeff recovers and Swantons Kendrick at 18:15. HHH and Jeff get in each others faces, but the other guys knock them to the floor. MVP sets Kendrick on top, but Shelton bounds up, and they do the Tower of Doom spot. Jeff Swantons Shelton, but everyone is out of it. HHH sneaks in and Pedigrees MVP. Jeff and HHH both cover different guys, but the ref only counts HHH’s pin (tie goes to the runner, after all). HHH regains the title at 19:59. Ah, there’s the clichéd finish I was thinking of. Ross says that Triple H is now officially a 13-time champion. Zuh? Does that mean Kendrick and Hardy are now former champs? A quick trip to WWE.com shows that Ross was wrong. It’s just a continuation of his previous reign. Kind of slow early, but it picked up when Kendrick got there. Things picked up considerably after that. The inevitability of Hunter’s win dragged things down a bit, though. ***1/4 They actually try to wrestle, which means this will probably die a slow, heatless death. Michelle shows some great athleticism, but the fans aren’t into it until Maryse takes it to the floor. Back in, Maryse clips Michelle’s knee, but Michelle escapes her hold and reverses to her own heel hook. Maryse escapes and chokes Michelle against the ropes. The crowd starts to get impatient, so Michelle quickly finishes with the sit-out gourdbuster at 5:43. Meh. Lots of meaningless knee work. That’s the difference between psychology and filler. This was five minutes of filler. 3/4* Batista and JBL are the first two participants. Batista clips his leg early and locks in the figure-four. Now here’s an interesting quandary – why not just give up? You’re losing the title on behalf of someone else, so what do you care? JBL makes the ropes and tosses Batista into the post. Batista reverses a whip and sends JBL into the steps, though. The “conflicted” Kane comes in at the five-minute mark, which, by my watch, is more like four minutes. Kane takes out his aggressions on Batista, including his low dropkick. JBL tries to sneak attack Kane, but he gets caught and chokeslammed at 7:21. Kane becomes the new champ. Rey Mysterio is next in. Apparently, Kane’s attack left him with a goofy Mohawk. Rey sends Kane out with a springboard dropkick, but the 619 misses. Kane knocks him for a loop. Batista jumps Kane, and Mysterio comes off Batista’s shoulders with a splash. Batista goes for the cover, but it only gets two. Rey and Batista team up again, but Rey double-crosses him with a sunset flip for two. That distraction allows JBL to jump them both. He can’t get a pin, though, and the crippled remains of Chris Jericho come out as the last participant. Rey goes for the 619 on JBL, but Batista pays him back with spear. There’s another for Jericho. Kane starts to dominate and hits the flying clothesline on Batista. He covers for two, but that’s meaningless anyway. Kane goes for the chokeslam but wanders around into spinebuster. Batista wins the title at 19:30. There’s no one around, so Big Dave stands around waiting for time to run out. Rey Mysterio tries a springboard rana, but Batista catches him. Oh, but while he’s powerbombing Rey, Jericho sneaks in and pins Kane at 19:53. Time runs out as Batista looks on in shock. Jericho finishes the match as champion in an unlikely result. I know a lot of people are complaining about Punk losing the title like this, but if you think about it, it’s totally appropriate because Edge screwed Cena out of the title, Punk screwed Edge out of the title, and now Punk’s been screwed in a similar fashion. This one was weaker than the others, mainly because Kane and especially JBL just looked like warm bodies thrown in there with no real plan. I’m wondering if they didn’t lose faith in Punk due to low ticket sales, but it would be shame if he alone took the brunt of that, especially considering Cleveland’s economic woes. **3/4 |
| The 411: Solid show that started out well and then went downhill with a bad Divas match, a long beatdown, and a disappointing main event. The scramble match is an okay concept (like the Iron Man match), but three of them on the same card is a bit of overkill. Still, with a great match on the card and a number of developments, this one never stayed boring, and we got two new champions. That’s enough for a recommendation from me. |
