WRestling’s 3R’s PPV Edition 2.20.07: WWE No Way Out 2007

Introduction!

Welcome back to another PPV edition of WRestling’s 3R’s! It is time once again to break down the PPV of the past weekend in the 3R’s style. We’re back to the WWE and the No Way Out PPV. This was an odd one kids, matches announced, cancelled, no Benoit advertised and then added with guys pulled from the show that weren’t going to tag anymore. But with all of that, there was some possible goodness, and with HBK in the main event, well, he isn’t the “Show Stoppa” for nothing. How did the show do? Was it the greatness of the Rumble? Was it in the middle of the pack with the other shows or did it create a new low for PPV this year? Did any matches crack the top five of the year for PPV? Let’s explain the R’s and get to work!

How the 3R’s of wRestling Work!

Here is a quick explanation of the 3 R’s. I will take the 4 main shows (5 if I go RetRo) of the week: TNA Impact, WWE Raw, ECW on Sci-Fi and WWE Smackdown. If we have a PPV, that show will get a special PPV edition of the R’s all to its own. I then 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, I cannot speak for Geoff, but my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. There are also occasions where I will bring out a 4th, 5th or even a 6th R to the column, so beware of those~! I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether very positive or negative.

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WWE No Way Out 2007~!:size=36>

The Matches:

Benoit and The Hardy’s defeated MNM and MVP @ 14:25 via pin **½

Cruiserweight Open: Chavo Guerrero defeated Jimmy Yang and became the NEW Cruiserweight Champion @ 15:56 via pin **

Finlay and Little Bastard defeated Boogey Man and Boogey Man Cito @ 6:54 via pin (ASS) Trash of the Night!

Kane defeated King Booker @ 12:41 via pin *½

WWE Tag Team Title Match: London and Kendrick defeated Deuce and Domino @ 8:20 via pin *½

ECW Title Match: Ken Kennedy defeated Lashley @ 16:29 via DQ **

HBK and Cena defeated Batista and The Undertaker @ 22:08 via pin ***½ Match of the Night!

The Right:

JBL – I would really like to start off by giving JBL some credit here. No, this is not the “OMG JBL IS SO AWESOME” stuff you see, this is very serious praise here. During the No Way Out PPV Michael Cole lost his voice. At the beginning of the show you could hear that he had a scratchy voice, and it got worse and eventually was gone late in the show. JBL was his normal self, which was great as he was entertaining all evening long. He has that great ability to get the guys, matches and titles over. This was crucial this evening with such a lackluster show. But as I said, and pointed out all through the recap, Cole was losing his voice and noticeably struggling, as anyone would, with the voice issue. He was obviously ill, but tried hard. We got to the main event and he was in rough shape. Early on in the main event he kept dropping out and then, was gone from commentary. JBL commentated by himself for most of the main event and did a damn fine job of it, the man was never rattled out there, and he just did his job and did it very well. It is one thing to call matches on regular TV by yourself, but this was a rather large main event and JBL did a really good job here, he needs to get some recognition for that here. The one thing I question is why they let Cole out there. As much as I have an issue with Cole at times, he and JBL generally work great together and are a good team. But it isn’t like he got sick 5-minutes before the show. They were in California for the PPV, Raw is there the next night, JR and Lawler at the very least were probably in town. I mean, they had to know he was having issues early in the day and I am just really surprised that they didn’t try and replace him due to illness. Just an observation by me, it would have been fine since this was in essence an inter-brand PPV. In the end, JBL did a DAMN fine job and his stock continues to rise as a commentator. Good work here by the big Texan, who really saved a situation that could have resulted in a big mess.

WrestleMania Main Events Collide! – So here we were, the main event of the show; WrestleMania main event vs. WrestleMania main event. Up to this point this was a show in big trouble and really needed a big time main event to save the show. They also needed to have a decently long match so that the show would not end really short, and they did that as well going 22-minutes. Now while it didn’t “save the show” it was a damn good match, let’s talk about it. The match did have that big time feel to it. Everyone got big reactions, some negative in the case of Cena as the “boo-birds” came back out, but it had the feel that they wanted for the match, so it started off well. The short of the long of it is that every thing worked. Every one jelled together, Batista; who was the weak link did well, Taker and HBK were just on another level than everyone tonight and the crowd was into everything that they did. Everyone got their trademark spots, they all got chances for heat and for comebacks. It all clicked. Cena and HBK were running wild, and it looked as if they had the match at this time. And then it happened. The tide turned and Taker and Batista were in control. Taker hit a chokeslam on Cena, Batista a spinebuster on HBK and they looked to have the match won. Taker did the cut throat, and then BIG DAVE ANGRY! BIG DAVE SMASH TAKER WITH SPINEBUSTER! He hit it and then looked down on Taker and said, “Payback is a bitch!” in regards to the chokeslam Taker laid on him on Raw. Batista then hit the floor and watched as Taker ate a Superkick and FU, and then was pinned. Batista and Taker stared down to end the show. I really liked this ending, and I feel that it needed to happen. As things stood, both main events were face vs. face. Now the fans are going to cheer who they want, and probably would have heeled Big Dave anyway, but with him getting payback and seemingly pulling the heel turn here, now we have that clear cut line and can really amp up the angle from here. Not only did Batista “get his payback” but he also made taker lose, and that will not sit well with the biggest dog in the yard. In the end we had a good PPV main event and a very good angle to get that Road to WrestleMania into full swing.

Purgatory:

The Cruiserweight Open – To start off this was a decent match. It was nice to see the title defended on PPV and to see these guys get on PPV for a payday. They worked really hard, despite the booking, and this was fine for what it was. I can’t totally punish the guys as they did work hard under the limitations they had. But there are problems. They have spent no time actually building the division. Sure Helms was champion for 5-years or however the hell long it was. But he also jobbed to Batista and lost to Matt Hardy like 23-times, but those were non-title matches. He also recently lost to Daivari. He has no juice as champion, no matter how much JBL tried to get it over, and the long run was ended anticlimactically in the middle of the match. That was good in a way that we knew we would get the new champion, but as I said, anticlimactic. The early eliminations were jokes and really could have been done better in my opinion. I mean, the win by Daivari meant nothing because he lost to Scotty in 2-minutes. And now we have the divisional restart with Chavo, yet again. Treadmill. We have been here before and it will end up the same as it was the last times they tried this. The crowd also didn’t but into this as they were bored the whole time. It wasn’t a bad match, it really wasn’t but if the people don’t care you are doing something wrong. In the end we’ve been here and done this, and I won’t believe that they are serious about the division and the title until they actually book something for it. And don’t get me started on the brand extension, we’ll discuss that later.

Benoit and the Hardy’s vs. MNM and MVP – This was a fine way to open the show. The Hardy’s always seem to get that superstar reaction, which sets the scene well. A fine opener here, nothing wrong with it. Benoit seemed a bit off of his game, and there were a few communication issues, but overall a good way to kick off the show. But I have to mention how ridiculous this match is in the first place. First of all, while MNM and The Hardy’s have issues, Benoit and MVP don’t. There was no angle to lead to this, it was just an added match to get people on the card. Also, MNM and The Hardy’s were PULLED from this PPV because it was decided that they would #1 use continuity and have the team that beat the champs challenge for the titles and #2 MNM and The Hardy’s wouldn’t tag any longer. Apparently things are changing daily at Titan Towers. And don’t get me started on the brand extension, we’ll discuss that later.

The wRong:

London and Kendrick vs. Deuce and Domino – Let me begin by saying that this match could have been much worse. London and Kendrick did a hell of a job when they were selling. When that was happening the match was fine. They stiffed each other a bit, Domino got a busted mouth, but all in all it seemed ok. Not up to the normal standard London and Kendrick have been working at but not bad. And then Kendrick got the hot tag and we found the BIG weakness of Deuce and Domino. These guys cannot sell for shit. And I don’t mean it was off, it was horrible and the “hot tag” ended up being Luke warm because Kendrick ended up looking un-effective in his offense, no fault of his own. They pulled the ladder match for a good continuity reason and because they scrapped MNM and The Hardy’s, but ended up with them on the card anyway. It amazes me that the company that booked the main event angle so well can book other angles like this. Anyway, not a good match and That 50’s Team needs to go back to OVW stat for some re-seasoning. The good news is that London and Kendrick are still champions and hopefully they can move onto something that can result in better matches. This was the worst of the three matches I have seen with them, that doesn’t bode well. Also, Cherry has large cans; had to be said.

Kane vs. King Booker – This did not end up well. King Booker worked really hard and was doing his best to get a good match to happen, unfortunately Kane went to the Ashley Masaro school of under water wrestling as he was as slow as I have ever seen him, which makes me wonder if he is injured or unmotivated. They started this at the Rumble with the beat down by King Booker, and from there Kane had the advantage. I expected King Booker to get a nefarious win, leading to another bout at WrestleMania. But in the end Kane won clean, so I have no cue where this goes from here. Not a good match, odd booking, this goes in the wrong.

Kennedy vs. Lashley – Part of me wasn’t really looking forward to this match. But then I thought about Lashley having a good match with Holly and Kennedy having a good match with Batista and thought, hell, maybe it won’t be so bad after all. While not overly exciting, Kennedy worked a very good game plan ala the Batista PPV match and was dissecting the leg well. I mean he worked it very well and I was starting to enjoy the match a bit. Then Lashley decides to kill the whole psychology of the match and go back to his power game, which really annoyed me. I mean it wasn’t a clinic, but the game plan laid out for Kennedy was sound and working well and then it all went to shit. And then it got ever worse as they had you invest 16+ Minutes in the match and then SCREW you with the DQ finish. I figure they did this because they didn’t want Lashley to lose, yet didn’t want Kennedy to lose either. Here’s a hint in this situation, DO NOT BOOK THE MATCH! These things happen a lot lately and this is my answer, if either man cannot afford to lose, then do not book the match. Then there is the question of who the hell thought having two green guys go almost 17-minutes on PPV? Kennedy I wasn’t so worried about, but Lashley just gets worse as matches go if there isn’t a STRONG presence in there to carry him. This annoyed me greatly as I hate DQ’s on PPV, especially in title matches. Also, it seems the formula for the ECW Title match on PPV is to have a largely uneventful match with no finish. Glorious. And don’t get me started on the brand extension, we’ll discuss that later.

The Ridiculous:

The Diva Talent Invitational – This will be short and to the point. This was a waste of the time they used on TV to build it up and a waste of PPV time. Perhaps they could have built a US Title program for the show, I mean, it’s only Chris Benoit as the champion. Or we could have maybe spent some tie on the Cruiserweight division instead of resorting to this cluster match and faux restart of the division. This didn’t need to be on the show and really took away from other programs that they could have built.

Finlay and Little Bastard vs. Boogey Man and Boogey Man Cito – There was some comedy here, the trash bin before the match, Little Bastard putting the hat on Finlay and such, the short arm scissors, sure all funny but the match sucked. Slow, no communication and apparently Finlay is a mere mortal. If it wasn’t for the laugh factor, and it was there, this would have been just as bad as Hemme vs. BFNOG. The worst part of it all is that Fit Finlay needed to use the Shackalacki to pin Boogey Man Cito. It’s a sad day indeed, trash of the night, and that’s all I have to say about that.

F*CK the Brand Extension – Yeah, seriously I am annoyed by this. This is supposed to be a Smackdown PPV. I know we are on the Road to WrestleMania, and that is the reason I can let the main event slide, but the other stuff, it pisses me off. No Way Out became another Cyber Sunday in terms of devaluing the Brand Extension and not being a good show. First of all MNM and the Hardy’s were pulled from the show for continuity reasons, which is fine and dandy, I like continuity, especially since their last match was supposed to be their last. But then they are added to the show in a match that doesn’t mean anything and has no build. Bullshit. And then there is the Cruiserweight Open. Daivari, Yang, Helms, Funaki, Chavo and Noble were all on Smackdown, fine, they could have done the match with them. But then just weeks after moving Scotty to Raw for NO reason, you bring him back, no explanation, no rhyme and no reason. And then Shannon Moore is seemingly back to Smackdown as well, no explanation, no rhyme and no reason. He and Scotty never should have left there in the first place, but then again they should have built a division. These random moves with little to no explanation hurts the appearance of the brand extension in my opinion. And then there is the ECW Title match, set up by Teddy Long inviting Lashley to Smackdown. Why is Teddy so friendly to Lashley, he screwed Smackdown and left for ECW, Teddy should hate him. But he comes, and they set up an ECW Title match with; no heat, no explanation other then Kennedy didn’t have a match and in the end it wasn’t good. Here’s something, Kennedy did Beat Benoit you know, make a US Title match! Oh wait, that would have required the booking committee to actually book him on the shows and create an angle for him to defend that title. Nope, let’s just bastardize the brand extension and throw this heatless match on the show. Good thinking. Yeah, same rant basically, it just pisses me off that they are constantly doing the wrong execution of what should be a good idea.

Closing Thoughts:
Yeah, that was a PPV. The opener was fine, but Benoit looked off and really, do I have to explain the absurdity of the match to you after what I wrote? The Cruiserweight Open was fine, but more of the same in terms of the brand extension stuff and it just seems like a rehash of been there and done that. The mixed tag had a few laugh out loud moments, but it was really bad, like Hemme vs. BFNOG bad and proved that Finlay is mortal in terms of carrying matches. Kane vs. Booker was odd, as Kane seemed slower than ever, while Booker tried really hard. The tag title match could have been worse, but at the same time it wasn’t good. I hate DQ’s on a PPV, and the ECW Title match infuriated me. The Diva segment was what it was, but I can think of better things to do than to waste all of that time to sell a tits and ass magazine that will already sell well. The main event was good, best thing on the show but not enough to make it a one match show or save it in any way. I will say that Taker and HBK continue to be rejuvenated and put on good performances, which is great to see.

Overall I will go with a 4.0 out of 10 for the show and that ends the streak of pretty solid to really good PPV’s to kick the year off. I wanted to go a bit lower, and maybe I should have, but I think the 4.0 is a fair score. The shame is that they continue to devalue the brand extension and even when they do it, like Cyber Sunday, the shows don’t deliver, which is horrible really. So much talent on the show and it end up like this, it is sad really. Trust me, I would love to write the ONE R of wrestling and praise each and every show, but unfortunately I can’t. Don’t order the replay kids, save you money for another PPV or some Indy DVD’s.

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2007 PPV Rankings:
1. WWE Royal Rumble (Combined Roster) 8.0
2. TNA Final Resolution 7.0
3. WWE New Year’s Revolution (RAW) 6.0
3. TNA Against All Odds 6.0
5. WWE No Way Out (SD) 4.0

2007 TOP 5 PPV Match Rankings:
1. (WWE Royal Rumble) Last Man Standing WWE Title MATCH: Cena vs. Umaga ****¼
2. (WWE Royal Rumble) The Royal Rumble Match ****
3. (TNA FR) 30-Minute Iron man Match: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe ***¾
4. (WWE New Year’s Revolution) Steel Cage IC Title Match: Jeff Hardy © vs. Johnny Nitro ***½
4. (WWE No Way Out) HBK and John Cena vs. The Undertaker and Batista ***½
4. (TNA Against All Odds) PRISON YARD BRAWL: Sting vs. Abyss ***½

2007 PPV MVP AWARDS:
This is a little added deal here, as I feel that there are some other things that should be mentioned from the PPV’s.
Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker: A Rumble to Remember – WWE Royal Rumble
JBL: Solo Commentating – WWE No Way Out

NO WAY OUT READER FEEDBACK:
From M. Babboon –

Well I gotta say that this show had some high points and low points as usual. Trash of the Night definitely goes to the Diva Talent(less)Contest. Match of the Night goes to either the Main event tag match or the opening six man tag…I can’t decide which cause both were really good in my opinion. Kane vs. Booker wasn’t bad either but I was hoping Sharmell would get chokeslammed. Finlay and Boogeyman was about as good as it is gonna get with them fighting each other. I loved the kick by Finlay on the boogey midget. And at least they are putting the right guy over in Finlay. The cruiserweight open reminded me a lot of the one from 2005 same result too. Only this time it is Jimmy Yang that gets beat by Chavo instead of Paul London. Speaking of Paul, I am glad that he and Kendrick retained, I like them as champs. I think if when they drop the belts it should be to a good team like Regal and Taylor not these rejects from the 50’s. On an overall scale of 1-10 I would give No way out a 7.5 and say it was above average but nothing ground breaking.

From David C. –

The easy part is the trash of the night that would be the diva contest. I don’t know why they keep wasting good pay-per-view time with this junk. My match of the night would have to be the main event. I would say the show was pretty good for no way out. Nothing great but ok thumbs in the middle. 5 out of 10. I only have one major gripe of the card. I THOUGHT VINCE DIDN’T”T WANT MNM AND THE HARDY”S TEAMING ANYMORE. What the F@@@ was that. If you were going to team them up on the card why cancel a possible 5 star match!!!!! For TNA you have Russo-riffic but this was just horrible, I don’t even know if Russo could do something that dumb. Nevermind I’ve seen the last 4 years of WCW but still.

From Michael –

I was fortunate enough to be in attendance so here are my thoughts on the show:

The Match of the Night: Main Event: I really marked out for these guys…Kinda surprising.

Trash: Lashley vs. Kennedy: OK, not only was the match boring, but it was for the ECW title and was not Extreme Rules? WTF? Shouldn’t all ECW Title matches be extreme rules by default? Whatever…

Score: 7

Overall: The Lashley/Kennedy match could have been great but IMHO Lashley looked weak since he took such a beating from Kennedy. Lashley has got much more talent and power than was displayed and he should not be held back. The crowd was tepid during this match and even garnered a few boring chants. Removing the ladder match was also a mistake but I guess they didn’t want to worry about outshining the main event? It was great to see RVD!

Random comments I heard:

– Daivari is big (muscular)
– Batista’s back is like a drive-in
– Yeah, I can really relate to an Asian cowboy… is there anything
‘gayer’?
– You can’t pin a midget!
– Kane is like 7′ 5″! Look at that torso!

From Joe G. –

Wow that blew. Worst match was the mixed tag deal, it was funny at times but that was such shit overall. Best was the main event tag, HBK and Taker just kicked ass, which is really amazing to me.

After the awesome Rumble, which I thought was an 8 or a bit above, this was a 5…maybe even a 4. It sucked. Nothing seemed good, it all seemed just there. Did they drop the brand extension? I thought that this was a Smackdown PPV? Why was there a really bad ECW Title match on the show? Damn, I was so hyped after the Rumble, but this makes me glad there is no WWE PPV in March because I will need time to recover, and hopefully they will have some good TV to wash this horrible taste out of my mouth.

And finally from Andrew K. –

Man I was hyped for this show as the programming from Raw and Smackdown has been really good as of late and the Rumble ruled all. In the end I did not like the show at all, I guess 3.5 for my score. Besides the main event nothing stuck out as good. The Divas were a waste of time, Ashley needs a sandwich and stat dude. I just couldn’t get into the show I am afraid, which is unfortunate. Hopefully they right the ship and Mania rules, as I love mania and always order. Thanks for the recap!

Thanks for joining me for this special edition of the 3R’s, and don’t forget to check out the regular edition complete with all of the other shows from the week!

For more interesting information on wrestling, check out Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly Online, Mike Campbell over at SPLASH MOUNTAIN and Dr. Keith Lipinski over at Puroresu Power!