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Wrestling’s 4R’s Tuesday Edition 09.15.09: WWE Breaking Point
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In HD where available…
WWE BREAKING POINT
By: LARRY CSONKA
QUICK RESULTS
– UNIFIED TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Big Show and Chris Jericho retained against MVP and Mark Henry @ 12:10 via pin [**]
– US TITLE MATCH: Kofi Kingston retained against the Miz @ 12:00 via pin [***]
– SUBMISSIONS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH: Legacy defeated DX via submission @ 21:40 [***½]
– SINGAPORE CANE MATCH: Kane defeated The Great Khali @ 6:00 via pin [ASS]
– ECW TITLE MATCH: Christian retained against William Regal @ 10:30 via pin [***¾]
– WWE TITLE I QUIT MATCH: John Cena defeated Randy Orton to win the WWE Title @ 19:45 via I QUIT [****]
– WORLD TITLE SUBMISSION MATCH: CM Punk retained against The Undertaker via Montreal Screw Job Version 1000 @ 9:00 [*]
US TITLE MATCH: The second match of the evening was Kofi Kingston defending the US Title against the Miz. While I was disappointed that Morrison and Ziggler got bumped from PPV, I was happy to see the US Title get some PPV time, especially since it is a match between younger guys on the roster. I will say that the live crowd seemed almost surprised that the match was on the show, and with a slow start, as far as crowd reaction goes, both guys had an uphill battle. I did like the Miz busting out some French to deliver the “I’m the Miz and I’m awesome” line to draw some heat. In the end I consider this a win, as they worked hard and were able to draw the crowd into the match very well. They had a fun and spirited match, one the crowd responded well too, and I felt even in the loss that Miz looked good. He scored numerous near falls, believable ones, and they got the good reaction for that. Kofi comes away with another hard fought victory, which is good because that’s all he has since he hasn’t had a real feud. Maybe the Miz will be that feud, he can carry it on the mic and the match here was fun. They likely could do better once they get to work more, and I have no problem with that.
SUBMISSIONS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH: The third match of the night was the Submissions Count Anywhere match between Legacy and DX. First of all the wild brawl aspect did work well here, because WWE doesn’t do it on every PPV, and in terms of WWE, it feels fresh. Legacy took their punishment early, ala the Summerslam bout, but then made a good comeback and got back on the level field with DX and then took control. They did the big “KO SPOT” with HHH in the back, which let Legacy take Shawn to the ring, and have the 2 on 1 advantage. Shawn got his typical comeback spots, until Cody took control and was able to wrap the RING POST FIGURE FOUR on HBK. I love that move. DiBiase would then apply the Million Dollar Dream, and the dual submission scored the victory. Another good match from the teams I would say, and that’s a good thing. A few problems of note. The submission stipulation hurt the match at times, because they did no work to get submissions over going into the show, and they were throwing out random submissions, like the guillotine and ankle lock. The crowd didn’t seem to buy them all that much, which is your problem. The match also drug a bit for me, and I think they could have shaved a few minutes off. Finally, the finish took too long. While it was clean (2 on 1, but clean) Shawn looked way too Superman-Like here. Once the Million Dollar Dream was applied, he should have tapped. I can buy Superman with one submission, we see it all the time, but the second should have been an instant finish. I don’t want it to sound like I am shitting on the match, but these are things to note. The good news is that it was a fun brawl, Legacy wins clean and looks good doing so. Also, while they joked about it, we didn’t get the Montreal finish that some expected here, which I am thankful for.
ECW TITLE MATCH: Last month I was VERY upset that the ECW Title match got the shaft. I felt that it was complete bullshit, and not only that, I was upset because I KNEW that Regal and Christian could have a damn good PPV match, of they were allowed. Well, they got their PPV match, and they got a bit over 10-minutes, but they delivered big time. This was just a well paced, and smartly worked wrestling match with two very good wrestlers. I enjoyed the hell out of this, but then again, I enjoy good pro wrestling. These guys click well together, they had an excellent match without bullshit, partly due to Zeke and Kozlov being booted before the match started. It will be a bit difficult to go forward from here, as Christian beat him in 8-seconds and now beat him clean here, but they could make it work. I am interested to see how they go forward. Also, REGAL PLEX~! Mark the FUCK out!
WWE TITLE I QUIT MATCH: I will fully admit to not being the biggest fan of the Cena vs. Orton feud. It seems so repetitive, and the matches can be hit and miss. I don’t hate it, and I am not going to bitch all day about it, but I am not a huge fan of the feud. But I am willing to give any PPV match a chance, and when all was said and done here, I really, really liked this match. I quit matches can be hard to rate, because you are at a disadvantage because you cannot replay on near falls. To make these matches work, you need good storytelling, that’s the only way that these things work. Well, in my opinion, they succeeded there and big time. I was worried that they were going the Foley vs. Rock route, but thankfully they didn’t. The story of the bout was the use of the handcuffs by Orton, which was done well. Orton handcuffed Cena to the rope, beat on him, and when he wouldn’t quit, un-cuffed him and hung him from the post handcuffed. Orton then unleashed some vicious cane shots, welting up Cena, but he wouldn’t quit. Cena was eventually able to escape, and then cuffed himself to Oton, which Orton sold excellently. Cena eventually got the STF with the handcuffs, making Orton say I QUIT, and giving Cena the title. I will agree to some extent that this is more of the Cena Superman stuff, but overall the story was so good that it didn’t bother me in this instance. Cena struggles and keeps going to fulfill his promise not to quit, yet Orton taps right away because he is a pussy villain and not willing to go through what “the hero” went through.
UNIFIED TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The opening match of the night was for the Unified Tag Team Titles, featuring The Big Show and Chris Jericho defending against MVP and Mark Henry. The pairing of MVP and Henry was fine, as it gives them something to do, and on paper, is am even battle with the quick guy and the power guy teaming. It wasn’t a bad match, but it also wasn’t what I would call good. It was an ok for PPV match, actually more fitting for a TV match. There were some fun spots, and the finish is repetitive, but works because I figure that when they split, Show will claim they only kept the titles because of the power of the punch. Overall it was ok, but too slow at times, and I won’t remember it the next day.
NONE
SINGAPORE CANE MATCH: Another month, another shitty Kane vs. Khali match. Like I said after Summerslam, Kane vs. Khali was a feud that no one cares about. It is the one dark cloud on Smackdown recently, which has been an excellent show. They seem to be making Kane a monster again and positioning his strongly for his annual push for the title loss. The match was slow, the gimmick didn’t help, no one cares about Khali’s little brother and the crowd took a big shit on this match. To think, it was more important to give these guys 6-minutes than to find a way to get Morrison vs. Ziggler on the card and find a finish to work for them. Bullshit!
“Hi, I’m…SHUT THE FUCK UP!”: So we have this great ECW Title match, and then, we go to a random segment with Pat Patterson. I get what they wanted to do with this. Patterson is from Montreal, he is the first IC Champion and they wanted to get some heat onto the Ziggler vs. Morrison feud. I get that, but this was a double order of chili cheese fail fries with a side of suck sauce. Patterson got a polite ovation, but not a great one. They were kind to him overall, and when Ziggler came out, they didn’t care. Not caring turned to the fans hating the segment as they did the “WHAT” shit as well as a “SHUT THE FUCK UP” chant. The segment went too long with Ziggler doing bad old age jokes, and then kicking Patterson. Morrison made the save, but no one really cared about this. Well, they did care, because they hated it. They can give Kane and Khali 6-minutes and this stuff like 6-minutes, plus entrances, but they couldn’t find a finish good enough to get these guys on the PPV in an IC Title match? Seriously? BULLSHIT! I sure the hell hope that this was not Teddy Long’s surprise he promised on Smackdown.
Oh WWE, you just couldn’t resist, could you?: I guess that THIS was his surprise. While there were two above instances of bad, the show as a whole was still holding up pretty well with some good matches and performances. Taker vs. Punk was something I was looking forward too, but also afraid of. The company allowed themselves to be booked into a corner. Punk losing so soon is bad for his perception as a main eventer, but Taker losing his first match back also isn’t that great either. Plus, there was a lot of talk that Taker is still hurting from surgery and wasn’t quite 100%. So with them being in that situation, what did they decide too do? “Well Vince, I got this idea…see, we’re in Montreal…” They ran one of those 8-minute bullshit “kinda” matches that they would have on TV and then lead to a DQ, but then Punk taps like a bitch. Teddy comes out and says that Vicky had banned the GOGOPLATA, and that it still stands even thought Taker used it since then, and orders the match to restart. Punk then gets the Vise, the ref rings the bell, Shawn runs away and Bret’s wife then yelled at Shawn and HHH backstage for betraying them. Oh wait… Sure they may be going somewhere with it, the whole Teddy Long deal, but after praising them for not going back to old finishes, they just couldn’t resist themselves. If I wanted to watch Survivor Series 1997 again, I’ll pop in my DVD. It just didn’t sit well with me, and combined with the other stuff that was BAD on the show, really pulled down the overall quality. But that’s just one man’s opinion, I know some loved this and thought it added to the show.
| The 411
Well, I know I may sound like a broken record when it comes to WWE PPV’s, but this was another example of a PPV that had the makings of a GREAT show, but was brought down by stupidity, and bad booking. We had three great matches, a solid opener and a very strong US Title match. But the horrible Kane vs. Khali match, the horrible skit with Ziggler, Patterson and Morrison and the Montreal Screw Job version 1000 really took away from the show in my opinion. Again, it is so frustrating, because WWE builds some parts of the show SO WELL, and they look to be having a GREAT event, but then it goes off the cliff. Some good matches and performances, but man, the stupid, it hurts. SHOW RATING: 6.25 |
–ENTER THE DRAGON {9.9}
–ROH RISING ABOVE {8.0}
–WWE NO WAY OUT {8.0}
–TNA SLAMMIVERSARY {8.0}
–TNA SACRIFICE {7.5}
–WWE BACKLASH {7.5}
–TAKE NO PRISONERS {7.4}
–WWE ROYAL RUMBLE {7.3}
–TNA GENESIS {7.2}
–TNA LOCKDOWN {7.2}
–ROH CAGED COLLISION {7.1}
–WWE WRESTLEMANIA {7.0}
–WWE SUMMERSLAM {7.0}
–WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS {6.9}
–WWE THE BASH {6.9}
–WWE EXTREME RULES {6.8}
–WWE JUDGMENT DAY {6.5}
–WWE BREAKING POINT {6.25}
–TNA HARD JUSTICE {5.9}
–TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS {5.5}
–TNA DESTINATION X {3.5}
–TNA VICTORY ROAD {2.0}
–[WWE WRESTLEMANIA] – HBK vs. The Undertaker (*****)
–[ENTER THE DRAGON] – The Young Bucks vs. Susumu Yokosuka & Cima (****½)
–[ROH RISING ABOVE] – ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Nigel McGuinness © vs. Bryan Danielson (****½)
–[WWE NO WAY OUT] – THE SMACKDOWN ELIMINATION CHAMBER (****½)
–[WWE BACKLASH] – LAST MAN STANDING: Edge vs. John Cena (****½)
–[WWE THE BASH] – MASK vs. TITLE: Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho (****½)
–[WWE SUMMERSLAM] – TLC WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk (****½)
–[ENTER THE DRAGON] – Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw, Fire Ant and Soldier Ant vs. Amasis, Icarus, Hallowicked and Gran Akuma (****¼)
–[ENTER THE DRAGON] – Yamato vs. BxB Hulk (****¼)
–[TAKE NO PRISONERS] – Tyler Black & KENTA vs. Austin Aries & Katsuhiko Nakajima (****¼)
–[ROH RISING ABOVE] – I QUIT MATCH: Jimmy Jacobs vs. Austin Aries (****¼)
–[TNA GENESIS] – Kurt Angle defeated Jeff Jarrett (****¼)
–[TNA GENESIS] – X-Division Title Match: Alex Shelley defeated Chris Sabin (****¼)
–[TNA SLAMMIVERSARY] – X-Division King of the Mountain Match: Suicide vs. Lethal vs. Creed vs. Sabin vs. Shelley (****¼)
–[WWE NO WAY OUT] – THE RAW ELIMINATION CHAMBER (****¼)
–[ENTER THE DRAGON] – Naruki Doi vs. Shingo Takagi (****)
–[WWE BREAKING POINT] – WWE TITLE I QUI T MATCH: Randy Orton vs. John Cena (****)
–[WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS] – WORLD TITLE MATCH: CM Punk © vs. Jeff Hardy (****)
–[WWE EXTREME RULES] – IC TITLE MATCH: Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho (****)
–[WWE EXTREME RULES] – WORLD TITLE LADDER MATCH: Edge vs. Jeff Hardy (****)
–[TNA SLAMMIVERSARY] – TNA World Title King of the Mountain Match: Foley vs. Angle vs. AJ vs. Joe vs. Jarrett (****)
[ENTER THE DRAGON] Dragon Kid vs. Masato Yoshino (***¾)
–[ROH CAGED COLLISION] #1 CONTENDERS MATCH – Tyler Black vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries (***¾)
–[ROH CAGED COLLISION] ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH – Nigel McGuinness vs. El Generico (***¾)
–[TNA SACRIFICE] – I QUIT LEGENDS TITLE MATCH – Booker T vs. AJ Styles © (***¾)
–[TNA SACRIFICE] – Eric Young and Lethal Consequences vs. The Machineguns and Sheik Abdul Bashir (***¾)
–[TNA LOCKDOWN] – PHILLY STREET FIGHT: IWGP vs. TNA TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH – Team 3D vs. Beer Money (***¾)
–[TNA DESTINATION X] – X-Division Title Ultimate X Match: Suicide defeated Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Consequences Creed and Jay Lethal (***¾)
–[TNA HARD JUSTICE] – X-Division Title #1 Contender’s TERROR DOME Match: Christopher Daniels defeated Suicide, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Consequences Creed, Amazing Red, D’Angelo Dinero and Jay Lethal (***¾)
–[WWE ROYAL RUMBLE] – THE ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH (***¾)
–[WWE ROYAL RUMBLE] – WWE TITLE MATCH: Edge defeated Jeff Hardy (***¾)
–[WWE WRESTLEMANIA] – MONEY IN THE BANK (***¾)
–[WWE JUDGMENT DAY] – Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho (***¾)
–[WWE SUMMERSLAM] – DX vs. Legacy (***¾)
–[WWE BREAKING POINT] – ECW TITLE MATCH: Christian vs. William Regal (***¾)
Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.
–[TNA GENESIS] Sabin, Shelley, Angle and Jarrett – Rocking The House
–[ROH RISING ABOVE] – Danielson and McGuinness – Defining the ROH World Title
–[WWE ROYAL RUMBLE] – RVD – The Joke Pays Off
–[WWE NO WAY OUT] – EDGE – The Ultimate Opportunist
–[WWE WRESTLEMANIA] – HBK and The Undertaker – Stealing the Show
–[ROH CAGED COLLISION] – Nigel McGuinness – Better Than You Sugar Nuts
–[TNA LOCKDOWN] – Christopher Daniels – Pulling Double Duty
–[WWE BACKLASH] – Edge and John Cena – Stealing the Show
–[TNA SACRIFICE] – The TNA Roster – Making the Best Out of Shitty Booking
–[WWE EXTREME RULES] – Rey, Jericho, Edge and Hardy – They Are Awesome
–[TAKE NO PRISONERS] – Tyler Black, KENTA, Austin Aries and Katsuhiko Nakajima – Main Event Excellence
–[TNA SLAMMIVERSARY] – Daffney and Taylor Wilde – Two Hardcore Bitches
–[WWE THE BASH] – Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho – Making the Show Worth It
–[WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS] – CM Punk – Solidifying His Spot
–[TNA HARD JUSTICE] – The Terror Dome Guys – Continuing to deliver despite the booking of the division
–[WWE SUMMERSLAM] – CM Punk and Jeff Hardy – THIS IS AWESOME!
–[ENTER THE DRAGON] – The Entire PPV Roster – Redefining PPV
–[WWE BREAKING POINT] – Randy Orton vs. John Cena – I QUIT!
I will update as often as needed.
–Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black – (ROH on HDNet: 07.25.09) {****½ }
–John Morrison vs. Rey Mysterio – (Smackdown: 09.04.09) {****¼}
–Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio – (Smackdown: 07.10.09) {****¼}
–ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Jerry Lynn vs. Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black vs. Bryan Danielson – (ROH on HDNet: 06.06.09) {****¼}
–TABLES ARE LEGAL TAG TITLE MATCH: Kevin Steen and El Generico © vs. The American Wolves – (ROH on HDNet: 05.30.09) {****¼}
–STEEL CAGEMATCH: Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk – (Smackdown: 08.28.09) {****}
–Jeff Hardy vs. John Morrison – (Smackdown: 07.31.09) {****}
–Edge vs. Rey Mysterio – (Smackdown: 06.05.09) {****}
–Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black – (ROH on HDNet: 04.25.09) {****}
–Evan Bourne vs. John Morrison – (ECW: 04.14.09) {****}
–Christian vs. Jack Swagger – (ECW: 02.24.09) {****}
–Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena – (Raw: 01.12.09) {****}
–Jerry Lynn vs. Tyler Black – (ROH on HDNet: 09.07.09) {***¾}
–Christian vs. Zack Ryder – (ECW: 07.28.09) {***¾}
– Jeff Hardy vs. Chris Jericho – (Smackdown: 07.24.09) {***¾}
–Edge vs. John Morrison – (Smackdown: 06.12.09) {***¾}
–Edge vs. Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk – (Raw: 06.08.09) {***¾}
–Edge vs. Jeff Hardy – (Smackdown: 06.12.09) {***¾}
–CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho – (Superstars: 05.21.09) {***¾}
–Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black – (ROH on HDNet: 05.09.09) {***¾}
–Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries – (ROH on HDNet: 04.04.09) {***¾}
–Beer Money vs. Team Canada – (Impact: 02.19.09) {***¾}
–Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles – (Impact: 01.22.09) {***¾}
And I’m out of here!
~398~
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