Wrestling’s 4R’s Tuesday Edition 07.14.09: WWE Smackdown, TNA Impact, ECW on SyFy and WWE Superstars

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 07.14.2009

Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho put on another classic, Tara won gold, Ziggler stepped up, new talent shined, a huge Thursday of wrestling and more! Wrestling's 4R's breaks down all the action from Impact, ECW, Smackdown and Superstars!

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In HD where available…


By: Steve Cook

Superstars 07.09.09:

THE RIGHT:

Longer Matches: Last week in this very column I was complaining about most of the matches on Superstars only got three minutes to develop, which isn't enough time for most wrestling matches to go anywhere. Ironically enough, this week's Superstars showcased two matches that went longer than anything on last week's edition. The main event went five minutes, which was more than long enough for that to properly develop. I applaud WWE giving the younger wrestlers more match time to gain experience and learn more about how to work on this show and on ECW. Fans who only want to see the big stars and don't care about the youngsters won't appreciate it too much, but I've always enjoyed watching young wrestlers develop into the next big stars of sports entertainment. That's why I liked watching OVW until it got yanked off the air here.

Ryder vs. Reks II: Zach Ryder's theme music is somewhat catchy, I gotta admit. To the person who complained about my not knowing the legendary Dick Dale…listen, I live in Kentucky. We don't do a lot of surfing out here, so we don't listen to much surfer music. Now if you wanna talk some Bill Monroe with me, I'm game. This was the match they should have had the first time, not the two minute squash that made it hard for me to take Reks seriously. He shows a hell of a lot of intensity, has a decent look and has some solid offense. Ryder's getting over with the crowd, as the "woo woo woo" chants indicate. Matt Striker & Josh Mathews have good chemistry on commentary, but sometimes I wonder about the periods of dead air during the ECW match on this show. One has to assume that's Vince McMahon yelling at them on the headset. Ryder also had good intensity during this match and showed more potential than in any other match I've seen of his. It kind of drug at times, but you have to expect that from two kids with their level of experience, or lack thereof. Overall, it was a really good outing for both Ryder & Reks.

PURGATORY:

Cena & the Cubs: As a Cincinnati Reds fan, I'm torn by John Cena's connection with the Chicago Cubs. I guess it could be worse…he could hook up with the St. Louis Cardinals. It is a convenient way for WGN to cross-promote their Cubs broadcasts with WWE Superstars, so it makes perfect business sense. However, I refuse to put it in the "Right" column because I am not a Cubs fan. I will give them credit for having an awesome stadium and game day experience (any baseball fan owes it to themselves to visit Wrigleyville once in their life), but I can not give them my support.

THE WRONG:

R-Truth vs. Ricky Ortiz: I like the fact that Ortiz is introduced from the same hometown as "Superstar" Billy Graham. He's decent on the microphone. What he isn't decent at right now is the art of professional wrestling. Watching him wrestle for twelve minutes was a punishment that I don't know what I did to deserve. All the flippy-floppy cartwheel stuff from Truth wasn't nearly enough to save this stinker. Speaking of Truth, I'm not sure what in the blue hell is going on with his character development these days. It seemed like he was starting to get over with the "what's up" business, but now he's doing this Little Ricky stuff on Smackdown that seems like the complete opposite of what his character is. Is he doing a split-personality gimmick? I think it'd be best for him to establish one personality before trying to do multiple ones. On the bright side, I really enjoyed the commentary of Jim Ross & Todd Grisham during this match, so at least I had something to listen to while suffering through the match.

Smackdown Tomorrow Night…on Sunday?: Yeah, I caught the Sunday replay this week so I could write about the show, and seeing commercials advertising Smackdown for tomorrow night got on my nerves. Are you telling me that somebody couldn't have edited that stuff out of there for the replay? Come on.

THE RIDICULOUS:

Hornswoggle vs. Chavo: OK, let's get one thing straight before I go into why this is in the ridiculous section of the column…Chavo doing the job for Hornswoggle really isn't a big deal. Besides the fact that most WWE fans don't watch Superstars, Chavo's not really in a role where he's competing for titles these days, and I'd be pretty surprised if he was with WWE past the expiration date of his current contract. Wrestling with midgets is pretty traditional for luchadors heading towards the end of their careers…I'm surprised they didn't keep Santina around longer so Chavo could put him over too. Maybe they did, I might have missed that part of Raw one week while watching 24. All right, now that I've explained that, let's look at the definition of the word "ridiculous" according to Webster…

Main Entry: ri·dic·u·lous
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin ridiculosus (from ridiculum jest, from neuter of ridiculus) or ridiculus, literally, laughable, from ridēre to laugh
Date: 1550
: arousing or deserving ridicule : absurd, preposterous

Even if you liked this match, you have to agree that it definitely fits the definition of ridiculous. It wasn't really my cup of tea as far as humor goes…I'm more partial towards the midget and transvestite humor that AAA does, but there's no reason WWE can't throw midgets out there wrestling against people on their knees. After all, sideshow humor is what professional wrestling was built on. Quick reminder: this match being "ridiculous" is not a bad thing, so don't go all crazy in the comment section because I didn't like something you loved.

The 411

The Truth/Ortiz match brought this show off to a horrendous start. Ryder vs. Reks helped get it back on track. I was a bit peeved at first that Chavo vs. Hornswoggle was the main event, but then I figured "what the hell, it's not like it's a PPV or anything". It wasn't a terrible show, but it wasn't quite on par with last week's and you didn't really miss anything if you didn't watch it, unless you're a huge Zach Ryder fan.

SHOW RATING: 6.0

---

By: Daniel Wilcox

iMpact! 07.09.09:

THE RIGHT:

Kevin Nash and Matt Morgan vs. AJ Styles and Daniels: Daniels and AJ reunite, one of the greatest tag teams of modern times. Unfortunately I was skeptical about how good this match would be due to their opponents; these teams very much made for a Style's Clash (bad pun fully intended). However, my preconceptions were wrong and this turned out to be one hell of a match-up with all four guys working hard. Hopefully this match will have sold both pay-per-view matches to a lot of viewers. The post-match beatdown was pretty cool as well and puts some much-needed heat on the Daniels-Morgan match, the build for which has really been going under the radar I feel. But a really strong match here, I've no complaints.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle vs. Mick Foley, with Eric Young as Special Guest Referee: Well this match was just a ton of fun, and even though we've seen various combinations of these guys going at it seemingly non-stop all year, this really felt like an exciting and entertaining match-up and it was. I love that Eric Young was thrown into the mix because his heel turn was really beginning to lose steam as he was hardly being used in recent weeks. But now they have to go with Young/Jarrett at the pay-per-view and that will go a long way in sending Young up the card, whether you believe he's worthy of it or not. Back to this match then, and it was really storng, with all the various dynamics coming together nicely. The finish wasn't at all bad because no one looks bad and it adds fuel to the fire that is Victory Road. The post-match beatdown was a thing of beauty too, ironically. This whole thing was just very well done and will hopefully lead to some form of gimmick being added to the title match. I wonder if Angle is crazy enough to wrestle a Barbed-Wire Massacre?

Beer Money vs. The Motor City Machineguns: Fuck yes, the Machineguns are back! This was a pretty good match and while there's still the typical complaint that it could have done with more time, these are four guys who are probably used to that by now and as such they managed to work in a ton of action in a small amount of time. Obviously the right guys went over but the Guns had a good showing. The only other thing to add is that Booker's commentary was horrific. I'll take Steiner on the mic over Booker T any and every day of the week.

PURGATORY:

Tara vs. Velvet Sky/Tara vs. Angelina Love: I'm not too sure about this. First of all I really liked that Velvet was unhappy about getting left high and dry last week, and that that issue resulted in the championship match being signed. It's also worth pointing out that both matches were really pretty good, even if they both followed the exact same pattern in terms of how the action ebbed and flowed. The title win of course made for a nice surprise and the post-match celebration of Tara came across as very genuine and really just a very cool moment. However, the issue I have is the title change on free TV. Now I realize that titles have to change hands on TV from time to time but as someone who's knew to the promotion and who has been built up so well as a threat to the title, I just feel that the switch should have come on pay-per-view because it would be something people might pay to see, especially if they'd seen Tara get screwed in the match here. I'm unfortunately reminded of the anti-climatic way in which Kong eventually dethroned Gail Kim in January 2008. Regardless, two decent matches and a memorable moment cannot be ignored nor frowned upon, so this slots into the purgatory.

THE WRONG:

Mike Tenay Chats with Suicide: Urgh, this was just really poor. Everything about it just came off as really cliché, and typical TNA in all honesty. I've never been a huge fan of the Suicide character and I'm not sure why they're continuing with this venture but after this week's promo I've just about lost all interest in the guy.

THE RIDICULOUS:

Ladder Match for the Briefcase – Doug Williams vs. Homicide: Wow, there was just so much wrong with this I just don't know where to start. I'll guess I'll begin by pointing out how poor a rip-off TNA is doing of the Money in the Bank concept; WWE makes their MITB deal seem important pretty much all of the time, whereas I don't think anyone really gives a shit who's carrying around TNA's briefcases. And then of course we have the sheer idiocy of a 3-minute Ladder match on Free TV. Ladder matches should scarcely occur on TV because they're popular enough to sell pay-per-views, and when they do happen on TV they should be important. This was not. It was Homicide's big return but it was given three minutes. And the guy got very little reaction either. And the match ended with interference. The post-match beatdown was fine but all-in-all this whole deal was pretty horrible and dare I say it, vintage TNA.

Samoa Joe Confronts The Icon: So mid-way through the show we get Sting calling out Joe. To summarize what went down, Sting is pissed off at Joe for some reason or another, and wants to know who the secret advisor is. Unfortunately, these guys could have done the best promo work in the world and it wouldn't have made one bit of difference because the identity of the "secret" advisor is the worst-kept secret in wrestling today. No one will purchase the pay-per-view for this big reveal, because we all already know. That said, the promo work was stellar. So if this had ended here this would probably have ended up in the purgatory, but later in the night we get Sting attacking the driver of an automobile, and then the return of Joe's knife. Fuck this shit. Suspension of belief is one thing, but this is ridiculous. Again, fuck this shit.

Abyss Goes to the Doctor: There's not much to say here other than they shockingly failed to follow up on what was a pretty good segment last week, as what we got this week was overacted, non-sensical bullshit. And that doesn't surprise a single one of us. This needs to end NOW.

Jenna Morasca vs. Sharmell, Booked for Victory Road: WHY? Dear God.

The 411

I mentioned last week that TNA used FAR too many backstage segments, and they really cut down on those this week and instead gave us a better focus on the in-ring action and all-in-all, I think it really helped. While there was still a fair amount of crap on this show, the things that I will remember are Tara's big title victory and the beatdown on Foley, so all-in-all this was a pretty good showing from Impact. If only they could get over that consistency hurdle, they may could big strides in a short space of time.

SHOW RATING: 7.0

---

By: Jeremy Thomas

ECW on SyFy 07.09.09

THE RIGHT:

SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. YOSHI TATSU: Before this match, we got a recap of Shelton being a dick to Yoshi and then paying for it before giving Yoshi his entrance. The kid actually got himself a nice little pop, especially for someone who just debuted. Shelton was much more in business-mode this time around, and we didn't get any pre-bell antics which let us settling right into the match itself. Whereas their first "match" was more or less a sketch to get Yoshi a debut win, this was a real match to show us what the newcomer could do, and it was quite a match at that. Shelton got to look very strong in avenging his mistake last week and Yoshi got to have some impressive moments as well. Particularly impressive was the crowd reaction for the young guy—if he keeps it up, he's going to really go somewhere in the ‘E. Whereas last week they had a win that simply introduced him without giving us a reason to like him, this week we got a star-making performance by him in a loss. This is also a match in which Shelton deserves a lot of credit…both for putting Yoshi over so well and breaking his losing streak. This was a hot match and I really enjoyed it.

BIG ZEKE vs. JACK MERIDOL: Welcome back to WWE TV, Zeke! It was nice to see the big guy back as he more or less got the Kozlov treatment by squashing the shit out of the nobody in the ring. They gave him a little pre-taped promo that didn't mean too much of anything but at least gave the guy something to say for once. This was nice, short and sweet in order to give Ezekiel someone to dominate and look impressive against, and he certainly did that. The match was nothing to speak of in terms of workrate, but I appreciated the booking here to have the big guy look strong. They're trying to do something with him, which is good, Zeke has a hell of a presence to him and an awesome look, and he's better then a lot of guys they've tried to push as powerhouses (Ahmed Johnson is the most obvious that comes to mind). So yes, this is one of those few times where the match was nothing in the ring, yet it gets a Right because of how well it succeeded at what it was trying to do.

HURRICANE SAVES THE GIRL: They had Hurricane appear again and I'll keep this short and sweet. It works on ECW because of the nature of the show, it was quick and it's reminding fans of the character after Helm's time as himself and then his injury time off. I enjoyed it and hope to see more of it. That's about all that can be said about this little bit.

THE ABRAHAM WASHINGTON SHOW: Okay, so last week's Abraham Washington show was a disaster. That gave me pretty lowered expectations this time around. The crowd was against him from the beginning and that was in his favor. He played himself off arrogantly and then brought down the ECW Champion himself, who came down in jeans and a suit jacket, which I have to say just looks odd on Tommy. Abe started dissing Dreamer immediately by ragging on Tommy's weight and Tommy played it off with a smile and then started firing back with his own rags. This was far better than last week, although I do think Washington needs to do something to really make himself stand out. Right now he's just your generic comical guy on the mic and that will work for a while, but not forever. After Dreamer said he thought Christian was going to win tonight Kozlov came down with that disturbing little smirk he does. Abe did an introduction and put Koz over as the guy was going to win. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with this; it wasn't fabulous by any stretch but it did what it needed to do.

CHRISTIAN vs. VLADIMIR KOZLOV: Koz was already in the ring after the whole Washington show thing, and Christian came out as we came back from commercial to a big pop from the crowd. Tommy Dreamer was on commentary for this match and you know what, he did a great job on commentary for a guy who's never had much experience at the announcer's booth. I'm really enjoying Tommy's run with the ECW belt, but when the time comes for him to hang it up he's one of those guys who could probably grow into an announcer's spot. As for the two competitors, they did some pretty decent work in the ring. The Koz has never been one of my favorite guys but he came out of this match looking really good and he works well against Christian…of course, Captain Charisma can make a lot of people look good. Still, I have to give Koz a lot of credit here for looking strong and picking it up a little in the ring. Christian got the win in the end and will be getting another shot at Tommy at Night of Champions, and I'm definitely okay with that because it will be a much better match than Dreamer/Vlad would have been.

PURGATORY:

Not a thing.

THE WRONG:

NIKKI BELLA vs. KATIE LEA BURCHILL: ECW began with Josh Mathews announcing Kozlov vs. Christian for the #1 Contender's spot before the Bellas made their way down to the ring, dressed in identical gold. They got on the mic and introduced themselves and then said they were actually each other…no, they were actually the Bella Twins. Really girls, like anyone can tell the difference on WWE Programming. I'm sure that in real life there are those slight differences and eccentricities that people who know them well can notice, and they're both individuals, yadda yadda yadda. But face it girls, you're Bella #1 and Bella #2. Nikki's opponent was Katie Lea Burchill, who was sure to lose by virtue of not being a sexy twin. Sexy twin beats sexy single every day of the week in WWE booking plans. You know, this match didn't start off looking all that bad. Nikki was awkward at times, and her offense was like a normal wrestler's in slow-motion, but Katie Lea was keeping the workrate a bit above that of your average Diva's match. Then, this happened…



Ouch. Seriously, this one pretty obviously can't be blamed on Katie, who did exactly what she needed to…Nikki just couldn't hold onto the ropes. There was some obvious editing in this match as Nikki was suddenly on the apron again and took some offense before the inevitable Brie/Nikki switch, after which Katie ate the pinfall. Now if this were an isolated example of a Bella screwing up I'd let it go. That being said…I'm sorry folks, but this isn't the first time they've botched a move, just the most drastic-looking one. These girls need some more training STAT, which I'm sure is why they're on ECW and not Raw. Poor Katie. Anyway, this match…yeah, it was far from good. It would have been iffy even without the Botchamania candidate there, but with it…yeah, not good at all.

THE RIDICULOUS:

DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don't care.

THE RI-GOD-DAMN-DICULOUS:

SYFY: Don't worry folks, this has nothing to do with the overall rating of the show, it's just my opportunity to rant about this bullshit and damn it, I'm going to. Syfy? Really? That is about the stupidest title change of all time. Why, do you ask? Simple. First off, the title change was completely unnecessary. I get that Sci-Fi is trying to expand their viewership, and that's all well and good. The problem is that they're still a Sci-Fi network. They air horror, science fiction and fantasy. If they stopped, they would alienate most of their core audience, and we know they're not stupid enough to do that. So what's wrong with calling a Sci-Fi channel the Sci-Fi Network? Second, the name itself is stupid. When it comes to cable channels, you have to use your name to establish yourself as a brand and be instantly recognizable to potential viewers. That's why so many channels are "The Blah-Blah Channel." You know what you're getting when you turn on the History Channel or the Golf Channel; even for ones that don't do that like Spike or F/X are indicative of their content. If you're not associating Syfy with science fiction anymore, what are audiences supposed to think of it? And the last thing that bugs me…this hasn't changed their line-up any. They still show crappy original sci-fi movies and old cancelled horror shows, they still have the same target audience. It's just a stupid name and I haven't been able to rant about it yet, so I wanted to. Like I said it doesn't affect the show's ratings, so don't let that bug you.

The 411

The New Superstar Initiative continues this week as the established names rock the main event and the new talent starts to get over on the undercard. Yoshi Tatsu and Abraham Washington did some good work in that respect and while the Diva's match sucked pretty badly, the rest of the show was actually quite enjoyable. I expect more of the same in the coming weeks as the new guys become more and more comfortable, and I doubt I'll be disappointed.

SHOW RATING: 7.0

---

By: Jeremy Thomas

WWE SmackDown 07.10.09

THE RIGHT:

KANE vs. JEFF HARDY: SmackDown started us off with the Day-Glo Warrior himself heading down to the ring with an eye patch on. I thought Vince didn't "get" pirates. He got on the mic and gave a great little promo about how his eye injury was just as serious as Punk's, complete with another fantastic job by the production crew which recapped last week's main event. Hardy oversold his anger a little bit, but otherwise did a pretty good job and the subject matter of the interview was beautifully-scripted out. I definitely approved.

Kane came out after the promo and hit the ring to get the match going, to an iffy by audible crowd reaction. Kane is usually a guy who works serviceably if not spectacularly any more in the ring, and this was a very good example of that very fact as he had a very solid match against Hardy. Jeff is a guy who's obviously great to watch in the ring, but he doesn't often have the skill to make a poor worker look great, no matter how much he sells. With a good worker like Kane he can manage to pull out a great match, and this may not have been great but it was quite good. Kane looked dominating which he needed to be considering he's just re-debuting after his time off; Jeff also looked good against the kind of big guy who's always dominated Jeff in the past. They look to be doing the usual "Hey, let's build up Kane again so he can put our talent over for the other eleven months" thing and having him beat Jeff was a wise choice in that. Honestly, if anyone can take Edge's spot at the top of the card, I wouldn't complain about the Big Red Machine doing so. It also advanced the Hardy/Punk feud between the promo and then Punk's distraction at the end, so kudos for that too.

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. JOHN MORRISON: This had a brief segment beforehand where Morrison and Teddy Long talked about karaoke-ing Michael Jackson and Morrison asked for a shot at the winner of Punk/Hardy at Night of Champions. It looks like Morrison might well be on a fast track here, and that's okay for me. Morrison and Teddy have a good chemistry between them—when they're not singing, that is—and that made this segment work fairly well. After Long left we found out Dolph Ziggler was in the closet, and apparently banging Maria. Wait, so she didn't learn her lesson after Santino? Girl's got a thing for the bad boys, I guess. I'm not sure where (if anywhere) they're going with this Maria/Dolph thing, but it's just another sign that the ‘E's got a lot invested in Dolph and think he can really become something; kudos to him.

After the break, Dolph and Morrison made their respective ways down to the ring with the Shaman of Sexy getting the far more impressive crowd reaction. Of course, that could well have played into the reasoning for the ending, since Dolph beating Morrison does him a huge favor in getting him over. There's really not too much to say here except to mention that these are two of the Blue Brand's hottest members of the midcard that were matched up with each other and they put on a nice little match. There was a little something missing in terms of the match's story and psychology, but in one of their first matches with each other that's to be expected and should they feud I expect that to get better. Ziggler got the win via standard heel tactics with the holding the tights, and that works to give Morrison an excuse for the loss. You know what, this worked for me and while I never would have believed six months ago that I'd be saying this, Dolph Ziggler is a star in the making.

MELINA & EVE vs. MICHELLE McCOOL & LAYLA: I'll be honest, I had a difficult time watching this match. Mostly, that was because after the appearance of Melina and Eve on the SmackDown ramp, I kept recycling that image in my brain over and over again. The best in life never really goes away, folks. They started this one off with Layla and Eve, who I guess don't like each other again, and I will say that all those Twitter messages about her judo lessons and such are doing her some good. The two were looking pretty choreographed against each other, but even with that being the case both she and Layla are really starting to improve in the ring. Meanwhile, Michelle's apparently incorporated some new submission holds into her repertoire, and I have to say it's working for me. You don't see a lot of submission-based ladies in the Big Two, and the more that Michelle makes it work, the more that the ‘E might be inclined to let their girls become technical wrestlers. Melina also looked fairly good, although as usual I have to take points away for that retarded Matrix duck/leg kick thing. It's terrible-looking and obviously doesn't hit for much damage, yet they keep doing it because it makes Melina bendy. I have no problem with bendy, but make it work in believable offense. After the match Michelle and Melina showed that their feud for the title obviously isn't over yet, and I'm okay with that. This match was flawed in parts, but it was as a WWE women's match goes it was a great free TV one.

CRYME TYME vs. HART DYNASTY: SmackDown's newest waste of time, Word Up, was in the house this week and gave us the word "bromance." This was their opportunity to basically compare the Hart Dynasty with Siegfried & Roy, which worked decently well. This is when Word Up works, when it's used to make fun of their opponents. The best Word Ups on WWE.com were when they were knocking on MnM 2.0 and vice versa. Of course, we then got Jesse, and I know some people think it's funny, but to me Jesse just isn't doing it. As a segment this succeeded, even if the Jesse/Jeezy shit drug it down some.

As Cryme Tyme made their way down to the ring for this match, we got a recap of Shad and JTG getting a less-than-clean win over the Harts from last week. The crowd reaction was a little stronger than the week before, which is a hopeful sign that these guys are going to get over big. This was all in all better than last week's match, as JTG looked impressive early on before Kidd and Smith took over and started working JTG over. The Harts got the win with the High-Low while the ref was busy with Natalya, and this was a nice match that kept things moving with the Harts. I can't complain too much.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. REY MYSTERIO: SmackDown's main event was a rematch between two guys who have been tearing things up against each other over the summer, and they sure as hell didn't disappoint here. Jericho came down to the ring and cut another arrogant promo where he talked about how he was the best in the world and pointed out his accolades before busting out a few SAT words. It was much of the same from Jericho on the mic here, and while it's the same stuff we've heard for months it was kept short so I was okay with that. Rey Rey came out after the break as the crowd went truly nuts for him. You gotta give the little guy credit for that; there's arguably no one in the ‘E as over as him. They did the ring intros after the entrances, which I love for the main event matches and then settled into what was just a fantastic match. Nearly everything that they did carried off beautifully; none of Rey's aerial work looked sloppy at any point and Jericho played his role very well while delivering some slick offense. They had some innovative in-ring stuff, such as Rey's countering out of the Walls of Jericho into a victory roll. The storytelling was good, the psychology of working over Rey's back worked well and the crowd was hugely into it. These guys just work so damned well off of each other that you couldn't help but enjoy the hell out of this match. Rey got the clean pin to finish this off, and then had none other than Edge come down to attack him. That was avoided well enough, but then Rey fell prey to, of all people, Dolph Ziggler who fed Rey to Rated Y2J end the show and seemed to make an alliance with them.

So let's see here. Decent pre-match promo? Check. Fantastic match with good psychology, enormous heat and just excellent in-ring work? Check. Clean finish? Check. Incredible elevation of a talent who looks to be, improbably, a star of the future? Check. Yeah, this was one of the best endings to SmackDown in a while, and that's saying something.

PURGATORY:

CM PUNK vs. THE GREAT KHALI: Jeff Hardy came down to do guest commentary on this one, as Punk made his way down for a non-title match against the Great Khali. Punk got on the mic before the match and lambasted Jeff for faking his eye injury while Punk's eye injury was legit. He even had some Polymoxin-B Sulfate! This was some fantastic work by Punk as he introduced the drug card some more and even brought up Jeff's two strikes. I love that they aren't shoving the whole thing in our faces; it'll come soon enough I'm sure but it keeps the whole thing building on an even pace, with plenty left for them to go off of should they extend this feud past Punk's official "heel turn" moment.

Once Khali came down we got into the match, which basically seemed to be a way for Punk to look strong against someone dominating like Khali for a few moments until Khali hit one big move. That worked, I suppose, but this match was disgustingly short and was more interested in pushing Khali/Kane. Sure, pushing a feud at the expense of a match is fine and they did make Punk look good against a big guy, but the match was nothing and having Kane beg off from Khali on the chair was very odd booking. Since when has Kane been a coward? I just didn't get how they were deciding to book that. The feuds were advanced, kind of, and for that it avoids the wRong, but it doesn't get much more credit than that.

THE WRONG:

Nothing at all.

THE RIDICULOUS:

R-TRUTH IS…PRETTY RICKY?: Okay, what the hell was this? Are they retooling Truth's gimmick? Was this supposed to be funny? Was this a Rick James play? It was terribly shot and featured Truth clowning to his heart's content for the camera. Sure, some of it was kind of funny, but otherwise it just didn't work and what's more, I don't understand the point. It's perhaps the oddest segment we've seen on the Blue Brand in a while, and they can leave it in the dust as far as I'm concerned.

The 411

There was so very little I had to complain about here. Yes, the R-Truth thing was stupid but it was very short, and the Punk/Khali "match" had some flaws to it. The rest of it was excellent work and I daresay this was quite simply a fantastic show. They've set up some great feuds and intriguing dynamics; I for one am very interested to see if they're going to do anything with Dolph and Jericho now that Edge is on the shelf; an alliance with Jericho could be huge for the kid. I was entertained pretty from start to finish with this show and it's not often you can say that.

SHOW RATING: 8.5

From The Baron:
I wonder if WWE creative is still stealing ideas from Paul Heyman. In his last blog for the Sun he mentioned getting MVP over as a face by using his past and how he overcame it to make a connection with the crowd, and lo and behold this seems to be happening now!

I'd heard that somewhere else too, that the 'E was basically taking Heyman's blog and creating this segment out of it. I don't mind so much because it worked, and I doubt Paul minds...it gives him something to crow about. A winner all around if you ask me.


From Yawn:
Hands up who expected a Triple Threat for the wwe title at NOC even before the finals? It was predictable considering WWE would never let Cena or HHH not be on the card of a ppv. God forbid either should challenge for the US title.... Nooooo. Wat do we get for NOC? A rematch of Mania 24. Same champ, same challenger. Wat a thrown-together match. NOC looks like shit. I know there are still 2 weeks left to build but seriously.

WWE title - mentioned.
World title - Punk v Jeff (should be only good match on card)
ECW - Christian v Dreamer
Diva - ?? (who cares)
Women's - Mickie v Maryse
US - Show v Bourne v Kofi (i'd rather see MVP v Swagger for the title. All american american. Now wat title would be perfect for him? Hmmmmmm)
IC - ?? (unless its Morrison v Rey, i dun care)
Tag titles - ?? (no edge. takes the shine off of it)

The only match i care about is punk v jeff. Not enuff to warrant spending money on it, im afraid. Night of champions. indeed.

I don't think that's entirely fair. No, Cena and 'H aren't challenging for the US Title right now, but that makes sense. Cena's been out of the title picture for a while now and you knew he was going to be back in it eventually; meanwhile, 'H is a guy who has fought for secondary titles before during his main event run. Remember when he won the IC belt during the Two-Man Power Trip and lost it to Jeff? Now, Night of Champions may not be WrestleMania quality but there are matches I'm looking forward to. Jeff/Punk should deliver, Dolph vs. Rey has some potential and I am actually a Dreamer fan so Christian/Dreamer could be fun. I also think they've booked Mickie/Maryse well. Is it a brilliant Pay-Per-View? Nope. But it should be fun.


From Big Poo Johnson:
"Well, except those disturbed folks who do things like cheer when someone they don't like is legitimately injured. "

Thats me everytime HHH gets legit injured :)

Psychological help, Poo. Look into it. S'all I'm saying. But thanks for reading!


From ShockMaster:
A MILLION-DOLLAR OPENING: This was the first time in ages that I had no itch to FF my DVR during a Raw talk segment. It was, well, priceless.

TED DIBIASE vs. RANDY ORTON: This was perfectly executed. Ted looked good without Randy ever looking weak. Now why hasn't Randy been booked this way all along?

A SWAGGER IN THE VIP LOUNGE: Maybe Vince DID put the Smackdown writers on Raw this week. Another nice segment and it built toward something fresh.

JOHN CENA vs. ‘H: I hate both of them, but this was a good match. Nothing anywhere near great, but nothing to harp about. We now get ANOTHER Mania rematch, and it's basically impossible to deliver anything new. The triple threat guarantees whining after and two of them facing off at Summerslam.

KOFI KINGSTON vs. EVAN BOURNE: Why couldn't Show have come in during the match and done the same thing? Nobody loses, Show gets heat for breaking up an anticipated match, everyone wins. This was another case where Bourne looked like Macho Man '95, hitting one move and dropping the elbow, er, SSP for the win.

Not much for me to say here Shock, as you and I are mostly in agreement. I don't mind the 'Mania rematch too much as we are talking about a rematch that happened over a year ago, and it does add a different element to the same old, same old Orton/'H junk. It could well bomb and I think the booking in the next couple weeks will be the difference maker, but we'll see. And yeah, I would have liked to see Show break up the match rather than the way that one was booked.


From KanyonKreist:
MVP and Swagger's confrontation in the VIP Lounge was the most compelling segment I've seen on Raw this year. I mean it! Now why the hell can't we put Porter in the main event scene already? Swagger has just gotten started, but MVP has been consistently delivering the goods for over two years now!

He'll be there soon enough, I think. I can appreciate the slower burn on his push because it's going to elevate him more naturally up the card the way Morrison's doing on SmackDown. But yes, that was a great segment between them.



From DOOM:
I don't think they'll have another guest host as good as the million dollar man. what was so good about him is they used him in a story line that fit. I really hope when they planned on doing this they were prepped for a long term deal. or they could be window shopping for a gm.

Excellently put, Doom. This was so good because it made sense and you had someone out there who could deliver and connect with the crowd. Somehow, I doubt Seth Green's going to be as compelling. Just a guess.


From The Great Capt. Smooth:
I wish that I.R.S. had made a cameo during RAW.

Man, that would have been fan-TAST-ic. If only.


From 17:
What's up with all the love for Orton vs DiBiase Jr and Triple H vs Cena? Neither one of them was flat-out bad but both were incredibly mediocre and honestly I found them extremely boring. This maybe because I've become bored with these characters for one reason or another (although mostly for booking reasons) but as much as it bored me I could still agree that Orton and Triple H did good work in their most recent Last Man Standing match, but the two big matches from the last RAW just seemed dull to me.

The established star vs new star match has been seen a lot lately however while the likes of Morrison looked like an exciting star of tomorrow DiBiase Jr just looked like a jobber given too much offence. Everything DiBiase Jr did in his match was generic and he did nothing to prove he deserves the push he will inevitably get thanks to the latest WWE films 'masterpiece'. A lot of people are saying DiBiase Jr looked good but to me he just seemed mediocre, especially considering Yoshi Tatsu blew him out of the water only one night later in a much, much better match. Perhaps he'll do better later but for now I'm just not sold on DiBiase Jr as anything but what he is now, a glorified jobber.

As for Triple H vs Cena, they tried to force an epic feeling which just wasn't there, they exchanged basic holds for 10 minutes before going to the predictable ending. Sorry but are half an hour headlock reversed into another half an hour headlock does not a good match make. It's possible I fell asleep before they did anything good or maybe it's just my apathy that's playing tricks with my mind but I really don't remember this match as anything but boring.

Thank God for DiBiase Sr, who actually breathed some life into this show. Now why couldn't he just be the GM every week?

Reading my argument back I feel I have to point out I'm not saying all new stars need to do a shooting star press or something. Some wrestlers can make even the simplest of moves look good, while others (like DiBiase Jr IMO) just make them seem generic. Flashy moves certainly make things more interesting like in the case of Yoshi vs Shelton, however even the simple stuff in their match seemed to flow naturally in a way that the two big RAW matches just didn't seem too IMO.

I wish they'd make DiBiase Sr. the permanent GM but I doubt it'll happen. As for the rest, I can see where you're coming from 17 but I just can't agree. Ted may not have been a Yoshi out there, but he looked very good. I did think that Orton and DiBiase had a good flow and story to their match, but it's perfectly fine to disagree. I didn't view the 'H/Cena match as being as slow as you did, and I don't have it saved to go back and look at again but I think it carried off very well. I don't think it was any surprise that they ended it the way that they did and the in-ring work wasn't epic PPV main event stuff, but this wasn't a Pay-Per-View and so I'm a little more accepting. The chemistry these guys have is what carried the match and I still feel comfortable having it in the Right.



And I'm out of here!