Wrestling’s 4R’s Friday Edition 10.23.09: RETRO WWE, ECW and Raw Reviewed!

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 10.23.2009

DX tries to rally the troops, Raw closed with a huge Raw vs. Smackdown brawl, and Snoop Dogg hosted the show! Elsewhere on ECW, Yoshi Tatsu became the #1 contender for the ECW Title, Chris Jericho battled Christian and don’t forget about Retro WWE! Wrestling’s 4R’s break down all the action from WWE Raw and ECW on SyFy!

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By: Jeremy Thomas

Raw 10.19.09

The Right:

SNOOP IS OUT TO TALK AND DX RALLIES THE TROOPS: Raw opened up with the introduction of Raw's guest host this week, Snoop Dogg. Anyone looking for shizzle jokes can look elsewhere. Like, for example, DX! But enough of that for now; Snoop came down to the ring low-rider style with his new song playing and the Bellas and Eve looking more attractive than they have been…well, ever. I love me some Eve, but classy clothes suits all three ladies nicely. They did a little dancing in the room before Snoop got on the mic. Snoop did a great job here of playing to the crowd and coming off as a major WWE fan. He knew the product, he played it well and he booked Cena vs. 'H (which we knew about from last week) and Orton vs. DiBiase. He also booked Jericho vs. Michaels. You know, if I thought that the guest hosts had any sway over the booking Snoop would totally be on my good side. DX then came down to the ring and clowned with Snoop before he left the ring and they got on the mic. They joked about white guys badly talking in "Snoop Dogg Language," and then Shawn hokily did a few izzles. They talked about Bragging Rights and the team they had put together. Then they mentioned SmackDown. They proceeded to make fun of the members of Team SmackDown, including a pretty awesome Kane/Katie Vick reference. Hey, I hated it at the time, but as long as they're poking fun at it in throwaway lines I'm happy. Cryme Tyme got a brief crack about them, and made fun of Dolph's self-introduction bit. Then they did the "who's that" with Escobar and McIntyre. You know, normally I would bitch about this, but fuck it. The 'E set themselves up for this one, and they deserve all the shit they're giving themselves about it. Also, Shawn pointed out Mcintyre's positives, so there is that at least.

Team Raw then came down to the ring, all at once to the Raw theme. Interestingly, almost everyone Show was getting cheers here. I guess brand loyalty really does exist. Swagger got booed, but then again that's a good sign for him, because it shows he's more over as a heel than I thought. Cody also got booed…also an encouraging sign. Cody also did well on the mic here of being the dissenter who wasn't afraid to give 'H and HBK crap. Cody said he was willing to take on SmackDown all his own, which Show didn't like. He told Cody and the rest he'd take any of them down if they were going to let down the team. This led into Henry talking, which led into Swagger talking, and then Kofi talking. And the—HOLY HELL! What the Blue Blazer is up with Kofi's lack of accent? Seriously, you ease into that kind of change. They played it for laughs and that was good, at least. Anyway, this led to the announcement of a five on five tag match, and if anyone lost they would get their place taken by the person who pinned them. All in all, this was a good segment. It went on for a very long time but it didn't feel long, so I'm okay with that.

TED DIBIASE vs. RANDY ORTON: Before this match, we had an interview backstage with Ted DiBiase. Ted talked about pinning Orton last week and how he didn't do anything that Orton wouldn't have done, and despite the fact that Orton didn't return any of his calls, he has to understand. Oh, the honeymoon's over! Orton then showed up and Matthews wisely high-tailed it out of there. The two faced off and talked about what Orton would have done. Orton told Ted that if he fought back then he'd be thrown out of Legacy. You know…I liked this. Ted's getting built for his face turn nicely, and he's not looking like Orton's lesser beyond what his own psyche is allowing.

Of course, the "match" itself wasn't a match so much as it was an angle. It was a well-constructed angle, and Ted played it off very nicely. He clearly wanted to fight back but he didn't, and Orton played it up for all he was worth. The point here seems to be pushing the build to DiBiase's aforementioned face-turn to be, and both men did an excellent job in playing that off. All Orton had to do was pin the guy, but he had to humiliate him first. It matches Orton's character nicely and it got the crowd hugely behind DiBiase. When this face turn's trigger is pulled, if it's built as well as it was here I'll be a happy camper. If I had to criticize anything, it would be that Ted slightly overplayed it, but I was actually pretty okay with that considering the emotion he was supposed to selling. Good stuff all around, and if nothing else Ted's humiliated and dejected look when he lowered his head was priceless. See what I did there?

JOHN CENA vs. 'H: The first hour closer was a doozy, as they put Cena/'H there. The announced put over the very good odds that Cena may not be on Raw next week, which did give this match more of a feel of importance here. Hunter was playing his "The Game" music, which appears to be his more serious theme song. These guys came out here and put on a really good free TV match. As regular R's readers know, I don't hate on Cena or 'H for their ring work, and I think they get too much shit from the internet. This was a perfect example of that as they went out there and putt on an excellent match that had the crowd reacting very well to it. They paced the match out well and both men had their timing down well. Call me nuts, but I've always felt that the Game and the Champ worked very well off each other and this was no exception. It wasn't a PPV-worthy match but I don't think anyone expected it to be, and especially when Cena has an Iron Man match coming it played off very nicely. There was no elevation to be had, obviously, but both men came out of this looking strong and to the smart fan booking, 'H going over makes one think that perhaps Cena really is going to SmackDown since he leaves the show putting Hunter over strongly. There was no wonky booking as might be expected, it was just two guys going out there and putting on a good match, and I sure as hell can't complain about that.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. SHAWN MICHAELS…NOT!: Our main event had the Team SmackDown co-captain taking on the Red Brand co-captain in Shawn Michaels. As might be expected, I was excited for this as Shawn and Jericho have never failed to rock the house. Of course, the seven minutes they had didn't give me a LOT of hope, but if anyone can make for a great match in that amount of time, it was these guys. However, when Jericho got on the mic I sighed. He talked himself up—points for using the word "moxie" by the way—and talked about how they were going to embarrass, humiliate, etc. Team Raw. Down to the ring came Cryme Tyme who hit the ring, and then Kane, Dolph, Escobar and McIntyre came out as well. Jericho was about to talk before Hunter came out with the rest of Team Raw. The casual, almost lazy smile Shawn gave was great. All the guys got into the ring and were ready to go at it before we got Vickie out to ruin the fun. Apparently she was the official SmackDown consultant or something. You know what? I actually liked this. It showed some serious brand loyalty and it sold what Raw vs. SmackDown was all about. That's something I was very okay with because it provided a solid finish, and for once Raw had a good hard-sell for a PPV.

puRgatoRy:

TEAM RAW vs. CHRIS MASTERS, CHAVO GUERRERO, EVAN BOURNE, MVP & PRIMO COLON: You know what, this had all the potential to be a mess. Five on Five TV matches rarely come off well, and this was fairly short to boot. We all know how I feel about short matches, especially when it's a short match with a lot of competitors. However, I didn't mind this so much. Could it have been better? Absolutely. It was a little rushed and not everyone got a chance to be featured as a result. Still, Cody came out of this looking great, and yet Swagger got the pin which gives him a spotlight. The Team Raw Wannabes did pretty well as well and came off as looking fairly competitive against Cody, who's hung with DX. So while the shortness of the match and the joined-in-progress start kept this out of the Right, I did enjoy it and it was as good as it possibly could have been. Afterward everyone started arguing and Show speared Henry, and all was well.

GOOD GRIEF! Before we went backstage for some Snoop antics, we got a preview of his new video. Okay, really, is there a chick on his boat with fangs? Does that make ANY sense? Anyway, Snoop was chillin' back stage with Nikki, Brie and Eve, and they were shilling the album when Hornswaggle came in. Apparently Snoop told him to do something tonight, and of course Chavo showed up. Horny ran off and Chavo mentioned how he was wrestling royalty and should be on Team Raw. That wasn't bad. Then Jillian showed up and demanded a Women's Title rematch, before Santino showed up dressed as Charlie Brown. Even I, who supposedly has no sense of humor, admit that was pretty damned funny. He referenced their problems from Mania, and then Jillian did more "Gin and Juice" before Snoop kicked them all out and made a drug reference. Of course, they then revealed he wasn't smoking out, it was just scented candles. I hate to say it, but I didn't mind this much at all. It was inoffensive, it got all the "hilarity" out of the way all at once, and that worked. It wasn't something I enjoyed as a whole, but it was short and didn't waste our time too much.

THE MIZ vs. SOME GUY MARTY JANNETTY: So, Miz came out and was apparently supposed to face a nobody. But Snoop wasn't happy with that, and was pissed that Miz ragged on Marty Jannetty. So he brought Marty in and booked him against Miz. Man, the crowd was be-YOND dead for him. He didn't look all that good, either. But you know what? He did his job in the ring and then did THE job. It was good booking because it made sense considering what happened at SmackDown and Jannetty didn't look bad, even if the crowd barely cared outside of an isolated "Marty" chant. I was a little annoyed at how much the announcers sold in the beginning of the match how the Miz could well be "the Jannetty" of the tag team, and I thought he should have dominated Marty. Also, yes you saw this coming, the match was too short. It's sure as hell not Right, but I can't in good conscience put this in the wrong either.

The wRong:

JILLIAN vs. MELINA: After last week's super-quick and super-rushed debacle of a match, these ladies had some making up to do. Apparently Chavo had made a deal with Jillian as we saw just before the commercial break and he accompanied her down to the ring. This got off to a bad start as Melina nearly tripped on her way up the stairs. Good Christ. Anyway, Chavo played the distraction which allowed Jillian to attack Melina and take control. This match consisted of exactly eight moves: a kick from Jillian, a fireman's carry, two kneelifts, an Irish whip, a leg choke, a kick to the head, and a split leg drop that at least wasn't botched. Seriously, why even do this? Did this put Jillian over? Melina? Did it even offer any significant advancement in the Chavo/Horny storyline? Nope. This was bad all around, and the only thing saving it from Ridiculous was that nothing was botched. Except that stair climb. Oh yeah, and Chavo being embarrassed by yet another guest host. Yay.

The Ridiculous:

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

The 411

After a terribly weak Raw last week, they came back strong this week for the Pay-Per-View. Outside of the Jillian/Melina match it was all done well and even the stuff with issues carried off pretty nicely. We got a very good match in Cena/'H, Snoop was an okay guest host, and the show was all about brand loyalty which worked for me. Hands down, I really liked the show this week, and it was a very pleasant comeback.

SHOW RATING: 8.0

From WATRYYY:
Batista vs. Rey was a pretty good match. They have fough before, in 2007 I believe on a Smackdown episode, so no bitching about giving away their 'first ever match'. Plus, it looks ot lead to a match at WM26 in 5 months when Batista turns heel on little Rey Rey, as I can't think of any other WM opponent for either man.

You know what, I was thinking about Batista's potential for a heel turn myself. They could use some more heels on the Blue Brand, and turning on Rey would be a good way for them to do it. If they decide to go that route I won't be disappointed.


From MasterShake:
Thank you! The Attitude Era was great, but I think we put it on a pedestal. "We've seen Orton/Cena WAY too much." Guess what? We were saying the same about the Rock/HHH during the Attitude Era. "These segments suck and make no sense!" Mae Young giving birth to a hand, anyone? Even the "classic" moment of Steve Austin giving Vince McMahon a forced enema would be panned if it aired today. We bitch about the WWE being too geared towards kids (convieniently forgetting it's because that's where the money is), but fawn over the Attitude Era. And I can't help but wonder if my fellow 20something year old fans remember they WERE kids during the Attitude days. Maybe that's why we remember it so fondly.

Took the words right out of my mouth. Thanks!


From The Great Capt. Smooth:
I still can't believe how over Kane is. What made it so odd for me was you had a guy dressed in red and black being cheered where they play UK basketball. They usually hate those colors.

It's funny, I was thinking the same thing on Raw. Only my thought about the red was that I wondered why they would let Kane's pyro go when he's a Blue Brander. Everything else was Red vs. Blue, and it just seemed odd. Anyway.


From Brian:
Everyone is expecting Show or Cody to turn on Raw and give Smackdown the win. I have a much better scenario, and I honestly think it will happen.

Think about the players in this match. Jericho, Show, Escobar (who's Vicki Guerrero's new man), Kane. What connection do all of these men have in common? One man-Edge.

I think Edge returns and gets involved in the 14 man somehow (possibly to give Raw the win by beating Jericho). But he has a history with Kane (and I think it isn't a coincedence he was made co-captain). He obviously has business with Show and Jericho (and I think this sets up Edge and Christian vs Show and Jericho, if they get the ECW belt off Christian). He could have issues with Escobar for being with Vickie (and why did they pick now to bring her back?). It just all falls into place.

Either way, something BIG better happen for this match. WWE hasn't pulled a big swerve in a while (actually, not since Undertaker returned). It's time for a shocking ending to a ppv, and Edge returning would be perfect.

As someone noted, Edge isn't coming back for a while still. I would have enjoyed it, but not happening.


From KanyonKreist:
So, there will be at least TWENTY-FOUR superstars competing at Bragging Rights (14-man tag, 4-way WT match, Cena, Orton, Miz, Morrison, divas) and NONE of them are Matt Hardy. Or MVP, for that matter...

This brings up the question: Am I the only one whose first impression of Escobar was "This guy is gonna be curtain-jerking in TNA two years from now"? By the way, two years from now, TNA will still be "about to break through to the next level."

Also, Thomas, if Cena heads to Smackdown after losing the Iron Man match to Orton, how are he and Batista BOTH going to smack CM Punk around week after week? Wouldn't that be redundant..?

And if Cena WINS, what the hell is there for Orton to do? I'd say that HE would then head to Smackdown, but that would leave a dire heel-vacuum on Raw...

It's this simple, Kanyon. If Cena heads to SmackDown, Batista turns heel without a doubt. They'd have way to many main-level faces on SD at that point. If he stays, then Orton feuds with DiBiase sooner rather than later. And yes, I did think that about Escobar.


From nomar34:
so, uh...how much longer do we have to put up with the Escobar's and McIntyre's before AmDrag and Nigel show up? they may get generic characters too but at least the can wrestle better than anyone else on the show...Jericho excluded. Besides i want a "you're going to get your fucking head kicked in" chant.

In Nigel's case? A long, long time.

---

By: Michael Bauer

ECW on SyFy 10.20.09

QUICK RESULTS:
- Yoshi Tatsu defeated Zack Ryder to become #1 Contender for the ECW Title at 10:20 [***]
- Sheamus beating up a jobber became a No Contest at 1:15 [NR]
- ECW Champion Christian defeated Undisputed Tag Champion Chris Jericho at 15:00 [***1/2]

The Right:

#1 CONTENDER'S MATCH – And we opened this week with Yoshi Tatsu squaring off with Zach Ryder and the winner gets to face Christian for the ECW Title. This match was the best way to go and we would see later why Regal was nowhere near this match. The match itself was really well done as Ryder finally had a beyond solid match against somebody not named Christian. Tatsu gets the win in the end and his first shot at the ECW Title. While I am glad Tatsu gets the shot, I'm a little concerned in one simple fact. I don't actually buy Tatsu as a credible challenger for the ECW Title. Meaning, I believe he deserves the match, but there is no way he should win the title. I also really am afraid if it comes down to Regal and/or Ryder getting involved, which we really don't need.

CHRISTIAN TAKES ON CHRIS JERICHO – The main event was, as I said on the recap, one I never thought I would have seen again this time last year. Even more so, I never would have imagined it on ECW. That said, this match delivered exactly as it should have. People were comparing this match and was right to Cena/HHH and what could have been better and it is a fair thing to do. But Jericho and Christian can just do a lot more than the hyped up Raw match could. Jericho winning here would have probably worked better, but I am okay with Christian winning, especially since neither man looked bad here. I mean, Christian won basically because he caught Jericho on his one huge mistake. And Jericho nearly had the win several times, just to have Christian work his way out. The countering back and forth was picked up well by Striker and Matthews, as it should have been, because of the history these two had. Overall, the match was great. Not the best on ECW all year, but still an amazing show by these two champions.

puRgatoRy:

JERICHO BACKSTAGE – Last week, I used a term called hit or miss with backstage segments that were linked together. I say the same thing with anything Jericho related this week. The big miss was Jericho cutting off Abraham Washington opening the show. Jericho wanted to go see Tiffany and Washington wanted a huge guest host for his show… guess which one got his wish. Tony will tell you that Jericho is an equal opportunity hater. He then gets to Tiffany and proceeds to ask for ECW Talent to be on his completed Team Smackdown. Now, I still have no idea what the point of this was. If you spent an entire episode of Smackdown building this up, why on freaking earth would you have Jericho try to change the team? I don't care if he wants a better team, he is pretty much saying that Raw is better than Smackdown with this promo. He gets rejected and proceeds to run into Regal. This I knew would be gold, even with Tiffany getting involved. The best part was that Jericho didn't even ask if the Roundtable could join his team, but it was still taken that way on reputation alone. That one promo was also probably the best Tiffany has even been as GM as she played off Jericho perfectly. Overall, Jericho added plenty to the show, but probably didn't need the opening shock factor.

SHELTON POUNDS DOWN ON SHEAMUS – The middle match, if you can call it that, was Sheamus beating up on some young guy and making his statement by refusing to finish the match on two occasions. This brought out Shelton, who went to freaking town on Sheamus. This was a long time coming and Shemaus sold the attack like a freaking pro. But how about the ending, with Shelton Benjamin actually lifting the big man up for a huge German Suplex. It wasn't some dinky move, I mean he got the big man up and over. Shelton needed this type of victory for the feud and everything was perfect… except for one thing. I didn't like the sacrificing of a jobber to this cause. Granted, you couldn't have the mic time that the Celtic Warrior got last week, but couldn't Shelton have made the attack after Sheamus finally ended the match? Or maybe do it before the match and just have it like Sheamus' attack on Shelton a few weeks before? Not to mention, Sheamus should be long past beating up on the job squad.

HURRICANE GAINS A MEASURE OF REVENGE –And of course, it wouldn't be a complete show without Burchill gloating over beating Hurricane last week cleanly. Now, I was a little caught off guard with ho this went. I mean, Burchill doesn't even go after the mask last week, yet he wants Hurricane to hand it to him. I would think a heel wouldn't go for the honorable route. But anyway, that is what he did and we had "The Hurri-Clone" show up instead. Now, I knew this was coming as soon as I saw the kid. He had a close size to the real deal, but I could tell the whole thing looked off. Still, it worked like it should and the mask came off. Burchill was dumbfounded, because he knew that wasn't the real guy immediately. The music started back up and The real Hurricane showed up with the Singapore Cane in his colors. Perfectly done there as Burchill had to bail and fast. Still, it means the feud isn't over and while I am happy for that, I just wonder how much further it can go. I guess this could set up and extreme rules style match, but I honestly don't want to see that for this feud.

The wRong:

NONE

The Ridiculous:

None

The 411

Best ECW show in a long time. Two matches in the three star range, a new #1 contender, and every feud continued means I could not ask for much more. Yes, every feud. I don't consider Christian vs. Regal a feud anymore, because of how messy it has become. Still, next week looks to be another good one and they are actually hyping it up for once. All in all, this was good stuff.

SHOW RATING: 8.5

---

~WWE CYBER SUNDAY 2008~

By: Larry Csonka

The Matches:

No Holds Barred Match: Rey Mysterio defeated Kane @ 10:00 via pin *½

ECW Title Match: Matt Hardy defeated Evan Bourne @ 11:00 via pin ***¼

The Miz and John Morrison defeated Cryme Tyme @ 10:00 via pin **

IC Title Match: The Honky Tonk Man defeated Santino Marella @ 1:00 via DQ

Last Man Standing Match: The Undertaker defeated The Big Show @ 20:00 ****

WWE Title Match: HHH defeated Jeff Hardy @ 16:00 via pin ***¾

World Title Match: Batista defeated Chris Jericho to become the NEW WORLD CHAMPION @ 17:00 via pin ***

The Right:

ECW Title Match: While Matt Hardy stated on ECW TV that he wanted to face Mark Henry for the title, he made a push on his personal BLOG for his fans to vote for Evan Bourne. Well, it worked because Bourne won with 69% of the vote, because that's how he rolls. Bourne has been impressing people for months now on ECW TV, but the last two weeks have been a real coming out party for him. He started with a great match against Chavo, where Chavo called a great match to not only make it competitive but also to get Bourne over, which he did. Bourne followed that up with a good performance against Henry and Finlay this week on ECW TV and then finally got his chance to shine on WWE PPV. Once again Bourne brought his "A-Game" and he worked hard, and wrestled his style. Hardy, much like Chavo called a good match and in the end we not only got a good match, but Bourne wasn't hurt one bit in the loss. If I had one complaint, and this is one of those quirky personal things so stick with me here, it was that they played it too straight, too face vs. face. Usually when you have a match like this, one person goes slightly heel (like HHH vs. hardy later in the show) but that didn't happen here. Matt is more experienced and was leading the match, he should have known this and made a bit more of an effort to lay that slight heel to balance with Bourne's underdog character. That's just a small complaint and in the end it didn't hurt the match at all, but I do think that it could have helped it a bit.

Last Man Standing Match: After last month's surprisingly good match with Taker and Show, they had a chance to follow it up again this month. Last Man Standing, I Quit, or Knockout Match were the options, and the "WWE UNIVERSE" selected Last Man Standing. In my opinion the match is both a curse as well as an opportunity. Sometimes with the Last Man Standing match we get too concerned with the drama of the count, and it gets tedious and boring. With no near falls in a match of this kind, sometimes the crowd dies with all of the counts unless the match is booked properly. This match was good shit, I mean I was INTO this match. Two heavyweights just out there kicking ass and they did so very well for 20-minutes. They played the stipulation well, everything meant something (no PLUNDAH for the sake of having it) and they just have a good chemistry. We got the table spot, we got the use of the chair, Show used the KTFO punch and Taker busted out the GOGOPLATA once again, which led to the finish. After a good match at No Mercy, I felt that both guys picked up their game here and delivered the best match on the card, just edging out HHH vs. Hardy. It is amazing that Taker is having such good matches at this age, and with a variety of opponents (Batista, Edge, Show). Again this was good stuff right here and I want to see where it is going from here.

WWE Title Match: When it boils down to it the Cyber Sunday concept is a popularity contest. If you expected Jeff hardy to lose this vote then you are a fool. He was either going to get in the one on one match, or we were getting the three-way match. The Hardy's are funny, because no matter how much they lose or get BERRIED, they are still mad over, and Jeff's 57% here showed that as fact. I have to say that this was another good match from these guys, they just work very well together. Jeff knows that it isn't enough to do what he has been doing, and went to using 2-3 of his signature moves; unfortunately the repetition caught up to him in the end. I will say that this was a notch below what they have been doing, but that isn't a bad thing at all. If they ever go back to the plan of putting the title on Hardy, they now need to sidetrack him for a bit and give him something new to conquer until he is ready to get back on the road to challenge HHH for the title. They seem to be working a good story with Jeff, whether he can keep on the straight and narrow or not and actually cash in on the chance is another thing completely.

World Title Match: The World Title match ended up being a good match, not great, to close the show. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the match was just missing something. Bourne vs. Hardy had the underdog theme, HHH vs. Jeff had the story and they played off of past matches and Taker vs. Show was a brutal slugfest that built to a good climax. But this match lacked, it missed something. Maybe it was that I knew Jericho was about to lose with Austin as the official, I don't know, but this was a good match and both guys worked hard. While I hate that they took the title off of Jericho already, I think that they did it the right way and for the right reasons. Jericho and HBK have unfinished business and don't need the title to feud over. Batista was getting a reputation for choking in the main event, ala Lex Luger and needed the win as vindication. Jericho kept saying that he was going to be screwed, and well, he was screwed in the end. He is protected in the loss, Batista gets the win he needed and it worked. Everything else worked clean on the show, so with this being the one match with the ballyhoo finish it worked. For those that say I grill TNA for doing this, I do because they do it for SO MANY MATCHES and on the same show at times. On this show everything was clean and worked so that the run in stuff not only made sense, but wasn't overdone. Again, I am not a huge fan of the switch because I was digging Jericho as the heel champion, but they did it the right way I feel.

puRgatoRy:

The Miz and John Morrison defeated Cryme Tyme: You know that your tag team scene is total shit when the tag team champions, former world champion and former IC champion, that all run on the A SHOW do NOT get voted in for Cyber Sunday, ouch. Now truth be told Cryme Tyme IS over huge, and Morrison and Miz are awesome so it didn't surprise me that they got into the match, but damn, it doesn't speak well for Punk, Kofi, Rhodes and DiBiase. With that all being said, this was a pretty good match. It started off very strong but faded a bit down the stretch. Miz and Morrison looked good and Cryme Tyme is over, but they just don't hang that well in long(er) matches. That is something that needs to change if they if they want to get past the level that they are currently at. The decision for Morrison and Miz to win was also the right call. They are working towards them to face DX on one of these three hour Raw's that is coming up, so they have to get some wins and have some credibility so that DX can take it away.

The wRong:

No Holds Barred Match: Kane vs. Rey Mysterio was the opening match on the show. In theory this was a good plan as both guys are guaranteed to get a reaction and are currently in a feud. These are the things you look for when you choose the opening match. But the bottom line here is that this match didn't deliver. The match was slow, it didn't flow well, the work wasn't that clean and in the end I felt that they didn't make good use of the stipulation. It was No Holds Barred and they barely used the gimmicks they were allowed. You have to use the stipulations you're given to the fullest. I didn't want random shit that meant nothing, but this was supposed to be a feud of hatred, and it came off as a mild brawl. Let's just hope that this feud is over and that we don't have to deal with this feud any longer.

IC Title Match: I knew that this would be mainly played for comedy, and I guess I had no issue with that. I hate it to a degree because I have to sit here and watch the IC Title mean less and less each week. Some have no issues with that, but it does bother me. Also I knew that the "match" wouldn't be much of a match, due to Goldust being shit, Piper having a gut and well, well Honky was actually the best opportunity for a decent match. But I knew all of this going in, still, the fact was that Santino, the guy on the roster and holding the title should have won here. Cheating or wacky finish he should have won. Unfortunately he lost, via DQ. And actually that wasn't what got me so pissed, what got me pissed was at how SHITTY the DQ was. They go for a minute, do the trip from the outside and THAT is how they ended it? Really? REALLY? What shit.

The Ridiculous:

NONE

Closing Thoughts:
Overall I will go with a 7.9 out of 10 for the event and a recommendation to check it out. Maybe it was that I didn't set any expectations for the show, but I rather enjoyed the event. The last three matches were very strong and I thought were a great close to the show. HHH, Show, Taker, and Jeff showed up again for this show, and Matt Hardy as ECW champion has worked well in back to back PPV's. What I disliked wasn't horrible and overall Cyber Sunday was worth my time.

---

And I'm out of here!


~411~