WRestling’s 3R’s PPV Edition 12.20.06: WWE Armageddon 2006
Posted by Larry Csonka on 12.20.2006
The fifth of five PPV’s airs and I thank the good lord for the short break I am about to receive! But how did the show stack up in the world of the R’s? C…l…i…c…k!
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. This time around we will look at the WWE Armageddon PPV, brought to us by Smackdown and a show I had some hype for headed into it. This is the FIFTH PPV in FIVE weeks…and this is the end my friends, and let me tell you it took its damn time getting here. We still have three PPV's next month, but we get a little break and Christmas is here, which I am also looking forward too. But enough about that, we have a PPV to talk about so let's get to work!
A reminder of how the column works: I watch a wrestling show, I then group my feelings on the shows in 3 MAIN 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, my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad from an entertainment and business standpoint. I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether very positive or negative.
WWE Armageddon 2006~!:
The Matches:
INFERNO MATCH: Kane defeated MVP @ 7:30 via BURNING HIM~! *
WWE CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Gregory Helms defeated Jimmy Wang Yang @ 10:53 via pin ***
LAST RIDE MATCH: The Undertaker defeated Mr. Kennedy @ 21:01 via Last Ride **¾
John Cena and Batista defeated Finlay and King Booker @ 10:57 via pin *¾
The Right:
I will give the match props… - And yes I am talking about the tag team ladder match. I have seen two schools of thoughts on the match. "It was awesome" or "It was a meaningless spotfest." In reality it was sort of both, "an awesome spotfest" and that is not a bad thing. These guys all worked very hard and it showed. They did all of the crazy spots you would expect…and then Joey Mercury took one of the sickest shots I have ever seen with a ladder, and got totally busted up. Broken nose, closed eye and blood everywhere within seconds. A truly frightening spectacle in all honesty and a reminder of how dangerous these matches are. Now, even though the match was announced to us late, they knew about it before and laid out the match. These kinds of matches, that just seems to work best and with that being said, it really could have fallen apart. But to everyone's credit they went on, the Hardyz know these matches, Regal and Taylor were the guys to keep everyone calm and in check and everything went on like nothing was wrong at all, and at the end of the match not only were we rewarded with a great match, but it was easily the match of the night hitting **** from me. Poor Joey Mercury took this unprotected ladder shot to try and keep his job in all reality. Before this show the MNM reunion was off and he was going to be a singles guy and that is all, and he was off to a bad start losing to Matt Hardy. But in actuality, this really could be something good for him. He is going to recover fine and will be back in two months. Jeff and Nitro have a match in January and I feel that when Mercury comes back they will build to a TLC match with the Hardyz and MNM at WrestleMania, possibly with London and Kendrick. Hell unify the titles, it will be glorious.
Anyway, the whole situation made it harder on everyone else on the card that had to follow it, but I will not argue with the great match. Also with London and Kendrick winning, even if it was a little anti-climatic (which could have been due to the injury) especially because the Hardyz were in there, they have really arrived I feel to the WWE fans. Their effort was awesome and you really should track down a copy of this bad boy for the collections, it is a keeper.
"But…" See below…
At least the wrestling picked up… - This really should come as no surprise, but I have to say that this PPV in particular picked up the level of wrestling a lot from the previous three WWE related PPV offerings. This is the Smackdown brand, a brand that has been putting on simple, quality, episodic TV with good wrestling week in and out. While the Inferno match, Miz/Boogey and Main Event were all poor, the Ladder, US, CW and to a degree Last Ride match all delivered, four matches; more good matches than most of the E PPV's have had lately. Since I tend to gripe about this, they need some praise here since after this we have to head to purgatory.
Purgatory:
Who told you so? - This is in regards to the Benoit vs. Chavo Guerrero match. Last month, after the Survivor Series PPV I had this to say - "Benoit winning clean is questionable to me, because since the face already has won clean, where do we go from here? They will need to get creative, and I hope they can do that." Well, in my opinion they didn't. Chavo ends up looking like a PUSSY again as he tapped, CLEAN again. As I have said in the past, there is a fine line between "chicken shit heel" and "pussy" and he looked a pussy, again. Some one will email me and try to explain how this is creative booking and when he wins it will mean more. Clue, the heel winning is not supposed to be important, the face over coming the odds and the heel getting his comeuppance is supposed to be important. It is just so backwards.
I will say that they did have a damn fine match once again. They work very well together and since they are such close friends you know that they are working very hard for each other. I just wish that they were feuding over the title and not over stuff with Eddie. Also I have to state again, and it is a theme that the booking is letting them down. Why would they continue to battle? Benoit has already beaten him twice, cleanly, via making him a bitch. They have just booked this whole thing wrong on so many levels in my opinion, and ruing what could have been a solid feud with good matches. Now it is just a poorly booked feud with good matches.
The Last Ride Match - All in all the match was fine. They played the stipulation well and brawled everywhere, which can either fail or succeed, and it worked here. They used the set well, which was basically a castle, I have no clue what it has to do with Armageddon, but hey, it worked I guess. As most Taker matches go on PPV this was too long, but the crowd was happy in the end, so that means something. But the major problem is that Kennedy lost decisively, no ifs ands or buts. Kennedy did not get the rub, that is bullshit. He won a match by DQ, he won a first blood match by accident when someone else made Taker bleed and then proceeded to get his ass handed to him and then he lost clean here tonight. He didn't get the rub, he didn't come out of this looking better than he did before the feud, he is a joke, a loser, someone who chokes in the big time and I feel like I am repeating myself, and I probably am, like last year when Taker "put Orton over." This is a problem to me, sure the match was fine and made the crowd pretty happy but in the end it was the same old shit when it comes to the Undertaker. Kennedy is supposed to be the future, and I don't know where they go from here, but if Kennedy is just a mid-card clown come this week's Smackdown, it failed and I mean monumentally.
Hey, we said we were Cruiserweights, NOT Heavyweights! - Let me say that overall I enjoyed the CW Title match at Armageddon. While I have been very critical of the helms title reign, the booking of it I should say, Helms has stepped up and done a very good job as a heel and as the champion, when the booking permits. I also like Jimmy Yang a lot, I will never say he is a GREAT worker, but he is good when he has someone to ground him and make his shit seem important. Also, he has taken what many, including I thought to be a dead end gimmick and made it over, so that says something about him right there. Even in the aftermath of losing his valet due to her stupidity, he carried on very well and I was excited about the match. In the end I think that they really delivered as far as the in ring product goes. They started slow and tried to tell a story, which may have been their down fall to be honest with you. As a match, good stuff, *** in my opinion and they did well, except for getting the crowd to go along with them. In all honesty, and this is a bitter pill for some to swallow, no matter how "great" a match may appear if a crowd shits on a match, it fails. The booking failed them really, you are having a solid, but relatively tame wrestling match follow an Inferno Match, an AWESOME ladder tag match, and a really good Benoit vs. Chavo wrestling match. These poor bastards had no chance. But in the grand scheme of things, if you can't excite the crowd, you are failing on some level.
As far as JBL's rant on the crowd not liking the match. I once ranted on this over a year ago, but here are the facts. WWE treats the CW title like a joke, and don't even talk about the joke of a run helms is on. I think Helms is awesome, but as a title run it is a joke. Secondly, they have conditioned their fan base for YEARS that "BIG MAN GOOD, LITTLE MAN JOB" and no matter what these guys go out their and do, the fans will still think that. Add to the fact that every time they get TIME on a PPV (and they should have had some more time) they make they try and work a big man's match, and you know what? They lose the crowd because they get bored. And then when they pull out the Lucha, cool and high spots, nobody gives a flying fuck. It is a fact, history has proven this right and nothing JBL says on commentary about it will change it. God bless him for trying to get Helms and the title over, but the crowd does not give a shit. That is a damn shame, a damn shame as these guys worked so hard.
The wRong:
The Inferno Match - The Armageddon PPV began with the Inferno match between MVP and Kane. This was an odd choice to start the show, but I guess that they wanted to do it and get it over with to get all of the shit down so they could move on with the rest of the card. Anyway, this was a bunch of fire and bad wrestling. The crowd seemed to like it well enough for the spectacle, but it was bad. In the end, to MVP, STOP, DROP, AND ROLL BROTHER!
Well…that was a main event - So we had our main event of the show, the Champion of Smackdown and the Champion of Raw together as best buddies battling the man that loves to fight and the King of the World. Booker was kept limited going into the match due to a back injury and that was another reason for the tag match, also they wanted Cena to be there to pump up the buy rate as they feared a record low one was coming due to all of the PPV's in the last 2-months. Yeah, fuck the brand extension and having Batista pick someone on Smackdown to elevate and put in the main event, but that is a rant for later on. This was the main event, a match we actually saw a few weeks ago on free TV we got to pay for this time around, the only difference is that Big Dave had a title belt this time. And the match was…just there. It was a TV main event, and a match that wasn't as GOOD as the last few Smackdown matches with some of these guys. It only got a little over 10-minutes and as far as a "main event" goes it just did not deliver. It wasn't "bad" per say, but it wasn't that good either. It was just there, and I never really got into it, and that is bad because I like Cena, Finlay and King Booker. I hated the end when Batista got JACKED in the leg and then did the huge no sell and got the bomb anyway. It was like they did it and were going to build off of it and then go to a different finish, but forgot the middle part and went to the finish. It just failed at being a main event that delivered as far as match quality goes, and while I am sure it drew, which is important, it needs to deliver in the ring as well.
The Ridiculous:
The Boogey man vs. The Miz - While I think we all expected this to be a bad match, with some comedy and wackiness, I don't think anyone expected to but totally insulted by the match. I was. This was worse than the Indy wrestling I saw last weekend. They got about 3-minutes, which felt like an eternity. You have one guy with a great personality, some athletics but overall not that good in the ring. Then you have another guy that has a wacky over the top gimmick, but sucks ass in the ring. They were both undefeated and in the end the freak show, who will never draw any money for the company wins. I am not saying that Miz will make them any money, but he sure the hell has more of a chance than Boogey. This feud was a colossal waste of TV time as well as PPV time. I hate paying $40 for shit, which is what this was.
Worthless Diva Shit/Big Dick Johnson - How do hot chicks not get over? I don't know but no one really cared when they did this, and that isn't the worst part of it all. They had "Santa" come out to judge, and apparently they all win. Yes, WWE is so political right now that the ladies cannot do jobs in T&A matches. And then, "Santa" stripped down and revealed he was Big Dick Johnson. Wow, a fat male stripper guy, that is new and fresh. It is just like the "Damn" and is getting rammed into the ground, and it also continues the "2006: A Year of Man-Ass and Handicap Matches" agenda WWE has been running, and sticking to very well. Why can't they use the chicks like in Lucha, and have them randomly come out with guys, walking them to the ring in small bikini's, have then stand there and look good, then walk to the back only to repeat this process several times through out the evening? I know the idea was to "cool down" the crowd for the main event, but when the fat man is wearing less than the hot chicks at the end, that is just messed up right there.
The Ri-GOD-DAMN-diculous:
But… - Did Vince Russo get hired by WWE, because I almost gave this a Russo-Riffic~! I cannot stress enough how angry I am over the tag title match, and for a few reasons. Let's check those out, shall we?
Why did they not advertise this?: And don't give me the "anything can happen in the WWE" horse shit. You don't fuck with PPV. You pop surprises more on TV, not here where it effects the bottom line. Listen kids, you need to understand that the main reason they run PPV is to make money. Well, but just Russo-rifficly adding this match to the PPV, they flushed approximately $300,000 - $600,000 down the SHITTER. You have to understand, a "gimmick" match like this can add 10-20,000 PPV buys easily. Add on top of that the fact that the Hardyz would be on the show, adding star power and than is probably another 5-10,000 buys easily as well. I love London/Kendrick and Regal/Taylor, but they are more a match for the "net" or hardcore fans. The Hardyz are big names that people remember, know and still love. They are money, and they were wasted tonight with no build. Also, I am sure Joey Mercury will be glad he lost his face for possibly the lowest PPV Buy rate of the year.
What was the reason to add MNM and the Hardyz?: London/Kendrick have been feuding with Regal/Taylor for a while now and had build to this tag match. But they then decide to make it a ladder match, NO ANNOUNCEMENT, and add in MNM and The Hardyz, why? Why did they get added to the match? MNM lost to the Hardyz at D2D, so it isn't like they reunited and had a great run of wins to earn a tag title shot. The Hardyz have done well, but haven't been on Smackdown, so why should they get a shot at the Smackdown tag titles? And don't even tell me that the 4-minute singles match between Matt Hardy and Mercury on Smackdown last week was the catalyst for them being added to the title match, because that is bullshit as they have had about zero interaction with the tag champs. I suppose that we COULD go back to the "Non-Title" victory MNM had over London and Kendrick when they reunited before D2D, and since the Hardyz beat them at D2D they are all worthy of a title shot, but that is REALLY stretching it in my opinion.
Oh yeah…FUCK the brand extension!: And once again we have said a big fuck you to the brand extension. It is amazing that in a company that creates all of its own rules that they can't even follow them. The brand extension is virtually dead because the WWE has fucked it up beyond all belief, it is the wrong execution of the right idea in my opinion and they have just jumped the shark, or whatever wacky phrase you want to use, and it means nothing anymore. It is fine when they do it for WrestleMania, I can deal with it at Summerslam, Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble are also natural environments to have cross over, but those are the BIG PPV's. When we continually have cross overs on the "single branded" PPV's it makes those BIG PPV interactions mean less and less. You are tampering with the possible money making aspect, and are ruining matches that have been held off due to the Brand Extension. I will throw Cena into this mess as well because the ONLY reason he was placed on the show was to pop the buy rate, due to there being 5 PPV's in a row, and 3 WWE PPV's in 4 weeks. Which is why, in my humble opinion, they should have, I don't know, ANNPOUNCED THIS LADDER MATCH before the PPV sometime!
Everyone seems to want to let this one pass because it was a great match, but I refuse to. If TNA did this they would be all over them and so would I, so I will discuss it here. It shows the lack of logic in the booking of the company right now, and while the match was good, it was the wrong execution of the right idea. In the end, they killed themselves for no buys and all I have to say is this:
WWE: WE HATE MONEY~!
Closing Thoughts:
Anyway, I know I am not a popular boy after my critique up there. We had some damn good wrestling and a hell of a ladder match, but that alone cannot make this a MUST SEE event. The Inferno match was blah as expected, the Boogeyman vs. Miz sucked as expected, Taker won at the expense of Kennedy, Benoit Made Chavo his bitch again, the CW Title match was solid but no one cared, we had to put up with the big naked dude and the main event was not even as good as the TV matches they have had on Smackdown recently. In the end I will go with a 7.0 out of 10 for the show, and a slight thumbs up for the good wrestling action. I know it sounds low with all of the hype some have been giving the show but that is because of some booking decisions that I have outlined above. In the end, this was a case of another WWE PPV with a LOT of potential to be GREAT and on some levels just didn't life up to the hype, and that is mostly the booking's fault to be honest with you. I cannot give a BIG recommendation for the show as a whole, because $40 is a lot, but get a copy of it to see the tag ladder match, it rocks your world and you will love it.
Reader Feedback on WWE ARMAGEDDON 2006:
From Rob Grayson -
Best Match - Hooligans vs. MNM vs. Hardyz vs. Bluebloods
Worst Match – The Miz vs. Boogeyman
Rating from 1-10 – 9.0
A pretty sweet show, which surprised me, I thought this would be some throw-away PPV, but probably the best all around PPV of 2006 possibly.
From Dan Z -
Best Match: Ladder Match
Worst Match: Miz/Boogeyman
Rating from 1-10: 8
If the Great American Bash can get a solid rating, then this one should do much better. Maybe I'm just too ecstatic over London & Kendrick being put over and hopefully not breaking up. There wasn't too much crap on the PPV, and I didn't see much bad booking. Just another solid show put on by Smackdown. If someone would have turned in the main event, I'd enjoy the PPV even more. I can't wait for Finlay to turn face.
From SHHHW -
Best match: Ladder Match. As if any other match on there could break four stars.
Worst match: Ladder Match. Should NOT have been the surprise match, what a stupid way to squander potential buys. Then again, the surprise of hearing that there was a ladder match may be enough for some people to buy the webcast, so it's ok. All right, here's another go. Worst match: Benoit vs. Chavo. Ridiculous that Chavo didn't win, and even more annoying that the cocky punk on the Roundtable who said "here's to everyone else being wrong" was fucking right. Cunt.
Rating: about a 6, but for the ladder match it's now a 10.
From Andrew -
Best Match – The ladder match of course. I honestly think it should be given serious consideration for match of the year. I was just blown away.
Worst Match – Miz/Boogeyman. I actually like both guys but if I had to pick a "worst" match this one would be it. Nothing really happened and it was pretty short.
Rating from 1-10 – 9.5. If Booker & Finlay would have won I would give this PPV a 10.
As well as any thoughts on the show overall – Just another fun Smackdown only PPV. I really love this brand!
From Gary Crimson -
Best Match- 4 way Ladder Match.
Now I'm not really into stipulation matches, but this match really blew me away. When Theodore Long announced the match it re-enlightened my belief that anything can happen in the WWE and it was a great surprise.
That match itself was a WrestleMania standard match and defiantly a match of the year candidate. It had every attribute of a good match, great selling, nice spots, told a story and some great wrestling moves.
The only down point of this match was that I found that although Regal/Taylor adapted to the match with their own style, Taylor still looked lost and clueless for a lot of the match. But besides that it was a 4 star match and I believe that it has cemented London and Kendrick as a top team.
Worst Match- Miz/Boogeyman.
This PPV was very good and I found it difficult to find down points. But if I had to choose a match then it would be this one. This match was a nice filler, but it was not a PPV quality match, I don't see any difference between this match and the things that they have been doing the past couple of weeks.
I'll give this PPV an 8.5/10. The show was great and I will defiantly be buying it on DVD when it is released.
I'd nominate this as one of the years top PPVs, and I highly recommend any wrestling fan, whether your a smark or a casual fan to order the replays of the show.
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!
