wrestling / Columns
Wrestling’s 4R’s PPV Edition: WWE Judgment Day 2007
Introduction!
Welcome back to another PPV edition of WRestling’s 4R’s! It is time once again to break down the PPV of the past weekend in the 4R’s style. You know, I am still getting used to calling it the 4R’s, it’s craziness I tell you! I am back again and this time we have another WWE PPV, this time it is Judgment Day. We had eight matches on tap, but did the card live up to hype? Could it follow up the great Backlash PPV? Let’s find out!
WWE JUDGMENT DAY Podcast~!
That’s right, for the second straight week we’re back with more podcasting fun! Tonight we discuss WWE Judgment Day, Garlic Chicken Pizza, Deadliest Catch, The Tudors, Christy Answers Steve Cook, wacky college days and much, much more!
How the 4R’s of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 3 R’s. I will take the 4 main shows (5 if I go RetRo) of the week: TNA Impact, WWE Raw, ECW on Sci-Fi and WWE Smackdown. If we have a PPV, that show will get a special PPV edition of the R’s all to its own. I then group my feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and need discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles, Diva searches and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~!
This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a “mark” column, nor a “smark” column, I cannot speak for Geoff, but my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. There are also occasions where I will bring out a 4th, 5th or even a 6th R to the column, so beware of those~! I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether very positive or negative.
The Matches:
Ric Flair defeated Carlito @ 15:44 via Submission **
ECW TITLE MATCH: Bobby Lashley defeated Umaga, Shane and Vince McMahon @ 1:21 via pin (DUD)
CM Punk defeated Elijah Burke @ 16:55 via pin **¼
Randy Orton defeated HBK @ 4:48 via ref stoppage (DUD) TRASH of the Night!
WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Hardy’s defeated Cade and Murdoch @ 15:06 via pin ***¼ MATCH of the Night!
WORLD TITLE MATCH: Edge defeated Batista @ 10:39 via pin *¾
US TITLE 2 of 3 FALLS MATCH: MVP defeated Chris Benoit @ 14:18 via pin (2-0) **¾
WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena defeated Khali @ 8:15 via submission **
The Right:
THE HARDY’S vs. THE DERVISH – A late edition to the card was the World Tag Team Title Match between the Hardy’s and the Redneck Whirling Dervish! In the end it was a great addition to make because it ended up to be the match of the night in my opinion. The match was damn good, and they continued to play up the face Dervish angle perfectly. They had a very well put together match, and Cade and Murdoch are really showing that they deserve this. Murdoch in particular was great, as he would randomly yell out, “BY THE RULES MAN!” This was just a fun and energetic match that did not seem nearly as long as it was, and the Hardy’s got the clean win in the end. After the match the Hardy’s offered the handshake the crowd chanted for it and they got it. This is also great because when they FINALLY do turn, they will be tremendous assholes, in turn good heels and the crowd will finally care. I liked this a lot.
BENOIT vs. MVP – The semi-main event of the show was the US Title match between MVP and Benoit. Now these men have had great matches lately, and with MVP losing the major matches it was fully built for this to be MVP’s coming out party. The decided to work a very ground based/MMA style match, which technically was good but didn’t keep the crowd as much as you would think. MVP worked the knee, which played perfectly into the first fall finish of the knee buckling and MVP getting the playmaker for the win. He continued the knee work and was able to counter Benoit and finally took the knee out, and got a roll up for the second straight fall and won the title. In the end while the decision was right, and the way MVP won was EXACTLY what I talked about last month, the quality of the match lacked as opposed to the other matches they had in my opinion. I said in the roundtable that 2 of 3 fall matches have hurt great wrestlers in the past, due to odd booking, lack of time and so forth and that kind of happened here. But overall this was good stuff, I just hope that they follow it up properly.
CENA vs. KHALI – Yes, I am putting this here. Going into the match I will fully admit that I not only was I not looking forward to the match, but yes, I thought that it would be atrocious. I had no hopes whatsoever and was hoping that it would not be in the main event. But it did get into the main event spot, and in the end this was the right call. First of all the crowd was AMPED for this match. They HATED Khali, they LOVED Cena and wanted nothing more than to see their champion SLAY this monster. This was the classic monster vs. smaller man match. Was constantly tossing Cena down to the mat and the floor, head butting him, using the Vulcan neck pinch and even throwing a big ass roundhouse kick! People hated every time he threw Cena down and popped every time Cena mounted any form of comeback. It just worked and it was not bad. Anyway, Cena got the top rope fameasser at one point, applied the STFU and Khali ended up tapping out. Now the funny thing is that, and I am not sure that this was intentional, but Khali’s one foot was under the ropes. Now either it was under the ropes because he is 19 feet tall, or because he was really trying for it and since this was the first match, they want an excuse for the 2nd match. I am actually ok with this because that nullifies the tap out, and Khali is still a monster. This was all fine and I have no real complaints.
Purgatory:
PUNK vs. BURKE – Right here was the battle for ECW’s future as young Elijah Burke did battle with CM Punk. I had said in the round table that these guys had a lot to prove. They are looked at as the future of the brand, and being that this was there first big PPV match they had to deliver, and really, deliver big time. During the initial first minutes of the match, it did not look good for either man. First of all there was no crowd heat, and it appeared as if they were not on the same page. Those first few minutes were cause for concern, but they finally wrangled things in and all was well. More hard work, a good superplex spot that they teased for an extra couple of seconds before delivering was the big turning point and then they finally got the crowd. They traded finishes near the end, and finally Punk got the Go2Sleep for the win. Punk scores his first big PPV win, and I could easily see a rematch at ONS III, or possibly a tag match with Elijah and Cor Von against Punk picking an Original, Thorn or a new partner. In the end they worked very hard, and tried to work a different match than the rest of the card, which I commend them for. A lot of things on this card all ran together, but Punk and Burke went out there, worked hard, hit hard and worked a more Japan like style and I liked that. But the bottom line is that the way they and ECW have been booked people are conditioned not to care about them. So right there they are working an uphill battle. No one gave a shit until the last 3-4 minutes, of a near 17-minute match. That was the other issue, these guys shouldn’t have worked a 17-minute match. 14-minutes or so, especially when you consider that the 2 of 3 falls could have really used a few more minutes of build. It was fine, but there was no heat until the end and the first part of the match was very rough.
FLAIR vs. CARLITO – Flair and Carlito opened up the show. Now let me say that there are nights that Ric Flair looks like Ric Fucking Flair, and then there are times when he looks like 58-year old Richard Fleir. For me tonight he was somewhere in the middle, he worked like Flair but looked very tired. But they had this match, and it went almost 16-minutes. Carlito did very simple, yet very good work of the arm and shoulder. He is working better as a heel, but I am still not going to save his praises until he works with someone not Ric Flair. They worked hard and it all seemed fine and Flair after getting beat down for a large portion of the match made his comeback, locked in the figure four and won! While the work was fine, this match seemed like it started off like a stick shift. They started the car, started down the road and got to about 3rd gear and never left it. You really expected it to take off and it jus never did. The crowd didn’t have much heat for Carlito, but loved Flair. It just lacked overall, and in the end it was very simple, it worked overall and hopefully Flair was able to teach young Carlito something here.
The wRong:
ECW TITLE DRAMA – The 3 on 1 ECW Title Handicap match was the second match on the card, and well, they did something that I think they thought they had to do. Lashley came out there, they jumped him, and then he ran wild for a minute and then pinned Shane McMahon, and was announced as the NEW ECW Champion! You know what I was thinking. Why didn’t he just do that last month? I guess the answer is that he wasn’t this angry last month, but he sure was this time. But as you could all expect, after he was announced as the new ECW champion Shane and Umaga whooped his ass and Vince announced that Lashley won the match but NOT the title since he didn’t beat Vince. This is all leading to ONS III in TWO WEEKS, where Lashley will get Vince one on one, that is scary, but I figure it will be extreme rules and they will have 50 run ins. This is not Austin vs. McMahon, Lashley isn’t Austin and this is not working the way that they are hoping, in my opinion anyway. This is one of three programs on ECW and damn if I don’t care about it.
EDGE vs. BATISTA + A bigger issue – So now we moved onto the World Title Match. What upsets me is that yes, I know all PPV’s are tri-branded, or what ever the flying fuck they are calling it, but still, you’d think they would at least try to balance things out and or give the appropriate show the nod as far as total matches and or the main event.
-Let’s look at the card:
Flair vs. Carlito – RAW
Lashley vs. Shane, Vince and Umaga – ECW/RAW
Punk vs. Burke – ECW
HBK vs. Orton – RAW
Hardy’s vs. Dervish – RAW
Edge vs. Batista – Smackdown
Benoit vs. MVP – Smackdown
Cena vs. Khali – RAW
-So the scores go as such:
RAW – 4.5
SMACKDOWN – 2
ECW – 1.5
-All right, so on a PPV that was traditionally a “SMACKDOWN” PPV, they get a fraction of the show, and not only that but their champion cannot buy a main event on a “combined show.” They had to add a match, so they added the Hardy’s vs. Dervish match, which in one way I am glad they did because it was the best match of the night, but if you would have added London and Kendrick vs. Joanie Loves Chachi then you could have evened things out a big more. Unfortunately they don’t care about making Raw and Smackdown even, because “Raw is the A-Show and Smackdown is Smackdown.” Fuckers.
-But there was a title match here we should discuss. I had some high hopes for this bout. Dave has been working well lately with Taker, and Edge is great so I hoped that there would be some good stuff coming from this match. While I will say that Edge worked his ass off, not saying that Batista didn’t, but they did not click. I think Batista was either totally off his game, or sandbagging a bit because he was pissed he didn’t get the title. Like when Edge went and whipped him to the steps, he stutter stepped and nudged the steps. Not like Taker or Foley who hit knee first and flip over, and this is important because Edge worked the knee and that came into the finish. That was Batista looking for a spinebuster, knee buckling and Edge getting a roll up for the win. That needed to happen, and the one good thing, we got a winner with no bullshit finish like Mark Henry running it. We like clean finishes. But for a World Title match, it was very lacking and this was the first Edge match I have been bored with in a VERY long time, and that is never a good thing.
The Ridiculous:
ORTON vs. HBK – I did not like this one bit and again I have to repeat what I discussed on Friday, the one thing I didn’t like is that they played up the concussion angle. I feel that this reflects poorly on the company. Chris Nowinski still works with WWE, and is a crusader against concussions and the long-term effects of them. Recently Nowinski was in the news when Andre Waters, a former Defensive back shot himself in the head due to depression due to post concussion syndrome. There are huge studies going on linking Alzheimer’s-like symptoms and depression rise in direct proportion to the number of concussions an athlete sustains. For a company that “supposedly” promotes an active wellness policy, this might not be the story to pursue. I mean the alternative is simple when you use 3 seconds to think about it. HBK has a bad back, was put through a table last week, you tease that his back is giving him trouble again and bam, instant story. Glorifying the concussion angle isn’t that smart a thing, considering how much controversy there is about the long-term affects. It just isn’t that smart a move. Some will say I am overreacting, but it is my opinion.
As for this PPV deal itself, they have Orton attack HBK and slam his head into the set, and that was the seed. HBK comes out to the match, and let me preface this all by saying the man is a phenomenal actor and sold this all tremendously. JR sold this tremendously. Orton tried to make the ref announce him the winner because the doctor wouldn’t let HBK compete, which meant that he was making his way out and he did. He did so, staggered, glassy eyed, and “competed,” which really was Orton killing him with a hanging DDT and such. But he managed to fight Orton off and get the big elbow, but unfortunately for HBK the power of Christ couldn’t compel him for the super kick, the Christian Rock band stayed out of tune and he collapsed. The ref called for the bell and Orton won. He then gave HBK an RKO, because he’s a heel and then even MORE dramatic bullshit happened. HBK’s smoking hot wife hit the ring, screaming and crying. Medical personnel hit the ring and they stretchered him out.
As mentioned about, I did not like this and if you listen to the podcast there is more in there too. Bottom line is this. HBK blew the fuck out of his knee and couldn’t compete. I wish that they would have ran the KNEE injury angle, and have Orton totally destroy the leg with chairs, a car, dynamite and perhaps even taking a shit on it. Something that works better and doesn’t mess with such a serious issue. My wife described it best, whether you want to be or not you’re a role model and while it is entertainment and people will say I am taking this too seriously I feel that they are sending the wrong message here with the glorification of working with a concussion.
Closing Thoughts:
After a very good WrestleMania and an even better Backlash offering, the company had garnered some good will with me and I had some hope going into the show. Overall I look at it like this: Carlito vs. Flair never got into gear for me, the ECW title stuff was silly and Punk and Burke worked hard, but since they haven’t been booked so that people should care about them, no one did. I hated the Orton/HBK stuff, mainly because I hate the concussion angle. If they would have done the knee I would have had no issues there. The Dervish and the Hardy’s worked well together again, and I think they have much more in them. Edge tried, but he didn’t have magic with big Dave and that match was a LONG 10-minutes. MVP and Benoit was good, and I liked the work with it, but they had built up in terms of match quality, and this one never seemed to get near that peak. The main event, while not great, was the spectacle that they wanted, the fans enjoyed it and it was not bad.
Overall I will go with a 5.5 out of 10 for the show and NO recommendation to buy. There is nothing that stands out that you HAVE to see, and overall this was a very mediocre show. Last month I talked about Sacrifice having elements of underachieving, but this show was much worse in that respect. Lots of talent, lots of teases, but they never got out of 3rd gear.
2007 PPV Rankings:
–WWE Backlash 8.5
–WWE WM XXIII 8.0
–WWE Royal Rumble 8.0
–TNA Sacrifice 7.25
–TNA Final Resolution 7.0
–TNA Lockdown 7.0
–WWE New Year’s Revolution (RAW) 6.0
–TNA Against All Odds 6.0
–TNA Destination X 5.5
–WWE Judgment Day 5.5
–WWE No Way Out (SD) 4.0
2007 TOP PPV Match Rankings:
– (WWE Royal Rumble) Last Man Standing WWE Title MATCH: Cena vs. Umaga ****¼
– (WWE Backlash) Last Man Standing World Title MATCH: Batista vs. The Undertaker ****¼
– (WWE Backlash) WWE Title MATCH: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton vs. Edge ****¼
– (WWE Royal Rumble) The Royal Rumble Match ****
– (WWE WM XXIII) WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels ****
– (TNA Sacrifice) Texas Death Match: Chris Harris vs. James Storm ****
– (TNA Destination X) NWA Title Match: Christian Cage vs. Samoa Joe ****
– (TNA Lockdown) Lethal Lockdown (Team Cage vs. Team Angle) ****
– (WWE WM XXIII) Money in the Bank III ***¾
(TNA Final Resolution) 30-Minute Iron man Match: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe ***¾
2007 PPV MVP AWARDS:
This is a little added deal here, as I feel that there are some other things that should be mentioned from the PPV’s. Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.
Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker: A Rumble to Remember – WWE Royal Rumble
JBL: Solo Commentating – WWE No Way Out
AJ Styles and Rhino: Elevation X – TNA Destination X
Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker: “They still got it!” – WWE WrestleMania XXIII
AJ Styles: Almost Dies for his Craft – TNA Lockdown
The Main Events: “We can step up.” – WWE Backlash
Harris and Storm: Redemption – TNA Sacrifice
WWE JUDGMENT DAY FEEDBACK:
From BEFORE THE PPV is Dan with some great points –
I know the have dismissed the brand split on ppvs, but this is ridiculous. Judgment Day used to be a Smackdown only show, and now there are literally two matches that are SD only and I’m stretching to include Edge/Batista, which has, a weeks build after Edge’s jump from Raw. So we have a shitty Raw title match, a shitty ECW 3-1 rematch, a tacked on HBK/Orton match, and the Flair/Carlito match. Now they add Hardys/Cade & Murdoch. Another goddamn Raw match. They could’ve added Deuce and Domino vs. London/Kendrick, which has the added benefit of being a face chase to their titles instead of a heel chase on Raw. A former SD only ppv is now represented by the Benoit/MVP US Title match, which should and will steal the show. That’s just really disappointing.
Plus a prediction, I think McMahon retains, and with RVD and Sabu gone, Vince will look to destroy ECW for good and challenge any original and in walks MICK FOLEY and boom, there’s your One Night Stand main event.
Back with Dan AFTER the PPV –
I watched the event at a Buffalo’s Wild Wings and the wings and Long Island ice teas were much better than any matches.
Flair/Carlito, Hardys/Rednecks, and Burke/Punk were all long and well developed but still rather pedestrian matches all around the 2 – 3 star mark.
The HBK/Orton debacle was pathetic and it’s a shame that instead of that shit, they couldn’t throw a Smackdown Tag Title match with London and Kendrick winning the belts back from D & D. The ECW Title also was like, “Huh, What the fuck?” I don’t even get the point of the booking as now we have another month of McMahon/Lashley. Woopifuckingdoo!!!
I actually really like the way Edge won the World Title as that is basically a clean win for a heel and the leg psychology paid off because Batista couldn’t capitalize on the spinebuster.
Benoit and MVP was really good paying off three months of MVP not being able to beat Benoit with him totally dismantling him in 2 straight falls including a perfectly clean fall #1. The end of the second fall was a bit blow but it didn’t hurt the overall quality. Here’s hoping for Henry/Batista to feud which leaves Benoit open to battle Edge in 4 star SD main events for the World Title.
Finally, Cena gets absolutely no offense in and then taps Khali after essentially 3 moves…if it wasn’t Khali I bet a whole lot of people would be pissed, but I think this was just to get Khali out of the way. Now you have HBK heal up for a month and have Cena battle Orton at One Night Stand and have HBK return for Vengeance with an Iron man or 2/3 falls match for the title.
Best Match: Tag Title, Punk/Burke, Benoit/MVP at ***
Worst Match: ECW Title and HBK/Orton at 0 stars.
Overall: I saw it for free so it was okay but definitely not worth $40 bucks, but if you spent the money with Khali in the main event, you deserved it!
From Guy –
Are you serious???
You would like us to give a score for this PPV…wow…Long time reader of 411 and a true Csonkaholic but come on man…there is NO NEED to give this a grade…or make it more realistic…like between smelly cabbage diaper and root canal…somewhere in there…and after not watching this product for MONTHS I joined back up last month due to the four way dance and the true HEAT that CENA and HBK have been having…I came back to a pretty good PPV only to see “THE GREAT MESS” get the next push on Raw???…I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT THEY ARE THINKING RIGHT NOW…and you along with a lot of others have stated that there are WAY to many PPV’s now and are flat and lack luster…THIS PPV WAS THE PERFECT POINT TO THAT!!!…what a joke…I have a buddy with free satellite and AND I STILL FEEL RIPPED OFF FOR CHRIST SAKES!!!…what a mess…I want 3 hours of my life back…
1) ALL THREE MAJOR TITLE MATCHES COMBINED WERE UNDER 20 MINUTES!!!…ARE YOU SERIOUS???
2) They already railroad EDGE on RAW for no reason to HBK…WHY DID HE GET THE CLEAN PIN AGAIN???…and then I still felt he looked weak against Dave…I know he’s the greasy heel and that’s his “THING”…but please don’t let him be a pussy for god sakes…
3) this WHOLE PPV felt thrown together in the back and had no flow…and SUCKED IN THE RING!!!…MVP and BENOIT had some nice spots and the Hardy’s are always good for spots but please…some people paid up to $40 bucks for this garbage????…I understand with the goal of ratings that FREE TV has to be pretty good now and up a notch…but that doesn’t mean that the PPV PEOPLE PAY FOR SHOULD SUFFER!!!…what a load of shit…now HBK is sporting a head injury that SHOULD NOT BE ON TV…so whets there message with that?…Men and women suffer devastating effects of PCS and head injuries but HBK is a mutant???…BRUTAL!…and is bordering on sick…
4) thanks for the rant and I cant wait to here YOUR thoughts on how it was in your eyes
Finally from “Outraged in Cali” –
You know something, I was actually excited to watch a WWE PPV cause I haven’t seen one in years. I was really hoping that Cena would finally get his number called and when I saw how they finished the match, it was just pure F****NG B*****IT! I was and am PISSED at how the WWE is making this CENA FU**ER seem to be. Meaning that all that shit that KHALI did to TAKER, to HBK, to EDGE, and even to ORTON was just meaningless. How is it that 2 legends couldn’t finish off KHALI but VANILLA ICE did?!?!? I really thought that KHALI was going to decimate CENA and make all of the CENA fans out there cry for their fallen VANILLA ICE! I hate the fact that he’s been champion for soooo long that it’s time that he really earns his reign. Give him a series of matches that even he can’t carry and we’ll see what that bitch is made of. Break his bones, make him cry, make him bleed and make him lose! He doesn’t deserve that reign! If there is nobody else who will carry the ball, vacate the title then and make a tournament!
At this point, I would even PREFER that FUNAKI be WWE Champion! And please, have them change the belt back to what it was and stop disgracing the belt by making it a f***ing spinner belt! That’s not even cool no more! It’s not even GHETTO anymore to own spinners on anything! GAWDAMMIT! KILL THE CENA CHARACTER ALREADY! PUT US OUT OF OUR MISERY!
Thanks for joining me for this special edition of the 4R’s, and don’t forget to check out the regular edition complete with all of the other shows from the week!
For more interesting information on wrestling, check out Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly Online and Mike Campbell over at SPLASH MOUNTAIN!
