Wrestling’s 4R’s PPV Edition 9.18.07: WWE Unforgiven (2007)
Posted by Larry Csonka on 09.18.2007
What a fitting title. I don’t plan to forgive WWE anytime soon for this show.
How the 4R's of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R'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 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.
WWE UNFORGIVEN PODCAST~!
We are back for another podcast adventure! Christi tries to take over the show as we look at the WWE Unforgiven PPV, another bad PPV from WWE with average matches, a dead crowd, another DQ Title match finish and Batista and Khali having the best match of the night. You read that right. We move onto Dear Christi and discuss going to live wrestling shows, women's wrestling, women's MMA and much more! We also muse on the glory of the XBOX 360 and Star Wars LEGO~! An hour of fun just for you!
If that doesn't work, copy and paste the following link into your browser and you'll be fine: http://www.sendspace.com/file/7l1p5l
WWE UNFORGIVEN 2007~!:
The Matches:
ECW TITLE MATCH: CM Punk defeated Elijah Burke @ 12:00 via pin **
WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: MVP and Matt Hardy defeated Deuce and Domino @ 9:20 via pin *¾
NO DQ FOR CARLITO: HHH defeated Carlito @ 10:40 via pin **
WWE Women's Title Match: Candice Michelle defeated Beth Phoenix @ 7:18 via pin *½
WORLD TITLE MATCH: Batista defeated Khali and Rey to become the NEW CHAMPION @ 8:10 via pin **½
WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Redneck Whirling Dervish defeated Londrick @ 12:00 via pin **¼
WWE TITLE MATCH: Randy Orton defeated John Cena @ 7:33 via DQ *
The Undertaker defeated Mark Henry @ 11:58 via pin ¼*
The Right:
WORLD TITLE MATCH - The only right for this show, and best match of the night was the World Title Match between Khali, Batista and Rey Mysterio. Let me say this again, the only right for this show, and best match of the night was the World Title Match between Khali, Batista and Rey Mysterio. First of all they did good build to the match on the show. First of all they showed a video from WWE Mobile with Rey Mysterio. Rey explained that he was not 100% and that he would still be there, to put to rest what all of the doubters had to say. He said he would shock the world like he did when he first won the title. When asked about the Khali vice, he said that no one could stop it not even Batista. He said that you don't try to counter the hold, but that you had to stay away from the hold. Later on they interviewed Batista, and he said that the time had come for him to put up or shut up, and tonight he would leave the champion once again. Khali and Rajah they did an interview in which Khali said he had already defeated and beat down both men and would gladly do it again, Rajah took a cantaloupe, put a Rey mask on it and Khali crushed it with his hands. He then took a big round watermelon and did the same thing to represent Batista. This was all good shit, and led to the match perfectly. Now I will admit that I was not too high on the match itself, due to Batista usually being shitty on PPV and the fact that Cena has been the only one able to get great PPV stuff from Khali. WWE did what I asked here, they proved me wrong and this was good stuff. They worked hard, and when they got near the end they picked up big. Rey would get the 619 to both men, drop the dime on Khali and looked to be regaining the title. But Batista would grab Rey and powerbomb him onto Khali, toss him aside, give the big spinebuster to Khali and that was that. Batista had to win here after being in every title match for SD sine the beginning of time it seems. It came off well and I dug it, good stuff here.
Purgatory:
WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH - The WWE tag team titles saw the PPV stage this month as MVP and Matt Hardy, the new odd couple, teamed to defend the titles against the former champs Deuce and Domino. The real story of the match, of course, was the interaction between Hardy and MVP, and their constant efforts to one up each other. This included then stealing each other's moves and mannerisms during the match to piss off the other, which was great. MVP even teased leaving at one point, but when Matt kept surviving he rushed back to the ring. In the end Matt got back at MVP by tossing him into Domino, allowing Matt to TOF Deuce and get the pin. Matt then got some one up action again, posing with all of the belts. This was all excellent angle stuff between Matt and MVP, but damn do Deuce and Domino still suck or what? I mean, they suck badly. And again, the fact is the match didn't even feel like a PPV match; it felt like a match I can see on free TV on Monday, Tuesday or Friday. To me that is unacceptable. This show costs $40 and people expect a good effort, they expect great matches and memories; the things they have programmed us to want. But they did not deliver that here and in the end, a match that could have been pretty good or great came off as "just a TV match," and that's a shame. What could have been…
WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH - Here's a question for you, if a match happens and no one gives a shit, did it actually happen? Obviously the match happened between London/Kendrick and the Dervish, but I hate to say that no one cared. And that is because WWE has given us no reason to care. They took London/Kendrick from Smackdown after a lackluster year long title run and moved them to Raw with no fanfare, no reason to care about them and then feuded them with the tag team champions, that we haven't been given a reason to care about since the Hardy's broke up. In theory that is a recipe for disaster and it was because the crowd was COLD and no matter what they tried it did not work, no one cared. It is a shame because the match could have been good, but instead we got another match that didn't even feel like a PPV match; it felt like a match I can see on free TV on Monday, Tuesday or Friday. To me that is unacceptable. This show costs $40 and people expect a good effort, they expect great matches and memories; the things they have programmed us to want. But they did not deliver that here and in the end, a match that could have been pretty good or great came off as "just a TV match," and that's a shame. What could have been…
WWE Women's Title Match - The WWE Women's Title match is next up to discuss. I have to say a few things, that being that they did work hard out there, but for as much as Candice has improved she still take some scary looking bumps and may in fact kill herself, I hope not. But they worked hard, Candice had some extensions going on and had them ripped out, with made Beth look even better as she was killing her out there. Candice got the flash roll up out on nowhere, and after all of the abuse was able to take the match. I was really hoping that they would pull the change to Beth, but they didn't and it should be all right. It had that Cena vs. Umaga quality, where she was dominated and got the sneaky roll up for the win. If Beth wins in the rematch we're ok, if not it is poor booking I feel. And I know that you may be sick and tired of hearing this, but the fact is, again, that the match didn't even feel like a PPV match; it felt like a match I can see on free TV on Monday, Tuesday or Friday. To me that is unacceptable. This show costs $40 and people expect a good effort, they expect great matches and memories; the things they have programmed us to want. But they did not deliver that here and in the end, a match that could have been pretty good or great came off as "just a TV match," and that's a shame. What could have been…
The wRong:
ECW TITLE MATCH - Oh yes, the good old ECW Title match. Once again my point is proven that they do not give two shits about this title as they got to open that show. Nothing says this is not important like throwing it out there first. So they have Punk come out first, which I hate because he's the champion and they give him a video package about winning the ECW Title. They come back from this video package and Elijah Burke is STANDING IN THE RING! NO ENTRANCE, no nothing, just a big old jobber! He has been Punk's bitch for 9-months and they did nothing to hide the fact that he was going to lose here, they sent the message in the booking and with the beginning of the match. And I think WWE realized this, so they tried to repair the booking and had Burke dominate about 90% of the match, They got about 12-minutes, Burke dominated and in the end Punk won with a FLASH ROLL UP! Yes, the roll up out of desperation. Styles and Tazz tried to put over that Burke "had Punk's number and obviously deserves a rematch because he dominated the match." Right. This was an attempt as repairing the booking, but it didn't work. The fans were on their hands and generally didn't care. The fact is that the match didn't even feel like a PPV match; it felt like a match I can see on free TV on Monday, Tuesday or Friday. To me that is unacceptable. This show costs $40 and people expect a good effort, they expect great matches and memories; the things they have programmed us to want. But they did not deliver that here and in the end, a match that could have been pretty good or great came off as "just a TV match," and that's a shame. What could have been…
NO DQ FOR CARLITO - I think that we all knew how this match would end, with HHH making the superman comeback and that's fine, because he is the star, But when you book the match right, the star can win and make the guy he is facing into a star in the process. That's doing good business, which didn't exactly happen here. HHH easily dominated half of the match until Carlito was given some sympathy heat. You knew HHH wasn't in serous work mode when he ate a shot with the ring bell and didn't blade. The H's doesn't mind blading for the big matches, but this was beneath him apparently and would have made Carlito look good and apparently we could not have that. As I mentioned Carlito got the pseudo heat on HHH, and then gets the old school heel trick of the powder to the face, goes to get a chair and brings it in and…MAGICALLY HHH CAN SEE! He got a spinebuster, a low blow, kick wham pedigree and that was that, thanks for coming Carlito, you've been…
And sorry Randle, I know you seem to think I wouldn't use it here but Carlito was in fact BERRIED~! Now we all know that HHH was going to win the match, and that is fine. A guy can lose a match and come out string if he is booked strong going into the match and during the match. If Carlito was made to be a threat and booked like he was a convincing threat and lost then the match would have been fine. But the fact is Carlito was booked like a complete jobber, he got almost no offense and was never a threat to win. He got outsmarted by the super face, and ate the pin. He came out of this no better than he went into it. Once again, this match didn't even feel like a PPV match; it felt like a match I can see on free TV on Monday, Tuesday or Friday. To me that is unacceptable. This show costs $40 and people expect a good effort, they expect great matches and memories; the things they have programmed us to want. But they did not deliver that here and in the end, a match that could have been pretty good or great came off as "just a TV match," and that's a shame. What could have been…
The Ridiculous:
WWE TITLE MATCH - I will begin by saying that I thought the angle, in theory was good here. Cena was out for vengeance, he was pissed and he wanted to take Orton out as well as get revenge for his father. Now that being said, and while I thought that they would do a DQ finish, that was bullshit. This is the second straight PPV in that they had a DQ finish in a world title match, that is bullshit. You cannot make a habit of doing DQ finishes in WORLD TITLE MATCHES on PPV. It shows that you will not deliver winners and losers and you alienate your fan base when you do that. That is bullshit. Now you add into this that the match was a shade over 7-minutes, and in all honesty Cena's poorest PPV match of the year and that is another knock against it. Finally, this all felt like a big angle on Raw to hype the PPV main event, like a go home angle. Which means that once again you are using PPV to build to another PPV. You don't shoot angles like that. You use TV to build to the PPV match. This was bullshit. These guys had such a great match at Summerslam, a silver lining in a pile of shit, but they weren't allowed to do that here, and it gets penalized for it. This kind of shit results in…
The Undertaker defeated Mark Henry - The return of the Undertaker was the hyped match for the show, and with that being said they decided to make this the main event of the show. While it was hyped huge, I disagree with the decision. Smackdown gets the PPV shaft all too often, and while this was a Smackdown match, who does the Smackdown main event have to rape to get to the main event of a PPV. I would think a PPV main event with a title involved, and a title change at that would have been a much better way to end things. But of course we couldn't do that because we had to have all of Taker's special entrance shit, fire and SIGNS on fire. Right. But this is what we were given as the main event of the show. It was no secret that during his run until the latest injury I thought that Taker was amazing, having the best matches of Batista's career during that run. Mark Henry, while not a favorite of mine has also been fine, booked strong and working hard. So I figured that while it would be the same old shit, that it would be in fact, a "fine" match. I was horribly wrong. Well, partly. This WAS the same old shit. Long entrance, elaborate entrance and Taker is alive again! And then they had the match, and it was slow, repetitive, boring and generally uninteresting. Add to that the fact that things never seemed to jell and click and you have a horrendous match and main event for the show. Although the way things went for the 2+ hours leading up to this match, it was only fitting.
Closing Thoughts:
Overall I will go with a 4.0 out of 10 and no recommendation. I beg and plead with WWE to deliver a PPV worth spending the cash on. WWE started off strong this year, with the exception of No Way Out, The Rumble, Mania and Backlash were HUGE and I thought that they would rebound from a very sub par PPV year that was 2006. But the have since declined. The biggest party of the summer was a sham, as it resembled an episode of Raw and then they rebound with much more of the same. WWE is like the abusive boyfriend and we all know it, but we keep going back and when we get slapped around, we threaten to leave, but always come back because we believe them when they say they will improve. They have no excuse, even with the suspensions they have the roster of talented guys to put on at least a DECENT show, and I still think that they could put on a really good show. But it didn't happen again, and that is very disappointing. What a missed opportunity.
2007 PPV Rankings:
-WWE Backlash 8.5
-ROH Respect is Earned 8.25
-WWE WM XXIII 8.0
-WWE Royal Rumble 8.0
-TNA Slammiversary 7.5
-TNA Victory Road 7.4
-TNA No Surrender 7.3
-TNA Sacrifice 7.25
-TNA Final Resolution 7.0
-TNA Lockdown 7.0
-WWE One Night Stand III 6.5
-WWE New Year's Revolution (RAW) 6.0
-WWE Great American Bash 6.0
-TNA Against All Odds 6.0
-TNA Destination X 5.5
-WWE Judgment Day 5.5
-WWE Vengeance 5.0
-WWE No Way Out (SD) 4.0
-WWE Unforgiven 4.0
-WWE Summerslam 4.0
-TNA Hard Justice 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
- (TNA Sacrifice) Texas Death Match: Chris Harris vs. James Storm ****¼
-(ROH Respect is Earned) Mark and Jay Briscoe vs. Matt Sydal and Claudio Castagnoli ****¼
- (WWE Royal Rumble) The Royal Rumble Match ****
- (WWE WM XXIII) WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels ****
- (WWE ONS III) LADDER MATCH: The Hardy's vs. TWGTT ****
- (TNA Slammiversary) King of the Mountain Match: Angle vs. Harris vs. Cage vs. Joe vs. AJ ****
- (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
- (TNA Victory Road) Match of Champions: Joe and Angle vs. Team 3D ***¾
- (TNA Victory Road) Ultimate X ***¾
-(ROH Respect is Earned) Bryan Danielson and Takeshi Morishima vs. KENTA and Nigel McGuinness ***¾
- (WWE Summerslam) WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena vs. Randy Orton ***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
-Matt, Jeff, Shelton and Charlie: "Taking a Risk." – WWE ONS III
-Jeff Jarrett: "Thank you Jill" – TNA Slammiversary
-Christopher Daniels: The Ultimate X reunites XXX – TNA Victory Road
-Ring of Honor Makes Major PPV Impact - ROH Respect is Earned
-Kurt Angle: The Angle Triathlon – TNA No Surrender
READER RANTS~!
From Trevor -
Jesus Christ Cena again. Talking about all his family bollocks, how cheesy and stereotypically American can this guy get? It's embarrassing watching intense Cena.
And why on gods green earth did that match have to take place on PPV, surely they should have done that the night after Summerslam and had Orton kick Cenas mute dads face off at the start of the show and let them do there crappy Cena all pissed off and intense in the main event setting up the last man standing match for Unforgiven rather than dragging it on for another month with Cena being all embarrassingly intense. At least if they had a decent LMS match Unforgiven would have been something close to average.
Thank god it was free here in the UK because I would of paid £15 to watch that last night on the basis I foolishly thought Orton would beat Cena and they would have a good match. There was nothing else on there that I would have considered worth spending money on. In my opinion PPV is where they have there match and do things properly, Raw or Smackdown is where they can do all the shenanigans.
Anyway,
Match of the night – Take your pick from Cade/Murdoch v London/Kendrick, Batista v Khali v Rey or MVP/Matt Hardy v Deuce/Domino (who would of thought these two clowns would be in match of the night on PPV?) They were all average and not much separating them but I think I will give the benefit of the doubt to MVP/MH v D&D just because MVP and Hardys feud is the best thing on WWE TV for some time.
Worst Match – Undertaker v Henry but what did you expect?
Overall rating 2.5
From Chris -
I am a big fan of the site, and I just wanted to pass along some thoughts on the PPV tonight since I was there...
1) I am pissed about the WWE Title match. That makes 2 shows in a row where they have done the lame "you won't let the guy out of the corner so I am going to DQ you" finish for a title match. But earlier Rey used a damn chair in the Triple Threat Match and there was no DQ! If Cena was going to get DQ'd, they should have had him put Orton through an announce table with an FU or have his dad come in and hit Orton with a chair or something. The other complaint is that it was way too short. I hope Orton wins the Last Man Standing Match, because if he doesn't I think he will end up with the "can't win the big match" stigma on him and all the build up they have put into him will be for nothing. Right now he is as hot and over as he has ever been.
2) Speaking of being deflated by losses, I was surprised that Punk didn't get more of a reaction. I think that has something to do with them putting the Charismatically Challenged John Morrison over him for 3 months. Also, the fluke rollup win didn't help in establishing him as a major player. After jobbing to Punk for months, Burke should have lost to Punk in a more decisive manner. Not to mention they were putting on a great match up to that point. Unless, of course, Morrison is going to be out past the next PPV and they need drag Punk/Burke out longer.
3) I was really surprised that Beth lost to Candice. The way they have built Beth up over the last few weeks I was sure she was going to win. Not sure what Vince sees in Candice, as I think we would all like to see someone who can wrestle as Women's Champ.
4) The Triple Threat Match was pretty good considering who was involved. I think they spent a little too much time with the "two guys in the ring, one guy laying around" formula, but the end was really hot and the crowd ate up Batista winning. When Batista decides that he wants to earn his money, he is the best big man in the WWE. I just wish that he would bring that attitude every time.
5) London and Kendrick are not over at all it seems. Maybe if they were the pounding Kendrick took for most of the match would have meant something. That match was kinda boring and a "We want Cryme Tyme" chant broke out. Cade and Murdoch are entertaining as hell though and saved the match in my eyes. Cade is really starting to look like a future star.
6) MVP/Hardy v. DND was a great match. All 4 guys worked their butts off and MVP and Hardy have such great chemistry together. I hope they can drag this angle out for a few more weeks or months, as those 2 are the main reason to watch SmackDown right now. I just hope they don't pull the trigger on a MVP face turn anytime soon.
7) HHH/Carlito was better than I thought it was going to be. Carlito seemed to be pretty motivated out there tonight and it helped the match a lot. The stipulations kinda muddied up the match though. As always, HHH worked his ass off. The end kinda came out of nowhere though, as I think with more time they could have really put on a show.
8) Mark Henry and the Undertaker put on a solid match. I know he is not a workhorse, but Henry does an excellent job of telling a story in a match. Undertaker was, well, the F'n Undertaker, and he did his usual outstanding job of making the other guy look good while at the same time making himself look indestructible. Very good match from these 2. Oh, and the Undertaker's entrance was awesome!
Match of the night for me was MVP/Hardy v. DND, but only because of the lame ass ending of Punk and Burke. Trash of the night has to go to the sham of a WWE title match we got from Orton and Cena (but I don't blame them, I blame the time they were given and the booking). Out of 10 I give the show a 6.5, as I had a blast but Orton/Cena pissed me off too much to rate it even higher.
From Joe -
Match 1: CM Punk (c) vs. Elijah Burke for the ECW Title
Punk wins on a fluke, WTF?!?! I know why they needed to protect Burke, and he looked really good tonight, but there is no way a World Champion should win on a fluke if he is a heavy favorite. Sadly, this match showed that Punk is just an "Interim Champion" until John Morrison returns to ECW. Overall a decent match, but the ending sucked, and a Go 2 Sleep out of nowhere would have been better. **1/2
Match 2: Matt Hardy & MVP (c) vs. Deuce & Domino for the WWE Tag Team Titles
I really like the Hardy-MVP feud and I'm looking forward to when they fight for the U.S. Title, hopefully in a Ladder Match. The only reason this match took place was to further the MVP-Hardy feud and it should have stayed on Smackdown *1/4
Match 3: Triple H vs. Carlito in a NO DQ Match for Carlito only.
Everyone knew that Triple H was going to win this match, but Carlito should have gotten at least one believable near fall. Triple H has yet to impress me since he returned. A decent enough RAW Main Event, oh wait this is Unforgiven, sorry. *
Match 4: Candice Michelle (c) vs. Beth Phoenix for the WWE Women's Title (Match of the Night)
Yes I'm serious, a fluke finish in a match like this is okay because Phoenix was a heavy favorite and everyone believed she would win the title the way the match was built. Could Candice Michelle become the next Trish Stratus? I'm not going that far, but she is taking her job as a "wrestler" seriously which is something I can't say about half of her male co-workers. Match wasn't great, but the best one tonight. **3/4
Match 5: The Great Khali (c) vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Dave Batista for the World Heavyweight Title
Wow, Batista finally regained the World Title, which should have happened at Summerslam. Probably Khali's best match which isn't saying much. Match was okay for a Triple Threat but a little short which is fine considering who was involved. A great way to end Smackdown, oh wait this is Unforgiven, sorry. **1/'2
Match 6: Lance Cade & Trevor Murdach (c) vs. Paul London & Brian Kendrick for the World Tag Team Titles
This was a good match, and I hope this feud continues. The Women's Match got a little higher rating because it felt more complete then this. As a fan of Tag Team Wrestling, I would have loved to see this match go an extra 10 minutes. **1/2
Match 7: John Cena (c) vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Title (TRASH of The Night and maybe of the year)
One of the worst Main Event level matches in WWE PPV history. I understand why they wanted to have the DQ ending but at least have Cena do something to get DQ'd for. I mean if pounding someone in the corner is grounds for a DQ then Steve Austin should have lost all his matches. The Last Man Standing Match at No Mercy should be great, but this is a disappointing ending to RAW, oh wait, this is Unforgiven even worse. 1/4*
Match 8: Undertaker vs. Mark Henry
Honestly, I felt so ripped off from the Cena-Orton Match, I didn't bother to stay at the Sports Bar to watch this match and I wasn't the only one. I read that Undertaker won with The Last Ride, and it was a decent Smackdown Main Event, sadly this Unforgiven. (NR)
Overall: WWE runs way to many PPV's as everything on this show felt like a normal TV Show and not worth paying anything for. 4 out of 10, but who can honestly be happy about paying $40 for a 4 out of 10 show.
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!
