Hitting Below The Beltway 11.04.07: A Closer Look At Cyber Sunday

Posted by Alex Barcham on 11.04.2007

Last weekend I was finally able to attend my first WWE pay per view, Cyber Sunday. In this week's column I'm giving my reviews, along what WWE did right and what they need to fix.

Last weekend I got to attend my first WWE PPV, Cyber Sunday. This wasn't a great show, but it wasn't bad by any means. There were a number of solid matches, a couple of excellent matches and only one real dud.

Rey Mysterio vs. Finlay – Strecher Match: This was a good choice to open the show. While both guys deserve a spot higher up on the card, they did a great job getting the fans hyped up. Rey in particular always does a nice job as a curtain jerker, because of the fast-paced and exciting style he wrestles. The match itself was solid, though not especially memorable. Rey's flip senton onto Finlay on a stretcher was a very cool spot.

Finlay once again demonstrated what a smart worker he is. He did a great job improvising a new finish on the match after the stretcher got caught on a camera wire. It was still a pretty obvious botch, but Finlay was able to think on his feet and kept going with the match. Considering they had to come up with it on the spot, the flapjack onto the stretcher was a fine ending. It's a shame that Finlay lost six years of his career due to his leg injury, because we missed out on a lot of really good matches that could have taken place in that time.

Match Rating: Three Stars

CM Punk vs. The Miz: I really wasn't sure who the fans were going to vote for in this match. Having fans pick the heel challenger is kind of a strange stipulation. Logically, Punk's fans would want to see him retain the belt, so they would pick the least threatening challenger; in this case that was the Miz. Unfortunately, that kind of logic doesn't produce the best match storyline-wise or in terms of workrate. Both John Morrison and Big Daddy had done significantly more to earn a title match than Miz, had more of a feud going with Punk and are more likely to win the belt in the near future. Morrison is also a much more capable worker than the Miz.

Miz winning the voting assured that Punk would hold on to the belt for another month, but it resulted in a pretty mediocre match. This was pretty bland overall. There was little reason to believe Miz could win the title and the action was just average. I'm a huge fan of Punk going back to his ROH days, but he hasn't really done anything remarkable lately. He hasn't adapted to the style of WWE as well as I had hoped thus far. He started the match with a series of side-headlock takeovers. This strategy worked great in ROH against Samoa Joe in their one hour draws, but when you only have nine minutes to work with you shouldn't spend four of them in a headlock, you need to get to the action. It also would help in he had some better opponents to work against; the Miz isn't in the same league as a worker as Samoa Joe or Bryan Danielson. Punk isn't a guy who can carry any opponent to a great match, he's going to need some help if he's going to start putting on classics again.

Match Rating: Two stars

Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Kennedy: Not surprisingly, Shawn Michaels won the vote to face Randy Orton for the WWE Title so we got to see Mr. Kennedy take on Jeff Hardy in a non-title bonus match. This was a better choice than having the two guys who lost the vote team up to take on the tag team champions. The tag team titles shouldn't be presented as a consolation prize. Also, WWE is already running one mismatched partners storyline, and while that storyline is great, doing it again would be overkill.

Kennedy got a much needed win in a solid match. WWE is very short on stars right now, and Kennedy has the potential to become one. These two have good chemistry together. They had a better match on Raw recently, but this was still good. Kennedy is great on the mic. Hardy isn't on the same level, but he plays off Kennedy nicely. Kennedy needs to start winning more matches and feuds if he's going to become a top guy; Hardy would be a good guy to put him over. Taking the title from a fan favorite like Hardy would draw him some heat and a serious sustained feud would get fans to take him more seriously as a threat.

Match Rating: Two and ½ stars

Kane vs. MVP: This match was very disappointing. I'm a big Matt Hardy fan and I was let down not getting to see him live. The boxing or MMA match probably wouldn't have been great, but Hardy and MVP are fun in everything they do together. Kane vs. MVP was very dull with a lousy finish. The crowd didn't like the count out at all. It would have helped if Kane had at least gotten some vengeance after the match with a chokeslam, but that would have been too similar to the finish of HBK vs. Orton.

Match Rating: One star

Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton – WWE Title Match: Seeing HBK live is still one of the most exciting parts of being a pro wrestling fan. From the opening beat of his theme music to seeing him tuning up the band, you know you're witnessing something special. This wasn't one of HBK's best matches, but I still found it very enjoyable. It's a true testament to just how good Shawn is that he can come back early from major knee surgery and still be as good as anyone in WWE.

The DQ finish was a let down, especially when the last match ended in a countout and when so many matches have ended in DQ's recently, but it's not the worst thing in the world. It makes sense that the cowardly bastard Orton would use a low blow to save his title. I know a lot of people are very upset about another main event match ending in a DQ, but with the ridiculous number of shows WWE runs and nine different titles being defended it's impossible to have a clean, decisive finish in every match.

Match Rating: Three Stars and ¼ stars

Triple H vs. Umaga – Street Fight: I was happy to see that the fans had voted for a street fight. Steel cage matches have been overused in WWE and street fights give the wrestlers more freedom in what they can do. Triple H vs. Umaga isn't a blood feud worthy of being put in a steel cage. This was a very good match. I would have liked to see few more weapons used, but they put on a strong match without having to risk their careers with flips off of bleachers or piledrivers off of ladders. Umaga running across the tables to splash Triple H was a very cool spot and one I don't remember ever seeing before. They did a nice job of putting Triple H over without burying Umaga. The Samoan Bulldozer got in a lot offense, had the coolest spot of the match and the entire PPV and it took a sledgehammer to put him down. WWE should be careful to keep Umaga strong as they are extremely thin on heels on both Raw and Smackdown. Umaga isn't someone I would normally want as a main eventer, but he's doing very well in his role and WWE should continue to push him hard.

Match Rating: Three and ½ stars

Batista vs. The Undertaker – Special Guest Referee Stone Cold Steve Austin: Somehow, in my 15 years of being a wrestling fan, I've never managed to see Stone Cold live. So while I think having JBL as the ref would have been more interesting, it was still very exciting to watch Stone Cold perform. The pop for Stone Cold's glass breaking entrance was massive. Only Batista got a pop nearly as loud as Stone Cold, and the PPV was in Batista's hometown. While that's reminder of the greatness of Stone Cold, it's also an indictment of the current roster. No one has been able to step and be that huge superstar who leads the WWE resurgence. Stone Cold is the Michael Jordan of WWE. Even several years after his retirement Jordan is still the most marketable athlete in the NBA. No matter how much they push Kobe Bryant/John Cena, they're not nearly as popular as Jordan/Stone Cold.

The match was pretty dull for the first ten minutes, but the last seven were excellent. They did a really great job building up an exciting and suspenseful ending. Even though going in I was pretty sure Batista was going to retain, they really got me thinking that Taker had a shot near the end.

I'm not a Batista fan at all, but he did a nice job in this match. His counter of Old School into a spinebuster was innovative and he did a nice job selling his frustration with not being able to pin the Undertaker. I don't like giving him credit after seeing what a son of a bitch from the excerpts of his book, but he did a nice job here.

Match Rating: Three and ¾ Stars

Observations

WWE needs to avoid using the same spots- This is being nitpicky, but WWE needs to make sure to avoid using the same spots over again on one show. In three separate matches someone went shoulder first between the pads into the post. That kind of spot should be used sparingly and WWE really overused it at Cyber Sunday. There needs to be better communication between the agents to keep that sort of thing from happening. This isn't just a WWE problem. If you watch the ROH show The Future is Now in both the Colt Cabana vs. Jimmy Rave match and CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong match the wrestler on offense set his opponent up against the ring post for chop, only to have them move and injure their hand chopping the post. It's not a big deal, but things like that should be avoided.

Cyber Sunday really could have used a tag match or two – Every match at Cyber Sunday was a singles match. They tried to use the stretcher match and the street fight to break things up, but ultimately the matches all started to feel the same. I'm a huge tag team junkie and I know there are lots of others like me out there. A good tag team match and perhaps a triple threat or fatal fourway, would have gone a long way towards breaking up the monotony of a card like this. I know the tag scene is really weak right now, but they could have put on a #1 contenders match between London and Kendrick and the Highlanders, or maybe a triple threat with the Red Neck Wrecking Crew. Ten minutes of London and Kendrick would have been a nice little shot in the arm.

We're not in ROH anymore Toto – It'd been quite a while since I'd gone to see any promotion other than Ring of Honor. Obviously, there is a huge difference between a WWE show and an ROH show. The divide between the two products is absolutely unbelievable. There are certain ways in which ROH show don't even compare to WWE shows. ROH doesn't even come close to WWE when it comes to productions values. I love the entrances for Austin Aries, Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness, but they're not in the same league as what WWE has for HBK, HHH, MVP or Kane. From the pyro to the titantrons to the sound equipment, ROH just can't compete.

Of course, there are some ways, unrelated to the in-ring action, that ROH is superior to WWE. Since I'm a poorly paid federal employee, I had to buy the cheapest tickets available for Cyber Sunday. So for $20 I sat way up in the nose bleeds. On Friday night, I attended ROH's Glory By Honor VI: Night 1. For $20 I got to sit in the sixth row. This isn't just a better value for my money that I got in ROH, it was a totally different experience. At ROH shows every fan in attendance is right on top of the action. Every one can see each drop of sweat and blood shed during the show. I almost slipped and fell in the Necro Butcher's blood in Edison. You can hear the crack of every stiff chop. Getting to WWE put on a show in front of 15,000 people in a massive building like the Verizon Center is cool, but seeing ROH put on a show in front of 500 people in the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory is a much more intense and intimate experience.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their comments and ideas last week. I'll be back next week with a full report from Glory By Honor VI: Night 1.