Wrestling’s 4R’s Friday Edition 09.05.08: The Retro R’s of Unforgiven, Orton Makes Pimpin Look Easy and The Dirt Sheet Returns to ECW!

Posted by Larry Csonka on 09.05.2008

It’s the Friday edition of the 4R’s, and no, Randy Orton didn’t drop a deuce in this column...

How the 4R's of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R's. The column will run TWO times a week. On Tuesdays I will discuss TNA Impact and WWE Smackdown. Also, if there is a PPV, that will be covered in this column as well. The column will run again on Friday's, covering WWE Raw (with Jeremy Thomas) as well as ECW on Sci-Fi. If there is a PPV that weekend, I will also run the RETRO R's of the show from the year before as well as address some comments when time permits. I will 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, my goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. I will not apologize for my opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.

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By: Jeremy Thomas

Raw 9.01.08

The Right:

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW EVOLUTION?: The one good thing to come out of Orton's opening promo (see below for more) was Rhodes and DiBiase's follow-up segment with the Legend-Killer. Rhodes and Debase were justifiably pissed off at being called worthless and confronted young Randall on it. Orton brought up the first time Cody and Orton met and how he slapped Dusty—continuity for the win! And then he slapped the taste right out of Cody's mouth before giving them a pep talk of sorts. This is great, as it looks to be building to Evolution 2.0, which is exactly what Simply Priceless needs. The

ECW SCRABBLE BATTLE ROYAL: After a power pow-wow between Mike Adamle and Teddy Long that was busted up by Kane, we got the five men who will be competing to become the ECW Scrabble Champion in a battle royal. Knowing the way the ‘E books ECW, they'll be lucky if they're not stuck with a tray full of Q's, X's, and Z's and expected to spell "Incredible." The match was good enough for a five-man battle royal, and it really just seemed to be there to make Mark Henry look strong, with spots like him throwing all of the other four off of him, not to mention the fact that he eliminated everyone. As strong as they put Henry over here, it makes you wonder if he's being set up to lose, and if he is the only guy who really has a shot is Matt Hardy. This wasn't anything great, but it wasn't bad either and so I have no complaints on it, beyond the fact that it's clear that Chavo, Miz and Finlay have no chance to win come Sunday.

RAW SCRABBLE BATTLE ROYAL: Much like the ECW match, there was little I could find to bitch about in the Raw Scrabble Battle Royal. Batista came in with his unique and never-before-seen game plan of "Destroy everyone," JBL wanted to prove he was just a Clothesline from Hell away from winning the Scrabble Match and the title, Punk wanted the momentum and Kane…well, he was just Kane. The match was, predictably, a fair deal better then the ECW battle royal. Most everyone had their moment to shine—Batista got the strong opening moments before being, shockingly, the first person eliminated. JBL went soon after, and it was down to Punk, with two eliminations, and Kane. With Orton watching, Kane and Punk went at it, and while Punk gave it a good go, he made a dumb move in the end and Kane won the match. It was a well-booked battle royal that made everyone look strong, and gave Kane some needed momentum into the Scrabble Match at Unforgiven. Punk no longer looks really screwed, and even better, they look to be building to an Orton/Punk feud at some point when the Legend-Killer comes back. That would be a potential money feud if booked right.

Of course, Kane didn't get the last laugh. Out came, much against Kane's predictions, Rey Rey. Rey was hugely over with the crowd and looked great in taking down the Big Red Monster. Inconsistency with the storyline irks me—I gotta tell you, Rey didn't look like someone who had been destroyed the way Kane described—but the crowd was hot for it and, much as I hate breaks in storyline logic, there's enough vaguery in this one that I can let it go, for now anyway. This got the crowd hyped and gave everyone some momentum going into the pay-per-view, and I have no complaints.

CONTRACT SIGNING MAYHEM!!!!: Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels came out for the MAIN EVENT INTERVIEW SEGMENT, to get the contract signed for their Unsanctioned Match at Unforgiven. It's no secret that I've loved this feud to date, and that while some individual segments haven't lived up to the others it's consistently been the most entertaining part of Raw. This week was no different, as the two came down to the ring to sign the contract. If you want to see why these two are so brilliant, look at their body language here. Jericho was playing the asshole role nicely, refusing to even look at HBK for the majority of the segment, as if to say, in a semi-passive-aggressive manner, "You're not worth my attention." Meanwhile, Shawn's eyes never once left Jericho's face. HBK just stared straight through Chris the entire segment, a look that said under no uncertain terms that he just wanted to tear Jericho apart. The two have committed themselves so fully to their personas in this feud that it just comes off so well, you can't help but hate Jericho and cheer for Shawn.

Of course, this being a contract signing, we had to get physical, and that was thanks to Cade. Unfortunately, as we now know, Michaels hurt himself during this part, but even if that hadn't happened, this would have been my one gripe with the segment. They wisely kept Jericho and Michaels apart, and they've done a good enough job with that that the crowd is just frothing to see them go at it. That said, they should have kept the physicality completely out of it, because it didn't do the segment any favors. It's a minor nitpick though, and all in all, this segment came off as another great one in this awesome feud.

puRgatoRy:

THE LEGEND-KILLER RETURNS: Our show opened in good ol' St. Louis with an unexpected treat—the Legend Killer himself, Randy Orton. His music still sucks, for those who were wondering. Orton came out to a decidedly mixed reaction, but this is to be expected, because the crowd will always pop for a returning superstar, and they were in Orton's hometown, nonetheless. Orton proceeded to run down the entire show by virtue of its champions. He trashed Beth for being a lovesick teenager and Santino for being the weakest Intercontinental Champion in WWE history—clearly, he blinked and missed Dean Douglas's title reign, and was probably in detention for doing something to his classmate's schoolbags during the Mountie's. He called Simply Priceless worthless for letting Cryme Tyme take their Tag Team Title Belts—as if they needed to be buried any further—and then he called Punk a disgrace to the World Heavyweight Title. Basically, Orton utterly trashed every champion on Raw. And damn it, I would have a much bigger problem with it if he wasn't, for the most part, DEAD-ON RIGHT. Let's face it, Beth and Santino are a comedy duo as champions, and we're not exactly talking Laurel and Hardy here. Rhodes and DiBiase have been made to look like chumps for weeks now. I do have disagree some on Punk because I think he's been building momentum the last few weeks and, as I said a couple weeks ago, I think they have a plan for him, but the bottom line is that it's the ‘E's booking that's allowed them to make their A show look like a joke…and now, they're having their main event talent point it out. Gee, thanks guys. Orton did a great job with the promo, but the problem with this was that other then Punk every champion he trashed was a heel, and the crowd's reaction stayed mixed. What did they expect, really? The fact that they're taking the time to point out their own weak-ass booking pissed me off more then a little as well.

When Punk came down though, things heated up nicely, and they got to let Punk play the defender of Raw, much like he was the defender of Shawn & Rebecca Michaels a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully, this one goes better then that avenging went. Punk did a pretty good job in his promo as well, and got some great shots in on Orton—the bit about the motorcycle accident was great. This is what really made the segment work—both Orton and Punk played their parts nicely, the crowd ate it up nicely, and it both reminded people that Orton's their top dick heel and built Punk up further as a babyface that the crowd is really behind. The fact that Orton backed away from Punk was a nice touch too, I thought, because it's the kind of thing he'd do against Triple H or Shawn Michaels, and it's subtly equating Punk with that tier of main event face. Even though the segment accomplished what they wanted to do and I think that the CM Punk Plan is still going strong, the opening part of the segment was enough of a mixed bag that it doesn't quite make its way into the Right.

A STATISTICS WHOOPSIE, A DISCUSSION OF HELL, AND A WHOLE LOTTA SPEARS: After Orton left, JBL came down to take his place on the mike. He used the same old Cinderella analogies, telling Punk that the clock would strike midnight at Unforgiven and there was an 80% chance he'd lose the title. Okay, first off, you kinda lose the ability to refer to a man's reign as a fairy tale and a fluke when he's beaten you cleanly twice in a row. Second off, for a guy who's supposed to be a financial genius, JBL's no statistician. Sure, there are five people in the match, Punk's one of them, and a one in five chance is 20%. But really, if you're telling a man he's a Cinderella story that's about to end, are you really going to give him the same odds that you're giving yourself? Kinda weak sauce there, John. Of course, then Kane came down, and laughed at JBL, saying he'd been to hell, but he hadn't seen any clotheslines down there. He might wanna check with Edge, maybe he's seen it. Kane brought up how he took Rey to hell before Batista came down. Batista didn't seem up to talking, so he speared everyone…straight to hell? I'm just sayin'…since everyone else in the WWE seems to have the secret to traveling to Hell. This was fine for what it was, which was a chance for everyone to get some face time before the Battle Royal. It wasn't anything amazing, especially considering JBL's relatively weak promo, but it wasn't terrible either.

JAMIE NOBLE vs. WILLIAM REGAL: Okay, I'm not as ga-ga over Layla as some other people are, but daaaamn. Beige is clearly that woman's color. This was a continuation of two things: Noble's goofball storyline and Regal's continuing punishment for his Wellness Violation. Regal's still wearing the grandma's robe and swimsuit as a ring outfit—and yes, I realize it may be covering up a weakened physique, it still looks absolutely TERRIBLE. Stupid line of the night: Michael Cole, referring to Regal's skills with "It just looks like everything he does in the ring hurts!" No shit, Sherlock, that's kind of the point of offense. Michael Cole, ladies and gentlemen. The match was, for all of its shortness, not too bad. Regal controlled the match up until the last move and got some nice-looking offense in, and then Noble got the fluke pin. My problems with this match were that it was just WAY too short and I have a problem with how they're continuing to bury Regal. He violated Wellness, he served his time, now he's back. You don't see Jeff Hardy jobbing to comedy characters on SmackDown, do you? Give Regal a chance, guys.

The wRong:

KOFI KINGSTON vs. CHARLIE CENA: So Charlie Haas is doing the impersonation gimmick now? Yeah, ‘cause that worked so well for the Showster. At least Big Paul had the charisma to make the silliness entertaining, wasn't getting jobbed out in the process. Don't get me wrong, it at least gives Haas something to do, but c'mon, is this the best they can come up with? As for the match itself, it sure as hell wasn't anything to write home about to say the least, being too short for Kofi and Haas to get anything going. This was a match strictly to give Kofi some more momentum in his feud with Santino, and it did that, but the getting there sucked pretty hard. These two clearly don't click, as Haas didn't take Kofi's monkey flip very well, and Kofi's kick to the head during the "You can't see me" gesture was weak to say the least. And the less said about that roll-up sequence, the better. The plus side is that Kofi's moves seem to be getting over with the fans, but the bottom line is that the match was way too short and they rushed to get through it, which resulted in a bad match.

SIX-WOMAN TAG TEAM MATCH: News flash: I still hate Jillian's terrible singing gimmick. Dear Buddha, please make it stop. Also, I'd like a pony and a plastic rocket. On the plus side, Mickie was in uber, uber-hot mode tonight. Of course, so was Double-K, but what else is new? The way they did the entrances was absolutely bizarre…two heels, two faces, then a heel, then a face? What the hell was that? Listen, ‘E, I know you want the big pop for the returning Candice, and Beth is the Women's Champion, but sometimes, you gotta pick one over the other. This just made no sense and was really weird. Beth wasn't particularly doing it for me on the mike either tonight, which is a flaw of hers. Sometimes she's pretty good…other times, she's just terribly off, and this was one of those nights. Candice was the last person out, and good CHRIST, was her music always that bad, and I just blocked it out? The match itself was a mixed bag; Double-K was not in "good KK mode" as she nearly botched her flip move, but the heels got some good offense in and Mickie played a good face in peril. The big problem was Candice, who had a lot of ring rust to work off and came off really sloppy. She botched a couple moves, and the ones she hit didn't look as good as they could have. I'm chalking this up strictly to ring rust and hoping she'll improve, but in her return match she was far from impressive. I question Beth eating the pin two weeks in a row, also. Not the best we've seen out of the Raw women by a long shot.

SANTINO MARELLA vs. D'LO BROWN: Santino came out to the ring to take on D'Lo Brown…again. Before he did though, he had some words for Randy Orton. He said he would be the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time, and introduced the HONK-A-METER! The basic gist of this, a weekly running total of how Santino stacks up to Honky's record sixty-three week-long title reign, is absolutely classic, and promises to be the best running gag since the RNN. Current Total: Honky 63, Santino 2. It's a start! Now, onto the match. First off, why the hell does Santino get D'Lo again? Correct me if I'm wrong here (and I predict if I am wrong, at LEAST five people will), but since he's come back, the only person D'Lo's faced on television has been…that's right, Santino. This is the rubber match to their EPIC FEUD….or would be, if D'Lo wasn't already up 2-0. Oops. Well, at least he finally got one on D'Lo. The match was okay—D'Lo looked motivated and hit a decent Shining Wizard—but the end did neither man any favors, as D'Lo took the loss but Santino didn't exactly win strongly. Seriously, they can't let Santino win ONE MATCH cleanly via a finisher? Hell, at this point I've forgotten what the hell Santino's finisher IS. And it was also—say it with me, ladies and gentlemen—too short. Way too much wrong, and not enough right for my tastes, so this one gets a thumbs down.

The Ridiculous:

MIZ AND MORRISON vs. CRYME TYME: Now this whole thing just pissed me the hell of, for many a reason. First off, we were robbed of the most awesome entrance in professional wrestling today, as MnM 2 were already in the ring, and what was left of their entrance was ignored so Lawler and Cole could shill WWE 24/7. Which is totally awesome, by the way. Second, what the hell is Miz doing in two matches on one show? Third of all, why the hell did Lawler and Cole not put over the fact that Miz was working two matches on one show, even if this match WAS a non-match? Oh, that's right, we wouldn't want to support our superstars, would we? Finally, this match wasn't a match, it was a non-match that gave Simply Priceless the chance to come down, beat down Cryme Tyme, and get their belts back. While I'm not opposed to that scenario in theory, it would have been nice for us to get at least SOME match out of it. If they didn't wanna put Miz in two actual matches, I'm sure there were two heels in the back they could have tossed in there to get the rub. I'm not a fan of us being told we're about to get a match and then not have it happen. This wasn't a main event or anything, but it's the principle of it. Other then getting the Shaman of Sexy some TV time and giving Simply Priceless some heat back, this was all sorts of horrible, and Jer does not approve.


SHOW RATING: (**¾)Better show then last week. Although we still had a lot of stupidly short matches and I didn't like Orton burying the entire Champion roster, the Scrabble Battle Royals were decent and Michaels/Jericho was a great contract signing segment, one of the better ones seen in a long time. We've certainly seen worse then this before.

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By: Larry Csonka

ECW 9.02.08:

The Right:

The Dirt Sheet: The last time the Dirt Sheet appeared on ECW I thought that it was merely ok for the fact that I didn't think the show came off that well on TV. As an Internet show I love it, but not everything will work everywhere. But they gave it another shot this week, and it started out really well. Miz and Morrison were their usual funny selves, Miz put over the fact that he is in the scramble and that he would win the title in that shit-hole he calls a hometown Cleveland. Sorry people in Cleveland, I'm from Pittsburgh. They brought out Mark Henry and promised no messing around like the last time. Chavo was next and they made fun of him, KERWIN reference! Finlay would come out after Miz and Morrison showed some video of "Finlay's brothers," which wasn't so flattering. Some more hilarity ensued, and Morrison then announced Jeff, er, Matt Hardy to the ring. Hardy was massively over, unfortunately I felt that he pulled the segment down as he checked his charisma at the door. Seriously, life partner jokes Matt? Try poopy next time dude. Thankfully he redeemed himself by telling Tony Atlas to, "Get a good night of sleep, you'll need it to pull the referee out of the ring for 20-minutes." They all brawled, Dreamer and Bourne would make the save and this led to out main event for the evening. This was an overall fun and productive segment as we get our main event AND keep Dreamer, Morrison and Bourne all in the mix.

The Miz, John Morrison, Chavo Guerrero and Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy, Tommy Dreamer, Finlay and Evan Bourne: Coming out of the opening segment, we were given the main event for this week's show. WWE has an ability to put on good multi-man matches on TV, and to be honest this again was no different. It was an example of everyone working hard and just doing their jobs. I love it when things are simple that way. Even with the commercial they got 12-minutes to work, which is needed when you have so many people in the match. Good action through out with the ending being a ton of fun. One by one the faces took out the heels as they laid out Mark Henry. We got the shooting star from Bourne, the seated drop by Finlay, the frog splash by Dreamer and finally the twist of fate by Hardy to put him away. This was tons of fun and it was a satisfying ending with Hardy getting the victory. But it also kept Henry strong as it took all four men to defeat him. Coming off of his battle royal performance where he dominated and this added into it, he almost looks unstoppable.

puRgatoRy:

Ricky Ortiz vs. Ryan Braddock: Get your Ricky O Rally towels out kids, because the Ricky Ortiz express continues to roll on ECW. While Ortiz doesn't have the comedy skills of or the ring skills of a guy like Colt Cabana, what he has that guys like Bradley and Spears lack is charisma. And when you have charisma and a look, you can get away with a lot more than the others. Sup Hulk Hogan. Ortiz has those things and thus far in his short run in ECW he is making it work. The match overall was acceptable. Ortiz did his deal, the people liked it and he picked up the win. The match wasn't boring like Spears vs. Crazy, but it also wasn't that good either. It came off like wrestling school 101 to me. Bradley/Braddock just hasn't improved to the level he needs to at this stage, and add into that the lame name and lack of personality, and you're just not getting much. Braddock comes off as a cheap version of JBL. He has less injuries and more mobility, but comes 99% charisma free! Ortiz is fun overall, but my only gripe is that the goofy splash needs to go. I just have a hard time buying a running splash off the ropes finishing guys.

The wRong:

Gavin Spears vs. Super Crazy: Week two of the Gavin Spears experiment was on display this week and I was NOT impressed. I am trying to think of the best way to put this to be honest with you. It wasn't that it was a "BAD" match. Technically I suppose it was fine as they weren't out there blowing spots left and right. It was fine, but while it was fine they didn't do anything to make me care. Spears cut his 1980's box promo, we're supposed to care but why? I mean he's supposed to be this cocky dude that is great, but he isn't. I would guess that he and Crazy had the best match that they could out there with the limitations and all, but this was a channel changer in my opinion and I LIKE Super Crazy. Also, what I wrote Tuesday about Spears being released before Cabana and Bradley; well, when you're losing to Super Crazy all that means is that jobbing to Funaki is right around the corner. Hell Kenny Dykstra may find a win if he gets to face this guy. That makes you shit out of luck son.

The Ridiculous:

Shame, Shame, Shame…: Last week I had some harsh words for the commentary team. While they have been doing an excellent job overall on commentary, last week they made a big mistake of mentioning that Evan Bourne had never been pinned before the Miz did so last week. Some said that I was hard on them, but the fact remains that you can't make mistakes like that and then continue to mention it as a way to build that match. WWE is usually much better than this and doesn't make these type of production errors. But then this week they did it AGAIN! They made the same error and they let it run. I have to ask, does NO ONE do research for this company? Here let me do it for you:

* Matt Sydal debuts June 3rd against Shelton Benjamin.
* Matt Sydal is changed to EVAN BOURNE on June 10th.
* EVAN BOURNE is pinned by Mike Knox on June 24th.

Yes, yes there it is. Seriously, there is really no excuse for this kind of think to make it through one time, let alone two times. It just can't be allowed to go through the post producing process. While they likely don't mean too, they are essentially lying to the audience, and that isn't a good thing.


SHOW RATING: (**¼) We'll go less than average this week. Nothing was horrible but nothing was great, it was mainly just there. I figure the pre-taping a week ahead hurt the episode a bit, because it came off as a very weak go home show with some bland filler tossed in, in my opinion anyway.

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RETRO

By: Larry Csonka

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, 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.

And I'm out of here!