Sunday Night Fury: WWE Backlash 07

Posted by Arnold Furious on 04.30.2007

Vince McMahon = Two-time world champion

Sunday Night Fury: WWE Backlash 07

Vince McMahon = Two-time world champion

So I settled down to watch Backlash live last night. I made it through most of the undercard but slept through the ECW title match and the Last Man Standing. Luckily I woke up in time to see the main event. Fun stuff.

We're in Atlanta, Georgia. Hosts are JR, Lawler, JBL, Cole, Taz and Joey Styles.

Tag titles – HARDYS (c) v CADE & MURDOCH

Thought you might enjoy the little chat I was having with Larry as the PPV went on the air. Here are some initial thoughts on this one;

Arnie Furious: Nothing says freedom like getting away with it says:
Chaps represent manliness.
Larry says:
or gayity
Arnie Furious: Nothing says freedom like getting away with it says:
Jeff Hardy is representing gayity this evening.
Larry says:
and every night

Excellent. Normally when I watch a show without reviewing it live I'll spot something about someone that I don't like. I know that sounds negative but it just happens. Tonight's spot was that Lance Cade doesn't seem to picture the match too well in his head. So sometimes he'll do things that look really lame because he hasn't thought it through. Anyway I'll point that out when it happens. Matt starts fairly energised and hits a few hip tosses. Cade & Murdoch start out with the superior teaming but can't get an advantage. It occurred to me last night that the Hardys are an awful lot like the Rock N Roll Express. Remember when Robert Gibson tried to go solo? It was ok but ultimately it wasn't great. I get the same feeling about Matt sometimes. Jeff gets beaten up and sells very well in that Ricky Morton role. Plus all the chicks dig him. Jeff breaks out the Whisper in the Wind and a Poetry in Motion over the top rope and onto the heels. Matt busts out a Yodelling elbow drop for 2. Cade & Murdoch are both having issues with the Hardys high spots. Cade comes in and for the first time I notice his unsureness (that's not even a word! I was looking for hesitancy.) He just sort of stands over Matt thinking about what he's doing to do then just kicks him in the guts. He had nothing. His mind was blank. Anyway, it's probably a minor worry but it's something to watch for. Jeff gets picked off and Cade busts out a sweet urinage powerbomb. But that unsureness kicks in again as he doesn't pin and then pins. Like he wasn't sure if he wanted to pin or not. Murdoch comes in and brings the awesome as he sees the jawbreaker coming and grabs Jeff's head to stop him doing it before reversing into a neckbreaker for 2. He's done his homework. Cade in and he gestures for Jeff to get up. Again it strikes me like he's got nothing there. He picks Jeff up and hits a short clothesline for 2. I don't think Cade is the natural he could be, which is probably why despite his looks he's never been pushed before. Cade & Murdoch close it up a bit and use chinlocks to ground Jeffykins. Cade gets caught in the jawbreaker and it does strike me that he's the weak link in the team. Murdoch cuts off the hot tag and back suplexes Jeff for 2. The challengers have shown far superior tag team continuity. They've made like ten tags. The Hardys have managed one. They tag again to prevent a hot tag but Jeff hits a Mule Kick and Murdoch prevents the hot tag again. I like how they've used Tag Team Wrestling 101 but done so without cheating. Murdoch blocks another of Jeff's patented moves but misses a follow up elbow, which allows the hot tag. That was unfortunate for Murdoch because he'd been the strong link in the challengers team. Poetry in Motion goes wrong with Jeff slipping off Matt's back. He wasn't supposed to score with it but the fuck up was messy. Jeff at least sells it and stays down for ages Ricky Morton style. Matt goes for the Twist of Fate but it's countered by, guess who, Murdoch so he switches to the Side Effect after bouncing off the ropes. Cade saves and Murdoch breaks out his Texas Destroyer, which sucks and he really shouldn't use it, for 2. Murdoch gets countered into the Twist of Fate and Jeff finally gets up to hit the Swanton and that'll do it for the champs at 15.18.

Winners: Hardys via pinfall. ***1/4. Solid formula stuff that gained from not using some of the cheap formula antics that happen in every formula match. The Hardys looked as good as ever and could carry the tag division for a while. I'd still love to see Hardys-Londrick. Although I imagine it'd probably never live up to it's ‘dream match' vibe.

BACKSTAGE Shane McMahon buddies up to Umaga. No Estrada tonight, which should be an issue with how to keep Umaga in line. Another nice little hint is that Vince and Shane both suggest the other should win the title. The look in Shane's eye is very unusual. Like he's planning something. It's like they were hinting at dissention. I like the movie posters in Vince's office for the Condemned. HARD SELL~!

Women's title – MELINA PEREZ (c) v MICKIE JAMES

No mention of the snafu in Paris this week where Mickie had an hour long title reign after accidentally winning a triple threat match for the title. Mickie has sky blue Alexis Laree gear on this evening. She does look more like a wrestler with those. Mickie is a fine example to anyone on the Indy circuit. Skill and ability can get you noticed by the WWE but personality will get on TV and over with the bigger fanbase. You have to be REALLY great to get over on wrestling ability alone. Like Chris Benoit great. Crowd spends the first couple of minutes eyeballing the hot chicks then gets some chanting going to support Mickie as Melina fakes an eye injury and sucker punches her. Melina lands on her legs off a monkey flip. Mickie goes up top to follow up but its way early for that and Melina shoves her off to the floor. Melina busts out the Matrix stuff with the hair. She needs to stop doing that. In fact the Matrix stuff in women's matches looks weak now if you ask me. Which you do because you're reading what I have to say. Melina chokes Mickie in the ropes with a bodyscissors. Mmmm. Melina with the "Colt Cabana Presents" the Full Nelson Mandela. Melina uses the ropes but the ref is on top of the situation and sees it. Melina tries for the Trish tribute with the choke off the ropes but it doesn't get the same reaction because Melina doesn't make any noise like Trish did. There's no suggestion of straining. Mickie is selling like a champ but the crowd don't get into it. Slight misfire there. Mickie gets pulled into the splits and Melina does too. DOUBLE SPLITS~! They punch each other out of the splits and Mickie wins with kicks. Crowd is starting to really buy into this now because it's had time to develop. Sadly Mickie uses the Matrix hair throw as revenge for earlier. Neckbreaker gets 2. Mickie up top again and this time Melina is beaten down enough to not stop her and Mickie hits a high crossbody for 2. Melina kicks Mickie on top of the head, rakes the eyes and hits the inverted DDT for the pin at 9.02.

Winner: Melina via pinfall. **1/2. Given time to build this was the best women's match since Trish Stratus left the company. Melina has shown dramatic improvement since winning the belt, not unlike a certain Miss Stratus. I don't care for Melina's finisher. It strikes me that a DDT is a stronger finish because it looks more effective. Ah well.

BACKSTAGE Maria chats with Edge and quizzes him about how he won his first title. Someone else asks her to ask that. Edge talks about winning the title with his Money in the Bank shot and how everyone knows that so who asked her to ask him? Cue Mr Kennedy who thinks tonight's main event will be gruelling, hellacious and exhausting. "Hope you win your match" smirks Mr Kennedy before slapping the MITB briefcase. That gives Edge food for thought. His theory on having a better chance of winning after getting Monday off is good as well as his analysis of Shawn-Cena on Monday tiring them both ahead of tonight.

US title – CHRIS BENOIT (c) v MVP

This would be the rubber match in a three match feud. MVP won a non title match on Smackdown that was really quite excellent. They start out somewhat tentatively both knowing the other has a lot of offensive weapons. Benoit gets the Crossface in the first exchange on the mat but MVP gets a rope quickly and bails. JBL talks about the time and distance effecting Benoit's game. MVP with a headlock but Benoit knees the spine to get MVP to change his position so he can headscissors out. Wrestling~! Crowd doesn't seem too interested. MVP flips out into a bridge pin but Benoit bridges up with insane abdominal strength into the backslide for 2. Benoit with an early Sharpshooter just four minutes into this. MVP has too much left in the tank and hauls himself across the ring into the ropes. MVP pussies out of taking the chops by cowering in the ropes. I guess there's psychology in there. He knows how hard those hit and wanted to avoid them. Benoit takes a front turnbuckle and MVP Yakuza kicks him in the back of the head. MVP wears away with a cravat and Cole brings up Benoit's surgery on his neck. Benoit gets out but MVP surprises him with a belly to belly for 2. He still has things in the locker that Benoit hasn't seen and keeps surprising Benoit with them. Crowd seems more interested in his attire chanting "Power Ranger" at him. Heathens. MVP tries for a short clothesline but gets countered into the Rolling Germans. Benoit calls for the finish and that means Flying Wolverine but MVP grabs his leg to stop him going up. Benoit hauls him up into the Northern Lights for 2. Benoit gets caught following up and gets dumped neck first on the ropes. I don't like the back bump out of that. It takes away somewhat from the realism of the spot. Normally Benoit is the absolute best at retaining a sense of realism. That could be something for him to look at. Benoit counters into the Crossface and MVP has to struggle to the ropes for the third time he's faced submission defeat tonight. As Benoit is getting up MVP hits him with another Yakuza Kick for 2. He goes for it again but Benoit counters into the ROLLING GERMANS. He ploughs through five of those without a second thought or any stalling. It's like Benoit wants to show off his conditioning. Up he goes but the Flying Wolverine lands across MVP's raised knees. MVP hooks up a half crab and Benoit's selling isn't quite in line with how weak it looks. Benoit does have to turn into the pain on his knee to get the rope, which is nice. Benoit goes after the Crossface again, countered but Benoit counters back into a small package at 13.08 for the pin.

Winner: Chris Benoit via pinfall . Third successful defence in a row for the champions tonight. ***. Decent but I preferred the free TV match from a few weeks back. This just lacked something from MVP. Perhaps he got blown up by Benoit's quick pace. Still a strong match and that makes three decent matches in a row for this feud and this show.

Sidenote – did we go to Bill Watts booking school for this show? Long matches with clean finishes? Hey, I like it. It's like WCW in 1992. Minus the great matches of course. If this is to be the future for the smaller PPV's then we're onto a winner.

BACKSTAGE Todd Grisham has John Cena. The interview is short lived because in comes Randy Orton for the punishment angle. He makes a few unusually gay remarks towards Cena including calling him handsome. Cena sells it by breaking the third wall and connecting with the crowd. I like that. Cena runs through the gay remarks and although he doesn't judge Orton he mocks his pose and turns him down. Orton says he'll be on top of Cena later tonight. Ron Simmons overhears. "Damn". Quite.

ECW title – BOBBY LASHLEY (c) v SHANE MCMAHON/UMAGA/VINCE MCMAHON

I hate, hate, hate handicap matches. I know they have this huge Lashley push thing going on and don't want to unseat him from the title in a one on one but handicap matches are never any good. Umaga has the most to lose here. If he ends up on the winning side then so what? There were three guys out there against one. If he loses then he looks like a total jabroni. Lashley has held that belt since December to Dismember. Not too much in the way of challengers on the ECW show so most of his defences have been against upper midcarders on other shows. Shane starts, which is possibly an error of judgement as Lashley takes him apart. Spinebuster. Shane falls outside and looks finished already. He tags Umaga and here comes the psychology as he doesn't seem to know what to do because there's no Estrada out here to tell him anything. He goes to instinctive fighting against Lashley. I like the idea that he could basically just attack anyone and can't seem to distinguish between wrestlers and normal people. Estrada's handler role makes more sense the more you think about the character. Lashley clears everyone out bar Vince who fakes entering to allow the heels to jump Lashley but he overpowers them. Shane low bridges him and that finally turns the tide in favour of the trio of heels after four minutes of Lashley dominance. Umaga seems a little directionless himself this evening and does a lot of back raking. Shane tries for some body part working by going after Lashley's arm. He hooks up a cross armbreaker but Lashley is too strong and Shane can't even straighten the arm out. Lashley picks him up and powerbombs him. "Inconceivable strength" – Joey the Princess Bride fan. Why do you keep using that word? I don't think you know what it means. INCONCEIVABLE! If Lashley popped up and said to Shane "there's something I didn't tell you, I'm not left handed" I would mark the fuck out. I like that Umaga looks confused whenever Shane wants into the ring. Has he ever been in a tag match before? Well, I know Jamal was in Three Minute Warning but according to WWE history they are different people. Shane works a camel clutch for a while. Lashley gets back up and just t-bone suplexes Shane-O. Shane gets Racked and Lashley sits out with it. Umaga jumps in there but Lashley sees him coming and spears him. Running powerslam on Shane but Vince makes the save for his first interaction of the night. Lashley isn't impressed. Vince breaks out the facial selling. Lashley picks him up. Vince looks like he's wetting himself. Umaga saves. Shane bashes Lashley with the title belt, as if 3 on 1 weren't enough odds in their favour. Vince comes in and pins for 2. Shane saves Vince as Lashley gets back up. Umaga in and Lashley is taking a breather or something. Top rope splash. In comes Vince and pins for 2. Umaga back in. Vince has to shout "get him" in order to focus the big Samoan. Another top rope splash and Vince tags himself back in. This time the pin gets it done at an anticlimactic 15.45.

Winner and NEW ECW champion: Vince McMahon. *1/2. The problem with this is that Lashley has been built up as a monster but he didn't take that much of a beating in this bout. What did he take? An armbar, a camel clutch and that from Shane to wear him down. From Umaga a few top rope splashes, which isn't even his finisher. It hardly screams "badass" does it? I'd have thought they'd at least of used Umaga's Asiatic Spike or Shane's Coast to Coast RVD tribute because this IS the ECW title. But no, a few top rope splashes and Vince pins. I'm not too bothered about Vince holding the belt because its not been taken seriously since Mike Awesome walked off with the belt in 2000 to WCW but the worry would be how weak Lashley looked in that match. Austin would NEVER have jobbed to that level of weak stuff. Nor The Rock or Hogan or anyone else the McMahon's were totally serious about pushing to the top. There just wasn't any drama to it. I think this was a missed opportunity for something really memorable but it seemed to lack planning.

POST MATCH Vince celebrates around the ring and dances wearing JBL's hat. Oh, someone needs to make a gif of that. Joey & Tazz act all offended by this turn of events. I'm surprised Joey doesn't name drop Mike Awesome walking out on ECW with the belt when he talked about the "darkest day" in the history of the belt to give this a sense of history. Maybe he was told not to.

BACKSTAGE Umaga gets told to take a shower…FOR SAMOA! Vince bumps into the ECW Originals who just happen to be lined up backstage. He does the RVD pointing at self when saying his name. I like Shane's "hey Sabu, things are looking up" pointing. The McMahons chant "E-C-Dub" as they walk off camera. Heh. Cute.

Last Man Standing/World title – UNDERTAKER (c) v DAVE BATISTA

Undertaker's entrance is down to lean 23 minutes this evening. That is the tightest 23 minutes in television. Taker big boots Dave from the opening bell making himself the early aggressor. JBL talks about Taker having his right elbow bandaged after years of wearing the pad on the other side. Rumour has it that elbow is injured. JBL talks about how that's the chokeslam arm and the big punching arm and that might offset the injured leg of Batista. Dave struggles with a powerslam. He barely got Taker up for that. Taker seems slightly shook up and stays down for the count of six. JBL covers for Dave blaming the injured hamstring for a lack of power on the slam. Hey, I can buy that. Outside and Dave gets run into the steps for a count of four. Taker zeros in on that injured leg and kicks at it. Cole talks about the strategy of changing styles to suit the injuries. The commentators are doing a good job of talking us through this one as you'd expect from the Smackdown duo. Taker with the apron legdrop for a five count. Dave reverses and Taker goes knees first into the ring steps. He doesn't fall but standing up could be an issue later, which is the point of the match. Dave goes up top~! Taker picks him off and hits the superplex. What was Dave doing up there? And so early in the match with Taker still fresh and barely hurt. Slugfest. Dave wins with a clothesline. Taker gets back up but Dave slams him and legdrops. That hurt himself but not so badly he can't stand. Didn't really think about his own injury there though. Perhaps an adrenaline rush or perhaps weak psychology from Dave. Could be either. Taker bails to prepare the announce table for violence. Dave cuts him off and runs Taker into the rail. Dave wants a powerslam but Taker counters into a shitty backbreaker. They didn't have space to do that and it looked terrible. Taker pulls out the ring steps and bashes Dave in the head with them. Great camera shot of Dave down and Taker breathing heavy in the foreground. Did they get a new director maybe? Dave is busted. Taker dumps him on the announce table and legdrops him through it off the rail behind the table. Dave is down and twitching. Heh, twitching rules. Dave struggles but beats the count at nine. Back inside Dave looks in real trouble. Snake Eyes but Dave blocks it by grabbing the ropes and catches the now running Undertaker with a spear. Dave uses the ropes to keep himself up. Taker stays down for seven. Spinebuster. That gets five. Another spinebuster. Dave hauls Taker back up for a third spinebuster. The blood seems to have pissed him off a bit. Taker up at nine. Dave wants the Demonbomb but Taker pushes out of it. Chokeslam! Both guys down because Taker used up a lot of energy. Taker is up quickly but Dave isn't. He gets up at nine. Taker mounts for punching in the corner and that is flat out dumb. Dave is set up for the DEMONBOMB without even having to lift his opponent. Seriously now Taker, how stupid was that? Taker doesn't even move until seven and JUST gets up at nine. Dave decides to up the ante and bails for a chair. Taker gets bashed in the noggin. Dave thinks he needs more than that and goes for a powerbomb on the chair but Taker backdrops out. Dave sells the leg. Taker wants the finish and sets for the TOMBSTONE. JBL busts out the "ball game" call. He obviously thinks it's over. Dave is stirring though and he's up at nine. Taker can't believe it. They brawl up the ramp to change it up a gear. They tease a spot off the stage as they need a really extreme finish if the announce table and both guys finishers won't get it done. Dave wants the Demonbomb on the stage. Taker goes after the leg to block it. Taker checks out the stage area. They counter standing and Dave SPEARS TAKER OFF THE STAGE! They land pretty safely but for a great visual part of the stage falls over and crushes them. Both guys are counted out at 20.23.

Winner: no one. ****. Well that rocked balls. I usually don't like Undertaker matches but there was none of the usual ridiculous zombie no selling. Just a great brawl that the fans loved and several strong false finishes. If anything it was probably too short and could have benefited from another few near finishes outside the ring before the big finishing spot. This of course sets up a third match between these guys, which would suggest Hell in a Cell. I'm still not entirely sure why Last Man Standing was chosen for this PPV but it ended up being a good match so fuck it. What the hell.

WWE title – JOHN CENA (C) v SHAWN MICHAELS v EDGE v RANDY ORTON

I've never been a big fan of 3-way and 4-way matches either because the selling gets screwed with in such contests. There are always times when one or more of the participants is left selling a move for a disproportionate amount of time to the severity of the move. Regardless of the individual wrestlers personal selling issues. Multiple person matches often have stages of bad selling. The obvious one, off the top of my head, being the main event of Wrestlemania 2000 where they let the selling get stupid towards the end and nearly wrecked a perfectly good match. I think people are becoming increasingly aware of this little problem too, which is why 3-way and 4-way matches seem to be thinning out. I don't mind them throwing out some spotfests as opening matches with three or four people in because a cruiserweight opener in the WWE has very little to do with the purity of wrestling. It's more an issue for when they run a 4-way main event right six days after a 55 minute clinic between two of the competitors. They had a great match, far better than anything that was expected of them. Now that match had some suspect selling in it, which is why it's not ***** and MOTY. Merely ****1/2 and at present my favourite match of 2007. This match is guaranteed to have more selling issues than that match because of its very nature. Hey, it was cool in 1997 when ECW were putting on those Japanese multiple person matches from Michi-Pro that were just constant spots but I like to think the wrestling fan has evolved slightly in the decade since then and can cope with actual wrestling again. Well, most of the audience. My eyes must have rolled a dozen times in the past week with various people complaining about matches being too long. There's no such thing! More time just means more story. Give me my long matches with lots of psychology and I'll be happy. I like wrestling, oddly enough. If you want loads of matches on PPV then rent some of WCW's from 2000. That should change your mind on the subject pretty damn quickly.

Shawn & Cena start by having a discussion, perhaps about Monday's match. Shawn seems to think he has Cena's number. "Cena sucks" – Atlanta. Man, these crowds are hard to please. ****1/2 Monday AND he fucking jobbed on his birthday. There's no pleasing some people. The heels get thrown out and spend a ridiculous amount of time lying around at ringside afterwards. Literally time enough for them both to be counted out many times over. Cena hits his fisherman for 2. Orton finally gets off his ass, followed by Edge and they both clothesline the faces and throw them out. Now it's time for those guys to lie around while the heels work. Damn, Orton looks ugly today. Edge starts the brawl but Orton wins it with a dropkick. It goes outside and the match falls apart for a while. Shawn gets the upper hand and everyone else lies around selling something while Shawn goes up top. Moonsault to the floor~! Did that really need three guys standing around looking up at it to catch him? I hate spots like that. No one seems capable of making them look realistic. I guess safety first is a good idea but I've seen guys make it look less fake. Dean Malenko springs to mind. He doesn't stand there with his arms out waiting to catch someone instead of thinking about moving out of the way. He used selling to stagger into it using his peripheral vision to be aware of where the other guy is. Anyway, Cena takes over with a double diving Rocker Dropper on Edge/HBK for 2. Orton in and now there are two other guys lying around doing nothing. Crowd is actually pro-Orton, which blows my mind. Am I the only person who sees Orton and sees potential but remarkable blandness? But then it seems the fashionable thing to boo Cena these days. Never mind thinking for yourself. That sheep mentality is very prevalent among WWE fans, and wrestling fans in general, which I find very worrying. Edge flies back in there with a spinning heel kick on Shawn. Edge suggests a return of Rated RKO to eliminate the other two. Seeing as Cena flies into the ring post and lands outside selling for ages that means Shawn takes a beating to his bad back. This will actually pay off though when you think about it. The work on the back is specifically to wear Shawn down and make him unable to get across for the finish. Double backdrop. Orton stupidly turns his back on Edge but they carry on and double team Boston crab Shawn. Everyone is thinking that if he taps out there's still no champion. Which, incidentally, would be an interesting finish. The belt would be held up I would suggest as two people can't be the champion. Cena makes discussion irrelevant with a double Flashback on the heels. He starts cleaning house with flying shoulderblocks. Crowd doesn't like that he indiscriminately gives Shawn one too. Protobomb for Edge. Crowd boos but they can't see him. Five Knuckle Shuffle. Cena gets dragged out by Shawn and Orton and posted. Shawn posts Orton as well because he's stupid enough to turn his back. Shawn goes to kill Orton dead through the announce table. Edge prevents a piledriver with a chair shot to Shawn's back. Orton is all "hey, thanks bro, that's really cool" so Edge nails him in the head with a chair shot too. HAHAHA. Jackass. Orton is being booked to look like a dumbshit tonight. Edge goes back in to chair shot Cena but gets tripped up into the STFU. Hmm, not looking too good tonight John. It's not even a chinlock. Pulling back and holding your arm higher would make it look like something approaching painful. Edge gets the rope. Orton stumbles in there and gets tripped up into the STFU. Shawn jumps in but Cena picks him off too. While he's trying to get the leg Shawn rolls him up for 2. Shawn has Cena's number better than the other two. Shame he nips up as that fucks with his bad back selling that he's been doing for 7-8 minutes. Why does he HAVE to do that? Bugs me. Savage Elbow scores. He warms the band up but has to stop to avoid a charging Edge. Savage Elbow for Edge. Orton is back in so Shawn slams him and goes up again but Cena has seen enough and picks him off looking for the FU off the top. Edge and Orton pull him over and Shawn goes right over the top. That made sense. I appreciate. Shame Edge and Orton sell that when essentially the bump was tamer than a normal back bump. I TOLD you 4-way matches fuck with the selling. Edge stumbles into an FU but they counter back and forth until Shawn runs in and Cena goes to FU both guys. Shawn slides off but Orton has the RKO! Cena sees it and puts Edge down to break the fall. Edge takes advantage with the Edgecution for 2. That's more a secondary finish to the spear these days. Cena still kicked out easily. He lines up the spear but Orton is in looking for the RKO and here comes the final stretch. Edge pushes him off into a possible FU, countered into a possible RKO but Cena shoves Orton off into the SPEAR. FU on Edge as he gets back up and Shawn superkicks Cena. BUT Cena lands on the already unconscious Orton and gets the pin despite being out at 19.21.

Winner: John Cena via pinfall. ***1/2. Suffered from the usual multiple person problems but didn't have the usual spots. The finish in particular was really strong and very entertaining. If the selling hadn't bugged me throughout then it was probably four snowflakes without any trouble at all.

POST MATCH Shawn does a superb piece of foreshadowing as he sits in the corner thinking. He knows he had the match won. He's now thinking "what do I have to do next?" He's almost certainly due a re-match after pinning Cena in a non title match on Raw as well as knocking the champ out only for Cena to get lucky with where he landed.

The 411 –

Six matches and four of them broke ***. One of the others was a women's match that cracked **. The only match that didn't deliver had no real chance of doing so. It's an easy thumbs up and what, the third good PPV from the WWE this year? What makes me feel relatively even more upbeat is that they took the decision to give six matches a chance to develop and gave each one time to get the crowd involved. I think genuinely that people got over more this way. Cade & Murdoch are surely more of a threat for going 15 minutes with the Hardys, Mickie and Melina showed they could go, MVP pushed Benoit again and so on. If the WWE is choosing to go the route where they give people time to tell stories in the ring then their product will improve without any daft gimmicks. This is a real positive sign. Not that every show needs long matches but rather not every show needs to be gimmicky. They've gotten over with wrestling on Raw and Backlash in the past week and I've felt really upbeat and positive about both shows. If this is any indication of the direction of the WWE in 2007 then I think we're in for a good year of wrestling. Certainly so far it's been solid. There's only so many times you can run Cena-Michaels but people are still buying it and they definitely need to run at least once more. If the decision is to let Shawn take the belt then there are at least two, maybe three more matches in this feud. It could carry over until Triple H is back! Edge & Orton should be fun providing they don't turn either one of them babyface and just let them wrestle as their present characters. Raw has plenty of time to develop some talent up to the top tier. I'm feeling very upbeat today and I didn't expect it. Thumbs up WWE. Keep up the good work.