Carlito d. Chris Masters via backcracker and feet on the ropes. Okay match, with some really bad spots. At one point, Masters forgot to kick out even though he was supposed to. It looked horrible, and Ross buried him on commentary.
Umaga d. Ric Flair. Better than I figured, but nothing I ever need to see again.
Trish d. Mickie via DQ, when Mickie wouldn't let go of an armbar. No, seriously. THAT was the finish. Quick match.
RVD d. Shelton Benjamin to win the IC Title. Very, very good match. Definitley match of the night so far, although that isn't saying much. They got a lot of time (15-20 minutes), and it was a great match. Van Dam won with a Van Daminator (w/ briefcase) and then the frog-splash.
Kane started hearing the May 19th shit and the lights turned red. Now, supposedly, Kane is crazy, despite the fact that the announcers, the crowd, and everyone watching at home can hear all of this as well. But, Big Show can't. So maybe Big Show is the crazy one? Big Show hit Kane with a chair, and it stopped, and the match just sort of ended. Poor JR is left to explain such bullshit.
"I can't explain WHY we're hearing that."
I'd ask the fucking stupid-ass writers, personally. This match was just god-awful.
Vince McMahon was doing something to Candice's breasts. Healing them. Yep.
Shelton v. RVD was very good. Throw that match out, and this PPV has been horrible. Let's hope these next two matches can save it.
Vince & Shane d. HBK & GOD. Vince introduced God as the 'Hipster from Heaven'. Harps then played, and a spotlight followed nothingness to the ring. Vince then ordered that God come to the ring WWE-style. Suddenly, Ernest Miller's old music started (sans "Somebody call my momma" lyrics), and VINCE DANCED~! This PPV is already starting to look up. Fun match. Lots of big bumps, like Shawn cross-bodyblocking Vince off of the stage. God walked out of the match, not even taking one bump, so he officially beats out Kevin Nash as the laziest wrestler in the world (although, to be fair, it's his day off). Shawn set up a huge ladder and Vince & Shane were on tables. The Spirit Squad came out, and Shawn jumped off the huge ladder in the ring, all the way to the outside on the Squad. THAT was fucking SCARY! Squad gave HBK the High Spirits through a table, and Vince got the pin.
Matt Striker and Eugene waste some time.
John Cena d. Triple H and Edge. Great match. Hunter did a sick blade-job, here. Lita went to hit Hunter with a chair, but he reversed it to a spine-buster. The chair went wild, knocked Lita in the head, and she was damn near skewered. Triple H got the sledgehammer, but was speared by Edge. Edge went to use the hammer on Cena, who blocked it and had him up for an FU. Hunter lowblowed Cena, Edge fell to the outside. Hunter went for the pedigree, but Cena reversed with a rollup for the win. Hunter then knocked everyone out with the hammer, did some crotch-chops, and they played that AWESOME King of Kings songs to close the show. Hunter was total babyface here.
Three good-great matches, three middling-bad matches, and one GOD AWFUL HORRENDOUS match. What does that make this? Thumbs in the middle, I guess?
-Everything backstage was 100% gold, from Vince turning water to wine, to Maria mentioning Masters' win, to "Wait for it".
-Carlito-Masters was good clean fun, with another swank Masterlock reversal sequence (you see why I love him?), and Carlito getting the dirty pin. Carlito trying the Masterlock was fun too.
-Women's match was obviously disappointing with Trish's injury, and it was weird for a bit, as I had just thought that Mickie was going to work over her arm like she did her leg at Mania, rather than that being a blown spot. But if this means that the storyline continues, then I'm okay with it.
-Holy crap, Umaga KILLED Flair. Probably the best plan, and it's strange that more monsters don't get sacrifices like this when they start out. Totally-Not-Jamal maybe have had a weak start, but I'm not minding him, and I love his running stinkface.
-Big Show-Kane was pretty crappy, with a stupid finish to boot. (At least we didn't get similar treatment of the God match. That would have been overkill.) Big Show's fallaway slam was pretty nifty though. I also deserve credit for mentioning the Waterboy at the same moment Big Show did.
-Benji-RVD was disappointing, as there were plenty of cool spots as expected, but not much in between.
-McMahons-HBK/God wasn't too shabby, and I liked some of the little things, like Shane trying for a piledriver off the stage before Shawn crossbodied Vince. The spotlight bits were funny too.
-Matt Striker is totally winning me over, as both the Eugene and the Carlito scene from two weeks ago were laugh out loud funny. I'm only disappointed that Striker didn't swing the blackboard into Eugene's face to start a beatdown. "Poop is not a word! And that shouldn't be capitalized! And why is there a period there?" Awesome.
-The Triple Threat was some of the most fun I've had watching a wrestling match, as the entire theatre was deeply divided between the three (well, it was just me and one other person rooting for Edge). Everyone in the theatre yelled for their competitor as if we were in the arena itself. And hey, Edge didn't job!
-JR was really annoying all night, with his "this isn't Catch-as-Catch-Can", and his Billy Graham references, and his "Shelton ran the 40 in 4.2". He was a caricature of himself.
Originally posted by OMEGAHunter did a sick blade-job, here.
Only one mention of how freaking graphic, reminded of a couple blade jobs from HBK and Eddie Guerrero both in 2004, he made this "blade-job" lets just say I think that's one of the fastest blade jobs I've every seen because I saw him hit the post then blood. At first I thought it was seriously a hard way with thud he made against the post but he lost some major blood for him to go under. Yeah, HHH was totally face. Cena's a tweener and Edge is was the heel. What a mix...wondering where they're going to go with on RAW tomorrow.
Micky was disqualified because she was choking trish with her necklace or something right in front of the referee. How many times have you seen a ref actually get to the 5 count without stopping after 4? Right after Trish went over the ropes and got back in the ring he raised his arms and crossed them so we knew she was hurt. Ending didn't really look good but it was better than making the injury worse.
I really enjoyed Carlito/Masters as an opener. Maybe it's because it was 1am over here and I wasn't fully awake, but besides Masters forgetting to kick out I didn't notice all the botches people seem to be mentioning. Wade Keller even gave it a DUD rating which totally baffled me. Carlito is awesome and the fact he's managed to keep all of his heel mannerisms while being over big time as a babyface really highlights how badly they handled the Cena/Orton face turns.
It went downhill pretty quickly after this though. I was indifferent to pretty much everything following the opener right up to the Shawn/McMahon's match. I don't really care about either RVD or Benjamin so I could barely keep myself interested in the match despite all the praise it's been getting. Flair/Umaga was just there, and the womens match made the best of a bad situation I suppose. The less said about Kane/Big Show the better. Horrible, horrible match.
Shawn/McMahon's was fun. The god intro was amusing, and Vince's dancing ruled. The bump off the stage was really lame and looked about as dangerous as falling out of bed. Not that I would want to be trying it at 60+ years old, but still. Not really a whole lot to it other than Shawn killing them both, but that dive off the ladder onto the Spirit Squad was unbelievably scary. There was no clue whatsoever that they were at ringside (usually even if the announcers don't mention it there's some sort of crowd reaction) so it looked like he'd decided to end it all and launch himself to the concrete floor. Amazing camera work, even if it probably was accidental.
Main event was really good. Triple H bled like a man and was the complete babyface all the way through. Cena being champion made me stop watching Raw for the first time in my life, so strangely I'm not really bothered by him winning since I only have to see him once a month at the most. Triple H was the shining star here, and a face turn is looking more promising than ever.
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Giving Carlito/Masters a DUD rating is pointless posturing. There were two less-than-desirable spots in that match: Masters forgeting to kick out, which they managed to brush over nicely, and Masters hitting the deck too early on Carlito's moonsault, which JR only made a passing mention of. The match was far, far better than pretty much anyone would've expected, and to me it's good to see two young, Vince-approved guys actually improving themselves rather than resting on their laurels.
To those who say people wouldn't look; they wouldn't be interested; they're too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter's opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost. This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires, and lights, in a box.-Edward R. Murrow
Hmmm ... does RVD trash the IC title tonight & proclaim himself (once again) the ECW TV Champion? I could see that happening WAAAAAAY before he'd trash the WWE title.
Originally posted by too-old-nowWas the ECW TV belt combined with the IC belt?
No. The ECW TV Title was combined with the ECW World title when Rhino held both.
To complete the explanation, it was the WWF Hardcore belt that was combined with the IC belt.
edit - typo
(edited by sergeial on 1.5.06 2254) "I tear my quadracep all the time! I tore it this morning, I'm fine! I'm here, I'm jumpin' around..." -- Kurt Angle
I knew Trish was hurt for real when she got back in the ring. The ref checked her when she rolled in then gave the X-Sign twice. You see him give it once, then nods and does it a second time to confirm. Basically when the ref does that someone is injured or the match needs an unscheduled end. Usually its not shown on camera. So if you see this you know something went wrong.
"They're all losers, either by birth or by choice." - Jack Parkman (Major League 2)
Originally posted by DerrickI knew Trish was hurt for real when she got back in the ring. The ref checked her when she rolled in then gave the X-Sign twice. You see him give it once, then nods and does it a second time to confirm. Basically when the ref does that someone is injured or the match needs an unscheduled end. Usually its not shown on camera. So if you see this you know something went wrong.
Unless it's used to put over a planned spot and the announcers do their fake "this is very serious" voice, which drives me up a freaking wall. Maybe that's why he had to do it twice?
Anyways...yeah, I was watching the replay on RAW with a friend of mine, and we both yelled and cringed. That looked PAINFUL.
TO BILL BRASKY!
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Originally posted by DerrickI knew Trish was hurt for real when she got back in the ring. The ref checked her when she rolled in then gave the X-Sign twice. You see him give it once, then nods and does it a second time to confirm. Basically when the ref does that someone is injured or the match needs an unscheduled end. Usually its not shown on camera. So if you see this you know something went wrong.
Unless it's used to put over a planned spot and the announcers do their fake "this is very serious" voice, which drives me up a freaking wall. Maybe that's why he had to do it twice?
Anyways...yeah, I was watching the replay on RAW with a friend of mine, and we both yelled and cringed. That looked PAINFUL.
Well basically its for the guys in the back on his earpiece. He can't talk back to them so they use this. That's why the pin was about 2-3 minutes later. They probably stalled and came up with an on the fly finish. That's why everyone was all funny about it after the ending.
"They're all losers, either by birth or by choice." - Jack Parkman (Major League 2)
They should have her manage a tag team of WWE castoff muscleheads who couldn't get over. That way the announcers can speak openly about "those huge boobs she picked up in Connecticut". No, no.