-Air Boom d. Awesome Truth by DQ to retain the Tag Team Championship Miz and Truth got frustrated with the officiating throughout the match until Miz lost it and threw the ref for the DQ. Weeeeeeeeak! The idea, I'm assuming, is to feed the conspiracy theory, but this was a bad way to open the PPV.
Matt Striker talks to Awesome Truth, who confirm that the referee is part of the conspiracy.
-Cody Rhodes d. Ted DiBiase to retain the Intercontinental Championship This was an ok match, but didn't help an already deflated crowd here. No one really took DiBiase seriously as a challenger and I could see why. End comes after DiBiase rips Cody's mask off. He then tries to hit Cody with it (and would have gotten himself DQ'd, like a dope), but Cody ducks it and rolls up DiBiase and grabs the tights for the pin.
Christian joins us for an impromptu promo. Christian says he deserves one more match. I weep at how they've pretty much turned Christian into a one-note joke. Sheamus interrupts and Brogue Kicks Christian, for fun.
-Dolph Ziggler d. "The All-American American" Jack Swagger, Alex Riley, and John Morrison to retain the United States Championship The normal chaotic four-way match. Riley didn't drag this match down like I expected him to and Morrison showed his occasional flashes of brilliance. Swagger gets Riley with the anklelock and Morrison misses with the Flash Kick. Swagger nails Morrison with the Swagger Bomb, but Ziggler takes out Swagger and pins Morrison to retain the title. In other words, the same ending to every one of these four-way matches.
Backstage, Vickie gloats about Ziggler's victory and talks about every Superstar wanting to join the Vickie Family. She throws her name out there for COO if Triple H loses tonight.
Josh Matthews talks to Mark Henry. Henry says he has 15 years of pent up frustration to let out tonight. Henry demands that Matthews interview him post-match when he wins. Oh, I'd KILL to see Henry pull a Mayweather on Matthews!
-"The World's Strongest Man" Mark Henry d. Randy Orton to win the World Heavyweight Championship Good story told in this match. Story is that Henry's 15 years of failure would start to weigh heavily on him throughout the match, so all Orton had to do was try and psych him out. This was your usual plodding Henry match, which we all knew would be the downside of this feud. At the very least, though, Henry's power offense looked pretty impressive, particularly the bow-and-arrow spot on the steel post. Big pop for the hanging DDT, which actually did look pretty cool. Henry lures Orton in and kicks his leg out from under him. Orton, on one leg, desperately tries to crawl up, but Henry's just toying with him at this point. Orton defiantly gets up and goes for one last desperate RKO, but Henry shoves him off and the World's Strongest Slam gets the pin and the title, clean as a sheet. Orton, shockingly, was never really in this match and Henry won it very convincingly.
Post-match, we get the promised Josh Matthews interview. Henry completely berates the crowd for not believing in him. Henry says he'll take on anybody and everybody. Sadly, we're denied Henry beating down Josh Matthews.
Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez complain to Super Dave Laurinaitis about what happened to them last Monday on Raw. Johnny Ace tells them that what happened last Monday was Triple H's call. Never mind the fact that Laurinaitis was the one who made the match. ADR vows that he'll be respected after tonight and exits. CM Punk then enters the picture and mocks Laurinaitis' sincerity.
-Kelly Kelly (w/Eve Torres) d. "The Glamazon" Beth Phoenix (w/Natalya) to retain the Divas Championship Kelly gets major heel heat, since we're in Beth-town. Beth gets a HUGE pop from hometown Buffalo. Beth spanks Kelly to another huge pop! Kelly's babyface comeback gets booed. Eve jumps Natalya and gets more heel heat. Kelly repeatedly tries for the plucky fluke pins and gets nowhere. Beth nails a top-rope superplex to another big pop! Beth tries to follow with a powerbomb (called a Glam Slam by Cole, because he's an idiot), but Kelly gets yet another fluke rollup for the 3. And as you might imagine, the crowd boos the shit out of that finish. I agree. This script is getting old. Constant underdog portrayal, constant fluke pins, always overcoming the odds despite being the smaller dog in the fight. Kelly Kelly is pretty much Rey Mysterio with tits.
Cena/Del Rio is next. So right now, people are either pleasantly surprised that CM Punk's closing the show...or the cynics are looking at it as Triple H closing the show.
-John Cena d. Alberto Del Rio to win the WWE Championship Cena enters in Del Rio's car, just to mock him that much more. Justin Roberts tries the championship introduction, but TO HELL WITH THAT! Ricardo makes the proper intro for ADR! Cena makes his own ring introduction and it's "John Cena funny". I don't know why we haven't coined this term yet, because Cena's shitty humor really is in a class of its own. Anyway, the match is ok, but it isn't "PPV main event good". Most notable part of the match is Del Rio actually HITTING the top-rope senton! Del Rio gets the swinging juji gatime, but Cena turns it into a powerbomb. The finishing sequence (sing along with me now)...Attitude Adjustment, Cena wipes out Ricardo, shitty STF for the tap-out. Just Another John Cena Match. Well, so much for Alberto Del Rio. He can join Jack Swagger as "MitB paper champion". Announcers note that this is Cena's 10th WWE championship. Jesus, he's going to surpass Flair in a couple of years at this rate. This feud was the anti-Orton/Henry. Del Rio never threatened at any point during this entire feud.
-Triple H d. CM Punk in a No Disqulification Match Cole's losing his voice, so thank God for small favors. Punk ambushes Hunter during his entrance and the fight immediately goes to the outside. Both men tease their finishing moves on the announce table and both escape. This is an intense brawl that goes all over the place, including into the crowd. Awesome spot sees Punk hitting the Savage Elbow through the Spanish announce table. Now CUE THE CLUSTERFUCKERY! Awesome Truth run in and beat down both guys. Triple H eats the Skull-Crushing Finale. Punk gets the What's Up. Truth puts Punk over Hunter, but it's only a two count! Sensing conspiracy, Awesome Truth confront referee Scott Armstrong. Armstrong actually manages to get a shot in before the beatdown is on. The flow of this match is just fucked. Crowd's out of it now. Here's Super Dave Laurinaitis calling for a referee. Triple H and Punk clean house on Awesome Truth, before Hunter hits the Pedigree! No referee. Next referee comes down...and is STOPPED by Laurinaitis! H wants answers, but eats the GTS! Laurinaitis throws in the referee, but he counts 2 before Truth wipes him out. I thought Truth WANTED Punk to win! This is getting really stupid. Punk tries for a springboard and eats the Pedigree...FOR TWO! Laurinaitis pulls out the CELL PHONE OF PLOT and makes the SINISTER TEXT MESSAGE! So you know what comes next. Here's Kevin Nash out of the crowd. Punk eats a forearm, Triple H eats a forearm. Nash goes to work on Triple H. IS THIS OVERBOOKED ENOUGH YET? Nash wants the Jackknife, but Punk breaks it up! So Nash gives him the Jackknife! Nash then hits Triple H with a clothesline. I'm DYING for someone to end this match already. Nash clears the other announce table, but Triple H grabs his trusty sledgehammer and wipes out Big Kev! Back in the ring, second Pedigree mercifully ends this match.
Hearing Lawler and Booker try to recap everything that happened at the end of the main event just highlights how overbooked and moronic the whole exercise was. PPV ends with Triple H giving a crotch chop to the paying customer at home CM Punk.
Is it worth $50? Hell no! Is it worth the $15 I paid to watch at the bowling alley? I'm still debating that. Nothing really stood out tonight, as it just felt like the Same Old Crap.
As for where things go tomorrow...who the hell knows anymore? Supposedly, the whole reason for this whole Da Vinci Code-level conspiracy was to make sure Del Rio was the champion, but obviously that's completely out the window. What's the end game here? Do they even have an end game? Or is this just a random series of events with a few matches spliced in-between?
Save your money and don't bother with the replay. It's a Thumbs Down for Night of Champions.
The Good: Mark Henry and Mark Henry's victory promo. "This is my moment and I'm not sharing it with none of you!"
Everything else:
I'm really surprised Cena went over here.
Cole losing his voice and leaving Lawler and Booker hung out to dry is what you get when you bury JR.
I must have missed the Vince Russo has been rehired by the WWE bulletin, but the main event was a clusterfuck of epic proportions. People better be happy with their CM Punk ice cream bar T-Shirt, because the momentum from that sea change has washed away.
Everything else was standard free television stuff.
Who booked this shit? Cena craps all over ADR for weeks and then beats him for the title for his five millionth world title reign in the last 6+ years. Man the Main Event was a cluster fuck reminiscent of many TNA PPV Main Events. Holy crap have they totally dropped the ball with Punk even more so then they dropped the ball with Nexus a year ago. Henry over Orton was the only highlight of the show. I would guess ADR wins the title back(devaluing the title even more) at the next PPV which is two weeks away and we'll have a three way between Nash-Punk-HHH. Hopefully Orton doesn't get the title back right away. Pretty remarkable that the same company that had a ppv like MITB only a few month ago and then throw a crapass ppv like this.
It's False, were you typing that recap IN the bowling alley? Amazingly fast job, my friend.
Originally posted by graves9Who booked this shit?
WWE Creative. The Best in the World.
Someone else who's the best in the world? Me at predicting what WWE Creative is going to do. I called every single match. (The W) 7 for 7.
I'm happy about Henry. And I'm happy about Kelly Kelly. I was right about Kelly all along. (The W) It's clear to me what the story is. The story isn't the Divas of Doom "saving" the division from the "Barbie [Blank]" dolls. The story is Kelly Kelly becoming legitimate. And she won again by Rope A Dope (backofthehead.com)
Kelly Kelly is the greatest Divas Champion (pink butterfly belt) ever. That's the story.
The rest of the show was a shitstorm in Buffalo.
Originally posted by dwaters
Originally posted by It's False Kelly Kelly is pretty much Rey Mysterio with tits.
^ Awesome.
Also incorrect, because Rey never got the big wins as Champion Kelly received against the toughest opponent on the roster. Certainly not a victory in the opponent's hometown in front of a hostile, partisan crowd. Rey wishes he was booked as strongly as Kelly in any of his title reigns. Hell, he wishes he held onto his last World Title for more than two hours.
If I'm over focusing on Kelly, it's because I can't even begin to think about the CM Punk angle without getting a headache, then furious, then a headache again.
(edited by John Orquiola on 18.9.11 2058) @BackoftheHead
2) The main event being executed right, which I'll have to see for myself.
If they're playing the long game....could they be setting up Survivor Series already with factions? Or will they use all of the interference to say "you can't interfere in HELL IN A CELL" (unless you're Mark Henry, then you can rip apart the cages).
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Originally posted by shawnpatrickYou paid 15 bucks to watch this at the bowling alley? You do realize that it's illegal for the bowling to do that right?
Originally posted by John OrquiolaRey wishes he was booked as strongly as Kelly in any of his title reigns. Hell, he wishes he held onto his last World Title for more than two hours.
Zing!
Yeah, Rey's last outing in front of a hostile crowd didn't work out well for him. It ended with him hanging upside-down from a ladder with his mask ripped off.
It's False, were you typing that recap IN the bowling alley? Amazingly fast job, my friend.
Had to keep my e-mail open in the event of work-related calls, so I had the netbook along with me. The staff was really nice about letting me bring it in.
Originally posted by shawnpatrickYou paid 15 bucks to watch this at the bowling alley? You do realize that it's illegal for the bowling to do that right?
Business establishments are able to purchase site licenses for a PPV. Whether they did that or not who knows, but it is certainly quite able to be done legally.
Yes, I believed in the sanctity of the wwe.com "future endeavours" story ...right up until the third or fourth time I saw Nash in the pre-match vignette. (So, after all that, I guess it was seeing Nash on TV that swung me back towards his firing being a work. Damn it all.)
The more weaselly amongst us might stipulate he still HAD been fired at that time, and between then and now (a few weeks, right?) they renegotiated/cleared up whatever the money issue was, and Nash's health issue also cleared up...but I personally don't think I care enough to try to advance that argument as I still feel like I have a better overall reputation than shawnpatrick (who gave no indication that he even watched the card, and who I'm pretty sure is wrong about the "legality" thing)
I'm seriously concerned that Booker T still doesn't know for sure whether or not they are kidding him.
Originally posted by shawnpatrickYou paid 15 bucks to watch this at the bowling alley? You do realize that it's illegal for the bowling to do that right?
Yeah, but what can you do? It's a bowling alley. If the Feds shut it down tomorrow, another one is waiting in the wings to take its place.
I'm almost officially folded on the Punk angle. I don't want to make my head hurt any more than it does.
Mizark is a big black nasty silverback of awesome.
I (pink butterfly) Kelly Kelly. Thank you Johnny O for making me a believer.
Would it kill The WWE to expand on the vicious streak that ADR has shown in the past? Apparently.
Didn't see the PPV, but what the hell was with that main event? I'll have to read that a few more times to fully wrap my mind around it.
But obviously, factions are already forming. Are Miz, Truth and Nash gonna form the new nWo? Are Triple H and CM Punk gonna find themselves on the same side? Are Cena and The Rock going to be on that same faction with Hunter and Punk at Survivor Series? Is Alberto Del Rio going to join the nWo's side? Who's the father of Stacey's baby? And who the hell was driving that white Hummer?!
But before Survivor Series we go to Hell in a Cell. Triple H/Nash? Punk/Nash? Triple H/Punk/Nash? Neither would surprise me.
Mark Henry dominating the World Title match (and the weeks leading up to it) was a brilliant booking move, no sarcasm intended, on WWE's part. Book the man like a MONSTER, and it'll make the person that finally beats him look like a superstar.
John Cena defeating Del Rio so easily, and on the first attempt, was damn stupid, though. Reminds me of how Randy Orton won the World Title back in '04 and then lost it to Triple H the following month.
TITLE CHANGES
WWE Championship New Champion: John Cena 2011 Title Changes: Six
This is John Cena's record 10th reign with the WWE Championship; he is now two reigns ahead of Triple H in that department. As Cena has also won the World Heavyweight Championship twice, he is recognized as a 12-time world heavyweight champion, one reign behind Triple H.
As pointed out earlier in this thread, Cena's well on pace to surpass Ric Flair's 16 world title reigns within a year or two. This is Cena's third WWE Championship win this year, and all of them have occurred since May 1. He also won it twice in 2010 and twice in 2009. And by the way, he's only 34 years old.
He ended Alberto Del Rio's reign of 35 days, which started at SummerSlam when he cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase against CM Punk.
World Heavyweight Championship New Champion: Mark Henry 2011 Title Changes: Seven
This is Mark Henry's first reign with the World Heavyweight Championship, and most of us would say his first reign with any world heavyweight championship. He did, however, hold WWE's version of the ECW Championship, and is thus officially recognized by WWE as a two-time world heavyweight champion.
He ended Randy Orton's reign of 35 days, which started at SummerSlam with a win over Christian. And it broke the "A-B-A-B" method of title changes that we'd been doing, going from Christian to Orton to Christian to Orton.
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At what point will the number of title reigns reach a point where it just sounds silly for a commentator or interviewer to bring up? If Cena stays around another 5-6 years will someone really say "John Cena has won the WWE Championship for the 34th time!"
Can't fault the work in Cena/Del Rio or Punk/HHH. Two quality matches. The booking was ... open to debate.
Cena tapping Del Rio is the most astounding Cena finish since he beat Nexus at SummerSlam. It's amazing how haphazardly WWE treats everyone's careers, Del Rio included, but when it comes to the Big C, the world will stop turning if he went three PPVs in a row without winning. I assume Del Rio will get the belt back at HIAC or at TV in Mexico but I don't see any good reason why he lost here.
Punk/HHH was a great brawl but the intensity was killed once the angle took over. The angle, though, was actually exactly how I would've done the finish once you take Punk winning off the table since HHH's job was on the line. Now they logically need a HIAC match to keep out all the bullshit. I'm sure people who didn't see the match will be all "LOL pedigree" but the finish protected Punk in a big way. He kicked out of two Pedigrees and then he only lost because he saved Triple H from a jackknife and then got jackknifed himself. Four finishers and he was only in a position to lose because he saved his opponent's ass -- BURIED.
Truth got thrown over the top rope and landed on a lying Scott Armstrong and that looked like it sucked bad.
Not really sure how I feel about living in a world that Mark Henry is the champion of. His push has been handled perfectly up through this match, and he's done great interviews and carried himself like a monster. If you beat him here then everything you've done up to this point with him is over. We'll see. I'm kind of bitter than Christian wasn't allowed to sully Orton's shoulders once by pinning them in seven matches only to see the WSM hurk him up and beat him clean, but it was the right finish.
Rest of the card wasn't much. Fourway was good, thank god Riley didn't win. To me, beating Beth Phoenix in Buffalo is pointlessly malicious to that crowd since she's going to end up with the belt at some point anyway. The Air Boom match was on its way to being really good before the bad finish, but they used that finish to set up the end of their main event.
Originally posted by It's False-Kelly Kelly (w/Eve Torres) d. "The Glamazon" Beth Phoenix (w/Natalya) to retain the Divas Championship
Originally posted by It's False-John Cena d. Alberto Del Rio to win the WWE Championship
Originally posted by It's False-Triple H d. CM Punk in a No Disqulification Match CUE THE CLUSTERFUCKERY!
and
Originally posted by It's False-"The World's Strongest Man" Mark Henry d. Randy Orton to win the World Heavyweight Championship Good story told in this match. Story is that Henry's 15 years of failure would start to weigh heavily on him throughout the match, so all Orton had to do was try and psych him out.
They give Mark friggin' Henry all of this, yet the massive "story" for Christian that everyone was told to wait for is that he's a loser and a coward?!?!?
FUCK THE WWE.
Michigan against the SEC: 20-6-1 (7-4 in bowl games)
WWE had a Facebook poll up, asking if fans liked Night of Champions. The voting was negative by a LARGE margin and now, the poll seems to be taken down.
The worst part is with all this universal negativity for the absolute crap they put out, they're not going to actually change a thing. "This is all Mark Henry's fault! Orton should have gone over! Oh, and damn that CM Punk too. We should have known better than to try and book him in a main event. Even HHH couldn't put him over. Thank god we at least gave the fans a Cena title victory!
Did we bury Christian enough? Maybe he needs to be in a losing feud with Hornswoggle, he did great work with Chavo!"
(edited by BoromirMark on 19.9.11 0122)
Michigan against the SEC: 20-6-1 (7-4 in bowl games)
Originally posted by BoromirMarkWWE had a Facebook poll up, asking if fans liked Night of Champions. The voting was negative by a LARGE margin and now, the poll seems to be taken down.
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