Some brief results and thoughts from tonight's PPV.
-John Cena d. JBL First he's off Raw for about two weeks and now John Cena's OPENING? Did he piss someone off and I'm just not aware of it? Anyway, a nice long match that doesn't see a lot of Cena heat, but that's because no one can really bring themselves to cheer for Bradshaw. Cena gets the FU for the clean win.
-The Miz & John Morrison d. Kane & CM Punk Miz and Morrison retain when Morrison pins Punk clean with his finisher. Seriously, with the way they're jobbing Punk, they might as well get the briefcase off him at this point
-Shawn Michaels d. Chris Jericho The crowd's seriously borderline-dead tonight. Something's wrong here. Anyway, I wait for the Batista run-in and it never comes. Is HE in trouble too or something? Between Cena, Punk, and Batista, I feel like I slipped into a WWE alternate universe. HBK wins after a series of reversals ends with him on top. Jericho teases a turn, but applauds HBK's win. I don't get where they're going with this at all.
-Backstage vignette with John Cena and Mickie James ends when JBL tells Cena that he had him beat for 20 minutes before Cena pulled the win out of his ass. This feud...MUST...continue?
-Mickie James d. Beth Phoenix & Melina Good women's match that ends when Mickie DDT's Melina for the pin.
-Batista confronts Shawn Michaels and tells him he'll make him pay. I wonder if these guys even remember why they're even feuding in the first place?
-Undertaker d. Edge Match ends on a count-out. Vickie Guerrero rules that because UT won on a count-out, the title remains held-up. This is so stupid. It should be noted that Vickie got huge heat, but it sounded more like the "Just go away" type of heat. UT Tombstones Edge after the match, so this feud MUST continue! And yes, the next PPV will probably mark the FOURTH straight PPV to feature UT v. Edge in some fashion. A good match ruined by moronic booking.
-Jeff Hardy d. MVP This is a surprise match. Jeff wins clean with Whisper in the Wind, because it's more important to push the repeat offender over the guy who's been on a roll for the last year. Hey, I like Jeff and all, but MVP deserves better.
-Triple H d. Randy Orton Randy Orton goes for the punt to head, but Triple H counters with a Pedigree for the clean pin to hopefully end the Randy Orton Main Event Reign of Terror for good.
The wrestling was actually pretty good, but there were a lot of baffling booking decisions that make this PPV nothing special.
Originally posted by It's False It should be noted that Vickie got huge heat, but it sounded more like the "Just go away" type of heat.
Actually, no it didn't. I know lots of folks on the internet have been heavy on the Vickie hate, but she has been AWESOME as a heel GM the past few months. And she was the only really over heel on the show, tonight.
Cena d. JBL -- Okay match. Odd, because it seemed they wanted to put JBL over, but not have Cena lose another PPV match. I'm guessing they're building JBL up for a feud with Hunter, although this was an odd way to do it.
Miz & Morrison d. Kane & Punk -- Punk jobs again. It's almost hilarious, at this point. Miz & Morrison have been awesome tag champs, so I'm glad they retained.
Michaels d. Jericho -- VERY good match, although it probably could have used a bit more time. The ending handshake was very odd. They seem to be going back to Michaels/Batista, and I'm not sure if Jericho will fit in to that feud or not.
James d. Phoenix and Melina -- Fine.
Undertaker d. Edge -- Nonfinish. I'm guessing this goes on to One Night Stand, where they wrestle in some sort of gimmick match (Hell in a Cell?). Good match, though I'm sure a lot of people weren't thrilled with the ending.
Jeff Hardy d. MVP -- Good little match. Surprised they seem to be going full-boar with Jeff Hardy, so soon after returning from his second drug-failure.
Triple H d. Randy Orton -- Fine match. Nothing special. I'm hoping Orton moves to SmackDown, which could use some more top-heels, because he's got nothing left to do on RAW.
Overall, I fine little PPV. Nothing to go out of your way to see, but if you did buy it, you weren't ripped-off (unless you really wanted to see a new World Champion).
I'd say Smackdown is actually much more desperate for faces. On the heel side you've got Edge, Morrison/Miz, rumors are they're moving Umaga and they've got MVP. Even the midcard is full of heels (Deuce and Domino, Chavo, Mark Henry, Khali.
On the face side Undertaker doesn't wrestle a lot, Batista sucks most of the time, Mysterio is injured. Their top good face that can wrestle on a regular basis is Matt Hardy. They need main event face desperately and Raw doesn't need HHH, HBK, Cena, Jeff and Jericho. Raw does need to keep Orton though. Who is their top heel after him? Kennedy? JBL??
Any idea why Big Show was pulled from this PPV and why he is being buried right now????? Just 7 weeks after perhaps highlighting Wrestlemania????? Is he hurt???
What's way more ridiculous than the continued losing of Punk is the sheer number of televised matches he has. Here's less than three months worth of results.
CM Punk since March 1st (13-9-1) -------------------- lost to Chavo Guerrero (pin) 3.4.8 *lost ecw title* lost to Edge (pin) 3.10.8 d. Big Daddy V (countout) 3.11.8 d. Carlito (pin) 3.17.8 (w. Jesse & Festus) d. John Morrison, Miz & Shelton Benjamin (pin) 3.18.8 (w. Jericho) lost to MVP & Carlito (pin) 3.24.8 d. John Morrison (pin) 3.28.8 d. Shelton Benjamin vs. Chris Jericho, Carlito, MVP, Mr. Kennedy, John Morrison ($$ in bank) 3.30.8 lost to Chris Jericho (pin) 3.31.8 (w. Kane) d. Chavo Guerrero & Shelton Benjamin (pin) 4.1.8 d. The Miz (pin) 4.8.8 (w. Kofi, Yang & Moore) d. Elijah Burke, Shelton Benjamin, Deuce & Domino (pin) 4.15.8 d. Matt Hardy (pin) 4.21.8 d. Chris Jericho (pin) 4.21.8 lost to William Regal (sub) 4.21.8 lost to Edge (pin) 4.25.8 d. Chuck Palumbo (DQ) 4.29.8 vs. Randy Orton (no contest) 5.5.8 (w. Kane) d. Chavo Guerrero & Bam Neely (pin) 5.6.8 lost to Matt Hardy (pin) 5.9.8 lost to The Miz (pin) 5.13.8 d. Chuck Palumbo (pin) 5.16.8 (w. Kane) lost to The Miz & John Morrison (pin) 5.18.8
Does anybody REALLY need to wrestle on television (yes, even ECW) twenty-three times in about two and one half months?
Like Backlash, it was a quality show wrestling-wise, but there just wasn't anything on there to make you want to watch it if you missed it. Jericho vs. HBK was awesome, and I think a lot of that had to do with the angle leading up to the match and wondering how the match would play out.
The main event was disappointing. I'm waiting for someone to re-invent the cage and ladder matches and think of a new way to add drama to the match without using the obscenely long climb to the top as a device.