I had low expectations going into this considering that it wasn't ECW One Night Stand. I was wanting a classic Extreme Rules competition, Instead I got WWE story telling.
Nope, I didn't get my classic ECW ONS, however...this was a great show. Here's how it went..Not necessarily in order.
Hardy over Umaga - I was surprised with the spot at the end of the match. The angle and slight movement of the barriers are very telling of what actually happened. My surprise in this was that I bet Jeff woulda done it for real anyways. Still a great spot though. ***
Beth over Melina - Damn Melina is flexible. Ouch. Great match. ** 1/2
Cena over JBL - The story telling was good. every time a punch was administered the Ref had to check the wrestler hiding his head for blood. Is the "Chain Gang" coming back? **
Big Show over Chavo, Morrison, Punk, Dreamer - Pretty fun match overall. Light's out Merriman clocks Chavo! Big Show going nuts with the cane was awesome. Why is it always Tommy that is willing to take the real head shot. ***
Batista over HBK - Another great match. Jericho came in to encourage HBK in a very odd fashion. I'm guessing Jericho wanted to see HBK hurt even more than what he was. We shall see over the next few weeks...I guess. ***
HHH beats Orton. wow, not the last match on the card - Orton was probably legitimately injured in this one. That was a heck of a fall. His Collar bone and shoulder blade were sticking out in places that most peeps don't. If he wasn't injured, damn Orton is good. ***
Edge beats UT - He had a bit of help. Best match of the night. UT takes a great bump to validate his loss (and exile). ****
Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase tonight. I was hoping for a Mysterio return due to being in San Diego, but it didn't happen. Atleast Shawne Merriman was there though. Overall I'd give this one a 3 out of 4 stars PPV. Probably because I had low expectations going in, but I don't know for sure. There was some pretty good wrestling tonight. >
- Jericho, Batista, and Orton are going to take over the world. Very very slowly.
- Is Adamle a top contender to Santino Marella's lolerweight title? Mike, Gemini, and a little bottle of Mamajuana tearin' it up in Tijuana!
- The best part of the ECW match was CM Punk wildly swinging while trying to hit Chavo, while Adamle gleefully calls out "Strike Three!" The worst part of the match was that there were no lightsaberesque cane fights. C'mon Morrison, do you not have Star Wars in the Palace of Wisdom? Also, with about fifty of those things in the trash can, Show could've grabbed like five at a time. I should've booked this match.
It's quite possible that my favorite matches were the women's match and the ECW match. How bizarre.
Although my absolute favorite moment of the night was from the Hardy/Umaga match. No, not that banister plancha, although that was pretty nifty as well. It was when Hardy decked Umaga with the giant orange can, and Umaga wobbled for a bit before KILLING Hardy with a thrust kick. I love Umaga.
It is the policy of the documentary crew to remain true observers and not interfere with its subjects.
A decent enough PPV, with some endings of matches I didn't care for:
Hardy vs. Umaga was a fun brawl, despite the hokey finish. Jeff's bannister slide was one for the ages. I despise "Falls Count Anywhere" matches where they only fight at ringside, so this one satisfied me.
The ECW match was fine and boy, Show seems to have bad luck when it comes to getting hurt since returning. He looked legit pissed and some of those cane shots made me wince. I liked the involvement of Shawne Merriman, even thought the San Diego Chargers probably didn't.
Cena vs. JBL was a notch above their last PPV encounter, but I didn't like this finish either. I thought JBL started "bleeding" too quickly from the chain. The amount of padding that goes into a turnbuckle was surprising as well.
Beth vs. Melina was a slight disappointment, but Beth's two submission holds at the end about made up for it. Holy Cow. And I would've liked to have seen how heel Melina would've reacted to the photographer tripping over himself during her entrance.
Batista vs. Michaels was a solid match with some storyline advancement thanks to Jericho. I was wondering why Batista didn't just sock him one though.
I didn't see a lot of the Trips vs. Orton match, but Orton's spill looked ugly. Orton almost attacking fans at ringside sealed the legitimacy of the injury for me.
Taker vs. Edge was very good, and Taker really seems ageless sometimes. I'm glad Edge finally got the belt back too, even if he needed help from four other guys to do it.
Orton's fall was pretty nasty. I was at the show, and Mike Chioda immediately threw up the "X" after going to Orton, then did it again within 30 seconds toward Lillian and the timekeeper. When they showed the close-up of Orton, I saw him say, "I broke my collarbone," and he was in obvious pain. Some idiot fan on the floor starting baiting Orton as he was walking back. Security had to get between them.
I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but he seemed to be favoring that shoulder after giving HHH the DDT off the announce table. It makes me wonder if he actually broke the bone before he was thrown out of the ring.
Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? MORONS!!!
Originally posted by mountinman44Some idiot fan on the floor starting baiting Orton as he was walking back. Security had to get between them.
It looked to me like the fan wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, but Orton was over-acting because he didn't want a babyface reaction upon leaving. As he was first walking away from ringside, it sounded like the crowd was applauding him in that "we know you're hurt for real" kind of way. (He responded by yelling "shut the fuck up.")
Originally posted by JacksonWhat the hell was he thinking though? After he passed over the top rope he should have had a tiny umbrella in his hand and waved bye bye to us.
He might have been thinking that Triple H was going to provide some form of lift, rather than just shoving him into the top rope.
It is the policy of the documentary crew to remain true observers and not interfere with its subjects.
He had no choice but to fall the way he did Jackson. The stairs were in direct path of his fall, so he had to angle his body as a way of not landing directly on top of them. By angling his body, he fell shoulder first.