Thumbs Down

Best Match: Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio

Worst Match: John Cena vs. The Miz

I ordered this show on an impulse tonight genuinely intrigued by a couple of new guys in CM Punk and The Miz getting the chance to shine in arguably the biggest matches of their careers. To say that WWE is starved for fresh stars and matches on top would be an understatement, so I was pretty stoked to see what I optimistically thought could be the start of a new youth movement in the company. I might have been a little off on that assessment.

The CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy match was awesome. I didn’t even mind the screwy finish, because it was so clever and well done, and for once as far as WWE goes, it actually left me wanting to see a rematch. Punk held up his end of the match, and I think he’s proving himself to be capable of hanging in that 1b tier with the likes of Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy.

I had so much anticipation for John Cena and The Miz finally squaring off after months of slow build, but by the third move in the match you could see where it was going. John Cena, who I have always considered myself a fan of, worked a total Triple H style match, burying The Miz as a joke with his facial expressions from the get go and then proving himself to be right by outwrestling him, spirit-squadding him and making him tap out like a pussy in like five minutes flat. It wasn’t even just a clean loss, it was like WWE was making a point to tell us that the Miz is a low card goof for like. It’s absurd to be sandbagging a guy like The Miz when 90% of the headliners in the company are either winding down their careers are overexposed as anything, and it genuinely made me realize I was a moron for bothering to invest in this storyline in the first place. Still it makes you wonder what the point of devoting two months of weekly spots to this was.

In terms of the main event, I had no interest in it going into the show, which is saying something considering six months ago I thought Randy Orton was the hottest act in wrestling and capable of ushering in a wave of wrestling popularity. By the time Triple H was making his entrance and doing his competition poses under Mr. Olympia lighting mid-ring, I felt like I had already personally gone through at least ten stages of hell. It went about how I expected. Trips managed to lose a 2/3 falls match without ever getting pinned or submitting, cost himself the first fall, got a clean pin on Orton in the second, and only lost the third on a fluke after A) being outmatched 3 to 1, B) AND getting low blowed, 3) AND being hit with a blunt metal object. Then he got his heat back at the end. Working with Trips has taken every bit of gas out of the Orton machine, and this match was unbearable for me as I am just so sick of the same old guys and the same old formula from WWE.

Lost most WWE pay-per-views, despite the hard work and some really good matches on the card, it left me with more of the same bad taste in my mouth. As with most people in this economy, I am on a finite pay-per-view budget, and WWE proved yet again why I am doing the right thing by throwing my money at the UFC rather than blowing $40 on more lame reruns.

J.A. Bawon

I am going to give the PPV Thumbs in the middle, leaning towards down.
 
Best Match: Rey vs Jericho by far.
Worst Match: Women's title
 
Show was just ok. It wasn't the best. For some reason, this particular PPV since WWE starting putting it on has usually been horrible as far as I can recall.  Just not a good one.
 
Rey and Jericho put on a hell of a match. It was fantastic. Loved it.  I did not like the Women's match.  I could care less about McCool and Melina.
 
Everything else was just kind of blase to me.  The opener was just ok. Nothing special.  I did like seeing Edge and Jericho giving Teddy Long the business but so did NOT like Vince coming in there and just patronizing Long and telling he was not doing a great job.  Can't Vince stay off the PPVs? 
 
The three stages of Hell match between Orton and HHH was good. However the Last Man Standing match that we got free was better. Liked the tease of a split up of Legacy pre match. 
 
Punk's heel turn is coming along nicely. I understand why they did the finish like they did, but I still prefer clean finishes. Match was ok.
 
Well, the Edgehead in me loved it when he and Jericho were put together. I thought after Smackdown this week in that Rage in a Cage match, that Jericho and Edge could form "Team Ego" as Jim Ross would call them. Well, someone in WWE was thinking the same as I did. Loved seeing two great wrestlers together. This uniting of the two will put the Tag belts in a main event spot and could set up a face turn for either of them, most likely Edge I am thinking when this pair inevitably splits and Edge or even Jericho (or both) get back in the Title picture.  Of course, Congrats to Edge on his 13th Tag belt.  Match itself was pretty decent. I liked it.  Also loved Carlito and Primo chewing out Teddy Long post match.
 
I also HATED the Cena vs Miz match. I ALMOST made this the Worst match.  Let's see, WWE needs to make new stars, and they do this with Miz?  I thought the match made Miz look like a chump.  Miz got a little offense in, but this was a burial job.  Cena could have won without totally burying this guy. I hated the way they had Miz tap also.....like a baby and then Cena did the dog scratching the ground thing post match.
 
Terri Bey
 
  .hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { font-size: 10pt; font-family:Verdana } Thumbs in the middle
Best Match-Mysterio vs Jericho
Worst match- Khali vs Ziggler (diva match running a close second)
 
 
 
 
 
Opener was ok aside Dreamers very predictable offense.
 
Seen one Dreamer match you've seen'em all.
The rule change spiced it up a bit, and as I said, decent opener.
Once again Jericho and Mysterio delivered with a top notch performance.
I don't like the whole demasking gimmic because it's already been done back in WCW not so long ago.
The 20 somethings now may not remember much, if any about when Rey had to demask and ultimately wrestled without the mask thereafter, but I'm sure the 30 something crowd and beyond remember it well.
WWE insults my intelligence portraying Rey as if though he has never wrestled without his mask, but that's fine because the match it'self was fantastic!
Another Khali/Ziggler confrontation did nothing for me nor did Kane interrupting the match, so do we have a new feud between Kane and Khali while the Khali/Ziggler feud is over and done? Or will this turn into a 3-way that nobody cares about?
A unique surprise with the Triple Threat with Jerich and Edge winning the unified titles.
Did not see that one coming. Should be an interesting program on the horizon, and it puts a little more meaning into the tag team division IMO.
Diva match was pretty much a throwaway.
C.M.Punk/Jeff Hardy was a decent match with great character development on CM Punks end as he was able to leave people wondering if he hit the ref intentionally and was his eye really hurt.
It could go either way, and if they decide not to turn him heel then no damage done based on the way it went down.
I'm confused though when the ref is making a 3 count and Jeff celebrates the title win, but then all of the sudden the ref says that Punks foot was under the rope before the 3 count and then declares that the title did not change hands and the match continues!
If the ref says Punks foot was under the ropes before he got to 3, then why did he count to 3 in the first place?
How any times have we heard Jim Ross say that the ref can't call what he can't see?
As far as I'm concerned this was extremely sloppy booking, and I just know Ross was hating having to explain what went down.
In the end Punk retains and Jeff will once again fail in his efforts.
This is getting a little old now, so if they're going to let Hardy run with the title then they need to go ahead and build a match in the near future that puts everything in perspective that ultimately allows him to do it.
Don't wait too long guys because Jeff's bound to get strike 3 on the wellness policy, and if that happens then all of this title chasing storyline would have been in vain.
I though for sure that the Cena/Miz match would carry a lot more weight considering the build, but it was just basicly a t.v. type match with a clean pin by Cena.
Don't really think this hurts Miz in any way because well...he's Miz, but I really expected something more memorable instead.
HHH /Orton did nothing for me.
I'm tired of HHH and I'm tired of this feud, and no matter how many stipulations or mach variations they come up with for these two, it will always seem like the same thing we have seen so many times before.
I guess HHH just absolutely has to be in that main event, and even when he loses he still stands tall in the end with his music playing.
Talk about pushing someone down our throats!
The only hope we have of seeing less HHH in the main event picture is for he and Stephanie to get divorced.
I'm not saying that HHH is n't god at what he does, and I've seen him in some great matches, but c'mon!
I like ice cream, but I don't eat it every day.
This PPV was certainly not worth the asking price, so thank goodness for live streams that cost nothing.
 
Jeff Bartram
Louisa, Ky