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Hi Dave Best Match: Punk vs. Bryan Worst Match: Beth vs. Layla Watched this show with 22 people since a few of them brought their kids for the show and this will probably happen more since School is starting to wind down. The kids really enjoyed the show but when I was a kid I loved every show as well. A late 4 year old me thought Wrestlemania 4 was amazing. The announcing may have been some of the worst I have seen in years. Jerry Lawler is unbearable, I cannot imagine he even cares anymore. Show was okay, not great by any means but not particularly bad either. Missed the youtube match preparing food for everyone, imagine it wasn't much. The Battle Royal was fine, not necessarily good, a lot of times I said “Oh that guy still works here.” But it was fine for what it was. Truth/Kofi vs Dolph/Swagger was a good match, I am a fan of spotfests (two per show at most) so this kind of match fits me well. I thought all four worked well together, Dolph still does the best bumps in the WWE. I remember thinking that about Curt Hennig back in the AWA days, how he takes great bumps but isn’t too over the top. This match was really about Dolph and Kofi making it better than average but Swagger and Truth did what they could to try and not fall too far behind. Good stuff. The Divas match was horrible, they had plenty of time and it was just beyond boring to watch. The kids watching were bored during this match and most of the time they are glued to the screen. Both worked hard, but it was too long and the ending sort of just happened. Don’t want to see that match again. The four way title match was slow but picked up at the end. It was a by the book 4 way WWE match. The match picked up at a point where guys kept hitting their finishers which is commonplace in these matches now but it gets the crowd cheering. It got to the point where guys were hitting their finisher 3-4 times, then used finishers and not getting the pin. All the nearfalls made it a pretty decent match. I see this in almost every 4 way match so eventually it kind of loses its effectiveness of making me get more into it but the match was good. The kids were very into it and thought it was great. Not going to miss Jericho, his return has been horrible. Not that he always lost, he just didn’t have really good matches and his promos were way below his standards. Miz vs Brodus was so bad the announcers were going off on other topics and not the later matches you know building them up and such. This match was boring, the fans didn’t care, the announcers didn’t care and neither did I nor anyone else here watching. The kids didn’t seem that into Brodus and they are all around the age of 6-8. Christina vs Cody was average, not necessarily bad but not good or great in any way. Both worked hard and I am sure they can have a better match if given the opportunity. Match was okay. Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk was very good but I wouldn’t say it was great. I was fine with the finish of this match, it sets up a rematch and I would like to see one. People in the room were marking out at this but some of the people here would mark out if they had a remake of a 1989 Andre the Giant style match. I think if they have another match it will be better, this match was not an instant classic, so Punk was right in his promo. Still very good, but I am sure they would have a better match if they had another. In terms of a star rating I would say ***3/4 for this one. If the crowd was hotter it may have helped too. Ryberg vs. Camacho or Hunico or whoever was what it was. Didn’t care but it probably did what it was supposed to do. Cena vs. Ace was ummm well funny in a sense but it wasn’t really good in any way. I remember seeing shows where the card was okay even good but the main event sucked and brought the whole show down. This was what happened here. I was fine with the idea, just not to end a PPV that we as a group paid for. I guess this is the best of what they could do with this as the main event but then it brings the question why book this as the main event. Show was still a thumbs in the middle. Not bad but two very good matches does not make up for a main event which was bad along with everything else being bland at best. Keep up the great work guys. Hoping for more Big Audio Nightmare Hockey talk in the future. -Ryan McDeed Thumbs Up
Best match: Punk v. Bryan
Worst: Ryback v. Camacho
Good show overall. I know many don't care for Johnny Ace's character, but he strikes me as a funny heel. But I can't help but wonder just how smart of a booking decision it was to put this match up to begin with, since many fans yearn for Ace to go away. (I don't. I think he's funny.) Whatever the case, the ending was cleverly booked with the Big Show, and I suppose the idea now is to get Big Show's justification. On the surface, it would make most sense for Show to claim coercion on part of Ace. Who knows.
Bryan and Punk pulled an excellent match, and I rate that as 4 3/4 stars. As much as I wanted to see Bryan win since his work is so aggressive, crisp, and just aesthetically pleasing to watch, it is the right move for Punk to win. Bryan has many, many more years in the WWE. He has time. That guy is insanely charismatic because he _believes_ in his own act. That is an absolute necessary and sufficient condition for any guy to get over as a serious player.
For the rest, the battle royal was a whatever way to start the show (not bad but not good either since the winner almost always loses later on). I guess Christian is a face now. Something tells me he is way better as a prickish heel. Cody Rhodes is very talented, and I think the WWE should be very careful about having Cody Rhodes (and Ziggler, for that matter) jobbing too often. It is my belief that there should always be 2-3 times more credible heels than top faces on any given roster. That is, of course, not always possible, but it would be best to attempt that. WWE needs heels.
They need to figure out a more efficient way to use Ziggler, but maybe it is not best for him to be pushed on top at the moment for fear that he'll get lost in the shuffle. That dude is gold, and the tag match was sweet. The women's match was a whatever - not bad but not good either. The Fatal Four Way was a typical one: good to great with a lot of false finishes; the right guy won. Ryback is impressive, though they need to be careful and not make his push feel contrived.
I think one problem the WWE has is not allowing for things to develop organically. They can't just replicate Goldberg because no one can out-Goldberg Goldberg (or out-Warrior Warrior, or out-Hogan Hogan). They need their own acts. That's why Daniel Bryan is so unique and is getting over so well. He has his own style and personality. He's not really anything like Chris Benoit, and he's nothing like Rey Mysterio, though he has the crispness of the latter and some moves of the former. Fans hate nothing more than copycats. Really - and the following is criticism that has been leveled against the WWE for years - they just need to listen to the fans as they're the ones who determine what is and is not contrived. With Bryan, they listened. Good.
Concerning Brodus Clay, I'm sort of speechless with him because it is just not clear to me what they're trying to do with him. Clay would be more efficiently used by being put into feuds that test his character than just squashing midcarders while fans all know he won't be much in the main event in the long-term. He's just another one of those 1999-2000 two-year gimmicks, and the WWE should confront that problem and avoid those pitfalls by booking intelligently.
Good PPV. Better than the Rumble, better than No Way Out, and behind both Wrestlemania and Extreme Rulez by a country mile.
Nell Santucci
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