Thumbs in the middle

Best Match: Triple threat cage match

Worst Match: Sin Cara Black vs Sin Cara Blue

This was a vintage WWE ‘B’ PPV show. And by vintage, I mean boring. I decided to save my $55 and watch it on a stream. I can’t see ever paying for a WWE PPV anymore, except maybe Wrestlemania. This company just doesn’t do it for me anymore. I can’t find a reason to get emotionally invested in any of the characters or storylines, especially after they screwed up the CM Punk angle by having him come back after just one week. The titles change hands every month, or at least that’s what it seems like and because of which, the titles don’t mean anything. Plus there are way too many titles to possibly care about.

Overall, I thought the wrestlers worked hard and tried to put on a good performance but everything just seemed lackluster, even the crowd. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how good the performers are, if the storylines suck, then it makes the overall product as a whole suck as well.

I think oversaturation is the largest negative factor in all of this. I see these guys fight every week, sometimes twice a week . Because of this, the PPVs are not special. They need to devolve and actually build to quality matchups, instead of just rotating the same 4 or 5 guys over and over in main events.

The one thing I liked on the show was Orton was finally pinned clean. Way to go. At least that puts Mark Henry in somewhat of a main character role as an unstoppable monster. Also, the main event had some really good wrestling. The ending was kind of creative and it at least builds to Monday’s Raw. But the larger picture here has so many problems. I can see the WWE monthly PPVs getting worse and worse, in terms of buyrates. Hopefully, eventually, WWE will see that as a problem and find a way to scale back the action and wrestlers. Guys like John Cena and Randy Orton should only be fighting on PPVs, not on a weekly basis. But that’s another argument for a different day. Until then, I will continue to watch the shows on a free stream until WWE can present a show I actually care about.

Thanks,

Rick Marshbanks

Thumbs up. I got more than I was expecting out of the show, and since I was only willing to pay $5 cover to watch it at the bar, I wasn't expecting too much. The crowd was down from what I usually see for a WWE PPV, meaning two shows in under a month's span is undoubtedly too much. (Mind boggling to consider they are having a third just three weeks away.) Best match was definitely the triple threat to end the show, with one of the more wild and memorable segments after Del Rio won, something that I'm sure they hope will get more people talking about WWE. I'm not sure there's really a "worst match" because even the surprise match between Cody Rhodes and John Morrison went well, and I was glad to finally see them get the women's title off Kelly Kelly (they should have done it in Buffalo though). I suppose if pushed I would say the Air Boom vs. Team Vickie match, which I was still into, but I'm not sure the chemistry of Ziggler and Swagger working together is there without Vickie forcing them to be teammates. I suspect she'll interfere at some point in a non-PPV match to help them win the gold though, possibly even on Raw. If this were a $20-$40 PPV I think more people would pick up the replay, but at $45 in SD and $55 in HD I suspect even hardcore fans will simply wait until this one comes out on DVD. They'll be interested, but they'll wait. It's not a two thumbs up show, just better than expected.

- Steve Juon (Stevie J)

Thumbs Down Best Match: Cena vs Orton vs Del Rio Worst Match: Sin Cara vs Sin Cara. Unfortunately WWE didn't do a convincing enough job to get me to order this one legit, and after watching, I am glad. Nothing on this show really stood out as being particularly memorable or good. The fact that the crowd was dead for almost the whole show didn't do much to help. The Sin Cara match in particular had zero heat and was incredibly sloppy. I'm glad to see that Mark Henry kept the belt, I was worried for a minute that they would make the wrong decision there, but there was no need for Randy Orton to get his heat back at the end. The Women's match was bad, but not as bad as it usually is. I was glad they finally put the belt on Beth, although it's a month too late at this point. The Main Event was good, but the booking of the finish with Del Rio just mugging CM Punk with a pipe was weak. I did like the story of John Cena getting locked out of the Cell, that was at least unique, and I also liked the ending with Miz and Truth destroying everyone. Of course I have zero faith that any of this will be followed up on in any sort of meaningful fashion, but I guess that remains to be seen. Everything else on the show was just kind of eh. I give it a thumbs down not because it was a bad show, but because it just wasn't a good one.

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-Geoffrey Gillott