G'day everyone, I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece and it's time again to take a look at the week that was in wrestling. This week I will as usual focus on Monday Night Raw, but as an extra added bonus, I've got some things I want to write about regarding TNA and the Lockdown PPV, which I haven't watched in detail, but some of the results got me thinking, and made me realise there's some aspects of TNA's product that have been bugging me for a while.
So sit back, relax, put your reading glasses and your learning eyes on, and let's get down to business.
Raw this week was coming to us from merry old England. I always enjoy when we get an episode of Raw or Smackdown from overseas, the crowds always seem hotter. I guess it's because the WWE comes to their country maybe once a year, and in that one time, people from the entire country flock to see them. At least, that's the way it works here in Australia. But it gives the show a bigger, slightly more epic feel about it, and I think overall, this week's episode did not disappoint, although I'm sure the live audience would have liked to have seen Lesnar in person rather than just on videotape.
Speaking of the crowd, they were right behind CM Punk this week. Don't get me wrong, the crowd is always behind Punk, but this week the cheers seemed louder, and more pronounced. Again it's probably something to do with not seeing the product live as much, but it feels like Punk's character has become.. not watered down, but not quite as edgy as it was a few months ago. So it was good to hear Punk getting the massive cheers. The "yes" chants during Punk's kicking sequences were awesome as well.
What a great match Henry and Punk had. There was one part where Mark Henry caught Punk, and flung him, quite violently, into the guardrail. It looked amazingly brutal.Henry has improved his consistency so much in the last year. He always had this potential, and his size and strength got him over immediately.. but now that he's added in the character development, the "hall of pain" angle, and the consistency of having great matches, he's finally stepped into that spot that the WWE have had set out for him for so many years. And I for one am really happy for him.
Last week I talked about there being a theme to the show. This week's theme seemed to be Extreme. No DQ matches, Extreme Rules matches.. Jericho going to extremes trying to prove CM Punk is an alcoholic.
One thing that I found funny, is that at Extreme Rules, we have CM Punk vs Jericho in a Street Fight, Brock Lesnar vs Cena in an Extreme Rules match, and Randy Orton vs Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match. .. Now.. maybe it's just me, but aren't those three matches essentially the same thing? I remember a few years ago there was a Ladder match, a Stretcher match.. some kind of street fight match.. It just seems a little weird to have three matches all called different things, yet basically meaning the same thing.
Punk and Jericho's back and forth promo was decent, but it was just more of the same stuff from Jericho especially, and to me, it just seems like they've lost a little momentum in the feud because of that. It's not even in the realm of possibility that CM Punk would become a drunk from one drink, and honestly, this is supposed to be the "reality" era, storylines based more in reality, and in reality, I don't buy that Chris Jericho would believe the things he is saying about Cm Punk. It just feels like some steam has been let out or something.
Hopefully the match at Extreme Rules either changes things up again, the way it did when Jericho first attacked Punk with the Whiskey bottle, or it becomes the end of their rivalry.
So let's talk about the best part of the night. Funnily enough not even a live in-ring segment. The Brock Lesnar interview is of course the segment I'm referring to.
The way they've brought him back, the fact that two weeks in a row he's taken out Cena, he doesn't feel like a WWE superstar. As he said, he feels like an ass kicker. It's made him feel bigger than the WWE, and by referencing his UFC career, instantly making him legitimate.
I get the feeling that they got the idea for this interview from the UFC preview shows that are on before the pay per views where they interview each fighter. Again, making it feel .. "real". It's working really well so far, but the big test comes at Extreme Rules. It's one thing to take a guy down and have a bit of a melee with him, but it's certainly a whole different thing to have a match, especially with the top guy in the company.
Making it a "hardcore" (lets face it, that's what this is) match, I think will actually help, because it relies less on the wrestling and more on the big spots. I'm still hoping for a great match though.
So Cena comes out to "answer" Lesnar's interview essentially, but instead it seems he's focused on John Laurinitis. It's an interesting change, but I don't know if it's the right move. This match really needs to be about Lesnar and Cena. Nothing more. To me it should be about how they started around the same time, and the differences in their characters. I know they did that with The Rock and Cena, but this is a different animal. Lesnar isn't some actor who has a bunch of cool catchphrases. He's a legitimate fighter.
I thought it was good that Tensai got put into the main event, and even though it was a dirty win, he still won. I think his character isn't exactly a long term thing, but it works for now, and it's something different which is always a good thing. Variety can bring in more diverse crowds.
Ok so very quickly let's talk about TNA.
Now I haven't been paying a hell of a lot of attention to TNA lately, but I did see recently on impact that Velvet Sky won a battle royal or some kind of 6 woman match to become the number one contender for the knockouts title. And it's not the first time they've done something like that.
My problem with this is it felt like Velvet accomplished this big thing, like it was a big deal that she overcame all the challenges to become the No.1 Contender, yet at Lockdown, she lost.
My problem isn't exactly that she lost, it's just the way the match was set up, with how much emphasis was put on the fact that she won this huge thing to get the title shot.
And the way that she lost. Gail Kim was half knocked out from the powerbomb from the turnbuckle, yet won with a reversed roll up.. how did she have the strength to do that? It's just bad booking or whatever it's called these days. To me it would have made more sense if she hit her finisher and fell into a cover.
It felt the same with the Motor City Machine Guns. Now I am a huge fan of these guys. I was so happy to see them back together, and that Sabin has recovered from his injury. Yet in their first Pay Per view match back as a team, they lost.
Why not book them in a tag team match, but not for the titles? That way they could win and build momentum and make it feel like their return was a success. Maybe I just think in a weird way though.
Overall it just feels like they book things in advance, or tape things in advance and then change their minds about the results at the pay per views, and then the previous events don't make as much sense.
I also thought it was a little strange that Jeff Hardy won the match with a massive Swanton Bomb. Those spots used to be somewhere in the middle of a match, not the finish. I mean of course it works, but then within a minute, Jeff was up, walking around and congratulating fans, which again, doesn't seem realistic. I know it's a worked sport, but isn't the point to try to get us, as fans, to suspend disbelief? If something generally wouldn't happen if it was real, why would you do it as part of the show?
Overall I didn't mind Lockdown however, some of it was terrible, some of it was great. Kind of like TNA in general. But they need less emphasis on the older guys, and way more on the younger guys and the Tag team division.
Ok that's about it. So as usual, you can follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece , and also leave me a comment on here to let me know what you think.
Oh and one last thing, thanks to @TherealWB and @VOWLive for making me their guest blogger, which was awesome!
I'm the Aussie Mouthpiece, and my business here is concluded, for now...
Showing posts with label Mark Henry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Henry. Show all posts
Friday, 20 April 2012
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Home schooling no. 1
Welcome back to the Aussie Mouthpiece blog. Another week, another installment of RAW, and another chance to talk about the goings on in wrestling.
You may notice this post is entitled "home schooling no.1". I'm changing things up a little to see how it feels. But this week, i'm not just going to talk about RAW. Sure, none of the other shows have happened yet, but I did get a chance to see Ring of Honor's first episode over the weekend, and i've also got a couple of other things to talk about.
So this new idea I have is basically to make these "go home" posts less about RAW specifically, and talk about a wider range of topics. If RAW has an amazing week, like the builds to Summerslam or the night Vince was "fired", then i'll do a specific post about it. I just have to come up with a catchy name.
Anyway... for now, it's installment one of "Go Home time" (which will probably have a name change eventually, that's how these things go.)
Let's start with RAW, because I just finished watching it.
I didn't like this week's episode. This is your "go home" show right? The last RAW before the pay per view. Don't get me started on how ridiculous it is to have a 2 pay per views two weeks apart (i'll get to that later). Regardless though, isn't this the RAW that is supposed to make people want to buy the pay per view? I'm no closer to buying it than before I watched this week's episode.
So Triple H comes out and does his "i'm going to make a joke out of everyone" schtik... yeah great, you're just making a joke out of two guys who have massive potential as main event wrestlers. That's the problem.
Ok i'm deviating from RAW, but I watched something today that has altered my perception a little. I'm not claiming to be smart to the business or anything though.
Today I watched the "Guest booker with Al Snow" dvd from Kayfabe Commentaries. It was amazingly good. But the one thing that stuck with me is when he talked about heels. And what they're supposed to do.
My idea (now) of a heel, is a guy who you want to see the babyfaces beat up and give him what's coming to him basically. His job is to draw people in, to sell tickets, all that stuff. But to get heat first and foremost. And to get fans to come back/watch again so they can see him get beaten up.
Most of the heels today in WWE.. and I think maybe in TNA (haven't watched it for a long time now) don't do that. I just plain do not want to see them on tv, in matches, in anything. Laurinitis is a perfect example. I really want to see someone kick his ass (because of stories i've read/seen) .. but as an on screen character, it's boring, it makes me want to skip to the next scene.
Del Rio is good, but I'm not that interested in seeing him wrestle.
I don't want to see Jack Swagger at all.
Hogan.. well.. y'know. Sick of it ten years ago.
Christian. He doesn't look like he could beat anyone. And he's orange. I don't buy him as champion. I never have.
BUT, there are some great heels at the moment too. I don't understand why they don't use them more. Dolph being the first guy that comes to mind. Mark Henry (now) has taken that next step. Cody Rhodes is pretty entertaining.
It just seems that a lot of the "bad guys" .. at least to me, get booed because people don't want to see them. As opposed to they get booed because they're actually bad guys. Something needs to change there.
Remember 5, 6.. even 8 years ago? Who were the main heels? Jericho, HHH, Big Show, Kane (when he took his mask off for the first time), Vince, Flair. How could things have gotten so far off track in such a short amount of time?
My point is that people should still want to see the bad guys on tv. At the moment it doesn't feel like there's a lot of those guys around.
Anyway, i digress. Back to RAW.
So as I said, I really wasn't into Triple H making jokes of Dolph and Cody. Christian.. well .. ok that wasn't cool either. There's no point to it. It's not like it builds up your heel guys .. all it does is make the COO look like a bully. As in "Just because you pissed me off, i'm putting you in this match".
The intercontinental title match however, made Cody look somewhat good. It's just a shame that the match for his title belt was overshadowed by the Christian/Sheamus storyline. Why not have a triple threat, Cody, Christian and Sheamus? Or a tag match.. or one on one? Cody and Sheamus for the belt.. and Christian tries to interfere, fails, and Cody picks up the win slightly cleaner... Seems better? Didn't Cody not get involved in the battle royal straight away?
Ok I either really don't understand fashion, or David Otunga dressed in the dark. A bowtie? and an army green shirt? I don't get it. And of course we have to have our obligatory "I'm the executive vice president of dull monotonous sounding promos" bit from Johnny Ace. Really didn't like it. Maybe they're trying to change things up, but .. change isn't always the way to go. If it ain't broke.. dont' fix it right?
FINALLY... something good to say about the divas match. As in, the dominant looking women beat the scrawny model looking girl. Because that seems like it's what would happen if all this was real.. and isn't that the point? To get people to believe it's real? even for just a split second?
Mark Henry is a badass. Slamming Khali just re-asserts that. And that is the only reason that man should be on any kind of WWE TV. To make other guys look awesome. Khali that is, not Mark Henry. Khali needs to be gone.
The WWE title match .. who knows what's going to happen...? They make Del Rio look like he can take both guys.. so clearly he's not going to win the title. My hope is that Cena holds on to it. Not because I don't want Punk to win, but because then Cena will just win it back in a couple of weeks, and he'll be a 13 time world champion.
Triple H is a 13 time world champion. Cena's been wrestling in the wwe for 9 years, and already has more than 1 title run for every year he's been with that company.
Triple H has been wrestling for ... 20 years? Been with the WWE for roughly.. what... 17 of those years? Something like that anyways. Something's wrong there...
Anyway, Cena's promo was a Cena promo.. "I know you all don't like me, but i'm going to do this and i'm going to win, because i'm a man of my word and i stand for hustle etc etc etc". I know he didn't say that, but it was the equivalent. Step backwards for me.
Awesome to see Zack Ryder getting a (real) title shot! The guys deserves it. I don't see the point of after Dolph won, to then have a second match.. I guess they needed something for the Tag champs to do.. surely they couldn't just wrestle against a tag team ..could they?
Raw was missing something this week. Do you know what that something was?
Realism.
CM Punk, talking, on a microphone.
It's the last RAW before a pay per view.. John Cena cut a promo. Alberto Del Rio cut a promo. Why not Punk?
Surely out of the 3, he's the guy you want talking the most right? Yes he was on commentary, but that's not the same thing.
Also they tried to re-do the "My diet soda" spot from a while back... or at least it seems that was the idea.. I don't understand that at all.
Punk and Cena are so good, especially when they work together, that you don't need to rehash things, no matter how funny they are.
So that's about it, I thought RAW was really disappointing, most of it felt like a step backwards. This whole 2 weeks between a pay per view just feels weird. I mean, surely the Titles aren't going to change hands. What a way to destroy a talent.. make them look awful. "Mark henry was a world champion from the middle of september to the end of september".. doesn't really work for me.
Here's what i liked:
So what else is there to say.. Well.. i have a few points.. one is.. how much longer are Kane and Big Show going to be off of tv? They've been gone since a couple of weeks (or a few in Show's case) before Summerslam... which was the middle-ish of August.. that's about 6 weeks ago. Hopefully they come back soon. Feels like we just keep seeing the same matches all the time. We're getting Randy vs Christian yet again on Smackdown this week.. why not Christian vs the Returning Big Show!.. I'd tune in for that.
Matt Hardy went to rehab. Not got much to say about it, except that I hope it works for him. At least he had the balls to admit he has a problem, and is doing something about it.
The other thing, and again this something that stuck with me from watching the Guest Booker with Al Snow thing.. he talked about how the idea of wrestling is to get people to suspend disbelief, to buy in to it being real, even though we know it isn't. To buy into the idea of both guys wanting to win, to be specific.
His thoughts about why wrestling isn't as popular as it once was is because people don't believe it anymore. The one example that really stuck out, was when he said something like "One guy knocks his opponent down, and then reaches down and picks him back up".
This happens a lot in wrestling, we've all seen it probably countless times. I've never really even thought about it until I watched this.. but it doesn't make sense at all. Why pick a guy up when you've knocked him to the mat and could possibly get a 3 count? Sure, probably the guy would kick out most of the time, but the point is that people should feel like you're always trying to win, as a wrestler.
And that's what's missing.
It's a really interesting dvd, i would recommend people trying to watch it if they haven't already.
Anyway, that's about it from me, as always leave me a comment (seriously, no-one ever leaves one.. please do!), follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece and that's about all i have to say.
That's it, and that's all.
You may notice this post is entitled "home schooling no.1". I'm changing things up a little to see how it feels. But this week, i'm not just going to talk about RAW. Sure, none of the other shows have happened yet, but I did get a chance to see Ring of Honor's first episode over the weekend, and i've also got a couple of other things to talk about.
So this new idea I have is basically to make these "go home" posts less about RAW specifically, and talk about a wider range of topics. If RAW has an amazing week, like the builds to Summerslam or the night Vince was "fired", then i'll do a specific post about it. I just have to come up with a catchy name.
Anyway... for now, it's installment one of "Go Home time" (which will probably have a name change eventually, that's how these things go.)
Let's start with RAW, because I just finished watching it.
I didn't like this week's episode. This is your "go home" show right? The last RAW before the pay per view. Don't get me started on how ridiculous it is to have a 2 pay per views two weeks apart (i'll get to that later). Regardless though, isn't this the RAW that is supposed to make people want to buy the pay per view? I'm no closer to buying it than before I watched this week's episode.
So Triple H comes out and does his "i'm going to make a joke out of everyone" schtik... yeah great, you're just making a joke out of two guys who have massive potential as main event wrestlers. That's the problem.
Ok i'm deviating from RAW, but I watched something today that has altered my perception a little. I'm not claiming to be smart to the business or anything though.
Today I watched the "Guest booker with Al Snow" dvd from Kayfabe Commentaries. It was amazingly good. But the one thing that stuck with me is when he talked about heels. And what they're supposed to do.
My idea (now) of a heel, is a guy who you want to see the babyfaces beat up and give him what's coming to him basically. His job is to draw people in, to sell tickets, all that stuff. But to get heat first and foremost. And to get fans to come back/watch again so they can see him get beaten up.
Most of the heels today in WWE.. and I think maybe in TNA (haven't watched it for a long time now) don't do that. I just plain do not want to see them on tv, in matches, in anything. Laurinitis is a perfect example. I really want to see someone kick his ass (because of stories i've read/seen) .. but as an on screen character, it's boring, it makes me want to skip to the next scene.
Del Rio is good, but I'm not that interested in seeing him wrestle.
I don't want to see Jack Swagger at all.
Hogan.. well.. y'know. Sick of it ten years ago.
Christian. He doesn't look like he could beat anyone. And he's orange. I don't buy him as champion. I never have.
BUT, there are some great heels at the moment too. I don't understand why they don't use them more. Dolph being the first guy that comes to mind. Mark Henry (now) has taken that next step. Cody Rhodes is pretty entertaining.
It just seems that a lot of the "bad guys" .. at least to me, get booed because people don't want to see them. As opposed to they get booed because they're actually bad guys. Something needs to change there.
Remember 5, 6.. even 8 years ago? Who were the main heels? Jericho, HHH, Big Show, Kane (when he took his mask off for the first time), Vince, Flair. How could things have gotten so far off track in such a short amount of time?
My point is that people should still want to see the bad guys on tv. At the moment it doesn't feel like there's a lot of those guys around.
Anyway, i digress. Back to RAW.
So as I said, I really wasn't into Triple H making jokes of Dolph and Cody. Christian.. well .. ok that wasn't cool either. There's no point to it. It's not like it builds up your heel guys .. all it does is make the COO look like a bully. As in "Just because you pissed me off, i'm putting you in this match".
The intercontinental title match however, made Cody look somewhat good. It's just a shame that the match for his title belt was overshadowed by the Christian/Sheamus storyline. Why not have a triple threat, Cody, Christian and Sheamus? Or a tag match.. or one on one? Cody and Sheamus for the belt.. and Christian tries to interfere, fails, and Cody picks up the win slightly cleaner... Seems better? Didn't Cody not get involved in the battle royal straight away?
Ok I either really don't understand fashion, or David Otunga dressed in the dark. A bowtie? and an army green shirt? I don't get it. And of course we have to have our obligatory "I'm the executive vice president of dull monotonous sounding promos" bit from Johnny Ace. Really didn't like it. Maybe they're trying to change things up, but .. change isn't always the way to go. If it ain't broke.. dont' fix it right?
FINALLY... something good to say about the divas match. As in, the dominant looking women beat the scrawny model looking girl. Because that seems like it's what would happen if all this was real.. and isn't that the point? To get people to believe it's real? even for just a split second?
Mark Henry is a badass. Slamming Khali just re-asserts that. And that is the only reason that man should be on any kind of WWE TV. To make other guys look awesome. Khali that is, not Mark Henry. Khali needs to be gone.
The WWE title match .. who knows what's going to happen...? They make Del Rio look like he can take both guys.. so clearly he's not going to win the title. My hope is that Cena holds on to it. Not because I don't want Punk to win, but because then Cena will just win it back in a couple of weeks, and he'll be a 13 time world champion.
Triple H is a 13 time world champion. Cena's been wrestling in the wwe for 9 years, and already has more than 1 title run for every year he's been with that company.
Triple H has been wrestling for ... 20 years? Been with the WWE for roughly.. what... 17 of those years? Something like that anyways. Something's wrong there...
Anyway, Cena's promo was a Cena promo.. "I know you all don't like me, but i'm going to do this and i'm going to win, because i'm a man of my word and i stand for hustle etc etc etc". I know he didn't say that, but it was the equivalent. Step backwards for me.
Awesome to see Zack Ryder getting a (real) title shot! The guys deserves it. I don't see the point of after Dolph won, to then have a second match.. I guess they needed something for the Tag champs to do.. surely they couldn't just wrestle against a tag team ..could they?
Raw was missing something this week. Do you know what that something was?
Realism.
CM Punk, talking, on a microphone.
It's the last RAW before a pay per view.. John Cena cut a promo. Alberto Del Rio cut a promo. Why not Punk?
Surely out of the 3, he's the guy you want talking the most right? Yes he was on commentary, but that's not the same thing.
Also they tried to re-do the "My diet soda" spot from a while back... or at least it seems that was the idea.. I don't understand that at all.
Punk and Cena are so good, especially when they work together, that you don't need to rehash things, no matter how funny they are.
So that's about it, I thought RAW was really disappointing, most of it felt like a step backwards. This whole 2 weeks between a pay per view just feels weird. I mean, surely the Titles aren't going to change hands. What a way to destroy a talent.. make them look awful. "Mark henry was a world champion from the middle of september to the end of september".. doesn't really work for me.
Here's what i liked:
- Beth and Natalya finally getting a win after a long time
- Mark Henry destroying Great Khali
- Zack Ryder getting two matches in one night
Here's what i didn't like
- Messy title picture, very confusing
- Triple H being "funny"
- Christian being on RAW (where was orton... isn't he going to be in a title match?)
- Battle Royal
- David Otunga's bow-tie (seriously, it was bad)
- CM Punk being the only guy out of the three who didn't get any promo time
So.. RAW was kinda bad this week. Maybe all the good stuff is being saved for smackdown?
Ok.. quick little thing on Ring of Honor
I don't really know a lot about ROH, it's really hard to watch it over here in australia, but I saw the first episode. Liked the wrestling, thought it was cool to see Haas and Benjamin, But it felt like there were way too many ads. And the vignettes, interviews, whatever, were too long. It's an hour show, surely you could get three decent matches into an hour right?
But it was good, as i said I liked the matches. I'll be tuning in next time for sure.
So what else is there to say.. Well.. i have a few points.. one is.. how much longer are Kane and Big Show going to be off of tv? They've been gone since a couple of weeks (or a few in Show's case) before Summerslam... which was the middle-ish of August.. that's about 6 weeks ago. Hopefully they come back soon. Feels like we just keep seeing the same matches all the time. We're getting Randy vs Christian yet again on Smackdown this week.. why not Christian vs the Returning Big Show!.. I'd tune in for that.
Matt Hardy went to rehab. Not got much to say about it, except that I hope it works for him. At least he had the balls to admit he has a problem, and is doing something about it.
The other thing, and again this something that stuck with me from watching the Guest Booker with Al Snow thing.. he talked about how the idea of wrestling is to get people to suspend disbelief, to buy in to it being real, even though we know it isn't. To buy into the idea of both guys wanting to win, to be specific.
His thoughts about why wrestling isn't as popular as it once was is because people don't believe it anymore. The one example that really stuck out, was when he said something like "One guy knocks his opponent down, and then reaches down and picks him back up".
This happens a lot in wrestling, we've all seen it probably countless times. I've never really even thought about it until I watched this.. but it doesn't make sense at all. Why pick a guy up when you've knocked him to the mat and could possibly get a 3 count? Sure, probably the guy would kick out most of the time, but the point is that people should feel like you're always trying to win, as a wrestler.
And that's what's missing.
It's a really interesting dvd, i would recommend people trying to watch it if they haven't already.
Anyway, that's about it from me, as always leave me a comment (seriously, no-one ever leaves one.. please do!), follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece and that's about all i have to say.
That's it, and that's all.
Friday, 23 September 2011
To gimmick, or not to gimmick?
And here we go again, with a belated edition of my weekly Raw blog.
I am the Aussie Mouthpiece, and if this is your first time reading this page, you're in for a treat! No recapping here, no move for move retelling of this week's episode of RAW, just what I considered the best parts, and my take on what it all means and what happens next.
So onto the show.
I think it was a pretty obvious point to everyone that Nash would be returning at Night of Champions, and would be doing Laurinitis' bidding. (to check out my NOC review, go to this link http://aussiemouthpiece.blogspot.com/2011/09/champions-or-chumps.html)
And also I, like a few other people who's opinions i've read/heard, thought Nash would not be on RAW this week. And it was the right decision not to have him there. Here's an idea.. have him show up at Hell in a Cell. Maybe distract Punk, costing him the title. (it's a HIAC match, he's not going to be able to interfere.. is he?)
That sets up Punk/Nash at the appropriately titled Vengeance.. right?
It's too bad Michael Cole's voice came back. Just saying...
It's been said a lot before, but the best wrestlers, the wrestlers that have the most success, they're just themselves turned up to 10. That's what has happened with Punk since july.
He's not playing a character that says things people find shocking. He's not pretending to be pissed off with the way things are.
This week's opening segment, with Punk talking about how he's beat up, but his pride hurts the most, was more of the same. It's believable, I mean, clearly whoever saw that main event.. those 2 guys were hitting some brutal stuff on each other.
But it was good to see he's not relying on dropping "pipebombs" every week just to stay over.
It was good that Triple H showed a bit of respect towards Punk as well. I like the slight change in direction.. the "somebody is playing both of us" angle.
It's just too bad that we have to listen to John Laurinitis' poor mic skills, annoying voice, and stilted delivery of lines he clearly can't fully remember.
It kinda seems obvious to me where this is going.. and that it's all heading to survivor series, with some kind of "control of the wwe" match maybe, like we had in 2001. Vince's team vs HHH's team maybe. And apparently because Del Rio mentioned Vince's name, Vince lost his mind this week.
He doesn't want anyone to know he's going to be coming back.. but, Laurinitis was Vince's lackey on TV.. now he's opposing HHH.. it's not the biggest leap to think that Laurinitis is working for Vince.
I'm not going to talk about each match specifically, BUT... way to bury Morrison RAW writers.. 45 seconds? We already know that Del Rio's submission move is really effective. So unless the show was running amazingly behind schedule.. why were the entrances for the del rio/morrison match longer than the match itself? Ridiculous.
Hugh Jackman! Awesome! Aussie Aussie Aussie.
Vickie Guerrero is the best heel in the WWE right now. She has the most heat in the WWE right now. Awesome.
I think this was my favourite part of the show this week. I've been saying it for a month.. but Ziggler is the next big thing. The way he and Jackman interacted was really natural, really funny. It helps having a really good actor to play off of. But it was great.
"Are you staring me down?" "Are you hypnotised? A little confused?" Brilliant.
Hugh Jackman gets a sign from the crowd that says Ryder is greater than Wolverine.. that was awesome.
Oh one other thing about Dolph, I really hope he starts (or continues) to use "No offense" as a catchphrase.
Here's an idea: If you're going to have Sin Cara come out to attack Sin Cara, and you want people to cheer for one Sin Cara and boo one Sin Cara... give the audience the ability to differentiate between the two! Black tights! Dark Blue tights! anything!
Mark Henry. He's suddenly become really good at delivering a promo. I don't know how the change happened, maybe he watched some tapes of great talkers and picked something up, but it's really great to see. The guy deserves this run. I especially liked him making JR apologise and then telling him "i hate ass-kissers".
I read that the table was supposed to be gimmicked, but it wasn't. And because of that King is really injured. That's not good. But, in a weird kind of way it helps put Henry over even more. Hopefully it's not a serious injury and King will be back soon.
Or it's just a story to help get Henry over even more. We are in the "reality" era...
Ok so I had one thought about Henry and where this is heading. He said "ain't no man gonna take this from me".
Well.. what about Undertaker? Survivor series... 20 years since he won his first world title... could be interesting. Who knows.. i'm kind of leaning towards Undertaker not coming back until it's time for the Mania build.
I'm saying only this about the divas. If the "Divas of Doom" are supposed to be really strong and shaking up the divas division, why are they being beaten all the time? Unless it's some weird idea about trying to turn them face or something. But I can't see how that would work. Kelly is starting to piss me off though.
Great to see Ryder on Raw again, even greater that he got a win over the US champion. And wow... that punch from Hugh Jackman looked really stiff. Dolph is the man.
I thought the ending to this week's show was great. It felt really real, which is always a good thing. I mean aside from the firings, which is a work. Clearly.
So where's it all going? Well here's how i see it. It all leads to survivor series right? That's the big payoff. It's gotta be a traditional elimination match. We already know that Cena and Rock are supposed to be teaming up (at least at the moment that's the plan). So then on one team you could have Cena, Rock, HHH and Punk. Facing Nash, Miz, Truth and ??? (vince.. shane o mac, johnny ace, X-Pac even) Probably not vince, he might be in the corner or make a run in though.
But it's set up for Miz and Truth to be re-hired by Laurinitis, like Nash was, undermining HHH's authority, leading to arguments etc.. It's a big storyline... the biggest they've tried for a while. Probably since the "who killed Vince" one that got cut off in the middle.
Anyway, I've written enough for now. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment, or if you're not already, follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece
I'm trying to set up a google+ account too, but i'm still learning how the hell it works. Once that's done though i'll add it to my page somehow.
That's it, and that's all.
I am the Aussie Mouthpiece, and if this is your first time reading this page, you're in for a treat! No recapping here, no move for move retelling of this week's episode of RAW, just what I considered the best parts, and my take on what it all means and what happens next.
So onto the show.
I think it was a pretty obvious point to everyone that Nash would be returning at Night of Champions, and would be doing Laurinitis' bidding. (to check out my NOC review, go to this link http://aussiemouthpiece.blogspot.com/2011/09/champions-or-chumps.html)
And also I, like a few other people who's opinions i've read/heard, thought Nash would not be on RAW this week. And it was the right decision not to have him there. Here's an idea.. have him show up at Hell in a Cell. Maybe distract Punk, costing him the title. (it's a HIAC match, he's not going to be able to interfere.. is he?)
That sets up Punk/Nash at the appropriately titled Vengeance.. right?
It's too bad Michael Cole's voice came back. Just saying...
It's been said a lot before, but the best wrestlers, the wrestlers that have the most success, they're just themselves turned up to 10. That's what has happened with Punk since july.
He's not playing a character that says things people find shocking. He's not pretending to be pissed off with the way things are.
This week's opening segment, with Punk talking about how he's beat up, but his pride hurts the most, was more of the same. It's believable, I mean, clearly whoever saw that main event.. those 2 guys were hitting some brutal stuff on each other.
But it was good to see he's not relying on dropping "pipebombs" every week just to stay over.
It was good that Triple H showed a bit of respect towards Punk as well. I like the slight change in direction.. the "somebody is playing both of us" angle.
It's just too bad that we have to listen to John Laurinitis' poor mic skills, annoying voice, and stilted delivery of lines he clearly can't fully remember.
It kinda seems obvious to me where this is going.. and that it's all heading to survivor series, with some kind of "control of the wwe" match maybe, like we had in 2001. Vince's team vs HHH's team maybe. And apparently because Del Rio mentioned Vince's name, Vince lost his mind this week.
He doesn't want anyone to know he's going to be coming back.. but, Laurinitis was Vince's lackey on TV.. now he's opposing HHH.. it's not the biggest leap to think that Laurinitis is working for Vince.
I'm not going to talk about each match specifically, BUT... way to bury Morrison RAW writers.. 45 seconds? We already know that Del Rio's submission move is really effective. So unless the show was running amazingly behind schedule.. why were the entrances for the del rio/morrison match longer than the match itself? Ridiculous.
Hugh Jackman! Awesome! Aussie Aussie Aussie.
Vickie Guerrero is the best heel in the WWE right now. She has the most heat in the WWE right now. Awesome.
I think this was my favourite part of the show this week. I've been saying it for a month.. but Ziggler is the next big thing. The way he and Jackman interacted was really natural, really funny. It helps having a really good actor to play off of. But it was great.
"Are you staring me down?" "Are you hypnotised? A little confused?" Brilliant.
Hugh Jackman gets a sign from the crowd that says Ryder is greater than Wolverine.. that was awesome.
Oh one other thing about Dolph, I really hope he starts (or continues) to use "No offense" as a catchphrase.
Here's an idea: If you're going to have Sin Cara come out to attack Sin Cara, and you want people to cheer for one Sin Cara and boo one Sin Cara... give the audience the ability to differentiate between the two! Black tights! Dark Blue tights! anything!
Mark Henry. He's suddenly become really good at delivering a promo. I don't know how the change happened, maybe he watched some tapes of great talkers and picked something up, but it's really great to see. The guy deserves this run. I especially liked him making JR apologise and then telling him "i hate ass-kissers".
I read that the table was supposed to be gimmicked, but it wasn't. And because of that King is really injured. That's not good. But, in a weird kind of way it helps put Henry over even more. Hopefully it's not a serious injury and King will be back soon.
Or it's just a story to help get Henry over even more. We are in the "reality" era...
Ok so I had one thought about Henry and where this is heading. He said "ain't no man gonna take this from me".
Well.. what about Undertaker? Survivor series... 20 years since he won his first world title... could be interesting. Who knows.. i'm kind of leaning towards Undertaker not coming back until it's time for the Mania build.
I'm saying only this about the divas. If the "Divas of Doom" are supposed to be really strong and shaking up the divas division, why are they being beaten all the time? Unless it's some weird idea about trying to turn them face or something. But I can't see how that would work. Kelly is starting to piss me off though.
Great to see Ryder on Raw again, even greater that he got a win over the US champion. And wow... that punch from Hugh Jackman looked really stiff. Dolph is the man.
I thought the ending to this week's show was great. It felt really real, which is always a good thing. I mean aside from the firings, which is a work. Clearly.
So where's it all going? Well here's how i see it. It all leads to survivor series right? That's the big payoff. It's gotta be a traditional elimination match. We already know that Cena and Rock are supposed to be teaming up (at least at the moment that's the plan). So then on one team you could have Cena, Rock, HHH and Punk. Facing Nash, Miz, Truth and ??? (vince.. shane o mac, johnny ace, X-Pac even) Probably not vince, he might be in the corner or make a run in though.
But it's set up for Miz and Truth to be re-hired by Laurinitis, like Nash was, undermining HHH's authority, leading to arguments etc.. It's a big storyline... the biggest they've tried for a while. Probably since the "who killed Vince" one that got cut off in the middle.
Anyway, I've written enough for now. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment, or if you're not already, follow me on twitter @TheOZMouthpiece
I'm trying to set up a google+ account too, but i'm still learning how the hell it works. Once that's done though i'll add it to my page somehow.
That's it, and that's all.
Monday, 19 September 2011
Champions or Chumps?
It's that time again... another pay per view has come and gone, and I'm going to give my thoughts. This will be more of a recap than my blogs about RAW, so if for some reason you don't want spoilers, look away, or wait until you've watched Night of Champions to read this.
So my first overall thoughts, some 3 hours and a bit after the PPV has finished? I thought it was a good show, was surprised by how good some of the matches were, shocked at some of the finishes.. but overall, a little confused. Hopefully watching the replays (of which we get 3 in australia) will help.
I'll get to the rundown of the matches in a minute, but first of all, some initial opinions
No Jim Ross? Are you serious? Especially bad considering the "lead" announcer lost his voice and didn't do anything during the main event.
Just because Kofi and Bourne both wore green, it doesn't make them a "team". To me it still feels like two singles wrestlers put together. I'm not a fan of their name, and i've never been a fan of just using both guy's music as their entrance. At least do what they did for Miz/Show, or Jeri-Show, or RatedRKO and make one song out of their two entrance themes.
And Miz and Truth look even less like a "team". For all the reports that the tag team division is supposed to be being built back up, we're not seeing it yet. What about pushing the Uso's? The one "TEAM" you have WWE...
After the way the Women's (not using the word diva) match went down, I think it would have made more sense to put it earlier in the card. Just in case the crowd kinda died because their hometown girl didn't win. And also, who the hell believes that Kelly kelly could hold Beth Phoenix down in that kind of pin combination for a 3 count, especially when she didn't even get her legs over Beth's arms??
Cena winning is the right idea. Del Rio wasn't doing well as champ. I wasn't taking him seriously. He can be a world champ, but it wasn't the right timing I don't think.
Mark Henry cut a great promo after he (finally) won the title. He surprised me with how good that was. I hope he can keep it up, because he deserves a run with the belt.
Why was there an in ring promo segment?.. This isn't RAW or Smackdown.. i didn't pay to see guys talking to each other. Why not instead of that, have Christian and Sheamus in a match? Sure, it's "night of champions", but what was the main event?
And I'll get to that main event later, because I have a feeling it's going to be a long post.
Ok, so now that's out of the way. Let's get on to the matches.
So the show opened with the Tag Team titles.. well what are you going to do? They are, at this point, the belts with the least amount of importance. Which is a shame, because tag team wrestling can be a great part of a wrestling show. Look at the motor city machine guns and beer money. when they're not injured. But, having said that, the first match on a card is fairly important. It sets the tone.
As I said before, Miz and Truth don't look like a team. Miz could have worn black tights so he matched Truth's pants...
The match was solid, but nothing special to me. I still think that Miz needs to be in the main event picture, maybe move to smackdown, and have a Miz/Orton feud after Orton and Henry are done.
No real highlights to speak of, at leats nothing that I remember, aside from Miz's Cutter/DDT move which is .. pun intended.. awesome.
Oh actually, I remember watching Raven's video blog, and he talked about the fake tag spot that people do sometimes, they did that spot, but it was reversed, where the good guys faked the tag, and the bad guys got caught. That was interesting.
The finish makes sense, the whole conspiracy angle that's been going on, but just because it makes sense, doesn't make it good.
Why not have the finish be that Miz or Truth went for a cover but the ref was knocked down or distracted, and then bourne or kofi got the quick roll up, instead of a DQ. It would serve the same purpose, and they could still knock the ref down afterwards. The DQ wasn't satisfying at all, and didn't help make AirBoom look strong at all.
5.5/10
It is quite funny that Miz and Truth beat down a ref and try to bully him.. and then there's an Anti-bullying ad shown.
Cody and Ted Dibiase was also a solid match. I'd even say it was quite good. The problem is that the crowd were pretty much dead for the whole thing.
I haven't watched a lot of Smackdown, so I'm not exactly up to speed on this storyline, but I would assume these guys would work well together because of their past.
Ted still moves too much like Randy Orton to me though. I know that they had that big run as Legacy, but Cody doesn't move like Orton anymore.
A decent match, not many highlights.. Funny moment when Booker T called a Spinebuster a Sidewalk Slam... Booker used to use a spinebuster when he wrestled right?
6/10
Christian and Sheamus talk.. only thing worth mentioning is Uncle Fergus/Fargas's green testicle.
US TITLE MATCH
I was completely surprised by this match. I'm a big fan of Ziggler, but the other 3 guys, i'm not so much into. Especially Swagger. He's annoying, he's not that good in the ring, and he's got no personality. Morrison was a little impressive, but he's still not as good as he thinks he is. And Riley.. just looks like a carbon copy of the Miz with less hair on the sides of his head.
But it was a good match. Some good spots, using 3 of the guys doing combination moves, and variation of a tower of doom, (with a near botch however), and as usual the interaction between Vickie and Ziggler is great tv.
Really good finish too, Ziggler picking up Swagger's scraps after knocking Swagger out of the way.
7/10.
And i'll say it again. Dolph is going to be the world champion before the end of 2012.
Mark Henry's pre match promo was fairly solid. He's really improved this year. Like i said earlier I haven't watched a lot of Smackdown, but I've been noticing Mark Henry. And today/tonight's match was no exception. He's doing a great job.
This match was really good too. Orton is great, and works well with Mark. They told a really good story with Orton having to really pull out all the stops as it were, to even do a little bit of damage to the much bigger Henry.
The spot where Henry was stretching Orton around the ring post looked absolutely brutal, and really highlighted the whole "Mark Henry could break you in half if he wanted" thing. And then standing on Orton without putting his weight on the ropes was just as brutal.
Henry dominated, as he should for most of the match. That's the thing with the big man/smaller man match.. the story is already written essentially.
Great finish, if a little surprising.. I was not expecting Henry to win. Glad he did though. And that promo he delivered after he won...really great.
7.5/10
Beth vs Kelly. Ok so we all already know that most of the divas are not what you'd call "good" workers.. But, having said that, Kelly at least y'know.. could take a lot of moves from Beth.
On the other hand, that match had the worst finish of the night. And Kelly clearly didn't know how to react when the crowd booed her.
The match was decent, the Superplex looked awesome. Beth was great. And deserved to win. I don't understand why they decided not to have her win in her hometown.. it doesn't make Kelly look like a strong champion when she gets a quick roll up and messes up the pinning move, it doesn't really help Beth and Natalya's crusade look legitimate when Beth can't beat Kelly on 2 occasions..
4.5/10 (low score for the stupid finish)
Here's an original idea though.. what about at Hell in a Cell in 2 weeks (don't get me started on how stupid that idea is... 14 days between pay per views? I'm not buying it)... lets have Beth vs Kelly inside the cell! You want to put the divas back on the map, do something that's never been done before. Cage matches have been done yes, but as far as i can remember, not in the WWE.
But that won't happen.. will it...?
John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio
Great match. I know right? I said a Cena match was a great match. Cena has been on a different level lately. Sure, he's still "the man" and still marketed to kids, but he's added some new moves to his arsenal, and especially tonight, there was no 5 moves of doom. Not all in the same order anyway.
I said this on twitter, but i'll say it again. Alberto needs a non-submission finisher. Having a submission finisher is fine, but when it's an armbar, it makes it harder to tell different stories. He has to target the arm at least part of the match, so it's limiting.
The match was good, honestly I was suprised when Cena won, but I think it was the right move.
7.5/10
One other thing.. if Cena is marketed to kids, and an all around good guy.. how is it ok that he stole a car, and admitted it?
Onto the main event. CM Punk vs Triple H.. well before jumping too far ahead, lets see.. it was fairly obvious that Nash would be involved somehow. Laurinitis texting earlier in the ppv, and even before that, the Limo ride that Laurinitis took with Nash. That was a no brainer I think.
I'm not going to talk about everything that happened in the match.. this thing is already really long. I do want to mention a couple of things though, and then i'll get to the finish.
Lets start with Triple H. He looked damn good. It just goes to show, the best guys can (until they get to ric flair's age) can always god, even with a bit of a layoff. And really, I'm pretty sure just because he's not working in the ring as a wrestler full time anymore, that wouldn't mean he has stopped training, or getting in a ring and working out somewhat. So really, it's no surprise that he didn't miss a step. Was the same with Undertaker at 'Mania this year.
And then there is the Macho Man Elbow through the announce table. Moment of the night, spot of the night, move of the night. Brilliant. Looked really brutal too. Looked like it hurt both guys a lot. And it was good to hear Lawler slip in "That was Savage... " too.
Speaking of commentary.. it was such a refreshing change to have no Michael Cole. It was like this annoying buzzing little insect that i'd finally killed. Seriously, that match was so much better just because his voice wasn't constantly nattering on.
The way Punk took the "chair in the turnbuckle" spot was really cool. The way he got stuck in the turnbuckle.. great stuff.
Ok the finish. I'll try to remember it all.
So.. Miz and Truth come out.. and beat up both guys.. for some reason.. Ok i know that they attacked HHH because he's the COO and they think there's a conspiracy, but why Punk? Other than they both had matches with him recently..
Anyway, they knock both guys down, then drag Punk onto Triple H and demand the ref counts the pin.
Then when the Ref hesitated and Triple H kicked out, Miz and Truth attacked him.
Johnny Ace comes out to check on said ref, and while that happens, Punk and HHH start beating up Miz and Truth, knocking them both out of the ring, and then HHH hits a pedigree on Punk.
At the same time, a second ref runs down, and HHH goes for the cover, but Laurinitis stops the 2nd ref and gets him to check the 1st ref.
Triple H gets to his feet, goes to the ropes and asks what the hell is going on?... Punk hits the GTS, goes for the pin near the ropes, and Laurinitis sees this and gets the ref into the ring to count the pin. He then turned away to "text" someone.
And then, in the most confusing moment of the night, R-Truth pulls CM Punk off of Triple H. 5 minutes after dragging him onto Triple H when they were both out of it.
What? Who booked that crap?
Anyway. after that, HHH hit a pedigree, Punk kicked out at 2, and then Nash came out from the crowd.
Nash took out Punk and HHH, went for a Jacknife on HHH, but Punk attacked him. Punk then got hit with a Jacknife.
Nash went to the announcers table,and took the monitors out, and then as he turned around, HHH nailed him with a sledgehammer.
He then got back in the ring, and hit the Pedigree again and won the match.
I swear that is the finish. I may have even missed a couple of details.
The truth dragging punk of the pin spot was ridiculous. And what happened to Laurinitis? did he just leave after he "texted" Nash?
So what does all that mean? Well.. Punk was only pinned after taking 2 pedigrees and a Jacknife.. so Punk looks tough as all hell. Triple H eked out a win, and got a measure of revenge for all the crap Punk has talked about Stephanie.
Match gets 8.5/10
I saw a bunch of tweets about how "everything's back to normal" and "way to ruin it WWE".. really? You think it would be better for them to go with HHH not being in charge? Who would replace him? Johnny Ace, or.. Vince McMahon. Talk about going back to the way things were.. And they talk about how Cena winning makes it terrible product again.
NO. it doesn't. Del Rio wasn't a good champion. The only reason that match had the spot it did was because of John Cena, and because it was the RAW title. Berto will be champion again, but the timing wasn't right.
So overall, I think the pay per view was decent. I think it's a slight step down from Summerslam. And in a pay per view when every title is defended, you would think they would try to keep the quality going. You know.. to make their champions look good..
So overall.. Night of Champions was a 7/10 for me.
If you made it all the way through this, you get a 10/10 from me. It was long. let's be honest.
But thanks for reading, don't forget to follow me on twitter at @TheOZMouthpiece and leave me a comment on here too.
That's it, and That's all.
So my first overall thoughts, some 3 hours and a bit after the PPV has finished? I thought it was a good show, was surprised by how good some of the matches were, shocked at some of the finishes.. but overall, a little confused. Hopefully watching the replays (of which we get 3 in australia) will help.
I'll get to the rundown of the matches in a minute, but first of all, some initial opinions
No Jim Ross? Are you serious? Especially bad considering the "lead" announcer lost his voice and didn't do anything during the main event.
Just because Kofi and Bourne both wore green, it doesn't make them a "team". To me it still feels like two singles wrestlers put together. I'm not a fan of their name, and i've never been a fan of just using both guy's music as their entrance. At least do what they did for Miz/Show, or Jeri-Show, or RatedRKO and make one song out of their two entrance themes.
And Miz and Truth look even less like a "team". For all the reports that the tag team division is supposed to be being built back up, we're not seeing it yet. What about pushing the Uso's? The one "TEAM" you have WWE...
After the way the Women's (not using the word diva) match went down, I think it would have made more sense to put it earlier in the card. Just in case the crowd kinda died because their hometown girl didn't win. And also, who the hell believes that Kelly kelly could hold Beth Phoenix down in that kind of pin combination for a 3 count, especially when she didn't even get her legs over Beth's arms??
Cena winning is the right idea. Del Rio wasn't doing well as champ. I wasn't taking him seriously. He can be a world champ, but it wasn't the right timing I don't think.
Mark Henry cut a great promo after he (finally) won the title. He surprised me with how good that was. I hope he can keep it up, because he deserves a run with the belt.
Why was there an in ring promo segment?.. This isn't RAW or Smackdown.. i didn't pay to see guys talking to each other. Why not instead of that, have Christian and Sheamus in a match? Sure, it's "night of champions", but what was the main event?
And I'll get to that main event later, because I have a feeling it's going to be a long post.
Ok, so now that's out of the way. Let's get on to the matches.
So the show opened with the Tag Team titles.. well what are you going to do? They are, at this point, the belts with the least amount of importance. Which is a shame, because tag team wrestling can be a great part of a wrestling show. Look at the motor city machine guns and beer money. when they're not injured. But, having said that, the first match on a card is fairly important. It sets the tone.
As I said before, Miz and Truth don't look like a team. Miz could have worn black tights so he matched Truth's pants...
The match was solid, but nothing special to me. I still think that Miz needs to be in the main event picture, maybe move to smackdown, and have a Miz/Orton feud after Orton and Henry are done.
No real highlights to speak of, at leats nothing that I remember, aside from Miz's Cutter/DDT move which is .. pun intended.. awesome.
Oh actually, I remember watching Raven's video blog, and he talked about the fake tag spot that people do sometimes, they did that spot, but it was reversed, where the good guys faked the tag, and the bad guys got caught. That was interesting.
The finish makes sense, the whole conspiracy angle that's been going on, but just because it makes sense, doesn't make it good.
Why not have the finish be that Miz or Truth went for a cover but the ref was knocked down or distracted, and then bourne or kofi got the quick roll up, instead of a DQ. It would serve the same purpose, and they could still knock the ref down afterwards. The DQ wasn't satisfying at all, and didn't help make AirBoom look strong at all.
5.5/10
It is quite funny that Miz and Truth beat down a ref and try to bully him.. and then there's an Anti-bullying ad shown.
Cody and Ted Dibiase was also a solid match. I'd even say it was quite good. The problem is that the crowd were pretty much dead for the whole thing.
I haven't watched a lot of Smackdown, so I'm not exactly up to speed on this storyline, but I would assume these guys would work well together because of their past.
Ted still moves too much like Randy Orton to me though. I know that they had that big run as Legacy, but Cody doesn't move like Orton anymore.
A decent match, not many highlights.. Funny moment when Booker T called a Spinebuster a Sidewalk Slam... Booker used to use a spinebuster when he wrestled right?
6/10
Christian and Sheamus talk.. only thing worth mentioning is Uncle Fergus/Fargas's green testicle.
US TITLE MATCH
I was completely surprised by this match. I'm a big fan of Ziggler, but the other 3 guys, i'm not so much into. Especially Swagger. He's annoying, he's not that good in the ring, and he's got no personality. Morrison was a little impressive, but he's still not as good as he thinks he is. And Riley.. just looks like a carbon copy of the Miz with less hair on the sides of his head.
But it was a good match. Some good spots, using 3 of the guys doing combination moves, and variation of a tower of doom, (with a near botch however), and as usual the interaction between Vickie and Ziggler is great tv.
Really good finish too, Ziggler picking up Swagger's scraps after knocking Swagger out of the way.
7/10.
And i'll say it again. Dolph is going to be the world champion before the end of 2012.
Mark Henry's pre match promo was fairly solid. He's really improved this year. Like i said earlier I haven't watched a lot of Smackdown, but I've been noticing Mark Henry. And today/tonight's match was no exception. He's doing a great job.
This match was really good too. Orton is great, and works well with Mark. They told a really good story with Orton having to really pull out all the stops as it were, to even do a little bit of damage to the much bigger Henry.
The spot where Henry was stretching Orton around the ring post looked absolutely brutal, and really highlighted the whole "Mark Henry could break you in half if he wanted" thing. And then standing on Orton without putting his weight on the ropes was just as brutal.
Henry dominated, as he should for most of the match. That's the thing with the big man/smaller man match.. the story is already written essentially.
Great finish, if a little surprising.. I was not expecting Henry to win. Glad he did though. And that promo he delivered after he won...really great.
7.5/10
Beth vs Kelly. Ok so we all already know that most of the divas are not what you'd call "good" workers.. But, having said that, Kelly at least y'know.. could take a lot of moves from Beth.
On the other hand, that match had the worst finish of the night. And Kelly clearly didn't know how to react when the crowd booed her.
The match was decent, the Superplex looked awesome. Beth was great. And deserved to win. I don't understand why they decided not to have her win in her hometown.. it doesn't make Kelly look like a strong champion when she gets a quick roll up and messes up the pinning move, it doesn't really help Beth and Natalya's crusade look legitimate when Beth can't beat Kelly on 2 occasions..
4.5/10 (low score for the stupid finish)
Here's an original idea though.. what about at Hell in a Cell in 2 weeks (don't get me started on how stupid that idea is... 14 days between pay per views? I'm not buying it)... lets have Beth vs Kelly inside the cell! You want to put the divas back on the map, do something that's never been done before. Cage matches have been done yes, but as far as i can remember, not in the WWE.
But that won't happen.. will it...?
John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio
Great match. I know right? I said a Cena match was a great match. Cena has been on a different level lately. Sure, he's still "the man" and still marketed to kids, but he's added some new moves to his arsenal, and especially tonight, there was no 5 moves of doom. Not all in the same order anyway.
I said this on twitter, but i'll say it again. Alberto needs a non-submission finisher. Having a submission finisher is fine, but when it's an armbar, it makes it harder to tell different stories. He has to target the arm at least part of the match, so it's limiting.
The match was good, honestly I was suprised when Cena won, but I think it was the right move.
7.5/10
One other thing.. if Cena is marketed to kids, and an all around good guy.. how is it ok that he stole a car, and admitted it?
Onto the main event. CM Punk vs Triple H.. well before jumping too far ahead, lets see.. it was fairly obvious that Nash would be involved somehow. Laurinitis texting earlier in the ppv, and even before that, the Limo ride that Laurinitis took with Nash. That was a no brainer I think.
I'm not going to talk about everything that happened in the match.. this thing is already really long. I do want to mention a couple of things though, and then i'll get to the finish.
Lets start with Triple H. He looked damn good. It just goes to show, the best guys can (until they get to ric flair's age) can always god, even with a bit of a layoff. And really, I'm pretty sure just because he's not working in the ring as a wrestler full time anymore, that wouldn't mean he has stopped training, or getting in a ring and working out somewhat. So really, it's no surprise that he didn't miss a step. Was the same with Undertaker at 'Mania this year.
And then there is the Macho Man Elbow through the announce table. Moment of the night, spot of the night, move of the night. Brilliant. Looked really brutal too. Looked like it hurt both guys a lot. And it was good to hear Lawler slip in "That was Savage... " too.
Speaking of commentary.. it was such a refreshing change to have no Michael Cole. It was like this annoying buzzing little insect that i'd finally killed. Seriously, that match was so much better just because his voice wasn't constantly nattering on.
The way Punk took the "chair in the turnbuckle" spot was really cool. The way he got stuck in the turnbuckle.. great stuff.
Ok the finish. I'll try to remember it all.
So.. Miz and Truth come out.. and beat up both guys.. for some reason.. Ok i know that they attacked HHH because he's the COO and they think there's a conspiracy, but why Punk? Other than they both had matches with him recently..
Anyway, they knock both guys down, then drag Punk onto Triple H and demand the ref counts the pin.
Then when the Ref hesitated and Triple H kicked out, Miz and Truth attacked him.
Johnny Ace comes out to check on said ref, and while that happens, Punk and HHH start beating up Miz and Truth, knocking them both out of the ring, and then HHH hits a pedigree on Punk.
At the same time, a second ref runs down, and HHH goes for the cover, but Laurinitis stops the 2nd ref and gets him to check the 1st ref.
Triple H gets to his feet, goes to the ropes and asks what the hell is going on?... Punk hits the GTS, goes for the pin near the ropes, and Laurinitis sees this and gets the ref into the ring to count the pin. He then turned away to "text" someone.
And then, in the most confusing moment of the night, R-Truth pulls CM Punk off of Triple H. 5 minutes after dragging him onto Triple H when they were both out of it.
What? Who booked that crap?
Anyway. after that, HHH hit a pedigree, Punk kicked out at 2, and then Nash came out from the crowd.
Nash took out Punk and HHH, went for a Jacknife on HHH, but Punk attacked him. Punk then got hit with a Jacknife.
Nash went to the announcers table,and took the monitors out, and then as he turned around, HHH nailed him with a sledgehammer.
He then got back in the ring, and hit the Pedigree again and won the match.
I swear that is the finish. I may have even missed a couple of details.
The truth dragging punk of the pin spot was ridiculous. And what happened to Laurinitis? did he just leave after he "texted" Nash?
So what does all that mean? Well.. Punk was only pinned after taking 2 pedigrees and a Jacknife.. so Punk looks tough as all hell. Triple H eked out a win, and got a measure of revenge for all the crap Punk has talked about Stephanie.
Match gets 8.5/10
I saw a bunch of tweets about how "everything's back to normal" and "way to ruin it WWE".. really? You think it would be better for them to go with HHH not being in charge? Who would replace him? Johnny Ace, or.. Vince McMahon. Talk about going back to the way things were.. And they talk about how Cena winning makes it terrible product again.
NO. it doesn't. Del Rio wasn't a good champion. The only reason that match had the spot it did was because of John Cena, and because it was the RAW title. Berto will be champion again, but the timing wasn't right.
So overall, I think the pay per view was decent. I think it's a slight step down from Summerslam. And in a pay per view when every title is defended, you would think they would try to keep the quality going. You know.. to make their champions look good..
So overall.. Night of Champions was a 7/10 for me.
If you made it all the way through this, you get a 10/10 from me. It was long. let's be honest.
But thanks for reading, don't forget to follow me on twitter at @TheOZMouthpiece and leave me a comment on here too.
That's it, and That's all.
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