Unforgiven 2004
Date: September 12, 2004
Location: Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon
Attendance: 10,000
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

It’s 2004 and we’re in the single brand PPV era. This is a Raw show and the main event is HHH vs. Orton since Orton rose to the top of the show and won the title from Benoit at Summerslam. Since someone is getting some traction as a face, we better crush him quickly. Other than that we also have Jericho vs. Christian in a ladder match for the vacant IC Title and the winner of worst match of the year. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is about how Orton has turned back against Evolution and HHH in specific so tonight it’s payback time.

Batista/Ric Flair vs. Chris Benoit/William Regal

Regal got a small push around this time as he feuded with Evolution because Evolution hurt Eugene. Benoit vs. Batista gets us going and the Crossface is attempted less than a minute in. Benoit uses his technical stuff and has Batista all confused. Off to Regal who tries to brawl and tosses Big Dave around with a suplex. Batista gets his hands on Benoit and brings in Flair. Let the wooing begin!

Benoit is like cool man and chops it out with Flair and the Canadian gets the better of it. Back to Regal and the beat down the old wrinkly man. Flair Flop and Regal drops a knee on his head. Benoit and Regal hammer away on Ric for a bit. He probably owes them money. Benoit goes for the knee again and takes an enziguri for Flair Flop #2. Off to Regal vs. Batista now and Regal is in a fighting move.

Batista takes down Regal and lets Flair get the glory shots in. Well that’s better than a Regal money shot I guess. Belly to back gets two. This crowd is silent. Batista comes back in and he’s really not that good at this kind of stuff yet. Back to Flair and it’s Figure Four time. Benoit comes in to break it up like any good partner would do. Batista beats on Regal a bit but Regal rams into him and it’s hot tag Benoit.

Flair comes in at the same time and Benoit is all fired up. The crowd doesn’t seem to care about anyone but Regal. That tends to be a problem in the Pacific Northwest. Is there an Atlantic Northwest that I’m not aware of? Benoit busts out Rolling Germans on Flair and the Swan Dive drills Flair. Crossface goes on Flair but Batista picks Benoit up like he’s a small Canadian wrestler and Batista is a big power lifter. Regal sends Batista into the post and then into the crowd. The Canadian counters the Figure Four into the Crossface and we’re done.

Rating: B-. Solid opening tag match here that got a lot of time to work with. Regal was fired up here and with him like this I could see him having a bit of a stronger push if they kept him serious. Not a classic or anything but they did enough here to make a good match without much to work with other than Evolution hurt a slow guy and it’s revenge time. Good opener though.

Trish and Christian argue over who gets to use Tomko tonight. Pay no attention to the fact that they have different matches tonight and Tomko isn’t in one of his own. Trish whispers in his ear and Tomko leaves with her. I think that was a breakup also. There’s some mystery chick that is trying to jump Trish which is why she wants Tomko there.

Women’s Title: Victoria vs. Trish Stratus

Trish is champion and Victoria is in this weird stage where she’s dancing and such and it didn’t fit her at all. JR thinks Victoria is the stronger of the two. And this man is in the Hall of Fame. The fans think Trish is a sl** and Jerry disagrees. Jerry wanted to give Trish a pre-match physical since she had been injured. JR: “She had a broken hand. What were you going to have her do? DON’T ANSWER THAT.” Victoria keeps taking over but can’t keep the advantage.

Tomko saves Trish from a dive and Victoria is mad. She gets sent into the post and that changes things around quite a bit. Trish pounds away and chokes a bit for two. She channels her inner Dan Severn and uses the modified abdominal stretch that he used during his limited time in the company. Things slow WAY down as Trish hooks on a chinlock. Victoria makes her comeback and hits her side slam and and standing moonsault (with shake) for two each. A headbutt puts Trish down…and Victoria dives on Tomko. That’s enough for Stratusfaction to end this.

Rating: D. And most of that is because Victoria looks good in little flesh colored shorts. This was really boring and I don’t think anyone cared. For some reason this was to set up the post match stuff because the company thought someone wanted to see it. What is that you ask? It’s the worst match of the year. Here it is.

The mystery woman comes in to save Victoria from a beating and a DDT puts Tomko down. After a brief chat with JR and Jerry, Tomko says he wants to fight the mystery woman right now. Here she comes and even JR says it’s the worst kept secret in wrestling as to who that is.

Tyson Tomko vs. Mystery Woman

There go the clothes…and it’s Steven Richards. Yeah and everyone knew it so this is hardly a secret. And he’s wearing a bra, panties and plastic chest enhancements. Tomko destroys him and asks if Richards wants to be a girl. The fans know it’s garbage and it’s not even really a match. Tomko chokes Richards a lot and the fans aren’t paying attention at all. Tomko slams him and that’s the first non-stomp/choke move of the match. Here’s a neck vice and the fans just die. Richards no sells punches and Tomko calls him a sissy, making Steven grabs his balls. Tomko’s that is. Richards stops to look at the bra and a rack neckbreaker ends him.

Rating: J. As in just no. No way, not working, nothing of value. Next please. This is why we got tired of individual brand PPVs: stuff like this got six and a half minutes. Let that sink in for a minute.

Buy the Chris Benoit DVD which we’ll never mention again three years from this date!

We recap Christian vs. Jericho. In short, Edge was injured (shocking I know) and had to forfeit the title. Jericho got in his face so Christian made the save and a ladder match was announced for this show for the title.

Intercontinental Title: Christian vs. Chris Jericho

All outside parties are banned from ringside and it’s a ladder match remember. The fans chant CLB and Christian is in green tights for some reason. Basic stuff to start with these two being their normally awesome selves. Jericho grabs a ladder and throws it at Christian but only hits another ladder. Jericho takes over and hits a running enziguri. Out to the floor and Jericho misses another ladder shot.

And now let’s go into the crowd because there are a ton of ladders out there right? Back to ringside and Jericho chokes on him with a cord. Christian busts out an Unprettier (Killswitch) on the floor which today would probably be an injury angle for Jericho but here it just knocks him out. To give you an idea of what midcard finishers mean, Jericho keeps Christian from even climbing the ladder after taking his finisher on the floor. Imagine that today.

Christian is sent face first into the ladder and JR talks about barbecue sauce. I don’t get how he manages to tie those things together but whatever. Christian puts the ladder on the middle rope and slingshots Jericho into it face first. This is more about beating on each other instead of the title and climbing. Speaking of which, Jericho throws the ladder at Christian to put him down again.

Jericho channels his inner Shawn and rides the ladder down onto Christian, mainly hitting the back and the knees. Since selling isn’t allowed in this match, Jericho gets hung upside down, almost in a Tree of Woe position in the corner. Christian goes up but Jericho flips him off instead of climbing to slow him down. Jericho tries a Lionsault onto Christian onto the ladder but only gets ladder.

Jericho sends him into the ladder and the fans try to get into it. Christian goes up and hangs up there but still can’t pull it down. Instead he crashes, allowing Jericho to go up and be shoved off too. Christian goes up and gets caught in Jericho’s signature Walls on the Ladder spot. Christian falls off and Jericho still can’t get it as Jericho’s tail bone lands on the ladder. FREAKING OW MAN! Captain Charisma brings the big ladder in and Jericho tries on a regular one.

Since he’s an idiot in this match, Christian touches the belt and then stops to look at Jericho. Both guys go flying off after Jericho shoves the belt so Christian has issues getting to it. And then Jericho climbs up to get it in a very pedestrian ending. This would give Jericho the record for most Intercontinental Titles ever, a record he still holds to this day.

Rating: C+. This was a pretty boring ladder match actually. Ladder matches automatically get some bonus points because they’re ladder matches but this was far less about drama for the belt and more about trying to have big spots. Not a particularly good match and most of the time it just got boring. They were trying though and the spot near the end where Jericho fell on the ladder was impressive.

Todd tries to talk to Kane but runs into Lita instead. Lita talks about how she wants Shawn to kill Kane. Kane pops out of his locker room and grabs her by the hair. It’s now a No DQ match. Kane also forces a kiss out of her.

Jericho talks about how proud he is to be champion and the record holding champ. Edge pops up and says that’s my belt.

Mania 21 is in LA.

We recap Shawn vs. Kane. Kane is all crazy and evil and Lita is carrying his baby which was the result of a night with Kane to keep him from killing Matt. Guess how well Kane kept up the end of the bargain. This resulted in a forced wedding because that’s how wrestling works. Kane got an open contract to face anyone he wanted at Unforgiven and planned to get a world title shot but Lita stole the contract and signed Kane up to face the returning Shawn Michaels. Oh and Kane put Shawn out in the first place.

Shawn Michaels vs. Kane

Lita is here against her will. Shawn fires away at Kane and the Big Bald gets beaten to the floor. See, this is why Shawn is great: you can throw him into something like this and it works very well as can anyone question Shawn being in there? Shawn heads to the floor but jumps into an uppercut back inside. Kane misses an elbow due to Shawn moving even though it would have missed by a mile anyway. Out to the floor and Shawn dives over the top to take Kane down.

The lack of a story is hurting it here as it’s just a match with no backstory or anything like that and that’s the meat of any wrestling match. Shawn gets slammed through the table and he bumps like only Shawn can. That only gets two back in the ring because an upper midcard match has to go longer than 5 minutes. A legdrop also gets two. Off to a chinlock to waste some time. The move known as the Punjabi Plunge gets two.

Back to the neck vice which lasts a little longer this time. Shawn finally gets something going and drops Kane with a DDT. Both guys are down so Kane sits up and Shawn nips up almost at the same time. Out to the floor again and a step shot busts Shawn open. Shawn tries to speed things up and knocks a chair out of Kane’s hands but gets knocked down again.

Kane misses a big boot to the post and Shawn sends his head into the steel. Shawn fires away with his usual stuff back in the ring and drops the elbow for no cover. Michaels starts shaking like Terry Funk and it’s time to stomp the mat in an attempt to surprise my opponent. And never mind as Kane kicks his head off for two. Top rope clothesline looks to set up the chokeslam but Shawn hits Kane in the Little Balds.

A big chair shot puts Kane down but Shawn can’t follow up. Since it’s a No DQ match we also have no countouts so the laying around is pretty pointless with no drama at all. Lita steals the chair from Kane and the distraction lets Shawn…miss Sweet Chin Music again but the third attempt hits and it’s good for the pin.

Rating: C. This got almost twenty minutes and while it was a good brawl, I’m not really sure what this proves. Shawn, a bigger star than Kane, beat Kane and that’s it. There’s no story or retribution or anything like that. It was an entertaining enough match but all it really does is advance Lita and Kane a bit more. It would take Gene Snitsky of all people to turn Kane face again.

Video on Shelton Benjamin. He isn’t on the show or anything but here’s a video about him.

HHH talks about how Orton was nothing until he met HHH and how Evolution was about the best, meaning him. Orton is good, but not as good. This takes about two minutes and it takes that much time to say HHH is awesome and Orton needs to be beaten.

Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance vs. Tajiri/Rhyno

Conway/Grenier here. Conway vs. Tajiri starts us off and Tajiri speeds around a lot to take over. Off to Grenier who hits the floor to avoid a Gore. Tajiri comes back in and takes over with a semi-botched tornado DDT. Conway beats on Tajiri and the fans just do not care. Off to a reverse chinlock as the fans chant USA for a Japanese comeback. Rhyno comes in and beats on both French dudes a bit.

This match needs to end like five minutes ago. It’s just boring but you could say that about every tag title match in this period. We hear about Rhyno looking everywhere for a partner as he walks into a double flapjack for two. The flag goes into Conway’s balls but a Gore only gets two. And there’s a flag to the face of Rhyno for the cheap pin.

Rating: F+. This had zero point in being on PPV. It wouldn’t even be a good Raw match, mainly because it went on way too long, getting almost ten minutes. La Resistance would be the heel team of the year for awhile as no one cared at all and it went nowhere at all. The tag division sucked BAD around this point and this is a fine example of it.

We recap Orton vs. HHH which I’m sure you get by this point. They were in Evolution together, Orton won the title, HHH got mad and threw him out, this is the match. Oh and Orton spat at HHH. This gets the music video treatment.

Raw World Title: HHH vs. Randy Orton

HHH has the white boots on this time. I miss this version of Orton. Here he’s young and chisled and has elbow pads and isn’t orange and covered in tattoos. They get something resembling big match intros as both guys are checked for weapons and they get the rules read to them. Feeling out process to start and they look at each other a lot. Orton spits at him again and I guess the bodybuilding phase is over.

Orton fires away and drops HHH on his back (a backdrop if you will) and hammers on him even more. Time for the chinlock and Orton looks ticked off while he’s holding onto it. And now that the hold is broken: more punching! They head to the floor and JR calls it no man’s land, and “HHH owns a lot of land in no man’s land.” If this show hadn’t bored me into a numbness already, I’d rip that apart.

HHH gets in a shot to the knee and JR follows that one up by saying he thinks Orton is quicker. Back in HHH goes for the knee as he channels his inner Naitch. The leg goes into the post and the Game works on the knee. By that I mean he spends a LONG time working on it. Off to a Figure Four and Trips puts the pressure on it. The hold goes on for a few mintues as the boring nature of this show continues. The crowd isn’t into it at all either.

The Game finally gets caught in the ropes and Hebner breaks it up. Orton counters another try at the hold and both guys are down. HHH is busted off….something. Orton goes back to the old faithful right hand and a Piper poke to the eye. They trade sleepers and HHH goes up for the dumbest move in wrestling (jumping into the boot). Randy goes up as well and hits a cross body for two.

Backbreaker gets two for the champion. The knee injury is coming and going. Orton loads up the RKO but gets shoved into the referee. Pedigree is countered into the RKO but there’s no ref. Here’s Flair who has the same looking hair as my ex stepmother but down he goes as well. Batista comes in and goes into the post.

A low blow puts Randy down and Coach comes out to referee. There’s a right hand for him but Orton walks into a Batista spinebuster to put him down for two. Pedigree is countered and there’s an RKO for Coach. Flair brings in a chair and takes an RKO too. A low blow gets rid of Batista but HHH pops Randy with a chair and a Pedigree onto said chair gives HHH the title back.

Rating: B-. Good match but the ending really hurts it. Everything went insane and the Evolution team standing tall was already old but here it is again. Batista would hit the hot streak of a lifetime soon after this though and would finally take the title off HHH for good. Oh and that Cena guy won a title too. The match was long though and the leg selling by Orton was so hit or miss that it got annoying.

Overall Rating: D-. There’s some good stuff on here but OH MY GOODNESS this show is boring. This show just keeps going on and on and there are moments where you want to pound your head into a wall to give you something interesting like a concussion. The matches aren’t bad but nothing is really great and there is so much awful on it that it gets pulled down and pulled down deep. Very boring show and nothing worth seeing at all.

Smackdown
Date: July 22, 2011
Location: Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T, Josh Matthews

Money in the Bank is over and the question is simple: can Christian make it through one whole show as world champion? He won the title from Orton in the first instance I can ever remember where the “if the champion gets disqualified he loses the title” stipulation actually worked. Also Daniel Bryan now has the MITB case so there’s always the chance of a cash in starting tonight. Let’s get to it.

We open the show with Orton sitting in a chair in the middle of the ring. His says his name is Randy Orton. I wonder if he loves to fight. Although there’s a lot going on in the WWE at the moment, this show isn’t going anywhere until his issue with Christian is settled. We get a clip of Orton destroying Christian post match and here’s the new champion.

Christian wants to know what unfinished business Orton is talking about. Orton says as long as Christian is breathing there’s unfinished business. Christian thinks the unfinished business is with the voices Orton has in his head. Orton says Christian has been hiding behind a team of lawyers but Christian says Orton simply broke the rules. Christian says that he’s been fighting incompetence for a long time now and also the unseen forces that keeps Randy on top. He’s beaten them all though and is now a two time world champion.

There won’t be a celebration tonight because nothing has changed over the last few months. He’s not going to talk to these people because they still treat him badly. Orton says these people are going to see him beat Christian tonight because he wants his rematch. Christian says no because rematches don’t grow on trees. Is he new here or something?

The champ says he’s going to leave and talk to his lawyers about the situation. Orton comes after him but here’s Teddy of course to break that up. Teddy says Orton will get his rematch but not tonight because he has Kane in a street fight. Orton needs to be the bigger man and that just doesn’t happen. He takes Christian down and hammers away for a bit until the referees pull him off. Christian gets in Teddy’s face but Teddy says get to the ring because Christian has a match with Big Zeke right now.

Ezekiel Jackson vs. Christian

Non-title here. Jackson comes out after a quick break. Christian immediately heads to the floor to hide for a bit. They get into the ring and no mention has been made yet of their ECW days. Total power game from Jackson to start us off and a long gorilla press slam puts the Canadian down. Jackson slams him again and sends him to the floor as we take a break. Back with Jackson slamming Christian into the announce table on the floor.

Christian ducks low and Jackson eats steps and the momentum shifts. That gets two back in the ring. Christian uses some basic stuff but Jackson gets a shot to the ribs and takes over one more time. Actually scratch that as Christian nails him in the ribs and stops the momentum. Booker says Christian can pull this off. He’s the world champion. Shouldn’t it be Jackson that can pull this off?

Off to a chinlock and it’s Jackson in trouble again. Jackson escapes with a Samoan Drop and starts firing off clotheslines. Christian avoids one but can’t hit the Killswitch. Here come the slams but Christian escapes and goes to the knee. Killswitch doesn’t work again and Jackson gets him on his shoulder. Jackson charges shoulder first into the post though and the Killswitch ends this at 6:39 shown of 10:09.

Rating: C. Match was fine but I really don’t get the need to have Jackson lose again. Isn’t there some non champion midcarder that could have done this? It’s not like Jackson should have beaten him but I don’t get the point in having him lose like that. Christian needed the clean win over someone though so that was fine for the most part.

Here’s Cole to bring out Daniel Bryan. Cole says it was a fluke win at MITB and Bryan says he doesn’t care what Cole says. Cole makes fun of Bryan for being all valiant but he knows Bryan is going to cash in like everyone else has: when the champion is down and out. Bryan doesn’t deserve to have that case. Bryan says Cole didn’t deserve to be in a featured match at Mania. No one deserves anything in this company and he’s earned his spot over the last 12 years.

He lists off some of his injuries such as a detached retina and not being able to hear out of his left ear due to being kicked in the head so much. However he won’t quit because he’s dreamed of being WWE Champion since he was a kid. The person who holds the case can cash it in whenever and wherever they want. Bryan however is going to cash it in at Wrestlemania. I’ll believe that when I see it. Heath Slater of all people comes out and calls Bryan a loser.

Heath Slater vs. Daniel Bryan

Slater starts off in trouble and has to escape the LeBell Lock by going to the floor. We take a break and come back with Bryan tossing him around with an armdrag. Bryan is now in the top of Booker’s Fave Five now. Slater throws on a headlock and takes over. Hard whip into the corner puts Bryan down. Bryan starts fighting back and the crowd is cheering so hard that they’re not even moving.

Booker says Slater has the same amount of charisma as a bowl full of turnips. Slater puts him down again as Cole keeps saying it was a fluke. Back to the chinlock as Booker and Cole get into their bickering again. Josh as usual gets us back to the match because he’s the responsible one. Bryan makes a comeback with a flying forearm and both guys are down. Daniel lowers his head and gets kicked in the face for his troubles.

Slater charges at him and goes crashing to the floor. Bryan hits a running kick from the apron and back inside we go. Missile dropkick gets two. Slater grabs a spinebuster for two. Pinfall reversal sequence gets some two counts for both guys. Bryan sets for what looks like a tornado DDT but goes into a guillotine choke instead for the tap at 7:25 shown of 10:55.

Rating: C+. Good match here as Bryan got to showcase himself pretty well. This is what he needs: matches where he can show off his skills and get the win at the end because since he lost the US Title he hasn’t done much. He’s gotten a little resurgence leading up to the MITB win so it’s not totally out of nowhere but he needs some resume building wins.

We recap Big Show vs. Henry at the PPV where Henry hurt Show’s leg post match.

Henry says the destruction will never end because the attack on Show gave him a pleasure. If it sounds like he’s talking about himself, it’s because he is. His words there, not mine.

We get the Vince/Cena/HHH video from Raw which eats up about ten minutes. Josh wouldn’t say Punk’s name leading into the segment.

Sheamus vs. Wade Barrett

Fallout from the MITB build here. The announcers touch on Cara being out due to the “injuries” he suffered in the ladder match. Sheamus hammers him down to start but Barrett gets his foot up in the corner to take over. Cole says Sheamus has a degree in computer technology and Barrett has one in marine biology. Never would have guessed those. Wade chokes Sheamus out on the top rope and then kicks pale boy to the floor.

That gets two back in the ring. Barrett has been dropped from the Fave Five. We get a Harvey Whippleman reference for no apparent reason. Sheamus grabs the Irish Curse for two. He pounds away even more like the brawler he is and they head to the floor. It turns into a slugout and neither guy can really get an advantage. They fight to the announce table and it’s a double countout at 4:29.

Rating: C+. I like big man brawls like these where they don’t really care about the pin and it’s about the fight. Neither guy could really lose here so the ending was the right idea. I’d like to see more of this but then again I like both guys. Either way, fun brawl that probably will lead to something more from them later.

They keep fighting post match and Barrett tries Wasteland, only to take the Brogue Kick to leave Sheamus standing tall.

Kane says he’s going to unleash his pain and misery tonight. Lately he’s been haunted and tonight he’s going to try to escape that. He’s been feeling too human lately and doesn’t like it at all. He uses the Devil’s Favorite Demon line for the first time in many months.

Randy Orton vs. Kane

This is a street fight. They have a ton of time left to do this also. Kane fires away to start and beats Orton down in the corner. Orton gets a boot up though and there’s the Thesz Press. Kane grabs him by the throat but Orton counters into a failed RKO attempt. Out to the floor we go They fight up the ramp and neither guy can get much of an extended advantage.

Orton rams Kane into the railing and finds a kendo stick. He’s getting all googly eyed and slides back in so he can bust out the elevated DDT. That fails completely and Orton is sent back over the top and out to the floor. Orton goes into the railing as we take a break. Back with Kane still in control and getting a two count. Orton low bridges Kane to send him to the floor but jumps into an uppercut.

Kane sets up the announce table but Orton escapes the chokeslam attempt. Orton climbs up onto the table to escape but it falls forward and Randy is holding his knee. He’s up again but he’s limping. Kane’s knees go into the steps in a wicked shot and Randy hammers away. Orton puts Kane’s leg on the step and stomps it into the steel and then slams the steps down onto it. We take another break and come back with Orton hammering away at the leg/ankle.

Kane fires off a big boot to take Orton down. He goes up but Orton avoids him and sends Kane’s shoulder into the post. Elevated DDT hits and it’s RKO time. That doesn’t work and Kane hits the side slam for two. Now the big clothesline hits and Kane calls for the chokeslam. Orton is like screw that and grabs an RKO out of nowhere for a VERY close two. Kane can’t get up so Orton sets up the Punt. The Big Bald pops up and hits a chokeslam for two.

We take an almost unprecedented third break as this match is going to get 20 minutes minimum. Back with Kane picking up a chair. He drills Orton four times with it and loads up a tombstone onto it. Randy escapes that and also escapes a chokeslam onto it. The RKO onto the chair ends this at 14:08 shown of 25:38 (remember that I assume 3:30 per break so the match could have been much shorter or even a bit longer).

Rating: B-. This was good but not great. For a TV match it took up a very long time which probably wasn’t a great idea. They never really hit a high gear but the match itself was fine. I do kind of question giving this so long and giving Barrett vs. Sheamus four minutes as you could have balanced this out a lot better. Still though, good stuff for a long match.

Post match Kane takes his glove off and shakes hands with Randy. I don’t ever remember seeing his right hand. Kane gets up after Orton leaves and the fans applaud him. Geez another turn for the Big Bald? Mark Henry comes out before Kane can leave though and he doesn’t look nice. Remember Kane has a very bad knee here and can barely stand. Kane fires off on him but Henry takes the knee out. Henry gets him down as I guess Kane’s new buddy Orton doesn’t need to help Kane. Kane gets the same treatment Show got at the PPV.

Overall Rating: B. This was an odd show at times as not a lot happened. You had some long matches and a lot of wrestling, but at the same time a lot of people weren’t here at all and weren’t mentioned. The main event is long and probably too long for what it was. The ending is kind of weird as Henry claims another victim, but it keeps Henry’s push going. Either way, good show but not a classic or anything.

Results

Christian b. Ezekiel Jackson – Killswitch

Daniel Bryan b. Heath Slater – Guillotine choke

Sheamus vs. Wade Barrett went to a double countout

Randy Orton b. Kane – RKO onto a chair

 

Smackdown
Date: July 8, 2011
Location: Tucson Arena, Tucson, Arizona
Commentators: Josh Matthews, Booker T, Michael Cole

 

 

This was taped last week but for Smackdown that’s not going to change anything from the norm. Tonight we get some fallout from last week with Sheamus interjecting himself into the main event scene to end the show. Other than that we’ll probably be building up to Money in the Bank with some more stuff between the ladder match guys. Let’s get to it.

 

 

We open with a recap of the ending of last week’s show where Orton signed the contract but before Christian did, Sheamus returned and beat both guys up and ripped up the contract.

 

 

Do you know your enemy? Mine is a really bad sunburn.

 

 

Most of the MITB guys are in the ring but I only see seven right now. Sheamus is missing I believe. Everyone gets to say something. Bryan says he’s excited and nervous because he’s wanted to be world champion since he was a little kid. Cody cuts him off and says it’s because Bryan is a common man incapable of the things exceptional people do. Cody is one of those exceptional people. Once he wins the title everyone will have to swallow their pride and look him in the eye.

 

 

Barrett says he’s tired of hearing about what everyone else has done. He starts listing off his accomplishments but here’s Sheamus with a chair. He cracks almost everyone with it and clears the ring. Sheamus says he’ll win and cash in on Orton when he beats Christian. He’s going to get Orton tonight though, because of getting punted last month. Here’s Christian who asks if Sheamus thinks he can’t beat Orton. Sheamus calls him a scrawny, malnourished, googly eyed homely weasel.

 

 

Christian points out that he beat Sheamus a few weeks ago before Orton punted Sheamus. He’ll also be world champion after MITB. There’s a clause in the contract, saying that if Orton gets disqualified or if there’s bad officiating, Christian is automatically world champion. Christian calls him Ronald McDonald and asks if he can even read a contract. Sheamus throws the chair at him and here’s Teddy. Orton vs. Sheamus is the main event. Really solid opening segment here as Sheamus looked fired up and intimidating. I’m liking this three way feud a lot and they’re running it perfectly.

 

 

Clip of the first MITB match with Edge winning and cashing in about 9 months later.

 

 

Cody Rhodes/Ted DiBiase vs. Daniel Bryan/Ezekiel Jackson

 

 

Booker gets a bag again. DiBiase and Bryan start us off with DiBiase not being able to do much. Off to Jackson who is part of the Fave Five of Booker. We actually get the full list: McIntyre, Jackson, Sheamus, Barrett, Cara and a dark horse in Ryder. The good guys clear the ring and send Cody to the floor as we take a break. Back with Bryan firing off kicks to Cody in the corner.

 

 

Cody avoids a charge in the corner and backdrops Bryan onto the corner and catches him in an Alabama Slam for two. It’s off to DiBiase who keeps the advantage and hits a chinlock. Back off to Cody who uses his old school style to dominate even more. DiBiase chokes some more. Cole picks Wade Barrett to win MITB. Bryan gets a boot up in the corner and Josh picks Sin Cara, the same as Booker. Hot tag to Big Zeke who gets a nice reaction. He starts slamming people and Racks DiBiase but it’s broken up by a Beautiful Disaster and Dream Street gets the pin at 6:45 shown of 10:15.

 

 

Rating: C+. Pretty basic tag match here but for the love of all things good and holy Vince, why do you think midcard champions always have to lose? He won the title and then beat Barrett a second time and now he’s lost to Rhodes (not that bad) and then to DiBiase. Why in the world would that be something they’d think is smart? I don’t get why midcard champions are booked into the ground so often anymore but it’s getting annoying.

 

 

Video on Mark Henry and his domination as of late.

 

 

Striker tells Henry he’s facing potential fines, suspensions and criminal charges after what he did last week. Henry breathes a lot.

 

 

Jinder Mahal vs. Trent Barreta

 

 

During Mahal’s entrance we hear about some empire he’s built up and we don’t hear anything about his wife/Khali’s sister. Are they already changing the story? Anyway Khali sits in on commentary (you read that right) and actually speaks some English now. Total squash in the ring and the full nelson slam ends it at 1:04. The camera was on Khali more than the match. Post match Cole mentions the story we got last week.

 

 

Sheamus says his recent rampage is an Irish thing.

 

 

AJ vs. Tamina

 

 

Cole: “Hopefully this doesn’t put me to sleep like a Harlem Heat match.” Josh: “Tell me you didn’t just say that.” AJ has different hair now as it’s a bit lighter and a bit wavier. Natalya and Alicia are at ringside. Cole bashes Natalya for most of the match as Tamina dominates with an Umaga hip smash to the face. Off to a chinlock which doesn’t last long. AJ fights back and hits a Shining Wizard for two. Tamina misses a splash in the corner and AJ gets a rollup for the pin at 2:28.

 

 

Alicia yells at Tamina post match.

 

 

Mark Henry vs. Kane

 

 

Kane looks terrified but hammers away to start. Henry runs him over but Kane gets three dropkicks, two to the knees and a seated one to the chest, for two. Top rope clothesline is caught in a belly to belly for two. Henry stands on the chest for a bit and Kane is in trouble. The big fried freak fires off a right hand and the crowd is surprisingly into this. Big boot puts Henry down for two.

 

 

Kane goes up again and this time the clothesline hits. He loads up the chokeslam but Henry breaks out of it and headbutts Kane. A second attempt at the chokeslam hits but Henry gets his foot on the ropes. Out to the floor and Kane tries a chokeslam through the table but Henry breaks it up, ramming Kane into the post. Back inside a splash gets two. Mark is all ticked off now and the World’s Strongest Slam gets the pin at 5:52.

 

 

Rating: C. For a battle of the big men this was fine. They kept it relatively short which is the right idea for sure. If they want Henry to be taken as a big threat, this is the kind of win he needs. Kane is still someone with credibility and Henry beating him clean by just overpowering him is a good thing for him. I still don’t get the appeal or point of pushing Henry but it’s his every other year push so it’s to be expected.

 

 

Henry yells at the announcers post match.

 

 

Orton says he doesn’t care what the contract says because he’s going to win with the RKO. As for Sheamus, he’ll have to defend the title against him eventually but as for tonight, good luck to him.

 

 

Video of Miz winning MITB last year.

 

 

Tyson Kidd vs. Sin Cara

 

 

There go the lights again. Kidd grabs an armbar to take him down almost immediately. Cara speeds things up and hits an armdrag to send Kidd to the floor. Cara tries a dive or something similar to one, only to get his head slammed into the apron. Back inside Cara hits a slingshot corkscrew splash for two. Off to a chinlock by Kidd as the fans chant for Cara. Kidd keeps countering Cara’s moves and it’s working pretty well. He tries a springboard elbow but Cara gets the knees up to block it.

 

 

Cole says his name would be Billy the Kid if he was a superstar. Booker and Josh are quiet for a bit and then laugh at him. Cara starts his comeback and gets a victory roll into a sunset flip for two. Kidd kicks him down and goes up, only to get dropped onto the buckle. They go up again and the C4 off the top ends this at 4:16.

 

 

Rating: B-. Pretty good stuff here as I didn’t notice any botches which is a change for Cara. Granted they may have been edited out but that’s the perk of a taped show. Anyway not bad here and Cara is starting to get better slowly but surely as he’s having more coherent matches rather than just doing random spots. Good stuff.

 

 

Teddy is asked if he’s intimidated by Henry and won’t answeron.

 

 

Video on Ezekiel Jackson.

 

 

Usos vs. Justin Gabriel/Heath Slater

 

 

The matches are good but we’ve seen this how many times now? The Usos do their dance thing on the way to the ring. Jey has a tattoo on his chest apparently so he starts us off with Gabriel. Slater comes in rather quickly and takes Jey down as the crowd is more or less silent. Booker talks about the Fave Five again and it’s already annoying. Gabriel comes in and gets two before hitting a headlock. After some silence on commentary, Booker randomly says that no one likes Cole.

 

 

Double big boot puts both guys down as Jimmy tries to get the crowd back to life. It’s not really working but points for trying at least. Off to Jimmy vs. Slater with Jimmy being labeled as the powerhouse. Bubba Bomb puts Slater down as Booker says they both need gain another hundred pounds or so. Samoan Drop gets two on Slater. Slater manages to take him down with something like a Zig Zag and it’s off to Gabriel. He wants the 450 but Slater gets kicked into the ropes to crotch Justin. We get Power and Glory’s old finisher (superplex/top rope splash combo) to end Gabriel at 3:32.

 

 

Rating: C+. Another fine match but again, we’ve seen this how many times now? The teased tension between the former Nexus/Corre is what you would expect as they’ve been a successful team long enough so it’s time to split them in a feud that not many people want to see. Anyway this was fine and it’s cool to see the Usos have an actual finisher.

 

 

Johnny Curtis is at a table with a bunch of birthday stuff on it. He takes the cake. Debut him already and get it over with.

 

 

We get an abbreviated version of Cena and Vince from Raw.

 

 

We run down the MITB card. Henry vs. Show is official.

 

 

Randy Orton vs. Sheamus

 

 

Christian vs. Orton has been signed apparently and the Canadian is on commentary here. Orton fires away in the corner and Sheamus is in trouble. Pretty basic back and forth stuff here as Orton counters some Sheamus offense with a dropkick. He loads up the punt but Sheamus hits the floor. Back in Orton hits his way too enthusiastic Thesz Press and they slug it out to the floor.

 

 

Orton gets reversed into the railing and part of the wall falls down. Elevated DDT is blocked and Orton goes shoulder first into the post and back out to the floor. Christian goes after Orton but Sheamus stops him. Orton goes into the post again as we take a break. Back with Sheamus hitting a DDT to the arm for two. Orton makes a brief comeback but takes a knee to the ribs to put him right back down.

 

 

Randy makes his comeback and uses his regular stuff including the scoop powerslam. He adds something new to the arsenal with a belly to belly suplex for two. Sheamus gets a kick to the knee and pulls himself up to the top for a shoulder block for two. Irish Curse gets two. Brogue Kick and RKO are countered and Orton hits the backbreaker. Not that it matters as Christian comes in for the DQ at 8:24 shown of 11:54, giving Orton the win.

 

 

Rating: B-. Not a great match or anything but compared to the stuff these two were putting on in 2010, their recent stuff has been a miracle. I was thinking Sheamus would win MITB and then cash in at the end of the night but now I’m not so sure. Either way, not a bad match here and fine for a TV main event.

 

 

Post match Sheamus lays out Christian but walks into an RKO to leave Orton standing tall to close the show.

 

 

Overall Rating: B. While a step down from last week this was still good stuff. The key thing to Smackdown is they don’t waste time. Everything they do is either advancing a story, in ring action or promoting one of their wrestlers. This show was no exception as everything on here had a point, which is rare in today’s wrestling product. Anyway good show but not as good as last week.

 

 

Smackdown
Date: July 1, 2011
Location: US Airways Center, Phoenix, Arizona
Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T, Josh Matthews

We have the main event set for MITB as it’s Christian vs. Orton 39 or whatever we’re up to with them now.  Also tonight we’ll probably find out who the Money in the Bank guys are, which should be interesting given who we have in the midcard on Smackdown.  The field for both shows is pretty wide open this year.  Hopefully Smackdown can get back to where it usually is.  Let’s get to it.

We open with a video about Mark Henry and how dominant he’s been lately.  Apparently he gets Orton tonight.

Teddy is in his office and Christian comes in with a contract.  He wants a contract signing with Orton tonight.  Teddy points out that he didn’t win the tag match last week, Henry did.  That clears up some stuff so we’re off to a good start.  If Henry wins, he might make it triple threat.  Christian is barred from ringside.

Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry

 

Not bad for an opener.  Henry immediately rams him into the corner but Orton fires off some right hands.  That doesn’t last long as Henry throws him into the corners a few times and then hits a belly to belly suplex for two.  Big boot puts Orton down again and Henry chokes a bit.  Time for some smack talk as Henry says he’s the champ and not Orton.  World’s Strongest Slam is countered and Orton gets a DDT for two.

We head to the floor and the referee actually lectures them for a bit, saying get back in the ring before he has to start counting them.  I’ve never heard that before.  Not that it matters though as here’s Big Show’s music.  No Big Show though as Henry stares at the runway.  When he realizes that there’s no big bald dude coming, he turns into an RKO at 8 and Orton wins by countout at 4:24.

Rating: C-. Not much here but it wasn’t meant to be a classic or anything like that.  Henry not being in the main event makes sense as they’ve been building to Show vs. Henry for awhile now.  This gets Henry out of the equation though so it accomplished that at least.  Nothing great but the pop for Orton was solid.

Post match Henry goes up to the technical area and yells at the music guy.  He destroys a lot of equipment while the sound guy is sitting there in terror.  I run the sound board at my church so I feel for this guy.  The guy starts to leave but Henry changes his mind and throws him off the side of the stand they’re on in a nice visual.  The guy just disappeared.  Henry finally leaves.

Daniel Bryan vs. Ted DiBiase

 

Neither guy has music due to the attack.  It’s a weird visual to see Bryan coming out to dead silence.  The lack of music of course.  The very mild reaction is typical.  DiBiase coming out to no music is a nice unintentional throwback to his pop’s days.  That’s about the only similarity between them though.  Ted says he’s enjoyed humiliating Bryan and it’s due to Cody in an inset interview.

Basic stuff to start with Bryan getting an armdrag into an armbar.  Off to a full on surfboard which still astounds me every time.  Bryan heads up but misses a jump of some sort, allowing Ted to dropkick him to the floor as we take a break.  Before we go back to the match, let’s have a quick video about Daniel Bryan.  Not bad for mid match advertising.

Back with Ted holding a chinlock.  DiBiase hits his following clothesline for two and it’s right back to the chinlock.  Bryan gets his backflip out of the corner and a clothesline puts DiBiase down.  He’s getting frustrated here.  Here come the kicks but Ted grabs one into a rollup.  Bryan counters that into an attempt at the LeBell Lock but Ted gets a rope before it’s on.

A backdrop puts Ted over the top and Ted tries to jump off the apron, only to be rammed into the post and then the railing.  He’s holding his shoulder after the second ram which gets two for Ted.  DiBiase gets some facewashes in the corner and a big slap.  They go up the corner but Ted is knocked off and Bryan hits a dropkick to put both guys down.  His arm and shoulder are still bothering him.  Bryan unloads with strikes and a big kick gets two.  Dream Street is countered so Ted tries another following clothesline.  Bryan is ready for it though and throws on a guillotine choke which is good for the submission at 9:03 shown of 12:33.

Rating: B. I liked this here as they had the time to build up a solid match with some psychology at the end of it also.  As usual, Bryan has a solid TV match.  I was very skeptical about him when he first came to WWE but he’s proven me wrong and has gone on to have some very solid matches.  Good TV match and it worked well, which is stunning for DiBiase.

The music is working again.

Christian comes in to see Teddy, saying since Henry lost he should get the title shot.  Teddy says the word on the street is that Christian was seen leaving the production truck after Big Show’s music played.  Apparently that doesn’t matter as there will be a contract signing in about an hour.  To kill the time though, Christian will be facing Sin Cara.  Bit of a step up from what Cara’s been doing to say the least.

Ted is upset and Cody says Ted hasn’t won a match since May 20.  He can’t guide Ted until Ted changes his ways.  If Ted can’t do that, he might as well wear a paper bag.

We recap Khali and Mahal and the heel turn of Khali.  We get highlights of Mahal and Khali dominating people while Singh talks about what’s going on.  Apparently Jinder wishes he was Great Khali but never will be.  He’s Singh’s brother in law apparently which makes him Khali’s brother in law also.  Mahal is married to their sister.  His power over Khali and what he’s saying when he shouts is that he’ll humiliate their family by divorcing his sister.  Dang it’s nice to have everything explained all at once for a change.

Video on Sin Cara that we’ve seen before.  Actually this is an extended one because he talks in it.  Wait that’s Mysterio.  What am I watching?  It started as a video on Cara and became one about Rey.  Why are they promoting Rey on Smackdown now?

Sin Cara vs. Christian

 

The MITB case is hanging over the ring and we’re told the SD MITB participants:

Kane, Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Sheamus

Some interesting choices in there.  I guess Sheamus is the frontrunner but I’m not very sure.  Rhodes as a dark horse I guess.  Cara under jumps a springboard armdrag and Christian hits the floor.  Cara keeps teasing dives but Christian runs more as we take a break.  He complains about the lights before we cut away.  Back with Christian hammering away and trying to start a Sin Cara chant for some reason.

Christian hits the floor and Cara hits a corkscrew plancha to take over.  Back in Cara gets two.  There’s the way too complicated arm drag out of the corner for two.  Christian manages to backdrop him to the floor to take over.  The Cara chant starts up as he’s in a chinlock.  The Canadian gets a few near falls and chokes him on the middle rope.

Top rope headbutt misses and Cara gets two.  Springboard back elbow gets two.  Cara tries what looked like his finishing move but rotates more into a DDT instead for two.  Victory roll and a pretty ugly one gets two.  Christian goes up but Cara gets a boot to try to set up the top rope C4.  Christian shoves him off and hits the floor to rest a bit.  Cara is like cool dude and gets a rana off the apron to put Christian down again.

Back in a kick staggers Christian again and a springboard crossbody gets two.  Christian counters into a reverse DDT for a long two.  Cara grabs a small package for two.  Tajiri elbow is countered into a failed Killswitch attempt.  Cara charges but gets dropped onto the turnbuckle, followed by a spear to give him his first loss at 9:31 shown of 13:01.

Rating: B-. Good but not quite as good as the previous one.  It’s scary to think how bad this could have been without Smackdown editing for it.  The high spots are cool but at the same time they can cause problems with botching, which is something that it’s hard to overcome.  Kind of surprised Cara’s first loss is here, but at least he was able to hang in there with some higher level talent so that’s a good sign.  Pretty fun match, botches aside.

We get a clip of Jackson winning the IC Title.  He gets Cody tonight.  I was kind of hoping for a feud between those two so I’m happy here.

Cody Rhodes vs. Ezekiel Jackson

 

Jackson goes right at him and tosses Cody around like a tiny man.  Cody escapes a gorilla press and heads to the floor.  Some distracting by Ted allows Cody to take over for the first time.  Back inside Cody works on the arm and turns it into a hold I don’t think I’ve ever seen.  He’s sitting back like a camel clutch but has Jackson’s arm wrapped around his leg like a LeBell Lock.

Jackson gets up and throws Cody with a release gordbuster.  Big Zeke sells the arm and hits a corner clothesline and it’s slam time.  DiBiase comes up on the apron and gets drilled, only for Cody to hit the Beautiful Disaster and Cross Rhodes for the upset pin at 4:06.  I’m rather surprised by that.

Rating: C+. I know Jackson is almost universally hated on the internet, but answer this: what exactly are you expecting him to do/be out there?  The guys is a pure power wrestler and he uses basic power moves.  Why in the world would you expect him to do anything other than that?  I really don’t get the criticism I read about him as he’s doing exactly what someone that looks like him is supposed to do.  Anyway this wasn’t that bad at all with Jackson dominating and Ted trying to redeem himself in Cody’s eyes.  Nice little match.

We get a video on Jackson in the form of a little highlight package.  This is a new running thing on Smackdown and I really like them.  They’re like 30 seconds long and gives you a nice quick idea of what you can see if you keep watching the show.  Well, at least in cases where the guy hasn’t had his match already.

Johnny Curtis draws a picture of himself in a corner.  He has to run out of lines eventually.

Raw ReBound is the same as from NXT, showing a shortened version of Punk’s promo.  Cole tells us that Punk has been indefinitely suspended.  Booker saw it on Youtube and says he was blown away.  Good to know that Booker doesn’t watch Raw.  Vince is rumored to be on Raw apparently.

Kane vs. Wade Barrett

 

Barrett actually throws some bareknuckle punches which I don’t remember him doing any other time.  He controls early until Kane gets a boot up to break the momentum.  The low dropkick is set up but Wade hits the floor to avoid it.  Kane chases him in and runs into a big boot to knock him back to the floor as we take a break.  Back with Barrett holding a chinlock that is quickly broken.

Kane charges into an elbow and takes another big boot.  Barrett really likes that move.  He chokes Kane on the middle rope as Booker criticizes him for wasting time.  All the choking gets him a one count so let’s hit that chinlock.  Big uppercut takes him down after the hold is broken.  Barrett keeps expanding his moveset by hitting a DDT for two.  Middle rope elbow misses as the announcers are talking about ducks.  I think I’m glad I missed what got us there.

To the shock of everyone Kane busts out a pretty good cross body for two.  It’s followed by a big boot of his own for two.  Clothesline in the corner and a side slam get two.  Top rope clothesline looks to set up the chokeslam.  That gets reversed so Kane tries what looks like either a tombstone or a powerslam but Barrett gets out of that also.  Boss Man Slam gets a close two as this is getting good.  Doesn’t last long though as Barrett misses a big boot and Kane is able to hit the chokeslam for the pin at 8:37 shown of 12:07.

Rating: B. I like both of these guys and they put on a good match here.  This is one of those matches where both guys look good which is a good sign.  Barrett certainly doesn’t look weaker for losing and it’s not like Kane winning is a shocking upset.  Barrett keeps using his varying offense and it makes for entertaining matches.  The rating might be a bit high but I liked this quite a bit.

We see Henry attacking the guy earlier.  He’s been taking to the hospital and his vital signs are good.

Time for the contract signing.  Christian comes out with a lawyer with him.  He says there’s a clause in the contract saying that if there’s a bad decision or unfair call he gets an automatic rematch.  He swears he can beat Orton and cuts the champ off when he tries to talk.  The WWE and the fans can’t save their golden boy anymore because Orton can’t beat him.

Orton talks about how they had great matches and Orton kept winning.  Now we’ve gotten to all this and it’s making him angry.  As you know, he’s had problems in the past controlling his anger.  Lawyers won’t help him though because the only way he can get the title is to beat Orton, and that won’t happen.  Orton signs it up and hands it to Christian.  The lawyer reads it first and whispers something to Christian.

He goes to sign but the pen doesn’t work.  Teddy goes into his pocket for another pen but here’s Sheamus, returning from being punted and massacring both guys.  RKO is blocked and it’s a Brogue Kick for both guys.  Sheamus picks up the contract that doesn’t have Christian’s signature yet and rips it up.  He leaves both guys laying to end the show.

Overall Rating: A. Well that was a pretty awesome TV show.  You had some good matches, the main event scene has a new element added to it which was needed as Christian vs. Orton can only happen so many times.  Almost every match got some time and the whole thing was very good.  No bad matches, everything made sense, stories were advanced and the whole thing was very efficient.  Nice to see Smackdown bounce back after a few weaker shows.

Results

Randy Orton b. Mark Henry via countout

Daniel Bryan b. Ted DiBiase – Guillotine choke

Christian b. Sin Cara – Spear

Cody Rhodes b. Ezekiel Jackson – Cross Rhodes

Kane b. Wade Barrett – Chokeslam

Smackdown
Date: June 24, 2011
Location: Giant Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Josh Matthews, Booker T, Michael Cole

First show after Capitol Punishment which will likely see more continuation in Orton vs. Christian.  Other than that it’s kind of hard to say as there aren’t many other big time feuds going on this show.  Maybe some more Rhodes vs. Bryan which has been solid and perhaps an IC Title match from Jackson.  Unfortunately it’ll probably just be a rematch with Barrett which doesn’t sound all that thrilling.  Let’s get to it.

Do you know your enemy?  Mine is finding a copy of this show this week.

Here’s Teddy.  I wonder how his arms still work with how far he swings them.  He says that the title match on Sunday had a controversial ending and for once he’s right.  Teddy calls out Christian who is all mad about the ending to the match.  We get a clip of said ending and Teddy agrees that it was a bad call.  He apologizes to the fans but the decision stand.

Christian freaks because HE deserves the apology, not the fans.  He says he deserves another title match because of not only that but also what Orton did after the match.  Teddy says Orton committed actions unbecoming of a champion.  The Canadians wants another shot and Teddy says you have to earn it.  The decision was bad, but it was also final.  Christian has to earn his shot tonight against Kane.  Christian yells a lot as Teddy leaves.

I was right.  Barrett gets his rematch tonight.

Shawn will be on Raw.  Also, Sin Cara vs. Bourne due to the votes being messed up.

Sin Cara vs. Ted DiBiase

 

Apparently DiBiase has celebrity friends now.  There go the lights again.  Booker calls Teddy a follower and apparently he’s following Cody because he can’t help it.  Cara speeds things up and the fans are way behind him.  Nice dive to the floor which looked a bit edited.  Back in and DiBiase gets a dropkick to counter a springboard cross body for two.  DiBiase gets a HARD kick to the head to take over even more.

Following clothesline gets two.  Cara gets his feet up in the corner and hits a middle rope dropkick for two.  Things speed up a bit and Cara gets a rana to take over.  Dropkick puts Ted down again and a pretty nice armdrag.  He tries a springboard….something, but is caught in a sitout spinebuster for two.  Cara hits the ropes again and goes into a headscissors, spinning around multiple times before he slams DiBiase down into a crossface position but instead covers for the pin at 5:09.

Rating: C. I know Cara is huge in Mexico and can spin around a lot, but he needs to actually have a story and an actual match rather than just flipping around a lot and doing a collection of moves.  It’s really not a match and it’s getting a bit old.  Not horrible, but it’s getting repetitive.

We get a clip of Bryan getting paper bagged on Raw by Rhodes.

Cody Rhodes vs. Daniel Bryan

 

Cody comes out first and says he loves chocolate.  He calls this town the modern day Sodom because it makes more chocolate than anywhere in the world, making everyone fat and ugly.  Booker is handed a bag, cracking up Cole.  Bryan interrupts and says he’s sick of this.  He makes fun of the mask, saying Cody should put the cup in his pants, not on his face.  Looks aren’t everything and his proof is a picture of Cody’s pop, Dusty Rhodes.  He looked horrible but was interesting and charismatic, which are things that Cody isn’t.  Bryan thinks Cody is a bitter and arrogant jerk who will never live up to his father’s standards.

Those are of course fighting words and as the bell rings, Cole is using a paper bag like a puppet because he’s….uhhh….stupid.  Oh it’s a Booker puppet.  You can tell because it has the word Booker on the top of it.  Bryan reverses La Magistral into a pinning combination for two.  Cody gets sent to the floor and is all ticked off over it.  DiBiase comes out for moral support I guess as we take a break.

Back with Cody sending him to the floor.  Rhodes hammers away even more as Cole argues with Booker.  Off to the arm and then into a Russian legsweep.  Almost all Cody so far in this other than a little bit at the beginning.  Bryan finally comes out of the corner and mostly misses a Pele-style kick.  A rana off the top with Rhodes not looking that good with it gets two for Bryan.

Bryan gets all fired up and throws his kicks.  Booker calling him D Bry is rather annoying.  LeBell Lock doesn’t work and neither does a series of rollups.  The both try cross bodies and collide hard.  Bryan takes DiBiase out but walks into the Beautiful Disaster and his leg is caught in the ropes.  Another one sets up the Cross Rhodes and we’re done at 8:53 shown of 12:23.

Rating: C+. Somewhat better here but DiBiase is weighing Cody down.  His whole psycho thing worked very well but now with Ted out there they come off like an uninteresting tag team who doesn’t team together all that often.  It’s nice to see Bryan have a feud and getting ring time though instead of just coming in and out at times.  Not bad here but I think they could do better.

Bryan is bagged again post match.

Johnny Curtis has ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise in front of him but leaves the mustard, because he can’t cut it.

Show is in the back to talk about the attack from Mark Henry, saying he’s fine.  He doesn’t have much to say to Striker.  Show says Henry was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  This results in a video about Henry for some reason.  As Show is talking some more, Henry pops up to spear him through the set and says better is better.

Intercontinental Title: Ezekiel Jackson vs. Wade Barrett

 

Barrett jumps him in the aisle to take over.  This is pre-match I think.   The referee says he’s not ringing the bell until Zeke is on his feet.  Here we go and Barrett has a big advantage.  Neckbreaker gets two.  Jackson gets in some kicks but that’s about all as Barrett takes him down and throws on a chinlock.  Boss Man Slam gets two.

Jackson catches Barrett in a release Rock Bottom to get us back to even.  And never mind as Barrett takes over on the floor again and gets two back inside.  Barrett tries Wasteland but Jackson easily counters it into the Torture Rack and we’re done at 4:35.  Dang it I wanted to see those slams!

Rating: C. Nowhere near as good as their match Sunday but hopefully this ends things and we can move onto something else.  I wouldn’t be opposed to Jackson vs. Rhodes for awhile as Jackson is more or less all looks so there’s your story.  Barrett is in a weird place now as I don’t want to see him vs. Orton but he’s a bit bigger than the midcard.  Should be interesting.

Orton says it’s borderline comical that Christian might get another shot and he’s laughing on the inside.  He’ll face Christian again if Christian wins, but the closest Christian will get to the title is having it go upside his head.

Slater and Gabriel make fun of Barrett, who says he has big plans.  He also wants to know where they’ve been for the last few weeks.  They say they’re going to go win a rematch.

Usos vs. Justin Gabriel/Heath Slater

 

The Usos are embracing their wild Samoan side a big more it seems with what sounds like a tribal chant to start their music and they yell a lot.  Apparently it was a war dance they were doing.  Slater/Gabriel have new music that is pretty generic but not bad.  Gabriel starts vs. we’ll call him Jimmy.  Quickly off to Jey who gets a northern lights suplex for two.

Justin sends him to the floor and Slater adds in a dive to take over.  The former champions tag in and out rather well.  The crowd isn’t all that thrilled here but they’re trying at least.  Booker and Josh have no idea which Uso is which.  Gabriel teases a springboard but takes Jimmy’s leg out instead.  Off to a Fujiwara Armbar which doesn’t last long.  Off to Jey and Slater who is caught in a Bubba Bomb for no cover.  Oh apparently that’s Jimmy.  Does it really matter?  Jimmy pop locks or something before hitting a superkick to Slater but the top rope splash eats knees and we’re done at 4:28.

Rating: C. Just a tag match here that didn’t do much but it’s good to see actual teams go at it more than once at a time.  It won’t go anywhere as far as a feud or a division but it’s an improvement.  Pretty average TV tag match and the Usos looked good.  I don’t want to see another Wild Samoan team though.  Not sure if it would work for smaller guys.

Cena says don’t try this.

Yoshi Tatsu vs. Jinder Mahal

 

Khali comes into the ring but Guido hasn’t rung the bell yet in the first place.  This is a big beating and Mahal leaves Tatsu laying with a full nelson slam.  Khali sends him to the floor and the Indians stand tall.  Match never even started.  Mahal says that was just a sample and that he was born the best.  There will be no more dancing and no more kiss cam because the Eastern Winds will blow through the entire WWE.

Kane vs. Christian

 

I’d assume if Kane wins he gets the shot at the PPV.  Christian has to use speed to start but baldie shoves him around with ease.  Kane sends him into the buckle chest first and the beating is on.  Christian gets a right hand in but it just ticks Kane off so he pops Christian down with ease.  Christian tries some leverage stuff and guillotines Kane’s throat on the top rope.

The Canadian takes over and tries to smother Kane more or less by putting his hands over Kane’s mouth.  That’s one way to put him down.  Christian low bridges Kane and we head to the floor where Kane is rammed into the railing.  Back inside, Christian goes up and hits a swan dive to keep Kane down.  We hit the chinlock and take a break.  Back with Christian still in control and firing off some right hands.

Those don’t seem to work as Kane hits a side slam for two.  Kane takes over and hits a tilt-a-whirl slam for two.  Christian tries to go up and manages to hit the tornado DDT for two.  Kane gets a big boot and heads up.  Christian pulls him off, only for two though.  He throws a bit of a fit and is all upset about the kickout.  The fit ends and Christian goes up, only to jump into an uppercut for two.  Kane goes up one more time and this time the clothesline hits.  Kane calls for the chokeslam….and here’s Mark Henry for the DQ at 10:07 shown of 13:37.

Rating: B-. Pretty good match here for a power vs. speed match.  Christian was jumping and using moves that with the proper momentum he was able to make look realistic, which is a very key thing for a match like this.  Christian has been on a roll lately in the ring and this was no exception.  Fun stuff.

Henry keeps beating on Kane post match and goes after Christian for a bit before they double team Kane.  Teddy comes out and says one more match, this time in a tag team match.  Orton comes out to be the partner.  Nice pop for Randy.

Kane/Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry/Christian

 

I guess whoever gets the pin gets the shot?  It’s not really clear.  Actually I’d bet it’s only Christian that can because there was never any mention of Kane potentially winning the shot.  Christian and Orton start us off after the break.  Orton takes over quickly and hits the knee drop for two.  Christian brings in Henry who runs through Orton and it’s back to Christian.

Ok apparently if Christian’s team wins, he gets the shot.  So what’s in this for Kane and Henry?  Henry misses a drop onto Orton’s chest and here’s Kane.  Kane is sent to the floor but guillotines Henry on the top rope for two.  There’s the top rope clothesline for two.  Henry runs over Kane too and it’s off to Christian.  He hammers on the back of Kane as this has been almost one sided.

The big fat tub of goo comes in again and gets two off a right hand.  Kane gets a chokeslam out of nowhere and both guys are down.  Double tags bring in Orton and Christian and Randy hits his chest sticking out Thesz Press.  Henry comes in but can’t get the World’s Strongest Slam.  Orton counters into an RKO attempt but is shoved into Christian who takes the RKO instead.  Henry is legal though and hits the Slam for the pin at 7:31.

Rating: C. Just a main event tag match here but after the long main event earlier that’s fine.  I just hope this doesn’t end with Henry being a challenger to Orton as he’s certainly not someone I want to see in the main event scene.  Not bad here but it was nothing we haven’t seen a hundred times before.

Christian taunts Randy with the belt to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. I liked it better than last week but not by much.  The main thing here is that the show is lacking that energy that they had before.  I’m not entirely sure why but it feels like they’re kind of going through the motions anymore.  The biggest issue I think is that nearly everything here is stuff we’ve seen before.  Other than Kane and Henry being added, everything has been done before, namely in the last week or so.  Not bad and better than last week but not awesome as I’m accustomed to with Smackdown.

Results

Sin Cara b. Ted DiBiase – Headscissors into a mat slam

Cody Rhodes b. Daniel Bryan – Cross Rhodes

Ezekiel Jackson b. Wade Barrett – Torture Rack

Heath Slater/Justin Gabriel b. The Usos – Slater pinned Jimmy with a small package

Kane b. Christian via DQ when Mark Henry interfered

Mark Henry/Christian b. Randy Orton/Kane – World’s Strongest Slam to Orton

OVW Christmas Chaos 2001
Date: January 31, 2001
Location: Louisville Gardens, Louisville, Kentucky
Commentator: Jim Cornette

Ah OVW, how much I love thee. This is from sometime around Christmas of 2001 which I’ll try to find an exact date for (future edit: got it). OVW was the official developmental organization for WWE for a very long time, just like FCW is now. They didn’t have PPVs but they had big shows where WWF guys would come down and this is one of them. The production value is very low here and the fact that it’s from a VHS isn’t helping.

The main event is Leviathan vs. Kane. Leviathan is part of a devil worshipping stable kind of and is nicknamed the Demon and the Guardian of the Gates of Hell. He would come up to the main roster in about five months under the name of Batista. See what kind of stuff we’re getting here? Let’s get to it.

Well the first good thing is that this is in the Louisville Gardens which is a hockey arena and has some actual size to it as opposed to the Davis Arena, their usual home arena, which might hold three hundred people. The name Christmas makes sense as they were supposed to hold this in the middle of December but there was a bad snowstorm.

A woman named Angela Batista sings the national anthem, who is the real life wife of the Animal. It’s weird seeing a lot of these people as I’ve watched OVW for years and a lot of these guys are mainstays of the company. Kind of cool to see them on a release like this.

Johnny Spade/Sly Scraper vs. Brock Lesnar/Shelton Benjamin

See what I mean about guys you might be surprised to see here? Lesnar and Benjamin were known as the Minnesota Stretching Crew and a handful of people are smiling at that reference. Scraper is someone you may remember as Sylvester Terkay. Spade likes to talk a lot but never was anything special. John Morrison would eventually use the name Johnny Spade but they’re definitely not the same guy.

Brock and Shelton are brand new here and this is their biggest match ever according to Cornette. Spade spits at Shelton and something tells me that’s not going to go well for him. You can barely see anything as the lighting is terrible, but like I said that wasn’t something you could expect there. Both Shelton and Brock have under a year of experience.

Benjamin shows off early and gets a slick headscissors to Scraper. Yeah Shelton’s debut was in November of 2000. Shelton gets a kick which busts Scraper open. Brock is in tights like Angle wears which is odd to see. Nip up by Brock as he destroys Spade just because he can. There’s that belly to belly of his. All Minnesotans so far.

Spade sends Shelton into the ropes and Scraper pulls the top rope down to shift the momentum. It’s amazing how calm Cornette is during this and how smoothly he says everything he talks about. Modified What’s Up to Shelton. Scraper looks like Bruiser Brody. How weird is it to see Brock and Shelton as completely brand new rookies? Spade and Scraper use a wheelbarrow splash to crush Shelton a bit more but Brock makes the save.

Both Shelton and Spade go for cross bodies at the same time and here comes Brock and Scraper. Big tilt-a-whirl slam to Scraper and a double Rock Bottom has Scraper in trouble. Spade saves the pin as everything goes crazy. Spade tries a monkey flip on Shelton but Shelton just flips over and lands on his feet. SICK superkick from Benjamin takes Spade’s head off.

We have three minutes left and the camera goes over to the corner where Brock is up top. He throws out a SHOOTING STAR PRESS! HOLY FREAKING GOODNESS that was awesome. Since OVW isn’t that smart though, it doesn’t end the match as Spade saves. That was incredible. Shelton throws out a 450 to end it even though we don’t see it. Look up that Shooting Star though as it’s something that has to be seen to be believed.

Rating: C+. Basic formula tag match here as Cornette knows how to book a show perfectly. Starting with a pretty fast paced tag match is a great way to get the crowd going and that Shooting Star didn’t hurt anything. Brock was scary good and couldn’t have been wrestling more than 6 months at this point. They were booking Shelton as the star of the team but obviously that didn’t exactly wind up being the case.

Slick Robbie D vs. Randy Orton

Cornette is in the Control Center and gives a brief intro to each match so they’re not as rushed as they seem. Robbie went nowhere but could jump like few I’ve ever seen. Orton actually has hair here and is a rookie as well and even has hair here. The referee is a chick with big hair. Randy isn’t evil here and has few tattoos. He’s also not orange yet.

Robbie hammers away on Orton so Cornette plays up how much of a rookie that Orton is. There’s that gorgeous dropkick by Orton and he grabs an armbar. Wheelbarrow suplex gets two for Orton. He’s freaking jacked here too. Big superkick by Robbie gets him out of trouble though. Leg drop gets two. Robbie hits a dropkick to send Orton to the floor. Apparently if you intentionally throw someone over the top it’s a DQ. I will never get that rule.

BIG plancha takes out Orton. Robbie tries to go up and goes so slow “that a crippled moose could be up there by now.” I love Cornette’s expressions like that one. Superplex brings Robbie down and both guys are down. Orton starts his comeback and hits some basic stuff. In a rather abrupt ending, Orton tries for a full nelson slam which is his finishing move at the time. It’s blocked so Orton tries it again and hits it for the easy pin. Like I said, rather abrupt.

Rating: C+. Another decent little match here as I feel like I’m watching a Before They Were Stars tape or something like that. Orton wasn’t that great here but it was clear that they were going to try to make him into something. As with a lot of other guys I don’t think anyone had any idea how big he would become but the potential was there.

Rob Conway vs. Ron Waterman

Waterman is a UFC guy and this is under UFC rules, which means it’s a submission match. Conway is a guy you may remember in La Resistance and is one of the OVW Originals. The ring announcer says “This is a submission match and check this out, Ultimate Fighting Championship Rules!’ Waterman has a bad elbow here. UFC meant next to nothing at this point as they weren’t even up to UFC 30 yet.

I think Waterman was supposed to fight Lashley recently but had to back out due to an injury. Conway is self-obsessed and they push Waterman as a family man and all that jazz. They hit the floor almost immediately and Conway messes up his ankle. Cornette talks about how Conway is a thinking man’s wrestler because he goes after the arm. Yes because you need a huge brain to go after the BIG BANDAGED ELBOW.

Boston Crab by Waterman who is huge above his waist but has somewhat skinny legs. Naturally this is just a wrestling match where you can’t win by pin and not a UFC match like they advertised it as. Granted most people wouldn’t know what UFC was at this point so it’s not like it matters.

This started with Conway saying Waterman was a rookie and that said rookie was wasting too much TV time that should go to Conway. Conway finally works on the arm to take over. Waterman comes back but once we go to the floor Conway ducks and Waterman’s arm rams into the post. There’s an armbar and the referee stops it as Waterman passes out.

Rating: D+. I’m not sure what to think of this. It wasn’t anything special at all and the UFC aspect didn’t mean much. The submission made sense but did we need to call it a UFC match? This wasn’t horrible but I never could get into it at all. Waterman more or less disappeared while Conway would get to WWE for awhile.

Cornette tells us about a former referee named Phil Fair who had a drinking problem. A trio called the Suicide Blondes tried to get him out of trouble and to AA meetings and all that jazz. The other two guys in the upcoming match more or less encouraged him to drink and be a jerk so we’re getting this as a result, called a Family Feud match.

Suicide Blondes vs. Phil Fair/Sean Casey/Chris Michaels

The Blondes are Rip Rogers (kind of sort of almost famous), Derrick King and Jason Lee, both of whom mean nothing. If the Blondes lose they have their heads shaved but if they win then Fair has to kiss up to all of them. Why is that always such a common theme? Fair comes out with a sling on his arm and a neckbrace due to slipping on spilled gravy in Kenny Bolin’s (fat heel manager) locker room. He says he has a replacement who is the only true blonde in wrestling, bringing out Nature Boy Buddy Landell. Wow they’re going into the past for this show to balance the new guys.

Suicide Blondes vs. Sean Casey/Chris Michaels/Buddy Landell

Lee vs. Casey to start. I don’t know much about anyone in this but Landell and Rogers to an extent. King comes in and gets a top rope rana for two. The main feud here is Rogers vs. Fair which means nothing at this point. Off to Landell who is in a full body orange workout suit. Michaels draws Lee in and Michaels/Casey beat up King for a bit.

This referee is kind of awful as he isn’t even looking at the shoulders on pins. Double chokeslam gets two on King. X Factor by King to Michaels and both are down. Tag out to Lee who gets a big backdrop on Casey. Moonsault gets two to Michaels. You can kind of see why these guys are in a match on a show like this. Fair comes in and the Blondes all cover him for the pin. Landell more or less walks out and it’s kissing time.

Rating: D+. This was what it was: a quick six man with Buddy Landell there to say that Buddy Landell was there. The kissing stuff was kind of pointless as according to the storyline this only humiliated Fair and doesn’t really accomplish anything. Then again it’s an indy company that needed a storyline so this works as well as anything I guess.

Fair is in the bathroom and wants Michaels and Casey to shave the Blondes’ heads.

Russ McCullough vs. Damaja

This is Last Man Standing. Damaja is more famous as Danny Basham and is another OVW mainstay. McCullough is a seven foot monster and former football player apparently. Russ looks like Nash from behind. He throws Damaja to the floor almost immediately and the red line under his name is irritating me so he’s Danny or Basham from now on. Danny gets a kind of messed up tornado DDT for a count of six.

The match is clipped a bit but it doesn’t seem like much at all. Russ uses basic power stuff and a legdrop gets a count of eight or nine. And never mind as he’s right back down and we clip it again so we don’t even get a count. Layout powerbomb by McCullough which is apparently his finishing move. That gets about nine and a half though and we clip it one more time.

A second powerbomb is blocked with a bunch of shots to the head as Danny is coming back. Nice headscissors takes the big man down and Basham goes up. Missile dropkick mostly hits and we get the second count on Russ even though Cornette says it’s the first. Up at eight but Damaja is on him again. A choke bomb (called Brain Damage) puts Russ down for about 9.5.

A low blow puts Basham down and Russ pops him in the back with a football helmet that is his signature weapon it seems. Naturally that doesn’t get the ten either…ok so it does. He was almost up when it ended which made me think it was still going. That and the whole that ending kind of sucked aspect.

Rating: D+. Are we not allowing a match to go beyond seven or eight minutes tonight? Is that some kind of unwritten rule? It’s not like this is a short tape or anything as it has a two and a half hour run time. Either the last matches are REAL long or there are 15 or so matches on this. Weak match though with Damaja hammering away but Russ never seeming to be in any real danger at all. That and having Danny on his feet at the end looked really stupid.

Flash/Trailer Park Trash vs. Rico Constantino/Mr. Black

This is hardcore. Flash Flanagan is a guy that was supposed to be one of the breakout stars of OVW but a bad injury kept him off the WWF roster just after he was going to be called up. Rico made it of course but is freshly heel here. Black is a big security guard and Trailer Park Trash is a guy I have no idea about. Constantino and Black are part of Bolin Services, the top heel stable in OVW. Oh and Black is Hardcore Champion.

Apparently Rico isn’t in Bolin Services yet but if Bolin can get him the OVW Title he’ll join the team. Cornette: “Bolin is the kind of a guy that if he tells you the sun is coming up tomorrow you better go buy a flashlight. He’s the second most dishonest person I know after that promoter in Philadelphia.” There is some real bad blood there which is 100% legit.

Flash and Trash (just a big guy in jeans and a shirt) bring the weapons. Rico and Black bust out garbage can lids which means they take them to the head. Flash accidentally hurt Rico about a year ago to start their feud. This is Trash’s return after about a four month absence. I think you have to be in the ring to get a fall but I’m not sure.

It’s really hard to tell who is who here. Rico has long hair here so you can’t really tell which guy he is. Trash pulls out a bowling ball and it collides with Black’s balls. Flash sets up a table on the floor and Rico goes onto it. Springboard spinning legdrop half kills Rico but Flash is down too. Trash doesn’t look like much of a technician to put it mildly.

Trash gets a door from somewhere (Perry Saturn’s factory maybe?) and lays it between the ring and the railing like a bridge. He wants to suplex Black through it but of course gets shoved through it himself. Flash and Rico are back up and Flash misses a big moonsault. We clip it a bit to see Trash getting hanged by Black. Rico has a broom and everyone is down for the most part.

Black gets a suplex to Flash and we bring in frying pans and tires. Rico puts the tire around Trash’s neck and superkicks the tire. That was different. We throw in a toilet seat and a mailbox to really make this out there. More clipping as Flash takes a Bossman Slam from Black.

The beating has been going on for a good while now. I guess morale hasn’t improved enough yet. Black goes for a top rope splash but Trash makes the stop and slams him down. We hit ten minutes and Flash hits what looks like a middle rope neckbreaker/Blockbuster on Black onto a chair to end this, again very abruptly.

Rating: C-. This was a long match, running over ten minutes. I’m not sure if a hardcore tag match was the best choice to do that with but apparently Trash is a big fan favorite here so they’re giving them what they want in that sense. Pretty dull match and like I said another abrupt ending which came out of nowhere.

Mark Henry vs. Big Show

They had both been in OVW for rehab stints/extra seasoning so this was a feud in both companies. There’s a guy named Thurston Throckmorton who is the attorney for Bolin Services and thinks he’s Randy Savage. By that I mean he’s doing the spin, the OH YEAH, he has the glasses and robe and is throwing out Slim Jims. Debra is the ring announcer for no apparent reason.

It says a lot when Show needed seasoning and was a former world champion. Show is still kind of slim here. Hopefully this is quick. Henry talks trash and they shove each other a bit. Henry charges and Show gets a freaking drop toe hold of all things. I told you Show was a completely different guy back then.

They do the basic power stuff as this is a nice throwback to the very old school freak show battles of the monsters. Show gets him into the corner and stomps away with a ton of force. Henry gets a clothesline which Show just shrugs off. A superkick puts Henry down but the attorney interferes and here comes Henry. Henry more or less punts Show and his ribs are in trouble. Bolin comes out and holds up the briefcase which of course Henry goes into. Chokeslam ends this. Quick and mostly harmless so no rating.

Post match Bolin distracts Show and Henry beats him up and adds some splashes to Show’s bad ribs.

Hardy Boys/Lita vs. Disciples of Sinn/Sinn

Sinn is the female manager of Payne and Damien, the OVW tag champions at the time. Hardys are over as all goodness. The Disciples were a big deal in OVW but never went anywhere. Their stable mate is Leviathan as I mentioned earlier but he’s not here for this one. The main thing people want to see here is Lita more or less kill Sinn.

Matt and Damien start us off. Apparently Damien hears voices. Payne is apparently the new member of the team. They’re tagging in very fast. Sinn comes in to slap Matt and gets caught in there against the fat man himself. Off to Lita but Sinn runs away to bring in Damien. Lita tags in both Hardys and the referee seems cool with it. They destroy the Disciples and it’s off to Jeff now.

Very fast paced stuff so far which is weird for the Disciples as they’re pretty decent sized guys. Payne gets a big clothesline to Jeff to take over. Spinebuster gets two for Payne on Jeff. A pretty bad powerslam by Damien gets two. Oh wait that’s Payne. They look a bit alike and the lighting makes it impossible to tell which is which.

Matt acts kind of stupid as he comes in and Jeff gets double teamed. Granted it’s not as stupid as the referee who lets the Disciples switch without tagging twice in a row. Well I guess that puts them back to even. Chinlock has Jeff in trouble. Cornette talks about how much the cheers mean to Jeff. I guess he hasn’t been watching his TNA lately.

Jeff finally gets the tag to bring in Matt and the beating is on. Everyone comes in again and it’s a double clothesline to put Matt and both Disciples down. Sinn tags herself in and so does Lita. Lita takes down Damien because she’s more awesome than everyone else in there. Sinn takes over for a bit but Lita slams her off the top and gets a spear.

Moonsault hits but everyone comes in and it’s a big brawl. Payne hits a Sky High on Lita and Sinn is the only one left. It’s table time now but Jeff saves. Double DDT by Matt and Lita. Jeff throws out a Swanton on the chick through the table. The pin is academic and the pop is pretty solid.

Rating: B-. It’s probably not that good but I’m kind of feeling sorry for this show as the matches haven’t been that good at all. Still though this wasn’t too bad and the Hardys helped it a lot. The point here was for Sinn to get beaten down and that’s exactly what happened. Fun little six person match which worked fine.

OVW Title: Chris Benoit vs. Nick Dinsmore

Dinsmore is more famous as Eugene and is more or less the best wrestler of all time in OVW. He more or less was a Benoit clone so this should be interesting. Benoit had lost the IC Title ten days before this so he was pretty big as you would expect. He yells at the crowd about how awesome he is and still gets a face pop. Benoit is freaking jacked. Cornette talks about how great Dinsmore’s German suplex is.

It’s weird to see Dinsmore looking in great shape as opposed to being kind of chubby as Eugene. We start with a technical match of course as that’s both guys’ bread and butter. They hit a Test of Strength and Benoit gets him down onto the mat but Dinsmore bridges out. In an incredibly impressive spot, Benoit jumps into the air and drops down onto said bridge but can’t break it. He does it again and STILL Dinsmore stays up. That was awesome looking.

Pinfall reversal sequence gets two for both guys. Benoit outmaneuvers Dinsmore with relative ease because he’s Chris Benoit. Chris works the arm and hooks a surfboard. Dinsmore fights back a bit but it doesn’t last long as Benoit works on the knee a bit. He drapes Nick over the top rope and might have hurt his ribs.

Dinsmore hasn’t been in control for the whole match so far as Benoit is dominating. Nick gets a small package for two and Benoit is like OH NO YOU DIDN’T and chops the heck out of him. Off to a chinlock as this has been going almost ten minutes now. OVW was part of the NWA at this point. I didn’t realize that and it kind of surprises me as they’re also part of the WWF system.

Another rollup gets two so Benoit takes his head off again. Benoit pounds on him some more but Dinsmore goes for a backslide. Benoit blocks so Dinsmore rolls through into a sunset flip. As he has every time though, once Dinsmore gets a rollup he gets his head taken off by Benoit. Nick gets a Dragon Screw Leg Whip out of nowhere which gets him nowhere also.

Dinsmore gets a fifth or sixth rollup and for the fifth or sixth time he gets his head taken off. Benoit goes up but Nick runs up the ropes and chops the tar out of him. Superplex puts Benoit down but Dinsmore is half dead too. They slug it out and here comes Dinsmore. Superkick (is there anyone in OVW that doesn’t use that move?) sets up a missile dropkick which sets up the German Suplex but Rico Constantino runs in for the DQ as he goes after Dinsmore.

Rating: B. Good match here but nothing classic. This was more or less Benoit beating the heck out of Nick for about 15 minutes and then Dinsmore finally getting some offense in. The ending works as you can’t have Benoit win the title but you don’t want to have him lose to Dinsmore clean either. Constantino would take the title from Dinsmore in about a month. Best match of the night so far.

Post match Benoit decks Constantino because he cost him the match. How weird is it that Rico went from being awesome to being a comedy character?

Here comes Good Old JR to interview STONE COLD STONE COLD STONE COLD! Considering Austin had just won his third Rumble and was on his way to Wrestlemania, this was a pretty big deal. They acknowledge JR as the VP of talent, as in the guy responsible for bringing in new guys. Huge pop for Austin of course.

This is the big segment of the night of course. JR says that his money is on Austin winning the title at Mania which makes sense I’d think. He talks about beating HHH up for what he did to him and wants a yeah if you think he’s ready for Wrestlemania. JR asks what Austin thinks of Mr. McMahon. That’ll take awhile to answer so Austin needs a beer to pass the time.

Make that two beers as JR needs one too. He could go on forever about Vince but he’ll pass as he wants to see the rest of the show. Austin says that Vince is a huge piece of trash which gets a big pop. JR brings up Rico which is just weird to hear in the same discussion as Austin. He talks about Rico’s balls for no apparent reason.

Here are Bolin and Rico to talk to Austin and I think you know what’s coming here. You can barely understand Rico given how loud the booing is. What in the heck happened to him on the way to the main roster? Rico says that when he gets to the WWF he’s coming for Austin and says he’s a role model which is his thing at the time. Stone Cold is in a good mood so he’s going to let Rico live. Rico says don’t turn your back on me, and there’s a Stunner for the future stylist.

We get some music videos on Leviathan who is kind of freaky looking actually. The other is about Kane and how they have a rivalry which more or less means they talked about each other and Leviathan got to beat people up before this.

This is the largest non-PPV crowd in Louisville since 1977.

Leviathan vs. Kane

Remember that Leviathan is Batista and is undefeated here. Batista comes out with Sinn from earlier. Sinn says that every bone in her body hurts and draws the biggest non-Austin pop of the night. She says no one can beat Leviathan, including Austin himself. They stare each other down and Big Dave sends Kane to the corner which lasts for about a second.

Clipped a bit to Kane hitting an odd running clothesline. The ring is smaller than a standard WWF one so he’s probably a bit thrown off by it. Chokeslam doesn’t hit as Sinn distracts him. Belly to belly puts Kane down and we hit the floor for a bit. Clipped again to Kane hitting a DDT but walking into a big old spinebuster for two. MORE clipping as Kane is coming back now.

I’ve seen the full match before and they’re clipping the heck out of it here. Top rope clothesline hits but the tombstone is reversed and down goes the referee. Chokeslam hits but there’s no referee. Sinn comes in and here come the Disciples for the save. Batista gets a spear to put Kane down as the Hardys and Lita make the save. Austin comes out and stares down Batista. Double bird and a Stunner puts Batista down. Chokeslam ends this.

Rating: C. Really hard to give this a fair grade given how much clipping they gave it. This wasn’t horrible though as Kane and Batista were working pretty hard out there and it worked ok. This was about making a main event seem huge and they did that for the most part. It’s no classic or anything but being so short and clipped as much as it was it’s hard to grade it fairly. Fun though.

Overall Rating: B. Now keep a few things in mind here. First off, this was a massive house show for an indy company. An indy company had Kane, the Hardys, Lita, Big Show, Benoit, and the guy that was about to main event Wrestlemania on their show. I think that more than makes this a success. There isn’t a truly bad match here although some aren’t so good.

You get guys like Lesnar and Orton and Benjamin way before they were stars and the whole thing was rather fun. Again keeping in mind that this was a house show and a very good one at that, this is pretty awesome stuff. Benoit vs. Dinsmore was good but aside from that there isn’t really a great match on here. Still though there are enough decent ones and nothing horrible to make this a very solid show, with an emphasis on the words all things considered. Now go check out that Shooting Star Press.

Smackdown
Date: January 7, 2011
Location: Tucson Convention Center, Tucson, Arizona
Commentators: Michael Cole, Matt Striker, Josh Matthews

In the first show of the year we have the World Heavyweight Championship on the line in a last man standing match as well as Alberto vs. Rey in a 2/3 falls contest.  The most intriguing thing to me is if Kane vs. Edge is finished tonight, what does that mean for the Rumble?  Hopefully this doesn’t see a double countout or a tie etc as that would make me rather irritated.  Let’s get to it.

The opening video is more or less what I just told you.  Now why can’t I get paid to do something like that?  I said more or less the same thing minus a few basic lines.

Do you know your enemy?  That’s a good question actually and I certainly don’t know mine.

After a brief opening statement from the announcers, it’s time for the main event!

Smackdown World Title: Edge vs. Kane

 

Edge has the red sunglasses back which I think he’s had recently but not for very long.  This is last man standing remember.  We get the big match intros here which isn’t something you see that often in WWE anymore.  It might be the angle of it but the belt looks quite different for some reason.  Kane puts Edge down in the corner with powerful strikes to start us off.

Edge gets a swinging neckbreaker to put both guys down for about a three.  Sideslam by Kane gets another three on Edge.  The champion hits a spear to Kane while Kane is on the apron and the bald man is down on the floor.  It only gets a six though and we hit the floor.  Up the ramp they go with Kane in control.  Isn’t it amazing how a single shot in one of these matches can send one or both guys off for a good 8 feet?

They go into the back towards the concourse and Edge is slammed into a wall.  Why are the concession stands closed?  Back into the arena in the crowd with Edge blocking a chokeslam off the stands.  They fight up the steps into the luxury suites which have their own concession and merchandise stands.  Dude that’s kind of awesome.  Trashcan to the stomach of Edge breaks his momentum.

With Edge down after being rammed into various things and hammered a bit, Kane finds a flight of stairs and a wheelchair.  I think you know what’s coming here.  Edge counters at the last second and only the chair goes flying.  A big boot puts Kane down for 5.  We take a break with Edge in firm control.

Back with Edge in control still and the fight going on in the crowd near the announcers’ table.  Kane clears off the announce table but Edge manages to reverse to send Kane into the steps.  That gets a 9 which sounded a lot like ten but they kept it going anyway.  Edge does one of those jumps off the top that exist only to jump into a shot from their opponent, in this case an uppercut.

The uppercut is good for 8 and here comes Kane.  Top rope clothesline misses though and Edge gets the Edgecution to put both guys down.  Cole informs us that if it’s a tie then we keep going.  That makes me feel all tingly.  Chokeslam out of nowhere has Edge and the title in big trouble.  Edge is up and 9 and heads/falls to the floor.

Kane wants a Tombstone on the steps but Edge counters into an Edge-O-Matic onto the steps and the big fried freak is in trouble!  Kane gets up at ten but is down at eleven.  Edge sets for the spear but runs into a huge boot to the face to put him back down again.  That gets 9 but Kane gets a chokeslam onto the table to half kill Edge!  Striker was sent flying and is partially pinned under the table in a funny looking visual.  Edge uses Striker to pull himself back up and beat the count.  That was kind of funny actually.

The challenger is all fired up here and he throws a chair into the ring.  Make it a pair of them.  He goes up but Edge pelts a chair at his head to take Kane down one more time.  That looked sick.  BIG chair shots to the knee have Kane in big trouble.  The spear hits but Edge isn’t happy yet.  He goes out and gets the pelted chair and hits a Conchairto to the knee of Kane, which is enough to end this at 17:20 shown of 20:50.

Rating: B. This was a fun brawl with some fairly creative spots, namely Edge using Striker to get up.  I like the ending as instead of the spear it was instead the spear that set up the Conchairto to end Kane.  That’s a nice touch and it prevented the match from ending stupidly with a spear ending Kane when nothing else could.  I liked it rather well and the ending only made it better.  Good match.

Intercontinental Title: Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston

 

They’re certainly pushing this as a huge show with the title matches and all that jazz.  Striker calls Vickie the female version of Rosie O’Donnell.  Why are so many people obsessed with Rosie?  What has she ever done?  Nice reaction for Kofi here.  We get a quick video of last week’s match where Dolph more or less stole the win from Kofi which is true only to a degree.

Kofi hammers away to start as Cole says that Kofi needs to move on instead of trying to get the title back time and time again.  Neckbreaker by Dolph gets two.  Off to a clear choke that they’re going to call a chinlock because they want to I guess.  Splash in the corner misses though and here comes Kofi.  These two have some solid chemistry together to be sure.

A rollup by Ziggler with some tights gets two.  They’re moving very fast out there.  Trouble in Paradise misses and it’s off to the Sleeper!  Kofi simply grabs the hands and rips the hold off and gets the SOS for an incredibly close two.  Middle rope suplex is blocked by Dolph.  I know it seems like I’m flying through this but there is almost nothing between these fast moves.  After Kofi knocks Dolph off the ropes to block the suplex, the HUGE crossbody ends this perfectly clean at 5:31.  That came out of nowhere!

Rating: B. Ok, this grade is going to require some explanation as to how it can be equal to the first match and I think it might clear up a bit about my grading system in general in case some people think I’m a bit inconsistent.  While I’m giving this match the same grade, it’s certainly not as good as the first one.  There are two key differences though.

The first is that the opener was meant to be a long brawl, as evidenced by giving it nearly four times as long to work with.  That match had time to work out spots and to be a brutal fight, whereas this was supposed to be fast paced and exciting.  Different styles of match, but both well done.

Second, which ties into the first, was the ending.  Dolph literally turned around to get hit by the cross body.  Kofi is already horizontal when Dolph sees him.  I love matches that end very quickly and with moves that aren’t finishers.  To the fans it looked like another big move that Kofi would hit to get a two count.  Instead it’s over and the fans are surprised.  That’s an excellent touch and it keeps the matches interesting.

As for the match itself, one important thing to make clear is that this was NOT a squash.  Dolph was definitely in this the whole time and Kofi got a big shot in to get the win.  That’s very important as it keeps Dolph looking strong while still switching the title.  This was a very fun and fast paced match which is what you come to expect from these guys.  Good stuff.

Dolph, ever the villain, destroys Kofi post match.  Vickie gets on the mic and says that since Teddy isn’t here tonight, Dolph gets a rematch RIGHT NOW!

Intercontinental Title: Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler

 

LOUD Kofi chant but he’s more or less d…..and screw that as he hits Trouble in Paradise and it’s over in 43 seconds!  That kick looked great.

Rating: B-. Well the opening 13 seconds were very weak but they picked it WAY up in the next 19.  The final 21 were completely awesome though and it definitely was good enough to make this a passable match.  Dang man those final 21 seconds with Kofi rolling Dolph over for the cover were more exciting than the entire Flair vs. Steamboat trilogy.

After a break Dolph is yelling at Vickie and telling her that was a boneheaded move.  Vickie blames him so Dolph says that maybe she should get a new boyfriend.  He leaves and she screeches in a terrifying voice.  I’ll be sleeping with the lights on tonight after hearing that.

Long recap of the cage match Monday.

Kelly is on the way to the ring when Drew stops her.  He says he’s a different person than he is out there.  This was allegedly supposed to be used for Tiffany and not Kelly, which means absolutely nothing but this is a short segment and I need something to talk about.  Drew wants to earn her trust and wants her support in his #1 contenders match tonight.  She smiles and says thanks and leaves.

Cody vs. Drew vs. Show for the #1 contender spot up next.

Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Big Show

 

See I told you it was up next.  Cody does look good in the jacket.  I have to give him that.  Could Drew look any more like a natural face than he does?  And here’s Vickie of course.  She makes it a fatal fourway with Dolph thrown in too.

Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Big Show vs. Dolph Ziggler

 

Drew has a headache and is still tired from the previous two matches.  Show looks very ticked off about the extra person being added in.  They all surround Show who is like screw it and beats up all three guys.  Drew is tossed to the floor first and then the other two get beaten on a bit as well.  Down to Show vs. Cody which is a mini-feud at least.  Dolph breaks up a pin by Show which gets him picked up by the hair and slammed down.

All Show for the first two minutes or so.  Channeling his inner Bobby Heenan, Cole says Show could have won this five minutes ago.  Stinkface to Cody has him gasping for air.  Show is busting out some of his old spots here like the Final Cut (Nightmare on Helm Street) and the one where he lifts up his leg and drops it onto the other guy’s chest like a standing legdrop (Wiki calls it the Showstopper but I’ve never heard that name for it before)

Drew has been in the ring maybe 20 seconds so far.  Big chop in the corner misses Dolph and Cody teams up with Dolph to beat down the Giant.  And that fails completely as Show blocks a double Irish Whip and sends both guys flying over the top with a simple tug.  Out on the floor Show is triple teamed and sent through the time keeper’s area.  He’s down but so is everyone else as we take a break.

Back with Cody vs. Dolph in the ring.  Cody goes for a moonsault but Drew shoves him off the top into the waiting arms of Big Show.  Cody gets back in to stop Drew from destroying Dolph and shouts that he’s #1.  He’s Paul Jones all of a sudden?  Drew back in now but Show is back up to a big reaction.  He picks off Drew and sends him flying on the floor and I think we’re about to pick up again.

Cody gets crushed in the corner and down goes Ziggler.  Show calls for the Chokeslam and out of nowhere Wade Barrett comes in to destroy Big Show!  A few big boots and a top rope elbow take down Show and Wade leaves.  Something to note there: Barrett just took down Show when three guys couldn’t.  Cody can’t steal the pin after the Beautiful Disaster but Ziggler manages to get the Zig Zag for two.

Futureshock gets two as this is ridiculous.  Show took a beating from Barrett, Cody’s second best move, Ziggler’s pin finisher and Drew’s finisher and is up a few seconds later.  We get that he’s a giant but don’t make him look invincible.  Cody and Dolph team up again but Dolph grabs the Zig Zag on him out of nowhere and gets the pin at 10:12 shown of 13:42.

Rating: C+. Fun match and told a decent story, but for the love of heck I can’t stand Show being made to look invincible like he does with those power kickouts.  Doing that to one move is ok, but how weak does the Futureshock look when it can’t get a pin after all that softening up mere seconds before it?  This still was more good than it was bad though so points for that.

Michelle McCool vs. Kelly Kelly

 

Kelly looking GOOD tonight.  They’re flying through this show too with maybe two backstage segments so far tonight.  Michelle charges into the corner to start but Kelly gets a choke with her legs while hanging upside down over the ropes.  Michelle fights that off with ease and goes after Kelly’s leg.  Kelly manages to get a headscissors to take her down and sets for the K2.  Michelle casually counters into the Faithbreaker to end this in 1:42.  Not quite a squash but you could call it that pretty easily.

Laycool beats down Kelly post match until Drew runs down for the save.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Rey Mysterio

 

2/3 falls here.  This show has been PACKED with wrestling so far at a level I haven’t see in a long time.  Before we start Alberto says that it’s his destiny to win the Rumble.  He talks about how there are pure Latinos and then the rest of them, who are car washers, gardeners, and Rey Mysterio.  I like that.

Rey starts us off here with some speed moves and wants the 619 maybe 75 seconds in.  Alberto ducks and the Cross Armbreaker makes it 1-0 in 1:37.  I was under the impression that there would be no math.  We get a graphic telling us that it’s 1-0.  Are fans really that stupid?  After a quick break we’re back with Rey in an armbar and then taking a big backbreaker to put him down again.

Rey gets sent to the floor as we debate if Rey tapped out just to break the hold, which would make sense.  A big rana takes down Alberto but Rey can’t capitalize immediately.  Alberto gets up and goes for the armbreaker again but Rey turns into it and gets a rollup for two.  619 can’t hit again but a cradle gives Rey the 1-1 tie at 8:12 (total time elapsed) and we take our second break of the match.

Back with Alberto holding another armbar as Rey is in more trouble.  Del Rio gets caught by the usual speed and leverage moves from Rey but Del Rio fights Rey off with a Codebreaker to the arm.  The fans chant 619 over and over and Rey gets a body scissors into a DDT for two.  Rey tries to go up but Del Rio gets to the ropes and down comes the masked man.  He’s caught in the Tree of Woe so Del Rio hammers away.

Alberto goes up for a suplex while being on the outside.  In other words he’s trying to suplex Rey to the floor.  Rey’s arm is really hurting him here.  I’m not sure why Alberto isn’t getting back in the ring but rather is fighting from the apron.  Rey gets a 619 around the post to take down Alberto.  Rey gets a big dive to take out Alberto and Ricardo and get a big reaction from the crowd.  Del Rio gets back in but Ricardo grabs Rey’s ankle and it’s a countout to give Del Rio the win at 11:53 shown of 18:53 total.

Rating: C+. This was pretty good for the most part but I wasn’t feeling it for some reason.  Rey losing on the countout to end the match doesn’t do it for me at all.  If you’re going to have Rey lose in the end, have it be to the armbreaker.  Del Rio still looks good but at the same time the ending feels kind of silly.  Decent match but I didn’t like it for some reason.

Rey beats up Ricardo a bit post match including a 619 and the springboard splash.

The announcers recap the show and announce Show vs. Barrett next week.

Overall Rating: A. This show was packed and it worked the whole night.  With two nearly 20 minute matches plus a title change and a new #1 contender, how in the world can you argue against this one?  Oh and I forgot that Barrett is here now too which is good as the show is dying for star power.  I really enjoyed this show with it being so wrestling heavy.  Good stuff indeed and a great way to kick off the year.

Results

Edge b. Kane – Conchairto to Kane’s Leg

Kofi Kingston b. Dolph Ziggler – Top rope Cross Body

Kofi Kingston b. Dolph Ziggler – Trouble in Paradise

Dolph Ziggler b. Cody Rhodes, Big Show and Drew McIntyre – Zig Zag to Rhodes

Michelle McCool b. Kelly Kelly – Faithbreaker

Alberto Del Rio b. Rey Mysterio two falls to one