If not for Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho, I don’t think I would’ve bought the show tonight. Wait, didn’t I say that at the last PPV write-up? Oh well. There’s only one other compelling match, and they’ve done everything they can to ruin that one. Jeff Hardy and Triple H are now fighting to see who gets Kozlov, or something like that. I’m not exactly sure why he’s in the middle of their feud, and don’t really care because they’ve done a terrible job promoting the match. The ladder by itself is more intriguing than this match.

Photo by Chris_Seufert

We’re opening up with Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry. I guess it’s good to get it out of the way early.

Big D is going to send me his thoughts after the matches and I’ll add them after mine. This might be interesting. Our tastes in wrestling are very similar at times, and completely opposite at others.

1. Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry

Henry took most of the match and it was very slow. The crowd popped for Hardy pulling the Twist Of Fate out of his ass as Henry had him up for a slam. Todd Grisham and Jerry Lawler (I didn’t hear why The Teacher wasn’t doing the color) are trying to sell this as Hardy’s biggest win ever. Hardy keeps his ECW championship.

Winner: Matt Hardy by pinfall

Big D: Decent Match. Henry and Hardy have a strange chemistry and I liked the clean finish and the psychology behind Hardy attacking Henry’s injured leg. Very well done. I would have preferred Henry win and Hardy chase him into the winter, but now I suppose they can do with Hardy vs. Morrison, which would be good wresting-wise.

Hardy vs. Morrison would definitely be much better.

HHH came out with is iPhone for an interview with Hardy. Eve looks hot. HHH says that he wants Hardy to finally put it together so he can beat him at his best.

2. Candice Michelle vs. Beth Phoenix

It was a pretty sloppy match because of Candice. The finish seemed to be botched a bit. For some reason, Santino grabbed Beth’s leg thinking it was Candice’s. But it wasn’t obvious as to why he could’ve mistaken her for Candice. Beth then hit the Glam Slam on Candice. Beth desperately needs a Gail Kim to work with.

Winner: Beth Phoenix by pinfall

Big D: Lots of botched spots and mistiming here. You can tell Candice is really trying very hard, but physically her body is simply not able to keep up with her mind (aka coordination). Candice really needs to get out of this business before she hurts herself permanently.

I’m not sure if Candice needs to leave the business, but she definitely needs to take some more time off to get her timing back. She’s going to hurt herself again.

Kane cut a promo about Rey Rey’s fake courage. I guess he hides behind his mask.

3. Rey Mysterio vs. Kane

The crowd seemed to be into the big man/little man phenomenon. They worked decently together and there were some hot sequences at the end. But I didn’t feel as if the match was important considering Rey’s mask was on the line. It just felt like a Raw match. The finish didn’t make much sense either as Rey flew from the top down to the floor and Kane hit him with a chair in mid air. If Kane wanted his mask so much, why would he get DQd?

Winner: Rey Mysterio by disqualification

Big D: Much better than their match from RAW, but it still lacked any sort of real interest on my part. This match put me to sleep. I do think Rey may have twisted his ankle, and if so, the cop-out finish is forgivable. If not - hell no. Boring.

Cyber Sunday is just three weeks away. I have a feeling that I’m skipping that one. Well, unless they do something more with Jericho and Michaels.

MVP tried to speak to Vickie but Big Show wouldn’t let him in and shut the door on his face. He then went to the ring to say that you don’t bench your MVP and not give him a match for the big show. Randy Orton came out and chastised him. Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase Jr., and Manu came out. The crowd immediately chanted “boring” and Rhodes was a little befuddled. Basically he said that Randy is the guy who graduated high school and goes back to the high school to act like the cool, older guy. Randy then walked out.

MVP talked about possibly going to Raw and liking what Team Priceless did before DiBiase Jr. cut him off and told him that since his father wasn’t a great wrestler, he wasn’t in their league. MVP said that he was Smackdown’s highest paid athlete until DiBiase said that his father was the Million Dollar Man and he wasn’t impressed. CM Punk and Kofi Kingston came out and talked MVP into joining them to ambush Team Priceless. They all ran to the ring and MVP jumped into the ring while they didn’t and he was beaten down 3 to 1. Dicks. Punk and Kingston then cleared out the ring.

I’m not sure what the reason was for that long sequence other than to get a bunch of guys on the show, but it was still the best thing on the show so far. Not like that’s saying much.

4. Batista vs. JBL

I’m not sure that I’ve ever said this for anything other than his talking, but JBL deserves some props. It was a glorified squash and JBL took everything and made it look impressive. I hope he’s not hurting big time tomorrow. Batista hit the Batista Bomb for the win.

Winner: Batista by pinfall

Big D: JBL did his best to put Batista over, which is admirable, but not even THAT could save the match from boring me to tears. Thankfully it was kept short enough so that it didn’t matter.

I don’t think it was boring. I think they held the boring parts to a minimum, but it’s not like the match was excellent either.

JBL cut a promo at the end of the match and Cryme Tyme came on the Titan Tron. This feels like Raw. They brought out some of the Divas to dance and get into JBL’s limo. Poor Mickie James is awesome. I love her. But she can’t dance. Then they did the famous chant that everyone loves. “Money, money, yeah, yeah.” Then they left in his limo. Again, for what reason? No clue.

This is still the greatest “Money, money, yeah, yeah” ever created though.

5. Big Show vs. The Undertaker

Remember when Big Show was Undertaker’s understudy? I laughed when someone said something to Big Show and Undertaker told him to pick up the punk card that got dropped on him.

I didn’t have much faith in them doing anything compelling tonight, but I have to say that they had a good match. The Big Show was clumsy at times, but they both worked pretty hard. Taker went for his Old School move and the Big Show turned it into a choke slam. Show took off the turnbuckle, rammed Taker’s head into it and then hit him with two big right hands, and a right hand to the back of the head. Referee Charles Robinson called for the TKO victory. Couldn’t Show have just pinned him?

Winner: The Big Show by TKO

Big D: Again, another DECENT match, but man was it plodding and slow at times. It’s a match I will probably never watch again. I was shocked that Undertaker would put Big Show over CLEAN (well semi-clean) in the ring. Looks like Vickie got her revenge, but I think this feud is far from over.

I think I liked this one more than D.

6. Jeff Hardy vs. Triple H

Triple H shook Hardy’s hand and then sucker punched him after he turned his back on him. He must’ve seen the Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice weigh in.

The match was pretty boring early on with Triple H busting out the abdominal stretch and sleeper hold. But it definitely picked up. There was nothing super spectacular about it, but the fans were hot for the end. Triple H definitely worked hard for Hardy. Hardy killed HHH with the Swanton and went to pin him by laying on his back and HHH crucifixed his arms and rolled him up for the victory.

I don’t like the face vs. face dynamics to their feud as I think it would be so much better with Triple H as the heel. But I imagine we’ll get there.

Winner: Triple H by pinfall

Big D: Very good wrestling match. One of the few matches where I felt Hunter actually tried to give Hardy something for the future. I liked the finish a lot and it didn’t totally bury Hardy, so a third match is possible.

I agree that they could continue this one, but hopefully they wait.

HHH went to the back and Kozlov went nose to nose with him to tell him congrats. But he told him in a serious Ivan Drago sort of way.

7. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels

(Photo by seanrefer

Well, they did it again.

The match was more brutal than most ladder matches and didn’t have all of the crazy spots that ladder matches usually have. But these guys killed each other and used it as a weapon. They used it more as a weapon than they did to climb up and get the title. The craziest thing they did featured Jericho going over the top while atop the ladder. He had HBK pinned underneath the ladder and walked up the ladder to get the title and Jericho kicked it up from underneath and they had a great camera shot of Jericho slowly descending to his doom. The finish was pretty creative. They were fighting for the belt at the top of the ladder with each guy having part of the belt. They were trying to fall back to pull it away from the other guy. Michaels pulled Jericho close to him and Jericho headbutted him off the ladder and then grabbed the belt. Good stuff.

Winner: Chris Jericho

Big D: Shawn vs. Jericho wasn’t the best ladder match ever, but it was very good and helped the PPV out significantly. I feel bad for Jericho chipping a tooth, but he delivered a fine main event. HBK is a better worker in 2008 than he was in 1997, and that’s the truth. I’m glad Jericho can hold the title for a bit longer. Jericho vs. Batista is next.

I don’t know if HBK is a better worker today than in 1997, but he definitely does more with less. He’s a much smarter worker too.

It was a thumbs up show. It started out slowly, but picked up with the last four matches. It was predictable, but I commend them for their mostly clean finishes. I’m not sure where they are going with some of the feuds, but they have to start booking the next PPV tomorrow so we’ll find out soon.

Big D: The PPV turned out almost exactly how I predicted. A very mediocre and boring undercard with two stellar matches to cap off the show. I liked the story they told in the Hardy/Hunter match and even though Hardy lost, they could still do a rematch down the line since he came close to beating Hunter. They are 1-1 on PPV in singles Matches, so they can do one more. I feel bad for Jericho chipping a tooth, but he delivered such a good match with a damn creative finish that Vince should pay to have the tooth fixed. Come on, it’s ONE tooth. Anyways, a lackluster show, easily not worth your 40 bucks, but the two main matches WERE good.

I told you we were a bit different in our tastes.

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