(I’m on the west coast, so this play by play is a bit delayed)
Why, after all these years, are they bringing back the Slammy’s? Well, they need three hours of TV to fill tonight. Why after 5 years away am I blogging Raw again? Eh, I don’t know. I think I just have a heart for nostalgia and while this show won’t be as wacky as the old Slammy’s stuff, I think it will still be fun.
But probably not as fun as this.
For some reason, we have three huge matches that completely overshadow anything that WWE will try and make you pay for this weekend at Armageddon. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll get any clean finishes though.
Maria and Festus (with a tie over his overalls) present the tag team of the year award.
Nominees: Carlito & Primo, Team Priceless, Miz & Morrison, and Cryme Tyme
If Miz & Morrison don’t win, it’s a travesty. And thankfully, they win. Morrison thanks Chuck Norris while Miz thanks Baba Booey.
1. John Morrison vs. CM Punk
This match is one of the semi-finals of the Intercontinental contender tournament. Punk did a cross body to the floor, but Morrison didn’t catch him very well.
Survivor Series is in Boston and guess who is coming back? Yep, John Cena. I bet he still gets booed.
Remember when this show was the Thanksgiving tradition? I remember watching this on Thanksgiving and then they moved it to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (Hogan vs. Undertaker). The first Survivor Series show was in 1987. My friend Young Randall says he bought the show in 1990 because he remembers Ted DiBiase introducing the Undertaker.
Chris Jericho says that not every story has a happy ending. John Cena’s story is always happy. Until he gets booed.
Good ol’ JR says that CNN reported that Jeff Hardy was found unconscious. He had me for a second until he said he wasn’t sure if Hardy was going to wrestle tonight or not. It sounds like this is a way to get Edge back involved.
1. Shawn Michaels, Cryme Tyme, The Great Khali, and Rey Mysterio vs. JBL, MVP, The Miz, John Morrison, and Kane
Traditional Survivor Series rules here.
MVP yakuza kicked JTG and got the pin.
The Great Khali chopped MVP and then pinned him immediately after. And then he kissed a fat chick. Ok, that’s not until later.
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.
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.
I wouldn’t usually blog about Raw or Smackdown, but this is the biggest Raw or Smackdown show in a very long time. They’ve done a great job publicizing the event, and you could say they’ve done a better job than promoting the PPV. There are many champion versus champion matches.
But it looks like we’re opening up with an 8 man tag.
1. Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, Fit Finlay, and Batista vs. MVP, JBL, The Brian Kendrick, and Kane
I’m already tired of Gregory Helms’ “I’m just saying,” gimmick by the way.
Let’s hope there’s a lot of MVP and Kendrick for the heel side.
The match wasn’t as exciting as I thought it’d be and it was really long. But the last two minutes were great. Rey Rey made the hot tag to Jeff which lead to everyone getting in the ring and kicking each other out of the ring. Rey hit MVP with the 619 and Jeff hit the swanton for the pin.
Winner: Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, Fit Finlay, and Batista
To a lesser extent, having the ability to purchase the show in HD was also a buying factor. We don’t even get Raw or Smackdown in HD out here in Gilroy, CA. Charter needs to work on their HD signal as I’m seeing a bit of pixelation.
1. ECW Championship Scramble
Matt Hardy and the Miz started out the match. No pinfalls, but the Miz did hit his finisher for a two count.
Chavo came out next, hit the frog splash on Matt Hardy and is the in match champion.
Hardy hit the side effect and pinned Chavo and is the in match champion. Mark Henry is in next.
Henry hit the world’s strongest slam on Chavo and pinned him and is the new in match champion. Finlay is the last guy in.
Finlay pinned Hardy, but then Hardy pinned The Miz. Hardy is the current in match champion. The Miz has a nasty cut and is bleeding pretty badly.
Hardy played keep away for about 3 minutes, which didn’t really make sense because the rules state that you can pin anyone an win the belt. But Hardy is the new ECW Champion. Henry lost the belt without having been pinned.
Tomorrow night, WWE celebrates 21 years of SummerSlam, the “biggest party of the summer” as they’ve been calling recently. There have been 20 SummerSlam Events since 1988. But were all of them really worthy of being called the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th best PPV of the year? Absolutely not. So today I’ve decided to take a look and list what I consider the Top 10 Greatest SummerSlam Pay-Per-Views of All Time! So sit back, relax, and enjoy.
10. SummerSlam 1988
So we begin with the very first SummerSlam in 1988, live on PPV from Madison Square Garden in New York. The whole purpose of the creation of this PPV was for the WWE to compete with NWA’s Great American Bash, hoping to convert wrestling fans to save their hard-earned cash and purchase their show at the end of the summer as opposed to the Bash. This soon became the last of the “Big Four” PPVs, alongside Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and of course, Wrestlemania. The main event was a highly-anticipated tag team match between Hulk Hogan and WWF Champion Randy Savage, collectively known as “The Mega Powers” against Ted Dibiase and Andre the Giant, collectively known as “The Mega Bucks”. Savage won a 16-Man Tournament at Wrestlemania IV, last defeating Dibiase to become champion. Hogan had teased prior to the show that Miss Elizabeth would showcase her “eenie, weenie bikini”, which is creepy in retrospect considering she is no longer with us.
Besides that huge match, the most memorable part of this Pay-Per-View was the Ultimate Warrior defeating the longest reigning WWF Intercontinental Champion in history - The Honky Tonk Man. Honky was scheduled to face Brutus Beefcake, but prior to the match, Beefcake was hospitalized by “The Outlaw” Ron Bass. Honky came out on the show and challenged anybody in the building to take the title and the undefeated Warrior came out and pinned him in thirty seconds to take the title, beginning the monster four year run that he would have in the WWF. Tag Team wrestling was definitely one of WWF’s high-points during this era, as Hart Foundation vs. Demolition was easily the best match on the show, followed slightly by the Rougeaus vs. The Bulldogs.
Every week I will try look at Raw, ECW, TNA, and Smackdown and give my thoughts. These are just my thoughts ladies and gentlemen, just my thoughts.
Random wrestling thoughts for the week of July 21, 2008:
Raw
After all the great work that Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels did last night, the Raw show opens with Kane and his bag. Great, just great.
It appalls me how much JBL is pushed considering that with his back injury, he’s one of the worst wrestlers in the company. I know he can talk, but if when he gets in the ring, I want to fast forward, what good is that?
What a shitty opening segment.
Paul London is out to face Lance Cade. Where’s London’s big, huge bodyguard? Wait, that’s Brian Kendrick.
1. Miz and Morrison vs. Hawkins and Ryder vs. Jesse and Festus vs. Finlay and Hornswoggle
Fit Finlay rules. He carried most of the match until he made the hot tag to Hornswoggle and then Jesse tagged into the match after Hornswoggle went wild for about 5 seconds. Festus then went um, dumb? and Hawkins (or Ryder?) pinned Jesse after tripping him off the top rope. Hawkins and Ryder are the new Smackdown tag champs. Good opener, even if it was fairly quick.
But it looks like we’re opening up with an 8 man tag.
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