For some reason, I’m really looking forward to this show. After last month’s stellar Backlash, they’ve loaded this card up with good matches. Most of them are from the Smackdown side, but the Raw main event should be pretty good, even though Big Dave is going to get himself DQ’d more than likely.
On the Smackdown side, even though a title change is probably too soon, Edge vs. Jeff Hardy should be a really good match. I’m also looking very much forward to Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio, and maybe even CM Punk vs. Umaga, based on how Smackdown ended with all three matches being highlighted at the end of the show.
We’ll be back with live (or close to live) coverage of the show in a few hours.
We’re rolling at about 40 minutes or so late. I’ll try to catch up by fast forwarding through some of the video packages.
1. CM Punk vs. Umaga
It was a long and slow match for most of it. Umaga dominated it, but Punk started his come back and it got pretty good. He went for the GTS and didn’t get it and then took a side kick that put him in the corner. He took the ass to the face in the corner and then the spike made it all she wrote.
Winner: Umaga by pinfall
This could mean that Punk cashes in the briefcase tonight, but we thought that last PPV too.
Chavo told Vickie that John Cena has been medically cleared to wrestle. Show was also in the room and said that it wasn’t good for the fans because Cena was going to get beat up. Vickie said that no one wrestler was bigger than the WWE. Then Edge came in and said he had to speak to his wife.
2. Jack Swagger vs. Christian
This wasn’t as good as last month’s match, but it was still good. They just work so well together.
Late in the match, Swagger rolled up Christian and grabbed the tights, but the ref saw it. Christian then pulled the straps to Swagger’s singlet down. He rolled him up and pulled the tights, which he was able to do since he pulled the straps down.
Winner: Christian by pinfall
Chavo said Edge and Vickie weren’t even living together. Edge called Chavo a failure for letting Santino call Vickie a pig.
Jay Cutler and Brian Urlacher were shown in the audience.
3. John Morrison vs. Shelton Benjamin
Charlie Haas is out there with Shelton.
Morrison did the old Too Cold Scorpio front flip splash to the outside and onto Benjamin, but he didn’t get out far enough and Benjamin had to step forward to give him something to land on. That was crazy.
The rest of the match was pretty good, though it was sloppy in spots. Morrison gave him an enziguiri-like kick off the top rope and then hit his split legged corkscrew moonsault which they call the starship pain. I’m liking what I see out of Morrison.
Winner: John Morrison by pinfall
The Miz came out and called Morrison Marty Jannetty. He called out Alfonso Soriano who was in the front row, who does the “You can’t see me” deal when he hits a home run. He called him into the ring since Cena wouldn’t come out. Then he received a phone call supposedly from Lou Pinella who said that Soriano had to get injured on the field instead of off the field. He then said that since Soriano couldn’t be Cena, he automatically wins.
Santino came out and said Soriano was a fellow Italian. Santino said that he hopes Miz (or Fizz as he called him) has a metal detector because he brought some guns and he knows how to use them. Then he flexed. Miz took him apart and left him laying.
Chavo came out and hit the frog splash.
They must have some short matches planned to go so long with this segment.
4. Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio
This was a really good match. These guys just work so well together. Jericho and Mysterio traded offense for most of the match. The finish was pretty great. Mysterio kept trying to hit the 619 and Jericho would foil him. Jericho had Mysterio in the walls a couple of times, but Mysterio slipped away and finally hit the 619 and west coast pop for the finish.
Winner: Rey Mysterio by pinfall
5. Batista vs. Randy Orton
Looks like Jeff Hardy and Edge is going to close the show.
This was a bad match with a bad finish. The only thing good about it was that it wasn’t on last. The idea was that Orton was so scared of losing his title that he was trying to get counted out or DQ’d. The match didn’t really work. Eventually, Orton just flat out slapped the ref and was DQ’d. The ending made the match feel like a waste of time.
Winner: Batista by disqualification
Priceless came into the ring and jumped Batista. Then Ric Flair came out and saved Big Dave. Flair? I guess it was ok, but why not have MVP come out too? Big Dave and Flair hugged.
6. The Big Show vs. John Cena
There’s already a “Let’s go Cena!”/”Cena sucks!” duel chant going.
Well, two average matches in a row after some really good stuff early on. Edge/Hardy needs to bring it back. Cena and Show was exactly what you’d expect it to be. Slow. Show did his usual offense and Cena kept trying to go for the STFU even though his arms couldn’t reach. He finally hit the FU (I refuse to call it whatever the other name is) for the win. It’s always impressive when he hits that move on someone the size of Show, so the ending was good. But everything leading up to the finish wasn’t.
Winner: John Cena by pinfall
7. Jeff Hardy vs. Edge
Jim Ross just called Jeff Hardy a “high risk junkie”. Hmmm.
They wrestled a smart match in the beginning. Edge took his time and built up the heat. I didn’t think Chicago was going to pop, but eventually they did. The story was that Jeff Hardy was trying to use his high risk offense to win and Edge was too smart to get caught. There were a couple of cool spots including one in which Jeff was speared while trying to run the barricade.
Matt Hardy nailed Jeff with his cast from out of the crowd, but Jeff kicked out. Edge missed the spear and Jeff went back up to the top to finish it. Edge instead caught him at the top and tried to do the Edgecution from the top rope, but it looked a bit odd. Still, a good finish to a good match.
Winner: Edge by pinfall
It wasn’t quite as good as Rey Rey vs. Jericho, but it was a good match to end the show.
That’s two strong wrestling shows in a row for WWE. This wasn’t quite as good as Backlash, but it was a good show.
Totally agree on your MVP comment. It was odd that they have pushed him so hard and yet keep him off of the show. Great job.
Though Miz/Santino was fine, there could’ve been something with MVP there right?
Thanks man.