WrestleMania XXIX review: WWE plays it safe at MetLife Stadium

Posted on April 8, 2013 by RingsideRants

WWE played it safe Sunday night, angering all the swerve-wanting, internet cynics, and going pretty much by numbers at WrestleMania. John Cena defeated The Rock, Dolph Ziggler didn’t cash in, and The Undertaker’s streak is intact.

I thought the pay-per-view was an entertaining show and WWE at least made the journey to predictable outcomes fun to watch. CM Punk v. The Undertaker was the match of the night, as many expected it would be, while I also found Rock-Cena to be a very good effort, and much better than their encounter at last year’s WrestleMania.

While I enjoyed it, I certainly can see why people were upset with the show and thought it was just sort of “meh.” There weren’t any incredibly notable moments and John Cena is the champion again, which is always a sore note with most adult fans.

• I went 7-for-9 with my predictions, which probably says more about the predictability of the match outcomes than my prognostication skills.
I thought Ryback losing to Mark Henry was a surprise, although Ryback still got his “WrestleMania moment” (I guess) by shellshocking Henry after the match.

I was also wrong on Team Hell No retaining the tag titles, but I can’t say that’s the wrong way to go. The duo is really over with the crowd right now and there isn’t much else for them to do, so why not keep the straps on them?

• The Undertaker continues to amaze. He can take an entire year off and still come back and put on a great show, wrestle an awesome match, and look like he hasn’t missed a beat. Kudos to CM Punk as well. It was the right move, in my opinion, continuing the streak and the way the match was built up it made all the sense in the world to have Undertaker get his revenge on Punk.

• The Triple H v. Brock Lesnar match had its moments but I thought it was another slow, plodding Triple H match that put the crowd to sleep, especially coming after the excellent Taker-Punk match. My problem with Triple H winning and “saving his career” is that we still probably won’t see him wrestle again for quite some time, and it leaves Brock Lesnar in a sort of purgatory. Since he’s returned, Lesnar has lost cleanly to John Cena and Triple H in two of his three matches. Where does he go from here?

• Was this a “great” WrestleMania? Of course not. Was it the “worst ever” as many an internet over-reactor was saying last night? Of course not. It was safely booked. It didn’t have six heel turns, a cash in, and all the titles changing hands but it was still an enjoyable wrestling show.

Tonight’s Raw will be very important in setting up the post-WrestleMania feuds. We’ll probably see some sort of Sheamus/Orton v. Big Show storyline and we may find out John Cena’s first challenger for the WWE Championship.

Quick thoughts on WWE Elimination Chamber 2013

Posted on February 18, 2013 by RingsideRants

The entertaining Elimination Chamber pay-per-view ended with The Rock victorious, setting up “Twice in a Lifetime” as he will defend the WWE Championship against John Cena at WrestleMania. Jack Swagger won the Number One Contender Elimination Chamber match, while The Shield defeated WWE’s “All Star Team,” and Antonio Cesario and Alberto Del Rio retained their respective championships.

A few quick thoughts on last night’s event:

- Swagger winning the Elimination Chamber wasn’t a total shock considering how strongly he’s been put over since his return, but it was surprising that WWE actually pulled the trigger and went that route. The buildup to an Alberto Del Rio v. Jack Swagger WrestleMania match will likely be full of that trademark WWE racism.

- It was absolutely the right move to have The Shield beat John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus. I was afraid, though, that we would see The Shield go the route of Nexus and be crushed by the hand of SuperCena. The three faces aren’t hurt at all by the loss and really wouldn’t have gained a ton by a win, especially since John Cena is heading into the main event of WrestleMania to challenge for the WWE Championship.

Had The Shield lost, they would pretty much be a worthless group. But with the win, they stay relevant. The Shield’s cohesiveness was a storyline – even though the broadcast team didn’t really mention it – as the group consistently utilized tags to do triple team moves and kept their opponents in their own corner. It makes sense from a booking standpoint that Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns were able to win thanks to their smarts and familiarity with each other as teammates.

- The Rock – CM Punk match was decent, but nothing spectacular. I thought the inclusion of the stipulation that The Rock would lose the title if he were disqualified or counted out would lead to some shenanigans and a CM Punk win, therefore giving us a triple threat match for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. It didn’t happen, though, and The Rock won after a few ref bumps.

- The Antonio Cesaro – Miz match, and its finish, basically was just to keep this thing afloat so they can wrestle again at WrestleMania. I wouldn’t be shocked if Cesaro drops the title to The Miz and then moves on to a main event feud with one of the world champions.

(Photo courtesy WWE.com)

2013 Royal Rumble recap: An entertaining, if predictable, pay-per-view

Posted on January 28, 2013 by RingsideRants

Image courtesy WWE.com
WWE put on an entertaining, if predictable, Royal Rumble pay-per-view last night in which the crowd was hot for most of the night and the match quality was very good. The Rock won the WWE Championship and John Cena won the Royal Rumble, likely setting up the “Twice in a Lifetime” rematch at WrestleMania XXIX.

- The pre-show United States Championship match between Antonio Cesaro and The Miz was your typical Miz match until he landed awkwardly from a top-rove move, apparently twisting his ankle. Miz tried to work through it but was clearly hobbled. The finish was awkward as well as Cesaro threw Miz into the ring from the outside and then hit the Neutralizer with no real progression and got the win. Obviously that had to do with Miz being legitimately hurt so we can’t fault them too much for how this all went down.

- The Last Man Standing match between Alberto Del Rio and Big Show was better than expected. Usually I don’t have high hopes for LMS matches because it’s basically, “hit a move… stand there” forever, but this one had some good spots. Big Show’s chokeslam of Del Rio off the staging onto a table with no padding underneath was probably the highlight of those. I don’t like the Cena-Batista finish off taping Big Show’s legs to the ropes so he couldn’t stand, but it was clever and Del Rio is over huge right now, so it made sense to keep the belt on him somehow. I like that WWE is going for a sort of Eddie Guerrero-esque “lie, cheat, steal” face gimmick with Del Rio and Ricardo.

- Team Hell No defeated Rhodes Scholars to retain in the Tag Team Championship match. Nothing stellar, but not boring either. Keeping the belts on Team Hell No allows them to keep their comedy act going, although I don’t think they need the straps to continue that. While Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes would have benefited from winning the titles, they should be okay as well. That is, as long as WWE re-invests itself in the tag team division once again.

- Other than the somewhat predictable conclusion, the Royal Rumble match featured some nice surprises. The biggest surprise was Chris Jericho entering at number two and then remaining in the Rumble almost to the end. It’s a testament to the athletic conditioning of Jericho that he hasn’t wrestled since August and was able to come back and go as long as he did. We also got the returns of Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara and Santino Marella, and likely one-off surprise appearances from Goldust and The Godfather.

When Dolph Ziggler, who entered at number one, was finally eliminated by Sheamus, it seemed to take the air out of the crowd, as did John Cena’s anti-climactic victory. Once Cena ended the Rumble match, it was safe to assume The Rock would be beating CM Punk, which also took a little steam out of the crowd for that match as well.

- The WWE Championship match was much better than Rock’s bout with John Cena at WrestleMania, as one would expect. I wouldn’t call it a wrestling classic, but Rock was always known to be able to go in the ring and CM Punk is one of the best at putting on an exciting match. This one felt a little like a late-1990s match with a lot of outside the ring action and we got a scary moment when the Spanish announce table gave out on the competitors as The Rock was trying to give CM Punk a Rock Bottom. The lights went out as The Rock was about to hit the People’s Elbow and Michael Cole told us that The Shield was powerbombing Rock through the announce table. When the lights came back on, The Rock was out cold and The Shield were nowhere to be found. Punk pinned the Rock to retain the title.

After some celebration by Punk and Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon appeared and told Punk he had no choice but to strip him of the title, but The Rock spoke up and said, instead, to restart the match. After a few minutes, The Rock completed the People’s Elbow and won the belt.

While many thought The Rock would win, I absolutely hated that it was off the People’s Elbow. He couldn’t have at least finished Punk with the Rock Bottom? It seems like we’re headed for Rock-Cena II at WrestleMania but I’m curious to see the twists in the road as we get there. I’m also wondering if we get a swerve and it turns out Brock Lesnar was the man who attacked The Rock when the lights went out.

Quick thoughts on WWE Survivor Series 2012

Posted on November 19, 2012 by RingsideRants

Survivor Series came and went, with all champions retaining and Dolph Ziggler emerging as the sole survivor in the Team Ziggler v. Team Foley match. Here are some quick thoughts on the pay-per-view.

- Unlike a lot of the “IWC,” I haven’t been clamoring for the big league debut of Dean Ambrose so when he, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns attacked Ryback, it wasn’t as much of an epic occasion for me. Sure, it’ll be interesting to see where this goes; Are the three NXT men aligned with CM Punk? Are they part of an alliance with Brad Maddox seeking payback for Ryback’s beatdown on Monday? Parts of this scream Nexus to me and we all remember how poorly WWE botched that whole thing, which is why I won’t get too far ahead of myself with this angle.

- Dolph Ziggler looked like a million bucks once again (as he usually does) and became the sole survivor of the Team Ziggler v. Team Foley match when he pinned Randy Orton. Orton went for his patented punt to the head, while Ziggler played possum and nailed RKO with a superkick for the victory. It’s hard to read too much into a pretty much meaningless elimination match but Ziggler looked great, and it felt like we might be getting some seeds planted for a Randy Orton heel turn during the PPV.

- It was nice of WWE to give us an unannounced elimination match at the beginning of the show but I continue to be mystified that they don’t announce these matches before the show. Sure, a matchup of Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd and Brodus Clay v. The Prime Time Players, Primo, Epico and Tensai isn’t going to sell a ton of additional pay-per-views. But perhaps people who were on the fence about ordering a show with five announced matches would order it because there were six? The match itself was very good and Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd came out of it looking more important than ever.

- Am I the only one that thinks Tensai is intentionally botching moves, or “dead weighting” guys on purpose? A few weeks back he did it to Ryback and last night he didn’t do Brodus Clay any favors. Either that, or Tensai just sucks so badly that he can’t time his jumps properly.

- I was impressed they gave Kaitlyn and Eve as much time as they were given. The match wasn’t great, but not terrible, and time is what the Divas need to improve. WWE also seemed to set up a feud between AJ and Tamina as an offshoot of the AJ-Vickie feud, which would be nice since both of those women can wrestle.

- The Sheamus v. Big Show match was another good one. Big Show has gotten much better in the later stages of his career and Sheamus always puts on a decent match. The post-match beatdown didn’t make a lot of sense, since Sheamus is supposed to be a babyface after all, but it was either the blow off to the feud or a tease for Dolph Ziggler cashing in the briefcase. Or, more likely, to set up a Chairs Match at TLC. Ugh.

- CM Punk now has held the WWE title for 365 days and I’m interested to see what happens next with the NXT guys and CM Punk. It seems like we’ll be getting another Punk v. Cena match at TLC in December, though.

WWE Money in the Bank review and results

Posted on July 16, 2012 by RingsideRants

Sunday night’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view was a solid effort, although my expectations were extremely low since it was a pretty much foregone conclusion that John Cena would win the WWE Title ladder match and there were only four announced matches on the card.

Below are my match-by-match thoughts:

Dolph Ziggler defeated Santino Marella, Christian, Cody Rhodes, Tensai, Damien Sandow, Tyson Kidd and Sin Cara in the World Heavyweight Championship briefcase Money in the Bank ladder match
Many people (myself included) had Ziggler winning this one and it was the right pick for him to leave with the briefcase. The match itself had a few pretty bad botches (thanks Sin Cara and Tensai!) but still managed to be an awesome spotfest. Ziggler’s steady ascension continues and it will be interesting to see how the next few months unfold with Dolph in possession of the briefcase.

The Miz returned and announced he would enter the WWE Championship briefcase Money in the Bank ladder match
This one was spoiled by the arena selling t-shirts with Miz listed as one of the participants in the match but it was still a nice surprise to see him back. He cut a deliberate promo and hopefully he can regain some momentum now that he’s had a little break.

Sheamus defeated Alberto Del Rio to retain the World Heavyweight Championship
While this match wasn’t a five star affair, it was certainly a good storytelling match. It was nice to see Del Rio work a part of the body and actually portray a strategy, something completely lost in WWE, and Sheamus’ comeback got a big pop out of the crowd.

There seems to be a lot of Twitter/Internet hate out there for Sheamus but I don’t mind him. He comes out of every match looking like he legitimately was in a battle, which adds to the matches he is in.

Dolph Ziggler attempted to cash in the MITB briefcase, but Sheamus hits him with a Brogue Kick before the referee can ring the bell
Post match, Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez attacked Sheamus, beating him down. Dolph’s music hit and the crowd erupted. Del Rio tried to stop Ziggler from cashing in and took a briefcase to the head for his efforts, but it gave Sheamus enough time to recover and nail the Brogue Kick, knocking Ziggler out.
I liked the tease. WWE might as well drag out Ziggler having the briefcase a little bit, since it will only add to his star power and make it more special when he does cash in, a la The Miz cashing in on Randy Orton.
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2012 Royal Rumble results and recap

Posted on January 30, 2012 by RingsideRants

Photo courtesy WWE.com

Last night’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view was… a pay-per-view. It certainly didn’t have that big time atmosphere we expect from one of WWE’s marquee events. CM Punk and Daniel Bryan retained their titles, John Cena and Kane fought to a double countout, the Funkasaurus won another squash, Sheamus is going to WrestleMania, and some women wrestled.

The night wasn’t without its notable moments, however, as the Royal Rumble match gave us a lot of campy comedy but also some memorable entrants. On the campy comedy side, Mick Foley and Santino had a Cobra v. Socko battle and all three announcers – Booker T, Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole – entered the match. That must have been what WWE was going for by hammering us over the head that anyone on the roster could enter the contest.

The entry of Michael Cole did lead to the return of Kharma, who eliminated Cole and Hunico before being tossed by Dolph Ziggler. First ever Royal Rumble winner Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Road Dogg were surprise legends entrants.

Below is a match-by-match breakdown of the 2012 Royal Rumble:

Triple Threat Cage Match for the World Heavyweight Championship
Daniel Bryan (C) defeated Big Show and Mark Henry

Mark Henry was very limited in this match, which basically turned into a one-on-one Show v. Bryan contest. It was okay for what it was and the ending made sense, with Show grabbing Bryan as he tried to escape the cage, then finally losing his grip on the champion. One thing that distracted me during the match was Michael Cole’s wishy washy commentary, changing from praising Daniel Bryan for his heel antics but then remembering he is supposed to hate Daniel Bryan and bashing him again.

Beth Phoenix, Natalya and the Bella Twins defeated Kelly Kelly, Tamina, Eve and Alicia Fox

Typical divas fare, although we did see a top rope dive from Kelly Kelly onto all the divas on the floor. As you would guess, there was “twin magic,” an Eve booty pop, Kelly Kelly handspring elbow, and not enough Beth Phoenix and Tamina ring time. Hopefully with the return of Kharma, the women’s division will focus more on wrestling, but it doesn’t seem promising.

John Cena and Kane fought to a Double Countout

The match itself was pretty good, with Cena getting his typical shtick in but Kane always having an answer. The double countout was predictable since it protects both men. I really didn’t mind Kane wheeling Zack Ryder out to the arena and then demolishing the Long Island Broski and John Cena, logic of him not just taking care of business in the back aside. There was some continuation of Eve’s feeling that Cena is responsible for Ryder’s injuries and I’m assuming that will play out a little more on Raw.

Brodus Clay defeated Drew McIntyre

Basic Funkasaurus match… Dance, squash, dance. The demise of Drew McIntyre continues.

WWE Championship Match
CM Punk defeated Dolph Ziggler

There was just way too much John Laurinaitis in this match. The in-ring action was great, as you would expect from Ziggler and Punk. With Triple H coming back on Raw to rule on whether or not Johnny Ace keeps his job, the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim Raw General Manager couldn’t screw Punk as planned. Even though he teased it, you knew it wasn’t happening.

I have no problem with that, really. What was worse was how much all those shenanigans took away from Dolph Ziggler. He became a sidecar to the Punk-Laurinaitis motorcycle. Hopefully Ziggler stays in the title chase because the guy is one of the best in the business right now.

Sheamus wins the Royal Rumble match

The final four came down to Big Show, Randy Orton, Sheamus and Chris Jericho. Show and Orton quickly were eliminated, which took a little steam out of the crowd. While I’ll admit I thought Jericho was an obvious choice to win, Sheamus is deserving of a title run once again. It just doesn’t feel that special since he’s been buried in his beef with Jinder “please hate this man” Mahal. Sheamus was well down my list of potential Rumble winners heading in but we’ll see how WWE builds this heading into WrestleMania. I would guess that Sheamus challenges for the Big Gold Belt since CM Punk v. Chris Jericho at ‘Mania makes so much sense it would be hard to pass up.

As I mentioned before there was too much campy comedy in this Rumble. Did we really need to see Michael Cole in the match? I didn’t mind Lawler and Booker T, in fact I mostly suspected it, but Cole? The Foley-Santino stuff was cute at first but got old fast, as mostly everything WWE thinks is funny does.

Ricardo Rodriguez appearing in full Alberto Del Rio mode was pretty good and was one of the minor hits in an otherwise underwhelming Rumble match. Kharma returning was a welcomed surprise but it would have made more sense for her to come out after Kelly Kelly hit all the divas with the dive off the top rope during the women’s match.

WWE SummerSlam Recap and Review

Posted on August 15, 2011 by RingsideRants

Image courtesy of WWE

The “biggest event of the summer” may not have felt like that tagline would suggest but it was a pretty good show that featured good wrestling and a surprise ending. I already gave you my thoughts on that, so this post will focus on the remainder of the show from last night.

In some ways the pay-per-view felt more like an extended episode of Raw, especially with the commercials from sponsors and backstage skits. It was all kept to a minimum, though, and they were necessary since SummerSlam only had five advertised matches. Furthering the Raw feeling was the opening match of the night, a hastily thrown together six man tag team match that began with mic time from The Miz and R-Truth.

The match itself – which featured Miz, Truth and Alberto Del Rio against John Morrison, Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston – was very good and got the crowd going. Mysterio scoring the winning pinfall was necessary for him to have some build heading into his WWE Championship match on Raw.

The Sheamus v. Mark Henry matchup was better than I had expected and Henry is really thriving in his role as a monstrous big man. I thought they would go with a double countout ending, but Sheamus losing by countout still allows this feud to continue.

You know a PPV is good when even the Divas Championship match is passable. As much as I think Beth Phoenix should be the champ and the focus needs to be on women who can wrestle, I think Kelly Kelly retaining the title with a rollup pin was the smart call. It allows the program to continue and Phoenix looked very strong throughout the match. K2 showed she can have a decent match when put in the ring with a good worker.

The Wade Barrett v. Daniel Bryan match was my pick for Snoozer of the Night. I don’t mean that to seem as bad as it sounds, because the match was still good enough, it just lost the crowd. And I’ll probably catch hell for saying this on the internet, but Daniel Bryan just doesn’t seem as entertaining as I remember him in ROH and the other independents. His matches lately seem to be all kicks and a few moves and then a submission. Him losing doesn’t hurt too much and Barrett needed a good win to get some momentum back following what has been an awful year for him.

Randy Orton and Christian had the match of the night. Edge got a huge reaction when he was introduced before the match and WWE made the right call by not having him stay at ringside to support Christian. I thought it was a little too soon to take the belt off Christian and they instead should have had him score a decisive win, but the match was great. The crowd was hot for all of it and these two guys have great chemistry in the ring. Sadly, I think it’s the end of Christian’s time at the top of the card for the moment.

John Cena v. CM Punk wasn’t close to their Money in the Bank contest but that surely was not to be expected. I didn’t like the finish of CM Punk winning with Cena’s leg on the rope but the aftermath of Nash attacking and ADR cashing in made it make a little more sense. We’ll see how it all plays out on Raw.

Thoughts on the SummerSlam ending

Posted on August 15, 2011 by RingsideRants

I don’t love or hate the way WWE SummerSlam ended. I’m willing to let it play out a little further before I pass too much judgment.

On one hand, I’m not sure I want to see another retread of the same old “McMahon family drama” storyline, even though it seems we’re headed that way. Kevin Nash’s appearance at the end of the show, powerbombing newly crowned undisputed WWE Champion CM Punk, and then Alberto Del Rio cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase leaves open a lot of possibilities.

Was Kevin Nash instructed to take out the champ by Triple H, his longtime friend and former Kliq companion? Or did Stephanie McMahon, who appeared on the show several times, have a hand in the matter? Perhaps Alberto Del Rio paid off Big Sexy to do the hit?

The likely scenario is that Stephanie and the old regime do not want CM Punk to have the title and are behind the whole thing. If it’s done right, the story could be very interesting and continue to build CM Punk as a huge star in the eyes of the casual fans.

If not done right, and we know how WWE can drop the ball with a good story, it could lead us right back to the same old status quo.

But I’m willing to see how it plays out and I’m certainly interested to see what happens on tonight’s Raw. Building a continued investment in the storyline and the product, after all, is the point.

WWE Fatal 4 Way review

Posted on June 21, 2010 by RingsideRants

WWE’s Fatal 4 Way was a decent show that had a few surprises, some title changes, and an appearance by the NXT7. Rey Mysterio is the new World Heavyweight Champion, Sheamus captured the WWE Title and Alicia Fox became the new Divas Champion. The Miz and Kofi Kingston retained their respective titles.

The show, which cost $45 to order on PPV, ended about 30 minutes before 11pm ET. Even after adding in two late matches, the show ended way too soon. There really is no excuse for that to happen, and it certainly hurts WWE down the line. If you bought this pay-per-view and got somewhat cheated out of your money, why would you spend it again on the next show?

- The show ended after NXT attacked the four competitors in the WWE Title fourway match. In the process, Sheamus got a pin on Cena and became the new champion. He was then chased away by the NXT rookies as he raised the title on the entrance ramp. Aside from the continuing NXT invasion, the story will likely focus on how Sheamus violated the agreement Cena mentioned in his earlier promo that all four men would stick together if the NXT guys showed up.

I don’t mind Sheamus winning, as I think WWE has done a great job of building him up since his last run with the belt. The only thing that scares me is this likely means Sheamus holds the belt until Triple H is ready to wrestle again, at which time he’ll triumphantly ride back into town and win another title from the Celtic Warrior.

- Rey Mysterio pinning Jack Swagger to win the World Heavyweight Championship, after Kane had come to ringside and chased CM Punk away, had Twitter in a frenzy last night. I certainly don’t think giving Mysterio the title is the right call, but I think a lot of the hatred of it was misdirected.

My guess is WWE gave Rey the strap because he’s been working hurt for about six months now and was supposed to take time off before he accidentally injured Undertaker. WWE needed someone and probably rewarded Rey for sticking around by giving him the belt again. I also would assume that Rey loses the title quickly, but I might be wrong there. As far as him not being a heavyweight, this isn’t boxing.

The match itself was good in spots. One that a lot of people liked was when Jack Swagger did a belly-to-back suplex on CM Punk who suplexed Mysterio at the same time. While that was pretty cool, I liked it better when Kurt Angle did it to Randy Orton and Mysterio at WrestleMania 22.

- The match of the night was Chris Jericho v. Evan Bourne. The only problem with it is that the WWE didn’t advertise it before the show. With Evan Bourne being so over right now, why not at least toss is up on WWE.com and see if a few more people buy it? The way this pay-per-view was built up in the past few weeks made it feel like such a throwaway show that it seems very likely the buy rates will be bad.

Bourne won after hitting the shooting star press on a face-down Jericho, after a long match that saw a lot of counters and nearfalls. This match proved why Chris Jericho really is “the best in the world at what he does.” He went out and put on a great match because he wants to help elevate new stars.

The storyline with Jericho continually losing and getting more frustrated is going somewhere and, even though I hate to see Y2J lose on a weekly basis, I’m interested to see where it’s heading. For Bourne, this was meant to give him some momentum. I doubt he’s headed to the main event picture, but I also wouldn’t be completely shocked if he won the Money in the Bank match at the next pay-per-view.

- Kofi Kingston defeated Drew McIntyre in a very good opening match to retain the IC Title. I didn’t mind the overbooking at the end with Teddy Long not counting Drew’s pin, Hardy’s run-in, and Kingston picking up the win. It continues all the feuds that are going and I’ll be interested to see what happens next on Smackdown.

- The Miz defeated R-Truth to retain the US Title in an okay match. The crowd was absolutely dead for this one, which made it seem worse than it was.

- The Divas match was better than I thought it would be. It still wasn’t anything special, of course. After Eve hit a moonsault on Maryse, Alicia Fox tossed her out of the ring and pinned Maryse to become the new champion. I would have liked to see Gail Kim win the belt, but that really wouldn’t have made sense.

- The six-person tag match between the Hart Dynasty and the Usos was good, but was missing something. The crowd had a lot to do with it. I thought it would have made more sense to have the Usos go over, but having Natalya pin Tamina wasn’t terrible. It continues the heat between the two tag teams, since they’re still 0-0 against each other.

- This definitely wasn’t one of WWE’s best efforts, but the matches were given the proper amount of time and the action was good. The main complaint is the length of the show and how poorly it was hyped coming in.

WWE Over The Limit review

Posted on May 24, 2010 by RingsideRants

WWE tried to go Over The Limit with Sunday’s pay-per-view but came up short. On paper the card looked like it had great potential but instead we got a flat effort from WWE. One title changed hands, as Kofi Kingston dominated Drew McIntyre to win the Intercontinental Championship, and Randy Orton suffered a separated shoulder while pounding the mat in preparation for an RKO.

John Cena defeated Batista to retain the WWE Championship
We pretty much knew coming in that Cena was going to retain but the match was better than expected. I’ve never been a fan of I Quit matches because having to ask the wrestler if he wants to give up takes some of the drama out of the bout. This was more of a brawl than a wrestling contest, which is fine, but it dragged at points.

I liked how Batista grabbed the mic before the match began and told Cena this was his chance to quit. I didn’t like Cena acting like he was thinking about it and then hitting Batista with the microphone. It was more cheesy, “Nickelodeon” comedy from Cena and was pretty lame.

The spot where Batista powerslammed John Cena through the Spanish announce table was nice. After that both men fought through the crowd and Cena knocking Batista off the railing was well done. The security guys who caught Batista got the worst of that one, though.

Batista getting in the car and trying to run over Cena was just plain silly. For one, why would the keys be in the car on the ramp? Secondly, the bit dragged and the announcers tried to play it up like Cena was dead, when you could clearly see referee Mike Chioda to the left of the car talking to Cena. Another problem I have with this is that it sort of breaks the characterization of what wrestling is. Why not just bring out a knife and stab Cena at the start of the match if you’re okay with running him over? Drew McIntyre got “fired” for beating up Matt Hardy but there was nothing wrong with attempted vehicular manslaughter?

The ending, with Cena tossing Batista through the ramp, gives us a reason why Batista won’t be on television for a while, as many internet sources have reported. Sheamus came out at the end and delivered a nice kick to Cena’s melon, so that will be the next program.

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