**Vickymania's Summerslam Review**
KANE defeated FINLAY: Kane is a man on a mission controlling the first couple of minutes of this bout that was an interesting choice as opener. But even on offense, he shows discomfort to his previously injured ribs, a fact not lost on Finlay when he does finally gain control. Smash-Mouth is the name of the game no matter who is on top, and we also get our usual dose of Hornswoggle shenanigans. After such a moment, Finlay gets in a shillelagh shot, but Kane kicks out at 2.5 & hits his choke-slam for the victory soon after at the 9 minute mark. Nothing too memorable but very solidly booked & performed. In fact, I really liked a few of the subtle touches included here & both men came out looking good.
UMAGA defeated CARLITO & KEN KENNEDY in a Triple-Threat Match to Retain the InterContinetal Title: Both heels attempt to negotiate themselves into the Samoan champ's good books, but Umaga puts both men down on the mat in declining their offers. The heels then team up & clear the ring of the champ allowing some heel vs heel action to occur in the ring for a couple of minutes. The action is rather pacy & solid, but as is usually the case when 2 heels go at it, the crowd become silent. Once Umaga returns to action, he rather easily handles a double-team & it really isn all that much later that the champ hits the Samoan Spike on Kennedy for the victory at just the 7 minute mark. That duration was way too short for this to amount to anything special. But even as a short bout, it wasn too exciting & fast-paced. Furthermore, there was no real cleverness in the booking, so considering the talent involved, this was disappointing, if not awful.
REY MYSTERIO defeated CHAVO GUERRERO: Emerging in all-silver (pants, mask & body paint), Rey looks focused & intense upon return as the crowd gets a loud havo Sucks?chant going. The 2 put together a great sequence of entertaining counters to begin with?The kind they could probably perform blind-folded when together in the ring. Chavo predictably targets the knee, but Rey fights off the initial onslaught to land some of his trademark high-flying moves. But soon, it Chavo going to work with various submission holds that are sufficiently different to remain entertaining enough. When given a glimpse of an opportunity, Rey fails to land the 619 due to the bad knee, but then shows good ruthlessness when the heel is tied in the tree of woe.
The action is entertainingly back & forth from that point on with Rey getting a 2 count with a wicked tornado DDT & then having to kick out of the Gory Bomb! After some failed further attempts, Rey does eventually hit the 619 for the win at the 12 minute mark. Solid & entertaining, everything was well put together & performed here. The time just seemed to fly by, which is practically always a good sign. Of course, these 2 can do even better given a few more minutes, but something tells me they will be given the opportunity soon enough. One thing that is for certain is that it great to have Rey back!
BETH PHOENIX Won a Divas Battle Royal to become the #1 Contender for the Women Title: Woman Champ Candice Michelle sits at ringside as it is Brooke who is eliminated first. The action is all over the place in usual battle-royal fashion with nothing special occurring in the first 4 minutes apart from JR & The King clearly getting confused as to who is who! The final 4 ends up being Melina, Torrie, Beth & Michelle, as the 2 faces messily team up to eliminate Melina. They attempt to do the same to Beth, but it to no avail as the Raw heel takes disappointingly very little time in clearing the ring of both faces at the 7 minute mark. Very ho-hum battle royal where nothing of any significance occurred & no-one was really put over. Not very entertaining or exciting, this was poorly booked & I can pass it.
MVP / MATT HARDY / TONE COLD?STEVE AUSTIN Segment: 10 minutes in length, this qualifies to be included in the overall PPV Rating. MVP oddly chooses a beer-drinking contest to battle Matt Hardy in, but the crowd quickly see what coming as it is Matt turn to pick a substitute. After some decent mic work by both men, tone Cold?Steve Austin is indeed introduced & pops the crowd big time by just appearing, let alone the subsequent warm-up routine. Of course the Stone Cold Stunner is then hit on MVP & the live crowd continues to go bonkers with ecstasy. A pleasant & effective surprise.
JOHN MORRISON defeated CM PUNK to retain the ECW World Title: Punk shows good intensity to begin the bout as the 2 trade moves on the mat. Morrison then gains control with an interesting neck-breaker variation on to the apron, but doesn really impress with his subsequent offense. Punk finally works his way back into the match & gets near-falls with an enziguri & power-slam. Unfortunately, as has been seen before in matches between these 2, the crowd remains rather silent?Until Punk gets a 2 count with a top-rope moonsault & then crotches Morrison leading to a clothesline & a rough landing for the champ. But when the challenger heads back to the top-rope & attempts a hurracanrana, Morrison blocks it & then gets the cheap rope-assisted pinfall at just the 7 minute mark. In isolation this wasn at all bad, but considering that this was the 3rd ppv match in a row that these 2 have had, this was fairly disappointing. At this point, I don know whether to blame the bookers or start believing that when against each other, these 2 are simply not up to it at the moment.
TRIPLE H defeated KING BOOKER: The ? Million Dollar Man?vignette precedes the always crowd-popping he Game?entrance theme, as Triple H soaks in the crowd response for literally minutes on end. When the bout finally begins, Booker attempt at a false start fails as H clears the ring. Standard back & forth action follows, until Sharmell interjects, allowing Booker to target the knee. But HHH does the same, even going so far as to get the oooo?pop by applying the figure 4 leglock. Triple H then gets the better of some ringside action, but it is the heel who acquits himself better in the ring as he even hits the bookend. This only scores a 2 count though & it obviously calls for desperate measures as Booker heads to the top-rope & misses a favorite finisher of mine, the Harlem Hangover (top-rope somersault legdrop). This opens the door for H to hit his pedigree for the victory at the 8 minute mark. Pretty much what we were expecting, this was fairly standard but had a good vibe about it. It was good to see Booker pull out a couple of moves that we haven seen in a while though & while the action wasn scintillating, it was rather involving.
BATISTA defeated THE GREAT KHALI by Disqualification in a Match for the World HeavyWeight Title: Strangely enough, it is Khali that shows intensity & aggression at the beginning of the bout. It pays off for him too as the champ pretty much dominates the opening 5 minutes. While the first 3 of those minutes is rather standard offense, it isn actually terrible. But it all downhill from there as Khali then uses a resthold that targets the neck, which is illogical to me as he may as well just go straight ahead & apply the claw. It even earns a oring?chant from the crowd, but the audience begins to come to life as Batista hits a spine-buster & then attempts to put together some offense. Khali hits his choke-bomb, but the challenger kicks out at 2, leading to the giant Indian taking the shortcut of a chair-shot & getting disqualified at the 7 minute mark. Batista gets in a spear & some chair-shots in the aftermath. Started ok, but was pretty darn bad after that with too long of a resthold, too short of a face comeback & a cheap and unimaginative finish. I can pass it.
JOHN CENA defeated RANDY ORTON to Retain the WWE Championship: The usual mixed reaction that greets Cena on the east coast of the U.S is once more here as Orton icy stare meets Cena intensity at the beginning of the match. Duelling headlocks result in dueling chants as both men effectively make the basic hold look deadly! The heel challenger then goes to work with a variety of strikes as the champ head is clearly the target. Back to the headlock Randy goes as he looks to make Cena pass out. The Orton Stomp then follows & a powerslam gets a 2 count before we head back to headlock city?Twice! The usual Cena offensive flurry follows, but Orton counters an F-U attempt & then gets a near-fall with a rope-assisted DDT.
Randy continues to be in control at ringside, but Cena gets the better of a top-rope battle that ends in him hitting his top-rope fameasser. But he can follow up with an F-U as the heel challenger sets his sights on his now trademark punt to the head. Cena manages to avoid the kick & locks in an STF-U, which Orton breaks by getting to the ropes & popping the corwd. An RKO out of nowhere follows, but by the time Orton makes the cover, Cena kicks out at 2.9! It is then time for the F-U to be hit out of nowhere for the pinfall at the 21 minute mark. Very good main-event that could have been even better. Orton played his character well here & pretty much took the lead role as Cena was booked to play off of him. In fact, the bout may have even been a little too one-sided! I liked the way that the headlock was used initially, but it probably ended up being too prevalent in a 21 minute bout. And that finish was just way too swift with Cena hitting the F-U way too soon after being RKO. Still very good & in a way it is heartening that these 2 can improve as their feud is sure to continue
It was one of the best PPv's i've watched all this year and i was happy with the matches scheduled as well as the results..i do hope you like my review..hope to continue doing reviews of future PPV's as well..thanx.
