seX-Power
Guest
I'll be updating this review as we go along.
The show opens with Rey Mysterio in the ring, and he pumps up the match for Extreme Rules getting the cheap LA pop before saying that he will be able to hit Jericho with any move he wants, also saying the match will be off the hook, which it hopefully will be. Jericho's huge pyro interrupts him and he walks down to ask Rey if it will be off the hook when he bashes him in the head and gives him brain damage and so forth, good stuff. Rey soon shuts him up with a 'shut up' and tells him his words mean nothing, basically calling him a liar. He mentions Mickey Rourke knocking him out and he is shown in the front row, but Jericho says it's not worth his time. Jericho goes on about Rey's mask and cuts him down, saying he will unmask him at ER. There's a scuffle and Jericho ends up on the ropes but dodges the 619 and bails as Mysterio looks pissed.
Well Rey's promo work is mainly gaining cheap pops and he did so well tonight, showing charisma we don't usually get to see from him. It picked up once Jericho entered and they had some good words exchanged, especially from Chris, that built up to their No Holds Barred match at ER. My only problem is that the match is for the IC title, but that doesn't really affect the promo. ***1/4
Back from break, and R-Truth *shudders* makes his entrance from the RAMP with Khali following him and being included in the rap, and Khali saying What's Up was actually pretty funny. We are having Truth and Knox take on Mike Knox and Dolph Ziggler. Great. Truth and Ziggler start off and the former takes control with some great athleticism. Khali is tagged in and Dolph tags out and hides at ringside. Knox basically lets Khali hit him and Truth comes back in, only to have Knox get the better of him, before tagging back Ziggler. There's some nice action culminating in a double crossbody spot and the big men are tagged back in. Ziggler leaves and Khali dominated Knox mostly while standing on the spot. He pins Mike with the Punjabi Plunge.
Fun little match here with the main thing being Ziggler running away from Khali and the angle was played out well. Knox getting pinned again I don't like and Khali can hardly go in the ring, all he did was stand on the spot and boot people. Truth was okay, he's improved and can really get the crowd behind him. **1/4
Back from another break, and Melina is making her seXy entrance to face Alicia Fox and her hair and shitty music. The match starts out with a slap, this time from Fox. They go to the outside and Melina heelishly throws Alicia in by her hair but McCool distracts her and Alicia dropkicks her through the ropes. Nice. Alicia takes advantage in the ring and after some solid action I wasn't really watching, Melina picks up the win and Michelle leaves Alicia in the ring.
Alright match here but it could have gone longer. It advanced Melina/Michelle with the champ beating up McCool's lackey and I'd like to see that match happen at Night of Champions. Fairly standard stuff from both divas. **
Now we are backstage with John Morrison and Josh Matthews. Morrison talks about his match with Umaga and I have no idea what he says until he explains that he will wait till Umaga trips up and then capitalize. Shelton Benjamin then walks in and says they have unfinished business, and the two get in a heated argument that has Morrison run down Shelton saying he's beaten both halves of the World's Most Forgotten Tag team (tm) twice and that he has better things to do that deal with Shelton.
Nice to see Morrison get some mic time and his character seems to be a jokingly philosophical confusing hard-to-explain type of thing. Anyway, he had a nice altercation with Shelton and both of them showed charisma they don't usually emanate, especially the Bland Standard. **1/2
After the break we get to see Hardy make his entrance and is about to talk. Gulp. He talks about him and Edge's history with ladders and says that 10 years later their feud ends with a ladder match. He then wraps it up with saying that he will climb the ladder and become the new WWE/World Champion. That's it apparently.
Very short and meh to me, but I guess it didn't drag. I think this would have worked better as an Edge promo, as he obviously has better mic skills. Not bad by Hardy though.*3/4
Umaga makes his entrance for his match with Morrison while Hardy is leaving and Jeff sort of back off a little, and we go to break. Coming back, John Morrison makes his entrance~ SLOW MOTION ~for their match which should be competitive to say the least. Apparently Umaga's strap match with Punk is going to be a 4 corners type, which is rather epic tbh. The match begins with Umaga dominating as you would expect. until they do the pull the ropes down spot and Umaga is sent to the outside. They then do the old Umaga doesn't come down for the sunset flip but then misses the butt drop spot, which you see in a lot of Umaga matches. Umaga its a sick Samoan drop and we then go to break after like, 40 seconds. We're back and Umaga is still in control, but Morrison makes his face comeback and goes for a suplex, but can't lift Umaga. Umaga lifts Morrison for a suplex and hangs him up on the ropes, and when JoMo resurfaces on the apron Umaga sends him to the floor with an epic superkick. The action slows down as Umaga applies a resthold- oh I mean nervehold. Morrison fights back and lands a Pele kick but Umaga takes back the advantage with his spinning slam, which looks pretty sick. The nerve hold comes back and the crowd boos, obviously bored of the resting, but pop when Morrison reverses another spinning slam into a Tornado DDT. Morrison tries to knock the monster down with some forearms and dropkicks, and just when it looks like he will do so Umaga catches him with a throat thrust. Morrison claws back and sends Umaga out with the Chuck Kick~! but Umaga then hits Morrison with the strap and causes the DQ. He dominates JoMo with the strap before putting him in the Tree of Woe and hitting him with the starp while he's vulnerable. CM Punk then runs in for the save and whacks Umaga twice with the briefcase, and when he doesn't go down he hits the double knee/bulldog combo with the latter being on the metal briefcase. Grisham asks Punk his strategy and he replies by asking whether he looks like the kinda guy who strategises, but he says that he always finds a way and proves his doubters wrong, also saying that Umaga is bigger and stronger but he is not CM Punk.
Wow, this was an interesting segment. The match itself between Morrison and Umaga was solid and showcased the movesets of these two which I believe are among the best in the WWE. It dragged at times but most big man/little man matches do and it had some quick pace with Umaga being able to hang with Morrison's athleticism. Some nice spots were involved, and the DQ ending worked well making Umaga look very heelish. Punk coming in for the save was expected but still nice, as was the little interview which hyped up the Samoan Strap match which suddenly looks more interesting. ***1/4
We go to break and upon returning, Cryme Tyme come out to a nice pop. Shelton and Haas came out but there weren't announced as WGTT, so I don't know what's up there. Mixed action starts off the match as momentum switches a number of times. My mum threw a fit about hanging up my clothes so I had to do that and missed the action as it went into commercial. They're referring to Shelton/Haas as formerly the WGTT. JTG is isolated as the heels make frequent tags and work him over. Haas verbally abuses JTG and slaps him but he gets sucker punched only to take control again soon after by slamming JTG into the mat repeatedly. Haas misses a knees drop and JTG is seemingly alright, hitting a sick neckbreaker. Both men make tags and Shad gets the better of Benjamin as you would expect, and he nails a powerslam. Haas breakes up a pin but JTG sends him out of the ring. Shad tries to hit a leg sweep on Shelton but it's reversed. Shad whips him into the ropes but Benjamin impressively leaps clean over him before nailing him with the Paydirt out of nowhere for the win.
Good to see two tag teams being showcased, and this was an impressive match. More time could be given and I wouldn't mind a program or PPV match between these two teams. I think Haas could have scored the pin, he's being billed as more aggressive but I don't recall having him pin someone so far. Nevertheless, and enjoyable match here that suffered only really through length. **3/4
We recap the Layla/Eve feud which I have liked so far and they have a match next. Hopefully Layla wins, as she's been buried so far in this angle. They make their entrances and Layla looks especially hot, and she gets some heat as well. They brawl on the outside to begin followed by some standard pretty boring stuff that you'd expect with less experienced divas. After the momentum switches a few times, Eve rolls through a crossbody to score the anticlimactic win.
Well this was pretty boring but they kept it short and had a finish that made both divas look alright. *3/4
We then see Chris Jericho and Edge backstage, who will partner with each other to take on Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio in the main event. They bicker as usual, and Jericho gets pissy, saying that maybe Edge won't have a partner for tonight's match. Interesting.
Not much to say, it was short, spoken well, and planted some seeds. **1/2
Back from break and it's main event time, and I'm eating so I guess this will be kept short. Edge comes out and grabs a mike and runs down Jeff Hardy, calling him a wasted opportunity. Edge brings up the fact he OWNS ladder matches, and states that while Jeff Hardy makes the highlight reels after ladder matches, Edge wins ladder matches. He calls Jeff a lose and calls himself a winner. Nice stuff. Jericho's music plays and he isn't coming out so I guess he wasn't lying about leaving the match. Instead, Rey Mysterio comes out for the opposition and while he touches heads with the kids, one of them is Jericho, and he beats Mysterio down to a lot of boos, taking him out on the metal concrete. Hardy comes out for the save but Rey isn't moving and it looks like this is going to be a handicap match.
I'll rate this as a segment and it was a good one, beginning with the Edge promo which did it's job nicely. The Jericho attack in the crowd was very well done and I guarantee nobody expected it, it was a smart play and good to see Jericho beat Rey down while wearing a Mysterio shirt. ***1/2
The match begins and Hardy starts on the offensive against Jericho, nailing some of his signature move only to go for a Swanton too early and be knocked down. Jericho argues with the ref while Edge beats Hardy down on the outside to heat. The heels tag and Edge beats down his rival for a while and the Mexicans in the crowd start a big 'let's go Hardy' chant. Hardy comes back against Jericho and gets the knees up during a Lionsault, before starting to get some momentum again. Now against Edge, Hardy nails some clotheslines before following up with his corner dropkick. Hardy throws Edge into Jericho on the apron and rolls him up for a nice near fall. He hits the Whisper in the Wind on both guys before going for the Twist of Fate only for Edge to nail him with a Spear which gains the win to great amounts of boos. Edge then grabs a ladder, hits Hardy with it and sandwiches him inside, almost giving him a con-ladder-to. Edge's music plays and the show ends with his celebration.
This was another solid match that wasn't as long as Main Events usually are on SD, but the stipulation explains that. It worked well for a handicap match with the crowd getting behind Hardy very nicely, and the team with more guys winning, which you don't see often. It also furthered the Edge/Hardy feud some more and put over the ladder match, which should be a great end to an awesome feud that has exceeded expectations, and is one of Hardy's best in his career. ***1/4
*******1/2- Another good Smackdown about the caliber of last week's episode. There are some good feuds going on and even the low points of the show were pretty good. I'm impressed.
The show opens with Rey Mysterio in the ring, and he pumps up the match for Extreme Rules getting the cheap LA pop before saying that he will be able to hit Jericho with any move he wants, also saying the match will be off the hook, which it hopefully will be. Jericho's huge pyro interrupts him and he walks down to ask Rey if it will be off the hook when he bashes him in the head and gives him brain damage and so forth, good stuff. Rey soon shuts him up with a 'shut up' and tells him his words mean nothing, basically calling him a liar. He mentions Mickey Rourke knocking him out and he is shown in the front row, but Jericho says it's not worth his time. Jericho goes on about Rey's mask and cuts him down, saying he will unmask him at ER. There's a scuffle and Jericho ends up on the ropes but dodges the 619 and bails as Mysterio looks pissed.
Well Rey's promo work is mainly gaining cheap pops and he did so well tonight, showing charisma we don't usually get to see from him. It picked up once Jericho entered and they had some good words exchanged, especially from Chris, that built up to their No Holds Barred match at ER. My only problem is that the match is for the IC title, but that doesn't really affect the promo. ***1/4
Back from break, and R-Truth *shudders* makes his entrance from the RAMP with Khali following him and being included in the rap, and Khali saying What's Up was actually pretty funny. We are having Truth and Knox take on Mike Knox and Dolph Ziggler. Great. Truth and Ziggler start off and the former takes control with some great athleticism. Khali is tagged in and Dolph tags out and hides at ringside. Knox basically lets Khali hit him and Truth comes back in, only to have Knox get the better of him, before tagging back Ziggler. There's some nice action culminating in a double crossbody spot and the big men are tagged back in. Ziggler leaves and Khali dominated Knox mostly while standing on the spot. He pins Mike with the Punjabi Plunge.
Fun little match here with the main thing being Ziggler running away from Khali and the angle was played out well. Knox getting pinned again I don't like and Khali can hardly go in the ring, all he did was stand on the spot and boot people. Truth was okay, he's improved and can really get the crowd behind him. **1/4
Back from another break, and Melina is making her seXy entrance to face Alicia Fox and her hair and shitty music. The match starts out with a slap, this time from Fox. They go to the outside and Melina heelishly throws Alicia in by her hair but McCool distracts her and Alicia dropkicks her through the ropes. Nice. Alicia takes advantage in the ring and after some solid action I wasn't really watching, Melina picks up the win and Michelle leaves Alicia in the ring.
Alright match here but it could have gone longer. It advanced Melina/Michelle with the champ beating up McCool's lackey and I'd like to see that match happen at Night of Champions. Fairly standard stuff from both divas. **
Now we are backstage with John Morrison and Josh Matthews. Morrison talks about his match with Umaga and I have no idea what he says until he explains that he will wait till Umaga trips up and then capitalize. Shelton Benjamin then walks in and says they have unfinished business, and the two get in a heated argument that has Morrison run down Shelton saying he's beaten both halves of the World's Most Forgotten Tag team (tm) twice and that he has better things to do that deal with Shelton.
Nice to see Morrison get some mic time and his character seems to be a jokingly philosophical confusing hard-to-explain type of thing. Anyway, he had a nice altercation with Shelton and both of them showed charisma they don't usually emanate, especially the Bland Standard. **1/2
After the break we get to see Hardy make his entrance and is about to talk. Gulp. He talks about him and Edge's history with ladders and says that 10 years later their feud ends with a ladder match. He then wraps it up with saying that he will climb the ladder and become the new WWE/World Champion. That's it apparently.
Very short and meh to me, but I guess it didn't drag. I think this would have worked better as an Edge promo, as he obviously has better mic skills. Not bad by Hardy though.*3/4
Umaga makes his entrance for his match with Morrison while Hardy is leaving and Jeff sort of back off a little, and we go to break. Coming back, John Morrison makes his entrance~ SLOW MOTION ~for their match which should be competitive to say the least. Apparently Umaga's strap match with Punk is going to be a 4 corners type, which is rather epic tbh. The match begins with Umaga dominating as you would expect. until they do the pull the ropes down spot and Umaga is sent to the outside. They then do the old Umaga doesn't come down for the sunset flip but then misses the butt drop spot, which you see in a lot of Umaga matches. Umaga its a sick Samoan drop and we then go to break after like, 40 seconds. We're back and Umaga is still in control, but Morrison makes his face comeback and goes for a suplex, but can't lift Umaga. Umaga lifts Morrison for a suplex and hangs him up on the ropes, and when JoMo resurfaces on the apron Umaga sends him to the floor with an epic superkick. The action slows down as Umaga applies a resthold- oh I mean nervehold. Morrison fights back and lands a Pele kick but Umaga takes back the advantage with his spinning slam, which looks pretty sick. The nerve hold comes back and the crowd boos, obviously bored of the resting, but pop when Morrison reverses another spinning slam into a Tornado DDT. Morrison tries to knock the monster down with some forearms and dropkicks, and just when it looks like he will do so Umaga catches him with a throat thrust. Morrison claws back and sends Umaga out with the Chuck Kick~! but Umaga then hits Morrison with the strap and causes the DQ. He dominates JoMo with the strap before putting him in the Tree of Woe and hitting him with the starp while he's vulnerable. CM Punk then runs in for the save and whacks Umaga twice with the briefcase, and when he doesn't go down he hits the double knee/bulldog combo with the latter being on the metal briefcase. Grisham asks Punk his strategy and he replies by asking whether he looks like the kinda guy who strategises, but he says that he always finds a way and proves his doubters wrong, also saying that Umaga is bigger and stronger but he is not CM Punk.
Wow, this was an interesting segment. The match itself between Morrison and Umaga was solid and showcased the movesets of these two which I believe are among the best in the WWE. It dragged at times but most big man/little man matches do and it had some quick pace with Umaga being able to hang with Morrison's athleticism. Some nice spots were involved, and the DQ ending worked well making Umaga look very heelish. Punk coming in for the save was expected but still nice, as was the little interview which hyped up the Samoan Strap match which suddenly looks more interesting. ***1/4
We go to break and upon returning, Cryme Tyme come out to a nice pop. Shelton and Haas came out but there weren't announced as WGTT, so I don't know what's up there. Mixed action starts off the match as momentum switches a number of times. My mum threw a fit about hanging up my clothes so I had to do that and missed the action as it went into commercial. They're referring to Shelton/Haas as formerly the WGTT. JTG is isolated as the heels make frequent tags and work him over. Haas verbally abuses JTG and slaps him but he gets sucker punched only to take control again soon after by slamming JTG into the mat repeatedly. Haas misses a knees drop and JTG is seemingly alright, hitting a sick neckbreaker. Both men make tags and Shad gets the better of Benjamin as you would expect, and he nails a powerslam. Haas breakes up a pin but JTG sends him out of the ring. Shad tries to hit a leg sweep on Shelton but it's reversed. Shad whips him into the ropes but Benjamin impressively leaps clean over him before nailing him with the Paydirt out of nowhere for the win.
Good to see two tag teams being showcased, and this was an impressive match. More time could be given and I wouldn't mind a program or PPV match between these two teams. I think Haas could have scored the pin, he's being billed as more aggressive but I don't recall having him pin someone so far. Nevertheless, and enjoyable match here that suffered only really through length. **3/4
We recap the Layla/Eve feud which I have liked so far and they have a match next. Hopefully Layla wins, as she's been buried so far in this angle. They make their entrances and Layla looks especially hot, and she gets some heat as well. They brawl on the outside to begin followed by some standard pretty boring stuff that you'd expect with less experienced divas. After the momentum switches a few times, Eve rolls through a crossbody to score the anticlimactic win.
Well this was pretty boring but they kept it short and had a finish that made both divas look alright. *3/4
We then see Chris Jericho and Edge backstage, who will partner with each other to take on Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio in the main event. They bicker as usual, and Jericho gets pissy, saying that maybe Edge won't have a partner for tonight's match. Interesting.
Not much to say, it was short, spoken well, and planted some seeds. **1/2
Back from break and it's main event time, and I'm eating so I guess this will be kept short. Edge comes out and grabs a mike and runs down Jeff Hardy, calling him a wasted opportunity. Edge brings up the fact he OWNS ladder matches, and states that while Jeff Hardy makes the highlight reels after ladder matches, Edge wins ladder matches. He calls Jeff a lose and calls himself a winner. Nice stuff. Jericho's music plays and he isn't coming out so I guess he wasn't lying about leaving the match. Instead, Rey Mysterio comes out for the opposition and while he touches heads with the kids, one of them is Jericho, and he beats Mysterio down to a lot of boos, taking him out on the metal concrete. Hardy comes out for the save but Rey isn't moving and it looks like this is going to be a handicap match.
I'll rate this as a segment and it was a good one, beginning with the Edge promo which did it's job nicely. The Jericho attack in the crowd was very well done and I guarantee nobody expected it, it was a smart play and good to see Jericho beat Rey down while wearing a Mysterio shirt. ***1/2
The match begins and Hardy starts on the offensive against Jericho, nailing some of his signature move only to go for a Swanton too early and be knocked down. Jericho argues with the ref while Edge beats Hardy down on the outside to heat. The heels tag and Edge beats down his rival for a while and the Mexicans in the crowd start a big 'let's go Hardy' chant. Hardy comes back against Jericho and gets the knees up during a Lionsault, before starting to get some momentum again. Now against Edge, Hardy nails some clotheslines before following up with his corner dropkick. Hardy throws Edge into Jericho on the apron and rolls him up for a nice near fall. He hits the Whisper in the Wind on both guys before going for the Twist of Fate only for Edge to nail him with a Spear which gains the win to great amounts of boos. Edge then grabs a ladder, hits Hardy with it and sandwiches him inside, almost giving him a con-ladder-to. Edge's music plays and the show ends with his celebration.
This was another solid match that wasn't as long as Main Events usually are on SD, but the stipulation explains that. It worked well for a handicap match with the crowd getting behind Hardy very nicely, and the team with more guys winning, which you don't see often. It also furthered the Edge/Hardy feud some more and put over the ladder match, which should be a great end to an awesome feud that has exceeded expectations, and is one of Hardy's best in his career. ***1/4
*******1/2- Another good Smackdown about the caliber of last week's episode. There are some good feuds going on and even the low points of the show were pretty good. I'm impressed.