- Joined
- Dec 3, 2010
- Messages
- 4,452
- Reaction score
- 92
- Points
- 53
- Location
- Montreal, QC
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
Tonight WWE hosted it's May ppv entitled "Over the Limit" from Raleigh, North Carolina. And what better to way to start a ppv that you paid $60 for than to listen to Vickie's Guerrero's delightful voice. Before even introducing her challengers to the tag team championship, she throws in her own personal bid for the vacancy left should John Laurinaitis lose his job tonight. The manager making the introductions seems to be part of a new trend in WWE stemming from an apparent dissatisfaction from various superstars, clearly displeased with Lillian Garcia's introductions.
WWE Tag Team Championship - R-Truth & Kofi Kingston (c) v. Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler
When you analyze the current situation of the once-prominent WWE tag team scene, you may have your own opinion of why the division isn't quite what it used to be in past generations. Watching this match, I noticed a pattern that a lot of tag matches follow. I'm starting to wonder if this formula is the only one they teach in WWE tag team school. As per routine, the bad guys utilize the smarter strategy... which totally makes sense btw... isolating one of the good guys in their corner, making frequent tags, wearing down the good guy... until the good guy battered and bruised makes a last-ditch effort to tag his partner out of desperation, which leads to his partner flying into the ring like a freakin' ninja, all hell breaks loose for 15-20 seconds, good guys clean house and ultimately prevail. Yeah, this is pretty much what happened in this match too.
Though I'm most disappointed in Vickie Guerrero. For a manager that currently manages two former world champions, she has proven quite ineffective at taking a pair of tag titles off a couple of b-side curtain-jerkers. Shame on you, Vickie.
Backstage Segment:
Eve and David Otunga give Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks the nod to go around the arena confiscating anti-Laurinaitis signs. I only make mention of this because I will note later on what an excellent job these two loons did at performing this simple task. Make a mental note for yourself on when this happened.
WWE Divas Championship - Layla (c) v. Beth Phoenix
Right off the bat when this match started, Jerry Lawler says something that really makes me chuckle, "Beth didn't even know Layla was on the road to recovery." I remember when this guy made his namesake off of trivializing the divas of the WWE by making juvenile comments about their tits every chance he got. But he makes the divas seem like idiots in a much more direct fashion now. I guess Beth just figured Layla would get paid for not working forever. I wish Lawler would have just said that, because it would have been a lot funnier.
Regardless, this was actually one of the better divas matches WWE fans have seen in quite some time. Very technical for a divas match as well, as Beth used the majority of the match attacking Layla's right leg, which is still in a Stone Cold Steve Austin knee brace. I was pleased Cole even made mention of Austin during the match just because of that. The only thing that kind of ruined the leg attack Beth had done a good job executing and Layla had done selling, was Layla being pretty lazy during the match, almost letting Beth move her around at will with little to no resistance. At one point after selling a right leg injury for the entire match, Layla springs to her feet on the same knee, and then throws a wild kick at Phoenix with it. I might sound like I'm nit-picking, but look... don't give me a really good match for nearly 10 minutes then just completely piss on my suspended beliefs.
I'm not going to blame Layla's sloppiness too much for it though, the match was still very decent. Layla picking up the win is also a curious decision by WWE as this leaves fans wondering who the next heel diva will be to challenge her for the belt when there aren't really any other heel divas currently in title contention. Kharma?
World Heavyweight Championship - Fatal Four Way: Sheamus (c) v. Randy Orton v. Chris Jericho v. Alberto Del Rio
That awkward moment when... the bell sounds in a fatal four way and nobody has seemingly any clue what they are doing. That's really all I could think about when all four combatants stood in their corners with deer-in-headlights expressions on their faces for the first 20 seconds of the match.
One thing I didn't realize about this match until every wrestler was introduced in the middle of the ring... because I guess they wanted to make certain the fans knew who these guys were without entrance music interfering (wtf?)... was that each wrestler is from a different country. None of the commentators make mention of this even once, which is strange considering this has bound to be the first time it's happened in a fatal four way championship match. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
I had a few problems with this match. For one, it was entirely too choreographed and it wasn't choreographed well. I don't normally have a huge problem with wrestlers planning out every little thing they are going to do in the match ahead of time (Randy Savage always did), but at least make it look like you didn't. Most of the match was between two wrestlers at a time in the middle of the ring, particularly Del Rio and Sheamus, while Orton and Jericho crawled around on the floor outside the ring as if they were suffering from malaria. The "Apex Predator" has seriously become a pussy lately.
Another thing I didn't get about the match is that it's no-disqualification, but the only time this was ever mentioned by the commentators is when Del Rio didn't break a submission hold when Sheamus grabbed the bottom rope. I don't know if that makes Sheamus stupid for not knowing the rules, of if the other 3 guys in the match who didn't win are even more stupid for not grabbing chairs, sledge hammers, knives or whatever else to take advantage of the fact there were no rules in this match. I suppose even I should have remember that technically all fatal four ways are no-dq, but I sometimes count on the commentators to help me remember trivial things like that when I need to remember them and Cole and Co. really dropped the ball on that one.
Sheamus scored the pinfall and retains his championship after hitting White Noise on Jericho after an over-choreographed finisher-fest involving all 4 wrestlers. I'm glad that Sheamus is still looking to carry this championship for an extended period of time, but a little bummed that this might have been the last time we see Jericho for a while as his band Fozzy is booked throughout the near future. Although Orton's double-DDT on Del Rio and Rodriguez was the crowd-pleaser of the match, he continues be unimpressive in general. He's in a bit of a career-limbo at the moment where it seems there are a lot of fans who still like to see him, but WWE has other ideas. I'm starting to wonder if the frustration I always see on his face is legit or just a really bad "dangerous guy" facial expression attempt. If Orton worked in an office environment, he seems like he would be the guy that gets called in the boss's office to explain to new management his job duties when the company decides to downsize. And if that were the case right now, I wouldn't count on the guy.
Backstage Segment:
Cody Rhodes talks himself up, claiming to Eve that he would have embarrassed Christian in the ring if Christian had the displeasure of tangling with him. Over-hearing the exchange of words, Christian announces he has changed his mind about challenging Santino for the US Championship and now wants to face Cody for his Intercontinental Championship instead. Hey Christian, Santino just called your mother a "whore". NOW WHAT?
Just silly.
The Miz v. Brodus Clay
Right after this segment, Miz's music hits. That's right. THE MIZ. "The most must-see superstar in WWE" is back on ppv, folks. I couldn't believe it either.
I guess Miz's ego is suffering these days, because instead of boasting about how he's a better wrestler than Brodus Clay, he instead insists he is a better dancer. Miz's music hits again and Miz performs Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dance in a way that would have made the late king smile with glowing satisfaction. Don't misunderstand me, Miz actually did this VERY good. There's only one problem... Brodus doesn't really dance. He moves his arms around a little bit like a T-Rex, but that's really it. I guess he got the 400-pound behemoth confused with the two scantily clad women that accompany him to the ring.
As soon as the match starts, Cole makes his "Stegosaurus" comment at Booker T once again, saying Booker is a "Stegosaurus" because they had the smallest brains of all the small-brained reptiles. Michael Cole is beginning to sound like the Michael Cole on the THQ WWE video games where he repeats the exact same crap in every match. I know it's intentional, but jesus...
The Funkasaurus makes short work of the Miz and scores the W. Funny part is, immediately after the pinfall, the replay doesn't cut back to action during the match. Instead, the replay cuts to... you guessed it... Miz performing the "Thriller" dance.
Crowd Segment:
After nearly an hour and a half, Hawkins and Reks are finally seen in the arena's crowd confiscating anti-Johnny signs, which leads me to wonder what they were doing all this time. Eve should report this to the boss, because I doubt these loons are taking their assignment seriously. What if, just WHAT IF... they actually made those anti-Johnny signs themselves, handed them out, then took them back up to avoid a confrontation with a fan? Hmm.
Intercontinental Championship - Cody Rhodes (c) v. Christian
Cody walks down the entrance ramp with an open mic, as most home-town heels do, to make a cheap heat slander at the crowd to ensure they are not cheered. And after winding up big and confessing to North Carolina that even his father the great Dusty Rhodes wouldn't let him attend events in that city, his reason is "you're all short-sighted and biased". That's what we call a "whiff", Cody.
Naturally the crowd isn't offended enough to even bother booing him, and his match against Christian kicks off soon after.
The highlight of this incredibly dull match was Booker T putting over the term "rag tag" for like the 8 billionth time of the night. There isn't really a whole lot to talk about from this match, it was easily the worst of the night up until this point. Cody dominated for the majority of it.
Towards the end of the match, Cody has a Bret Hart moment, screaming "I'm the Intercontinental Champion, I'm tired of being jerked around, I'm better than all those idots...", which leads to Christian capitalizing and scoring the win, becoming the new Intercontinental Champion and Cody's transitional reign comes to an end.
WWE Championship - CM Punk (c) v. Daniel Bryan
There's only one question running through my mind after this match... "Why couldn't this match have been in Chicago?"
The match contained a plethora of ROH-style wrestling, very non-traditional from what we have normally seen from both of these guys during their tenures in WWE. A ton of ground-grappling, chain wrestling transitions, complete dirt-bag moves like curb-stomps, inverted surf boards, and straight up bitch slaps, this had potential to be the match of the year. There was even a figure four leg lock that drew a chorus of "wooo's" from the North Carolina crowd.
I'm not going to break down the match play-by-play, because frankly it would take me all night. But it was easily the best match of the night and if there is anything from this ppv you will want to make sure you witness, it was definitely this.
The finish, not so good... Bryan has Punk in the Yes Lock and Punk somehow manages to roll Bryan back on his shoulders while still in the submission hold, the ref counts Bryan's shoulders down, and Punk retains. As good as this match was, this ending should have been a lot better. The one good thing I guess you could salvage from it is that it might just be the first match in a long feud between these two. At least we hope so.
Ryback v. Hunico
Fans chant "Goldberg" from the moment Ryback walks down the ramp to the final minutes of the match. Listen to the fans, WWE. Enough of this guy.
And if you know who either Ryback or Goldberg are, you can pretty much guess how this match ended.
No Disqualification: John Cena v. John Laurinaitis
Once again, Hawkins and Reks prove they are lousy at their jobs as several hundred anti-Johnny signs appear to still be in the crowd when Laurinaitis makes his entrance.
This match will not be rivaled in humor level for the rest of the year. This was genuinely the most I've ever enjoyed Cena and was utterly hilarious. I expect to see a ton of animated GIF's of Cena and Laurinaitis at the Spanish announce table throughout the foreseeable future.
Cena wipes the floor with Johnny almost as bad as Lesnar wiped the floor with Cena a month ago... only with less blood and more laughs. Johnny repeatedly attempts to flee, only to be pulled back over the guard barrier to receive more punishment at the hands of Cena. Water bottles, fire extinguishers, ring bells are involved, and Cena looks to be on the verge of an easy win. That is, until Johnny finally uses his brain and attacks Cena's injured arm and has enough of a hole to escape through the crowd.
Right before the ref rules the bout a no-contest, Big Show appears in the crowd with his hand around Johnny's neck and drags him back to the ring. The commentators all push for "Show to get his revenge". I'm just glad Bobby Heenan wasn't there to say "Who's SIDE is he on?".
After dragging Johnny all the way to the ring, Show instead opts to knock out Cena with WMD and Johnny scores the pinfall over an unconscious Cena. Even though the Big Show's heel turn was pretty predictable and Johnny's reign of terror continues unfortunately, I'm looking forward to Cena v. Big Show the least. Now there's a match we haven't seen before... oh wait.
Anyways, definitely a good ppv and worth a watch. I enjoyed it more than Extreme Rules for sure and I'm sure there will be plenty of fall-out from this event tomorrow night on Raw. Until next month, thanks for reading.
- WAL
