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WWE Judgment Day 2009.

CM Punk Vs Umaga: So, now Punk is wrestling in his home town, as well as being the Money in the Bank holder, so it's even more of a given that he's doing the job. This is a really good match. Great to see Umaga back. He hasn't lost anything. Punk was always at his best, to me, as a scrappy underdog against bigger men. Not quite on a par with the best Jeff/Umaga matches, but in that ball park. Umaga wins with the Samoan Spike after a Punk flurry.

Christian Vs Jack Swagger: Another strong effort from these two. Striker is getting to be unbearable on commentary with his heeling. They continue with the story from the last match, being that Christian has too much nous for the rookie Swagger, and once again Christian uses questionable means to win, grabbing a handful of tights on a roll-up. Show is two for two so far.

Shelton Benjamin Vs John Morrison: And here the run ends. Dire match. Surprised Benjamin is still with the company at this point, let alone wrestling on ppv. They shoot their load in the opening minute here, Benjamin popping off a nice exploder, and then Morrison hitting a springboard 450 to the outside (which Shelton had to sprint into position for). Then it was a mixture of shitty offence and dull control sections. Bad.

The Miz came out next, to talk trash about John Cena and the Chicago Cubs. Decent heeling from the Miz. Santino Marella came out to confront him, but got a beatdown. Then Chavo came out and frog splashed Santino as retribution for Santino making fun of Vickie. They always have to have these long in-ring segments during these shows.

Chris Jericho Vs Rey Mysterio: I remember really liking this feud at the time. The story of the match is Jericho avoiding the 619, since he made a promise that Rey wouldn't hit it. Double-edged sword as it gave the match a solid foundation, but I really am not a fan  of all the 619 set-ups. I don't like how all Rey opponents had to sunset flip him either, just so he could roll through and kick them in the face. Otherwise this was a good match, although they left some in the tank for future outings. Rey finally hits the 619, followed by a splash for the win.

Randy Orton Vs Batista: Orton defends the WWE title in a pretty terrible match. Orton really was the drizzling shits at this point, and there's no-one in the company I'm less eager to watch. Things are compounded by a dogshit finish, Orton slapping the ref to draw the DQ. I'm sure this is a well they've gone to before, and it doesn't make anyone look good. Legacy then attacked Batista, but Flair made a surprise return to make the save. This was the best part of the whole shebang.

John Cena Vs The Big Show: Cena is all banged up from going through the spotlight, and Big Show dominates the entire match, until Cena digs out an AA in the ultimate 'Cena gets beat up all match but wins with a single AA' finish. Cena's selling is mostly really good though, but I didn't find Show particularly compelling in control. Another match based around strong storytelling rather than great in-ring action.

Edge Vs Jeff Hardy: Edge is defending the World Heavyweight title against Hardy once again. JR has a shocker on commentary, calling Whisper in the Wind the Twist of Fate, and then repeatedly calling the match-ending Edgercution off the top rope a superplex. The match builds slowly into something decent, and has some decent big spots, like Edge meeting Hardy as he jumps off the barricade with a spear. Matt Hardy interferes - I thought that feud was done. And the finish looked vicious. It wasn't a superplex though. 

Match of the night: A good show overall, but it got no better than the opener, which I'd put at 3.5 stars. 3 stars for Christian/Swagger, Rey/Jericho, Cena/Show and Edge/Hardy.

Show rating: This company is on a roll in 2009, as this is the third straight recommended show. 3 and a quarter stars.

 

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WWE Extreme Rules 2009.

Kofi Kingston Vs MVP Vs William Regal Vs Matt Hardy: This is for the US title, which Kofi now holds. I don't remember him being US champ. Very short match, with Regal being the only guy who really stands out. He brings the violence and big offence, while Matt brings the sneakiness. Kofi is pretty bad, but retains his title.

Rey Mysterio Vs Chris Jericho: Jericho is vowing to unmask Rey as this feud continues. This is a better match than their last one. Has a more personal edge to it, and Rey actually dominates a lot of the match, which is cool to see. This is no DQ but they don't really go to the plunder much. Finish is really good as Jericho pulls Rey's mask off as he goes for the 619, and then in the confusion rolls him up to win the match and the Intercontinental championship. Rey scurries off covering his face.

CM Punk Vs Umaga: Samoan strap match. Good match, but not to the level of their last one. They don't really use the strap much at all, which is surprising. No whipping, no choking, no Umaga dragging Punk around the ring by his throat. So it's mostly just a straight match with touch all four corner rules. Punk wins after hitting a GTS on the big man. I think that might be it for Umaga, which would be a shame.

Christian Vs Jack Swagger Vs Tommy Dreamer: Adding Dreamer to the mix doesn't really do much for this match-up. It was nice that he got this little run, and very out of character for the company too, but I'd rather have just seen Christian keep the belt.

Santina Marella Vs Vickie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero: This is a hog pen match for the Miss Wrestlemania title, which Vickie now has. I don't even care how that came about. Vickie adds Chavo to the match, but he ends up accidentally slopping her and allowing Santina to roll her up for the win. About as bad as it gets.

Randy Orton Vs Batista: Steel cage match for the WWE title. Batista promises to get revenge for Orton punting Ric Flair. This was pretty much their usual boring match-up, saved only by the surprisingly convincing manner of Batista's victory, which came in pretty short order after a Batista Bomb. Was this another case of Orton having an injury? And what's with Batista having all these title wins that I don't remember? And furthermore, why are so many of these matches so short?

John Cena Vs The Big Show: Submission match. This is worked pretty much exactly the same as their last match, with Show dominating the match, and Cena struggling to get even the most token of offence in. Very slow match, and lacked the drama of their last match. Good idea on the finish, with the rope-assisted STF, but it might have looked better had they gone the other way, with Cena applying the toehold himself and using something else to apply the facelock portion of the move.

Jeff Hardy Vs Edge: This is advertised as the blow-off to this feud, in a ladder match for Edge's world title. A lot of talk on commentary about these two being the best ladder match competitors ever, which is fair from a kayfabe perspective. The match is kinda ladder-match-by-the-numbers though, and I would have expected them to put some more thought into some of the spots. There is one crazy spot, where both guys fall off a ladder and go through another ladder which is suspended between the ring apron and barricade. That did not look like a happy landing for either guy. They do a call-back to the famous spear spot from Wrestlemania 17, only this time Jeff counters with a midair Twist of Fate. Jeff finally wins the match and the belt, and the show ends with him celebrating. Or does it...?

Jeff Hardy Vs CM Punk: Of course not. Punk cashes in his briefcase on a battered Hardy, putting him away at the second time of asking with a GTS. I still like the MITB cash-ins to this point. This was a great way to start Punk's heel turn, and it's a fun atmosphere as the fans are kinda excited about what is going down, but then are like 'wait, not on Jeff'. Fun finish to the show.

MOTN: Definitely Rey and Jericho at 3.5 stars. 3 for Punk and Umaga.

Show rating: This was a blah show. A lot of filler, some downright bad stuff, and for me the main events didn't deliver. You did get the good angle at the end though. I'd give this 2 and a half stars.

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1 hour ago, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

So, of course, they put him over.

Yep, seemed a swerve because word got out that he was hurt. As a huge Batista fan, I loved it at the time and marked for him at least getting to win the WWE Title.

Legacy would beat him up the next night forcing him to vacate due to injury afterwards and Orton regained it the following week on Raw.

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Interesting story behind the Y2J/Rey match. So Y2J and Rey worked out that finish with Jericho pulling off Rey's mask but Steamboat who was their agent, didn't think they could pull it off and nixed it initially. Jericho, being the headstrong guy he was, thought they had a great idea (which it was) and went straight to Vince. He felt bad going over Steamboat's head and thought he might get heat but did it anyway. Vince sided with Steamboat but said that if Jericho and Rey could pull it off a bunch of times in a row before the show while he and Steamboat watched, he'd allow it. Jericho and Rey did it perfectly like 10 times in a row so Vince gave them the go-head.

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WWE The Bash 2009.

Tommy Dreamer Vs Christian Vs Jack Swagger Vs Finlay Vs Mark Henry: ECW championship scramble. Oh, so they did bring the scramble match back. Dreamer ended up retaining the title in a so-so match. Henry really looked great in this, just dominating everyone. I'm kinda done seeing Swagger at this point. I think it's mostly his ridiculous entrance that just puts me off him. How can you take that guy seriously? A Henry/Christian feud over the belt would have been great, but it was not to be.

Rey Mysterio Vs Chris Jericho: Jericho puts the IC title up against Rey's mask. This is a tremendous match, and a clear step up once again from their last one. It kinda slow burns, mostly carried along by a great Rey performance for the first half, before Jericho really raises his game too and the two of them just click into gear so well. A couple of really great high spots from Rey too, and then a fantastic finish, playing off the finish of the last match, and really the whole feud. Jericho once again takes off Mysterio's mask, but this time Rey is wearing a second mask underneath. So, while last time the mask proved to be Rey's undoing, this time it is Jericho's pre-occupation with the mask that is his own undoing, and Rey can hit the 619 and the splash to win back the title and cap off a great feud. Excellent work from these guys.

The Great Khali Vs Dolph Ziggler: Oh look, it's Dolph Ziggler before he became stale as hell. No DQ match, which ends with Kane coming out and attacking Khali, and Dolph getting the pin. It was a decent enough little match.

The Colons Vs Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes Vs Edge and Chris Jericho: I loved the Colons so much. Mostly I just loved (and still love) Primo. Such a great old-school babyface. Teddy Long adds Edge and Jericho at the last minute to this match because he's feeling the heat from Vince McMahon and also because he's a terrible GM. This Teddy storyline was so weird at the time, as Vince had been a babyface feuding with Orton just prior to this, but was now showing up and bullying Teddy (and playing heel opposite, ugh, Donald Trump, which they made sure to recap just to spoil my day). Anyway, triple threat tag matches are kinda dumb, with the tagging in and out despite there being no rules, but they worked this okay with nobody wanting to tag in Edge or Jericho. When Edge eventually does tag in, he misses a spear and is immediately tagged back out. Of course, Edge finally is able to tag in and spear Carlito to win the tag belts. And my beloved Colons would split up very shortly afterwards (although Carlito needed to be a heel, as his babyface offence was terrible).

Michelle McCool Vs Melina: Speaking of terrible babyface offence... Melina was at her best as just a vicious, nasty heel, so it's appropriate that this match only starts picking up once they just start laying into each other. Not a good match, but they did work hard.

CM Punk Vs Jeff Hardy: This is the match where Punk fakes the eye injury and then 'accidentally' kicks Scott Armstrong to get disqualified and retain the title. Another really great storyline/feud from the Smackdown side of things. I really loved Smackdown back then, whereas Raw really couldn't have been much worse. This was warming up really nicely when the finish came, and you can tell they had a really good match in them.

John Cena Vs The Miz: Here's the first ppv match between these two, as we ready ourselves for them to clash at a Wrestlemania for the second time. The whole Cena thing was a good midcard angle for the Miz, and it ended here the way it really had to- with him getting decisively beat. If anything, Miz got too much offence in. I did hate how Cena was like "congrats, you get to main event a ppv.. against me!", like just assuming because he's in the match that it's a main event. I mean, he's right, I guess, but for a guy who is supposed to be so humble most of the time, he sure is aware of his own spot in the company.

Randy Orton Vs Triple H : 3 stages of hell. I was dreading this, thinking we were going to get an epic. As it is, it 'only' went about 20 mins. Weird stips as well- straight wrestling match, falls count anywhere, and then stretcher match. You'd think they'd have thrown in a cage or an I Quit or a more traditional WWE game-ender time match. For being the Cerebral Assassin, I have to question Triple H giving away the first fall by DQ by hitting Orton with a chair, even if it did yield him the second fall. I mean, you're basically putting yourself in a sudden death situation. This is mostly a typical Orton/Triple H match, ending when Dibiase and Rhodes come out to beat down Triple H and allowing Orton to win the decisive fall. Very predictable. Hunter got to lay everyone to waste with a sledgehammer afterwards though.

Match of the night: Rey and Jericho at 4 stars. Punk and Jeff made 3 stars

Show rating: Pretty decent show all in all, and definitely worth watching for the IC match. 3 stars.

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WWE Night of Champions 2009.

Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Vs Chris Jericho and the Big Show: This is the debut of Jeri-Show. I remember being really disappointed by the Show reveal at the time. I always have ridiculous expectations for any surprise partner/opponent angle though. They ended up having a really great run. Weird situation here though, as they end up playing de facto faces against Ted and Cody. Decent match that puts over the new team well.

Tommy Dreamer Vs Christian: Dreamer's ECW title run comes to an end. It was a nice run for him, but time to get the belt back on quality match machine Christian. Nothing really memorable about this.

Kofi Kingston Vs MVP Vs Jack Swagger Vs Carlito Vs Primo Vs The Miz: 6-pack challenge for Kofi's US title. Surprised this guy still has the belt. Yay, it's Primo! He looks great too, until the booking makes him look stupid by having him trust Carlito only to get turned on, again. Typical clusterfuck match with Kofi pulling out the win to retain.

Michelle McCool Vs Melina: This has already merged in my head with the match they had at The Bash. All I really remember here is McCool dropkicking Melina to the floor as she did her entrance, which looked pretty vicious. 

Randy Orton Vs John Cena Vs Triple H: I've got no time for this match at all. Orton has got to be the worst wrestler to ever get a sustained main event push in this company. Not just bad, but just so weird as well, in the way he moves and the way he bumps. Just something very off-putting about the guy, and not in a good way. And the finish is just rotten. Orton taps as Hunter has him in a sharpshooter and Cena in a crossface, but the ref is just standing there like he has no idea what to do. Make a fucking call. That's your job. Then Legacy run in and start to beat Cena and Hunter down, which is just the laziest shit. The only cool thing about this was Orton giving Cena an RKO while he had Cody on his shoulders for an AA, which I have to give Cena major props for taking, as it could easily have gone very wrong. I don't know if I can take the endless Orton/Cena feud which I know is coming up.

Mickie James Vs Maryse: Maryse is the Divas champ. Amidst the talk of the rumoured Cena/Nikki Vs Miz/Maryse match, no-one seems to have mentioned (or remembered) the fact that Maryse is dangerously awful in the ring. I mean, she got the heel mannerisms down okay, but in every other area she looks completely incompetent. They absolutely murder the crowd here with a terrible match, which considering Mickie usually gets at least decent reactions, I have to put on Maryse. Mickie wins the belt, but this goes way longer than it should have.

Rey Mysterio Vs Dolph Ziggler: Shit, even Rey can't get the crowd back into the show after Maryse. Hmm, Dolph seems to be struggling to stay with Mysterio here in the early moments. Looks very unpolished, which I'm finding surprising, as he thought he was pretty good out of the gate, and it was only much later that the rot set in. This is a decent match though, mostly because Rey is pretty much in God-mode at this point in his career and could probably have a 3 star match with Maryse. Dolph gets a ton of offence in, but Mysterio pulls out the win.

CM Punk Vs Jeff Hardy: This is such a refreshing feud to have at the top of the card and I'm glad they got the main event slot. Jeff couldn't half be laxadaisical in the ring at times. Some of his offence just looks awful. These could have done with an extra 5 mins or so to build things, as the finishing stretch seems a bit rushed. Still, a nice progression to that point, and a couple of good nearfalls before Jeff hits the Swanton at the third time of asking and picks up the world title. A good match that could have been great.

Match of the night: There's only two really good matches on the show - the last two - and I think the Rey match is just better at 3 and a quarter stars. Punk/Hardy is a 3 star affair.

Show rating: This is the weakest show for a while, and I can't really go higher than 2.25 stars.

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On 2/21/2017 at 9:18 AM, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

Mickie James Vs Maryse: Maryse is the Divas champ. Amidst the talk of the rumoured Cena/Nikki Vs Miz/Maryse match, no-one seems to have mentioned (or remembered) the fact that Maryse is dangerously awful in the ring. I mean, she got the heel mannerisms down okay, but in every other area she looks completely incompetent.

I think her heel mannerisms were a lot better than "okay". Don't remember enough of her ring work to comment, though.

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On 2/22/2017 at 2:12 PM, tbarrie said:

I think her heel mannerisms were a lot better than "okay". Don't remember enough of her ring work to comment, though.

Her hairflip ddt was kinda cool but she was pretty terrible in the ring from what I remember.

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WWE Breaking Point 2009.

Chris Jericho and The Big Show Vs MVP and Mark Henry: MVP is really over. They could have done so much more with him, even though he wasn't that good of a babyface worker. Henry looks great here, on the other hand. Jeri-Show work really well together. Decent opening match.

Kofi Kingston Vs The Miz: I didn't remember Kofi holding the US title for this long. Figured he was losing it here, but he actually goes over. They're really making the push to make Miz seem more legitimate, as he dominates most of this match. Perfectly acceptable match.

Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Vs Shawn Michaels and Triple H: My big takeaway from this is that this really should have been a huge victory for Legacy. They basically go toe-to-toe with DX, out-fight and out-think them, and then make Shawn Michaels tap out. This is against guys who are booked as company legends and very rarely do jobs under any circumstances, let alone these. So, I kinda wonder why this didn't propel Legacy to the next level, or more appropriately, why the company didn't really attempt to get them to that next level. This was a pretty good match. They brawled all over the arena, it was fast paced and felt fairly chaotic. Not much in the way of quality/believable near-submissions, but the surprising finish helps the match seem more memorable.

Kane Vs The Great Khali: This was utter tripe. It always amused me how Ranjin Singh was suddenly Khali's brother. This was a singapore cane match, and they really killed that gimmick with relentless cane shots.

Christian Vs William Regal: Now this was tremendous. This is legit one of my all-time favourite feuds. These two just had fantastic chemistry and brought the best out of each other every single time. Regal is definitely the MVP of this match. Everything he does is so nasty, every cover has a forearm or knee to the face. At one point he just running knees Christian in the face, then drops a knee to his head, followed by another knee-strike for good measure, and you wonder what exactly Christian did to deserve this mauling. I also love Regal's suplex variations. Christian retains, but Regal comes out looking like a real badass.

Randy Orton Vs John Cena: I Quit match. This is... something. The Passion of the Cena maybe. Man, Orton is just such a weird motherfucker. He looks so odd, like something out of the X-Files. He looks like an alien clone who you think is a bad guy because he's killing humans, but then you find out the real bad guys (the government) have infected him with cancer to study the effects. Cancer-stricken clone, that's Orton's real calling. I was set to like this as they just went at it from the bell, but then Orton took over and I felt like a lobster in boiling water, being lulled to my eventual death. Orton's big mistake was putting the handcuff key around his neck. You knew that was going to back-fire on him. He should have put it around his cock. Much safer. More cane shots. Shit weapon. The shots don't look very impressive (especially when you've seen Kane and Khali do the same thing ad infinitum earlier in the show) but leave some really nasty welts on Cena's body. A chair to the back and I believe Cena has an orgasm. Cena's fired up comeback is good, and I like the handcuff-assisted STF and Orton quickly quitting for the finish. You believe Cena would rather die than quit, whereas Orton is all about self-preservation. Just think they could have told this story in much more entertaining fashion.

CM Punk Vs The Undertaker: I think Punk is getting more PPV main events during this run than he did during his year-long run. This was going fine, with Punk playing a great chicken-shit heel, but then the finish happened. So, so shitty. Shitty Teddy Long nonsensical storyline, shitty we're in Montreal so let's do another screwjob, shitty let's ruin a perfectly good match and piss everyone off bullshit. Hate.

Match of the night: Regal Vs Christian- 4 stars. DX Vs Legacy- 3.5 stars. 

Show rating: Well, I think the tag match is the only one that satisfactorily delivered on the 'breaking point' gimmick, but maybe I'm only saying that because DX did a job. A couple of good matches (one great), some average stuff and some downright terrible. There's a way-too-long Pat Patterson/Dolph Ziggler/John Morrison talking segment to enjoy too. 2.5 stars.

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WWE Hell in a Cell 2009.

CM Punk Vs The Undertaker: Punk defending his world title. Really doesn't seem to be any point having this in the cell. I mean, these two have pretty good chemistry, and the match is fine, but this is more like a TV match that happens to be inside a cell. I believe this came off the back of Punk pissing off Taker for not adhering to the dress code or some such bullshit, and there were lots of theories going around about that being the reason the match was so short (around 10 mins), and not really wrestled like a typical cell match would be. Again, I thought the match was okay, but it's a real letdown as a Hell in a Cell match, and a disappointing end to Punk's title reign, which really hit the skids once Taker got involved anyway.

John Morrison Vs Dolph Ziggler: I've got no time for Morrison, who is defending the IC title here. This is pretty much the match you would expect these two to have, with Morrison retaining. They really waited a long time to pull the trigger on that first IC title reign for Ziggler.

Mickie James Vs Alicia Fox: They're trying to present Fox as a strong contender for Mickie's women's title here, but I don't think anyone is buying it. She shouldn't really be in this spot at this point in time. Pretty standard defense for Mickie.

Chris Jericho and The Big Show Vs Batista and Rey Mysterio: This is a better match, and an extended feud between these two teams probably would have been great. Some callbacks to the Jericho/Rey series as Jericho goes after Rey's mask. Another really good Rey performance, and he and Show have some good interactions. Jericho and Show continue to be booked really strong. They should give Jeri-Show another little run on the current roster. Could be fun.

John Cena Vs Randy Orton: Cena is going in as champ. I think I would probably call this my least favourite feud ever. This is a shitty cell match. Again, they don't really incorporate the cell all that much, but these two don't even have the chemistry to overcome that. Hilarious moment when Orton ties Cena up in the ropes and locks on a fucking chinlock. Surprisingly, Orton goes over with no shenanigans. 

Drew McIntyre Vs R-Truth: It would be easy to call this a nothing match, given it's spot on the card and the lack of crowd heat and, well, it is a nothing match. Drew would become one of my favourites, but there's little sign of that here.

Kofi Kingston Vs Jack Swagger Vs The Miz: Another multi-man US title defense for Kofi, and amazingly, he retains again. This is another weak match, although Swagger takes a nasty Trouble in Paradise.

Triple H and Shawn Michaels Vs Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase: The rematches from the last ppv continue. This is the rubber match between these two teams, and I think this has been a good series. Again, I wonder why it didn't really elevate Legacy at all. Probably because at the end of the day they were still just lackeys for Orton. This is a really good idea for a match, with Legacy locking Hunter out of the cell and having their way with Shawn, but I think the section with the handicap match just goes on way too long, and it really stretches credibility to have Shawn surviving what is really a brutal beatdown, just to have him immediately back on his feet dishing out punishment once Hunter gets back in the cell. The idea of Legacy being too cocky and inexperienced to just put Shawn away when they have the chance, whereas DX waste no time in putting away Cody when the roles are reversed is good. In the end I don't think it did as much for Legacy as it should have.

Match of the night: Not a lot to get excited about. I'll go with the tag team title match at 3 stars, and also give 3 stars to Punk/Taker and DX/Legacy, although both those matches could and should have been much more.

Show rating: A very disappointing show overall. The cell matches all underperformed, for varying reasons, and there was nothing else on the card really noteworthy except that tag title match. I'd say avoid this one. 2 stars.

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WWE Bragging Rights 2009.

The Miz Vs John Morrison: The first 'Bragging Rights' match is the US champ Vs the IC champ. This is something like a year and a half prior to their falls count anywhere match on Raw, and it's hard to imagine them having a match that good in them watching this. I hate the build-up to this too, based around who is the Marty Jannetty of their team. Jannetty may be a sad state of affairs, but neither guy at this point could lace his boots, or hope to have the connection with the fans that he did. Miz wins to put Raw 1 up.

Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix and Natalya Vs Melina, Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim: The Smackdown divas are a way stronger team on paper than the Raw girls, and pretty much dominate this. Teasing a feud between SD champ McCool and Beth. Series tied at 1.

The Undertaker Vs CM Punk Vs Batista Vs Rey Mysterio: As a four-way, this is pretty standard stuff, but what this should really be remembered for is Batista's heel turn on Rey. Really well-done angle. Josh is a dick for trying to interview these guys right after they lost the match. Batista is genuinely scary when he looks at Rey and says he's going to rip his head off. Rey begging for mercy like a great sympathetic face, but Batista has no mercy. Powerful stuff.

Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Kofi Kingston, The Big Show, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger and Mark Henry Vs Chris Jericho, Kane, The Hart Dynasty, R-Truth, Finlay and Matt Hardy: Deciding match for the Bragging Rights trophy. Raw team is way stronger on paper, and the fans are firmly on their side. Pretty solidly laid out with the most popular guy on each team (Shawn and Matt) taking turns playing fip, before it all breaks down and Show turns on Raw to give SD the win. Could have given the match more time. Show's KO punch on Hunter looks terrible. It was nice seeing the SD team all celebrating together. Gave it a bit of a real sports feel. They could have made more of this, and built some interesting storylines and rivalries of it, but I think it was pretty much forgotten by the following week.

Randy Orton Vs John Cena: Anything goes iron man match. There were elements of this I liked, and elements I hated, which is pretty much par for the course with these two guys. I mean, on the whole, Cena's performance is really good. He goes into no-sell mode a bit too easy for some of his comebacks, but generally sells well, and his fire is really great. His big comeback in the finishing stretch is really good. Orton is fucking dire as usual. The sequence where he's trying to blow Cena up with the pyro, like he's fucking Wile E. Coyote is just terrible ('fucking' is not a verb there, just to be clear). Cody and Ted doing a run-in was kinda stupid too, but at least they set up Kofi coming in to even the odds with a backstage bit earlier. So they at least tried to make sense of it, but you wonder why they didn't just beat Cena down at the start of the match. So really, Cena's performance saved this for me, and I do give these guys credit for going an hour, even though there was a fair bit of stalling and dead space (which is to be expected anyway). I'm not sure how I feel about the finish, with Orton tapping to the STF with just seconds to go. Better a heel does it then a babyface, I guess.

MOTN: Would probably have to give it to the main event, honestly, for degree of difficulty if nothing else. 3 stars for that and the Bragging Rights tag. Really hard to have that many guys in a match and not at least come out with something fun.

Show rating: An interesting show more than a good one. The Batista heel turn is probably the best wrestling of the night, but the iron man is definitely something worth seeing and making your own mind up about.  

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WWE TLC 2009.

Wiki tells me that the dark match for this was R-Truth pinning CM Punk, which is interesting.

Christian Vs Shelton Benjamin: This is your ladder match for the ECW title. Infamous 'let's steal the show' build. I started off liking this. They were working hard, and it looked nice and snug. Christian got busted open hardway really early on, which also gave the match a nice focus. Then it started to fall apart quite badly. Mistakes crept in, and it became really convoluted in the way they were setting up and telegraphing the spots. In the end I would say this is easily the worst match Christian had over the course of the year, and I don't ever want to see Benjamin wrestle again.

Drew McIntyre Vs John Morrison: Now, this was a good match. Morrison defending the IC title, and Drew really just grounding and dominating him, which is the only way to get a good match out of Morrison. Drew wins the belt in pretty convincing fashion.

Michelle McCool Vs Mickie James: We're in the thick of the "Piggy James" angle here, which was just so horrible. God, I hated Lay-Cool so much. It seemed like around this time WWE had so many gimmicks and characters that were just put out there to annoy the fanbase. These, heel Michael Cole, John Laurinaitis, Vickie Guerrero. Like, it didn't feel like real heel heat to me- more just 'get these off my TV' heat. But maybe I was just being worked. Anyway, this angle seemed particularly mean, although the match here is a decent short match. McCool retains her title with a boot to the face.

John Cena Vs Sheamus: Tables match for the WWE title. Quite a boring match. I don't think tables match generally yield very interesting results, and this was hurt even more by the fact that Sheamus seems well out of his league here. To say his ascent to the title came out of nowhere is perhaps an understatement. And then his win is really booked as a total fluke, with Cena pretty much just losing his balance and falling through the table.

The Undertaker Vs Batista: Speaking of matches that don't tend to yield strong results, here's a chairs match for the World title. Striker tells us that Taker has been in cell matches, inferno matches and buried alive matches, but perhaps no match as brutal as a chairs match. Shut the fuck up. Striker really is the pits. He goes on to tell us that Batista has an advantage because he has denser bones than Taker, and thus the chair shots won't hurt him as much. Lawler and Cole openly laugh at this one. This is an okay match, but I think they could have done more with a less restrictive gimmick. Another shitty finish as Batista hits a low-blow and a chair shot to win the belt, but Teddy Long comes out and orders the match to continue as chairs are legal but low blows are not. Taker then hits a quick tombstone for the win. Batista's pouting after the match is good value.

Randy Orton Vs Kofi Kingston: Man, they really missed the boat on Kofi here. Everything they did with him was pretty much perfect - from destroying Orton's car, to the MSG attack where fans were chanting his name, to the way he stormed into Orton's lockerroom prior to this match and called him a coward in front of Legacy - but then they get to the match and he does a job and goes back to being a midcarder. So frustrating, and I wasn't even a Kofi fan. The match is fine, but nothing memorable.

Chris Jericho and The Big Show Vs Triple H and Shawn Michaels: TLC match for the tag titles. Fairly mundane match for the most part. Didn't really feel as violent or chaotic as it should. Jericho nearly has a disaster towards the end when he doesn't get enough distance on a bump over the top rope and thus doesn't bump through the table like he was supposed to. I liked the creativity of the finish, as the ladder in the ring was broken in half, so Triple H holds it up so Shawn can climb up and get the belts. Yeah, weak TLC match overall.

MOTN: God, is it really Drew and Morrison? Yeah, i think it is. 3 stars.

Show rating: Other than the surprise of Sheamus beating Cena, I don't really see any reason to ever watch or think about this show. 2 stars.

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Chris Jericho and The Big Show Vs Triple H and Shawn Michaels: TLC match for the tag titles. Fairly mundane match for the most part. Didn't really feel as violent or chaotic as it should. Jericho nearly has a disaster towards the end when he doesn't get enough distance on a bump over the top rope and thus doesn't bump through the table like he was supposed to. I liked the creativity of the finish, as the ladder in the ring was broken in half, so Triple H holds it up so Shawn can climb up and get the belts. Yeah, weak TLC match overall.

Jericho talked about this one a bit in his book. He said he literally smacked his mouth on the table on the bump you mentioned and he's shocked he didn't shatter every tooth in his mouth. He also said the spot where Show held him up on his shoulders was tough. They'd pulled it off before but it was harder to do in the match b/c Show was sweating and it was hard for Jericho to maintain his footing.

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On 11/3/2014 at 10:27 AM, Yo-Yo's Roomie said:

Bret Hart Vs The British Bulldog: This match saves the show really. Well, actually the show hasn't been that bad. But this match is way above everything else on it. Some great touches here, like Bulldog wearing the same tights he wore at Summerslam 92. They really play up that Bret has never beaten Davey.

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I've always hated that they told that bold-faced lie on commentary when it was so easily disproved.

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The SummerSlam match gets a tonne of points for historical significance and atmosphere (in addition to being a great match), but I've always preferred the IYH match. Of course the blood helped a bunch in spite of (as I recall) them trying not to go in tight on Bret's face.

For a second, I thought the last Roomie reviewed was going to be the one with the Morrison-Sheamus ladder match. I've got that one as being one of the company's all-time an unheralded classics. So now that I've built it up like that, he's likely to find it underwhelming. 

Good shout on the Hardy-Edge cage match, which I'd never bothered to watch until I saw your glowing review. I've really enjoyed this project. 

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WWE Elimination Chamber 2010.

Sheamus Vs Triple H Vs John Cena Vs Randy Orton Vs Ted DiBiase Vs Kofi Kingston: Kicking off with the Raw title match. The story in the early going is whether Sheamus can prove himself as champion (he starts the match with Kofi), and the tension between Orton and DiBiase. Orton and DiBiase are on the same page to begin with, double teaming everyone, but then Cody comes out and hands DiBiase a pipe. In a very contrived spot, DiBiase accidentally hits Orton with the lead pipe, and then decides to cover him, making Orton the first to be eliminated. There was a sense of shock involved here, but this whole Legacy break-up angle was so backwards. Obviously, DiBiase and Rhodes should have been the babyfaces coming out of this, as Orton had basically used them to do his bidding for months, and had no respect for them. DiBiase was then the next to go, being pinned by Kofi. This kinda took the gloss off DiBiase beating Orton. Kofi (by Sheamus) and Sheamus (by Triple H) followed in quick succession, and I was expecting an epic struggle between Hunter and Cena, but Cena whipped Hunter straight into the STF, and shockingly (to me) Triple H tapped out after a short struggle.

John Cena Vs Batista: So, right after Cena wins the title, Vince comes out and says he now has to defend the belt against Batista. This is an almost exact re-do of when Edge did the first Money in the Bank cash-in, except while that seemed cool and fresh, this just came across like another rehash of Vince vs top star. Batista did look badass though, and Cena made his normally pretty shitty spear look like death.

Drew McIntyre Vs Kane: Drew defends the IC belt, and gets a good match out of Kane. Kane levels Drew with a killer uppercut early on. Everything Drew does looks so good. He has his awesome entrance by this point too, and is really starting to look like a star. Clean win felt big.

Maryse and Gail Kim Vs Lay-Cool: This was supposed to be Kim vs Maryse for the vacant Raw women's title (not sure why it was vacant), but Vickie Guerrero came out and said since the Raw divas have been talking shit about the Smackdown divas, they now had to face two of them. Best not to ask why the SD GM can interfere in a Raw title match. Short match which saw Maryse inevitably walk out on Kim, who got beat.

The Miz Vs MVP: Miz is tag champ now, along with the Big Show, as well as US champ. MVP had Mark Henry with him. Decent match actually. I just think Miz works too strong. MVP's babyface offence is still terrible. Miz retains after Show knocks MVP out with the punch.

The Undertaker Vs Chris Jericho Vs CM Punk Vs John Morrison Vs Rey Mysterio Vs R-Truth: Truth and Punk get us started. Punk is in full Straight-Edge Society mode now, and I really liked this group. They had good chemistry with one-another. I have to say, I found Serena really sexy too with the shaved head... Well, they basically have a short match with Punk pinning Truth within the 5 mins. Quickly just to say I hate how they introduce the new combatants into these matches. It's such an anti-climax. You do the count-down, then you do the stupid lights flashing where you can barely tell what's what, and then you have to wait for the pod to be unlocked. Classic WWE trying to milk the moment for all it's worth and just overdoing it. So Punk has time now to cut another promo, before Rey is released. Again, this is a short one-on-one match, with this time Rey going over before the next entrant is unlocked.These two had a good sequence to tease us for their upcoming feud, and the elimination was great, with Rey huricanrana-ing Punk from the top rope to the steel flooring, and then rolling him back into the ring to pin him. Great spot, and put over the steel structure really well. Jericho comes in next followed by Morrison as the ring filled up. Morrison is still shit, and fuck him pinning Rey. I was hoping for another all-star Rey chamber performance but it got cut short. Taker eliminates Morrison after a chokeslam on the steel, and then Jericho and Taker have a good little confrontation as the final two. Great finish as Shawn Michaels comes out from under the steel floor and superkicks Taker allowing Jericho to win the belt. Jericho, as always, has great reactions. Taker always took a sweet chin well, throwing his legs out from under him. Felt like a holy shit moment, though I think it was expected at the time that Shawn would cost Taker the belt. Much more fun than the Raw match, though I was hoping for another classic and it didn't really approach that level. I wish Punk had lasted longer and that Truth had got to interact with some different people, although I appreciate them doing something different at the start.

MOTN: That SD chamber match at 3.5 stars. Drew/Kane at 3 stars.

Show rating: Barring the diva match, nothing bad on this show at all. Quite worth a watch if you've nowt else to do. 3 stars.

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That's the match where Taker nearly got fried by the pyro during his entrance. Jericho said that Taker told him two things saved him; he had just dumped a bunch of water all over himself to slick his hair back and his duster kept most of the flames off of him. He was still in a bunch of pain during the match and you can see him wearing some kind of burn gel on his body the next night on RAW when he's having his in-ring confrontation with HBK. Y2J said the ringside attendants were giving Taker bottles of water to pour on himself while he sat in the pod to help alleviate the pain from the burning. If you ever need proof that Taker is one tough mofo, realize that he went in there and took bumps after nearly being burned to a crisp.

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