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Well, that certainly was a dull show. That was my initial reaction to WWE Unforgiven last night, and apparently I am not alone in that view of the event. It seems everything on the show was either totally predictable, rather weak in the action department, or way too short to truly enjoy. There's no way I can see anyone justifying a $40 price tag for this event, even if you are the World's Biggest Batista or Undertaker fan. Other than WWE taking the title off the melon-squishing Great Khali, there was nothing of importance on this show that you won't be able to catch up on during the free shows this week.
It's obvious that Unforgiven was not a "high priority" event for WWE from the way it was presented last week on television. The company is far more concerned with the ratings on USA and the current public image of the company with the upcoming Congressional hearing. In their defense, it is understandable that their focus is on those things, since they are crucial to the future of their business. That said, WWE is not doing themselves any favors by making their PPV events "missable" shows. They can continue to "milk the diehards" for $40 and give them these kind of events, but with every disappointing PPV, a few more of those diehards will decide to save their money.
Onto my thoughts on the PPV:
I was glad to see them eliminate the "all three announce teams welcome us to the show" bit. There's really no need for it, as the announcers can identify themselves before their first match of the night, as they did here. That said, when they had Joey Styles open the PPV and went right to the ECW match of the evening, I wondered if Styles & Tazz were going to be allowed to catch an early flight home. Then we had the non-showing of Elijah Burke's ring entrance, which really gave off the impression that he was going to be a glorified job guy for CM Punk. Thankfully, that impression didn't last long, as Burke was given a ton of offense, and dominated the majority of the bout. The work was fine, with the exception of one really screwed up looking Irish Whip spot, but the crowd didn't seem to care much at all. Punk gets the "pin out of nowhere" and immediately the announcers were putting over that Burke deserved another match because of his dominance. Uh, but he lost clean, why should he get another shot? Oh, that's right, because this is a filler feud until John Morrison comes back. Honestly, Punk and Burke have had much better matches than this on ECW on SciFi. Solid opener, but nothing special.
My favorite storyline in all of wrestling, MVP and Matt Hardy, was on display in the next bout. I figured the "Odd Couple" would retain the tag belts, and they did, so there was no surprise there. I also expected Hardy and MVP to try and "outdo" each other during the bout, and they did. Deuce & Domino were perfectly find here, but they were background characters in this story (and there's nothing wrong with that, you need background characters to tell a story). So, while a tad predictable, this was also very entertaining, as MVP and Hardy are great in their roles. I also like the importance that this storyline puts on championships. Hardy and MVP obviously can't stand each other, but they put up with each other because it is important to them to have the gold. If the wrestlers treat the belts as something important, then the fans will see them as important too. Was this the best MVP-Hardy segment to date? No, but it was a nice continuation of the storyline, a good bout, and probably my favorite part of the PPV.
So, Rey Mysterio couldn't appear on the "go home" edition of Smackdown on Friday (remember, in WWE's world Smackdown happens on Friday), but he could do an interview for WWE Mobile on Saturday? People who subscribe to WWE Mobile don't need to be sold on ordering a PPV, the fans tuning in to Smackdown on Friday are the ones that needed to hear from Rey and be convinced to order. Then again, it wasn't the most riveting interview anyway.
Triple H got the first big reaction of the night for his entrance, since the fans see him as a major star. They also popped huge for him hitting the Pedigree and getting the win. In between? A totally predictable bout, as Carlito was made to look like a jabroni. He was allowed to use weapons and couldn't be disqualified and still couldn't take down Triple H. What was worse is at no point did the crowd even think he had a chance. Not that the booking of the match helped him. You've got Triple H down on the mat, a chance for Carlito to score a huge win, so he goes for his apple? Not a weapon, not a finishing move, nope, Carlito goes for the apple. At this point, I just stopped caring about the bout and waited for the inevitable result. Even being "blinded" didn't stop the Game. The fans popped for the finish, but this was just another match to pass the time for Triple H until WWE decides whether they want him to work with Cena or Orton.
We then had Batista's shot at pushing the Triple Threat match. I've said in the past, there are two Batistas. One is "intense Batista", who comes across like a monster and delivers serious promos and fights like he wants to rip your head off. Then there is "aloof Batista" who would rather be humorous in the ring and comes off totally casual in his promos. Well, this was aloof Batista, and it made no sense. Last time we saw Big Dave, Great Khali had squished his head and he was laying on the mat unconscious. So, instead of ranting about getting revenge, or showing concern over having been laid out by the champion he has been unable to beat over the last two months, Batista was more concerned with flirting with Maria and checking out her cleavage. Great way to make that title and feud seem important.
In the "Tip Sheet" we provide to Elite Subscribers here on the site, I wondered if WWE would have Beth Phoenix dominate Candice Michelle, but have Candice squeak out a win to keep the feud going, and possibly do the title change the next night on Raw. Well, things certainly seem to be heading in that direction now. Phoenix totally dominated Candice, only for the champion to get the surprise roll up pin and retain the title. You know, like the Punk-Burke match we saw at the start of the PPV? The bright side of the match was that Phoenix looked fantastic with her power based offense, and is a nice addition to the Diva roster. On the other side were the fans not caring about it, and Candice not having one of her better nights. She is hot and cold, and a few points in this bout she didn't look good at all. This was okay, but again, nothing you need to see.
In a way, I think it was fitting that Great Khali was squishing fruit, as this PPV was in Memphis, and that kind of segment would fit right in with the old school studio wrestling shows. By this point, they had pretty much hammered home that the Vice Grip would play a huge part in the Triple Threat match..... of course, that turned out to not be the case.
Logic definitely took a vacation in the Triple Threat match. First off, Rey Mysterio who had his "head crushed" to the point that blood was gushing out of his mouth two weeks ago, looked perfectly fine. Then, after Batista and Mysterio started double teaming Khali, Rey almost instantly turns on Batista and tries to pin him. There was no build for this, and no way anyone thought that Rey could possibly get a pin on a totally fresh Batista that quickly. The Vice Grip came into play when Khali put it on Batista, but Rey broke it up with a chair shot. This is where the match really got stupid. Khali decks Rey with one punch, then instead of going for the pin and winning the match, he goes out and throws Batista over the announce table. As JBL pointed out how dumb that was, Michael Cole tried to explain it that Khali was making sure Batista was down before focusing on Rey. Okay, so Khali obviously was going to apply the Vice Grip (you know, the one they had been pushing like crazy) to get the win, right? Nope, instead Khali beat up the little guy and applies a nerve hold instead. HUH? Finally, Khali remembered what his finisher is and put it on Rey, just in time for Batista to break it up. For the better part of this eight minute match, nothing made sense.
However, the final moments of the bout were great. The fans went nuts for Khali getting tied in the ropes, Mysterio's burst of offense, and Batista finishing off Khali by powerbombing Rey on him and then hitting a dead lift spinebuster. I mean, really, could Khali have made it any tougher for Big Dave? That spinebuster was all Batista lifting his carcass and doing all the work with the move. The fact that they got the belt off of Khali and had a great finishing sequence almost makes up for the fact that the rest of the match was so logic-defying.
Hey, now that you've paid $40 for this PPV, be sure to tune into Raw tomorrow night to see Hornswoggle McMahon! Yep, always have to push the FREE show to the fans that PAID to see your PPV.
Nice to see Triple H and Batista are so chummy now. Hey, weren't they feuding the last time they were on the same brand? Whatever, this was obviously one of those "inter-brand" cheap pop moments they like to throw onto a PPV now and then.
Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch vs. Paul London & Brian Kendrick was a perfectly fine 12-minute match between two teams that rarely get this much television time. Tag team wrestling is so deemphasized in WWE that the crowd didn't care, but I thought it was a good match. I did wonder if Brian Kendrick gets paid more than Paul London, since he seemed to work ten out of the 12 minutes. Even when London got a hot tag and hit some big spots, it seemed almost instantly that Kendrick was tagged back in. It's so strange that from an in-ring standpoint, this was probably the best match on the show, but it also had the least crowd reaction. Then again, it isn't that strange. When WWE doesn't present the championship or those in the match as being important, the fans won't care.
Jim Ross went to see The Condemned three times? Proof that JR is definitely a loyal friend to Stone Cold.
At this point in the PPV, I figured it was on John Cena and Randy Orton to deliver a great match and help take the sting out of the $40 price tag for this show. For the first time all night, the crowd was really hot, with the pro-Cena and pro-Orton fans ready to verbally battle it out during the bout. The storyline, with an enraged John Cena wanting revenge on Orton, had been put over huge. Cena didn't do his usual posturing as he came to the ring, instead looking serious and intense. You couldn't reasonably expect a long bout with Khali (because he sucks), so this was the major title match that should have gone past the 20 minute mark and delivered. The stage was all set for a fun bout.
So they gave us seven minutes, a large portion of which was spent on a chinlock/sleeper spot and a lame DQ ending, followed by an old man knocking the top heel on Raw unconscious, all so they could try and sell us on spending another $40 next month to see Orton vs. Cena again. The one match on the show that had the potential to deliver a long bout with a lot of crowd involvement, and instead WWE went with a short angle to try and "milk the diehard" to see a Last Man Standing match at No Mercy. This was a ripoff. And please, don't defend it by saying "Undertaker's return was the real main event anyway". Cena vs. Orton was pushed in commercials and video packages hyping this PPV on all three shows last week. It's the top title, held by the top babyface in the company. This match was presented as a reason to order the PPV, and any fan that plunked down their money for this bout has a reason to feel like they got screwed. About the only positive was Papa Cena showed a lot of intensity. Too bad WWE also had this old man knock out their young top heel with one kick.
This was followed by the "slap in the face" segment with Jonathan Coachman and Papa Cena where all of us that paid to see the show found out we'd have to pay again to see Orton and Cena with a decisive ending. John Cena then intervened and came off like a total dork reciting his scripted lines while bullying around Coach. Why is it whenever Cena is doing a great job being intense, WWE gives him some scripted promo that comes off ridiculously unrealistic and over dramatic? Also, it might help if someone mentioned that Cena has the names of his family members on his dog tags. Then it would make a little more sense for him to constantly be pulling them out. I honestly had no idea what the symbolism of the tags were until Elite Subscriber Lisa Owen told me that. I don't remember that ever being mentioned on WWE TV. I thought it was just leftover marketing from The Marine.
At this point, we had a PPV where no match had hit 13 minutes, and the two major championship matches went less than ten minutes. I haven't timed it, but I wouldn't be surprised if the introductions and entrances for Undertaker vs. Mark Henry went longer than the title bouts. Yes, Undertaker's entrance was awesome. The superplex spot was really cool looking. Henry kicking out of the "arms folded on his chest" cover after the chokeslam was a bit surprising. The Last Ride out of the corner looked good, even thought it was predictable (whenever a large man goes to the second rope to punch Taker, you know he is getting powerbombed). Other than that? A pretty dull big man's match that wasn't even as good as their casket match at Wrestlemania 22. At least that one had a really cool Undertaker dive. This one had such dubious moments as Mark Henry trying to pin Undertaker by just putting his hands on Taker's chest, and arguing with the referee for no reason. It was just a bad match, and in a way a fitting end to a dull PPV.
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