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5.19.2008

Poor Judgment

Wow. I split the bill for last night's Judgment Day pay-per-view, and I still feel like I overpaid. I get that it's not the most prestigious pay-per-view on the E's calendar, but could they at least have put a little thought into it?

Go ahead and call me negative if you wish, but this show was extremely ho-hum. It seemed like, more often than not, the E was mailing it in last night, and it showed big time. The entire show wasn't bad, per se, but there wasn't much in this show to write home about.

The big thing that I kept picking up on all night is that it seemed like WWE was clearly already looking forward to One Night Stand in two weeks. I can't believe some idiot thought it would be a good idea to have pay-per-views two weeks apart. You know that with that little of a time frame, something was bound to suffer, and it seems like that's exactly what happened tonight.

John Cena pulled the curtain. And that's the only positive thing I can say about him. Again, he shows that he can't wrestle his way out of a paper bag. Again, he sells for about half a second, then forgets that he was ever supposed to be hurt in the first place. And again, he wins for no logical reason.

JBL is one of the best in the business at getting heat. There is no reason whatosever that you should EVER be able to hear a crowd chanting his name at any time. Yet that was the case last night, as there were several distinct chants of "JBL! JBL!" during the match. WWE doesn't go to Omaha enough for me to know whether or not they're heel country, but either way, maybe this will open someone's eyes in the back as to how unover John Cena is.

I agreed with my colleague DJB when he stated in his ECW recap that Kane and Punk losing last Tuesday was a sure sign that they would go over on The Miz and John Morrison. But they did not, and I'm quite glad. For as much as I've dumped on the current tag team champions, they are still a far more legitimate tag team than Kane and Punk, plus the titles would be even further lost should they go around the waists of the ECW Champion and the man who still has the Money In The Bank briefcase. However, it was a very poorly executed match, and the ending seemed rather clusterfuck-ish.

For as run of the mill as this show was, I cannot say anything negative about Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho. I echo the sentiments of Jim Ross when he said that he could watch those two wrestle every day and never get tired of it. Jericho will never be accused of being the best wrestler in the world, but he can certainly hold his own and then some, and he and Michaels have remarkable chemistry in the ring when working together.

Neither of them tried much of anything new in this match (except for the Sweet Chin Music on the ring apron, which I popped like a motherfucker for), but that's not necessarily a complaint. This feud is far from over, so if they're not pulling out all the stops in their first encounter, it leaves the possibility for things to be fresh should this turn into a feud that runs through the entire summer. I would have liked to see Jericho play possum to get the win (and thought he did when he reversed Sweet Chin Music into the Codebreaker), but again, they may just be saving that.

I also have to up Batista, which sounds strange coming from me. His promo was short and to the point, which is what he needs. He's not the greatest on the stick, but if you're going to have him speak, do it in a way where the possibility of him screwing up is minimized.

Undertaker vs. Edge put on a brilliant performance as expected. I loved how Edge played off the gaffe of the pyro crew, who no doubt we should currently be wishing luck to in their future endeavors. The match had some very nice spots (including Edge trying to use Undertaker's Old School maneuver), but the ending smacked of the problem that I stated earlier. Undertaker wins by countout, but it not awarded the title, this leaving it vacant, meaning that we get this match again in two weeks.

Was it just me, or did Vickie Guerrero forget her lines? I realize that heels are supposed to pause to let the fans boo, but she had paused for a really long time. Not to mention, she started one sentence, got a few words in, then stopped, then had something whispered into her ear by one of the Edgeheads, then started a different sentence. I realize that the E wanted to do something nice for Vickie by giving her a job since her husband passed away, but she's really bad at this.

I had a hunch that because of a small card (featuring only six matches) that we would be given an unscheduled match, and I ended up being right, as we were given MVP vs. Jeff Hardy. The match was decent, regardless of whether it was a one-off or if this will lead to a feud. If it does lead to a feud, I hope that Jeff Hardy ultimately moves to "SmackDown!", because I still believe he is far too deep in the doghouse to get a run with the big belt on "Raw". I also feel that if Porter were to move to Monday nights for the purpose of this feud, that he would get lost in the shuffle.

The Women's Match was alright if not short. I loved at the beginning when Buffalo's own Beth Phoenix told Melina to get out of her ring. I still don't see much improvement in Melina's skill, and even though I have no problem with a skilled worker like Mickie walking out with the belt, I don't see what the E can possibly do from here. If they wanted to have a Beth/Melina feud, like they're strongly hinting at, they probably should have put the belt on one of them last night.


There should never be a cage match in WWE in which the winner wins by pinfall. What we saw last night is akin to a ladder match, a submission match, or a TLC mach ending by pinfall. Those wouldn't make any sense, they contradict the purpose of the match. Unfortunately, the E has gone to great lengths to try and eradicate that thought from people's minds.

Orton and Triple H faced each other in a steel cage match last night, and the cage was used minimally to say the least. Neither man bled, and a chair just happened to be leaning against the stairs for no reason whatsoever. It was not that long ago that the cage match was a revered gimmick match, perfect for culminating feuds in. Now it's merely a comical afterthought in the E. Again, the blowoff of this feud is probably going to be at One Night Stand. Thanks for coming and paying, folks, see you in two weeks do the same shit again.

The other issue I had was this-William Regal was shown in his skybox during the event. Many times it was put over that he was up there, watching the event. And what did it lead to? Nothing. Wrestling logic dictates that if you're pointing out something like that, there's a reason for that. We were given none. As was the steez throughout the night. No planning, no preparation, just a machined-out, mailed in pay-per-view. Awesome. Thanks a whole bunch, E. At least you still managed a better show than Sacrifice.

Tha results
*John Cena def. JBL
*The Miz and John Morrison def. Kane and CM Punk to retain WWE Tag Team Championship
*Shawn Michaels def. Chris Jericho
*Undertaker def. Edge via countout (World Heavyweight Championship remains vacant)
*Mickie James def. Melina and Beth Phoeniz to retain Women's Championship
*Jeff Hardy def. MVP
*Triple H def. Randy Orton in a Steel Cage Match to retain WWE Championship


7 comments: on "Poor Judgment"

Anonymous said...

they set up judgment day too much for one night stand, im thinking edge vs taker in a hell in a cell and the hardys vs mnm 2.0 in a ladder match at the next ppv.

Anonymous said...

Why wast back? I'm not so sure why anymore. Maybe it was a bad idea for him to move to Raw. Who will he have to fead with now that he has lost to Cena again? I thought Y2J and him would go at it a bit longer but that died as fast as Y2J/HBK.

Starting to hate myself for liking MNM 2.0. Makes me feel dirty. Seems that Punk is doing for Money In The Bank what Billy Gunn did for the King Of The Ring. Speaking of which, I would love to see Regal wrestling now.

HBK/Y2J. I am kinda surprised that HBK won. Not because Y2J isnt any good. Its just that the story would have seem more interesting if Y2J had actually hurt HBK's leg during the match or something. Where do they go from here?

Taker/Edge = Smackdown Title Hell. Way to ruin Takers title run and any momentum Edge had the last year. I smell a tournament and I am sick of tournaments. Blame TNA for that.

Women's title means nothing to me if Phoenix doesnt have it. She gave the Diva's a purpose. Now that James has it they are just beating a dead horse. Phoenix vs. Melina will be quite shitty. But whatever. I love seeing Melina.

Jeff vs. MVP? Why? Did Umaga piss someone off?

HHH keeps the title. I dont hate HHH. But having him defeat Orton does nothing for me. The problem is that I dont want to see HHH feud with anyone on Raw. I may sound crazy, but shouldnt HHH have gone to Smackdown at some point? I think he was drafted for a moment but it never happened years ago. Am I wrong?

This PPV reads like any other episode of Raw. We've seen HBK nail Y2J the past few weeks with Sweet Chin Music, so having it end the PPV means nothing. Why didnt Kennedy wrestle? I just thought of him.

Anonymous said...

This ppv felt like a special edition RAW more then a ppv. Nothing really abd but nothing special either.
The best match was HBK vs. Jericho, has anyone noticed jerocho has barely defeated the I-C title since he won it. Surprise they didn't have Batista get ivolved in the match, can't remember when the last time Batista didn't have match on a ppv.
I think they wasted showing Regal cause he was a non facter on the ppv. They should have had him do something during the Triple H, Orton match since the rumors are he is next in line to feed to Triple H.
I just hope One Night Stand is better then his ppv was.

D.J.B. said...

Yeah Dante, Triple Hayche was drafted to SmackDown one year, but he was immediately traded back to Raw for the Dudley Boys, Booker T and maybe someone else.

It was the same year that Shelton Benjamin was Drafted to Raw and got those wins over Triple H...I remember the Raw roster chanting clapping and laughing and maybe even chanting "na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey...goodbye"

Anonymous said...

"There should never be a cage match in WWE in which the winner wins by pinfall. What we saw last night is akin to a ladder match, a submission match, or a TLC mach ending by pinfall."

Its impossible to win by pinfall in a submission match. I understand your point, but you do this regularly enough that you should really know better than that.

Christopher Casúr said...

What you're saying speaks to my point. It used to be that the entire point of the cage match was to escape the cage. That was the concept that drove it. That's why it was there. To make it where the match can be won by pinfall or submission eradicates the purpose of the stipulation to begin with.

Anonymous said...

I saw a BIG UPS TO DAN-E-O sign all night on the ppv.