Glad I took the chance on this one and caught it at the theater tonight, because outside of some low points this was one of the better WWE PPVs in years.
- Undertaker d. CM Punk with the tombstone in a surprise opener. I guess they were wanting to space out the HIAC matches to prevent burnout, but it made for kind of a weird crowd dynamic here. Match itself was nothing special, basically a total squash by Undertaker with almost no chance being given for Punk to even get a near-fall, outside of a chairshot. Taker chokeslammed him, tombstoned him, and that was that. Fine for what it was, but what the hell was the point of this feud? Who does Undertaker even have for opponents now? ***
- Jim Morrison d. Dolph Ziggler with the Starship Pain after a couple of tries at it. Good and long match that looked it was building to a draw, but of course there are no time limits in the new WWE Universe, so instead Morrison fought off a bunch of near-falls and came back to win clean. I haven’t seen enough of Ziggler to care about him doing the job here, but Morrison is the guy I like for the future, so good choice here. ***1/2
- Mickie James d. Alicia Fox with a tornado DDT that was botched about as badly as everything else here, to retain the Tramp Stamp title. Too long, and Fox did nothing for me. 1/2*
- Jericho/Show d. Rey/Batista to retain the Unfied tag titles in the match of the night, as Jerishow are really clicking as champions now with the awesome dynamic of Jericho being the little guy hiding behind the big guy. Plus Batista/Rey have the dynamic of the little guy who REFUSES to hide behind the big guy and gets his ass kicked as a result, giving us a crazy heated crowd who was into everything and an unbelievable heat segment and finishing sequence. And once again Show punches out the little guy for the pin, as that’s apparently the champions’ finish. Are they building up to DX being the ones to finally beat them? ****
- Randy Orton d. John Cena clean with the PUNT OF DOOM (which obviously missed by a good six inches, thanks to the wonder of HD) in the second Cell match of the night, to regain the title. This was really the same match we’ve seen a million times from these guys, as they have good chemistry together but didn’t do anything to differentiate the Cell match from any of their other million matches. I liked it and Cena always delivers on PPV, but for the love of god find some new people to elevate so we don’t have to rotate back to HHH-Orton yet again. ***1/4
- Drew McIntyre d. R-Truth with some sort of double-arm DDT thing. Fans turned on this instantly and gave it no chance to succeed, and Drew did nothing to distinguish himself. But then it took MVP a while to get going after a similar introduction, and look where he is now! A midcard babyface on RAW! Um, bad example, I guess. 1/2*
- Kofi Kingston (who is now from Ghana, as per real life, instead of Jamaica) d. Miz & Swagger to retain the US title in a match that was put out there to die and mostly did just that. Some wacky three-way spots at the end, but the crowd was in no mood and it died quickly. **
- D-X d. Legacy in the final Cell match of the night, and this was a hell of a deal that JUST missed classic status because Legacy doesn’t quite have the star power to pull off what they were going for. Basically Legacy has no chance, so they attack D-X during their wacky entrance and lock HHH out of the Cell after mugging him on the ramp. Then Shawn gets the everloving shit beat out of him for about 15 minutes, drawing some CRAZY old-school sympathy heat and just selling it like nuts. Finally HHH retrieves bolt cutters and roars back as D-X destroys them and gets their revenge. Awesome stuff, as D-X finally starts playing the part of the old war-horses instead of the super-cool upstarts they still think of themselves as. As a match there’s been better, but finally someone takes advantage of the Cell tonight and gives us a DIFFERENT dynamic, and I enjoyed the hell out of this, even if you could see the storyline coming down main street. **** This needed Shawn bleeding like a exploded tomato in the worst way, though.
Overall, strong thumbs up. Get the replay if you missed it tonight.
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Agreed, that show ruled.
WORST PPV EVER
Undertaker has proven once again to be the most selfish in the Industry
This was not a good show. Just weird and bizarre and… meh. It was booked backwards, and I don’t think it played to the strengths they were hoping.
The worse thing however was not the show itself but the absolutely DEAD New Jersey crowd. It was like the people didn’t want to like or cheer anything or even want to be there. They gave the show no credit, showed no respect to anyone on the mid-card and made pretty decent matches feel overly long and extremely boring.
Major SUCK all round.
Hopefully DX’s limo crashes and bursts into flames….
One more failed Orton-as-champ bit.
Oh, well, good thing MNF’s on.
“Undertaker has proven once again to be the most selfish in the Industry”
There’s a pretty good story about the Undertaker’s selfishness in Ted DiBiase’s book. It was when he was feuding with Muhammed Hassin. He was supposed to chokeslam Divari on Smackdown but he said he didn’t have to because it would bury Davari who was not leaving the company.
Vince McMahon freaked out, cussed him and the agents for the match (Ricky Steamboat and Ted DiBiase), and then sent him out to reshoot the segment.
You’re right… Undertaker is a selfish prick.
He does as he’s told to do. I think he was an ass during the Invasion era but he’s matured with age.
WOW he didn’t choke-slam Divari even though he had beaten them both in handicap matches for weeks punk deserved to go over here instead we get a 44 year old undertaker who can barely walk squash the only new star the wwe has made in 5 years in ten minutes with no offense at all
i am right Undertaker is a selfish prick and i only hope he lives the rest of his life in pain form injuries he got from not retiring years ago
but it now looks like their is another story to punk losing hmmm what a shame never mind which will mean another title change shortly
Scott,
Gotta agree with you…..by the time the DX/Legacy match ended I was telling my son and his friend that that match was the only one on the card that absolutely needed to have blood flying everywhere. Crimson Masks should have been sported by everyone. Vince is a putz with this whole PG, gamily friendly crap. If you’re gonna have a PPV called Hell In A Cell then you need to have some of the ol’ ultraviolence to go with it.
it was okay. however i almost fell asleep during the Orton/Cena match. once you’ve seen one match between them, you’ve seen them all. plus the botched punt kick was pretty hysterically bad.
i enjoyed the tag match, US title match & DX/Legacy. but i agree that the DX/Legacy match would have been a million times better with a bit of colour. damm PG.
oh, and what the hell was with the dancing ninja turtles?? i almost passed out due to laughing so hard at how pathetic it was….
Going on first, they set themselves up to have a nice screwy finish….and then they have Taker go over clean and win the title? Smackdown had mainevented the last what – 3 or 4 ppvs? Then they do a quick 10 minute squash of their champ? I know Taker had to win here as they were in a corner and Punk has his rematch clause (for Survivor Series instead of Bragging Rights possibly?) but the booking here is questionable.
Hold on. A major money maker in Undertaker wins the title from a still unproven commodity in CM Punk, and he’s seen as selfish ?
Being in attendance I can tell you the crowd got MAJORLY confused by Punk/Taker going on FIRST and it kinda set the tone for a crappy feeling the whole night long…. all of kept expecting Punk to pull something and regain the title that night (the belt on Mean Mark is always a waste and half the crowd was way pro-Punk, due to ROH running alot of stuff in NJ)… the whole show’s booking seemed off an backwards to us, and it showed in the crowd….the PPV just had a very backwards feel to it thanks to the match order… best match of the night was by far JeriShow and DAVE/Rey Rey (crowd was way into Jericho too)
Maybe the main event came off better on TV, but no one was buying into HHH not getting into the cage and D-X winning the match and that kinda showed too… very disappointed with what looked like a good show and the wrong guys going over in the title matches…..
re: DomDom
Didn’t the WWE see a jump in buyrate for Night of Champions largely due to his fresh feud with Jeff Hardy? I’m not sure why they would jump of the Punk wagon now. Especially with how limited Undertaker seems to be in the ring post injuries.
I agree with you completely on this one. This was a truly enjoyable PPV all around. It seems like most people didn’t like it, or at least on the places I go on the internet. The match ordering gave the show a different feel from what I expected. Even though all the main events were rematches of rematches of rematches, it never felt stale or boring to me. As far as WWE PPVs go, this was top notch.
well it looks like another sabbatical from the wwe for me punk brought me back but dx will make me leave
after punk got squashed, and really after they really just keep insulting my intelligence. i am really probably through watching wwe for a good long time.
The E has the talent, it’s the creative staff that continuously drops the ball. They’re unwilling to do anything fresh or creative. The ending of the DX/Legacy match is the perfect example of this.
That N.J.crowd sure was SAD. UNBELIEVABLE! Mr. Orton, you aren’t the W.W.E. champ– check the video, guy….YOU TAPPED OUT. Punk’s out, Taker’s in…’bout time!! Morrison’s unbelievable—he’s got some kind of gymnastic training in him! Now to my guys and the best match of the night—DX knocked the s*** out of Legacy and they deserved it!!! And if you’re not down with that……..S U C K I T !
Hey if you paid about a $100 a seat and were given a poorly booked and ordered terd like we were you’d sit on your damn hands too!!!!
They killed the crowd from starting with Punk and it only got worse!!!!
Mr. Orton, you aren’t the W.W.E. champ– check the video, guy….YOU TAPPED OUT. Punk’s out, Taker’s in…’bout time!! Morrison’s unbelievable—he’s got some kind of gymnastic training in him! Now to my guys and the best match of the night—DX knocked the s*** out of Legacy and they deserved it!!! And if you’re not down with that……..S U C K I T !
MARK ALERT
To Tess,
you almost fell asleep during the Orton/Cena match! Well make sure ur not watching the 60 minute ironman match at Bragging Rights! That will surely kill you…
Scott your losing it in your old age i came here hoping to read you rip this ppv apart
Show was okay, but the match order was weird.
Punk losing to Taker was predictable but disappointing none the less. I could care less about a world champion Taker in 2009. Him having the belt means zilch to me.
Legacy/DX was pretty good, but Vince just couldn’t bring himself to put the kids over again.
I think the WWE would’ve been a lot better off coming out of this PPV with Punk and Legacy looking strong, but whatever. Even if they did they’d screw it up somehow.
Buy-rates continue to slide raw is getting beat every week by UFC
i think everybody is so sick of the clique in the programming, and orton/legacy,….that it is ridiculous.
when will vince realize,..nobody cares about them at all…i mean at all.
Scott your losing it in your old age i came here hoping to read you rip this ppv apart
Show was okay, but the match order was weird.
Punk losing to Taker was predictable but disappointing none the less. I could care less about a world champion Taker in 2009. Him having the belt means zilch to me.
Legacy/DX was pretty good, but Vince just couldn’t bring himself to put the kids over again.
I think the WWE would’ve been a lot better off coming out of this PPV with Punk and Legacy looking strong, but whatever. Even if they did they’d screw it up somehow.
Buy-rates continue to slide raw is getting beat every week by UFC
i think everybody is so sick of the clique in the programming, and orton/legacy,….that it is ridiculous.
when will vince realize,..nobody cares about them at all…i mean at all.
rob sucks have you got a brain
the great khali,hiedenriech,kozlov
taker has helped them all out buddy
kamala,giant gonzalez,
i can keep going you doosch
was he selfish when he helped these guys out
taker is only a 7 time champ\edge 9+ triple h 13times
batista 5time cena 6 time punk 3 time already
go f**k yourself robs sucks
apolagise for the last comment
but no way on earth is taker selfish
rock left
austin left in 2002
flair nash hall x pac all to wcw
did taker no he didnt
lesner left
whats your point steve he squashed all of those guys