WrestleMania 23 Review
Mood:  suave
It's that time again. Time for the latest entry to my WWE PPV review blog. Last Sunday was WrestleMania 23. While WrestleMania 22 did leave a sour taste in my mouth, I ventured into familiar territory and watched this PPV not just for the good matches it would have, but mostly because this was WrestleMania. I criticize WWE from time to time, but the weeks leading up to WrestleMania have produced some good television. Now, onto my review.

Money in the Bank:
I enjoy the concept of Money in the Bank. It's a good idea, but I would have liked it if it was a different match every time and not just a ladder match. After a while, you see possibly everything you can see in a ladder match, but there will always be a fresh idea that pops out there and a higher risk taking.

The entrants were Finlay, C.M. Punk, Randy Orton, The Hardy's, Edge, King Booker and Mr. Kennedy. My top two choices were Edge and Kennedy, but I went more so with Edge. I had some qualms about this match. First of all, there were a lot of repetitions in it. Booker hitting a lot of spinebusters, Orton with the RKO's, Punk with the ladder shots and Edge with all of those spears. Another was all the missed opportunities to grab the briefcase. It seems at times winning the match was important, and others it was secondary. Another was that Kennedy was missing form the entire middle portion of the match. I forgot all about him until I saw him near the end.

Along with the bad, there were some good things too. The Money in the Bank created 3 future feuds if handled properly. Edge vs. Jeff Hardy is the top of the list. Although I wish Edge to be higher on the card, he could have a TV feud, blaming Jeff on not only injuring him and costing him the match, but losing his WrestleMania streak. The second feud can be with Matt Hardy and King Booker. With Booker climbing the ladder and almost winning the match, Matt had Queen Sharmell and was going to deliver the Twist of Fate. Booker had to decide on whether to pull down the briefcase or save his wife. He chose his wife and got a Twist of Fate for his troubles. A problem I can see with this feud is that technically Booker did the right thing here and Matt was the heel who resorted to attacking a woman, but it's nothing that can't be tweaked. The third match can be with Kennedy and Finlay, mostly due to the ending of the match where Hornswoggle took a rolling firemans carry from the ladder in a nasty looking bump, then climbing the ladder to win the match. Finlay, in all his experience, can be a huge strength to Kennedy, whom is obviously being groomed to be a huge star in the future.

All in all, the ladder match was quite entertaining. A fun 8/10.

Kane vs. The Great Khali:
I consider this match to be a ?cool off? match, placed after the MITB to let the fans catch their breaths, so to speak. It?s no secret that Khali isn?t the most mobile person in the ring, but he is a spectacle due to his sheer size, not to mention his muscle mass. This guy is put together nicely; unlike the Big Show who was huge, but looked way out of shape, but at least Big Show could work.

Kane is a guy who, while being a big man, can go with the best of them. It?s such a shame he wasn?t given a bigger role at WrestleMania. It?s also a shame the he jobbed to Khali. I had heard rumors that he was taking time off after this PPV, so if that is the case, maybe the right man won.

The match was what you would expect it to be; Khali?s opponent does most of the work, selling nothing, while the opponent bumps everywhere for him. The best part of the match was where Kane body slams Khali to a nice pop and brings back memories of WrestleMania 3. In the end, Khali gives Kane a two handed chokeslam and pins him with a boot to the chest.

This match was good for what it was, a resting spot from MITB. 6/10, mostly for Kane?s body slam on Khali.

Chris Benoit vs. M.V.P:

I am a fan of M.V.P, so I was looking forward to this match to see how he can measure up against a man of the wrestling caliber of Chris Benoit and how he looks performing in front of a large audience, and from what I have seen, he does surprisingly well on both counts.

I loved the way M.V.P countered many technical moves from Chris Benoit and how the announcers, especially, J.B.L, put it over greatly. I was really shocked at that, but was thinking about it after the match that I should give some credit to Benoit himself for putting him over, despite winning the match himself.

A great story was told in how Benoit couldn?t utilize the Crossface for the above reason, but also that M.V.P attacked the arm of Benoit, limiting the time he would need to slap it on. By the end of the match, using the Crossface wasn?t a factor as Benoit used the flying headbutt to win the match and retain the United States championship.

A great match that didn?t need weapons to tell a story or excite the crowd. Also shows that Benoit can put anybody over, and still look good. 8.5/10.

Undertaker vs. Batista:
This match was billed at title vs. streak as Batista defended his World Heavyweight Championship against the Undertaker, who was defending his perfect WrestleMania streak of 14 wins and 0 losses. This is the match that should have closed WrestleMania, since it was Undertaker who did win the Royal Rumble, but for the second time in a row, a Royal Rumble winner did not main event WrestleMania, which tells me it could be that the WWE is proving that Raw is the dominating brand or that they want John Cena to be the franchise player of the WWE.

Leading up to this match, I had heard rumors that Batista was chosen to end the streak, which would have been the most horrible decision the WWE has ever made. Batista is probably the laziest champion I have seen in years. He is always going through the motions in his matches. He doesn?t even try anymore. Almost all of his matches, his opponent have to do most of the work, and yet this guy is the World Champion. The Undertaker, on the other hand, gives a lot to his matches. If anyone can get a good match out of Batista, one of those guys would be Taker.

With this being WrestleMania, I expected Batista to give a little more than what he usually does, and he did. Batista used his power moves at mostly the right times, instead of just throwing them left and right. Taker used his grappling and striking moves to counter Batista and used his speed to surprise him at times.

There were a few nice spots in the match, such as the patented Taker dive over the ropes, Batista powerslamming Taker through the announcers table and Taker kicking out of the Batista bomb. The end of the match saw Taker hitting Batista with the snake eyes and hit the Tombstone for the pin and his first World Title.7/10

ECW Originals vs. New Breed
I don?t follow ECW, but I have a fair idea about what this feud was about. Seeing how hard the New Breed was pushed on TV, it seemed like a lock that they would end up winning, but a nice surprise was when RVD gave Striker the 5 Star Frog Splash for the clean win.

I had heard that they had an even better match two nights later, although I have no idea what purpose that served. 4/10

Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga:

This was the match that was being pushed as the frontrunner for WrestleMania; Vince McMahon vs. Donald Trump ? Hair vs. Hair with Stone Cold Steve Austin as referee. Oh yeah, some guys named Lashley and Umaga will be fighting though. That isn?t necessarily a bad this though. It garnered a lot of publicity, which was the whole idea of it, so it was good for that part.

The match was good given the guys who were wrestling. Some nice bumps here and there, the interference from the McMahons, with Shane hitting the Coast-To-Coast, the altercations from Austin we knew would happen and the public head shaving to Vince McMahon made this match very memorable. 7.25/10 for the entertainment value.

Ashley vs. Melina:

A pathetic match meant to capitalize on Ashley?s Playboy spread. Making this a lumberjill match was just a way to get all the divas to appear and get a pop for the catfight after the match. Melina wins the match cleanly in I think about 3 minutes.

And to think, this was on the PPV, but guys like London, Kendrick, Nitro, Flair, Carlito, Chavo and others were bumped off. That alone makes me upset about this match.

2/10.

Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena:

Coming into this match, I was hoping that they didn?t turn one wrestler heel just for shock value, and I?m glad they didn?t. This match was built well just for the idea that one wrestler wanted the championship, and had no other reason for wrestling.

HBK started the match to his advantage by messing with Cena and using his speed over Cena, but Cena made his comebacks as usual. Two things of note, I?ve rarely seen HBK actually work a body part like he did with Cena?s leg. I thought it was strange, but not in a bad way. Secondly, we can see Cena sell that bad leg, but one he regained control, he stopped selling it. That distracted me a lot from the match.

After a few attempts of the STFU, Michaels was trapped in it in the middle of the ring and tapped out for Cena?s victory. I was ok with that, although many Cena detractors might not be, but the way I see it is that Cena is the future of the business and just like last years WrestleMania, he needed the big win. Having him lose would have been very damaging to his image.

So all in all, this was a very good match, and yes I do believe that Cena have as much in the ring as HBK did, no matter who says otherwise. 8.25/10.

There you go, my brief outlook and review of WrestleMania 23.

No Mercy
Mood:  cheeky
Welcome back to the latest entry of my blog. This past weekend, I finally got around watching No Mercy. If you read my previous entry, you would have known that I was pleasantly surprised about the quality of the last WWE PPV, Unforgiven. I said that it was one of the best PPV's the WWE has put out this year. After watching No Mercy, I have to say that the trend is continuing. No Mercy had some great matches from the tag team champs, Paul London and Brian Kendrick vs. Idol Stevens and K.C. James to Taker vs. Kennedy. Read on for my opinionated views and critiques on each match.

Matt Hardy vs. Gregory Helms: It was nice to show the audience how this feud started out with the previous matches they had prior to their PPV encounter. However, the whole "former friends, now enemies; who's the better man" mentality could have benefited if either man had mic time to tell their side of the story, but I digress.

The match started out well and progressed nicely. There were no bad spots in this match. In the late middle of the match, the frustration of the competitors was shown with both Helms and Hardy pulling out their secondary finishers three times ion a row to get a pinfall. That was well done in that it added more to their match. Matt Hardy won this match with the Twist of Fate and opened the PPV with a good match. 8.5/10.

Paul London and Brian Kendrick vs. Idol Stevens and K.C. James: Coming into this match, I had no idea why these guys were fighting, who the challengers were or why they received a tag team title shot. The challengers didn't even look like a legitimate team to me. It looks like two guys thrown together to act like a team and are barely doing that.

The announcers, Cole and JBL, talked about how the champs have been champions for about 5 months now. While that may seem impressive, consider the fact that, as far as I know, they have rarely defended the titles or even been showcased in a larger role on Smackdown.

The match played out how I thought it would, with the champs being the underdogs. Seeing as how both of them are cruiserweights, I had no doubt that would be how it would have worked. Paul London was taking the brunt end of the double team and made the hot tag to Kendrick. There was your obligatory chick fight with Michelle McCool, who accompanied the challengers, and Ashley, who accompanied the champions. (Again, I don't know why she is with them since I don't watch Smackdown.) At the end Kendrick hit the Sliced Bread #2 and London hit a standing Shooting Star Press off of Kendrick's back for the 1-2-3. A good match, but seeing as I don't know why they were fighting took it down a notch. 7.75/10

M.V.P vs. Marty Gartner: The newest member of the Smackdown roster is Montel Vontavious Porter, otherwise known as M.V.P. This is his PPV debut, so he had to show that he wasn't all show and no go. His entrance was a bit conceited, but that works for his character. The thing that distracted me was his outfit. He truly did look like a Power Ranger, a fact which was not lost by JBL or the audience who chanted it at him.

After his pre match mic work, Marty Gartner came down to the ring as his opponent, which I thought was great. I can guess that some people would find that to be idiotic when there are other superstars who could have done the job for M.V.P, but then again what would a win over Scotty or Funaki or any other resident jobber do? With M.V.P bringing out his own opponent, it makes him a thinking mans wrestler, in my opinion. It goes towards his character, by showing that he can play the game, but by his own rules.

This match was nothing more than a glorified squash, but it had an entertaining appeal to it. 6/10.

Undertaker vs. Ken Kennedy: I know that a lot of people love Mr. Kennedy. I hear people talk all the time, that he is the next big superstar to be a world champ in the future. He is good, but he was nothing special. After all, who saw greatness in the Ringmaster, Rocky Maivia or Greenwich blueblood Hunter Hearst Helmsley? When I saw this match, and I saw how Kennedy handled himself with Taker with his wrestling, charisma and mannerisms, I became a fan of his. I became convinced that this guy could very well be a future champ. I became convinced that Ken Kennedy was the real deal.

Given the fact that he was in there with The Undertaker, I may be giving more credit to Kennedy, but I did become a bigger fan of his because of that match. What I didn’t appreciate from this match was how Taker got tossed into this match with no reasoning for the match whatsoever. The match was made with Kennedy’s rising in the ranks, which I have no problem with at all, it seems to hurt Taker by the fact that Taker is in a position that he just doesn’t go out and wrestle just anyone. Take Randy Orton for example. His feud with Taker was stemmed by the fact that he challenged Taker. Taker wasn’t handed to him, like he was to Kennedy. It was a bit perturbing to me, but seeing as how this match was about Kennedy, I can let it slide. Another thing I didn’t like was the fact that they kept pushing that Kennedy wanted to leave Smackdown to go to Raw because it had more competition. As if Smackdown wasn’t regarded as a B team before, how does it look when one of their own wants to leave to go to the other side.

The match was pretty good as far as the give and take that both men handled, with Taker starting working on the arm and taking his time on the process, while Mr. Kennedy taking a lot of punishment and coming back. A nice mixture of high spots, working on a body part, weakening it to gain leverage and as I said before the give and take made this match really good.

Another part of the match that had me scratching my head was when Kennedy gave Taker a piledriver and the announcers selling it as if Kennedy cut off takers head. “Oh my God, did you see that?” “I can’t believe what I just saw.” No one has ever done that to the Undertaker.” He just Tombstoned the Undertaker with his own move.” What the hell? First of all, a piledriver in not exclusive to Deadman’s repertoire. If he had done a Tombstone to Taker, that would have been different. Secondly, Taker has taken more and gotten up from it. This was no exception. This scenario was confusing to me, and it got irritating to a point when the announcers kept yapping about it over and over and over.

The end of the match saw Kennedy, frustrated that he didn’t get the win over Taker with the Kenton Bomb, rolled outside of the ring to grab his U.S. Championship belt, but Taker knocked him down, grabbed the belt and hit Kennedy with the belt, giving Kennedy the win via DQ. A clean win over Taker would have put Kennedy over huge, but with how the match between them took place, it wouldn’t have done Taker much good, so it seems a DQ finish was the way to go. 8.5/10.

Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero (Falls Count Anywhere): I won’t even begin to speak of the disdain I have over the trampling of Eddie Guerrero’s legacy and memory. Instead, I’ll just speak on the match itself.

First of all, I’d like to say how much better Chavo looks with new hair in the front of his head. He looks much younger that his real age of 35. The match started out strong with starting in the ring and going up the ramp where Rey hit a hurricarana from the set onto Chavo for a 1 count. From then, they took their battle to the audience where I felt the emotion within the match was being reduced. I can’t explain it, but it seems like they were going through the motions instead of projecting Chavo and Rey’s hatred for what they are doing for Eddie’s memory.

As for a Falls Count Anywhere match, I expected it to be a more brutal contest, but that’s not the way it came out. After a flying crossbody from Rey onto Chavo, he registered a three count and the victory. A fun match that shouldn’t have been so tame. 7.75/10/

William Regal vs. Chris Benoit: Welcome back Chris. Smackdown needed you more than you could ever imagine. What a great surprise that he would be facing up against Regal. When I saw that Regal was going to fight Benoit, I expected a classic match, and unlike many times when I except a classic and am not given one, this time was different.

This match was easily the match of the night with classic mat wrestling, coupled with high intensity attacks and submissions galore. This was one of the matches that you can watch and lose yourself in it. A great start to the match exchanges of arm bars, wrist locks and takedowns which led to the middle of the match with repeated headbutts, which busted Regal on the forehead, and suplexes and chops which lead to near the end of the match with submissions from each men leading up to Benoit reversing the Regal Stretch into the Crippler Crossface. Easily my favorite match. 9/10.

King Booker vs. Lashley vs. Finlay vs. Batista (Fatal Four-way): The original main event was supposed to be Lashley vs. King Booker, but the WWE head honchos smartened up to the fact that Lashley is not ready to be a main event player and that he will not draw a big crowd. With the inclusion of an established main eventer like Batista and a wrestler who can make anyone look good in Finlay, this match already has increased in quality.

The team up with Finlay and Booker was surprising in the fact that it actually lasted a while, whereas other matches will see a team up that lasts maybe two minutes before one turns on the other. Another great surprise was the stare down between Lashley and Batista. These two powerhouses getting ready to take each other on makes great drama and a match between these two could do some good business. The ending saw Batista hit the Batista-Bomb on Finlay, and Lashely spearing Batista, nearly breaking him in half while Booker, taken down ay Batista’s spinebuster crawled his way to Finlay for the pinfall. A fun match to watch. 8.75/10.

All in all, a pretty good Pay Per View that, while not better that last month's Unforigven, could have done fairly well if some of the matches had time to develop instead of throwing them on PPV without more of a back story. Despite that, a few good to great matches, along with a returning Chris Benoit in a match of the night made this PPV worth while.

Unforgiven 2006 Review
Mood:  happy
If you've read my review and comments about the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania 22 and last month's Summerslam, you would have realized that my reviews were not complimentary. I'm sure many of you have come to the same conclusion that I have; that the
WWE PPV's have been below standard. I'm glad to say that I had a chance to watch Unforgiven last night and it was one of the best PPV's I've seen in a long time. What did the PPV have that made it so good? Read on, friends, read on.

Jeff Hardy vs. Johnny Nitro: A huge surprise for this match was the length of it. It had to have gone at least 15 minutes, and with that time, the match had developed into a good match, rather than passable in matches with half the time.

In the beginning, Hardy had a good share of momentum in the match with a few Ricky Steamboat like arm drags. The only reason I mentioned that is becaue I'm a Steamboat mark. Nitro worked on the leg of Hardy most of the match, which many people would understand, taking away Jeff's high flying ability, but it didn't mesh right. Meaning that once Nitro weakened the leg, there was no other option he had to use that injury to win the match. If he had a leg submission move as a finisher, it would have worked better for me. I'm not arguing against it, its just that there should have been a more deep reasoning as to why he does moves that he does. Also that fact that the ending had nothing to do with the damage done to his leg, which made it seem out of place, although not by much.

The match, however, was great and although the finish was pretty lame, it doesn't take away much from the match itself. 8.5/10. Great match.

Kane vs. Umaga: This supposed feud started at Summerslam because of Kane interfering on DX's behalf. Umaga was interfering on the McMahon's behalf and there their paths were crossed. This battle was supposed to determine who was the real monster of the WWE.

The match was surprisingly good, as both men used their strength and speed to pick up the match to a good pace. Kane and Umaga no selling at points in the match helped the match as a whole in determining who was the bigger monster. The only thing that dropped the match down quality wise was the double count out finish. 6/10. Good match, and hopefully a rematch with a good ending.

Spirit Squad vs. Highlanders: There are WWE tag team champions? There are WWE tag teams? Could have fooled me, seeing as there have been hardly any mention of them on WWE programming. The Spirit Squad have a ton of potential and great athleticism to be huge stars, but they have two things holding them back.

1) They are male cheerleaders. Let me say that again. They are MALE CHEERLEADERS.

2) They have had their butts kicked constantly by DX. Those 2 guys decimated the tag team champions and 5 guys in the Spirit Squad. Who can take these guys seriously or even as threats to anyone because of that. It is that fact that also degrades the value of being tag team champions. If they can be beaten so easily, and the tag team championship means you are the best tag team, why would anyone take these guys seriously. Onto the match.

The Highlanders are a breath of fresh air. While they seem more of a comedy act, they at least add dome spark to a dying tag team division. It was a basic formulaic tag team match with the Spirit squad getting the win over the Highlanders for the second time. I wonder of these guys will lose the tag team titles to Cryme Tyme? Maybe they'll just steal the belts as part of their "training." 7/10. Basic tag team contest.

Degeneration X vs. the McMahons and Big Show (Hell In A Cell): Can it be? Is it so? Could this be the blow-off match between
the never ending feud between DX and the McMahons? Lets find out.

I was surprised that they would allow this match to be on a PPV card where the main event was a TLC match. It seems to be a bit too much for me. Another thing I thought was going to happen was that they would have placed themselves in the main event. Thankfully that did not occur.

The match started out with Big Show being incapacitated due to two well placed kicks to the nether region courtesy of DX, and this left the McMahons to fight DX by themselves.

As planned, this match was quite bloody, starting very early in the match with Shane tasting steel and busting his forehead open. The match itself wasn't following a format of some kind; it was just a fun brutal match, which was fine for me as seeing that this feud had gotten stale months ago. Of course the ending was great which provided a great comedic element. With Shane down for good after receiving an elbow form the top rope from HBK with a chair around his neck and Big Show knocked out and slumping over the top rope, Vince wanted to finish them off himself, but DX had other plans. They yanked down Big Show's tights and looked at Vince McMahon. The look on Vince's face when he went from angry and crazed to scared and a little disgusted was worth it. I even chuckled out loud from watching it, and there was where Vince joined the Big SHow's K.M.A club. A superkick and a sledgehammer shot later and the match was over.

This was a fun match to watch. All 5 guys worked hard there and I was hoping Big Show had a bigger role, but seeing how this was about DX and the McMahons, it was fine the way it was. 9/10. Fun and brutal at the same time. The ending was great as well.



Lita vs. Trish Stratus:
This was Trish Stratus' last match and she has had a great career in the WWE. I believe she has done more for the women's division and the WWE than 80% of the roster right now. From her debut of I think February 2000, all she needed to do was rely on her looks, which I think any diva would do and have done, but she wanted to be more than eye candy and she worked hard at it. As of now, I regard her as one of the best wrestlers, not just a woman wrestler, but a wrestler of all time. The transformation she underwent is nothing short of incredible.

You read about how the divas in the WWE all say that they want to wrestle in the ring and want to get training, but do they? Sure they can try and do a basic move here and there, and they know how to fall, albeit awkwardly at time, and hope not to get hurt, and the announcers sell it like their the next coming of Ric Flair or Bret Hart, but they are in no way near Trish's league. Lets take Torrie Wilson. She has been at this for years, not just in WWE, but WCW as well. She claims she wants to be more than just do swimsuit photoshoots and she wants to get in the ring. After all this time, she still sucks in the ring. Same goes to Stacy Keibler, Candice, Maria and any other diva wannabe that thinks all they have to so is fall down and slap someone to be a WWE diva/superstar. They are an embarrassment to women like Trish, Victoria, Lita and Mickie James. It took Trish less than a year to go from valet to superstar and from then on, she has worked harder than anyone I've seen because maybe she has to because she's a woman or she wants to because she wants to prove something, but I'll tell you this. She is one of the greatest wrestler to ever step foot in that ring and I will always appreciate her for that.

Her final match was with Lita, a woman who she has feuded for a while and it was quite a proper send off. These women worked very hard to deliver a good and memorable match. I loved the ending of the match, when Trish grabbed Lita's legs and the moment she placed her right leg over Lita's right leg, the pop was probably the biggest of the night. What a fitting tribute.

Trish Stratus defeats Lita with the sharpshooter in her last match and claims the women's title for the 7th time. I hope Trish all the success out of the WWE and hope that one day she will be back, even for one time only.



Carlito vs. Randy Orton:
This was the match I thought had the most potential. Both of these guys are young and are the future of the business. Also this is the first singles meeting between the two and I assume that people would want to see what these guys can do without any help. Carlito started this match by using his aerial and athletic skills, while Orton tried to ground him with basic mat attacks. This match played into ring psychology but could have done more, but seeing as this is their first meeting, it was fine. The ending of the match was great as well as Carlito went for another top rope aerial maneuver but was countered into a sudden RKO for the 1 2 3.

I thought this match was a good length, but I am hoping this leads to a return match not only so this match can be longer and have more leading up to a rematch, but that both men can benefit from it with Carlito facing a former World champion which makes him credible were he to enter the heavyweight division and compete for the WWE title and Orton to keep his stance as a bona fide main eventer by facing off against up and comers like Carlito. 8/10. Good match but can do more if they have a rematch.

John Cena vs. Edge (TLC):
I am a fan of Edge and am happy that he is at the top where he belongs. I am also a fan of John Cena because I am a fan of his work ethic and believes that he deserves to be where he is at, but at the same time needs to realize that some changes are in order for him to stay at the top of the WWE. Like I've said before, this is no fault of his, but the WWE needs to wake up to this.

Last year at Summerslam, in his hometown, the crowd started to boo him in the middle of the match. I have never ever, to my recollection, read or witnessed a wrestler booed in his hometown. Not once. A lot of those people cheered him, but there were boos. If that's not a sign that changes need to be made, I don't know what is.

Edge and Cena have had good matches in the past few months, but the TLC match had two purposes. First of all, this was Edge's match. He had competed in many of them and has won the majority of them.
(He claims that he has never lost, but he did lost one. TLC3 where Benoit & Jericho defeated the Hardys Dudleys and Edge & Christian in a TLC match on Smackdown in 2001.)

It's second purpose was to prove to the people that John Cena was tough and was willing to take on any challenge no matter how stacked the opposition is.

I want to add that when Edge came out, (first, might I add. Shouldn't the champ come out last?) the emotion on his face was quite touching. He appreciated it and the crown knew it. The match had a lot of good spots and lived up to the idea of the TLC match of being a brutal contest. One spot was where Edge laid out Cena with a brutal chairshot that Cena didn't have the time to cover his head. Ouch! When Edge was laid out of the ring and Cena climbed up the ladder, Lita came out and pushed the ladder and Cena landed through a table outside of the ring.

The finish was also great as both Cena and Edge climbed both sides of the ladder and Cena grabbed Edge and game him a FU off the ladder onto two stacked tables. A funny note was that two referees were actually stepping on the first rung and holding that ladder so that it didn't give away. With Edge down, Cena grabbed the belt and became a 3 time WWE champ. 8.75/10. Another great match.



There you have it folks, a review of the Unforgiven 2006 pay per view which in my opinion was one of the best pay per views that the WWE has produced this year. Very good to great matches with enough time for them to develop into memorable matches and can further animosities between opponents which can lead into hopefully better matches in the future.

Summerslam 2006 Review
Mood:  spacey
This past sunday was the 19th annual Summerslam PPV. It's been a while since I have seen a WWE PPV (WrestleMania 22 was the last) but I had obtained a copy of it a few days afterward. Last night I had privilege...honor...opportunity to watch it. On to my review.

Chavo Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio: I am fed up with this whole Eddie Guerrero angle that they are doing. Rey Mysterio has been booked as the worst champion in WWE history. It's bad enough that he won the title due to Eddie untimely death, but the WWE continues to drag this over and over again. It's gotten so bad that Vicky Guerrero was brought in to flesh out the storyline.

One thing I noticed is that when Chavo went for the Three Amigos, the fans were cheering, yet when Rey Mysterio did it, the fans booed. It could be that the people are agreeing with Chavo on that Rey is leeching off of Eddie's name or that the fans were booing the idea of the match in general.

One of my favorite matches was No Way Out 2004 with Chavo and Rey going at it for nearly 20 minutes in a great match; unfortunately this match was nowhere near the caliber of that match.

Big Show vs. Sabu: A somewhat sensible storyline leading up to this match but if came off quite dull. A few missed spots here and there but nothing so bad it took away from the match. It had its moments but didn't have the feel of it. If Paul Heyman was so scared of Sabu taking the title off the Big Show and losing in a big investment on Show, why did he do nothing to stop Sabu. Even an appearance would have helped. The ending came out of nowhere, which is ok at times, but since this is under Extreme Rules I expected more, but I wasn't upset by it. Their rematch on ECW two days later was a bit better than this match.

Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Orton: This was Orton's big opportunity to show to everyone that he can be a main guy again and carry a lesser wrestler (Hogan) to a good match like HBK did last year. That did not happen. The fans were more into seeing Hogan rather than anything else. It was good for seeing Hogan pulling off his usual spots, but it did nothing for Orton. Another thing I noticed, Hogan's novelty act is wearing out fast. While his reaction was loud, it wasn't "Hulk Hogan" loud. The milking of the crowd can only work for so long before they want something else.

Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley: This was the match I was looking forward to; more so than any other match. I heard that they wanted to recreate the 1989 classic "I Quit" match between Flair and Funk. I have that match but as of yet, I haven't seen it. This match started out brutal real fast. They used, barb wire boards, barb wire bats, thumbtacks and we even got the see the classic Nestea Plunge out of Foley. Just when this match was reaching its climax, the ending killed it. It was a bit confusing. For me, it looked like Foley quit because Flair was not going to stop and Foley was still seeing stars from the plunge, but the way the announcers played it, it made it look like Foley quit so Flair wouldn't hit Melina who was shielding Foley. Good match, quirky ending.

Batista vs. King Booker: This match needed to be great because Smackdown is in such a dire state right now, it is looked upon my many people as the minor leagues. This match pretty much came out of nowhere. While it was logical for a former world champion who was pinned or submitted to lose the title to be given a match for said championship, there was no appropriate build for their match. Not to mention the fact that we are supposed to forget about their little scuffle at the Summerslam photo shoot, which was reported again and again on WWE.com. You would think that they would have incorporated some of that into their match since they are the ones who brought so much attention to it. It would have made the match more interesting.

The match was ok at best. A lot of sloppy offense mostly from Batista really hurt this match. I'm not sure if Booker was sandbagging him, alluding to the fight mentioned earlier, or Batista was phoning in his performance but none of these guys were on their A game, especially Batista. The crowd was dead for this match; perhaps it was from the earlier match with Foley and Flair, but coming to the end they woke up a bit.. Those 4-5 minute chinlocks didn't help much either. The ending was very bad too. A clean victory would have been great, or some sort of small controversy would have sufficed too, but Sharmell, who looked amazing that night, might I add, interfering by smacking Batista weakened an already weak match.

DX vs. The McMahons: This has gone on too long. DX went from cool to embarrassing within a month. Say, did we ever get an explanation of why DX is back? Yeah, I didn't think so; that would have actually helped. Not only that, it seems that DX is the most unstoppable force in WWE. The Spirit Squad (who are the tag team champions in case you forgot, because I sure did) couldn't touch these guys and any chance they had was quickly snuffed. At Summerslam, DX single handedly beat the Spirit Squad, Mr. Kennedy, Finlay and Regal with ease. It took the Big Show to actually turn the favor. A quick note, Kennedy got a nice reception, followed by Finlay. I know the internet loves Kennedy, but I still don't see why. He's good, but he hasn't shown much to me yet.

By the time the match actually started, DX was already laid out. I loved the way the McMahons were using double team moves, and even finishers from tag teams in the '80's like the Decapitation, Hart Attack and the Doomsday Device, all on HBK by the way. Hunter was still laid out. When he finally got the tag, he became Superman. What happened to the pain he was feeling after being chokeslammed though a table? After HHH was getting the match balanced in his favor, Umaga made his presence know attacking him with the taped thumb of doom, or the Samoan Spike as its better known. Kane comes down to attack Umaga and help DX. Why, you may ask. :shrugs: It hurts to make sense out of this stuff.

With it being back to DX vs. McMahons, Shane went for the Coast-to-Coast on Hunter, and got superkicked along the way. That was a nice spot, but we all saw that if it didn't happen, Shane wasn't going to hit Hunter anyway. He landed right in front of him and to make matters worse, HBK's foot didn't even hit him. In the end DX won. and sadly, it seems that this feud won't end here.

John Cena vs. Edge: People sure do hate John Cena. I don't hate the guy. I'm a fan of is enthusiasm and his ability to work hard and give 110% every night. His in-ring abilities may be severely limited, but he does try to cover some of that up with his in-ring charisma. Like I've said before and will keep saying, John Cena isn't a bad wrestler. It's just that in this point, he can afford not to do any fancy moves, the top rope drops, the submissions or even good old chain wrestling. there are things he can do to make himself better, but I believe that the WWE has to be the ones who tell him what he needs, and they don't even realize they have a problem (like the boos aren't a warning sign)

Edge is where he belongs, on the top of the WWE. When Hunter was there, it was stale and he was stale. Make no mistake, Hunter is still at the top, but just not in the title picture. Edge gives great performances many times and given the right opponent, can give match on the night performances as well.

The match at Summerslam was a good match, and I loved the way the stipulation of the title changing hands through a DQ was used. Not much bad things to say about it, but I do have two qualms:

When Sharmell jumped on Batista, the match ended on a DQ. When Lita jumped on Cena, the ref who saw this did nothing. Why?

Edge had to use brass knuckles to win this match. Can't he ever win a match cleanly or on his own. His stock drops each time that happens. He has to be a dominant heel champ; Hunter can't hold that title all the time.

All in all, the PPV was not the best PPF the WWE has produced. The 2 best matches were the I Quit match and the WWE title matches, and those were above average at best.

WrestleMania 22 Thoughts
Mood:  lazy
It's no secret that this WrestleMania was one that had low expectations. I went to my cousins house to see it and even when it started, we were debating on whether we should order it or not. We finally relented and ordered it in the middle of the MITB match. I saw the beginning on the replay, so I didn't miss anything. Now, on to my review:

Kane/Big Show vs. Carlito/Masters: This was an OK opening match. The crowd was heavily into Carlito, which was cool with me, pun intended. In my prediction I said the champs would retain with Masters being pinned, but once again it was Carlito who was pinned. With Carlito and Masters defeated, there are really no challengers for the tag titles. I see a rematch between the two as early as tonight or even at Backlash.

Money In The Bank: Last years match was the benchmark, and this years match did not surpass it. I found it to be too short and too spotty, in a sense of there was no foundation. Last year, the biggest threat was Kane, in which most of the attacks were to Kane to slow him down. In this one, no one was a real threat to the others. Sure, you can say that everyone was a threat to someone, but it wasn't played out that way. Finlay, Lashley and Hardy (oddly the Smackdown guys) were not seen as credible contenders. I did not see them coming up as winners here. Flair has the whole "last run" idea going with him, so it was really up to Rob Van Dam and Shelton to bring this match as high as it could go, which they did.

One thing I was a bit upset about was the cameramen missed a few of the cool spots like RVD's top rope chair dropkick to Lashley and Shelton's springboard jump from the roped to the ladder. In the end, like I predicted, RVD won the match and will have an opportunity to challenge the WWE Champ to a match within 12 months.

JBL vs. Chris Benoit: This match would have been more stronger if Chris Benoit could have had some mic time to build to this match. All the mic went to JBL, which in itself isn't a bad thing, but it made Benoit an afterthought when he was talking about Stone Cold.

This match was good in ways that the technical aspect was drawn. JBL working with less power moves, and more wearing down Benoit with a slower pace was a good idea. A clean pin would have worked better with JBL in terms of his character with beating a great wrestler like Eddie Guerrero for the WWE title and beating a great wrestler in Chris Benoit for the US title. He would have more ammo to use in his interviews. So far, I'm 3-0.

Mick Foley vs. Edge: At first, I didn't like the way this match came about. I believed that the main event should have been Edge defending his title against Cena. After a few weeks of building this match, I was very interested in it and when the time came, they delivered. It was a good brawl which was paced quite nicely. There were many good memorable spots and the ending was an exclamation point in the match and feud.

Boogeyman vs. Booker T.: Booker deserved better than this. Like I said in my post of his Royal Rumble match, his offense was terrible and this selling of his opponents moves were even worse. Did you see how he was bumping off of Booker T's punches and how he tried to move out of the way of his scissor kick? The less said about this match, the better.

Mickie James vs. Trish Stratus: I had read house show reports saying that these two women have had great matches. Last night, they had another great match. This match had the best build up compared to the other matches.

What was really interesting was that the crowd started to boo Trish and embrace Mickie. I don't know if it was because Mickie was good at playing her character or that people felt that Trish held the title for long enough or it could have been something else, but it did make the match more interesting. Aside from the botched finish, this match was very good.

Undertaker vs. Mark Henry (Casket match): Going into this match, I believe we all knew what the outcome would be. All we wanted to know was if Undertaker could carry Henry to a good match. Undertaker has had many great matches at WrestleManias, but this wasn't one of them, especially compared to last years match with Randy Orton. Undertaker, 14-0; Ron, 7-0.

Shawn Michaels vs. Vince McMahon: Although this match had a long steady buildup, it wasn't a match I was interested in. The match came about when Vince came out on Raw and critiqued Bret Hart's DVD. HBK came out, told Vince to get over it, saying that it was 8 years ago, and somehow Vince took exception.

The way I see it is this: Shawn Michaels, a man who has had great WrestleMania matches from Chris Jericho, HHH and Benoit and Kurt Angle, will now go against Vince McMahon. What a waste. The match was what I expected it to be, a brawl that would have seen Vince gets beaten down and busted open, massive interference and HBK bumping all over the place and pulling out a big stunt to end the match.

Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle vs. Randy Orton: I was so pissed that this match was next. This is the main event. Not the Smackdown main event, the Wrestlemania main event. This match had the potential to be the greatest match of the night if they were given the main event slot which, coupled with the time the Cena/HHH match got, would have done so.

My main gripe besides placement of the match, was the length of the match. I think it didn't even go over 10 minutes. A true waste. Not only that, but Angle defeated both of his opponents in 5 minutes with the Angle Lock.

I was surprised at the response Rey got. This must have been the first time I heard him booed. I was rooting for Angle to win, as were the entire crowd, but Rey would have been a better choice than Orton.

The ending of the match with the celebration with Chavo and Vickie Guerrero should have been the last image of WrestleMania 22 to give it that big time storybook ending. Instead we got Cena holding up the title to a chorus of boos. Yeah, that's special.

Torrie Wilson vs. Candice Michelle: Who cares? I left the room to make me a cup of tea, so I didn't watch this "match" nor did I care who "won."

Triple H vs. John Cena: This match is the main event of the night. What really made this match special was the crowd popping for everything HHH did and booing the hell out of everything Cena did. While it was a good match, without the crown, this match would have been sub-par. I have read reviews of this match saying it was a very good match, a 4-5 star main event. Bullsh*t! What made this match good was the people, plain and simple. If the crown was like any other crowd, this match would have plodded along.

I am glad that Cena won though. He needed this win more than HHH did. I still feel that HHH will get the title back sooner than later, but for what it was, Cena got the big win he needed.

---

Out of 11 matches, The 10 I predicted, (the pillow fight is not a match, therefore it does not count) I got 9 right, which is pretty damn good.

WrestleMania 22 Predictions
Mood:  rushed
Coming from a request from my guestbook, I have decided to get feedback from visitors on my site about predictions for WrestleMania 22. I realize that today, Tuesday, February 21, 2006, may be a bit early, but if you don't know half that matches that are going to be on WM22 without they actaully confirming it, you should crawl out from that rock you've been living under.

Here are the matches that will happen and may happen and my predictions:

Kurt Angle vs. Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio: I expected Randy Orton to win the Royal Rumble, but with Rey winning it, he would face Angle at WrestleMania 22, which I thought was better. Then the WWE had to go and make Orton beat Rey for his title shot. This match will be a triple threat match with Orton, Angle and Mysterio.

I would have to say that Kurt Angle would pin Rey Mysterio after he received an RKO to retain the title.

HHH vs. John Cena: Triple H is going to WrestleMania to fight for the WWE Championship. Didn't see this coming. This will be the 6th WrestleMania main event match that Hunter will be in and it's his 5th consecutive main event. Not even Hulk Hogan main evented that many WrestleMania's back to back. I, as well as others have grown tired of HHH, as he is no longer fresh, but I feel that he will be the most cheered in his match, which brings me to John Cena.

The kids and the women love Cena, but the men can't stand him. Charisma, he's got to spare, but wrestling ability, which is what many true fans really want to see, he couldn't fill a thimble, which is a shame because he really is talented in the ring. There is no doubt in my mind that after the initial pop for his entrance, it will all be a chorus of boos as evident on Saturday Night's Main Event.

I am really picking not who I want to win, but who I want to lose the least. I see John Cena picking up the win by reversing a Pedigree and hitting the FU.

Money in the Bank 2: Last night, Carlito proposed a MITB match at WM, similar to last year. I didn't see Raw last night, so when I read the results, I was surprised at this suggestion, but not by much. As of 02/28/2006, the participants are Ric Flair, RVD and Shelton Benjamin. As of 03/06, the MITB will now be interpromotional.

As of March 21, 2006, the 6 contenders are Flair, RVD, Shelton, Matt Hardy, Finlay and Lashley. I see RVD winning this match.

HBK vs. McMahon: We take a talented popular wrestler who can make any match a 4 star classic, as evidenced by his previous WM matches, and we put him in the ring against a 60 year old man who's mobility is probably as bad as Hulk Hogan and what do you get? That's the thing, I don't know either. I see McMahon get busted open 2 minutes into this "match." I hope and pray that Bret Hart doesn?t get involved in this in this cluster of a match.

HBK will go over here. A win for Vince will do absolutely nothing.

Edge vs. Cactus Jack: Edge really needs the win here, seeing as he has lost all the heat he had when he lost the WWE title to Cena at the Royla Rumble. I think this could be a good match, but I feel that he should be in the main event facing Cena. As of 03/06, the match will now be a hardcore match. If this match is anything like the hardcore match between Foley and Orton in Backlash '04, this should be a great match.

Edge pins Foley with help from Lita.

Carlito & Masters/BigShow & Kane: The tag team situation and the titles are a joke. No one cares about them because the WWE doesnt care about them. This is one of many matches that I won't place all my attention to.

Kane & Show defeats the two youngsters with a double chokeslam to Masters, as opposed to their last encounter where Carlito got to be pinned.

Undertaker vs. Mark Henry (Casket Match): Man, why are most of these WrestleMania matches feel like they should be on TV, rather than on the biggest PPV of the year? Undertaker has his winning streak to look forward to seeing as the chance of Mark Henry defeating him are slim to none.

A Tombstone Piledriver and a roll in the casket spells a win for the Deadman (14-0).

Trish Stratus vs. Mickie James: Finally. This story has been dragging out forever, and sadly it was the only good thing on Raw for weeks now.

I still wished that it was Trish who turned heel instead of James since Trish was really good as a heel. In any event, it should be a great match as I've read reports on live events that said the same thing.

Mickie James defeats Trish with the Stratusfaction to win the title.

Chris Benoit vs. JBL: I almost forgot about this match. I almost forgot Benoit was the champion. The build for this match was lazy. You have a legit injury that could have been played off and they did nothing. Benoit never even got on the mic since he became champ.

I can only hope that they give us a good match.

JBL pins Benoit with the Clothesline From Hell to win the United States title.

Boogeyman vs. Booker T. and Sharmell: The Boogeyman had his chance to impress me at the Royal Rumble and he failed miserably. The guy sucks inthe ring and his out of ring skits got old two months ago. You can only eat so much worms before the shock value wears off.

Booker T. gets counted out unfortunately, and Sharmell gets a worm bath.

2006 Royal Rumble Thoughts
Mood:  a-ok
I have decided to create a blog for this site, seeing as blogs are popular nowadays. This inaugural blog will be about my thoughts on last nights PPV, the Royal Rumble. I was not into this Rumble at all. It felt too mediocre, not much of a PPV. For some reason, the audio was bad on my tv. I couldn't hear the announcers and the music and fans cheers and boos regulated at different times. Lets go on with my rundown:

Cruiserweight match: I had no idea of this match since I heard it on some site. I don't care about that title because there has been no time for me, or anyone to be invested in these people. How many of you actually knew Jaime Noble returned to the WWE? At least Helms won the title so he can go back to Smackdown and get a decent push as there was no way he was going to get it on Raw.

Women's match: Sadly the womens title means more than the IC title right now. At least there is some kind of storyline tying all this up, but I'm sure the ending of it will be anticlimactic. Ashley does not belong in the ring. Let her do her photo shoots and bikini matches, but leave the wrestling to wrestlers.

Boogeyman/JBL: JBL was on the offensive the entire match, then he misses a Clothesline from Wall Street and gets hit with a pumphandle slam and is pinned. WTF? Didn't this happen to him at WrestleMania 21? JBL was champ for 10 months. He survived Frog splashes from a steel cage, tombstones, chokeslams through limos and the ring, barb wire steel cages, last ride matches bullrope matches, fatal fourways and he is taken down by a pumphandle slam. Pathetic. Not to mention that Boogeyman was terrible in the ring. The way he takes bumps and sells the offense of his opponent was horrible.

Battle Royal: Why was this match next? I have no idea, but the battle royal was pretty dull. Of course I expected HHH to win this. Him or Orton. I'm kind of happy that Rey won it, but I don't feel he should be gunning for the heavyweight title right now. Next year, without a doubt, but not now. The battle royal started slow with HHH and Rey being the only 2 in the ring when they were throwing everyone out. The surprise 3 entrants, Tatanka, Eugene and Goldust elicited nothing from me. How was Chavo Guerrero eliminated? He went between the top and middle ropes to go for the Frog Splash when HHH pushed him off. The MVP of the Rumble was definitely Rey Mysterio.

Cena/Edge: This means that Angle/Henry is the main event. Nice. This match was not good, which is a shame cause I'm sure they could have had a great match. How the hell can they take the WWE title off of Edge? For the 3 weeks he was champ, he was a good champ. The ratings were actually higher than Cena's run. The heat he had was greater than HHH, but John Cena had another mediocre match, won the title and cemented the idea in my mind that HHH will take it away at WM22. All the heat Edge had was killed off last night. Not to mention the fact he lost by tapping out to a STF that looked liked it couldn't hurt a 4 year old.

Angle/Henry: This is the only time I have ever walked away from a Kurt Angle match. I hope that never happens again. I did happen to see when Taker came out and did his little light show. That purple lightning was too cartoonish but the ring collapsing was nice.

All in all, a terrible Rumble PPV, that has always been a favorite of mine. Please share your thoughts.