WWE: The Goodies

WWE Championship-- Last Man Standing
John Cena v. Umaga
Royal Rumble 2007

This isn’t just the best match I’ve seen this year, it’s one of the best matches I’ve seen the WWE produce this decade and easily the best Last Man Standing match ever. Cena’s selling takes this match to another level. The theme is a gradual escalation of violence and all the spots stay consistent with the overall theme of the match.

Cena survives and escapes every hair raising scenario he’s in until Umaga basically snaps and the match goes from violent, to utterly out of control. Umaga rips off the corner piece looking for a samoan spike. Cena counteres and instead of the FU, uses the ring ropes to choke the monster unconscious. Just a sensational, sensational match, and my runaway pick for match of the year.

Funny enough, I thought i'd have a lot more to say about this, but I feel the action speaks for itself and there are really no flaws here, save for the fact that I don't think anyone thought Cena was losing this heading in. Still though, this match rules at a ridiculous level. ****1/2

Shawn Michaels-John Cena
Raw, 4/23

This built absolutely superbly off of their Wrestlemania encounter and in all honesty, this was an entirely better match. Cena starts off as the cocky champion this time. I like that version of Cena. The underdog thing, while Cena does it well, has become a little stale and it's nice to see Cena playing up the fact that he's really the man. It's a welcome change of pace.

Cena's already defeated HBK once before and figures this’ll be a walk in the park. NOTHING Michaels can do seems to work against Cena this time around, as Cena's bursting with confidence. This worked almost like an extended version of HBK-Angle from WM 21 a few years previous except all the segments are more developed and drawn out. Michaels is finally able to grab a headlock and maintain control, but that’s about it. You always have this feeling that Michaels knows if he loses the headlock, he's going to get owned.

Before long Cena gains the edge again. Gradually HBK just has to get a little wreckless and does. The whole show stopper thing comes out when Michaels stops caring and opens a match up. He can't wrestle conservatively if he wants to beat Cena. He pays for the risks a few times but is slowly able to sucker Cena into playing his game.

Again though, that was a three part play, with three separate acts (matches):

Act I-- Cena makes HBK his bitch. Again.

Act II-- Whatever you can do, I can do better.

Act III-- Just when you think you've got Michaels......

Cena looked more like 'Champion' in that match then he ever has. He was billed as dominant in the early going and completely out wrestled, out brawled and basically dominated the entire first 20 minutes. Even when HBK would catch a break, he couldn't keep his momentum up long enough to mount any respectable momentum. I loved the whole Cena 'imposes his will' on HBK. After a while though, Cena had to start going for big moves. So HBK countered back with big moves of his own. It was the only way he could stick around in the match. With every big move he escaped from, he frustrated Cena more. With every big move he hit, he bought himself time.... an opportunity... to strike. HBK finally hits SCM, but he hasn't gotten enough offense, especially on a guy of John Cena's calibur, to put him down. And then we get the home stretch, the last ten minutes where both guys split a crash and burn and moments of exhaution and bewilderment. Finally, HBK gets the narrowest of openings.. the smallest possible opening, an completely cold cocks John Cena with a second sweet chin music. Lighting had to strike twice, but HBK survived and perservered.

Honestly, this was spaced out almost as well as the Flair-Steamboat II and Joe-Punk matches... it was sensationally called and any schmoe could pick up on the story, which made it even more enjoyable. ****1/4


WWE Championship
John Cena-Bobby Lashley
Great American Bash 2007

Great match. Honestly. They did an excellent job of establishing Lashley as a legitimate threat early on. He out powers Cena. Two minutes later he wins a mat grappling exchange. Then, shockingly enough, he wins a striking exchange. He seemingly does everything a little bit better on a physical level at least.

Then Cena does his Cena thing, which is get resourceful and figure out a way to win the match. One thing I LOVE about Cena is how well he conveys how important it is to his character to win through a sense of urgency. Cena didn't do the little Cena comeback thing here, he just realizes he's getting beaten up pretty badly and needs to lay in the big bombs to put Lashley down or he's not gonna last long.

Lashley's hungry, but a little TOO hungry and gets himself into some precarious positions and counters throughout the match. Finally, he gets really young and stupid and follows Cena to the top rope and Cena kills him with a top rope FU and that's it. Cena looks resourceful while Lashley looks like he's physically there, but just needs work on the mental game. Given the build they went with, the finisher whoring didn't bother me all that much towards the end and the crowd was absolutely eating every minute of it up. It's EASILY the best Bobby Lashley match i've ever seen and one of Cena's stronger performances this year, which really is saying somethign considering the year he's had. Good match with high intensity that everyone looked like they benefitted from. ***3/4

WWE Intercontinental Championship
Umaga-Jeff Hardy
Great American Bash 2007

Excellent match. Until the main event this was a walkaway for match of the night on the bash card. I TOTALLY bought Umaga as a monster while for a brief period, bought Jeff Hardy beating him. I'm not huge on Hardy as I think he's pretty one dimensional, but the one thing he does well (punching bag), he does really well. Pair that off with Umaga's incredible ability to whoop massive ammounts of ., you've got a great match up. I loved the sense of urgency on Umaga's part at the end to stop screwing around and just end the match. Great stuff ***1/2

World Heavyweight Championship
Batista v. The Undertaker
Wrestlemania 23

Fun ’big guns’ type of match up. The story of this one is basically two of the most physically imposing guys on Smackdown throwing bombs at each other until one can keep the other down long enough to beat him. Neither guy maintains control very long and like the Cena-Umaga match from a few months prior, the violence and big bombs escalate. In the end, Taker’s able to absorb more punishment to eek out the win and the title.

The fifteen minutes or so wasn’t long enough for some, but honestly, this is how all Batista matches should go. He kept great pace and the big spots all served as small bookmarks as the match went on. While Cena-HBK later that night was more of a marathon, this was more of a sprint. It’s an excellent big man match well worth going out of your way to check out. It's not a particularly complicated match and it shouldn't be. They whored the finishers out a bit towards the end, but I don't think it was particularly an issue given the thrust they were going for. This is a great match worth checking out. ***3/4

WWE Championship
John Cena v. Shawn Michaels
Wrestlemania 23

I've watched this match probably close to seven million times and I don't know what it is, but these two really failed to give this match that 'it' factor, or make Cena's win seem like a BIG deal and ultimately, it suffered from the same thing Cena's match with Triple H at Wrestlemania 22 did.

There's really nothing bad here but the more I watch of both the WM 22 match and now this one, the more I see the blatant lack of creativity between the two. Both HBK and HHH dominate Cena early on in the match and in this match, BOTH guys get way too comfotable working a lax match against Cena. Cena's will to win and sense of urgency is what leads him to victory. Really, they're very similar matches, with this one being a little bit better and a little more complicated.

Now all that being said, this isn't a bad match at all. Quite the contrary acutally, it's VERY good, but it still lacks that 'it'-ness about it to make it TRULY memorable. In fact, I thought the match they had on Raw a few weeks later was head and shoulders better than this. This is required viewing for your WWE watching this year, but it loses it's luster for me everytime through I suppose whereas others, like the Lashely-Cena match and the Cena-Umaga match get better.

I dunno, this is really good, but again, it's not quite in the league of the other matches. I'd even go as far as to say it's not the best match on the card. ***1/2

WWE Catch Up

I started this sucker just a week or so ago, so I apologize for the initial helter skelter of it all. I've got a lot of stuff from 07 that I want to get on here, and will be playing catch up with. Forgive the disorganization. That being said, here's some WWE stuff I've been meaning to put up here.

WWE Championship
John Cena v. The Great Khali
Judgement Day

This was shockingly good considering Khali was in this. There's not a whole heck of a lot to this, as it's just mostly Khali killing Cena with big man stuff and Cena selling his backside off for the big man. Somehow, despite being exceptionally basic, is a really good match.

Cena goes right at the challenger, seemingly unintimidated, but nonetheless a stupid move. Khali cuts him off in short order and sends most of the match tossing Cena all over the ring. Everytime Cena mounts a bit of a comeback, Khali cuts it off with something special looking. On the outside, he tosses Cena into the steps in a cool looking spot and cuts the second Cena comeback off with a nasty looking wheel kick.

The end is done really well though, seemingly playing off immediate pain rather than long, sustained selling. Khali tries to pick up the ring steps and Cena drop kicks the steps, sending them crashing into Khali's legs. Khali is gingerly climbing into the ring when Cena flies up to the top rope and comes sailing off with the leg drop. Leg and head hurt, STFU takes care of it. Very good, almost lucky ending for John Cena.

Cena's selling in this of course is top notch, but Khali deserves a tip of the cap too, holding the let on the outside and giving a great 'oh shit' face when he gets tangled in the ropes. This isn't Misawa-Kawada, but it's a fun main event made better by some great selling on the part of John Cena. ***

World Heavyweight Championship
Edge v. Batista
Judgement Day 2007

I don't know how I feel about this to be honest. All three or four of their matches never really got taken up a notch and everything seemed to be about building to a big blow off that never really happened. Even more than the MVP-Benoit matches, these all seemed to be lacking something. This one is okay for what it's worth, as they're just trying to cement Edge as a legitimate Champion. This match is coming directly off the heels of his second cashing in of the money in the bank contract so it'd seem fit that they do something to legitimize him.

Everything Edge does is as a result of a finger poke or some other fun heelish activity. Batista just swings for the fences as per the usual. Really though, this doesn't go anywhere and while nothing they do is remotely offensive or anything, none of it is really all that great either. Very average match that just seemed to lack 'it'. **

MNM v. The Hardy Boys
Royal Rumble 2007

This match had an interesting build to it, as it was a tag team match between teams of former partners who're all in singles feuds with... each other. Far more complicated than most stuff. Basically all you need to know is that both teams are very good and there's lots of hate to go around for everyone.

On the Raw brand, Jeff Hardy and Johnny Nitro have been feuding for forever and a day over the IC Championship. They put on a fun ladder match and a decent, but not overly violent cage match a few weeks prior this this match. Matt Hardy and Joey Mercury have been feuding over on the Smackdown brand in the meantime, as Mercury is still trying to get revenge on Matt for the infamous see-saw ladder shot to the face last month. Leading up to this match, he and Nitro tweaked Hardy's jaw to give it a body part for body part type lead in.

Basically the match progresses along the lines of Joey Mercury wanting to hurt a Hardy. He and Nitro target Matt Hardy and that jaw early on with some fun double team work. The hot tag finally comes and even Jeff Hardy gets cut off. Mercury holds this match together for me though, as he really looks like a spiteful guy and really does a good job of letting everyone know how badly he wants to hurt both brothers. I especially love the part where he decks Matt in the injured jaw only to pull back and show the crowd himself rubbing his fist because he hit Matt so hard.

Mercury's Hardy-hate actually ends up costing his team the match though, as the shoulder tackle to the floor on Matt allows Jeff to get the hidden tag, hit the swanton and win the match. This is definately good stuff. ***

World Heavyweight Championship, Last Man Standing Match
The Undertaker v. Batista
Backlash 2007

Very excited about this given that the Wrestlemania 23 match was so good.

This is built entirely around the whole 'who can keep the other guy down for 10 seconds' thing which I like better than the brutal "I hate your guts" kind of stuff they've done in the past. Thus i'm a little remice when JBL starts talking about how brutal the match is immediately after the video package is done. It's not exactly the end of the world or anything, but still.

Honestly, I didn't really feel as if this was a step up from WM. Basically it's a bomb-fest, but this time it's got some weapons. I like some of the learned spots in this, like Taker cutting off Batista on the top rope and returning the favor for the table shot last month. Batista certainly seems to be the desperate one here and looks better than Taker in this match, IMO. He looks SO rattled by losing his title and it plays out well throughout the match as he doesn't seem to really care how he wins, as long as it happens.

All that aside though, it's really not a major step forward, just a really good last man standing match, which really is ok with me. There's some great selling on the part of Batista, as the leg injury never becomes a focal point of the match, but always a way to gain control for Taker. The spots are good too, especially the steps-shot and the table breakage. The ending is a LITTLE overdone, but keeps the door open for that third match we unfortuantely never got to see.

While this isn't quite up to part with the big five this year, i'd say it's easily towards the top of the next tier of matches and most certainly in the top 10 WWE matches this year. By all means, check it out. ***1/4