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
Showing posts with label Umaga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Umaga. Show all posts
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Summerslam 2007 Review
Well, I think after this one it's going to take awhile for fans to get the sour taste of John Cena retaining the belt out of their mouth enough to really enjoy this show for what it was, which was pretty good. Here's the reviews.
WWE Championship
John Cena v. Randy Orton
This is an utterly fantastic match. This played off a lot of the Cena defenses we've seen thus far with yet another new spin from a challenger. Orton, like he has for most of the feud (and the entire summer for that matter) seemed to be one step ahead of the champ for most of the early going. He's working smart here, sticking to the neck and head to do his major damage, but never getting carried away at any one point.
The staple of John Cena's work is his Jerry Lawler like comebacks and Orton sees them coming almost before John Cena does. He easily neutralizes them in the early going, but as the match continues along, he begins to gradually lose control of Cena and Cena gets in more and more offense. Orton seems resigned to the fact that a Cena is going to make a comeback at some point, and thus keeps the work targeted so that when and if it happends, he can pull off an RKO and win the match, so he's trying to make sure that if the worst case scenario occurs, he'll be able to bail himself out and the work will pay off.
Orton does a brilliant job for most of the match, but the past mistakes of challengers catches up with him as well. Like Umaga at the Royal Rumble and Michaels at Wrestlemania 23, Orton controls most of the match but Cena is always able to avoid the home run shot. When Orton finally DOES connect with an RKO, he's too worn from all his prior activity to follow up and get the pin fall.
The end comes when Orton falls into the same pit everyone else does, and lets things open up, which was exactly what he wanted to avoid. It's Cena, ironically, whose three seconds away from winning a match at anytime and like any clutch hitter, connects with a big FU at the right time for the pin fall.
The psychology is really done well here as Cena just looks lucky to be alive after the match. Like the Yankees though, the first eight innings don't mean anything unless you can get the hits when they count and Cena got that big hit. This is a great story and a great match was made super great by a super hot crowd. Best match of the card and best match for Cena since Raw. It was Orton's best performance ever. ****1/4
World Heavyweight Championship
The Great Khali v. Batista
Batista steals a page from John Cena's book and basically tries to sell Khali's stuff like it's death. Problem is, Batista ain't John Cena. Khali works fairly well here, keeping Batista on the mat and using his leverage to his advantage. Batista tries to work in spurts but continuously gets put on his rump by the bigger, stronger champ. He's one guy Bats can't toss bombs with.
The commentating on the part of Michaels Cole and JBL is outstanding here and made what looks like a mediocre, plodding match, pretty decent actually. Especially getting over Khali's rest holds as being truly painful. Just as this match was getting somewhere though, they seemingly cut it off with a really weird DQ finish that caught Cole and JBL off guard. They tried to cover it with the old chicken shit thing, but Khali doesn't look nor act like a chicken, so I don't get it. Moderately decent stuff that got cut before it went anywhere with a bad finish. **1/4
ECW World Championship
John Morrison v. CM Punk
This was ok for the first five minutes or so, but as the match progressed, it fell apart. I don't know if Punk and Morrison were trying too hard to get a totally dead crowd into it or not, but it suffered from all the same lapses their Bash match did with yet another super akward finish. Nice back and forth with another akward conclusion. **1/4
Triple H v. King Booker
This wasn't sensational or anything, but I wasn't really expecting much more than this. Triple H looks slimmed down after being out for so long and he definately looked like he had a lot of adjusting to do throughout the match. This was kept pretty tight, around ten minutes or so, but that works well considering the fact that the Game is coming off a big injury and they didn't do that last time he had his big comeback and it left him kind of exposed.
Booker worked ok in this match, but it wasn't really about anything more than the jerk-face heel finally getting his. I'd have liked to have seen them toss Sharmell's involvement in things into the match a bit more. Nothing spectacular here, but served it's purpose of bringing the Game back and blowing off a nice 'heel will get his ' sort of feud. **1/2
Rey Mysterio v. Chavo Guererro
Very good stuff here. These two are always good for a little something fun and this wasn't much different. In fact I found this to be QUITE good.
Rey looks like a super hero which is good for the kiddies, but brings a lot of intensity to the match, which is something he sorely lacked during his world title run. Chavo is a total asshole here, going right after the injured leg and being entirely unafraid of the man he conquered last fall. The near falls were worked really well and this was well grounded, not featuring too much of the Rey flippy stuff. It's a fairly compact match at slightly over ten minutes. Certainly worth a good look see and a sleeper pay per view match. ***
WWE Intercontinental Championship--Triple Threat Match
Umaga v. Mr. Kennedy v. Carlito
This wasn't bad, but a little anti-climatic. The heels basically decide to gang up on Umaga, but can't ever get on the same page long enough to really get anywhere. The one downfall of these matches in the WWE is the tendancy for guys to get stuck in the whole 'guy gets chucked and two guys go at it' formula but these guys did a good job of avoiding that for the most part. nice action here with Umaga getting his, Kennedy and Carlito squabbling, then Umaga pwns them. Nice match, but nothing long enough to warrant more than **1/2
Diva Battle Royal for the #1 Contendership to the Women's Championship
This was pretty forgettable, although not entirely bad. Basically it comes down to Beth Phoenix taking on the Smackdown duo of Michelle McCool and Torrie Wilson, who quickly get overhwhelmed and dumped by Phoenix. I would've liked to have seen them stick with this for longer than they did as nothing really played out except for the fact that Beth Phoenix is a tank. *1/4
Kane v. Finlay (w/ Hornswaggle)
Another match that was fine for what it was. Finlay is best when he's got a body part to tear apart and he does that here, working over Kane's ribs with pretty good effect. Kane sells as good as he has in the past year or two and it makes Finlay's offense believable. The ending is a bit rushed, but it is fun with Hornswaggle and Finlay freezing in fear of the Kane pop up. Nice little match and good opener to get the crowd going, but nothing more, nothing less. *1/2
Overall Thoughts: This is going to be a show that might not get rave reviews now, but will be looked upon fondly over time. The main event is truly sensational and is supplimented with a decent mid card with some fun stuff, mainly Chavo-Rey. The lackluster stuff suffers from weak endings but everything seemed to do what it was intended to do. For the second biggest show of the year, it was dissapointing to not see any title changes, but that shouldn't get in the way of calling this like it was, a solid WWE pay per view. Grade: B
WWE Championship
John Cena v. Randy Orton
This is an utterly fantastic match. This played off a lot of the Cena defenses we've seen thus far with yet another new spin from a challenger. Orton, like he has for most of the feud (and the entire summer for that matter) seemed to be one step ahead of the champ for most of the early going. He's working smart here, sticking to the neck and head to do his major damage, but never getting carried away at any one point.
The staple of John Cena's work is his Jerry Lawler like comebacks and Orton sees them coming almost before John Cena does. He easily neutralizes them in the early going, but as the match continues along, he begins to gradually lose control of Cena and Cena gets in more and more offense. Orton seems resigned to the fact that a Cena is going to make a comeback at some point, and thus keeps the work targeted so that when and if it happends, he can pull off an RKO and win the match, so he's trying to make sure that if the worst case scenario occurs, he'll be able to bail himself out and the work will pay off.
Orton does a brilliant job for most of the match, but the past mistakes of challengers catches up with him as well. Like Umaga at the Royal Rumble and Michaels at Wrestlemania 23, Orton controls most of the match but Cena is always able to avoid the home run shot. When Orton finally DOES connect with an RKO, he's too worn from all his prior activity to follow up and get the pin fall.
The end comes when Orton falls into the same pit everyone else does, and lets things open up, which was exactly what he wanted to avoid. It's Cena, ironically, whose three seconds away from winning a match at anytime and like any clutch hitter, connects with a big FU at the right time for the pin fall.
The psychology is really done well here as Cena just looks lucky to be alive after the match. Like the Yankees though, the first eight innings don't mean anything unless you can get the hits when they count and Cena got that big hit. This is a great story and a great match was made super great by a super hot crowd. Best match of the card and best match for Cena since Raw. It was Orton's best performance ever. ****1/4
World Heavyweight Championship
The Great Khali v. Batista
Batista steals a page from John Cena's book and basically tries to sell Khali's stuff like it's death. Problem is, Batista ain't John Cena. Khali works fairly well here, keeping Batista on the mat and using his leverage to his advantage. Batista tries to work in spurts but continuously gets put on his rump by the bigger, stronger champ. He's one guy Bats can't toss bombs with.
The commentating on the part of Michaels Cole and JBL is outstanding here and made what looks like a mediocre, plodding match, pretty decent actually. Especially getting over Khali's rest holds as being truly painful. Just as this match was getting somewhere though, they seemingly cut it off with a really weird DQ finish that caught Cole and JBL off guard. They tried to cover it with the old chicken shit thing, but Khali doesn't look nor act like a chicken, so I don't get it. Moderately decent stuff that got cut before it went anywhere with a bad finish. **1/4
ECW World Championship
John Morrison v. CM Punk
This was ok for the first five minutes or so, but as the match progressed, it fell apart. I don't know if Punk and Morrison were trying too hard to get a totally dead crowd into it or not, but it suffered from all the same lapses their Bash match did with yet another super akward finish. Nice back and forth with another akward conclusion. **1/4
Triple H v. King Booker
This wasn't sensational or anything, but I wasn't really expecting much more than this. Triple H looks slimmed down after being out for so long and he definately looked like he had a lot of adjusting to do throughout the match. This was kept pretty tight, around ten minutes or so, but that works well considering the fact that the Game is coming off a big injury and they didn't do that last time he had his big comeback and it left him kind of exposed.
Booker worked ok in this match, but it wasn't really about anything more than the jerk-face heel finally getting his. I'd have liked to have seen them toss Sharmell's involvement in things into the match a bit more. Nothing spectacular here, but served it's purpose of bringing the Game back and blowing off a nice 'heel will get his ' sort of feud. **1/2
Rey Mysterio v. Chavo Guererro
Very good stuff here. These two are always good for a little something fun and this wasn't much different. In fact I found this to be QUITE good.
Rey looks like a super hero which is good for the kiddies, but brings a lot of intensity to the match, which is something he sorely lacked during his world title run. Chavo is a total asshole here, going right after the injured leg and being entirely unafraid of the man he conquered last fall. The near falls were worked really well and this was well grounded, not featuring too much of the Rey flippy stuff. It's a fairly compact match at slightly over ten minutes. Certainly worth a good look see and a sleeper pay per view match. ***
WWE Intercontinental Championship--Triple Threat Match
Umaga v. Mr. Kennedy v. Carlito
This wasn't bad, but a little anti-climatic. The heels basically decide to gang up on Umaga, but can't ever get on the same page long enough to really get anywhere. The one downfall of these matches in the WWE is the tendancy for guys to get stuck in the whole 'guy gets chucked and two guys go at it' formula but these guys did a good job of avoiding that for the most part. nice action here with Umaga getting his, Kennedy and Carlito squabbling, then Umaga pwns them. Nice match, but nothing long enough to warrant more than **1/2
Diva Battle Royal for the #1 Contendership to the Women's Championship
This was pretty forgettable, although not entirely bad. Basically it comes down to Beth Phoenix taking on the Smackdown duo of Michelle McCool and Torrie Wilson, who quickly get overhwhelmed and dumped by Phoenix. I would've liked to have seen them stick with this for longer than they did as nothing really played out except for the fact that Beth Phoenix is a tank. *1/4
Kane v. Finlay (w/ Hornswaggle)
Another match that was fine for what it was. Finlay is best when he's got a body part to tear apart and he does that here, working over Kane's ribs with pretty good effect. Kane sells as good as he has in the past year or two and it makes Finlay's offense believable. The ending is a bit rushed, but it is fun with Hornswaggle and Finlay freezing in fear of the Kane pop up. Nice little match and good opener to get the crowd going, but nothing more, nothing less. *1/2
Overall Thoughts: This is going to be a show that might not get rave reviews now, but will be looked upon fondly over time. The main event is truly sensational and is supplimented with a decent mid card with some fun stuff, mainly Chavo-Rey. The lackluster stuff suffers from weak endings but everything seemed to do what it was intended to do. For the second biggest show of the year, it was dissapointing to not see any title changes, but that shouldn't get in the way of calling this like it was, a solid WWE pay per view. Grade: B
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