allright, so for TP's we have-
Me-5
hoyo and wil TIE-3
house and cdif TIE-1
I tossed everyone a TP in addition to those, and i hope everyone liked playing enough to do one next month, let me know! hopefully well have more cards
also, my thoughts and winners (in bold) below
So, my thoughts on night of champions, by match cause im really board. If anyone else watched it, love to hear your thoughts as well.
Jericho and big show vs legacy
At first when the big show was announced I was like “whaaaaa?” but once they got to the match, I thought it was a great pick storyline and talent wise. Number one, it keeps two heels who really have zero to do at the moment on their respective shows relevant (big show is to over to be part of the US title hunt, he has to win that belt if he’s in a 1 on 1 match to keep M/E credibility, and thus freezes a good mid card storyline. This keeps him clear of it till they need him in the Raw M/E, and allows the younger guys to get good time in going for it. ditto for Jericho, who has no place in a jeff hardy cm punk fued, and thus needs something meaningful to do)
Storyline wise, it makes perfect sense for Jericho’s character to pick show. He’s been portrayed as an unstoppable monster as a heel, and jericho’s character is all about winning at any cost, thus, this pick. Their promo after the win really drove this home as a good team.
The actual match was decent, but not great. I find cody Rhodes unremarkable at best, and he did little to change my opinion here. don’t get me wrong, kid’s a solid worker, but he just…doesn’t do anything remarkable. Diabase looked good, show looked good.
The one funny thing with this match was that they nearly turned y2j face by mistake. When the match turned, and Jericho was getting hammered by legacy, almost immediately the crowd became pro Jericho, to the point of chants for Y2J and “lets go Jericho”. Now, this shows two things. One, legacy is over as heels, and the crowd loathes them, which is very good for WWE. Two, what edge said in an radio interview a few months ago holds true. Once you reach a certain point in the company, work wise, it’s very tough to keep older guys heels.
I forget the exact quote, but edge’s point was pretty much that if you’re a good worker, have been with the company forever, and had remarkable matches as both heel and face, their comes a point where no matter how good a heel you are, the heel heat is all contrived and the minute the fans get a chance to cheer you, they will. This has happened to triple H, HBK, and to an extent, edge (look how fast they accepted that face turn, it was almost like “yea! We can cheer for edge again!!”). IT’s clear its happening to Y2J too. At some point the crowd is uncomfortable booing guys who have given their all to the business.
I love Jericho, to me he’s the top worker from a combined mic and ring work perspective in the WWE, and I think he’s a fantastic heel. That said, look how fast the crowd turned face for him….face turn off a big show backstab at some point months in the future? It may have to happen. Be interesting how WWE plays this. As long as they keep show/Y2J against face tag teams, its not an issue, But what about against heel teams?
In closing, good team and use of talent. Now this team can (hopefully) be used to reestablish a little credibility for the tag team division before getting broken up down the road.
Tommy Dreamer Vs
ChristianThis was an excellent match, though if it was tommy’s last big match (and the tears at the end, hug and putting the title on chris’s waist seems to signal that) I wish they had gotten more time to work with. Both these guys can really work, even if tommy wasn’t blessed with the athletic talent to match his ability as a ring general and his passion. Great back and forth, ended in a good manner. Crowd pop’d huge for captain charisma both to start and as champ.
I don’t know what the WWE is doing with Christian. I get that they need a good ECW champ while the brand new batch of Ohio guys comes in, that’s fine, but get him off that show in short order once those guys get established in their roles.
You are starved for M/E faces right now on the two flagship shows, even more so if jeff hardy is leaving smackdown after summerslam. The WWE crowd clearly loves him, and wants him on one of those shows. If this is punishment for going to TNA, Get over it, it’s bad for business.
Six pack challenge-
kofiEnjoyable match, glad to see Kofi retain the title, he’s been a good champ so far, deserve’s a bit more of a run. I think that he has a bright future, as do a lot of guys in this match. Match itself was mostly a spot fest, do to the amount of workers involved and the time they needed to stay under. enjoyed carlito using primo and then stabbing him in the back. Swagger looked good, MVP still needs a move that makes you go “wow” and that’s not the playmaker. MVP is a charismatic guy, should go far, but his finisher is awful….it looks like less of an impact than half his other moves. Miz was good again, I like him in the mid card. Kinda wish primo as the replacement was evan Bourne, but given last night’s raw, I think they have a bigger push in mind for him.
First snack brea….er diva’s match of Melina vs
mccoolAwesome start to this match, as mccool slidetackles Melina during her split. Nice touch. Pretty good match actually, nice try on the DDT on the railing, even if they blew the spot. One thing I’ll say, Melina needs to quit it with the screaming. It’s ok as a heel gimmick, as a face it just made me want mccool to shut her up.
Triple threat-
ortonReally good match, better than I was expecting. All the guys involved looked good, though Cena’s character at times appeared to not understand the rules. Like, I get that he’s a face, but what is the thinking behind the following as a face in a triple threat match?
1. why break up the pedigree on the announce table/ RKO counter fest that was going on? What do you care if one of them goes through the table…they can’t pin each other there. IT’s a win/win for you as a face. Just odd logic on cena the character’s part.
2. knowing that, why the submission on the outside? He can’t tap their, and you opponent is in the ring awaiting the countout… didn’t get that one either.
Those small nitpickings aside, good match. My only complaint is that this match is stale, but at the end of the day HHH and Cena are hugely over as faces, and Orton as a heel so its hard to get others involved in the raw M/E scene. I particularly liked the RKO on cena, though I thought if they are truly selling the “omg Orton RKO’s cena and sacrificed Rhodes!!” angle, not a good plan to have cody bouncing around afterwards like their wasn’t an impact. He looked to be in better shape than ted JR on the walk out. I think they could have had him sell that he was really hurt, and sell that through this week’s raw and show building resentment by him and ted at being tools of orton.
But, all in all a good match, Orton retains (which he should) and now mabey the cena Orton fued will catch my interest. One minor note, a segment of the crowd is very much turning on cena. His entrance got mixed in boos, and they actually cheered Orton during the cena/Orton punch off. John needs to do something to make the crowd care about him again. He’s still over, but some of the crowd is clearly getting tired with the “I’m a straight baby face who gets beat down for 10 minutes, does 4 shoulder blocks, a punch, and FU’s you for the win!!!” angle.
Second snack match- marlyse vs
james.
I actually felt bad for mikki in this match. Marlyse, while awesome to look at is really, really bad as a wrestler right now, and as this match went on, she just looked more and more out of her league. Mikki did her best to carry her, but it was an awkward match, with a lot of mikki leading marlyse through the paces until the merciful ending. At least they put the title on mikki, who can really work. Now a gail kim heel turn and we can have a women’s fued I care about!
Rey vs dolph-
I thought this was the match of the night, from a pure work in ring standpoint, but the lack of crowd interest hurt it. Between the burn out from the great triple threat and the poop sandwich they had just been forced to watch for 15 minutes, the crowd just seemed…flat. They got back into it by the end, but a lot of good work went for nothing in the early part of this match.
Lot of good spots, rey is a heck of a worker which I knew, but ziggler is a much better worker than I thought. He can really go, and I see why they are starting to push him up the card. They really need to connect me with his character more, because right now he seems like “arrogant kid #4356 to come through the WWE” but I expect as he gets more mic time he’ll carve out a spot. Also, good move giving him some eye candy, im always a fan of that with new kids
A very good match, hopefully they will continue this fued, as I think these two have some pretty good chemistry and could put on a few more good matches on PPV cards together before it ends.
CM punk vs
Hardy Good match, though it felt a bit rushed (which it probley was, the bell rang at 10:48. they let it run 5 minutes over, but still. Probley could have given mikki and mar less than the 15-20 they got and make this a longer match, it deserved it.)
I was shocked to see jeff kick out of the GTS, and even more shocked to see him pick up the W. I guess the rumors are that his last day is now summerslam. Im ok with that if they put the title back on punk.
Punk’s heel turn continues to go well. I think he plays a better heel than face with his gimmick. He gave another really good promo that got a lot of heat. Hardy continues to be jeff…it’s no secret im not a fan, but he is clearly hugely over with the younger crowd (including my brothers and sister), and he is a decent enough worker, so good on him. Word is this Title run is in hopes that by summerslam the WWE hopes to convince him to resign. I hope if he doesn’t they give the title back to punk. I feel like punk deserves the champ run here, but that he’s caught square in the middle of backstage moving and shaking.
Overall, a good PPV IMO.
Anyone else watch it and have any thoughts? Love to read them!