I never thought I'd say this about a wrestling program, but blood and injuries got in the way of a good show.
The best match of the show, C.M. Punk vs. Rey Mysterio, was held up for several minutes as a doctor treated a deep cut in Punk's head, and Rey seemed to have a semi-serious injury to his neck. The match eventually resumed with about four minutes of really hot action, before leading to a Mysterio pinfall. (This was probably just in time as well, as Punk's cut had re-opened and looked pretty bad.) The post-match angle was hot as well, although Kane coming to the aid of Mysterio still seems silly to me.
Randy Orton's match with Edge also went to a double count-out because of injury. As Orton was slapping the mat for the RKO, he suddenly stopped. The Internetz is reporting anything from a broken fist to nerve damage, which is unfortunate, because it clearly threw a monkey wrench into the works of the match. Given the circumstances, I kind of wish they had just let Edge has an opportunistic win. You know, like throwing Orton into an armbar or a figure-four, and just going with the injury angle. Orton was able to stand up and move around for a couple minutes, so I think they could have improved the finish a little bit better.
It's unfortunate that both of these matches were a bit spoiled, because the rest of the card was underwhelming to me. Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston actually had a clean finish, with Kingston going over, which surprised me. The Hart Dynasty also beat The Miz and Jericho clean, so I'm not sure where they go from here. Maybe Jericho wins the U.S. Title from Bret Hart to tease some dissension between the team? And Jack Swagger's match with Show downright sucked because it was so short, and it came on the heels of the Orton injury match.
Grade: C-
I used to watch wrestling like 10 years ago. I still catch it every now and again to see who is still wrestling. My favorite was Al Snow. Who wants head? good times.
ReplyDeleteheh, Good ole Al Snow. Yeah, his gimmick was pretty ingeniously stupid for the times, although it wouldn't really fly so much in the PG-rated WWE now.
ReplyDeleteAl Snow was a complete dick to me at a recent con I attended. Used to love the guy. Fuck him.
ReplyDeleteAnyway did they really delay the match because of a wound? Was it a shoot or a work? Maybe I misread.
haha, Was he now? I've only met three wrestlers:
ReplyDelete1 and 2) When I was like five or six, my dad won backstage passes to a WWF show at the Providence Civic Center. I got to meet the Bushwhackers, and they also signed like a little placard thing. I still have it somewhere around here; I should take a photo of it at some point.
3) I went to a Chris Jericho book signing, which was awesome. I had him sign a poster I had of Goldberg, because of their history together. He wrote "Goldberg <3 Jericho" on it.
They delay any match now if there is blood in it, to stitch it up. Allegedly, this is because they now have a PG television rating, but I think it's all part of a long-term angle where the company eventually gets back to Attitude-era style stuff.