Another PPV has come and gone and as many predicted, The Bash left something to be desired. Some of the matches did prove to be exciting; however, the majority of the PPV was less than what I had hoped for.
Match 1: Scramble Match for ECW Championship between Christian, Jack Swagger, Finlay, Mark Henry, and Tommy Dreamer (defending).
This match was much like the previous scramble matches that WWE had provided. Christian and Swagger started off, followed by Finlay, Tommy Dreamer, and finally Mark Henry.
Swagger started things off by pinning Finlay soon after Finlay entered; however, Finlay soon earned a pinfall of his own. Mark Henry got a pinfall soon after that, followed by another Swagger pinfall. In the end, however, Dreamer walked away victorious, still ECW Champion.
Overall, I felt that this was an average match. There was enough excitement to keep it interesting, but not enough to really “wow” the crowd.
I’m glad Dreamer retained because this really wouldn’t have been a great PPV for him to drop a title that he has worked on for so long.
Match 2: Intercontinental Championship Match between Chris Jericho (defending) and Rey Mysterio. This match also carried the stipulation that, if Rey lost, he would have to lose his mask forever.
Mysterio had most of the momentum early on in this match hitting many high-risk moves such as a seated senton from the turnbuckle to outside the ring, as well as a highly creative double springboard move.
The momentum changed however when Jericho locked in the Walls of Jericho. Mysterio managed to escape and set Jericho up for a reverse 619, but Jericho dodged it and countered with a clothesline. Jericho then attempted a lionsault, but Mysterio was able to get out of the way in time.
It looked as if Jericho had it after he countered a springboard splash, hitting a codebreaker as Mysterio was falling, but was unable to keep Mysterio’s shoulders down for three.
After some more back and forth action, Mysterio hit a 619 and was going for a springboard splash, but Jericho countered it and got Mysterio into the Walls once again.
As Mysterio got out of the Walls, Jericho ripped of Rey’s mask and held it as a trophy. Unfortunately for him, Mysterio had another mask on and continued fighting as Jericho was taunting the crowd. Mysterio hit another 619 and got the pin.
This match, in my opinion, was the best of the night. There was plenty of action, a good amount of high-flying, and I am overall happy with the result. I am a bit upset that Jericho did not hold the title for too long, but I feel its a good thing that Rey kept his mask and hopefully this feud will continue.
Match 3: No DQ Grudge Match between Dolph Ziggler and The Great Khali.
Many people talked down about this match beforehand, but it turned out to not be as bad as expected. Ziggler took a number of bumps from high spots and eventually incorporated a chair into the fight.
What also helped this match was the surprise at the end. All of a sudden, as the two are fighting, Kane’s music comes on and Kane appears at the top of the ramp. Khali is distracted and Ziggler hits him with the chair while his guard is down.
As Kane approaches the ring, Ziggler leaves and Kane enters. Kane takes the discarded chair and delivers several chair shots to the already downed Khali. Kane then leaves as suddenly as he arrived and Ziggler climbs back in the ring and claims the pin.
This match both impressed me and confused me. I’m impressed that this match turned out better than expected and confused as to where Kane is involved in all of this. I haven’t been following SD! as closely as I would like to, but as far as I know, Kane had been missing for quite a while.
As far as I can tell, its just the start of a new feud between Kane and Khali. I hope that Ziggler can remain involved, however, because I have a feeling that a Khali/Kane feud would be terribly boring.
Match 4: Tag Team Championship Match between The Colons (defending) and Priceless.
Unfortunately, my internet went down during this match, so I cannot give an accurate account of this match. All I know is that for some reason, Teddy Long decided to put Edge and Chris Jericho in the match and they ended up winning the titles. Once again, I apologize for not being able to give more on this match.
I see this new tag team as being both a good and bad thing. The bad part is that this could end the Jericho/Mysterio feud which was really the most interesting feud going on right now. Hopefully, both feuds can be incorporated.
On the plus side, this does wonders for the tag team division and could also tremendously help Raw. Since there is only one tag team title currently, that means it can be defended on any brand, possibly bringing Edge and Jericho to Raw.
Match 5: Women’s Championship Match between Michelle McCool and Melina (defending).
As far as diva matches go, this was one of the better ones. There was good back and forth action and it lasted more than two minutes, making the divas seem more credible. Melina looked as if she was going to win at one point, but Alicia Fox pulled McCool’s foot to the rope to break the pinfall.
McCool ended up getting the pin after hitting her finisher to become the first ever diva to hold both the Diva’s and Women’s Championships.
The Divas division hasn’t really been doing too well lately and this match helped to prove that they are worth watching in wrestling as well as just looking good. Hopefully this will help the division become more dominant in the WWE.
Match 6: World Heavyweight Championship Match between Jeff Hardy and CM Punk (defending).
For the first few minutes, Jeff and Punk grappled with each other and got a few hits in on each other. Punk tried to hit the GTS multiple times failing to do so each time. Jeff went for a Swanton Bomb once and missed, but hit it on his second attempt.
The ref counted to three but after Jeff’s music started playing the ref reversed his decision because Punk’s foot was outside of the ropes.
The match then continued for a few more minutes. Punk tried to hit another GTS but Jeff elbowed him in the eye, causing Punk to go into the corner because he was “unable to see.” As the ref was keeping Jeff off of Punk, Punk kicked the ref, getting himself disqualified, but retaining the title.
As it could be expected, Jeff was quite upset by this and so he attacked Punk as Punk was leaving and dragged him back to the ring. Jeff was eventually pulled off of Punk and Punk limped up the ramp with the help of an official.
This match was very disappointing in my opinion. With two highly athletic superstars such as Jeff and Punk, I expected a high-paced, action-filled match, but this was not the case. This match was unusually slow for both of these competitors, and it definitely left something to be desired. I assume and hope that this feud continues so that we can have a better feud-ending match than this.
Match 7: Grudge Match between John Cena and The Miz.
This match was one of the shorter, if not shortest match, of the night. Cena got in a few hits on The Miz but Miz got an advantage after countering one of Cena’s hits by pulling his neck down onto the rope.
Miz then continued to dominate the match until Cena got one hit in on him and then hit a five-knuckle shuffle, a F-U, and made Miz tap out with the STF(U).
This match is the reason I’m pissed at Cena. He gets dominated by anyone, including the Miz, and then pulls off a win after hitting two moves, including one that doesn’t even look like he’s actually hitting the opponent (five-knuckle shuffle). I mean, who honestly thinks his fist is coming down on the opponents face?
I want this feud to last only if Miz actually gets to beat Cena. Miz is a good fighter and deserves to be a main-eventer.
Match 8: Three Stages of Hell Match for the WWE Championship between Randy Orton (defending) and Triple H.
Stage 1: A regular wrestling match. The first stage went relatively well with both competitors showing what they were capable of. Orton had the advantage as he threw Triple H out of the ring, but Triple H grabbed a chair and smashed Orton over the head with it. This, of course, got him disqualified and cost him the first round.
Stage 2: Falls Count Anywhere. Since it was a falls count anywhere match, there were no DQ’s, so the chair was now legal. Triple H hit Orton with the chair a few more times, and after delivering a Pedigree to Orton outside the ring, got the pin in about two minutes.
Stage 3: A Stretcher Match. It looked as if Triple H was going to get another quick win as he immediately put Orton on the stretcher and wheeled him up the ramp. Orton got off at the top however and kicked the stretcher into Triple H, gaining the advantage.
Orton continued to beat Triple H back down the ramp and threw him over the barricade into the fans. After a few more hits, Triple H countered and got the advantage once again. The two worked their way back to outside the ring and eventually back into the ring.
Triple H looked as if he was going to win it again after immobilizing Orton inside the ring and dragging him onto the stretcher and up the ramp again. Orton once again got off the stretcher at the top, however, and the two started fighting at the top of the ramp.
Triple H hit another Pedigree at the top of the ramp and got Orton onto the stretcher yet again and it looked as if there was no way for Orton to get out of it this time. Right as he was about to cross the line, however, Cody Rhodes came out of nowhere and pushed against Triple H.
Triple H then attacked Cody Rhodes, disabled him, and went back to the stretcher. As it could be expected, Ted DiBiase then came out to give Triple H trouble. DiBiase gave Triple H a little more trouble than Rhodes and actually caused Triple H to knock the stectcher over with Orton still on it.
Things were looking bad for Triple H as both Rhodes and DiBiase were attacking him, but he revealed a hidden sledgehammer under one of the steel grates and used it to knock out both Rhodes and Dibiase.
Orton, after finally getting to his feet, came at Triple H and delivered a low blow. Orton then used the steel grate to hit Triple H over the head, causing Triple H to fall right on the stretcher, allowing Orton to wheel him across the line and retain his title.
Orton then celebrated for a few minutes, but Triple H cut it short by hitting him in the head with the sledgehammer.
Overall, this match was decent, but not near what I expected. When it didn’t even start until around 10:30, I figured it wasn’t going to be as good as promised, and I was right. Although I admire Triple H’s intelligence in sacrificing the first round for and easy second round win, it made the second round ridiculously short.
This short second round caused the last stage to need to be incredible and a stretcher match just simply can not produce the level of entertainment that was needed. I think that each round needed to be special, but unfortunately they were not.
Hopefully, this feud will be over, but I have a feeling it is not since Triple H got the last hit in despite Orton walking away with the belt.
Thanks for reading and as usual, feed back is always appreciated.