PWR Interactive (Sheamus, Bret Hart to WWE, Matt Hardy, Steve Austin) 12/16/09

Sports News about WWE, Sheamus, Bret Hart, Kofi Kingston, John Cena, Randy Orton, Matt Hardy, Steve Austin.

News about Bret Hart returns to WWE RAW on Jan 4, 2010.

Exciting news Bret Hart has been absent from WWE for 12 years!

The night opened up with the All-American American Jack Swagger returning to ECW.  The former ECW Champion stated it was good to be back where he got his start and to see changing faces in Land of Extreme but that the more things change the more they stay the same referencing his distaste in ECW Champion Christian and ECW Original Tommy Dreamer. With that he said he looked forward to winning the ECW Homecoming, facing Christian at the Royal Rumble and becoming the ECW Champion once again. 

Zack Ryder vs. Tommy Dreamer

Literally wasting no time as Swagger hadn’t even left the stage, the LI bro and lovely lady Rosa Mendes entered the arena. They gave swagger the nod and made their way down to the ring. Ryder, having lost his Homecoming qualifier to the returning Kane gets his chance to follow up on his goal to end Tommy Dreamer.  Good overall match ending with a surprise Zack Attack following a hotshot off the ropes and Dreamer removing his shirt (seriously, not making this up) with Ryder picking up the win.  I don’t think this’ll end the feud as Tommy Dreamer isn’t an easy person to get rid of and I’m looking forward to what this combination can bring in the ring. That and Rosa is saying ”woo woo woo” to the crowd at ringside.

An interesting thing I’ve noticed in recent weeks though is that there is zero crowd response during a Dreamer match unless he’s got the upper hand. Archer and Ryder both have given great performances as strong heel personas against the ECW Original but it’s like the crowd left to go get DX merchandise leaving only the hardcore ECW fans from the pre-WWE years.

 The Abraham Washington Show w/Trent Barreta & Caylen Croft

As usually Tony Atlas got introduced to do the introduction except the past week or so Savannah’s doing it as the new ring announcer.  Abraham Washington comes out does his standard intro complete with “applause” sign then proceeds to tell some opening jokes.  I swear I half expected Courtney Taylor to chase a guy in a tiger suit again (see RAW) with as many Tiger Woods jokes Abe was dropping.  He then introduced the newest additions to the New Superstar Initiative Trent Barreta & Caylen Croft.  After upsetting Abe by jumping on his furniture and touching the set the duo told everyone what set them apart from the rest of the tag team division and that at next years Homecoming they’ll be competing in it as the Unified Tag Team Champions.  Then they called Tony old after he tried to relate to the young superstars which actually got some good heat from the crowd.  So good job Tony, helping yet another talented superstar get over with the fans.

 ECW Homecoming Qualifier

Vance Archer vs. Goldust

The intense Archer continues his “Masterpiece of Agony” this week defeating Goldust and moves on to the 8-Man Homecoming Finale.  The match as whole was great and people really seem to like Goldust. I mean, it’s a little scary how much they like him. Either way, I’m interested to see how Archer fairs in the Finale as his whole thing is the methodical decimation of the ECW roster.  I kind of expect him to either win the whole thing or be one of the last two men eliminated.  If he goes out early you might as well just team him with Tyler Reks now.

 ECW Homecoming Qualifier

Jack Swagger vs. Yoshi Tatsu

Before the match Swagger came into ECW GM Tiffany’s office to say hi.  They shared some playful banter only for The Hurricane to interrupt.  Swagger proceeds to ask the masked avenger of Tuesday nights what exactly his super powers entailed.  And apparently The Hurri-Powers are as limitless as the imagination.  So there you have it, The Hurricane is a physical construct of our collective imaginations.  I approve.  The Hurricane left making fun of Citizen Swagger’s lisp.

 Swagger also visited ECW Champion Christian give Yoshi Tatsu some last minute preparation involving some funny translation jokes and Tatsu calling Swagger a jackass.

As I stated last week, there’s no way for this match to be anything less than stellar.  I’ve yet to see a bad Swagger match or Tatsu match to date and it didn’t happen this week when the two collided for a spot in the Homecoming Finale.  Swagger dominated most of the match with quick flurries by Tatsu and just when you thought one of them was going to take the victory they’d counter or kick out.  This happened so frequently toward the end that I think the crowd silenced from having a collective brain aneurysm from not knowing who was going to pull this one out.  In the end, Swagger’s frustration and cockiness was his down fall as Tatsu lands his high kick from out of nowhere yet again winning the match by pinfall.

 With the Homecoming Finale half filled by Ezekiel Jackson, Kane, Vance Archer and Yoshi Tatsu next week we can look forward to a double dose of returning favorites as Evan Bourne and Matt Hardy come back to the Land of Extreme.

 Superstar of the Week

I’m a little torn this week as to who to choose: Swagger was a great returning superstar and his segments were spot on but he lost his qualifier in an epic match against Tatsu. And then there’s Tony Atlas, who’s hilarious and made a big impact on Baretta & Croft’s crowd reaction. So after consulting with fellow 1/8th Nelson contributor The Masked Marvel, we decided that Jack Swagger though losing his match deserves this week’s Superstar of the Week.

• Edge vs. Shawn Michaels – Street Fight (Raw, 1/22/07)
  

After Triple H had torn his quad (2001 was the left, this time it was the right leg) two weeks before this match at New Year’s Revolution in a tag match with Shawn Michaels against Randy Orton and Edge, Shawn Michaels was left to defend DX against the World Tag Team Champions Rated RKO. Both men came to the fight in t-shirt jeans – old school-style. Immediately, I’m interested. Edge stops an early attack from Shawn with a trash can lid to the face when he tries a pescado to reopen an old wound. After the commercial break, Edge SUPERPLEXES a ladder onto Shawn! Take that, Jerry Sags. Edge sets up a ladder scaffold on the ring steps, but Shawn counters the powerbomb and uses the chain against Edge to open him up. Edge stops a Flying Elbow on the ladder scaffold, but Shawn BULLDOGS him on the ladder instead. Shawn gets the Flying Elbow after all, but Edge counters SCM with a botched electric chair drop. DANGEROUSSSSSS. Even so, Shawn avoids the SPEAR and goes for a Conchairto when Randy Orton shows up behind him and turns him around for an RKO. Boy, that’s an awesome visual. Plus seeing both men busted open with Orton coming in with his face all bruised – it’s just rugged. That gives Edge the win. Such a great street fight with lots of risks. Outside of the ladder match, it’s pretty much Edge’s specialty.

• WWE Champion John Cena vs. Umaga – Last Man Standing Match (Royal Rumble 2007)
  

If you STILL weren’t convinced that Cena’s a tough dude, this match will. And if you still don’t think he’s somebody to notice, well then you’re just fooling yourself. Umaga works the ribs most of the match and leaves Cena hurting, but he refuses to quit. Cena makes his comeback with his signature moves and one-ups the impact by landing them all on the ring steps. Throwback, Protobomb, Five Knuckle Shuffle – everything. Just when he thinks he’s got Umaga defeated, Cena’s head gets caught between Umaga and the ring steps! INSANITY. Let’s not discount Umaga for being awesome. With Cena laid out on the ECW announce table, Umaga runs over the Raw and Smackdown tables to splash Cena, but Cena moves and inevitably Umaga wipes out the ECW announce table. Back inside, the entire top rope is pulled apart thanks to Armando Alejandro Estrada. Cena winds up benefiting as he chokes out Umaga and locks in the STFU for the win. One of the first times the STFU was taken seriously in my book.

• The Rumble Match - (Royal Rumble 2007)
  

An above average Rumble match that in my view was NEVER boring. The big men (Kane, Great Khali) dominated and of course there’s Viscera who didn’t really do anything except require a bunch of people to eliminate him. All of this came down to HBK and Undertaker after Shawn managed to eliminate a disorganized Rated RKO all by himself. Despite being involved in several Royal Rumble matches, Undertaker had never came out the winner. This was his first opportunity at closing out a Rumble match since he battled Brock Lesnar in 2003. HBK and Taker went through their typically great back and forth counters before the Undertaker ducked a superkick and flipped Shawn out of the ring. Just an amazing final ten minutes of wrestling between these two that set the pace for their WrestleMania 25 match. With the crowd that hooked, they were definitely doing something right.

• Mr. Kennedy vs. Edge vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy vs. King Booker vs. CM Punk vs. Finlay vs. Randy Orton – ‘Money in the Bank’ Match (WrestleMania 23)
  

Finlay starts the match off with a bang as everybody fights to the floor except him. He dives off the top onto all seven men. Booker pulls out a Hornswoggle ladder from underneath the ring. TELL ME HE DIDN’T JUST SEE THAT. Edge sets up the ladder scaffold, which will eventually lead him closer to his demise. Meanwhile, the Hardyz break up a SPINAROONIE by jumping King Booker with ladders. Eventually, Edge starts spearing everybody – except CM Punk. He goes all Terry Funk with the ladder, but takes a SPEAR anyway that knocks down Orton and Finlay. Orton dumps Edge off a 20-foot ladder to the floor. Jeff wipes out Randy with a front suplex while Matt sets Edge up on the ladder scaffold. Oh man, here comes Jeff as he flies off the 20 foot ladder and LEGDROPS EDGE THROUGH THE LADDER! I bet he immediately regrets that decision. Well, now we’re down to six people. Both men end up doing stretcher jobs. Two ladders are set up to do moves off of for a little bit. Booker about reaches the briefcase when Matt threatens to drop Sharmell with the Twist of Fate. WHOA. So Booker comes down and takes the Twist of Fate. HA! Finlay comes over and gives Matt the CELTIC CROSS ON A LADDER! That’s pretty nasty. Hornswoggle comes out to climb the ladder for his daddy when Kennedy stops him and delivers a GREEN BAY PLUNGE TO THE MAT BELOWWWWW! Pretty awesome. It comes down to Punk vs. Kennedy on the ladder. Punk kicks him off, but Kennedy jabs him in the face with a ladder and makes the easy climb up to the briefcase for the win. I was really hoping Kennedy would clear the ring and treat the briefcase like they do for his entrance by lowering it down to him as though it were the mic, but that didn’t actually happen. As history tells the story, the injury prone Mr. Kennedy (…KENNEDY) would prevent himself from actually cashing in the briefcase when he tore his right tricep muscle in May.

• World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. The Undertaker – (WrestleMania 23)
  

I was expecting the worst from these two because I’ve always thought that Taker was only as good as his opponent, and the way Batista had been performing since his return in the summer of 2006, I wasn’t really looking forward to this one. They definitely surprised me though. Batista did his best work since ohh, when he beat hHh at Vengeance 2005, and Taker had his best match since his stuff with Angle back in early ‘06. Great stuff and I really hope they don’t ever end Taker’s win streak and that no one actually surpasses it when he finally does retire. Just allow the legend to remain a legend, and ruining it to put over someone would’ve just been the absolute wrong move.

• John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels – (Raw, 4/23/07)
  

Some people HATED the execution of the psychology in the Cena/HBK WrestleMania main event. Shawn Michaels and I were two of those people. Cena hardly even sold the leg during the match like he should have and this match was Cena’s chance to make up for the ‘mistake’. Perhaps the only even minor mistake was that it was a non-title match — it was the first time we had a match on free TV go near an hour’s length that wasn’t a 60 minute ironman match in close to twenty years. Just an unbelievable match with both men trying to outdo the other with great WRESTLING and the easiest pick for the WWE match of the year.

• WWE Champion John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Edge vs. Randy Orton – Fatal Four Way Match (Backlash 2007)

Fresh off Cena’s loss to Shawn Michaels in the UK, now he has to defend the WWE title in a fatal four way. This was one of the most exciting uses of the fatal four way concept that I have ever seen executed in WWE. You have the Rated RKO team working together, but you know they will have to explode on each other at some point. Edge was the one to do the dirty deed with the chair on Orton. Back in the ring, you have failed finishers after failed finishers that kept you on the edge of your seat all the way to the end. When you did see somebody hit their finish like for example with Cena being consumed with hitting Edge with the FU, Orton comes out of nowhere and drops HBK with the RKO almost getting the win. What ended up happening for the finish was Cena shoving Orton off into the Spear from his partner Edge, but then turning around and eating Sweet Chin Music from HBK and falling on top of Orton for the win. This way, 1) nobody looks weak by taking the fall, 2) it has the appearance of realism, and 3) it gives the fatal four way concept that a huge shot of the ‘anything can happen’ aspect. I had decided to stop watching WWE religiously after 2006, but I came back for WrestleMania and heard great things about Backlash that had me thinking the summer of 2007 wasn’t going to be so bad. For the most part, the trend ended here and we were back to the abysmal normal with Judgment Day, but Backlash 2007 was overall a great PPV.

• World Heavyweight Champion Edge vs. Chris Benoit – (Smackdown, 6/8/07)
  

After his progressively intriguing series of matches over the US title with MVP, Benoit had this little gem which I consider the final great televised match three weeks before the biggest tragedy ever to happen to wrestling. Just your typical intense Benoit encounter. He owns Edge for the majority of the match – hitting the Three Amigos (which watching it now makes me feel somewhat sad for Chris knowing he’s missing his friend) followed by the Hat Trick of Germans to lead into the Swandive Headbutt for a nearfall. With Edge in a main event program against Batista, they didn’t want to make Benoit appear too strong however. Benoit applied the Crippler Crossface, but missed a corner charge and ate a Spear before getting his shoulders pinned for the 1-2-3. Okay, so I never said I wasn’t a bit bias creating this list.

• WWE Champion Triple H vs. Randy Orton – Last Man Standing Match (No Mercy 2007)
  

So on a night where Randy Orton was awarded the WWE title after John Cena tore his chest muscle off the bone prior to the show, Triple H insults Vince McMahon into giving him a WWE title shot against Orton where he wins the the belt in an absolutely RIDICULOUS turn of events. Then, Triple H successfully defends the WWE title over Umaga and at Vince’s order has to make even more history by facing Randy Orton AGAIN for the WWE title in a Last Man Standing match – ALL ON THE SAME SHOW! While the booking would have anybody confused, it turned out okay because they used the beatings Umaga dished out on Triple H earlier in the evening into the context of the match. If you’re not a Triple H fan, I hope you didn’t buy this PPV. Not counting the backstage segments he was involved in, he wrestled over 35 minutes in three different matches at No Mercy 2007. Anyways, a back suplex on the guardrail from Orton to HHH doesn’t get the job done. He moves on to CHOKING Triple H with a cable. He still can’t keep HHH down for the ten count. He tries an RKO on the announce table, but HHH shoves him off onto the opposite table. That was pretty sweet. Triple H follows up with a AA spinebuster and tosses the stairs into Orton’s face. Orton gets up and blocks a chairshot with a kick to HHH’s injured ribs. DDT on the chair won’t keep HHH down. RKO ON THE CHAIR? A busted open Triple H still gets up and tells Orton to suck it. This was when Orton’s deadly kick to the head was fresh. He had already took out legends Shawn Michaels and Dusty Rhodes, but HHH refused to suffer the same fate. Orton temporarily stops HHH with a catapult into the ringpost, but Triple H stops Orton while he’s got the ring steps up in the air and slams a chair down on the back of Orton’s head while he’s stuck down in the grooves of the steps. You just have to see it to know what I’m talking about. It at least looks like a gruesome spot although there’s got to be some Houdini-ness to it. Triple H tries the Pedigree on the table that’s still standing, but Orton leaps up out of nowhere and hits the RKO ON THE TABLE! Triple H just can’t make it back to his feet in time after that to give Orton back the WWE title. Match reminded me of the best stuff we saw from Triple H against Chris Jericho in 2000, but in the opposite role.

• WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels – (Survivor Series 2007)
  

Randy Orton punted Shawn Michaels out of action back in May (of course HBK always seems to want the summer off) and now he’s BACK for revenge. Except in this match, Shawn can’t use Sweet Chin Music or he’ll be disqualified. If Orton gets disqualified, he loses the WWE title. This made for an AWESOME example of ring psychology because Shawn had to rely on other high impact moves to defeat Orton. On the other hand, Orton didn’t know what to watch out for because with HBK, you’re always trained to just look for the superkick. Some people take offence to the fact that Shawn used the Crippler Crossface in this match only five months after the Benoit tragedy. I choose to take the perspective that this was a tribute for a man who one day snapped over his pent up personal issues and not dwell on whether or not HBK was trying to be tongue-in-cheek or anything like that. As Shawn catches himself trying Sweet Chin Music, Orton seizes the moment and drills HBK with the RKO for the win. If you love excellent ring psychology, don’t overlook this seemingly forgotten Survivor Series classic.

Oh man, only TWO more years to go! Come back next week for the year that was 2008!

Since Justin and Scott have only reached 2003 in their reviews and any extra work added on them to watch the next forty matches would be difficult and just too much at this time of year (especially when they have their own awesome sports/wrestling/TV forum), I’ll be doing solo shots of the final three years of this ten part column. I want to thank Justin and Scott for ALL their hard work and dedication when they were just merely doing me a favor. Let me assure you, those two guys are good people.

Alright, enough of the man love. As I mentioned in the 2005 column, this is my 500th post here at the blog. The interesting part about that is this post is actually a repost of a column I did after covering all the 2006 PPVs for TheHistoryofWWE.com. Anyways, it’s really hard to believe I’ve spent this much time on a blog, but here we are two and a half years later. I hope you all enjoy this!

Let’s get to the year that was 2006.

The Best of 2006: The Matches

This is WWE only, so you won’t see any TNA or ROH here. Except for a few matches, the workrate in WWE had tended to decline throughout 2006, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that this was just another year of mediocre wrestling. We’ve got some good ones on here! For me to consider a match to be a MOTYC, it has to be overwhelmed with three things: 1) workrate 2) great booking, and 3) a huge level of suspense. I got to believe what’s going on in that ring is for real! While most other publications or internet columnists like to cut the ballot date off at the end of November, I go from 1/1 to 12/31. Another rule that only makes sense is that I have to have seen the match. I’ve seen every PPV and SNME this year and a whole lot of weekly stuff. I haven’t seen every episode of all three brands in 2006, but when I hear people talking (or see, if it’s on the net), then I’ll find it somewhere and watch it. Enough chit-chat though, let’s start up the countdown!

Wait, first off, we have some awesome “honorable mentions”.

- WWE Champion John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Edge – Triple Threat Match (Backlash 04.30.06) ***¾

- World Champion Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels – non-title match (Raw 01.16.06) ***¾

- Kurt Angle vs. Randy Orton – (ECW: One Night Stand II 06.11.06) ***¾

- Rob Van Dam vs. Hardcore Holly – (ECW on Sci-Fi 09.26.06) ***¾

- Edge, Randy Orton & Lita vs. John Cena, Carlito & Trish Stratus – (Raw 09.04.06) ***¾

Now to the countdown! Anything you see from here on will be **** or better.

10. After what seemed like forever since we had actually been surprised on PPV, they spring this baby on us. Every one involved worked their butts off regardless of the brand-extension gaps. You had no idea who was going to win this up until the very end and it left you hoping for more from all four teams involved. I can’t say that it saved the whole show, but it sure made for a great match. It also reminds us why we should definitely leave the wrestling to the pros. Isn’t that right, Joey? Here it is, the #10 WWE match of 2006.

- WWE Tag Team Champions Paul London & Brian Kendrick vs. William Regal & Dave Taylor vs. MNM vs. The Hardys – Four-Way Ladder Match (Armageddon – 12.17.06)

JBL puts the Hardys over as ladder match veterans. The faces dump the heels to start so that they can trade blows and keep the match between themselves. Kendrick takes a hiptoss from Matt while Jeff takes a rana from London. Jeff fights back with a sitout jawbreaker and goes over and attacks Kendrick to set up the double-wheelbarrow bomb. MNM takes the Hardys out to the floor to brawl while Regal and Taylor do the same in the ring with the Hooligans. Ouch! Half-nelson throw from Regal to London, then to Kendrick! Meanwhile, the Hardys don’t want MNM bringing the ladders to the ring, so they attack and do it themselves! Regal and Taylor have tossed out the champs and want to keep the Hardys from putting the ladders in the ring. They try and stop MNM from bringing them in as well, but that allows Matt to sneak in and nail them with a ladder. Now everyone is back in the ring. Taylor receives Poetry in Motion from the Hardys, which sets up a SNAPSHOT from MNM! Regal takes a double-superkick to the face from the Hooligans. Regal and Taylor get dumped, as does MNM. Kendrick gets whipped into a ladder by the Hardys, and he has no choice but to take a breather. London catches Matt with an enziguri, but Jeff nails him with a front dropkick to the face. Jeff sets up a ladder to go for the belts, but London surprises Matt with an inverted atomic drop and dropkicks Jeff off the ladder! Now London tries to head up the ladder. Kendrick intercepts Jeff’s attempt at bringing London down, and then London jumps off the ladder as he sees Nitro coming up behind him with a springboard attempt from the apron into him with something. The ladder falls over and that could’ve REALLY gone wrong had Nitro landed on one of the legs. The man is LUCKY! Mercury takes the ladder and starts jabbing everyone he sees and sets up the ladder again. Mercury starts climbing, but the faces swarm and bring the ladder to the edge of the ring. They tilt it over and send Mercury off the ladder out on top of Nitro outside the ring! Matt hits a pescado on Taylor and sends Regal face-first into the ringpost. Kendrick tries to climb up, but Matt stops him and brings him down face-first to the mat. Man, Matt Hardy is EVERYWHERE! Matt sets up the ladder in a corner and the Hardys double-whip Kendrick into it. London receives the same, except they try for Poetry in Motion. London avoids it and Jeff hits his face on the TOP of the ladder! OUCH! Cole ~ “It truly looks like Armageddon out here!” Really, Michael? The Hooligans beat down Matt for a bit. London tries to head up the ladder again, but he gets pulled down and clotheslined by Matt. Kendrick tries to shoot up the ladder and grab the belts, but Matt is there to yank him down by his tights. Matt sets up the ladder and makes a ramp out of it using the second rope. He wants to suplex London on it, but London blocks and hammers Matt down on the ladder. London lifts up the end of the ladder to put Matt at a 180-degree angle so that Kendrick can come off the top and deliver the DOUBLE-STOMP to Matt Hardy! Since the Hardys are incapacitated, MNM come back in to destroy the Hooligans. They give London a double-gutbuster and then set up the ladders to create a see-saw effect. Matt gets beat up some more and then is set up on the turnbuckle for a double-superplex on the ladders, but Jeff comes back in for the save. Matt and MNM are back on the mat while Jeff is up top! Matt gives MNM a DOUBLE-NOGGIN KNOCKER while Jeff leaps down on the ladder so that it comes up and hits MNM in the face! Mercury gets the worse of it as he rolls out to the floor with his face GUSHING OUT BLOOD! Yeah, his face is shattered. That was really sick, folks. Poor Joey. He goes away for six months and then he comes back and a few weeks later, his face gets broken. I blame Teddy. Matt and Kendrick fight on the ladder until Regal and Taylor hop in to save. Taylor slams Kendrick on and off a ladder set up in the corner and then Regal gives London a half-nelson suplex on that same ladder. Regal starts to climb the ladder to retrieve the belts, but then he finds out he’s afraid of heights! He comes down and tells Taylor to climb. He does, but Kendrick stops him half-way up. Regal gets pissed and throws Kendrick out to the floor. By the way, Mercury has been taken to the hospital. The Hardys return to the ring to stop the Englishmen. While Jeff is getting another ladder set up out on the floor, Matt is giving Regal and Taylor both TWIST OF FATES! Jeff climbs up the ladder for a possible SWANTON BOMB on Regal and Taylor, but then Nitro runs in out of nowhere and dropkicks the ladder through the ropes to send Jeff crashing throat-first on the top rope! Oh that was NOT smart, Jeff. Nitro nails Regal and Taylor with a ladder and then delivers the Shawn Michaels Special by climbing the turnbuckle and smashing the ladder into Regal. Nitro tries for the belts. Kendrick attempts to stop him while London climbs up on the apron to deliver a springboard dropkick to take him off the ladder. Crowd applauds the Hooligans, and it’s about time too. Matt meets Kendrick up on the ladder and hiptosses him down to the mat. London pounds on Matt and tries to grab the belts, but then Matt backdrops London to the mat as the ladder falls over. Jeff tries to retrieve the belts, but its set up too far from the belts so you know a spot is coming. Nitro starts the climb and gets nailed with a SUNSET FLIP POWERBOMB off the ladder from Jeff. Jeff looked like he could’ve blown out his knee on that one. Matt stupidly sets up two ladders beside each other and starts to climb with one foot on each ladder. Regal and Taylor pull the ladder out from under him like anybody with any common sense would. Matt gets right back up, but gets double-teamed and booted in the face by Regal. Regal and Taylor give the ladder climb another try and set up two ladders beside each other, but Kendrick is there to meet Regal up top. Taylor pulls Kendrick down and clotheslines him, but then gets dumped to the floor by London. Regal is still up on the ladder! Kendrick gets back to his feet and climbs the other ladder and tries for SLICED BREAD #2 to Regal off the ladder, but they’re too close to the ropes for the move so they another spot is ruined. London gets back in the ring and climbs the ladder. Matt meets him there, but gets knocked off the ladder. With Nitro and Taylor both clawing at his heels, London is still able to grab the belts and win the match. (20:13) Regardless of some contrived and blown spots, it was a great match that just might solidify the tag champs run as more than just killing time. I still hope Regal and Taylor get a good long title match soon because that would still be a great match. But wow, poor Joey. ****

9. What’s most saddening about this match is its most memorable moment; Vince McMahon’s bloody face being shoved up Big Show’s butt. No, I’m not British. Why do you ask? Terrible image aside, this match had awesome drama and Big Show really added a lot to the whole affair. Of course, DX came out the winners at the end and we can say goodbye the DX/McMahons feud for the time being at least. It’s a match that was able to mix brutality and fun together at the same time, which is really hard to pull off.

- Shane McMahon, Big Show & Vince McMahon vs. Shawn Michaels & Triple H – Hell In A Cell (Unforgiven – 09.17.06)

JR does a great job of putting over how CRAZY this “Satan’s Playground” is noting that dozens of bones have been broken and thousands of stitches have been given out. H and Michaels dish out stereo kicks to the Big Show’s big show to put him down for a moment so they can beat down the McMahons. The Canadians start chanting “You screwed Bret” within the first twenty seconds. DX dump the McMahons and go back after Big Show who is back up to his feet. They give him another running field goal kick to the balls to once again keep him down. Next up, the McMahons eat the steel and get busted open as a result. Where is Big Show? Oh, he’s STILL down in the ring. Triple H pulls out a screwdriver and begins to twist it into Vince’s forehead! Triple H brings Vince back in the ring and Shawn goes up top for the elbow drop, but Show comes alive and catches Shawn coming off the top and slams him. Boy that was dumb. Triple H tries a whip, but Show stands his ground and flips H out of the ring: Harley Race-style. Show goes out for Triple H, but then gets double-teamed by DX and tossed into the steps to keep him incapacitated. Back in the ring, Shawn pairs up with Shane and Triple H pairs up with Vince with DX in control. Show comes back in again to end DX’s momentum. He levels H with headbutts while Shawn gets sent out via clothesline by Shane. The McMahons get a few licks in on H while cheering Show on at the same time. Show delivers the CHOKESLAM to H and then goes out to punish Shawn. He picks him up and gives Shawn a release powerbomb face-first into the cage and blades. Meanwhile, the McMahons are toying around with the Game. Show ~ “Hey, watch this!” He proceeds to toss Shawn into the cage like a lawn dart. Shane stomps H down in the corner to set up for the trashcan assisted COAST-TO-COAST! ALRIGHT! He connects! What’s great about that spot is that H’s ear was supposedly injured Monday night. They remembered to capitalize on the injury to make the spot more than just a spot. I like it when they do that. I got to mention that he’s bleeding from the ear. Shawn gets tossed back in the ring for some triple-teaming. Shane takes H out to the floor and sets up the steel steps and then catapults H into the cage wall to bust open his forehead. In the ring, Show delivers the pump splash out of the corner onto Shawn. Just as promised earlier, Vince goes for the cover for 1, 2, NO! He picks Shawn up off the mat. He hands Shawn to Show for the COBRA-CLUTCH BACKBREAKER! He continues the hold on the mat for a bit and then lifts him up for the inverted leg drop bulldog. Vince covers again, but picks Shawn up again at two. Triple H comes back with his body COVERED in blood and tosses Show. He hits the facebuster on Vince and tries for the PEDIGREE, but Shane pulls him off his dad and lifts him into a torture rack. Huh? He twists H around into what appeared to be a spinning rack neckbreaker or an inverted TKO, but JR calls it a counter into a neckbreaker. I’m not sure what happened there, but both men are down. Shawn gets back up and sends Shane out with an enziguri. Vince clotheslines Shawn down to stop his momentum as the Big Show walks over to take care of Shawn. Vince pulls down his pants to reintroduce Shawn to the “Kiss My WHAT?” club, but Triple H is there to prevent that from happening. Show nails him and sets Shawn up for a splash off the ropes, but Shawn pulls Vince in the way and he gets splashed instead. Big Show ~ “Yikes!” A distracted Big Show gets tripped up and posted by DX. Back in, Shawn nails Shane with the flying forearm and the kip-up. An HBK atomic drop into a Triple H spinebuster to Shane! Shawn goes up for the flying elbow while H brings a chair into the ring and Pillmanizes Shane’s neck! Shawn connects with the elbow drop! Shane is bleeding inside! Shawn tunes up the band for SWEET CHIN MUSIC, but Show is there to yank him out and throw him into the cage. Show hotshots H and brings the steps in the ring because he’s ANGRY! Vince is still down by the way and Shane is done. Show goes to ram H with the steps, but since they are covering his face, he can’t see Triple H running at him to nail him in the gut with a steel chair. Haha, he jiggles like Jell-O! A chair shot to the head on the steps KO’s Show. Wait, no it doesn’t, but the SWEET CHIN MUSIC will! He falls on the ropes, which becomes important in a minute. The last McMahon standing is Vince, and he looks FURIOUS. H gets rid of the steps as the crowd starts to boo! It’s a standoff between Vince and DX. They yank Show’s tights down past his rear end! Vince drops to his knees and gets his face stuck in between the cheeks. Show falls out to the floor to readjust himself, and I think I saw a wee-wee! Shawn hits the SWEET CHIN MUSIC while H grabs a sledgehammer and BREAKS it over the back of Vince’s skull for the academic three-count. (25:04) Wow, great match to hopefully end the feud. It told a great story and adding Big Show to the mix was the best thing for it, as it did wonders for the match. I couldn’t imagine it being good without him. ****

8. This is the match that gave Sabu a future in the new ECW. The crowd was extremely hot for the whole thing and it ended in an insane moment without a real winner. You can’t deny that it was awesome seeing these two nearly kill each other. Sounds sick, I know, but that’s ECW.

- World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio vs. Sabu – “Extreme Rules” match (ECW: One Night Stand II – 06.11.06)

Mysterio comes out with his old-school tights like he wore before he lost the mask in WCW. Rey has ECW stitched on the back of his mask, but the crowd interprets it as “sucking up” so they boo Rey. Joey calls Rey’s reaction mixed, but Tazz begs to differ. Both men have chairs in hand as the bell sounds. They lay the chairs down and actually begin to wrestle! They go through a nice little sequence and then come to a stand-off. They play patty cake with the chairs which goes nowhere. Sabu hits Air Sabu, but then takes a drop-toe hold into a chair. Rey follows up with a chair-assisted hurracanrana out from the corner. Sabu avoids a 619 and then heaves a chair into Rey’s face which sends him rolling out to the floor! Sabu pulls out a table and makes it into a scaffold between the ring and guardrail. He lays Rey on the table and then goes for a springboard dive from inside the ring, but Rey rolls off the table. Sabu changes his direction, but still misses Rey and lands chest-first on the railing. Back in, Rey hits a beautiful moonsault press for two! Rey tries for a sunset flip from the apron, but Sabu kicks him in the head and sets Rey up for a guillotine legdrop while laid out on the middle rope. Sabu covers, 1, 2, NO! Sabu puts Rey in a camel clutch to draw some “Sheik” chants from the crowd, so Sabu releases the hold and points to the sky. Sabu goes to the floor and pulls out another table before re-entering and delivering an Arabian Facebuster for a near-fall. Sabu goes back out and sets up the table vertically to the ring. Rey dropkicks Sabu on the apron and landing on the table. LA SILLA to Sabu THROUGH the table! Back in, Rey hits a springboard guillotine leg drop to the back of Sabu’s head. Cover, 1, 2, NO! Sabu comes back with a springboard leg lariat. Sabu hits the TRIPLE JUMP MOONSAULT for 1, 2, NO! Rey avoids the ATOMIC ARABIAN FACEBUSTER and then sets Sabu in a chair for LA SILLA. Rey goes for it, but then Sabu rolls out of the way to crotch Rey REAL good! Sabu heaves the chair at Rey again for a nice sonic boom to send Rey to the floor! Sabu puts Rey on that table made into a scaffold and then delivers a SPRINGBOARD DDT THROUGH THE TABLE ON THE FLOOR on Rey Mysterio!!! Neither man can continue so they call for a bell leaving this match a no-contest. (9:08) The crowd boos the heck out of that finish, but that just made the moment all the more insane. Sabu pretty much jackknifed himself. That was a pretty cool spot fest if I do say so myself. Should this match be classified as having a bad finish just because there was no real end result? I don’t think so because to me, that’s what makes something hardcore; two guys who cross the line of being able to continue to fight. Sabu wasn’t going to win the title and since he had had 75% of the offense in the match, it wouldn’t have made sense for Rey to go over here. ****

7. What has helped Ric Flair maintain a wrestling career after thirty years is that he didn’t wrestle in crazy gimmick matches. He was a wrestler’s wrestler; meaning he kept it on the mat as much as possible unless he was being slammed off the top turnbuckle. You also have Edge, who holds a fairly decent win/loss record when it comes to ladder matches and was undefeated in TLC matches at this point. You wouldn’t think someone like Ric Flair could put on an awesome TLC match at the age of 56, but it was as though he had waited his whole career to compete in one of these dangerous matches.

- WWE Champion Edge (w/Lita) vs. Ric Flair – TLC V Match (Raw – 01.16.06)

This was the best Raw of 2006, wrestling-wise. Edge had been making fun of Flair for weeks after he was charged (in REAL life!) with assault and battery in late-November. They wrestled at New Year’s Revolution, which Flair won by DQ after Edge hit Flair in the face with his “Money-in-the-Bank” briefcase. That same night, as we all know, Edge cashed in the briefcase and pinned Cena to win the WWE title. This could all come back to bite him in the butt now that he has Flair to contend with in a TLC match. Many overlook this match saying that Flair is out of his element, but that’s definitely not the case (no pun intended). By the way, this is LIVE from Raleigh, NC. Flair country, if you WILL. Flair hits some chops early, but Edge stops that with a knee and grabs a ladder and a chair from the outside. Edge jabs Flair with the ladder and then sandwiches him in between the rungs! Flair is trapped, so Edge picks up the chair and smashes it into the ladder. Flair finally gets free and rolls out to the floor. Edge follows him out and gets chopped out over the security wall. They brawl in the crowd for a bit, but then Flair takes a backdrop back out to ringside. Edge gives Flair a suplex on the floor and sets up a table and puts a chair on it. Lita hands him another chair for a CONCHAIRTO on the table, but Flair counters by grabbing Edge’s balls! Flair takes Edge off the announce table and drops him chest-first on the security wall. Lita takes this opportunity to jump on Flair’s back and choke him down, but Flair flips her off of him. Flair goes back after Edge, but then gets nailed with a steel chair to bust him open! Edge sets him on the table and Lita holds him down while Edge sets up a ladder in the ring. Remember, Flair is on a table over by the announce table! Edge starts to climb and once he gets to the top, he SPLASHES Flair through the table! CRAZY! Flair’s daughter Ashley is at ringside pleading with him to get up as we go to commercial! We’re back and a bloody Flair is vertical in the ring while Edge is still stumbling out on the floor. Edge gets back in and takes a low blow for it. Flair sandwiches Edge in between the rungs this time and proceeds to smash a chair on the ladder. I love how Flair is using Edge’s own tactics against him, knowing that he’s never been in a ladder match before. Flair pulls Edge free from the ladders and cleans his clock with a chairshot! Flair places the ladder on Edge and bashes the ladder with the chair some more and then makes the first attempt at retrieving the belt. Once he sees Edge is still moving, he gets down and moves the ladder to a corner. Flair chops Edge down and heads up the ladder, but Edge meets him at the top for a SUPERPLEX OFF THE LADDER! INSANE! Edge starts to climb the ladder, but now Flair is standing again. Edge decides to deliver a missile dropkick, but Flair avoids it. Nevertheless, we see a Flair Flop. WOOOO! Edge gets up first and knocks Flair out to ringside with a chairshot. Edge goes up the ladder for his belt, but Flair gets back in and pushes the ladder back to send Edge crashing through a table out on the floor! The crowd is going nuts, begging Flair to capitalize on this moment. Flair climbs the ladder and touches the belt, but Lita sneaks in and brings Flair down. She knocks Flair down and mounts him to punch on him, but Flair pushes Lita off and puts her in the FIGURE-FOUR! He lets go after about ten seconds and Edge is still out! Flair slowly starts the climb again. Edge is now up and at the ladder, but Edge climbs and punches Flair down to retain his belt. (16:38) Post-match, Edge SPEARS Flair down and goes for another CONCHAIRTO, but John Cena runs down for the save. Interestingly enough, Edge would be dethroned during his second title reign in a TLC match against John Cena himself, which we’ll get to later in the countdown. ****

6. We’ve got two guys who are given 20-minutes and who just so happen to RULE. What else do you need?

- Chris Benoit vs. Finlay – (Judgment Day 05.21.06)

This grudge match is a result of Finlay pulling some shenanigans on Benoit to continue in the KotR tournament. It’s all for naught considering Lashley beat Finlay to advance the finals. But in any event, both these guys just love to fight. I mean, Finlay says it at the beginning of his entrance music. “Benoit” chants start up before these guys even lock up with each other. They collar-and-elbow tie up their way out to the floor with INTENSITY! Back in, Benoit goes nose-to-nose with Finlay to bait in the quickest double-leg takedown I’ve ever seen to try for a SHARPSHOOTER. Finlay trips him up before Benoit can lock in the hold. Benoit goes to the mat with a headlock, but a quick rollup by Finlay causes him to break the hold. Finlay complains to the ref that Benoit jabbed him in the eye to slow things down and to get a quick shot in on Benoit. Genius! Finlay takes Benoit back to the mat with a reverse chinlock for a bit, but then wakes Benoit up with a slap to the face. Benoit returns the favor, only 1000x harder! Benoit stiffs Finlay to the other side of the ring and drops him with a textbook backbreaker. Benoit takes Finlay to the mat and tries to maneuver him around for the Crippler Crossface, but instead cradles him over for a near-fall with Finlay’s feet on the ropes. Benoit beats on Finlay in the corner, but then takes a thumb to the eye. Short-arm clothesline sets up a near-fall. Finlay puts Benoit in a hold that is so sick, I don’t even know WHAT to call it where he forces his foot behind Benoit’s head and pulls on both his arms. Let’s call it the IRISH TORTURE DEVICE! Benoit actually powers out of this insane hold, but goes right into a bow-tie chokehold. Benoit fights out and ducks a clothesline to hit the HAT TRICK of Germans. Benoit goes up top for the SWANDIVE HEADBUTT, but Finlay rolls out of the way. Benoit delivers a dragon screw leg whip and tries for the SHARPSHOOTER once more, but Finlay kicks him away. Finlay goes out to bring a chair into the ring, but Benoit baseball-slides the chair into Finlay. Benoit rolls Finlay in and nails the SWANDIVE HEADBUTT! He covers for 1, 2, NO! Finlay reverses a whip for Benoit to run chest-first in the corner, and then follows up with a clothesline from behind for two. Finlay works on the neck for a bit, but then hits a big running butt splash to Benoit’s lower abdomen for two. Finlay locks on a hammerlock/dragon sleeper submission hold! I don’t know why no one has ever thought of that before! Benoit bridges out, but Finlay drops him again with a European uppercut to the back of the head. Finlay just kills Benoit with the forearm shots. Benoit fights back with the same, but then Finlay starts to tear on Benoit’s shoulders. Benoit flips out a slam and puts Finlay down with a German suplex! He hits another suplex! Benoit tries for a third, but Finlay elbows out. Finlay repeatedly headbutts Benoit, but then takes an enziguri that sends him stumbling out of the ring. Benoit follows him out and ducks a swing of the shillelagh to give Finlay a German suplex on the floor! Benoit gets back in the ring at the count of six, Finlay in at eight. Benoit delivers a snap suplex in from the apron and holds on through the Three Amigos of Eddie Guerrero. Benoit takes too much time pounding his chest like Eddie, so Finlay shoves Benoit off the apron into the security wall. Back in, Finlay drives Benoit shoulder-first into the steel ringpost. He brings Benoit to the center of the ring and out of nowhere; Benoit takes Finlay down to the mat to lock in the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE! Once Benoit clasps his hands, Finlay taps immediately! (21:10) If guys like Benoit and Finlay can’t deliver, WWE might as well stop what they’re doing. Keep the memories you have and leave it at that. The match they had that set this one up was really great, but this was just better. Possibly the reason could just be due to the commercial break in the middle of it. You might be able to say that the finish was too quick, but it completely defines what the Crossface is meant to do. It’s meant to be unexpected and quickly executed. No one saw it coming, especially not Finlay. ****

5. A perfect definition of “good friends, better enemies.” These two put on a non-stop hardcore clinic, ending with a very memorable finish that few men could ever top. To say that Mick Foley is included this far down on a Match of the Year countdown in 2006 is a testament to just how great he still can be to the business.

- Edge (w/Lita) vs. Mick Foley – Hardcore Match (WrestleMania 22 04.02.06)

Edge has a baseball bat and you can just guess what he wants to do with it. Foley knocks it away from him and sends Edge down with a faceslam. Joey Styles is “losing his WrestleMania virginity” as he puts it by calling this match. He mentions that Foley is wearing the black flannel showing that he’s gone into a dark place preparing for this match. Foley sets up Edge in the TREEEE OF WOEEE position and follows up with an elbow drop to the face. Edge comes back with a knockdown to Foley. Edge tells Lita to throw in some toys for him to beat Foley with. A cookie sheet is destroyed by Foley’s head! Edge follows up by dropkicking a road sign in Foley’s face! Edge sets up for the spear and he gets it! Edge is obviously more hurt by it as Foley stands up and shows everyone that he has barbed-wire wrapped around his abdomen! Foley yanks out some wire-cutters from his shoe and takes that off of him. CRAZY! Edge’s arm is “busted open”. Foley takes his barbed wire and then starts whipping Edge with it! While Edge gets wrapped up in the ropes, Mick goes to the floor and pulls out his barbed-wire wrapped baseball bat better known as Barbie! Lita comes in and leaps on Mick’s back to try and save Edge, so Mick runs at Edge who is still in the ropes for a CACTUS CLOTHESLINE! That was AWESOME! Mick covers for two! Swinging neckbreaker on the floor gets two. Foley charges Edge with his head up against the steel steps, but Edge jumps up and tosses Foley awkwardly into the steps! Poor Mick. Edge beats on Foley some more before tossing him knees first into the steps again! Edge sets up a table out on the floor and puts Foley on it. Edge goes up top, but Foley simply slides off of the table. Edge comes down and goes after Mick by slamming his head into the steel rampway! That gets two. Back in, Lita hands Edge a bottle of lighter fluid and then Edge squirts it all over Mick! Lawler can’t believe Edge is going to light Foley on fire! Foley comes back with a quick pull-up piledriver for two. Lita saves Edge from a ONE-MAN CONCHAIRTO by getting in the ring, but then Foley turns around into a DDT on a cookie sheet for two. Edge brings Barbie into play and harms Foley with it REAL good. He even bulldogs Foley on it for two. Edge goes back to the floor and pulls out a SACK OF TACKS and pours them all in the ring! Foley counters with a back suplex on the tacks! Edge is all like OWWWW so Foley pulls out MR. SOCKO, and then wraps him up with barbed wire! MANDIBLE CLAW for Edge AND Lita! Lita’s lip is supposedly busted open. Foley grabs Barbie and nails Edge with it a couple times. Both men are busted open pretty bad. Foley goes out onto the apron and pours lighter fluid on that table that was set up on the floor. Lita comes by with Barbie and whacks Foley in the balls with it! HAHAHA! She sets the table on fire as Edge comes THROUGH the ropes and spears Foley THROUGH THE FLAMING TABLE! Joey ~ “OH MY GOD!” That’ll do it as Edge gets the three-count. (14:38) A flaming table and a barbed-wire wrapped Mr. Socko. THAT’s hardcore, folks! Edge does a great mutilated sell-job on his way to the back. ****

4. It seemed like this was a match where WWE wanted Randy Orton to get in there and learn something. Possibly the most underrated WWE match of 2006, for reasons I don’t understand. I enjoyed the heck out of this match.

- Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton – No Holds Barred, Falls Count Anywhere (Smackdown – 01.27.06)

Orton took Booker’s place due to an injury in order to finish his best-of-seven series with Benoit over the US Title. Orton is promised a favor in return, but I’m not sure that it ever paid off. After the Rumble, Orton went right into a feud with Rey Mysterio leading up to WrestleMania. Nice chain wrestling to start. Benoit comes out of a waistlock and goes to an overhead wristlock. Orton comes out of that into a side headlock. Benoit shoves him off into the ropes and takes a shoulderblock. He tries several times to do a German Suplex, but Orton blocks every attempt and slips through the ropes and out to the floor because he FEARS the move. Good psychology. Orton’s all, “I don’t think so, dude,” as we go to commercial. We come back to see Orton taking Benoit down with a headlock. Benoit tries to get out of that and surprise Orton with the CROSSFACE, but Orton gets away. Benoit works the arm with a standing armbar, but Orton rolls out of it and gets knocked down with some chops for two. Orton fights back and sends Benoit out to the floor with forearm shots. They fight on the announce table until Orton backs Benoit kidneys-first into the apron. Orton covers out on the floor for 1-2-NO! Back in, Orton covers again using the ropes for leverage for two. Nothing the ref can do about it either. Orton goes to the rigorous chinlock. Benoit fights out with an armdrag and gets caught with a HIGH dropkick. They go back out to the floor and Orton finds a trashcan lid and nails Benoit in the back with it. Now Orton grabs a trash can, but Benoit gives him a drop toe hold on it to buy himself some time. Benoit slams Orton’s face into the steps and chops him up against the ringpost. They go back over to the announce table for Benoit to slam Orton’s face on it and send him flying in Cole and Tazz’s seats! Orton fights back with a BLINDING rake to the eyes. Benoit takes a hotshot on the announce table for 1-2-NO! Back in, Orton delivers some knee drops and goes to the crazy chinlock again. Orton releases to stomp him and then goes out and brings a chair into the ring. Benoit ducks a wild swing with the chair and goes for the SHARPSHOOTER! Orton fights it, but Benoit holds on until he gets kicked away. Orton channels the spirit of NIKOLAI VOLKOFF and drops a big communist-like knee drop for 1-2-NO! Orton applies a sleeper/body scissors. Benoit breaks free of the body scissors. He remains in a front headlock, but fights out with a release Northern Lights suplex. They go out on the floor and brawl up the aisle way, but Benoit sends Orton back into the ring with chops. Benoit delivers a pair of knockdowns and then a running elbow drop for 1-2-NO! Benoit hits the Three Amigos and goes a superplex for the big exclamation point. Will he get it? Yes he does! Both men down at the seven-count, but then out of nowhere Benoit jumps on Orton to slap on the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE. Orton fights it off long enough to stand up and fall out to the floor along with Benoit. Orton grabs the trash can on the other side of the ring and walks over and hits Benoit in the head with it. Commercial time! We come back and Orton has Benoit in the ring and down on the mat in the tenacious chinlock. Benoit fights out of it with chops, but then Orton catches Benoit in a Stretch Backbreaker. Back out to the floor, Orton pulls up the protective mat to expose the concrete floor and tries to give Benoit a PILEDRIVER! That move is illegal in the WWE, even Cole says it is! I love how Orton takes advantage of the rules there to get the job done. Naturally, Benoit has to backdrop out of the piledriver. He grabs a steel chair and goes to KILL Orton with it, but Orton moves out of the way just in time for the chair to smash against the concrete. Benoit chases Orton back into the ring with the chair, but Orton kicks it away. Orton swings at Benoit, but he ducks and gets his Hat Trick of Germans! Benoit signals for the Swandive Headbutt and heads up top, but Orton brings up the trashcan lid to block and lets Benoit hit it face first. Hahaha, Orton is SMILING! Cole calls Orton a coward, which seems unjustified to me. That was smart. Orton slithers around waiting for Benoit to get up and take an RKO on the trashcan lid. Benoit blocks it and shoves Orton off into the ropes, and then NAILS Orton in the face with the lid, making Orton easy pickings for the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE and the win! (26:06) Just an all-around awesome match with tons of great psychology. ****

3. A classic match followed by a classic rematch. It’s amazing how they can create the same amazing atmosphere twice by doing two completely different matches. Sure, some spots were the same, but the ones that were different are what make this match so special. Up until the finish, you knew Undertaker meant what he said at No Way Out by telling Kurt Angle that he had his number.

- World Champion Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker – (Smackdown – 03.03.06)

This is the rematch from No Way Out due to the controversial finish. I still don’t know how the WWE can call that finish controversial, but who cares! We get another great match! Crowd goes into the dueling chants to start as Angle tries to avoid being stuck in the corner with Taker. Angle ducks Taker’s shots and turns things around on Taker in the corner. Taker comes out and brings Angle into the corner by his throat and delivers some body shots. Taker chases the ref out of the ring and charges into a boot off a whip in the corner. Angle catches Taker in an armdrag and goes into an armbar. Taker escapes and applies a Fujiwara armbar of his own. Taker lifts Angle up in a knucklelock lift and heads over to the corner to wrench on Angle’s arm some more. Taker decides to go OLD SKOOL, but Angle brings him down with a forearm. Angle stomps Taker down in the corner, but Taker goes back to the arm to regain control. Taker looks like he wants to try for OLD SKOOL again, but Angle drills him with a forearm before he can start the climb. Angle delivers the ten-count corner punch, but Taker lifts him up for the LAST RIDE to counter after seven. Angle tries to block it, so Taker drops him on the top rope instead. Angle gets booted off the apron into the security wall as we go to break. We come back to see Taker setting up the announce table, but Angle stops him and slams Taker’s head into the steel steps, but then he turns around and drops Angle with a clothesline. Taker places Angle on the apron and gives him the guillotine leg drop across the neck instead of delivering it on the chest. Angle WRITHES in pain as he falls to the floor. Taker brings Angle back in to avoid a countout and covers for 1-2-NO! I love how Taker created the opportunity to move from working on the arm to the neck. Taker grinds and hammers on Angle’s neck and shoulders, but then Angle reverses a whip and hits a powerslam out of nowhere! Cover, 1-2-NO! Angle applies a chinlock, but releases the hold when Taker starts pushing on Angle’s face causing more torque on the neck. Angle delivers a suplex for two, and then moves to a body scissors for a few near-falls. Taker stands up out of it, leaving Angle open for right hands. Angle baits Taker in the corner and avoids a running big boot to create an opportunity to weaken Taker’s leg for the anklelock. Angle tries to knock Taker off the apron, but he runs into a back elbow to slow things down. Taker heads up top, but Angle meets him there only to get knocked back down. Angle comes back with rights and delivers a top-rope superplex for 1-2-NO! Commercial break #2! After the break, we see Angle punishing Taker with another chinlock. Taker punches out, but then gets clotheslined out to the floor by Angle. He lands on his feet and pulls Angle out to the floor with him. That proves to a BIG mistake, as Angle reverses a whip sending Taker knees-first into the steel steps! Back in, Angle covers for 1-2-NO! Taker wins a slugfest and follows Angle into the corner with a clothesline! Make it two clotheslines! Taker follows up with the snake-eyes, but Angle ducks the big boot and hits a German Suplex! OH YEAH! Angle wants the ANGLE SLAM, but will he get it? NO! Big boot by Taker! Cover, 1-2-NO! Taker wants a CHOKESLAM, but Angle decides that the ANKLELOCK might be that much cooler! Taker kicks Angle away and goes for the TOMBSTONE out of nowhere! Angle reverses, but so does Taker! Angle escapes, ducks a clothesline and hits the ANGLE SLAM! Cover, 1-2-NO!!! The crowd collectively has a heart attack at this point. Angle pulls down the straps, makes up some new cuss words, and slaps on the ANKLELOCK again! Taker rolls through it and catches Angle in a CHOKESLAM! Taker staggers around, so Angle takes advantage and surprises EVERYONE with another ANKLELOCK! Taker turns around and pulls Angle into the Triangle Choke! Angle starts to fade away, but then rolls over Taker into a pinning predicament just like at No Way Out, but Taker slips out after one. The choke is still applied as Taker rolls onto his back. Will Angle tap out?! Angle’s arm drops once, twice, but not three times as he reaches the bottom rope. Taker sets Angle up for a leg drop, but Angle avoids it and hooks on the ANKLELOCK for the FOURTH time in this match! Taker actually kicks Angle off again, slips out of an ANGLE SLAM, and applies a Dragon Sleeper! Angle pounds his way out of it and drops Taker with a DDT for 1-2-NO! Angle goes for it all with a picture-perfect MOONSAULT, but there’s no water in the pool! ZOMBIE SIT-UP! Taker hits the TOMBSTONE and just as he covers Angle, Mark Henry and Daivari hop in the ring and begin their attack for the DQ. (28:42) Crowd is pissed off at the ending, and I can’t say I blame them. How are you going to give us a near 30-minute classic and end it on a DQ? Henry kicks Taker out to the floor and splashes him through the announce table to get their WrestleMania feud-a-roasting. This was equally as good, if not better than their No Way Out match by showcasing some different moves than what was done before. It was nearing ****¾ territory in my eyes up until that utterly terrible finish, and I have no choice but to subtract a ½* away from it. However, horrible finish aside, it’s still the best free TV match of the year. ****¼

2. Okay, so before, I gave this the nod for match of the year, but then I popped in No Way Out one day and my mind was changed. I loved how the Cena/Edge feud came to this; Edge being topped in his own specialty match. What better way to dethrone the champ?

- WWE Champion Edge vs. John Cena – TLC Match (Unforgiven 09.17.06)

If Edge wins, Cena signs a three-year deal with Smackdown. If Cena wins, he becomes the three-time WWE Champion alongside Mick Foley and Brock Lesnar. In case you didn’t know, this is also Edge’s hometown so the crowd is very pro-Edge. Also, JR goofs up again by saying Edge (and Edge has said as well) has never lost in a TLC match. I vaguely remember a TLC match on Smackdown five years ago that Edge and Christian lost which included Benoit, Jericho, the Hardys and the Dudleys. Actually, I remember it VERY well. Why does everyone seem to forget about that match? We start off with Cena working a headlock while breaking the hold and getting in three shoulderblocks. Cena runs the ropes and Edge catches Cena with a slap to the face. Cena takes him down and pounds away, but then he ducks low off a whip and takes a swinging neckbreaker from Edge. They go to the floor where Edge tries to Cena’s head off with a steel chair, but he misses and Cena takes him back into the ring for the Protoplex. Edge avoids a charge and then delivers the Edgecution. Edge goes out and brings two chairs into the ring and then sets up facing each other. Edge tries to suplex Cena on the chairs, but he counters and tries for the suplex. Edge flips out and drops Cena with an inverted DDT on the chairs! Edge brings one of the shorter ladders into the ring and goes for the belt, but Cena gets back up and shoves the ladder over. Edge lands on his feet and charges at Cena with a clothesline. While Cena is draped across the middle ropes, Edge goes out to the floor and slams a ladder in his face. Edge follows up and comes off the security wall and missile dropkicks the ladder into Cena! Edge gets back in and tries to ram Cena with the ladder, but he moves and hits the corner. Cena comes back with rights and then hiptosses Edge onto the propped up ladder in the corner. Cena sees there’s two tables set up beside one another and grabs Edge so he can FU him through the tables, but Edge grabs the ropes and lands on the apron. Cena wins a slugfest and comes off the ropes, but gets nailed with a forearm. Edge goes up top and gets crotched to disable him long enough for Cena to bring a table into the ring. He sets it up in the ring and then tries to superplex Edge through it. Edge is able to hammer his way out for a sunset flip powerbomb, but Cena puts the brakes on the hold for our first real botched spot of the match. The crowd is a little disappointed to say the least. They improvise with Edge giving Cena a powerslam through the table. “Cena sucks!” chant go up as the ref gets the table out of the ring. Cena is out on the floor, so Edge runs up the ladder that’s still propped up in the corner and dives out onto Cena! Edge tosses Cena back in and brings two chairs in the ring with him. He levels Cena on the mat with a chair shot and then sets up for the one-man Conchairto, but Cena trips Edge up once he goes for the fatal swing. Cena hits the Throwback (running flip neckbreaker) on the chair! He then picks up the ladder and sandwiches Edge in between the ladder and applies the STFU! JR tries to convince us that Cena is a TOUGH SONUVAGUN for doing what he just did. Cena releases the hold and then rams the ladder into Edge’s face. He lifts the ladder up onto his shoulders and FU’s the ladder on Edge! Sure, why not. Cena sets the ladder up in the corner and then delivers a Protobomb to set up the Five Knuckle Shuffle from the ladder! Lawler ~ “I love a good fist drop, JR.” Cena goes out to the floor and brings another table into the ring, but then turns around in a WONDERFUL chairshot. I mean, that baby was nice. Cena is OUT. Haha, Edge starts to get cocky and bobbles his head as the crowd cheers! Edge sets Cena on a table and then goes out and brings another table into the ring, which he sets up on TOP of the table Cena is laid out on! Edge goes up top, but then Cena gets up and knocks Edge out onto the security wall. Cena goes out to the floor and pulls out one of those 16-foot ladders which will make it harder to climb, but a lot easier to grab the belt. I can’t let you forget about the ladder that was set up in the corner about five minutes ago because Edge is climbing it as we speak. He comes off of it and spears Cena off the big ladder to save his title! Not a perfect spear, but it worked. Edge begins to climb the big ladder, but then realizes Cena is up and dives out on top of him. Cena catches him and lifts Edge up into the FU position. He gets too close to the ladder, allowing Edge to climb off of Cena and onto the ladder. Cena stops him and powerbombs Edge into the smaller standing ladder. Yikes, that could’ve been disastrous. Edge falls out to the floor to rest, but Cena follows him out and has a steel chair in hand. Edge rises and Cena connects with a very, very weak chairshot. Cena rolls back in the ring and seems to be disappointed in himself. Cena begins to climb the 16-foot ladder to regain his title, but Lita comes down and turns the ladder over to send Cena through a table out on the floor ala Matt Hardy at SummerSlam 2000. The only difference was the table was horizontal instead of vertical like at SummerSlam. I’m proud of you, John. Edge finally starts to get up to his feet on the other side of the ring. Edge crawls in the ring and sets the ladder up underneath the belt as somehow Cena is back in the ring. Lita grabs a chair in the ring and nails Cena in the back with it, causing him to fall into the ladder and send Edge crashing through a table on the entrance ramp. OUCH! That looked like it hurt worse than Cena’s bump. Lita gets an FU to put her out of the match. The top table from the double-stack in the ring fell down because of the ring bounce from the FU, so Cena sets it back up because it’s very vital to the finish. Cena sets the ladder back up and begins to climb, and Edge has unbelievably made it back into the ring. He starts to climb the opposite side of the ladder to try and knock the challenger off, but Cena lifts him up on his shoulders for the FU off the ladder and through the double-stack of tables! The finish is academic as Cena easily grabs the belt to regain his championship! (25:29) That was one AMAZING match and possibly my favorite WWE TLC match. With a few minor obvious botches, it wasn’t perfect so I can’t give it the full five stars. ****¼

And now, to no one’s surprise, the #1 WWE match of 2006!

1. Absolutely tremendous match from bell-to-bell. It legitimized Kurt Angle’s title reign and proved that Undertaker could still go with someone talented. It’s no doubt the all-around best match WWE could muster up in 2006. After a couple more viewings, I boosted the rating up another ½*.

- World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle vs. Undertaker – (No Way Out 02.19.06)

Taker goes right after Angle, but Angle is able to dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge him to start. Angle pisses off Taker by shoving him in the back, so Taker goes crazy on him. Angle rolls out of the ring to avoid ALL of that. Back in, Taker works over Angle’s arm and shoulder for a good while. Taker goes for Old School, but Angle nails him in the face to put a stop to it. Taker counters a whip out of the corner into an arm whip. He goes for Old School again and this time it works. Taker hits the Snake Eyes, but Angle ducks the big boot and catches Taker for a German suplex. Angle punishes Taker in the corner with stomps and shoulder blocks. Taker counters a whip into the far side corner and follows in with a running knee to the face. Taker charges again, but Angle ducks out of the way. Taker gets knocked off the apron onto the barricade. Angle sends Taker face-first into the steel steps, but then Angle is caught coming off the apron and then driven spine-first into the ringpost. Taker sets Angle on the apron and delivers a legdrop across the throat. Back in, Taker goes for a chokeslam but Angle kicks him away. Now Angle goes after Taker’s left knee. He posts his knee a couple times and then applies the ringpost figure-four. Back in, Angle stomps away on Taker’s knee and then goes all Ric Flair on Taker by splashing his knee against the ropes. Taker tosses Angle to the floor out of desperation. Taker sets Angle up on the apron again for another legdrop, but Angle counters it with an ANKLELOCK out on the floor! Angle goes in to break the count and then comes back out to apply the hold once again. Back in, Angle applies a legbar but Taker kicks out of it. Angle comes back with a double-leg takedown, but Taker counters that with a TRIANGLE CHOKE! Angle makes the ropes. Angle rolls out to the floor to try and rejuvenate himself. Taker goes out after him and attacks him out on the floor. He even tosses him into Tony Chimel! That guy has had a rough night! Tazz ~ “Better Chimel than us.” Weren’t you a wrestler once? Geez. Taker sets up the Cole/Tazz announce table, but Angle catches Taker and drives him through the SAT with an ANGLESLAM! Angle cusses ref Nick Patrick out for trying to count out the Undertaker. Angle rocks your face off. He goes back out to the floor and pounds on Taker, but then gets whipped into the steel steps. Back in, Taker goes up top possibly for his flying clothesline, but Angle pops up and tries a superplex. Angle gets knocked back down to the mat, but then he comes back up and delivers a SUPER BELLY-TO-BELLY THROW. Angle covers for two. Angle comes off the ropes, but runs into a boot for two. Taker goes for the chokeslam, but Angle rolls through into the ANKLELOCK! Taker pulls Angle into the TRIANGLE CHOKE! Angle counters THAT into another ANKLELOCK! Taker rolls Angle off of him and then gives Angle a CHOKESLAM! That gets a near-fall! Now it’s time for the LAST RIDE! Or is it? Angle rolls out of that into another ANKLELOCK! Taker kicks him off again, but swings his way into an ANGLESLAM! Angle covers, but it only gets two. Angle can’t believe it! He pulls down the straps so he can finally get serious! They trade blows. Angle comes off the ropes and Taker catches him for the TOMBSTONE! Angle reverses it into a Tombstone of his own. Taker reverses it again but Angle rolls down into the ANKLELOCK! Angle grapevines the leg! OH SNAP! Taker rolls over so that he’s able to kick Angle repeatedly in the face to get him off of him. Both men back up, Angle delivers ANOTHER ANGLESLAM! Angle tries a rollup of sorts, but Taker pulls him in the TRIANGLE CHOKE again! Kurt looks like he’s going to pass out! The arm falls twice but on the third time, Angle flips over into a pinning predicament with Taker’s shoulders down on the mat for the three-count! ANGLE RETAINS! (29:48) Tazz tries to say that since Taker was the aggressor that his shoulders shouldn’t have been counted. Well, if they want to say that it was a controversial finish for the REMATCH on Smackdown, then that’s cool with me! Taker is another guy that can have great matches with great competitors, and Angle is capable of having a great match with just about anybody. Add these two together and you’ve got an excellent match. I would say that this was definitely Taker’s best non-gimmicked match since 1997; bar none. I would also go as far as to say that this is Angle’s greatest successful PPV title defense outside of Angle/Benoit at the Rumble 2003. ****½

EDIT: After reading that, chances are — either you think my writing has gotten better or its gotten a lot less creative. All the same, I hope you enjoyed that.

It’s all snowy here in North Carolina and when there’s anything white on the ground, our entire world shuts down, which means I’ve got nowhere to go. Having said that, my ten picks from 2007 are due. Look for it to be up sometime Sunday!

• Triple H (w/Ric Flair) vs. Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho vs. Edge vs. Batista vs. Chris Benoit – Elimination Chamber (New Years Revolution 2005)
  

Matt: LIVE FROM PUERTO RICO! Shawn Michaels is *your* special guest referee and the World title is completely up for grabs thanks to a HHH-Edge-Benoit triple threat match back in December that had a double-pin finish. Easily the best match this PPV ever generated in the three years of its existence. It was bloody, brutal, and quite dramatic. Benoit and Jericho started the match for the first five minutes and tore the house down. Triple H and Edge would be the first two men to escape their chambers. Somebody has to nearly kill themselves by coming off one of the chambers, so the inevitable happens as Benoit comes off the top of a chamber with the Swandive Headbutt to Triple H. It’s always a beautiful thing. We saw some awesome three-man spots as Benoit stopped a Pedigree on Jericho by throwing Triple H away with a German suplex. Also, there’s a neat exchange between Triple H, Benoit, and Orton. Benoit releases a nasty looking Crossface on Orton to put Triple H in the Sharpshooter since he’s just standing there taunting Orton. With Benoit’s head exposed, you can see the RKO coming a mile away. The moment finally comes when HBK gets involved. Orton ducks a spear from Edge, which causes Shawn to take the blow. Orton gets a spear anyway, but HBK is too hurt to make the count. Edge gets in Shawn’s face – SWEET CHIN MUSIC – followed by a Lionsault from Jericho and there goes Edge’s chances at winning the World title, which he was clinically obsessed about doing at the time. That sets up their match for the Royal Rumble. Triple H gets stuck in a Crippler Crossface-Walls of Jericho spot and everybody thinks he’s going to submit when Batista’s time to enter the match comes up and he makes the save for his mentor. I was becoming more of a Batista during the period after NYR when Batista started to mess with Triple H. Before that, he was just a big enforcer guy for the Evolution stable. Here is where he gets awesome. He throws Jericho into a cameraman and then SPINEBUSTERS Jericho on top of Benoit! WHO DOES THAT. That gets rid of Benoit. A Demon Bomb later to Jericho gets rid of him as well. That leaves HHH & Batista vs. Orton. Not good. As Orton continues to kickout of Triple H’s offense, he gets a little mad and lets Batista go for the Demon Bomb. Nobody kicks out of that. Instead, Orton low blows out and drops Batista with the RKO! Cover, 1-2-3! Batista is GONE! Umm, why didn’t Triple H make the save? He starts to and then he sits back down in the corner! Oh man. As the cage door opens up to get Batista out, Ric Flair hops into the match to distract HBK while Batista nails Orton with a clothesline. That sets up an easy Pedigree as HHH wins his tenth world championship (five WWE, five world). Afterwards, Batista puts HHH up on his shoulders to celebrate. You expect Batista to drop back, but it never happens. On an otherwise awful PPV, this match is worth taking a look at if you’re a fan of this era on Raw.

Justin: When Triple H lost his title in the triple threat match on Raw, many people thought a changing of the guard was in the air. Bischoff vacated the belt and put it up for grabs in the Chamber. Up until this point, this was definitely the best Chamber match in the history of the gimmick. All six men were in a good groove here and they all had good chemistry with each other. Despite still being a heel here, Batista was really gaining a strong fan following and had eclipsed his former partner Randy Orton as a crowd favorite. All six men worked hard and as badly as everyone wanted Hunter to lose here, he really was the best option to pass the torch to Batista. The subtle move by Hunter to feign being to worn out to save Batista was awesome too. Great match to kick off a really good year for in ring action.

• Edge vs. Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kane vs. Christian (w/Tyson Tomko) vs. Shelton Benjamin – ‘Money in the Bank’ Ladder Match (WrestleMania 21)
  

Matt: The mother of all ‘Money in the Bank’ ladder matches. The chances we saw taken in TLC matches in years past came back with this one. This was all kinds of cool as we saw a very brief reunion between Edge and Christian, Shelton Benjamin WALKING UP A TILTED LADDER to clothesline Jericho, Benoit’s pain-stricken Swandive Headbutt. Much like Rhyno helped E&C win at TLC II at WrestleMania X-7, “The Problem Solver” Tyson Tomko nearly helped Christian win it all before Kane gave Tyson the big boot to the floor and turned the ladder over to send Christian falling on top of Tomko. Unlike your usual popcorn spotfest, this one had some storytelling as well. As Benoit made that final ascent up the ladder with his hurt shoulder, Edge comes out of nowhere and BLASTS Benoit’s shoulder with a chair. Down goes Benoit. Up goes Edge as he retrieves the ‘Money in the Bank’ briefcase to one day getting a random title shot whenever he wants.

Justin: This is the match that established the legend of MITB. Take six or eight hard working midcarders and toss them into a wild environment full of weapons and let them battle for a title shot. I think the prize really added to this match as well as the idea of a title shot that is good for one year was a shrewd one. These guys destroyed each other and really set the bar for the ensuing versions of the match. The breakout star here was clearly Shelton Benjamin, who wowed the crowd with his athleticism and risky offense. Edge picked up a big win to help keep his heel turn churning ahead and Chris Benoit put on an exhibition in legendary selling. Great stuff and a big contender for the match of the night.

• Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels – (WrestleMania 21)
  

Matt: I haven’t watched UT-HBK from WrestleMania 25 since I saw it live, but it’s these two matches that in my opinion HAVE to be the best standard one-on-one matches from WWE in this decade. I’ve done a review for this already on the Kurt Angle mixtape, so here you go!

Michaels eliminated Angle at the Royal Rumble and from there a rivalry was started to the point both guys have come to WrestleMania to see who the best wrestler of the decade is. This match is also labeled as an inter-promotional match, but all that really means is Raw vs. Smackdown. Both guys get into a wrestling stance to start and then Shawn shocks Angle with a slap! Charlie Murphy says, YOU DON’T SLAP A MAN! Angle explodes on HBK and rides him down to the mat. From there, Shawn does what Angle didn’t expect him to do – wrestle. HBK grabs hold of a headlock and doesn’t let go. Once Angle finds the ropes, Shawn applies a short-arm scissors down on the mat. Angle tries to lift and slam HBK out of it, but Shawn counters that into a sunset flip for two. Backslide gets another two. Back to the headlock. They brawl into the corner and as the “biased” Smackdown ref pulls HBK out, Angle blasts him from behind with a clothesline and grabs the ANKLELOCK out of nowhere. Shawn quickly rolls Angle off him and they take each other to the floor. Shawn sets up the Smackdown table for something big. They brawl on the floor until Angle ducks a blow and picks Shawn up for the ANGLE SLAM! Instead of dropping him on the floor, Angle backs Shawn kidneys-first into the ringpost! Back in, Angle hits a snap suplex for a pair of twos. Now he grabs a body scissors. HBK battles out, but gets caught with an overhead belly to belly suplex off the Ray Stevens corner bump. Angle places a knee in Shawn’s kidneys and pulls back on the neck. HBK escapes and during an exchange, slaps Angle again which gets him clotheslined hard to the mat. Shawn shoves off a belly-to-belly superplex, but misses the Flying Elbow. DOWN COME THE STRAPS! Michaels armdrags out of the ANGLE SLAM and takes Angle to the floor. He dives on top of Angle – driving his knee right into Angle’s face! Shawn avoids the German Suplex Off The Apron That Never Happens and knocks Angle onto the Smackdown table for the Springboard Splash, but the table doesn’t break! Back inside, Angle is bleeding PROFUSELY from the mouth. Shawn connects with the Flying Forearm and KIPS UP to continue his comeback. Flying Elbow hits this time as he sets up for SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Oh, Angle counters into the ANKLELOCK! Shawn makes the ropes and counters another ANGLE SLAM, but Angle rolls through into more of the ANKLELOCK! Shawn counters into a victory roll, but stands up into the ANGLE SLAM! Cover, 1-2-NO! Now Angle goes for it all with the Flying Moonsault and completely misses. Shawn slowly heads up top and gets caught with the SUPER ANGLE SLAM! Cover, 1-2-NO!! OH MY GOSH. Angle is REALLY frustrated right now. He grabs Shawn by the hair and SCREAMS at him to tap out, so Shawn shoves him back and delivers a desperate SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Slow cover gets two! Shawn was knocked so loopy by that Super Angle Slam, that it takes him forever to even get to his feet. Angle ceases the moment and easily takes Shawn down into the ANKLELOCK! HBK does one INCREDIBLE job selling the pain of the hold, but once Angle grapevines the leg Shawn has no choice but to tap out. (26:58) Such an incredible performance from both men. You have to think that Shawn and Taker may have looked back to this match when they got together at WM 25 in the way that there were several moments when the match could have been over, but it went another 10-15 minutes and continued to build and build up to a fantastic and dramatic ending. Without a doubt, one of the top three matches of the decade. *****

Justin: And the other contender was this showdown of legends. Since Michaels returned, this was one of those dream matches everyone was waiting for. When they set it up at the Rumble, everybody knew we were in for a treat. They delivered the classic everyone anticipated and in a pretty surprising result, Angle picked up the clean win on Mr. WrestleMania. The only gripe some pundits had was that Michaels lasted a bit too long in the Anklelock, but it wasn’t enough to punish the match on a whole. This was just a great match with a big time classic feel.

• Shawn Michaels vs. Shelton Benjamin – Gold Rush Tournament Match (Raw, 5/2/05)
  

Matt: It’s an easy match to love. You have wrestlers that can fly and you have wrestlers who can go on the mat, but rarely ever do you have a sweet combination of the two. These two could do both and excelled tremendously against one another to make for one awesome match which stood out above all the other matches in this Gold Rush tournament to find a #1 contender to Batista’s world heavyweight title. Even though he already had the ‘Money in the Bank’ briefcase which guaranteed a title shot whenever he wanted, he still ended up losing to the Animal. But back to the match, it’s fantastic with Shelton nearly getting the win on Shawn on several different occasions but everyone remembers it for the amazing springboard into SWEET CHIN MUSIC to give Shawn the victory over the man with the longest IC title reign of the decade. That’s either a compliment to Shelton Benjamin or an utter travesty done to the title because I can’t for the life of me honestly remember him doing anything with the belt. I’ll let you decide.

Justin: This match was part of the Gold Rush tournament as Eric Bischoff was trying to determine a number one contender to Batista’s World Title. Shelton had really come into his own as a wrestler since breaking out a year earlier and when Michaels made his entrance, the fans in the arena started to buzz. These two went balls to wall and delivered a tremendous TV match. Of course, the highlight was the insane SCM that Benjamin ate as he springboards off the top rope and into the ring. Shelton continued to help his stock soar but Michaels was able to narrowly steal this win.

• WWE Champion John Cena vs. JBL – “I Quit” Match (Judgment Day 2005)
  

Matt: If you thought John Cena’s successful WWE title match at WrestleMania was a tad lame, this match MORE than made up for it. Also if you had wanted to see JBL get destroyed for his entire 280-day reign because I know a lot of folks did, this is your match. I can’t think of too many bad ‘I quit’ matches in WWE. I’ve always liked them whether it was Magnum TA and Tully Blanchard or Ric Flair and Terry Funk or even the Rock and Mankind. This was not nearly as iconic, but they definitely tried. First of all, Cena makes his entrance on a SEMI TRUCK! Awesome. Well into the match, JBL makes a man out of the “Doctor of Thuganomics” (which if any dude nicknamed himself that in real life, they should lose all credibility for trying to be a tough guy) gives Cena the same scary chairshot he gave Eddie Guerrero the previous year at Judgment Day. He bleeds, but thankfully not quite as bad as Eddie did. I mean, really. Nobody should be doing that. Cena makes his SUPERMAN comeback that has been DONE over the years of his numerous and lengthy title reigns. They brawl over to the stage where Cena throws JBL through TV screens and through the car windows of JBL’s own limo. JBL gets in his licks too – violently hanging Cena from power cords and everything. Kind of an anticlimactic finish as JBL gives up before Cena whacks him with the smokestack from the semi truck he drove in on, but whatever. Cena nails him after he gives up anyway with the smokestack through a glass panel.

Justin: After a meteoric rise to the top, John Cena was still looking for that epic classic to cement his position. His WM Championship win was a bit anticlimactic as he easily dispatched of the long term champion JBL. JBL got his rematch here and they delivered the match that many expected at Mania. These two beat on each with ferocity and a bevy of weapons. The blood was flowing and the crowd was pumped as Cena was able to take out JBL once again to continue his title reign. This was a match Cena needed, but it would also end up being his final big time match with the fans completely behind him as a top level face, so in a way it is a pretty historic bout as well.

• Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome – (ECW One Night Stand 2005)
  

Matt: These two had a great rivalry going in ‘98 –’99 in the original ECW and now they meet again. Basically a tribute to their past crazy VIOLENT matches they had at Heatwave ‘98 and the two classic matches they had on TNN in late 1999. We saw an Awesome Bomb off the apron through a table and an Awesome Bomb from inside the ring out to the floor through a table. Just insanity. Tanaka took more super hard chairshots in one match than anybody should ever receive in a lifetime. But he wasn’t completely out done. He gave Awesome a run for his money with a tornado DDT on a couple chairs and a super DDT through a table! If you loved ECW for the hardcore wrestling, this is as close as WWE would allow anymore in this show-stealing match.

Justin: On the most unlikely show of the year, two forgotten stars of days gone by came to NYC to put on a violent reminder of what made ECW so memorable. Nobody ever could have dreamed that ECW would make a return like this and who would have expected Tanaka and Awesome to deliver a classic ECW war. These two went all out, probably auditioning for a job, and just laid waste to each other with sick weapon shots. Awesome put the dagger in Tanaka with a nasty powerbomb to a table on the floor and then put a cherry on top with a big dive out on top of him. Unfortunately, he messed up his knee, which may have cost him a contract. Regardless, it was a hell of a performance that added to the legend of this show.

• Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle – (Vengeance 2005)
  

Matt: The WrestleMania rematch nobody minded seeing again. Of course it doesn’t hold a candle to the drama of the first match, Shawn and Angle bust their rumps in match #2 of their three match series in 2005. We saw some nods to the original match by HBK avoiding an Angle Slam into the ringpost, but he still had to settle for a German suplex on the SAT. From there, Angle continued to destroy Shawn on the mat for the next 15 minutes. Just incredible stuff. Shawn made his signature comeback, but Angle cut off the Sweet Chin Music and terrorized HBK with the Anklelock. The whole match was centered around Angle’s desire to make Shawn tap one more time just like he did at WrestleMania 21. Of course Shawn held out all the way to the end. HBK finally nailed Angle with Sweet Chin Music, but it wasn’t enough to put Angle away. Once Angle came off the top (which isn’t his domain anyway), he leaped right down into Sweet Chin Music for real to give HBK his win back. Great match and it definitely deserves to be on this list, but the original match is most certainly the greatest of all three. Angle and Shawn would meet one more time on Raw’s return show to the USA Network in a 30 minute ironman match that went to a draw. Check that match out on the Best of Raw DVD!

Justin: The WM rematch was heavily hyped and heavily anticipated. The two stars delivered once again, equaling their Mania effort, with Michaels picking up the win this time around. Once of the best spots of the match was when Angle powerbombs Michaels into the turnbuckles. This year was loaded with great matches and these two produced two of them.

• World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. Triple H – Hell in a Cell (Vengeance 2005)
  

Matt: The breakdown of Evolution ends here at the Hell in a Cell. Some people love their other two matches, but I believe their best match is right here at Vengeance. After years of overrated and mediocre Hell in a Cell matches, we finally get one that is AWESOME. Batista busts Triple H open early, but then Triple H pulls out a chair wrapped in barbed-wire that both guys get a chance to play with. Yeah, that gets pretty gruesome. Naturally, Batista gets busted open as well. HHH finds a sledgehammer, but even that won’t put Batista down for the three count. Triple H saves himself from the same fate with a chain-wrapped fist to the face! That still doesn’t put Batista away. Batista makes his comeback and sends the bottom half of the ringside stairs into the ring. Triple H gets his head bounced off that a bunch, but he counters a Demon Bomb with a low blow and a Pedigree. Still can’t get the win. He wants to one-up his game a bit with a Pedigree on the steps, but Batista counters with a SPINEBUSTER on the steps instead. Why not. One Demon Bomb later and Batista defeats Triple H for the THIRD time on PPV in nearly three months. Now that’s putting somebody over, I don’t know what is. Certainly another brutal affair that cemented Batista as the next big star in WWE. He’ll become plagued with injuries over the next several years, so it’s just sad that he couldn’t really ever top this match.

Justin: One of the top stories of 2005 was the rise of Batista. Triple H did his best to make him a star, already having put him over twice cleanly. He was given one final rematch inside the Cell on a loaded Vengeance card. You knew Hunter could bring the goods in a gimmick match, but the jury was still out on Batista. Well, those questions were answered when these two gave us a brutal slugfest. There were no crazy insane spots, just a lot of weapons, violence and hatred. By the end of this battle, Batista was legitimized as a major star and Hunter was headed to the sidelines for a much needed break. This is definitely one of the best Cell matches in the history of the gimmick.

• Matt Hardy vs. Edge – Cage Match (Unforgiven 2005)
  

Matt: If you were a fan in 2005, you know all about the Matt Hardy-Edge soap opera. In real life, Edge cheated on his wife with Matt’s girlfriend Lita and now the couple decided to become public with their relationship. Of course this was after Matt was released from WWE. Big mistake. After everyone protested, Matt makes an appearance on Raw three months after his release and acted like a total nut job saying that his fans could see him in Ring of Honor. While this was all true since Matt made several appearances in ROH, this appearance blurred the lines between a work and a shoot in a way that fans hadn’t seen since the early days of the nWo in WCW. So Vince resigns Matt just in time for a match with Edge at SummerSlam. Everyone hoped for a shoot fight considering the hatred Matt should be feeling for Edge, but when they started whipping each other into the ropes, the match lost all its appeal. Now we get a cage match. This was a year of brutality and these two about killed each other. Edge busted out some crazy offense on Matt like a powerbomb into the cage wall while Hardy just busts Edge and grinds on the cut like a mental patient. He gets a little revenge on Lita with the Twist of Fate and then drops the craziest moment of the match – a FLYING LEGDROP FROM THE TOP OF THE CAGE! That gave Matt the win. It’s just a shame looking back that this was the best that he ever got working in singles matches. Check this one out on the Hardy Boyz DVD!

Justin: To me, this may be one of the most underrated matches of the year, and maybe even the decade. Everyone knows the back story for this. Hardy made his return but was knocked silly by Edge at SummerSlam. He was looking for revenge here and he got it with a hard fought win inside a cage. The spot of the match was Hardy’s crazy legdrop from the top of the cage. This was another hate filled battle in a year full of them. Hardy gets a much needed win in a classic encounter.

• WWE Intercontinental Champion Ric Flair vs. Triple H – Cage Match (Taboo Tuesday 2005)
  

Matt: Another match I’ve already done a review for, so I’ll just repost that instead. From the History of the IC Championship DVD.

Joey Styles and Jerry Lawler are on commentary. Time for Triple H to put Old Yeller down. Big standoff to start with both men exchanging some rather mean words! Being the master of mind games, Flair backs H into the corner for a chop and then walks away. Flair continues with the chops until HHH nails Flair with a High Knee. Flair chops back some more, but runs into a AA Spinebuster. Triple H is hesitant at first, but then starts beating the crap out of Flair and sends him into the cage to bust him open. Another throw into the cage sets up the Knee Drop out of the corner. H then takes Flair to the cage wall and starts to grind his face right before he splashes Flair up against the steel. This time H lowers the knee pad and Knee Drops Flair out of disrespect. Triple H sends Flair into the cage one more time and then starts to climb out. Flair is not going to die that easily though and meets H at the top and chops him down. They trade blows until they wind up crotching each other on the top rope. H climbs back up and finds a chain in the corner of the cage. With Flair down on the mat, H wraps the chain around his fist to come down on Flair, but Ric gets his foot up to block. H still has the chain wrapped around his knuckles as Flair chops him and sets him up for the FIGURE-FOUR with a shin breaker, but H gives him a chain punch to the face. Cover, 1-2-NO! Triple H drops a fist again with the chain on Flair before ref Mickey Jay takes it away from him. HHH destroys Flair by beating him down in the corner and then hits another Knee Drop before mocking Flair with the FIGURE-FOUR. Flair makes DEATH THREATS to Triple H when he’s in the hold! Triple H cranks on it but Flair will not die. Flair eventually flips Triple H the bird and turns the hold over into the ropes. H drags Flair to the middle of the ring to reapply the Figure Four, but Flair kicks him off into the steel. Now Triple H is busted wide open. When he sees blood, Flair gets a second wind and works the cut on the cage and with his fingers! Stalling suplex by Flair sets up the Rolling Knee Drop. Flair gives him another one. More chops from Flair leads to a chop block to do some damage on the knee. FIGURE-FOUR is applied by Flair this time. Triple H avoids submitting by throwing the ref into Flair to break up the hold. Flair stays in control with a knee drop to H’s knee and then starts to climb out. H comes after him, but gets raked in the eyes and takes a flying single sledge to the head. Cover, 1-2-NO! From there, Flair low blows Triple H to allow Joey Styles a justifiable reason to say “balls” on PPV. Triple H grabs hold of Flair to keep him from crawling out the door. He brings a chair in with him. H gets the chair away from Flair and goes to whack him, but Flair grabs the testicular claw! Flair gives him a chop while he’s there too! He ducks low off a whip though to set up a PEDIGREE, but Flair backdrops H over onto the chair. Flair proceeds to give Triple H THREE chairshots and then walks out the cage to retain his title and his dignity. (23:46) A very good albeit methodical brawl. ***¾

Justin: Upon his return from his HITC loss, Hunter promptly turned on his mentor Ric Flair and put an ungodly beating on him on Raw. Flair challenged the Game here. Flair’s IC title was on the line as well. The teacher and the student spent nearly 17 minutes brutalizing each other until Flair was able to sneak out a win. After years of dominance and complaints, Hunter spent all of 2005 jobbing to help quell his detractors a bit. Flair showed that he could still deliver a vicious psychologically driven war with this one. They would put on another vicious battle at Survivor Series, making this one of the best feuds of the second half of the year.

Well that does it for another year! Next up, my picks for the ten best WWE matches of 2006 will be my 500^th post for the Powerdriver Review! It’s funny because it’s actually a repost of a post that of the top ten matches of 2006 that I chose and worked on for TheHistoryofWWE back at the end of 2006. So come on back for that one, ya’ll.

TLC Results

Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian
ECW Title (Ladder Match)
Results : Christian wins the ladder match over Shelton Benjamin to retain the ECW Championship.

Drew McIntyre vs. John Morrison
Intercontinental Title match
Winner: Drew McIntyre wins via pinfall over John Morrison to become the new Intercontinental Champion.

Mickie James vs. Michelle McCool Womens Title match
Winner: Michelle McCool wins via pinfall over Mickie James to retain the WWE Womens Championship.

Sheamus vs. John Cena WWE Title (Tables Match)
Winner: Sheamus wins the Table match against John Cena to become the new WWE Champion.

Batista vs. The Undertaker
World Championship (Chair Match)
Winner: The Undertaker wins via pinfall over Batista to retain the World Heavyweight Title.

Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton
Winner: Randy Orton wins via pinfall over Kofi Kingston.

D-Generation X vs Chris Jericho & Big Show
Unified Tag Team titles (TLC Match)
Winners: D-Generation X wins the TLC match over Chris Jericho & Big Show to win the Unified Tag team Championship belts.

The first match ever for Table Ladders and Chairs on WWE in Oct 17, 1999 (called NO MERCY), with Edge, Christian, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy and the Dudleys.

Video provided by xGamingFever2891x which has more details about this video on his channel.

Quote : “The hardys the dudleys and edge&christian would compete in the first ever TLC match on August, 27, 2000 at summerslam.”

Part 2

The Cover for X-Men #1 (V2) by Jim Lee from Marvel.com.

Jeremy graciously put a juicy leftover turkey sandwich on my table when covering the new WWE comic books. I’ll look at the limited sampling of artwork and break it down. I’m not even going to venture into the writing which seems to be linking famous historical happens to modern wrestling situations. I’ll leave that for March 23rd when the comics come out and I can properly piss on them.

In the first link Jeremy provided (I suggest enlarging it with a simple click) the top left cell shows a Mayan that is proportioned well. In the next cell over, HHH has an awfully small head in comparison. The artists didn’t look at HHH’s ring attire because he always wraps his right hand and forearm. HHH also has the iron cross on his elbow pads. Look at photos 8 and 9 for proof from this week’s Raw. John Cena is prominently featured in cells 4 and 6. They pulled the same issues with Cena’s attire because they forgot his wrist and arm bands, didn’t give him a belt for his clam diggers, didn’t show any underwear and they gave him high tops instead of low tops. Look at photo 17 for everything but the foot wear. I also feel like I’m playing a game of nude photo hunt at the bar because Cena doesn’t have wrist tape in cell 4 but does in cell 6. Hopefully, Mickie James will be missing articles of clothing in her issue of the comic.

This cover from Spawn #158 by Greg Capullo is an example of good comic book art.

In Jeremy’s second link, we have a scene in cell 2 with (from left to right) Matt Hardy,  Kofi Kinston, Batista, R Truth and I think CM Punk or John Morrison. The first problem I have with this picture is the fact that aside from skin pigmentation, the art work feels like “insert head here”. As the picture at the top of the article shows, one can show diverse body types while still making a great comic like X-Men. Wolverine is a great character but it was often pointed out how short he was. Batista should not be matched in size by our pudgy friend Matt Hardy. Cell 4 presents a couple of problems. The most glaring to me is that Batista and Randy Orton don’t have any tattoos. They don’t need to be as detailed as the real ones but they shouldn’t be presented without them. The second problem is that Batista goes from talking to swinging a chair. I realize that comics don’t show every action but he goes from standing still without a chair to swing one through the ropes at Randy Orton. They need to show some action in between those two events.

I can’t wait until March for further evaluation. Maybe by then, I’ll have brought my own art back to this site for people to mock. - Kevin

Sorry for missing the last few weeks but I’ll see if I can catch you up:

Ryder and Mendes are together, Benjamin gets ECW Title Shot, Christian/Benjamin are going to steal the show at TLC, The Hurricane sent the Burchills packing, Vance Archer still dominating, Matt Hardy was guest on Abraham Washington Show, fans love Tony Atlas, Yoshi Tatsu’s still amazing, William Regal & Vladimir Kozlov got owned by Big Zeke after wrongful accused and ring announcer Lauren Mayhew has been MIA.

There, I think that covered it.  Now on to show:

The show started off with The Abraham Washington Show, this time sans introduction to an introduction, with special guests Zack Ryder and Rosa Mendes.  It was a pretty straight forward show for Abe who made fun of Virginians and asked the couple how they were.  Ryder wrote a poem about it.  It was corny, but not bad and even rhymed.  Rosa also had a poem.  It didn’t rhyme and was all about her, so it was about as good as Ryders.  Then it got wierd as Ryder jumped up on the couch, via Tom Cruise on Oprah, and continued jumping with a really goofy smile for a longer than necessary time period. 

Backstage, William Regal apologized to Ezekiel Jackson after having seen the tape from last week.  Zeke accepted and was back on page with the group.  Then Vladimir Kozlov enters and of course wants an apology himself for being attacked the week prior.  Things started to get heated but Regal cooled their heads and got his Ruthless Roundtable back on course.

William Regal vs. Goldust

After a post-match attack on Superstars Goldust was seeking retribution on Regal but Regal’s Roundtable seemed to be back to the well oiled machine of destruction it once was.  At least that is until Kozlov & Jackson got into a shoving match outside the ring, distracting Regal and allowing Goldust to get the roll up for the win.  So, go Goldust!

Backstage, the Burchills, Paul and Katie Lea were pleading with GM Tiffany about their being banned from ECW after Paul’s loss to The Hurricane.  Tiffany sympathized with the siblings verbal, text and emailed pleas but could do nothing about it as the match stipulated they would leave ECW if lost.  Their appearance on the show makes me think they’re not going to leave peacefully.  Personally I’m hoping for masked villains on ECW while jobbing on RAW or Smackdown.  It can’t be them, their on a different show.

As the Burchills stormed away furious, Tiffany met her latest additions to ECW: Trent Barreta and Caylen Croft.  I immediately like these two cocky young superstars because they asked if Burchill used to be a pirate.  They continued to impress as they arrogantly self promoted themselves while interrupting Tiffany.  Tiffany on the other hand was not amused.

Trent Barreta & Calyen Croft vs. Local Competitors

The new duo gave a very solid debut match despite their god awful 80’s ring attire.   The crowd didn’t seem too into them but their tag finisher probably got the response needed to keep them around for a while.  I still liked them.

Backstage (again), Savannah was interviewing Vance Archer.  Archer proclaimed his destiny but unlike other recent superstars (ahem, Seamus) said he was in no rush to get there.  He knew he’d be on top and wants to savor in the wake of destruction on the way.  All this was mashed up with clips from past weeks matches.  All in all this kind of gave him some needed personality and kind of made him more likeable.  I’m glad all superstars are given this treatment before thrusting them into main events (ahem, Sheamus).

Christian & Shelton Benjamin vs. Vladimir Kozlov & Ezekiel Jackson

Two weeks before facing off at TLC, ECW Champion Christian and #1 Contender Shelton Benjamin would face the destructive duo of Kozlov & Jackson. But before that, they would have a backstage segment where Benjamin was playing Smackdown vs. Raw 2010, playing the two’s match at TLC.  He was himself of course, and dominating.  Christian comes back there, they agree they’re on the same page, that they’ll steal the show and that they’ll have to wait and see who’ll come out of their ladder match as ECW Champion.  The last one’s mostly because Christian turned off the Xbox 360 as Benjamin was grabbing the belt.

They tag match itself was also very good with Jackson seemingly single-handedly taking on both Christian and Benjamin.  But Kozlov made yet another bad decision this week as he made a hard self tag into the match.  With himself and Christian both needing to make tags Kozlov found himself without a partner and on the receiving end of Paydirt.  Shelton Benjamin picks up the pinfall as Big Zeke walks away from the match.

I’m really liking this recent push for Ezekiel Jackson.  He’s getting backstage interaction, good crowd response and even speaking lines (though his voice wasn’t what I was expecting) which is why I’m giving him the title of Superstar of the Week.

It can't be worse than this?

This is a fucking joke right? Straight from hell comes the next failed WWE  project, WWEComics. Yes that’s right WWE is coming out with their very own copyrighted material for kids to buy. Judging by the art work and writing on these sample pages we should have oodles of material to slam for at least 7 issues.

I read comics. I watch wrestling.  I am not going to purchase this  piece of shit. I must not be the target audience. Look at the artwork . It makes everyone look the exact same and by that I mean pre Benoit killing his wife and kid days. You know, I’ll leave critiquing the artwork for Kevin. He’s the guy that draws.

Instead let’s concentrate on the writing. Better yet, let’s not. Although I bet the same guy writing this tripe is a writer for Monday Night Raw. I am running out of energy for this garbage. Comics don’t have to be garbage and the idea of a WWE comic series has its merits but this trash; wow.

Quick note, even in comics Matt Hardy is a charismaless vaccum of a bitch. At least they made him appear muscular. -Jeremy

wwe.com

Dos encuentros fueron grabados para WWE Superstars durante la sesión de ECW/Smackdown, en ellos destaca que Paul Burchill ya apareció nuevamente ante cámaras (Luego de quedar fuera de ECW sólo había tenido dark-matchs en RAW y Smackdown)

RESULTADOS

1. The Hurricane venció a Zack Ryder via DQ tras la intervención de  Paul Burchill, quién apareció enmascarado en el personaje posiblemente de un súper villano rival de The Hurricane
2. Dolph Ziggler venció a Matt Hardy via backslide

Previo a RAW, se grabó el tercer match del show:

• 3) El Legado (Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase) vencieron a Evan Bourne & Primo vía Cross Rhodes sobre Primo

La transmisión será el jueves 3 de diciembre

• The Rumble Match – (Royal Rumble 2004)
  

Matt: The ‘Road to WrestleMania’ had never been so sweet as it was in 2004 for Chris Benoit fans. At the time, it was one of those moments where your mind did a double-take because you couldn’t believe that after all these years, Benoit was finally getting a chance to be the top star he deserved. One interesting part of the match that I noticed was Benoit and Orton drew #1 and #2. Throughout the match, Benoit and Orton would end up being the only two in the ring for about half way through when everybody else had been cleared out – that is until Mick Foley came out and clotheslined Orton out so they could violently beat the CRAP out of each other at ringside. Also at the end of Benoit’s title reign, Randy Orton was the one who ended the whole thing. Just a little something I noticed that I thought was interesting. But back to the match, Big Show put on a great performance by just being who he is – the biggest dude in the ring. Has anybody else been the last guy to be eliminated and never won the Royal Rumble more than Big Show?

Justin: When people talk about the best Rumble matches of all time. there are generally three that come up in discussion: 1992, 2005 and the 2004 edition, which saw the epic story of Chris Benoit’s rise through the glass ceiling. Paul Heyman had deemed that Benoit would be the first entrant if he wanted to realize his dream of challenging for the Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania. The entire match was electric and you could feel the passion as Benoit hung on the whole way, finally dragging Big Show over the top rope for the win. The Rumble featured some great action and also had some memorable moments, which included a great Lesnar/Goldberg showdown, a tease of Undertaker’s Dead Man return and Mick Foley stealing a spot and going ballistic on Randy Orton. Epic Rumble and easily one of the top three ever.

Scott: Pretty solid Rumble that saw a lot of drama as everyone was hoping that Chris Benoit would take this and head to WrestleMania. Multiple storylines dominated here, as Kane was waiting to see if his brother the Undertaker was returning, as well as the growing war between Gold berg and Brock Lesnar. In the end, we would be waiting minutes for Benoit to eliminate Big Show and get his deserved WrestleMania title shot. A great match remembered for the drama as much as the action.

• WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Eddie Guerrero – (No Way Out 2004)
  

Matt: Another match that just makes you happy to be a wrestling fan. This monster Brock Lesnar destroyed Eddie the entire match until Goldberg interfered with the spear. I was so glad that didn’t end the match, as Eddie managed to nail Brock with the Frog Splash for the win. Most babyface wrestlers hit their peak when they achieve their goal because the allure of the character was in the chase, but as always it’s a gratifying moment while it lasted.

Justin: Since mid 2003, Eddie Guerrero had arguably been the most over wrestler in the company. The fans were rabid for him as he delivered tremendous matches and entertaining storylines. Eddie earned a title shot against Brock Lesnar and finally won the big gold in an epic confrontation. Watching this match is always great as you can feel the pure joy and emotion of the hot San Francisco crowd when Eddie picks up the win. These two delivered a classic and Brock should get props too for going out and putting over Eddie big time. One of the greatest moments you will ever see.

Scott: As much as the moment is memorable, the match itself should be given some credit as well. Eddie Guerrero put on one of his greatest performances and even better was the performance of Brock Lesnar. Being an arrogant heel and making fun of Eddie’s heritage was classic, to the brutal beating he gave Eddie during the match. Never mind the Goldberg run-in, which thank god didn’t affect the outcome, but overall the match will be remembered for not only Eddie’s crowning moment, but for 35 minutes of great matches.

• Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels – (Raw, 2/16/04)
  

Matt: It was always a dream match for me that I thought would never happen since everybody thought Shawn’s career was over in 1998. Even in 2002 when he returned, you thought this match could never happen. It just didn’t seem to be in the cards and the planets just won’t align for this to ever really happen. And then Benoit wins the Royal Rumble. And then Benoit moves over from Smackdown to Raw. And since Benoit’s getting a title shot at WrestleMania, which is something Shawn Michaels wants too, so it’s only probable that Benoit would wrestle HBK at some point in time. With very little advertising, it happens. Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels on RAW! I thought a 1-on-1 meeting deserved to be on a PPV, but whatever. It was 20 minutes of good solid wrestling with both guys working over each other’s well-known injuries. After Benoit had Shawn clawing for the ropes in the Sharpshooter, HHH comes out and distracts Benoit into some Sweet Chin Music to give Shawn the win. The mark in me wanted to see Benoit win, but the guy can’t win ALL the time. Afterwards, the “sheriff of Raw” Stone Cold Steve Austin rides out on his four wheeler to announce the WrestleMania main event: Triple H vs. Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels. WHAT.

Justin: In their highly anticipated first ever encounter and a preview of the WrestleMania three way, Michaels and Benoit squared off on Raw. The match was as good as hyped and really delivered a quality wrestling match on Raw, setting the trend for the next six months.

Scott: The “Showdown in the Desert” was the first known meeting between these two and it was the pretty good. The pace was good and their styles meshed well. Sure Triple H ran in and Benoit jobbed which probably pissed a lot of people off but regardless it’s a 4-star match that gave us a prelude of WrestleMania.

• WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle – (WrestleMania XX)
  

Matt: If there could be a pairing fit for WrestleMania, this was it. This was just a tremendous bout with two guys who could GO. The ending was spectacular and worked great with Eddie’s character. Angle wouldn’t lay off the Anklelock, so Eddie unties his boot, kicks Angle away, and catches him running with a small package. Like Justin said, an overlooked WrestleMania classic.

Justin: Due to the matches that followed it, this one is often overlooked when WMXX is discussed. Eddie had already reached his dream of winning the WWE Championship, but his first feud was an epic one. Just weeks after winning the title at NWO, Eddie was decimated by a psychotic and enraged Kurt Angle, who turned heel during the brutal assault. Their ensuing match was tremendous and nonstop and ended when Eddie was able to outsmart Angle. Great stuff all around.

Scott: The first of XX’s two title matches was a wrestling exhibition between two of the greatest. We knew Kurt Angle was a mat technician, but it was Eddie Guerrero that was the surprise. He meshed perfectly into the main event scene like a glove. I think many people thought that Eddie’s “Lying, Cheating, Stealing” tricks wouldn’t work on the main event stage, but actually it enhanced the top of the card and made him even more beloved as a superstar. Angle did his best to piss people off as usual, but in the end, Eddie stole the match and retained his title in a classic.

• World Heavyweight Champion Triple H vs. Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels – (WrestleMania XX)
  

Matt: I hate to even mention this next part, but before the double murder-suicide in 2007 that changed everything, Chris Benoit was in my opinion the epitome of a wrestling hero. He had that ‘never say die’ attitude, never resorted to cheap tactics, and always put on an incredible match. For everyone who was ever a fan of Chris Benoit, this was the culmination of all those years where you wanted to see him on top of the world and never thought it would happen. That’s sums up what 2004 was for me – at least for the better part of it – it was the year you thought would never happen.

Justin: I think this one is self explanatory. I was there live and the crowd was just entranced throughout the whole match. You could feel the tension whenever Hunter was in control as the crowd gasped…wondering if he would actually put Benoit over. After an epic battle between three greats, the battle between the Crossface and the Pedigree and the ensuing fight by Hunter while trapped was just tremendous booking. The crowd just screamed “TAP” the whole time and Hunter finally did just that, finally giving Benoit the elusive run at the top he always dreamed of. Despite all the tragedy that happened later in the decade, this was still as emotional of a moment that exists in wrestling history.

Scott: Our second title match at the Garden was a physical, violent affair that washed away all the bad press and rumors. Many thought that the addition of Shawn Michaels into the match would ruin things and that Benoit would get screwed out of the title since the next PPV was in his hometown. The match was brutal and Shawn’s addition to the match actually enhanced the brutality and the excitement, on top of the fact that it’s a hot Garden crowd.

• Triple H vs. Shelton Benjamin – (Raw, 3/29/04)
  

Matt: 2004 was also a year of missed opportunities. With the heel foursome known as Evolution, you also had four good guys for them to go up against in what could have been the most obvious return of the most awesome gimmick match ever: WARGAMES! You had Benoit, Jericho, Edge, and now…Shelton Benjamin. On this night, Shelton Benjamin got the rub from Triple H who put Shelton over clean. No crazy major overbooked interferences (although Triple H was a little distracted by Flair and Benoit on the floor), no sledgehammers or title belts involved – just a Stinger Splash and a rollup got the win on the former champ. Very awesome in its day, because you thought you were seeing the start of a major superstar who winds up being the most underrated and underused WWE wrestler of the decade.

Justin: Just weeks after putting Chris Benoit over clean at MSG, Triple H came out and dropped a surprising match to the newly drafted face Shelton Benjamin. I can’t say the end result went quite as they wanted and it wasn’t exactly a clean win, but it was still a big time shock and it put Shelton on the map as a future star. Plus the match itself was super fun.

Scott: To be honest I think this match is more memorable because a newly created mid-carded defeated the all powerful Game on Raw. The match in general I thought was pretty pedestrian, but the ending was shocking as Triple H was rolled up and shocked.

• WWE Intercontinental Champion Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley – Hardcore Match (Backlash 2004)
  

Matt: Orton was all about wanting to be the Legend Killer and when he went after Mick Foley, apparently he had no idea of the repercussions. This was Foley getting his revenge in the most violent way he knows how. The only way it could have been more violent were if Foley had wanted a Japanese death match with C4 explosives and barbed wire ropes. Also, this was before TNA completely overused thumbtacks in practically every Abyss match on PPV, so seeing Orton at the time get his RKO shoved off into thumbtacks was pretty sick but in an awesome way. On the other hand, it was the first match I had seen of Randy Orton that made me believe that this man could be a big star in the future – all thanks to Mick Foley.

Justin: Many people argue that this was the match of the year and maybe even of the decade. Mick Foley was always known for being a star maker and he set his sights on helping Randy Orton succeed. The seeds for this feud were planted in June and then cultivated in December when Orton humiliated Foley and spat in his face. Foley came back in January with a vengeance, but suffered a tough loss at WM. So, he dug down deep and brought back the ghost of Cactus Jack as he looked for one more chance at revenge. It was expected that Foley would bump like crazy and take some stiff shots, but nobody expected Orton to deliver the insanity that he brought. Orton’s popularity was growing by the day and this match escalated that process as he earned a lot of respect for doing anything it took to deliver a great performance. This was tremendously brutal and some epic storytelling as well.

Scott: This match made Randy Orton a star. Once again Mick Foley took someone who needed a rub and gave it to him. Just like Steve Austin in 1998, the Rock in 1999 and Triple H in 2000 Mick Foley compromised his health for the sake of the business. Orton sold the thumb tacks like they really hurt. Oh wait…they did really hurt.

• WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL – (Judgment Day 2004)
  

Matt: At the time, everybody was wondering what the heck happened to Bradshaw. Why is he wearing a cowboy hat and acting like he’s better than me? Nevertheless, he went right after Eddie Guerrero and became the new Stan Hansen by giving Eddie the brawl of his life. The chairshot at the end just makes the whole thing as Eddie gets busted open as bad as anybody I have seen in a LONG time. While JBL didn’t walk out with the belt on that night, he got put over HUGE as the biggest threat to Eddie’s WWE title.

Justin: A bloody war in which Eddie did his best to elevate the freshly minted JBL. It was an epic task as JBL had been nothing more than a tag and lower mid card star, but all of a sudden he was thrust into a major feud and title shot. These two pounded relentless on each other and both did nasty blade jobs to really drive the point home. While JBL’s was gory, Eddie’s was downright scary. The match would end in a schmozz to setup a rematch the next month. These two had really good chemistry and it showed here in their first big time encounter.

Scott: JBL’s first title shot is a bloody war that would be trumped at the Great American Bash. The visual of Eddie bleeding profusely after the match is unforgettable. The match itself wasn’t bad but their rematches would be better.

• World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit vs. Triple H – 60-Minute Ironman Match (Raw, 7/26/04)
  

Matt: This was a match that, as a Benoit fan, had me worried whether or not Benoit’s time as champion had come and would now be put to death by Triple H. Since the Angle/Lesnar ironman match went over so well and while these two had the chance of putting on a great ironman match, it was strictly average in the execution, but the ride along the way was filled with some excellent drama towards the end. There hasn’t been an ironman match on cable TV since then, but it was pretty awesome to see Benoit get the chance to wrestle somebody – anybody – as champion for an entire hour and leave still holding onto the gold.

Justin: For the second year in a row, WWE delivered a televised ironman match. With the in ring chemistry between these two, many thought this could be the best WWE ironman yet. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to standard, but it was still high level stuff. The main complaint is the usage of Eugene, as he was involved in a weird little angle with Triple H. The breaks didn’t help either, but these two still worked around the constraints and put on a great TV war to add to their catalogue of great matches.

Scott: The last full hour-long Iron Man match on Raw is a solid one that sees the World Champion come back from a 3-1 deficit to retain his title. The pacing was solid and the crowd was rabid as they were fervently behind Benoit. The Eugene crap at the end sort of ruined the ending but they did it to set up the HHH/Eugene match at SummerSlam. Great title match and a big win for Benoit.

• World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton – (SummerSlam 2004)
  

Matt: Solid match, but I remember it more for being a huge turning point in WWE. Orton was the first guy from the class of 2002 to capture the big gold belt. They had HUGE WrestleMania plans at the time for him to face HHH, but it turned out that everybody seemed to like Orton more for being a heel than a pretty boy babyface they were going to turn him into after the PPV. As much as I liked Benoit being the champ and wished he would have never lost, no one can deny he helped further a superstar’s career that night and Orton should never forget that.

Justin: The Age of Orton officially kicks off as he walks into SummerSlam for the biggest match of his career and walks out as the youngest World Champion in WWE history. The groundswell for Orton started earlier in the year and the momentum led to this title change. Benoit was a pro as always and lays down for the young star. Their match the next night was equally as good and Benoit’s job was complete. Orton was now a major player.

Scott: For some reason I personally don’t have fond memories of this match. Maybe because I didn’t really think Orton was quite ready for that shot, but the writers were trying something different and then putting someone new over. The problem was the cheers for Orton were short lived and he lost the title the following month. Overall the match wasn’t terrible but there were a few better matches that year that were better than this one.

And that does it for 2004! Until next week, let us know what you think and give us some of your choices that we might have missed!

No dia 22 de novembro, foi ao ar a vigésima terceira edição do Survivor Series, a segunda mais longa exibição em pay per view da WWE. Quase 20 mil fãs lotaram o Verizon Center, em Washington – fora os milhões de expectadores em mais de 20 países ao redor do mundo – para presenciar mais um espetáculo protagonizado pelas maiores estrelas do wrestling internacional.

O tio Ogro demorou um pouco, mas cá está uma breve cobertura do que rolou no evento mais legalzudo do mês:

Team Miz X Team Morrison (Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team Match)

O primeiro combate da noite serviu como uma excelente amostra do que os astros da nova geração podem fazer, mostrando que o futuro da WWE está em boas mãos. Para a surpresa de muitos, o United States Champion, The Mizz, Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger, Sheamus e Dolph Ziggler abraçaram a tarefa de deixar seus egos de lado e executaram um ótimo trabalho de equipe para derrotar o time do Intercontinental Champion John Morrison, formado por Matt Hardy, Finlay, Evan Bourne e Shelton Benjamin.

Iniciada com Bourne e Swagger, a luta logo tomou caráter caótico, com golpes e pinfalls pipocando por todo o ringue e estrelas colidindo como se não houvesse amanhã, incluindo um show à parte protagonizado pelo irlandês durão Finlay contra McIntyre e o guerreiro celta Sheamus.

Quando a poeira abaixou, restava o solitário John Morrison de um lado contra o trio Mizz, McIntyre e Sheamus. Jogando a cautela às favas, o ‘Shaman Of Sexy’ partiu para uma ofensiva explosiva, mas Sheamus o subjugou, conquistando a vitória para o Team Mizz.

Batista X Rey Mysterio

A sequência tinha um tempero especial: rancor, vingança e ódio. O universo da WWE assistiu ao gigante Dave Batista despejar toda sua fúria no antigo amigo Rey Mysterio, fazendo juz ao seu apelido, “The Animal”. Batista culpa Rey por tê-lo impedido de realizar o pin em Undertaker – em luta realizada no Bragging Rights, em outubro – o que o nomearia Heavy Weight Champion. Segundo Dave, ele está cansado do ‘quase’, de ver o título escapando das suas mãos, e não admite que isso tenha sido feito por um ‘amigo’.

Apesar de Rey ter lutado com todo o seu coração, partindo para a ofensiva com todas as armas que tinha, a fúria do “The Animal” sobrepujou sua coragem. Como uma locomotiva, Batista avançou sobre e Mysterio sem misericórdia. Após uma Spear fenomenal, um Spine Buster e três (sim, três!!!) Batista Bombs devastadoras, o árbitro não teve escolha a não ser finalizar o combate. Batista não esboçou qualquer sinal de satisfação com a vitória. Conforme comentado durante a tranmissão por Michael Cole, “Batista never went for a cover, never looked for a win…it was all about punishing!”, o que, em português, quer dizer que Batista é um badass motherfucker! Há!

Com Rey ainda caído na londa, Dave retornou ao ringue com uma cadeira de metal. Por um momento, todos esperaram que o gigante desse continuidade ao seu ataque, mas ele simplesmente sentou-se para assistir à agonia do antigo amigo. Após alguns momentos, Batisa se levantou sem dizer uma palavra, erguendo Mysterio do chão e executando mais um Spine Buster, em cima da cadeira de aço, para o choque de todo o Verizon Center.

A WWE tem agora um prato cheio para eleger seu novo vilão.

Team Kingston X Team Orton (Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team Match)

Kofi Kingston e Randy Orton: eis uma nova rivalidade que vem dando o que falar na WWE. Com Kofi, Mark Henry, R-Truth, Christian e MVP de um lado e Orton, Ted DiBiase, Cody Rhodes, William Regal e CM Punk do outro, o ringue foi palco de uma batalha épica. O combate prosseguia, astros eram derrotados e outros mostravam tudo que tinham a oferecer.

Até que, ao final da luta, restavam apenas Kofi contra dois já condecorados campeões da WWE, o “Straightedge Superstar” CM Punk e ninguém menos que Randy “The Viper” Orton. No entanto, acostumado a nadar contra a corrente, Kingston não se intimidou e, movido pela torcida, mostrou toda a sua versatilidade e atleticismo, justificando o porquê de ser uma das novas estrelas mais adoradas pelos fãs da WWE.

Após uma sequência acirrada com Punk, Kofi realizou o pin. Orton, pretendendo pegar o jovem astro de surpresa, adentrou o ringue tão logo o companheiro é dado como eliminado. Mas Kofi Kingston tirou a noite para mostrar que tem tudo o que é necessário para lutar de igual para igual com estrelas já eternizadas na WWE. Com um vôo espetacular, ele aplicou um Trouble In Paradise em Orton, que desabou sem nem poder reagir. E foi assim que esse combate se encerrou: Kingstone aplicando o pinfall em dois antigos World Champions em menos de 6 segundos! O neguinho não é mole não, há!

World Heavyweight Champion Undertaker X Big Show X Chris Jericho (Triple Threat Match)

Há quase 20 anos, na primeira edição do Survivor Series em 1990, Undertaker subia no ringue da WWE pela primeira vez. Na época, ninguém sabia muito o que esperar do sinistro “Demon From Death Valley”. Já em 2009, todo o universo da WWE está ciente do que este homem obstinado é capaz de fazer, incluindo entre seus feitos, um recorde de 17-0 no Wrestlemania. E é com mais uma entrada triunfal que Undertaker sobiu ao ringue do Verizon Center.

A quarta luta da noite começou com Jericho e Big Show unindo forças contra o “Dead Man”. Mas tão logo Chris tentou finalizar o campeão com um Walls Of Jericho, o maior atleta do mundo interrompeu, ficando então cada um por si.

Depois de uma franca troca de pins interrompidos, golpes incríveis e massivas demonstrações de força física, Big Show – que havia nocauteado Jericho com um Right To The Head – partiu para cima de Undertaker com um gigantesco choke slam. Quando parecia o fim para o lutador das trevas, Undertaker reverteu o ataque e aplicou uma das mais temidas manobras de submissão da WWE, o Hells Gates em Big Show, obrigando-o a bater.

Mais uma vitóroia incontestável do “Phenom” e mais uma pergunta no ar: se nem mesmo o maior atleta do mundo pode parar Undertaker, quem poderá?

Team Mickie X Team Michelle (Traditional Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination Match)

Concluindo uma semana de insultos por parte de Michelle McCool, Lyla e Beth Phoenix à superstar Mickie James – levando a mesma até as lágrimas durante o Smackdown – esse foi mais um combate que se iniciou com sabor de acerto de contas.

A noite das divas da WWE foi marcada, entre outras coisas, pela impressionante força física da “Glamazon” Beth Phoenix. Mas não foi tudo o que Beth demonstrou. Ela também deixou clara toda a sua anti-desportividade ao não concordar com a sua eliminação, após um ótimo Crucifix perpetrado por Mickie James. Esta, aliás, foi outro destaque da luta, esbanjando seus tradicionais atleticismo e vigor.

Mas a conclusão do encejo ficou a cargo da Divas Champion Melina, que exibiu habilidades acrobáticas para executar um Sunset Flip na Women’s Champion Michelle McCool, que já dava a sua vitória como garantida, em sua arrogância costumeira.

WWE Champion John Cena X Triple H X Shawn Michaels (Triple Threat Match)

Como citado no site official da WWE, “quando se trata do título mais cobiçado da companhia, a lealdade se torna um preço que nem todos os superstars estão dispostos a pagar.”. Apesar da entrada de Triple H e Shawn Michaels como a famosa dupla Degeneration X, o combate seria cada um por si. E também, apesar do discurso de que não importa quem levasse o título, contanto que o mesmo fosse conquistado para a DX, a noite nos guardava mais algumas surpresas.

Segundos após o sinal de início da luta, Shawn Michaels despachou Triple H com um Sweet Chin Music. A arena permaneceu em choque, assim como o pasmo campeão John Cena. Com Triple H fora, HBK e Cena se atracaram como titãs.

No entanto, como qualquer fã da WWE pode afirmar, nunca tome “The Cerebral Assassin” por vencido. Triple H se recompôs e fez com que o choque dos três gigantes tomasse um rumo diferente, dinâmico e muito mais perigoso, fora dos limites do ringue. Foi então que H deu o troco no ‘companheiro’ executando um Spine Buster em Shawn, na mesa de narração do evento. Enquanto a luta quase chegava ao fim com diversas contagens interrompidas, foi um castigado e exausto Cena que, seguindo o seu lema de “never give up”, perserverou e aplicou o pin em Triple H, mantendo pra si o título de WWE Champion.

Será que após esse último capítulo, a história da polêmica Degeneration X chegou ao fim?

—

Putz! Dá pra suar só de ler né? Pois é, foi mais uma noite de entretenimento certo para os fãs da Wwe ao redor do mundo. E o próximo encontro já está marcado! No dia 13 de dezembro, a cidade de San Antonio, no Texas recebe o explosivo TLC, evento no qual os astros colidem, levando a ação para fora dos ringues com o auxílio de mesas, escadas e cadeiras. Dá pra perder?

WWE informó esta semana, que si lo que escriben los miembros de su elenco en Twitter, da lugar a prensa negativa para la empresa,  serán sancionados. Recordemos que la preocupación surgió después de polémicos textos de Matt Hardy, Chavo Guerrero y Shad Gaspard en sus respectivas cuentas de Twitter, recordando que para WWE, eso puede generar problemas con patrocinadores y anunciantes

• Twitter @superluchas

Survivor Series 2009, November 22, 2009, Verizon Center, Washington, DC

Announcers: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, & Matt Striker

Opening Match: US Champion The Miz (Captain), Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, & Sheamus vs. IC Champion John Morrison (Captain), Evan Bourne, Fit Finlay, Matt Hardy, & Shelton Benjamin

Bourne and Swagger start off with Bourne using speed to get a rollup for 2.  Swagger gets a suplex and tags Ziggler who hits the jumping neck snap for 1.  Cool looking inverted slam gets 2, and then he gets another 2 off some elbows.  He and Swagger trade off again and Ziggler gets Bourne in a half crab.  Bourne kicks him off and gets a rana for 2.  He follows with a high knee and tags Hardy.  They hit a double elbow from the 2^nd rope.  Hardy hits the Side Effect, then tags Bourne who hits the Air Bourne shooting star press for the 3 count to eliminate Ziggler at 3:59.  No time to celebrate though as in comes Drew McIntyre and he hits the double arm DDT to finish Bourne off at 4:12.  Finlay is in next and he takes McIntyre down with the Finlay Roll.  McIntyre avoids a second one and tags Sheamus which sets up the big showdown between the Irishmen.  That lasts almost no time at all as Miz provides a brief distraction and Sheamus hits the big boot for the pin at 5:14.  Hardy comes in and fares a bit better, but then his Side Effect is blocked and he takes a powerslam for 1.  Sheamus drops some elbows and gets a 2 count, then tags Miz.  Miz controls with a slam and legdrop, and then hooks a rear chinlock.  Hardy fires out but then takes a neckbreaker for 2.  Miz goes to a front facelock, which Hardy escapes as well, and follows up with a Russian legsweep.  Miz tags Swagger, who cuts Hardy off from making the tag.  He controls for a bit before Hardy finally escapes and tags Morrison.  Morrison comes in hot with a dropkick and knee for 2.  He corner whip is reversed and he goes down, but Swagger misses the pump splash.  Miz tries to provide the distraction again, but to no avail as Morrison still connects with a springboard kick.  The cover draws everyone in and in the melee, Scott Armstrong takes a knee to the back of the head from Sheamus.  He stays down and they would later announce him has having suffered a concussion.  But it’s a big break for Justin King as he gets to step in and save the day.  After everyone is cleared out, Morrison takes Swagger down and connects with Starship Pain for the pin at 12:09.  Miz jumps him, nailing a clothesline in the corner and a double ax off the top for 2.  Benjamin takes a blind tag and surprises Miz with a rollup for 2.  He then hits a back suplex.  Stinger Splash follows and then a Northern Lights suplex gets 2.  Corner whip sees him run into a boot though, but he follows by getting his own boot up on Miz’s charge.  German suplex gets 2 and he sets up a neckbreaker, but Sheamus nails him to break it up.  Miz follows with the Skull Crushing Finale to end Benjamin’s night at 14:59.  Hardy comes back in as McIntyre gets the tag.  Hardy nails a couple of clotheslines for 2 and a headbutt, but he misses a charge.  He still hits a neckbreaker though and follows with the 2^nd rope legdrop for 2.  He hits another neckbreaker and goes up, but after a distraction by Sheamus, he misses a moonsault.  McIntyre gets the double arm DDT for the 3 count at 17:11.  This leaves Morrison one on three, and the odds take over quickly.  He gets caught by McIntyre and then Sheamus gets the tag and pounds away.  Tag to Miz who’s in with some kicks.  Morrison comes back with a dropkick, but Miz tags right away to Sheamus.  He hits a clothesline and runs Morrison to the corner where the partners beat on him while he distracts the ref.  Morrison tries fighting back and goes for a springboard move, but gets nailed coming down.  Sheamus the hits the Razor’s Edge, and that’s it for Morrison at 20:55.  Survivors: The Mix, Sheamus, and Drew McIntyre.  Obviously the heel team has the guys they want to protect and build up so it makes sense for them to win.  Ziggler and Swagger, who were seemingly the pet projects a few months ago, appear to have been shuffled downwards, only being used as token eliminations for the face team here.  I have to say that I’m not confident about a main event push for Sheamus, but I guess we’ll find out next month at TLC as he’s getting thrown right in there with John Cena.  **1/2

Next we get a dumb segment with team Kofi as they reassure Christian there’s nothing awkward about him being the only white guy on the team.  Christian of course manages to make it awkward by the end by rapping about it.  Just a dumb segment that does nothing to make me care about any of the guys, or the match they have coming up, but someone must have thought it was hilarious, I guess.

Rey Mysterio vs. Dave Batista

After the big turn by Batista last month, the feud comes to a head here in Batista’s hometown, which means he’s the crowd favourite regardless.  Definitely an example of poor planning there.  Mysterio starts off going for the knee, and quickly sets up a 619, but Batista rolls out.   Batista drags him to the floor and runs him to the apron.  Back in, Mysterio kicks him and tries a springboard, but Batista ducks it and nails a clothesline.  Mysterio keeps managing to escape Batista’s power moves and clips the knee for 2.  He sets up the 619 again, but Batista catches him.  He sets up the Batista Bomb, but Mysterio takes him to the floor with a rana.  Mysterio follows with a baseball slide and then leaps at him off the apron.  Batista then just starts no selling and beats Mysterio up.  Mysterio knees him coming in and hits a 619 to the back to set up the regular version, which also hits.  After the springboard press hits, he goes up and does the Eddie Guerrero dance to big boos prior to hitting knees on a frog splash.  Batista then gets him with a spear and spinebuster.  Batista Bomb follows, but rather then cover, he hits another, and then another before the ref stops it at 6:49.  Batista is not done though as he comes in with a chair.  The crowd wants him to kill Mysterio, which is probably not the reaction they were going for.  He teases doing nothing for a bit, but then ends up dropping Mysterio with a spinebuster on the chair.  Mysterio does a stretcher job and so begins yet another period of surgery and rehab for him.  *1/2

Randy Orton lets his team know that they’ve failed to live up to his expectations so far, and that they’d better come through tonight.  Punk stands up to him in a tease of dissention, but nothing comes of it.  At least this segment focused on the match and the issues between the guys rather then lame comedy.

Randy Orton (Captain), CM Punk, William Regal, Cody Rhodes, & Ted Dibiase vs. Kofi Kingston (Captain), MVP, Mark Henry, ECW Champion Christian, & R-Truth

Orton and Henry are in first with Henry whipping him to the corner and nailing a clothesline.  He takes shots at the entire heel team and then puts Orton in a bearhug, but Legacy comes in and breaks it up.  That sets up an RKO and Henry is done at 0:53.  MVP comes in as Rhodes gets the tag.  Rhodes gets MVP to the corner and they go to work with Dibiase, Regal, and then Punk all getting tagged in in succession.  Punk stays in and works him over a bit longer, but soon gets tossed away and MVP tags Truth.  These guys have an issue going so they get some heat.  Truth gets a hiptoss and then flips over him on a corner whip.  However, Rhodes distracts him and Punk takes advantage to nail the GTS for the pin at 3:14.  Christian comes in and rolls him up for 2.  He nails a forearm off the ropes for 1 before Punk knees him.  After a slam he tags Dibiase who comes in with a double stomp off the 2^nd rope for 2.  He follows with a powerslam for another 2.  He tries hooking the Dream, but can’t get it.  Christian counters to a Killswitch, which Dibiase in turn counters to a catapult to the buckle.  Christian comes back out with a kick and then a sunset flip gets 3 at 5:04.  Is Dibiase being shuffled down too?  His issues with Orton have pretty much disappeared and here he’s just beaten like an afterthought five minutes in.  Regal comes in for Team Orton while Christian tags Kofi who comes in with a dropkick, some punches in the corner, and an uppercut for 2.  He’s not really getting a superstar reaction though so expect them to give up on him any time now.  Corner whip is reversed with Kofi leaping back off the ropes, but Regal moves and Kofi hits the mat.  Tag to Rhodes, who drops a knee before tagging back to Regal.  Kofi fires back and tags MVP who comes right in with a big boot on Regal for 3 at 6:51.  Rhodes comes in off the top with a bodypress, but MVP rolls through for 2.  He then gets a suplex for another 2.  Tag Christian, whose tornado DDT is blocked and Rhodes kicks him down for 2.  To a bodyscissors, but Christian gets on top of him for 2 and forces a break.  Rhodes then clotheslines him for 2 and tags Orton.  Orton is in with a dropkick for 2 and works Christian over for a bit before tagging Rhodes back in.  Kneedrop by Rhodes misses and that allows a tag to MVP.  He’s in with multiple clotheslines and a facebuster.  He goes Ballin’ but Orton then distracts him and he takes the Cross Rhodes for the pin at 10:11.  Kofi immediately rolls him up for 2 and then tags Christian who comes in with a shot off the top.  Tag back to Kofi who gets a springboard double ax handle for 2, followed by a snapmare and splash for another 2.  Tag to Christian, on whom Rhodes is able to briefly take advantage, but he then quickly falls victim to the Killswitch and is pinned at 11:36.  See, now unlike his partner, Rhodes at least got to job to the guy’s finisher, and not only that he also got an elimination before being eliminated himself.  I don’t understand.  Orton comes in next and works Christian over.  He drops a knee and then takes a cheap shot at Kofi.  Christian gets a cradle for 2 and then Punk provides the distraction to set up the RKO, but Christian counters to the Killswitch.  He covers, but Punk saves at 2.  Christian beats him up and tosses him, but then misses a charge on Orton and takes an RKO for the 3 count at 13:27.  Kofi is in as the last member of his team, but Orton wants nothing to do with him and tags out to Punk.  After this Orton actually goes as far as not even standing on the apron for the entire time Punk and Kofi go at it.  Kofi wins a slugfest which leads to them trying and missing the finishers.  Kofi does get a dropkick and the SOS for 2.  He misses a splash in the corner though and Punk works him over with knees and kicks.  Kick to the back gets 2 and then he uses a headscissors.  Kofi escapes, but ends up charging into a powerslam.  Now Punk goes to a bodyscissors forcing me to note that his moveset in this segment would have Gorilla Monsoon impressed.  Kofi elbows his way out, but a splash hits knees.  Punk gets him with a superplex for 2, followed by the running knee.  He goes for a bulldog, but that gets countered to a back suplex.  Kofi goes up, and after fighting Punk off a couple of times, he gets a crossbody for 2.  He follows with a dropkick and clothesline, and then hits the Boom Drop.  Orton distracts him which allows Punk a rollup, but Kofi rolls through and gets the 3 count at 20:42.  Orton is immediately in, but Kofi is aware and catches him with Trouble In Paradise which gets another 3 count at 20:50.  Survivor: Kofi Kingston.  So the story is that Kofi beat two former World Champions in an incredibly short span of time.  Really good match here, but as noted Kofi is not quite to the superstar level of reaction yet.  If they keep it up, he may get there, but it’s gonna take some time.  ***1/2

World Heavyweight Championship Match: The Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho vs. The Big Show

Obviously the theme of our two Title matches tonight is that the Champion is defending in a Triple Threat Match against both members of a regular tag team.  Jericho and Show have teased some dissention leading up to this, but none the les they start right off with a double team on Taker.  Show nails a clothesline and then Jericho clotheslines Taker to the floor.  Taker lands on his feet though and drags Jericho out, ramming him to the barrier in the process.  Show slowly follows, but gets nailed as well, but then Taker misses a charge at Jericho and hits the barrier.  They set Taker up for the Big Right Hand, but Show opts to nail him in the gut for some reason.  Why would you do that when he’s wide open like he was?  Jericho follows up with a mic shot and then they get Taker in the ring for more double teaming.  Show goes to whip Jericho into Taker, but Taker moves and Jericho hits the post.  Now Taker takes over with a flying clothesline on Show and a couple of bodyblocks on Jericho.  He follows with Snake Eyes, but now Show drags him back to the floor.  Taker manages to send him to the post anyways while Jericho then springboards right into a fist from Taker.  He sets up Old School, but Jericho crotches him.  After a couple of tries, he gets a superplex for 2.  Lionsault hits knees, but he’s unhurt and goes for the Walls instead.  He gets it on and Taker struggles for quite awhile before Show comes in and breaks it in the first sign that it’s everyone for themselves here.  Show then chokeslams Jericho, and goes to do the same thing to Taker, but Taker counters to a DDT.  Jericho sneaks over and gets covers on both guys for 2.  They all slug away now until Show and Taker grab each other by the throat.  Jericho grabs the physical representation of the Championship and goes to nail Taker, but he ducks and Show takes the shot instead.  The announcers play up that Jericho may have intentionally nailed Show, but if that’s what they were going for it didn’t look like it at all as Taker clearly pulled Show forward into it and there was no hesitation by Jericho.  Taker then takes Jericho down with a big boot for 2.  He stomps Show to the floor and sets up the Last Ride on Jericho, but Jericho has the, oh screw it, the belt and clocks Taker on the upswing.  That gets a couple of two counts which frustrates Jericho.  He goes for a Tombstone, for no conceivable reason other than so Taker can reverse it to his own, which sure enough happens, but Show comes in and knocks Taker out with the Big Right Hand.  Show covers, but Jericho saves at 2.  Jericho then covers, but Show breaks that one up at 2 as well.  Now Jericho goes for the Codebreaker on Show, but it’s blocked and Show hits the BRH on him to put him out.  He then goes for the chokeslam on Taker, but Taker hooks him in the Hell’s Gates and that gets the submission to retain at 13:39.  Not a bad match, but not that great either.  Undertaker is seemingly going on to face Batista, while any issues between Jericho and Show are set aside as they are currently announced to defend the Titles against DX at TLC.  **1/2

We get a promo by the survivors of Team Miz as they put themselves over.  Now this was good stuff.  No stupid comedy or anything.  They just came out and talked about what they’ve done and what they’re going to do next.  Was that hard?  The writers must have been on vacation for something like this to slip by.  Either that or they spent all their time working on Christian’s rap.

Women’s Champion Michelle McCool (Captain), Layla, Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall, & Alicia Fox vs. Mickie James (Captain), Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, Eve, & Divas Champion Melina

Ok, here we go with the token women’s match, which is bound to be bad, but they’ve spent all night talking about “tradition” and that’s as long running of a tradition as any in this company I guess so it makes sense.  Kelly and Layla are in first and they trade some shots with Kelly then hitting two clotheslines and a legdrop for 3 at 1:16.  Michelle and Gail go next with Gail hitting a dropkick and getting a rollup for 1.  Michelle then gets her with the Styles Clash for 3 at 2:05.  Eve tries a rollup for 1 and then Michelle tags Jillian who drops an elbow for 2.  She gets a hairtoss and then Eve misses a dropkick and Jillian covers for 2.  She goes for the handspring elbow but gets kicked in the back and Eve comes off the top rope with a sunset flip for 3 at 3:35.  Beth is in and immediately hits Eve with the Glam Slam for the pin at 3:52, which is followed by Kelly also taking a Glam Slam for another elimination at 4:09.  Mickie is in next, hitting a dropkick and then pinning Beth with a crucifix at 4:44.  This is rather brisk so far.  That’s not a bad thing though.  Beth nails her after the fact which lets Alicia Fox sneaks in for the cover and get a 1 count.  Alicia then gets a Northern Lights suplex for another 1.  They get backed to the corner and Mickie kicks her off, and then hits a top rope Thesz press for the 3 count at 6:25.  Michelle comes in and pounds Mickie, dropping a knee and a leg for 2.  They trade some shots, but Michelle is able to cut her off from making the tag.  She stomps Mickie down and gets a 2 count, but this time Mickie gets away and tags Melina.  Melina is in with a spear and she pounds away.  She gets a spin kick, followed by a rope straddle and faceplant for 2.  She does her “Matrix” avoiding of a big boot, but Michelle ends up dropping her anyways.  She hits a belly to belly suplex for 2 and then sets up a powerbomb, but Melina rolls through and gets the 3 count at 10:39.  Survivors: Mickie James and Melina.  Nothing more to say here.  ½*

Main Event, WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels

So like the earlier Title match we again have the Champ against a tag team, but in this case Shawn Superkicks HHH right off the bat and puts him out of the ring.  This gets a big positive reaction from the crowd by the way.  Even Cena seems stunned by this course of action.  So now he and Shawn go one on one with Shawn hitting a neckbreaker, followed by a Thesz press.  Corner whip is reversed and Cena nails a bulldog off of it.  Suplex gets 2 for Cena.  He sets up the Attitude Adjustment, but Shawn counters it to a DDT for 2.  Shawn then clips the leg and hooks the figure four.  Cena eventually reverses and Shawn breaks the hold.  Cena goes for the shoulderblocks, but misses the second one and goes to the floor.  Shawn nails a dive and then preps the announce table, but takes too long and is set up for the AA again.  But finally, after about five minutes, HHH has recovered from that Superkick and makes the save, but only because he wants to put Shawn though the table himself, which he does with a spinebuster.  He then gets Cena in the ring and hits him with another spinebuster for 2.  After working Cena over a bit, he gets 2 off a corner whip and a neckbreaker.  He sets up for the Pedigree, but Cena blocks and catapults him to the buckle.  HHH comes out of there though with a clothesline for 2.  Cena gets sent off, but connects with a shoulderblock.  He follows with a second one and then hits the Protobomb.  Five Knuckle Shuffle hits and sets up the AA, but now Shawn makes the save, sending Cena to the post.  Now we have a DX showdown, but HHH has to stop and toss Cena for good measure and that allows Shawn to hit him with an inverted atomic drop.  Irish whip is reversed and HHH hits the high knee.  He then gets the facebuster, but Shawn comes back with a clothesline.  He kips up, but is right into a HHH spinebuster.  Shawn then backdrops out of a Pedigree attempt and goes up, but Cena is there to crotch him.  Cena now goes up for the legdrop on HHH, but that misses.  Shawn is up top again, and comes off with the elbow on Cena.  HHH tosses Shawn, but quickly gets hooked in the STF by Cena.  Shawn makes it back to save though by hooking a crossface on Cena, who powers to his feet, then drops Shawn and puts him in the STF.  Shawn makes the ropes, and after they break, he gets Cena with the Superkick.  He hits another on HHH as well, but HHH falls on top of Cena and the ref counts, but Cena kicks out at 2.  The crowd was convinced that was the finish.  Cena then hits HHH with an Attitude Adjustment.  Both Shawn and Cena crawl to make the cover on HHH and the there at the same time, but HHH kicks out at 2 anyways.  Another Superkick is blocked by Cena and then Shawn goes for a piledriver on HHH.  HHH backdrops Shawn to avoid it, but he lands right on Cena’s shoulders.  Shawn slips off and hits another Superkick on HHH, but turns right into an Attitude Adjustment.  Cena opts to cover HHH instead, but still gets the 3 count to retain at 21:14.  Really good stuff here, but then I would expect nothing less with these guys as they’ve all done so many main event three ways that they could probably put one on in their sleep.  Cena will have a bigger challenge next month as he gets to face Sheamus, who is completely untested in a big match environment, so we’ll see what kind of miracle working abilities he’s got.  As mentioned earlier, DX goes on to what will probably be the real main event of TLC to face Jericho and Show for the Unified Tag Team Titles.  For this match, it squeaks ahead to take match of the night honours at ****.

Final Thoughts: If this year’s WWE PPV’s could be summed up in one phrase, I think it would be “Solid, but completely unremarkable”.  From an in ring perspective, they rarely put on a bad show and this was certainly no exception, but there’s just nothing there that’s gonna make you remember this show even a few months down the line.  The Divas match was the lowlight, but that’s to be expected, and Mysterio/Batista wasn’t that good, but it worked for the story they were telling so it’s forgivable.  Main Event was the big highlight, although it suffers from the dreaded Same Old Match Syndrome.  Thankfully they do appear to be legitimately addressing that issue, although it will take time to see if they’re doing it with the right guys.  As for Survivor Series, I can’t say it was a bad show overall.  In fact, it gets a Thumbs Up, but the truth is that if you missed it, it’s not a big deal which is becoming more and more of the trend.

Hey guys! This article was orginally published on Bleacher Report. I’m republishing it here. Check it out it’s an awesome read.

Hey it’s Svyato hitting you up with another article. We all know that when you think of great tag teams over the years you absolutely have to have the Hardy Boyz. Jeff and Matt Hardy have always put on great tag team action.

I guess with them actually being brothers, it actually helps them in the tag division and it shows. Anyway here is my tribute to one of my favourite teams of all time.

Hardy Boyz

These two first began tag teaming with each other in 1993 in independent circuit. The two worked in many different North Carolina wrestling promotions holding the NWA 2000 Tag Team Championships and the OMEGA Tag Team titles. Yes they are all that.

At first when being signed to WWF the two Hardy brothers competed as jobbers to make other wrestlers look good in both singles and tag team action. The Hardy Boyz eventually began to rise and establish themselves as a tag team.

On an episode of Sunday Night Heat, Jeff and Matt knocked off Kaientai. After that win they were getting more and more popular especially with their stunts and high flying move set.

They started to become legitimate contenders for the tag titles when they got Michael Hayes as their manager. On June 29, 1999 on an edition of Raw is War the Hardys defeated The Acolytes to win their first-ever WWF Tag Team Titles! Sadly they lost the titles back to The Acolytes in less than a month.

Eventually they dumped Hayes as their manager and became heels. They had a brief association with Gangrel. After winning a a good number of matches against Edge and Christian, including the first-ever tag team ladder match they got the services of Terri Runnels.

On the next episode of Raw is War, both got an amazing ovation from the crowd. This  feud would go on for over two years and Team Xtreme got an addition of Lita to the faction.

The name Team Xtreme really suited them because of high flying move set they used. In 2000 they were a part of many spectacular ladder and TLC matches with Edge and Christian and the Dudley Boyz.

At Wrestlemania 2000 it was a Triple Threat Tag Team Ladder Match for the Tag titles. The Dudley Boyz entered as champions and Edge and Christian walked away as champions.      

At Insurrextion, The Hardy Boyz faced Edge and Christian for the titles. They did win the match, but it was by DQ so the Hardys would be left without the titles again.

At King of The Ring, The Hardys faced Edge and Christian, Too Cool, and T & A in a Four Corners Elimination Match for the tag team championships. The Hardys eliminated T & A, but were then eliminated by Edge and Christian.

At SummerSlam was the first ever TLC match for the tag team titles. It was Dudleys Vs Hardys Vs Edge and Christian. Once again we would see Edge and Christian walking away with the title.

Unforgiven would be the time for the Hardy Boyz to rise back to the top as they defeated Edge and Christian in a Steel Cage Match to win the titles for only the second time.

At No Mercy they would lose the titles to the disguised Edge and Christian, but the following night would regain them for their third reign as champions.

They would lose the titles to Right to Censor in less than a month after being assaulted by Edge and Christian.

With that the Hardy Boyz began a feud with Right to Censor and Edge and Christian. At Survivor Series the Dudley Boyz teamed up with the Hardy Boyz to knock off the combined team of Right to Censor and Edge & Christian in a elimination tag match. They were given another shot at the titles, but lost due to interference from Val Venis.

On Dec. 4 Dean Malenko defeated the Hardy Boyz “valet” Lita and retained the Light Heavyweight Championship also earning him a date with her. However on his date he received a beating from the Hardy Boyz. 

This started a feud between them and Malenko and the Radicalz. The two teams fought in singles and tag action on SmackDown and Raw. The feud ended at Armageddon in a three-on-three tag match between the two groups with the Hardy Boyz losing.

On March 5, 2001, The Hardy Boyz would recapture the Tag team titles by defeating the Dudley Boyz. The next month at Wrestlemania 17 the Hardyz would have to defend those titles in another TLC Match between themselves, the Dudleyz, and Edge & Christian. The result was the same in this TLC as in the first, Edge and Christian win.

The Hardyz would recapture gold as they beat Booker T and Test for the WCW Tag Championships. They would go on to lose them to the Dudleyz. Then they would beat Booker T and Test again, but this time for the WWF Tag Team Titles.

Then they would lose them in a unification tag team title match to guess who? The Dudley Boyz. At No Mercy, they faced Acolyte Protection Agency in tag team turmoil, which they lost. At Wrestlemania 18 they competed in a four corners match for the tag titles. 

It would have the champions retaining their gold. They then began feuding with newcomer Brock Lesnar and his manager Paul Heyman. At Judgment Day, the Hardyz lost to them.

The duo would slowly split as Jeff went to his single action and Matt went to his. This would not mark the end for the Hardyz however. In November 2006 on wwe.com it was announced that both Hardy brothers would be on DX’s Survivor Series team. 

This made the WWE Universe extremely happy! Before the Survivor Series match the Hardyz got a tune up match on ECW, where they won. Then at Survivor Series they helped DX win their match.

On November 27th the Hardyz got their first tag team title shot in fib years! They would not capitalize though as Edge and Orton got themselves disqualified on purpose to retain the titles.

The same day the Hardy Boyz sent out an open challenge to any team for ECW December to Dismember. It was accepted by the reuniting MNM. MNM would however fall victim to the Hardyz at the PPV.

At Armageddon it was the Hardyz vs MNM vs Dave Taylor & Regal vs Brain Kendrick and Paul London in a four team ladder match for the WWE Tag Team Championships.   

They sparked another feud with them where Mercury was injured. On Raw Nitro and Jeff would continue feuding over the IC title while Matt and Mercury feuded on SmackDown.

The final meeting between the two was at Royal Rumble where The Hardyz won the match. Despite this, Matt and Mercury would continue feuding. Their feud would end at No Way Out. On April 2, 2007 the Hardy Boyz regained the tag team championships for a sixth time in a ten team battle royal.

After both of them lost in singles competition they retained their titles against Cade and Murdoch at Judgment Day. They would follow that up by retaining at One Night Stand against The World’s Greatest Tag Team (Benjamin and Haas) in a ladder match.

The next night the Hardy Boyz would lose the titles to Murdoch and Cade. Despite a rematch at Vengeance Cade and Murdoch remained champions.

On Nov. 13, the Hardyz faced MVP and Mr. Kennedy in a match originally scheduled for SmackDown. This would be a losing effort for the Hardy Boyz as MVP got the pin on Jeff.

Then you would have to wait until 2008 WWE draft to see them reunite again. Earlier in the night Jeff was drafted to SmackDown (Matt’s current brand) and joined his brother in a match against Miz and Morrison.

They lost the match and even worse was that Matt Hardy was drafted to ECW, ending the reunion for the brothers. Following that, they would reunite three more times to defeat Miz and Morrison three more times.

At 2009 Royal Rumble Matt Hardy lost in a match for the ECW Championship to Jack Swagger. This would result in him attacking his very own brother, Jeff Hardy in his WWE Championship defense.

The two would feud from there meeting at Wrestlemania, on SmackDown, and with the final meeting at Backlash. Matt Hardy won the first two meetings, but then lost the last meeting at Backlash in an I Quit Match.

As a part of the 2009 WWE draft Matt Hardy moved to Raw. This would be short lived as he would eventually get traded back to SmackDown in a 15-man deal made by Mr. Donald Trump.

On SmackDown Matt Hardy would turn back into a face and once again reunite with Jeff. However this would not last too long as Jeff fought in a Loser Leaves Town, Steel Cage match against CM Punk which he lost and was released from the company for good, thus ending the Hardy Boyz.

Then again you never know, WWE might bring him back some day.

Closing Notes

In my eyes the Hardy Boyz will always be one of the best WWE tag teams of all time. Despite Jeff’s track record and despite any issues that might surround Matt, the legacy of the Hardy Brothers will live on forever!

Hopes you guys enjoyed that, I’m out.

Credit: PWInsider.com

Dark Match:

*Kaval (Low Ki) defeated Paul Burchill.

ECW:

*Shelton Benjamin defeated Zack Ryder.

*ECW champion Christian challenged Shelton Benjamin to a ladder match for the TLC PPV.

*Vance Archer defeated an unnamed competitor.

*Matt Hardy was the guest on the Abraham Washington Show.

*Yoshi Tatsu defeated William Regal. Regal blamed it on Ezekiel Jackson, who turned babyface and laid out Kozlov and Regal.

Ok, I’ve been a terrible blogger. I’m now behind on three weeks of Smackdown and one week of Raw. Oops. Those catch-up posts will be up tomorrow, promise. But for tonight, let’s focus on Survivor Series.

Batista vs. Rey Mysterio
Is there anyone who thinks Mysterio is winning this? I didn’t think so. Batista looks better and stronger as a feel than he ever has a face and it makes no sense for him to lose now. The only question is how badly will he hurt Mysterio?
My Pick: Batista

Michelle McCool, Jillian Hall, Beth Phoenix, Layla and Alicia Fox vs. Mickie James, Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres and Melina

First of all, can I comment what an oversight it is that Natalya is not in this match? She’s probably the most talented woman on the WWE roster and I loved seeing her in the ring at Bragging Rights, it was one of the highlights of the terrible show. She would be a much worthier contribution than Layla or Alicia Fox, just saying. That said, team McCool is a little less useless than Team Mickie, so they’re winning.
My Pick: Team McCool

John Morrison, Matt Hardy, Finlay, Evan Bourne and Shelton Benjamin vs. The Miz, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler
Team Miz seems stronger since it’s got five hot, young stars including two guys (McIntyre and Sheamus) who are getting major pushes from the powers that be, while Team Morrison has three guys who are mid-carders at best and never going to be more than that, as well as two hot, young stars. But… The Miz and Jack Swagger seem to be headed for a big feud and I see that getting in their way tonight and giving the win to Morrison’s team.
My Pick: Team Morrison

Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase Jr., Cody Rhodes, William Regal, and CM Punk vs. Kofi Kingston, Christian, R-Truth, MVP and Mark Henry
We actually get to see Christian at a PPV! Yay! That said, I don’t think we’ll see much of him. This match is really about Kofi Kingston and Legacy, particularly Randy Orton. My prediction is that Kofi will be the last man standing on his team and he’ll be left facing Legacy, but that the three members of Legacy will start squabbling and somehow Kingston will manage the victory. This would solidify Kingston as a major player and it would start the long over-due destruction of Legacy. Not saying they’re breaking up tonight, but I think after tonight we’re going to be one step closer to the final split.
My Pick: Team Kofi

The Undertaker vs. The Big Show vs. Chris Jericho for the World Heavy-Weight Championship
I’d love for Jericho to win this, but we all know that’s not happening. And The Big Show doesn’t seem like a legitimate contender either since he hasn’t managed a one-on-one title shot in the last year, neither has Jericho for that matter. The Undertaker is retaining, but the destruction of the tag team champions is going to happen. They might not break up tonight, but the end will be in sight.
My Pick: The Undertaker

John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship
Cena got a clean pin over on Triple H on Monday, which makes me think he’s losing the belt tonight. The only thing I went back and forth over was which member of DX is going to win the title. In one way it made more sense for it to be Shawn Michaels to win to set up the eventual DX split since we all know they’re facing each other at Wrestlemania. After all Triple H used to be the guy who was all about the title, it would drive him nuts to see his friend with the belt and lead to a Triple H heel turn. But then, I realized that it also made sense and would be in character for Shawn Michaels to help Triple H win the belt (remember Michaels once laid down to give Triple H the European Championship) and would allow for tension down the road. The fact that Triple H took the pin on Monday made me think that that’s the way it’ll go.
My Pick: Triple H

Match #1: Team Miz def. Team Morrison

ORDER OF ELIMINATION:

1. Dolph Ziggler by Evan Bourne
2. Evan Bourne by Drew McInytre
3. Finlay by Sheamus
4. Jack Swagger by John Morrison
5. Shelton Benjamin by Miz
6. Matt Hardy by Drew McIntyre
7. John Morrison by Sheamus

Survivors: The Miz, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre

UP NEXT: Batista vs. Rey Mysterio

Drama’s Smackdown Report 11/20/09

Friday Night Smackdown!
November 20, 2009
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Todd Grisham and Matt Striker

OPENING ANIMATION

Todd welcomes us to Philadelphia, and tonight the Brothers of Destruction reunite as Kane & the World Heavyweight Champion Undertaker faces the Unified Tag Team Champions, Jeri-Show. However right now we UNLEASH…THE ANIMAL.

Batista vs. Matt Hardy

Batista comes out with his new entrance…no pyro…no smiles…no nothing. Matt Hardy’s a pretty good guy to have in the ring with Batista, as he has credibility and takes a pretty good beating. Although honestly Batista should go on a real big time jobber squash, ala Sid in 1992. Just show up on the other shows and start creaming guys. He drops Hardy with 3 straight spinebusters, then the Demon Bomb for the win. WINNER: Batista (Grade: 1.5)

-We go back to last week and the contract signing between Rey and Batista, where Rey flipped the table onto Batista, then Batista flipped out. We go backstage and Josh Matthews tries to talk to Batista, but he cuts him off and says Rey made 3 major mistakes. 1) He cost Batista the World Title, 2) He signed the Hold Harmless agreement, and 3) He embarrassed him last week. Well at Survivor Series, Batista says he will take care of Rey Mysterio, with no remorse and no holding back.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

-We return with a video montage of the Brothers of Destruction. It’s amazing how much they pump this up considering their matches are always a workrate-starved trainwreck. We then go backstage with Teddy Long, who’s interrupted by Vicky Guerrero and Eric Escobar. Vicky gives him crap about teaming the Brothers of Destruction tonight, that it will wreck the main event at Survivor Series. She’s also mad that her boyfriend Eric Escobar hasn’t been on the show. Vicky says there’s no wonder Teddy’s on probation. Teddy’s about to throw them out when Mr. McMahon comes into the office. He’s also perturbed that the Brothers of Destruction are teaming tonight and can ruin the main event of Survivor Series. So having said that, Vince decides to have Vicky Guerrero as Smackdown’s consultant to help Teddy with the show. Vince leaves and Vicky dances and screams in celebration. Ok, this idea completely sucks. No offense to the great Eddie Guerrero, but without Edge she is so damn annoying.

Drew McIntyre vs. Finlay

We go back the last few weeks and Drew’s beatdowns of Finlay. Drew takes the mike and says Finlay’s more like a crying old lady than a fighter. Pretty stiff match as Finlay’s really throwing potatoes out there. It’s a pretty short, as McIntyre takes control and hits the big DDT for the win. Not much more to say. WINNER: Drew McIntyre (Grade: 1.5)

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Out comes CM Punk our straight edge superstar. In the ring is a table with 3 upside down buckets with X’s on them. Punk says tonight he’s going to do for the WWE Universe what should have been done a long time ago. Punk says everyone must recover, and the first step is a confession. He says everyone must admit that they have a problem. He says everyone must stand or touch the TV at home and admit that they’re all addicts. Everyone is in denial and can’t admit their problems to anyone. Punk says he’s here to teach everyone how to survive. He lifts the first bucket and it’s a carton of cigarettes. Punk says no one cares that inhaling cigarette smoke is poisonous and they might as well throw their lungs in the garbage. Tonight Punk will throw the cigarettes in the garbage because that’s how they survive. That’s how straight edge lives. Under the second bucket is a bottle of pills. Punk says this helps weak people hide pain, suffering and cowardess. So these are going in the garbage too. Next is a bottle of whiskey. Punk says this is the worst of them all. Alcoholics are nothing more than weaklings who live in a cloud because they don’t want to admit reality or their own lives. He pours the whiskey in the garbage can. Suddenly R-Truth comes out. He goes “WHAT’S UP” to the crowd, then tells Punk that this is wrong and he doesn’t like him. Truth kicks Punk in the gut, then drops him with a DDT and pours all the crap in the garbage can all over Punk. Then Truth nails Punk in the gut with the garbage can. This is a good feud as its pushing R-Truth to the forefront and CM Punk is staying warm till his next Title feud.

Intercontinental Championship
Two out of Three Falls match
John Morrison © vs. Dolph Ziggler

This is Ziggler’s chance to show he’s a legit in-ring guy and not some 5 minute hump with blonde hair. Morrison gets the first fall with Starship Pain. A few minutes later Ziggler gets the second fall with his “Zig-Zag” finisher. See this is what sucks about TV matches. This should have been paced much better and really let these two guys wrestle for 20 minutes, eat up the middle of the show. The third fall is pretty good, but 2 out of 3 falls matches can’t be rushed. Some really good action during the last fall, and Morrison hits Starship Pain to finish it. Great match, but rushed. Let these guys go 20 minutes and show that Ziggler is the real thing. WINNER: John Morrison (Grade 2.5)

COMMERCIAL BREAK (Including a promo for the new Hulk Hogan DVD)

Mickie James vs. Layla

The match is nothing, as Mickie takes her out in about a minute. WINNER: Mickie James (Grade: 0)

-After the match Michelle McCool does a skit where she calls Mickie a pig. Actually pretty rough stuff and Mickie cries as she walks down the aisle.

Rey Mysterio vs. Tyson Kidd

Batista is at the broadcast table and he’s not said a word to anybody. The match is pretty good and Tyson Kidd needs more singles matches to give himself an identity. It ends quick as Kidd is thrown to the floor, then Batista gets up and throws Kidd to the barricade. WINNER: Tyson Kidd by disqualification (Grade: 1.5)

-Rey then hits a West Coast Pop on Batista through the broadcast table. Batista chases him around but can’t catch him. We go backstage and Jeri-show is talking. Jericho says they must work as a team. Big Show says he’s looking ahead to Survivor Series and becoming the World Heavyweight Champion. Jericho says that selfishness will lead to their downfall tonight. Big Show says tonight will be fine, as Show has tagged with both guys and knows how they tick. Show asks Jericho if he’s scared. Jericho says he’s not scared of Big Show nor is he intimidated by the Undertaker. Show leaves…then the lights go out. Jericho starts freaking out, then the lights come back on and its Show with the light switch. He says…point proven. Jericho’s scared. We then go back to Monday night to the awesome Raw at WWE’s Home Office…Madison Square Garden. That video montage was awesome…and they should make a DVD honoring….”The Garden.”

Unified Tag Team Champions Jeri-Show vs. Brothers of Destruction

Cool intro for Taker & Kane with the symbols on fire. Jericho will likely eat up most of the action here, as he’s getting pounded by both brothers. Kane becomes face in peril for a while but eventually Taker & Kane lay Big Show on the broadcast table and try a double chokeslam but Jericho breaks it up. Jericho is chokeslammed by Kane, but Big Show stops Taker from Tombstoning Jericho and Show chokeslams him. Big Show helps Jericho up and Jericho hits the Codebreaker. Jericho then takes the World Title belt and leaves. With that we’re out. This go home episode was ok, but with Vicky back on and no Edge, the future is bleak. WINNER: No Contest (Grade: 2)

La temporada 7 del Hardy Show ya está disponible en DVD, show que incluye a personajes como Jeff y Matt Hardy, Shanoon Moore, Kimo, Itchweeed, Beth, y varios más, por ejemplo apariciones esporádicas del Hurricane Helms

Más información en thematthardyshow.com