The opening videos play and it’s good to see a web show with wrestling clips in its opening package. Heat is really starting to get to me. It just makes no sense and makes me wonder exactly what kind of idiot made it, but then again, probably 50% of the WWE staff has no prior wrestling background or knowledge.
WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Juventud (c) Vs. Paul London
This was a good back-and-forth match. It had a great chain wrestling opener followed by the high flying opening spots you’ve probably seen in TNA a million times. It was a good way to let the people know what was coming up: a good mix of high flying and power wrestling. This is the epitome of a WWE Cruiserweight match: good high flying spots, but not compromised of them. Juvi has had that bad penchant to flip everywhere in the ring and it just won’t work in WWE. You may be rolling your eyes, but stuff like that does not work in WWE unless you got a ladder. Put it in TNA and it is gold to the crowd, but here, it just does not fly. Juvi looks like he has finally adapted to the WWE style, but he’s got a few more quirks in his offense. I’d like to see him incorporate some bigger moves besides counters and his finisher and a little less flipping. This was surprisingly a match given some time as they went at it for almost twelve minutes, which in comparison London is normally given about five to seven. It may not seem like much, but even three more minutes in wrestling is enough time to get the crowd that much more into it just like each man did here. Whoever said London gets dead reactions is not watching Velocity; the guy is getting bigger pops than most of the WWE roster at this point and Juvi is right up there with him. The guys put on a good back and forth match and the crowd ate it up. It was a great way to open the show and a good way for me to see that Juvi has finally acclimated himself. Finish came when Juvi hit the Juvi Driver, which looked a little sloppy. If there is one thing hurting the match, it would be that move as it had no momentum and it really didn’t look like a match ender move. It would be like doing 450 moves here and there and being pinned with a simple scoop slam.
Winner: Juventud
Star Wrestler: Paul London
Paul London is just a phenomenal worker. If he had been given the same kind of push AJ Styles had in TNA, we would probably have a different Triple Crown winner. London’s ability to make Juvi slow down a bit more and really get the crowd into was great and I loved the way the two meshed together. They botched one or two moves, but with the flow of the match, they went seamlessly right into the next move like nothing went wrong. That is some good workrate right there. By the end of the year, I expect Juvi will be completely used to the WWE style and crowd and by then, that guy will be putting on classics. As it is, he still has some minor bugs, while London has mastered the WWE style better than any other cruiserweight on the roster. That’s a great feat right there.
An ad for SmackDown! magazine, which I’m sure is selling well, with Batista on the cover is then show.
Christian Vs. Brian Kendrick
This was booked to make Christian look great, and it did just that. It was good at that too and Christian was in rare form tonight. He targeted the gut of Kendrick (Unprettier does too if you think about it) and worked over it with some very nice offense of gut busters, face busters, and great kicks. Kendrick made Christian look like a million bucks, which is exactly what he needs. If he’s going to be in the Taboo Tuesday voting or whatever, the guy needs to start winning a bit more here and there and gain some credibility. This match did just that, though it really needed to be on SmackDown! for the viewers at home to see it and see Christian isn’t a punked out bitch like he’s been playing all summer. Kendrick made his comeback like usual but if you watch him, he didn’t do anything to land on his gut and when he accidentally did, he sold it like death. Even his top rope move didn’t focus on the gut when he’s been using the Crossbody in WWE lately. He was able to modify it and sell the gut-work Christian did. That’s impressive right there. Crowd wasn’t as hot for this one as the opener, but the way they did it and the effect they put out, it turned out very well and mostly for Christian as the guy needed some support back. Finish came with the simple Unprettier thus ending Christian’s work on the gut of the former Spanky.
Winner: Christian
