Okay I give; I ordered the Backlash encore when I read that Hunter won. Hey I never saw that coming and let me tell you I thought Backlash was an excellent show, and I am SO glad that I bought it. I know I was extremely down about the show but this really was one of WWE’s best pay per views, and everything worked with the exception of one miserable match. So listen here’s what I would like to do. I would like to talk about Backlash, give some of my thoughts on parts of Raw, and I have a few things to say about last night’s ECW. I will try not to go on too long, but there is just so much that I want to say about each show especially Backlash. By the way I only missed two of my predictions so Backlash came through for me in a big way. Okay let me get right to today’s column.
As I said there was only one bad match Sunday and that was Big Show vs. Khali. Oh my God what a fiasco that was. I felt sorry for Show because he seemed to be doing all he could to get something going, but unfortunately Big Show failed because Khali just doesn’t have it. It was like both men were working in slow motion. Big Show was made to look like a huge star, no pun attended against Floyd Mayweather at Wrestlemania, but Sunday Big Show came off like a mid carder. This did nothing for either guy and then to hear the crowd chant “boring” just topped things off. I still feel that Khali should be someone’s bodyguard and he should not wrestle at all.
But I liked the rest of the show. The opening match with Matt Hardy vs. MVP was good not great but good. Let’s face it we’ve seen this match so many times before. I still liked it but I loved the Hardy win and his interview with Eve backstage about becoming the new U.S. champion. It was emotional for me because this guy really deserved the belt. It couldn’t happen to a better guy. And this opening match gave us the debut of Mick Foley as Smackdown’s new color man. And let me tell you for a woman that was so tired of seeing Foley show up now and then, I couldn’t be happier that he’s where he is now. He did one hell of a job Sunday and I have more to say about this guy later on. But it’s nice to see Vince do something right for a change. The next match was Kane vs. Chavo, and this was a match that I had no desire to see, but I’m happy to say I thought it came off very well. In fact I was quite surprised that it appealed to me. This turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
One of the top matches of the night had to be Batista vs. Shawn Michaels with Chris Jericho as the special ref. Jericho did a Foley. I wish I could remember what pay per view match Foley refed with Triple H in it, but I remember so many including me thought Foley would really play a major part in the match and he didn’t. And that’s exactly the way it was with Jericho. He was the ref and played the ref part throughout the match without interfering and costing Batista or Michaels the match. Batista looked so much better than he did against Umaga last month at Wrestlemania, and Michaels was Michaels, totally on his game. This was booked so well and what a great way to keep things going then by having HBK leave with an injured knee. OR leave faking that he injured his knee. This “injury” started with the end of this match and continued on Raw the next night. I have to admit I like this angle so far. The women’s 12-tag team match was next, and I thought this was done extremely well. This baby for the most part just flowed and the action just kept on going. Sure a few of the diva’s lack quite a bit of wrestling skills but the diva’s that have it definitely carried this match and because of that this was a lot of fun to watch.
Okay another reason why I am so happy that I ordered the encore was to see Taker vs. Edge. I wasn’t into their WM match but you know what? Their Backlash match was excellent. I thought it was so much better than we they did last month. For some reason it didn’t seem as plodding, no this one had me from the start. When I read results while the show was going on, one of my friends emailed me and she’s not a Taker fan, but she could not stop raving about the match, at that point I felt so bad that I missed it. This match ties with the main event for the top match of the night. Edge and Taker were phenomenal Sunday. And yes I loved the main event, sure because it’s nice to have Hunter champion again, and because the match itself was terrific. It moved like crazy when all four guys, JBL, Cena, Orton and Hunter were in it, and once Cena and JBL were eliminated we got solid wrestling between Randy Orton and Triple H. I don’t know how many noticed or agree with me, but for the majority of the match, Hunter bumped and sold like crazy for all three guys. This was a five star match with an ending that couldn’t have pleased me more. This was a fantastic show and the Baltimore, Md. crowd Rocked; they were really a lively group.
So after an outstanding pay per view I was wondering what Raw would be like. I will say it was much better than what we got last week. I thought the opening with our new WWE champion Hunter and Randy Orton was a quite good. I liked their interaction and the only thing that I would like to see is Hunter come out with the original belt and not this spinner belt. It just looks so cheesy to me. I thought Raw got off to a very good start. And the first match was a repeat of the women’s match from the night before, and guess what? I still liked it, I really did. I guess it’s on, Cena vs. JBL. After JBL squashed Highlander Robbie, JBL went over to JR and blamed Cena for losing the night before and he vowed to destroy him. How many of you thought immediately this was Robbie’s punishment for going to an Impact taping? Oh I did right away, honestly I could have done without this, but it was a way to get Cena involved, and thankfully it was a quick segment so I wasn’t to put off by it.
Now London/Kendrick vs. Cade and Murdoch was okay it’s not like we haven’t seen this before and you knew right away that Murdoch was going to get pinned causing Cade to become even angrier than we’ve seen him. And that’s just about what we got. Although I never expected to be crooned by Murdoch. Now I’m not a country and western fan, I don’t like that music at all, so I had no idea who sang the song Murdoch was singing, and really I didn’t care. Yes Murdoch has a good voice, but the song went on just a little too long for my liking. I will say this; I kind of wonder why he sang and if this is going to be a new thing for him, has Trevor become the new Country sensation? Maybe next week he could sing a Daughtry song and mix it up a little bit. Okay enough of my humor, I just found this to be very odd.
Last week I was furious about Regal winning the KOTR. But Monday night I found myself enjoying King Regal. The guy has flipped out. When he sat on the throne expressionless, and started talking about how he is the most powerful entity in the WWE and how the audience will have to learn to respect I thought now this character is starting to appeal to me. I was also very happy with Mr. Kennedy…Kennedy showing up and making trouble for the new King of the Ring. I liked the way Kennedy came off and I can’t wait to see just what is in store for Kennedy now that’s back. But this was a cool segment and the next match with Cody Rhodes vs. Santino came off very well I liked it much better than Carlito vs. Bob Holly last week. Santino was a riot on the mic about hating New Jersey and The Sopranos. Santino was a riot when he talked about fake Italian accents. It’s always nice to see what Santino is going to come up with next. One of my favorite segments was The Highlight Reel. I not only laughed when Jericho came out with a tuxedo, but I was hysterical when Jericho was presenting the Best Actor award and showed footage for the three nominees. They were Mr. Fuji and Don Muraco for Fuji General, Michael Cole for Deliverance Part II (Heidenreich molesting him) and Shawn Michaels for faking a knee injury to beat Batista. I remember the Heidenreich/Cole one but I never saw the Muraco Fuji one and I just thought this was all very clever. Jericho’s winner? Naturally it was Shawn Michaels.
HBK limped out and then Jericho with a smug smile told Michaels that no one could go from pious preacher to backstabbing bastard as quickly as Shawn. And there’s Michaels just taking this all in and if looks could kill, well let’s just say I wouldn’t have wanted to be Jericho. After Jericho congratulated him, Jericho left and he smiled all the way to the ramp while HBK looked pissed. This was one cool segment. And finally we got a rematch with Orton vs. Hunter for the title, and again this match was coming off well and honestly even though I figured Hunter was winning I was thinking back to No Mercy when Hunter lost the belt the very same night back to Orton. So it hits me that maybe they will give the match to Orton and Hunter will win it back and Judgment Day. Well just as it’s getting near the end, we see Regal in the production truck and now he’s really coming off psychotic, and he’s talking about how the fans don’t respect him and they don’t deserved to see the rest of the match. After demanding several times that the guy in charge take the show off the air all of a sudden we lose the picture, but we can still hear JR talking and then Law and Order is on.
Okay was I pissed? No not really. Now don’t think that I didn’t want to see the complete match, because I sure did, but I also found this to be something different, and I just kept going to WWE.com to see what the outcome was. I really had no problem with this ending, in fact I liked it and now I want to see just what Regal has planned for next week.
As you can see Backlash was MY show, but Raw wasn’t bad at all. Now before I let you all go, I just want to say that I watched ECW last night, well I watch it every week and my favorite part was the non wrestling segment with Mick Foley and Matt Striker. As I said it’s nice to see Foley fit in so well on Smackdown. Striker and Foley really had excellent chemistry. This segment was fun and very entertaining. I also want to say CM Punk has been looking strong and very credible as the new MITB winner, but last night I wasn’t happy by the way he was made to look weak against Chuck Palumbo. Let’s see now Vince wants us to believe that Palumbo is too much for Punk? Please, if that keeps up I’m not going to be a happy ECW viewer. And finally if you watched the show last night you saw Mike Adamle walk out during the main event. He abruptly walked out and then a few minutes later Tazz left. I figured this was just another way to shock the fans like Regal did on Raw, and I have been reading that this is definitely a work and nothing more. Let’s face it if Adamle left I don’t think many fans would lose too much sleep over this, but I guess this week WWE is playing let’s just shock the fans for a change. And I’m fine with that.
Okay so I’m sorry to take up so much time, but I couldn’t resist talking about the things I talked about. I will be back over the weekend with my thoughts on Smackdown which we are getting late on Friday night because of a Cubs game. I hope the show will be just as good as last Friday’s show, if not better.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
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