Sunday, July 26th,
2009 from Philly
CM Punk is the
champ. Orton is the champ. It's their night.
This show was in
Philly. It featured two women's title matches (ugh). It also featured
the biggest match of the night early (which made it fairly obvious
that Orton would retain). I guess this show was supposed to be a
night of straight forward title matches. No gimmicks, just some good
old fashioned wrestling.
And that was
probably the problem. Good wrestling rarely occurs. Jeff Hardy and
HHH blew the roof off the arena last October at No Mercy. That was
awhile ago, though. Has there been a match that came close to being
that good since? The only matches that were very good lately have
been the Mysterio vs. Jericho matches. Their feud is over, though.
And this show had one feud that has been a little exciting: Hardy vs.
Punk. CM Punk is now a heel. Hardy is the friendly avenger. They had
the main event spotlight. Did they blow the roof off?
CHRIS
JERICHO & THE BIG SHOW
vs. TED DIBIASE & CODY RHODES (9:32): WWE's brilliant idea to
team up Jericho and Edge as the tag champs didn't even last a month.
Edge injured his foot (he had surgery and is out until next year).
Jericho's big mystery opponent turned out to be The Big Show. I
figured this idea to team up two single's wrestlers as a tag team was
over when Edge got hurt...but they're still running with the idea.
Dibiase and Rhodes lost pretty easily. Are we still duped into
thinking that The Big Show is powerful and ferocious and not
lunk-headed and slow? I guess the WWE thinks we forget his endless,
boring matches with Cena. Jericho, however, is fast and fun and a
great wrestler. It's too bad that they're wasting him. **
CHRISTIAN
vs. TOMMY DREAMER (8:28): Oooh, let's punish the Philly fans! Dreamer
lost the ECW Title here. Why? Because the WWE loves to punish the
hometown crowd (every time they're in Oklahoma, JR gets beat up).
This match was obviously a snoozer. Dreamer without chairs,
trashcans, canes, or barbed wire is just a fat, pizza maker. That's
harsh but true. *
+KOFI
KINGSTON
vs. MVP vs. CARLITO vs. PRIMO vs. THE MIZ vs. JACK SWAGGER (8:35):
Kofi came into this match the champ and left the champ (it was the
coveted U.S. Title from WCW). In between, the rest of the crew put on
a fast-paced, fun match. Swagger was typically boring, but Carlito
and Kofi and Primo were exciting. Actually this was a good match.
**1/2
MICHELLE
McCOOL
vs. MELINA (6:12): This was the first women's match on the show (yes,
there were two). And surprisingly it was very good. The reason was
because they both beat the shit out of each other. It was sloppy and
feral, like two dogs in a cage. Sure, they can't “wrestle.” But
it was the best women's bout I've seen in awhile. **1/2
+RANDY
ORTON
vs. HHH vs. JOHN CENA (22:19): The threw this show on early which
meant one thing: the bad guy was going to win. And he did. It was a
long match and a half-decent one. It wasn't spectacular...and didn't
they just have this match at Wrestlemania? Orton as the champ is
getting old. He's evil. We get it. There were a few nifty moves (HHH
and Cena put a submission hold on Orton at the same time and he
tapped out...but the ref didn't do anything), but it wasn't anything
special. Typical, really. **1/2
MICKIE
JAMES
vs. MARYSE (8:36): What's the chance that there would be two good
women's matches on one show? Zero. Maryse is hot (and French
Canadian) and Mickie can wrestle, but this match was a snooze. 1/2*
+REY
MYSTERIO
vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (14:20): Who is Dolph Ziggler? You don't want to
know. The WWE thinks a lot of him because they had Dolph push
Mysterio to the limit. I'm not sure why. I'm also not sure why
Mysterio has the IC title when a few years ago he had the World
title. Mysterio did all of his patented moves. Dolph is hard to nail
down. He's steroid big. He doesn't do much high-flying. He's utterly
forgettable. **
JEFF
HARDY
vs. CM PUNK (14:56): I feel bad for CM Punk. He was wrestling on the
Indy circuit for years (he was in ROH and wrestled once or twice for
CZW). He was in TNA and eventually got his big WWE break. The WWE
surprised everyone by giving him the title last summer. Sadly, he
lost that title in a match he wasn't in. This year's reign was even
worse. He won the title at the beginning of June and lost it here. He
did get one ppv victory at The Bash, but that was by DQ. Why even
give him the title if they're going to make his run so short? Perhaps
they don't think he's a good wrestler. He hasn't been in a classic in
the WWE yet. For some reason his matches with Jeff Hardy don't work.
They tried making him a heel but that didn't work, either. This match
was so-so. I guess it was obvious that he was going to lose (this was
the main event...and Orton, the other bad guy, had already retained).
I thought that the WWE would save a big Jeff Hardy victory for
Summerslam. I was wrong. **
Night of Champions was an entertaining
show but it was too simple. Yes, Jeff Hardy won the Smackdown title.
That would have been a worthy event if Jeff hadn't just won the title
last month at Extreme Rules. The other “big” story was having The
Big Show replace Edge on Jericho's tag team. Is that a big deal? At
least we won't have to sit through any Big Show solo matches. Then
again, we won't be seeing a Jericho solo match for awhile.
Summerslam is up next. The mega match
is CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy in a Tables, Ladders, & Chairs match.
Haven't seen one of those in awhile. It's about damn time.
