7/9/10

WWE made its annual return to Peoria tonight in a night that saw a new twist on the WWE title match, a not-on-television Cutting Edge, and a fun brawl between the RAW babyfaces and Nexus.

Mark Henry d. Zack Ryder

Henry played the power a lot here and won pretty quickly. The crowd was super into everything Mark Henry did, from shoving Zack to raising his arms up and down after the slam in his post-match celebration.

Edge came out to host the Cutting Edge and said how we wouldn’t see Evan Bourne do the Shooting Star Press in their match. His guest was Sheamus. Sheamus talked about taking out Nexus, Ricky Steamboat, and Arn Anderson. The Anonymous GM apparently was in the house, and one of the Bella Twins brought out the phone. Tonight’s WWE Championship match between John Cena and Sheamus would be a lumberjack match.

The Great Khali d. William Regal

After Khali shoved Regal out of the ring, Regal got on the mic and said they got off to a bad start. He wanted to form a tag team with Khali, but Khali wanted none of it and make quick work of Regal afterward. Regal’s mic work was excellent, again calling the crowd “oxygen thieves.”

Alicia Fox d. Eve to retain the WWE Divas Championship

Santino Marella was the guest referee for this one. He did the same spot he did in January’s Champaign event, where the Divas rolled over him and he got on the turnbuckles to the applause of the male audience. Alicia faked her leg injury here, but Eve wasn’t buying it like she did on RAW. Fox got the win with the axe kick.

Edge d. Evan Bourne

This match was good. Lots of kicks and aerial attacks from Bourne. The finish was really cool and something I hadn’t seen before. Bourne was looking for a huracanrana on Edge off the top rope, but Edge plucked Bourne over his head and Bourne crash-landed on the turnbuckles and crumpled up for the 1-2-3. Not a spectacular finish, but Bourne got his heat back by hitting the Shooting Star Press anyway.

The Hart Dynasty w/ Natalya d. The Usos w/ Tamina to retain the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship

This was another good wrestling mat. Lots of chain wrestling from Tyson Kidd. David Hart Smith played the babyface in peril for most of the match, but there were a good amount of slow spots mixed with action. If this is what their match is shaping up to be at Money in the Back, it’ll be a good one.

The Miz cut a promo about how we weren’t good enough to say his lines when he went to say he was awesome the first time. He wanted us to sit down and raise our hands if we had something to say. I thought that was funny.

The Miz d. Ted DiBiase and John Morrison in a triple threat match to retain the WWE United States Championship.

DiBiase came out without Maryse. Morrison got beat on most of the match by the heels, who eventually turned on each other. Like a lot of triple threats, this was mainly a singles match with one guy showing up every now and again. Very reminiscent of Miz’s four-way match in Champaign. Morrison hit Starship Pain on DiBiase, and Miz hit the Skull Crushing Finale on Morrison to steal the win.

John Cena vs. Sheamus for the WWE Championship went to a no-contest.

Right before the introductions, a Bella brought the GM phone to the ring. The lumberjacks were announced as the Nexus seven.

After lock-ups, both Cena and Sheamus would look to make sure no Nexus member was getting involved. No matter who got sent outside, Nexus would pounce. Finally, John Cena was thrown outside and Wade Barrett called off Nexus. Instead, they attacked both Cena and Sheamus. Sheamus snuck away with the title as they beat on Cena.

Evan Bourne was the first out to run out, followed by John Morrison. Mark Henry’s music hit and the entire cast of RAW babyfaces on the show were helping in the fight against Nexus. The RAW crew ran Nexus backstage, when a few of the faces brought Wade Barrett out. John Cena invited the Great Khali into the ring to give Barrett a chop, and Cena gave him the Attitude Adjustment to send the crowd home happy.

I kept waiting for Randy Orton to come out and annihilate Nexus but that wasn’t meant to be tonight, I guess. I also found it weird there was no Chris Jericho.

Tony Garea and what looked like IRS were the agents for this show, with IRS taking diligent notes.

Top 3 Reactions
1. John Cena (also included – John Cena taking his shirt off)
2. Mark Henry
3. Evan Bourne

Top 3 Heat
1. Sheamus
2. Nexus
3. The Miz when he cut people off from saying “awesome.”

I’m going to say that for my money, the Undertaker is the most interesting character that professional wrestling has ever created.  From his beginnings, he was touted as a dead human being whose powers came from an urn in the possession of the Undertaker’s manager, Paul Bearer.  Luckily, WWE and the Undertaker evolved into something a little less hokey, but still extremely cool.

After Paul Bearer was buried by the Undertaker in the concrete crypt at the Great American Bash in 2004 – a match found on the DVD – the Undertaker went solo.  I thought he had done away with the urn, but it was still in use as of the Deadman’s feud with Randy and Cowboy Bob Orton.

This DVD is not a documentary, and short video packages in between matches are all have a kayfabe voiceover from the Undertaker, talking about reaping souls and burying bodies.

No material on this DVD comes from his American Badass days.

Additionally, none of these matches appeared on the Tombstone DVD that WWE put out several years ago.

There really isn’t a horrible match on here.  Some matches aren’t the best, but since they’re all gimmick matches, they don’t need to be technical masterpieces.  In fact, I thought the last man standing match between the Undertaker vs. The Great Khali from SmackDown in 2006 was actually pretty good.  This brawl hid Khali’s in-ring weaknesses, and Taker had enough experience to make Khali look way better than he really is.

One thing I’m glad we don’t see in the WWE anymore is steel chair shots to the head.  Some of these done to Randy Orton, The Big Show, and Mr. Kennedy just look plain sick, and I’m glad WWE has banned them in the wake of the brain damage of the late WWE superstars Chris Benoit and Test.

Finally, I have just one question:

How good is Justin Roberts at announcing the Undertaker to the ring?

Top 5 favorite matches from this DVD

Undertaker vs. Mankind – King of the Ring 1996

This was more of a wrestling match, compared to their Boiler Room Brawl at Summerslam 1996.  I really enjoyed seeing these two in action inside a ring, as I can’t really recall too many straight wrestling matches between the two.

Undertaker vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin – Buried Alive Match at Rock Bottom 1998

These two are definitely in my top five favorite stars of all time, so naturally I put this in here.  After a huge fight between the two, Kane shows up out of the gravesite, Austin brings out an excavator, and eventually buries the Undertaker underneath a ton of dirt while shouting obscenities at the operator for not doing it fast enough.

Undertaker vs. Randy Orton – Hell in a Cell at Armageddon 2005

I’m glad Cowboy Bob didn’t stick around in the WWE too long after this match.  This was a real shining match for Orton in becoming a breakout star, taking a lot of punishment before getting on the cusp of victory, only to fall to the Undertaker in the end.  It was a great story of revenge for the Undertaker.

Undertaker vs. Mr. Kennedy – First Blood Match at Survivor Series 2006

I love logic-based wrestling, and this was probably the most logical match on the DVD.  Again, this was a big brawl where the Undertaker just unleashed on Kennedy, trying to get him to bleed one way or another.  In the end, MVP cost the Undertaker the match, who was irate and destroyed Kennedy afterward.

Undertaker vs. Edge – Hell in a Cell at Summerslam 2008

This match was the final big match in their series that year, with Undertaker giving the receipt for all of Edge’s past sins.  The video package leading up to this was the best one on the DVD set, highlighting how Mick Foley helped Edge bring out his dark side.  The match was a solid effort from both, with a cool chokeslam through two tables.  But the ending was too hokey for me, with the normal camera switching to look like a motion picture as Undertaker images peppered the screen.  When Taker chokeslammed Edge, fire came up from the ring, signaling that he had been “chokeslammed to Hell!” as JR would say.

Overall, if you are an Undertaker fan, this is worth it.  There are some good matches on here if you don’t own them already, and some of them might surprise you in terms of quality.

I’m going to admit right off the bat that I was never a huge Jeff Hardy fan.  Honestly, I’m still not all that enthused by him.  But while Jeff was in the WWE, he always gave a lot of his body for the fans, and was the hottest WWE Superstar for about a year until he left the company in August 2009.

Since Jeff likely left WWE with the thought of coming back, this career retrospective was different than the usual ones they produce.  Jeff’s WWE career highlights were covered, though most only briefly.  These were interspersed with his (as of this writing) final WWE match with CM Punk, which I thought was really cool.  It was like a story within a story – the story of his career, and the story of how his WWE career ended.

Extras include Jeff talking about things like music and his dog with brother Matt Hardy, which I pretty much just skipped over.  The die-hard Jeff Hardy fan might like it, but I figured I’d spend my time watching Jeff’s matches.

While Jeff on his own wasn’t always spectacular in my book, I always liked how he was the fresh youngster up against the titans that were Shawn Michaels or Triple H.  In particular, with any of his matches involving Triple H on this DVD, I felt like The Game did a good job in putting Jeff over while still keeping himself in a good position.  Some people disagree with that, but looking at the matches and where the SmackDown brand was at the time, I think it was best that Triple H still be a top talent and Jeff to get that rub.

I was surprised they didn’t include Jeff’s Intercontinental title win over Triple H on SmackDown in 2001, or Jeff’s resilient ladder match with the Undertaker in 2002 on RAW.  That Undertaker match was briefly referenced by Jim Ross on the commentary during the extreme rules match between Hardy and Taker on the DVD.

WWE also did not include Jeff vs. CM Punk from Summerslam 2009 in the TLC match.  I’m guessing it was a good match, but due to it already being released on the actual Summerslam DVD, they probably neglected it.  After the cage match where Hardy finished his WWE tenure, they cut out his farewell speech.  I thought they should have at least included that.

And I’m being biased here, but I wish they would’ve included CM Punk’s imitation of Jeff Hardy the next week on SmackDown.  That kid at 1:16 looks hilarious.

In observations not related directly to Jeff Hardy, I remembered how well Jim Ross can tell a story as I listened to him call the matches, and I think all of WWE’s announcers should study his insights.  JR always came prepared.  The current WWE announce team is doing okay, but I would love to see JR come back to the announce table somehow.  Obviously JR doesn’t have a marketable look due to Bell’s palsy, and some may be turned off by his Oklahoma drawl, but neither of those have any effect on how he calls a match.

I also remembered how much I miss Lilian Garcia’s gorgeous presence with her flashy outfits.  I watched a match on some DVD where she announced Triple H from an episode of SmackDown from its early days, and she improved so much between that time and the day she left.  Justin Roberts is doing just fine, but I miss hearing Lilian’s booming but elegant voice announcing the WWE Superstars entering the arena.

Overall, I’d say this WWE DVD is a good catch for a diehard fan.  I’m assuming most of those people by now have bought this DVD since it’s been out for a year, but just in case anybody was still on the fence, I’d say take the leap.  The main feature isn’t my favorite, but the presentation is different and the matches make up for it.

Top 5 matches

vs. Triple H – Armageddon, 2007
vs. Shawn Michaels – RAW, 2008
vs. Triple H – No Mercy, 2008
vs. Triple H vs. Edge – Armageddon, 2008
vs. CM Punk – SmackDown, 2009

I’m a big Triple H fan because the guy can really work when he wants to.  Shawn Michaels also played the similar veteran role.  The feud with CM Punk really got me to notice both Jeff Hardy and CM Punk as performers, and I thought this was an excellent fresh feud from two guys who have worked hard to be at the top.

And now, your thoughts…