Breaking Point is the latest of WWE's new PPV concepts for 2009, originally intended as a card of all-submission based matches it was sensibly scaled back to the top 3 matches on the card to save us the horror of Khali and Kane going all UFC on us.
Its also important to note this was taking place in Montreal, Canada - meaning a screw job ending a la Survivor Series 97 was pretty much a given, as they churn out this chestnut often enough anyway even without the tap out gimmick.
The show opened with the Unified Tag Title match between Chris Jericho/Big Show and MVP and Mark Henry. The challengers came out in matching gear, which suggests any hope of a MVP push is the near future is pretty unlikely. The match itself was pretty decent, if following the same formula of every Jericho/Show defence since they became champs - Henry showed impressive strength in how easily he tossed about Big Show at times before the usual finish of Show hitting the knockout punch on the outside for the win.
Kofi Kingston versus The Miz was a late addition to the card, which suggested a random title change out of nowhere - thankfully this wasn't the case as the pair had a nice little match that ticked along a fast pace with Kofi retaining his belt in the end. Some of the near falls sequences were a bit sloppy, but it made a welcome change of pace from the usual WWE undercard fare.
The first of the three feature matches was next as DX took on The Legacy in a rematch from Summerslam. This was a great match full of action all around the arena, but the last ten minutes were just odd as logic went out the window and started to feel like the match had gone too long. This was a really one-sided match - and not in the way you'd expect either as Rhodes and Dibiase beat up HHH and Michaels for the best part of half an hour.
The moment the match jumped the shark was meant to be the big spot of the show, Rhodes and Michaels were fighting in the crowd when Cody managed to back toss Michaels down to the concrete floor, much like HHH/Undertaker from Wrestlemania X7 - except it wasn't - Shawn feel about a foot into an amount of padding you'd expect to find in an adventure playground, seriously if Cody Rhodes had done that to a small child their reaction would be 'WEEEEEEEEEEE' not remaining unconscious for the rest of the match.
Legacy then preceded to go backstage beat up HHH till he couldn't move, then instead of winning the match, they leave their incapacitated opponent to go beat up Shawn Michaels before eventually winning with a double submission on HBK with the surreal sight of HHH rolling down the entrance ramp to try and save him. Just odd.
Kane then beat Great Khali again in a Singapore Cane match. Sadly this did not feature the Big Red Machine in fancy dress - and I honestly can't remember a thing about this match
Next up was the ECW title match, notable for two things 1) it was really good and 2) Matt Striker channeled the spirit of Chris Packham and filled his commentary with a load of Morrissey references - there are also unconfirmed reports also have him spotted muttering Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now during Kane/Khali (boom boom!)
For the part the match was Regal letting loose all his awesome Japanese style offence of knees and suplexes, alongside submission moves that put any of those int he main event to shame. Christian retained, which at least means the crowd will care about the ECW title matches on upcoming PPVs, but I felt the time was right for a switch and move him up to Smackdown like his performances have deserved.
Now instead of the scheduled IC title match, we had a pointless filler segment between Pat Patterson and Dolph 'Mr Ziggles' Ziggler. WWE continued the strange writing for a guy who is supposed to be a heel - firstly on Smackdown he's stuck in a storyline where he is the innocent party in the feud between Michelle McCool and Maria, now here he simply suggests him having a match would be better use of PPV time than Patterson mincing about for 15 minutes. I am supposed to hate Dolph, not think he's my frickin hero!
The first of the title match was up next, and they took the submission gimmick literally, probably too literally as the WWE title match consisted of an oiled up guy being tied up and handcuffed to a post before being whipped for 20 minutes. All that was missing to complete the S&M theme was the gimp mask (I guess Rey is suspended though).
Forgetting the gay porn undertones, the match told a simple and effective story of revenge, and was the match HHH and Orton should've had at Wrestlemania after his attack on Stephanie. Cena won and in putting over the beating he took and how he overcame the odds, it almost went virtually unnoticed that he actually won the major belt in professional wrestling.
The main event of the World Title match between CM Punk and the Undertaker failed to live up to expectations for several reasons. Firstly, the match wasn't long enough to fit its headlining status - at just over 8 minutes, what we got looked like building to quite a good match until the horrible finishes set in.
Finishes is the key word as we were first treated to our first screw job ending as while a victorious Undertaker posed in the ring, Teddy Long came out announced the match was to restart as the Hells Gate choke was banned. Then followed screw job number two as Punk managed to lock on the Anaconda Vice and corrupt official Scott Armstrong declared Punk the victor via result of phantom tap out - a finish that didn't make sense as if he was bribed to make sure Punk won, why did he let Undertaker win first time round?!
A much as the finish sucked it did at least get them out of the corner they'd booked themselves into as it kept the belt on Punk and didn't beat Undertaker clean in his big return. From what we saw during their brief contest, given more time at the upcoming Hell in a Cell PPV they should have a fine match.
The PPV itself was a mixed bag, as whilst the matches delivered for the most part up and down the card the concept itself seemed flawed as the submission concept was ignored for the most part with submissions tagged onto the end of the usual WWE style main event brawls, instead of building the matches around the stipulations. Out of the three new PPVs coming this year, Breaking Point seems least likely to make a lasting impression.
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