WWE Tables, Ladders and Chairs

The latest event from WWE will stay long in the memory, not for the gimmick stipulations, but by actually managed to surprise the viewer for the first time in ages.

Christian vs Shelton Benjamin - Ladder Match

The opener was a Ladder match for the ECW title between two veterans of the gimmick match in question. As you'd expect there were plenty of nice spots that showed of Shelton's athleticism alongside Christian innovation in this type of match. Yet something never quite clicked between the two as they never quite recovered from the forced break to tend to Christian's cut he got when a ladder caught him flush in the face early doors - unlike at Bragging Rights where they managed to hide Cena's cut during one of the time-outs, this time around they had no such luxury and the interruption ruined the flow just as the match was building as killed the atmosphere in the crowd.

Christian won in the end after an impressive spot where he frog-splashed Benjamin through a ladder between the ring and announce table - and you'd have to think he will be out of the doghouse of ECW and onto Smackdown sooner rather than later seeing as he's been given a fair amount of the spotlight on the last 2 pey-per-views running.

Drew McIntyre vs John Morrison

Next up was the Intercontinental Title match that saw Mr McMahon's hand picked future champ Drew McIntyre take on John Morrison. At the best of times these two aren't full of charisma and would've struggled to get the crowd into what they were doing, but having to follow a ladder match just made things worse. What they did in the ring was fine but no one cared either way, but at least they didn't pull a Ziggler and let Drew keep the little momentum that he has by winning the belt first time round

Mickie James vs Michelle McCool

By the numbers Womens' match which was destined to be forgotten almost straight after. Michelle won in a match that was only notable for Layla wearing a Piggie James T-Shirt and Mickie apparently dressed as some kind of Native American Cowboy.

Sheamus vs John Cena - Tables Match

Sheamus Wins! Sheamus Wins!

You could actually sense the shock rippling through the crowd at the end of this match when the Irishman put the champ through a table - Well he sort of did anyway. The way they choose to end this match was baffling as for some reason out of nowhere Cena did some kind of suicidal dive from the top rope through a table to lose the match.

This managed to make the pair of them look like complete idiots as the hero of the WWE Universe is apparently some bumbling buffoon who can't stand up straight and instead of giving the new champ a convincing win he was just left straddled on the top rope as the champ committed Hari Kari.

This was such a shame as what went before as the pair actually had a pretty good WWE style brawl for the title that showed that Sheamus could hang with the big boys, reminding me of Batista in the sense that you won't want him to be the one to carry the match, but put him in with the right guy and he'll deliver - which bodes well for the Irishman's run with title.

Undertaker vs Batista - Chairs Match

Another silly ending followed in the next title match, as the Smackdown belt was defended by Undertaker against Big Dave. Coming into this the WWE writers had booked themselves into a cul-de-sac as you don't beat the Undertaker on a pointless PPV or a loss would ruin the momentum for the Dave heel turn that has been all kinds of great so far - so some kind of cop out ending was to be expected, but they went and picked the one that made the least sense.

Batista had looked like he'd won the title after pinning the Undertaker on the back of a chair shot. But seeing as he'd used a low blow Teddy Long came out and ordered a restart where the Undertaker quickly got the 3 count on the back of a tombstone piledriver. Notwithstanding the fact that Teddy Long was prepared to let Drew McIntyre get away with eye poke to win the IC title not making sense - this was the same Teddy Long who was under orders to screw the Undertaker out of the title for the last couple of months - shouldn't he be happy that Big Dave won?!

Randy Orton vs Kofi Kingston

Of the 3 guys pushed in recent weeks, Kofi Kingston made the biggest impression with the WWE fans. So of course he lost convincingly. What had originally looked set to push Kofi to Orton's level had ended up dragging Randy down to Kofi's midcard status via a load of pointless TV matches - so with Orton versus Cena being teased yet again for somewhere down the line (please God not Wrestlemania!) they threw all the good work done with Kofi aside to try and save Orton. The match itself was good as they worked closer to Kofi's faster pace opposed to Orton's slower, more methodical pace - but by the end Kofi was right back where he started a couple of months ago.

DX vs Chris Jericho & The Big Show - TLC Match

The main event was the perfect example of how to use the Big Show - coming in with short bursts that showcased his height as an unique attraction whilst also highlighting his freakish strength. Here the story was that JeriShow destroyed all the ladders meaning they were the only ones who could win the match. The end came DX finally outsmarted them catching them in the act, leading to the one big spot in the match - Jericho's fall from Big Show's shoulders through to a table outside. I much preferred this match to the spot fests of Money in the Bank as it actually told a story instead of being jammed full off stunts that quickly become meaningless.

So DX won the tag titles, but unless they switch them back straight away after its hard to work out what they'll do with the belts, as next up on the calendar is the the Royal Rumble which usually marks the start on the Road to Wrestlemania - and despite winning gold here you've got to expect DX to be working singles matches on the biggest show of the year.

On the whole you'd have to recommend this show, none of the matches tanked, with Sheamus and Cena delivering a surprisingly good match with an ending that managed to surprise you more.

WWE Survivor Series 2009

This didn't have the usual Big 4 feel of the Survivor Series, mainly because Raw seems to spend more time plugging guest hosts than actual matches coming up. This makes this year traditional Thanksgiving event even more surprising as they dropped all that for a series of matches that were all pretty good and actually gave some of the younger stars a chance to shine.

Team Miz vs Team Morrison

The opening match looked a little one-sided on paper and that's how it played out here. Only Morrison needed protecting on his team as the rest of his team-mates have spent most of the year jobbing to the rest of the roster. What stood out to me was just how far Ziggler's star has fallen in recent months when he found himself pinned by Evan Bourne, which I supposed made a change from John Morrison for Dolph. Morrison was quickly left as the sole survivor against McIntyre (who looks like Jason Mewes if he choose steroids not heroin), Miz and Sheamus - after a brief flurry of offence he was taken out by the trio. This was a simple match that achieved what it set out to do putting over the 3 survivors strongly, giving them all the eliminations for the team and a bit of mic time at the end.

Batista vs Rey Mysterio

Washington DC probably wasn't the best place to cement the Big Dave heel turn as the hometown hero was cheered wildly as he beat Rey to a pulp for 6 minutes. Mind you after the awful mimicking of Eddie Guerrero whilst on the top rope I'm in half a mind to suggest Mysterio deserved what he got. The match was ended via ref stoppage after several powerbombs - something I'd like to see continued to help the Batista heel turn with him going a run of destruction - and would be better bet at adding drama to a big match than his recent attempts to bust out the ankle lock

Team Kingston vs Team Orton

In recent weeks, WWE stumbled upon something with Kofi Kingston, who originally looked like cannon fodder to build up Orton, surprised everyone with the strength of the crowd reaction to his fightbacks. Going into this match there was a lingering feeling that they might just fuck this up and have him job to Orton, killing all the momentum he'd built up. Thankfully, this wasn't the case after a slowish start with the highlights Striker's usual Morrissey references (but the November Spawned a Monster one was awful!) this match really got into gear when it came down to Kingston & Christian against Orton & Punk. The brief exchanges we got between Christian and Orton were great and when Christian hot the Killswitch on Orton the crowd went wild, thinking after unbelievably the Canadian had took out both members of Legacy he just might complete the set next - that didn't happen as an RKO quickly followed, but left me wanting a Christian/Orton feud somewhere down the line.

Once it was down to 2 on 1, Orton hopped off the apron and prowled the ringside area whilst Kofi took on Punk for about 5 minutes - Orton was great here as he managed to combine the look of being a predator waiting for his moment with suggesting a hint of fear of going one on one with Kofi. After Kingston rolled up Punk for the 3 count Orton seized his moment only to be caught by Kingston with his spin kick to pick up the win in a finish that perfectly took the feud a step further - it was great stuff and the match of the night for me.

Undertaker vs Big Show vs Chris Jericho

I really wanted Big Show to win this as the thought of him having to defend the belt in a TLC match was too good to be true. Sadly this wasn't the case as Undertaker won with his annoying submission move where he pins himself but no one ever seems to notice, but the match was as good as it was going to get with 2 of its competitors even more knackered than usual - but its annoying how they've thrown away Jericho/Undertaker in what could've been a great match to save for Wrestlemania.

Team Mickie vs Team McCool

This match exceeded expectations - in the sense that instead of 5 minutes it got 10, but those extra minutes were baffling stuff. The world's most dangerous anorexic Michelle McCool, the one who we are supposed to boo, spent the majority of the time bravely fighting against Mickie James and Melina whilst Michael Cole continually pointed out she was a future Hall of Fame wrestler and the only Divas and Women's Champion. Then on top of that she loses to Melina, who is on a different brand. On a night where most of the booking decisions were right, this stood out like a sore thumb.

Cena vs HHH vs Shawn Michaels

In a perverse way, the awful build up to this match involving all the Hornswoggle business made this match better, as because they has seemingly forgotten there was a title at stake in the build up - so you never really had a clue who was going to win, making it quite the exciting spectacle.

Aside from Shawn superkicking Hunter at the start, and a spinebuster through the table in revenge, they never really did any DX fighting parts during the match, suggesting that may be on the back-burner till Wrestlemania perhaps. Cena retained pinning Triple H, a sound move as it keeps Michaels strong going into the next PPV where they may need him to step into Jeff Hardy's shoes to do a big jump off a ladder when required.

WWE Bragging Rights 2009

The idea to finally get behind and promote the Smackdown vs Raw series of video games by the WWE is to be applauded, as in this time of diminishing pay-per-view returns, the video game tie in remains lucrative - a point demonstrated by even Sabu managing to get a check for $125,000 for his involvement in one of the series. So with in mind we had the PPV debut of Bragging Rights, a battle for brand superiority between Raw and Smackdown

With JR unavailable we had King, Cole and The Grish on commentary (but sadly no Striker) who revealed that the winning brand would receive the Bragging Rights Cup for winning the best out of 3 tournament, a prize that will no doubt sit alongside Davey Boy Smith's Royal success in the Royal Samavagh trophy at the Battle Royal at the Albert Hall in the annuls of crappy WWE trophies.

The opening match saw the battle between the former tag team champions of The Miz and John Morrison. As it was the first time these two had met in the ring since their split in the draft and on the back of an entertaining build featuring some excellent verbal jousting and an appearance from Marty Jannetty, this match actually had quite the big match feel to it - but whilst the in ring action was good for a pay-per-view opener, it feel slightly like a bit of an anti-climax after all the great work put in before it, lacking the memorable moment to take it to the next level. The Miz picked up the win pushing Morrison off the ropes and blocking the Starship Pain and should ensure plenty of material for his ace gloating promos over the next couple of weeks.

Next up was Divas action with Melina, Gail Kim and Kelly Kelly from Raw taking on Smackdown’s team of Beth Phoenix, Natalya and Michelle McCool, who now has hooded entrance gear that suggests The Undertaker has some weird AJ Styles fetish going on. With Raw going 1-0 up in the opener the result was a foregone conclusion but surprisingly it Melina who took the fall for the Raw team and not Kelly Kelly. Beth Phoenix got the pin which makes sense in building her up a strong challenger for McCool's title back on Smackdown. The match itself was good with some nice bits between Gail and Beth which echoed the similar chemistry between Gail and Awesome Kong in TNA and further highlighted the missed opportunities since Kim returned to the WWE.

The fatal four way for the WWE title was next as The Undertaker defended against former champions CM Punk, Rey Mysterio and Batista. The match set off at a fast past and kept it up for the entire match, with near falls all over the place. The finish came when Batista seemingly had the match won till Rey broke up the pin, Batista then proceeded to clean house but turned into a Tombstone piledriver from Undertaker who got the pin.

After the match Josh Matthews was in the ring with Big Dave, Little Rey for the not at all obvious heel turn as Batista proceeded to beat the hell out of Mysterio for costing him the title and touching all those small children on the way to the ring. I may have made the last bit up though.

Unsurprisingly the tournament came down to the 7 on 7 tag match to decide who would take home the prestigious Bragging Rights Trophy. All the wrestlers were wearing their respective colours aside from those rebels who won't wear their school uniform DX - sadly we didn't get a vignette of them smoking behind the bike sheds, but there's always next year!

The match maintained the high standards of what had come before, with plenty of action giving all the competitors a chance to shine, hopefully the Harts don't have to wait too long to get another chance on PPV as Tyson Kidd is probably my favourite wrestler in WWE at the moment, with a style that stands out from the usual homogeneity of the WWE style. The finish was one of those turns from the wrestler that really insults the intelligence of the viewer when the commentators play it up like its the most shocking event in the history of wrestling. This time to the surprise of no-one Big Show helped his tag team partner win, and not Raw! OMG!

The fact that Raw lost was a bit of the turn up for the books as I thought they would've rammed home the fact that Raw is the A-show and possibly furthered the build to a tag title match between DX and Jericho/Big Show by having them pick up the win. It may be as likely as hell freezing over, but I'd like to think this result will allow them to attempt to push The Miz again after they messed it up last time, as he now has the ammo to say he is better than the entire Raw locker room on a regular basis - and seeing as he's proved he's not the next Marty Jannetty, how about a feud with Shawn Michaels somewhere down the line?

The main event was the moment I'd been dreading. John Cena. Randy 'Chinlock' Orton. 60 minute Ironman match.

Despite my pleas, they didn't start the clock before the ring entrances to eat up at least half an hour of the match so we had the usual Cena fanfare and an even slower Orton entrance than usual to conserve energy. The main problem I had with the match wasn't the quality of wrestling, it was just that they did everything they would do in a normal WWE title match, but over the course of an hour with lots of lying down and hastily added rest period rules to pad it out.

The big moments came halfway through when that old staple of the Ironman match was used - attempting to murder your opponent by setting off a load of explosive pyrotechnics under his prone body. You knew this was meant to be a grave situation as King put on his serious voice and started calling him John but it looked a bit farcical as Orton appeared to be playing one of those fairground Whack it games as he randomly started hitting comedy red buttons waiting for an explosion to come. All that was missing was the mallet to complete to complete the image, but I guess Triple H wouldn't lend him his for the night.

Cena would go on to launch his usual heroic comeback, fighting out near death, a Legacy run in (with the help of Kofi Kingston, who hopefully is getting a push) to win back the title 6-5 with an STF in the dying seconds of the match and save him from the fate worse than death that is going to Smackdown.

I'm probably in the minority, but I actually think the Bragging Rights event is actually a pretty good idea by WWE, and with some tweaking would be a welcome return to the PPV calender next year.

Firstly, the event needs a longer build to hype up the issues surrounding the main events as teams of 7 wrestlers who couldn't get along the previous week are suddenly transformed into loyal servants of the Raw and Smackdown brands. Secondly it could do with being moved a bit further away from the Survivor Series event as they both seem to step on their toes and dilute the unique selling points of both events. I'd also like to see the return of War Games in the main tag team match and it would really add a sense of occasion and really put over victory in the tournament as a big thing, making the match something special, standing out from the usual multiman matches on TV that are designed to fill two hours of programming.

The PPV should also be applauded as it made several steps to put the spotlight on new talent, giving Rhodes, R Truth and Kofi Kingston chance to establish characters in backstage segments as well as giving them plenty of ring time in the final match. Hopefully this will continue moving on to Survivor Series at the end of the month, as this events usually opens up plenty of spots for new talent to show their stuff in front of a wider audience.

WWE Hell In A Cell 2009

At this rate WWE are going to end up copying TNA's weekly pay-per-views if the gap keeps getting shorter between events. 3 weeks on from Breaking Point we're back with an almost identical card, but with a new gimmick for the main events - as this time around they were contested inside Hell in a Cell - a structure so fearsome and powerful it creates its own music by simply being lowered to the ground.

Surprisingly first up this evening was the match that headlined last time around, as Undertaker challenged CM Punk once again for the World Title. Disappointingly the match never seemed to get going and ended abruptly after 10 minutes with only fleeting attempts to bring the cage into play with the odd tame whip into the steel here and there. The Undertaker won cleanly and decisively, but god knows where they go from here with the lack of any real challengers to the title save the subtle hints towards another meddling McMahon storyline that fills me with dread.

Next up was the Intercontinental Title match with John Morrison and Dolph Ziggler actually getting the chance to have a match this time around, instead of messing around with Pat Patterson. The match itself didn't disappoint but if anything Morrison seems to be regressing charisma-wise, struggling to get a connection with a crowd he always seems to win them round with his in ring work - but seemed far more suited to an arrogant heel that he portrayed during his run with Miz. Morrison retained, leaving you wondering when on earth Dolph is going to the getting the title he seemingly looked set to win going in to most of the PPVs so far this year.

Mickie James also retained in a short women's title match against Alicia Fox, which was short enough and good enough to avoid getting crapped on by the crowd.

Despite my initial misgivings about teaming the returning Rey Mysterio with Batista, as I'd have liked to see them team up Rey with Evan Bourne to recreate the chemistry they showed on Raw - the unified Tag Title match was much more fun than it had the right to be. Rey and Jericho were reliably awesome, but Big Dave and the Big Show were excellent in their shorts bursts of action. Jericho and Big Show retained thanks to the knockout punch once again, and are now one of the highlights of WWE TV, raising the profile of the tag belts, working as a team and avoiding the usual superstars who can't get along as partners gubbins.

You wouldn't expect Triple H to stay out of the main event for too long so Orton/Cena was the second of the evening's Cell matches - and whilst not on the level of last time around it was an okay match and featured a ref bump from Mike Chioda that denied Cena retaining and hopefully doesn't lead to Chioda going all Tim White on the back of an injury suffered within the Cell. Which means that Orton is champ once again on the back of a punt that looked rubbish thanks to some shoddy WWE camerawork - and with an Ironman rematch on the cards it left me praying they start the clock on the entrances as there won't be any time for the other matches at the rate these two are going.

The two matches between this and the main event ended up coming across as filler despite the best efforts of those involved. First the re-debuting Drew McIntyre took on R-Truth and they actually gave the match quite the build with a nice video package and a promo from Mr Killings. It was a shame that when the match itself started the crowd wasn't interested in the slightest despite both men working hard in what was a good, but short match. WWE obviously have big things in mind for McIntyre, having him personally introduced by Vince on Smackdown and working with Ricky Steamboat on house shows - quite what they see in him leaves me slightly puzzled though - its not that he's bad, just he doesn't really bowl you over. I can understand looking at Brock Lesnar when they first saw him and going 'future of the business' but Drew McIntyre, I don't get how they can think that.

The penultimate match was the US triple threat title match and the highlight came during the entrances with a great promo form Miz referencing the surreal sight of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the crowd plugging their new video game. Kofi Kingston retained with a neat finish that looks to build up Jack Swagger for a one on one match as he was robbed of victory thanks to Kofi's athleticism and opportunism.

Main Event time and headlining the show was DX taking on legacy in the culmination of their feud that credit where credits due, really has raised the status of Rhodes and Dibiase. This was the only match of the three that made any use of the cage stipulations as after a heated brawl around the building, Legacy managed to lock Triple H out of the cage and beat down Shawn Michaels for the best part of the match. Legacy looked great here thanks to Shawn's super selling and Triple H's return was timed perfectly, reversing the tables for a 2 on 1 comeback that sent the crowd home happy and didn't kill the momentum built up by the 2 second generation superstars in previous weeks.

To sum it up, Hell in a Cell was a good pay-per-view, but the lack of those classic cell moments may hurt the drawing power of the name in the future - whilst I'm not fussed by the lack of blood that many others are, the lack of a big bump or spot for the highlight reel may make many punters think twice before forking over £15 pounds for a Hell in a Cell match in the future.

WWE Breaking Point 2009

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.

WWE Summerslam 2009

Whilst never on the level of Wrestlemania, Summerslam has always been seen as WWE's second biggest pay-per-view of the year. However, over recent years the event has lost a little of its lustre, something which the WWE tried to address this time around, with a rather swish marketing campaign, a weekend of Axxess events and bringing out the big guns for the event itself.

...and when I talk about big guns, I mean big guns. Big, loud guns that take up about 20 minutes of the show and last longer than several matches. But more about the DX entrance later.

The show kicked off with a Dolph Ziggler challenging Rey Mysterio for the Intercontinental Championship in a rematch from Night of Champions. Working a faster pace than last time out against a motivated Mysterio in his home state allowed Dolph to step and take his chance to shine. Although Mysterio retained this was one of those ocassions where a superstar's stock rose in defeat, with the Curt Hennig comparisons justified with Ziggler's selling and ability to stay the pace with the lightening-fast Luchadore.

A nice pre-match promo helped carry momentum into the match between MVP and Jack Swagger. They worked a basic match, but it was good for what it was. The decision to put over MVP was surprising though, as for the majority of the feud, and the match itself - Swagger was booked as the superior athlete. MVP has had a lot of the wind taken out of his sails since the early promise shown since his draft from Smackdown and really should've been built up steadily as a new challenger for Orton over the past couple of months. Hopefully a couple of months working with Jericho can rebuild him from here.

Speaking of which, the tag team title match was next. I don't think anyone ever really expected Cryme Tyme to win, but the rub from working with two established stars in Jericho and Big Show means that WWE now has an established mid-card face team to work shows in the future, so hopefully we'll see more stuff like this in the future.

Khali versus Kane was a terrible as it potentially could've been - at least with Khali as face the heel can work most off the match on offence before Khali hits a move or two on comeback. That's what they did here and it worked for the most part, Kane picked up the win with a nice looked DDT, and Khali will stay around not doing much whilst WWE try to build the Indian market.

Next up was the return everyone was waiting for (well, everyone if you ignore the fact the DX that everyone actually liked had Road Dog, X-Pac and Chyna in it - not Shawn) where the returning De-Generation X took on the team of Legacy. At the start of the show we had a promo video where Trips and Shawn suggested Rhodes and Dibiase might be a bit gay - which is a bit rich for a couple of dudes who spend all their time talking about cocks whenever they are back together as DX.

Next was an entrance that was up there with the over the top Wrestlemania entrances they used to do a couple of years back. Sadly, Triple wasn't dressed as Conan this time out - but instead we got a load of Soldiers come out to fire weapons for 10 minutes for no apparent reason before DX entered the arena atop a tank to plug their new t-shirt and glowsticks available at all good retailers now.

Thankfully the match wasn't an abomination like the previous Spirit Squad effort (though I do think the trampoline was a wasted opportunity) and Legacy put up a another strong showing after finally being given the chance to show their skills in the last month or so after ages of simply being Orton's whipping boys. DX picked up the win and hopefully Raw can maintain this direction in the booking over the coming weeks.

The ECW title match was always going to have a tough time following the excitement of the DX return, but not to bother in the slightest is taking things a bit far. It was over in 8 seconds and no doubt they'll have a really good match on ECW, which seems backwards logic for booking.

Next came the first of the two title match main events as John Cena challenged Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. The match was the usual stuff, but at least its better fare than Orton/Triple H. The multiple endings were a bizarre choice, as well as the decision to make a clearly phoning it in Lillian Garcia the mouthpiece for Vince McMahon - as usual protocol for reversing a decision has a official whispering in the announcers ear, this just looked wrong as it came off like Lillian was having a breakdown restarting the match apparently possessed by the spirit of Vince McMahon (I suppose he was the Higher Power though...)

There was only one way to close the show and that was the World Title under TLC rules between Jeff Hardy against CM Punk. For a match with a seemingly obvious ending it delivered in spades full of great in ring action between the inevitable Hardy suicide spots - the biggest of which was Hardy's swanton off a super-huge ladder through the ECW announce table, a spot sadly missing the presence of Hugo Savinovich. After that, the dastardly Punk snuck into to regain the title, pushing a valiant Jeff off another ladder in the process.

The post-match celebrations saw the shock return of the Undertaker, a smart move that not took the spotlight off the upcoming absence of departing Hardy, but also gave the show that long-lasting 'moment' that can make or break a show. This, alongside almost all the matches delivering in the ring makes Summerslam 2009 a solid night of entertaining Wrestling.

WWE Night Of Champions 2009

One of the newer PPV incarnations from the WWE, taking over from Vengance, the event sees all the gold in WWE defended on the card - and thanks to the additional matches we usual see a couple of different faces from the usual status quo, though sadly it was not be for Jimmy Wang Yang this year

Night of Champions opened with the Unified Tag Title match, which saw Legacy challenge Jericho for the belts they won on their debut at the previous years event. Jericho had hinted previously that his replacement partner for the injured Edge would be evil - Smackdown had hinted towards Kane, but those who remember the Attitude Era hoped for Kai En Tai and their dubbed comedy stylings to make a welcome return - sadly instead we got the Big Show. Heel versus Heel matches struggle to work in WWE at the best of times, but adding the ponderous seven footer to the equation was the nail in the coffin. It wasn't dreadful mainly thanks to Show spending a fair amount of time on the outside, but you get the feeling Smackdown is about to get a whole lot crapper now since the awesomeness of Jericho will be cancelled out by the nearby presence of the seven foot salad dodger.

Since the raping of ECW of the draft and the raft of FCW alumni starting up on ECW, the Tommy Dreamer title reign has stalled badly - cutting short an interesting feud with Jack Swagger that also involved his challenger Christian. But with Night of Champions taking place in birthplace of all things Extreme, a decent reaction (which was quite an achievement with a crowd that was dead all night) for the ECW original was guaranteed, sadly thanks to limitations of Dreamer in a match without weapons and the like, the crowd didn't stay with them and as a result the title change didn't seem like big the moment it should've been. The result probably marks the end of Tommy Dreamer in a WWE ring for a while and with Christian looking likely to move on to challenge of Koslov, he'll be hard pressed to top the recent run of ECW title matches that he and Swagger had.

Thankfully due to the Big Show's conditioning, or lack of - there was no chance of him pulling double duty and entering the six pack challenge for the US Title. The logical replacement you would have thought must be Evan Bourne, on account of him being involved in the exchanges between Show and Kofi Kingston that set the basis for this match in the first place. But instead Primo was given the chance to step up, making the choice to draft Bourne to Monday night's look even stranger than before. The match itself too didn't make much sense either, seemingly made up of a couple of TNA-esque multi man spots and lots of flying about from Carlito to get the crowd going, even though he was supposed to be the big heel in the match.

Swagger and MVP were pretty much an afterthought in the match, which was a shame as their opening exchanges on Raw pointed to an interesting feud which now seems to have fallen by the wayside since the whole guest host gimmick started on Raw. Hopefully these two will be given the chance to build towards a match further down the line. In the meantime Kofi retained which was the right result in the end as a title change just for the sake of it benefits nobody in the end.

Next up, Michelle McCool defended her title against Melina again in a brutal match. McCool either has the most realistic offence in the WWE or once again she nearly killed Melina several times over during the match. In particular the opening splits spot looked like it was all different kinds of painful and it was later followed by a DDT on the guardrail later on. McCool retained, but seems short on future challengers for her to beat on.

The triple threat for the WWE title followed and whilst it being a pretty good match it suffered from a huge sense of deja vu thanks to the stale main event scene on Raw. Orton kept the title looking weak once again thanks to the predictable Rhodes and Dibiase run in - this was on top of tapping out in clear sight of the referee, which may lead to another rematch between these guys. Again. The fact that Orton still has the aura of a legit killer despite being booked like a total chump is a testament to the way he carries himself.

The Divas title match was the one clunker on the show and was arguably the worst match of Mickie James' WWE career. The match was sloppy and the crowd dead, surprising since Maryse is actually a great heel character. The title changed hands too which also was a puzzling choice since Mickie hasn't really done anything and Maryse is in the midst of a storyline with The Miz.

Given a surprisingly high spot on the card Ziggler vs Mysterio never quite hit the heights it needed to to take the former Spirit Squad member to the next level. The match itself was solid but lacked that spark to send above the likes of an extended Smackdown match - this was mainly thanks to Rey spending most of the time grounded as a result of Ziggler's restholds. Telling a story in the ring is one thing, but this was at the expense of entertainment. Hopefully in the future they give these two the chance to express themselves a bit more in the ring and work a more fast-paced match as Ziggler needs to some impressive outings to build on the potential he has shown so far.

Earlier in the evening, champion CM Punk had struck an awesome promo that basically boiled down to Jeff Hardy being at fault for America's ills. Going into the match it felt like we were finally seeing the real CM Punk, the man who works so much better as arrogant guy rather than ill fitting babyface character that he's portrayed for his entire WWE run so far. Defending against Jeff Hardy, Punk was made to look competitive, dominating large portions of the match, but the decision to put the belt back on Jeff was the wrong call.

A victory over Hardy for Punk would've done wonders to establish a new main event performer - something WWE is short on numbers of at the moment - even if Punk wins the belt back in a gimmick match at Summerslam, which is still likely due to Jeff's contract situation, undermining the 'better than you' character by taking the one thing that backs up his argument is symbolic of the poor choices the WWE are making at the moment, as it not only derails Punk, but renders John Morrison's two victories over the champ as redundant.

In the end Night of Champions was a solid PPV, with the second women's match the only poor match on the card - whilst giving nothing to complain about, it didn't exactly give you anything to write home about either.

WWE The Bash 2009

The PPV Formerly Known as The Great American Bash has a mixed tradition - starting out as of the prestige names of the WCW brand, it has featured great matches from the likes of Sting, Vader, Flair and Funk - but since being taken under the WWE wing it has failed to live up to this legacy, instead offering such delights as the murders of Paul Bearer (in a concrete crypt) and Mohamed Hassan (w/terrorists) in consecutive years at the hands of the Undertaker.

Signs were not good leading into Sunday night, as priorities seemed to be shifted towards promoting recent RAW shows, instead of actually announcing any matches for this event.

This year's show started off with a scramble match for the ECW title, featuring the champ Tommy Dreamer against Christian, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry and Finlay. Unlike last year's scramble matches that gave us the surreal sight of Brian Kendrick as the interim world champion, gauntlet rules were added to the mix. This change probably helped the match as it cut down the time Dreamer and Henry had to spend in action, keeping their spots short but effective - shame they couldn't find a spot for Evan Bourne in here somehow, but you can't have everything. Dreamer retained and was surprisingly over for the second PPV in a row, but I doubt a long title reign is in order.

Up next was match number three in the Jericho/Mysterio trilogy, which even by their high standards was the best of the lot. Mysterio was the most impressive he has been in years, busting out some variations in his high-flying offence and working a fast-paced match which behind Undertaker/Michaels will arguably be seen as the WWE match of the year so far. Mysterio would go on to wing back his IC title, but more importantly keep his mask, thanks to the resourceful double mask ending here.

Dolph Ziggler was given the unenviable task of following the IC title match, a fact made worse for the former Spirit Squad member by going up against the Great Khali. Dolph has been pretty impressive since switching to Smackdown, drawing comparisons to Mr Perfect. The WWE writing team seem to have picked up on this, giving Ziggler a new 'I am Perfection' entrance and Ziggler seems to have been ordered to add Hennig-style uberselling to all his matches. WWE need to tread carefully here to ensure they don't over egg the pudding with Ziggler, as laying on the perfection gimmick too much draws comparisons with Shawn Staziak, not the late, great Curt Hennig.

Anyway Ziggler picked up the win quickly thanks to the returning Kane, and we can all look forward to the future classics those matches will bring. Urgh.

Building up to the tag title match all evening were a series of horrible backstage segments, summing up the pathetic WWE creative mindset. As the story goes, Smackdown GM Teddy Long is under pressure to liven up the show as it is so boring, because we all know great wrestling and logical storylines are really terrible, what we need are more evil GMs and cheap celeb publicity stunts like on RAW. Double Urgh.

As a result of this Teddy Long added Edge and Jericho to the tag match to make it a triple threat and unsurprisingly they went on the win the unified belts. In the end this may not be the worse thing that could've happened, as it will either raise the profile of the tag straps or at least serve the purpose of allowing Edge and Jericho to switches shows at will to strengthen a stale RAW main event roster.

Women's title match was up next and featured some decent wrestling, but suffered from the usual crowd apathy that Divas get unless its dodgy softcore nonsense. Michelle McCool won the match and the title with a here version of the Styles Clash that is either performed to perfection, looking brutal - or just a matter of time before it messes up the Divas surgically enhanced features.

The first of the two World Title matches saw CM Punk defend the World Heavyweight Title against Jeff Hardy and Punk would continue his slow heel turn retaining his title in cheap fashion, firstly after restarting the match thanks to the little-used foot under the rope rule and then secondly getting DQ'd after inadvertently (or was it?) kicking the ref in the head after his vision was obscured. Match was decent, but not great - but the storyline is really bringing the best out of CM Punk, who excels as the heel who believes he is right, and with the crowd totally pro-Hardy it is also the prefect opponent for him to do it against.

Cena vs The Miz was the final nail in the coffin for a story that started out with so much potential. Cena basically just kicked the crap out of Miz for 5 mins and just laughed whenever The Miz tried to land a move on him. WWE could've made a new star or at the very least made some people pay to watch The Miz get his comeuppance, but this just continued the trend of recent weeks and made him look like a total joke and left him right back where he started after his draft to RAW. A total waste.

Main Event time was a Three Stages of Hell Match between Orton and Triple H. Coincidently I actually find most of their matches three stages of hell - 1) Orton's ten minute snail walk to the ring 2) Triple H ten minute water-spitting pose-a-thon 3) the actual match.

Before the match dissension was hinted at in Legacy, with Ted DiBiase Jr planting the seeds for his future failed face turn to promote his upcoming straight-to-dvd movie. What would follow was a Triple H special.

In a best of three falls match he successfully manager to "lose" without ever once having Orton beat him. First up he was DQ'd for beating the crap out of Orton, before pinning Orton easily to make it level, then in the third fall it was made clear that had it not been for Priceless's help that Orton would have no chance again the great Hunter, being pushed all of 5 inches on a stretcher over the line.

Then, just to make it crystal clear, the final shot we saw was of Triple H stood over all three of Legacy as any memories of Orton as the killer threat that got him over trickled away.

On the whole this PPV delivered in the ring once gain, but the most of the stuff that goes on outside in terms of booking and the general direction, just leaves me baffled.

WWE Extreme Rules 2009

Its seems like just the other day I was reviewing the last PPV effort from the WWE, Judgment Day. The sense of deja vu this time around wasn't helped by a card that featured so many rematches, but considering they weren't bad matches, I couldn't complain too much.

The opening contest was a four way match with new US champ Kofi Kingston defending his title against Hardy, Regal and MVP. Featuring some nice suplexes from Regal at the start, this was an perfectly okay match that did a good job in putting over the aerial abilities of Kingston, whose different style is a refreshing change from the usual WWE style.

Next up was a rematch for the Intercontinental Title which saw Chris Jericho once again challenge Rey Mysterio, this time under No Holds Barred Rules. This began with Jericho near the merch booth, walking through the crowd to the ring, cutting another awesome promo - the looks on some of the fans faces must have meant they has seen this and really belived Jericho was going to twat them.

The match was once again of a high standard and featured some excellent spots, notably a couple of counters where a frog splash was reversed into the codebreaker and Mysterio handspring vaulting over the steel steps before launching into Jericho. The former Y2J would go onto win by de masking Rey during an attemped 619, then picking up the pin. Hopefully WWE don't act like this means Mysterio is de masked forever because 1) that was pretty lame in WCW and 2) He has about 1000 other masks in his closet.

A Samoan Strap Match between CM Punk and Umaga was next on the card. Considering the limiting stipulations, this was a pretty good match. The strap itself was a bit rubbish, as it was too long and both guys were clearly trying to hide the fact you could easily have ran to all four corners and win the match in seconds. Secondly, the on screen graphic to explain the scores didn't really work as it was too small and too slow to update, rendering it useless. In the end the efforts of both wrestlers made it watchable, but it only served to prove wht strap matches aren't really a feature of WWE TV.

Up next was Christian vs Dreamer vs Swagger for the ECW title - Hardcore rules. Obviously this the WWE idea of a hardcore match, so that meant trash cans that look like they are made from foil. Like the gimmicks used, the match was mostly garbage, but the fact the this style of 'Hardcore' hasn't been since early 2000 meant that it was a fun match that got the crowd involved, which made the surprise winner by Dreamer all the more effective.

The Hogpen match between Vickie and Santina was 'improved' by the addition of Chavo but was still dire. Santina won. No one really cared.

Orton versus Batista inside a steel cage and fekt like their last match, but in fast forward. Surprisingly short, Orton's boring chinlock heavy offence was non-existent as instead Batista beat the crap out of him for 8 minutes and beat him for the title, Baffling.

Show versus Cena was a repeat of the snooze-fest last time out, except for the hilarious botched finish, After Cena had spent an eternity wrapping the Big Show's leg in the ropes for the STFU, his leg slipped out straight away leaving Michael Cole sticking right to the script screaming how Show was stuck in the ropes when he clearly wasn't. Classic Cole there.

The ladder match went on last to close the show. The build up painted this as being one of the classic matches for our time, it wasn't quite that good, but was stilla fine match. Best bump was Edge's fall off onto an inverted ladder that looked sick and the ending of a crucified Edge between a ladder, helpless to stop Hardy was a great visual.

Then, as Hardy celebrated and JR prepared for an interview in-ring, CM Punk arrived to cash in the Money In The Bank briefcase. He won, but not after a struggle from Hardy - Two GTS were needed, and the boos from the crowd hopefully mean a heel turn and more mike time for Punk in the future.

So once again the WWE delivered another good PPV this year, the only downside being this felt like just another PPV with a ladder match headlining, where previous Extreme Rules have felt like some special thanks to the gimmicks through the card. I personally would've like to have seen a falls count anyhwere match in the vein of Hardy/Umaga last year, or a table match between some tag teams, just to really set the card above the similar recent offerings.

WWE Judgment Day 2009

This years Judgment Day PPV was an enjoyable evening of wrestling but in the end only served to further highlight the differing fortunes of the Raw and Smackdown brands at the moment.

The night kicked off with Chicago's CM Punk taking on the Samoan Savage Umaga. It was a solid start to the evening's proceedings with a clearly motivated Punk having one of his better outings with a larger competitor in front of his home town crowd. In the end I felt Umaga beat Punk a little too easily especially with the storyline going in off Punk possibly planning to cash in the Money In The Bank briefcase later in the night.

Next up, Christian took on Jack Swagger in another match to add to their recent series of excellent contests. Whist not reaching the levels of their show-stealer from last month's Backlash PPV it was still a fine match and continued the storyline of Christian beating Swagger to the punch with moves taken right out of the Eddie Guerrero play book.

John Morrison and Shelton Benjamin wasted no time in cracking out the high-flying moves. Featuring plenty of innovative offence, the match was good but not without its flaws, mainly Morrison not really convincing as a face and me having the feeling throughout that I'd rather it was a tag match featuring Hass and The Miz.

Lame comedy segment time next - shockingly it wasn't as a bad we've come to expect, mainly because it actually had a point for a change as it allowed The Miz to continue to get some heat on John Cena until Santino interfered. The Italian then proceeded to knock out the routine that Chris Jericho was doing at the start of the decade and offered another sign that Morella's act is beginning to get stale. Santino needs to manage somebody sharpish, so the shedload of promo time he actually gets leads to something for a change.

Jericho and Mysterio had a fast-paced back and forth contest with the backstory of Jericho promising there will be no 619. In the end Mysterio would actually go on to pick up the win with the move in question - and in doing so gave one of his best showings in a while, plus he was actually allowed some offence for a change - instead of the usual tired routine of having the crap beat out of him for 15 mins before hitting his finishes out of nowhere.

Randy Orton is arguably the most interesting character in the WWE now, with an definite echo of Jake Roberts in his quiet and brooding intensity. Its just a shame it all goes tits up when he gets in the ring, his chin lock heavy offence taking the methodical approach too far by boring everyone to tears. This time out he was defending the WWE title against the recently returned Batista, but sadly this was more of the same.

Big Dave actually has better matches than people give him credit for, but with Batista blatantly still injured as a result the match was a slow and predictable fare. The highlight was the returning Ric Flair coming down at the end to beat up Legacy, meaning Rhodes & Dibiase have now progressed to getting beat up by actual wrestlers, retired or not.

The downward spiral continued with Cena versus Big Show. I cannot emphasise how terrible Big Show is - this snail paced effort shows he's right back into the rut he was in pre-Mayweather. Also, the FU on Big Show may still remain visually impressive, but Lawler and Cole selling it like its was miracle just minutes after we saw the Wrestlemania video of Cena FU'ing Show and Edge just highlights the stupidity of WWE at times.

After 2 poor matches Hardy vs Edge would decide whether this PPV was a success or not - thankfully, their match delivered. Like the rumble this featured surprise interference from Matt Hardy, but this time out it worked much more effectively than the rather nonsensical and disappointing (especially for those with their Christian signs) run-in from January. Where they actually go with result, seeing as the Hardys' are on different brands now I'm unsure, but a quality effort from both guys meant everyone was sent home happy as a result of another strong PPV offering from WWE

WWE One Night Stand 2008

The fourth annual One Night Stand PPV took place last night and was on the whole an enjoyable event with only the injury to Orton spoiling what will be one of the most consistent PPV cards of the year.

Kicking off was Hardy vs Umaga in a Falls Count Anywhere match and this one of the best WWE openers in recent years featuring plenty of cool spots from Hardy building to the big swanton bump as expected.

The Singapore Cane match featuring 5 former ECW champs put over Big Show strong and had a couple of unique sequences and counters, making it possibly the best ECW effort since its return - John Morrison continues to impress and deserves more outings on the big stage. Slightly off topic but Dreamers looks like he stole Disco Infernos' wardrobe with his white pants.

Cena vs JBL was better than previous outings and ended up a good WWE style brawl, though I'd quite like it if Foley and Bradshaw could swap places as both are struggling to adjust to their new roles - Foley's vignette for the stretcher match was excellent and added a nice MMA style authenticity to proceedings, showing his potential, yet he completely messed up the intro to it.

Up next was the Women's title match and the mat work delivered but the dynamic between Phoenix and Melina didn't click and Melina doesn't suit the face role and the crowd didn't buy into getting behind her.

Once again the storyline between Batista and Shawn Michaels was spoilt slightly by the introduction of Chris Jericho. Many others feuds would have benefited by the introduction of the Canadian, but the brillantly simple beef between the two has been diluted in making it a three-way issue.

The WWE Title match showed promise and Orton/HHH always delivers in ring, but Orton's injury cut short the match before it really got going. In storyline terms the the pair work better as heels and Trips as champion feels old and jaded already - which isn't a good sign.

In the main event were Edge & Undertaker once again - and once again they delivered. The suprise ending hopefully means a return to the American Bad Ass biker character which would suit his more realistic MMA based offense he has been using in recent months instead months of dodgy Undertaker spottings and Leslie Neilsen segments that we've seen before.