All good things must come to an end and that includes wrestling feuds that have been going hot between wrestlers that want nothing but to destroy their enemies. The fans surely enjoy the back and forth promos along with all of the matches that come with the hatred, but sometimes things just need to find a stopping point. Something has to be proven and someone has to give in order for there to be a final decision. And it is when everything is laid out on the table, when all the stops are broken out, when all boundaries are crossed, when there’s only one thing to do…show No Mercy.
The Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon was the site to see a bunch of wrestlers that had nothing to lose and were going to put everything out there on October 5, 2008. The superstars from RAW, SmackDown, and ECW all had grudges to battle through and wanted to see them taken care of by putting all concern for their own bodies, and especially their opponents, out of their minds. Big Show and Undertaker had some differences that needed to be resolved and they were looking to slug it out and destroy one another for the victory. Rey Mysterio was in danger of losing his mask, his entire identity, if he were to lose to the big red machine Kane.
Other matches though held much more bad blood and would see some of it spill in order for the final say to be had. Batista and John Bradshaw Layfield were both eying the World Heavyweight Championship and were destined to battle it out to see who would compete for it. Mark Henry was looking to capture his ECW title back from Matt Hardy and wanted to demonstrate his world’s strongest abilities to do so. But it would be a ladder match for the World Heavyweight Title between two heated enemies that would see the least amount of mercy shown. Shawn Michaels knew the belt would only be an added bonus compared to the amount of damage and pain he wanted to inflict upon Chris Jericho.
~ ECW Championship Match: Matt Hardy (c) Vs. Mark Henry – Hardy is having his first big world title defense on a PPV and this time he’s facing off against the beast Mark Henry one on one. Even though Hardy isn’t as high-flying and agile as he once was since he’s bulked up a bit in recent years, he’s still much smaller and weaker then Henry who dominates every time he gets his hands on Hardy. The interaction between the two is quite good and makes for an entertaining match since it was kept rather short.
~ WWE Women’s Championship Match: Beth Phoenix (c) Vs. Candice Michelle – A couple injuries have taken any momentum that Candice Michelle had in the women’s division and flushed it right down the toilet. Sadly, it also seems to have taken her talent and gotten rid of it too. She used to be so much better then she appears to be in this match so let’s just chalk it up to being rusty. Really rusty. Phoenix dominates as always, but would be in much better matches against someone who can actually wrestle head to head with her.
~ If Rey Mysterio Loses, He Must Unmask: Rey Mysterio Vs. Kane – Has everyone forgotten what Rey looked like when he had his match off once before or did that “never happen?” Either way this turned out to be a very good match with Rey using his speed and agility to take down Kane and inflict punishment any way he could. But when Rey got caught and slowed down, Kane just destroys him and beats the ever-loving crap out of him. Except for the stupid non-finish to the match, things were going along quite swimmingly.
~ MVP Looking For A Challenge – This is an interesting and fun little segment that was apparently just to get MVP, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, Manu, Kofi Kingston, and CM Punk onto the PPV. Still it was a good way to kill some time.
~ Match For The #1 Contender To The World Heavyweight Championship: Batista Vs. John “Bradshaw” Layfield – Ok, maybe the less I see of Batista the better but this was just ridiculous. Him squashing JBL was just pointless and disrespectful.
~ Undertaker Vs. Big Show – So this match delivers exactly what fans should get when two huge beasts of men are facing off against one another. This match sees Big Show and Undertaker just beating the holy hell out of one another and it’s just damn fun too. They just go back and forth with power move after move delivering a brutal battle that ends quite unexpectedly.
~ WWE Championship Match: Triple H (c) Vs. Jeff Hardy – So one Hardy captured his first world title and the other was hoping his time had finally come. Hardy and Trips have great chemistry in the ring together and tell a wonderful story with their constant near falls and intense action. This match would be no different as the tension is there throughout with Hardy coming so close time and time again to scoring the upset win. These matches remind me of Shelton Benjamin versus Triple H years ago when Benjamin first got onto RAW. He kept getting just that close (holding fingers close to one another) to scoring the upset win and it kept the fans on the edge of their seats and hoping it would happen eventually. The same goes here and even though this wouldn’t be Jeff’s turn, I have a feeling it’s coming. And if that means more matches between the two of them like this then I’m all for it.
~ Ladder Match For The World Heavyweight Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Shawn Michaels – Speaking of multiple matches against one another, these two are set up here for another match together and the addition of a ladder makes the anticipation even greater. There are some seriously awesome spots here including one of my favorites which sees Jericho try and pin HBK down with the ladder only to have Michaels power up and push the ladder over sending Jericho crashing to the floor. They beat each other with the ladders, fly at one another from off the top of it, and even play tug-of-war with the belt at the peak of one of the ladders. These two could go at it on every PPV and I’d watch it wondering what they’d bring out next and I doubt they’d ever disappoint.
This series reminds me of the multiple matches HBK and Kurt Angle had years ago where every one was enjoyable and quite possibly got better as well. Jericho and Michaels just make their own selves look good in the ring and somehow make each other look even better. I have a feeling this may be their last match together for a long time, but they made it a damn good one to go out on.
The event is shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format and the WWE keeps up its good work on the DVD front as the production is just excellent. There isn’t a single blip or error or any pixilation whatsoever even with the pyro explosions.
The event is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and the goodness continues here with the commentary coming through the center speaker loud and clear. Any music, crowd noise, pyro, and in-ring noise surrounds the room through the other speakers.
SmackDown All-Star Kick Off: October 3, 2008: Triple H Vs. Matt Hardy Vs. Chris Jericho – This match was on the debut episode of SmackDown on MyNetworkTV, it’s new station. And what better way to celebrate a debut then to have a triple threat match with the three different champions. This is one of the better triple threat matches I’ve seen because they didn’t follow the old formula of one guy getting “knocked out” for a while and the other two battle it out until it happens to one of them, rinse, and repeat. I saw this match when it first aired back in October and not having to deal with the commercial breaks here make it even better then I first thought it was.
Eve Torres Interviews Big Show – Eve asks what it feels like to be the first person to knock out the Undertaker, and Show gets all serious in saying he wants the WWE Championship. This short interview runs forty-two seconds.
Trailers – Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia, The History Of The Intercontinental Championship, and Viva La Raza: The Legacy Of Eddie Guerrero
Not too shabby a PPV that saw a good Trips/Hardy match, a decent Taker/Show match, an alright ECW Title match, and an excellent main event ladder match. I’d call that pretty successful if half of the event delivers wouldn’t you? Those final three bouts just made the entire night after it severely slowed down with the Women’s Title and that awful Batista/JBL match. I don’t even see how those two found their way onto this PPV if that was all they had to give. Making this DVD even better is the great triple threat from SmackDown that kind of makes up for the crappy middle portion of the PPV itself. If you’re looking for a selling point here though, make it the Jericho/HBK ladder match because it is just downright awesome with great storytelling from both men and a lot of fantastic action.
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WWE Home Video presents No Mercy 2008. Featuring: Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Mark Henry, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Kane, MVP, Undertaker, Big Show, and many more. Running time: 180 minutes. Rating: PG. Released on DVD: November 4, 2008. Available at Amazon
