Bragging Rights Live Report

*Special thanks to reader Harry B for sending in this report.

I’m Harry, and I was live in Pittsburgh at the Mellon Arena for Bragging Rights. Some live news, views, and thoughts for you all.

*By the time the PPV went live, the building was packed. The lines outside of the Mellon were incredible. Luckily, I got to hang with a couple people I already knew, so it made the time fly by a lot quicker.

*Coming at you from fifth row ringside, left side of the stage.

*Pre PPV match: Christian retains the ECW title, pinning Paul Burchill with the Killswitch. A lot of Peeps in the building, as Christian got one of the louder pops on the evening, despite being the dark match. It’s been said before, but it bears repeating. Katie Lea is beautiful. WWE really needs to do more with her, but not only is she pretty, she’s one of the better workers they have on the roster.

*X-Box 360 commercial for the fans in the arena with Mickie and Michelle. Pretty good actually.

*PPV goes live with video package and then the PYRO! Oh my god, the pyro. Loudest thing I have ever heard live, and I’ve seen F-16’s flying before. The smell from the pyro is awful, though.

*Miz defeats Morrison with a cover following pulling Morrison’s legs out on an attempt at “Starship Pain”. A lot of Miz-fits in the crowd. I mean, he got booed quite a bit too but for a guy from Cleveland, he was received pretty well. Obviously, Morrison was over with the crowd. And the two of them worked a very good match, including getting to see Morrison’s standing SSP live for the first time. He hits that way cleaner then Kidman ever did. Morrison’s “Flying Chuck” got a huge pop as well.

*Michelle, Natalya and Beth def. Melina, Gail and Kelly Squared, when Beth pins Melina with the Glam Slam. Something that surprised me. Natalya is a lot better looking in person. TV does not do that woman justice. Also, Kelly Kelly’s outfit was definitely one that had to be saved for a PPV. Pretty decent tag match for the time it got, and hopefully Beth picking up the falls means they may actually do something with her on SD. I think Michelle and Beth could be interesting for Survivor Series. Smackdown ties things up at 1 match each.

*Undertaker retains in the four way, pinning Batista with a Tombstone. Batista, Rey, and Punk all got mixed reactions when they came out. As a CM Punk fan, I was on my feet for him. Batista got almost a Cena-ish response. It was cheers from the kids and the women, but most of the men were booing him. Rey was especially. I have been a wrestling fan for almost 20 years, and to this day, there is nothing like the Undertaker’s entrance. Yes it’s long, but spine chilling to get to see it live for the first time. As for the match itself, tons of action. Way more then I was expecting, especially with Taker nursing a bum hip. Huge pop for Taker’s win as well. And the closing with Batista basically throwing Mysterio at Punk on the floor was very well done.

*Post match, the long rumored Dave turned happened and it went over pretty well. I thought that Dave had some pretty good mike work leading to it, and the fans definitely bought it as if he were truly wanting to kick Rey’s ass for costing him the title.

*7 on 7 tag, won by Team Smackdown (who captures the cup) when Jericho pins Kofi following a Big Show chokeslam. I think a lot of people fully expected what happened to happen. I was with my friend, and before the match started I turned to her and said “SD wins when Big Show turns”. With Jericho and Show being the tag champs, it made no sense to keep them at odds with each other. We’ve seen enough of the tag champs that don’t like each other storyline. Action fulled tag match, and better then what was expected. The Hart Dynasty impressed me the most. That springboard Hart Attack they did was a thing of beauty. Jericho’s my favorite wrestler, so him getting the pin made it that much more special.

*The celebration by SD post match was pretty funny with them passing the trophy around like they were the Penguins having just won another Stanley Cup.

*Cena-Orton: Cena wins and gets Raw title, 6 falls to 5. Way better then what most people expected, but I think the stipulations helped them get that to work. The No DQ and Falls Count Anywhere definitely allowed them to do more then they would have been able to had they had the rules of Michaels and Bret from Mania 12. The RKO counter to the Attitude Adjustment may have been of the coolest spots I have seen all year. Also the super F-U was very impressive as well. Legacy coming in then makes sense, and of all people to run them off, it’s Kofi. He may not be announced from Jamaica anymore, but he was running after Legacy like he was Asafa Powell. The gimmicked spots with Orton messing with the pyro on the stage was cool visually but didn’t make a whole lot of sense. The sounds they made were pretty loud. Orton tapping out with five or six seconds left in the match made a lot of people mad. Most people thought for sure that sudden death overtime was forth coming. Give both guys credit. It was way better then it truly had any right to be. Kinda funny moment. When they did the F-U off the steps through the announce table, someone at ringside accidentally (I’d guess) spilled his beer on King’s chair, and Lawler had to stand for the rest of the match. Sorta funny.

OVERALL: Probably the best live show I have ever been to. The action was hot for most of the show, and most of the segments they showed to the crowd were either really funny, or made sense in terms of the show. Really hot crowd helped as well, as we were into most of the show. Personally, I believe that the guys in the ring have better matches when we’re into what they are doing. Definitely recommend getting the DVD or the replay if you didn’t see the show.

Harry Broadhurst.