WWE – No Mercy 2007 – DVD Review

Reviews, Wrestling DVDs

Available at Amazon.com

Featuring:

Randy Orton
Batista
CM Punk
Triple H
Umaga
Mr. Kennedy Kennedy
Jeff Hardy
Mr. McMahon
William Regal
Rey Mysterio
Finlay
Great Khali

DVD Release Date: November 6, 2007
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 180 Minutes

The Event

On October 7, 2007, the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois presented WWE’s live pay-per-view (PPV) No Mercy. The theme of the PPV is for feuds to come to conclusions and the winners emerging victorious by showing “no mercy” to their opponents. It is an excuse for sheer brutality to be used in order for feuds to end and new battles to begin. But this year was going to be a bit different as certain events had altered the WWE’s plans for the future.

John Cena had been the WWE Champion on RAW for a very long time and suffered a horrible injury that would keep him out of action for months. The injury required surgery and would actually hold him out of the ring for six months to a year. WWE’s main show can’t possibly go on without a champion so one would need to be crowned, and it didn’t happen in a method that many would consider to be necessarily fair. Even though Cena was not always one of my personal favorites, he worked hard for the title and the levels of achievement he had reached. To see your hard work to then simply get handed to the next guy has to be discouraging.

The past couple years, No Mercy has showcased matches that were simply included to end some long-running feuds. It isn’t a PPV that uses a lot of gimmicks or does some wild things in order to promote itself to the fans. Still, there is usually always one big gimmick match on each card in order to keep things fresh. There have been Fatal Four-Ways, a Casket Match, and even a Last Ride Match. 2007 brought about a match that really should never have been seen again, the Punjabi Prison Match.

All the stars of Raw, Smackdown, and ECW were on hand for the PPV and represented their brands as only they know how, showing no mercy. This event just goes to show you though how unpredictable sports can be. If an injury occurs in the NFL or NBA, another player must step up and pick up the slack so the team can continue on its path to winning more games. An injury occurs in the wrestling world and everything is turned upside-down. Not only must someone new step up, but now they need someone to be pitted against. Call it scripted if you like, but it’s still extremely unpredictable.

~ Mr. McMahon Presents The WWE Championship To Randy Orton – William Regal and Mr. McMahon head down to the ring and certainly aren’t aiming to please the crowd. McMahon explains the situation with John Cena being injured and therefore being stripped of his title. McMahon then calls out the new champion and presents the belt to Randy Orton. Orton has the distinction of being the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in history and now had gotten his first WWE Championship. Orton was required to defend his new title against an opponent of his choice, but Triple H wanted to influence his decision a little bit.

~ WWE Championship Match: Randy Orton (c) Vs. Triple H – It has been quite some time since the former members of Evolution had been pitted against one another, but they still worked nicely together in the ring. Triple H has been incredibly over with the fans since returning from his injury back at Summerslam and the hatred spewing forth at Randy Orton made this a traditional face/heel match-up. Not even listed on the card as of the day before, but now a title match; Orton and Trips didn’t disappoint.

~ 6 Man Tag-Team Match: Jeff Hardy, Paul London, & Brian Kendrick Vs. Mr. Kennedy, Lance Cade, & Trevor Murdoch – Throwing together a couple feuds into one match has been a long-running staple of the WWE to get more names on each show and it worked well here. The fast-moving high fliers of Hardy and the Hooliganz face off nicely against the strength and force of the Rednecks and Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy has become one of my favorite talents and really knew how to throw the heat on the Bears’ fans as his beloved Packers were undefeated at the time. A lot of quickly paced action highlights this match and although it isn’t very long, it’s rather enjoyable.

~ Batista Congratulates Triple H After His Match – Another former Evolution member comes out of the woodwork as Batista congratulates Trips and Trips wishes big Dave some luck.

~ ECW Championship Match: CM Punk (c) Vs. Big Daddy V – The ECW roster has really grown thin and the recent “talent-sharing” agreement with Smackdown helps immensely. So that brings us here to a match that was supposed to be ECW Original Tommy Dreamer challenging for title after winning an Extreme Elimination Challenge over recent weeks. The massive Big Daddy V though stepped in to face the hometown boy CM Punk making this a battle of David versus Goliath. It was a decent back and forth match for the all of two minutes that it lasted. A serious waste of time here.

~ Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Competitive Eating Contest: MVP Vs. Matt Hardy – A long recap shows the feud between MVP and Matt Hardy spanning some couple months even into their winning the tag-team titles together. This was a complete waste of time though as it was nothing more then ten minutes of pointlessness.

~ WWE Championship Match: Triple H (c) Vs. Umaga – Trips had his second match of the night and knew about this match leading into the event. The Samoan bulldozer and Triple H are no strangers to one another as Umaga has demolished his way up to the main event scene in the past two years in a big way. Umaga is another of my more recent favorite talents and I feel it is only a matter of time before he’s the top heel on RAW. Not a bad match, but way too short to be much of anything.

~ Great Khali Pre-match Meditation – At least when he’s meditating, he doesn’t speak. Bonus.

~ Rey Mysterio Vs. Finlay – Rey Mysterio comes out in a very freakish mask reminiscent of a certain group or “clan,” if you will. Finlay may not be the biggest guy in the world but he is the poster child for sheer brutality. He’s slower then Mysterio of course, but when Finlay got his hands on the 619 superstar, his power was evident. Mysterio’s speed and agility were his two main weapons against the big Irishman and used them to his advantage. Another bad ending to a match though took away from the overall quality of it.

~ Triple H Getting Looked At In The Trainer’s Room – Triple H has some bumps and bruises which is understandable considering he has already had two matches this evening. Mr. McMahon makes it a point though to come in and let him know that Randy Orton is invoking his title rematch clause and it’ll be a Last Man Standing Match.

~ WWE Women’s Championship Match: Candice Michelle (c) Vs. Beth Phoenix – I’m not one to spoil matches for you loyal readers even though this event has already passed, but let me say that I couldn’t be happier with the result of this match. Sure Candice Michelle has gotten better in the ring in past months but it was due time to get the belt off of her. Beth Phoenix is a real wrestler that is also very beautiful and not trying to be simply a pretty face that just learned how to wrestle. Brute force will usually prevail over daintiness.

~ Punjabi Prison Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Batista (c) Vs. Great Khali – If you’ve never seen this type of match before, let me explain it to you. One bamboo cage immediately surrounds the ring while a larger one surrounds the ringside area. Virtually it’s a cage match and hell in a cell match combined into one and you win by escaping both cages. Escape being the only form of victory is the good thing about this type of match that regular cage matches have seemingly forgotten about over the years. Everything else is bad.

Khali once again proves that he is just too damn big and slow for this type of match. Watching him try and scale the walls and climb over the top is grueling. It is intended to be very brutal and graphic, but it’s far from either of them. Too many rules does not a good match make. For evidence of that, check out any PPV from that other wrestling company. The match is just boring and rather frustrating to watch as well because it’s kind of hard to see through all the stalks of bamboo.

~ Todd Grisham Interviews Triple H – Triple H threatens Randy Orton. Meh.

~ Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Championship: Triple H (c) vs. Randy Orton – As much as I like Triple H, three matches in one night is just too much to see any wrestler. Two of the same matches in one night with only a stipulation added is way too much. Had I paid money to go to this event, my mood would not have been good come the end of the evening. This match was better then their first contest of the evening and it proved the unpredictability factor that can still roll through the circles of professional wrestling. Perhaps it is only my opinion but Last Man Standing Matches are never too interesting. The long time wasted of one wrestler standing around while the other is repeatedly counted out (almost always to eight or nine) just takes forever. All momentum is taken away and the match drags. That remains true here.

The Video

The event is shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format and the WWE continues the streak of good production value. For a live event, the transfer to DVD is really good and for the first time ever I saw no instances of pixilation or any problems during pyro.

The Audio

The event is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and comes through nicely except again the surround sound is rather pointless. Except for the entrance themes, pyro, and occasional crowd noise, it’s never used. Still all sounds well.

Special Features

John Cena Surgery Package – A very short minute and a half featurette showing Orton beating down Cena on RAW “leading” to the injury. Dr. James Andrews is then shown performing surgery on Cena’s arm and talking about how he’s ready to get it fixed up.

Batista Interview After The Punjabi Prison Match for the World Heavyweight Championship – This is an extremely short interview in which Batista looks like he just came from watching television more so then being in a match.

RAW 10/08/07: Mr. McMahon Congratulates Randy Orton on His WWE Championship – The night after No Mercy had the main event of RAW showcasing the entire roster congratulating Randy Orton as being the new champ. With Triple H out of commission, but being ordered by Mr. McMahon to be the first to shake Orton’s hand; a returning Shawn Michaels returned to avenge his DX partner and pay back Orton for almost ending his career.

TrailersJohn Cena: My Life, Shawn Michaels: Heartbreak & Triumph, and Rey Mysterio: The Biggest Little Man

The Inside Pulse

This event started out with a huge bang in Triple H coming out to challenge the new champion Randy Orton. John Cena’s injury called for a lot of things to change that looked to be making things very interesting. Next up was a surprise six man tag-team match that included some of the bets up and coming stars from RAW. After that, things started to slowly roll downhill and then it simply picked up speed along the way. Some of the matches got extremely dull, and those that were enjoyable had horrible finishes to them or were simply too short. On paper this entire card looked good (except for the Punjabi Prison Match), but it failed to deliver. The special features don’t add much either as they barely add up to ten minutes combined. No Mercy is not always one of the better PPVs, but it could be. But with Cyber Sunday coming up almost immediately and then Survivor Series right around the corner, there’s no need to worry about this one.







The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for WWE No Mercy 2007
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE EVENT
4.5
THE VIDEO
9
THE AUDIO
8
THE EXTRAS
3
REPLAY VALUE
4
OVERALL
4
(NOT AN AVERAGE)

Available at Amazon.com

Featuring:

Randy Orton
Batista
CM Punk
Triple H
Umaga
Mr. Kennedy Kennedy
Jeff Hardy
Mr. McMahon
William Regal
Rey Mysterio
Finlay
Great Khali

DVD Release Date: November 6, 2007
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 180 Minutes

The Event

On October 7, 2007, the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois presented WWE’s live pay-per-view (PPV) No Mercy. The theme of the PPV is for feuds to come to conclusions and the winners emerging victorious by showing “no mercy” to their opponents. It is an excuse for sheer brutality to be used in order for feuds to end and new battles to begin. But this year was going to be a bit different as certain events had altered the WWE’s plans for the future.

John Cena had been the WWE Champion on RAW for a very long time and suffered a horrible injury that would keep him out of action for months. The injury required surgery and would actually hold him out of the ring for six months to a year. WWE’s main show can’t possibly go on without a champion so one would need to be crowned, and it didn’t happen in a method that many would consider to be necessarily fair. Even though Cena was not always one of my personal favorites, he worked hard for the title and the levels of achievement he had reached. To see your hard work to then simply get handed to the next guy has to be discouraging.

The past couple years, No Mercy has showcased matches that were simply included to end some long-running feuds. It isn’t a PPV that uses a lot of gimmicks or does some wild things in order to promote itself to the fans. Still, there is usually always one big gimmick match on each card in order to keep things fresh. There have been Fatal Four-Ways, a Casket Match, and even a Last Ride Match. 2007 brought about a match that really should never have been seen again, the Punjabi Prison Match.

All the stars of Raw, Smackdown, and ECW were on hand for the PPV and represented their brands as only they know how, showing no mercy. This event just goes to show you though how unpredictable sports can be. If an injury occurs in the NFL or NBA, another player must step up and pick up the slack so the team can continue on its path to winning more games. An injury occurs in the wrestling world and everything is turned upside-down. Not only must someone new step up, but now they need someone to be pitted against. Call it scripted if you like, but it’s still extremely unpredictable.

~ Mr. McMahon Presents The WWE Championship To Randy Orton – William Regal and Mr. McMahon head down to the ring and certainly aren’t aiming to please the crowd. McMahon explains the situation with John Cena being injured and therefore being stripped of his title. McMahon then calls out the new champion and presents the belt to Randy Orton. Orton has the distinction of being the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in history and now had gotten his first WWE Championship. Orton was required to defend his new title against an opponent of his choice, but Triple H wanted to influence his decision a little bit.

~ WWE Championship Match: Randy Orton (c) Vs. Triple H – It has been quite some time since the former members of Evolution had been pitted against one another, but they still worked nicely together in the ring. Triple H has been incredibly over with the fans since returning from his injury back at Summerslam and the hatred spewing forth at Randy Orton made this a traditional face/heel match-up. Not even listed on the card as of the day before, but now a title match; Orton and Trips didn’t disappoint.

~ 6 Man Tag-Team Match: Jeff Hardy, Paul London, & Brian Kendrick Vs. Mr. Kennedy, Lance Cade, & Trevor Murdoch – Throwing together a couple feuds into one match has been a long-running staple of the WWE to get more names on each show and it worked well here. The fast-moving high fliers of Hardy and the Hooliganz face off nicely against the strength and force of the Rednecks and Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy has become one of my favorite talents and really knew how to throw the heat on the Bears’ fans as his beloved Packers were undefeated at the time. A lot of quickly paced action highlights this match and although it isn’t very long, it’s rather enjoyable.

~ Batista Congratulates Triple H After His Match – Another former Evolution member comes out of the woodwork as Batista congratulates Trips and Trips wishes big Dave some luck.

~ ECW Championship Match: CM Punk (c) Vs. Big Daddy V – The ECW roster has really grown thin and the recent “talent-sharing” agreement with Smackdown helps immensely. So that brings us here to a match that was supposed to be ECW Original Tommy Dreamer challenging for title after winning an Extreme Elimination Challenge over recent weeks. The massive Big Daddy V though stepped in to face the hometown boy CM Punk making this a battle of David versus Goliath. It was a decent back and forth match for the all of two minutes that it lasted. A serious waste of time here.

~ Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Competitive Eating Contest: MVP Vs. Matt Hardy – A long recap shows the feud between MVP and Matt Hardy spanning some couple months even into their winning the tag-team titles together. This was a complete waste of time though as it was nothing more then ten minutes of pointlessness.

~ WWE Championship Match: Triple H (c) Vs. Umaga – Trips had his second match of the night and knew about this match leading into the event. The Samoan bulldozer and Triple H are no strangers to one another as Umaga has demolished his way up to the main event scene in the past two years in a big way. Umaga is another of my more recent favorite talents and I feel it is only a matter of time before he’s the top heel on RAW. Not a bad match, but way too short to be much of anything.

~ Great Khali Pre-match Meditation – At least when he’s meditating, he doesn’t speak. Bonus.

~ Rey Mysterio Vs. Finlay – Rey Mysterio comes out in a very freakish mask reminiscent of a certain group or “clan,” if you will. Finlay may not be the biggest guy in the world but he is the poster child for sheer brutality. He’s slower then Mysterio of course, but when Finlay got his hands on the 619 superstar, his power was evident. Mysterio’s speed and agility were his two main weapons against the big Irishman and used them to his advantage. Another bad ending to a match though took away from the overall quality of it.

~ Triple H Getting Looked At In The Trainer’s Room – Triple H has some bumps and bruises which is understandable considering he has already had two matches this evening. Mr. McMahon makes it a point though to come in and let him know that Randy Orton is invoking his title rematch clause and it’ll be a Last Man Standing Match.

~ WWE Women’s Championship Match: Candice Michelle (c) Vs. Beth Phoenix – I’m not one to spoil matches for you loyal readers even though this event has already passed, but let me say that I couldn’t be happier with the result of this match. Sure Candice Michelle has gotten better in the ring in past months but it was due time to get the belt off of her. Beth Phoenix is a real wrestler that is also very beautiful and not trying to be simply a pretty face that just learned how to wrestle. Brute force will usually prevail over daintiness.

~ Punjabi Prison Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Batista (c) Vs. Great Khali – If you’ve never seen this type of match before, let me explain it to you. One bamboo cage immediately surrounds the ring while a larger one surrounds the ringside area. Virtually it’s a cage match and hell in a cell match combined into one and you win by escaping both cages. Escape being the only form of victory is the good thing about this type of match that regular cage matches have seemingly forgotten about over the years. Everything else is bad.

Khali once again proves that he is just too damn big and slow for this type of match. Watching him try and scale the walls and climb over the top is grueling. It is intended to be very brutal and graphic, but it’s far from either of them. Too many rules does not a good match make. For evidence of that, check out any PPV from that other wrestling company. The match is just boring and rather frustrating to watch as well because it’s kind of hard to see through all the stalks of bamboo.

~ Todd Grisham Interviews Triple H – Triple H threatens Randy Orton. Meh.

~ Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Championship: Triple H (c) vs. Randy Orton – As much as I like Triple H, three matches in one night is just too much to see any wrestler. Two of the same matches in one night with only a stipulation added is way too much. Had I paid money to go to this event, my mood would not have been good come the end of the evening. This match was better then their first contest of the evening and it proved the unpredictability factor that can still roll through the circles of professional wrestling. Perhaps it is only my opinion but Last Man Standing Matches are never too interesting. The long time wasted of one wrestler standing around while the other is repeatedly counted out (almost always to eight or nine) just takes forever. All momentum is taken away and the match drags. That remains true here.

The Video

The event is shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format and the WWE continues the streak of good production value. For a live event, the transfer to DVD is really good and for the first time ever I saw no instances of pixilation or any problems during pyro.

The Audio

The event is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and comes through nicely except again the surround sound is rather pointless. Except for the entrance themes, pyro, and occasional crowd noise, it’s never used. Still all sounds well.

Special Features

John Cena Surgery Package – A very short minute and a half featurette showing Orton beating down Cena on RAW “leading” to the injury. Dr. James Andrews is then shown performing surgery on Cena’s arm and talking about how he’s ready to get it fixed up.

Batista Interview After The Punjabi Prison Match for the World Heavyweight Championship – This is an extremely short interview in which Batista looks like he just came from watching television more so then being in a match.

RAW 10/08/07: Mr. McMahon Congratulates Randy Orton on His WWE Championship – The night after No Mercy had the main event of RAW showcasing the entire roster congratulating Randy Orton as being the new champ. With Triple H out of commission, but being ordered by Mr. McMahon to be the first to shake Orton’s hand; a returning Shawn Michaels returned to avenge his DX partner and pay back Orton for almost ending his career.

TrailersJohn Cena: My Life, Shawn Michaels: Heartbreak & Triumph, and Rey Mysterio: The Biggest Little Man

The Inside Pulse

This event started out with a huge bang in Triple H coming out to challenge the new champion Randy Orton. John Cena’s injury called for a lot of things to change that looked to be making things very interesting. Next up was a surprise six man tag-team match that included some of the bets up and coming stars from RAW. After that, things started to slowly roll downhill and then it simply picked up speed along the way. Some of the matches got extremely dull, and those that were enjoyable had horrible finishes to them or were simply too short. On paper this entire card looked good (except for the Punjabi Prison Match), but it failed to deliver. The special features don’t add much either as they barely add up to ten minutes combined. No Mercy is not always one of the better PPVs, but it could be. But with Cyber Sunday coming up almost immediately and then Survivor Series right around the corner, there’s no need to worry about this one.

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for WWE No Mercy 2007
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE EVENT

4.5
THE VIDEO

9
THE AUDIO

8
THE EXTRAS

3
REPLAY VALUE

4
OVERALL
4
(NOT AN AVERAGE)