The past few days of WWE programming can best be described as a fuse being lit at the beginning of each show only to find that a tiny little firecracker is at the end. Small pop and curtains.
No Way Out (anyone else find the irony that it was on Father’s Day?)
World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sheamus vs Dolph Ziggler
This a good match but it wasn’t great. You know why? Because Ziggles was the only one putting any work into the match and he was superb but Sheamus fell short in my eyes. Maybe it had to do with Ziggles knowing that championship opportunities haven’t come his way very often and he’d better take advantage of this one whereas Sheamus phoned this in. And its because of that fact that Sheamus got more boo’s than he ever did as a heel because Ziggler put on a great show and deserved a better outcome.
Tuxedo Match: Santino vs Ricardo Rodriguez
Remember when I sang the praises of WWE for taking out Capitol Punishment and throwing No Way Out in its place just because it meant less hokey crap? I take it all back. I have no further comments.
Intercontinental Championship: Christian vs Cody Rhodes
This was basically my match of the night because, unlike Sheamus in the opening match, this had a great effort by both men and made it believable that it was actually a back-and-forth bout. I know I’ve spoken at great lengths about how much I want to see Cody get away from the mid-card belts and move up and at NWO, Cody showed why he’s ready. However, after that match, I’m willing to change my tune but only if we get a solid program between he and Christian because I believe WWE struck gold between these two.
Racially Divided Fatal 4-Way to Determine the #1 Contender for the Tag Team Championship: Team Puerto Rico vs Team Samoa vs Team African American vs Team Non-American Whites
I thought this was a solid effort to BEGIN repair the tag team division because I didn’t see much of a weakness in any of the tag teams (minus Rosa Mendes grasp on Spanish…Seriously, I think she said “My house is on fire” at one point). Of course, the highlight of the night belonged to Tyson Kidd’s involvement, namely him taking out everybody at once. In the end, AW jumped ship and betrayed Team Puerto Rico in favor of the awesome Titus O’Neil and bronze Cena. Pretty good match, although I am curious as to how this will play out and how long they expect R-Truth to recover or will we get super Kofi?
We get a promo for MitB. I wonder if Del Rio threatened to quit right after shooting that god-awful commercial.
Divas Championship: Layla vs Beth Phoenix
I didn’t really mind this match, it was pretty solid. The only thing I will make note of is Layla’s awkward pin where it seemed like she just didn’t know what to do with her hands and ended up groping Beth. Sure, it was an “accident” (I’d make that mistake so many times too).
Sin Cara vs Hunico
This match did a good job of letting one wrestler look really solid in the ring and that wrestler ended up being Hunico. He took control of the pace and really looked good in my eyes, whereas Sin Cara just looked awkward.
WWE Championship: CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan vs Kane
What can I say about this match? Going in, we knew already that Punk and Bryan would be golden against each other but the wildcard would be Kane and how he would fit in. My answer to all of that was that Kane fit in pretty perfectly because he brought in some of the power game to balance out the technical prowess of the other two gentleman. I really need to go back and rewatch this make because I, along with others I’m sure, just kept waiting for the moment that AJ would interfere and I thought that was the only thing that took away from this match. However, for the sake of the story, I knew that the interference was necessary so I didn’t quite mind having that in the back of my mind. And then she did come out and get knocked over and Punk picked up the win and AJ gave her little smile as she was carried off. This entire story line couldn’t be going anymore perfect right now thanks to the execution of everyone, especially AJ. Like I said last week, I’m glad Punk is hanging on to the belt because I believe he should be the one holding the championship by the time episode 1000 hits, seems to fit.
Ryback vs whatever
Ok, I was pretty alright with this whole thing 3 months ago, believing that something else would eventually happen other than just have him squash “local” wrestlers week after week. Boy, was I wrong.
Steel Cage Match: John Cena vs Big Show
As for the match itself, I was watching this at 2:45am and I was pissed because I knew I could’ve been sleeping rather than watching this hot garbage. Everything going on outside of the cage was far more interesting than everything in. Brodus comes out to Cena’s rescue because apparently super-Cena couldn’t handle Show anymore. Eventually other Cena loyalists come out only to get jobbed in the head (good job, Ryder for actually getting a PPV) and eventually Kofi actually manages to do some damage. Cena gets out of the cage first, Laurinaitis gets fired and then gently placed through a weak table. Wacky stuff.
Brief Raw Thoughts:
Hooray Mick Foley.
Hooray masked-AJ/Harley Quinn
Boo Lauper segment turning into a rib at Slater
Hooray Hot Rod’s shirt
Boo seeing the end of NWO all over again between Cena and Laurinaitis
That’s it for me, be sure to check out this week’s Classy Ring Attire podcast and remember to follow us on twitter @CRAttire and email us questions, thoughts, comments, hate mail at classyringattire@gmail.com
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris
The Answer: The Bubonic Plague, a horrible disease caused by being bitten by the infamous Bubon.
