Quickie Summer Slam thoughts

Orlando Jordan Vs Chris Benoit

So did Stephanie look at the booking sheet this afternoon and realized “Oh fuck! That Benoit guy has a match? I need more time for my soap operas. I got an idea, people like benoit don’t they? Have him beat Orlando James in 25 seconds and they will love me!”

It wasn’t even a squash. It was just Blink and over. It didn’t really make Benoit look lethal but more like Jordan was a complete pussy.

Benoit was too excited for winning a 25 second match, He should have simply taken the title, snot rocketed Jordan and left the ring like the warrior he is.

*

Matt Hardy Vs Edge

Kudos for the effort of creating the shoot like atmosphere. However that’s about the only upside the “match” had. Matt did an average blade job and thus was enough to call the match off and yet Hogan bled buckets later that night…nothing.

It was obvious they would blow this gold mine angle but I didn’t know it would be this bad. Matt must really be greedy because he sold out to be a bitch.

Lita, as a side note, was really nice looking tonight.

*¼

Ladder Match

Eddy Vs Rey

Remember ten years ago, they had a Ladder match at this event. I remember being SO excited for that match. Now Ladder matches are like NO DQ matches. This was your typical rey/eddy WWE match tossed in with a couple nice but nothing completely mind blowing in terms of spots. They clearly botched a few spots again, which is a growing habit for these two. Mania was fine with the potential of nerves and rey’s mask but here it shouldn’t been an issue.

Overall the match was an overbooked mess that offered a few nice little moments but nothing memorable, aside from Rey backdropping eddy off the ladder and the ladder giving way and rey collapsing through it. ..something Im guessing wasn’t planned.

The usual “Im climbing…really slow” disease attacked Eddy here. Horrible finish to boot. Vicky looked her best ever tonight which still isn’t much but Rey’s wife wasn’t all that bad looking.

**½

Kurt Angle Vs Eugene

Very effective here. Angle/Cena is set for Unforgiven and Angle was VERY strongly booked here. Took Eugene out and quickly as he should have. Eugene is dying an rapid death…

*½

Undertaker Vs Randy Orton

A decent match here, that in time I’ll decide if it was better/worst then Mania but I thought it was pretty enjoyable for what it was. Orton took some nifty bumps here and they do work well together.

**¾

Jericho Vs Cena

Well guess it wasn’t just Canada that doesn’t like Cena. The revolt is slowing arriving against Cena and Jericho was very over tonight but WWE won’t take notice of that. Jericho is gone now, off to spend time with Fozzy, as he should. Because he would be spinning his wheels on Raw. Hopefully he can return with a spark next time. He hasn’t taking any significant time off since he arrived, he was dreadfully stale. He needs the vacation.

The match was the best Jericho was going to get out of Cena without resorting to carnal violence and blood. All in all a good match here that wasn’t special.

***

JBL Vs Batista

Once again, Batista comes off flat, sure he was super over thanks to the hometown crowd but the match was just flat and for a match with these stipulations, it was fairly tame.

*¾

Hulk Hogan Vs Shawn Michaels

The crowd was soundly behind Hogan here. Shawn was great here in over-selling everything so dramatically. He was clearly making a HUGE effort here to make this special. It wasn’t remotely near Rock/Hogan and I doubt anyone expected it to be. Hogan did a fine blade job, a departure of sorts to see Shawn bust someone up and remain juice free. The match had a weak finish and the shitty conclusion to this storyline was pure bullshit

Back to Holy Bible Kid it seems.

The freshest breath of air for Raw in months already snuffed out.

***¼

WWE is so stale right now, the wrestling is ahead of 2002 (first half at least) on Raw but the interest I have is clearly dying out.

Ring of Honor is producing an amazing string of shows that are true to what wrestling is and WWE is producing this, for every $35 bucks I drop on WWE, I drop $65 bucks for ROH.