Wow, if you look at the previous page, then i got 83% of my predictions right and a 100% correct prediction for EXACTLY how the Belfast Brawl was going to turn out, lol.
Armageddon was overall, a half decent PPV. It didn't suck like a lot of people have said it did, but for me, it didn't exactly reak or awesomeness. Permit me to once again give the aG3Nt's 2 cents:
Vlad v Matt
See, now that was an example of how a heel can use mat game, and slow the pace right down without boring people to tears like Sly insists they should. Every other minute, good ol' Vlad was hammering away on Matt's arm with a different move and then going back to the key lock at a decent pace. I was also glad to see that apparently he has a new finisher. Oh, and Striker, if by any chance you ever read this, just because Vlad goes down while delivering the move, does not make it a combination of a spinebuster and a chokeslam, it's just a chokeslam.
Decent match overall, it clearly went over better then Vlad's PPV debut, but consistenlt having the ECW champion curtain jerking doesn't do him any favours, but then him running his mouth about smarks when he's the diet pepsi champ doesn't either. I honestly thought this may have been placed after the divas, and the Brawl and Punk/Mysterio but hey, there ya go
IC tournament finals:
Very disappointed that they didn't have the title match immediately afterward. Did they announce yet when it's actually going to be? Now i'm hoping it's going to be at the Rumble and not wasted on Raw. Now if you've read the 'Should WWE bother to rehire Mysterio?' thread recently, you may have noticed my comment that Rey is a burnt out Max Mini. Despite putting on a decent match with the straight edge snooze fest at the PPV, it didn't provide anything to make me think any differently about the guy. Let's replace Punk with say Koslov for example, because he's a technical guy like Punk, so they kinda have similar styles, and i bet it would have been slow, boring and typical. If Rey can put on an exciting match with a guy close to the 300lb mark, and can also do it WITHOUT doing himself an injury, THEN i'll eat my words. Decent match, could see the result from a lightyear away (and still can't believe that people ACTUALLY thought that someone other than Punk was going to win) would have preferred Regal/Punk but there's still a chance that'll be at the Rumble.
Now for some reason, we had an avalanche of promos and segments to follow. Finlay, asking Hornswoggle not to come with him to the ring, didn't really need to be done at all, but then Hornswoggle's whole character didn't need to be created at all so nevermind. We also had another godawful Jeff Hardy promo. (THAT IS WHY HE'LL MAKE A CRAP CHAMPION!!!!) HE always comes off as being such a wuss. Go cut yourself to your Taking Back Sunday albums ya emo nonse! (sorry, that's just how he comes across when he's doing those segments in my eyes) And to think you're now the champion with mic work like that. Then we had a God awful HBK/JBL segment that went on way too long. This was actually worse then Taker/Big Show at Unforgiven. Although you could see what was going to happen WAAAAAAYYYYYYY before it happened, at least something happened. If this was some bizarre attempt at turning HBK heel, then it didn't get over at all. Regardless of how creative this angle becomes or how it plays out, i think the majority of fans aren't even going to give it a chance purely because it involves JBL. Total waste of PPV time that could have featured a tag team title match or a US title match. 6 great athletes like Helms, Shelton, the Colons and TBK/Zeke don't make it on PPV so HBK and JBL can talk for 15 minutes. Well worth the price of admission. Then we get an Orton interview where the 2nd generation lispers do all the talking?!?!?! And was it me, or did Manu's little input make no sense.
"Randy isth going to exposthe Batisthta for the fraud that he isth"
What exactly is Batista trying to be Manu? Secondly wtf was Eve, a Smackdown interviewer talking to a Raw guy? Shouldn't Grisham have dashed to and from for that?
Next we have Finlay and Mark Henry, well read what i said about what was going to happen on the previous page of this thread and from where i was sitting that's what happened. I had no interest in this match, except to see if it was any better than the one at WM, and it wasn't. Mainly because the weapons were limited to Kendo sticks and trash cans and then a shilleleigh. No tables? No chairs? Yawn!
Then, oh great, more talk! Divas around an Xmas tree, whoopee! Then it started getting better once the Milan Miracle and the Glamazon showed up and then quickly plummeted back down to suckville once the Boogeyman appeared and got nobody, quickly followed by Goldust. Is he the new Ron Simmons or something? Then others start cropping up, like Mike Chioda. Get outta there Chioda, you actually have proper work to do, unlike this group of nobodies.
AND THAT'S FOLLOWED BY KENNEDY PLUGGING HIS MOVIE AGAIN!!!!! Ken, i already want to watch it ok, don't let them turn you into the new Cena by blabbing on about yourself every opportunity you get, please?
Finally, we get a match that people actually want to watch. Orton v Batista:
Now, the DQ inconsistancies cropped up again here, because there's plenty of times when guys simply look at chairs and get DQ'd. Here Manu and Cody were giving a priceless beat down to Boretista and the ref just told them to go away? Don't get me wrong, i'd have hated it if the match had ended there, but it just makes the way WWE is supposed to work look stupid. Anyway, decent match, again Orton did well with the slowing down the pace without boring people to tears, but uh, he kinda ruined the illusion a couple of times while applying that neck vise because it was pretty obvious he was giving Batista instructions. Not as blatant as the last time Chavo was allowed to wrestle on PPV where he blatently said 'he's coming off the turnbuckle' during the ECW scramble, but obvious nonetheless. Wanted an RKO at least, and i personally wanted to see Batista's head get punted into the 11th row, but had to wait for Raw for that. Good match, though not quite as good as i expected.
Divas match.
Why did Maryse not have any shoes on? And i still don't get how the faces gained a former champion and the heels got Jillian. Makes, little to no sense at all. Way to further the McCool/Maria fued though.......... a blind tag....... ingenious.
And then more crap, except this crap was revolting as well. I'm not a khali fan, but i feel sorry for the guy being turned into a joke.
Cena v Jericho WHC match
Again, a solid match which had a totally different approach than SSeries i felt. The build up to this match wasn't that great though i felt, but hey it's been wonderful to not hear 'Cena's coming back' every 10 minutes like last month. Especially like Jericho flipping out of the FU to hit the Codebreaker. He should however have lasted a wee bit longer in the STFU imo
Triple Threat for the WWE title:
(Sigh) So he finally won the title. Congratulations on finally winning the big one Jeff, wake me up when you lose it. This triple threat match didn't seem that great to me for some reason. It's probably because the majority of it saw HHH surviving everything up until the time for him to hit the Pedigree and then he had to start all over again. Plus Jeff's recovery after getting speared through the table was far too quick. Benoit didn't get up that quickly after being double suplexed through a table, but Jeff Hardy can take a finisher through one now and be up again in under a minute?...... Oh but wait, there never was a guy called Chris Benoit who won the WHC at WM20 was there? Randy Orton became the youngest champ in history by beating.... nobody! so i guess it doesn't matter (although to me, it does). The finish was weird imo. Hardy didn't even touch HHH when he delivered the Swanton, yet HHH went flying out of the ring? Is the mat that springy then? Good to see Koslov getting involved, and Matt i guess (though i still think he's gonna turn around and say "I smacked Jeff in the head" and turn heel) but i didn't appreciate the ending.
I'm not a Hardy hater, i simply don't care about the guy one way or another. Good for him he won the title, but i think it would have benfitted him more if he'd won at WM, and for some reason a lot of Hardy marks thinks that's a stupid idea. Why wouldn't you want your favourite to win on the grandest stage of them all? Their equivalent to the Superbowl. Why would you settle for him winnin it at insignificant Armageddon? We all knew he'd win it eventually, couldn't you wait a little longer? He's BOUND to lose it before Mania. Bound to.
Anyway, this was a decent PPV for something i didn't pay for. It was predictable and there was a LOT of time wasting shit which only furthers my argument that WWE is too much talk and not enough WRESTLING, but the matches (with the exception of the divas and the Brawl) were all very well done i thought. If we'd had a swerve, or at least some kind of continuation with the Taker/Show fued (or has that finished now? I've no idea, since their cage match not a word's been said about it) it probably would have been far better, and it DEFINITELY would have been better if we'd had some fresh faces on PPV but never mind. On to the Rumble........
