My thoughts on Cyber Sunday.
Quick summary: very glad I got to watch it for free on Sky and didn't have to pay for it.
Kane Versus ???: Was rather surprised with the result here actually, I saw this match as a booking error right from the start and was sure no one would vote Kane as its been done to death but there we go. Was hoping for either Benoit winning to break the streak (unlikely) or Sandman to beat up on Umaga then lose. Kane seemed to lose almost out of nowhere when he had Umaga down and seemingly out for the count, but there you go. Fairly uninteresting! Loss of Kane credibility after the good show put on by BoD at Smackdown.
Tag Team Match: Was kind of hoping for a Highlander or Murdoch win, I can see a big Cryme Tyme push coming and really enjoy watching them, but feel it's a bit too soon. But nevertheless, in what was by far too short a match (and one where the stipulation was truly crap; texas tornado with 8 men....its just asking to be sloppy and slow pace). I found it fairly dull with the exception of a couple of nice double teams from the various pairs. Vis n Haas seemed to be just making up the numbers!
IC Match: Enjoyed this a lot, voted for Benjamin as I reckon he's the best of the three on offer; but Carlito put on a good show and I liked the way there was a clear progression of the match with Carlito playing it safe then getting riskier and riskier before Hardy put him away. The two swantons looked particularly stiff which was nice and the whisper in the wind was pulled off well, more than compensating for a couple of under performed spots previously (the running along the safety barrier looked awful!). Just a shame he lost the title the next day to a guy who got 13% of fan vote and clearly isnt wanted to hold the title. Pfft!
DX Vs Rated RKO: Thank god DX lost. Its about time!!! Would have been better with a clean finish but we all knew it wasn't gonna happen what with the vote being all about the ref. Bischoff played his part well, particularly liked the line, "I'm doing the best I can!" to HHH after Edge crotch chopped at HHH before hitting HBK. The match was well built up, enjoyed the HBK spot before. Particularly the reference to Bret Hart, nicely done. Match was pretty good with some reasonable moves and a decent finish to finally give some limited credibility to Rated RKO. Personally if they had come out with their A game and actually beaten DX fair and square it would have had more impact, but thats up to the guys booking the event!
Women's Match: Shit, some very dull wrestling with lumberjack bits outside the room looking very amateurish and hashed together. Wasn't surprised that Lita won, especially after Edge had won earlier. Jesus it was dull!
Flair vs SS: Keep your kit on please next time Rowdy. Lost all impact when he was revealed to be desperately out of shape, the total lack of reaction to his getting out of the sleeper hold was an example of this! Fairly dull match although will be good that the SS will soon split up hopefully; am seeing the Legends as being mere custodians of the gold until Vince has decided who to hand it to next (Cryme Tyme most likely, if they haven't stolen it already). Flair performed as well as he can at the moment, was impressed with Kenny as usual; really think he has some talent and needs to be held on to. Finish was rather mundane but there were some good spots in the match.
Main event: Really disapppointing. Booker's title surprised me (particularly the vast majority of votes), but was looking forward to the match. Big Show did almost nothing, due to being old and tired most likely, hit a couple of clotheslines and an impressive double suplex then did nothing all match. Booker and Cena put on an ok show for the majority of the match. Have to say that at one point though when Cena was at ringside, some high pitched pre-teen sounding dick was yelling, "CENA SUCKS!" over and over and over again right in his face. I really felt like someone should have hit the guy, fine you don't like Cena. But trying to put him off when the man is busting a gut to entertain you doesn't prove anything, really pissed me off for some reason that this guy was so rude. You can put Cena down all you want, but the fact is he is able to do things that you can't. He's stronger than you. He is better on a mic than you. Give the man at least some passing respect. Was amused at the mass boos Cena got at the end though when it lookde like he would win. People clearly don't like the miracle Cena victories where he pulls it ouf of nowhere, and appear to be fed up with him winning: now that I can understand. The ending truly was awful though, just discredits the whole match not having a clean ending. Particularly when its K-Fed who interferes. Was hoping for a decent match with a clean win at the end from one of the three, but no. Shitty typical Vince ending with some run in and cheap shot with the gold.
Overall I was rather disappointed; enjoyed IC match and DX match out of the seven. Rest were bland. Special notice to Maria who did a good job presenting and looked very attractive as usual, the "and I dont wanna get fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired" line was great.
Roll on Survivor Series.....
