Week of 7/12/10 - 7/18/10 (Monday - Friday)

[klunderbunker]

Monday

Impact got a 1.1.

Raw
Date: July 13, 2010
Location: Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler
Guest Host: Florence Henderson

This is a different kind of review as I was in the arena last night. The show was great and loud with Nexus being loathed all night. This was a great show though, with the main event being Cena vs. Nexus. Let’s get to it.

We recap Cena vs. Nexus last week and his dismantling of Young which was awesome. The crowd was way into this and Cena got a great reaction when he came out.

It’s weird watching this as you can hear the commentary while you only get silence in the arena. Young is out of the main event so it’s 6-1 instead of 7.

And here’s Cena to a great reaction. You can kind of see me in the intro. Well you can see a blue shirt which I was wearing. Cena thanks the Raw guys for helping him last week but says Sheamus wasn’t there. It’s everyone vs. Nexus according to Johnny Boy. He talks about the cage match vs. Sheamus on Sunday which should at least be good. Cena says he weighs 250 and is introduced later at 240. He lost ten pounds in an hour and 40 minutes? Not bad.

Here’s Nexus with Barrett saying they could beat him up now but they’ll wait til later when the whole world is watching. Isn’t the whole world watching….…THERE I AM BABY! You can see my head sticking over Cena’s shoulder while he’s talking at Barrett just before the e-mail. The e-mail says that there can be no interference tonight from Raw guys or it’s a 90 day suspension. Same goes for any Nexus guy that doesn’t tag in and out.

Eve is here for commentary. It was funny in person as she came out during the break and was talking to Cole and Lawler then had to back up and stand there for like a minute before the show came on again.

Alicia Fox vs. Gail Kim

Kim’s video has zero wrestling in it. It’s nothing but her working out. We see a recap of Fox faking an ankle injury and jumping Eve to win the match last week. Eve is stunning in person by the way. I still say Fox’s hips have a mind of their own. No one cared about this match at all but I knew it would be short. Gail hits a nice running shoulder block where in a single motion she hits it and is on the apron. Fox hits the axe kick which was more or less her ass landing on Gail’s back for the pin. E-mail #2 says Alicia vs. Eve at the PPV.

Edge vs. Orton later which gets a nice pop.

Hart Dynasty vs. Usos/Tamina

I was getting a Coke during this so this is the first time I’ve seen this at all. I heard the music as I was in line and heard the bell when I was coming back into the arena. I did see Natalya next to Smith though and DAMN is all I can think of to say. The titles are on the line on Sunday. I like this family feud thing they’re doing. They mention Florence Henderson being the host which wasn’t mentioned at all prior to this.

I can’t believe the Elimination Chamber is actually called Satan’s Prison. This is short with nothing of note happening. Jay hits a top rope splash on David to get the pin. I saw that on the replay and it looked fairly good. Yeah here we are. I was coming down the stairs while this was going on. Also Lawler calls Natalya Nattie (her real name).

Jericho is talking to Barrett who thanks him for his teaching. Jericho says no comment to Matthews. We pan over to Yoshi Tatsu (who had a good match with Jericho earlier in the night) who Barrett is making fun of. Tatsu says Cena is his friend and then he gets beaten down by the Nexus. Well Otunga and Tarver but whatever.

After a break it’s Ted DiBiase and Maryse. Ted is in a gray suit and flat out rocks it. He introduces the most powerful couple in the WWE: himself and the briefcase. Maryse of course doesn’t like this and is calmed down by being told she’ll get showered with gifts. Morrison comes out for an interruption. He likely got the third loudest pop of the night. Oddly enough it really does look like it’s slow motion in person. Him giving the sunglasses to a kid is a good thing for him to start doing as it connects him to the crowd and now he looks less like an idiot.

Morrison bashes Maryse who yells at him in French. He translates it, leaving Maryse stunned. She’s a platypus apparently. The guys go at it and Morrison almost gets Starship Pain but Maryse makes the save. Nothing wrong with quick builds to the MITB match like this.

We come back for a Brady Bunch parody with Santino’s Team vs. Regal’s Team. I didn’t see much of this due to my face being in my hands. Florence Henderson is the guest host and is in the back with Santino. There’s a laugh track for Santino’s joke which he wonders where it’s coming from. And here’s Regal. He gets no laughs but Henderson smacks him for mentioning the Partridge Family. Santino has a thing for Henderson. This BOMBED for the live crowd.

R-Truth’s replacement will be named later. We recap Edge winning MITB and cashing in almost a year later.

Edge vs. Orton is next.

Edge vs. Randy Orton

Edge got a decent reaction. Orton didn’t get a pop. He got an eruption. This was a good match live. I wonder if that came across here. Orton’s stomp got a slight pop for no apparent reason. They start off kind of slow but everyone knew that nothing of note was coming without an RKO attempt. Edge keeps going for Orton’s head which is never a good thing. Orton hits the snap powerslam which is a good little move for him.

Orton gets thrown to the floor and was down for awhile. Oh ok there was a commercial here. That makes a lot more sense. We come back with Orton and Edge going for a suplex with Orton on the apron. Just before this Edge had pulled on Orton’s tights so they rode up and you could see a good bit of his ass. The cute girl next to me cheered for that quite a bit.

Edge uses a drop toehold which was odd looking. Orton makes a small comeback and goes for the elevated DDT. Edge uses an ancient Japanese move and moves his legs to get out of it and hits the inverted DDT which is my finisher on most video games. Orton punts the spear and sets for the RKO. This more or lets lights the crowd completely on fire and got one of the loudest pops all night. When Orton gets fired up it looks like he’s having a seizure.

Jericho comes out and throws his coat in the ring which I thought was a fan for a second. Edge hits the Edge-O-Matic (reverse X-Factor more or less) for the pin. Jericho runs in for a Codebreaker and walks into an RKO. Then in the weirdest part of the show, Bourne comes down and gets booed out of the building. I had to look twice to make sure it was him because I didn’t think he’d get that kind of a reaction.

He kicks Randy in the head and goes up for the Shooting Star. In one of the coolest spots I’ve ever seen, Orton pops up at the last minute and perfectly catches Bourne in an RKO out of the Shooting Star. It was so fast that no one could see it so the replay got a louder pop than the original which was kind of weird. It looked amazing though and was even better in slow motion. Bourne stayed down forever and sold it like he had gotten killed which was great.

Skip Sheffield is walking and Josh asks him if tomorrow night the Nexus will go after the pros or the rookies. Sheffield keeps walking and literally runs into Morrison. He gets surrounded and it’s on. The elbow he hit Slater with sounded loud as hell and looked great. All of the shots sounded great for some reason and this came off as really painful. It looks to me like they’re going for the MITB guys so that they can take the spots, which is smart.

Here’s Miz. He talks about getting rid of R-Truth with his own bare hands, which he shows us. After a few minutes of this we get an e-mail. We’re going to have Miz vs. Truth’s replacement: Mark Henry. Oh and the GM uses a Piper quote at the end.

The Miz vs. Mark Henry

The people just didn’t care for Henry at all to put it mildly. Henry hits a press slam and we go to the floor. Henry charges at Miz and hits the GM podium. Miz hits him with garbage cans and pours garbage on him. The match is more or less thrown out. Was the empty trash can really supposed to hurt?

Santino Bunch vs. Regal Bunch

Her video is literally nothing but clips from the Brady Bunch. No one under the age of 15 gets this at all as she’s just some old woman. It’s weird seeing a Boyle County (big old corn fed Kentucky high school football team) shirt on WWE TV. Florence is the announcer here and says she’s feeling groovy. It’s Regal, Ryder (with regular tights now), Primo and Doink (I’d bet on Nick Dinsmore, aka Eugene) vs. Santino, Khali, Kozlov and Goldust. That’s actually a fairly accomplished face team.

Henderson gets a MUCH better reaction here than she did in the video earlier. Wow apparently it was Steve Lombardi as Doink, more commonly known as the Brooklyn Brawler. The captains start us off as Santino has been less annoying lately. Florence puts on Regal’s robe and Santino goes Cobra on us. I wonder if he’s Cobra Commander.

It’s a big mess already and here’s Doink. The crowd only cared about him for the sake of comedy. Khali comes in and falls victim to a squirt gun. A big chop ends this in like a minute. Khali’s music really is good. Henderson is a sport here and at least seems like she wants to be there which is a very good thing if nothing else. She kisses Khali afterwards which is disturbing.

After a quick recap of Punk over Hardy for the title, (seriously they’ll show Hardy but not Flair?) Edge talks about not caring in the match on Sunday. This got NO reaction in one of the oddest moments of the night. The fans just were not interested and seemed far more interested about something that happened on the other side of the arena that I couldn’t see. You can hear the fans shouting about it during his promo. It’s nothing classic but it’s certainly not bad or anything. Just a weird moment.

Bourne is getting his neck looked at and here’s Sheamus. The Nexus shows up and Sheamus says Bourne was badmouthing them. He gets beaten down and Sheamus comes back. Then the Nexus does too so the champion sprints off in a funny moment.

Nexus vs. John Cena

In a weird moment before this there was an ad for Rise and Fall of WCW and Russo got incredible heat. Weird. Cena got more boos than earlier but it was maybe 25% at the very most. The heels have to tag here and the no Raw guys can help. Cena gives Cole his dog tags which is a bit strange. Tarver starts off and Cena shows some psychology by taking the guys to the opposite corner. That makes perfect sense which is always a good thing.

He just mows people down one at a time which makes sense too. The thing about Nexus is it’s the gang mentality rather than the individual nature. In the original NWO any of the three were legit threats. Here there’s just arguably one guy, Barrett, who is a big threat. Together though they’re deadly, which is a nice twist on the idea. They hit the floor and huddle before Slater gets a cheap shot in to take over.

The finishers start up and Slater hits three straight belly to back suplexes on him which is stupid looking. Cena fights back a bit but the numbers get to him. He gets Barrett in an FU but Sheffield takes him down. The 450 ends it clean which is exactly how it should have been. There is absolutely no way you can have Cena win here and they realized that. The Nexus surrounds him afterwards but he gets a shot in and hits the floor, getting a chair.

They surround him but make one fatal mistake: they forget to hold the mayo. Here’s Sheamus with chair in hand, and the heels run for cover, ending the show. Post show, Edge and Orton came out for a tag match. Cena stayed down for like 5 minutes off a punch (turned out he was getting cleaned up from a cut) so it was 2-1. He came in at the end and cleaned house, hitting an FU on Sheamus for the pin while Orton got an RKO on Edge. Orton posed and we were done.

Results
Alicia Fox b. Gail Kim – Axe Kick
Usos/Tamina b. Hart Dynasty – Top rope splash to Smith
Edge b. Randy Orton – Edge-O-Matic
The Miz vs. Mark Henry went to a no contest
Santino Bunch b. Regal Bunch – Khali Chop to Doink
Nexus b. John Cena – 450 Splash

Tuesday

Hard Justice is going to be something like One Night Stand. Shoot me now.

Rupp Arena was sold out last night. For those of you that don’t know, Rupp Arena is one of if not the biggest college basketball arenas in the country. A sell out means nearly 20,000 people, which is ahead of many PPV attendances.

Raw was a 3.3.

We have no idea on if Taker is going to be back for Summerslam. It keeps changing.

NXT
Date: July 13, 2010
Location: Freedom Hall, Louisville, Kentucky
Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews

The opening video is about the Nexus and how they’re returning home.

I put the theme song on the Ipod. Too good to leave it off.

The pros are brought out first which of course takes time. I could have gone but passed after Raw last night. The Nexus is here tonight too so expect something insane. No Laycool for no apparent reason. Speaking of them here they are complete with their own music and chairs now. Young is still out with his injuries.

Barrett says they’re glad to be back on their own home ground and warns the pros to stay out of their way.

The Miz/Alex Riley vs. Mark Henry/Lucky Cannon

The talented rookie and the untalented pro start us off. Henry beats him up as nothing much is expected from this match. They’re continuing the angles from Raw which is a nice touch that they need to use more often on the third show like this. It’s a great way for guys like Ryder to get an angle going which isn’t something you have time to do on Raw.

Miz keeps running from Henry and won’t come in. They’re letting Cannon look decent here and then in a SICK bump, Cannon dives over the top with a plancha and slams his head square into the steps. That looked absolutely awful and he must be at least in a ton of pain. We go to a break to make sure he still has a nose.

Matthews gets on Cole which is funny. I like him more and more every time I hear him. We get some cold rookie on rookie action and Miz finally comes in. Cole uses his second Louisville coach reference of the night for Miz. The next elimination is in two weeks. It’s pro vs. pro and Miz gets pounded. World’s Strongest Slam ends Riley with ease as Miz hides. Henry pours garbage over Riley like he had done to him last night.

The pros talk about Riley and all seem to like his confidence. They don’t like the high school thing though. Mark Henry and MVP talking about him needing to be more impressive in the ring is absolutely hysterical. They make a great point: getting a reaction is better than them just sitting on their hands.

We talk about MITB for a long time. Now we recap Raw last night.

Percy Watson Show

Again, the guy can be entertaining. The guest is MVP, which at least makes sense. Watson asks for twenty dollars or something like that. He says that MVP has been telling him to seize the moment so that’s what he’s doing. Here come the rookies but MVP says he never parties alone so here come the Pros. Striker calms them down and says let’s get rid of the couches and have a battle royal.

The Nexus wants in on this too and Barrett promises there will be one winner, that being himself.

Battle Royal

Nexus immediately hits the floor and everyone gets rid of Henry. Nexus jumps him, as in another MITB guy. Scratch that as they go for Cottonwood. MVP goes out but some guys hit the floor to get some shots at the Nexus. This is less about the match and more about the gang war thing. Everyone has a standoff and we take another break.

We’re back and Nexus is in there now. After a few eliminations, everyone kind of goes to different corners. They beat up Harris and now I want a Nexus shirt because they’re awesome. Riley busts his head open again and it’s BAD. It’s five pros, no rookies and Nexus left. Kofi, Morrison, Rhodes, Ryder and Miz vs. Nexus. Miz throws out Ryder and they’re all pissed at him for it.

Miz eliminates himself and it’s 6-3. And here we go. Cody hides on the top rope and looks for a spot. Morrison and Kofi try to do all the work and it just isn’t going to happen. Cody gets a word from the referee and then does nothing. Morrison gets caught and eliminated. Rhodes has been out of the action for a long time.

There goes Kofi so it’s just the Dashing one. I got a funny image of Dusty going insane over his name in his comedy voice. Not bad. He tries to make friends and Gabriel gets a word from the referee again and the gang beatdown begins. Well that didn’t last long and Nexus wins it all. They beat down a bunch of pros and then Striker goes in to talk to Barrett. The booing is insane as he can barely talk. Barrett eventually says you’re with us or against us.

Results
Mark Henry/Lucky Cannon b. Alex Riley/Miz – World’s Strongest Slam to Riley
Nexus won a Battle Royal

Wednesday

NXT got a 1.11, which is higher than Impact.

Thursday

Impact
Date: July 15, 2010
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Taz, Mike Tenay
Episode Title: They’re Here?

So this is the ECW show. Having spoilers come out already, we know that tonight the ECW nostalgia angle or whatever starts up. We’re four days removed from Victory Road which wasn’t nearly as good as people are saying. I have no idea where they go from here, which is a lie but whatever. The show is starting now so let’s get to it.

A recap of Victory Road starts us off. New rankings come out tonight. For the life of me I don’t get how they think Abyss standing tall like that is a good idea but whatever.

We start a best of 5 series between the Guns and Beer Money. Sarita vs. Wilde and Hardy vs. Lethal.

New rankings start us off.

10. Rob Terry
9. Pope
8. Kurt Angle
7. Hernandez
6. AJ Styles
5. Jay Lethal
4. Samoa Joe
3. Mr. Anderson
2. Jeff Hardy
1. Abyss

Well who didn’t see that top three coming?

Here’s Abyss with the board and a side of beef. Yeah that’s what it is: a large quantity of beef. Abyss has a plan for RVD and it’s beyond extreme. He names the board Janice and we’re told that he’s waiting on new orders. He uses the board to beat up the meat which has juice flying all over the camera. Apparently the board is a good cook.

We go to the back and Sarita and Wilde are fighting again in the back. Tenay makes sure to point out that the street fight later will be in the Impact Zone. Sarita shouts about being better than Wilde and I’m trying to figure out what I’m watching. Sarita hooks an armbar and we just go to a commercial.

Back from break and the street fight officially starts.

Taylor Wilde vs. Sarita

Taylor looks a bit shall we say bigger in the pectoral region. This is of course a massive brawl with no flow or structure or anything like that. This is nothing close to a match and it’s just not any good at all. It’s intense though so I’ll give them that. Sarita gets slapped in the boobs. Why not just say fuck it and call it softcore porn? Taylor chucks a chair at Sarita and down she goes.

Sarita goes into the crowd and steals a woman’s purse. She chokes Wilde with the strap of it and Taz points out you can get fired for doing that in some companies. HAHAHA yeah we get it Taz. Don’t be so subtle next time. That ends this whatever.

RVD is walking to the ring and giving himself what sounds like a pep talk.

Back from break Miss Tessmacher is in Bischoff’s office and says she’s going to take over. Nash comes in (to a BIG pop oddly enough) and is looking for Eric. He’s not here and Nash hits on Tessmacher.

Brian Kendrick vs. Doug Williams

This is a non-title I Quit match which is the stipulation they should have done on Sunday but for the title. This is really just a normal match with the referee holding a mic. In a cool spot Williams does a slingshot and slams Kendrick’s face into the mat. Williams is beating the hell out of him, meaning Kendrick will wind up winning.

Williams slaps Kendrick with the gloves for no apparent reason. Kendrick hits like four dropkicks and then the Cobra Clutch ends it clean.

Nash comes out and chokeslams Kendrick. He threatens to beat up young guys until he gets TV time. And here’s Jarrett coming out to yell at Nash. Have they ever worked together before? I don’t believe they have actually. Ah yeah they did back in the end of WCW. Why did I forget that? They were both old guys so of course they worked together. Jarrett says Nash is a glory hound and that it’s not about him anymore. Nash says he doesn’t believe Jarrett and leaves.

After the break Nash says he’ll have something going on at 10pm. It’s 9:43 at the moment.

Desmond Wolfe vs. Rob Terry vs. Samoa Joe

Sure why not. Any bets on how fast Wolfe jobs here? Magnus pops up on commentary for no apparent reason. Can anything make sense on this show? Wolfe gets knocked to the floor quickly and Terry gets caught in a leg bar. This is another trainwreck of a match of course. There’s no flow to the match at all as it’s just another big old mess. After a few minutes of people doing random moves to each other, Joe chokes Terry out. Joe and Terry like each other and Magnus does nothing at all.

Beer Money vs. Motor City Machine Guns

This is the first match in a best of 5 series: a ladder match. It’s not for the titles or anything like that. The winner gets to pick the next stipulation. The Guns being introduced as champions is indeed a cool sounding thing though. I love double suicide dives. This is a total clusterfuck. I know it’s a ladder match but come on now.

It’s not particularly bad or anything, but this is an hour into the show (no Nash and it’s 10pm) and it’s yet another gimmick match. Sabin misses a rung for a run up the ladder so it slows things down a bit. Shelley gets a great shot with a ladder to Roode’s knee. Storm hits a Backstabber on Shelley as this is just a big mess. Again it’s not horrible but it feels like a ladder match for the sake of having a ladder match.

After more insanity we have a ref bump. Well what would a match be without that? Sabin gets up the ladder and gets the contract but Storm pops him with the beer bottle. The referee that was down (there were two and yet they managed to have a Dusty Finish) sees Storm with the contract and gives them the win. Yep, they jobbed the Guns four days after they won the belts. Well at least they managed to get one cool intro.

Matt Morgan vs. D’Angelo Dinero

We get our first wrestling match 70 minutes into the show and it’s just a match for the sake of having one I guess. Pope wins in less than two minutes with a Codebreaker. If that’s his new finisher he’s just taken a big step forward as the knees in the corner just don’t work at all. Morgan beats him up afterwards. No rating since I spent more time writing the rating for the previous match than was spent in this whole match. Pope winning is good though. Anderson stops Morgan from kicking Pope into the post and knocks him to the floor with punches. Pope won’t shake his hand but he nods at him. This could be interesting.

The Beautiful People are mad about at Madison about the biker chick I guess.

Madison comes out to formally protest the referee’s decision. She says TNA has a week to return the title. They accuse each other of being stupid and Velvet threatens Madison. Love comes out and curses a lot (another Russo trademark) and Velvet walks out on the BP. Madison and Love fight and here comes the biker chick again. Lacey is in the arena too so it’s not her and they write off Velvet because she just left. The biker chick and Madison beat up Love and leave her laying.

Jay Lethal vs. Jeff Hardy

Lethal is in Hogan colors here. After about a minute the ECW guys are here. This is a fairly decent match but there’s nothing special yet. Flair announcement is the big thing to close the show apparently. Next week it’s Beer Money vs. the Guns in a street fight. Lethal hits a springboard missile dropkick that was sweet looking. Also Angle vs. Hernandez next week. Hardy gets the Swanton for the clean ending in about four and a half minutes.

Flair, Kaz and AJ are here and he inducts them into Fourtune. Wolfe comes down to whine and here comes Abyss with the board. He calls out RVD and says he’s going to share the plans that THEY have. Abyss is supposed to get the title and they’re going to put the board above the ring and have a big violent match to get it.

He says the E word and RVD finally starts talking. RVD beats him up and the ECW guys stand up in the audience, but so does everyone else. Abyss gets a chokeslam and goes for the board and here’s FOLEY? He stands on the ramp and here come the ECW guys. They beat down the two security guys that come down. Here are the TNA wrestlers and they get beaten up. I have no idea who they are since they’re jobbers and not mentioned by name.

Wolfe and Kendrick come out and get beaten down too. Ok Raven beat Wolfe down by himself. Are you really surprised? Al Snow and Simon Diamond come out as does D’lo Brown, all of whom have worked backstage for years. The other TNA guys come out and it’s a big brawl that’s really nothing but punching and kicking. D-Von comes out and is with the ECW guys. Dixie is at ringside and here come cops.

Jarrett is on the ramp and doing nothing. Dixie grabs a mic and says she invited them…and that’s it. Yeah seriously, that’s it. It’s not as horrible as I was expecting, but it just was completely lackluster and was nothing but punching and kicking.

Results
Sarita b. Taylor Wilde – Choked Wilde out with a woman’s purse
Brian Kendrick b. Doug Williams – Cobra Clutch
Beer Money b. Motor City Machine Guns – Storm grabbed the contract
D’Angelo Dinero b. Matt Morgan – Codebreaker
Jeff Hardy b. Jay Lethal – Swanton Bomb

Friday

Impact got a 1.09 so a 1.1. The next rating is what is going to interest me.

Smackdown
Date: July 16, 2010
Location: Freedom Hall, Louisville, Kentucky
Commentators: Todd Grisham, Michael Cole

We open up with a recap of the end of last week with Show vs. Swagger and then Swagger being interrogated. Why was Swagger not this awesome when he was world champion?

Still love that song.

The main thing tonight is does Swagger have an alibi? They even have a graphic asking it so you know it’s important.

Kofi Kingston vs. Cody Rhodes

Kofi is banged up from the Nexus beatdown that was earlier in the night. Uh….I mean three days ago….yeah that’s what I mean. This should be decent. It always amazes me that the spot calling on Raw is hidden better than on Smackdown which is an edited show. They feel each other out with Cody getting the advantage early on. Striker calls Big Show the Giant Big Show every time. Just change the name already. Kofi gets kicked to the floor and we take a break.

Kofi is in an abdominal stretch to start us off and Cody throws on a claw to go with it, which apparently is insulting somehow. The crowd seems bored as hell. Cody hits a nice middle rope bulldog and the crowd picks up a bit. And here’s Kane for no apparent reason. Yep there’s the DQ. Chokeslam for Kofi and Cody of course which sounds like a bad pop duo. Kane promises a bludgeoning tonight (his word not mine). Swagger is a liar apparently.

Matt vs. Dolph later.

We recap Swagger beating Rey up for the last two weeks and hurting his ankle. Rey says he might have to forfeit. He’s just kidding. When Rey wins on Sunday, it’s going to suck.

Swagger is in another locker room and is on the phone. He says that since this is Kentucky there’s no traffic since no one has anywhere to go. Yeah there’s no major wrestling show to go to tonight.

We recap the MITB stuff and sets up this.

Christian vs. Drew McIntyre

I wonder if Christian continues his semi-heel turn here. They trade control to start us off which you would expect. Much like the previous match, Drew takes over just like Cody. We go to break with Christian in trouble. Good to see them going with something new.

Back from break and we get closer to even. Drew can put on solid matches when he has the time to do it. I’m glad they took away the whole chosen one thing as it was slowing him down a lot. This is a pretty solid match. Futureshock is blocked but a thumb to the eye lets him hit it. Match was a lot better than it sounds.

More Alberto Del Rio stuff. Will you just debut already?

The SES is in the ring after more MITB stuff. He says his usual stuff and here’s Big Show. He makes fun of Punk and says he’s boring. Punk says entertain us with the ladder. This is different, especially since Punk isn’t in the match. He tries to climb it and the ladder breaks. He gets a smaller ladder but doesn’t go with it as he talks about how he breaks everything, including ex-girlfriends.

He brings out a HUGE ladder that is like two and a half feet thick. It weighs over 350lbs and has a 2000lb weight limit. The SES jumps him and NAILS him with the small ladder. Show fights back and chases Punk up the huge ladder and rips the mask off. Punk is BALD. Cool segment.

Swagger is still on his phone and the driver is lost. He runs down KY a bit with some fair criticisms. Yeah pretty clear it’s going to be his dad.

Trent Baretta/Layla vs. Kelly Kelly/Chris Masters

So how long before these two guys get fired? No Michelle at ringside here which makes me sad. The girls star us off and Layla takes over early. Rosa jump ropes down the aisle and the Dudebusters help her jump rope. Kelly hits her finisher to end this in like 2 minutes. The guys weren’t even in the match.

We run down MITB after a LONG commercial.

Matt Hardy vs. Dolph Ziggler

Matt has a mic with him to start. Matt says he’ll cash in Sunday when he wins. Short promo but it did the job I guess. We take a break because this is the last scheduled match and it’s not even 930 yet. More Alberto Del Rio stuff before we get back to the ring. Hardy beats him up for a bit and we take a break. Vickie has too much cleavage.

We come back and it’s a chinlock. Yeah I’m stunned too. They go back and forth even more as this is a solid match. Ziggler gets a NICE rolling three quarter nelson to get a cover. Matt busts out a moonsault that misses. The sleeper doesn’t work but Vickie gives a distraction so that the Zig Zag can end it. Solid match.

A limo pulls up and it’s Swagger’s dad of course.

The Swaggers are here and we hear about how they were together on Memorial Day, which was the day of the attack. Swagger has a slideshow of stuff they did that day. The first one is of them working out. They also won a fishing contest and an eating contest…and here’s Kane. He has more evidence, in this case them coming first and second in a 5K run.

Kane chokes him and Swagger drills him. It’s ankle time and Swagger’s dad is a funny cheerleader. There’s no commentary here again which makes things better. Rey hobbles out and what do you know, Swagger is in perfect position for the 619. Kane gets back up and chokeslams Papa since Swagger won’t get back in for no apparent reason, even when Kane’s stronger arm isn’t free. Kane tombstones him as Swagger just walks away.

Results
Kofi Kingston vs. Cody Rhodes went to a no contest – Kane interference
Drew McIntyre b. Christian – Futureshock DDT
Chris Masters/Kelly Kelly b. Layla/Trent Baretta – K2 to Layla
Dolph Ziggler b. Matt Hardy – Zig Zag