WWE Night of Champions 2011: Aftermath & Discussion

[XXJJ]

Air Boom vs. The Miz & R-Truth - Nice opening match. I agree with the ending. They get to keep the tag titles on Air Boom, who the WWE is trying to build as a "real tag team". And the Miz & Truth dont look bad. - 2.5/5

Cody Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase- This was a good match. Crowd didn't really seem to into it. But that was the WWE's fault. They didn't even announce this match on Smackdown or Raw. 3/5

Sheamus & Christian Promo- They were not booked because of theme of the ppv. But it was an entertaining promo. Good way of building their feud. Looking forward to their match at HITC.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger vs. John Morrison vs. Alex Riley- I thought this match should of been longer. It was still entertaining. I thought Swagger was going to win. 3/5

Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry IMO this was pretty much as good of a match you can have with Mark Henry. I thought Orton did a great job. Good storytelling throughout the match. Very surprised that Henry won. Great job by camera guys showing all the shocked faces in the crowd. Great promo at the end of the match by Henry. 3.5/5

Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix The filler match in between the 2 world title matches. I think Kelly Kelly is awful. Not really a fan of Beth either. This ending was pretty similiar to the SS ending, if I remember correctly. RIP Divas of Doom.... 1/5

Alberto Del Rio vs John Cena- I had trouble getting into this match. The hype and build up was awful. You could of made the case that this match should of opened up the ppv . I think the original plan was for ADR to still be champ going into the Mexican tour in October. But it pretty obvious why they took the belt off him. The Raw ratings have dropped with him as champ and he is not getting a reaction from the crowd. - 2.75/5

Triple H vs CM Punk Good match.. The big complaint will be that people felt the ending was overbooked. WWE isn't TNA, they do stuff that makes sense. I know Miz and Truth have been calling out HHH and Punk for a couple of weeks. Just going to have to see where this goes from here. 3.5/5

Overall I thought it was a solid ppv. Not coming close to how good Summerslam and MITB. But those ppv's were going to be hard to top.

 

[JaylisJayP]

if anyone thinks this was the best ppv of the year,thats sad. i thought i was watching tna. i honestly think now vince is trying to kill this business.this is why he is losing viewers. creative has completely lost it. this ppv was the worst i have ever seen.

I have to agree with this, as much as it pains me. What the hell are they doing? They somehow managed to completely make me lose interest in the HHH/CM Punk/Nash thing now.

It's sad when the best part of a PPV is Mark Henry winning the title.

 

[HamSwissman]

After watching the main event, I though Vince Russo had returned to leading the wwe creative team. Completely overbooked, and it killed what was a pretty good match. And you have all of that, & nothing changes. HHH doesn't turn heel, neither he or Punk get screwed over. There was just no point to it. And I don't care about the Miz/Truth conspiracy garbage. The other matches were fine, but nothing spectacular. I was disappointed to see Cena regain the title, but it wasn't unexpected. I was shocked Beth Phoenix lost in her home town. The rest of the card was largely forgettable.

Totally this. I was screaming "is this final-days WCW?" the entire end of the night. The last two Raws, as well as Night of Champions, have been pretty damn bad shows as far as I'm concerned. Just when I thought they were getting things turned around....

 

[JaylisJayP]

The problem with the business right now (in both the WWE and TNA) is that there are so many title changes it actually devalues the straps as well as the fans interest.

I mean look how many times the WHC and the WWtitlele have changed hands in the past 6 months? It's to the point where people are surprised when a champ actually retains on a PPV show.

I know the attention span of the modern day fan is short and you could never go back to the title runs of the 80's (let alone the runs Bruno and Backland had), but the recent trend doesn't give a champ time to build interest in his title run. thereby giving the eventual title change any meaning.

I mean would it have hurt to let ADR run with the strap awhile longer? Cena doesn't need the title as it is. Personally I think Del Rio could now drop further down the card when at one time he seemed to have a ton of main event potential.

Night Of Champions was a decent PPV (have to wonder about the guy who said it was the best PPV of the year so far...Really? Really?? REALLY???), but far from anything special even with all the title changes.

At this point I actually feel for WWE as far as this issue is concerned. They try to put the belt on new people, and ratings take a dive. And if you put the strap on Punk, it kills the value of his character. So what choice do they have but to give it back to Cena and have someone else "chase" him?

The problem isn't just that they keep bouncing the belt around, it's that they don't have compelling characters or good, quality storylines behind all the moves. It's really, really sad, because you know there are professional writers out there-somewhere-who could probably pitch a good 6-month storyline and let it really play out.

Hell, they planned LOST out six years in advance with only a few changes here and there along the way, there's no reason why someone can't come in if Vince really wanted and give them at least a two to three-month storyline, or even better, frickin storyLINES so there's not just 10 minutes of interesting show to watch.

 

[JaylisJayP]

Also, Miz and Truth should be leading the mid-card in a perfect WWE world. They're just not main-eventers. And even after Truth's heel turn, both characters are horribly stale already. They're shallow, one-dimensional characters and neither can keep anyone interested with their wrestling, either.

Nobody wants them in the Punk angle...I don't understand why they're forcing their way in there. What happened to guys who had a chance or held a title taking a damn backseat to another storyline for a while...or develop their own storyline?

You think Dolph Ziggler is going to evolve to a main event guy beating up on Jack Swagger and John Morrison? Two guys who couldn't talk themselves out of a paper bag?

Ziggler is the one bright spot on RAW outside of Punk right now, and I sincerely hope they don't keep him in the mid-card for too long. Him and Cody Rhodes should be leading the charge and given the chance to hold titles.

What happens to WWE if Cena gets hurt again? If Cena's value as a wrestler is a 10/10, there's nobody else besides Punk right now who passes a 7/10. If you asked me last year, I would've said Orton was an 8.5 but they spent the entire year neutering his character and pushing him unnecessarily when they should've been continuing to develop top talent like Wade Barrett.

And they just cling to this "we're not killing the brand extension" thing like it'd be so horrible to admit defeat 6 years after everyone already realized it was a failed experiment.

 

[Y2JChrisJericho]

PPV started out well but ended awfully. With Truth and Miz wanting Triple H to not be COO anymore, yet Truth stops the pinfall when CM Punk was about to win. That to me...made no sense what so ever.

Another major gripe was Beth Phoenix losing to Kelly Kelly, and what annoyed me is when Booker gave the ending away by saying "I think Beth is going to win this match", usually when this happens...that person loses. It's something I've noticed, and not just something I bring up to vent my frustration. Will be interesting if Natayla now will get a shot though.

I want to see how things turn out on Raw before degrading the PPV, but I have a lot of mixed emotions regarding it in all honesty.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

My thoughts on the Night of Champions PPV:

Air Boom vs. Awesome Truth: I missed the match because I wasn't home at the time. I like the finish though as it helps further the 'conspiracy' and adds extra legitimacy to the Awesome Truth moving forward.

Cody Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase: Very well paced match and good for what it was. I like that it wasn't a squash and Ted is now starting to look like a player in the mid-card scene again. ***

Fatal 4 Way: I'm actually a little disappointed in this match to be honest. I understand that it was mainly there to further the storyline between Dolph and Swagger but I didn't like the weak push at the end after Swagger did all the work. It could have also been longer with the type of match even if it had the same result and could have been a lot more than what it was. **1/2

Randy Orton (c) vs. Mark Henry: I feel good for Mark Henry taking the strap. The rope-assisted DDT on Mark Henry looked painful as HELL with a guy that huge taking the bump. I thought the overall psychology in the match was great and the pacing worked well for me. ****

Kelly Kelly (c) vs. Beth Phoenix: I'm probably in the minority here but I'm glad Kelly Kelly kept the title. She has improved leaps and bounds over the past year and has been a credible champion to me for the past few months. Beth losing twice just goes to show even though Kelly looks like a barbie doll, she can sure perform in the ring when all is said and done. Also, VERY NICE SUPERPLEX!!!! This was the better of the two matches they've had. ***

John (Super) Cena vs. ADR (c). Horrible match! The pacing was lousy, the ending was horrible and only made ADR look weak in the process. Where does ADR go from here? If this match is any indication, he'll be likely on the next future endeavoured list. *1/4.

CM Punk vs. HHH: A pretty good back and forth battle with a nice top rope elbow through the announcer's table that made me jump out of my seat. Everyone and their grandma knew there would be a bunch of interference in this match but to me made perfect sense throughout. This whole thing with CM Punk, HHH, Nash, Lauranitis, R-Truth and Miz is starting to pick up well. I actually want to see RAW tomorrow to see how this all shapes up! **** (which is good since I generally don't like run-ins and screwed up endings).

Overall: B

Booker T worst line of the night: "The knee bone's connected to the... uhhh..... ANKLE BONE!!!!" My thoughts, "SINCE WHEN???????"

Bump of the night: R-Truth over the top rope right on top of the ref. I'm sure he's legitimately hurt.

Sign of the night: If Beth loses we RIOT!

PACING!?!?!?!? Lol THAT'S what you look at in a match? Nevermind the fact that Ted didn't sell his character worth a fuck and that's why no one gave a shit and Del Rio vs Cena told a story from the beginning, FUCKING PACING?!?!? Holy shit man watch some shoot DVDs where guys tell you what gets a crowd into it.

I'll do a full review later.

 

[willross]

What happened to Del Rio is the same thing that happened to Edge so I am not concerned about where Del RIo is going and where he stands in the companies main event picture.

HHH going over Punk makes sense because it now drags out the angle rather than ending it after 2 months. Just because Punk lost doesn't mean he is being diminished. Punk wouldn't go out and lose if he wasn't down for where this is all going. For all we know Punk could be pushed as the biggest star by the end of this. Judge once its over and clearly this is far from over. It frees up another opportunity for them to have another match but as of right now I would not be shocked if we see HHH/Punk vs Miz/Truth at Hell in a Cell.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

That PPV was not so great, overall.

I really wanted to coment on this thread though regarding the main event. That was a total debacle. How TF are they tying Miz and Truth into this storyline? If they're doing that, they should break up the tag team. Miz can be a main eventer, Truth likely cannot for a sustained period of time. I think they're going to build this towards Survivor series.

Somehow, Vince will come back and be tied into this storyline too.

Honestly, with Truth and Miz interfering it just seemed so contrived. Then Truth, stops Trips from getting pinned? WTF? They have A LOT of explaining to do and just saying "oh there's a conspiracy" is not enough to tie these guys into the Punk storyline.

 

[hollowpoint]

Hands down, the match of the whole night was the Randy Orton/Mark Henry match. As good as Henry has been over the past couple of months, no one thought he would beat Randy Orton. He even beat him clean which was a HUGE surprise if you ask me. What a way to further his monster heel status then by beating the #1 face in the middle of the ring. I don't know how long they are going with this, but it's a breath of fresh air and a welcomed change from the norm.

 

[The Champ]

The main event was more Russo than Russo. Bottom line. I really don't see how you can defend basically having four people interfere and making the match about who's interference proves to be the deciding factor, along with two referees and a ridiculous amount of finishers. I honestly could not believe what I was watching. I've kept giving this storyline a chance even when I didn't like where it was going, but last night might have been the last straw. And if I see another promo full of meaningless and unnecessary internet references, I might throw up all over my living room.

Also, Mark Henry winning the title and Kelly Kelly retaining are both terrible decisions in my opinion. There are plenty of more talented people on SmackDown than Henry who aren't getting their fair shot (Christian and Barrett are two names that instantly spring to mind). And how many times in a row is Kelly going to defend her title before we actually get a divas champ who can wrestle? I mean honestly.

Cena winning is cool because he should have never lost it, but they probably shouldn't have taken it off Del Rio this soon. Still, I'm not going to complain about that because Cena is Cena. All in all though, some pretty terrible booking decisions were made here and I don't have high hopes for either Raw or SmackDown going into the next two pay-per-views.

 

[klepto77]

This is probably going against what a lot of people feel about the PPV, so I thought I'd share. This is my breakdown of the PPV, a PPV I'd give 3 out of 4 stars by the way.

Airboom vs. Awesome Truth - Tag Team Titles

This match was a great way to kick off the show. For the first time in a really long time, I felt like I was actually watching a legitimate Tag Team match. Kofi/Bourne came in hot to get the thing started and slowly but surely Miz/Truth started taking over the match. Many people have claimed that the DQ ending ruined it but I completely disagree. Not only did it work wonders for the storyline currently going but it also kept the belts on Airboom for a while longer. There will be replays of the missed count during segments by Awesome Truth and this deal they have going with the referees now is awesome. I enjoyed it.

Cody Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase - Intercontinental Title

I expected a lot more out of this match then what we were given. I had hoped for a hard fought duel between the two, that would showcase DiBiase's talent and reveal a possible push for his character. However, what we got was a squash match with occasional take downs. Rhodes owned the match practically the whole time. It was pretty anti-climatic.

Christian Segment

I thought this was a little bit of a low point. However Sheamus getting the crowd off their feet to chant one more match before giving Christian the Brogue Kick was pretty sweet. The fans are really starting to get behind this guy.

John Morrison vs. Alex Riley vs. Jack Swagger vs. Dolph Ziggler - U.S. Title

I absolutely loved this match. The acrobatics and pure athleticism in this match made me thankful I decided to buy the PPV. Even Alex Riley brought it like I didn't know he could. I was really pleased with the ending as it kept the belt on a very worthy Superstar in Dolph Ziggler but it will also push the storyline between Ziggler and Swagger.

Mark Henry vs. Randy Orton - World Heavyweight Championship

I'm not one of those who are behind Henry getting the WHC but I was at least pleased with the outcome of last night's match. I've never really found Mark Henry entertaining, even in the last couple of months. However he and Randy Orton put on a very good match. A match that I didn't think Mark Henry was capable of having. Seeing Henry beat Orton clean was pretty awesome as that solidified Henry in my eyes. It also disputed all of the Orton haters who have claimed that Orton would never allow himself to lose cleanly. It was a good match between the two which was followed by a good promo from Mark Henry.

Beth Phoenix vs. Kelly Kelly Diva's Championship

I used a lot of this time to make popcorn, grab a soda and skim through some of the threads on these boards. However with all of that being said, this really wasn't a bad match between the two. It's going to help the storyline and Kelly is clearly getting much better in the ring.

John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio - WWE Championship

There are obviously a lot of people upset with the outcome of this match. Personally, I didn't think it was necessary to put the belt back on Cena at this point. However, I'm going to give the WWE the benefit of the doubt just this once. The WWE programming in my opinion, has been stepped up a notch or two over the past three months. There have been stories that had us all scratching our heads until they unfolded. This was a good wrestled match between ADR and Cena, despite the ridiculous "You Can't Wrestle!" chants from the crowd. Not to mention for the first time in a long time I think most people expected Cena to lose. There has been so much talk about Alberto Del Rio being the Champion going into the Mexico Tour that most of us just assumed there was no way that Cena would win. But the WWE kind of surprised a lot of us with this move. That leads me to think there may be more involved with this. I wouldn't be surprised if ADR beats Cena for the belt at Hell In A Cell. A PPV in which I won't be buying by the way. It's ridiculous that they'd put two PPV's that close together and expect people to pay for both of them.

CM Punk vs. Triple H

I can't believe that I've seen all the complaints about this match that I have. Not only was it a good/fun match to watch but the complete chaos that took place towards the ending was truly awesome [no pun intended]. People don't understand why Awesome Truth beat down Punk as well as Triple H. It was a statement. That's what their whole storyline (outside of the conspiracy) has been over the past few months. They're trying to make a statement in the WWE that they're two of the biggest stars in the business. What better way than to depict the ending of a match and to have done it by beating down both of the competitors and draping the arm of one over the other? Laurinitis stopping the referee to have him check on the other until Triple H was being pinned was pretty good thinking. Laurinitis turning to text Kevin Nash was also nicely put together and the fact that Triple H knocked out Kevin Nash with the sledgehammer was pretty unpredictable. It was complete chaos and I enjoyed every bit of it.

So like I said before, I'd give this PPV a 3 out of 4. It, in my opinion, was worth the money that I spent on it. That all being said, I won't be buying Hell In A Cell. It's preposterous to me that the WWE would have two PPV's that close together and that they would sell them at full price. I'll just have to stream that or wait to hear what happens.

 

[jmh1971nyr]

Punk/HHH match was the best of the night! There was no way HHH was going to job tonight to Punk and they BOTH put on one hell of a match. I bet they fight on Raw tonight or Hell In a Cell for the COO position/Punk leaves WWE. Would LOVE to see Punk hit the Pepsi Plunge on HHH.

Cena won big deal! ADL was horrible and hasn't gotten over at ALL. At this point they should have three belts, and add the Super Cena belt because seriously it's getting OLD.

Glad to see Henry get the clean win!

Keep getting the felling Miz/Truth will form a new stable with John Laurinaitis as the behind the scenes guy to help get rid of HHH for Vince.

 

[justavictim82]

Horrible end to the show.

I am ok with the WWE putting Kelly Kelly over Beth because after all the flak they have taken over the 'Barbie Doll' divas division, they are trying to make Kelly look legit.

I am not a fan of Cena beating Del Rio... what was the point? You have no pretty much killed Del Rio as a top heel. You have him win the rumble only to lose at WM after building him for 3 months... ok. Then you have him build again, win the MITB ladder match and now have him lose to Cena CLEAN!?!?! I don't care if you had a few bad Raw ratings, you killed him. Vince needs to take into consideration that MNF started back up last week with a very very good opening game. Whats next for Del Rio? Is it his destiny to go back to the mid-card?

What was the point of Miz and Truth being involved with the main event? They run in and attack both men and have Punk cover HHH... ok fine whatever, then less than 3 mins later, you have Truth pull Punk off a winning cover of HHH? WHY!?!?! There is no point in that and it made no sense. It seemed like a botched spot after Truth landed on the original ref and hurt him... you have a replacement ref in as a filler to count to 3 but it still didnt make any sense. I am fine with Nash attacking both guys and how the finish was worked because Nash has beef with both guys but the whole ref got kicked out of the ring and the Truth pinfall break made absolutely no sense. I am not happy that Punk hasn't won a match in over a month after pushing him soooo heavily a few months ago. I get why they did it but still it makes Punk look weak no matter how well HHH made him look the whole match. It was a good phyiscal match where both men killed themselves and it was a shame that they ruined a greta 20+ minute match with 2 minutes of 'WTF are you doing' moments.

 

[#1HEEL]

I must say, it's no wonder people mock the IWC when you read some of the posts in here. WWE is doing the type of angle that hasn't been seen in the WWE for a long time.

It's a power struggle, and it leaves the fans scratching their head, so guess what? They tune into RAW because even if there frustrated they're compelled.

Clearly Lauranitis and Nash are up to something with a much bigger plan in the grander scheme. Laurantis is likely behind it all, and Nash is the hired muscle. HHH is standing in the way of that, Punk is the man in the middle because it's affecting him.

He lost the WWE title because of it. You know some of the best movies of all time confuse the sh*t out of you until bam, at the end it makes sense and you mark out. Give this a chance.

Disappointed Cena is the champ again, but it was bound to happen due to the Rock's return at Survivor Series... anything with Cena between now and mania will have some type of implication to that match. That's there money match and thats why he is champion again. Don't worry about Del Rio, its not his last reign. Nor is he the last to get this treatment, look at poor Ziggler that guy deserved some time as champ on smackdown and they dropped the ball.

 

[Dan E. Inferno]

The tag team title match got better as it went along. Some good action, particularly between Miz and Kofi, as well as a couple of decent false finishes. I loved the conspiracy angle and thought the DQ ending was perfect. Good opener, and i'm really enjoying Awesome Truth at the moment.

To be honest, I didn't really care about the IC title match and was only sort of half watching, so I can't really comment. I thought the Christian/Sheamus promo was pretty good and face Sheamus is really over with the fans, which is nice to see as i'm a fan of the guy.

The U.S title match was fun, mostly because I could've seen any of the four guys walk out with the title. The athleticism and fast pace was very easy on the eye. JoMo was entertaining as usual, I thought Riley had won with the DDT, and I liked the ending with Ziggler stealing Swagger's win. Solid stuff.

The world title match didn't really do anything for me as far as an entertaining match goes. However, I do like the fact they've given Henry the title. I've been a Henry hater for his whole career, but his push has been done really well and he deserves a run with the gold.

I'm glad to see the divas match getting some props in this thread, because I thought it was a great little match. The ending doesn't bother me at all. Neither does Beth losing in her home town. I know it's a line that the WWE keeps pushing, but Kelly has genuinely improved a lot in the ring over the past year. The action was smooth, the atmosphere was good and the superplex was awesome. The best divas match i've seen since the tables match at TLC.

The WWE title match was O.K, but I just couldn't really get into it for some reason. There just wasn't any drama or excitement. While the action was solid, and the crowd were into it, I just wasn't finding it all that interesting. Also, I would have preferred Del Rio to retain, but i'm not surprised that Cena won.

I really enjoyed the main event. It was crazy, overbooked and a whole lot of fun. I liked the Awesome Truth run in as it was unexpected, but also made sense as they wanted Triple H gone. I still don't get R Truth pulling Punk out of the ring after the GTS, but by that stage everything had broken down anyway. I'm not sure where they were going with Nash, as he seemed to just be aimlessly beating both guys down. The sledgehammer shot was awesome though. The result worked for me as Triple H can carry on as COO, and Punk doesn't look weak in defeat due to all the interferences.

Overall, I thought this was a decent event. A bit boring in places but solid stuff nonetheless. I can't really argue with the quality of the wrestling here. It just depended on whether I found myself caring or not. I'm still trying to get my head around how much I enjoyed the divas match. Anyway, far from a great PPV, but also far from a bad one. I'll give it a 7/10.

 

[The Future Rises]

I honestly thought it was a great PPV. It had a few mark out moments and some good wrestling matches. The Sheamus/Christian segment was pretty good. And Cole losing his voice was just hilarious. Night Of Champions definitely didn't disappoint.

Tag Title Match : Awesome Truth Vs AirBoom
The tag title match was a solid opener. It wasn't exactly a great match but it was good seeing the tag champs walk away with the gold without Miz and Truth looking bad. I think The Usos should be the next challengers to AirBoom and Miz and Truth can go on to be a main event alliance. I would like to see them in a fatal four way WWE title match with Del Rio and Cena at Hell in a Cell. **

Intercontinental Title Match : Cody Rhodes(c) Vs Ted DiBiase
The IC title match was good. I was expecting more but it was still a solid midcard match with an actual story behind it. A lot of people complain about Cody removing his mask and nothing's wrong with his nose. If they actually payed attention to the storyline Cody had successful surgery done to his nose but is still forced to wear that mask to "protect it". I hate how the crowd started chanting "we want Ryder" in the middle of the match when they have two guys who are obviously more talented and more interesting than Ryder in the middle of the ring trying to put on a good show. The New York crowd is always hot for Ryder. But when they chant that in the middle of a match it just takes away from the excitement knowing they don't give a shit. **1/2

United States Title Fatal Four Way Match : Dolph Ziggler(c) Vs Alex Riley Vs John Morrison Vs Jack Swagger
The fatal four way match was very good. Much better than what I thought it would be. Ziggler is a fantastic in ring talent and having a long title reign is exactly what he needs to make the title credible again. Ziggler is getting better crowd reactions which is great considering that's a major thing that he lacked in the past being over with the crowd. I just hope his feud with Swagger isn't over yet. Swagger looked like a real champ out there. This guy is main event potential. And I don't just want to see him fade off to the lower card again. Riley was good too. I like his aggression in the ring he reminds me of a young John Cena. Morrison was.. Well.. Morrison. With his usual high flying spots and a great top rope German suplex to add. The match was very good for a midcard fatal four way match. ***

World Heavyweight Championship Match : Mark Henry Vs Randy Orton(c)
Seeing Henry going over Orton was a refreshing sight. Finally an entertaining champion on Smackdown again. I think his title reign will be very memorable and the "Hall of Pain" thing he has going on will continue. Did Orton job? Sorta. Was it good? Yes. He's been very boring as champ and I think the WWE realized that. His babyface character needs to be more interesting before I would like him to win the title again. ***

Divas Title Match : Kelly Kelly(c) Vs Beth Phoenix
The Divas title match was good for a Divas match but I hated seeing the same repetitive win from Summerslam. Let Kelly Kelly get some offense and show us that she's talented enough to hold the title. Eve's still boring and shouldn't have been out there I'd rather have seen AJ Lee instead. And the superplex was a nice touch with a great sell by Kelly. **

WWE Title Match : Alberto Del Rio(c) Vs John Cena
The WWE title match was very good. A great wrestling match from Cena and Del Rio. Those two guys have good chemistry. And the match was definitely better than what I expected. The story telling was fantastic. And the crowd was really hot for it with the usual "let's go Cena! Cena sucks!" chant. It's funny how the anti Cena crowd was chanting "you can't wrestle!" when Cena was proving them wrong while they were chanting it by giving us a very good match. Love him or hate him.. John Cena is a legend.. And Del Rio is a legend in the making.. Great wrestling match from two talented performers. ***1/2

Triple H Vs CM Punk : If Triple H Loses He's No Longer The COO Of The WWE
I honestly expected a better match. Most of it was just an all around brawl going through the entire arena. I really liked the Savage elbow drop Punk did through the table on HHH. There was fantastic story telling but it could have been better in my opinion. Awesome Truth's interference was a good call to make them still relevant and making them look seriously good almost taking out both Punk and Triple H. But then came Kevin Nash.. I'm not a big fan of the current Kevin Nash. He's annoying on the mic and he can't even keep his balance while in the ring. But the match was still very good. I expected it to be somewhat great but unfortunately it wasn't as great as I expected. ***

 

[Iversen]

1. Air Boom vs. The Miz & R-Truth for the WWE Tag Team Championship - Good entertaining opening match, shows how little it takes to put a tag team division together. Air Boom are an exciting team and I'm looking forward to seeing where Miz and Truth are gonna go next. 7/10

2. Cody Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase for the WWE Intercontinental Championship - I like both of these guys but Ted just can't get over with the crowd at all. Was a solid match though. Cody's one of my favourites of the guys in the second tier at the moment and I hope they let him continue his mission to bring respect to the IC title again. Crowd was dead though. 7/10

3. Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger vs. John Morrison vs. Alex Riley for the WWE United States Championship - Another entertaining match that continued the Ziggler Swagger Vickie thing. All of these guys can go with even the weak link in Riley quite capable between the ropes so we had some solid action. Was pleased Dolph retained. I think they need to put more attention on the title itself though but that's not a new complaint. 7/10

4. Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship - Great moment for Mark Henry and he deserves it after some of the shit that guys had to do. He's on the run of his life but I was still amazed they let him go over clean. His promo after the match was also perfect. Great moment and a good match. My only problem is that Henry genuinely looked gassed by the end. Not gonna hold that against him at the moment though. 8/10

5. Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix for the WWE Divas Championship - This match genuinely pissed me off. WWE is close to ruining this Divas of Doom thing by having Kelly fluke these victories. This match was screaming for a Beth win and we didn't get it. On the other hand a decent match for the Divas but result ruined it for me. 4/10

6. Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship - So predictable it was depressing. I like Cena as a person but I'm fed up of watching him do the same thing in nearly every match. Did anyone care that he won the title? It's not a big deal anymore because he wins it so often. Match was alright. Back and forth action but again ruined by the end. 6/10

7. CM Punk vs. Triple H in a No Disqualification Match - This match was hard hitting tough and exactly what it needed to be... Until nearly every person in the back decided to get involved. Was very much a TNA style ending and was overbooked to hell. Looks like we'll get a Nash HHH Punk 3 way at HIAC which could be alright but doesn't excite me the way this story did when it started. Would have liked Punk to win also but he looked strong in defeat. Match itself: 8/10 Overbooking: 2/10

Overall Show - Average... Had a few good moments but the main thing to me was Henry's win. Cena being champ again doesn't bother me at all. Also can't help thinking that if it had been booked right Punk and HHH could have been having this match at Mania and it would have been huge (obviously take the interference out). Kind of depressing that this angle could have been huge and just appears to have turned into another WWE angle.

Grade C

 

[DanielJames]

You can't always get what you want. That makes WWE too predictable. Don't expect that Beth Phoenix will win because she is at her hometown. Don't expect Alberto del Rio will win because he just received his big push. Don't expect that CM Punk will win because he got the wwe universe within his hands.

Me too, I only have 3 out of 7 matches correctly but I'm not upset. Actually I'll be more upset if I got it all right. 3 out of 7 means that WWE is still unpredictable.

They almost never give the people what they want. they always pull this stuff and thats what makes it predictable. sorry that beth should win because its just impossible for someone like kelly kelly to actually beat someone like her. and um NO ONE wins in their hometown, its such a rare thing. now beth has lost twice in her hometown when she really could of changed the division. and HHH winning doesnt bring any shock value whatsoever, it ruins cm punk's momentum, he always wins matches where you think he's gonna put someone over (sheamus,booker, and orton @ mania)hell and orton when he first won the world title.
its not always about being unpredictable when someone will always guess whats gonna happen next, we make threads about it, sometimes its about just doing the right thing, or enhancing characters and storylines. the only reason i'm not extremely pissed about cena is that it will probably be part of the conspiracy. but i can't get over beth losing and i'm sure they'll do something for punk but he lost alot of steam last night which is not good. its not like i'm gonna take him less seriously but the causual fan will. its the same concept as last year when nexus was the biggest thing going but then they lost at summerslam, everyone lost faith at that moment.

 

[Rated R Straight Edge 1]

i thought overall the paper view was somewhat worth it. The world title match was a surprise. The biggest surprise that i thought was the triple h vs Punk match. It was a great match, i give it about 4 stars. The only upset was that cena won the title only because why would alberto hold the title for only one month. I know that Alberto wasn't good for the title but why did they have to have Cena win it again. At least make it someone else. I am not a Cena hater, i just think it should have been someone else.

 

[ahoyhoy]

Generally PPV's are where questions are answered OR where they pose NEW questions. Well if the latter is what they were going for tonight, the succeeded in spades. What the heck happened at the end of the Punk/HHH match? Heck what happened DURING the match? I am a very active member of the IWC and I post and read posts here daily so I, like most, knew there was going to at LEAST be a Kevin Nash run in. I can even say, though I was hoping against it, I kinda figured there'd be a Truth/Miz run in...Unfortunately there was. So I'm cool with that, because they'd been talking a lot about conspiracy and how HHH wasn't going to be COO after tonight and blah blah blah. So they do the run in....but attack BOTH guys. (WTH?)
Then beat the ref up.
THEN as the ref is out Johnny Ace hits the ring to check on the first ref. Second ref comes barreling down to the ring just as HHH hits the pedigree, and Johnny Ace keeps the second ref from getting in the ring to count the three.
(saw that coming, typical move, been in the script for years.)
After Johnny Ace keeps the count from happening over HHH, Punk hits the GTS and has HHH covered. Johnny Ace quickly pushes the second ref into the ring for the count but gets stopped by..... R TRUTH
(WTH???)
Punk hits the GTS on Truth and we're done with the Awesome Truth for the night. Match goes on.....but then...
Here comes Kevin Nash (saw that coming)
and he attacks....(can you guess?) BOTH GUYS.
(WTH???)
Nash beats up Punk. Punk down. Nash beats up Hunter. Hunter out of the ring. Punk up beats on Nash. Nash recovers, Jackknife power bombs Punk. Out of the ring to attack Hunter. Starts tearing up the announce table. Turns around, Hunter hits Nash with the sledgehammer. Nash, sleeping.
(WTH???)
Hunter back in the ring, pedigrees Punk for a 3rd time and gets a clean win.
So yeah, if the intention of NOC was to leave the viewer with more questions than they had coming in, WELL DONE WWE. If not then, WTH????


So here's the thing, obviously HHH isn't going to job to anyone especially with his new seat in Stamford. But tell me this. WHY.
WHY go through all the trouble to push Punk to such a high level to have him cleanly lose the last TWO PPV's. I mean, he beat Cena clean at SS and then got jumped and lost the title. And now this. I know people are gonna say, "just watch the show, see whats gonna happen, stop complaining" to that I say shut up. I'll complain all I want. This is dumb. First you have Beth Phoenix lose, in her home town, to KELLY KELLY the EXACT same way she lost at SS.
(WTH???) and John Cena's champ AGAIN, diminishing the whole ADR push. (WTH????) Hell if you were gonna do that, you coulda had Punk lose clean at summerslam if you were gonna just put the belt back on Cena anyway?!!?!? What was the point? Have Cena fued with ADR to pull him away from Punk so that HHH could beat him and bring his buddy back into the company so HE could beat him?

How do you follow up 2 great PPV's with this? How do you explain that?
The only saving grace to this night was Mark Henry winning the WHC. He toiled and worked his butt of for 15 years and I say hats off to him. Other than that, seriously WWE...WTH????

couldnt have put it myself. this was like a late wcw or current tna promo. just. so. bad. what. the. hell. did. i. just. watch?

its like they are trying as hard as possible to kill punk's pop. and shit if thats their plan, its working. i pre-ordered the mitb dvd (first dvd i've bought in forever) as a sign of encouragement to say 'this is what i want to see' and yet if they carry on like this, i won't even watch, let alone put my money in.

every monday lately i've been thinking 'ok that was stupid but it must be leading to something' and now... i guess i'll see you come the royal rumble, to pop my head in to see if wwe has fired everyone but punk involved in this horrible television yet. and if johnny ace is still on tv by then, dear god i will boycott wwe forever.

 

[Astaff]

I suppose you think Punk should win every match he's in cleanly?

No, Punk should not win every match cleanly but why does HHH have to win that match the way he did? It was another ego rub and the reason the IWC can't stand him for the most part. HHH has only put over his buddies, if you want proof go look up his fueds with anyone other than Batista or John Cena. he buries everyone.

 

[Nate DaMac]

No, Punk should not win every match cleanly but why does HHH have to win that match the way he did? It was another ego rub and the reason the IWC can't stand him for the most part. HHH has only put over his buddies, if you want proof go look up his fueds with anyone other than Batista or John Cena. he buries everyone.

Now that's just fucking stupid. I would never argue that Hunter didn't bury everyone in the earlier part of the decade, he had quite the fucking ego. But it's been years since he's pulled any of that shit. He has put over not only Batista and Cena, but Orton, Sheamus, and now, Punk. It doesn't matter that he won the match, he should have won the match. That's pretty much the only way they could have went to keep the story in tact. But he made Punk look like fucking gold in that match. Did you see how much shit he had to dish out to get the win there? It took multiple Pedigrees and a Jackknife Powerbomb to put him away. Not everybody gets that kind of treatment, only the top dogs.

Jesus Christ.

 

[TLK]

The "Triple H buries everyone" thing never gets old. He put over Shelton Benjamin for fuck's sake on like 3 straight occassions during the Evolution days.

Punk was not buried last night. Case closed.

 

[BTLion1990]

I enjoyed most of the PPV, except for John Cena winning the WWE title again and the HHH/Punk Match, but not with the outcome, just the clusterfuck that it was.

Alberto Del Rio's year was much like the Miz's, with them both gaining momentum incredibly.

ADR - January, Winning the first ever 40 Man Royal Rumble. (Good thing)
WrestleMania - Being in the FIRST match and losing. I thought the Main Event spot went to the Royal Rumble Winner?
Being Drafted to RAW, the flag ship program.
Money In the Bank - Winning the RAW Money in the Bank.
Summerslam - Winning the WWE Championship.

HOWEVER, last night he was made to look incredibly weak. Having his car stolen, coming out first (which I admit does happen a lot, but still) then having Cena mock him before the match. Then of course losing the match. Why did they use one PPV to bury him. Yes his run was lackluster but he held the title for ONE month. How is that enough time for somebody? He shouldn't have held it in the first place, but the fact they did give it to him why bury him so bad?! Frustrated.

HHH/Punk - R Truth and the Miz want HHH to win. Yet Punk gets pulled off BY R Truth when he's about to win? WTF.

HHH hits a pedigree on CM Punk. He's out for the three but no referee. Five minutes later HHH hits another pedigree but he kicks out of THAT one?! Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

I wasn't shocked with Nash and even Miz/Truth, but it became a mess. Miz, Truth, Nash, two refs, John Laurinitis. Johnnys trying to screw HHH, I dunno who Nash is helping, R Truth and Miz help HHH, then Punk?! Abysmal booking.

Henry winning made sense, Orton's already a star, but I can see Hell In a Cell with Orton winning it back. It's a tribute title as of late, with Christian and Henry just getting it because they paid their dues. But seeing as how Henrys been built I'd like to see a lengthy run. He's legit.