Nick Malone

I'm giving it an overall of 7.5-8/10.....Pretty uninspiring stuff all on the Raw portion besides the opening US Title match which opened the show hot in New Orleans. Everything else for the Raw side kind of ruined what really was a SmackDown/ECW show. The IC Title match was solid along with the Samoan Strap Match and really was an underrated Match of the Night. Ladders Match was excellent especially with CM Punk stunning the crowd and beating Jeff Hardy for the crown. ECW Title Match was also solid and would of been an excellent show if it hadn't been for the Raw WWE Title Match and the Submission match along witht he terrible comedy fest of the Sloppy Hogpen Match.

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Sir Nicky Talent

Not a bad PPV. Raised my expectations. CM Punk winning is still how I'm going to remember it. My only problem is Batista taking the WWE Championship. Really ruins everything about the Legacy.

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King Steventon

Yeah this PPV was an assload of suck. Outside Rey/Jericho everything else was average at best and there was a lot of awful shit on this show and a lot of dodgy, quesionable booking.

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the_great_fratsby

Rey v. Jericho was a very good match and had a GREAT ending. For the first time in awhile, I'm going to say that this match was booked in an excellent way. The mask coming off was unexpected, cool, and will build huge heat for Jericho. In addition the match itself was very good as both Mysterio and Jericho are masters of their craft.

Punk v Umaga strap match - not a bad match but not worth being on pay per view. Overrall not inspiring. They should have kept Punk off of the card if they were going to let him cash in MiTB later because it would have built him up more heat. (that is if they are planning to turn him heel)

Christian v. Dreamer v. Swagger (ECW Championship) - a very good match. I thought the booking was good. I liked that they built this thing up as Dreamer's last match. I thought Creative threw a good swerve becuase I was not expecting Dreamer to win. This match was worthy of PPV.

Santino(a) v Vickey in hogpen match - stupid, sophmoric comedy. However I did laugh out loud when Santino put the bucket on Chavo's head and punched it. Overall this match did not need to be on pay per view either

Hardy v. Regal v. Kingston v. MVP - Despite what some are saying, I found this match to be quite sloppy. Quite a few missed spots. However, this was still a good match, and a great way to make Kingston look strong as the new US championship. The US belt has gained quite a bit of prestige lately because it switches hands less often than probably any of the other belts in the entire company. Therefore I thought it was good booking to let Kofi keep the belt and look strong by beating 3 established wrestlers. All four guys had very different styles with Kofi's high energy unconventional offense, Hardy's mat based style, Regal's brutal, brawling, and MVP's style that is all his own - this may account for some of the sloppiness. Overrall a good match to start the show

Cena v. Big Show - HORRIBLE match. These two guys do not work well together. Neither are inspiring in the ring, although Cena is a great entertainer. I was about to fall asleep during this one. The ending SUCKED. The whole leg in the rope thing was STUPID. Show's leg came out of the rope like 4 seconds after it went in.

Batista v. Orton - Not a very good match at all. I thought the spots were uninspiring, and was angry at the outcome. They should have set Orton up for a long, title reign because such a big deal was made of him winning the title. Batista is SO boring in the ring, and it looked like Orton couldn't really do much with him.

Hardy V. Edge - Hands down the best match on the card. Some will criticize it as a spotfest, but I don't care, it was the only match that I legitimately got involved in and found myself actually rooting for Hardy to win. This match was both of these wrestler's specialty, and I feel like they delivered. I was EXTREMELY surprised that Jeff won, and the ending when Edge was stuck in the ladder was pretty cool. If they are turning CM Punk heel, then the booking was EXCELLENT. When CM Punk cashed in MiTB I found myself for the first time in years legitimately angry (in a good way) that Punk was taking advantage of Hardy's situation. He could barely even walk. Hardy kicking out of the GTS made Hardy's look strong, so both men benefitted. If they are NOT planning on turning Punk heel, then the booking was RETARDED. However, despite all the grief we give WWE Creative, let's give them the benefit of the doubt here to know that Punk winning the title the way he did was going to gain him huge heat. He cashed in the briefcase on arguably the most over babyface on Smackdown on the biggest night of his career after a grueling ladder match. Hardy sold it well by acting as if he could barely even walk. Like I said, I was legitimately angry (in a good way) that Punk was doing what he did. I'm hoping they have plans for punk as a heel champion in a feud with Hardy. This could lead to another ladder match at Summerslam with the ladder match being Hardy's specialty and CM Punk being a 2x MiTB winner. Overall I would definately say that the whole Edge v. Hardy and then Hardy v Punk was worth being on PPV and the savior of the entire card.

In conclusion, I thought this was a mediocre PPV.
4 Good matches that were worthy of Being on PPV and 4 matches that were not worthy of PPV. However it says a lot that the two obviously best matches on the card were Smackdown! matches (Jerchio v. Mysterio and Hardy v. Edge) I give this PPV a 6.5/10

The Phantom

I haven’t watched any WWE television since the Judgment Day PPV, so I went into this without knowing too much of the background to the storylines, but here are my thoughts as I watched the broadcast:

US Title Match: This was a good, and fun match to open the card with. Plenty of action to keep the fans up off their seats to cheer; this is very important for the first match of the night. Kofi Kingston impresses me more every time I see him. He was the star of this match, and picked up a deserved win.

Samoan Strap Match: Another solid match up. I haven’t seen a strap match for quite some time, so it was nice to see something different for a change. Both men performed well, and I feel it was a better match than the one they put on at Judgment Day. Good to see Punk pick up the victory. Hopefully he’ll move onto another program with one of the main eventers, in order to establish himself at the top of the card, before cashing in his MITB.

Intercontinental Championship: You always know when you have these two in the ring your going to watch a decent match, and that’s exactly what we got here. I wasn’t overly keen on Jericho’s pre match promo. I felt it could have been better served before the match, not during his into. The match itself was very good, it kept me entertained throughout. Rey did look a bit of an idiot when he was trying to collapse the chair the wrong way whilst in the walls of Jericho, that made me laugh. I was quite surprised they put the belt on Jericho, and VERY surprised that they had him de-mask Rey. I think they way they de-masked him was brilliant. I know the next time we see Rey he’ll have another mask on, but just to have him de-masked like this I think is quite a big deal.

ECW Championship: I didn’t realise that Tommy Dreamer would be gone if he didn’t win the match, so it was fairly obvious he’d pick up the win. Not a bad match overall. It was kind of like watching three stages of the ECW brand, the past (Dreamer), the future (Swagger), and the present (Christian). Unfortunately sentiment was the theme for this match and Dreamer picked up the win. You could tell there was real emotion from Dreamer when he won the title, and went to celebrate with the crowd. It’s a shame most of them didn’t care, because most of them couldn’t care about his victory. It’ll be interesting to see who challenges him for the title. It should be Swagger, but if it is, where does that leave Christian? Only time will tell.

Hog Pen Match: The least said about this the better I think! I did feel sorry for those pigs though.

WWE Championship: I expected this match to go longer than it did (not saying it should have), and I was quite surprised by the outcome. Batista seemed to win it without much effort, or build up. To me it made Orton look weak. I was fully expecting Orton to come out of this match with a win, and go on to his next challenger. But then again I haven’t been watching Raw regularly, so maybe this does make sense.

Submission Match: For me, this match went on for far too long, and I lost interest half way though. Submission matches can be quite entertaining, however you need wrestlers who aren’t as one dimensional as Cena and The Big Show to pull it off. We all knew Cena was going to win by STF, it was just a matter of how he was going to do it. The method to beat him with the STF was quite clever, but as is usually the case, it didn’t quite come off as well as they thought. It was fairly obvious to everyone at home (despite the TV crew doing their best to cover it up), that Show’s leg didn’t stay tangled in the ropes. So Cena wins again… let’s hope he leaves the Big Show alone now for a few years, since these two have fought enough times already.

World Heavyweight Championship: This was always going to be a good one, and it didn’t disappoint. Yeah, they had the usual spot fests and highlight reel moments during the match, but they didn’t go over the top in my opinion. The ending was quite cool in my eyes. We always see someone get their leg stuck in the ladder, but never have I seen someone’s body get stuck. Whoever came up with that idea should have a huge pat on the back (or a little extra in the pay check this month!). The visual of Jeff looking down at Edge stuck in the ladder, and taunting him with the title was quite cool in my opinion. Very surprised they decided to give Jeff the belt with the uncertainty surrounding his WWE future. Hopefully this is a positive sign.

Cashing in Money in the Bank: This was a little bit of a shocker wasn’t it?! Ahh, maybe Jeff isn’t staying after all? I like how they didn’t have Punk win after the first GTS. When Jeff kicked out of that I actually thought they may have Punk lose the match. But I only had that thought for a millisecond. Punk picks up an expected win, but I can only feel this may have been a wasted use of the MITB gimmick. Only time will tell.

Overall Thoughts: Overall I enjoyed the PPV. Not too many negatives in my eyes. The hog match was truly awful, and unnecessary, and the submission match went on a little too long for my liking. Apart from that all the other matches were good, and kept me entertained – which is what I look for in a PPV. Also, 5 title changes in one night; that must be some sort of a record?

Tommy Platinum

Looking back, despite the badness of most of the PPV, there were positives. Rey/Jericho is an obvious one and that feud is the best thing going in WWE right now, but also, despite the fact that it wasn't ideal by any means, Punk's heel turn could be pretty great if they book it right in the next few weeks, and that match at the end was certainly exciting. I personally enjoyed the ladder match but I've always been one to mark for spotfests if the spots are good. After that, Punk's cash in was probably the most exciting so far. I love the way Jeff nearly pinned him with a rollup after he kicked out of the GTS. Great stuff.

I'm going to give WWE the benefit of the doubt and presume that he is turning heel. I guess you could say that a slow heel turn would be better, as Jim said in another thread, so it could be good that it didn't look too obvious. I think it all depends on what they do from now.

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King Steventon

The cashing in part was done better than any of the previous ones (apart from RVD's), but it still doesn't sit right with me... maybe if they had put more effort into Hardy's title win I would care more. The ladder match itself was better than their previous PPV matches but was still pretty sucky. Don't think I would call it good even by ladder spotfest standards.

The rest of the PPV was still pretty ass.

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Tommy Platinum

It doesn't quite sit well with me either, but one of the reasons for that is that we'd already seen 3 World Title changes on the PPV...

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RaiZ-R

That was a whole lot of negative right there. I enjoy cage matches cos I usually switch off during them and don't allow the ridiculous commentary to bother me. Telling me there's no give in that steel cage is plenty retarded when I can plainly see it bending under the weight of somebody's face.

Turns out you were right though, it sucked balls.

This moment had the group I was watching this with in fits of laughter. Jericho I an absolute legend for that particular quote.

It was great to see Punk win on a PPV, but it really didn't do much at all in terms of building either man, or making Punk look stong enough to be champion... I feel like the only reason Hardy won and Punk cashed in and won, is that everyone knew that Hardy's contract was up and he hadn't re-signed so they felt like swerving us.

Regarding the Big Show vs. John Cena, submission match: I disliked the match a lot, but I thought the finish was innovative and enjoyable. It's just a shame that Show shifted his weight and freed his leg on camera so soon after Cena locked in the Crossface.

He was celebrating like a face. Seemed down right retarded to me. I'm hoping my negativity about this is proven wrong, but if he turns heel, who does he fued with. Hardy's gone by Summerslam (assuming he's not re-signing) and then there's no one... Rey? The return of 'Taker? Edge face turn? The possibilities are quite seductive, but will WWE see it that way?

Agreed. Unless this is the begining of a heel turn for Punk, and I mean an immediate heel turn, it awful in every way. Punk just screwed the most over man on Smackdown out of the World Heavyweight Title, if he's still face his career in WWE is close to over.

This was the worst PPV of this year by far, it came close to TNA bad at times. The US Title match was ok, but Kofi seemed unable to perform simple moves without botching them throughout. Jericho/Rey was match of the night, even though it wasn't a patch on the Judgment Day match. The finish was so smooth as well, classic stuff. The Strap match was pathetic, and again, nothing on the Punk/Umaga match at JD. It was great to see the ECW Title higher on the card than the opening match for once, and Dreamer finally being treated like a threat was great. There's no doubt in my mind that he'll have a short reign, and that it will likely be his last Title, but for one night, in WWE Tommy Dreamer was actually a superstar. I really enjoyed the match and it was second only to Jericho/Rey in my eyes. The Hog Pen Match was like watching someone vomit into their own hair, and while Vicki getting covered in slop was nothing short of brilliant, it was slap bang in the middle of the worst thing to grace my eyes this year. Those pigs looked terrified as well, I'm surprised PETA haven't complained, they shit on everyone elses parade.

The Cage match was disappointing, probably because I actually expected it to be good. It being so short, and having Batista win, made it even worse in my eyes. Big Show vs. Cena was a decent match, but it was plodding and dull, and ruined by the fact that I'm certain that Show's been caught in the STFU before now. I liked the finish... I may be the only one.

Jeff vs Edge for the WWE Title in a ladder match was ok. Really nothing special, and again the wrong result. Like Orton, Edge would have benefitted from a long Title reign, but obviously WWE know best. Not only padding out Hardy's resume (simply to entice him to re-sign) but also having CM Punk cash in his MITB contract in a nonsensical move that should establish Punk as a heel if they're not totally fucking labotimised.

Overall, I'm shocked anyone would rate this PPV above 5/10, cos if I was in the habit of rating PPV's this would barely reach that.

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