12/18/11 – WWE Presents Tables, Ladders & Chairs PPV

Coming to you LIVE from Baltimore.

Commentary Team for the evening is Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole. Oh god. Not off to a good start.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Zack Ryder (US Title Match) – I could argue this has been the most hyped up match of the evening. And damn was the crowd eating it all up. It’s amazing to see Zack’s road to success, and this was what he’s been working for. Hope his steam doesn’t die from here now that he has the title. As usual, it was a great match from Dolph Ziggler, and Zack Ryder pulled off some awesome moves (Hurricarana, Plancha). Great match. ***3/4

Air Boom (Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne) vs. Primo and Epico (Tag Team Title Match) – Primo made it on PPV? YES!!! Not bad impromptu match here. The best of the three we got tonight. Primo and Epico brought out some cool moves, and Air Boom was their usual awesomeness. **1/2

Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett (Tables Match)- I don’t know. It’s been hard to really care about this feud. I enjoy both wrestlers. And they had a nice little match. Good drama here and there, but I’ve seen better from both men. Still a solid effort though. Ending was sick. **3/4

Beth Phoenix vs. Kelly Kelly (Divas Title Match) – Kelly Kelly is hot. Otherwise probably one of the worse matches these two have put on together. *1/2

Triple H vs. Kevin Nash (Sledgehammer Ladder Match) – You know, there’s been a lot of haters on Kevin Nash being back in the WWE. But I like it. He can talk well, and in my opinion can still go in the ring. The match was a little slow at times, but I thought the intensity was there. Nash took probably some of the sicket bumps of his career, and the figure four through the ladder was awesome. The story told was nice, and the crowd ate it up. I thought it was an above average match, and you can go ahead and hate me for it. ***1/4

Sheamus vs. Jack Swagger – Give them time and they could easily bust out three and a half stars, unfortunately, they did nott, nor did the crowd really care. *3/4

Mark Henry vs. Big Show (Chairs Match for the World Heavyweight Title) – I’ve been a huge (no pun intended) Mark Henry fan since his heel turn. He’s been a good worker, and a crazy good champion. Unfortunately this match was not very good at all. And BIG SHOW WON??? What!?! *1/2

Big Show vs. Daniel Bryan (MITB Cash-in for the World Heavyweight Title) – DANIEL BRYAN WINS! DANIEL BRYAN IS YOUR NEW HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WWE. SUCK IT COLE. YES!!!!!!!!!! Interested to see who turns heel in this. Big Show or Daniel Bryan. Looks like Big Show. N/A

Cody Rhodes vs. Booker T (Intercontinental Title Match) – After Booker has been attacked twice earlier in the show by Rhodes, we finally get this match as Rhodes makes the first entrance. This is also my first time noticing that Lillian is announcing. I guess I’m so used to her from before that I forgot she was back! Good to have her. The match was all-right. It was cool to see Booker T back in the ring, and I’d be more than okay if he came back instead of commentating. This feud still has some life in it in my opinion, so maybe we’ll get a little more out of it **1/4

CM Punk vs. The Miz vs. Alberto Del Rio  (TLC Match for the WWE Championship)  – I love me some Tables, Ladders, and Chairs. Too bad I’ve been spoiled by it all night. It’s why I’m not huge on these gimmick PPVs. But damn this was good. Ricardo took an INSANE bump from the top of the ladder. Props to him. Punk was able to go all Super Cena by overcoming Ricardo, Alberto, Miz, and Handcuffs. But the difference between Punk and Cena? I like Punk.****

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Overall Rating – Everyone’s been saying it. But damn. The Internet Wrestling Community Won tonight. Zack Ryder is the US Champ. CM Punk retained the WWE Championship. And DANIEL BRYAN is your New World Heavyweight Champion. Who’d have thought that either CM Punk or Bryan Danielson would become champions in the WWE? Nevertheless at the same time. Then you have Beth Phoenix, Air Boom, and Cody Rhodes as your other champs. I don’t know where the WWE is going with this, but I like it.  ***1/4

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4/03/11 – WWE Wrestlemania 27

The Rock’s promo at the opening was great. It was weird not to start with a match, but I was glad that it showed Rock was the “host”, and not just tacked on for advertising reasons and to have a fun main event. When I say Yabba you say Dabba. ahahaha.

Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio – Wow, really? Alberto lost? After all this time I still don’t get the inclusion of Christian into the equation. I really hope it builds to something post-Mania otherwise I’d say this entire feud has been poor. Really solid match though. ***

Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes – Wow, Cody wins! And he looked awesome too. Rey basically cheated to win, hit all of his signature moves, and Cody still kicks out of everything, finally leading to him outsmarting Rey and taking the win. I hope for a bright future for Cody Rhodes. ***1/4

I won’t really go into it, but lets just say Regal, Khali, Ryder (especially), Piper, Hornswoggle, and the Bellas = Win.

The Corre (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Ezekiel Jackson) vs. The Big Show, Kane, Santino Marella, & Kofi Kingston – I don’t think I’m going to give this one a rating. It was so quick and very unstructured. I don’t really see what the point was. Glad Kofi got his Wrestlemania paycheck, although I feel bad for Kozlov as he’s really come a long way in the past year. N/R

I jumped out of my seat when I saw The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin face to face. Just a simple segment like that reminded me why I love wrestling Sports Entertainment.

Randall Keith Orton vs. C.M. Punk – Great match, if only due to the fact that it let Punk show us what he had in him. Orton was actually pretty great in his selling too. Really hoped Punk could get a Non-MITB win at Mania, but Orton is just too big right now, I guess I can understand. The spot at the end was great too. ***1/2

Ahahaha, The Rock + Mean Gene + PeeWee Herman, can’t really go wrong there.

Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler (Special Ref: Stone Cold Steve Austin) So I can’t rate this sadly, at least for now. I don’t know how fair it would be rate this on a wrestling scale anyways, as opposed to an entertainment scale (See: Mayweather vs. Big Show). But the reason I can’t rate this is at the restaurant I was at, DirecTV crapped out for about a good 5+ minutes, and we went from Jerry Lawler shoving Cole’s face into the Cole Mine to Cole beating up Lawler in the center of the ring (how the hell did that happen?). It seemed really entertaining though from what I saw of it and I marked so hard for getting JR back, but I’ll have to update at a later point. I think it’s BS that they took away Lawler’s Wrestlemania win though, but loved seeing all the carnage we went through to get good ol’ JR and Lawler for the rest of the show. N/R.

Triple H vs. The Undertaker (No Holds Barred) – I am really conflicted about this match. I thought it was a great showing, although it does look like the last great technical showing we will have ever seen from ‘Taker was against Shawn Michaels last year. This heavily relied on weapons and the hardcoreness of the stipulation, and I was hoping to see more of a match. It felt really slow at times, but that could be due to Triple H’s rustiness and The Undertaker’s age. With that said, the spots were great, Undertaker kicking out of Triple’s Tombstone was probably one of the biggest reactions I’ve had to a kickout. They did a great job of making me believe that the streak was over, and it was great to see The Undertaker still manage to go 19-0 after all of that. Really curious what the post-match angle was about (if it was a post match angle…), but it looks like Undertaker’s last match at Wrestlemania will be next year. While not being able to touch his past two performances, Triple H and The Undertaker showed the rest of the locker room how to put on a show. ****1/4

Dolph Ziggler, Michelle McCool, and Layla vs. John Morrison, Trish Stratus, & Snooki – Well that was….quick. Pretty harmless, but I can’t believe we lost Daniel Bryan & Sheamus for this (and the 8 man tag for that matter). The men were never even legal, and Snooki got the expected pin. I liked seeing the teams coordinate though when it came to attire. Snooki’s already done more than Drew Carey, she’s gotten a win at Wrestlemania, so expect her to be in the Hall of Fame one day. Great. *

The Miz vs. John Cena (WWE Title) – Wow, talk about disappointing. It was actually going really well up until the “Excuse for The Rock to come out” ending happened. They hit their moves pretty well, and seem to work decent with each other, but then the Double Countout happened. The Rock restarted the match though in another well done promo at the end of the show. The Rock gave Cena a Rock Bottom to give the heel the main event win for the first time in forever, but then The Rock gave The Miz the People’s Elbow, to send the fans home happy. Actually, with that crowd, I think Cena losing already made them happy. I’m excited to see where this all goes, but its a shame The Miz has to get lost in all of it. I get why it was the Main Event compared to our No Holds Barred match, but the ending just ruined the flow for me. Side-note, pretty cool to see The Miz pin Cena at Wrestlemania after their feud a year and a half ago made The Miz look like a fool who could never pin Cena even on RAW. My how far he’s come. **

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Again, huge finger of SHAME for bumping Sheamus and Daniel Bryan off the card (and they changed their match while it was a Dark Show Match too, so they don’t even get to be on the DVD). Replace the 6-Mixed Tag and the 8-Man Tag and you would have had a ****+ show easily because nearly everyone brought their A-Game tonight. One of the better Mania’s in recent memory in my opinion. Check it out. MVP’s of this show would go to Triple H and Undertaker for giving it their all for 30 minutes and The Rock for “bringing it” to the show and making it feel like a special event.

Overall Rating: ***3/4