Judgment Day thoughts
Looking at the card for last night’s WWE pay-per-view, I figured it would be a decent show but not a special one. And that’s pretty much how it turned out.
Starting with Cyber Sunday in October, I think the past seven WWE pay-per-views have ranged from good to very good. Sooner or later there was going to be a show that didn’t quite deliver what fans expect for their $40, and Judgment Day was it.
Overall, there was nothing wrong with the action or the effort of the wrestlers, but the booking fell a little short for me. The basic formula in wrestling is that the story lines on television build to some kind of payoff on pay-per-view. I just don’t think there was enough payoff, making this one pay-per-view that fans could have skipped.
Coincidentally, the two best matches on the card – Shawn Michaels versus Chris Jericho and The Undertaker versus Edge – were the most disappointing in terms of delivering on the expectation of either a resolution or a big angle.
Here’s a match-by-match look at last night’s show:
WWE champion Triple H defeated Randy Orton in a steel cage match: I don’t think anybody really thought that Triple H was dropping the belt just one month after winning it, and that took away some of the drama. I’m not saying that WWE should have pulled a swerve and had Orton regain the title, but it could have done a better job in the buildup of making it seem like he had a good chance of winning. That could have been accomplished if Orton had taken out Triple H on Raw last Monday and it was established that the champion was going into the match at less than 100 percent.
The Undertaker defeated Edge by countout (the world heavyweight title remains vacant): These two work very well together, but as good as their matches are, I think fans are ready for Undertaker and Edge to move on to new opponents. The finish of Undertaker seemingly winning the belt only to have Smackdown general manager Vickie Guerrero declare the title still vacant because the fall wasn’t decided by pinfall or submission would be fine for an episode of Smackdown, but not for a pay-per-view that advertised that a new champion would be crowned.
John Cena defeated JBL: I’m a little surprised that Cena got the win because I thought Triple H versus JBL would be a fresh program. I didn’t think we’d get to Triple H-Cena until later on down the line. I also was surprised that a match involving Cena opened the show. Perhaps Cena can use his placement on the card as further justification for his heel turn if it ever happens. Cena again played the underdog who takes a beating before pulling out the victory out of nowhere, and JBL came out looking strong in defeat after he dominated the match.
Shawn Michaels defeated Chris Jericho: It’s certainly no surprise that these two had a very good match, but everyone was waiting for one of them to turn heel or for Batista to show up and attack Michaels. Neither happened. I understand that this story line has a slow build, but, again, if you’re asking fans to pay $40, I think something more needed to happen.
Jeff Hardy defeated MVP: WWE made the call to put this match on in place of the Big Show-Mark Henry bout. Good call. It’s a no-brainer that Hardy shouldn’t lose this early in his return, but I am disappointed in the way MVP has been booked since losing the U.S. title to Matt Hardy. I am hoping – and perhaps it’s just wishful thinking – that MVP’s recent losing streak is part of a story line that leads to him regaining his focus and getting a big push. WWE could use some fresh faces at the top of the card, and MVP would be a good choice.
World tag-team champions John Morrison and The Miz defeated Kane and CM Punk: The mystifying booking of Punk continued, as he did the job here. The Money in the Bank gimmick is seriously being devalued.
WWE women’s champion Mickie James defeated Melina and Beth Phoenix: As I expected, James retained her title and Phoenix wasn’t involved in the decision. Phoenix putting both James and Melina on her shoulders for a backbreaker might have been the spot of the night.
Comments
Any idea why Big Show is being so buried now? Is he injured?
Posted by: Shawn Patrick | May 19, 2008 2:34 AM
Since he's his own biggest critic, I'm sure HHH would be the first to tell you that the match was below his expectations.
Posted by: Jack Windham | May 19, 2008 5:37 AM
Kevin,
I agree with your thoughts on last night. Personally, I thought the Michaels-Jericho, and womans matches were the best. This was the first PPV I have ordered in years, because my son wanted to watch. (he is 8) I was thinking of taking him to Backlash, but the card didn't impress me. I am one of those that looks at fatal 4-ways, or triple threat matches as the bookers not knowing what to do. You are right, why are they wasting Punks obvious talents?
I know it will never happen, but I wish they would go back to 4-6 PPV a year. I think they lack proper time to buildup for the major matches on the card. Thoughts?
Posted by: Robert Testoni | May 19, 2008 10:27 AM
Overall a very forgettable pay-per-view. It's very obvious that the only reason Punk won MITB was Jeff Hardy's suspension, as the booking team has shown no follow-up to that win. Would anyone give him any kind of shot to win a world title at this stage? It would take months to build him back up to a legitimate contender with all the damage they've done to his character.
I thought this was the worst Undertaker-Edge PPV match they've had together, and not just because of the finish. I thought the pacing was poor (what was with Undertaker finishing off the Last Ride and a Chokeslam by throwing Edge into the turnbuckle? and twice he seemed to take forever to crawl over to Edge for a pin attempt when he hadn't been that badly beaten down beforehand).
With only 2 weeks to go before the next PPV, it's going to be tough to build compelling new programs that quickly, and watching this card again, even with extreme rules stipulations, is very uninspiring.
Posted by: glen | May 19, 2008 11:36 AM
i feel like punk is on his way to a heel turn. i also feel be in on the first match of the card is not such a insult. keep in mind wrestlers like kenndy matt hardy big show and king regal was not even in a match on the show. in fact i remember that jr blog about ric flair and umanga being the opening spot of a backlash ppv a few years ago. and said that todays ppv shows have to have a very strong opening match to get the crowd hot so i would say it a very important spot. and cena has been in so many main events on ppv i am sure he is not that upset and is a team player. he seems to be a very humble guy
Posted by: stan ritz | May 19, 2008 12:02 PM
I bet Punk cashes in his MITB briefcase to use at One Night Stand.
Undertaker and Edge need to move on. I want to see Edge vs. Big Show and Undertaker vs. MVP
Posted by: john | May 19, 2008 12:03 PM
I read the reader reviews on the Wrestling Observer and it seems like Judgment Day was a decent show. But I'm still glad I didn't buy the PPV. It's too expensive to try to keep up with them, especially considering the cost of gas and food. Either WWE needs to give fans more incentive to purchase their events, or they need to trim four or five PPV's off of the schedule.
I think if I had bought the PPV, I would have been really disappointed to see that there wasn't a definitive victor in the World Heavyweight title match. Isn't that false advertisement?
Posted by: Sean | May 19, 2008 12:32 PM
"Any idea why Big Show is being so buried now? Is he injured?"
Buried? He lost to Mayweather at Mania in what was pretty much a fluke loss and won almost all other matches he's had since he returned. Plus, he looked like a monster in most of those wins.
Posted by: chris | May 19, 2008 1:22 PM
i have to respect wwe's decision to not turn cena heel,assuming they wont following a win over JBL.they dont want to turn on their female/child audience by turning the biggest star for that demo into a heel.but at least for the sake of the rest of us, couldnt they move him to SD? that shows demo is much younger then raw's and i think hed fit better as a face there.in return, raw could get Batista since his past 2 feuds have been with raw superstars( Umaga, HBK/Jericho) the writers cant seem to create compelling stories for either unless they're for a title
Posted by: Ryan | May 19, 2008 4:23 PM
I went to Judgement Day last night and we had a lot of fun. The Dark Match was Santino and Carlito against Holly and Cody for the Tag Team Belts. It was a fun match and of course Holly and Cody kept the belts. Being there live HBK and Y2J had the best match for me. It was really fun to watch. Taker and Edge were second. The steel cage match was fun but hard to see from our seats so we watched it on the screen.
Posted by: Duffman | May 19, 2008 6:10 PM