The judgment on WWE’s Judgment Day pay-per-view is in: Sunday night’s show did not measure up to last month’s fantastic Backlash pay-per-view, but it was a decent show on its own merits.

Unlike Backlash, there were no Match of the Year candidates at Judgment Day, but in general the matches were good and none of them were below average.

There were no title changes either, but I don’t view that as a negative. I’m a firm believer that frequent title changes diminish the value of the championship and lessen the impact of the switches. In regard to the two world titles, there have been way too many title changes the past several months. Barring injury, however, I think Randy Orton and Edge are going to bring stability to their respective championships.

The biggest surprise of the show was Ric Flair doing a run-in during the Orton-Batista post-match.

Here is a match-by-match look at the show:

Batista defeated WWE champion Randy Orton by disqualification: As I wrote in my Judgment Day preview Sunday morning, I didn’t think Orton would lose the title, but Batista still had to come out of the match looking strong. That’s exactly what happened. The story the match told was that Orton realized he was overmatched against Batista, so he stopped trying to win and was just interested in saving his title. After failing to get himself counted out or disqualified for bringing in a chair, Orton eventually got DQ’d for slapping the referee. WWE used that same finish when Orton defended the WWE title against John Cena at the No Way Out pay-per-view last year. After the match, Legacy members Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes hit the ring and attacked Batista, which led to Ric Flair coming out to make the save. Some will probably complain about the cheap finish, but I don’t think every single pay-per-view match has to end in a pinfall or submission. There likely will be an Orton-Batista rematch, perhaps a no-disqualification bout at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view next month.

World heavyweight champion Edge defeated Jeff Hardy: The most newsworthy thing to happen in this match was that Matt Hardy interfered in it, so perhaps the Hardy brothers feud isn’t over even though they’re on different shows. This was a very good match, but it fell short of being great. There were a couple of big spots: Hardy ran on top of the security wall into a spear by Edge, who got a running start off the announce table; and Hardy hat the Poetry in Motion off the ring steps, which resulted in both he and Edge going over the barricade. While Hardy was trying to make his way back over the barricade, Matt showed up out of nowhere and hit Jeff in the head with his cast. Jeff was still woozy from the blow when he later attempted to climb the ropes for the Swanton Bomb. Hardy was slow going up and he stumbled for a second, and that allowed Edge time to recover. Edge then climbed to the top rope and hit what Jim Ross called a superplex – it actually looked more like a DDT to me – for the win at approximately the 20-minute mark.

John Cena defeated The Big Show: This was basically a squash for the first 10 minutes, as Cena sold his recent injuries. Cena eventually got some hope spots, but his repeated attempts to lock in the STF were unsuccessful because of The Big Show’s size. It appeared that Cena was just about done when Big Show set up for the knockout punch. Cena ducked, however, lifted Big Show up on his shoulders and hit the Attitude Adjustment out of nowhere for the win. The match had a slow pace but it told a story, and Cena once again was portrayed as a tough guy who overcomes the odds and finds a way to win.

ECW champion Christian defeated Jack Swagger: The story of the crafty veteran outsmarting the more athletic upstart continued. Just like in their match at Backlash, Christian again thwarted Swagger’s attempt to steal a win and then gained the victory himself by doing exactly the same thing Swagger had tried to do. At Backlash it was undoing the turnbuckle, and this time it was grabbing the tights when making the pin. This was a good match, but these two have had better.

Intercontinental champion Rey Mysterio defeated Chris Jericho: I was surprised that Mysterio won, but it came as absolutely no surprise that these two put on a great show. The story of the match was Mysterio trying several times to hit the 619 – Jericho had guaranteed in his pre-match promo that it wouldn’t happen – before finally doing so and getting the victory. There was one especially good sequence near the end of the match in which Jericho went for the Walls of Jericho, but Mysterio escaped and spun Jericho onto the middle rope. Mysterio then went for the 619 but was caught by Jericho, who again applied the Walls. Mysterio tried to get to the ropes, but Jericho dragged him back into the middle of the ring. I thought that was going to be the finish, but Mysterio turned the submission move into an inside cradle for a near fall. This match reminded me of WCW a decade ago when cruiserweights such as Mysterio, Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Juventud Guerrera and Ultimo Dragon would steal the show. I don’t think this is the end of the Mysterio-Jericho program. Mysterio, by the way, showed no signs of a knee injury.

Umaga defeated CM Punk: Punk was over big-time in his home town of Chicago. Umaga dominated early, but Punk made a nice comeback and the finishing sequence was good. After Umaga escaped the GTS, he hit a superkick, followed by the Samoan Wrecking Ball and then the Samoan Spike. So Punk has now lost two pay-per-view matches in a row after winning the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXV. Losing to Umaga I understand and expected, but there’s no way that Punk should have lost to Kane at Backlash.

John Morrison defeated Shelton Benjamin: Because of the incredible athleticism and spectacular moves that these guys possess, I thought for sure this would open the show to get it off to a hot start, but it went on third instead. Morrison won with the corkscrew moonsault, which is called Starship Pain. Earlier in the match, Morrison pulled off the move of the night when he spring-boarded onto the top rope and did a somersault onto Benjamin on the floor. At the last second, Benjamin took a step forward, and it’s a good thing he did, because Morrison might have come up just short and possibly sustained a serious injury. Morrison’s babyface turn could have been done better, but he is starting to win over the crowd because of moves such as this. If he learns how to truly connect with the audience and refines his character, Morrison has a real chance to be a major player.

Note: Also featured on the show was an in-ring promo by The Miz. It was a good one, definitely the best I have seen from him. I loved it when he got the fans to stop chanting “What?” by mocking them and saying that they sounded like a bunch of ducks. That led to a “You suck” chant, and he didn’t miss a beat. “Oh, I’ve never heard that one before,” he said with a smirk. He then did the tried-and-true insult the local sports team bit, as he insulted the Chicago Cubs star Alfonso Soriano, who was sitting in the front row. He challenged Soriano to get in the ring, and the outfielder ended up looking like a coward for just standing there and taking it. Eventually, Santino Marella came out and got a nice pop. He was funny as usual and he and The Miz had an entertaining exchange. It ended with Miz laying him out. Chavo Guerrero then came out and hit a frog splash on the fallen Marella. Edge had told Guerreo earlier in the show that he was an embarrassment for not doing something about Marella calling his aunt Vickie Guerrero a pig, so Chavo decided to confront Marella while he was basically unconscious. Marella now is officially a babyface. Who would have guessed that the breakup of Glamarella would result in Marella, not Phoenix, turning?