WWE Vengeance 2007

Written by: Arnold Furious

It seems like the Internet is widely opposed to the Vince McMahon “death” storyline. Most columnists have written negative opinion pieces about Vince’s limo explosion myself included. Although my main complaint was that the ‘tribute’ shows have been rather tasteless. Especially last week’s Smackdown, which featured a 10 bell tribute and the entire locker room standing on the ramp to pay tribute. This kind of thing doesn’t sit well with me on the day where Sherri Martel actually died. I thought it was in bad taste. I wasn’t offended because I’m never offended but I could understand why people were offended. So my question to you, gentle reader, is this; do you like the Vince McMahon “death” storyline? Do you think it’s appropriate? Are you offended? I figure I can’t make some kind of sweeping statement like “in general people have been opposed to the Vince McMahon storyline” tonight when I’m covering Raw without finding out whether people really are opposed to it. So where do you stand? Email me. Let me know. Results will feature in 411’s live coverage this evening.

We’re in Houston, Texas. Hosts are JR, King, Cole, JBL, Joey & Tazz.

Vengeance this evening is the Night of Champions. Every WWE title is on the line. And at ringside throughout the night are a series of champions. We start with MIKE ROTUNDO & BARRY WINDHAM the former US Express. They were tag team champions on two occasions. Windham was also the US champion, TV champion and held four other sets of tag titles in WCW/NWA. Rotundo had five WWF tag titles in all with three more coming with Ted DiBiase.

Tag titles – Cade & Murdoch (c) v The Hardys
The Hardys have held the tag titles six times. C&M are currently in their second reign. The first was pretty forgettable. At least they build up some characters and personality and this time around. They’re still not in the same league as the Hardys. Especially when Matt is being touted as a potential main eventer over on Smackdown. Jeff gets picked off at first with Murdoch hitting a rather rough swinging neckbreaker. The heat is non-existent as Matt comes in almost right away. JR can’t remember the name of Poetry in Motion. It worries me that JR’s memory is so bad that a lot of moves either get named wrong or not named at all. My memory is really bad. If I was to commentate on a match I’d keep a list of the signature moves the participants were likely to use. Which is something JR has desperately needed to do for some considerable time because everything else he does is fine. But that’s a problem. C&M clip Matt’s knee, which was injured during a match with Finlay on Friday Night Smackdown. I like that they have continuity in the selling and psychology but will it stick? Will Matt continue to have knee problems for the rest of his career? Like Austin’s neck or Flair’s back? Or, for a better example, Kobashi’s knees. The heels work over the knee and that’s the focus of the match until the hot tag to Jeff who uses an assortment of signature moves to get the crowd buzzing. I don’t think the heat was really long enough but the crowd bite on everything anyway so it’s probably fine. Jeff’s Whisper in the Wind gets called a “Twist of Fate” by JR. Come ON man! Get a fucking grip. I like JR but this kind of thing makes him look foolish. Murdoch shoves Jeff off the top into Cade’s Rydien bomb though and it’s over at 8.52. **1/2. By the numbers formula tag action. Nowhere near long enough to mean anything compared to their previous matches and a worrying sign that there’s too much stuff to fit into 3 hours tonight.

BACKSTAGE King Booker shows how much he’s worked on his accent during his time off. It’s getting closer to a British accent although it’s still way off. He points out how many titles he’s won. I’ll run through them later. He gets a kiss from the Queen.

SHILL – August 26th. Summerslam. The big announcement with this plug is the involvement of Jackass, which had already been previously revealed by Steve-O in a blog somewhere. So it’s not really a shock. Not that it would be if it just happened. Jackass have been involved in wrestling before and Steve-O has appeared on WWE TV this year.

NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS – Eddie Guerrero. We pay tribute by watching Eddie beat Brock Lesnar for the WWE title at No Way Out 2004. A night I described as one of the best of my life. And I meant it. I don’t think I’ve ever marked out as much as I did that night.

Cruiserweight title – Chavo Guerrero (c) v Jimmy Wang Yang
Chavo is on his 4th run as WWE cruiserweight champion. He also won two in WCW. He also has three tag titles, one with Lash LeRoux and two with Eddie. We see shots of Dean Malenko watching on backstage. He held the WCW cruiserweight title four times and the WWE light heavyweight belt twice. Yang didn’t hold any titles in his WCW run nor has he captured any so far since joining the WWE. What bothers me about Yang’s redneck gimmick is it essentially amounts to two things. He does the “yahoo” thing and waves his arm around and he comes out to country music. That’s all his gimmick is. It’s paper thin. It really needs a little colour. Seeing as it’s over they now have time to do that. JBL mentions how the name Guerrero means Warrior…CHUG! This match is pretty much Chavo trying to stop Yang from flipping around and Yang flipping around. Yang makes the mistake of doing a stupid little backflip that does no damage at all and Chavo just throws him to the floor. See, flips are all well and good as long as they have impact. Otherwise they’re pointless high risk. Yang shows how that can work with a plancha. Chavo gets totalled wiped out with that. They run a great spot back inside where Chavo shows how basic moves can be far more effective and he hip tosses Yang into the buckles. Poor Jimmy lands on his neck. That should be the beginning of the end. Chavo nails a Saito suplex for 2. Why don’t the WWE call it that btw? After all Masa Saito did work there. JBL mentions how Guerrero means Warrior. CHUG! I think he mentioned that a little earlier. Yang does a tremendous fuck up right after that where Chavo whips him across the ring and he just falls on his face. Like he was expecting a drop toehold or something. Made me laugh anyway. JBL brings up Otto Wanz again. If he’s name dropping so much why doesn’t he mention Masa Saito? There’s a challenge for you Big John. Not that you care about the Internet. Chavo continues his campaign to ground this match with a lengthy chinlock. It doesn’t work and Yang twice comes off the top rope to reasonable effect. Two count pin off the high crossbody though. Chavo busts out the Three Amigos but Yang gets out on the third suplex with a spin kick. Yang tries high risk again but the moonsault misses. There’s a nice balance going on here where Yang succeeds with some of the high risk showing how high risk works. Chavo tries for the Gory Special but gets rolled up out of it for 2. That was a great finish if they’d used it. Sadly they didn’t. Crowd was ready and were happy to cheer the change. They go up top where Yang once again blows the high risk by getting himself crotched. He falls in place for the Frogsplash and that’ll do it for Chavo at 9.16. **1/2. The psychology was better in that one match than the previous one but the occasional errors on Yang’s part brought the match down again. Another heel retains.

NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS – JR & Lawler talk about Vince McMahon’s facial reactions on his walk to the limo, which is interesting stuff if this wasn’t a PPV. It’s a waste of time for the paying customer. Couldn’t this wait for the first hour of Raw tomorrow? I appreciate the attempts at making the angle more interesting but this could have waited.

BACKSTAGE Todd Grisham pretty much accuses Bobby Lashley of killing Vince McMahon. Lashley says he wished Vince was here so he could see Lashley win the WWE title.

NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS – Joey Styles pays tribute to Tazz by calling him the greatest ECW champion of all time. Tazz was a two time world champion. He was also tag champion in ECW three times and TV champion twice. He also held the FTW (Fuck The World) title, which he created himself and defended.

ECW title – CM Punk v Chris Benoit Johnny Nitro
Benoit is unable to be here tonight so we get a replacement the crowd is less than thrilled with in Nitro. Punk is a former ROH world champion. He also held the ROH tag titles twice with Colt Cabana. Nitro is a former IC champion. The sense of epic that was attached to Benoit-Punk simply isn’t there for this match. It’s the WWE’s fault too. They’ve treated Nitro, a potentially huge star, like crap for some time. He had genuine potential but that’s not been fulfilled because the WWE lost interest in him after the Jeff Hardy feud. Crowd wants Benoit. So did I. Because Nitro has been utilised as a jobber for some time the crowd don’t buy him being in this match. Punk is on a significantly higher level and this is a mismatch that doesn’t interest the crowd as a result. Even when the actual wrestling isn’t bad. They go after each other and both throw some real intense shots to try and get the crowd involved. It doesn’t really work because the WWE dropped the ball big time here. Having Punk win is such a no-brainer that you can almost sense the retarded booking kicking in. When I told my buddy today what happened, in terms of Nitro subbing in for Benoit, his response was “Punk won then”. He almost stated it like fact because it’s THAT much of a no-brainer. Nitro works an extended chinlock to further piss the crowd off. Punk recovers a small segment of the audience with some stiff kicks. The problem remains crowd perception. As Vince McMahon is so fond of saying “perception is reality”. The perception of Johnny Nitro over the past six months is enhancement talent. So the crowd don’t care if he’s in a title match because he’ll lose. Logically, anyway. Punk busts out the PEPSI TWIST~! The crowd only wakes up when they feel like Punk is about to wrap this up and win the belt. So obviously they have Nitro catch Punk with a single knee strike and give him a neckbreaker off the ropes for the win at 8.01. *. Mediocre match made *THAT* much worse with an incredulous booking decision. It was a no brainer and whoever booked a jobber to win a world title clearly doesn’t have a brain. Johnny Nitro? Are they insane? I like Nitro as a wrestler but so much damage has been done to his credibility they needed to rebuild him before positioning him like this. Now look at the perception of ECW. They have a guy representing them who’d lose to any other world champion out there in two minutes. Midcard at best. No build up means no credibility. It’s ok, although not good, to do that with Santino Marella and have him hold the IC title but for a world title it’s not. The guy is the representation of the brand and it’s almost as harmful to ECW as an ideal as it was having Justin Credible hold the title for six months when he was nothing but a midcard guy who everyone hated. At least that’s in Nitro’s favour. He can’t be the worst ECW champion of all time because Credible already has the honour. Meanwhile Punk, the biggest and best prospect the company has outside of guys they’re already pushing hard, is made to look like a joke because he jobbed clean to a heel midcarder who’s beaten no one else. Benoit-Punk was a dream match and the kind of thing they couldn’t possibly fuck up. Well, they fucked it up in spectacular fashion. This is the kind of thing that hurts the product. Not only are you hurting the title, and Punk’s reputation, but you’re damaging the entire ECW brand. Just at the point where it was starting to get rebuilt. What a disaster.

NIGHT OF THE CHAMPIONS – We look at Shawn Michaels winning the WWF title from Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 12 in the Ironman match. I still love that match.

BACKSTAGE Randy Orton points out to Mick Foley how much he knows about concussions and he thinks Foley might have one. Foley reminds Orton about the last time they met where Orton ended up with a back full of thumbtacks. Orton reminds him that he won that match.

NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS – Ricky Steamboat joins us out in the arena. His only WWE honour would be the IC title he won at Wrestlemania 3 but he also claimed gold with the NWA/WCW where he was world champion, US champion and TV champion as well as three different tag title reigns. Plus he beat Ric Flair to be world champion.

IC title – Santino Marella (c) v Umaga
It’d make sense to just squish Marella because we all know damn well he’s not in Umaga’s league. Umaga has been up there rubbing shoulders with John Cena and dominating the guy who the company is built around. Marella is a lucky rookie who’s only ever beaten Chris Masters. That’s his entire career. The actual win over Umaga was with huge assistance from Bobby Lashley. The crowd response for Umaga is unusually positive. Marella, for comedy purposes, can’t even get a roll up because he can’t take Umaga over. He goes for jumping on Umaga’s back but Umaga just drops backwards to get him off. Any time Marella tries to bash Umaga in the noggin the hardened Samoan skull prevents that from being effective. Marella breaks out some great selling when Umaga slaps a nervehold on him. He screws up his fingers like the nerves aren’t working properly in there. It looks worryingly like Jeremy Beadle’s wanking claw. Umaga wails away in the corner and ignores the referee in the process, which gets him disqualified at 2.35. Dude, weak. ¼*. The point is made. Umaga needs a handler because he’s uncontrollable in the wrestling environment. Without Estrada he’d have gotten himself disqualified with far greater frequency in the past. Of course that doesn’t alter the fact they didn’t have time for all these matches so something had to get the shaft. This match, with its non existent build up, was a logical choice. Coming on the back of the ECW title match it leaves a really bad taste in the mouth though.

POST MATCH Umaga takes Marella apart to an extremely positive reaction. The crowd happily chants “Um-ma-ga” as he kills Marella, scares the referee off and then comes back to spike Marella to a huge reaction. Maria scampers out to check on the fallen IC champ while the crowd chants “one more time” and I’d have marked if he’d gone in and messed up Marella and Maria and the referee just to really stress how uncontrollable he really is.

SHILL – Great American Bash. July 22nd on PPV.

NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS – Magnum TA. Two-time US champion whose career was cut short in a car crash in 1986.

US title – MVP (c) v Ric Flair
Talking of champions – Flair’s list of wins of incredible. He was the NWA champion 6 times, WCW champion on 8 occasions and a 2-time WWE champion. Although his title reigns run far greater than that due to wins unrecognised by the NWA and the WWE. In fact he’s largely considered to be at least a 20-time world champion. The US title that MVP is carrying around used to be the NWA US title, which Flair held four times himself. WHOOO v BALLIN’ is quite entertaining. MVP is all about the New School. Flair picks the leg and makes that his focus. MVP counters by going to the eyes and Yakuza kicking Flair off the apron. MVP isn’t doing much in the way of selling that leg so far. He elbows away at Flair’s head busting him open in the process. Either that’s hardway or Flair did a really sneaky bladejob. The horizontal cut looks like the work of a blade but it would have been lightning fast. I didn’t see it. Flair comes back with the other big weapon he has; the chops. MVP stops off to check his chest out and make sure he’s not been opened up himself. JBL makes a comparison between Flair’s chops and Nolan Ryan’s fastballs. MVP decides to pay tribute to the Ultimate WOYAH~! with the press drop. Flair with a jawbreaker to turn the tide back his way and he chops away. One of those misses badly and looks stupid. Flair tries for the 10-count punches but gets dumped with a Snake Eyes. MVP wastes time posing ahead of the Yakuza kick though and that misses. Flair clips the knee again. This time the left one with MVP standing there holding the other. Figure Four is on and the crowd goes wild anticipating a title change, the first this evening. MVP gets the ropes although you’d wonder why he’d just lie there and let Flair put him in the Figure Four in the first place. MVP rakes the eyes and finishes with the Playmaker at 8.40. **. It’s been a night of rushed matches and this was yet another one. You’d think they’d have learned from Backlash where a six match card worked out really well.

BACKSTAGE Todd Grisham attempts to interview John Cena but they’re interrupted by Edge. This leads to Cena goading Edge into telling us how he can do unspeakable dastardly things with Daniel Beck, from the FBI, standing behind him. Which is a better sight gag than I expected but once again an example of the WWE not being sure about whether the Mr McMahon limo bombing is a tragedy or a farce.

SHILL – Fuel’s “Gone”, which is the theme music of Vengeance. I didn’t know they were still around.

NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS – Tony Garea & Rick Martel. They held the tag titles twice. Garea had five tag title reigns with four partners. The others being Haystacks Calhoun, Dean Ho and Larry Zbyszko. Martel was also the AWA champion as well as holding the tag titles with Tito Santana in the team Strike Force. He went on to a decent career as a heel before a brief return in WCW where he held the TV title.

Tag titles – Deuce & Domino w/Cherry (c) v Mystery Opponents
The champs stop off to belittle Garea & Martel for being really old. Martel is showing his age at 51. Garea older at 60. Domino thought they were dead because the last time he saw them on TV it was in black & white. The mystery opponents are two old timers as a result; Sgt Slaughter in his yearly match and Jimmy Snuka. The later is important because his son is Deuce. Both guys are in the Hall of Fame. I remember Snuka being old when he went into the Hall of Fame in 1996. He’s now up near pensionable age at 64. Slaughter a relative spring chicken at 58. Although they don’t look it the guys in the crowd are younger. Snuka barely it makes it under one leapfrog from Domino and gets landed on the second time. Oh boy. How fucking slow was Snuka moving there? He shrugs it off because at 64 if you fuck up nobody cares. This is embarrassing and really bad. Slaughter tries for the Cobra clutch, which half the audience don’t remember and clearly the other half don’t care about. Deuce goes to hit the Superfly Splash to show Snuka a thing or two but Sarge moves. “Perfect” mouths a clearly proud father who promptly gets the hot tag and gets to work with his son. Deuce bumps around like crazy although his old man is slowing up by the second. Snuka sets up for the Superfly Splash, which ends up as a high crossbody but Deuce rolls through it and pins his own father at 6.30. Quite the moment for Deuce. DUD. Terrible match. At least the champs come out of it more over than when they walked in but you’d worry about the lack of potential challengers on Smackdown. Basically this company doesn’t need two different sets of tag titles when they only have a couple of teams they care about.

POST MATCH the champs beat down the challengers but Garea & Martel jump in there for the save. Fun stuff. There’s a great shot of Snuka looking all choked up about having had that match.

NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS – Harley Race. He’s at ringside. He was an 8-time NWA world champion. The guy that the NWA used to counter balance the presence of the charismatic Bruno Sammartino. He’s in every Hall of Fame there is for wrestling. In WWE terms all he really has is the 1986 King of the Ring but his achievements elsewhere are on a par with most anyone.

World title – Edge (c) v Dave Batista
This match is “Do or Die”. If Batista fails to win the title he doesn’t get another shot at Edge while he’s champion. Which is good because their matches suck. Edge has a pile of belts. 12 times tag champion, 5 times IC champ and 2-time WWE champion. Also the 2001 King of the Ring. Dave has two world titles as well as three tag titles and the 2005 Royal Rumble. Not bad for a guy that started out as D-Von Dudley’s manager. Dave gets some respect from Handsome Harley. This starts out as you’d expect with Dave just clubbing his way through the usual. He has his usual lack of emotion and urgency. While originally this wasn’t an issue it feels like he’s losing something by not having those aspects present in his matches. The opening four minutes or so here are really quite boring. And I’m not bored easily. Edge works at the arm to try and eliminate the power moves but he’s clearly not been paying attention because it doesn’t matter what body part you work on Batista because he just sells it for as long as it suits him then powers up and does all the moves anyway. See, Edge is an idiot here, he should just lay out the referee and get himself disqualified. Batista isn’t allowed a re-match so that’ll do it. Dave stumbles into the ring post at a quarter speed. I dread to think how bad Dave is going to get when he’s really over the hill. The crowd is somewhat mixed here with there being support for both guys. That’s increasingly an issue for the WWE; the number of fans out there who just hate the WWE’s babyface guys. Batista with a sloppy Samoan drop but Edge holds onto the arm. JBL defends it claiming that Edge blocked the move. Dave was just worried about hitting it too hard and knocking him loose. That’s all it was. Dave comes back with some punches to HEAT from the crowd. There’s a huge percentage of smart marks in this crowd. If I was Vince McMahon I’d be concerned. Oh no wait, I’d be dead. What really irks me is this match is never any good and yet here we are having one of the longest matches on the card. Edge eventually breaks out the Edgecution, which no one has called in years. That gets 2. It also looked filthy ugly. Edge wants some kind of weapon but the ref orders him back in. They trade roll up’s and the crowd is really getting into it now. Dave goes for a powerslam but Edge gets out into the Edgeomatic and both guys are down. Edge wants the spear but Batista blocks it with one of his own. Dave wants the Demonbomb but Edge punches him in the balls for the DQ at 12.46. Which is exactly what I would have done only 12.45 later than I would have done it. Only out comes THADDEUS LONG to order the match to re-start with the stipulation that if Edge gets disqualified he loses the title.

So we re-start. Cole says this is justified and the right call but its bullshit as far as I’m concerned. I agree entirely with JBL here. He says Dave had his chance and didn’t win so he shouldn’t get another one. Edge goes back down hits the spear anyway…for 2. Edge is pissed off and grabs a chair but then remembers he can’t use it. Frustrated at every turn he gets rolled up for 2. Edge escapes the Demonbomb in a really awkward spot. Outside and Edge tries for a spear but gets caught and DEMONBOMBED on the floor. Unfortunately for Dave he’s now dead weight and Dave is TOO FUCKING STUPID to get back in the ring and break the count so he gets counted out at 2.05. Good. ***. Decent match that built itself up well thanks to it actually getting time, a real rarity on this show, and then they ruined it all with that fucking stupid finish.

POST MATCH Dave is all “that was my last chance”. Well, then you shouldn’t have gotten yourself counted out you mongoloid. You’ve demonbombed Edge on the floor. So you’ll need longer than 10 seconds to get him in the ring. So go in the ring and break the count. Then you get another 10 count to get him in. Dave acts like a big child who didn’t get the breakfast cereal he wanted and Demonbombs Edge after the match. What a total prick. I’m glad he lost. Batista HAS to turn now. Absolutely 100% has to. He can’t carry on as a babyface because his character is so utterly incapable of behaving like one. This whole series with Edge has just made me hate the guy. Just flat out hate him.

NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS – Fabulous Moolah. We get clips of her beating Wendi Richter in 1985 in a ‘shoot’ dressed up as a jobber. Someone at the WWE reads Evo Schematic.

Womens title – Melina Perez (c) v Candice Michelle
Candice has beaten Melina a few times in non-title matches. Melina throws a few knees but gets herself caught in the Candylicious (that Tarantula type move). Candice needs to work on her kickouts. She’s not kicking enough. Just rolling the shoulder looks bad and lazy. Melina slaps on the Oriental Crossbow but Candice manages to slip out onto a cover for 2. Melina’s kickout isn’t much better. She’s better looking though. Candice with a powerslam of all things for 2. Go Daddy Elbow Drop gets 2. Sloppy bulldog gets 2. That bulldog where all you grab is the hair looks like shit. Candice comes back with yet another fucked up spinning heel kick for the win at 4.19. Hey, a title change! Shame no one cares. DUD. Bad even for a WWE women’s match.

POST MATCH At least Candice finds it important because she blubs about it as soon as the three count goes down. I guess she’s thinking she proved a lot of people wrong by winning the title but she’d prove more wrong if she actually improved to a level where she didn’t flub her finisher.

NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS – JBL. He makes Justin Roberts read out a statement about how great he is and why he’s a Wrestling God. I like how Michael Cole is left just totally speechless.

WWE title – John Cena (c) v King Booker v Randy Orton v Mick Foley v Bobby Lashley
Cena is a 3-time WWE champion. He also held the US title three times and the tag titles with Shawn Michaels. When you’re talking titles Booker T is your man. In WCW he held 11 tag titles, 5 WCW titles and 6 TV titles as well as the US belt. A grand total of 23 titles. In the WWE he became a world champion again. He also held 3 tag titles, 3 further US title and the IC title. That’s another 8 titles taking his overall tally to 31. Orton has held the tag titles, IC title and WWE title once each. Lashley has held the ECW title twice and is also a former US champ. Foley is a former 3-time WWE champion along with 8 tag title reigns with five different partners. Some fool gets the boom camera in shot twice during Randy Orton’s entrance. Not quite the level of professionalism we’re used to. The 5-man nature of this main event suggests a somewhat messy match but another problem arises as it begins and that’s the issue of time with the normal end time of the PPV approaching quickly.

Booker bails to get a rubdown off Queen Sharmell. Hey, I don’t blame him! They have matching ring gear this evening just to be cute. The other faces team up on Orton allowing the Foleyline to take him outside. He stays down holding his knee, which isn’t a good sign. Lashley overpowers Booker when he finally gets in there and sends him over the top. This sets up everyone on the floor while Lashley is in the ring and he takes to the air with a suicide dive. Very cool. Lashley with that crappy backbreaker on Booker. I hate that. I hate that Lashley uses a powerslam as a finisher more. Cena makes the save. That leads to a brawl and the crowd hates Cena again. Lashley wins out with a spinebuster and this has been his match so far. He preps the announce table with the hope of putting someone through it. Orton decides to get back into the match after lying on the floor for the last 2 ½ minutes and turns up. The selling has been a mess so far like you’d expect in a multiple person match. Orton gets knocked over and stays down for ages again. At least Foley gets run knees first into the ring steps when he’s put down for a while but the selling is still all over the place. Orton tries for an RKO but Lashley shoves him off only to turn around into an FU THROUGH THE ANNOUNCE TABLE. Cena picks off Lashley and that’s one guy out of the equation. Now Cena-Booker gets the “Boo”, “Yay” treatment ahead of Booker nailing the scissors kick and that should do it but Orton recovers from his 3 minute nap to break the pin. Cena cleans house on Booker and hits the Protobomb. Booker can’t see him. Orton can. He hits the RKO and Foley breaks the fall…just. He was slightly late. He goes to town on Orton and hits the running knee. Double Arm DDT and instead of pinning Foley wants the Socko Claw. When that doesn’t pan out courtesy of Booker superkicking him out of the ring he gets a chair instead. Lashley is just back up in time to take the first one. It’s a beauty. Foley dishes them out all round but the rest of the shots aren’t so good. Orton stalks him and hits that running punt. Lashley re-appears to spear him. Booker kicks him. Booker gets hung up on the ropes by Cena. Foley is staggering around so Cena FU’s him for the pin at 10.08. Wow. Talk about short. **. A real clusterfuck and no mistake. Ten minutes is no time to tell a big complex story so this ended up being a spotfest, which is probably the last thing the WWE wants its main event to be. The selling was terrible and it suffered from all the usual problems of a big multi-person match.

Final Thoughts–
Although the theme for the Night of Champions played out well and the WWE alumni around ringside made for some fun little tributes the actual wrestling part of the show didn’t pan out well. The WWE title match was as rushed as the rest of the card. The only match that wasn’t rushed was Dave-Edge, which had a terrible ending. And they put the ECW title on Johnny Nitro. The only question this show leaves me with is this; can the WWE continue this run of increasingly poor shows tomorrow night? It seems the entire company is distracted by an overpowering storyline that, from where I’m sat, has no pay off. If it’s not Vince McMahon just fucking with everyone than whoever is responsible is looking at 30 years in jail. They’ll have to get Shane McMahon’s son to feud with him when he gets out. Unless it’s someone who’s retiring and they make sure he gets the chair. Or something equally as stupid that I have no interest in.