Full 'WWE Judgment Day 2009' pay per view review!

[rajuB4U]

Full 'WWE Judgment Day 2009' pay per view review!

c/p



Match #1: CM Punk v. Umaga

This is a really interesting match. For one, they stick with the tried and true formula that worked in the Jeff Hardy/Umaga bouts, where they would work Jeff's specific offense into big comeback spots sandwiched with long, dominating Umaga control segments. Here, they replaced Jeff's nutty high-flying spots with Punk's strike-based offense which works well and dare I say, better. Punk's strikes are portrayed as killer stuff in the grand scheme of things and here, they make him appear to be much more of a threat to the Umaga tidal wave. The finishing stretch was also worked really well here, as they kept it short but impactful, with the crescent kick, into the butt to the face, to the spike finisher. Despite it being a squeaky clean win for Umaga, Punk was indirectly protected here, as he looked very capable of toppling Umaga thanks to his strong striking ability and take significantly more damage than others have in the past against the big Samoan. ***1/2

Match #2: John Morrison v. Shelton Benjamin

Fun showcase match here. This was pretty much put on the card so these guys could get some more exposure on a big card and with both of these two having extremely flashy move sets, it was very strong filler, or something they could use to keep the crowd invested in the show without burning them out or losing them for the rest of the show. Sure, this was highly dependent on those spots, but with around 7-8 minutes to work with, this wasn't really going to be anything more than that. It was a good introductory piece for these guys, that should they elect to move into a program between the two, provides some decent foundational stuff to work off of. **

Match #3: Christian v. Jack Swagger, ECW Championship

Considering how good the first two matches were between these two, it was a near impossible task for them to top that. Still, this match ended up being unique and well-worked in its own right, as they really walked away from the long-term Christian selling and showed they could work something strong that wasn't so dependent on that to carry the day. The result was a positive one, although this match certainly has more visible flaws than their previous encounters.

They DO get a shred too cute with the learned psychology spots, but it never really seems like we're getting beaten to death with them. They work a nice experienced veteran v. over zealous younger, budding star type of match here, with Swagger moving forward the entire match and Christian more or less figuring out ways to thwart his onslaught by goading him into situations where he could stun and or take advantage of his younger, less experienced foe. I wasn't a huge fan of the finishing stretch, as I thought it was, like the learned psychology spots, a little TOO cute, but it still worked on a certain level.

What we're left with is a fun match that doesn't live up to the previous two matches, but is strong in its own, unique way. ***1/2

Match #4: Rey Mysterio v. Chris Jericho, WWE Intercontinental Championship

This was probably the strongest match on the card. The thing that I harped on quite a bit leading into this is that I thought this would be a very good match from a styles standpoint. These two have always had good chemistry in the past, but there was a significant styles gap that they'd have to overcome in order to get something good. The two certainly overcame that deficit in past encounters, but this had the potential to be great, simply because that style difference didn't exist to the degree that it did before.

For one, Rey has significantly grounded his style to adapt to the more mat/strike based WWE main event style and he's done so with a great deal of success. Jericho was never the aerial high flyer that Rey was in the past, and has always worked a far more grounded juniors style that really wasn't that far from what we see from most heavyweights. Here, we see a really seem less blend of styles that produced a really fantastic end result.

While this was one of the more high profile matches on the card, it didn't really have a lot of build per sae, so there wasn't a lot of stuff from the program that they could work off of in this particular match. That didn't appear to be a problem at all though, as they went out and really worked a fun story into a match based around Jericho refusing to get caught with Rey's patented 619 finisher. They work a lot of momentum swings out of that one finisher, and really do a fantastic job of building a lot of tension throughout that made the finishing run all the more satisfying. Jericho is a guy who enjoys working a counter-based match, but the problem he runs into a lot in the WWE, is that there just aren't a lot of guys who can work that well, much less to the level that a guy like Rey Mysterio can. Here, it works well where they build to the counter spots without ever feeling the need to literally staple it to our forehead to the degree where you'd wonder if they really think we're THAT stupid and wouldn't get it. The transitions are really almost flawless and lend themselves naturally to Jericho's strengths, while keeping Rey's activities the focal point in the match. The finishing run where Rey nails the move and hits the post, in a way sacrificing himself to hit it, really comes off as wholesome and a great way to end the fantastic mini-story they were going for here. It leaves a conclusive ending to the match, but also leaves a lot left on the table that they could work with in future matches. Go way out of your way to see this, as its as good as juniors wrestling gets these days. ***3/4

Match #5: John Cena v. The Big Show

Of all the matches on this particular card, this was perhaps the match I was most looking forward to. Their previous two encounters on Smackdown in February and Raw in March, were really fantastic matches that speak volumes towards reinforcing the concept that most good wrestling matches are largely dependent on how certain styles match up. Big Show's offense is really the best in the WWE right now, as since the Floyd Mayweather program at Wrestlemania 24, he's incorporated some really fantastic striking into his arsenal, and he has all sorts of angles and way with which he can employ those moves. John Cena, is perhaps the best seller in the game these days, which makes the token baby face in peril match a near slam dunk for him every time he wrestles, and he really doesn't have to do a ton on offense to have a solid match.

While this wasn't in the league of the two television matches, it might have been Big Show's best performance in the entire series. His offense is just absolutely killer here, and Cena's got multiple ways to bounce off of Show and make him look like a real monster. Show's got strikes slams, and even spots where he can stay stationary and goad the crowd, that add a lot of heat to Cena's already fantastic selling.

That being said, what brings this down is actually John Cena, which is something I don't find myself saying much these days, but he was definitely the lesser of the two in this match. In these big, super heavyweight v. capable underdog fights, the selling and comebacks are REALLY important. While Cena's selling is good for the most part during the long control segments, his offense on the comebacks, isn't very interesting, and in many cases, he shrugs off a lot of Big Show offense in favor of trying to pick up the pace of a match that didn't need to accelerate. There was one instance in particular, where Cena avoids a Vader bomb, but is throwing blows like nothing happened seconds later. Sometimes, I give a pseudo-pass to guys that do that in matches, as getting caught up in the heat of things can cause people to get TOO into matches, but with it being such a huge, huge focal point of this feud (Cena's injuries), its kind of inexcusable here. The finishing stretch was also really rushed, and had Cena sold a bit better and milked the final climactic comeback, it'd have worked a heck of a lot better than it did.

All things considered, this is still a good match, but had a lot of obvious flaws in it that the other matches simply did not have. The Christian/Jack Swagger match earlier in the night was a good example of how you can have a good stand-on-its-own match without having to get swept up in expectations set by previous encounters. This came off as more of 'the least-good match in a really strong series'. **3/4

Match #6: Batista v. Randy Orton, WWE Championship

These two really made no secret of the kind of match they were going from right out of the gate. They really wanted this to feel like the Cena/Orton match from No Way Out 2008, where it was based around Orton's insanely strong heel work, and his willingness to go straight up, but upon discovering that his best simply isn't good enough, he tries to just escape with the title in hand. Frankly, this came off as a mediocre version of that match.

The difference here is clearly Orton's opponent. Whereas Cena's offense is billed as highly effective, its not overwhelming in the way Batista's offense is presented. Whereas Orton appeared to be outclassed and gradually overwhelmed in the Cena match, here Batista flat out blows him to bits with huge slams and bone jarring drops and spine busters. In theory, this could have worked a lot better had Batista's offense not been so all-enveloping. That in turn, caused Orton to overcompensate and oversell/over stooge the escape spots. Because of that, Orton doesn't look nearly as sharp or on-point as he did in the Cena match.

This had some fun spots, like with Orton clinging to the ring post, but again, given the whole context and backdrop that the match had laid out building towards that spot and the subsequent referee slap finish, it came off as him simply trying too hard. This is an OK match, just not anything to write home about. **1/4

Match #7: Edge v. Jeff Hardy, World Heavyweight Championship

I thought this was probably the worst match of the night.

To me, this is the second really good example (Edge. HHH from Last year's Bash Card being the other) of how exposed Edge looks when he doesn't have a wild finish booked for the end of his matches. Edge more often than not is billed as a guy who out-thinks his opposition rather than out-wrestle them, but he doesn't work his matches that way. More often than not, they descend into counter-for-counter contests, which usually build to a silly finish that leave you scratching your head. If he can counter most good stuff and generally work an even temp with his opponent in his matches, then WHY would he have to resort to so many ridiculous tactics to win it?

When Edge doesn't work that counter-for-counter formula, he more often than not uses call back spots to serve as guideposts in his matches. While there's certainly nothing wrong with that (quite the contrary, actually), he doesn't BUILD to those spots in any meaningful way. He often just blows through his late-90s Indy move set or depends on some nutty spot to burn time until he gets to those call back spots. Its problematic for the Edge character, because it doesn't reinforce IN the ring what he's doing OUT of it, thus making him highly dependent on angles and or other people for maintaining his own heat. Here, I think he really looked exposed in that regard.

The flip side of this match is Jeff Hardy, who can be very hit and miss. He has one type of match he works really, really well, and that's usually the dominant big man v. underdog hero type match where he spends the lion's share of his time selling for a while before using his spotty yet good looking offense to form comebacks. Past that, he gets shaky. With Edge never being a guy who'd be perceived as having good offense, its not a pairing that necessarily fits within the somewhat small box of what Hardy does really well.

That being said, this match is a big step up from their horrendous Royal Rumble title match where they got distracted by all sorts of ridiculous spots, perhaps the table spot on Chavo Guerrero being the worst. What works here, is that they work an essentially spot based match with some counter stuff in between. While its not knock it out of the park stuff, its still perfectly fine. Both of these guys are in a position where its make or break for them, so keeping them looking strong is a good thing. The problem though, is kind of a catch-22.

Edge really needs to be in matches where the finishes are less active and hairy, so this in that regard is a step in the right direction, but it suffers from the fact that without that wild finish, Edge looks not so great because he's just not that good at working a match like that. We've become so accustomed to those finishes, that when we don't get them, we're left with a 'that's it?' kind of feeling, and while thats not inherently bad thing per sae, it is what it is right now. This Matt Hardy run in is kind of an eye roller, as at this point, fans are really burnt on the Hardy family feud, and it wasn't really the punctuation point on the match, which made it seem even more out of place than it already was.

So while in sum, this is what we need to see in terms of the KIND of matches these two need to be in if they want to be in that 'elite' position within the company, it still wasn't, rather expectedly, worked well. Its certainly not sleep or rage-inducing as the Rumble match was, but it still wasn't very good on any level. **

Overall: This was another really strong pay per view. Almost all the matches were good, with the only exceptions being the title matches, which all things considered is a good thing. The pacing felt OK here, despite there being a lot of really good match ups on the card; something that makes it more challenging to book. This wasn't as good as the Backlash show was last month, but it was a pretty strong offering overall, on a show that is usually treated as filler. Despite a rather hum-drum build to the show, it overcame that and put forth a really fun night. B+