Continuing the bitter taste -WWE Over The Limit review/thoughts

Yesterday, I produced a whole blog on how last week’s WWE and Impact shows left me feeling bitter, Over The Limit was no difference.

I warn you right now, if you’re planning on watching Over The Limit and don’t want to read on incase of spoilers… just read on. WWECW’s December to Dismember is widely regarded as one of the worst pay per views in the companies history, certainly the absolute worst in recent memory. In my honest opinion, Over The Limit comes to close to topping it. It felt like I was watching a 3 hour-long episode of your average Smackdown, not (in the US) a $45 quality Pay Per View event. The WWE creative team must have all been busy circle jerking when booking Over The Limit. Lets have a look at what went down shall we?

We open with R – Truth vs Rey Mysterio:

Truth is decked out in his graffiti jacket ring gear again; his jeans say shut up on them… he’s never going to be taken seriously as a heel. On a positive note, instead of his ‘What’s up’ theme song we are treated to utter silence as he walks to the ring, awesome! Truth fumbles around on the mic to introduce our first filler into the show. Honestly, the match was mediocre at best. Rey Mysterio has a canny ability to bring out the best in his opponents but things didn’t work out that way at Over The Limit. If you’ve ever watched his stretch in TNA, R-Truth has a decent amount of in-ring ability but he wasn’t at the top of his game tonight. It’s a shame because this match had the potential to be better than it was. In the end R-Truth gets a surprising victory, at least they’re trying to make him look strong, I guess. * star.

Winner by Pinfall: R – Truth.

Wade Barrett vs Ezekiel Jackson for the Intercontinental Championship

Apart from the top matches on the card, this bout probably had the most build to it. Considering how Barrett has done nothing with the IC championship since defeating Kofi Kingston last March, and Zeke is on a “hot streak”, you’d think a title switch is bound to happen tonight. Wrong. Instead, we get a boredom-inducing match. I’m pretty sure half of the crowd were lulled to sleep by it, as they were silent for the majority of the time. Remember when Wade Barrett was going to be the next star heel? WWE dropped the ball on that one just because he didn't turn into a superstar immediately following his original Nexus run. Barrett now has little to no heat and he’s fading into obscurity, and fast. What’s more, The Corre interfered for the DQ. It was like watching quite a poor standard Raw match. Uck. ½ a star.

Winner by DQ: Ezekiel Jackson

Sin Cara vs Chavo Guerrero

I’ve said it before and this match proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt, Sin Cara is not ready to be working one on one PPV matches in the WWE right now. He has yet to adjust to the style! Look back at some of his matches from Mexico as Mistico, his style works fine because everyone is used to working that fast paced highflying style. WWE is a completely different ball game. Officials have even brought out Chavo Guerrero from obscurity, someone who is used to the Lucha Libre style, to bring out a good match from Sin Cara. Even that didn’t work. There were a couple of minor botches in the match however, Sin Cara royally fucked up the finish. If you’ve seen it, it didn’t look like ANYTHING. It was just a headscissors takedown that looked like shit. Chavo gently fell to the mat and Sin Cara got the 1 2 3. WWE desperately need to admit they made a mistake by bringing him straight to the main roster and send him to FCW before he severely hurts himself or an opponent. Honestly though, bar the finish it was a decent match and I have no doubt when they’ve worked out the kinks, Chavo vs Sin Cara could have some nice matches in the future. Chavo hasn’t done anything noteworthy since he was the ‘ECW’ champion back in 2008, since then he’s done nothing but job… he even jobbed to Hornswoggle for a while… was there any doubt in anyone’s mind who was getting the win, then?

* ¾ stars

Winner by pinfall: Sin Cara.

An anti bullying video airs. I know it’s for a good cause and everything but I never understand how a wrestling company, with bully characters, vindictive characters… hell just watch Tough Enough to find out how trainers treat new wrestlers… can promote anti-bullying. It makes little sense to me.

Alberto Del Rio comes out to add to the filler for the pay per view. He cuts the same promo he’s been cutting since he debuted (destiny, blah) and gets interrupted by Kane and Big Show… I guess we know who’s challenging for the WWE title next then.

Kane and Big Show vs Mason Ryan and CM Punk for the Tag Titles

Wow. Just… wow. Mason Ryan is just horrible in the ring. He doesn’t know how to work a match and needs to be sent back to FCW immediately. It was just slow and blasé. I think the most noteworthy thing was a very loud ‘Batista’ chant from the crowd which had me spitting out my Ben and Jerry’s I laughed so hard. CM Punk deserves so much better than this, as do Kane and Big Show to be honest. At least Punk got to pay tribute to Randy Savage with a flying elbow. ½ a star.

Winners by pinfall: Big Show and Kane.

Brie Bella vs Kelly Kelly for the WWE Divas Championship

Brie Bella applies a 5 minute long arm hold. Kelly Kelly no sells it. Bella’s win by twin magic. Blah. In wrestling, it's usually a rule of thumb that when you have a hot angle going you use it on television as much as you can. The hottest angle that WWE has going right now involves Kharma taking out the rest of the divas. Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be seen on the Over the Limit event last night. That is a pretty glaring omission on WWE's part simply because everything that they have done to build up Kharma would have led one to believe that she would be a major part of the match between Brie Bella and Kelly Kelly. But no, it was just a match with Brie retaining the title by having Nikki get involved. You could almost hear the disappointment in the crowd when they realised that Kharma wasn't going to be there. That goes to show just how much Kharma has meant to WWE in just a short time, and how important she is to the divas division. I honestly have no idea what WWE creative team were smoking when booking this pay per view. They probably got it from Jeff Hardy though. Please let Natalya and Beth Phoenix wrestle at the next PPV. ½ a star.

Winner by pinfall…. Erm…. Nikki Bella.

Randy Orton vs Christian for the World Heavyweight Championship

Far, above and away better than everything else combined tonight. A genuinely great match between the two. Some sweet back and forth action… that’s all a wrestling fan wants, unpredictability. Both men had several believable falls, both men got equal amounts of offence in, both men saved the show… if only for a little while. For the first time throughout the PPV the crowd had a reason to come to life… and they most certainly did. Some nice, loud duelling chants and at last… a pay per view quality match. Hands down match of the night, a contender for match of the year so far. Exactly what a match should be. ****

Winner by Pinfall: Randy Orton.

Michael Cole vs Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler in a kiss my foot match.

I said in my blog yesterday that this feud needs to be put to bed. The match was a whole lot of nothing really, until the end. ½ a star.

Winner by pinfall: Jerry Lawler.

Technically, nothing happened in the match except a few punches. The payoff however, was pretty fun. King invited a few friends out to get their revenge on Cole. Firstly, Eve comes out and ACTUALLY LANDS her moonsault on Cole. G’wan girl. Next up is JR who comes out and squirts some of his BBQ sauce all over Cole. Cole isn’t taking anymore and just as he’s about to exit the arena, Bret Hart’s music hits, which receives a huge pop from the crowd. Bret applies the sharpshooter to Cole at the same time as King shoves his foot in his mouth. The commentators rejoice. As will I, if this is the end of the feud. I have a horrible feeling that it isn’t though.

John Cena vs The Miz for the WWE title in an I Quit match

I can conclude from this match that Vince Russo is totally still under WWE contract. This was such a clusterfuck, it made my head hurt. At one point I thought it was genius booking at another I thought it was shocking booking. I honestly didn’t know how to take the match. I do now, and I hated it. At the beginning of the match, The Miz got onto the stick and claimed that since its no DQ Alex Riley could get involved as much as he wanted. This effectively killed the match and essentially turned it into a really, really, really long and drawn out beat down. Miz was dominating John Cena, absolutely dominating him. We got a rehash of the 1999 Royal Rumble "I Quit" match between Mankind and The Rock with a recording of Cena saying "I Quit" from a previous promo was played, and the match was ended in favor of Miz. Replaying the Mankind/Rock ending was bad and lazy enough. That wasn't the end, though. As the referee is going to retrieve the WWE Title to present it to the new champion, he sees a tape recorder on the ground near Cena. He picks it up, notices the tape is at its end, and rewinds it. When he hears the recording of Cena's voice, he restarts the match. Cena puts Riley through the announce table, whips The Miz a couple of times with a Leather belt, puts in the STF and that’s it…

People complain and complain about the ‘supercena’ booking and this was an absolutely horrible, disgusting display of absolute shit, lazy booking. It was terrible, Cena takes a beating that would kill another man, hulks up and beats The Miz with one move. This isn't the 1980s anymore. I'm sure most of you are aware of that minor detail, but it doesn't seem like the Creative Team is. We know damn well that Vince McMahon isn't aware of it. Wrestling fans, in general, are too smart for the old Hulk Hogan routine of getting beat up for a while, then "Hulking up" and hitting three or four moves to win a match. Back then, fans ate it up. Those were the times, and the people loved Hogan. People didn't question the booking. We’re now in 2011, people question the booking, people expect more from matches. Look at the Orton vs Christian match, evenly split offence, great back and forth action THAT is what we should be getting in most matches, especially pay per view main events.

Furthermore, how fucking weak do you want The Miz to look? He can’t get the job done in a handicap “I Quit” match, but on top of that WWE creative made him look like an absolute bitch by quitting to one move. I get that heels aren’t really supposed to win “I Quit” matches but it should not have gone down like this. This just about finishes Miz in the eyes of the casual viewer. Nobody's going to take him seriously now. They have no reason to. He's nothing more than a bitch in their eyes now, and for what? To give Cena a victory he was going to get, anyway?!?

The match should have been about both men’s desperation at obtaining the title. The Miz should have shown the aggression he showed, absolutely. However, Cena should have been just as desperate, he should have pulled out all the stops, beaten The Miz down to within an inch of his life… but The Miz won’t quit either… both men struggling to make each other quit… beating the living shit out of each other. Until finally…FINALLY… Cena makes the Miz quit after a tremendous amount of punishment. Everything the WWE have done to build up the Miz character was squashed in this one match. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been bemused by a match so badly in a long time. ½ a star.

Winner: John Cena.

Ladies and gentleman, prepare yourself for more… BOOKER T COMMENTARY HATRED.

Get this, in the main event Booker T claimed that John Cena gets by 'with limited skill and ability.’ Booker, why are you employed? You're meant to put over the face of your company, biggest draw and current champion, Booker you absolute bell end. Plus, you were around when WWE booked him to have more than 5 moves, just because his match formula doesn’t have him producing technical classics doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the skills necessary to produce a technical match. Dear GOD.

Over The Limit was a poorly booked 3-hour version of Smackdown. No shit. Apart from the Orton vs Christian match, no match went over one and 3-quarter stars for me. The matches lacked any sort of quality and the main event was an utter clusterfuck.

Miami Heat played the Chicago Bulls in the NBA, the PPV had little to no drawing power… I shudder to think what the buyrates are, and I feel sorry for anyone who shelled out the money for it.

Terrible.

What were your thoughts on Over The Limit, Let me know!

Lets Talk Wrestling.

Bitter taste - Randy Savage and this weeks shows.

(Quite a long one this week, haven’t written a blog for a while and got a lot to get off my chest.)

This week was mired with the news of ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage passing away due to a massive heart attack while he was driving his vehicle causing him to lose control.

I’m not going to pretend to be Savage’s biggest fan, nor am I going to pretend I’ve seen every single one of his match’s, well, because I haven’t. I started watching wrestling in around 1995/1996. I was limited to WCW Nitro and Thunder, which Channel 5 showed, WWF Heat and Pay Per Views on Channel 4 and Smackdown, Bottom Line, Velocity and Afterburn on Sky at my friends’ house. I’ve watched some of his classic match’s; Wrestlemania 3 vs Ricky Steamboat, vs Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 5, vs The Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania 7… match’s like that. My biggest personal memories come from his time in WCW with the N.W.O, some of his hilarious promos and commentary and his very brief stint in TNA. With his peak being in the 80’s, fans who began watching during the Attitude Era and who were too young to have lived through the 80’s have little experience of what the Macho Man brought to the table. I can safely say he was a great performer and a great entertainer. Something I’ve always admired about Randy Savage is that unlike many other stars of the 80’s, he knew when to quit.

After departing from WWE in 1994, there have been rumours, whisper’s and hearsay’s regarding why he left. Savage is one of the men who are guaranteed a WWE Hall of Fame spot one day. Will it happen next year? Possibly. One thing’s for sure if Vince McMahon decides to put him in the Hall of Fame in 2012 people will say he is cashing in on his death. On the other hand, if he waits he’ll be called the scum of the earth.

Rest in Peace Randy Poffo.

Onto this week’s shows starting with Raw.

Another go home Raw before a PPV, another Raw with little in the way of in-ring action.

A rather random match between CM Punk and Kofi Kingston kicked off the ring action and Punk won. You’re telling me WWE couldn’t choose another opponent for Punk to go over rather than the UNITED STATES CHAMPION? They really do love making any other title except the WWE Title look like utter shit don’t they? The match also looked like it was put together by a five year old with Kofi gently falling to the mat apparently being enough to incapacitate him for Punk to deliver the GTS. Just dumb booking all round really.

I thought Kharma flicking Kelly Kelly on the swede was a quality touch. It echoed her vignette’s leading up to her debut and indicated that she has something bigger in store for the Barbie look alike. Remember when I said that Brie Bella was going to be a transitional champion? (Well I did look it up) Isn’t it just OBVIOUS that Kelly Kelly is going to come out victorious at Over the Limit? Honestly, if she doesn’t win, I’ll chew my left testicle off… God I hope she wins. Saying that however, I’d much rather see Kharma square off against Natalya, Beth Phoenix or re-ignite the great feud she had with Gail Kim in TNA.

We have another Rey Mysterio vs Alberto Del Rio match. I’ll be honest, despite the fact that they have the ability to put on a great match, I’m getting a little sick of seeing them square off. WWE could at least give us a few months off because it seems as if they’ve faced each other every other show since Del Rio’s debut. Give it a rest dammit!

It’s becoming a trend that the first hour of a Raw show has to be terrible the past few weeks and this week was no different, check out this tweet:

@crapminitweets Omg, this Raw. I don't think I can make it another hour without falling asleep. #tiredandthisrawsucks

It must have been bad, or maybe I was indeed just tired.

I noticed that someone needs to tell R-Truth that the magic stick that he holds in his hand when he talks PROJECTS his voice. There is no need to YELL and YELL as he talks into the microphone. Like I’ve said, WWE need to tone down the goofyness to R-Truth’s heel character, the way he talks just makes him seem like a retard… and he’ll never be a legit character in my eyes unless he can tone that down. I did like his new look however, I’m glad he lost that graffiti jacket.

King vs Cole contract signing. What can I say? This was a hot feud a few months ago and I was a big fan of the direction it was taking pre – Wrestlemania. After we were forced to watch Michael Cole try to wrestle and then WIN at Wrestlemania, it has gone completely down hill. While I’m a fan of Michael Cole as a heel commentator, I do NOT want to see him competing in matches. I can’t believe WWE haven’t learnt their lesson after the shambles of the Wrestlemania match, followed by clusterfuck of a ‘country whipping match.’ We’re now treated to a ‘Kiss My Foot Match.’ I don’t know about anyone else but I have a horrible feeling that due to the Athlete’s Foot angle Cole is going to win this match as well, continuing the feud. This feud needs to be put out of its misery.

Going back to my earlier sentiment, WHY did Punk go over the United States Champion? He’s been thrusted into a tag title match with Mason Ryan? Ok then. Mason Ryan is so green it’s unreal so I can see Punk carrying the majority of the match. Do I see them winning the titles? It’s really give or take, it would at least give the Nexus something to do but then again, Punk is too good to be wallowing down in the mid card with Batistwo.

WWE decided to skip the opportunity to pull the trigger on a Jack Swagger face turn and instead had him face Cena as The Miz’s chosen opponent. We saw a bit of a return of the ‘SuperCena’ booking here as he was dominated for the vast majority of the match, hit two moves and won. It continued after being beaten down with a led pipe, before hulking up and dominating The Miz and Riley. Please don’t return to this style of booking for Cena, WWE. It’s enough that you’ve copy and pasted the formula for Randy Orton in recent months, we don’t need to superchamps.

I liked the Miz’s promo at the end however; he promised to do something never before seen and it gave intrigue to the match. At the very least, it made this viewer want to see what The Miz pulls out. Lets be serious though, Cena’s winning.

Raw was pretty ‘meh’ for the most part, nothing really happened. What about Smackdown?

We kick off with a nice match between Christian and Sheamus, some nice back and forth action before we get an interference from Mark Henry: Buzz kill. Henry waddles to the ring and both he and Sheamus beat on Christian. Randy Orton comes out and  just stands there on the stage while Sheamus and Mark Henry are attacking Christian. Can't argue with that strategy, I guess. He has a World Title defense against Christian this weekend, so he might as well let Christian take just a little bit more of a beating before he makes the save… nice touch I thought.

Ladies and gentleman, prepare yourself for more… BOOKER T COMMENTARY HATRED. That man on commentary Christ a-fucking-live. I wouldn’t be surprised if he causes a world wide rapture one day. After a two-count for Christian, Booker said that proves how bad Christian wants to win. Why? Because he didn't get the win? Because he went for the pin in the first place? As opposed to what, all of those wrestlers who don't want to win, so they refuse to go for pins? Booker, you're a fucking idiot, and I hope you permanently lose your voice soon.

Brie pins Natalya cleanly and Kharma doesn’t come out. Seriously? Whatsupwitdat?

Ezekiel Jackson, the man of five powerslam’s, is on the mic. It’s pretty clear from the way he’s talking that the ‘What?’ chants have been edited out in post – production. This guy is just terrible on the stick. We get a Corre vs Kane, Show and Zeke match whereby the faces win, but the match went on way too long, considering how.. well.. limited most of the guys in the match are. Nice that they gave Zeke a Torture Rack finisher, though, even if he's going to end up killing someone in the move one day.

Another example of dumb booking in preparation for Over The Limit came in the form of Chavo Guerrero vs Daniel Bryan. While I don't want to see Daniel Bryan squashed, and would have booked someone else in the match if I were in charge, does Bryan have a match at Over The Limit? Does Chavo Guerrero? Chavo should have been booked to look strong going into the pay-per-view. It's not rocket science, shit.

I absolutely LOVED the Cody Rhodes/Ted Dibiase segment and match. Cody Rhodes is the current WWE MVP in terms of character development. He is mastering his current character, but just needs that big win and main event push… we could see big things in the future for Mr Rhodes. His paper bag gimmick is priceless (pun intended) and his manipulation and utilisation of Ted Dibiase when addressing the Corpus Christi crowd was great. Dibiase as Cody Rhodes sidekick could be a good thing for both men.

The Great Khali’s entrance music hit. I fast-forwarded.

Booking Randy Orton vs Mark Henry is always a risk. Randy Orton works a slow and methodical style, Mark Henry is just slow. Christian comes out, and he's returning the favor to Orton, just standing there on the stage while Sheamus and Henry beat Orton up in the ring. Fair play. I think the big news coming out of the main event is Randy Ortons cheer leader leap celebration on the dance that ensued. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? Seriously, if you missed it, check it out.

 

Weird.

Smackdown trumped Raw for WWE show of the week this week for sure.

Impact. The first ‘Impact Wrestling’ show since their name change and a set change that makes the Impact Zone look like TNA: Smackdown. I warn you now, there’s going to be a couple of spoilers here if you haven’t watched the new Impact, read on regardless… as I’m sure you’re interested in whether watching it will be worth your time or not.

First of all Impact Wrestling’s new tag line is ‘Wrestling Matters.’ Does it? Does it really? I’m going to do a bullet point list right here proving that this is utter bullshit.

-         Abyss defeats Kazarian for the X- Division Championship. A 300 pound man, is the X-Division champion. The X- Division put TNA on the map. It was a company that embraced smaller workers and made them the cornerstone of the company. The X-Division matches were amazing in the company’s early days. One can argue this is all just part of a storyline that brings the X-Division back to prominence after Hogan and Bischoff try to storyline destroy for a couple of months. However, if Hogan and Bischoff hadn’t destroyed it in the first place, this never would have had to happen. Further, this isn’t the way to go about it. Put some amazing X-Division matches on again. Bring Daniels, Samoa Joe and Styles back into the division and lets have some rematches from their past classics. Fuck me, a child could book this shit. The promo poster for Destination X has surfaced online recently. It features a six – sided ring and a tag line of ‘The future is the past.’  Lets hope it’s not a one time deal and TNA show us once again that the X-division is a cornerstone of the company.

-         Stop trying to ruin AJ Styles by having him take part in fucking pointless feuds. TNA has already ruined Samoa Joe. At one point, he was primed to be the next big thing in wrestling, and in one of the worst cases of not listening to your fans that I've ever seen, the company royally fucked up his push and ruined him. I don't think he'll ever reach legit main event status again, and it's a shame. TNA has tried to ruin AJ Styles on multiple occasions, but, as a sign of just how much the TNA fans love him, they continue rooting for him as if he were someone special. The company has him jobbing to Tommy Dreamer, for fuck's sake. Tommy Dreamer was a jobber in ECW, when he was in his 20s. Now he's 40 and we're supposed to believe he's going to be winning matches? Fuck outta here with that garbage. TNA tried to turn AJ Styles into Ric Flair Jr, and that certainly didn't work. They're always trying to do all these different things with AJ, instead of just letting him loose and having him work his ass off for people. It shows how lost and in their own little world the TNA writers are. They have no idea what they have in AJ Styles, and if they continue taking him for granted, he'll be on the WWE roster before you know it, and TNA fans will be out for blood at every Impact taping. Wise up, TNA.

-         Speaking of Samoa Joe, I have no idea what’s going on with him at the minute. One minute he’s face, one minute he’s heel and where the fuck did his feud with Crimson come from?

-         Matt Hardy and Eric Bischoff beat Generation Me, Bischoff gets the pin. I don’t even know where to begin here. Aren’t Gen Me supposed to be heel? Aren’t Gen Me supposed to be broken up? WHY is written all over this situation. Again, the X-Division are getting screwed in the storyline, but again there’s better ways to go about it then having Eric Fucking Bischoff go over one of the most promising young tag teams in the world. Uck.

-         Knockouts match is a main event. I like the job they’re doing with making Velvet Sky their top knockout. She’s over as hell! GOOD JOB! But, If I have to watch Angelina Love’s ugly, fucked up, botoxed to shit face blankly stare at people one more time. I’m going to punch the screen.

-         We have a main event of Rob Van Dam vs Kurt Angle GREAT MAIN EVENT… in 2001 maybe. PUSH your original talent. Fuck me.

-         We had nearly the same amount of talking we’ve had on Impact the past few months. Wrestling sure does matter TNA… Bullshit.

I desperately want TNA to succeed, don’t get me wrong. It's honestly not that difficult. There's so much talent on the TNA roster, and it's a crying shame that the current product is what it is. They have all the potential in the world to be pulling in Raw-like numbers if they really put their minds to it. If "wrestling matters", though, it would be nice if they actually tried to prove it, instead of just talking the talk and then giving us the same fucking routine that they've been giving us.

This blog has been bitter. This week’s wrestling shows have left nothing but a bitter taste in my mouth. We’ve come off the back of a very mediocre Raw, into another example of TNA promising change and delivering sweet fuck all, into a mediocre Smackdown. To add to that we’ve lost a wrestling great topping it all off with what could be a terribly Pay Per View in Over The Limit and it’s been a bit of an off week for Wrestling.

I really do dread to see Over The Limit’s buyrates…I hope I have something pleasant to write about. Now, if only I could find some ROH streams online… my sources have disappeared.

What were your thoughts on this week, leave me some feedback.

Lets Talk Wrestling