Opening the event was for the Tag Team Championship with Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger challenging Air Boom. Their match at Hell in a Cell was pretty good so I’m hoping for a repeat performance. Kingston and Bourne were completely destroying Ziggler at the beginning. Swagger and Ziggler started to get some momentum when Swagger caught Kingston coming off the top turnbuckle and then slammed him onto the mat. A bit of back and forth between the teams and Ziggler thought he won it with a roll up while holding Kingston’s tights. However, in the end Kingston hit the Trouble in Paradise on Ziggler followed by Air Bourne to get the win.
Winners: Air Boom Predictions: 0 for 1
The night could get a lot worse for Dolph Ziggler is immediately challenged by Zack Ryder for the US Championship. I didn’t know about this match until the day of the PPV so I was unable to make a prediction on it (same for the Sheamus/Christian match). Can someone explain to me when Smackdown General Manager Teddy Long made this match even though both wrestlers and the belt are on RAW? Anyway, I was expecting this to be a squash match and for Ryder to win as the tag team went on for a good 15 minutes. It was actually quite a good match with Ryder trying to get the win as quickly as possible. Ziggler decided to leave the match early but he was thrown back in by Air Boom, who had stayed behind to watch the match. The referee didn’t take that too well and sent Air Boom back to the locker room. Over time, Ziggler started to get the upper hand. Ryder had a brief comeback and stopped Swagger from interfering. Unfortunately, he then walked right into a superkick and Ziggler got the win. Fair play to Ziggler for wrestling two matches back to back. You rarely get to see that and I thought he performed well in both of them.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler Predictions: N/A
The Divas were next as Eve Torres challenged Beth Phoenix for the Divas Championship. Due to an backstage fight between Beth, Natalya, Kelly Kelly and Eve; both Kelly Kelly and Natalya were barred from ringside by John Laurinatis (did you know that he’s the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations?) I would like to say that Beth doesn’t need help to beat Eve but she needed Natalya’s help to win the title so I’m not so sure. Eve had Beth on the ropes and used her own belt to tie her to the middle rope which I thought was a nice spot. I was loving the taunting between the two of them, which really showed how much they don’t like each other. I thought that Eve won it when she reversed an attempt at a glam slam to bounce Beth off the ropes and into a roll up. The end was when Eve misses a moonsault and Beth takes advantage to hit the glam slam to retain the Divas Championship.
Winner: Beth Phoenix Predictions: 1 for 2
After a backstage interview with the Big Show, Christian took on Sheamus, which is another match that I didn’t predict (sorry!)Like at Hell in a Cell, it was a good match and it had lot of back and forth between the two. Christian came close to winning with a spear but Sheamus gets the win when Christian attempts another spear and receives a brogue kick instead.
Winner: Sheamus Predictions: N/A
Next was the tag team match with R-Truth and The Miz taking CM Punk and Triple H and, due to the fact that it involved 3 of my favourite wrestlers (sorry, Truth), I was looking forward to this. Considering it was their first tag team match together, Punk and HHH were working well. They were completely dominating Truth and Miz in the early going and cheating like fuck as well. Eventually, Truth got the upper hand and started to work on HHH. HHH got the tag to Punk who cleaned house and hit the Macho Man elbow drop while HHH was beating up Truth at the timekeeper’s table. Suddenly, Kevin Nash turns up and hits HHH. The commentary here showed once again why they suck as Michael Cole didn’t seem to know that it was Kevin Nash, even though they’re right near him. Booker T knew who it was and it led Lawler to go, almost annoyingly at Cole: “It’s Kevin Nash”. With HHH out of the way, Truth stopped Punk doing the GTS on Miz and hit the “Lil Jimmy’s Finale”, which is basically both their finishing moves done at the same time, to get the win. Afterwards, Kevin Nash decides to destroy HHH, ending with a jack knife powerbomb.
Winners: R-Truth and The Miz Predictions: 2 for 3
Randy Orton faced the wrestler formerly known as “Dashing” Cody Rhodes next in a non-title match. Rhodes had the early momentum but attempted a moonsault and missed giving momentum to Orton. Thanks to some attempted interference by one of his paper bag carriers, Rhodes almost won it with a Cross Rhodes. Another paper bag carrier attempted to help Rhodes but Rhodes ran into him and then got hit with a RKO, giving Orton the victory.
Winner: Randy Orton Predictions: 3 for 4
The penultimate match was a battle of the super heavyweights as Mark Henry and the Big Show clashed for the World Heavyweight Championship. Show was all over Henry at the beginning prompting Henry to get out of the ring. Henry decides that he had enough and attempts to leave with the title but Show had other ideas and attacks him outside the ring. The momentum shifts to Henry for a while, with Henry focusing on Show’s leg. Show came back and hit a choke slam for a count of 2 followed by Henry hitting the World’s Strongest Slam for a count of 2. They both decide to attempt aerial moves, which is not advisable when you’re over 400lbs. The end had Show going onto the top turnbuckle then being hit by Henry, who then hit a superplex, collapsing the ring. Sound familiar? Yes, it’s the same ending that Show had with Brock Lesnar on Smackdown several years ago. The referee decides to stop the match and both wrestlers get medical attention. I find it funny that the ring can cope with a 41-man battle royal on Smackdown a couple of weeks ago, yet can’t cope with an 850lb superplex. It looks to me as if we’ll have a rematch at Survivor Series, hopefully with a reinforced ring (they could use adamantium). I have never predicted a match that ended in a no contest before so I’m not sure whether to count this as a loss or void it. I need a second opinion. I’ll get back to you on that. Going back to the PPV, the question is what’s going to happen with the Cena/Del Rio match?
Winner: No Contest Predictions: 3 for 5 (under dispute)
The main event, luckily, doesn’t necessarily need a ring as it’s a last man standing match between John Cena(yawn) and Alberto Del Rio for the WWE Championship. John Laurinatis (did you know he’s the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations?) said the match will still take place, so it was interesting to see how it would play out in a badly damaged ring. The beginning had Del Rio throwing Ricardo Rodriguez into Cena, who attempted to AA him and Del Rio hit Cena in the stomach to gain some momentum. After a while, Cena was about to hit Del Rio with the AA but Rodriguez stopped him, allowing Del Rio to hit a sleeper, giving him a count of 7. Cena then threw Del Rio from the ring into the barricade, giving Cena a count of 7. The match continued backstage and Del Rio had a good chance to win it when he threw the interview set on top of Cena, which resulted in a count of 8. The action then moved to the titantron where Del Rio threw Cena into the giant ‘V’ that was part of the set, which the referee didn’t count for some reason. Del Rio put Cena onto a table and started to climb the set in order to splash Cena. However, Cena got up and pulled Del Rio off the set, sending him through the table, which gave Cena a count of 8. The action returned to ringside, where Del Rio threw Cena into the English announcers, resulting temporarily in no commentary (not always a bad thing!) Del Rio tried to kick Cena in the head but missed and hit the ring post instead. Cena then did the AA, sending Del Rio through the Spanish announcers’ table. The match looked like it was over but, before the referee had a chance to start the 10 count, The Miz and R-Truth came out and beat the crap out of Cena. The referee then started to count both men; Del Rio, who was out for a good 30 seconds, managed to get his feet by the time the referee counted to 4 and Cena got up just before the ref counted to 10. Del Rio immediately hit Cena with the WWE Title belt and gets the win in the end. It was a better match than I thought it was going to be. Yes, you can argue that, once again, Cena didn’t lose cleanly but there are no rules so, do I care? Not really, no.
Winner: Alberto Del Rio Predictions: 4 for 6 (possibly)
Overall, I thought it was a decent PPV. After the last two PPVs and possibly one of the worst RAWs ever, they needed Vengeance to deliver and I think it did. It was weird that no titles changed hands and it would have been nice if Zack Ryder won the US Championship but I enjoyed this PPV and I’m now looking forward to Survivor Series and seeing the Rock in action.
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