ProWrestlingViews.com

Chris Jericho put on a great show in full-on villain mode, but the WWE’s second-most-overhyped worker was his opponent: Batista. And of course, that meant the end of Jericho’s solid title reign.

Jericho carried Batista the whole match, and the introduction of the mystery special guest referee ended up being: Stone Cold Steve Austin, rather than Shawn Michaels. (Thank the L-RD!)

Austin played his role to the hilt, hitting Stunners on Randy Orton (who ran in), as well as Jericho before the match was over, and counting the three-count for the title change to make it more exciting than it would have been otherwise.

The top moment of the PPV was when Jericho tried to get himself counted out like a keylogger to avoid the match, and Austin threatened to switch the title on him if he did that. It was a classic “‘cuz Stone Cold says so” moment that really amped up the entertainment factor.

WINNER: Batista
RATING: 8.9

The match result on this one makes a person feel like Triple-H has wholesale ownership of the WWE Title, given that he’s the boss’s son-in-law. No one’s worked harder over on Smackdown to take the show to a new level than Jeff Hardy, and he was no exception in this match.

Unfortunately, though both men put on a solid show, the Rainbow-Haired Warrior was forced to job to The In-Law Assassin anyway, and perhaps even scratch his head in wonder about why he returned from TNA, which had made him a world champion, just to job out to an aging Hunter yet again. Ugh.

WINNER: Triple H
RATING: 7.8

The vote was close, but Marella draws… The Honky Tonk Man, making his first WWE appearance in what has to be something like 15 years or more! Unfortunately, the man’s aged so the match was called on a Marella DQ after only a couple minutes, but then out came Goldust and Roddy Piper to make sure Honky Tonk Man got some good licks in on Marella.

I know the sale-job they did on HTM was pre-meditated, but dang it was fun to see HTM make a one-night comeback for nostalgia reasons.

The potential problem with this match was pitting Hardy, a ring veteran, against Bourne, a relative newcomer. For an ECW brand that’s struggling just to get ratings, a more marquee matchup might have been nice, although Bourne ended up putting on a decent show with Hardy.

While diet pill reviews might be more interesting than a blow-by-blow of this match, the bottom line is that Hardy and Bourne kept the action brisk and interesting throughout, with better ring psychology than one might expect out of a ring rookie like Bourne.

WINNER: Matt Hardy
RATING: 7.6

If you’re the kind of person who enjoys WWE PPV’s, you really should check out the new hosted version of this blog, ProWrestlingViews.com. I’m currently doing a match-by-match analysis of last weekend’s top-notch PPV, Cyber Sunday 2007.

While it’s not exactly a miracle cure for what ails you, like Botox for headaches, it is a lot of fun to read and a fresh approach for me toward dealing with covering this wild and crazy industry.

I’m having fun, and usually that means you will, too. Check it out!

I’m about halfway through my match-by-match coverage over at sister site ProWrestlingViews.com. I have five matches up so far and hope to add more soon, till they’re all covered.

I’m certainly not the first or the earliest to do something like this, but hopefully people find it entertaining. Those five matches are about 90 minutes… basically the first half of the PPV.

Not many of the votes have gone my way so far. I called it on the stretcher match gimmick between Finley and Rey-Rey, and that’s been about it. Mr. Kennedy got jobbed outta the WWE Title shot, Great Khali was jobbed outta the match against MVP, and I didn’t get to see John Morrison mark his return against new champ CM Punk.

The biggest surprise of the PPV so far has been how good the Miz was against Punk in the ECW title match. It’s been a veritable Swiss Army knife-style PPV, and I can’t wait to finish my coverage of the second half. Coming soon.

As some of you may have figured out, I’m re-launching ProWrestlingViews. While this first year on Blogger.com has been a blast, I’m itching to move over to an all-new, completely redesigned hosted site. I am not sure when I’ll wind this one down, but it’ll never go away completely.

Once I do wind it down, though, be sure to visit ProWrestlingViews.com for all the stuff you’ve been enjoying here, only… better!

No, I’m not talking about some gimmick like giving away Broadway tickets or anything. But I am talking about what will hopefully become better postings, and more frequent ones.

For example, if you go over there now, you’ll see I’m doing match-by-match reactions to the recent Cyber Sunday PPV event.

Don’t miss the coverage… it’s about to get a whole lot more fun over there, and while I’ll always maintain a presence here, it’s my hosted site that will be where the REAL action is, most of the time.

I’ll confess up front: I haven’t seen Cyber Sunday yet, but everything I’m hearing indicates it was a fun PPV. While it might not have been the home run it could have been with more WWE superstars healthy, like the much-missed John Cena, word is the event was enjoyable, at least, and didn’t have a lot of dragging moments.

That’s what I like to hear; that at least a couple matches exploded like model rockets and the rest were at least watchable and advanced a storyline.

Now that I’ve admitted my sin of missing Cyber Sunday so far, you can rest assured that I’ll soon be watching through every match and will soon be back with my reactions. Then I’ll get caught up on RAW and all will be right on this blog once again.

Cyber Sunday could very well be the next-best thing since avoiding truck accident lawyers after a big winter mess on the highway. No one wants to deal with lawyers after an accident, and Cyber Sunday means that no one has to deal with a wacky GM character deciding the next PPV for us!

Instead, WWE fans take control this Sunday in the booking. Sure, some of the decks are stacked to favor a WWE-preferred matchup, but heck, if it bugs you that much, go in with a “Vote for the Worst” mentality and screw with ‘em to your heart’s content!

Aside from a really good WrestleMania or a proper, traditionally-booked Survivor Series, Cyber Sunday has become one of my favorite new-age WWE PPVs. Might even prove fresh enough to be fun!

You won’t have to worry about cell reception in order to influence the next WWE pay-per-view. Unlike American Idol, in which such concerns are a hindrance to voting on the outcome, Cyber Sunday is a once-a-year PPV event in which WWE lets fans have a hand in deciding opponents, match types and other key elements of an upcoming PPV event.

The idea was originated about three years ago and has been a popular one with fans ever since. Personally, I find Cyber Sunday a bit limiting and wish they’d offer fans a wider palette of options, especially on main events.

Not that Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy aren’t good options, but what if fans wanted to vote for someone else to lock up with Randy Orton? That’s all I mean.

Anyway, here’s WWE’s press release on the whole thing… two weeks and counting!

==

Log on, take over. WWE Cyber Sunday is the only interactive Pay-Per-View that lets fans take control. Visit WWE.com and vote to decide matches and more as the fans will control the fate of WWE Champion Randy Orton, CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, Triple H and all your favorite Superstars at WWE Cyber Sunday on Sunday, October 28th, live at 8pm ET/5pm PT, only on Pay-Per-View. A World Wrestling Entertainment Production. Go to wwe.com for more details.