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Posts Tagged ‘Orovo’

Did anyone catch Lawler’s opening blunder? It was typical but still kind of amusing when he exclaimed, “Everyone here is erect — electrifyed by…” Amusing bit; maybe Lawler needs a dose or two of Orovo, though.

The PPV lead off with two of the best wrestlers still on the Smackdown brand; Matt Hardy versus MVP. Hardy’s an old hand in WWE terms, but a solid worker now in his solo career; and MVP is a solid up-and-comer with a gimmick that won’t get in the way of him someday reaching the top of a future PPV card. Good match to represent the Smackdown brand.

Mick Foley was less than great, though, filling in for Coach, calling Matt Hardy, Matt Hardly. Hardy’s surprising win over MVP was a fun and thrilling finish, but doesn’t really take much shine off MVP’s rising star, even though it put the US Title on Hardy. However, I suspect MVP is being groomed to move up and take on Undertaker soon for the World Heavyweight Championship, so getting the US Title off him was a necessary move.

Next up was Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero for the ECW Title. Kane’s a completely uninspiring champion and Guerrero’s no better an option, so this made for a really boring match. Giving this match over 10 minutes to play out really cut against Kane’s dominating title win at WrestleMania, in which he bested the same opponent in well under a minute. Whatever. Vince, mend fences with Paul Heyman and make ECW matter again. Please.

Now it’s back to the SmackDown-Raw cross-brand match up with Raw’s Big Show taking on SmackDown’s Great Khali. Two giants is always a fun concept match, and these are two of the biggest men in the pro ring today. It’s also a smart match for WWE to use to advance Show’s return after the high-profile boxer vs. wrestler match at WrestleMania, when Show took on Floyd Mayweather.

The “battle of the head-butts” was a rather boring way to start the match, and the crowd wasn’t loving it, to be sure. There was even a “BO-RING” chant gong at one point. Khali was allowed to dominate most of the six-minute-or-so match, with Show pulling off only a couple really successful moves; a bodyslam, which he blew on his first attempt; and a reversal out of a chokeslam for a chokeslam of his own. Typical big-man matchup, but Show was given the win after jobbing to the under-160-pound Floyd Mayweather at WrestleMania last month.

The Batista-HBK match, with Chris Jericho as the special guest referee, was the first real stamp of Raw on the Backlash PPV, since both HBK and Jericho are Raw guys and most of this storyline played out on Raw. This match was a great antidote to Show-Khali, as it was a much higher-energy, faster-paced match.

It was nice to see this match get over 25 minutes of ring-time to develop, although the ending was unexpected; Michaels came down wrong on a move and seemed to get a real knee injury, but then unexpectedly got up and delivered a Superkick with the injured knee being the support leg for the Superkick move. If this is a real knee injury, that was am impressive moment on Michaels’ part; if it was a sell-job, Michaels did great at playing possum. Either way, it was good to see Michaels get the best of the overrated Batista.

The 10-woman diva tag match was quick fun, which is all one could expect of a non-title women’s match, since not all the women are of equal ring-skill. At least it game Mickie James a nice spotlight.

The Undertaker-Edge match was next, with Taker defending the title he won at WrestleMania, against the same opponent from whom he won it. The rubber match concept is great for fued-building, but SmackDown’s not doing itself any favors by not injecting fresh blood into the title picture. Taker’s always reliable and Edge is an electrifying, polarizing personality, but more faces are needed at the top. Hopefully, MVP will soon be added to the mix, now that his US Title isn’t in the way. Having Taker win the rematch in virtually the same way he won the title intially pretty much puts a cap on their rivalry for a while and should open a path for new opponents to face off with Taker. Nice 12-minute or so match, not counting the entrances.

Finally, it was main event time and it’s a good one; a four-way match with elimination rules, one of my favorite stips since it doesn’t take one fluke pinfall to end it. Triple H, Orton, Cena and JBL makes for a rock-solid main event and fortunately, even though this PPV was Smackdown-heavy, it was this Raw-branded match that was given the top spot for a change, and deservedly so.

The 30 minutes given to the match to develop was terrific, and the match lived up to expectations for me. With four of the top workers in the biz in the same match, there was no weak spot, really. Cena brought the most energy to the match, fighting hard and fast and clean to show both his desire and momentum. He earned the first elimination, forcing JBL to tap out.

So it was a disappointment when Orton entered immediately afterward, delivered a kick to the head and speedily sent Cena packing for another night. That left just Orton and Triple H to settle things one-on-one, which was disappointing, since I wanted to see more three-corner action before we got to the second elimination.

Oh well.

As we all know by now, after earning his legitimacy with a WrestleMania win, WWE ended Orton’s reign with an entertaining, but fairly predictable title change to Triple H. HHH has been working hard and patiently since his return from injury, and the victory makes him a 12-time champion, which helps push him toward Flair territory (16 times).

With the summer PPV season upon us, I expect Triple H will reign at least through SummerSlam, but by then it should be up for grabs as the company starts to map out its road to next spring’s WrestleMania. All in all, not a bad PPV.