Two heads are often better than one. Unless of course, you combine the heads of Lindsay Lohan and Eugene. In this case, adding another writing talent to the site allows for new and exciting ideas to come to life. Thus, the "Rate the Booking" Series for Pay Per Views is born!
With Kravit stepping in to handle the full on reviews (as he should, he's the best in the business at it!), it left me jobless on pay per view Sundays. Never one to disappoint my fans, I figured I'd turn a negative into a positive by providing a new and interesting take on the pay per views. While Kravit will handle the execution of the pay per view, I will dig deeper and examine the booking decisions that go into the big shows. Let's get right to it and see just how the WWE did in terms of booking the Night of Champions Pay Per View.
Intercontinental Championship - Dolph Ziggler(c) vs. Kofi Kingston - Dolph finally has things going for him. He has a manager who gets heat, he has a subplot where his manager's rookie is cute and may have an interest in Ziggler, but most certainly has drawn the ire of Vickie, and he holds the Intercontinental title on top of that. Keeping that title around his waist on this night was a good idea. With all the turmoil around Ziggler, it will be interesting to see if these distractions leads to another face being able to take advantage of the situation. Through it all though, Ziggler is still a fantastic ring worker, and so is Kofi, but the right decision was made to keep the title on the platinum blonde superstar.
CM Punk vs. Big Show - HORRIBLE booking in this one. CM Punk might be the most over heel in the company. He has been absolute gold on the mic since his heel turn and ability-wise, he can back it up in the ring. However, since his program with Jeff Hardy, Punk hasn't even remotely looked strong in any feud. It's a shame, as he very easily could be champion of either show, and losing to Big Show didn't help matters one bit. I don't see what good having Big Show win does, at all. Perhaps if the Straight Edge Society turned on Punk to cost him the match, I could have bought it. That didn't happen, and Punk got the short end of the stick........again. I sure hope creative has something in store for him, because at this point, his talent is being severely wasted.
United States Championship - The Miz(c) vs. Daniel Bryan - The build to this match was fantastic. The story was months in the making, finally about to culminate.........except for one thing. Since Bryan debuted as Miz's rookie, Miz has gone from United States champion to "the future of WWE" as holder of the Money in the Bank briefcase. Thus, what once looked to be built as two competitors on similar ground was now clearly a mismatch, especially with Miz having backup in Alex Riley. To be fair, most of the feud and match were booked properly. Miz bullied Bryan and Bryan retaliated with technical prowess. Perhaps they overdid the submissions with Bryan by having him lock in the same one EVERY WEEK, but with Miz rising faster than Ted Dibiase's pants when Maryse walks in, it seemed odd to have the much smaller Danielson come out on top so much. I was fine with it all until the Pay Per View itself. Now, I have no problem wiht Bryan coming out on top.........if the booking is right, but it was just a bit off. In no way, shape, or form should Daniel Bryan have picked up a completely clean victory over Miz. I know I know "but he's the best technical wrestler in the world". Save it. We know he can wrestle, but Miz as a character can wrestle too, and has a ruthless style. Thus, Bryan would have to be creative to beat him. I like the idea of Riley inadvertantly costing Miz the title, but it wasn't executed well. What should have happened was Riley distracting Bryan, Miz going to hit Bryan, who ducks, and when Miz gets mad that he hit Riley instead, Bryan comes from behind and locks in a NEW submission hold to freshen things up and make Miz tap. The amount of time between the Riley interference and the tap out is what killed it for me. Miz will be a huge star, but this booking and execution may have killed some momentum for the time being.
Women's and Divas Unification Match - Michelle McCool(c) vs. Melina(c) - I still find it weird how Michelle McCool, who never actually won the women's title, can defend it because she says so. With that said, she is the better wrestler of Laycool, which allowed for a slightly better match. The booking was perfect, as Melina is not herself just yet, but even if she was, Laycool is the hottest thing in women's wrestling at the moment, so having them hold the Unified Belts is a good idea. No, it's a great idea. They can now appear on all shows, which can only mean positive things for the Divas. Next up, the return of the Glamazon!
World Heavyweight Title - Kane(c) vs. Undertaker - First off, the no holds barred stipulation was a very good booking decision. Two men in their 40s needed that stipulation. To expect two men in their 40s to put on a technical display would be expecting too much, plus, this feud is supposed to be incredibly heated, so a brawl gave us the best possible match. We also got the best possible finish, as Kane finally got a win over his big brother, and a convincing one at that. Clearly, Undertaker is still selling his weakened state, and that's how it should be. All too often, Taker has overcome ridiculous circumstances. For once, he is humbled and I like it. It may be a sacrilege, but I actually woudn't mind Kane beating Taker for the final time at Survivor Series, closing the door on a career that began there 20 years ago. It would be all too fitting. Of course, that won't happen until we get Taker to 20-0 at Wrestlemania, but at least Kane got the win here. Had Taker won, I would have been very, very angry.
Tag Team Turmoil for the Unified Tag Championship - The Hart Dynasty(c) vs. The Usos vs. Santino Marella and Vladimir Koslov vs. Mark Henry and Evan Bourne vs. Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre - I love the idea of the Tag Team Turmoil match, but I'm not so sure about the execution here. I know a lot of people will complain about The Gatecrashers (Hawkins and Arher) and The Dudebusters not being in this match, but I think the right teams were in it. The only "non teams" in the match were Mark Henry and Evan Bourne, who are incredibly over with the crowd (specifically Henry which is amazing), and McIntyre and Rhodes, who won. I might be in the minority, but I think giving them the win was a great idea. These guys have been working together on Smackdown recently and are quite formidable together. The Harts gave the marks a nice moment when they won the title, but they did nothing with them over the last few months. A feud with Rhodes and McIntyre might just get them over, but more importantly, Raw will now be DASHING! The only issue I have is that if a feud is to develop between the Harts and the champs, shouldn't the Harts have gotten further into the turmoil? They lost in the first round! I would have had them beat 2 teams, get eliminated by the eventual champs, but have the rematch with at least some momentum. Now, they have none, but they still do have a rematch. We'll see how it pans out, but I was not a fan of having the champs lose so early to a team they beat consistently before.
WWE Title Match - Sheamus(c) vs. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Wade Barrett vs. Edge vs. Chris Jericho - This was certainly the marquee of the night, and I believe in a lot of ways, it lived up to it. Whlie some may critique Jericho being eliminated so early, it was done that way on purpose. Clearly, Jericho is going to take some time off, and he actually got more attention paid to him for the early elimination than he would have had he participated longer like everyone else. The cameras really gave him the benefit of the doubt, and his story is certainly one worth following. Edge has his feud with the GM so it made sense to eliminate him next. The smarks loved seeing Cena eliminated so early, and I did too because it sets up more Cena/Nexus stuff, keeping Cena away from the title. That was confirmed when Barrett was RKO'ed out of the match. It made sense to finish with the champ and the hottest star in wrestling, and I can't really dispute putting the belt on Orton. The guy is hot right now and the WWE is trying to capitalize on that. Plus, with Orton has champ, he can have matches with heels ranging from Sheamus, Barrett, Edge, Miz, Jericho, and more. With the current landscape, having Orton as champion offers more options than Sheamus. Plus, Sheamus will have to deal with a returning Triple H sooner or later, and it's better that he doesn't have the title for that. Obviously, Sheamus will get his rematch, but I'm guessing he loses that one too. This is going to be reminiscent of the WWE riding a face Austin as its champ, and I think it will absolutely work. However, I will enjoy a short Miz run in the middle when he cashes in the Money in the Bank.
Overall, I feel good about most of the decisions on this pay per view. Obviously, the big loser is CM Punk as he was buried again, but everything else was done quite well. It may not have had the match of the year on the card, but all the stories made sense and the WWE kept things fresh with a few title changes. I hope this piece opened the flood doors, because Hell in a Cell is just 2 weeks again and I fully plan on watching and critiquing that one too! Please leave some comments and let us know what you think!
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