After giving my predictions on Saturday, I came out of NOC at about 50%

Here’s how the show broke down.

 

Big Show vs. CM Punk

Punk came out for this match sans Straight Edge Society. That was really the only interesting aspect of the whole thing. Big Show hit his punch and got the W, but Punk was kept looking good enough to stay strong. I just pray that this was the end for this feud and that Punk now moves on to something better.

 

 

Women’s Title/Diva’s Title Unification Match

Melina vs. Michelle McCool

I’m pretty surprised that Melina lost this one seeing as how she just came back from injury as the top babyface Diva in the company. But it sort of makes sense to give McCool the belt. Now she can carry the Diva’s title while Layla has the Women’s belt. LayCool with all the gold? Talk about compelling telev…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. According toWWE.com , the title is now the Unified Diva’s Title, which means Michelle’s big purple butterfly belt is the only one that means anything anymore. I can see this leading to one final “unification” match between LayCool.

 

New Unified Diva’s Champion: Michelle McCool

 

 

Tag Team Championship Tag Team Turmoil Match

The Hart Dynasty (C) vs The Uso’s vs Santino & Kozlov vs Evan Bourne & Mark Henry vs Drew McIntyre & Cody Rhodes

I’m glad that they went the Turmoil route for this match, though I would have preferred them actually promoting it rather than just slapping it on last minute. The tag belts deserve more respect. The Harts were eliminated first, and quickly, which was very disappointing. Their title run was less than memorable. Hopefully they stay in the hunt with rematches. My other big gripe with this match is the random pairing of Bourne and Henry. Since when are they a team? That spot could have easily gone to either The Dudebusters or Hawkins & Archer, two legit tag teams from SmackDown. Not only would that have made more sense than the rando coupling of Mark and Evan, it also would have shown the depth of the tag division across the whole company, AND it would have reminded the audience that the tag belts belong to both shows, not just RAW, and can be defended as such. McIntyre and Rhodes were the only non-RAW team in the match. They ended up winning, and something tells me that we’ll see much more of them on RAW than we will on SmackDown.

 

New Tag Team Champions: Drew Mcintyre & “Dashing” Cody Rhodes

 

 

Intercontinental Championship

Dolph Ziggler (C) vs Kofi Kingston

I botched this pick. I definitely didn’t see Dolph retaining, let alone cleanly. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to these two after this match. I think Kofi should move onto a feud with CM Punk to help re-establish the main event status he had around this time last year when he was feuding with Orton. As for Dolph, where does he go from here? SmackDown’s babyface roster is pretty thin, especially at the top of the card, but even all of their mid-carders are busy at the moment. MVP is feuding with Jack Swagger. Christian has Alberto Del Rio. Matt Hardy is tweeting himself into unemployment (fingers crossed). I doubt they’ll continue the feud with Kofi, it’s run its course. The only guy left to choose from is Big Show, which doesn’t bode well for Ziggler’s current push. Though I suppose there’s always JTG or Chris Masters…kidding…hopefully.

 

Still Intercontinental Champion: Dolph Ziggler

 

 

United States Championship

The Miz (C) vs Daniel Bryan

I’m so happy I got this one wrong. The US Title is a perfect launch pad for Bryan’s WWE career. And now that Miz has lost that mid-card burden, he can start his course to the main event. There’s not much else to say about this match. It played out perfectly.

 

New United States Champion: Daniel Bryan

 

 

World Heavyweight Championship

Kane (C) vs The Undertaker

This was another match that went exactly as it should have. Kane ended up overpowering Taker to keep the belt. The story was well told and the feud remains exciting. This one will obviously continue at HELL IN A CELL, in a match tailor-made for these two legends.

 

Still World Heavyweight Champion: Kane

 

 

WWE Championship Six-Pack Challenge Match

Sheamus (C) vs John Cena vs Chris Jericho vs Randy Orton vs Edge vs Wade Barrett

I’d say that booking-wise this match did exactly what it needed to do, but entertainment-wise, not so much. At only 21 minutes it was way too short for the type of match it was. Five eliminations need to stretch out over a longer amount of time. To me, this match seemed to end right as it appeared to finally be kicking into gear. Jericho was eliminated first within the opening two minutes. His shocked and defeated reaction was priceless. It’s speculated that he’ll be taking, at the very least, some time off. His new contract has yet to be signed and he’s got a tour lined up with Fozzy. I doubt, though, that this will be the absolute last time we see him wrestle. I think the guy is still having too much fun to call it quits. As for the rest of the match, Edge was…in it? He was pretty much Mr. Inconsequential going into NOC. He’s been feuding with the anonymous GM more than anyone else lately so you knew that he wouldn’t really play too important a role. Wade Barrett looked great in his second straight PPV main event. After interference from Nexus he got the pin on John Cena. He was eliminated shortly thereafter, but still, it was the perfect way to protect him in the match. He didn’t win, but he came off looking like a legit top star. His and Cena’s interaction also plays in perfectly to what will finally be the Cena vs Nexus blowoff match at HELL IN A CELL. After that it came down to Orton and Sheamus, as expected, with the Viper getting the win and the title. I think that was the right move. Orton is on fire right now and his victory celebration was the best way to send the crowd home happy. Again, these two will probably have their rematch at HIAC.

 

New WWE Champion: Randy Orton

 

Overall, it wasn’t an amazing show, but it wasn’t terrible either. It did what it needed to do in terms of the current storylines and set things up nicely for HELL IN A CELL…in two weeks?

 

That’s right. The most shocking thing to come out of last night IMO was the fact that HIAC is only two weeks away. As in not this Sunday, but the next. As in WWE only has 2 episodes of both RAW and SmackDown to hype the next $45 PPV. They must really be banking on the fact that people love seeing that big cage. A part of me really wants that show to tank. Bad buyrates would most likely mean that HIAC gets dropped from next year’s PPV calendar, or something else does to make room for it. Either way, WWE needs to cut down to 12 PPVs a year. 13 is just unnecessary, and leads to rushed, shoddy booking.

 

I could be wrong though. The next two weeks of TV could be crazy-compelling. Still, I think people are going to be hard-pressed to shell out more money. We'll see.

 

Until next time...