Chris Jericho & The Big Show vs. MVP & Mark Henry (Unified Tag Team Titles): **
Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz (U.S. Title): ***
Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase vs. Triple H & Shawn Michaels (Submissions Count Anywhere): ***1/4
Kane vs. The Great Khali (Singapore Cane): -**
Christian vs. William Regal (ECW Title): ***1/4
John Cena vs. Randy Orton (I Quit; WWE Title): ***3/4
CM Punk vs. The Undertaker (Submission; World Heavyweight Title): 3/4*
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Match of the Night: I don't think there's a clear-cut winner here. By a slim margin, I give it to Christian vs. Regal because Regal was kicking ass tonight.
Trash of the Night: Kane vs. The Great Khali is the big stinker tonight. However, Punk vs. Taker was a huge letdown as well.
Three Stars: (1) William Regal; (2) The Miz; (T-3) Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase
Analysis: The night got off to a decent start with the tag team bout. It was nothing really noteworthy. Mark Henry really impressed with holding Big Show up on more than one occasion, but that's pretty much it. Big Show's punch is cool because it's so sudden, but the match seemed so quick, I really can't give it a higher rating.
Miz really impressed me tonight, and his stock can only keep rising. Kingston and Miz work pretty well together.
The Legacy/DX match was very good. The crowd was definitely into the match, although I think it will likely be best noted for the double submission on Michaels than anything else. I liked the Figure Four around the post coupled with the Million Dollar Dream...totally marked for that.
Kane and Khali fought another disastrous bout. The crowd hated it, and so did I.
Why did we have a Pat Patterson and Dolph Ziggler (a.k.a. Mr. Ziggles) segment? Couldn't we have had a Ziggler/Morrison match during that time? And Ziggler was all dressed to wrestle as well. Good grief.
Christian vs. Regal was awesome, and it was due to Regal's performance. Regal yet again showcased why he's likely the best technical wrestler in the WWE today. Great stuff in that match if you are a technical wrestling mark. I don't think Christian's offense was anything special here. Regal totally was the star in that one.
Cena and Orton had a great I Quit Match, but I am not fond of the ending. It really makes Orton look weak as opposed to Cena looking super strong. Many people in PPV title matches take all sorts of abuse and come back. This is why I'm usually not opposed to Cena taking all sorts of punishment and not quitting. However, Orton was booked to lose clean after being cuffed for a few minutes? Orton gets to dish out massive punishment and Cena doesn't quit, but Orton must tap from the STF after three seconds? Unacceptable. Sadly enough, we should expect to see yet ANOTHER match between the two. And Vince wonders why he can't elevate stars on RAW?
Taker vs. Punk shaped up to be Match of the Night, and quickly turned into the Biggest Letdown of the Night. I can understand that this was the toughest match to book (which is why I am not a big fan of themed PPVs). Taker cannot tap because he's the Undertaker. Punk cannot tap because that would kill his heel momentum. Basically, Punk had to win, and because it's Montreal, the screwjob finish was logical. However, just because it's logical doesn't mean it's good.
Many factors led to the match's below-average rating. First, they kept it short. Second, it was booked to make Punk initially tap (and an odd early finish to the PPV, or so it seemed). Third, Teddy Long came out and reaffirmed Taker's Hell's Gate is banned, leading to the awkward restart. Fourth, the quick Montreal Screwjob-like finish. Yeah, sounds like a stinker to me. It only got points because the crowd was liking it at the start and there was some nice action early on.
I'm sure they'll try again inside Hell in a Cell, and I'd actually like to see Punk go over yet again. CM Punk is finally realizing his full potential in WWE, and hopefully WWE allows this heel run to go as long as possible.
A Teddy Long heel turn is kinda neat, actually. It was also cool to see Long dressed in all white, while Taker was wearing all black. Great symbolism.
Overall, we had matches ranging from very good (Christian/Regal) to horribly bad (Kane/Khali). It's not the worst thing ever, but it's still not a PPV I would order.
Overall Rating: **
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