Monday, June 18, 2012

6/17/12 No Way Out

Ratings:
Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler (World Heavyweight Title): ***1/4

Santino Marella vs. Ricardo Rodriguez (Tuxedo): *

Christian vs. Cody Rhodes (IC Title): ***1/2

Titus O'Neil & Darren Young vs. Primo & Epico vs. Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd vs. Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso: *1/2

Layla vs. Beth Phoenix (Divas Title): *

Sin Cara vs. Hunico: *1/2

CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Kane (WWE Title): ***3/4

Ryback vs. Dan Delaney & Rob Grymes: N/A (squash)

John Cena vs. Big Show (Cage): *3/4
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Reviews/Thoughts:
We start off in New Jersey with the World Heavyweight Championship! Sheamus the champ out first, then Ziggler. On paper, it already sounds great. Main event intros. Ziggler getting pumped in the corner...it's his time now! Ha, just adopt HHH's old theme already. Vickie with a kiss good luck. Kiss of death?

OH SNAP Brogue Kick attempt misses. Just as I thought, shades of WM. Ziggler tries the amateur wrestling, to no avail. Sheamus actually doing some takedowns at the start. Ziggler with a good job of wearing the champ down. Counter after counter, Ziggler nails a rocker dropper for two. Lawler says crowd chants "Let's go Sheamus!" but I'm positive it's "Let's go Ziggler!" Crowd has been very pro-Ziggler in this one. Sheamus skins the cat to the top, Ziggler meets him up there with a top-rope facebuster. Only two! Crowd really into it now. Ziggler holding his left knee. Zigzag countered into Irish Curse. Huge punches on the apron. Sleeper countered into White Noise! Brogue Kick gets three, champ retains. Very good opener, and it could have even been better.

Josh Mathews tries to get a word with Laurinaitis. Yeah, Josh originally tried out as a wrestler on the original Tough Enough series. Decent announcer, at least.

Tuxedo match between Santino and Ricardo. Good grief. Ricardo with some fun music tonight. Cole really thinks Ricardo has the advantage because he wears a tux all the time?! Sleeve ripping, whole tux ripping, facewashing, etc. Santino plays bullfighter and Ricardo lands outside of the ring. Cobra sleeve thrown into the crowd. Aw. Santino's pants, socks, and shoes go. WTF, another cobra sock on Santino's right FOOT?! Stinky cobra! Kip up and a cobra! ROFL, Alberto Del Rio underwear! OK, that gets a star just for the entertainment.

AJ with a good luck kiss to Punk. Punk mentions that luck is for losers. What is up with these kisses tonight?!

IC Title match time. Yeah, the IC Title gets defended, while the U.S. Title doesn't. Guess we know which belt is more important. Cody works on Christian's left arm. Christian's head and shoulder into the post, ouch. Good counters here to show Cody "scouted" Christian well. Hurricanrana from Christian out of the corner nets two. Killswitch only got two?! That got a "YES" chant going. Well, that further cements the frog splash as the new true finisher, right? I'm sure that Killswitch will remain a secondary finisher, though. Frog splash countered, Disaster kick ducked twice, SPEAR for three! Another fine match in the first hour. I thought it was slightly better than the world title match.

#1 contenders Fatal Four Way for the tag titles. That rematch clause for Primo and Epico apparently expired, and I didn't realize there were 30-day expiration dates on those suckers. Crowd wasn't as into this as the previous matches. Some good tag-team moves from all four teams. Looks like Kidd and Gabriel were really in there for high-flying spots, if anything. Nice hurricanrana by Kidd on Primo to everyone on the floor! That finally got the crowd awake. Note AW preventing Epico from saving Primo at the end of the match. Primo, Epico, and Rosa don't like what happened (duh) and the cousins get assaulted for their troubles. Millions and millions and millions of dollars!

Money in the Bank next month. Not sure if there will be two MITB matches or just one.

Video package of HHH, Lesnar, and Heyman. Oh, apparently, Madusa was attending No Way Out. She posted ringside pics of the event and mentioned Heyman in another tweet.

HHH comes out to a nice pop. As expected, HHH calls Brock out to fight at SummerSlam. Given what's transpired lately behind the scenes, if all that's true, HHH goes over Lesnar at SummerSlam. It'll just be some no holds barred fight again, I guess. Blood likely happens, even though we're still supposed to be in the PG era.

AJ and Daniel Bryan. Another good luck kiss. Another kiss of death?

Divas title match next. Again, Layla is beautiful, but is not getting those face pops I want her to get. I think I heard "We want Kharma!" chants. Beth with a bunch of trash talking. Now Layla mocks Beth. Chasing around the ring. WTF. Vintage mind games. Good near falls in the second half of the match, I must say. Unfortunately, I feel like there was little flow to this one; most of the moves seemed thrown together for some reason. Layla hits her neckbreaker (out of nowhere!) for three. The crowd didn't seem to know it was over.

AJ with Kane. Good luck kiss for Kane. Kane with the makeout session on AJ. Damn you, Kane. Damn you. Vintage envy...

Well, they got probably the one guy Sin Cara could work very well with: Hunico. Of course, we get Sin Cara lighting; why they keep doing this, I have no clue. For some reason, I want to hear the Spanish guys announce this one. Nice power from Hunico helps ground Sin Cara. Sin Cara with that whirly-bird finisher for three. OK match.

WWE Title triple threat match next. Kane out first, then DB, then Punk. Lots of "YES" chants. Main event intros. HUGE Punk chant. Punk and Bryan with kicks to Kane. "Goat-faced" actually trended on Twitter, which was awesome. Kane works on Punk's ribs. DB on the top, Punk wants a superplex, and Kane pulls Punk down -- along with Punk's trunks so we almost get a full moon shot. Great DB spot with kicks to Punk and Kane. Then a Punk sequence with knees and neckbreakers. Just back and forth, everyone did their spots well. AJ on the apron, Punk pushes Kane into AJ. Punk with GTS for three. Match of the night here for me. Wish DB had a bit more say in the end of the match.

Good stuff on the next twist in this love "square." I'm now wondering if this allows a channel for Punk to turn heel if need be. Right now, it looks like they are showing that human side of Kane again to possibly turn him face. I like the heel Kane better. But I must also take note of AJ purportedly smiling at Punk as Kane carried her off. Yay crazy chicks!

Ryback squashes two more guys who make me never want to listen to the old WM theme ever again (Linda McMahon's theme at one point). Oh, and there were more "Goldberg" chants and a belly splash from Ryback. Now I hear Ryback will be squashing jobbers three at a time, possibly four at a time. Next!

Time for the cage match. Laurinaitis and Vince come down to watch at ringside. Show arrives to a chorus of boos, then Cena. Booker mentions Cena's best bet is to escape the cage. Show dominant early on Cena. WMD hits the cage. Cena tries to escape but Show yanks him down. It's a slow beatdown for several minutes. Cena with a few comebacks but Show manages to keep Cena in the cage and/or grounded. Show with a HUGE elbow drop that missed. I'm surprised the ring didn't break. Show goes for the door and is halfway out, but Cena channels SuperCena to pull Show back into the cage. Laurinaitis and Vince get involved with the cage door. Leads to a Show chokeslam...TWO?! Right, because it's SuperCena.

Armstrong the ref gets a WMD. Then Cena gets KO'd. Even the ref on the outside is out because Laurinaitis took out that ref. Show plays to the crowd. Show about to walk out of the cage, and Brodus Clay is there with a chair. So much for that. No way out for Big Show. Santino and A-Ry come down but get taken out. Same with Ryder. Then Kofi comes out and is successful. Cena's stirring. Show stops Cena, but AA out of nowhere! Show's trying to climb out the door. Cena goes over the top of the cage. Laurinaitis tries to stop Cena, but Brodus manhandles Laurinaitis. Show crawling out the door. Cena hits the floor before Show, so Cena wins. Exciting ending, I'll admit, but man, was this otherwise painful to watch.

Vince tells Laurinaitis he's fired. Cena with an AA for Laurinaitis through the Spanish table. Crowd goes home happy. Except Cena haters, who riot.

Typical Cole to suck up to Cena now that Laurinaitis is no longer the boss.
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It was an above-average PPV. The two title matches were fantastic and lived up to any hype. Ziggler has amazing potential to help carry the company in the future. He's already helping big time now, but just wait until he gets his true main event runs. The WWE title match was the best match for me. Having AJ at the end makes perfect sense. It extends the whole storyline -- and who doesn't love crazy chicks?

I'm not surprised Cena won, but I'm wondering who runs RAW now. Possibly Foley? It could also be a good way to introduce Dean Ambrose to the main roster, since they've had those Twitter wars. Eve's been conspicuously absent (probably doing promotional work elsewhere) so it'll also be interesting to see what happens to her for on-camera work.

We'll likely see Eve, Otunga, and possibly Vickie Guerrero campaign to HHH or Vince to run RAW. Another logical pick is Teddy Long, but he's been GM of Smackdown already and it's basically returning to a form of square one. Again, I'd like Foley to be in the mix for GM. He'd be my top choice. ***

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