Welcome to my preview for the 2009 WWE Judgment Day show. It’s a seven match card (it was six until Smackdown this week), which tells me WWE didn’t spend that much time thinking about it. In honor of that, I’m not going to spend that much time thinking about my preview, which means it’s going to be a lot shorter than previews I normally write. On the plus side at least they’re not trying to sell a PPV by having a man in drag kissing a 7 footer who doesn’t speak English like they did last month. I think Judgment Day is going to be a very predictable card for the most part although with WWE’s current on the fly booking patterns you just never know. What I don’t understand is why they’re not showcasing young talent like MVP or Kofi Kingston on the card. They got MVP on a show like the View, which does not cater to WWE fans, and how do they capitalize on this exposure? By not putting him on PPV! And the guy’s holding a belt too. I don’t get it. Now, on with the card.
Shelton Benjamin vs. John Morrison
This is a very late addition. I had everything written in this preview by Friday afternoon, and then I watched Smackdown and saw that this was added. I doubt they get much more than ten minutes here especially since they added this one at the last minute. Will be excellent in terms of athleticism and pacing, but with Morrison being a new babyface I doubt there’ll be much crowd heat. Should be good enough to please me.
Winner: John Morrison
CM Punk vs. Umaga
Punk tried to cash in MITB after beating Edge clean, then Umaga attacked and prevented it. Then Umaga attacked again. Now Punk gets his win as payback for the attacks. Should be a solid, physical match. Good to see Umaga back. I’ve always been a fan of his and actually am looking forward to the eventual feud with Undertaker because I think it could be surprisingly good.
Winner: CM Punk
Intercontinental Championship: Rey Mysterio (c) vs. Chris Jericho
I hope that this is the start of a long feud instead of being some short term thing they’ve thrown together in order to put a good match on a weak card. Mysterio hasn’t had a good feud since…uh…well I can’t even remember while Jericho’s coming off the best one in 2008, so hopefully a plan is in place for this one to be special. Jericho’s great at being the bully while Mysterio’s one of the few people on the roster smaller than him, so it works out perfectly. Throw in the fact that they also feuded in WCW more than a decade ago and there’s no doubt that they will have great chemistry too. As far as booking goes, I think Rey’s going to keep the belt while escaping with a win either by scoring a flukey pinfall or by DQ. Whatever the result, I just want this feud to continue.
Winner: Rey Mysterio
ECW Championship: Christian (c) vs. Jack Swagger
Doesn’t Swagger’s picture alone make you want to punch him in the face? That’s why I like him and think he’s going to be a very good main event player if the WWE machine ever decides to really push him. I really think Christian’s thriving as a sarcastic babyface that has good matches, but I’d rather see him doing this act on Smackdown. For now I’ll continue to enjoy his work because he’s always been a favorite of mine. I could see Swagger winning the title back although there’s no point in rushing it because the ECW roster’s so thin anyway. Keep it on Christian for now.
Winner: Christian
John Cena vs. Big Show
I’m not sure about this one. Cena’s really become great at having good matches on PPV although it’s a lot harder for him to do that against somebody like Show without the help of gimmick match. If it was No Holds Barred or something to that effect it would really help them have a better match. They’ll still be alright, but I doubt it will be very memorable. Cena’s going to sell the injuries while probably losing cleanly to the big right hand of Show. If not, Cena’s going to win and take a beating afterward. He can definitely afford some losses while he’s out of the title picture for the time being.
Winner: Big Show
World Heavyweight Championship: Edge (c) vs. Jeff Hardy
I don’t understand why you’d have Jeff Hardy say on Smackdown that Edge wins the belt, then loses it a month later. That hurts the credibility of the belt. Yes, most of us know that WWE loves to move the belts around because they think that it will pop a rating on TV because history has shown that it does actually pop a rating. However, it does more harm than good because the idea behind having belts is that wrestlers compete to hold them. They should be treated as valuable possessions that are difficult to obtain. If you keep moving the belt around on a month by month basis it hurts the credibility of it. That’s why a guy like Hardy winning it for the first time in December means very little because he’s able to get another shot at it five months later against the same guy he won it from. With all that said, I’ve got absolutely no problem watching these two wrestle a competitive 20 minute match for the belt. We’re still not sure if Hardy’s going to re-sign long term or take some time off, so the result of this match should be an indication of where his head is. My hope is that Edge retains for the sake of the belt while a Hardy title win would be perfectly acceptable at a show like Summerslam. No need for it now although it wasn’t really needed at a throwaway show like Armageddon either, yet it happened there. So who really knows anymore? I’m going for the sensible pick, which is Edge retaining. Do I think CM Punk could cash in MITB here? It could happen especially with the show being in his hometown of Chicago, but I’m going to guess that they hold off on it.
Winner: Edge
WWE Championship: Randy Orton (c) vs. Batista
Yawn. We’ve seen these guys wrestle plenty of times before with just average results. Both of them can have great matches with other people, but with eachother they just don’t mix well. Maybe they will here. My guess is Batista’s close to winning when Dibiase and Rhodes come out to save the pinfall. Then HHH makes his “surprising” return only to accidentally cost Batista the match much like Batista accidentally cost him the win at Backlash. Eventually Batista will end up turning heel, which is great because he’s really tired as a babyface. One more thing: If Randy Orton loses the title in this match I’ll write a 5,000 word column about how The Great Khali is the greatest worker in the history of the business. Then, after I’m done that thanks to the help of alcohol, I’ll write another 50,000 words about how stupid the WWE is for taking the belt off Orton. I’m guessing they’re not that stupid. Orton retains.
Winner: Randy Orton
I think it’s a shame that they didn’t use this PPV to feature even more of the younger stars. I guess with two PPVs in June (a terrible mistake, BTW) they have plenty of opportunity to showcase those guys if they want to. Still, I don’t understand why they have to wait to do it. And only two matches from Raw? That’s weak. The actual card is fine although they’re not giving us big matches we haven’t seen before. Matches like Orton/Batista, Edge/Hardy and Show/Cena have all been done many times previously while Mysterio/Jericho was done over a decade ago in another company (not that I’m complaining about that one because it is fresh here). Match quality wise it should be a solid show. I can see three or four matches hitting the three star level although nothing is likely going to be match of the year quality. I’m not saying this is going to be a bad show. It’s just that it’s not going to be great either. It’s going to be somewhere in the middle.
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Random Thoughts
I haven’t written in about a month, so I figure I’ll use this space to write some thoughts out in point by point form.
– I still don’t understand why they had to put both tag team titles on the Colon brothers. Now they’re stuck on Raw while also holding the Smackdown belts. What’s the point? If the roster brands actually matter then that means those Smackdown belts get to stay on them for at least a year, which would make the belts meaningless. My head hurts just thinking about the logic behind this stuff.
– Picked up Mick Foley’s third autobiography, the Hardcore Diaries in paperback recently. I’m not done it yet, but I will be by the weekend. I’ve enjoyed the way he goes into detail about how his mind works in terms of coming up with certain ideas for his feuds and matches. His first two books, by the way, are still among the best wrestling books I’ve ever read along with Bret Hart’s autobiography.
– Speaking of the Hart autobiography, I think Bret’s book might be in first for me. It lacks the comedy aspect of Foley’s writing, but it’s really the most captivating wrestling book I think you could ever read. It’s already in paperback here in Canada while I know it’s been released worldwide now. It’s a long read, but believe me when I tell you that you can plow through it quickly if you’re like me and you’re a fan of this guy. It’s hard not to admire his work ethic or his ability in the ring. I realize that some will think of him as a whiner or a complainer, but I think you owe it to yourself as a fan to pick it up because he might change some of those perceptions that you may have of him. Even though the Bret Hart story can be, to some, a tragic one I really don’t think it comes off that way when you go through the book.
– The Hart Trilogy with David Hart Smith (much better than calling him DH Smith), Tyson Kidd and Natalya? Works for me. The more Canadians working together the better.
– I’m a huge fan of the WWE DVDs that cover the careers of some of their major superstars. I’ve recently watched the entire Edge: Decade of Decadence DVD and really enjoyed it. It’s amazing to see how far he’s come as a superstar in the ten years that he’s been with the company. Only complaint is there was no documentary style feature on here. I think those should be mandatory for any of these career recap DVDs. I might review it soon. Definitely need to pick up the Michaels, Austin and Rock ones too since they’re three of my four favorite performers ever (Kurt Angle is the other). Now that the TV season is coming to a close (huge 24 finale on Monday!) and the NBA playoffs are winding down I’ll have the time to watch these DVDs hopefully soon.
– My five favorite entrance themes in WWE right now:
5. Kung Fu Naki – Kung Fu Naki. Kung Fu Naki, baby. It’s a literary masterpiece like the Dude Love song.
4. Chris Jericho – Still a great track ten years later.
3. CM Punk – Randy Orton said in an interview this was supposed to be his song, but they gave it to Punk instead. I don’t blame him for being upset about it if he is.
2. Edge – Still love it. Should never change it.
1. MVP – Ditto.
Randy Orton’s song is in last. The voices in my head tell me to change the channel when his entrance comes on. That’s never good. The only one worse is Santina’s. Rico should come back to feud with “her” over it.
– I really hope Ric Flair doesn’t wrestle again. Not because it will tarnish his legacy or anything like that. I just don’t want to see a guy in his 60s in the ring even if he is as great as Flair. At that age you have to concern yourself with your health more than anything. I do understand wrestling being like a drug for him, though. He needs it. Maybe he can be a GM on one of the shows that wrestles two or three times a year. Anything more than that is too much.
– I might be bringing back retro PPV reviews. I stopped at Summerslam ’97. I might skip the two after that and jump back into it with Survivor Series ’97. Would love some feedback from people on if you want to see more of those or more writing on the current product. Let me know.
Enjoy the show, people.
Smell ya later,
John C. – [email protected]
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