WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Raw Review 9/26/11

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at WWE Raw on 9/26/11. With Hell in a Cell set for this weekend, how will the Go Home edition of Raw do this week? Well, let's take a look at start the review.

We open up the show with Triple H. No King on commentary this week because of the Mark Henry attack, so Booker T joins JR and Michael Cole on Raw this week. The HIAC structure if above the ring. Gee, I wonder how the show is going to end this week? Anyway, after witnessing the foreshadowing above the ring, Trips talks about why he fired Miz and R-Truth. He says Truth and Miz were out of control and their behavior was unacceptable, which is why they were terminated. Trips also said he didn't buy the apology by Miz and Truth and claims Henry will have to pay a $250,000 fine because of the attack on JR and King. I think I know what's with all of these steep fines in the WWE. So they can cover the cost of Alberto Del Rio's rental cars. Dolph Ziggler comes out and complains about Hugh Jackman giving him the Adamantium Punch on last week's show in how he hurt his jaw and Trips should do something about it. Trips says he can give him some security for when the Muppets shows up next time...

Cody Rhodes comes out next and talks about the injuries he received against Randy Orton on last week's SD. Trips tells him to man up and stop whining. Christian comes out next and talks about Sheamus screwing him over last week, but Trips explains it was a Lumberjack match and that was the purpose. Christian talks to the other heels and tells them they should file the biggest lawsuit against the WWE for the mistreatment they are getting....unless he gets one more match. Who thinks this will be on Christian's next T-shirt? Trips agrees with Christian, so it will be Christian vs Sheamus at HIAC, Christian vs Orton on SD, and Christian vs John Cena tonight. He also books Dolph in a US Championship match against Zack Ryder, minus the Adamantium Punch. He decides to give Rhodes the night off because of his injuries, but Rhodes can't keep his mouth shut. Trips makes a 10 person over the top rope match for the IC Championship, which begins next. A very long opening. This ate up around 17 minutes. I am normally not a fan of long openings, but they did address a lot of the action for the course of the week, so I can't fault them for that. This might have been the start of something a lot bigger for the WWE. If you think about it, the "firing" of Awesome Truth will be some sort of power struggle involving the heels of the WWE. That would be interesting, but it has been done before. This would be one of the themes for tonight since we would see all three of these guys later in the show. It was also announced it would be CM Punk vs Del Rio tonight. Oh, and if Dolph takes Trips' offer on that security deal, you might want to watch out for Animal, he's bats*** crazy.

Match #1: 10 Man Battle Royal for the IC Championship
Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel, Alex Riley, Ezekiel Jackson, Ted DiBiase, John Morrison, Drew McIntyre, and Sheamus were in this match. The match was really short. There was a moment where the fake Sin Cara showed up to take out the original Sin and take his spot in the match, but Bryan eliminated him. There was an argument between the two Sin Caras and the referees since the original Sin never got eliminated, but got counted as the same person. Again, just more build up for their future match, even if it makes your head spin. The match ended when it came down to Sheamus and Rhodes. Christian showed up to "interefer", but something about this spot was off. The interference happened, but the match didn't end right away. It lingured on for a while until Rhodes used his mask to hit Sheamus in the face, thus getting eliminated. The Christian interference didn't really seem to make much sense. I have to think somebody missed a spot or two considering how after the match, Christian was gloating about how he screwed over Sheamus for the title. Either way, this match shows more tension between Christian and Sheamus going into Sunday. One thing I would like to see is Rhodes get a real rival. I thought they were going somewhere with DiBiase based on how their match at NoC ended, but they haven't done much since. Then again, there has only been two weeks to prep for HIAC, so I can't really complain about the build up. We really do need more than two weeks to put together a PPV card when you think about it. Just feels rushed at times.

Winner and still IC Champ: Cody Rhodes

Backstage where David Otunga and John Laurinaitis are talking about how Otunga might have to put that Harvard degree to good use with a lot of the stuff going around in the WWE...

How many times am I going to use that clip? So, it appears Johnny Ace and Otunga have made some sort of an understanding. This will be useful for down the road. There was an update by the commentators on the King's condition. It seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary, but Cole said King has anal bleeding? Did they really just go there? Of course, this is a real thing, but it just seems unnecessary to mention it. Was Cole taking a shot at the King because of their history? Will this be established when King returns? Seriously, this serves no purpose to the show other than being uncomfortable. Poor choice of words with that last sentence, WWE.

Match #2: Eve and Kelly Kelly vs Beth Phoenix and Natalya
Well, after that uncomfortable series of events, your divas match for the night. In a lot of ways, this was the same match from last week with a slight change. Your typical divas match, so it was okay. Natalya applied a very interesting submission hold that had her legs all tied up like a pretzel. Not sure what this is called, but I'm sure somebody knows what it's called. How many times has Kelly lost control of that head scissors attack? Seriously, spinning around that many times is only going make it worse. I'm always waiting for the day Kelly spins so fast that she flies into the audience. Which reminds me of that episode of Fresh Prince where Will and Carlton are dancing...

Fresh Prince was such an awesome show. Anyway, the finish comes when Beth hits the Glam Slam on Kelly. Somewhere out there, the King is crying. It's about time Beth beat up on Kelly. In fact, this is what should have happened last week since Eve winning with a roll up didn't really make much sense. It was also announced it will be Kelly vs Beth for the Divas Title at HIAC. Unless this title change happens, this match shouldn't even happen. Well, maybe third time is the charm....

Winner via pinfall: Beth Phoenix and Natalya

We are about to get ready for a match between Henry and Great Khali until Henry hits Khali with the WHC. He hits the World's Strongest Slam on him to show how powerful he is. The match never got started. With Henry down a quarter of a million dollars, you know this s*** just got real. Joking aside, this shows the power that is Henry going into his match against Orton at HIAC. I personal hope Henry retains the title because I want to see a little more of what he can do as champion with this Hall of Pain gimmick. So, Khali goes from escaping Jinder Mahal to being a giant jobber....again? Again, this whole Mahal storyline wasn't planned very well.

Match #3: John Cena vs Christian
Del Rio and Punk were on commentary for this match. Cena cut a quick promo in hyping up the HIAC match. Five tons of steel, huh?

Oh, dear God. I hope that isn't the case. What would have been hilarious is when Cena yelled "is that all you got" towards the steel structure, it would start talking. I bet that would have grabbed a lot of people's attention. The match didn't last long. Punk and Del Rio were taking shots at one another on the headset. The finish comes when the action takes place on the outside of the ring and Del Rio cheap shots Punk. He eventually gets in the ring to hit an enziguri on Cena. After the match. Del Rio talked about destiny....for the one billionth time. Is anyone else getting sick of this destiny talk? Just seems like a broken record at this point. The match wasn't good, but the purpose was the get some tension between the WWE Championship opponents, and that did happen. In other words, they did their job.

Winner via DQ: John Cena

Match #4: Dolph Ziggler vs Zack Ryder for the US Championship
It's the IWCs favorite wrestler going for the US title. Vickie Guerrero and Jack Swagger were at ringside for this match. Ryder was looking pretty good in this match and it seemed he was going to steal this championship. The finish comes when Vickie distracts the ref, Zack missed Rough Ryder only for Swagger to snap his head off the ropes. Dolph hits Zig Zag....goon (Ha! See what I did there?) for the victory. I'm a little surprised they gave Ryder another match against major mid card talent. Are they really going to be using him a lot more on the show? Well, after the match, the heels would attack until Air Boom made the save. Teddy Long comes out and says this will be a Six Man Tag match and Vickie needs to find another person for her team or it will be a handicap match. Two Ryder matches in one night? I think the IWC just came!!!

Winner via pinfall and still US Champion: Dolph Ziggler

Match #5: Air Boom and Zack Ryder vs Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, and Mason Ryan
At first, it was a handicap match. Vickie would show up with Mason, who looks more jacked up than when he left. It seemed doom was going forth with the faces when Mason got tagged in, but he attacks Swagger and Dolph instead. He eventually leaves, which allows Zack to hit Rough Ryder on Dolph for the victory. Well, they are taking baby steps with Ryder, but he seems to be getting over very nicely. In fact, this is going over so well that Ryder can actually get the US title. That's good for him, but this does push Alex Riley to the sidelines. They should still continue to use Riley since people were giving him a pretty big response and has lost some momentum since his rivalry with Miz. As for Mason, not really sure what this face turn does for the guy. Ryan has the look of a heel and not sure how he will be used on the show. Reckon, Mason needs a lot of work, but the guy has a good look. Even if I given him the name Batista Jr. Oh well, guess we will wait and see what they are planning with Mason. I want to add that Ziggler has been showing vast improvements these last couple of months. He still lacks a personality, but the charisma is developing and his mic skills are pretty solid at the moment. Nothing groundbreaking, but it's nice to see that he is improving. If the purpose of Ziggler possibly dropping the title to Ryder so Ziggler gets in the main event, than I would be for it since him remaining in the mid card wouldn't do anything. At the same time, Ziggler isn't quite ready for the main event. Again, he's improving, but he needs a little more time until we can start thinking main event slot.This just in.....Zack Ryder is now on Booker T's Fave Five!!! Alert the media!!!

Winner via pinfall: Air Boom and Zack Ryder

Backstage where Otunga, Christian, Vickie, Rhodes, and Dolph are talking about a possible lawsuit. They talk about how they need to join together to make this work. So, heels joining up to create a group? Something about this sounds familiar...

....nyeh, I'm probably over analyzing it. Then again, with Vickie talking about building up a stable for the last few weeks, getting Swagger on her side, and now this; it does make you think now, doesn't it?

Match #6: CM Punk vs Alberto Del Rio
Cena was on commentary for this match. Again, everyone was putting over how dangerous HIAC is, even though the match has gotten pretty tame compared to when it was first introduced. This was a pretty good back and forth match. Definitely the best match of the night. The finish comes when Punk hits a round kick for the clean win. I would have preferred a GTS, but it's effective since WWE has been trying to sell how lethal Punk's kicks are. That's right folks, they are even more power than Chuck Norris. That's enough to scare the s*** out of you. After the match, the giant structure starts to drop down and Punk, Del Rio, Cena, and Ricardo Rodriguez are all in the ring. Punk and Cena take out Ricardo until Del Rio takes them both out with a steel chair. The show ends with Del Rio standing tall. Well, I rather have Del Rio stand tall as opposed to Cena since we've seen that ending too many times, so nice for something a little different. Either way, they did about as good of a job in hyping up a PPV main event in such a short amount of time. Even if Del Rio wins the title at HIAC, it still didn't add up in giving the title back to Cena. I almost feel they gave it to Cena so he can have the WWE Title for a record 10th time, since they've been saying it a lot since he won at NoC. Then again, I'm not really sure who's going to win this match since Punk has a good chance of walking away with the championship as well. That does get me a little interested in this matchup, so I guess they did their job. Then again, there's a high chance shenanigans will come in play for this match, including a certain tag team who recently got "fired" making an appearance. Either way, things are getting pretty screwy in the WWE, but it's interesting.

Winner via pinfall: CM Punk

Overall Impression:
Considering the majority of the evening was dedicated to fueling the PPV, it was somewhat of a letdown. They did announce two more matches for the show, but that brings the total up to four. That's a pretty small card considering this was the last Raw until the PPV. They still have SD and there's still a few more matches they can throw in after tonight, but a few more announcements would've helped. The in-ring action for this week was better than last week. There was more matches that really stuck out. In fact, both Ryder matches were pretty enjoyable for what they were worth and the main event was solid. I also found the promos to be pretty decent this week. Overall, not a bad episode of Raw. Not perfect, not terrible, but an average showing that was pretty entertaining. There was some new developments as they might have given something to Otunga with this lawyer style gimmick. I never really thought Otunga was that bad on the mic, so this might be a good role for him. I don't really think this whole possible heelish stable is the result of the conspiracy since this looks like its own separate storyline (at least not right away), but who really knows? What I see here is some possible build up for what could happen at HIAC and for events down the road, like maybe.....Survivor Series? Yeah, I think that's a stronge possibility. Not really sure where this is all going at the moment and even if things are getting a little strange, it's intriguing. HIAC was built up tonight, but they need to add a couple more matches to the card. Reckon, a HIAC match can eat up a good amount of time, but considering that one of those four matches is a divas match, they need to add a few more. Again, we still have SD to look into for this week, so the week isn't over. That's going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of my review and/or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.

WrestlingNerd's Running Diary for WWE Smackdown 9/23/11

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another edition of the Running Diary. This time around, we take a look at WWE Smackdown on 9/23/11. Without further delay, let's begin.

-Did you ever think John Laurinaitis smoked an entire cigarette company?

-Johnny Ace talks about Miz and R-Truth being fired on this week's episode of Raw. You almost wonder which "firing" will last longer, Punk or Awesome Truth?

-Is that Brodus Clay? Where has that guy been since Alberto Del Rio went to Raw? Just seems random to see him in that grouping.

-Mark Henry talks about how he will be world champion for 15 years. Judges......yeah, I gotta call bulls*** on that one.

-I like how Johnny Ace says Triple H will show up later to address a few things. This made it sound like he would show up later on the show, but manages to show up 4 minutes later. Damn, Johnny Ace doesn't f*** around.

-Oh, I guess it's that time of the show where Christian ask for another rematch. Christian whines more than Bella from Twilight....actually, never mind.

-Because of Christian's big mouth, Trips makes it Henry vs Christian for the WHC, in a Lumberjack match. Oh yeah, that's going to go well....

-Sheamus vs Heath Slater is the first match of the night.

-The Mooninites are in the audience!!! I hope they can see this because I'm doing it as hard as I can.

-Brogue Kick for the clean win. Sheamus might be one of the Top 4 Talents in the WWE with how he's being booked. Then again, I like Sheamus' face turn and I don't blame them.

-Christian tries to recruit Great Khali and says how small Christian is....

-In the battle of holding onto the mid card rope, it's Justin Gabriel vs Wade Barrett.

-Wasteland for the clean win. I hope this is the start of big things to come for Wade, but how many times have I said that this year?

-Randy Orton cuts promos like William Shatner monologuing with all the pointless pausing, but nowhere near as funny.

-Speaking of people who will never be world champion, Ezekiel Jackson talking to Christian.

-Beth Phoenix and Natalya vs Kaitlyn and AJ up next.

-Very short match. Glam Slam for the win. So, they can beat two rookies, but not Kelly Kelly and Eve? Makes a whole lot of sense.....

-Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes. I heard a lot of this from the hardcore IWC crowd during the week...

-Oh, I expect a lot of angry comments after that.

-Orton snaps and uses the face mask on Rhodes. Match is over and Orton continues the punishment. The reason for the IWC statement is during the tapings, Rhodes got busted open really badly and there was blood everywhere. I am a little disappointed WWE took it off TV, but something told me Parents of America would have complained if they showed that clip. I won't post the images of the bloody Rhodes since it's pretty graphic, but you can search for them on Youtube or Google.

-Christian hands over a potato to Sheamus. Why do I get the feeling people will complain about this spot as well? If Sheamus had a problem with it, he wouldn't have agreed to go through with it. Lighten up people!!!

-Great Khali comes back out to the dancing music. Guess he's a good guy again. What was the point of this Jinder Mahal crap? Match between Khali and Mahal in progress.

-Khali wins with the slam. I think WWE Creative decided to cut their loses short on this storyline. Can't say I blame them.

-Daniel Bryan vs Sin Cara...er, Sin Hunico? Ah, f*** it.

-Oh, Booker T. You and your non-stop rambling....

-The second Sin Cara showed up and took out the original Sin while the ref was distracted. Fake Sin wins the match via Swanton Bomb.

-Was there an episode of the Power Rangers fighting evil Power Rangers? Something about this Sin Cara thing feels very familiar.

-Air Boom vs Usos in a tag team match.

-Air Bourne for the clean win. Not a bad match consider how short the match was.

-Adamantium Punch!!!

-Mark Henry vs Christian for the WHC up next. Heel vs heel for the Championship? Well, stranger things have happened.

-A Trent Baretta amusement park ride. WEEEEEE!!!

-Sheamus throws Christian back in the ring, World's Strongest Slam for the clean win. I think this tells us a great lesson. Never....NEVER give Sheamus a potato.

-Henry and Orton now fight after the match. Orton manages to get him out of the ring. This does tell a good story consider how Orton lost at NoC.

Overall Impression:
An uneventful night for SD. This really felt like a filler episode since not a lot was established with new storylines. There was some buildup around the existing storylines, but it just seemed with the curve ball of Miz and Truth getting fired, this was a bit of a letdown. There was eight matches on for this week and none of them were really something worth checking out. They were ok, but they are so "okay" that it isn't even worth mentioning. Yeah, so not a great week on the SD side of things. To be fair, there was no announcements for future HIAC matches, but there was build up for the PPV. You have to think Christian vs Sheamus is a go and there might be something involving the Cara Rangers in the process. There is only two more tapings until the PPV. Again, hate the fact there is only two weeks to put together a card, but what are you going to do? Still, you feel a show with eight matches would've been better than this. Ok, time to rank the shows. In terms of wrestling quality, I rank it Raw, Impact, and SD. Really, none of these shows put forth great matches, but at least we got a little something with CM Punk/John Cena vs Awesome Truth and Kurt Angle vs James Storm. In terms of promos/segments, I rank it Raw, Impact, and SD again. I actually have two MVPs for the Week, one from each promotion. For the WWE, I'm giving it to Hugh Jackman. I know it seems silly, but he was a riot this week. I do this because I think this will be the only chance I get to acknowledge a guest host for this award. Plus, how can you deny the Adamantium Punch? For TNA, I give it to James Storm. Storm had a great week and continues to show how much of an under rated talent he is. That's going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of this edition of the Running Diary or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.

WrestlingNerd Presents: TNA Impact Wrestling Review 9/22/11

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at TNA Impact Wrestling on 9/22/11. So, how would TNA continue to build up the Bound for Glory card? Well, let's find out and start the review.

We open up the show with Sting, who's wearing a Hulk Hogan shirt. He talks about his match with Ric Flair last week and getting a match against the Hulkster at BFG. Sting tries to get a Hogan chant going until the actual Hulkster arrives. He says this match won't happen since he isn't medically cleared. Sting shows clips of Hogan's attacks on Sting. Of course, because a man hobbling to the ring and using a steel chair means his back is 100%......destroyed. Hogan starts to talk about how Sting was never better than Hulk and he can't win. Sting talks about not delaying things anymore and wants the match tonight, but Eric Bischoff interrupts. Bischoff says Sting is out of line. Sting takes this news by....punching him in the face. This was amusing, but after watching Hugh Jackman give Dolph Ziggler an Adamantium Punch, just falls a little short. Some pretty basic build up for the BFG match. I really don't want to see this match, but I might as well accept the fact it's going to happen, regardless if they end up paralyzed or not. I wish both guys the best because I don't want to see a tragedy happen.

Backstage where Karen Jarrett continues to be a terrible heel boss type. You're not deserving of the title Vince McMachongina. Anyway, Karen informs Mickie James and Tessmacher of their Queen's Qualifier Match coming up next and tells Tessmacher to stop the stripper act. Once they leave, Karen tells Traci Brooks to stop showing off her cleavage until Kaz shows up and defends his wife. Well, it's about time he start doing something about this. Then again, if you were Kaz, wouldn't you have a bigger beef with Bischoff, Karen, or Traci? He of course has a problem with Bischoff since he tapped that ass (in the realms of kayfabe). He has a problem with Karen who is mistreating his wife, but I would be more pissed off at Traci. She walks around like a freakin' whore and sluts her way to get a job. How is this marriage still in tact? Now, I am aware this is all kayfabe, but TNA has established in the show that Kaz and Traci have some sort of a relationship. In other words, either continue the relationship on screen or don't bring it up at all. Look at all the plotholes in all of this? It's just a mess. Oh, and Jeff Hardy arrives to talk to more people later tonight. I'M HYPED!!!

Match #1: Mickie James vs Tessmacher in a Queen's Qualifier Match
Jeses tap dancing Christ, TNA. Why don't you just give Tessmacher a dildo while you're at it? It's basically reaching that point with her character. This wasn't a good match, but it was harmless. What do you think people. Who's worse in the ring, Kelly Kelly or Tessmacher? The finish comes when Mickie hits the Delayed DDT and wins the match cleanly. Mickie now joins Velvet Sky in going up against Winter at the PPV.

Winner via pinfall and moving on to BFG: Mickie James

On location shot of Anarquia wanting to get a tattoo of Mexican America. I'm pretty sure TNA has used every Mexican stereotype imaginable for the course of the year. I hear that next year, they will be working on all Japanese stereotypes for 2012.....stay tuned.

Match #2: Austin Aries vs Jesse Sorensen for the X Division Championship
This match showed in so many ways why Aries is the superior talent of the X Division while Sorensen is unbelievably green I've talked about how Sorensen brings a football to the ring every week and him not doing anything with it. During the match, Aries took the football and did a Deion Sanders end zone trot and a Heisman pose. See, THIS is what you do with a prop, not just bring it to the ring because you used to play quarterback in high school. That would be like Metaknight bringing his sword and not using it. In other words, either do something with the prop or get rid of it. I just don't see anything special out of Sorensen at the moment. I've seen more personality out of tree stumps than I have from Sorensen. Kid Kash showed up during the match and mocked Jesse. At some point, Jesse actually uses his prop and throws the football at Kash. Kash tries to get involved, but the ref holds him off. During all of this, Aries hits a dropkick on Sorensen and gets a roll up victory. What was that? Sorensen is nowhere near ready for a title, but you also don't make your current champion look like he needed luck to beat Sorensen. Reckon, Aries is a heel and heels are always booked this way, but Sorensen? I understand the booking decision since TNA is high on Jesse, but I personally don't like it. I think the best way to go was to have Sorensen go the distance, with Aries picking up the clean win. It would have showed how superior Aries is while it shows the potential of Sorensen. One of the good things after tonight is Jesse will continue to work with Kash while Aries will focus on a more deserving opponent down the road.....I hope. Sorensen should be working with talent like Kash to make him look good and shouldn't have been thrown in a championship match. This all happened way too soon.

Winner via pinfall and still X Division Champ: Austin Aries

Backstage where RVD and Mr. Anderson are going over their plan against Bully Ray and Jerry Lynn tonight. Now, I'm aware of RVD's lifestyle, but was he completely baked tonight? Watch this scene and tell me RVD isn't on some illegal substance. Damn, with the Hardy angle, I'm almost waiting for RVD to talk about how much of a addict Hardy is. Like RVD is one to talk. Hey, RVD might enjoy that lifestyle, but at least he doesn't go into wrestling matches high as a kite. Another on location with Mex America. They are now in a tattoo parlor getting a tattoo. The guys tell the ladies to buy some tequila while Anarquia confuses he has a fear of needles. You know, I would be willing to buy this.....if it weren't for the fact Anarquia has about as many tattoos as CM Punk. Come on, TNA. The audience isn't blind. So, they are waiting for someone to arrive until Ink Inc shows up and attacks. Jesse Neal takes out Hernandez, which is totally not believable while Shannon Moore is working on Anarquia. Hernandez is sent through a table and they prepare to give Anarquia a personal tattoo. So, are we supposed to cheer for Ink Inc? I understand what TNA was going for here, but Ink Inc come off as total heels. They do a sneak attack and talk the way heels would. To make this scene even stranger, Ink Inc hasn't shown up on TV in over 3-4 months. Talk about pulling that one out of your ass. You know what? I just don't care anymore. I guess you can pencil in Mex America vs Ink Inc for the Tag Titles down the road. Back in the Impact Zone where Hardy is talking to Matt Morgan in a backstage scene. Morgan lectures Hardy for all of this screw ups, but he will give him a second chance since Morgan had a past addiction to pain killers and understands what Hardy is dealing with. He did state if Hardy screws this up, he will hunt him down. More of the same stuff they have been building with Hardy's character. Again, if Hardy stays clean, this could be an interesting storyline, but that's a big IF.

Another backstage scene where RVD is taken out backstage. I have to think Bully and Lynn did the attack, or RVD was so toasted that he went through a table (I believe I can fly *crash*). Neither one would surprise me. We come to ANOTHER backstage scene where Hardy is talking to Kurt Angle. Angle talks about how nobody wants Hardy with this company anymore. Hardy says he can take the criticism, but Angle isn't one to talk about having problems. Angle gets angry at this and list all of his accomplishments while Hardy feels Angle is only saying this since he takes of him as a threat. Angle just laughs and walks away. Seriously, Angle has no right from a realistic stand point to lecture Hardy about drug use when Angle can't even learn to call a freakin' cab when he's too drunk.

We are back in the ring where Angle invites Robert Roode. Angle says he will be going up against Christopher Daniels tonight. Roode says Angle is a great wrestler, but he has worked his entire career to get to this spot and he will make sure he wins the world championship at BFG. Angle thinks he has the upper hand when he invites James Storm to the ring to talk to Roode, but Storm turns the table. Storm ends up challenging Angle to a match for later tonight. Storm was great during this scene. I've always been a fan of Storm's work. He really is the most under rated talent in all of professional wrestling since he's spent the majority of his career as a tag team wrestler. I hope this is the start of Storm having a good singles career in his own right.

Match #3: Bully Ray and Jerry Lynn vs Mr. Anderson in a Handicap Match
Because of the RVD attack, this turned into a handicap match. I really didn't like this match. There was just too much bulls*** going on. Anderson hit Mic Check, but Lynn dragged his feet under the ropes. There was also Stupid Referee Syndrome during this match. The ref clearly sees an eye poke and a punch to the balls, but elects to do nothing. Again, fix this damn choreography. The match ends when ref gets distracted, which allows Bully to use a clothesline with his chain. Really? That doesn't look like it would be the ultimate KO move. A chained up fist, I can buy that, but this looks ridiculous. No wonder people can't take Anderson seriously when he takes dives like this. Oh, at two more matches set for BFG, which were announced via commentary by Mike Tenay. With the way Tenay calls action, you can easily miss this. Anyway, it will be Anderson vs Bully and RVD vs Lynn. No word on the official matches yet since I can see both matches being gimmicky. This will be the point of the show where I get some IWC smark to correct me since they read all the spoilers in advance. I don't like spoilers on this show and I ask that nobody spoils this stuff until it has been addressed on TV. I only say that since TNA did some of the tapings in advance and probably have most of the card determined, but I haven't bothered to look at them. So far, this evening has been really boring. Come on, pick up the pace!!!

Winner via pinfall and retarded referee: Bully Ray and Jerry Lynn

Did anyone catch the BFG video package? They build Sting vs Hogan as "only one must survive". Consider how over the hill these guys are, really bad choice of words. It seems we are ready for the Roode/Daniels match, but Daniels arrives in street clothes. Daniels says he won't face Roode tonight because he has nothing left to prove since he beat AJ Styles a few weeks back. Are you serious? Nothing left to prove? Big talk coming from a guy who's basically a cruiserweight wrestler and nothing more. He takes a couple more jabs are Styles until AJ shows up. AJ says he's sick of Daniels gloating about this while Daniels claims he's better than AJ. Styles wants a rematch, but Daniels declines and says it's pointless. This eventually breaks down and both start to fight. Security shows up, but as you would've guessed, they do nothing. Who hires these people? Anyway, we are back from commercial and they are both still fighting. They destroy the Direct Auto Insurance panel in the back. Why was that even there? Just seems like a stupid place to put a panel. I understand sponsorship, but these are more forced than a Michael Bay film. I might have to call wrestling logic on that spot. They get back in the ring where Kaz shows up and tries to play peacemaker. This goes on for a while and it seems like everything is ok, but Daniels kicks AJ in the balls and runs away. You would think this would be all for this scene, but TNA wants to milk more out of it. They go backstage where Kaz and Daniels argue some more. By the way, notice the really bad editing job during this rant. I know the show is taped, but you can at least try to make it so that isn't noticeable. Eventually, Kaz starts talking to AJ who is still selling the nut sack kick. They talk about how Daniels always gets an ego with these sort of things and this is the same old Daniels. This scene ends with AJ showing shots of him almost vomiting into a garbage can. Hmm.....was this a metaphor for how the show has gone tonight? Seriously, why did they show that? We don't want to see people vomiting. That's disgusting. Some people might find this interesting, but I have no interest in Styles vs Daniels. A few reasons. One, we have seen it twice this year, so why a third time? Second, this feud has been done way too many times during TNA's tenure. And third, this feud is always the same. Daniels always plays the heel while AJ plays face. What's so exciting about that? Especially when Daniels makes Alberto Del Rio look like Rowdy Roddy Piper in terms of a heel. Again, IWC loves him, but his personality sucks and Daniels gives me no reason to be excited when he's nothing outside of his wrestling ability. Oh, and Hogan talks about unveiling a bombshell on next week's show. This is all the build up they would do for next week's show. That totally makes me what to watch next week's show, right?

Match #4: James Storm vs Kurt Angle
Damn, TNA didn't do a very good job in spacing out the matches to the backstage segments tonight. Just seemed to be a lot of moments where we had an orgy of backstage scenes with a match thrown in. I've said this in a past, but TNA really needs to find a better balance with Impact Wrestling. Anyway, this was a good match. Storm might be proving that he might have a little more in the arsenal than Roode. Don't get me wrong, I like Roode, but I feel Storm is the more complete talent. He has the better charisma, solid on the mic and has a good catchphrase. Roode is good in these areas as well, but Storm just stands out a lot better. I want to see Storm get a better role with TNA since they seem to be relying a lot of Roode. It really took a while until we saw a good match tonight. The X Division was ok for what it was worth, but nothing special. Then again, this is TNA's main event, so you know what that means? Time for more overbooked finishes. Gunner interferes during the match, which allows Kurt to hit the Angle Slam, but only a two count. Storm accidentally Super Kicks the referee, but also hits the Super Kick on Angle. He has the match won, but no referee until a backup ref makes the count, but Gunner pulls the ref under the ropes. At some point, the TNA world title got in the ring and Roode showed up as well. Everyone is out and the show ends with Roode posing with the title. What a second? What about the match? I don't think I ever heard a bell, so I guess the ruling is a No Contest. I really didn't like all the crap they threw in at the last moment, but I think Storm looked great tonight. I want to see more Storm on this show because I think he's better than Roode. The story between Roode and Angle seems to be going okay, so I can't knock on TNA for that. I do find myself very interested in this world title match, so I gotta give TNA props for doing that. I would like to see this be more of the focus than the Hogan/Sting match, and TNA seems to be doing that. So, that's a positive. Despite all the shenanigans at the end, I enjoyed this segment. Sorry about your damn luck!!!

No Contest

Overall Impression
There was a lot of dead moments while watching this show, but there was some good things despite all the joking around I did. Again, I'm just trying to have a little fun while writing these reviews. I think what hurt the show was the lack of action. There was only four matches on the show and only one of them ended without shenanigans, so I wasn't too fond of that decision. Still, there was some things I did enjoy. I like the confrontation between Angle and Roode tonight and enjoyed the main event between Angle and Storm. Again, really want to see Storm get more screen time as a big time singles competitor because he has all the tools. However, outside of these moments, there was a lot of moments where you can easily get bored with the product. There wasn't a good balance between backstage scenes and in-ring action, which hurts the show since you can easily get taken out of the show. I will give TNA credit in building up the BFG card. They announced a couple more matches and seem to be building up a few more matches like Mexican America/Ink Inc and Styles/Daniels, so I have to at least be fair in that department. It's nice to see TNA taking BFG seriously since this is looked at as their version of WrestleMania, so they should put time and energy to builld up a proper PPV card. I like the story being told with the world title match, but a lot of the other matches are stuff I'm losing interest in. I don't seem too interested in RVD/Lynn and Bully/Anderson can be interesting if it gets better build up. They still have three weeks, so too early to throw the book at TNA for not building up stronger storylines with the rest of the card. While not an evening I would recommend or a must see event, it was an evening that did its job for the PPV and that's something worth while. What would help TNA is more of a balance. I think there was a point where we had a 40 minute break in between matches. That's unacceptable unless you're dropping a major bombshell, and that clearly wasn't the case tonight. I want to see better choreography within TNA since there's too many spots where the editing looks terrible or clearly the referee can call for the bell, but doesn't because the script says otherwise. Again, pro wrestling is staged, but the idea is to make it look as non-scripted as possible, but these mistakes hurt TNA on a weekly basis. If TNA gets a little more polished, the sky would be high for TNA, but it's these mistakes that hurt them. Oh, and they need to calm down with all the interferences. Just seems to happen way too often. Then again, I should be fair since TNA had a tolerable episode this week. That's going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of my review and tonight's episode. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.

WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Raw Review 9/19/11 (You're Fired!!!)

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at WWE Raw on 9/19/11. With Night of Champions concluded and Hell in a Cell in two weeks (still can't get over that), how will the WWE move forward? Well, let's find out and start the review.

We open up the show with....battling seizure robots?

Maybe this only happened when I was watching the show, but did anyone catch the first ten seconds of Raw going on the air? The camera was glitching out like a mad man. Anyway, CM Punk arrives to the ring. He walks gingerly to the ring to sell the injuries from last night (If you watched the match, he probably isn't doing much selling since some of those shots looked brutal). He talks about how Cleveland, Ohio hasn't been a good place for Punk. He talks about how some of the roughest spots of his career has happened to him in Cleveland. He admits he might have been wrong about Triple H from the very beginning and really believes there is a conspiracy in the WWE, but not the one Miz and R-Truth are referring to. Just as he's about to explaining his train of thought, Triple H interrupts. He gives Punk credit for the war they went through last night, be Punk still lost at the end of the day. Trips also decided Punk has earned the rematch he never received, so it will be John Cena vs CM Punk vs Alberto Del Rio in a Triple Threat, Hell in a Cell Match at the PPV. Trips also adds if Punk and him continue to have problems, he has no problem doing another battle with him. Punk agrees, but now isn't the time for that. Punk thinks someone has been using both himself and Trips and believes it's someone on the higher scale of the WWE ladder. As soon as Punk says this line, John Laurinaitis arrives and says he doesn't buy what Punk has to say and thinks he's the cause of Trips loosing complete control of the WWE. Punk laughs and says it took him a while, but realizes this conspiracy all started because of Johnny Ace since he would like to seek higher power and wants to get rid of both Punk and Trips. Johnny Ace disagrees and says he already has a good job, but Trips reminds him he calls the shots and to NOT forget that. At some point, Johnny Ace fires Punk, but Trips immediately says Punk isn't fired and he will get to the bottom of all of this and someone will get fired tonight. I still find myself interested in this storyline. I did mention that it's possible Johnny Ace is secretly working for Vince McMahon to somehow get his job back. Foreshadowing? It's possible. Then again, there's a lot more with this scene as the show would continue.

Match #1: Air Boom, Sheamus, and Justin Gabriel vs David Otunga, Michael McGillicutty, Christian, and Wade Barrett
This was a very short match. Not really the best way to open up the show, but we only have two weeks until HIAC, so WWE is going to be in fast forward mode from now until then. This match eventually broke down and there was more confrontation between Sheamus and Christian. Sheamus is about to hit High Cross on Christian, but he runs away and leaves Otunga by himself. Otunga eats a Brogue Kick, a High Cross, and Sheamus scores the win for his team. Really a short and pointless match, but I suppose it did its job in building up Sheamus/Christian. Still, you could've gotten the same result with half of the talent. Eight people was a little much to have out there for this contest, but maybe that's just me.

Winner via pinfall: Sheamus, Air Boom, and Justin Gabriel

A short backstage scene where a WWE referee is afraid to go near Awesome Truth, but Trips tells him he will take care of it. Umm, don't the WWE referees have unions or something? That would be a weird turn of events to say the least if that turned out to be the case. Anyway, Del Rio comes in the scene and considers Trips the worst COO ever. He wanted a one on one match with Cena, but Trips doesn't change the match. In other words, Del Rio is s*** out of luck. With that said, I wouldn't be shocked to see Del Rio steal the title.

Match #2: Alberto Del Rio vs John Morrison
This was even shorter than the first match. Remember my discussion in how Punk's match last night wasn't a job? Well, this is an example of a job. Morrison taps out within maybe a minute of this match to the Cross Armbreaker. Oh, I bet the Morrison fanboys are very pissed off after tonight. It honestly doesn't bother me. Del Rio needed to go out there and completely kill someone to redeem some momentum, but some people question why Morrison? Couldn't they get someone else? Well, of course they could. Maybe WWE creative is sending Morrison a message with this job fest? Gotta go the full distance to improve yourself Morrison. If you do that, you will get another push. Remember, pushes aren't handed out to people, you need to EARN them.

Winner via submission: Alberto Del Rio

Back in the ring where Hugh Jackman arrives. This guy had a lot of energy tonight. Seriously, I like this guy. He showed up and seemed to be really excited about being on the show and he had a lot of fun with it. Some of the previous guest host can take a page out of Wolverine's book. If you aren't going to try, don't take the booking. Jackman plugs his Rock'em Sock'em robots movie (Hey, it might as well be called that) and gets interrupted by Vickie Guerrero. She tries her best Rebecca Romijn impression and tries to get inside Jackman's pants, but it doesn't seem to be working. Dolph Ziggler gets angry and calls him.....Batman?

Probably a simple error by Dolph, but how do you confuse Hugh Jackman to Christian Bale? Hell, how do you confuse Wolverine to Batman? Anyway, Dolph calls the Cleveland fans losers. Jackman says he believes in the underdog since that's what his movie is all about. He decides to get a WWE Superstar to challenge Dolph tonight. He thinks about it for a while, but the audience is chanting "we want Ryder". Jackman realizes this and brings in a Zack Ryder sign from the live crowd into the ring, so it appears he has made his decision. Well, it should be an interesting match. Gotta give it up to Jackman tonight. Speaking of guest host, it was reported earlier today on the WWE website that the Muppets would be guest hosting on Halloween night. I personally think it's a great move. Some see this as WWE catering to the kids again, but have you seen the Muppets? In many ways, they cater more to adults than kids. Plus, the Muppets and Kermet the Frog are some of the most iconic figures in all of television/cinema. It would be a good way to promote the Muppet movie and it would be good publicity to have the Muppets over on Raw. This is a move that seems it's good for business. Remember, the concept of a business is to make money and get publicity, and I think that is what this move will do. No matter how many people will bitch about it, it will be interesting to see how that episode turns out.

We are getting ready for Sin Cara vs Cody Rhodes. It appears we are seeing the original Sin Cara, but before the bell rings, the other Sin arrives. We get a staredown between the Mighty Morphin Cara Rangers to find out which one is the real one. Both guys show off in the ring to prove their strengths and talents. At the end of the day, the real Sin stands tall. Most people say you can't really tell the difference between the two, but if you look at the size and height of both guys, you will notice the difference. The real Sin Cara is shorter and smaller while the evil Sin Cara/Hunico is taller and a little bigger. Anyway, this was just further build up for the future match. Rhodes turned into a ghost in a matter of seconds. You can argue what was the point of Rhodes showing up if he didn't do anything, but I honestly don't care. Rhodes will get some screen time on SD this week, so I'm fine with it. By the way, I FREAKIN' CALLED THAT S***!!! I said it from the beginning it would be Sin vs Sin and I was right.

Backstage where Awesome Truth is apologizing for last night's actions in getting involved in his match and the referee attacks. Trips says he accepts the apology, but they will get a $250,000 fine each and will face off against Punk and John Cena tonight. Damn, $250,000 for a couple of cheap shots? This makes you think the NFL isn't fining people enough when they go off and do stupid s***. Yeah, I know it isn't real, but I'm just having a little fun. Wrestling fans can be so serious sometimes.

Back in the ring where Jim Ross is going to interview Mark Henry. JR got news that Randy Orton will be cashing in his rematch at the HIAC PPV and it will be a HIAC Match. Henry talks about how people never believed he would reach the top....

Henry says JR thought he would never be a world champion and he wants an apology. JR apologizes, but Henry doesn't like it. He grabs his neck tie and starts to choke him out a bit (Daniel Bryan: What the f***?). The King goes in there to tell Henry to stop the attack. He eventually lets go, but decides to take things out on the King. The two fight, but was completely one sided. Henry hits World's Strongest Slam on the King. Henry would clear out the announcer's table and hits a second WSS on King, but this time going through the table. The segment ends with medics attending to the King. I think the story they tired to get out of this was Henry doesn't take crap from no one and nobody is safe with Henry as the WHC. Then again, I will admit this scene didn't do much for Henry since all he did was cripple a 60 year old man. I wasn't much of a fan of this scene. By the way, you would think after 10+ years of commentary that Michael Cole and others would've learned how to rebuild one of those smashed tables. Oh, and did anyone notice the wrestling logic where Miz and Truth get fined but nothing happens to Henry? Just checking...

Match #3: Kelly Kellly and Eve vs Beth Phoenix and Natalya
This match was really short. Beth and Natalya are dominating the match, but can't seem to figure out the art of a rollup victory. The finish comes when Eve gets a rollup victory for the quick win. Seriously, what are they doing with this division? This just doesn't seem to make much sense. I just don't like what they are doing with the divas division at the moment. Rollup victories don't make you look strong, they really make you look lucky. Then again, since they happen more often in the Divas division, it kinda makes you look weak. Plus, why Eve of all people?

Winner via pinfall: Kelly Kelly and Eve

Match #4: Dolph Ziggler vs Zack Ryder
I like the pep talk in the back between Jackman and Ryder. Do you still think Jackman isn't having fun tonight? He's wearing one of Ryder's headbands. Seriously, I love Jackman tonight. Sign him to a contract.....I mean it. Vickie slapped Ryder during the match, but the ref saw it and sent her to the back. While the ref had his back turned, Jackman got on the top and delivered a Wolverine Punch to Dolph. Ryder hits the Rough Ryder and Zack steals this match. That was a pretty good punch by Jackman. After the match, Jackman and Ryder celebrate. I don't think this means Ryder will be joining the US Championship picture at the moment. In fact, I think this was just used for comedic purposes since Dolph is dealing with Jack Swagger and Alex Riley for the most part. Either way, it was very funny to watch. By the way, in case you think WWE just completely forget about Swagger, you would get a scene with him. After a commercial break, Vickie is watching a Swagger highlight video and Jack walks in. He ask if Vickie will accept him as a client and she agrees. She will be managing both Dolph and Swagger from this point on. Jack is happy while Dolph isn't too pleased. Well, at least they are going somewhere with all of this.

Winner via Falcon Punch: Zack Ryder

Match #5: CM Punk and John Cena vs Awesome Truth
This was probably the best match of the night. All four guys went out there and put on a decent match. Kinda odd seeing Punk and Cena work together, but I enjoyed it. The finish comes when Punk hits the GTS on the Miz for the clean win. I think it was very important for Punk to pick up the main victory after his defeat from last night. Say whatever you will about Punk's push, but it appears the WWE hasn't completely bailed on Punk if he's dealing with the major storyline on the show and continues to main event.

Winner via pinfall: CM Punk and John Cena

After the match, Trips comes out and fires both Miz and Truth. Both guys think for a while, but instantly lose control. They rush to the back to attack Trips, but the majority of the WWE roster is there to break them up. They send Truth and Miz out of the building and the show ends with a pissed off Trips walking away into the sunset. Well, that was an interesting turn of events. You have to think like the CM Punk "firing" earlier in the year that Awesome Truth's firing is in the realms of kayfabe. I think I might have realized what's going on here. Maybe the plan is to have Vince or Johnny Ace fight to take over the head position of the WWE, thus they "fire" Miz and Truth to get them to join their team or to use the element of surprise. Also keep in mind the PPV coming up in November is Survivor Series. What's tradition in Survivor Series? The Survivor Series Elimination match. Is it possible we will see Trips' team going up against Vince's team? Well, not really sure about that, but it was something I was thinking about while watching this segment. Either way, this is good storytelling from the WWE because it will get people to come back and find out what's going on in the WWE and this particular storyline. Keep in mind Trips didn't explain why Truth and Miz were fired, so it would be interesting to see what story they will come up with when the time comes. Then again, what if Trips isn't that innocent? What if Trips has been playing a chess game this entire time to get people like Punk to maybe take their eyes off of him and then BAM, Trips blindsides Punk? Again, just another idea to toss out there. See, just goes to show that even though people were bitter and angry about how parts of this storyline were rushed, they are still keeping it very interesting with all the curveballs. Either way, it seems the WWE has planted a few cards for future episodes of Raw and possibly Survivor Series. Should be an interesting couple of weeks.

Overall Impression:
I thought this was a decent edition of Raw. There was some dead or not so great moments on the show, but I think the good cancels out the bad. The action was definitely lacking tonight since the main event was the only good wrestling match. Again, pro wrestling is about entertainment and telling a good story, and they did that tonight. I thought Jackman was funny and brilliant on tonight's Raw. Again, if you're going to guest host, at least put some effort out there. Not saying all the guest host prior to Jackman weren't excited to be there, but there was certainly a lot of people who didn't give two s***s about the show. I enjoyed the opening and closing segments. I really like the curveball in firing the Miz and Truth. Most people (including myself) didn't really see this coming and I was surprised they went down this direction, but in a good way. WWE actually managed to build up some of the SD rivalries tonight like Sheamus/Christian and Sin Cara. Two matches were announced for HIAC, so it appears they are building up the card in the right direction after tonight. I see a lot of potential matches for the HIAC PPV, so that's at least a positive for the PPV. Not a perfect show since it clearly had its flaws and dead spots, but I found it enjoyable. It's amazing how WWE tries to build up how brutal HIAC matches are, but the last few years of these matches, they have really become tame. There was a point where a HIAC match was the blow off point of a feud, but with the way the match has gone and now being turned into a gimmicky PPV, it just doesn't have the same fire power that it used to have. It will really take something for HIAC matches to be special again, but with the PG era and blood spots taken out, it seems like HIAC will continue to fall downhill. Now, it's still possible to have a good HIAC match without blood since blood is only novilty and what makes HIAC is the structure and all the weapons/goodies you can use in this match. Even with that said, a lot of the past HIAC matches haven't used a lot of these tools. It's possible we will see HIAC reach the glory it used to, but with Henry possibly having a longer title reign and Del Rio in line to possibly steal the belt, this doesn't end the feud and instead makes it continue. Yeah, so some quick thoughts on Hell in a Cell matches. That's going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of my review and tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time and more battling seizure robots!!!

WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Night of Champions 2011 Review

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at WWE Night of Champions 2011. So, how did this show rank up? Well, let's find out and start the review.

Match #1: Air Boom vs Awesome Truth for the WWE Tag Team Championships
We open up the show with R-Truth and Miz rapping. They rap at how the WWE Universe sucks. The line I found odd was when the King said "Are you kidding me, a song called you suck?". Ummm......anyone remember Kurt Angle and his entrance? Anyway, this wasn't a bad opening contest. Air Boom both have the same color scheme tonight. Kinda weird seeing Evan Bourne wearing glow in the dark pajamas, but what are you going to do about it? Both teams worked pretty well together, which is a good thing because things might not be over between these two teams after tonight. There was a spot where Bourne made a clapping sound to indicate a tag towards the ref and he allowed it. Miz and Truth complain about how Bourne didn't get a tag, but it goes nowhere. To add to all of this, Truth makes a tag towards the Miz, but the ref didn't see it and waives it off. During the argument, Miz hit Skull Crushing Finale and he pretty much has the victory, but the ref and Truth are still arguing. Eventually, the ref makes the count, but Bourne kicks out. Miz gets really angry at the ref and pushes him, thus calling for the bell. In other words, Air Boom wins the match via disqualification. After the match, Miz attacks the ref and Truth tries to calm him down. He eventually creates some distance between the ref and Miz, so be greets the ref by......giving him a bitch slap. Well, you can definitely say that referee just got GOT!!! Now, I bet some people are already pissed off in how the PPV started since we open up with a DQ. Keep in mind that while you want to see good wrestling matches in pro wrestling, you also want to see good storytelling. The story here is Miz and Truth played by the rules tonight, but were denied because in the eyes of Truth and Miz, there is a conspiracy against them. This adds a lot of fuel and fire into their storyline and I want to see how this plays out. I like Truth and Miz working together. They are total opposites, but I like those old couple tag teams in professional wrestling. In a backstage interview, Truth and Miz talk more about conspiracy. It was at this point that something hit me. This was something I didn't think about when writing the NoC Rundown, but just occurred to me as I watched this. Since Truth and Miz performed in the first match of the night and got screwed over, will they be playing a role in the CM Punk/Triple H match since Awesome Truth isn't fond of either of these people? Some people are waiting to call bulls*** on my end if they watched the show, but I was seriously thinking this when I saw this segment. Make of this whatever you will.

Winner via DQ and still Tag Team Champs: Air Boom

Match #2: Cody Rhodes vs Ted DiBiase for the IC Championship
A match that had very little build up going into it. That's a shame because these two have an interesting story, but with WWE taking a break with DiBiase and only putting him back against Rhodes on last week's Smackdown, just feels like it was thrown in at the last minute. This was a pretty physical match between the two. This was also DiBiase's best match out of his career so far. He looked pretty good tonight. If only he would grow a personality, maybe I wouldn't refer to him as DiBlandness. I remember the King trying to talk about how Rhodes is thick minded during the match, but his argument felt really phoned in, as if he didn't know enough about Cody going into this match. Rumors have popped up for years that King doesn't watch Smackdown, and it really shows up at times when King calls some of these SD performers since he doesn't know what to say half the time. You know who I'm pissed off at? The Buffalo Bills. If they had lost in the game earlier today, I would've been able to make a joke in how the audience would have every reason to wear Rhodes' paper bags. Damn you, Ryan Fitzpatrick!!! Not a bad match, but it was somewhat of a drag compared to the opening contest. The match ends with DiBiase takes the mask off of Cody. He's about to use it as a weapon, but misses and Rhodes goes for a rollup while holding the tights and wins the match. The ending pretty much makes this rivalry continue. I would like to see some more development with this storyline with the next PPV coming up....in two weeks. Two weeks? Are you serious? I will get to this matter a little later in the review.

Winner via pinfall and still IC Champ: Cody Rhodes

We are back in the ring where Christian talks about wanting one more match for the WHC. He tries to start a "one more match" chant until Sheamus interrupts. Sheamus says this is NoC, no the night of weasels. He talks about....lucky green testicles? Wait, what? Lucky green testicles? This sounds like one of Hulk Hogan's random lines. Well, at least it makes more sense than double-fisted kangaroo. Seriously, what's a double-fisted kangaroo? Anyway, Sheamus says if he helps Christian get another match, he should get the first world title match against Christian if he wins....

Damn, the heels in professional wrestling can sure be stupid at times. As you would have guessed, he takes the bait and Sheamus is trying to get the audience to do the "one more match" chant. Eventually, Sheamus hits a Brogue Kick on Christian to end the scene. Really, just more build up for their rivalry. Have to assume this will be happening at the Hell in a Cell PPV. Either way, it will kick your arse.

Match #3: Dolph Ziggler vs Jack Swagger vs Alex Riley vs John Morrison; Fatal 4Way for the US Championship
I expected these guys to deliver a good contest, and that's what they did. I definitely wouldn't call it Match of the Night, but it was a fun match to watch. In the early going of the match, Riley did a crossbody onto the steel steps, but I have to think he was aiming for the person on the outside....

Well, at least it looks like Riley is okay after that hit. It appeared the match was over when Riley hit the Fireman's Carry Cutter on Swagger, but Vickie Guerrero put his foot on the rope to save the match. Dolph sees this and questions if Vickie was trying to screw him over. Again, heels in professional wrestling really can be kinda stupid and have a one-track mind. A lot of good stuff to watch in this match. The finish comes when Swagger hits the Gutwrench on Morrison, but Dolph pushes Swagger to the side and steals the match. Vickie seems to be happy about Dolph's victory while Swagger is pissed off. Some people might say this whole threesome storyline went at a stand still tonight, but I think it was a great way to continue the build up. They make Dolph look like a smart heel since he basically stole this match, while it shows the toughness in Swagger. So, was Vickie happy because Dolph won or because Swagger did all the work? Not to mention both guys are seeking her managerial services. It does make things very interesting to say the least. I think we will see something very soon break down between the three of them, but not sure what that could be? Will they both be working together? Is Vickie using Swagger to make Dolph look better or is Vickie plotting the downfall of Dolph? These are all interesting questions. By the way, noticed Morrison took the pinfall in this match. Yeah, do you really need further proof his role with the company has changed since the injury? Riley looked pretty good tonight and it's this type of performance that makes me think Riley might be ready for a singles championship in the near future. Remember, my prediction was for Riley to be US Champ once Survivor Series is over and done with and he's still on track for that to happen.

Winner via pinfall and still US Champ: Dolph Ziggler

Match #4: Randy Orton vs Mark Henry for the WHC
Man, the interviews and commentators are really pushing hard that Henry hasn't won the big one in 15 years of work in the WWE. Are they giving it away? I thought this was going to be a match that dragged, but this honestly might be my favorite match of the night. I wouldn't call it Match of the Night since the Fatal 4Way and the Punk/Trips might be considered the best, but I really liked the work done by both guys. I really think this is the best I've seen out of Henry in his entire career. Henry was dominating the early going of the match, but Orton would often fight back. Orton made this a close contest and you almost think he was able to pull if off, but it appeared he didn't have that extra muscle to get the job done. I really liked how Orton sold this match since he looked good, but he started to show signs of fatigue and being banged up. See, that's the works of a good worker. Not the biggest Orton fan, but the guy tells a good story in the ring. The finish comes when Orton is so beaten up that he's standing on one leg. He attempts an RKO, but Henry counters and hits World's Strongest Slam for the second time and wins this match cleanly. I have to admit, I was a little surprised with this decision. I kinda figured with they way WWE has built Henry's character that he could get the world title, but I never would've imagined him getting the clean victory. Now, I've been guilty of saying I wasn't much of a Henry fan. I just thought of him as a glorified big guy who would never reach the top and he would get that label for the rest of his career, but his recent work as shown me Henry had a lot more to offer. I know a lot of people are very pissed off with Henry winning, but I think he deserved this victory. This finish shows that Henry HAS finally arrived and if Orton couldn't stop him, who will? It will be an interesting story going forward since you know Orton wants to take another crack at Henry and you know Henry wants to prove he's for real. After the match, Henry cut a promo in saying how he doesn't want any bandwagon supporters and proved a lot of the critics wrong tonight. Honestly, he has a point with that statement. Some people might call this kayfabe, but I have to think these were some genuine words by Henry because people have been saying that about Henry for years. The other question after tonight is how long of a title reign will Henry have? It would be overly stupid to have him lose the title at the next PPV. I think they can roll with Henry being champ for a few shows. I think he should drop the title at Survivor Series or TLC to really show his dominance in the WWE. All I have to say is congratulations to Henry, you earned it.

Winner via pinfall and NEW WHC: Mark Henry

There was a backstage scene where Alberto Del Rio was talking with John Lauriniatis. He talks about the unfair treatment towards him since he's the champ, but Johnny Ace tells him good luck. Once Del Rio leaves, Johnny Ace says good luck to another person, which turns out to be CM Punk. Punk talks about how he doesn't buy Johnny Ace's words while. When Punk leaves, Johnny Ace immediately starts texting on his phone....

By the way, I loved the CM Punk Ice Cream Bar T-shirt. Where can I get one?

Match #5: Kelly Kelly vs Beth Phoenix for the Divas Championship
Beth comes out to a very loud ovation with the hometown crowd while they clearly dislike Kelly. This was a carbon copy of their match at Summerslam, but with a minor difference.....the Super Plex. I have to give both ladies credit for that attempt. After the Super Plex, Beth goes for Glam Slam, but Kelly gets ANOTHER rollup and wins the match. Can any person alive figure out how to kick out of Kelly's rollup? What the hell was this? The build up going into this match was for Beth to win the title, but you end the match the same way you did at Summerslam? This kinda shows you're not sure what to do with the Divas Division since you're recycling the same matches from PPV to PPV. I really didn't like this match. The booking did upset me, but I think I'm more upset with the cliche finish. I still don't buy Kelly as a strong champion after tonight. She still looks weak and standing on more golden horseshoes than Sheamus' arse. I don't even think they should do a rematch unless there's a change, meaning Beth or Natalya have to win the next match or else this storyline is a waste of time. Is the purpose of this storyline showing how the real female wrestlers are completely inferior to the model based barbie dolls? The IWC would have a field day if that was the truth. Anyway, I really hope that isn't the case, but I think some people have to think that after tonight. This was a passable divas match, but I wasn't too fond of the booking here.

Winner via pinfall and still Divas Champ: Kelly Kelly

Match #6: Alberto Del Rio vs John Cena for the WWE Championship
Oh boy, I bet there's a lot of pissed off people after this match. Del Rio arrived without a car and yelled at Ricardo Rodriguez since he couldn't find the keys. It turns out Cena stole the keys and committed car theft. Again, wrestling logic since any normal person would go to jail for this. After the in-ring introductions, we are set to being. Did King just say "take that, you gringos" during Rodriguez's introduction? Was King trying to take a shot at Del Rio, cuz it just shows someone who doesn't know anything about the Spanish language. Anyway, after that failed attempt of comedy by the King, the match begins. Very early in the match, Rodriguez interfered and the ref sent him to the back. This made it a one on one contest for the rest of the match. This was a pretty good match. Del Rio and Cena put forth a pretty entertaining match. We even saw some new moves by Del Rio in this match. Again, Del Rio is a good wrestler, but it's his cliche heel stuff that makes him seem boring. The finish comes when Cena hits AA, but Rodriguez shows up again to interfere, but it fails. Cena locks in the STF and Del Rio eventually taps out. So, we have a new WWE Champion....again. The champ being Cena.....again. And the booking is weird....again. Now, I imagine there's a lot of people very pissed off with this decision, and I honestly can't blame you. I respect Cena, but he shouldn't have gotten the championship back already. Does Cena have some weird disease where if he goes too long without a championship, he dies? This might tell me a few things after tonight. Has the WWE given up on Del Rio? I would hate to think of all the time and money they invested in Del Rio that they cut his championship reign in one month, but maybe they took the title off of him so he can win the championship WITHOUT the use of MITB. If that's the case, that would get Cena to change his opinion of Del Rio since he sees him as a person who got a fluke title win. Still, I have to think that maybe the WWE has no faith in Del Rio and realized he wasn't ready for this championship. A lot of it was rushed and Del Rio falls into the territory of an average heel at the end of the day. Even with that said, I still didn't like this decision. Cena doesn't need the title, especially when it happens right after CM Punk's rise to the top and then leaving the championship picture...for now at least. Was that the plan? To quickly develop Punk and make sure Cena had the title in the least amount of days possible? I just get tired of seeing Cena win the title all the time. I understand he's the face of the company and will be there for a really long time, but I'm getting a little tired with all of Cena's title reigns and I think most people are burned out as well....at least the fans that aren't under eight years old. I will be optimistic since I don't see Del Rio completely walking out of the title picture and he will most likely get another shot. Just one of these things where it tells a story and people have to wait for the climax of a story, which is what a lot of wrestling fans forget to realize most of the time. Even thought I wasn't fond of the booking, I can't take away from the fact this was an entertaining match to watch. Still, can't take away the fact Cena winning doesn't seem to make much sense. I have to think bunching a PPV two weeks after another one might have played a large factor with Cena's victory. Either way, Cena is the champ and the IWC is writing up "We hate Cena" article #786290. By the time this review is posted, that number will reach OVER 9.......million. Ha, did you think I would use that meme?

Winner via submission and NEW WWE Champion: John Cena

Match #7: CM Punk vs Triple H; No DQ Match, if Trips loses, he is no longer the COO
Before Trips can ejaculate the water from his mouth, Punk attacks and we immediately begin the match. This was a very physical match. In fact, it wasn't a wrestling match, this was a brawl/fight. These guys are fighting in the stands, throwing weapons at each other, Irish Whip through barricades, all that jazz. What really hurt this match was the audience. What happened? They seemed to have a lot of energy for the Del Rio/Cena match, but now they are completely dead. Are they exhausted from the Bills football game and the PPV, or was Buffalo so bitter about Cena winning that they didn't care what happened for the rest of the show? I have said what makes a good match is audience participation, and the audience just didn't seem to care about either Punk or Trips. That's a damn shame, because they put forth the most physical and brutal match of the night. The spots during the match looked devastating and it seemed like both guys were going the extra mile tonight. Just a shame the audience can put anyone to sleep while watching this match. I really liked the spot where Punk hit the Flying Elbow on the Spanish announce table. Very brutal spot. It was also during this match were Michael Cole lost his voice completely and it was King and Booker T calling the rest of the action. Something about the pairing of King and Booker didn't seem to mesh well together, but I bet the anti-Cole fans were loving every moment of this. I just wasn't a fan of how they called this match, and it did miss whatever Cole would have brought to it, or dare I say, Jim Ross? Anyway, the match was going fine, you had to think with the DQ stipulation that shenanigans would come into play. Ok, now prepare to see a classic example of overbooking in professional wrestling. Truth and Miz show up in the middle of the match and attack both guys (I had a feeling it would happen). Miz hits SCF on Trips while Truth hits Facebuster on Punk. They put Punk's arm over Trips and force the ref to count. The count happens, but Trips kicks out. Miz and Truth get angry at the ref and attack him. With the ref out, Johnny Ace arrives to check on the ref. Punk and Trips are back on their feet and take out both Truth and Miz with their moves. Trips eventually hits the Pedigree on Punk, but no ref there to make the count....

No, not that count. Anyway, Johnny Ace motions for another ref to show up, but wants that ref to deal with the beaten up ref as opposed to sub. Trips questions all of this, which allows Punk to get back up and he hits the GTS. It appears Punk is going to win, but Truth arrives to break up the count (what?). At this point, the other ref goes down and Johnny Ace pulls out his cell phone. A few minutes later, Kevin Nash arrives through the crowd and attacks both guys. Nash is about to hit the Jack knife on Trips, but Punk makes the save. It didn't last long since Nash hits the Jack knife on Punk. Nash goes to the outside to deal with Trips, but Trips uses a sledgehammer to take out Nash. Trips gets back in the ring and hits a 3rd Pedigree on Punk, which finally ends the match. The show ends with Trips signaling the DX chop on Punk....

Holy crap, I thought for a minute I was watching TNA wrestling. A lot of overbooking going on here tonight, but let's back it up a moment and talk about some of these interferences. Well, it makes perfect sense for Miz and Truth to attack both guys. They attack Trips because they think he's the one holding them back and they attack Punk because he's getting all the attention. Now, it appeared they wanted Punk to win the match, but what doesn't make any sense is why would Truth break up Punk's pinfall attempt? If he wanted Punk to win, why break it up? It just doesn't add up. Then again, the excuse can be Truth is so bats*** insane that he doesn't know what he's doing at the moment, but that's stretching it. Johnny Ace showing up wasn't much of a surprise, but it isn't quite clear after tonight who he was trying to screw over. We have to assume (at least in terms of filming and possible kayfabe) that Johnny Ace texted Nash to attack someone, but did he want Nash to attack both guys? If that's the case, why? That part seems a little baffling since it would make sense to target one person, but maybe Johnny Ace did want Nash to attack one person. Maybe Nash had a different agenda tonight? Is it possible that Johnny Ace is secretly taking orders from Vince McMahon and just wants punishment on both guys? That actually makes sense considering Vince can't stand Punk because of his change and can't be too fond of Trips for basically stealing his job. Was this match overbooked? Yes, but at least the people involved had their own motives for wanting to attack certain people, so that makes a little bit of sense. Still, overbooking can really hurt the value of a match and I can see people be very pissed off after this. Now, I can already see the complaints regardless of the overbooking events since many felt Punk should have won the match and he just "jobbed out" to Trips. Again, why is it the IWC assumes a "job" is when someone loses? That's not a job. A job is losing a match in less than two minutes. Punk went through hell in a 20+ minute match. How did he job out? I have never liked how that term is loosely thrown out there. Seriously, go on the websites and you'll see this term more often than say Super Cena. What I get out of tonight's match is we have more questions now than ever before. You have to think Punk can't be too happy with all of these people getting involved and possibly tampering with his victory. In fact, I'm sure Trips' character might feel the same way after tonight. He had a very physical match with Punk, and maybe after tonight, he grew to respect Punk and realize this guy can hang with the big dogs. If you watched the ending of the match, Trips gave this look towards Punk that said "Damn....this guy can go". With that said, Punk fell short tonight and you have to think this matter isn't closed. This could be one of those things where Punk and Trips work together since maybe Trips was innocent in all of this and was just a guy being set up from the very beginning. A lot of people have to remember that while this overbooking stuff and Punk losing isn't the popular move, wrestling is about telling a story. There's more to wrestling than seeing a quality wrestling match. You want to see compelling storylines and strong character development to get you interested in not only the match, but the story being told by the party members. A lot of the time, wrestling fans forget this fact and focus mainly on the booking factor, while there are many variables that make a show interesting or complete garbage. I will admit the match tells an interesting story that should see more daylight in the next few weeks, but the fan inside me is a little disappointed in Punk losing and the overbooked s***. In other words, I have very mixed feelings after watching this match since I don't like overbooking in wrestling. This might have felt very TNA/Vince Russo-ish, but at least it had better choreography.

Winner via pinfall: Triple H

Overall Impression:
I think there's one phrase that comes into anyone's mind when they watched this PPV; mixed bag. This really was a mixed bag sort of evening. A lot of people will be very upset with some of the booking decisions and people do have the right to be upset about that. Then again, booking isn't everything on a wrestling show and the thing I look for is in-ring quality and the entertainment factor. I think when you look at it like that, NoC did deliver in that department. There was some pretty good matches to watch this evening. In fact, only the Divas match is a match I would consider to be lackluster, but everything else was at least passable to very watchable. Even when you take out the crazy overbooked main event, it was still a good match. I would definitely say the WWE has taken several steps backwards in PPV quality when you compare this to MITB or Summerslam, but those PPVs were on a different playing field and it would be somewhat unfair to grade every PPV in regards to those two. Despite this, NoC was an ok evening. If I had to grade this PPV on a scale of 1-10 and 5 being average (I don't do decimal points on this show. I'm different from the wrestling websites), I have to give NoC a 6 out of 10, meaning this was a slightly above average PPV. I can see a lot of people disagreeing with that ranking. I might be a little generous with that ranking, but I look at this score and I gave WrestleMania 27 the same score, but I enjoyed this PPV a lot more than I did WM. This was a decent PPV, but it wasn't anything special since in many ways, it felt like a glorified TV taping outside of the Punk/Trips match. I wouldn't say this PPV is worth the re-buy on PPV, but I think this might be a show worth checking out on DVD or a possible addition to your DVD collection. Again, there was some good matches tonight, but I can understand people being very upset with the booking. I think last year's NoC was a lot more put together than this year, but it was not a bad evening. We do have a lot of questions after tonight's PPV. Will Del Rio be getting back in the main event or has he been taken off for good? What will happen between the triangle relationship between Dolph, Vickie, and Swagger? How will Henry's reign as world champion go? What will Punk and Trips have to say after tonight's match and what will Miz and Truth do after this? There's a lot of interesting storylines after tonight, and those are the things I'm more interested in as opposed to booking. Yeah, Cena winning is very disappointing from my perspective and I really wanted to see Punk and Beth win, but you can't always get what you want. A fair evening for the most part, but I have to think this PPV was booked the way it was tonight because Hell in a Cell is in two weeks. Damn, WWE. Do you think you could've given HIAC and extra week to build up? Only two weeks? I think this might have been the main reason for a lot of the booking decisions tonight, and I have to think this is poor planning on the WWE's part. For the most part, I dislike it when there is three weeks or less to build up a card because it often feels rushed and it doesn't give you enough time to get invested in the card. Not to mention the last two HIAC PPVs haven't been very exciting and really fall short of the HIAC match. The same thing happened with last year's HIAC card and it was tough to get into another PPV when we barely had enough time to get over the last one. Again, I feel some of the booking decisions made tonight was because of HIAC. Well, only time will tell. A very mixed feeling from a lot of people after tonight and it's understandable, but we will see what they do as the WWE goes forth. That's going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of my review and tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.

WrestlingNerd's Official Score of WWE Night of Champions: 6 out of 10
WrestlingNerd's Favorite Match of the Night: Randy Orton vs Mark Henry for WHC

WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Night of Champions Rundown

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another edition of the PPV Rundown. It has been a while since I've done one of these, so not sure how well this will come out. Today, we will rundown WWE Night of Champions. For a quick recap in how I do the rundown, here's how it works. I will talk about every match and try to talk about it from every prospective possible. I will also break it down into who should win, who creative will pick, and then I throw in a prediction of my very own, but they are mainly just for fun. Well, let's begin.

Kelly Kelly vs Beth Phoenix for the Divas Championship
The buildup to this match has kinda been all over the place. When the WWE first had Beth and Natalya turn heel to take down the barbie doll divas, I thought this might have been interesting. As the storyline went forward, it just seems to be at a stand still. I don't really like how they have built up this storyline since Kelly is the one competing every week while Beth is just standing in a corner giving her a pitty applause. Remember when Kharma showed up earlier in the year? She made an impression by just showing up and beating divas up. Beth and Natalya haven't taken that route and really come off more as sore losers than dominate divas. I will admit Kelly has improved over the years, but she's not deserving of the championship. She pulls in mediocre wrestling matches and her personality....well, it sucks. In fact, she might give new meaning to the phrase "she's gone from suck to blow". Some people might think I'm being too harsh on Kelly, but I've seen other model based women's wrestlers do a lot more than Kelly. In fact, Michelle McCool, Layla, and even Candice Michelle are all ladies I felt made a lot more strides and put more effort than Kelly. In fact, I believe Kelly only got the title because WWE was up against a wall in what to do with the division. She also hasn't been a very good champion during her time. In fact, she does so little with the belt that you almost forget she IS the champ. I am also not too fond of her character. Her character should be this individual who wants to take down the mean girls, but she comes off more as an air head who has no idea what she's doing and just prays nobody can figure out how to kick out of a roll up. I hope we see a change really soon after Sunday.

Who should win:
Beth is clearly the superior choice. They have built up this "change" Beth and Natalya want. They got unlucky the first time, but they should dominate the barbie doll this time around.

Who creative will pick:
I can see creative give this to Kelly, but I think they realize they need to make a change as well.

My final pick:
Kelly won the first match, but I don't see her winning this match a second time. Beth beats her cleanly and hopefully this storyline and division can move forward after this.

Dolph Ziggler vs Jack Swagger vs Alex Riley vs John Morrison; Fatal 4Way for the US Championship
The storyline here is an interesting one, and it involves the two heels as opposed to the good guys. The story here is Dolph and Vickie Guerrero are at each other's throats with their...."relationship". In the meantime, Swagger has been seeking the managerial services of Vickie. This has started a heated argument between the heels thinking only one of them is worthy of Vickie. In the meantime, Riley was the other guy who was involved in all of this since he was the catalyst for Vickie and Dolph starting to get some friction between one another. Morrison on the other hand is.....pretty much throw in at the last second. Man, even when he won his rivalry with R-Truth, Morrison still got pushed to the back. Then again, Morrison is going to have to do a lot to climb his way to the top. I know the IWC loves Morrison, but he just falls into the category in which he can do a lot of cool moves but his character is just average. Some people say Morrison's current spot is an injustice, but I think he's in the best spot for him at the moment. When Morrison got injured, opportunity opened up. Guys like Truth and CM Punk took that opportunity while Morrison wasn't doing a whole lot with his opportunity. In the wrestling business, you have to work hard not only for your pushes, but to maintain them. Morrison didn't maintain it, which is why he is playing the role of filler/high spot galore in this match. A number of things can happen in this match. I can see Vickie screwing over Dolph and making sure Jack wins the title. I can see an alliance form between Dolph and Swagger. I can see Riley steal the championship, but I also can't rule out the possibility of Dolph retaining the championship. This is definitely one of the tougher matches to determine who will win since it seems pretty wide open. Then again, that's a good thing since I like unpredictability in pro wrestling.

Who should win:
I talked about the possibility of Riley winning, but I think he isn't quite ready to win the title. I would like to see more buildup for Riley's character. He's getting a decent response from the live audiences on a weekly basis and has the tools to go far, but let's take some baby steps and not rush this. For the most part, not really sure who should win. Right now, signs should be pointing to Swagger, but it's a toss up.

Who creative will pick:
Creative will at least try to move forward with the Vickie Guerrero storyline. Outside of moving the storyline forward, not really sure who they will pick to win this contest.

My final pick:
I really have no idea who to pick going into this match. For the time being, I pick Swagger to be the new US Champ.

Air Boom vs Awesome Truth for the WWE Tag Team Championships
In case you're still a little lost in what's going on here, it's Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne vs R-Truth and Miz for the tag titles. There really isn't much of a storyline going into this contest in terms of the tag titles. The storyline really is more with Miz and Truth, who feel there is a conspiracy in the WWE and want to expose the truth. You can argue what the hell does getting the tag titles have to do with the conspiracy, but I stopped trying to make sense out of Truth a long time ago. The other factor in this storyline is Truth and Miz feel they are getting mistreated in terms of star exposure, so they want to take the titles to show they mean business. In that sense, Truth and Miz going after the titles actually does make sense. On the other side of the coin, you have Air Boom. A relatively new tag team in the mix, but with rumors circling around of WWE re-amping the tag division, Air Boom can definitely be the corner stone in the project. Some people might accuse the WWE of bailing out on the project by giving the titles to Miz and Truth, but you have to keep in mind those rebuilding the tag division talk is on the websites and dirt sheets. Believe it or not IWC, a lot of those reports are false at times. I do hope the tag division does get a wake up call because it has been dead for over a decade in the WWE. I realize tag team wrestling will never be big or a draw, but you can at least make it interesting. Then again, this is one of the bigger matches for the division, so that has to be a positive, right? I think Truth and Miz can somewhat help the tag division. Remember JeriShow? They did pretty well when going into tag team wrestling and I can see Awesome Truth doing the same.

Who should win:
It probably makes the most sense to give the titles to Miz and Truth. Then again, why invest time and energy to create Air Boom only to pull the plug on it so soon? This one can go either way.

Who creative will pick:
Again, I can see creative pick either one of these teams to win, but I have to think they would be leaning towards Miz and Sunny from Coco Puffs.

My final pick:
I want to see Air Boom win, but for the time being; I will pick Miz and Truth to become the new tag champs.

Randy Orton vs Mark Henry for the WHC
A match that has an interesting story going into it. I don't care what people say, but Henry has earned this opportunity. He is arguably the best heel over on Smackdown and he should get a main event program with Orton. The buildup to this rivalry is simple. Henry is so dominate that even Orton is struggling to find some offense, meaning he is really stuck between a rock and a hard place going into this contest. I can see a lot of people picking Henry to win this match, but what I think will end up happening is something along the lines of a DQ or a countout to keep this rivalry going. The next PPV is Hell in a Cell. What I can see happen is either Henry or Orton cause some sort of a DQ and elect to put them in the HIAC, that way there is no place to run. It cliche storytelling by WWE, but it does the job. I think it would be a mistake for Orton to win this feud cleanly at the PPV. Now, I reckon a lot of people would be happy to see this rivalry end at NoC because "Henry can't wrestle, blah, blah, blah". While I agree Henry isn't the most entertaining to watch in a wrestling match, this is probably the best I've seen out of Henry in his 15 year WWE career and I want to see what he can do against Orton. The other reason I see this rivalry continuing after this PPV is because I don't see anyone else in line to take on Orton. Sheamus is the next best choice, but we can wait until the end of the year to put Sheamus out there. Plus, he's building up a big fanbase with his recent face turn and it would be a mistake to just throw him in Orton's lion den. Wade Barrett's stock has flip flopped more times than John Kerry and Cody Rhodes isn't quite ready for a world title push. As of right now, Henry is the superior choice to work the next few PPVs against Orton.

Who should win:
Henry has worked a 15 year career and has never won a world title. It would be sort of a nice send off since this guy is nearing retirement in the next year or so, but not everyone can have a happy ending in the WWE. Not really a big Orton fan, but I think he should take the first contest by some sort of a DQ or shenanigans.

Who creative will pick:
Creative has really built up the fact that Orton almost has no chance in hell of winning, but how many times have we seen WWE write this storyline? In fact, watch John Cena's storylines against Umaga and Great Khali and the formula is roughly the same. Since creative books Orton to have more magic powers than Dumbledore, they will find a way of not making Orton look weak.

My final pick:
I pick Orton to win, but I see this rivalry continuing into the next PPV.

Alberto Del Rio vs John Cena for the WWE Championship
For the most part, a match that has had some rather poor buildup. I know some people will say I am being overly harsh against that since Del Rio was off TV for one week because of visa issues. Even if you take that out of play, there was still two weeks to build up the match and WWE hasn't made the most out of that time. Reckon, WWE has decided to roll with Punk vs Triple H to be the main focal point of the PPV, but that's no reason to make your world title match have such low hype. One of the reasons I don't find myself interested in this match is Del Rio himself. When he got the championship, I wasn't quite sure if he was ready. Del Rio did well in the first week of his championship reign, but he hasn't added anything to his victory since. He's still pulling in slightly better than X Pac heat and he's kinda boring to watch. To be fair, he's still early in this championship reign and throwing the book at him might be a little early, but it didn't take long for the Miz to make some sort of impact when he won the championship. I just felt some creative members are really high on Del Rio, which is why he gets special treatment. Some people are waiting to piss all over me when I say that, but I look back in his 13 months with the company and I've never seen one guy get so much handed to him in such a short amount of time. He had weeks and weeks of vignette videos to hype up his character of some cliche rich man. He takes out Rey Mysterio right away and a few months after that, he already wins the Royal Rumble. He's in one of the main event slots in WrestleMania 27 and nearly wins the WHC on several occasions. They quickly send him from SD to Raw to be on the A show and eventually wins MITB. Of course, with the MITB win, he gets a world title. If you look at all the time, money (those cars are costing the WWE money no matter how you look at it), and scree time, it almost begs the question what is it the WWE sees out of Del Rio that a lot of us are missing? While I admit Del Rio is a good wrestler and has an interesting character, I just feel his character resorts to catchphrase and doesn't really go the extra mile to look like a special heel. His heel character is very cliche when you break it down. In fact, JBL had this character during his WWE Championship reign many years ago. Don't believe me? Well, take a look at this. JBL was a self made millionaire. To be fair, JBL really did earn that money in real life, but I am referring to the established kayfabe. JBL talked about how better he was than you because he had money and would use his money to buy himself out of sticky situations. He would eventually get henchmen to do his dirty work and would always run away from a fight. There is so much similarities with JBL and Del Rio that it isn't even funny. Do you know what my favorite part of Del Rio is? Ricardo Rodriguez. Yeah, I'm not joking either. There is something about this guy that makes me laugh. I love the way he calls out Del Rio's name and he totally looks like a guy who will do anything for a paycheck. He's pretty funny as well. It's almost because of Rodriguez that Del Rio pulls in a little better than average of a crowd response. Now, you think with everything I said that I hate Del Rio. That isn't the case because I kinda like the guy. I see a lot of potential with the guy and I feel he can be a good champion, but he really needs to step us his game and stop with being so cliche and generic to make himself a big star. What can help Del Rio is working with Cena, but how well will Del Rio come out of this rivalry? Del Rio is a guy who wins via submission, and there's NO WAY the WWE is going to have Cena tap out. Sorry guys, but you might as well toss that idea out the window. Remember, Cena "will never give up", so that will remain with him for a really long time. I mainly expect Del Rio to outsmart Cena or cheat in order to win. Why not? JBL did it, right?

Who should win:
Based on what I've talked about, Del Rio needs something to really get himself over. He simply needs the win. If Del Rio loses, it will show WWE creative made a mistake in giving Del Rio the special treatment and I don't think they are nowhere near ready to pull the plug on this project.

Who creative will pick:
Del Rio will either use a weapon, cheat, or cause a DQ or countout to win or throw the match. Kinda odd that both world title matches could end in some sort of a DQ at the moment. Hey, as long as they don't spray something in their eyes in three of the matches, then I think we are good.

My final pick:
This will be sort of an odd pick. My prediction is Del Rio will WALK OUT as the WWE Champion. I'm not saying he will win or lose, but he should walk out with the championship. Make of this whatever you will, but I did warn you my personal picks don't mean s***.

CM Punk vs Triple H; If Trips loses, he is no longer the COO of the WWE
Now we come to the match that is geared as the true main event and has a lot of hype going into the match. First, a quick recap in how we got to this point. Really, you can say this whole rivalry started well before Trips started showing up on screen again. This is a continuation of Punk's leaving the WWE storyline back in June when he cut that promo. When Punk won the championship and left the WWE, we had a show in which the main prize was no longer in tact. In terms of storyline, Vince McMahon was relieved of his everyday duties and was replaced by the Game. When the Game took over and we finally crowned a new WWE Champion, we had a unsuspected surprise with the original WWE champ in Punk returning. Meaning, we had two WWE Champions on the same show, but we only needed one. It was decided that it would be Punk vs Cena where the winner is the Undisputed WWE Champion, with Trips as the special guest referee. The match happened at SummerSlam and it lead to Punk winning the championship, but that was only the beginning of how this storyline would play out. Kevin Nash would show up and take out Punk, which lead to Del Layfield showing up and stealing the championship with the MITB briefcase. We were lead to believe that Nash and Hunter were working together on this whole deal. Not to mention people like John Laurinaitis, Stephanie, and possibly Vince McMahon, the talk of conspiracy seemed to be in place and it seemed they were targeting the individual who started this "realism" phase in the WWE, CM Punk. Punk was trying to expose the truth and find out why people are stopping him on his quest of change while there have been road blocks in the way. Signs were saying Trips was playing dirty, but was perhaps a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. For weeks, Nash would show up and it seemed Punk and Nash were set to do battle at NoC, but because of a change, Trips ended up being the guy. Nash was eventually "fired" by the Game, which has lead to a heated exchange between Punk and Trips that has really become a personal matter between the two. Trips questions how a guy like Punk can be a big superstar in professional wrestling while Punk is tired of all the cliche things that happen in wrestling and wants to see a change.

With the way this rivalry has been built up, I find it very interesting. I think most people would consider this the best rivalry at the moment with the time and energy both guys have put forth. Both Punk and Triple H have said some things that make a lot of sense from where they are coming from. I like how Trips acts like Punk can't be in the main event, because this is exactly what's happening in the IWC. See, it was only a matter of time until the IWC started to turn on Punk. I'm almost convinced the IWC hates anything that's popular in wrestling, but I digress. Despite the haters on Punk, he has cut promo after promo and continues to get an overwhelming response from the crowd. If you look at the show, Punk is one of the Top Five guys who gets the loudest reaction in the WWE, and that's with people like Cena, Orton, and Trips all present. I think it's pretty clear the casual fans are taking a liking to Punk to some extent and the guy has earned his spot. Besides, if the WWE had no faith in Punk, why would they let him be the main event for three straight PPVs? The WWE wouldn't have someone main event that many times in a row unless creative had a lot of support in him or the guy has simply paid his dues. Punk has busted his ass for years to get to the spot he has earned and I think he deserves his time to shine, regardless if he's the champ or not. A lot of questions surrounding with Trips going into this match, but I think the main one is will he turn heel and did he set this whole thing up on Punk? Has Punk been the mastermind this whole time and is he planning on showing his heelish colors? I don't think so since Punk is a different type of face (tweener) and he seems to be doing fine with getting cheers, so I don't think I would have him turn into a complete heel again. Will Nash be getting involved in the match? Will Trips lose his COO position or will the guy make a deal with the devil? Not really sure about that, but it will be great seeing what kind of story the WWE tells this Sunday when Punk and Trips square off since there are a lot of possibilities with this match. Another one of the most common complaints with this match is many people felt the WWE rushed this entire thing. I can agree to some extent that the WWE has gone a little fast forward with all of this since they probably want the Rock and Cena to be the major confrontation at Survivor Series (along with other things if you've seen the reports. I won't spoil it for you and I request you don't spoil it for everyone else). Things might have been rushed and people will think because of that there are flaws with this storyline, but I still think it's the best storyline currently going on in the WWE and it tells a great story. It might be a little confusing with all this conspiracy talk going around, but I expect we will get some answers at NoC.

Who should win:
Punk has made a lot of strides and has been impressive, but Punk still needs a few more big time wins to really show he belongs. Punk is still looked at as the underdog and thus he should win.

Who creative will pick:
If Punk wins, Trips is no longer the COO. If that's the case, who calls the shots next? Johnny Ace? Stephanie? Maybe the return of Vince McMahon? If Trips wins, will he cheat or will someone screw Punk over? I think there are all questions creative is looking at in regards to all of this.

My final pick:
This ones a tough one since it can go either way. I can see Trips turning heel, but I also wonder if WWE will let Punk get the clean victory? A clean win will do wonders for a guy like Punk. I'm going to pick the Chicago native in CM Punk to win this match.

That's going to do it for the Rundown, I hope you enjoyed it. There is still a chance a match or two will be added to the card. In fact, I can see a match between Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase for the IC Championship. Since no announcement was made as of yet, I can't really talk about it. If it happens, Cody has to win to continue his buildup. If they continue to build up Cody, he could be a world champion by next year. Might be a little late to consider Rhodes getting a world title this year, but I can't rule that out as a possibility. I watched a little bit of Smackdown this week and I thought the show was alright. I really liked the rap between Truth and Miz. One of the funnier moments of the evening. Edge was great this week as well. It's a shame his career was cut short, because it would be great to see the old Edge, but at least his mic skills gives you enough to remember his time in the ring. The original Sin Cara returned this week and now we begin the Sin Cara vs Evil Sin Cara to protect Angel Grove....er, the WWE Universe. This was my prediction when Sin Hunico stated performing as Sin, so nice to see WWE hasn't completely bailed on Sin and realize he established the character in Mexico and he shouldn't be downgraded for his accomplishments because of a few botches. Did you ever think Sin moves so fast that the rest of the talent can't keep up with him? There are other factors in Sin's struggles, but I find it funny when people already want the public lashing on this guy because of a few messy spots. The guy is still incredibly over with the WWE Universe and I think deserves more time to show what he's capable of. There was some more development between Sheamus and Christian, so I like what they are doing in that department. So, that's a very, very, VERY, quick review on Smackdown. I won't rank the shows for this week, but I will pick an MVP of the Week. This came down to Robert Roode, and the combination of Miz/Truth and Punk/Trips. I am going to give it to Awesome Truth for this week. I'm well aware Punk and Trips had the better week, but it was something I couldn't resist. Tell me what you thought of the rundown and what you think will happen at NoC. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.