Wrestling’s 4R’s PPV Edition: WWE Vengeance (2007)

The Matches:

WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Cade and Murdoch defeated the Hardy’s @ 8:55 via pin **¾

WWE CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Chavo Guerrero defeated Jimmy Yang @ 9:17 via pin **

ECW TITLE MATCH: Johnny Nitro defeated CM Punk to become the NEW Champion @ 8:15 via pin **

WWE IC TITLE MATCH: Santino Marella defeated UMAGA @ 2:30 via DQ ½*

WWE US TITLE MATCH: MVP defeated Ric Flair @ 8:40 via pin **

WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Deuce and Domino defeated SARGE and Jimmy Snuka @ 6:35 via pin (ASS) TRASH of the Night!

LAST CHANCE – WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Edge defeated Batista @ 16:50 via Count Out **¾

WWE WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Candice Michelle defeated Melina to become the NEW Champion @ 4:25 via pin *

WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena defeated Mick Foley, Randy Orton, Lashley and King Booker @ 10:10 via pin *** MATCH of the Night!

The Right:

Former Champions/Little Videos – This will be short and sweet. While I had problems with the show and the concept, the one thing they did right was the production of making this feel like a big event. They had former champions, legends in attendance that they would announce before the matches and sometimes have a little video of them with that belt and such, and it was fine stuff. Malenko, Steamboat, Race, Magnum, Martel, Garea and so on. It was a great idea, it was well executed and so in this aspect, I give it a hearty thumbs up.

World Tag Team Title Match – The show kicked off with the world tag team title match between the Hardy’s and the Dervish. Let me say I hated this because the Hardy’s should NOT be teaming since they are on separate shows! Anyway, as they have been having, this was another good match. They worked a rushed Hardy format, everything went well, Cade and Murdoch are really letting their personalities show and all in all it was good. Murdoch tripped Jeff off the top rope, Cade got the MUSO slam and relatively clean pin on Jeff. In the end this was a good match, but a level below what they have been doing. They needed more time and didn’t get it. It was a paint by numbers affair, they did work hard, but I wanted and expected more. In the end the Dervish got a good solid win over the Hardy’s and should now be set to roll against London and Kendrick and or TWGTT. Jeff can get involved again in the IC and or World Title picture while Matt should get the shot against Edge. Solid opener.

World Title Match – So here we had the last chance for Batista against Edge. They started out by having a grappling match, and I must say that Batista actually looked good early on. Edge then got smart and rammed the walking injury into the steel post a few times and took control of the bout. Edge worked the arm very well and tried to nullify the power of Batista. But the big man came back, survived the Impaler DDT and looked to get the BOMB for the win, but Edge jacked him in the nads and that got the DQ. But Teddy Long came out and ordered a restart and told Edge if he got DQ’d again, that he would lose the title. While there are times I would have hated a restart (and I didn’t particularly like seeing one the week after I saw one) I liked this one. Batista looked like a beast during the time, he took out Edge and only lost while trying to get Edge into the ring. Edge looks vulnerable, yet strong. Batista doesn’t take a pin, and looks more like he get ripped off for sympathy. Now we can move onto Edge defending against others, while they can have Batista try and cost Edge matches so that he can get another title shot. They just have to follow up with good booking. That could be a problem.

Purgatory:

ECW Title Match – The ECW title match was a match that interested a lot of people and was a match that people were looking forward too. Chris Benoit vs. CM Punk. Unfortunately for those people the match did NOT happen because Chris Benoit had to fly home due to a personal emergency. That’s unfortunate and I hope everything clears up for him. So Chris Benoit is out and Johnny Nitro was in. They worked hard, had a solid match and Johnny Nitro is your new ECW Champion, clean over CM Punk. BERRIED~! In the end these men were FUCKED. The crowd chanted for Benoit almost the entire match, and when they were not chanting for him they didn’t give one fuck about CM Punk or Johnny Nitro. Basically when the opening bell hit, Young CM Punk and Johnny Nitro were FUCKED and they knew it! It didn’t matter how hard they would have or did work, no one cared. For those wondering why Nitro won the title tonight, I will explain. It is like when Rhino won the NWA Title when Nash no showed. Promoters feel that they need to deliver when they change the card like that, so they gave us Nitro and a title win. My only BIG problem here was that they never once explained WHY Johnny Nitro got the shot. Not one time did they try to explain it. I really wish that they would have ran a dark match with some of the ECW guys like Elijah, Monty, Thorn, Dreamer and such. Then, they could have showed footage of this and fully explained it. But they didn’t, and it came off very sketchy. The other thing is that I hope people paid attention to this, the people that say Chris Benoit is not a draw and that no one would miss him if he missed a show. That crowd turned hard because he was not there, they were pissed and they let the E know it. In the end, another match that was fine.

US Title Match – Before the match, MVP came to the ring and talked shit to Magnum TA who was in attendance. This was great as MVP came off as a total cock, which was needed because he got some pops when he came out. This fixed that. Flair came out, everyone was happy and the match began. They worked hard, MVP looked good here, not out of place at all in the ring with Flair. MVP beat down Flair with some mounted elbows, busted him open and took the control. Flair eventually came back with the back suplex, he got the figure four but young MVP got the ropes. They brawled more, and then MVP decided to pull one out of the Chuck Liddell playbook and scored a thumb to the eye, followed by the shitty playmaker for the win. In the end MVP retained the title in a fine match. They had good heat because it is Flair and MVP is pretty over as well, so that was good. But as I have said numerous times; there are nights when Ric Flair looks like Ric FN Flair. And then there are nights, not so much. Well, this was the latter unfortunately. He just looked old, but the good news is that MVP worked hard and really upped his stock I feel. Overall, just another fine match.

Cruiserweight Title Match – Chavo Guerrero defended his Cruiserweight title match this evening, against the #1 contender Jimmy Wang Yang. To many people’s surprise there is in fact a Cruiserweight title, champion and contender. They went out there and had a fine match. It was clean, they did the right things in the right spots, it was a bit slow but it was fine. They worked hard, they really did, but just aren’t allowed to open the throttle full blow so that they can go out there and do what they can on PPV. I also feel that this was the perfect time to pull a title switch, remind people that there is a title and something to watch. Instead, they went with the same old playbook and Chavo retained. Most likely he will continue on with this log reign like helms, the one where he jobbed a ton, had no heat, challengers or people caring. They had a chance to pull a good switch here and add to the night of champions feel, but they didn’t and it was just there. The match was fine. In the end there are several problems. The biggest problem is that WWE constantly treats the CW Title like the jobber title, and they do this because they treat all of the Cruiserweights like jobbers. They also throughout the years, and still mainly today push the big is better motto, so when the small guys get a chance, they get shit on because they have been conditioned not to care about them. That is what happened here. Both men came out to no pop, no heat, nothing. The match had no pop, no heat, no nothing. Chavo was working a heat segment on Yang and there was no hear, there was little to no pop for the fire, it was sad to watch really. But again, until WWE changes that, they could go out there and have a ***** classic and no one would care.

The WWE Title Match – The big main event of the night was the WWE Title, five man challenge deal with John Cena defending against Orton, Foley, Booker and Lashley. It was no DQ, no Count Out and the first pin or submission won the match. The one good thing they did in this match was tease Cena and Lashley. The crowd liked that, and they kept the interaction to the quick brawl and the FU through the table. They also booked Lashley as a threat with the great plancha spot, the FU on him through the table ad brutal chair shot later, like everyone knew they had to keep him out of the match. Orton and Foley didn’t do that much actually as I felt King Booker and Cena carried the match together very well. Foley would eventually go wild with the chair and kill Lashley, but would fall prey to the concussion kick of doom by Randal K Orton. This allowed Cena to be Superman and FU Foley for the pin. I will say that it was ludicrous that this match only went 10-minutes. That is bullshit. You have 5-guys in the main event, you had plenty of PPV time to go and you just decide to go very short and say, “hey, FUCK YOU fans!” I hated that a lot. There was plenty of time in the broadcast to give it at least 5-more minutes, but they just didn’t do it. Problem the second is the fact that they had John Cena survive yet again. He is Superman. While I appreciate that he IS the draw right now, it is just the same old shit to me right now. He is Superman, he always overcomes the odds. You know, this is one of those times where it could have been just fine for Cena to lose the title because he would not have to be pinned. Next I feel that they really dropped the ball with the Foley factor. They did nothing to build him up going into this. They should have played some more video packages, promos and such because a lot of people aren’t into the history of Foley. They should have built him up huge, NOT done the lame injury angle Monday and had him destroy some people Monday. That way when he goes on his mad man roll and gets taken down on this show, it MEANS something! Finally, I know a lot of people will complain and be pissed because I gave this match of the night yet only Purgatory here, but those the breaks! They made the match mean nothing to me, and so here it stays.

The wRong:

Women’s Title Match – I had decent hopes for this match. Candice has been improving and working really hard, and Melina had stepped it up as well. With that being said, the match was not very good. #1 they were rushed. I really think that they needed 2-more minutes because with that they could have slowed down, taken their time and thought a bit more. Instead they were rushed, seemed to be on different pages and never clicked. The finish was sloppy as Candice hit here “kinda spin kick” for the win. Not that good. The one good thing they did was the post match. While this was no classic, nor even a “good” match, they did the post match correctly, and this is a production praise. Candice is handed the title and she weeps, she cries and King and JR put it over and they keep the camera there to catch “the moment.” If this was TNA they would have shown the one imperfection in the title belt or better yet, cut to a meaningless promo to make the moment mean even less. So thankfully they did that right.

TOO MANY MATCHES – I ranted on this a bit last week for the TNA PPV and have to again for this show. With 9-matches on the card, nothing felt special and a lot felt rushed. I appreciate the concept and the premise of the show, but as I have said before with backlash having 6-title matches, this didn’t feel special. I will say again that WrestleMania should be the night of champions. The 4-hour format of it would have worked better for a 9-10 match show, and everything could have gotten the time it needed. Unfortunately they booked themselves into a corner with he concept and in the end, didn’t get the effect that they wanted, which is a shame. My rant about this happening at WM is looking better and better by the weeks and I am sure the same douche bag will email me and say I need to let it go. Eat me.

The Ridiculous:

WWE Tag Team Title Match – For the show being the night of champions, the WWE totally dropped the ball on the WWE Tag Team Titles and their match here on the show. The draft gave Smackdown no tag team help, hell, the Highlanders would have been at least something, but since they only got the Majors, they didn’t want to rush that feud so they gave us the dreaded TBA team! Instead of Finlay and Taylor teaming to get a decent match and help these guys learn how to have good matches, or Eugene picking Sarge or Doink for fun, we got Sarge and Jimmy Snuka. Yup, the E drug Snuka out for his yearly appearance to have a match with his son, and it was horrible. First of all, outside of the entrance, the crowd was dead for the match and Sagre and Snuka. Secondly, Snuka should NOT be anywhere near a wrestling ring. He is walking like he is about to die, he looks horrible and after the opening sequence when his son sat on his head on a leapfrog try, it just fell apart. Sarge was fine as he always is because he can still work, but the match was very bad and even at just above 6-minutes, it went too long. It was really painful to watch, sad really. The only good thing, and this is SAD was that Garea and Martel made the save during the post match beat down of Sarge and Snuka. It was sad because Garea and Martel probably would have had a better match and sad because they threw better punches and kicks than 90% of the roster. Fuck this match.

The IC Title Match – We move onto our IC title match of the evening, a match I had no hopes for and in the end was right. The match had no heat, no build outside of the fact that Santino won the title from Umaga ages ago it seems and it was never touched on again because Umaga was a lackey for Vince so that was a problem. Another problem is that Santino is failing miserably. He sucks and can garner no sympathy. Also he clearly is not ready for his spot. On the other hand Umaga is perceived as above the IC Title. So that’s why I selected a DQ in the RT and that is exactly what happened here. And to make things worse, Umaga kicks his ass the WHOLE time, and in the end, he gets DQ’d because he didn’t break at 5 and because he beat him down too much. That’s right, Umaga got DQ’d for inflicting punishment on his opponent. And Santino, who got his ass beat, gets to keep his title because he got his ass beat. Right. Now, after the match we see MORE proof of how much a failure Santino is because Umaga gets face pops for kicking his ass. He went to leave, came back to pops and did the spike, and after that got chants of ONE MORE TIME! Santino sucks, the people know it and Umaga, who kicked his ass totally, looks like a cool motherfucker. Nice booking kids. ZERO BUYS~!

Closing Thoughts:
In the end the PPV was what I feared it would be. A night that could have been important but ended up mediocre and over saturated by the month. With SNME, ONS III, a 3 Hour Raw and now this, the show just felt like another show. Add to that only one title “change” and the fact that Backlash had 6-title matches, well this felt like 3-hours of TV matches, and you got what we got. WWE writing is burnt out and this is proof of this. Overall I will go with a 5.0 out of 10 (which may be generous) for the show and no recommendation to purchase. It wasn’t bad, but I won’t remember this card in a week. Save your money kids.

2007 PPV Rankings:
–WWE Backlash 8.5
–WWE WM XXIII 8.0
–WWE Royal Rumble 8.0
–TNA Slammiversary 7.5
–TNA Sacrifice 7.25
–TNA Final Resolution 7.0
–TNA Lockdown 7.0
–WWE One Night Stand III 6.5
–WWE New Year’s Revolution (RAW) 6.0
–TNA Against All Odds 6.0
–TNA Destination X 5.5
–WWE Judgment Day 5.5
–WWE Vengeance 5.0
–WWE No Way Out (SD) 4.0

2007 TOP PPV Match Rankings:
– (WWE Royal Rumble) Last Man Standing WWE Title MATCH: Cena vs. Umaga ****¼
– (WWE Backlash) Last Man Standing World Title MATCH: Batista vs. The Undertaker ****¼
– (WWE Backlash) WWE Title MATCH: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton vs. Edge ****¼
– (TNA Sacrifice) Texas Death Match: Chris Harris vs. James Storm ****¼
– (WWE Royal Rumble) The Royal Rumble Match ****
– (WWE WM XXIII) WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels ****
– (WWE ONS III) LADDER MATCH: The Hardy’s vs. TWGTT ****
– (TNA Slammiversary) King of the Mountain Match: Angle vs. Harris vs. Cage vs. Joe vs. AJ ****
– (TNA Destination X) NWA Title Match: Christian Cage vs. Samoa Joe ****
– (TNA Lockdown) Lethal Lockdown (Team Cage vs. Team Angle) ****
– (WWE WM XXIII) Money in the Bank III ***¾
– (TNA Final Resolution) 30-Minute Iron man Match: Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe ***¾

2007 PPV MVP AWARDS:
This is a little added deal here, as I feel that there are some other things that should be mentioned from the PPV’s. Not every PPV will have one, it just depends on who I think steps up and deserves some extra recognition.
–Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker: A Rumble to Remember – WWE Royal Rumble
–JBL: Solo Commentating – WWE No Way Out
–AJ Styles and Rhino: Elevation X – TNA Destination X
–Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker: “They still got it!” – WWE WrestleMania XXIII
–AJ Styles: Almost Dies for his Craft – TNA Lockdown
–The Main Events: “We can step up.” – WWE Backlash
–Harris and Storm: Redemption – TNA Sacrifice
–Matt, Jeff, Shelton and Charlie: “Taking a Risk.” – WWE ONS III
–Jeff Jarrett: “Thank you Jill” – TNA Slammiversary

Thanks for joining me for this special edition of the 4R’s, and don’t forget to check out the regular edition complete with all of the other shows from the week!

For more interesting information on wrestling, check out Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly Online and Mike Campbell over at SPLASH MOUNTAIN!