cactus

Edge is injured and had to relinquish the Intercontinental strap, so this is for the vacated title. This was around the time that most midcard feuds on Raw would culminate in a ladder match. Seriously, I looked it up and between 2002-2007, there was 8 ladder matches from the Raw brand in the for mostly the IC title. Like many of those matches, this one struggles to stick out from the crowd. It's enjoyable, just not overly memorable. One thing I can say is that Jericho isn't afraid to take some sick shots and bumps. There's a scary botch where he falls from a ladder and lands ass first onto the very same ladder. This could of benefited if they sped the pace up and if this had a memorable finish. Ladder matches are usually always going to be entertaining to a certain degree, and this is no exception. ★★★

I like the idea of single-branded PPVs, but then I remember they filled them with crap like this. So the 'woman' who attacked Tomko is revealed to be Stevie Richards. The crowd and commentary team hardly react to this. Tomko beats down Richards for a LONG time. He rips the clothes and wig from Richards while berating him. He's not interesting and the crowd soon start chanting 'boring'. Richards gets a quick comeback, before being put away. The only positive things I can say about this is that Richards is quite good at fighting from underneath and I liked the spot where Richards slams Tomko into the turnbuckle by violently throwing him by his testicles. ★

Trish Stratus defends the WWE Women's Title. Victoria starts the match with some nifty technical wrestling. I can't say I was expecting that from her. She's good here, she hits a flawless version of that sidewalk slam she does that I haven't seen anyone else do. Aside from that, there's not much to say about this. Tyson Tomko accompanies Trish to the ring and he ends up costing Victoria the match. After the match, someone in drag comes to the ring and attacks Tomko, leading us to our next match. ★★

Batista might be the weak link here, but he's better than I remembered. Old Man Flair is very underrated in my eyes. He gets into a chop battle with Benoit and finds himself falling flat on his face. Flair does this multiple times, and it's a testament to his ability that he can do it without it looking hokey. Regal is more intense than usual. Evolution were responsible for taking out of his friend Eugene and he's looking for revenge. Even his stance screams intensity! This is a hard-hitting, physical opener that served it's purpose to pump up the crowd and then some. ★★★¼

Let's face it, Khali is awful. His offence is so shit that even Jim Ross craps all over it. There's two instances where he attempts a kick and completely misses Cena. Cena, with help from the gimmick match stipulation, does everything is his power to get a good match out of what he's been given. He sells Khali's strikes like death and he really puts over Khali as someone not to mess with. Khali doesn't take any big bumps until the end of the match, where he eats a FU from a crane to the floor. When people try to defend Cena as a top tier wrestler, don't use his matches with other great workers like Punk, Bryan and Cesaro as proof, use this instead. Anyone can have a great match with Daniel Bryan, but it takes a special kind of worker to craft something entertaining with someone as useless as Khali. This is his 'Flair vs broomstick' moment. ★★★

Edge immediately tries to escape as soon as the match begins. Edge is much better when he's playing the chickenshit 'alt-rock douchebag' character rather than the hammy 'bug-eyed psycho'. There's really not much to say about this one. Batista hits a couple of nice power spots before Edge escapes after do the cliched 'one man climbing over the cage, whilst another man tries to escape via the door' ending. You couldn't get a more by the book WWE cage match than this. It's completely okay. Average. ★★½

Yeah, this was awful. They wrestle in a pool filled with chocolate pudding, all while (accused) rapist Jerry Lawler lusts over the women and name-drops Bill Cosby on commentary. Candice wins by submission when she tries to drown Melina in the pudding. Maria comes out to interview the winner before a catfight breaks out, leaving all three women and the referee covered in pudding. When they did these kind of matches during the Attitude Era, you could at least say that they were a product of their time. This was a mere 13 years ago. This was trashy, exploitative and insulting, even for 2007 standards. DUD

This is technically a one-on-one match, but Vince has back-up. Shane McMahon and Umaga fight alongside the chairman, effectively turning this into a handicap match. As soon as the bell rings, Lashley hits a plancha on Umaga to stop him from interfering. Well, he tried too. His leg was the only part of his that connected. You tried, Bobby. This is a by-the-numbers handicap match with Lashley repeatedly trying to mount a comeback before getting cut off. The crowd do get behind him, to his credit. Shane hits his usual big spots and Vince doesn't get involved in anything too crazy, but he's great at being a provocative heel. Lashley eventually cleans house for good and wins back his title by hitting Vince with a spear. This wasn't awful, but it's clear that the Lashley experiment had failed by this point. ★½

One of the lumberjacks here is Chris Benoit. It's his last ever PPV appearance and it's chilling to watch as he looks like his mind is elsewhere and he doesn't get involved like any of the other 11 lumberjacks. Mark Henry had yet to hit his stride. He's nowhere near the levels of 'Hall of Pain' Mark Henry, but he has the aura of a man you don't want to fuck with nailed down. Kane is not the ideal opponent for him and the result is a slow, lumbering match. Henry works down Kane with a bearhug as a rest hold, and then it's later used to end the match. This would of been a lot more tolerable with a smaller opponent. ★

I hadn't heard of this match and I was excited to watch it, but it doesn't hold a candle to some of the Hardys' ladder matches with Edge & Christian and The Dudleyz. There's a lot miscommunication and spots get blown. Shelton is the real MVP here. He goes all out and even he when botches a leap to the ladder, he flawlessly improvises mid-air and stops another spot from being ruined. This is fun overall, just not go in expecting a Wrestlemania X7 level classic. ★★★

ECW was clearly dead in the water at this point. Elijah Burke looked like a star during his entrance, it's a shame nothing ever came from his WWE run. Marcus Cor Von was a decent powerhouse too. Punk has joined the ECW Originals to stop them from feeling like complete nostalgia act. This is a mildly entertaining brawl that did nothing to help the younger talent in the long run. They kept the pace up despite having to accommodate for Dreamer and Sandman. ★★½

Orton was only five years into his run here and it's clear at this point that he 'gets' wrestling. His facial expressions are golden and he radiates arrogance. The story going into this is that Orton concussed RVD on Raw and he wants to do it again. Most of Orton's offence is simple, strike at RVD's head and scrabble his brains some more. What brings this match down is that RVD is abysmal at selling a head injury. He looks hokey. The stretcher stipulation also hurt the match. There's just not much to work with. Still, this did it's job and got Orton over as a massive headcase despite his loss. ★★¾

This is the only wrestling forum I still post on these days. I've always enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of this place and it's a great way to kill an hour or two. Reading and commenting during WWE PPVs have made staying up for them halfway tolerable!

These guys have such great chemistry and they are never out of sync with each other. Mysterio finds new ways to tweak his offence and Andrade bumps like crazy for Rey. Rey gets the pin, but Zelina Vega puts her client's foot on the rope and the match is restarted. Although the crowd showed Andrade little reaction when he walked to the ring, he was certainly getting a lot of boos now. Vega takes a bump and Mysterio is conflicted whether to help her or not. This ends up costing Mysterio the match. I liked the finish in theory, but I thought the execution fell flat. Finish aside, I thought that the combination of these two might of gotten stale, but this match proved otherwise. ★★★¼

This is a nothing tag team match than ends up being a ton of fun. There's not much of a big hot tag segment here, but just watching Burch and Lorcan controlling their opponents with some crisp British styled grappling makes this worth watching and it's the kind of stuff that gives NXT UK more of an identity than just being a UK version of it's big brother. ★★★

If you are a slut for meaningful limbwork like I am, then this is a match for you. Kendrick is the savvy veteran, whilst Banks is the plucky smash mouth babyface. Eric from Segunda Caida said that Kendrick reminded him of Finlay, and I have to agree with him. The way he moves around the ring and his opponent lets you know that this isn't his first rodeo. He's a pro. Kendrick spends time working on Banks's wrist and hand, and it's never felt like an afterthought during Bank's comebacks. It's a shame that not many people have seen this, as it's a neat little match from WWE's D-show. ★★★½

Both matches on Smackdown this week were a lot of fun. Bryan/Gulak vs Cesaro/Nakamura was four pros working the technical clinic you'd expect out of them. Heavy Machinery vs Miz & Morrison was also surprisingly good. The Mandy Rose love triangle angle is one of the rare times where a romance angle has actually been entertaining. I felt for Otis and Miz & Morrison are great as trash talking heels. The promos were a mixed bag however. Reigns/Goldberg's short and snappy closing segment did it's job, but the opening promo might just end up being the worst segment of 2020. Dire stuff from Gronk. His dancing was utterly cringe inducing. Elias and Corbin's involvement didn't help matters either.

I'm sure I'll eventually tire from these empty arena shows, but I've enjoyed the two they've done so far. The promos feel nowhere near as forced as compared to when they do them to a live audience. The Edge & AJ/Undertaker were particularity great. The Austin segment was fun yet ultimately pointless. I wasn't too into whatever Asuka was doing. I do wonder if they are going to start taping these shows in advance. Have the roster travel every week seems like an unnecessary risk and I can't imagine it would take more than a few days to record all the TV taking them up to WM if they continue in the current format.

In a perfect world, I wish they would postpone it. Although with everything that I've been looking forward to in March/April being understandably cancelled, this something I can at least look forward to. It's going to be crazy to see Lesnar and Goldberg wrestling in the PC.

Hoping you guys stay safe. Here in the UK, things are going to get worse before they can get better. I work in a supermarket, so I can't even self-isolate.

Haven't watched Smackdown since the debut episode on FOX, but I thought this was an easy watch. All three matches were acceptable. The Cena/Wyatt stuff was great. Wyatt is a convincing promo, even with all his wacky shit. Roman's sit-down felt like it added nothing to the program. Bayley and Sasha Banks looked awkward playing to an empty arena, which I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not. I give it a week before wrestlers making jokes about playing to an empty crowd becomes a dated trope. I wonder how long they can keep this format going.

Caught up with the rest of the show. The Strowman handicap match and Raw tag titles were both fun. The Women's Chamber match looked to be a dud until Shayna came in a murdered everyone. That bump Liv took was nasty. Shayna feels like a star and she's being protected as one. All in all, C+ show. Nothing blow away with the exception of Bryan/Gulak, but everything else was solid.

The Tag Chamber had it's moments, but went on way too long. Black/Styles was fun. The crowd came alive when Taker showed up. He might be washed up, but that was a cool moment.

Yeah, that match was okay but suffered having to follow Bryan/Gulak. This Andrade/Humberto program had no business going on as long as it did.

Incredible opener. Super physical and simple yet effective storytelling. Hope we can see Gulak get more chances to showcase his talents.