I watched this match the other day, and I found myself into it more than anything WWE has done for a while. I realized it was because there was a lot of little things you don't see much in WWE anymore.

 

For example:

 

Shane McMahon's performance was so old school it was great. It was if someone gave him a comp of Tully Blanchard matches so he could perfect the "smug rich guy taking an assbeating" role. Shane gets a lot of flak for being what some people call the world's richest backyard wrestler, but he brings the goods more than just some idiot falling off stuff. He actually got a face pop for putting HHH in the Torture Rack, as if the crowd just all realized at the same moment "Holy shit, the guy who does the goofy dances just put a guy bigger than him across his shoulders". Plus he wore a white jersey in a match where blading was involved. I'm sure a certain someone who was also in the match probably hipped him to it, but it always makes the visual aspect look that much more violent.

 

Vince McMahon being put into the Big Show's ass, while fulfilling the current WWE requirement of homoeroticism and naked man ass, was also the classic "heel gets his comeuppance" that is often missing in today's feuds.

 

JR, to use an analogy he'd appricate, is like a former Super Bowl winning QB who's past his prime but every so often shows flashes of what made him great. His outburst of "JESUS CHRIST!" when HHH broke the sledgehammer across Vince's back was just the seemingly spontaneous outburst that's usually not there in the heavily scripted WWE universe.

 

So while it wasn't the "Match of The Year" or a technical wrestling masterpiece, it was a nice little bit of old school goodness from a company that hates anything remotely old school.

I thought the match sucked, but then I didn't have much hope for it going in and was probably predisposed to not liking it.  To me the best part was HHH blading on camera just before eating the slingshot spot off the steps.  While I am glad they didn't go for the cheap "big bump", I can't imagine why the cage would need to be enlarged that significantly if the size of it was going to play no role.  

I thought the match sucked, but then I didn't have much hope for it going in and was probably predisposed to not liking it.  To me the best part was HHH blading on camera just before eating the slingshot spot off the steps.  While I am glad they didn't go for the cheap "big bump", I can't imagine why the cage would need to be enlarged that significantly if the size of it was going to play no role.  

 

That's kinda sad in a way. I guess once you start looking at things a certain way it's hard to go back, but it's funny that most of us used to sit in front of the TV with our bowls of Captain Crunch eagerly awaiting another hour of jobber matches on WWF TV but now we go into a major match on PPV with a blah feeling.

 

Maybe I've been watching too much old stuff lately (the upside of being home sick for two days is that I end up with a lot of time to watch wrestling), but I really miss being able to look forward to a show without automatically assuming the whole thing is going to be terrible.

 

I also don't want to become one of those guys who thinks everything current sucks and the only good wrestling was 20 years ago in tiny TV studios.  That's why I was bummed over Boogeyman getting released. Yeah he sucked as a wrestler, but the character was entertaining. Marty Wright went into the role with gusto. Boogeyman never had a promo that sounded like he was reading off cue cards, or like a kid having to recite a book report from memory.

Yeah, I watched it live and thought it was an abysmal mess. Repetetive, nothing innovative, nothing interesting, they came in with an awful feud, the pace was slow as hell, and they didn't do anything to compensate for it. Shouldn't have even been a cell match in the first place.

Like 'em or not, DX is definitely the most over thing in WWE right now. If only they had a real tag team that was over to work with.