By Graham "GSM" Matthews Randy Orton Interrupted Shawn Michaels Michaels' promo started out a bit too formulaic for my liking, but he did a good job of reminding viewers of his past history with Daniel Bryan, Triple H and Orton. Speaking of Orton, he was able to garner a significant amount of heat from the live crowd, which was a tough task considering the show emanated from his hometown. The teasing of the finishers from both men at the end was a nice nice and previewed the chaos that might ensue at Hell in a Cell. Randy Orton def. The Miz I have enjoyed the mini-feud between Orton and Miz in the last month, and having Miz attack Orton in his hometown was solid storytelling. The match was good for what it was, but it needed more time in order to be more memorable. I was glad to see Miz lose via a distraction from The Wyatt Family as opposed to taking a clean loss to Orton. It helps further the feud between Miz and Wyatt while also hiding the leg injury Wyatt sustained over the weekend.
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By Graham "GSM" Matthews World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio Interrupted Vickie Guerrero This was one bizarre segment. Where to begin? First, everyone involved was a heel, so the live crowd didn't really have any incentive to cheer any of them. Second, Del Rio kissing up to Vickie dragged on too long and was a complete waste of time. Third, was this the start of a face turn for Sandow? Despite the fact that I am skeptical of it, this wasn't the best way of going about turning him. The Raw recaps that opened the show didn't help matters, either. If nothing else, this segment established the main event for later in the show, but it felt too formulaic for my liking. Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel def. R-Truth I still couldn't care less about either individual, but this was still a much better match than their encounter at Battleground. From what it sounded like, the crowd seemed to be more engaged in the action as well. The near-falls grew to be more suspenseful down the stretch, but it was still a decent match as a whole. It was also nice to see Axel pick up the clean victory, thus giving him more credibility as a champion. By Graham "GSM" Matthews Sting Interrupted Dixie Carter I will give credit where credit is due by saying Carter has certainly improved as a heel over the last two weeks, but her promo here could have been better. She talked too fast and she didn't allow any of the information to digest enough before moving on. Sting's involvement in this storyline is questionable, as I have no desire of seeing another power struggle in TNA (especially if it means a Hulk Hogan return). However, kudos to Carter for garnering an immense amount of heat in the opening segment. By the way, I would rather not hear Carter slam (let alone reference) the McMahons in her promos. TNA has been doing it for years and it makes them come off as bush league. Austin Aries def. Jeff Hardy As expected, this was an excellent match filled with extremely exciting action and great intensity from both men. These two are simply incapable of having a bad a match together, and this bout was pure proof of that. It would have been nice of the commentators to make reference to the fact that this was the main event of Bound For Glory last year to make it feel more important. Nonetheless, it served as a nice preview of what is come in Ultimate X at the pending pay-per-view. I am happy to see Samoa Joe added to the match, but not only did Kenny King get overlooked again, but throwing Joe in there is rather random and gives the impression that Creative has nothing better for him to do at the event, sadly. By Graham "GSM" Matthews Antonio Cesaro def. Leo Kruger I realize their brawl from last week's show set up this matchup, but couldn't we have gotten some sort of interview featuring one of the competitors (or both) prior to the bout to give the match some meaning? Aside from that, this was a surprisingly great match that featured a lot of exciting action throughout. While the Full Sail University crowd was cheering both guys, it appears Kruger was the intended babyface, especially with the post-match beating he took from Cesaro. I would like to see this feud continue and it will be interesting to see how Kruger fares as a babyface going forward. Charlotte def. Santana Garrett If my memory serves me correctly, then Santana also competed at TNA's One Night Only event from last month. She was as green in this match as she was then, but she sure is gorgeous. The only issue is that Charlotte is equally inexperienced in the ring, so this match wasn't as good as it could have been. The finish looked especially bad and didn't come off good on television. Nonetheless, I am glad there is finally an ongoing story in the Divas division (and an interesting one at that), something that the main roster can learn from. |
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