WWE No Way Out Review - June 17, 2012

Kane carries an injured AJ away as she smirks behind him.

Throwaway match between David Otunga and Brodus Clay. They did an okay job of getting over Clay's injury during the bout, but the count-out finish felt unnecessary. I understand they might want to keep the rivalry going, but there's no reason to protect Otunga at this point.

Solid match with World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus successfully defending his title against Dolph Ziggler. The bout featured some pretty good storytelling and got over Ziggler in a big way. Although it was predictable that Ziggler wouldn't leaving as the new champ, he looked very impressive in defeat. Sure, this was a hot opener, but it shouldn't have occurred so early in the night. The finish felt a bit anticlimactic for this viewer.

Comedic match between United States Champion Santino Marella and Ricardo Rodriguez. It may have entertained some, but the live crowd's "boring" chants didn't help matters obviously. It was pretty much what'd you expect from these two, and merely used as a time killer in between matches. On a side note, if Marella isn't going to even bother defending his U.S. title, then why even be champion at all? The strap is treated as such a joke and should really be moved onto a wrestler more deserving of holding it.

Good match with Intercontinental Champion Christian successfully retaining his title against Cody Rhodes. Sadly, the live crowd wasn't alive for a majority of this match, and I can't blame them since they weren't given an incentive to really invest in this feud. However, it's a shame, too, because these two have great chemistry and deserve better. The final series of maneuvers woke the crowd up, and made for a cool finish. Hopefully, Rhodes moves on to bigger and better things from here.

Fun Fatal 4 Way tag team match the Prime Time Players defeating the Usos, Primo & Epico, and Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd to become the new number one contenders to the WWE Tag Team Championships. The crowd may have popped for the big spots, but they didn't seem to care overall due to most of the competitors being regulars on WWE Superstars and NXT. Personally, I enjoyed the action as well as the swerve that Abraham Washington is now with the Prime Time Players. I'm not sure if this turns Primo and Epico babyface, but I don't think the audience cared regardless.

Effective promo from Triple H. He got straight to the point of challenging Brock Lesnar to a match at SummerSlam, and I like the idea of building this blockbuster match two months in advance. However, the segment felt rushed and wasn't one of the Game's better promos. I was hoping we'd get an appearance from Paul Heyman, but no such luck. They're probably saving Heyman for a later date in order to draw out this feud, which is a smart strategy.

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John Laurinaitis gets shamefully fired by Mr. McMahon.

Boring match between Divas Champion Layla and Beth Phoenix. It had its moments, but Layla's comedic antics throughout the match made this feel like a complete joke and overshadowed the good wrestling these two had. Additionally, the lack of build to this contest didn't help matters, and one can only hope Kharma returns sooner rather than later to get this dying division back on track.

Fine match with Sin Cara defeating Hunico. It was more filler than anything else, and the crowd wasn't as receptive to Sin Cara's offense as usual due to it being so late in the show, which is disappointing.

Excellent Triple Threat match with CM Punk successfully defending his WWE Championship against both Daniel Bryan and Kane. While some speculated that Kane would "ruin" this match-up going into it, I thought Kane did a spectacular job of keeping up with the pace of Bryan and Punk. Any one of the three could have gone over, so it certainly had its suspense down the line. AJ's interference was intriguing and continues to keep my excitement in this on-going feud. It was a bit of a shocker to see Punk retain, but I'm not complaining. He's had a strong reign as WWE Champion and continues to provide entertaining performances. From what it looks like, Kane will be feuding with Punk going forward with AJ being the focus of the feud, so I'm not sure where this leaves Daniel Bryan.

Typical Ryback squash match with not much to comment on since he's been doing the same thing for weeks. I did find it interesting that he he said "FEED ME THREE!", which could signify that he'll be facing three jobbers at the same time pretty soon, but he needs some real competition in order to maintain people's interest.

An overbooked mess as the main event with John Cena defeating Big Show inside a Steel Cage that resulted in John Laurinaitis getting fired. The action prior to the run-ins was fine, but nothing spectacular. We've seen it a million times before, so it was nothing new of course. However, the interference from Mr. McMahon, John Laurinaitis, Brodus Clay, and the rest of the jobbers of the roster put an extremely bad taste in my mouth after watching an already below average pay-per-view. As much as I like the push Clay is receiving, this is not the way to execute it. To make matters even worse, no referees were present at ring-side when Cena won the bout, which means he's not the true victor, right? I'm glad Laurinaitis is being removed from television for the time being (or so we hope) since his character needs a break, but so does Cena and looks like he won't be leaving anytime soon.

Overall, a lackluster pay-per-view that lived up to my low expectations. The action as a whole was fine, but nothing really excited me outside of the two World title matches. Nothing on this show really gave me an incentive to tune in the next night besides Big Johnny getting fired, and that could be due to the fact that almost every babyface went over on the card. Personally, I'd give this the title of the worst WWE event of 2012 thus far, but that's strictly in my opinion. Last June's Capitol Punishment disaster did just as poorly and the rest of that summer season was spectacular, so maybe things will eventually turn around in coming weeks.

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