WWE No Mercy '07

1 HHH v. Randy Orton- 5
2 Cade/ Murdoch/ Kennedy v. Hardy/ London/ Kendrick - 5
3 CM Punk v. Big Daddy V- 1
4 HHH v. Umaga- 4
5 Finlay v. Rey Mysterio- 5
6 Candice Michelle v. Beth Phoniex- 4
7 Batista v. Great Khali ( Punjabi Prison) -4
8 HHH v. Randy Orton (Last Man Standing) - 8

It was a bittersweet show because there was no Chris Jericho but they still put forth a pretty good effort. the opening match kept a good pace, and Orton was spot on with every single sell during it. They used a roll up fin, a fresh of breath air compared to the usual pedigree. It was kind of like an extended squash for the most part because Orton's offense was little to none, but still enjoyable. the Six man tag was also fun, with the high flyers doing just that and London going on a tear was a pleasure to watch. Kennedy still leaves green tracks all over the ring and his finisher is going to cripple someone someday. Any chance he'll do it to Vince? well, one could hope. The end got some slop points, but the match kept a tight package and Kendrick took a car crash bump over the top to put a smile on my face.

ECW was further buried as two completely different styles went face to face. Big V's massive mound of boobage is among the scariest images in my nightmares. Striker, looking like a greasy gangster, interefered for no reason at all and V dropped a couple of sloppy elbows post match. Our 2nd World Title match did nothing much except further devalue Umaga. They had some good sequences worked out but overall it felt a little flat to me. HHH's fake tan spray began to wear off and they teased him having a rib injury. The Irish brute Finlay and Luchadore turned bodybuiler Rey had great chemistry in their match and Rey threw a nasty forearm, reminiscent of a back alley fight. Finlay was taking some brutal bumps and seemed to be enjoying it. The stretcher swerve is feeling a little played out, much like the Resident Evil film series, but at least Finlay put the hurt real good on Rey Rey; Booyaka, Booyaka, 6-1-oh, fuck Finlay just kicked me in the face 7 times!!!! I'm glad to see a lot more mid to upper card feuds are being booked more seriously with more story to them than just throwing two guys on PPV to wrestle and then they are on to the next guy.

I thought the women had good chemistry but Candice needs to lay her shit in because it looked weak sauce. Phoniex doesn't impress me one way or the other, but she has some good strength. Her fisherman buster was pretty ugly and Batista was glad to see someone else can't do their finish properly. Speaking of Dave, he had the unenviable task of fighting Khali again, but this time it was in the Punjabi Prison, a leftover from the set of No Escape, a 1994 Ray Liotta thriller. Nothing good can happen inside that ridiculous structure, but at least they had a unique ending with Batista chasing Khali as he climbed over both cages, incred-ib-ly s-l-o-w-l-y-y-y-y-y, and he tried to show Vince he was a better action star than John Cena.

Then, our main event, most people could say this whole show was a giant HHH ego stroke, and there would be a good amount of evidence to support this theory, but i think this night belonged to Orton. He was masterful in both of his performances and it seems he has finally lived up to his potential. He'll still throw used condoms on Melina backstage, but he's a damn fine performer. HHH stepped up his game in this match too, taking some crafty and painful bumps and working great near falls the whole time. Both men had a couple of awesome false finishes throughout. I loved the table bump at the end and it's one of the rare occasions where the table not breaking worked better and Orton's timing on his RKO's should keep DDP in Yoga classes for the rest of his life instead of contemplating a comeback. This was a awesome main event and one of HHH's hardest working performances in a long time. now, if he can only (as a former friend of mine said at one point) "leggo his ego" people wouldn't be so hard on him before he even steps into the ring.