1) Alberto Del Rio v. Daniel Bryan- 5
2) Cody Rhodes v. John Morrison- 3
3) Drew McIntyre v. Ezekiel Jackson- 2
4) Kofi Kingston v. Sheamus- 4
5) Heath Slater/ Justin Gabriel v. Mark Henry/ Yoshi Tatsu- 2
6) John Morrison v. Alberto Del Rio- 4
7) Maryse/ Tamina/ Alicia Fox v. Melina/ Natalya/ Gail Kim- 2
8) Sheamus v. John Morrison- 6
9) The Miz v. Jerry Lawler (Tables, Ladders, Chairs Match)- 5
This is the King of the Ring, 2010 version, the announcers were pushing it pretty hard, showing old clips, mentioning old winners such as Austin, Bret, Edge, and Brock, but failing to acknowledge Angle, Booker, Billy Gunn and others. 1st round had it's ups and downs, Del Rio is a godsend for this company, he's charismatic as hell, is a Spanish star, but also works a nice simple style. As we know, Danielson always has competitive matches, this one highlighted by trading Germans and a suicide dive where he channeled Benoit and hurt his arm. Cody and Morrison both need to go to punching school, wherever the hell that's located, I'm sure Chuck Palumbo's basement would be a good place to start. Cody's got a good gimmick, but his work hasn't caught up with, finish was also off target. Save for a few stiff half clotheslines from Drew, this was shorter than Gary Busey's last stint in rehab (the Conan blimp is still after you by the way) Finally, Sheamus and Kofi was fun only to watch Kofi bump for all his contract's worth. I'm not a fan of the current crop of youngsters on Smackdown, probably in the minority, but the endless combination of opponents with Kofi, Swagger, Rhodes, Ziggler, etc. I haven't seen too much that's left an impression, but not just resting on preconceived notions, I watched very closely and found Kofi was more game than Mario Party 7 here and made this pretty watchable.
This tag only served it's part in giving John Cena a cameo, how awkward would it be if you were fired from your job and kept going back to it hanging around, nonetheless attacked your former co-workers? haha, logic has no place here. Besides Henry's slam and Gabriel breaking a pinfall with a mushroom stomp, skip this. You thought the 250,000 documents released on the Wiki Leak was exposing, watch Slater work a few minutes. Del Rio continues to overachieve, really putting Morrison to task, his arm work feels so natural it's a breeze to watch. Loved Rey channeling Big Vis from back in the day laying on the horn and Morrison caught Alberto dead square in his pasta eater with that kick, nasty spot.
6 Woman tag I was looking forward to, but alas, no one running the company seemed to care about them getting a workout as this barely scratched 3 minutes. Alicia took a cool bump on Melina's knees and provided a few moments of entertainment thus I tossed it a couple pity points. Santino singing pop songs from the 80's was mildly amusing but then i noticed a nickel on the ground and lost focus. The King of the Ring Finals was actually a decent little match and I would recommend it solely on the basis if you have tuned out of WWE programming of late (no shortage of reasons) then watch the work here. Morrison actually outbumps and outsells Kofi earlier and Sheamus provides all the punishment he needs to do it. Some great near falls highlight the latter portion, but I thought them doing 2 arm injuries in one night was overkill.
Before I comment on the main event, another reason to tune back into Raw, if this is a permanent move, is the commentary of CM Punk, he's a polarizing figure within the industry, but love him or hate him, it seems he's barely trying and is 10 times more entertaining and informative than Cole or Lawler have been since their last face lift. Inside references galore, from the Colt Cabana shirt, to the Cody-Pat Patterson reference, as he also put over William Regal on commentary which is always nice. Onto the main, they did a good job of building up the nostalgia for Lawler and not totally burying him as they do so many other legends. The slow pace actually catches your eye off the bat and they make every punch and bodyslam seem to mean more than they did the whole night. The table spots are perfunctory and Lawler knows how to milk a crowd of every last drop of excitement, the Cole thing was really predictable though. Also, ever since Jericho did the finish on the ladder where he throws the belt in the other guy's face, I've seen it repeatedly, same thing here. But I think this will have a different flavor than any other TLC match you see at the next ppv and I awarded it points accordingly.
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