Thursday, September 21, 2006

9th Annual WWE Unforgiven (Sept. 17, 2006)

1 Johnny Nitro v. Jeff Hardy- 5

2 Kane v. Umaga- 3

3 Spirit Squad v. Highlanders- 3

4 Degeneration X v. McMahons/ Big Show (Hell in a Cell)- 4

5 Trish Stratus v. Lita- 4

6 Carlito v. Randy Orton- 4

7 John Cena v. Edge (TLC)- 5

The event was pretty okay; not to say there wasn’t a lot of effort put into the matches. Hardy and Nitro put together a lot of innovative spots and Nitro was working a body part. They had a good teased ending, a few of them, that paid off, but we had Melina interference. Hardy bumped pretty good and seems to have adopted his old style back. Kane and Umaga were swinging leather and having a decent match. They were both throwing big punches and kicks, but the ending came quickly; a double countout. The tag match had a cool feel to it, kind of an old school tag match that never truly got started. It didn’t have any memorable spots or really hot tags so I couldn’t rate it too highly. The Hell in the Cell was pretty damned violent. Big Show absolutely looked atrocious. He didn’t take one real legit bump the whole match; instead he relegated himself to the big goofy guy who gets outsmarted. Shane was putting in one of his hardest nights of work in years, but Vince didn’t seem to be a big factor. HHH got his ear cut pretty severely and Michaels was working pretty hard, so the match had it’s ups and downs. All the big spots did seem pre-planned( as Brian pointed out to me), and I would have enjoyed it more if some of it seemed more off the cuff. It had the feeling of a culmination of a feud, which is hopefully what this was. Trish’s last match had some decent spots, and was given more time than it usually would be. They teased her not winning, but I think it was the right call to give her a little recognition on the way out; after all, they have treated her, at times, pretty badly( of course who haven’t they done that to?" Carlito and Orton could’ve produced a pretty good match, and were even said by JR to try and steal the show, but they did nothing of the sort. They didn’t even go ten minutes, yet they put in some decent wrestling, finished with a RKO off a springboard. The TLC match featured several, several table bumps, yet I think the single table one Cena took was the best; definitely the stiffest. Cena winning the title was a shot to the Canadian fans, yet I think it is the best move for their long term plans, although I think Edge could probably have better matches with more people. A very acceptable PPV.

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