WWE No Mercy ’07

1. Triple H vs. Randy Orton – 6
2. Paul London, Jeff Hardy, and Brian Kendrick vs. Ken Kennedy, Lance Cade, and Trevor Murdoch – 5
3. CM Punk vs. Big Daddy V – 2
4. Triple H vs. Umaga – 5
5. Fit Finlay vs. Rey Mysterio – 5
6. Beth Phoenix vs. Candace Michelle – 4
7. Batista vs. Great Khali – Punjabi Prison Match – 4
8. Triple H vs. Randy Orton – Last Man Standing Match – 8

The show started with an impromptu title match that kept a quick pace and satisfied with a surprise finish. The crowd was really into it, and both guys’ performances exceeded expectations. The six-man tag was a lot of fun, with Kendrick playing the face in peril role fantastically, and his subsequent tag to London was great, as Paul was a man possessed. It got kind of sloppy towards the end, but was still solidly entertaining throughout. Punk and Big Daddy only went about two minutes before it was prematurely ended due to interference. Punk whiffed a kick pretty badly, but I was excited to see these conflicting styles together, and was pretty disappointed by this. Umaga and Triple H didn’t work as aggressively as the opener, but the transitions between sequences as well as most the other stuff was moderately good. It didn’t compel much emotion, but wasn’t necessarily a letdown either.

Finlay and Rey was a real treat while it lasted. Rey was working quicker than he has in a long time, and actually took it to the brute Finlay. They did a stretcher angle, though, which kind of killed the match’s momentum. Hopefully this isn’t the last match we’ll see between the two. Beth and Candace worked a fairly competent match, my only real complaint being Candace needing to toughen up, as a lot of her strikes looked real awful. Batista and Khali, while not great, was a big improvement over the former Punjabi Prison match between Big Show and Undertaker. In the first, the guys wrestling seemed as confused as the audience, and it was a gigantic mess of epic proportions. You knew going into it how limited Khali is, and while slowly but surely, Batista is gaining more confidence in being a ring general, he’s still in no condition to carry Khali to anything remotely memorable. The finish was kind of hokey, with it basically being a race to escape, but I’m glad it didn’t stretch on any longer. The main event was fantastic, just a brilliantly designed and executed match, with a lot of great back-and-forth stuff, irrefutable psychology, and Orton going over huge in the end. This, in my opinion, was the best Triple H has looked since his Last Man Standing match with Shawn Michaels back at Royal Rumble ’04.