By Jared Silberkleit -Despite a very promising card and an undercard that mostly over delivered, Breaking Point ended up being a forgettable show from WWE due to a list of disappointments in the main event as well as a pointless time-consuming in-ring segment late in the show. Possibly WWE’s worst PPV of the year.

1.    WWE Unified Tag Team Championship: Chris Jericho and The Big Show(c) vs. MVP and Mark Henry

This was not a good choice to have as the opener of the show. I didn’t have very high expectations but I assumed that Jericho and MVP would work well together and make this a decent tag match. Instead we got a very banal match that was nothing better than anything you would see from these guys on an episode of Raw. Jericho tried, again, but to no avail as he spent much of the match working with Henry instead of MVP. I don’t understand why WWE had Henry playing the babyface in peril for a good portion of this match when the guy is nearly 400 pounds! MVP did get some nice offense in on Jericho midway through the match and it looks like WWE might want to give him a push in the near future. Eventually Jericho gets the pinfall on Henry after a Knockout Punch from Big Show. Very slow and plodding tag team match, not the way you want to kick off a PPV. Match Rating: 3.5/10

2.    United States Championship: Kofi Kingston(c) vs. The Miz

I was very upset that WWE decided to remove the Morrison/Ziggler IC title match from the card so this match needed to make up for that loss. I felt it definitely delivered and made both guys look really good. Lots of fast-paced offense throughout this match and this might be Miz’s best singles match of the year. He has really matured into a fine worker and deserves a push on Raw. Both guys had their finishers reversed throughout this back and forth contest. Miz hits a nice top rope double axe handle at one point and hit a Russian leg sweep for a near fall. Not to be outshined, Kofi hit many cross bodies and also connected with his “boom-boom” leg drop. This match comes to an end after Kofi reverses the Reality Check and hits the Trouble in Paradise to retain his title. For the third straight time Kofi has defended the belt I felt he should have dropped it and I didn’t like him going over here. But at least he’s getting wins and a good run with this title. Good match. Match Rating: 6.5/10

3.    Submissions Count Anywhere: D-Generation X vs. Legacy

This ended up being the match of the night, even though it went a little too long and almost overstayed its welcome. This thing starts off as a very messy brawl through the stands, highlighted by the Canadian fans yelling “You screwed Bret!” at Michaels as he battled Legacy throughout the arena. But once everyone makes their way back to the ring, the match started to get good, really good. DX sandwiches Rhodes inside a chair, allowing for a unique double submission spot where Triple H puts on a Boston crab while Michaels has a camel clutch locked in, all while Rhodes was trapped inside the chair. In another cool spot, Rhodes had Michaels in a modified Gory special outside the ring. I enjoyed the way this match was booked in that they alternated between fighting in the ring and all over the arena throughout the course of the match. Another cool spot was when Rhodes and Michaels were brawling in the crowd and Michaels got knocked off the stands and took a long fall to the ground. Triple H then began brawling with both of Legacy and took them backstage. He hits a nice spinebuster to Dibiase through a table but he is able to recover and beat down Triple H with the help of Rhodes. With Triple H out, Legacy comes back out to the ring to take care of Michaels. After some good back and forth action, Rhodes has Michaels tied up with a figure four around the ring post and Dibiase locks in the Million Dollar Dream at the same time. Triple H stumbles out to the ramp, but Michaels taps out before his partner can get to the ring to help him. Very good match between these two teams, better than their match at SummerSlam. Match Rating: 7/10

4.    Singapore Cane Match: Kane vs. the Great Khali

This was an utter disaster. This was an atrocious match, one of WWE’s worst matches of the year.  And to think, I thought the weapons would help these two improve on their SummerSlam match. Both men had no clue whatsoever on how to sell kendo stick shots and did not even bother wrestling to make up for it. Basically it was just cane shot after cane shot after cane shot, supported by bad selling after bad selling after bad selling. Ranjin Singh gets involved by hitting Kane with a kendo stick, and Khali is once again distracted by his “brother”. Kane hits a surprisingly not-bad chokeslam for the win to end this monstrosity. Match Rating: DUD (0/10)

5.    ECW Championship: Christian(c) vs. William Regal

This was the match we should have gotten at SummerSlam. These two worked extremely well together and came very close to putting on the best match of the night. This is definitely Regal’s best match in years (given the fact thathe hasn’t really had the chance to put on really great matches recently) and Christian looks even more credible as champion after the end of this one. I really liked seeing Regal use the Regalplex for the first time in a while, which Christian sold perfectly (it almost looked like he was snapped in half). He also hit an exploder suplex and a very impressive rolling senton. Christian was just his usual great self, doing a good job of selling while also hitting many cool moves to keep the crowd interested, including his move where he jumps off the top turnbuckle and spins around into a sunset flip. The ending to this match was good as you saw Regal reverse the Killswitch, go for a knee to the head, Christian gets out of the way and hits the Killswitch for the win. Very good match between these two, one of ECW’s better matches of the year. Match Rating: 6.5/10

—In-ring segment—

After this the show quickly went downhill. Next up we had Pat Patterson get in the ring to mention that he’s from Quebec and that he was the first Intercontinental Champion. Dolph Ziggler then comes out to the ring to badmouth the guy with various bad “old man” jokes. No one cared and I was just begging for both men to leave the ring so we could move on with the main events. Eventually Ziggler attacks Patterson before Morrison makes the save. Couldn’t we have gotten the IC title match instead of this garbage?

6.    I Quit match for the WWE Championship: Randy Orton(c) vs. John Cena

This match was a bit of a disappointment for me, mostly due to the ending. It started off very slow for the first few minutes but quickly got very intriguing once Orton began to get control of Cena and brutally beat the tar out of him for a while. What they somewhat lacked in wrestling they made up for with excellent storytelling as you had Orton just looking like a sick sadist while Cena showed his drive and determination by repeatedly refusing to quit. Orton beat Cena with several weapons such as chairs, TV monitors, steel steps, and kendo sticks. He had him handcuffed for most of the match and the best part for me was when Cena was handcuffed to the ringpost outside the ring and Orton delivered many kendo stick shots to Cena’s ribs, which were shown to be bruised midway through the match. Cena eventually is able to break free later on when he retrieves the key to the handcuffs. He then handcuffs himself to Orton and proceeds to brutally beat him down for a few minutes. At this point I figured the slowness throughout the bout actually had a point as it was building toward a big finish. I was wrong. Cena out of nowhere puts a modified STF on Orton in the ring, using the handcuffs to choke Orton with his own arm. Instead of struggling for a little while or just breaking the hold altogether, Orton quickly says I quit and Cena is the new WWE Champion. This was a very anticlimactic finish to a very slow title match. It does get points for the great storytelling though. Match Rating: 6/10

7.    Submission match for the World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk(c) vs. Undertaker

Looking at the clock when the bell rang, you knew this thing wasn’t going to get a lot of time as we had less than 20 minutes left until 11:00 ET. Still, this might have been WWE’s worst main event of 2009. I didn’t really like the way this thing was being booked initially, as you had Taker tossing Punk around like a rag doll and both men sloppily brawling outside the ring rather than trying to have a good technical match. Punk did a good job selling Undertaker as a huge threat throughout the match as he more often than not resorted to cheap offense and had a scared look on his face whenever Taker tossed him around. He also got a couple nice chair shots in the first couple minutes. It was OK but then just as we hit the 7 minute mark, Taker puts on Hell’s Gate and Punk taps instantly. What?? Anyway, Taker thinks he has won the title when Teddy Long comes out and says Hell’s Gate was banned by Vickie Guerrero a year ago and the match has to continue. Huh? The ban was lifted after Vickie’s fall out with Edge and Taker has used the hold in matches against Big Show and Shawn Michaels within the past year. So that really didn’t make any sense. Anyway right after the bell rings to signal the continuation of the match Punk puts on the Anaconda Vise and the ref instantly calls for the bell, even though Taker never tapped. Montreal Screwjob number two! Weird ending to a very short world title match, this pretty much confirmed that WWE considered Brekaing Point to be a throwaway. Match Rating: 4/10

Overall PPV Rating: 6.25/10

My name is Jared Silberkleit. I am from Orange, CT and am a huge fan of pro wrestling. I mostly follow WWE and TNA but I also watch the smaller promotions such as ROH and DGUSA. I have been a lifelong WWE fan and have become a TNA fan over the past few years. Aside from wrestling, I also really love baseball and football and follow many other sports such as hockey and MMA. I have written for www.sportsgrumblings.com for roughly a year now as well.

Tagged with: Avail, Babyface, Breaking Point, Chris Jericho, Disappointments, Double Axe, High Expectations, Knockout Punch, Kofi Kingston, Main Event, Mark Henry, Miz, Mvp, Peril, Ppv, Ring Segment, Russian Leg Sweep, Tag Team Championship, Top Rope, Ziggler

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