1.    John Morrison vs. The Miz

The show kicked off with these two former tag team partners going at it. This match started off slowly in the beginning with both men applying a variety of headlocks but it got better as it went along. Morrison hits a nice flapjack followed up by a standing shooting star press for a near fall. Miz later comes back by hitting a clothesline in the corner followed by a running knee lift. The two exchange punches and kicks before Morrison misses a shining wizard and Miz goes for a roll-up. Morrison afterward connects with a springboard enzuigiri, but Miz gets his foot on the ropes when Morrison tries for the pin. Morrison then goes for a superplex, but Miz knocks him off the top ropes and jumps off to hit him with a double ax handle. Eventually near the end Miz goes for the Skull-Crushing Finale, but Morrison counters with a side Russian leg sweep. He goes up top to hit Starship Pain, but Miz knocks him off the top ropes before pinning him to win the match. Raw is now up 1-0 in the best 2 out of 3 mini-tournament going on within the PPV during the interbrand matches. Overall this was a decent opener hurt by a very weak ending. Match Rating: 5.5/10

2.    Smackdown Divas (Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix, and Natalya) vs. Raw Divas (Melina, Kelly Kelly, and Gail Kim)

This was a surprisingly very good for a WWE women’s match. Kim starts the match by doing some good back and forth work with all of team Smackdown including hitting a nice hurricanrana to McCool. After taking some big power moves from Natalya, Kim makes the tag to Kelly, who hits a big headscissors initially, but the heels quickly regain control and begin to work her over while making quick tags. Phoenix hits a snapmare and puts Kelly in a chin lock while McCool hit a nice powerslam and a knee lift. Eventually Kelly is able to fight back into it by hitting a hurricanrana to Phoenix before making the tag to Melina. Melina does some good back and forth work with Phoenix and hits a big dropkick before getting a near fall with a roll-up. Phoenix eventually overpowers her and gets the win after hitting the Glam Slam. Smackdown has now evened the score at 1-1. A good women’s match that was only hurt by the lack of time. Match Rating: 5.5/10 (Keep in mind this is very good for a women’s match)

3.    World Heavyweight Championship: Undertaker(c) vs. CM Punk vs. Batista vs. Rey Mysterio

Despite not really getting a ton of time, this world title match was pretty entertaining due to the non-stop action, big moves, and near falls. Right out of the gate Punk goes after Mysterio and Batista and Taker go at it. Mysterio hits a seated senton to Punk and Taker connects with Old School on Batista. Batista eventually rebounds by powerslamming Punk before getting hit with a big boot from Taker. Taker then goes for a Last Ride on Mysterio, but Batista hits him with a huge spear. Mysterio and Batista then hit a 619/spinebuster combo but Punk breaks up Batista’s attempt at a pin. Taker is able to fight back into it by putting Hell’s Gate on Batista, but Punk breaks up the hold just when it appeared Batista was going to tap. Taker and Punk then go at it once again, culminating in Taker hitting the Last Ride and having a pinfall attempt broken up by Batista, who then takes on the Deadman. Taker and Batista exchange punches before Taker hits a chokeslam. After tossing Punk to the outside, Taker is hit with a Batista Bomb, but the pinfall is broken up by Mysterio. Mysterio and Batista then argue, allowing Taker to recuperate and hit Batista with a second chokeslam. Eventually this match comes to an end when Batista throws Mysterio out of the ring onto Punk before turning around right into a Tombstone and Taker retains his title. After the match, Batista blames Mysterio for his loss and attacks him during an interview segment, thus turning heel for the first time in almost five years. This segment was done very well and this match, although brief (clocking in at just under 10 minutes) was enjoyable. Match Rating: 6.5/10

4.    Team Smackdown (Chris Jericho, Kane, The Hart Dynasty, Matt Hardy, Finlay, and R-Truth) vs. Team Raw (D-Generation X, The Big Show, Jack Swagger, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, and Mark Henry)

With the score now tied between Raw and Smackdown, this huge brand warfare tag team match would decide who would take the Bragging Rights trophy. The match started off with R-Truth facing Cody Rhodes, stemming from their earlier backstage confrontation. The two do some decent back and forth action before Kane and Big Show get tagged in and the big men go to work. Show this a big shoulder block and leg drop before tagging in Swagger. Swagger starts to work over Kane but Kane hits a big right hand before tagging in Hardy. Hardy starts to get the upper hand on Swagger and hits a nice second rope leg drop. Swagger is eventually able to get the tag on Henry, who beats down on Hardy for a bit before tagging in Shawn Michaels. HBK hits a few chops but Hardy retaliates with a side effect before making the tag to Finlay. Those two go back and forth for a bit, ending with HBK hitting Sweet Chin Music. Almost right after hitting his patented move, he is caught with a Hart Attack from the Hart Dynasty. David Hart Smith is legal and goes to work on Michaels. I definitely would like to see a future DX vs. Hart Dynasty match after what these two teams did in this match. Jericho is eventually tagged in, which brought back memories of his great feud with Michaels from last year. Smith is eventually tagged back in and hits a big suplex to Michaels before tagging in Tyson Kidd, who misses a springboard elbow, allowing Michaels to tag in Triple H, who then cleans house. He does some good back and forth work with Jericho and the Hart Dynasty before Jericho misses a Lionsault, allowing Kingston to get a tag and enter the match. After hitting the Trouble in Paradise, Kofi’s pin attempt is broken up by the Hart Dynasty and the match instantly turns into an all out brawl outside the ring. Kofi goes to the top rope, but Big Show turns on Team Raw by hitting Kofi with a chokeslam and then hitting Triple H with a Knockout Punch. Jericho then sneaks in and gets the pin on Kofi and Team Smackdown is victorious. It was great to see WWE recognize Smackdown as their superior brand by giving them the win here. This was a pretty entertaining tag match but nothing we haven’t seen before. Match Rating: 6.5/10

5.    1 Hour Anything Goes Iron Man match for the WWE Championship: Randy Orton(c) vs. John Cena

Our main event was the 60 minute Iron Man match between Cena and Orton for the WWE title. I was worried that these two wouldn’t be able to entertain me for the whole hour and that the match should have been a 30 minute Iron Man match. Well, I did not enjoy the first 10 minutes of the match, and there was a 20 minute gap in the middle of the match that I did not enjoy, so a 30 minute match would have been much better. Still, they did enough right in this match to make it very enjoyable and possibly the best match they have ever had together. The match starts off with a ton of headlocks before Cena gets a quick fall a few minutes in by making Orton tap out to the STF. Just minutes later, Orton hits the RKO to tie the score at 1-1. The two then brawl outside the ring, which is when the match started to get pretty good. Orton smashes Cena’s head on the steel steps before hitting him with a TV monitor and a mic, resulting in Cena getting busted open the hard way on the top of his forehead. Cena fights back into it and hits his combination of moves and goes for the Attitude Adjustment, but while taking the move Orton hits the RKO and both men are down. With both guys having an arm across the other, the ref counts a double pinfall and the score remains tied, but now at 2-2. They did 30 second clock stoppages in between falls, and the one following this fall allowed medics to enter and clean up Cena’s bloody head (stupid PG rating). Cena then scores another pinfall after a top rope Attitude Adjustment to go up 3-2. Legacy then runs down to the ring and attacks Cena, and DiBiase hits Dream Street before dragging Orton on top of Cena. Kofi Kingston chases Legacy to the back with a chair (stemming from a backstage brawl with Rhodes earlier), but the ref counts to three and we are now tied again at 3-3. Orton and Cena then brawl up the entrance ramp and up to the stage. Orton slams Cena onto a control panel, resulting in an explosion. Orton then whips Cena through part of the set, causing another explosion and followed up by another pinfall from Orton, who goes up 4-3. We then ahd an odd sequence where Orton started playing with the pyro controls and hit many buttons trying to set off explosions near Cena. The fight returns to the ring where Orton beats down Cena very slowly for many minutes, which is what hurt the match as a whole in my opinion. In the middle of this long beatdown, Cena gets a small package to tie the score at 4-4, but Orton goes back up 5-4 after hitting an elevated DDT to the floor. Orton continues to wear down Cena until Cena eventually starts to make his comeback. The two go back and forth up and down the entrance ramp before taking the fight into the crowd. Cena chases Orton up to the top of a section and hits him with a garbage can before slamming him into a wall. Cena hip tosses Orton over the guardrail to take the fight back to ringside before smashing him into the barricades and the ring steps. A great spot follows where Cena launches Orton through the barricade before Cena sets up the ring steps next to the announce table. He then picks up Orton’s lifeless body and hits an Attitude Adjustment off the steps through the announce table followed by a pinfall to tie the score at 5-5.  Cena then grabs a wooden table and puts Orton on it in the ring, but when he goes for a top rope leg drop Orton moves and Cena crashes through the table. The two men exchange punches before Orton hits an RKO for a near fall. With the clock ticking away, Orton goes for a punt but Cena gets out of the way and puts on an STF. Orton tries to hang on but taps out as time expires and Cena wins the match 6-5 as well as the WWE Championship and the right to remain on Raw. A very good title match, the best these two have had all year. Match Rating: 7.5/10

Overall PPV Rating: 6.75/10

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 forwww.sportsgrumblings.com for roughly a year now as well.

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.