Winner Sin Cara
After the loss, Axel got up and threw out a challenge to anyone in the back to face him. The Great Khali answers the call, walks to the ring, chops Axel and easily pins him. At this point Khali is simply a carnival attraction and that’s how he’s used.
Cody Rhodes and Goldust vs the Real Americans
While I was disappointed overall with the roster, I was ecstatic that this match was on the card. Goldust has always been one of my favorites and he and Cody bring it each and every week. I’m also high on the Real Americans so I knew this would be an awesome match Here they were taking on the champs for the titles in a steel cage. I’m usually not a big fan of the cage if you don’t need to escape as then it’s just basically a regular match with a couple cage wall spots. I have to say these two teams used that cage in any way they could culminating with an incredible moonsault from Cody off the top of the cage for the win. After suffering clean losses to the Real Americans, Ryback, and Axel, and Big Show and Mysterio in recent weeks a match like this reminded me how good the Rhodes are together. Match of the night for me.
Winners: Cody and Goldust
Intermission
I spent my intermission asking a 12 year old his opinion on unifying the Intercontinental and United States championship. He thought it was a horrible idea. I tried to explain how much the IC title used to mean but he wasn’t having it. But then again, no WCW and multiple titles is all this is all these younger fans know
Los Matadores and El Torito defeated 3MB (with Ricardo Rodriguez)
I would love to know what WWE creative thinks about 3MB. Or even better, what 3MB thinks WWE thinks of them? You have three young, talented guys, stuck in this horrible jobber role. Even when Heath Slater is missing, instead of giving them a tag match they throw them together with Ricardo Rodriguez to get beaten down by Los Matadores and their mini manager. Obviously this was another kid oriented match. I was half expecting Santino to get involved somehow. This match never got too serious but had several instances where Los Matadores took Mahal and McIntyre to the outside allowing El Torito to simply beat down Ricardo. El Torito actually got a a lot more ring time than I thought he would and was actually pretty entertaining. He hit Ricardo with a myriad of hurricanrana type moves before pinning him for the win.
Winners: Los Matadores
Big Show and Kane w/ special guest Referee Booker T
Booker came out to a decent pop. He was followed by Kane who entered to his usual theme music and attire (no mask). I really wish the WWE put a little more effort in integrating Kane into his Authority role. Instead he never wrestles anymore, and has shown that his character doesn’t even have any power after getting vetoed by Vickie Guererro of all people a few weeks back. Big Show enters to a solid crowd reaction and we’re off. This match was very slow and boring as all hell. Both Kane and the Big Show seemed to be mailing it in. The match ended when Big Show knocked out Kane as he tried to choke slam Booker.
Winner: The Big Show
John Cena vs Randy Orton
This is what everyone came to see. While Orton got a great reaction, this was a big time Cena crowd and it showed. This was a great back and forth match and showed why these are the two top guys in the company right now. Both Randy Orton and John Cena hit their finishers which gave the match a big time feel and made me forget it was a house show briefly. Eventually Orton hit a low blow for the DQ which everyone over 17 saw coming a mile away. After the match John Cena hit Orton with the Attitude Adjustment much to the delight of the crowd attendance.
Overall I would rate the event a D. However someone else who was a bigger fan of the card may give it a higher rating. Orton vs Cena and the tag match were very good matches, but not really anything new. The rest was just filler in my opinion with a lot of second tier talent outside of the main event. I have a feeling the Chicago show provided a lot more juice.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
