WWE Main Event 02/09/2014

Dolph Ziggler vs Damien Sandow

This is JIP after a Miz TV segment goes awry. I remember these two matching up surprisingly well earlier in the year, and there’s another decent Sandow performance here. He’s got some decent aggression going on, liked his elbows to the neck of a downed Ziggler, as well as stopping him dead with a short back elbow to the face. Sandow does some token arm work before Ziggler comes back with some poor punches, clear air showing between his fists and Sandow’s torso. Sandow tries a figure four, gets kicked off into the turnbuckle, and eats a Zig Zag for the three count in a nice little sequence. Essentially harmless, but unmemorable.

Natalya & Rosa Mendes vs Summer Rae & Layla

God bless Summer Rae, she tries her hardest to make it look like Rosa is doing some damage to her, flying all over for some entry-level armdrags. I think this is the match that was shown on Total Divas where Rosa tried to manufacture a wardrobe malfunction to gain some notoriety, as Layla grabs her by the trunks to prevent her getting in the ring, with the camera suddenly switching angles to avoid showing a full moon. Summer and Layla are a lot of fun on offence, showing some meanness towards Rosa, including an Irish Whip into a neat Summer Rae clothesline. Natalya comes in after a missed Summer legdrop, and runs through her usual offence in a pretty straightforward manner. However, Rosa blind tags back in, and eats a big Layla superkick for the loss. Watchable, almost entirely due to the heel team.

Goldust & Stardust vs Los Matadores

This kind of match is why you sit through the previous stuff, the chance to see 15 minutes of Goldust and the Colons going at it. El Torrito isn’t there, due to a previous post match assault by the Rhodes’, and Los Matadores are suitably aggressive in the opening stages, plastering Stardust. Los Matadores in fact control a lot of the early going on both Rhodes brothers, loved Fernando blocking a sunset flip and stomping on Goldust’s arm to give them a focal point. Ferndando backdrops Diego to the floor onto the Rhodes’, with the heel team unable to get into second gear. Eventually, Stardust pulls Goldust out of the way of a cornersplash to give his team a prolonged advantage. Goldust looks good in control, even dropping a sarcastic “Ole” along the way, before the hot tag to Diego. Looks great coming in too, hitting a neat elbow to the head of Stardust to stun him, before rolling him up for two. Nice top rope cannonball, but Goldust distracts from the apron and Diego turns round into a STO to give them the win. Not quite the tag masterclass you’d hope for, but a nice bit of storytelling with the aggression of the Matadores making them more dominant than usual and controlling of the match.

WWE Main Event 26/08/2014

Rob Van Dam vs Seth Rollins

This isn’t particularly good, but it ends up being much better than the nightmare that it looks like on paper. The early signs aren’t good, with Van Dam rolling into the world’s slowest dropdown on a rope running exchange, but he hits a great sudden kick in the corner, and a pescado that looks more impactful because of how ungraceful it looks. It’s just RVD hurling his body at Rollins without any concerns about it looking good. Both guys do some token arm work, with both throwing their opponent shoulder first into the corner, though this focus doesn’t get paid off by either guy. RVD gets pushed from the top to the floor, bumping huge, whilst a half-hearted (and very untrue) “This is awesome” chant starts. Rollins chucks RVD into the barricades, but Van Dam reverses an attempt to send him into the timekeeper area, sending Rollins instead, and RVD wins via count out. Functional stuff.

Curtis Axel vs Adam Rose

This was actually pretty decent, almost entirely due to Axel. You’d never build a promotion round the guy, but he’s able to make six minute C-show matches against questionable talent seem interesting. Here, he hits some nice punches, a great boomerang clothesline, and really works in a deep chinlock, making Rose carry his weight, working the hold. Rose hits a decent spinbuster to comeback, as well as a sloppy leaping rana, and Axel fully commits to a missed corner splash to set up the Party Foul for the Rose win.

Los Matadores vs Stardust & Goldust

This will have been filmed before the Raw where the Rhodes’ turned heel on the Usos, so this is ostensibly fought as face-vs-face, with both teams getting hot tags. This is a fun sprint, with a great performance by Goldust running thoughout. He looks terrific as the hot tag after the Matadors control Stardust with some nice double-teams. Goldust hits a great bunch of fired up clotheslines, his lovely scoop slam, and an elbow from the corner, where it feels like he really whips back into his opponents face.  Stardust does a corny exaggerated sell of a chinbreaker to let Diego tag in, and he’s great, full of energy, until he misses a top rope cannonball. A Stardust flatliner gets the win, neat little tag sprint.

WWE Main Event 05/08/2014

Slater Gator vs Goldust & Stardust

Two really fun teams colliding here, making for a match that’s really enjoyable, even if it’s not technically great. I mean, Goldust IS great here, probably the quickest guy in the match and still blessed with a lovely punch. The chemistry with him and Stardust is palpable, and I love the little touches like Stardust aping the drop-down punch of his brother, but hitting a Pele kick instead. The mismatched Slater Gator team would surely have been turned face by the audience if they’d had a longer run, there’s something ultimately endearing about Slater’s earnest love of the team clashing with Titus actively disliking his partner. O’Neill shows nice strength hitting two backbreakers on Stardust and chucking him, and I like Stardust managing to land on his feet the second time it’s attempted. Goldust is great as the hot tag, hitting a beautiful powerslam, but the ref gets distracted by Stardust as Heath tries a sunset flip, and Titus boots Goldust in the head for the upset win.

AJ Lee vs Summer Rae

This is short and ultimately pointless. It starts with AJ hitting two swinging neckbreakers that both have Summer going down so early that it looks like her giving the move. AJ sells her ongoing neck injury, which does see Summer attack the neck nastily, but this lasts less than a minute before AJ reverses a neck crank to the Black Widow for the tap.

Jack Swagger vs Alberto Del Rio

Del Rio is a guy who always works curiously hard on C-show matches, and this is no exception. The show is in Texas, right next to the Mexican border, so Del Rio plays face with Swagger as the All-American heel. Del Rio bumps big for Swagger, taking a big spill to the floor then getting hurled into the barricades. Swagger has taped ribs from his recent matches with Rusev, and he twice misses corner charges to give Del Rio comebacks, with Byron Saxton highlighting that the injured ribs are causing Swagger pain on deep breaths, slowing him down and causing the misses. Del Rio does some nice work on the arm, including a draped armbreaker over the ropes. Both guys do some nice work here, massive slam by Swagger looks deadly and I loved Del Rio’s kicks to the ribs to launch comebacks. There’s a really nice battle over the cross-armbreaker at the end, and Swagger manages to break it into the Patriot Lock really nicely, getting the tap as he drags Del Rio from the ropes. Nice, competitive bout.

WWE Main Event 03/06/2014

Only two matches this week, but they make up for it by virtue of one match being a real cracker.

Goldust & Kofi Kingston vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan

This is during the “Cody Rhodes tries to find Goldust a better partner” angle that ultimately led to Stardust. This is a really cool little match however. Goldust and Kingston work this as a real cat-and-mouse match to start, doing their best to try and avoid their larger opponents and only approaching them on their own terms. Things like holding the ropes to halt an Irish whip and working in opening from their opponent’s confusion. Goldust hits a lovely bulldog on Harper. The tactics actually work perfectly against someone like Rowan, who is a very meat-and-potatoes, no-nonsense wrestler who can be outsmarted by quicker opponents. The heels do take over on Goldust for a fun spell of heat, and Kofi is really good on the hot-tag, hitting a huge dive onto Harper. Really liked the end too, as Kofi tries Trouble in Paradise on Harper, but gets caught with a rolling clothesline in mid-air to give the heels the win. Ending made the face team look good too, as one seconds difference would have seen Kofi nail his knockout blow first, putting this THAT close to winning.

Bad News Barrett vs Rob Van Dam

This is for Barrett’s IC title, and is played up as a big deal. Match itself isn’t anything special though. Van Dam really shows his age here, despite a nice cannonball from the apron, as his kicks all look super-light and he’s definitely moving at 2/3 speed. Barrett isn’t a guy who’s going to carry Van Dam to anything better, but at least his offence was better. His second rope elbow was terrible, basically landing feet-first then falling onto RVD, but his strikes looked nice and I dug him meeting a diving kick with a big clothesline. Barrett looks to be about to hit the bullhammer for a clean win, but Cesaro interferes and hits both men, drawing the DQ. The terrible ending doesn’t help an already average bout.

WWE Main Event 06/05/2014

Jack Swagger vs Dolph Ziggler

In typical Ziggler match fashion, there’s good parts of this (the parts where Ziggler doesn’t do much) and some fucking terrible parts (when Ziggler goes on offence). Loved the big Swagger takedowns early on, and there were even moments when you remember that Ziggler used to be a college wrestler, as he looks ok working reversals on the mat. Loved Swagger flinging Ziggler across the ring, sending him over the turnbuckles to the floor – big bump for Ziggler to take on Main Event. Swagger does some fun work on Ziggler’s arm, and I dug him putting Dolph’s hand over his (Swagger’s) chest to do the “We The People” chant. Then Dolph goes on offence…terrible you-can’t-count-along 10 punches in the corner, sloppy fameasser, that abysmal slap-on-the-back DDT. Just awful. Things further fall off a cliff, as Adam Rose comes out for no reason (Swagger has been wrestling cleanly throughout) to bully Zeb Colter on commentary. Literally, Rose and all his Rosebuds come out to swarm Colter, essentially just intimidating a senior citizen for no reason. Swagger, rightly concerned for his manager’s well-being, is distracted, and Ziggler hits the zig-zag to win. First half was decent, but this ended up as utter shit.

Natalya, Cameron & Naomi vs Tamina, Aksana & Alicia Fox

Cameron and Natalya have some tension at the start, based around Cameron losing Nattie’s cat on that week’s episode of Total Divas. Not much to this, though I did like Fox’s big boot to Natalya off a Tamina distraction. Aksana looks pretty bad here, though credit due for fully committing to her missed elbow drop. Naomi comes in with a weird pedigree/piledriver move, which begins with Aksana draped over the ropes, and finishes with a split-legged moonsault. Tamina and Cameron are wisely left out for most of this, but it’s still a bit rubbish.

Goldust vs Curtis Axel

This was the match of the show by some margin. Both guys showed some nice intensity, and I dug Axel’s big running knee. Both guys also seem to have their timing down, as Goldust gets a really convincing nearfall off a jackknife pin when Axel misses a dropkick. This was pretty short, but all enjoyable, and the end sees a nice bit of misdirection. Both were accompanied by their tag partners, and the previous weeks had seen some tension building between Goldust and Cody, based upon Goldust beating people that Cody couldn’t. Here, the action spills to the floor, and it looks like Cody is trying to hit his brother with a Disaster Kick off the barriers, but instead he takes out Ryback who is about to sneak attack Goldie. Back inside, and the Final Cut gives Goldust the win. Dug this.

WWE Main Event 29/04/2014

Goldust vs Alberto Del Rio

Quick little match, but a fun one. Goldust is fired up after ADR beat Cody on the previous Raw, but this costs him as the referee has to separate them in the corner, giving Del Rio an opening. Del Rio keeps control but maybe takes too long to set up a superkick (including taking down his kneepad, which I’m sure doesn’t help a superkick). Goldust blocks and hits a leg screw, before hitting the Final Cut for the unlikely win.

Paige vs Alicia Fox

Pretty heated to start, few nasty sounding strikes on the apron before Paige ranas Fox to the floor. Nice big boot to the face by Fox. Love the two of them really battling over a suplex before Paige turns it into the Rampaige for the win. This was pretty choice.

Bad News Barrett vs Kofi Kingston

Another really quick bout tonight. Loved the superkick to the midsection of Kofi, which lifts him into the air. Kingston is still a guy with floaty light offence that never looks particularly good. The match ends with them outside, with Kingston trying to leap off the steps, only to fly right into a Bullhammer. Barrett rolls him in for the academic pin.

Sheamus vs Bray Wyatt

Wyatt, for all his faults, is a guy unafraid to have a big fight with a guy, and Sheamus is always happy to oblige, so it’s no surprise that this is pretty good. Loved Sheamus just grabbing Wyatt by the beard and punching him in the face. Wyatt’s senton always looks crushing, and I loved him trying a second time, only to land on Sheamus’ knees. Sheamus was fired up here, with a running knee into the corner having so much momentum he flew out onto the apron. Sheamus gets a few close nearfalls from White Noise and the Irish Curse, but with Wyatt due to face Cena at the next PPV, he was always going to win here. The end sees Sheamus try to Brogue Kick an interfering Luke Harper from the apron, only to get caught up on the top rope and Sister Abigail finishes. Great match.

WWE Main Event 18/03/2014

Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs The Real Americans

Really fun tag match, with all four guys adding little touches to make this more than just a run-of-the-mill tag match. Liked Cesaro at least trying to stop Cody hitting the Disaster Kick by making for the ropes as he hits it. Goldust was looking terrific at this point, leaping gracefully into the Code Red. A double dive to the floor by the Rhodes Brothers is as fun as it is unexpected. Cesaro’s strength allows him to easily correct spots that nearly go awry, using raw power to catch Goldust and hit a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Loved Swagger’s cocky bullying of Goldust, just shoving him across the mat to get him into place for the Swagger Bomb. The Real Americans work a fun heat section on Goldust, including a great near tag where Cesaro shoves Cody off the apron at the last second. Cody was hot fire on the eventual tag, loved his moonsault press to Swagger. The end was great as Swagger locked in the Patriot Lock on Cody, who tried to break the hold frantically with boots to the feet before escaping and hitting the CrossRhodes for the win. Great stuff.

The Funkadactyls vs Layla & Alicia Fox

Naomi still has her eyepatch on here, so of course Fox aims some early elbows to that eye. My notes state that Cameron hit a “wheelbarrow something”, which tells you how good that move looked. Layla looks great here, loved her fluid takeover into a pin, and she stooges about really well. As per usual, Fox’s Northern Lights suplex looks great. Naomi comes in on the hot tag, and though full of energy, she looks a little sloppy. Her heel turn has really helped her slow down and crispen up her moves. Cameron botches a move where she’s supposed to leap off Fox’s back, before Naomi hits the Rear View and a split-legged moonsault for the win. The heel team looked a lot more capable here.

The Big Show vs Titus O’Neill   

Pretty brief, but there was stuff to enjoy here. Titus shows Big Show no respect early on, earning himself an hilarious tour of chops by Show, who really milks the impact of each one. A chop block by Titus looks great, and is a realistic way for him to take over. Clash of the Titus gets two, despite looking super impressive but Show catches him on a corner splash with the KO punch for the win.

WWE Main Event 25/02/2014

Decided I'm going to concentrate on Main Event for my C-show watching, Superstars is too much recapping and not enough wrassling for my tastes. Really fun show this week,

Cody Rhodes, Goldust, El Torito & Los Matadores vs Curtis Axel, Ryback & 3MB

This was a real blast. Face Cody was so much fun here, really nice run of offence before Ryback catches the Disaster Kick and plants him with a powerbomb to make him face-in-peril. Loved the spot where Drew tagged out to Mahal, who tagged out right away to Slater, which meant all three were in the ring to quickly each hit a move on Cody before the ref could remove the non-legal men. Ryback hit a great press-slam into a powerslam. The heels attack the faces on the apron, which leaves Cody no choice but to tag El Torito. Really fun offensive run by Torito before everything breaks down with the faces flying out of the ring onto their opponents. This leaves Torito with Slater, which is won by the bull with a flying headscissors that rams Heath’s head into the canvas. Lots of fun.

Natalya & Eva Marie vs Alicia Fox & Aksana

Ha, and to think I was complaining about watching Cameron vs Aksana on the last episode. Natalya and Fox work a pretty good sequence to start, with Fox hitting this great goofy flying headscissors, but you just know we’re killing time until the inevitable Eva/Aksana showdown. Eva comes in and poor Fox hurls herself around for some arm wringers. Fox takes control before Aksana comes in, and goes to hit her eye-busting knee on Eva, but hilariously Eva totally no-sells her beating and starts crawling for her corner right away. Poor Aksana is forced to try and hit a diving missed knee just to keep some forced sense of drama. Natalya comes in and tries a Sharpshooter on Aksana, but gets shoved into the ropes, hitting Eva on the apron and Aksana rolls her up for the pin. Well, three of the four looked competent.

Darren Young vs Titus O’Neill

PPV rematch here, now relegated to semi-main on Main Event. Nice quick tempo to start before Titus takes control. Love the look of disgust on Titus’ face as he looks at his chest after taking control following a few chops from Young. Titus has some great cocky swagger here, and he beasts Young in a really fun way. Sadly, it’s over pretty quick, and Young escapes a slam to roll up Titus for the win.

Sin Cara vs Damien Sandow

This has Sin Cara’s shitty mood lighting, which doesn’t help the viewing experience. Sandow is really aggressive throughout this, and just wails away at Cara with some stiff looking knees to the gut. Even with the Elbow of Disdain, he does the pose, swiftly goes to the mat to repeatedly punch Cara in the head, then drop the elbow. Was there a Cara/Sandow feud I’d forgotten about, because this is pretty heated for the C-show. Cara comes back with some slightly slow-mo lumpy looking highflying, and gets a very close 2 count from a one-armed powerbomb. The swanton gets three for Cara, and this was a pretty fun change of pace, Sandow’s aggression really helped the match.

WWF Survivor Series 1998

So, with the upcoming Survivor Series featuring the finals of a tournament to crown a new WWE Champion, I thought it'd be timely to review the 1998 instalment which worked along the same concept. It's a curious case of the show as a whole being better than the matches that it consists of. Individually, they're pretty average bouts, but the overall story told in that one night makes the show quite fun.

 

Mankind vs Duane Gill

Pretty infamous match. Bit harsh of Mankind to jump Gill before he even gets in the ring, as if the result wouldn’t be obvious anyway. Quick double-arm DDT gets the win.

Jeff Jarrett vs Al Snow

Dug Al Snow’s flip off the ring stairs onto Jarrett right at the start. From there, we have a quick three-minute match, with Jarrett looking great. Lovely crisp looking punches, and Jarrett’s performance makes up for the fact that Snow looks a bit off, maybe a step or so behind. Snow wins with a Head shot.

Big Boss Man vs Steve Austin

Another quick match, this one being more angle than match. Austin is on fire early, laying into Boss Man, before a low blow turns the tide. It also slows the match right down, with Boss Man’s offence making a three-minute match drag. Austin makes a comeback only for Boss Man to assault him with his nightstick for the DQ.

Steve Regal vs X-Pac

The beloved “Real Man’s Man” era of Regal. The quicker X-Pac dominates, until he misses a corner charge, and Regal grounds him to take over. Love the nasty kneedrop to the head, and Regal catapaulting X-Pac halfway across the ring. Aside from that, a lot of this is just killing time until the end – it’s logical, but not particularly exciting. They fight outside, and both guys get counted out. Odd that the longest match so far gets a fuck finish, though we’ve not had a clean win yet.

Ken Shamrock vs Goldust

This starts off really well. Clearly, neither guy is afraid to lay in the shots here, with Goldust especially laying in some lovely punches when making his comeback. Another abrupt ending, sadly, as the ref prevents Goldust hitting Shattered Dreams, allowing Shamrock to hit a sloppy rana, the belly-to-belly and the ankle lock for the win. You can tell there’s a better match just dying to get out.

The Rock vs Big Boss Man

Makes Gill/Mankind look like an epic. Roll up, 1-2-3

Undertaker vs Kane

Pretty half-arsed effort by both guys. Some basic plodding brawling outside the ring kicks things off. I did appreciate the idea of Taker working over Kane’s leg early on, even trying a figure four, but they soon brushed over this idea and continued to brawl. I liked Kane blocking a Taker chokeslam and hitting one of his own before the inevitable dumb ending. Paul Bearer distracts Kane from the apron, and he walks into a tombstone for the Taker win. Bland.

Mankind vs Al Snow

Head has Mr Socko tied around it, with backstage footage revealing it was Vince who put it there. Just like the last match, we kick off with some outside brawling, as Snow hits chairshots that don’t get him DQd. Foley flapjacks him onto a chair in a fun spot.  Back inside, Vince’s plan is revealed, as the sight of Sock on Head drives Foley berserk, though Snow is still able to hit a powerbomb for two. Foley SPIKES Snow with a double-arm DDT and puts on the Socko claw to win.

The Rock vs Ken Shamrock

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Shamrock has had the two best matches of the night so far, his intensity seemingly wont let him half-arse a match. They go at it with real urgency from the start, with no resthold in sight – until the Big Boss Man comes out again, with his presence almost urging Shamrock to lock on a chinlock. Shamrock atones for the shitty rana from earlier by catching Rock midring with a beauty. I loved the Rock taking advantage of Boss Man distracting the ref by giving a lowblow to the heel Shamrock. Rock Bottom attempt is reversed to a belly-to-belly, and Boss Man tries to throw Shamrock his nightstick. Of course, the Rock intercepts it and waffles Shamrock with it. Really fun match, highlight of the show so far. At the time, it never occurred to me that Shamrock was in the ascension at the point Boss Man threw the nightstick….

Sable vs Jacqueline

There’s a great bit of Lawler commentary at the start, where he refers to Sable getting jumped from behind on Heat earlier, calling her an idiot, only for her to get jumped from behind here. Lawler loves it. Really basic match, with Marc Mero and Jacqueline bumping around to put Sable over. Sable Bomb is enough to win the women’s title

Mankind vs Steve Austin

Obviously this isn’t given enough time to reach the levels of some of their greater matches, but this is still pretty fun. Loved Austin disrobing Foley during the match, including taking his shoes off to use as a weapon. They predictably brawl outside the ring, before going inside for a long Foley chinlock. This is ended by Foley hitting a double arm DDT on a chair for two. We head into overbooking central, but it’s actually all pretty entertaining. Austin hits the stunner, but Vince pulls out the ref and decks him. A second stunner sees Shane McMahon come out (during the storyline where Vince had demoted him to referee), only to flip Austin the finger and not count. A Gerry Brisco chairshot gives Mankind the win. Despite the long chinlock in the middle, this was still fun and the run-ins were done to perfection. Arguably Russo’s finest hour

The Rock vs The Undertaker

By now the “wrestlers are outside brawling within the first two minutes” trope is getting overplayed. It’s like the company had run out of ways for matches to start. Taker takes a big bump to the floor, so he’s putting in a bit more effort than with the Kane match. They brawl in the crowd, as X-Pac and Regal are probably sat backstage complaining that they were counted out in their match. Boss Man comes out yet again, and again the Rock uses his appearance to hit his opponent in the bollocks. Kane comes out and chokeslams Rock to screw Taker over, putting Rock in the final via DQ. This was passable.

The New Age Outlaws vs the Headbangers vs D-Lo Brown & Mark Henry

This was an almighty mess, and likely only made the card to provide some breathing time for the Rock before the final. There was no real structure on display here, and a continued lack of logic, with guys trying to make pins, despite having another opponent stood right next to them ready to break it up. The referee also made some horrifically business-exposing counts on pinfalls, seemingly refusing to count until he was sure someone was in place to break it up. There were some good moments though: I dug Mosh’s springboard crossbody to the outside, and I enjoyed the double-teaming by the Headbangers. Also worth noting that Mark Henry was already pretty decent by this point, selling his leg pretty well and looking like a brick wall. Billy Gunn picks up the win eventually with a piledriver on Mosh.

The Rock vs Mankind

You could really tell both guys were beginning to run on empty, both physically and mentally. I did appreciate the cautious start, with both guys slowing the pace and not rushing into anything. However, they didn’t really seem sure how to fill the time here, with the early parts split between dull brawling outside the ring and Mankind chinlocks inside the ring. Luckily, Foley takes a few choice bumps to increase the excitement of the match in the second half. He lets the Rock hit the stairs into him, ending up trapped beneath them on the floor. He hits a nice elbow from the apron to the floor and, most impressively, goes crashing through the Spanish announce table with a missed elbow spot. The tempo increases inside the ring with a few nearfalls, before the finish of Rock locking in a Sharpshooter, and Vince calling for the bell in the first (and best) Montreal screwjob reference. Started poorly, but got somewhat decent by the end.

WWE Battleground 2013

Alberto Del Rio vs Rob Van Dam
Man, RVD and Ricardo really aren't a combination that works well together. RVD starts well with a moonsault and a DDT onto a chair in opening 3 mins. Love Del Rio's aggression, with a nasty boot to RVD's face. Since turning back heel again, Del Rio's viciousness has been a joy to behold. Here, he also takes some nutty bumps to make RVD look better, hurling himself into a ladder, then to the floor. RVD's bump when Del Rio kicks him in the head with the ladder landing on him is a bit milkier. There is something a little sad about Jerry Lawler claiming you'd need a clairvoyant to guess what RVD will do next, when he's pretty much just running through his usual spots, only with a ladder involved. This does lead to a nice bump, as RVD misses Rolling Thunder onto a ladder. Ricardo, being the little shit he is, gets involved when ADR has the armbar locked on, and rightly gets kicked shitless by Del Rio. Del Rio proceed to sell a frogsplash onto a ladder (which Del Rio is under) as if his insides have been liquidated. The ending, with ADR destroying RVD's arm in a chair and forcing a tapout to the armbar is more proof that brutal sadist ADR is one of the best guys in 2013.

Jack Swagger & Antonio Cesaro vs the Great Khali & Santino Marella
I think we all know there is only one reason this got booked, but let's give it a chance. That said, I'm not sure people were hoping for an opening section of matwork between Swagger and Marella. Aside from some nice RA double teams, there is nothing here to enjoy until the inevitable moment....Cesaro giving the giant swing to Khali. That's enough for the three, but this match could easily have been dropped.

Curtis Axel vs R-Truth
I like Axel, but he's going to have to uproot trees here, as Truth hasn't been interesting in years. Axel takes a few nice bumps early on to help the challenger look good, before kicking Truth into the barricades to take over. There is a period of Axel offence before Truth starts his comeback, with an awesome glassy eyed sell of a leg lariat by Axel. Scissor Kick gets two for Truth, but Axel avoids a corner charge and hits the Axelizer for the win. Totally heatless from the crowd, but this was perfectly ok.

Brie Bella vs AJ Lee
With her leather jacket at ringside, Tamina gives good Diesel to AJ's Shawn Michaels. I like Brie showing a bit of rage at the start of this match - her offence isn't great, but at least she looks like she wants to hurt AJ. I loved AJ taking over by kicking Bella's knee on the apron whilst on defence, shows her comparative ring smarts. AJ works over the left arm pretty well, and uses it as a weak point to focus on to stop Brie getting on offence. Brie's offence looks pretty milky in comparison. AJ picks up the win with a roll-up after Brie gets distracted by Tamina choking out Nikki Bella at ringside.

Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns
Going into the PPV, this was the match I wanted to watch above all others. It's been said by a lot of people online, but it's true...Goldust hasn't lost a step. He moves smoothly, his punches have real snap and his offence looks crisper than ever. His diving clothesline on Reigns here is immense. Cody also gets to show some fire, which really suits him. Meanwhile, the Shield team continue to show their skill at tag wrestling, wearing down Cody, keeping themselves in between him and his corner and generally looking good. Cody comes back with a top rope moonsault to Rollins and Goldust comes in on fire, love his sharp boot to Reigns' temple. Also got to love mid-40's Dustin Rhodes adding a diving crossbody to his arsenal. The offense run ends as a missed crossbody sends Goldust to the floor, but luckily he's also an awesome face-in-peril. He takes Reigns' awesome flying clothesline like a champ. What helps here is that the fans genuinely like Goldust, genuinely want him to win, so he gets a lot of support when the Shield members wear him down with chinlocks and other holds. Goldust's comeback snap powerslam still looks gorgeous. Hot tag Cody is great at being fired up, and a lot of his offence is better suited to being a face - the Disaster Kick in particular is a great "sudden pop" move. The ending with Dusty stopping some Dean Ambrose interference and Cody nailing the mother of all CrossRhodes is awesome. Tag matches don't get much better.

Kofi Kingston vs Bray Wyatt
Man, I really liked the Kingston gameplan early here, trying to wear down Wyatt with some tough looking kicks. When Wyatt is on offence, I quite like the air of menace he gives off, from his running corner splash to the diving headbutts he hits on a downed Kofi. You get a feel for the cruelty he's trying to dish out. Kofi's comeback is a little uninspired, but the diving crossbody Bray uses to stop it is magnificent. Wyatt's "upside down spider walk" however looks fucking terrible, and I hope he isn't planning on using it regularly. We've just enough time for an insane Kofi tope to the outside before Wyatt hits Sister Abigail for the win. This was better than I'd have hoped for.

CM Punk vs Ryback
Punk actually uses the same plan as Kingston here, wearing Ryback down with kicks, only with more success as Ryback leaves the ring several times to avoid him. It's quite fun seeing someone the size of Ryback playing chickenshit heel. Punk's plan seems to be to hit and run, which works as he gets Ryback to his knees, before peppering him with shots to the ribs. The otherside of a cat-and-mouse style match the occurs as Punk is caught by Ryback and becomes victim to Ryback's power game. Punk is viciously hurled into the corner ringpost. I like Punk trying to break a chinlock with blows to the ribs he'd already worked on. Ryback's offence is methodical, but fun, with a nasty clotheline levelling Punk. A bodyscissors/choke is broken by Punk delivering vicious blows to face. Heyman grabs the mic and distracts Punk, which makes him look like an idiot as Ryback nails him. A soppy clothesline from Punk downs Ryback, which looks a bit shit. I was starting to worry the match was going to be overlong at this point, before another Heyman distraction backfires, with Punk hitting a lowblow to win. Decent, though a few parts really dragged.

Daniel Bryan vs Randy Orton
I was looking forward to this, as I enjoy sneaky heel Orton, and I liked it early on as he went for a test of strength with Bryan, only to grab the rope and kick him in the midsection, with the rope grabbing making him look even more devious. Also, as soon as he gets on offence, he's chasing Bryan round the ring to grind Bryan's face into his boots over and over. Love it. They've got a fine line to tread between keeping Bryan looking strong and putting over the new, more violent Orton, and I think they just about get it right, with Bryan getting nice, aggressive hope spots and Orton shutting them down suddenly. Bryan's got a few set spots that get good reactions, and he's great at mixing them in. This time, he doesn't hit his usual running dropkick after flipping over Orton in the corner. Instead, Orton throws him from the ring, only for Bryan to send HIM out with a headscissors and nail the suicide dive. Little things like that keep him interesting. Orton hitting a vicious back suplex onto the barrier then throwing Bryan into the ringpost puts over his new edge perfectly. Top rope superplex by Orton looks great too. Bryan comes back with a crossbody to the floor which looks nuts, and his series of running dropkicks to the corner is fantastic. In fact, this match is really fucking good, which makes the awful ending all the more frustrating. Big Show knocking out both guys would be much less upsetting if the match had only been so-so. Slap an ending on this, and you've got a match-of-the-year contender. Instead, it just leaves a disappointing taste in the mouth.