Bad Judgement

MAYBE we’ve been spoiled by all the great WWE events already this year — but the federation’s latest PPV just didn’t do it for us.

Coming only three weeks after the brilliant Backlash, Judgment Day was always going to have a mountain to climb.

And while the show had good wrestling from top to bottom, with Jericho v Mysterio being the pick of the bunch, it just didn’t feel like value for money.

PPV events currently cost £15 in the UK and £26 ($40) in the US so naturally fans want bang for their buck, especially in these current times.

Sadly at Judgment Day, and this is our major beef, what this cash bought was cheap finishes in both world title matches.

Orton kept his title by getting disqualified against Batista and Edge beat Jeff Hardy due to interference from Matt.

One would have been bad but excusable to keep a feud going, but doing both on the same show just felt you leaving a bit ripped off.

It’s a shame because both were shaping up to be great contests.

Randy has the art of being a heel down to perfection, from his arrogance when on top to his cowardice when getting beat.

Batista may have only just come back from injury, but Orton’s ring presence and execution covered for any ring rust he may feel.

It’s just a shame it had to end with Randy ‘accidentally’ slapping the ref for the DQ.

Ric Flair running out to help The Animal clean house on all three of Legacy was an attempt to make up.

Nature Boy tried his hardest, bounding around like he was 10 years younger and showing why in recent interviews he’s been hinting that he may reverse his retirement.

Edge and Jeff was, as you’d expect, an even better bout than Orton v Batista before it was once again ruined by ‘creative’ booking.

The pair, who first wrestled each other more than a decade ago, pulled out all the stops to provide something new with a Hardy head over heels dive and Edge Spear off the apron the highlights.

Jim Ross went as far to predict: “It’s going to take one of those grand sensationalistic manoeuvres to win it.”

Sadly after plenty of near falls, what it actually took was Matt whacking his brother with a plastercast and a top rope Edgecution for the Canadian to retain.

One man who did lose convincingly at Judgment Day though was CM Punk.

Held in his hometown of Chicago and after his huge Money In The Bank victory at WrestleMania, many felt Punk would roll over Umaga in the opener

Instead he was unable to get his larger foe up for the GTS and, after a good back and forth contest, was pinned for the second PPV running.

Christian and Jack Swagger, along with the reinstated ECW announce team, were up next and had another nice title rematch for the Extreme belt.

Playing off their previous contest – when the supposed good guy Christian cheated – Captain Charisma once again outsmarted Swagger by stealing the victory with a handful of straps.

Then it was time for John Morrison and the WWE are clearly getting behind him huge in an attempt to make a new star.

Morrison repaid that faith by unleashing an arsenal of innovative aerial moves in his victory over Shelton Benjamin.

These included a dangerous flip to the outside that Shelton only just caught, springboard hurricanrana and, best of all, his split-legged top rope corkscrew moonsault finisher known as the Starship Pain.

The WWE are also trying to get John’s old tag partner The Miz over – and using his mic, rather than in-ring, skills to great effect.

The reality TV star was hilarious as he humiliated “John Cena stand-in” and Chicago Cubs star Alfonso Soriano and declared himself “4 and 0” over no-show John.

Santino Marella interrupted and, we’re sad to report, is nowhere near as funny since he became a good guy.

In fact his usually awesome act was so cringeworthy now he is purposely playing it for cheers – along with forced laughter from the announcers – we were pleased to see Miz and then Chavo lay him out.

Jericho v Mysterio followed and this was the only match on Judgment Day that is worth catching on the repeat.

It was summed up by an exchange where Mysterio dived off the top but was caught in a Walls Of Jericho, reversed it and put Chris into the ropes for a 619 which was itself reversed into the Walls and after a struggle ended with Rey rolling up Y2J for a two count.

Those moves were pulled off faster than it takes to read them and there plenty of other moments like this through the match.

The end came with a 619 around the ringpost, ruining Jericho’s guarantee that he’d come home with the intercontinental title.

The other bout on the PPV – sandwiched between the two main events – was Cena beating Big Show with the Attitude Adjustment after some predictably dull exchanges.

Our issue with Judgment Day was not that it was a bad show – we don’t have many complaints with the wrestling on offer.

The problem was it was simply OK. And that’s not enough.

We give Judgment Day 6.5 out of 10.


The Sun