Welcome to the first entry in a new feature here on Let's Talk Wrestling, where we will be viewing and reviewing various wrestling DVDs in my personal collection. I finally have some free time to finally start making a dent in these DVDs that I have purchased over the years but haven't had the chance to watch until now. I figure I would do you guys a favor and review each one to see if it's worth your time or not.
For those interested in this new feature, I won't be covering WWE DVD releases exclusively. I have various DVDs from TNA/Impact Wrestling, WWF/WWE, SHIMMER, Ring of Honor, ChickFight, and some international DVDs from several other misc. indy promotions.
DVD Match Card:
Note: Matches are graded on a 5 star grading scale.
Mr. McMahon addresses the crowd
Show opens with Mr. McMahon addressing the live crowd in attendance tonight on this Father's Day broadcast, notifying everyone that RAW General Manager Bret "The Hitman" Hart would NOT be in attendance tonight after the vicious assault he received at the hands of the NXT (read: Nexus) Superstars running rampant.This segment transitions into Mr. McMahon welcoming The Chosen One for tonight's opening match.
Intercontinental Championship Match - Kofi Kingston (c) def. Drew McIntyre to retain
At this point of WWE programming, Drew McIntyre was using his "teacher's pet" relationship with Mr. McMahon to bully Smackdown! General Manager Teddy Long around for the last few weeks. Kofi Kingston wanted to take a stand and fight Drew on Teddy's behalf. Drew forced Teddy to watch at ringside for tonight's match, up close and personal.
Matches like this is why I don't understand why WWE doesn't at least give Kofi Kingston a chance at a main event run. Kofi and Drew put on a solid performance for the opening match of tonight's card, but in all honestly, it wasn't anything to knock your socks off. You're going to see for the duration of this review that this is a common theme that carries on throughout the duration of this broadcast.
Even though he was recently released by WWE, I can see why WWE was behind Drew McIntyre from the start. 2010 was one of those periods of WWE programming where I was a bit "floaty" in my attention span on wrestling altogether, but the more I see of McIntyre's work, it makes me wonder how big of a star he could have been if he didn't land himself into trouble and got all of that bad press with his former real life love interest, Taryn Tarrell (ECW's Tiffany).
Even though the match itself wasn't bad, it seemed like the live crowd were more anxious for the bloody obvious run-in from the recently barred from WWE events, Matt Hardy, to run interference.
If I'm perfectly honest, I wasn't really feeling this whole "slavery" vibe that this Drew & Teddy angle was suggesting between the lines either.
Match Rating: ★★ stars
Savannah interviews the Hart Dynasty
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| I miss the lovely "Asian Sensation" Savannah. |
As for the Hart Dynasty, they are dedicating tonight's match to Bret "The Hitman" Hart. God, I almost forgot about that horrible haircut that Tyson Kidd had back then. I loved this trio, but you know how WWE handles Tag Teams - once something gets hot they are quick to split everyone up and doom them to mid-card irrelevance.
Fatal 4 Way Match for Divas Championship - Alicia Fox def. Eve Torres, Maryse Ouellet, and Gail Kim to become the NEW champion
Gail Kim had recently left TNA Wrestling and returned to WWE for a bigger paycheck. She hasn't grown to hate her work environment at this point of her 2nd WWE run as she acts as a mock ring general for this match, governing the pacing.
For those WWE Diva fans who seem to act like the current crop of WWE Divas, namely Paige and AJ Lee, are among the best Divas the division has ever seen, go back and watch this match. All four of these Divas looked solid in the ring and despite the fact that Eve Torres was still pretty green at this point, the entire match came along together perfectly. Compare this match to a current Divas match, let's say for example Night of Champions 2013, where AJ Lee defended her Divas Championship against Naomi, Brie Bella, and Natalya (a strong candidate for highlighting on Maffew's Botchamania...) and you can't deny that this was golden era of WWE Divas during this time frame. I felt like this generation of WWE Divas were the first group of Divas to walk out of the shadow that eclipsed that division in Lita and Trish Stratus' absence.
There were a lot of great spots in this match, including a Camel Clutch (Eve) and Boston Crab (Gail Kim) combination submission hold and an apron Diving Hurracanrana countered into a Faceplant-style Facebuster on the ring apron by Alicia Fox to Gail Kim.
Alicia Fox stole the win in an upset victory, stealing the win right from underneath Eve Torres' nose and becoming the Divas Champion for the first time in her WWE career. Diva fans should note that tonight was the first time that Eve added her signature Diving Moonsault to her repertoire.
Match Rating: ★★ ½ stars
The Big Show and Rey Mysterio chat backstage
The Big Show warns Rey Mysterio that he doesn't care that if he has to take out his own friend to get the gold tonight. Mysterio retorts that he has the biggest HEART out of anyone in that match.Even if I haven't seen this PPV beforehand or read the results, I would have considered Rey's statement to be a DEAD giveaway that Mysterio was going to win tonight.
Evan Bourne def. Chris Jericho
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| "Hang in there, kid. I'm going to make you look like a million bucks tonight." |
Before the match, Chris Jericho cuts a promo about having to knock others off the top of the mountain throughout his entire career. He considers himself to have a target on his back now that he is at the top of the mountain at this stage of his career. Keep in mind that this is still the full-blown "Honest Man" Jericho gimmick at this stage. That being said, he's speaking the truth. Jericho's entire career saw him as an underdog until his unexpected win that allowed him to become the first holder of the WWE Undisputed Championship.
Great chemistry between Evan Bourne and Chris Jericho in this match. If you don't want to watch any other match on this DVD, watch this one. This was definitely one of the best matches in Evan Bourne's entire WWE career right here. I loved absolutely every second of this match.
Since he's been "future endeavored" I would love to see Evan Bourne/Matt Sydal in TNA's X-Division. This match proved that he was ready to hang with high profile opponents if he was given the opportunity. In an environment where the X-Division isn't dominated by Christopher Daniels, Kazarian, AJ Styles, Alex Shelley, nor Chris Sabin, Sydal's talents could really shine here, especially now where TNA is slowly rebuilding this division from top to bottom. This former Dragon Gate alumni could be an asset to feature against in upcoming Wrestle-1 talents coming in from Japan.
Match Rating: ★★★★ stars
Kane swears revenge for the disappearance of The Undertaker
Kane is shown going apeshit on The Big Show, Rey Mysterio, Jack Swagger, and CM Punk in this recap clip.For those wondering, this is clearly in the middle of the Straight-Edge Society story arc for CM Punk as he's wearing the SES-branded lucha libre-inspired mask after losing his hair vs. mask match against Rey Mysterio.
Fatal 4 Way Match for World Heavyweight Championship - Rey Mysterio def. Jack Swagger, CM Punk, and The Big Show to become the NEW champion
Most of you guys reading this review will probably laugh, but I COMPLETELY forgot that Jack Swagger was a high profile champion at one point of his career. I just remember him dropping the ECW Championship on the floor on live television and his career ended up the same way.
CM Punk ushers Serena and Luke Gallows backstage during his entrance, implying that he got this on his own.
Overall, this match is a spotfest and straight to the point. For those like myself who are familiar with the traditional Fatal 4 Ways with The Big Show involved, this is how it went down: The Big Show carefully picks his spots while everyone else gangs up on him throughout this contest.
The ending saw CM Punk having the match won, but Kane's interference scared him off while Rey Mysterio capitalized on the situation and pinned Swagger to become the new champion for the second time in his WWE career.
Match Rating: ★★★ stars
Todd Grisham interviews John Cena
At this point of the PPV, I can understand why people hate on John Cena so much. This was almost like deja vu to present-day WWE with John Cena holding the championship!United States Championship Match - The Miz def. R-Truth to retain
The Miz comes out to the ring first, remixing the lyrics to R-Truth's entrance theme to his own cheesy lyrics.
Offense starts off with a LOT of Shoulder Blocks by R-Truth. You would think that he was going for Cena's 5 Moves of Doom, but nope, the match drags to a crawl from here. The rest of the match goes on in a sluggish pace and I think they wasted time on this match that should have been contributed to the World Heavyweight Championship match instead.
I NEVER thought that R-Truth and The Miz had any chemistry in the ring together and this is proof of that. This isn't a bad match, but I found myself watching this in fast forward than in real time just to prevent myself from falling asleep.
There was one spot I loved though that I wish they could've went for the finish with, but they choose to drag this out longer than necessary. Miz went for his patented Flying Clothesline in the corner, but Truth moved out of the way to leave Miz hanging in corner in a mock Tree of Woe position. Truth then capitalized on the situation with a corner variation of his Scissor Kick.
Match Rating: ★ ½ stars
Edge decrees that he WILL become the next WWE Champion
By this point in Edge's career, he was Lita-less and La Familia-less, but he was STILL the Rated R Superstar.WWE Tag Team Championship Match - 6-Man Tag - Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd, DH Smith, and Natalya) def. The Usos & Tamina to retain
Even though this was one of Tamina's first matches in WWE, she didn't come off green as fuck in it as one would expect. Natalya and Tamina kept things simple for the most part and left most of the action to the boys.
This had to be pretty early in The Usos' careers as in terms of ring gear, they were marketed EXACTLY like Umaga and 3 Minute Warning before them. I have to admit, looking back it was pretty surreal to see The Usos as heels and DH Smith still with the company. Speaking of DH Smith, he had VERY little involvement in this tag team match. Natalya and Kidd did the bulk of the work here.
My favorite spot in the match came in from one of the Usos countering Kidd's Diving Tornado DDT into a Samoan Drop onto the barricade.
The ending came after both teams took themselves out at ringside while Tamina went for the Superfly Splash on Natalya. Tamina missed the mark, which allowed Nattie to pick up the win with a Discus Clothesline.
I thought it was odd that they didn't try to win the match with the Sharpshooter to say that they were dedicating the match to Bret "The Hitman" Hart.
Match Rating: ★★ ½ stars
Fatal 4 Way Match for WWE Championship - Sheamus def. Edge, Randy Orton, and John Cena to become the NEW champion
Before the match, John Cena is interviewed once more before his big match after seeing not one, but two different champions lose their gold earlier tonight:
Seriously, how can you hate this guy? He's like Superman, he's so damn genuinely good that it makes you sick, but let's be serious here. Wrestling needs pure babyfaces in an era where everyone wants to be "cool" as tweeners or blur the lines because they don't know the difference between being heel or babyface and change alignments on a weekly basis.
As for the match itself, I hate to say it, but this was second worst match on the card behind Miz vs. R-Truth. Now when I say worst, I don't mean the match itself was bad. I mean that it was an average, bare-bones contest that left a lot to be desired.
The best part of the match came the Nexus attacked everyone in the ring and left bodies scattered in and out of the ring. Sheamus took advantage of the confusion and picked up the win, becoming the WWE Champion for the second time in his young career. Sheamus didn't even have a chance to enjoy the win as the Nexus chased him out of the arena, leaving Cena, Edge, and Orton down and out as the event came to a close.
It was very awkward to end this PPV in this manner. There was NO commentary after the Nexus' interference. If it was a technical issue, one would think that WWE would at least try to dub in some commentary on the DVD release, but nope. If I was watching this live, I would have been going "Who are these losers and why should I care that they are ruining this main event?"
All in all, it was sad to see the main event turn out to be a drag, especially with John Cena, Edge, and Randy Orton putting Sheamus over to reception from this crowd that seemed like they could care less at this result either way.
Match Rating: ★★ stars
"I stand before you as champ because I have earned it. This (implying towards the title) is my LIFE, my passion." - John Cena
Seriously, how can you hate this guy? He's like Superman, he's so damn genuinely good that it makes you sick, but let's be serious here. Wrestling needs pure babyfaces in an era where everyone wants to be "cool" as tweeners or blur the lines because they don't know the difference between being heel or babyface and change alignments on a weekly basis.
As for the match itself, I hate to say it, but this was second worst match on the card behind Miz vs. R-Truth. Now when I say worst, I don't mean the match itself was bad. I mean that it was an average, bare-bones contest that left a lot to be desired.
The best part of the match came the Nexus attacked everyone in the ring and left bodies scattered in and out of the ring. Sheamus took advantage of the confusion and picked up the win, becoming the WWE Champion for the second time in his young career. Sheamus didn't even have a chance to enjoy the win as the Nexus chased him out of the arena, leaving Cena, Edge, and Orton down and out as the event came to a close.
It was very awkward to end this PPV in this manner. There was NO commentary after the Nexus' interference. If it was a technical issue, one would think that WWE would at least try to dub in some commentary on the DVD release, but nope. If I was watching this live, I would have been going "Who are these losers and why should I care that they are ruining this main event?"
All in all, it was sad to see the main event turn out to be a drag, especially with John Cena, Edge, and Randy Orton putting Sheamus over to reception from this crowd that seemed like they could care less at this result either way.
Match Rating: ★★ stars
The Verdict:
WWE Fatal 4 Way 2010 wasn't a bad PPV, but it wasn't a great one either. It felt like a drawn out episode of Monday Night RAW or Friday Night Smackdown! that was supposed to set up a PPV but the harsh reality of the matter is that this is the PPV it's supposed to be settling up. As a result, the entire event as a "meh" vibe from start to finish. Nothing really stands out as spectacular or blows the roof off of the arena in terms of one would expect out of PPV-quality excitement. I'm giving this DVD a 7.5 out of 10.
If you can find it for a mere $5, then that's acceptable, but I highly suggest not paying anymore than that for this event.
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