What's the Verdict on Judgment Day?

Coming into WWE Judgment Day 2009, my expectations were fairly low. None of the matches on the card really stood out as being blockbuster matches. While Jericho vs. Mysterio, John Morrison vs. Shelton Benjamin, and Jeff Hardy vs. Edge held the most potential, none of them really screamed “You must see this!” As it turns out, my expectations were pretty reasonable. With the exception of the three matches I just mentioned, most of the PPV was boring.
I have implemented a fairly standard 10 point rating system for each match. I’m not bothering to rate the vignettes, because they usually are just a waste of time.

CM Punk vs. Umaga (4/10):
While I am a huge fan of CM Punk, and have been since his great feud with Raven in 2003, I wasn’t very excited about his match with Umaga. For the most part, I feel like Umaga is just a Samoan version of Yokozuna. Despite that detraction, I was expecting more out of the match than I got. Since coming back from his injury, I have noticed that Umaga looks much more trim and fit than he did before the injury. He has looked good the last few weeks. However, he has only been doing run-ins, and it is hard to tell how good a guy is going to look in an actual match from that kind of limited action.
I didn’t feel that the match was either horrible or spectacular. All in all, it was mediocre at best. The styles of Punk and Umaga didn’t do much to compliment one another. Punk got a predictably large pop from his hometown audience, but other than at the end of the match--when Punk had a descent flurry of action--they didn’t seem all that into the match. In the end, Umaga can up with the win via Samoan Spike and three count.

Vignette 1:
Chavo Guerrero (who has seemingly been neutered of his Guerreroness) entered Vicki Guerrero’s office to inform her that John Cena had been medically cleared to wrestle. First off, why was this necessary? Anybody who bothered to watch SmackDown already knew Cena was medically cleared. From there, we had the privilege of hearing Big Show talk about how he was going to end Cena’s career, and how bad it would be for RAW, particularly since Triple H and HBK are already out of action. After his useless rant, Show left to prepare for his match and Edge entered to speak with Vicki. As I said earlier, these vignettes tend to be a huge waste of time.

ECW Title - Jack Swagger vs. Christian (5/10):
Jack Swagger and Christian had an excellent match at Backlash. In fact, it was one of the only matches that made me feel I was not wasting my time in watching the PPV. I came into the rematch at Judgment Day expecting more of the same. I didn’t get it. The match was wrestled well enough, but did not have the same energy as the match at Backlash. The pace was very methodical, which is not a problem in itself, but when you add the fact that the crowd just didn’t seem to care, it made for a boring match. Christian received a few small pops during the match and a round of cheers upon winning, but other than that, it seemed the fans looked at the match much in the same way I did…as filler.

Vignette 2:
This vignette was yet another waste of time. Edge chastised Chavo Guerrero for not intervening when Santino Morella called Vicki Guerrero a pig on RAW. Chavo, mercifully, had nothing to say. End of vignette.

Shelton Benjamin vs. John Morrison (6/10):
This match was one of the three I was most looking forward to. Both men are extremely talented athletes. Benjamin seems to be making progress of his mic skills, slowly but surely. Morrison is--at least in my mind--a future Heavyweight Champion. WWE needs more athletes like these two guys. While I am a big fan of both of these men, I will admit that they are not superstars on the microphone. Both men are much better at the in-ring part of the business than the acting part. This is something that seems increasingly true with many young up and comers in professional wrestling. But all of this stuff is material for another piece that I am working on.
The match itself was very good. It started out very methodical, with Benjamin controlling the pace. Benjamin, as always, showed some great technical wrestling skills and was able to ground Morrison for several minutes, effectively neutralizing his offense…and making the match a bit boring. When the pendulum of momentum swung the way of John Morrison, things heated up. Both guys really kicked it into gear and started going all out. Charlie Haas, who was present in Benjamin’s corner, tried to involve himself in the match and was promptly taken out by some innovative J-Mo offense. Morrison picked up the victory with his Starship Pain finisher.

Miz promo:
Dusty Rhodes, head booker on RAW, has apparently taken a shine to Mike Mizanin. Miz has been getting quite a bit of face time on RAW. He also got quite a bit of time on the Judgment Day PPV. The segment featured Miz again challenging John Cena. Cena did not come out to the ring--but something tells me that sooner or later he will--and instead Miz moved his focus onto taunting the Chicago audience. Miz said that the audience sounded like ducks when they started up the ever-present “What?’ chant. Miz then turned his attention onto Chicago Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano, who was in the front row at ringside. After a few malignant, but not entirely untrue cracks at Soriano (which I found very funny, even as a Cubs fan myself), Santino Morella entered the fray.
In a fairly funny bit, Santino explained how some of the WWE stars looked very much like animals. Vicki Guerrero was described as being a pig, Vladamir Koslov was referred to as having a striking resemblance to Sam the American Eagle, and Miz was referred to as a jackass. While the “You’re a jackass” bit is used very often, it almost always gets a reaction from the crowd. Miz an Santino then proceeded to have the male equivalent of a cat fight, ending with Santino laid out on the may.
Enter Chavo Guerrero, who executed a frog splash on a prone Santion, apparently in retaliation for his unkind words about Vicki.
The segment was not particularly original, but I was entertained. Santino Morella is not much fun to watch in the ring, but he is very good as a comedy wrestler. I am also happy to see Miz getting face time. Three years ago, I hate Mike Mizanin, but he has progressed so much that I actually enjoy watching him now. I think Miz and MVP could have some good matches with the United States Title as the fulcrum of the feud.

Jericho promo:
While Jericho is an excellent wrestler, his promos as of late absolutely bore and annoy the living hell out of me. Jericho’s current gimmick is that of a very generic heel, granted a generic heel with a larger than average vocabulary, but a generic heel nonetheless. While Jericho is great at playing the pretentious jackass, I’m not that entertained by it.

Intercontinental Title - Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho (6/10):
This was another match that I expected good things from, and while it wasn’t horrible, it wasn’t great either. As with every match up to this point, the crowd seemed only limitedly interested in the match. Rey got his obligatory pops and Jericho his obligatory boos. In the end there was a 619 and a pin. As a side note, I think Rey really needs a new finisher. I am sick and damn tired of the 619.

WWE Title - Batista vs. Randy Orton (2/10):
There are many words that I could use to describe this match. I think that atrocious is the most apt. WWE wanted us to believe that there was white heat behind this match. There was all the bull about how Batista “loathes” Randy Orton. The match itself certainly did nothing to support that statement. You would think that two guys who “hate” each other so much would have come out of the gates, steaming from the nose like two bulls. Nope, not at all. The match was downright boring. It is yet more proof of the limited talent of Dave Batista. It is also more proof that, while Randy Orton is talented, he is not yet ready to be the “franchise guy” in WWE.
You might ask me what disgusted me most about the match and I’d say to you, “Ric Flair.” Yes, that’s right, Flair still won’t hang it up. The end of the match featured a run-in by Ric “My Ego Is So Big That I Don’t Care How Much I Tarnish My Legacy And Ignore My Son’s Drug Problem” Flair. I’ll save my criticism of Flair for an entirely different, and potentially much longer, rant.
To make the long and boring storing shorter, Orton pulled the same cheap heel garbage he always does. He tried to get himself disqualified and counted out and it worked. Then we got to see Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. sell for a tired old egomaniac.

Big Show vs. John Cena (0/10):
I’m not going to dignify this horrifically bad performance by writing about it at any length. It was bad and boring, the average John Cena match.

World title - Jeff Hardy vs. Edge (7/10):
Again, this was one of the matches I actually wanted to see. For the most part, it did a descent job of living up to potential. There were a couple big spots that added quite a bit to the match. However, after the problems Jeff Hardy has had in his personal life as of the last year or so, I’m not sure his head is completely in the game. It doesn’t show as much as you might expect it to, but it is noticeable. Edge, who I find boring most of the time, did an okay job in this match as well.
The most I can say about this PPV is that it was mediocre. There was very little time to build any kind of heat or real anticipation between Backlash and Judgment Day. I would recommend that WWE go to a 6 PPV (one every two months or so) schedule, but I know that because of the bottom line ($$$) that is very unlikely.