WWE Hits

C.M. Punk vs. John Morrison: A great television match. They've had longer and better matches on ECW television in the past, but they made the most of time they were given and delivered a memorable performance. Punk's pay-per-view match with Rey Mysterio has a lot of potential, and I hope they'll find a spot on the show for Morrison and The Miz.

Slammy Awards: I was concerned that the Slammy Awards would be the true focus of the show and that everything else would take a backseat as the creative team lived out their fantasies of writing an awards show. To their credit, they kept the Slammy Awards moving quickly and dedicated ample time to the in-ring product. Sure, I was bored during a couple of the Slammy segments (particularly the Damn! dance skit), but this was a well paced show. I was also happy to see the company put politics aside to give best match award to Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels.

Chris Jericho: Great heel acceptance speech and a clean pinfall win over Jeff Hardy. Sure, he ran from John Cena, but I get a kick out of the chickenshit side of his character.

The Legacy: Great name for the new heel faction with Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Manu. I also enjoyed their match against Triple H and Batista even though I didn't care for the bait and switch (more on that below). The finish of the match was great with Cody landing the punch that turned the tide and set up Orton hitting the RKO on Batista for the win.

Overall show: I expected the worst when it came to the Slammy Awards, but the writers stay focussed for the most part and tied the awards into the storylines. There was some good in-ring action and the three-hour show moved along nicely.

WWE Misses

Edge vs. John Cena: For starters, the "Miss" has nothing to do with the copout finish. I don't think anyone expected a clean finish and I'm actually surprised that they went so far as to show that Cena was about to win with his finisher when he was distracted by Jericho. Rather, I'm disappointed by the lack of hype this match received. The two World Champions facing off in a singles match should be treated like a mega-event by WWE even if they don't plan to deliver a clean finish. The plugged the match several times throughout the show, but it never felt like anything more than an ordinary television main event.

Batista vs. Triple H bait and switch: Very disappointing. The sad thing is that I would have looked forward to a Batista and Triple H vs. Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Manu match had they just advertised that match from the start. Rather, they got me excited about seeing two of the top performers in the company facing off in a rare match only to change the match during the show. Worse yet, the poor announcers had to sell the replacement match as if it was somehow an upgrade.

Jeff Hardy: Keep in mind that there is a large percentage of Raw viewers that don't watch Smackdown on a regular basis. The fans that only watch Raw don't see much of Jeff Hardy, but WWE had a chance to get those viewers excited about his latest attempt to win the WWE Title at Sunday's pay-per-view. Sure, he cut the intense promo after winning a Slammy, but then he lost a match to Chris Jericho and was tossed out of the ring by the almighty Triple H, who closed the show as the king of the mountain. The promo was nice, but WWE failed to make Hardy seem like a major player on this show.

Rey Mysterio vs. Kofi Kingston: We got one good IC tournament match, but this was just another short, forgettable match that get anyone excited about the title. It's a shame because I'm convinced these two could have produced an entertaining match had they been given more than three minutes.

Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth: A sloppy match and both wrestlers are lucky they got out of there without causing any serious harm to one another.

Armageddon pay-per-view: Four matches advertised and the show is only five days away. Enough said.

I'll have even more to say about the show in my member exclusive audio recap of the show later today. To become a member of the ad-free version of the site for only $5 per month, visit the Dot Net Members' Signup Page.

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