WWE Armageddon Hits

Jeff Hardy wins the WWE Title: A great moment that most fans have been waiting for since January's Royal Rumble show. My only complaint is that this is the one time in recent months that WWE failed to make television viewers believe there was a good chance that Jeff would finally win the big one. He was pinned by Chris Jericho on Raw and then tossed from the ring later in the show by Triple H.

Insiders took that as a hint that he might win the title, but the average fan presumably saw that show and assumed there was no way Hardy was winning this time around, especially given that Edge just captured the title last month. Granted, WWE delivered the message that anything can happen on their pay-per-views, but they did so at the expense of this pay-per-view buy rate. That being said, it was a cool pay-per-view moment to see Hardy finally win and to watch him celebrate on top of the giant castle set at the end of the night.

John Cena vs. Chris Jericho: A good match and an improved performance over last month when Cena returned at Survivor Series. I never really believed there was a chance that Jericho was going to regain the title, but I enjoyed the effort and this was a quality pay-per-view title match.

C.M. Punk vs. Rey Mysterio: A solid match with a clean finish. This wasn't the dream match that some fans were probably hoping for, but both wrestlers worked hard and provided good action. The GTS finisher looked nasty I'll guarantee that poor Rey is still feeling it this morning.

Vladimir Kozlov vs. Matt Hardy: Hardy got a much better match out of Kozlov than Hunter did at the Survivor Series. Hardy kept the match interesting while making Kozlov look powerful and dominant.

Overall show: Major props to WWE for delivering clean finishes throughout the show. I expected run-ins and/or cheap finishes in the IC tournament match and in Randy Orton vs. Batista, but was pleasantly surprised to get clean finishes. Throw in the big moment finish and this turned out to be a good show.

WWE Armageddon Misses

JBL and Shawn Michaels angle: It's hard to suspend disbelief and buy into a stroyline in which Michaels lost his savings and has no one else left to turn to. Can't he hit up Triple H for a loan? I mean, they show them pimping all that DX gear on television all week long, so at least one of them should still have some dough, right?

Who attacked Jeff Hardy storyline: This storyline got lost in the shuffle coming out of Survivor Series due to the two title changes that took place on that show. They're trying to bring it back now, but the problem is that while the mystery person cost Hardy a shot at the belt at Survivor Series, he got the last laugh by winning the WWE Title a few weeks later. By the way, my money is on Christian Cage being revealed as the mystery man with Matt Hardy as the dark horse candidate.

Batista vs. Randy Orton: The lousy buildup for the match convinced me that we were getting a cheap finish. These are two of the biggest names on the Raw brand, but the hype was so lackluster for their supposed first match in four years that it didn't even fell like a major selling point of the pay-per-view. The match was solid, but there was nothing truly memorable about it. Worse yet, I can't get over the way WWE is burning through marquee matches for Batista without hyping them properly.

Finlay and Hornswoggle: Another lame shillelagh finish. I challenge the creative team to come up with two months of Finlay finishes without incorporating the overplayed shillelagh. I got a kick out of the Little Bastard character, but the grunting, kid-friendly Hornswoggle is just plain tired.

Kiss Cam: I don't mind this bit on television, but I don't pay all that money to see the same segment repeated on pay-per-view. It's a repeat storyline that meshed with Mae Young's repeating storyline. The live crowd enjoys it, but the fans at home have to be yawning through the predictability.

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