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Bragging Rights, the PPV previously known as
Cyber Sunday is in the books and it was a decent show that set up some new
programs while ending a major one. There were no matches added to the card and
even at that the show went 5 minutes extra. The basis behind the PPV is the new
Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 video game. One thing that is apparent right away is
there are no ECW wrestlers on the card at all which makes me wonder why the
brand exists since when PPV’s are put together they seem to be forgot
The PPV was not called by Jim Ross due to his suffering another attack of Bell’s
Palsy on Tuesday. He is recovering but will not be seen on TV for a while. The
show was called by Jerry Lawler, Todd Grisham and Michael Cole. One of the first
things we saw at the open of the show was the cup that the Raw and Smackdown
teams were competing for. The winner of two of the three matches would get this
cup and parade around with it I guess until next year. The card went down like
this:
EDITOR'S NOTE: The "Bo's Prediction" part of the review below was
posted on Saturday afternoon (102409). |
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INTERCONTENTINAL BELT VS.
UNITED STATES BELT:
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Smackdown's John Morrison (IC) vs. Raw's The
Miz (US) |
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BO'S PREDICTION:
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This match should start the show because it could be an exciting
one. Morrison and Miz were tag team champions for a while and their break up
happened when they were drafted to different brands not because they were
feuding. Morrison is the more athletic of the two and has more flashy moves but
surprisingly Miz has turned himself into a pretty good wrestler. I would expect
Morrison to go over here at the start and give Smackdown the advantage in the
feud. |
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BO'S REVIEW:
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As predicted this match opened the show but
before any action happened we saw the Raw and Smackdown teams in the back. The
Smackdown team wore the same shirt but when we saw the Raw team DX was wearing
their usual gear. The match between the former tag team champions turned into a
kick fest for a while but then Morrison did a corkscrew plancha out on the floor
on Miz. The match went back and forth until Morrison set up his starship pain
finisher and got his legs kicked out from under him. Miz got the pin and the Raw
team was up 1-0. This wasn’t a bad opener and the crowd was sort of into it. The
match was followed by showing Cody Rhodes getting taped up and R-Truth getting
in his face. As the two stared each other down Big Show came up behind Truth to
talk smack. We then saw DX in a Survivor Series commercial. |
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DIVA'S MATCH:
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Raw's Melina, Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim vs.
Smackdown's Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix, Natalya |
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BO'S PREDICTION:
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This wasn’t even the Divas line up two weeks ago so you can’t say
that there is a feud here at all. What you can wonder about it the fact that
Mickie James is not in this match. There have been rumors that the company isn’t
happy that she has put on a little weight (as if she didn’t already have a big
ass) and so they have soured on her for a while but I think adding her and say
Alicia Fox to this match wouldn’t have hurt. It hasn’t been made clear if this
match or any of the other team matches are single elimination or who ever gets
the first pin wins but in either case the Smackdown team should go over here and
give the brand a 2-0 advantage. |
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BO'S REVIEW:
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The match started with Kim
and Phoenix facing off against each other. Kelly and McCool didn’t get much
action in this match and it was a pretty sloppy one. A few missed spots here and
there before Phoenix pinned Melina to tie the competition between the brands at
one win apiece. The match was followed by a pep talk involving the Raw team that
brought up old programs and suggested that the team wasn’t as solid as they
wanted to be. |
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WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
(Fatal 4 Way):
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The Undertaker(c) vs. CM Punk vs. Batista vs.
Rey Mysterio |
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BO'S PREDICTION:
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History lesson time: during the last European tour Undertaker
talked to Punk about the way he dressed and when Punk told Taker that John Cena
doesn’t dress that much differently than he does the conversation was relayed to
the office the move was made to take the belt off him. So instead of Punk
beating Taker clean at Hell in the Cell Taker became the champion again. Viewers
saw that Taker had a hard time leaving the ring and it isn’t a secret that he is
having a hard time walking due to a number of injuries including a recent hip
surgery. He also doesn’t work house shows as a general rule and so now we have a
champion that barely wrestles. I am a big fan of Taker but there is no reason
for him to be champ right now if ever again unless he has the belt at the next
WrestleMania and loses it to end his undefeated streak. So with that in mind
what will happen in this match? Punk isn’t getting the belt back until he gets
out of the doghouse for being honest, Mysterio just came back off a drug
suspension, Taker can’t keep the belt and so that leaves us with Batista as the
winner. Taker will not be pinned by Batista and will lose without being pinned
which can set up the next PPV. |
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BO'S REVIEW:
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Undertaker got the biggest reaction of the
four when he came out and Punk stood outside the ring when he made it down the
aisle. Punk went after Rey first and was then tossed out of the ring by Taker.
We saw Rey and Batista work together for a while before Rey took a GTS from
Punk. Batista got caught in Hell’s Gate but Punk broke up the hold and got
tossed out of the ring again. Punk took a Last Ride and Batista got choke
slammed but then Batista hit the power bomb on Taker only to have Rey break up
the pin. The two best friends started to argue and Batista pushed Rey out of the
ring. Batista took another choke slam and was pinned by Taker. Taker took his
belt and limped to the back while Punk stayed out of camera range. Josh Matthews
tried to interview Batista and as Rey tried to tell Batista he would win next
time Batista asked Rey why a ‘friend’ would turn on him and cost him the belt.
Batista attacked Rey and is now a heel since the beating was pretty good. This
was followed by a time killer polling of the fans outside the arena before the
show on who would win the Raw/Smackdown fight. |
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RAW VS. SMACKDOWN MATCH:
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Team Raw: Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Big Show,
Kofi Kingston, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry vs. Team Smackdown: Chris
Jericho, Kane, Finlay, Matt Hardy, R-Truth, Tyson Kidd, David Hart Smith |
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BO'S PREDICTION:
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The first thing you notice is that Team Smackdown has gone thru
some changes since Monday night. Cryme Time is out as are Drew McIntyre and Eric
Escobar. Finlay hasn’t been on a PPV for a while, Matt Hardy is still recovering
from abdominal surgery, R-Truth has been pushed and then forgotten (which
changed with the addition of McIntyre) and the Hart Dynasty couldn’t even get
booked at the Canada based PPV. McIntyre and Escobar were supposedly removed
because they didn’t want them losing right now (guess which team is winning) and
Shad Gaspard took himself out of the picture when he got sick on Tuesday after
the Mexico tour. I still don’t have an explanation as to why Big Show is on Team
Raw since he and Jericho are tag team champions but this is the WWE and I have
lost interest in trying to understand their reasoning. This match can be used to
focus the spotlight on guys like Swagger, Kingston (who lost his accent
somehow), Truth and the Harts but I think that when everything is said and done
either HHH or HBK will get the pin for Team Raw. So that means that Smackdown
will win two matches on the card and Raw will win the big one while ECW is
eating leftovers at the craft table. |
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BO'S REVIEW:
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The new and improved Team Smackdown had
their captain Chris Jericho start the match and the teams went back and forth as
I was getting dinner. Everyone had a chance to get into the ring and the match
was pretty competitive when all of a sudden Show turned on the Raw team. He
grabbed Kofi from the top rope and when HHH tried to get into the ring Show
punched him in the head. Show then left the ring and Kofi got pinned to give
Smackdown the edge and the cup. I should have seen this coming because the last
time Show was on a team like this he did the same thing but the booking staff
fooled me. The match was followed by a promo for the main event but then we saw
Kofi walking backstage and Cody got in his face and attacked him for losing the
match. |
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WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE MATCH
(Iron Man):
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Randy Orton (c) vs. John Cena |
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BO'S PREDICTION:
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Yes, they are at it again and hopefully this is the last time we
will see these two fighting at a PPV in 2009. Iron Man matches are weird. The
object is to have more pins than your opponent but most only have three of four
of them. Sometimes a pin happens within the first ten minutes and sometimes you
get a pin at the half way point but tease a lot of near falls. This is an
anything goes match so we could see action all over the building but I have a
feeling that the end of this match will involve Ted DiBiase costing Orton the
belt intentionally or ‘accidentally’ and set up the feud between the two of
them. That would leave Cena on Raw (as if he was going to leave) ready to start
a program with anyone on Raw the next night. It could be HHH, HBK or maybe
someone who would benefit from being in a title program like Jack Swagger. Raw
needs to break up the rotation with the belt for a while and add someone else to
the mix. |
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BO'S REVIEW:
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I think this is the fourth Iron Man match I
have ever seen and one of the most interesting. As I said in my predictions we
usually only see three of four pins in an hour and this match had eleven of
them. The first pin came at the five minute mark when Cena trapped Orton in the
STF and Orton tapped immediately. After each pin the wrestlers got a 30 second
rest break. The second pin came five minutes later when Orton hit an RKO. Orton
then took the top off the announcers table and clocked Cena in the head with a
monitor and then a mike. Cena’s head was cut open and in a move that I guess was
to give the match credibility the clock stopped so that doctors could check the
cut which they actually glued together. The action went to the entrance ramp and
pyro was made a part of the match as was the electrical grid around the stage.
For the most part Orton kept beating the crap out of Cena and he kept coming.
Legacy did come out and beat on Cena during one of the rest breaks but Kofi came
out with a chair and chased them away. We went up into the stands and back down
after Cena took a DDT onto the floor. Cena threw Orton through the barricade and
then clocked him with the ring steps which set up the holy crap moment of the
match. Cena cleared the announce table and then took two stair pieces and stuck
them together. He then carried Orton on his back and gave him an attitude
adjustment from the stairs onto the table. After a table was brought into the
ring and broken the match turned into a punch fest. Cena ended up knocking the
ref down and Orton hit an RKO but there was no ref. A second ref came down but
Cena kicked out so Orton knocked him out. Orton tried the head punt but missed
and got locked in the STF again. Orton tapped out with four seconds left and
Cena won 6 pins to 5 so he is once again the champ and remains on Raw. This was
a damn fine main event. |
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So this was a pretty decent PPV that only
had one sloppy match on it. We saw the end of the Cena/Orton program. We also
saw the beginnings of a Rhodes/Kingston program and a Batista/Mysterio program.
The three men announce team actually worked and so we only missed JR during the
Batista turn because he would have sold it better. Survivor Series is a month
from now and so we can actually see the card build instead of rushing it thru.
It will be interesting to see the numbers that this PPV gets since it happened
the day after a UFC PPV. |
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Photo ©
2009 WWE/World Wrestling Entertainment
Article © 2009 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
