WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
THE HARDYS(c) v LANCE CADE/TREVOR MURDOCH
BO'S PREDICTION: The WWE has given up on trying to keep Matt down and he is getting the push his audience reaction suggests. Cade & Murdock were at one time going to go to ECW as a tag team but the idea of creating an ECW Tag Belt seems to have gone by the wayside. It’s hard to figure out what the WWE wants to do with the two of them. They pushed them hard when they came up, then forgot them and broke them up then put them back together and had them serve as enforcers. I don’t expect them to beat the Hardys but I expect a decent match out of them.

BO'S REVIEW: The tradition started in WCW was to give the crowd a hot match to start the show but in this case since the show was in the South they brought the Hardys out for the major pop. Matt was shaken up by Murdock Monday when Trevor did the Petey Williams Canadian Destroyer move and dropped him a bit too low but he seemed to have been fine here. The high spots included Jeff doing a poetry in motion over the top rope and on top of Cade & Murdock and the debut of a new power bomb type move from Cade. Murdock did the Destroyer again and since I missed it on Monday I didn’t see how he screwed it up but here I did and he is too low to the ground when he does the move. That suggests to me that one of the road agents should mention to him to stop using the move before he hurts someone. The Hardys retained their belts and the feud will continue.
 

WOMAN'S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
MELINA v MICKIE JAMES
BO'S PREDICTION: On the European tour Mickie actually won the belt but I don’t know if that will be mentioned here. Melina still has heat backstage due to her attitude but she is at the moment the second best female wrestler on the roster. Mickie is still a bit dangerous in the ring but the fans like her so she may go over here but with the small number of females on the roster that can wrestle this feud may go on for a while. I have no idea why Beth Phoenix is still in Ohio Valley because she and Mickie had a feud going before Phoenix was injured and she and Victoria have a natural one going since Victoria was the one who broke her jaw.

BO'S REVIEW: Mickie winning the belt on the European tour (which was a financial bomb) wasn’t mentioned here. The two of them put on one hell of a match with Melina pretending to lose a contact then kick Mickie and debuting a lot of submission moves with her legs. Mickie also took a header out of the ring and the two traded punches while spread eagled in the ring. Melina won with a short DDT and kept her belt in a great match.

AND THEN...Maria interviewed Edge then pulled a question out of her cleavage that someone gave her. The question was how did Edge win the heavyweight title and the man who gave Maria the question was Kennedy. Naturally Kennedy was behind him and by being there gets some PPV money.
 

UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
CHRIS BENOIT(c) v MVP
BO'S PREDICTION: Since Benoit seems to be staying on Smackdown he will keep the belt until plans change but if you have been watching the shows he has done a wonderful job elevating MVP. The book on MVP was that he wasn’t ready ring wise but could talk and he seems to be developing his talent in the ring. This match could end up being one of the best on the card.

BO'S REVIEW: Friday MVP beat the great champion of Scotland, Hamlet Macbeth. The two traded move for move and MVP took eight German suplexes and countered a lot of Benoit’s moves but lost when Benoit put him in a small package for the win. MVP sold facially his shock at taking all of Benoit’s moves and still losing. I don’t know how much longer this match up will last but the program has been very good.

AND THEN...Todd Grisham interviewed Cena and Randy (the Hotel Room Killer) Orton interrupted to try to set up an alliance. Cena returned Orton’s comments and suggested that Orton was homosexual but that he was cool with that. Orton sold the jokes well and Cena walked away so that Orton could look back and see Ron Simmons for the ‘damn’ spot.
 

ECW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH (3 on 1 Handicap):
BOBBY LASHLEY(c) v MR.McMAHON SHANE McMAHON & UMAGA
BO'S PREDICTION: This is a great program that is making Lashley the second major name in the company besides Cena. Reports are that he has been level headed and humble back stage and seems to be developing the look of an unstoppable force. I would expect him to take a major beating here and continue to make the Superman comeback before pinning Vince to push this feud to an even higher level.

BO'S REVIEW: No Estrada here as he was selling being tossed out of the ring. Shane started the match and got tossed out of the ring. Umaga also got tossed out and Shane and he took most of the punishment and Vice stayed on the sidelines. As the two beat on Lashley eventually Vince came in (eh always tagged Umaga when he wasn’t looking) and won the match after Lashley took two big splashes from the top rope by Umaga. At this point the audience sat in stunned silence while Vince and Shane celebrated. Umaga just sort of stood in the ring and looked confused as Vince taught him how to shake hands. If someone had dropped a pin on the floor you would have heard it because the crowd seemed to have left the building. Vince did a victory lap around the ring and this was followed by him and Shane going backstage where the ECW Originals stood and looked disgusted. I wouldn’t count on Vince keeping the belt long and if Paul Heyman was dead he would be spinning in his grave at Vince even looking at the belt. Joey Styles and Tazz sold their disgust at Vince winning well here.
 

WORLD CHAMPION TITLE MATCH (Last Man Standing):
UNDERTAKER(c) v BATISTA
BO'S PREDICTION: One of the conditions of Taker winning the belt was an understanding that he would add more dates to his schedule. The long term plan is for him to keep the belt for a while and get fed a series of opponents. Since this is a last man standing match expect lots of blood and carnage with Taker coming out on top unless we get a run in with Mark Henry. If the idea is to reestablish Henry then he should come back here and cause Batista to lose and restart their program. Reports are that Henry isn’t in the best shape yet but he can cover that with power moves.

BO'S REVIEW: The crowd was still dead when Batista came out and Taker did the long walk. The two had a physical match again with Batista bleeding from a stair shot to the head. Taker took the Smackdown table apart and did a leg drop onto Batista from the barricade. Batista did most, if not all of the selling here and took a nice beating and kept coming back. The two made it up to the ramp where they continued to beat on each other before Batista speared Taker off the ramp and thru a platform on the side of the set. We got pyro and three towers collapsed on their prone bodies. Neither was able to stand so Taker retained his belt. There was more carnage than blood and no Mark Henry run in. Taker was the first to get up after the match. The following day it was discovered that he had a torn bicep so he will be dropping the belt soon. It’s too bad because he was supposed to have a long run and seemed to bring out the best in Batista.
 

WWE TITLE MATCH (Fatal Four Way):
JOHN CENA(c) v ECGE v RANDY ORTON v SHAWN MICHAELS
BO'S PREDICTION: Coming off of the spectacular match that Cena and Michaels put on in London this match has a lot to live up to. Orton will be making his return after being sent home due to wrecking a hotel room but may be doing the match for free since he is probably still under suspension. He and Edge should be matched up for the most part here since they are in the middle of a long program that will eventually have them go one on one but everyone should mix it up and give us a good match. I would highly doubt that Cena drops the belt her especially since he lost Monday. This may be last on the card but I bet that the Lashley match ends the show.

BO'S REVIEW: This match was all we expected and more. We started with all four watching each other then HBK and Cena punching out Edge & Orton. The match was laid out in a way that allowed everyone to take a rest break but we still got high spots including HBK moonsaulting onto the three outside the ring and Edge & Orton doing a double Boston crab on HBK. I would assume that Arn Anderson laid this match out because the ending was one of the best choreographed things I have ever seen. Edge was taken out and Cena knocked out Orton in the corner. HBK super kicked Cena and fell back but Cena landed on top of Orton for the 1-2-3. HBK sold his shock and disgust well that he beat Cena but didn’t have the belt to show for it. Cena recovered and tried to talk to HBK but he didn’t want to hear it and left the ring.
 

All in all, a damn good show aside from Vince winning the ECW strap. I would hope that the next time we see the all brand show they figure out a better plan for the announce teams. It didn’t make a lot of sense to have Styles and Tazz sit there for the one ECW match then have to stay there and chill. It also didn’t help when on Raw the following night when they showed pics of the main event and Michael Cole was caught sitting there like he was waiting for a bus.

Photo © 2007 WWE/World Wrestling Entertainment
Article © 2007 Alternate Reality, Inc.