Judgment Day Live Blog

00.58am
Good Afternoon/Evening/Morning, whereever you are in the world. Judgment Day is minutes away. I've just read a Spoiler, which I'm annoyed about. I try not to read spoilers just before big shows, and I broke my rule. I won't let you in on it, that wouldn't be fair. I'll let you know if it happens, when it does.......or doesn't, if you get my drift.

For those who care, drink of choice is Irn Bru (If you are outside UK, google it) and snack is Fruit Pastilles (just the red and purple ones).

01.01am
Is that meant to be an English accent on the voiceover at the start?

01.03am
Trying to pump up the crowd straight out of the blocks, here comes the Punker. He'll take on Umaga first up, and it seems it's Todd and JR on commentary first up. Are we back to individual announce teams?

I like the irony of CM Punk wrestling the man who it was suggested was a Samoa Joe impersonator. For the record, I'm led to believe that not only was that not the case (unless you noticed, there were Samoans in Wrestling before Joe Seanoa) but there is no heat between the men. That thing you may have read in PWI was complete nonsense.

01.07am
Umaga with the......what do we call it, Uranage?.... within the opening minutes. Interesting, since that's the move that was shown as devastating on the recap just before the match.

01.08am
Remember you can join in with the blog - robthegreen@hotmail.com is the address.

01.11am
Nelson, and I wonder why the ring ropes are white?

Slow match so far. Punk with virtually no offense.

01.19am
Clean win for Umaga. I don't like Punk losing too often. I do like Umaga winnning, though. I dig the Umaga character, and would love to see a Umaga/Undertaker programme very similar to Mankind's one with Taker back in 1996 or so.

01.21am
Show with standard chat with Vickie, before someone walks in. Big cheer for Edge (for it was he) but we don't get to hear his conversation with his wife.

01.22am
I didn't know the Unprettier was now the Killswitch. I think that is something to do with the band that play CM Punk's music. Anyone clarify for me?

01.23am
Josh and Striker for ECW so we have a set of teams again. Nice cheer for Christian, and I know I say this every time, but I wish he had his old theme music - same song, but the other version.

Am I talking about songs more than wrestling so far?

Hey, there's my man Tony the Ring Announcer. Remember, Chimel fix it for you.

01.25am
Wow, that's incredible. I went to Umaga's Wikipedia page because I was having a moment of thought about his family tree - and get this, his profile has already been updated to reflect him defeating CM Punk tonight. Who is doing things that quickly?

01.31am
Decent match so far, although it's got frantic early. Some nice spots, and a different match to last time, which is nice.

Great shot of Christian nailing a twisting elbow from the middle rope looking like he was flying into my living room (I'm actually in my office, but that sounds wrong)

Nice realism as the referee doesn't count when Christian's shoulders aren't quite down. Really enjoying this now.

01.34am
Official spot Swagger pulling the tights on a pin attempt, so stops the pin, making him the SMARTEST OFFICIAL EVER

01.35am
Christian pulls the straps of Swagger's wrestling gear down, then rolls him up and pulls the tights. Ref fails to spot this making him an IDIOT!! (Aren't I consistant?)

Seriously, though, I like that. That was nicely put together, and Striker's explanation post-match about straps being kept up in amateur wrestling was a terrific call.

Well done all round. Really enjoyed that match. Great pacing, clever thought process, nice counters. High quality stuff. Kudos to the guys and the agent involved.

01.39am
I'm still to be convinced of babyface Morrison (I'm the same with babyface Carlito. There are some characters who just fit with heel in my opinion) but this match should be good. Really nice feel to the show tonight. Crowd seem up, announcers on their game, and so far one one pretty good match and very good one for me.

Nice crowd shot of Chicago. I have been there for a week or so (Bound for Glory last year), and it truly is a fantastic city. Hope to go back someday.

01.41am
Benjamin has Haas with him. Let's see if that becomes important.

J-Mo does one heck of a move to the outside. A springboard 450 plancha I guess.

01.43am
Here's a thought. When Show and Vickie were talking, they mentioned Cena being out of action along with Triple H. Never mentioned Shawn Michaels. I wish they'd mention guys when they are nowhere to be seen and tell us why.

01.45am
JR is not into poetry apparantly. Forsooth, who would have guessed it?

01.46am
Back to the Christian and Swagger match briefly, and I'd to credit WWE for booking the finish I predicted :-) - that being a conclusion to give Christian the credit for being resourceful and using experience, and making Swagger's only negative being that he is young.

01.51am
So much fun. I've been saying for a long time that I think Morrison is the next guy ready to step up and be counted. This is the first time I've truly believed it, and I now think he could be anything he likes.

In one performance, he's.....well he hasn't converted me, because I was already a fan, but he has made me a firm believer. I tell you what, I'll take back what I said pre-match too. Morrison's offense was so flashy, so good to watch, so Jeff Hardy like, that people will cheer it.

Only disappointment was that they slightly botched a spot with Shelton supposed to be catching Morrison and powerbombing him into the corner, except he toppled just short.

01.55am
Proper heat for Miz, now. He refers to Morrison as Marty Janetty and rags on the crowd. Great stuff. He's challenging a Chicago Cub player who is looking like he is a mannequin. Some references that I'm afraid I don't understand to the guy being injured. He barely looks angry, amused, annoyed, or anything. Is he an Anglophone?

Miz claims this as a win over Cena, because the guy is apparantly a Cena substitute. He is 4-0, and......Santino? Speaking of lovable losers........

Santino says about the Cubs player being a fellow Italian, which gets a laugh, so I assume he isn't.

We end with Miz and Santino fighting, and the former getting the upper hand. Santino officially a babyface now, I guess. A little bit of fire for Santino, which was interesting. Hopefully Santina is no more, but I wouldn't count on it.

Chavo attacks Santino after Miz does. Great stuff. I like it when things overlap. From Edge/Vickie, to Chavo, to Santino, to Miz, to Cena, to Show, and back again. Nice stuff.

02.07am
IC title time. Nice build-up promo from Jericho, and then out comes Rey.

02.08am
Letter alert!!!

"hey, delliott here. You said that WWE are booking it straight with no gimmick matches right? Did u think about the next ppv being all gimmick matches?

Maybe they're trying to increase the shock vaule of extreme rules."

Very fair point. Hadn't thought of that at all. It makes for commons sense. I hope, though, that they manage to do it more often so as to increase the value of gimmick matches. I hate an entire PPV being gimmicked. Lockdown has worked a couple of times, but generally I can't help but think it's a bad idea.

02.12am
Early Y2J chants from the crowd to counter the great reaction Rey got. I hope this match can ebb and flow, and swing from one man to the other. The crowd will dig that.

02.14am
Couple more letters. Firstly Bob Baker:

"Do you think the Umaga win was to put us off the scent of a Punk cash-in in his hometown?"

Probably not. We thought it might last time, didn't we, with Kane? Mind you, the reaction would be a amazing. This crowd are hot tonight.

And from LuisBoy:

"Have you heard the spoiler that......" I'm ending this email, which repeats the spoiler I talked about earlier. Grr, I hate opening emails sometimes. Thanks Luis.

02.17am
ASK HIM!!

02.18am
I might be making a leap here, but Grisham just did a major pause, simply saying "Jericho" and letting it hang while Mysterio hit a move. This came just after he said the word "Luchador" - can't imagine Vince liking that word, so maybe he was getting told off.

02.24am
I would have prefered to see Jericho win, but apart from that, I'll just drool over a superb wrestling match. I'm going to say it, despite Todd possibly getting ripped for saying Luchador. That was a proper, bona fide WRESTLING match, kids.

Beautifully paced, terrifically executed. A clinic.

02.26am
Hows this for an observation.......

In the old days, the start of the NWO period really, the WCW pay per views were strong, and although the main events full of old guys generally sucked (Hogan/Warrior, Hogan/Piper etc), the undercard was usually great.

How nice that after Punk/Umaga set a decent opening level, Christian and Swagger engaged in a nice to-and-fro and Morrison and Benjamin wowed the crowd, up stepped Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho to put in a superb effort at a crucial point. Thats Chris Jericho and Rey Misterio Jnr from the Atlanta movement, two men, along with likes of Malenko, Benoit, Guererro and others who regularly bolstered the WCW PPVs I mention.

02.30am
Randy Orton hits the ring (I hate it when the champ comes out first) alone. No Cody or Teddy yet.

By the way, Randy, no pressure in following a great match. I know you can do it.

Just not in Houston.

02.39am
Fancy another observation? Four matches ranging from ok through very good to excellent. None from Raw.

02.49am
I wasn't expecting that.

Here's the thing. This was a worse match than Triple H and Orton at Mania, but not a disappointment. I didn't expect this match to be much. Orton and Trips had a match at Mania significantly worse than any other one they have had. It was just south of average. This was poor, but I expected poor. Batista has two gears. Slow and slower.

I'll give him credit for hitting a move off the top rope, though. Something he presumably learned from Ric Flair!

I'll come to him in a second. The match story of Orton trying to get out of the match was going ok, but why if he ends it by slapping the ref, why not do that straight away?

Booking 101 into a no-dq match at Extreme Rules. Now you know why this didn't go on last.

So Naitch appears post match. Great, Randy and co get to look weak in front of another old/inactive/both (delete as applicable) guy.

I assume Flair is involved for two reasons. One to make sure he doesn't get too pally with Ring of Honor, but more importantly to facilitate a turn. Think about it. If Triple H or Batista turn on the other it is likely to split people. Not everyone will buy the turn, whomever does it.

If, however, the turnee obliterates Ric Flair rather than the other man, then they get more heat right away. I'd say that Batista blames Flair at some point for costing him something, and then Trips comes to defend Flair's (Not Ring of) honour.

02.57am
How about this one then.......Reid Flair for Legacy?

03.14am
OK, stay with me on this one.........

I found that dull and boring. I tidied some things up rather than simply sitting back and watching.

But I applaud them greatly for that match. The WWE audience spans a range of ages. There will be seven year old kids who don't realise that Jericho and Rey were awesome, and just wanted to see John Cena.

When he came on, he particpated in a match with a great story. Kids don't see fujiwara arm bars and inside cradles. They see good and evil, heroes and villains, in black and white terms. Cena is a hero, and like all good heroes, he vanquished the enemy who looked certain to win the day.

Like I say, not my cup of tea, but in context that was very well executed.

03.48am
Several points to make.

You know that spoiler I mentioned? It was that Jeff would be champion at Extreme Rules. So then, either he will win on a future Smackdown or it was nonsense.

Poor camerawork for the mid air spear. Great camerawork for the Matt Hardy interference (but why didn't Matt just run in and smash Jeff? He wouldn't win the belt, would he? We've seen that with Orton.)

God I hate that referee. Put simply, you can tell when he is going to pull up and not count to three, so all nearfalls become redundant. You can't have false finishes with him.

The call was terrible. I hesitate to blame Grisham, because I don't know what he is being told to say, and because his performances to now have been solid, but he ruined the main event for me. JR was calling the match (THE MATCH) to make it feel big, but Grish was repeating things and talking about dotcom polls. More work needed, I think.

A good closing match. The pace of the match did make you sway one way and another in who you'd think would win. When Jeff kicked out of Matt's interference it looked as though he might take it.

Could Christian be done with Swagger and fulfil my dream of Jeff/Christian v Matt/Edge? It's still possible.

That has to be considered a strong PPV, but once again, I'm afraid, Randy Orton's title match is one of, if not THE weak spot. The show was bowling along until that point, and he and Batista never really got going, for me. I've explained that I didn't care for the Cena match but was happy with the reasons behind it. I wouldn't have minded that going higher up the card, perhaps before Rey and Jericho.

WWE continue their trend of late. Overall strong PPV, but one title match lacking in substance.