Over the Limit live blog
1:00am
Evening/morning all. Over the Limit then. Should be fun. Hasn't be a great build up, but it's a reasonable card.
For anyone wondering about the LiveChats we've being doing on The Sun's website, we're probably going to be doing them on the PPVs that are free on Sky Sports and the Big Ones (i.e. Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, Summerslam).
01.04am
Intro video done - usual classy effort - and we're off. Cole in excited mode, intro's King and Striker, and hands over to the Spanish boys. Hey, Hugo looks increasingly like Jabba The Hut. I fear he will imprison a Diva and make her wear a bikini at some stage.
Kofi v Drew up first.......
01.11am
Reasonable match thus far, but a bit wrestling-by-numbers. Kofi hot start, Drew turns around, slows it down, Kofi making comeback. Mind you, they pulled off a spot rarely done well. Drew off the corner and Kofi getting his feet up, but it actually looked realistic.
Commentators annoying me already. They don't actually call a match do they? They spout generalisations and dull facts about each wrestler then go 'ooh' when a move it hit.
01.14am
Well then, we have a new IC Champ. Kofi wins a decent opener. I love his SOS finisher, which he hit after missing Trouble in Paradise then avoiding the FutureShock DDT.
Surprised that we got a clean win......wait, Drew has the mic.......
01.16am
Drew calls for Teddy Long, gets Matt Hardy. Would have liked to have seen an actual fight there rather than Hardy simply hitting one move then leaving. If he is so angry about his previous beatdown would he simply hit a Twist of Fate and leave it at that?
01.19am
Punk backstage with a "mirror mirror" promo talking about beating Mysterio tonight. Slightly odd to see Luke Gallows lightly hug him at the end.
KR Kwik-Truth is next, to face Little Ted.
01.21am
Happy to post your comments on the show - email robthegreen@hotmail.com or Tweet me @RobMcNichol
01.22am
Hey, Virgil got another gig! How permanent is he going to be? I like how they have ignored completely the fact that Virgil turned on DiBiase Snr NINETEEN YEARS AGO.
01.23am
I wish they'd add a little bit to this. For example talk about how much these two dislike each other, but also talk up a competitive rivalry about standing in the company. Suggest that by winning this match they get closer to a US title match or something.
01.28am
Hey, they did it again. Another counter spot which looked real. DiBiase off the top with a double axe-handle and Truth with a shot to the stomach, but it looked great. Not the usual "I'll just jump while you hit me with something"
01.32am
Just a very, very odd ending to that match. Either they tried a bunch of innovative stuff that we missed, they botched a couple of thing that made it look bizarre, or Ted got injured and they had to improvise. Or perhaps a combination of the three.
01.39am
Rey v Punk now. Truth won the last match, by the way - I should have said. There just were very few near falls etc, he just a hit a couple of moves and won.
Striker suggests that Punk losing his hair might be "Herculean" and he'll lose his strength. Isn't that Samson?
Two babyfaces over so far - three in a row? Nice call by Lawler stating that Punk's message (i.e. no drugs) is ok, it's the way he does it why people dislike him. I think they should stress that way more often.
01.46am
Really cool spot with Punk throwing Rey under the ropes and into a barber's chair at ringside, but we have to wait forever to carry on with Punk having been cut on his hairline. Great work by Punk to straightaway add some pace into proceedings as soon as we restart.
The hold for the blood was really long. Why isn't the trainer to sort this kind of thing at ringside?
01.49am
Punk is bleeding again it seems, but no second stoppage. Ref has a glove on.
Don't kid yourself Charles (Robinson) - Cowboy Bob has a cast on his arm, didn't stop him catching a dose.
01.52am
Some nice back and forth action. Not a classic - its quite slow paced, seems these two are suffering from being restricted with they can do being in the first hour again - but what they are doing is very, very crisp, and the crowd (especially those with higher voices) are right behind Rey and his near falls.
01.55am
Counter follows counter follows counter. Rey (fittingly) gets Punk in a mini-crucifix to roll him and win. Really, really nice closing two minutes filled with drama, beautiful wrestling and near falls.
02.03am
The SES, including the masked guy, hit the ring to attack Rey. They are on top but Kane of all people evens the odds. I guess they'll try to save him next.
SES had brought handcuffs to the ring, and when Rey got the better of Punk he cuffed Punk to the ropes. Ooh, was that a deliberate "Christ on the cross" metaphor. Could upset some people (for the record, it doesn't bother me.)
Rey shaves Punk (badly) and we get the usual heel being terrified when he sees his (badly) shaved head in the mirror.
Do you know what the biggest irony off all this is? The blood helped. Punk was bleeding still when Rey was shaving him. Not copiously, but enough to make it noticable, and it actually helped. It wasn't gratuitous, but it made it feel like a proper fight.
02.07am
Backstage to Big Show with Jericho, jaw-jacking each other, then a very uneasy cut to King's face. There is something just a little off about tonight.
Hart Dynasty (with Nattie but not Bret) are out to face Mizicho next. Interestingly Miz and Jericho with separate entrances. No amalgamated theme like JeriShow or ShoMiz.
02.11am
I was concentrating on typing so missed it slightly, but I'm fairly certain Cole just had a little go at Bret Hart, basically saying he should disappear. Striker said "Welcome aboard."
How interesting that Cole should pick on Bret, who is feuding with Miz. Just like he has been picking on Danielson, who also has a problem with Miz. Might be nothing, but you never know. One to watch.....
02.14am
Some interesting mid-match points - one is that Jericho got quite a big Y2J chant. Might WWE have to turn him at some point (perhaps a babyface run when he has to promote the book?).
Another was a lovely counter by Kidd from a back body drop and landing on his feet.
Lastly, Striker with a hell of a line. But not in a good way. David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd, according to Matt Striker, have been teaming together since they were TEN YEARS OLD.
Remember, don't try this at home kids!!
02.21am
Harts retain in a more than serviceable match. Another match where the finish (and false finishes) were really nicely paced to create excitement and more importantly intrigue, since it was hardly clear who would go over.
Four matches, four babyface wins by the way. I'm fairly sure I've got every single prediction wrong too. Hmm.....
02.29am
I meant to say previously, The Hart Dynasty just weren't quite over to the level they might be. I don't think the crowd have quite bought them as the sudden tag champions simply because of their association with Bret.
02.44am
Ok, this is turning into an odd show. The blood stoppage of CM Punk and a possible injury to DiBiase may have hurt those earlier matches.
Now, After an Orton v Edge match that never really got going, Orton blocked a Spear by Edge and went into his normally pounding the mat routine. He then basically stopped, having surely injured his arm.
They dragged for a couple of minutes, eventually drawing a double count out with Edge missing a spear and running into the guardrail.
There was no way that finish was booked. If it was is incompetence beyond belief. I think we'll find very soon that Randy Orton tore a bicep or something very similar.
02.56am
Swagger and Show ongoing. I'm still thinking about Orton, and some of the strange incidents tonight. It reminds me of New Years Revolution in 2005 when Eugene and Lita both injured their knees in matches.
02.57am
There are a couple of reasons why I don't like Big Show's finisher, the KO punch. One is that it is technically illegal, so shouldn't be allowed. Tonight, the reason it annoyed me was that Show had hit Swagger and waited for him to get up. When he did, Show grabbed him round the throat for a a chokeslam. Why didn't he just punch him?
03.00am
Match ends when Swagger gets fed up and hits Show with a title belt. I have no real problem with that ending in isolation, but in context - i.e. straight after a double KO finish - it felt wrong and definitely pissed the crowd off. I'm not necessarily blaming them, because booking is booking, but it just added to a sense of unease about the evening.
Post match, Swagger nailed Show with a couple of chairshots (to the back) which Show withstood. The Big guy then beat the hell out of Swagger.
03.04am
This is interesting. In the next update I will reprint two Tweets that I have just seen. See if you can guess who wrote them. WARNING - some adult language here.
03.05am
TWEET NUMBER ONE: "I have one thing to say. Kharma is a MOTHERFUCKER."
TWEET NUMBER TWO: "And it couldn't have happened... To a NICER GUY."
03.06am
Any guesses? It was Ken Anderson (formerly Kennedy). Reading between the lines thats a shot at Randy Orton. It has been alleged that Orton was someone who backstage complained that Ken was dangerous to work with.
He spelled Karma wrong, by the way, not me.
03.11am
Maryse v Eve (not bad, not great, BTW) is a secondary story here. Ken getting some grief on Twitter. Just tweeted "I've been watching no such thing" presumably in response to people asking if he is watching Over the Limit.
Eve wins. Not bad at all.
03.12am
Would just like to point out a very annoying couple of minutes of commentary at the start of that match.
Striker said that the Diva's title had never changed hands in Detroit. The Divas title is about two years old and has changed hands what? Three times?
Cole said that at Fatal Fourway the champion has a 25% chance of retaining. Well, that's not really fair because that doesn't take into account talent. If the four competitors were Cena, Undertaker, Triple H and me, would I have an equal chance to the others? Of course not. I would love to see a stat of every Fatal Fourway title match in WWE history and see how many times the champ has retained. I'd bet it was over 50%.
Lastly, Cole said about WWE being watched all over the world......globally. Just an annoying turn of phrase, so I'm being picky.
03.40am
I'll update what us happening in a minute. Frankly, it's ludicrous.
03.43am
I don't know what to think. WWE just did the best ending of a PPV in a long time, coming after twenty minutes of more bizarre behaviour.
Let's start from the start. The Cena v Batista match wound it's way through an understandable route of added bells and whistles to augment the matches they've already had.
Cena forced Batista to faint through pain in the STFU, but rather than the ref stop the match, Cena poured water to wake him up. Batista made the comeback, they went to the outside and this ended with Dave powerslamming Cena through the announce table. Cena was busted, but not as bad as Punk from earlier.
They fought into the crowd, Batista took a tumble from over a barrier which I assume was padded beneath or some people caught him.
They eventually made the stage, and it started to get stupid. Batista beat Cena down, and put him against the side of the Tron. I should mention that there was a car. (Don't ask me what kind, but it was a flash, Fast and The Furious kind of motor) Batista got in the car, started it.........hang on.......
WHY WERE THERE FUCKING KEYS IN IT? THAT MAKES NO SENSE. ZERO SENSE WHATSOEVER. WHY WOULD THEY LEAVE KEYS IN THE THING?
Anyway he reversed it, and after a pause lasting forever it appeared that he missed Cena. They didn't show the right camera angle, which was daft because they know that we could have seen it from a previous shot. Just made the director look daft.
Cena battled up, hit an Attitude Adjustment on the car bonnet. Then lifted Batista on his shoulders in the roof of the car, causing Batista to quit through fear. Cena through him off anyway, and Batista went through the stage. If you are going to go, I guess......
Cena celebrated for a while, and after the announcers had said goodnight and the little graphic that always closes the show came up, Sheamus snuck up behind Cena and hit the kick. Awesome way to finish the show, but I'm annoyed that it won't be Cena v Sheamus at the next PPV, because they have to crowbar in two others.
03.55am
Oddest PPV I've seen in ages. Very odd indeed.
