Writer's Note: 'Sup CF. I have posted the latest edition of the Current Paper Review here due to the fact that I don't have access to the spanking brand new main page yet. If it sat on my desktop any longer, I would have had to make it a Classic Paper Review. Anyway, it is always fun to post a column back home in the CF and I hope you enjoy.
Romeo Done!
Vol 13 – Fatal Four Way 2010
Ladies and gentleman, my name is Mazza and welcome back to The Current Paper Review. Today I am here to review the very first Fatal Four Way PPV. To be honest, I am not looking forward to it too much. My viewing time at the moment is going almost exclusively to the World Cup and outside of the NXT Invasion angle, WWE programming simply hasn’t been very good. Still, I am still holding out hope that this will be a watchable PPV.
CRASH
The Event: Fatal Four Way 2010
The Date: 20 June 2010
The Place: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York
Before we get underway, here is a reminder of my ratings systems. Each match will be given a grade rather than a rating out of ten. A = a great match, B = very good, C = good, D = average, E = poor and F, of course = fail. On top of that, there will be +/- ratings. I will then create a final grade for the event that is based on the match grades and how the feel of the event was overall as opposed to just the match ratings. Here is a look at the (rather short at the moment) key of overall PPV ratings.
F = What the fuck was that? Join me as we march on Titan Towers in protest.
E = A poor PPV that was a waste of a good 3 hours. Next time read a 'Plan column instead.
D = A standard PPV that will probably be worth a watch, not worth cancelling a date for though. EG: Over The Limit (D+)
C = A good PPV that is more than watchable. Just don't get too excited. EG: WrestleMania 26 (C+)
B = A very good PPV that will be worth another watch down the line. Take the phone of the hook for this one. EG: Extreme Rules 2010 (B+)
A = A great, must-own PPV that you will visit again and again. Tell Maryse to put her clothes on and go home, you've got wrestling to watch.
The show starts out with Vince coming out to announce that Bret will not be there tonight following the attack by NXT Season 1 on Raw. He says he will talk to Bret and his representatives about what action to take against the attackers.
Kofi Kingston defeated Drew McIntyre in 16:30 to retain the Intercontinental Championship
Drew calls out Teddy Long before the match and calls him pathetic. He wants Teddy at ringside so he can give him the title after he wins it back. Once the match settles in, McIntyre takes control and works over the champion’s arm. It is a pretty slow pace and Kofi is favouring the injured arm every time he tries to mount a comeback. As the match goes on, we begin to see both men get two counts and some nice counters. The champion gets a long two count with an SOS. We then get a ref bump and Drew hits the Future Shock DDT. He grabs Long from ringside, rips the shirt off the ref and tells Teddy to put it on. The Smackdown GM counts to two and then stops. Drew stalks and threatens Long. As he goes for a second Future Shock DDT, Matt Hardy attacks Drew from the crowd, much to Teddy’s approval. Kofi then hits Trouble in Paradise and Long counts to three. This match was more about the McIntyre and Long storyline and as a result it dragged on a bit. It wasn’t awful but not the best start to a PPV.
CPR Grade: D
Alicia Fox defeated Eve Torres, Maryse and Gail Kim in 5:42 in a Fatal Four Way Match to win the Divas Championship
The match starts out with the ladies trying to get quick pins to no avail. Eve soon clears the ring before Maryse and Alicia work together to take out the champion. Kim gets back involved and she and Eve both use submission holds, including a combined Boston Crab/Camel Clutch on Fox. We actually see some pretty impressive moves from the Divas, including Eve hitting Maryse with a nice neckbreaker followed up by a moonsault. When she goes for the cover however, Alicia throws her out the ring and pins Maryse to become the new champion. This match was surprisingly good considering it was a Divas Four Way. Eve is coming along nicely in the ring and Fox getting the win was a nice and shocking ending.
CPR Grade: C
Chris Jericho defeated Evan Bourne in 12:05
Jericho cuts a promo before the match saying he is the reason people are watching. He mentions his poor form and says that this is because he is used to being the underdog, and now he is the best so he cannot be the underdog anymore. He says that Evan Bourne is one of the men trying to take out the best and that is why he challenged him to a rematch. There is a loud Y2J chant as the match starts and Jericho takes control from the get-go. There is some very nice action with Jericho keeping a slow pace but Bourne using his speed every now and then to get some offence in. We see some nice high flying from Bourne and some lovely counters from the veteran, including turning a Hurricanrana into the Walls which sees the fans boo when Evan gets to the ropes. Bourne misses a Shooting Star and Jericho hits a Codebreaker but Evan gets his foot on the rope. Jericho tells Bourne to “stay down you idiot” but he soon counters the Walls with a DDT. The underdog goes to the top again but Jericho catches up to him. Bourne pushes him off and hits Air Bourne to pull off the shock. This was a great surprise for the PPV and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Jericho did a great job of making Bourne look good and Evan certainly embraced this opportunity to the maximum. Please, please, please don’t let this feud end here because as good as it was, I get the feeling it can get even better.
CPR Grade: B+
Rey Mysterio defeated The Big Show, Jack Swagger and CM Punk in 10:29 in a Fatal Four Way Match to win the World Heavyweight Championship
There is cagey start, with Swagger and Punk focussing on Rey before Show works over them both. The faces soon throw the heels out of the ring and we have a mismatch with Rey taking on Show. Mysterio takes a walk to the outside but Show palms his head to bring him back in the ring. The heels get back involved and Show dominates but his pin attempts are continuously broken up. Punk and Rey work together to take out the big man and the action settles with Swagger and Mysterio going at it. Punk soon gets back involved and is impressive in working over both men. The three way action sees Swagger hit a German Suplex on Punk as Punk hits one on Rey. Show finally gets backing the match, grabbing Mysterio on a 619 attempt before throwing him into the crowd barrier. He then takes out the heels but Rey stops his momentum on the outside by drop kicking the steps into his knees. In the ring, Punk lands a Go To Sleep on the champion but Kane’s music hits and The Big Red Machine comes out with a casket. He targets Punk and chokeslams him into the casket. Gallows makes the save and Punk runs to the back. In the confusion, Rey hits a 619 and splash on Swagger and becomes the new World Heavyweight Champion. What the fuck??? Well I certainly didn’t see that happening. The match was all over the place to be honest. The ending was really strange and I am not sure I actually want to talk about it any more.
CPR Grade: D-
Backstage, Cena says Raw will stand united in event of another NXT attack.
The Miz defeated R-Truth in 12:55 to retain the United States Championship
The Miz comes to the ring doing a parody of Truth’s “What’s Up” entrance. The smarky crowd start a “Miz is Awesome” and not for the first time, the announcers try and spin in back towards a more WWE Universe type response. The champ takes control early on and the pace is really slow. The Miz uses submission holds but he when he plays to the almost dead crowd, Truth gets back in contention for a moment. A “this is boring” chant breaks out and Truth gets a couple of two counts before missing a crossbody from the top rope. Miz takes control and Truth tries a couple of counters but the champ sits down when Truth tries for a sunset flip and retains his title. This was absolutely boring and shocking considering they had had some good matches recently.
CPR Grade: E
The Hart Dynasty (DH Smith, Tyson Kidd and Natalya) defeated The Usos (Jimmy, Jey and Tamina) in 9:30 in a Mixed Six Person Tag Match
Natalya and Tamina start out briefly before Jay and Smith go at it. The Samoans soon take control of the encounter and Kidd takes a Samoan Drop to the crowd barrier which looks quite good. Tyson goes on to play the face in peril and we get a good look at the Usos and they look like they have a lot of potential. Kidd eventually gets the tag in and Natalya gets to show off her skill against Tamina. The match soon breaks down and Kidd takes out the twins on the outside. Tamina lands a Samoan Drop on Natalya but misses a top rope smash. Natalya hits a big clothesline and picks up the win for the Harts. The action here was interesting but the finish didn’t do much to make Tamina look very good. I still look forward to seeing where this feud goes however.
CPR Grade: D+
Sheamus defeated Edge, John Cena and Randy Orton in 27:08 in a Fatal Four Way Match to win the WWE Championship
They pair off from the start with Cena getting rid of Sheamus and Orton getting rid of Edge. Cena and Orton square off and an attempt at an Attitude Adjuster and RKO attempt are counters before the heels get back in the ring. They take out Randy on the outside before working together to take on the champ. The New York crowd wake up again and we have the duelling “let’s go Cena” “Cena sucks” chants. The heel union is soon broken by Edge going for a roll-up on Sheamus. Orton is soon involved again and we get to see some run of the mill, multiman action. This going through the motions seems to go on for an age without too much of interest happening and it is actually putting me to sleep. Cena locks in an STF on Edge which is eventually broken up by Sheamus. Things finally wake up when Cena gets Edge in the FU position. Orton runs in the ring and lands an RKO on the champ but Sheamus pushes the ref just before his hand can come down for the three count. Edge then hits Orton with a Spear but Sheamus takes out Edge with a bicycle kick before getting a two count on Orton. The action goes to the outside where Sheamus is thrown over the announce table and Edge lands a Spear on Randy into the barriers.
All of a sudden, the NXT crew attacks the WWE stars who are watching on a monitor backstage. They make their way to ringside where everyone is out but Cena. NXT take out Cena in the ring and then go after Edge. In the confusion, Sheamus makes a cover on Cena to win the title before escaping through the crowd. NXT look confused but continue the attack on Cena. They then start doing their finishers on Cena. Sheamus appears on the ramp with the title but NXT go running after the new champ. The PPV goes off air with Cena, Edge and Orton all down at ringside as the crowd chant “Daniel Bryan”. This was a strange main event. A lot of the action wasn’t that bad, but it was nothing new or special. It stepped up a gear towards the end and we had the NXT invasion which has been interesting every time out so far. I just get the feeling that the whole angle needs to go somewhere now as it is beginning to get a bit repetitive.
CPR Grade: C
Well for a second PPV in succession, the WWE fail to deliver. Outside of Jericho versus Bourne, there was nothing about this event that was redeeming and even the NXT invasion couldn’t really save it. I have give Fatal Four Way a CPR Grade of D. We had a lot of title changes that surprised me in the event, particularly with Rey and Sheamus winning the big boy titles. I look forward to seeing where these reigns go moving forward but more than anything, I look forward to the next chapter in the NXT saga.
BYRANSON DANIELSON
So, a rather lame WWE PPV goes off the air with the crowd chanting for “Daniel Bryan”. Granted, it was a pretty smarky crowd from an area where he is well known, but that is still a pretty big statement. Now despite all the speculation, it seems that Bryan’s firing from the WWE is legit and not a work but my guess is that even ten years down the line, there will be people still believing it was a work, in a way similar to the Montreal Screwjob. It is certainly believable that he could get fired for the choking incident as it is something that has been off the table since Chris Benoit went ape shit. It is clear that WWE in no way, shape or form would have wanted to fire the man they had been building up quite nicely, but it seems there hands were tied due to outside pressures. A lot of people in the IWC are going through the 7 stages of grief over the firing but I think this could unintentionally one of the best things to happen to the WWE in years.
No, I am not a Daniel Bryan hater. It is simply a case of the buzz that his firing is generating is probably a hell of a lot bigger reaction that it would if he was just one of eight in the NXT Invasion angle. The fact is, he is getting talked about a hell of a lot more being out of the company than he would be if he was getting the TV time. Everyone and his dog seems to have something to say about Danielson and it is almost exclusively extremely positive. PETA are bizarrely the latest to write to WWE to get Bryan rehired because he is a vegan. One of the men who has been very outspoken about Danielson being a massive credit to the company is John Cena. We all know that Cena is the WWE poster boy and general corporate stooge but he thinks that Bryan should be rehired. This is one of the reasons that convinced a lot of people it was a work but I look at it like this now. WWE had to fire him but maybe they immediately started work on bringing him back. The IWC alone won’t be able to generate the mainstream buzz needed to get Bryan reinstated but the WWE Universe probably can, and on top of that, they can keep him relevant whilst he is away.
So Cena comes out and backs Danielson and low and behold, the WWE Universe follow suit. Cena tells people that he would gladly sign a petition to get Bryan reinstated and people follow suit. Fuck, I just followed Cena and was the 25891st person to put his signature on >>>THIS<<< petition. I fully expect to see Danielson back in the WWE sooner rather than later riding on a wave buzz and controversy, (two things that the WWE know exactly how to exploit) and frankly, I cannot wait until it happens.
And that is another edition of the Current Paper Review done and dusted. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Feedback is always very much appreciated. I have been Mazza and I will be back soon with part three of my series on the Triple H’s greatest feuds and matches.
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