WWE No Mercy 2008

I watched this last night, and posted some thoughts on the DVDVR board, many of which I have recreated below from memory and also from copy and pasting. Overall, I liked all three title matches, and was not really interested in anything in the middle. Some parts came off like an segment on RAW, which was odd, but a person could probably spend too long worrying about such things. Because I bristle with positivity, let's mainly focus on the stuff I liked.

Henry vs. Hardy was as good a big man vs. little man sub-ten minute match as you will watch. It was the best version of the "smaller opponent goes for larger opponent's legs" story I can remember. Hardy got in a good amount of offence, and Henry made it look entirely credible. I loved the finish, where Hardy blocks Henry's slam by punching his leg before hitting his finisher.

I don't get the love for Show vs. Taker I've noticed from listening to various people. I mean, the finish is really bold, innovative and completely surprising, but the rest of the match was just WWE brawling. Fine, but nothing I'm over going to watch it again. I should watch it again just to make sure I don't need to.

Triple H vs. Hardy was a good slow build to hot finish section WWE main event. I winced at Jeff full back bump from the tope - that's really quite insane. The last few minutes were really exciting - possibly because there really was an element of wanting to know if they would pull the trigger on a Hardy title run.

The main event did everything I hoped for, and more. This was a ladder match where the ladders were weapons, as is fitting for the feud. No tables, no elaborate setups, no nonsense. The couple of bigger spots were well placed. I also appreciated some of the details - Jericho dangling by one leg as a nod to this year's MITB finish, the eye shot to make Michaels drop the belt and fall off. The tug of war at the finish was an amazing visual, and one of those things that really makes you think, "why has no-one thought to do that before?" The announce table spot made me think of the Mind Games match, and actually, I think that's a good comparison for this match - while similalry being built around spots, there is a natural progression and coherent story to the whole thing.

The best thing about Jericho's title run is that people will now stop referring to his 2001-2 title run as the pinnacle of his career. It was getting like how we Brits still talk about how we won the World Cup in 1966, or Americans still talk about how you won the Ryder Cup in, you know, whatever year that was. Also, this run will clearly be much better, and will replace any bad memories left from it - back then Jericho didn't have nearly the same strong character to base his few title matches around. This time, his role, and the tenor of his title run are well defined.