A (possible) WWE Over the Limit 2010 Live Blog

May 28th, 22.03: I must apologise for the lack of posting in the past month. I've been busy with a number of things, and also, a very little bit, I wanted a bit of a wrestling watching break. Anyway, getting back into things with last Sunday's WWE PPV - Over the Limit. I haven't watched any WWE tv since the RAW after Wrestlemania, so this is really going to be a catch up. By the way, the name of this PPV is odd. There can't be such a shortage of names that you need one that close to another which they will obviously never use again. (Has this been noted elsewhere? I am out of the loop)

22:10: Roll intro. Wait, was that Warrior in the opening video?

22.18: Kofi Kingston vs. Drew McIntyre is the opener. I am excited, but it has nothing to do with the opener, Kofi Kingston vs. Drew McIntyre.

22.28: Nope, didn't like that at all. Kofi's offence is just the worst. At least he's added an overly elaborate Japanese indie ripoff finisher to increase his credibility. McIntyre is bland. He should consider adding an overly elaborate Japanese indie ripoff finisher.

22.40: R-Truth vs. Ted Dibiase is next. Ted has the Million Dollar Belt and is accompanied by Virgil, circa 1990. That guy has not aged well. In that, he has not aged at all. That's some incompetent ageing.

22.55: I don't think Virgil loves this anymore. The commentators manage to interpret many emotions (concern, disgust, panic, lust, enuit) from that one expression. Maybe that's why he looks like he hasn't aged. It's a mask. It's a man in a Virgil mask. In the good old days of wrestling, black men got put in masks. Today, a black man has been put in the mask of a black man. This we call progress.

22.57: Match was fine. I enjoy some Ted Dibiase bumping and a bit of old-school glassy-eyed selling. The finish was underwhelming and looked a bit rubbish though.

22.58: I pause the show, and move to bed, to annoy my wife with tapping keys whilst she attempts to sleep.

23.21: Drew McIntyre goes crazy in Teddy Long's office when he doesn't contravene the rules of sports. He doesn't destroy the picture of a man in a Martin Luther King mask, however.

23.23: Rey vs. Punk next. This is what I most regret about not watching WWE over the past couple of months.

23.32: Man, there's some great bumps in this. Punk's head first into the railings and Rey's slide into the chair both looked awesome. What could be more appropriate in a quasi-lucha stipulation match, that they do a medical stoppage spot? The answer is: letting Punk bleed like a Brazo. The fans annoy with the 'boring' chant. Ignore them, guys, I love actual selling.

23.35: They must have annoyed Punk as well, but that little bit after Rey got in the ring and they'd fixed Punk's head was awesome violent. That suplex on the outside was, like, the greatest thing I've ever seen.

23.45: Really good match. It had a simple story, with both guys looking for their finishers, great selling from both guys and a good build. I love how violent a match they work together - it shows a great deal of trust in each other abilities, because there was plenty of kicks and other stuff (like the corner powerbomb) that looked nasty, and probably could have been. The finish was out-of-nowhere, but in a good way. Post-match activities went as you would expect, yet another testament to Punk's acting abilties.

23.50: I develop The Fatigue and sleep for a number of hours.

May 30th, 21.35: Annnnd...back. Yes, I slept all that time. I wake up and go straight into Hart Dynasty vs. The Miz and Jericho. This Bret Hart US title angle is a little silly, but I guess it might help get the younger three over, after a year of jobbing them out to everyone. And they're the champions as well? I lost track.

21.56: Nothing actively wrong with the match, but not much that stood out. There was a surprising number of near falls, including a couple that actually would have made satisfying finishes (like the role up from Miz's attempted sharpshooter). The Hart Dynasty's version of the Hart Attack isn't as good as the original.

22.00: Edge is a heel now. That is an improvement. The justification for the turn, however, makes absolutely no sense or either real life or wrestling terms. Or is a convoluted way of saying 'just fancied a change'. This match could be OK though, with the Rated RKO history and the finisher vs. finisher build giving an obvious storyline.

22.13: That was an odd finish, it looked a little like they made it up on the spot, which suggests that wasn't a worked injury. But maybe the would know I'd think that, so they worked a finish which looked like it wasn't a worked finish, so maybe it wasn't a worked injury. But then they would know that I'd think that, so they would have wouldn't have worked that finish unless they had to, so maybe it wasn't a worked injury. Of course, they would know that I would think that they would think that so - sorry, out of time. This concludes today's episode of 'If wrestling booking was like the Princess Bride'. The match wasn't much. I liked how Randy worked a couple of Edge's restholds, looking for escapes, but the rest was just typical Edge and Randy Orton moves, performed by Edge and Randy Orton.

22.20: Big Show in the world title scene is a welcome return, after a year of him propping up the tag division. Big Show as a serious face is an intriguing proposition.

22.38: I got over-excited. It's an intriguing proposition if WWE didn't always resort to the most tediously uninspiring booking. There was some fun bits in this - Big Show running ropes and knocking guys all over the place always looks great, and Swagger and Big Show are well matched, with Swagger getting in a moments of credible offence (limited by the time constraints), which bodes well for a longer match.

22.45: The Divas title match slot is filled with a Divas title match. Maryse comes to the ring displaying some of poses that earned her a spot on the WKO 100 countdown. Michael Cole goes over the history of the feud between Maryse and Eve (three weeks old today!). Maryse attacked Eve at a photoshoot. Eve gets payback at the makeup table. You see: they are women. Next month, Maryse attacks Eve during a cosmetic surgery consultation. Eve gets revenge whilst shoe shopping. Maryse challenges Eve to a rematch whilst parking badly.

22.50: Maryse kicks the ring post. I agree with Matt's analysis (Ooooooooooo. Oooooo etc.) Maryse displays some of the selling that earned her a spot on the WKO 100 countdown, and ignores it.

22.58: I Quit match for the main event. I didn't watch the Last Man Standing match, but that finishing spot was a pretty imaginative way to finish a match never has imaginative finishes. That said, its not really in keeping with Cena's character. Cena's a battler and an overcomer of adversity. They should have saved that for an Edge match.

23.02: Pro-Cena crowd on a PPV. Unusual.

23.14: Striker attempts to build drama (his job) by suggesting that delays in responding suggest Cena and Batista are considering quitting. Cole ruins it (his job) by suggesting they might just be winded. When does Michael Cole's try-out period run out? Seems to have gone on quite a long time now.

23.30: Decent spotfest, if a little gimmicky at the end. Not the dramatic piece of performance art Cena-Orton was, of course, but they couldn't recreate that.

23.32: An underwhelming show overall. Punk-Rey was really good, but the main events felt like they were treading water, and the booking was dull and not at all creative. Maybe the writing staff should change their name to Uncreative, amiright?

Kaientai Dojo: June 9th 2009

A couple of short quick six man matches to start. Yuji Hino was a lot of fun in his match against three of K-Dojo's young guys who I can never distinguish because they are essentially the same guy. I always like his no-sell which backfires spot, and he basically squashes his opponents at the end, setting Randy Takuya (I do, in fact, know the names) up for his powerbomb, temporarily discarding him to lariat Takizawa, then going back to the powerbomb for the win.

Next match is a three-way for the WEW hardcore tag titles, and features Quiet Storm tagging with JOE, Kashiwa and PSYCHO, and the Brahmans. These matches are semi-serious at best, and this had plenty of goofy comedy and a decent share of casual unprotected head shots. This had a couple of spots with the barbed wire board at the end, but the whole thing was pretty uninspired.

I liked the Monster Plant vs. Gurentai six man a lot. There are guys in the Japanese indies that are really at ther best either fighting up or fighting down. Evenly matched matches tend to bring out the worst in people like Sekimoto - they through selling and structure out of the window and replace it with a thousand meaningless repetitions of the same moves. Kengo Mashimo is another decent example. I think he's better than Sekimoto as he tends to tell simpler stories with a more streamlined moveset, but even so, I've seen some thirty minute Mashimo matches where I just want to grab him by his loose fitting trousers and tell him to stop it. All of this is my way of saying that Mashimo vs. Minoru Suzuki works really well. They trade matwork pretty evenly, but once Suzuki stops being sporting and heads outside, Mashimo is always on the backfoot, so the match becomes about the nefarious Gurentai and how Mashimo might make a comeback. Suzuki, for his part, seemed motivated, and doesn't forget to work as well as all that gurning and dickishness. Everyone else plays their roles well - NOSAWA and MAZADA are essentially henchman, triple teaming Yamato then bumping for KAZMA's power stuff, which ensures that the focus remains on Mashimo and Suzuki. The brawling was pretty solid and the finish didn't go on too long - Yamato was the obvious guy to take the fall, and he didn't kickout excessively once he got isolated.

I found myself enjoying the TAKA vs. Sasuke match almost despite my better instincts. Early leg work being blown off for high spots is basically a cliche of current Japanese junior wrestling, and I'd be the first to point this out as bad wrestling in promotions I like less with guys I like less. So, let's try and justify a hypocrisy. Firstly, I liked the build - they went from the leg work, which I liked as it seemed really fighty, with both guys stomping on each other knees in between holds, to less grounded stuff with much less of a clear break. I hate those matches where both guys seem to basically reset, like they fufilled some quota of matwork. The first out-of-ring spots seemed to happen more by accident, which I can buy. It never felt like a match of a thousand finishers, more like a steady progression through bigger and bigger moves. Secondly, they did bring the weak legs back in later - not technically perfect, but a nice touch. I always like Sasuke's borderline comedy exaggerated selling, and the final run of TAKA kicking him in the head before the Michinoku Driver II had plenty of wobbly-legged, glassy-eyed moments. The dives were all suitably insane - TAKA's top rope quebrada took plenty of audience with him. I love how visibly happy Japanese fans are to almost be knocked out in the course of the match. Finally, I think there are intangibles going on here. These are two guys who just match up well, and have so much history together that any match is going to be slick and pleasing to watch. I don't know if TAKA has ever beaten Sasuke in a singles - all those mid-90s matches I watched seemed to have the same finish (and often the same finisher run, which I thought they might be playing off here with the kickouts) - so I guess this might have been presented as a big deal. One of those things lost in translation.