{"id":1102,"date":"2011-10-22T17:11:14","date_gmt":"2011-10-22T16:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=1102"},"modified":"2011-10-22T17:11:14","modified_gmt":"2011-10-22T16:11:14","slug":"vengeance-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=1102","title":{"rendered":"Vengeance 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

No, not the eccentric Joe Casey miniseries – the unwanted second October WWE pay-per-view. \u00a0Mercifully, the next show is Survivor Series<\/em>\u00a0in late November. \u00a0That’s supposed to be the main show of the fourth quarter, and the Rock’s supposedly going to be wrestling this year. \u00a0So chances are it’s going get some proper attention from the writers. \u00a0Vengeance<\/em>, by contrast, is very much the next level down.<\/p>\n

The company has had three weeks to build to this show, and the general consensus is that those three weeks of television have been pretty abject. \u00a0In one of their occasional forays into outright soap opera, Raw is being built around a storyline where John Laurinitis (a long-serving backstage guy who’s inexplicably been shoved in front of the camera despite his acting being at decidedly sub-amdram levels) is trying to undermine Triple H’s authority so that he can usurp power. \u00a0This is fine in theory, but dreadful in reality. \u00a0Not only have they been rushing through the story, but the plot demands that everyone – including the lower card babyfaces – \u00a0turns on Triple H due to the supposed chaos into which the show has descended. \u00a0Of course, the WWE operates at a baseline level of ridiculousness so high that it would take a lot to make that story work, and they haven’t even come close.<\/p>\n

The result of this was a ludicrous show which culminated in everyone going on strike aside from a handful of main eventers. \u00a0Then the company belatedly realised that logically that would mean cancelling Smackdown and all the weekend house shows, so some extraordinarily contrived excuses were used to get around that. \u00a0Then the next episode of Raw was an utterly chaotic exercise in trying to write their way out of the corner – nobody having actually bothered to figure that bit out in advance – in which ratings started high but crashed, and which was generally agreed to be a contender for the worst episode in the show’s history.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the line, we are also having a PPV, but nobody’s paying much attention to that<\/em>.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0WWE Title, Last Man Standing match: Alberto Del Rio v John Cena.<\/strong>\u00a0 Del Rio is the champion again, having regained the title in a three-way match on the last show, when he pinned CM Punk. \u00a0This is Cena’s obligatory rematch. \u00a0The idea here is supposed to be that Del Rio has never actually beaten Cena, so in theory he’s the underdog.<\/p>\n

Several problems there. \u00a0Pushing Del Rio as the underdog makes sense if the idea is to tease a title change, but since the title has been changing hands with absurd frequency anyway, that’s hardly a draw. \u00a0Del Rio needs a longer run with the title before anyone can be expected to care about him losing it. \u00a0Without that, you’re left with a lame duck underdog heel champion, which is hardly a draw.<\/p>\n

This might explain the last minute addition of a Last Man Standing stipulation, right at the end of Monday’s show. \u00a0At least it stops this from being a straight repeat of their previous title match, but it comes far too late in the day to make any difference. \u00a0I’ve never been fond of the stipulation (by its nature, it results in matches that slow to a crawl, since every “near fall” becomes a count to 9), and in storytelling terms, it’s something that only works as the climax of a story – which this feud is nowhere near approaching.<\/p>\n

As a match, it’ll probably be fine within the limitations of the gimmick. \u00a0Unless they’ve completely lost their minds (or given up on him), Del Rio really needs to win here for the sake of his own credibility. \u00a0Cena will be in a tag match with the Rock on the next show, so he certainly doesn’t need the title for that.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0World Heavyweight Title: Mark Henry v Big Show.<\/strong>\u00a0 Over on Smackdown, Mark Henry’s reign as world champion has been surprisingly well received. \u00a0He’s never going to be the best wrestler in the world, but he’s a decent promo with the powerlifter’s build required to carry off a “world’s strongest man” gimmick. \u00a0If his matches are kept short and built around his strengths, it can work.<\/p>\n

But he is also short of challengers. \u00a0He can’t keep beating Randy Orton, and evidently it’s been determined that Sheamus isn’t ready, so we’re getting the returning Big Show, the WWE’s longest serving giant. \u00a0This doesn’t strike me as a good choice of opponent. \u00a0Henry works best when there’s a clear contrast between him and his opponent; the last thing you need is another big hulk in there with him. \u00a0Perhaps if they’re smart they can contrive a match around some power spots, but this doesn’t strike me as the best use of either guy.<\/p>\n

Henry should retain – he’s working in this role, and there’s no obvious advantage to putting the title on the Big Show again. \u00a0As for the match quality, I’m not holding my breath.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Triple H & CM Punk v Miz & R-Truth.<\/strong>\u00a0 Miz and R-Truth are heels aligned with Laurinitis, based on their (actually fairly reasonable) complaint that when Triple H took over running Raw, he gave them nothing to do. \u00a0Since Triple H isn’t in management any more, he will be wrestling them instead – along with CM Punk, simply because CM Punk doesn’t have anything better to do on this show.<\/p>\n

The idea, presumably, is that Triple H and Punk have only recently completed their own feud, and so while they’re an unlikely and probably fractious tag team. \u00a0Miz and Truth are further down the card, but they’re on the same page and should work better together. \u00a0This can work as a subplot, though I don’t expect either of the babyfaces to turn.<\/p>\n

Given the utterly haywire booking of Triple H’s storyline, I expect this to descend into some sort of storyline-driven chaos (perhaps involving some of the other Laurinitis-aligned heels). \u00a0On the other hand, given that Triple H is well known for insisting on having decent, lengthy matches, I suspect we’ll get a proper match for 15 minutes or so before we get to that point. \u00a0And with these four, it ought to be a good match. \u00a0Predicting the result is tricky because the writing really is so dire on this arc that there’s unlikely to be any logic to it, but if you forced me to place a bet, I’d go for a heel win with CM Punk getting pinned, just to make sure everyone knows he’s a little bit further down the pecking order than Triple H. \u00a0Sending that message would serve no purpose whatsoever, which is precisely why it’s likely to happen.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0US Title: Dolph Ziggler v Zack Ryder.<\/strong>\u00a0 It’s been quite a while since Zack Ryder was on pay-per-view. \u00a0He used to be one of the lookalikes who hung around with Edge in his heel days, but after that act split up, he was turned into a comedy undercard heel with a ridiculous costume, and more or less banished to minor shows like Superstars<\/em>. \u00a0Which doesn’t even air on American television.<\/p>\n

Unlike most wrestlers in that position, though, Ryder set about building his own fanbase online, launching a homemade YouTube show that (embarrassingly) soon had more viewers than the WWE’s official channel. \u00a0Now able to claim with some legitimacy that he had a cult following, Ryder proclaimed himself the Internet Champion and even commissioned a proper belt to carry around (it’s basically a title belt where the side plates have Facebook, YouTube and Twitter logos instead of wrestling symbols, but it can’t have been cheap). \u00a0After months of this, the WWE finally figured that maybe they could actually do something with this guy, and brought him back onto regular TV as a comedy figure.<\/p>\n

Ryder gets very uneven audience reactions, depending on the proportion of hardcore to casual fans in the arena. \u00a0The former have heard of him. \u00a0The latter have no clue who he is. \u00a0But he’s got something<\/em>, and now he’s been tentatively programmed in a feud with US Champion Dolph Ziggler, where the idea seems to be that Ryder keeps taking a beating in their matches but somehow flukes his way to hitting his finisher and winning. \u00a0The logical conclusion of that is that Ryder gets a shot at Raw’s secondary title.<\/p>\n

Since Ziggler is being shunted into a tag team feud, of which more below, and he’s arguably being freed up for use as a possible main eventer, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Ryder win here. \u00a0With eight matches on the show, and Ziggler working double duty in a tag match, I expect this to be short. \u00a0It’s important for Ryder that it should also be good.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Randy Orton v Cody Rhodes.<\/strong>\u00a0 Since he can’t face Mark Henry every month, Smackdown’s top babyface is turning his attention to upper midcard heel Cody Rhodes. \u00a0Rhodes is the Intercontinental Champion, but secondary belts are beneath Randy Orton, so this is a non-title match. \u00a0This is standard WWE policy when main eventers face secondary champions, but I really wish they wouldn’t do it; it devalues the title even further, and leaves the champion a lame duck.<\/p>\n

Rhodes used to be one of Orton’s lackeys when Orton was a heel, and has now been repackaged with a curious gimmick of claiming to be hideously deformed, despite the fact that by all appearances there’s nothing wrong with him beyond the distorting effect of his own protective mask. \u00a0I think that works fine as long as you read the character as being crazy, though the company has been rather vague about that point. \u00a0A wildly misguided addition to the gimmick was to give him sidekicks to hand out paper bags for fans to put over their heads, which is so fundamentally stupid that even Rhodes has been lamenting it in out-of-character interviews. \u00a0It would be one thing if it got a heel reaction, but it just comes across as a bit of wacky audience participation.<\/p>\n

Orton and Rhodes wrestled on Smackdown a month ago in a match that inadvertently turned into something of a bloodbath when Rhodes caught his head on the ring bell. \u00a0The WWE doesn’t intentionally do blood any more, but they’re not above taking advantage of it for added drama when it happens by mistake, and so this mini-feud has been launched on the back of the incident. \u00a0Frankly, Smackdown is so short of credible main eventers that they really need to do something with Rhodes, but I just can’t imagine Orton losing on yet another pay per view when he’s supposed to be the big star on the brand. \u00a0If Rhodes is lucky, he’ll get to go down fighting. \u00a0The match quality should be good.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0Sheamus v Christian.<\/strong>\u00a0 This is a rematch from the last show, where Sheamus already won clean. \u00a0So god knows why we’re getting it again, particularly on an eight-match card that doesn’t need any filler. \u00a0If they keep the Smackdown title on Mark Henry (as they should), then Sheamus needs to be kept strong as a potential babyface challenger, so he ought to win again. \u00a0Technically, these two are almost bound to have a good match.<\/p>\n

7. \u00a0Tag Team Titles: Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne v Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger.<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes, Ziggler is wrestling twice in one night. \u00a0No, I don’t know why somebody thought it would be a good idea to do a storyline where the heel<\/em>\u00a0is at an unfair disadvantage.<\/p>\n

Ziggler and Swagger seem to be doing a break-up angle in reverse. \u00a0Initially Ziggler protested furiously about his manager Vicky Guerrero taking on Swagger as a second wrestler, but now they’re settling into a functioning tag team. \u00a0Conventional wrestling wisdom says this is all backwards, but I guess there’s nothing wrong with sowing the eventual seeds for the break-up right at the outset. \u00a0Besides, the company could really do with some strong tag teams.<\/p>\n

The heels should get the titles at some point, but I can’t help feeling it’s too early to take the belts off Kingston and Bourne, who are a perfectly decent babyface team and have only had the titles for two months. \u00a0Then again, the titles are of more use to the heels’ storyline. \u00a0I’d give it another month, though, which means a screwjob finish here to justify a rematch. \u00a0Otherwise, the heels should probably win. \u00a0Again, it’s a decent match on paper.<\/p>\n

8. \u00a0Divas Title: Beth Phoenix v Eve Torres.<\/strong>\u00a0 Phoenix is the heel champion, and she’s still aligned with Natalya in an increasingly hazy defined act apparently based on the notion that they’re the “proper” athletes in a division of Barbie dolls. \u00a0Having been through every possible match involving former champion Kelly Kelly (who really is about as Barbie as you can get), we’re now apparently going to do the same thing with Kelly’s de facto<\/em>\u00a0partner Eve. \u00a0If this is an exercise in feeding an opponent to Beth Phoenix, then fair enough. \u00a0I don’t expect much from it, but it’ll be okay by the (uninspiring) standards of the WWE women’s division, and on an eight match card, it’s bound to be kept short.<\/p>\n

Worth getting?<\/strong>\u00a0 Despite the lousy writing, there’s actually a fair amount on this show which looks good on paper. \u00a0But it’s hard to shake the nagging feeling that, on current form, the writing will screw it up somehow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, not the eccentric Joe Casey miniseries – the unwanted second October WWE pay-per-view. \u00a0Mercifully, the next show is Survivor Series\u00a0in late November. \u00a0That’s supposed to be the main show of the fourth quarter, and the Rock’s supposedly going to be wrestling this year. \u00a0So chances are it’s going get some proper attention from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1103,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102\/revisions\/1103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}