As Seen on TV: Punk and Undertaker stay competitive, high-flying ROH, Cena and Orton get the tables

Originally posted September 14, 2010 for Wrestlespective

The Undertaker v. CM Punk
Singles Match
Friday Night Smackdown!

When this match was first announced at the onset of the show, I thought for sure it was going to be a red herring and that it wasn’t going to happen. Obviously, when it became apparent that it WAS actually going to happen, I couldn’t have been happier. The Undertaker is still more than capable than having the best match on the show, despite his inclining age and battered, broken knees. And CM Punk is hands-down the future of the business. The guy consistently cuts the best promos, can deliver a decent to great match with just about anyone inside the ring and doesn’t appear to have any qualms about putting guys over.

The story of this match was quite simple: Undertaker continues to be weakened after the attack from his brother Kane that left him in a vegetative for quite some time. And CM Punk was looking to pick up the pieces of the broken Deadman and take the momentum into Night of Champions for his match with Big Show.

On several occasions, CM Punk looked to be taking the Deadman to pieces. Of course, Taker sold his ‘weakness’ with a ton of sympathy. There were flashes of brilliance in the Deadman, but the tide would quickly turn and the Second City Saint would be there to capitalize. Undertaker swept Punks arm and then took to the top rope for Old School, but lost his balance (I do believe this was NOT a legit fumble, but more selling from a seasoned veteran), crotching himself.

For the finish, CM Punk even was able to connect with the Go To Sleep. Undertaker then channeled his inner Anderson Silva and threw up a hail mary pass, locking in the Hell’s Gate for the submission finish. This match did very, very well to keep both men strong going into NOC. The Undertaker was always going over in this match, as he is the World title contender. But I was impressed to see just how big of a rub they gave to CM Punk.

It was nice to see the WWE not burying viable young talent for once.

*coughEVANBOURNEcough*

The American Wolves v. Super Smash Brothers
Tag Team Match
ROH on HDNet

If you love when the Motor City Machine Guns face off against Generation Me on your weekly TNA programming, you’re going to love this match. It was the grappling/striking equivalent to the acrobatic display that MCMG/GenMe bring to the table. Though there was still some entertaining high spots from the Smash Brothers, a team in which I was seeing for the first time in this match. The Wolves, of course throw some of the most devastating and believable strikes in the business today, DR in particular. While I do agree that DR relies far to heavily on, as fellow blogger THolzwould say, MOVEZ~!, I will fight anyone who says his strikes aren’t among the best in the world. There was some really innovating double-team moves displayed in this match as well, which always keeps things interesting and fresh.

This was probably the most entertaining match of the week, in that since there was no story to tell, they had to lay the action on thick to keep people's attention. This was, at least in my opinion, a spot fest in the best sense. Yes, it was just fifteen minutes, balls to the wall, dudes getting punched and kicked in the chops left and right. Yes, there were flips and dives and all those things that people can sometimes be bitter about. But honestly, if you watch this match and don’t find yourself going OHHHHHHHH! at least once, feel free to leave a comment below calling me a dumb piece of monkey crap. I don’t care. After all, how can you be an internet blogger without someone ripping you a new one for your opinions?

At the end of the day, this was the best kind of fun you could have had watching wrestling this week. I want, so badly, to see more of the Super Smash Brothers. They were a very exciting duo that complemented the Wolves very well.

John Cena v. Randy Orton
Tables Match
WWE RAW

Well, damn ... there wasn’t much wrestling this Monday night on RAW, was there? The two matches with MOTN potential (Edge/Bourne and Regal/Goldust) were both thrown away into ridiculous gimmick matches that could have been forgiven if they would have at least provided a great wrestling match. This was not the case and instead it was left to the main event to deliver the only real wrestling on this WRESTLING show.

All bitter quips aside, this match did a great job in the beginning of making itself feel important. The commentators put over the fact that in just six days both these men would be competing in a six-pack challenge for the WWE Championship, and that’s how the story went from the beginning. It really did feel like two giants squaring off against one another, neither one wanting to make the first move, making themselves vulnerable to an attack from the other that would hinder their ability to perform this coming Sunday at Night of Champions. The tables seemed ominous symbols of unthinkable destruction, or at least thats how these two men were portraying them as they kept their distance from them in their circling.

Don’t get me wrong, if you are in the market for great WRESTLING, this match won’t get your rocks off. This wasn’t a technical classic with perfectly executed bridged suplexes or anything of the like. What it was, was a great example of how sometimes the story the wrestlers are telling is more important than workrate. That being said, the finish was an overbooked cluster of violently epic proportions. They took what could have been a decent TV match between (like it or not, IWC) the two biggest stars in the WWE today, and threw it out the window in favor of run-in after run-in after run-in. The real finish (Orton reversing the AA in midair into an RKO through a table), which came after about 749,272 tables were broken with the bodies of the members of Nexus and every other participant in the NOC main event, was not TERRIBLE. And hey, it might have even been pretty awesome if the story had remained the same in the end as it did in the beginning, with the tables still being these ominous things. But instead it was just the 749,273rd table broken, and Orton gets to stand on the second rope once again, a ring-full of unconscious wresters behind him.

Orton better win the title this weekend, or else after all this domination we’ve witnessed the last few weeks is going to seem pretty pointless, won’t it? Though, ‘pointless’ was the theme of tonight’s RAW, so who knows?

HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Kaval vs Drew McIntyre (Friday Night Smackdown!)
Christopher Daniels vs Rhett Titus (ROH on HDNet)
Matt Hardy vs Alberto Del Rio (Friday Night Smackdown!)