That was the theme for most of the matches tonight as Stephanie McMahon made it clear the old Mike Adamle regime as over and it was time to bury old feuds. The biggest of all was the ongoing hate fest between HBK and Jericho. It would be settled in a Last Man Standing match that was really good for a normal TV event. We saw HBK leap off a ladder and put Jericho through a table, Jerciho perform the walls of Jericho on top of a cab and a variety of other big time moves. It would be a win for Jericho with a little help from JBL in the form of a chair shot. This should set up a new program of HBK and JBL while Jericho will move on to defend his title.
Kane and Mysterio would put an end to their supposed program in a no DQ match. This was a nice match in the David and Goliath mold, but did feature some botched moves. It was Mysterio who would triumph and finally put an end to this program. It had some potential. But they never really established the hatred between Kane and Mysterio, nor really showed how Kanes “mind games” were emotionally harming Rey.
We will have to wait for Orton and Batista, possibly a feature of Survivor Series, as Cody Rhodes interrupted the start of their match with a challenge of Batista. They are building the tension between the Priceless gag and Orton, but tonight it robbed us of a good match. Of course Batista would defeat Rhodes with no problem and there was nothing to be gained by this match.
Santino Marella would fall victim to the hometown favorite William Regal and lose his Intercontinental title. It’s nice to see Regal regain some favor in the company after his suspension, but also sad to see Santino drop the belt. I felt he had more to give than his comedic exploits. He has decent in ring ability and it would have been nice to see this showcased more. Hopefully they will have a program between these two, instead of inserting Regals most recent pest, Jamie Noble. But not all was bad as the other half of Glamorella was victorious. Beth Phoenix was able to defend her belt against Mickie James, with some help from Santino.
The other match on the card was from the who can create the worst match possible bin. And they did a pretty good job of it tonight as they featured DeLo Brown back on Raw against Mike Knox. It was Knox who got the quick win, but who really cares. It seems they are tyring to push him like they did with Snitsky last year, and we all remember how well that went.
