WWE Taboo Tuesday

JOEY! JOEY! JOEY!
JOEY STYLES ON COMMENTARY!!! WHOO!!!

Gene Snitzsky & Chris Masters VS Matt Hardy & Rey Mysterio
Wow. WWE gives us “complete control” of the PPV, than pulls a “bait ‘n’ switch” by taking Edge out of the match when they knew Matt Hardy was a sure win to be voted into the match cause that’s what the fans really wanted to see.
Never the less, I was REALLY surprised how good this match turned out. Say what you want about Snitzsky and Masters, but they actually worked hard here, and I really have to commend Snitzsky for bumping the way he does for the little guys, including that rather sick looking DDT off the top rope! Great opener which the fans really got enjoyed.
Match Rating: **1/2

Rob Conway & Tyson Tomko VS Eugene & Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka
Snuka beat out Hacksaw Jim Duggan by a close 3% in the vote. Not a lot to the match itself as Eugene worked 98% of the match for his team, only to give the hot tag to Snuka who wasn’t moving as fast as he used to and looked rather awkward in the ring. It even took the old veteran almost forever to get up top to hit the Superfly Splash for the win. I liked the ending where all the Hacksaw and Kamala came out to take out Tomko after the match.
I guess the main difference between Conway and Orton is that Orton can actually beat the legends.
Match Rating: *

Carlito VS Mankind
Mankind won with a landslide 52% of the vote! Mick looked a heck of a lot bigger (ie. Fat) than when last we saw him in the ring. The match itself was an ok match, not on par with the Orton/Foley match from last year, but good none the less. Mankind hit all his signature spots: Cactus Clothesline, apron to floor elbow, double-arm DDT, and of course, the Mr. Socko (with afro!) Mandible Claw! Carlito once again showed his lack of ability here, which I hope he can improve on soon cause he’s just boring to watch.
Match Rating: *

They announce HBK winning the 3rd slot in the main event with 43% of the vote, beating Kane who had 38% of the vote, which brings us to our next match.

World Tag Team Titles: Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch VS Kane & The Big Show
I was surprised Show and Kane worked as well together as they did. Once again, you can say what you want about the Big Show’s ability, but the fans really react well to him and whatever he does. I guess the one complaint I would have was that this match was an almost squash for the two giants. I would have preferred if Murdoch was made to be just a bit tougher since he did mention before he likes to fight. It was still a fun match though, and I guess now I can look forward to the big men defending the tag titles against Val Venis & Viscera since they beat Cade & Murdoch before.
Match Rating: **

It’s announced that the WWE Divas will be wearing lingerie for the 2nd ever Fulfill Your Fantasy Battle Royal, winning with over 40% of the vote.

Street Fight: Jonathan Coachman with Goldust & Vader VS Batista
The Street Fight won with a huge 91% of the vote! Short and simple as expected.
This was more of a 3-on-1 handicap match, and I was interested in seeing Batista VS Vader, but Vader is just so out of shape and having trouble keeping his balance that it isn’t even funny. I would have liked if Batista brought some backup to help deal with Vader & Goldust (Didn’t Eddie Guererro become his friend or something?). It didn’t do much for Vader’s legacy to get dominated like he did, but than again just walking around looking like he does isn’t helping any either.
Bottom line now I guess is Smackdown went 2-0 on a RAW PPV, which will set up Survivor Series.
Match Rating: ½*

Fulfill Your Fantasy Battle Royal for the WWE Women’s Title
Ashley VS Candice Michelle VS Mickie James VS Victoria VS Maria VS Trish Stratus
After seeing the lingerie their wearing, I’m betting a lot of people wished they had voted for something else as there really wasn’t anything special about lingerie in my view. Heck, they all look like they are wearing standard wrestling attire.
The match itself was ok. I’d say Victoria was the MVP of the match. I was really expecting Mickie James to win the match by accidentally eliminating Trish, but that didn’t happen. Guess we’ll have to wait a little longer for that heel turn of hers.
Match Rating:*

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Intercontinental Title Steel Cage Match: Triple H VS Ric Flair
The Steel Cage won easily with 83% of the vote.
Now this was a truly great match! You had a lot of emotion and a lot of blood spilt in this one, plus it told a great story. You could probably guess Flair was going to win since the IC title was only the line, but I still MARKED OUT for Flair winning, and like Joey Styles, even I had GOOSEBUMPS for it! At the last Taboo Tuesday, Flair had the Match of the Night with Randy Orton, this year he looks to receive that honor again with this one! And of course for all the evil deeds he’s done in the past, give H credit for putting Flair over. Who knows? Maybe H even enjoyed Flair grabbing his balls.
Match Rating: ****1/2

Triple Threat WWE World Title Match: Kurt Angle VS Shawn Michaels VS John Cena
You know, the reason everyone says Cena will lose the title before Batista is because Cena gets booed a lot, whereas Batista has the fans firmly backing him. Here was another good example of that as the crowd were heavily behind Angle to win the title here, and even I was screaming at Cena to tap when Angle had him in the ankle lock.
Of course when you consider who was involved in the match, it was a pretty good WWE-style 3-way dance. But you could easily noticed how they managed to hide Cena’s weaknesses by taking him out for a majority of the match and letting the veterans carry it, only to have him more or less steal the win in the end. A solid match though.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall: Three good matches and a possible MOTY makes this a pretty good PPV by my standards. The must see match is obviously the Flair/HHH cage match, followed closely by the main event. Obviously the build to Survivor Series starts now, and it should be interesting to see how the inter-brand war goes off.

On a side note, Joey Styles did an INCREDIBLE job on commentary! WWE really need to be kissing his ass to get him on RAW as he totally blew away any other commentary I’ve heard all year on WWE TV! He’s just a natural at it and WWE really NEEDS to have this guy on instead of Coach or even JR!