• Wrestling News & Wrestling Rumors – WWE & TNA

Thanks to Phil Lowe:

- In a dark match, Christian beat Paul Burchill.

- Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Todd Grisham make up a three-man announce team for tonight’s show. They noted JR is “ill” after showing a Bragging Rights trophy. Whoever out of Raw or Smackdown wins the most brand vs. brand matches takes the trophy.

- United States Champion The Miz vs. Intercontinental Champion John Morrison in a Raw vs. Smackdown Bragging Rights match opens the show. Definitely the right choice to open the show, in my opinion. They worked at a decent pace and had the crowd into the match all the time, especially towards the end. Morrison hit an awesome corkscrew plancha to Miz on the outside after a sequence that saw a ton of near falls. Finish came when Morrison went for Starship Pain but got dumped off the top rope. Miz made the cover and got the win, making it Raw 1-0 Smackdown. Good opener.

- Melina, Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim vs. Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix and Natalya in a Raw vs. Smackdown Bragging Rights match is up next. Pretty safe to assume the outcome here given the result of the opener. The Smackdown girls worked over Kelly Kelly for most of the match. The hot tag was made to Melina, who cleared house until she got distracted. A pinfall got broken up and it turned into a bit of a brawl with all six Divas in the ring. Beth Phoenix hit Melina with the Glam Slam and made the cover to get the Win. Unsurprisingly, that makes it Raw 1-1 Smackdown.

- DX gave the Raw team a pep talk to make sure everybody on the team was on board. They ended it with the “two words for ya” speel and Triple H looking into the camera, which usually we’re not supposed to know is there.

- Fatal Four-Way for the World Heavyweight Championship: The Undertaker (C) vs. CM Punk vs. Batista vs. Rey Mysterio is up next. They did a spot early on where Taker was laid on his back but Rey and Batista were reluctant to pin him. Rey hit Taker with the 619 early and Taker tried to tap out Dave shortly after. Punk got hit with the Last Ride before Taker and Dave traded blows with the crowd behind Taker, who hit a chokeslam. A couple of minutes later, Batista hit Taker with the Batista Bomb but Rey broke up the cover, which led to Batista turning on him. Taker hit him with another chokeslam and it looked like something was screwed up as they spent a while talking to each other. Batista blocked another chokeslam attempt then went to a spot where Dave threw Rey over the top rope onto Punk on the outside, with Rey landing hard. Batista then turned around and ate a Tombstone with Undertaker making the cover and getting the win. Winner and still World champion: The Undertaker.

This was pretty short but had plenty going on, although there wasn’t a huge story other than the Rey-Dave dissention and it was just finishers really. After the match, Josh Matthews interviewed Rey and Batista in the ring. Rey said they tried their best and tried to console Dave. He said there would be another day to win the belt. Josh asked Batista how he was feeling. Dave said he was tired of coming close to winning and that he was tired of being stabbed in the back by his best friend. He said to Rey “I’m not playing…I’m going to rip your head off,” then levelled him with a clothesline before punting him out of the ring. He then tossed Rey hard into the guard rail at ringside and left him lying. Really effective segment.

- Team Raw (Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Big Show, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston and Mark Henry) vs. Team Smackdown (Chris Jericho, Kane, Matt Hardy, Finlay, R-Truth and The Hart Dynasty) in a Bragging Rights Match is up next. The two teams are decked out in Raw and Smackdown t-shirts, other than DX who are wearing their own DX gear of course. An early Kane/Big Show staredown gets less reaction than anything in the Divas match, which isn’t good. Crowd eventually warms up though and Shawn Michaels get a huge pop when he is tagged in. HBK worked well with Finlay before Jericho was tagged in which got huge heat. Michaels later tagged in HHH to a huge pop and he cleared house before being chokeslammed by Kane.

The match turned into a bunch of double teams and quick tags highlighted by Big Show spearing Kane to a big pop. Kofi then got on the top rope and Big Show signalled he would throw him on to Chris Jericho, but instead Show turned on the team and chokeslammed Kofi being knocking HHH out. Tons of heat for Show. Jericho then made the cover and pinned Kofo. Winners and Bragging Rights champions: Team Smackdown.

- Anything Goes 60 Minute Iron Man Match for the WWE Title: Randy Orton (C) vs. John Cena closes the show. Orton dominated early before Cena made a comeback. He locked in the STFU and Orton tapped immediately. 1-0 to Cena after just over 4 minutes.

Orton slowed the second fall down before Cena made his comeback again, going for the five knuckle shuffle but walking straight into an RKO. Orton made the cover and made it 1-1 at around 10 minutes into the match.

Orton hit Cena with a TV monitor which busted him open. Orton went for an RKO but it was blocked and Cena hit the Five Knuckle Shuffle. He then went for an FU but Orton turned it into an RKO. Both men hit the deck with their arms across each other, so the referee counted to three and gave both a fall with 43mins remaining.

Cena quickly then took the next fall to go 3-2 up with 40mins remaining, at which point Legacy hit the ring and beat up Cena. Orton made the cover on Cena to make it 3-3. Kofi Kingston then hit the ring and chased off Legacy with a chair.

The next fall saw them brawl out of the ring and up towards the production area and stage, with pyro being set off in the process. Orton pinned Cena with 34 minutes remaining to go 4-3 up.

With Cena still down, Orton starting to purposely let off some more pyro then laid out Cena with a chair. He moved Cena to the top of the stage then started to let off more pyro around where he was laid. They went back to the ring where Orton dominated before Cena rolled him up out of nowhere to make it 4-4 with 27mins remaining. That was quickly followed by Orton going 5-4 up a minute later after a DDT off the apron to the outside.

Orton started to run down the clock where he could. Cena got him up for an FU but Orton used elbows to escape and they went off into the crowd and up to the upper tiers. They brawled around before making it back down to the ring. Cena threw Orton through the guardrail near the timekeeper and ring announcers which had been gimmicked. Orton got back to his feet, and Cena laid him out using the ring steps. He then picked Orton up for an FU but walked with him to the ring steps, set up next to the announce table. Cena hit the FU off the top of the steps and Orton went through the table. Crowd went nuts as Cena pinned to tie at 5-5 with 9mins remaining.

Cena set up a table in the ring. He laid Orton on the table and went for a legdrop off the top rope but Orton moved and Cena went through the table. THey went back and forth trading blows and the ref took a bump before Orton hit an RKO only for the referee to kick outbreak the count with 2mins remaining. They battled for the next fall and Cena locked in the STFU with a minute left to go. Orton held on as the timer headed towards zero but tapped out with just a few seconds remaining. Cena went 6-5 up andis new WWE champion.

It was a good match and they booked it very cleverly in that there were delays and stalling along the way. Not the all-time classic it was put over as on commentary, but it was decent.