Re: Official DVD/Match/Show Discussion Thread
John Cena Superstar Collection
John Cena vs Chris Jericho ARM 08 : *** 3/4
John Cena vs Triple H vs Shawn Michaels SS 09 : ****
John Cena vs Randy Orton RAW 09 : ** 1/4
John Cena vs The Miz vs John Morrison ER 11 : ***
Cena vs Jericho at Armaggedon is by far the best 1v1 match that these two have ever had IMO. Sure, it was really spotty at times, but the pace was awesome, I felt that Cena sold better than he usually does , and the finisher sequences and various reversals that these 2 put on throughout the match's duration were fantastic. The match has a good length for these two, and I believe it is head and shoulders above what have put out in previous matches (SS 05 and SS 08 come to mind).
I've talked about the SS triple threat about a million fucking times in my life, so I'm probably not going to go too in depth here. Some people have varying opinions of this match, but I thought it was a damn near classic, and a beautiful changeup from the goofy DX that we were seeing on TV at that point. This was a downright exciting match that told a serious, albeit simple story ; what should be easy (getting the WWE championship back to DX) is made hard by two men's excessive egos and will to compete. We get an intense match that would fall into place for me as one of the greatest triple threats ever.
The SSOTY match vs Orton on Raw was a mindfuck... It was just a shorter version of their mediocre (by main event standards anyways) 2009 matches, although I felt the great near falls towards the end were a good touch. Just your average TV match main event, a very very short match.. NO CLUE why it's on the DVD.
The Steel Cage triple threat was a pretty good encounter between 3 men who aren't exactly known for their in ring skills. Morrison was there just for SPOTZ! (or so it seemed) , but what seemed to be horrible chemistry between The Miz and John Cena before, finally paid off in this match, as the two had some pretty memorable exchanges throughout this one. There were many escape attempts, so therefore there was lots of drama in this one. Morrison gets screwed in this one, but it's a shame that they never let him use this to escalate his career to the next level. All in all it's a decent main event to a good PPV, and I understand with the title change and all why it's on this DVD set.
Overall this DVD is what it is. A very cheap, short set that showcases some random Cena matches. For how much I paid for it, it's definitely worth seeing sans Orton match. Pick it up
5.5/10
Zack Ryder Superstar Collection
Zack Ryder vs Christian ECW 2009 : *** 1/4
Zack Ryder vs Dolph Ziggler Raw 11 : * 1/2
Zack Ryder/John Cena vs Awesome Truth Raw 11 : **
Zack Ryder vs John Cena Raw 11 : ** 1/4
Zack Ryder/Randy Orton vs Wade Barrett/Dolph Ziggler SD 11 : ** 1/4
Zack Ryder vs Dolph Ziggler TLC 11 : *** 1/4
The ECW match vs Christian is pretty damned awesome. We get some great back and forth action, and as far as I'm concerned, this was Zack's coming out party from an in-ring perspective. Christian was awesome as usual, as these two both switched up their offenses from ground based to high flying in a matter of minutes. A GREAT match by TV standards, and a fantastic exclusive to add to the set.
The Raw match vs Dolph is a very, very short match. However, it's a pivotal moment in the career of Ryder and the crowd is just MOLTEN hot for him at this point, and to see him pick up a major victory with Hugh Jackman in his corner was a giant step forward for the Ryder Revolution. Less of a match and more of a moment in the career of Zack Ryder.
The tag match vs Awesome Truth was very MEH in my opinion. Way too much time focusing on The Rock, and besides : The match was drawn out as fuck. They play the "Babyfaces in peril" card not once, but TWICE in this match. Lots of slow, bad beatdowns by both The Miz and R-Truth on both faces. Very basic, dull wrestling here that I wouldn't recommend. A pretty technically sound match with a half decent climax, but not a very good match overall.
The "social experiment" vs John Cena was a pretty decent match for the amount of time that it got. This was probably the apex of Ryder's career in terms of being credible... I mean... He was in there locking up and putting on a decent match with the face of the company, and he ISN'T being squashed. A great segment overall and an okay match featuring some fast paced action.
The Smackdown tag match was just odd. Barrett bored the hell out of me like he always does, and apart from Orton going insane with his moveset at the end of the match, I remember NOTHING about this match. I mean, it wasn't BAD, but it was such a forgettable match that it's not worth going out of your way to see at all. I'd classify this as being probably the worst segment on the entire disc.
The TLC match vs Dolph is probably Ryder's best match up to this point (I do believe, could be some TV stuff that I'm missing). This match was just white hot action with an extremely fast pace and some great moves. Just overall exciting and worth a watch for sure. The near falls towards the end were fantastic and I'm glad that they chose to end the DVD on Ryder's greatest individual achievement... Why did they stop pushing this guy again ?
The match quality on this one isn't as good as the Cena one, but the amount of exclusive content mixed with some entertaining moments makes me put this one SLIGHTLY ahead of the Cena DVD. Ryder is like a mid-late-80s WWF wrestler ; A bright gimmick and in ring skills, but wrestles basic matches due to his colorful gimmick. Ryder hasn't had very many GREAT matches in his career so I find it fitting that we get some big moments from his career.
5.75/10
Both the Bryan & Sheamus releases look better than these two. Love the cheap prices on these DVDs (even though they all feature around an hour and a half of content). Compiling my final HHH PPV match list as we speak, and wondering should I do it in parts or just feature it as one huge list.
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Official DVD/Match/Show Discussion Thread
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. UPDATE (09/04/2013): Weekly Wrestling Roundup Episode 74 & 75!!!
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