Alberto Del Rio vs Kofi Kingston
This was pretty mediocre but got good right at the very end. Most of the match was nothing, Del Rio's control segment was just him sitting in a body-scissor for 2 minutes and once again half of Kofi's stuff barely even connects. Still, this was pretty well paced at the end, and the struggle over the finish was really great, both dramatic and putting over the arm-breaker bigtime.
Edge vs Rey Mysterio vs The Big Show vs Drew McIntyre vs Wade Barrett vs Kane (Elimination Chamber)
This wasn't perfect by any stretch, but there was far more good than bad. Rey was mostly playing ragdoll, and he is a guy who can get thrown about and will kill himself on bumps. I also loved his constant sneaky headbutts through the match. Edge and Wade added nothing of value, but Kane was actually good in this, and came off looking like a legit monster. Show was also great for the short period he was in, just dismantling Wade, and eating a tonne of offence made him look like he was a fucking giant. I was dissapointed at how quickly Drew was eliminated, but Jesus fucking Christ did he raise hell when he was unleashed, just fucking up the worlds of everyone in his way. Finishing run between Edge and Rey wasn't as good as the '09 iteration, as they relied more on doing a tonne of finishers than epic selling/timing, but was still as good of wrestling as you will see from Edge these days.
Santino Marrella/Vladimir Kozlov vs The Corre
Piss break match. Pass.
The Miz vs Jerry Lawler
This may not have had the workrate or spots the Chambers had, but more than made up for it with pure story-telling and emotion. Right from the bell the crowd were extremely vocal and behind Lawler. Lawler instantly going for roll-ups was a real veteran move, and his punches looked great. Riley getting ejected, Lawler throwing Miz into Cole and Lawler looking up at the Wrestlemania sign before the Fist Drop were all epic moments. I would have liked to have seen Lawler hit the piledriver, and a vintage Lawler comeback with Miz pounding him only for the strap to come down, but this was still great and my pick for WWE MOTY.
John Cena vs CM Punk vs Randy Orton vs Sheamus vs John Morrison vs R-Truth (Elimination Chamber)
Like the SD Chamber this was far from perfect, but the positives outweighed the negatives. Truth's inclusion was a waste, and Orton and Cena didn't do anything worth talking about. Punk's re-start was a nice idea but executed really badly, but Punk was utterly fantastic and easily the star of the match. The guy just exudes a larger than life charisma (his mocking of Orton was epic) and hit all of his spots just at the right time. Morrison's parqour/crazy spots gimmick is made for matches like this, and his big spot on Sheamus and spiderman shit was a little mind-blowing. His selling of the leg was also shockingly great, which to me is more impressive than the spots and shows his growth as a worker. WWE's insistance on running these overdone gimmick matches whilest banning blading is really stupid, if this had had blood it would have probably been a high MOTYC.
Best Of 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment