March to Mania Year 3: WWE No Way Out 2008 Review

March to Mania Year 3: 

WWE No Way Out 2008 Review

 

ECW Championship

Chavo Guerrero(c) def. CM Punk(7:15)

Thoughts: Is it any surprise that this is opening the card? Yeah, I don't think so. This was a standard opener for a PPV; first of all they put out people that have a feud going, the fans know and have the ability to excite the crowd. Secondly, the opener shouldn’t steal the show. It should get people hot, get them into the show while being a good match. That was accomplished here. These men had a beef heading into the PPV, they had battled, Punk had been succeeding but he ran out of steam here. Not that he was 'Buried', but it was just that they made Chavo look more like the champion that he needed to be. The match was fine, they worked hard but I did have to laugh when the crowd turned on Punk for doing the Shimmy Dance and Three Amigo’s. They reacted like, “who the fuck do YOU think YOU are, doing the Guerrero deal?” The ending was solid as Punk went for a super rana, Chavo held on, Punk crushed and burned, hurt his knees and Chavo got the win with the frog splash. Sometimes the heels need to win to gain some credibility, and this was one of those times.

Rating: **1/2

Elimination Chamber Match

The Undertaker def. Batista, Finlay, 

Montel Vontavious Porter, The Great Khali and Big Daddy V(29:28)

Thoughts: First off, I find a EC match featuring Great Khali and Big Daddy V kinda unappealing, but that's just me. Thankfully, neither of the two didn't last long in the chamber match. Now I think it's safe to say that everyone and their mother knew that either Taker or Batista was going to win this match, but that doesn't mean the match sucked. It was pretty good with a number of great moments, like when MVP held his pod door shut so Taker couldn't get to him and him getting his ass kicked when his door opened. Or when Taker chased MVP to the top of a cell and just tossed him off of it; a great sight to see.  The end, just like the beginning was Taker and Batista. They each kicked out of finishes, and then they did a bad ass finish as Batista was spear tossing Taker into the cage, Taker countered back into the ring as they flipped over the ropes and into a tombstone position. BAD ASS! In the end there are people that though tit sucked, and people that thought it was way better than I did. I think this was a damn fine chamber match, it was well booked and had an MVP (not Montel) effort from Taker that was awesome to watch. The end, just like the beginning was Taker and Batista. They each kicked out of finishes and then they did a bad ass finish as Batista was spear tossing Taker into the cage, Taker countered back into the ring as they flipped over the ropes and into a tombstone position. BAD ASS! In the end, there are people that though this sucked, but I think it's better than people give it credit for. I think this was a damn fine chamber match, it was well booked and had an MVP(not Montel) effort from Taker that was awesome to watch.

Rating: ***1/2

Career Threating Match

Ric Flair def. Mr. Kennedy(7:14)

Thoughts: I gotta say, the build for this one was great; they really made Kennedy look like a major asshole, in a good way. Kennedy continued to show great heel work and Flair continued to look good here. The two had a great spot where Kennedy put Flair in the Figure-4 on the steel post spot. In the end, Flair slapped the Figure-4 and Kennedy tapped. Really, I think this match reinforced that it really *had* to be Shawn Michaels facing Flair at Mania. Kennedy was forced to carry the action here and that made this feel like a Nitro match from 1996. No real attempt to tell a story, it was just Kennedy doing his stuff and then Flair coming back with the five moves he could still do.

Rating: **1/4

World Heavyweight Championship

Edge(c) def. Rey Mysterio(5:27)

Thoughts: I give Rey all the credit in the world for going through with this match as he had injured his bicep a few days prior to the show, but sadly, that robs the fans of these two having a match that would be on par with their Rumble match the previous month. They did as much as they could and I was really impressed that Rey managed to do a 619 despite the injured bicep. I do really hate how they repeated the ending to their Rumble match with Edge spearing Rey in mid-air, but not anywhere as cool as before. Oh and after this match, Big Show came back, talked for a few minutes, decided to attack Rey, then Floyd Mayweather jumped into the ring, punched Show, left him with a bloody nose and bolted...but we'll talk about these two next time.

Rating: **

WWE Championship

John Cena def. Randy Orton(c) via DQ(15:51)

Thoughts: Before you roll you're eyes, keep in mind that this was before these guys had a PPV match every other month. Now then, their match here, I'll just say it, was really weird. It wasn't bad, but just disjointed. The crowd was into it as always and that is a good thing. But the match was oddly disjointed and I just never got that involved. Technically they had a fine bout, but when you are having a big title match like this, you don’t want “fine.” Really the best thing that happened was Orton's character evolving into a bigger heel than he was before this. I mean, in order to save his title, HE FUCKING PIMP SLAPPED THE REF and drew the DQ. I sure you guys are expecting me to throw a gigantic fit, but I'm not. Don’t get me wrong, I dislike DQ finishes on PPV, especially nowadays since WWE has ran too many of them, hence devaluing the good ones that work and make sense. That being said, this was awesomely done. Orton came off as the best chicken shit heel ever with that move and I loved it. I also loved how when Cena went to beat Orton down that the ref left and was like, FUCK YOU AND YOU PIMP HAND RANDY ORTON! It more than made up for what ended up being a good, but disappointing match in my opinion.

Rating: ***1/4

Main Event: Elimination Chamber Match

Triple H def. Jeff Hardy, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Umaga and John Bradshaw Layfield(23:54)

Thoughts: Unlike Smackdown's EC, this one HAD to deliver and thankfully, it did with each individual giving a damn good performance here. Admittedly, it did get a little slow when JBL and HHH came in, but that didn't stop me from enjoying this match. JBL was the first to go, which I was completely fine with. Umaga was next after taking a finisher from the other four. They did a lot wrong with Umaga during his time with WWE, but this elimination was great. Jericho got his head kicked off by HBK almost instantly after Umaga was eliminated, sending him packing and Shawn got sent packing quickly after that by HHH. I felt that if HHH was going to win it would be over Hardy and that is exactly what happened. Hardy again was made to look good taking it to HHH and even kicked out of the pedigree, something HBK didn’t do just minutes earlier. It took tossing Hardy on a chair and then a pedigree onto the chair for HHH to win and ended a damn fine match. Hardy returned the job, which is how the business works and overall we had a damn good closing to the show.

Rating: ****1/4

Final Rating:

2.96 out of 5