WWE Capitol Punishment 2011

[The Gaffer]

I said it last night in the chat and I will repeat it here : This was the single worst PPV I have ever stayed up for to watch live. Not the worst show ever mind you but certainly one of the dullest. Even the 2004 Bash had a bit of blood and a big glass box of concrete.

 

It was just an obscenely underwhelming stopgap that served as a complete indictment of WWE's negatives these days. Namely lacklustre crowds, a cast of characters that are not going to set the world alight anytime soon, predictable and/or random booking that isin't going to stir much emotion and just this general, content with mundanity style of sports entertainment. They were the number one company in the world before they rolled into Washington and nothing has changed. And why should it. Keep a dull pace, set up shop in the arena, put on an underwhelming budget show and collect the money.

 

The future doesn't look bright barring a burst bubble of shit hitting the fan that serves as an impetus for them to get their arse in gear and radically alter something about the position they currently inhabit. The opening match was solid, Rey and Punk pulled out a decent, let's-not-go-crazy-though decent match for no apparent reason and everything else ranged from the forgettable to the abysmal. And that includes the commentary. It's like every headset woe of the last year or two was collected and concentrated into this one night.

 

I was delighted when I had to switch stream and found myself right in SAP zone. Hugo and Carlos were the life of the party.

[King Pitcos]

Aside from the Punk/Mysterio match (which was completely pointless), that was an abysmal PPV. People have a go at TNA for having nonsensical booking, but at least they have booking. WWE just seems pick who'll be fighting out of a hat and then flips a coin to see who'll win.

It is a big problem. For all the complaints about the "Hollywood writers" they don't seem to do much of anything other than put wrestlers in unspoken Best of Seven Million series. I quite liked the pay-per-view, but as Funk Kontrol said above, it was the ultimate in mundane water-treading.

 

For me, the WWE roster is fine, they just need a lot more from the creative side of things so the roster is actually doing something. The two best matches were Kofi vs Ziggler and Rey vs Punk. Both of them were really good. It's a shame that both have been done so often over the last year (and over the last month), and are now so far removed from having any intriguing storyline (and Kofi vs Ziggler has never had an even remotely interesting storyline) that nobody could possibly care. I enjoyed them but didn't give a damn about the outcomes.

 

Agreed with whoever said Riley was beaten down too much in the match with Miz. I thought it was a pretty bad match. Miz was awful at selling anything, and Riley has become popular by hammering Miz, not by being a resilient modern-day 123 Kid, so it didn't make sense to do the "Miz is loads better than Riley, the match should be stopped but he's a fighter" story.

 

I thought the filler segments with Obama were decent by WWE standards for this sort of thing. The filler match between Bourne and Swagger was a really good showcase for Bourne, but it had no place on this show. They've already fought at least three times in the past five or six weeks (possibly three times in the last four) and there's not a PPV-quality storyline there. Bourne looked fantastic, but nobody gave a toss, and rightfully so.

 

Barrett's promo was great, I thought. The match wasn't. I think Zeke's fairly emperor's new clothes, the most interesting thing in the match was the Zack Ryder chants. Henry slamming Big Show through the table was pretty great, and I liked the story of the match that followed. Big Show and Henry isn't a match I'd be that interested in, but fuck, at least there's something going on there.

 

The main events were a letdown. Orton vs Christian wasn't as good as the one last month. Cena vs R-Truth I didn't pay much attention to, but it didn't seem like anything worthwhile prior to the drink thing.

[AndyUK]

It wasn't a terrible show, it was just a dull one and that is arguably even worse than being bad. There's no point in paying for the secondary PPVs anymore. Nothing is ever settled, all of the big matches ended on screwy finishes as an excuse to continue feuds and its very rare that you'll get a match that you really need to see.

 

Punk/Mysterio was good, Christian/Orton was solid and Ziggler/Kingston was good too so there wasn't a shortage of good wrestling but they've had better matches with each other, they didn't give me anything that I didn't expect.

 

Del Rio/Show was more of a segment than a match, Barrett/Jackson and Miz/Riley were very slow and Cena/R-Truth was your average RAW main event at best for the most part. The filler towards at the end with the Obama skits etc. was poor.

 

Wrestling really shouldn't be so damn lifeless.

[Vice]

No one else really hated the finish to Orton/Christian? That RKO ending to the match itself felt flat and then, when Christian's foot was clearly under the ropes, I fully expected the match to be restarted. And when it wasn't, that me feel sorry for Christian because of how he blatantly got fucked over.

 

And CM Punk is the best thing about WWE by far.

[PepperPlunge]

Yeah, the foot under the rope ending was odd in the sense that Christian was right to be pissed off but I guess that it's all part and parcel of the story that they'll elaborate on. I think Christian might fall flat as a heel this time round. The feud was being built more as a sporting rivalry and in a sense still is but Christian can still inject more heel character into his matches.

[GPW Kristian Zane]

No one else really hated the finish to Orton/Christian? That RKO ending to the match itself felt flat and then, when Christian's foot was clearly under the ropes, I fully expected the match to be restarted. And when it wasn't, that me feel sorry for Christian because of how he blatantly got fucked over.

 

And CM Punk is the best thing about WWE by far.

Orton hit him with the belt so Christian couldnt argue so they could carry on the feud to the next ppv bit daft but these writers are used to dragging stuff out.

[Vice]

No one else really hated the finish to Orton/Christian? That RKO ending to the match itself felt flat and then, when Christian's foot was clearly under the ropes, I fully expected the match to be restarted. And when it wasn't, that me feel sorry for Christian because of how he blatantly got fucked over.

 

And CM Punk is the best thing about WWE by far.

Orton hit him with the belt so Christian couldnt argue so they could carry on the feud to the next ppv bit daft but these writers are used to dragging stuff out.

That made he hate Orton and favour Christian ever more.

[Green]

Is it just me who thinks Christian has been mind-numbingly dull this year? Apart from the Edge sympathy win moment he's done very little and, while still being pretty good in the ring, hasn't shown much on the mic as either face or heel. Could be due to them mismanaging his character or not wanting him to play goofy, which is definitely his strong suit, but for some reason he's just been getting on my nerves.