For the first time in 2009, WWE failed to deliver on PPV. The Bash was for the most part a lackluster PPV but gets a passing grade mostly due to one great match and a couple other solid matches throughout the card. This show had the potential to be more than what it was.

 

 

ECW Championship Scramble: Tommy Dreamer (c) vs. Christian vs. Jack Swagger vs. Mark Henry vs. Finlay

This was a pretty fun opener and probably the best match to have as the opener. To shorten things up, the length between the entrances of new competitors was cut from 5 minutes to 3 minutes. We kicked things off with Christian and Jack Swagger, which was a good idea considering how many good matches they have had this year. After some good back and forth action between them, Finlay entered third, followed by Dreamer as the fourth entrant. Mark Henry entered last and surprisingly didn’t hurt the match as much as he was expected to. They did some nice spots to keep the match interesting but what hurt the match quality were the ridiculous amount of pinfalls and the fact that they came so easily. For example, Jack Swagger pinned Finlay with a standard roll up early on as well as Mark Henry following a second rope splash? To add to that, seemingly everyone was able to hit their finishers for successful pinfalls at various points during the match. The final pinfall was done well, with Christian hitting Swagger with the Killswitch only to fall victim to a DDT from Dreamer followed by a pinfall. After a frantic finish, Dreamer survives with his ECW Championship. A fun match that was marred by unrealism.

Match Rating: 5.5/10

 

 

Intercontinental Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Rey Mysterio

This was an excellent match and easily match of the night. I will give credit to Jericho and Mysterio for putting on their best match in their rivalry in what proved to be the match that rescued a pretty forgettable show. Although their bout at Extreme Rules was very good, their match here was more fast paced and Mysterio seemed to have performed better with more high flying moves. The match truly could have gone either way and had many near falls. Jericho at one point connected with a mid air Codebreaker after Mysterio tried for a move off the second rope. Mysterio also hit a great seated senton off the top turnbuckle to the floor. Late in this match, Mysterio hit a 619, but as he went for a springboard hurricanrana, Jericho held him in place in the Walls of Jericho in the middle of the ring. Rey started to reverse it and Jericho brought him up in a powerbomb position and ripped off Mysterio’s mask. However, Mysterio was wearing a second mask underneath, stunning Jericho and allowing Mysterio to kick him into the ropes. A 619 and a splash later and Mysterio has regained the Intercontinental Championship. This was a great way to end the Mysterio/Jericho feud and one of the best WWE matches of 2009.

Match Rating: 8/10

 

 

No Disqualification: Dolph Ziggler vs. The Great Khali

This match would hardly qualify as being worthy of being on an episode of Smackdown, much less on a PPV. Khali dominates Ziggler for the first 3 minutes with his typical slow offense. Ziggler tried to use a chair but to no avail. All of a sudden, Kane makes his WWE return and beats down Khali with the chair before Ziggler covers Khali for the quick win. A very short and poor match that didn’t deserve a place on the card.

Match Rating: 2.5/10

 

 

WWE Unified Tag Team Championship: The Colons  (c) vs. Legacy vs. Edge and Chris Jericho

In a surprising turn of events, this match becomes a triple threat and Edge manages to find his way onto the card. Despite the addition of Edge and Jericho, they added little to nothing to the match as they were hardly tagged in. The match consisted of mostly slow, lackluster work from The Colons and Legacy. These teams had better chemistry on Raw so I don’t understand why this match came out so poor. I was also upset with Edge and Jericho being added to this match and going over as I felt that Legacy needed these belts badly. Anyway, near the end of this one Carlito connects with a Backstabber on one of Legacy, but as he goes for the cover the ref says that the Legacy member is not the legal man. Carlito then turns around and is speared by Edge. After the successful pinfal Edge and Jericho are the new tag team champions. An interesting twist but still a very dull match with little to enjoy in the ring.

Match Rating: 4/10

 

 

Women’s Championship: Melina (c) vs. Michelle McCool

This was one of the worst women’s matches I have seen all year from WWE. These two ladies could have possibly had a decent match but there was too much overselling, yelling, and screaming for one to be able to enjoy this match. McCool gets the win after hitting the Faith Breaker to win the Women’s Championship. I was very upset with this, as I wanted to see Melina retain and potentially match up against Gail Kim at Night of Champions in her next title defense. I guess that won’t happen now. I have never been a fan of McCool so I do not support her winning the belt. Very, very poor Divas match.

Match Rating: 2/10

 

 

World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk (c) vs. Jeff Hardy

As expected, these two had a very solid title match, although it was a bit shorter than it could have been. It was a mild disappointment due to the slow pace throughout the beginning and middle parts of the match, but it was a good way to start this feud and made progress toward Punk’s eventual heel turn. There was a lot of good storytelling in this one, with Jeff continuously coming oh-so-close to becoming World Champion. Punk utilized some submission holds to wear down Jeff, while Hardy kept going for the Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb throughout the second half of the match. Late in the match, Hardy hits a Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb and pins Punk 1 2 3, but after the bell is rung he orders the match restarted because Punk’s foot was under the bottom rope. A minute or so after that, Punk appears to have impaired vision in his left eye and kicks the referee in the back, leading to a DQ. Punk walks up the entrance ramp, followed by Hardy. Punk tries to say he had no clue what he was doing because of the eye injury, but Jeff doesn’t buy it and beats down Punk until referees pull him off. A good solid match between these two but it could have been better.

Match Rating: 6.5/10

 

 

John Cena vs. The Miz

This match was easily the biggest disappointment of the night. Two months of build, all that time devoted to it on Raw every single week, only to get a 5 minute squash match here that really hurt The Miz badly. Yes, this match ended up being exactly what most people feared, a match in which Cena dominates mostly the entire thing and The Miz gets buried. Cena opens the match with an assault on The Miz, but The Miz takes control momentarily. Cena just had this overconfident look on his face throughout the match which hurt The Miz even more. After about 4ish minutes of really not much happening, Cena gets in his groove and hits his signatures before connecting with an Attitude Adjustment. Instead of going for the pin, Cena locks in the STF and forces The Miz to tap out. There is absolutely no excuse for why this match was so short and one sided.

Match Rating: 3.5/10

 

 

Three Stages of Hell match for the WWE Championship: Randy Orton (c) vs. Triple H

The Three Stages of Hell (?) match between Randy Orton and Triple H was a disappointing main event. It’s obvious that WWE really just doesn’t know how to book Orton and Triple H properly, as they rarely have good matches against each other. The comical aspect of that statement is that they had a good match on free TV this week but couldn’t really deliver on PPV. The first fall was a standard wrestling match, which ran for about 5 minutes before Triple H gets himself intentionally disqualified by hitting Orton with a steel chair. After beating down Orton with the chair to start the second portion of the match, Falls Count Anywhere, Triple H pins Orton outside the ring to win the second fall in about 1 minute. All of a sudden, the Stretcher match has begun. Huh? Anyway, the match actually started to improve from here. These two did some cool stuff, such as crowd fighting and some nice spots. Orton hit a spike DDT to Triple H using the stretcher and both men crashed into the guardrail while on the stretcher at one point. The match was going along fine until the ending. Triple H is about to push the stretcher with Orton on it over the line to win the match, but Rhodes and Dibiase interfere and assault Triple H. Triple H then rips off a piece of the entrance ramp and finds his sledgehammer underneath. He attacks Rhodes and Dibiase with the sledgehammer to fend them off, but their distraction has allowed Orton time to recover. Orton then gets up, grabs the metal piece of the ramp that Triple H removed, hits Triple H with it, places him on the stretcher and rolls him across the line. This entire ending sequence dragged on for a very long time and seemed a bit much. After the match, Orton celebrates, but Triple H sneaks up on him and hits him in the face with the sledgehammer. An alright main event that wasn’t that good but wasn’t completely terrible either.

Match Rating: 5.5/10

 

 

Overall PPV Rating: 6/10