WWE Judgment Day 2006

In the year 2000 WWE was at the peak of the Attitude era and part of the reason they were going through such a purple patch was the consistency of their pay per views. Each and every show had great matches and dynamic angles that kept viewers coming back for more. Not every show featured classic matches, but perhaps more importantly, very few shows had any really awful matches either. In 2006, the opposite is the case and WWE is the very model of inconsistency. Instead of having to endure the odd poor match, fans are searching desperately every month for the few good matches that manage to sneak through the WWE [un]Creative process.

Therefore it is with some pleasant surprise that we find Judgment Day 2006 to be a show which not only features more good matches than bad, but overall comprises a pretty entretaining three hours of wrestling. Perhaps it is the fact that WWE executives have other things on their plate with the ECW relaunch or perhaps it is the fact that the brand is so decimated by injuries that they feel they can do nothing more than put on a simple wrestling show. Sure it wasn't perfect, but compared to some of the garbage that has been put on single brand pay per views in the 12 months, this was a real throwback to the days when Smackdown was under the helm of Paul Heyman and the matches were what drove the show.

The show starts off with 2 fantastic matches, with Paul London and Brian Kendrick deafeating MNM for the tag titles and Chris Benoit and Fit Finlay having the kind of old school brawl that makes you remember what is so great about professional wrestling. The only downsode to either match is the fact that the tag title match ends with the supposed split-up of MNM as Melina turns on Mercury for costing her team the win. With any luck this will be a shortlived blip, as MNM are too good as a unit to be split up and with them at the heart of the Smackdown tag division, there is always hope that tag team wrestling may not die off completely in the US. London and Kendrick should be more than adequate replacements though, however it ultimately depends on the quality of their opposition as to how well they get on. A feud with Funaki and Scotty 2 Hotty would ruin them, but matches with the Mexicools and Kid Kash and Jamie Noble should provide the kind of matches that people want to watch.

As for Finlay and Benoit, what more can be said. Two ring veterans pounding the hell out of each other for 20 minutes. Fantastic! The addition of Finlay to the Smackdown roster has added something that was sorely lacking in this day and age, an old-school brawler. It's just a shame that WWE can't realize that what makes Finlay so appealing is that he is a throwback to the good old days of wrestlers who were tough and could fight, not pantomime characters. That's not to say everyone on the Smackdown roster should be like FInlay. However with UFC becoming an increasingly important opponent in the ratings wars, WWE could do with having a few more 'credible' wrestlers on their roster to over come the preconcpetion that 'pro-wrestling is fake'.

After that, the women's match and cruiserweight title matches were fairly pedestrian. However most importantly they weren't bad, which is important to remember. The only downside was the lack of excitement in the cruiserweight match. These guys are really suffering as a result of the ban of high-flying moves like the 450 and Shooting Star Press and when compared with the high-flying exploits of X Division stars like Sonjay Dutt or Chris Sabin, Helms and Crazy look decidely average. At least they made it on to the show though!

Following that was Kurt Angle and Mark Henry. After years on the sidelines, Mark Henry has finally come good, just as his contract is set to expire. However is it possible to have a bad match with Kurt Angle? Kurt bumped like crazy and put Henry over like a million dollars, yet still managed to get his heat back at the end by putting Henry through a table with a vicious angle slam, followed by an even more vicious chair shot once the table didn't break. Angle deserves to be champ at this point and I can only hope they are saving the one-on-one match with Rey for Summerslam, because those 2 are absolute dynamite in the ring together.

Bringing back the King of the Ring has certainly helped give Smackdown some focus over these past few weeks, and the final has a real feeling of 'Best of the Rest' rather than the 'Best of the Best'. However both men have used this oppurtunity to really cement thier places on the Smackdown roster. After an initially shakey start, Bobby Lashley has really begun to become a guy people want to see win. He is still pretty green, but working with established stars like Booker and Finlay will help him no end. As will not winning things straight away. By having Booker go over, not only have they helped revitalize the career of a guy who has never been given a fair chance to suceed in WWE. But they have also given Lashley the chance to work his way to the top and go through more experienced veterans and learn along the way. The involvement of Finlay in the outcome of the match means that their feud is not gone either, and so when Lashley does make it to the top of the card he will have established rivals lined up for him to face. He is also establishing himself in the eyes of the fans as someone who has earned their spot, not been handed it because of a catchphrase or a gimmick and so, unlike John Cena, Lashley is being put in a position where the fans will be behind him, not against him.

After that came the only real turkey of the evening. But even that was entertaining for how bad it was. The Great Khali is a freak of nature that's for sure, however this guys belongs nowhere near a wrestling ring. He is just horrid! The only plus-side to this match was watching just how good Undertaker is at making even the most horrible freak-of-the-moment look good. This was car-crash wrestling at it's very worst, but strangely entertaining nonetheless.

So that brings us to the main event. I could rant for hours about how badly WWE are treating Rey as champ, but at the end of the day, are we surprised? Rey should at least be facing opponents he could be having good matches with, not facing big brutes who beat him up for 10 minutes and then he gets a fluke pin on them. However this is the path WWE have decided to go and so that is what we are getting. As a match it was not horrible and JBL plays his role as abullying heel so well. It's just a shame that this did not feel like a main event and certainly wasn't a 5 star performance from either man. However at the end of a show with no truly awful matches on it, this did not break the pattern and so in the end you found yourself in the slightly novel situation of not hating a WWE show and feeling like you had wasted 3 hours of your life.

Overall verdict: B-
"Two really fun matches to open the show and nothing horrible. For a single brand pay per view this was surprisingly good, I just hope they take all the plusses from this show like good wrestling and clean finishes and use this as a blueprin for future shows. Unfortunately I won't be too surprised if we get more goofy angles and screwy finishes instead. This is WWE after all."