WWE No Way Out

The WWE's second PPV of the year was a fairly good effort and provided a decent set-up for next month's WrestleMania XIX. The crowd, also, in Montreal proved entertaining during a number of matches due to their complete unpredictability. Anyhow, here's the matches in the order in which they occurred: (each match is rated out of 10)

MATCH 1-- CHRIS JERICHO vs JEFF HARDY. I was disappointed with this match the first time I saw it, but it gets better each time I watch it.

As an opening match it's good- it's allowed to go for a nice 15 minutes or so & there's some good near falls (for Hardy, his Swanton and Old school expulsion-like Twist of Fate and for Jericho, a soft-looking Lionsault and a Sleeper drop). There are a few faults with the match though- Jeff messes up a fair few spots (a weird roll-up near the end and a jawbreaker where he falls flat on his back) which sort of took away from the action.( Plus, Jeff looks like he's come straight from a paintball tournament.) In the end, Jericho powerbombs Jeff off the second rope and locks in what they're calling the Walls of Jericho, but what is actually just a run-of-the-mill Boston crab. Jeff taps anyway to this butchered Walls. HBK saves Jeff from the "Walls" after the match- he comes out to boos (Survivor Series 97) but ends up being cheered, which is weird because Jericho started off the match to boos, but the crowd switched to his side halfway through. (7.5)

MATCH 2-- STORM & REGAL vs RVD & KANE. OK match. Not wonderful. Storm hits a nice DDT halfway into it, but that's about it. The finish is, like one later in the evening, one you'll either like it or you won't: Storm messes with Kane's mask so he can't see, RVD is pushed into him and gets Chokeslammed. Regal covers RVD for the pin. (5)

MATCH 3-- MATT HARDY (v1.0) vs BILLY KIDMAN. Another match that grew on me after a second viewing. Matt & Kidman are two of Smackdown's greatest talents and this is a fine match. Hardy has some good offense during the match (his Side effect is impressive and Kidman takes Matt's Twist of Fate perfectly) and pulls out the win w/ a top rope Twist of Fate for the pin and the Cruiserweight Title. The crowd wasn't into this at all, which is a pity since it was one of the best matches of the night. (8)

MATCH 4-- THE UNDERTAKER vs BIG SHOW. Ugly. It's so slow at one point that Show hits 6 elbow drops (slowly) in succession as well as 5 headbutts. The only highlight of the match is Taker's plancha to Heyman and Albert (I refuse to call him A-Train- it's ridiculous). 'Taker wins with an abnormally quick chokeout w/ the Triangle hold. (The ref called for the bell way too quick) (3)

MATCH 5-- LESNAR & BENOIT vs TEAM ANGLE (HAAS, BENJAMIN & KURT ANGLE). Edge didn't compete due to a neck injury that will keep him out for a year, so they had it that Team Angle ambushed him in the back before the match. Good match as expected. Bit slow in the middle, but some great action towards the end. Lesnar F5s Angle while Charlie Haas is trapped in the Crossface. Haas taps out and Lesnar and Benoit win. (8)

MATCH 6-- TRIPLE H vs SCOTT STEINER. Big surprise as the Montreal crowd boo the crap out of Steiner and cheer The Game. The match is marred by too much interference by Evolution (though Flair's eyerake to Steiner and subsequent strut is pure gold!). Triple H manages to escape the Steiner recliner and blast him in the head with the World title. One Pedigree later and HHH leaves with the gold. Not a bad match. (6)

"MATCH" 7-- STONE COLD vs ERIC BISCHOFF. No surprise here. 4 Stunners to Bischoff from Austin, who's enjoying himself. JR goes way OTT and is advis ed by Tazz, after, to switch to decaf. Funny stuff. OK return for Stone Cold.

MATCH 8-- THE ROCK vs HULK HOGAN. New entrance vid for The Rock (very cool). Short return match between these two with a weird but excellent ending. Hogan hits the Legdrop and a guest ref (local guy) counts 1-2.. lights out. When the lights come back on, the ref is unconscious and there's a chair beside him. (I was thinking Vince at this point, then Goldberg when Vince was on the ramp, but it turns out it was the ref who was crooked). The Rock nails Hogan with the chair and Rock bottoms him. The ref springs to life and counts the 3! Interesting. (7)

Overall, No Way Out was pretty good- both Hardys had good matches, the 5 man tag was impressive and Rock-Hogan II was short, but sweet. It also set up feuds leading into WMXIX- Jericho vs Shawn Michaels (should be a classic), 'Taker vs Albert (should stink up the card), and Vince vs Hogan (should be awful!) A good night's entertainment.

This was a very good PPV indeed. The return of 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin was arguably the greatest thing that happened on this event.

The first match sees Chris Jericho taking on Jeff Hardy in a fine match, although Jeff looked awful. This was meant to be Chris Jericho vs Test, but in real life Test and Stacy Keibler ignored warnings of severe weather in Baltimore and they were late for the previous Raw, so WWE management punished them in this way.

Next up Matt Hardy V1 challenges Billy Kidman for the worthless Cruiserweight Championship in a very good match. Then The Undertaker battled The Big Show in a boring match. Taker won by a Dragon sleeper.

Next up Team Angle and Kurt Angle battled Chris Benoit and Brock Lesnar in a fantastic 3 on 2 handicap match! Edge was supposed to be in Lesnar and Benoit's corner, but had to drop out because of a severe neck injury. Benoit and Lesnar won. Next up WWE demonstrates it doesn't give a monkeys about the WWE Tag straps as Kane and RVD take on William Regal and Lance Storm in a boring contest. One interesting note is that Kane body slammed Regal and this knocked him out for 30 seconds. William and Storm won.

Next up Scott Steiner takes on Triple H for the Heavyweight gold. This was only a slight improvement on the pairs crap match at Royal Rumble 2003, but the running in of Ric Flair, Batista and Randy Orton spoiled things. Obviously HHH won.

Next up Eric Bischoff gets his ass whipped by the returning 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin in an hilarious contest. Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler and The Coach were enjoying themselves when this happened, as were about half the roster, which included Test, Al Snow, Rey Mysterio and The Hurricane! Next up The Rock defeated Hulk Hogan in a p*ss poor match. I mean it was bad. Their Wrestlemania 18 confrontation was way better than this. The only enjoyable thing about this match, was when referee Sylvain Grenier pretended to be knocked out, and he gave the chair to Rock to use on Hogan. Other than that the action was boring! Overall not bad! I give this PPV a 8/10