BRM Reviews WWE Bragging Rights 2009

[Big Red Machine]

WWE Bragging Rights 2009 (10/25/2009)- Pittsburgh, PA

BRAGGING RIGHTS MATCH #1: The Miz(Raw) vs. John Morrison(Smackdown)- 6.75/10
This match had a VERY long video package before it, and I get what they were trying to say, but they really buried Marty Jannetty in this. The match itself was great.

BACKSTAGE SEGMENT WITH CODY, TRUTH, AND BIG SHOW- Some good stuff between Truth and Cody in here, but the beginning was so painfully overscripted,

BRAGGING RIGHTS MATCH #1: Raw Divas (Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim, & Melina) vs. Smackdown Divas (Beth Phoenix, Michelle McCool, & Natalya)- 4.5/10
Standard babyface in peril stuff. The match was decent but short. It also suffered from the fact that the outcome was quite obvious.

TEAM RAW BACKSTAGE- bad
Hunter tires to give a pep talk, but Swagger interrupts him. DX tries to foster team spirit by making fun of everyone else on their team. Hunter eventually gets to finish giving his pep talk.

FATAL FOUR WAY MATCH FOR THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION: The Undertaker(c) vs. CM Punk vs. Batista vs. Rey Mysterio- 7/10
A short match, considering the guys involved, but there was a lot of great stuff going on here. Taker was the focus of the match, with everyone trying to take him down. Punk used hit-and-run tactics to try to win the match, and I absolutely loved the story they told with Rey and Batista getting in the way of each other’s pins, culminating in the post-match segment where the title got in the way of their friendship when Batista attacked Rey. Great stuff from those two.

BRAGGIN RIGHTS MATCH #3: Team Raw (Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Jack Swagger, Cody Rhodes, Big Show, Mark Henry, & Kofi Kingston) vs. Team Smackdown, Chris Jericho, Kane, R-Truth, Matt Hardy, Tyson Kidd, David Hart Smith, & Finlay)- 6.5/10
So everyone on both teams is wearing their show’s t-shirt… aside from Shawn and Hunter, who are wearing their D-X gear. Really, guys? You’re supposed to be the CAPTAINS of Team Raw. You couldn’t have not worn the D-X shirts just this once? (Shawn was wearing some goofy-looking Raw leggings, though.)
I’m a sucker for that spot where two big men have a face-off, then start slugging it out, so I loved the stuff we got between Kane and Big Show. They kind of just did stuff, but it was definitely good stuff. The teams worked well together… until Big Show turned on Team Raw at the finish.

ANYTHING GOES, FALLS COUNT ANYTWHERE, 60 MINUTE IRON MAN MATCH FOR THE WWE TITLE: Randy Orton(c) vs. John Cena- 9/10
In addition to the other stips, if Cena won, Orton would not get a rematch. Orton won, Cena would be forced to go to Smackdown. So basically, this match was a big freakin’ deal.
There are a lot of people who don’t like this match, but as you can tell by the rating, I am not one of them. They made good use of all of the stips, and I liked the way they used things that aren’t normally finishers for totally believable falls. The slow pace worked perfectly, the fans were extremely hot for all of Cena’s hope spots and his comeback, and the finish was absolutely awesome.
The created spots for Kofi Kingston and Legacy and did some very creative spots. One of the aforementioned creative spots that they did which I often hear people crap on is the spot where they teased Orton burning Cena with the pyro.
Yes. They actually did that.
And I thought it worked perfectly.
Obviously no one really thought Cena would get burned, but I thought the spot was executed well and I loved the way the set the stage for it while they were fighting over near the pyro controls. I also thought really it got over just how much of a total sadistic psychopath Orton was. I loved the way that Orton got so damn frustrated when he realized that Cena escaped a severe injury. Great character work by Randy.
Anyway, in conclusion, if you haven’t seen this match before, go watch it for yourself before judging it.

This was a great show from WWE. I absolutely loved the logo and the way they had the ring set up, with the ropes on one half of the ring blue and the other half of the ring red. They really pushed the Bragging Rights concept hard in other, more subtle ways in the set-up, too. For example, Michael Cole was wearing a red shirt with a black tie while Todd Grisham was wearing a white shirt with a blue tie. While the Bragging Rights match itself didn’t quite deliver, we had a lot of other great wrestling, a big angle, and an absolutely amazing main event.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Michael Cole “This is vintage Bragging Rights!”
How can it be VINTAGE Bragging Rights if this is the first one?!

[NWK2000]

Bragging Rights would've been a cool concept in early/mid 2000s, but by this point the brand thing was on its last leg anyway.

[Big Red Machine]

Bragging Rights would've been a cool concept in early/mid 2000s, but by this point the brand thing was on its last leg anyway.

Yeah. They actually could have used this to push a return of the brand rivalry if they wanted to.

[NWK2000]

Bragging Rights would've been a cool concept in early/mid 2000s, but by this point the brand thing was on its last leg anyway.

Yeah. They actually could have used this to push a return of the brand rivalry if they wanted to.

the inclusion of an ECW brand in 2006 was the closest they ever came to legit putting life into the brand formula, as the first several episodes of ECW on Sci Fi felt completely different than anything you were watching on Raw/SD at the time.

[Big Red Machine]

Bragging Rights would've been a cool concept in early/mid 2000s, but by this point the brand thing was on its last leg anyway.

Yeah. They actually could have used this to push a return of the brand rivalry if they wanted to.

the inclusion of an ECW brand in 2006 was the closest they ever came to legit putting life into the brand formula, as the first several episodes of ECW on Sci Fi felt completely different than anything you were watching on Raw/SD at the time.

Yeah. Even going until when Big Show was champion, they billed it as if they were bringing HUGE names over from Raw and Smackdown to face off against the ECW Champion