WWE: The Bash 2009 (2009) dvd

Reported by Ernest I Aguilar

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1) ECW Championship Scramble

---In case you don't know the rules, basically two wrestlers compete for a few minutes, and then another one enters. After all five guys have entered, the 5 wrestlers only have a few more minutes to compete. Whoever has the last pinfall or submission victory before the time limit expires will walk away as the champion. Christian and Jack Swagger started things off, and worked very well together, like they always do. Finlay is always a reliable performer. I hope WWE realizes the value in having a hard knocks worker like Finlay with their company. Tommy Dreamer (the champion) and Mark Henry did what we expected them do as the hard-working veteran and giant athlete, respectively. I guess my overall reaction is that I enjoyed this Scramble Match, especially when all five men are...well, scrambling to get the title with very little time left. However, as the WWE's fourth Scramble Match, I didn't get into this quite as much as the first three from the "Unforgiven 2008" event in Cleveland. But that's just nitpicking. Bottom line is that ECW's only match on the card got me into the mood for the rest of the event.

"7.0 / 10"

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2) Mask-vs-Title

Chris Jericho (Intercontinental champion)

v. Rey Mysterio (Must Unmask If Defeated)

---If you can forget that Rey was demasked 10 years ago in WCW, then you can get into this match like the rest of us. Don't you hate it when everyone seems to love a match, and you're wondering, "What's the big deal?" Let me assure you, just like everything you read about HBK/Undertaker from "WrestleMania 25", this seesaw classic is the real deal. Jericho and Mysterio play off their previous matches, by adding more counters and twists, just like Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn used to do in their ECW contests. There's really nothing I need to say to persuade you to check this out. Even if the "Judgment Day" or "Extreme Rules" showdowns weren't your cup of tea, I beg you to give this one a chance. If you know what Jericho is capable of, and you know what Mysterio is capable of, then you need to at least YouTube or rent this DVD just to watch this match. At the time I'm writing this review, we've got a few months before 2010 hits us. But so far, I haven't seen a better match this year. Watch it immediately!

"9.0 / 10"

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3) No Disqualifications

Dolph Ziggler v. The Great Khali

---This match got its own video package? O...Kay. Now, like everyone else who watched "SmackDown" leading up to this, I just knew that Kane was going to ruin everything for our beloved Punjabi Giant, giving the cocky Ziggler his 3rd "win" over Khali. However, I had some fun watching this. There's something about seeing a giant just manhandle the tar out of a smaller jackass that I just love watching. I mean, come on, don't you like seeing Ziggler pounding and trash talk to Great Khali, only to have Khali's palm smack Ziggler's chest? I can't believe I'm sticking up for this one, but I have to be honest, and say that Ziggler really worked his tail off to make this fresh.

"6.0 / 10"

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4) Unified Tag Team Championships

Carlito & Primo (champions)

Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes v.

v. Edge & Chris Jericho

---Alright, this is one of the crazy things from "The Bash" that I won't stick up for. You see, Edge & Jericho were last-minute additions so that "SmackDown" GM Theodore Long could shake things up to keep his job. That's cool. But, the whole match basically has the Colons and Legacy duking it out for the gold, as if it was the original advertised match before Y2J & dge were added. Now, the commentoators and WWE try to spin this as a storyline, because Edge & Jericho do nothing until the very end. But just because you're letting us in on the joke doesn't make the joke funny. In fact, the original two-on-two suspense was taken away from me, and I didn't even get to see my two favorite working Canadian wrestlers participate in the action. What a ripoff! To be fair, Legacy & The Colons had a decent match together, but I felt just as screwed as they did when Edge got the pinfall.

"5.5 / 10"

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5) Women's Championship

Melina (champion) v. Michelle McCool

---To my surprise, I really enjoyed this match too. Melina and Michelle McCool are Divas who usually try to throw different things into their performances, the former more high-risk, the latter more technically diverse. The Sacramento crowd didn't getinto this match much, which is common for women's matches in the WWE. But I still enjoyed watching McCool and Melina put on their aggressive battle.

"7.0 / 10"

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6) World Heavyweight Championship

CM Punk (champion) v. Jeff Hardy

---One of the highlights of 2009 is definitely going to be CM Punk's slow gradual turn into a villain. At this point in time, he was merely an opportunist rather than the self-righteous Straightedge Superstar he became. When it came time for Jeff Hardy to challenge Punk for the gold, they both put on a very good match. The two men complement each other quite well, especially because Punk seems to show off his skills more than he used to in the past few years. This man is an ROH veteran, you know. I also was a bit late to the Jeff Hardy wagon; he really is a reliable and entertaining singles competitor. This "Bash" title bout, like Punk's character turn, takes its time to put the piece together, but doesn't test your patience. It's just a solid back-and-forth affair. What'll frustrate some people is the cheap finish in which Punk got himself disqualified. I say that it's alright to be ticked off once in a while, because we can't have justice 100% of the time. We'd have no storylines! The ending helped the storyline and was well-executed.

"7.5 / 10"

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7) John Cena v. The Miz

---Like everybody else who watched this match, I was disappointed to see 4 months of Miz's trash ta,lking result in a glorified 6-minute squash. I naively hoped that Miz would get to look like a million bucks, and move to the next level. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. However, just like Ziggler/Khali somehow managed to entertain me, I can't say I was bored. Sure, if I paid $40 for this PPV, I would've been harsher. But from the DVD viewing, I guess I'm grateful that it was longer than most squash matches, and admire seeing some unusual offense from both men.

"6.0 / 10" (most will rate this lower)

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8) 3 Stages of Hell - WWE Championship

Randy Orton (champion) v. Triple H

---Like many hardcore fans, I'm tired of seeing these two work together. Over the past two years I've seen these guys in a Steel Cage, three Last Man Standing Matches, two title matches in a single night, home invasions, family assaults...what else could they do? Unfortunately, this 3 Stages of Hell Match probably won't please most people. It lacks the feeling of a long gurleing battle, like what Steve Austin and HHH put together at "No Way Out 2001". Even the "Armageddon 2002" HBK/HHH showdown (overrated in my opinion) had a lot more intensity. This 3 Stages of Hell Match was entertaining enough for me, but I have a feeling I'm just the forgiving type. The first two falls end in a matter of minutes; WWE would call it storytelling, I call it time-crunching. The rest of the match seems to be WWE's new definition of brutality: If both guys are fatigued, it must be a brutal match. But for a match with the word "Hell" in it, this one was a little soft. But like most other matches on this card, I never got restless, and I somehow enjoyed it. I like this match, but I won't recommend it to anybody else.

"7.0 / 10"

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"The Bash 2009" really shouldn't get a positive review like this. But if I like something, I'm gonna say it, even if there are a lot of conventional reasons why I shouldn't. "ECW" has had a good PPV year so far, and their Championship Scramble was another good match. It was nice to see "SmackDown" stay reliable as the wrestling show, with an incredible IC Title match, and solid Women's & World Heavyweight Championship matches. Even Khali/Ziggler wasn't too bad in my book. "RAW" is sadly becoming the weakest of the three brands, with barely passable PPV matches like what we saw from this PPV. It's also too bad that the Unified Tag Team Titles seem doomed to be an afterthought.

I understand why most won't like "The Bash 2009", but I bought it on a whim, and I'm glad I did.