OPENING SEGMENT- Steph and Vince come out and say that they won’t let Hunter compete tonight out of concern for his well-being. Rats. When they were advertising Triple H vs. Curtis Axel for tonight, I was hoping that WWE had realized how poorly they did the first Hunter vs. Axel match and figured they would try it again and give Axel a decisive win. Instead, it’s just an angle to get over a possible retirement for Hunter. I also wasn’t thrilled with them both saying that Axel was “beneath” Hunter.

The Shield then came down towards the ring, with Vince and Steph still in it, and we went to a commercial break. When we came back from the break, Vince and Steph were gone, and Cole told us that if you had the WWE App, you could have seen Vince and Steph leave the ring without being attacked by the Shield. If having to broadcast for it during commercials makes WWE not do semi-kayfabe breaking things like not having it seem like people just wait around doing nothing during commercial breaks, then I fully support it.

THE SHIELD vs. RANDY ORTON & TEAM HELL NO- 6.5/10
I love what they are doing with Dragon. They build up his confidence on Smackdown, then have him and Orton bump into each other, leading to Dragon get pinned. Once again we get to see him look dominant, but in his own mind he is right back where he was before… except that now he has beef with Orton.

ORTON & HELL NO BACKSTAGE- awesome segment! Now Dragon is an even WORSE place mentally… and we get ANOTHER DRAGON MATCH!
YES! YES! YES!

HUNTER & STEPH BACKSTAGE- good stuff. Remember the March 8th 2010 episode of Impact when TNA tried to build up drama by having people try to talk Hulk Hogan out of wrestling? This is that segment done right!

THE USOS vs. THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS- 4.5/10

ALBERTO DEL RIO (w/Ricardo Rodriguez) vs. BIG E. LANGSTON (w/AJ Lee)- 5/10
GREAT for such a short match!

CODY RHODES vs. SHEAMUS- 5/10

HUNTER & STEPH BACKSTAGE AGAIN- eh. So maybe we’ll get the match next week. Also, I really don’t like them breaking kayfabe by having everyone call Triple H “Paul.”

DRAGON & RYBACK BACKSTAGE- way too scripted.

HEYMAN & VINCE SEGMENT- well… I guess we won’t get Axel vs. Triple H next week. But we will get Axel vs. Cena in a No DQ’s match… which will likely end in Ryback costing Cena the match so it really doesn’t help Axel much at all.

FANDANGO (w/Summer Rae) vs. THE GREAT KHALI (w/Hornswoggle & Natalya)- no rating. Good segment. I really liked what they did with Miz and Barrett. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. I’m not sure why we never got an announcement of Fandango getting counted out, though.

THE MIZ vs. WADE BARRETT- 4/10
This match should have been saved for Smackdown.

HEYMAN & JERICHO CONTRACT SIGNING- huge, boring, waste of time. Jericho was entirely unfunny and just came off like a bully.

THE BELLA TWINS & AJ LEE vs. KAITLYN & THE FUNKADACTYLS- 2.25/10
You could hear one of the Bellas calling spots pretty clearly.

DRAGON & KANE BACKSTAGE- felt slightly over-scripted, but they made it work… aside from that one-liner at the end. “Call me when you find your mind because it’s obvious that you’ve lost it.” Ouch.

WYATT FAMILY HYPE VIDEO- awesome, aside from the creepy goat mask.

DANIEL BRYAN vs. RYBACK- 6.75/10
One of Ryback’s best singles matches. I was extremely annoyed at the DQ! What a crappy way to end what could have been a great match. At least Cena made the save, and they made a great transition into…

NO DISQUALIFICATION MATCH: John Cena vs. Curtis Axel (w/Paul Heyman)- 6.75/10
I could have done without Cena kicking out of Axel’s finish onto a steel chair in just his third match. I also could have done without the announcers reminding me that this is a No Disqualifications match every three seconds. As for what I could have done with… how about Axel actually getting to PIN Cena after Ryback’s interference. I mean COME ON! Count-outs in a No DQ’s match? At least Axel got to look very strong here.

Overall, a decent show. Dragon is awesome.

Big Red Machine wrote: I mean COME ON! Count-outs in a No DQ’s match?

8-|

DevilWithin wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: I mean COME ON! Count-outs in a No DQ’s match?

8-|

it does kinda make sense, otherwise they would say it's a NO DQ, No Countouts match.

cero2k wrote:

DevilWithin wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: I mean COME ON! Count-outs in a No DQ’s match?

8-|

it does kinda make sense, otherwise they would say it's a NO DQ, No Countouts match.

There never is and there never has been countouts in a NO DQ match. Hence NO DQ meaning all normal rules and regulations are out the window; you cant lose by some technicality.

DevilWithin wrote:

cero2k wrote: it does kinda make sense, otherwise they would say it's a NO DQ, No Countouts match.

There never is and there never has been countouts in a NO DQ match. Hence NO DQ meaning all normal rules and regulations are out the window; you cant lose by some technicality.

Under normal circumstances, I would like the differentiation between No DQ's and something like a Street Fight which (to me anyway) always meant No DQ's and no count-outs, but here it really just felt like they had count-outs so Cena didn't need to be pinned by Axel, which is infuriating.

DevilWithin wrote:

cero2k wrote: it does kinda make sense, otherwise they would say it's a NO DQ, No Countouts match.

There never is and there never has been countouts in a NO DQ match. Hence NO DQ meaning all normal rules and regulations are out the window; you cant lose by some technicality.

NO DQ is just that, you can't get disqualified no matter what you do, that doesn't mean you can't lose by countout, pin, or submission.

cero2k wrote:

DevilWithin wrote:

cero2k wrote: it does kinda make sense, otherwise they would say it's a NO DQ, No Countouts match.

There never is and there never has been countouts in a NO DQ match. Hence NO DQ meaning all normal rules and regulations are out the window; you cant lose by some technicality.

NO DQ is just that, you can't get disqualified no matter what you do, that doesn't mean you can't lose by countout, pin, or submission.

I agree with you, but that has never been the case before, and no explanation was given for the sudden rule change.