The Case
WWE's biggest stars are ready to seek retribution at WWE: Vengeance
2011, and here's the complete lineup of the pay-per-view event:
• Jack Swagger & Dolph Ziggler vs. Air Boom in a WWE Tag Team
Championship Match
Two belts are up for grabs in the first matchup, and
Air Boom's Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne jump straight into action, offering
fans a series of spectacular high-risk maneuvers and awesome tag team
combinations. Ziggler and Swagger do their part to keep this title match
fast-paced and diverse, but Air Boom is clearly the dominating force throughout.
Still, both teams turn in fine performances inside the ring, and WWE:
Vengeance 2011 is off to a solid start.
• Zack Ryder vs. Dolph Ziggler in a United States Championship
Match
Immediately following the tag team match, Ziggler goes up against
Zack Ryder, a young WWE athlete who's good at jumping around but falls a little
short when it comes to delivering strong kicks and blows. Although both
contestants build up some momentum throughout this short battle, their display
of wrestling action falls a little flat. I wouldn't call this a disastrous title
match, but the WWE should've probably removed this one from the card. Nothing
special to see here…
• Beth Phoenix vs. Eve in a Divas Championship Match
While
this is certainly not the worst Divas contest I've seen this year, Beth Phoenix
and Eve spend way too much time engaging in long submission holds that
dramatically slows down the pace of the matchup. Alas, their decision to play it
safe and limit the use of big dives and other high-risk moves doesn't exactly
help either, and a solid finish really can't save this mediocre display. Time to
move on.
• Christian vs. Sheamus
Christian's got what it takes to
put on a highly entertaining show inside the ring, and his matchup against
Sheamus further proves he's perfectly capable of competing at the top level in
the WWE. While this is by no means a memorable match, Christian and Sheamus
deliver a set of clean wrestling maneuvers, going back and forth between
building momentum and taking a step back. The action we get to enjoy here does
get a little monotonous after a while. On a more positive note, the efforts
Christian and Sheamus bring to the table make this fight much more tolerable
than the previous two battles.
• The Miz & R-Truth vs. Triple H & CM Punk
Triple H
and CM Punk team up to punish The Miz and R-Truth, and the resulting matchup
doesn't disappoint. Triple H is obviously the biggest star in the ring this
time, and watching him deliver his trademark suplexes, spears, and blows is
always entertaining. R-Truth and The Miz get their fair share of the battle as
well, while HHH and Punk stumble across a few occasions to engage in hardcore
double team action. All in all, this one counts among the better matches of the
event.
• Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes
A new rivalry reaches its
peak, as Orton and Rhodes take it to the ring in this standard match. As
expected, Orton dominates most of the fight and changes up his attacks by moving
between blows, slaps, and kicks and powerful maneuvers, but Rhodes gets his
chance to strike back as well. The momentum of the match drops a little after
the first five minutes, but overall, Rhodes and Orton keep things interesting
enough.
• Mark Henry vs. Big Show in a World Heavyweight Championship
Match
One of the two main events on this PPV pitches two of WWE's biggest
and heaviest stars against each other. Despite their weight and size though, the
Big Show and Mark Henry try to impress their fans by going for a few high-risk
maneuvers, one of which even brings down the entire ring. Other than that
though, this title match is characterized mostly by strong blows and submission
holds.
• Alberto del Rio vs. John Cena in a Last Standing Match for the
WWE Championship
Although I'm not a huge fan of the Last Man Standing
match rules, Del Rio and Cena keep the action moving swiftly enough even though
their battle runs a little too long. That said, the two athletes attempt to keep
audiences on their feet by taking the action outside the ring and around the
arena. In that sense, this matchup quickly turns into a hardcore brawl, and a
decent one at that.
The disc includes the usual 1.78:1 transfer, and both image and audio do
what they're supposed to do. The only bonus you'll find on the DVD is a lame
backstage interview with Alberto del Rio.
WWE: Vengeance 2011 boasts a few compelling matches and some decent
moments, but it lacks the kind of wow factor you would expect from a
major WWE PPV. This isn't the company's worst 2011 event, but we've seen
better.
