-- 6/28 WWE The Bash PPV Reax

Alex Roberts in the U.K. (5.0): Best Match: Jericho vs. Mysterio. Worst Match: Triple H vs. Randy Orton. As has been the regular pattern with WWE Pay-Per-Views as of late, The Bash started well and then completely fell apart. The Scramble match opening started slow (and please note that Christian is still getting no reaction) but had a frantic finish, which was perhaps a little too frantic and confusing for the live crowd to fully digest. It was a strong opening though followed up by another Match of the Year contender from Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio. These two just click in the ring together and strung together some excellent spots. The double springboard was particularly impressive and Mysterio's leap to the outside was enhanced by an excellent camera angle. The close falls in closing stages were excellent and once again they pulled out a fantastically creative finish with the double mask swerve. I'll quite happily pay for another match between these two. Dolph Ziggler (quite possibly my new favorite wrestler) was impressive against Khali. He moved around a lot and at a high pace to counter Khali's slow motion offense and keep the match at least somewhat entertaining. The return of Kane isn't exciting nor is the impending feud with Khali, but maybe WWE will surprise me and have Kane act as Ziggler's bodyguard, which could be fun. The Tag Titles match was a solid WWE formula tag match with the Colons adding enough athleticism to proceedings to keep me engaged. The addition of Jericho and Edge was horrible, though. I dislike WWE crapping over the one tag team feud they've actually put some degree of effort to in far too long by throwing Jericho and Edge into this randomly and that finish was horrendously messy. Melina and Michelle McCool was a decent enough diva offering, although at some point the WWE just has to face reality that Michelle McCool isn't remotely engaging as a television character and that fans simply don't care about her.

I felt The Bash really started to fall apart with the World Title match, though. As much as some may praise the new C.M. Punk character, I believe it's doing nothing for his matches. Live fans don't know what they're supposed to make of him because once again WWE hasn't put the groundwork into making this angle work and as a result they don't really care about anything he does right now. The sooner they pull the trigger on his heel turn the better. Worse than the Punk mess though is the fact that this match was just dull. It wasn't bad it just wasn't good either. There was nothing to it. We then move onto the giant screw up that was Cena-Miz. After an excellent video package leading into the match, WWE dropped the ball with the match itself, serving up a standard Cena television match rather than a credible main event level Pay-Per-View match. This angle and The Miz deserved more than a throwaway five-minute match that meant nothing. WWE had the chance to make a dynamic and fresh star with The Miz but they screwed up and stuck to the status quo booking. On the plus side, they did manage to avoid completely burying Miz but its hard to see what he got out of this match. WWE's fear of creating new stars that audience might actually care about and have some connection with rears its ugly head. And then the show finishes with another awful Triple H-Randy Orton match. I would honestly be a happy man if I never see these two wrestle each other again. They don't click in the ring and its just painful watching they have the same boring punch and kick match every time they step into the ring. Things were made even worse this month by more burial booking of Orton and Legacy as a whole. Orton didn't win one fall in this three fall match by himself. The first fall he "won" because Triple H got himself DQ'd and gave Orton the victory. The second fall he lost and the third fall he won because Triple H had to over come Legacy, which he pretty much did because as ever Rhodes and DiBiase were no match for the mighty Triple H and his sledgehammer. It's insulting how easily Triple H and an injured and beaten down Triple H at that gets the better of Legacy every week. I'm tired of Raw being the Triple H show. I'm one of the few people who actually defended Triple H in the past but now I find myself loathing him more and more with every minute he's on television. The Bash was a Pay-Per-View with much promise and potential, but none of that really panned out and the final three matches left me feeling so frustrated, bored, and disenfranchised with the WWE product I can't even muster up the energy to be especially annoyed.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for a "WWE PPV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on the PPV, click here.

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