This was for Orton’s World Heavyweight Title, with the added stipulation that Orton can lose the title on a disqualification.
It’s not Over The Limit. It won’t ever be Over The Limit. It’s better than Capitol Punishment though, which was a retread not worth writing about. This is at least something halfway interesting, and the rare match that has a stipulation like that and still bothers to do something with it.
It helps that the match is great too, even if I don’t believe that these two can have anything less than that together, given the proper time. They have terrific natural chemistry with each other, not to go too into that again, but it’s always really cool to see guys get together and have them work together like hand in glove, sharing 100% of the same vision of wrestling. Christian is holding Randy’s hand through it, of course, as Randy has never had a strong opinion in his life, but he’s a guy who fits better with Christian’s mindset, philosophy, and style than maybe anyone Christian ever fought as a near-top singles wrestler.
The theme of the match is that Randy is big mad at Christian because Christian is a dirtbag, and they never deviate from it. Randy is too mad to let Christian even wind up controlling the match for long, and it works in this environment, with a Chicago crowd being fairly sympathetic towards Christian, even while loving some Randy Orton. Christian’s talented enough to find his openings, but they make the smart call to go right into the back and forth second half. It doesn’t make too much of a difference, although it’s always nice to see a WWE match that bothers with any sort of deviation from the norm. If these guys get to do a big nearfall trading run, they’re creative enough to constantly do new things, even here in their fourth title match in two and a half months. It’s not what it was before. It’s not what it’ll be in the future. But it’s just enough for me to still call this a great match. The work is good enough that the creative booking can do the rest of the heavy lifting.
Famously, Christian wins the title on a disqualification when Randy Orton gets too mad to stop himself and kicks him real hard in the tube.
It’s a wonderful finish and a really inspired bit of booking in the last place you’d expect. Matches with a stipulation like that always become about the gallant babyface holstering it for long enough to win cleanly and spoiling the coward’s easiest route to victory. It’s good as hell that for once, it didn’t happen. For a stipulation like that to have any real bite, it has to actually pay off at some point, otherwise it becomes like Abyss and the thumbtacks. If Christian’s going to be forced to work heel again because a seventy year old doesn’t like his face, he’s as good a choice as any to be the one to do it. It’s also absolutely the best way for him to regain the title. Beating Randy cleanly is never going to happen, and regular cheating feels very boring. This, though? Beautiful stuff. Try not to smile at “the first man to win a World Title by being kicked in the dick”.
My feeling’s always been that if you’re going to do some bullshit like this, you might as well go all the way with it. Put your back into it or don’t bother.
For once, they went all the way with it.
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HANDWERK 