No Mercy Preview

A Ladder Match for the Ages, and six other matches that you'll probably forget by tomorrow....

Let's get right to it...

Rey Mysterio vs. Kane
It's not WWF style to promote a stipulation like Rey losing his mask and not deliver on it. If it must be done, let's just hope they don't have him start rapping like WCW did.

Winner: Kane
My Pick: Rey Rey, and for this to just be a quick opener

#1 Contender's Match
Batista vs. JBL
Let's see - next month's pay per view has a voting gimmick? And there are multiple challengers to both heavyweight belts? Hmmmm.

They usually just go with the vote-for-the-opponent gimmick for one title match, and my money's on that being for Smackdown. Batista goes over here methinks, with the vote being on, I don't know, the stipulation or the guest ref or something. If this is a double DQ or a disputed finish, though, I wouldn't be surprised.

Winner: Batista
My Pick: Batista - I don't want to see JBL in the ring any more than you do.

ECW Championship
Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry
Eh, don't really care. As much as I keep reading about how well-done ECW has been over the past few months, the title itself just doesn't have much meaning.

Winner: Hardy, probably
My Pick: Ehhhh, why not Hardy, I guess

The Undertaker vs. The Big Show
Taker is supposedly hurt, bad, and Triple H probably needs as many heel challengers as possible for the Cyber Sunday voting. Chalk this one up to the Show, and if anyone from the WWF is reading this, please know that we're very, very thankful this spot is going to Show and not Khali.

Winner: The Big Show
My Pick: The Big Show

WWF Women's Championship
Beth Phoenix vs. Candice Michelle
Glamazon on PPV hopefully means Glamarella on PPV, and that's perfectly fine with me, even if we don't get a PPV Honk-A-Meter.

Winner: Beth Phoenix
My Pick: Santino, er, Beth

WWF Championship
Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy
And here's your clusterf*ck ending for the evening. In a lovely bit of WWF subtle foreshadowing, Vladimir Kozlov is actually IN THE VIDEO PACKAGES for this match, as if it were a triple-threat. You think he might be interfering here? Count on a disputed finish to lead to whatever they come up with for Cyber Sunday.

Winner: HHH (get a new belt, you dealbreaking bastard)
My Pick: HHH

WCW Championship
Ladder Match
Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels
Well - if you're buying the show, this is probably why. This is it, apparently - the end, at least for the next few months, of the best feud of the year. Each of these guys has been in their fair share of absolutely astounding ladder matches, and Michaels in particular is associated with the match more than anyone else. Love Jericho as champ, and totally didn't see it coming at all at Unforgiven - I would've bet a fortune that Orton wouldve been the last participant. This will likely hit the four-star barrier at a minimum, and could easily be the match of the year. The more time they can possibly work in for this, the better.

Winner: Chris Jericho
My Pick: Chris Jericho

Recommendation:

Well, it finally happened last month - the WWF shut down most of the live streaming sites, and enterprising folks like myself were forced to wait until the show ended before stealing a copy of it. I don't really understand where they're coming from on this, as it ws always my theory that they tacitly allowed it - moneyless folks like myself aren't going to buy the shows in most cases, but hey, if we're willing to put up with the spotty reception and frequent outages, why not allow interest in your product to burgeon by looking the other way on illicit feeds?

I can't recommend that you buy this show, really - $40 is quite a bit of money to spend on a PPV that's likely to have one memorable match. Normally, I'd tell you to go the cheapskate internet route, but that's likely to prove a challenge if you want to see this live. Personally, I'm going to give it a try, and then probably just download the thing as soon as it's over. If you do buy the thing, though, you're likely to get a good deal of your money's worth on the main event. With most of the other matches, I'm not so sure I'd watch them if they were on free television.

Enjoy the show, folks.