ARN - Bragging Rights 2010 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Bragging Rights 2010 

Bragging Rights 2010 was on October 24 that year at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was the second year for the event and it received 137,000 buys - down from 181,000 the year before. Attendance that night was reported to be about 9,000. The Target Center holds almost 20,000 fans at full attendance, so less than half of the arena was filled.

Meltzer reported the only reason the event was brought back was to help promote the Smackdown vs. Raw video game. That makes sense, since Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 was the sponsor. The set is a mash-up of the Raw and Smackdown sets; the ropes are even half red, half blue.

Before we get to the event itself, let’s look at what all was happening in the world of wrestling leading up to the show.

The Network

The WWE Network, which had been targeted for a 2011 release, was delayed with a new target date set for January 2012. It would end up being delayed over two more years before finally launching on February 24, 2014.

Seven Years to Get Over

Kevin Nash gave an interview, perhaps referencing The Nexus, saying it takes seven years before you can get over and draw money. Meltzer reported he called the WWE youth movement a mistake. Chris Jericho disagreed in an interview, saying six or seven MONTHS - maybe. He blasted Nash for being short-sighted.

Matt Hardy gets his release

On October 14, Matt Hardy was granted his release after trying for sometime. He said in an interview it was harder to get his release than it was to get hired. Hardy said he could finally reinvent himself - and we would see that with the eventual Broken Matt Hardy character.

Freddy Prinze Jr. joins WWE (again)

Observer: Actor Freddy Prinze Jr. was rehired by WWE as a producer and director. He had a brief run as part of the writing team in 2009. The story we got is that Prinze Jr. got back in touch with the company in August and said he was interested in working there again, but didn’t want to travel to Stamford. He’s going to be at a lot of the television shoots involved with backstage pre-tapes, on-site vignettes, and will be involved in a lot of the creative meetings, but via conference call from Los Angeles. He’ll fly in for a lot of the television shoots, but not all. He was generally well liked by everyone in creative when he was there.

POSSIBLE Question: Did you ever work with Freddy Prinze Jr? Any stories?

Chris Benoit’s dad shoots on Linda, WWE

Meltzer: When he was in Hartford (during the last week of October 2010), Michael Benoit claimed Linda McMahon was running only to protect the WWE, and said he believes the way the McMahons handled the death of his son and his family and their approach to the health of performers should disqualify her from being in Congress. “I’m almost thankful this lady is running for the Senate of the United States. Why? Because it’s put her company right in the spotlight and given me an opportunity to talk about what I believe is the underlying reasons for all the deaths in the industry.”

This didn’t help the buyrate...

The night before Bragging Rights was a much-more talked about event in sports history: UFC 121, featuring Cain Velasquez defeating Brock Lesnar by TKO in 4:12 of the very first round to win the heavyweight title. That event did 1,050,000 buys - compared to 137,000 for Bragging Rights the next night.

At Crown Jewel 2019, Lesnar would defeat Cain in a WWE ring in 1:28.

Now, let’s look at the event itself!

In a dark match, MVP pinned Chavo Guerrero.

In the opening match of the show, Daniel Bryan beat Dolph Ziggler in 16:15 in a non-title Smackdown vs. Raw match.

Observer: Fans were chanting “Bryan” from early in the match and the crowd was hot for this. Michael Cole was pushing Bryan with the nickname “Mr. Bland.” Not sure that’s going to help get him over as historically people who the promotion pushed as not being colorful, or as boring, have never overcome the tag. They did good early matwork, with Ziggler doing amateur takedowns and riding based on his background, and Bryan working for submissions based on his training. Bryan came off the apron with a flying knee to the floor. He also did a great running dropkick. One thing I have to note is that Matt Striker was completely toned down as an announcer on the show. He oversold the Smackdown beating Raw finish, but that worked as part of the show. But the usual Strikerisms were gone.

Lawler told a joke about Vickie Guerrero saying a car crashed into her because they were afraid they’d run out of gas going around her. Lawler would make fun of her weight, which would probably run their much talked about female viewership the wrong way if it wasn’t for the fact Vickie is such a great heel. Michael Cole and Striker kept putting over how beautiful she was. Lawler started making fun of Striker calling one of Bryan’s holds the cattle mutilation, as if Lawler realized that’s actually the name the hold has been given ever since he started using it. He didn’t do the move in this match. Bryan did moves like a kick to the face, a flying kick and a springboard dropkick for near falls. Ziggler went for the Zig Zag, but Bryan held the ropes, so Ziggler took the bump. Bryan used a kick to the head for another near fall. After crotching Ziggler, Bryan used a backward superplex, but Ziggler reversed in mid-air for a near fall, and then Bryan reversed that into a cradle for another near fall. This elicited a “This is awesome” chant. After more near falls, Ziggler used the famouser and the ref counted to three. However, he saw Bryan’s foot on the ropes and restarted the match. Ziggler used the sleeper but Bryan made the rope. Ziggler then started yelling at the ref, and that gave Bryan the opening for the LeBell lock. After the match, Guerrero and Ziggler were complaining to the ref, who then threw Vickie out of the match. The match was over, but it still got an easy pop. ***½

Notes:

• Dolph has his Perfection theme, which was remixed into the Here To Show The World theme he uses today.
• Lawler and Striker overload commentary with fat jokes about Vicki (a truck hit her because it was too far to drive around; Arms jiggle when clapping).
• Bryan is super over here but it feels odd not hearing the Yes chants.

Backstage skit with the Raw team. Santino gets the biggest reaction, playing the comedy angle hard. There’s major friction between the Raw brand stars. Cohesion seems likely to play a role in events to come.

Dashing Cody Rhodes is out, teaming with Drew McEntyre. Both look so young. Cody still has no kneepads.

POSSIBLE Question: When should a wrestler not wear kneepads?

Anonymous Raw GM makes an impromptu match and...

John Cena & David Otunga win the WWE tag titles beating Cody Rhodes & Drew McIntyre in 6:27.

Observer: This started with Rhodes & McIntyre coming out and McIntyre saying, “All the boys in the back are scared of us.” Then the computer said that there was a team that wanted to face them. Wade Barrett came out and said Cena & Otunga would challenge them for the title. Cena worked almost the entire match. Otunga kept wanting to tag in and Cena ignored him. For the finish, Cena blocked crossroads by Rhodes, and put the STF on him in the middle for the tap. For some reason, McIntyre didn’t even try to make a save. Otunga then did this big celebration like he had won something, which was funny. They noted he became tag champion because of his partner and they joked how Otunga is known for mooching off his partner (in reference to his only being known and getting into WWE and getting his push largely because he’s Jennifer Hudson’s fiance). Cena then gave Otunga the Attitude Adjustment and held up both belts himself. I thought it was way early for Cena to be getting any offense in on Nexus members, but if they are rushing the time frame of the completion of the angle, then it doesn’t really matter. Crowd wasn’t into the match, although Cena got his usual dueling chants at one point. *1/2

Note:

• It’s basically Cena vs all three. Cena single handedly wins the match. Then hits the AA on Otunga.

Movie preview for Big Show’s Knucklehead, which the promo says will be out in theaters. Slant Magazine gave the film half a star out of 5 stars. They wrote the movie’s title is "a description for both the film and anyone who chooses to be its audience.

Guess how much money Knucklehead made at the box office?

Answer: $7,927 Worldwide, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com
Note: That wouldn’t include direct to video sales or possible TV licensing for the movie.

POSSIBLE Question: Did you ever see Knucklehead? :)

Ted DiBiase pinned Goldust in 7:27.

Observer: Goldust came out with the Million Dollar belt, but this was not announced as a title match. Unlike when his father held the same title and it was defended like a championship, this is just something you steal back and forth. The wrestling here was good but the match had no heat. Maryse attacked Aksana to try and steal the belt back. Aksana, getting beaten up, sold comicly by continuing to pull her short dress down (she was wearing shorts underneath). There should be a lesson here when it comes to ring combat. If you are going to get into a brawl where you are selling, you shouldn’t be wearing a short dress--unless you aren’t PG and the idea is for it to ride up. Aksana started crying. Goldust, who has fallen for her (they are doing a wedding in a week or two on the Internet NXT show of all places), was distracted. DiBiase hit the DDT and pinned him. After the match, with Maryse now holding the belt, Aksana attacked her and took the belt . DiBiase then cornered Aksana. Aksana then started coming on to DiBiase, who seemed to like it. This allowed Goldust to come up from behind and deliver the final cut, and Goldust & Aksana left together with the belt. Michael Cole was throughout this match defending Goldust in commentary. **

Notes:

• Goldusts bodysuit appears to have a trapdoor on the ass. This is so he can make a Goldmud.
• Aksana gets attacked by Maryse and while getting beat up, keeps adjusting her dress.
• Contrary to Metlzer’s point, I always saw the Million Dollar Title as a prize similar to a $15,000 bodyslam match. It can be put up for grabs as a stake in a match, but it’s not an official title.

Layla (co-champion with McCool) retained the Divas title pinning Natalya in 4:48.

First, Layla and Michelle McCool cut a promo on people from Minnesota. They talked about how fat the women there are. Then, they both made a joke about deleting text messages from Brett Favre - which got the biggest reaction of the segment, match included.

“Shockmaster bad,” Matt Striker remarked.

Observer: Natalya did a delayed vertical suplex while doing quarter-squats which was different. McCool tried to interfere but Natalya threw her into the barricade. But the match looked bad from there. At one point Layla grabbed the belt and wanted to leave. Natalya ran outside and attacked her and threw her back in the ring. But McCool kicked Natalya in the head and Layla pinned her. 1/4*

Video of the Mall of America is shown - the venue for the first WCW Nitro. Cole says King was there today but King says he wasn’t because his plane caught on fire!

Josh Matthews hypes the Buried Alive match from inside of the grave. It appears that his head is above the grave, so there is no way it is legitimately six feet deep.

Background: At Hell in a Cell, Paul Bearer, who was with The Undertaker, betrayed him giving the victory to Kane. Two weeks later on SmackDown, Bearer issued one more challenge to The Undertaker in a Buried Alive match.

Kane beat Undertaker in 16:53 in the Buried Alive match to retain the World title.

Fast Facts:

• It’s the 5th Buried Alive match ever.
• First time a singles title has been defended in one (there was a tag title match once).
• In the preceding Buried Alive match, between Taker/Mr McMahon, Kane buried Undertaker, building to his return as the Deadman and their Wrestlemania XX match.
• Undertaker has lost twice in a row on PPV against Kane.
• Unlike last time, champion Kane comes out last.
• This is the 15th time Kane and Undertaker have had a one-on-one match on TV (as their respective characters; more if you count Unabomb/Isaac Yankeem). Kane won four times; Undertaker won seven; the rest were no contests.
• It’s their last singles match on tv.

Observer: The match opened with a “We Want Blood” chant which must have thrilled the company on a live show. Fortunately that ended quickly. Mostly brawling in the stands. Crowd was dead in this match as well. Undertaker started throwing chairs in the ring and also threw in the top of the announcers table, which accidentally hit Kane. When Undertaker got in the ring, Kane grabbed a chair and nailed Undertaker in the gut and hit Undertaker with three chair shots to the back. The one thing I’ve noticed about chair shots to the back is because wrestling has had so many years of chairs to the head, people don’t react to chairs to the back because they expect them to the head. I’m wondering if you just need to put a moratorium on chairs for a little while, so people will react just seeing the chair used as opposed to now where they expect a hard shot to the head and don’t react unless they get it. More chair shots by Kane and two choke slams. Since there were no pins, Kane had to carry Undertaker to near the entrance area where they had a tombstone and an open grave for someone to be put in. Kane tried to put him in the grave, but Undertaker caught Kane in the gogoplata. Kane started tapping, but no submissions here. Kane then passed out. Undertaker threw him in the grave. He was about to start burying him, but he spotted Paul Bearer. He threw Bearer’s face in the dirt. He was about to choke slam Bearer into the grave when Nexus all attacked him. They all first bumped for Undertaker, until the numbers game became too much. They were beating him down, and Kane emerged from the grave. As they held Undertaker, Kane nailed him with the urn. The Nexus guys started shoveling dirt on him when Kane told them to leave. Kane then did his magic stuff which caused a tractor positioned near the site to drop tons of dirt on Undertaker, and leave him buried alive once again. *’

Notes:

• It’s the same finish as basically every Undertaker casket/buried alive match: Taker is going to win, then a bunch of people run out to attack Taker, costing him the match. This time, it’s Nexus.
• Kane uses his powers to blow fire out from behind the headstone and to make the front end loader dump dirt onto Taker. Announcers go from saying it’s 1,000 pounds of dirt to 2 to 3,000 pounds.
• So we did the research: A typical front end loader of this size holds what is considered two cubic yards of dirt (a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet). According to Rocksanddirt.com - each cubic yard equals about 1,000 pounds, possibly a little more. So, two would equal 2,000-3,000 pounds. The announcers were accurate.

It’s time to decide who gets Bragging Rights ™

In 27:43, Team Smackdown defeated Team Raw for the second year in a row.

Team Smackdown consisted of Big Show & Rey Mysterio & Edge & Kofi Kingston & Jack Swagger & Tyler Reks & Alberto Del Rio, with mascot Hornswoggle. Team Raw was The Miz & C.M. Punk & John Morrison & Ezekiel Jackson & Santino Marella & R-Truth & Sheamus

Observer: I was genuinely surprised at the outcome, because Smackdown got the better of Raw in most of the angles and key outcomes building up to the match on TV. Hornswoggle was dressed up like a Viking since they were in Minnesota. R-Truth got like 5% of his usual ring entrance reaction due to the new song not being over. Everyone had to wrestle in identical T-shirts, Red for Raw and Blue for Smackdown. This made the match look incredibly low rent. Except for the last few minutes, there wasn’t much heat and a lot of the match dragged with people the crowd didn’t know or care about. Reks pinned Marella in the first fall in 2:35. Marella teased doing the cobra, and the people popped for Marella. Reks hit him with a forearm and knocked him down, and then put him in the torture rack, and threw him off like a reverse Attitude Adjustment for the pin. Second fall saw Sheamus pin Kingston in 6:50. Kingston first used the SOS on him but Sheamus was able to grab the ropes to stop the count. Sheamus crotched Kingston on the top rope. He then brought him off the top with the High Cross (Razor’s Edge) for the pin. Morrison pinned Swagger in 13:05 with Starship pain in the third fall. The key aspect here was Del Rio turning on Mysterio. He threw Mysterio into the barricade and Mysterio was selling his shoulder and helped to the back. You were led to believe Mysterio had been eliminated at that point. You’d think being out of the ring for eight minutes would constitute a count out. Well, maybe not since he wasn’t the legal man. Sheamus pinned Reks in 14:29 after the Brogue kick. They tried to push it was impressive that the unknown Reks lasted so long but it wasn’t as if anyone cared. Sheamus then threw down Hornswoggle outside the ring. Show jumped out of the ring to attack Sheamus and they were brawling in the aisle. Show tried to run back to the ring as the count got to eight, but he was too far away and too slow, and both were counted out in 15:26. At this point it became the Edge show, beating three opponents with the spear, since he’s the one next challenging Kane for the title. R-Truth missed the axe kick and Edge speared and pinned him in 16:40. Edge then speared and pinned Morrison in 17:07. Punk put Edge up in the GTS, but Edge escaped and hit a DDT. Edge went for the spear, but missed. Del Rio then tagged in. Punk and Del Rio traded moves until Punk pinned him with a backslide in 18:02. Del Rio walked away smiling. The announcers told the story that he didn’t even care that he lost. This appeared to leave Miz & Jackson & Punk vs. Edge. But as Del Rio was leaving, Mysterio came back out and attacked Del Rio and rejoined the match. Striker said it was like Willis Reed in Game Seven (in the 1970 NBA playoffs, Willis Reed suffered a torn quad in game five, didn’t play in game six, but shot himself up and came out and played game seven, which inspired his team to beat the Lakers and win the championship that year). Mysterio and Punk had some good back-and-forth action and they brought up the two had been feuding at Smackdown and Mysterio beat Punk for his hair. But there was no heat. Mysterio escaped from the GTS. They did the Eddie Guerrero/Dean Malenko series of cradles and reversals from the ECW days, which would have been a lot better if Bryan and Ziggler hadn’t done the exact same sequence in the opener. Mysterio pinned Punk in 24:06 with a 619 and a splash from the apron over the top into the ring. Mysterio was then bounced around by Jackson. Jackson went for his finishing uranage, but Mysterio turned it into a DDT. Mysterio hit the 619 and was supposed to do a springboard splash for the pin. There was a big mix-up, as Mysterio slipped. Either Mysterio told Jackson, or Jackson decided on his own, that the move was botched and they should continue, so Jackson kicked out. But the ref counted three anyway. Nobody knew how to react to this but they decided Jackson was eliminated in 26:10. This left Mysterio & Edge against Miz. Mysterio went for the 619 but Alex Riley, who had been at ringside the entire match, stopped him. This led to a spot where Mysterio gave the 619 to both Miz and Riley. He went for the springboard splash, but Miz got his knees up. Miz went for the pin, but Mysterio kicked out. Mysterio then hot tagged Edge in, and he speared and pinned Miz to take the match. **¼

Notes:

• After watching several times, Ezekiel Jackson got his shoulder up after the three count - but very close to it (3.1) which caused confusion for the announcers who were still processing the botch by Rey.
• If you become a big enough star on Smackdown, you can become a star on Raw someday. - Lawler. Ouch.
• Striker displays what it’s like being the most annoying person on the planet. He celebrates while yelling “In your face”’ to Lawler and Cole after Smackdown wins. “Boy you are such a dork,” Lawler says, which sounds like a shoot.
• Swoggle gets the trophy and falls under the weight.

And now it’s time for our main event of the evening…

Background: At Hell in a Cell last month, Cena lost against Wade Barrett, meaning he had to join Nexus. To make it worse, the Anonymous Raw General Manager forced him to obey Barrett’s orders - or be fired. In a Battle Royal on Raw, members of Nexus worked to eliminate all other superstars - leaving Cena and Barrett in the ring. Barrett ordered Cena to eliminate himself, making Barrett the number one contender.

Wade Barrett beat Randy Orton via DQ in 14:36 - so Orton retained the WWE title.

Observer: John Cena was in Barrett’s corner. After Barrett told Cena he would be fired if he didn’t win the match, the fans started chanting “Fire Cena.” This was more a storyline match that never really kicked into high gear. Barrett would throw Orton out of the ring and expect Cena to attack him while Barrett distracted the ref. But Cena wouldn’t do it. The funny part of this is for years, Orton was Cena’s mortal enemy, and now he won’t attack him. Barrett would get mad. After the second time this happened, Orton attacked Barrett from behind. Crowd was dead for this match as well. Then came a ref bump and that deflated the crowd. There was an era when ref bumps picked up the crowd because it meant now we’re working to the finish and all kinds of stuff is going down. Barrett told Cena to get on the apron. Barrett went to throw Orton into Cena, but Orton reversed the whip and Barrett knocked Cena off the apron. At this point, Otunga, Gabriel and Slater hit the ring and attacked Orton. Cena then ran in and tackled Gabriel and Otunga, while Orton laid out Slater with an RKO. Barrett went crazy on Cena, but Cena claimed he was saving things for Barrett because the ref was about to turn around, would see the outside interference, and Barrett would lose via DQ. Orton then made a comeback, hitting clotheslines and powerslam and draping DDT. He went to set up for the RKO when Cena jumped in the ring and gave Barrett the Attitude Adjustment. The ref then DQ’d Orton and ruled Barrett the winner. This is only slightly less stupid than when Kurt Angle was bleeding and Eric Bischoff ruled the match a no contest instead of a Jeff Hardy win (which even makes less sense today). Your own corner man attacks you, so you get to win the match? Even in convoluted wrestling logic that makes no sense. Even less given the stipulations Barrett gave at the beginning. But it was sold like Cena outsmarted him by finding a loophole so Barrett would win but not get the title. *3/4

Notes:

• The match logic actually makes more sense than Metlzer gave it credit for. Cena saved Barrett from being DQed by attacking Nexus. Then he saved Barrett from what was about to be a loss to Orton (who was setting up his finisher) by attacking Barrett.
• Orton and Barrett’s tights look super similar.
• It’s almost like Cena is playing the role of an evil genie who grants wishes - but not the way you were asking for.

POSSIBLE Questions: What would have happened to Wade Barrett’s career, had he won the WWE championship here?

Would that have been a better finish for an event most fans spent about $50 to see, vs. a DQ finish?

Fans of the Observer didn’t enjoy the show: Almost 60-percent voted it Thumbs Down; 17.2-percent gave it Thumbs Up and 23.9-percent said it was in the middle. The best match on the card, for the second PPV in a row, was the opening match (Bryan/Zig). The worst match was Layla vs. Natalya, followed closely by Kane/Undertaker, according to reader votes.

What did you think about Bragging Rights 2010?