WWE Bragging Rights PPV match-by-match live coverage

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Welcome to our live coverage of WWE's Bragging Rights PPV. We're looking for your thoughts on this show, as well as last night's UFC 104 and the Dream show, with a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Miz vs. John Morrison opens the show

Good opener. A little sloppy in spots. Decent heat. The match ended when Morrison was on the top rope and Miz knocked into the ropes, so Morrison crotched himself and fell into the ring to be pinned.

The deal they are doing is that there is a Bragging Rights trophy going to the winner of two out of the three Raw vs. Smackdown matches, so Raw is up 1-0.

Cody Rhodes and R-Truth are having a discusssion. Rhodes told R-Truth he was a second rate competitor on a second rate team on a second rate show. R-Truth told him the only reason he's on Raw is because he's Dusty's son and the only reason he's had success because he's with Randy Orton. Big Show came out to bully R-Truth and made him back off and leave.

Next up is the women's match with Beth Phoenix & Natalaya & Michelle McCool vs. Melina & Kelly Kely & Gail Kim

Solid work in this one but the crowd for the most part didn't care. Clean finish with Phoenix using the Glam slam on Melina to make it 1-1.

HHH is giving his team a pep talk but Jack Swagger told HHH not to worry because they have him on the team. Shawn Michaels told Swagger he has all the ability but no respect. HHH said he's been making fun of Mark Henry since he almost had a baby with Mae Young. HHH noted they exposed Kofi as a phony Jamaican. He said he was paying tribute to a famous Jamaican. He mentioned shoving Vince McMahon's head up Big Show's ass. They mentioned beating Cody Rhodes so bad on the last PPV that he went out on a stretcher. Hornswoggle showed up in his DX gear. Team Raw all put their hands together and HHH said "Are you ready."

Undertaker vs. C.M. Punk vs. Batista vs. Rey Mysterio for the world title

A short match consisting of everyone doing their big moves and somebody breaking up the pin. Batista used the Batista bomb on Undertaker, but Mysterio saved. Mysterio tried to pin Taker and Batista saved. Batista got mad at Mysterio saying they are supposed to be friends and pie faced him. Later, Batista threw Mysterio over the top rope onto Punk, but then Undertaker used a tombstone piledriver on Batista for the pin.

Josth Matthews was interviewing both and Batista said he was tired of his best friend stabbing him in the back and then clotheslined Mysterio. There were a lot of cheers and not many boos at first but eventually Batista kept up the attack and Mysterio begged him to stop. Crowd booed Batista but it was nowhere near the heat you'd want from this situation. He did the Randy Orton punt on Mysterio and left.

Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown

Shawn Michaels-HHH-Kofi Kingston-Big Show-Mark Henry-Cody Rhodes-Jack Swagger vs.

Chris Jericho-Kane-Matt Hardy-R-Truth-Fit Finlay-David Hart Smith-Tyson Kidd

Smackdown has won the trophy. Good match, although nobody really took a big step up. The finish saw Kingston on the top rope looking to jump on Jericho after giving him Trouble in Paradise, Show turned on his team by choke slamming Kingston off the top, and then doing the knockout punch to HHH. Jericho pinned Kingston to take the match. Team Smackdown celebrated together with the trophy when it was over.

It looks like they are starting a new program as Cody Rhodes blamed Kofi Kingston for costing their team the match. Kingston said it was Show's fault. It ended up with Rhodes attacking Kingston.

Randy Orton vs. John Cena for the title ends the show in a one hour Iron Man match. They said if Cena loses, then he's going to Smackdown. I guess Tiffany didn't make a comparable offer.

Cena won the first fall with an STF quickly.

Orton won the second fall at 9:00 with the RKO

Third fall ended with a double pinfall. Cena used from a shot with the edge of a TV monitor. Several minutes later, Cena went for the Attitude Adjustment but Orton used an RKO from that position. Both were out but each got an arm on the other and the ref counted a pin on both.

Cena with the Attitude Adjustment off the middle rope to go ahead 3-2.

Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes attacked Cena between falls.

DiBiase used the Dream street on Cena and Orton got the pin to make it 3-3. Kofi Kingston used a chair to chase DiBiase & Rhodes out. They are using the falls to give them 30 second rest periods

Orton up 4-3 by throwing Cena through the lighting grid on the entrance set and pinning him.

Orton is using the pyro buttons which will play a part probably in the finish as somebody is getting blown up.

Cena was getting destroyed but tied it 4-4 with an inside cradle out of nowhere.

Orton used a draping DDT on the floor and pinned Cena on the floor to go up 5-4.

24:00 left.

Now with 9:00 left it's tied 5-5 as Cena climbed up the ring steps with Orton on his shoulder, and used an Attitude Adjustment breaking the announcers table and got the pin on the floor.

Orton's out is that he had Cena pinned after an RKO, but the first ref was knocked out, and by the time Charles Robinson came in as the second ref, Cena kicked out.

The finish saw Orton miss the punt, and Cena used the STF on Orton and Orton tapped out with five seconds left to win 6-5.

They were trying to put this over as an all-time great match. The crowd was only hot for the match in the last few minutes. It felt like one of those 60 minute matches where they were stalling as much as they could to get through the match and it people were only really into the final minutes. Not a bad match but as much as going 60:00 usually gives you time to really build a great match, this felt like people trying to prove they could go 60:00 for no reason, and would have been a superior match in 20:00.