WWE Unforgiven (September 2006)

Original Airdate: September 17, 2006

From Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

Opening WWE Intercontinental Title Match: Johnny Nitro v Jeff Hardy: Jeff is actively chewing gum as the match starts, which is a pet peeve of mine. Unless you're Curt Hennig, that is. Feeling out process to start, as the WWE overwhelms this buildings ventilation system with the opening pyro display. Jeff controls until Nitro bails, but Hardy is on him with a baseball slide, and he runs the barricade for a flying clothesline. Back in, Hardy goes up, but Johnny dropkicks the ropes to shake him loose, and Jeff takes a pretty hellacious bump down. Ouch! Johnny capitalizes by working the leg, and Jeff does a strong job of selling it. Nitro dominates the leg, but a flying corkscrew moonsault misses, and Jeff is able to control a reversal sequence into a cradle for two. Hardy mounts a comeback, and the Whisper in the Wind gets two, so Nitro goes back to the leg to slow his challenger down. He tries a rana off the top, but Hardy blocks it, and delivers the Swanton Bomb! Unfortunately, he aggravates the leg, and by the time he covers, Johnny is able to get into the ropes. Nitro works the leg again, but Hardy escapes a toehold with the ropes, and hits a leg-feed kick. Twist of Fate, but Johnny sweeps the leg down into a grapevine, and Jeff nearly submits before getting the ropes. Johnny goes up with a flying seated senton, but Jeff counters with a powerbomb - only to get whacked in the face by Melina, and Johnny retains at 17:38. Felt like it took forever to get going, and felt a little too long for what it was, but the psychology was sound, and Hardy did a great job selling the leg throughout. The finish was crap though, and the cheap shot came off as totally unnecessary. No shame in having the leg give out and cost him the win after Nitro destroyed it for fifteen minutes. * ½

Kane v Umaga: Umaga uses his big ass to power Kane into the corner to start, but loses the resulting slugfest when he eats a big boot. Kane looks for a follow-up, but runs into a spinheel kick, and Umaga clotheslines him over the top. He follows out for a reverse STO on the floor, and back in Umaga hits a headbutt drop, then a shining wizard. Into the corner for the Samoan Wrecking Ball, as the announcers make a really off color joke about ass-to-mouth. Maybe they'd just seen Clerks II. Hopefully a donkey doesn't show up at some point. Kane makes his comeback, but runs into a Samoan drop - only for Umaga to miss a 2^nd rope flying headbutt. Kane capitalizes with a flying clothesline, but Umaga blocks the chokeslam, so Kane dumps him over the top. He follows out for a brawl, but it spills into the crowd, and we have a double countout at 7:03. Better than I expected it to be. * ¼

World Tag Team Title Match: The Spirit Squad v The Highlanders: Feeling out process to start, until Mikey misses a charge in the corner, and Rory McAllister rams him into Robbie McAllister's head for two. Tag to Robbie, and they cut the ring in half on Mikey. When Daniel Bryan got hurt, they should have brought Robbie back, and sent him out in his place. Even Bryan's neighbors wouldn't be the wiser - Robbie's kilt looks a lot like Daniel's flannel, after all. He'll fit right in up there in Aberdeen. Just have him out there thrusting his arms into the air (like he just don't care!), and no one would have been able to tell the difference, believe me. The Highlanders dominate Mikey until he manages to force Robbie into the corner for a tag to Kenny - Robbie quickly knocking the champ to the floor with a dropkick, but missing a tope. That's enough to turn the tide, and the Squad cut the ring in half on Robbie. Kenny misses a flying legdrop to allow the tag to Rory, and Roseanne Barr the door! Rory looks to finish Mikey, but the Squad take a cheap shot, and a facebuster retains at 10:00. Pretty boring, but competent. *

Handicap Hell in a Cell Match: Triple H and Shawn Michaels v Big Show, Vince McMahon, and Shane McMahon: How long did this stupid feud go on for, anyway? Show tries to scare DX back at the bell, but they respond by kicking him in the balls. That feels like a firm 'no.' That allows them to go after the McMahon's, and they destroys them, of course. Another tandem punt to Show's nuts keep him from interfering, and Shane takes a bump off the apron into the cage to draw blood. DX continue to destroy the father and son team with ease, and it's not long before Vince is bleeding as well. Show recovers to try and help his partners out, but Shawn and HHH gang up on him, and send him into the steps to take him out of things again. They keep hammering the McMahon's without mercy, but Show finally recovers enough to do some damage, and Shane clotheslines Shawn over the top - leaving HHH alone in the ring with all three heels for a beating. Show hits him with the Chokeslam to soften Hunter up for his boys, then goes to the floor to send Michaels into the cage - drawing blood. With Show's help, the McMahon's are able to separate and work over both members of DX, and Shane hits his brother-in-law with the Coast to Coast - drawing blood from the ear. Out to the floor, Shane sends Hunter into the cage with a slingshot to draw blood from a more conventional place, while Show hits Shawn with a 2^nd rope pumpsplash. Vince gets arrogant, and starts pulling Michaels up at two counts instead of finishing him, and that backfires as Hunter recovers, and takes Show out. Kneeling facebuster sets up a Pedigree on Vince, but Shane saves with a neckbreaker, so Shawn hits him with a leg-feed enzuigiri. Michaels gets overwhelmed with Vince and Show, however, and McMahon makes the mistake of getting cocky again - this time pulling down his own pants to expose his ass for Show to shove Shawn's face into. Luckily, Hunter saves before 1996 commentator Vince's ultimate dreams are realized. Shawn inverted atomic drops Shane into a rotating spinebuster from HHH, and they wrap a chair around Shane's neck for Michaels to flying elbowdrop onto! Superkick looks to finish, but Show pulls Shawn out of the ring before he can launch it, so HHH beats on the big guy with a chair. That allows Shawn to recover and knock Show out with a Superkick, and with the big guy left draped over the top rope, there's only one thing left to do: shove Vince's face into his bare ass. That was disturbing. Superkick and a sledgehammer blow finish at 25:05. Too long, but it was entertaining bloody chaos, with everyone working hard. ***

WWE Women's Title Match: Lita v Trish Stratus: Feeling out process to start, with Trish dominating until Lita bails. Stratus follows her out with a flying Thesz-press off of the apron, and she follows with a handstand rana off of the steps. Back in, Lita turns the tide and works her challenger over, but runs into some right hands in the corner. Trish tries another handstand rana, but Lita blocks, and both women go tumbling out to the floor. Lita gets the better of it and goes to the top rope, but Trish follows her up there before the champ can dive - only to get slammed down into the ring. Lita follows up with a flying moonsault, but Trish dodges for two. That's a risky spot with breasts that large. Stratusfaction, but Lita dumps her over the top to block, and back in that gets two. Lita keeps coming with a snap suplex for two, and a Russian legsweep follows for two, as Trish does her best impression of a plumber. Chinlock, but Stratus escapes with a neckbreaker, and a slugfest goes her way. Lita tries to hang onto control, but Trish hits the handstand rana, and the Chick Kick follows for two. Lita rakes the eyes, but Trish blocks the Twist of Fate. Stratusfaction, but Lita blocks, so Trish shifts into a sharpshooter at 11:35 to call it a career - retiring as champion in her hometown. This was really strong stuff for the era, but doesn't totally hold up compared to what we get from the Charlottes and Asukas of the world today. But, what it lacks in pure wrestling, it makes up for as a moment - Trish's career closer certainly historically significant. **

Randy Orton v Carlito: Carlito frustrates Orton in the opening moments, but then outrights pisses him off by spitting into his face. Well yeah, that'll generally do it. Carlito uses that rage to his advantage as he controls a fuming Orton, and a dropkick gets two. Randy goes to the eyes, however, and he pounds Carlito on the mat for a bit. Powerslam, but Carlito counters to a bodyslam to setup a springboard twisting somersault senton splash, then a springboard moonsault for two. Nice sequence there. Carlito goes to work, but ends up on the apron, and Orton dropkicks him off into the barricade. Back in, Randy hooks the leg for two, and he puts the boots to Carlito in violent fashion. Well he's in a mood. Orton works a chinlock, but a side suplex gets blocked, and Carlito throws a springboard backelbow for two. Pair of clotheslines get two, and a reverse STO gets two. Orton fires back with the inverted headlock backbreaker, but Carlito counters the RKO with a lungblower. He tries a springboard dive, but Orton counters with an RKO at 8:42. Out of nowhere, as they say! **

Main Event: WWE Title Tables, Ladders, and Chairs Match: Edge v John Cena: If Cena loses, he must leave RAW for Smackdown. Feeling out process to start, with Cena controlling, but running into a swinging neckbreaker. Impaler follows, and Edge brings a couple of chairs into the ring to start the party. He tries to vertical suplex Cena onto them, but John reverses, so Edge counters with an inverted DDT across the standing chairs! Edge is over huge as a babyface with this crowd, not surprisingly. He climbs a ladder, but Cena tips it over, so Edge clotheslines him down. He dropkicks the ladder into Cena's face, but a charge with it misses, and John hiptosses him onto it. He tries to knock the champ off of the apron through a pair of tables on the floor, but Edge blocks and tries a sunset bomb through another table, but they badly botch it. They recover with Edge powerslamming his challenger through the wood, and John bails to the outside - Edge springboarding off of a ladder to setup a dive onto him out there. Inside, Edge goes to town with a chair, but a one-man conchairto doesn't work out, and John hits the Throwback onto it. John sandwiches him in a ladder ahead of applying the STF, and Edge is openly tapping out, but it's meaningless in this context. Cena FU's a ladder onto the champion, and a flying Five Knuckle Shuffle off of the ladder follows. He sets up a table, but that gives Edge time to recover, and he whacks Cena with a chair before John can use it. Edge puts Cena onto the table, then stacks another table up on top of him, but John manages to knock him off the top turnbuckle into the barricade before Edge can dive. Nice bump there. Cena climbs, but Edge gets to the top of a second ladder, and knocks John off with a flying Spear! He makes his own climb attempt, but sees Cena recovering, and dives with a flying bodypress - only for John to catch him. He tries the FU, but Edge gets onto the ladder to escape, so John pulls him off with a powerbomb into the standing second ladder. John hits him with a chair to make sure he's down before making another climb attempt, but just as he's about to snag the gold, Lita runs in and tips over the ladder - Cena taking a wild bump all the way to the outside, and through a table! Cena was so high up there that he almost ended up in the first row with that one! Honestly, that's not any less insane than Mick Foley's famous bump off the top of the Hell in a Cell in 1998. Edge climbs, but John is on track to stop him, so Lita hits Cena with a chair - knocking him into the ladder, and Edge off all the way to the floor through a table! Cena FU's Lita, and with Edge down and out in a pile of rubble on the floor, the challenger climbs! He gets near the gold, but Edge scurries up after him for a slugfest at the top of the world - Cena winning with an FU off of the ladder and down through the pair of stacked tables from earlier! And the finish is academic, as Cena just finishes reaching up and snags the title at 25:28. Crazy bumps, lots of drama - a great main event blow off match. *** ¾  

BUExperience: A pretty underwhelming show for the most part, but the main event definitely delivers (they should have done that match at SummerSlam), and the Hell in a Cell is good too. Combined, that’s a third of the show right there. Plus, Trish Stratus’ retirement match adds some historical significance to the mix, and nothing is actively bad. Not a huge thumbs up, but decent.

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