2009 Medals of Honour

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-TWG Publisher

Hey all, after an extended break due to a lot of major commitments and then Christmas and New Year, I thought I’d come back with a review of 2009.  Hope you’ve all enjoyed the festive period yourselves.  I’m going to cover the top moments of 2009 that I remember, and feel free to post any you feel I’ve missed out in the comments section.

Smackdown’s Match of the Year 2009:

John Morrison vs. Jeff Hardy for the World Heavyweight Championship – 31st July

This match was simply fantastic as it was one of those where both men tried to one-up each other throughout the match.  I also remember it as one of the few this year where the crowd had the ‘This is awesome’ chant going, further proving that you don’t actually need a heel vs. face to be able to draw the crowd into the match.  Both men threw every move in their arsenal at the other, and every move seemed to be executed flawlessly.  This match occurred just after Jeff won the WHC from CM Punk at Night of Champions, and Morrison had beaten Punk twice in succession.

Given the complexity of some of their moves – Jeff Hardy has Whisper in the Wind, Top rope leg drop, Swanton Bomb and the Gourdbuster that could all potentially look terrible and Morrison has pretty much anything he does... the standing Shooting Star Press, Springboard Moonsault to the outside, Flying Chuck, Capoeira Kick (standing) and Elbow (grounded) – it was just some outstanding wrestling to be able to get everything in place.  Morrison’s moveset is simply amazing, when you think about it.  To anyone else, the Moonlight Drive would be beyond comprehension, but realistically it’s one of Morrison’s safest moves in terms of being able to do it without much risk of failure.  At one point, both men fell from the top rope to the outside.  This one ended, after all of the above moves, when Morrison kicked out of a Swanton Bomb, missed out on Starship Pain, crashing into Hardy’s knees (imagine how painful that would be at that speed) and finally succumbed to a second Swanton.  This was easily my televised match of the year.

ECW’s Match of the Year 2009:

John Morrison vs. Evan Bourne – 14th April

To be honest I can’t really say much more about Morrison than I already have.  I’m a huge fan of his, but it’s simply because he has the potential to carry the WWE forward for years to come. This match with the man who is the next Rey Mysterio was another lesson in innovative moves and I could watch it again and again.  This match occurred the night after The Miz was drafted to RAW, and really pushed Morrison to show that he could fend for himself as a singles competitor. Even the opening sequence of arm-holds in this match was exciting as Bourne flipped and wriggled free.  There was a moment where Morrison flipped Bourne onto the apron, took a hard slap, then swept the leg from Bourne, making him backflip onto his neck.  Remember, this is on the apron, there was absolutely no room for error in that – and Morrison followed this up with the running knee, through the ropes, sending Bourne neck first to the outside. 

Each time someone seemed to gain control, the other would wrest it back in an increasingly exciting way... Morrison managed to lock in a Torture Rack – Bourne crossways on his shoulders, and Bourne managed to pull off a swinging headscissors from that position as a reversal.  Bourne went for one of his side kicks but Morrison ducked through and in the same movement hit a spinning kick to the back of Bourne’s head.   There was a period of submission from Morrison, but Striker played an important role here, keeping everyone interested and entertained with his insight – something Byron Saxton will just never be able to do, and Josh Matthews looks entirely lost these days without Striker.  Once things picked up again, Bourne pulled out a jumping Frankensteiner with Morrison on the top rope.  Bourne set himself for the Shooting Star Press, but Morrison hit an overhead kick and annihilated him with a Moonlight Drive while he was hanging on the top rope.  Superb match with an innovative ending.

Superstars’ Match of the Year 2009:

Evan Bourne vs. Ted DiBiase Jr. – 8th October

Before this match, DiBiase got the crowd right on his back by dedicating the match to Cody Rhodes and asking for a moment of silence after they were beaten by DX at Hell in a Cell. DiBiase had a black eye for this match.  This wasn’t a Match of the Year candidate, but it did do exactly what Superstars is meant to do – give air time to the up and coming stars who wouldn’t be on the card normally for whatever reason.  Both guys were on top form, and Bourne’s ability to sell a move is unbelievable.  His flexibility means that basically he can fold up, making every high impact move look that little bit more painful – and the Dream Street after Bourne missed a kick to end this back-and-forth match is a perfect example of this.  Some other notable highlights were a crucifix that DiBiase countered into a modified Samoan drop, a hurricanrana on the outside that DiBiase countered into a hard swing into the security wall and a clothesline that looked like it could have killed Bourne – and he kicked out at 2.  DiBiase was on top for about 90% of the match, but it always looked like Bourne was still in it and it made for an exciting match.

RAW’s Match of the Year 2009:

Triple H vs. John Cena – 20th October

This match took place just before Bragging Rights, and could have been Cena’s last match on RAW, as the stipulation for his match with Orton was that Cena would leave RAW if Orton won, and Orton would get no more shots at Cena’s championship if Cena won.  Of course, the latter occurred, and Cena took back his title following the Iron Man match. 

This one was a real slow burner of a match, started out very slowly, lots of strikes and basic moves to begin with.  As soon as either man would get momentum, the other would stop it, and Cena even brought out some new moves – Fisherman’s suplex for example.  The match had everything you could ask for from these guys.  After about 10 minutes, Cena locked in an STF and given the circumstances you thought ‘this could easily be it’, but instead the match went on for another 12 minutes.  Almost every major move was reversed in that time, Triple H locked in a Sharpshooter, Cena kicked out of 2 Pedigrees, Triple H kicked out of an Attitude Adjustment. The final sequence was a Pedigree, reversed into the Attitude Adjustment, finally reversed again and Triple H hit a third Pedigree and Cena couldn’t kick out.  It was a big-four PPV standard championship match between the two biggest stars of RAW, and was probably RAW’s best match of the year.  However, I don’t think there’s a great deal of competition and it actually took me a while to remember this one.  I did also consider the Kofi-Orton brawl at Madison Square Gardens, but that wasn’t an official match.

Most Improved Superstar of the Year 2009:

The Miz

Let’s be honest, everyone thought he was going to be one of the first out of the door as soon as he was split up from Morrison.  However, he’s managed to take up the mantle of the US Championship from Kofi Kingston, make himself disliked enough to be a heel while still being entertaining enough to watch (take note, Vickie Guerrero) and managing to say about John Cena what we’ve all been thinking – something that got heat from the crowd, but respect from me.

Returning Superstar of the year 2009:

Christian

Basically Christian, since his return in January, has been the face of ECW and they have needed him.  Badly.  Every match that Christian puts on for his title (barring that 5 second match against Regal) is nothing short of 8/10 every time, as long as the opposition isn’t the likes of Kozlov or Jackson, who couldn’t entertain a crowd if their lives depended on it.  He’s faced Yoshi Tatsu, William Regal, Jack Swagger, Zack Ryder, Tommy Dreamer and of course, at TLC, Shelton Benjamin in a match that I would have loved to have seen, but still haven’t, and every one of those has been worth watching and a credit to the current ECW.  That being said, I’d like to see him as something other than champion for a while, and as soon as ECW dies its inevitable death, I’m sure he’ll be moved on to much greater things.  Another aspect is his charisma, which was most evident just before the 4-on-4 match between him, Yoshi, Goldust and Dreamer and Ryder and the ruthless roundtable, during his speech (29th September)

Honourable mention in this category has to go to Goldust, who’s been on fire in the ring and enjoyable in backstage segments, including the one above.

Match of the Year 2009:

HBK vs. The Undertaker

Needless to say really, but Michaels versus Undertaker was the match of the year.  Because of this I think that if they do it again, it would be a massive, massive mistake.  It’s time for the end of the Undertaker’s winning streak, and it can not fall to Shawn Michaels.  As good an in-ring performer as Michaels is, they can’t recapture how great that match was and trying to do so would be a waste.  A match so good, they dedicated most of an ECW to replaying it.  It’s time to let the streak go to someone else.  I’d say it should be Morrison’s time to cement himself as a main-eventer, but I reckon it’s much more likely they’ll give it to DiBiase, someone else who’s had an excellent year (far outshining Rhodes).  I’m also pretty surprised they haven’t given him the face-turn he’d have needed to actually try to sell some copies of The Marine 2.

Best GM of 2009

Jesse Ventura

He managed to set up a lot of good matches, was good on commentary and in his segments. The most natural GM RAW has had.

Conversely, T’Lo’s lost most of his credibility since his abysmal acting in the limo with Taker and has been undermined by the constant ‘you’re on probation’ thing, despite him being the only likeable GM.  Tiffany’s no more than a reasonably pretty puppet who apparently isn’t good enough to be in the ring but is alright on the mic.  The guest GM idea for RAW was a good one, but like many people I’m sick of absolute nobodies and people just looking for a bit of publicity (those NASCAR guys and Jeremy ‘Summerfest’ Piven for example).  People like Shaq were a good choice – those recognisable to people OUTSIDE the US, which is a huge and growing market for the WWE, and of course the old wrestlers like Jesse Ventura, Sgt Slaughter and Ted Dibiase. I’m definitely looking forward to Bret Hart and The Rock taking the reins!

Brand of the Year 2009:

Smackdown

My superstar of the year, John Morrison (for the reasons given above), Jeff Hardy, some good storylines, CM Punk taking a heel turn and managing to fade from the title race without burning out entirely, Teddy Long (for the most part) and a strong undercard – it must be strong to consider Finlay as a jobber...

The word limit and a lack of ideas meant I couldn’t give you Feud of the Year in this article – so let’s put it to the vote and I’ll give you the results and my take on it in my next article, where I’ll look at the downsides of 2009 including Misused Superstar, Overhyped Superstar, Worst Feud, Worst Decisions and Most Disappointing matches.

Over and out.

Comments

1. Comment #1

   I Think Jericho Vs. Mysterio was an Excellent Fued, or maybe Jeff Hardy Vs. Edge

   Posted by MysticCrusader on Wednesday, January 06, 2010

2. Comment #2

   Some of those matches I don't remember. I guess it's my bad memory... lol. fine article however I don't see anything special in Morrison. Those who could carry Smackdown over the next decade in my oppinion are probably the likes of Drew Mcintyre and Dolph Ziggler. I won't mind if they rely on Morrison either though.. it's just that I look at him as a jokey sort of person every now and then... he's not the serious type.

   Posted by legend on Tuesday, January 05, 2010

3. Comment #3

   i will never miss HBK vs. The Undertaker
   i will think HBK i know that Hbk is way beter and undertaker is a sucker i will never like hem aand i think its relly hbk will winTriple H vs. John Cena i see it cena i know there both good i saying cena and its super best cena andhe said

   Posted by Bret Hart on Tuesday, January 05, 2010

4. Comment #4

   Yea what Bret Hart siad..... I think. Wait what exactually did he say?

   Posted by Superstar Steve Knowles on Tuesday, January 05, 2010

5. Comment #5

   ^ No clue mate

   Posted by Nick Awesome on Wednesday, January 06, 2010

6. Comment #6

   Glad to see you back in writing, General :D
   Great article as always!

   Posted by Sommerlund on Wednesday, January 06, 2010

7. Comment #7

   edge come back if you go to tna wwe are screwed but i enjoy seeing you in wwe.edgehead 4 life

   Posted by darkmaster on Wednesday, January 06, 2010

8. Comment #8

   Worst decisions to be decided? Damn, there were so many, I wouldn't even know where to start... But one thing that really screwed me lately was that since TLC every title-based rematch was decided via disqualification (DX vs. JeriShow was fun actually, but Shaemus pulling the ref, McIntyre pushing Morrison against the ref, hell, even Randy pulling Kofi off of Mizzy) was extremely boring... And SmackDown seems to be copying everything RAW brings up these days... The only thing they did on their own was to upset the fans with Vickie...
   
   But, you've written a great article which was really fluid to read through :)

   Posted by Tyr on Wednesday, January 06, 2010

9. Comment #9

   I thought Morrison vs. Mysterio was the match of the year on Smackdown for me.

   Posted by Trace on Wednesday, January 06, 2010

10. Comment #10

    there is only one feud that can go go down as feud of the year jeff hardy vs edge even though jeff vs cm punk came close, no feud was better then them two.

    Posted by crazydude on Wednesday, January 06, 2010

11. Comment #11

    The face turn for DiBiase is coming slowly slowly, let's just be patient. As long as it ain't Cena ending the streak i'm happy

    Posted by The Renegation on Wednesday, January 06, 2010

12. Comment #12

    Mystic, crazy- Hardy is on TNA with Moore..... along with Hogan, Razor Ramon (Scott Hall), X-Pac, and Bischoff.

    Posted by JohnnyInsano on Thursday, January 07, 2010

13. Comment #13

    smackdown match of year IMO: Morrison/Punk (their first match this summer). The fact Morrison the recently turned babyface could fight the new heel champion was amazing and the combination of technique of high fling rocked.

    Posted by CC on Thursday, January 07, 2010

14. Comment #14

    I think Dx Vs Legacy hell in a cell was good and howbout every match of orton and cena look at hardy and punk leave match or marc henry vs orton.

    Posted by Gorilla922 on Monday, January 11, 2010

15. Comment #15

    raw waz best brand

    Posted by chrisdd12 on Monday, January 18, 2010

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