TJR Retro: WWE Fatal 4-Way 2010 Review

This was written on the same night as the show. It’s not a thorough review, but it does give you all of my thoughts on what happened.

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I caught the show late tonight, so I’ll just do a quick rundown. I don’t have time to get into major details on stuff.

Live from Long Island, New York
June 20, 2010

– The show opened with Vince McMahon saying Bret Hart wasn’t there and they’d have an announcement about his status in the future.

Kofi Kingston d. Drew McIntyre to retain the IC Title (**3/4)
Vince shook Drew’s hand on his way to the ring. Long match at 17 minutes. Ref got bumped, Teddy stepped in to ref and when Drew went for a cover he delayed hitting his hand on the mat three times. Matt Hardy came out, hit the Twist of Fate and Long loved it. Then Kofi hit Trouble in Paradise to win. My guess is Vince will denounce McIntyre as his “Chosen One” and that whole push will end since WWE is apparently not high on McIntyre anymore. I’m only guessing, though.

Alicia Fox d. Eve, Maryse & Gail Kim to win the Women’s Title (*1/4)
I give them credit for this match not being as bad as I thought. They didn’t miss too many spots this time. Alicia did the heel move of stealing the pin for the win at the 5 minute mark. Surprised they booked her to win, but I guess it’s different. She is the greatest wedding planner turned wrestler in the history of the business.

– Jericho cut a great promo about being the best, but how things haven’t been great lately either. He challenged Evan Bourne to prove he was still the best.

Evan Bourne d. Chris Jericho (***1/2)
I predicted this match would happen in my PPV preview, for the record. Very glad that it did although I think it’s stupid not to advertise this beforehand. Jericho hit the Codebreaker later, went for the cover, but Bourne got his foot on the rope. The story was Bourne kept going for Air Bourne except that Jericho was too smart for it. Eventually Bourne hit it onto Jericho’s back. That earned him the victory. Jericho’s losing gimmick continues. Fantastic match in 12 minutes. I’d love to see more from these two.

Rey Mysterio d. Jack Swagger, CM Punk & Big Show to win the World Title (**1/2)
The match was going great for about 8 minutes until Kane’s music hit during the match as he came out with a casket. Kane came out, went after Punk and that took Punk out of the match. I really hate when they interrupt matches with stupid shit like that. And it didn’t even affect the finish. Mysterio ended up winning by hitting Swagger with the 619 followed by a splash off the ropes. I had read rumors that they would put the belt on Rey. I didn’t believe it. Let’s hope he’s not booked as terribly as the last time he was champion. The match was about 10 minutes long.

– Cena did a promo saying if the NXT guys showed up the other guys in the match would fight together against them. After it was over the announcers mentioned the last three fatal four ways saw title switches (Miz, Fox & Rey), which meant that it was going to be tough for Cena to retain.

The Miz d. R-Truth to retain the US Title (**)
The Miz did his own version of the “What’s Up” rap with his own version of the song. It was terrific. The story of the match was Miz working on Truth’s ribs. The finish saw Truth go for a cradle, Miz dropped down and blocked it with his arms to win in 13 minutes. Striker correctly pointed out that the injured ribs prevented him from kicking out of that predicament. I love smart wrestling like that although the crowd wasn’t it as much as they were into the other matches.

– Edge talked about the title match. He basically said he’s the favorite to win due to various flaws of the others (champs like Cena are losing 4 way matches, Orton’s hurting and Sheamus is inexperienced).

The Hart Dynasty d. The Usos & Tamina (*1/2)
This was a six person tag. They are actually letting Natalya wrestle. Crazy huh? It’s a typical tag where the best worker (Kidd) gets worked over the majority of it. The Usos did well for the most part although the crowd isn’t used to their offense, so there were some dead spots. The girls finished it off. Tamina missed a Superfly Splash and Natalya capitalized with a spinning clothesline for the win. Natalya should be either the Divas or Women’s Champion. She’s the best female worker they have that’s healthy.

It was 2 hours and 5 minutes into the PPV as they went to the video package for the main event, which meant plenty of time for a long match plus a post match angle featuring the NXT guys. At least that’s what I thought.

Sheamus d. John Cena, Randy Orton & Edge to become WWE Champion (***)
There was a loud “Cena Sucks” chant during the match, which Cole commented by saying the crowd was electric. There were also supportive chants for Cena by the girls & kids against the other fans, so that was interesting. Orton hit RKO on Cena. Sheamus pushed the ref. No DQ’s, as Cole pointed out. Spear by Edge on Orton. Sheamus with the kick to Edge. Cover gets two on Orton. They cut backstage to the NXT guys in the locker room. This is during the match. The NXT guys laid out Bourne & The Hart Dynasty. As the NXT guys were about to come out, Michael Cole bailed again. They came out to attack Cena & Edge. It was a gang assault on Orton as well. Sheamus took advantage by sliding in to cover Cena for the title. Sheamus bailed through the crowd to avoid the NXT guys. They continued to beat on Cena post match with Justin Gabriel hitting his 450 among other moves. The NXT boys chased Sheamus to finish it off.

Huge “Daniel Bryan” chant to end the show. There were definitely 2 or 3 of them during the night. That was fantastic. I loved the Long Island crowd. They were the stars of the night.

The PPV went off the air at 2 hours, 35 minutes. Weak.

Final Thoughts
It was a weak show wrestling wise. The big news is the title changes with Sheamus & Mysterio walking out as major title holders while Alicia Fox won the Divas title and Evan Bourne got a big win over Chris Jericho.

The big story was the NXT guys causing the title switch in the main event. They are really pushing the angle hard with no signs of slowing down. Of course the question is if they beat up Bourne & The Hart Dynasty, where was the rest of the locker room? Aren’t there like 50 other wrestlers under contract? Were they all beat up too?

I give the show a 4.5 out of 10. Not good.