WWE Cyber Sunday 08 Full Results
Find out what happened in the Smackdown and ECW matches
When Vince Mcmahon first came up with the idea of letting the WWE fans choose the matches in 2004, many were sceptical for a number of reasons.
- How would the Superstars be able to adapt to the matches in such a short space of time?
- Were the results of the votes legitimate?
- Would the fans know the difference between a good choice and a bad one?
After Cyber Sunday 2008 the answers to those questions seem to be;
- Not very well
- Yes
- No, not at all
This event could have been great if the right decisions had been made, what happened in reality was a selection of botched matches, botched promos and poor choices leading to a distinctly average Pay Per View.
Before reading on why not check out:
Smackdown/ECW Cyber Sunday 2008 Preview and Predictions
Raw Cyber Sunday 2008 Preview and Predictions
Back to the show....
Smackdown gets the show on the road, Sort of...
The first match of the night saw Shelton Benjamin retain his U.S title with a win over R-Truth (who had been voted into the match ahead of MVP and Festus). This was the first slap in the face for the fans, especially those outside the U.S, as one of only two matches available to be voted on at WWE.Com was pushed off the card and used as a web exclusive 'warm up' match.
ECW Presence
The second bout of the night was the ECW Title match and unsurprisingly the fans decided not to vote for another Henry/Hardy outing and instead chose up and comer Evan Bourne, who received a massive 69% of the vote.
Although the match had the odd botched move, Bourne was amazing as usual and even managed to make Matt Hardy look sluggish in comparison. He almost pulled off an upset on numerous occasions, although it was Hardy would eventually prevail when he hit a Twist of Fate after a tense back and forth between the two men.
Despite Matt showing some signs of a heel turn throughout the match (at one point he grabbed Bourne's tights during a roll-up) Hardy was quick to congratulate his beaten opponent after the match and showed him the respect he thoroughly deserved after such a great performance.
Wrong Choice, Wrong Announcement, Right Outcome
Next up for Smackdown was the Undertaker Vs Big Show match and as Chavo wheeled out Vikki Guerrero to make the decision she was met with a chorus of boos.
Moments later the results of the votes appeared on the Titan-Tron and revealed that Last Man Standing had won with 49%, however Vikki happily crowed that it would be an 'I Quit Match'. After realising her mistake she made a thinly veiled attempt at covering it up by reading out all the choices again before announcing the result, but the damage was done.
This was the first (but not the last) mistake the fans made at Cyber Sunday, which turned what could have been an epic match, into a mediocre one. There are usually 2-3 Last Man Standing matches in the WWE each year, whereas there have only been a handful of 'proper' I Quit matches, all of which have been brilliant (even the one that featured JBL) and could have really made this rivalry stand out.
Instead this was a run of the mill Last Man Standing match that had everything fans have come to expect of them; Brutal weapon shots, someone being put through a table, numerous 8 or 9 counts and two men battling to beat a 10 count, with one making it in time and one not. In this case it was The Undertaker who made it, after choking out The Big Show with his 'banned Gogoplata, setting up a deciding match sometime in the near future.
Divas Despair
Throughout the night a number of cringe worthy segments had been shown featuring random Divas in random costumes asking you to vote for them in the 'Divas Halloween Costume Contest'.
This was the very definition of a 'toilet break time'. No one seemed to care as Tazz announced that Mickey 'Tomb Raider' James was the winner, no one seemed to care when a short heel/face brawl broke out and no one seemed to care when the Divas left the ringside area and the show carried on.
(The Same) Main Event (as No Mercy)
The fans put the final nail in Smackdown's proverbial coffin when they voted to see yet another HHH Vs. Jeff Hardy match as the main event. Jeff and HHH put on a good match at No Mercy, but they did pretty much all they could do and without a stipulation change for this one it just felt like a re-hashing with more mistakes thrown in due to the lack of planning that had gone into it.
Hardy has had a couple of shots at the title and from them it was already clear the WWE creative team have no intention of putting it around his waist, and who can blame them after the frankly terrible promos he has been cutting recently. So it was pretty obvious that a vote for HHH Vs Jeff Hardy was nothing more than a vote for another W in HHH's column.
Either of the other two options would have made for a much more interesting match and it’s a shame that the fans didn't get to see whether HHH would have ended Kozlov's unbeaten streak.
Predictably HHH retained his title at Hardy's expense once again and the rivalry involving them and Kozlov went nowhere as a result.
All in all a poor night for Smackdown, both in terms of quality of match and choice of stipulation/participant, while ECW made a good impression thanks mostly to Bourne. Hopefully Armageddon will be a vast improvement.
To find out what happened in the Red brands matches at WWE Cyber Sunday 2008 Click Here.
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