Last night I sat down and watched WWE’s annual December PPV Armageddon. I must say that going into I was looking forward to watching the show after hearing some positive stuff from some friends of mine…………………so here we go.

The PPV started out with a buildup for the main event Hell in a Cell match between Orton and Undertaker.

They opened the PPV with JBL vs. Matt Hardy. I wasn’t expecting much out of this match except for they did do a few creative things that allowed Matt Hardy to basically get his ass handed to him. They did the head caught in the ropes thing with Matt and basically JBL pummeled him into oblivion. I actually was expecting this to be a total squash although they did let Hardy get some offense in, but eventually he just got Clotheslined from Hell into the pin.

Rating - *

After that first barnburner I was curious as to what match #2 had in store. Out comes MNM and the Mexicools for the second match on the card and the first tag contest of the evening. I was curious to see this as I heard good stuff about it and at first I was expecting a train wreck………………but I was actually surprised. First off this doesn’t get said enough……….but Johnny Nitro is going to be a decent singles wrestler one day, especially if he gets to keep his offensive maneuvers. He looked DAMN good in this match and it helped the match get over plenty of times. They did a nice job working a somewhat “southern style” tag match with Psychosis getting most of the work over. It should also mention that Super Crazy could be pushed at least at the Cruiserweight title if they ever did decide to get rid of Psychosis because Crazy can still go. He did his usual spots in this one and overall I really enjoyed this match. It got a decent amount of time and is glaring proof why MNM are the main tag team in the entire company. The only problem I had in this match was at one point they kept cutting from Melina to in ring action and back to Melina. They made so many cuts at one point I thought I was having an epileptic sezure.

Rating - ***

At this point in the show it was time for the Best of Seven series between Chris Benoit vs. Booker T. I was curious to see how this one was because I remembered it looking like the best overall match in this series and it wasn’t disappointing. Not like it hasn’t been said before, but honestly the WWE is extremely lucky they have Benoit on their roster. He’s like the fool proof wrestler………..he can have a good match with whoever they put him in there with. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that he and Booker usually seem to work well together regardless of how bad Booker sucks at the time. This was their last match too I believe before Booker got injured (in this match I think he was actually injured) and Randy Orton took over in the series. Overall this was a really good contest with some nice transitions by Benoit and some killer work on his part. Booker took a LOT of Benoit’s offense and I was really surprised by that. It’s funny watching Benoit in a match with someone like Booker T. You can actually see how hard of a time someone like Booker has keeping up with the intensity of Benoit because he’s always going 120 MPH. Another surprise to me was the time that was given to this match. That’s always a plus when you see Benoit wrestle 20 plus minutes and its even more impressive when it’s against Booker. Nice usage of Sharmell as the heel manager and I liked the crossface finish that they built up most of the match.

Rating - ***1/4

Now we get to see my favorite stip match in wrestling history………….the handicap match. Just in case you were wondering……….that was sarcasm. I hate when they do these matches, especially because I’d much rather just see Lashley fight EITHER of these guys one on one. BUT anyway, there’s not much to say here. Lashley runs though both guys and they are bumping all over for him. Am I missing anything? Oh yeah, Lashley hit the dominator.

Rating ¼*

It was then time for WWE gold to be defended in the form of the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Juvi vs. Kid Kash was the match and it was probably the first time that the Cruiserweight title was defended on PPV for sometime. I didn’t really know what to expect here except for the fact that I knew there was a major possibility to see a horrible match. I’ve NEVER been that big of a Kid Kash fan (except for when I used to be a lil ECW mark years back) and Juvi has been a mess for the last few years. But they did well together, but down the highspots that would have made this match such a mess, and they actually did some body work. I was surprised to see Juvi selling as much as he did in this match and there were actually a few times in the match where Kash seemed to be working really tight and I don’t know if that’s why Juvi was working in there or what. I also think this ended up being the last match that Juvi had before the WWE released him too. Not a bad match, but lacking spots for a CW title defense.

Rating - **1/4

Now we got to see the Raw tag champs Kane and Big Show take on the then newly crowned SD tag champs Rey Mysterio and Batista. I didn’t really care about this match too much as I don’t make much of the Kane/Big Show team. But I did think that if anyone could work with them and put out a good match though………….I’d be Batista and Rey. I really enjoyed the dickish heel persona they let Big Show use during this feud which basically shows you why Show should NEVER be a face in the WWE. Also I thought they did a good job at establishing Batista as the big star of the match. Kane was just blah and Mysterio was carrying the match on his back at times. They worked out some cool spots with Mysterio trying to hit his finisher on Kane and getting repeatedly cut off by Kane and Show. Nothing to great here, but the match was certainly a watchable one.

Rating - **3/4

I’m not getting into great detail here but I thought that the Tim White skit was pointless, timewasting nonsense. They should be totally and utterly ashamed of themselves for putting that crap on TV.

Now it was time for the main event Hell in a Cell match between Orton/Taker. This was pretty much what I expected, with them having Orton running around and the Taker chasing him. Orton is getting better at playing the chickenshit heel and as soon as they do that, they change the ways that he’s heel. Good move WWE, it is easier to get cheap heat from using a dead wrestler……….but a chickenshit heel will actually work for longer than one angle. ANYWAY, they did a good job in this one at the back and forth offense. Orton would get in cheap shots, use the steps, etc to get the advantage. Undertaker would just use his offense and intimidation to stop Orton. They even got Orton’s dad involved (although I usually hate that, they did it well in this one……….even Bob Orton fucking bladed!!!), they were both bleeding everywhere, referee’s were bleeding, they pulled out a table for a nice spot where Orton puts the Taker on the table and splashes him off of the top rope through the table. Nice overall work in a nice and long HIAC match. The show is basically worth checking out just for the Cell in itself.

Rating - ***3/4

Woah, Armageddon was actually good for once? Always glad to see more people doing reviews. :)

He had a rematch with Kash on the first Smackdown of '06 that was better than their Armageddon match. Juvy busts out a somersault plancha from the top to the floor.

REALLY? Where the fuck was I that week? I never miss Smackdown's.............at least not with DVR.

WWE chewed Juvy out because he was stiffing Kash and the match went on longer than they were told to have. Then he was fired the next day.

Aha.............I remember that now.