In the past No Mercy has played host to some fantastic battles, in 2002 the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit defeated Edge and Rey Mysterio in a match that the Wrestling Observer Newsletter would deem ‘Match of the Year’ and on the same card The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar put on a solid Hell in a Cell match for the WWE Championship.
However for all its great matches, No Mercy has had its fair share of downright awful ones too, none more forgettable than William Regal Vs Naked Mideon in 2000.
Before reading on, why not check out:
- Raw No Mercy 08 Preview
- Smackdown/ECW No Mercy 08 Preview /li>
for predictions, information on match build-up and rumours surrounding the event, as well as basic results.
This year’s instalment was another fairly average event, saved once more by some standout matches.
Opening Matches
The first match was the ECW Title match between Mark Henry and Matt Hardy, and fans of either will be glad to know this match was 100% better than their meeting at Summerslam, although that wouldn’t be a hard thing to achieve.
Given a match slot longer than 32 seconds, ECW’s two top men put on a good match and despite Tony Atlas being at ringside, Matt got the upper hand right at the death. He hit Henry with a Twist of Fate and picked up the 3 to retain the title.
Unused Faces
After two raw bouts an altercation that would feature 7 wrestlers not on the card began, when MVP tried to get a match, and headed to the ring when he was denied by Big Show. Randy Orton and Priceless soon made an appearance and after Orton decided it was below him and left, Priceless punked out MVP who started to leave too. He was then stopped at the top of the ramp by Kofi Kingston and C.M Punk who persuaded him to help them out, before letting him get into the ring first and take a beating from the waiting 2nd generation Superstars. Punk and Kingston would eventually jump in and help, sending Priceless fleeing up the ramp.
Smackdown’s Disappointment of the Night
The next Smackdown bout was the eagerly anticipated grudge match between The Undertaker and The Big show, and sadly it failed to deliver.
The two guys never really got out of first gear. They are capable of so much more than they delivered at No Mercy and it went from bad to worse when the Deadman, someone who has been portrayed over the years as practically indestructible, was once again floored by Big Show’s right hook, to the point that the referee stopped the match.
Main Event
Here is where this event managed to jump from average to worth seeing. First up was the WWE Championship match between HHH and Jeff Hardy.
This was one of those matches that never really looked like it was going to be amazing, but actually surpassed any expectations surrounding it.
Jeff had one of the matches of his life (excluding the ones with ladders in) and although he came close numerous times, it never felt like the result was going to be anything but what it turned out to be, a victory for HHH.
Jeff hit the Swanton and looked like he was finally going to ‘grab that brass ring’ but on the count of 2 HHH reversed into a pinfall of his own and left with the title, before bumping into Kozlof backstage to set up his next feud.
Aftermath
Where Jeff goes from here is anyone’s guess. HHH has got Kozlof to contend with and that feud will no doubt run on past Cyber Sunday, leaving little scope for Jeff to have another shot at the title in the near future.
The Undertaker will surely be back before Cyber Sunday, so expect to be choosing a gimmick for his next match with The Big Show before long on WWE.Com.
To find out what happened on WWE's Red Brand at No Mercy 08 Click Here
Jay Davies - Jay Davies is a 25 year old graduate of the University of Lincoln's School of Journalism, currently residing in South Yorkshire, ...
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