WWE held their Cyber Sunday pay-per-view last night from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Before I start reviewing the event I want to call out anyone that attended last night’s show live. This was the one of the most lethargic crowds that I have heard at a WWE pay-per-view all year. The pop for Steve Austin was even lacking. The live crowd has a lot to do with how good that the event comes off on television and there were many times where I felt like the crowd was falling asleep. Ordinarily I would call out the workers, stating my case that the work wasn’t good enough to keep the crowd in it, but last night I am blaming the crowd. We had a correspondent at the show that said aside from a few excited fans, the building was dead as well. So come on Phoenix, next time there is a WWE show, we want to hear you! Below are my thoughts on last night’s pay-per-view:

The preview match of Shelton Benjamin vs. R-Truth for the US Championship was nothing more than a glorified dark match that aired on WWE.com. Killings and Benjamin worked well together but they were told to keep it short and it was very short. I would like to see a longer pay-per-view match between the two for the title as the little work that they did was very adequate. Benjamin retained the title via pinfall before the event started.

The first match of the pay-per-view was Kane vs. Rey Mysterio in a No Holds Barred match. I was very surprised that a Falls Count Anywhere match was not voted in as one would think that people would want to see Mysterio fly all over the place. Maybe it was the younger fans or WWE could have altered the voting because Mysterio is still not 100%. Nonetheless the match itself was a decent Mysterio match that got the event off to a good pace. The dead crowd didn’t come alive much but I do not fault Kane or Mysterio for it. Mysterio got one up on Kane as he hit the 619 and got the pinfall.

Matt Hardy vs. Evan Bourne for the ECW Championship match was one of my favorite matches of the night. From a work perspective, it probably was the best as Bourne took his stellar work and showed it off in front of the pay-per-view audience. I do not say this often but I actually think that Bourne carried Hardy throughout the match. The crowd was once again a factor here as it seemed like they were confused on who to root for but there were times when Bourne was getting over more than Matt Hardy. Hardy ended up retaining with Twist of Fate and the pinfall.

The biggest surprise in the voting for me was the fact that The Miz & John Morrison vs. Cryme Tyme beat out Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase vs. Kofi Kingston & CM Punk for the World Tag Team Championship. Why would anyone pick a match that could be done on television over a title match featuring four of the best workers on Raw. I am not trying to take away from Cryme Tyme or Miz & Morrison, but the vote was certainly surprising. The match was basic and without titles being on the line it was an afterthought to continue this feud that is being played out on the official WWE website and on Raw. Morrison got the pinfall on Shad after hitting the Moonlight Drive to get the victory.

Santino Marella’s defense of the Intercontinental Championship went just as I expected. It was pure comedy. Marella cut a promo only for The Honky Tonk Man to come out and show him up with Beth ending up getting Santino disqualified. They teased dissension between Beth and Santino as Goldust and Roddy Piper ended up coming out and all three former IC Champions beat up on Santino. I would have been upset if I would have paid to vote for a particular name only for all three choices to be involved (this isn’t the only time this happened). Why have the fans vote only to use all three?

The quiet crowd probably had the biggest affect on Big Show vs. The Undertaker in a Last Man Standing match. The work between both Show and Undertaker was good but the crowd didn’t seem to respond. The match was more of a heavyweight fight rather than a traditional wrestling match but it had one of the best finishes of the night. Undertaker caught Big Show in the Gogoplata and released it only for Show to be counted out and Undertaker to be the last man standing. The match was a lot different from their encounter at No Mercy and was a great way to even the score between the two.

The Divas Halloween Costume Contest was pretty lame. WWE had the heel Divas dress goofy (example: Victoria as a banana) and the babyface Divas dress sexy (example: Maria as a bunny) only for Mickie James to win the fan voting dressed as the Tomb Raider. The contest was more of a way to get the divas featured on television but it did nothing for me.

Jeff Hardy was overwhelmingly voted in to face Triple H in a singles match for the WWE Championship which I find pretty telling. Assuming that the voting was 100% legitimate, it shows that WWE fans want to see Hardy contend for the title and they do not care how hard WWE has been pushing Vladimir Kozlov as a challenger. If they cared the slightest, they would have picked the triple-threat which would have been my guess. Hardy and Triple H had a good match but my problem with it was it was almost a complete duplicate of what they did earlier this month at No Mercy. Hardy started with a mat wrestling style only to end up hitting all of his moves before he was caught with a pedigree which caused him to lose. WWE will probably want to put this on the shelf for awhile and go back to Hunter vs. Kozlov.

Throughout the night WWE did backstage segments with Chris Jericho trying to get the Special Guest Referee stipulation dropped from his match. The segments made it seem almost obvious that something was going to happen and with the bout going last, the possibility of a title change became an option. Of course Steve Austin won the voting as the Special Guest Referee which still did not deliver a huge pop from the live crowd. Batista and Jericho had a solid match, it was nothing overly special nor do I think that it was the match of the night. Austin didn’t play a huge role in the match until the end when Shawn Michaels ended up coming out to ref the match as did Randy Orton. Once again, why have fans pay $0.99 to vote, stress how important their vote counts, only to use all three choices? I’d want my money back. There was a lot of overbooking in the go-home sequence which ended in Jericho getting sidetracked with Austin and Batista hitting a spinebuster and the Batista Bomb for the win. JBL even got involved in the match at one point. Batista walked out the new World Heavyweight Champion in a match that featured overbooking that I would expect from TNA. I would expect a rematch tonight on Raw as Batista finally got what he was wanted since he was traded to Raw.

In conclusion, Cyber Sunday was a throwaway pay-per-view with some solid action and a title change. The World title change was the only thing that made the event relevant. I dislike how the change was done not only because of the overbooking but with how over that Chris Jericho as a heel as become. Batista has been campaigning for a run at the top but I do not think that he is as good of a champion as Chris Jericho right now. The crowd hurt this pay-per-view as they were emotionless and flat throughout the night. Evan Bourne further proved how big of a breakout star that he is while Big Show and Undertaker showed that they are two of the best big men in the world. Triple H and Jeff Hardy’s match was too similar to what they did at No Mercy so I would not go out of my way to see it. Survivor Series is next and as we saw last night – John Cena will make his return.

Richard can be contacted at richard [at] grayinternet.com

Richard Gray is a professional wrestling journalist and frequent contributor to Rajah.com. He has been covering the world of professional wrestling since 1999 and has had the opportunity to cover ground breaking stories such as the demise of ECW, the WCW buyout, the Benoit tragedy, Bobby Lashley leaving WWE, and more. For more on Richard check out his web site, Wrestling News World.

– “Richard Reacts” Archive By WrestlingNewsWorld.com’s Richard Gray