Didn’t see the show, but followed along with online coverage of it, and on “paper” it seemed awesome. That said, I’ll take your word for it that the scramble matches didn’t execute well.

One thing I don’t understand is how Jericho won a title the same night that he was left for dead by HBK.

I agree, Matthew…it kinda reminds me of the Hogan/Jarrett/Booker thing…but I’m sure happy Jericho’s got the strap.

“There was no reason for the Big Show to be in the ring as long as he was unless he was either getting turned on or turning on someone”

Man, wrestling lingo is weird sometimes.

Matt: the problem was more that there was no thought put in to the actual strategy of the match. Example, at one point, Kane scored a pinfall was the “current champion.” One guy was out of the ring and the guy he’d just pinned was laying on his back. The ref then told him to continue. Why? What’s the benefit to Kane to do anything other than break up pins for the rest of the match? Why would he even exert the energy to beat up anyone else?

At one point, Kane then tried to pin someone again… which made no sense at all. Matt Hardy was the only one who did it and he only did for the last 20 or so seconds of the match.

Another point is during the Smackdown scramble when Brian Kendrick was the champion… why was he standing in the center of the ring when Triple H got to the ring in prime Pedigree position. If you ignore the strategy of the 20 minute time limit it makes the whole match pointless.

The talk about strategy reminds me of the match Punk had on raw against Jericho and JBL. It sounded like a great match until Adamle pointed out that if Punk wins, then he faces BOTH competitors at SummerSlam.

Fast forward to the last 45 seconds of the match. Jericho had Punk in the Walls, and my first thought was “Why the HELL is he trying to escape?!” Seriously, winning the match wouldn’t have made any sense when strategy is involved. The WWE should never make a match in which it’s advantageous to lose rather than win.

The scrambles could have been better if there was an official rule that anyone who tried to stay on the outside or otherwise not participate after scoring a pinfall would be stripped of the belt and ejected from the match.

It was a good idea. It just needed to be fleshed out a little more than it was.

One more note on the scrambles. It sounds like something you would do in GM mode of the video games when you have too many people complaining about a title shot. This was painfully evident in the Smackdown scramble.

I didn’t order the ppv but I did follow along. I’m sure I’m still talking old school here but how do you have a Championship Match when the Champion is not involved? And I agree it sounded like Jericho was in need of a stretcher, not another match. It destroyed whatever “Championship Scramble” WWE touted at Unforgiven.

I think forcing the champ to enter first, having specific countout and DQ rules (what was to stop the current champ from just knocking everyone silly with a chair?), and forcing the current champ to be pinned would have helped. It would have at least given the current champion a strategic reason to do something other than play defense.

Wow - you guys think about this too much. I think it’s pretty well established that “logic” has no place in wrestling, but that it should be celebrated when it appears by happenstance in any circumstance — hence, the reason I loved the fact that Jericho just refused to break the Walls of Jericho, even after HBK made the ropes.

If you ignore the logic, the matches themselves were really fun, and gave everybody (especially Kendrick and both Hardys) a chance to shine in a championship match.

Steve: I criticize in the way I would criticize the plot hole in any scripted entertainment. I don’t think it’s crazy to point out there was a very obvious strategy to winning that match that no one followed.

OK, here’s where logic was completely thrown out the window: Chris Jericho in the Scramble.

Now, I like probably everyone who reads this site, love Jericho. I find him engaging, entertaining, and overall fantastic (long as he isn’t with his band). But, you have him in an “Unsanctioned Match” with Michaels where he is beaten into unconciousness, then within an hour or so (didn’t watch it so I don’t know how long it was between the two) you have him inserted into the championship match and he wins it?

It makes no sense for Jericho to be selected by Adamle(sp?) as the replacement for Punk. Adamle has not shown himself to be a heel GM, so why pander to the heel character who was just destroyed earlier on the card. Logic dictates Michaels should have been the one of the two to get Punk’s slot.

Of course storyline wise it would have made far more sense for Jericho to be the victor over Michaels and then win the belt. You then have Jericho stand tall and proclaim his superiority, then have Michaels come back from his latest injury looking for the final piece of revenge, to not only destroy Jericho, but to take the championship away from him as the final “you are not at my level.” To top it all off, you still get the Batista element.

I liked all the Scrambles for different reasons (which you’ll see in my Unsolicited Review later on, cheap plug!), but I can see Daniels’ point, too. If they could tweak the rules a little, this could be a regularly used gimmick that really works.

One idea I had during the show; the guy who currently holds the belt is “it”. He’s the person you have to pin to make the title change hands. That at least solves the “why is the current champ” doing anything conundrum, although that may push things too far the other way. That, or make it a cage/lumberjack/flaming barbwire match so that the champ has to stick around. There really was no reason for Kendrick and Chavo to not play defense or just run away, since they’re supposed to be cheating heels.

That said, they were all exciting, I thought, and that goes a long way in my book. I thought they delivered in that regard.

Well here’s my 2cents on each of the three scramble matches.

I believe each match served some type of purpose and theoretically were booked fairly well according to strategy…the one who was champion breaking up pins etc.

ECW: booked well, became a bit of a clusterfuck at the end with everyone tryin to get a pin but hardy breaking it up, showed henry’s dominance but gave the title to a deserving superstar in matt hardy.

Smackdown: look goin into this if u thought anyone other than HHH was goin to win this your need your head examined. The only possible outcome would have been Jeff Hardy. With 3 non-main event calibre superstars (MVP, Benjamin, TBK) it served it purpose in getting them over in the mainevent. TBK held the pinfall for about 9 minutes in the match until HHH pedigreed him. Then at the end the bookin was pretty good with hardy and hhh goin back to back with HHH winning in the end, but still hardy had an awesome showing.

Raw: a pretty good match but i heard they shortened the 5 min intervals to 3? is that tru? but still fewer pin falls showed that the bigger men (minus rey, y2j) can kick out of harder moves, until the end…. sucks cm punk wasnt in the match but still thought it was awesome that jericho won.

Comments:
Overall the scramble is a shaky concept at best, although with correct booking it can play out well

but i found it interesting in the smackdown scramble… why would jeff hardy go to pin shelton when he sees hhh attempting to pin mvp for the ultimate final pin fall of the match. Jeff had enough time to break it up!!!! that still bugs me!

and on the raw side of things…how am i meant to believe from a fans point of view that a guy who was in a 20-30 minute ass kickin from the hands of michaels can possibly come out and win the match (especially after batista speared him him), when the champion gets a punt to the head and cant come out 20 minutes later? it suprises me that punk didnt come out, you’d think the world title would mean more to him?

Oh well nice big rant dont u think:P

On the CM Punk Vs. JBL and Jericho Match … the rules were actually that if no one won when time was called it would be a triple threat. If Punk Won, neither JBL nor Jericho would get the match [although Punk would probably still end up defending against someone at the PPV one would assume].

The Jericho win made sense in the Scramble match, as he was able to win without having any offense in the match. It also allowed Jericho to stay as a top heel even after Shawn got retribution in their feud. [Jericho's Raw Promo also opens the door to continue the Shawn feud].

As for the strategy in the Scrambles, there is very easy logic in that a new match won’t necessarily have people knowing perfect strategy yet, sometimes the champion ‘forgets’ and goes for pointless pinfalls. On occaision though, the current champ did use logical strategy of sending any “pinnable” competitors out of the ring.

John: Michaels said in his interview that he was going home and Adamle said he wanted to add another former champion to the scramble.

Steve -

Logic has no place in sportz entertainment. There IS a place for logic in pro wrestling.

[...] had it’s fair share of Unforgiven coverage: Pulse Wrestling’s LIVE Coverage: WWE Unforgiven 10 Thoughts On Unforgiven - 09.08.2008 The SmarK Rant for WWE Unforgiven 2008 Unsolicited Unsactioned Reviews: WWE Unforgiven [...]