Ring Rust Radio

Ok, I was having an argument with Mike Chiari on twitter and I think I'd better post here to get my full point of view across as Mike will be able to do so on the podcast. The argument is about the I Quit match.

@MikeChiari: That was a great I Quit match, but Lana saying I quit for Rusev better not lead to another rematch. Time for him to, u know, win #WWEPayback

@THuguenin: @MikeChiari it was awful. At no point did either of them get out of first gear. They just do one spot then Chioda asks. Boring and senseless

@MikeChiari: @THuguenin Couldn't disagree more. That's generally how I Quit matches work. It's not a continuous flow of action.

@THuguenin: @MikeChiari there was no story telling though. Apart from Rusev being naive and stupid thinking Cena would give up after a drop kick.

@MikeChiari: @THuguenin How was there no storytelling? It's an I Quit match. That's the story. Also, Lana's involvement... That's a story. It was good.

that's where we got to. Let me start by saying that I know there were subplots here with Lana. That was a story but I don't think they told it very well last night. We got zero closure but I think we can all see now that WWE are going all in on Lana as a face, but that's irrelevant to the rest of the match.

Now is haven't seen many I quit matches I'll admit. The two I know well are Rock vs Mankind and Bret Hart vs Austin (submission match). Both of those matches told a great story about the brutality of one man (Rock and Hart) and the resilience and tenacity of the other. The Rock appeared physically superior and willing to do anything to punish Mankind who took the beating so courageously he famously said "you'll have to kill me". Bret Hart was always going to set up for his famous sharpshooter finisher, he worked the knee of Austin for 20 minutes using every hold he knew including using the ring post for leverage and trapping Steves ankle in a steel chair.

now I get that it's PG now and those were both Attitude Era matches but what separates this match from those two is not just the blood and brutality. It's the story. What was Rusev trying to do to win? Did he really believe a drop kick was going to do it? Did he always plan to use the accolade? If so why didn't he use it minute 1 of the match when he floored Cena with a kick to the guts? What body part does the accolade even hurt because Rusev didn't attack any part of Cena that I could gather and Cena definitely didn't sell any damage to himself after being in it to the point of passing out. I assume the accolade targets your back so it should have been near impossible for Cena to use the STF with his back fucked up. Or is the accolade just a sleeper hold now?

These sort of problems seem to plague Cena stipulation matches. The Russian chain match, Rollins tables match, Wyatt LMS and Cage matches, Orton TLC just a few in recent times that have been overbooked and made no sense. (I'll talk about cage matches in general another time). I don't know if Cena is to blame here as he probably helps book his own matches or if it's WWE creative giving him garbage but I wish they'd just give Cena singles matches because that's where he thrives and is one of the best of all time.

Thanks for reading, I'd like to hear what other people though of this match and where they went wrong or went right. You might have loved it, I thought it was a shocker.

On this week's episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that sources backstage told him that finishers generally come towards the end of the match.

No but seriously I was entertained by the match and while he could have have used The Accolade in minute 1 but it wouldn't have been as effective. As for your complaint about Cena not selling pain, c'mon this is Tampa John we're talking about.