Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 3:11 AM EST

Omar El-beid sent in the following report from the Unforgiven PPV this past Sunday night in Memphis, TN:

WWE UNFORGIVEN: 9-16-2007 FROM MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

Dark match: Kane vs Kenny. Went to get drinks for my gf. Quick match. Didn't hear Kenny's music. Squash: Kane I suppose

The PPV begins. Justin Roberts tells us there will be pyro, then we'll go live on PPV. So enjoy. Crowd gets excited.

ECW Championship Match: CM Punk (c) defeats Elijah Burke via pin fall
Good ovation for Punk. Not much of a reaction throughout the whole match. It was back and forth for the most part. I don’t think this was even worth being on the card as to some people didn’t have a clue to what the build up was. Jeff Hardy could have been used here instead if it was just a 5 day build up. * 3/4 And I really like Punk too.

Note: They were confiscating signs BIG TIME. During the first couple of matches, they hounded everything! I was trying to get on tv. I was just to the right of the standard camera angle. Yet, I never saw my signs get on the Titantron. However, 2 of my 4 signs were yanked. One read “RKO > Wellness Policy / Beth Phoenix’ Jaw Uses HGH and the 2nd was “Team Signature Pharmacy". A guy behind me got his yank for promoting some myspace site. Anyway, they were very media sensitive towards the whole steroid issue. I wouldn’t be surprised if the edited out some angles. Didn’t know WHERE their cameras where picking me up from. They add agents planted like seeds everywhere in the crowd. I lied for the first sign and said I didn’t have the “Team Signature Pharmacy" poster. So he left me alone. Then only to come back like 2 seconds later, saw my “RKO >" poster, looked passed it and yanked the “Team Sig". Then a different guy. Next match. Yanked my RKO / Beth sign. Crazy. Thought I was getting kicked out. They were heated. HOT STUFF.

WWE Tag Team Championship Match: MVP and Matt Hardy (c) defeats Deuce and Domino via pin fall
People are starting to root for MVP. More of the same back-and-forth entertaining segments between MVP and Hardy. We ate it up. Especially when they tried to imitate one another’s move set. Finish saw MVP cleaning house and getting a face rub because he saved Hardy. Nice win for them. The odd couple story has been done before. But this one seems to keep growing. One of the better matches of the night. Everything made sense. ***

Triple H defeats Carlito via pin fall
Triple H entrance hits every post. Long entrance. Carlito. Not so much. Solid stuff from both guys. Carlito wasn’t tryingo too hard to involve the crowd, but his white powder stuff was okay heel heat. Predictable win for Trips. You can feel it throughout the flow of the match. Saw knee to the head, atomic drop, pedigree finish a mile away ** 1/2

Women's Championship Match: Candice Michelle (c) defeats Beth Phoenix via pin fall
Phoenix carried this match. My pick for title drop of the night. The fans loved Candice, but not for her wrestling abilities and aren’t really buying the whole “sexy girl gone bad ass" routine. Everyone loved making fun of Phoenix. The crowd was cracking up. I yelled most of the jokes, and surprisingly, they were well received. Good PPV start for Beth’s character. She has a future title reign with her name on it. Weird slow reverse samoan drop for the finish by Candice on Michelle. ** I know some women can’t move that fast to some degree. But this half ass speed crap is ridiculous. I hope Phoenix is the “new wave" of stars to change that. Beth’s heat was more over with the crowd than Michelle’s pops.

World Heavyweight Championship Match: Batista defeats The Great Khali (c) and Rey Mysterio: Triple Threat Match to become 3 time champion
They did interview segments throughout the night beginning with Rey Rey and Michael Cole. Then Batista. Then Khali. Decent heat for Khali. Especially after the watermelon crush which was supposed to be Batista’s head. Kids and everyone pulled for Rey. People liked Batista too. Solid pop for Rey Rey again throughout the match. Everyone ate up Batista moves. Best finish of the night towards the end of the match. Batista really muscled his way to the title. Nice spot: powerbomb move Bats did on Rey on Khali. Crowd ate up the finish. Solid long well-deserved ovation afterwards. *** 1/2

World Tag Team Championship Match: Lance Cade and Trevor Murdock vs Paul London and Brian Kendrick
Most disappointing match for the night. Very little high spots. Dead crowd. No one was into this match. *1/2 Expected more from this tag title match and not the other one. Lack of energy.

WWE Championship Match: John Cena vs. Randy Orton
Crowd was mixed through out the whole match. During the long lock up you could hear “Let’s Go Orton/Let’s Go Cena"….Horrible DQ MMA rip off finish. Fans felt cheated. The ONLY reason Cena was cheered at the end is because all of our voices were horse from fighting off young kids and horny little girls. PLUS, we felt cheated and exasperated from the result. Nothing more. Nothing less. You can even hear us gaining back hope and positivity that all isn’t lost when Coachman announced Orton will get another shot at the title again. The crowd semi popped for Orton there. Although at the PPV, he didn’t say if it would be at No Mercy or Raw tomorrow in Nashville. However, I’m reading reviews that JBL, of all people, and not JR, announced a No Mercy PPV match. ** ½ Too short.

Semi rant in 3..2..1…people if you were pulling for a guy for the last 365 odd days to drop a title in your own hometown and you paid money for great seats you would be a little disappointed/winded/shocked that it didn’t happen--------again. Don’t worry. Cena is still very much unliked. Or at least half and half. END RANT

Undertaker vs Mark Henry

Long entrance. Lot of pictures. Taker came back yet again. Isn’t this like this 5th return promo? At least 3 times. Its getting old. And I like Taker. Please hang them up. Ditto for Flair. Stop ruining your legacy and give the yuggins a try.

Anyway, Taker was the most over for the night. Okay stuff. Seemed like a glorified Smackdown! main event match. Same tired spots. I think Henry got off a couple of splashes and missed one. Maybe one corner move. And a bear hug. That’s about all the offense he gets usally. Taker did his habitual spots. People were starting to grow impatient and its funny because we thought they, the wrestlers, sensed that and did the finish. * 3/4

SUMMARY:

Okay show. Didn’t expect World title drop. Nice segment afterwards between Trips and Bats with Trips saying basically getting it (the title) is one thing, keeping it is another. They did the whole macho hug too. Surprised segment. But fun to watch. Other matches and finishes were slightly predictable. Wasn’t anticipating progression since they only had three weeks to build this up. And one of those weeks were plagued by ….(rolls drum) TEAM SIGNATURE PHARMACY. I guess it was a little above okay come to think of it with the SI article and the allotted time to put together a show. ** ¾ Glad to see them back in a PPV. Last one was with Big Show’s debut through the ring at “WWF’s St Valentine’s Day Massacre"

TOP POPS:
Undertaker
Triple H
Batista
John Cena
CM Punk

Cena had too many boos throughout the match. He just had a couple of good pops at the end because of reasons listed above.

TOP HEAT
John Cena
Khali
Cade and Murdoch (Cryme Tyme chants started before PPV and during their match)
Randy Orton (I guess Orton is on here only because they rooted so much for John Cena instead) But I would take Orton off and put Henry fifth. Eh.. Orton has a strong fan base here. Hence the reaction. Last Raw March 2006, this was a 75% Cena town. Now it’s about 50/50.
Carlito

*Kennedy, Flair and HORNSWOGGLE chants throughout the night too.