WWE Over the Limit 2011
May 22, 2011
Seattle, WA
Reviewed on April 13, 2014

Background: It is PPVs like this one that led to the Summer of Punk.

Be honest, if you are a casual fan…you probably can’t name a match on this card except for Cena vs. Miz. Disappointingly, WWE went back to the Cena and Randy Orton after Extreme Rules. The Miz at the time was one of the hottest heels in the company.Christian was seemingly finally getting a shot at the top. It all didn’t matter. Cena and Orton was the way WWE was going. On this PPV you will see CM Punk be wasted. You will not see Daniel Bryan, as he was regulated to pre-show duty. You will see the same old tired booking. The only characters that get some sort of development is Sin Cara and R-Truth.

Let’s just be real, outside of The Rock’s comeback, the first half of 2011 blew. And that only helped the effectiveness of the Summer of Punk.

The Card

R-Truth vs. Rey Mysterio

Not sure of the story here…but R-Truth had just gotten a much needed heel turn and was probably at his most entertaining…ever. This was the crazy man R-Truth. And admittedly it was awesome. He would conduct promos that made no sense and blame Little Jimmy. He cuts a promo here about a parking spot.

Rey with the off the apron hurricanrana. Nice.

Top rope bulldog from Rey! Some cool spots in this one.

R-Truth pins Rey Mysterio in 8:12. Definitely considered an upset here and Truth gets good heat. Truth wins with the Lie Detector, which is a version of the Flatliner. Decent opener.

Miz promo. Sigh, what the hell happened.

Heel Michael Cole was a lot more annoying than I remember.

WWE Intercontinental Championship
Wade Barrett© vs. Ezekiel Jackson

Story: The Corre was a spinoff group led by Barrett of the neXus. Jackson and Barrett were having problems or something. Here we are.

This is still my favorite Wade Barrett theme (End of Days).

Ezekiel Jackson wins by DQ in 7:27. Corre runs in for the DQ. Nothing to say about this match whatsoever. Practically a TV match with a TV ending.

New neXus beat up in the back. I thought Orton punted them back to developmental months ago. How about that.

Sin Cara vs. Chavo Guerrero

Man a Chavo Guerrero PPV match in 2011.

Story is kinda funny. Chavo claimed Sin Cara stole every move he knows from Chavo.

Backstage story: Sin Cara was NOT getting over. There were botches in his matches. They were using Chavo to help him have a good match.

Cara lands on his feet after a corkscrew tope which was pretty sick.

Sin Cara pins Chavo Guerrero in 7:23. Horribly botches flying head scissors for the win. Why was that the finish? Yikes. Match was nothing special. Just a bunch of spots. Maybe if this was 1996 it would be considered great. It’s amazing how overrated Mistico ended up being.

Weird Christian-Randy Orton promo. All about respect so far. Of course Christian turned later.

Here comes Alberto Del RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIO! No idea why he’s here. Pretty boring promo, and Big Show and Kane come down to end this segment.

WWE World Tag Team Championship
Big Show and Kane© vs. CM Punk and Mason Ryan

I do not remember this Big Show and Kane tag title reign at all.

Kane: “I’m already disappointed we didn’t have the rapture yesterday”. I laughed.

CM Punk chants. I feel bad for him here.

Mason Ryan is so bad.

Punk was already doing the Randy Savage tribute, which is nice.

Big Show and Kane retain when Kane pins Mason Ryan in 9:06. Double chokeslam for the win. Pretty damn forgettable, just like this tag title reign. I guess it wasn’t awful or anything.

WWE Diva’s Champion
Brie Bella vs. Kelly Kelly

I have no idea what the story here is. Not sure if Kharma already disappeared as this point.

Nunzio is YOUR referee.

Michael Cole: “Ugh, we have to sit through another boring Divas match”.

Brie Bella retains when Nikki Bella pins Kelly Kelly. TWIN MAGIC. I could think of two reasons why that doesn’t work anymore. Er…pretty boring match even by Divas standards. Half of it was an armbar.

World Heavyweight Championship
Randy Orton© vs. Christian

Story: Christian had a feel good story when he won the World Heavyweight title at Extreme Rules. He lost it five days later to Orton (which pissed off the IWC). Rematch here. To be fair, the way Christian left the ring that Smackdown was pretty awesome acting.

This is just a solid back and forth contest. It was done this way to try to make it seem that Christian was on Orton’s level.

There’s a lot of counters in this match as Christian said with full preparation he could beat Orton. So for example, Orton’s rope DDT was countered.

Randy Orton with a really cool inverted Walls of Jericho. How random but awesome.

Really cool spot where Christian faked out Orton with the corkscrew body press (Orton countered that into a RKO to win the title). Too bad Christian would fall for this 2 years later.

Christian looks to pay tribute to Edge with a Spear, but Orton powerslams him.

Great false finish! Orton hesitates on a punt, and Christian gets a spear for two!

Randy Orton retains by pin in 16:52. Awesome finisher counter sequence, then a countered back suplex into a RKO for the pin. Great match. Orton and Christian had awesome chemistry in the ring.

Kiss My Foot Match
Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler

Ugh, this feud needed to end two months ago at Wrestlemania.

Story: Cole’s love for The Miz turned him into a heel. That spawned a really annoying announcer feud…although one where Michael Cole was a great heel for a while. But it needed to end at Mania with Lawler killing Cole. Cole won with some bs in a 15 minute match. At Extreme Rules Cole and Jack Swagger beat Lawler and Jim Ross. Now we are at a Kiss My Foot Match.

Cole comes out limping and cuts a promo. Doctor’s note! He’s trying to get out of the match.

Ref tears up the note. Okay then.

Cole gets his pants torn up.

Michael Cole takes off his shoe and it’s disgusting. Why is this on PPV.

Cole into the Colemine!

Jerry Lawler pins Michael Cole in 3:01. Flying fistdrop for the win. Basically what should have happened at Mania. It takes Eve, JR and ultimately Bret Hart to get Cole back in the ring when he tries to avoid kidding Lawler’s foot. Sharpshooter + Lawler shoving his foot up Cole’s mouth is the payoff. Woo?

WWE Championship: I Quit Match
John Cena© vs. The Miz

Story: Cena won the title at Extreme Rules in a Three Way Cage match. Miz’s rematch.

It’s amazing watching Miz here…and how bad he is now. Miz was awesome in late 2010-early 2011.

Miz tells Cena since it’s no DQ, Alex Riley can help him and it will basically be a 2 on 1. Miz gives Cena the chance to quit right away. Cena obviously says no.

Miz and Riley dominate Cena. Cena refuses to quit! Sigh.

Near the end of this ridiculously boring match Miz does a Skull Crushing Finale on a chair in the ropes. That was kinda cool. Although, the way Cena hit the chair might have been a botch. Of course Cena will never quit, so who really cares.

Miz asks a kid in the crowd to ask him to tell Cena to quit. Innovative I guess?

Chairshot to the head! I thought those were banned.

OMG Cena quits! NEW CHAMP! What’s this? Ref finds a phone? Who cares. Oh it’s Riley’s having a Cena “I Quit” recording in there. Oh…can’t we ignore it?

Match restarted. Second time in two matches between them.

SUPERCENA.

John Cena retains when Miz quits in 24:56. STF for the win. This match is horrible. Arguably the worst main event in WWE PPV history. And it’s neither man’s fault (although I’m sure people backstage blamed Miz), the story is just horrid. Miz and Riley beat up Cena for TWENTY minutes. WAY TOO LONG. Dusty Finish was overkill. And then, Cena beats up Miz for two minutes and Miz quits. This KILLED the Miz and Miz never recovered (although he almost did with Awesome Truth). Absolute burial. There was money in the Miz and it was flushed down the toilet here. Probably the worst occurrence of Super Cena ever. It’s fine if you want Cena to go over…but how a back and forth I Quit match? Why was this the story? The only positive is the match getting restarted I think led to the conspiracy angle…which led to Awesome Truth. Ugh. Just ugh.

Absolutely forgetful. Nothing on this show mattered long term other than Miz’s demotion (he would LOSE to Riley next month). Orton and Christian would have three other PPV matches. I don’t even remember what else happened on this show. No wonder CM Punk was disgusted.

Close to F status for the uneventful card and horrid main event…thank Christian and Orton for having a great match.

Final Grade: D