[2008-06-29 WWE Night of Champions] Edge vs Batista

[Superstar Sleeze]

World Heavyweight Champion Edge vs Batista - WWE Night of Champions 2008

The wrinkle here is that HHH, the WWE Champion, has been drafted to Smackdown so both champions are slated to be on Smackdown. Batista has been drafted to RAW. Can The Animal bring one of the titles back to RAW? Let's see...

I admittedly had very low expectations for this match (I watched both of the prior Edge/Taker matches which were terrible), but I thought this was very good even with a pretty bad finish. They established the power game for Batista early with Edge surprisingly bumping and feeding well. Edge tried to turn it into a track meet but Batista fought through the baseball slide and slammed him into the steps. Batista shine entered heel in peril territory as Edge became a ragdoll. Jackhammer was a great climax. Wisely, they transitioned to heat shortly thereafter. I thought the transition to heat was the best part of the match. Edge is clotheslined out; Batista has to throw him back in but this gives Edge the high ground. Edge punts Batista as he is getting through the ropes and slams him into the post. Edge baseball slides and Batista ROCKETS back over the announce table in the second best bump of the match. JR does an excellent job pointing out Edge's use of inanimate objects and environment to take control. We see a splash to Batista's back when on the middle rope and a drop toehold to turnbuckle. There was another great drop toehold to stop a Batista flurry. Batista to his credit as a babyface was always moving forward and kept attacking. At the second chinlock, it was clear Edge had run out of ideas. The hope spots got closer and closer together. It was a banal clothesline that levelled the playing field. Batista rattled off a bunch of signature spots the shoulders in the corner, sidewalk slam, Spear (good one!) and was thinking BatistaBomb when Edge used Impaler DDT. I thought Edge did a good job trying to stop these offensive moves and having Batista fight through and earn the spots. Batista punts on the Edge spear. In the second worst transition of the match, Batista leaps off the top rope for no reason so Edge can dropkick him. This levels the playing field again for the Edgeheads and Vickie to come out. Batista nice leapfrog on spear, Spinebuster but Vickie yanks the ref. Edge decks the ref in the worst transition of the match. Here comes Chavo as ref. Batista military pressing Vickie and throwing her on La Familia wins bump of the match as I had no clue that happened and it was insane. Edge clocks Batista with title to retain. 

The ending was pretty bad, but the Vickie bump kinda saves it. I did like Batista having meaningful momentum down the stretch and not playing my turn, your turn. I liked the shine and transition to heat a lot and most of the heat was good. It was north of good, but south of great. I am feeling generous. ***1/2