Vengeance (2011)
Encyclopedia
Vengeance was a professional wrestling
pay-per-view
(PPV) event produced by WWE that took place on October 23, 2011 at the AT&T Center
in San Antonio, Texas
. It is the 12th event under the Vengeance/Night of Champions
chronology and the first event under the Vengeance name since the 2007 edition
. Eight matches took place at the event.
Alberto Del Rio against former champion John Cena
for the WWE Championship. At Hell in a Cell
earlier in the month, John Cena lost his title to Alberto Del Rio after John Cena was locked out of the steel cell while Alberto Del Rio pinned CM Punk
. A week later, recently instated Interim General Manager of Raw John Laurinaitis
booked John Cena's rematch against Alberto Del Rio for Vengeance. On the October 17th episode of Raw, John Cena won a tag team match with Jim Ross to defeat Alberto Del Rio and Michael Cole and as per the pre-match stipulation, he chose the match at Vengeance to be a Last Man Standing Match. John Laurinaitis also requested a tag team match between former rivals Triple H
and CM Punk
and the newly reinstated R-Truth
and The Miz for Vengeance, which was confirmed on Twitter the following day.
The main rivalry from Smackdown involved World Heavyweight Champion
Mark Henry
against Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship. At Money in the Bank
, Mark Henry injured The Big Show via a steel chair when Mark crushed the chair on Big Show's fibula keeping him out of action for roughly four months. Afterwards, Henry defeated Randy Orton
at Night of Champions
to claim the first World Heavyweight Championship in his career, and defeated Orton once more at Hell in a Cell to retain his title. The Smackdown after Hell in a Cell, Big Show returned and began to attack Mark Henry demanding a title match for Henry's title. As Big Show was about to crush Mark's leg with a steel chair, General Manager Theodore Long
said that if Show did not crush Henry's leg, he would get his title match. With that said, Show decided to give Henry a chair shot to the back, fearing that if he crushed Mark's leg, he would not get his World Heavyweight Championship match.
The night started with the best match on the card when Air Boom (Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne) took on and beat Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler for the WWE tag team titles in an energy-filled contest. Ziggler, who has been one of the industry's unsung stars this year, was then asked to defend his US championship against Zack Ryder, which he did successfully. Everything about Ziggler, from his mannerisms to his bumping, is reminiscent of Shawn Michaels and Curt Hennig from the early 90s — and we mean that as a huge compliment.
Beth Phoenix retained the Divas belt after beating Eve Torres cleanly in what was a better than anticipated encounter.In a unique twist, Torres broke out a jiu-jitsu style triangle choke in a quality finishing sequence too often sadly lacking in Divas matches.
Christian v Sheamus rounded off the opening hour with a passable bout between two very capable pros. Sheamus won cleanly to continue his strong babyface push and it was another decent affair.
Perhaps surprisingly, the weakest match of the night was the next one, which was unfortunate given that it probably received the most hype.Frankly, Triple H looked off the pace competing in a tag match alongside former foe Punk against Miz and Truth.And it's safe to say the pace was pedestrian at best even before Nash interfered on the bad guys' behalf.After Miz and Truth had pinned Punk, Nash beat up The Game before nailing him with a nasty looking jackknife powerbomb to pencil himself in alongside the duo for the heel team at Survivor Series.
Randy Orton v Cody Rhodes was next and, much like Christian's clash with Sheamus, this was a solid, mildly entertaining affair which saw the babyface win the day. Show and Henry were never expected to put on a clinic in their world title match, but the action was as good as could be expected until the big finish, which saw the champion suplexing his opponent from the top rope, causing the ring to collapse.Fans who have been around since 2003 or before might remember a similar angle with Show and Brock Lesnar on Smackdown. This was essentially the same thing and the match was ruled a no contest. John Cena and Del Rio's Last Man Standing match concluded the show and the two men artfully wove their narrative around the collapsed squared circle.
The match meandered between ringside and backstage, eventually ending after Miz and Truth attacked Cena before Del Rio rendered his rival unable to answer the count.
It was a passable main event — if possibly a little long — but although the interference fit the storyline and the match rules, it lost impact following other cloudy finishes on the show.
Frankly, the poor standard of Raw in recent weeks resulted in it appearing as though little thought had gone into the promotion of this PPV. Without storylines to hook the fans' emotion, this had nothing more than decent action to hang its hat on and ended up feeling a little like a glorified house show. We give a decent, but rather emotionless, WWE Vengeance six out of 10.
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
pay-per-view
Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
(PPV) event produced by WWE that took place on October 23, 2011 at the AT&T Center
AT&T Center
AT&T Center is an indoor arena, located in San Antonio, Texas, USA. It seats 18,581, for basketball , 13,800, for ice hockey and 19,000, for concerts or religious gatherings and contains 2,018 club seats, 50 luxury suites and 32 bathrooms .It was completed in 2002, as the SBC...
in San Antonio, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. It is the 12th event under the Vengeance/Night of Champions
WWE Vengeance
Vengeance is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by professional wrestling promotion WWE. The inaugural event took place on December 9, 2001 and replaced WWE Armageddon for that year due to the possible insensitivity of the latter's name with respect to the September 11 attacks....
chronology and the first event under the Vengeance name since the 2007 edition
Vengeance: Night of Champions
Vengeance: Night of Champions was the seventh annual professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment within its Vengeance chronology, and the last to be promoted with the Vengeance name until 2011. It featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. The...
. Eight matches took place at the event.
Background
The main rivalry from Raw involved WWE ChampionWWE Championship
The WWE Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE. It is the world title of the Raw brand and one of two in WWE, complementing the World Heavyweight Championship of the SmackDown brand. It was established under the then WWWF in 1963...
Alberto Del Rio against former champion John Cena
John Cena
John Felix Anthony Cena is an American professional wrestler, actor, rapper, and television personality. He is currently signed to WWE as a member of its WWE Raw brand....
for the WWE Championship. At Hell in a Cell
Hell in a Cell (2011)
Hell in a Cell was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by WWE that took place on October 2, 2011 at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the third annual Hell in a Cell event. Like the 2009 and 2010 events, this event also featured the Hell in a Cell match...
earlier in the month, John Cena lost his title to Alberto Del Rio after John Cena was locked out of the steel cell while Alberto Del Rio pinned CM Punk
CM Punk
Phillip Jack "Phil" Brooks , better known by his ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE and working on its Raw brand currently serving his second title reign as WWE Champion....
. A week later, recently instated Interim General Manager of Raw John Laurinaitis
John Laurinaitis
John Joseph Laurinaitis is the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations for WWE and appears on WWE's Raw Brand as interim General Manager. He was previously a professional wrestler under the ring name Johnny Ace, and wrestled for such promotions as the National Wrestling Alliance and All...
booked John Cena's rematch against Alberto Del Rio for Vengeance. On the October 17th episode of Raw, John Cena won a tag team match with Jim Ross to defeat Alberto Del Rio and Michael Cole and as per the pre-match stipulation, he chose the match at Vengeance to be a Last Man Standing Match. John Laurinaitis also requested a tag team match between former rivals Triple H
Triple H
Paul Michael Levesque is an American professional wrestler, professional wrestling authority figure, WWE Executive Vice President of Talent and actor, better known by his ring name Triple H, an abbreviation of the ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley...
and CM Punk
CM Punk
Phillip Jack "Phil" Brooks , better known by his ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE and working on its Raw brand currently serving his second title reign as WWE Champion....
and the newly reinstated R-Truth
Ron Killings
Ronald Aaron "Ron" Killings is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is currently signed to WWE working on its Raw brand. Since working for the company, he has been a one time United States Champion under the ring name R-Truth and a two time Hardcore Champion under the ring name K-Kwik...
and The Miz for Vengeance, which was confirmed on Twitter the following day.
The main rivalry from Smackdown involved World Heavyweight Champion
World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)
The World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE. It is the world title of the SmackDown brand and one of two in WWE, complementing the WWE Championship of the Raw brand...
Mark Henry
Mark Henry
Mark Jerrold Henry is an American professional wrestler signed with WWE, where he performs on its SmackDown brand as the reigning World Heavyweight Champion. He is a 1992 Olympian, and winner of the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic...
against Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship. At Money in the Bank
Money in the Bank (2011)
Money in the Bank was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by WWE, which took place on July 17, 2011 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. It was the second annual Money in the Bank pay-per-view...
, Mark Henry injured The Big Show via a steel chair when Mark crushed the chair on Big Show's fibula keeping him out of action for roughly four months. Afterwards, Henry defeated Randy Orton
Randy Orton
Randal Keith "Randy" Orton is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to WWE wrestling on its SmackDown brand...
at Night of Champions
Night of Champions (2011)
Night of Champions was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by WWE that took place on September 18, 2011 at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York. It was the 4th annual WWE Night of Champions event and the 11th in the WWE Vengeance overall timeline. Seven matches took...
to claim the first World Heavyweight Championship in his career, and defeated Orton once more at Hell in a Cell to retain his title. The Smackdown after Hell in a Cell, Big Show returned and began to attack Mark Henry demanding a title match for Henry's title. As Big Show was about to crush Mark's leg with a steel chair, General Manager Theodore Long
Theodore Long
Theodore R. "Teddy" Long is an American professional wrestling manager and former referee who currently works for WWE on its SmackDown brand as its General Manager.-National Wrestling Alliance / World Championship Wrestling:...
said that if Show did not crush Henry's leg, he would get his title match. With that said, Show decided to give Henry a chair shot to the back, fearing that if he crushed Mark's leg, he would not get his World Heavyweight Championship match.
Reception
The Suns Rob McNichol Reviewed the event as follows:The night started with the best match on the card when Air Boom (Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne) took on and beat Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler for the WWE tag team titles in an energy-filled contest. Ziggler, who has been one of the industry's unsung stars this year, was then asked to defend his US championship against Zack Ryder, which he did successfully. Everything about Ziggler, from his mannerisms to his bumping, is reminiscent of Shawn Michaels and Curt Hennig from the early 90s — and we mean that as a huge compliment.
Beth Phoenix retained the Divas belt after beating Eve Torres cleanly in what was a better than anticipated encounter.In a unique twist, Torres broke out a jiu-jitsu style triangle choke in a quality finishing sequence too often sadly lacking in Divas matches.
Christian v Sheamus rounded off the opening hour with a passable bout between two very capable pros. Sheamus won cleanly to continue his strong babyface push and it was another decent affair.
Perhaps surprisingly, the weakest match of the night was the next one, which was unfortunate given that it probably received the most hype.Frankly, Triple H looked off the pace competing in a tag match alongside former foe Punk against Miz and Truth.And it's safe to say the pace was pedestrian at best even before Nash interfered on the bad guys' behalf.After Miz and Truth had pinned Punk, Nash beat up The Game before nailing him with a nasty looking jackknife powerbomb to pencil himself in alongside the duo for the heel team at Survivor Series.
Randy Orton v Cody Rhodes was next and, much like Christian's clash with Sheamus, this was a solid, mildly entertaining affair which saw the babyface win the day. Show and Henry were never expected to put on a clinic in their world title match, but the action was as good as could be expected until the big finish, which saw the champion suplexing his opponent from the top rope, causing the ring to collapse.Fans who have been around since 2003 or before might remember a similar angle with Show and Brock Lesnar on Smackdown. This was essentially the same thing and the match was ruled a no contest. John Cena and Del Rio's Last Man Standing match concluded the show and the two men artfully wove their narrative around the collapsed squared circle.
The match meandered between ringside and backstage, eventually ending after Miz and Truth attacked Cena before Del Rio rendered his rival unable to answer the count.
It was a passable main event — if possibly a little long — but although the interference fit the storyline and the match rules, it lost impact following other cloudy finishes on the show.
Frankly, the poor standard of Raw in recent weeks resulted in it appearing as though little thought had gone into the promotion of this PPV. Without storylines to hook the fans' emotion, this had nothing more than decent action to hang its hat on and ended up feeling a little like a glorified house show. We give a decent, but rather emotionless, WWE Vengeance six out of 10.
Results
| # | Match | Stipulations | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dark | Wade Barrett Wade Barrett Wade Barrett is a retired American soccer player. He is currently an assistant coach at Major League Soccer club Houston Dynamo-College:... defeated Daniel Bryan Bryan Danielson Bryan Danielson is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE where he wrestles on its SmackDown brand as Daniel Bryan, and currently holds the SmackDown Money in the Bank briefcase, which enables him to have a World Heavyweight Championship match at any time of his choosing... |
Singles match | 5:12 |
| 1 | Air Boom Air Boom Air Boom is a WWE professional wrestling tag team consisting of Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston, both of whom compete on WWE's Raw brand where they are the current reigning WWE Tag Team Champions. Their team name "Air Boom" was voted upon by fans on WWE's website... (Evan Bourne & Kofi Kingston Kofi Kingston Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah , is a Ghanaian American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Kofi Kingston. He is currently signed to WWE and works on its Raw brand where he is one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions with Evan Bourne as Air Boom... ) (c) defeated Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler (with Vickie Guerrero Vickie Guerrero Vickie Lynn Guerrero is an American professional wrestling personality, manager, shifting authority figure and occasional wrestler. She is the widow of professional wrestler Eddie Guerrero, currently signed to WWE on its Raw brand... ) |
Tag team match Professional wrestling tag team match types Much like singles matches, tag team professional wrestling matches can and have taken many forms. Just about any singles or melee match type can be adapted to tag teams; for example, hardcore tag team matches are commonplace... for the WWE Tag Team Championship WWE Tag Team Championship The WWE Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship in WWE. It was established as a second title for tag teams in WWE in 2002 to complement the original World Tag Team Championship... |
13:25 |
| 2 | Dolph Ziggler (with Jack Swagger and Vickie Guerrero) (c) defeated Zack Ryder Zack Ryder Matthew Joseph Cardona, Jr. better known by his ring name Zack Ryder, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE and works on the Raw brand as a wrestler and the SmackDown brand as an assistant to SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long.Cardona wrestled mostly with his tag... (with Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne) |
Singles match for the WWE United States Championship WWE United States Championship The WWE United States Championship is a professional wrestling championship in WWE. It was originally a National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling championship, and is currently the secondary championship of the Raw brand.... |
6:04 |
| 3 | Beth Phoenix Beth Phoenix Elizabeth Kocianski is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE where she wrestles on the Raw brand under the ring name Beth Phoenix, where she is the reigning WWE Divas Champion.... (c) defeated Eve Torres Eve Torres Eve Marie Torres is an American dancer, model, and professional wrestler. She is working for WWE on Raw brand. She is a two time WWE Divas Champion.Torres began her career as a model and dancer... |
Singles match for the WWE Divas Championship WWE Divas Championship The WWE Diva's Championship is a unified professional wrestling championship in WWE. It is competed for by WWE Divas. The championship was created by WWE in 2008, and was introduced in storyline by then-SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero as an alternative to Raw's Women's Championship... |
7:18 |
| 4 | Sheamus defeated Christian | Singles match | 10:40 |
| 5 | Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth Ron Killings Ronald Aaron "Ron" Killings is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is currently signed to WWE working on its Raw brand. Since working for the company, he has been a one time United States Champion under the ring name R-Truth and a two time Hardcore Champion under the ring name K-Kwik... ) defeated Triple H Triple H Paul Michael Levesque is an American professional wrestler, professional wrestling authority figure, WWE Executive Vice President of Talent and actor, better known by his ring name Triple H, an abbreviation of the ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley... and CM Punk CM Punk Phillip Jack "Phil" Brooks , better known by his ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE and working on its Raw brand currently serving his second title reign as WWE Champion.... |
Tag team match | 15:25 |
| 6 | Randy Orton Randy Orton Randal Keith "Randy" Orton is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to WWE wrestling on its SmackDown brand... defeated Cody Rhodes |
Singles match | 12:14 |
| 7 | Mark Henry Mark Henry Mark Jerrold Henry is an American professional wrestler signed with WWE, where he performs on its SmackDown brand as the reigning World Heavyweight Champion. He is a 1992 Olympian, and winner of the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic... (c) fought Big Show to a no contest after the ring collapsed |
Singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship World Heavyweight Championship (WWE) The World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE. It is the world title of the SmackDown brand and one of two in WWE, complementing the WWE Championship of the Raw brand... |
13:00 |
| 8 | Alberto Del Rio (c) (with Ricardo Rodriguez Ricardo Rodriguez (wrestler) Jesús Rodríguez is a Mexican-American professional wrestler and ring announcer, currently signed to WWE, performing on its RAW brand under the ring name Ricardo Rodriguez as Alberto Del Rio's personal ring announcer and occasional wrestler.-Early career:Rodriguez formerly wrestled for promotions... ) defeated John Cena John Cena John Felix Anthony Cena is an American professional wrestler, actor, rapper, and television personality. He is currently signed to WWE as a member of its WWE Raw brand.... |
Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship WWE Championship The WWE Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in WWE. It is the world title of the Raw brand and one of two in WWE, complementing the World Heavyweight Championship of the SmackDown brand. It was established under the then WWWF in 1963... |
27:01 |