Welcome to our live coverage of WWE’s ‘The Bash’ pay-per-view live from Sacramento, CA.

As always, we’re looking for your feedback on tonight’s show via email on the address below, via our MySpace page at www.myspace.com/ifight365, or via Twitter at www.twitter.com/ifight365.

If you’ve not already done so, you can check out our PPV preview at this link, and we’ll have live updates from tonight’s show throughout the night from 7.45pm EST/12.45am BST onwards.

Before we get underway with our live coverage, just a quick note that we’re on the lookout for new writers to join the team here at iFight365.com. We’re looking for individuals keen to write about both MMA and wrestling. If you’re interested, drop me a line on the email address below!

- Tommy Dreamer (C) vs. Christian vs. Fit Finlay vs. Jack Swagger vs. Mark Henry in a Scramble match for the ECW Title opens the show. Rules were two starting the match (Christian and Swagger) with a new man entering every three minutes. Finlay came in at #3. Swagger pinned Finlay after a roll-up after a poke to the eye, making it one-on-one again as Finlay went to the outside before Tommy Dreamer came in 4th. Some good heat with the crowd into all four guys so far. Finlay got back into the match and pinned Swagger, making him new champion. Henry came in last and cleaned house as the 5minute clock started. Henry pinned Dreamer then got triple teamed. Henry teased a dive to the outside from the top but Swagger stopped it and pinned him to become champion with 2mins 20 remaining. Christian hit the Killswitch but Dreamer broke up the count and hit a DDT on Christian and became champion with 1min 10 seconds to go. Final minute was a ton of near falls from all five guys until the clock ran down. Winner and still ECW champion: Tommy Dreamer. Swagger looked to have got knocked silly from a boot to the head as they all scrambled for the pinfall. Dreamer looked shocked that he had retained the title. He’s not the only one. A decent enough opener but the early action was way better than the closing few minutes.

- After we saw a Gillette commercial with John Cena and Vince McMahon (commercials on a PPV?!?), Teddy Long was shown backstage with an angry Edge. Edge wanted the CM Punk-Jeff Hardy match to become a triple threat match. Teddy was having none of it and said Edge should have kept on Vickie Guerrero’s good side if he wanted to guarantee a place on the PPV. Edge said Teddy should think about it if he wanted to keep his job.

- Title vs. Mask – Chris Jericho (C) vs. Rey Mysterio for the Intercontinental Title is up next. Crowd were totally into this, although interestingly there were some boos for Mysterio and cheers for Jericho. Well paced match. Jericho dominated early. Mysterio came off the top rope on to Jericho on the outside and landed awkwardly on his knee but it didn’t seem to affect him. He then hit an awesome springboard from one set of ropes to a second where he hit a springboard moonsault. Awesome stuff. Jericho locked in the Walls and again there was a mixed reaction when Rey broke the hold. Rey went for a headscissors off the top rope but Jericho powerbombed him instead. Pace picked up with some reversals and near falls. Jericho hit the Codebreaker and the crowd thought it was game over but Rey kicked out. They set up for a spot on the top rope but botched it. Rey went for the 619 but it got countered and Jericho locked in the Walls again. This led to a series of near falls before Jericho removed Rey’s mask, only for him to have a second mask underneath. Mysterio hit the 619 and got the pin. WInner and new IC champion: Rey Mysterio.

Really good stuff as was expected going into tonight and definitely room to continue this through to next month and perhaps beyond. Definitely one of the best WWE matches of 2009 to date.

- They aired a commercial for Summerslam. I wonder if Night of Champions will become another forgotten PPV. Shawn Michaels was in the Summerslam ad for what that’s worth.

- After a Raw recap and footage of Triple H preparing for his match tonight, Chris Jericho was shown complaining to Teddy Long and wanting a rematch tonight. Long was having none of it.

- The Great Khali vs. Dolph Ziggler in a No DQ match is up next. Even if Ziggler wins here, damn he needs some new music if he’s to stand any chance of being taken seriously. Khali chopped Ziggler a lot and did very little else. The guy can barely move. Ziggler took Khali’s leg out with a chair. Khali started to make a comeback until BOOM! Pyro and flames ignite and Kane hits the ring. He ran off Ziggler before picking up a chair and taking out Khali with several chairshots. I hope that was done to write Khali out for a while rather than set up a program with Kane. Ziggler made the cover and got the win. Winner: Dolph Ziggler.

In Teddy Long’s office, Vince McMahon said he was sorry for putting him on probation on Smackdown. But then he said in his five years as a GM (and I guess we have to forget he’s had time out of action such as the ‘heart attack’ angle), he had achieved nothing compared to Bischoff, Heyman, Regal and Mike Adamle. Vince said the only thing Teddy had going for himself was his little dance and that he was still on probation. Please no more Vince on Smackdown.

- Carlito and Primo Colon (C) vs. Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes for the Unified Tag Team Titles is up next. Jerry Lawler said to Michael Cole: “Aren’t you glad Vince McMahon never yells at you like he does Teddy Long?” I bet Cole would have loved to have been able to answer that honestly. Teddy Long came out before the match got underway and announced it was now a triple threat tag team title match. Edge’s music played and the crowd went nuts. His tag team partner? Chris Jericho.

Story of the match was that neither team would tag in either Edge or Jericho and treated it as a straight tag team match. Crowd started chanting for ‘Edge and Christian’. Eventually, Jericho came into the ring and hit a Codebreaker on Primo. Cody Rhodes got thrown into the turnbuckle where Edge tagged himself in. Carlito didn’t see the tag being made and ate a spear. Edge made the pin and we have new, unexpected tag team champions. Winners and new tag team champions: Edge and Chris Jericho.

Not a good match and it was probably hindered by the expectation on what Edge and Jericho would do. Served its purpose in terms of storyline I guess and there’s the prospect of the tag titles actually getting some credibility back (if only for the short-term), but its another failure to win for Rhodes and DiBiase. Edge and Jericho on Raw tomorrow night then?

- Night of Champions commercial aired. All titles will be on the line. That PPV takes place on July 26.

DiBiase and Rhodes bumped into Randy Orton backstage. DiBiase said he was sick of being a lackey and wouldn’t help him against Triple H. Rhodes told Orton he’d speak to him. Looks like this is the start of the DiBiase face turn.

- Melina (C) vs. Michelle McCool for the Women’s title is up next. Damn this sucked. McCool dominated but to me, nothing looked crisp and there was no flow to the match. No crowd heat either, just the noises from the two Divas which made Maria Sharapova sound muted. Melina saw off Alicia on the outside before McCool hit Melina with her Styles Clash finisher. Winner and new Women’s champion: Michelle McCool.

- CM Punk (C) vs. Jeff Hardy for the World Heavyweight Title is up next. Todd Grisham called it the Smackdown main event. Jim Ross called it The main event. Hardy dominated early with some mat wrestling. Punk went for a GTS but Jeff blocked it. The match went back to the mat, this time with Punk in control until he made a mistake and allowed Hardy to hit Whisper in the Wind for a two count. Hardy got a couple more near falls before Punk hit back to with a high kick in the corner and a knee to the head. Hardy hit a Twist of Fate out of nowhere and went up top but missed a Swanton. Punk went for the GTS but Hardy countered into another Twist of Fate and then hit the Swanton. The referee made the cover and counted 1, 2, 3 and the bell sounded. Jeff’s music played and the place went nuts but the referee said Punk’s foot was underneath the ropes and ordered the match be restarted. Punk took a thumb to the eye and sold it like he had been shot. The referee made Hardy back off but Punk then kicked the referee in the back, causing the DQ. Tons of heat for that and Hardy was left looking dejected. Winner via DQ: Jeff Hardy.

Good match but boy did that crowd hate the finish as chants of ‘bullshit’ could be heard as the DQ was called. Hardy followed Punk up the aisle and brought him back into the ring where he laid into him with a ton of punches until referees hit the ring to break it up.

- Backstage, Carlito and Primo were upset with Teddy Long. Teddy said he had no choice but to do something to keep his job.

- Still backstage, Randy Orton was shown on his phone calling Cody Rhodes but only got his answerphone.

- John Cena vs. The Miz is up next. I don’t expect this to last long as we’re past 3am (10pm EST) and Orton-HHH will be given a ton of time. Cena dominated early and also no-sold Miz’s offence which wasn’t encouraging. Miz finally got into the match and got a near fall. Very little crowd heat as Miz stayed on top. When Cena was on top, there was quite the mixed reaction. Cena hit the FU then locked in the STF, with Miz tapping out. Winner: John Cena.

Terrible, terrible, terrible booking. Not much of a match but it did nothing for Miz and ensured he won’t be breaking out of the midcard anytime soon, which we feared would be the case in our preview.

- Randy Orton (C) vs. Triple H in a Three Stages of Hell match for the WWE title is up next. 3.30am (10.30pm EST) when this one finally gets underway. Crazy. The first fall is a straight wrestling match. Triple H in control early until Orton starts to work over the leg. He goes for an RKO but HHH counters and hits a spinebuster. Triple H then hit Orton with a chair out of nowhere for the DQ. Orton takes the first fall. The second fall is Last Man Standing. Orton is hit about a dozen times with a chair before he goes to the outside with HHH following him. He hits a Pedigree on the outside and gets the pinfall. 1-1. That second fall lasted about a minute. The booking here is so bad. Third fall is a stretcher match.

Trips put Orton on the stretcher and wheeled him up the ramp towards the line which has to be crossed. Orton quickly jumped off the stretcher at the last minute then took out Trips’ leg. They went into the crowd with Orton in control. Triple H fought back as they headed to the ring. Orton gave him a backbreaker onto the guardrail at ringisde from which he had removed the padding. Lack of crowd heat right now is astonishing. Actually, its not given we’ve seen these two a billion times and the feud has been hit and miss throughout. Orton tossed the ring steps into the ring. He went to hit Trips with them but ended up going face first into them himself from a drop toe hold. Trips then hit him with the steps and rolled him onto the stretcher. He wheeled him back up the ramp but Orton started to kick in the head. With both of them on the stretcher, it started to slide back down the ramp but veered off-course and into the rails at the side. Orton went for the punt but missed. Triple H went for the pedigree but got backdropped onto the stretcher. They went back up the ramp and HHH hit a pedigree. He went to wheel Orton over the line, only for Cody Rhodes to run in as everybody was waiting for. HHH took him out then went to roll Orton over the line again. Ted DiBiase then made the save and he and Rhodes beat down HHH. THey both put HHH on the stretcher, but he fought back until they finally took him out. Or so they thought, as Trips had a sledgehammer with him just in the right place. He took out Rhodes and DiBiase but then got hit with a kick to the groin from Orton. HHH slumped over the stretcher and Orton pushed it over the line. Winner and still WWE champion: Randy Orton.

Post-match, Orton posed with the belt but didn’t see Triple H behind him with the sledgehammer. Orton turned around and got levelled.

The right result in terms of who walks out as champion, but it was not a good match and the booking was pretty poor. That’s actually being kind.

Overally, a fairly weak show. Mysterio-Jericho was superb and Punk-Hardy was good also. But the booking in the main event didn’t do much at all for Orton and as for The Miz, well it looks to be another wasted opportunity by WWE.

Thanks for joining us tonight for our coverage of The Bash!

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com