Breaking Point 2009: A Good Show Undercut by a Bad Finish

Breaking Point opens with a sensible championship match that gives the crowd familiar stars and a clean competitive rhythm. MVP supplies the speed, Mark Henry gives the challengers physical credibility, and Chris Jericho does most of the work required to keep the champions vulnerable before Big Show changes the match with one punch. The finish is simple and effective: Henry counters the Codebreaker, the referee is occupied, and Show's knockout punch creates Jericho's pinfall. Nothing about the match is revolutionary, but almost everything is functional. It establishes the champions as a complementary team, gives MVP and Henry enough offense to avoid looking like placeholders, and starts the pay-per-view without the kind of overbooking that will become a problem later in the night.

Kofi Kingston and The Miz receive just under twelve minutes and use them to deliver a compact title match with clear roles. Miz works as the increasingly frustrated challenger, while Kingston's movement keeps the pace from flattening into a routine television defense. The finish is decisive rather than evasive, with Kingston countering the neckbreaker and landing Trouble in Paradise to retain. That matters on a card built around several stipulations because this match succeeds by being straightforward. Miz is still developing into the version of himself that will eventually carry championships, but the confidence is visible. Kingston looks comfortable as the defending champion and never needs outside interference to survive. The bout is not a show-stealer, yet it is one of the night's cleaner pieces of wrestling and ages well as a snapshot of two rising performers.

The first Submissions Count Anywhere match is the best example of Breaking Point's concept actually creating something different. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase are not treated like disposable opponents for D-Generation X; they survive brawling through the crowd, backstage punishment, and extended stretches against two established stars. The match keeps moving without becoming shapeless, using the arena to widen the fight while repeatedly returning to submission holds as the central rule. Most importantly, Legacy win. DiBiase's Million Dollar Dream and Rhodes' figure-four around the post combine to force Shawn Michaels to submit, giving the younger team a meaningful victory instead of another moral defeat. The bout is long enough to feel substantial and chaotic enough to justify the stipulation, making it one of the night's few matches that could only really belong on this particular pay-per-view.

Kane and The Great Khali receive a weapon stipulation, but the Singapore canes cannot solve the basic limitations of the pairing. The match is short, which helps, yet most of the action still feels heavy and procedural. Ranjin Singh's involvement supplies the story hook, while Kane's use of the cane gives the feud the aggression WWE wants from the stipulation. There are flashes of novelty when the weapon is used to escape holds, but the physical chemistry never develops. Kane eventually wins with a chokeslam, a clean enough finish that prevents the segment from becoming more complicated than necessary. Compared with their SummerSlam match, this is at least more focused. Compared with the rest of Breaking Point, it remains the obvious low point and another reminder that a specialty rule cannot automatically turn a weak rivalry into a strong match.

Breaking Point finally gives Christian and William Regal the match SummerSlam denied them. With Ezekiel Jackson and Vladimir Kozlov removed from ringside before the bell, the championship bout becomes a direct contest between two wrestlers whose styles fit naturally together. Regal's physical control and Christian's timing create a match that feels different from the faster Raw and SmackDown material without becoming slow. The ten-minute runtime is enough to let the champion struggle, adjust, and earn the finish when Regal's knee attempt misses and Christian lands the Killswitch. There is no elaborate interference sequence and no eight-second gag. That simplicity becomes a strength. The bout is compact rather than epic, but it pays off an obvious piece of unfinished business and stands as one of the clearest examples of the ECW brand still being capable of useful pay-per-view wrestling late in its run.

John Cena and Randy Orton finally get a stipulation that converts their familiarity into real tension instead of restart mechanics. Orton spends long stretches trying to break Cena methodically, using handcuffs, the microphone, the ring post, water, a cane, and the steel steps to make the central question feel literal. Cena's refusal to quit is predictable, but the violence gives that predictability weight. The handcuff sequence in the closing stretch is especially effective because the prop becomes part of both men's offense rather than a one-off stunt. Cena eventually links himself to Orton and uses the STF to force the champion to surrender. The match is not subtle, yet it understands the premise better than almost anything else on the card. Contemporary reviews were right to place it among the show's strongest matches and to wonder why it did not close the event.

CM Punk and The Undertaker begin with enough urgency to suggest a strong closing match, but the finish overwhelms everything that comes before it. Undertaker eventually traps Punk in Hell's Gate and appears to win, only for Theodore Long to announce that the hold remains banned and restart the match. Punk immediately applies the Anaconda Vise, the bell rings despite Undertaker never submitting, and Montreal is asked to relive the most famous screwjob in wrestling history by design. The idea produces shock, but it also turns a championship main event into an angle whose logic is intentionally dishonest. Punk retains and gains heat, yet the audience is denied a satisfying competitive conclusion. The match is historically memorable because of the controversy, not because the wrestling reaches the level expected from the two names involved. The ending is the event's defining image and its biggest creative problem.