No Mercy 2007: WWE Lost John Cena and Somehow Made the Chaos Work

Randy Orton and Triple H open the wrestling portion of the show with a match that feels more important because the audience has only just learned Orton is champion. Triple H pushes the pace enough to make the sudden title opportunity feel urgent, while Orton works cautiously and tries to protect the championship he was handed minutes earlier. The crowd buys every near fall despite neither man needing an elaborate finishing stretch. Orton misses a charge into the corner, Triple H catches the opening, and a roll-up produces the shock title change. The finish is simple, but simplicity is the point. Triple H wins without exhausting the feud, and the result immediately turns the rest of the event into a question about how long he can survive.

The six-man tag is an energetic cooldown that gives the crowd recognizable offense without pretending to be a major story. Jeff Hardy, Paul London, and Brian Kendrick supply the speed, while Cade and Murdoch slow the match enough for Kennedy to enter as the louder personality on the heel side. The babyface team creates the best sequences whenever all six men begin moving, and the crowd responds well to Hardy's bursts. Kennedy ultimately catches London with the Green Bay Plunge from the ropes and scores the pin. The match is competently structured and never drags, but it exists mainly to give the midcard something useful to do after the opening title shock. Nothing here changes the night.

CM Punk's hometown title defense is one of the night's clearest booking failures because the match ends before it has a chance to become one. Big Daddy V uses his size for a few simple power spots, Punk creates one brief opening with a top-rope dropkick, and Matt Striker immediately interferes. The referee calls for the disqualification at barely more than ninety seconds. Punk technically retains the championship, but the champion is then beaten down after the bell while the crowd is left with almost no wrestling to evaluate. A disqualification can advance a feud, but this one feels especially cheap because Punk is wrestling in Chicago and the pay-per-view audience receives less than two minutes.

Triple H's second match works better as a chapter in his endurance story than as a standalone championship defense. Umaga attacks the ribs and uses his size to make Triple H look increasingly worn down, which is exactly what the larger event needs before the final rematch with Orton. The problem is the runtime. At roughly six and a half minutes, the match moves from control to comeback before Umaga can create sustained danger. Triple H avoids repeated corner attacks, Umaga crashes into the post, and the Pedigree ends it. The champion survives, but the result feels more like another obstacle Vince McMahon placed in front of him than a complete title match. Its value is cumulative, not individual.

Rey Mysterio and Finlay have one of the better pure wrestling exchanges on the card until the finish deliberately turns the match into an angle. Finlay slows Rey with physical offense and rough positioning, while Mysterio repeatedly creates space for springboard attacks and quick counters. The contrast works because neither wrestler needs much explanation. Late in the match, Rey knocks Finlay to the floor and Finlay sells a head injury strongly enough that medical personnel bring out a stretcher. The match is stopped without a winner. Finlay then reveals that he was exaggerating the injury and attacks Mysterio. The post-match heel turn gets heat, but the no-contest finish denies a good nine-minute match the decisive ending it had earned.

Beth Phoenix winning the Women's Championship is far more important than the match used to get her there. Phoenix controls with power and looks physically superior from the opening exchanges, while Candice Michelle relies on quick pins and brief bursts of offense to stay alive. The structure is clear enough, but four and a half minutes is not enough time to make the champion's resistance feel substantial. Beth repeatedly throws Candice around, survives the flash pin attempts, and eventually finishes with a front powerslam to win the title. The result establishes the Glamazon as champion and points the division in a new direction. The wrestling is too short and too limited to make the title change feel as large as the career moment deserves.

Batista and The Great Khali are helped enormously by the Punjabi Prison structure because the cages create visual stakes that their standard singles matches lack. The rules force both men to focus on escape, doors, straps, and climbing rather than extended conventional exchanges. Khali controls much of the match with size and the Vise Grip, while Batista survives long enough to turn the final escape into a race. The decisive image is excellent: Khali climbs the outer structure, Batista leaps from the inner cage to the outer cage, overtakes him, and reaches the floor first. That finish is memorable and athletic. The path there remains slow and awkward, but the spectacle gives the match more value than another straight Batista-Khali rematch.

Randy Orton and Triple H save the event with a Last Man Standing match that makes Triple H's entire night part of the psychology. Orton targets a wrestler who has already competed twice, while Triple H fights with increasing desperation and uses the lack of disqualifications to stay alive. Chairs, steel steps, and the ringside area are integrated into the escalation rather than added randomly. Orton's RKO onto a chair gives the match a convincing near finish, and Triple H's refusal to stay down keeps the crowd invested without turning him invincible. The final counter is the right ending: Triple H attempts a Pedigree on the announce table, Orton reverses into an RKO, and Triple H cannot beat the ten-count.