The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: WWE Bragging Rights 10.24.2010

- United States Champion Bryan Danielson made Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler tap out to the LeBell Lock
-  The Nexus (John Cena and David Otunga) defeated WWE Tag Team Champions Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes to win the titles after Cena forced Rhodes to tap to the STF
- Ted DiBiase w/Maryse defeated Goldust w/Aksana via the DDT
- Diva's Co-Champion Layla beat Natalya
- World Heavyweight Champion Kane w/Paul Bearer buried The Undertaker alive with the help from The Nexus to retain his title
- Team Smackdown beat Team Raw to win the Bragging Rights trophy for the second straight year (Edge and Rey Mysterio were the survivors)
- Wade Barrett w/John Cena defeated WWE Champion Randy Orton by disqualification after Cena gave Barrett the Attitude Adjustment

The Good

• United States Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler - While it won't go down in history as an all-time classic I have to say that this was a fantastic opening match with plenty of offense from both parties. Bryan's running knee from the apron to the floor was absolutely awesome. The crowd was hot, hot, hot for Bryan the entire match which definitely bodes well for his standing in the WWE. While I expected this match to be good as soon as they announced there is always the chance that the clash of styles - WWE STYLE~! and actual, honest to God Pro Wrestling - could hamper the match but this wasn't the case tonight. Loved the abundance of false finishes at the end...that is something that we don't always see in the WWE these days. When it works you have the crowd eating out of the palm of hand like they were tonight.
• "Daniel Bryan is the master of the small package." - As much flak as Matt Striker gets for his sometimes overly bombastic announcing style I must say that his constant alluding to Daniel Bryan's past as Bryan Danielson is effin fantastic. All I need is a "He's got til five!" and I'll be in mark heaven.

More Bragging Rights thoughts after the jump!

• WWE Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre vs. The Nexus (John Cena and David Otunga) - I'll be frank...the actual wrestling portion of the match sucked BUT I have to say that I loved the progression of the Cena/Nexus storyline. In a perfect world I would like to see Nexus gain the gold in proper fashion but I'll take this circumstance as it furthers Cen'a involvement in Nexus as well as Otunga's "gimmick" of being nothing more than a glorified bump on a log. Everything that happened in this match made sense and I love things that make sense. 
• Goldust on Pay-Per-View In 2010 - In a semi-meaningful singles match. Wow.
• Goldust vs. Ted DiBiase - Not too much to say about this match...it was pretty good and further illustrated that Goldust can still go with practically anyone on the roster. Not a lot of heat from the crowd but after the first two matches I would be surprised if they needed to recharge a little bit. Goldust's loss doesn't hurt his heat at all and probably means that they'll wrestle again at Survivor Series.
• "That was Shockmaster bad." - Matt Striker brought the heat, tonight! Surprised that WWEPG was allowed to allude to Bret Favre's dong.
• Kofi's Smackdown Themed Ring Gear - Fantastic touch.
• Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown - I had some fears before the match as to just how good it was going to be but I have to say that these 14 men delivered above and beyond my expectations. Since Smackdown is the B show it only makes sense for them to go over in matches such as this to make people care about their product. Raw has the fact that they are live going for it so people will always tune in so Smackdown needs all the help it can get. I'm not saying that Smackdown is going to see a ratings bump or anything this week but it's the little things such as tonight's outcome that can go a long way.

The Bad

• Diva's Co-Champion Layla vs. Natalya - It was eerily quiet in the Target Center for this match. Might have something to do with the fact that the match stunk. My friend Justin's TV decided to skip a portion of the match and I am grateful for that.
• World Heavyweight Champion Kane w/ Paul Bearer vs. The Undertaker - Good lord I hope that this is the end of this feud. Twenty veeeeeeeeeeeeeery slooooooooooooooooooow minutes combined with a bizarre Nexus run-in makes for a pretty awful match. Then all the post match supernatural stuff. LAME~! Can't wait for Barrett vs. Nexus at Wrestlemania. Book it! Whether that turns out to be the case or not I hope Taker heals up and comes back at as close to 100% as possible so he can have one last shot at glory on the grandest stage of them all.
• WWE Champion Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett w/John Cena - I understand why they did what they did to end the match and all but COME ON SON that sucked. This was supposed to be Wade Barrett's time to shine and he ended up getting sucked in to the typical Randy Orton style of rest hold, rest hold, rest hold, rest hold, spot, rest hold, rest hold, rest hold. This ending left a very sour taste in my mouth. I, like a lot of you, thought that Cena's babyface moment of winning the tag titles by himself was foreshadowing for a Barrett win but I was wrong. I hope they rectify this situation tomorrow night on Raw but that might be asking too much. The one positive is that Barrett's shaming of Cena should be pretty awesome - better than his "Get me a glass of water" command from last week's episode.

The Ugly

• The Two-Toned Ring Ropes, Arena Lighting, etc. - Overkill, overkill, overkill.
• Jerry Lawler's Fat Jokes - C'mon, dude. Vickie is big, we get it. I'm surprised he didn't break out the tried and true, "Vickie is so fat that she sat on a rainbow and Skittles came out."
• Aksana's Short Dress - She could barely do anything when she was involved in the Goldust/DiBiase match due to her having to constantly pull her dress down. C'mon now.
• Wrestling With T-Shirts On - I'm totally hetero but part of wrestling's allure are the over the top physiques that a lot of these guys possess so why cover them up with crappy t-shirts? You can make fun of me in the comments below, it's cool.
• Awful logic - Commenter thisredengine summed up up quite nicely: "Awful booking. Just imagining this is real, you won’t get fired cause I won even though I didn’t win the belt? And that’s how they pass off this booking?"

For an off-brand WWE pay-per-view it wasn't too bad. The opener, impromptu WWE Tag Team Titles match, Goldust/DiBiase and 7-on-7 were awesome but the rest of the show was slop. I understand the point of furthering the Nexus/John Cena storyline but a pay-per-view main event is not the place for screwy endings that totally kill the crowd. Go back and watch the tape: once Cena attacked Barrett the crowd quieted down big time.

Here is hoping that tomorrow night's Raw makes up for tonight's ending.