The idea surrounding the 2007 version of Vengeance was that it was a Night Of Champions. Every title in the WWE was to be defended and there wouldn't be a match on the card that wasn't a title match. In theory, it's kind of cool, but when you think about it, with all of their PPVs now being tri-branded, the majority of the shows are mostly title matches. So while the night of title matches seemed like a good idea, it was just a gimmick to get people to think that this show was more special than it necessarily was.

But the biggest story surrounding this PPV was that on this night, Chris Benoit was supposed to be in the ECW title match, facing off against CM Punk. The match was put together because the ECW champion, Bobby Lashley, was drafted to the Raw brand, and rather than have him lose the belt, they just took it off him and made it vacant. Benoit was drafted to ECW to be the one guy to work with the young wrestlers, and help them turn the corner. He would've been the perfect guy to work with Punk, who simply bores me. However, Benoit never made it to work. In a story that People Magazine rated as one of their top stories of the year, Chris Benoit was in the midst of going crazy, killing his wife and then son, before killing himself. As the time line states, by Sunday evening (which is when the show was going on), his wife would've already been dead, and his son too, and by Monday, he would kill himself. It's sickening for me to even write about this again, but this PPV will always be remembered not for John Cena defending his title against four other men, but for Chris Benoit's murders.

(I wrote about it in more detail the day after it happened if you want to read more here: http://roheblius.net/2007/06/the-tragic-and-twisted-story-of-chris-benoit/)

Even before the Benoit story overshadowed the show, it was fairly lackluster anyway. Watching it after the fact, the announcers knew nothing, except that Benoit wasn't on the show, and no one had a clue as to what had happened. The main event of the show was John Cena defending his WWE Title against King Booker, Randy Orton, Bobby Lashley, and a returning Mick Foley. The match was entertaining, but not as good as it should've been considering that Foley was back and that Lashley and Cena was the next program. But it was still a fun back and forth match that Cena would eventually win, but not as good as the four way at Backlash. Maybe the lack of Shawn Michaels and Edge had something to do with that. As for Edge, he was defending the World Championship, again against Batista, with the stipulation being that if Batista lost, he could never get another title shot. Batista won by disqualification, but the match was restarted and Edge would win by count out. This feud never did anything for me, but soon, Edge would be injured and have to give up the belt.

The show started with another good match in the Hardy Boys vs. Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch feud. Cade and Murdoch would keep their titles after Cade would pin Jeff. In an interesting decision, Chavo Guerrero would beat Jimmy Wang Yang in a match that many thought Yang would win. But eventually, they'd do away with the Cruiserweight belt, so it wouldn't mean anything anyway. Guerrero would win with a frog splash. In the match that was supposed to be the start of Beniot's ECW title run, Johnny Nitro beat Punk to win the vacant ECW belt. Nitro was an interesting choice to replace Benoit, but really, he was one of the only choices. The fact that he beat Punk was a surprise, but it led to a fairly boring feud between the two. Nitro would win with a neckbreaker.

The great Santino Marella wasn't quite so great yet, but he was defending his newly won Intercontinental title against the man he won it from, Umaga. When the WWE was touring Italy, Marella came out of the crowd and beat Umaga with the gimmick being that he was a super fan who won the title before his home crowd. As a wrestler, he's terrible, but as a character, he's awesome. Marella would get beaten pillar to post the entire match and then win by disqualification. MVP faced off against Ric Flair, in a feud that didn't really get a chance to be as good as it could've. It was a fun match that showed one of the WWE's better new characters, against "The Nature Boy". Flair would soon take a hiatus and be gone for several months. In a terrible idea, Deuce and Domino would beat Sgt. Slaughter and "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka. Deuce is Snuka's real life son, but even then, it wasn't noted, so without that story, there was nothing really to the match. Snuka and Slaughter are very old and couldn't really do much and Deuce and Domino aren't really good in the ring either. So this was really ugly. Deuce and Domino would defend their Smackdown tag titles successfully. In the only title change, Candice Michelle would beat Melina and finally win the Women's championship. And if you don't think that means anything, check out how much she cries after winning the match. She was genuinely happy.

The best thing about the show was that they flew in legends of the business like Harley Race, Barry Windham, and Mike Rotunda to show that it was definitely a night of champions. But with all the pomp and circumstance, there was definitely something missing with this show. It was just average.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12