WWE Vengeance Preview: John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio

Three weeks ago I praised the ending to the Hell in a Cell PPV in which Miz and R-Truth had interfered in the main event and assaulted the trio of Del Rio, Punk and Cena before all hell had broken loose with a raging COO, numerous officials, police and a tirade of superstars arriving to escort the violent duo out of the building. It was an eye catching sequence which at the time appeared that it might be the perfect inciting incident for making Miz and Truth the dominant heels in the company and maybe even adding a couple of similarly disillusioned midcarders to their pact to form an intriguing and destructive stable. Instead however WWE decided to push the unsafe work environment issue and make the entire storyline convoluted and contradictory as we head towards yet another PPV. Whilst the build towards Vengeance has felt rushed and forced however, the WWE at least deserve some credit for hyping up a near full card a week before Vengeance in an optimistic attempt to inspire audiences with the match line up. The following preview takes a look at that card and what the matches could potentially achieve in the build up to next months Survivor Series. WWE Title Last Man Standing Match: Alberto Del Rio vs John Cena This bout was casually announced by John Laurinaitis a couple of weeks ago on Raw and received a very tepid reaction from the crowd. Frequent title switches and a poorly developed storyline make the last man standing stipulation feel quite uncalled for but there is a great opportunity here for Del Rio to mess up Cena pretty badly in order to set up some good heat for the Team Cena/Rock versus Team Del Rio survivor series tag match. Maybe Ricardo Rodriguez could assist Del Rio only to be told the following night that as punishment he will be forced to wrestle in the match at Survivor Series. World Heavyweight Championship Match: Mark Henry vs Big Show Henry's decisive PPV victories against Randy Orton have been dampened somewhat by the fact that he needed support to defeat him in a couple of stupidly booked tv matches in the aftermath of their Hell in a Cell tussle. Big Show of course wants retribution for the assault he received from Henry which put him out of action for a quarter of the year and whilst this match actually has some effective storyline background and warrants the last man standing format far more than the other world title clash it will unfortunately be contested as a straightforward and most likely tedious singles contest. Hopefully Henry retains in a toughly fought contest and moves on to defend the strap against babyfaces more capable of helping him create exciting matches. CM Punk and Triple H vs Miz and R-Truth Miz and Truth delivered a beat-down to Punk at Hell in a Cell and cost Triple H his position as COO but both these developments were so hurried that it is hard to really buy the hatred in this feud not to mention the fact that we're now supposed to believe that Punk and Hunter are so willing to work alongside one another. Having said that it's always fun to see Hunter in the ring and given that Punk, Miz, Truth and maybe even Trips himself will all be in the Rock/Cena Survivor Series main event this could be a great opportunity for the other members of that team to interfere and establish themselves amidst a chaotic match finish. As the winner of this match is not really important it would be the ideal moment to use it as a Survivor Series boosting angle. United States Title: Dolph Ziggler vs Zack Ryder It's somewhat depressing that the feud between these two has actually been far more captivating and fun on Zack Ryder's youtube show than it has on Raw and Smackdown broadcasts but I'm very glad to see these two talents compete against one another on the big stage. If Ryder wins then it shows that the WWE definitely have some remnants of faith of him becoming a genuine star and if Dolph defends then he will be made to look like a real tough champ having already competed earlier in the night. It'll be kind of hard to screw this up one really. Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes This is Orton's first PPV match away from the World Title since his feud with CM Punk and if booked creatively could effectively raise the stakes of a fresh new feud. A few weeks ago Orton accidentally busted Rhodes open with an announcers bell following a match on Smackdown. The ideal finish then to this match it seems would be for Rhodes to get some sweet revenge by sneakily pasting Orton with the same weapon right in the middle of his eyes thus visually impairing his opponent and causing the bout to finish as a no contest. Rhodes could then attack Orton post-match and create some real venom leading up to a Team Orton vs Team Rhodes survivor series match or just a hate fuelled rematch for the Intercontinental Title. Sheamus vs Christian Christian is still looking for one more match for the World Heavyweight Championship but the Irishman is continually standing in his way of being granted such an opportunity. Sheamus won their match at Hell in a Cell so it makes sense that Christian will even the scores in the build up to a decider. Should be another solid outing from the pair. Tag Team Titles: Air Boom vs Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler It'll be interesting to see how they book Ziggler on this broadcast given that he is doing double duty. As a heel they could of course play on his cockiness and let him go all out in this match and pay for it in his United States Title defence against Ryder or they could make him look a million bucks by working his ass off in both matches and coming away with both pieces of gold. Either way this should be a high paced, exciting match-up much like their previous encounter. Divas Title: Beth Phoenix vs Eve Torres The Beth and Kelly series has been run dry so now Beth is set to defend her title against fresh opposition in the form of Eve Torres. A cool finish could be Beth defeating Eve with assistance from Natalya with Natalya staring hungrily up at the gold and teasing a face run at the title later on down the road. That image worked as the perfect crowd pleasing moment for Batista during his transition from Hunter's lackey to rival in late 2005. Final Thoughts: A lot of what I've wrote depends on whether or not the company have really considered laying down the groundwork for Survivor Series because if they haven't then Vengeance will just end up being another reliably entertaining but essentially pointless PPV. Hopefully however with The Rock's return imminent they will use Sunday night as the perfect build up to one of the biggest events of the year with one of their all time biggest stars set to return to the ring. Fingers crossed.