WWE Tribute To The Troops Recap - December 21, 2009

WWE aired their Tribute To The Troops 2009 show on Saturday night on NBC and here is the recap of it. As I always say, you’re not going to get any criticism from me on booking, matches, or anything. That isn’t what this show is about. This show is all about entertaining our great troops over in the Middle East and giving them a break. The show was incredibly produced as it always is with the many video packages set to a lot of various music. I always look forward to seeing the music video at the end cause it is a tremendous highlight package. I’m also curious every year as to what song that they will pick to close it with this year’s video being set to Bon Jovi’s “Superman”. Great, great, great music video tribute. I really liked the John Cena video package on the many trips that he had made on the Tribute To The Troops shows. It was set to Nickelback’s “Never Gonna Be Alone”. There was another great video package as well showing all the superstars taking part in a lot of military activity with the troops. That was fun. As far as in ring action, the main event had John Cena taking on Chris Jericho. I can’t remember this happening in years past with timing but WWE had to explain why John Cena and John Morrison were still holding their championships on the show. They explained that the show was recorded earlier in the month along witn putting a graphic on the screen. Both stars lost those titles at the TLC PPV. Crowd was very much behind Cena in his match. The finish had Jericho going for a high crossed body. He landed it but Cena rolled through and picked up Jericho straight into an attitude adjustment for the win. Rey Mysterio and Mark Henry defeated Carlito and CM Punk. Rey hit a double 619 on to Carlito and Punk. Rey hit the springboard splash while Henry landed the world’s strongest slam. Each of them made the pin at the same time on Punk and Carlito. The Miz defeated John Morrison in what was billed as a champion vs. champion match. Miz avoided the starship pain but Morrison landed on his feet. Miz then knocked down Morrison and put his feet on the ropes to help get the pinfall win on Morrison. In another moment on the show, R Truth came out dressed as Santa Claus. He was a rapping Santa Claus and then he introduced the divas. Kelly, Layla, Alicia, and The Bellas all made their way to the ring handing out gifts and kisses to the soldiers. Speaking of the divas, Eve was the ring announcer for the show. Fun show and it’s just a bummer that it is only one hour now since being moved over to NBC. I want to say a thank you to all of WWE whether it is the talent, crew, and just everyone involved that take time out to go do that show. Not even just this year but I’m talking about this year and all the years. It was great to see the troops having fun and the line of the show was to this one soldier that was interviewed. He talked of his kids saying that he “does this job so that his kids don’t have to”. He said that with tears in his eyes and I thought that summed it all up. Incredible bravery. Merry Christmas to all of our troops overseas and praying that they all stay safe.

If you were watching Tribute To The Troops, the first thing you may have noticed is that WWE has done some replacing to their opening. Hulk Hogan is out of it including video and his voice. He was replaced by Ted Dibiase. Also, Mick Foley being thrown off of the cell has also been taken out. Yeah, I think WWE is paying attention.