Breaking Point 2009

Breaking Point was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on September 13, 2009 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. The name of the event was voted by fans via WWE's official website. Breaking Point was chosen over Submission Sunday, Total Submission, and Submit & Quit. Seven matches took place on the event's card.
The show was what is known as a supercard, which featured more than one main event match. The concept of the show was that each of these main event matches would be contested under submission rules. The main events of the evening included CM Punk defeating The Undertaker in a submission match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship, John Cena defeating Randy Orton in an "I Quit" match to win the WWE Championship, and The Legacy's Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. defeating D-Generation X's Triple H and Shawn Michaels in a Submissions Count Anywhere match.
Other matches featured on the show were Unified WWE Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho and The Big Show versus Montel Vontavious Porter and Mark Henry, Kofi Kingston defending the WWE United States Championship against The Miz, Kane facing The Great Khali in a Singapore Cane match and Christian versus William Regal for the ECW Championship.
The event had 169,000 buys, down on Unforgiven 2008 figure of 211,000 buys.
==Background==
Breaking Point featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Raw, SmackDown, ECW and WWE Superstars—World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers were from WWE's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—a storyline division in which WWE employees are assigned to a television program of the same name.
The main event of the Raw brand was announced the night following SummerSlam; it was a rematch from the show, which was Randy Orton defending the WWE Championship against John Cena. During the match, Orton intentionally got himself disqualified, counted-out of the ring, and pinned Cena with illegal leverage before retaining the championship. WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon, proclaimed that, as a result of Orton's actions in attempting to retain the title, he would grant Cena a rematch, and if anyone were to interfere on Orton's behalf, in response to interference during their previous match from Ted DiBiase, he would lose the championship. In the spirit of the submission concept of the show, the title was defended in an "I Quit" match, a match that can only be won by causing the opponent to say "I Quit".
After winning the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam, CM Punk defended the title on the following episode of SmackDown against Jeff Hardy. It was announced that the winner of the match would defend the title against The Undertaker at Breaking Point in a match that can only be won by making their opponent submit.
The guest host and storyline matchmaker of the August 24 episode of Raw was welterweight boxing champion, Floyd Mayweather Jr., who had a match with The Big Show at WrestleMania XXIV the previous year. Due to the lingering animosity, Mayweather announced that Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) and Mark Henry would receive a match against The Big Show and his tag team partner, Chris Jericho, for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship at Breaking Point, provided they defeat them in an exhibition match that night; MVP and Henry gained their chance after Mayweather gave MVP brass knuckles while the referee was distracted, to knock out and pin Jericho for the win.
During a night-long challenge on the July 27 episode of Raw, to determine who would challenge Randy Orton for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam, Triple H had to defeat his opponent, Cody Rhodes, in the allotted time of 6:49 set by prior competitor, Mark Henry, but was not successful in doing so; this was followed by Rhodes assaulting his incapacitated opponent with the assistance of his affiliate in The Legacy, Ted DiBiase. This led to Triple H enlisting help in the returning Shawn Michaels to reform D-Generation X (DX), to face his adversaries at SummerSlam in a winning effort. After continued assaults, it was announced on WWE.com that the two teams would face at Breaking Point in a submission match of their own, which can be won anywhere in the arena.
Since The Bash, Kane and The Great Khali had been in constant conflict, taking turns interfering in each other's matches, blindsiding each other, or, in Kane's case, avoiding Khali. To get Khali's attention and the upper hand, Kane kidnapped his adversary's translator and storyline brother, Ranjin Singh, before their match at SummerSlam, which was won by Kane. Khali continued after Kane following the show, leading to the announcement of a match between the two with legal use of a Singapore cane.
After losing to John Cena in a lumberjack match on the August 3rd episode of Raw, The Miz wasn't seen for several weeks afterwards. Meanwhile, WWE United States Champion Kofi Kingston had successful title defenses over Big Show, Carlito and Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP). Miz returned on the August 10 episode of Raw, disguised as a wrestler in a mask called The Calgary Kid and defeated Eugene in a contract on a pole match. After the match, he unmasked himself. The following week, Miz debuted a new ring attire and stated his intentions to challenge Kingston for the United States Championship. Over the next few weeks, he would go on a winning streak defeating the likes of Evan Bourne and Santino Marella. Miz had his first shot at the U.S. Title in a fatal four-way match also including Jack Swagger and Carlito on the August 31 episode of Raw, but was unsuccessful after Kingston pinned Carlito. It was announced that Kingston would defend the title against Miz at Breaking Point.
==Event==
===Dark match===
Before WWE Breaking Point aired on television, an untelevised match took place between Evan Bourne and Chavo Guerrero. Evan Bourne would go on to win the match after performing a shooting star press, which he calls Air Bourne, to get the pinfall on Chavo.
==Reception==
The event received generally mixed to negative reviews.
The Sun in a generally positive review praised Randy Orton's performance in the WWE Title match and the match in general. However the newspaper harshly criticized the World Championship match, particularly the screw-job finish, stating: "But why, when putting on matches like that, the WWE feel the need to keep revisiting events from 12 years ago almost has us at Breaking Point". Overall the event was awarded a score of 8 out of 10.
Brian Elliott, writing for SLAM! Wrestling gave the event a generally negative review. He awarded the Tag Team Submission match a score of 7 out of 10, his highest rating for the night, while the Kane/Khali match was awarded a highly negative score of 1 out of 10, the event's lowest score. The WWE Title match was awarded a negative score of 4.0/10 and the World Championship Match awarded a 4.5/10. The Screw-Job finish was harshly criticized. Overall the event was awarded a total score of 30.5/70 which equates to 4.4/10.
==Results==
;
;
*Dark Match: Evan Bourne defeated Chavo Guerrero (5:00)
*Chris Jericho & The Big Show (c) defeated Montel Vontavious Porter & Mark Henry to retain the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship (12:13)
*Kofi Kingston (c) defeated The Miz to retain The WWE United States Championship (11:56)
*The Legacy (Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase) defeated D-Generation X (Triple H & Shawn Michaels) in a Submissions Count Anywhere match (21:40)
*Kane defeated The Great Khali (w/ Ranjin Singh) in a Singapore Cane match (5:50)
*Christian (c) defeated William Regal to retain the ECW Championship (10:15)
*John Cena defeated Randy Orton (c) in an "I Quit" match to win the WWE Championship (19:46)
*CM Punk (c) defeated The Undertaker in a Submission Match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship (8:52)
==Other on-screen talent==
;Commentators
*Jerry Lawler (RAW)
*Michael Cole (RAW)
*Jim Ross (SmackDown)
*Todd Grisham (SmackDown)
*Josh Mathews (ECW)
*Matt Striker (ECW)
;Interviewers
*Josh Mathews	
;Ring announcer
*Lilian Garcia (RAW)
*Justin Roberts (SmackDown)
*Tony Chimel (ECW)
;Referees
*John Cone
*Chad Patton
*Charles Robinson
*Scott Armstrong
==See also==
*List of WWE pay-per-view events
*WWE Event History
==DVD Release==
* Breaking Point 2009 on DVD
==External links==
* Breaking Point 2009 Official Website
* Breaking Point 2009 at CAGEMATCH.net
* Breaking Point 2009 on WWE Network
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events
Category:Breaking Point
Category:2009 pay-per-view events
Category:Events with I Quit matches
Category:Events with Submission matches
Category:Events with Cane matches