Welcome to another edition of Wrestling Inc.'s retro reviews, where we take notable wrestling shows from the past and apply our universally celebrated loved/hated format! We've recently looked back at Royal Rumble 2008 and WrestleMania 22, and we hope you're not tired of late 2000s shows where JohnCena wins, because it's time for WWE Breaking Point!
What year, you ask? Well, it's 2009, but if you're a scholar of WWE history, you already knew that, because there has only ever been one Breaking Point show. It replaced Unforgiven as WWE's regular September event, but was immediately replaced in turn by Night of Champions; the event's gimmick that its world title matches were contested under submission style rules was similarly abandoned. Breaking Point is also one of just four WWE PPVs in history to take place in the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec,Canada (and one of those is Elimination Chamber 2025, which just happened in February). Say what you will about Breaking Point, you can't say that it's not a unique event.
Why is now a good time to revisit it? As with all things leading up to Backlash 2025, it's all about Cena and RandyOrton. We already gave you five recommended watches from the historic rivalry of these two performers, but the Breaking Point match deserves special treatment, as some consider it their best singles match, including Dave Meltzer, who never gave any other singles match between the pair more than four stars. As Orton and Cena prepare to step into the ring together one last time, we pay tribute to their respective journeys by looking back at their iconic "I Quit" match and all the other weird stuff happening in 2009 WWE at the time.Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about WWE Breaking Point!
WWE's relationship with tag team wrestling has been spotty at best throughout the years, with a number of very odd pairings getting to hold the purported top titles in the division while the genuinely talented innovators who seem like they can further the medium fall to the wayside.
Breaking Point offered much to the former side of that equation as the Unified Tag Team titles were on the line between Jeri-Show and the team of Mark Henry and MVP, and as you might be able to tell the match hardly did anything to remedy that fact. Thus ensued 12 minutes that felt like 36, characterized by Henry working under the Big Show and Chris Jericho to make the hot tag to MVP I don't know if it's that obvious, but Henry really isn't a talent you can get behind as an underdog.
It was a match designed to follow the opening segment on "WWE Raw" extended to fit the billing of a pay-per-view, but even then it's not like it would have stayed with you had it happened on TV. Jeri-Show themselves were a fun tag team for the run they had, but even during this same event there was a tag match better worthy of the titles, and the idea of putting two singles stars in a unit, purely to keep them active, and then having them run roughshod over those who actually dedicate themselves to tag team wrestling has consistently hamstrung the division as nothing short of a sideshow. When done right, traditional tag team wrestling can be the most exhilarating form of wrestling altogether. But this was from done right from the outset, and the four drastically miscast yet talented wrestlers were always going to be swimming against that current.
Written byMax Everett
I will admit, as an Attitude Era kid who was still a teenager in 2009, the return of D-Generation X was SO COOL at the time. Now, looking back on it, it's pretty cringe and nothing like the first iteration of DX back in the late 90s, early 2000s. While Iinitially had this written down as something I assumed I would hate on the show, I actually really, really enjoyed this, in part, because Legacy's Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. got the victory over DX's Shawn Michaels andTriple H. Legacy, sans leader Randy Orton who was of course involved in the "I Quit" match where he defended his gold against John Cena, also had a really good promo backstage before the match. Rhodes was excellent on the mic and it was really neat to see him so good at things so early in his career.
I enjoyed DX's entrance and entire shtick in the ring, and of course, Triple H had to bring up the Montreal Screwjob with Michaels trying to get him to shut up, which was cute. While I initially thought I wouldn't like this match concept Submissions Count Anywhere, I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, Michaels and Triple H both used the figure-four leglock back in the day, but they were never particularly KNOWN for it. I guess DiBiase had the Million Dollar Dream submission, but if you would have told me that before the ending of this match, I wouldn't have remembered or known.
This match was exciting because it almost immediately spilled out of the ring and a large portion of it really was spent in the "anywhere" of Submissions Count Anywhere. And honestly, bold of WWE to allow HBK to brawl out in the crowd in Montreal, though I suppose we're at the point where he's apologized and turned over a new leaf.There was a good sequence in this match where Michaels falls from the crowd through a table below and gets "injured" and Triple H, DiBiase, and Rhodes battle in the backstage area until Triple H ends up laid out and the younger men go back for Michaels in the ring. But not before they hit "The Game" with a pretty wicked shot with a cooler right to the dome.The match ended in an interesting way with Legacy getting HBK to tap with a double submission around the ring post. Rhodes got him in a figure-four leg and DiBiase came in with the Million Dollar Dream to seal the deal and give the younger team "the rub."
If I ever watched Breaking Point back in 2009, I certainly don't remember it. Overall, it was a good show to have on in the background during the day and this match was a big highlight of the show that wasn't the two big main matches to end the night. I might have put this a little farther up the card, but I really enjoyed it, nonetheless.
Written byDaisyRuth
When in Montreal, someone gets screwed. In 1997, WWE officials legitimately conspired to prevent Bret "The Hitman" Hart from entering WCW with the WWE Championship. In 2009, Teddy Long and Scott Armstrong conspired in storyline to ensure that The Undertaker walked out of WWE Breaking Point without the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
I, of course, can appreciate a good callback, especially to one of professional wrestling's most documented events, which has since been replicated in some rather fun ways. Unfortunately, the only good thing about this callback was the added heat it gave the retaining heel champion, CM Punk.
In this case, Punk defended the World Heavyweight Championship against The Undertaker in a main event submission match. At one point, The Undertaker trapped Punk inside Hell's Gate, forced him to tap out, and was momentarily crowned as the new champion. In the midst of celebrating, however, "WWE SmackDown" General Manager Teddy Long informed The Undertaker and the WWE Universe that the Hell's Gate had previously been banned by a predecessor, Vickie Guerrero. On this awfully convenient (and odd) basis, Long then ordered the title match to continue, with Punk later gaining the upper hand with the Anaconda Vice. With The Undertaker locked in the hold, referee Scott Armstong quickly called for the bell, signaling a false submission from The Undertaker and a successful title defense for Punk.
So what was the reasoning for this screwjob? On the subsequent episode of "SmackDown," Armstrong claimed that he received orders from a high-ranking WWE official, which he followed in order to keep his job as a referee. Blue brand GM Teddy Long echoed that sentiment, while adding that he couldn't afford to let his family down or seek out another profession. Long implied then-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon as the source of the orders. According to McMahon, though, he simply told Long to "entertain" the crowd at Breaking Point.
Well, consider me not entertained and still scratching my head at this rather lame reasoning.
Written by Ella Jay
Going back over these old wrestling cards particular relatively uncelebrated one-off shows like this one can be a bit of a slog sometimes, especially when you're just minding your own business and suddenly Kane and TheGreat Khali are doing a Singapore Cane match. But sometimes, right after that, you stumble upon something like Christian vs.William Regal.
It's probably not surprising to anyone that Christian and William Regal put on a good wrestling match, but this is a classic example of a hidden gem. The outer covering, after all, isn't the prettiest they're fighting over the ECW world title in the final days of WWECW's existence, they get less time than anyone else on the show apart from Khali and Kane, and the match kicks off with the revelation that ECW GM Tiffany (future TNA Knockouts ChampionTarynTerrell) has ordered Regal's nefarious cohorts, Ezekiel Jackson and Vladimir Koslov, to be banned from ringside. That's tough. But once the bell rings ... it's Christian and Regal, man. They pack so much action into 10 minutes of ring time, withRegal absolutely shining as a wrestler, as he did right up until his very last match. The story of the match is simple Christian wants the Killswitch, Regal won't give it to him but meticulously executed, with Christian needing little more to get the crowd behind him than the abuse he takes almost every time Regal hits a move. It also helps that if you want to watch Christian work babyface, this is the era to be in; he'd recently returned from TNA and had probably the most organic audience support he would ever enjoy in WWE, and this was the start of a run that would ultimately deliver him his only world title wins in the promotion.Looking back from 2025 especially as someone who is just completely over Christian's heel character in modern AEW it was incredibly refreshing to hear "Just Close Your Eyes" again, and to see a clean-cut Christian doing great underdog babyface work on behalf of the fans.
If you were going through a list of more prominent WWE events of the era, you might see that Christian wrestled Regal at SummerSlam 2009 and think "Oh, I should watch that match." No, don't do that. That match only lasts eight seconds. This one, here at Breaking Point in Montreal, is the hidden gem.
For a while now I have been someone to defend The Miz as very good at his job, that job being WWE Superstar as opposed to an actor or professional wrestler. That right there is the best and the worst of the eventual two-time WWE Champion; for all of his faults (yes, he has numerous), Vince McMahon did succeed in creating his Frankenstein's monster of Hollywood meets pro wrestling, and much in that vein the WWE product walks the cracks he made between the forms of entertainment.
You can be a really talented professional wrestler and yet fail to meet the cut in the eyes of WWE, and you can be an immense character worker only to find yourself hamstrung by the boundaries of what can really be achieved with the promotion, so that's where The Miz strikes the happy balance of being relatively unspectacular at both of those things but very good at doing the job he is asked of.
But at the end of the day, after all of the entertainment, the grandeur, and the commendable dedication to the bit will only get one so far when the starting bell rings. In that vein, Miz isn't exactly offensive, but no one if they're being truly honest with themselves has ever thought to replay one of his matches or even claimed to be looking forward to one. And that is just The Miz we see today, a drastically improved performer comfortable leaning into what works for him.
The Miz that was challenging for Kofi Kingston's United States Champions at Breaking Point, on the other hand, was one trying to fit a role he wasn't quite ready for wrestling a 12-minute long match comprised of the nauseating rest holds and slow-burn work that just grate on you after a while. It was another example of booking a pay-per-view title match that really belonged on TV, almost demonstrated by the fact they have wrestled just shy of 100 TV matches in the years since. And that is without getting into the incredibly racist ideology behind seeing a Ghanaian-born wrestler and saying, "Yes, you will be Jamaican."
Written byMaxEverett
Having defeated the likes of Shawn Michaels, Sgt. Slaughter, Ric Flair, and Mick Foley, Randy Orton was fittingly dubbed "The Legend Killer" in the early years of his WWE career. "The Viper," specifically the 2009 version, appeared even more dangerous and merciless, which makes John Cena's victory over him at Breaking Point all the more sweet. The path to get there, though, was anything but.
To put it bluntly, Cena got his butt whooped by Orton in the early portion of their "I Quit" match with the WWE Championship on the line. Orton's beatdown went so far that multiple purple scars formed across Cena's abdomen after he lashed him with a kendo stick while the "Cenation Leader" helplessly sat handcuffed to the ring post. Additionally, Orton rammed Cena into the steel steps, struck him over the head with the referee's microphone, hit him in the back with a chair, and even choked him with the same kendo stick. Still, much like his "Never Give Up" catchphrase, Cena displayed resiliency.
He also turned Orton's secret weapon the handcuffs into his kryptonite, beginning with the game-changing move of cuffing "The Viper" to him. With his free arm, Orton managed to momentarily ground Cena with an RKO. What he didn't account for, however, was the difficulty that came with trying to drag himself and a motionless Cena closer to the handcuff key on the other side of the ring to unlock them. As Orton struggled to retrieve the key, Cena recovered and shifted his momentum into the STF submission, with Orton's own arm choking him just enough to make him utter "I Quit." And for a man who previously punted and/or RKOed three members of the McMahon family earlier in the year, it seemed like a good dose of (storyline) karma at the time.
Written byElla Jay
