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Hello and welcome to Grandprix’s review of the WWE PPVs of 2004. It’s your chance to remember some of the highs and lows of 2004 and have your opinion on the PPV’s in question in each part of the review. Beware of the length! You might want to read it in sections.
2004 begins and the WWE have a rather weak 2003 to look back on. January to March is the most crucial time of the year as Wrestlemania XX is being billed as the WWE’s biggest event in recent history, maybe ever. The WWE have added 2 new PPVs for us to look at over the year, The Great American Bash in June and Taboo Tuesday in October. This is part 1 of 4 parts spread over the next couple of weeks. Here’s a rundown of what is going to be contained in each part:
PART 1: Royal Rumble, No Way Out and Wrestlemania
PART 2: Backlash, Judgment Day, Bad Blood and The Great American Bash
PART 3: Vengeance, Summerslam and Unforgiven
PART 4: No Mercy, Taboo Tuesday, Survivor Series and Armageddon
I’ll try my best to keep you in touch with all the changes that happened throughout the year (and there were quite a few). The champions at the start of the year were:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: Flair & Batista (Evolution)
Women’s title: Molly
Smackdown World title: Brock Lesnar
Smackdown Tag titles: The Bashams
Cruiserweight title: Tajiri
Intercontinental title: Randy Orton
US title: Big Show
Let’s look at the champions in more detail.
Triple H gave himself a present and he starts out with the Raw World title in 2004, just like he did in 2003. Triple H continues in his bid to win more titles than Ric Flair and I’m sure he’ll make that happen for himself. Flair and Batista hold the tag titles and Randy Orton holds the Intercontinental title to give everyone in Evolution a title, whether they deserve it or not. Molly still has the Women’s title.
Smackdown has Brock Lesnar as champ and The Bashams as tag champs. I must say at this point that the tag divisions look pretty weak and it used to be a real strong point for the WWE. Tajiri has the Cruiserweight title and Big Show has the US title and has not defended it on TV. He has had that title since mid-October 2003.
The title changes started early when Smackdown on the 1st of January saw Rey Mysterio win the Cruiserweight title off Tajiri. Benoit cheesed off Heyman (the SD GM) and got given the number 1 spot in the Rumble. Goldberg won a match on the final Raw before the Royal Rumble to enter the Rumble as Number 30.
We move on to the Royal Rumble on 25th January. In the last few years, the winner of the Rumble is fairly easy to predict, but this year, things were different. There were about 5 or 6 potential winners and everyone seemed to have their different views as to who was going to win.
Anyway, the first match saw Flair and Batista defend the Tag Titles against the Dudleyz in a tables match. Now, I’m a sucker for tables smashing here, there and everywhere but this didn’t work. The match ends with Batista slamming D-Von through a table for the win. Less than 5 minutes, one table being smashed and the Coach interfering makes this match a total disaster.
Next up is the Cruiserweight Championship match between Rey Mysterio and Jamie Noble. Again, this is ridiculously short and it’s Nidia’s interference (Blind Nidia at this moment) that costs Noble the match, as the interference leads to Mysterio hitting his finisher for the title defence.
Eddie V Chavo is next and, yet again, this match could have gone double the length it got but all we got was 8 minutes worth. Still, it was pretty good for 8 minutes as Eddie came out the winner with the frogsplash. Eddie goes crazy and continues his assault on both Chavo Junior and Chavo Senior, who had been around for a couple of weeks.
The Smackdown World title is on the line as Brock Lesnar defends against Hardcore Holly. Another short match results as Lesnar wins and retains the title with the F5. Brock Lesnar was playing the chicken, fearing Hardcore Holly as Holly was looking for revenge for an injury given to him by Brock but all that running away and being scared meant nothing as Lesnar dominated. It wasn’t a good match and half the match was spent with Holly in a bearhug. Hardcore Holly as a main eventer was bad news from start to finish.
The Raw World title is next as HHH defends the title against Shawn Michaels in a Last Man Standing match. The problem with Last Man Standing matches is that they can get very slow and disjointed with all the 10 counts that they try to get. They had a lot to live up to after a very good match on Raw at the end of last year. The result was a cop out as both HHH and Shawn are down for the 10, meaning a draw and a HHH defence. The crowd shows their disapproval with loud boos. It wasn’t bad but it was just as Last Man Standing matches go, slow and disjointed.
A pointless segment with Austin, Bishoff and Heyman leads us to the main event, the Royal Rumble. I’m not going to do a play by play, as that would make this much longer. I’ll mention the memorable moments. Booker T dumps Kane out early after the Undertaker’s gongs sound (the Undertaker apparently dead after being buried alive in 2003), scaring Kane. Mick Foley returns, after Test gets taken out backstage, as Number 21 and eliminates himself and Orton. Goldberg gets an F5 from Brock Lesnar, who wasn’t in the Rumble obviously, leading to Angle throwing him out. The final 4 consists of Benoit, Angle, Jericho and Big Show. Jericho is first out, followed by Angle leaving Benoit to throw out Big Show to win the Rumble. Benoit is heading to the main event at Wrestlemania XX and it was about damn time.
It was one of the best Rumbles since 1992 but the rest of the PPV was a letdown with some poor matches and some that weren’t given enough time to show what they could do. So, it’s turns out at about an average PPV, which is a little disappointing. I do suggest that you try and watch the Rumble match itself because it is one of the best matches of 2004.
No Way Out is the February PPV, which is a Smackdown exclusive event, but before then, a quick update of what happened during the Raw and Smackdown shows beforehand.
Benoit’s winning of the Rumble gave him the chance to face the Champion at Wrestlemania. Apparently, that gave him a choice of which title to go for. He chose the Raw World Championship and switched shows. Goldberg declared that Lesnar is next on his hit list and gets a ticket to No Way Out and Nidia reveals that she isn’t blind after all.
Eddie Guerrero won a Smackdown Royal Rumble match to face Brock Lesnar at No Way Out. HBK gets added to the main event at Wrestlemania to make it a triple threat match for the Championship. It felt at the time that Benoit’s push was being cheapened at this point.
Smackdown on the 5th February saw new tag champions as Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi beat the Bashams. Big Show defends his US title for the first time on TV on that show against Billy Gunn and the number 1 contender for the Smackdown Championship would be decided at No Way Out between Cena, Big Show and Angle. Also, in a real shock, Goldberg gets fired.
No Way Out’s card looks pretty weak in the undercard with no real early booking to make us care about the matches. No Way Out kicks off on the 15th February with the tag titles on the line as The Bashams and Shaniqua take on Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi. Rikishi pins Shaniqua to retain the titles and that, as far as I’m aware, was the last appearance of Shaniqua on WWE TV, as she ended up being released in November. I think I’m supposed to care about that, but I don’t. Basic opening match here anyway.
The next match had a storyline that was built over 3 months and the payoff was Nidia V Jamie Noble with Noble being blindfolded. Noble, after 5 minutes, removes the blindfold long enough to slam Nidia and win. Total waste of PPV as it wasn’t even entertaining.
Next up was Benjamin and Haas V The A.P.A. Bradshaw had an injured arm, which he then sold Undertaker style by not actually selling it. Benjamin superkicked Bradshaw, after he ‘finished’ Haas, to win the match. The end of the match was okay, the rest wasn’t good. Goldberg then arrives and sits in the front row, only for Lesnar to tempt him into the ring and Goldberg gets arrested. That means Goldberg will appear later on then.
Rhyno V Hardcore Holly is next, thrown together at the last minute, which seems to be a familiar theme to this PPV thus far. It would probably have been better throwing them apart, because all we got was a very slow match and really dull as well. Hardcore Holly won with the Alabama Slam, if any actually cared.
Rey Mysterio defends the Cruiserweight title against Chavo Guerrero in a match that really had to deliver, as the show so far was pretty weak at best. Rey Mysterio has world famous boxer Jorge Paez, only I’ve never heard of him. Chavo has Chavo Senior in his corner. Paez gets ejected from ringside early for punching out Chavo Senior. The match wasn’t bad, above average, but they never really got going and the finish was quite poor, as Chavo Senior proves to be the deciding factor by pushing Rey Mysterio off the ropes in a Chavo Junior rollup, to crown a new Cruiserweight Champion.
Next up was the Triple Threat match to decide who would face the Smackdown Champion at Wrestlemania. The competitors were Angle, Cena and Big Show (featuring the US title. Anyone remember that title?). The match was really slow to start off with and picked up near the end but it was pretty average with Cena’s knee injury and Angle’s ongoing neck problems. Angle came out the winner with the Anklelock on Cena to head to Wrestlemania as the number 1 contender. Who will he face?
The answer was up next as the main event saw Brock Lesnar defend his title against Eddie Guerrero. It certainly was an impressive encounter with some good psychology and well-worked big guy, smaller guy dynamic. The only thing that damaged the match was Goldberg returning, which was pretty obvious, spearing Brock after a ref bump. The end saw Eddie reverse the F5 into a DDT onto the title belt and the frog splash giving Eddie the Smackdown World Title.
The PPV verdict? Skip the first 1-2 hours and focus on the Cruiserweight title match, Triple Threat match and the title match because that’s where the action is. Definitely get a look at the Brock/Eddie match, as it would easily get into the top 10 2004 matches in the WWE and it’s the WWE actually putting someone new over.
So, that’s quite an impressive feat. Two PPV’s, two matches worth looking at and both in the main event slots. A champion on Smackdown there for his ability and not his look, although the fact that Eddie was the most over guy on Smackdown may have been a factor. The potential of Eddie V Angle and Benoit in the main event at Wrestlemania is enough to the ‘wrestling’ fans look forward to Wrestlemania with eager anticipation of something spectacular.
Can the momentum of hot PPV main events continue at Wrestlemania? The run up to Wrestlemania begins early as the WWE continue their focus of throwing tag teams together by putting Booker T and RVD together and they win the Raw Tag Titles off Flair and Batista the night after No Way Out. Victoria won the Women’s title a week later off Molly.
Wrestlemania XX was being pushed as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, PPV of all time. It’s certainly one of the longest, as it ran for 4 and a half/5 hours. So it began on the 14th March, Wrestlemania XX.
First up on the card was Big Show defending his hardly ever-defended US title against John Cena. The finish saw Cena distract the ref with his chain, only for him to hit Big Show with some brass knuckles and the FU to become the new US Champion. Big Show’s 5-month reign and 2 or 3 defences of that title is now over. It was a terrible match but we got a new champion, one plus at least.
Next on the agenda were Booker T and RVD defending the Tag Titles against La Resistance (Dupree and Conway), Jindrak and Cade and The Dudleyz. I think this highlighted perfectly how frail the tag division had become at this point. Booker T and RVD were thrown together, Jindrak and Cade were an inexperienced team, the Dudleyz were stale characters going nowhere with only really the 3D (my favourite tag team finisher) keeping them afloat. La Resistance was the only really ‘fresh’ idea here and that really is a travesty. Anyway, the weakness of the tag division was totally exposed by a poor match as Booker hits the axe kick on Conway and RVD does the frog splash to retain.
Christian V Chris Jericho is next. This match came about because of the whole Trish/Jericho love angle. Hopefully that’s jogged a few memories. The match was really going well after the early goings but the end was not great. Christian picks up the win with a rollup after Trish hits Jericho by ‘accident’ when Jericho tried to save her. Trish then turns heel, which freshens her character up and gives Christian a bit more heat too.
The Rock had been away doing some movies but he wouldn’t miss this event and, of course, The Rock is comedy gold. It’s a reunion for The Rock and Sock connection for one night only as The Rock and Mick Foley take on Flair, Batista and Orton in a handicap match, continuing the Orton/Foley feud. Usually, handicap matches are rubbish and have been well overused but this was energetic, fun and a good match too. Orton hits the RKO on Foley to give Evolution the victory.
After the Hall of Fame ceremony, Sable and Torrie take on Stacy and Miss Jackie. As wrestling matches go, avoid! Torrie reverses a rollup on Miss Jackie to win. Moving swiftly on, it’s the Cruiserweight open for the Cruiserweight title. It features Shannon Moore, Ultimo Dragon, Jamie Noble, Nunzio, Kidman, Rey Mysterio, Tajiri, Akio and Chavo Jnr. Looking at that list; you would think 20-30 minutes in total would be moderately stingy. For all of these, coming in one V one, the total time was just over 10 minutes. Criminal. Chavo and Rey Mysterio are the last 2 and Chavo Snr has the last word as he distracts Rey and Chavo Jnr picks up the win soon after, blocking a sunset flip.
The next match is well known to anyone who watched Wrestlemania XX just because of the sheer comedy value. The crowd made this match. It was Brock Lesnar V Goldberg. It just so happened that this match would be the last appearance of both participants and the crowd knew this and let them know it. The crowd totally turned on both participants. In the space of 14 minutes, the crowd went through the following phases:
‘You sold out’ chant
‘The Goodbye Song’ – Extremely annoying in my opinion
‘This match sucks’ chant twice
‘Boring’ chant
‘Hogan’ chants
Many boos, long silences and a sarcastic round of applause for the winner
It was Goldberg that won the match with the spear and jackhammer combo, although I think the only winner was Austin, who was special ref for the match. He stunnered both guys after the match. Check this match out just for the crowd reaction. The match was dire though.
The Smackdown Tag Titles were on the line as Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty defended against the A.P.A, Haas and Benjamin and The Basham Brothers. Pretty much everyone is getting a payday out of this event. Weak match results as Rikishi pins Danny Basham to retain. Victoria then puts the Women’s title on the line against Molly with the stipulation that if Molly loses, she goes bald. Needless to say, she lost, so she went bald. Victoria won with a backslide after reversing a powerbomb.
The Smackdown World Champion Eddie Guerrero takes on Angle for the title in what was highly anticipated to blow the roof off the place. It only gave the average fan enough to keep them on the edge of their seats but it also told a story and led to a smart finish. Angle was working on Eddie’s ankle and Eddie managed to reverse it. Eddie started to loosen his boot so he could continue but an aggressive Angle locked the Anklelock on again, the boot comes off and Eddie rolls Angle up for the win. Stunning match that had pretty much anything you could want in a match.
The return of the Undertaker was next as he took on Kane. The Undertaker was supposedly dead after being buried alive at Survivor Series 2003. He was supposed to return under his old gimmick as the ‘Deadman’, only to return as a hybrid of the ‘Deadman’ and the ‘Biker’. He’s got his old music but he looked more like a Texas Ranger than a ‘Deadman’. The Undertaker’s unbeaten run at Wrestlemania continued as he chokeslammed and tombstoned Kane for victory but the match wasn’t great.
The main event sees Triple H defend the Raw World Title against Benoit (the Rumble winner) and Shawn Michaels (who really has no claim to being in this match). Triple threat matches are usually pretty weak as they two in the ring and one outside. Although there was some of that here, it was one of the best, if not the best, triple threat match I’ve ever seen. Everyone was really feeling it here.
I don’t usually give a lot of credit to Triple H but he did the right thing here. Benoit has got Triple H in the Crossface for what has felt like forever and Triple H has used his last chance to escape but Benoit has held on. Triple H has no other option but to tap out and Benoit wins the World Championship. It was one of those surreal moments that you never thought would happen and it got more surreal when Eddie came down to the ring to celebrate with him.
In the space of 3 months, the WWE had come from a weak 2003 to an amazingly strong start to 2004. Three PPVs, three super hot main events and a list of match of the year contenders already. Also, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit were the World Champions on their respective shows. It could be described as a golden era but could the momentum continue?
Find out what I thought about the next four PPVs in Part 2 of my review of the WWE PPVs 2004!
(I apologise for the lack of laughs in this part but it really was a decent three months)
2004 begins and the WWE have a rather weak 2003 to look back on. January to March is the most crucial time of the year as Wrestlemania XX is being billed as the WWE’s biggest event in recent history, maybe ever. The WWE have added 2 new PPVs for us to look at over the year, The Great American Bash in June and Taboo Tuesday in October. This is part 1 of 4 parts spread over the next couple of weeks. Here’s a rundown of what is going to be contained in each part:
PART 1: Royal Rumble, No Way Out and Wrestlemania
PART 2: Backlash, Judgment Day, Bad Blood and The Great American Bash
PART 3: Vengeance, Summerslam and Unforgiven
PART 4: No Mercy, Taboo Tuesday, Survivor Series and Armageddon
I’ll try my best to keep you in touch with all the changes that happened throughout the year (and there were quite a few). The champions at the start of the year were:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: Flair & Batista (Evolution)
Women’s title: Molly
Smackdown World title: Brock Lesnar
Smackdown Tag titles: The Bashams
Cruiserweight title: Tajiri
Intercontinental title: Randy Orton
US title: Big Show
Let’s look at the champions in more detail.
Triple H gave himself a present and he starts out with the Raw World title in 2004, just like he did in 2003. Triple H continues in his bid to win more titles than Ric Flair and I’m sure he’ll make that happen for himself. Flair and Batista hold the tag titles and Randy Orton holds the Intercontinental title to give everyone in Evolution a title, whether they deserve it or not. Molly still has the Women’s title.
Smackdown has Brock Lesnar as champ and The Bashams as tag champs. I must say at this point that the tag divisions look pretty weak and it used to be a real strong point for the WWE. Tajiri has the Cruiserweight title and Big Show has the US title and has not defended it on TV. He has had that title since mid-October 2003.
The title changes started early when Smackdown on the 1st of January saw Rey Mysterio win the Cruiserweight title off Tajiri. Benoit cheesed off Heyman (the SD GM) and got given the number 1 spot in the Rumble. Goldberg won a match on the final Raw before the Royal Rumble to enter the Rumble as Number 30.
We move on to the Royal Rumble on 25th January. In the last few years, the winner of the Rumble is fairly easy to predict, but this year, things were different. There were about 5 or 6 potential winners and everyone seemed to have their different views as to who was going to win.
Anyway, the first match saw Flair and Batista defend the Tag Titles against the Dudleyz in a tables match. Now, I’m a sucker for tables smashing here, there and everywhere but this didn’t work. The match ends with Batista slamming D-Von through a table for the win. Less than 5 minutes, one table being smashed and the Coach interfering makes this match a total disaster.
Next up is the Cruiserweight Championship match between Rey Mysterio and Jamie Noble. Again, this is ridiculously short and it’s Nidia’s interference (Blind Nidia at this moment) that costs Noble the match, as the interference leads to Mysterio hitting his finisher for the title defence.
Eddie V Chavo is next and, yet again, this match could have gone double the length it got but all we got was 8 minutes worth. Still, it was pretty good for 8 minutes as Eddie came out the winner with the frogsplash. Eddie goes crazy and continues his assault on both Chavo Junior and Chavo Senior, who had been around for a couple of weeks.
The Smackdown World title is on the line as Brock Lesnar defends against Hardcore Holly. Another short match results as Lesnar wins and retains the title with the F5. Brock Lesnar was playing the chicken, fearing Hardcore Holly as Holly was looking for revenge for an injury given to him by Brock but all that running away and being scared meant nothing as Lesnar dominated. It wasn’t a good match and half the match was spent with Holly in a bearhug. Hardcore Holly as a main eventer was bad news from start to finish.
The Raw World title is next as HHH defends the title against Shawn Michaels in a Last Man Standing match. The problem with Last Man Standing matches is that they can get very slow and disjointed with all the 10 counts that they try to get. They had a lot to live up to after a very good match on Raw at the end of last year. The result was a cop out as both HHH and Shawn are down for the 10, meaning a draw and a HHH defence. The crowd shows their disapproval with loud boos. It wasn’t bad but it was just as Last Man Standing matches go, slow and disjointed.
A pointless segment with Austin, Bishoff and Heyman leads us to the main event, the Royal Rumble. I’m not going to do a play by play, as that would make this much longer. I’ll mention the memorable moments. Booker T dumps Kane out early after the Undertaker’s gongs sound (the Undertaker apparently dead after being buried alive in 2003), scaring Kane. Mick Foley returns, after Test gets taken out backstage, as Number 21 and eliminates himself and Orton. Goldberg gets an F5 from Brock Lesnar, who wasn’t in the Rumble obviously, leading to Angle throwing him out. The final 4 consists of Benoit, Angle, Jericho and Big Show. Jericho is first out, followed by Angle leaving Benoit to throw out Big Show to win the Rumble. Benoit is heading to the main event at Wrestlemania XX and it was about damn time.
It was one of the best Rumbles since 1992 but the rest of the PPV was a letdown with some poor matches and some that weren’t given enough time to show what they could do. So, it’s turns out at about an average PPV, which is a little disappointing. I do suggest that you try and watch the Rumble match itself because it is one of the best matches of 2004.
No Way Out is the February PPV, which is a Smackdown exclusive event, but before then, a quick update of what happened during the Raw and Smackdown shows beforehand.
Benoit’s winning of the Rumble gave him the chance to face the Champion at Wrestlemania. Apparently, that gave him a choice of which title to go for. He chose the Raw World Championship and switched shows. Goldberg declared that Lesnar is next on his hit list and gets a ticket to No Way Out and Nidia reveals that she isn’t blind after all.
Eddie Guerrero won a Smackdown Royal Rumble match to face Brock Lesnar at No Way Out. HBK gets added to the main event at Wrestlemania to make it a triple threat match for the Championship. It felt at the time that Benoit’s push was being cheapened at this point.
Smackdown on the 5th February saw new tag champions as Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi beat the Bashams. Big Show defends his US title for the first time on TV on that show against Billy Gunn and the number 1 contender for the Smackdown Championship would be decided at No Way Out between Cena, Big Show and Angle. Also, in a real shock, Goldberg gets fired.
No Way Out’s card looks pretty weak in the undercard with no real early booking to make us care about the matches. No Way Out kicks off on the 15th February with the tag titles on the line as The Bashams and Shaniqua take on Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi. Rikishi pins Shaniqua to retain the titles and that, as far as I’m aware, was the last appearance of Shaniqua on WWE TV, as she ended up being released in November. I think I’m supposed to care about that, but I don’t. Basic opening match here anyway.
The next match had a storyline that was built over 3 months and the payoff was Nidia V Jamie Noble with Noble being blindfolded. Noble, after 5 minutes, removes the blindfold long enough to slam Nidia and win. Total waste of PPV as it wasn’t even entertaining.
Next up was Benjamin and Haas V The A.P.A. Bradshaw had an injured arm, which he then sold Undertaker style by not actually selling it. Benjamin superkicked Bradshaw, after he ‘finished’ Haas, to win the match. The end of the match was okay, the rest wasn’t good. Goldberg then arrives and sits in the front row, only for Lesnar to tempt him into the ring and Goldberg gets arrested. That means Goldberg will appear later on then.
Rhyno V Hardcore Holly is next, thrown together at the last minute, which seems to be a familiar theme to this PPV thus far. It would probably have been better throwing them apart, because all we got was a very slow match and really dull as well. Hardcore Holly won with the Alabama Slam, if any actually cared.
Rey Mysterio defends the Cruiserweight title against Chavo Guerrero in a match that really had to deliver, as the show so far was pretty weak at best. Rey Mysterio has world famous boxer Jorge Paez, only I’ve never heard of him. Chavo has Chavo Senior in his corner. Paez gets ejected from ringside early for punching out Chavo Senior. The match wasn’t bad, above average, but they never really got going and the finish was quite poor, as Chavo Senior proves to be the deciding factor by pushing Rey Mysterio off the ropes in a Chavo Junior rollup, to crown a new Cruiserweight Champion.
Next up was the Triple Threat match to decide who would face the Smackdown Champion at Wrestlemania. The competitors were Angle, Cena and Big Show (featuring the US title. Anyone remember that title?). The match was really slow to start off with and picked up near the end but it was pretty average with Cena’s knee injury and Angle’s ongoing neck problems. Angle came out the winner with the Anklelock on Cena to head to Wrestlemania as the number 1 contender. Who will he face?
The answer was up next as the main event saw Brock Lesnar defend his title against Eddie Guerrero. It certainly was an impressive encounter with some good psychology and well-worked big guy, smaller guy dynamic. The only thing that damaged the match was Goldberg returning, which was pretty obvious, spearing Brock after a ref bump. The end saw Eddie reverse the F5 into a DDT onto the title belt and the frog splash giving Eddie the Smackdown World Title.
The PPV verdict? Skip the first 1-2 hours and focus on the Cruiserweight title match, Triple Threat match and the title match because that’s where the action is. Definitely get a look at the Brock/Eddie match, as it would easily get into the top 10 2004 matches in the WWE and it’s the WWE actually putting someone new over.
So, that’s quite an impressive feat. Two PPV’s, two matches worth looking at and both in the main event slots. A champion on Smackdown there for his ability and not his look, although the fact that Eddie was the most over guy on Smackdown may have been a factor. The potential of Eddie V Angle and Benoit in the main event at Wrestlemania is enough to the ‘wrestling’ fans look forward to Wrestlemania with eager anticipation of something spectacular.
Can the momentum of hot PPV main events continue at Wrestlemania? The run up to Wrestlemania begins early as the WWE continue their focus of throwing tag teams together by putting Booker T and RVD together and they win the Raw Tag Titles off Flair and Batista the night after No Way Out. Victoria won the Women’s title a week later off Molly.
Wrestlemania XX was being pushed as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, PPV of all time. It’s certainly one of the longest, as it ran for 4 and a half/5 hours. So it began on the 14th March, Wrestlemania XX.
First up on the card was Big Show defending his hardly ever-defended US title against John Cena. The finish saw Cena distract the ref with his chain, only for him to hit Big Show with some brass knuckles and the FU to become the new US Champion. Big Show’s 5-month reign and 2 or 3 defences of that title is now over. It was a terrible match but we got a new champion, one plus at least.
Next on the agenda were Booker T and RVD defending the Tag Titles against La Resistance (Dupree and Conway), Jindrak and Cade and The Dudleyz. I think this highlighted perfectly how frail the tag division had become at this point. Booker T and RVD were thrown together, Jindrak and Cade were an inexperienced team, the Dudleyz were stale characters going nowhere with only really the 3D (my favourite tag team finisher) keeping them afloat. La Resistance was the only really ‘fresh’ idea here and that really is a travesty. Anyway, the weakness of the tag division was totally exposed by a poor match as Booker hits the axe kick on Conway and RVD does the frog splash to retain.
Christian V Chris Jericho is next. This match came about because of the whole Trish/Jericho love angle. Hopefully that’s jogged a few memories. The match was really going well after the early goings but the end was not great. Christian picks up the win with a rollup after Trish hits Jericho by ‘accident’ when Jericho tried to save her. Trish then turns heel, which freshens her character up and gives Christian a bit more heat too.
The Rock had been away doing some movies but he wouldn’t miss this event and, of course, The Rock is comedy gold. It’s a reunion for The Rock and Sock connection for one night only as The Rock and Mick Foley take on Flair, Batista and Orton in a handicap match, continuing the Orton/Foley feud. Usually, handicap matches are rubbish and have been well overused but this was energetic, fun and a good match too. Orton hits the RKO on Foley to give Evolution the victory.
After the Hall of Fame ceremony, Sable and Torrie take on Stacy and Miss Jackie. As wrestling matches go, avoid! Torrie reverses a rollup on Miss Jackie to win. Moving swiftly on, it’s the Cruiserweight open for the Cruiserweight title. It features Shannon Moore, Ultimo Dragon, Jamie Noble, Nunzio, Kidman, Rey Mysterio, Tajiri, Akio and Chavo Jnr. Looking at that list; you would think 20-30 minutes in total would be moderately stingy. For all of these, coming in one V one, the total time was just over 10 minutes. Criminal. Chavo and Rey Mysterio are the last 2 and Chavo Snr has the last word as he distracts Rey and Chavo Jnr picks up the win soon after, blocking a sunset flip.
The next match is well known to anyone who watched Wrestlemania XX just because of the sheer comedy value. The crowd made this match. It was Brock Lesnar V Goldberg. It just so happened that this match would be the last appearance of both participants and the crowd knew this and let them know it. The crowd totally turned on both participants. In the space of 14 minutes, the crowd went through the following phases:
‘You sold out’ chant
‘The Goodbye Song’ – Extremely annoying in my opinion
‘This match sucks’ chant twice
‘Boring’ chant
‘Hogan’ chants
Many boos, long silences and a sarcastic round of applause for the winner
It was Goldberg that won the match with the spear and jackhammer combo, although I think the only winner was Austin, who was special ref for the match. He stunnered both guys after the match. Check this match out just for the crowd reaction. The match was dire though.
The Smackdown Tag Titles were on the line as Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty defended against the A.P.A, Haas and Benjamin and The Basham Brothers. Pretty much everyone is getting a payday out of this event. Weak match results as Rikishi pins Danny Basham to retain. Victoria then puts the Women’s title on the line against Molly with the stipulation that if Molly loses, she goes bald. Needless to say, she lost, so she went bald. Victoria won with a backslide after reversing a powerbomb.
The Smackdown World Champion Eddie Guerrero takes on Angle for the title in what was highly anticipated to blow the roof off the place. It only gave the average fan enough to keep them on the edge of their seats but it also told a story and led to a smart finish. Angle was working on Eddie’s ankle and Eddie managed to reverse it. Eddie started to loosen his boot so he could continue but an aggressive Angle locked the Anklelock on again, the boot comes off and Eddie rolls Angle up for the win. Stunning match that had pretty much anything you could want in a match.
The return of the Undertaker was next as he took on Kane. The Undertaker was supposedly dead after being buried alive at Survivor Series 2003. He was supposed to return under his old gimmick as the ‘Deadman’, only to return as a hybrid of the ‘Deadman’ and the ‘Biker’. He’s got his old music but he looked more like a Texas Ranger than a ‘Deadman’. The Undertaker’s unbeaten run at Wrestlemania continued as he chokeslammed and tombstoned Kane for victory but the match wasn’t great.
The main event sees Triple H defend the Raw World Title against Benoit (the Rumble winner) and Shawn Michaels (who really has no claim to being in this match). Triple threat matches are usually pretty weak as they two in the ring and one outside. Although there was some of that here, it was one of the best, if not the best, triple threat match I’ve ever seen. Everyone was really feeling it here.
I don’t usually give a lot of credit to Triple H but he did the right thing here. Benoit has got Triple H in the Crossface for what has felt like forever and Triple H has used his last chance to escape but Benoit has held on. Triple H has no other option but to tap out and Benoit wins the World Championship. It was one of those surreal moments that you never thought would happen and it got more surreal when Eddie came down to the ring to celebrate with him.
In the space of 3 months, the WWE had come from a weak 2003 to an amazingly strong start to 2004. Three PPVs, three super hot main events and a list of match of the year contenders already. Also, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit were the World Champions on their respective shows. It could be described as a golden era but could the momentum continue?
Find out what I thought about the next four PPVs in Part 2 of my review of the WWE PPVs 2004!
(I apologise for the lack of laughs in this part but it really was a decent three months)
Fantastic start, but I'm going to have to avoid the later parts as I've been saving up a stash of 2004 DVDs in the hope that I'll have forgotten the results enough to enjoy them. It's weorking so far, as I've watched up to mid-way through 'Mania.
Good review of the first part of the year. I agree with it on the most part. Was a good start to the year. If only Eddie and Benoit were still the champs.. That would be great. :)
Heh, I'm more easily impressed and I've only really watched WWE stuff, so my opinion is only based on what I've seen. :)
Does anyone know why the Madison Square Garden crowd dislike Shawn Michaels?
Does anyone know why the Madison Square Garden crowd dislike Shawn Michaels?
I'm a New Yorker, we're historically far harder to impress then any other town in the world
Heh, it was probably all for a bit of drama and tension. It worked on me. :)
Doesn't take much strength to make wrenching back on the neck hurt like heck. Meh :-D
I'm not saying it's the best ever. It's the best I've ever seen but I haven't seen that many. ROH and CZW - I've never seen any of their work.
As for Triple H taking so long to tap, I think the fact that he actually tapped was more than enough and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say Benoit was weaker after being put through the announcers table and so on.
As for Triple H taking so long to tap, I think the fact that he actually tapped was more than enough and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say Benoit was weaker after being put through the announcers table and so on.
Otherwise top quality writing as usual
Grandprix wrote:
> I don’t usually give a lot of credit to Triple H but he did the right
> thing here. Benoit has got Triple H in the Crossface for what has
> felt like forever and Triple H has used his last chance to escape but
> Benoit has held on. Triple H has no other option but to tap out and
> Benoit wins the World Championship. It was one of those surreal
> moments that you never thought would happen and it got more surreal
> when Eddie came down to the ring to celebrate with him.
i don't usually disagree with you but i'm going to have to here. The fact HHH took so long to tap out after getting so much abuse just made Benoit and his finishing move look weak and you know HBK was chucked in there so HHH didn't look too weak by losing his belt with two guys up against him.
I've seen better 3 way dances in ROH and CZW just to name two promotions
> I don’t usually give a lot of credit to Triple H but he did the right
> thing here. Benoit has got Triple H in the Crossface for what has
> felt like forever and Triple H has used his last chance to escape but
> Benoit has held on. Triple H has no other option but to tap out and
> Benoit wins the World Championship. It was one of those surreal
> moments that you never thought would happen and it got more surreal
> when Eddie came down to the ring to celebrate with him.
i don't usually disagree with you but i'm going to have to here. The fact HHH took so long to tap out after getting so much abuse just made Benoit and his finishing move look weak and you know HBK was chucked in there so HHH didn't look too weak by losing his belt with two guys up against him.
I've seen better 3 way dances in ROH and CZW just to name two promotions
Hello and welcome to Grandprix’s review of the WWE PPVs of 2004. It’s your chance to remember some of the highs and lows of 2004 and have your opinion on the PPV’s in question in each part of the review. Beware of the length! You might want to read it in sections.
2004 begins and the WWE have a rather weak 2003 to look back on. January to March is the most crucial time of the year as Wrestlemania XX is being billed as the WWE’s biggest event in recent history, maybe ever. The WWE have added 2 new PPVs for us to look at over the year, The Great American Bash in June and Taboo Tuesday in October. This is part 1 of 4 parts spread over the next couple of weeks. Here’s a rundown of what is going to be contained in each part:
PART 1: Royal Rumble, No Way Out and Wrestlemania
PART 2: Backlash, Judgment Day, Bad Blood and The Great American Bash
PART 3: Vengeance, Summerslam and Unforgiven
PART 4: No Mercy, Taboo Tuesday, Survivor Series and Armageddon
I’ll try my best to keep you in touch with all the changes that happened throughout the year (and there were quite a few). The champions at the start of the year were:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: Flair & Batista (Evolution)
Women’s title: Molly
Smackdown World title: Brock Lesnar
Smackdown Tag titles: The Bashams
Cruiserweight title: Tajiri
Intercontinental title: Randy Orton
US title: Big Show
Let’s look at the champions in more detail.
Triple H gave himself a present and he starts out with the Raw World title in 2004, just like he did in 2003. Triple H continues in his bid to win more titles than Ric Flair and I’m sure he’ll make that happen for himself. Flair and Batista hold the tag titles and Randy Orton holds the Intercontinental title to give everyone in Evolution a title, whether they deserve it or not. Molly still has the Women’s title.
Smackdown has Brock Lesnar as champ and The Bashams as tag champs. I must say at this point that the tag divisions look pretty weak and it used to be a real strong point for the WWE. Tajiri has the Cruiserweight title and Big Show has the US title and has not defended it on TV. He has had that title since mid-October 2003.
The title changes started early when Smackdown on the 1st of January saw Rey Mysterio win the Cruiserweight title off Tajiri. Benoit cheesed off Heyman (the SD GM) and got given the number 1 spot in the Rumble. Goldberg won a match on the final Raw before the Royal Rumble to enter the Rumble as Number 30.
We move on to the Royal Rumble on 25th January. In the last few years, the winner of the Rumble is fairly easy to predict, but this year, things were different. There were about 5 or 6 potential winners and everyone seemed to have their different views as to who was going to win.
Anyway, the first match saw Flair and Batista defend the Tag Titles against the Dudleyz in a tables match. Now, I’m a sucker for tables smashing here, there and everywhere but this didn’t work. The match ends with Batista slamming D-Von through a table for the win. Less than 5 minutes, one table being smashed and the Coach interfering makes this match a total disaster.
Next up is the Cruiserweight Championship match between Rey Mysterio and Jamie Noble. Again, this is ridiculously short and it’s Nidia’s interference (Blind Nidia at this moment) that costs Noble the match, as the interference leads to Mysterio hitting his finisher for the title defence.
Eddie V Chavo is next and, yet again, this match could have gone double the length it got but all we got was 8 minutes worth. Still, it was pretty good for 8 minutes as Eddie came out the winner with the frogsplash. Eddie goes crazy and continues his assault on both Chavo Junior and Chavo Senior, who had been around for a couple of weeks.
The Smackdown World title is on the line as Brock Lesnar defends against Hardcore Holly. Another short match results as Lesnar wins and retains the title with the F5. Brock Lesnar was playing the chicken, fearing Hardcore Holly as Holly was looking for revenge for an injury given to him by Brock but all that running away and being scared meant nothing as Lesnar dominated. It wasn’t a good match and half the match was spent with Holly in a bearhug. Hardcore Holly as a main eventer was bad news from start to finish.
The Raw World title is next as HHH defends the title against Shawn Michaels in a Last Man Standing match. The problem with Last Man Standing matches is that they can get very slow and disjointed with all the 10 counts that they try to get. They had a lot to live up to after a very good match on Raw at the end of last year. The result was a cop out as both HHH and Shawn are down for the 10, meaning a draw and a HHH defence. The crowd shows their disapproval with loud boos. It wasn’t bad but it was just as Last Man Standing matches go, slow and disjointed.
A pointless segment with Austin, Bishoff and Heyman leads us to the main event, the Royal Rumble. I’m not going to do a play by play, as that would make this much longer. I’ll mention the memorable moments. Booker T dumps Kane out early after the Undertaker’s gongs sound (the Undertaker apparently dead after being buried alive in 2003), scaring Kane. Mick Foley returns, after Test gets taken out backstage, as Number 21 and eliminates himself and Orton. Goldberg gets an F5 from Brock Lesnar, who wasn’t in the Rumble obviously, leading to Angle throwing him out. The final 4 consists of Benoit, Angle, Jericho and Big Show. Jericho is first out, followed by Angle leaving Benoit to throw out Big Show to win the Rumble. Benoit is heading to the main event at Wrestlemania XX and it was about damn time.
It was one of the best Rumbles since 1992 but the rest of the PPV was a letdown with some poor matches and some that weren’t given enough time to show what they could do. So, it’s turns out at about an average PPV, which is a little disappointing. I do suggest that you try and watch the Rumble match itself because it is one of the best matches of 2004.
No Way Out is the February PPV, which is a Smackdown exclusive event, but before then, a quick update of what happened during the Raw and Smackdown shows beforehand.
Benoit’s winning of the Rumble gave him the chance to face the Champion at Wrestlemania. Apparently, that gave him a choice of which title to go for. He chose the Raw World Championship and switched shows. Goldberg declared that Lesnar is next on his hit list and gets a ticket to No Way Out and Nidia reveals that she isn’t blind after all.
Eddie Guerrero won a Smackdown Royal Rumble match to face Brock Lesnar at No Way Out. HBK gets added to the main event at Wrestlemania to make it a triple threat match for the Championship. It felt at the time that Benoit’s push was being cheapened at this point.
Smackdown on the 5th February saw new tag champions as Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi beat the Bashams. Big Show defends his US title for the first time on TV on that show against Billy Gunn and the number 1 contender for the Smackdown Championship would be decided at No Way Out between Cena, Big Show and Angle. Also, in a real shock, Goldberg gets fired.
No Way Out’s card looks pretty weak in the undercard with no real early booking to make us care about the matches. No Way Out kicks off on the 15th February with the tag titles on the line as The Bashams and Shaniqua take on Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi. Rikishi pins Shaniqua to retain the titles and that, as far as I’m aware, was the last appearance of Shaniqua on WWE TV, as she ended up being released in November. I think I’m supposed to care about that, but I don’t. Basic opening match here anyway.
The next match had a storyline that was built over 3 months and the payoff was Nidia V Jamie Noble with Noble being blindfolded. Noble, after 5 minutes, removes the blindfold long enough to slam Nidia and win. Total waste of PPV as it wasn’t even entertaining.
Next up was Benjamin and Haas V The A.P.A. Bradshaw had an injured arm, which he then sold Undertaker style by not actually selling it. Benjamin superkicked Bradshaw, after he ‘finished’ Haas, to win the match. The end of the match was okay, the rest wasn’t good. Goldberg then arrives and sits in the front row, only for Lesnar to tempt him into the ring and Goldberg gets arrested. That means Goldberg will appear later on then.
Rhyno V Hardcore Holly is next, thrown together at the last minute, which seems to be a familiar theme to this PPV thus far. It would probably have been better throwing them apart, because all we got was a very slow match and really dull as well. Hardcore Holly won with the Alabama Slam, if any actually cared.
Rey Mysterio defends the Cruiserweight title against Chavo Guerrero in a match that really had to deliver, as the show so far was pretty weak at best. Rey Mysterio has world famous boxer Jorge Paez, only I’ve never heard of him. Chavo has Chavo Senior in his corner. Paez gets ejected from ringside early for punching out Chavo Senior. The match wasn’t bad, above average, but they never really got going and the finish was quite poor, as Chavo Senior proves to be the deciding factor by pushing Rey Mysterio off the ropes in a Chavo Junior rollup, to crown a new Cruiserweight Champion.
Next up was the Triple Threat match to decide who would face the Smackdown Champion at Wrestlemania. The competitors were Angle, Cena and Big Show (featuring the US title. Anyone remember that title?). The match was really slow to start off with and picked up near the end but it was pretty average with Cena’s knee injury and Angle’s ongoing neck problems. Angle came out the winner with the Anklelock on Cena to head to Wrestlemania as the number 1 contender. Who will he face?
The answer was up next as the main event saw Brock Lesnar defend his title against Eddie Guerrero. It certainly was an impressive encounter with some good psychology and well-worked big guy, smaller guy dynamic. The only thing that damaged the match was Goldberg returning, which was pretty obvious, spearing Brock after a ref bump. The end saw Eddie reverse the F5 into a DDT onto the title belt and the frog splash giving Eddie the Smackdown World Title.
The PPV verdict? Skip the first 1-2 hours and focus on the Cruiserweight title match, Triple Threat match and the title match because that’s where the action is. Definitely get a look at the Brock/Eddie match, as it would easily get into the top 10 2004 matches in the WWE and it’s the WWE actually putting someone new over.
So, that’s quite an impressive feat. Two PPV’s, two matches worth looking at and both in the main event slots. A champion on Smackdown there for his ability and not his look, although the fact that Eddie was the most over guy on Smackdown may have been a factor. The potential of Eddie V Angle and Benoit in the main event at Wrestlemania is enough to the ‘wrestling’ fans look forward to Wrestlemania with eager anticipation of something spectacular.
Can the momentum of hot PPV main events continue at Wrestlemania? The run up to Wrestlemania begins early as the WWE continue their focus of throwing tag teams together by putting Booker T and RVD together and they win the Raw Tag Titles off Flair and Batista the night after No Way Out. Victoria won the Women’s title a week later off Molly.
Wrestlemania XX was being pushed as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, PPV of all time. It’s certainly one of the longest, as it ran for 4 and a half/5 hours. So it began on the 14th March, Wrestlemania XX.
First up on the card was Big Show defending his hardly ever-defended US title against John Cena. The finish saw Cena distract the ref with his chain, only for him to hit Big Show with some brass knuckles and the FU to become the new US Champion. Big Show’s 5-month reign and 2 or 3 defences of that title is now over. It was a terrible match but we got a new champion, one plus at least.
Next on the agenda were Booker T and RVD defending the Tag Titles against La Resistance (Dupree and Conway), Jindrak and Cade and The Dudleyz. I think this highlighted perfectly how frail the tag division had become at this point. Booker T and RVD were thrown together, Jindrak and Cade were an inexperienced team, the Dudleyz were stale characters going nowhere with only really the 3D (my favourite tag team finisher) keeping them afloat. La Resistance was the only really ‘fresh’ idea here and that really is a travesty. Anyway, the weakness of the tag division was totally exposed by a poor match as Booker hits the axe kick on Conway and RVD does the frog splash to retain.
Christian V Chris Jericho is next. This match came about because of the whole Trish/Jericho love angle. Hopefully that’s jogged a few memories. The match was really going well after the early goings but the end was not great. Christian picks up the win with a rollup after Trish hits Jericho by ‘accident’ when Jericho tried to save her. Trish then turns heel, which freshens her character up and gives Christian a bit more heat too.
The Rock had been away doing some movies but he wouldn’t miss this event and, of course, The Rock is comedy gold. It’s a reunion for The Rock and Sock connection for one night only as The Rock and Mick Foley take on Flair, Batista and Orton in a handicap match, continuing the Orton/Foley feud. Usually, handicap matches are rubbish and have been well overused but this was energetic, fun and a good match too. Orton hits the RKO on Foley to give Evolution the victory.
After the Hall of Fame ceremony, Sable and Torrie take on Stacy and Miss Jackie. As wrestling matches go, avoid! Torrie reverses a rollup on Miss Jackie to win. Moving swiftly on, it’s the Cruiserweight open for the Cruiserweight title. It features Shannon Moore, Ultimo Dragon, Jamie Noble, Nunzio, Kidman, Rey Mysterio, Tajiri, Akio and Chavo Jnr. Looking at that list; you would think 20-30 minutes in total would be moderately stingy. For all of these, coming in one V one, the total time was just over 10 minutes. Criminal. Chavo and Rey Mysterio are the last 2 and Chavo Snr has the last word as he distracts Rey and Chavo Jnr picks up the win soon after, blocking a sunset flip.
The next match is well known to anyone who watched Wrestlemania XX just because of the sheer comedy value. The crowd made this match. It was Brock Lesnar V Goldberg. It just so happened that this match would be the last appearance of both participants and the crowd knew this and let them know it. The crowd totally turned on both participants. In the space of 14 minutes, the crowd went through the following phases:
‘You sold out’ chant
‘The Goodbye Song’ – Extremely annoying in my opinion
‘This match sucks’ chant twice
‘Boring’ chant
‘Hogan’ chants
Many boos, long silences and a sarcastic round of applause for the winner
It was Goldberg that won the match with the spear and jackhammer combo, although I think the only winner was Austin, who was special ref for the match. He stunnered both guys after the match. Check this match out just for the crowd reaction. The match was dire though.
The Smackdown Tag Titles were on the line as Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty defended against the A.P.A, Haas and Benjamin and The Basham Brothers. Pretty much everyone is getting a payday out of this event. Weak match results as Rikishi pins Danny Basham to retain. Victoria then puts the Women’s title on the line against Molly with the stipulation that if Molly loses, she goes bald. Needless to say, she lost, so she went bald. Victoria won with a backslide after reversing a powerbomb.
The Smackdown World Champion Eddie Guerrero takes on Angle for the title in what was highly anticipated to blow the roof off the place. It only gave the average fan enough to keep them on the edge of their seats but it also told a story and led to a smart finish. Angle was working on Eddie’s ankle and Eddie managed to reverse it. Eddie started to loosen his boot so he could continue but an aggressive Angle locked the Anklelock on again, the boot comes off and Eddie rolls Angle up for the win. Stunning match that had pretty much anything you could want in a match.
The return of the Undertaker was next as he took on Kane. The Undertaker was supposedly dead after being buried alive at Survivor Series 2003. He was supposed to return under his old gimmick as the ‘Deadman’, only to return as a hybrid of the ‘Deadman’ and the ‘Biker’. He’s got his old music but he looked more like a Texas Ranger than a ‘Deadman’. The Undertaker’s unbeaten run at Wrestlemania continued as he chokeslammed and tombstoned Kane for victory but the match wasn’t great.
The main event sees Triple H defend the Raw World Title against Benoit (the Rumble winner) and Shawn Michaels (who really has no claim to being in this match). Triple threat matches are usually pretty weak as they two in the ring and one outside. Although there was some of that here, it was one of the best, if not the best, triple threat match I’ve ever seen. Everyone was really feeling it here.
I don’t usually give a lot of credit to Triple H but he did the right thing here. Benoit has got Triple H in the Crossface for what has felt like forever and Triple H has used his last chance to escape but Benoit has held on. Triple H has no other option but to tap out and Benoit wins the World Championship. It was one of those surreal moments that you never thought would happen and it got more surreal when Eddie came down to the ring to celebrate with him.
In the space of 3 months, the WWE had come from a weak 2003 to an amazingly strong start to 2004. Three PPVs, three super hot main events and a list of match of the year contenders already. Also, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit were the World Champions on their respective shows. It could be described as a golden era but could the momentum continue?
Find out what I thought about the next four PPVs in Part 2 of my review of the WWE PPVs 2004!
(I apologise for the lack of laughs in this part but it really was a decent three months)
2004 begins and the WWE have a rather weak 2003 to look back on. January to March is the most crucial time of the year as Wrestlemania XX is being billed as the WWE’s biggest event in recent history, maybe ever. The WWE have added 2 new PPVs for us to look at over the year, The Great American Bash in June and Taboo Tuesday in October. This is part 1 of 4 parts spread over the next couple of weeks. Here’s a rundown of what is going to be contained in each part:
PART 1: Royal Rumble, No Way Out and Wrestlemania
PART 2: Backlash, Judgment Day, Bad Blood and The Great American Bash
PART 3: Vengeance, Summerslam and Unforgiven
PART 4: No Mercy, Taboo Tuesday, Survivor Series and Armageddon
I’ll try my best to keep you in touch with all the changes that happened throughout the year (and there were quite a few). The champions at the start of the year were:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: Flair & Batista (Evolution)
Women’s title: Molly
Smackdown World title: Brock Lesnar
Smackdown Tag titles: The Bashams
Cruiserweight title: Tajiri
Intercontinental title: Randy Orton
US title: Big Show
Let’s look at the champions in more detail.
Triple H gave himself a present and he starts out with the Raw World title in 2004, just like he did in 2003. Triple H continues in his bid to win more titles than Ric Flair and I’m sure he’ll make that happen for himself. Flair and Batista hold the tag titles and Randy Orton holds the Intercontinental title to give everyone in Evolution a title, whether they deserve it or not. Molly still has the Women’s title.
Smackdown has Brock Lesnar as champ and The Bashams as tag champs. I must say at this point that the tag divisions look pretty weak and it used to be a real strong point for the WWE. Tajiri has the Cruiserweight title and Big Show has the US title and has not defended it on TV. He has had that title since mid-October 2003.
The title changes started early when Smackdown on the 1st of January saw Rey Mysterio win the Cruiserweight title off Tajiri. Benoit cheesed off Heyman (the SD GM) and got given the number 1 spot in the Rumble. Goldberg won a match on the final Raw before the Royal Rumble to enter the Rumble as Number 30.
We move on to the Royal Rumble on 25th January. In the last few years, the winner of the Rumble is fairly easy to predict, but this year, things were different. There were about 5 or 6 potential winners and everyone seemed to have their different views as to who was going to win.
Anyway, the first match saw Flair and Batista defend the Tag Titles against the Dudleyz in a tables match. Now, I’m a sucker for tables smashing here, there and everywhere but this didn’t work. The match ends with Batista slamming D-Von through a table for the win. Less than 5 minutes, one table being smashed and the Coach interfering makes this match a total disaster.
Next up is the Cruiserweight Championship match between Rey Mysterio and Jamie Noble. Again, this is ridiculously short and it’s Nidia’s interference (Blind Nidia at this moment) that costs Noble the match, as the interference leads to Mysterio hitting his finisher for the title defence.
Eddie V Chavo is next and, yet again, this match could have gone double the length it got but all we got was 8 minutes worth. Still, it was pretty good for 8 minutes as Eddie came out the winner with the frogsplash. Eddie goes crazy and continues his assault on both Chavo Junior and Chavo Senior, who had been around for a couple of weeks.
The Smackdown World title is on the line as Brock Lesnar defends against Hardcore Holly. Another short match results as Lesnar wins and retains the title with the F5. Brock Lesnar was playing the chicken, fearing Hardcore Holly as Holly was looking for revenge for an injury given to him by Brock but all that running away and being scared meant nothing as Lesnar dominated. It wasn’t a good match and half the match was spent with Holly in a bearhug. Hardcore Holly as a main eventer was bad news from start to finish.
The Raw World title is next as HHH defends the title against Shawn Michaels in a Last Man Standing match. The problem with Last Man Standing matches is that they can get very slow and disjointed with all the 10 counts that they try to get. They had a lot to live up to after a very good match on Raw at the end of last year. The result was a cop out as both HHH and Shawn are down for the 10, meaning a draw and a HHH defence. The crowd shows their disapproval with loud boos. It wasn’t bad but it was just as Last Man Standing matches go, slow and disjointed.
A pointless segment with Austin, Bishoff and Heyman leads us to the main event, the Royal Rumble. I’m not going to do a play by play, as that would make this much longer. I’ll mention the memorable moments. Booker T dumps Kane out early after the Undertaker’s gongs sound (the Undertaker apparently dead after being buried alive in 2003), scaring Kane. Mick Foley returns, after Test gets taken out backstage, as Number 21 and eliminates himself and Orton. Goldberg gets an F5 from Brock Lesnar, who wasn’t in the Rumble obviously, leading to Angle throwing him out. The final 4 consists of Benoit, Angle, Jericho and Big Show. Jericho is first out, followed by Angle leaving Benoit to throw out Big Show to win the Rumble. Benoit is heading to the main event at Wrestlemania XX and it was about damn time.
It was one of the best Rumbles since 1992 but the rest of the PPV was a letdown with some poor matches and some that weren’t given enough time to show what they could do. So, it’s turns out at about an average PPV, which is a little disappointing. I do suggest that you try and watch the Rumble match itself because it is one of the best matches of 2004.
No Way Out is the February PPV, which is a Smackdown exclusive event, but before then, a quick update of what happened during the Raw and Smackdown shows beforehand.
Benoit’s winning of the Rumble gave him the chance to face the Champion at Wrestlemania. Apparently, that gave him a choice of which title to go for. He chose the Raw World Championship and switched shows. Goldberg declared that Lesnar is next on his hit list and gets a ticket to No Way Out and Nidia reveals that she isn’t blind after all.
Eddie Guerrero won a Smackdown Royal Rumble match to face Brock Lesnar at No Way Out. HBK gets added to the main event at Wrestlemania to make it a triple threat match for the Championship. It felt at the time that Benoit’s push was being cheapened at this point.
Smackdown on the 5th February saw new tag champions as Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi beat the Bashams. Big Show defends his US title for the first time on TV on that show against Billy Gunn and the number 1 contender for the Smackdown Championship would be decided at No Way Out between Cena, Big Show and Angle. Also, in a real shock, Goldberg gets fired.
No Way Out’s card looks pretty weak in the undercard with no real early booking to make us care about the matches. No Way Out kicks off on the 15th February with the tag titles on the line as The Bashams and Shaniqua take on Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi. Rikishi pins Shaniqua to retain the titles and that, as far as I’m aware, was the last appearance of Shaniqua on WWE TV, as she ended up being released in November. I think I’m supposed to care about that, but I don’t. Basic opening match here anyway.
The next match had a storyline that was built over 3 months and the payoff was Nidia V Jamie Noble with Noble being blindfolded. Noble, after 5 minutes, removes the blindfold long enough to slam Nidia and win. Total waste of PPV as it wasn’t even entertaining.
Next up was Benjamin and Haas V The A.P.A. Bradshaw had an injured arm, which he then sold Undertaker style by not actually selling it. Benjamin superkicked Bradshaw, after he ‘finished’ Haas, to win the match. The end of the match was okay, the rest wasn’t good. Goldberg then arrives and sits in the front row, only for Lesnar to tempt him into the ring and Goldberg gets arrested. That means Goldberg will appear later on then.
Rhyno V Hardcore Holly is next, thrown together at the last minute, which seems to be a familiar theme to this PPV thus far. It would probably have been better throwing them apart, because all we got was a very slow match and really dull as well. Hardcore Holly won with the Alabama Slam, if any actually cared.
Rey Mysterio defends the Cruiserweight title against Chavo Guerrero in a match that really had to deliver, as the show so far was pretty weak at best. Rey Mysterio has world famous boxer Jorge Paez, only I’ve never heard of him. Chavo has Chavo Senior in his corner. Paez gets ejected from ringside early for punching out Chavo Senior. The match wasn’t bad, above average, but they never really got going and the finish was quite poor, as Chavo Senior proves to be the deciding factor by pushing Rey Mysterio off the ropes in a Chavo Junior rollup, to crown a new Cruiserweight Champion.
Next up was the Triple Threat match to decide who would face the Smackdown Champion at Wrestlemania. The competitors were Angle, Cena and Big Show (featuring the US title. Anyone remember that title?). The match was really slow to start off with and picked up near the end but it was pretty average with Cena’s knee injury and Angle’s ongoing neck problems. Angle came out the winner with the Anklelock on Cena to head to Wrestlemania as the number 1 contender. Who will he face?
The answer was up next as the main event saw Brock Lesnar defend his title against Eddie Guerrero. It certainly was an impressive encounter with some good psychology and well-worked big guy, smaller guy dynamic. The only thing that damaged the match was Goldberg returning, which was pretty obvious, spearing Brock after a ref bump. The end saw Eddie reverse the F5 into a DDT onto the title belt and the frog splash giving Eddie the Smackdown World Title.
The PPV verdict? Skip the first 1-2 hours and focus on the Cruiserweight title match, Triple Threat match and the title match because that’s where the action is. Definitely get a look at the Brock/Eddie match, as it would easily get into the top 10 2004 matches in the WWE and it’s the WWE actually putting someone new over.
So, that’s quite an impressive feat. Two PPV’s, two matches worth looking at and both in the main event slots. A champion on Smackdown there for his ability and not his look, although the fact that Eddie was the most over guy on Smackdown may have been a factor. The potential of Eddie V Angle and Benoit in the main event at Wrestlemania is enough to the ‘wrestling’ fans look forward to Wrestlemania with eager anticipation of something spectacular.
Can the momentum of hot PPV main events continue at Wrestlemania? The run up to Wrestlemania begins early as the WWE continue their focus of throwing tag teams together by putting Booker T and RVD together and they win the Raw Tag Titles off Flair and Batista the night after No Way Out. Victoria won the Women’s title a week later off Molly.
Wrestlemania XX was being pushed as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, PPV of all time. It’s certainly one of the longest, as it ran for 4 and a half/5 hours. So it began on the 14th March, Wrestlemania XX.
First up on the card was Big Show defending his hardly ever-defended US title against John Cena. The finish saw Cena distract the ref with his chain, only for him to hit Big Show with some brass knuckles and the FU to become the new US Champion. Big Show’s 5-month reign and 2 or 3 defences of that title is now over. It was a terrible match but we got a new champion, one plus at least.
Next on the agenda were Booker T and RVD defending the Tag Titles against La Resistance (Dupree and Conway), Jindrak and Cade and The Dudleyz. I think this highlighted perfectly how frail the tag division had become at this point. Booker T and RVD were thrown together, Jindrak and Cade were an inexperienced team, the Dudleyz were stale characters going nowhere with only really the 3D (my favourite tag team finisher) keeping them afloat. La Resistance was the only really ‘fresh’ idea here and that really is a travesty. Anyway, the weakness of the tag division was totally exposed by a poor match as Booker hits the axe kick on Conway and RVD does the frog splash to retain.
Christian V Chris Jericho is next. This match came about because of the whole Trish/Jericho love angle. Hopefully that’s jogged a few memories. The match was really going well after the early goings but the end was not great. Christian picks up the win with a rollup after Trish hits Jericho by ‘accident’ when Jericho tried to save her. Trish then turns heel, which freshens her character up and gives Christian a bit more heat too.
The Rock had been away doing some movies but he wouldn’t miss this event and, of course, The Rock is comedy gold. It’s a reunion for The Rock and Sock connection for one night only as The Rock and Mick Foley take on Flair, Batista and Orton in a handicap match, continuing the Orton/Foley feud. Usually, handicap matches are rubbish and have been well overused but this was energetic, fun and a good match too. Orton hits the RKO on Foley to give Evolution the victory.
After the Hall of Fame ceremony, Sable and Torrie take on Stacy and Miss Jackie. As wrestling matches go, avoid! Torrie reverses a rollup on Miss Jackie to win. Moving swiftly on, it’s the Cruiserweight open for the Cruiserweight title. It features Shannon Moore, Ultimo Dragon, Jamie Noble, Nunzio, Kidman, Rey Mysterio, Tajiri, Akio and Chavo Jnr. Looking at that list; you would think 20-30 minutes in total would be moderately stingy. For all of these, coming in one V one, the total time was just over 10 minutes. Criminal. Chavo and Rey Mysterio are the last 2 and Chavo Snr has the last word as he distracts Rey and Chavo Jnr picks up the win soon after, blocking a sunset flip.
The next match is well known to anyone who watched Wrestlemania XX just because of the sheer comedy value. The crowd made this match. It was Brock Lesnar V Goldberg. It just so happened that this match would be the last appearance of both participants and the crowd knew this and let them know it. The crowd totally turned on both participants. In the space of 14 minutes, the crowd went through the following phases:
‘You sold out’ chant
‘The Goodbye Song’ – Extremely annoying in my opinion
‘This match sucks’ chant twice
‘Boring’ chant
‘Hogan’ chants
Many boos, long silences and a sarcastic round of applause for the winner
It was Goldberg that won the match with the spear and jackhammer combo, although I think the only winner was Austin, who was special ref for the match. He stunnered both guys after the match. Check this match out just for the crowd reaction. The match was dire though.
The Smackdown Tag Titles were on the line as Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty defended against the A.P.A, Haas and Benjamin and The Basham Brothers. Pretty much everyone is getting a payday out of this event. Weak match results as Rikishi pins Danny Basham to retain. Victoria then puts the Women’s title on the line against Molly with the stipulation that if Molly loses, she goes bald. Needless to say, she lost, so she went bald. Victoria won with a backslide after reversing a powerbomb.
The Smackdown World Champion Eddie Guerrero takes on Angle for the title in what was highly anticipated to blow the roof off the place. It only gave the average fan enough to keep them on the edge of their seats but it also told a story and led to a smart finish. Angle was working on Eddie’s ankle and Eddie managed to reverse it. Eddie started to loosen his boot so he could continue but an aggressive Angle locked the Anklelock on again, the boot comes off and Eddie rolls Angle up for the win. Stunning match that had pretty much anything you could want in a match.
The return of the Undertaker was next as he took on Kane. The Undertaker was supposedly dead after being buried alive at Survivor Series 2003. He was supposed to return under his old gimmick as the ‘Deadman’, only to return as a hybrid of the ‘Deadman’ and the ‘Biker’. He’s got his old music but he looked more like a Texas Ranger than a ‘Deadman’. The Undertaker’s unbeaten run at Wrestlemania continued as he chokeslammed and tombstoned Kane for victory but the match wasn’t great.
The main event sees Triple H defend the Raw World Title against Benoit (the Rumble winner) and Shawn Michaels (who really has no claim to being in this match). Triple threat matches are usually pretty weak as they two in the ring and one outside. Although there was some of that here, it was one of the best, if not the best, triple threat match I’ve ever seen. Everyone was really feeling it here.
I don’t usually give a lot of credit to Triple H but he did the right thing here. Benoit has got Triple H in the Crossface for what has felt like forever and Triple H has used his last chance to escape but Benoit has held on. Triple H has no other option but to tap out and Benoit wins the World Championship. It was one of those surreal moments that you never thought would happen and it got more surreal when Eddie came down to the ring to celebrate with him.
In the space of 3 months, the WWE had come from a weak 2003 to an amazingly strong start to 2004. Three PPVs, three super hot main events and a list of match of the year contenders already. Also, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit were the World Champions on their respective shows. It could be described as a golden era but could the momentum continue?
Find out what I thought about the next four PPVs in Part 2 of my review of the WWE PPVs 2004!
(I apologise for the lack of laughs in this part but it really was a decent three months)