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Hello and welcome to Part 3 of Grandprix’s WWE PPV review of 2004. After a very good start to the year, everything started slipping back to their old ways, with The Great American Bash PPV being the worst of the year by far and one of the worst in recent memory. On the horizon, Summerslam, usually one of the strongest PPV and it really needs to be very special.
In this part, we’ll be looking at Vengeance, Summerslam and Unforgiven. The champions after The Great American Bash look like this:
Raw World title: Chris Benoit
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance (Grenier and Conway)
Women’s title: Trish Stratus
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: The Dudley Boyz
Cruiserweight title: Rey Mysterio
Intercontinental title: Randy Orton
US title: John Cena
Before Vengeance, I’ll try my best to keep you up to date as to what had happened before then. Mordecai, who has appeared on the Judgment Day and The Great American Bash PPVs, was shipped back to OVW soon after and never returned. He didn’t last 2 months. Smackdown GM Angle was stripped John Cena of the US title the week before Vengeance. That same night, Paul London and Billy Kidman win the Smackdown tag titles off of the Dudley Boyz.
So, Vengeance on the 11th July is now a Raw only PPV and it kicks off with Rhyno and Tajiri teaming up to face the might of Garrison Cade and The Coach. This match was thrown together pretty late on and it’s the Coach’s 3rd PPV match in a row. Tajiri kicks the Coach to win the match and it was an okay opener.
Batista takes on Chris Jericho in the next match. It is probably Batista’s best one on one match since he started, although he was facing someone who could drag him along. Batista wins this average match by powerbombing Jericho, although Jericho did have his foot on the ropes. Whether or not he was actually going to make a comeback to win, I don’t know but I thought he was done.
La Resistance take on Eugene (an honorary member of Evolution at this point) and Ric Flair for the Raw tag titles. Any match with Eugene in is usually pretty stupid and in their attempt to protect Eugene, they did the dodgy DQ finish when Eugene attacked the ref. Not a bad match, just really stupid for the most part.
Next up, Matt Hardy defends the honour of Lita (if she’s got any left) against Kane. There was some good effort in here but the match never really jumped into life. The end saw Lita distract Kane while he was carrying the steel steps, allowing Matt Hardy to hit the steps, they fall on Kane and Matt Hardy makes the cover.
A highly anticipated match was next as Randy Orton took on Edge for the Intercontinental title. It never really lived up to it’s billing as it was pretty dull until the last 5 minutes or so. Edge speared Orton to win the Intercontinental title. The crowd were actually cheering for Orton during the match. Victoria takes on Molly Holly in the next match. One of the better women’s matches here as Victoria pins Molly after a high kick.
The main event features Benoit defending the World title against Triple H. Triple H main eventing? Surely not! Anyway, this match was certainly hitting the right spots and looked like being another good main event match on a WWE PPV. Unfortunately, Eugene spoilt it. He starts interfering like a good lackey of Triple H’s should. Benoit is good at going against the odds and bats off the members of Evolution as they run in. Eugene then ends up with the chair and doesn’t know what to do as Eugene is torn between good and evil. Benoit tries to grab the chair off of Eugene, spots Triple H and lets go; meaning the chair in Eugene’s hands knocks Triple H stupid. Benoit covers for the victory as the ref recovers. Good match until the stupidity in the end.
Vengeance does kind of remind me of Bad Blood in that one or two matches stand out and the rest were average at best. I suppose you could say that the Raw PPV’s have hit a bit of a rut of averageness. Poor decisions in the way they finish some matches could be blamed for some of it.
Summerslam, one of the 4 major PPV’s and so it features both rosters. It’s also pretty important because nothing has really stood out since Backlash in April. Just before Summerslam on the 15th August, the US title found a new home on Booker T, when he was the sole survivor in an 8-man elimination match involving Cena, Suzuki, Gunn, Reigns, Haas, Dupree and RVD. Angle was found out to be perfectly healthy, meaning Teddy Long being appointed as Smackdown GM and Angle returning to the active roster. Spike Dudley defeated Rey Mysterio for the Cruiserweight title and all of this, apart from Angle being found out, happened on one show! Also, Raw started a Diva search.
So, Summerslam arrives and it kicks off with The Dudley Boyz (with Spike Dudley as leader) facing off against Rey Mysterio, Paul London and Billy Kidman. It’s basically a thrown together 3 on 3 based on their respective targets. A decent, rushed opener as the 3D finishes Kidman to give the Dudleyz the victory.
The Matt Hardy/Kane saga continues as they face off once again but this time the winner gets to marry Lita. It wasn’t much of a match but you have to give Matt Hardy credit. He wrestled even though his knee was very dodgy. He would end up having surgery not long after this and was out for the rest of the year. Kane wins with the chokeslam to win the right to marry Lita. Lita is carrying Kane’s baby apparently.
Booker T and John Cena have decided, or should I say booked, to settle their feud by having a best of 5 series for Booker T’s US title. Summerslam is match 1 of 5. They were probably trying to recreate the Booker T V Benoit series but Cena isn’t Benoit. Horrible little match here, as Cena takes a 1-0 lead by pinning Booker T with the FU.
Edge defends the Intercontinental title against Jericho and Batista. Edge is currently being booked as a face but the crowd really turn on him here. Also, Batista cannot get over the ropes when taking the outside bump, which is par for the course for him. Edge spears Jericho for the victory to retain the title in a messy, disjointed affair.
Angle makes his PPV wrestling return against Eddie Guerrero. Why waste this match when you can have it for the title and it’ll mean something, especially considering the title match coming up? It really wasn’t given enough time to shine and felt bitty and uninspired. Decent enough though. Angle gets a measure of revenge for his Wrestlemania defeat by making Eddie tap with the Anklelock.
Triple H has spent the time since his defeat to Benoit at Vengeance to destroy Eugene at every turn and so Eugene has got Triple H in a match at Summerslam. This is a typically goofy encounter with all the usual tricks to outsmart Eugene and Triple H wins with the Pedigree. Triple H basically destroyed Eugene for a month, probably due to his anger of having to lose to Benoit twice.
After the waste of time that Diva Dodgeball took up, featuring Diva search contestants, the midcarder JBL takes on the Undertaker for the Smackdown World title. The Undertaker is pretty much a novelty act at this point because the crowd go nuts for his entrance but because the product in the ring is severely lacking, the crowd are dead for his matches. Orlando Jordan is now JBL’s chief of staff or something. Anyway, this was really dull as the crowd turned on it really early and started doing a Mexican wave. The Undertaker obviously refuses to job so he uses the title belt, which JBL used on him earlier, to cause a DQ. Rematch anyone?
The main event features Benoit defending the Raw World Title against Randy Orton. Randy Orton and Triple H’s relationship is strained since Orton won the right to face Benoit. I suggest you watch this match for Benoit’s crazy bumping because he really went out as champ in a blaze of craziness. It probably needed to run a bit longer as the end seemed a bit of nowhere but Benoit made this totally watchable. Orton hit the RKO to win the title.
Apart from the main event, nothing really stood out as great and some of it really stunk. Rumours abounded that Orton’s victory was just to spite Brock Lesnar because supposedly Orton was now the youngest World Champion, taking Lesnar’s record. Orton, in my opinion, wasn’t ready for such a big push and responsibility and JBL with the other World Title really doesn’t inspire me with any confidence in the main event scene on Smackdown.
So, the September PPV is Unforgiven but first the changes before then. Jamie Noble decided to leave the WWE. Edge injured himself so was stripped of the Intercontinental title. Orton was booted out of Evolution and turned face. Lita married Kane begrudgingly and Paul London and Billy Kidman lose the Smackdown Tag titles to Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree.
Unforgiven is a Raw only PPV on the 12th September and the opening match features Benoit (from main event to first match) and Regal, defending the honour of the now supposedly seriously injured Eugene, against Ric Flair and Batista. They didn’t really gel as Benoit makes Flair tap for the victory.
The Women’s title is on the line as Trish defends (with a little help from Tyson Tomko) against Victoria. It was pretty dull as the match felt really long. The end saw the stupidity of Victoria by taking out Tomko for no reason lead to Trish hitting the bulldog for the win and the retention of the title. Tomko then beats on Victoria before the mystery woman (who has been appearing for a while) appears. Tomko has had enough and calls ‘her’ out for an impromptu match. The mystery woman turns out to be Steven Richards. Tomko wins with an inverted F5 as every dies a long and painful death.
Next up, hopefully perking the crowd up a bit, the vacant Intercontinental title is on the line in a Ladder match with Jericho and Christian vying for it. It was a decent effort but the ladder match has been done to death and it wasn’t anything new or interesting. Jericho wins the title after some really typical WWE ladder climbing.
Next, Lita keeps going against her new husband Kane by this time booking him in a match against Shawn Michaels. It was really just Kane beating up Shawn Michaels, which is a usual Shawn Michaels V big guy match. It was decent enough as Shawn wins after the superkick for the pin and Lita’s distractions.
La Resistance, who have been constantly avoiding defending the tag titles against this team, have to finally defend it after about 3 months, against Rhyno and Tajiri. It really wasn’t a good payoff for that length of build as the match was dull and the end cheap. Grenier hits Rhyno with the flag for the pin and retains the titles.
It’s main event time as Orton, just short of a month into his title reign, puts the Raw World Title on the line against Triple H. It was a dull match, poor finish and was something we had seen a million times before. Triple H regains the title that he lost at Wrestlemania by stacking the numbers in his favour. A ref bump leads to interference (a rare occurrence), which Orton manages to fight off until Triple H uses a chair (surprisingly not a sledgehammer), and then it’s talent suppressor time on the chair for victory.
Is anyone really surprised by Triple H getting the title back? It’s been a regular occurrence in recent years and it adds fuel to the rumour fire that Orton was champ just to spite Brock Lesnar. The PPV was nothing special and really kept the run of mediocrity going that has been rumbling on since after Backlash.
In the final part of the review of the year, the WWE attempt something new as they continue to find that glimmer of inspiration to spark some life into the product once again. Also, my opinion on what was the best PPV and best PPV match and the worst PPV of 2004. Thanks for reading.
In this part, we’ll be looking at Vengeance, Summerslam and Unforgiven. The champions after The Great American Bash look like this:
Raw World title: Chris Benoit
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance (Grenier and Conway)
Women’s title: Trish Stratus
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: The Dudley Boyz
Cruiserweight title: Rey Mysterio
Intercontinental title: Randy Orton
US title: John Cena
Before Vengeance, I’ll try my best to keep you up to date as to what had happened before then. Mordecai, who has appeared on the Judgment Day and The Great American Bash PPVs, was shipped back to OVW soon after and never returned. He didn’t last 2 months. Smackdown GM Angle was stripped John Cena of the US title the week before Vengeance. That same night, Paul London and Billy Kidman win the Smackdown tag titles off of the Dudley Boyz.
So, Vengeance on the 11th July is now a Raw only PPV and it kicks off with Rhyno and Tajiri teaming up to face the might of Garrison Cade and The Coach. This match was thrown together pretty late on and it’s the Coach’s 3rd PPV match in a row. Tajiri kicks the Coach to win the match and it was an okay opener.
Batista takes on Chris Jericho in the next match. It is probably Batista’s best one on one match since he started, although he was facing someone who could drag him along. Batista wins this average match by powerbombing Jericho, although Jericho did have his foot on the ropes. Whether or not he was actually going to make a comeback to win, I don’t know but I thought he was done.
La Resistance take on Eugene (an honorary member of Evolution at this point) and Ric Flair for the Raw tag titles. Any match with Eugene in is usually pretty stupid and in their attempt to protect Eugene, they did the dodgy DQ finish when Eugene attacked the ref. Not a bad match, just really stupid for the most part.
Next up, Matt Hardy defends the honour of Lita (if she’s got any left) against Kane. There was some good effort in here but the match never really jumped into life. The end saw Lita distract Kane while he was carrying the steel steps, allowing Matt Hardy to hit the steps, they fall on Kane and Matt Hardy makes the cover.
A highly anticipated match was next as Randy Orton took on Edge for the Intercontinental title. It never really lived up to it’s billing as it was pretty dull until the last 5 minutes or so. Edge speared Orton to win the Intercontinental title. The crowd were actually cheering for Orton during the match. Victoria takes on Molly Holly in the next match. One of the better women’s matches here as Victoria pins Molly after a high kick.
The main event features Benoit defending the World title against Triple H. Triple H main eventing? Surely not! Anyway, this match was certainly hitting the right spots and looked like being another good main event match on a WWE PPV. Unfortunately, Eugene spoilt it. He starts interfering like a good lackey of Triple H’s should. Benoit is good at going against the odds and bats off the members of Evolution as they run in. Eugene then ends up with the chair and doesn’t know what to do as Eugene is torn between good and evil. Benoit tries to grab the chair off of Eugene, spots Triple H and lets go; meaning the chair in Eugene’s hands knocks Triple H stupid. Benoit covers for the victory as the ref recovers. Good match until the stupidity in the end.
Vengeance does kind of remind me of Bad Blood in that one or two matches stand out and the rest were average at best. I suppose you could say that the Raw PPV’s have hit a bit of a rut of averageness. Poor decisions in the way they finish some matches could be blamed for some of it.
Summerslam, one of the 4 major PPV’s and so it features both rosters. It’s also pretty important because nothing has really stood out since Backlash in April. Just before Summerslam on the 15th August, the US title found a new home on Booker T, when he was the sole survivor in an 8-man elimination match involving Cena, Suzuki, Gunn, Reigns, Haas, Dupree and RVD. Angle was found out to be perfectly healthy, meaning Teddy Long being appointed as Smackdown GM and Angle returning to the active roster. Spike Dudley defeated Rey Mysterio for the Cruiserweight title and all of this, apart from Angle being found out, happened on one show! Also, Raw started a Diva search.
So, Summerslam arrives and it kicks off with The Dudley Boyz (with Spike Dudley as leader) facing off against Rey Mysterio, Paul London and Billy Kidman. It’s basically a thrown together 3 on 3 based on their respective targets. A decent, rushed opener as the 3D finishes Kidman to give the Dudleyz the victory.
The Matt Hardy/Kane saga continues as they face off once again but this time the winner gets to marry Lita. It wasn’t much of a match but you have to give Matt Hardy credit. He wrestled even though his knee was very dodgy. He would end up having surgery not long after this and was out for the rest of the year. Kane wins with the chokeslam to win the right to marry Lita. Lita is carrying Kane’s baby apparently.
Booker T and John Cena have decided, or should I say booked, to settle their feud by having a best of 5 series for Booker T’s US title. Summerslam is match 1 of 5. They were probably trying to recreate the Booker T V Benoit series but Cena isn’t Benoit. Horrible little match here, as Cena takes a 1-0 lead by pinning Booker T with the FU.
Edge defends the Intercontinental title against Jericho and Batista. Edge is currently being booked as a face but the crowd really turn on him here. Also, Batista cannot get over the ropes when taking the outside bump, which is par for the course for him. Edge spears Jericho for the victory to retain the title in a messy, disjointed affair.
Angle makes his PPV wrestling return against Eddie Guerrero. Why waste this match when you can have it for the title and it’ll mean something, especially considering the title match coming up? It really wasn’t given enough time to shine and felt bitty and uninspired. Decent enough though. Angle gets a measure of revenge for his Wrestlemania defeat by making Eddie tap with the Anklelock.
Triple H has spent the time since his defeat to Benoit at Vengeance to destroy Eugene at every turn and so Eugene has got Triple H in a match at Summerslam. This is a typically goofy encounter with all the usual tricks to outsmart Eugene and Triple H wins with the Pedigree. Triple H basically destroyed Eugene for a month, probably due to his anger of having to lose to Benoit twice.
After the waste of time that Diva Dodgeball took up, featuring Diva search contestants, the midcarder JBL takes on the Undertaker for the Smackdown World title. The Undertaker is pretty much a novelty act at this point because the crowd go nuts for his entrance but because the product in the ring is severely lacking, the crowd are dead for his matches. Orlando Jordan is now JBL’s chief of staff or something. Anyway, this was really dull as the crowd turned on it really early and started doing a Mexican wave. The Undertaker obviously refuses to job so he uses the title belt, which JBL used on him earlier, to cause a DQ. Rematch anyone?
The main event features Benoit defending the Raw World Title against Randy Orton. Randy Orton and Triple H’s relationship is strained since Orton won the right to face Benoit. I suggest you watch this match for Benoit’s crazy bumping because he really went out as champ in a blaze of craziness. It probably needed to run a bit longer as the end seemed a bit of nowhere but Benoit made this totally watchable. Orton hit the RKO to win the title.
Apart from the main event, nothing really stood out as great and some of it really stunk. Rumours abounded that Orton’s victory was just to spite Brock Lesnar because supposedly Orton was now the youngest World Champion, taking Lesnar’s record. Orton, in my opinion, wasn’t ready for such a big push and responsibility and JBL with the other World Title really doesn’t inspire me with any confidence in the main event scene on Smackdown.
So, the September PPV is Unforgiven but first the changes before then. Jamie Noble decided to leave the WWE. Edge injured himself so was stripped of the Intercontinental title. Orton was booted out of Evolution and turned face. Lita married Kane begrudgingly and Paul London and Billy Kidman lose the Smackdown Tag titles to Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree.
Unforgiven is a Raw only PPV on the 12th September and the opening match features Benoit (from main event to first match) and Regal, defending the honour of the now supposedly seriously injured Eugene, against Ric Flair and Batista. They didn’t really gel as Benoit makes Flair tap for the victory.
The Women’s title is on the line as Trish defends (with a little help from Tyson Tomko) against Victoria. It was pretty dull as the match felt really long. The end saw the stupidity of Victoria by taking out Tomko for no reason lead to Trish hitting the bulldog for the win and the retention of the title. Tomko then beats on Victoria before the mystery woman (who has been appearing for a while) appears. Tomko has had enough and calls ‘her’ out for an impromptu match. The mystery woman turns out to be Steven Richards. Tomko wins with an inverted F5 as every dies a long and painful death.
Next up, hopefully perking the crowd up a bit, the vacant Intercontinental title is on the line in a Ladder match with Jericho and Christian vying for it. It was a decent effort but the ladder match has been done to death and it wasn’t anything new or interesting. Jericho wins the title after some really typical WWE ladder climbing.
Next, Lita keeps going against her new husband Kane by this time booking him in a match against Shawn Michaels. It was really just Kane beating up Shawn Michaels, which is a usual Shawn Michaels V big guy match. It was decent enough as Shawn wins after the superkick for the pin and Lita’s distractions.
La Resistance, who have been constantly avoiding defending the tag titles against this team, have to finally defend it after about 3 months, against Rhyno and Tajiri. It really wasn’t a good payoff for that length of build as the match was dull and the end cheap. Grenier hits Rhyno with the flag for the pin and retains the titles.
It’s main event time as Orton, just short of a month into his title reign, puts the Raw World Title on the line against Triple H. It was a dull match, poor finish and was something we had seen a million times before. Triple H regains the title that he lost at Wrestlemania by stacking the numbers in his favour. A ref bump leads to interference (a rare occurrence), which Orton manages to fight off until Triple H uses a chair (surprisingly not a sledgehammer), and then it’s talent suppressor time on the chair for victory.
Is anyone really surprised by Triple H getting the title back? It’s been a regular occurrence in recent years and it adds fuel to the rumour fire that Orton was champ just to spite Brock Lesnar. The PPV was nothing special and really kept the run of mediocrity going that has been rumbling on since after Backlash.
In the final part of the review of the year, the WWE attempt something new as they continue to find that glimmer of inspiration to spark some life into the product once again. Also, my opinion on what was the best PPV and best PPV match and the worst PPV of 2004. Thanks for reading.
Yep, good review. There's still nothing there which I disagree with... Unusual for these sorts of things... :)
I must say that I've enjoyed these PPV reviews. Makes for entertaining reading. Also a good way to recap what has happened throught the year.
Hello and welcome to Part 3 of Grandprix’s WWE PPV review of 2004. After a very good start to the year, everything started slipping back to their old ways, with The Great American Bash PPV being the worst of the year by far and one of the worst in recent memory. On the horizon, Summerslam, usually one of the strongest PPV and it really needs to be very special.
In this part, we’ll be looking at Vengeance, Summerslam and Unforgiven. The champions after The Great American Bash look like this:
Raw World title: Chris Benoit
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance (Grenier and Conway)
Women’s title: Trish Stratus
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: The Dudley Boyz
Cruiserweight title: Rey Mysterio
Intercontinental title: Randy Orton
US title: John Cena
Before Vengeance, I’ll try my best to keep you up to date as to what had happened before then. Mordecai, who has appeared on the Judgment Day and The Great American Bash PPVs, was shipped back to OVW soon after and never returned. He didn’t last 2 months. Smackdown GM Angle was stripped John Cena of the US title the week before Vengeance. That same night, Paul London and Billy Kidman win the Smackdown tag titles off of the Dudley Boyz.
So, Vengeance on the 11th July is now a Raw only PPV and it kicks off with Rhyno and Tajiri teaming up to face the might of Garrison Cade and The Coach. This match was thrown together pretty late on and it’s the Coach’s 3rd PPV match in a row. Tajiri kicks the Coach to win the match and it was an okay opener.
Batista takes on Chris Jericho in the next match. It is probably Batista’s best one on one match since he started, although he was facing someone who could drag him along. Batista wins this average match by powerbombing Jericho, although Jericho did have his foot on the ropes. Whether or not he was actually going to make a comeback to win, I don’t know but I thought he was done.
La Resistance take on Eugene (an honorary member of Evolution at this point) and Ric Flair for the Raw tag titles. Any match with Eugene in is usually pretty stupid and in their attempt to protect Eugene, they did the dodgy DQ finish when Eugene attacked the ref. Not a bad match, just really stupid for the most part.
Next up, Matt Hardy defends the honour of Lita (if she’s got any left) against Kane. There was some good effort in here but the match never really jumped into life. The end saw Lita distract Kane while he was carrying the steel steps, allowing Matt Hardy to hit the steps, they fall on Kane and Matt Hardy makes the cover.
A highly anticipated match was next as Randy Orton took on Edge for the Intercontinental title. It never really lived up to it’s billing as it was pretty dull until the last 5 minutes or so. Edge speared Orton to win the Intercontinental title. The crowd were actually cheering for Orton during the match. Victoria takes on Molly Holly in the next match. One of the better women’s matches here as Victoria pins Molly after a high kick.
The main event features Benoit defending the World title against Triple H. Triple H main eventing? Surely not! Anyway, this match was certainly hitting the right spots and looked like being another good main event match on a WWE PPV. Unfortunately, Eugene spoilt it. He starts interfering like a good lackey of Triple H’s should. Benoit is good at going against the odds and bats off the members of Evolution as they run in. Eugene then ends up with the chair and doesn’t know what to do as Eugene is torn between good and evil. Benoit tries to grab the chair off of Eugene, spots Triple H and lets go; meaning the chair in Eugene’s hands knocks Triple H stupid. Benoit covers for the victory as the ref recovers. Good match until the stupidity in the end.
Vengeance does kind of remind me of Bad Blood in that one or two matches stand out and the rest were average at best. I suppose you could say that the Raw PPV’s have hit a bit of a rut of averageness. Poor decisions in the way they finish some matches could be blamed for some of it.
Summerslam, one of the 4 major PPV’s and so it features both rosters. It’s also pretty important because nothing has really stood out since Backlash in April. Just before Summerslam on the 15th August, the US title found a new home on Booker T, when he was the sole survivor in an 8-man elimination match involving Cena, Suzuki, Gunn, Reigns, Haas, Dupree and RVD. Angle was found out to be perfectly healthy, meaning Teddy Long being appointed as Smackdown GM and Angle returning to the active roster. Spike Dudley defeated Rey Mysterio for the Cruiserweight title and all of this, apart from Angle being found out, happened on one show! Also, Raw started a Diva search.
So, Summerslam arrives and it kicks off with The Dudley Boyz (with Spike Dudley as leader) facing off against Rey Mysterio, Paul London and Billy Kidman. It’s basically a thrown together 3 on 3 based on their respective targets. A decent, rushed opener as the 3D finishes Kidman to give the Dudleyz the victory.
The Matt Hardy/Kane saga continues as they face off once again but this time the winner gets to marry Lita. It wasn’t much of a match but you have to give Matt Hardy credit. He wrestled even though his knee was very dodgy. He would end up having surgery not long after this and was out for the rest of the year. Kane wins with the chokeslam to win the right to marry Lita. Lita is carrying Kane’s baby apparently.
Booker T and John Cena have decided, or should I say booked, to settle their feud by having a best of 5 series for Booker T’s US title. Summerslam is match 1 of 5. They were probably trying to recreate the Booker T V Benoit series but Cena isn’t Benoit. Horrible little match here, as Cena takes a 1-0 lead by pinning Booker T with the FU.
Edge defends the Intercontinental title against Jericho and Batista. Edge is currently being booked as a face but the crowd really turn on him here. Also, Batista cannot get over the ropes when taking the outside bump, which is par for the course for him. Edge spears Jericho for the victory to retain the title in a messy, disjointed affair.
Angle makes his PPV wrestling return against Eddie Guerrero. Why waste this match when you can have it for the title and it’ll mean something, especially considering the title match coming up? It really wasn’t given enough time to shine and felt bitty and uninspired. Decent enough though. Angle gets a measure of revenge for his Wrestlemania defeat by making Eddie tap with the Anklelock.
Triple H has spent the time since his defeat to Benoit at Vengeance to destroy Eugene at every turn and so Eugene has got Triple H in a match at Summerslam. This is a typically goofy encounter with all the usual tricks to outsmart Eugene and Triple H wins with the Pedigree. Triple H basically destroyed Eugene for a month, probably due to his anger of having to lose to Benoit twice.
After the waste of time that Diva Dodgeball took up, featuring Diva search contestants, the midcarder JBL takes on the Undertaker for the Smackdown World title. The Undertaker is pretty much a novelty act at this point because the crowd go nuts for his entrance but because the product in the ring is severely lacking, the crowd are dead for his matches. Orlando Jordan is now JBL’s chief of staff or something. Anyway, this was really dull as the crowd turned on it really early and started doing a Mexican wave. The Undertaker obviously refuses to job so he uses the title belt, which JBL used on him earlier, to cause a DQ. Rematch anyone?
The main event features Benoit defending the Raw World Title against Randy Orton. Randy Orton and Triple H’s relationship is strained since Orton won the right to face Benoit. I suggest you watch this match for Benoit’s crazy bumping because he really went out as champ in a blaze of craziness. It probably needed to run a bit longer as the end seemed a bit of nowhere but Benoit made this totally watchable. Orton hit the RKO to win the title.
Apart from the main event, nothing really stood out as great and some of it really stunk. Rumours abounded that Orton’s victory was just to spite Brock Lesnar because supposedly Orton was now the youngest World Champion, taking Lesnar’s record. Orton, in my opinion, wasn’t ready for such a big push and responsibility and JBL with the other World Title really doesn’t inspire me with any confidence in the main event scene on Smackdown.
So, the September PPV is Unforgiven but first the changes before then. Jamie Noble decided to leave the WWE. Edge injured himself so was stripped of the Intercontinental title. Orton was booted out of Evolution and turned face. Lita married Kane begrudgingly and Paul London and Billy Kidman lose the Smackdown Tag titles to Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree.
Unforgiven is a Raw only PPV on the 12th September and the opening match features Benoit (from main event to first match) and Regal, defending the honour of the now supposedly seriously injured Eugene, against Ric Flair and Batista. They didn’t really gel as Benoit makes Flair tap for the victory.
The Women’s title is on the line as Trish defends (with a little help from Tyson Tomko) against Victoria. It was pretty dull as the match felt really long. The end saw the stupidity of Victoria by taking out Tomko for no reason lead to Trish hitting the bulldog for the win and the retention of the title. Tomko then beats on Victoria before the mystery woman (who has been appearing for a while) appears. Tomko has had enough and calls ‘her’ out for an impromptu match. The mystery woman turns out to be Steven Richards. Tomko wins with an inverted F5 as every dies a long and painful death.
Next up, hopefully perking the crowd up a bit, the vacant Intercontinental title is on the line in a Ladder match with Jericho and Christian vying for it. It was a decent effort but the ladder match has been done to death and it wasn’t anything new or interesting. Jericho wins the title after some really typical WWE ladder climbing.
Next, Lita keeps going against her new husband Kane by this time booking him in a match against Shawn Michaels. It was really just Kane beating up Shawn Michaels, which is a usual Shawn Michaels V big guy match. It was decent enough as Shawn wins after the superkick for the pin and Lita’s distractions.
La Resistance, who have been constantly avoiding defending the tag titles against this team, have to finally defend it after about 3 months, against Rhyno and Tajiri. It really wasn’t a good payoff for that length of build as the match was dull and the end cheap. Grenier hits Rhyno with the flag for the pin and retains the titles.
It’s main event time as Orton, just short of a month into his title reign, puts the Raw World Title on the line against Triple H. It was a dull match, poor finish and was something we had seen a million times before. Triple H regains the title that he lost at Wrestlemania by stacking the numbers in his favour. A ref bump leads to interference (a rare occurrence), which Orton manages to fight off until Triple H uses a chair (surprisingly not a sledgehammer), and then it’s talent suppressor time on the chair for victory.
Is anyone really surprised by Triple H getting the title back? It’s been a regular occurrence in recent years and it adds fuel to the rumour fire that Orton was champ just to spite Brock Lesnar. The PPV was nothing special and really kept the run of mediocrity going that has been rumbling on since after Backlash.
In the final part of the review of the year, the WWE attempt something new as they continue to find that glimmer of inspiration to spark some life into the product once again. Also, my opinion on what was the best PPV and best PPV match and the worst PPV of 2004. Thanks for reading.
In this part, we’ll be looking at Vengeance, Summerslam and Unforgiven. The champions after The Great American Bash look like this:
Raw World title: Chris Benoit
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance (Grenier and Conway)
Women’s title: Trish Stratus
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: The Dudley Boyz
Cruiserweight title: Rey Mysterio
Intercontinental title: Randy Orton
US title: John Cena
Before Vengeance, I’ll try my best to keep you up to date as to what had happened before then. Mordecai, who has appeared on the Judgment Day and The Great American Bash PPVs, was shipped back to OVW soon after and never returned. He didn’t last 2 months. Smackdown GM Angle was stripped John Cena of the US title the week before Vengeance. That same night, Paul London and Billy Kidman win the Smackdown tag titles off of the Dudley Boyz.
So, Vengeance on the 11th July is now a Raw only PPV and it kicks off with Rhyno and Tajiri teaming up to face the might of Garrison Cade and The Coach. This match was thrown together pretty late on and it’s the Coach’s 3rd PPV match in a row. Tajiri kicks the Coach to win the match and it was an okay opener.
Batista takes on Chris Jericho in the next match. It is probably Batista’s best one on one match since he started, although he was facing someone who could drag him along. Batista wins this average match by powerbombing Jericho, although Jericho did have his foot on the ropes. Whether or not he was actually going to make a comeback to win, I don’t know but I thought he was done.
La Resistance take on Eugene (an honorary member of Evolution at this point) and Ric Flair for the Raw tag titles. Any match with Eugene in is usually pretty stupid and in their attempt to protect Eugene, they did the dodgy DQ finish when Eugene attacked the ref. Not a bad match, just really stupid for the most part.
Next up, Matt Hardy defends the honour of Lita (if she’s got any left) against Kane. There was some good effort in here but the match never really jumped into life. The end saw Lita distract Kane while he was carrying the steel steps, allowing Matt Hardy to hit the steps, they fall on Kane and Matt Hardy makes the cover.
A highly anticipated match was next as Randy Orton took on Edge for the Intercontinental title. It never really lived up to it’s billing as it was pretty dull until the last 5 minutes or so. Edge speared Orton to win the Intercontinental title. The crowd were actually cheering for Orton during the match. Victoria takes on Molly Holly in the next match. One of the better women’s matches here as Victoria pins Molly after a high kick.
The main event features Benoit defending the World title against Triple H. Triple H main eventing? Surely not! Anyway, this match was certainly hitting the right spots and looked like being another good main event match on a WWE PPV. Unfortunately, Eugene spoilt it. He starts interfering like a good lackey of Triple H’s should. Benoit is good at going against the odds and bats off the members of Evolution as they run in. Eugene then ends up with the chair and doesn’t know what to do as Eugene is torn between good and evil. Benoit tries to grab the chair off of Eugene, spots Triple H and lets go; meaning the chair in Eugene’s hands knocks Triple H stupid. Benoit covers for the victory as the ref recovers. Good match until the stupidity in the end.
Vengeance does kind of remind me of Bad Blood in that one or two matches stand out and the rest were average at best. I suppose you could say that the Raw PPV’s have hit a bit of a rut of averageness. Poor decisions in the way they finish some matches could be blamed for some of it.
Summerslam, one of the 4 major PPV’s and so it features both rosters. It’s also pretty important because nothing has really stood out since Backlash in April. Just before Summerslam on the 15th August, the US title found a new home on Booker T, when he was the sole survivor in an 8-man elimination match involving Cena, Suzuki, Gunn, Reigns, Haas, Dupree and RVD. Angle was found out to be perfectly healthy, meaning Teddy Long being appointed as Smackdown GM and Angle returning to the active roster. Spike Dudley defeated Rey Mysterio for the Cruiserweight title and all of this, apart from Angle being found out, happened on one show! Also, Raw started a Diva search.
So, Summerslam arrives and it kicks off with The Dudley Boyz (with Spike Dudley as leader) facing off against Rey Mysterio, Paul London and Billy Kidman. It’s basically a thrown together 3 on 3 based on their respective targets. A decent, rushed opener as the 3D finishes Kidman to give the Dudleyz the victory.
The Matt Hardy/Kane saga continues as they face off once again but this time the winner gets to marry Lita. It wasn’t much of a match but you have to give Matt Hardy credit. He wrestled even though his knee was very dodgy. He would end up having surgery not long after this and was out for the rest of the year. Kane wins with the chokeslam to win the right to marry Lita. Lita is carrying Kane’s baby apparently.
Booker T and John Cena have decided, or should I say booked, to settle their feud by having a best of 5 series for Booker T’s US title. Summerslam is match 1 of 5. They were probably trying to recreate the Booker T V Benoit series but Cena isn’t Benoit. Horrible little match here, as Cena takes a 1-0 lead by pinning Booker T with the FU.
Edge defends the Intercontinental title against Jericho and Batista. Edge is currently being booked as a face but the crowd really turn on him here. Also, Batista cannot get over the ropes when taking the outside bump, which is par for the course for him. Edge spears Jericho for the victory to retain the title in a messy, disjointed affair.
Angle makes his PPV wrestling return against Eddie Guerrero. Why waste this match when you can have it for the title and it’ll mean something, especially considering the title match coming up? It really wasn’t given enough time to shine and felt bitty and uninspired. Decent enough though. Angle gets a measure of revenge for his Wrestlemania defeat by making Eddie tap with the Anklelock.
Triple H has spent the time since his defeat to Benoit at Vengeance to destroy Eugene at every turn and so Eugene has got Triple H in a match at Summerslam. This is a typically goofy encounter with all the usual tricks to outsmart Eugene and Triple H wins with the Pedigree. Triple H basically destroyed Eugene for a month, probably due to his anger of having to lose to Benoit twice.
After the waste of time that Diva Dodgeball took up, featuring Diva search contestants, the midcarder JBL takes on the Undertaker for the Smackdown World title. The Undertaker is pretty much a novelty act at this point because the crowd go nuts for his entrance but because the product in the ring is severely lacking, the crowd are dead for his matches. Orlando Jordan is now JBL’s chief of staff or something. Anyway, this was really dull as the crowd turned on it really early and started doing a Mexican wave. The Undertaker obviously refuses to job so he uses the title belt, which JBL used on him earlier, to cause a DQ. Rematch anyone?
The main event features Benoit defending the Raw World Title against Randy Orton. Randy Orton and Triple H’s relationship is strained since Orton won the right to face Benoit. I suggest you watch this match for Benoit’s crazy bumping because he really went out as champ in a blaze of craziness. It probably needed to run a bit longer as the end seemed a bit of nowhere but Benoit made this totally watchable. Orton hit the RKO to win the title.
Apart from the main event, nothing really stood out as great and some of it really stunk. Rumours abounded that Orton’s victory was just to spite Brock Lesnar because supposedly Orton was now the youngest World Champion, taking Lesnar’s record. Orton, in my opinion, wasn’t ready for such a big push and responsibility and JBL with the other World Title really doesn’t inspire me with any confidence in the main event scene on Smackdown.
So, the September PPV is Unforgiven but first the changes before then. Jamie Noble decided to leave the WWE. Edge injured himself so was stripped of the Intercontinental title. Orton was booted out of Evolution and turned face. Lita married Kane begrudgingly and Paul London and Billy Kidman lose the Smackdown Tag titles to Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree.
Unforgiven is a Raw only PPV on the 12th September and the opening match features Benoit (from main event to first match) and Regal, defending the honour of the now supposedly seriously injured Eugene, against Ric Flair and Batista. They didn’t really gel as Benoit makes Flair tap for the victory.
The Women’s title is on the line as Trish defends (with a little help from Tyson Tomko) against Victoria. It was pretty dull as the match felt really long. The end saw the stupidity of Victoria by taking out Tomko for no reason lead to Trish hitting the bulldog for the win and the retention of the title. Tomko then beats on Victoria before the mystery woman (who has been appearing for a while) appears. Tomko has had enough and calls ‘her’ out for an impromptu match. The mystery woman turns out to be Steven Richards. Tomko wins with an inverted F5 as every dies a long and painful death.
Next up, hopefully perking the crowd up a bit, the vacant Intercontinental title is on the line in a Ladder match with Jericho and Christian vying for it. It was a decent effort but the ladder match has been done to death and it wasn’t anything new or interesting. Jericho wins the title after some really typical WWE ladder climbing.
Next, Lita keeps going against her new husband Kane by this time booking him in a match against Shawn Michaels. It was really just Kane beating up Shawn Michaels, which is a usual Shawn Michaels V big guy match. It was decent enough as Shawn wins after the superkick for the pin and Lita’s distractions.
La Resistance, who have been constantly avoiding defending the tag titles against this team, have to finally defend it after about 3 months, against Rhyno and Tajiri. It really wasn’t a good payoff for that length of build as the match was dull and the end cheap. Grenier hits Rhyno with the flag for the pin and retains the titles.
It’s main event time as Orton, just short of a month into his title reign, puts the Raw World Title on the line against Triple H. It was a dull match, poor finish and was something we had seen a million times before. Triple H regains the title that he lost at Wrestlemania by stacking the numbers in his favour. A ref bump leads to interference (a rare occurrence), which Orton manages to fight off until Triple H uses a chair (surprisingly not a sledgehammer), and then it’s talent suppressor time on the chair for victory.
Is anyone really surprised by Triple H getting the title back? It’s been a regular occurrence in recent years and it adds fuel to the rumour fire that Orton was champ just to spite Brock Lesnar. The PPV was nothing special and really kept the run of mediocrity going that has been rumbling on since after Backlash.
In the final part of the review of the year, the WWE attempt something new as they continue to find that glimmer of inspiration to spark some life into the product once again. Also, my opinion on what was the best PPV and best PPV match and the worst PPV of 2004. Thanks for reading.