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Hello and welcome to the fourth and final part of Grandprix’s WWE PPV review of 2004. As we saw in Part 3, the string of mediocre PPV’s had continued and with the new year fast approaching, the WWE really desperately need to turn things around. Did they? Let’s find out…
In this part, we’ll be looking at No Mercy, Taboo Tuesday, Survivor Series and Armageddon. The champions after Unforgiven look like this:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance (Grenier and Conway)
Women’s title: Trish Stratus
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree
Cruiserweight title: Spike Dudley
Intercontinental title: Chris Jericho
US title: Booker T
The next PPV on the list is the Smackdown only PPV, No Mercy. There were no title changes between Unforgiven and No Mercy and the only real incident was Lita (obviously) losing Kane’s baby. Maybe she left it in her locker with her acting ability. Let’s go straight into it.
No Mercy was on the 3rd October and the opening match featured Eddie Guerrero fighting Angle’s right hand man, Luther Reigns in what I can only guess is some kind of feud development from Eddie’s loss to Angle at Summerslam. Basically, this was Reigns beating on Eddie for 10 minutes and then Eddie smacked Reigns with a nightstick and hit the frogsplash for the win. Eddie is better than this and deserves better than this poor match.
Evil Spike Dudley makes a defence of the Cruiserweight title when he faces Nunzio. I can’t say they had done a great deal with Nunzio at this point but I guess he’ll take whatever he can get at the moment. There was so much interference in this match and it hurt it, although it was pretty good in parts. Spike Dudley defends thanks to Bubba’s interference.
Billy Kidman and Paul London have fallen out since losing the tag titles in September and they are going to settle their differences with a match. It was a decent little match that saw Kidman put his knees up to block London’s Shooting Star Press and does one of his own to win. Kidman then completes the heel turn by bad mouthing the fans and doing another SSP on London, who had ‘internal injuries’ apparently.
Next up, Suzuki and Dupree defend the Smackdown Tag Titles against Rey Mysterio and RVD. Again, it was a decent little match as Rey Mysterio gets dropped on the ropes on his throat and Kenzo rolls him up for the win.
The Big Show has just recently been reinstated after being forced to quit (if he quits of his own free will, as in agreed to the stipulation, surely that’s him finished), in a rare bit of storyline continuity, Angle is cheesed off (because Big Show threw off some scaffolding) and they have a match against each other, although surely attempted murder would make Angle the face. Such is life. Angle shaved Big Show bald on the Smackdown before No Mercy. Angle bailed out early and got counted out but Teddy Long restarted the match. The Big Show pretty much destroys Angle and chokeslams him for the clean win.
The destiny of the US title is decided next as the best of 5 series reaches the end. With the score at a very surprising 2-2, Booker T and John Cena face off one last time with the winner taking the US title. It’s a shame that the 4 matches before this one sucked. This one didn’t fair much better as the match stank. The FU wins it for Cena and he is the new US champion.
Dawn Marie and the Dudleyz take on Miss Jackie, Rico and Charlie Haas in a 6-person tag team match. They were having a bit of fun out there as Haas hits a crossbody on D-Von leading to Rico hitting a moonsault for the victory. Again, decent enough and the women didn’t affect it too much.
The main event is the obvious rematch between JBL and The Undertaker for the Smackdown World Title. As usual, it’s some sort of gimmick match and it’s a hearse match. Basically, you have to lock your opponent in the back of a hearse. It seems like they can’t come up with anything new, because this match was pretty much the same as the previous encounter between these two, dull and boring. Heidenreich (the wrestler that botches leg drops) makes an appearance and attacks the Undertaker. Heidenreich locks Taker in the back of a hearse after drugging him with ether but the match isn’t over because Taker no sells ether but JBL does the clothesline and locks him up to retain the title.
So, No Mercy was looking average all the way and depending on your view of the main event depends on whether it maintains it’s averageness or it sinks into the sludge with The Great American Bash. JBL’s drawing power is a delight to the electric companies, as people switch off in their droves. Apparently, No Mercy came in as the lowest bought PPV in WWE history.
The Raw only experimental PPV, Taboo Tuesday, is next but before then, Carlito Caribbean Cool debuts on the Smackdown after No Mercy and wins the US title off John Cena. Not quite sure why Cena won the title in that best of 5 series if he was just going to lose it so quickly and so cheaply on the next event.
Anyway, Taboo Tuesday is a first in two ways. It’s the first WWE PPV to air live on a Tuesday and it’s the first ‘interactive’ WWE PPV. Basically, the fans, before the event, get to vote on certain things throughout the night. Whether it’s rigged or not, that’s for you to interpret. I think one or two may have been rigged.
Taboo Tuesday on the 19th October kicks off with Jericho defending the Intercontinental title against a person to be voted for. Shelton Benjamin won the vote and has his chance. It was going pretty good, if a bit short and Shelton Benjamin hits Jericho with the Exploder powerslam for the winner and the title. I think this was a great decision because Benjamin needed a title and Jericho needs the big title, so great decision.
Right at the start of the show, the Divas were told they were going to compete in a battle royal dressed as schoolgirls, according to the fans poll. The Women’s title is on the line as Trish defends against Jazz, Nidia, Victoria, Gail Kim, Molly and Stacy. It’s a pretty weak battle royal as just touching the floor outside the ring means elimination. Trish is the last one in so she retains.
Gene ‘The Babykiller’ Snitsky is going to pay for killing Kane’s baby as Kane attempts to destroy him via a weapon of the fans choosing. The fans chose the steel chain and the weak match goes on. Then, Snitsky grabs a steel chair and ‘crushes’ Kane throat. The ref tries to stop the match but Snitsky wants the pin and gets the victory. The match was rubbish but it made Snitsky look pretty good as a monster heel.
Eugene has returned and he has a match with Uncle Eric. The loser has to have their head shaved. The match was not really a match, more of a pointless waste of time. Eugene wins quickly and The Coach tries to save Bischoff from the embarrassment but Vince comes down to enforce the fans decision. Since when did Vince care what the fans think? Anyway, Bischoff goes bald and The Coach, as punishment, has to wear a dress.
The main event vote was for HBK, Benoit or Edge to face Triple H later on with the other 2 teaming up to face La Resistance. HBK won the right to face Triple H (despite being injured) and Benoit and Edge have to team up to face La Resistance in the next match. Edge’s recent heel tendencies become more apparent when he leaves Benoit to fight on his own late in the match. Benoit locks Conway in the Crossface for the victory, basically winning the titles on his own. Pretty disappointing match here.
Next up, the Diva search winner Christy takes on Carmella in a match of the fans choosing. The fans chose a Lingerie Pillow Fight. It takes them longer to change into their lingerie then the match itself lasts. Just a waste of PPV time but I suppose the WWE are trying to get their moneys worth out of these ‘divas’.
Triple H takes on HBK for the Raw World Title. Shawn has a really shoddy knee. At least he won’t forget to sell it. It was pretty decent for what it was, which was Triple H focusing on the knee and Shawn doing his best to have a match. Edge proved to be the deciding factor as he runs in and spears HBK for Triple H to win and retain the title.
The main event sees Randy Orton take on Ric Flair, as Orton wasn’t allowed to get his hands on Triple H. The fans voted for a Cage match, so that’s what we got. Flair was really getting into it and there was some pretty good stuff for a 10-minute cage match. The RKO gives Orton the victory by pinfall. I hate the pinfall finishes in cage matches. Orton and Flair hug in an incident that was forgotten the next night.
I think it’s fair to say that Taboo Tuesday was a failure, although it was an interesting idea. Nothing really stood out and there was a ripe bunch of dire matches, which really hurt it and a whole load of stuff that has no place on a PPV. Taboo Tuesday needs an overhaul before the next one.
November is the traditional home of the final PPV of the big 4 PPVs, Survivor Series. The only title switch before Survivor Series was Edge and Benoit losing the Raw Tag Titles back to La Resistance after Edge refused to tag when Benoit needed a tag, leaving Benoit wide open to lose. Edge then destroyed him afterward to totally complete the heel turn.
There were certainly a few changes since Taboo Tuesday and before Survivor Series. November saw a cull on the rosters as Billy Gunn, A-Train, Test, Gail Kim, Rodney Mack, Jazz, Johnny Stamboli, Rico, Nidia, Chuck Palumbo, Lamont and Shaniqua all get fired/released.
Onto Survivor Series on the 14th November with the opener featuring the Cruiserweight Champion, Spike Dudley, defending the title against Chavo, Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman in a fatal 4-way. As usual with the WWE and cruiserweights, they were having a fun little match but cut it short. Spike Dudley retains after stealing a pin on Chavo.
Next up, Shelton Benjamin takes on Christian for Benjamin’s Intercontinental title. Shelton manages to hold off Tomko’s interference and Christian’s offence to retain the title with the Exploder. It was a good match, really kicking off Benjamin’s title run at PPVs on a high.
A classic Survivor Series rules match is next, as Cena, RVD, Eddie and Big Show take on Angle, Carlito Caribbean Cool, Mark Jindrak and Luther Reigns. Carlito injured his shoulder at a recent show and gets chased out of the arena by Cena before the match even starts, allowing Carlito the chance not to wrestle. Eddie spends the majority of the match getting beaten up before a quick flurry of eliminations. RVD was first, then Jindrak, then Reigns, leaving Angle on his own and gets pinned by Big Show. The eliminations were far too quick in a match with 7 guys in it.
It’s useless Heidenreich taking on Undertaker – Texas Ranger in what looks on paper as the match where everyone relieves themselves because it won’t be a great match to look at. It was exactly what you’d think it would be like, slow and boring. Taker wins with the Tombstone. Moving speedily on, Trish takes on Lita for the Women’s title. Lita develops a mean streak, as she DQ’s herself, hitting Trish with a chair. The video package before the match was longer than this match.
JBL defends the Smackdown World Title against Booker T, despite Booker losing his last PPV match. I really struggle to fathom the booking logic sometimes. Sometimes? I mean all the time. This match was totally lacking anything of interest, as all JBL matches seem to include either bleeding or loads of interference, sometimes both. It was the interference root this time as Orlando Jordan makes his presence felt and JBL gets the belt shot pin to retain. Horrible pretty much sums it up.
The main event is a classic Survivor Series match (so Triple H doesn’t have to defend his title) with Jericho, Benoit, Maven and Randy Orton taking on Triple H, Batista, Snitsky and Edge. There was also a little stipulation added with it too. The winning team gets to run Raw for a week each. Maven got taken out earlier but returns later on to get eliminated later on. Benoit was the first to go, and then Batista, Snitsky gets himself DQ’d and lays out everyone, allowing Maven to get eliminated. Jericho is next out and then Edge, leaving Triple H and Orton. Orton wins with the RKO, giving Orton, Jericho, Maven and Benoit a week each to run Raw.
The verdict? It was a good start and a good end but the middle really stank so you can only label it average at best. It really has been a baffling streak with average PPV’s running all the way from after Backlash. Perhaps it’s a lack of inspiration, motivation or awful booking and poor paydays but it doesn’t seem like it would take a lot from certain people to push a PPV into something worth watching.
Anyway, the final PPV of the year is the Smackdown only PPV, Armageddon. There were quite a number of title changes after Survivor Series, maybe in the hope of spicing things up a bit. All the cut Diva search contestants all seem to have pointless parts on Raw and Smackdown now. Cena, the next Smackdown after Survivor Series, wins the US title off of Carlito and Carlito is now on the injured list. RVD and Rey Mysterio have been teaming for a while and they win the Smackdown Tag Titles off of Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree. Eugene and Regal win the Raw Tag Titles off La Resistance the night after Survivor Series. Lita wins the Women’s Title off of Trish. The final change was a controversial ending to the Raw World Title match, leading to the title being declared vacant.
So, the final PPV of the year, Armageddon on the 12th December, kicks off with Rey Mysterio and RVD defending their newly won Tag Titles against Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree. Logical, I suppose. Quite a few blown spots but they were putting on a good match as RVD pins Dupree with the 5-star Frogsplash to retain.
Kurt Angle had been throwing invitational challenges out and this time, he faces Santa Claus. Pointless match, if you can call it that. It gets worse as the final two in the Tough Enough competition, which has been running on Smackdown for a few weeks, face off in a boxing match. This is a wrestling PPV, right? Well, it’s Mike V Daniel as they both punch air for 3 one-minute rounds. Daniel is declared the winner as more time gets wasted on garbage.
The Bashams take on Charlie Haas and Hardcore Holly, although you really have to wonder why. I still can’t see why this match has been booked. The Bashams win after Dawn Marie and Miss Jackie run down to fight over Haas, leaving Holly to fall victim to the deadly small package.
Cena defends the US title in a street fight against Carlito’s right hand man, Jesus. Apparently, Jesus picked up a groin injury but it really doesn’t explain why Cena basically beat him down for 8 minutes. Cena won with the FU in a pretty dire match.
Next, it’s the reason why Dawn Marie and Miss Jackie are fighting over Haas. Miss Jackie and Haas are engaged but Dawn Marie claims she had an affair with Haas. Obviously, they have to settle it in the ring to the dismay of myself, as you can imagine. Haas is the special ref. More wasted time as Dawn wins with a rollup. Haas then admits to having an affair and calls the engagement off. He then dumps Dawn, leaving them both dumped. It really makes you wonder why they bothered to be perfectly honest.
The Big Show is continuing his feud with Angle and company, as Big Show takes on Angle, Jindrak and Reigns. I suppose it’s probably the new Team Angle, although with far less talent. Big Show basically kills the faction dead anyway as Show wins with an F5 on Jindrak. It was boring but at least Big Show is trying to learn some more moves, even if he is stealing off others.
Spike Dudley defends the Cruiserweight title against Funaki. I’m a bit surprised that they’ve put two wrestlers that the WWE have booked as jobbers for years so high up a PPV card. Anyway, it was pretty poor, as Funaki becomes the new Cruiserweight Champion with yet another rollup finish.
JBL continues his mind-numbingly dull reign as Smackdown World Champion by defending against the Undertaker, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero in a fatal 4-way. Eddie looked like he was working his socks off trying to elevate the guys he was working with but it was a pretty forlorn hope. They used every main event trick in the book to try and save it and that was useless too. The Undertaker has the match won when Heidenreich interferes. Why dig that feud up again? Is Taker really going to give Heidenreich a victory? It leaves JBL to clean up and pin Booker after the Clothesline to keep the title reign going.
What do you say about that? A complete mess of a PPV and a terrible way to end the year. I think the idea behind the JBL title reign is that we are supposed to want him to lose the title so much that we’ll pay to see him lose. Erm, no. As soon as he loses the title, you might get more buys. Until then, I think we’ll be seeing more low buyrates for Smackdown PPV’s.
The year ends with the champions looking like this:
Raw World title: Vacant (New Champ decided in an Elimination Chamber at the new Raw PPV, New Year’s Resolution)
Raw Tag Titles: Eugene and Regal
Women’s title: Lita
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: Rey Mysterio and RVD
Cruiserweight title: Funaki
Intercontinental title: Shelton Benjamin
US title: John Cena
My view on the year:
The year started so well with a great Rumble match, a great main event at No Way Out, a great Wrestlemania, a great main event at Backlash and a golden era with Eddie and Benoit holding the World Titles on their respective shows. However, after Backlash, nothing stood out as every PPV after then was average to poor with Armageddon ending the year really badly.
My favourite PPV of the year:
Wrestlemania (without the endless filler segments)
My favourite PPV match of the year:
The Wrestlemania main event between Benoit, Triple H and HBK
My worst PPV of the year:
Armageddon
So, there you have it. 15 PPV’s scheduled for 2005 and the hard sell for Wrestlemania begins once again. Thank you all for reading the 4 parts and hopefully they’ll be a bit more to shout about in the coming year.
In this part, we’ll be looking at No Mercy, Taboo Tuesday, Survivor Series and Armageddon. The champions after Unforgiven look like this:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance (Grenier and Conway)
Women’s title: Trish Stratus
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree
Cruiserweight title: Spike Dudley
Intercontinental title: Chris Jericho
US title: Booker T
The next PPV on the list is the Smackdown only PPV, No Mercy. There were no title changes between Unforgiven and No Mercy and the only real incident was Lita (obviously) losing Kane’s baby. Maybe she left it in her locker with her acting ability. Let’s go straight into it.
No Mercy was on the 3rd October and the opening match featured Eddie Guerrero fighting Angle’s right hand man, Luther Reigns in what I can only guess is some kind of feud development from Eddie’s loss to Angle at Summerslam. Basically, this was Reigns beating on Eddie for 10 minutes and then Eddie smacked Reigns with a nightstick and hit the frogsplash for the win. Eddie is better than this and deserves better than this poor match.
Evil Spike Dudley makes a defence of the Cruiserweight title when he faces Nunzio. I can’t say they had done a great deal with Nunzio at this point but I guess he’ll take whatever he can get at the moment. There was so much interference in this match and it hurt it, although it was pretty good in parts. Spike Dudley defends thanks to Bubba’s interference.
Billy Kidman and Paul London have fallen out since losing the tag titles in September and they are going to settle their differences with a match. It was a decent little match that saw Kidman put his knees up to block London’s Shooting Star Press and does one of his own to win. Kidman then completes the heel turn by bad mouthing the fans and doing another SSP on London, who had ‘internal injuries’ apparently.
Next up, Suzuki and Dupree defend the Smackdown Tag Titles against Rey Mysterio and RVD. Again, it was a decent little match as Rey Mysterio gets dropped on the ropes on his throat and Kenzo rolls him up for the win.
The Big Show has just recently been reinstated after being forced to quit (if he quits of his own free will, as in agreed to the stipulation, surely that’s him finished), in a rare bit of storyline continuity, Angle is cheesed off (because Big Show threw off some scaffolding) and they have a match against each other, although surely attempted murder would make Angle the face. Such is life. Angle shaved Big Show bald on the Smackdown before No Mercy. Angle bailed out early and got counted out but Teddy Long restarted the match. The Big Show pretty much destroys Angle and chokeslams him for the clean win.
The destiny of the US title is decided next as the best of 5 series reaches the end. With the score at a very surprising 2-2, Booker T and John Cena face off one last time with the winner taking the US title. It’s a shame that the 4 matches before this one sucked. This one didn’t fair much better as the match stank. The FU wins it for Cena and he is the new US champion.
Dawn Marie and the Dudleyz take on Miss Jackie, Rico and Charlie Haas in a 6-person tag team match. They were having a bit of fun out there as Haas hits a crossbody on D-Von leading to Rico hitting a moonsault for the victory. Again, decent enough and the women didn’t affect it too much.
The main event is the obvious rematch between JBL and The Undertaker for the Smackdown World Title. As usual, it’s some sort of gimmick match and it’s a hearse match. Basically, you have to lock your opponent in the back of a hearse. It seems like they can’t come up with anything new, because this match was pretty much the same as the previous encounter between these two, dull and boring. Heidenreich (the wrestler that botches leg drops) makes an appearance and attacks the Undertaker. Heidenreich locks Taker in the back of a hearse after drugging him with ether but the match isn’t over because Taker no sells ether but JBL does the clothesline and locks him up to retain the title.
So, No Mercy was looking average all the way and depending on your view of the main event depends on whether it maintains it’s averageness or it sinks into the sludge with The Great American Bash. JBL’s drawing power is a delight to the electric companies, as people switch off in their droves. Apparently, No Mercy came in as the lowest bought PPV in WWE history.
The Raw only experimental PPV, Taboo Tuesday, is next but before then, Carlito Caribbean Cool debuts on the Smackdown after No Mercy and wins the US title off John Cena. Not quite sure why Cena won the title in that best of 5 series if he was just going to lose it so quickly and so cheaply on the next event.
Anyway, Taboo Tuesday is a first in two ways. It’s the first WWE PPV to air live on a Tuesday and it’s the first ‘interactive’ WWE PPV. Basically, the fans, before the event, get to vote on certain things throughout the night. Whether it’s rigged or not, that’s for you to interpret. I think one or two may have been rigged.
Taboo Tuesday on the 19th October kicks off with Jericho defending the Intercontinental title against a person to be voted for. Shelton Benjamin won the vote and has his chance. It was going pretty good, if a bit short and Shelton Benjamin hits Jericho with the Exploder powerslam for the winner and the title. I think this was a great decision because Benjamin needed a title and Jericho needs the big title, so great decision.
Right at the start of the show, the Divas were told they were going to compete in a battle royal dressed as schoolgirls, according to the fans poll. The Women’s title is on the line as Trish defends against Jazz, Nidia, Victoria, Gail Kim, Molly and Stacy. It’s a pretty weak battle royal as just touching the floor outside the ring means elimination. Trish is the last one in so she retains.
Gene ‘The Babykiller’ Snitsky is going to pay for killing Kane’s baby as Kane attempts to destroy him via a weapon of the fans choosing. The fans chose the steel chain and the weak match goes on. Then, Snitsky grabs a steel chair and ‘crushes’ Kane throat. The ref tries to stop the match but Snitsky wants the pin and gets the victory. The match was rubbish but it made Snitsky look pretty good as a monster heel.
Eugene has returned and he has a match with Uncle Eric. The loser has to have their head shaved. The match was not really a match, more of a pointless waste of time. Eugene wins quickly and The Coach tries to save Bischoff from the embarrassment but Vince comes down to enforce the fans decision. Since when did Vince care what the fans think? Anyway, Bischoff goes bald and The Coach, as punishment, has to wear a dress.
The main event vote was for HBK, Benoit or Edge to face Triple H later on with the other 2 teaming up to face La Resistance. HBK won the right to face Triple H (despite being injured) and Benoit and Edge have to team up to face La Resistance in the next match. Edge’s recent heel tendencies become more apparent when he leaves Benoit to fight on his own late in the match. Benoit locks Conway in the Crossface for the victory, basically winning the titles on his own. Pretty disappointing match here.
Next up, the Diva search winner Christy takes on Carmella in a match of the fans choosing. The fans chose a Lingerie Pillow Fight. It takes them longer to change into their lingerie then the match itself lasts. Just a waste of PPV time but I suppose the WWE are trying to get their moneys worth out of these ‘divas’.
Triple H takes on HBK for the Raw World Title. Shawn has a really shoddy knee. At least he won’t forget to sell it. It was pretty decent for what it was, which was Triple H focusing on the knee and Shawn doing his best to have a match. Edge proved to be the deciding factor as he runs in and spears HBK for Triple H to win and retain the title.
The main event sees Randy Orton take on Ric Flair, as Orton wasn’t allowed to get his hands on Triple H. The fans voted for a Cage match, so that’s what we got. Flair was really getting into it and there was some pretty good stuff for a 10-minute cage match. The RKO gives Orton the victory by pinfall. I hate the pinfall finishes in cage matches. Orton and Flair hug in an incident that was forgotten the next night.
I think it’s fair to say that Taboo Tuesday was a failure, although it was an interesting idea. Nothing really stood out and there was a ripe bunch of dire matches, which really hurt it and a whole load of stuff that has no place on a PPV. Taboo Tuesday needs an overhaul before the next one.
November is the traditional home of the final PPV of the big 4 PPVs, Survivor Series. The only title switch before Survivor Series was Edge and Benoit losing the Raw Tag Titles back to La Resistance after Edge refused to tag when Benoit needed a tag, leaving Benoit wide open to lose. Edge then destroyed him afterward to totally complete the heel turn.
There were certainly a few changes since Taboo Tuesday and before Survivor Series. November saw a cull on the rosters as Billy Gunn, A-Train, Test, Gail Kim, Rodney Mack, Jazz, Johnny Stamboli, Rico, Nidia, Chuck Palumbo, Lamont and Shaniqua all get fired/released.
Onto Survivor Series on the 14th November with the opener featuring the Cruiserweight Champion, Spike Dudley, defending the title against Chavo, Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman in a fatal 4-way. As usual with the WWE and cruiserweights, they were having a fun little match but cut it short. Spike Dudley retains after stealing a pin on Chavo.
Next up, Shelton Benjamin takes on Christian for Benjamin’s Intercontinental title. Shelton manages to hold off Tomko’s interference and Christian’s offence to retain the title with the Exploder. It was a good match, really kicking off Benjamin’s title run at PPVs on a high.
A classic Survivor Series rules match is next, as Cena, RVD, Eddie and Big Show take on Angle, Carlito Caribbean Cool, Mark Jindrak and Luther Reigns. Carlito injured his shoulder at a recent show and gets chased out of the arena by Cena before the match even starts, allowing Carlito the chance not to wrestle. Eddie spends the majority of the match getting beaten up before a quick flurry of eliminations. RVD was first, then Jindrak, then Reigns, leaving Angle on his own and gets pinned by Big Show. The eliminations were far too quick in a match with 7 guys in it.
It’s useless Heidenreich taking on Undertaker – Texas Ranger in what looks on paper as the match where everyone relieves themselves because it won’t be a great match to look at. It was exactly what you’d think it would be like, slow and boring. Taker wins with the Tombstone. Moving speedily on, Trish takes on Lita for the Women’s title. Lita develops a mean streak, as she DQ’s herself, hitting Trish with a chair. The video package before the match was longer than this match.
JBL defends the Smackdown World Title against Booker T, despite Booker losing his last PPV match. I really struggle to fathom the booking logic sometimes. Sometimes? I mean all the time. This match was totally lacking anything of interest, as all JBL matches seem to include either bleeding or loads of interference, sometimes both. It was the interference root this time as Orlando Jordan makes his presence felt and JBL gets the belt shot pin to retain. Horrible pretty much sums it up.
The main event is a classic Survivor Series match (so Triple H doesn’t have to defend his title) with Jericho, Benoit, Maven and Randy Orton taking on Triple H, Batista, Snitsky and Edge. There was also a little stipulation added with it too. The winning team gets to run Raw for a week each. Maven got taken out earlier but returns later on to get eliminated later on. Benoit was the first to go, and then Batista, Snitsky gets himself DQ’d and lays out everyone, allowing Maven to get eliminated. Jericho is next out and then Edge, leaving Triple H and Orton. Orton wins with the RKO, giving Orton, Jericho, Maven and Benoit a week each to run Raw.
The verdict? It was a good start and a good end but the middle really stank so you can only label it average at best. It really has been a baffling streak with average PPV’s running all the way from after Backlash. Perhaps it’s a lack of inspiration, motivation or awful booking and poor paydays but it doesn’t seem like it would take a lot from certain people to push a PPV into something worth watching.
Anyway, the final PPV of the year is the Smackdown only PPV, Armageddon. There were quite a number of title changes after Survivor Series, maybe in the hope of spicing things up a bit. All the cut Diva search contestants all seem to have pointless parts on Raw and Smackdown now. Cena, the next Smackdown after Survivor Series, wins the US title off of Carlito and Carlito is now on the injured list. RVD and Rey Mysterio have been teaming for a while and they win the Smackdown Tag Titles off of Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree. Eugene and Regal win the Raw Tag Titles off La Resistance the night after Survivor Series. Lita wins the Women’s Title off of Trish. The final change was a controversial ending to the Raw World Title match, leading to the title being declared vacant.
So, the final PPV of the year, Armageddon on the 12th December, kicks off with Rey Mysterio and RVD defending their newly won Tag Titles against Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree. Logical, I suppose. Quite a few blown spots but they were putting on a good match as RVD pins Dupree with the 5-star Frogsplash to retain.
Kurt Angle had been throwing invitational challenges out and this time, he faces Santa Claus. Pointless match, if you can call it that. It gets worse as the final two in the Tough Enough competition, which has been running on Smackdown for a few weeks, face off in a boxing match. This is a wrestling PPV, right? Well, it’s Mike V Daniel as they both punch air for 3 one-minute rounds. Daniel is declared the winner as more time gets wasted on garbage.
The Bashams take on Charlie Haas and Hardcore Holly, although you really have to wonder why. I still can’t see why this match has been booked. The Bashams win after Dawn Marie and Miss Jackie run down to fight over Haas, leaving Holly to fall victim to the deadly small package.
Cena defends the US title in a street fight against Carlito’s right hand man, Jesus. Apparently, Jesus picked up a groin injury but it really doesn’t explain why Cena basically beat him down for 8 minutes. Cena won with the FU in a pretty dire match.
Next, it’s the reason why Dawn Marie and Miss Jackie are fighting over Haas. Miss Jackie and Haas are engaged but Dawn Marie claims she had an affair with Haas. Obviously, they have to settle it in the ring to the dismay of myself, as you can imagine. Haas is the special ref. More wasted time as Dawn wins with a rollup. Haas then admits to having an affair and calls the engagement off. He then dumps Dawn, leaving them both dumped. It really makes you wonder why they bothered to be perfectly honest.
The Big Show is continuing his feud with Angle and company, as Big Show takes on Angle, Jindrak and Reigns. I suppose it’s probably the new Team Angle, although with far less talent. Big Show basically kills the faction dead anyway as Show wins with an F5 on Jindrak. It was boring but at least Big Show is trying to learn some more moves, even if he is stealing off others.
Spike Dudley defends the Cruiserweight title against Funaki. I’m a bit surprised that they’ve put two wrestlers that the WWE have booked as jobbers for years so high up a PPV card. Anyway, it was pretty poor, as Funaki becomes the new Cruiserweight Champion with yet another rollup finish.
JBL continues his mind-numbingly dull reign as Smackdown World Champion by defending against the Undertaker, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero in a fatal 4-way. Eddie looked like he was working his socks off trying to elevate the guys he was working with but it was a pretty forlorn hope. They used every main event trick in the book to try and save it and that was useless too. The Undertaker has the match won when Heidenreich interferes. Why dig that feud up again? Is Taker really going to give Heidenreich a victory? It leaves JBL to clean up and pin Booker after the Clothesline to keep the title reign going.
What do you say about that? A complete mess of a PPV and a terrible way to end the year. I think the idea behind the JBL title reign is that we are supposed to want him to lose the title so much that we’ll pay to see him lose. Erm, no. As soon as he loses the title, you might get more buys. Until then, I think we’ll be seeing more low buyrates for Smackdown PPV’s.
The year ends with the champions looking like this:
Raw World title: Vacant (New Champ decided in an Elimination Chamber at the new Raw PPV, New Year’s Resolution)
Raw Tag Titles: Eugene and Regal
Women’s title: Lita
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: Rey Mysterio and RVD
Cruiserweight title: Funaki
Intercontinental title: Shelton Benjamin
US title: John Cena
My view on the year:
The year started so well with a great Rumble match, a great main event at No Way Out, a great Wrestlemania, a great main event at Backlash and a golden era with Eddie and Benoit holding the World Titles on their respective shows. However, after Backlash, nothing stood out as every PPV after then was average to poor with Armageddon ending the year really badly.
My favourite PPV of the year:
Wrestlemania (without the endless filler segments)
My favourite PPV match of the year:
The Wrestlemania main event between Benoit, Triple H and HBK
My worst PPV of the year:
Armageddon
So, there you have it. 15 PPV’s scheduled for 2005 and the hard sell for Wrestlemania begins once again. Thank you all for reading the 4 parts and hopefully they’ll be a bit more to shout about in the coming year.
Hello and welcome to the fourth and final part of Grandprix’s WWE PPV review of 2004. As we saw in Part 3, the string of mediocre PPV’s had continued and with the new year fast approaching, the WWE really desperately need to turn things around. Did they? Let’s find out…
In this part, we’ll be looking at No Mercy, Taboo Tuesday, Survivor Series and Armageddon. The champions after Unforgiven look like this:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance (Grenier and Conway)
Women’s title: Trish Stratus
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree
Cruiserweight title: Spike Dudley
Intercontinental title: Chris Jericho
US title: Booker T
The next PPV on the list is the Smackdown only PPV, No Mercy. There were no title changes between Unforgiven and No Mercy and the only real incident was Lita (obviously) losing Kane’s baby. Maybe she left it in her locker with her acting ability. Let’s go straight into it.
No Mercy was on the 3rd October and the opening match featured Eddie Guerrero fighting Angle’s right hand man, Luther Reigns in what I can only guess is some kind of feud development from Eddie’s loss to Angle at Summerslam. Basically, this was Reigns beating on Eddie for 10 minutes and then Eddie smacked Reigns with a nightstick and hit the frogsplash for the win. Eddie is better than this and deserves better than this poor match.
Evil Spike Dudley makes a defence of the Cruiserweight title when he faces Nunzio. I can’t say they had done a great deal with Nunzio at this point but I guess he’ll take whatever he can get at the moment. There was so much interference in this match and it hurt it, although it was pretty good in parts. Spike Dudley defends thanks to Bubba’s interference.
Billy Kidman and Paul London have fallen out since losing the tag titles in September and they are going to settle their differences with a match. It was a decent little match that saw Kidman put his knees up to block London’s Shooting Star Press and does one of his own to win. Kidman then completes the heel turn by bad mouthing the fans and doing another SSP on London, who had ‘internal injuries’ apparently.
Next up, Suzuki and Dupree defend the Smackdown Tag Titles against Rey Mysterio and RVD. Again, it was a decent little match as Rey Mysterio gets dropped on the ropes on his throat and Kenzo rolls him up for the win.
The Big Show has just recently been reinstated after being forced to quit (if he quits of his own free will, as in agreed to the stipulation, surely that’s him finished), in a rare bit of storyline continuity, Angle is cheesed off (because Big Show threw off some scaffolding) and they have a match against each other, although surely attempted murder would make Angle the face. Such is life. Angle shaved Big Show bald on the Smackdown before No Mercy. Angle bailed out early and got counted out but Teddy Long restarted the match. The Big Show pretty much destroys Angle and chokeslams him for the clean win.
The destiny of the US title is decided next as the best of 5 series reaches the end. With the score at a very surprising 2-2, Booker T and John Cena face off one last time with the winner taking the US title. It’s a shame that the 4 matches before this one sucked. This one didn’t fair much better as the match stank. The FU wins it for Cena and he is the new US champion.
Dawn Marie and the Dudleyz take on Miss Jackie, Rico and Charlie Haas in a 6-person tag team match. They were having a bit of fun out there as Haas hits a crossbody on D-Von leading to Rico hitting a moonsault for the victory. Again, decent enough and the women didn’t affect it too much.
The main event is the obvious rematch between JBL and The Undertaker for the Smackdown World Title. As usual, it’s some sort of gimmick match and it’s a hearse match. Basically, you have to lock your opponent in the back of a hearse. It seems like they can’t come up with anything new, because this match was pretty much the same as the previous encounter between these two, dull and boring. Heidenreich (the wrestler that botches leg drops) makes an appearance and attacks the Undertaker. Heidenreich locks Taker in the back of a hearse after drugging him with ether but the match isn’t over because Taker no sells ether but JBL does the clothesline and locks him up to retain the title.
So, No Mercy was looking average all the way and depending on your view of the main event depends on whether it maintains it’s averageness or it sinks into the sludge with The Great American Bash. JBL’s drawing power is a delight to the electric companies, as people switch off in their droves. Apparently, No Mercy came in as the lowest bought PPV in WWE history.
The Raw only experimental PPV, Taboo Tuesday, is next but before then, Carlito Caribbean Cool debuts on the Smackdown after No Mercy and wins the US title off John Cena. Not quite sure why Cena won the title in that best of 5 series if he was just going to lose it so quickly and so cheaply on the next event.
Anyway, Taboo Tuesday is a first in two ways. It’s the first WWE PPV to air live on a Tuesday and it’s the first ‘interactive’ WWE PPV. Basically, the fans, before the event, get to vote on certain things throughout the night. Whether it’s rigged or not, that’s for you to interpret. I think one or two may have been rigged.
Taboo Tuesday on the 19th October kicks off with Jericho defending the Intercontinental title against a person to be voted for. Shelton Benjamin won the vote and has his chance. It was going pretty good, if a bit short and Shelton Benjamin hits Jericho with the Exploder powerslam for the winner and the title. I think this was a great decision because Benjamin needed a title and Jericho needs the big title, so great decision.
Right at the start of the show, the Divas were told they were going to compete in a battle royal dressed as schoolgirls, according to the fans poll. The Women’s title is on the line as Trish defends against Jazz, Nidia, Victoria, Gail Kim, Molly and Stacy. It’s a pretty weak battle royal as just touching the floor outside the ring means elimination. Trish is the last one in so she retains.
Gene ‘The Babykiller’ Snitsky is going to pay for killing Kane’s baby as Kane attempts to destroy him via a weapon of the fans choosing. The fans chose the steel chain and the weak match goes on. Then, Snitsky grabs a steel chair and ‘crushes’ Kane throat. The ref tries to stop the match but Snitsky wants the pin and gets the victory. The match was rubbish but it made Snitsky look pretty good as a monster heel.
Eugene has returned and he has a match with Uncle Eric. The loser has to have their head shaved. The match was not really a match, more of a pointless waste of time. Eugene wins quickly and The Coach tries to save Bischoff from the embarrassment but Vince comes down to enforce the fans decision. Since when did Vince care what the fans think? Anyway, Bischoff goes bald and The Coach, as punishment, has to wear a dress.
The main event vote was for HBK, Benoit or Edge to face Triple H later on with the other 2 teaming up to face La Resistance. HBK won the right to face Triple H (despite being injured) and Benoit and Edge have to team up to face La Resistance in the next match. Edge’s recent heel tendencies become more apparent when he leaves Benoit to fight on his own late in the match. Benoit locks Conway in the Crossface for the victory, basically winning the titles on his own. Pretty disappointing match here.
Next up, the Diva search winner Christy takes on Carmella in a match of the fans choosing. The fans chose a Lingerie Pillow Fight. It takes them longer to change into their lingerie then the match itself lasts. Just a waste of PPV time but I suppose the WWE are trying to get their moneys worth out of these ‘divas’.
Triple H takes on HBK for the Raw World Title. Shawn has a really shoddy knee. At least he won’t forget to sell it. It was pretty decent for what it was, which was Triple H focusing on the knee and Shawn doing his best to have a match. Edge proved to be the deciding factor as he runs in and spears HBK for Triple H to win and retain the title.
The main event sees Randy Orton take on Ric Flair, as Orton wasn’t allowed to get his hands on Triple H. The fans voted for a Cage match, so that’s what we got. Flair was really getting into it and there was some pretty good stuff for a 10-minute cage match. The RKO gives Orton the victory by pinfall. I hate the pinfall finishes in cage matches. Orton and Flair hug in an incident that was forgotten the next night.
I think it’s fair to say that Taboo Tuesday was a failure, although it was an interesting idea. Nothing really stood out and there was a ripe bunch of dire matches, which really hurt it and a whole load of stuff that has no place on a PPV. Taboo Tuesday needs an overhaul before the next one.
November is the traditional home of the final PPV of the big 4 PPVs, Survivor Series. The only title switch before Survivor Series was Edge and Benoit losing the Raw Tag Titles back to La Resistance after Edge refused to tag when Benoit needed a tag, leaving Benoit wide open to lose. Edge then destroyed him afterward to totally complete the heel turn.
There were certainly a few changes since Taboo Tuesday and before Survivor Series. November saw a cull on the rosters as Billy Gunn, A-Train, Test, Gail Kim, Rodney Mack, Jazz, Johnny Stamboli, Rico, Nidia, Chuck Palumbo, Lamont and Shaniqua all get fired/released.
Onto Survivor Series on the 14th November with the opener featuring the Cruiserweight Champion, Spike Dudley, defending the title against Chavo, Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman in a fatal 4-way. As usual with the WWE and cruiserweights, they were having a fun little match but cut it short. Spike Dudley retains after stealing a pin on Chavo.
Next up, Shelton Benjamin takes on Christian for Benjamin’s Intercontinental title. Shelton manages to hold off Tomko’s interference and Christian’s offence to retain the title with the Exploder. It was a good match, really kicking off Benjamin’s title run at PPVs on a high.
A classic Survivor Series rules match is next, as Cena, RVD, Eddie and Big Show take on Angle, Carlito Caribbean Cool, Mark Jindrak and Luther Reigns. Carlito injured his shoulder at a recent show and gets chased out of the arena by Cena before the match even starts, allowing Carlito the chance not to wrestle. Eddie spends the majority of the match getting beaten up before a quick flurry of eliminations. RVD was first, then Jindrak, then Reigns, leaving Angle on his own and gets pinned by Big Show. The eliminations were far too quick in a match with 7 guys in it.
It’s useless Heidenreich taking on Undertaker – Texas Ranger in what looks on paper as the match where everyone relieves themselves because it won’t be a great match to look at. It was exactly what you’d think it would be like, slow and boring. Taker wins with the Tombstone. Moving speedily on, Trish takes on Lita for the Women’s title. Lita develops a mean streak, as she DQ’s herself, hitting Trish with a chair. The video package before the match was longer than this match.
JBL defends the Smackdown World Title against Booker T, despite Booker losing his last PPV match. I really struggle to fathom the booking logic sometimes. Sometimes? I mean all the time. This match was totally lacking anything of interest, as all JBL matches seem to include either bleeding or loads of interference, sometimes both. It was the interference root this time as Orlando Jordan makes his presence felt and JBL gets the belt shot pin to retain. Horrible pretty much sums it up.
The main event is a classic Survivor Series match (so Triple H doesn’t have to defend his title) with Jericho, Benoit, Maven and Randy Orton taking on Triple H, Batista, Snitsky and Edge. There was also a little stipulation added with it too. The winning team gets to run Raw for a week each. Maven got taken out earlier but returns later on to get eliminated later on. Benoit was the first to go, and then Batista, Snitsky gets himself DQ’d and lays out everyone, allowing Maven to get eliminated. Jericho is next out and then Edge, leaving Triple H and Orton. Orton wins with the RKO, giving Orton, Jericho, Maven and Benoit a week each to run Raw.
The verdict? It was a good start and a good end but the middle really stank so you can only label it average at best. It really has been a baffling streak with average PPV’s running all the way from after Backlash. Perhaps it’s a lack of inspiration, motivation or awful booking and poor paydays but it doesn’t seem like it would take a lot from certain people to push a PPV into something worth watching.
Anyway, the final PPV of the year is the Smackdown only PPV, Armageddon. There were quite a number of title changes after Survivor Series, maybe in the hope of spicing things up a bit. All the cut Diva search contestants all seem to have pointless parts on Raw and Smackdown now. Cena, the next Smackdown after Survivor Series, wins the US title off of Carlito and Carlito is now on the injured list. RVD and Rey Mysterio have been teaming for a while and they win the Smackdown Tag Titles off of Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree. Eugene and Regal win the Raw Tag Titles off La Resistance the night after Survivor Series. Lita wins the Women’s Title off of Trish. The final change was a controversial ending to the Raw World Title match, leading to the title being declared vacant.
So, the final PPV of the year, Armageddon on the 12th December, kicks off with Rey Mysterio and RVD defending their newly won Tag Titles against Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree. Logical, I suppose. Quite a few blown spots but they were putting on a good match as RVD pins Dupree with the 5-star Frogsplash to retain.
Kurt Angle had been throwing invitational challenges out and this time, he faces Santa Claus. Pointless match, if you can call it that. It gets worse as the final two in the Tough Enough competition, which has been running on Smackdown for a few weeks, face off in a boxing match. This is a wrestling PPV, right? Well, it’s Mike V Daniel as they both punch air for 3 one-minute rounds. Daniel is declared the winner as more time gets wasted on garbage.
The Bashams take on Charlie Haas and Hardcore Holly, although you really have to wonder why. I still can’t see why this match has been booked. The Bashams win after Dawn Marie and Miss Jackie run down to fight over Haas, leaving Holly to fall victim to the deadly small package.
Cena defends the US title in a street fight against Carlito’s right hand man, Jesus. Apparently, Jesus picked up a groin injury but it really doesn’t explain why Cena basically beat him down for 8 minutes. Cena won with the FU in a pretty dire match.
Next, it’s the reason why Dawn Marie and Miss Jackie are fighting over Haas. Miss Jackie and Haas are engaged but Dawn Marie claims she had an affair with Haas. Obviously, they have to settle it in the ring to the dismay of myself, as you can imagine. Haas is the special ref. More wasted time as Dawn wins with a rollup. Haas then admits to having an affair and calls the engagement off. He then dumps Dawn, leaving them both dumped. It really makes you wonder why they bothered to be perfectly honest.
The Big Show is continuing his feud with Angle and company, as Big Show takes on Angle, Jindrak and Reigns. I suppose it’s probably the new Team Angle, although with far less talent. Big Show basically kills the faction dead anyway as Show wins with an F5 on Jindrak. It was boring but at least Big Show is trying to learn some more moves, even if he is stealing off others.
Spike Dudley defends the Cruiserweight title against Funaki. I’m a bit surprised that they’ve put two wrestlers that the WWE have booked as jobbers for years so high up a PPV card. Anyway, it was pretty poor, as Funaki becomes the new Cruiserweight Champion with yet another rollup finish.
JBL continues his mind-numbingly dull reign as Smackdown World Champion by defending against the Undertaker, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero in a fatal 4-way. Eddie looked like he was working his socks off trying to elevate the guys he was working with but it was a pretty forlorn hope. They used every main event trick in the book to try and save it and that was useless too. The Undertaker has the match won when Heidenreich interferes. Why dig that feud up again? Is Taker really going to give Heidenreich a victory? It leaves JBL to clean up and pin Booker after the Clothesline to keep the title reign going.
What do you say about that? A complete mess of a PPV and a terrible way to end the year. I think the idea behind the JBL title reign is that we are supposed to want him to lose the title so much that we’ll pay to see him lose. Erm, no. As soon as he loses the title, you might get more buys. Until then, I think we’ll be seeing more low buyrates for Smackdown PPV’s.
The year ends with the champions looking like this:
Raw World title: Vacant (New Champ decided in an Elimination Chamber at the new Raw PPV, New Year’s Resolution)
Raw Tag Titles: Eugene and Regal
Women’s title: Lita
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: Rey Mysterio and RVD
Cruiserweight title: Funaki
Intercontinental title: Shelton Benjamin
US title: John Cena
My view on the year:
The year started so well with a great Rumble match, a great main event at No Way Out, a great Wrestlemania, a great main event at Backlash and a golden era with Eddie and Benoit holding the World Titles on their respective shows. However, after Backlash, nothing stood out as every PPV after then was average to poor with Armageddon ending the year really badly.
My favourite PPV of the year:
Wrestlemania (without the endless filler segments)
My favourite PPV match of the year:
The Wrestlemania main event between Benoit, Triple H and HBK
My worst PPV of the year:
Armageddon
So, there you have it. 15 PPV’s scheduled for 2005 and the hard sell for Wrestlemania begins once again. Thank you all for reading the 4 parts and hopefully they’ll be a bit more to shout about in the coming year.
In this part, we’ll be looking at No Mercy, Taboo Tuesday, Survivor Series and Armageddon. The champions after Unforgiven look like this:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance (Grenier and Conway)
Women’s title: Trish Stratus
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree
Cruiserweight title: Spike Dudley
Intercontinental title: Chris Jericho
US title: Booker T
The next PPV on the list is the Smackdown only PPV, No Mercy. There were no title changes between Unforgiven and No Mercy and the only real incident was Lita (obviously) losing Kane’s baby. Maybe she left it in her locker with her acting ability. Let’s go straight into it.
No Mercy was on the 3rd October and the opening match featured Eddie Guerrero fighting Angle’s right hand man, Luther Reigns in what I can only guess is some kind of feud development from Eddie’s loss to Angle at Summerslam. Basically, this was Reigns beating on Eddie for 10 minutes and then Eddie smacked Reigns with a nightstick and hit the frogsplash for the win. Eddie is better than this and deserves better than this poor match.
Evil Spike Dudley makes a defence of the Cruiserweight title when he faces Nunzio. I can’t say they had done a great deal with Nunzio at this point but I guess he’ll take whatever he can get at the moment. There was so much interference in this match and it hurt it, although it was pretty good in parts. Spike Dudley defends thanks to Bubba’s interference.
Billy Kidman and Paul London have fallen out since losing the tag titles in September and they are going to settle their differences with a match. It was a decent little match that saw Kidman put his knees up to block London’s Shooting Star Press and does one of his own to win. Kidman then completes the heel turn by bad mouthing the fans and doing another SSP on London, who had ‘internal injuries’ apparently.
Next up, Suzuki and Dupree defend the Smackdown Tag Titles against Rey Mysterio and RVD. Again, it was a decent little match as Rey Mysterio gets dropped on the ropes on his throat and Kenzo rolls him up for the win.
The Big Show has just recently been reinstated after being forced to quit (if he quits of his own free will, as in agreed to the stipulation, surely that’s him finished), in a rare bit of storyline continuity, Angle is cheesed off (because Big Show threw off some scaffolding) and they have a match against each other, although surely attempted murder would make Angle the face. Such is life. Angle shaved Big Show bald on the Smackdown before No Mercy. Angle bailed out early and got counted out but Teddy Long restarted the match. The Big Show pretty much destroys Angle and chokeslams him for the clean win.
The destiny of the US title is decided next as the best of 5 series reaches the end. With the score at a very surprising 2-2, Booker T and John Cena face off one last time with the winner taking the US title. It’s a shame that the 4 matches before this one sucked. This one didn’t fair much better as the match stank. The FU wins it for Cena and he is the new US champion.
Dawn Marie and the Dudleyz take on Miss Jackie, Rico and Charlie Haas in a 6-person tag team match. They were having a bit of fun out there as Haas hits a crossbody on D-Von leading to Rico hitting a moonsault for the victory. Again, decent enough and the women didn’t affect it too much.
The main event is the obvious rematch between JBL and The Undertaker for the Smackdown World Title. As usual, it’s some sort of gimmick match and it’s a hearse match. Basically, you have to lock your opponent in the back of a hearse. It seems like they can’t come up with anything new, because this match was pretty much the same as the previous encounter between these two, dull and boring. Heidenreich (the wrestler that botches leg drops) makes an appearance and attacks the Undertaker. Heidenreich locks Taker in the back of a hearse after drugging him with ether but the match isn’t over because Taker no sells ether but JBL does the clothesline and locks him up to retain the title.
So, No Mercy was looking average all the way and depending on your view of the main event depends on whether it maintains it’s averageness or it sinks into the sludge with The Great American Bash. JBL’s drawing power is a delight to the electric companies, as people switch off in their droves. Apparently, No Mercy came in as the lowest bought PPV in WWE history.
The Raw only experimental PPV, Taboo Tuesday, is next but before then, Carlito Caribbean Cool debuts on the Smackdown after No Mercy and wins the US title off John Cena. Not quite sure why Cena won the title in that best of 5 series if he was just going to lose it so quickly and so cheaply on the next event.
Anyway, Taboo Tuesday is a first in two ways. It’s the first WWE PPV to air live on a Tuesday and it’s the first ‘interactive’ WWE PPV. Basically, the fans, before the event, get to vote on certain things throughout the night. Whether it’s rigged or not, that’s for you to interpret. I think one or two may have been rigged.
Taboo Tuesday on the 19th October kicks off with Jericho defending the Intercontinental title against a person to be voted for. Shelton Benjamin won the vote and has his chance. It was going pretty good, if a bit short and Shelton Benjamin hits Jericho with the Exploder powerslam for the winner and the title. I think this was a great decision because Benjamin needed a title and Jericho needs the big title, so great decision.
Right at the start of the show, the Divas were told they were going to compete in a battle royal dressed as schoolgirls, according to the fans poll. The Women’s title is on the line as Trish defends against Jazz, Nidia, Victoria, Gail Kim, Molly and Stacy. It’s a pretty weak battle royal as just touching the floor outside the ring means elimination. Trish is the last one in so she retains.
Gene ‘The Babykiller’ Snitsky is going to pay for killing Kane’s baby as Kane attempts to destroy him via a weapon of the fans choosing. The fans chose the steel chain and the weak match goes on. Then, Snitsky grabs a steel chair and ‘crushes’ Kane throat. The ref tries to stop the match but Snitsky wants the pin and gets the victory. The match was rubbish but it made Snitsky look pretty good as a monster heel.
Eugene has returned and he has a match with Uncle Eric. The loser has to have their head shaved. The match was not really a match, more of a pointless waste of time. Eugene wins quickly and The Coach tries to save Bischoff from the embarrassment but Vince comes down to enforce the fans decision. Since when did Vince care what the fans think? Anyway, Bischoff goes bald and The Coach, as punishment, has to wear a dress.
The main event vote was for HBK, Benoit or Edge to face Triple H later on with the other 2 teaming up to face La Resistance. HBK won the right to face Triple H (despite being injured) and Benoit and Edge have to team up to face La Resistance in the next match. Edge’s recent heel tendencies become more apparent when he leaves Benoit to fight on his own late in the match. Benoit locks Conway in the Crossface for the victory, basically winning the titles on his own. Pretty disappointing match here.
Next up, the Diva search winner Christy takes on Carmella in a match of the fans choosing. The fans chose a Lingerie Pillow Fight. It takes them longer to change into their lingerie then the match itself lasts. Just a waste of PPV time but I suppose the WWE are trying to get their moneys worth out of these ‘divas’.
Triple H takes on HBK for the Raw World Title. Shawn has a really shoddy knee. At least he won’t forget to sell it. It was pretty decent for what it was, which was Triple H focusing on the knee and Shawn doing his best to have a match. Edge proved to be the deciding factor as he runs in and spears HBK for Triple H to win and retain the title.
The main event sees Randy Orton take on Ric Flair, as Orton wasn’t allowed to get his hands on Triple H. The fans voted for a Cage match, so that’s what we got. Flair was really getting into it and there was some pretty good stuff for a 10-minute cage match. The RKO gives Orton the victory by pinfall. I hate the pinfall finishes in cage matches. Orton and Flair hug in an incident that was forgotten the next night.
I think it’s fair to say that Taboo Tuesday was a failure, although it was an interesting idea. Nothing really stood out and there was a ripe bunch of dire matches, which really hurt it and a whole load of stuff that has no place on a PPV. Taboo Tuesday needs an overhaul before the next one.
November is the traditional home of the final PPV of the big 4 PPVs, Survivor Series. The only title switch before Survivor Series was Edge and Benoit losing the Raw Tag Titles back to La Resistance after Edge refused to tag when Benoit needed a tag, leaving Benoit wide open to lose. Edge then destroyed him afterward to totally complete the heel turn.
There were certainly a few changes since Taboo Tuesday and before Survivor Series. November saw a cull on the rosters as Billy Gunn, A-Train, Test, Gail Kim, Rodney Mack, Jazz, Johnny Stamboli, Rico, Nidia, Chuck Palumbo, Lamont and Shaniqua all get fired/released.
Onto Survivor Series on the 14th November with the opener featuring the Cruiserweight Champion, Spike Dudley, defending the title against Chavo, Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman in a fatal 4-way. As usual with the WWE and cruiserweights, they were having a fun little match but cut it short. Spike Dudley retains after stealing a pin on Chavo.
Next up, Shelton Benjamin takes on Christian for Benjamin’s Intercontinental title. Shelton manages to hold off Tomko’s interference and Christian’s offence to retain the title with the Exploder. It was a good match, really kicking off Benjamin’s title run at PPVs on a high.
A classic Survivor Series rules match is next, as Cena, RVD, Eddie and Big Show take on Angle, Carlito Caribbean Cool, Mark Jindrak and Luther Reigns. Carlito injured his shoulder at a recent show and gets chased out of the arena by Cena before the match even starts, allowing Carlito the chance not to wrestle. Eddie spends the majority of the match getting beaten up before a quick flurry of eliminations. RVD was first, then Jindrak, then Reigns, leaving Angle on his own and gets pinned by Big Show. The eliminations were far too quick in a match with 7 guys in it.
It’s useless Heidenreich taking on Undertaker – Texas Ranger in what looks on paper as the match where everyone relieves themselves because it won’t be a great match to look at. It was exactly what you’d think it would be like, slow and boring. Taker wins with the Tombstone. Moving speedily on, Trish takes on Lita for the Women’s title. Lita develops a mean streak, as she DQ’s herself, hitting Trish with a chair. The video package before the match was longer than this match.
JBL defends the Smackdown World Title against Booker T, despite Booker losing his last PPV match. I really struggle to fathom the booking logic sometimes. Sometimes? I mean all the time. This match was totally lacking anything of interest, as all JBL matches seem to include either bleeding or loads of interference, sometimes both. It was the interference root this time as Orlando Jordan makes his presence felt and JBL gets the belt shot pin to retain. Horrible pretty much sums it up.
The main event is a classic Survivor Series match (so Triple H doesn’t have to defend his title) with Jericho, Benoit, Maven and Randy Orton taking on Triple H, Batista, Snitsky and Edge. There was also a little stipulation added with it too. The winning team gets to run Raw for a week each. Maven got taken out earlier but returns later on to get eliminated later on. Benoit was the first to go, and then Batista, Snitsky gets himself DQ’d and lays out everyone, allowing Maven to get eliminated. Jericho is next out and then Edge, leaving Triple H and Orton. Orton wins with the RKO, giving Orton, Jericho, Maven and Benoit a week each to run Raw.
The verdict? It was a good start and a good end but the middle really stank so you can only label it average at best. It really has been a baffling streak with average PPV’s running all the way from after Backlash. Perhaps it’s a lack of inspiration, motivation or awful booking and poor paydays but it doesn’t seem like it would take a lot from certain people to push a PPV into something worth watching.
Anyway, the final PPV of the year is the Smackdown only PPV, Armageddon. There were quite a number of title changes after Survivor Series, maybe in the hope of spicing things up a bit. All the cut Diva search contestants all seem to have pointless parts on Raw and Smackdown now. Cena, the next Smackdown after Survivor Series, wins the US title off of Carlito and Carlito is now on the injured list. RVD and Rey Mysterio have been teaming for a while and they win the Smackdown Tag Titles off of Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree. Eugene and Regal win the Raw Tag Titles off La Resistance the night after Survivor Series. Lita wins the Women’s Title off of Trish. The final change was a controversial ending to the Raw World Title match, leading to the title being declared vacant.
So, the final PPV of the year, Armageddon on the 12th December, kicks off with Rey Mysterio and RVD defending their newly won Tag Titles against Kenzo Suzuki and Rene Dupree. Logical, I suppose. Quite a few blown spots but they were putting on a good match as RVD pins Dupree with the 5-star Frogsplash to retain.
Kurt Angle had been throwing invitational challenges out and this time, he faces Santa Claus. Pointless match, if you can call it that. It gets worse as the final two in the Tough Enough competition, which has been running on Smackdown for a few weeks, face off in a boxing match. This is a wrestling PPV, right? Well, it’s Mike V Daniel as they both punch air for 3 one-minute rounds. Daniel is declared the winner as more time gets wasted on garbage.
The Bashams take on Charlie Haas and Hardcore Holly, although you really have to wonder why. I still can’t see why this match has been booked. The Bashams win after Dawn Marie and Miss Jackie run down to fight over Haas, leaving Holly to fall victim to the deadly small package.
Cena defends the US title in a street fight against Carlito’s right hand man, Jesus. Apparently, Jesus picked up a groin injury but it really doesn’t explain why Cena basically beat him down for 8 minutes. Cena won with the FU in a pretty dire match.
Next, it’s the reason why Dawn Marie and Miss Jackie are fighting over Haas. Miss Jackie and Haas are engaged but Dawn Marie claims she had an affair with Haas. Obviously, they have to settle it in the ring to the dismay of myself, as you can imagine. Haas is the special ref. More wasted time as Dawn wins with a rollup. Haas then admits to having an affair and calls the engagement off. He then dumps Dawn, leaving them both dumped. It really makes you wonder why they bothered to be perfectly honest.
The Big Show is continuing his feud with Angle and company, as Big Show takes on Angle, Jindrak and Reigns. I suppose it’s probably the new Team Angle, although with far less talent. Big Show basically kills the faction dead anyway as Show wins with an F5 on Jindrak. It was boring but at least Big Show is trying to learn some more moves, even if he is stealing off others.
Spike Dudley defends the Cruiserweight title against Funaki. I’m a bit surprised that they’ve put two wrestlers that the WWE have booked as jobbers for years so high up a PPV card. Anyway, it was pretty poor, as Funaki becomes the new Cruiserweight Champion with yet another rollup finish.
JBL continues his mind-numbingly dull reign as Smackdown World Champion by defending against the Undertaker, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero in a fatal 4-way. Eddie looked like he was working his socks off trying to elevate the guys he was working with but it was a pretty forlorn hope. They used every main event trick in the book to try and save it and that was useless too. The Undertaker has the match won when Heidenreich interferes. Why dig that feud up again? Is Taker really going to give Heidenreich a victory? It leaves JBL to clean up and pin Booker after the Clothesline to keep the title reign going.
What do you say about that? A complete mess of a PPV and a terrible way to end the year. I think the idea behind the JBL title reign is that we are supposed to want him to lose the title so much that we’ll pay to see him lose. Erm, no. As soon as he loses the title, you might get more buys. Until then, I think we’ll be seeing more low buyrates for Smackdown PPV’s.
The year ends with the champions looking like this:
Raw World title: Vacant (New Champ decided in an Elimination Chamber at the new Raw PPV, New Year’s Resolution)
Raw Tag Titles: Eugene and Regal
Women’s title: Lita
Smackdown World title: John Bradshaw Layfield
Smackdown Tag titles: Rey Mysterio and RVD
Cruiserweight title: Funaki
Intercontinental title: Shelton Benjamin
US title: John Cena
My view on the year:
The year started so well with a great Rumble match, a great main event at No Way Out, a great Wrestlemania, a great main event at Backlash and a golden era with Eddie and Benoit holding the World Titles on their respective shows. However, after Backlash, nothing stood out as every PPV after then was average to poor with Armageddon ending the year really badly.
My favourite PPV of the year:
Wrestlemania (without the endless filler segments)
My favourite PPV match of the year:
The Wrestlemania main event between Benoit, Triple H and HBK
My worst PPV of the year:
Armageddon
So, there you have it. 15 PPV’s scheduled for 2005 and the hard sell for Wrestlemania begins once again. Thank you all for reading the 4 parts and hopefully they’ll be a bit more to shout about in the coming year.
nerd
Sums up the year perfectly. And I agreed with it all again too... Unusual. :) Good review.
mattributé wrote:
> nerd
> nerd
Nice 1