IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: October 9, 2018
Location: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Commentators: Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Tom Phillips

With Australia behind us, it’s time to get ready for the return to Saudi Arabia. That means qualifying matches for the World Cup of Wrestling, the latest tournament because the more than dozen plus that we’ve had this year already aren’t enough. Other than that we have the build towards Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles for the Smackdown World Title. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Women’s Title: Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch

Becky is defending and can lose the title via DQ. They’re in the ring for the Big Match Intros with neither getting an entrance so they’re starting fast. Becky works on a wristlock to start before raking Charlotte’s eyes across the top rope. A legdrop sets up the strut from Becky but she misses the spinning version, allowing Charlotte to roll her up for two. They clothesline each other but it’s too early for the Disarm-Her.

Instead Charlotte hits a dragon screw legwhip, only to be taken down into an armbar. Becky gets catapulted into the corner for a trip to the floor, which of course means a dive to take us to a break. Back with Charlotte being slammed off the top for two as Becky works on the arm some more. Charlotte chops away and grabs a belly to back suplex for a double knockdown.

Lynch gets crotched on top but manages to roll off into a cross armbreaker. That’s reversed into a sitout powerbomb and we take a second break. Back again with Becky trying to walk out but coming back in and throwing the belt down. That leads to an argument that doesn’t get us anywhere, so it’s an exchange of rollups, followed by a spear to put Becky on the floor.

Charlotte misses the moonsault though and the Bexploder gets nine. Becky follows her out and gets Bexploded as well, followed by Natural Selection back inside. Charlotte can’t cover though as Becky rolls outside, leading to another brawl for the double countout at 25:12. That might be a record for the longest one fall women’s match.

Rating: B. They beat each other up here and the ending should set up some kind of gimmick rematch at Evolution. You know, because the way to get any big feud to the next level is to have them fight multiple times in a month and a half. Either way, the draw is the right call here as neither is hurt and Charlotte can say she deserves another rematch.

Post match Charlotte spears Becky through the set. I feel that warrants a new version. Say with a giant fist.

Undertaker will be at SmackDown 1000.

World Cup Qualifying Match: Jeff Hardy vs. Samoa Joe

So you remember last month when Hardy had that big bump in the Cell and looked to be gone for a long time? Well he was gone less than a month instead. Both guys get videos about themselves, almost as if we’re seeing them for the first time. Hardy goes after Joe’s banged up knee to send him outside and we take a break.

Back with Joe elbowing him in the face and putting on e neck crank. Jeff fights up and drops the legs between the legs to send Joe outside again. Joe’s bad knee is sent into the steps and Hardy hammers away at it back inside. Hardy pounds away on it….and the referee stops the match due to Joe’s injury at 7:52.

Rating: C-. What a bizarre ending as Joe was still moving around and you’ll see worse injuries in other matches. I guess the idea is to protect Joe from another loss and that’s all well and good, but how about YOU DON’T BOOK HIM IN A MATCH WHERE HE’S GOING TO LOSE? If you want Hardy in the tournament, just have him beat someone else to qualify. Or do what you did with Cena and put him in the tournament without a win.

Video on Randy Orton. Are these just filler videos or is this some kind of season premiere?

Video on Evolution, who will be making their Smackdown debut next week.

Paige makes Becky vs. Charlotte at Evolution in a Last Woman Standing match.

It’s time for MizTV. Miz promises to remain professional tonight with his guests, AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan. AJ comes out first and Miz asks about a slightly less intimidating opponent. Miz: “If he comes to your house, he’ll tend your garden.” Bryan comes out and shakes AJ’s hand, which Miz doesn’t care to see. Bryan asks if Miz would rather talk about their match, because it shouldn’t take very long.

When asked about how this is going to be different, A talks about making sure this is going to stay in the ring. Miz: “With that, you’re saying you’re better than everyone.” Bryan doesn’t buy it and says he’s glad AJ thinks he’s the better wrestler. See, Bryan wants to beat a worthy champion and AJ has defended his title for over 300 days. That makes him more excited to win, because he knows he can beat AJ. Styles says no offense, but Bryan hasn’t faced any phenomenal opponents since he came back. You mean save for his first singles match back.

Bryan calls Miz the two minute man (AJ: “That’s what I’ve heard for years.”) and says this is what he fought to come back from retirement to do. His dream is to come back and be WWE Champion again. AJ gets out of his chair and asks how good it feels to punch Miz in the face. That’s enough for Miz to go to the apron and say that the small package was a fluke because his shoulder was up. Paige won’t give him a rematch so Miz goes on a rant about Bryan stealing the title and AJ making the title irrelevant. He’ll be waiting on the winner of the title match, which the fans seem to approve. AJ has a match tonight so good luck.

Shelton Benjamin vs. AJ Styles

Non-title with Miz and Bryan on commentary. Shelton takes him down to start and puts on a quickly broken chinlock. Benjamin gets one off a backdrop as Miz and Bryan bicker about the upcoming title match. AJ enziguris him down but can’t hit the Clash as Shelton muscles him up into a suplex.

That’s reversed as well but Shelton hits a jumping knee to break up the Phenomenal Forearm. AJ gets sent into the barricade and we take a break. Back with AJ scoring off an electric chair drop to put them both down. The Calf Crusher goes on but Benjamin is too close to the ropes. AJ is right back up with the Phenomenal Forearm for the pin at 8:20.

Rating: C. Perfectly watchable match with Shelton being built up last week and then losing just a week later. There’s nothing wrong with that and it’s the kind of match that has been done for years. AJ and Bryan competing against each other with the same opponents perfectly fine and it’s a good story to send them into their title match.

Video on Big Show.

Here’s Aiden English to show the other half of One Night In Milwaukee. Or the Director’s Cut actually, which they haven’t mentioned until now. Lana says she wants him….to know how important he is to Rusev. He’s done so much for Rusev’s career and she just wanted him to know. English thanks her and moves towards her as the camera freezes again. Back in the arena, English wants Rusev to come out here.

English offers to destroy the video if Rusev will kick Lana to the curb and reunite the team. Lana comes out as Rusev slowly walks towards English without saying anything. Rusev finally says he wants to see the full tape, but English says no man should ever have to see that. Lana has no problem playing the full tape because she hacked English’s phone. Apparently his password is I Heart Rusev.

The full version shows English coming onto her and getting shot down with nothing happening. English says they got him but the offer is still on the table. When she gets tired of those Rusev Days, come treat yourself to an Aiden night. Rusev charges and is smart enough to run where English is heading, allowing him to get in a few shots before English gets away. Well that was rather disappointing. Good segment, but it just came and went in a few weeks.

Rey Mysterio is confirmed to return next week in a World Cup Qualifying Match against Shinsuke Nakamura. Egads man. Really?

World Cup Qualifying Match: Big Show vs. Randy Orton

Show is looking slimmer than I’ve seen him in a long time. Orton gets shoved to the floor early on and we take a fast break. Back with Orton hitting a short DDT and putting on a chinlock. Show fights up with some clotheslines but Orton dropkicks the hip, setting up the hanging DDT for two. A spear gets Show out of trouble for the same and the fans think he still has it. The chokeslam gets two more but Orton bails before the KO Punch. Orton is smart enough to hit a thumb to the eye into the RKO for the pin at 9:25.

Rating: D-. That’s it? That’s the big post pay per view main event? A match that would have been a waste of a house show main event? For the sake of that nothing tournament that is just there for the sake of a trophy? You really can’t do anything better than this for a main event? Bringing Show back for a ten minute match where it’s a lot of chinlocking and clotheslines? Good grief.

Overall Rating: D+. The opener carries this as far as it can go but the rest, save for the Bryan/Styles segment, was a bunch of drek. So much of this was dedicated to that tournament and those weird hype videos for people we already know. I’m not sure what they were going for here and I’m more than willing to write it off as the results of jet lag. If next week is back to normal than fine, but I really hope this isn’t the new style they’re using for the show.

Results

Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch went to a double countout

Jeff Hardy b. Samoa Joe via referee stoppage

AJ Styles b. Shelton Benjamin – Phenomenal Forearm

Randy Orton b. Big Show – RKO

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Smackdown Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: April 15, 2004
Location: Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

Is it too much to ask to have more than one big story on the show? Last week saw JBL announced as the new #1 contender in a story that dominated the last two weeks. The second biggest story has been Booker T. vs. Rob Van Dam, which feels a long way down the ladder. That’s the main event tonight though so maybe it’s going to get a little better. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a long recap of last week’s big angle, partially set to Steve Blackman’s music for some reason.

Opening sequence.

Here’s Eddie Guerrero to open things up. He’s received about 27 phone calls this week from Kurt Angle (complete with an imitation, with Angle insisting that he DOES NOT suck), demanding an apology. JBL isn’t a great American because of his riches. See, JBL has been trying to pull one over on the fans by saying he’s from New York in his business suits. Eddie looks at him and sees a great American sellout.

JBL’s money doesn’t make him better or smarter than anyone else….and here’s an approved message from JBL on the screen. It’s a campaign style ad focusing on Eddie’s lying, cheating and stealing, which has a small vocal minority. Real Americans need to silence that voice and support a good man like JBL. Eddie says he’s tired of dealing with this same stuff since he became champion and he’s sick of it. Yeah he does all those things but he worked hard to get here. It took him seventeen years to get his first title shot and it wasn’t handed to him in a bogus award ceremony. Now JBL is #1 contender so let’s do it tonight.

Instead here’s Kurt Angle, who doesn’t appreciate any of this. Angle doesn’t appreciate him (how rude) so Eddie can have his title match tonight. Now it’s JBL in the limo to interrupt. He’d love to face Eddie tonight but after a week of shaking hands and kissing babies (and some baby mamas), he’s a little tired so the match can’t take place tonight. Angel agrees and lets JBL have his title match at Judgment Day. Tonight, it’s Eddie vs. Big Show. Eddie is stunned, as am I over this somehow taking nearly eighteen minutes.

Post break Show comes in to see Angle and JBL. He wants to know if he has a WWE Championship match tonight, but that’s a big negative. Show yells at both of them and isn’t happy with being their enforcer. If he can’t beat Eddie tonight, he quits.

John Cena vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Non-title and there are a lot of Cena signs in the crowd. We have two champions in the ring so the opening commentary is all about Big Show vs. Eddie Guerrero. Cena doesn’t respond well to being slapped in the face and slaps Chavo even harder as the announcers actually notice a match going on.

A headlock and a clothesline keep Chavo in trouble and it’s off to the second headlock on the mat. Chavo sends him outside and Chavo Sr. gets in a cowboy boot to the back of the head. Back in and we hit a camel clutch (continuing the family tradition) for all of five seconds before Cena powers out. A dropkick gives Chavo two but Cena is right back with the running shoulder. The Throwback, followed by taking Sr. out, sets up the FU for the pin.

Rating: D+. You would kind of expect something a little better from two champions, but I can’t say I’m surprised that the Cruiserweight Champion was beaten clean in such short order. I could have gone for a botched interference from Sr. or something but it’s not like the Cruiserweight Champion is on the US Champion’s level in the first place.

Video on Booker’s initial complaints about being on Smackdown. It looks like we’ll be going over the whole history to set up the main event. All two weeks of it.

Rene Dupree is having a new romantic dinner with Fifi (a different dog this week) and announces his new interview segment starting next week: Cafe de Rene.

We look back at Big Show attacking Eddie by powerbombing him onto a lowrider…in October of last year. Did we really need to have a flashback for a one off match?

Charlie Haas is warming up when Jamie Noble comes in. Jamie tells him to not worry about amateur wrestling when he faces Rico. It might as well be an intergender match. Charlie isn’t worried so Jamie talks about all the things Rico might do. The final advice: don’t let Rico get you from behind. Nunzio comes in and wishes Haas good luck too.

Rico vs. Charlie Haas

Jobber entrance for Charlie. Rico and Jackie Gayda pose on a mini stage on the way to the ring. We start with some prancing and Charlie is disgusted by an early lockup. Charlie takes him down and shouts about Rico being sick so Rico reverses and starts groping. Rico gets behind him and Charlie bails to the ropes as this is firmly in bad comedy territory.

A sunset flip lets Rico pull the trunks down, meaning more humor. Charlie forearms him in the face and chokes away as the announcers find this hilarious. Rico slips out of a suplex and kisses Haas, who bails to the floor. That’s enough to send Haas bailing to the floor for some water, but Rico pulls up his thong to scare Haas off for the countout.

Rating: F. Hey, did you know that wrestlers who may be gay are “sick” and apparently disgusting? They also seem to be completely incapable of not molesting their opponents, which seems to be the case with every WWE wrestler using the same gimmick. This is always so dumb and I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse.

Post match Haas vomits. Fair enough.

JBL promises Show a pizza if he wins but Show says he’s doing this for himself.

A man in a white beard is surrounded by candles and reads a bunch of Bible verses. His name is Mordecai and he’s here to be the right hand of the destroyer. Oh dear indeed. Cool vignette though.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Big Show

Non-title with Show’s career on the line. Show wastes no time in hammering away and a headbutt puts Eddie down. Some tosses send Eddie from corner to corner and there’s a choke for good measure. Eddie gets smart by stomping on the foot but another headbutt keeps him in trouble. Show makes it even worse with the loud chops but a low bridge takes him to the floor.

Eddie dropkicks him down again and we take a break. Back with Show choking on the mat before starting in on the arm. He even gets smart by wrapping Eddie’s arm around the rope. That doesn’t suit Show very well so let’s try a bearhug instead, followed by a big boot. It’s right back to the arm, which really doesn’t seem right coming from Show. Eddie’s comeback is cut off by a clothesline and Show walks around the ring a bit. Now that suits him very well.

Eddie gets knocked outside and finds a wrench under the ring, which he loads into the back of Show’s boot. The referee catches Show pulling it out and the distraction lets Eddie hammer away. Is there a reason why he didn’t distract the referee and hit Show with the wrench? A middle rope tornado DDT puts Show down but the kickout sends Eddie into the referee. With no one looking, Eddie gets in a low blow and another DDT, setting up the frog splash for the pin.

Rating: D. Well this didn’t need to be fifteen minutes long to put it mildly. To be fair though, Show was in need of knee surgery (hence him leaving) so he probably wasn’t moving nearly as well as he would have otherwise. Eddie won just as he should have and he did what he could, but there’s a limit to what a hampered Show can pull off.

Post match Eddie leads the fans in an extended Goodbye Song, which seems to hurt Show’s feelings.

Clip of Van Dam winning his first match on Smackdown and Booker being miserable.

Show is leaving and runs into Torrie laughing with the makeup lady. That must be about him so Show gets in her face and leaves. Torrie is terrified and leaves because she doesn’t have a match tonight.

Teddy Long introduces Mark Jindrak, who has the perfect body and the looks of Adonis. Mark looks at himself in a mirror and Teddy calls him the Reflection of Perfection over and over.

Mark Jindrak vs. Spike Dudley

Jindrak throws him into the corner to start and starts talking trash, followed by a pretty impressive dropkick to knock Spike off the top. A delayed one arm vertical suplex keeps Spike down and the belly to back suplex into a side slam finishes him in a hurry. Total squash.

Video of Booker walking out on Van Dam tonight. Do they really need to stretch out a show this much?

Raw ReBound looks at just about everything on the show.

Torrie goes to leave but Show comes up (from the direction that Torrie was looking, though she’s still surprised) and yells at her for laughing. He kicks in the windows of her car as Torrie begs him to calm down. Show breaks more windows and then turns the car over. Torrie runs away screaming and Show very slowly walks after her. Somehow this took nearly five minutes.

In case we didn’t spend enough time on it already, here are two replays of the car being flipped.

Booker T. vs. Rob Van Dam

It’s the rare serious Van Dam this week. Rob stomps him down in the corner to start and gets two off a standing moonsault. They head outside with Booker in even more trouble, this time off some kicks to the ribs. The spinning kick to the back knocks Booker off the barricade and we take a break.

Back with Booker hot shotting him for what sounds like his first real offense. Booker hits a neckbreaker and Tazz thinks he’s going after the neck. Even Cole mocks him for making such an obvious observation and Booker drops a knee for two. We hit the chinlock for a few seconds before Van Dam is back up, only to be kicked right back down.

The Book End is blocked and Van Dam hits his step over spinning kick to the face. Rob’s springboard kick to the face gets two and the split legged moonsault gets the same. Booker rolls away from the Five Star though and Booker superkicks him into the ropes with Rob’s arms getting tied up. A bunch of right hands actually get Booker disqualified at the five count. You don’t see that every day.

Rating: C-. It was far from great or even very good but at this point I’ll take anything I can get. The feud isn’t quite as big of a deal as WWE seems to think it is, though there’s a story to it that doesn’t revolve around the idea of Rico kissing someone or a cowboy hat, which puts it ahead of a lot of the stuff on this show.

Post match Booker beats on him a little more and does a Spinarooni.

Show has somehow caught Torrie (who was running while he slowly walked) and has her above a conveniently placed ledge. He threatens to throw her off the ledge until Angle shows up. Angle says he’s the one who gets in trouble if something happens to Torrie and violence is threatened. Torrie is allowed to leave so Angle goes after Show, who chokeslams him off the ledge, setting up a loud THUD. We look down and Kurt is unconscious with blood flowing from the back of his head and his leg bent at a rather nasty angle. So that’s it for Show and Angle seems to be close to dead. I guess that’s at least half of a happy ending?

Overall Rating: D-. Another horrible show, this time with the completely stupid Rico match, Torrie running away like the girl in a slasher movie and Angle being nearly murdered. Eddie and Big Show had a horrible match and now we’re gearing up for JBL vs. Eddie in over a month. If Van Dam vs. Booker is as good of a secondary story as they have, it’s going to be a very, very long year.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Smackdown
Date: April 1, 2004
Location: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

We’re officially in the JBL Era here and that’s going to go on for a long time. Last week we saw the debut of the new character, followed by him interfering in an Eddie Guerrero vs. Booker T. World Title match. I was hoping that it was just a bad dream but now it seems that we’re going to be in for the long haul. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence, which STILL includes Rock.

Here’s General Manager Kurt Angle to open things up. There’s something behind him underneath a black blanket, which Cole thinks might be a surprise. Angle talks about sacrificing his in-ring career for the good of both the fans and Smackdown. He can’t do it alone though and needs someone to step up and help him.

Tonight, someone needs to show that they’ve earned what is underneath the blanket: a trophy, which is the Kurt Angle Great American Award. Eddie Guerrero isn’t eligible, mainly because the winner gets the next shot at Eddie’s title. Tonight there will be a series of matches with the winners being the official nominees, with the first match beginning right now.

Great American Award Nominee Match: Big Show vs. Rikishi

Rikishi slugs away to start but gets knocked down with next to no effort. The slow beating begins, including the boot choke in the corner. One heck of an overhand chop puts Rikishi down but he superkicks Show in the corner. The Stinkface is broken up though and the chokeslam gives Show the pin. They kept it short, as they should have.

Earlier today, JBL with the horned limo arrived, complete with him yelling at the Latino driver, especially for not speaking English. Cole hypes up JBL’s portfolio beating the stock market SEVEN YEARS IN A ROW, which is now the way you push a top heel.

Rey Mysterio/Spike Dudley vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr./Chavo Guerrero Sr.

Chavo has new music. Rey and Jr. start things off with Mysterio’s standing Lionsault getting caught, only to have him armdrag Jr. down. Everything breaks down and it’s a Bronco Buster to Jr. and Spike’s running corner stomping on Sr. Rey gets crotched on top though and Sr. comes in for a butterfly suplex.

The fans think Chavo sucks and Tazz wants to know which one. My money is on Jr., who comes in with a camel clutch to Rey. That doesn’t last long and Rey sends Jr. into a right hand from Spike, who comes in for more offense than you’re usually going to see from him. Jr. saves his dad from a 619 so Spike Dudley Dogs Jr. while kicking Sr. to the floor for the pin.

Rating: C-. It’s a bad night for the champions so far and the match just wasn’t working very well. I can certainly go for having Spike as a cruiserweight more than as the plucky underdog though and at least he’s getting some more time. That being said, if you’re going to use this to likely set up a title match, maybe you shouldn’t have had Spike lose to Jr. last week.

Post match JBL comes in to beat up Rey and Spike, because cruiserweights mean nothing around here.

Great American Award Nominee Match: Rob Van Dam vs. Charlie Haas

Rematch from last week, though Haas now has new trunks. Haas tries to take it to the mat but has to avoid a kick to the face. Another attempt gets Rob on the mat, though jumping him from behind works. Unfortunately for Haas, the second attempt at kicking him in the face works as well but Haas is smart enough to start in on the leg. A headscissors sends Haas to the floor and he picks up a chair. Cole: “Great Americans don’t run around hitting people in the head with steel chairs.”

Back in and more shots to the leg have Rob in trouble and Haas wraps it around the post a few times. Charlie pulls him down by the leg again and puts on a half crab, which works a bit better than last week. Van Dam still gets out in a hurry, but this time Haas doesn’t get kicked in the face. A trip up top takes too long though and now Haas gets kicked in the head. Rolling Thunder (What leg injury?) gets two but the Five Star misses. Haas rolls to the floor and grabs the chair to knock the suicide dive out of the way, setting up the double countout.

Rating: C-. Not bad, Van Dam’s selling issues aside. I can appreciate the idea of building Haas up though as you can always have a good technical guy on the roster to get a good match out there. Haas isn’t likely to go anywhere and going 0-1-1 in two matches isn’t the best start, but the talent is clear and with a few wins, he could be a fine midcarder.

Actually hang on as Angle comes out and says Haas wins because he was ahead on points. Well yeah, he certainly was. Cole, obviously lacking an eye for talent, freaks out.

Video on JBL’s big promo and interference from last week. They’re certainly going full speed ahead with this guy.

We look back at JBL getting out of the limo earlier and then beating up Mysterio and Spike.

Booker wants in on the Great American Award and gets a Nominee match with Hardcore Holly. So Booker is slumming it with Holly while freaking BRADSHAW is pushed as one of the top heels. Who writes this nonsense?

Video on the WWE getting an award from the USO.

Great American Award Nominee Match: Booker T. vs. Hardcore Holly

They trade shots in the corner to start as Cole talks about earning respect on Smackdown. You know, like Holly has done for all those years. Holly knocks him to the floor for a seven count so Booker comes back in with the hook kick to the face. A delayed vertical suplex gives Holly two and it’s off to the armbar.

Booker fights up and gets two off a side slam before dropping a knee. An elbow gives Holly two and it’s back to the armbar. Back up and Booker’s Cactus Clothesline puts them on the floor as we take a break. We come back with the side kick putting Holly on the floor but not being able to suplex him onto the steps.

Instead Holly suplexes him onto the floor and throws Booker back inside, only to have Booker get two off his twisting sunset flip out of the corner. Holly makes the fired up comeback and gets two of his own off a powerslam. The dropkick gets two but Booker Book Ends him for the same. With nothing else working, Booker grabs a rollup with trunks for the pin.

Rating: D+. The post break half was way better than the first but my goodness why is Hardcore Holly going move for move with Booker T. for more than fifteen minutes? I don’t know who in the world thinks JBL is a better top heel than Booker (at least given their statuses at the moment) but we really are getting Booker as the midcard act who has trouble beating Holly while JBL gets to run people over.

Dudley Boyz vs. Akio/Sakoda

Bubba headlocks Sakoda to start and shoulders him down, only to have Akio kick Bubba in the back of the head to take over. The stomping begins, which makes sense given that Akio and Sakoda are just generic villains now that Tajiri is gone. Sakoda cranks on the neck but Bubba just blasts him with an overhand chop. It’s off to Akio so Bubba hits a pretty good looking spear to cut him down as well. The diving tag brings in D-Von to clean house and the villains are sent into each other. A 3D finishes Akio in short order.

Rating: D. Just a short match here as the Dudleys are still getting settled in around here. That being said, the Dudleys vs. Scotty/Rikishi isn’t exactly a big time match so I’d assume a title change before we get to the title showdown. Akio and Sakoda aren’t bad by any stretch, but they’re not going anywhere without a few tweaks.

We look at the nominees for the Great American Award.

The Dudleys check on Spike when Teddy Long comes in to offer his services. Well for Bubba and D-Von at least.

Raw Rebound looks at Chris Jericho ripping Trish Stratus apart and Shelton Benjamin upsetting HHH.

Eddie arrives and talks to the limo driver. Plans seem to be forming.

Rene Young and Fifi come out for commentary with Tazz interviewing the dog.

Great American Award Nominee Match: John Cena vs. Nunzio/Johnny Stamboli

Cena gets a heck of a reception as the star power is growing at a remarkable rate. He doesn’t think much of the other nominees because that award is his. Cena also throws in an insult to Dupree and Fifi, suggesting that Cole is in love with him. I’ll let you figure out who Cena is talking about. Cena easily pounds Stamboli down and knocks Nunzio off the apron before catapulting Stamboli into his partner. The Throwback and Shuffle set up the FU to put Stamboli away. I don’t think Cena is even sweating.

Post match Cena gets in Dupree’s face.

Angle recaps the Great American Award process and wants Eddie in the ring next.

Here’s Angle with the trophy for an announcement. He’s proud of the locker room because they’ve shown that HHH wouldn’t have lasted five minutes here. The award will be given out next week because the fans can vote for the winner. Make your choice careful too, as the winner will be the new #1 contender to Eddie’s title. This brings out Eddie, who cuts Angle off a few times to annoy the boss.

Eddie is ready to fight right now but Angle isn’t going to do that because he’s the General Manager. Instead, he wants someone skilled to take the title from Eddie. Someone who is as adept at the stock market as Eddie is at stealing cars. That would of course be JBL, who is now the fifth nominee for the Award. JBL comes out in the limo and climbs on top to thank Angle for the nomination. He can’t wait to get out of here and get back to New York City to his Central Park home.

We hear about all of his TV and radio show appearances, plus hear a plug for his TALK RADIO SHOW! As for Eddie, last week was just business and now he wants the WWE Championship. Eddie wants to make it personal and climbs onto the limo where he steals the hat as JBL goes back in through the moon roof. With JBL saying that the hat costs $1000, Eddie passes it around the arena, telling fans to put whatever they want into it. Angry Texas ranting ends the show. I don’t know about you, but I could really go for more from the #1 contender than “I wear expensive hats and talk about the stock market”.

Overall Rating: D-. So, much like last week, we got to see the new names showing up and having matches that meant absolutely nothing because it’s clear that JBL is getting the shot and didn’t have to wrestle a match to get there. The wrestling ranged from pretty meh to bad and then you have the entire change of pace at the end of the show. Just a worthless show as you can see the cliff coming from here and that makes it really hard to watch.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: March 18, 2004
Location: FleetCenter, Boston, Massachusetts
Attendance: 6,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

It’s the first show after Wrestlemania and, much like this week’s Monday Night Raw, the level of importance of this show might be pretty low. Eddie Guerrero is still Smackdown World Champion, having vanquished Kurt Angle, meaning he now needs a new challenger. There aren’t many options though and that makes things a little more complicated. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Wrestlemania if you need a recap.

Here’s hometown boy and new US Champion John Cena to open things up. Cena is glad to be home and talks about how he used to buy tickets for the old Boston Gardens. Back at Wrestlemania, he put Big Show on an FU diet and Show came out ten pounds lighter. Cena brings championships home like he’s Tom Brady. The FCC is getting on him and they suck just like the Yankees. It’s time for Cena’s first match but here’s Paul Heyman instead.

Heyman confirms that Brock Lesnar is gone from Smackdown and WWE as well, so maybe Cena can be the new face of the show. This Monday though, Cena might be getting sent over the Monday Night Raw. If Heyman was one of the superstars in the locker room, he would be on his knees praying to be drafted to Raw. Everyone left on Smackdown will be suffering Heyman’s wrath and that includes Cena. Heyman slaps him and gets knocked down but here’s Rhyno to start the title match.

US Title: John Cena vs. Rhyno

Cena is defending and takes an early spinebuster for two. He charges into a hard elbow in the corner to make it worse but the fans are still behind him, despite his tendency to charge in too soon. The real comeback (after being on defense for all of a minute) starts with some shoulders and the Shuffle, complete with pumping up the shoes. The FU retains the title in a hurry. Cena has taken about three giant steps forward into stardom since winning the title and you can see that fire in his eyes.

Edge is coming back. Still no date given.

Heyman is upset by what happened but runs into the APA, who laugh at him over what they saw. Therefore, if they don’t win the Tag Team Titles tonight, they’re fired.

Smackdown Tag Team Titles: Scotty 2 Hotty/Rikishi vs. APA

Rikishi and Scotty are defending. Bradshaw starts with Scotty, who tags out for the showdown with Rikishi. A slugout goes badly as Rikishi takes over with a headbutt and now it’s off to Scotty for some right hands of his own. Scotty’s middle rope crossbody goes as badly as you would expect and Faarooq comes in to slowly punch away. Bradshaw comes back in for a torture rack (still would be a great finisher for someone) and Faarooq puts on the chinlock.

Faarooq starts jumping onto Scotty’s back but eventually lands on raised knees, ala Arn Anderson. A tornado DDT to Bradshaw gets Scotty out of trouble and it’s off to Rikishi for the house cleaning. Everything breaks down and Faarooq breaks up the Worm with a right hand. Now why did no one else ever think of that? Not that it matters as Rikishi superkicks Bradshaw to retain.

Rating: D. Pretty bad match here and that’s not exactly a surprise. Why would you expect the APA to do anything more than bad at this point? They haven’t had a good match in a long time and it’s way past their expiration date. Scotty and Rikishi aren’t very good champions but with the rest of the available options, they’re about as high a level as we’re reaching right now.

Post break the APA storms into Heyman’s office so he can fire them to their faces. The thing is, they didn’t listen to Heyman because only Faarooq is fired (Heyman did say that if Faarooq and his partner didn’t win “you are fired”) because Bradshaw has too much value. Faarooq says they’re both out of here but Bradshaw stays, turning himself heel in the process. It should be noted that Faarooq was fired earlier in the day so this wasn’t the most shocking result.

We see Vince’s Lottery announcement from Raw.

Dawn Marie has gathered Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, Billy Gunn and Rey Mysterio in a locker room. Heyman comes in to talk about the Smackdown locker room being united against him last week so tonight, they’re going to play Divide and Conquer. He can’t control what happens on Monday, but he can control what happens tonight. The four of them are running a gauntlet and the winner gets a WWE Title shot tonight. Haas and Benjamin aren’t interested in fighting each other so Heyman makes them the first part of the gauntlet.

Video on Wrestlemania.

Gauntlet Match

Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin get things going, showing off their blue and gold singlets. To the shock of no one, they go straight to the mat for a fight over arm control. Charlie gets the better of it for all of a few seconds before they get back to their feet where Shelton takes over with a headlock. That takes us to a standoff until they fight over a top wristlock. This time it’s Haas taking him down into a leglock, which is reversed into another headlock.

Shelton tosses him down and taps Charlie on the jaw, meaning it’s time to get serious. After a trip to the floor, they’re right back inside with Shelton hooking a front facelock. Shelton slaps him in the jaw again and Charlie isn’t having any of that. Back in and Haas gets two off a suplex (you would have expected more than that), followed by a bridging German suplex for the same. Shelton jumps over him in the corner though and the Dragon Whip (to the chest) is good for the pin.

Back from a break, Faarooq tries to leave but gets stopped by Bradshaw, who begs him not to leave. Bradshaw is a freaking one man conglomerate and he can’t be fired just because Faarooq said something stupid.

Now back to the match with Billy Gunn in third to face Shelton. Gunn takes too long getting in so Shelton stomps away in the corner. A running clothesline drops Gunn again and they head to the floor. This goes a bit better for Gunn as Shelton is whipped into the barricade for two back inside. Shelton doesn’t seem to mind as he elbows Gunn in the face and knees him hard in the head. Gunn gets out of a reverse chinlock with a jawbreaker and catches a charging Shelton with a raised boot. The good looking tilt-a-whirl powerslam gets two but the Fameasser misses. Shelton grabs a rollup (and the rope) for the upset (Maybe?) pin.

Before we get to the next name, here’s Big Show to say he’s not happy about losing the US Title to a cheater like Cena and is entering the gauntlet as the last man.

Back to the match again with Mysterio as the fourth man. They trade some rollups to start until Shelton snaps off an exploder suplex to take over. A delayed belly to back suplex gets two and some knees in the corner have Rey in even more trouble. Shelton whips him hard into the buckles and it’s off to a cross armbreaker. That switches over to a regular armbar, which Rey reverses into the sitout bulldog. Shelton is right back with a powerslam but Rey slips out of a German suplex. The 619 lets Rey Drop the Dime for the pin in the best section of the gauntlet so far.

Hall of Fame video. Why are they doing all of these breaks in between the matches?

So it’s Mysterio vs. Big Show for the title shot with Rey getting smart early on by rolling to the floor. Back in and Rey dives between Show’s legs but gets backed into the corner, allowing Show to toss him around. Show stands on Rey’s head but Rey snaps him throat first across the top. A springboard missile dropkick rocks Show, who kicks Rey in the face for two as the comeback is cut off in a hurry.

Show standing on Rey’s back has Mysterio bailing outside again, this time with a good bit more pain. Back in and Show gives him a rather impressive gorilla press drop, launching Rey into the air so the crash is even bigger. Cue Cena for a distraction though with Show going outside to get him, allowing Rey to hit a 619. The referee yells at Rey, allowing Cena to get in a belt shot to bounce Show off the post for the countout.

Rating: D-. This was a bunch of lame matches and while the most interesting choice won, it felt like they were doing the least interesting thing they possibly could have, which made this a very long match with almost nothing standing out as good. Mysterio vs. Benjamin was passable, which is probably why it was the shortest section of the whole thing. At least the title match has serious potential though.

Smackdown World Title: Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio

Mysterio is challenging and they shake hands to start. An exchange of wristlocks and armdrags give us a standoff with Rey holding his arm. Eddie trips him down and puts on a headlock, only to have Rey snap off a heck of a headscissors to send the champ outside. Rey motions that he wants the title as Eddie looks stunned. Back in and Rey slaps him in the face for some reason so Eddie sends him arm first into the buckle to stop Rey cold. An armbar goes on but Rey realizes he’s next to the rope for a fast break.

Eddie, having a brain, takes him down into another armbar but Rey, being Rey, spins out and monkey flips Eddie down. Mysterio pulls him to the floor for an Asai moonsault and we take a break. Back with Eddie hitting a top rope superplex for two and staying on the back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. To really crank things up, Eddie puts on a cross between a Gory Stretch and a chickenwing (egads that looks painful), making Rey tap twice. Why these taps (with Tazz and Cole saying Rey is tapping, as he’s clearly slapping his shoulder) don’t count isn’t clear but Rey reverses into a small package for two.

Eddie takes him down again and twists the arm even more, followed by some stomping to the arm. Rey fights out of another armbar and tries a springboard moonsault to Eddie’s back, driving him face first into the mat for two. The springboard seated senton gets the same as the pace is picking up. There’s a tornado DDT for two more but Rey is spent. Two rolling verticals connect but Rey reverses the third into a rollup. Eddie finally hits the third and tries the frog splash, which only hits mat. Rey hits the 619 and Rey Drops the Dime but Eddie rolls away. La majistral retains Eddie’s title.

Rating: B+. Oh come on like these two were going to have anything short of a great match. They know each other so well and it was no surprise that they were able to tear it up out there. Mysterio wasn’t likely to win but he’s good enough to make you believe that a miracle could happen to give him the title. That’s a valuable asset and Mysterio can do it as well as almost anyone else ever.

Post match Heyman comes out to say he didn’t know Spanish was the new language around here. He hopes Eddie and Rey’s families get deported because they have no place on his Smackdown. Next week he’s the only person guaranteed to be on Smackdown….and the gong strikes. Heyman decides to get back in the ring with Mysterio and Guerrero as Undertaker takes off the coat and hat (revealing a bandanna for a weird look). Eddie shoves him into a Tombstone to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. It says a lot when a really good Eddie vs. Rey match can’t save your show. This was as much of a punt of a show as you could imagine and unfortunately that’s not the biggest surprise in the world. They could have done something better than this, but I guess Shelton Benjamin vs. Billy Gunn was one of their best available ideas at the moment. Really lame show, but I can kind of understand why it happened.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Summerslam 2012
Date: August 19, 2013
Location: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
Attendance: 14,205
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

The main story here is Brock Lesnar is back, having returned the night after Wrestlemania to start a feud with John Cena. That feud lasted for a month before Lesnar started going after HHH. It wasn’t until three months later, as in tonight, that they’re having their showdown. Other than that we have Punk defending the title against Big Show and Cena and Sheamus defending against Del Rio. Let’s get to it.

Pre-Show: Antonio Cesaro vs. Santino Marella

This is one of those ideas that was brought back after far too many years off. Santino is defending and Cesaro has his HORRID dance music here. He also has Aksana who isn’t horrid at all, other than in the ring of course. Cesaro’s word of the day in five languages: greatness. Santino does the power walk to the ring and is as goofy as ever. Cesaro takes it to the mat but Santino actually spins out for two.

A judo throw puts Cesaro down before Santino power walks out of an Irish whip. Must resist country jokes. Santino avoids a charge in the corner and loads up the Cobra but Cesaro takes his head off from behind. The Cobra goes to the floor and Aksana throws it away. Off to a reverse chinlock with Cesaro pulling on Marella’s ears to keep him away from the Cobra. IT’S A FREAKING SOCK! I know Foley used one too but it didn’t seem to have magical powers.

Santino kicks Cesaro away but still can’t get the sock. The gutwrench suplex gets no cover from the challenger, as he would rather rip the Cobra to shreds. Santino pounds away but misses the headbutt. He counters the Neutralizer and pulls out another Cobra, proving THAT IT’S JUST A FREAKING SOCK! Aksana gets on the apron and the Cobra wants her, allowing Cesaro to hit the Neutralizer for the pin and the title.

Rating: D+. IT’S A FREAKING SOCK! Match was ok but the majority of the five minutes were spent on Santino trying to put a sock on his hand so he can use a neck attack taught to him by John Lovitz. I know he’s a comedy character but there’s a point where it’s stupid rather than funny. Santino half crossed that line years ago.

The opening video talks about the twenty five years of Summerslam, meaning we’ll have to hear about how this is the 25^th anniversary. The video is interrupted by talk of a storm called Brock Lesnar, which to be fair is the main draw of the show.

Jerry and Cole’s intro is cut off by Vickie’s screeching intro of Ziggler.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Chris Jericho

Dolph is Mr. MITB here and Jericho is freshly face after Ziggler accused him of going soft. Jericho has taped up ribs from an attack at Ziggler’s hands. The fans LOVE Chris and things start fast with the Canadian hitting the jumping back elbow to the jaw. Jericho slips out of the corner on a spinning clothesline but Ziggler escapes a suplex and kicks him in the ribs to take over. Dolph stays on the ribs for a quick two but gets backdropped out to the floor.

Chris’ springboard dive misses as Ziggler casually ducks, sending Jericho crashing to the floor. Ziggler hooks on a chinlock with a bodyscissors to stay on the ribs. A knee to the head gets two for Dolph and a neckbreaker, complete with hip swivel and ARROGANT COVER, gets two more.

Jericho gets a quick cradle for two but Ziggler takes him right back down with a clothesline. Dolph misses a Stinger Splash and Chris goes after him, only to be easily taken down by another shot to the ribs. Not that it matters as he pops up top for the ax handle but Ziggler kicks him in the ribs again. The Fameasser gets two but an enziguri puts Dolph down for two as well. Back and forth match so far here.

Dolph jumps over Chris in the corner and puts on the sleeper which looks horrid here. Jericho rams him into the corner to escape and rains down some right hands before snapping off a top rope hurricanrana. The ribs are damaged even more though, delaying the count by several seconds. A jumping DDT gets two on the Canadian and Ziggler is getting frustrated.

They slug it out with Jericho taking him down via the bulldog but the Lionsault hits knees. The Zig Zag gets two but Dolph can’t follow up. Instead he walks into the Codebreaker to send him to the floor. Jericho throws him in but gets tripped up by Vickie, allowing Ziggler to roll him up for two. Dolph misses a charge into the post and the Walls go on for the submission.

Rating: C+. The idea here was that Jericho couldn’t win the big one anymore. The problem here though is they would have a rematch tomorrow night with Jericho’s contract and Dolph’s case on the line. Why they didn’t have that match here is anyone’s guess but at least it was a good opener and the fans popped for the ending. They had some Shelton vs. HBK from 2005 in there with Jericho fighting a younger version of himself but using his maturity and experience to get the win.

Vickie freaks out over the loss.

We recap Brock breaking Shawn Michaels’ arm on Raw.

Heyman and Brock say Lesnar wins tonight.

Daniel Bryan vs. Kane

It’s amazing that this team started less than a year ago. The fans are already chanting YES and Bryan says NO. It’s amazing how a chant this simple carried Bryan so far. This was set up by GM AJ as revenge against Bryan for jilting her or something. Bryan fires off kicks to start but walks into an uppercut to knock him back. Daniel moonsaults over Kane in the corner but gets kicked in the face to put him down. The low dropkick gets two for Kane but the fans are all behind Daniel.

Another big boot gets two but Bryan comes back with the kicks to the legs, only to be thrown over the top and out to the floor. Bryan slides back in and hits the FLYING GOAT to put Kane down. The missile dropkick drops Kane again and there are more kicks, only to have Kane clothesline his way out of trouble. The side slam gets two and the top rope clothesline looks to set up the chokeslam but Bryan bails to the floor.

Bryan slaps him in the face like a knucklehead, sending Kane through the roof. Bryan is tossed into the corner and stomped down by a furious Kane. The referee drags him away, allowing Bryan to try the NO Lock. Kane powers out so Bryan kicks him in the head. Why overcomplicate things? The flying headbutt is caught in the chokeslam but Kane wants the tombstone, allowing Bryan to counter into a small package for the pin.

Rating: C+. Good match here and you could see the anger management stuff coming. Kane had Bryan beat but wanted revenge and let Bryan catch him off guard. These two obviously had chemistry together and the story would be a big boost to Kane’s career. Also the original idea here was Bryan vs. Charlie Sheen somehow. Thankfully that was never mentioned again.

Kane is going nuts in the back. Josh Matthews comes up to him like the schnook he is and is LAUNCHED off camera in a funny bit.

Intercontinental Title: Rey Mysterio vs. The Miz

Miz is defending and Mysterio is dressed like Batman. Rey grabs a quick rollup for two and the champion bails to the floor for a bit. AJ has promised to deal with Kane for attacking Matthews tomorrow on Raw. Miz throws Mysterio through the ropes to the floor but Rey rolls through to avoid pain. The champion sends him ribs first into the barricade to take over as this isn’t doing much for me so far.

Miz pulls on Rey’s face and puts on a chinlock before hitting something resembling Abyss’ Shock Treatment (torture rack backbreaker) for two. A boot to Rey’s head gets two and it’s off to a cravate for a bit. Miz hits the corner clothesline but spends too much time laughing at the crowd, allowing Rey to crotch him on the top.

Rey’s seated senton is rolled through into a slingshot sitout powerbomb for two from Miz. Rey comes back with a tornado DDT for the same result and a top rope hurricanrana sends Miz into the 619 position. The kick to the face connects but Rey misses the top rope splash. The Skull Crushing Finale is countered into a cradle for a hot two count. A second attempt at the Finale works though to retain Miz’s title.

Rating: C-. This took a long time to get going but it had a few nice moments at the end. Both of these guys fell so far in just a year as both guys were fighting for the world title just a year ago. The match wasn’t bad but it didn’t do much for me. It was one of those matches that came and went and I won’t think about it again an hour from now.

Teddy Long and Eve, the bosses of Smackdown, leave AJ’s office and seem to approve of what she’s doing. They leave and Punk goes in to find a smiling AJ. Punk doesn’t like the idea of being in a triple threat for the title tonight and thinks it’s happening as revenge for him rejecting AJ’s proposal. AJ just stares off into space and Punk accuses her of disrespecting him but she doesn’t move an inch.

We recap Alberto Del Rio vs. Sheamus. These two feuded FOREVER and Del Rio never did much of anything. He complained about Sheamus not being high class so Sheamus stole Del Rio’s car. Fake cops beat up Sheamus and that’s about it. It’s as boring of a feud as it sounds.

Smackdown World Title: Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio

Feeling out process to start with both guys tumbling out to the floor. Back in and Sheamus hits a quick neckbreaker and the rolling senton for two each. Sheamus puts him on the top rope for a belly to back superplex but Alberto gets onto Sheamus’ shoulder to escape. The buckle pad is pulled off in the process. Del Rio can’t hook the armbreaker so he kicks Sheamus out to the floor instead. Sheamus is sent knee first into the steps as the crowd is DEAD.

Back in and Del Rio hits a flying shoulder block for two before hooking the chinlock. A kick to the head gets two on the champion and we hit the chinlock. That goes nowhere so Del Rio mocks Sheamus’ chest pounding before the Brogue Kick, only to have Sheamus ax handle him in the head. Sheamus goes up but a kick to the let puts him down again. A kick to the arm gets two for Alberto and the armbreaker goes on, FINALLY waking the fans up.

Sheamus of course is barely phased by it and rolls onto Del Rio to break the pressure. He picks Alberto up into a kind of powerbomb to break the hold, earning himself a chant from the crowd. White Noise gets two and Sheamus avoids a charge in the corner, setting up the forearms in the ropes. Sheamus pounds down right hands in the corner but gets dropped face first onto the exposed buckle. The enziguri in the corner is good for two so Del Rio yells at Ricardo. Rodriguez throws in a shoe but Sheamus intercepts it to knock Ricardo out cold. The Irish Curse hits for the pin, ignoring Del Rio’s foot being on the rope. REMATCH!

Rating: D+. The match was decent but it never felt like Sheamus was in any real danger. The drop onto the exposed buckle and the enziguri got a near fall, but it didn’t feel like a close near fall; It felt like it was there because this is where we’re supposed to have a dramatic kick out if that makes sense. It’s not bad but this feud didn’t need to continue at all.

We hear about Mike Tyson and Piers Morgan having a Twitter war over the main event. I’ve got nothing.

We get a clip from the pre show where HHH tells the referee that the match isn’t ending on a countout or a DQ.

Tag Titles: Prime Time Players vs. Kofi Kingston/R-Truth

I don’t remember Kofi and Truth being champions AT ALL. Truth and Young get us going as the fans chant Kobe Bryant, referencing the joke that got AW fires. Young is taken down by an armdrag and a legdrop gets two for Truth. Truth has to fight out of the corner but gets caught in the face by a big boot for two. Back up and Truth hits a great side kick to take Titus’ head off and get himself a breather. Off to Kofi to speed things up as the crowd still isn’t all that interested.

Kofi chops O’Neil down but a Young distraction lets the challengers take over. Titus clotheslines Kofi down for two before suplexing Young onto Kofi’s back for two. A snap powerslam gets the same for Darren and it’s back to Titus for an abdominal stretch. That goes nowhere so Titus loads up a spinout Rock Bottom, only to be pulled dowin into a DDT. Hot tag brings in Truth to clean house and everything breaks down. Titus is sent to the floor and caught by a Kofi dive, allowing Truth to hit Little Jimmy on Darren to retain the titles.

Rating: D+. This could have been on any given Raw. The Players are a decent team but Titus is clearly the star with Young just being there. Kofi and Truth are just transitional champions before HELL NO would take the championships a few weeks later. Nothing to see here other than a filler before we get to the main events.

Video on Summerslam Axxess.

We recap the Raw World Title match. Punk won the title at Survivor Series but got angry over Rock vs. Cena being announced as the main event of Wrestlemania 28 a year in advance. Cena cashed in the MITB case at Raw 1000 but Big Show cost Cena the match. AJ made it a three way for the sake of tormenting Punk (now a heel demanding respect) for turning down her proposal.

Punk’s complaints about how the title should be the focus and how he wasn’t getting respect are why his heel turn didn’t go well: those are logical points and heels aren’t supposed to be logical. WWE failing to get this is the source of a lot of their problems. Heels are supposed to be bullies or maniacal in their delusions, not making thought out rational points.

Raw World Title: John Cena vs. CM Punk vs. Big Show

Show knocks down both smaller guys as Cole talks about Punk not main eventing a show since December despite holding the title the entire time. Good point actually. The LOUD chop hits both Cena and Punk’s chests twice each with Big Show in total control. They finally work together but Show easily suplexes them both down. Cena is crushed in the corner, knocking him out to the floor so it’s Punk vs. Show one on one.

Punk wisely takes out the knee and fires off kicks to the chest as the fans are entirely behind him. The smart moves are canceled out though as Punk tries a GTS with the obvious result. Cena tries an AA but the powers of gravity take him down to the mat, crushing Cena’s head against the mat. Show chops Punk down in the corner and knocks Cena out to the floor. Punk avoids a splash but tries a springboard cross body like a schnook, earning that powerslam he gets.

The Final Cut puts Punk down but Cena breaks up the WMD, earning himself a spear from the giant for two. Show loads up a double Vader Bomb but only hits Cena, allowing Punk to springboard onto Show for the save. Everyone heads to the floor with Big Show chokeslamming Punk against the ropes, sending him back to the floor. Show drops Cena with a side slam but stares at the crowd instead of covering. Maybe someone was holding up a Twinkie?

Cena actually hits a belly to back suplex on Show and loads up the Shuffle, only to have Punk charge in for the save. The champion drops the Macho Elbow for two on Show but gets launched away. Since covering hasn’t worked, Punk puts on a modified Koji Clutch but Show easily powers out. The crowd has DIED for some reason. Cena comes back in and shoulders Show down, bringing them right back to life.

There’s the STF on Show but the big man stands up to break the hold. Punk comes in with a springboard clothesline to take Show down again, followed by three straight knees to the head in the corner. The bulldog is easily countered (of course) but Cena hits the top rope Fameasser to put the giant down.

We get a Koji Clutch/STF combo and Show taps, but we have no clear winner. This brings out AJ (Punk: “DO THE RIGHT THING LIKE SPIKE LEE! LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE! THEY CAN TWEET ABOUT IT!”) who eventually says restart the match, allowing Show to hit a double chokeslam for two on each guy. Cena ducks the WMD and hits the AA, but Punk throws him to the floor and steals the pin to retain.

Rating: C. The match was ok with the logical story but it was nothing we hadn’t seen before. The restart was pretty dumb as well as Big Show shouldn’t have had a chance to win the title after tapping out. Cena vs. Punk would continue for months which would make for some great matches, but this wasn’t anything special. Not bad at all though.

Various B level celebrities are here. Maria Menunos in a Bob Backlund shirt works very well.

Trailer for whatever WWE’s latest movie is at the point. The Day. Ok then.

We recap the pre-show match to fill in time.

Kevin Rudolf sings the theme song.

We recap the main event. Basically Lesnar tried to hold the company hostage by renaming Raw to Monday Night Raw Starring Brock Lesnar. HHH stood up to him and got a broken arm as a result. Brock broke Shawn Michaels’ arm as well to make it a domestic issue for HHH. This was one of those feuds that people weren’t all that thrilled to see but it could have been worse. More on that later.

Brock Lesnar vs. HHH

Every time I watch a Brock Lesnar match I remember how scary of a human being he is. We get spotlights for the big match intros in a cool idea. Remember that HHH told the referee to allow a lot of fighting tonight. Lesnar powers HHH into the corner to start and goes for a standing kimura (arm lock that he used to break the arm) with a jumping body scissors. HHH though is a MAN and powers out of it before clotheslining Brock to the floor. Back in and Brock pounds away, only to be clotheslined to the floor again. You know, because Cena can be in a war with Brock at Extreme Rules but HHH can easily stop him.

Brock comes back in and takes the MMA gloves off before taking HHH down to the mat with an amateur move. They head outside with HHH shrugging off Brock’s attacks and pounding away, only to be dropped arm first onto the announce table. Lesnar eventually drags HHH back in for a hammerlock slam. Back to the standing kimura with Brock wrapping the arm around the ropes and ramming it into the corner.

A release German suplex puts HHH down again but he comes back with a neck snap across the ropes. Brock is taken down by a DDT but he goes right back to the kimura and another hammerlock slam. They head to the floor with the arm going into the steps and the rest of HHH going into the announce table. Brock jumps off the table onto the Game before taking him back inside. Of all things, Lesnar busts out a small package for a one count. A hard clothesline puts HHH down but he blocks a suplex into one of his own to get a breather.

Brock misses a charge into the corner but blocks a Pedigree and throws HHH out to the floor. HHH sends him into the announce table stomach first, which is a weak spot due to some real life past illnesses which ended his UFC career for all intents and purposes. More shots to the stomach have Brock in trouble and a knee to the ribs puts him down. Heyman is losing his mind and Brock is in trouble.

The spinebuster puts Brock down and there’s the Pedigree for two. A low blow puts HHH down and Heyman screams that this was HHH’s idea. The F5 is good for two and Brock is stunned. I have no idea why, as you know you can’t get a win off one finisher in WWE. Now the kimura goes on again with a bodyscissors but a rope break means nothing. Instead HHH pretty easily punches his way out of it and hits another Pedigree. Thankfully Brock no sells it and puts on the kimura, breaking the arm again and drawing the submission.

Rating: C+. The match is ok but it has one major flaw: it’s BORING. You don’t bring in Brock Lesnar to have him go toe to toe with HHH. You bring him in to have him destroy small cities and eat villagers. That’s the issue here. We went from Cena surviving against an insane Brock Lesnar to HHH having Brock in trouble in a dull match. Lesnar didn’t seem insane here at all and it made for a much less interesting match. Also, Cena won with a Hail Mary shot, where as HHH can slug it out with Lesnar? That just doesn’t hold up at all. Somehow this would be the high point, as this feud went on another TEN MONTHS.

Naturally HHH gets the big heroic stand up in the ring, but instead of people giving him a standing ovation they tell him that he tapped out. HHH stands there until people finally applaud him. He apologizes to the fans and slowly walks out. I guess this is supposed to be like Austin at Wrestlemania 13 but it’s just failing. The speculation is that HHH is leaving for good. If you bought that, raise your hand to show how gullible you are.

Overall Rating: C-. This is an interesting show as most of the matches are ok but nothing goes beyond that level. Most of this show would be classified as ok at best and uninteresting at worst. It’s just kind of there with nothing memorable other than HHH DEMANDING to give us his moment at the end. Nothing to see here and not worth checking out.

Ratings Comparison

Antonio Cesaro vs. Santino Marella

Original: D+

Redo: D+

Chris Jericho vs. Dolph Ziggler

Original: B-

Redo: C+

Daniel Bryan vs. Kane

Original: C-

Redo: C+

Rey Mysterio vs. The Miz

Original: C

Redo: C-

Alberto Del Rio vs. Sheamus

Original: D

Redo: D+

R-Truth/Kofi Kingston vs. Prime Time Players

Original: C

Redo: D+

John Cena vs. CM Punk vs. Big Show

Original: C-

Redo: C

Brock Lesnar vs. HHH

Original: B

Redo: C+

Overall Rating

Original: D+

Redo: C-

It’s still boring.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2012/08/19/summerslam-2012-lesnar-is-a-wrestler-again-just-like-everyone-else/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: March 4, 2004
Location: Savannah Civic Center, Savannah, Georgia
Attendance: 4,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

We have two shows left before Wrestlemania and the show is mostly set on the blue side. It includes the best built match on the card with Smackdown World Champion Eddie Guerrero defending against Kurt Angle. Last week Angle turned it into a morality play, which makes for an interesting story between the two. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Paul Heyman is in his office and welcomes us to the show, which is a very stressful time for him. He narrates a recap of last week’s show with Eddie trying to get at Angle and getting arrested for his efforts, which Heyman says is a familiar place for him. Tonight, both of them will get to tell their side of the story live, in the ring. By that, he means Eddie is ordered to apologize.

Opening sequence.

Steve Austin’s music hits and here’s Brock Lesnar riding out on Austin’s ATV. Lesnar admits to stealing the ATV (I think he’s made that clear) and says it’ll drive over anything, except a tow truck. Unlike Austin, Lesnar has the courage to come on another man’s show and do something he feels like doing. We get a clip of the F5 to Austin and Lesnar promises that Goldberg is next. Actually someone else is next.

Hardcore Holly vs. Brock Lesnar

Holly charges in and kicks Lesnar to the floor but walks into a big spinebuster back inside. It’s already off to the gutwrench that dominated their Royal Rumble match because it worked so well the first time. As Cole calls their Royal Rumble match a classic (egads man), Holly fights up but gets clotheslined outside. Holly manages to post the shoulder and gets two off a belly to back suplex. Lesnar shakes that off though and hits the F5 for the pin. Too short to rate but much more energetic and better than the “classic” at the Rumble.

Post match Lesnar has some beers to Austin’s music.

Danny Basham vs. Scotty 2 Hotty

Scotty headlocks him down to start and hits a suplex into some dancing. That earns him a posting and a Fujiwara armbar (makes sense) keeps the shoulder in trouble. The hold doesn’t last long (they probably don’t have the time) so Scotty comes up with a superkick but the referee yells at Rikishi. The distraction lets Doug come in instead, setting up a small package for the pin on Scotty. Just a way to set up the title match at Wrestlemania.

Video on Angle vs. Guerrero.

Angle joins us via satellite and talks about all the horrible things you hear athletes doing today. You can’t open the paper without seeing someone with a drug or legal issue. He’s not going to let that happen again with Eddie. Cole talks about Eddie’s public apology tonight but Eddie isn’t buying it. Would Cole be ok with his children acting like Eddie? If his actions are able to change one person’s mind about Eddie, the boos are worth it. He won’t let people like Eddie take over this company.

This was a great lesson in heel psychology. A heel doesn’t have to be right in their actions. All they have to do is justify their actions in their own mind, which is what Angle has done here. Angle has turned heel, but he still thinks he’s doing the right thing and views himself as the hero in the whole thing. That makes for a great heel turn and Angle is selling it very well.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Funaki

Non-title. Funaki dropkicks him to the floor to start and adds a baseball slide to break up some consultation with Chavo Sr. Back in and Chavo takes over with a shot to the ribs and an abdominal stretch. With the hold on, Chavo Sr. jumps on commentary to complain about his son having to defend the title nine times at Wrestlemania. Funaki gets two off a bulldog as the fans aren’t exactly thrilled here. A high crossbody drops Chavo but Sr. gets on the apron for a distraction. Chavo rams the back of Funaki’s neck into his knee and steals the pin after kind of a weird finish.

Rating: D. I’m not sure what the point is in having Chavo win the match here and take away whatever momentum Funaki could have as a challenger. I know he doesn’t have much of a chance to win the title but why give him a loss when you don’t have to? This could have been good if they had some more time but at three and a half minutes, it’s the longest match on the show so far.

Heyman tells Dawn Marie that it’s time for Eddie’s apology.

Video on the South Africa tour.

Heyman and Dawn Marie are in the ring but he sends her to the back in case things get ugly. Here’s Eddie (on foot this week) and Heyman lays out the reasons Eddie needs to apologize, including knocking Dawn Marie down last week. Eddie actually apologizes….but he was lying! He even mocks Heyman for falling for something like that and looking like the deer in the headlights. Eddie is proud of being a father, husband and the WWE Champion who represents these fans. He going to walk into Wrestlemania XX as WWE Champion but then he’s walking out just the same.

Heyman is livid and says the only thing he disdains more than Eddie as WWE Champion is Eddie as a person. He wishes his hands weren’t tied by the board of directors or he’d give Eddie a beating himself. Eddie: “You couldn’t beat me if I had both hands tied behind my back.” You can figure out where this, including the ending of the show, is going. Heyman makes a match between the two of them for later tonight with Eddie handcuffed. Eddie’s face is perfect as he couldn’t look more relaxed about the whole thing.

Billy Kidman/Ultimo Dragon/Rey Mysterio vs. Tajiri/Sakoda/Akio

It needs the time, but I can’t believe the Cruiserweight Open is getting two matches of build. Or that Dragon is still employed. Dragon misses an early spinwheel kick but settles for rolling out of a sunset flip and kicking Sakoda in the chest. Tajiri and Kidman come in with more kicks having Kidman in trouble.

Akio slaps on a bearhug as Tazz completely loses himself in a discussion of what would happen if Tajiri and Akio wind up fighting for the title. Even Cole calls him out for making no sense and Tazz actually concedes. You know it’s stupid if even he’ll admit it. Kidman gets in a bulldog and dives over for the hot tag to Mysterio so things can pick up in a hurry. Everything breaks down and Dragon dives onto Sakoda but Tajiri breaks up the 619. Kidman dives onto him instead and Rey’s spinning DDT finishes Akio.

Rating: C-. This needed about three more minutes as it was really turning into the usual awesome cruiserweight spot fest, which is what these six should be doing. Mysterio is the top challenger for the title at Wrestlemania so having Kidman or Dragon getting the pin here would have made sense, but at least we got something with a little more time.

Heyman swears vengeance on Guerrero and Dawn Marie isn’t talking him out of it.

Here’s the World’s Greatest Tag Team dressed up as the APA (with Shelton as Bradshaw and Charlie as Bradshaw for some reason). Southern jokes run amok, including shots at beer drinking, smoking and marrying your sister’s cousin. Bradshaw thinks Haas and Benjamin are a couple of sexual tyrannosauruses but it’s time for a song.

Just when I’m thinking the only thing missing is a West Texas Rednecks song, THEY SING A WEST TEXAS REDNECKS SONG with APA Is Crap. Cue the real APA for the brawl, followed by the Bashams and Scotty 2 Hotty/Rikishi. So yes, sixteen people are going to be in two bad Tag Team Title matches. Is it too early to request a battle royal instead? Throw the cruiserweights in there and you’re already at 26.

Wrestlemania recall: Rock vs. Hogan. Well that works, even if they don’t show the Hulk Up.

Big Show vs. A-Train

First up, Cena makes American Idol jokes and promises to win the US Title. The energetic Cena gets shoved down, bringing a smile to his face. They head outside with A-Train clotheslining the post by mistake to give Cena a target. Back in and some arm cranking doesn’t get Cena far as A-Train uses the good arm to clothesline him down.

It’s time to work on Cena’s bad knee with A-Train in trouble as we take a break. Back with Cena firing off some right hands and forearms until more shots to the knee cut him off. Cena’s big clothesline gets him out of trouble and there’s the Shuffle. The FU gives Cena the easy pin.

Rating: D. I can appreciated A-Train working on the knee and all that good stuff but there wasn’t exactly much to see here. They were going with the idea of Cena fighting a giant to set up his more important match against the other giant so the booking is sound, but there’s not much of a way around such a lame match.

Post match Big Show comes out to brag about how awesome he is and lists off the things he’s done. The girls may love Cena’s abs but Big Show isn’t exactly impressed. At Madison Square Garden, everything ends for Cena.

Wrestlemania rundown. It looks good, but really, really long.

Heyman tells the referee to make Eddie’s handcuffs tight. Oh and Heyman will keep the key so he can beat some sense into Eddie.

The Hall of Fame Class of 2004 is announced:

Jesse Ventura

Harley Race

Billy Graham

Tito Santana

Sgt. Slaughter

Bobby Heenan

Don Muraco

Greg Valentine

Big John Studd

Junkyard Dog

Pete Rose

I’m glad the thing is back, but for the first class in nearly ten years, they don’t really have a major headliner, at least not for their time in WWE. Some big names, but the biggest WWE name is….Heenan? Ventura? Maybe Slaughter? Not exactly the big headliner you would expect.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Paul Heyman

Non-title with Eddie’s hands cuffed behind his back and the announcers acting like this is Austin vs. Hogan. Heyman talks a lot of trash and gets kicked into the corner where he shouts in pain. Another kick is enough for Heyman and he walks out….with Angle replacing him as the match ends.

Angle gives him a death stare that would intimidate Ivan Drago before slowly taping his fists. Not being the brightest guy in the world, Eddie gets into the ring (still cuffed) instead of running through the crowd. Angle slowly gets in and stalks Eddie before taking him down so the proper beating can begin. The taped right hand puts Eddie down and the fans chant for the champ. You can see the fear in Eddie’s eyes as he knows he’s screwed. Angle picks up the belt and knocks Eddie cold to end the show. More great stuff from Angle, who came off like a heartless machine here, which makes me want to see Eddie fight back.

Overall Rating: D+. Eddie and Angle are carrying this show on their backs but the weight is a little too much for them. Looking back over this show, there is next to nothing going on that would make me want to see what’s next for Smackdown. We’re ten days from Wrestlemania and there’s one Smackdown match worth seeing. The problem continues to be cramming so much stuff on there and the bad is outweighing the good. I’ve said something similar to this before and it’s true here: the good is very good but the bad is much more uninspiring and dull, which can be a lot worse than bad.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: February 26, 2004
Location: Kemper Arena, St. Louis, Missouri
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

So Kurt Angle is now full on heel again and that means Smackdown World Champion Eddie Guerrero is in real trouble. On top of that you can see most of the Wrestlemania card and that’s a good thing given how close we are to the show. There are a few interpromotional matches tonight too, meaning we might even see some guest stars tonight. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Angle says people have been asking why he did it. Was it revenge? Jealousy? Or the WWE Championship? We’ll find out tonight. My bet is on hair jealousy.

Opening sequence.

Rey Mysterio vs. Jamie Noble vs. Billy Kidman vs. Nunzio

The winner gets a Cruiserweight shot at Wrestlemania. Noble jumps Mysterio before Kidman is even out here and it’s a big brawl to start. Hang on though as we cut to the back where Eddie Guerrero goes into Paul Heyman’s office. With Tajiri, Sakoda and Akio in the background, Eddie promises to beat up Angle tonight. Eddie wants to know what Heyman knew about all of this but Paul denies everything.

That’s enough for Eddie so he leaves Heyman to promise to take care of Tajiri and company’s problems. With that out of the way, we go back to the arena for a series of dives to the floor that leaves everyone down. Kidman and Nunzio fight on top with Nunzio getting crotched and Kidman falling to the floor. A double clothesline puts Mysterio and Noble down as we take a break.

Back with Noble’s tiger bomb being reversed into a 619 attempt but Kidman breaks it up with a hard clothesline. Mysterio gets two off a facebuster and a nasty looking moonsault press hits Kidman. Noble makes the save and throws Mysterio outside, followed by a neckbreaker for two on his cousin. As Kidman is sent outside, Mysterio hits the 619 on Nunzio….and here are Heyman and Tajiri and company to say this match is canceled.

Rating: C+. This was getting good until the hitting a wall ending but that’s going to set up a storyline. That being said, I do like the idea of these four starting off the show and giving the fans some high flying. That’s always going to work and it worked here. On the other hand though, you have the cutaway to Eddie, which has its good and bad elements. I like the idea of having things feel more realistic (as in not having Eddie pop in right after a match ends) but I’m never big on cutting away from a match. Just go with a split screen or something. But still, good match.

Heyman says there is no Japanese representation in this match and we can’t have racial discrimination around here. Therefore, at Wrestlemania, it’s going to be a Cruiserweight Open elimination match for the title. Akio and Sakoda hit the ring but Rey suicide dives Tajiri before bailing.

We look back at Eddie winning the title and being attacked by Angle two days later. That was a great heel turn and beatdown.

Scotty 2 Hotty/Rikishi vs. APA

Non-title and at least it’s not the Bashams again. Faarooq shoves Scotty down like he’s not even there to start so Scotty nips up and moon walks. Thankfully Faarooq punches him in the face and brings Bradshaw in so the pace can pick up (it’s a bad sign when Bradshaw is the more active member of the team).

Scotty throws some right hands and makes a blind tag so Rikishi can hit the belly to belly on Bradshaw. The sitdown splash misses though and brings the announcers back to the match instead of talking about Vince’s announcements on Raw. Scotty offers a distraction so Rikishi can superkick Bradshaw but here are the Bashams for a distraction. The Clothesline finishes Rikishi.

Rating: D. All things considered, this was about as good as it was going to get. Faarooq just couldn’t move anymore and you’re only going to get so much out of the other three in the first place. The ending would seem to set up a multi-team match at Wrestlemania and while these titles don’t need to be defended there, at least it’s some fresh blood in the mix.

Here’s the segment from Raw with Vince announcing Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar for Wrestlemania, Austin being named guest referee, and Lesnar running in to F5 Austin.

Lesnar talks about begging Vince to make the match because Austin brought Goldberg to No Way out, which is why he lost the WWE Championship. You can’t fault his logic. Goldberg can feel pain in New York and if Austin gets involved, he’ll feel OFF THE HOOK pain.

Here’s Eddie for a chat. After soaking in the chants, he talks about winning the title and going back to see his buddies. He doesn’t know how long he’s going to hold the title because he takes it one day at a time. It’s been eleven days as champion now but more importantly he’s been clean from drugs and alcohol for two years now. That was one day at a time too and it’s a formula that works.

Last week changed things though and now he wants Angle out here right now. Eddie wants to deal with him one punch at a time. There’s no Angle so Eddie wants to take the fight to him instead. Eddie storms up the ramp and heads to the back where he finds Heyman and Dawn Marie instead. Heyman has her call the cops, who show up in about four seconds with Angle by their side. It’s almost on but Eddie shoves Heyman into Dawn by mistake, sending Heyman into hysterics. The cops take Eddie out of the arena.

Brock Lesnar vs. Billy Gunn

Brock powers him around but stops after the GOLDBERG chants get under his skin. An overhead belly to belly has Gunn in trouble but he avoids a charge in the corner to send Lesnar shoulder first into the post. Gunn puts on one of the worst cross armbreakers I’ve ever seen and thankfully Brock is right next to the ropes so they can do something else. The Stinger Splash is cut off by a knee to the ribs and a good looking spinebuster gives Lesnar two. As always there’s something cathartic about seeing Gunn get beaten up.

We hit the gutwrench on the mat but since that’s boring even for Lesnar, he throws Gunn down with a German suplex. And never mind as it’s right back to the gutwrench. Billy fights back and hits a running jumping Diamond Cutter (I’m sure Orton will be thrilled) but misses another Stinger Splash. The F5 gives Lesnar the pin.

Rating: D+. Much longer than it needed to be here with Gunn not being the most believable opponent for Lesnar. I know Gunn was a big favorite of the company but I need more than Lesnar beating him up for eight minutes. At least Lesnar won clean and goes into what should be a heck of a fight with Goldberg at Wrestlemania.

Wrestlemania rundown. It’s a heck of a three hour card but they’re stretching it to four. Also, nice touch in having just the Undertaker symbol instead of his picture. Keep things a little more mysterious.

Here are Torrie Wilson and Sable in evening gowns and holding hands because fans go for things like that. Sign in the front row: Playboy cover + lotion = smiley face. Torrie thanks the fans for everything before talking about the Evening Gown match at Wrestlemania. After some sexual innuendo and general trash talk, here’s John Cena to interrupt. Torrie and Sable dancing to Cena’s music in evening gowns is quite the strange visual. Cena makes the exact jokes you would expect about the Playboy….and that’s it as it’s time for the main event.

John Cena/Rey Mysterio vs. Big Show/Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Rey is substituting for Eddie. Chavo and Rey start things off with a quick wrestling sequence before Rey goes with the right hands. A faceplant allows the hot tag off to Show for the huge toss across the ring. That always looks impressive, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. Chavo comes back in and gets caught in the sitout bulldog so Cena can come in with a top rope ax handle to the head. Cena knocks Show off the apron but he’s right back in to break up the FU.

Back from a break with Show working on Cena’s knee, which is still banged up from the Rumble. That’s a heck of a knee injury. The fans get behind Cena but it just seems to make Show angrier, making them quite the nuisance. Cena goes with the sleeper on Show’s back but gets flipped forward without much effort. Show is staggered enough that Cena can get over to Rey though and it’s dropkicks to the knee a go-go.

Since Show can shrug those off, Rey gets thrown down again and Chavo rolls some vertical suplexes. The missed frog splash lets Rey get two off la majistral as everything breaks down. Cena gets sent into the barricade but manages to send Big Show over it for a crash. Back inside, the 619 is enough to put Chavo away. You don’t see that get the pin on its own very often.

Rating: C+. Nice tag match here with both feuds getting some attention. Cena vs. Show should be a good though completely predictable match and that’s perfectly fine. Rey vs. Chavo on the other hand is a match that could take place at any other show but here, it’s something that has been bogged down by having to get a bunch of people on the show. That’s not always pleasant, but I get why it needs to happen.

Post match Show beats up Rey and chokeslams Cena.

Same Angle video that opened the show.

Here’s Angle for his explanation. Angle has been asked why he attacked Eddie and it’s because it was the right thing to do. He attacked Eddie for the fans of Smackdown and for America. Eddie is a former drug addict who tells children that it’s cool to lie, cheat and steal. America was built on character and it needs to go back to its fundamental principles. This country has given us the freedom of choice and Eddie can’t have a clear conscience.

It’s a matter of time before Eddie falls off the wagon and we don’t need a drug addict as WWE Champion. As soon as Eddie won the title, it started eating at Angle’s soul. He knew he had to do something and has even prayed about it. Angle knows he’s going to receive criticism for what he’s done but he had to do it. That’s it for Angle but here’s Eddie to go after him. Cue Heyman with the cops to have Eddie arrested for assault. Angle follows the cuffed Guerrero into the police car and talks a bunch of trash about how much of an embarrassment Eddie is to the title. The car pulls away to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. Every week that goes by shows that Smackdown’s contribution to the show is one match but it’s going to be one awesome setup. Everything else is either Raw focused or some interpromotional match and that makes for some interesting television. You have Eddie vs. Angle and Cena vs. Big Show (which isn’t really a major match), meaning TV can be laser focused on those two matches. On the other hand you have Raw where all kinds of matches need focus and nothing can really stand out above the rest. The Eddie vs. Angle stuff was good but the rest was pretty weak, as tends to be the case lately.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: February 19, 2004
Location: SaveMart Arena, Fresno, California
Attendance: 3,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

Viva la new champion. Eddie Guerrero shocked the world (kind of, assuming you didn’t pay attention to the pretty obvious Wrestlemania booking) and defeated Brock Lesnar to become WWE Champion. He even already has his first challenger with Kurt Angle winning a triple threat match to earn the Wrestlemania title shot. Let’s get to it.

Here’s No Way Out if you need a recap.

We open with a quick look at Eddie winning the title. That’s a pretty cool moment.

Paul Heyman has requested Brock Lesnar not appear tonight due to Lesnar’s temper possibly threatening the public safety. Eddie Guerrero may be the new WWE Champion but the celebration may be short lived. Tonight, Eddie will make his first defense against Chavo Guerrero. As a bonus, there will be a special guest referee to be announced later. Why do I expect him to be bald and told that he sucks?

Opening sequence.

Here’s Kurt Angle to the chorus of YOU SUCKs for a chat. Angle asks if we’re ready to party because tonight is about Eddie. He was never one of Eddie’s critics and it’s going to be a privilege to face Eddie for the title at Wrestlemania. Angle actually has the fans give Eddie three cheers but here’s John Cena to interrupt. Cena mocks Angle for actually saying HIP HIP HOORAY over Eddie. Cena: “I gotta agree with these people. You suck!”

Since three cheers aren’t exactly Cena’s style, he has one side of the arena say Latino and the other says Heat. With that out of the way, Cena praises Angle for making it to Wrestlemania. The thing is though, the chants make it sound like Eddie is going to take care of Angle. Cena is ready to fight but here’s Heyman with a better idea.

John Cena/Kurt Angle vs. Basham Brothers

Angle and Danny start things off with Kurt easily taking him to the mat. An armbar keeps Danny down until it’s off to Cena for a spinebuster on Doug. Angle gets tossed into Cena to knock him to the floor and the fight is almost on. Back from a break with Doug working on Cena’s banged up knee, even shrugging off a headbutt to the head to stay on it. Cena slips out of a slam though and scores with a DDT to put Danny down.

That’s enough for the hot tag off to Angle and let’s hit those suplexes. Danny slips out of the Angle Slam though and sends Kurt into Doug. Cole describes this as some vintage Basham double teaming, even though the Bashams have been around for what, eight months? Angle gets sent to the floor, leaving Cena grab the FU for the pin on Danny.

Rating: C+. In a surprise to no one, Cena and Angle have some good chemistry together whether facing each other or teaming together. This was a nice match and while the tag division can’t really handle the few established teams taking a loss, it’s not like there are many options to face Angle and Cena at the moment.

Stills of Chavo Guerrero Jr. cheating to beat Rey Mysterio for the Cruiserweight Title.

We look back at Hardcore Holly defeating Big Show in a non-title match last month, setting up a title match tonight. The lack of hardcore rules don’t help Holly here.

Mysterio comes in to see Heyman, who summarizes everything he thinks Mysterio is going to say. Actually Rey wants a rematch, which Heyman grants….if Chavo wins the WWE Title tonight. That’s not a bad little twist. Rey is cool with that and agrees to take the rest of the night off.

Here’s Eddie for his big championship celebration and he comes through the crowd for a nice touch. Confetti and balloons fall to really make this feel special, until the balloons are popped to make it a little more annoying. He even gets pyro when he holds the title up. Eddie asks if all this fuss is about him and talks about becoming the new champion along with everyone else.

To everyone who was with him all along, gracias. To everyone else, Spanish swearing. Eddie wants to know who is going to celebrate with him so here are the Chavos. Jr. talks about having one of the biggest moments of his life but IT’S STILL ALL ABOUT EDDIE. This is so Owen vs. Bret it’s not even funny. Eddie offers him a balloon in a much funnier moment but Jr. wants to be serious.

After tonight, this is all over and he’ll have two titles. Eddie isn’t convinced but Jr. has a surprise: the guest referee is Chavo Sr. So….why does Heyman hate Eddie? Just general heel vs. face reasons? I mean, you knew the story was going to happen but a justification or reason might be nice.

US Title: Big Show vs. Hardcore Holly

Show is defending and brushes off Holly’s early jumping. Ever the fighter, Holly even kicks at the knee from his back so Show tosses him around some more. A shoulder to the ribs does put Show down but he avoids the top rope legdrop. The chokeslam retains the title in short order. So long Holly, it wasn’t very pleasant.

Post match here’s Cena again, this time with a challenge for the US Title at Wrestlemania. Show says it’s on and it’s time to teach Cena a lesson. How to have a six month title reign in three short defenses?

Brock Lesnar is here.

Video on Lesnar vs. Goldberg from Sunday.

Here’s a ticked off Lesnar for a chat. Lesnar is rather upset in losing his title because it meant a lot to him. Eddie is just going to pawn it, unlike an All-American like Lesnar. All of this happened because of Goldberg and that means there’s a price to pay. Lesnar begs Vince to set up the match at Wrestlemania, even begging on his knees. That’s quite the visual from Lesnar. Imagine: him having emotion and, dare I say, a personality.

Sr. gives Jr. a pep talk.

Sable and Torrie Wilson had a Playboy signing in New York. There’s something so weird about that.

Tazz plugs a behind the scenes look at the Playboy shoot in Smackdown Magazine. Do these people get how Playboy works?

Recap of Undertaker’s latest creepy warnings to Kane.

Sr. has been knocked unconscious and since Angle happens to be there, he’ll be guest referee tonight. Well duh.

Smackdown World Title: Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Only Eddie is defending and Angle is guest referee. The title does look great on Eddie. A toss of the title to Chavo lets Eddie take over early on, including the slingshot hilo. Chavo’s comeback is cut off by an early Gory Stretch as Tazz makes a good point: Chavo won a title too and doesn’t even get a celebration? A tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets Chavo out of trouble and he hits his own rolling verticals.

Chavo’s good looking frog splash hits raised knees but Eddie sends him hard to the floor. Cue Sr. to yell at Eddie though, allowing Jr. to grab a rollup for two. Eddie rolls some verticals of his own but he bangs up his knee off a missed frog splash. Now it’s Mysterio running out to hit a 619 around the post on Sr. as we take a break. Back with Chavo working the knee, including a half crab Liontamer. That goes nowhere so Chavo switches gears with a dropkick instead.

A Muta Lock goes back to the knee and we hit the half crab again. Eddie fights up and snaps off a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker of his own (nice touch of them having a lot of the same offense due to growing up together and being in the same family) but it bangs up the knee again. The knee is fine enough for a top rope superplex, though he almost drops Chavo on the way down. There’s some blood on Eddie’s chest and Chavo’s ear (not exactly combinations you often see) and Eddie makes it worse with a powerbomb. The frog splash connects but Angle stops counting at two and attacks Eddie for the no contest.

Rating: B. More good stuff from these two, which isn’t exactly surprising given how well they know each other. There wasn’t a ton of drama for a new champion, but you don’t need to have the big title match two days after Eddie wins the title and especially not a month before Wrestlemania. Just let him have a showcase and set up Wrestlemania in the end. Perfectly fine choices and a good match too.

Post match Angle beats the heck out of Eddie until Mysterio runs in for a failed save. Angle mauls him too and Eddie is busted open to end the show. The EDDIE cheers make Angle even madder and he hits Eddie with the title to end the show after a good beatdown and heel turn.

Overall Rating: C+. Given that the entire show was three matches and two of them involved Eddie and Angle, you can’t say much else about this week. The big angle at the end was great and Cena vs. Show being set for Wrestlemania is the expected and right way to go. Smackdown is already looking better than Raw, but the rest of the card doesn’t have much time to get set up. Good stuff tonight, lead by two of the best around.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

No Way Out 2004
Date: February 15, 2004
Location: Cow Palace, San Francisco, California
Attendance: 11,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

It’s the final pay per view before Wrestlemania XX and we’ve got a one match card. Well two if you stretch a bit. The main event is Brock Lesnar defending the Smackdown World Title against Eddie Guerrero, who has reached the point where he almost has to win the title. Other than that we have a triple threat match for the next World Title shot at Wrestlemania. Let’s get to it.

Here are Playboy cover girls Torrie Wilson and Sable to open things up. They’ve been enjoying San Francisco and now it’s time for you to enjoy them. There’s nothing the two of them won’t do so welcome to the show.

The opening video looks at Lesnar vs. Guerrero, focusing on Eddie’s family falling apart because of his addiction issues. Now he’s clean though and the title is the only thing left for him to win. Nothing else even gets a mention.

Tag Team Titles: Basham Brothers/Shaniqua vs. Scotty 2 Hotty/Rikishi

Scotty and Rikishi are defending. Danny and Scotty start things off as the announcers try to figure out if Shaniqua would be a champion if they win. That’s rather different than say at Wrestlemania V where Monsoon and Ventura knew the rules and said Mr. Fuji was just a partner for one night. Heaven forbid the announcers aren’t bumbling knuckleheads though and actually have to call the match.

Scotty dances a bit for a distraction and grabs a tilt-a-whirl headscissors to put Danny down. It’s off to Rikishi and Doug with a hard clothesline keeping the champs in control. Shaniqua gets pulled in but it’s too early for a Stinkface. Scotty comes back in but Shaniqua gets in a cheap shot from the apron to break up the Worm. Leave it to her to make sure there’s no fun to be had in a match.

She comes in legally for the first time and shows off that Tough Enough style of offense, consisting of a kick to the ribs and a slam before a backdrop allows the tag off to Rikishi. A bad DDT puts Danny down and Shaniqua jumps on Rikishi’s back. The Rump Shaker is broken up by a double powerbomb to give Shaniqua two. Scotty clotheslines both Bashams, leaving Shaniqua to take a Samoan drop and the Rump Shaker to retain the titles.

Rating: D+. That would be it for Shaniqua and I don’t know how many people are going to miss her. The dominatrix thing was a waste of a perfectly fine tag team and after two years, Shaniqua was little more than a not great manager. The match was all it needed to be and the fans liked the ending, but it wasn’t exactly in doubt. Now maybe the Bashams can be an acceptable team again.

We recap Nidia vs. Jamie Noble. Nidia was blinded by Tajiri’s mist so Noble started treating her like dirt. It turned out that Nidia had regained her sight and knew what was going on so she turned on Noble for being a jerk. Tonight, Noble will be blindfolded.

Jamie Noble vs. Nidia

Noble can’t see so he falls out to the floor, allowing Nidia to slap him in the face. Back in and Nidia hits a dropkick and jumps on the mat a bit to throw Noble off. Noble manages to back her into the corner and doesn’t realize that she’s a foot in front of her. With that out of the way, Nidia pulls his shorts down for the comedy. A grab of the leg doesn’t get Noble anywhere as Nidia sends him outside again. Back in and Nidia taunts him a bit before tripping Noble to the mat. Nidia finally starts beating on him and goes up, allowing Noble to pull the hood up to slam Nidia back down. A guillotine choke makes Nidia tap in a hurry.

Rating: F. You can tell Smackdown is in trouble as this is as good of a way as they can find to fill in the pay per view time. The comedy here was something a six year old might find funny and while Nidia is miles better than Shaniqua, she still looks like someone who has only been doing this for a short time. Just awful here and no reason to have it on pay per view other than a way to fill in a spot.

Kurt Angle says he’s ready to go to Wrestlemania but John Cena comes in to say not so fast. He’s the kind of guy who would knock Angle out like someone did on Smackdown, but he would do it to Angle’s face. The fight is on and referees break it up.

World’s Greatest Tag Team vs. APA

This was added on Smackdown and Bradshaw has a bad arm coming in. Shelton and Faarooq start things off and we flash back to 1999 with an APA chant. Benjamin takes him down to start so Faarooq elbows him in the face, which plays into the grapplers vs. strikers theme that the announcers were pushing at the start. It’s off to Bradshaw for some forearms to Haas’ back before Faarooq gets sent arm first into the post. So now both Faarooq and Bradshaw have bad arms and Benjamin drops a knee on Faarooq’s to keep up the momentum.

Back to back armbars have Faarooq in even more trouble but he gets in the spinebuster for a breather. The hot tag brings in Bradshaw to clean house with a big boot and a powerslam. A hard powerslam gets two on Benjamin as everything breaks down. Faarooq’s arm goes into the post but Bradshaw hits the super Last Call on Shelton. There’s the Clothesline to Haas but the arm gives out, allowing Shelton to nail a superkick for the pin.

Rating: D. So you have Bradshaw come in with an arm injury and then work on Faarooq’s arm with Bradshaw’s arm only flaring up at the end? That sounds like it’s a little more complicated than it needs to be, especially in a match that could have been on Smackdown. Then again, if it aired there, we might only have an hour and fifteen minute pay per view.

Goldberg arrives, complete with a front row ticket. Even he doesn’t care about the lame first forty minutes.

Video on Lesnar vs. Goldberg.

With Goldberg in the front row, here’s Paul Heyman to yell at him about how great Smackdown is compared to Raw. Goldberg can only sit there because if he gets up, security will be taking him out and have him arrested. That brings Goldberg to his feet so here’s Lesnar to say he’s going to take care of Goldberg later on. Threats are made so Goldberg gets in the ring for the showdown. Heyman offers a distraction so Lesnar can drive Goldberg into the corner but the F5 is countered and the Jackhammer plants Lesnar as Heyman screams for security. They come out in short order and Goldberg is handcuffed.

Hardcore Holly vs. Rhyno

This was added on Heat and is a Smackdown rematch. Holly runs out while Lesnar is still down but security gets him out of there. Eh point for continuity, even if Holly stops almost immediately and waits for Rhyno. The fight starts in the aisle but Holly keeps up the aggression inside with a headlock. The announcers completely ignore the match (well duh) and for once it makes sense. Tazz: “This is Smackdown!” Actually it’s a pay per view but given that we’re seeing a Smackdown rematch, I can see how you would make the mistake.

Rhyno gets in a kick to the ribs to take over and drives a shoulder in the corner. We hit the bodyscissors with Rhyno getting two, earning a quick bit of attention from Cole. Rhyno shouts a lot and whips Holly hard into the corner to weaken the ribs even more. A double clothesline is good for a double knockdown and let’s go to Spanish commentary for a little flavor. It’s Holly up first with a running dropkick for two but Rhyno superplexes him down for two of his own. The Gore connects but sends Holly outside for a nine count. Back in and the Alabama Slam is good for the very fast pin. It’s as sudden as it sounds.

Rating: D. Was there any need to have this match go on for ten minutes? I mean, other than filling in time on a show that is going to be lucky to break two and a half hours? Holly’s push has at least cooled way down and if he’s just beating Rhyno, I think we’re going to be fine. It wasn’t exactly a great idea in the first place but at least it was only for one pay per view.

Long recap of Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. Chavo turned on his uncle Eddie a few weeks back and has gotten a lot more aggressive as a result. This included getting in a fight with Mysterio, who accused (likely accurate) Chavo and Chavo Sr. of attacking Eddie backstage. Chavo showed his jealous of Rey, setting up the match for the Cruiserweight Title. Mysterio has boxer Jorge Paez in his corner to cancel out Chavo Sr.

Undertaker’s gong goes off and his video plays. The dead rise again in 28 days. Cole: “If my calculations are correct, it’s 28 days until Wrestlemania!” I miss the days when wrestling didn’t think fans were this stupid.

Cruiserweight Title: Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Mysterio is defending and has Paez in his corner while Chavo has his dad. After arm work goes nowhere, Rey speeds things up with a dropkick to the floor. Back in and Chavo gets serious with a gutbuster and he gets two off back to back slams. Chavo’s armbar doesn’t get him anywhere as Rey hits a quick 619 but Sr. breaks up the West Coast Pop. One heck of a left hand from Paez puts him down but that’s an ejection to get us down to 2-1.

A big dive takes Chavo down and Rey gets two off a rollup back inside. Rey goes up but Chavo reverses into Dean Malenko’s super gutbuster (not quite as good but still looked painful) to really bang up the ribs. We hit the abdominal stretch as the announcers talk about the history of wrestling in this building. Can we get someone who knows a bit more what they’re talking about and listen to that for an hour instead?

A half crab version of the Liontamer stays on the ribs and a tilt-a-whirl gutbuster makes things even worse. Rey finally gets in the sitout bulldog for two and you can see him having trouble breathing from the ribs. A headscissors sends Chavo shoulder first into the post and Rey gets two off a Stroke. They head to the apron with a DDT giving Rey two more (Tazz: “Hard part of the ring!” So what was the hardest part back in 2004? I need more information.) but Chavo starts ripping at the mask.

You don’t do that to a luchador to Rey hits a moonsault press for two more. Another 619 connects but the springboard seated senton is rolled through into another half crab. Rey grabs a rope for the break after a better false finish than you would have expected. The referee yells at Chavo for no apparent reason as Rey goes up, only to have Sr. shoves him down, allowing Chavo to grab a rollup with tights for the pin and the title.

Rating: B-. They were starting to cook there at the end and then went with the lame interference ending with Chavo Sr. You could just as easily have had Chavo pull the tights and win that way after his rib work wasn’t enough to finish the job but this came out of nowhere. Chavo had to win here though and while we did get the right ending, I wasn’t crazy on how we got there.

Post match, Chavo goes to Eddie’s dressing room door and says Eddie will always be a loser because he’s an addict.

We get a three way tale of the tape for the triple threat and it’s so weird to see Cena with nothing as far as career accomplishments.

Big Show vs. John Cena vs. Kurt Angle

Winner gets the title shot at Wrestlemania. Before the match, Cena says he didn’t attack Angle and says it was Big Show instead. Somehow that involved at least one gay joke. Cena chills in the corner as Show tosses Angle across the ring in a rather smart move. Show does it again and Cena is so fired up that he tries his luck with Show, only to be thrown down just as hard.

Angle gets smart by suplexing Cena but gets dumb by thinking Show is going to let him get a cover. A toss to the floor bangs up Cena’s bad knee, leaving Show to side slam Angle for two. Show beats them both up, allowing Cole to say that Show has never been this dominant. I’d again like to point out that during this dominant run, SHOW HASN’T WON ANYTHING! Oh yeah he beat Billy freaking Gunn. That warrants this kind of over the top praise? Angle posts Show to put him down, leaving Cena to take some right hands back inside.

The ProtoBomb drops Angle for two but Show is back in for more of that dominance. Show chops away, which Cole says is like hitting yourself with a skillet. I’d think it’s more like having someone else hit you with a skillet but I could see how Cole wouldn’t be able to understand that. Show misses a charge in the corner and Cena kicks him in the knee, setting up a top rope elbow to the head. Angle puts Show down with a missile dropkick and the FU drops Show again.

Cena DDTs Angle for good measure but Show sends him outside. That leaves Angle to get two off the Angle Slam, followed by the ankle lock to Cena. Show is back up with a chokeslam to both guys but Angle breaks up the cover on Cena with an ankle lock. That’s broken up as well and it’s Cena taking over, only to have Show punch him in the knee. The knee is sent into the buckle and an Angle Slam puts Show on the floor. The ankle lock with the knee bar makes Cena tap.

Rating: C+. Angle winning was the pretty clear ending as Cena is way too young to get that big of a spot and Show winning would go against the main principle of him being dominant: he can’t actually win anything important. The match was fine and the knee injury played a role, though a lot of it was the standard two in, one out formula. Trying to keep Show down made sense but it’s been done so many times before that it’s hard to get excited over seeing it again.

We recap Lesnar vs. Guerrero. Eddie won a Royal Rumble last month to earn the spot and Lesnar doesn’t seem to be taking him seriously. Brock is looking ahead to facing Goldberg at some point but Eddie is fighting to redeem himself after all of his addiction issues nearly ruined his life.

Smackdown World Title: Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar

Guerrero is challenging. The confident Lesnar powers him around to start and knees Eddie in the ribs a few times. Some EDDIE chants fire him up but another right hand cuts Eddie back down. A powerbomb and then a swinging toss has Eddie thinking he might be in over his head and an overhead belly to belly makes things even worse. Brock knees him in the face as the announcers keep pushing the idea that Eddie has no chance.

Another suplex sends Eddie outside as it’s complete dominance so far. Eddie manages to snap Lesnar’s throat across the ropes and wraps the knee around the post for his first real offense. Brock posts him right back though and adds the Shell Shock (complete with a bit of marching) for two. A very hard clothesline sets up a German suplex to rock Eddie all over again but this time Lesnar is a bit slower to follow up.

Brock misses the running knee in the corner though and falls out to the floor, holding his knee off the bad landing. Eddie follows him out with a dive and you can feel the fans trying to get back into this. Back in and a hot shot sends Eddie’s ribs into the ropes as a group of security is dealing with someone in the crowd. Eddie is reeling but grabs the knee, pulling Lesnar down into an STF. He can’t hold on very long so he goes with a stomp to the knee instead.

The knee is fine enough for another belly to belly but Eddie dropkicks the knee again. A Figure Four has the knee in even more trouble until Lesnar realizes he’s next to the rope. Eddie isn’t done and goes back to the STF and this time Lesnar isn’t strong enough to power out immediately. He eventually rolls over and grabs a spinebuster for two. It’s off to something like a crossface chickenwing to keep Eddie down so the fans are right there with the cheers. Eddie fights out and goes up but whiffs on the missile dropkick.

A vertical suplex (with a quick leg sell) puts Eddie down and Lesnar’s nose is busted. Brock grabs a gutwrench on the mat as he’s figured out he’s not great toe to toe with Eddie due to the speed advantage so he sticks with the power game on the mat. Eddie finally slips out and dropkicks the knee again, which clearly takes away a lot of Lesnar’s fire in short order. The rolling suplexes have Lesnar down but Eddie misses the frog splash.

Lesnar is back up with the F5 but the referee gets bumped. With no one to count, Lesnar goes to get the title and heeeeere’s Goldberg (security around here sucks) with a spear. That gives Eddie two so he loads up the title but gets caught in an F5. That’s reversed into a DDT next to the title (really it was about a foot away), setting up the frog splash for the pin and the title.

Rating: A. I remember seeing this around the time that it happened live and it didn’t really have much of an impact on me. Watching it back though and seeing Eddie’s rise up the card and hanging in there against Lesnar, especially with all the psychology, was outstanding. Eddie winning feels special and that’s not something you get to see very often. Goldberg’s interference was fine and while Lesnar probably had him beat, it was Eddie’s own stuff beating Lesnar in the end instead of Goldberg doing the work to get the pin. Incredibly match and great storytelling with Eddie playing a great underdog.

A huge celebration, including Eddie hugging his mom, ends the show.

Overall Rating: B-. This is a really hard one to grade as the show doesn’t even run two and a half hours, which is ridiculous for what’s supposed to be a major pay per view. That includes the opening with Sable and Torrie, the long Heyman/Goldberg/Lesnar segment and the main event going thirty minutes. The first four matches ranged from watchable to a bad comedy segment and I need a little more than that for half of the card.

On the other hand though, the main event, which is over 20% of the show not even counting entrances and video package, was an instant classic and a feel good moment that had me smiling despite not being a huge Eddie fan. The triple threat was perfectly fine and Rey vs. Chavo was good, meaning the second half of the show bails the heck out of the card. If you turn this into an In Your House, it’s a near classic but for a three hour show, it’s very lucky that Eddie vs. Lesnar was that good. Wrestlemania is shaping up though and really, that’s what a big chunk of this show was supposed to do.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2012/08/05/no-way-out-2004-when-all-else-fails-give-them-more-eddie/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: February 12, 2004
Location: Tacoma Dome, Tacoma, Washington
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

It’s the go home show for No Way Out and that means we’re in for a lot more Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar. That’s a very good thing too as it’s the best thing on this show, which isn’t exactly a high bar to clear at the moment. However, since we’re about a month away from Wrestlemania, there’s a strong chance that we’ll be seeing more on Goldberg vs. Lesnar, which received a lot of attention on Monday. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a look at Smackdown General Manager Paul Heyman showing up on Raw to talk about Lesnar and getting speared by Goldberg instead. Please let that be the majority of the time this story gets.

Opening sequence.

Rey Mysterio vs. Tajiri

Non-title and Mysterio again has boxer Jorge Paez in his corner. Tajiri charges straight into a boot in the corner and gets headscissored down, setting up the sitout bulldog. Cue Chavo and Chavo though, allowing Tajiri to get in a shot from behind. The camel clutch goes on as the fans chant for Eddie. Rey rolls out without much effort and hits a basement dropkick, which Cole calls unique. A kick to the ribs cuts Mysterio off as Cole wonders if the fans know that No Way Out is in three days. Depends on if he means the live fans or the ones at home. Rey hits a quick 619 into the springboard seated senton for the pin out of nowhere.

Rating: C-. I’m still not sure why we need two people coming out for a distraction in a three minute match but WWE wouldn’t know what they were doing without some kind of shenanigans. Mysterio vs. Chavo could be fun, especially if they’re allowed to wrestle the kind of match that suits them best.

Post match the Chavos attack but Paez makes the save, dances a bit, nips up twice in a row, and knocks Sr. silly with a left hand.

Cole and Tazz rant about Goldberg attacking Heyman on Monday. Must be time to care about the brands again.

Lesnar comes in to see Heyman and recaps the Goldberg ticket/Heyman goes to Smackdown stories. Heyman is very sore but Lesnar gets rather intense and promises to retain the title before beating up Goldberg for fun. Then the people will be chanting WHO’S GOLDBERG. The guy you just beat up perhaps?

Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Danny Basham

The Tag Team Title rematch is on Sunday but it’s a handicap match with Shaniqua joining the Bashams. I’m sure nothing but good will come from this. Scotty starts fast and sends Danny into the corner with more authority than you would expect. A dropkick gets two and takes Danny down with an armbar. Doug’s distraction lets Danny get in a thumb to the eye and it’s cravate time. A belly to back is good for two and we’ll try another cravate. Scotty makes a comeback with clotheslines but charges into an elbow in the corner. A cradle with Doug pushing Danny forward is good for the pin.

Rating: D+. Certainly not the worst match but Rikishi and Scotty aren’t exactly thrilling champions. The problem though is there aren’t exactly any positive options for the titles outside of Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. At the very least the new champions means less of Shaniqua on my TV and that’s an improvement by itself.

Post match Rikishi and Scotty beat up the Bashams, who manage to save Shaniqua from a Rump Shaker.

Mysterio and Paez speak Spanish and promise to beat up Chavo and Chavo on Sunday. Chavo wants to take away the mask and the title but Mysterio isn’t letting that happen.

Chavo Jr. is annoyed that Chavo Sr. has ice on his face and promises to beat down the jumping bean on Sunday. Then Sr. will beat up Paez. Sr.: “WHAT?”

Kurt Angle is confident that he’ll win on Sunday. One of his opponents thinks he’s Eminem and the other eats M&Ms so he can move on to Wrestlemania.

Hardcore Holly vs. Rhyno

It looks like our long national Why Is Holly Being Pushed-mare is over. Holly takes him to the mat to start in an opening I didn’t quite expect. A hiptoss puts Rhyno down again and Holly whips him hard into the corner for two. Back up and Rhyno lifts him up for a powerbomb, dropping Holly face first onto the buckle to take over. It’s off to a bodyscissors so it’s time to talk about No Way out with Tazz trying to talk about what’s right in front of us. The spinebuster puts Holly down again but he dropkicks the Gore away. Rhyno hammers away in the corner but shoves the referee for the lame DQ.

Rating: D. Rhyno working the ribs was fine as it looked to be setting up the Gore but you’re only going to get so much out of these two having a match with that finish. Holly is getting back to where he belongs though and that’s one of the best things that could come out of this. It wasn’t terrible, but what else were you expecting here?

They keep brawling post match with referees breaking it up.

Angle has been attacked backstage and is taken away by medics.

As Angle is having a neck brace put on, there’s a Mariachi band playing in the ring. This company really needs to learn something about transitions. Anyway the band is the F Cincos and here’s Lesnar dancing to the ring in a sombrero. Brock says he’s throwing Eddie a little celebration tonight because Sunday is going to be a very sad day. The band plays again, with Brock showing more energy than I’ve ever seen from him as he conducts.

Eddie runs in to clear the ring but Brock eventually gets back in. He paid good money for those guys to swim here and this is how Eddie repays them? Brock knows that Eddie is a fighter and the fans start an EDDIE chant. On Sunday, Eddie is fighting Lesnar instead of the odds and this time he can’t win. Brock is going to torture him because while Eddie was an addict, Brock was winning NCAA and WWE Championships. Eddie better be addicted to losing because he’ll get a fix on Sunday.

It’s true that Eddie is an addict and a few years ago in Minneapolis, he was very high at an event. Someone carried him from an arena into rehab but he did that to himself. He lost everything like his wife, his job and his kids, but he lost himself. At that point he had to make a decision and now he’s here in front of you. He’s earned the respect of his kids and gotten his life back day by day.

The title around Lesnar’s waist is Eddie’s way of saying he’s sorry and of telling his kids that they can have what they want. This ring is his new addiction and on Sunday, he’s going to get high again. I remember watching this live and it’s still a great promo with Eddie selling the fact that he has to win because this is his life. For Brock it’s just another match against someone beneath him, which makes for a really strong Sunday going into Sunday.

Shelton Benjamin vs. Bradshaw

The teams are set for a match on Sunday. Bradshaw takes him down by the arm to start and gets as far as you’re going to get against Benjamin on the ground. The Last Call works a bit better and Haas’ distraction just lets Faarooq low bridge Benjamin to the floor. Back in and the Clothesline is blocked to damage Bradshaw’s arm. Benjamin stays on him with a Fujiwara armbar but Bradshaw doesn’t seem to mind. Back up and a big boot sets up a clothesline with the arm seeming fine. A superkick gives Benjamin two but the Clothesline takes his head off for the pin.

Rating: D+. This is some weird night of the midcard matches but they haven’t been the worst. I’m not sure why I’d want to see the APA in a pay per view tag match in 2004 but they only have so much they can use on a brand split show. The arm thing was a fine enough idea but it didn’t go anywhere with Bradshaw hitting the Clothesline anyway.

Angle is waking up and the suspects in his attack are Big Show, Cena and Lesnar.

Here’s Jamie Noble to address his issues with Nidia. Jamie isn’t happy with her spending all of his inheritance money. He should have dumped her when she went blind because he can have any woman in this crowd that he wanted. Nidia can still get out of this if she gives him back all the stuff he got her and leaves his life for good.

Cue Nidia in a truck with a wood chipper attached with an announcement: Noble is going to wrestle blindfolded on Sunday. Oh dear. Anyway, one of the guys in the truck with her demonstrates the wood chipper and Nidia throws the coat in. Was the wood chipper really necessary? Couldn’t they have accomplished the same result with some paint or a pair of scissors?

And now, a sitdown interview with Torrie Wilson and Sable talking about shooting Playboy together. Oh and there’s no sexual tension between them, but they both find each other hot. They’re friends now and just happen to be together in the magazine. This is exactly as you would expect it to be as they’re suddenly all good.

Pay per view rundown.

Kurt Angle/Eddie Guerrero vs. Big Show/Brock Lesnar

There’s no Angle so it’s time for a substitution.

John Cena/Eddie Guerrero vs. Big Show/Brock Lesnar

Show and Cena get things going with Show being knocked outside early on. It’s already off to Lesnar and Eddie with Guerrero getting the better of a slugout and reversing a gorilla press into a quick rollup. Some shots to the ribs have Lesnar in more trouble but a spinebuster evens things out in a hurry. Show comes back in to throw Eddie around, only to miss a sitdown splash. It’s back to Cena, who eats a headbutt in short order.

Cole asks if anyone has ever been on a roll like Show, who again hasn’t exactly won anything of significance this year. Eddie low bridges Show and Lesnar to the floor and checks on Cena as we take a break. Back with Cena caught in an abdominal stretch and a Shell Shock gets two. Lesnar grabs a gutwrench and cuts off Cena’s comeback with a knee to the ribs. A waistlock keeps Cena down and it’s back to Show.

The next Cena comeback is stopped with a boot to the face but Cena gets in a clothesline. The Throwback, with Show spinning around to land on his back instead of face first and a DDT still aren’t enough for the hot tag as Lesnar comes in to deck Eddie. Cena DDTs Lesnar as well and NOW the hot tag can bring Eddie in. The rolling suplexes connect and Show gets dropkicked off the apron. A missile dropkick gets two on Lesnar as Cena and Show fight to the floor. Cue Angle to chair the two of them down, leaving Eddie to hit Lesnar low with the chain for the pin.

Rating: C+. Eddie winning is the right call as he doesn’t have the best odds going into Sunday. It’s also a good idea to have Angle run in and advance the triple threat a little bit as the match doesn’t have a lot of hype so far. The match itself wasn’t bad though it was a little long with the ribs work on Cena taking its sweet time. The ending helped though and the thing was enough of a success on both fronts.

Overall Rating: D+. This show really emphasized how much of a one match card Sunday is going to be with only Eddie vs. Lesnar having any fire. The triple threat should be good but it’s not like there’s other than those two matches. I’m not exactly interested in Shaniqua in a title match, Nidia vs. Noble or the World’s Greatest Tag Team vs. Bradshaw and the guy who used to be Faarooq. Hopefully Eddie and Lesnar can save it, as they almost did here.

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