Great American Bash 2005 (2019 Redo): This Show Makes Me Want To Bash A Lot Of Things. Like WWE.

IMG Credit: WWE

Great American Bash 2005
Date: July 24, 2005
Location: HSBC Arena, Buffalo, New York
Attendance: 8,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

It’s their patriotic show, which isn’t likely to mean much in regards to anything more than the name. The official main event is Batista defending the World Title against JBL but the real main event is Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio over the secret that Guerrero wants to tell Rey’s son Dominic. I’m not seeing a great show here, but it could be lot worse. Let’s get to it.

The opening video talks about America being a land of opportunity, with each match being tied into the theme. Actually not too bad of an idea.

Tag Team Titles: MNM vs. Animal/Heidenreich

Animal/Heidenreich are challenging. Heidenreich and Mercury start things off with the latter being shoved outside in a hurry. Mercury gets thrown down again and let’s make it a third time for good measure. Animal throws him back inside and then comes in legally for a good reaction. A charge hits raised boot but Animal is fine enough to suplex both champs at the same time.

Nitro gets backdropped onto his shoulder and it’s off to Heidenreich. That means the champs can take him down by the knee with both of them getting a chance to pull on it. A missed charge in the corner allows the tag to Animal so house can be cleaned. Animal runs into a belt shot in the corner but Heidenreich breaks up the Snap Shot. The Doomsday Device is good for the pin and the titles.

Rating: D. It wasn’t very good and it was annoying to see the hot new act lose to a half nostalgia/half garbage team but the fans reacted well and this isn’t likely to be a long term deal. The biggest problem here is having MNM lose, but they’ll probably get the titles back sooner rather than later. At least the crowd got a nice pop to open the show.

Post match, Animal dedicates the win to Hawk.

Eddie Guerrero is happy to be addicted to manipulation. Tonight’s manipulation is that Dominick will be watching from ringside. After the match is over, Dominick can hear a bedtime story.

Christian vs. Booker T.

Sharmell is here with Booker. Christian gets chased to the floor to start so Booker throws him back inside and elbows away. That means the chase continues up the ramp with Booker getting the better of it again. A catapult into the corner gets two but Christian is right back with a reverse DDT for two. The DDT on the arm sets up a chinlock, followed by what would become the Anaconda Vice.

That’s broken up with a foot on the rope and Booker grabs a side slam. Christian sends him into the corner again so Sharmell gets on the apron and slaps Christian in the face. The Book End gets two and a spinebuster plants Christian again. Booker Spinaroonis up and hammers away in the corner, only to get rolled up with a foot on the rope for two. They go outside with Booker sending him into the barricade and post. Back in and Booker hits a super ax kick for the pin. Yeah it’s that quick.

Rating: C-. I don’t know what it was but this was rather boring. It was two guys doing moves to each other until Booker got the win in the end. Uh, great, now he has his revenge. What do they do now? This was a rather nothing match and while it was technically fine, I was never interested in anything they did.

Melina is upset about the loss so she’ll make up for it by beating Torrie Wilson.

US Title: Orlando Jordan vs. Chris Benoit

Jordan is defending and got punched down by Benoit earlier today. They lock up to start with Benoit getting the better of it and kneeing away in the corner. Some kicks to the knee get Jordan out of some of the trouble so Benoit dropkicks him in the knee to show him how it’s done. Benoit sends him outside but misses a baseball slide, allowing Jordan to get in a ram to the barricade.

Back in and Jordan tries to unhook a turnbuckle pad, only to get suplexed a few times in a row. Jordan starts working on the arm with a bunch of cranking and an armbar, but does have time to spell OJ in the air. Benoit gets a double leg takedown and hammers away but Jordan goes right back to the arm by wrapping it around the leg. A seated armbar makes it worse and Jordan’s swinging neckbreaker (Cole: “That works on the neck!”) gets two.

After more arm cranking, Jordan goes up top but gets crotched, setting up Benoit’s top rope superplex. Benoit suplexes him down again and hits the Swanton for two. Jordan gets sent into the corner again and gets the pad off, allowing him to send Benoit face first to retain the title.

Rating: C. And so yes the reign continues, but they set up a rematch if need be. Jordan has held the title for months now and for some reason he still has it, presumably because we need to have the title change on the big stage. The one good thing is they aren’t Jordan as some great champion just because he’s held the title for a few months. Benoit got cheated here and that should set up a title change sooner rather than later. Just get rid of Jordan as soon as possible, for everyone’s sake.

Post match Benoit gets the big hero’s ovation. It’s just an Orlando Jordan match people.

We recap the Undertaker vs. Muhammad Hassan. Muhammad claimed that he was being discriminated against because he couldn’t get a fair shake. He was put in the six way elimination match for the Smackdown Title but Undertaker chased him off. Then Undertaker beat up Daivari, only to have Hassan bring in some men in masks to attack Undertaker (the word terrorist was never said but that’s what they were going for). Since this took place on the day of the London bombings. It did not sit well with a lot of people. Hassan was basically blackballed from UPN, putting his future in jeopardy.

Undertaker vs. Muhammad Hassan

For the #1 contendership and Hassan is carried to the ring by the masked men on a sedan. Before the match, Hassan talks about how unfair everything is and how he’ll prove himself tonight. The masked men surround the ring after Undertaker shows up and the dodging is on in a hurry. Undertaker finally grabs him by the throat and throws Hassan into the corner for the right hands.

A clothesline drops Hassan for two and a Downward Spiral is good for two. Daivari shouts a lot so Undertaker stares down at him, followed by another glare to put the referee on the floor. The distraction lets Daivari pull Hassan away from a big boot and one of the masked men gets in some shots on the floor.

Back in and Hassan gets two off a DDT and we hit the chinlock. That’s broken up in a hurry and a single right hand puts Hassan down. Undertaker stops to go after some masked men though and gets beaten down again as they desperately try to give Hassan a chance. The camel clutch is broken up in a hurry but one of the masked men comes in and gets beaten up as well. Snake Eyes drops Hassan, Undertaker beats up all of the masked men and the chokeslam is good for the pin.

Rating: D. At this point, I’d take anything that was even pretty good or had anything resembling life. Another bad and dull match here with Undertaker beating up six people with no real trouble. Hassan was dead in the water as soon as the terrorist angle took place and this was just a matter of time. At least they kept it short enough, but I still feel horrible for Hassan. He did his job and had his career derailed because of all of these things out of his control.

Post match Undertaker beats up the masked men, Daivari and Hassan. With that out of the way (after a long time), it’s a Last Ride through the stage to write Hassan off for good. I know he wasn’t great, but he should have had a chance to fail on his own instead of being thrown out for the company’s bad idea. They do show Hassan laying on the concrete and convulsing a bit, just for some bonus effect.

Torrie Wilson promises to give the troops something special tonight.

As Hassan is taken out on a stretcher, it’s time for the next match.

Blue World Order vs. Mexicools

It’s the big wheels vs. the lawnmowers, though the Mexicools have rakes so they…..win? I think? Juvy dances away from Nova to start and everything breaks down early on. The blue guys clear the ring and pose, until Juvy hits a springboard spinwheel kick to the back of Nova’s head. Crazy knocks Nova down for two and it’s back to Juvy for a seated abdominal stretch. Nova finally kicks him away and brings in Stevie to the silence you might have expected. Everything breaks down and Stevie misses a charge in the corner, setting up Psicosis’ guillotine legdrop for the pin.

Rating: D-. Were you expecting anything else? The match was thrown onto the card to give the fans a breather after seeing Hassan murdered on television. The wrestling was basically non-existent and the right team won, but this would have felt out of place on Smackdown, let alone on a pay per view.

We recap Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio, which is all about the fact that Eddie can’t beat Rey. Therefore, Eddie has snapped and gone insane with jealousy, eventually dragging Rey’s family into the whole thing. He has some kind of secret over Rey’s head and if he wins tonight, the secret is out. If Rey wins though, the secret is locked away forever. Or until next week in wrestling logic.

Rey tells his son Dominick that it’ll be ok.

Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero

Rey’s son Dominick is at ringside. Before the bell, Eddie demands a handshake to show Dominick what kind of a man Rey is. The bell rings and the beating is on in a hurry with Rey hitting a clothesline but getting knocked down without much effort. Rey gets two off a backslide and stops a charging Eddie with an elbow to the jaw. An atomic drop cuts Rey off and Dominick is looking nervous.

Rey evens things up with a crotching on top, setting up a super hurricanrana for two. Another hurricanrana sets up a 619 to the ribs and the springboard seated senton gets two more. Eddie has a breather on the floor and hides behind Dominick, which goes as well with Rey as you might expect. Even Tazz thinks that’s too far as Eddie gets in a cheap shot and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker plants Rey back inside.

Eddie goes back to ringside to glare at Dominick some more, followed by a hard whip into the corner to work on Rey’s back again. Another backbreaker gives Eddie three straight near falls and the frustration is on in a hurry. Rey counters another backbreaker into a rollup for two so Eddie grabs the Gory Stretch. With Rey down, Eddie goes to check on Dominick again, allowing Rey to kick him in the face for some near falls.

A tornado DDT gives Rey a delayed two and the comeback is on. The 619 connects to set up the West Coast Pop but Eddie powerbombs him out of the air. Rey rolls out of frog splash range but he can’t do anything else. Two Amigos into a brainbuster let Eddie look down at Rey again and the frog splash connects….but Rey reverses into a crucifix for the pin out of nowhere.

Rating: B-. Dominick destroyed whatever they had going here as you can only cut back to him so many times before I never want to see him again. We reached that point about five minutes into the match so they kept doing it over and over again. It’s the best match of the night so far, but given the low bar that has to clear, it isn’t exactly an accomplishment. The story took a bad turn here and I don’t know if they’re going to be able to get anything back.

Post match, Eddie is stunned and looks to swear more revenge.

JBL isn’t happy with Batista embarrassing him so many times lately and promises to teach Batista a lesson like never before.

Melina vs. Torrie Wilson

Bra and panties match with Candice Michelle as guest referee for reasons of three instead of two. They brawl to start and Torrie grabs an abdominal stretch to pull off Melina’s shirt. A try for the pants gets Torrie kicked to the floor so Melina throws her back in and evens the score. Candice yells at Melina for choking so Melina drops an elbow instead. Torrie makes the comeback with some clotheslines but still can’t get the pants. A hot shot lets Melina get the rather easy win.

Rating: F. Yeah we get it. These matches just do not work in a world where Torrie has already been in Playboy so it’s not like this has any reason to exist other than to hook teenagers without good internet access. This was everything you would expect it to be and then even less.

Post match Melina jumps Candice so it’s a stripping for Melina as well. Oh and Candice strips as well.

We recap Batista vs. JBL. John Cena and the WWE Championship went to Raw in the Draft so we needed a new champ. JBL won the inaugural Smackdown Championship but Batista moved over, meaning JBL was just a #1 contender. That wasn’t cool with JBL, who yelled at Batista a lot and bragged about being a real American. It’s a feud where they have done everything well enough but the lack of drama has hurt things a lot.

Smackdown World Title: John Bradshaw Layfield vs. Batista

Batista is defending. They circle each other to start until JBL gets shoved away off a lockup. Another shove lets Batista pose as they’re not exactly starting fast. JBL knocks him into the corner and hits a right hand, only to get clotheslined outside in a hurry. Back in and Batista’s side slam gets two but JBL runs him down with a shoulder out of the corner.

Another clothesline puts JBL on the floor though as this has been mostly Batista so far. JBL tries to dive off the apron and gets rammed back first into said apron for his efforts. Back in and Batista gets sent shoulder first, followed by a big boot right back to the floor. They go over the announcers’ table in a heap and JBL hits a jumping right hand off the table for a knock down.

That’s good for two back inside, followed by choking and an elbow for two more. Batista’s comeback is countered into a long form sleeper until Batista suplexes his way to freedom. They head outside for about the 14^th time and Batista is sent knees first into the steps. The big running clothesline puts both of them over the barricade though and Batista hammers away again.

Back in and the ref gets bumped, because that’s what this match needed. The spinebuster plants JBL but Orlando Jordan comes in with a chair to Batista’s back. That and a big boot give JBL a very delayed two and the Clothesline From JBL gets….nothing as that referee really can’t take a hit. Batista grabs another spinebuster, backdrops Jordan to the floor, and hits the shoulders in the corner. Jordan tries to come in again so Batista grabs a chair and blasts them both for the DQ, because THIS needs a rematch.

Rating: D-. Another lifeless match with Batista being better than JBL at everything JBL does. Then I had to put up with Jordan in another match and more JBL promos are coming as we probably take this to Summerslam. Batista didn’t even look that dominant and the match was long, sluggish and felt way too similar to the same story of Batista vs. HHH/Ric Flair.

Post match Batista doesn’t like the decision so he Batista Bombs JBL to end the show. Oh wait as Cole has to thank the troops. If this is their gift, it would seem that WWE hates them very much.

Overall Rating: F. This seems appropriate as I’m rather tempted to say various words that start with an F over and over after watching this show. This was HORRIBLE and one of the worst shows I’ve seen in a very long time with nothing showing any energy, some complete wastes of time, some questionable booking decisions and a terrible main event that dares to suggest we might want to see it again. It’s a complete disaster on almost every front and I can’t imagine it actually going worse. Horrible stuff here.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

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Smackdown – July 21, 2005: The Fake Main Event And The Real Main Event

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: July 21, 2005
Location: First Mariner Arena, Baltimore, Maryland
Attendance: 3,500
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

It’s the go home show for the Great American Bash and that means things are mostly set in stone. There are a lot of things that can be built up a bit better though and Sunday’s show could use a bit of that. The show isn’t looking too bad aside from the main event, which is little more than a way for Batista to get his first title defense as Smackdown Champion. Let’s get to it.

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

The opening video is paid for by Friends Of JBL. Everything started for him last year and now it’s time for him to get the title back. Tonight, we get his victory celebration for Sunday’s title victory.

Opening sequence.

Rey Mysterio vs. Super Crazy

The other Mexicools are at ringside too. Rey starts fast with an armdrag and it’s off to a test of strength, which always looks strange from smaller guys. Rey grabs a headscissors but gets dropkicked right back down for two. The threat of a 619 puts Crazy on the floor so he comes back in refreshed and grabs a spinebuster. Crazy stomps away in the corner until Rey manages to send him shoulder first into the post…and here’s Eddie Guerrero.

Back from a break with Eddie on commentary and Rey hammering away in the corner. Eddie uses the time to explain that he’s just doing all this because he loves Rey. Crazy sends Rey out of the corner and the waistlock goes on. As Eddie gets angrier and angrier, Crazy grabs the Rocking Horse to work on all the limbs. That’s broken up so Crazy puts on a seated abdominal stretch.

With that not lasting long, they chop it out as Eddie talks about being the man of the house. The springboard spinning crossbody gives Rey two and a headscissors into the corner is good for the same. Another springboard is broken up though and Crazy gets two off a springboard moonsault. Rey is right back with a headscissors into 619 position, drawing Eddie in with a rake (stolen from Psicosis) to Rey’s back for the DQ.

Rating: C. This was long but they did the smart thing by not having either of them take a fall. They seem to have plans for the Mexicools so having them lose this early would be a bad idea. Eddie was going even crazier on commentary and it makes the heel turn work that much more. He can be all sinister in his regular promos but now he’s breaking down into just pure obsession and madness.

Post break Eddie is going to leave but Theodore Long says not so fast. Eddie is wrestling tonight against a mystery opponent.

Christian brags about beating Booker T. last week and promises to beat him again on Sunday. If Josh Matthews doesn’t like it, go back to his parent’s house and his basement room and complain about it on the internet. Booker is going to be a two time two time loser.

Heidenreich reads Animal a poem about feeling Hawk’s presence and how big of a chance this is. Animal says Heidenreich is more like Hawk than he thought. Heidenreich: “What a rush.” Oh give me a break.

JBL is a Great American. Like Neil Armstrong.

Animal/Heidenreich vs. Nick Berk/Julio Dinero

Powerslam and Doomsday Device finish in thirty seconds. MNM is shown panicking in the back.

Raw Rebound.

Eddie Guerrero vs. ???

It’s…..Chris Benoit, because that’s as much of a guaranteed good match as you can get. Before the match, Eddie tries to run so Benoit calls him in, saying they’ve been close friends for years. Eddie gets back in and decks Benoit to start in a hurry. A chair is brought in but the referee takes it away, only to have Eddie kick Benoit low for an early two. Eddie’s boot rake over the face but Benoit snaps off a German suplex as we take a break.

Back with Eddie wrapping the knee around the post and sending him face first into the announcers’ table. Eddie cranks on the leg and puts on a leglock, sending Benoit rolling over to the ropes. Benoit fights up and tries the Sharpshooter but the knee gives out. That means the leglock goes right back on so Benoit makes it to the ropes again, though a bit more slowly this time.

Eddie goes up but gets headbutted and superplexed back down, with Benoit busted open after the headbutts. Being the smart villain, Eddie kicks at the cut but Benoit snaps off the rolling German suplex for a double knockdown. The Swan Dive gets a delayed two with Eddie getting a boot on the rope. Back up and Eddie tries the Three Amigos, only to get reversed into the Crossface. Eddie is in the ropes within about two seconds….and takes the countout.

Rating: B. That’s about the standard for these two as they don’t know how to have a bad match. They’re one of the best pairings you can find and it was no exception here. This was the second match in a row where you don’t want either of them taking a fall so it was the right way to go. I could get used to this thinking things through concept.

Post match Rey jumps Eddie and beats him up on the stage.

We look back at Undertaker beating up Muhammad Hassan’s attorney last week.

Here’s Candice Michelle for a special announcement: the Great American Bash will be available for free to the military. Yeah we already knew that. Cue Melina, who isn’t happy that Candice is guest referee for Melina vs. Torrie Wilson on Sunday. Melina doesn’t like Candice and goes for her clothes, only to have Torrie run in for the save. Candice is so humiliated that she dances a bit.

Video on the Great American Bash press conference.

Booker T. vs. Simon Dean

Simon says Sharmell goes to the buffet line five times, five times, five times, five times, five times and the beating is on in a hurry. Booker doesn’t waste time and punches, kicks and kicks some more, setting up the ax kick for the pin in a hurry.

Post match Booker says Christian is just like that Richard Simmons Tae Bo wannabe.

JBL is a Great American. Like Ronald Reagan.

The Boogeyman is coming.

Long video on Guerrero vs. Mysterio.

Great American Bash rundown, with the Blue World Order vs. the Mexicools added.

It’s time for JBL’s victory celebration, meaning the ring is covered in red, white and blue. Orlando Jordan handles the introduction and the confetti cannons go off. JBL looks like Uncle Sam/Apollo Creed and comes to the ring in an open topped Cadillac just to complete the visual. He talks about some great Americans and brags about how awesome America is.

We take over countries because we can and because we should, since might has always been right. We do give to the poor nations who need a handout, but some Americans are weak. Like Batista, who ran away from JBL at Wrestlemania like a coward. JBL isn’t happy about Batista being on the cover of Smackdown Magazine. This is his show, but don’t worry because next month, there will be a new issue on the newsstand.

We see a new cover, with JBL holding the title over a fallen Batista. On Sunday, Batista is getting put down because there are legends and Hall of Famers, but there is only one wrestling god. Cue Batista to call JBL out for looking like an idiot. Batista calls him a phony and a bully so on Sunday, JBL is getting exposed. The fight is on and Batista cleans house, including putting on the Uncle Sam hat and jacket to end the show. They’re trying to do something with this, but JBL is little more than target practice for Batista and Guerrero vs. Mysterio is the real main event and they aren’t trying to hide it.

Overall Rating: C-. This show ran into the problem of not being able to do anything else with Mysterio vs. Guerrero. The story has been set up for a few weeks now and there isn’t anything left for them to do with it. Batista vs. JBL isn’t doing anything for me, but Christian vs. Booker should be good and…..yeah two matches are enough to carry a show, right? Not a great show here, but Eddie vs Benoit got us far enough.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

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

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Smackdown – July 14, 2005: The Shallow End Of The Smackdown Pool (With A Future Guest Star)

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: July 14, 2005
Location: DCU Center, Worcester, Massachusetts
Attendance: 3,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

Things got a lot more interesting/controversial last week with the whole Muhammad Hassan/Undertaker situation. I’m not sure how they can follow up on that given all of the fallout that comes from it but it should be interesting. We are also ten days away from the Great American Bash, which doesn’t have much of a card yet. Let’s get to it.

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

We open with a recap of Batista vs. JBL, which doesn’t exactly make me think the title is in jeopardy. This also means another look at the Blue Meanie beating JBL, which somehow wasn’t the most interesting thing that happened last week.

Opening sequence.

Here’s Eddie Guerrero to get things going. After taking a few minutes to soak in some hatred, Eddie says Rey Mysterio isn’t here tonight. See, Rey thought that he was going to be able to avoid being humiliated tonight by not being here, but that’s not how it works. All that matters is that Eddie knows something Rey wants to keep from everyone from knowing. We see a clip of Eddie making Rey beg him for mercy last week. Eddie: “You should have seen what I planned out for this week!” Eddie isn’t done yet though because he wants to talk to Rey’s son Dominick.

After ordering Tony Chimmel to give up his chair, Eddie has a seat and talks about a boy named Dominick who lived a long time ago and far away. Then one day, Dominick went out into the woods to play….but here are Eddie’s wife Vickie and their kids. Eddie goes to the floor and introduces his family to the crowd before screaming at them to go to the back. Vickie says this is getting out of hand and this secret, whatever it is, needs to be kept quiet because it could hurt a lot of people, including Rey. Eddie grabs her by the neck and forces her to the back in an uncomfortable moment.

Post break, Eddie yells about how this is what he does and Vickie needs to worry about the girls like she is supposed to. Hardcore Holly of all people tries to intervene and gets shoved away. Vickie is put into the card and, despite protesting the whole time, drives away with the kids.

Mexicools vs. Scotty 2 Hotty/Paul London/Funaki

Super Crazy stars with London and gets chopped up against the ropes, only to have Juvy get in a knee to the back from the apron to take over. Juvy comes in to work on the armbar and it’s Super Crazy coming in as well for a double basement dropkick to Scotty’s head. Scotty tries to fight out of the corner as Cole freaks out over not knowing what THE JUICE means.

Juvy gets knocked down and the diving tag brings London back in. Some dropkicks take the Mexicools down and it’s a belly to back suplex to drop Juvy again. Psicosis and Crazy break up the 450 though, allowing Crazy to hit his own moonsault. Juvy’s 450 is enough to put London away.

Rating: C-. So the Mexicools have finally debuted and….yeah it’s three good luchadors in a trios match. I’m not sure what this was supposed to accomplish other than getting their foot in the door because they weren’t all that impressive. At the same time though, how far has London fallen since winning the title? I know it doesn’t mean anything but good grief. Drop the title if that’s how worthless they see it being.

Christian hits on Candice Michelle by offering any help she may need but Booker T. and Sharmell interrupt. Booker isn’t impressed so Christian tells him to back off. A match is set for later.

Batista talks about watching Smackdown while he was on Raw, where he saw JBL as a loudmouthed bully. At the Great American Bash, the bully is getting beaten up and getting an attitude adjustment.

Melina tells MNM that she’ll catch up with them in the ring. She goes over to Torrie Wilson and isn’t happy with a fan asking Torrie for an autograph. Whatever Torrie can do, Melina can do it better. They’ll fight at the Bash and let’s make it a bra and panties match.

Heidenreich comes out for a match but gets jumped by MNM. Heidenreich gets posted so Melina asks where his friends are now. Cue Road Warrior Animal of all people for the save, because the Legion of Doom has a new DVD out and we need to promote it somehow. To be fair though, the fans do go nuts for him.

MNM bails so Animal grabs the mic and plugs the DVD before saying he doesn’t like MNM declaring themselves the best team of all time. Mercury calls Animal old and gives the Road Warriors a title shot at the Bash. Nitro: “We can’t do that. His partner is dead!” Animal is ready to snap but Heidenreich calms him down and offers to team with him at the pay per view. The match is made.

We look back at the opening segment with Eddie getting creepier than usual.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Hardcore Holly

They start with the shoving again until Eddie chops him in the corner. More chops against the ropes have Holly in trouble but another corner version misses. Holly knocks him to the floor and we take a break. Back with Eddie chopping away some more until Holly armdrags him into an armbar.

A drop toehold sends Holly face first into the buckle so it’s time to step on Holly’s face. Eddie’s figure four necklock is powered up into an electric chair and they’re both down. Holly hits a backdrop and dropkick for two, followed by a full nelson slam for the same. A top rope clothesline gets the third two in a row but the Alabama Slam out of the corner is blocked.

That’s fine with Holly, who hits his kick to the very low ribs. They head outside with Holly going shoulder first into the post and back first into the apron. The referee gets poked in the eye, probably not by mistake, and Eddie hits Holly in the knee with a pipe. A Texas Cloverleaf makes Holly tap.

Rating: C. I know Holly gets some eye rolls at times but he can wrestle a fine match like he did here. Granted it’s against Eddie Guerrero so it’s almost guaranteed to be at least decent, but Holly held up his end as well. It’s also a nice sign to have Eddie’s jealous madness getting to other people as well, which it really should at this point.

Post match Eddie apologizes to Vickie and says she knows he would never hurt her or the kids. Now, he’s going to prove how much he loves Vickie by giving Rey a chance. They can fight again at the Bash (they’re booking this show in a hurry tonight) and if Rey beats him, the secret will never be told. If Eddie wins though, the secret is coming out.

Muhammad Hassan is not here tonight, but we will have a prepared statement from Hassan’s attorney.

Post break here is the attorney for the statement. You can tell he’s an attorney because he wears a suit, has a briefcase, and the announcer tells us that he is an attorney. Oh and he stops to put on reading glasses before clearing his throat. His name is Thomas Whitney Esq. and the statement talks about Hassan taking a break from Smackdown due to everything that has happened in the last week.

Hassan has American rights and it is a sad day when he has to retain an attorney to protect those rights. Hassan will not be back until after he defeats the Undertaker at the Great American Bash….and there’s the gong. One long entrance and a beating later and we’re done. Whitney wouldn’t be done in wrestling, though it helped a lot when he shaved his head and changed his name to Tommaso Ciampa.

Christian vs. Booker T.

Hold on though as Christian jumps him from behind in the aisle. Booker is sent into various steel objects (steps, post) but the referee lets the match start anyway. Therefore, the Unprettier finishes Booker in about fifteen seconds.

The Boogeyman is coming.

Great American Bash rundown, with Christian vs. Booker T. as the fourth match added during this show.

Here’s Orlando Jordan with JBL for the main event, but first JBL needs to rant about last week. That was a humiliating night for him as he was beaten up by someone who should have bought a ticket to see him. The Great American Bash is his pay per view and we will see what the Wrestlemania main event should have been. There are all time greats, but there is only one wrestling god.

Batista vs. Orlando Jordan

Non-title. Batista starts with the shoulders in the corner before hitting another one in the middle of the ring. Jordan gets back in but JBL offers a quick trip to pull Batista outside. That means a whip into the steps (popular weapon tonight) so Jordan can start working on the knee to take over. An argument with the referee lets JBL wrap the leg around the post to keep Batista down.

Jordan lays on the leg but Batista pops up for the shoulders in the corner. A powerslam plants Jordan but JBL has to be knocked off the apron. With JBL dispatched and the referee bumped, the spinebuster into the Batista Bomb….is broken up by a JBL chair shot. That gets a close two so JBL tries the Clothesline, only to get knocked away without much effort. Now the Batista Bomb can finish Jordan.

Rating: D+. It wasn’t a very good match but it also set up some things for the future. This was about setting up Batista vs. JBL at the Great American Bash, which may not be sounding like the most thrilling match but it is something that gives Batista his first win as Smackdown Champion. There wasn’t much of a sweat over Jordan, but was there really supposed to be one?

Post match JBL kicks Batista in the bad knee and hits the Clothesline. Posing with the title ends the show.

Overall Rating: C-. This was a show that illustrated how weak things could be. Other than Eddie/Rey, there isn’t much on here that I really want to see. There did set up a lot of stuff for the Bash, but it includes what will be a nacho break match and Animal getting a title shot (the LOD was great but Animal and Heidenreich…..not exactly). The top half of Smackdown is going to be very good but outside of that, I’m really not sure how the rest of the show is going to go. One or two strong angles can carry a show, but if one of those doesn’t work, they’re in big trouble. Not a terrible show, but the lack of depth is showing.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

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

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Smackdown – July 7, 2005: The Muhammad Hassan Show

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: July 7, 2005
Location: ARCO Arena, Sacramento, California
Attendance: 10,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

We’re coming up on the Great American Bash but more importantly we are finally set as far as the roster moves go. The roster may not look as strong as it did before but Smackdown has Batista now and that is the only logical followup to losing John Cena over to Raw. Now we get to see where things go. Let’s get to it.

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

We open with a recap of Cena moving over to Monday, meaning a champion was needed. That looked to be JBL but Batista showed up instead. That’s a rather cruel way to treat JBL actually, as he won that match on his own last week.

Here’s a sneering JBL to open things up. Last week’s screwjob makes what happened to Bret Hart in Montreal look like a parking ticket. He should be Smackdown Champion but now we have Batista on Smackdown instead. JBL is #1 contender though and he isn’t scared of the Animal, because tick tock. The time is ticking on Batista’s time as World Heavyweight Champion and it’s time for the man who looks like Tarzan to fight like Jane.

JBL’s music starts and here’s the limo….containing the Blue World Order, with Stevie Richards as Orlando Jordan, the Blue Meanie as JBL and Nova as the combined forces of the Bashams. Richards introduces us to JBL: John Blue Lamefield, and Ash Me (Ash Me?). Richards dubs himself Bluewheat to some rather weak responses. JBL is really not impressed and orders them out of here before they embarrass him.

Richards says JBL embarrassed himself at One Night Stand because he disrespected ECW and everything they stood for. JBL rants about how Richards wasn’t good enough to flip burgers and Meanie took the beating he deserved. Meanie wants JBL in a match tonight and that’s agreed to in a hurry. We’re not done yet though as the BWO spray paint the limo. That happens a lot around here.

Chris Benoit vs. Booker T.

For the #1 contendership to the US Title. They go technical to start as you might have expected with Benoit shrugging off a hammerlock and grabbing a hiptoss. That’s good for a standoff so Benoit starts in with the chops to take over. Booker manages to snap him throat first across the top rope, followed by a superkick for two. The armbar goes on, followed by a quick ax kick for two.

That means more armbarring, as it certainly seems to be working so far. This time it’s Benoit fighting back and snapping off the German suplexes but the Swan Dive is blocked. Booker nails a superplex for a very delayed two before trying a cross armbreaker of all things, sending Benoit to the ropes. The arm is fine enough to slap on the Crossface and make Booker tap.

Rating: C+. These two could have a passable match in their sleep and that is more or less what they did here. Benoit is going to be fine going into the US Title match at the Bash, even if it is going to take something incredible to make a match with Jordan work. I’m not sure where this leaves Booker, but he’s going to do well enough against anyone, which is a good way to build up someone new.

Sharmell is disappointed at the loss but Jordan scares her off and takes her place in front of the monitor.

We recap Eddie Guerrero going nuts last week and making Rey Mysterio beg him not to tell Rey’s son Dominick the truth. The emotion in this stuff is rather awesome and they’re both selling it incredibly well.

Mysterio comes up to Eddie in the back and asks him to rethink things. Eddie feigns ignorance so Rey lays it out for him. He begs Eddie not to do this, but Eddie needs a partner tonight to face MNM. That’s a no, but Eddie’s feelings are hurt. Instead, he’ll just go to the ring by himself and tell everyone the truth about their little secret. Rey: “Wait…Eddie.” Eddie: “We having a change of heart here or something?” Eddie says he loves Rey and the only thing he wants is the best for Rey and Dominick. See you out there, partner.

Muhammad Hassan and Daivari rant about the six man match last week. Hassan was never eliminated and should be the #1 contender to Batista. Instead, Theodore Long puts him in a #1 contenders match with the Undertaker. Oh dear it’s time to get here. As for tonight, it’s Daivari vs. Undertaker.

John Bradshaw Layfield vs. Blue Meanie

No DQ. During the intros, we hear about JBL and Meanie’s issues, including at One Night Stand, but without any specifics as to what JBL did. JBL boots him in the face before the bell and stomps away in the corner before taking him outside to continue the beating. Meanie goes into various hard objects and his comeback attempt goes as well as you would expect.

JBL beats up the rest of the BWO and it’s time for a chair, plus Richards for a bonus. Richards gets in a scary chair shot to the head and Meanie adds a DDT. The Meaniesault gets two and here’s Jordan to distract Meanie. The Clothesline From JBL connects but Batista comes in and gives JBL the spinebuster so Meanie can steal the pin.

Rating: D-. This has been Avoiding Lawsuits With WWE as the BWO guys were just some annoyances to JBL who stole a win to help advance Batista vs. JBL. They kept it short and Meanie got in almost no offense without major help so it’s not like this hurts JBL or anything. Just get it over with and move on so Meanie won’t sue. I get why it had to happen and it wasn’t the worst thing ever or even close. Just a quick thing that we had to get through.

Tag Team Titles: MNM vs. Rey Mysterio/Eddie Guerrero

MNM is defending and Eddie forces Rey to smile in a funny moment. Eddie takes over on Mercury’s arm to start and demands a tag for the sake of Dominick. Rey reluctantly comes in and hits a basement dropkick for two on Mercury. It’s back to Eddie for Three Amigos but Eddie stops to throw Nitro to the floor instead of covering. The frog splash connects for two anyway, with Eddie pulling off of the pin.

Rey comes in for two instead and Eddie blasts him from behind. Eddie goes to sit down at ringside as Rey takes a double gutbuster to set up the chinlock. Rey fights up and hurricanranas Nitro into the 619 as the comeback is on. The springboard legdrop gets two….as Eddie jumps Rey and beats him up. Eddie chills on the top rope as Rey takes the Snapshot to retain the titles.

Rating: C. It’s a hard one to grade as this was an angle instead of a match. That makes things more interesting too, as we’ve done the Eddie/Rey Tag Team Titles run before. Eddie is completely out there at this point and that makes things a lot different. I’ve loved this story so far and this is a rather nice new twist on things.

Post match Eddie asks Rey if he wants to hit him, but it would cost Rey their little secret. Rey wants to leave but Eddie shoves him in the face and makes Rey hold the ropes open for him. Eddie: “Dominick would LOVE to open the ropes for Uncle Eddie.” Rey reluctantly agrees as the mind games continue.

Raw Rebound.

Christian talks about how awesome he is and how he’s ready for Batista tonight. That’s how he rolls.

Matt Morgan vs. William Regal

This is Regal’s Smackdown debut, or at least it would be if the Mexicools didn’t come out and jump Morgan. Regal looks impressed as the beatdown goes on. Juvy talks about how they’re going to keep making an impact week after week. Psicosis: “Your a** is grass and we are the lawnmowers!”

And that’s it for Matt Morgan, because WWE saw no value in someone who looks like that with that kind of size and felt the need to give him a bad stutter as his only gimmick. Instead, we’re getting the continuing adventures of three guys riding a lawnmower and talking about being cool. Wrestling can be a stupid place at times.

Daivari panics about facing Undertaker but Hassan says that the sacrifice has a reward. He has a plan.

Daivari vs. Undertaker

Daivari bails to the floor before the smoke clears from around ringside but Hassan throws him back in. The chokeslam and Tombstone finish Daivari in a hurry.

And then it happens. Hassan drops to his knees and begins to pray. Five men in ski masks and camo pants, one with a club, run in and beat Undertaker down. One of them pull out a steel wire and choke him out, allowing Hassan to put on the camel clutch. The masked men carry Daivari out like a martyr as Hassan glares at Undertaker.

The announcers do their serious talk about what they just saw.

I’m not sure what to say about this other than I still feel sorry for what happened to Hassan here. The angle itself was always going to be controversial. Now that’s fine on its own and I could see how something like this could have worked if WWE had been capable of pulling it off. However, the problem was this show aired the night of the London Underground bombings. WWE aired a statement saying that the segment would be controversial, but they really needed to just cut the segment entirely. It was a situation where real life was more important than wrestling and there was no way this would go over.

This was more or less it for Hassan, as UPN decided they didn’t want him on their network anymore (the character, not the person) and there was nothing WWE could do. Hassan would wrestle one more time, as the Great American Bash, and then never be seen again. Hence why I’ve always felt sorry for Hassan, whose career was basically ended because of an angle that took place and aired the day of a horrible incident.

WWE could have done something else (air an interview, a clip from Raw or SOMETHING else, even something from last week) but instead they put a disclaimer on there and let Hassan’s career be ended. WWE didn’t know how bad it could have gone, but I would have hoped they would know better than to let this air the day of something that bad. Hassan was going to be a big deal (apparently taking the title from Batista at Summerslam) and while I’m not sure how well he would have done, he never got the chance because of something that wasn’t his fault, and that isn’t fair.

Christian vs. Batista

Non-title. Batista throws him around to start and Christian isn’t sure what to do. A hard running shoulder puts Christian on the floor and we take a break. Back with Christian getting punched out of the air and it’s time to head outside. Christian posts him and then sends him face first into the steps for the first breather he’s had.

Back in and Christian gets two each off a DDT and neckbreaker, followed by the required chinlock. A middle dropkick and some ax handles to the back set up another chinlock to keep Batista down. Batista powers up into an electric chair drop and there’s a World’s Strongest Slam. The spinebuster and Batista Bomb finish Christian.

Rating: C-. Christian was little more than a sacrificial lamb here and that’s all well and good. Batista is going on to bigger things on Smackdown so throwing Christian out there was a fine way to give him a first win. The match went as it should have and Batista looked dominant in a watchable match with little drama.

Post match JBL and Orlando Jordan run in to go after Batista, meaning it’s a beating for Jordan to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. Well it was certainly eventful. This was as all over the place of a show as you could ask for with the JBL/Meanie shenanigans, a build to the Great American Bash main event, another direction in Eddie vs. Rey and that whole controversy deal which ended Hassan’s career. It was one of the most eventful shows I’ve ever seen but there is one thing that anyone is going to talk about coming out of this show. That’s understandable as well, but dang it’s a shame when so much else happened here.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

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

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Smackdown – June 30, 2005: End One, Start A New One

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: June 30, 2005
Location: Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, California
Attendance: 15,449
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

It’s a big night for Smackdown with the first ever Smackdown Champion being crowned in a huge elimination match. That could change things up a good bit around here, but so could the final two Draft picks, who will be making their debuts tonight. I’m sure those stories won’t intertwine at all. Let’s get to it.

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

We open with a recap of the setup of the elimination match, featuring JBL, Undertaker, Booker T., Chris Benoit and Muhammad Hassan. Big Show was originally in the match but got sent to Raw so the match has been downsized a bit.

Opening sequence.

Here are Hassan and Daivari to open things up. Hassan hates how he is treated in America because they don’t feel free. Everyone judges them everywhere they go but it ends tonight as he becomes Smackdown Champion. Hassan brags about beating Big Show last week and promises to win again tonight. He declares the day of the Dead Man over and there’s the gong. Hassan starts backpedaling by talking about how legendary Undertaker is. Undertaker may have beaten a lot of people but he has never beaten Hassan. Daivari’s chair shot completely fails and it’s a chokeslam for the lackey as Hassan bails.

Cruiserweight Title: Chavo Guerrero vs. Paul London

London is defending in what feels like the 197^th match between these two. Chavo gets taken over with a headlock to start and it’s time to bail into the ropes. The chase is on until Chavo gets in a cheap shot to take over. The stomping and choking are on and a clothesline gets two. London dropkicks him out of the air…and here are the Mexicools. They surround the ring and charge in for the double DQ because this feud MUST CONTINUE.

Rating: D+. It was nice enough while it lasted and then turned into the same thing they did last week. The cruiserweights feel as unimportant as they have ever been and these matches without a finish are not helping anything. Normally I would say change the title, but it’s not like anyone is going to be able to do any better.

Post match the beatdown is on, including Psychosis knocking out timekeeper Mark Yeaton. Juvy talks about hoe gringos don’t like Mexicans and wants them to rise against said gringos. We get the formal introduction of the team and Juvy wants us to join a revolution. Yeah it’s bad and someone will be upset at the racial aspect, but it’s still way more interesting than anything else in the division for a long time.

We get some graphics from Wrestlemania 21 with a preview for tonight’s main event. Hassan is absent, with Cole saying he wasn’t at Wrestlemania 21. It was less than three months ago. No one could check that line?

Video on last week’s great Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio match.

Eddie says he was smiling last week because he knows the truth. Tonight, Rey is going to beg him to tell the truth.

Melina is stretching and Nitro/Mercury are admiring the view. She name drops a lot of celebrities coming to watch her in-ring debut tonight. She’s got this one on her own too.

Video on the European tour.

Melina vs. Michelle McCool

Melina is putting her makeup on during Michelle’s entrance. Michelle spears her down to start and throws a running Melina back inside. A basement dropkick gets two as Tazz brings up the rather small size of Michelle’s gear. Melina gets in a cheap shot and powerbombs Michelle out of the corner for the pin, albeit with a grab of the rope. It was short, but they were both trying and it was nowhere near as bad as some similar matches have been.

Post match Nitro and Mercury come in to give Michelle the Snapshot. Heidenreich makes the far too late save.

Here’s Eddie for a chat. Last week people thought he was a loser, but the only loser was Rey Mysterio. Eddie is a winner in life because he has overcome obstacles people can only dream about. He has gone on a journey and just for fun, he filmed the whole thing. The journey involves one of Rey’s family members so here’s the footage.

We see Eddie at a playground, which happens to be at Rey’s son Dominick’s daycare. Eddie wonders if Dominick likes secrets and bedtime stories. He gives Dominick some candy and promises him a bedtime story he’ll never forget. The creepy smiling continues but Eddie makes it work very well.

Back in the arena, Eddie asks Rey if he should tell everyone their little secret. Cue a serious Rey with no music to ask Eddie not to go there. Eddie shoves him down and asks what happened to the fire in Rey’s eyes. Eddie demands that Rey get on his knees and beg him not to tell the truth. Rey does drop to a knee so Eddie pulls out….licorice, asking if Rey want some candy. It gets shoved into Rey’s face and Eddie says chew on that. More good stuff from these two with awesome delivery, but I’m scared of where this could go.

We recap the setup of the elimination match.

Smackdown Title: John Bradshaw Layfield vs. Booker T. vs. Undertaker vs. Muhammad Hassan vs. Chris Benoit

For the inaugural title under elimination rules and you have to tag. It is made clear that ANY form of contact counts as a tag. Also, you can be eliminated by countout or DQ. Hang on though because here’s Theodore Long to make this a six man match again, thanks to the newest Draft pick.

Smackdown Title: John Bradshaw Layfield vs. Booker T. vs. Undertaker vs. Muhammad Hassan vs. Chris Benoit vs. Christian

No Tomko in sight. For the sake of time, Undertaker just appears in the ring without doing the full entrance and stares Christian down as everyone else bails. Undertaker throws him into the corner and we settle down to Undertaker beating Christian up with ease. Hassan gets tagged in and fear ensues as we take a break.

Back with Undertaker beating up Hassan some more and there’s Old School for a bonus. JBL tags himself in and gets punched off the apron, meaning there’s a delay before he can come in and get chopped by Benoit. A flying shoulder knocks JBL down and it’s a German suplex for two, sending JBL over for a tag to Hassan. An exchange of suplexes goes to Benoit (duh) so Hassan forearms him in the back instead. That just earns him another suplex and Hassan lands in front of Undertaker.

For some reasons Hassan punches him in the face, which counts as a tag, so Undertaker unloads on him. This includes a chair to the back….and that’s a DQ to get rid of Undertaker. We take a break and come back with Hassan having been eliminated due to getting massacred, leaving us with Booker vs. Benoit at the moment. Booker kicks him in the face for two but Benoit grabs a German suplex for his own near fall. The abdominal stretch goes on, albeit with Benoit down on a knee.

Some forearms to the back have Booker down until he suplexes his way to a breather. An enziguri puts Booker down but he fights off the Sharpshooter. The second attempt works just fine though with Booker having to roll away. Benoit tries to switch to the Crossface but JBL tags himself in for some neckbreakers. Benoit tags himself right back in and hits a superplex on Booker, but JBL tags himself and DDTs Benoit for the elimination. JBL smiles down at the banged up Booker and we take a break.

Back with Booker kicking JBL in the face so Christian tags himself back in to hammer on Booker. The chinlock goes on, followed by the neck crank to mix it up a bit. It’s back to the chinlock for some rather blatant spot calling. Christian walks into the flapjack and the comeback is on with some right hands. JBL tags himself back in to kick Booker in the face for two but it’s Christian with another blind tag.

A top rope clothesline gets two on JBL and a tornado DDT is good for the same as the fans are into Christian. Another JBL neckbreaker gets two on Christian and we hit the chinlock. That’s broken up as well and it’s back to Booker for the chops in the corner. A sidekick (more like a knee) to the jaw sets up the missile dropkick for two more as these near falls are getting strong reactions.

The Book End gets a very close two and we take another break. Back again with JBL getting powerslammed out of the air for two but Christian tags himself back in and rolls Booker up for the elimination. It’s Christian vs. JBL for the title and the Clothesline From JBL is good for the pin and the title a few seconds later.

Rating: C. This was more long than good with all of the blind tags seeming like they would have made more sense in a one fall match. That being said, they were smart to not have Hassan take another fall and no one came out of it looking weak. It was a well booked match and going over half an hour prevented it from a bunch of lame exits, but it still wasn’t all that great and dragged multiple times.

Post match here’s Long to say that JBL won the match….but he’s only going to be #1 contender because the Smackdown title isn’t needed. See, we have one more Draft pick: the World Heavyweight Champion Batista. That was the logical switch and it gets Batista away from HHH so it’s a bunch of positives in one.

Overall Rating: C-. This whole show was built around one match and that’s a good thing, as there wasn’t exactly much else going on. Eddie and Rey had their usual good segment but Melina vs. Michelle was pretty bad and the Mexicools aren’t exactly looking like the next big thing. Next week is going to be the big start of the real new era and it should be interesting to see how the fans take to all of the new stars and stories that come with them.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

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

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Monday Night Raw – June 27, 2005: One Match And One Surprise Do Not A Show Make

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: June 27, 2005
Location: Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, California
Attendance: 15,449
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Jonathan Coachman

It’s the night after Vengeance and that means it’s time to reset things for the long road to Summerslam. Batista and John Cena retained their World Titles and we should be in for a new set of challengers. Other than that, it’s going to be a big Diva Search night because we’re just that lucky. Let’s get to it.

Here are Sunday’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

Here’s Kurt Angle to get things going. Angle talks about the series with Shawn Michaels being tied and how much the fans here would love to see round three tonight. Well that isn’t going to happen because Angle wants to face Batista. Instead here’s Ric Flair to cut him off, saying that he is a mark (his word) for Angle. Kurt has gotten so great so fast that it’s unbelievable, but Angle saying he’s the man is a step too far.

Flair still sees HHH as the man, but Angle sees three losses to Batista and three strikes you’re out. Last night, Batista and HHH proved that they are great. Kurt: “You’re looking at great.” Flair goes into a crazed rant about how if Angle tries to shoot on him, he’ll poke an eye, bite a finger or grab a rather sensitive area and pull. Angle sets up a match for the two of them instead. A WOO off ensues with Flair leaving.

We get an exclusive clip from last night with Bischoff making Chris Jericho/Christian/Tyson Tomko vs. Cena/two mystery partners.

Edge and Snitsky come out for a tag match against Kane/one of the two Draft picks tonight but Kane attacks Edge before the partner comes out. They fight into the crowd so Bischoff says we’ll be having a singles match instead.

Big Show vs. Snitsky

Show stomps away in the corner to start and then sends him into the other corner for a bonus. A suplex sets up more corner stomping and the chokeslam finishes Snitsky in a hurry. Just a squash to remind you that Big Show is a monster.

Maria is interviewing John Cena but can’t remember her questions. She leaves to go think of them and Cena is a little flabbergasted. Cena talks about overcoming the odds last night and has one of his two partners for the night in the form of….Shawn Michaels. The other partner is on the way. Maria comes back in and remembers her question: did Cena find a partner? Shawn: “You’re doing spectacular.”

Edge and Lita try to leave but Kane is in the dressing room to choke Lita. A lot of threats are made with Kane promising that this is just the beginning. Shouldn’t Edge realize that Lita has taken a long time to pick up a bag?

Masterlock Challenge, $14,000, Tajiri jumps Masters but loses anyway, mist to Masters.

It’s time for Carlito’s Cabana. Carlito is making changes around here, including replacing the Highlight Reel as the new big show. However, he can’t do all good things because his guest tonight is the final Draft pick: Rob Van Dam, who is still injured. Carlito calls him a lemon but Van Dam yells about Carlito being beaten down in the ring by the ECW locker room.

Van Dam liked giving a piece of his mind back at One Night Stand so he’s going to keep doing it here. He is one of the most influential names in wrestling and Carlito needs to get ready for Raw to be taken to the extreme. His knee is getting better, so Carlito kicks him in the leg crushes it against a table. We get some apple spitting for a bonus.

Kurt Angle vs. Ric Flair

Angle headlocks him down to start but it’s an early standoff. Flair is back up with some strutting and WOOing before sending Angle over the top. That means a chop against the barricade, followed by some fish hooking of all things back inside. Angle takes him down so Flair goes for the eye to drive him back into the corner.

They head back outside with Angle going head first into the steps but coming right back with an overhead belly to belly. Back from a break with Angle working on the arm and knocking him back to the floor. Flair goes more carnal and bites the thumb a few times so Angle punches him in the face. An elbow to the face puts Angle down and Flair goes up because he’s not all that bright.

Angle knocks him to the floor and grabs the ankle lock back inside, only to have Flair grab his crotch. That’s enough for the break and a chop block puts Angle down. The Figure Four has Angle in trouble until the roll to the ropes gets him out of trouble. The leg is fine enough for a German suplex but Flair kicks him low again. Angle isn’t having any more of this and picks the ankle for the ankle lock with the grapevine being enough to make Flair tap.

Rating: B. This was rather entertaining with Flair doing everything he could to stop Angle and eventually sending Angle into his top level stuff to finish him off. Flair cheating like crazy to hang with him was impressive and the way he should be doing things at this point. Above all else though, it was nice to see Flair getting to show how great he is without having everything be about HHH for once.

Smackdown Rebound.

Here are Coach and Christy Hemme to introduce the Diva Search finalists. The eight women (Ashley, Leyla, Summer, Krystal, Elizabeth, Simona, Cameron, Alexis) and Christy talks about how awesome it is to be a Diva. Coach is ready to explain tonight’s competition but here’s Viscera to interrupt. He talks about how they all have work to do and gyrates his hips.

The challenge tonight: thirty seconds to tell us about yourselves in your underwear. It’s exactly what it sounds like, though Leyla isn’t wearing anything under her dress so she can’t really participate. Alexis on the other hand, carrying a purse, sounds rather angry and pours a beer over herself. The fans boo this whole thing rather soundly. Dancing with Viscera ensues but here’s Sgt. Slaughter to say that next week, on the 4^th of July, there is going to be a bikini boot camp, including an obstacle course. This went on FAR too long and is setting a lower bar than last year.

Batista talks about how the Cell took something from him that he may never get back. It was worth it though.

Christian, Jericho and Tomko aren’t sure who the partner could be. Marty Jannetty is in jail and Kevin Nash would tear a hamstring reaching for the phone, but they are close to Hollywood and….nah.

Christian/Tyson Tomko/Chris Jericho vs. John Cena/Shawn Michaels/Hulk Hogan

Yeah that works. Shawn handles Hogan’s entrance and Cena drops to his knees in shock. I’d say Hogan has earned that level of respect. Joined in progress with Jericho charging into a boot in the corner and getting his head knocked off with a clothesline. It’s off to Shawn for the chops and the forearm into the nip up. A cheap shot from the apron slows him down though and we’re into the full on house show formula with the villains taking over, including the rotating stomps.

Jericho grabs the chinlock before kneeing Shawn in the ribs as the fans want Hogan. The Lionsault misses though and there’s your hot tag so Hogan can clean house. Jericho’s shot from behind puts Hogan down so Cena takes Jericho to the floor. It’s Hulk Up time with Shawn superkicking Christian, leaving Tomko to take the most famous two move sequence of all time (or second only to the kick to the gut/Stunner) for the pin.

Rating: D+. That is what Hogan is made for at this point in his career: get a big reaction for his entrance, stand on the apron and play cheerleader, get the hot tag and do his signature stuff. Cena’s reaction when Hogan was revealed was great and they had a perfectly watchable house show style main event. Now that might be out of place on Raw, but it’s Hogan and he can get away with anything for me.

A lot of posing closes the show.

Overall Rating: D. What was that? This was a one match and one surprise show with nothing else going on. There was barely any fallout from Vengeance and nothing remotely mentioned for Summerslam (fair enough), with the two Draft picks being as midcard as you can get. Then there’s the Diva Search, which was as lame as you can get. Terrible waste of time here, though Flair vs. Angle is good and I can always go for a Hogan cameo.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

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

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

Vengeance 2005 (2019 Redo): Las Vegas Stampede

IMG Credit: WWE

Vengeance 2005
Date: June 26, 2005
Location: Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Attendance: 9,850
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Jonathan Coachman

I’m actually looking forward to this one as the card is stacked. We have HHH vs. Batista inside the Cell, John Cena facing Christian and Chris Jericho in a triple threat in his first defense as Raw World Champion and Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels II. The rest of the show might not be great but those three matches should be more than enough. Let’s get to it.

The opening video focuses on the two World Title matches with the Cell getting more attention. Normally I would mock HHH for getting the attention but it’s the right call here.

Intercontinental Title: Shelton Benjamin vs. Carlito

Carlito is defending in a rematch from Monday when he won the title in the first place. Shelton takes him down in a hurry and the near fall has Carlito panicking. Lawler is right there with some actual analysis, saying that Shelton going for the pin so fast suggests he’s worried about Carlito escaping with the title. A shoulder gives Benjamin two and a knee to the ribs is good for the same.

Carlito gets in his own knockdown so Shelton nips up and knocks him outside without much trouble. The announcers are on it tonight, talking about how Shelton is looking a little shaky after the big fall on Monday. It isn’t that hard to tie stories together but it’s almost a rarity in WWE. Shelton won’t let Carlito walk away and gets two off a snap suplex. The attempted Stinger Splash misses so Shelton lands on top (egads man) and hits a top rope clothesline for two instead.

Carlito kicks him in the head to take over and some slams work on the back, which commentary had said was banged up from the crash. WHERE HAS THIS COMMENTARY BEEN ALL THESE YEARS??? Some stomping gets two but Shelton is right back up with a jumping elbow to the face.

A Samoan drop gives Shelton a delayed two and a backbreaker gets the same. The springboard bulldog gets another near fall so Shelton hammers in the corner, allowing Carlito to get a buckle pad off. The dragon whip hits Carlito’s shoulder but the Stinger Splash goes head first into the buckle to give Carlito the pin (with a handful of trunks) for the retaining pin.

Rating: C+. That’s one of the more enjoyable Carlito matches I can remember seeing as it included a nice story with the injured Shelton and Carlito going after the bad head. Shelton gets cheated out of the win (twice when you count the trunks) so now he can move up the ladder, but that might be weird in the current Raw environment.

Evolution arrives, with HHH in a gray suit and red shirt. That isn’t the best look for him but if anyone complains, he might talk to them and that’s the last thing we need.

We recap Victoria vs. Christy Hemme. Victoria wasn’t happy with Christy getting the star treatment and beat her up, including breaking a glass vase over her head. Christy has heart though and that’s all you need.

Christy Hemme vs. Victoria

Christy survives the early beatdown and sends Victoria’s head into the mat and buckle. A hot shot gets Victoria out of trouble as we hear about Christy wrestling with a concussion here. There’s your line that would never be allowed today, along with the second injury angle coming into a match.

A lot of choking ensues, plus a chinlock which is completely different. Lawler compares their attractiveness as the Widow’s Peak is countered into a rollup to give Christy two. Victoria misses the moonsault though and Christy gets all fired up, much to the fans’ annoyance. A DDT gets two but Victoria sits down on a sunset flip and grabs the ropes for the pin.

Rating: D. I feel bad for saying it was bad because Christy looks like she is really trying but it isn’t working. That’s absolutely not her fault though because there is no reason for her to wrestle on a major show this soon. Victoria did her best here but they were in a horrible situation that shouldn’t have been on pay per view.

John Cena talks about being the new kid, including making fun of Todd Grisham for having a rather embarrassing accident in high school. Cena is the new kid, Christian is the weird kid on the bus and Jericho wore leopard print spandex with a stuffed crotch to the promo. It doesn’t matter who you are though because this title is about being the best, not selling records. Cena is the kid most likely to kick somebody’s a** so the champ is here. The fire was strong here.

We recap Kane vs. Edge. Kane and Lita had one of the weirdest relationships in wrestling history but she left him for Edge, as Kane was turned into a stand-in for Matt Hardy. Kane broke up their wedding in the first stage of revenge with tonight being phase two. In other words, it’s all about vengeance.

Kane vs. Edge

Edge tries to jump him at the bell land gets hammered down in the corner for his efforts. A bunch of right hands are rained down and an uppercut makes it even worse. Kane clotheslines him to the floor but it’s time to go after Lita, which doesn’t seem to be the best idea. Edge’s save completely fails and Kane hammers away even more as the announcers do not have nice things to say about Lita.

The fans want Matt as Kane knocks Edge outside again but Lita grabs Edge’s foot so he can get in a posting. There’s a spear and baseball slide as the pace has slowed down a good bit. Back in and Edge slugs away but Kane does it a bit better, only to get caught with the Edge-O-Matic. Kane sits up, gets dropkicked back down and sits up again to start the comeback.

An uppercut knocks Edge out of the air but here’s Snitsky for the failed save attempt. Lita tries to bring in a chair before going with the romantic route, earning herself some choking. There’s no chokeslam, as Kane would rather tie the chair around her neck. Snitsky makes the real save with a big boot to give Edge two but he briefcases Snitsky by mistake. The chokeslam finishes Edge.

Rating: D+. It was pretty slow paced for the most part and then the ending was rather messy. The idea of Kane vs. Snitsky again gives me hives but this seemed to be more of a one off interference than anything else. The Lita/Edge vs. Kane stuff feels like it is coming to an end as well, as the story has been good but Kane just won the big match, so stretching it out further may not be the best idea.

We recap Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels II. Kurt beat him in a masterpiece at Wrestlemania so Shawn wants a rematch. Game on.

Shawn doesn’t know if they can match the Wrestlemania efforts, but he guarantees vengeance.

Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle

Angle wrestles him to the mat to start so Shawn bails over to the ropes in a hurry. They do the same thing again and you can see that Shawn is thinking a lot in this one. This time Angle goes for the legs so Shawn bails to the ropes again. They like that kind of sequence you see. An armdrag into an armbar has Angle…well not even in trouble as he reverses into an armbar of his own.

Angle crushes the arm to send Shawn outside for a breather so Angle goes right back to the leg, again sending Shawn to the rope. Shawn rolls out of the ankle lock and hits a clothesline to put Angle on the floor for a change. Instead of waiting, Shawn follows him out and gets suplexed onto the announcers’ table for the big crash. Back in and Angle stomps away in the corner as Shawn is bleeding from the eye.

A buckle bomb really rocks Shawn for two and the chinlock goes on. Angle clotheslines him down to break up the comeback attempt and an overhead belly to belly gets two. The second chinlock lasts a bit longer as Angle grinds him down. It turns into the long form version until Shawn suplexes his way out of trouble. Shawn wins a slugout and hits the forearm to start the real comeback.

The top rope elbow connects but Sweet Chin Music is broken up without much trouble. A tornado DDT gives Shawn three straight twos but it’s time to German suplex Shawn into the Angle Slam for the big near fall. Angle rolls him into the ankle lock and the counter takes out the referee. Shawn gets backdropped to the floor and the leg gets banged up all over again.

The ankle lock goes on in the middle of the ring and Shawn starts scrambling. He finally rolls Angle into the post and scores with Sweet Chin Music for a rather delayed near fall. Coach: “I’ve never seen anybody kick out of Sweet Chin Music!” Shawn’s leg is gone so he can’t follow up, allowing Angle to go up top. That’s never a good idea against Shawn, who superkicks him out of the air for the pin.

Rating: A-. You can’t live up to their first match and to be fair, they didn’t really try to. This was a great match in its own right, but were you expecting anything else from Shawn vs. Angle in a 26 minute match? These two are always going to have something like this because they’re incredibly talented. Outstanding match, even if it wasn’t their Wrestlemania masterpiece.

Coach tries to get Batista to say he’s scared of the Cell but Batista isn’t having any of that and looks ready to eat Coach’s head. HHH comes in to say he’ll win because no one beats him in the Cell. The fight is on with referees breaking it up in a hurry.

Here’s Lilian Garcia and there’s a big couch in the ring. She brings out Viscera, in the smoking jacket of course. Lilian talks about how she has grown to see how amazing he is and even sings a song for him. With that out of the way, Lilian proposes to him and he promises to take it into consideration.

Cue the Godfather though and he’s brought some women. He can’t let that happen, because these girls have been wanting to get a piece of him. Viscera looks at the women, shouts ALL ABOARD and leaves with Godfather and company. Lilian cries a lot as Viscera dances with the women. I’ve liked the whole deal, including a solid payoff like this.

We recap Christian and Chris Jericho challenging John Cena for the WWE Championship. Christian had been calling Cena out for weeks and the match was made, but then Jericho got involved by attacking Cena, turning it into a triple threat. Cena has been fired up at a different level lately and this is the kind of match that can help put him over the top on Raw.

WWE Championship: John Cena vs. Christian vs. Chris Jericho

Cena is defending and Christian has Tomko with him. Jericho slaps Cena in the face and gets tackled to start but it’s a Canadian double teaming to put Cena down in the corner. A hard whip into the corner puts Cena down so Jericho can turn on Christian as he had been wanting to do. Tomko gets in a hard clothesline on Jericho though, leaving Cena to beat up Christian. More Tomko cheating earns him an early ejection and it’s an FU to put Christian on the floor.

Jericho is right back in with a top rope elbow to the jaw for two on Cena and there’s the running bulldog. They head outside with Cena getting beaten up in a different way, with Jericho loading up the announcers’ table for a change. A DDT onto the floor drops Jericho but Christian is back up to take his place.

The chinlock has Cena in trouble in the ring and it’s Jericho cutting off the comeback without much trouble. Christian small packages Jericho for two but Cena is back in for the powerbomb portion of a Tower of Doom. Cena gets two each, followed by some hard clotheslines each. A drop toehold sends Christian’s head into Jericho’s and there’s the double Shuffle.

Jericho gets knocked to the floor but Christian rakes the eyes to escape the FU. The Unprettier gets two so Christian goes for the title, allowing Tomko to run in for a clothesline to Cena. Jericho puts Christian on the floor and gets the Walls on Cena, with Christian making the save. Cena picks Christian up for the FU, swings his feet into Jericho, and plants Christian to retain.

Rating: B. This took some time to get going but all three were hustling at the end and made it into a solid match. Cena is clearly the guy getting the rocket push and WWE would be crazy to not go that way. He’s popular, he’s getting better in the ring and he has the fire in his eyes. That’s what you look for and Cena has every bit of it. Christian and Jericho were great at helping him along here too, which is why Cena was in there with them. Rather good match, especially in the second half.

Cena celebrates in the crowd.

The Cell is lowered.

We recap HHH vs. Batista in the Cell. Batista beat him twice at back to back pay per views, but that’s not good enough for HHH, so we get the rematch in HIS match. They’ve made it very clear that HHH has all of the advantages here, which is a good story to tell between the two of them.

World Heavyweight Championship: HHH vs. Batista

In the Cell with Batista defending. Batista goes with the power to start, including the clothesline and a side slam. They head outside with HHH blocking a ram into the Cell but not being able to do it twice in a row. HHH is fine enough to send him into the post and then knocks him off the apron into the Cell. They’re getting into the violent stuff early on here and that’s nice for a change.

It’s toolbox time and HHH busts out a chain. Some whips to the back have Batista screaming in pain but it’s time for the real fun with HHH Hanging him over the top. As you might expect, Batista gets the chain off his throat and comes right back with some whipping of his own. HHH gets sent into the Cell to bust him open, meaning it’s time to grab a barbed wire chair. A few shots have Batista in trouble but he hits a clothesline and takes the chair away, cutting HHH’s head up with it for some retaliation.

The shoulders to the ribs in the corner but Batista misses a charge to give the incredibly bloody HHH a breather. Batista gets in a backdrop and a powerslam onto the barbed wire chair gets two. The Batista Bomb is countered into a DDT onto the chair and this time it’s Batista getting busted open. HHH rakes the cut across the Cell, because that is what you do in this situation.

It’s sledgehammer time (JR: “Not the d*** sledgehammer!” King: “Yes, the d*** sledgehammer JR.”) with a shot to Batista’s head getting two. A low blow gets Batista out of trouble for a bit and he grabs the sledgehammer but gets hit in the face with the chain. HHH goes up but dives into a sledgehammer shot, making him spit blood into the air for an outstanding visual. The whip over the corner has HHH in more trouble with a running steps shot making it worse.

The steps are loaded up in the corner with Batista ramming him head first into them over and over. A big whip into the steps makes it even worse but the Batista Bomb is countered into the Pedigree for the big near fall. Another Pedigree onto the steps is countered into a spinebuster onto them instead (THUD). Batista loads up the Batista Bomb with HHH grabbing the hammer, only to be dropped for the pin before the shot to the head can connect.

Rating: A-. This was indeed great as they set everything up exactly as they should have. They made a great spectacle out of Batista being the better man between the two with HHH losing in his match. That’s the story they have told for weeks now and it’s exactly what we got. It’s a heck of a fight with all kinds of blood and gore, making it feel like the Cell is supposed to. I had a good time with it and this makes Batista into the star he should be. Now STOP GIVING HHH WORLD TITLE MATCHES FOR A LONG TIME.

Overall Rating: A-. There are some flaws in there (Edge vs. Kane, the women’s match and that longer than necessary yet still funny Lilian/Viscera deal) but the three matches the show was built around completely delivered. That makes this one of the most underrated shows you’re going to find in WWE< mainly because none of this is all that important. Cena was never losing his first title defense on a Raw PPV, Batista has proven he’s better than HHH twice already (he proved something new here but it was bonus material) and Shawn vs. Angle has been done better. It’s similar to Canadian Stampede in a way and that’s some praise.

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Monday Night Raw – June 20, 2005: The Star Power Show

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: June 20, 2005
Location: American West Arena, Phoenix, Arizona
Attendance: 5,500
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

Vengeance is on Sunday and that means it’s time for the final push towards what is looking like a stacked show. There are already several major matches set for the show and that means we should be in for a heck of a card once we get there. That is Sunday though and we need one more final push to get there. Let’s get to it.

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

Here’s John Cena to get things going. Cena thinks this place is like the wild wild west and he liked the sound of something like that. If Christian and Chris Jericho want a shot at the WWE Championship, Cena completely gets it because this is what matters most. As for tonight, Jericho needs to get out here and take a beating personally. He hasn’t forgotten about Christian either so let’s do it right now.

Instead here are Muhammad Hassan and Daivari, with JR thinking they aren’t Christian and Jericho. Hassan can’t believe that Cena has anything to complain about because the people here in Phoenix welcomed him with open arms. Last week he was screwed out of the Intercontinental Title and he deserves some respect.

Cena makes fun of his whining and suggests that Daivari gives him some special spankings. Cena: “These people don’t hate you because you’re Arab American. They hate you because you’re a****** American.” The challenge is thrown out for tonight and Eric Bischoff shows up to make it a title match. Cena is ready to go right now and I think you know how that is going to go.

We look at Lita filing for divorce from Kane, setting up her wedding to Edge tonight.

Bischoff is in the ring to introduce the newest Draft pick: Carlito. Before we get to that though, Bischoff brings out Shelton Benjamin, who was a big deal in last year’s Draft. Shelton has been Intercontinental Champion since October but he beat a champion who didn’t know who he was going to face. That’s what Shelton is going to do tonight, against the new Draft pick.

Intercontinental Title: Shelton Benjamin vs. Carlito

Shelton is defending and has to fight out of the corner to start. That’s enough to send Carlito outside for a breather so Shelton tries the big running flip dive but catches his foot to make him crash hard, with Carlito just getting underneath him for the save. Back from a break with Shelton fighting out of a chinlock, only to get punched back down. Shelton finally manages a double clothesline for the double knockdown.

The comeback is on with a backdrop and the top rope clothesline gets two. Shelton is a little shaken up from the crash earlier so Carlito plants him with a DDT. It doesn’t do much harm as he goes up top and hits a super sunset flip for two, followed by a Samoan drop for a rather weak cover. Carlito is right back with a rollup though and a grab of the rope is enough for the pin and the title.

Rating: C-. I wasn’t exactly impressed here but they told a story and got enough of a match out of things. I’m still not wild on Carlito and that was a heck of a way to just drop Shelton’s lengthy title reign. They did make sure to protect him a bit, but he should be moving up to the World Title scene now, which isn’t happening with Cena around.

Maria asks Carlito how he won and he says he pinned Shelton. He’ll be the greatest Intercontinental Champion WWE has ever seen. But first, he spits some apple on Maria.

Viscera vs. Simon Dean

Lilian is VERY pleased to handle Viscera’s…..introduction. Simon rips on Viscera for his weight (Dean: “Who do you think you are? Hugh Hefner?”) and gets in a few shots to the leg to start. He stops to show off for Lilian a bit though and the destruction is quick, capped off by the Visagra and the chokebomb.

Post match Lilian gets in the ring and says they have been moving fast. She wants to go faster though and on Sunday, he might hit the jackpot in Vegas. Kissing ensues.

Another look at the Raw Diva Search process. I believe this is the same video from last time.

Chris Jericho is ready to get his title shot and doesn’t care if the fans are annoyed with him. The only reason Cena’s albums are doing better than Fozzy’s are because Cena is the champ of course. Christian comes in to suggest that Hassan might win the title tonight, but Jericho always overlooks people. Like he overlooked Christian at Wrestlemania XX. Jericho can want to go platinum but Christian is going gold on Sunday.

Video on HHH’s history in the Cell.

Bischoff is worried when Kurt Angle comes in. Kurt brags about beating Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania and promises to make him tap again on Sunday. This time though, the win is dedicated to Bischoff.

And now, Edge and Lita are getting married. Edge is rather swanky in his black cowboy hat, leather pants, cane, skull and crossbones tie and briefcase. Lita on the other hand is basically wearing most of a sheet (Lawler heartily approves). JR: “Her shoulder tattoo matches her shoes.” The YOU SCREWED Matt chants start up and we get a video on their very speedy romance.

The minister has to stop various things from happening and says a rather large man has insisted on coming down to say something. That would be Snitsky, with a sleeveless tuxedo. It isn’t his fault that they fell in love and it’s not his fault that things went in this direction, just like it isn’t his fault that Kane can’t get in his erection. Snitsky: “It’s not my fault that you had a dead baby in your uterus.”

They read their vows, including Edge saying that he is Mr. Money in the Sack and not a big bald monster. Lita on the other hand says she has never been in love with anyone before and doesn’t care about what the people say. Lita: “I am proud to be the s*** of the century.” The minister says the big line of speak now or forever hold your peace and you can see Edge and Lita get worried.

Matt Hardy’s music hits and Jim Ross does his shocked voice….but no one is here because Edge and Lita can have some fun with us too. The minister is ready to marry them in the name of the…..and here’s Kane through the ring to break things up. Edge throws the minister at Kane and runs off with Lita. The set is destroyed and Kane Tombstones the minister to add to his scrapbook. Edge and Lita are terrified with Edge’s facials being great as always. This had some great moments, with Snitsky’s lines and the Matt Hardy tease being outstanding.

Post break, Kane says he is back.

Christy Hemme looks back at Victoria attacking her three weeks ago and then jumping Victoria in retaliation. Victoria makes her blood boil and Christy wants to rip her head off. Cue Victoria to break something made of glass over her back. Victoria leaves and there is a lot of blood coming from the back of Christy’s head.

Post break, Christy is loaded into an ambulance and can’t remember her name. This has been your filler as they reset the ring.

WWE Championship: John Cena vs. Muhammad Hassan

Cena is defending. It’s another fast start with a running clothesline putting Hassan on the floor. Daivari gets knocked down as well but he grabs Cena’s feet so Hassan can stomp away. Hassan gets a few twos off boots and a suplex but Cena is right back with the clotheslines. The ProtoBomb and the Shuffle set up the FU to give Hassan his first pinfall loss in less than two minutes. Well that came out of nowhere, but Cena gets more fuel in his rocket.

Post match Christian and Jericho jump Cena on the ramp and the beatdown is on.

During the break, Christian gets out as fast as he can.

Here are the Diva Search finalists: Leyla, Ashley, Kristal, Cameron, Elisabeth, Alexis, Summer and Simona. They’re all good looking and we find out where they’re from. I’m not sure what else there is to say here.

Batista vs. Kurt Angle

Non-title. Batista elbows his way out of a waistlock to start and hits the shoulders in the corner. Angle is right back with an early ankle lock but that’s broken up with straight power. The missed charge sends Batista shoulder first into the post though and it’s off to a Fujiwara armbar. That’s broken up with a side slam and Batista clotheslines him to the floor, so it’s HHH and Ric Flair running in to jump Batista for the DQ. That would be their only singles match ever.

Shawn, save, Bischoff, tag.

Shawn Michaels/Batista vs. Kurt Angle/HHH

Joined in progress with Shawn and HHH slugging it out until Shawn hits the flying forearm. Angle tries to come in so Flair sneaks in to chop Shawn’s block. Another distraction lets Flair wrap the knee around the post and Angle slaps on a Brock Lock. The villains take turns on the knee and it’s an STF to stay on the leg. A belly to back suplex gets Shawn out of trouble for all of three seconds as it’s back to HHH to drop elbows to the leg.

The WOO looks to set up a Figure Four but HHH gets kicked into the buckle. That’s enough for the hot tag to Batista and hammering ensues. Everything breaks down with Angle being sent to the floor so Shawn can throw him over the barricade. They fight into the crowd, leaving Batista to hit the spinebuster (JR: “That rattled my Oklahoma hat!”) but a Flair distraction lets HHH get the Pedigree for the pin.

Rating: C-. The announcers act like this is some monumental pin and while it is a big deal to have Batista get pinned, I still need a long break from HHH in the title picture. That really needs to come sooner rather than later and just after Sunday would be as good of a time as any.

HHH talks trash and replays take us out.

Overall Rating: C. This was quite the oddball show with stuff like the Hassan loss and the title change coming out of nowhere. They’re not necessarily bad, but when you seem to be going in a direction and then switch gears out of nowhere, it can be a little jarring. The wedding was entertaining and I can go with some build towards Vengeance, but Shawn and Angle didn’t get any significant time to themselves. But hey, at least we got to see the next round of women who stand around backstage for the next few years.

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Monday Night Raw – June 13, 2005: Sheriff Austin Rides Again

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: June 13, 2005
Location: Broome County Arena, Binghamton, New York
Attendance: 3,300
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

It’s the night after One Night Stand and that likely means no Eric Bischoff tonight due to ECW giving him an all time beating. We’re less than two weeks away from Vengeance and that means it’s time for the hard push towards HHH vs. Batista inside the Cell. Steve Austin is here as the guest star tonight to deal with Muhammad Hassan and Daivari so let’s get to it.

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

Opening sequence.

Here’s Austin to get things going. Austin thanks the fan for their welcome but gets right to the point. There is a man who feels like he has been failed by the system and has been given the shaft over and over. Therefore, Austin is here for his unbiased opinion so let’s get the defendant out here right now. The USA chants are on in a hurry and Austin calls Hassan and Daivari sand people. Austin doesn’t like the two of them, which Hassan says makes them like everyone else. Hassan is here because he demands justice, though Austin thinks he’s a little too close.

We see a package of Hassan being discriminated against and….the guy kind of has a point on this one. Hassan says that is all the proof he needs so Austin uses Hassan’s head scarf to wipe the spit off his face. Austin: “I think you are a piece of garbage.” However, Hassan has been wronged by the system so tonight, he’s getting an Intercontinental Title shot. Shelton Benjamin is ready in the back and Austin is going to be the enforcer. Hassan is rather pleased with this one.

Intercontinental Title: Shelton Benjamin vs. Muhammad Hassan

Shelton is defending and we’re joined in progress with Hassan driving him into the corner and the fans chanting for Austin. Shelton is right back with right hands in the corner but gets dropped face first onto the buckle. A snap suplex drops Shelton again and Hassan strikes the pose. The chinlock goes on for a few seconds before Hassan takes him outside for a posting.

Hassan’s chair is taken away though, meaning it’s an abdominal stretch instead of rather extreme violence. That’s broken up so Shelton flips out of a suplex and grabs a neckbreaker. The slugout goes to the champ and a backdrop gets two but Hassan is right back with a reverse Eye of the Hurricane for two of his own. Shelton comes back again so Daivari comes in, only to get dropped down again. Hassan gets in a low blow and grabs the camel clutch…but Austin breaks it up for the DQ.

Rating: C-. The match wasn’t great but the ending made sense. They don’t need to put the title on Hassan yet and he can have his rematch at Vengeance as the complaining continues. Austin breaking up the cheating finish was the kind of thing he should have done and it isn’t something that needs to be continued. Hassan is finally getting somewhere, though it still isn’t exactly great stuff.

Post match Austin announces Hassan as the winner and has some beer with Shelton.

Coach and Eric Bischoff are in the office (WHY IS BISCHOFF HERE AFTER THAT KIND OF A BEATING??? And he’s not even looking hurt!) with Bischoff not wanting to hear about ECW. Coach leaves and Chris Jericho comes in to complain about Christian getting the World Title shot at Vengeance. Tonight, he’ll beat up Christian to prove his point. HHH comes in and has a staredown with Jericho, who doesn’t seem impressed.

With Jericho gone, HHH wants to know who the Draft pick is tonight. Whoever the new pick is, they get to go face to face with Batista tonight. Whatever is going to be said, it better not interfere with the match at Vengeance. HHH yells a lot about how no one is stopping him from getting the title back and that’s about it. Even Bischoff seems sick of the never ending HHH stuff.

Here’s Chris Masters for the Masterlock Challenge. This week it’s $11,000 so here’s Sgt. Slaughter to lose after the traditional, insults, Cobra Clutch and cheating.

Long video video on Batista vs. HHH.

We look back at John Cena debuting and setting up tonight’s tag match.

Tyson Tomko/Christian vs. John Cena/Chris Jericho

The fans are WAY behind Cena here as the Canadians slug it out to start. Jericho gets the better of that without much effort and it’s off to Tomko. That means a kick to the head and it’s off to Cena for the first time to a big reaction. An elbow to the face and a suplex give Cena two and it’s Tomko and Christian being sent outside as we take a break. Back with Christian shouldering Cena down for two but Jericho tags himself in to keep things fresh.

Tomko comes in for a spinwheel kick that misses so badly that even the camera cut can’t save it. Some powerful clubbering puts Jericho down but he sweeps Christian’s legs and hammers away. The reverse DDT gives Christian two but an enziguri gets Jericho out of trouble and over to Cena for the hot tag. Tomko gets hiptossed and Christian gets punched out of the air, followed by the ProtoBomb and FU to put Tomko away.

Rating: C. Just a match really but you can almost guarantee something coming up from Jericho and Cena. Jericho has needed a heel turn for a long time now and that would probably be best for everyone. If nothing else, a triple threat might be a better way to protect Cena in the big match atmosphere, as he hasn’t shown that breakthrough regular singles match just yet.

Post match Jericho jumps Cena and lays him out to officially turn heel, as he should be doing. Cena gets sent into various steel objects and the fans are not happy.

The Diva Search auditions have taken place. Coach and Christy Hemme were there to explain how important this really is. Various shots of various parts of swimsuits are shown. Ashley Massaro pops up in a few cameos. This goes on for a very long time and the finalists are here next week.

Jericho asks Bischoff if that was good enough and the Vengeance title match is….still Christian’s, who pops up to yell. Make it a triple threat instead. Cue Cena to run in and go after Jericho, showing the good fire as he tends to do.

Maven vs. Viscera

A VERY happy Lilian Garcia is here with Viscera. Maven starts fast and manages two off of a missile dropkick but it’s a swinging Boss Man Slam and a splash to crush Maven flat. The newly named Visagara….is something we’re moving on from as fast as possible. The chokebomb finishes Maven quick.

HHH and Ric Flair aren’t worried about the Draft pick.

Kane vs. Sylvain Grenier

Kane hammers away in the corner to start as it’s time to let off some of that Edge/Lita steam. A boot in the corner keeps Grenier in trouble but he pokes Kane in the eye and gets in a dropkick. Kane sits up though and the beating is on, capped off by the chokeslam. Two more chokeslams finish Grenier in the way it should.

Post match Kane loads up the pyro but here’s Lita to interrupt. She says Kane should be used to people not being satisfied in the lack of a bang. Lita brings out Snitsky and says the whole lost baby is forgotten. She even thanks Snitsky for getting rid of the demon spawn and offers a thank you while stroking his beard. Snitsky: “MY PLEASURE!” That’s it for Snitsky so Lita brings out Edge, now her fiance. The wedding is going to be next week and Lita will get to see the real one eyed monster.

Here are HHH and Flair to deal with the Draft pick, with JR not understanding why HHH needs to be here. HHH talks about how he’s going to win the title back at Vengeance because he’s in charge, so get the new pick out here. That would be…..Kurt Angle, and hopefully we can forget the whole Sharmell/Booker T. deal. HHH doesn’t look happy as Angle talks about how what HHH said would apply to anyone coming over from Smackdown.

Well almost anyone that is, because HHH is no longer #1 around here. Angle and Flair get in a WOO off and HHH nearly loses it over “gimmick infringement.” HHH says he calls the shots around here but Angle brings up making Shawn Michaels tap out the same night HHH lost to Batista.

There goes HHH’s jacket (showing off a drenched shirt) so he can say that at least he was a champion at Wrestlemania. While HHH was off flying around the world, Angle was getting beaten up by Booker T.’s wife. Angle: “Let’s just say I have a thing for other people’s wives.” He brings up his affair with Stephanie McMahon, with HHH saying that everyone did something with her so it doesn’t matter.

Back to the point, Angle wants to face Batista the night after Vengeance…so here’s Batista to respond. Batista didn’t like Angle suggesting that he would choke, and after last night, Angle shouldn’t talk about anyone choking. HHH immediately starts playing them against each other and tries to get the match set up next week. Batista sees what’s going on but agrees anyway. We seem done but here’s Shawn Michaels for the first time since Wrestlemania. Vengeance, rematch set, brawl, show over.

Overall Rating: D+. The ending segment was pretty good but by the time this show was done, I couldn’t remember what else had happened. I don’t know if the whole thing was rushed because of the ECW show, but Vengeance, which has a decent looking card, isn’t really sparking yet. That’s what happens when HHH vs. Batista was the only thing getting any attention until tonight and that’s not a great way of going about things. Hopefully that gets taken care of next week, but it looks like they have their work cut out for them. Not a very good show overall, but the good moments were strong.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

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

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

Monday Night Raw – May 23, 2005: The Three Head Monsters

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: May 23, 2005
Location: Resch Center, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re on the way to the next Raw pay per view now that Smackdown’s show is over, but not before a big time show tonight. This week will see Batista defend the World Title against Edge, who has been lit on fire with a now heel Lita and a win in the Gold Rush Tournament. Other than that, it’s time to start the build to Vengeance, which seems a long way off. Let’s get to it.

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

We recap the Gold Rush Tournament finals with Lita turning on Kane to join Edge. I heartily approve of heel Lita, and JR’s line of “the dirty rotten bastard is going to wrestle for the World Title!” is pretty awesome.

Here are Edge and Lita, flanked by a bunch of security guard. Lita tells this room full of saints to go ahead and pass judgment on her. Women use their husbands like she did to Kane all the time, and can you really blame her? Maybe it started with the kidnapping, the forcing her into sex, being pregnant with his baby, the forced marriage and losing her baby? So yeah, she used her husband to get somewhere and all it took was a really gross wet kiss last week.

The fans start a pretty expected chant at her but she says don’t be jealous because she gets more action in a month than the rest of the crowd does in their entire lives. She never loved Kane (well duh) and while he was following her around like a puppy, she fell in love with a real man. Kane couldn’t satisfy her, just like any man she has ever been with. Well save for one, and that is the man she has been seeing behind Kane’s back for months now.

Edge knows everyone is jealous of them for how they look and what they do. He has the girl and tonight he’ll get the gold. Edge won at Wrestlemania, and tonight he claims his destiny by becoming World Heavyweight Champion. Bank on it. Kissing ensues and the fans care a bit. This worked as well as it could with a bad premise. There was no secret to the fact that Lita didn’t want to marry Kane in the first place and never loved him in the first place, so why should I be upset about what happened to him? He was so evil about six months ago and now he deserves sympathy? It doesn’t quite work that way.

Kane is rather….I guess the word is serious in the back.

Eric Bischoff is making funeral arrangements for ECW when Shelton Benjamin comes in. Chris Jericho isn’t here for their tag match so Bischoff turns it into a handicap match instead. They bring up the Draft, with both thinking John Cena would be a good addition. Benjamin thinks Bischoff going to Smackdown would be better. Eh, even if Bischoff goes to Smackdown, I can’t see him lasting that long over there.

Muhammad Hassan/Daivari vs. Shelton Benjamin

Shelton comes up swinging but gets punched down by Hassan. A blind tag brings in Daivari but Shelton sends Hassan outside and armbars Daivari without too much effort. The fans get behind Shelton, only to be cut off as Hassan gets in a trip from the floor. Hassan comes back in for a hard elbow to the face and the chinlock goes on. It’s back to Daivari, who spends too much time shouting and gets suplexed down for his efforts. Shelton faceplants Daivari and nails a running knee lift on Hassan. Daivari tries to bring in a chair and the distraction lets Hassan hit a Downward Spiral for the pin.

Rating: D. Just a quick handicap match here to give Hassan a win over the champ to set up what should be a title match down the line. The match was the usual mess of a short form handicap match and that all but guarantees that it’s going to be terrible. At least they also advanced Jericho’s issues, as a heel turn has seemed to be in the cards for a few weeks now.

Post break Jericho arrives and is told that his match already happened. He’s been busy with the Fozzy tour so he’s got a lot on his mind. Whenever he finds Bischoff, he’ll face anyone tonight because Jericho equals ratings.

Christian and Tomko are in the back when Edge and Lita come in. Edge says Christian is probably staying on Raw so he has an offer: if Christian were to help Edge win the title tonight, Edge might be willing to part with the Money in the Bank briefcase. Christian gets it and says maybe he’ll see Edge later.

Chris Masters vs. Stevie Richards

This is for retribution after Masters broke Richards’ nose. Richards slugs away to start but Masters snaps off a suplex. The ax handle is blocked and Richards explodes with right hands. Masters takes out the knee and it’s the Masterlock for the quick win.

Post match medics come out and check on Richards.

Bischoff sends Todd Grisham to find out how Kane is doing.

Here are some of the women who might be finalists in the Diva Search.

Chris Jericho vs. Sylvain Grenier

Grenier is here on his own. Jericho gets taken into the corner to start and the Walls attempt is broken up. Instead Jericho forearms him in the head and hits the enziguri to the forearm. Grenier gets in a clothesline but Jericho snaps him throat first across the top. The Walls finish in a hurry.

Rating: D+. They were smart to not have Jericho break much of a sweat over Grenier here as Grenier is likely to be on the endangered species list with La Resistance done. The match was short and to the point though and that’s as much as you can expect. Jericho’s teased heel turn is a good idea though as he’s been in limbo for a long time.

Post match here’s Shelton but Jericho drops to the floor and talks about everything he has going on. Sometimes you’re going to have to put up with him being a little late because he’s Chris Jericho. The Jericholics will always be on his side.

Here’s Eric Bischoff for the ECW funeral, complete with a barbed wire wreath. Bischoff gives a rather laugh filled history of ECW, talking about the Bingo hall and how the roster thought they were rebels. Then he crushed ECW and it died, only to have rumors of a reunion pop up again. Therefore, he’ll crush it again, with the help of some Raw volunteers who are going to show up to the Hammerstein Ballroom on June 12. The rant continues but here’s Vince McMahon to interrupt.

Vince is here because he has a vested interest in the future of ECW because he supposed ECW for years (which seems to be news to Bischoff). Vince knew that one day, the ECW stars could become WWE superstars, including Mick Foley, the Dudleys and Steve Austin. Bischoff isn’t pleased but Vince brings up the loans that ECW owed him, totaling nearly $600,000. That’s why he wants the ECW show to be a success, which is why he advertised them himself.

As for tonight, he’s going to present the ECW match that Bischoff canceled last week. See, the only brand that is really dead is WCW and Vince killed it himself. With Bischoff’s legs cut off, here’s Paul Heyman to talk about ECW instead, which gives us the always awesome visual of the three promoters in the same ring at once (I believe for the first time ever). Heyman says Vince may own ECW but Heyman controls it.

That brings him to Bischoff, who gets a rant about everything ECW did, including the cruiserweights and submission style, with Heyman holding up the ECW press pass every time he says everything. We hear about ECW being in your face and hardcore, with Bischoff being invited to see the show in person, with Heyman getting in the date of the show as he always does.

Vince loves the idea of a good old fight so may the best man win. Heyman says Bischoff has started a fire that he can’t put out. The wreath is set on fire and Bischoff looks worried. This just turned into a big deal and that’s a good thing as the show feels special. You could feel the anger that Heyman had for Bischoff here and it must feel great to him to have ECW back instead of WCW.

Steve Austin is in the remake of the Longest Yard.

Chris Benoit vs. Tajiri

ECW Rules so Tajiri jumps him from behind with the kendo stick on the stage. Benoit takes it away but gets the mist to the face so Tajiri can bring in some weapons. Tajiri whips him into a trashcan in the corner but Benoit is right back with the rolling German suplexes. The Crossface with the kendo stick gives Benoit the quick tap. Lawler keeps jumping on ECW and JR defends it, which is completely bizarre to hear.

Ric Flair thanks Batista for the save last week. He even wishes Batista good luck against Kane tonight.

Grisham goes to interview Kane, who talks about all the pain he has gone through over the years. This is the worst ever though and he is so hurt that he starts to cry. Kane doesn’t want this pain and wants it off of him. Instead he wants to give the pain to someone else.

Post break, Kane walks out.

Here’s Maria to interview Viscera, who is rather impressive looking in his suit. Maria invites Lillian into the ring because it’s clear that Viscera likes her. That’s true, though Lillian never showed up last week. He has a surprise for tonight though and asks for lights and music. Maria has to go get him a hot dog (Viscera: “Yeah I got a hot dog for you too baby.”) so Viscera can dance and eat at the same time. Lillian gets into it as the jacket comes off and the tie follows…..but then the pants come down. Cue Coach to demand that this be stopped immediately because Bischoff doesn’t need to deal with a sexual harassment lawsuit. Viscera is ordered to leave so it’s a beatdown for Coach, including the pelvic thrusting on the mat. Lillian gets pulled in for her kiss and she doesn’t seem to be complaining.

Raw World Title: Edge vs. Batista

Edge is challenging and has Lita with him. Batista takes him into the corner to start and powers his way out of a bad comeback attempt. With Edge on the floor, here are Christian and Tomko as we take a break. Back with Edge hammering away and getting in a shot to the ribs to send Batista outside.

They head back inside with Edge staying on the ribs with a bodyscissors. A spinwheel kick gives Edge two and we hit the chinlock, which gets switched into a sleeper. Lawler keeps going on about Lita’s top and JR goes into one of his great rants about how this isn’t about Lita. Batista’s arm drops twice and the comeback is on, only to have Edge nail a dropkick for the stop.

Edge goes up top but gets superplexed right back down and Batista is getting fired up. The referee gets bumped so Christian and Tomko come in for the beatdown. Cue Ric Flair for the save but Edge spears him down. Another spear gives Edge two so Lita slides in the briefcase, only to have Batista catch him with the Batista Bomb to retain.

Rating: C-. Well that happened. We spent three weeks on a tournament and the whole thing is more than likely a way to set up HHH vs. Batista III (Why else would Flair be involved?). Edge loses again, though the briefcase is going to be more than enough to keep him relevant. Not a very good match, but with so much going on, that isn’t exactly surprising.

Post match Batista helps Flair up and hugs him but here’s the returning HHH so Flair can hit Batista low. HHH has the sledgehammer and looks at the title like Edge looked at Lita earlier. The very long beatdown ensues, with Batista being busted open. HHH says they’re doing it again, but this time inside Hell in a Cell. A Pedigree onto the title ends the show.

Overall Rating: D+. The big segment in the middle was good but the rest of it was pretty dull as we need to fill in time before Vengeance with One Night Stand. Now that show sounds very good and is likely to be a blast, but it doesn’t do much good when so much of the roster has nothing to do with it so far. Hopefully things pick up soon because this wasn’t much of a show, including an underwhelming main event.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

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

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