horrorfan_1986

WWE Vengeance
July 11, 2004

Sunday Night Heat

Tyson Tomko w/Trish Stratus vs Val Venis
Before the match, Nidia comes out to even the odds. This past week on Raw, Trish used her cast to knock out Nidia to win a title match. So Nidia is a bit upset. A lot of punches and forearms by Venis. Tomko just wrestles very greenly. Trish tries to cheat for Tomko. Nidia looks to attack Status, but Tomko blocks her. Tomko botches a move back in the ring and finishes off Venis with the Big Boot. Post-match has Tomko and Trish cornering Nadia, but Maven makes the safe for his fellow Tough Enough winner. Bleh. Tomko was horrible at the time and Venis didn't seem to care about trying. Even for Heat, it's pretty bad. 4 Minutes. 3/4 Star.

PPV

Garrison Cade and The Coach vs Tajiri and Rhyno
This is part two of the Coach/Tajiri feud after the break so that Coach could feud with Eugene. The feud was reignited after Tajiri spit the green mist in the Coach's face during an edition of musical chairs. Coach challenged Tajiri on Heat and the Japanese Buzzsaw chose his old ECW stablemate. Nothing much happens early on. By this point, Rhyno knew he wasn't going to receive a push, so he stopped trying. Cade was terrible at this point as well. Things pick up once Tajiri is tagged in. A lot of fast kicks to both Coach and Cade. The match slows down when the heels work over Tajiri. Later on, Tajiri looks to green mist Coach, but Coach ducks allowing Cade to get greenface'd. Rhyno heads in the ring, but Coach once again moves out of the way so Cade could take the Gore. Coach breathes in a sigh of relief until he turns around to a round house kick to the back of the head by Tajiri. Tajiri gets the pin and avenges his Backlash match. If you have Tajiri in the ring with three unmotivated or poor wrestlers, you might as well let Tajiri do all the work. Sadly, they let Cade and Coach be in control for most of the match. Luckily, this would be about the end of the failed Garrison Cade experiment. He would not be seen again in the WWE until Fall 2005. They could of shortened the match a minute or two to make it more entertaining. It's good enough for a Raw match, but a letdown for PPV. 7 Minutes. 1 3/4 Stars.

Chris Jericho vs Batista
With Christian still injured and the Tomko/Jericho match bombing at Bad Blood, Jericho needed a new feud to hold him over until Christian made his return. In comes a directionless Batista. Three weeks prior, Batista knocked Jericho out with a closeline. Believe it or not, but it looked believable and made Batista look like a bad ass. A couple of weeks later, Batista interfered costing Jericho an IC title match. A lot of power wrestling by Batista and Jericho just trying to hang in there. The crowd is dead, I'm bored out of my mind and Jericho can't seem to get things going with Big Dave. Cut to the ending, Batista nails the Batista Bomb. Batista gets the three with Jericho's foot on the bottom rope, but the ref doesn't spot it. Blehx2. As bad as Tomko vs Jericho was, Jericho at least got a watchable match out of goat boy. Even though Dave was getting a lot more TV time than Tomko, he couldn't get carried by Jericho. This was my 4th time seeing this match and only the first time I didn't fall asleep during it. While the feud was decent enough, the matches left something to be desired. I don't know what it is about Jericho, but the WWE loves to waste him on untalented monsters. I think 4 times is enough to try and be swayed by a match, I can live without ever seeing this again. 12 Minutes. 1 1/4 Stars.

La Resistance (c) vs Ric Flair and Eugene - World Tag Team Titles
Since the WWE killed off the Raw tag team scene after Wrestlemania (Breaking up Cade/Jindrak, sending Dudleys and Booker/RVD to SD and letting Lance Storm retire), Raw was forced to depend on thrown together teams to hold the division together. And since they were already booking La Resistance vs The Super Heroes every other week since WM, they needed a new thrown together team. Eugene comes out with a Flair robe. Conway and Eugene starts out. Eugene is using all of Flair's moves and taunts, much to the anger of Flair. Tag to Flair and we see the same moves again. La Resistance finally gains control of the match. Conway pulls Eugene down from the apron to keep Flair in the match. The cheating upsets Eugene enough to attack La Resistance and knock the referee down drawing the DQ. The only entertaining parts of the match was Eugene doing his Flair impersonation. Like every other match, it started to drag on and bored me. The match only hurt the champions, making the titles even less important. This should of been kept on Raw. 12 Minutes. 2 1/4 Stars.

Kane vs Matt Hardy
After losing to The Undertaker at Wrestlemania, Kane informed everyone that we would be seeing an even more dangerous Kane from now on. That new Kane would just scare Lita for a few weeks. Matt Hardy turned face to support his once again girlfriend. Kane continued to attack Matt until Lita agreed to have sex with Kane. Hardy eventually asked Lita to marry him, but that's when Kane dropped the bombshell of the baby being his. Hardy's pissed, Kane laughs and Lita is the worst cryer ever. A lot of brawling around ring side and in the crowd. Ross and Lawler wonders if Kane and Lita's baby will be ugly. Just then, we get a flash of a sign that reads: "Kane+Lita=Ugly Baby" Hmm, I guess that answers that question. More brawling. Kane throws in the steel stairs. With the stairs over his head, Lita runs out to beg for Kane not to hit Matt. The distraction is long enough for Matt to nail the stairs with a steel chair resulting in the stairs falling on Kane's head. Matt jumps on Kane and gets the surprise pinfall. The good news is that it's over. The bad news is that the feud/storyline has barely begun. What joy. I have nothing against a match of mostly brawling, when done right, it can be right. Jerry Lawler vs Kerry Von Erich is a good example of that. This though, is a good example of how a match of nothing, but brawling can be boring. Kane had deteriorated into being a complete mess by 2004. It turns out that Kane's great performance at Bad Blood was really just a fantastic Chris Benoit carryjob. It's a shame that Kane was Hardy's only feud in 2004. When pitted against a talented wrestler, Hardy is capable of great things. Ironically, his best singles match up to this PPV was his Chris Benoit SD 2003 bout. Couldn't they have just booked Jericho vs Hardy so that we could of got something watchable? 10 Minutes. 1 3/4 Stars.

Randy Orton (c) vs Edge - IC Title
Orton had been champion since Armageddon 2003. By July, he had started becoming one of the more over wrestlers on Raw. Mostly due to Mick Foley's involvement in the rise of Orton. Meanwhile, Edge returned after Wrestlemania with the WWE wanting to push him hard. The only problem was that the fans didn't like him. Slow match with Orton using the chin locks for minutes on end. Orton is getting some nice chants throughout the match. Edge gets boos at times. Ross tries to imply that Orton just has some vocal fans. If that was the case, why was Edge getting boos all across North America? During one of the long chinlock segments, Edge tries to scrape at Orton's face, so Orton tries biting on Edge's fingers. It's such a small little action, but it's a fantastic move to make everything seem real. Things finally pick up after twenty minutes. Orton kicks out of an Edgucation. Orton removes the top turnbuckle. The ref is trying to fix it while Edge gets in a small package. By time the ref realizes, Orton kicks out at two. Edge goes for a Spear, but Orton leapfrogs out of it. Nice. Orton attempts to whip him into the exposed turnbuckle, but Edge reverses it. SPEAR~! One...Two...THREE. NEW IC CHAMPION. Had the match not been as long as it was, these two could of put on a great little bout. But all of the non-action segments hurt the match too much. I do have to wonder whether the WWE was hearing about ROH around this time. Just the month before, Samoa Joe and CM Punk had their World Title Classic. Orton's long chinlocks seemed like the WWE attempts at Punk's long headlocks. Whether or not this match was influenced by Joe vs Punk I, Orton and Edge were not able to make it as entertaining in half the time. It did pick up nicely near the end though. Putting the belt on Edge was such a poor idea though. Edge was getting negative reactions while Orton had become a popular champion. If there was anyone who should have won the title off of Orton, it was Shelton Benjamin. With how over he was becoming, Shelton would of been able to maintain positive responses against Orton. The WWE would foolishly keep trying to push Edge as a top face for another month or so. 27 Minutes. 2 3/4 Stars.

Victoria vs Molly Holly - Number One Contender's Match
The winner gets a title shot against Trish Stratus sometime in the unknown future. This would be the third time these two wrestled on PPV in 2004 (Heat before Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Vengeance). Early on, Molly trips Victoria up on the stairs injuring Victoria's shoulder. Molly continues to work on the shoulder for the rest of the match. Victoria attempts the Widow Peak, but she can't support Holly with one arm. Victoria nails a nice superkick to get the pin on Holly. A solid women's match ruined by the commentators not paying attention and the fans using the match as a piss break. It figures. I really enjoyed the arm work by Molly. Both seemed comfortable being able to finally work with someone up to their standard. Without seeing their WM 20 match in a few years, this is the best women's match on PPV of 2004. Of course the WWE had to ruin it. 6 Minutes. 2 1/4 Stars.

Chris Benoit (c) vs Triple H - World Heavyweight Title
Benoit defeated Hunter at Wrestlemania and has kept the belt against all odds since then. After finally finishing the Michaels feud, Hunter started using Eugene to help his odds of beating Benoit increase. Eugene was made an honorary member of Evolution and the rift between he and Benoit continued to grow. Jim Ross botched within 2 minutes of the PPV earlier by saying this is their first one-on-one match on PPV. The match begins at the two hour mark of the PPV. I imagine this will be given some time. Benoit lays in some chops early on in the match. On the outside, Benoit throws Hunter into the steel steps. Back inside, Benoit misses a flying headbutt. I'm suddenly distracted buy a guy rubbing the chest of another guy in the crowd. This goes on for a long time. Benoit ducks a flying forearm, which takes out the ref. Trips calls out for Eugene. Eugene comes out, but Benoit snaps on the Crippler Crossface. Benoit yells for Eugene to get the ref. Eugene against his better judgment doesn't. Benoit stands up pissed at Eugene. Eugene gets on the apron to try and interfere so Benoit just knocks him down. Thank-God. Hunter low blows Benoit and Pedigrees Benoit. Hunter yells for Eugene to get the ref. Eugene tosses the ref in, but Benoit gets a shoulder up at 2. The ref lays his head back on the mat. Hunter yells for Eugene to get a chair. Eugene hands Hunter one, but takes it back before Hunter can use it. Hunter punches Eugene off of the apron and Benoit knocks the chair in the face of Trips. Ric Flair and Batista comes out, but Benoit rams the chair in their face. Benoit looks to hit Hunter, but Eugene stops him. Benoit and Hunter trades low blows. With both men on the mat, Eugene has the chair in hand. He teases the idea of hitting both men. Before Eugene can decide who to hit, Benoit climbs back on his feet. Benoit tries to pull the chair away, but Eugene is too strong. Benoit loses his grip and Eugene accidentally nails Hunter with the chair. Eugene heads out of the ring while Benoit covers Hunter. The ref wakes up and counts three to give Benoit the win. Benoit was producing fantastic title match after title match in 2004. But this one suffered from a too long match and far too much Eugene. As much as I enjoyed Eugene early on, by July, he was being pushed way too much. For whatever reason, Hunter would not lose clean to Benoit again after Wrestlemania. The dirty finish did little to help anyone. They were already planning on having Eugene cost Hunter a title match on Raw in a couple of weeks (The Iron Man match), this wasn't needed. By far, Benoit's worst title defense. However, after such a shittastic PPV as this was, this wasn't too bad. Remove the lame ending and shorten the match 5 minutes and it would of been another really good title defense by Benoit. 30 Minutes. 3 1/4 Stars.

Overall
Raw's roll on PPV comes to an end. After a very entertaining Backlash and Bad Blood, Raw produces an extremely boring PPV. With the exception of the women's match, everything felt too long. What's worse is that this was such a poorly booked PPV. I would of given anything to see Benoit vs Jericho or even Benoit vs Flair in the main event. Hunter's need to always be in the main event is getting overly annoying by this point. To Benoit's credit, he's been in the best match of the night at every PPV in 2004 (That he was a part of). I do have to point out that the loss of Shawn Michaels and Shelton Benjamin since the last PPV and Christian since post-Backlash had to hurt this show. Add in those three guys and this PPV may of been worthwhile to check out. With the exception of the main event, there's nothing to go out of your way to see. Even then, Raw produced better main events than this.

Best Match: Chris Benoit vs Triple H
Worst Match: Chris Jericho vs Batista

Overall Grade: D+

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KenTheKiller

This kind of PPV is partially why I feel WWE went to all brand PPVs. Which is too bad since I feel the current roster could do much, much better.

I remember this show and it was pretty bad if I recall.

Nadia?...

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horrorfan_1986

*Nidia

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Tommy Platinum

I've never seen it but when I opened this I was expecting it to be good, having seen other RAW PPVs from 2004 which were, mainly the two you mentioned. I want to see Benoit vs Triple H, but apart from that I wouldn't go out of my way to watch anything here. I'll cross this off my list of possible PPVs to buy lol.

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King Steventon

I agree, the title match was good but went too long and had too much BS. I pretty much hated Eugene and everything about him. Worst PPV of 2004?

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Tommy Platinum

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Oh and I too hated Eugene with a passion right up until his overdue release.

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King Steventon

Nah, the GAB had the Bullrope match which was pretty good and the super great Chavo/Rey match which never gets mentioned. Recall the fourway being fun too.

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Tommy Platinum

Yeah but look at the main event.
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I've not seen Vengeance as I said though.

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horrorfan_1986

I still need to watch a few PPV's from 2004, but it's easily the worse from what I've seen.

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King Steventon

Looking back at the results of PPVs from 2004, the only ones I recall being worse are Unforgiven, No Mercy, Cyber Sunday and Survivor Series. Odd, that's almost every PPV post-Benoit losing the title. 2004 was a good year though.

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