horrorfan_1986

WWE Bad Blood
June 13, 2004

Sunday Night Heat

Batista vs Maven
Big Dave actually has hair, which makes him look so weird. This is a complete squash with Batista controlling Maven the entire time. Maven tries to use his speed and fly around some, but it's like hitting a brick wall. Maven jumps from the top rope, but meets a punch in mid air. Batista Bomb finally ends it for Maven. It did it's job and made the fans pop a few times. I would of liked to see Maven get in a few more moves, instead of just having Batista control him. The fans seemed to really enjoy seeing Maven try (and fail) to take on Dave. This would really be right at the start of Batista's mid-card push for the Summer. That push of course ends up getting him in the main event of Wrestlemania. 4 Minutes. 1 Star.

PPV

La Resistance (c) vs Chris Benoit and Edge - Tag Team Titles Match
Earlier on Heat, Grenier informed us that Rob Conway would now be called Robért Conway. Grenier sings the Canadian national anthem when Edge interrupts. Once Benoit comes out, the fans give a quiet USA chant. Uh, Edge, Grenier and Benoit are Canadians. Conway is an American. Why would you chant U-S-A?! Team USA (>_>) takes control early on by working over Grenier. He eventually gets the tag into Conway and it's all La Resistance working over Edge. Lawler wonders if Benoit is afraid to get into the ring since he has another match. A few moments later, Benoit is tagged in and he cleans house. Edge goes to Spear Conway, but he slips out of the way and Benoit is in the path of the Spear. Edge stops in time and to pay Conway back, Benoit locks in the Crippler Crossface. Pyro explodes and Kane comes down. Kane hits a big boot to Benoit drawing the DQ and chokeslams Edge. On the outside, Benoit is thrown into the steps. The finish may seem bad, but I love it. It helps build more towards the World Title match, which really needed more build. Meanwhile, the Edge/Benoit teams is made to look good by practically having the champions defeated. At the same time though, La Resistance cleanly defeated Edge/Benoit a couple of weeks ago, so the finish didn't hurt them. Everyone wins. Nothing too special, but an enjoyable short match. If you want to see these two teams go at it, find a copy of their Raw match from a couple weeks before. It's from Montreal and the crowd treats La Resistance like they're gods. It's also my pick for the best tag match on Raw since the brand extension. 10 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars.

Chris Jericho vs Tomko w/ Trish Stratus
Tomko was recently brought into the WWE by Christian to help in the feud against Jericho. However, Christian was injured a few weeks ago in a steel cage match with Jericho. So Christian is gone and Tomko has his PPV match debut. Tomko uses his power, while Jericho uses his speed. Trish climbs up on the apron, but Jericho moves out of the way and Tomko knocks Trish off. Step up Enzuigiri gets the victory. Hmm, weird finish. It was right around this point when Jericho started doing the step up enzugiri a lot, but I can't recall anyone being pinned by it. This was a lot like Jericho's Summerslam match with Rhyno. You even have the slutty Trish in place of Stephanie. Sadly, this is Pre-Japan Tomko we're talking about, so it's not nearly as good. Tomko had a great look, but he wasn't ready for PPV yet. However, compared to the likes of Kenzo, Luther Reigns and Mordica, he looks like he can put on a decent match. 6 Minutes. 2 Stars.

Backstage, Todd Grisham is interviewing IC Champion, Randy Orton. Normal interview until Orton starts yelling at the crowd for booing him. The only problem is that the fans weren't booing him, in fact they weren't making any noise. Out of disgust from the "booing" fans, Orton takes the mic and heads to the ringside and cuts a promo in the ring. Can you say Rock ripoff? This is a ripoff of about 2 Rock promos, one of which he did just a few months ago! Shelton Benjamin has enough and comes down to the ring. Since they both have their gear one, he wants to start the match now.

Randy Orton (c) vs Shelton Benjamin - IC Title Match
Earl Hebner runs down and the match begins. They start off with brawling inside, outside and back inside the ring. Shelton misses a Stinger Splash. Ric Flair joins us with the crowd Wooing. Orton goes back to his old standby, the chin lock. 10 minutes later (I kid of course), Orton and Shelton are punching each other back and forth. The longer they do it, the more excited the fans get. Shelton reverses Orton's body neckbreaker (where he falls to his knees with the opponent falling back on Orton's back) into a side Russian legsweep. Orton goes for the RKO, but Shelton reverses that as well. JR and Lawler are completely ignoring the fact that Shelton is reversing all of Orton's trademark moves. T-Bone Suplex, gets Shelton only a 2 when Flair puts Orton's leg on the ropes. Shelton chases Flair and into the ring where he puts Flair in the FIGURE FOUR LEGLOCK~! The fans actually boo that though. Ouch.
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It reminds me a lot when CM Punk was booed for doing the 3 Amigos to Chavo at No Way Out. Orton tries to attack Shelton, but Benjamin rolls Orton up while still keeping Flair in his own move! 2 count. Shelton hits some stinger splashes on Orton and Flair. Benjamin flies for a top rope cross body block, but Orton rolls through and grabs the tights to steal the victory. The way that Orton was pinning Shelton, holding the tights didn't even look like it helped him at all. Orton was such a failure tonight. The match started off fairly slow, but it really got exciting at the slugfest. The WWE really should of gave the title to Shelton on this night. Unlike future IC champion, Edge; Shelton was over at this point. Meanwhile, it would of given Orton a few months to rebuild himself up to become World Champion, instead of the 3 weeks he got between Vengeance and Summerslam. 15 Minutes. 3 Stars.

Backstage, Matt and Lita makes out. Eric Bischoff walks in on them and orders Hardy out of the building so he can't interfere in Kane's match. It's okay Matt, I'm sure Edge will watch over Lita.

Victoria (c) vs Lita vs Gail Kim vs Trish Stratus - Women's Title Match
First woman to get a pinfall/submission wins the title. This is at the height of Victoria's rave ass shaking face gimmick, which means I can't stand her. Trish Stratus is horrible at this point with all of her moves being botched to some degree. Gail Kim starts busting out a lot of moves never seen in a women's match before. Lita hits a DDT on Gail Kim, but Trish rolls Lita up for the win. So let me get this straight, they gave the title to the overlypushed wrestler who at this point was the worst women's wrestler on Raw? Pathetic. This would end up being Gail Kim's final WWE PPV as she would be released in November. I'm sure the WWE is kicking themselves for firing her now. This match was actually picking up when it ended. 5 Minutes. 1 1/2 Stars.

The Coach vs Eugene
This is Eugene's PPV debut match. Pure comedy here. Eugene does an airplane spin, JYD headbutt, and a bunch of other moves. A blond plant gives Eugene a cute teddy bear. Lance Cade comes out and rips it's head off. Ha, Cade is awesome. Since that distraction didn't work, Coach brings down a girl in a bikini carrying cookies. Eugene stuffs himself on them when Coach jumps him. Eugene Hulk's Up and hits a Rock Bottom and People's elbow for the win. Post match has Eugene Stone Cold Stunning Coach and Cade. A lot of funny moments, but I'm sure a lot of people would just use this as a piss break. 8 Minutes. No Rating.

Chris Benoit (c) vs Kane - World Heavyweight Title Match
With such little time to build towards this match and with both men in feuds (Benoit with Hunter and Kane with Matt Hardy), they build this short feud around a basic premise. On the previous edition of Raw, Benoit and Edge faced La Resistance and Kane in a 2 on 3 handicap match. Benoit tried several times, but Kane would always power out of the Crippler Crossface. Simple, yet smart. Benoit chops the hell out of Kane to start the match. Benoit goes for the Sharpshooter, but Kane easily kicks him off. Kane takes over working on Benoit's neck. Benoit fights back by trying the Crossface, but Kane powers out. Not to be deterred, Benoit gives Kane some rolling Germans. Kane hits a chokeslam for two. Benoit locks in the crossface for a third time, but Kane stands up. Benoit switches arms, but Kane refuses to go down. Benoit says "Fuck it" and cradle's Kane for a 3 count. Now that's how you book a title match. You have Benoit realizing that he couldn't make Kane submit, so he outsmarts Kane. Kane though, is made to look even more impressive by forcing Benoit to change up his strategy to beat him. To make a match and have BOTH guys come out looking even better is such an amazing feat these days. This also planted the seeds for a rematch. Unfortunately, they did it the following night on Raw instead of at Vengeance. Their rematch had the rules where Benoit could only win by submission, while Kane can win by any means. Benoit finally found a way to make Kane tap out. This could of been a very fun summer feud, but since they were both in other feuds, they had to compress it into a couple of weeks. This might actually be Kane's best WWE match. The guy looked like a monster and was in a quality match. 2004 wasn't a very good year for Kane, yet on this night he looked like a true star. 20 Minutes. 4 Stars.

Triple H vs Shawn Michaels - Hell in a Cell
This was supposed to be the end of this long feud. Only problem with that being is that they'd wrestle again on PPV in less than 6 months. Very slow pace match. Michaels is busted up with the steel steps. He starts bleeding buckets. Hunter works over Michaels back for most of the match. Thrown on the outside of the ring, Michaels finds a ladder under the ring. Why would there even be a ladder in the first place? Oh well. HBK gets a huge smile on his face. Hunter is whipped into the ladder repeatedly. Hunter starts bleeding. Back in control, Hunter goes under the ring to find a table and sets it up. Michaels knocks Hunter out on the table and climbs the ladder. Top of the ladder elbow drop onto Hunter through the table. Michaels walks into a Pedigree, but kicks out. Hunter hits another one, but can't get up. The two of them lays down on the mat for minutes. Both men gets up and Hunter hits a third Pedigree and covers HBK to win this long match. The longest HIAC up to this point. For nearly an hour long match, it went by pretty quickly. I actually really enjoyed this match. It was slow building and didn't rely on typical HIAC BS spots. But at the same time it was missing something. I think it has to do with how it was the same pace during the entire match. The ending just didn't feel exciting enough. The long wait between the Pedigree and covering Michaels might have a part in it. It's a solid match, but it's just not perfect. 48 Minutes. 3 1/2 Stars.

Overall
Looking back, there wasn't a single bad match on the card. The worst matches were better than I expected. At the same time, there wasn't anything truly great. Michaels and Hunter had better matches then their HIAC. So unless you're a big fan of their feud or you wanna see Benoit carry Kane to a good match, this PPV shouldn't be a top priority. That being said, you won't be disappointed if you do buy this.

Best Match: Kane vs Chris Benoit
Worst Match:Trish vs Lita vs Gail Kim vs Victoria

Overall Grade: B-

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FlamesofFury

Wait a sec.. why was Benoit in 2 title matches? I know he was World Champion at the time.. so why would he contend for the tag titles? ..

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Dmac

If I remember correctly, Edge walked out and left Benoit to win by himself, it is just to push Benoit more.

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Tommy Platinum

Christian at Backlash that year.

I have talked about the HIAC a lot, and I am going to do so again.
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I feel it is underrated by a lot of people. You criticize the early Cell matches because they didn't do their job, that being the original gimmick of the Cell, to keep the guys inside and everyone else out, and to produce a gruelling, brutal, feud ending match because of it. This was a ridiculously long feud, and needed a suitable ending. HIAC was the only place they could go, and this HIAC definitely did its job. It was long, it was gruelling, it was brutal, it put over the Cell as being all these things, and being the ultimate score settler and feud ender. The slow pace of the match was good, because any faster would be totally unrealistic considering what they did to each other, particularly at the end. That is why I liked the finish, with the time taken between the pedigree and the cover. Come on, these guys had beaten the hell out of each other with weapons for the best part of an hour. The finish also didn't hurt Michaels.

... I realize you said you enjoyed the match lol, I am talking about your comments that it is lacking something. I would go higher with the rating. It was **** imo.

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Yoshimat

And it was also to further the Benoit/Kane feud since Kane came out.

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Tommy Platinum

The fact that Benoit was able to defeat Kane after that pretty much makes him look like Superman.

If that had happened in Cena's reign people would have gone insane.

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horrorfan_1986

He was put in two matches to make the odds against him by Bischoff. He and Edge just lost the tag titles to La Resistance. Since the tag division was so terrible at that time, the only other team was Hurricane and Rosey.

To say they made the right choice with Edge/Benoit would be an understatement.

You're thinking of Taboo Tuesday 2004.

But it wasn't the end of the feud.
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I do find it's underrated by a lot of people, but I also feel as if it's a forgettable one.

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Dmac

Then I retract my statement... my memory did indeed not serve correctly.

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KenTheKiller

About the ladder...

WWE are "supposedly" keeping stuff that's needed under the ring. Spare tables, wires, fire extinguishers, ladders, etc. are all necessary for up-keep and shit. >.> So kayfabe it makes sense for a ladder to be under the ring.

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King Steventon

Benoit/Kane was pretty great my opinion, such an underated match. I'd far enough to say ots one of Kane's best matches ever. That short period of time where he was escorted to the ring by the police with the towel on his head.... that was such an epic heel, and Benoit and him worked so well together in that match.

The Hell In A Cell is actually kinda passable in my opinion. Alot of the matches between the HHH and Michaels feel a bit to similar for my liking. They use the same spots and most of them seem to have the same psycology (Michaels attacks early, HHH gains upper hand and works on his back...yayaya). I liked the ending with both men looking like they'de been through a war, but other than that it felt like a 40+ minute match that could have been done in half the time and probably been better for it.

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