WWE Judgment Day
May 22, 2005 Sunday Night Heat
Backstage, Mark Jindrak wants an apology from Kurt Angle. On the previous edition of Smackdown, Booker T busted Jindrak open for talking about Sharmell and the gutterslut talk. Angle tries to convince Jindrak that Sharmell is to blame for the attack. Jindrak would of course be fired in a matter of weeks. So I guess he never would get that apology.
Akio vs Nunzio
Non-CW title match on the night of a PPV? That'd never happen these days. Akio is wearing his bad as blue pajama like pants. Nice back and forth action. Sicilian Slice by Nunzio. 1...2...NO...Akio kicks out. Akio to the top rope, YANG TIME~! 1...2...NO Nunzio kicks out. Akio looks on to the ref in disbelief and Nunzio pulls him down in a cross bow pin to get the three. For a short Heat match, it's quite good. Both men packed a lot into the match. I loved both guys kicking out of their finishes. The crossbow pin was a disappointment though. Akio would be released weeks after this show. Luckily, he'll be back soon enough with something he was missing before...an over gimmick.
4 Minutes. 2 Stars. PPV
MNM (c) w/ Melina vs Charlie Haas and Hardcore Holly - WWE Tag Team Titles Match
I believe the only build up to this was Holly pinning Mercury on SD. Early on Haas does a CW armdrag reverse with the ropes. Holly tries the Alabama Slam, but Nitro superkicks him. Haas flies over the top ropes to hit members of MNM. Damn, Haas is putting in a lot of effort. Haas is hotshot on the ropes and receives the Snapshot for MNM to pick up their first PPV win. Holly always worked well in tag teams, but with Haas, he looked better than he did in years. Haas looked like he was willing to try anything to make the match exciting and he succeeds. These two teams would go on to have a 15 minute Iron Man Match on SD. For some odd reason, Haas was released along with Akio and Jindrak weeks later. Kinda a shame, these two teams could continue to put on great matches.
8 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars. Carlito w/ Matt Morgan vs The Big Show
As Carlito was preparing to return to the ring after an injury, he went out looking for a new body guard since Jesus was hurt/released. His first idea was The Big Show. Show was a guest on The Cabana where he turned down the idea and then stole Carlito's apple. But rest assured, Carlito had an idea that would happen. As Show bit into the apple, he began choking on it. Carlito slipped him a Snow White~!! Cue Matt Morgan who recently came back to SD as a jobbing killer stuttering monster. The Big Show looks a lot like former Demolition member Barry Darsow. However, it's current Darsow, which isn't scary at all. Being out of shape, mustache and bald head isn't a good look. Show spends most of the time being a monster and Carlito just tries to survive. Ref bump near the end and Matt Morgan hits a weak looking F5 to Show. Carlito covers and the ref wakes up to count the pinfall. Nothing special, but I enjoyed the match. This would mainly just be used to help build the Show/Morgan match with Morgan looking like a badass. However, once Show and Carlito is drafted to Raw, Morgan lingers until being released along with Jindrak, Akio and Haas. Being released will be a common theme for the night.
5 Minutes. 2 Stars.
Backstage, Sharmell gets a giftback full of underwear and a pair of handcuffs. Booker is enraged when he realizes it's from Angle.
Paul London (c) vs Chavo Guerrero - CW Title Match
After "Stealing" the CW title from London at No Way Out, London has been trying unsuccessfully win it until he finally did in a battle royal. This is Chavo's chance to win it back. Chavo starts off with some mat work, but London surprises him with a Dropsault. The 450 Splash misses. Chavo works over London's hurt ribs for most of the match. London counters a Gory Bomb with a kick. Chavo to the outside, but London nails a helo. A Candido Powerbomb is reversed by London sending Chavo to the mat hard. 450 Splash finally gets London a win over Chavo. London looked good in his first PPV win. I want to watch this match again to get a full feel of the match. The crowd's lack of interest hurt this match. Realizing that they weren't into it, may allow me to enjoy it more the second time. The 450 was done well, but London worked the Shooting Star Press even better. With Kidman being released along with Jindrak, Haas, Akio and Morgan, London would finally be able to do it.
11 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars.
Backstage, Booker asks several wrestlers if they've seen Angle. For whatever reason, most of the wrestlers are dressed when they'll not even wrestling.
Elsewhere, Kurt Angle comes in Booker's lockerroom and jumps on Sharmell. After he gets done taking care of Booker, Sharmell is all his.
Booker T vs Kurt Angle
This feud started off like any boring feud. Angle cost Booker a match and Booker wants revenge. That is until Sharmell came into the feud. Angle called her a gutterslut and said that he wanted to have hot beastiality sex with her. For some reason, Booker takes offense to that. Booker throws Angle around to start the match. It shows signs of being a total squash. On the outside, Angle throws Booker into the ring post. Inside the ring, Booker hits a Book End, but Angle kicks out. Rolling Germans by Angle. If there's one guy who knows about taking rolling Germans, it's Booker. Angle gets cocky as he goes for the Angle Slam. Booker rolls through and pins Angle to win the match. I don't think I've ever seen an Angle Slammed countered like that before. Post match has Sharmell running out to be with Booker. Angle attacks Booker and drags Sharmell in the ring. Angle tries to handcuff Sharmell to the ropes, but Booker stops him and handcuffs Angle. Sharmell goes all crazy drunk girl on Angle with weak shots than gives him a kick between the legs. I hated this storyline. You had one of the best pure wrestlers in Angle and a very good all around wrestler in Booker T, yet you make the storyline around Angle being a pervert and wanting to sleep with Sharmell? Lame. This match was a letdown in that I know they could have put on a better match. The match isn't bad, but not up to their standards. Luckily, Angle would be drafted to Raw soon after this.
14 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars. Orlando Jordan (c) vs Heidenreich - US Title Match
The HUGE buildup to this was that Heidenreich defeated OJ in a non-title match on the SD before the PPV. Yup, that's it. The title that goes as far back as 1975 with Harley Race has a match built for 2 solid days. Before the match, Heidenreich looks around for a new friend. He finds one in a very energetic young girl (aka a plant). She's way too excited to be picked by Heidenreich. That or she's never been given sugar before and just tonight she's chugged 3 pops. He reads her one of his poems. At the end of the poem, he says that OJ reminds him of a little rascal. To finish it off he calls him Whole Wheat. *palm slap* In case you're wondering, the Little Rascals had a black kid with Don King like hair just like OJ. The kid's name was BUCK Wheat, not whole wheat. During the entire match, Heidenreich's "Friend" is going crazy cheering and booing. I've never seen someone this into an OJ match before.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. The match isn't anything special, but I can't stop laughing at this little girl seemingly the only one caring about the match. Several times during the match, OJ even taunts the little girl.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. OJ finishes Heidenreich with a DDT to retain his title. The finish to the match was sudden and didn't make much sense. Heidenreich's friend is devastated, but comes in the ring to try and cheers Heidenreich up. How do you cheer a Heidenreich up you might be asking? By doing the Heidenreich March. The girl actually does the Heidenreich march and swings her one arm up and down like he does in his entrance! God, this is priceless.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. This is one of the most unintentional funniest moments of the past decade. The match sucked, but fuck it entertained me so much.
5 Minutes. 3 Stars.
Backstage, JBL plugs his match tonight. He says how Cena's WWE career is over.
Eddie Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio
Ah yes, before the feud became one terrible twist after another. Since WM, Rey and Eddie has had some issues with Eddie teasing a heel turn. Eddie walked out on Rey during their tag title match with MNM to lose the titles. Eddie tried to make it up to Rey, but walked out on him again. MNM and Chavo Guerrero tripled team Rey one night only to have Eddie chase them off. It seemed as if things were good between Eddie and Rey until Eddie attacked Rey. Eddie ripped half of Mysterio's mask off and gave him a Brainbuster on the steel steps. Since then, Eddie carried the mask around and forced it on jobbers faces (Including Jimmy Jacobs) to act like he was beating up Mysterio. So it was quite a buildup. Rey shows a lot of viciousness in the beginning. Hmm, maybe this might not be too bad. Eddie takes over by ramming Rey in the announcers table a few times. Eddie is still being cheered by some people. Eddie dominates Rey for a few minutes until Rey starts firing back. Chavo Guerrero runs down to distract the ref as Eddie brings in a chair. Just as the ref gets rid of Chavo, he turns around to see Eddie using the chair and DQ's him. After the match, Eddie uses the chair to hit Rey a few more times. After a disappointing WM match, these two guys just put on one terrible match after another. This one is a bore with a finish that no one likes. The worst part about all this is that the ONLY good thing about this feud (the storyline) would be ruined after this show with the impending news that Rey isn't the father of Dominic. For a guy who's credited to being one of the best ever, Eddie was terrible in his final year. Matches with Benoit, Batista and Mysterio were all low points of the PPV. At this point, I'm not even surprised that this sucks.
19 Minutes. 1 1/2 Stars. John Cena (c) vs JBL - I Quit WWE World Title Match
The rematch from Wrestlemania. JBL comes out in his Longhorn limo. Meanwhile, Cena comes out on the bed of a semi. Also on the bed of the semi is a dj remixing Cena's theme. The match starts off with some in ring mat work. Luckily, we know there won't be much of that. To the outside, JBL chokes JBL out with a cord. There's going to be a lot of that in this match. JBL plummets Cena with a chair and Cena is busted open badly. The blood is coming down in lines which makes Cena's face not too bloody, but his chest full of streaks of blood. It really helps it look worse than what it really is. Back inside the ring, JBL hits a few short arm closelines. JBL chokes Cena out with his chain. Cena still isn't giving up. Cena makes a come back and nails the FU. If this was a normal match, Cena would of won it by now. They make their way to JBL's limo where JBL is slammed on the hood. JBL hits a neckbreaker on Cena on the hood. The hood is dented up badly and is smeared with blood. JBL rips off an electrical cord and chokes Cena out again. Cena counters by throwing JBL head first through a TV set. Upon rewinding and watching the TV again, it looks like there wasn't even glass to break though, just some on the sides to get a reflection and to show some broken glass. JBL is bleeding now. JBL is thrown at his limo's window. This time there IS glass. JBL is whipped into the limo door (open) a few times until it falls off. Cena throws the door on the hood. Over to the semi, JBL is whipped into an air tank that goes off (Very Smackdown vs Raw). JBL climbs on the sound equipment and chokes Cena with some of the DJ cords. Cena pulls him down and JBL flies through the table the dj equipment was on. JBL walks to the JD set where behind him is some glass door like sets. Cena fired up knocks the smoke stack off of the semi and goes after JBL. Seeing the huge stack, JBL yells that he quits. Cena retains, but isn't done and uses the stack to crash JBL through the glass door set. Cena runs back to the ring and celebrates. Pretty fun match. This was just an all out bloody brawl with plenty of choking and fun spots. I really wish Cena would of sold his injuries at the end. After all of the punishment he took, there's no way he should of ran to the ring and looked like he was perfectly fine (besides the blood). I also don't like the fact that JBL gave up while looking fresh. Yes, it made him look like the cowardly heel he's supposed to be. However, it's not putting the match over as the brutal display of violence it was supposed to be. This was however, much better than their WM match. Even if it was full of hardcore wrestling that no one sold at the end, it had much better pacing and it was more exciting then their WM battle. Even with this being twice the time as the WM match (Seriously...11 min for a title match? wtf) this one goes by a lot faster. At the same time, I'm disappointed by all the talk I heard about this. This just wasn't the "Great" match I heard people call it. Sure, it's better than most JBL title matches, but that's not saying much. Still a really fun match though.
23 Minutes. 3 1/2 Stars. Overall
In a year in which SD seemed to be trying to put on some of the worst PPVs ever, this seems to the sole PPV they forgot to be terrible at. There may not be any great matches at this show, but everything (outside the Mysterio/Guerrero match) is at least passable. At lot of the lower rank stars looked like they put in a lot of effort into the show (Haas for example). Sadly, people like Booker, Guerrero, Angle and Mysterio didn't seem to have the same passion for the night. JBL has one of his best title matches while OJ is actually in a match that entertains me, even if for the non-intended reasons. While I wouldn't give a strong recommendation to see this show, as far as SD in 2005 goes, this is your best bet.
Best Match: JBL vs John Cena
Worst Match: Rey Mysterio vs Eddie Guerrero
Overall Grade: C
Linear Mode
