ohtani's jacket

These guys match up well, but this was nothing you haven't seen before and in more exciting iterations. Cole had to hype it as some kind of amazing treat for the viewers, but unless they have short memories then this wasn't exactly a unicorn match-up. Angle has been slightly overbearing since returning the ring. He really needs to tone it down a bit and give his opponent more of the match.

Smackdown seems so much weaker than RAW at this stage, which is something I never would have guessed heading into 2004, but I guess that's what happens when you remove half of the Smackdown Six from the roster. This didn't do a ton for me. Reigns can't deliver a decent looking beatdown, and there's a lot of retreading going on with Angle and Eddie and Angle and Rey. Eddie came to the ring in a lowrider and Angle ended up throwing white undercoat over it. It always amazes me how the WWE can fork out cash for a custom car like that and destroy it somehow. Seems like a waste considering people gave zero shits about it. Where we're at in 2004 -- Evolution are giving Orton a brutal beatdown on RAW and Angle is throwing paint on cars. The wheels are spinning off Smackdown.

I liked this a wee bit better than their SummerSlam match as it had the added edge of Benoit trying to win his belt back. There was a vignette between Triple H and Orton that set up Randy's story for the match, which was a "butterflies in the stomach" type narrative where Orton was meant to be afraid that he was going to lose the title back to Benoit straight away (the same psychology Evolution had used on Edge when he defeated Orton for the IC title, incidentally.) Lawler kind of shat all over that by constantly mentioning that Randy had been partying all night and was hungover, but whatever. It was obvious that Evolution would show up, and it was equally obvious that something was up with the post-match celebration. I gotta admit, I kind of liked the way the beating played out. Say what you will about Triple H, but he was good at WWE style melodramatics. It was kind of sad to see the end of the criminally underrated Evolution run (at least the version with Orton), but a blind man could have seen it wasn't going to sit well with Triple H that another member of Evolution was holding the world title.

Chris Benoit defends the World Heavyweight Title The WWE is generally very good at story stuff, but they tipped their hand a bit here by foreshadowing too strongly that Orton would win the championship. It wasn't so much the fact that they kept hyping that Orton would become the youngest WWE champion ever that did it, but how cleanly Orton worked the bout. It was obvious that Orton was going to win the belt and turn face. And since those were the seeds they were laying, they worked more of a traditional bout that didn't have a lot of the trappings you expect from a WWE main event. It wasn't a bad bout, but it didn't stir a ton of emotions. I'm sure there Benoit fans who were miffed that he dropped the belt, but he'd run his race. The problem was that it was hard to get behind Orton as a babyface after all the horrible things he'd done as a heel, especially without any sort of motivation. The fact that he was a third generation wrestler, and potentially the youngest WWE champion ever, wasn't enough to make up for the terrible shit he'd done. The saving grace was the finish. Just as it seemed the champion was going to win, Orton hit the RKO from out of nowhere. It was out of the blue, but felt like a believable way for a young challenger to dethrone a veteran champ. Afterwards, Benoit forced Orton to shake his hand, further signaling the face turn.

This was a good television-level bout, but not a classic pay-per-view bout. I don't know how true the rumours are about Angle telling Eddie to sell less, but I do know that this was a decidedly Angle led match-up and it was far more workrate driven than the great Eddie performances of 2004 thus far. I'm not gonna lie, I'd rather watch Eddie brawl with JBL than have workrate bouts with Angle, which is weird to me, as I'm sure there was a time when I would have jumped at the chance to see Eddie vs Angle over Eddie vs a big guy, but this felt like a step down from Eddie's amazing work against Brock and JBL.

This was a solid match heading into the Triple Threat match at SummerSlam. It was babyface vs babyface, but fairly heated as there had been an altercation between Edge and Jericho on some kind of Piper's Pit segment that Jericho was doing at the time. Jericho had become an excellent WWE worker by this point, but he shows far more personality as a heel than a face. There was a chance that he might turn during this feud but it was mostly a tease at this stage. The match itself was a step down from the Edge vs Orton bouts, but it served its purpose to have the two faces beat the crap out of each other prior to the Triple Threat match and there was a twist at the end where Jericho refused to help Edge when Batista attacked. I don't know who the road agents were at the time, but somebody loved the foot on the ropes finish in the summer of '04

This was Angle's first match in a Smackdown ring since he lost the title to Eddie at WrestleMania, and it's a decent workout. The objective is to send a message to Eddie, who he's about to face in 10 days time at SummerSlam. Hass' trajectory is moving in the complete opposite direction of Shelton Benjamin. He's so generic that they have to team him with a female valet. He's still a decent wrestler, but he's got a one way ticket to Nowheresville with this gimmick. Angle does Angle things, and we're set for the Eddie rematch.

It warms my heart to see that Tenryu matches are still worth watching in 2004. There wasn't a ton of substance to this match, but it was fun watching Tenryu in action. The pop trend is even more egregious in Japan than it is in the US, especially after all those years of watching guys sell the crap out of matches in All Japan. The running knee spot is badass, but it doesn't make up for the fact that Nagata was a dick for no selling the hurricanrana. This was more or less breadcrumbs when it comes to a truly great match, but it's Tenyru so there are enough worthwhile moments to make it worth your 12 minutes.

I absolutely love this match up. I think it's one of the best match ups in the business in 2004. They go hard in every match and the balance between wrestling, striking and big moves is damn near perfect. We were guaranteed a winner here after their previous match in 3PW went to a time limit draw, and they didn't disappoint. The only thing that bothered me was the cheap finish. Other than that, they put on a clinic. I'll say it again, but it's really hard for me to put Bryan Danielson ahead of AJ Styles at this point in their careers.

Now this is what I call a trios match. The workers had one goal in mind here and that was to set up Santo vs. Perro Jr, and they brought their A-games to produce the type of heated trios you only see during the build to a big match. Perro finally embraced his rudo role and was the nastiest he's been thus far. Everyone else chipped in with intense brawling and finally CMLL feels like it has some sort of direction.

Orton winning a battle royal to become the number one contender is a little weak, but he looked killer in this match, especially when he was working with Jericho. This was another awesome Evolution match with Flair continuing to do a fantastic job of trading shots with the babyfaces and Batista continuing to grow in his role as a beast. The finish was extremely well done and a great way to set up Orton's title shot. He looked like a top 10 guy in the world at this point.

I was a big fan of Lizmark in AAA.

Larry Z was good too.

My favorite will always be GZA's "I slayed MC's back in the rec room era/My style broke motherfuckin backs like Ken Patera." There are a surprising amount of Ted DiBiase references in hip hop songs.

I was interested in how much matwork they would do in this, and the answer was a little. If you squint a bit, it almost looks like Kawada is fighting Yamazaki, which would have been a pretty cool match up come to think of it. The idea of Kawada vs shooters has always been tantalizing to me, but it would have had to have happened in the mid-90s. Kawada looked washed in 2004. He’d done his dash in the immediate post-split period. Nagai was a fairly lousy pro-wrestler as evidenced by his weak selling in this bout, and even weaker facial expressions, but they could have worked a much better bout if Kawada had brought more energy to the bout.

I had high hopes for this as Kanemaru is one of my favorite NOAH guys, but this was disappointing. You could probably argue that it got things right in terms of fan engagement, however it was a crappy bout in terms of detail. Part of that was because it was tailored towards a Dome crowd, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Kanemaru was out of his element having a big singles match. The result came across flat to me when it should have been a huge moment. The crowd seemed happy, though.

This was a fairly decent bout for what it was. It’s hard to get much drama out of a single fall lucha bout, but the work was good. It was clear from the moment that Casas stepped out as Felino’s second that he’d get involved in the finish somehow, however it didn’t spoil anything.

If you ever need proof that Santo is different, watch his return bouts to a promotion. He didn’t lift this match to any great heights, but his work within the bout was on a completely different level than any other CMLL worker. Everyone works harder when Santo is around and the energy is raised. Even the crowd responds. The only thing that can really handicap him is the booking and the shortened television format bouts.

This was a decent trios match. It was kind of trippy seeing Satanico square off against Garza since my prevailing image of those two is Satanico abusing a young Hector Garza In ‘95. Garza is a different sort of rudo from the norm, but he’s managed to fit in well with the CMLL regulars and he does a lot of quality shtick. Park, on the other hand, hasn’t had the impact you’d expect from his jump to CMLL. He does work a decent house style match here with some good exchanges with Garza. For some reason, Rey is dressed in his old pirate outfit. OK match.

If you ever wanted to see a crazy match that lasts less than 4 minutes, this is it. Better than the vast majority of Japanese wrestling in 2004 thus far.

Completely average. I’ve never been a Murakami fan, but I was expecting a bit more from Suzuki. I guess it took him a while to flesh out his act.

I liked the intent in this match with both guys hitting hard, and Joe cutting off Homicide with big moves. It was worked at the same level throughout, and they didn’t kick it into another gear for the finishing stretch, which was strange considering it was billed as Homicide’s last shot at the title, but I had no problem with the action itself.

Not the greatest Cibernetico match in company history, but in the context of the weekly TV it was an enjoyable match and a refreshing change from the norm. The match was built around the continuing beef between Casas and Perro Jr. Highlights included a Perro vs Satanico exchange and a rare Casas vs Atlantis exchange. We also got to see Mistico in action, though he fairly raw at the time. Neat scrap between Atlantis and Perro at the end.

Just to prove their Vengeance match was no fluke, here is an excellent television rematch from the WWE’s best matchup. They play up Edge’s title victory like it was a fluke, and continually refer to the fact that Edge’s first IC reign lasted a day whereas Orion’s reign lasted for seven months. Edge doesn’t always get his dues, and deservedly so at times, but he was excellent in his role here and seemed legitimately hungry after sitting on the sidelines for so long. I’m not sure how they’ve going to repackage Orton as a number one contender for the World’s Heavyweight Title after coming out on the losing side of this feud, but this mini-feud with Edge was the perfect warm up for that bout. Orton has a done of momentum heading into SummerSlam in terms of his working ability. His growth as a worker since the Foley match has been meteoric. This was the feud of the month for my money.

Remember that time that Triple H and Benoit had a one hour Ironman match on RAW? Me neither. There’s a reason why this match is so forgettable and it’s name is Eugene. So after around 50-something minutes of semi-decent action and convoluted scoring, Benoit makes a gutsy comeback from 3-1 down and, unbelievably, forces Triple H to tap twice. Evolution make their way to ringside to do the obvious, and then Eugene emerges from the crowd and cleans house. That sets up the finish where Eugene gets his revenge on Triple H and RAW goes off the air with a stare-down between the two. On one hand, it pays off the Eugene storyline in a satisfying manner. On the other hand, it makes a mockery of the title bout. Benoit notched up another win over Triple H, which is impressive when you think about it, but even in a loss, Triple H smartly finds a way to make himself the star of the show.