Original Airdate: Thursday, February 17th, 2005
Gund Arena
Cleveland, Ohio
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Rey Mysterio vs. Doug Basham
Before the match, Mysterio grabs the mic and sounds more confident than normal. Rey blames the Bashams for taking out his partner, Rob Van Dam. He says he has found a new partner and at No Way Out they will take their championships away. He announces Eddie Guerrero as his new partner to a good pop. After interference from his brother, Doug takes it to Mysterio, hitting a nice suplex along the way. Mysterio gets some offense in and hits a 619 while Doug was tripped by Eddie and picks up the victory. That was a pretty unimportant match
Match Rating: *1/2
JBL and Orlando Jordan walk into Teddy Long's office. JBL is mad that Long isn't doing anything to stop Batista from coming to SmackDown. JBL denies that he tried to hit Batista with his limo and then blames Long. Long announces that Batista will be at No Way Out and that he hopes to sign Batista to SmackDown.
We get a highlight package of the No Way Out press conference.
Torrie Wilson is here to announce for the Cruiserweight match here.
Chavo Guerrero, Spike Dudley & Akio vs. Funaki, Paul London & Shannon Moore
Let's see if this one gets past the 5 minute mark. Moore gets a little bit of offense in, before Chavo tags in. Chavo works his way into the match and takes control back. All of a sudden the Diva music hits and they are holding signs with their names on it. The wrestler just kind of stand there and watch. Spike gets tagged in and hits the double stomp from the top rope. Funaki gets the hot tag and does a double tag team match with some sort of rules. London hits a dropsault, which has been one of my favorite moves for awhile. Moore and London do flips over the top rope in a well timed spot. Funaki gets the pin on Spike. Decent little match.
Match Rating: **
Booker T and Eddie Guerrero do a Pulp Fiction spoof.
Kurt Angle Invitational
Kurt Angle vs. Danny Gimondo
Before the match, Angle cuts a promo saying that he's going to his third straight WrestleMania main event. Dolph Ziggler and Kenny Dykstra are the police that accompanied Angle to the ring. Gimondo is a pretty good sized guy, who appears to have been a lifetime indy wrestler. In about the time it took me to write that last sentence, Angle hits the Angle Slam and Ankle Lock for the victory.
Match Rating: 1/4*
John Cena comes out and he and Angle have a moment together.
WWE Championship Semifinal Match
John Cena vs. Booker T
These two never clicked for me, let's see if this match will change my mind. We already have a rest hold like two minutes into the match. Cena goes to a FU, but Booker is able to escape as we go to commercial break. Back from the break and Cena is back to a rest hold. Booker T then nails him with a kick to the jaw. Cena makes a comeback, but it's stalled when Booker throws him through the ropes. Booker hits Cena with a weak looking axe handle of the apron. Was there anyone who actually thought Cena wasn't winning this match? Irish whip and then a big scoop slam by Booker, as he moves into a headlock. Cena is able to hit a jumping shoulder tackle and then blocks Booker's punches and dishing out some of his own. Cena's little burst is cut short by a spinebuster from Booker. Booker goes for the scissors kick, but Cena moves and goes for the FU. Booker semi-blocks it and then hits him with a kick and gets a 2 count. Cena hits a FU out of nowhere and gets the victory. That match did not change my mind about their chemistry. Something about them just doesn't mesh.
Match Rating: **
JBL tells his cabinet that he has a plan. They then cut over to Big Show and says he has no thoughts about Batista coming to SmackDown.
Booker T is in the back and walks by Heidenreich sitting on the floor writing in his notebook and begins laughing at Booker. Booker makes fun of him and then they kind of just cut out of it.
Luther Reigns vs. Nunzio
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the ratings for this segment were not the highest of the night. Reigns is all over Nunzio. Reigns dumps him over the top rope to the apron and Nunzio looked as if he hit his face there on the way down. Reigns hits his spinning neckbreaker here. Reigns got all of the offense here.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Luther then cuts a promo saying that the Undertaker intimidates everyone, but not him. It's nice that although Luther failed, his brother Roman picked up his slack years later at WrestleMania. The Undertakers music hits and out he comes.
Undertaker vs. Mark Jindrak
I can't believe they're giving this match away for free on TV. A main event in any city. Taker gives Reigns a big boot out to the apron. Taker then begins throwing fists on Jindrak. Taker flips over to Reigns and hits him with a clothesline. Jindrak gets in a minute or so of his offense, but then we get all of the "Vintage Undertaker". Reigns takes away a camera and climbs into the ring. Taker pins Jindrak and instead of breaking up the count, Reigns lets Taker win the match and then decides to hit him with the camera. Um, ok. After about 10 seconds, if that, Taker sits up. Yeah, no one cares about this.
Match Rating: *
Carlito walks into Teddy Long's office. They begin to argue and Long says that his main focus is to sign Batista and kicks him out of his office.
Cena is backstage with Josh Matthews and Kurt Angle interrupts. Angle brings up Cena's first match against Angle. Cena then says he is going to WrestleMania. Pretty basic stuff here.
JBL and his jobber stable are heading to the ring because Batista is here.
JBL denies that it was him trying to take down Batista on Raw. JBL calls out Batista and they show Batista pulling in to the back. Batista walks by JBL's limo and goes back to his car to grab a baseball bat. Batista is now destroying JBL's limo. For some reason this goes on for a really, really long time. The Cabinet goes to the back and Batista is gone. Big Show's music hits and he goes to fight the solo JBL. The Cabinet makes it back and helps JBL out, but then out comes Batista. Batista destroys the Cabinet. JBL retreats to the back and that's all she wrote.
That was a really bad episode. Nothing memorable happened and all of the matches weren't very good. I'd say that's a bad recipe for a sports entertainment show. That's also never really a great thing going into a pay per view, especially one that is as lukewarm as this one is. We'll see if that show is better than I remember.
Overall Rating: 36%
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