Monday, April 18th, 2005
Madison Square Garden
New York City, New York
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
Eric Bischoff is in the back talking to Jim Ross. Bischoff plays sympathetic at first, but then says that he wants to see the match and that he's going to make it a No Disqualification match. He also announces that JR will have Batista in his corner.
Coach is in the announcers booth this week in place of JR.
Edge vs. Chris Benoit
Edge attacks Benoit as soon as he steps in the ring, but Benoit is having none of it. Benoit hits 5 German suplexes in a row and is already signaling for the headbutt. Edge rolls out of the way and Benoit is selling his taped up arm. Edge works the arm a little bit, but Benoit is able to put in the Crippler Crossface. Edge gets to the ropes and they battle outside the ring and eventually into the crowd. They head backstage and for some reason there is no countout called for and instead we get the officials breaking them up. After the commercial break, the divas are reading WWE Magazine and in comes Benoit and Edge and the whole gang. Bischoff orders it to be broken up. Bischoff announces that it will be Edge and Benoit at Backlash in a Last Man Standing Match. Not much to the match here especially with the non-finish.
Match Rating: *
Trish Stratus is on her way down to the ring. Trish invites Lita down to the ring to talk. Trish is trying her best to sound sincere, but the fans are chanting "You screwed Matt", so we're apparently in that part of the story now. "We want Matt" chants now are beginning. Trish offers her apologies and asks Lita if she accepts. Lita says she doesn't believe one word coming out of Trish's mouth. Kane's music hits and Lita hits her with her crutch from behind. Kane is about to give Trish a chokeslam and out comes...Viscera. They really wanted to do this at MSG, huh? Viscera hits the big splash and then picks up Trish and carries her to the back. He also definitely copped a feel, so yeah.
After the break, Trish is talking to Viscera and he's a a creep in a segment that would never exist in 2019 (thankfully). Dear God, please help me erase the last 5 minutes of my life.
William Regal & Tajiri vs. The Heart Throbs
Ah yes, the Heart Throb era. Coach says to get used to it. This is a non-title match. They basically are Too Cool meets Night At The Roxbury in the worst way possible. After some vanilla back and forth action, Tajiri gets the hot tag and takes out both of them. Tajiri then does a variation of a roll up and gets the pinfall victory. That was pretty pointless.
Match Rating: 1/4*
After the match, the Heart Throbs attack the champs. Back to back terrible segments have just completely killed the crowd.
JR is talking to Mike Chioda wondering where Batista is. Triple H and Flair are talking and Triple H is confident Batista won't be there tonight. He says that Batista is on the ride of his life on the limo he gave Batista.
Daivari and Muhammad Hassan are backstage and he is going to dispose of Shawn Michaels in his least favorite city in the world. Hassan says that no one can save Shawn Michaels, not even Hulk Hogan.
Muhammad Hassan vs. Shawn Michaels
Shawn is all fired up and immediately attacks Hassan before he even takes off his attire. After they get back into the ring they start slugging it out, as the crowd chants "Hogan". Daivari distracts Michaels and Hassan rams Michaels into the ring apron. Michaels then starts chopping Hassan and then dumps him over the top rope. When we come back from commercial break, Michaels is still chopping away. Hassan is then able to hit a elbow/bulldog type move and then goes back to working on the back. Michaels fits back and hits the elbow drop off the top rope. Michaels starts stomping in the corner, but Daivari interferes, but Michaels takes him out. Hassan plants Michaels face first and Daivari joins in and the bell rings Daivari then hangs Michaels over the top rope and "Real American" hits to a huge pop of course. They double team Hogan, but this obviously doesn't last 30 seconds before he Hulks up and takes them both out. Michaels joins in and he clotheslines them out of the ring. Michaels and Hogan embrace and the crowd is eating it up. This was all about what it was setting up. The match was decent enough.
Match Rating: *3/4
Chris Masters is here and has $1,000 and says there is no one in New York that can break his Master Lock. He picks someone named Roman who says he's tough because he's from New York. He puts him in the Master Lock and obviously he isn't able to break it.
The hits just keep coming, as we now get Simon Dean. As he's talking he is immediately interrupted by Shelton Benjamin's entrance. Now Chris Jericho's entrance music hits and he's here in street clothes. He says that it's officially going to be him vs. Shelton at Backlash. He then brings out his guitarist Rich Ward and starts singing his promo. This was not Jericho's best work.
Simon Dean vs. Shelton Benjamin
Dean attacks Shelton while he's distracted by Jericho. He then slams Shelton's face into the mat with his legs while in the push up position. Shelton tries to make a comeback, but Dean hits a spinning forearm for a 2 count. Shelton hits a huge knee to the face followed by a Stinger splash. Exploder suplex and that's all. This was obviously to put Shelton over and it wasn't bad. Looking forward to re-watching the Backlash match, as I remember really enjoying it.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Christian and Tomko are on their way to the ring. He says he expected a little bit bigger ovation and then Vince's music hits and he's on his way down. This is Vince's first appearance since his injury at the Royal Rumble. Christian is having microphone problems. Vince makes the announcement that there will be a draft in "about a month". That's surprisingly vague. Christian says that he's going to go to SmackDown and take the WWE Championship from John Cena because he's a main eventer. Vince says if he's a main eventer, he will get to main event Raw next week against Batista.
They officially announce Michaels & Hogan against Daivari & Hassan. Triple H is backstage saying that at Backlash he will hit the Pedigree, he will be an 11 time champion. Then JR is shown walking alone backstage.
No Disqualification Match
Triple H vs. Jim Ross
Triple H offers out his hand and JR doesn't want it, so Triple H punches him right in the gut. JR gets in a punch to the face, but Triple knocks him down and just continues to hit him with fists to the face. Mike Chioda tries to stop him, but Triple H shoves him to the corner. I still can't believe that they put this as the final segment for the MSG Raw. JR is busted open and Triple H is punching him with his belt. Triple H is choking him now and Jerry Lawler is on his way to try and stop him. Triple H hits him with the Pedigree and Flair knocks him out of the ring and Triple H goes right back to JR. In the back, Batista arrives driving a limo and is fuming. Batista's music hits and he obviously goes after Triple H. Flair jumps on his back, so Batista knocks him out. He gives Flair a spinebuster, but Triple H then hits him in the back with a chair. Triple H goes for the Pedigree, but Batista counters it with a backdrop and then lays out Triple H with a chair shot to the face. Batista then drags JR on top of Triple H and he gets the victory. Batista tries to pull JR up, but he can't even stand. I get what they were going for, but no thank you on that one.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Woo boy, that show was not good. You take away the Hogan save and there was nothing worthwhile here at all. Add in the fact that this is at the most historic arena in the company's history and you just have to wonder what they were thinking. Raw had been on a real roll as of late, but it ended here at this show.
Overall Rating: 31%
No comments:
Post a Comment