Original Airdate: Thursday, April 14th, 2005
Allstate Arena
Rosemont, Illinois
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Orlando Jordan vs. Booker T
JBL is your guest commentator. Jordan attacks Booker from behind to kick things off. JBL is making loud noises. Booker fights back and hits a kick. As soon as that happens, the Bashams run in the ring and we have ourselves a DQ finish. In comes Big Show to a pretty big pop. Here comes Teddy Long, playa. He says the match isn't over, it's now a handicap match.
Orlando Jordan & The Basham Brothers vs. Booker T & Big Show
Big Show is a house on fire until he goes to chokeslam OJ and the Bashams interfere. Booker comes in there and takes care of them while JBL tells us the Bashams might become one of the best tag teams ever. I still feel like it's too early to put them up there, but maybe soon. Spinarooni by Booker and a scissors kick on one of the Bashams and he gets the victory. That was a much bigger squash than one would think. That was probably not a bad choice to open the show in front of a hot crowd. It just wasn't much of a match.
Match Rating: 1/2* (out of 5)
After the match, JBL pushes the Bashams around and yells at them.
Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie
This should have been the main event. Dawn attacks Torrie and slams her face into the mat. She hits a slingshot, which I have to say I didn't expect to see here. They go round and round with pin reversals, but no one pulls off the 3 count. Dawn hits a X Factor, but still can't get the victory. Torrie tries a schoolgirl, but only gets a 2 count. Kick to the stomach followed by a reverse neckbreaker by Torrie and that's all it took. The match was much more competent than you would expect here. The finish came out of nowhere, but their effort showed here.
Match Rating: 1/2*
We now get the debut of Carlito's Cabana. I didn't even realize that they still were announcing him as Carlito Caribbean Cool. His first guest here is Rey Mysterio and calls him a lovable loser, just like the Cubs. They show clips from last week's match against JBL. Rey says that he is mad at Eddie and hasn't talked to him since last week. However, he says that Eddie is family. Then out of nowhere, we get the debut of MNM. They had no vignettes, so no one knows who they are. Melina grabs the mic from Carlito and introduces to them. She wants to challenge Rey and Eddie for the tag team championships. Rey then insults Melina's breath, which is kind of random for him. MNM attacks him and Rey does his best, but he's not able to fend them off. Carlito sits back in his chair and watches while the crowd is chanting "Eddie". MNM hits the Snapshot and they are out of here.
JBL is backstage yelling at the Bashams and Orlando. He tells them they will be cut loose if they don't get their act together. As JBL walks away, JBL walks into a delivery guy carrying a package for John Cena. He pays him to take the box and says that it is Cena's new championship belt. JBL tells his Cabinet that he is going to do this by himself.
Rey is back on a medical table and Eddie is in here and is furious. Rey yells at him and tells him to leave him alone. Eddie then gives an Oscar-worthy performance as to why he couldn't help what he did last week and that he will make it up to him. He said he's going to beat Kurt Angle and win the WWE Championship and dedicate it to Rey.
The champ is here. In just a little under a year from this episode, he would be main eventing this same building against Triple H. Cena makes the announcement that Chicago will be hosting WrestleMania. That was the last WrestleMania to not be held in a stadium and the first one that I attempted to get tickets to. Unfortunately, I failed but I got to go to the next 3, so I'd say it worked out okay for me. He tells JBL that he needs that box and tells him to come out now. After a little delay, JBL makes his way out to the ring and has two people bring out the box and a trash can. JBL unveils that he is wearing the old WWE Championship belt around his waist. After he yells some more, he opens the box and decides not to look at it before he grabs it and it's slimy meat that Cena says is "guts" since JBL doesn't have any. Cena then comes down and dumps it on him. Is there really any doubt as to whom will be Cena's opponent at Judgment Day? Hanging from the ceiling is the new WWE Championship belt. There it is folks, the debut of the spinner WWE Championship belt that lasted a long time.
Heidenreich vs. Mystery Jobber
They don't announce his opponent, but he gets a few right hands in before eating a big boot from Heidenreich. He keeps asking if they are friends. He hits a sideslam and gets the victory. This would have fit in well on the 1992 Superstars episodes I've been watching.
Match Rating: 1/4*
After the match, Heidenreich drags the jobber in the corner and tells him to stay. He then reads his poem and tells everyone there that he wishes they were his friends. His poem is about farting. This is the beginning of his face turn. This has Vince McMahon all over it. Great stuff...
Booker T is back with Sharmell, who is taking a photo shoot. Kurt Angle comes in and insults Booker and says that he will be the next WWE Champion. Sharmell reminds him that Eddie beat him at WrestleMania 20.
Paul London is on his way down to the ring, as they show clips of his match last week where he was busted open. He talks about the 18 staples he got after the match and that doctors aren't allowing him to wrestle tonight. But he's not here to wrestle, he's here to fight and calls out Chavo Guerrero. Chavo is out and reminds London that he never lost to him and that he wants the Cruiserweight title back. Chavo is talking really slow for some reason here. He tells London that as soon as he is medically clear, he is going to take it back. Chavo says he would never fight another man, so Kidman comes from behind and attacks London. It doesn't work and then London knocks Chavo out of the ring as well. London hits the 450 splash on Kidman.
#1 Contender Tournament First Round
Kurt Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero
There shouldn't be a wrestling fan alive that wouldn't want to see these two in the ring. Seesaw start, as one would expect between these two. Eddie begins working on the arm and then switches and hits the Three Amigos. He goes for the Frog Splash, but Angle moves and Eddie rolls through. When we come back from the commercial break, Kurt is working on Eddie. Eddie fights back with a hurricanrana. Eddie brings in a chair and he and Kurt play hot potato with it before the ref sees it. Eddie lies down and the ref sees the chair on the ground, but it doesn't work. Eddie tries to schoolboy Angle and gets a 2. Angle hits a few German suplexes, but Eddie is still able to kick out. Angle goes for the Angle Slam from the second rope, but Eddie pushes him off and goes for the Frog Splash, but Angle gets his knees up. We come back from the final commercial break and Angle is continuing to attempt pinfalls. Eddie counters an Angle Slam into a nice DDT and both men are down. Back on their feet and slugging it out and Eddie gets the best of Angle. Eddie goes for Three Amigos again, he hits two and then Angle hits the Angle Slam for a 2 count. Angle hits the three German suplexes and Eddie still kicks out. Angle Slam attempt again and Eddie counters with an arm drag. Eddie hits Three Amigos again. Eddie is up top and hits the Frog Splash, but Angle kicks out. Angle gets the Ankle Lock, but Eddie rolls through. Ankle Lock is on again and after a couple attempts, he kicks out. Rey runs in with a chair and clears out Angle and then Eddie is begging Rey not to hit him with the chair. Rey didn't look like he was going to, but Eddie seems to think he was. Angle hits Mysterio from behind and pushes him and the chair into Eddie and steals the victory. That wasn't as good as their WrestleMania and SummerSlam matches, but still darn good. The commercial breaks hurt this one a little, but everything after the last commercial was golden.
Match Rating: ***3/4
Well this episode was pretty much a one match show that also featured the debut of MNM, who became staples of the tag division for the remainder of the year. Unfortunately, there were no other good tag teams during this time. I'm not going to complain about a show that had a really good 20 minute match as the main event, but the rest of the show was a little uninspired to put it nicely. Watch the main event, skip the rest.
Overall Rating: 52%
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