Monday, April 25th, 2005
NEC Arena
Birmingham, England
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Batista is out to a big pop. I don't remember the Titan Tron being smaller when they were in the UK. He brings out JR, who is wearing bandages across his forehead and a black eye. Triple H obviously interrupts and is in a sour mood. Batista keeps showing the clip of JR beating Triple H last week on Raw. Triple H takes off his shirt and begins to walk to the ring, but then heads back towards the ramp and lets him know he'll see him at Backlash.
JR is back in the announcers booth now and Coach is out. They show clips of last week with Viscera and Trish Stratus. They then cut to Trish at a restaurant who is trying to get out of the date until he shows up. He talks about how he had to run to the drug store to pick up some protection. God, I am so glad they don't do crap like this anymore.
Chris Jericho vs. Sylvain Grenier
Jericho is gearing up for his Intercontinental Championship match against Shelton Benjamin Sunday. Grenier actually gets a suplex in and then a headlock. We are not even a minute into the match and he's digging deep into his move set. Jericho escapes and Grenier appears to not be on the same page. Jericho hits his running bulldog. Jericho hits a step up enzuigiri, but Rob Conway distracts the ref. Jericho takes care of him and gets Grenier in the Walls of Jericho for the easy victory. After the match, Conway and Grenier attack him and out comes Shelton to make the save. Shelton then hits the exploder on Jericho and taunts him. Not much of a match, but the end was a nice little twist on a story that didn't have much meat on the bone.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Back to Trish and Viscera. Fat jokes and sexual innuendo of the worst possible kind are on display tonight.
Christian and Tomko are backstage getting ready for their main event spot tonight. In walks Ric Flair and he wants them to beat down Batista. Christian and Flair get into it and Christian has Tomko escort him out.
They show a clip of people waiting in freezing cold temps for tickets for Backlash.
Christian and Tomko are now on their way to the ring. Christian is pretty over with the UK crowd. He then insults the crowd and talks about how he's going to get drafted to SmackDown and beat the Ali G ripoff John Cena. Here comes Kane and he takes out Tomko while Christian escapes through the crowd.
Lita is backstage with Maria and says that Kane will destroy Viscera at Backlash. All of this kind of just feels like them killing time.
After the commercial, Christian is knocking on Evolution's door. Flair answers and Christian apologizes for earlier. Triple H is out now and tells Christian to come inside to talk business. Christian was great here as the cocky, yet cowardly heel.
Chris Masters is here for another Master Lock Challenge. He picks a pretty good sized member of the live crowd and he quickly submits.
Shawn Michaels is here and Hulk Hogan is here, but so is Mean Gene! We get a retro promo that ends with Hogan ripping his shirt and HBK trying to.
Christy Hemme, Stacy Kiebler, Maria and Candice Michelle are here. Christy gets on the mic and introduces the Daily Star Girls. Stacy announces that William Regal put this together and that he has a new book coming out. They then introduce Regal and Tajiri. They all start dancing and they are interrupted by Muhammad Hassan and Daivari and we get the usual bit. They're going to have a match right now.
William Regal & Tajiri vs. Muhammad Hassan & Daivari
We return from commercial with the match already underway. Regal is obviously over huge here and the crowd is eating everything up that he does. With no disrespect to Regal and Tajiri, but having them look competitive here isn't exactly making me buy that Hassan and Daivari have even a small shot of winning at Backlash. Tajiri starts to make a comeback, but Daivari hits Tajiri from behind when running the ropes and the heels are able to turn that into a victory after a Daivari top rope leg drop. JR even says that he is shocked that they won here and that it would be the biggest tag team upset in history if they beat Hogan and Michaels. After the match, Regal attacks them and the heels take care of him and put him in the Camel Clutch. The match was standard TV match stuff.
Match Rating: *1/2
Oh good, we're back to dinner with Viscera and Trish. This has been a long dinner. Trish suggests that she knocks Christy Hemme out and he can do whatever with her. Viscera wants to dance and he knocks over the staff and asks for the check.
Edge vs. Val Venis
I love that Edge is going to hang onto the Money In The Bank briefcase for another 8 months. Here is a reminder that Val Venis still was employed by WWE in 2005. Edge attacks Val as he's entering the ring. Venis actually gets a little offense in and even tries to go for the Money Shot. Edge gets his knees up. He goes for a spear, but Venis gets his knees up. For some reason that didn't really stun him much and he goes for the spear again and hits it for the victory. This is like a 1999 Raw in the worst way possible. Stupid skits like Viscera & Trish and matches that are meaningless. After the match, Edge hits Edgecution and a Crippler Crossface, which brings out Benoit. Benoit hits 3 German suplexes and Edge retreats.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Triple H tells Coach that he will be the guest referee for the Christian/Batista match with Ric Flair as the guest timekeeper and Triple H will be in the corner of Christian.
Back to more rape jokes with Viscera and Trish. Trish tells hi to take care of Kane and she'll take care of him. Viscera wants an advance, but Trish flashes Viscera instead.
We are getting another Raw Diva Search.
Christian vs. Batista
Triple H distracts Batista, which allows Christian to attack from behind, but Batista still throws him out of the ring instead. Christian goes up top, but Batista catches him and throws him into the turnbuckle. Christian kicks Batista in the face, but still ends up eating a powerslam. He goes for the pin, but of course we don't get one from Coach. Triple H then runs in and gives Batista a low blow. Christian is still super over here with the live crowd. They show that during the commercial break (of a taped show) that Triple H threw Batista into the steel steps. Batista takes a boot to the face and then a dropkick off the second rope for a 2 count. Batista is back in control and even Jerry Lawler is admitting how many people are cheering for Christian here tonight. Christian goes for the Unprettier, but Batista counters with an electric chair. He gets a 2 count and then Coach is unable to count anymore. Batista then takes out everyone and then gives the thumbs down and hits the Batista Bomb. He then takes Coach's arm and counts 3 and that's good enough for the victory. Triple H immediately attacks Batista. Flair comes in and he takes him out too. Batista grabs a chair, but Triple H blocks it and hits the Pedigree. Christian was super over here, but there isn't much more of a way for him to not look like a main eventer than having every advantage there is and still losing fairly easily. Vince's dislike for Christian as a main event player was always frustrating.
Match Rating: **
Well, outside of Christian's performance throughout the night this show was a major dud. There was hardly any wrestling and what we got wasn't very good. The Trish and Viscera stuff was flat out horrible and pretty much everything outside of the main event angle and Hogan/HBK stuff was bad. Skip this one.
Overall Rating: 38%
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