Thursday, July 28th, 2005
Blue Cross Arena
Rochester, New York
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Teddy Long is already in the ring to kick things off. He talks about how amazing Great American Bash was. He apparently must have been watching a different show. He announces that they have new tag team champions and a new #1 contender in the Undertaker. He is about to announce the main event for SummerSlam and then JBL's music hits. He of course complains about what happened last night and says that he doesn't want it to be anything other than one-on-one with Batista. Teddy then pulls out one of his classic lines and says that JBL will be going one-on-one with the Undertaker tonight to decide the #1 contender. Let's see if they can follow up their surprisingly good match on the 6/16 episode of SmackDown with another one.
Christian & Orlando Jordan vs. Booker T & Chris Benoit
This is a classic case of booking that I actually enjoy. Book two feuds together and have a tag team match to further the issues. Benoit tries to go for the Crippler Crossface on Jordan, but Christian makes the save. Jordan has his shoulder taped up as a result of his match with Benoit. After some chops from Benoit, Jordan grabs Benoit's feet as he goes off the ropes. Christian hits a big clothesline and locks Benoit in an Anaconda Vice before tagging Jordan. It's been 15 years and I still can't get over that they couldn't find something better to do with Christian to stop him from leaving. Benoit hits a suplex and then a hot tag to Booker. Booker hits the Book End on Christian, but Jordan pulls him out of the ring. Benoit hits a baseball slide to knock down both men. Back from commercial, Booker hits Christian with a kick under the jaw. Booker hits a spinebuster and then does the spinaroonie. Jordan comes in and illegally hits him with a clothesline as Booker went off the ropes. Christian shows off some aggression and starts unleashing some right hands. Christian's chest has got to be throbbing from this match. Christian ducks under a kick and hits an inverted DDT, but Benoit makes the save. Christian goes off the second rope, but Booker greets him with a huge kick in a nice spot. Benoit gets his chance at a hot tag and unleashes a series of suplexes on both men. Benoit hits the headbutt on Jordan off the top rope and this time Christian makes the save. Christian dumps Booker over the top rope, but then Benoit knocks Christian over. Benoit locks in the Crippler Crossface and Jordan taps. Christian had a chance to break it up, but didn't. That was a textbook tag team match. The crowd was into it and all of the men played their roles well.
Match Rating: ***1/4 (out of 5)
They show Animal with Heidenreich and talks him into buzzing his head.
Road Warrior Animal & Heidenreich vs. Chris Hamrick & Chuck Szili
By the time I found the spelling of the jobbers names, the match was over. Doomsday Device was about all it took. Squash.
Match Rating: 1/4*
They show MNM in the back watching the match. Melina said they got a new publicist and that they will be on the cover of SmackDown Magazine. Melina brings in their "fixer", who is Jillian Hall in her debut here. It is also of course the debut of the thing on her face.
They show Dominik playing PSP in the back and asks his dad about the secret that Uncle Eddie has. Rey says he will tell him when he is older.
Rey and Dominik come down to the ring and in a shocking turn of events, Eddie Guerrero interrupts them. Eddie says that he feels like telling a bedtime story. I love that Eddie went through the trouble to make a book cover. Rey starts coming down to Eddie, but Eddie spits out the truth before he can get there. He tells Dominik that Rey is not his father, he is. Rey goes back in the ring and hugs Dominik, who asks him if it's true. Dominik then runs away through the crowd and Rey goes after him. Eddie comes in the ring and sits down to tell the rest of the story. He says there was a time when he was separated from his wife, so he was partying and hooking up with lots of women. Rey was shooting blanks, so Eddie gave him one of the kids from his hookups. Instead of being the father, he handed him off to Rey and went to being Uncle Eddie.
Melina vs. Torrie Wilson
Jillian is with Melina and Candice Michelle is with Torrie. Tazz and Cole talk repeatedly about the thing on Jillian's face. This was a terrible idea in 2005 and somehow is even worse now. Melina is pretty aggressive here, which is a nice change to women's matches during this era. Melina goes up to the second rope, but Torrie gets her knees up. Torrie hits some clotheslines and a dropkick. Torrie charges at Melina, but gets her in a sloppy looking pin where she wasn't able to get her feet on the ropes. That's good enough for the victory and then Jillian attacks Candice after the match. We are a long way from treating women's wrestling serious here in WWE.
Match Rating: 1/4*
The Mexicools are backstage in a storage room and a concession manager tells them to get back to work. I mean, who wouldn't think a guy in a cowboy hat, sunglasses and no shirt at a wrestling show would be working for them?
William Regal vs. Scotty 2 Hotty
Just as they lock up, the Mexicools make their way down carrying concessions to sell. Psicosis dumps popcorn in Tony Chimel's face. They then attack both Scotty and Regal and dump the concessions all over them. No match there.
World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender Match
JBL vs. Undertaker
The match started during the commercial break, which is always a choice I don't understand on a TAPED SHOW. I know that probably nothing happened, but I'm not sure why you pretend it did. Taker goes after JBL's taped ribs at the start. Taker has now twice scared the ref away when he has told him to break a hold. Taker drapes JBL over the apron and hits him with an elbow and then a leg drop. JBL gets an opening and takes it to Taker in the corner. JBL goes up top, but Taker gets up there and hits a big superplex for a 2 count. Taker hits Snake Eyes and then gives a boot to Jordan off the apron. He turns around and eats a Clothesline From Hell, but rolls out of the ring. Back from the commercial break and JBL body slams Taker on the top piece of the announce table while it was leaning on the table. Back in the ring, Taker hits Old School. Jordan distracts the ref and it allows JBL to hit a low blow. JBL hits a DDT, but Taker kicks out. JBL puts on a Cobra Clutch and it looks as if he has never put that hold on before. Taker ducks under JBL and hits a leaping clothesline. Taker hits Snake Eyes again and this time hits the boot on JBL. We get a ref bump and Jordan runs in with a chair. Taker sees it and hits him with a boot. He goes for the Last Ride, but JBL breaks it up. JBL hits an unprotected Taker square on the head with a chair. Awful. Taker kicks out at 2, sits up and hits a DDT. Chokeslam time and he hits Jordan, who knocks the referee out of the ring. Taker hits the Tombstone, but the referee is still down. In comes Randy Orton and he hits a RKO and drapes JBL over Taker. The ref is back in the ring and JBL is your #1 contender. Orton finally makes his first appearance other than the night he debuted. JBL and Taker deliver another real solid big man match on free TV. I obviously could have done without the chair to the head, but other than that this was a worthy TV main event and certainly better than the main event match at Great American Bash.
Match Rating: ***
The show started and finished strong, which is always a win. The middle was your typical SmackDown, with a lot of filler and the awkward continuation of the Mysterio/Guerrero feud. That one still feels off and unnecessary. However, nearly half the show was good TV wrestling and that's good enough for me.
Overall Rating: 60%
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