In Your House

[Curt McGirt]

First, that Shamrock/Vader match was fucking awesome. I like UWF-i style works-that-look-like-shoots, especially when the workers beat the shit out of each other anyway. Vader finally getting Shamrock to ease up on the striking by hitting him with a clothesline so hard that the arena went "OHHHHHHHH" when they heard the impact was number one and the best. 

 

You should see the no-rope cage match they had in FMW then. Vader powerbombs Shammy so hard he spits up blood. Unfortunately I tried to find it online to no avail. 

[cwoy2j]

 

First, that Shamrock/Vader match was fucking awesome. I like UWF-i style works-that-look-like-shoots, especially when the workers beat the shit out of each other anyway. Vader finally getting Shamrock to ease up on the striking by hitting him with a clothesline so hard that the arena went "OHHHHHHHH" when they heard the impact was number one and the best. 

 

You should see the no-rope cage match they had in FMW then. Vader powerbombs Shammy so hard he spits up blood. Unfortunately I tried to find it online to no avail. 

 

 

Didn't he powerbomb Shamrock into the cage or something like that.

[cwoy2j]

I was thinking the neck injury was 1999. D'oh!

 

Also, fuck Benoit. Just one more reason to hate the dude. 

 

I fail to see how that's a reason to hate Benoit. Benoit is a terrible person for being a murderer but I'd have to think he wasn't just suplexing Austin without his (Austin's) consent.

[MORELOCK]

Benoit popularized the stupid repeated German suplex spot in North America, contributing to the destroyed necks of a generation of wrestlers, so I'd say it's a good reason.

[AxB]

Gary Albright started it though. And I'd blame Angle as much, for stealing the spot and making it an 'anyone can do this' move, rather than it being a signature move for one guy and one guy only.

 

If they'd made doing one German Suplex a legit finisher, and the Rolling Germans into the WWE equivalent of the Tiger Driver 91 EmergencyKillKillDeathMove, that would have been better. But they didn't, and it's too late now.

[jojomellon]

 

 

Austin's also hyper-competitive, though. He may not be Foley-level nuts, but he'll damn sure not want to be shown up by him.

 

 

I guess so. They put on a helluva match, and even the outsiders were used well. (not always the case in Attitude Era, as we well know)

 

It just stood out for me. A year later, or whenever the piledriver injury happened, I suspect he started changing his tune. I haven't made a focused study, but I suspect post 2000 Austin took a lot fewer risks. 

 

 

The piledriver injury was SummerSlam 97. That's largely why Austin switched to the punch-kick offense of the Attitude Era. 

 

2001 Austin took 10 German suplexes from Chris Benoit, the risk involved there far exceeds anything he did before 2000.

 

I dont know, Benoit's Germans in WWE were pretty safe and were pretty much glorified back bumps.

[jojomellon]

 

First, that Shamrock/Vader match was fucking awesome. I like UWF-i style works-that-look-like-shoots, especially when the workers beat the shit out of each other anyway. Vader finally getting Shamrock to ease up on the striking by hitting him with a clothesline so hard that the arena went "OHHHHHHHH" when they heard the impact was number one and the best. 

 

You should see the no-rope cage match they had in FMW then. Vader powerbombs Shammy so hard he spits up blood. Unfortunately I tried to find it online to no avail. 

 

Ah that was just Shamrock's go to spot.  He 'bled internally' in damn near every big match he ever had. He must have loved biting down on those condoms filled with red corn syrup.

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

Yeah, critizing Benoi's super safe WWE germans...look at Lesnar and his DANGEROUS~! version.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

Let's not talk about wrestlers starting or perpetuating trends that possibly contributed to the ill-health of piers and future generations alike. Instead, let's pay tribute to ECW!

 

ECW One Night Stand.

 

Yeah, I consider this a WWE pay-per-view.

 

Chris Jericho Vs Lance Storm: I remember this as being a super-fun opening match. It isn't really. A lot of the early exchanges seem very choreographed, even for a Storm match. I mean, Storm probably had some ring rust, so maybe that contributed to the lack of slickness, but it was kinda halting and too measured. Really a low-end workrate-type match, with a run-in from Justin Credible and Jason to pop the crowd. Nice of Jericho to do a job when he was gearing up for a main event push on Raw. I guess this show is non-canon, although rather awkwardly so at times. Dawn Marie is with Storm, by the way, and seems really happy to be reprising that partnership, which felt nice and genuine.

 

Super Crazy Vs Little Guido Vs Yoshihiro Tajiri: Lots of bodies around ringside. A full FBI contingent, and the Sinister Minister and Mikey Whipwreck with Tajiri. These were my favourite matches in the original ECW. This is really short though, and the only real highlight is Crazy doing a moonsault off the balcony. Bit of a let down really.

 

Rey Misterio Jr Vs Psicosis: Another very short match, that doesn't come close to replicating what they achieved in the past. Maybe I'm expecting too much. Rey looks great as always, Psicosis has a bit of the Lance Storm thing going on. Don't know how regularly he was working at this point, but he looks off a step. Fans are not appreciative of the 619 from Rey.

 

Sabu Vs Rhyno: This is an impromptu match after Rhyno (sorry, Rhino) crashes an RVD shoot promo about how missing this event (he has a knee injury) is worse than missing WrestleMania, and how it feels good to be able to talk again and show some personality. Fans eat this up, of course. Another short match.

 

Chris Benoit Vs Eddie Guerrero: So, Eddie is really the only guy on the show who isn't 'playing' his ECW character. I mean, it's awkward because he just did the heel turn and is playing this psycho character, so it would have been jarring to see him in the USA tights doing exhibition-y stuff. Maybe they should have just left him off the card, in that case? This is easily the best match so far, anyway. They get to go more than 10 mins, and take some time to actually build up to stuff, rather than just trying to cram in a few highlight reel spots. Really solid match. 

 

Masato Tanaka Vs Mike Awesome: This was fucking terrible by any sane person's standards of good wrestling, but they actually came closer to replicating the original spirit of ECW than anyone before them. Joey Styles gets some things off his chest about Awesome (including the famous suicide dive line), and we get lots of shots of the WWE crusaders (JBL in particular) basically making fun of the match. They go pretty much straight into spots, and it's powerbombs through tables, unprotected chair shots to the head and the like until the finish. Genuinely crazy car crash spectacle of a match that the fans eat up.

 

Next Paul Heyman comes out to cut a shoot promo of his own (bringing up the Matt Hardy/Edge situation, telling JBL he was only champ because Triple H didn't want to work Tuesdays). I ate this up at the time, but now it feels a bit ho-hum. Heyman feels like a messiah to these people though. Came across very heartfelt.

 

Tommy Dreamer and the Sandman Vs The Dudley Boyz: This is a proper ECW gore-fest, with tonnes of run-ins (the bWo! Spike! Kid Kash!, Balls! Axl! Francine! Beulah!), a cheese-grater, a flaming table, etc. Dreamer eats the fire and the pinfall. Pretty entertaining main event, all things considered.

 

After the match Austin came out, called out all the ECW guys and then challenged the crusaders to get into the ring for a fight. Then Taz's music hit- he still came off like a badass even after putting on weight and being a goofy self-deprecating commentator. So, the fight happened, some stuff went down between Bradshaw and the Blue Meanie, and the WWE guys scarpered. Then Bischoff got a whooping and the show ended with all the ECW guys drinking beer.

 

MOTN: Eddie/Benoit at 3 stars.

 

Show rating: I was really looking forward to this, having been a BIG fan of it at the time. I think it's just one of those things that looked great in real time (a genuinely different feel to the staid WWE production, ECW tributes being something novel at that point, appearances by guys we hadn't seen in a long time), but coming at it 10 years later it's kinda meh. Maybe it's just me and other people still really love this ppv. I will say it's really cool that WWE put this on, and for the most part it felt like a very fitting tribute to the company. There were a couple of things that didn't jive quite right. Mick Foley being on commentary is one. I'm sure he loves ECW and wanted to be involved, but the Foley of 2005 is very different from the Cactus Jack of the Cane Dewey days, and he's so firmly entrenched as a WWE guy by this point that his voice didn't really fit. Same with Austin to a lesser extent. He's a WWE guy, and him being the ring-leader at the end didn't feel quite right. I'd still give the show 3 stars because they got a lot of stuff pretty spot on.

[cwoy2j]

ONS was like the first Souled Out and Taboo Tuesday in my opinion. Not a lot of great wrestling by any stretch and some stuff they tried didn't work. However, it was so different than the product at the time that it entertained me. Not something you'd want to see every month but a nice break from the norm. I kind of wish they'd do something like that now.

 

And come on man, you no sold Sandman's epic entrance I always loved the one fan grabbing Sandman's cane and smacking himself in the face with it a few times. I need to go back and count how many beers Sandman finished during his entrance b/c it felt like a lot. Also, Sandman and Dreamer motorboating Elektra and Lori Fullington.

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

What was the problem between Eddie and Benoit there? They seemed to have some kind of personal problem and it made for an awkward match.

 

And like ECW as a whole, the PPV didn't age very well at all.

[TerjeRUN]

If they'd made doing one German Suplex a legit finisher, and the Rolling Germans into the WWE equivalent of the Tiger Driver 91 EmergencyKillKillDeathMove, that would have been better. But they didn't, and it's too late now.

To be fair Ax, I don't think it's ever too late to get a move over with old and new fans alike, given a little foresight and planning, which may be the bigger issue. It's basically Paul Heyman's bear hug theory on the Austin network podcast. 

[RandomAct]

What was the problem between Eddie and Benoit there? They seemed to have some kind of personal problem and it made for an awkward match.

 

And like ECW as a whole, the PPV didn't age very well at all.

I recall many folks around here at the time accusing Eddie of sandbagging that match.  It half seemed like he was working his character, and half like he just didn't want to be there. 

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Vengeance 2005/

 

Carlito Vs Shelton Benjamin: Carlito is the IC champ. Fans are pretty pro-Carlito here, which doesn't surprise me as he had genuine charisma, whereas Benjamin really didn't (and was never really given a character other than 'great wrestler'). I think moving to Raw was really the death knell for Carlito though, even though it came so early for him. I just couldn't buy him advancing up the card on that show, whereas the possibilities seemed endless on Smackdown. True for a lot of people really. These guys work really hard here, and it helps that they have the story going in of Benjamin suffering an injury in their match on Raw. Nothing you would remember a week later, but pretty enjoyable while it lasts.

 

Victoria Vs Christy Hemme: I remember Victoria getting cheered during her heel turn when she went crazy during a bikini contest and laying all the other divas out. Christy was really fucking terrible in pretty much every way. I give Victoria credit here for working around Christy, and this is about as good as she's looked to me thus far. She has to cheat to beat the barely trained rookie.

 

Edge Vs Kane: So Edge now has Lita by his side, which was really the icing on the cake of his heel persona. They were such a good partnership, actually one of my favourite male/female combos ever, and the heat they got was pretty incredible for the time frame. I mean, wrestling fans seemed personally offended that they had done the dirty on Matt Hardy, and Edge and Lita really used that heat to great effect. This match was actually a lot of fun. Kane is at his best when he's booked as an unstoppable monster, and he dominates most of this match before winning.

 

Shawn Michaels Vs Kurt Angle: I went into this expecting to hate it, but I didn't really. In fact, it's mostly pretty forgettable. Angle looks good on offence, and I'd say solidly outperforms Shawn here. There's a lot of lying around to let it sink in just how epic it all is, but it doesn't get as overblown as I feared it might. Shawn wins to even up the series, after Kurt jumps off the top rope into a superkick, for no discernible reason.

 

Shitty segment with Lillian Garcia proposing to Viscera (and singing a terrible song). I was hoping it might get broken up by Chris Masters, but it was the Godfather instead. Vis ditched Lillian to go with the hos.

 

John Cena Vs Christian Vs Chris Jericho: Still think it's bullshit that this wasn't Cena/Christian one-on-one, which was the match that had been built to, and I think people really wanted to see. As bad as most triple threats, unfortunately, won by Cena with an FU on Christian. The Cena backlash is underway.

 

Triple H Vs Batista: Hell in a Cell, and the blow-off to this feud. I remembered this feud as Triple H doing a stellar job of making Batista a main eventer, but this rewatch paints a slightly different picture, in which the two are pretty much presented as equals, with Batista's second win in the series being extremely tainted. Even the finish to this match sees Hunter grab the sledgehammer as Batista lifts him for the Batista Bomb, but he just can't quite get his shot in quick enough. So, Batista was lucky to win really. Batista does get to kick out of Pedigree though, so there is that. This is a pretty boring match. I get the feeling this is genuinely well-liked, but I didn't really get into it, although it has it's moments. Lots of blood. I hate Hunter's blood face. Weird how buddy-buddy Coach and King are on commentary, throughout this whole show actually. I bet Batista has a better match with JBL. We'll see.

 

MOTN: Edge/Kane for me, at 3 stars.

Show rating: I guess if you like Angle/Shawn and the main event (which most people likely do), you'd see this as a good card. I'm pretty agnostic on those matches, but would go about 2 and a half for the show.

[Brian Fowler]

I remember Triple H/Batista III being really good, but it's been years.

I'm STILL mad they slapped Jericho into that match. Christian was ready to breakout if they would have put a little effort into it.

[cwoy2j]

I really liked the HHH/Batista cell match. I loved Batista blocking HHH's fistdrop with the sledgehammer.

[cwoy2j]

 

Shawn Michaels Vs Kurt Angle: I went into this expecting to hate it, but I didn't really. In fact, it's mostly pretty forgettable. Angle looks good on offence, and I'd say solidly outperforms Shawn here. There's a lot of lying around to let it sink in just how epic it all is, but it doesn't get as overblown as I feared it might. Shawn wins to even up the series, after Kurt jumps off the top rope into a superkick, for no discernible reason.

 

The announcers did say that Angle was knocked loopy and made a bad decision to go to the top rope. One of the few times where they actually did a good job of explaining in-ring psychology.

[cwoy2j]

I remember Triple H/Batista III being really good, but it's been years.

I'm STILL mad they slapped Jericho into that match. Christian was ready to breakout if they would have put a little effort into it.

 

Christian definitely felt like he was on the verge of being a big star at that point. I had two casual fans as roommates that year and Christian was the guy they made an effort to watch when I was watching RAW or a ppv. Like they'd tell me to come get them when I thought Christian was gonna do a promo or something.

[Brian Fowler]

Him and Eddy were my two favorite guys in the would at that point, and Christian was so over, so charismatic, so good in the ring... So they had HBK destroy him on RAW, wouldn't give him the one on one with Cena, and then didn't even use Jericho to protect him in the match. I don't even blame him for fucking off to TNA for awhile.

[cwoy2j]

Him and Eddy were my two favorite guys in the would at that point, and Christian was so over, so charismatic, so good in the ring... So they had HBK destroy him on RAW, wouldn't give him the one on one with Cena, and then didn't even use Jericho to protect him in the match. I don't even blame him for fucking off to TNA for awhile.

 

That was the first time I felt like WWE was cutting off their nose to spite their face. They had a guy that the fans were ready to accept as a top guy and they cut his nuts off. I mean, nobody is saying Christian was going to usher in another boom period or anything like that, but fans liked the guy a lot and he would've been a great main event foil for Cena for a while and they could've gotten some good main events out of that matchup.

[twiztor]

that has always been something that irked me as well.

 

at worst, Christian is a good hand in the ring, a solid promo, and would inject some fresh blood into the main event scene.

[MORELOCK]

Going to go ahead and disagree here. Not every good hand with charisma belongs in the main event. They definitely cut him off at the knees and should have pulled the trigger on the Cena match/feud, but I never saw anything in Christian that made me think "This is a sure-fire main event guy they're fucking up here." I don't think he'd even make the top 20 WWE misfires. 

[DreamBroken]

I love Christian's TNA run and felt he proved himself as a viable top guy during that run, both as a face and heel. Would've been interesting to see how things played out if he got that push while in WWE instead. When he did eventually come back, he was always one of the best in-ring guys on the roster still.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

They should have rolled the dice, for sure. It's interesting going back and seeing different guys getting really hot, and kinda wondering what could have been. Booker was another one a couple of years before this who looked all ready to move up to the next level. Not everyone's going to make it, of course, and I don't support just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks, but you can see the guys who have a real shot and those that are just flash-in-the-pan types.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Great American Bash 2005.

 

Heidenreich and Animal Vs MNM: Tag team titles. Animal has dedicated this match to Hawk. Not a very good match, but the fans are into it. Lots of LOD chants, and even some Heidenreich chants. The babyfaces are pretty limited, and MNM don't do anything particularly interesting to spice things up. LOD win the titles with the Doomsday Device to a big pop.

 

Booker T Vs Christian: So Christian is on Smackdown now, sans Tomko, but is still looking like a possible breakout star. Crowd are still into him too. This is decent, but kinda worked like a tv match that you'd forget about once it's done. They work hard though, and do manage to elevate proceedings to that next level. Sharmell plays a hand too. Did I already say how good Sharmell is as Booker's second?

 

Orlando Jordan Vs Chris Benoit: Damn, Jordan is still the US champ. This reign lasted must longer than I remember. This is probably the best match of Jordan's career too. Nothing amazing, but Benoit did have a way of making his opponents up their game, work harder and hit harder. Finish was a bit too contrived, with Benoit going headfirst into an exposed turnbuckle to give Jordan the win. Weird how they went from this competitive match to Benoit just clowning Jordan 2 or 3 times in a matter of seconds. Not sure what made them abandon the OJ push at that particular point after going so far with it, and he was pretty much presented as a joke thereafter.

 

The Undertaker Vs Muhammad Hassan: Wow, the controversial Hassan terrorist angle was way more offensive than I remembered it. The worst part is Daivari basically being treated like a suicide bomber, 'sacrificing himself' to the Undertaker so that Hassan can gain an edge. That's the point where the masked men come out, 'the sympathisers' as Cole calls them (not terrorists, sympathisers), and the one chokes Taker out with piano wire. Anyway, this is a number one contenders match, and is basically Hassan being jobbed out of the company. Taker destroys the sympathisers, Daivari, and then Hassan, powerbombing the latter through the stage. About as close to a character actually being killed off as you'll see in wrestling.

 

The Mexi-Cools Vs The bWo: Pure filler. I was excited about the Mexi-Cools at the time, but in hindsight it was foolish to think they'd ever be treated seriously.

 

Rey Mysterio Vs Eddie Guerrero: Dominick is at ringside. He was great during this angle. I know I said this feud would have been better without bringing Dominick into it, but the video package for this match, with Eddie's bedtime story, and basically holding this secret over Rey, is awesome. So if Eddie wins he gets to finish the bedtime story. Cole tries to explain why some fans are cheering Eddie. Taz- "we're in Buffalo, right? Well, those guys are Canadians. That's all they are". Okay then. This is quality, but damn, I wanted it to be better. Didn't quite live up to the hype, and I thought their last match was better. Eddie brought it for this, and Rey sold well of course, but he just didn't have the nastiness or violence in his offence that I wanted. Kind of a bullshit no-sell of a brainbuster and frog splash to roll Eddie up for the pin too. That surprised me though, as I thought Eddie won this one. Rey and Dominick celebrating together was really sweet. I wish I had more of this angle to come, but the blow-off was at Summerslam, so that's that for me.

 

Melina Vs Torrie Wilson: Bra and panties match, with Candice as guest ref. A nonsense, won by Melina, but with Torrie and Candice stripping her off afterwards anyway (and then Candice taking her keks off, just because).

 

Batista Vs JBL: Well, I was wrong. This is as boring as the Batista/Trips series, if not moreso. Batista is kinda bad at this point it seems. Shitty finish too. They kinda botch a ref bump, that has Nick Patrick practically paralysed for about 5 minutes. It's funny. In that Cena/Jericho/Christian triple threat Earl Hebner accidentally got bumped off a baseball slide and went back-first into the announce table. It looked painful, and clearly bothered him for the rest of the match, but as it wasn't a planned bump he just gutted it out and carried on. Other times you breathe on a ref in the same time zone and they act like they've been shot. Anyway, Patrick ends up dq'ing Batista for using a chair, which is a finish they used way to much in ppv main events during this time period.

 

Match of the night: Despite my reservations, Eddie/Rey was a fine match. Probably around 3.5. Christian and Booker make it to 3 stars.

 

Show rating: A mostly enjoyable show, with 2 or 3 good to great matches, and some other notable stuff going down too. 3 stars.