iB's Diatribe on WWE Bad Blood 2004

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

iB's Diatribe on WWE Bad Blood 2004

 

14/06/04

By iB ([email protected])

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After a pretty slow week, Bad Blood has finally decided to roll around. I was pretty psyched heading into the show with the promising card that we were given, so how did it fare?

 

We'll see.

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These dramatic pre-PPV video packes actually seem in place when we have what could be a half-decent show to look forward to. As usual though, the voice-over and the video itself worked together well, and, as usual still, finding some way to use the PPV's name at the end of the speech.

 

5/10

 

This is WWE Bad Blood - 14/06/04 here LIVE on PPV, and the 13/06/04, LIVE from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH - Your announcers Jim "J.R." Ross, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Carlos Cabrera and Hugo Savinovich

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World Tag Team Championship contest scheduled for one fall: La Resistance (Champions) VS Chris Benoit & Edge

 

Another solid tag team match from the Raw side.

 

And in saying that, this was another formulaic Raw tag team match. The two guys in first from their respective team feel eachother out a bit with some nice fast-paced action.

 

Benoit and Edge shared ring-time well, as was the quality of La Resistance targeting a certain body part.

 

As expected, things got pretty off the hook towards the end there. Everyone was waiting for the Crossface to be tapped-out too, when all of a sudden Kane appears. I figured there had to be some pre-match build, and this was it.

 

La Resistance are still the Champions, more hype going into Kane/Benoit, and this match is on first to let Benoit recover. I'm happy.

 

4/10

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Eugene's first PPV promo fucking ever

 

I liked how hyped-up the Coach was, because when that happens, as well as the crowd, well, fucking hating him, you know you're in for a fun night with Eugene more than likely pulling out the win.

 

Still, Nick Dinsmore gives us Eugene tremendously; sweet, innocent and adored by the fans. And Eric Bischoff... well, wonderful as usual.

 

5/10

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Scheduled for one fall: Chris Jericho VS Tyson Tomko w/ Trish Stratus

 

A decent match, but that's about all that can be said.

 

I will, though, credit Tomko. While this was no masterpiece, he managed to work well with Jericho as well as not botch anything of his own.

 

Jericho is always entertaining, so he made the match most of what it was, while Tomko is still honeing his style.

 

Speaking of which, Jericho can carry pretty much any hoss to a half-decent match, and this was no exception, which actually isn't calling Tomko a hoss. The heel just worked well with everything and we had ourselves a nice clean ending and the Running Enzuigiri as a finisher is tremendous.

 

3/10

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The IC Champ pre-match

 

What a promo. Nothing deep and dark like Mick Foley, quite to the contrary. Very impressed.

 

There was no cliched "I'm gonna kick his ass" shit here. No, Randy was on PPV and wanted everything in the world to know it. He went most-out backstage but all-out when he came out into the crowd.

 

This really got the heat on him, but moreso Shelton Benjamin. It's much easier to pop for a face when there's an asshole of a heel opposing him.

 

And in that opposition they were very natural and serious, so much so that they wanted their match on early. So did the referee and timeskeeper too, by the look of it.

 

6/10

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Intercontinental Championship contest scheduled for one fall: Randy Orton (Champion) VS Randy Orton

 

The match wasn't bad, but didn't live up to their recent Raw match.

 

Pretty much the same pace right through - both guys have excellent workrates and busted ass in this one, but, and I blame this on Orton, there was just too much move, break, move, break. The psychology was there for sure, but the match just doesn't flow too well in the wrestling aspect when there's not some good chain wrestling, which Benjamin would have had no problems with.

 

I did enjoy it though. Flair coming down to ringside was good, if even for the "Wooo!" heel-loving Ohio crowd. The two started to pick the pace up heading for home, and that would've been the most entertaining part of the match.

 

As for the ending... Well, I appreciate that they're trying get Shelton Benjamin over the way they are, and I loved Orton's post-match attitude, but Orton is being shoved down our throats aswell, so how is him having to cheat to keep his title making him look like a worthy Champion?

 

This isn't blown-off, and while this match wasn't what it could have been, I look forward to seeing what's next in store for them.

 

3.5/10

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Fatal 4-Way for the WWE Womens Championship: Victoria (Champion) VS Trish Stratus VS Gail Kim VS Lita

 

Maybe I was a bit too hard on Lita in Raw VS SmackDown!. She's not that ugly.

 

Seeing as this was Trish's first Championship match since her heel bitch turn, it was interesting to see. Instead of the usual face maneuvres and ganging up on the heels, she was taking it to Lita and Victoria, so that was a nice change.

 

Pretty fast-paced, as womens matches tend to be. Full of spots, but fast-paced nonethless. I'll give them their props on not fucking up every spot attempted.

 

Nothing spectacular, probably what you'd expect from a match of this type on Raw.

 

Trish's win was a big surprise... I figured her inclusion was just filler. But meh, Gail Kim, Trish, both are heel bitches that blow spots.

 

2/10

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Video package: 3/10

 

Scheduled for one fall: Jonathan Coachman VS Eugene

 

Well, they did try and pass Coach off as a wrestler... but this scenario didn't even spring to mind.

 

It wasn't a comedy segment - it was a fucking fun match.

 

If you've never seen Eugene in the ring, he's hard to describe. When you combine Nick Dinsmore's excellent gimmick and work with it with great wrestling, it's pretty damn unique.

 

It's great to see Eugene using some of these classic moves, as it tremendously adds to his "Rain Man" gimmick.

 

Coachman worked well with him, and was basically his bitch in amusing the crowd as well as showing how solid of a wrestler Nick Dinsmore is.

 

Very fun stuff.

 

3.5/10

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A lot of the content for this video package had Kane and Benoit beating up on guys that weren't eachother. It was good though.

 

3.5/10

 

WWE World Heavyweight Championship contest scheduled for one fall: Chris Benoit (Champion) VS Kane

 

I was expecting a fucking awesome match here, and I was let-down. It was good, but a let-down.

 

Pretty basic stuff throughout. To start us off, there wasn't really a lot of working together to give us the David/Goliath mentality match I'd hoped for. It was mainly Benoit with an arsenal of striking maneuvres. He was great with them as always, but Kane didn't exactly give him much opportunity to carry him to what could've been a classic.

 

Ok, the ending... Benoit having to pin Kane with a quick roll-up saved some credibility for Kane, but he was still beat fair and square, no pulling of the tights or anything. And while no tight-pulling, feet on the ropes, etc. is good for Benoit, Kane was still pinned clean.

 

This left a rematch in the cards.

 

4.5/10

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Very nicely-done video package, although their past four matches one-on-one could've been milked a bit more.

 

5/10

 

Triple H VS Shawn Michaels - Hell in a Cell

 

Another disappointment. And here's why.

 

The token wrestling portion to open us up was very lackluster. There was no especially fast pace about it, no kind of construction, just a bunch of moves that the two were throwing at eachother. That put a dampener on the match right off the bat.

 

And then when Triple H goes and gets a chair... It was as if he was saying "Alright, you've had your wrestling portion, it's over, now we're going to give you some BLOOD~!"

 

The fact that they hadn't taken a lot out of eachother with entertaining wrestling was what made this part suck. When it was weapon time, it just seemed so unnatural - as if the whole thing was painfully staged.

 

The weapon shots continued, in a bad kind of TLC fashion. If we've got some great wrestling for the first twenty minutes or so and then it was weapon time, I'd've been pumped. Hell, with a feud like this, getting some weapons out right away but then adapting to some pure wrestling before the tools of destruction were ready available would've been great too.

 

Even Michaels' Elbow off the ladder wasn't anything special because of the fact that it was a lackluster move and because of the preceedings. After about the first 25 minutes or so, I don't think it was impossible to bring it out of it's slump and make it "The greatest Hell in a Cell of all time".

 

I don't think I was expecting too much from the match. I was expecting the greatest Hell in a Cell of all time. Is that so much to ask for a blow-off to such a feud? I'VE SEEN BETTER MATCH ELEMENTS IN WORSE HELL IN A CELL MATCHES! Why? Why the fuck couldn't we have gone up to the top of the Cell? Why couldn't we have got entertaining wrestling and sensible weapon use? WHY THE FUCK?

 

Despite the fact that both of them busted ass for 47 odd minutes, it was still a big disappointment, and I'll admit to saying "That sucked dick" after it, even after what they'd put themselves through. And if Ric Flair isn't going to be seen at least not getting in Michaels' face after this, he never will.

 

This match will have the fuck shilled out of it by Michaels, Triple H and J.R. on Raw this week. But I was just disappointed, and what started as such a great feud that deteriorated but could have had an unbelievable blow-off didn't so, and for that, we had ourselves a Hell in a Cell that reeked of workrate but lacked in sense.

 

Michaels was actually on-air after Triple H had left, and the exchange between him and Mike Chioda was well-received. And my props go to J.R. for an awesome announcing job.

 

4.5/10

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As a whole, despite disappointments, we had ourselves a good show. A worthy opener, followed by a match that served it's purpose, a solid match, the usual, and two matches that were good but definitely did not lived up to what they were expected to. Especially Hell in a Cell.

 

This show had it's flaws, but was worth my money. And it left the doors open for down the road.

 

So as a whole, looking at what we did get instead of what we didn't, I'm happy.

 

5.5/10

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'Til next time,

Beau

 

Drop me a line ([email protected]). Archives. DVDs. Check out the forums.

 

See you at The Great American Bash!

[Boner Kawanger 0]

Too short to be anything other than a glorified recap. You have an okay presentation, but if you'd just expand on it and actually do a diatribe (and work out a new title, that just doesn't work for anyone...), you might have something.

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

That's the thing though - it's not a show recap, nor is it intended to be.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

5.5/10 is a good show? sounds kinda like an F in grade terms.

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

Yeah, but think about higher ratings and what kind of quality show you'd expect from them.

[Boner Kawanger 0]

...it's not a show recap...

Alright, but I called it a recap.