Spotlight On Summerslam 2005
It's been pretty easy to watch a WWE PPV the last decade and think, "Man that sucked." Or, "With the exception of 'X' match, that PPV was terrible." Well the first time that I truly thought, and believed it was true, was Summerslam '05.
Here's a little background on my opinions before I review the card itself. Yes, I had been disappointed in PPV's in the past, but never thought of the shows as "total crap". And since this is Summerslam, (my favorite PPV of the year), I was pretty excited for this show for a couple a reasons I will get to later.
Another thing to keep in mind is that I was really getting into TNA at this point. Before you laugh, remember 2005 TNA was at its peak, and I thought AJ Styles was the most incredible athlete I had ever seen. So I went to my cousin's house early that day and we watched TNA's PPV "Sacrifice" from the week before. I got my first glimpse of a young upstart named Austin Aries that day, and watched an excellent Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles match to determine the winner of the Super X Cup. Needless to say I was ready to rock at 7 o'clock to watch Summerslam...The show opened with a Benoit squash of Orlando Jordan in :25 seconds to win the US title. I had mixed feelings about it. Number one, a squash on a PPV doesn't seem right to me. Two, I hate when former world champs go back to secondary titles. Three, I hate Orlando Jordan, so I was happy he lost. (Trivia: Do you remember when they tried to give Jordan the same rub from Undertaker that they gave Cena the year before? Me neither)
The next match up was Edge vs. Matt Hardy. I was absolutely fuming at this point. This was the match I wanted to see. If I had my way this would have went on last. No joke either. Matt Hardy was the hottest babyface in the world at this point, and to have this match going on second was a slap in my face, let alone Edge and Hardy who had the best feud of that year. It couldn't get any worse. Unfortunately it did. Edge bloodied Hardy until the 4:50 mark and the ref stopped the match- also killing Matt's singles career in the process. Oh, they had a couple more good matches, but the angle lost all its steam after this stupid decision. Not only did Hardy lose, but they made him look like a total bust in the process. I would have had Matt win on a flash pin or something to make Edge still look strong, then beat the shit out of Matt after the match. Not make Edge look like Hercules, and Matt look like a second string superstar. It would have had the same effect without killing off Matt.
At this point, I was really bummed out. I knew that they had screwed up big time with the whole love triangle feud, and in the long run I was right. But I still had Eddie vs. Rey in a ladder match that should be in the semi-main event...
Match 3 Eddie vs. Rey Ladder match, what the hell?!? Why so early? No one wants to see Angle vs. Eugene after this?!? All that aside, I remember this storyline being totally stupid by this point. The whole "who's your papi?" Blah blah blah, I'm trying to forget it, so I won't rehash it here. I also remember that all of their matches had been pretty substandard for the two, thus far. (I don't care what anyone says, their Wrestlemania match was average at best.) So in my mind, this match was going to make it all worthwhile, a showstopper if you will. Boy was it going to be great. Boy, was I wrong. This match was a total trainwreck, and I remember thinking later that it couldn't be possible have been THAT bad. That is, until I rewatched it on the WWE: Ladder Match DVD, and by God it was.
Ironically, again fans seem to really enjoy this match. To me, this was the nail in the coffin that this PPV was total shit. Match 4 Angle beats Eugene to win back his Gold Medals. Yawn, Eugene was huge in '04. '05 not so much. Don't remember much from it, but since it was 4:31 I'm betting not too much happened.
Orton with Daddy Orton beat Undertaker in our next match. Nowadays this would be a great match. Something happened with Orton in '05-'06 where he was seemingly off his game. Actually since he won then lost the title (in one month's time) the year before he had been off his game. Undertaker hadn't had his career renaissance yet either. So what I'm saying here is another dud for the show.
John Cena vs. Jericho, for me, was the best match of the night. The crowd was totally anti-Cena, which I believe was the first time that happened. They were totally into it, and I was on the verge of marking out for a Jericho title win- or was it for a Cena title loss? Either way it didn't happen, but this as an enjoyable match nonetheless.
Batista beats JBL in yet another snooze fest, eerily similar to JBL vs. Undertaker from Summerslam the year before. This was a horrible feud, with many horrible matches just like this one.
So that was good, the match not so much however. Of course Hogan won. And Shawn turned babyface after it, like nothing ever happened. Why did Hogan need to win, he wasn't there full-time, and at that point couldn't even be considered part-time? (More like "I need a paycheck/let's promote Hogan Knows Best-time) I hate Hogan and all of his matches. And this falls in that category as well. Not even the great HBK can get Hulkster to have a good match.
So with all that in the record books, I was a pretty pissed off wrestling fan. I had to watch AJ vs. Joe again so I could go home happy that night, and I believe that was the last PPV I have ever watched live. That was also the last Summerslam I watched until I bought the DVD of '09's for the CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy TLC match, was is excellent by the way. Bottom line: that is a pretty sad statement for someone whose favorite PPV used to be Summerslam.
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