World Wrestling Entertainment – Unforgiven 2004 – 12th September 2004
On paper this doesn’t look to be a particularly appetising pay-per-view, from a point in time when WWE just weren’t delivering any kind of product you could be proud of watching or get behind. I understand that WWE isn’t solely focused on delivering a strong in-ring product – but at its core it does still remain a ‘wrestling’ show…and during this time period they had so many bad workers dragging everything down. Sadly Unforgiven 2004 doesn’t look like bucking that trend. With his World Title experiment now deemed a failure (despite playing second fiddle to HHH the whole time), Chris Benoit is quite literally demoted to the bottom of the card. In his place, the never-ending cycle of HHH in Raw main event slots continue – with him now challenging the former protégé he nurtured and has now become jealous of in Randy Orton. Thankfully Shawn Michaels returns at last to add some beef to the undercard (in a No DQ Match with Kane of all people), whilst the vacant Intercontinental Title is up for grabs in a Ladder Match between former friends Chris Jericho and Christian. The sad part is, for 2004-era WWE this is actually a decent card! Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler are in Portland, OR.
Chris Benoit/William Regal vs Ric Flair/Batista
This is, in part, a grudge match – particularly for Benoit. Having lost his coveted World Championship to Randy Orton at Summerslam following a sustained campaign against him from the Evolution stable, he now gets a chance to vent some frustration. Whilst Orton and HHH squabble in the main event, he at least gets to tear lumps out of the rest of Evolution. In William Regal he has an equally tough, hard-hitting and technically outstanding worker to team up with. Will their combined wrestling proficiency be enough to overcome the raw power of Batista and the endless experience of the Nature Boy?
Regal is apparently fighting for Eugene’s honour because Evolution injured him. Benoit fails in an attempt to put Batista in an early Crossface, so instead attacks the leg and snaps him down with a dragon screw. Regal tags in and takes Big Dave to school on the canvas as well – to the extent that even Jerry ‘Puppies’ Lawler is forced to admit that Batista is getting totally out-worked. Flair tags in, and since he’s a better wrestler Benoit and Regal switch tactics and beat him up with their violent strikes instead. Evolution have no choice but to cheat having been comprehensively taken apart for more than five minutes (and of course Flair takes the lead). Batista distracts the official whilst Naitch uses the tag rope to choke Regal. It puts the Englishman on the defensive and opens up a window for Flair to start attacking his leg. Figure 4 Leglock applied briefly before Benoit sprints in to break it up. Dave looks to supplement that with some of his power but bungles into a head-on collision with Regal and allows him to tag out to Benoit – who comes in throwing around German suplexes. Crippler Crossface on Flair! Batista breaks it, and almost drops Benoit straight back onto his own partner because he’s such a clumsy goof! Regal tosses Batista into the front row for that…as Benoit drags Nature Boy back into the Crossface. He taps, giving Benoit a victory at 15:04.
Rating - *** - A good, long wrestling match to start the show. It wasn’t particularly deep, but Regal and Benoit carried the bulk of the workload and the amount of time Batista got to look out of his depth was kept to a minimum. It fell apart a little at the end (mostly because the work became more elaborate meaning the three veterans couldn’t very loudly and vocally coach Batista through each spot) but nevertheless should be considered a crisp and surprisingly strong start to the ppv.
In the corridors of the arena Christian and Trish Stratus disagree about who gets Tyson Tomko to come to ringside with them. Christian implies Trish is a slut…and she proves his point by seemingly offering Tomko sexual favours in exchange for choosing her.
Trish Stratus vs Victoria – WWE Women’s Title Match
Victoria is still on the roster, and still only really has Trish Stratus to work with, years after being brought in as Trish’s ‘stalker’. In fact, that was so long ago and the writers are so limited that they are actually doing the same angle. Trish has another mystery stalker to contend with, which is why she wants Tomko at ringside to protect her. Of course, having a ‘Problem Solver’ at ringside does give her a pronounced advantage over her bigger and highly skilled challenger.
‘I’d like to whisper in her mouth’ – Lawler of Trish Stratus. What does that even mean you creepy old perv? Victoria has the champion on the run early by taking her to the mat and tossing her around. Somehow she bloodied her own nose in the process though – something that Stratus spots and immediately takes advantage of by smashing it into the turnbuckles. PRESS SLAM GUTBUSTER by Victoria! Trish is clearly hurt by that…but is carried away by Tomko before the challenger gets to capitalise. The champion recovers swiftly and completely BRAINS Victoria into the ringpost for 2. Victoria’s head and neck are taking a battering now – with Stratus bouncing her skull of the mat like a basketball at one point. A lengthy chinlock segment follows which is perfectly logical but is significantly less dramatic than the majority of the match that came before it. Victoria escapes with a mental spinning sideslam (mental in that it seemed like she was attempting a TKO then changed her mind at the last minute) then does the Matrix-duck under the Chick Kick. PESCADO ON TOMKO! What a dumb move! He was doing nothing to provoke that, and Victoria is rightly punished with Stratus-faction then defeat at 08:20
Rating - ** - With the likes of Trish, Victoria, Lita, Jazz, Molly Holly and Gail Kim knocking around, WWE actually had the makings of a solid women’s division. Then again, they had some of the best cruiserweights in the world employed too and did nothing with them either. As usual these two women worked extremely hard and for the most part rose above the typical Lawler commentary sh*t-show. The finish was dreadful, but Victoria had no momentum and her career was as flat as a pancake anyway so if she wasn’t getting the belt – hitting a highspot on Tomko was probably the most memorable thing she could have done tonight…
Trish’s mystery stalker (who is very obviously Stevie Richards) runs in to prevent Tomko putting a beating on Victoria. Tyson calls her (him) out meaning we have an impromptu match
Tyson Tomko vs Stevie Richards
It’s 2016, there is no need for me to play along with the charade. The ‘mystery woman’ is Stevie Richards, and I have no idea what the point of this angle is. I’m sure the writers thought it was hysterical and don’t at all consider this a waste of pay-per-view time and buyer’s money. Tomko was actually slightly better than some of the other rookie ‘hoss’ workers on the roster (Snitsky, Heidenreich, Mordecai, Suzuki etc) of the era (hence he had more of a career post-WWE) – but in no way has the skill to salvage this. Poor Stevie has spent a career trying to make the best of bizarre and often embarrassing situations like this, so does at least have the kind of experience to attempt a salvage-job.
Mystery Stevie slaps Tomko in the face before getting quickly disrobe and revealed to be Richards. Soon Stevie is reduced to wrestling in bra and panties to an arena full of people, with only a few limp ‘ECW’ chants to console him. The crowd actually want to cheer for him but it is physically impossible to get behind a guy who is dressing up in drag in a desperate attempt to force his way onto the show. Stevie takes five minutes of non-stop punishment before making an aggressive grab for Tomko’s crotch. The Problem Solver shrugs that off to deliver a torture rack neckbreaker for the win at 06:25
Rating - DUD - An awful match on every conceivable level, and quite literally only on the card to waste time because WWE had done such a horrible job promoting this ppv that they didn’t have enough content to fill it. Tomko wasn’t the worst talent to come through WWE at this point, but he was left totally exposed by having to carry more than six minutes of a boring wrestling match that nobody wanted to see. Meanwhile, nobody considers Stevie to be an all-time great or anything…but even in a career which includes Right To Censor and countless bWo reprisals this was a sad low.
Chris Jericho vs Christian – WWE Intercontinental Title Ladder Match
At the last Raw pay-per-view event we saw Edge end the lengthy reign of Randy Orton in a really strong match. Sadly Edge’s body let him down again and after sustaining a severe groin injury at a live event was forced to vacate the IC Championship. Opportunity knocked, and as injury put Edge back on the shelf, his former tag partner Christian was ready to return. If you recall, he and Jericho were locked in a bitter feud earlier in the year – which culminated in a bloody Steel Cage Match that resulted in ‘Captain Charisma’ sustaining a back injury and missing more than four months of competition. He returned to reignite hostilities with both Edge and Y2J, and since Eric Bischoff had a vacant belt on his hands to fill – he promptly booked these two into a Ladder Match to crown a new champion.
Jericho is quick to test Christian’s back – repeatedly dumping him on it with a variety of suplexes. He misses when throwing a ladder at him, but does clock him across the neck with his hard-hitting enziguri. Christian ducks as Y2J charges at him with a ladder, then hauls his former friend into the crowd for a beating ‘amongst his Peeps’. Jericho tries to springboard off the ring steps…but bounces straight back into an UNPRETTIER ON THE FLOOR! We have our first significant climb for the belt, and Christian actually gets fingertips on the title before being hauled back by Jericho. He returns to the canvas and is whipped face-first into the ladder! In response Christian ducks the bulldog and makes his opponent eat some ladder too. For the next few minutes they essentially take turns devising different methods of throwing ladders into each other’s faces. Some of the spots look grotesquely painful, but in the post-TLC era do lack a little sizzle. That changes when Jericho SURFS A LADDER INTO CHRISTIAN’S BACK! Captain Charisma is struggles to walk but somehow ties one of Jericho’s legs up in the ladder – damaging it severely and instantly making it harder for him to climb. Realising he is messed up, Jericho decides to completely sacrifice his leg and DROPKICK the ladder into Christian’s head. BULLDOG ON THE LADDER! LADDER LIONSAULT MISSES! Once again Y2J’s leg takes the majority of the punishment there…but Christian’s body isn’t in much better shape. He climbs the ladder at a snail’s pace – finally grabbing the belt right before Jericho pulls the ladder from under him! Christian is left hanging in mid-air…so Jericho RAMS THE LADDER INTO HIS BACK! Down he comes, crucially without the IC Title in his grasp. They chase each other up the ladder again, culminating in one of my favourite spots – THE WALLS OF JERICHO ON A LADDER! Christian actually back-flips out of it though, and VIOLENTLY shoves Y2J to the ground. Jericho’s landing was absolutely horrendous there. Duelling ladders are positioned, giving both men the chance to charge for the belt. Jericho swings the belt out of Christian’s clutches then grabs him for a FLYING BULLDOG OFF THE LADDER! Jericho makes one last painstaking climb and takes the title at 22:28
Rating - *** - There was a lot to like about this Ladder Match, and a number of times where you simply had to respect their effort. Some of the things these two men did to each other had to be excruciatingly painful, and that last Jericho bump – where he landed ass-first on a sideways ladder – had me looking away from my screen in horror. The problem these guys have is that Ladder Matches themselves jumped the shark a long time ago. In the late-90’s crowds would have lost their minds over this. But for a 2004 audience, this type of methodically-paced, every spot is a battle, tactically-minded Ladder Match left a lot of fans behind. A purist can absolutely appreciate the logic in Jericho attacking Christian’s back, or likewise, Christian’s decision to attack Y2J’s leg to make him unable to actually climb a ladder. But these fans were fresh off two years removed from Jeff Hardy cannonballing off mega ladders through table stacks. Jericho and Christian produced a number of great moments here, but as a Ladder Match package it was flat. A different stipulation really would have suited them far better.
Todd Grisham wants an interview with Kane. He gets Lita…who wants Shawn Michaels to beat her husband’s ass. Kane smirks behind her, then announces that their match has been made No DQ
Elsewhere a sarcastic Edge congratulates Chris Jericho on his ‘hollow’ victory, and says he is coming back for his Intercontinental Title the second his injury has healed.
Shawn Michaels vs Kane – No DQ Match
This was HBK’s return from several months off. He was put on the injured list following a savage assault by Kane. In the intervening time Kane has also violently disposed of Matt Hardy and forcibly taken Lita as both wife and expectant mother of his child. Eric Bischoff’s wedding present was an open contract for Kane to face whomever he wanted at Unforgiven…but Lita used marital privilege to claim it and signed Michaels. Will Shawn make a triumphant return and get some payback in the Big Red Machine? Will Kane put the increasingly fragile Heartbreak Kid back on treatment table? And what role will Lita play in all of this?
I’m almost suspicious as to how much editing goes into these home video/WWE Network edits of pay-per-views, but the reaction Michaels gets seems completely insane. He tricks Kane into socking the ringpost…so Kane angrily retaliates by driving a fist into Shawn’s throat (which he’d injured months ago to put HBK out of action). Lita starts making fun of her husband and lures him into the path of a pescado. Kane’s fightback involves shoving his (kayfabe pregnant) subservient bride into Shawn – and that probably doesn’t even scratch the Top 10 most grotesque things about the Kane/Lita storyline. He drops Michaels throat-first into the guardrail then SUPLEXES HIM THROUGH THE ANNOUNCE TABLE! Kane is targeting both the throat and permanently-injured back of his opponent – which is a superbly obvious and effective strategy. Case in point: he drops HBK with a sidewalk slam then wraps a vice-like arm around his throat on the ground. A back suplex is countered to a DDT, but of course Shawn is so injured that he struggles to even stand after executing it. PUNCHES TO THE THROAT by Kane! That was subtle but just so awesome! HBK NIPS UP! SO KANE DESTROYS HIS BACK AGAINST THE TURNBUCKLES! Things get even worse for Shawn as the Big Red Machine causes big red blood-loss after ramming his skull into the steps. Kane tries to recreate booting Shawn’s head into the turnbuckles as he had done months ago but this time Michaels has it scouted and escapes! With Lita cheering him on Michaels takes to the skies with a BACK SELLING FLYING ELBOW DROP! Sweet Chin Music BLOCKED with a boot to the bloody face! Now Kane is on the ropes, smashing into Michaels’ throat again with his flying clothesline. CHOKESLAM…COUNTERED with a low blow! STEEL CHAIR TO THE HEAD! I don’t think Kane got anything up to protect himself on that. And still he sits up ready to fight again. Lita stops him using a chair in retribution. Sweet Chin Music blocked! CHOKESLAM BLOCKED! SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Michaels wins! 18:01 is your time.
Rating - **** - What an under-rated, hidden gem this match was. I called Kane’s World Title Match with Benoit one of the best wrestling matches of his career, but now I’d include this one in that conversation too. I understand that some may have found Kane’s lengthy spell of dominance heavy going, but I thought his constant, dual-focused attack on both the throat and back were fantastic. Every spot he used had the same goal – damaging one of those two body parts. Michaels sold it beautifully too. He didn’t oversell and reduce the match to pantomime, but he made everything Kane did look brutal and unendurable. Likewise during his comeback spots he didn’t start no-selling at any point; every move he made had consequences as a direct result of Kane’s attack. Whatever you think of HBK’s personality, he truly is a remarkable worker. On this night he didn’t look in phenomenal shape and was returning cold after spending the summer out of the ring – yet still worked with Kane to produce one of the best matches of his entire career. As if Shawn’s brilliance and Kane’s flawless execution weren’t enough, Jim Ross was on absolute top form for this as well. He didn’t drop any soundbites or catchphrases (there was no stopping ‘the damn match’ or anything like that) but he sold me on everything that was going on through his exceptional story-telling and raw emotion.
In an interview Triple H claims that Randy Orton would be nothing but unfulfilled potential without him. He thinks Orton is the one with things to prove tonight – he needs to prove he can succeed without HHH and Evolution helping him. This was a seriously good promo…
La Resistance vs Rhyno/Tajiri – World Tag Title Match
Yes, La Res are still carrying on. In case you’d forgotten, they are now the French-Canadian version with Conway and Grenier rather than the uber-French incarnation with Rene Dupree. At this stage they were months into their reign as champions, whilst Rhyno and Tajiri had been running a lovable underdog storyline for most of the summer. The stage seems set for a feel-good title change, and a freshening up of the Raw tag division after months of La Res control…
Rhyno looks so young and slim compared to his 2016 run with Heath Slater! The camera rather unfortunately pans out and shows masses of empty seats to demonstrate how much of a popcorn and/or piss-break match this is. Tajiri is miniscule compared to Grenier, but completely believable wrestling circles around him nonetheless. Rob Conway runs away with Rhyno set to Gore him – smart wrestling as he is able to return and immediately drop him with an armbar takedown. He then blocks a Tajiri tornado DDT attempt with a lariat, with both champions beating on the Japanese Buzzsaw behind the referee’s back. La Resistance isolate Tajiri…and is rather puzzlingly encouraged by the Portland fans chanting ‘USA’. He does get a hot tag to the Man Beast, who scores a nearfall on Sylvain with the belly to belly suplex. Double spinebuster from La Res to Rhyno, before Tajiri accidentally rams on of La Resistance’s flags into Grenier’s balls. GORE nailed…but too close to the ropes. Grenier hits Rhyno with the same flag behind the ref’s back leading to a controversial victory for the champions. 09:40 was your time…
Rating - * - There wasn’t actually much wrong with this match, but it just didn’t have any real excitement to it whatsoever. I really like Tajiri, but his wrestling skill was largely wasted for the vast majority of his WWE run. Here he looked like the best worker by miles, but was forced to play the whipping boy so Grenier and Conway could look competent. In truth this was an embodiment of just how little the WWE cared about tag team wrestling at this point. To give it some perspective – if you thought Grenier and Conway were bad, Kenzo f*cking Suzuki was one half of the Smackdown Tag Champions at this point in time…
Randy Orton vs Triple H – World Heavyweight Title Match
At Summerslam Orton made history by becoming the youngest ever World Champion. He succeeded where the likes of HHH, Shawn Michaels and Kane couldn’t, and took the Big Gold Belt from Chris Benoit. But in doing so he took the spot his mentor Triple H feels belongs to him. HHH looks at Orton as a protégé and has groomed him within Evolution to take the top spot in the company…but only when he is finished. By becoming the top gun on Raw at such a young age, he has effectively jumped past HHH in the pecking order – and The Game was not impressed. Rather than celebrating his stable-mate’s success he orchestrated a gang attack with the rest of Evolution and left Orton a bloody mess. He then demanded Randy forfeit the belt to him: a request which was met with one of the most impressive volumes of saliva you’ll ever see spat into another man’s face. Since Orton won’t willingly give him back the World Championship, Triple H now comes to forcibly take it from him. Will the young pretender succeed again, or will the dominant King Of Kings regain his spot as Raw’s champ?
Orton gives HHH a juicy slap to dismiss The Game’s early attempt to bully him around the ring. He spits in his face again too and appears to be attempting to play mindgames with the man dubbed the ‘Cerebral Assassin’. Sadly it takes less than three minutes for Randy to bust out his staple – the super-long chinlock segment. I won’t deny that it makes perfect sense in negating HHH’s strengths and setting up the RKO…but three minutes in is early doors for more than a minute of chinlock. The rookie champion succeeds in chucking Triple H all the way to the floor to cement a dominant opening period. Hunter has to abandon his strategy of bullying or over-powering his former protégé and has to resort to actually wrestling him as an equal. He begins to target the left leg, and almost snaps it in half with a knee drop whilst it is exposed and hanging in the ropes. HHH increasingly resembles Ric Flair as he assassinates the champ’s bum wheel…and of course it leads to the Figure 4 itself being utilised on the ousted Evolution member. Orton refuses to submit, leading to Hunter grabbing the ropes for leverage and getting into arguments with Earl Hebner. Randy capitalises by kicking him into the ringpost – busting him open. HHH slicing himself open in every big main event is becoming tedious. Randy uses a Flair-style eye poke (getting revenge for HHH using Flair tactics before), but then hits his standing dropkick spot with his bad leg crumpling underneath him. Still clutching his leg in pain, Orton flies off the top with a crossbody for 2. The World Champion is moving really slowly now, and does yet more damage to his own leg with his headlock backbreaker. RKO blocked, with Hebner getting knocked out in the process! Pedigree…countered to the RKO! Ric Flair runs in to help HHH, and when he gets tossed out Batista arrives to maul Orton too. Jonathan Coachman is drafted in as emergency referee to stack the deck even further against Randy, as Batista nails him with a spinebuster. RKO ON COACH! LIMPING RKO ON FLAIR! HHH knocks Orton the f*ck out with a steel chair! PEDIGREE ON THE CHAIR! Triple H steals the World Title back at 24:45
Rating - *** - It got a bit silly, clichéd and lazy at the end and relied on a lot of the tired formulaic HHH ‘big match’ spots that were largely redundant by 2004, but buried amongst that was the core of a genuinely decent wrestling match. Orton using his bravado, athleticism and prodigious in-ring skills to mess with Triple H’s head was a really nice touch. I loved that HHH started the match looking to bully and rough up the younger man – but was so wildly unsuccessful he had to wrestle him as an equal; picking a body part and wearing it down. Having Flair, Batista, Coach, low blows and steel chairs was total overkill on the finish however, and really spoilt my own enjoyment of the match. HHH was a respected multi-time World Champion, and Randy was a 24-year old kid. Neither he, nor the fans, needed him to be protected to the extent that he was. Ultimately this match doesn’t carry much historical significance though. Despite it making him the youngest World Champion in WWE history (a record which, I believe still stands to this day), Randy’s first title reign really isn’t mentioned often. People point to Chris Benoit as the reason for that, but it is fair to say that even taking Benoit out of the equation this first run was a flop. He has always been an uncomfortable babyface, and he flopped badly as a young babyface World Champion. After his failure (plus months of the title becoming almost a secondary belt under Benoit before him) some fans were even breathing a sigh of relief that the World Championship was back around Triple H’s waist.
Tape Rating - ** - At the time this pay-per-view doesn’t appear to have gotten much praise. And that’s fair enough as one could hardly call it value for money at the ppv prices WWE were charging. But as a WWE Network view, this show is actually somewhat under-rated. I won’t pretend anything is fantastically awesome or carries any long-term significance – but it is actually a half decent night of wrestling. There is some crap to sift through – but all the matches that look decent on paper ARE decent in reality. Benoit/Regal vs Evolution, Jericho vs Christian, Michaels vs Kane and HHH vs Orton are all decent watches – with the HBK/Kane match being so much better than many give it credit for. There are FAR worse pay-per-views from this period I assure you…
Top 3 Matches
3) Randy Orton vs Triple H (***)
2) Chris Jericho vs Christian (***)
1) Shawn Michaels vs Kane (****)