World Wrestling Entertainment – Vengeance 2005 – 26th June 2005

As I briefly touched on during my One Night Stand review, June 2005 was a time of transition for the WWE brand-split rosters. A month-long draft lottery was in place, which saw multiple high profile moves. Raw’s #1 pick was John Cena (who else), so at this point he’d moved over to the red brand and brought his WWE Championship too. It led to the rather silly situation whereby Raw had two World Champions and Smackdown had none. This PPV is a beneficiary of that however, as we have two major championship main events to look forward to; with Cena defending against Christian and Chris Jericho, whilst Batista and Triple H look to settle their long-standing rivalry over the World Title inside Hell In A Cell. That’s not the only WrestleMania rematch in store for us either – the standout match on the entire show is the rematch between Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle, looking to recapture their 5* magic from a couple of months earlier. Jim Ross, Jonathan Coachman and Jerry Lawler are in Las Vegas, NV.

Carlito Cool vs Shelton Benjamin – WWE Intercontinental Title Match
Another beneficiary of the roster draft, Carlito moved from Smackdown to Raw and immediately defeated Shelton for the IC Championship. Benjamin gets his rematch this evening, and won’t plan on letting Carlito best him twice. The announce team speculate on Shelton’s condition after he crashed and burned on an ill-advised dive attempt in their previous match.

Carlito’s odious grin as they prepare to do battle is brilliant. It’s quickly wiped off his face as Shelton drags him to the mat and makes him look totally foolish with his grappling skills. Lawler spots that the challenger is going for plenty of pinfalls which he interprets as an indication that Benjamin isn’t healthy and wants it over quickly. Nothing Cool can do seems to interrupt Shelton’s momentum so he tries to grab his belt and leave. That only leads to him taking an ass kicking in the aisle as well as in the ring though. Benjamin effortlessly leaps to the top rope…and springs right back in the other direction to nail the champ with a flying lariat for 2. Carlito is in trouble; and starts attacking the head and neck that his opponent supposedly injured in that ill-fated dive spot on Raw a week earlier. His head is bounced off the mat repeatedly, and his neck cranked with repeated chinlocks and sleepers meaning in next to no time the minutes of dominance by the decorated amateur wrestler are a distant memory. He keeps Cool at bay with a Samoan drop…but has no strength in his legs to get up from the ground himself. He almost falls out of the ring as he tries to climb the ropes (such a contrast to just minutes earlier)…but then manages to violently guillotine Carlito over the top before falling to the ground. Springboard bulldog back in gets 2! The champion jerks down one of the turnbuckle pads…and dumps Benjamin down onto his head and neck again with a back suplex. Dragon Whip nailed leaving them both down! Shelton is up first…but EATS the exposed turnbuckle bolt as he looks for the Stinger Splash. Already suffering with a head injury, he has nothing left. Cool jerks the trunks and pins him at 12:49.

Rating - *** - Nothing outlandish or outrageous, but they worked a decent little match together here. They were quite complimentary as opponents, with Carlito’s big personality and warm charisma making up for Shelton’s flaws in that department…and Benjamin’s athleticism covering up some of Carlito’s weaknesses as a worker. The story was simple and effective, the announce team did a solid job of putting over the key points of it…and altogether this was a clean and enjoyable little package to start the show.

HHH, wearing a ridiculously ugly suit, arrives alongside Ric Flair and his security. There doesn’t seem to be much anxiety ahead of Hell In A Cell, as both seem convinced Hunter will be champion again by the end of the night.

Victoria vs Christy Hemme
I had sort of thought Christy had already left WWE by this point, so don’t know what to expect from this at all. Victoria appears to be a fully-fledged crazy heel again; angrily attacking Hemme out of jealousy for the exposure and opportunity she’s been getting despite her perceived lack of in-ring talent. Christy has been up for a fight with her tormentor leading to multiple violent brawls between them. This won’t be pretty, but could get very heated.

Christy shows her inexperience as she sprints around like a headless chicken and leaves herself exposed to some aggressive stomps from the bigger Victoria. She then gets caught trying to choke her adversary in the corner and dropped throat-first over the top rope. ‘I like her backside’ – Lawler of Hemme, abandoning any pretence that he isn’t a dirty old slimeball! To her credit Hemme shows real tenacity in refusing to be pinned and deserves more reward than disinterested ‘we want puppies’ chants from idiot fans. She probably prefers that to the ‘Christy sucks’ chants that come next though! Widow’s Peak blocked…so Victoria climbs the ropes to MISS a moonsault! The fans loudly boo as Christy swings Victoria around by the hair and lands a lousy looking DDT for 2. In the end Victoria grabs the ropes to pin her at 05:05

Rating - DUD - These ladies were put in a no-win situation and it is only right to acknowledge that they both worked extremely hard. However, this had no place on a pay-per-view card and it was quite clear that not even the live audience had any interest in watching it. It’s also disappointing that they felt the need to have Victoria cheat to win this. It wasn’t needed, Christy was not an act that warranted that kind of protection…and booking back-to-back shady roll-up finishes looks ugly.

John Cena talks about being the ‘new kid’ on Raw; striking up a Rock/Kevin Kelly relationship with Todd Grisham in the process…

Edge vs Kane
When the story of Edge and Lita’s affair leaked the WWE didn’t have much choice but to steer into the skid and put them on TV together…effectively spelling the end of her long-lasting, twisted and warped on-screen marriage to Kane. They’ve been through the Snitsky ‘it wasn’t my fault’ angle, the juvenile Trish making fun of Lita’s ‘baby weight’ stuff, and an insane hostage wedding…but it all came to an end when Lita turned on her ‘husband’; costing him #1 contendership to the World Title by helping Edge beat him. Having abused and mocked both Edge and Lita for weeks anyway, legitimising their relationship on camera now makes their pair lightning rods for serious heel heat. It can’t have been pleasant, but they appear to be all in with it (‘if falling in love with you makes me a slut…then I guess I’m the slut of the century’) and are down for having some fun and making some money. The spectre of the still-unemployed Matt Hardy looms large over this one, but before he can re-enter the picture we need to close the book on Edge, Lita and Kane. Can the Big Red Machine get payback on the Rated R Superstar for stealing his wife?

No amount of babyface fire from Kane can silence the ‘You Screwed Matt’ hatred spewing from the stands of the arena this evening. His dominance lasts several minutes and only briefly pauses as he leaves the ring to briefly pursue Lita. She rescues her boyfriend from a rough trip into the ringpost, giving Edge a window of opportunity to hit the Spear on the floor! Edge stomps at the ribs and back trying to open up an injury after that move…but his shots just aren’t registering enough damage. Kane is still swinging even after the Edge-O-Matic drops him! Edge counters his flying clothesline with a dropkick right into those ribs again…but still no impact and Kane smacks him down again with a big boot. Gene Snitsky runs in and gets sent packing by Kane just as quickly…so Lita tries her luck instead by trying to flirt with Kane whilst sneaking a steel chair to her boyfriend. The Monster can’t bring himself to Chokeslam her…but that’s because he wants to break her neck with a f*cking chair! Snitsky is Lita’s unlikely saviour as he prevents that! Edge-cution blocked! Snitsky eats Money In The Bank Briefcase! Chokeslam on Edge! Kane wins at 11:09

Rating - ** - Kind of boring for large portions, and ludicrously overbooked at the end…but I’d actually expected this to be a lot worse. The crowd were predictably disconnected to anything of the actual wrestling and only really interested in antagonising Lita, which made the whole spectacle somewhat redundant. I feel like Edge needed the win more than Kane here, but can understand the logic in putting Kane over since he’s just lost his on-screen wife and been screwed out of a title shot. Edge and Lita are a hot angle regardless; at least he now retains some credibility too.

Shawn Michaels gives thanks to the Draft Lottery for giving him the opportunity to avenge his loss to Angle at WrestleMania.

Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels
These two contested one of the all-time great WrestleMania matches earlier in the year. It was a cross-promotional dream match that lived up to all the hype, stole the show and ended with Angle making HBK tap. With them on separate brands we wondered if we’d ever get the chance to see a rematch, but the Draft Lottery brought Kurt to Raw (seriously, Smackdown got totally screwed in June 2005) and their rivalry was immediately rekindled. Having won their previous match Kurt is full of confidence and guarantees a victory…but Shawn has been in this type of big-match environment countless times throughout his long career. He loved creating another stellar moment in his spectacular WrestleMania resume…but this time he’s coming for a win.

Angle looks intensely focused; closing down the space and looking to grapple Michaels down the ground at every opportunity. HBK is no match for him when it comes to trading holds and so repeatedly finds himself scrambling for ropes to free himself from the Olympian’s clutches. After getting his arm snapped against the ground Shawn actually sprints out of the ring in his desperation for some distance! Next he has Michaels fighting for survival in the match as he launches an astoundingly quick attack on the leg, delivering the first preparations for the inevitable Anklelock later in the match. Shawn tries to dive off the top…and is rolled INTO THE ANKLELOCK! COUNTERED! A clothesline sends Kurt over the top rope! Even on the floor his wrestling skills are too strong; he ducks HBK’s attempts to brawl him for a GERMAN SUPLEX THROUGH THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! For a man with a history of back injuries that is devastating…and Angle drags him back into the ring to immediately go after the neck! We are ten minutes deep now and it has been non-stop dominance from Kurt. BUCKLE BOMB SCORES! JR is completely appalled by the violence of that and all three announcers now ponder if there is any way back for Shawn now. All the veteran seems to have is some haphazard strike attempts, and they are now so wild that he basically lumbers directly into another massive German suplex for 2. Angle Slam countered…LARIAT INSTEAD! Kurt is on FIRE! Again Michaels tries a hopeful jump off the ropes, and once more is roundly dispatched with another suplex. The only consideration here is whether Angle is exhausting himself in his fervent desire to win, and perhaps he recognises that too as he opts to get his wind back by riding Michaels in a deep, snug chinlock (cranking on that bad neck some more). Shawn escapes with a suplex of his own – his first offensive move almost sixteen minutes deep! He succeeds in luring Angle into a fist fight, then into whipping him into the ropes which allows him to build up speed and hit a flying elbow. The momentum starts to build…and Shawn rides it straight to the top rope. ELBOW DROP NAILED! Michaels is so good he manages to combine jogging around the ring and neck/back selling effortlessly. Sweet Chin Music COUNTERED WITH ANOTHER LARIAT! Angle Slam COUNTERED WITH A SWINGING DDT! These guys are incredible! ANGLE SLAM for 2! ANKLELOCK! Michaels counters and rolls Angle into the official in the process. BACK BODY DROP TO THE FLOOR from Kurt to Michaels! Poor Shawn is on the ground holding his knee, his back, his neck…and seemingly seeking medical attention. Angle pushes the doctor away though – hauling HBK back in for the ANKLELOCK AGAIN! Shawn kicks him off…but Kurt holds on! AND STAMPS ON THE BAD BACK TOO! This where Michaels lost at WrestleMania but today he simply refuses to submit. Finally he catapults Angle into the ringpost to free himself. SUPERKICK FROM THE CANVAS! BOTH MEN DOWN! Angle pulls himself up and tries a foolish dive off the top. Mistake! MID-AIR SWEET CHIN MUSIC! MICHAELS WINS! It’s over at 26:12

Rating - ****1/2 - An amazing and worthy sequel to their outstanding first match; and one I’m surprised doesn’t get more praise and isn’t more fondly remembered considering how much reverence is still placed on the Mania 21 encounter. This is more than twelve years old now and holds up incredibly well. The two men were already past their physical prime and slowed by a lengthening catalogue of injuries, but were masters of their craft and told another rich and engaging story which captured the attention of the vast majority of this large audience despite the lengthy run-time. Angle was victorious last time, so was motivated here by scoring a second win and proving beyond any doubt that he should be called the best of all time. And for almost twenty minutes he looked unstoppable in that quest. His intensity, his wrestling skill and his ability to target Shawn’s injuries and weaknesses meant he dominated the match. Shawn tried getting distance, he tried throwing strikes and brawling on the floor – but nothing worked. However, as he said earlier in his interview, he wanted to stop at nothing to avenge WrestleMania. He survived more Anklelocks, he kept trying to counter where he gave up and tapped out last time…and eventually succeeded in tiring Angle out just enough for him to land variants of his finisher (not the full version as he was too injured though)…and get the win. It was a brilliant story, perfectly executed. I didn’t think it quite had the edge of the first match; whilst the story was good and the wrestling was excellent I don’t think watching Kurt totally control things for twenty minutes offered much to those who aren’t necessarily grappling fans. The ref bump seemed rather unnecessarily too since it didn’t actually do anything. These are minor quibbles though, and behind their first match is easily one of the best PPV bouts of 2005.

The Coach leaves commentary and heads backstage to interview Batista. Coach thinks Dave was fortunate to escape with his title at Backlash and tells him he’s scared of Hell In A Cell tonight. Drax doesn’t share that opinion obviously. Triple H has gone full Lemmy with his look now, and interrupts to start a pull-apart brawl…

Lillian Garcia comes out (introduced as a ‘Raw Diva’ rather than a ring announcer), apparently to proclaim her love to Viscera…through the medium of song. Is this really happening? I really hope Lillian got paid extra for this garbage! This culminates in her proposing to Vis…only to be turned down in favour of The Godfather and his Ho’s. If you need to re-read any of that paragraph I wouldn’t blame you! Yes all of that actually happened.

John Cena vs Chris Jericho vs Christian – WWE Title Match
As I covered during the intro, we are mid-Draft Lottery at this point with both the top champions currently Raw superstars. Cena was the #1 pick, revealed by Y2J on his talk show and brought the WWE Championship over from Smackdown with him. Christian in particular was delighted, having spent weeks openly mocking and berating Cena despite being on a rival brand. Bischoff was set to make Christian #1 contender for Cena’s belt, but Jericho was bitterly upset. He pointed out himself that it had been more than three years since he’d had a 1-on-1 WWE Title shot, so went out and forced his way into the title picture by attacking Cena and convincing Bischoff to make this a three-way. Y2J and Christian have a rivalry which stretches back more than a year, and will now need to fight through each other in their quest to derail Cena’s Raw pay-per-view debut and take his belt away.

Jericho and Christian take turns beating on Cena, just about staying on the same page despite the strained relations between them. Tyson Tomko, Christian’s ‘problem solver’ involves himself too by throwing a blind-sided Y2J into the guardrails, temporarily incapacitating him. It does lead to Earl Hebner ordering Tomko back to the locker room however. F-U OVER THE TOP ROPE TO THE FLOOR FROM CENA TO CHRISTIAN! I hadn’t realised the ‘Cena Sucks’ stuff dated as far back as 2005; there are plenty of those audible chants as he slugs it out with a rejuvenated Chris Jericho. Lionsault misses, so Jericho kicks the champ out of the ring and tries to suplex him through the announce table. COUNTERED WITH A DDT ON THE TITLE BELT! That looked really cool! It also conveniently means Y2J has an excuse to lie around for a bit whilst the recovered Christian gets his chance to work over Cena. Protobomb by Cena…only for Jericho to prevent the Five Knuckle Shuffle by bundling him into the ring steps. Walls Of Jericho blocked by Captain Charisma, and as those two chase each other up the ropes John sneaks back in and grabs them both for the powerbomb/superplex tower of doom! With both challengers down the excitable champion seizes a prime opportunity for a DOUBLE Five Knuckle Shuffle. Everyone tries flash pins, with Y2J trying to pin both opponents at once, and after that flurry of activity they all drop to their knees gasping for air. Christian rakes the eyes and counters the F-U into his reverse DDT for 2! He makes a dash for the title belt after that, creating a distraction which allows Tomko to run back in and take Cena’s head off with a lariat! Still the champ isn’t pinned, but is powerless to prevent the Walls Of Jericho! Unprettier blocked, F-U ON CHRISTIAN! Cena retains at 15:19

Rating - *** - I wasn’t particularly excited about this, and felt a little bad that Jericho was parachuted into this match at the expense of what could have been quite a big opportunity for Christian. There was plenty of standard ‘one guy down, two guy fight’ triple threat cliché action and more Tomko than I’d have liked, but they held it together well and really had the crowd with them in the last five minutes. Cena did a number of pretty cool spots within his standard moveset and now very much resembled the performer and worker he would become for the next decade or more of his WWE career (for better or worse). Christian and Jericho would both be gone from the company in mere months, but despite that appeared to be working equally hard to put Cena over as Raw’s top name.

Batista vs Triple H – World Heavyweight Title Hell In A Cell Match
JR breaks out the stat that Hunter has never lost a singles Hell In A Cell. He hasn’t faced many more imposing individuals than Batista inside the structure though, so will need all of that experience, strategy and guile if he is to regain the World Title tonight. By now we now the history of these two, with HHH mentoring and developing Batista within Evolution…before (just like Randy Orton before him) Dave got fed up playing second-in-command to Helmsley’s egotistical top dog act and wanted the spotlight for himself. He won the belt in a surprisingly good WrestleMania 21 main event, and survived a rematch marred by endless interference and controversy at Backlash. The Game now breaks out the most sinister gimmick match the WWE has to offer in one final high stakes roll of the dice looking to get the strap back.

HHH tries to get the jump on Batista, but fails…then tries to drag him out and brain him against the Cell and fails that too. The raw power of the champion is too much for him and soon Helmsley finds himself taking repeated trips into the steel. The Game needs all of his HIAC experience – and uses some by tripping Dave shoulder-first into the ringpost. Fighting one-armed will obviously negate the power and sure enough it opens up a window for HHH to send him crashing back and shoulder-first into the Cell over and over. Hunter is the first to bring weapons into play too; flogging Batista with a length of chain before wrapping it around his neck and violently throttling him. Batista’s size makes it impossible to control him from that position though, and soon Dave has possession of the chain. He utterly HAMMERS Helmsley with it! That looked horrific! Triple H is bleeding…but he reaches under the ring again and pulls out a steel chair wrapped in barbed wire! BARBED WIRE CHAIR SHOTS TO THE BACK! Instantly Dave’s back has droplets of blood oozing down it. He swats HHH back with a clothesline and gives him a BARBED WIRE CHAIR IN THE FACE! There is no doubt HHH has taken more punishment now, with blood pouring down his face and more flesh being scraped from his forehead as the champ cheesegrates his face on the Cell. A desperate Pedigree attempt is blocked, then countered into a RUNNING POWERSLAM ON THE BARBED WIRE CHAIR! DDT ON THE BARBED WIRE BY HHH! Now Dave is bleeding badly too! This isn’t a position he’s been in often in his career and he staggers around the ring in shock as The Game pulls out his sledgehammer from under the ring. SLEDGEHAMMER TO THE FACE! Batista kicks out at 2! He kicks Helmsley in the balls to drive him back…and grabs the hammer for himself! CHAIN-WRAPPED PUNCH BY HHH! He swoops for a second…only for Batista to jab the sledgehammer into his THROAT! The hulking champion is building momentum; powering the challenger to the floor and mowing him down with the ring steps to the head. He hauls half of the steps into the ring and props them in the corner – before sending metallic clangs echoing through the arena with Hunter’s skull! Batista Bomb countered with a low blow! PEDIGREE NAILED! STILL JUST 2! Triple H is getting desperate, so sets up a Pedigree on the steps. COUNTERED WITH A SPINEBUSTER ON THE STEEL! Hunter tries to crawl away! BATISTA BOMB! Dave earns a third straight PPV win over HHH at 26:54

Rating - **** - Comfortably the best of the HHH/Batista 2005 trilogy, and probably HHH’s best individual Cell Match since Foley. These two actually had good chemistry as workers – with the straight wrestling portions of their prior matches being very good before overbooking derailed them to varying degrees. The Cell meant that wasn’t an issue, so for 25+ minutes these two went to war – and they did a great job. It wasn’t the speediest of matches (coming from Lucha Underground reviews to this felt like watching them in slow-motion!) and the start was very heavy going, but they kept a firm grasp on the story they wanted to tell and found ways to continually crank up the tension. HHH used all his HIAC knowledge to his advantage, negating Batista’s power with both strategy and weaponry he had apparently planted under the ring ahead of time. Dave is a big, muscular power guy – but he isn’t someone who’s been in this match before, he isn’t someone who’s worked lots of hardcore stunt matches and he isn’t someone who knows how to fight whilst losing blood. HHH is a veteran of all three – so worked that angle to his advantage and came perilously close to victory on a number of occasions. This doesn’t quite legitimise Batista the way Undertaker bleeding from a giant hole in his head did for Brock Lesnar back in 2002 – but Hunter really couldn’t have done much more to put Batista over with this feud. Dave would now take the World Title and close out the Draft Lottery month by heading to Smackdown. A change of scenery, getting him on a separate show to HHH, is definitely the right call. He’s been made a top star by this feud…now to see how he copes on his own.

Tape Rating - *** - This was a surprisingly decent pay-per-view. Only two matches got any time of course – but they were both very good. Michaels/Angle was a worthy sequel to their all-time WrestleMania classic, and HHH/Batista over-delivered on expectations in their surprisingly watchable Hell In A Cell Match. Obviously I could have done without Christy Hemme wrestling and a Godfather/Viscera/Lillian Garcia skit on the undercard…but everything else was decent to a varying degree. There are some poor pay-per-views out there on the WWE Network, but this definitely isn’t one of them.

Top 3 Matches
3) John Cena vs Christian vs Chris Jericho (***)
2) Batista vs Triple H (****)
1) Shawn Michaels vs Kurt Angle (****1/2)

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