This was another Smackdown only PPV from May 2004, and it was also great! There was a real difference in Smackdown after Wrestlemania 20. The draft lottery happened shortly after and this started the trend of the top stars going to Raw and Smackdown having to repackage and push younger guys. This of course would lead to a big downfall in the show over the next couple years, but for now it made for entertaining viewing. I didn’t watch much Smackdown from 2004 on, so a lot of this was new to me.
The big main event was Eddie Guerrero retaining the title by DQ over John Bradshaw Layfield. JBL had just been packaged a couple weeks prior and I remember the Internet fans crapping all over the angle at the time and complaining that he was just a tag team jabroni. Well this main event was excellent – a great match with tremendous storytelling. It was also a complete bloodbath with lots of intensity. That’s one thing I noticed watching these old cards – there was so much more intensity in the matches and feuds and that’s lacking today.
The other big match was the Undertaker, who returned as the Dead Man at WM20, beating Booker T. Also, John Cena beat Rene Dupree to retain the US title. Both these matches were surprisingly good. Dupree was an awesome heel at the time with a ton of heat. It’s a shame they got rid of him.
There was also a few laughs, such as the debut of Mordecai who destroyed Scotty 2 Hotty. I wonder why Mordecai didn’t last very long? Also, Chavo Guerrero won the cruiserweight title back from Jacquelin, who beat him in a fluke on Smackdown a few weeks earlier. This match was hilarious, as it featured so much interference from Chavo Classic – a great gimmick. Another funny match was tag team champs Rico and Charlie Haas (lol) beating the tough team of Hardcore Holly and Billy Gunn (lol again). Torrie Wilson beat Dawn Marie. I forgot how hot and awesome Dawn was, and Torrie accidentally rips Dawn’s tights in this match, so she wrestles in her g-string for the last bit of it. In the opener RVD and Rey Mysterio beat the Dudley Boyz.
I’ve been surprised at how good these Smackdown events have been. The matches just seem so much better six years later. Plus they were trying really harder to make new stars out of JBL, Booker T, Rene Dupree, etc.
the RepoDan Wrestling Institution 