Forgotten Favorites 05.14.09: Survivor Series 2004 - Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian

Posted by Jim Grimm on 05.14.2009

Before they were the Gold Standard or the Instant Classic, Shelton and Christian locked up for the IC Title. Check out this classic title match from Survivor Series '04.

Welcome back, wrestling fans. A week away from your most unfavorite wrestling columnist is torture, surely, but the best part of the week has come again. And next week, as Zack de la Rocha might say, it's coming back around again. This is great news if you like classic matches. Bad news if you like well-written columns.

So, who is this Grimm dude and why are you reading his article? Worry not, readers, for I have the answers:

The evil master of wrestling history, who rules from his titanic towers of evil, takes great joy in robbing his followers of cherished memories. He has even gone so far as to wave his billion-dollar wand on more than one occasion in an attempt to completely erase particular pockets of time. Well, we, the people, have refused to stand for such injustices, and as a result, I have been called upon to right the wrongs of time.

Since I'm no fan of never not wasting time, and I ain't not no sucka, let's get down to business. Who wants great wrestling?


Survivor Series - November 14, 2004
Intercontinental Championship
Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian

HOW IT WENT DOWN
In October of 2004, WWE was gearing up for an event that would be the first of its kind. Not only would the event feature matches where fans could determine opponents and stipulations, but it would take place on the hottest PPV night of the week ... Tuesday. Yes, this sounded as retarded then as it does now.

I am, of course, referring to Taboo Tuesday, the precursor to today's Cyber Sunday event. The 2004 installment took place on Tuesday, October 19, and the event was kicked off by Chris Jericho putting his Intercontinental Championship on the line against an opponent of the fans' choosing. Earning a whopping 37% of the vote, Shelton Benjamin was chosen over fourteen other men to wrestle Jericho for the IC Title. To set up for a point I will later prove regarding Shelton's mad overness at the time, let's take a look at the numbers:

Shelton Benjamin 37.48%
Batista 20.11%
Coach 7.01%
Christian 6.69%
Rhyno 5.77%
Maven 4.23%
William Regal 3.81%
The Hurricane 3.77%
Tyson Tomko 2.49%
Tajiri 2.36%
Steven Richards 2.24%
Val Venis 1.69%
Rosey 1.10%
Chuck Palumbo 0.68%
Rodney Mack 0.58%

The fans made the right choice for Mr. Benjamin that night, because ten minutes after stepping into the ring he had won his first IC Title. It was a hell of an upset, and the fans were all over it. Shelton had arrived.

The following week on Raw there was a rematch from Taboo Tuesday. Shelton successfully defended his newly-won title against Jericho, even earning a handshake out of respect from Y2J after the match. But not all Canadians understand this thing called "respect," because moments later Christian was in the ring hitting Benjamin with an Unprettier. After posing with what had at one time been his IC Title, Christian walked off and left Shelton laying.

A match between Shelton and his newfound enemy was made official the following week on Raw. General Manager Eric Bischoff announced several matches for the upcoming Survivor Series PPV, one of which was Shelton putting his title on the line against Captain Charisma.

Later on that night, Christian squared off against The Hurricane in singles competition. Christian pulled out the victory in a hell of an odd match, where, for its majority, Edge stood on the ramp with a mic and hyped his autobiography. After Edge was gone and Christian had earned his pinfall, Shelton Benjamin made his way down to the ring to earn retribution for the sneak attack a week prior. Christian, not to be outsmarted, avoided Shelton long enough to introduce his one-night-only Problem Solver, the World's Largest Love Machine, Viscera. The two-on-one situation was too much for Shelton, who was left laying after a Big Splash from Big Vis.

The attack led to a match later in the evening, where Shelton took on Viscera one-on-one. Despite interference by Christian, the IC Champ was able to outwrestle the big man and pick up the win. Following the match, Christian went for another Unprettier sneak attack, but Shelton turned the tables and connected with the always-devastating T-Bone.

One week later, Christian's original Problem Solver returned to Raw. He was immediately put to work, entering a singles contest against the man that Christian would wrestle on PPV in six days. But, like Viscera, Tyson Tomko was unable to match up to the Gold Standard, falling victim to a T-Bone and a pinfall.

And so, having knocked down each obstacle Christian lined up for him, Shelton Benjamin prepared to defend his IC Title for the first time on PPV. How did it turn out? You be the judge.










WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED
Unlike this Sunday's Judgment Day, Survivor Series '04 is an example of how the IC Title should be booked on PPV. You take two of the midcard's most over talents, put them out for a solid ten-to-fifteen minutes, and let them put each other over. This is an extremely simple concept that WWE seems to have forgotten about completely. I don't mean to take anything away from Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio; being two of the best the company has to offer, there's no doubt that we're going to get a hell of a match out of the two guys. But should two former World Champions be locking up on PPV for a belt that's supposed to launch younger talent to the top? When Survivor Series '04 rolled around, Shelton Benjamin was in the midst of his first IC Title reign. Earlier in the year his career had skyrocketed as a result of being drafted to Raw, marking the beginnings of his singles career. Likewise, Christian was another one of the midcard's best talents, constantly remaining over despite questionable booking. He was a former IC Champion himself, but his days as a TNA World Champion were still ahead of him at the time of his match with Shelton. Putting these two guys up against each other at Survivor Series was exactly how the IC Title should be defended on PPV, showcasing two guys who you could potentially see trading the WWE Title sometime down the line.


Could this be a WWE Title match within the next couple of years?

I'm calling on this match in hopes of the E's recognizance of the power of the IC Title. The Rock had plenty of IC Title matches against the likes of Stone Cold and Triple H before any of the three had held WWE Titles. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit went at it for the IC strap well before they made history over the WWE Title. And before either guy came close to being WWE Champion, Eddie Guerrero and Rob Van Dam were risking life and limb against one another to be called the IC Champ. And during the course of all these title feuds, one common thread remains: You knew that each of these guys was going to make it to the main event. Throwing veterans back into the IC Title picture to put over younger talent is all well and fine every once in a while (Jericho, Flair, and HHH immediately come to mind) but sometimes the best way to do it is to just put two young guys in the ring and let them go. When Shelton and Christian went out there for their match, they knew that if they could do something special against each other, then each man was going to benefit. Both of their careers were riding out the way the match came across, and if that isn't an incentive, I don't know what is. Anyone who was totally unfamiliar with Christian or Shelton and watched this match would, by the end, likely be thinking, "Cool moves. Lots of applause. These guys will be important." The IC Title automatically adds intrigue to any midcard match, and when you're testing out two potential main eventers against one another with the title on the line, the people will react.

Another good reason to remember this one is because its a quality representation of the IC Champion that Shelton Benjamin was. Although he didn't have many standout PPV title defenses, everytime he stepped into the ring the crowd ate his moveset up. He couldn't talk to save his life, but hot damn, the dude could (and still can) wrestle. Since major title defenses were lacking for the Gold Standard, I think this match against Christian best sums up what Shelton's reign was like: hot crowd, clever counters, impressive aerial offense, and a hell of a T-Bone. He reminded me of Benoit's IC Title reign a few years earlier, where he was perpetually over based on having badass matches every week, regardless of how terrible he may have been on the mic. Shelton was mad over, and I wish WWE would have capitalized on it more. He would've brought big interest to an IC Title match at WrestleMania the following year, but throwing him into the first of many Money In The Banks was deemed a better choice than letting him defend the strap.

And let's not forget that shortly after Survivor Series, we got a hell of a rematch. Well, sort of.

I give you ... CAPTAIN CHARISMA!





WHY IT ISN'T REMEMBERED
As I said, Shelton's IC Title reign wasn't the most memorable. This is pretty sad considering Shelton's reign at this time would be the tenth longest IC Title reign in history, lasting an amazingly long 355 days. During this particular reign, Shelton had two standout matches with Chris Jericho (his title victory at Taboo Tuesday and a successful defense at Backlash) and his Survivor Series match against Christian. Other than that, Shelton didn't do a whole lot in those 355 days. Oh, there were some classics against Maven and Snitsky, but even those five-star encounters weren't enough to make much of a mark in the history books. The IC Title WrestleMania curse had begun a couple of years earlier (which continued up until this year) and Shelton was, as my favorite vertically challenged wrestler might say, just another victim. Despite the fact that Shelton was a hell of a talent and damned over with the fans, his history-making title reign would only make history in its length.


Shelton never got the standout title reign he deserved

While Shelton was a victim of misuse by the E's powers that be, so too was our current ECW Champion. The first few months of 2004 saw a new direction in Christian's career, where, with Trish Stratus and Tyson Tomko at his side, a push into the main event seemed looming. But after a sick cage match with Jericho (which you can read all about in the awesome Grimm Archive at the bottom), Christian was put on the shelf with an injury, knocked out of action for several months. By the time he returned in the late summer, it became clear that the dude was right back where he had started. Although we were teased with potential big time programs with guys like Shawn Michaels and John Cena, the rest of Christian's WWE career (up until his departure for TNA) featured next to nothing of significance. Less than a year after his match with Shelton, Christian would be gone from WWE, with the only significant occurrence in that less-than-a-year timespan being the "What if?" of a serious Cena-Christian rivalry. There are indeed memorable moments of Christian's pre-TNA career in WWE, but his last year there was certainly lacking in them.


WILL IT BE REMEMBERED?
I don't think WWE's going out of its way to forget this match, but then again I don't see any reason for them go back and revisit it anytime soon. Neither Shelton nor Christian is getting a career DVD anytime soon, although if one of them does this would be a hell of an addition to a match listing. You can check this one out on the Survivor Series '04 DVD (or online), but other than that, you're probably not going to find much on this match. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be a good little wrestling fan and tell all of your friends about it. Do your duty: Great wrestling must not be ignored!

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Dear Me,

Why are you such a failure when it comes to consistently responding to feedback?

Posted By: Me

Well, Me, I guess it's just because I'm a failure. But you should already know that. Or it might be because the semester is nearing its end and finals have ruined my life.

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Another week, another awesome match to cover. 411 rules for giving me the opportunity to do this for you guys. And no, I was not asked to say that. Oh yeah, you guys should make sure to bookmark 411 or, dare I say, make it your home page. And yeah, I might've been asked to say that. But that doesn't make it bad advice.

Until next time, keep the debate going and suggestions coming. And as usual, stay safe and out of jail.