The Shimmy 4.23.07: Interpromotional Matches (Part Two)- The War
Posted by Andy Clark on 04.23.2007
The Interpromotional series heats up as Raw and SmackDown go to war!
Hokie, hokie hi, everyone. Yes, I just gave the Virginia Tech salutation. That's a shout out to all the people affected by last week's tragedy. I know it's probably a bit cliché a week later, but being from Virginia I know all too well how people have been affected by last Monday's events. While my allegiance to the University of Virginia has prompted many a Virginia Tech joke in this column there is nothing funny about murder, especially at the scale it was committed. My best friend goes to Tech and lost a good friend in the shootings. I know he'll never read this but I will still say for the world to see that I am there for him, and for any others that were affected.
Now, with the somber portion of the column out of the way, let's move on to the task at hand. When last we left the Brand Extension/Interpromotional Matches series two weeks ago, we had just concluded 2004. For the most part the brands were kept separate outside of a few special occasions. There was a respectful feud between Raw and SmackDown, but nothing too brutal. In 2005, that would change.
2005 started off simple enough with the Royal Rumble. Raw was represented by Chris Benoit, Gregory Helms, Edge, Shelton Benjamin, Chris Jericho, Muhammad Hassan, Simon Dean, Shawn Michaels, Jonathan Coachman, Viscera, Snitsky, Kane, Batista, Christian, and Ric Flair. SmackDown's contribution to the Rumble consisted of Eddie Guerrero, Daniel Puder, Hardcore Holly, Kenzo Suzuki, Rey Mysterio, Booker T, Luther Reigns, Orlando Jordan, Scotty 2 Hotty, Charlie Haas, Renee Dupree, Kurt Angle, Mark Jindrak, Paul London, and John Cena. In the end it was Batista and John Cena as the final two men in the ring, a sign of things to come. After one controversial finish where both men went over the top rope the match was restarted with Batista picking up the victory.
Raw and SmackDown would not meet again until the next co-branded PPV, WrestleMania 21. Before the show started there was 30 Man Battle Royal, featuring Raw's Chris Masters, Viscera, William Regal, Tajiri, Gregory Helms, Rosey, Rhyno, Val Venis, Tyson Tomko, Snitsky, Rob Conway, Sylvain, Simon Dean, and Maven as well as SmackDown's Booker T, Orlando Jordan, Hardcore Holly, Charlie Haas, Paul London, Scotty 2 Hotty, Nunzio, Funaki, Akio, Doug Basham, Danny Basham, Luther Reigns, Mark Jindrak, Heidenreich, and Spike Dudley. The biggest star of the group was Booker T and fittingly enough he would emerge victorious.
The PPV portion of WrestleMania 21 would feature two more Interpromotional Matches, this time of much more importance. The first match would be the Legend vs. Legend Killer Match pitting SmackDown's Undertaker vs. Raw's Randy Orton. The second would be a battle to see who was the greatest wrestler of his generation, pitting SmackDown's Kurt Angle vs. Raw's Shawn Michaels. In both instances SmackDown was the winner. SmackDown had gone 3-0 at the biggest show of the year.
Raw and SmackDown would stay out of each other's way for a while, only meeting up in a midcard match at the June One Night Stand PPV. There was an old-school ECW Three-Way Dance between SmackDown's Nunzio, Raw's Tajiri, and an as-of-yet-unaffiliated Super Crazy. Crazy took advantage of the big stage to make a good first impression on WWE audiences by pulling out the duke, defeated a member of both rosters.
The war really wouldn't start until WWE Homecoming in October, however. Vince McMahon had scheduled a SmackDown showcase match for the big show, a match that ultimately ended up being Batista, Chris Benoit, & Rey Mysterio vs. JBL, Eddie Guerrero, & Christian. Raw GM Eric Bischoff had other plans, though, as he ordered the lights be turned off in the building and for the show to go to commercial. SmackDown would seek revenge later in the night by sending out what SmackDown superstars were in the building to attack Bischoff, WWE Champion John Cena, and No. 1 Contender Kurt Angle. This would lead to a locker room clearing brawl to end the show.
There would be no actual in-ring confrontation between the two brands until October 31 on Raw. Chris Masters would open up the Masterlock Challenge to Rey Mysterio. Mysterio would take the opportunity to attack Masters. Still, nothing was solved.
Taboo Tuesday would be host to two Interpromotional Matches. The first saw Chris Masters & Snitsky (substituting for an injured Edge) against the fan chosen SmackDown team of Rey Mysterio & Matt Hardy. Speed would overcome strength in this match as Rey and Matt won. The second match would be a Street Fight between the World Heavyweight Champion Batista (substituting for a pissed off Stone Cold Steve Austin) and Raw's Jonathan Coachman (backed by the bizarre and random team of Goldust and Vader). Even Vader's massive girth could not stop Batista from coming out victorious. Raw had gone 0-2 at their own shown.
Eric Bischoff would not be pleased at this outcome. In fact, he would take his anger out on just about everybody. His main target was Edge, a man that had claimed he didn't give a damn about Raw. In order to make Edge regret his words Bischoff arranged for Edge to meet Batista on SmackDown in a Street Fight. Little did Batista know that it was only a trap, allowing the World Tag Team Champions Big Show & Kane to destroy the Animal.
The Raw and SmackDown feud would be put on the backburner for a week, however, due to the sudden and tragic death of Eddie Guerrero. Raw and SmackDown both delivered tribute shows in Eddie's honor and they filled them with Interpromotional Matches. It's a shame about the nature of these shows because on paper they are really good lineups. Unfortunately it's really not something that could be enjoyed at the time.
The dark match saw SmackDown's Mr. Kennedy defeat Raw's Val Venis. On Raw the following action took place: World Tag Team Champions Big Show & Kane defeated WWE Tag Team Champions MNM; SmackDown's Rey Mysterio defeated Shawn Michaels; Melina (of SmackDown) came out on top in a Divas Battle Royal that also included Raw divas Trish Stratus, Ashley Massaro, Maria, Victoria, Mickie James, and Candice Michelle, as well as SmackDown divas Christy Hemme and Jillian Hall; Raw's Eugene defeated SmackDown's Simon Dean; Raw's Ric Flair defeated SmackDown's William Regal; and WWE Champion John Cena beat SmackDown's Randy Orton by DQ.
On SmackDown we saw the following: SmackDown's Matt Hardy defeated Raw's Carlito, SmackDown's Heidenreich & Animal defeated Raw's Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch, Raw's Chavo Guerrero fittingly defeated SmackDown's JBL, SmackDown's Juventud won a Cruiserweight Battle Royal that included fellow SmackDown superstars Super Crazy, Psicosis, Paul London, Brian Kendrick, Nunzio, Scotty 2 Hotty, Kid Kash, and Funaki, plus Raw superstars Gregory Helms and Tajiri; and Chris Benoit defeated Triple H.
After a week of morning it was back to business as usual for WWE. On the final Raw before the big Raw vs. SmackDown showdown at Survivor Series, Team Raw captain Shawn Michaels took on the wannabe Team SmackDown captain JBL in a Lumberjack Match. Of course nothing was settled before the PPV and we just got another big brawl to end the show.
Survivor Series 2005 would be all about the SmackDown vs. Raw war. The first Interpromotional confrontation would be for Trish Stratus' Women's Title as she would successfully defend against Melina. The second match would see SmackDown GM Teddy Long best Raw GM Eric Bischoff in a Battle of the General Managers thanks to an assist by The Boogeyman.
With Teddy's win the score was all tied up at one apiece. The main event pitted Team Raw of Shawn Michaels, Big Show, Kane, Carlito, & Chris Masters against Team SmackDown of Batista, Randy Orton, JBL, Bobby Lashley, and Rey Mysterio. Both teams showed a surprising amount of cohesion despite personal issues and there were some surprising results as well. SmackDown would lose the inexperienced Lashley early in the contest as well as their team captain, the already injured World Heavyweight Champion Batista. Raw would then lose its two biggest members in the World Tag Team Champions Big Show & Kane. To make matters worse Shawn Michaels would be laid out on the floor for a good five minutes. This allowed Team SmackDown to pick apart the "Young Studs" Carlito and Masters. Michaels would eventually reawaken and start a miraculous comeback, elimination both Rey Mysterio and JBL within seconds of one another. Unfortunately the comeback would die at the hands of an RKO. SmackDown had won!
Despite the big blowoff of the Raw-SmackDown feud, there were still some residual effects from the Survivor Series match. The following Tuesday on a SmackDown special Rey Mysterio met Big Show in a special "David vs. Goliath Match." The match would actually end as a no contest thanks to interference from Kane, Undertaker, Randy Orton, and Eddie Guerrero's lowrider.
Rey and Big Show would try and settle their score a few days later on SmackDown as Rey teamed with JBL against Big Show & Kane. With the big Survivor Series showdown over JBL saw no more reason to aid Rey Mysterio as he would abandon Rey midmatch leaving him to be destroyed by the two giants. Rey would then attempt to find a better partner, and find one he did: World Champion Batista. Rey and Batista would actually win the WWE Tag Team Titles from MNM before clashing with the World Tag Team Champions at Armageddon. Big Show & Kane would come away victorious yet again due to Rey's size and Batista's still injury back.
After Armageddon the issues between the two brands would cool. There would only be one more Interpromotional Match before the year was through and it would take place during the Tribute to the Troops show. Santa Claus would arrive to spread Christmas cheer to the soldiers in Iraq. Or so it would seem. Santa would actually go on to badmouth the troops, sounding suspiciously like JBL. The bad Santa would soon be interrupted by the real Jolly Old St. Mick, errr, Nick. That's right, the real Santa had arrived…right here in Baghdad, Iraq! The two Santa's would have to settle their dispute the only way a Santa could: in a No Ho-Ho-Holds Barred Match. Jolly Old St. Mick would get the final say so thanks to the help of a sack loaded full of presents. The troops ended the year with WWE action and Raw ended the year with a win.
That's where we'll stop this week. Next week I'll take a look at 2006 and the rise of ECW as the third brand. Then in two weeks I'll wrap things up with a look at the current era of the Brand Extension. As always your thoughts and opinions are welcome!
Andy's PPV in Review
Last week I ordered TNA Lockdown. I like to get the "Big Three" TNA PPVs (Lockdown, Slammiversary, Bound For Glory) and I was pleasantly surprised with this show. I ordered the replay of the show which is why I couldn't get it into last week's column, and also why I didn't get to see the VKM vs. Serotonin match. No bother really, because as much as I like Raven, Serotonin is lame. Anyhwho, my thoughts:
The X-Division XScape Match was really fun. Much better than last year's, that's for sure. I agree with most everyone else that a Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley tag team would rule. I know they're teaming in ROH so here's hoping TNA picks up the ball on that one. Reports stated that LAX was playing face at the TNA house show in Louisville this weekend so if that's the route they're going an LAX-Motor City Machine Guns feud would be cool.
Robert Roode vs. Petey Williams wasn't half bad. I find Robert Roode to be incredibly boring and Petey Williams as a face isn't much better. Eric Young lost his cult hero status long ago. Still, this match was better than I expected and wasn't the worst match on the card.
Gail Kim vs. Miss Jackie Moore was pretty good too. Nothing spectacular but it was intense enough women's action to justify it a PPV spot. The big spot at the end was unfortunately botched but they managed to save it. Plus it was quite funny watching Don West try and cop a feel on Gail Kim when she was thrown on the announce desk.
Senshi vs. Austin Starr was OK, but their midcardom really hurt it. Both men have been stuck in Nowhereville for quite some time and Starr has the additional baggage of the shitty gimmick. Throw in Bob Backlund's comedy routine and you just have an unimportant mess. Starr was suspended by TNA after this show, if he's smart he'll just stick to being a star in ROH because there is really nothing for him in TNA.
I didn't hate the Blindfold Match as much as most. Yeah, the match sucked something hard but I actually enjoyed the dedication to the gimmick. It was a well executed Blindfold Match. Unfortunately Blindfold Matches suck. I will say that not being able to keep the blindfolds on looked a bit bush league.
The Electrified Cage Match was another intriguing mess. The actual match itself was pretty good. The execution of the gimmick was horrible. I don't blame the fans for crapping all over the cheesy special effects. If they couldn't have done better then they shouldn't have done the gimmick. How about a Flaming Tables Match inside the Six Sides of Steel instead? I was under the impression that when they did those kinds of matches in Mexico that they cages were legitimately electrified so I was pretty disappointed in what we got. It was nice to see Team 3D finally get to win the belts although it sucks that they cut their celebration short. And I though Rey Mysterio didn't get time to celebrate.
I enjoyed Lethal Lockdown very much. This is the first TNA PPV I've seen this year so I may not be too qualified to say this, but I would imagine it would have to be up there as one of the best TNA matches so far in 2007. Again, this was much better than last year's effort. I thought the storytelling with Jarrett was well done and there was action throughout. I always hate when matches like this can only end once everybody is in the cage because the lack of fall attempts disrupts the flow of the match, but they managed to make this match flow perfectly well. One good thing is that if the St. Louis crowd is any indication then as long as Samoa Joe wins the title outside of Orlando it should still be seen as a big deal.
All in all I enjoyed by PPV purchase. I look forward to ordering Slammiversary in June. Hopefully King of the Mountain will be back.
Hey, I wrote after your post-wrestlemania column and am writing again. I was
pretty harsh since I wanted to defend the lousy crowd, but now I want to
comment more. I actually think it's good that the crowd was dead. It may
give a sign to the 'E that they had better put on better storylines with
better blow-off matches or else the crowd isn't going to care. It's hard to
get into a match that was thrown together as an insta-feud and has no
significance. It's even harder when the match itself is only given 5 minutes
on a card that ended a half hour early. If Benoit-MVP had gotten 15 instead
of 10 with a better build, then the crowd would have been hot, and the TV
audience would be more likely to buy more PPV's. I've never been able to
understand why the 'E won't deliver the matches they know people want to
see, so hopefully they'll understand from now on, better storlyines + better
matches = better buyrates, but that is optomistically wishful thinking to
the extreme.
I would have enjoyed five more minutes to the match. Either that or a London & Kendrick vs. Flair & Carlito title match. I agree that it's annoying when they end early, but I stopped considering that early long ago. Just be happy when they go late. I really thought most people were digging the storylines heading into Mania, so if you didn't I'm sorry.
John Bryant wants to know my ish with MVP-Benoit:
Why is it such a big deal that MVP lost to the Flying Headbutt? I mean it
wouldn't of made sense for Benoit to win by the Crossface since MVP had been
working his arm all night and logically he wouldn't have the strength in his
arm for such a potentially long-lasting move.
Because Benoit hasn't used that move to win in forever and it made MVP look like a jobber. Had they even had Benoit win just one or two matches with the move in recent months I would have bought it. Like I've already said, I would have used that superplex into a small package as the finish (although obviously not that soon in the match). I've actually enjoyed how they've carried over that loss into the storyline (MVP avoids the move at all costs), but I'm not a big fan of using WrestleMania to start storylines.
Borikwa 23 liked last week's column:
Couldn't agree with you more. Word for word you described how I feel. Great
column.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I had fun writing it so I'm glad someone else dug it.
500 Good Words w/ Matt Adamson
Champion vs. Champion – Part 4
With Backlund holding the WWWF title, it really seemed as it things were moving toward a more open promotional type of philosophy within the wrestling business. That relationship that I spoke of last week between the NWA and WWWF was beneficial for both during this time as they were competing for business with the very strong American Wrestling Association. Vince McMahon Sr. was still running the WWWF and he sat on the board of the NWA during this time. The chief competition for the NWA and the WWWF was the AWA, owned by Verne Gagne. These promotions had been fighting for the top spot in North America but with the NWA and WWWF working together, they were gaining ground over the AWA. What did the AWA do to try and catapult itself? They agreed to a champion vs. champion match of course.
It was March 25th 1979, and the match was set between AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel and the WWWF Champion Bob Backlund. It was fairly unusual for Verne Gagne to agree to work with the NWA or the WWWF at this time. He would later soften on this stance because it became necessary for him to do so to stay in business. This match between Bockwinkel and Backlund would be the only meeting between the WWWF and AWA champions. The match would end up as a double countout so both men could return as champions to their respective companies.
During Backlund's substantial title reign he would wrestle three more champion vs. champion unification matches with the NWA champion. The first two would be during the fall of 1980 where he would face Harley Race. The first match, on September 22nd, would go to Backlund by disqualification, making it the first of these types of champion vs. champion matches to not result in a draw during this period. The second of these two matches with Race would go the opposite way, but with the same result as Race would gain the victory by disqualification. The last of Backlund's three champion vs. champion matches would come two years later, and the NWA would have a new champion.
It was July 4th 1982; Bob Backlund had yet to meet the end of his reign as WWWF Champion. The NWA had seen a couple major title changes during this period which would leave a young promising wrestler named Ric Flair as their champion. The match was set to take place in The Omni in Atlanta, GA, which was NWA territory through and through. As with all the other champion vs. champion matches of this era, neither man came out wearing both belts as the match was a double countout. This match really marked the end of an era for matches like these as there wouldn't be another one for several years, and it would be well over a decade, almost two decades before it would happen on this scale in North America.
It wouldn't take long before Vince McMahon Jr. purchased Capitol Sports from his father and changed the WWWF into the World Wrestling Federation, or the WWF. When this happened, McMahon made a push to go national, effectively segregating himself from the other two companies. The WWF would cease relationships with the NWA and the AWA almost immediately after the young Vince took over. The three companies would only work together one more time when out of respect to Pacific Northwest promoter Don Owens, Vince McMahon allowed for his top heel Roddy Piper to wrestle at the Portland Wrestling 60th Anniversary show in Portland on May 21st 1985. The show drew 12,000 fans to the Memorial Coliseum as Roddy Piper resumed his feud with Buddy Rose and became a baby face for the day. Rose had been wrestling for the AWA during this time. The most significant thing about this show however, is that the AWA and the NWA had sent some of their talent to work the show. The AWA sent Sgt. Slaughter, The Road Warriors, Rick Martel, and Curt and Larry Hennig while the NWA sent Ric Flair, and local NWA Pacific Northwest territorial wrestlers Mike Miller and Billy Jack Haynes. This would mark the last time these three companies would ever work together again.
To be continued…
Well, more champion vs. champion goodness has come and gone. With the AWA going under in 1991 and WCW being bought by McMahon in 2001, there would be a long break between champion vs. champion matches involving two North American champions. In the rare case that there was a champion vs. champion match it would involve Japanese World titles as one or both of the titles defended. Next week, I'll cover a large amount of time, from 1985-2001 as the wrestling world became split and nobody wanted to work together and champion vs. champion matches became rarer than ever.
Make sure to read The Shimmy next week as well as my column "Destiny" on Sunday. This week's column I talked about home grown talent. Next week I'll be covering All Japan's big show complete with match predictions. Comments or questions or ALL CAPS ANGRY RANTS, email me at voldegalle@yahoo.com. Until next time.
The Shimmy Likes It Raw!
What's on tap for tonight's show?
WrestleMania Rematch: John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels; Who cares if there is going to be a screwy finish? The match should be great! I'm quite jealous that my friend Nina will be there to see it live. If my experiences with Brits during WrestleMania weekend is any indication London is going to make Chicago seem like a day at the beach for Cena. I actually wouldn't be surprised to see HBK pick up the win setting up another rematch somewhere down the line, perhaps One Night Stand? I'd love to see either a Ladder Match or Iron Man Match between these two.
The Great Khali will be in action; Is that a warning? Could he end up with an IC Title shot against Santino Marella?
That does it for this week. Hurry back here next week as the Interpromotional Matches series continues. Matt Adamson will continue his look at Champion vs. Champion Matches and we'll see the return of Andy Critchell as he writes on the young talent at WWE's disposal. Until then, don't die. Clark…out.
