The Shimmy 3.03.08: The History of the World Heavyweight Championship (Part 2)

Posted by Andy Clark on 03.03.2008

From Goldberg to Batista and everyone in between. Yes, that includes 2004. ::spooky fingers::

When last we met Goldberg had just overcome the odds to defeat Triple H for his first World Heavyweight Championship. Triple H would be do distraught over this loss that he would take a brief hiatus away from the ring, but he made sure to put a bounty on the head of Goldberg while he was gone. The first person to go after the new champion would be Chris Jericho, although he wouldn't take up the bounty hunt, but instead looked for revenge for Raw GM Eric Biscoff. Goldberg successfully defended his title against the first ever Undisputed Champion but then turned his attention to those that would try and collect that bounty. While he was busy fending off the likes of Mark Henry and Rodney Mack, Shawn Michaels set his sights on the title. The two men met in a dream match on Raw, a match that possibly could have been one of Goldberg's best if it had the chance to be completed. The match would be interrupted by a freshly returning Batista who claimed the bounty by taking out both Goldberg and Shawn Michaels. Having the biggest member of Evolution back from injury provided all the incentive Triple H needed to get back in the title picture and get his return match at Survivor Series. This time Triple H lost to Goldberg despite interference from all three Evolution members.

At this point Triple H still carried some favor with Bischoff so he got one more shot at Goldberg's title, this time with Bischoff himself as the outside referee. The two men very well could have screwed Goldberg out of the title if not for one little thing: an interfering Kane. Kane came to the ring and laid out both men, stating that he wanted a title shot. And when a big nasty monster like Kane wants a title shot, you give him a title shot. That didn't mean Triple H was out of the picture. On the contrary Triple H also received one more shot as Goldberg met Triple H and Kane in a Triple Threat Match at Armageddon. Finally having Evolution as his backup paid off as Triple H was able to score the pinfall on Goldberg while his cronies held off Kane. Triple H was once again the World Heavyweight Champion.

The next night on Raw Triple H would be pinned in a tag team match by his old nemesis Shawn Michaels. As his last act of his short stint as Co-General Manager, Mick Foley gave HBK a title shot in his hometown of San Antonio on the first Raw after the holidays. The two men fought in a classic match, thought of to be one of the best matches in Raw history. By the end of the match both men were exhausted, and when Michaels finally hit The Game with Sweet Chin Music he also fell on top of him in a fatigued state. Eric Biscoff had been forced to take over the refereeing duties when the assigned referee was knocked out and he hopped to the canvas to count the three. Shawn Michaels was the new World Heavyweight Champion! Or so we thought. It turns out that Michaels' shoulders also happened to be on the mat when the pin occurred, meaning the match was actually a draw, and in the event of a draw the title stays with the champion. Shawn was pissed but this would eventually be rectified. Moments later Stone Cold Steve Austin was announced as the new "Raw Sherriff" and a week later Austin exerted his authority as Sherriff to book Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels in a Last Man Standing Match at the Royal Rumble with the title on the line. Once again the two tore into each other in a fantastic match that saw both men bloody. It also saw both men not answer a ten count which meant that we had yet another draw.

With the Royal Rumble over it was time to turn our attention to WrestleMania. What would be the Raw main event for the big show? Michaels stated his case for one more shot at Triple H's title, but Stone Cold would have a surprise for both men: the 2004 Royal Rumble winner Chris Benoit. Benoit was a SmackDown superstar and even had a feud started with the reigning WWE Champion Brock Lesnar but he decided to use his guaranteed title shot on the Raw brand. This meant that it would be Triple H vs. Chris Benoit at WrestleMania XX in Madison Square Garden and Shawn Michaels would be on the outside looking in. Or would he? At the contract signing for the match Michaels once again pleaded his case for a title opportunity, but when Benoit refused to relinquish his own title shot Michaels just superkicked Benoit and signed his own name to the contract. Despite the fact that this contract wouldn't stand up in any court in the United States, it was still upheld by WWE head honchos and Triple H would have to defend his title against in a Triple Threat Match against Michaels and Benoit. Take the classic matches that Triple H and Michaels were having. Add Chris Benoit. Add Madison Square Garden. Add the most heavily promoted WrestleMania of all time. Add an emotional title change that saw the (then) revered Chris Benoit walk away with the gold and hug his also-World-Title-holding best friend Eddie Guerrero midring. And you get one awesome match and one awesome moment. One of the best WrestleMania matches of all time. Hell, one of the best matches of all time PERIOD.

But the story didn't end there. Mr. Benoit still needed to defend his title, and defend it he did on the special Draft edition of Raw. Benoit claimed that he would defend the title against the next SmackDown superstar drafted to Raw. That superstar turned out to be his former tag team partner Rhyno, making his way over to the red team. At this point there was a significant gap between Benoit and Rhyno in terms of who was where on the card so needless to say the Man Beast didn't walk away with the title. Benoit had bigger fish to fry, though, namely a WrestleMania rematch against Triple H and Michaels at Backlash. This Triple Threat Match had the added stipulation that it would never happen again (a stipulation they actually stuck to although had the events of last June not happened I have a feeling it would have been revisited eventually). While Benoit had Triple H tap out to the Crippler Crossface at WrestleMania, Backlash saw Shawn Michaels tap to, ironically enough, the Sharpshooter. And Earl Hebner even called for the bell. Imagine that.

Benoit and Michaels would meet one more time in what was billed the "Duel in the Desert." Benoit retained but not without some help from Triple H who knocked HBK cold with a Pedigree. While Triple H and Michaels went on to finish their feud, Benoit found himself challenged by Kane who had won a Battle Royal to earn his title opportunity. They met at Bad Blood and Benoit got a flash pin on the Big Red Monster, but the two men wouldn't be done with each other yet. Kane got one more shot at the title and thanks to some wacky rulings by Eric Bischoff the title could actually change hands by disqualification or countout but could only be retained by submission. I don't think Benoit was planning on getting DQ'd or counted out anyway so I guess it didn't matter, especially with a bevy of submission moves in his arsenal. Kane would eventually tap out to the Crossface and I know…(cue Chris Berman voice) because I was there.

With Kane done with Chris Benoit found himself once again facing Triple H. This time there was the added element of Eugene, a man that was Benoit's friend and who thought he was Triple H's friend as well. Triple H had concocted some sort of wacky scheme to get Eugene to help him with the title, one that I still don't entirely understand because Benoit saw through his plan from the get go. In fact Eugene's interference actually ended up costing Triple H the title at Vengeance, and the next night on Raw when Eugene got a shot at the World Title, Triple H exacted his revenging, interrupting the match and brutalizing Eugene. Two weeks later and Triple H and Benoit met one more time, this time in a 60 Minute Iron Man Match. With the match all tied up in the waning moments, Eugene made his return from the beatdown and delivered one of his own to Triple H, allowing Benoit to get the deciding fall.

Earlier in the night Benoit's next challenger had been determined as Triple H's Evoultion understudy Randy Orton won a Battle Royal to earn the right to face Benoit at SummerSlam in Toronto. After having a great run as the Intercontinental Champion, Orton was ready to step it up to the World Title ranks. In front of a surprisingly supportive crowd Orton hit Benoit with a truly out of nowhere RKO to win the title and become the youngest World Champion in WWE history. The next night on Raw Orton was gracious enough to give Benoit his rematch, a match that Orton once again won. After the match Orton celebrated with his Evolution teammates…until they turned on him and started kicking his ass. You don't win the World Heavyweight Title so long as Triple H is around, especially when you are supposed to be his ally. At Unforgiven the two men met for the title and thanks to some help from his remaining Evolution cohorts Triple H prematurely ended Orton's title reign.

Thanks to some shenanigans involving a Ric Flair-Randy Orton match, Orton wouldn't get another title shot so long as Triple H was champion, so Orton wouldn't get his rematch. The fans would have the power to vote on Triple H's next opponent at Taboo Tuesday, and Shawn Michaels won out, besting Edge and Chris Benoit. Michaels was already injured heading into the match but he gutted it out for the fans. Unfortunately Edge didn't take too kindly to be passed over by the fans and he interfered, costing HBK the title. Triple H would go about a month without defending the title, but after Randy Orton's Survivor Series team won the right to run Raw for a month, he knew the title defenses were coming. The first was against Maven, who Triple H offered a spot in Evolution to instead of taking the title shot. Maven turned down the Evolution invite but he should have taken it as Triple H soundly defeated him. His next defense would come on the night Randy Orton was interim GM. Originally Orton had booked Triple H to defend his title against the entire Raw roster (minus himself) in a Battle Royal, but Mr. McMahon overruled that, stating that even Stevie Richards could win a Battle Royal and we wouldn't want that. Instead he made the Battle Royal be for the No. 1 Contender's spot, but even that ended up in controversy. Chris Benoit and Edge both went over the top at the same time, so instead of having one No. 1 Contender we had two. Later that night Triple H met both men in a Triple Threat Match. While Triple H was knocked out of the ring Benoit forced Edge to tap out…at the same time that Edge pinned Benoit. With a flabbergasted Randy Orton looking on the World Heavyweight Title was vacated.

In the weeks that followed things got even messier. Due to the title vacancy Chris Jericho couldn't book himself a title match a week later when he was interim GM. Batista (who had slowly started to show some signs of individuality in the ranks of Evolution) then pinned Chris Benoit in a tag team match and Randy Orton beat Edge clean in the middle of the ring. In response to this Eric Bischoff booked an Elimination Chamber Match at New Year's Revolution between Triple H, Benoit, Edge, Batista, Orton, and Jericho for the vacant title. He even added a guest referee that had history with all six men and was also screwed out of the title: Shawn Michaels. Edge was the first man out following an altercation with Michaels, and Batista demolished the two Canadian Chrises to get it down to three men. Triple H and Batista attempted to double team Orton, but Orton managed to pin Batista. It should be noted that Triple H could have aided his Evolution teammate, but chose not to. When it came down to Triple H and Orton it didn't take long for The Game to reclaim the title he never lost.

The next night on Raw Orton and Batista met in a No. 1 Contender's Match. Thanks to some backfiring interference Orton won the match, but this also free Batista up to enter the Royal Rumble Match. At the Rumble Triple H took on a concussed Randy Orton in a match where Evolution was banned from interference (a stipulation that Batista gleefully passed along to his boss). With Orton staggering around in his concussed state he was easy pickings for Triple H. Later that night Batista won the 2005 Royal Rumble Match and he would soon have a decision to make.

Triple H tried to convince Batista to go to SmackDown and win the WWE Title over there so that both of them could be World Champions at the same time. In the meantime Triple H had one more title defense, one against Edge in Japan. Triple H won the match but largely due to help from Batista. As Batista raised Triple H's hand his gaze was transfixed on the champ's big gold belt. Despite this transfixion it looked like Batista may have considered going to SmackDown as he was involved in a physical altercation with WWE Champion JBL at No Way Out. The night after No Way Out Batista had to make his decision. Faced with two contracts he picked up the SmackDown contract and gave an approving Triple H and Ric Flair the thumbs up. Then he threw down the contract and his smile turned into a frown. THUMBS DOWN. Batista took down his now former partners and put Triple H through a table. One month later Triple H and Batista met up at WrestleMania 21 for the World Heavyweight Title. After a domination performance Batista was the new World Heavyweight Champion.

To be continued…

Andy! Andy! At Last You Have Some Feedback!

I forgot to print Geoff's e-mail last week, my apologies Geoff:

It's Geoff again. Great series on the WWE Championship. You forgot the 2007 PWI Match Of The Year though as Michaels and Cena tore the house down on the April 23 Raw from London for almost an hour. But hey, it's about the WWE Championship and that was a non title match, so I'll let that one slide. Just thought I'd mention it.

Also, if you don't already have it, I give the new Stone Cold DVD my highest recommendation. What I really like about it (and this looks like a new trend for future DVDS), is that there are a good number of rare never before released matches and few if any duplicates from other DVDS. This seemed to be the biggest complaint from Amazon.com readers about the History Of The WWE Championship DVD, and it looks like the WWE's finally listening. There are 20 matches in all. But sorry, no epic Smackdown match with Benoit because of what he did last year. It it does end with his match with the Rock from Wrestlemainia X-7 though and that's fine by me. By the way, the DVD is set up much like the Shawn Michaels From The Vault with Austin introducing the matches before they're shown. It took the WWE forever, but they finally released a DVD Stone Cold fans can be proud of. The DVD ends with Austin looking back on his career and thanking the fans for all their support.

Yeah, I didn't include the Cena-Michaels match since it was non-title, but it's still good to mention it. I've never been a huge Austin fan (that's not to say I think he sucks, he was just never "my guy") but the DVD looks really good. WWE is putting a bunch of DVDs out that I want to get, including the Raw 15th Anniversary DVD. I'll probably have to wait to watch the Austin one on WWE 24/7 because there are some DVDs coming out in the future that interest me a bit more. I really want the Hell in a Cell DVD that I believe comes out in the fall. But really we all know that if you are going to buy one DVD this year it has to be The Rock's DVD. Does it come out in May? The WrestleMania DVDs are normally the only ones I buy right when they come out but I think I'll have to make an exception for this one.

The Shimmy Likes It Raw!

We've got a lot of stuff going on tonight. What's on tap?

Big Show's Boxing Exhibition: Big Show will spar with a professional boxer. You think we'll get one of those out of shape indy guys that Vince brought in last summer to represent different fighting styles?

Finlay will Address the Hornswoggle Situation: Is he really Horny's dad? And what will JBL do when Finlay gets there?

The Unveiling of Maria's Playboy Cover: For those without internet access.

There is a Tide in the Affairs of Men

One Tree Hill had their best episode of this season this past week. I know I said that a few weeks ago, but this one was pretty damn good. Three words: Tim. Is. Back. Check it all out at An Unkindness of Ravens!

Well that's all I got this week. I'll continue my rundown of the World Heavyweight Title next week. Until then, don't die. Clark…out.