wrestling / TV Reports
The Vengeance 2005 Breakdown
WWE Vengeance
They work Shelton’s botched tope into an angle here, pondering what condition he’ll be in. Shelton has spiffy blue and gold tights. He goes for a quick pin off a fireman’s carry. They mat wrestle early until Shelton starts with the fisticuffs. Carlito starts to take a walk, but Benjamin chases him down. Carlito avoids a charge, but Benjamin hops to the top rope, spins around, and flies off the top with a clothesline for two. There is a small vocal minority of fans that get behind Carlito as he gets two off a series of slams. Benjamin schoolboys Carlito for two and ten hits a flying reverse elbow. Carlito fires away with rights but runs right into a Samoan Drop. JR is really hitting the gas on that “Shelton’s still injured” excuse. The frat boys are actively booing Shelton during his big comeback. He gets his chinlock into a neckbreaker and goes up. Carlito catches him, but Shelton dives off the top and snaps Carlito’s neck off the top rope. Shelton springboards into a bulldog. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Carlito unties the top turnbuckle pad and gets a sort of Protobomb for two. Shelton gets the leg whip and goes for the Stinger Splash. Carlito moves out of the way, sending Shelton into the exposed turnbuckle. He rolls Benjamin up with a handful of tights to retain the title at 12:49. **1/4
Victoria has a slowed-down Houston slice mix of her music. Christy mounts her for some punches, but Victoria hot shots her on the top rope. Victoria gets a Hangman’s hold using Christy’s hair. She gets several two counts off a choke lift. The crowd gets on Christy with a “Christy sucks” chant as Vicki settles into a chinlock. Christy rolls through the Widow’s Peak into a sunset flip, but Victoria pulls her up by her hair. Christy gets pissed off and SPAZZES UP! The crowd turns on her, even as she hits an okay DDT for two. Victoria squats down on her and grabs a handful of rope to defeat Christy Maivia at 5:06. 1/4*
Lita has thankfully returned to her hip huggers. Remember when she used to wear those and her thong would stick out? Well, she’s wearing those, but there’s no thong now. Figure it out for yourselves. Kane chases Edge down and lays in some mounted punches in the corner. Edge takes a hard bump off a corner whip. Kane clotheslines him over the top and goes after Lita. The crowd starts a “she’s a crack whore” chant. Man, everything from ECW is coming back. Edge goes to the eyes, but Kane knocks him off the apron. Lita saves Edge from a slam on the outside. Edge tosses Kane into the ringpost and spears him. Back in, Edge spears Kane in the corner and starts flailing away with rights. Kane no-sells and fires back with a few of his own. JR makes my day by saying he’s setting Edge on fire…figuratively. Edge comes off the second-rope into an uppercut. Kane gives him a Snake Eyes and a clothesline for two. Kane sideslams him and comes off the top for a clothesline. Edge dropkicks him on the way down, though. Kane blocks the spear with a big boot. Gene Snitsky runs down to stop the chokeslam. Kane boots him to the floor. Lita gets in the ring and tries to make nice. Kane isn’t in a very forgiving mood, though. He chokes her down and sets her up to Pillmanize her neck. Snitsky stops that with a boot to the face. Edge only gets two. Snitsky comes off the top, but Kane catches him on the way down. Edge swings the briefcase but accidentally catches Snitsky instead. Kane finishes Edge with a chokeslam at 11:12. Lita scurries up the ramp to get away from the Big Red Machine. Well, we didn’t need any top tier heels anyway. *3/4
Angle rides him down, but Michaels makes the ropes. It’s a very cautious match until Shawn gets a hiptoss and armdrags Kurt down into an armbar. Angle reverses to one of his own and knees his bicep. Shawn gives him a few stiff chops to the chest. Angle shoots the legs and grabs a single leg crab. Michaels is already in the ropes. Shawn gets a sunset flip, but Angle rolls through to the anklelock. Shawn squirms away and clotheslines Angle to the outside. Shawn follows him to the outside where Angle tries to Angleslam him through the announce table. Shawn slips away but misses a swing and Angle gives him a German Suplex on the table. Angle brings him back in and gets a series of two counts off a neckbreaker. The crowd gets on Angle as he corners Shawn and knocks him around with a pair of uppercuts. Michaels wins a slugout, but Angle boots him and throws him into the turnbuckle with a powerbomb. Ouch. Angle slows it down a bit with a chinlock. Michaels elbows out of it but misses a charge. Angle German Suplexes him for two. Michaels counters the Angleslam to an armdrag, but Angle levels him with a clothesline. Shawn blocks a super belly-to-belly, but Angle catches him with a regular one for a two count. Angle slaps on a naked choke. Michaels backdrops him for two. There’s the flying forearm. Kip up! Atomic drop. Clothesline. Scoop Slam. Even the “smart” frat guys are behind Shawn now. FLYING ELBOW DROP! He tunes up the band, but Angle simply knocks him down with a clothesline. Angleslam? No! Shawn counters to a Tornado DDT. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Shawn tries a vertical suplex, but Angle counters to a German Suplex. A replay shows that Shawn gives Angle a particularly nasty elbow to counter another one. ANGLESLAM! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Shawn counters the Anklelock to a small package for two. Angle gets it for real, but Shawn rolls him into the referee. Angle backdrops Shawn over the top, injuring his knee. A pair of trainers run down to check on Shawn, but Angle pulls him back in. Shawn tries a surprise Sweet Chin Music, but Angle ducks and grabs the Anklelock. Shawn rolls through…Angle holds on. Shawn rolls through again…Angle holds on again. Shawn holds out long enough to roll Angle’s shoulder into the ringpost. Kurt turns around into SWEET CHIN MUSIC. Both guys are out of it. The referee is about to count both men down, but Michaels rolls into a cover at a nine count. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Angle rolls his shoulder. He heads up to the top rope and comes off… INTO SWEET CHIN MUSIC! ONE! TWO! THREE! (26:12) Not quite on the level of their phenomenal WrestleMania match, but it’s the best WWE match since then. ****1/4
Three-way staredown to start. It’s not exactly Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach. Christian and Jericho team up against Cena, then Jericho turns on Christian. Tomko botches pulling the ropes down but improvise by pulling Jericho to the outside. Cena comes back with his hiptoss slam and stomps Christian into a corner. Tomko cheapshots Cena, so the referee sends Tomko back to the locker room. Cena FU’s Christian all the way to the floor, but Jericho recovers and knocks Cena down with a reverse elbow. Cena blocks a charge but takes a bulldog. Jericho misses the Lionsault but lands on his feet and dropkicks Cena to the floor. Jericho tries to suplex Cena through the Spanish announce table, but Cena counters to a DDT. Christian comes out of nowhere and throws Cena back in for two. He mocks Cena, so Cena comes back with the flying shoulderblock and Protobomb. Jericho breaks up the Five Knuckle Shuffle and tosses Cena to the ringsteps. Back in, Jericho surprises Christian with the Walls, but Christian shoves him into Cena, who was recovering on the apron. They bust out the TNA convoluted powerbomb into a superplex spot. Cena recovers and gets two on Jericho, then two on Christian. Cena takes them both on and drop toeholds Christian into a headbutt on Jericho. DOUBLE FIVE KNUCKLE SHUFFLE! They go into a series of rollups with each man getting a two count. Jericho goes up, but Cena knocks him off the top by sending Christian into him. Christian eye rakes his way out of the FU and hits the reverse DDT for two. Tomko returns and clotheslines Cena. Christian gets two, but Cena tosses him to the floor. Jericho recovers and puts Cena in the Walls of Jericho. Christian comes out of nowhere and schoolboys Jericho for two. Jericho shoves Christian into Cena. Cena scoops him up, knocks Jericho down, and FU’s Christian for the successful title defense at 15:18. Typical three-way match with a few inventive spots. **3/4
Batista gets a mighty, mighty pop. They take it to the floor early, but Triple H is too smart for that. He tries a shoulderblock but just bounces off. Batista clotheslines him to the floor and whips HHH to the cell wall. Hunter reverses a whip, sending Batista into the ringsteps. Batista tries to get back in the ring, but Hunter knocks him off into the chain link. JR tries to personify the cell, which he’s been doing all night. Hunter pulls a chain from under the ring and whips Batista in the ribs with it. HHH hangs Batista by the chain. The champion snaps Hunter’s throat against the ropes to get out of it. Now it’s payback time as Batista starts whipping him with the chain. He rams Hunter’s back into the corner of the cell and the ringpost. Back in, HHH catches him with a spinebuster. Instead of covering, he goes outside and picks up a barbed-wire chair. He SLAMS it into Batista’s back twice, drawing tiny rivulets of blood. Batista explodes with a clothesline and hits Triple H in the face with the barbed-wire chair. He rakes it across HHH’s face as Ross oversells it. He javelins Hunter into the cell, prompting Hunter to Flair flop to the floor. Back in, Batista charges, but Hunter sidesteps and sends him to the post. Hunter goes for a Pedigree on the barbed-wire, but Batista backdrops out of it. They slug it out, and Hunter runs right into a powerslam on the chair. It only gets two. Batista wraps the chain around his hand, but Hunter DDTs him to the chair. Now both guys are busted open. HHH grabs the sledgehammer from under the ring. The slug it out back in the ring. Batista goes for the Demonbomb, but Hunter backdrops out of it in a mirror image of what happened earlier. Hunter hits him in the face with the sledge, but it only gets two. He tries again, but Batista kicks him in the nuts. Batista picks up the sledgehammer and charges, but HHH was able to wrap the chain around his fist and clock Batista in the face with it. He goes up, intending to drop a chained fist, but Batista raises the sledgehammer up into his face. Batista whips Hunter over the top and launches the ringsteps into his face. Back inside again, Batista sets up the ringsteps in the corner and rams Hunter’s face into them. He goes for the Demonbomb, but Hunter goes low and hits the
PEDIGREE! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Hunter sets up the steps and tries to Pedigree him on the steps. Batista counters to a spinebuster on the steps. He sets up for the Demonbomb. Hunter grabs the sledgehammer on the way up, but he doesn’t have time to use it. Batista drops him with the Demonbomb and retains at 26:53. I could have done without the Jim Ross hyperbole —The Devil’s Duplex dines on the blood of gladiators! You’d think he’d never seen one before. As for the match itself, it’s their best so far. The first 15 minutes were cookie-cutter Triple H, but they kicked it up a notch down the stretch. ***3/4
Final Thoughts: No titles changed hands, but we had a very good World Title match and another WWE MOTYC from Michaels and Angle. There was only one bad match (the women’s match) and one match where the wrong guy went over (Kane vs. Edge). So really, there’s not a whole lot more you can ask of this card. HHH is allegedly out of the title picture. We’ll see how long that lasts. The future seems more up in the air than ever.
Solid recommendation for Vengeance 2005
J.D. Dunn
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