sek69 Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Great American Bash match-by-match replay by Dave Meltzer [email protected] Welcome to our live coverage of the Great American Bash from the HSBC Arena in Buffalo. We're looking for your thoughts on the show, so please leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]. The Heat match is Paul London vs. Nunzio for the cruiserweight title. They rushed through a 2:00 match ending with London winning with a shooting star press. MNM vs. Big Bad John & Animal are opening the show. Isn't the usual idea to open with a hot action match? Animal & Heidenreich won with a doomsday device on Mercury. Big LOD chant for the finish. They kept the match short and it wasn't bad. Animal then grabbed the mic and said this was for Hawk. They announced Domenick at ringside during the Guerrero vs. Mysterio match. I guess we can have the sequel for "Beyond the Mat." And the WWE can blame it on the movie producers. Booker vs. Christian is up next. Booker won with an axe kick off the middle rope. Better than average. Lots of Christian fans, probably more than for Booker. They tried to blame it on Christian bussing fans in from Toronto. Orlando Jordan vs. Chris Benoit for the U.S. title is up now. Well, the U.S. title it still worthless. Jordan rammed Benoit's head into an exposed metal turnbuckle and got the pin. Benoit did a good job in the match. People didn't care about the match itself, but Benoit's work got them into it as it got going. Undertaker vs. Muhammad Hassan is next. They showed the clips from Sacramento. I'm presuming this would be airing in England. They also came out with the masked guys back. He came out to virtually no heat until he talked. The masked men were brought to ringside. Hassan promised a win and that he would be back on Smackdown on Thursday. Even this didn't get anywhere near the heat you'd expect. Undertaker pinned Hassan with a choke slam. He destroyed all the masked guys including tombstonining the guy with the piano wire, who did use it. This sure looked like a character burial. Undertaker exposed a giant hole in the stage and gave him a last ride through the hole. Match sucked but the last spot got over big. They pretended he landed on concrete. They showed him on the floor with blood everywhere. They claimed he was rushed to the hospital. Mexicools vs. BWO is up next. Mexicools won when Psicosis pinned Richards after a legdrop off the top. It came off like a throwaway. An "ECW" chant early but no heat here. Mysterio vs. Guerrero with Domenick at ringside is next up. They have 70 minutes left in the show and just two matches and a bra & panties, so this should be a fairly long match. Domenick bleached his hair and looks like David Flair. Ohmygod, the secret isn't that Eddie is the father, it's that Ric Flair is the father. Guerrero hit the frog splash, but Mysterio cradled him from that position, and that's all she wrote. No secret revealed tonight. Best match so far, but would have only been 5th best on last week's TNA PPV. Bra & panties match is next. Melina won by stripping Wilson. Candice Michelle then stripped Melina, and then Michelle stripped herself. Main event with Batista vs. JBL is up next. JBL has guaranteed victory. After a ref bump, Jordan brought in a chair. Dave got it away and hit both Jordan and JBL with it for the DQ. Post-match, Batista hit both men four additional times each with a chair. Match went way too long, dragged bad, crap finish. He power bombed Jordan after all the chair shots. Then power bombed JBL as well. People live seemed happy he destroyed them, but very flat on television. Thanks for joining us.- Jeez.... a 2 minute cruiser match, Benoit jobs, your hot new tag team jobs to a midcarder and a fat old guy, Christian jobs again, the "terrorists" come back, and the main event ends in a non-finish. It looks like WWE worked long and hard to ensure no matter what kind of wrestling you like, you'd hate this PPV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 You can't tell me that what The Undertaker did tonight wasn't at least AS BAD as what Hassan did on Smackdown a few weeks back. I don't give a fuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 You can't tell me that what The Undertaker did tonight wasn't at least AS BAD as what Hassan did on Smackdown a few weeks back. I don't give a fuck. The only way I'd consider this as offensive as the original segment is because they brought back the "terrorists". Otherwise it's still not even the same ballpark. It's not even the first time they've done that this year, remember when they did the spot where Big Show threw Angle off whatever backstage and he had blood splattered around his head? They can't even kill a character off creatively anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cawthon777 Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 The matches weren't bad by any means. Matter of fact, most came off being much, much better than I expected. The only one I didn't care for was the opening tag and even that wasn't of the Mark Henry / Viscera variety. The end result of the matches ... well ... I didn't agree with most of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Benjie Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 MNM vs. Animal/Heidenreich: This was my second favourite match of the night. Really simple match that was way better than I expected it to be. The crowd was really into it and it made the match better. I was really shocked that MNM lost and the match being better than it turned out to be made me think the show would be really good. Booker vs. Christian: It was alright because there were some neat nearfalls at the end, but they took far too long to get Christian over as the pussi, and the finish to me was anticlimatic. Orlando vs. Benoit: I didn't think the match was good at all. The first five minutes was so boring. All it was, was Benoit chopping Jordan and Jordan striking Benoit back. Orlando did however show glimpses that he isn't as poor as I first thought. I wouldn't mind seeing a future match between the two, they would just have to do much better. Taker vs. Hassan: It was really predictable due to the announcement last week by UPN, and the fact that Hassan said if he lost he's gone. The match itself was really shit and the spot at the end was again predictable. bWo vs. Mexicools: A match that sucked hard. Mexicools couldn't do anything because bWo are real shit. Eddie vs. Rey: Although I would've prefered a great singles match, they've already done that and even though it was story based, it has some fantastic role playing. Eddie is easily the best heel in the company. Him using Dominic as a way to get Rey off him and making Rey hug him and shake his hand was fantastic. From a story stand point, this owned, but it wasn't the traditional match. Batista vs. JBL: This match was really really shit. Why they didn't just have Batista win was beyond me, but then I also found it fishy how JBL guranteed victory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 They don't want JBL to job outright because Vince is a mark for the character. They're basically taking the risk of damaging Batista as a main eventer just so Vince can plug his alter ego back in the title picture whenever he wants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 I figured it was just to setup a 3-Way at SummerSlam between Batista, Bradshaw and The Undertaker. I assume that The Undertaker was going to lose to Hassan thanks to Orton. That was to lead to Batista Vs. Hassan and 'Taker Vs. Orton at SS. Instead, UPN pulled the trump card on Hassan, so WWE had to quick goat think and come up with some last second trash. Thus, we get Hassan killed off, no Orton and a DQ in the main event of a PPV. At least, that's what I assumed after reading the initial SummerSlam card line-up that was rumored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 At least the TNA PPV was really good this month. I can't believe that they actually had Heidenreich and Animal win the tag titles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bruiser Chong Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Wait, since when is Animal back as an active competitor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 2 weeks ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Some Guy Posted July 25, 2005 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Why would they give Animal the tag belt? Is the DVD really selling that well (or that poorly) that they feel a need to bring him back and put him over a good young team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teke184 Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 Why would they give Animal the tag belt? Is the DVD really selling that well (or that poorly) that they feel a need to bring him back and put him over a good young team? Apparently neither... Animal is Johnny Ace's brother, so he's getting a chance to revive his career despite the fact that he's 45, weighs 300 pounds, and hasn't been active in quite a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 I think it has more to do with the fact that they've been desperate to get a belt around Heidenreich's waist since the Spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teke184 Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 I think it has more to do with the fact that they've been desperate to get a belt around Heidenreich's waist since the Spring. That's related to Johnny Ace as well... Aparently, Ace has a 6 foot erection with a cheeseburger on the end of it for Heidenreich, which is partly why he was retained when so many others got cut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SweetMama Scaat Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 Everybody needs to stop acting like Road Warrior Animal is gonna main event WM 23. The whole angle reeks of "feel good victory". A legendary NWA Superstar at an event made famous by that same wrestler and others. His partners dead so he teams up with a young upstart with no real allies. That same young guy (I know hi dan rikes not all that young) as been having problems with the top heel team so he unites with a member of one of the top babyface teams...at the same time theres a dvd out featuring the same legend. Animal with a belt may be annoying but it makes perfect sense. If they STILL have the belts a month from now then we can all bitch together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest teke184 Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 I'm more annoyed by the fact that they just released about 25 guys including Charlie Haas and yet the brother of the head of Talent Relations gets to come out of retirement on PPV and win the tag title. Granted, the tag title's been somewhat useless for a while now, but Animal brings NOTHING to the table right now that I can think of and it only seems to be another example of Johnny Ace's sub-par decision-making, like firing Matt Hardy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SweetMama Scaat Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 Ill give you that its a pretty bad case of the teachers son can go all aroung grabbing all the lil girlies asses all he wants! style of nepotism, but I think it makes sense from a storyline perspective. But is Road Warrior Animal sticking around as an active competitor or something? I know they were signing him to some type of contract but its not a regular mid card wrestler one is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 I'm not sure. Ace brought him back as a regular midcard wrestler in WCW just before the doors closed, so I'm sure that's the plan if they can get away with it. Maybe we'll get confirmation. I think more than likely, Animal is under a Legends contract and they decided to do a quick angle with him. Why they'd take the belts off of the hottest new tag team they've had in years to do it, however, remains a mystery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 I don't see that much of a problem, quite honestly. They bring back a well-known wrestler, and in the process attract attention to a stagnant tag team division, give the hot new tag team some opponents to work with, and give the fans a better reason to cheer for Heidenreich in the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 MNM has been hurt by this, though. That's the problem. Not that they aren't already hurt by having any real opponents. Finding a natural babyface tag team for the long-term to debut on Smackdown should be a top priority right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sass Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 MNM are not good small guy wrestlers who could convincingly beat a team the size of Animal and Heindenreich. LOD2K5 was just too big and too mean that night for the undersized champs. They should win the titles on SD! and put Animal into retirement...or Heindenreich too. They're both awful in the ring. At least let MNM embarass the slugs before Animal moves on again. The Bashams should just get a year long title reign. They're the only "real" tag team left in the WWE now that the Dudley Boyz are gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 And they've put them on opposite shows, presumably to give them singles pushes, but at this point, nothing is working in that direction. They've buried all of the draft picks thus far, including Batista and Cena. Carlito seems to be the only one they're making an effort to keep strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sass Posted July 26, 2005 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 Carlito and Christian would rule the tag team division. The WWE should give them a year-long run with the titles. Let them re-establish themselves as threats and then give them another shot at the Heavyweight title. Tomko can help them win matches and work six-man tags with them. Give him some more seasoning. WWE needs to drop this silly draft nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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