[2003-05-18-WWE-Judgment Day] Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin vs Tajiri & Eddie Guerrero (Ladder Match)

[ohtani's jacket]

Team Angle (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) defend the WWE Tag Team Titles

After loading their Wrestlemania card, the WWE went through a dry spell in April and May with not much worth watching. This ended up being the last combined B-show pay-per-view until Backlash 2007. Not surprisingly, the matches worth watching came from the Smackdown brand, which doesn't bode well for the rest of the year. Team Angle were supposed to face Los Guerreros in a rematch from the last PPV, but Chavo tore his biceps in a Velocity dark match against J.R. Ryder and was sidelined for six months. The smart money on Chavo's replacement was Chris Benoit, so it was a clever and refreshing pick when they went with Tajiri instead. I hate ladder matches, but this was pretty inoffensive. The commentators kept mentioning that Team Angle didn't know how to work a ladder match. It's hard to tell at times whether the commentators are trying to cover for Team Angle being green and inexperienced, or if Team Angle are being intentionally awkward. I suspect it's the former. There weren't a ton of big spots in the match. Eddie's frog splash off the top of the ladder, and a sunset flip powerbomb were the two big spots. It could have easily been a TV bout the way it was laid out, but the fact that they didn't try too much worked in their favor. Eddie played ring general. Michael Cole got excited and called him Eddie "Guerrera" again. Not once, but three times. Clearly a Juvie fan. Maybe even a Fuerza fan.