WWE SummerSlam 2004

WWE SummerSlam 2004

Toronto, Ontario, Canada - August 2004

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: The WWE World Champion is JBL, while Chris Benoit holds the World Heavyweight Championship. The Intercontinental Champion is Edge, the US Champion is Booker T, and the Cruiserweight Champion is Spike Dudley. The WWE Tag Team Champions are London and Kidman and the World Tag Team Champions are La Resistance, who do not appear on the show. Finally, Trish Stratus was the reigning WWE Women's Champion. 

COMMENTATORS: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler (RAW), Tazz and Michael Cole (SD)


In the spirit of the summer, I've opted to watch SummerSlam 2004 for the first time...

The show begins with a crazy cheap-looking video package hyping all of tonight's matches. I'm wondering if maybe the Network version has changed out the theme song because the music is noticeably corny...and yet its still an improvement from the "nu-rock" that they used to soundtrack their shows at the time.

Anyway, opening things up, as per usual, are The Dudley Boys (including Spike) taking on Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman, and Paul London. The Dudleys do a nice job getting heat early, beating down on Paul London after an initial flurry of offense from the babyfaces. London eventually gets the hot tag to Mysterio, who comes in and goes after his rival Spike Dudley, hitting him with a huge springboard leg drop. Moments later he connects with a top-rope hurricanrana for 2 as well, Mysterio moving like its 96'. Mysterio takes out Bubba and D-Von for good measure before tagging in Kidman, who hits Spike with a flying back elbow. Kidman gets 2 after a BK Bomb and London comes in, the match falling into chaos. London and Kidman dropkick Bubba out of the ring and then London springboards off of Kidman's back to hit a somersault splash on Bubba to the outside! They got a huge pop for that. Mysterio hits the 619 on Spike and Kidman follows with the 7 Year Itch, but D-Von breks the count at 2.9! Kidman ends up eating a 3-D and Spike makes the cover to get the victory. That was about as good a Dudley match as I've seen in years and a red hot opener. (3.5/5)

Before the next match, we get a video recap of the Kane/Matt Hardy feud, which was based on Kane impregnating Lita. The winner of this bout would presumably get Lita's hand in marriage, a stipulation that hasn't aged well. Hardy goes right after Kane to start the match, using his quickness to hit Kane with some big strikes and even a nasty-looking tornado DDT. Hardy's dominance early ends with a single Kane uppercut and then a cut-off clothesline. Hardy regains control, though, eventually almost even winning the match via countout. Lita provides Matt Hardy with the ring bell and Hardy clocks Kane in the skull with it, but the Big Red Machine gets his foot on the rope. Hardy tries to hit a forearm from the top but nearly gets chokeslammed. Hardy counters and attempts his trademark neckbreaker, but Kane sends him to the ropes and hits him with a big boot. Kane goes to the top rope, ostensibly for his clothesline from the top, but Hardy follows him up and attempts a tornado DDT only for Kane to hit him with a HUGE chokeslam from the top rope for 3! I was expecting Lita to turn on Kane here, so kudos to the WWE for not going with that twist (at least not yet?). I'm usually not a fan of Kane matches, but that was pretty solid. (3/5)

Backstage, Randy Orton gets interrupted by John Cena, who was still in his rapper gimmick. Cena's mic work is cloying, but Orton is excellent. 

Back to the ring we go to see Booker T defend his United States Championship against the aforementioned John Cena. This was the first of a Best Of 5 series between the two that I don't recall hearing much about. Cena comes out to a big ovation as Cole explains how Cena was stripped of the US Title. Booker and Cena trade blows to start things off, Booker T trying to use his experience to stay in control. Booker hangs Cena on the top rope with an atomic drop and then clothesline him to the arena floor in a nice sequence. It is weird to hear a "Let's Go Cena" chant without the "Cena Sucks" response, but you can hear it briefly as Booker hits Cena with a series of rights to the head. Booker applies a rear chinlock, but Cena escapes and attempts a small package for 2. Booker clocks him with a clothesline to send him back to the mat but misses the axe kick. Cena comes back with some right hands and then a clothesline of his own. Cena hits a back elbow, but gets cut-off. Booker T does a Spinnerooni, but Cena surprises him with an F-U out of nowhere. That finish seemed a bit rushed to me after Booker controlled so much of the match, but that wasn't too bad. Plus, it doesn't really make sense that, even in a Best of 5 series, Cena wouldn't be awarded the US Championship after pinning the champion clean. I'd call this match slightly Below Average just because of how one-note it was. (2/5)

Backstage, Eric Bischoff approaches SmackDown GM Teddy Long and basically tells him that his days are numbered. Long responds by telling him that, win or lose, he'd bring Eric's nephew Eugene to the Blue Brand - and the offer goes to any RAW Superstar.

Batista and Chris Jericho challenge Edge for his Intercontinental Championship in a triple threat in the next match. Edge is supposed to be the hometown hero, but the Toronto fans are clearly in the corner of Jericho and, at certain points, Edge gets booed. I believe the feeling at the time was that Edge was getting too big of a babyface push, though, its funny - in 2019, a guy like Edge, who had worked hard for the company for 5+ years at this point, would've probably had the crowd support based on the idea that he'd been "held back" while Lesnar, Orton, and, within a year, Cena and Batista, all got "The Push" past him. Speaking of Batista, his timing is off at certain times, but he's well-protected for the most part. He doesn't come off as a megastar just yet, but like Cena, he certainly hits his signature spots with enough "oomph" to catch your eye. Jericho is the match's MVP as he's obviously directing most of the traffic and there are some good sequences. Overall, though, the most remarkable thing is the crowd response and the commentators playing it off as WWE being in "Bizarro Land" because they couldn't care less about Edge. (2.5/5)

In a rematch from WrestleMania XX, Eddie Guerrero takes on Kurt Angle next. This is a bit of a weird one as I expected these two to put on a clinic and it never quite clicked for me. The build-up to this match was all about how Guerrero had "cheated" (faked an ankle injury) at Mania to beat Angle and how Angle had then, weeks earlier, faked his own injury as SmackDown General Manager and screwed Guerrero out of the WWE Championship (that he had lost to JBL). The focus on faked injuries foreshadowed a match that would be all about ankle locks, and for stretches, that is what this match was all about - but how interesting is a match all about ankle locks going to be? The answer is not very. Guerrero and Angle work hard, no doubt, and there are some nice moments with clever counters and Angle, in particular, does an excellent job of focusing his efforts on Guerrero's ankle, but it almost seems like the very concept they're working is a creative dead-end. I'm a huge Guerrero fan, but by this point, his one-time innovative "shortcuts" had become predictable. I've read some reviews that consider this one of the pairing's best matches, but I wasn't wowed. Even on his worst day in 2004, Eddie Guerrero was going to give you something no worse than average, but I was expected a hidden gem and this didn't deliver. (3/5)

The next match pitted Triple H against Eric Bischoff's "special" nephew Eugene. The Eugene character is one of the worst the WWE ever created. It wasn't funny or clever at the time and it certainly hasn't aged any better. Now, if Eugene was just a terrible character relegated to filler matches on RAW, it would've been offensive and stupid - but making him the centerpiece of a major angle that Triple H treats deathly serious is practically against the Geneva Conventions. For some reason, this match goes nearly 15 (!) full minutes and, as the commentators laugh about being in "Bizarro Land," the audience shits on Eugene for most of it (though they do pop for his Stone Cold Stunner and Hogan-inspired Leg Drop). There is at one especially awful moment when Lawler brings up Eugene's "unexpected but tremendous strength" (an ugly, awful myth about people with cognitive disabilities) as he counters Triple H's attempt to suplex him outside of the ring. And just to prove he's an equal opportunity asshole, Triple H also tosses Lillian Garcia to the ground too for no apparent reason. I get that Triple H is the heel, doing nasty heel things, but this entire angle is so repulsive that Triple H doubling-down on it, stretching what should be a 5-minute squash to something three times as long, reeks of desperation, like Triple H forcing the audience to take this match and angle seriously by doing everything he possible can think of. The problem is that this match and angle wasn't serious. I'm not exactly sure what they were trying to accomplish with this match or this character, but if the goal was to entertain the audience, it didn't do a shred of that for me. (1/5)

The Diva Dodgeball Game is next. This is an embarrassment for everyone involved, but mostly for the writers and "creative" team that thought this would be remotely entertaining. I feel so terrible for Gail Kim, Trish Stratus, Molly Holly, and the other women's wrestlers that had to do this rather than actually show what they could do in the ring. Zero redeeming quality. (0/5)

The Undertaker challenged JBL for the WWE Championship in the next bout. JBL was a newcomer to the main event scene after years of working in tags, but he got good heat - partially because he wasn't anyone's definition of a great worker at the time. The hatred for the Undertaker at the time was slightly less explainable. He gets a decent response for his entrance, but within 5-6 minutes, the crowd is audibly booing both men. Its hard to make-out exactly what they're chanting, though I think heard "You Both Suck" and there is an unmistakable "We Want Flair" chant - despite Flair being well past his own "Best Of" date. In fact, while Taker would get even better in the years that followed, his performance here is relatively strong, even if its limited to big boots, leg drops, and just the occasional signature move (though he does bust out a nice superplex too). As Tazz and Cole talk more about Toronto being "Bizarro Land," a wave breaks out - something I didn't think happened back then when the crowd got bored. Hey, you learn something new each day. At one point, the crowd chants for a table spot, but Taker and JBL don't call the audible - maybe because that was being saved for Benoit/Orton? The final 3-4 minutes are solid, with Taker kicking out of a Clothesline from Hell and JBL managing to survive both a chokeslam and a Last Ride. Whether or not the crowd supported it back then (or if it was even the right call in hindsight), Taker undoubtedly worked hard to cement JBL's status as a legit World Champion. The finish is a bit lackluster as all sorts of shenanigans lead to a DQ, but they at least one the crowd over a bit. In the post-match, Taker bloodies JBL and eventually chokeslams him through the "roof" of a gimmicked limo. The live crowd loves the spot, but it looked incredibly phony on TV. Its funny - the parts of this match that the crowd shat on the most were the segments I didn't find too bad. I think modern viewers would like the whole presentation much more than the crowd did at the time. (2.5/5)

Main event time - Chris Benoit defending his World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Orton. At the time, this was a very controversial match/feud. Orton was a rising star in the WWE, but was still plenty green, while Benoit had essentially been given a "token" Championship run based on his experience and skill. The "feel good moment" he received at WrestleMania XX was never designed to last long, but it was still considered a very risky move to put the belt on such a young talent as Orton. Of course, there were also many who believed putting the title on Orton was being done to try to erase the legacy of Brock Lesnar, the previous holder of the "youngest World Champion ever" mantle. Then there was that pesky Triple H and his haters - many of whom suspected (and would soon be proven true) that putting the title on Orton was just a way to thrust the Evolution stable back into the main event - a main event that one could argue they never left. So, on this night, in Toronto, Benoit had the unenviable job of putting Orton over big time while still trying to save face and, in the best case scenario, position himself strongly enough to remain a cemented main eventer like Kurt Angle. While Benoit does everything in his power to do so - leading Orton by the nose through some pure wrestling at the start of the match and later, when necessary, taking some heinous bumps (a suicide dive into the barrier and a full-force headbutt onto Orton's outstretched feet) to pop the crowd - the match never quite reaches all-time classic status. Part of the problem is that the crowd, as in several other matches on this card, seem to be suffering from complete tunnel vision, specifically a desire to see a Spanish Table spot and apparently nothing else. The crowd doesn't really come alive for Benoit the way one would think a "smart" Canadian audience would. Maybe its because the "smarky" thing to do at the time was to boo the babyface, but its not like they come unglued for much Orton does either (which, to be honest, isn't all that much anyway). More than anything, the crowd just doesn't seem super engaged. The match goes 20 minutes, which does give it the "feel" of an epic and, though their feud wasn't very hot, Benoit's intensity does effectively make the stakes seem important. The ending is "out of nowhere," but that's kinda the point, right? Above average match, but not "must see." (3/5)


SummerSlam 04' started out with an excellent opener but steady declined in enjoyability as it went on. The biggest issue may have been the "Bizarro Land" crowd. Typically, fans "hijacking" the show makes me enjoy a show more - the unexpected jeering of babyfaces and rapturous support for villains often resulting in the in-ring workers loosening up, stretching their character a bit and improvising. We saw this at the second ECW One Night Stand show in 2006 and on various post-Mania episodes of RAW in recent times. There's even an early Halloween Havoc that benefits from a crowd "not playing along." But on this show, the crowd's unexpected reactions go from interesting and understandable (the anti-Edge sentiment) to outright hostile (the JBL/Taker match) to seemingly just plan disinterested (the main event). What were these fans expecting? What did they not get (aside from a Spanish Table spot)? The most over guys on the roster, at least in front of this crowd, seemed to be Cena and Jericho - though individual spots and moments get huge reactions elsewhere on the card. On paper, this show looks like it would've been a much bigger success, but with with a Kwang Rating of 2.28-out-of-5, the show is barely average. 

KWANG RATING - High Risk Maneuver