Everything You Should Watch: The Best of Raw 2004 (Part 1)

Welcome to the first edition of “Everything You Should Watch”. With the WWE Network now having nearly every episode of Raw available, this seems like a great time to go back and relive a lot of matches that I have not seen since they first aired. I went through match listings for the 51 episodes of Raw in 2004 that aired fresh content and chose 90 matches in all that sounded like they had potential to be at least ***, I had fond memories of, title matches or a few that just intrigued me. Originally this list was going to be divided by rating, but once I reached the end of November and realized I was hitting page 11 I changed the format. You are currently reading part 1, which covers the first 40 matches of the year through the end of June. Part 2 will be coming shortly with the other 50 matches, some rankings and other factoids. Some matches will have a paragraph written, some may only have a few words.

January
World Tag Team Titles – Batista & Ric Flair (c) vs The Dudley Boyz (1/5) [**1/4] Standard tag with a very green Batista.
Randy Orton (c) vs Rob Van Dam (1/12) [***3/4] This was RVD’s rematch with Orton after loosing the belt at Armageddon the previous month. The story commentary was telling throughout the match was more about if Mick Foley would show up to confront Randy Orton, he did not on this night. Orton was busted open at about the 4 minute mark. Orton put RVD away with a top rope DDT at 16 minutes of television time.
Chris Jericho & Rob Van Dam vs Evolution (1/26) [**1/2] 3-on-2 Handicap match that had a lot of not much going on, topped off with a botched ending of Jericho not taking the RKO on the first attempt.

February
World Tag Team Titles – Batista & Ric Flair (c) vs Chris Jericho & Christian (2/2) [**1/2] Not a bad 5 minute tag that saw Flair force Jericho to tap out to the figure four.
Randy Orton vs Shawn Michaels (2/2) [***] Their PPV match the previous year was better but this was a “good for what it was” Raw main event between two guys in big Mania matches. Foley distracted Orton, allowing Michaels to roll up Randy after 10 minutes.
WWE Intercontinental Title Triple Threat Match – Randy Orton (c) vs Booker T vs Rob Van Dam (2/9) [***] The important thing about this 11 minute match was that it main evented Raw. When Orton was the champion the title was really treated as though it meant something, even though it was not defended at WrestleMania that year. This would be the second time in 4 weeks the title was defended in the main event of Raw.
Chris Benoit vs Ric Flair (2/9) [***1/4] This was a lot of fun. This was Benoit’s first match on Raw since jumping ship after winning the Rumble. They only had 8 minutes of TV time but they worked all 8 of them to feel special. Benoit going over was a good first step towards HHH’s title.
World Tag Team Titles – Batista & Ric Flair (c) vs Booker T & Rob Van Dam (2/16) [**1/2] The coolest thing for this is I remember watching this the night of my 15th birthday and being excited for a title change. Otherwise than that this was nothing more than a switch to 2 random guys (who were wrestling each other the week before) in order to get them and the tag belts on WrestleMania, as the Evolution boys were busy.
Chris Benoit vs Shawn Michaels (2/16) [****1/2] This one is really special for me. As I stated earlier this edition of Raw took place on my 15th birthday. Michaels became my favorite wrestler in 2002 when Austin retired, and Shawn returned so this was a real birthday present from WWE. I was also a huge Benoit fan at the time and was thrilled to finally see Chris playing in the main event in a match that had never happened before. This match lived up to all the potential it had at the time, and has held incredibly well 12 years later. They had 19 minutes of TV time to show the world that Chris Benoit belonged in the main event with Triple H and Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania, and they did just that. These two put on a clinic, after HHH’s music hits to distract Benoit, Michaels hit the Sweet Chin Music to earn the three. After the match Austin announced the match that would go on to be the best WWE match of 2004 by many’s standard, Michaels vs HHH vs Benoit.
Women’s Title Fatal 4 Way Elimination Match – Molly Holly (c) vs Jazz vs Lita vs Victoria (2/23) [**3/4]This match was the cold open of the 2/23 edition of Raw and saw Victoria be the last lady standing in a fast paced and very serviceable women’s match.
World Tag Team Titles – Booker T & Rob Van Dam (c) vs La Resistance (2/23) [**1/4] First title defense for the new champs. By this time La Resistance were already feeling stale, and this isn’t even the good version with Dupree & Grenier.

March
Batista & Randy Orton vs Chris Benoit & Shawn Michaels (3/1) [***] The two young guns of Evolution looked to stop both of Triple’s WrestleMania challengers at one time. This was definitely the best Batista had looked this year in a match. These four got nearly 16 televised minutes before Benoit & Michaels began to brawl, allowing Orton to regain his win from last month via rollup.
Batista, Randy Orton & Ric Flair vs Chris Benoit & Shawn Michaels (3/15) [**3/4] The main event from the Raw after WrestleMania XX wasn’t much of a match early but had a lot of story. Referee Mike Chioda was knocked out within 3 minutes, Mick Foley ran in at the 4 minute mark and chased away Randy Orton and then Triple H interfered 6 minutes in. Benoit eventually locked Batista in the sharpshooter and made the big man tap for the first time in his career at the 12 minute mark.

World Tag Title Match – Booker T & Rob Van Dam (c) vs The Dudley Boyz (3/15) [***1/2] Wow. This was not a match that I expected to get the 15 minutes that it did, or be as good as it was. By this point I felt all four were pretty unmotivated and for good reason. The Dudleyz worked the heat here and Booker/RVD were able to do a great job getting the fans behind them. This is not a match I recall hearing anything about since, and do not believe it is on any DVD sets. A fun hidden gem in a year with plenty of great Raw matches.
WWE Title – Eddie Guerrero (c) vs Triple H (3/22) [***1/2] The only time the WWE title was defended on Raw in 2004, and the only time we ever got this dream match in a 1-on-1 setting. HHH had been drafted to SmackDown earlier in the night so it looked promising that HHH would win the belt here. However, HHH ended up being part of a blockbuster trade after the show went off the air and was back on Raw the following week. Both guys had to be protected so we got a chaotic ending to a good match and a fun show overall.
World Tag Team Titles – Booker & Rob Van Dam (c) vs Batista & Ric Flair (3/22) [**3/4] This is essentially the rematch that Evolution never received last month because they were wrapped up with Mick Foley & The Rock. By the time this match aired on the draft edition of Raw, it looked to be the end of Evolution as Triple H had been drafted to SmackDown. RVD accidentally hit Booker, allowing Batista to hit the Batista Bomb and become a 2 time tag team champion. This was a tick better than their original encounter. RVD was drafted to SmackDown about a minute later.
World Heavyweight Title – Chris Benoit (c) vs Rhyno (3/22) [**] Former tag team partners collide. Rhyno had just been drafted to Raw, only to loose in 4 minutes to the champ.
World Tag Team Title – Batista & Ric Flair (c) vs Chris Benoit & Shawn Michaels (3/29) [***] Johnny Nitro (Eric Biscoff’s new personal assistant served as guest referee for the match. We got a dusty finish, making it appear as though Benoit/Michaels were champs but Nitro claimed the wrong man was pinned.
Shelton Benjamin vs Triple H (3/29) [****] This match is how you make a star, or in this case a guy that you want to flounder around the midcard until you release him. Both men brought their working shoes and had Benjamin reached his full potential, we would look back on this one as his breakthrough. The internet really went wild with this one at the time as HHH was still hated by the “smarks” for “never” putting anyone over, but he did just that for Benjamin.

April
Evolution vs Chris Benoit, Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels & Shelton Benjamin (4/12) [****1/4] The crowd response to this match was a huge enhancment, they ate every move up. Just look at the babyfacce lineup and think, is there any way that these 8 man together with 17 minutes wouldn’t put on an amazing encounter. This was Foley’s first Raw match since 2000 and just six days before his spectacular encounter with Randy Orton at Backlash. Benjamin took the heat segment from Evolution like a pro and the pop when Benjamin was finally able to make it to the corner was huge.
Women’s Title Match – Victoria (c) vs Molly Holly (4/19) [NR] WrestleMania XX rematch. I don’t rate matches under 3 minutes.
World tag Team Title – Batista & Ric Flair (c) vs Chris Benoit & Edge (4/19) [***1/4] A special moment in Calgary as Benoit & Edge win the Tag Team titles in front of their countrymen.
Chris Jericho vs Christian (4/19) [***3/4] This was one of my favorite feuds from 2004, and certainly one of my favorite mid-card feuds of the era. Christian really came into his own during this feud, and sexy heel Trish was my favorite version of Ms. Stratus. I didn’t really remember this match before watching but it was certainly on par with their Mania effort. We got the debut of Tyson Tomko as the match ended.
World Tag Team Titles – Chris Benoit & Edge (c) vs Batista & Ric Flair [4/26] (***1/4) Match was right on par with last week’s encounter as Evolution cashed in their rematch, only thing missing was the home country emotion last week’s win carried.
Tajiri vs Triple H (4/26) [**1/2] HHH was sprayed by Tajiri’s green mist and wrestled with a green face. This match went nearly 8 minutes with Tajiri getting in a fair amount of offense.

May
Edge, Shelton Benjamin & Tajiri vs Evolution (5/3) [***1/2] Exactly what you would expect with the 6 men involved, it was refreshing to see Tajiri get a little push for a few weeks.
World Heavyweight Title – Chris Benoit (c) vs Shawn Michaels (5/3) [****1/4] This was dubbed the “Showdown in the Desert” and is the highly anticipated 1-on-1 rematch for their 2/16 first time encounter. Both men were fan favorites here, but Benoit was the man the fans were behind. This match was worked brilliantly, and then after nearly 22 minutes Triple H hit the ring and hit Michaels with a Pedigree. 15 seconds later Benoit rolled into the pin and the count was made. It’s frustrating that neither of the singles matches these two had was a true clean victory for either man. I still loved this match but the ending left me sour as it just goes to prove that Benoit was playing second fiddle to Triple H , even though Benoit held two belts at the time. Put a clean finish on this and I would have called it the better of their two matches.
Chris Jericho vs Christian (5/10) [***3/4] What was supposed to be the definitive end to their feud was another great Raw main event here. The action remained steady throughout the match, Christian got a lot of juice and Jericho finally was able to stand tall in a 1-on-1 match with Christian.
WWE Intercontinental Title – Randy Orton (c) vs Edge (5/10) [***1/2] They would top themselves at Vengeance later in the year but this was a good televised title match.
World Tag Team Titles – Chris Benoit & Edge (c) vs Batista & Randy Orton (5/17) [***1/2] A tag team of veterans vs a tag team of rising stars with 15 minutes on Raw and you get this hidden gem from 2004. Batista worked a lot of tag matches in 2004, and it made his 2005 breakout that much better.
Batista & Randy Orton vs Chris Jericho & Shelton Benjamin (5/24) [**1/2] Think basic 13 minute midcard tag team match and here you are.
World Tag Team Title – Chris Benoit & Edge (c) vs La Resistance (5/31) [***] Talk about bizarre match here. This was the opener for the Memorial Day edition of Raw from Montreal. Those factors made La Resistance the babyfaces of the match and the pop when they won the belts was one of the biggest I heard on Raw all year. This was likely the best match La Resistance ever had in WWE.
Randy Orton vs Shelton Benjamin (5/31) [**1/2] Benjamin earned a shot at Orton’s IC belt for Bad Blood with his win here, and thankfully that match was more entertaining.

June
Randy Orton vs Shawn Michaels (6/7) [***1/4] The biggest problem with this match was that it felt like 16 minutes of just waiting for Batista to interfere. Match was more about building the epic “finale” of HBK vs HHH at Bad Blood in 6 days.
Six Man Tag Team Elimination Match – Evolution vs Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho & Edge (6/14) [****1/4] This match is infamous for being the main event to the Raw with a huge over run. The episode did not go off the air till around 11:30 ET, the match went 29 minutes + commercials. Giving a match with this talent so much time really gave time for a lot of great stories to be told, and made this a better match than most Survivor Series elimination matches we see. Everyone got a spot to shine in this one.
WWE Women’s Title – Trish Stratus (c) vs Victoria (6/21) [**] 4 minute ladies match with Stratus winning via rope hold.
Batista & Randy Orton vs Chris Jericho & Edge (6/21) [**3/4] Standard tag match.
Eugene vs Triple H (6/21) [**3/4] While this wasn’t a ***** match it was a ***** story for me. Biscoff had told Triple H that if H destroyed Eugene that HHH would be the #1 contender for the World Title at Vengeance. HHH made Eugene think the two were best buddies during last week’s Highlight Reel and earlier throughout this edition of Raw. We got our first glimpse into Eugene being able to hulk up here and HHH was got very off guard.
Batista & Randy Orton vs Chris Jericho & Edge (6/28) [**3/4] More of the same from last week, except Jericho was fighting a concussion.
World Heavyweight Title – Chris Benoit (c) vs Kane (6/28) [***] This Bad Blood rematch spawned from the fact that Benoit said he could make Kane tap, but won that match by pinfall. On this night Benoit could ONLY win by submission, while Kane could win anyway he pleased. Benoit was able to pull good matches from anyone at the time.

See you next time for PART 2

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8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

Final thoughts will be posted in part 2.