Everything You Should Watch: The Best of Raw 2004 (Part 2)

Welcome back to “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 2, which covers the last 50 matches of the year. Part 1 was posted recently. Some matches will have a paragraph written, some may only have a few words.

July
Women’s Title Match – Trish Stratus (c) vs Nida (7/5) [NR] Four seconds.
World Tag Team Champion – La Resistance (c) vs Rhyno & Val Venis (7/5) [*1/2] Random 4 minute title match
WWE Intercontinental Title – Randy Orton (c) vs Chris Jericho (7/5) [***1/2] Chris Jericho won the #1 contender’s spot earlier in the night in a game of musical chairs, set up by guest GM Eugene. Raw also takes place in Winnipeg, so Jericho had a lot going for him heading in. The crowd being so into Jericho was a plus, and they really bit on some of the false finishes down the stretch. Batista’s distraction would lead to a match between Jericho and Batista at Vengeance.
Handicap Match – Chris Benoit & Edge vs Eugene, Ric Flair & Triple H (7/12) [***] Good wrestling with a great story make this main event a very fun watch. Eugene struggled with looking for the acceptance of his favorite wrestler, Triple H and doing the right thing. The Eugene character was so well done for the first 5 or 6 months of his run.
Batista vs Edge (7/19) [**1/2] By this point of the project I had watched Batista in 17 matches (tied with Randy Orton for the most) but none had been singles matches. My expectations for this one were low but I wanted to watch to see how this compared to their main event matches a few years later. They wrestled 12 minutes of TV time and the match exceeded my expectation, though not by a lot. Batista was still looking fairly green and Edge’s character was struggling.
Ric Flair vs The Hurricane (7/19) [**3/4] The segment earlier in the show with The Hurricane asking for Ric Flair’s autograph was fantastic. This match was also fun. By this point The Hurricane was not being used really at all, so it was nice to see Helms get 8 minutes with Flair on Raw.
World Heavyweight Title – Chris Benoit (c) vs Eugene (7/19) [**1/2] We didn’t get much of a match, but after weeks of a tease we finally saw Evolution turn on Eugene. Triple H left Eugene a bloody mess by the end of the night.
WWE Intercontinental Title – Edge (c) vs Randy Orton (7/19) [***3/4] This was Orton’s rematch from Vengeance after Edge ended Orton’s 8 month title reign. This is the second of three times these two wrestled on Raw in 2004. This was a little better than their first encounter of the year with the only thing lacking really being the crowd. The crowd was slowly turning on both men. For the second week in a row Edge beat a member of Evolution with his feet on the ropes.
World Heavyweight Title 60 Minute Ironman Match – Chris Benoit (c) vs Triple H (7/26) [***3/4] This match was one I was most excited for with this project. I had not seen this match since it aired and really have no recollection of what happened during the match. It was inevitable that we would see Evolution and Eugene in this match, thankfully Benoit & Triple H wrestled for 52 minutes before that happened. This match on paper honestly sounds better than this match was. These two had a great outing at No Mercy 2000, but when facing one-on-one in 2004 didn’t quite click. The ending was weak, but served it’s purpose to propel the loser into his next feud. 45 of the 60 minutes aired on TV. I would tank this 4th of the 5 televised sixty minute iron man matches in WWE history.

August
Evolution vs Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho & Edge (8/2) [****] This was the first week of the two week build we received for Orton vs Benoit, yeah two whole weeks led into Orton’s first terrible title reign. What was not terrible was the match quality here. By this point in the year I have watched a lot of Evolution six man tag matches (typically with the Orton, Flair and Batista trio seen here) but none had this much quality. The match went over 20 minutes of TV time and did a great job at propelling the Orton vs Benoit feud with Randy getting the pinfall over the champ.
Chris Jericho vs Edge (8/9) [***1/2] This takes place six days before the two would be joined by Batista for a triple threat at SummerSlam for Edge’s Intercontinental title. Edge is currently in the process of going through his slow heel turn as the fans have seemingly grown tired of him very fast since he returned in April from injury. The anticipation for their SummerSlam match in Toronto was that Edge would be cheered, instead he received the biggest jeers while Batista was the fan favorite. Even with the strange SummerSlam crowd, I think that this match on the show would have been a big boost to what was a pretty lackluster card.
Handicap Match – Chris Benoit vs Randy Orton & Triple H (8/9) [***] Eugene was scheduled to be Benoit’s partner but left the arena early to check on William Regal who was assaulted by Triple H earlier in the night. This was a lot of fun, Benoit was fighting valiantly against the two members of Evolution in the ring plus Flair.
Intercontinental Title – Edge (c) vs Kane (8/16) [**1/4] Oh man the irony of this match is so strong. This is the night after Kane defeated Matt Hardy, to win the engagement of Lita. In February of next year we found out that Lita & Edge had been dating off screen for a few months (with Lita cheating on Matt). Then in May Lita would turn on Kane in a match against Edge, it all came full circle. On top of all that irony, Matt Hardy’s interference is what led to Edge retaining in a rather lifeless match.
World Heavyweight Title – Randy Orton (c) vs Chris Benoit (8/16) [****] The rematch from their SummerSlam match happened just one night later, that way they could shove Benoit back down the card and place the spotlight back on Triple H. I wish that was an exaggeration but after a phenomenal run of matches as champ Benoit would not be involved in anymore one-on-one World or WWE title programs before his death. This was far and away the best title defense for Orton’s first reign. The thing that people may remember more than anything is the “thumbs up, thumbs down” Evolution turn post-match. This is the same rating I gave their SummerSlam match, but I do think I enjoyed their work here just a little bit more.
Intercontinental Title – Edge (c) vs Chris Jericho (8/23) [**1/2] These two had a very good non-title match on the Raw before SummerSlam, my only hope was that they could match that encounter here. This however was not able to do so. The match ended and was re-started during a commercial break because of Chad Patton noticing some rope action on the pin. The actual finish came awkwardly after Edge planted Jericho on the top rope and the referee felt a DQ was in order. This was supposed to lead to a ladder match between the two, that I am sure would have been amazing, but Edge would get injured before that could take place and vacate the title.
Ric Flair vs William Regal (8/23) [***1/4] This felt like a good old school match from WCW Saturday Night. The two men tried to out cheat one another throughout this entertaining match that this generation could really learn a lot from watching.
Chris Benoit vs Ric Flair (8/30) [**3/4] Not up to the level of their match earlier in the year simply for lack of time.
No DQ Match – Eugene vs Triple H (8/30) [**3/4] The anticipation was that this would be a squash and in some ways it was. HHH did control most of the offense and should have won, but the match was a branch between HHH’s SummerSlam opponent and Unforgiven foe.

September
Women’s Title Match – Trish Stratus (c) vs Nida (9/6) [*] Two months later, Nidia loses her rematch in four minutes because of a nip slip.
Steel Cage Match – Eugene vs Triple H (9/6) [**] What’s the next step when a run in ruins a no dq match? You put a cage up, and that’s what we had here. This was essentially a 7 minute squash and Eugene would never really recover. Eugene had a few hope spots of escaping the cage, but mostly Triple H was showing just how cerebral he could be.
Batista, Ric Flair & La Resistance vs Chris Benoit, Rhyno, Tajiri & William Regal (9/6) [**3/4] This was a fun 8 minute sprint that combined two tag matches that would happen the following Sunday at Unforgiven.
WWE Intercontinental Title – Chris Jericho (c) vs Shawn Michaels (9/20) [***] This was Jericho’s first defense of his newly won title and Michaels first match on Raw since being sidelined in June. These guys worked the type of 10 minute match I would expect to see as a house show main event.
Evolution vs Chris Benoit, Randy Orton & Shelton Benjamin (9/20) [***1/4] Orton is fresh off losing the title in his first defense to Triple H here. Over half of the match was a handicap match as Batista ran Orton over on the outside, sending him to the back until he came out for the win in the last 10 seconds.
Shelton Benjamin vs Triple H (9/27) [**3/4] This is a non-title match and their third singles encounter I believe. A lot was made about the fact that HHH has never defeated Benjamin and he still doesn’t here. After seven minutes Triple H called it game and smacked Benjamin with the World title.
Chris Jericho & Shawn Michaels vs Christian & Tyson Tomko (9/27) [**3/4] Considering pre-NJPW Tyson Tomko was 25% of this match, I would call this a success. This was not a match I had on my original list to watch. While watching the previous match I realized that Michaels’ other 12 Raw matches were on my list; the completionist in me figured I would add this 7 minute tag for my favorite wrestler of all time.

October
Christian vs Shawn Michaels (10/4) [***1/4] Up to this point this was easily the biggest match of Christian’s career. Christian had pinned Michaels (with his feet on the ropes) in a tag team match last week, which led to this 1-on-1 encounter at Madison Square Garden.
World Tag Team Title – La Resistance (c) vs Eugene & William Regal (10/11) [**3/4] Regal gets to challenge for the tag belts in his homeland and the crowd loved them. Lots of fun in this match, first was Regal using Eugene for a battering ram on Conway in the corner. There was then a dusty finish that blew the roof off the arena that we thought Regal & Eugene were champs. Once we returned from commercial though we saw that Biscoff has restarted the match because Regal had used the brass knucks. Also Regal hit a people’s elbow in the second half of the match.
Women’s Title Match – Trish Stratus (c) vs Stacy Keibler (10/11) [*] It is a damn shame that Stratus’s epic heel work from 2004-05 was wasted as the ladies roster was so thin on talent, imagine this character competing on Raw in 2016.
Evolution vs Chris Benoit, Edge & Shawn Michaels (10/11) [***1/2] This match pitted Triple H’s possible three opponents at the first ever Taboo Tuesday against himself + team. A well worked six man tag, as we had grown used to this year with pretty much anyone vs. Evolution. The big story here was Edge really turning up the heel power, including a blind tag on Michaels that allowed Edge to steal the pinfall on Triple H.
Chris Benoit vs Edge vs Shawn Michaels (10/18) [***1/2] The three possible opponents for Triple H at Taboo Tuesday faced off, this would be Michaels’ last Raw match of the year as he injured himself during the match. These three worked a sprint with plenty of signature spots while Triple H looked on. The match only received 10 minutes of TV time but it served the exact purpose needed.
Batista & Ric Flair vs Chris Jericho & Randy Orton (10/18) [***] This was the night before Taboo Tuesday (a concept I do not understand why WWE has not brought back). Orton was going to be facing Flair the following night but the entire roster was up to vote for Jericho’s IC title. WWE was making it quite obvious they wanted the fans to vote for Batista, but that did not come to be. Good 10 minute tag match that saw Jericho tap out to Flair’s figure four.
Intercontinental Title – Shelton Benjamin (c) vs Chris Jericho (10/25) [***1/4] This was a lot of fun. Benjamin defeated Jericho for the title at Taboo Tuesday and this was Jericho’s rematch. The finishing sequence was a thing of beauty. Benjamin first took the biggest leap into sunset flip I have ever seen, Jericho countered into a Walls of Jericho attempt, in which Benjamin then countered into a roll-up/body scissors combo for the three count.
Randy Orton vs Ric Flair (10/25) [***] Another rematch on the night from Taboo Tuesday. High stakes for Orton here as Triple H stated if Orton could beat Flair tonight that Orton would earn a shot at HHH’s World Title. Orton and Flair wrestled a good tv main event that you would expect from the two. Flair’s ability to still put on quality matches in 2004 is quite impressive. Maven, Benoit & Jericho made the save when Batista tried to interfere, but HHH snuck in while they were distracted. Because of Orton’s loss, Randy lost the right to ever face Triple H during H’s current title reign.

November
Chris Benoit & Edge (c) vs Rob Conway & Sylvain Grenier (11/1) [**3/4] Benoit & Edge begrudgingly became two time World Tag Team champs at Taboo Tuesday when neither man was chosen for the World title match. By this point Edge was essentially a heel and had earlier in the night been announced to team up with HHH, Batista & Snitsky at Survivor Series while Benoit was announced to team with Maven, Jericho and Orton. Edge showed up about 2 minutes into the match, stood on the apron for about a minute, and then walked out on Benoit to join King & JR on commentary. Benoit had the match well in hand, when Edge marched to the ring to “help”. In reality Edge distracted the referee and the titles were gone again. Good underdog fight for Benoit.
Batista vs Randy Orton (11/8) [**1/2] This is the historic first 1-on-1 encounter of the former Evolution teammates. The crowd was wildly into Orton, chanting “RKO” after Triple H was ejected from ringside for getting involved. This match went nearly 17 TV minutes + a commercial which was too long for Batista at this time. Lots of headlocks and wear down holds here. Still not terrible.
Chris Benoit vs Edge (11/8) [***3/4] The last stop for these two between their teams met at Survivor Series. I was worried when the other six men in that match came out after about 6 minutes, I was anticipating a brawl to just break out among everyone. Thankfully they continued to work the match as everyone watched from the outside. Benoit nailed Edge with a series of vicious headbutts from the top in a spot reminiscent of the one used on top of the ladder 5 months later. The big brawl on the outside did finally begin, but only among the guys on the outside. However, the referee still felt this was enough to call for the bell and protect both men. Put an actual finish on this and we have ****.
World Tag Team Title Elimination Match – La Resistance (c) vs Eugene & William Regal vs Rhyno & Tajiri (11/15) [**1/4] Rhyno & Tajiri were the oddball tag team of 2004 for sure. Match was pretty standard and a little too long but the moment of Regal tagging Eugene to hit The People’s Elbow for the pin was great.
Chris Benoit & Shelton Benjamin vs Christian & Edge (11/15) [***1/2] The first time Edge & Christian competed as a tag team since August 25, 2001 edition of SmackDown. The reunion did not go as they hoped but the match quality went exactly as expected.
World Heavyweight Title – Triple H (c) vs Maven (11/15) [DUD] Maven earned his shot here by hanging out in the back during most of his teams Survivor Series match, and still being on the winning team. Maven became GM for the night and used that power to book himself into this match. The big internet rumor at the time was that Maven was taking Orton’s spot in Evolution and Triple H riled up those rumors stronger as the show went on when he offered Maven a spot in Evolution if he cancelled the match. This was TERRIBLE. The referee ejected Batista & Flair almost instantly, which left Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho at ringside for Maven. We then had 10 minutes of these two distracting the referee while the other man hit a signature move on Triple H followed by 2 minutes of ridiculous interference by Evolution, Orton and Snitsky once Edge seared the referee. Legitimately, one of the worst matches I have ever seen on a WWE broadcast.
Women’s Title Triple Threat Match – Trish Stratus (c) vs Lita vs Molly Holly (11/22) [*1/2] Even with three of the best women together we couldn’t get a match over 5 minutes.
Steel Cage Match – Chris Benoit vs Edge (11/22) [***3/4] This was originally supposed to be Benoit vs HHH for the World Title, but Batista “took Triple H out” before the match so we got this instead. This would be the second singles match these two had in three weeks. This match also had the brutal headbutts the last match offered, along with Benoit hitting five straight Germans while bleeding heavily. The finish was somewhat creative with Edge spearing Benoit through the cage door to end a great, forgotten cage match.
World Tag Team Titles – Eugene & William Regal (c) vs Rob Conway & Sylvain Grenier (11/29) [*1/2] Not much to this match other than Maven attacking Eugene after the match to turn heel.
World Title Triple Threat Match – Triple H (c) vs Chris Benoit vs Edge (11/29) [***3/4] Guest GM Randy Orton originally announced at the end of last weeks episode that Triple H would defend his title in a battle royal against the entire Raw roster. However, at the start of Raw Mr.McMahon announced that he didn’t like that someone like Steven Richards could become the World champ and made the match a #1 contender’s match. Benoit & Edge co-eliminated each other so Orton made this triple threat match. Once the referee took a bump, HHH tried bringing a chair into play. Triple H was stopped by Orton who smashed HHH with the chair and sent Hunter over the barrier. We then had a dusty finish that saw a second referee count Benoit’s shoulders down at the same time that Edge was tapping to modified crossface. The title would be vacant for the next month. Great energy in this match as all three guys were on there game.

December
Intercontinental Title – Shelton Benjamin (c) vs Captain Charisma (12/6) [**1/2] Christian asked for a rematch at the Intercontinental title from guest GM Chris Jericho. Jericho said that Christian could only have the shot if Jericho could decide what Christian war. Christian’s get up here is hilarious as he is dressed in almost all maroon with yellow trunks and “CC” on the chest. If you want to see these two wrestle a very good match then check out their encounter at Survivor Series from the previous month. This was jut for some comedy on the show mostly.
Batista & Triple H vs Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho (12/6) [***] One of the funniest things to happen all year on Raw happened before this match started. Lillian Garcia announced Triple H as the former World champion, in which Triple H sprinted down the ramp and chased Garcia into the crowd, while chasing her HHH fell over the barricade. Triple H was wrestling this match very pissed off after finding out that the title was being held up earlier in the night.
WWE Women’s Title – Trish Stratus (c) vs Lita (12/6) [***] I would say it is safe to say that this was the best women’s match in WWE in 2004. These two delivered a strong 7 minute main event of Raw in front of Lita’s home crowd. Stratus worked the heel gimmick well, including using her face guard as a weapon early on. Lita winning the belt caused a huge pop and was a great moment.
Edge vs Randy Orton (12/13) [***3/4] These two had to be pulled apart last week after Edge blamed Orton for Edge not being the new World champ from the week before. These guys always head some very good chemistry an both men were at the top of their games here. The finishing sequence of reversals that led to the RKO worked very well.
Batista & Triple H vs Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho (12/13) [****] You could see by this point that WWE was building Batista up for big things. All year long Batista always entered with Evolution partners to the teams music, now Batista has started to enter by himself and to his own music. After last weeks DQ loss, HHH is very determined to not get his team DQed this week as a way of showing Eric Bischoff that Triple H should be awarded the World Title. For my money this was the best 2-on-2 tag team match we saw all year. The intensity was there between all four men and Batista was looking like a true animal. The crowd was hot for Benoit & Jericho but even gave a slight pop when Batista hit the spinebuster on Benoit for the victory.
Chris Jericho vs Christian (12/27) [***] The two matches from tonight’s show are both matches that we have seen multiple times on Raw this year and are a fitting close to the year. This was the debut of the “Beat the Clock Challenge”. Each man that was competing in the Chamber match for the World title had a mystery opponent for the night. Whoever won their match the fastest, earned the #6 spot in the chamber. If anyone was to lose their match, they would also loose they spot to that person. Jericho acted early in the match as though he was trying to win in a hurry, but that psychology quickly passed. Jericho advanced at a leisurely 10:47 pace.
Shelton Benjamin vs Triple H (12/27) [**] Triple H had to win in under 3:01 to win the final chamber spot. It looked like HHH had done just that as The Game had Benjamin in a sleeper as the time expired. As Hebner went to call for the bell he noticed Benjamin’s foot on the rope. The match continued after the time expired, which is something I do not believe we have seen with the gimmick sense. This 5 minute main event was certainly not the strongest match of the year.

The Top 10 Matches of Raw 2004
10. Intercontinental Title Match – Randy Orton (c) vs Rob Van Dam (1/12) [***3/4]
9. Edge vs Randy Orton (12/13) [***3/4]
8. Steel Cage Match – Chris Jericho vs Christian (5/10) [***3/4]
7. Steel Cage Match – Chris Benoit vs Edge (11/22) [***3/4]
6. Batista & Triple H vs Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho (12/13) [****]
5. Shelton Benjamin vs Triple H (3/29) [****]
4. Elimination Six Man Tag – Evolution vs Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho & Edge (6/14) [****1/4]
3. Eight Man Tag -Evolution vs Chris Benoit, Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels & Shelton Benjamin (4/12) [****1/4]
2. World Title – Chris Benoit (c) vs Shawn Michaels (5/3) [****1/4]
1. Chris Benoit vs Shawn Michaels (2/16) [****1/2]

I feel like it is pretty safe to say that Chris Benoit was the 2004 Raw MVP just by looking at that top 10 list. Benoit moving to Raw at the end of January was one of the bet things that could have happened for the Raw roster.

Title Defenses
World Tag Team (17)
World Heavyweight (9)
WWE Intercontinental (9)
WWE Women’s (8)
WWE (1)

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

2004 Raw was dominated by Chris Benoit and Evolution, in both match quality and storylines. Looking at the top 10 matches from the year only Jericho vs Christian at #8 was not a member of Evolution (at some point in the year) or named Chris Benoit. I would be willing to put the 2/16 Benoit vs Michaels match against nearly any other match in Raw history as one of the 5 best. I watched 32 Chris Benoit matches for this project and I am not really sure if I missed any, but for the most part he was always at or above ***. Shelton Benjamin benefited greatly from the brand split and was a part of some very good stuff. It is hard to say since I started this project in the middle of Raw history, but I would venture to say that based off the best matches here, this is one of the best years in Raw history.