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

Welcome to the part 2 that was never supposed to exist. I finished the entire column last weekend, however for some reason when it published, the last four months were missing. No one is really sure what happened, just one of those weird tech glitches. Now here we are to fill in the rest of the year. The thing is however, it has been 7-8 days since I have seen these matches so don’t expect a lot of in depth analysis on any of these matches. If it wasn’t for me also keeping a spread sheet with my ratings, I wouldn’t even recall all of those.

If you missed Part 1, then there it is.

August (continued)
Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio vs Kurt Angle & Luther Reigns (8/19) [***1/2] A better match than I anticipated with the inclusion of Reigns.
Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio (8/26) [***3/4] These two always had great chemistry and this was a great sub-feud off Guerrero vs Angle. MOTM
Best-of-Five Series Match 2: Booker T vs John Cena (8/26) [***] Booker continues to have a better year than I recall.
WWE Title: Orlando Jordan (c) vs Undertaker (8/26) [*1/2] Nope, you didn’t read that wrong. Jordan defended the WWE title for JBL as JBL was still recovering from injuries sustained at SummerSlam.

September
Two-out-of-Three Falls Match: Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle (9/2) [****] In terms of match quality, this was the best feud SmackDown had to offer in 2004. This is squarely between their Mania and SummerSlam encounters for me. MOTM
WWE Tag Team Title: Billy Kidman & Paul London (c) vs Kenzo Suzuki & Rene Dupree (9/9) [**] Dupree, who moved from an American hating tag team on Raw, has now formed another American hating tag team with Suzuki. Kidman walked out on London early in the match as Kidman was afraid to hit the shooting star press. Kenzo & Dupree become very forgettable tag champs.
Lumberjack Match: Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle (9/9) [***] Easily the weakest of their four singles televised matches this year. The match did not give the feud the closure it deserved, but instead worked as a way to move Angle into his next feud with Big Show. Show returned after this match broke down and destroyed EVERYONE.
WWE Cruiserweight Title: Spike Dudley (c) vs Rey Mysterio (9/23) [**1/2] I just wanted to enjoy a match with “The Boss” Spike Dudley and this served that purpose just fine in a very quiet month.

October
WWE United States Title: John Cena (c) vs Carlito (10/7) [***1/4] Cena had finally won the US Title back from Booker T the previous Sunday. However, Cena needed time off to tape The Marine. In front of Cena’s hometown crowd Carlito Caribbean Cool debuted and defeated Cena for the US belt in his first televised match. The match was of stronger quality than I was expecting.
WWE Title Hardcore Match: JBL (c) vs Hardcore Holly (10/14) [**1/4] Fun brawl.
WWE United States Title: Carlito (c) vs Rey Mysterio (10/14) [***1/4] Mysterio earned this shot by winning a battle royal earlier in the night. Carlito debuts on WWE TV by defeating John Cena and Rey Mysterio in two good matches in as many weeks, his career would only go down from here.
Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio (10/28) [***1/2] Angle has only been an active wrestler again for three months, but has had the match of the month in all three of those months. Another fun encounter between Rey and Kurt. MOTM

November
WWE United States Title: Carlito (c) vs John Cena (11/18) [NR] Yep, this is the only match from November with anything to talk about. Cena had returned the previous Sunday at Survivor Series and now was back for his belt. Cena clobbered Carlito’s body guard Jesus, then beat the hell out of Carlito before the match started. Carlito had a torn shoulder heading into the match. Once the bell rang Cena hit the FU and collected the win and his title in 22 seconds.

December
WWE Tag Team Title: Kenzo Suzuki & Rene Dupree (c) vs Rey Mysterio & Rob Van Dam (12/9) [***] Mysterio & RVD began teaming again in November and were set to challenge for the tag belts four days later at Armageddon. However, once they made the save for Torrie Wilson, Teddy Long made the match for right now. I really enjoyed their Armageddon match, this was just a tick below. This would basically be the end of Suzuki’s failure of a WWE run after just 6 months. Suzuki would injure himself the following month, he was then fired a few days after being drafted to Raw the following June.
WWE Title: JBL (c) vs Kurt Angle (12/16) [***] An odd heel vs heel match headlined SmackDown this week. The match was better than I would have expected considering the dynamic.
WWE Title: JBL (c) vs Shannon Moore (12/30) [NR] JBL pulled Moore’s name from a fish bowl that had all the WWE superstars names inside it. JBL destroyed Moore in 23 seconds. Post match Teddy Long exposed that JBL had filled the fish bowl with Moore’s name.
WWE Tag Team Title: Rey Mysterio & Rob Van Dam (c) vs Booker T & Eddie Guerrero (12/30) [***3/4] Great tag match to end the final episode of 2004. Mysterio comes full circle as he opened 2004 by winning the Cruiserweight title in the first match of the year, he now closes out by retaining the tag belts in the main event.

MVP: Eddie Guerrero: Just as Benoit was to Raw in 2004, SmackDown was the rise of Eddie Guerrero. Guerrero put on great matches and had phenomenal programs all year long. Rey Mysterio deserves an honorable mention for the diversity of his work and booking.

Top 10:
10. Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio (10/28) [***1/2]
9. Dudley Boyz vs Rey Mysterio & Rob Van Dam (5/27) [***1/2]
8. WWE US Title Elimination Match: Billy Gunn vs Booker T vs Charlie Haas vs John Cena vs Kenzo Suzuki vs Luther Reigns vs Rene Dupree vs Rob Van Dam (7/29) [***3/4]
7. John Cena vs Undertaker (6/24) [***3/4]
6. Royal Rumble Match (1/29) [***3/4]
5. WWE Tag Team Titles: Rey Mysterio & Rob Van Dam (c) vs Booker T & Eddie Guerrero (12/30) [***3/4]
4. WWE Title: Eddie Guerrero (c) vs Rey Mysterio (3/18) [****]
3. WWE Title Steel Cage Match: JBL (c) vs Eddie Guerrero (7/15) [****]
2. WWE Cruiserweight Title: Tajiri (c) vs Rey Mysterio (1/1) [****]
1. Two-out-of-Three Falls Match: Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle (9/7) [****]

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Raw 1997
Raw / SmackDown 2001
Raw / SmackDown 2005

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

In terms of match quality it is very easy to see that Guerrero, Mysterio & Angle were the cream of the crop during SmackDown 2004. The three men were a part of 9 of the top 10 matches from the year, often against each other. What hurt SmackDown through the year though was Angle being inactive from WrestleMania till SummerSlam. Along with his injury they lost Benoit in January to Raw, Undertaker came-and-went and Lesnar went to be a football player. SmackDown made the best of a bad situation though. Booker T, RVD and The Dudley Boyz all received some revitalization in their careers. JBL saw the biggest push of his career and absolutely made the most of it. JBL and Guerrero were putting on better promos than anyone on Raw. Whenever I would go through an episode and see either of them talking, it required me to stop. The booking of the Cruiserweights was frustrating, but we all know that. I would give the tag division edge to SmackDown in 2004, yeah they were a lot of make shift teams, but they were producing some quality matches.