Steve-a-mania Reviews: Bad Blood 2004

Bad Blood 2004 takes place in Columbus, Ohio and continues the tradition of the Hell in A Cell match at Bad Blood, As Shawn Michaels and Triple H settling their feud once and for all. The World title feud takes a back seat in the PPV when Chris Benoit defends the title against Kane.

Venue: Nationwide Arena

Attendance: 9,000

Commentators: Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler

Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler welcome us to the show before the first match gets under way, hyping up the two feature matches of the PPV.

La Resistance vs. Chris Benoit & Edge- WWE World Tag Team Titles

Chris Benoit will be pulling double duty tonight as he faces Kane later on in the night. Sylvain starts us off with the Canadian National anthem, he is interrupted by Edge’s music…a Canadian.

Edge and Chris Benoit look strong in the early going, working like a legitimate tag team with quick tags. La Resistance catch a break when Rob Conway forces Edge into the corner. They start to double team Edge, brandishing him with their uninspiring brand of offence. Benoit does get the tag, he bursts into the ring aggressively dishing out a pair of German Suplexes for Sylvain and Conway. Benoit ducks a clothesline attempt and locks in the cross face, On the verge of being a double champion, the pyro explodes red. Kane hits Benoit and Edge with a pair of big boots and then both Edge and Benoit get a choke slam. On the outside he throws Benoit into the steel steps, ending the match on a disqualification. 10:17 It felt like more of a TV match that was used to progress the Kane and Chris Benoit storyline. Solid but unspectacular.

Winners: Chris Benoit & Edge via DQ (La Resistance retain due to DQ rule)
Rating: **

– Coach and Eric Bischoff are backstage as Coach warms up for his match later on in the night. Eric Bischoff says that Coach needs to get rid of Eugene, Eugene over hears this and Bischoff explains it that he just doesn’t want Eugene to get injured. Caring as ever, that’s Uncle Eric.

Chris Jericho vs. Tyson Tomko

In the early going Tomko attempts to over power Jericho, but Jericho’s speed proves to be too much for him. Tomko standing on the apron gets hit with a springboard drop kick knocking him to the floor. Jericho dives off the apron and Tomko catches him, ramming the injured ribs into the ring post. He continues to work on the injured ribs when he knees Jericho and locks in the bear hug. Jericho hits a bull dog and attempts a Lion Sault, but it misses. He follows up with an attempt to lock in the Walls of Jericho but is over powered. Trish gets up on the apron, Tomko charges at Jericho, he moves out of the way and Tomko knocks Trish off. Jericho hits the enzirguri and covers, 1…2…3! 6:03 Decent match with big man vs. small man story and the targeting of Jericho’s injured ribs was a nice touch.

Winner: Chris Jericho
Rating: **¼

-We get a re-cap of the last couple of weeks which had Shelton Benjamin defeat Randy Orton twice. On the most recent Raw Evolution put a beating on Shelton Benjamin.

-Randy Orton is being interviewed by Todd Grisham. He talks about how his current reign of Intercontinental champion has been the longest in 7 years. Orton goes to the ring and starts to insult the crowd. Shelton Benjamin comes to the ring and he says that no one cares what Orton has to say and that their match later on will take place right now!

Randy Orton vs. Shelton Benjamin- WWE Intercontinental Title

The referee comes running down and orders for the start. Randy Orton is in utter disbelief and he is taken by surprise as Benjamin rolls him up for 2, Benjamin overwhelms Orton with some drop kicks. Orton having enough takes his title and looks for the exit, Benjamin hits a baseball slide on Orton. Orton is able to shift the momentum of the match, being able to ground Benjamin down with head locks. They find themselves in the midst of a slug fest, Benjamin is then able to gain control of the match with a flying clothesline. He follows it up with a Stinger Splash and a T-Bone Suplex, Ric Flair just in time puts Orton’s foot on the rope. Feeling frustrated Benjamin chases after Flair, throwing him into the ring. He hits a Stinger Splash and locks in the Figure 4 Leg lock, whilst he has that locked in Orton staggers over falling victim to an inside cradle for 2. Benjamin disposes of Ric Flair, he dives off the top rope and hits a cross body, Orton rolls through pulling the tights for 3. 15:03 The beginning and end of the match was exciting with Shelton Benjamin’s energetic and explosive offence mixed with Orton’s great selling. But, the middle part did have a tendency to drag on with a plethora of head locks and stomps.

Winner: Randy Orton retains Intercontinental Title
Rating: ***

Lita is warming up for her match, when Matt Hardy enters and gives her some support. The kissing is interrupted by Eric Bischoff and several security guards. Matt proclaims that it’s a woman’s locker room, then what’s he doing there? He is lead out by Security.

Victoria vs. Lita vs. Trish Stratus vs. Gail Kim- WWE Womens Title

Lita and Victoria both stare at Trish, fearing the worst she quickly bolts out of the ring. Lita chases her out. Victoria and Gail Kim are in the ring, Victoria slams Gail Kim and hits a standing Moon Sault. Lita breaks the count. Lita and Trish face off with each other, they begin to trade rights and lefts. Lita ducks the chick kick and rolls up Trish into a cover, at 2 Tomko pulls Lita off Trish. The referee forces Tomko to go to the back. Lita clotheslines Gail Kim twice. Gail reverses a clothesline into the corner, and charges in afterwards but Lita quickly moves sending Gail into the corner. Lita hits a DDT. She gets down for the cover, Trish sneaks in for a quick roll up 1…2…3! 4:43 They all linked up really well in some interesting sequences and managed to make good use of the little time that they had.

Winner: Trish Stratus wins the Womens Title
Rating: **½

Eugene vs. Jonathan Coachman

Eugene proposes a handshake, Coach accepts attempting to squeeze really hard. But he is no match for Eugene’s crazy retard strength. Coach and Eugene both bounce to the ropes many times, Eugene’s attention is diverted to someone in the audience. He leaves the ring and admires a teddy bear a woman is holding in the front row. Coach calls for someone from the back, a woman comes out with cookies. Distracting Eugene, Coach rams his head into the cookie tray. In the ring, Eugene is on the offence but is distracted with Garrison Cade tearing the teddy bear from earlier in half. Cade though grabs a hold of Eugene, Coach looks for a clothesline but Eugene ducks and he knocks Cade off the apron. Eugene hits the Rock Bottom on Coach and then the People’s Elbow for the 3. 7:38 For a comedy match it was pretty good. Some of the spots were amusing, despite the terrible gimmick Eugene is a pretty decent wrestler. So the execution of the match was never going to be offensive.

Winner: Eugene
Rating: **

Chris Benoit vs. Kane- WWE World-Heavyweight

Benoit takes it straight to Kane in the early going hitting him with some vicious chops. Kane throws Benoit off into the corner, but Benoit still goes at it with some more chops. Benoit attempts to hit his 2 key submission moves, Crossface and the Sharp Shooter, failing both times. Kane is too strong for any of the holds to stick. Kane dominates Chris Benoit hitting some big power moves as well as locking in the cravat hold, working on the injured neck. Benoit still trying to mount a fight back with some more chops, as previously proven though Kane is too strong for him. Benoit catches a break when he dodges a big boot, which leads to Kane being hung up in the ropes and Benoit hits a drop kick to the leg. He hits some German Suplexes, then to the top rope nails a Diving Head butt and follows it up with another Crossface attempt. Kane yet again shows his strength advantage shoves him off and he hits a choke slam for 2. Kane on the top rope dives off for a clothesline, Benoit catches the arm and puts in Crossface. Kane quickly gets to his feet, Benoit goes for the other arm trying to get him down. He then rolls Kane up for the 3. 18:20 I didn’t like how Chris Benoit was made to look weak in this match. With Kane the less talented wrestler dominating large portions of it ensuring the pace to be slow. I thought they were going for the story of Benoit may be the smaller of the two but can still match aggression with Kane thus making it even. That never seemed to materialise though.

Winner: Chris Benoit retains World Heavyweight title
Rating: **½

– Chris Benoit is being interviewed backstage as him and Todd Grisham go over the match, and how Chris Benoit has proved that he is for real.

Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H- Hell In A Cell

They start trading rights and lefts with each other, it doesn’t take long for someone to be thrown out into the cell. Leaving Triple H already busted open. Shawn Michaels attempts to get Triple H back in the ring with a suplex, his back problems preventing that. seeing the weakness Triple H exposes it quickly, he picks him up and rams him into the ring post and corner of the cell several times. Michaels is able to get back on the offence by sending Triple H into the steel steps. Back in the ring, Triple H ducks a Sweet Chin Music attempt, on instinct grabs the steel steps and bashes Michaels with it. Now leaving Michaels busted open this time. Triple H attempts a Pedigree but Michaels escapes out of it and hits a DDT. Michaels grabs a ladder from under the ring and charges at Triple H with it hitting him on the head. Triple H tries to hit the Pedigree again, Michaels like the other times reverses it and slingshots Triple H into the ladder. Michaels puts Triple H on the table and sets up the ladder, hitting the elbow drop sending Triple H crashing through the table! He covers but only gets 2. Michaels tunes up the band , side steps but Triple H hits a low blow. Triple H finally hits a pedigree! He covers but only gets 2. They use each other to get to their feet. Michaels nails Triple H with a super kick and he covers, 1..2…kick out! Eventually they are both up and Triple H hits another pedigree! He cannot make the cover though. Triple H first makes it to his feet and immediately seeing the opportunity, he takes it and hits a pedigree! He gets an arm over for the cover, 1…2…3! 47:26 Lasted a lot longer than it needed to, the crowd was dead for large parts of it except the ladder spot. The spots during the match was actually pretty good, the extended rest holds in between though killed any anticipation for it.

Winner: Triple H
Rating: ***

The 411: Bad Blood 2004 was overall pretty disappointing. It was an event either filled with TV quality matches and those that had potential but ultimately didn’t amount to much. Triple H was at the top of the card again, which left the World title feud taking a back seat. Nothing on this PPV really meant anything in the grand scheme of things, with all of them moving on to different things afterwards which gave it the vibe of a throw away PPV.

Final Score:  4.0   [ Poor ]