Connor McGrath
2005 was a weird year in the relationship between the WWE and the internet wrestling community. While the internet wrestling community had existed for at least fifteen years before, WWE had generally ignored it for most of its existence. Yeah, there was WWF on AOL and of course, LiveWire back in the ’90s but it seemed like the whims of the IWC fans had very little impact on WWE’s decision making up until the mid ’00s. WWE acknowledged the internet but it didn’t seem to really care what it said.
However, by ’05, an entire generation had grown up in a world where they used the internet for most of their lives and they could no longer be brushed off as a novelty. Nowhere was this more evident than with the aftermath of the release of Matt Hardy. Following his firing, Matt Hardy made a number of posts on his personal website, talking frankly about how his long term girlfriend Lita had left him for his best friend Edge (who was on the fast track to becoming WWE Champion) and that’s why he’d been released.
Three or four years earlier, WWE probably would have ignored this. Matt would have gone to TNA with his brother and WWE would have tried to move on. However, in ’05, WWE couldn’t help but ignore the fans’ deafening “We Want Matt” chants and their countless indignant internet posts. WWE smartly brought Matt back in a way where fans were confused as to whether or not, we were seeing was a storyline or a breaking of the script. Although by the time of the show, it devolved into, more or less, a standard storyline (albeit one with a very strong basis in reality) because you can’t trick people into buying a worked shoot for too long.
2005 also saw the return of ECW, partially prompted by demand from the IWC (Remember, ECW was the first promotion to cater to the IWC ten years earlier) and the rise of the IWC’s least favorite wrestler, John Cena. The IWC didn’t always hate John Cena but it certainly seemed that way. When Cena won the title at WrestleMania 21 six months earlier, it seemed like the vast majority of the WWE Universe was behind. However, three months later at ECW One Night Stand, fans were chanting “Die Cena Die”. What turned fans against him? Some say it was the limited moveset (I guess these people were never bothered by Ric Flair & Bret Hart using the same moves every match) but I think it comes down to Cena being a pre-Attitude era babyface in a post Attitude era world. The superhero babyface overcoming the odds may have worked in the era of Bruno Sammartino and The Hulkster but it wasn’t cutting it in 2005 and the fans were letting WWE know. Would WWE listen? Well, not really but we’ll see the evolution of Cena hatred in the coming months and years with this feature. Now, a look back at Unforgiven ’05.
RAW Presents…WWE Unforgiven
September 18th, 2005
Live from the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Announcers: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, and Jonathan Coachman
Our show opens with a clip of Kurt Angle’s shocking return to RAW, where he attacked John Cena. Angle’s return to RAW was kind of necessary since the number of high quality heels on Smackdown! outweighed the number of high quality heels on RAW. Smackdown! had Randy Orton, JBL, Eddie Guerrero, and Christian (plus Booker T, who was a face but about to play heel) while on RAW, Jericho had just left the company and Triple H was out for most of the Summer and Fall. I’m not sure if he was recuperating from injury. If Angle hadn’t jumped over, RAW would have been at a loss for top heels. Edge wasn’t done with his feud with Matt Hardy and Carlito & Chris Masters as it turns out, would never really be ready (or at least WWE didn’t think they were). So a random mid-year roster jump was necessary. Eric Bischoff brought in Kurt Angle to take the title off of John Cena.
ANGLE WON AN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL! HE’S SICK OF JOHN CENA’S CHARADE AND IS GONNA MAKE HIM TAP TONIGHT!
Jim Ross, The King, and The Coach welcome us to the show tonight and intro the Spanish announce team! HOLA HUGO & CARLOS! It’s time to go to ringside for our opening bout.
WWE Intercontinental Title Match: Carlito (c) Vs Ric Flair
It’s a odd to see Ric Flair in an Intercontinental Title match. It’s also odd to see Ric Flair in an opening match. But an opening match for the Intercontinental Title? Super odd. Flair & Carlito feuded and/or teamed a lot in the 2 or 3 year period after Evolution disintegrated but before he started his “Retirement” angle in ’08. They’re feuding because Carlito trolled Flair for being old and then spit apple in his face on Carlito’s Cabana.
I know it’s said A LOT but Flair has really, really aged in the past ten years. He doesn’t look super great here but he looked like a 56 year old (which was his age at the time of this show). By the time of his retirement two and a half years later, he looked like he was in his mid ’60s and now he looks and walks like he’s in his eighties. Flair was obviously physically limited at this point but time hadn’t aged the great wrestling mind. This is a decent, little opener centered around the young & cocky sneaky bastard trying to outsmart the wily, old sneaky bastard. JR says Flair’s taking this match seriously! Him and Flair went to Toby Keith’s restaurant last night and Flair went home at 9 P.M.! Man, I’d love to party at a Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar with The Nature Boy and JR. I’d be a better American because of it. Coach trolls JR about the Oklahoma Sooners 1 and 2 record so far that season.
Cool finish with Carlito going for the apple spit in the face but Flair punching him in the face, causing Carlito to choke on the apple. Figure Four Leglock finishes it to make Ric Flair the Intercontinental Champion for the first time in his career. I’ll give it *** because I’m a sucker for crazy, old man Flair. Flair gives an emotional speech, talking about how proud he is to win the Intercontinental Title. He just regrets that Triple H isn’t here. So I guess Ric Flair was still not totally a face here. He says he’s gonna celebrate tonight. Ric Flair’s overreaction to winning the Intercontinental Title would be the basis of Flair’s face turn though.
Flair whoops it up with some OKLAHOMA LADIES.
Carlito flips out and shoves Todd Grisham.
Lita gives Edge a backrub while Edge talks about beating the life out of Matt Hardy tonight inside the confines of a steel cage. Then they makeout.
Trish Stratus & Ashley Massaro Vs The Ladies in Pink (with Candice Michelle)
Coach and JR already got RAGING ERECTIONS from that last segment and now we got some Divas action. Ladies in Pink are Torrie Wilson & Victoria…and they’re dressed in gold not pink. Coach & King chastise JR for not constantly talking about his raging erection during these divas matches like they do. Ashley’s Winner of the second Divas Search. Trish is making her pay per view return after suffering a knee injury. JR says Victoria’s the strongest of the Divas division and Coach is mad that JR doesn’t point out how hot Victoria is too. I know Coach was supposed to be intentionally unlikable here but the objectifying of women in ’00s WWE still makes me p. uncomfortable. Trish & Victoria had some good matches back in the day so it’s kind of a bummer to see ’em saddled with the duty of carrying Ashley & Torrie to something watchable. It amazes, given how long that Torrie was in WWE (and in WCW before that) that she was never really able to become remotely decent as an in-ring worker. But I guess she didn’t need to be given her role. Anyway, Trish & Ashley get the win when Trish hits the Chick Kick on Ashley. *
Ric Flair gets into the limo with the parade of ladies, woo’ing along the way. I’m pretty sure the one that Flair smooches at the end is his future third, ex wife (and a Google search confirms it). That Nature Boy…always a romantic. 🙂 Just as I type that…Flair pops some Viagra and downs it with some champagne. WOOOOO!
Billy Gibbons & Dusty Hill from ZZ Top are in the house and Lillian Garcia intros them. ZZ TOP, YOU GUYS ROCK!
Big Show Vs Snitsky
JR says ZZ Top is impressive but so is the “World’s Largest Athlete” The Big Show! Show shakes hands with ZZ Top. Greatness appreciates greatness! They’re fighting because Snitsky hit Big Show with the ring bell for some reason. This is a pretty forgettable match, outside of Big Show sort of doing a kip up. It’s crappy and rope assisted but considering Big Show was probably in worst shape of his career at this point, kind of impressive. Big Show wins with the Chokeslam. * Big Show whacks Snitsky with the ringbell. JR says we just saw some super sized retribution!
We go back to Flair’s limo. There’s steam coming out of it! Flair’s having a hot time or making hot tea!
Video package for the Shawn Michaels Vs Chris Masters semi-main event. See…here’s a missed opportunity. Shawn Michaels could have been a great challenger for Cena if they kept him heel but they sort of immediately shifted back to business as usual and turned him face after the Cena feud. Instead, they just kind of pretended the last few months never happened and had him challenge Monster Heel of the Week Chris Masters in a forgettable feud.
Shelton Benjamin Vs Kerwin White
Ugh. Kerwin White is definitely a regrettable moment in WWE history. After being attacked by The Mexicools, Chavo Guerrero Jr denounced his Latino heritage, dyed his hair blonde, and became a golf cart driving, bigot named Kerwin White. He clubbed Benjamin with a golf club to set up this match. Got to give props to Chavo for wrestling while wearing khaki shorts and tennis sneakers. Coach wonders why JR doesn’t like Kerwin White since JR’s a middle class, white guy. JR says he doesn’t like Kerwin White because he drives a damn gold cart to the ring! What does that have to do with rasslin? This is a pretty good match but overshadowed by the dumb Kerwin White gimmick. Benajmin wins by avoiding a golf club shot and hitting White with the RKO T Bone Suplex out of nowhere. ***
Todd Grisham talks to Matt Hardy and asks him about Matt calling Lita a “female dog”. Matt says he didn’t call her a female dog, he called her what she is…a BITCH and he’s not gonna take it back! She slept with his best friend and got him fired.
Video package for Matt Hardy Vs Edge. I think this feud was half ruined by WWE’s mediocre booking and half booked by Matt Hardy’s at the time terrible acting skills. He’s unexpectedly become a lot better (not great but acceptable) but in 2005, he was no good. I mean obviously, it’s impossible not to feel sort of bad for a guy who was wronged that badly but it’s also hard to get behind a barely comprehensible goof.
Steel Cage Match: Edge (with Lita) Vs Matt Hardy
I usually find the escape rule kind of silly for a steel cage match when the purpose of the match is to keep the guys from leaving. However, both guys do a good job of emphasizing how they want to beat the other so badly that he’ll be physically unable to leave the cage. I find it interesting after the worked shoot feel of their match at SummerSlam last month, that they pretty much have a very standard cage match here. I can understand that move. SummerSlam match was interesting but not really something you can sustain over the course of an entire feud. Edge goes after the back of Hardy’s head, powerbombing him into the cage, head first into one of the turnbuckles, and off the top rope. That’s probably something you wouldn’t see in the TV PG era (and an era more conscious of concussions—maybe I should rephrase that?). You can criticize the Hardy Boyz for a lot of things but you can’t say that they can’t sell their asses off.
That might be biggest problem with this feud. After having his girlfriend stolen by his best friend and getting fired, Matt Hardy still got his ass kicked by said best friend. Matt Hardy really should’ve been able to kick Edge’s ass pillar to post in, at least a couple matches. I understand them wanting Edge to go over but yeesh, don’t completely, figuratively pants Matt Hardy and leave him looking a fool. Just as I type that, Matt ties Edge in the ropes and repeatedly punches him in the face and smashes his face into the cage. What timing. Edge gets busted open. Lita runs in to break up the count after Matt Hardy hits a Twist of Fate off the top rope. Lita distracts Matt so she takes a Twist of Fate too. Edge spears Matt but Matt manages to kick out. Matt knocks Edge of the turnbuckle. He goes to escape but decides to hit Edge with a legdrop from the top of the cage for the win. Dumb but I guess that move worked better for Matt than it did for his brother Jeff at Survivor Series ’01…After the odd match that they had at SummerSlam ’05 and all of the hype, I think everyone was expecting a classic from Matt & Edge here, especially with the Steel Cage stipulation but it was just a pretty solid but slightly forgettable steel cage match. ***1/2 Edge would win a Loser Leaves RAW Ladder Match at RAW Homecoming two weeks after this show, which would help elevate Edge to the main event while insure that Matt Hardy would never reach that level in WWE.
John Cena gets his ankle taped up by the trainer. Eric Bischoff smugly walks in to tell Cena that he’s gonna need a lot more tape. Bischoff says he’s gonna put a stop to Cena’s stupid Chain Gang! Bischoff goes over the top and yells that he doesn’t know if Cena will survive let alone win the match. Cena borrows some tape from the trainer and puts it over Bischoff’s mouth. I think Cena & Bischoff doing a watered down replica of Austin Vs McMahon was a clear example of WWE misreading the room and it really only hastened the Cena backlash. Also we’re three-quarters of the way through the year and at every RAW pay per view, I get reminded ‘Oh yeah. Bischoff was still hanging around at this point!’
A bloodied Edge crawls to the back with the help of some officials with Lita trailing behind him. This was probably used in a “WWE: Don’t Try This At Home”
World Tag Team Titles Match: Hurricane & Rosey (c) Vs Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch
And as we start the next match, we see Edge’s blood is still stained on the mat in a nice touch. Cade & Murdoch debuted a few weeks before and defeated the tag team champs in a non-title match in their first bout two weeks before this PPV. Cade & Murdoch are billed by JR & Coach as a new school cowboy and an old school cowboy (Cade likes Toby Keith and Murdoch likes Merle Haggard as JR points out). I was about to say this is Hurricane and Rosey’s first PPV appearance of ’05 but JR reminds me they won the Tag Team Titles at Backlash. Must not have been that memorable. JR points out that Hurricane’s gotta be tough cause he’s got green hair! Hurricane & Rosey’s one of those teams that I always remember as being short lived but they actually were together for about two years. Granted, it was during one of the most forgettable eras for tag teams but still. This was after the S.H.I.T (Super Hero in Training phase) of Rosey’s character. I feel like they ran the “new team debuts, beats the Tag Team Champs in a non-title match then challenges for the titles and wins in the rematch at the pay per view” once every other month on RAW in the mid ’00s.
Anyway, The Hurricane suffers a fake stinger during the match after Murdoch hits an elevated DDT off the security barrier onto the floor, making this basically a handicap match. Hurricane limps back in towards the end, much to JR and King’s consternation, and quickly gets pinned by Cade & Murdoch with a lariat/legsweep double team. For the second time, the titles have changed hands tonight! Cade & Murdoch are new tag team champs. This was marginally better than the typical WWE tag match of the era and vaguely reminded me a bit of Power & Glory Vs Rockers from SummerSlam ’90. **1/2 Announcers pretending Hurricane suffered a stinger might have gone too far, in terms of fake injuries. All for good selling but shouldn’t pretend a guy’s suffered that type of injury just so fans don’t pshaw guys actually suffering stingers.
Ric Flair’s future, ex third wife stumbles out of the limo, wearing his robe. She just wants a breath of fresh air. Naitch and the rest of the Oklahoma honeys ask her to get back in their and she flashes them (with her back to the camera, of course). WOO!
A young Maria Kanellis interviews Chris Masters. She asks him why his nickname is “The Master Bate”. Oh geez, this was during Maria’s stupid “stupid” gimmick. Chris Masters says he looks like he’s been sculpted by Michaelangelo, which of course, prompts Maria to sing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme. Hard to believe ten years ago that Maria would go on to become one of the best heel managers in wrestling (and in ROH no less!)
Chris Masters Vs Shawn Michaels
This should be interesting, in a weird way, and I’ve wanted to see this match since it happened ten years ago but haven’t. This is why WWE Network is so great. To remember odd matches on forgettable, second tier pay per views. I was curious to see if Shawn Michaels could carry Masters to something watchable. Masters would eventually become a solid, big man (although it happened on the B & C Shows so I’m not sure how much of it, I’ll review for this feature) but here, he was a greener than the Incredible Hulk. Just a big, bulky goof. They do the smart and obvious move of basing the match around Michaels just selling the shit out of Masters’ limited power moves. JR evokes Michaels’ matches with SID and Diesel but this isn’t quite on that level, obviously. Masters can’t powerbomb Kidman can’t MasterLock Shawn Michaels! HBK uses a kick to the ding dong to break out of a close call. Masters finally Masterlocks HBK after ducking a Sweet Chin Music. There’s no way anyone can escape the MasterLock! Michaels actually doesn’t as he grabs the ropes with his feet to force the referee to break it. Michaels gets the win with the Sweet Chin Music after wiggling out of a MasterLock attempt. This is definitely towards the bottom end of the rankings of Shawn Michaels’ PPV matches but it’s still a minor miracle that HBK was able to get somewhat watchable out of Masters, at this stage in the big galoot’s career. *** JR says this match proved that Chris Masters may one day hold the torch. Er…or not, JR!
The Oklahoma ladies leave Ric Flair’s limo. Ric Flair stumbles out with his trunks halfway down (how many times in the next two and a half years will I have to see Flair’s aging ass!?) and a bottle of champagne then promptly passes out on the concrete. Announcers guffaw. Ha ha! That Ric Flair! He’s been slowly ruining his life for almost thirty years!
The Coach thanks Taproot for providing the official theme song of Unforgiven! 2005!
Video package for our main event. Bischoff is obsessed with getting the WWE Title off of John Cena and Kurt Angle is obsessed with getting that belt. Angle is the most vicious sonuva bitch in WWE.
WWE Championship Title Match: John Cena (c) Vs Kurt Angle
Cena Backlash hadn’t hit Oklahoma yet – and actually, probably still hasn’t. Oklahoma! Angle gets some cheers but I’m not noticing more than a smattering of boos for Cena. King says we’ve seen two titles change hands so far tonight, will we see a third? Coach guarantees an Angle victory. You know I know that WWE has had a short term memory for much of the past twenty years but I think it would’ve been actually helpful for them to bring up the fact that Angle beat Cena in Cena’s debut match. Maybe the announcers talk about how resentful Angle is that the young rookie he beat (on several occasions) has surpassed him. These two have had better matches than this. I mean it’s a pretty good match but it feels sort of like a TV main event. Obviously setting up a rematch. It sounds ludicrous on paper but this isn’t really all that much better than HBK-Chris Masters!
Finish starts with a ref bump. Angle knocks Cena out with the Gold Medal. Cena rolls out of the Angle Lock, Bischoff runs down and tries to hit Cena with the belt, Cena steals it away from him and waffles Angle with the title. Conveniently, this happens just as the ref wakes up and the ref DQ’s Cena. Bischoff flips out. He doesn’t care if Cena didn’t lose by pinfall or submission! He wants the title off of him. Cena FUs Bischoff. Angle and Cena brawl around ringside for a bit, ending with Cena FU’ing Angle through a table. Cena celebrates in the ring with the title in the end of the show while Lawler reminds that Cena actually technically lost tonight’s match. See…this is why the backlash to Cena started. Because even in matches where he didn’t win… he still ended up standing tall (despite ludicrous odd) and didn’t really seem phased by whatever happened to him. Meh. ***. Also second time in three WWE pay per views where main event ended in a DQ. And WWE wondered why no one bought some of these second tier shows…
All in all, a pretty forgettable effort from RAW. Nothing really stands out, good or bad. A number of solid matches but a few big disappointments and nothing really worth the $35 (or whatever pay per views cost in 2005) for the show. Thank goodness we have WWE Network now, I guess. Very quickly, RAW replaced one stale heel champion (Triple H) with one stale babyface champion in Cena. And it’s really kind of baffling that Cena was ALREADY stale six months into his run as a main eventer but that’s a testament to how bad post ’01 WWE booking can be.
Next Time on Ten Years After…It’s the final pay per view of Eddie Guerrero’s all too short life & career as he challenges Batista for the World Heavyweight Title. Plus Randy Orton teams up with his Pa “Cowboy” Bob to take on The Undertaker in a 2 on 1 Casket Match! Join me as I take a look back at WWE No Mercy 2005!
