WWE SummerSlam 2004 (2004)

Sadly Over-hyped

People are voting emotionally.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

First Match: The Dudley Boyz vs Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman, and Paul London. Rule of thumb, starting a PPV with a Mysterio match is a guaranteed winner. I miss Billy Kidman so much, he has the best Shooting Star Press in the history of wrestling. I love The Dudleyz as heels because I find their trash talk hilarious. A good match to start the show. Rating: 3.5/5 Second Match: Kane vs Matt Hardy, "Till Death Do Us Part" match where the winner will marry Lita. Oh boy, it's one of those "People as Property" matches. While I liked their match at Vengeance the month before this, this match was so one-sided it wasn't even funny. Kane beats Hardy so quickly and the story was just "Who cares?" levels of ridiculous by this point that the crowd was almost non-existent. The match is watchable though, mostly due to it being only 6 minutes. Rating: 3/5 Third Match: John Cena vs Booker T, Match #1 in a Best-of-Five Series for the WWE US Championship. Oh White Rapper John Cena, it's hilarious to watch these old matches knowing how far you've come. This match exists. It's over in 6 minutes, there's not a lot of action, and it's the first match of a series which isn't all that suspenseful. Like the previous match though, it is watchable, but mostly due to it being so short. Rating: 3/5 Fourth Match: Edge vs Batista vs Chris Jericho, Triple Threat match for the Intercontinental Championship. This is where the crowd starts to hijack the show. Also there's a guy with an "Edge Sucks" sign, only it's spelled "Edje",and the "J" is backwards. Despite the short match time, and the weird crowd, the match manages to be pretty good. Certainly not the best triple threat match, but a good one. Rating: 3.5/5 Fifth Match: Kurt Angle vs Eddie Guerrero. The sequel to their Wrestlemania classic. While not as good as their Wrestlemania match, it does tell a great story. Another "Reality Check" match for not only Guerrero fans, but Guerrero himself. No matter what Eddie does, he gets out-wrestled by Angle and can't outsmart him like he did previously. A great match in terms of story-telling and selling an onslaught of submission holds. Rating: 4/5Sixth Match: HHH vs Eugene. This match felt a lot longer than 14 minutes, in a bad way. Eugene gets way too much offense, and Hunter has to be on the receiving end of some stupid moves, thus making himself look very stupid. And yes, while HHH does win, it's mostly due to a distraction and unfortunately he didn't live up to his promise of ending Eugene's career. Rating: 2.5/5 Seventh Match: JBL vs The Undertaker, WWE Championship. I miss that old belt design so bad. This is also where the crowd goes completely off the rails and barely cares about what's going on in the match. But whatever, the match is a decent brawl, even with Orlando Jordan (remember him?) interfering too much for my liking. The ending of the match is lame, but Bradshaw gets the tar beaten out of him by Taker after the match, which helps. Also Bradshaw has the sickest clothesline in the history of ever. I wonder if he's ever broken someone's neck with it? Rating: 3.5/5 Eighth Match: Chris Benoit vs Randy Orton, World Heavyweight Championship. Holy cow this match is awesome. It's such a surreal moment to see Orton, who prior to this was billed as a heel, wrestle Benoit one-on-one without any help from his buddies in Evolution. The wrestling is fantastic, Benoit is on fire, Orton beats Benoit clean, and makes history by becoming the youngest person to ever win the World Heavyweight Championship; a record that was never beaten. Benoit could not have lost the title in a better match, to a more deserving opponent. And the handshake after the match is an absolute class act by one of the greats. Rating: 5/5Final Rating: 7 out of 10. Even though WWE will never again say who Orton beat to make history, the show is still really good, even if only for that match. Just skip Eugene's match, and you have a great show.R.I.P. Chris Benoit & R.I.P. Eddie Guerrero

Summerslam has always been a pretty good card. This one had a few weak matches but overall it was a pretty good pay per view.1. Paul London,Billy Kidmen,Rey Mysterio vs the Dudley Boyz and Spike Dudley. This match was a classic example of speed vs Power. It started out pretty boring at first but then when the match began to speed up then it got better. London and Kidman are a overrated team. Mystero is still good to watch. The Dudleys need to add more speed to there matches. They appeared to have put on a few pounds in this match and that wasn't a good thing. Spike proved to be a pretty weak heel. Not the best match on the Summerslam card but not the worst. 4/10 2.Kane vs Matt Hardy. Well this match was kind of slow at first and the fans seemed not to care much that Kane dominated this match. This would be the last WWE pay per view for Matt Hardy following the whole Lita/Edge affair. Hardy put on a good match and Kane seemed to be enjoying being the heel and not the face. I won't tell ya whats gonna happen in the end. I give this match 7/10.3. John Cena vs Booker T. Not a bad match. COuld have been worse. Booker T proved he was the better wrestler in this match but the fans for some reason think Cenas gimmick is what makes him a good wrestler. WRONG. Cena may be good on the mic but take that away people wouldn't cheer the guy. Cena barely came out of this match alive. Still not the best match but not the worse. 6/10.4. Edge vs Y2J vs Batista. Pretty good match. A lot of heat for Edge from the fans. His hometown fans. Anyways Batista looked really slow in this match. It got good when Edge and Y2J got it on. Pretty good match. 5/10.5. Kurt Angle vs Eddie Guerrero. Awesome match. Angle and Guerrero show fans the way a wrestling match should be. Less punching and kicking,more holds and fast paced speed. Angle proved why he is the better wrestler in the WWE today. I give this match a 9/10.6. HHH vs Eugenne. OK match. But it got boring fast and predictable. Anoother HHH victory after getting help from Ric Flair. HHH needs to try to win a match for once by himself.7. Undertaker vs JBL. Not a good match at all. This was the slowest match of all and JBL proved why he can't wrestle. Undertaker had to carry JBL through this match who looked to have also put on more weight. This match got slower at the end and the outcome of this match proved why the WWE writers are getting desperate. this match will never be as good as matches like Kurt Angle vs Chris Beniot Brock Lesner vs Undertaker. 1/10 8. Randy Orton vs Chris Beniot. Pretty good match. Fast paced. There were a few missed spots and it started what was the shortest world title reign ever of Randy Orton. Still it was nice to see a clean match where are no wrestlers interfering. Chris Beniot proved why he was a great champion. 9/10.Good pay per view. Not the best but not the worst

SummerSlam was a pay-per-view that excitement and questions to both RAW & Smackdown Match 1: Spike & Dudley Boyz vs. Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman & Paul London Mysterio, Kidman & London look good as usual. London is with Shelton Benjamin & RVD on of the best athletes in the WWE. Kidman is great too. The cruiser weight action light up this match. By the way if the Dudleys would lose Spike would lose his cruiser weight title to whoever picked up the pin. But nobody did. First, after Kidman B-K Bombed Spike, Bubba broke up the pin. Then, when Mysterio hit the 619 & Kidman the Shooting Star Press (the coolest move today), D-Von pulled Mysterio out of the ring. Dudleys win after an illegal 3-D.Rating: 4/5 Match 2: Matt Hardy vs. Kane. Til' Death Do Us Part Match.What happened was that Lita was pregnant. And the child wasn't Matt's. It was Kane's... This leads into a match between Matt & Kane, and the winner would marry Lita the next night on RAW. Matt totally dominates the entire match, and after a Twist Of Fate, Kane gets his foot on the bottom rope. Kane then hits a choke slam from the top rope. Incredible choke slam.Rating: 3/5 Match 3: Booker T vs. John Cena.This was the first out of five matches to decide who would be the United States Champion. When Booker turned heel, i knew it wasn't going to work out. And it didn't. He turned heel because he didn't like Smackdown. What the!? Cena picks up the first win in the series.Rating: 1/5 Match 4: Edge vs. Chris Jericho vs. Batista. Intercontinental Championship Triple Threat.The Toronto crowd is weird. I mean, they boo Edge in his own hometown! Anyway, this was like any other Triple Threat Match. Two wrestlers in the ring, while th other one recovers on the outside. A dropkick from Edge takes five years to get up from! Edge retains.Rating: 2/5 Match 5: Kurt Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero.A match featuring both Kurt Angle & Eddie Guerrero has to be great. The match at Wrestlemania XIX was great. The LumberJack Match three weeks after SummerSlam was great. But Angle is a little slower after his neck surgery. Both can do better, but this is great.Rating: 3/5 Match 6: Triple H vs. Eugene.Finally, Triple H isn't in the main event! The Toronto crowd once again makes no sense. They actually boo Eugene and cheer for Triple H! Wow, it really is Bizarro World. Anyway, Eugene hits Triple's Pedigree, but Flair puts his foot on the bottom rope. Triple gives Eugene his first ever pin fall loss in the WWE.Rating: 1/5 Match 7: Diva dodge ball.Get a life! What is this! This isn't wrestling! dodge ball isn't wrestling! I'm sorry, i just can't give this a good rating.Rating: 0/5 Match 8: Undertaker vs. John Bradshaw Layfield. WWE Championship.I like Undertaker and not JBL. But JBL is simply better in this match. He is smarter than the Undertaker, and wrestles better than him the entire match. This match was rather slow, and just like every other JBL match the ref gets knocked out and Orlando Jordan interferes. JBL nails Undertaker with the belt, but Jordan puts the KO:d referees hands down too slow. Taker gets disqualified after the ref saw him hit JBL with the belt. Taker then destroys JBL.Rating: 3/5 Match 9: Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton. World Heavyweight Championship.Chris Benoit is great. Orton is not. But this match is in the top three matches of 2004. Can't really say so much about this match, just great. Orton wins without Evolution interference. Evolution then destroys Orton after his rematch with Benoit the next night on RAW.Rating: 5/5 Good: The main event and the opener were great.Bad: The Diva dodge ball was so unnecessary/Triple H vs. Eugene/Booker's heel turn SummerSlam Rating: 4/5

This was definitely a great PPV with lots of good matches. Here is my review.6-man tag. DUDLEYS vs Kidman, London, and Mysterio. A good way to kick things off. As usual the dudleys are seemingly lacking the flair they used to have but still a good match. Rather bland ending though. 7 out of 10.Matt Hardy vs Kane, winner marries Lita. This match was just brutal. WWE really needs to give kane back his mask. 5 out of 10.Cena vs Booker T. 1st out of best of five series. Why is this match on PPV?Oh well. Still a good match that really made up for the last one. Booker seemed in my opinion, to be having some trouble doing his moves. 6 out of 10.Edge vs Y2J vs Batista. Triple threat for IC title. Very weird how Edge was booed in his hometown. Not the best triple threat match, but still a good one. It seemed that there was never a scene where all three men were in the ring at once. 7 out of 10.Kurt Angle vs Eddie Guerrero. Awseome match. Very technical. Kurt seemed to be at the top of his game here and Eddie was not that far behind. Was not predicting Eddie tapping out though. I thought the angle slam would put him away. 9 out of 10.HHH vs Eugine. This match would have been 10 times better if they made it a NO DQ match (I am not copying material, I just have the same thoughts). Eugine is not a good wrestler, he is just really entertaining. I laughed so hard when he did the stunner. Good match. 8 out of 10Diva dodgeball. Good grief this was stupid. 1 out of 10.Undertaker vs JBL WWE championship. I thought this match was going to suck but I was wrong. Undertaker was 100% on the top of his game. As usual JBL sucks. Disappointing ending with the DQ and all. However I did love it when JBL was put through the roof of his limo. 8 out of 10.Chris Beniot vs Randy Orton. Match of the night. This match proved to me that Orton deserves the belt (although Beniot is my favorite wrestler). Unbelievable performance by both men. Surprised that Orton got the clean win. 10 out of 10.