BRM Reviews WWE SummerSlam 2005

[Big Red Machine]

WWE SummerSlam 2005 (8/21/2005)- Washington D.C.


Welcome back to BRM’s Monthly “This Day in Wrestling History” Review Series! This month we’ll be watching a show that I have been putting off for almost a decade. Since before there was a WWE Network. Of the shows I have been putting off, this might be the most frustrating to be, because I only really bought it because of my completionist tendencies. You see, I had so much other stuff from WWE in 2005 that I figured I might as well get this one, too (for a mere $3 on eBay!). The reason I had so much stuff in 2005 is that the winter, spring, most of the summer, and the fall all had what looked like a ton of interesting match-ups on the PPVs. And the most interesting of that to me was the Cena vs. Angle feud that would start the next month, but in order to get through that, I would have to get through this show, and its rather infamous main event. So just like Shawn Michaels in that main event, I was uncooperative, but G-d dammit in the end I’m going to get out there and at least get through it. That’s right. It’s time to sit through WWE SummerSlam 2005.


We start off with the national anthem, complete with the presentation of colors. They focused on people in the crowd with shirts that read “I’m real military,” which I guess is meant to distinguish them from Jesse Ventura.

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Orlando Jordan(c) vs. Chris Benoit- no rating, bad segment
Benoit won in the now-famous “thirty-two seconds.” This is a hard one to evaluate without trying to use hindsight. What it does do is immediately establish that a finish can come at any moment (and Cole’s comments about this being a potential “harbinger” push in that direction)… but at the same time, you’ve taken a show that people paid a good chunk of money for, and you’ve started it off by giving them a match that is decidedly not PPV quality. I’m okay with doing that on rare occasion if you’ve got a good story that needs this to happen as a key point in someone’s journey, but that really didn’t wind up happening here. Yeah, I know that’s using hindsight, but I’m really sure how else to approach this.

VICKIE GUERRERO TRIES TO TALK TO EDDIE BACKSTAGE- TREMENDOUS!
Both of them were amazing here. Vickie was the supportive spouse who realizes the emotional issues that her husband is having at the moment and knows that support is the best thing for him, while at the same time trying to get him to see the root of his issues and to steer him away from a course that will only hurt their friends the Mysterios. She remains supportive of his goals- she never tells him that he shouldn’t be wrestling and trying to beat Rey- while trying to get him to abandon the unnecessarily cruel and hurtful path he has taken to try to achieve those goals (playing mind games with Rey by dragging Dominick into it, to the point where he has tried to take Rey’s son away from him in the hopes that the pressure will cause Rey to crack.
But as good as Vickie was, Eddie was even better, twisting everything she said into a seemingly black and white worldview of “you’re either with me or you’re against me” with no in between (I say seemingly, because with Eddie at this point, you weren’t sure if he was being manipulative or was legitimately thinking that way)… and then- once Vickie was gone- betraying to us that despite his protestations, Vickie was right about what this is really about.

MATT HARDY vs. EDGE (w/Lita)- 4.5/10
This was a great brawl that ended very abruptly due to referee stoppage. Matt got shoved from the top face-first into a post and bled all over, then couldn’t defend himself when Edge went after him again. The execution on this stoppage was great, but the crowd wasn’t educated to a stoppage finish so they rejected it. This might have worked a little better if this match had gone longer and if the previous match hadn’t been so short as well.

LADDER MATCH FOR CUSTODY OF DOMINICK MYSTERIO: Rey Mysterio Jr.(c) vs. Eddie Guerrero- 7.75/10
Yeah, I know, using the (c) is really weird here, but that is my convention for matches where someone is defending a title or a title shot or something else where one person has it and the other takes it with them if they win, so I’m sticking to it!
I was surprised to hear Michael Cole frame Eddie’s issue has that “he hasn’t been able to beat Rey Mysterio in a wrestling ring.” I guess Vince was still allowing the W-word at this point.
Hearing Cole and Taz talk about their children and fatherhood and that sort of stuff (and especially Cole’s take as an adoptive parent) while both Rey and Eddie went over to Dominick before the match was extremely powerful.
These two had what was at times a two-person version of the “car-crash” style of Ladder match, but they paced it perfectly and made everything count, using almost every big bump to set up a false finish.
I also really liked the spot where Dominick got involved. Even for pro wrestling, it’s kind of insane that they’re having a physical fight to determine custody of a child, so them letting Dominick show agency was nice. And, of course, it set up the spot where Eddie was going to slap Dominick, revealing to the whole world that it really wasn’t about Dominick, but about beating Rey. I didn’t love Vickie’s interference quite as much because it was overkill (Eddie got screwed twice), but she was at least acting to create the outcome that Dominick clearly preferred, and I assume having his wife turn on him is necessary for where Eddie’s journey will take him next, so I can accept it.
After the match, Rey came back and clonked Eddie on the head with the briefcase the custody papers were in. The combination of the Vickie being the one who took Eddie out on the finish ad the extremely personal nature of this feud created the rare situation where I was okay with the babyface doing this.

TODD GRISHAM INTERVIEWS CHRIS JERICHO- good build for his title shot against John Cena later tonight

SINGLES MATCH FOR KURT ANGLE’S OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL: Eugene(c) (w/Christy Hemme) vs. Kurt Angle- 4.75/10
This was great for the time it got. Kurt won cleanly, which was the right finish. After the match, he got on a chair as a makeshift podium and ordered the referee to put the gold medal around his neck.

THE DIVAS DRESS UP IN BIKINIS AND DO THE BEGINNING OF A SORORITY CAR-WASH PORNO WASHING VINCE’S LIMO, WHICH VINCE HAD THE SEAL OF THE PRESIDENT ATTACHED TO- Well… at least this sort of thing won’t be happening anymore.

RANDY ORTON vs. THE UNDERTAKER- 8/10
This was an awesome match, combining the story of Orton being the young punk whose past failure has only made him more determined to take out the legend with the standard story of each man working a limb. Taker chose to work over Randy’s shoulder, which Chris Benoit had also targeted on Smackdown three nights prior, while Randy worked over Taker’s leg, which they set up with an absolutely brilliant spot that I’m not going to spoil.
The only real strike against this match was the finish. Said finish saw an old duddy-fuddy- later revealed to be Cowboy Bob Orton- wander into the ring, distracting both Taker and security, allowing Randy to recover from the damage he had taken and hit the RKO for the win. As annoying as the finish was, though, it did at least create a situation where Randy could win and Taker (who had considered their feud over after Mania until Randy attacked him when he was drafted to Smackdown, and thus would probably consider the feud over if he lost cleanly as well) would feel compelled to seek revenge.

WWE TITLE MATCH: John Cena(c) vs. Chris Jericho- 7.5/10
This was a great match with some good callback spots to earlier points in the match, but it didn’t reach the level you hope for it to reach for the first world title match of your new era. A few more minutes definitely would have helped (it went just under fifteen).
The big takeaway from this match for me was the split crowd reaction. I didn’t remember it happening this early into Cena’s run. This time it was males over thirteen cheering for Cena’s opponent instead of chanting “CENA SUCKS!” in response to the males under thirteen and females chanting “LET’S GO CENA!” but the dynamic was there, and it was there very loudly.

NO HOLDS BARRED MATCH FOR THE WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Batista(c) vs. JBL- 6.75/10
This was a good brawl while it lasted, but that brawl barely lasted nine minutes… for a big blow-off match with a world title on the line.

SHAWN MICHAELS vs. HULK HOGAN- 6.5/10
Shawn’s famous temper-tantrum wasn’t much. There was only one spot that really felt like over-selling. In fact, if I hadn’t been looking for Shawn overselling things, I would have just seen this as Shawn playing an 80’s WWF heel for Hogan to bump around.
That being said, the match didn’t work that well for me. Both of these guys are more compelling in the ring as babyfaces, but someone decided that this had to be a babyface vs. heel match, so we got Shawn not doing of his usual stuff and just brawling with Hogan, and going getting to be the babyface doing all of the bleeding and selling. Then, when he made his Superman comeback, because of the nature of said comeback, Shawn immediately stopped feeling like any kind of threat to Hogan because Hogan wasn’t selling any of the previous damage, and Shawn was bumping all over the place for the much larger Hogan. There was some good stuff with Shawn slapping Hogan, the low blow worked, and the Sharpshooter was an effective false finish, but the match just wasn’t very interesting or exciting.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- HATED IT!
Shawn turns babyface by shaking Hogan’s hand and telling him “I had to know.” What kind of f*cking bullsh*t is that?! If he had only targeted Hogan then maybe I could accept this, but wanting to know if Hogan still had it or wanting to know if you can beat Hogan does not justify going around and attacking innocent people like Jerry Lawler, Roddy Piper, and Larry King.
This whole turn which was absolutely shocking when it happened, was cheapened by this. You don’t turn someone (and especially not a beloved babyface) heel for a month, just so you can have one match be babyface vs. heel. If you’re dead-set on doing the match as babyface vs. heel, you find some another feud or two for Shawn before turning him back face. Turning people too quickly makes things feel inauthentic by making the wrestlers feel like characters being directed by someone else rather than real people with moral compasses, which damages immersion.


This was a disappointing show from WWE. It was a mixed-bag show, with some things delivering and others falling well short. That’s not good for a PPV, and doubly so when it’s the top of the card that fails to deliver, as was the case here. That being said, I’m still quite excited to continue this journey of 2005 WWE PPVs that I started close to a decade ago at this point, as I mostly enjoyed the feel of the show. The matches felt a lot more like fights than the current “WWE style” does, outside of specific people like Drew, Lashely, Owens, and Roman. There was a sense of Rawness to it all that was extremely enjoyable, and Kurt Angle starts to feature prominently again for the next month’s PPV. But that is not what I will be watching for this series next month. Next month we’ll be watching a show I have already seen, but my review disappeared into the ether of the internet, presenting me with a perfect excuse to rewatch it.