WWE SummerSlam 2004 (2004)

Review On The SummerSlam 2004 DVD Not The Event....

The Event Was One Of The Most Historic And Greatest Ones In WWE, However I Can't Believe The WWE Production Crew Did Not Add Audio To The Last 13 Minutes, You Heard Beniot's Voice From That 13 Minutes In Raw Or The Next PPV ( I Forget), So They Must Have Had The Audio Backed Up Somewhere... By Far The Greatest 13 Minutes Of The Event, And The Lack Of Audio There Dampened The Whole Event. Just Another Example Of A Company Growing Mad With Power, And It Shows How WWE Has Become Aroggant Since The Days Of The Attitude ERA And The Alliance Vs WWE Days. I Would Definately Not Be Dissappointed If Another Comapany Put The WWE Out Of Business, It Would Increase The Value Of My WWE DVDs Anyway.

August 15, 2004
Attendance Approx. 17,640
Tronto, Canada

- The Dudleys Boys VS Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman, & Paul London
- Kane VS Matt Hardy
- John Cena VS Booker T (Match 1 Of Best Of 5 Series)
- Edge (Champion) VS Batista VS Chris Jericho (For Intercontinental Championship )
- Eddie Guerrero VS Kurt Angle w/ Luther Reigns
- Triple H VS Eugene
- Diva Dodgeball
- Undertaker VS JBL (Champion) (For WWE Championship)
- Chris Benoit (Champion) VS Randy Orton (For World Heavyweight Championship) NO AUDIO FOR LAST 13 MINUTES !!!

EXTRAS

- All the promos for summerslams theme
From sunday night heat
- Jericho interview
- The Dudley's talking strategy
- Rob Van Dam VS Rene dupree
DVD Exclusives
- Evolutions reaction to Randy ortons Match
- Eddie Guerrero confronts Chris Benoit
- Team Dream From Diva Dodgeball Interview May 12, 2008

A Great Card But An Ominous Look Back

I say that obviously because of one match but I'll get to that later. Here is the card:

The Dudley Boyz (Team 3-D) Vs. Rey Mysterio, Paul London & Billy Kidman - Surprisingly good opener! Lots of cool spots and fast action!

Matt Hardy Vs. Kane - The winner of this match got to "marry" Lita. With Matt leaving at the time to get knee surgery and the fact he beat Kane at the previous PPV (Vengeance 2004), it was pretty obvious that Kane was going to win this one as he dominated the majority of this match. Still, not a bad bout.

Booker T. Vs. John Cena - This was match 1 in a best of 5 series between the two for Booker's United States Championship! While John Cena has never been the greatest ring performer, I thought he showed more during this period than he does now. During this period, he was basically "Stone Cold" Steve Austin but without the beer, much of the cussing and was from a hip-hop angle than hard rock.

Anyway, Booker and Cena did do good work for the short time that they had together in the ring for this event! Booker, as usual, carried this bout but Cena kept up with him very well.

Edge Vs. Chris Jericho Vs. Batista - This was a Triple Threat match for Edge's I-C title and one of Batista's first shots as a singles champion. Surprisingly, the fans were cheering for Chris Jericho even though they were wrestling in Edge's hometown of Toronto, Canada!

As for the match itself, Batista was really built up prior to this as he had "knocked" out both Jericho and Edge on seperate occassions prior to this bout with a clothesline so it was a surprise when Edge retained the title with a pinfall win over Jericho. Wasn't the best Triple Threat but not bad.

Eddie Guerrero Vs. Kurt Angle - A rematch of their WrestleMania XX bout where Eddie retained the WWE title against Angle. This time, Angle had Luther Reigns at ringside but he had very little to do with the outcome as Angle pretty much outwrestled Guerrero after several minutes of back and forth action between the two and got his revenge with a tapout victory against Eddie.

Diva Dodgeball - Other than seeing beautiful women in tight outfits, this is worth one view. I'd skip it though you do see some familiar faces here.

Triple H Vs. Eugene - Pretty much a squash though Eugene had his moments. This is one of the few times I was 100% behind HHH and was glad to see him win over Eugene! Even the fans in Canada, who normally would boo "The Game", cheered him as if he was the good guy!

The Undertaker Vs. JBL - This was for the WWE title and, to be honest, it was an okay bout at best. The crowd thought so too as they weren't into this match at all!

Chris Benoit Vs. Randy Orton - This was for the World Heavyweight Title and was one of Randy's best matches! Despite what he did in June 2007 to his family, I will still give Chris Benoit credit for making Randy look the best he had looked up until that point. Randy deserves credit as well as he wrestled probably the best mat style bout he ever had at that point.

Orton, of course, won the title and the aftermatch is both touching and very sad especially when you think of the events from last June. I can't help sometimes but wonder what does Randy Orton think now?

There are a few extras but one was a quiet talk between Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, both of whom are now deceased. Its touching, haunting and even uncomfortable to watch knowing what we know now on both stars (especially Benoit). Still, as I have said on many occassions, I will not forget the history even if WWE chooses too. To do so would dishonor the careers of all the men that Chris wrestled and to do so would mean forgetting his wife and son that he murdered (something that I will NEVER do).

Back to the DVD card itself, it is a mixed bag of matches. Some good, one was great and a few others forgettable. At best, this is a 4-star card but no worse than a 3. I choose to give it 4. My understanding is that this full card WILL be on the upcoming SummerSlam anthology (including the Benoit/Orton bout). Anyway, a decent card with one historic bout. April 26, 2008

Not Bad

This is kinda funny, In the picture they feature Randy Orton VS Benoit. When I recieved my copy it only had Taker and JBL on the cover but the benoit match is still on the dvd. It's a re'release from 2007 jus so they could take him off the box, lol April 12, 2008

Randy Orton's Finest Hour

Rey Mysterio, Paul London, Billy Kidman vs. Dudley Boyz & Spike Dudley - London & Kidman upset the Dudleys to win the tag team titles while Spike turned heel, won the Crusierweight title, and was "The Boss" of the Dudleys. This was a good 6 man tag opener that didn't get dull.

Kane vs. Matt Hardy - This was from the Kane/Lita/Hardy storyline in which Lita was having Kane's baby (long story that I'm sure nobody wants to remember) & the winner of this match would get to marry Lita. Hardy bumped like crazy & tried everything to stop Kane but he was just overpowered in the end.
(Also available on Kane's DVD)

United States Champion Booker T vs. John Cena - This was match 1 of their best of 5 series. This was a solid encounter as Booker T was one of the guys who can bring out the best in John Cena. One of the best matches from their series.

Intercontinental Championship Edge vs. Batista vs. Chris Jericho - This was one of the signs that this was an "unusual" crowd as Edge was a babyface yet booed in his hometown. Edge & Jericho put on a great performance like they usually do with Batista being able to keep up with his powerful offense.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle - This was sightly a stepdown from their WrestleMania match but that doesn't mean they didn't put on one of the best performances of the night. You know that whenever you get these two together, you have a classic encounter on your hands & this was no exception.

Triple H vs. Eugene - Eugene's overpush was over as the crowd completely turned against Eugene & this wasn't a great match for Triple H to have. It was decent at best which is a damn shame concidering how Triple H is one of the best in the business today & Nick Densmore is good in the ring when he's not handicapped by the Eugene gimmick.

Diva Dodgeball - Pointless divas segment. Unless you like looking at them in fitness outfits, skip.

WWE Champion J.B.L. vs. Undertaker - The crowd turned on this match too (I think they were doing the wave at one point) as it was just really slow & they were off at times. It's watchable but their No Mercy match heavily made up for this.

World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton - This match was the peak of Randy Orton's career as he lived up to his true potential in this match & put on a wrestling clinic with Chris Benoit. Depending on which shipment of DVD's you have, the audio goes out in the last 10-15 mins. Again, a great match in the career of Orton who goes on to become the youngest champion in history (sorry Brock!)

DVD extras include all of the "Summer Olympic" paraodies including one where Batista is breakdancing (you read that one right) along with behind the scenes footage, a Heat match between RVD & Rene Dupree, and two backstage segments with Benoit & Guerrero, and Evolution.

Overall, this was a good SummerSlam from top to bottom & one of the top evenets from 2004 that I recommend. May 18, 2007

SummerSlam 2004: The Youngest Champ Ever is born.

WWE Summer Slam
Tronoto, Canada
August 24, 2004

A decent Summer Slam of 2004

1. The Dudleys Boys vs. Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman, & Paul London.
Alright opener. Nothing exciting.
Winner: Dudley Boyz 2.5/5

2. Kane vs. Matt Hardy
Decent match. Too short though but Kane does chokeslam Matt off the top rope to win it.
Winner: Kane 3/5

3. Match 1 of the Best of 5 Series
John Cena vs Booker T
Nice wrestled match up. Could have been better.
Winner: John Cena 3.5/5

4. Intercontinental Championship
Edge (C) vs. Batista vs. Chris Jericho
Good match, could have been better and longer but good match to watch. Edge gets booed in his hometown.
Winner: Edge 3.5/5

5. Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle w/ Luther Raigns
Great match but not as good as their Wrestlemania XX match. Lots of close and near falls in this match. Great match.
Winner: Kurt Angle 4.5/5

6. Triple H vs. Eugene
Best thing to say about this one is that crowd hates Eugene and boo's him all through the match which was great. WWE should have done something better with HHH in one of their biggest events of the year.
Winner: Triple H 1.5/5

7. Diva Dodgeball
Waste of time just a stupid filler.
Winner: The Rookies 0/5

8. WWE Championship
Undertaker vs. JBL (C)
Good match. Went kind of slow. The DQ at the end sucked though. Taker looked great int his one. JBL gets chokeslammed through his limo.
Winner: Undertaker by DQ 3.5/5

9. World Heavyweight Championship
Chris Benoit (C) vs. Randy Orton
Great ending and a great match. Orton has all the potential in the world to become a great wrestler but WWE don't want to do anything with him these days anymore. Benoit looked great in this one but Orton hits the RKO out of no where and becomes the youngest champion ever!!!!
Winner: Randy Orton 4.9/5


Matches to watch: Orton/Benoit, taker/jbl, angle/eddie, triple threat and maybe the HHH match just to see eugene get booed.
April 7, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...