Monday Night Raw
Date: November 15, 2004
Location: Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Attendance: 5,500
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
It’s the night after Survivor Series and that means it’s time for Team Orton to take over the show for the next four weeks. Assuming it’s not Randy Orton’s week to be in charge, you can all but guarantee the boss for the week getting a World Title shot against HHH. Then repeat that for two of the next three weeks. Let’s get to it.
Smackdown
Date: April 16, 2019
Location: Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Commentators: Corey Graves, Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton
It’s the second night of the Superstar Shakeup and that means it’s time to find out who is coming over to the blue brand, either from Raw, 205 Live or NXT. One of the more interesting things is how people who were on the show last night could pop up here, meaning things might not be as one sided as they seem. Let’s get to it.
Monday Night Raw
Date: April 15, 2019
Location: Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Commentators: Michael Cole, Renee Young, Corey Graves
We’re on to a big show this week with the first night of the Superstar Shakeup. In this case, that means we have a night of people moving over to Monday Night Raw, though the question is where they will go. WWE has implied that we might be seeing some names moving to shows other than just the two main ones, meaning several more doors are available. Let’s get to it.
Survivor Series 2004
Date: November 14, 2004
Location: Gund Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
Attendance: 7,500
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
This is an interesting show as the two big matches are a match where the impact comes over the next four weeks and another where there is little more than bragging rights on the line. The build for this show hasn’t been the strongest, though a lot of that is due to the changes taking place in the company. There are some fresh talents coming in and they’re still finding their footing, so it should be interesting to see where this show takes us. Let’s get to it.
Smackdown
Date: November 11, 2004
Location: American Bank Arena, Corpus Christi, Texas
Commentators: Tazz, Michael Cole
It’s the go home show for Survivor Series and hopefully this show is a little more inspiring than Monday’s efforts. Survivor Series isn’t looking like the most thrilling show in the world but under the right circumstances, Smackdown’s half could be a little bit better. Hopefully this week features a little less Tough Enough, but I don’t think we’ll be that lucky. Let’s get to it.
Monday Night Raw
Date: November 8, 2004
Location: Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas
Attendance: 4,300
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
It’s the go home show for Survivor Series and that means we’ll probably be seeing a bunch of singles matches between the people involved in the Win Eric Bischoff’s Job Match on Sunday. HHH still doesn’t have anyone chasing the title and that’s probably by design. HHH’s design that is. Let’s get to it.
Smackdown
Date: April 9, 2019
Location: Barclays Center, New York City, New York
Commentators: Tom Phillips, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
Normally I would say how exciting this show is going to be and how a bunch of stuff is going to happen here, but last night’s Raw suggests that WWE would rather it not be any kind of a major show. I guess they’d rather just put everything on the Superstar Shakeup for the WWE Designated Exciting Show next week, because why use the hottest crowd of the year to your advantage? Let’s get to it.
Monday Night Raw
Date: April 8, 2019
Location: Barclays Center, New York City, New York
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young
It’s the season premiere of the show and that means we’re in for something interesting tonight. Tonight is the night of big things happening, as we’ll be seeing a variety of people being called up and big stories going down, though a lot of it isn’t going to matter as we have the Superstar Shakeup next week. Let’s get to it.
Wrestlemania XXXV
Date: April 7, 2019
Location: MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young, Byron Saxton, Tom Phillips
America the Beautiful: Yolanda Adams
As long as this show is going to be, there’s something special about getting to see it every year. This year’s show is built around the three major matches and the question of how many happy endings we can have. You know it’s not going to be all three, but which of the three doesn’t go through. Those matches consist of Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins, Smackdown World Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston and the winner take all match for both Women’s titles as Ronda Rousey faces Charlotte and Becky Lynch in a genuinely historic main event. Let’s get to it.
Smackdown
Date: November 4, 2004
Location: Savvis Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 5,500
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz
We’re coming up on Survivor Series and after last week, we know most of what we have for most of the pay per view. The problem is that means we know what’s coming and that’s not the most appealing thing in the world. Last week’s show wasn’t the most interesting in the world with a long Orlando Jordan match making it even worse. Hopefully that’s not the case this week so let’s get to it.
Hello You!
I recently wrote an article over at Gaming Respawn where I had a bash at predicting some of the matches for WrestleMania 35
I thought we could use this thread to post predictions of who we think will and we can look at it again next week and see how we all did? There’s no prize, other than the warm glow of knowing you were able to predict some of the results correctly, but isn’t that reward enough?
This was written on Monday prior to Raw, so it was before all the tag title matches were officially added to the card. With that in mind, I’ll go with Ryder and Hawkins over The Revival, whilst Black and Rick O’Shea pick up the Smackdown tag titles. Neither match will probably get much time, and to be honest this Mania probably already has at least 8 matches too many
I’m actually at a wedding on Sunday (I know, how dare they arrange to hold their wedding on WrestleMania Sunday!!!) so I probably won’t be watching Mania until Monday morning, so I’ll see you all on the other side
Enjoy all 7-8 hours of Mania if you’re planning to watch it all live in one go
TakeOver last night was pretty gosh darn good as well, and you can read the thoughts of Scott Keith and Thomas Hall on the show. What with that and New Japan tonight, this weekend is probably already guaranteed to be a thumbs up, let’s just hope Mania delivers a few classic bouts as well, preferably before the crowd is completely burnt out so that they actually get a good reaction!
Yes, for the one and only time in this feature I’ve decided to bend the rules and do seven picks as opposed to six. This is simply because when I got down to this final list of seven and just couldn’t decide on which of them to cull in order to get it down to six. I just love all of these matches so much that I just couldn’t bring myself to exclude one of them. So, for the first and last time, I’ve done seven matches.
Going in to when I started this feature I felt this list would be the easiest one, but that hasn’t been the case at all. I think this is owing to the fact that work rate and having good matches became a requirement for the big shows in the WWF at a certain point in the 90’s when the 70’s and 80’s carny generation started getting filtered out by wrestlers who had been fans growing up and wanted to have great matches, because that’s what they themselves appreciated as part of their fandom. The older crew of wrestlers saw fans as marks to be worked, whereas the ones who replaced them saw the fans as people who understood what a good match was and wanted to give it to them.
As a result, there were plenty of truly great matches that I loved watching, that didn’t even make the final seven and could have all deservedly made the list. It really was a stacked deck this time out, which is kind of amazing when you take into account that not many of these Mania events would make their way onto my “all-time” list. Despite that, there have been some incredible matches at even the worst of these WrestleMania events, which is a good barometer to how seriously good wrestling is taken amongst some elements of the current WWE hierarchy (And hopefully when the eventual clear out after Vince McMahon is no longer in power happens we’ll see it empathised even more)
I should also address the elephant in the room here by stating that Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle Vs Triple H and Stephanie McMahon isn’t going to be either in the seven matches listed nor the honourable mentions. I know a lot of people loved that match, and I enjoyed it as an entertaining bit of smoke and mirrors, but I didn’t think it was an especially good match and Ronda selling for Stephanie was ludicrous, especially when Stephanie was able to counter Ronda’s arm bar attempt.
I also found it really depressing to see Angle and Triple H wrestling at quarter speed and clearly struggling after years of hard matches. Both of them have given the wrestling world so much and I just don’t want to see either of them wrestle anymore. They’ve done their part and shouldn’t have to keep getting in there. So that’s why the match isn’t listed anywhere on here. I’m sure that will upset some people as the match was very well received, to which I say fair enough. As mentioned last time out, this stuff is subjective and there is no right or wrong answer. If you loved the mixed tag from Mania 34 then that’s all that matters. I liked it, but in a ** entertaining spectacle way rather than a **** great match way, hence why it isn’t here.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s take a look at Six of the Best for WrestleMania’s 21 to 34!
Monday Night Raw
Date: November 1, 2004
Location: Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, Illinois
Attendance: 6,000
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
The big story this week is the locker room rising up against Evolution, who ran roughshod last week because Eric Bischoff was gone and they just decided they were in charge. Randy Orton isn’t allowed to challenge HHH for the World Title anymore, making me wonder who in the world is supposed to go after the belt. Odds are no one at the moment, meaning more HHH bragging time. Let’s get to it.
Smackdown
Date: April 2, 2019
Location: Royal Farms Arena, Baltimore, Maryland
Commentators: Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Tom Phillips
It’s the final final show before Wrestlemania and with five days to go before the longest event in history, I’ll set the over/under for matches being added at two. Tonight in theory should be the first time we get to see the strong promos between Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan because less than two weeks is enough time to build a WWE Championship match at Wrestlemania. Let’s get to it.
Monday Night Raw
Date: April 1, 2019
Location: Capital One Arena, Washington DC
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young
It’s the go home show for Wrestlemania and the big story is….Stephanie McMahon, who will be making some kind of major announcement about the upcoming main event. There’s a good chance that it’s going to be the addition of a winner take all stipulation, but you never can tell around here. Other than that, Brock Lesnar and Batista will be around to actually promote their matches. Let’s get to it.
So here we go with the next part of Six of the Best for WrestleMania, today covering the WrestleMania’s from XI to XX. This one was really difficult because there were so many fantastic matches to choose from and narrowing them down to six was close to impossible. There are definitely going to be disappointed people when it comes to this one, and all I can is that you aren’t wrong for thinking your favourite match/matches should have been included, because six slots really wasn’t enough. However, thems be the rules and I’m ultimately happy enough with my selections.
One notable exclusion will be that of the Iron Man match from WrestleMania XII. The reason for that is that I just don’t like that match, mainly because I find it rather boring. That’s not to say that the work within it is bad, because it most certainly isn’t, but for me it’s really hurt by the lack of falls during the initial 60 minutes, a sentiment shared by large swathes of the live crowd who decided to leave rather than see the bouts conclusion.
Again, if you disagree then that’s absolutely fine. Wrestling is art and art is subjective, so if you love the Iron Man match and think it’s one of the greatest collisions in WrestleMania history then you’re not wrong. At the end of the day, we can all like what we like so long as we’re nice to each other and there ultimately is no correct answer. I just thought it’d be right for me to explain why the match is missing as I’m sure some will be expecting to see it.
As always, these are just my own personal picks. This isn’t supposed to be some sort of objective list or anything. If I leave out a match that you think warrants inclusion, then please feel free to put it down in the comments section below. As with previous lists, I’ll be listing the matches in chronological order.
So without further to do, let’s take a look at Six of the Best for WrestleMania’s XI to XX!
Smackdown
Date: October 28, 2004
Location: Qwest Center, Omaha, Nebraska
Attendance: 3,700
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz
We have a new hero around here as Booker T. pinned JBL in a six man tag last week, setting himself up as the likely next challenger. That makes perfect sense and is a good way to set up someone fresh on top. You would think Raw might be able to learn a little something from that but at the moment, it’s unique to Smackdown. Let’s get to it.
Monday Night Raw
Date: October 25, 2004
Location: Veterans Auditorium, Des Moines, Iowa
Attendance: 4,550
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
It’s the show after Taboo Tuesday, where not very much happened. Randy Orton defeated Ric Flair in a bloody cage match and Shawn Michaels’ knee injury kept us from having a very good main event. The main story was Edge snapping and going full on heel yet still winning the Tag Team Titles with Chris Benoit. There might be a future for him with something like that. Let’s get to it.
Smackdown
Date: March 26, 2019
Location: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Connecticut
Commentators: Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Tom Phillips
Ok it has to be tonight right? I mean it has to be. Tonight has to be the setup for Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan for Wrestlemania. Now when I say has to be, I mean it should be but probably won’t be as WWE is likely waiting until the very last possible chance to make the match for some reason. Let’s get to it.
(Thanks to WWE.com for sponsoring the Blog of Doom!)
Monday Night Raw
Date: March 25, 2019
Location: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young
We’re down to less than two weeks before Wrestlemania and the big story today (and one of the biggest in recent years) is that the Raw Women’s Title match will be headlining the show. It’s hard to fathom that something like this could actually happen, but that’s the case now and I really can’t believe I’m seeing it. Let’s get to it.
Smackdown
Date: October 21, 2004
Location: MetroCentre, Rockford, Illinois
Commentators: Michael, Cole, Tazz
Maybe it’s having Taboo Tuesday dulling my brain for nearly three hours but last week’s show isn’t exactly standing out to me. I’m not sure what to expect here but Survivor Series is in about a month so the build is probably about to begin. Carlito is the US Champion and seems to be getting some traction while Kurt Angle vs. Big Show doesn’t seem to be finishing up anytime soon. Let’s get to it.
Taboo Tuesday 2004
Date: October 19, 2004
Location: Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Attendance: 3,500
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
This is one of the more unique shows that WWE ever put together with the fans getting to pick the stipulations/participants/a few other things for the matches. This has presented a bit of a hard few weeks of TV as they don’t have specific matches to set up as everything has some kind of a twist included. Hopefully the finished product works a bit better. Oh and it’s on a Tuesday, which worked so well back in 1991 that they waited thirteen years to try it again. Let’s get to it.
Monday Night Raw
Date: October 18, 2004
Location: Allstate Arena, Chicago, Illinois
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
It’s the go home show for Taboo Tuesday and I don’t think many people are complaining. The show’s build has been a minor nightmare, though there are a few positive things here and there. The biggest problem is you know the matches/stipulations we’re going to see but nothing is going to be announced until tomorrow’s show. Let’s get to it.
Smackdown
Date: March 19, 2019
Location: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Commentators: Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Tom Phillips
It’s a Kofi Kingston night as he has to run a gauntlet match to get to the main event of Wrestlemania. In theory, with so few shows left to go before the pay per view, they’ll finally announce the match and let us have a few weeks to build. There’s a lot of other stuff to build on the way there too though and I’m not sure how much time everything else is going to get. Let’s get to it.
Monday Night Raw
Date: March 18, 2019
Location: Allstate Arena, Chicago, Illinois
Commentators: Michael Cole, Renee Young, Corey Graves
We’ve got four shows left between now and Wrestlemania and that means it’s time to really crank things up. This time around it means that Brock Lesnar is actually here for a change and is likely going to get in Seth Rollins’ face. We also get to find out who will face Kurt Angle in his retirement match. Let’s get to it.