Dean Simon's Thoughts On Judgment Day 2004

I've been in a quasi-retro mood lately so I took it upon myself to rent Judgment Day of 2004. What a crappy card, huh? It's no surprise Mordecai was fired.

The show begins with the short-lived tag team of Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam vs the Dudley Boys. Not a bad opener that made me actually miss the Rey of old. Now anybody who knows me knows that I hate Rey Mysterio but that isn't the case. He's not bad and is great at getting new people into wrestling. I know of at least four people (including myself) who got into it with Rey being our favorite wrestler. After five matches, however, you notice you're seeing the same match over and over again. Rey is at his best playing the underdog in a tag match, playing Ricky Morton, and pulling off some high flying moves when available. Rey and RVD win to bury the Dudleys even more. Why not make it a buried alive match?

Next, Kurt Angle comes out in a wheelchair on a platform with the help of Luthor "Give me some peas!" Reigns. This led into a Torrie Wilson/Dawn Marie match that nobody cares about.

As if the show couldn't come to more of a halt, out comes Scotty 2 Hotty and Mordecai to make me wish I was watching the womens match again. If you want a big, demonic guy to look serious, you don't have him squash a guy that does the worm on a pay-per-view. I could do that.

Next up is Rico and Charlie Haas vs Hardcore Holly and Billy Gunn. I miss Charlie Haas. A nice, well-rounded wrestler with a great finisher that should have been pushed as much as Shelton Benjamin is now. Well, I guess he was pushed as much as that. A nice match that probably gave reason to the later tag team of Haas and Holly which were really underrated. What really irritated me during the match was Tazz and Cole not mentioning Rico being Billy Gunn's old manager back in his Billy and Chuck days. Rico and Haas win to retain the titles.

After that, Chavo Guerrero came out with Chavo Classic (a great name) to defeat Jacqueline for the cruiserweight title. A man vs women match with a stipulation (Chavo had a hand tied behind his back). You knew this wasn't going to be very good. The only thing that saved it was Chavo's cheating ways. He is a great heel.

At this time, John Cena was still the United States champion (sans the spinner), still coming out as the doctor of thugonomics and still kicking ass. It's matches like these that remind me of what once was. Now I don't think Rene Dupree is a bad wrestler. Aside from the stupid gimmick, he was a solid wrestler that now has a great beard and should be pushed when he's back from his injury. A good match for the new US champion. Now I love Cena as a heel but even as a face, he was good when doing raps and putting on good matches.

Next up is Booker T vs the Undertaker. When Booker came to Smackdown, he was labeled a heel because he still considered himself a Raw guy and shouldn't be on the B show. Now I'm usually against smackdown vs raw angles but this one was pretty good. It made sense for Booker to be upset about being on the B show and everyone to hate him for being better than the rest. And to have him beat up two injured workers in a handicap match to prove he can do just like the dead man was pretty funny, along with him going to a psychic and getting dirt from a grave to protect himself. The match wasn't bad either though I wish Undertaker would have at least sold the dirt in his eyes. Taker wins because Taker always wins but Booker deserves respect for the good match.

It was then that I realized why I rented this PPV in the first place. The JBL vs Eddie Guerrero match. Now at the time, I hated JBL. His ring skills were bad and he wasn't much of a mid-card guy much less a main eventer. So it's a surprise to see him and Eddie have a really good match in which Eddie does a really nasty bladejob. At the time, he was said to have been under pressure for having to carry the show on his shoulders when it's obvious it wasn't his fault (look at the rest of the card). I guess his bladejob proved to them he needed a break.

I could go on and on here about how good of a worker Eddie was and how entertaining his matches are and how much he is missed but I think at this point, you all know. At the end of the match, when you see his frog splash on the blood covered ring, you know how much he put into it.

Extras on the DVD include Eddie's mother having a heart attack at a house show, a Mordecai vignette, JBL hunting aliens, Booker T with a psychic, and Booker T at a graveyard. Man, can he be funny sometimes. Also, it includes some promos, backstage segments from Heat, a match between Funaki and Mark Jindrak, and clips of JBL and Eddie in the back after the match. Two very good extras after a match like theirs.