Raw only
Match 1: Shelton Benjamin defeated Ric Flair. . I thought that the characters would play well off of each other, and they did. Benjamin continued to impress me, while I liked some of the attention to detail in this good psychological bout. A good example was Shelton's failed attempt to block Flair's 2nd figure-four leglock. This 10 minute match needed another 3-4 minutes though, and the finish was way too anti-climactic. 7/10
Match 2: John Coachman beat Tajiri: Coach dominated too much of the match for my liking, but the main criticism of this bout doesn't stand up, in my opinion. It's that Tajiri had to sell for Coach's weak offense. That's not entirely true. Tajiri had to sell his own mistake. He was selling the injury to his leg that was caused when Coach ducked & Tajiri kicked the ringpost. In a short match such as this, it's realistic that an injury such as that can have such a dramatic effect. The interference finish was extremely predictable (even if Cade being the person wasn't). 5/10
Match 3: Chris Jericho defeated Christian/Trish: Entertaining match from both a wrestling & entertainment perspective. Jericho & Christian undoubtedly work well together, while Trish was thrown in for some humor & variety. Funnily enough, the humor didn't do anything for me, yet I'm glad that Trish was a performer in this match. The reason for this is because there appeared to be way too many spots that were similar to their WrestleMania 20 singles match. I won't be too critical of the bout because of this, but I do think that it signalled that this feud may not have too many more places to go. 7/10
Match 4: Victoria beat Lita to retain Women's Title. Attempting to have a technical 7 minute wrestling match involving Lita!!! This may sound contradictory, but it sort of did & didn't work. It resulted in an extremely deliberately paced match. This worked well in some sequences, but just came off as if it was a match in slow motion for most set pieces. I think the WWE sort of had the right idea with the experiment, but just got a little too ambitious. Especially seeing as though Lita was involved. However, I really don't mind it when the women wrestlers try something different. They should be commended for doing so. Interesting is the word I keep coming back to with regards to this match. 5/10
Match 5: Randy Orton beat Mick Foley in a No Holds Barred bout. Not quite Foley vs Triple H from January 2000, but still a more than satisfactory hardcore match. Many of the spots were a little too telegraphed & not natural or unpredictable enough to make this an instant classic, but that's being a little too picky. Foley did carry the bout to a certain extent, but Orton's performance shouldn't be under-estimated... especially at his age!!! There was definitely enough action during this 23 minutes to not disappoint anyone. 7/10
Match 6: Hurricane/Rosey beat La Resistance. A short & messy match. But how could we fully tell, as the camera was on Eugene for most of the time. Oh that's right, it did go back to the match just in time to see a botched 'Eye Of The Hurricane' finish!!! 2/10
Match 7: Edge defeated Kane. Extremely ho-hum & predictable 7 minute match. Nothing too awful, but nothing was done to make this bout anything more than mediocre. That's a little disappointing in my opinion, as further intensity couldn't have been that hard to throw into the feud & match. 4/10
Match 8: He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named defeated Triple H and HBK in a 3 way dance. The obvious dangers with having a rematch on 2 consecutive pay-per-views is that (a) the matches may be too similar & (b) the sequel may not live up to the original. I believe the WWE did a good job in combatting the former danger by making this more a technical match, as compared to the more spotty WrestleMania 20 bout. But I don't think the actual quality of this match could compare. I've said many times that triple-threat matches have inherent problems, and it was never more evident than here. It was clear right from the beginning that this should have been a singles match. Triple H received a nothing crowd reaction for the majority of the bout, as the focus was clearly on HBK & Benoit. It took a clever Earl Hebner appearance to even fully get the crowd involved to the extent they should have been in the first place!!!. I'm focusing too much on the negatives though, as in isolation this was still a very enjoyable & well-performed match. Thirty minutes was a fitting duration, but I have to admit that at times, I thought the match dragged a little. MOTN 8.5/10
Overall: 5.7
Again, nothing special, but a reccomendation for those who are fans of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.
