My god, it's still told. Listen the same jum c versus the show
stop, oh covid and the lock in the same way we never take my
place and the heads. Oh my god, God, Mine's texting us down
all It'll be the Rock, It'll be Austin. Do you believe Amable?
Hey, what's going on? Guys? And welcome back to w w E
Retro on the WWE podcast on this Friday, June second. As we are
five days or six days post um Clash of Champions rather and I gotta tell
you, I am super super excited for SmackDown tonight, not only to see
the reaction and the fallout from the USO's Jimmy USO specifically termaining on Roman Reigns
in the main event of Clash of Champions, but also to see the newly
unveiled Wwuniversal Championship that is set to be unveiled tonight as one singular title if
I'm not mistaken. As Roman Reigns starts this new era in a lot of
ways, this new portion of his reign now in the one thousand days and
now seemingly without the full bloodline behind him. But as we look at Roman
Reigns and his new era of his championship run. We're gonna go back today
and look at the beginning of another dawn of another championship run, a run
that was started at SummerSlam two thousand and four. And before we get into
that, you know, we're going to try and look at a bit of
the setup to this pay per view and the lay of the land at that
time. You look at Monday Night Raw and since WrestleMania twenty six months prior,
or about five months prior, you had Chris Benoas as the World Heavyweight
Champion. He had successfully defended it against Triple H and Shawn Michaels at the
Backlash pay per view in an exact rematch from their WrestleMania main event. You
had him successfully defended against Kane at Bad Blood, and this was still into
Kane's heel version of himself, the unmasked version of Kane. And on the
SmackDown side of things, you had jbl about two months into his run as
the WWE champion. You had Eddie Guerrero and Curt Angle rekindling their rivalry that
started all the way back in the winter of two thousand and four, and
you had the Undertaker, who had only been returned to the WWE in his
dead man gimmick of himself for about five months since WrestleMania twenty and the summer
of two thousand and four, I gotta tell you, it was a very,
very crazy time to be a wrestling fan. And you know, you
look at all the main event talent that they had and what they were doing
with it, and how more impressive it was given the fact of the guys
who were missing, you know, the Rock long gone at this point as
a full time in ring competitor, Stone Cold Steve Auston wasn't even on TV
anymore as the sheriff for the COGM. Bill Goldberg at restume at twenty had
just stepped away and walked away after his first year with the company. Brock
Lesner, the next big thing, the guy that many people thought that the
company would be structured around for this foreseeable future, had walked away from the
company following Resume twenty as well. So it ended up being left on the
shoulders of a lot of the guys who we may not have thought were ready
for that main event, or who would have ever been ready for that main
event in the likes of Chris benoit In the likes of Eddie Guerrero, and
who would have known or who would have thought of John Bradshaw Layfield winning the
WWE Championship after being pretty much a career tag team competitor. So the first
match of the night, in my opinion, was kind of showing off what
kind of depth the roster had, because the depth of the WWE, in
my opinion at this point in time, is what carried it because at times
the star power got a bit boring or stale, I should say boring,
He's not the right word, got a bit stale because of just how often
the same guys were in the main event scene. But it was the depth
there was the IC Championship scene, it was the United States Chanchampionship scene that
really kept things interesting here. And before we get into the card, let's
set up the main event as the main event of the night was Chris ben
Watt defending his World Heavyweight Championship against the man who was who was facing off
for a world title for the first time after becoming the number one contender via
a Battle Royal on Monday Night Raw Time, Go work, Hardy Hain't go
this sting. You go to Spier a summer slim colu with race or Amber
for God the more don't been a word of assisted among man for the world
away next It's all just be Stavision, would could have and all Elation may
have been a summer slant organism, So very important note there. Randy Orton,
still a member of Evolution at this time, will face off against the
World Heavyweight Champion at SummerSlam. But later on that night, on Monday Night
Raw in late July, there was a Iron Man match between Triple H and
Chris ben Wah for the World Heavyweight Championship, and I remember that match.
It was a hell of a match. I remember they went three for three
and Chris ben Wah ends up coming away retaining the World Heavyweight Championship with the
help of Eugene. So you remember that the whole Eugene feud with Evolution and
how maybe controversial that character was back then and would certainly be in today's climate.
And just it's crazy to think that they went as far as they did
with the Eugene character. So this would set up for Randy Orton against Chris
has been Wall for the World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of SummerSlam two
thousand and four. So we start things off in a singles match. On
the SmackDown side of things, Rob Vandam defeats Renee Dupree in six minutes in
seven seconds. Then on the sticking on the SmackDown side of things, you
have the Dudley Boys Bubba, Ray Devon and Spike defeat Raymisteria, Billy Kidman
and Paul London in eight minutes. And crazy to think how far Raymisteria has
come from losing one of the opening matches to the Dudley Boys on at Summer
Slam. And this was near the end of the road for the Dudley Boys
during their time with WWWE. They would quickly leave the company and move on
to TNA Impact Wrestling. But this was actually good, a good gimmick for
the Dudley Boys. This is when Spike had the boss gimmick where he all
of a sudden was in charge of the Dudley Boys. I actually kind of
liked it. He was the Cruiserweight champion and he held that championship all the
way until I want to say it was December of that year. Was it
Armageddon? I think he lost it to Funaki, but I really liked this
gimmick for the Dudley Boys and most specifically Spike. Then we get Kane defeating
Matt Hardy in six minutes and eight seconds in a till death Duah's part match,
as this was the storyline where Kane had impregnated Leda and basically whoever would
win this match would marry Leda and Kane would come away with this and the
falling out on raw he Matt would try and break it up and Kane would
choke slam him like through the stage, and he would end up marrying Leda,
and you know you fast forward a year and we go from Kane and
Matt Hardy fighting over Leda in storyline to Matt Hardy and Edge fighting over Leda
in real life and then into storyline. So this story with Matt Hardy and
Leda and first Kane and then Edge and Kane and Edge fought over her at
the at the beginning of it as well, it was a very intricate and
something that strung on for quite quite a long time. Then we get into
my opinion, the good stuff here and I love the fact what they did
here between John Cena and Booker T. And it was a singles match,
and it was a tournament for the United States Championship. Well, it wasn't
a tournament. That's not the way I should say. It was a best
of five match, and Booker T was the US champion at this point in
time, and obviously John Cena had won the US title for the first time
of Rest of My twenty dropped it along the way, and this was an
opportunity for them to really legitimize John Cena against a veteran like Booker T and
putting Booker T in the United States Championship picture, a belt that he held
a lot uh in his WCW days, I thought did a lot for John
Cena here. This was one of his more important feuds early on in his
career. He had only been a baby face for about ten months at this
point, and obviously he wins the title against the Big Show early on,
well not early on at WrestleMania, and holds it into the summer and Booker
T coming over from Monday Night Raw in the two thousand and four drafts something
we covered last week was a big get for SmackDown and in the first match
of their best to five. I really thought that John Cena and Booker T
put on a hell of a match, and the outcome certainly had people intrigued.
I hear, I see a Booker team, you know in of the
quarner get a hook in the face, lot of books long. Actually that's
a sleeper bunk to face doctor, look at right across the rate. John
see in the eye yellow nas on a road. He sucking up face first.
I guess I spook too. So the better Booker team take it out,
spinner Ronny action there. I like the confidence a book of team now
building up pink and looking out Er teams that the pig kidness right down,
getting the wind that runs the best of time and shitties. That's a bunch
of man. John c M two wins away turning out of state championship Er
team. See hell been, I'm beating shut up Sea. So John Cena
wins the first match of the best of five series. Booker T the United
States Heel Champion, really trying to present an obstacle for John Cena early on
in his career, something that every young up and comer, especially a baby
face and needs. And the other part about this pay per view is that
you look at John Cena where he was, as you know, challenging for
that United States Championship, and you look at Randy Orton, who was set
to challenge for the world heavyweight titles SmackDown, seeing John Cena featured on their
show Raw, having Randy Orton featured on their show, So you never really
saw these two up and comers cross pass. And the beauty of the brand
split was at these pay per views, the Big Four, the brand the
brand neutral pay per views where Raw and SmackDown competitors were competing, and aside
from that, they would never cross pass. At these events. It would
feel special when a John Cena and a Randy Orton would cross pass because it
never happened on weekly television or at regular pay per views, like an Unforgiven
or No Mercy or an Armageddon or a backlash. But at this pay per
view we got to see two of the up and comers and two guys that
would prove to be the faces of the following generation and professional wrestling cross pass
for one of the first times on television. Shocked it. What just happened
has got to be upset now. She had tod why would be okay tonight
for celebration to go down in history because one of the most talented, one
of the youngest, most charismatic, and best looking ww superstars is going to
ascend to greatness tonight. Tonight will be the night that the franchise opened up
shop on Bunker Tea's ass and we're doing big business right here in Toronto.
Thanks for the introduction, bro. He just called me to the youngest,
best looking, most charismatic superstar at WWE and Randy June see Tuney gets wristbands
Advisor. We're gonna get you some merch's gonna look nice. But I'm a
fan of yours too, and I really got fans out did We're gonna see
how many fans you got out? Did your t dot? Can you heady
do y'all like Randy Olton. Oh that's so good. I'm gonna trying to
love. I'm gonna trying to love and yo ta tonight is Randy Oton gonna
beat Chris ben Wah for the World Heavyweight Championship. Well, at least you
got the people behind it. Well, Randy, I think the crowd has
spoken. They don't think tod I don't care what a bunch of ass backwards
Canadians think. Am I sure, it's I don't care what Sean Cina has
to say. Quite frankly, I find it rather pathetic that Sina had to
interrupt my review to get a little bit of airtime. Because there's nobody there
is nothing more important than Randy Orton. Okay, not tonight. Not only
am I gonna beat Chris ben Wa, but I'm gonna make history. I'm
gonna leave the world heavy chap. It's just so crazy, you know,
nineteen years ago, that's when this pay per view was, nineteen years ago,
and you see two of the bigger up and coming stars in the company,
one representing Raw, one representing SmackDown, rarely crossing paths because of how
enforced the brand split was, and you know, you it's just grow okazy
to think about that. Over the following decade decade and a half, those
two would literally become the faces and cornerstones of the entire company. Forget the
brands that they were exclusive to at this point in time, but the entire
company. The rivalry they had. How many Randy Orton and John Cena matches
had we seen over the years and one the first time we saw them interact
as both of them were really trying to become up and coming star ours.
So we see John Cena win the first match of the US Championship best of
five for in just over six minutes. Then we have Edge defend his Intercontinental
Championship against Batista and Chris Jericho that went eight and a half minutes. And
I gotta say, I love the placement of the US title and the and
the and the Intercontinental Championship on this card. I really do believe that this
is how you elevate your championships. And you know, in my mind,
if you want to have your titles feel important, this is the only way
to do it. You have to place them strongly on pay per views and
now on premium line of events. And I think what Triple H has done
amazingly over the last twelve months is just that making the IC Championship in the
US Championship feel important. And again, the Intercontinal Championship at Summers two thousand
and four was a hell of a match leading into the two main events.
Cherricle, I think that marked my bull out your heads a cherrible. So
Edge retains his Intercontinental Championship. Obviously soon after this is when he would turn
heel and not get right into the rated AR Superstar gimmick, but like he
would be well on his way to that. But something else that was important
here is Batista. This was one of the more prominent matches that Batista was
featured in as a singles competitor. At this point in time, he had
always been tagging with with Rick Flair, or acting as the heavy to Triple
H and Evolution, or tagging alongside Randy Orton in a six tag match.
So it was cool to see that Batista got his shot in a prominent match,
even if he didn't come out with the victory, and at this point
he had never even held a singles championship, let alone a world championship,
but very good that he didn't take the pen and they were clearly fast tracking
Batista to become, you know, one of the better or more prominent guys,
as he would have won the more unexpected and organic pushes. Ever,
just four months down the line here, like you saw that John Cena and
Randy Orton were the guys that they were looking to the future with, specifically
given their age. You know, they were in their early mid twenties,
Batista was already older than Triple H. But I do think that it was
really cool to see how fast Batista exploded as a main eventer and beloved by
fans and got so over with fans organically starting out as you know, almost
like a third wheel in the Intercontinental Championship match, to you know, seven
months down the line becoming a contender to the World Typyweight Championship. So now
we move on to the SmackDown's main event of JBL with his first real significant
championship defense. Or actually no, we actually had a few more matches to
get to that. Sorry, I jumped to Gliden. So you have curt
Angle defeating Eddie Guerrero in thirteen and a half minutes by submission, continuing their
rivalry. And it makes sense that curt Angle would get this victory seeing as
how Eddie got the big win at WrestleMania twenty and curt Angle was just recently
brought back to being a full time competitor after taking some time off as the
as the SmackDown GM. So curt Angle, it's back in the saddle,
wins the match and is right back at the top of the card and feuding
with Eddie Guerrero in a grudge feud. Triple H defeats Eugene in just over
fourteen minutes in a singles match. I mean a real big step down for
Triple H, big time here, as this was just kind of like a
stepping stone to get him to his next rivalry, which we'll get to in
just a couple of moments. But obviously Triple H and Eugene had to put
a bow on their mini program that had lasted over the course of the summer,
and obviously Eugene costing him in the Iron Man match against Chris Benois.
Then we get to JBL defending his WWE championship against the Undertaker in a singles
match that went seventeen minutes and thirty seven seconds and in classy in classic rather
JBL fashion, he would do so by hook or crook one and the cheapest
stand up after come and removed the other one, and other calls like for
health that's two in this matchup delivered to GM under the Undertaker and then then
then take a holiday to stand up with an injured knee if the not one
but two closed on some health Champiel physical taking it to the challenger. Babyl
is just making his mare and that's the last fort way to see him go
light out of the corner. I came rod of the cover puck. Last
three is the river Undertakeer rooms the championship one the remberrees come tis the one
TBL just got the shoulder up? What matchup here at so sli the last
mine? I call Undertaker of the Cold to one man, what ain't championship?
That's I'll tell you that. It's awesome close to watch the j p
hell and struggle. So now that you're still I'll be got face that she
was downing the staff just got drump like a man. How did you take
a look at st I'm chaking out a way by sign man. You gotta
be kidney. They go all that, Wow, you gotta be kidney or
pick some bad takers being be smotified after chiming, having a little jim and
used the cold in the mat shop, Rumking trumping undertake up. He's binking
his way right now. Wundertaker stuff through so he's not and jiddy Hill he's
now on the ends down a hot time here he steel straps Undertaker all the
high all that to is lust it over the little on the long horns came
off in the right hand and watching he be out but the fish right there
fish oh head book champion has been knocked down. Undertaker taking out his frustration.
I'm a champion. I think that's a that's a right way to put
it. Who knows what till think you hit my point album? What's this?
JBL colect it on the parts heckles go up for the which shad of
jbls that is bustle ups have the up call to the skirt of a which
shields shout at the head is shout of JBL. This is something this is
getting up jap hell cut open as its head bell felt the hood a limo.
Thank god. The gonna take his leave with it up, bust it
up for JBL. I'm gonna take it. Not happening going on the league
Torontoo w W champion, the champion retaining the title. But JBL's us for
wearing or what it or both champions on hoodle car plea run the shop on
the undertakers fakings fame tax it. Yeah, this is oh my god.
So JBL retains the championship by disqualification and just like that, he once again
retains the title. And I say once again, but this was very early
on in his title reign, but it was kind of like a story that
we would see told over and over and over again right until he would eventually
lose the championship to John Cena at Wrestling at twenty one. It was just
predominantly the story of JBL's title reign. Now to the main event, Chris
ben Wah against Randy Orton, a match that went pretty long, twenty minutes
and eight seconds, the longest of the night. And this was something that
I think we don't talk about a lot because it is um obviously featuring Chris
ben Wah, and that's something that WWE does not like to feature. But
I will tell you it was a hell of a match and the outcome is
one of the more memorable finishes, in my opinion, in the history of
SummerSlam. Been wrong with the World Clime Himania by ready remember Destiny, Nick
Destiny, gip, wrong hip, blood on, holding on hip order,
perspiration or caller in any of them or slip all across face he wrote through
it the second time, Oh my god, hare Okay, No where hords.
Got that's ready or this Garne looking at his face, look at at
basically how you can't believe it? You time wild anyway? Champion, let
me sumness some lightning strike, seek from nowhere, all the chippy truth,
destiny, he gets the world champion in history. Why he'll a wrestling man's
here or a heart breaker from her? Him every day with a heart breaker.
Christy Raw, Yeah, has such a great year. Can't watch set
of take review event in the role You're coming back to the home country.
The word Chendon has done. He was the world him and to share it
on his summer sound. He's the man of destiny, been gonna happen.
Beat everybody that he was, got to the ring with he dominated, not
row. This loan is the word from cheer from the night. Don't get
a post killer, don't And just like that, Randy Jordan becomes the youngest
world heavyweight champion, and it would kind of spell the end of him an
evolution as we know it. Evolution would turn on him the very next night.
The following week, on Monday Night, Raw, he spits in the
face of Triple h and they go off to the races. On their initial
program, but Randy Jordan's initial title reign due to you know, behind the
scenes immaturity would only last about one month, as you drop it at unforgiven,
there were some things we didn't cover at this SummerSlam, like Diva Dodgeball
for one thing, as it kind of goes to show what were the state
of the women's division at this time. You know, the women's championship was
not defended here and the only featured women on the car with them playing Dodge
Paul in bikini outfits. But obviously there's no reason to break that down.
But all in all, I think Summer Slim two thousand and four was a
sign of things to come. Randy Ortan becoming the youngest world heavyweight champion,
John seen A winning a match in the first of the Best to Five for
the US Championship, and Batista in his for one of his first big matches
showcased as a single star, and you fast forward six to ten months for
all of them, and they are all playing prominent roles at WrestleMania twenty one.
And we guys, that's all I got for you tonight. I hope
you enjoyed Summer Slim two thousand and four. As always, you can get
me on Twitter at A to Marco twenty five. You can get Man on
Twitter at Wrestling Underscore Audio, or you can email him each and every week
for the WWE Podcast mail Bag. Amy. Guys, enjoy your weekend.
I will be talking to you next week. Thanks for listening to the WWE
Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss
a show, or head to WWE podcast dot com and for all of these
shows ad free, head over to Patreon dot com SLASHWWE podcast. Until then,
we'll see you next time.