Triple H vs. Randy Orton vs. Batista vs. Chris Benoit vs. Edge vs. Chris Jericho, WWE New Year’s Revolution 2005 (1/9/2005)

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This was an Elimination Chamber match for the vacant World Heavyweight Title, with Shawn Michaels as a special guest referee.

I have gone on record, not only when talking about it originally but in year and decade wrap-up lists, saying that the 2014 Elimination Chamber (Cena vs. Bryan vs. Orton vs. Cesaro vs. Sheamus vs. Christian) is the best of its kind, but it is not the only really great one. I’m also a really big fan of the 2003 (the one where Goldberg nukes everyone) and 2009 (the one with the big Edge swerve, but also the insane Rey Mysterio performance) as all-time level Chambers.

Below that level, there’s the level this match is on, along with something like the 2011 (Punk/Cena final, a few months before that would have been huge), 2017 (the Bray Wyatt one), or the 2019 (Bryan/Kofi final) ones. Not the greatest, certainly ones that suffer from less than perfect line-ups despite the talent and strength of the booking, but that I simply cannot deny. Like those matches, while I have some issues with it, it just kind of works for me, one of those classic WWE productions that makes me go, “yes, this is how the system is supposed to work”.

(Less so in that it ought to be Triple H winning, but in terms of all it advances, what it does for Batista, the use it puts a still all-world Benoit to, etc.)

In short, the correct amount of bullshit.

Benoit and Jericho begin the match before Triple H is third (doesn’t fit in anywhere else here, but great political maneuvering to have HHH last longer than actual babyface challenger Orton and survive more, while also having Benoit and Jericho before him to mask it a little bit), and to the credit of both men, they are once again has never been on behavior as good as he is on when Chris Benoit is in a match. As early WAR or WCW Benoit/Jericho stuff showed, that was never exactly a guarantee, but at this point, it at least guarantees a half-decent effort. Like Triple H often did against Benoit, as also seen in this match, or later like Hunter and Orton against Bryan, there is an implicit pressure that comes from being an established Great Wrestler in the WWE, and again, Jericho is on best behavior, being more aggressive and harder hitting than usual.

After that, as everyone pours in, it is the ideal mix of things.

There is only one GREAT wrestler here, but everyone else is on their very best behavior.

Batista is obviously very good as your psuedo-hot tag power babyface, but Randy Orton in this is much better than I remembered as a mechanical babyface. The microphone work still might not be him at his most comfortable, but in terms of throwing hands and showing some energy, he is genuinely really really good in this, already being the second smoothest/most natural feeling wrestler in the match behind Benoit. Edge, Jericho, and Hunter are all limited, but primarily do things they’re best at. For Edge, that means basically nothing until the special referee gets him out first. For Jericho, it mean mostly being beaten into greater effort than usual. For Hunter, it means power moves against great bumpers and benefitting from the bells and whistles of a more violent environment, just like in his prime. Nobody is asked to do more than they can, at least not obviously so, and as a result, the match benefits in the way big gimmick matches with limited wrestlers ought to, both because of the visual bells and whistles, but also because of a larger vision that brings it all together into a larger package.

Really, what stands out the most about this match, so many years later, is how much it benefits from some blood spilled.

Everyone but Edge (coward, not in this too long) and Batista (correct call not to bleed, time isn’t right yet as a character) gets to run the blade at least a little here, and the two real pros at it in Benoit and Hunter get some real beautiful color. The match benefits from this in all of the ways wrestling often does. With blood on on the canvas, and the wounds of war on nearly everyone in the ring for large chunks of this thing, the match gains a certain feeling. We’re not talking Joe and Necro here, it is probably not a top 25 bloodletting of 2005, but on top of the selling and the certain auditory quality of almost everyone banging off the steel floor, the simple visuals make this feel like a genuine ordeal, and so later attempts at exhaustion selling and announce hyperbole from JR (another great performance in this, walking every imaginable tightrope with zero wavering) feel less like bullshit, a little more warranted, and the entire production goes down so much smoother when you have these clear visible signals that this has been a fight with actual consequences.

The other benefit is the layout and the effective narrative work.

Just about everyone reading this knows that this is all build to Hunter vs. Batista at WrestleMania, and it is incredibly effective at that. Benoit, Jericho, and Orton all absolutely die for Big Dave, with him getting rid of those first two on his own, and theoretical babyface Orton also having to cheat to get rid of him. Triple H, despite the maneuvering of suffering more and lasting longer than Orton, comes out feeling more lucky than like any kind of real winner, being beaten up by everyone but Batista, avoiding saving him from elimination, and then taking advantage of all he does.

Something feels a little strange to me about really liking a match that is, essentially, a great larger product ass WWE production than a display of any one great performance or thing to really point to, but when it comes together right, it comes together right. The match is the beneficiary of a few really good smaller performances, and although not as much of a rarity at the time as I think Ruthless Aggression WWE still had something of the magic touch when they really wanted it, also the beneficiary of exactly the right amount of larger picture work and narrative movement.

Great pro wrestling nonsense.

It doesn’t seem all that exceptional, but truly, a stellar of just how easy this all really can be when kept simple, and when given the best crutch a wrestling match can have (two-thirds of the match bleeding a lot).

***1/2

 

Evolution vs. Chris Benoit/Shawn Michaels/Mick Foley/Shelton Benjamin, WWE Raw (4/12/2004)

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This is much more like it.

Something you should know is that, at least as it pertains to the upper section of the card, I love 2004-5 Raw.

Call it a guilty pleasure if you would like. You could also call it the tail end of childhood nostalgia, as 2004 was the last year I was really like a WWE Fan proper, before the combination of TNA on free television and starting to regularly download matches from ROH and other indies at the end of the year got rid of that pesky little habit. But all of the different combinations of Evolution tags and matches against a tremendously skilled upper to midcard babyface core (Benoit, Shelton, Jericho and Edge when they were capable of being in good matches, Tajiri) do a lot for me. They’re not always perfect, old man Flair is not the most physically gifted and not every babyface there is great on their own, Shawn Michaels and/or Triple H is often also involved, etc., but any combo of Orton, Batista, and Benoit in a tag in 2004 is a slam dunk, and the brand has an astonishing success rate when attacking the rim here, so to speak.

(does 2004 Raw follow the theme of the year and Go To Work? Some would say yes. There is a man called Big (first name), an undersized all-world talent running the point, part of the team is now a coach for one of the most loathsome outfits in the sport, someone constantly getting in foul trouble, etc. If a basketball cannot hold a grudge, it also probably does not lie.)

I would love to write a bunch of words about the better Evolution tags of 2004, and their many virtues. The way they feel like updated versions of old Horsemen TV tags, the old style structure wholly unique in a WWE environment, the emphasis on hard hitting and violence, the manic finishing runs, all of that. Outside of Bryan vs. The Shield, it’s the best continuous series of matches involving a singular faction in WWE history, and I have a whole lot of time for these matches, and for writing about these matches.

This, however, is not one of the better ones.

Part of that comes down to the line up, as the very best ones tended to have a Benoit/Edge/Jericho babyface core, or the one-off Benoit/Orton/Shelton combo that came after Orton’s turn at the end of the summer. Despite the all-star line up, this makes a few choices that separates it in a more negative way from the better Evolution tags and six-mans that mostly followed.

Specifically, because this is essentially the root of every choice made, there is too much focus here on wrestlers who either totally mail it in or are not very good, and sometimes the two overlap. Almost every other great Evolution tag does not involve Triple H, who is simply not an especially good wrestler on a week to week level. The best Evolution tag work sees Orton and Batista in there for long stretches against Benoit, as he basically spends the year molding them into great wrestlers in a way you may have seen a decade later in the Bryan/Shield series (these have basically the same idea, glue your golden boys to the best wrestler in the company for 6-12 months and force them to get great as quickly as possible). Likewise, there’s a lot too much here of Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley compared to the other two babyfaces, with one (Foley) who would have been out of his element in a match like this even as an active wrestler in his prime and who now is semi-retired and clearly saving himself for the weekend’s pay-per-view, and another (Michaels) who has none of those excuses, but simply turns in an uninspired house show ass performance.

The latter is the one that really hurts, as while Foley is minimized and Hunter only in for bursts, Shawn Michaels is the one who gets the majority of the match’s big moments like the dive into break, the hot tag, and the majority of the finishing run. It’s not surprising, of course it is all about Shawn even when he is like the sixth best wrestler out of eight in the match and the third best on his team, but it’s especially grating when he turns in a dull and passionless performance off the tag and two wildly energetic and/or psychotically intense wrestlers wilt on the apron.

Generally speaking, the match simply lacks the energy of the best Evolution tag work, especially down the stretch, where a lot of things do not go right, and the usually more intricately put together Benoit-led finishing run is instead taken over by a half-speed and quarter-assed Michaels style one instead.

It is not without its virtues though!

The first half in particular is especially good. This is mostly Flair playing the hits against Shawn and then trading leather and some heavy hands (again, Flair never quite gets credit for those great corner punches) with ex-Horseman Benoit. Shelton gets in on the act and the big fella Big Dave has a few really impressive moments. Up until the commercial break, it is a genuinely super fun match. The control work on Benoit and then Shelton is also very good, largely led by Batista and Orton against both guys. The weak spots are there sprinkled in, but most of this is really really good. It’s just that it falls apart in the key moments, and for all of these foundational strengths and great flourishes throughout, it lacks the quality moments in the most memorable parts of the match, and suffers for it in ways other Evolution tags simply do not.

Shawn pins Orton with the kick, whatever.

Real far from the best version of this thing, but a fun enough house show version that just so happened to make it onto television.

three boy

The Shield vs. Evolution, WWE Payback 2014 (6/1/2014)

This was a no holds barred elimination match.

A month before, they nailed it.

Got it as completely right as the WWE could ever get something like this. The Roman Reigns stuff at this point is always going to be incredibly hamfisted and self defeating as a result, but otherwise, nailed it. They got the most out of some very very limited wrestlers and it’s a great example both of groups and matches being stronger than the sums of their parts if handled correctly.

This is not a match on the same level.

There’s a wonderful bit early on, when the crowd has been with them for everything through an opening brawl to exchanges in the ring, and then Triple H and Roman Reigns get in for a Big Staredown. JBL calls them the two studs of the teams, it’s supposed to feel huge, they try and milk the hell out of it…and it’s almost entirely silent. Few things in wrestling are as satisfying as the WWE trying to force a Big Staredown and absolutely nobody caring. On that scale, this is really only second to the famous Cena/Orton one in the 2010 Royal Rumble, or the Nia Jax/Tamina one at whichever Survivor Series. Magnificent stuff and a great description both of the match and all that follows it.

I think the matcch still works, largely through the force of effort of our young heroes, but it’s a much more reserved and drawn out thing. It’s less big, less bombastic, and leans more on Evolution than it probably should. It wants to be everything, trying to balance both the sort of classic Shield style match with also being a WWE Story. Roman gets abused a lot and comes back, big hero bullshit. They occasionally also try to tell a story about Roman being taken out and Seth and Dean overcoming that trope for once, only to then bail at the end and have Roman take two of the three eliminations. One idea is more interesting than the other, but the other isn’t inherently bad or anything either. I would just prefer they picked one or the other.

The match still succeeds despite that, and those sorts of things. Rollins and Ambrose more than do their parts as these twin balls of energy. Reigns’ hot tag work is still exceptional. While the middle dragged, the last quarter or so of this with Evolution being summarily executed one by one is classic Shield, now turned outward in a way that everyone can enjoy. It’s a great piece of booking to have them totally carve up Evolution. Even if two of them went to Roman instead of the ideal version of each man getting one of the falls with their big move, the message is about the same, and it’s a great one. Yesterday don’t mean shit. Triple H gets up and tries to stand on the hammer like he’s going out on his sword, and gets owned, never half as cool or effective as he thinks. It’s not the perfect ending that WrestleMania 30 is, but Hunter and Batista and even Orton could never have showed up again, and it would have felt like a fitting cap on the entire thing.

Of course, none of that happens. Batista has the dignity to leave for five years after this, but not forever. Randy Orton never needed to leave, but winds up drifting along for most of the last seven years since. Triple H not only doesn’t go out like this, but winds up basically just running this program again for years, as if he and his greatest creation weren’t essentially executed here.

Nothing gold ever stays, especially not when a company this stupid and self-sabotaging gets their paws all over it.

It’s the last real Shield match that isn’t embarrassing and desperate nostalgia. Definitely the last great Shield match, even if it’s more on the borderline than most of the great first run Shield matches.

All good things come to an end.

(a *** match)

 

The 2010s WWE golden age ended at WrestleMania XXX, with the high water mark of that era and the season finale of the company, but this is as clear a demarcation point as there is.

Some of that was unavoidable. Most of it wasn’t. Outside of Bryan’s injury, nobody had their hands forced here. Nobody put a gun to anyone’s head and killed off the Rhodes Brothers push. Nobody forced Cesaro back down the card after a picture perfect elevation. You can argue they needed a new top heel, but it’s not like Randy Orton’s push ever stopped. It’s not like they didn’t have a bunch of options that they simply decided against. A way out of a corner that they put themselves in, and that may not have actually existed to begin with. There was never any good reason to blow this all up. Not really.

It’s been seven years, and it’s never been that good again for such a prolonged period. Not really even close.

It’s a miracle that it ever was to begin with.

The WWE occasionally does a really great job of making stars, individual and collective. The last year and a half saw them do that with The Shield through a patience and attention to detail and an ability to resist an insane old man shouting to blow it up because in his head, nobody has friends and nobody can stand to be around each other for more than a year. This was a group that felt genuine, the sort of team of friends that’s incredibly easy to root for, that would be together for half a decade in another promotion run by people who understand that this stupid shit is supposed to be fun and that few things are as entertaining as friends having a blast together while doing violence. They pulled off the sort of natural heel to face transition that wrestling promotions dream about. The fact that they did it both as a group and that it was done this organically in the modern WWE environment is nothing short of a miracle. It’s incredible that it lasted as long as it did.

It’s especially incredible given that what the WWE does with even more practice and precision is destroying stars.

The next night on Raw, The Shield will break up and of all people, Seth Rollins will be the one to turn heel.

Some people will tell you they ran out of things to do, or whatever else. These people are deranged and will spout whatever the party line is. They’re hot faces, the top face act in the company with Bryan out for a while. Throw heels at them. Make some new heels. They don’t even really need to team, but together, it’s still three pieces of something that works better than anything else in the company. They don’t need to always be in the same match to be together, that’s not how stables have to work. Imagine how much more of a gut punch Seth Rollins’ HEIST OF THE CENTURY could be if it happens at the same moment as his heel turn, if that’s his heel turn. Imagine this or that, it’s a fun exercise. It’s fun to think about because there was easily another eight or nine months of stuff The Shield could have done together. It’s interesting too because a group itself hadn’t ever really been in this position before, certainly not in their primes like these three. Relatively uncharted waters in a time and place when everything else is so mapped out.

It might not have been such a problem had they not blown everything after the turn, but they did and so it is. Within the next eight months, they’d taken this group, the hottest thing in the company and miscast the babyface firestarter Rollins as a cerebral heel Triple H imitation, beaten the fight and effort out of scrappy Ambrose, and permanently ruined the prospects of Reigns as an Ace level main event babyface, the entire point of the group’s last few months.

It was too soon. For a company that’s spent decades shouting at WCW for breaking up The Hollywood Blondes after only ten months, you’d think they’d have the wisdom to realize that, but of course not. Never. It’s not entirely that neither of them were ready. All three could have still been megastars if their singles pushes were given the respect, patience, and attention to detail that The Shield’s rise was given. That didn’t happen, because of course it didn’t happen. They fucked it up, because it’s what they do.

Roman Reigns wasn’t ready to be on his own, definitely not as a solo wrestler or a babyface promo. Seth Rollins was nowhere near ready to be on his own, especially not as a heel promo or wrestler. They mostly nailed the booking with him over the next nine to ten months, to be fair, but then blew that up too once he had his crowning moment, just like The Shield. Dean Ambrose could have turned out alright, but within a few months, both got pigeonholed into WHACKY COMEDY like running a hot dog stand and using condiments as weapons, on top of seeming to get that he was really only still pushed to heat up guys like a heel Rollins and Bray Wyatt, who weren’t able of getting it done on their own. The result is the same thing that a lot of people like him began to realize over the next few years, which is that hard work has no reward anymore, so there is no point to it.

In the short term, nobody benefited from this.

They blew it up and got next to nothing in return, outside of the things they were always going to get.

In the long term, Dean Ambrose never again really fit with the WWE, especially when you consider the immediate success he had when he left and began working under his real name again. Seth Rollins may have had his success and booked reasonably well, but he would never again even touch the level he regularly competed at during the duration of The Shield’s first run. As for the Big Dog, they botched it from the moment Rollins’ chair hit his back on June 2nd, 2014 up through his return in the fall of 2020. Left and right. Spent the last half of 2014 destroying all the good will and positive energy that The Shield had built up for the pet project before going ahead with everything anyways. He has the best in-ring career of any of them, but it’s stunningly inconsistent and based on what opponents he happens to have. Far more Batista or Randy Orton, pure system players, than the next John Cena that everyone hoped for and that they blew this up to force.

It’s also that on top of losing Bryan and doing next to nothing with all the other great wrestlers, the most consistent and regular great match act in the company now evaporates, and three different acts take its place, neither even coming close to being what The Shield was in that department.

They blew up the only thing that was still working, and wound up with three separate pieces that they never totally understood how to use (until very recently). At least not in ways that benefited any of them. It’s hard to say it ruined any careers, they all turned out about where they were always going to be (oft pushed failed main eventer, really great golden boy heel, incredible non-WWE wrestler), but because of the timing and mostly the mishandling of everything that came after, it took a lot longer for two of them than it should have. “Greater than the sum of its parts” is simply a concept too advanced for anyone in a decision making capacity to understand, especially when the (then) heir apparent once forced the detonation of his own beloved babyface group so he could turn heel, since he was the least over part of it.

Funny enough, he’s the only one who really benefits from this one too.

How curious.

 

 

The Shield vs. Evolution, WWE Extreme Rules (5/4/2014)

The second major surprise out of Triple H’s 2014, which is up there with 2000 and the like as a near career best year, simply for shooting a perfect 3/3.

It’s a hell of a story too. The Shield finally completed the full face turn the night after WrestleMania by genuinely coming through for justice and genuinely saving Daniel Bryan from a three on one in an attempt by Triple H to simply give himself the title, no longer trusting anyone around him. A story to keep an eye on there, perhaps. The result was the only time ever that the major forces that gave the WWE its unexpected 12-14 month golden age in 2013-2014 being all together at once on the same side at once. It’s an incredibly cool picture for all these reasons.

Following that, Hunter was finally able to get the band back together, and we have a meeting between the best WWE group in a decade and the last group that the WWE took seriously enough to let it succeed and become something real and important, likewise guided by constantly going against the best wrestler in the company at the time and handled so well entirely because they were made up of pet projects. It feel like a big deal, because that’s what happens when you protect acts and concepts and then, yet again, you hurl them at each other in a way that’s interesting and makes sense.

Like the match against the Wyatt Family, it’s a big Shield match that manages to succeed in large part because it genuinely feels important.

It works as this big WWE formula super match, but also as more than that too. From the start, Evolution is not the team that The Shield is. Batista can’t even wear the same color as the other two, they literally can’t even get their presentation together. They immediately lose control of the ring, and while they’re able to control two Shield members (fucking guess which two) for periods of time, it’s never because of teamwork, it’s always because Triple H is smart or Randy Orton is just simply so good. Occasionally, it’s Batista being strong, but if there’s a man on the outside on Evolution, it’s him. Randy and Hunter have a chemistry together that Batista has with neither, and it’s set up throughout the match leading to the finish.

The great matches in this style work on both levels though. A reasonable foundation and then a great fireworks show. Like the Wyatt match, they do a great job of building the fireworks show up, even if most of it comes from one team this time instead of two. Rollins has to work for the big dives, Reigns’ big power spots get cut off initially, and Ambrose’s loveable overzealousness always gets him into trouble. When the cracks in Evolution show, all three Shield members’ attributes begin to show, and they have a real hard time with it for a while. It’s all manic and fun, and produces a few really exciting and fun moments, beyond just the famous Rollins concourse dive. They go a little overboard with the Batista and Roman stuff in the ring, both in them lying around just a little long while other stuff happens, and then having Roman survive both the RKO and Pedigree. It’d be less transparent if they had spread the love around a little on that, but at least one of those comes via a save. Being capable of doing something worse doesn’t make something inherently better, it’s still transparent, but it doesn’t actually matter because it winds up having an opposite kind of effect, as the section focusing entirely on how tough and strong Roman is winds up overshadowed by one of his partners being way cooler and the other getting the big setpiece.

Following the big Seth Rollins dive off the concourse entrance (very well timed and filmed, you never see it coming, genuine great production here), Roman suddenly rallies inside, and hits his punch and the Spear for the win.

It’s a curious finish for a match based around one team being a TEAM and one not to have it come down just to that, but this hasn’t been a subtle push for a long time, and it simply is what it is.

Relative to what comes after this for most of the next few years, this is at least competently done.

The whole thing is, really. An exciting match that feels important and that’s executed nearly perfectly.

One of the last great successes of the Star Making Machine, as everything and everyone else after this mostly happens because of undeniable skill, sheer willpower (from the wrestlers or fans), or both. For one of the last times in this run, it’s another example of just what it looks like and what the company can do when everything works like it should.

***3/4