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Hazed and Confused: A Look Back Pt 1

Good Morning, Afternoon and Evening and welcome to a very delayed edition of Hazed & Confused.
Unfortunately due to health issues it has taken me this long to write another article and even now its hard to find the motivation when you're going through copious amounts of pain.... But enough of that and on with the show!

For something different and also because of the above issues, I've had a lot of time on my hands. I've been recently watching a few WWE PPV's from the past 10 or so years and decided that I may as well put that to good use and take a look back at one of these events.

So for this article, lets travel back to Sunday March 14th 2004. The place is Madison Square Garden and the event, if you havent allready guessed, is Wrestlemania XX.

Wrestlemania XX is where “It All Begins Again”, where what began again I have no idea, but lets see what happened shall we?

We start the show with the usual singing of “America The Beautiful” which this year is sung by the Boys Choir Of Harlem.
This is then followed by a nice video package showing classic Wrestlemania moments and the usual clip of wrestlers talking about getting their “Wrestlemania moment”.

BOOM!!! Pyros!!! We are then welcomed by Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler who are joined by Tazz and Michael Cole and the Spanish blokes who names escape me and we're off to our first match

MATCH ONE

WORD LIFE! Basic Thuganomics!! Why cant Cena revert back to this song?
Cena gets quite a decent reaction, does a little freestyle rap where he compares The Big Show to the Hippo in the Macy's Parade and some other things. Show comes out and this match is for the United States Title.
 So much of this match is Big Show dominating. So much.
There’s very little offence from Cena until the end where he hits the Attitude Adjustment on Big Show, which is of course a big deal back then, but Big Show kicks out.
Cena is shocked. He prepares to use a chain and the ref gets in his way. Cena throws the chain so the ref chases it, puts on some of his metal knuckles with “CENA” written on them, punches Big Show behind the ref’s back, hits another Attitude Adjustment, gets the pin and becomes your NEW United States Champion!! Woooooo!!


We then cut backstage to Jonathan Coachman, who is met by Bischoff and Johnny Nitro and told to find The Undertaker..... hilarity is to follow....

Then a promo by Evolution with about a million different camera angles. Orton does the talking, Batista stands there looking menacing and Flair grins like an idiot throughout.

MATCH TWO

Our next match is Rob Van Dam and Booker T defending the World Tag Team Championship against the Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley), La Resistance (Rene Dupree and Rob Conway) and the team of Garrison Cade and Mark Jindrak in a Fatal Fourway Match.

It starts off with the mayhem you’d expect from a match like this, including a spot where RVD slingshots Dupree into a Booker T superkick.
It looks like it’s going somewhere until Dupree puts Booker in a rest hold. Seriously? A rest hold in a Fatal Fourway tag? The whole point of the match is that everyone can go all out without having to take an in-ring breather.
RVD gets tagged in and fights off every heel in the match single-handedly. The Dudley's grab RVD for the Dudley Death Drop, but Cade attacks D-Von and RVD doesn’t get that extra impact going down. Amidst all the confusion, Booker T hits a scissor kick on Jindrak, RVD does the Five Star Frog Splash and the champs retain.


We then go backstage and join Coachman on his quest to find The Undertaker, when he bumps into Bobby Heenan and Mean Gene who have come out of a closet in a state of undress.... Yes, really!... But they were in there with Moolah and Mae Young, what a surprise!


MATCH THREE

We're shown a video for the next match, which is Chris Jericho against Christian... Basicly they had a bet if Jericho could “nail” Trish Stratus before Christian does the same to Lita... Jericho falls in love with Trish... blah blah blah typical 90's love film... Christian gets jealous, says Jericho's not his friend, tells Trish the truth, has a match against Trish... blah blah blah... and now they're fighting against each other.

The two work so well together and they rightfully deserve their match to be so long (15 minutes).
Jericho keeps going for his finishers, but Christian keeps escaping. Walls of Jericho? Grabs rope. Lionsault? Puts his knees up. Walls of Jericho again? Drags himself and Jericho out of the ring, where Jericho puts the hold on him again.

Trish eventually shows herself and Christian attacks her the moment she reaches ringside. Jericho comes to her rescue, gets Christian away for a moment and tries to help Trish up. She blindly elbows him in the eye thinking its Christian, thus knocking him into a roll-up with Christian getting the pin.

Trish begins to apologize to Jericho and right when it looks like they’re going to have a moment, she begins to slap the hell out of him and Christian jumps in with a Killswitch.
Christian and Trish walk away, revealing that they’re together and that Trish happens to like it rough.


MATCH FOUR

Yet again we go backstage, where Lillian Garcia is with Mick Foley. Then The Rock turns up and leads a fantastic promo that includes making fun of the Hurricane and Rosey (Hamburglar and Grimace) for eating McDonald’s.

Their match is up next where they take on Evolution in a 3-on-2 Handicap Match that doesn’t seem quite as much of a handicap match at the time, considering Batista and Orton aren’t the big deals they’d later become.

It starts with the dream match of Rock vs. Flair, which rules upon itself. This is the Rock’s last wrestling match and his first one in about 11 months, so he takes the backseat to Foley for the most part. But Foley is still in good enough shape, so it looks good when he hits Flair with his off-apron elbow drop to the outside.
Foley wants to get his hands on Orton, but Orton is shown to have Foley’s number. Even when they’re up against each other, Orton is good at eluding Foley’s offence. Or when Batista mounts and punches Foley and Foley comes back with a Mandible Claw, Orton immediately saves his partner and escapes just as quickly.
Rock comes back in and gets spinebustered by Batista. Flair is tagged, who taunts Rock by doing his own over-the-top version of the People’s Elbow. Rock kips up, drops Flair down and hits his final People’s Elbow, including a Flair strut before the drop. Quite obviously the crowd is lapping this up. Orton comes in an gets a Rock Bottom. Flair distracts the ref and Rock receives a Batista Bomb.

Foley gets tagged in and we finally have some real Foley/Orton action. Foley gets him with the double-arm DDT and pulls out Mr. Socko. As he prepares, Orton pulls out a surprise RKO, pins Foley and bails. Foley’s pissed that he lost out of nowhere and Rock tries to cheer him up.


We're then shown a video highlight package of the previous nights Hall Of Fame and then all the inductee's come out to wave to the fans. This years Class included Bobby Heenan, Tito Santana, Big John Studd, Harley Race, Pete Rose (Why??), Don Muraco, Greg Valentine, Junkyard Dogg, Billy Graham, Sgt Slaughter and Jesse Ventura... quite a list really.


MATCH FIVE

Next up is Sable and Torrie Wilson taking on Stacy Keibler and Miss Jackie in …. oh whoopie... a “Playboy Evening Gown” match...
All you need to know is they all end up in their underwear, the match pretty much sucked and Torrie and Sable win.... NEXT!!!


We're then shown a highlight of the Fan Axxess and fans going on about their Wrestlemania experience.


Eddie Guerrero is walking backstage, various nobodies wish him luck for his match, he walks into a locker room, talks to Benoit, Benoit gets angry and looks like he's gonna kill someone.....


MATCH SIX

Next up is the “Cruiserweight Open” for the Cruiserweight Title.... Remember when that belt actually mattered?
And speaking of things that mattered once, out comes the champion, Chavo Guerrero Jr. accompanied by Chavo Classic.
His challengers consist of Rey Mysterio, Shannon Moore, Jamie Noble, Funaki, Nunzio, Billy Kidman, Tajiri, Akio and Ultimo Dragon.

The match takes form of a Gauntlet Match, so two men start off and once one loses the next guy comes in and so on until one man is left.

Ultimo and Moore start it out, with Ultimo getting the pin after a Dragon DDT. Noble is in next and takes down Ultimo with a really sick front-face lock with leg scissors. Funaki comes in next and flies off the top rope at Noble, only to be rolled over and pinned in just a couple seconds. Nunzio can’t best Noble either, succumbing to a count-out.
As Nunzio and Noble argue about it on the outside, Kidman enters the match and hits the two with a Shooting Star Press off the apron. He reverses a top-rope hurricanrana into a BK-Bomb off the top and eliminates Noble.
Rey Mysterio, dressed up as the Flash, comes in and has some good exchanges with Kidman until getting him with a Sunset Flip Powerbomb off the top. Not only does Tajiri lose to the 619 and West Coast Pop, but during his part in the match, he accidentally sprays mist into the eyes of his ally Akio, who is deemed unable to compete because of it. Oh the humanity!

This makes it Rey vs. Chavo. There’s a spot where Rey sees Chavo Classic standing on the apron. Rey takes him down with a Baseball Slide and wants to follow up with a dive. The ref won’t let him. So as the ref checks up on Chavo Classic, Rey runs across the ropes, jumps OVER the ref, flips in the air and gets Chavo Classic with a senton. He re-enters the ring by flipping over Chavo with a Sunset Flip, but Chavo falls to his knees, his father grabs him by the hand to give him extra leverage and he gets the win.


Now unfortunately due to space constraints, we shall finish here and I hope you will join me in Part Two of this look back at Wrestlemania XX.

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  1. Comment #1

    Any comments please....

    Posted by Angel Of Desire on Friday, July 16, 2010

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