by As WrestleMania 21 went off the air with an emotional Batista celebrating, it was as clear as day that he was the face they wanted to promote moving forward. He was the man to lead them into the new generation now that the Ruthless Aggression era was starting to wind down. Many fans wanted him to make it because they secretly feared it was only a matter of time before the belt ended up back with HHH like it did after Benoit beat him at WrestleMania 20.
In fact, someone beating HHH for the championship, only to lose it back to him or have it wind up back in his hands by hook or crook shortly after, had already become a theme. HHH lost to Hulk Hogan in April of 2002 only for HHH to be wearing World title gold by September. Then at Survivor Series of 02, it was Shawn Michaels taking the strap off HHH only for “Trips” to win it back the next month.
The trend continued in 2003 as Goldberg beat him for it in September, only to lose it back to him by December. HHH would go on to lose it at WrestleMania XX in March to Chris Benoit, and sure enough, by September he was champion once again.
Things seemed different with Batista, unlike Goldberg, Hogan, and HBK, he was still in his prime and looked to have the long future ahead of him. Evolution was pretty much done, with only HHH and Flair left, so it all made sense for Batista to lead the way.
HHH wasted no time issuing a challenge for a rematch, as earlier as later that same month at WWE Backlash. His premise was that Batista had, “ one great night”, and was positive that is all it was and he couldn’t do it again. Batista would defeat HHH not only at Backlash, but several more times as the summer went on to confirm his dominance over the championship. He held onto it until early 2006 before being forced to give up the belt due to a Biceps tear.
They had a residual match from the Money In The Bank Showcase the night before as Christian faced off with Shelton Benjamin and Chris Jericho as they did battle in a three-way dance for Benjamins Intercontinental Championship. The champ would retain by hitting several high spots and continuing to look strong.
We got the first real taste of what the Money In The Bank contract actually meant, as Edge flat out told Eric Bischoff that he Edge, and no one else, would decide when he would cash it in. Bischoff was under the impression that Edge would challenge Batista that very night, but Edge again, gave us the first glimpse of how he would become the ultimate opportunist as he waited until the exact right moment, nearly 10 months later to cash it in and defeat John Cena for the WWE Championship.
Bischoff was none to pleased with Edge dictating who and when he would cash in however, and the General Manager made it known to Edge that his opponent that night would be Chris Benoit. The Crippler would go on to win the match later in the night, and then promptly suffer a post-match attack by Edge.
Randy Orton who came “this close” to making history the night before at WrestleMania versus The Undertaker, came out and cut a promo. His main point was that he had a bum shoulder last night, and if it wasn’t for that, defeating The Undertaker would have been a sure thing.
He transitioned the promo into talking about how he was lightyears ahead of the World Champion Batista. He mentioned how he was the glowing star of Evolution and not Batista. He went as far as to bring up earlier victories he obtained over “The Animal”. Orton demanded a match that night, with Batista for the belt. Eric Bischoff came out and granted him the match.
It was a solid start to the night, but 32 minutes in, we had already seen two in ring promo’s, and one backstage segment and only one match. You could begin to hear the fans groan towards the tail end of the Orton promo as they were getting restless.
If the fans wanted quality wrestling entertainment to jumpstart the night, the next match would not provide it. It was once again Trist Stratus defending her Women’s Championship against Christy Hemme for the second time in 24 hours. Apparently, the storyline stated that it was actually the champion Stratus who requested the rematch with Hemme.
It turned out the real reason that Stratus requested the rematch was so she could violently attack Lita who was at ringside with Hemme. Stratus made it quite clear, her sole purpose was to attack Lita and had zero intent on defending her belt. The Lita vs Stratus feud was heating up again, but a real life turmoil in the life of Lita, would see it fizzle quickly.
Thus, the match never began, and we were now at nearly an hour, with only 1 match. Any hope that we would see more in ring action and less talk was thwarted as Shawn Michaels came to the ring next, wearing a tan suit, and with his wrestling gear nowhere in sight. He spent several minutes thanking the fans and then asking Kurt Angle for a rematch from the night before.
It was then that the night took a weird left turn, as American hater Muhammad Hussain arrived to sneak attack Shawn Michaels and lay him out in the middle of the ring. It didn’t make much sense at the time, but it led to Hulk Hogan coming back for, “one more match” to team with Shawn Michaels and challenge Hussain and Daivari at the Backlash PPV. That would lead to them tagging a few more times throughout the early summer, until Michaels turned on Hogan. It would all wash out as HBK lost to Hogan in the SummerSlam 2005 main event.
After a pretty entertaining match between Edge and Chris Benoit, the night went right back to talking as Simon Dean showed up with his Simon System and Maven by his side. He was a crooked trainer begging people to buy his protein powder. All of this obnoxiousness led to Stone Cold Steve Austin showing up to stun Simon Dean and Maven, giving the fans a cheap pop!
The night ended with the pre-mentioned match between Batista and Randy Orton. The new champ ran through Orton like a hot knife through butter for the easy win.
All in all, it was a good show, despite the fact that it only had 3 actual matches the entire night and zero returns, debuts or turns.
