WWE SummerSlam 2004 Preview
Vol. III Ed. XLIV
Written by: Dr. Trevor Hunnicutt
August 13, 2004
Traditionally, SummerSlam is the second or third biggest event on the annual WWE calendar, and over the years, as a part of the WWE schedule, it has become an important middle-year event for the company and highlight of some of the company’s biggest angles. As usual, the booking choices made for the PPV will help determine how WWE does for the rest of the year and positions itself in the future. Most notable this year is the push of Randy Orton, who finds himself in the forefront of one of the company’s most significant pushes of the past several years.
*RAW World title: Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton
This match is WWE’s most important and significant match of the summer as the push of Randy Orton comes to its paramount point and Randy Orton steps out into the forefront. It’s bittersweet that as a result of a number of things, Benoit was lost in the shuffle and not used properly as champion, especially considering how brilliant his chase for the title was. That said, the pressure will be on for both to deliver, and this will most likely be match of the night, but for all intents and purposes, the majority of Randy Orton’s in-ring test concluded at events prior. The real test for Randy Orton lies ahead, in the infinitely bewildering question that is whether or not Randy Orton can look like a champion, act like a champion, wrestle like a champion, cut promos like a champion, and draw as champion. And that—the single biggest challenge, question, and test in the career of Randy Orton—begins at Sunday’s Summerslam.
Easy justification for having so little time to promote the Vengeance PPV was that after the fact, the company would have five weeks of promotion until SummerSlam. So when it took WWE two weeks of television time to decide that Randy Orton was their man, and three weeks ago made him number 1 contender in the battle royal, they were a step behind. Obviously, they realized that time was not their friend either, because they responded emphatically. Immediately, in a tense conflict between Triple H and Orton later in the night, they teased the money program that they are planning in the future, and since then the booking has been more than solid.
Idealistically, Benoit would have been portrayed stronger as champion and Randy Orton would have had a longer quest, but the former complaint is a problem that runs deeper than this feud, and the latter has been rectified in solid booking. In a general sense, most of the complaints about Randy Orton are either Monday morning quarter backing or casting judgment on what WWE’s future use of Orton will be (ie. the argument that they will simply screw it up in the future), which is impossible to do. RAW had two weeks left to make Randy Orton the proper challenger and did so. Last week, after a lengthy and tremendous six-man tag team match (August 2 – Randy Orton, Batista, and Ric Flair vs. Chris Benoit, Edge, and Chris Jericho), Randy Orton hit his finishing move on Chris Benoit and pinned him cleanly. Since it had been built up as such an athletic and even battle between good and bad (but mostly between athletes of equal stature), it meant a great deal when Orton pinned Benoit. It was his coming of age and Triple H was nowhere to be found (he was purposefully not booked in the match, as the idea was that he was far too concerned with his own problem, Eugene by way of William Regal, that what his Evolution counterparts were up to was of little concern, and vice versa).
Orton’s promos have been another key part of his quest for the title. Most notably his interview with Todd Grisham and Monday’s very strong promo at the beginning of the show. The tease of the Triple H feud is present, but not heavy-handed: slowly, Orton is becoming Triple H, encroaching on his position and his title.
The risk with this feud has not merely been giving Randy Orton the ball, it also meant sacrificing the final match between Chris Benoit and Triple H on the 7/26 RAW, an ironman match, so that Orton would be in the Summerslam main event. The idea is that they have waited long enough to push Orton, as originally he was going to be in the main event of this year’s WrestleMania, and the feud with Mick Foley would have been over late last year. The Ironman match was good, but it wasn’t a success as it drew a somewhat low rating and left fans with a bad taste in their mouths as the match simply built up to a run in by Eugene.
Two realities become apparent in analysis of this angle: the overexposure of Orton as a heel has resulted in fans supporting him as a face. The exposure is justifiable, as they expect Orton to draw very quickly, without having the same lengthy push that many before him have had. Decades ago, the same exposure took years of main events before Fred Blassie became a necessary heel, but do to the fast nature of the current product, it has happened a lot faster. WWE still hasn’t decided whether Triple H or Orton will be face in their feud. Second is the question as to how to promote the eventual match between HHH and Randy Orton, mainly where it goes from here, who plays face, who plays heel, and how to make it draw the most money between now and the Staples Center WrestleMania show next spring. What, however, does not become apparent is how successful Randy Orton will be at this stage of his career, and if pulling the trigger so quickly will sabotage the dedication, time, and effort that has been put into making Randy Orton the next Dwayne Johnson.
Putting all questions, doubts, and examination to the side, Randy Orton is the star of this PPV, and with good reason.
*SmackDown World title: John “Bradshaw” Layfield vs. The Undertaker
Ten years ago a match similar to this may have in fact been the main event of a PPV like Summerslam. But times changed. WWE’s most basic problem over the last several years—complete and utter ignorance in building new stars—is what evidences this, Smackdown’s main event on this card, as pathetic as it is. WWE didn’t change with the times. In one of WWE’s many humorous attempts at revisiting history, Vince McMahon is acknowledged as nothing else than a genius. Even when he was down, the story goes, as the deep-pocketed Ted Turner far outbid McMahon in every way, McMahon’s skill at developing talent and accentuating their abilities made indelible stars anew.
Realistically, McMahon has always been hit and miss, and the only reason he made new stars in Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels among others was because he was backed into a corner and had no other choice. The last few years have made apparent in many ways Vince McMahon’s insecurity in giving the ball to any more than a few, handpicked wrestlers, choices doled out inconsistently whenever McMahon sees the total package. This, is the result. A Summerslam with one match to make a star, when far more should’ve been made, far earlier, and a rushed world champion in someone who never fit the bill, and who rose, almost metaphysically out of the ranks of jabroni, and into champion.
As much as Orton/Benoit represents booking with a direction executed masterfully, this represents the transparency and weakness of WWE’s booking. The feud is basic and time-worn: JBL runs his mouth, the heroic Undertaker comes to shut him up, rinse and repeat. Undertaker is virtually the same character he has always been, except now he isn’t full-time. Layfield is a poor carbon-copy of Ted Dibiase, with a tenth of the in-ring ability and pretty good mic ability. The match has been getting strong reviews on the road, so expect it to exceed your expectations in the ring.
The rest of the card is reasonably strong. Triple H vs. Eugene has been an extremely weird feud from beginning to end, but going into the PPV it does have a clear purpose on the card, even though the use of Eugene overall may not have been a good thing for the company. This match does have the potential to be very good, but it depends how they are going to book it. If they are going to book it like every other Eugene match, like the Eugene and Ric Flair match against La Resistance at Vengeance, than it will be a disappointment. They need a stiff match here to get over Triple H’s anger over the past several weeks.
Kurt Angle/Eddie Guerrero has been a disappointment as a feud—far too reliant on humor to be considered a serious feud—but expect the match to be the success that the feud wasn’t. The best of five series with Cena and Booker T may be the start of new and good things for two misused wrestlers. Jericho/Edge/Batista has been a reasonably booked feud, but it’s not guaranteed to be a good match until it’s in the ring. These are three wrestlers on the brink of being important to this company in different ways and this match and the next few months to follow will prove how important, how valuable, and what they will do get the most value out of each individually. The Edge character is one to watch, because he’s not guaranteed to be a face in a week’s time.
Finally for SmackDown is the result of Spike Dudley’s heel turn, a match of Rey Mysterio and the tag team champions Billy Kidman and Paul London against Bubba, D-Von, and Spike Dudley. The match quality is a question mark because of the styles clash. There are also a few superfluous matches on the card, Diva dodge ball and Hardy/Kane for Lita’s hand in marriage. It should be noted that Hardy won between the two at Vengeance, in an instance where the company went out of its way to illustrate the win was a fluke, even if the purpose was to have the feud continue.
BUYRATE: My prediction is 375,000 buys, which is admittedly high. I base my estimate on the resilience of the PPV market. For all intents and purposes, all four of the last PPVs were poorly promoted and did buyrates that exceeded the average estimate. The second reason for the estimate is the promotion has been very good and well rounded. JBL/Undertaker may be the main event on the Smackdown side, but everything under it has been pretty well promoted and many of the matchups are intriguing. The SmackDown TV has been stronger than it has been in months. The RAW TV has been at its most consistent, and has some strong matches. My third reason to justify the number is the advertisement. The ad budget for this show has been at its highest since WrestleMania, WWE has done a number of special spots which have flooded WWE television, as well as been aired in other places. The last time WWE increased their ad budget, it resulted in an unusually high number of buys for this year’s WrestleMania. With a $6 million budget, it’s hard to say that advertisement was not a big part of that.
LETTERS
On JBL…
Trev you’ve got a point as always. But ignorance is ignorance whether its insulting Mexicans or pretending to be a Nazi. After months of him berating Mexicans and saying some really insulting things nothing was done and even I was wondering why he didnt gain any flack at CNBC for his actions. If they were going to fire him or at least punish him for his actions it should’ve been long before Germany. This makes me wonder if they were actually comfortable with the things he was saying.
ps-big fan of your column
Jeanice
Writer of The White & Blue
I totally agreed with your take on JBL in the [Wrestling] Observer. I’m so discouraged they rewarded him by giving him the title.
Todd Martin
On column about the problems of Smackdown…
Masterful column summing up definitively the problems of smackdown (or the problem known as smackdown)!! Good to read someone who can criticize without unnecessary flaming, my problem being that the undertaker is my all time favourite and he’s stuck on smackdown which appears to be a sinking ship…
Thanks once again for an extremely well written article.
Nolanbe
On column about Tough Enough…
Hey,
Good column. Nice to see you back in the writing swing of things.
I have to agree – Tough Enough just isn’t “tough enough” when it comes to making real stars. Yeah, Maven got up there in popularity for a while and Nowinski looked to be doing well for himself prior to the injury, but it should tell wrestling fans something when the biggest star of the show so far is Josh Matthews…a commentator!
Anyway, nice column. Keep up the good work and hey, by the way, you and Eddie are doing a great job with that Soundoff area. Very nice indeed.
Joe Balrog
TBL Owner
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