WWE Armageddon 2005 results

John “Bradshaw” Leyfield VS Matt Hardy
Yup, they actually hyped this match as stemming from JBL interrupting a backstage interview just days before. With only six matches announced for the PPV, why doesn’t it surprise me that JBL cuts a promo before the match actually starts just to kill time?
Remember when Matt Hardy’s critics told him it was a big mistake to come back to the WWE? When they said he’s more likely to get buried after an initial push against Edge? And how he retorted that he was getting a slow push and that months later you can expect to see him in the main event? Looks like we’re still going to have to wait for that “push”, since he was SQUASHED here.
Match Rating: DUD

MNM VS Mexicools
Again, shouldn’t the Mexicools be challenging Batista & Rey Mysterio for the tag team titles since they won a No.1 Contenders battle royal to face the champions for the titles at the PPV? Well, now it’s the winner of this match will be in contention to face the tag champs for the titles.
If you were expecting this to be a solid match, than that’s exactly what you got. Not to knock on Psicosis, but Super Crazy just looked a lot better here and had the first spot of the night hitting a big tope over the referee out of the ring on MNM. A lot of us probably expected the Mexicools to win, but I liked that MNM won here cause they got their heat back from losing the tag title in a good competitive match.
Match Rating: **

WWE US Title Best of 7 Series – Match 4: Booker T VS Chris Benoit
Say what you want about Booker T, but he and Benoit had a GREAT match here. They worked the match just right and told a great story about Benoit hanging on by an inch in the Best of 7 Series. Benoit may have blew a spot because he was obviously exhausted, but they found worked their way around and played up to it. I also liked seeing Benoit do Eddie Guerrero’s Three Amigos suplexes.
I was fearing that Benoit would lose here and end up “disappearing” off the WWE radar since his contract expires really soon and there hasn’t been any talk of him re-newing. If we get one more great Benoit match like this, I’ll be looking forward to it.
Match Rating: ****

Here comes the time waster of the show as GM Teddy Long and Palmer Canon come out to thank the fans for making Smackdown No.1 after beating RAW at Survivor Series. Palmer than introduces Santa Claus and his Elf, which turns out to be Big Vito and Nunzio! They ask for title matches, but Palmer instead gives them the Boogeyman!
So when we have a scenario where two guys look to be getting a push, it instead turns into two very underated wrestlers getting squashed by some nobody who looks like Jun Kasai of Big Japan Pro Wrestling. And Vito had a handful of live worms stuffed down his mouth. Eww, I hope the PPV paycheck was worth it Vito.

More stalling so the ring crew have time to clean up all the worms in the ring as we see the build up for the Hell in the Cell match followed by an interview with the Ortons.

Handicap Match: Bobby Lashley VS Steven Reagal & Paul Burchill
Quick match here, which is really pointless to have two guys who could be tag team champions be taken down by just one man who isn’t really any bigger than both of them.
Match Rating: ½*

Remember how on their website WWE said they would not air anything that had to do with death or murder in a wrestling angle? Well, in addition to having Orton trying to KILL the Undertaker in the past few weeks, we now get a scenario where referee Tim White apparently committed suicide when talking about how a Hell in the Cell match changed him TWO YEARS ago.

WWE Cruiserweight Title: Juventud Guerrera VS Kid Kash
These two put on one of the better cruiserweight title matches in recent memory, with some fast paced action as well as mat work. Funny how Kash has always been hyped as they master of the hurricanrana in ECW, TNA and the US indy scene, and didn’t even get to do one in this match? They won’t let him use the Money Maker either, but his new brainbuster finisher looks just as killer.
With all the heat Juvi has been getting recently, I wonder where he’ll go now that he lost the title here.
Match Rating: ***

Big Show & Kane VS Batista & Rey Mysterio
Geez, what’s with Rey painting his face under the mask? Anyways, there was easily a lot of heat to this match, and not because it was a champion VS champion match. Of course you knew already the crowd would pop like crazy for the underdog team. It was passable, but nothing special.
Match Rating: *

Hell in the Cell: Randy Orton VS the Undertaker
As good as this match was, there have definitely been a lot better HITC matches. It was still a very solid and bloody contest, even if they didn’t really do anything awe-inspiring or original to make the match stand out like past Cell matches. I really don’t know what they are going to do with ‘Taker now that he’s had his revenge on Orton here though.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: Despite some useless and long non-wrestling segments, this was still a good PPV overall. Stand out bout was definitely the Booker/Benoit match.