Vengeance 2005

Vengeance 2005

The main event was aHell in a Cell match for theWorld Heavyweight Championship betweenBatista andTriple H, which Batista won by pinfall after executing aBatista Bomb. One of the predominant matches on the card wasJohn Cena versusChris Jericho versusChristian in aTriple Threat match for theWWE Championship. Cena won the match and retained the title afterpinning Christian. Another primary match on the undercard wasKurt Angle versusShawn Michaels in a rematch of their bout atWrestleMania 21. Michaels won the match by pinfall after executingSweet Chin Music.

Many of the existingfeuds were settled following the event. Notably, Batista was drafted to theSmackDown! brand, thus ending his feud with Triple H. The feud between Kane and Edge also concluded after the event, as Edge entered anangle withMatt Hardy. The feud between Cena and Jericho, however, continued and led to a match atSummerSlam, which Cena won.

Background[]

The event featured sixprofessional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed either avillainous orfan favoritegimmick as they followed a series of events which generally built tension, leading to a wrestling match. The name of a wrestler's character was not always the person's birth name, as wrestlers often use a stage name to portray their character. All wrestlers were from theRaw brand – astoryline division in which WWE assigned its employees to a different program, the other beingSmackDown!.

The mainfeud heading into Vengeance was betweenBatista andTriple H, with the two battling over theWorld Heavyweight Championship. After Batista defeated Triple H atWrestleMania 21, they continued to fight over the World title at the next Raw pay-per-view,Backlash, which saw Batista retain the title. Following Backlash, a series of Gold Rush Tournament matches to determine a number one contender to face Batista for the World title took place withKane,Shawn Michaels,Edge, andChris Benoit winning in the first round of the tournament. In this round, Benoit forced Triple H to submit to theCrippler Crossface, Benoit's submission finisher. On the May 23, 2005 edition ofRaw, Batista faced Edge, who had beat out Michaels and Kane for an opportunity at the World title. Batista retained the title after he pinned Edge following aBatista Bomb. Following the match, Triple H attacked Batista with asledgehammer and challenged him to aHell in a Cell match. After making the challenge, Triple H performed aPedigree to Batista on the World title. Batista accepted Triple H's challenge, which led to a and contract signing for their scheduled match at Vengeance, which would be for the World Heavyweight title in a Hell in a Cell match at Vengeance.

The other main feud heading into the event was betweenJohn Cena,Chris Jericho andChristian, with the three battling over theWWE Championship. On the June 6 edition ofRaw, John Cena'sSmackDown! tenure came to an end when he became the first wrestler selected by the Raw brandGeneral Manager,Eric Bischoff, in thedraft lottery. Cena was introduced as Raw's newest member in Chris Jericho's segment, theHighlight Reel, but Christian interrupted and called Cena a poser. This built on their existing rivalry, as Cena and Christian had an encounter at the Royal Rumble, in which Christian claimed that he was a better rapper than Cena. At the time, Cena was a member of the SmackDown! brand and Christian was part of the Raw brand. Over the next months, Christian began cuttingpromos denouncing Cena as a 'poser'. Cena rebutted Christian's comments by performing a freestyle rap about Christian, which quickly led to the two brawling in the ring. The same evening, Cena entered a feud with Bischoff by refusing to participate in Bischoff's "war" against the upcomingExtreme Championship Wrestlingreunion show. On the June 13, 2005 edition ofRaw, Bischoffbooked a WWE title match between Christian and Cena at Vengeance, although Jericho protested the idea of Christian being the contender to face Cena for the title. Later that night, Cena and Jericho were placed in atag team match and faced off against Christian andTyson Tomko. Cena and Jericho won the match after Cena got thepinfall. After the match, Jerichoturned on Cena and attacked him. Bischoff then changed the original match between Cena and Christan to a Triple Threat match at Vengeance that also included Jericho.

One of the main matches on the undercard was betweenKurt Angle and Shawn Michaels. At the start of the year, Angle and Michaels both participated in the Royal Rumble match at the2005 Royal Rumble pay-per-view event. During the match, Michaels eliminated Angle. In retaliation, Angle returned to the match and eliminated Michaels and then attacked him outside the ring. The two engaged in a feud, which led to anInterpromotional match at WrestleMania 21, as Angle was part of the SmackDown! roster and Michaels belonged to the Raw roster. At WrestleMania 21, Angle got the win over Michaels by forcing him to submit to theAnkle Lock. On the June 13 edition ofRaw, Angle was revealed to be the second draft pick for the Raw brand. That same evening, Michaels challenged Angle to a rematch from their WrestleMania bout at Vengeance, which Angle accepted.

The Divas feud heading into Vengeance was betweenVictoria andChristy Hemme. After Hemme won a swimsuit contest onRaw, Victoria turned into a villainess and attacked all of the participants, saving Hemme for last, and later expressed jealousy of Hemme in a backstage interview. It was announced on a later edition ofRaw that Hemme and Victoria would face each other at Vengeance, and Hemme stated in a backstage interview that she couldn't wait to get her hands on Victoria. However, the evil Victoria interrupted the interview by smashing a glass jar on the back of Hemme's head.

Event[]

Before the event went live on pay-per-view,Rosey and The Hurricane (withSuper Stacy) defeatedThe Heart Throbs (Antonio andRomeo) in a match taped forSunday Night Heat. The first match that aired was betweenCarlito andShelton Benjamin for theIntercontinental Championship. After back and forth action, Carlito removed the padding from one of the turnbuckles. Benjamin then hit his head on the exposed metal while performing aStinger splash. Carlito pinned Benjamin with aroll-up, allowing Carlito to retain the Intercontinental Championship.

Next was a match betweenVictoria andChristy Hemme. The match saw Victoria lift Hemme in the air and drop her down with force. Control of the match went back and forth, but the bout came to an end when Victoria countered Hemme'ssunset flip. Victoria got the pinfall by using the ring ropes for leverage.

The third match of the night sawKane in a match withEdge, during which both men took the upper hand.Snitsky interfered in the match, hitting Kane with abig boot. Moments later, Snitsky was quickly taken out by Edge after he hit him with his Money in the Bank briefcase. Following the events in the match, Kane performed achokeslam and pinned Edge.

This bout was followed by aWrestleMania 21 rematch that involvedShawn Michaels andKurt Angle. In a brawling match, Angle had anAnkle Lock hold applied on Michaels. Moments later, however, Michaels recuperated and performedSweet Chin Music on Angle before pinning Angle for the win. After the match, both men were given a standing ovation. An in-ring segment took place next between Raw'sring announcer,Lilian Garcia andViscera. During the segment, Garcia proposed to Viscera. Before Viscera could have given an answer, he was interrupted byThe Godfather. The Godfather gave Viscera advice about the life he would miss out on if he got married. This led to Viscera rejecting Garcia's marriage proposal and leaving the ring with the Godfather's hos and abandoning a crying Garcia in the ring.

The fifth match was aTriple Threat match for theWWE Championship between championJohn Cena,Christian, andChris Jericho. The match saw all three wrestlers take the advantage over one another. A spot in the match included Jericho applying theWalls of Jericho on Cena, but he released the move and performed aspringboarddropkick on Christian, after Christian got up on the ring apron. Late in the match, Jericho reversed anUnprettier attempt by Christian by tossing Christian directly to Cena. Cena hoisted Christian onto his shoulders, performed anFU, and pinned Christian to retain the WWE title.

The final match of the event was a Hell in a Cell bout betweenBatista andTriple H for theWorld Heavyweight Championship. During the match, Triple H choked Batista with a chain and hit him in the back with a steel chair wrapped withbarbed wire. Batista regained the momentum by grabbing Triple H'ssledgehammer and hitting him in the mouth. Batista retained the World title after he performed aspinebuster on Triple H onto the steel steps, which was followed with aBatista Bomb and acover for the win. After the Hell in a Cell match, Triple H stood to his feet and was given a standing ovation by the audience.

Aftermath[]

In June 2005, the2005 WWE Draft Lottery took place, in which wrestlers were drafted and traded between the Raw and SmackDown!brands. On the June 30, 2005 edition ofSmackDown!,Batista's tenure on the Raw brand ended, when he was SmackDown!'s final pick in the draft lottery. SmackDown! General ManagerTheodore Long scheduled a six-man elimination match betweenJohn "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL),The Undertaker,Muhammad Hassan,Chris Benoit,Booker T andChristian, in which the winner would receive the SmackDown! Championship, as theWWE Championship had been moved to the Raw brand. JBL won the match, but Teddy Long informed JBL that he did not win the SmackDown! championship. As the winner of the match, however, he would face Batista for theWorld Heavyweight Championship. On the July 7 edition ofSmackDown!, it was revealed that the match between JBL and Batista would take place atThe Great American Bash. At The Great American Bash, Batista was disqualified for attacking JBL with a chair. JBL won the match, but did not win the title because a title never changes hands bycountout ordisqualification.

Following Vengeance,Eric Bischoff vowed to makeJohn Cena's stint onRaw difficult, he "hand picked"Chris Jericho to take the WWE title off Cena by booking a match between Cena and Jericho atSummerSlam. During their feud, even though Cena was portrayed as theface and Jericho as theheel, a vocal section of live crowds nonetheless chose to boo Cena during their matches, including at SummerSlam where Cena retained the title after executing anFU.

After a successfultag team win atBacklash, in whichShawn Michaels andHulk Hogan defeated Muhammad Hassan andDaivari. Michaels and Hogan were placed intag team match againstKurt Angle andCarlito on an episode ofRaw. The match saw Hogan and Michaels get the victory. During the post-match pose, Michaelssuperkicked Hogan, which knocked Hogan to the ground and turning Michaelsheel for the first time since returning to the company in 2002. The following week, Michaels challenged Hogan to a match at SummerSlam, which Hogan accepted. In this match, Hogan maintained his perfect record at SummerSlam by defeating Michaels.

The feud betweenEdge andKane came to an end when Edge was put in anangle withMatt Hardy. On the July 11, 2005 edition ofRaw, Hardy, who at the time was unemployed by WWE, The following week, as both Edge andLita were walking towards the ring before a scheduled Steel cage match against Kane, Hardy attacked Edge from behind. On the August 1 edition ofRaw,Vince McMahon officially announced Hardy's return to WWE, adding that Hardy would face Edge at SummerSlam. The following week, Hardy made his in-ring return, defeatingSnitsky. After the victory, Hardy was attacked by Edge, and was carried backstage. In retaliation, Hardy counterattacked Edge in the locker room. At SummerSlam, Edge was given the win in the match after Hardy hit the ring post and began to bleed profusely, which caused thereferee to stop the match.

After a four-month hiatus,Triple H returned on theWWE Homecoming edition ofRaw on October 3. He took part in a match, teaming up withRic Flair, who was wrestling as a face, to take onChris Masters and Carlito. The duo defeated Masters and Carlito; after the match, Triple Hturned on Flair and hit him with asledgehammer. This led to an angle between Triple H and Flair. AtTaboo Tuesday, Triple H and Flair met in aSteel cage match, a stipulation chosen by the fans, for theIntercontinental Championship. The match saw Flair retain the Intercontinental Championship, after escaping through the cage door.

Results[]

Numbers in parentheses indicate the length of the match.

(c) refers to the champion(s) heading into the match.

• Dark Match:Rosey andThe Hurricane (c) (w/Super Stacy) defeatedThe Heart Throbs (Antonio andRomeo) to retain theWorld Tag Team Championship (5:06)
• Carlito (c) defeatedShelton Benjamin to retain theWWE Intercontinental Championship (12:46)
• Victoria defeatedChristy Hemme (5:05)
• Kane defeatedEdge (w/Lita) (11:11)
• Shawn Michaels defeatedKurt Angle (26:11)
• John Cena (c) defeatedChristian andChris Jericho in aTriple Threat match to retain theWWE Championship (15:08)
• Batista (c) defeatedTriple H in aHell in a Cell match to retain theWorld Heavyweight Championship (26:54)

Other on-screen talent[]

See also[]

• List of WWE pay-per-view events
• WWE Event History
• Vengeance
• Event gallery

DVD release[]

• Vengeance 2005 on DVD

External links[]

• Vengeance 2005 Official site
• Vengeance 2005 at CAGEMATCH.net
• Vengeance 2005 at Online World of Wrestling