WWE No Mercy (2004 TV Special) User Reviews

The best Smackdown PPV of 2004

[kliko400 · 7/10 · 8 January 2007]

When I watched this Smackdown PPV it was really good & I was really amazed to see that it was better than any other Smackdown pay per view so far of 2004.

FIRST MATCH- EDDIE GUERRERO VS. LUTHER REIGNS What a great opener for the PPV. Luther Reigns kept Guerrero grounded a bit with some strong grapple holds. But in the end Guerrero stole a police baton & nailed Luther Reigns with it followed by a Frog Splash for the cool victory. 5/10 SECOND MATCH- SPIKE DUDLEY W/ DUDLEY BOYS VS. NUNZIO W/ JOHNNY STAMBOOLI Not a bad Cruiserweight match but it was bad to see Spike Dudley win again. 4/10 THIRD MATCH- BILLY KIDMAN VS. PAUL London Not a bad match but it was pretty slow at some times. Billy Kidman pulls out the victory after a Shooting Star Press. After the match Paul London who is bleeding from the mouth gets strapped on to a stretcher only to receive another Shooting Star Press by Billy Kidman. 4/10 FOURTH MATCH- ROB VAN DAM & REY MYSTERIO VS. RENE DUPREE & KENZO SUZUKI W/ HIROKO FOR THE WWE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP Cool tag team match with awesome moves from RVD & Mysterio. Kenzo Suzuki & Rene Dupree win after cheating as usual. 5/10 FIFTH MATCH- BIG SHOW VS. KURT ANGLE First in a couple of minutes when the match started, Angle tried to get himself counted out, but Smackdown General Manager Teddy Long came out & said that if Angle got himself counted out he will be Fired. So Angle took on Show in a okay basic match. But Show got the victory after a Chokeslam from the top rope. 4/10 SIXTH MATCH- JOHN CENA VS. BOOKER T IN MATCH 5 OF THE BEST OF 5 SERIES FOR THE WEE UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP These two men seriously put on a very great match when they are in the ring together. John Cena defeats Booker T after an F-U to win the last match of the Best Of 5 Series & to become the new WWE United States Champion. 6/10 SEVENTH MATCH- DUDLEY BOYS & DAWN MARIE VS. RICO, CHARLIE HAAS & MISS JACKIE IN A 6-MAN INTERGENDER TAG TEAM MATCH Not bad but for the comedy that Rico does in this match I'll say this was a great & enjoyable match no doubt. 5/10 EIGHT MATCH- JBL VS. UNDERTAKER IN A LAST RIDE MATCH FOR THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP Pretty brutal & violent. This match definitely reached my expectations & was also very good. JBL wins this brutal match after Heidenreich interferes & slams Undertaker in the hearse for JBL to get the win. 6/10 So far all the Smackdown PPV's I've watched in 2004, this one is probably the best, well done Smackdown.

Overall: I'll give it 7/10 & a C

An improvement

[davidpenzer · 7/10 · 18 December 2004]

For once I was looking forward to a Smackdown p.p.v. The two cruiserweight matches looked promising, especially Kidman vs. London. I also was interested in Big Show's return. And when it was all said and done, No Mercy proved to be an improvement to previous SmackDown p.p.v.'s.

Match 1: Eddie Guerrero vs. Luther Reigns.

• It's obvious that Reigns is a rookie but Eddie makes him look good. In the middle of the match Reigns goes for a swinging neckbreaker but Eddie uses the ropes to counter it to an inverted DDT. Nice. After using a foreign object, Eddie hits the Frogsplash for the pin. Overall a good opener but some mistakes – like a dropkick that wasn't near Reigns' head – prevents me from give this match a higher rating.

Match Rating: 2/5

Josh Matthews interviews the legendary Dawn Marie. I'm getting ice cream... Sorry to anyone who cared what Dawn had to say.

Match 2: Nunzio vs. Spike Dudley. Cruiserweight Championship.

• Fast-paced and well worked match, despite these two having different wrestling styles. Spike is doing a great job as a heel. Good match except for the ending – a poor screwjob, of which we have seen way too many in this division as of late.

Match Rating: 4/5

Promo for the Kidman/London feud. This is a nice angle.

Match 3: Billy Kidman vs. Paul London.

• Incredible match. London shows some fantastic spots like a slingshot off the top rope into a moonsault! Kidman hits a gutbuster and the old powerbomb counter he always did in WCW. Match ends when London tries the shooting star press and Kidman gets his knees up. Kidman then hits a Shooting Star Press of his own for the pinfall. One of the best matches of 2004. I want to see more matches like this.

Match Rating: 4/5

Bradshaw interview. JBL says that the only way Undertaker is going to win is over his... dead body. Pretty funny.

Match 4: Rene Dupree & Kenzo Suzuki vs. Rey Mysterio & RVD. Tag Team Championship.

• I can't believe WWE lets RVD rot away in the mid card like this. Smackdown's tag division is so pointless with these type of teams that make absolutely no sense. They need to drop the tag division and get Rey into the cruiserweight division, Dupree into the US division, RVD into the WWE Title division and release that no-talent jackass Kenzo Suzuki. The fact this guy is holding a title makes me sick. Match is not bad but not good either.

Match Rating: 2/5

Match 5: Big Show vs. Kurt Angle.

• Nice and well worked match. Big Show tosses Angle around for most of it. Angle lets himself get counted out but Theodore Long comes out (what a surprise huh?) and demands the match restarted. After getting only brief offense in, Angle loses cleanly after a Chokeslam. So, if Angle was going to job anyway what was the point of making him look even weaker by having him running away through the crowd after five minutes? "It was a nice touch to the match" I read in a review. Hell no!

Match Rating: 3/5

Match 6: Booker T vs. John Cena. US Championship.

• Let's face it. These two don't have much chemistry in the ring and the feud itself isn't very good either. Booker gets the early advantage but Cena comes back with clotheslines and shoulder blocks. Bulldog from Cena and then the Five Knuckle Shuffle. 2 count. Since Cena has done all of his moves Booker T gets on the offense. Cena kicks out of The Bookend and decides to go for the only move he has left; The F-U. 1-2-3, new champion. Match was only ten minutes which felt very anticlimactic since it was the final match of the series. Basically this is what we can watch (and have watched) for free on Smackdown.

Match Rating: 2/5

Match 7: Dudleyz and Dawn Marie vs. Charlie Haas, Rico and Miss Jackie.

• Man, Rico is a funny guy. He cracks me up every time I see him. It's hard to rate this match because there isn't much actual wrestling in it. You can tell than Haas is the best wrestler in the ring. Fairly entertaining as a time filler. Thank God for Dawn Marie's ass.

Match Rating: 3/5

Match 8: The Undertaker vs. Bradshaw. WWE Championship.

• Undertaker gets the first punches in. Has Undertaker ever been dominated in the beginning of a match? WWE has realized these two can't have a great wrestling match so this turns out to be more of a street fight. Personally I think JBL's character worked better when he feuded with Eddie. And Undertaker still looks and wrestles more like The Biker than The Deadman. Highlight: A Tombstone Piledriver on the steel steps. Otherwise it's nothing we haven't seen before. Incredibly poor and predictable interference when Heidenreich comes out from the hearse. Bradshaw retains. So, that match wasn't good to begin with and it ended up horribly.

Match Rating: 2/5

The Good: The cruiserweight matches lived up to their expectations. Nice to see two CW matches on the card. Big Show vs. Angle wasn't bad either. Compared to Great American Bash, this p.p.v. was definitely an improvement.

The Bad: RVD is inexcusably underused. The Booker/Cena feud will be forgotten in a month. Main event was a letdown. And honestly, are any of you interested in a feud between Undertaker and Heidenreich?

No Mercy Rating: 3/5

2 alright matches is not a good PPV

[movieman_kev · 3/10 · 21 October 2005]

Match 1) Eddie Guerrero vs. Luther Reigns. An alright match that was cheapened due to a few glaring mistakes. Eddie wins via cheating. 3/10. And thus begins No Mercy 2004 live from the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Back to the PPV, Clips from the Smackdown preceding this event. Dawn Marie is interviewed about her feud with Miss Jackie (who best thing she contributed to the WWE in her career there was her nip slip on an episode of Monday Night Raw). BORING. Match 2) Spike Dudley vs. Nunzio. Spike wins in a match that was a bit better than the first. 5/10. a clip from the beginning of Undertaker's reign with his Survivor Series '91 match with Hogan is shown. Clips from the Kidman/London feud is then aired. Match 3) Billy Kidman vs. Paul London. In all likelihood the best match of this PPV hands down. Kidman wins a great match. 8/10. Billy berates the audience and does a third frog splash. NICE! Continueing remembrance of Undertaker's reign we see a slip from his bout with Phyco Sid at Wrestlemania 13. JBL is interviewed about his upcoming match. Match 4) Kenzo Suzuki & Rene Dupree vs Rey Mysterio & Rob Van Dam. Kenzo and Rey would have made a WAY better tag team match as I can't stand either Van Dam or Dupree, but I digress, this was on par with the first match and a huge drop in quality of the previous one. Suzuki gets a cheap win for his tag-team. 4/10. An ad for Taboo Tuesday is shown. Footage for the Show/Angle feud is shown. Match 5) Kurt Angle vs Big Show. I enjoy both wrestlers and that made a good match better in my eyes. Big show won 7/10. A Carlito promo is played. The Cena/ Booker T feud is recapped Match 6) John Cena Vs. Booker T. A pretty lackluster match, I grew bored with it. By the way, the blacker man won (and by that I mean Cena of course) 3/10. A promo for Eugine. Showing an Undertaker match again, this time Over the Edge 1999 with Stone Cold. Match 7) Dudleyz and Dawn Marie vs. Charlie Haas, Rico and Miss Jackie. what a lame excuse for a match. Simply pathetic. I could tell you who won this but you probably don't care. Worst match of the night hands down 1/10. The last Undertaker clip is of him and Hogan again, this time at Judgement Day 2002. Match 8) Bradshaw Vs. Undertaker. By hyping this up as much as they did AND showing great Undertaker match clips throughout the PPV, it had to suck in comparison and expectations and suck it did. JBL won, but What a lame main event 3/10.

My Overall Grade: D+

WWE No Mercy 2005

[wrestlingsitewebmaster · 8/10 · 27 November 2005]

No Mercy looked like a disaster on paper, but it wasn't really that bad. The guys and gals worked hard. Results from the show:

• Eddie Guerrero defeated Luther Reigns in a good match.

• Spike Dudley pinned Nunzio in a crap match.

• Rene Dupree and Kenzo Suzuki pinned RVD and Rey Mysterio in a good match, but this was due to all the participants making it good with the exception of Kenzo Suzuki who is a terrible wrestler.

• John Cena defeated Booker T to win the US title. The action was fair at least by Cena's standards.

• Billy Kidman pinned Paul London in the match of the night.

• Miss Jackie, Charlie Haas and Rico pinned The Dudley Boyz and Dawn Marie in a funny comedy match. Look out for Rico doing his comedy in this match, he'll have you in tears of laughter.

• JBL defeated The Undertaker in a last ride match. It was OK, but after the beat down of JBL, Heidenreich jumped out of the hearst and put Taker inside it. He then smashed a vehicle he was driving into the hearst. WWE thought that they deserved an 'A' for excellent for this stunt, but fans begged to differ. They booed loudly giving this more like an 'F' for fail.

This is my first WWE post since Eddie Guerrero passed Away on 13th November 2005. RIP uncle Eddie. Heaven has now got some Latino Heat.

Overall Grade - B

Smackdown's best PPV this year

[Gary Ballance · 3 November 2004]

I know that's not exactly a ringing endorsement considering the PPVs Smackdown has churned out this year, like Judgment Day and The Great American Bash, but their October show No Mercy was OK for the most part. No Mercy took place on Sunday, October 3rd, 2004. Its card had one outstanding match, a few decent matches and a few pretty poor matches.

The following is an account of what went down (including the results, so *Spoilers ahead*) and my rating out of 10 for each match:

Match 1- Eddy Guerrero vs Luther Reigns. This certainly surprised me as the opener, as Guerrero (as a former WWE Champion), like Chris Benoit the previous month at Unforgiven, was "jerking the curtain." This feud had little build-up save for Reigns costing Eddy a 2/3 falls match against Kurt Angle a few weeks before on Smackdown, and would seem to be a transition feud for Guerrero until they put him back against Angle or give him a shot at JBL for the Title. The match itself was OK. It was typical of WWE's "modern" style in that the middle of the match was slow with many restholds, and the pace quickened before the finish. Reigns has one or two good moves but he hasn't done much to set himself apart from the other 'big men' WWE have bombarded us with over the last few years. (Nathan Jones, Tyson Tomko, Gene Snitsky, Matt Morgan, Kevin "Mordecai" Fertig, Test, etc.)There was nothing really of note except Eddy hit a beautiful reversal of Reigns' 180' DDT finisher- almost a version of the Sliced Bread #2. The finish had Eddy blast Reigns with a truncheon and hit the Frog Splash for the pin. Not much of a setback for Reigns, not much of an achievement for Eddy. Match rating: 5.5/10.

Match 2- Spike Dudley vs Nunzio (ECW's Little Guido.) This was a rematch for the Cruiserweight Title of a pretty poor non-title match these two had on the previous Smackdown; Nunzio pinned Spike with a roll-up. So, there wasn't really much build-up for this match- Spike had been booked in a feud with Rey Mysterio for a good while, but since Rey was teaming with RVD this match was thrown together. The FBI aren't "over" with the fans (usually cos the writers can't make up their mind about whether they're heels or 'faces) so the match was pretty lifeless, crowd-wise. The match was better than the TV one but still bad for a Cruiserweight match. Some interference from Bubba & DVon led to the finish where Bubba crotched Nunzio on the ringpost and Spike pinned him. Again, this match served no purpose- it was just "a Cruiserweight title match." Match rating: 4/10.

Match 3- Billy Kidman vs Paul London. THIS is one thing that Smackdown has done right this year- this feud had been consistently entertaining (if a little rushed) over the weeks leading up to No Mercy and both guys had proved that they could put on a great match. The build-up was great for this. After Kidman knocked out Chavo Guerrero with a botched Shooting Star Press, he was reluctant to do it again in case he hurt anyone else. (Well-written as any wrestler could realistically relate to that fear of injuring someone in the ring.) Kidman's reluctance led to him walking out on London during two matches and they lost the tag titles as a result. The bad blood built from there and led to this match which I would comfortably describe as one of my favourite matches of this year, along with the main event at WrestleMania. With some great fast-paced action, wonderful high spots (including a springboard asai moonsault over the top rope to the outside by London) and some superb psychology, this was without doubt the best match of the night (even at its relatively short 10 minute running time.) Kidman worked London's rib/torso area for the entire match setting up for the finish, which was masterful. London missed his London Calling off the top rope (his version of the Shooting Star Press- a thing of beauty) landing ribs-first on Kidman's knees [obviously damaging his already weakened torso.] Kidman went up top and hit HIS Shooting Star Press and landed awkwardly with his knees into London's ribs. He got the pin off this and London began "bleeding internally". Kidman then hit ANOTHER SSP onto London who was on a backboard ready to be put onto a stretcher. This (a) got him over as a heel and (b) ensured that this feud will continue somewhere down the line. Hopefully it will- I'd love to see a rematch! A great match and some excellent feud-building. The only thing I would criticise is Kidman's naff 1970s-esque ring jacket. Otherwise, great stuff. Match rating: 8.5/10.

Match 4- Kenzo Suzuki & Rene Dupree vs Rey Mysterio & Rob Van Dam. Again, another feud with very little build up whatsoever. The only interaction between these two teams was RVD saving Rey from a beating from Suzuki & Dupree after they cost him the Cruiserweight title against Spike Dudley. Nonetheless it was a reasonably entertaining match- RVD & Rey hit their usual exciting offense after a boring middle portion of Suzuki & Dupree wearing down RVD. The finish had Suzuki roll up Mysterio cheaply for the win. Hopefully they'll do a better job of building up the rematch assuming there will be one. Match rating: 5/10.

Match 5- Kurt Angle vs Big Show. Save for the Big Show's return during the first two weeks- where he had to "choose" who he would face at No Mercy- this feud had been dealt with reasonably well. Show caused Angle a serious injury a few months previous by Chokeslamming him off a balcony (which led to Angle's disastrous run as Smackdown GM) and then went missing for a few months. When he resurfaced, Angle shot him with a tranquiliser dart after a tag match and shaved his head! Thus, both men had a score to settle going into the match. Show's offense was as usual fairly slow and plodding, but the match really picked up when Angle aggressively went after Show's ankle with the Ankle Lock and blasted it with a chair. After a few minutes of good psychology (with Angle working the ankle) Show won, Chokeslamming Angle from the top rope. Decent enough match and better than expected. Match rating: 6/10.

Match 6- John Cena vs Booker T. This was built up well even if their Best of Five Series hadn't been remarkably good. Michael Cole, after the match, described it as a "mirror image of every other match in the series". While he meant it in a complimentary fashion, I would certainly agree with the statement. As the fifth match in the series, it really was like any other match these two have had: decent enough, but nothing spectacular. Cena got his third win of the series with the F-U. Three wins, all with the F-U! They really should've booked better finishes for these matches- Booker T looked weak, in that he had to cheat to beat Cena. They should've given him at least ONE clean victory. Anyway, match rating: 6/10.

Match 7- Charlie Haas, Rico and Jackie Gayda vs The Dudleys and Dawn Marie. In a sense of art, imitating life, imitating art, Charlie and Jackie's real-life engagement was used to advance a pretty pathetic soap opera-type storyline where Dawn Marie claimed to have had her way, as it were, with Mr. Haas. Dawn & Jackie had a catfight on Smackdown during a tag match between Rico/Charlie and the Dudleys, so this six-person tag match (for lack of a more "PC" term) was booked. Haas is a fine wrestler- pity the other 5 are not. The match was average, ending with Rico pinning a Dudley off a moonsault. This probably WILL advance the storyline but I bet that in 6 months, this angle will be forgotten and Jackie & Dawn will be teaming up. Continuity has NEVER been an issue in WWE! Match rating: 4.5/10.

Match 8- The Undertaker vs John Bradshaw Layfield- Last Ride (Hearse) match for the WWE Championship. Nothing in this feud interested me. JBL is an amusing enough character but he does not belong as the WWE Champion on Smackdown. Nor does this lame 2004 incarnation of The Undertaker. The Deadman gimmick has been extremely diluted this time around and while his entrance may be good, an entrance does not a good wrestler make. The match was dreadful for the most part, ending predictably with a run-in from that masochistic, poetry-reading psychopath, Jon Heidenreich. Heidenreich distracted Taker long enough for JBL to blast him with a lariat and put him in the hearse for the win. After, Heidenreich smashed into the hearse with an SUV causing an explosion in true OTT WWE style. Obviously Taker-Heidenreich is on the cards. God help us. Match rating: 3/10.

Well, that was the card. As I said, not a ringing endorsement, but one of the only PPVs this year with a match that I would rate higher than a 7. (The Kidman/London match.) The main event was absolutely appalling and possibly the worst this year. Overall though, it was a watchable PPV and one Smackdown can be relatively proud of.