*~Judgement Day 2005 review*~
MNM vs Hardcore Holly and Charlie Haas for the WWE tag team championships: **1/2. Eh, this match was okay for what it was. Not really note-worthy or anything. Dull start 5 minutes into the match but it really picked up once Hardcore Holly went for the hot tag to Charlie Haas. An okay start to the PPV with MNM retaining the WWE tag team titles and rightfully so. MNM were showing potential all through-out 2005 and would make the WWE tag team division on Smackdown interesting again. That is until Brian Kendrick and Paul London were paired as a tag team.
Carlito vs The Big Show: *1/2. Most of the match is Big Show dominating Carlito with Carlito barely getting any offesne in and also the Matt Mogan inerference with Morgan giving Big Show an F-5 and Carlito scoring the pin. Plus, the match is short. Moving along, nothing to see here.
Paul London vs Chavo Guerrero for the Cruiserweight championship: ***. Decent Cruiserweight title match between Paul London and Chavo Guerrero. It was fast-paced and had a could of great spots in it like Paul London hitting a Senton Bomb on the turnbuckle on Chavo Guerrero from outside the ring. A minor problem I did have with the match is Chavo abandoning the arm-work but other than that, it was a pretty good match. This should have opended the show instead of the tag team match IMO.
Booker T vs Kurt Angle: ***1/2. I enjoyed this match a lot actually. Really good in-ring wrestling and also brawling with Booker T kicking Kurt's ass from start to finish. This match dragged a little too long for my liking and the pacing of the match was a little off but it was still great. Booker T gets the win which was the end of their feud as Kurt Angle would soon head to Raw afterwards.
Orlando Jordan vs Heidenreich for the United States championship: *. I'm slapping myself in the head for even watching this match. It was boring as hell and a match that should have been on Velocity. That's how bad it was.
Rey Mysterio vs Eddie Guerrero: ****. Awesome match. The in-ring stuff was great, the pacing was great, and the crowd was great. While this match pales in comparison to the another Guerrero/Mysterio matches, I find it to be better than their Great American Bash 05 encounter. I would have liked to see Eddie pick up the win here to avenge his his loss to Rey at WrestleMania 21 but eh, no biggie I guess.
John Cena vs JBL for the WWE championship: ****1/2. While this match isn't anything special, it's still a great brawl between John Cena and JBL. It was an all-out WAR between the two with all of the blood-shed. This match was brutal, intense, and got Cena over as a top face right around the time where the WWE needed a fresh face to fill the void after Brock Lesnar left and Cena was that guy. This match was JBL and John Cena's best match with one another and a BIG step-up from their dull match at WrestleMania 21. Great I Quit match and a great way to end off their feud.
Final rating: 5/10. Besides the awesome main event between John Cena and JBL over the WWE championship, the Eddie vs Rey Mysterio match, and the solid Booker T vs Kurt Angle match, this PPV felt like a 2005 episode of Smackdown. Now I get that not every match needs to be 5-star worthy and that some matches have to be filler to fill in time but the rest of the card felt either thrown together or uninteresting. Given the lack of star-power on the Smackdown brand, this PPV would have benefited if this PPV wasn't Smackdown exclusive and that the Raw brand was featured on the PPV as well. I'm not saying that the brand exclusive PPVs were all horrible but some of it suffered because of the lack of depth in the roster and this PPV was an example of a lack of depth in the Smackdown roster back in 2005. Average PPV with an underwhelming card overall.
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