We are just 13 days away from the final pay-per-view of 2005, Best of the Best! The rest of that card will take shape after tonight's Monday Night Explosion, from the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio! We will see who will be joining CM Punk in the semi-finals of the Best of the Best Tournament as we have our three quarterfinal matches - Monty Brown vs. Elix Skipper, Rhyno vs. Lance Storm, and Chris Benoit vs. Rob Van Dam! Also, two titles will be on the line as Christopher Daniels makes his first defense of the X Title against Shark Boy, and in the main event, Brock Lesnar defends the World Heavyweight Title against Edge!
To open the show, we had the Corporation - John Bradshaw Layfield, the World's Greatest Tag Team, Bobby Lashley, and Lamont - all come down to the ring. JBL was in a foul mood, saying that he wasted his money on Lance Storm and Edge because they obviously couldn't get the job done, seeing how Kurt Angle is now the North American champion. JBL said that his mistake was relying on someone else when the Corporation can do it themselves. JBL said he would gladly wrestle either Brock Lesnar or Angle at the pay-per-view, but his darn ankle is so hurt that he isn't cleared to wrestle. He said he's also heard rumors that Lesnar and Angle really want a piece of the Corporation, so he's been in talk with his lawyers and he got a match signed for Best of the Best. It will be Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle as a team taking on the World's Greatest Tag Team for the World Tag Team Titles! Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin were not happy about this, but JBL assured them that it would be fine. "Since Lesnar and Angle have never teamed before, on paper, they don't deserve a World Tag Team Title match, right? That's why I have it all set up, and the World Heavyweight Title and the North American Title are on the line too! That means if either of you pins Angle, whoever pins him becomes the North American champion. If either of you pins Lesnar, we're looking at a brand new World Heavyweight champion!" This did a lot to ease the WGTT's fears as they both have ambitions for singles gold. With what's at stake here, this could be a huge mistake for Lesnar and Angle. They're getting along now, sure, but the history between those two is well-documented, and if they have one slip up during the match, one of them could be without their gold.
Lance Storm was obviously still upset with losing the North American Title last week, but for all his personality faults, he is a focused athlete. He needed to be if he wanted to move on in this tournament against "The Manbeast" Rhyno, who defeated Lance Hoyt last week to make it to this match. The result of this match was going to depend on who could control the pace. If Storm could make this a wrestling match, he was the clear cut favorite. If Rhyno could turn this into a knockdown, dragout fight, it was his for the taking. Storm kept this a wrestling match early, but he got caught up in a brawl when the match spilled to the floor. Rhyno had Storm just where he wanted him when he picked him up for a powerslam, but Storm's foot hit referee Petey Pluck in the head, taking him out of the equation. EDGE promptly ran down to help his friend and partner, but Rhyno saw him and cut him off with a clothesline. Rhyno got in position for the Gore on Storm, but BOBBY LASHLEY made his way to the ring. Rhyno turned his attention to Lashley, challenging him to get in the ring. Meanwhile, Edge grabbed a chair and blasted Rhyno from behind with it and pulled Storm on top of Rhyno. Lashley could only smile as Pluck regained his bearings and made the three.
[Best of the Best - Quarterfinals]:
Lance Storm pinned Rhyno after outside interference in 0:06:21.
Rating: *** 1/4
Thanks to Edge and Bobby Lashley, Rhyno has been SCREWED out of the Best of the Best Tournament. In the end, I guess it doesn't matter to Lance Storm how he got there, as long as he got there, as he now moves on to the pay-per-view to take on the winner of the Chris Benoit/Rob Van Dam clash later tonight. Meanwhile, it has been announced that Rhyno will be wrestling Bobby Lashley at the pay-per-view.
Ken Doane expressed his desire last week to go back into the singles division, a request that Tommy Dreamer denied. He did give Doane and Holly a tag team match this week though, taking on the Blue World Order. The Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards have a way of getting under their opponents' skin, and they did so tonight by becoming "Da Blue Phenom" and "Hardcore Stevie." This is normally the type of action that will result in Hardcore Holly kicking your teeth in, but he had another point to prove tonight, refusing to tag into the match and letting Doane go at it alone. Fortunately for Doane, it's only the bWo and he was able to overcome the odds, pinning Hardcore Stevie with the Flying Legdrop.
Ken Doane and Hardcore Holly defeated The bWo (The Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards) when K. Doane pinned Richards after the the Flying Legdrop in 0:03:19.
Rating: * 1/2
Doane picked up the victory for his team, but he was not happy with Holly for leaving him high and dry. Doane demanded some answers from Hardcore Holly, but the Alabama Slamma simply ignored him as they headed to the back.
We cut to the locker room area where the new North American champion Kurt Angle has found World Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. The mood was a little tense, but Angle offered a handshake to Lesnar, which was accepted. Angle thanked Lesnar for having his back last week and making sure no one interfered, and told Lesnar he would do him the same courtesy later tonight when Lesnar defends the World Title against Edge. Lesnar made a joke about how good they looked with all their gold and said, "We got two shoulders... maybe a tag title would look nice, don't you think?" It looks like these two are on the same page.
Elix Skipper had no problem issuing a guarantee to win this tournament, that is until Monty Brown confronted him a week ago. He had to put up or shut up if he wanted to go on to face CM Punk at Best of the Best. Skipper has been on a roll, including a win over the X champion Christopher Daniels in the first round of this tournament, but Brown didn't care if it was Prime Time or not. Skipper had the upperhand in this match for longer than a lot of people predicted, but the longer he had the advantage, the more fired up Brown seemed to get, resulting in the Alpha Male powering his way past Skipper with a beautiful reverse neckbreaker.
[Best of the Best - Quarterfinals]:
Monty Brown pinned Elix Skipper after a reverse neckbreaker in 0:08:06.
Rating: *** 3/4
Perhaps this will teach Skipper to think before he speaks in the future (doubtful, but we can dream, can't we?) With this win, Monty Brown now moves on to the semi-finals where he will meet an old enemy of his, CM Punk.
As MNM continues to heat almost to a boil due to their inability to get Tommy Dreamer to commit to giving them their tag team title shot, they also have to deal with Rey Mysterio Jr. and Booker T, the make-shift team that has experienced a great deal of success in their short time as a team. The two teams were represented in singles action here as Mysterio took on Joey Mercury. The situation had all the makings of combusting with Booker T and Johnny Nitro down at ringside, but both men kept their distance and let the action play out in the ring. Mercury is talented, but he doesn't have the wealth of singles wrestling knowledge that Mysterio has. Mysterio is a former two-time Cruiserweight champion and a former Television champion, so he can get it done by himself. Mercury couldn't seem to keep up, but used cheap tactics to keep this even. The end of the match came when Mercury climbed to the top after hitting a beautiful tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on Mysterio, but the man from the 6-1-9 tripped him up and brought him down with a sick looking top-rope Frankensteiner. Mercury landed very awkwardly and Mysterio seemed a bit lost for a second before he made the cover and this came to an abrupt end.
Rey Mysterio Jr. pinned Joey Mercury after a top-rope Frankensteiner in 0:05:38.
Joey Mercury suffered a neck injury. He will be out for approximately 7 months.
Rating: ** 3/4
A replay was shown of the finish of this match, and Mercury landed squarely on his head and neck. Mercury had to be helped out of the ring by officials, and the early diagnosis is a severe neck injury. He should make a full recovery, but he is going to be out for several months. Where does this leave MNM?
Doug Williams and Paul Burchill, collectively known as Anarchy, were the guests on the goofiest ten minutes on television, Chuck Palumbo's Pizza Place. The Italian Stallion queried the British duo about their recent losing ways. Burchill said that this was merely a bump in the road. He said that Williams and himself were the two most gifted athletes to come out of the Commonwealth ever, and that they were merely having to adjust to the American style. Williams added, "If this were British style wrestling, we'd be taking out wankers left and right!" Palumbo wasn't exactly sure what a wanker was, but he let Anarchy know he would try to get that as a topping for a new pizza. Anarchy are so sure that their fortune is about to turn around that they actually volunteered to take on Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle next week. They're either both extremely stupid, or know something that we don't.
The worst kept secret in GCW right now is that Christopher Daniels is not at full strength, but he's too stubborn to take time off as he is the X champion. He has a title defense against Kid Kash at Best of the Best, but his first title defense was against the man who was but an eyelash away from being the first X champion himself, Shark Boy. Though overall Shark Boy's win/loss record in GCW has been below average, as of late he has pulled out some victories, most notably winning the now defunct Cruiserweight Title from Kid Kash. Combine that new confidence with Shark Boy's cult following and he is a threat to win any match. He certainly gave the Fallen Angel all he could handle and then some, even almost hitting the Dead Sea Drop, but Daniels countered out of it and hit a vicious looking screwdriver to retain his title.
Christopher Daniels pinned Shark Boy after a screwdriver in 0:06:05.
Rating: ****
(Christopher Daniels retained the GCW X Title.)
It was more challenging than Daniels would have liked, but a successful title defense none the less. He's going to need to be on top of his game at Best of the Best.
The crowd was split on who to cheer for in this, our final quarterfinal match in the tournament. They didn't seem to care if it was Chris Benoit or Rob Van Dam - they just knew they were in for one helluva match. Often times in wrestling, you don't get to see a good clean match because with as much money and pride as there is at stake, you'll see outside interference or cheap tactics used in order to get the win. You'd see none of that here though - just two guys at the top of their game doing whatever it took to win a wrestling match. RVD's unorthodox style was a big factor in this match as his variety of kicks did a great job of keeping Benoit at bay, because as we all know, if the Crippler can get his hands on you, it can be over just like that. Benoit needed to ground RVD, and he did so by using a variety of suplexes and submission holds. Many of the submissions Benoit got on may have made other men submit, but RVD is about as flexible as they come which helped him in withstanding the pain of being stretched. Benoit had old Mo on his side when he hit the rolling German suplexes on the Whole F' Show, but he failed to capitalize when he missed the swandive headbutt. RVD quickly followed with Rolling Thunder, but Benoit showed his experience by getting his foot across the bottom rope before the three. RVD uncharacteristically lost his cool, as he's about as mellow as they come under normal circumstances. This momentary lapse in judgment allowed Benoit to lock him in the Crippler Crossface, but RVD held on and got himself to the ropes. Benoit went for a snap suplex, but RVD countered by driving Benoit into the turnbuckle and hitting a springboard back kick on the Crippler before hitting the Five Star Frog Splash for the win.
[Best of the Best - Quarterfinals]:
Rob Van Dam pinned Chris Benoit with the Five Star Frog Splash in 0:11:47.
Rating: ****
It was a shame that one man had to lose this match. Benoit was upset, but he did shake RVD's hand after the match as a sign of respect. This rounds out the semi-finals for Best of the Best. It will be Rob Van Dam vs. Lance Storm in the upper bracket and Monty Brown vs. CM Punk in the lower bracket.
Randy Orton was backstage with Maria before our main event. Now the Randy Orton of old would have been hitting on Maria and making all kinds of lewd innuendos and gestures, but not here. Orton seems so distant anymore - he's cold and he's calculated. He had some sinister words for Abyss. "Every time fight with you, Abyss, I love it. I love inflicting pain upon you, and you want to know something? I'm even starting to like having pain inflicted on me a little bit." Not the normal fare from Orton, but you can't consider a guy who willingly wants to wrestle Abyss normal, now can you? "Like I said before, it's not just about beating you, Abyss. No, it's so much more than that. I want to HURT you. I want to CRIPPLE you. And that's exactly what I'm going to do." Orton told Abyss that he wanted him in a GCW first, an Ambulance Match, at Best of the Best - the only way to win is to incapacitate your opponent to the point where they cannot defend themselves and shove them in the back of an ambulance. With the way these two fight, the only way to stop it at this point is for one man to be sent to the hospital, so this is perfect.
Main event time, and we saw a rare defense of the World Heavyweight Title on Explosion as Lesnar defended the gold against Edge. A week ago, Kurt Angle defeated Edge's cohort Lance Storm to take the North American Title, but Edge was looking to bring some gold back home to he and his brothel. Before the match began we received word from the back that Tommy Dreamer had once again banned the Corporation from ringside, which they surprisingly had no problems with. My guess is that they were content staying in the back because if Brock Lesnar loses the World Title to Edge, he will no longer be defending it at Best of the Best in the tag match against the World's Greatest Tag Team.
The match itself was a good one and featured ten minutes of great action. Lesnar had little to no problem in the early going, bouncing Edge around the ring like a basketball. No problem for Edge though as every time he would get knocked down by Lesnar, the Rated R Superstar would roll to the outside where Lita and Mickie James would tend to his aching muscles with a shoulder rub. It was getting so ridiculous that Edge went to the outside after a standard collar-and-elbow tieup to get tended to by his brothel. Lesnar was tired of playing around though as he went to the floor and tossed Edge back in. Edge stomped away at the champ though as he reentered the ring. From there Edge went to work on Lesnar's arm, doing everything he could to incapacitate it. Lesnar has surreal power and Edge's goal was to take away one of his arms, thus limiting his ability to hit those power moves. The strategy was effective. Lesnar would get his offense in, but you could tell his arm was hurting and thus the moves didn't have the impact they usually do. Edge did everything right in this match, but Lesnar showed how good he is by fighting back after countering the Spear with a huge boot to the head. The F-5 would soon follow, and the World Heavyweight Title stayed right where it was.
Brock Lesnar pinned Edge with the F-5 in 0:10:02.
Rating: *** 1/2
(Brock Lesnar retained the GCW World Heavyweight Title.)
Brock Lesnar had his troubles, but he looked strong going into Best of the Best. Edge may not have won, but he impressed. And, lucky for him, he's going to get "taken care of" by Lita and Mickie James tonight if you know what I mean.
Be sure to join us next week for Explosion. Already scheduled is Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle teaming up to take on Anarchy, and we will have a preview of the semi-finals of the Best of the Best as Rob Van Dam and Monty Brown team to take on Lance Storm and CM Punk.
Updated card for Best of the Best, December 18, 2005, from the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire:
All Titles Match - Brock Lesnar (World Heavyweight champion)/Kurt Angle (North American champion) vs. The World's Greatest Tag Team (World Tag Team champions)
If either member of the WGTT is pinned or submits, Lesnar and Angle are the World Tag Team champions. If Lesnar or Angle is pinned or submits, whomever took the fall will lose their title to whomever got the fall.
Best of the Best Semi-Finals - Lance Storm vs. Rob Van Dam
Best of the Best Semi-Finals - CM Punk vs. Monty Brown
Best of the Best Finals - TBD vs. TBD
Ambulance Match - Abyss vs. Randy Orton
X Title Match - "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels (c) vs. Kid Kash
Booker T/Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. MNM
"The Manbeast" Rhyno vs. Bobby Lashley