No Way Out 2005 Review

Match #1 – WWE Tag Team Championships

Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio vs The Bashams

JBL’s secretaries of defense take on two of Smackdown’s most popular superstars in the opener. Mysterio takes much of the offense from the Basham Bros (who amazingly aren’t actually brothers), as they isolate him from Eddie. Eddie gets the hot tag to a huge pop and cleans house. Eddie tricks one of the Bashams into thinking he’s knocked out and nearly gets the rollup win. Eddie brings one of the titles into the ring and throws it to Basham. The ref takes it and while he’s removing it, Rey slides the other title in, allowing Eddie to use it on Basham and get the win. This is an extremely fun match! Crowd was hot for it too.

Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie come out for a Rookie Diva Evening Gown contest. 3 women that I don’t think lasted more than 3 months in WWE and Michelle McCool come out. They pose in the ring and then the segment just ends. Apparently there’s going to be more rounds of this.

Match #2

Heidenreich vs Booker T

Booker gets his usual offense but Heidenreich begins beating him down. I wouldn’t consider this a bad match but I wouldn’t go raving about it either. Just very basic, which doesn’t really bother me, however I also have extremely lower standards when it comes to wrestling. I also love Booker T. Booker and Hedeinreich fight outside the ring and Heidenreich hits Booker in the throat with a steel chair. Then, even though the match is over by DQ, Heidenreich rolls him in the ring and pins him to put over the ‘crazy’ gimmick. Not really terrible or anything but also pretty skippable.

Backstage John Cena congratulates Eddie & Rey on their win and those two, Hardcore Holly, Charlie Haas and Scotty 2 Hotty wish him luck. Eddie pulls Cena over to the side and gives him a pep talk. He tells Cena no matter how hard Angle applies the ankle lock, don’t give up. He says Angle will get frustrated, make mistakes and that’s where Cena can capitalize. And to this very day, John Cena has not tapped out since this promo. I kid you not.

Match #3 – Cruiserweight Championship Gauntlet match

Funaki (c) vs Akio vs Paul London vs Shannon Moore vs Spike Dudley vs Chavo Guerrero

Paul London and Funaki start off. An early distraction from Spike leads to London rolling up Funaki, eliminating the champion. Spike gets into the match and Funaki superkicks him behind the ref’s back, eliminating him as well. Shannon Moore is in and goes out a few minutes later via Paul London’s 450 splash! Now it’s Akio, also remembered as Jimmy Wang Yang! London and Akio fight it out and London hits a neckbreaker off the ropes, keeping Akio down for a ten count. Just Chavo left. Chavo beats up London and keeps going for covers. Dragon Suplex from London! London goes for a rollup but Chavo rolls through and holds the ropes for the win. Pretty fun match despite not being anything too special.

Another rookie diva segment, this time the talent competition. One of them gives Torrie Wilson a massage, one tells terrible jokes, one dances. Dawn Marie saves this segment a little by talking a bunch of trash to each of them. Michelle McCool body slams Dawn Marie for her talent. Even without hindsight, Michelle McCool seemed 100x more comfortable than the rest of them in the ring/on the mic.

JBL vows that he will defeat Big Show in the main event and that his title reign is eternal.

Match #4

The Undertaker vs Luther Reigns (w/Mark Jindrak)

Mark Jindrak gets ejected from this match immediately after not listening to the referee. This match was really slow but without any kind of story or psychology to make the slowness worth it. Undertaker hits a chokeslam. Luther Reigns hits an early variation of the Cross Rhodes for two. Undertaker with a DDT and Tombstone for the win. Rough match that definitely went a little too long as well.

Final round of the rookie diva contest, the bikini round. Crowd is absolutely dead as each of them do their striptease thing. There’s one guy in the front row who’s reactions are definitely making it a bit more entertaining. The crowd seemed to give Michelle the best reaction but the internet voted 65% for Joy Giovonni. I’m not even going to mention here that this contest got three in ring segments on PPV yet Summer Rae has had one singles PPV match in her life and it got 3 minutes. Whoops, I may have just mentioned it.

Match #5 – Winner faces winner of JBL/Big Show at Wrestlemania for WWE Championship

John Cena vs Kurt Angle

Angle with a nasty German suplex into a turnbuckle early on. This is such a great match between these two. Angle beats the hell out of Cena with a lot of gritty strikes and wear-down submissions. As Cena starts to get back in it, Kurt goes right after the ankle and begins systematically destroying it. Kurt locks in the ankle lock and keeps pulling Cena back to the center. He even grapevines it. But Cena uses Eddie’s advice and manages to not tap out, power through, and get the ropes. Great bit of storytelling. The ref goes down and Angle tries to use Cena’s chain but Cena spears him into the corner and hits the F-U for the victory!

Match #6 – Barbed Wire Steel Cage for WWE Championship

John Bradshaw Layfield (c) vs Big Show

Big Show beats the living hell out of JBL for much of this one. Big Show gets busted open first but JBL ends up bleeding way more. Orlando Jordan and The Bashams come out with bolt cutters. Teddy Long kicks them out but JBL gets them and hits Big Show in the head. JBL hits a clothesline from hell for two. Big Show just barely kicks out. Bradshaw goes for another but Big Show catches him, hitting a chokeslam for a two count. JBL climbs the cage and tries to cut down the barbed wire. Big Show follows him up, standing on the ropes. Big Show chokeslams JBL off the ropes through the ring. Big Show takes his sweet time trying to leave the ring and doesn’t realize that JBL has rolled out from under the ring and has won the match! JBL retains despite going through twenty minutes of hell. This match has a bit of an old school feel to it that I really liked. Definitely not for everyone but I liked it.

After the match, JBL and The Cabinet beat down Big Show until Batista (who was choosing between Raw or Smackdown at the time because he won the Rumble) and John Cena came down and cleaned house.

Overall

I wouldn’t personally recommend this PPV as a whole. The opening tag match was extremely entertaining and Cena vs Angle was fantastic. The main event is going to be hit or miss depending on preferences and the rest of the show just didn’t do much. Plus three filler diva segments that went absolutely nowhere. I would highly recommend Eddie/Rey vs Bashams and Cena/Angle but not the whole show.