The rise of John Cena & Batista, ECW returns, and much more! Steve Cook’s journey comes to 2005–see what stood out from that year!

As I look back on it now, 2005 has to be one of my favorite years as a wrestling fan.

There was a lot going on. 411mania gave me a weekly news column slot, which might not sound like a big deal to you as a modern-day reader. You have to know that writers that got a weekly news column slot included the late, great Chris Hyatte, my main man Joshua Grutman, Eric S., Stephen Randle, Flea, the late, great Larry Csonka, the legend Ashish & many other icons of what I do. Getting invited to that club was not something I took lightly. Even if there was no added value to my bank account, getting a news report slot on 411 was higher ground. It gave you more eyeballs, it gave you influence. I’m not saying I had as much influence as the men I mentioned above, but it meant I was in some high cotton.

It meant I had to be on my A game, and pay attention to everything going on. This coincided with my attending more wrestling shows. My real life BFF wanted to go to ROH shows in Dayton, Ohio, and I was all about it. I had heard a ton about ROH, being on the Internet and knowing people that talked endlessly about it, and once somebody else I knew wanted to go, it sounded good to me. I had previously doubted ROH due to their “lol I’ll pretend you said 18” owner, but he was out of the picture at this point. It was good for me to see a lot of the top indy stars before they became famous, and to expand my horizons and find wrestling outside of what I watched on television.

2005 was a fun year. Let’s look back at 5 memories…

5. Back to the Extreme

Extreme Championship Wrestling went out of business in early 2001. WWE purchased most everything associated with it afterwards, and used the video library and interviews with their employees to make “The Rise & Fall of ECW” DVD. The success that the DVD saw on the sales charts wasn’t expected. People clearly still had an Extreme appetite.

So it was only a matter of time before WWE brought the ECW brand back. It was going to be a One Night Stand in the Hammerstein Ballroom. It was presented completely differently than the product WWE was doing at the time, and held true to the original ECW experience. Many of the old ECW stars were there, along with the WWE employees that had worked in ECW in the past. Of course some of the WWE folks that didn’t work for ECW came in so they could be the heels and get their butts kicked at the end of the show.

It was a busy weekend for former ECW stars. Shane Douglas ran his own ECW reunion show at the bingo hall in Philly on the same weekend, and Hardcore Homecoming did big business in its own right. Good times for ECW wrestlers & fans in 2005. Things would take a turn.

4. Cena & Batista Anointed

Last week, we mentioned that WrestleMania XX’s ending moments involved the champions of the brands, people that Internet fans had got behind for ages. We’re not allowed to remember it now. We should be allowed to remember the conclusion of WrestleMania 21, though I’m not sure we are. It varies from day to day.

WrestleMania 21 went Hollywood, which resulted in some entertaining commercials, but also resulted in some crownings. First of all, everybody tried to tell me that Shawn Michaels & Kurt Angle had the best match of all time. Bobby Heenan told me so. I’ve never seen it that way, but I won’t deny Bobby Heenan his opinion. And a lot of people in 2005 were in his corner on that one.

The show was all about anointing the two men that would lead brands forever more. John Cena had a shitty match with JBL. I won’t blame anybody for it, but it was a less than desirable coronation of a future Goliath. All I can say for sure is that the fans were less than impressed with a guy that would carry the company for a decade then become a successful actor. I could say that was because JBL sucked and couldn’t even put over anybody in a positive fashion, but that wouldn’t be nice. I just remember John Cena’s coronation for his first WWE Championship reign being less than satisfying.

Fortunately, that didn’t go on last. Batista won the Royal Rumble and challenged fellow Evolution member Triple H for the World Championship, and it was everything we hoped it would be. Triple H did not want to face Batista, for obvious reasons. He wanted Big Dave to go over to SmackDown and challenge the Honky Ton-err I mean JBL instead. That didn’t happen. Batista chose to kick Triple H’s ass instead, and we all appreciated it.

Just based off of this show, you would have thought Batista would carry WWE into the next decade. That didn’t happen. Batista was very injury prone, which I think halted his wrestling career more than anything else. Fans loved him, but he always got hurt. Cena was less injury prone and became the guy. Both are doing pretty well these days and seem like good people. More power to them.

3. The Edge/Lita/Matt Stuff

Matt Hardy & Lita had been an item as long as any wrestling fan could remember. At least back to when Lita debuted alongside the Hardy Boyz. They had some ups & downs on-screen, but fans pretty much assumed those two crazy kids would be together forever. Then Lita & Edge got injured right around the same time. They needed something to do while Matt Hardy was off on the road, so, well, they did each other?

Can I even say that in 2020? Probably not, but that’s what happpened. Lita cheated on Matt with Edge, Matt talked about it on the Internet and people like me were really interested. I mean, is there anything better for a “wrestling news reporter” in their early 20s to have an excuse to talk about than who’s sleeping with who? Oh, it was cat nip! Such drama! The problem Matt ran into with WWE: they didn’t want him talking about this stuff online. It became a distraction, getting Lita heel heat while she was supposed to be the face in a feud with Trish Stratus. WWE’s reaction to this whole scenario was to fire Matt Hardy.

The Internet did not approve. From what we could tell, Matt was the wronged party in the situation. He was the one that got cheated on, and he got fired? Didn’t make much sense to most of us. From WWE’s persepective, Matt had been unprofessional by taking the matter to the Internet. Also, quite frankly, WWE saw more money in Edge than Matt. They saw more money in Lita than in Matt. Had Matt been the big draw of the trio, they wouldn’t have fired him. He wasn’t, so they did.

Matt did get his job back. Fans rebelled against the decision by WWE & Matt Hardy became a bigger deal during this period of time than he had ever been by himself. The only downside? ROH fans in Dayton booed Matt during his match with Homicide because he was already back with WWE. Some “We Want Edge” chants, some “We Want Jeff” chants. Probably a minor inconvenience for Matt compared to getting his job back. Oh, and the whole getting his heart ripped out of his chest thing.

Did he ever find somebody else? I should probably look into that.

2. Death of Latino Heat

There was a point where we wouldn’t have been surprised by Eddie Guerrero dying at a young age. That time had passed by November 2005. By then, Eddie had cleaned himself up & reached the potential people thought he had in the ring and out. He’d become a world champion wrestler, a good husband & father, just an all around good guy. While being one of the most entertaining bad guys in wrestling.

Even when booked as a good guy! Eddie lied, cheated and stole, but it was the Guerrero way and he was honest about it. Eddie had an emotional feud with Rey Mysterio throughout 2005, then spent the last couple of months trying to be Batista’s friend. Surely, Eddie would have turned against Big Dave eventually. He didn’t get the chance, as he passed away in a hotel room in Minnesota on a day where (depending who you believe and what story they’re telling this week) he could have become a world champion again.

Life isn’t fair.

Eddie’s passing led to the beginning of WWE’s Wellness Policy, which has certainly had its lowpoints but overall has done the job of keeping wrestlers alive for longer periods of time. If there’s one positive to take away from the whole thing, it’s that.

1. History Made in Dayton

I mentioned the ROH shows I went to earlier. The first one I attended was in February, the second part of ROH’s Third Anniversary Celebration. AJ Styles made his big return to ROH after TNA had pulled him & others from their shows due to the Rob Feinstein situation. It also saw the return of Brian Kendrick & debut of James Gibson, both of whom had been released by WWE. The second show in May saw a cage match between Bryan Danielson & Homicide that probably featured the longest airplane spin I’d seen at that point.

August brought us a pretty big piece of business. It was the Summer of Punk, and CM was on his way out of Ring of Honor while still holding their championship. ROH fans had forgotten what a snake in the grass Punk was during his time as a good guy, and were begging to see him dethroned. As it turned out, Dayton fans were the ones lucky enough to see it in person.

It was a four-way elimination match pitting Punk against Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels & James Gibson. Very long, guess they were working the time limit draw idea. I have no idea how well it holds up now, but I loved it live. Gibson would have been my last choice to beat Punk since he was leaving for WWE as well, but at least he got the belt over to Bryan Danielson.

I don’t know where the ROH Championship ranks now among wrestling titles. All I know it is at the time it was a thrill to see it change hands live. Especially with that cad CM Punk losing. Oh, how I hated that guy at the time.

I wonder whatever happened to him…