This Day In Wrestling History - July 11

Date: July 11, 2004 (10 years ago)

Feature: WWE's Vengeance PPV featured two big matches - Chris Benoit retaining the WWE World Title over Triple H in the main event and Edge capturing the Intercontinental Title from Randy Orton. Both went nearly 30 minutes in length.

Torch Newsletter Back-Issue: PWTorch Newsletter #817

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WWE VENGEANCE RESULTS (Raw-brand)
JULY 11, 2004
HARTFORD, CONN.
By Wade Keller, Torch editor

Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler introduced the show.

(1) Tajiri & Rhyno beat Coach & Garrison Cade when Tajiri pinned Coach at 7:29. Tajiri surprised Coach with a roundhouse kick to the head for the win. Solid opening action. (*1/4)

Ric Flair, Batista, and Orton were upset with Eugene being involved with Evolution. Hunter said he had a plan, but he was worried about where Eugene was. When he went looking, he saw Chris Benoit trying to convince Eugene that he is his friend and Evolution members are not. Eugene looked conflicted.

(2) Batista pinned Chris Jericho at 12:19. (**)

Eugene stormed into Evolution's locker room upset, but Hunter convinced him they were his friends. It helped when he gave him a blue sequined Ric Flair robe. Eugene was as happy as a dog being told he's about to go for a walk. Eugene strutted and whoo'd.

(3) La Resistance beat Eugene & Ric Flair via DQ at 12:28 to retain the World Tag Team Titles. Eugene wrestled the first half by imitating Flair as Flair reacted with disgust. Fun stuff that the crowd ate up. Then Flair tagged in and La Resistance worked him over for several minutes. In the end, after Conway took a cheap shot at Eugene by ramming him into the ringpost, Eugene snapped and attacked La Resistance. When the ref got in his way, Eugene shoved him for the DQ. Eugene gave La Resistance a Stunner, a Rock Bottom, and a People's Elbow. (**)

(4) Matt Hardy beat Kane at 10:29 in a No DQ match. Hardy charged the ring and got in some early offense, but Kane mostly dominated. Hardy made several attempts at comebacks, but they were thwarted by Kane each time. Finally Lita ran into the ring to beg Kane to not hit Hardy with the ring stairs. Hardy surprised Kane by ramming the chair into the stairs and thus into Kane's face for the KO, then scored the pin. Afterward, Hardy told Lita that she is pregnant with what may be his child, so she should stay away from his matches and stay away from him. Lita looked sad. The match told the story it needed to. Hardy looked like he had a fighting chance while still selling his underdog stature. (**)

(5) Edge pinned Randy Orton at 26:36 to capture the IC Title match. The opening 21 minutes was filled with about seven minutes worth of material stretched out thinly to fill time, including one headlock after another after another by Orton, with comeback teases by Edge. The story of the match was the crowd booing Edge and chanting for Orton from the start. Lawler and Ross had to acknowledge it. Eventually some Edge fans countered. Finally at 13:00 Orton told the crowd he didn't need their support. The final five minutes, though, were absolutely great with one convincing near fall after another. The final five minutes were four-stars-plus easily, but the rest really dragged it down. (**1/4)

(6) Victoria pinned Molly Holly at 6:15 in a no. 1 contender's match. Molly worked over Victoria's shoulder at ringside. Later when Victoria went for her Widow's Peak, she seemed to dislocate her shoulder, so she superkicked Molly instead for the win. She clutched at her arm all the way to the back. (*)

(7) Chris Benoit pinned Triple H to retain the World Hvt. Title. Good from the start, with some early teases by Benoit for the Crossface and suplex series. After he missed a top rope headbutt at 8:00, Hunter took control for ten minutes. Benoit applied a Sharpshooter at 17:45 for a nice submission tease. Then they went into the finishing sequence with Eugene. The match filled the 30 minutes really well, including a dramatic finish with Eugene involved. (****1/4)

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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