Brand of the Year: 2004

[D-Will316]

Part 2! I'm on a role

Ahhh 2004 the year I started watching let's begin.

Raw

Triple H walked in 2004 with the WHC Championship continuing his feud with Shawn Michaels.

Chris Benoit won the Royal Rumble and drafted himself to Raw, main eventing with Triple H and Shawn Michaels and won his first World Heavyweight Championship!!!!

The Rock returns to aid Mick Foley in his battle with evolution, having his last match at Wrestlemania 20.

Evolution started to disband. Randy Orton became the youngest WHC Champion in history at SummerSlam.

Edge returned and won the tag titles with Chris Benoit.

Matt Hardy/Kane/Lita storyline

Introduction of Taboo Tuesday, a fan interactive PPV.

Shelton Benjamin gets 3 victories over Triple H.

Randy Orton, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Maven gained control of Raw for a month.

There was no World Heavyweight Champion at the end of 2004

WHC Title changed hands 3 times this year.

Chris Benoit def. Triple H(c) and Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 20
Randy Orton def. Chris Benoit(c) at SummerSlam
Triple H def. Randy Orton(c) at Unforgiven
(vacated) after Triple H(c), Chris Benoit, Edge controversial ending to triple threat match on Raw

Smackdown

Brock Lesnar enters 2004 as WWE Champion.

Eddie Guerrero wins his first ever WWE Championship!!!!!

The Undertaker returns with his DeadMan gimmick feuding with Kane, JBL, Booker T, Paul Heyman, and The Dudley Boys.

JBL wins the WWE Championship and has the longest reign in Smackdown history(and he never let's us forget that.) being in feuds with The Undertaker, Eddie Guerrero, and Booker T. He also formed The Cabinet with Orlando Jordan, Jillian Hall, and The Basham Brothers.

Best of 5 series between Booker T and John Cena for the United States Championship.

JBL left 2004 WWE Champion.

WWE Title changed hands 2 times this year.

Eddie Guerrero def. Brock Lesnar(c) at No Way Out
JBL def. Eddie Guerrero(c) at The Great American Bash

Well in your opinion which brand was better in 2004?​

I gave the nod to Smackdown for 2003 but Raw really had me intriuged more, but not by much because JBL was very entertaining to me so the red team gets my vote.

 

[TheDoctor]

RAW definitely wins this one, no question. HHH-Benoit, the Rise of Orton and Edge, and the vacated title at the end of the year were all awesome.

All SmackDown had was the Booker-Cena best of 5, which felt cheap if you ever saw Booker-Benoit best of 7 in WCW. JBL as champ made me NOT watch, just read spoilers and hope someone beat him for the title.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Smackdown! was rapped in 2004 so its almost by default RAW won. Smackdown! had JBL as champion which didn't work very well since his push at the time felt forced and his matches were average at best.

RAW was better but it wasn't great. It started out well in the first 7 months with Benoit as Champion and Orton and Foley's feud. But once Summer Slam ended Benoit was pushed down in the midcard and Orton's failed face turn happened. The last 4 to 5 months of RAW was pretty much an Evolution Orgy fest with Benoit, Jericho, and Edge used as fillers.

 

[darbare]

both were good in 2004, but RAW was clearly the top show....RAW was must-see imo....Evolution was running wild in 2004....Triple H vs Benoit vs HBK was the main event at Mania and was the best match.....Benoit was finally given the title....Orton was on fire, and although his face turn failed he still became the youngest world champ ever.....Edge turned into a crazy heel that was obsessed over the title....hell even Eugene was interesting at points....we also got an outstanding iron man match between Benoit and Triple H....Kane was an absolute freak and hated him for his storyline with Lita and making her pregnant....Batista started to become super-over....the only thing SD! had was Eddie....with Brock leaving though he was pushed to the main event, as well as JBL....JBL had a great but overhyped WWE title run....it was long but only got better in the beginning of 2005....storylines were just better on RAW...the only thing I can think of that was interesting on SD! was the feud between Eddie and JBL....the roster was just plain better on RAW...you had Evolution, Kane, Jericho, Edge, Christian, Shelton, Lita, Trish....they had better PPVs....SD PPV's sucked horribly that year where was even a main event with Undertaker vs The Dudleys in what was probably the most confusing storyline in recent memory....Undertaker came back but his look wasnt all there yet....lots of lower card talent and jobbers filled up SD! the cruiserweight division was dying down with guys like Spike Dudley and Funaki winning the title....Kurt Angle and Eddie pretty much saved SD! that year....

 

[McCoy]

Part 2! I'm on a role


JBL wins the WWE Championship and has the longest reign in Smackdown history(and he never let's us forget that.) being in feuds with The Undertaker, Eddie Guerrero, and Booker T. He also formed The Cabinet with Orlando Jordan, Jillian Hall, and The Basham Brothers.


.

Jillian Hall was never part of the cabinet it was some other girl cant think of her name, but yea jillian wasnt hired by jbl until late 2005 or early 2006.

But yea raw wins hands down although that was the year eddie won the title on smackdown but over on raw you had hhh, hbk, and benoit later on continuing wth hhh nd beniot which envolved eugene, and hbk and hhh with that magnicent episode where hhh was looking for hbk all night (ahhh those were the days) you had the rock coming back a couple of times. Also edge nd benoit teaming up, orton winning the world title which led to him and his departure from evolution (but unfournately all of the momentum he had was killed and buried along with him by hhh). Also The title being vacated, but without a shadow of a doubt raw was the "brand of the year" in 2004.

 

[Dimice121976]

Its hard to say, Summerslam 2004 was suppose to be very different from what it ended up being on both brands. On the raw side Benoit was originally suppose to defend the belt against Hirohito (Kenzuke Sensaki). They were starting to air promos for his debut, and thats when Benoit, Jericho, & Christian started getting billed from the U.S. Hirohito was suppose to be a big anti-U.S. guy much like Hassan ended up being, getting pushed into the main event of Summerslam.

An excerpt from 2004: "The word from backstage is that Kenzo and Hiroko Suzuki talked Vince McMahon into nixing the Hirohito gimmick due to the potential backlash it would have with WWE's loyal Japanese fans. WWE makes a lot of money off its tours to the region, and offending them with such a gimmick would not be worth it.

Suzuki will now likely move to SmackDown, although, was originally scheduled to be in RAW's main-event in a title feud with Benoit.

Some sources claim that this was a thoroughly-planned angle by WWE, and Benoit and Jericho were announced as being from the US to create US vs. Japan feuds with Hirohito. Both men were expected to work high-profile feuds with Suzuki's Hirohito character, although plans have been scrapped. It is not known how highly he'll be pushed on SmackDown"

So the question would be, if the angle had happened what would Summerslam been on the Raw side and what would of trickled down from it for the rest of the year.

On the Smackdown side, Undertaker was originally suppose to head into Summerslam 2004 and face Mordecai.
An excerpt from 2004:"In late April 2004, Fertig was called up to the SmackDown! brand with vignettes playing on the show announcing his new character, Mordecai, a religious Zealot-type character, which was partially based on his previous Seven gimmick. During numerous promos, Mordecai claimed to be on a crusade to rid the world of sin. He constantly wore white and had blonde hair and a beard as a sign of his purity. Mordecai debuted in ring for the SmackDown! brand on May 16, 2004 during the Judgment Day pay-per-view, defeating Scotty 2 Hotty. In later appearances, Mordecai condemned the audience for their sins, and led them in prayer.
In early July, however, the gimmick was dropped and Fertig was sent back to OVW for more training. Fertig's return to OVW was also due to his involvement in a bar fight, and subsequent impending lawsuits meant that WWE decided to take Fertig off television"

So with both of these huge angles scrapped it makes you have to wonder what would of been in 2004 if they were not.