Taboo Tuesday 2004: A Clever Fan-Voting Experiment Gets Buried Under a Brutal Middle Hour

Benjamin winning the fan vote gives the opener an immediate sense of possibility that a normal announced title match would not have. Jericho and Benjamin wrestle like two babyfaces discovering the match in real time, using athletic counters and clean near falls rather than manufactured hatred. Benjamin's leaping clothesline and superplex create the strongest momentum changes, while Jericho's Lionsault and Walls tease make the champion feel dangerous without dominating. The finish is excellent: Benjamin catches Jericho coming out of the corner and lands the T-Bone Suplex for a clean championship win. Jericho handing over the belt and shaking Benjamin's hand adds genuine weight. The match is not a classic, but the result and atmosphere make it feel bigger than its eleven-minute runtime.

The battle royal is designed around the voted schoolgirl outfits first and wrestling second, which limits how seriously any of the actual eliminations can be taken. The match moves quickly and avoids becoming a long disaster, but most of the action is hair pulling, awkward kicking, and brief elimination setups. Victoria and Molly Holly provide the cleanest wrestling, while Stacy Keibler receives the loudest reaction for reasons unrelated to match quality. Trish survives by eliminating Molly after Molly removes Stacy, retaining the title in under six minutes. There is almost no championship drama and little room for anyone to build momentum. As a snapshot of WWE's 2004 treatment of the women's division, it is revealing. As a pay-per-view match, it is poor.

Kane and Snitsky try to turn the fan-selected chain into the center of a violent grudge match, but fourteen minutes exposes too many limitations. The early chain punches and choking establish the stipulation, then the pace slows into repetitive power offense that rarely builds toward a larger idea. Kane's comeback briefly gives the crowd something to follow before Snitsky shifts to the steps and a steel chair, even though the chain is the voted weapon. The finishing image of Snitsky jumping onto the chair wrapped around Kane's throat is memorable and appropriately vicious for the feud. It cannot rescue the preceding match. The performers sell the hatred, but the structure is too slow and the storyline surrounding them has aged especially badly.

Eugene versus Bischoff is barely a wrestling match and is better understood as setup for the fan-selected humiliation afterward. Bischoff throws weak kicks, fakes an injury, and takes a few simple comeback moves before Eugene finishes him with a leg drop in roughly two minutes. Nothing about the bell-to-bell action creates tension because the real attraction is discovering whether Bischoff will be shaved, forced into a dress, or made Eugene's servant. The crowd enjoys the eventual haircut once Vince McMahon arrives, but that post-match comedy lasts far longer than the contest itself. Scoring only the wrestling leaves almost nothing to reward. The segment has storyline purpose; the match has virtually no competitive substance.

The tag-title match becomes much better once Edge's frustration with losing the fan vote turns into action. Before the walkout, Benoit and Edge work a conventional but solid tag structure against Conway and Grenier, with enough quick tags and physical control to establish the champions. Then Edge abandons Benoit, and the match suddenly gains a clear story. Benoit's comeback against both opponents creates the best sustained crowd reaction of the middle card because every German suplex and Crossface feels like an act of survival. He finally forces Conway to submit and wins both tag belts for the team without Edge's help. The champions look weaker than ideal, but the angle and comeback are strong enough to make the match memorable.

The Pillow Fight offers almost nothing that can be evaluated as professional wrestling. The fan vote selects lingerie over an Evening Gown match or Aerobics Challenge, the competitors spend more time changing clothes and playing to the presentation than establishing any competitive structure, and the actual match lasts under two minutes. Pillows, feathers, a brief catfight, and a simple pin are the entire bell-to-bell story. Neither woman is positioned to demonstrate meaningful wrestling skill, so the segment functions as spectacle aimed at the 2004 audience rather than an athletic contest. The extremely short runtime keeps it from damaging the show for long, but that is the only positive from a match-quality perspective. It is among the weakest PPV matches of the year.

Michaels enters with a legitimate knee injury, and Triple H wisely makes that weakness the entire match. The champion attacks the leg with stomps, stretches, and a long Figure Four, forcing Michaels to build his comeback around survival instead of speed. Michaels' selling carries the middle and makes each attempt at Sweet Chin Music feel dangerous because planting on the damaged leg could fail. The match becomes hottest when Michaels finally hits the superkick, only for Batista to distract the referee and Edge to return unexpectedly with a Spear. Triple H crawls into the cover and retains. The interference cheapens the result, but it also advances Edge's heel turn. Fourteen minutes of focused psychology make this one of the show's strongest matches.

Orton and Flair close with a compact cage fight that understands the rivalry is about respect rather than escape mechanics. Flair attacks with chops, low blows, and repeated cage shots, opening Orton early and forcing the younger wrestler to survive a rough veteran performance. Orton answers by sending Flair into the steel and leaning into the bloodier atmosphere, which finally makes the event feel like it has reached a true main event. Flair's brass-knuckles near fall is the best false finish, and the final chair attempt gives Orton the opening for the RKO. Ten minutes is enough because the match never runs out of story. The handshake and embrace afterward provide a clean emotional conclusion without undoing the violence that preceded them.