WWE Judgment Day (2005)

Background in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Judgment Day was first held by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as the 25th In Your House pay-per-view (PPV) in October 1998. It then returned in May 2000 as its own event, establishing Judgment Day as the promotion's annual May PPV. The 2005 event was the seventh Judgment Day and was held on May 22 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Like the previous year's event, it featured wrestlers exclusively from the SmackDown! brand. Storylines The event featured seven professional wrestling matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the SmackDown! brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television show, SmackDown!. The main event at Judgment Day was between John Cena and John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) over the WWE Championship in an "I Quit" match. The previous month at WrestleMania 21, Cena defeated JBL to win the WWE Championship. On the April 7 episode of SmackDown!, SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long scheduled a series of number one contenders matches, after JBL, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Big Show, Booker T, and Kurt Angle all demanded a WWE Championship match. The first match that Long announced was between JBL and Rey Mysterio. Angle advanced to the finals, as he went on to defeat Guerrero. JBL won the match, after he last eliminated Angle and having the right to face Cena at Judgment Day for the WWE Championship. On the May 5 episode of SmackDown!, Cena proposed that he would defend the championship against JBL in an "I Quit" match. He also told JBL "I am gonna beat the hell of you for everything that I stand for", and ends the segment by saying "The last two words to come out of your pathetic mouth will be I Quit". Two weeks later, on the May 19 episode, JBL faced Scotty 2 Hotty, which Scotty won after JBL was disqualified. After the match, however, JBL attacked Scotty and demanded that he say "I quit." JBL continued the assault, choking him with a leather belt, Scotty said "I quit." That same night, Cena defeated The Basham Brothers (Doug Basham and Danny Basham) in a handicap match. In the weeks that followed, Guerrero and Mysterio were challenged by MNM (Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro, and Melina) to defend the WWE Tag Team Championship, which Guerrero and Mysterio accepted. MNM defeated Guerrero and Mysterio to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. On the April 28 episode of SmackDown!, Guerrero and Mysterio were given a rematch for the WWE Tag Team Championship. During the match, however, Mysterio accidentally performed a flying body press on Guerrero which led to Guerrero abandoning Mysterio, but returned as the fans urged Guerrero to come back. The other featured preliminary match was Kurt Angle versus Booker T in a singles match. On the April 28 episode of SmackDown!, Angle, Booker T, Big Show and JBL took part in a fatal four-way match to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship, which JBL won. During the match, Angle hit Booker T with a steel chair to eliminate him. Booker came back and hit Angle with a chair to cause him to be eliminated. The following week, Angle challenged Booker T to a match at Judgment Day, which Booker accepted. Prior to that, Angle had insulted Booker T's wife, Sharmell, which led to Booker T attacking and accepting Angle's challenge. On the May 12 episode of SmackDown!, Angle admitted he would like to have "perverted sex" with Sharmell. That same night, Angle and Booker T were scheduled in a match, which led to Angle leaving the ring and going backstage to Sharmell. Booker T went backstage and found Sharmell on the floor crying. This led to Angle attacking Booker T from behind and pushing him towards a pair of steel lockers. The following week, Long suspended Angle and demanded that Angle apologize for his actions. Angle apologized, but admitted that he actually kissed Sharmell and let her fondle his "private parts" before Booker T made his way to the locker room. Booker T, while watching the interview kicked a television monitor down and broke it. ==Event==

Before the Judgment Day event aired live on pay-per-view, Nunzio defeated Akio in a match that aired on Sunday Night Heat. Preliminary matches After Sunday Night Heat, the pay-per-view began with a tag team match where MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro) (with Melina) defended the WWE Tag Team Championship against the team of Hardcore Holly and Charlie Haas. The match started off with Nitro and Haas in the ring. Haas took the advantage in the match and was able to tag in Holly. There was back and forth action between the two teams, as all of the superstars were able to participate in the match. After a Snapshot to Haas, Mercury pinned Haas, which resulted in MNM retaining the tag team titles. The second wrestling match on the pay-per-view was Big Show versus Carlito, who was accompanied by Matt Morgan. For the duration of the match, Big Show used his body size to his advantage as he squashed, or easily and quickly performed moves on Carlito. The momentum changed, when Carlito gained control part way through the match. In the end, Big Show accidentally whipped Carlito into the referee. This saw Carlito hit a low blow on Big Show. Carlito won the match and gained the successful pinfall after Morgan delivered an F-5 to Big Show. ==Reception==

The Target Center had a maximum capacity of 20,000, which was reduced for the event. This event grossed over $500,000 from an approximate attendance of 9,500, the maximum allowed. It also received 220,000 pay-per-view buys. The "I Quit" match between John Cena and JBL was rated an eight out of 10 stars. ==Aftermath==

On the June 6 episode of Raw, John Cena's SmackDown! tenure came to an end when he became the first wrestler selected by Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff in the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery. Cena immediately entered a feud with Eric Bischoff after when he refused to participate in Bischoff's "war" against the upcoming Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) reunion show. During the feud, Chris Jericho was involved as well, as he protested Bischoff's actions of scheduling a WWE Championship match between Cena and Christian at Vengeance. After Cena and Jericho defeated Christian and Tyson Tomko in a tag team match, Jericho betrayed Cena. Convinced with the outcome of the events, Bischoff changed the original match between Christian and Cena to a triple threat match, involving Jericho for the WWE Championship at Vengeance. On the June 30 episode of SmackDown!, a match between six wrestlers for a new top-tier SmackDown! championship was held, featuring John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL), Christian, Booker T, Chris Benoit, The Undertaker and Muhammad Hassan. JBL, one of the participants, was victorious in the match, but Theodore Long announced that he was still not the champion. Instead he had won the right to a match against the World Heavyweight champion, Batista, who was SmackDown!'s final 2005 draft pick, making the World Heavyweight Championship exclusive to SmackDown!. The following week, it was announced Batista would meet JBL at The Great American Bash with the World Heavyweight championship on the line. At the Great American Bash, Batista was disqualified for attacking JBL with a chair and JBL was declared the winner. In WWE, a title cannot be won by disqualification, but only by pinfall or submission. As a result, Batista retained the title. On the June 13 episode of Raw, Kurt Angle's tenure with SmackDown! came to an end, as he was also drafted to the Raw brand. At the Great American Bash, Mysterio defeated Guerrero in a match where if Guerrero lost, he could not reveal the secret. The storyline also went on that Guerrero knew Mysterio was having trouble starting his own family, so Guerrero left Dominik to be raised by Mysterio's family. This led to a Ladder match, a match where the objective was to climb a ladder and reach an object hanging above the ring, between the two for the custody of Dominik at SummerSlam, which Mysterio won. ==Results==

WWE Championship #1 Contender's Tournament bracket ==Notes==