WWE Heat: 19 Best Of 2004

Process for those who didn't read the Velocity one: read each recap, throw the ones I liked into a notepad file, reorder constantly, debate having a whole block of women's matches down there, settle on a semi-order, opt to keep everything.

One match per matchup (so no repeats.) Any Heat is included, so there's an odd match from non-RAW people on here. I really didn't go out of my way to vote against all non-WWE guys here, but few of 'em stuck out when I was checking these over.

You may have different feelings about Val Venis and Steven Richards than I do. That is okay. I only defend this list as what I thought was were the best matches long after I've seen them and off the of my head; the differences are so minor, I'd probably come up with a different list if I redid this another day, or if I didn't just go thru everything sequentially.

Also, I missed the 09/19 show, so if Hurricane/Rosey vs Tajiri/Rhyno was any good, pretend it rounded this list out. And at some point, I lost my mind and decided just to be silly and have fun, as that's the Steven Richards presents Heat paradigm.

Here we go...

1) Dudley Boyz vs Val/Storm for a WM XX Tag Team Title Shot - 03/07
- bandaged and damaged Dudleyz sell the heck out of their injuries for as much drama as humanly possible, and it works a lot better with Storm and Val as slight heels than Jindrak/Cade in their place a couple weeks prior. I said at the time this play-in match was probably better than the 4 way it was building to, and I think I was right. Too bad they were completely incapable of getting Lance and Val over, because they can have good matches and such.

2) Chris Benoit vs Chuck Palumbo - 10/31
- Chuck Palumbo's greatest solo match ever? Quite possibly! Story Of The Match: Chuck Palumbo, given a chance, reinvents himself as an evil mechanic and attempts to prove his worth to the company by having a nine minute war with Chris Benoit. Chuck throws everything he's got at Benoit (except, sadly, his Evil Mechanic's Wrench), but Everything's not enough when you go to war against Chris Benoit. Chuck loses everything, and no Chuck Palumbo Evil Mechanic T-Shirts will be made. Bonus Credit for Chris Benoit deciding a never to be mentioned again match on Heat is worth a neck wrenching suicide dive. Love that man.

3) Tajiri vs Chuck Palumbo - 10/17
- knockout drag out brawl, here and on 07/04. They totally should've had a feud leading to street fights and Texas death matches and such based solely on the kick and punching of this one. The battling sections worked better here a better than it did in London/Akio, because even though those were more awing, it fit Chuck's character a lot more than it does London (and Tajiri > Akio). I have fonder memories of the July match, but the 10/17 sounds better and was a couple minutes longer, so I'll choose that one.

4) Steven Richards vs Chris Jericho - 09/05
- not only an awesome match, but the high water mark of the Mystery Woman angle. I actually thought Steven would beat Jericho! That's some pretty good work right there. Extra credit for Steven schooling Jericho on the pre-match promo; of course, Jericho knows better than to show up the boss on his show. Better than the 11/21 rematch.

Somewhere between here and 9, we cross over from "good matches" to "good Heat matches". So you know.

5) Val Venis vs Matt Hardy - 04/18
- pre-ppv match where the fans were behind Matt, so they jobbed him to Val and ticked off the crowd. They had been cheering him on Heat for a couple weeks already, so someone should've known better - the whole 'job a guy out before he switches sides' thing works in reverse now - and plus it's VAL VENIS (who is booked to lose to everyone worth pushing) and MATT HARDY (who should be worth pushing.) Match would have been fine if the crowd didn't hate the finish. This may be a spite pick.

6) the Hurricane vs Chuck Palumbo - 08/08
- Chuck breaks Hurricane's nose with a stomp; Hurricane decides a nose is overrated and works his way thru the rest of the match anyway. PESCADO! Hurricane was pretty crazy here, but I guess he figured he had a month of vacation coming up.

7) Billy Kidman & Akio vs Chavo Guerrero & Paul London - 12/12
- DON'T DROP THE VEST. Most of the time, pre-PPV Heat matches are disappointing because things don't click or they've only given them 90 seconds because they have to have the main video package (which ends after the PPV starts and doesn't make any sense) or the matchup just isn't sound. This was the rare time where the match exceeded expectations, down to the last guy you'd expect to get the win getting the win. I guess if you're going to give Akio a win a year, it might as well be in his home state. And since he never gets to go to Korea/Japan/whatever...

8) Val Venis vs Randy Orton - 05/02
- I believe this is the better of their two encounters (01/08) and Orton works well with Val, but marred by the way over done fake injury finish.

9) Molly Holly and Gail Kim vs Victoria and Nidia - 10/17
- For reasons besides the pre-match dance session, even. This was superior to the post-firing Molly/Jazz vs Victoria/Nidia match, because Gail brought something from the table and Jazz never seemed to develop as a wrestler. The 10/17 show, with an fine Shelton Benjamin/Steven Richards match, fits the bill as Best Heat Of 2004, despite somehow not including Val Venis.

10) Nidia vs Gail Kim - 09/26
- Nidia's greatest solo match ever? Gail Kim's greatest match ever? Quite possibly! Featuring the awesome payoff to Gail Kim going high risk and failing often - Gail Kim going high risk and failing ON PURPOSE. Someone needs to win the lottery and fund IWA-MS or WOW or something so I can get the rematch.

11) Trish Stratus vs Nidia - 05/30
- Nidia's second greatest solo match ever? Quite possibly! Better for Al getting ticked off at Coach for even joking about an improper relationship. I ended up not rating a lot of okay women's action because it didn't stick out as more than okay on the reread, but I remember this one being the first time I could imagine Nidia as a consistent good women's wrestler. Hasn't quite happened yet.

12) Randy Orton vs Rosey - 07/18
- Rosey's greatest solo match ever? Quite possibly! (Very slightly over the one with Robert Conway two weeks later, because Orton was high enough that he shouldn't be on Heat and Rosey almost looked competitive with him.) Which means he's not as good as Nidia, or Orton isn't as good as Trish.

13) Tyson Tomko vs Chris Benoit - 08/29
- Tyson Tomko's greatest solo match ever? Yea, duh. I wish Benoit would use that "I'm going German Suplex you again - hahano, CROSSFACE" spot more often. Rated so low because it was basically a variation on the standard 4 minute match with an extra cool spot or two.

14) Chad Collyer vs Val Venis - 12/19
- Chad Collyer's greatest solo match ever? hahaha no.

15) Rodney Mack vs Val Venis - 08/22
- Rodney Mack's greatest solo match ever? I have no idea. It's not the 500 matches with Maven, I know that.

16) Steven Richards vs Shelton Benjamin - 12/05
- probably misrated because it was an attempt to break usual form, and confused the heck out of me doing it.

17) Steven Richards vs Lance Storm - 04/25
- by which I mean it was technically sound, but hey, if it's my last match possible ever, I am throwing in all the spots and trying to make a really good Heat match. Of course, I don't have to work for the company after, so who knows.

18) Val Venis vs Steven Richards - 08/01
- there has to be one on here, right?

19) Maven vs Batista - 06/13
- just Batista's clothesline on Maven and that's it.

I guess the only thing I've sidestepped here, besides common sense, is comparing the two brands. It's not quite fair - most of the Velocity matches are cruiserweight style, most of the Heat ones are heavyweight style, and there's different expectations in each. However, if you promise not to hold me to it, I'll add a little bonus here - the top 10 matches combined:

01. Jamie Noble vs Paul London - 03/06
02. Jamie Noble vs Rey Mysterio - 05/01
03. Dudley Boyz vs Val/Storm for a WM XX Tag Team Title Shot - 03/07
04. Chris Benoit vs Chuck Palumbo - 10/31
05. Paul London vs Akio - 12/04
06. Tajiri vs Chuck Palumbo - 10/17
07. Rey/Kidman vs Noble/Nunzio - 02/21
08. Steven Richards vs Chris Jericho - 09/05
09. Kurt Angle vs Hardcore Holly - 10/23
10. Billy Kidman, Akio, Spike Dudley vs Shannon Moore, Nunzio, Chavo Guerrero - 11/27

The toughest call was debating the second and third matches. They both were really good matches with the flaw of the losing side never being expected to win the match on paper, but the matches themselves trying their hardest to make it feel like a real possibility. Singles bias wins out.

Will 2005 be as good? As long as we can count on WWE to ignore and waste talented workers, this lists will be full and fun for a long time to come! Silver linings rule.