Judgment Day, the latest pay-per-view from the SmackDown! brand, is unique since close to half of the roster featured has either been traded to Raw or been fired. Taking place on May 22nd, 2005 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this disc is yet another shining example of why I think SD! is the lesser of the two brands.

Here's the card:

• WWE Tag Team Championship [Hardcore Holly & Charlie Haas vs. MNM] - Continuing the WWE tradition of throwing together two random wrestlers for no particular reason to wrestle a slightly established tag team, Haas & Holly team up against the relatively new team of MNM. I have to admit that I was truly surprised by this match. I'm not that big a fan of MNM, but they weren't too bad. However, Charlie Haas owned this match from beginning to end and i'm genuinely surprised that the WWE chose to fire him.
  
  

• Big Show vs. Carlito - On paper, this might not look like a fair fight. However, Carlito brings the recently fired Matt Morgan (stutter and all) to the ring as his bodyguard. This match is relatively shot and painless.
  
  

• Kurt Angle & Booker T Story, Booker T In His Locker Room With Sharmell, Booker T Looking For Kurt & Kurt Angle With Sharmell In Her Locker Room - Though these "chapters" aren't shown in this sequence, they all feature Kurt & Booker. Let me just say this...Kurt & Booker are great wrestlers. They deserve MUCH BETTER than this terrible "storyline".
  
  

• WWE Cruiserweight Champion Of the World Match [Paul London vs. Chavo Guerrero] - This match marks the final SmackDown! PPV appearance of Chavo. Technically, it's the final PPV appearance of Chavo Guerrero, period. After being traded to Raw, he realized that "White was right" and changed his name to Kerwin White. Don't ask. Paul still hasn't done anything to impress me or keep me awake during a match that he's in. Needless to say, this was one of those matches that screams "Skip Me!".
  
  

• Booker T vs. Kurt Angle - It's possible that i've yet to see an Angle match that I really didn't like. His intensity, technicality and skill at putting people over could make Christy Hemme look like the next heavyweight champion contender. However, the road to this match [see the chapters above] was really painful. Truly.
  
  

• John Cena vs. JBL: Keys To Victory - They gave "Tazz's Keys To Victory" a chapter stop? Well, save you some time and pass on nugget of information number 3 - "Never Quit". Yeah, you read that right.
  
  

• United States Championship Match [Heidenreich vs. Orlando Jordan] - How Orlando Jordan became the US Champ, i'll never understand. It's not that he can't wrestle; he can. He just has absolutely no personality whatsoever on his own. I do appreciate him more as a member of JBL's "cabinet". Heidenreich, on the other hand, is painful to watch. To add insult to injury, he wastes the first ten minutes or so of the match looking for a "friend" and then reading her a poem. Terrible, terrible match.
  
  

• JBL Interview
  
  

• Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero - Rey & Eddie are embroiled in a storyline that rivals Kurt & Booker's in stupidity. For weeks, Eddie was taunting Rey with a "secret" regarding Rey's son Dominick. As of this review, the payoff has been revealed, and they're about to take it to SummerSlam. This match, however, lived up to Rey & Eddie's standards and was pretty damn brutal. I'm not sure how I feel about Eddie as a heel, but I can't deny that I enjoyed this match more if I ignored the storyline.
  
  

• "I Quit" Match For the WWE Championship [John Cena vs. JBL] - I re-entered the lovely world of the WWE right around the time that Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio and John Cena made their debuts. I admit to being excited/impressed by the trio's initial appearance on SmackDown! Since that time, Rey's still a favorite, Randy's been sidelined with injuries and I could really care less about Cena. See, Cena has turned out to be more of a brawler than a wrestler. There really aren't that many technical wrestling moves in his repertoire and he has a tendency to become annoying on the mic. JBL, on the other hand, is only a slight step above Cena as far as pure wrestling moves are concerned. However, once he cut the mullet, shaved his face and became a Wall Street tycoon, he has truly embraced his role as heel. Both fighters put on a brutal, bloody brawl that had a less than satisfactory conclusion.
  
  

In addition to the matches above, the following extras are also included:

• Promos
  
  
• John Cena vs. JBL "I Quit" Match



• Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio



• Bad, Bad Man Music Video - Cena's music video in its entirety. For those of us that haven't seen it the 1,273 times they've shown it on Raw or SmackDown!


• the Making Of the Bad, Bad Man Music Video - A four minute behind the scenes look at the making of the video.



• Judgment Day Press Conference - Don't blink or you'll miss this minute-long snippet from the press conference.



• JBL "Anti-Cena" PSA - Gotta admit, this one minute forty second PSA (the A would stand for "attack") was pretty damn funny.
  


• Sunday Night Heat
  
  
• Chavo Guerrero Interview



• Kurt Angle Talks With Mark Jindrak



• Nunzio vs. Akio
  


• DVD Exclusive
  
  
• Carlito And Matt Morgan Interview - Lame attempt at comedy that drags on for FAR too long.

Video: Compared to past WWE releases, this disc surprisingly had more compression issues. Being forced to sit through some of these matches, i'm not sure that's such a bad thing. That aside, it's presented in a full frame 1.33:1 ratio.

Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound was crystal clear and enveloped my living room while I was watching it. There's also an option of watching the disc in Spanish.

Conclusion: Yet another sub-par SmackDown! pay-per-view that did nothing to change my impression of the brand. Other than the blading in the JBL/Cena match, there really wasn't anything featured here that couldn't (or wouldn't) be shown on the the weekly show. Unless you're a fan of Cena's (and judging by the push he's getting, i'm sure there are a lot of them) or you want to see what Vince threw away by firing Charlie Haas, i'd recommend a rental for this. Otherwise, this disc gets a Skip It.