Judgment Day (2005) - Aftermath

Aftermath

On the June 6 episode of Raw, one of WWE's primary television programs, John Cena's SmackDown! tenure came to an end when he became the first wrestler selected by Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff in the draft lottery, a mock sports draft lottery in which wrestlers switched programs. Cena immediately entered a staged rivalry with Eric Bischoff after when he refused to participate in Bischoff's "war" against the upcoming Extreme Championship Wrestling reunion show. Cena went onto resume his feud with Christian, as they had an encounter at the Royal Rumble in January. 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 defeating 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 standard wrestling match involving three wrestlers, involving Jericho for the WWE Championship at Vengeance. At the event, Cena retained the WWE Championship.

On the June 30 episode of SmackDown!, a match between six wrestlers for a new top-tier SmackDown! championship was held. 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 (the normal scoring conditions in professional wrestling matches). 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. There, he immediately continued his feud with Shawn Michaels. At the start of the year, Angle and Michaels both participated in the Royal Rumble match at the January pay-per-view event. During the match, Michaels eliminated Angle. In retaliation, Angle returned to the match and eliminated Michaels and then attacked him outside the ring. The two engaged in a feud, which led to an Interpromotional match at WrestleMania 21, as Angle was part of the SmackDown! roster and Michaels belonged to the Raw roster. At WrestleMania 21, Angle got the win over Michaels by forcing him to submit to an ankle lock submission hold. The same evening Angle was drafted, Michaels challenged Angle to a WrestleMania 21 rematch at Vengeance, in which Angle accepted. At Vengeance, the rematch saw Michaels defeat Angle.

The angle between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio continued. On an episode of SmackDown!, Guerrero threatened to reveal a secret concerning Mysterio's son Dominick. This led the families of both Guerrero and Mysterio pleading with Guerrero not to reveal the secret. At the Great American Bash, Mysterio defeated Guerrero in a match where if Guerrero lost, he could not reveal the secret. On the July 28 episode of SmackDown!, Guerrero, however, revealed the secret, claiming he was Dominick's scripted biological father. The storyline also went on that Guerrero knew Mysterio was having trouble starting his own family, so Guerrero left Dominick to be raised by Mysterio's family. In subsequent weeks, Guerrero threatened to take custody of Dominick, drawing up custody papers and having his lawyer present them to Mysterio. 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 Dominick at SummerSlam, which Mysterio won.