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6 PPV’s down, 6 to go as we reach the halfway point of the year. The WWE was in a slump with Raw being the main culprit. Smackdown was quite at the peak it was at the start of the year but is still considered the better show. Now is their chance to prove it.
The champions before the 7th PPV of the year, Vengeance, were as follows:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance
Women’s title: Gail Kim
Smackdown World title: Brock Lesnar
Smackdown Tag titles: TWGTT (Haas and Benjamin)
Cruiserweight title: Rey Mysterio
Intercontinental title: Booker T
US title: Vacant
There have been a lot of changes over the past few months. Gail Kim appears and in her first match, she wins a battle royal to win the Women’s title. Unfortunately, her wrestling ability didn’t match the title she was given. Haas and Benjamin regained the tag titles and abandoned Angle. They called themselves The World’s Greatest Tag Team. Rey Mysterio beat Matt Hardy to win the Cruiserweight title. Booker T finally got his hands on the Intercontinental title although he probably should have had the main title by now and the US title was reintroduced and the winner of the US title tournament would take the title.
The final of the US title tournament was at Smackdown’s first PPV, Vengeance. Vengeance was on the 27th July and it was the 3rd of the 4 PPV’s that were shown on Sky Box Office. On paper, the card looked pretty weak, especially with Steph McMahon and Vince McMahon wrestling. Will Vengeance put the WWE back on track or will it be a disappointment like Judgment Day or Bad Blood?
The first match was Benoit V Eddie Guerrero in the final of the US title tournament. The winner will take the title. As opening matches go, this should be one of the best. Eddie was fast beginning to show himself as a stellar singles performer due to Chavo’s injury and Benoit just kept bringing some wrestling out of the top draw but not getting the push he deserved. This match was everything you would expect. It was a great display of wrestling until the ref got bumped. The problem was he didn’t get bumped just once, he got bumped 3 times. Well, the third one was the final one as Rhyno turned heel and Gored Benoit, leaving Eddie to do the frogsplash and the win. Eddie took the title as Benoit looked set for a feud with Rhyno and further suppression down the card.
Next up, a returning Billy Gunn faces Jamie Noble. Billy Gunn has had shoulder problems for a long time and this match had a stipulation. If Noble won, he gets to sleep with Torrie on Smackdown. The end result saw Noble kiss Torrie and then rollup Gunn holding the tights for the win. Fortunately, the match didn’t run very long so it was watchable, although I must add that Noble got a face reaction for the win, even though he was a heel.
I don’t know if you could class this as a match because the A.P.A had reunited (no reason was given for Bradshaw switching from Raw) and they decided to have an invitational Barroom Brawl. There were quite a few people in this but it made little difference, as Bradshaw was the last man standing and was declared the winner.
The Smackdown Tag titles were on the line next as Haas and Benjamin took on Kidman and Mysterio. This match was super slick and the crowd got into it making it the match of the night so far. A double team move from Kidman and Mysterio almost had the titles won but it wasn’t quite enough as Benjamin catches Rey on Haas’ shoulders and the Doomsday Device retained the titles for Haas and Benjamin. It was a cracker.
Well, you couldn’t expect the hot match streak to last as Steph takes on Sable. For just over 6 minutes, the basic match layout was slap, slap, and slap. It’s to be expected. The big guy pushes continue (yes, in a women’s match) as A-Train runs in, lays out Steph and Sable picks up the win. Okay…
We move on to The Undertaker V John Cena. Cena was producing a lot of good stuff on Smackdown of late and was starting to show that he has potential, on the mic and in the ring. The Undertaker is getting older now and injuries keep appearing. A lot of people were saying that a Cena win was the ONLY result here, me being one of them. Cena did everything except hit Taker with a member of the audience and Taker hits the Last Ride for the win. A surprisingly good match but a Taker win did nothing to establish Cena as a future star. Taker is renowned for using backstage politics to avoid doing a job. I think it was pretty obvious here.
The second McMahon was in action as Vince took on Zach Gowen. It is basically an old guy versus a man with one leg and that is being polite. Zach Gowen hadn’t been in the WWE very long but this was the beginning of the end. Everyone so far had been refusing to job to him clean and his attitude backstage was poor. The finish was weak when Gowen did a couple of chairshots but missed a moonsault, which led to McMahon pinning Gowen. It wasn’t a bad match but the writing was on the wall for Gowen as a supposed standing ovation actually was half boos.
We reach the main event and it is Lesnar defending his title against Angle and Big Show in a no DQ triple threat match. Now, a match with Big Show usually spells disaster and usually results in a slow, dull affair. The good thing about this match was the Big Show was kept out of the match long enough to not drag this down to his level. Angle and Lesnar produced the goods again and showed that even Big Show can be in a good match. The end saw Angle Angle-slam Big Show and Lesnar with Angle pinning Lesnar to win the title back. I couldn’t be happier with that result as Angle has been WWE’s top performer for a while now.
The end result of Vengeance was a big thumbs up and stood out as the PPV of the year so far. It showed Smackdown’s dominance and blew Bad Blood out of the water. The buyrate didn’t reflect the success as the buyrate came in lower than Bad Blood. Despite being the best wrestling PPV of the year, there were a number of downsides, namely the weak finishes and the lack of filler match support.
Summerslam in 2002 was voted PPV of the year on SR and the wrestling community in general. Summerslam 2003 was next and there were lots of things being done in an attempt to stay out of the doldrums after Smackdown’s fine display at Vengeance. A few titles had changed hands since Vengeance. Booker T developed back problems and lost the Intercontinental title to Christian at a house show. Molly won the Women’s title off Gail Kim after the WWE realised that Kim needed to do some serious work improving.
The WWE were on the hard sell for Summerslam with the Raw World title being defended in an Elimination Chamber, the second one ever. Also, Kane had to remove his mask after getting hit with the Talent Suppressor and thus losing a match with HHH. He promptly turned heel and went on a rampage, tombstoning Linda McMahon leading to Shane appearing for revenge. Also, Brock Lesnar turned heel, enlisted the help of Vince McMahon and was billed as the Real Brock Lesnar.
Summerslam kicked off with La Resistance defending the Raw tag titles against the Dudleyz. The Dudleyz have started off as a face, turned heel and then turned back face, all within a few months. The Dudleyz act has gotten very stale and the constant changes haven’t done much to help them out. To be honest, I’d rather see them put loads of people through tables. Anyway, La Resistance win the match after new member Rob Conway hits D-Von with a camera allowing Dupree to pin him. The lack of depth in the tag division is frightening because the tag division used to be really strong. The match did nothing for either team so we move on.
The Undertaker is up next as he takes on A-Train after what he did to Steph at Vengeance. It’s always nice to see someone stick up for a woman but for goodness sake, A-Train and Taker? This has slow and dull written all over it. True to form, it was slow, dull and Taker won with the Chokeslam. Sable tries to crack onto Taker but this brings Steph out so A-Train takes Sable away. Pointless, very pointless.
Shane McMahon wants to get his hands on Kane but has to settle for Bischoff. With all the talent that they could use, like Haas and Benjamin or Cena, they devote 10 minutes to Shane V Bischoff. If you thought that this match couldn’t get any worse, the Coach starts interfering while every fan collectively leaves the room. Austin comes down to try and salvage this match, stunners Bischoff and Shane leaps off the top rope to the announcer’s table with a flying elbow to Bischoff for the win. A complete waste of time that could have been used building up someone useful.
Now the big guns appear as Eddie defends the US title against Benoit, Rhyno and Tajiri in a fatal 4-way match. Eddie is still on his hot streak and Benoit is just legendary. Unfortunately, it only gets 10 minutes when this match should have had double that. The finish saw Benoit hit a diving headbutt on Rhyno but got bundled out by Tajiri, leaving Eddie to frogsplash Rhyno to retain. It was the match of the night so far but we can only imagine what could have been if they were given the time.
Angle defends the Smackdown World title against The Real Brock Lesnar in what everyone hoped would match their Wrestlemania encounter and give us a lift from what has been a fairly weak Summerslam so far. Well, it was a good match, not as good as Wrestlemania due to ref bumps and Vince getting involved. Brock was being pushed as a real monster again on Smackdown beforehand but the end result saw Angle refuse to let go of the Anklelock and pull Brock away from the ropes, despite him actually reaching the ropes twice, leaving no option but to tap. It was a bizarre finish as Brock was looking like a monster again. Angle winning just makes up it though.
Next, Kane takes on former tag team partner, RVD. RVD, by this point, was being used as a resident jobber to the stars and with Kane V Shane on the cards, the result was obvious. You could tell that his heart wasn’t in it as Kane tombstones RVD on the steel steps, rolled him into the ring and won in a fairly sloppy match. At this point, RVD had only won one PPV match all year and he had appeared in 7 of the 8.
The main event was the Elimination Chamber. The first one at Survivor Series in 2002 was a big success and now another 6 face the task of emulating that. HHH walked into the chamber as the champ, having held it all year so far. Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, HBK, Goldberg and Nash were trying to take the title off him. Jericho and Michaels kick the match off, Orton is the first one released from the chamber and then Nash. Nash lasts all of 2 minutes as HBK superkicks Nash leading to Jericho bridging for the pin. I don’t think anyone knew how bad Nash’s neck was or they didn’t particularly care about Nash. I know I certainly didn’t. Nash powerbombs everyone that moves while HBK superkicks an exiting HHH. Goldberg is the last man in and clears up as he pins Orton, spears Jericho through the glass, pins HBK and then pins Jericho, all before HHH even gets out of his chamber. That must have been one hell of a kick. Flair tries to stop Goldberg getting to HHH by holding the door shut but Goldberg kicks the glass, beats on HHH for about a minute before Flair slides HHH the sledgehammer for the win and retains the title.
I saw this PPV live and I was pretty disgusted. The Elimination Chamber match was pretty good all until Goldberg cleaned up and, of course, the pathetic finish. The title on HHH meant nothing at this point, if it meant anything at all. The backstage politics won out again as HHH refuses to job at the 2nd biggest PPV of the year. The whole finish was a complete cop out. HHH spend most of the match in his chamber, the majority of it unconscious after one superkick. Goldberg did all the work, the crowd were actually behind him and he jobs to HHH’s almighty sledgehammer. That was Goldberg’s first defeat in the WWE and I wasn’t surprised that it was to HHH. If there was ever an obvious backstage influence and the suppressing of talent, you saw it here. Goldberg made 3 wrestlers look like jobbers for that finish.
Elimination Chamber aside for the moment, Summerslam was poor. A weak series of matches and a real lack of stand out matches wasn’t enough to save the PPV. The WWE banked on the Elimination Chamber to save them but after a promising start, it fizzled out and ultimately killed the crowd. It was a real contrast on last year. The result was a very average PPV.
So, Raw has a chance to redeem themselves with the second Raw PPV, Unforgiven. The WWE decided to have a special Smackdown before Unforgiven with half the show dedicated to Angle defending the title against Brock Lesnar in an Ironman match. Brock won the title 5-4 but that wasn’t the only title to change hands that night. Eddie and Chavo reunited as Los Guerreros to beat Haas and Benjamin to claim the tag team titles again.
Unforgiven was on the 21st September and I suppose you could say that we’ve reached the stale part of the year. The Royal Rumble is 3/4 months away and although Survivor Series is a major PPV and a couple of months away, it’s not as big as it used to be. It was about this time that Raw was just starting to peg back Smackdown’s dominance so let’s see how Unforgiven fares under scrutiny.
The opening match was scheduled to be a 3 on 3 match between the Dudleyz (including Spike) against La Resistance (including Rob Conway). Unfortunately, Spike got injured taking a table bump and was pulled from the match. The match was changed to a handicap table match with the Tag titles on the line. The end was classic Dudleyz as they 3D’d Dupree through the table for the win and the titles. La Resistance had a pretty weak run as champions and it was only after they lost the titles that they started looking better, especially Rob Conway. The match was a pretty bog standard table match and was definitely not PPV material.
The Test/Steiner feud had no sign of relenting as they lumbered through months of matches and segments leading to Test V Steiner – Winner gets Stacy (AGAIN!) and you can’t help feeling you’ve seen this match before. It wasn’t as good as their first match at Bad Blood (yes, Bad Blood, 3 months ago) and Test wins back Stacy after Stacy stole a chair from Test, swung, missed, hit Steiner, big boot by Test. I suppose you could say Steiner jobbed to a girl.
We go onwards to Shawn Michaels against Randy Orton. Randy Orton is now on the start of a push and is being groomed as a potential player to face Triple H. The match has potential but will it fulfil? The answer is yes and no. The match was fine but the finish was poor. Shawn kicks out of the RKO, which harms his finisher. Shawn gives Orton the Sweet Chin Music and gets the 3 count, only for Flair to put Orton’s foot on the ropes. That means Shawn can beat Orton clean with his finisher. Flair slips Orton some brass knuckles and he hits Shawn and wins. That means Orton can’t beat Shawn clean. I think Shawn came off better even though Orton won.
Lita returns after a year out with neck surgery and she is in the next match as Lita and Trish take on Molly and Gail Kim. You can forgive Lita for being a little ring rusty but Gail Kim has improved since she lost the title and turned heel. The result was probably one of the best women’s PPV match of the year, if not the best. Molly gets outnumbered leading to a moonsault by Lita for the win.
Next, it’s the match that was being set up for a while as the new unmasked Kane takes on Shane McMahon in a Last Man Standing match. It wasn’t much of a match because it was slow and plodding and the finish was even worse. Sure, it takes guts and a real desire to give something to the fans to dive from the set scaffolding but if that is the only way Kane can beat him, then Kane’s push is going to fail and fail badly. Shane smashes a camera in Kane’s face, climbs up the scaffolding, leaps, Kane moves, ref counts Shane out while Kane gets up at 9. Way to make Kane look good, guys!
Christian defends the Intercontinental title in a triple threat match against Jericho and RVD. Now, I have nothing against Christian as a wrestler but RVD and Jericho are better than this. The result is, RVD is not motivated because he gets put in these matches and ends up jobbing. There is no change as RVD goes for the 5-star but lands on Christian’s knee, which has the title belt on them. 1-2-3 for Christian and he survives with his title. The match wasn’t pretty and a motivated RVD and Jericho for that matter would have resulted in a potential match of the year candidate. Instead, it was nowhere near.
Everyone collectively relieves themselves as The Coach and Al Snow take on The King and JR for the Raw announcer’s position. Do I have to mention all the talent that is being wasted in the locker room while these guys get 10 minutes? Well, the whole thing they were trying to achieve here was to increase the intensity between Jericho and Austin, as they are at loggerheads at the moment. The end result saw Jericho dropkick JR and the Coach picks up the win. You can just see The Coach and Al Snow lasting about a week or so, so you could say that this was a complete waste of time.
Speaking of wastes of time, the main event is HHH defending the title against Goldberg. This is the last match of Part 3 and HHH hasn’t lost the title once. 9 months have passed this year and HHH’s reign of talent suppressing finally reaches an end when Goldberg uses 2 of his 4 moves to win the title and all the HHH haters breath a collective sigh of relief. The hope now is that HHH steps away from the title picture while some other wrestlers get the chance. Well, that’s the hope anyway.
Does HHH finally losing the title make Unforgiven a good PPV? No, because dull, weak matches that helped no one can only hinder progress. All through the card, weak matches, weak finishes and a weak use of talent does nothing for anyone. Not the worst PPV of the year but once again, Raw fails to deliver when on it’s own.
Part 4 will see the final 3 PPV’s of the year. No Mercy is a Smackdown only PPV and will be keen to keep their crown of dominance. Survivor Series sees Raw and Smackdown back together and Armageddon sees another opportunity for Raw to shine. Will the WWE match the success of Vengeance?
Thanks for reading.
The champions before the 7th PPV of the year, Vengeance, were as follows:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance
Women’s title: Gail Kim
Smackdown World title: Brock Lesnar
Smackdown Tag titles: TWGTT (Haas and Benjamin)
Cruiserweight title: Rey Mysterio
Intercontinental title: Booker T
US title: Vacant
There have been a lot of changes over the past few months. Gail Kim appears and in her first match, she wins a battle royal to win the Women’s title. Unfortunately, her wrestling ability didn’t match the title she was given. Haas and Benjamin regained the tag titles and abandoned Angle. They called themselves The World’s Greatest Tag Team. Rey Mysterio beat Matt Hardy to win the Cruiserweight title. Booker T finally got his hands on the Intercontinental title although he probably should have had the main title by now and the US title was reintroduced and the winner of the US title tournament would take the title.
The final of the US title tournament was at Smackdown’s first PPV, Vengeance. Vengeance was on the 27th July and it was the 3rd of the 4 PPV’s that were shown on Sky Box Office. On paper, the card looked pretty weak, especially with Steph McMahon and Vince McMahon wrestling. Will Vengeance put the WWE back on track or will it be a disappointment like Judgment Day or Bad Blood?
The first match was Benoit V Eddie Guerrero in the final of the US title tournament. The winner will take the title. As opening matches go, this should be one of the best. Eddie was fast beginning to show himself as a stellar singles performer due to Chavo’s injury and Benoit just kept bringing some wrestling out of the top draw but not getting the push he deserved. This match was everything you would expect. It was a great display of wrestling until the ref got bumped. The problem was he didn’t get bumped just once, he got bumped 3 times. Well, the third one was the final one as Rhyno turned heel and Gored Benoit, leaving Eddie to do the frogsplash and the win. Eddie took the title as Benoit looked set for a feud with Rhyno and further suppression down the card.
Next up, a returning Billy Gunn faces Jamie Noble. Billy Gunn has had shoulder problems for a long time and this match had a stipulation. If Noble won, he gets to sleep with Torrie on Smackdown. The end result saw Noble kiss Torrie and then rollup Gunn holding the tights for the win. Fortunately, the match didn’t run very long so it was watchable, although I must add that Noble got a face reaction for the win, even though he was a heel.
I don’t know if you could class this as a match because the A.P.A had reunited (no reason was given for Bradshaw switching from Raw) and they decided to have an invitational Barroom Brawl. There were quite a few people in this but it made little difference, as Bradshaw was the last man standing and was declared the winner.
The Smackdown Tag titles were on the line next as Haas and Benjamin took on Kidman and Mysterio. This match was super slick and the crowd got into it making it the match of the night so far. A double team move from Kidman and Mysterio almost had the titles won but it wasn’t quite enough as Benjamin catches Rey on Haas’ shoulders and the Doomsday Device retained the titles for Haas and Benjamin. It was a cracker.
Well, you couldn’t expect the hot match streak to last as Steph takes on Sable. For just over 6 minutes, the basic match layout was slap, slap, and slap. It’s to be expected. The big guy pushes continue (yes, in a women’s match) as A-Train runs in, lays out Steph and Sable picks up the win. Okay…
We move on to The Undertaker V John Cena. Cena was producing a lot of good stuff on Smackdown of late and was starting to show that he has potential, on the mic and in the ring. The Undertaker is getting older now and injuries keep appearing. A lot of people were saying that a Cena win was the ONLY result here, me being one of them. Cena did everything except hit Taker with a member of the audience and Taker hits the Last Ride for the win. A surprisingly good match but a Taker win did nothing to establish Cena as a future star. Taker is renowned for using backstage politics to avoid doing a job. I think it was pretty obvious here.
The second McMahon was in action as Vince took on Zach Gowen. It is basically an old guy versus a man with one leg and that is being polite. Zach Gowen hadn’t been in the WWE very long but this was the beginning of the end. Everyone so far had been refusing to job to him clean and his attitude backstage was poor. The finish was weak when Gowen did a couple of chairshots but missed a moonsault, which led to McMahon pinning Gowen. It wasn’t a bad match but the writing was on the wall for Gowen as a supposed standing ovation actually was half boos.
We reach the main event and it is Lesnar defending his title against Angle and Big Show in a no DQ triple threat match. Now, a match with Big Show usually spells disaster and usually results in a slow, dull affair. The good thing about this match was the Big Show was kept out of the match long enough to not drag this down to his level. Angle and Lesnar produced the goods again and showed that even Big Show can be in a good match. The end saw Angle Angle-slam Big Show and Lesnar with Angle pinning Lesnar to win the title back. I couldn’t be happier with that result as Angle has been WWE’s top performer for a while now.
The end result of Vengeance was a big thumbs up and stood out as the PPV of the year so far. It showed Smackdown’s dominance and blew Bad Blood out of the water. The buyrate didn’t reflect the success as the buyrate came in lower than Bad Blood. Despite being the best wrestling PPV of the year, there were a number of downsides, namely the weak finishes and the lack of filler match support.
Summerslam in 2002 was voted PPV of the year on SR and the wrestling community in general. Summerslam 2003 was next and there were lots of things being done in an attempt to stay out of the doldrums after Smackdown’s fine display at Vengeance. A few titles had changed hands since Vengeance. Booker T developed back problems and lost the Intercontinental title to Christian at a house show. Molly won the Women’s title off Gail Kim after the WWE realised that Kim needed to do some serious work improving.
The WWE were on the hard sell for Summerslam with the Raw World title being defended in an Elimination Chamber, the second one ever. Also, Kane had to remove his mask after getting hit with the Talent Suppressor and thus losing a match with HHH. He promptly turned heel and went on a rampage, tombstoning Linda McMahon leading to Shane appearing for revenge. Also, Brock Lesnar turned heel, enlisted the help of Vince McMahon and was billed as the Real Brock Lesnar.
Summerslam kicked off with La Resistance defending the Raw tag titles against the Dudleyz. The Dudleyz have started off as a face, turned heel and then turned back face, all within a few months. The Dudleyz act has gotten very stale and the constant changes haven’t done much to help them out. To be honest, I’d rather see them put loads of people through tables. Anyway, La Resistance win the match after new member Rob Conway hits D-Von with a camera allowing Dupree to pin him. The lack of depth in the tag division is frightening because the tag division used to be really strong. The match did nothing for either team so we move on.
The Undertaker is up next as he takes on A-Train after what he did to Steph at Vengeance. It’s always nice to see someone stick up for a woman but for goodness sake, A-Train and Taker? This has slow and dull written all over it. True to form, it was slow, dull and Taker won with the Chokeslam. Sable tries to crack onto Taker but this brings Steph out so A-Train takes Sable away. Pointless, very pointless.
Shane McMahon wants to get his hands on Kane but has to settle for Bischoff. With all the talent that they could use, like Haas and Benjamin or Cena, they devote 10 minutes to Shane V Bischoff. If you thought that this match couldn’t get any worse, the Coach starts interfering while every fan collectively leaves the room. Austin comes down to try and salvage this match, stunners Bischoff and Shane leaps off the top rope to the announcer’s table with a flying elbow to Bischoff for the win. A complete waste of time that could have been used building up someone useful.
Now the big guns appear as Eddie defends the US title against Benoit, Rhyno and Tajiri in a fatal 4-way match. Eddie is still on his hot streak and Benoit is just legendary. Unfortunately, it only gets 10 minutes when this match should have had double that. The finish saw Benoit hit a diving headbutt on Rhyno but got bundled out by Tajiri, leaving Eddie to frogsplash Rhyno to retain. It was the match of the night so far but we can only imagine what could have been if they were given the time.
Angle defends the Smackdown World title against The Real Brock Lesnar in what everyone hoped would match their Wrestlemania encounter and give us a lift from what has been a fairly weak Summerslam so far. Well, it was a good match, not as good as Wrestlemania due to ref bumps and Vince getting involved. Brock was being pushed as a real monster again on Smackdown beforehand but the end result saw Angle refuse to let go of the Anklelock and pull Brock away from the ropes, despite him actually reaching the ropes twice, leaving no option but to tap. It was a bizarre finish as Brock was looking like a monster again. Angle winning just makes up it though.
Next, Kane takes on former tag team partner, RVD. RVD, by this point, was being used as a resident jobber to the stars and with Kane V Shane on the cards, the result was obvious. You could tell that his heart wasn’t in it as Kane tombstones RVD on the steel steps, rolled him into the ring and won in a fairly sloppy match. At this point, RVD had only won one PPV match all year and he had appeared in 7 of the 8.
The main event was the Elimination Chamber. The first one at Survivor Series in 2002 was a big success and now another 6 face the task of emulating that. HHH walked into the chamber as the champ, having held it all year so far. Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, HBK, Goldberg and Nash were trying to take the title off him. Jericho and Michaels kick the match off, Orton is the first one released from the chamber and then Nash. Nash lasts all of 2 minutes as HBK superkicks Nash leading to Jericho bridging for the pin. I don’t think anyone knew how bad Nash’s neck was or they didn’t particularly care about Nash. I know I certainly didn’t. Nash powerbombs everyone that moves while HBK superkicks an exiting HHH. Goldberg is the last man in and clears up as he pins Orton, spears Jericho through the glass, pins HBK and then pins Jericho, all before HHH even gets out of his chamber. That must have been one hell of a kick. Flair tries to stop Goldberg getting to HHH by holding the door shut but Goldberg kicks the glass, beats on HHH for about a minute before Flair slides HHH the sledgehammer for the win and retains the title.
I saw this PPV live and I was pretty disgusted. The Elimination Chamber match was pretty good all until Goldberg cleaned up and, of course, the pathetic finish. The title on HHH meant nothing at this point, if it meant anything at all. The backstage politics won out again as HHH refuses to job at the 2nd biggest PPV of the year. The whole finish was a complete cop out. HHH spend most of the match in his chamber, the majority of it unconscious after one superkick. Goldberg did all the work, the crowd were actually behind him and he jobs to HHH’s almighty sledgehammer. That was Goldberg’s first defeat in the WWE and I wasn’t surprised that it was to HHH. If there was ever an obvious backstage influence and the suppressing of talent, you saw it here. Goldberg made 3 wrestlers look like jobbers for that finish.
Elimination Chamber aside for the moment, Summerslam was poor. A weak series of matches and a real lack of stand out matches wasn’t enough to save the PPV. The WWE banked on the Elimination Chamber to save them but after a promising start, it fizzled out and ultimately killed the crowd. It was a real contrast on last year. The result was a very average PPV.
So, Raw has a chance to redeem themselves with the second Raw PPV, Unforgiven. The WWE decided to have a special Smackdown before Unforgiven with half the show dedicated to Angle defending the title against Brock Lesnar in an Ironman match. Brock won the title 5-4 but that wasn’t the only title to change hands that night. Eddie and Chavo reunited as Los Guerreros to beat Haas and Benjamin to claim the tag team titles again.
Unforgiven was on the 21st September and I suppose you could say that we’ve reached the stale part of the year. The Royal Rumble is 3/4 months away and although Survivor Series is a major PPV and a couple of months away, it’s not as big as it used to be. It was about this time that Raw was just starting to peg back Smackdown’s dominance so let’s see how Unforgiven fares under scrutiny.
The opening match was scheduled to be a 3 on 3 match between the Dudleyz (including Spike) against La Resistance (including Rob Conway). Unfortunately, Spike got injured taking a table bump and was pulled from the match. The match was changed to a handicap table match with the Tag titles on the line. The end was classic Dudleyz as they 3D’d Dupree through the table for the win and the titles. La Resistance had a pretty weak run as champions and it was only after they lost the titles that they started looking better, especially Rob Conway. The match was a pretty bog standard table match and was definitely not PPV material.
The Test/Steiner feud had no sign of relenting as they lumbered through months of matches and segments leading to Test V Steiner – Winner gets Stacy (AGAIN!) and you can’t help feeling you’ve seen this match before. It wasn’t as good as their first match at Bad Blood (yes, Bad Blood, 3 months ago) and Test wins back Stacy after Stacy stole a chair from Test, swung, missed, hit Steiner, big boot by Test. I suppose you could say Steiner jobbed to a girl.
We go onwards to Shawn Michaels against Randy Orton. Randy Orton is now on the start of a push and is being groomed as a potential player to face Triple H. The match has potential but will it fulfil? The answer is yes and no. The match was fine but the finish was poor. Shawn kicks out of the RKO, which harms his finisher. Shawn gives Orton the Sweet Chin Music and gets the 3 count, only for Flair to put Orton’s foot on the ropes. That means Shawn can beat Orton clean with his finisher. Flair slips Orton some brass knuckles and he hits Shawn and wins. That means Orton can’t beat Shawn clean. I think Shawn came off better even though Orton won.
Lita returns after a year out with neck surgery and she is in the next match as Lita and Trish take on Molly and Gail Kim. You can forgive Lita for being a little ring rusty but Gail Kim has improved since she lost the title and turned heel. The result was probably one of the best women’s PPV match of the year, if not the best. Molly gets outnumbered leading to a moonsault by Lita for the win.
Next, it’s the match that was being set up for a while as the new unmasked Kane takes on Shane McMahon in a Last Man Standing match. It wasn’t much of a match because it was slow and plodding and the finish was even worse. Sure, it takes guts and a real desire to give something to the fans to dive from the set scaffolding but if that is the only way Kane can beat him, then Kane’s push is going to fail and fail badly. Shane smashes a camera in Kane’s face, climbs up the scaffolding, leaps, Kane moves, ref counts Shane out while Kane gets up at 9. Way to make Kane look good, guys!
Christian defends the Intercontinental title in a triple threat match against Jericho and RVD. Now, I have nothing against Christian as a wrestler but RVD and Jericho are better than this. The result is, RVD is not motivated because he gets put in these matches and ends up jobbing. There is no change as RVD goes for the 5-star but lands on Christian’s knee, which has the title belt on them. 1-2-3 for Christian and he survives with his title. The match wasn’t pretty and a motivated RVD and Jericho for that matter would have resulted in a potential match of the year candidate. Instead, it was nowhere near.
Everyone collectively relieves themselves as The Coach and Al Snow take on The King and JR for the Raw announcer’s position. Do I have to mention all the talent that is being wasted in the locker room while these guys get 10 minutes? Well, the whole thing they were trying to achieve here was to increase the intensity between Jericho and Austin, as they are at loggerheads at the moment. The end result saw Jericho dropkick JR and the Coach picks up the win. You can just see The Coach and Al Snow lasting about a week or so, so you could say that this was a complete waste of time.
Speaking of wastes of time, the main event is HHH defending the title against Goldberg. This is the last match of Part 3 and HHH hasn’t lost the title once. 9 months have passed this year and HHH’s reign of talent suppressing finally reaches an end when Goldberg uses 2 of his 4 moves to win the title and all the HHH haters breath a collective sigh of relief. The hope now is that HHH steps away from the title picture while some other wrestlers get the chance. Well, that’s the hope anyway.
Does HHH finally losing the title make Unforgiven a good PPV? No, because dull, weak matches that helped no one can only hinder progress. All through the card, weak matches, weak finishes and a weak use of talent does nothing for anyone. Not the worst PPV of the year but once again, Raw fails to deliver when on it’s own.
Part 4 will see the final 3 PPV’s of the year. No Mercy is a Smackdown only PPV and will be keen to keep their crown of dominance. Survivor Series sees Raw and Smackdown back together and Armageddon sees another opportunity for Raw to shine. Will the WWE match the success of Vengeance?
Thanks for reading.
Have to disagree when you said Gail Kim's ability didn't match the title she was given.
When she first arrived she botched nearly everything and her matches looked like train wrecks........... so i think she suited the title down to the ground :-D
anyway once again great review
When she first arrived she botched nearly everything and her matches looked like train wrecks........... so i think she suited the title down to the ground :-D
anyway once again great review
Another good review of PPV's. I can't decide which is the best of the 3, but i thought that your overview of the SummerSlam PPV, summed up what i thought about it.
I see where you are coming from with Summerslam. I actually mentioned that the US title match was match of the night at that point and I said that the Elimination Chamber was good until Goldberg cleaned up and the terrible finish. Unfortunately, the rest of the card wasn't good enough to drag Summerslam up, hence my average PPV assessment.
In my assessment of PPV's, I work on the theory that at least half the matches must be of a good enough standard to make it a success. Only a few PPV's have done that. That's just my way at looking at it. Maybe I'm just harder to please. :)
In my assessment of PPV's, I work on the theory that at least half the matches must be of a good enough standard to make it a success. Only a few PPV's have done that. That's just my way at looking at it. Maybe I'm just harder to please. :)
Yep. Good review. Although I did disagree with a few points...
I thought Summerslam was more than an average PPV this year. The fatal four way match for the US title was a great match. Definately one of my favourites of the year even though it did only last about 10 minutes.
The EC match was another of my favourite matches of the year. Well... Apart from the ending which I agree with you - It was terrible! But look at it this way - We saw Jericho, HBK and Orton fighting it out for the most part of the match. Now; I see that as a good thing. Yeah, there could've been a better ending, but it was a top match overall.
I look forward to part 4. We still need more Goldberg insults! :D
I thought Summerslam was more than an average PPV this year. The fatal four way match for the US title was a great match. Definately one of my favourites of the year even though it did only last about 10 minutes.
The EC match was another of my favourite matches of the year. Well... Apart from the ending which I agree with you - It was terrible! But look at it this way - We saw Jericho, HBK and Orton fighting it out for the most part of the match. Now; I see that as a good thing. Yeah, there could've been a better ending, but it was a top match overall.
I look forward to part 4. We still need more Goldberg insults! :D
That's a very astute obversation Lipe. The problem is, a lot of finishes nowadays are cop outs in a bid to keep their big stars from jobbing. The constant screwjobs, switch finishes and refs getting laid out only ends up hurting the crowd and the wrestlers. Add backstage politics into the mix and you get a complete booking mess.
I will praise wrestlers when they do a good job.
I will praise wrestlers when they do a good job.
Another good review, in my opinion the best of the 3. I enjoy reading it more when you don't insult the wrestlers so much, you instulted them just enough to get your point across but not to annoy any one :P After reading all 3 parts it seems to me that alot of the problems are the way matches end, completely killing the match.
6 PPV’s down, 6 to go as we reach the halfway point of the year. The WWE was in a slump with Raw being the main culprit. Smackdown was quite at the peak it was at the start of the year but is still considered the better show. Now is their chance to prove it.
The champions before the 7th PPV of the year, Vengeance, were as follows:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance
Women’s title: Gail Kim
Smackdown World title: Brock Lesnar
Smackdown Tag titles: TWGTT (Haas and Benjamin)
Cruiserweight title: Rey Mysterio
Intercontinental title: Booker T
US title: Vacant
There have been a lot of changes over the past few months. Gail Kim appears and in her first match, she wins a battle royal to win the Women’s title. Unfortunately, her wrestling ability didn’t match the title she was given. Haas and Benjamin regained the tag titles and abandoned Angle. They called themselves The World’s Greatest Tag Team. Rey Mysterio beat Matt Hardy to win the Cruiserweight title. Booker T finally got his hands on the Intercontinental title although he probably should have had the main title by now and the US title was reintroduced and the winner of the US title tournament would take the title.
The final of the US title tournament was at Smackdown’s first PPV, Vengeance. Vengeance was on the 27th July and it was the 3rd of the 4 PPV’s that were shown on Sky Box Office. On paper, the card looked pretty weak, especially with Steph McMahon and Vince McMahon wrestling. Will Vengeance put the WWE back on track or will it be a disappointment like Judgment Day or Bad Blood?
The first match was Benoit V Eddie Guerrero in the final of the US title tournament. The winner will take the title. As opening matches go, this should be one of the best. Eddie was fast beginning to show himself as a stellar singles performer due to Chavo’s injury and Benoit just kept bringing some wrestling out of the top draw but not getting the push he deserved. This match was everything you would expect. It was a great display of wrestling until the ref got bumped. The problem was he didn’t get bumped just once, he got bumped 3 times. Well, the third one was the final one as Rhyno turned heel and Gored Benoit, leaving Eddie to do the frogsplash and the win. Eddie took the title as Benoit looked set for a feud with Rhyno and further suppression down the card.
Next up, a returning Billy Gunn faces Jamie Noble. Billy Gunn has had shoulder problems for a long time and this match had a stipulation. If Noble won, he gets to sleep with Torrie on Smackdown. The end result saw Noble kiss Torrie and then rollup Gunn holding the tights for the win. Fortunately, the match didn’t run very long so it was watchable, although I must add that Noble got a face reaction for the win, even though he was a heel.
I don’t know if you could class this as a match because the A.P.A had reunited (no reason was given for Bradshaw switching from Raw) and they decided to have an invitational Barroom Brawl. There were quite a few people in this but it made little difference, as Bradshaw was the last man standing and was declared the winner.
The Smackdown Tag titles were on the line next as Haas and Benjamin took on Kidman and Mysterio. This match was super slick and the crowd got into it making it the match of the night so far. A double team move from Kidman and Mysterio almost had the titles won but it wasn’t quite enough as Benjamin catches Rey on Haas’ shoulders and the Doomsday Device retained the titles for Haas and Benjamin. It was a cracker.
Well, you couldn’t expect the hot match streak to last as Steph takes on Sable. For just over 6 minutes, the basic match layout was slap, slap, and slap. It’s to be expected. The big guy pushes continue (yes, in a women’s match) as A-Train runs in, lays out Steph and Sable picks up the win. Okay…
We move on to The Undertaker V John Cena. Cena was producing a lot of good stuff on Smackdown of late and was starting to show that he has potential, on the mic and in the ring. The Undertaker is getting older now and injuries keep appearing. A lot of people were saying that a Cena win was the ONLY result here, me being one of them. Cena did everything except hit Taker with a member of the audience and Taker hits the Last Ride for the win. A surprisingly good match but a Taker win did nothing to establish Cena as a future star. Taker is renowned for using backstage politics to avoid doing a job. I think it was pretty obvious here.
The second McMahon was in action as Vince took on Zach Gowen. It is basically an old guy versus a man with one leg and that is being polite. Zach Gowen hadn’t been in the WWE very long but this was the beginning of the end. Everyone so far had been refusing to job to him clean and his attitude backstage was poor. The finish was weak when Gowen did a couple of chairshots but missed a moonsault, which led to McMahon pinning Gowen. It wasn’t a bad match but the writing was on the wall for Gowen as a supposed standing ovation actually was half boos.
We reach the main event and it is Lesnar defending his title against Angle and Big Show in a no DQ triple threat match. Now, a match with Big Show usually spells disaster and usually results in a slow, dull affair. The good thing about this match was the Big Show was kept out of the match long enough to not drag this down to his level. Angle and Lesnar produced the goods again and showed that even Big Show can be in a good match. The end saw Angle Angle-slam Big Show and Lesnar with Angle pinning Lesnar to win the title back. I couldn’t be happier with that result as Angle has been WWE’s top performer for a while now.
The end result of Vengeance was a big thumbs up and stood out as the PPV of the year so far. It showed Smackdown’s dominance and blew Bad Blood out of the water. The buyrate didn’t reflect the success as the buyrate came in lower than Bad Blood. Despite being the best wrestling PPV of the year, there were a number of downsides, namely the weak finishes and the lack of filler match support.
Summerslam in 2002 was voted PPV of the year on SR and the wrestling community in general. Summerslam 2003 was next and there were lots of things being done in an attempt to stay out of the doldrums after Smackdown’s fine display at Vengeance. A few titles had changed hands since Vengeance. Booker T developed back problems and lost the Intercontinental title to Christian at a house show. Molly won the Women’s title off Gail Kim after the WWE realised that Kim needed to do some serious work improving.
The WWE were on the hard sell for Summerslam with the Raw World title being defended in an Elimination Chamber, the second one ever. Also, Kane had to remove his mask after getting hit with the Talent Suppressor and thus losing a match with HHH. He promptly turned heel and went on a rampage, tombstoning Linda McMahon leading to Shane appearing for revenge. Also, Brock Lesnar turned heel, enlisted the help of Vince McMahon and was billed as the Real Brock Lesnar.
Summerslam kicked off with La Resistance defending the Raw tag titles against the Dudleyz. The Dudleyz have started off as a face, turned heel and then turned back face, all within a few months. The Dudleyz act has gotten very stale and the constant changes haven’t done much to help them out. To be honest, I’d rather see them put loads of people through tables. Anyway, La Resistance win the match after new member Rob Conway hits D-Von with a camera allowing Dupree to pin him. The lack of depth in the tag division is frightening because the tag division used to be really strong. The match did nothing for either team so we move on.
The Undertaker is up next as he takes on A-Train after what he did to Steph at Vengeance. It’s always nice to see someone stick up for a woman but for goodness sake, A-Train and Taker? This has slow and dull written all over it. True to form, it was slow, dull and Taker won with the Chokeslam. Sable tries to crack onto Taker but this brings Steph out so A-Train takes Sable away. Pointless, very pointless.
Shane McMahon wants to get his hands on Kane but has to settle for Bischoff. With all the talent that they could use, like Haas and Benjamin or Cena, they devote 10 minutes to Shane V Bischoff. If you thought that this match couldn’t get any worse, the Coach starts interfering while every fan collectively leaves the room. Austin comes down to try and salvage this match, stunners Bischoff and Shane leaps off the top rope to the announcer’s table with a flying elbow to Bischoff for the win. A complete waste of time that could have been used building up someone useful.
Now the big guns appear as Eddie defends the US title against Benoit, Rhyno and Tajiri in a fatal 4-way match. Eddie is still on his hot streak and Benoit is just legendary. Unfortunately, it only gets 10 minutes when this match should have had double that. The finish saw Benoit hit a diving headbutt on Rhyno but got bundled out by Tajiri, leaving Eddie to frogsplash Rhyno to retain. It was the match of the night so far but we can only imagine what could have been if they were given the time.
Angle defends the Smackdown World title against The Real Brock Lesnar in what everyone hoped would match their Wrestlemania encounter and give us a lift from what has been a fairly weak Summerslam so far. Well, it was a good match, not as good as Wrestlemania due to ref bumps and Vince getting involved. Brock was being pushed as a real monster again on Smackdown beforehand but the end result saw Angle refuse to let go of the Anklelock and pull Brock away from the ropes, despite him actually reaching the ropes twice, leaving no option but to tap. It was a bizarre finish as Brock was looking like a monster again. Angle winning just makes up it though.
Next, Kane takes on former tag team partner, RVD. RVD, by this point, was being used as a resident jobber to the stars and with Kane V Shane on the cards, the result was obvious. You could tell that his heart wasn’t in it as Kane tombstones RVD on the steel steps, rolled him into the ring and won in a fairly sloppy match. At this point, RVD had only won one PPV match all year and he had appeared in 7 of the 8.
The main event was the Elimination Chamber. The first one at Survivor Series in 2002 was a big success and now another 6 face the task of emulating that. HHH walked into the chamber as the champ, having held it all year so far. Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, HBK, Goldberg and Nash were trying to take the title off him. Jericho and Michaels kick the match off, Orton is the first one released from the chamber and then Nash. Nash lasts all of 2 minutes as HBK superkicks Nash leading to Jericho bridging for the pin. I don’t think anyone knew how bad Nash’s neck was or they didn’t particularly care about Nash. I know I certainly didn’t. Nash powerbombs everyone that moves while HBK superkicks an exiting HHH. Goldberg is the last man in and clears up as he pins Orton, spears Jericho through the glass, pins HBK and then pins Jericho, all before HHH even gets out of his chamber. That must have been one hell of a kick. Flair tries to stop Goldberg getting to HHH by holding the door shut but Goldberg kicks the glass, beats on HHH for about a minute before Flair slides HHH the sledgehammer for the win and retains the title.
I saw this PPV live and I was pretty disgusted. The Elimination Chamber match was pretty good all until Goldberg cleaned up and, of course, the pathetic finish. The title on HHH meant nothing at this point, if it meant anything at all. The backstage politics won out again as HHH refuses to job at the 2nd biggest PPV of the year. The whole finish was a complete cop out. HHH spend most of the match in his chamber, the majority of it unconscious after one superkick. Goldberg did all the work, the crowd were actually behind him and he jobs to HHH’s almighty sledgehammer. That was Goldberg’s first defeat in the WWE and I wasn’t surprised that it was to HHH. If there was ever an obvious backstage influence and the suppressing of talent, you saw it here. Goldberg made 3 wrestlers look like jobbers for that finish.
Elimination Chamber aside for the moment, Summerslam was poor. A weak series of matches and a real lack of stand out matches wasn’t enough to save the PPV. The WWE banked on the Elimination Chamber to save them but after a promising start, it fizzled out and ultimately killed the crowd. It was a real contrast on last year. The result was a very average PPV.
So, Raw has a chance to redeem themselves with the second Raw PPV, Unforgiven. The WWE decided to have a special Smackdown before Unforgiven with half the show dedicated to Angle defending the title against Brock Lesnar in an Ironman match. Brock won the title 5-4 but that wasn’t the only title to change hands that night. Eddie and Chavo reunited as Los Guerreros to beat Haas and Benjamin to claim the tag team titles again.
Unforgiven was on the 21st September and I suppose you could say that we’ve reached the stale part of the year. The Royal Rumble is 3/4 months away and although Survivor Series is a major PPV and a couple of months away, it’s not as big as it used to be. It was about this time that Raw was just starting to peg back Smackdown’s dominance so let’s see how Unforgiven fares under scrutiny.
The opening match was scheduled to be a 3 on 3 match between the Dudleyz (including Spike) against La Resistance (including Rob Conway). Unfortunately, Spike got injured taking a table bump and was pulled from the match. The match was changed to a handicap table match with the Tag titles on the line. The end was classic Dudleyz as they 3D’d Dupree through the table for the win and the titles. La Resistance had a pretty weak run as champions and it was only after they lost the titles that they started looking better, especially Rob Conway. The match was a pretty bog standard table match and was definitely not PPV material.
The Test/Steiner feud had no sign of relenting as they lumbered through months of matches and segments leading to Test V Steiner – Winner gets Stacy (AGAIN!) and you can’t help feeling you’ve seen this match before. It wasn’t as good as their first match at Bad Blood (yes, Bad Blood, 3 months ago) and Test wins back Stacy after Stacy stole a chair from Test, swung, missed, hit Steiner, big boot by Test. I suppose you could say Steiner jobbed to a girl.
We go onwards to Shawn Michaels against Randy Orton. Randy Orton is now on the start of a push and is being groomed as a potential player to face Triple H. The match has potential but will it fulfil? The answer is yes and no. The match was fine but the finish was poor. Shawn kicks out of the RKO, which harms his finisher. Shawn gives Orton the Sweet Chin Music and gets the 3 count, only for Flair to put Orton’s foot on the ropes. That means Shawn can beat Orton clean with his finisher. Flair slips Orton some brass knuckles and he hits Shawn and wins. That means Orton can’t beat Shawn clean. I think Shawn came off better even though Orton won.
Lita returns after a year out with neck surgery and she is in the next match as Lita and Trish take on Molly and Gail Kim. You can forgive Lita for being a little ring rusty but Gail Kim has improved since she lost the title and turned heel. The result was probably one of the best women’s PPV match of the year, if not the best. Molly gets outnumbered leading to a moonsault by Lita for the win.
Next, it’s the match that was being set up for a while as the new unmasked Kane takes on Shane McMahon in a Last Man Standing match. It wasn’t much of a match because it was slow and plodding and the finish was even worse. Sure, it takes guts and a real desire to give something to the fans to dive from the set scaffolding but if that is the only way Kane can beat him, then Kane’s push is going to fail and fail badly. Shane smashes a camera in Kane’s face, climbs up the scaffolding, leaps, Kane moves, ref counts Shane out while Kane gets up at 9. Way to make Kane look good, guys!
Christian defends the Intercontinental title in a triple threat match against Jericho and RVD. Now, I have nothing against Christian as a wrestler but RVD and Jericho are better than this. The result is, RVD is not motivated because he gets put in these matches and ends up jobbing. There is no change as RVD goes for the 5-star but lands on Christian’s knee, which has the title belt on them. 1-2-3 for Christian and he survives with his title. The match wasn’t pretty and a motivated RVD and Jericho for that matter would have resulted in a potential match of the year candidate. Instead, it was nowhere near.
Everyone collectively relieves themselves as The Coach and Al Snow take on The King and JR for the Raw announcer’s position. Do I have to mention all the talent that is being wasted in the locker room while these guys get 10 minutes? Well, the whole thing they were trying to achieve here was to increase the intensity between Jericho and Austin, as they are at loggerheads at the moment. The end result saw Jericho dropkick JR and the Coach picks up the win. You can just see The Coach and Al Snow lasting about a week or so, so you could say that this was a complete waste of time.
Speaking of wastes of time, the main event is HHH defending the title against Goldberg. This is the last match of Part 3 and HHH hasn’t lost the title once. 9 months have passed this year and HHH’s reign of talent suppressing finally reaches an end when Goldberg uses 2 of his 4 moves to win the title and all the HHH haters breath a collective sigh of relief. The hope now is that HHH steps away from the title picture while some other wrestlers get the chance. Well, that’s the hope anyway.
Does HHH finally losing the title make Unforgiven a good PPV? No, because dull, weak matches that helped no one can only hinder progress. All through the card, weak matches, weak finishes and a weak use of talent does nothing for anyone. Not the worst PPV of the year but once again, Raw fails to deliver when on it’s own.
Part 4 will see the final 3 PPV’s of the year. No Mercy is a Smackdown only PPV and will be keen to keep their crown of dominance. Survivor Series sees Raw and Smackdown back together and Armageddon sees another opportunity for Raw to shine. Will the WWE match the success of Vengeance?
Thanks for reading.
The champions before the 7th PPV of the year, Vengeance, were as follows:
Raw World title: Triple H
Raw Tag Titles: La Resistance
Women’s title: Gail Kim
Smackdown World title: Brock Lesnar
Smackdown Tag titles: TWGTT (Haas and Benjamin)
Cruiserweight title: Rey Mysterio
Intercontinental title: Booker T
US title: Vacant
There have been a lot of changes over the past few months. Gail Kim appears and in her first match, she wins a battle royal to win the Women’s title. Unfortunately, her wrestling ability didn’t match the title she was given. Haas and Benjamin regained the tag titles and abandoned Angle. They called themselves The World’s Greatest Tag Team. Rey Mysterio beat Matt Hardy to win the Cruiserweight title. Booker T finally got his hands on the Intercontinental title although he probably should have had the main title by now and the US title was reintroduced and the winner of the US title tournament would take the title.
The final of the US title tournament was at Smackdown’s first PPV, Vengeance. Vengeance was on the 27th July and it was the 3rd of the 4 PPV’s that were shown on Sky Box Office. On paper, the card looked pretty weak, especially with Steph McMahon and Vince McMahon wrestling. Will Vengeance put the WWE back on track or will it be a disappointment like Judgment Day or Bad Blood?
The first match was Benoit V Eddie Guerrero in the final of the US title tournament. The winner will take the title. As opening matches go, this should be one of the best. Eddie was fast beginning to show himself as a stellar singles performer due to Chavo’s injury and Benoit just kept bringing some wrestling out of the top draw but not getting the push he deserved. This match was everything you would expect. It was a great display of wrestling until the ref got bumped. The problem was he didn’t get bumped just once, he got bumped 3 times. Well, the third one was the final one as Rhyno turned heel and Gored Benoit, leaving Eddie to do the frogsplash and the win. Eddie took the title as Benoit looked set for a feud with Rhyno and further suppression down the card.
Next up, a returning Billy Gunn faces Jamie Noble. Billy Gunn has had shoulder problems for a long time and this match had a stipulation. If Noble won, he gets to sleep with Torrie on Smackdown. The end result saw Noble kiss Torrie and then rollup Gunn holding the tights for the win. Fortunately, the match didn’t run very long so it was watchable, although I must add that Noble got a face reaction for the win, even though he was a heel.
I don’t know if you could class this as a match because the A.P.A had reunited (no reason was given for Bradshaw switching from Raw) and they decided to have an invitational Barroom Brawl. There were quite a few people in this but it made little difference, as Bradshaw was the last man standing and was declared the winner.
The Smackdown Tag titles were on the line next as Haas and Benjamin took on Kidman and Mysterio. This match was super slick and the crowd got into it making it the match of the night so far. A double team move from Kidman and Mysterio almost had the titles won but it wasn’t quite enough as Benjamin catches Rey on Haas’ shoulders and the Doomsday Device retained the titles for Haas and Benjamin. It was a cracker.
Well, you couldn’t expect the hot match streak to last as Steph takes on Sable. For just over 6 minutes, the basic match layout was slap, slap, and slap. It’s to be expected. The big guy pushes continue (yes, in a women’s match) as A-Train runs in, lays out Steph and Sable picks up the win. Okay…
We move on to The Undertaker V John Cena. Cena was producing a lot of good stuff on Smackdown of late and was starting to show that he has potential, on the mic and in the ring. The Undertaker is getting older now and injuries keep appearing. A lot of people were saying that a Cena win was the ONLY result here, me being one of them. Cena did everything except hit Taker with a member of the audience and Taker hits the Last Ride for the win. A surprisingly good match but a Taker win did nothing to establish Cena as a future star. Taker is renowned for using backstage politics to avoid doing a job. I think it was pretty obvious here.
The second McMahon was in action as Vince took on Zach Gowen. It is basically an old guy versus a man with one leg and that is being polite. Zach Gowen hadn’t been in the WWE very long but this was the beginning of the end. Everyone so far had been refusing to job to him clean and his attitude backstage was poor. The finish was weak when Gowen did a couple of chairshots but missed a moonsault, which led to McMahon pinning Gowen. It wasn’t a bad match but the writing was on the wall for Gowen as a supposed standing ovation actually was half boos.
We reach the main event and it is Lesnar defending his title against Angle and Big Show in a no DQ triple threat match. Now, a match with Big Show usually spells disaster and usually results in a slow, dull affair. The good thing about this match was the Big Show was kept out of the match long enough to not drag this down to his level. Angle and Lesnar produced the goods again and showed that even Big Show can be in a good match. The end saw Angle Angle-slam Big Show and Lesnar with Angle pinning Lesnar to win the title back. I couldn’t be happier with that result as Angle has been WWE’s top performer for a while now.
The end result of Vengeance was a big thumbs up and stood out as the PPV of the year so far. It showed Smackdown’s dominance and blew Bad Blood out of the water. The buyrate didn’t reflect the success as the buyrate came in lower than Bad Blood. Despite being the best wrestling PPV of the year, there were a number of downsides, namely the weak finishes and the lack of filler match support.
Summerslam in 2002 was voted PPV of the year on SR and the wrestling community in general. Summerslam 2003 was next and there were lots of things being done in an attempt to stay out of the doldrums after Smackdown’s fine display at Vengeance. A few titles had changed hands since Vengeance. Booker T developed back problems and lost the Intercontinental title to Christian at a house show. Molly won the Women’s title off Gail Kim after the WWE realised that Kim needed to do some serious work improving.
The WWE were on the hard sell for Summerslam with the Raw World title being defended in an Elimination Chamber, the second one ever. Also, Kane had to remove his mask after getting hit with the Talent Suppressor and thus losing a match with HHH. He promptly turned heel and went on a rampage, tombstoning Linda McMahon leading to Shane appearing for revenge. Also, Brock Lesnar turned heel, enlisted the help of Vince McMahon and was billed as the Real Brock Lesnar.
Summerslam kicked off with La Resistance defending the Raw tag titles against the Dudleyz. The Dudleyz have started off as a face, turned heel and then turned back face, all within a few months. The Dudleyz act has gotten very stale and the constant changes haven’t done much to help them out. To be honest, I’d rather see them put loads of people through tables. Anyway, La Resistance win the match after new member Rob Conway hits D-Von with a camera allowing Dupree to pin him. The lack of depth in the tag division is frightening because the tag division used to be really strong. The match did nothing for either team so we move on.
The Undertaker is up next as he takes on A-Train after what he did to Steph at Vengeance. It’s always nice to see someone stick up for a woman but for goodness sake, A-Train and Taker? This has slow and dull written all over it. True to form, it was slow, dull and Taker won with the Chokeslam. Sable tries to crack onto Taker but this brings Steph out so A-Train takes Sable away. Pointless, very pointless.
Shane McMahon wants to get his hands on Kane but has to settle for Bischoff. With all the talent that they could use, like Haas and Benjamin or Cena, they devote 10 minutes to Shane V Bischoff. If you thought that this match couldn’t get any worse, the Coach starts interfering while every fan collectively leaves the room. Austin comes down to try and salvage this match, stunners Bischoff and Shane leaps off the top rope to the announcer’s table with a flying elbow to Bischoff for the win. A complete waste of time that could have been used building up someone useful.
Now the big guns appear as Eddie defends the US title against Benoit, Rhyno and Tajiri in a fatal 4-way match. Eddie is still on his hot streak and Benoit is just legendary. Unfortunately, it only gets 10 minutes when this match should have had double that. The finish saw Benoit hit a diving headbutt on Rhyno but got bundled out by Tajiri, leaving Eddie to frogsplash Rhyno to retain. It was the match of the night so far but we can only imagine what could have been if they were given the time.
Angle defends the Smackdown World title against The Real Brock Lesnar in what everyone hoped would match their Wrestlemania encounter and give us a lift from what has been a fairly weak Summerslam so far. Well, it was a good match, not as good as Wrestlemania due to ref bumps and Vince getting involved. Brock was being pushed as a real monster again on Smackdown beforehand but the end result saw Angle refuse to let go of the Anklelock and pull Brock away from the ropes, despite him actually reaching the ropes twice, leaving no option but to tap. It was a bizarre finish as Brock was looking like a monster again. Angle winning just makes up it though.
Next, Kane takes on former tag team partner, RVD. RVD, by this point, was being used as a resident jobber to the stars and with Kane V Shane on the cards, the result was obvious. You could tell that his heart wasn’t in it as Kane tombstones RVD on the steel steps, rolled him into the ring and won in a fairly sloppy match. At this point, RVD had only won one PPV match all year and he had appeared in 7 of the 8.
The main event was the Elimination Chamber. The first one at Survivor Series in 2002 was a big success and now another 6 face the task of emulating that. HHH walked into the chamber as the champ, having held it all year so far. Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, HBK, Goldberg and Nash were trying to take the title off him. Jericho and Michaels kick the match off, Orton is the first one released from the chamber and then Nash. Nash lasts all of 2 minutes as HBK superkicks Nash leading to Jericho bridging for the pin. I don’t think anyone knew how bad Nash’s neck was or they didn’t particularly care about Nash. I know I certainly didn’t. Nash powerbombs everyone that moves while HBK superkicks an exiting HHH. Goldberg is the last man in and clears up as he pins Orton, spears Jericho through the glass, pins HBK and then pins Jericho, all before HHH even gets out of his chamber. That must have been one hell of a kick. Flair tries to stop Goldberg getting to HHH by holding the door shut but Goldberg kicks the glass, beats on HHH for about a minute before Flair slides HHH the sledgehammer for the win and retains the title.
I saw this PPV live and I was pretty disgusted. The Elimination Chamber match was pretty good all until Goldberg cleaned up and, of course, the pathetic finish. The title on HHH meant nothing at this point, if it meant anything at all. The backstage politics won out again as HHH refuses to job at the 2nd biggest PPV of the year. The whole finish was a complete cop out. HHH spend most of the match in his chamber, the majority of it unconscious after one superkick. Goldberg did all the work, the crowd were actually behind him and he jobs to HHH’s almighty sledgehammer. That was Goldberg’s first defeat in the WWE and I wasn’t surprised that it was to HHH. If there was ever an obvious backstage influence and the suppressing of talent, you saw it here. Goldberg made 3 wrestlers look like jobbers for that finish.
Elimination Chamber aside for the moment, Summerslam was poor. A weak series of matches and a real lack of stand out matches wasn’t enough to save the PPV. The WWE banked on the Elimination Chamber to save them but after a promising start, it fizzled out and ultimately killed the crowd. It was a real contrast on last year. The result was a very average PPV.
So, Raw has a chance to redeem themselves with the second Raw PPV, Unforgiven. The WWE decided to have a special Smackdown before Unforgiven with half the show dedicated to Angle defending the title against Brock Lesnar in an Ironman match. Brock won the title 5-4 but that wasn’t the only title to change hands that night. Eddie and Chavo reunited as Los Guerreros to beat Haas and Benjamin to claim the tag team titles again.
Unforgiven was on the 21st September and I suppose you could say that we’ve reached the stale part of the year. The Royal Rumble is 3/4 months away and although Survivor Series is a major PPV and a couple of months away, it’s not as big as it used to be. It was about this time that Raw was just starting to peg back Smackdown’s dominance so let’s see how Unforgiven fares under scrutiny.
The opening match was scheduled to be a 3 on 3 match between the Dudleyz (including Spike) against La Resistance (including Rob Conway). Unfortunately, Spike got injured taking a table bump and was pulled from the match. The match was changed to a handicap table match with the Tag titles on the line. The end was classic Dudleyz as they 3D’d Dupree through the table for the win and the titles. La Resistance had a pretty weak run as champions and it was only after they lost the titles that they started looking better, especially Rob Conway. The match was a pretty bog standard table match and was definitely not PPV material.
The Test/Steiner feud had no sign of relenting as they lumbered through months of matches and segments leading to Test V Steiner – Winner gets Stacy (AGAIN!) and you can’t help feeling you’ve seen this match before. It wasn’t as good as their first match at Bad Blood (yes, Bad Blood, 3 months ago) and Test wins back Stacy after Stacy stole a chair from Test, swung, missed, hit Steiner, big boot by Test. I suppose you could say Steiner jobbed to a girl.
We go onwards to Shawn Michaels against Randy Orton. Randy Orton is now on the start of a push and is being groomed as a potential player to face Triple H. The match has potential but will it fulfil? The answer is yes and no. The match was fine but the finish was poor. Shawn kicks out of the RKO, which harms his finisher. Shawn gives Orton the Sweet Chin Music and gets the 3 count, only for Flair to put Orton’s foot on the ropes. That means Shawn can beat Orton clean with his finisher. Flair slips Orton some brass knuckles and he hits Shawn and wins. That means Orton can’t beat Shawn clean. I think Shawn came off better even though Orton won.
Lita returns after a year out with neck surgery and she is in the next match as Lita and Trish take on Molly and Gail Kim. You can forgive Lita for being a little ring rusty but Gail Kim has improved since she lost the title and turned heel. The result was probably one of the best women’s PPV match of the year, if not the best. Molly gets outnumbered leading to a moonsault by Lita for the win.
Next, it’s the match that was being set up for a while as the new unmasked Kane takes on Shane McMahon in a Last Man Standing match. It wasn’t much of a match because it was slow and plodding and the finish was even worse. Sure, it takes guts and a real desire to give something to the fans to dive from the set scaffolding but if that is the only way Kane can beat him, then Kane’s push is going to fail and fail badly. Shane smashes a camera in Kane’s face, climbs up the scaffolding, leaps, Kane moves, ref counts Shane out while Kane gets up at 9. Way to make Kane look good, guys!
Christian defends the Intercontinental title in a triple threat match against Jericho and RVD. Now, I have nothing against Christian as a wrestler but RVD and Jericho are better than this. The result is, RVD is not motivated because he gets put in these matches and ends up jobbing. There is no change as RVD goes for the 5-star but lands on Christian’s knee, which has the title belt on them. 1-2-3 for Christian and he survives with his title. The match wasn’t pretty and a motivated RVD and Jericho for that matter would have resulted in a potential match of the year candidate. Instead, it was nowhere near.
Everyone collectively relieves themselves as The Coach and Al Snow take on The King and JR for the Raw announcer’s position. Do I have to mention all the talent that is being wasted in the locker room while these guys get 10 minutes? Well, the whole thing they were trying to achieve here was to increase the intensity between Jericho and Austin, as they are at loggerheads at the moment. The end result saw Jericho dropkick JR and the Coach picks up the win. You can just see The Coach and Al Snow lasting about a week or so, so you could say that this was a complete waste of time.
Speaking of wastes of time, the main event is HHH defending the title against Goldberg. This is the last match of Part 3 and HHH hasn’t lost the title once. 9 months have passed this year and HHH’s reign of talent suppressing finally reaches an end when Goldberg uses 2 of his 4 moves to win the title and all the HHH haters breath a collective sigh of relief. The hope now is that HHH steps away from the title picture while some other wrestlers get the chance. Well, that’s the hope anyway.
Does HHH finally losing the title make Unforgiven a good PPV? No, because dull, weak matches that helped no one can only hinder progress. All through the card, weak matches, weak finishes and a weak use of talent does nothing for anyone. Not the worst PPV of the year but once again, Raw fails to deliver when on it’s own.
Part 4 will see the final 3 PPV’s of the year. No Mercy is a Smackdown only PPV and will be keen to keep their crown of dominance. Survivor Series sees Raw and Smackdown back together and Armageddon sees another opportunity for Raw to shine. Will the WWE match the success of Vengeance?
Thanks for reading.