World Wrestling Entertainment – Survivor Series 2003 – 16th November 2003
Considering Survivor Series is traditionally considered the least consequential of the ‘Big Four’ annual pay-per-views, this one is absolutely packed with high stakes, big matches and championships to be decided. There isn’t a single match on the card which doesn’t have some kind of storyline build…and when you consider how half-assed a lot of these 2003 ppv’s have been that’s a real achievement. It’s another big night for the McMahon family first and foremost. Having forced his daughter out of the company at No Mercy, Vince McMahon now opposes his most loyal employee – as the self-appointed ‘conscience of the WWE’, the Undertaker, looks to make him pay for his multiple sins over the last few years in a Buried Alive Match. Son Shane, meanwhile, once again risks his life by getting into the ring again with Kane in an Ambulance Match. Smackdown’s hottest rivalry of 2003 expands to traditional Survivor Series format as Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle pick teams and go into battle once again. On the Raw side, Steve Austin’s very career is at stake as he appoints a team of five to face Eric Bischoff’s chosen anti-Austin team looking to force him out of the business for good. We also have HHH looking to take the World Title back from Goldberg, Lita looking to complete her comeback with a Women’s Title win and Los Guerreros trying to keep their sh*t together in order to become WWE Tag Champs. Jim Ross, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Tazz are ready for a chaotic evening in Dallas, TX.
Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit/John Cena/Bradshaw/Hardcore Holly vs Brock Lesnar/Big Show/A-Train/Matt Morgan/Nathan Jones
So Kurt gets three future World Champions on his team (and Hardcore Bob), but Lesnar gets stuck with basically the worst Survivor Series team ever. How is that remotely fair!? In Michael Cole’s words, Kurt has put together a ‘team of loners’, but each of whom have axes to grind with members of the opposition. Cena, who was basically a babyface by this point, is chasing Big Show and the US Title. Benoit and A-Train have been feuding over the last few months. Bradshaw is annoyed because Show put his partner, Faarooq, on the injured list. Hardcore Holly had only recently returned from a neck injury suffered at the hands of Brock Lesnar, so he is gunning for revenge too. Notice I haven’t mentioned Matt Morgan and Nathan Jones? That’s because they were big, muscled up lumps of sh*t at this point. I know Morgan went on to be serviceable in TNA, but at this point he was SO green.
You can hear pins drop during the entrances of Jones and Morgan. Bob doesn’t even wait for Lesnar to get into the ring before getting the fight started…and gets himself disqualified before the match even starts. What a f*cking tool. In the ring Bradshaw blocks the Vader Bomb and destroys A-Train with the Clothesline From Hell to eliminate him at 00:30. Big Show stumbles in for a Chokeslam, so Bradshaw is gone at 00:50 and less than a minute into the match we’re already three men down. The crowd are groaning in annoyance at this by this point so Cena is sent in to restore some credibility. He’s the victim of a gang assault by the many colossal members of the opposition team. Finally he tags out after a Throwback on Lesnar, but Benoit struggles just as much to make an impact on the team of giants that stand across the ring from him. He counters Show’s Chokeslam into a Crossface…but finds his face stomped by the WWE Champion almost immediately. Show then gets a nearfall with his enormous interpretation of Matt Sydal’s ‘Slice’. Angle tags and tosses Morgan around the ring with Germans, before once again finding his progress halted by Lesnar. Nathan Jones inadvertently boots Morgan in the face during the chaos – knocking him into an Angle Slam. Kurt eliminates him at 09:08. Big Show then cleans Nathan’s clock in a near instant replay. Anklelock on Jones…forcing him to tap at 09:32. F-5 ON ANGLE! Brock pins his biggest rival to eliminate him at 09:46! We’re down to Benoit and Cena against Lesnar and Show. Benoit steps in and goes to work on Brock’s left arm. It’s so effective that he is instantly able to counter the F-5 to the Crippler Crossface! BROCK TAPS! Benoit submits the WWE Champion at 11:55! FLYING WOLVERINE TORPEDO HEADBUTT ON SHOW! Cena is tagged, and as Show drops Benoit with a Chokeslam the ref doesn’t see John sneak in and nail him with his chain. F-U ON BIG SHOW! CENA WINS! Benoit and Cena survive the match at 13:17
Rating - *** - Some of the workers in this may have sucked, but it was booked BRILLIANTLY. All the crap workers basically did nothing. Hardcore Bob didn’t even make it to the start of the match, A-Train and Bradshaw didn’t survive the first minute, whilst Morgan and Jones basically stood on the apron for nine minutes before they got to look like fools getting themselves eliminated too. And beyond that some of the forward thinking on this was outstanding. Brock got to look strong by cleanly beating his biggest rival in Kurt Angle. He then set Benoit up for his big push in 2004 (remember, by this point they were already thinking about giving Benoit a serious main event run) by tapping out clean. Then the finish gave the WWE’s chosen one, the newest ‘next big thing’ in John Cena have his moment to shine. Both Benoit and Cena were big winners at the following year’s WrestleMania, so it was terrific long term booking to have them go over here.
Vince strolls into his son’s locker room to discuss their pending matches against the Brothers Of Destruction. Vince thinks it’s spiritual that a Father/Son duo are facing two brothers…and rambles on about being protected by a higher power. Shane brushes him off, and the saddened Vince heads back into the corridor to be confronted by his biggest nemesis – Stone Cold. They exchange awkward stares and laughs in a hilarious little exchange.
Molly Holly vs Lita – WWE Women’s Title Match
I find the way Lita a-rhythmically pulses and spasms during her entrance bizarrely attractive. She has only been back from a serious neck injury a couple of months, but instantly found herself in a feud with the reigning Women’s Champion, Molly Holly. Molly is a dangerous competitor, so Lita knows she has her work cut out if she wants to regain the belt tonight.
Amazingly Lawler tries to focus on the title and wrestling, and it’s JR that makes the first ‘Molly is a virgin’ crack. Molly blocks an early Twist Of Fate, but gets tossed across the ring with a vertical suplex instead. Sadly for her, Holly’s response is to toss her all the way over the top rope to the floor. The champ then goes after the neck viciously – first by slamming it into the rails then whipping her over with a swinging neckbreaker. Dragon sleeper applied next, and it’s only Lita’s flexibility that enables her to escape that. A handspring elbow snaps the neck back once more though. Lita does her best to retaliate but is soon dumped on her back and neck again with a sidewalk slam. Walking powerbomb by the challenger, only for her to then grab at her neck and miss the chance to pin Molly. Moonsault MISSES, before Molly scales the ropes to hit the Molly-Go-Round for 2. She knocks Lita out against an exposed metal turnbuckle bolt and steals the win at 06:48
Rating - ** - Had the finish been better I could have gone higher on my rating. Aside from her ugly-as-hell moonsault, Lita was actually really solid in this match – hitting all her moves well and doing a relatively good job selling the neck. Molly was, of course, much more technically sound and looked really motivated getting to work with someone like Lita who was getting seriously huge responses from live audiences.
SIDENOTE – A replay shows you that referee Charles Robinson was looking directly at the exposed turnbuckle bolt which Molly illegally used to win. A seriously bad finish to a decent match.
Kane vs Shane McMahon – Ambulance Match
So Shane-O-Mac is still desperate for revenge on the Big Red Machine. Kane Tombstoned his mother several months ago, and despite his best efforts he’s never managed to get revenge. No matter what he’s thrown at Kane, from tossing him into a burning dumpster to crashing a car with him in, the monster just keeps getting up and coming back for more. And for every seemingly-devastating blow McMahon is able to inflict, he has to absorb multiple beatings from Kane. We’ve seen him bloodied, we’ve seen him get his nutsack electrocuted. At Unforgiven Shane was so crazed in his desire to end Kane’s career that he nearly killed himself diving off the Titantron. What lengths will he have to go to tonight to incapacitate him for long enough to deposit him into the back of an Ambulance?
Shane sprints straight at Kane…knocking him over the top rope straight onto his HEAD. Despite nearly dying moments earlier, Kane is soon back up pursuing McMahon with the steps. McMahon knocks him back with a battery of wild chair shots and immediately starts prepping the Spanish announce table for the flying Leap Of Faith elbow. FLYING ELBOW THROUGH THE TABLE NAILED! Amazingly, it’s less than a minute later that Kane is back on his feet and chasing Shane through the crowd, all the way backstage. McMahon attacks again, this time channelling his inner Steve Blackman with multiple kendo stick shots. Next he REVERSES A CAR INTO KANE’S FACE! It knocked him clean through a glass security booth too! With the Big Red Machine still down Shane pulls out a walkie talkie and summons an ambulance. Before he can even put him on a stretcher properly Kane is up again though – violently hurling him into the brick walls of the corridor they are fighting in. A second camera feed goes blank following the action backstage, causing the live crowd to turn on this one rather unfortunately. There is some ironic applause when they finally burst through the curtain into the aisle right in front of the ringside ambulance. Shane bumps so hard on the hood of the ambulance that his skull cracks the windscreen. He hits back by opening the door into Kane’s face though. I mean a full, unprotected metal car door slamming brutally into Kane’s head by the way. It unfathomably doesn’t knock him out and he soon comes perilously close to shutting McMahon in the back of the vehicle seconds later. Tornado DDT OFF THE AMBULANCE countered…so Shane hops up and hits a more straight forward DDT on the floor instead! Shane pins Kane to the ground using a huge black box, puts a trash can in his face then climbs to the top of the ambulance. VAN TERMINATOR OFF THE F*CKING AMBULANCE! Even if the box turned out to be padding to absorb some of that bump that’s still an insane spot. Somehow Shane-O scoops the monster into the back of the ambulance…only for Kane to wrap a hand around his throat and drag him in too! The fight continues with Kane denting the ambulance using McMahon’s prone body. TOMBSTONE ON THE CONCRETE FLOOR! That’s obviously it, and Kane wins at 13:32
Rating - *** - I still have some fundamental issues with Kane giving away so much offence to Shane. Having said all that, once you get over that particular gripe this was pretty awesome. It combined the best bits of their Last Man Standing Match at Unforgiven with the weirdness of the Undertaker/Mankind Boiler Room Brawl, plus the unique sight of some utterly crazy spots using the ambulance. The formula of Shane throwing everything at Kane like he’s some kind of horror movie monster is pretty fun in a nonsensical kind of way. Both guys deserve a ton of credit for putting their bodies through this though. Obviously Shane took some real punishment but Kane was absolutely brutalised too – and that’s without taking into consideration that he may have bumped against a MOVING CAR as well (the camera angle made it impossible to tell whether Shane actually made contact or not). Kane was seriously over as a psychopath during 2003 and produced some of the best work of his entire career. If you can get over the ridiculousness of him giving up so much offence to a part-time wrestler both his matches with Shane McMahon have been really entertaining.
Kane, frothing and bleeding from the mouth, smiles evilly into the camera as the ambulance drives off.
Josh Matthews asks Brock for his thoughts on Team Lesnar’s loss to Team Angle tonight. Brock is in denial about tapping out to Chris Benoit. The World Champion, Bill Goldberg, strolls in to introduce himself with a smile on his face.
Jonathan Coachman enters the arena in a neck brace, presumably sad that the Unforgiven stipulation that he become the lead announcer on Raw didn’t survive very long. He assures everyone that he’ll be fine after a recent assault by the Dudley Boyz then gets involved in an asinine ringside segment with Mark Cuban and Eric Bischoff. Randy Orton ‘legend kills’ Cuban to demonstrate his loyalty to ‘Team Bischoff’ ahead of the second Survivor Series 5-on-5 later…
Meanwhile Orton’s Evolution colleagues HHH, Ric Flair and Batista are partying backstage with random skanks. It’s a celebration of Hunter becoming the new World Champion tonight. Is Triple H drinking white wine???
Basham Brothers vs Los Guerreros – WWE Tag Title Match
Since their embarrassingly bad ppv debut at No Mercy, the Bashams have inexplicably gone on to become WWE Tag Champions, effectively proving that the belts are now meaningless despite all the hard work of the Smackdown Six (including the Guerreros) in 2002. Eddie and Chavo haven’t been getting on particularly well recently. At No Mercy we saw Eddie devastated at losing the US Title, whilst Chavo desperately wanted him to focus on their tag team anyway, so wasn’t too upset. That animosity was further fuelled when Eddie’s lack of focus wound up causing Los Guerreros to drop the Tag Titles to the Bashams in the first place.
Shaniqua gets the Bashams on all fours and whips them before the match. Presumably you’re left in no doubt as to why they never got over even if you’ve never seen them after reading that sentence. Eddie and Chavo have an easy time clearing them from the ring despite their apparent personal issues and begin the match in total control of the champions. Three Amigos on Danny, then Eddie runs the ropes hitting a simultaneous headscissors/lucha armdrag on both opponents. Shaniqua involves herself with a body slam on the floor to Latino Heat to hand her team the advantage. Double slingshot suplex gets 2 for Danny. Chavo gets a tag and sets Doug up for a frankensteiner from Uncle Eddie. Danny back drops Eddie over the top…as Chavo and Doug take each other out with clotheslines. Frog Splash on Shaniqua! Eddie encourages Chavo to give her a spanking…then gets kicked to the mat as Chavo uses his FACE as a springboard for a tornado DDT. With Eddie still reeling, Danny rolls Chavo up using the tights to retain the belts at 07:31
Rating - ** - There wasn’t anything wrong with this, and it was a perfectly functional tag match. Unfortunately it wasn’t interesting or exciting either. The only moments of real interest came from the Guerreros and Shaniqua, which doesn’t say a lot for the champions. The Bashams were just so talentless inside the ring that nobody cared about them – femdom gimmick or not. At least it was better than the APA/Bashams No Mercy match
Los Guerreros have another in-ring argument before leaving the ring.
Chris Jericho/Christian/Randy Orton/Mark Henry/Scott Steiner vs Shawn Michaels/Booker T/Rob Van Dam/Dudley Boyz
At Unforgiven we saw Chris Jericho starting an anti-Stone Cold movement from within the Raw locker room. He and several others had become tired of Austin’s fan-focused booking decisions and forcing wrestlers into needlessly dangerous situations. At board level Linda McMahon informed Austin that he had to stop assaulting his colleagues (Bischoff and Coach) and his wrestlers or he’d be fired. Now unable to dish out Stunners, the likes of Jericho, Christian and Evolution enjoyed making fun of the venom-less Rattlesnake. Eric Bischoff offered Austin an ‘out’. They each picked a team of five to face off in a classic Survivor Series Match, and if Austin can win then the ‘no contact’ rule is thrown out the window. The implication was that he could even go back to wrestling too if he wanted to. However, Austin had to offer up something as well. If Bischoff’s team won then Steve had to retire, resign from the Raw GM job and leave the WWE. For the first time ever, Steve Austin (and his ‘DTA’ attitude) has to trust OTHER PEOPLE to get the job done. He puts his faith in several of the more successful members of the WCW/ECW Alliance he once led (Van Dam, Booker and the Dudleyz)…and gave his captaincy to Shawn Michaels. That was a controversial move given his less than harmonious history with HBK. Michaels has issues with Jericho and Orton in the past. Jericho, Christian and Booker T would all consider themselves top contenders to RVD’s Intercontinental Title. The Dudleyz have feuded with Teddy Long (who now manages the newly-returned Mark Henry) in the past. And don’t forget the last ever WCW Nitro main event pitted Booker T and Scott Steiner against each other. The stakes are high, there are plenty of rivalries across both teams. Which Raw GM has picked a more functional squad to achieve their objectives here?
D-Von and Christian start, renewing a rivalry which goes back years as well. Question – why is Booker T always put over as a former WCW Champion but Scott Steiner isn’t? RVD tags himself in, quickly dispatches the man he defeated for the IC Title then runs through a really neat little exchange with Jericho for good measure. Watching Steiner try to keep pace with Van Dam is comical, since Rob has to basically work in slow motion for him. Scotty gets his revenge by dropping him on his neck from a belly to belly superplex. Booker comes to his partner’s aid with the Ghetto Blaster, then the 110th Street Slam for 2. Everyone else piles into the ring, causing an enormous distraction which allows Steiner to hit Booker in the balls then strap him into the Steiner Recliner. Stacy Keibler (who hates Steiner now) starts cheering for Booker – distracting Big Poppa Pump as the Dudleyz drop him with 3-D II. Book End eliminates Steiner at 07:28. Mark Henry, and his sweaty ass, immediately even the scores with a World’s Strongest Slam on Booker at 07:51. Christian and Orton are happily chatting away on the apron without a care in the world by the way. They barely acknowledge the Dudleyz giving Henry the 3-D, and are knocked off the apron before they can stop Van Dam hitting the Five Star Frog Splash. The ex-ECW guys all pile on to pin Henry (illegally) at 10:04. In fact, ten minutes into the match we’re still waiting for Orton to do ANYTHING. Jericho is in next, nearly eliminated himself after the split-legged moonsault. At last Randall does see fit to grace us with his presence – and nearly decapitates Mr PPV with a running lariat. Jericho shoves Van Dam into the RKO, and we’re down to 3 vs 3 at 12:06. D-Von spends a couple of minutes flying around the ring like a cruiserweight…and is rewarded for his hard work by being eliminated without even needing a finisher.
Jericho gives him an innocuous sleeper slam and pins him at 13:49. Seriously, he couldn’t even use the Breakdown or something? Christian and Jericho accidentally collide…but are immediately back on the same page as Jericho low blows Bubba Ray into the Unprettier. Bubba is eliminated at 16:52, so it’s now 3-on-1. Christian wastes no time pouncing on Michaels (who has done less than even Orton so far). He tosses HBK straight out of the ring so Jericho and the aforementioned Orton can cheap shot the hell out of him. Shawn fights bravely, but soon has his face split open after Christian catapults him into the ringpost. It’s a real gusher from Michaels, leaving pools of blood on the black ringside mats then covering Christian’s torso in it too. SUPERKICK out of nowhere! Christian is gone at 20:30! The respite is only brief though, as Jericho and Orton strike quickly to make sure he gets no time to recover. Somehow Shawn levels Y2J with a DDT, but is attacked from behind by Randy before he can capitalise. LIONSAULT GETS KNEES! SUPERKICK DUCKED…WALLS OF JERICHO COUNTERED TO A SMALL PACKAGE! JERICHO IS ELIMINATED! Just like at WrestleMania he succumbs to a flash pin from Shawn at 23:56. Against all odds Michaels is still in this match, leaving us with a legend against the Legend Killer. Great facials from Bischoff and Austin sell the emotion of the moment, before Jericho snatches the spotlight back by nailing HBK with a chair. Surely that should be a DQ so Shawn wins? Orton dives off the top rope, as Michaels’ knees give way meaning Randy wipes out the ref. Bischoff dives into the ring to save Orton from Sweet Chin Music…and is NAILED by Austin as a result! STUNNER ON ORTON! Stone Cold and Bischoff brawl up the aisle, and miss Batista run in to help Orton with a BATISTA BOMB! Orton pins Shawn at 27:28
Rating - *** - I’m sure there were people hyping this as an MOTYC at the time. It’s not even close. The first fifteen minutes are as basic as you can get. Nobody was working hard at all, we had a procession of spots and uninteresting eliminations. The key players (Orton and Michaels) weren’t even in the match. Half way through this I was ready to write it off as a total bust…which made what came next from Shawn Michaels all the more remarkable. Off his own back Shawn gave an AMAZING babyface performance. The blood helped of course, but in his home state he delivered a scintillating exhibition in how to get a crowd behind you. He bumped like a mad man, sold like a pro and made you believe he really was fighting for his life in there. Jericho, Orton and Christian weren’t even using that many heel tactics. It was all Shawn’s work to bring this match to life. Since the last ten minutes of this are must-see, and the first fifteen were pretty mediocre, I called my rating down the middle and went 3*
Stone Cold helps the bloody Shawn Michaels to his feet, and shakes his old rival’s hand. Shawn is inconsolable and walks out profusely apologising for letting Austin down. Steve then delivers an amazingly out-of-character promo thanking fans. Since nobody knew WrestleMania 19 was his last match, it’s probably fitting that he got to do something like this on what was his last night as a full-time ‘on-air’ talent.
SIDENOTE – Austin had been pretty much full-time on WWE television since his return for a farewell run in February. This event marked the end of his career as a full-time wrestler/sports-entertainer and gave him the chance to have the farewell moment he didn’t get when he walked out in 2002, or after his last match against The Rock at Mania 19. Since this event he’s only ever been a part-time guy, making sporadic and selective appearances when his schedule and WWE’s matched up.
The Coach and his team of security guards (which include Brent Albright) come out to rub salt in Stone Cold’s wounds. Predictably it ends up in a farewell Stunner for Coach.
Undertaker vs Vince McMahon – Buried Alive Match
This is a match years in the making. The Undertaker debuted in the WWE thirteen years previously at Survivor Series and has no interest in ending his career tonight. However, after being thoroughly screwed out of the WWE Championship at No Mercy by Mr McMahon, he realised that he would never be champ again whilst the boss was so actively conspiring against him. So often heralded by Michael Cole as ‘the conscience of the WWE’, Taker now sets about removing the obstacle blocking his path back to the top of the mountain, and looks to make pay for years of ‘sinning’ against both himself and the entire roster. Some of Vince’s insane, ‘higher power’ promos in the build up to this show sound absolutely awesome.
Vince enters the ring clasping hands to the skies in prayer, once again looking to channel the ‘higher power’. Undertaker’s first punch is to hit him so hard in the face that he starts bleeding. Did he seriously just blade after a single punch, or was that hard way? No matter how, blood is spewing profusely out of his head as the Deadman repeatedly socks him. Even Taker looks pretty concerned about McMahon’s health as he bleeds all over the ring. This is Jay Briscoe in the cage levels of gross now, with clots of blood dangling out of Vince’s hair as Undertaker chokes him with a reel of cable. Such is the ferocity of the beating that Cole and Tazz’s announce table gets ripped off it’s hinges, taking them off the air for over a minute. Covered in dirt and Vince’s blood, the Phenom retrieves a shovel from the grave site in the entrance…and absolutely PELTS the Chairman with it. With him entirely unconscious, Undertaker then does his best to break is leg by smashing it between the two layers of ring steps. He drags Mr McMahon up the aisle to the graveyard…giving him some precious seconds to recover. Vince desperately fights back by tossing dirt into Taker’s eyes, then knocking him into the grave with another shovel. It’s only temporary respite though as Undertaker drags him down instead. Taker makes a move for the JCB to win the match, before a fireball EXPLODES into his face. It’s Kane! His own brother tosses him into the grave, and stands ominously over him as Mr McMahon tips the dirt down on top of him. Vince wins at 11:58
Rating - ** - Honestly this wasn’t much of a match at all, but you’d have to be pretty cold-hearted not to award at least some points for Vince’s courage to finish the match whilst bleeding like that. It almost made the head wound he suffered against Zach Gowen at Vengeance look like a scratch. This ‘match’ was basically ten minutes of Undertaker beating Vince all over ringside followed by a screw job finish. It’s hard to go higher than 2* on that, although I acknowledge the effective long-term booking as they already had an eye on bringing the ‘dead’ Undertaker gimmick back in time for WrestleMania next year. That doesn’t explain why Vince had to be the one to kill the American Badass (surely someone else deserved that rub), but at least you can see they were booking ahead.
Goldberg vs Triple H – World Heavyweight Title Match
This is a rematch from Unforgiven. On that night it was Goldberg who emphatically defeated HHH to end his latest World Title reign. The Game didn’t take it well, and went straight to Raw (looking like a fatter, sleazier version of his 1998-self with no beard and slicked back hair) with a suitcase full of money. He was offering up $100,000 to any Raw superstar who could put Bill on the injured list. It led to the World Champion getting attacked wherever he went. Somehow he survived…until Batista returned from injury, returned to Evolution and collected his $100,000 prize by shattering Goldberg’s ankle. It means that Bill enters this scheduled rematch seriously injured, yet still unwilling to forfeit the championship he worked so hard to gain.
Goldberg can barely be bothered to sell the leg during his entrance which doesn’t bode well. He marches into the ring, stomps around and instantly gives HHH a big Spear. Ric Flair takes a beating as well – and all that before the bell rings. Finally Bill’s leg gives way though, and buckles under him as he attempts a big press slam. Naitch thinks fast and distracts referee Earl Hebner as HHH lines up the ankle for a steel chair shot. After Flair helps Hunter in drilling the leg into the ringpost, Goldberg is returned to the ring where the challenger is able to work his leg over in earnest. Of course, it helps that Flair remains on hand to lay in the cheap shots whenever Hebner’s back is turned. Even when big Bill does lay in some offence – a charging lariat out of the corner – his leg has been rendered so injured he can barely stand to capitalise. Triple H is up quickly and almost snaps his leg in half with one of the most violent chop block you’ll ever see. Hebner gets bumped…and with him on the ground HHH levels the champ with brass knucks. It’s sledgehammer time…but unlike Summerslam Helmsley isn’t able to use it! Limping press slam on Flair! Batista runs in with Randy Orton...only for Goldberg to take them both out with the hammer. Pedigree blocked…for the SPEAR! And credit to Bill – he’s still selling that leg. LIMPING JACKHAMMER! Goldberg retains at 11:44
Rating - *** - A low end 3* rating for sure, but I felt this was better than Unforgiven so deserved a higher rating. Some of the story-telling wasn’t quite as good, but actually, making things a little rougher round the edges and less clinical really helped them out. Goldberg did a surprisingly decent job selling the leg to make himself sympathetic, yet was also booked far more closely to the unstoppable force of nature he was in WCW as he basically mowed through the entire Evolution stable in thirty seconds. The leg selling on the finish is what swung it for me. This was far from a mat classic, and these two have zero chemistry as opponents…but I definitely found it an improvement on their prior ppv encounter and Goldberg’s best singles match since Bad Blood.
Tape Rating - ** - This was a tough show to rate. There isn’t really a bad match on the entire show, but what held it back was that there aren’t any particularly amazing ones either. Shawn Michaels performance in the Team Austin vs Team Bischoff tag was spectacular, the Kane/Shane Ambulance Match was certainly unique and there were some other decent matches…but when I really asked myself if fans would be missing anything by skipping this show, I really didn’t think they would. The one thing this ppv deserves credit for above everything else is the long-term booking focus. It’s clear by this point that WrestleMania storylines were starting to take shape. Cena pinned Big Show to frame their US Title Match. Benoit tapped out the WWE Champion to start his push towards a main event role. Lesnar and Goldberg shared the screen for the first time. Randy Orton was all over the show. And lastly – Undertaker was ‘buried alive’ by Vince and Kane, effectively killing off the American Badass before the return of the Lord Of Darkness in 2004. The road to WrestleMania 20 truly began here.
Top 3 Matches
3) Team Angle vs Team Lesnar (***)
2) Kane vs Shane McMahon (***)
1) Team Bischoff vs Team Austin (***)