World Wrestling Entertainment – Armageddon 2002 – 15th December 2002
I’m a little short on time here, so I’ll try to keep my introduction to this show brief and keep it down to everything you need to know about Armageddon 2002 in a nutshell. Firstly, Shawn Michaels and Triple H go the best part of forty minutes in the main event, despite the fact that Hunter’s (other) quad was so messed up be could barely walk. The Al Wilson/Dawn Marie/Torrie Wilson angle takes up way too much ppv time. Batista makes his ppv debut…and the match isn’t good. A-Train stinks up the joint getting the push which was originally planned for Matt Hardy. If that isn’t selling you on the show so far, I’ll spice it up a bit by saying that Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle and the RAW (yes, Raw – not Smackdown) tag division do their best to salvage an almost unrelenting stream of suck. Jim Ross, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Tazz will commentate from Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
Chris Jericho/Christian vs Dudley Boyz vs Lance Storm/William Regal vs Booker T/Goldust – World Tag Title Match
This will be fought under elimination rules, with the last team standing leaving as the Raw Tag Champions. Jericho and Christian hold the belts, having claimed them in the aftermath of the break-up of the Un-Americans. Storm and Regal, also former Un-Americans, remained as a team and would like nothing more than to take the gold back from their former stable-mate Christian. Booker and Goldust have been in hot pursuit of the Tag Titles all year and have been an extremely popular act on the Monday night brand without ever getting their hands on the belts. The Dudleyz reunited at Survivor Series and are the most experienced team in the match by countless miles.
Bubba Dudley seems to have a problem with everyone in the match and gets things rolling by assaulting both Regal and Storm one after the other. Regal has better luck with Goldust and sends him across the ring into Christian’s corner with an exploder suplex. Bubba Ray comes to Goldy’s aid, with those two forming a strange alliance to beat up both champions. The Dudleyz drop Christian with a 3-D, but he’s not legal. In a horribly botched finish Regal eventually pins Bubba to eliminate his team at 05:17. Goldust promptly pins Regal with a powerslam at 05:33 to send the Un-Americans packing too. It leaves us with Jericho and Christian against ‘Book-Dust’ for the titles. The challengers try isolating Y2J, getting a close nearfall with a Harlem Sidekick/spinebuster combo. Christian tricks Goldust into falling out of the ring where Jericho can illegally assault him – which turns the match in their favour. The champs target his ribcage with Lawler once again whether Goldust is truly a weak link in the Raw tag division. Finally the Bizarre One hits a sidewalk slam and kicks his way over to the hot tag. Jericho tries to murder Booker’s momentum with a sleeper slam…then starts busting out some awesome wrestling as he ducks the Ghetto Blaster then COUNTERS the 110th Street Slam into the Walls Of Jericho! Goldust saves the match with a running bulldog! Heat Seeker from Booker! Lionsault misses (which Booker celebrates with a Spinaroonie) before Chris is levelled with the Ghetto Blaster! FOR 2! Crowd thought that was it! Y2J blasts Booker with the title belt…LIONSAULT GETS 2! Again the crowd thought it was all over! BOOK END NAILED! Booker T wins it at 16:43!
Rating - *** - The first five minutes were entirely pointless, which makes you question why they didn’t just book a straight Jericho/Christian vs Booker/Goldust tag anyway. However, once we did get down to the final two it was a really heated formula tag match. Nobody did anything you wouldn’t normally expect to see out of them, but everything flowed really well and the lively audience made the ending HOT by really buying into their false finishes. Given the talent in the match putting the belts on Booker and Goldust may now seem like an odd move – but you have to remember how popular they were as an odd couple at the time. They’d been entertaining people for well over half the year, and more than deserved a little run as Tag Champions.
EARLIER TONIGHT – Brock Lesnar tells Josh Matthews he’s here to make an impact…
Edge vs A-Train
As I said during the intro – initially plans were to give Matt Hardy and his increasingly popular ‘Version 1.0’ gimmick a serious push. It had already been nixed once when Undertaker refused to let him initate a defeat to Lesnar at Unforgiven, and indeed Matt’s spot as the sidekick in Paul Heyman’s quest to keep the WWE Title in his power was taken by A-Train (Albert/Giant Bernard/Tensai) in WWE’s latest attempt to get him over. So every time you’re watching this match and think that you’re bored or you’re not enjoying it – remember we could have had Edge feuding with his old rival Matt Hardy whilst his ‘V1’ stuff was at its absolute peak.
Edge comes in carrying a knee injury inflicted by Albert a couple of weeks earlier. He tries to avoid all of Train’s typical power moves and lures him into an early collision with the ringpost before going after his knees to get him off his feet. A-Train is battered but not broken…and comes back by clobbering Edge into the corner. There is absolutely no reaction to Albert on offence, and they are embarrassingly lifeless as he clings to a time-wasting chinlock. Edge hits back with the Faceplant for 2. TORNADO EDGE-O-MATIC SCORES! Albert wipes him out with a massive bicycle kick as he leaps off the top rope…so Edge simply goes back to the top rope and does the same move seconds later. Edgecution COUNTERED to the Baldo Bomb which gets 2. Spear nailed…so Train whacks Edge in the knee with a chair. That’s Albert disqualified at 07:12
Rating - DUD - On paper this could have been a good match. Edge had blossomed into one of the WWE’s most reliable performers during 2002 whilst I’ve seen Albert wrestle plenty of extremely decent matches in Japan – so I know he can go. But this just sucked from the outset. They made a huge deal of Edge’s bad knee and never used it. Edge, in fact, was pretty terrible in this from a psychological standpoint. He’s miles more popular but that shouldn’t be an excuse for him to hit all the spots he wants and barely sell anything. This Albert push was completely misguided from the outset. He went from being the ‘Hip Hop Hippo’ to this absolute killer and nobody bought it. Nobody cared about him as an upper level heel and he got no heat whatsoever.
Without even limping (seriously, Edge hasn’t sold a damn thing) Edge grabs the chair and wears Albert out with it. If the idea was to bury A-Train – why not let Edge win clean??
Big Show complains about not being respected and isn’t happy about Brock Lesnar being here…so Paul Heyman tries to reason with him. He says he’ll go talk Stephanie McMahon about Brock whilst Show focuses on his pending defence against Angle.
Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit
These two former friends have been at odds throughout the ‘Smackdown Six’ era. They came to the WWE together. They defected to Smackdown together. But ever since Stephanie brought the WWE Tag Titles into play the rift between them has continued to grow. Eddie Guerrero currently holds them with his nephew Chavo, whilst his lying and cheating ways even went so far as to cost Benoit the WWE Championship during a fourway match on television. These great friends and rivals look to prove who the better man is inside the ropes tonight. Michael Cole basically states that the winner becomes #1 contender for the WWE Championship.
They begin by testing each other on the canvas. Normally they are significantly better than their opponents in that area, so watching them counter back and forth whilst probing each other for weaknesses is a real treat. Guerrero actually works himself into the ascendancy and grinds on Benoit’s arm with a shortarm scissors. BENOIT MUSCLES HIM OFF THE GROUND INTO A DEAD-LIFT ONE-ARM SUPLEX! Before the Wolverine can utilise his power or striking advantages Eddie instantly traps him on the ground again with a headscissors. BACK BODY DROP IN THE ROPES BY EDDIE! SUICIDE DIVE TO THE FLOOR! Not so ‘boring’ now are they Ft. Lauderdale? The impact of that has apparently injured Benoit’s leg, prompting Latino Heat to attack it and exacerbate the injury in preparation for the Lasso From El Paso. Benoit is getting desperate, and after a missed Crossface attempt he manages to latch onto Guerrero for the rolling German suplexes. It’s all impact on the neck and shoulders and it brings him back into the match despite his bad leg. Guerrero rolls to the ropes to avoid the Flying Wolverine…so Benoit simply limps down from the ropes, chops his neck then gives him MORE ROLLING GERMANS! Resilience shown by Eddie now, as he grabs hold of Chris’ neck to repeatedly German suplex him onto his surgically repaired neck…and tosses in a brainbuster for good measure. FROG SPLASH NAILED! Benoit kicks out at 2! Both men are wearied and collapse through the ropes to the floor…and whilst Eddie argues with the referee Chavo Guerrero arrives on the scene to clock the Crippler with his Tag Title belt. It is typical cheating from Los Guerreros…and when Benoit survives Eddie’s subsequent pin he is slapped into the Lasso! The Wolverine makes the ropes and starts teeing off on his friend with chops. JACK-KNIFE POWERBOMB! FLYING WOLVERINE! LASSO FROM EL PASO! COUNTERED TO THE CROSSFACE! Eddie tries in vain to escape…and has to submit at 16:46
Rating - **** - Not for the first time in recent months, Chris Benoit arrives and saves the ppv with another classic match. The crowd was pretty bad but the wrestling here was top notch between two seasoned pros who were clearly relishing getting to wrestle each other on such a big stage. Eddie’s speed, quickness, countering ability and cheating nearly won him the match – before he ultimately succumbed to the strength, violence and submission skill of his great rival. It was a pretty simple story but their execution, even in the face of a few vocal assholes in the audience, was perfect. Perhaps they were victims of Paul Heyman’s Smackdown booking taking some bizarre twists – which basically left almost the entire roster as tweeners. You had Edge and Rey Mysterio over as babyfaces, whilst Big Show and his associates were obviously heels. But everyone else that matters seemed to bounce between being a face or a heel all the time. It left the crowd greatly uncertain as to how they should react to a lot of talent. And when that talent are the ‘major stars’ of the Smackdown brand (Lesnar, Angle, Benoit, the Guerreros, Matt Hardy etc) that is a real problem.
‘I love that Chris Benoit’ – Stephanie McMahon saying something she probably regrets now. Paul Heyman barges in to make a last minute plea to prevent Brock Lesnar getting involved in the WWE Championship Match tonight.
Lets waste some ppv time shall we? Dawn Marie bribed Torrie Wilson into a lesbian liaison, with the incentive of breaking off her engagement with her father Al. In the end Dawn refused…and when Torrie was pissed off Dawn said she was going to show unedited lesbian footage here tonight. What a bizarre and tasteless angle this was…but compared to Katie Vick it was small fry. The ‘extra footage’ is some additional kissing scenes – then Dawn leaves. A wretched waste of everyone’s time.
Backstage Shawn Michaels is rather subtly mocking HHH by stretching his groins and hamstrings. If Hunter tried that all the muscles in his leg would snap…
Kane vs Batista
He’d been hovering around since the roster split, but it took all the way to December for Batista to make his ppv debut. That was largely because he was incredibly green and sucky in the ring…but it was also because WWE simply couldn’t find a gimmick that worked for him. Eventually he was moved to Raw where he joined forces with Ric Flair and Triple H (forming what would come to be known as Evolution by early 2003). We know Kane has issues with HHH and his cohorts stretching back a few months, and the Big Red Machine is also looking to avenge a televised loss to Dave weeks previously.
The first knockdown goes to Batista, though most of my attention is taken up by the audible sound of fire marshals having to extinguish fires caused by Kane’s pyro. Kane hits a powerslam but is soon slammed into the ropes with such velocity that he bounces out of the ring. The whole point of the opening minutes is that Batista is so strong even Kane struggles to deal with him. He also has Flair at ringside helping him of course. Flying clothesline ducked, although Big Dave looks gassed now. Batista Bomb blocked…with Dave accidentally dropping the monster on his face in the aftermath. Chokeslam scores only for Flair to stop the referee counting the pin. As Kane argues with Naitch Dave hits the Batista Bomb for the win at 06:38
Rating - DUD - Rather predictably, this sucked. I sort of understand why they had these two work together since Batista was a long-term ‘project’ of Vince’s and letting him work with Kane would definitely help him improve as a ‘big man’ or power worker. In the short-term though, it was pretty obvious they would suck as opponents. Batista was so green it was painful and his stamina was also woefully inadequate. He was looking totally exhausted wrestling two or three minute TV matches and was noticeably running on fumes by the end of this one. Kane, meanwhile, has always been better when he has a smaller, faster worker doing the bumping for him. He certainly threw himself around with gusto to make Dave look good but this was still a chore to sit through.
John Cena (with ‘B-Squared’ Bull Buchanan) invades the show for an impromptu free-style rap. He proclaims himself to be the ‘new centrepiece of World Wrestling Entertainment’. At least he told the truth…even if nobody gave a sh*t at this point.
Victoria vs Trish Stratus vs Jacqueline – WWE Women’s Title Match
At Survivor Series Victoria defeated Trish to become Women’s Champion. She actually became more psychotic after winning the belt. She entered into a weird relationship with Stevie Richards and began terrorising the entire Divas roster. From biting Stacy Keibler’s nails to stealing Jackie’s wrestling gear, she appeared to be more and more unhinged with every show that went past. Trish is entitled to a rematch having lost the previous month, and Jacqueline has forced her way into the equation with a non-title win over the champion.
Tatu’s ‘All The Things She Said’ finally plays Victoria to the ring. We don’t hear much of it tonight though as Victoria sprints to the ring to commence hostilities with both opponents simultaneously. Jackie and Victoria actually have a pretty cool strike exchange, before Trish intervenes and sees her attempt at a Stratusfaction countered to a DOUBLE back suplex. Jacqueline makes a bit of a mess of a satellite headscissors spot…and Trish tries to kill herself too with a particularly ugly flying crossbody. Headstand super rana on Jacqueline…into rolling Chick Kicks on Victoria. Chick Kick on Jackie before they BOTCH A PINFALL! It seriously took them about four attempts to get a simple cover right there. Victoria whiffs Trish with the title belt, then covers a KO’d Jackie for the win at 04:28
Rating - DUD - I don’t doubt that the three athletes were working extremely hard. I also really like the chemistry between Victoria and Trish. This one, however, was really bad. Sure they threw plenty of spots in, but they’d have been far better off slowing down, trying to do less and actually hitting moves cleanly. Hardly any of this was executed properly, there were occasions where all three of them could have gotten seriously hurt...and what the hell was going on with that messed up basic pin I really don’t know. The finish sucked as well, to top off the big wet fart that this match had become.
Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar are backstage in the locker rooms. Kurt wants Brock in his corner tonight and tries to tempt him by pointing out that he’ll be mere feet away from retribution on Paul Heyman. He then pops in a tape of his title loss at Survivor Series to put an exclamation mark on it.
Big Show vs Kurt Angle – WWE Title Match
Kurt won his way into this match by defeating Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and Edge in a fourway #1 contendership match. Over the last six months he’s proven himself to be amongst the most lethal wrestlers in the history of the company but he’s not really the story here. Paul Heyman screwed Brock Lesnar and helped Big Show get his WWE Championship at Summerslam – such was Paul’s desire to maintain control of the top prize on Smackdown. He and Show have largely been free to run roughshot over the Thursday night show because Stephanie McMahon had suspended Lesnar for a violent assault on Show after Survivor Series. Tonight, however, that dominance is in serious jeopoardy. Brock’s suspension is officially over and Kurt wants him in his corner to negate Heyman’s influence in proceedings whilst he battles the 7’2 giant.
Lesnar is conspicuous by his absence during Angle’s entrance. Kurt instantly goes for Show’s leg, and when he gets swatted away he repeatedly tries to use his amateur wrestling skills to overwhelm the champion. It has mixed success…but when the match becomes a brawl on the outside Show’s size immediately comes into play. The champ starts tossing Angle around for fun. At a stretch you could call it a targeted assault on Kurt’s back…though in all likelihood it’s just Big Show running through all the spots he actually knows. Final Cut gets 2 and drops Angle on his spine again. Kurt bites his way free of a bear hug then mounts him in a rear naked choke…which Show effortlessly escapes by flinging the challenger to the ground. Breaking away from his regular moveset, Angle scales the ropes and hits a missile dropkick…then a MOONSAULT PRESS for 2! Show didn’t protect him much on that and Kurt nearly landed on his head pulling that off. ANGLE SLAM! Show kicks out at 2 so is slapped into the Anklelock instead. The ref is bumped…and you can literally see most of the crowd turning to look at the entrance expecting Brock Lesnar’s arrival. Heyman feeds a steel chair to Show only for Angle to intercept and nail him with it. Big Show taps out to the Anlelock whilst the ref is still down…and A-Train runs in to drop Angle with an Argentine backbreaker. Show Stopper nailed – and here comes Lesnar. F-5 ON BIG SHOW! Heyman is already fleeing up the aisle as Kurt slowly crawls over the champion. Angle wins at 12:37
Rating - *** - It’s a generous 3* on this one. It went too long, but for the second month in a row Show got to work with an opponent so good that his weaknesses get hidden he gets carried to a good match. Angle’s attempts to wrestle with the clumsy giant were admirable, and in return Show worked damn hard and actually honed his offence into a vaguely coherent, focused attack rather than the plodding assortment of lazy chops and slams that he usually does. Lesnar was the clear star here, and his run in drew a massive pop from the crowd. There can be no doubt that taking the belt off him at Survivor Series for Big Show’s utter flop of a title reign was a spectacular error in judgment. Putting the belt on Kurt atones for that somewhat – and sets the stage for the long-term goal which is the obvious Lesnar/Angle WrestleMania showdown.
RVD has been relegated to standing at WWF New York tonight. He picks Michaels to retain the title.
SIDENOTE – As I mentioned in the intro, Triple H’s body was falling apart at this point. He was competing through another major quad injury (the opposite leg to the one he injured in 2001), and enters the main event with it heavily strapped and limping badly. Considering he was still walking with a limp on his OTHER leg the omens aren’t great for this.
Shawn Michaels vs Triple H – World Heavyweight Title Three Stages Of Hell Match
The feud between these two men goes back to the summer. Shawn Michaels asked his supposed ‘best friend’ Triple H to come to Raw so they could relive their D-X glory days…only for Hunter to turn on him with some violent assaults. HBK’s return to the ring after a four-year absence was (unofficially) booked for Summerslam – where he memorably defeated the Game in an unsanctioned Street Fight. HHH had the last laugh that night though as he sent Shawn to the hospital by ‘re-injuring his back’ in a violent post-match sledgehammer assault. Shawn spent weeks off TV before returning in the build-up to Survivor Series, apparently healed and ready to compete in the Elimination Chamber. His unlikely comeback was complete as he defeated HHH (who suffered a nasty throat injury early in the match) to win the World Championship. Triple H soon returned to claim his rematch, with a renewed determination to prove that, unlike when they were in D-X, he is now the better wrestler and bigger star. Eric Bischoff booked this to settle the score and end the feud. Our first fall tonight is a Street Fight, and the second will take place within a steel cage. If needed, the third fall will be the match stipulation that Michaels helped pioneer – the Ladder Match.
Earl Hebner ejects Ric Flair before the match but you’ll soon forget that when you watch the opening exchanges and realise Triple H can barely walk, let alone run the ropes or wrestle. He does lure Michaels into a pescado, whereupon he connects with nothing but garbage can though. He recovers with a SPRINGBOARD crossbody to the floor, smashing through the same trash can to wipe out the Game this time. The next few minutes are spent with Hunter lying around, and HBK setting up various weapon spots but actually scoring with none of them. In other words – nothing is happening. HHH gets back to his feet, hits a clothesline and almost collapses from pain in his leg. He then amusingly uses the bad leg to (barely) hit his jumping knee strike before hopping and limping around some more. It’s going to be a LONG night. The challenger tries to work over Shawn’s back…only for Michaels to counter him and hit a chair backbreaker on him! It’s the signal for us to go into a bizarre segment where Shawn targets Hunter’s back even though he has a very obvious leg injury, then HHH go after the champ’s leg even though his back is his documented weakness. On the bright side, Helmsley’s attack on the leg is really awesome and innovative – including a brilliant knee smash through a garbage. It’s all set-up for the Figure 4 Leglock taught to him by Flair too. The sucky part is, because HHH can’t walk, they use the Figure 4 as an excuse to lie on the ground for over three minutes. Shawn finally escapes and tries to flee since his kayfabe leg injury is killing him, so HHH pursues him up the aisle with a barbed wire 2x4. They reach the top of the aisle...where Hunter uses the flaming set to create a BURNING barbed wire bat! Michaels knocks it out of his hands (and alarmingly close to the crowd) before BLASTING HIM IN THE FACE WITH IT! HHH blades (of course) and begins crawling back to the ring, albeit he can actually crawl faster than he is walking tonight. He lands a Raven drop toehold into a DDT…so they can both lie down doing nothing some more. Pedigree blocked but when HBK tries to nip-up his knee gives out from under him. Pedigree gives HHH the first fall at a lengthy 20:34.
The Game starts digging around under the ring and tossing weapons in before the cage is lowered for the second fall. Michaels is made to bleed with a catapult into the cage with his opponent making it worse via multiple weapon shots and some scraping along the iron mesh. The challenger tries to climb the cage and escape…mostly as an excuse to sit around and do nothing on top of the cage instead of on the mat. Another couple of minutes pass with nothing happening, except Flair showing up at ringside again and building a stack of tables at ringside. And after all that they don’t even use the tables! Shawn knocks HHH back into the ring for his top rope elbow drop instead. Ric Flair is in the cage now…but is smacked down with a chair shot. Nature Boy has bladed as well, whilst his protégé gets another couple of minutes to lie around doing nothing and the clock ticks past the half hour mark. Sweet Chin Musics for both Flair and Helmsley! Shawn is climbing the cage! SUPERFLY SPLASH OFF THE CAGE THROUGH A TABLE! It’s 1-1 at 31:08 and we move into the Ladder Match to decide the World Title. Flair’s blade job was disgusting by the way – he looks like Undertaker at No Mercy as he is carted out. After another three to four minutes of lying on the ground doing nothing Triple H is dragged up, takes a couple of bumps against a ladder, then lies down again. Michaels is having to kill himself to carry this now – and climbs the ladder. SUPERFLY SPLASH OFF THE LADDER MISSES! HHH didn’t really roll out of the way quickly enough either, catching Shawn’s feet on the way down and causing the champ to land on his face. They then hit a disgracefully bad Pedigree spot to buy a few more seconds of do-nothing time. Triple H is so f*cked up he isn’t happy bumping from even halfway up the ladder now. HBK sort of drags him off the ladder and sends him out to the floor with another Sweet Chin Music. He (super-slowly) climbs up the ladder towards his belt…AND GETS SHOVED THROUGH THE STACK OF TABLES ON THE FLOOR! Hunter (super super super slowly) climbs up and grabs the belt to win at 38:32.
Rating - ** - It’s a cop out to congratulate HHH for working a 40-minute match when he could barely walk. Of course it’s tough, and I highly doubt I could go through such pain to entertain people. BUT why on earth was he booked into this position? This was nothing more than a disgracefully self-indulgent mess. The most frustrating aspect of which is that there genuinely was some good stuff contained within it. The role-reversal with HHH working Shawn’s leg and Michaels going after Hunter’s back was actually really well done, and possibly the best part of the match. Once HHH had basically lost the inability to stand up for more than ten seconds at a time, some of Shawn’s bumps were absolutely brutal. He was risking serious injury trying to drag his friend to a halfway decent match…and it wasn’t worth it at all. Everything was so slow, fought at half-speed, covered up with all the smoke, mirrors and Ric Flair blade jobs they could find and constantly broken up with interminably dull sequences where they hung around lying down on the mat doing NOTHING. Considering how good their Summerslam match was, and considering how enjoyable WWE’s minor resurgence towards the end of 2002 has been this was a colossal failure to round off the final main event of the year.
‘You got your moneys worth out of this event’ – JR. No Jim, we really didn’t.
Tape Rating - * - I pretty much knocked another star off the rating for Jim Ross’ asinine statement at the end there. In no way does this show represent value for money. In truth it represents a lot of the worst aspects of World Wrestling Entertainment at this point in time. We had a lengthy chunk of time eaten up by the incredibly pointless and overtly chauvinistic Dawn/Torrie lesbian angle. In an era where WWE were losing top stars faster than they could create them, ALL of WWE’s projects sucked tonight (Batista, Cena and A-Train). The Women’s Title Match got screwed for time. There were as many DUD’s on the card as good matches. Big Show was in a WWE Title match whilst the likes of RVD couldn’t even get on the show. And the main event was a self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, love-in between two buddies who decided to hog FORTY F*CKING MINUTES of ppv time for their main event despite the fact that one of them couldn’t even stand up or walk. I’m curious as to how that represents fans ‘getting their money’s worth’? There are some positives, albeit they are few and far between. Booker T and Goldust getting a popular World Tag Title win was a nice moment, Benoit and Guerrero predictably stole the ppv and getting the WWE Championship off Big Show, onto Kurt Angle and laying the groundwork for Angle/Lesnar at Mania in a half decent match has to be considered a major accomplishment – and gets them out of the mess the bewildering decision to take the belt off Brock at Survivor Series left them in. Considering how much better WWE had gotten over the second half of the year, to end it with such a bad ppv is a serious disappointment.
Top 3 Matches
3) Chris Jericho/Christian vs Booker T/Goldust vs Lance Storm/William Regal vs Dudley Boyz (***)
2) Big Show vs Kurt Angle (***)
1) Chris Benoit vs Eddie Guerrero (****)
Top 10 WWE 2002 PPV Matches
10) Undertaker vs The Rock vs Kurt Angle (**** - Vengeance)
9) Edge/Rey Mysterio vs Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit vs Los Guerreros (**** - Survivor Series)
8) The Rock vs Brock Lesnar (**** - Summerslam)
7) Triple H vs Shawn Michaels vs Chris Jericho vs Booker T vs Kane vs Rob Van Dam (**** - Survivor Series)
6) Edge vs Kurt Angle (**** - Judgment Day)
5) Brock Lesnar vs Undertaker (**** - No Mercy)
4) The Rock vs Hulk Hogan (**** - WrestleMania 18)
3) Chris Benoit vs Kurt Angle (****1/2 - Unforgiven)
2) Shawn Michaels vs Triple H (****1/2 - Summerslam)
1) Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit vs Edge/Rey Mysterio (***** - No Mercy)
2002 was a strange year for the WWE on so many levels, and a year of real highs and lows. The renaissance of Hulk Hogan started out as a surprisingly upbeat nostalgia trip but wound up spearheading some of the worst pay-per-view events and creative slumps in wrestling history. The moronic booking wound up driving their most popular star – Steve Austin – into (temporary) retirement and pretty much murdered the main event potential of Chris Jericho too in '02's early months. The Rock, despite some commendable in-ring efforts, was all but lost to Hollywood by the end of the year – and had been unceremoniously rejected by his former fans for doing so. We had Al Wilson on TV, Big Show as WWE Champion, HLA, Katie Vick, the disastrous nWo revival, Undertaker’s laughable reign as Undisputed Champion, HHH being ‘given’ a World Title and countless other obvious flops. The roster was split with mixed success…and the company even had to rebrand itself after it lost the rights to it’s own damn initials. But against that ominous backdrop some incredible things happened.
Kurt Angle elevated himself to 'wrestling god' levels with some phenomenal in-ring performances. His feud with Edge catapulted the latter into the upper echelons of the Smackdown card. He was so good he dragged decent matches out of notorious suck artists like Hogan, Big Show and Undertaker, was part of the notorious ‘Smackdown Six’ who produced multiple classics once Paul Heyman got the Smackdown book and winds up making FIVE appearances in the 2002 Top 10. Brock Lesnar spearheaded a whole host of future World Champions making debuts (a class which also featured John Cena, Rey Mysterio and Batista) and charged up the card, mowing down legends in his wake and culminating in the remarkably violent Hell In A Cell showdown with the Undertaker at No Mercy. Eddie Guerrero made a popular return to the company, and after a decent little feud with Rob Van Dam, moved to Smackdown where he soon became one of the most entertaining acts in the entire company as his cheating and manipulative ways made people hate and love him in equal measure. Edge, whom WWE had frantically tried to push as the ‘next big thing’ in 2001 with mixed results, got to wrestle all the best workers in the company (Regal, Angle, Benoit, Guerrero) and unsurprisingly ended the year poised to crack the main event scene (before a neck injury in early 2002 meant he missed most of that year).
And it was also an odd year in that some of 2002’s best matches, which definitely would have cracked the Top 10 had they taken place on ppv, actually occurred on television. From memory I’m thinking of the Guerrero/RVD Ladder Match, the Guerrero/Edge No DQ Match, a few ‘Smackdown Six’ matches – most notably the Angle/Benoit vs Edge/Mysterio 2/3 Falls Match, and TLC4. To WWE’s credit, their product may have been periodically misfiring all year – but they certainly did their best to recover lost ground, regain lost viewers and bolster their flagging TV ratings by packing their shows with significantly more high quality wrestling than we’d ever really seen before.
I was absolutely miserable reviewing some of the 2002 pay-per-views. But as I reflect upon all the shows I’ve seen, I reach the conclusion that on the whole I actually enjoyed the year far more than 2001. Of course there were some really appalling moments this year – but none of those compare to the business killing ‘Invasion’ of 2001. Vince single-handedly almost destroyed the pro-wrestling business in the US by buying his competition, then saturating the market with some of the most abysmal booking you could ever imagine. 2002 sucked hard at times, but most of that was a direct consequence of '01 with Vince and the creative team were desperately hanging their hat on as many different creative ploys as possible in wildly misguided attempts to win back the market that they’d completely trashed the previous year. Jericho as Undisputed Champ tanked so they had HHH’s babyface comeback. That bombed but they had Ric Flair and the nWo. They were old and WWE couldn’t book them right…so they had Hulk Hogan’s nostalgia push. Unsurprisingly that exposed the ageing Hulkster so much the whole company became a joke. We had the roster split, the ‘series reboot’, Undertaker’s heel reign as Champion, Shawn Michaels’ being dragged out of retirement…creative basically lurched from one ridiculous scheme to the next looking for a quick fix.
However, by the end of the year it seemed like they had realised there wasn’t a rapid resolution to their problems – and the solution was actually entertaining the fans they had with decent wrestling, whilst looking to build stars for the future. With Austin gone, Rock a part-timer and the likes of Undertaker, Kane and HHH ageing and deteriorating rapidly new blood was needed. Kurt Angle was restored to the top level where his immense skill could help create new stars. The likes of Edge, Brock Lesnar and Chris Benoit were seriously groomed. The undercard suddenly had capable hands like Jericho, RVD, Guerrero and more who could step up if given the opportunity. The likes of John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista and Rey Mysterio were all brought in. Paul Heyman’s creative potential was harnessed as he got control of Smackdown and promptly let all the great wrestlers on that show tear it up, making themselves bigger stars in the process. Sure Armageddon was a pretty poor show, but on the whole the slow-burning recovery of the WWE in the second half of 2002 was actually a real pleasure to sit through. Would they continue it into 2003, or would patience run out and the quest for fast bucks and quick ratings boosts strike back?