By
the end of 2002, the WWE was changing. Some of the bigger names of the Attitude
era, like The Rock and Steve Austin, were rarely around. The company was
building a new mega star with Brock Lesnar but what is possibly the biggest story
was the return of Shawn Michaels. After a 4-year absence, he returned to the
ring and won the World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series 2002. He had
an intense feud with Triple H and the 2 would collide at this event as well.
One thing I truly miss in WWE is
some of the creativity. In this event, they made a little computer generated
animation of helicopters attacking a robot running from the Armageddon logo. I
don’t know what it’s supposed to mean but at least it’s a little cool something
to start the show off with. We never get those anymore. The set was also
impressive, with different stages of walls and flames bursting all over the
place. Now it’s just the same set as Raw, lame!
World Tag Team Championship
4 Way Elimination Match
Chris Jericho and Christian (c) vs
William Regal and Lance Storm vs The Dudley Boyz vs Booker T and Goldust
This match did not stay a 4 way for
very long. After a few minutes, the teams of The Dudley Boyz and Regal/Storm
were quickly eliminated in succession, leaving only the 2 other teams, so it
was basically a regular tag match. Once it’s just Booker T/Goldust vs
Jericho/Christian, they pull every tag team trick in the book. Ref
distractions, hot tag, attacking with the belt, they use it all. And it worked
fairly well. The 2 teams gelled well enough together but it didn’t feel quite
perfect. It seemed like Christian was constantly getting knocked off the apron,
looking a bit like a fool but he was a heel so that’s ok. In the end Booker T
finally hits his finisher for the win and a happy story to the comedy duo of
BookDust.
Winners: Booker T and Goldust (new
champions)
Edge vs A-Train
A-Train or Albert or Tensai or
whatever you want to call him, is currently the head trainer at NXT. After
seeing this match, I have a better understanding why. Whilst his moveset may
not have been as varied or exciting as Edge’s, he still managed to use his
power and strength to have a good match. He and Edge worked really well
together. The only problem with this match is that it did not go on for long
and ended in a disqualification once A-Train attacked Edge with a chair.
Winner: Edge (by disqualification)
Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit
2 legends that are unfortunately not
with us anymore. What can be said about their matches. Benoit may have been one
of the most intense wrestlers of all time and he brought a sense of realism to
his matches. Guerrero was a great showman and a fantastic wrestler. Together
they put on great matches and this is another very good one. They both knew
each other so well and could tell a great story in the ring. In the end, Benoit
got Eddie in the Crippler Crossface and forced him to tap out.
Winner: Christ Benoit
There’s now a segment that
is basically Jerry Springer trash TV. It’s the whole Dawn Marie getting engaged
to Torrie Wilson’s dad but really she wanted Torrie all along. This leads to a
scandalous video of the 2 women in a hotel room disrobing and then kissing.
It’s just an excuse for 2 hot chicks to kiss. It’s a Raw segment that somehow
made it to PPV and I’m never a fan of these kind of segments on PPV.
Batista with Ric Flair vs Kane
As the announcers state at the
beginning of this match, this is Batista’s first PPV appearance. Kane is always
a good opponent for larger guys to face early on in their career because he can
be beat and give a mini push to them. This match is kept fairly short. There is
nothing particularly special about their encounter but it’s not bad either. The
most entertaining part was Ric Flair, who was constantly distracting the referee
and Kane, which eventually led to Batista hitting the Batista bomb for the win.
I would say that there was a little too much distracting of the referee, they
made him look like a fool but then again this was never meant to be a classic,
just a starting point for Batista’s multiple world championship career.
Winner: Batista
There’s next a segment of John Cena
rapping. Again, this is something that belongs on Raw, not during a PPV. It
doesn’t feel like it adds anything to the show and it’s a distraction.
Women’s Championship
Victoria (c) vs Trish Stratus vs
Jacqueline
3 women that can work very well, 2
of them are current hall of famers. The main problem with the match though is
that I don’t think it even lasted 5 minutes. They were just getting warmed up.
I enjoyed what they were doing, but it needed to go on longer to tell any kind
of in ring story. Luckily there was a video package before the match to tell
the story of the feud, but they really should have had more time.
Winner: Victoria
WWE Championship
Big Show (c) with Paul Heyman vs Kurt
Angle
In the pre match package, it was
explained that Heyman betrayed Brock Lesnar, which allowed the Big Show to
become WWE Champion. Lesnar attacked Big Show and other wrestlers and got
himself suspended. Angle got Lesnar’s suspension overturned, on condition that
he help him win the championship, which leads us to this match. It’s not a
particularly good match. Big Show and Angle don’t gel that well together here.
Angle does he damndest to get the most he can out of the Big Show but their
styles just aren’t that compatible here. Surprisingly there isn’t that much
interference by Paul Heyman since he gets taken out early on but there is interference
by A-Train for some reason and then as expected Brock shows up to give Big Show
an F5 and Angle the win.
Winner: Kurt Angle (new champion)
World Heavyweight Championship
2 out of 3 falls match
Shawn Michaels (c) vs Triple H with
Ric Flair
Right from the beginning Ric Flair
takes a bump and gets himself thrown out by the referee, great start. During
the match announcer Jerry Lawler keeps asking whether we are seeing Shawn
Michaels or the Showstopper. After watching this, I can say that at this time
he was still the Showstopper. Great interactions between both competitors who
know each other super well at this point. The first fall was a street fight and
they brought out garbage cans, tables and flaming barbed wire on a stick. It
was violent and personal; they were out to hurt each other. After a long match
Triple H gets the pinfall after a pedigree.
The second fall is a cage match. Ric
Flair comes back, gets hit by a chair and immediately starts bleeding. The
action is a little slower here but it should be because both men are tired
after the first fall. Good use of the cage as Triple H is constantly trying to
escape and Michaels has to bring him back in. Near the end Michaels hits the
sweet chin music on Triple H, puts him on a table and does a splash from the
top of the cage to get the win.
The third and final fall is a ladder
match. It was shorter than the other 2 matches. Both men are exhausted at this
point, barely able to climb up the ladder. Early on in the match, 2 tables were
set up outside the ring. Later on Ric Flair added 2 more to the top, you knew
at some point, someone is going through those. It came at the end of this
match. Michaels got up the ladder and just as he was reaching for the belt,
Triple H pushes the ladder, sending Michaels through the 4 tables. Triple H
climbs up and grabs the belt to become champion once again. This match is a
very good example of how to use violence effectively to tell a story. It’s not
the best match of it’s kind but it very solid and doesn’t overdue the high
spots and have guys kicking out of crazy moves.
Winner: Triple H (new champion)
Overall the event was decent but not
great. There was a fantastic main event but the WWE Championship match was
so-so. There were a few matches that needed more time and suffered because of
it. Instead of wasting time on segments that belong on Raw that time should
have been used on these matches.
Rating:
6.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment