Just gonna take a few shots and start this shit

[Deezy]

X-Seven was just under 4 LOL same as fucking Extreme Rules

I think Vince McMahon thinks that adding more is being generous to the audience.....someone gotta tell him different.

 

[Crippler]

SummerSlam > Mania

 

[Chris]

SummerSlam > Mania

Speaking of which I have SummerSlam 02 coming up soon

 

[Crippler]

Speaking of which I have SummerSlam 02 coming up soon

the first ever WWE DVD i ever bought, what a classic

 

[Chris]

Event: King of the Ring
Date: June 23, 2002
Venue: Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio
Attendance: 14,198
Commentators: Jerry Lawler & Jim Ross

WWE Undisputed Champion: The Undertaker
WWE Intercontinental Champion: Rob Van Dam
WWE Tag Team Champions: Billy & Chuck
WWE European Champion: William Regal
WWE Hardcore Champion: Bradshaw
WWE Cruiserweight Champion: The Hurricane
WWE Women’s Champion: Trish Stratus

They show clips of past KOTR winners Bret and Owen Hart, Stone Cold, HHH, Kurt Angle and Edge, conveniently skipping Mabel, Billy Gunn and Ken Shamrock The semi-finalists competing tonight are RVD/Chris Jericho/Test/Brock Lesnar. I vaguely remember watching this before but not very well so this will be a pretty fresh watch. Also for some context, this is really soon after the brand extension and it’s kinda a weird time with them getting used to it so the IC title is just floating around brands and they haven’t got separate world or tag titles yet. Bout the only thing set are the women’s and cruiserweight titles on Raw and Smackdown respectively.

JR and King welcome us to the show and the Undisputed Title match between ‘Taker/HHH later tonight. The World in New York is packed with fans and we go down to the ring for the first KOTR match. It’s worth noting that the winner of the tournament tonight gets a promised Undisputed title match at SummerSlam.

King of the Ring Semifinal: Chris Jericho vs Rob Van Dam
This is a lot of fun, both guys go out trying to put on a good show and they get plenty of time to do it. A lot of back and forth to start with some fun counters. RVD takes advantage with his speed and strikes, some of them regress to lazy RVD strikes but most are spot on. He goes for the Frog Splash at one point but Jericho kicks the ref into the ropes to knock RVD down GENIUS! Jericho is in full shit-talking heel mode and it pays off when he unties a turnbuckle pad but gets caught in a small package and doesn’t get pinned bc the ref was tying it back on and he didn’t even get it back on RVD makes a comeback and we get some more fun back and forth and it turns into a bit of a kicking showcase but not for too long before Jericho destroys RVD with a german suplex. RVD again fights back with counters and starts hitting more of his signature moves while countering most of Jericho’s attempts at a comeback until he gets sent into the exposed turnbuckle and Jericho even uses the ropes for the pin but RVD still kicked out OP AS FUCK! RVD is able to fight back, but misses a Frog Splash but is able to kick out of a Lionsault but gets caught in the Walls of Jericho for just a second before getting to the ropes. Both guys ends up on the top turnbuckle until RVD kicks Jericho off and nails a Five Star Frog Splash for the win. Really good match, plus the crowd was super hot the whole time. Only negative was King already annoying me on commentary and RVD’s tiger ring attire looking atrocious, I hope he changes that for the finals.

King goes into the ring for a post-match interview and ask if he has any preference between Test or Lesnar and RVD says he doesn’t care if it’s Godzilla bc nothing is going to stop the King of the Ring from being ROB VAN-but then Jericho attacks him from behind and locks on the Walls of Jericho until refs break it up. I see ya Big Johnny

Backstage, Heyman and Lesnar are watching on a monitor in a locker room and Heyman awesomely hypes up Brock for the tournament tonight.

King of the Ring Semifinal: Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman) vs Test
Yeah this is ass, Lesnar has gotten better but he’s not ready to carry a match much less with someone like Test. Everything Test does is pretty shitty here, he doesn’t even make Lesnar look all that strong and 90% of his offense is right hands. This really didn’t need 8 minutes but Lesnar shows some of the first semblances of his amazing selling but thankfully doesn’t bump too crazy for Test. Test is actually able to hit is Pumphandle Slam late in the match for Lesnar to get a nice kick out of and then Test kills him with a Running Big Boot for Lesnar to get another OP kick out, that was a solid sequence. Test goes for a second but Heyman jumps on the apron and weakly hits Test which he sells better than most of Lesnar’s moves This lets Lesnar hit the F5 for the win. I think I marked for every F5 executed during Lesnar’s first WWE run bc that move was so damn cool when I was a kid.

Backstage Coach is goes into the Raw locker room to ask guys who they think is gonna win between Lesnar/RVD. Bubba Ray Dudley puts over the Raw brand having both finalists and picks Lesnar before saying he’s gonna bounce back and have another impact here.

Some SmackDown interview guy that I have no memory of does the same thing for the SmackDown locker room and Lance Storm and Christian are pissed that it isn’t an All Canadian Jericho/Test final bc not it’s all Americans Christian says the whole company is prejudiced against Canadians and that the entire world hates America. Storm says they have to rise above America’s hate and carry the flag of civility, tolerance and peace as Canadians. UN-AMERICANS HYPE!

Michael Cole and Tazz are up in a pressbox bc no one cares about SmackDown announcers and they hype up the Cruiserweight Championship match up next. We get a video package of the feud showing Nidia stalking Hurricane and her NEW boyfriend Jamie Noble and her being all trailer park trashy AND WEARING THE HURRICANE’S MASK AS UNDERWEAR!

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: The Hurricane (c) vs Jamie Noble (w/ Nidia)
It’s funny that the Raw announcers are calling this bc they didn’t want two announce teams tonight. Nidia comes out wearing Hurricane’s cape she stole. This is pretty solid, but it feels more like an extended SmackDown match than anything and tbh I think they had better outings in WCW in 2000. The crowd starts a “she’s a crackwhore” chant at Nidia Hurricane has control early until Nidia gets involved allowing Noble to take it back and this is a lot more rest holds than you’d expect instead of a fast-paced cruiserweight match but def not bad or anything. Noble works the upper body, back and ribs pretty well for a little while and stopping Hurricane’s comeback attempts. I really wish JR and King would shut up about Nidia and call the match. Hurricane ends up making a pretty hot comeback which leads to a fun counter sequence of bigger moves and near falls before Hurricane hits a suplex over the ropes to the outside of the ring, pretty nasty bump by Noble. As Hurricane rolls him back into the ring after a dive, Nidia mouth rapes him for a distraction allowing Noble to take advantage but Hurricane is able to hit this HUGE neckbreaker from the top rope Nidia has a distraction so Hurricane sends Noble into her and hits a Chokeslam that Noble somehow kicks out of and then Noble is able to capitalize with a powerbomb for the win. Hurricane looked to have his foot over the bottom rope, but Nidia knocked it off. Weird finish and a weird opening, but solid stuff in the middle and towards the end.

Noble and Nidia roll around with the Cruiserweight title and make out in the ring.

They replay The Rock arriving on Heat earlier to a huge pop even though he isn’t scheduled to be here tonight.

Backstage, Terri is with Eddie Guerrero and they replay Guerrero and Benoit attacking Flair after they blamed him for Austin leaving the WWE. Eddie says hi to all his family, I swear he’s making up some of these fools He says he’d be crazy to be worried about Ric Flair bc Flair can’t do half the moves Eddie can and that Latino Heat is gonna retire Ric Flair.

Eddie Guerrero vs Ric Flair
So this is Flair starting his “one final run” that lasts 6 more years They give this a ton of time, like 17 minutes so they start off pretty slow and it’s kinda your typical veteran vs speedy young guy. Flair’s a face but he wrestles his usual heel game as does Guerrero so it’s kinda weird there but the crowd is just happy to see Flair out there chopping and strutting. Guerrero bumps around pretty well but also does a lot of stalling and this almost feels like a Flair showcase tbh until Guerrero goes for the hurt knee of Flair finally and does his best imitation of Flair’s leg work which is a kinda fun switch up. Flair’s selling is awesome as Guerrero locks on a Figure-4 and Flair’s got a cut on his head that I don’t think is from a blade but it’s not that bad. They work that for a bit until Flair gets to the ropes but Guerrero keeps up the pressure, starting to work on the neck instead for some reason and ignoring the leg. This lapse of strategy lets Flair make a comeback after dodging a Frog Splash and then Flair starts working the leg as Chris Benoit makes his way to ringside. Flair locks on a Figure-4 after not much leg work and Guerrero gets the the ropes and then gets a few near falls off some pinning combinations and they try to do a bridging pin spot way too late in the match and Guerrero barely didn’t get pinned off it, the effort was there but after 15 minutes it’s impossible for that not to be sloppy. Guerrero distracts the ref as Benoit locks on the Crossface out of the ring and the ref sends him to the back since he knows something happened. While the ref is dealing with that Bubba Ray Dudley comes out and hits a Bubba Bomb on Guerrero so Benoit chases him back as Flair crawls on top of Guerrero for the win. That was solid but the ending was dumb and parts were really weirdly booked, a little disappointing overall.

World Wrestling Entertainment GET THE “F” OUT!

William Regal and Christopher Nowinski are at The World in NYC watching the PPV pissed bc they haven’t got the food they ordered and being dicks to the waitress so she sticks her finger in Nowinski’s food without him knowing.

Short replay of Molly Holly beating Trish and choking her with Trish’s own underwear two weeks ago to get this upcoming title match.

WWE Women’s Championship: Trish Stratus (c) vs Molly Holly
King is ungodly obnoxious during this but it’s an okay short divas match, especially by 2002 standards since both girls try pretty well. Trish is steadily improving from being eye candy and Molly leads her through some solid exchanges other than just catfight spots. Trish busts out a little lucha shit and it’s a bit sloppy but nothing bad. Molly really takes it to Trish on the outside with some meh brawling but gets caught taunting and kicked off the apron allowing Trish to comeback and hitting a Stratusphere but then the rest of her offense isn’t so great. Molly is able to get a solid near fall off a nice bridging german suplex but then misses a Molly-Go-Round. Trish tries to roll her up, but Molly reverses it and tries to use the tights but Trish isn’t wearing the right attire for that lol.

JR says this is the first time a Women’s champion is “virginal” BRUH

Backstage that Smackdown interviewer guy is talking to Kurt Angle with FAKE hair who takes offense to him calling Angle/Hogan a battle of real american heroes bc Hogan hasn’t won an olympic gold medal and all Hogan did was listen to Vince McMahon and if Vince wanted him to become a zookeeper then Hogan would have been a zookeeper I love this era Kurt so much. He says he’s gonna make Hogan tap “faster than Mr. Bojangles on SPEED!” BRUH It’s red, white and blue TRUE!

Cole and Tazz hype up the match from their skybox since they can’t call the Smackdown matches tonight and we get a video package for the feud where Hogan wanted to retire, but Mr. McMahon wouldn’t let him and Angle ends up attacking him. Most of this feud has been Hogan pulling Angle’s wig off while also being advertised as this battle of real americans.

Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs Kurt Angle
They really don’t do anything at the beginning and it’s kinda disappointing, Angle does a lot of stalling and Hogan plays to the crowd a lot which is fine, but the action in between is lacking. They mostly brawl at the beginning, Angle doesn’t even try to carry a technical exchange which is a travesty. Angle bumps around really well for all of Hogan’s basic offense until Hogan goes to take Angle’s wig off but gets caught with like the third low blow the refs have missed tonight. Angle does some pretty basic offense as well until and works a headlock for awhile until Hogan tries to make a comeback but instead gets caught with an Angle Slam. Hogan kicks out to a pretty big pop and the straps come off right when Hogan starts Hulking Up Hogan does his big boot combo before taunting a lot and taking Angle’s wig off. Angle says fuck this and leaves and Hogan is fine with the count out and starts wearing Angle’s wig so Angle comes running in with a chair, but Hogan ducks and the chair bounces off the ropes and hit Angle right in the face Hogan goes for the Atomic Leg Drop, but Angle reverses so smooth into an Ankle Lock and JR starts asking “HAS HOGAN EVER TAPPED!?” and IDK if he had or not up until this point but after working it for awhile he finally taps. The ending was cool but that’s about it.

Booker T is backstage when Goldust walks up dressed like The Rock and parodies all Rock’s shit He says Booker has a friend named Goldust and keeps going until Rock shows up behind him and does his catchphrases the right way. Bruh Goldust sells Rock’s promos better than most people have sold in the ring tonight. Booker says Rock needs to be concerned with him but then Goldust says “What about me? The gold-wearing, sometimes oh-so-daring…” but can’t think of anything else and Rock mouths to himself “oh-so-daring?” SHIT I’m dying Booker says he’s never seen eye-to-eye with Rock but he’s down with what Rock did last week on Raw and Rock says he’s here just to watch the Undisputed Championship match bc “it’s bigger than the People’s Elbow,.it’s bigger than the spin-a-rooni, and it’s much bigger than…. what about you, you got a finishing move?” So Goldust replies “Oh I’ve got more ammunition in my canon than you’ll ever realize” lmao Rock says that when the time is right Booker and Goldust better be ready to layeth the smacketh down on the nWo, yells at Goldust for being weird again and then IF YOU SMELLLLLLL WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKING! Bruh Goldust MVP of the night for this segment alone.

King of the Ring Finals: Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman) vs Rob Van Dam
RVD uses his kicks and quickness early and Lesnar sells them better than any of Tests’s shitty offense earlier, but it doesn’t really go anywhere bc Lesnar is able to get into his beatdown offense pretty quick. It’s mostly just the regular power moves, working over the back I guess, this is just an extended squash tbh but not even by much bc it only gets 6 minutes. RVD tries to make a comeback and hits some of his signature stuff like rolling thunder meanwhile Heyman is yelling “TITLE SHOT!” repeatedly outside the ring. That does work and RVD is able to hit a Five-Star Frog Splash so Heyman gets onto the apron and guillotines RVD over the ropes but RVD falls onto Lesnar for the cover and Heyman almost ruined Lesnar’s chances RVD takes out Heyman but then gets caught into a springboard and hit with an F5. Brock gets an Undisputed Title shot at SummerSlam, just a shame he needed Heyman’s help in both matches smh suspect booking.

Triple H is walking towards the arena when he comes face to face with the newly returned Shawn Michaels and other nWo members Kevin Nash, X-Pac, and Big Show (Almost the full Kliq damn). Michaels smiles and says it’s good to be back and they all hug and wish HHH good luck tonight. Nash says if he needs anything out there tonight to just throw up the

Cole and Tazz question what we just saw and then hype up the Taker/HHH match. Taker is in his Big Evil gimmick rn and against 02 HHH it’s like seeing who’s less motivated. Highlight video of the feud airs, it’s mostly been on SmackDown since HHH hasn’t moved over to Raw yet I don’t think.

Heyman is with King and JR at the announce desk and says that whoever wins this is going to lose to Lesnar anyway and it looks like Heyman is gonna be on commentary for the main event fuck yeah.

WWE Undisputed Championship: The Undertaker (c) vs Triple H
Obviously starts out as a brawl, no wrestling at all and they go in and out of the ring but don’t really do a whole lot. The pace is pretty slow and the crowd dies down early on which is crazy bc they’ve been hot through a lot of worse stuff tonight, but I guess they’re burning out. Taker has control at first but literally nothing of note happens for so long until HHH is able to hit a suplex on the outside as Heyman says that apparently Lesnar punked out The Rock in the locker room after winning KOTR and Rock left. Both announcers doubt that story pretty heavily as Undertaker keeps stuffing HHH’s comeback attempts but we’re still at this slow, boring pace. Undertaker exposes the turnbuckle, but HHH is able to send Undertaker back first into it and finally starts a real comeback and hits a terrible Spinebuster by HHH standards smh, it was still alright though. HHH then gets sent into the exposed turnbuckle with snake eyes, but NO SELLS THAT SHIT AND HITS A HIGH KNEE HHH goes for a Pedigree but Taker counters into a catapult and damn they need to stop talking so loud calling these spots, but anyway HHH gets catapulted into referee Earl Hebner who doesn’t go down but then heat eats a corner clothesline by Taker and drops like a rock Taker and HHH crack heads so literally everyone is dead now. IF YA SMELLL! Rock comes down to prove Heyman a liar, so Heyman takes off running and Rock takes a headset to clarify that he never saw Lesnar tonight and takes Heyman’s place on commentary. Undertaker gets a chair, but HHH counters and sends him outside the ring and they keep brawling out there until Taker hits Rock with a big boot out of nowhere for no reason whatsoever Rock’s selling takes out both Spanish announcers WAIT Taker took Rock’s chair after so don’t tell me he booted this dude in the face just for a chair when there’s PLENTY Rock starts beating down Taker out of revenge, but accidentally hits HHH with the chair which busts him open. Taker sends Rock into the ring post and back in the ring, hits a Last Ride and a second ref, Nick Patrick comes in and I’m gonna pretend it was a slow count to allow HHH to kick out bc of his past nWo ties and the nWo/HHH segment before the match. Taker takes out Patrick and Rock comes back in and hits a Rock Bottom on Undertaker before leaving back up the ramp to the crowd chanting his name. HHH slowly drapes his arm over Taker and Hebner makes the slowest count ever for ‘Taker to kick out of last second Both guys barely get up and HHH hits a Pedigree but Hebner is still hurt so we don’t get a count this time. HHH tries to help Hebner up which my HHH would never do but Taker hits him with a low blow and pins him with the tights to retain the title. SO MUCH GODDAMN FUCKERY!

Rock is on the stage pissed and ‘Taker starts talking shit to Rock until Rock comes down and lays him out with a People’s Elbow but then HHH hits Rock with a Pedigree only for Taker to hit HHH with a Chokeslam to end the show. Why didn’t they just book a fucking triple threat UGH

 

[Crippler]

Rock, Goldust, Booker segment is the only watchable thing. Such a terrible PPV.

I can see why they killed off that PPV, and only brought it back in 2006 just to give Bookah a new heel gimmick.

 

[Chris]

Event: SummerSlam
Date: August 15, 2002
Venue: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York
Attendance: 14,797
Commentators: Jerry Lawler & Jim Ross (RAW) & Michael Cole & Tazz (SmackDown!)

WWE Undisputed Champion: The Rock
WWE Intercontinental Champion: Chris Benoit
WWE Tag Team Champions: The Un-Americans (Christian & Lance Storm)
WWE Hardcore Champion: Tommy Dreamer
WWE Cruiserweight Champion: Jamie Noble
WWE Women’s Champion: Molly Holly

Fuck yeah we pretty much go right to a match, no bullshit.

Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio
Mysterio cheap shots Angle from behind instead of making his usual entrance to start off this fun af match. Mysterio’s high flying offense is fucking great and Angle is just on his game doing everything amazing, plus the crowd is hot as fuck so that makes it even better. Honestly Angle’s probably wasted in an opener as much as I enjoy this match. He has the advantage most of the early going with some great suplexes and technical work, Mysterio has some pretty nice counters here and there, but Angle is able to keep control. Angle takes the straps down after a pretty sweet exchange and goes for the Angle Slam, but Mysterio has this awesome reversal and sends Angle out of the ring, crowd is crazy hot. Mysterio goes to fly, but the fuckin’ ref stops him to some huge boos So Mysterio then FLIES OVER THE REF ONTO ANGLE Mysterio lands Droppin’ the Dime, but it’s not a finisher without the 619 first so Angle kicks out and fights into an Ankle Lock, but Mysterio counters and hits a 619 and West Coast Pop but Angle kicks out They have this awesome exchange in the corner where Angle counters a super hurricanrana into an Ankle Lock They work that for just a bit before Mysterio taps. Really fuckin’ good opener, kinda wish it got more time.

Backstage, Smackdown GM Stephanie McMahon is hyping up Smackdown as the superior brand to some crew member and tells him to tell Eric Bischoff to try and top that match. She walks into her office to find Bischoff already there waiting for her bc apparently this is the only general manager’s office so they’re gonna watch the show together. GM Stephanie was the WOAT tbh.

JR and King welcome us to the Raw portion of the show, King already botching shit lol. Replay of Flair and Jericho attacking each other like 3 different times on Raw last Monday where Flair destroyed Fozzy’s instruments

Chris Jericho vs Ric Flair
This is Flair’s first SummerSlam match oh shit! He looks in way better shape than King of the Ring. This is pretty fun, pretty hate-filled and both these two can play a crowd great so while the action isn’t as good as the last match, the crowd is just as into it. Flair tries to go for his corner spot, but doesn’t make it all the way over They go outside and do some classic 02 Raw brawling that every match had and Jericho takes control as Flair does some “OH GOD!” selling. Flair tries to make comebacks with CHOPS but Jericho uses dirty tactics to stay in control and continues to work over the lower back. Jericho pulls a Flair and gets caught on the top rope and Flair is able to comeback. They have a little counter exchange that was pretty fun before both guys start going for their signature stuff and Jericho is able to lock in the Figure-4 that they work for a little while before Flair grabs the ropes and taps at the same time, so Jericho argues about that while the ref says the ropebreak happened first. Lil Naitch takes a thumb to the eye so he doesn’t see Big Naitch hit a low blow on Jericho but he sees the FIgure-4 and Jericho tapping. Really solid match even with the usual 02 Raw fuckery.

Paul Heyman is in the locker room with Brock Lesnar talking about how Lesnar ended Hulk Hogan’s career just like how he’s gonna end Rock’s title reign tonight.

Eddie Guerrero vs Edge
More Smackdown Six Some dumbass fan has a “Deport Eddie” sign like he ain’t from Texas. Edge has his awesome Rob Zombie theme song rn. This is good shit like you’d expect, good counter stuff at the beginning until Guerrero starts focusing on Edge’s previously injured shoulder after he takes a bump outside the ring. Edge finally manages to start a comeback after a powerslam and his shoulder selling is phenomenal. He manages to suplex Guerrero over the top rope and is able to hit a big dive to the outside which hurts his shoulder as well. Guerrero goes for a superplex when they get back in the ring, but Edge reverses into this awesome facebuster. Guerrero reverses a Spear with a beautiful dropkick, but then Edge gets the knees up on a Frog Splash and hits Edgecution for a great near fall, fucking cool sequence. Edge meets Guerrero on the top rope again, but Guerrero pushes him down and hits a Frog Splash to the injured shoulder Guerrero tries to go back to the shoulder but Edge counters and hits a Spear out of nowhere using the hurt shoulder for the win. Another pretty good match for Smackdown.

World Wrestling Entertainment: Our season never ends!

Coach interviews The Un-Americans backstage about the tag team title match coming up. Christian says they can’t wait to expose Booker T and Goldust for the American shams they are. Lance Storm says this Long Island crowd is lazy, unresponsive and spoiled like typical Americans. Test was also with them but he just stood there with a flag and didn’t say anything.

WWE Tag Team Championship: The Un-Americans (Christian & Lance Storm) (c) vs Booker T & Goldust
This is tight even if it’s pretty basic tag team stuff for the most part. Goldust has one of his good showings, Storm and Christian are great heels and Booker is over as shit. Un-Americans are able to isolate Goldust and it’s a solid heat segment, just basic stuff like I said earlier though. Booker gets a pretty sweet hot tag but the ref didn’t see it bc FUCKERY That gets some awesome heat for the Un-Americans who go back to work on Goldust. Goldust has a cool comeback but Storm takes out Booker so he still can’t get the tag. Storm brings some chairs into the ring as the ref gets distracted by Booker, they go for a Con-chair-to, but Goldust ducks and Nick Patrick gotta be deaf to have not heard that. Booker finally gets the hot tag and it’s super fun. Booker and Christian have a fun exchange in the ring until Storm accidentally murders the ref with a kick. Booker hits a Scissors Kick on both guys at the same time and since there’s no ref we get a spin-a-rooni for the crowd. The crowd gets to a count of 10 before Booker gives up on the cover bc Nick Patrick is still down. They take out Lance Storm, but Test comes running in and hits a running big boot on Booker allowing Christian to cover him for the win. More RAW more FUCKERY! Good match though for the most part.

At The World in New York City, Jamie Noble is with Nidia who’s gotta pick one of two fans to make out with. She picks one and starts devouring his face on a couch while Noble screams “COME ON BABY!” and giving her advice.

Bischoff is talking to Stephanie about women knowing their place in the business and Stephanie says a woman’s place is on top. Bischoff says RVD is going to bring the IC title to Raw later so we’ll see who’s on top then UGH

WWE Intercontinental Championship: Chris Benoit (c) vs Rob Van Dam
Interpromotional match since Benoit has jumped ship to Smackdown but RVD is still on Raw, WWE still trying to get the brand extension fully developed. This gets about 5 more minutes than the other matches so far which have been more or less 10 minutes, so they pace themselves a little slower, but it’s good stuff to start with. RVD uses his kicks and stuff while Benoit counters with his great technical wrestling. RVD is pretty motivated so he busts out the high flying stuff early and sells all Benoit’s stuff amazingly, especially the suplexes. Benoit works over the head/neck mostly though RVD is able to catch him with a few pinning combinations for some nice near falls. Benoit misses a diving headbutt allowing RVD to miss a Five Star Frog Splash and then Benoit locks on the Crossface, but RVD manages to get a foot on the ropes. They show Stephanie/Bischoff watching and Stephanie yells “Get em Benoit!” UGH I swear she was replaced by a lookalike during her SD GM run. They end up outside where Benoit starts targeting the shoulder that the Crossface hurt and keeps up his offense from earlier on the head and neck as well. RVD tries to make another comeback, ut Benoit reverses a Rolling Thunder variation into another Crossface which leads to a short counter exchange before Benoit stays in control with great shoulder work including bridinging northern lights suplexes with the arm trapped RVD is able to fight out of a crossface into his own, which mostly just pisses Benoit off, but RVD is able to catch him with a pretty sick springboard mule kick. RVD starts doing his usual stuff, and he sells the shoulder just enough I won’t bitch about it. Benoit catches RVD on the top rope and goes for a super back suplex, but RVD counters in mid air to land on top of Benoit and pretty fluidly goes up top for a Five Star For Splash to win. Really good match for the most part to keep up this amazing undercard.

Backstage Stephanie is pouting and Bischoff is gloating. Stephanie just laughs like a crazy bitch and leaves. Have fun on RAW IC Title, you get retired in a couple months during the fucking Katie Vick feud only to come back next year.

An Un-Americans video package airs where they talk about how much they hate America and how ignorant Americans are, can’t say I disagree tbh.

Test vs The Undertaker
This is easily the worst match on this great card, but I can’t even call it bad by any means. It’s an Undertaker showcase for the most part and Test lets him beat the shit out of him so we get a good brawl going until Test is able to reverse Old School by sending the ref into Taker. Test’s offense isn’t so great obviously, but he gets some pretty good foreigner heat and since ‘Taker is in his badass gimmick he actually sells even if it isn’t that great of selling. Test does basic stuff until Undertaker makes a pretty basic brawling comeback and finally hits Old School and there rest of his signature stuff while countering Test’s big moves. Test kicks out of a Chokeslam so Undertaker goes for a Last Ride but the other two Un-Americans run out so Undertaker takes out both tag team champions before eating and then kicking out of a huge running big boot. Test gets a chair and fights over it with the ref but then Taker hits him with a big boot sending the chair into Test’s face and hitting a Tombstone for the win. Solid match that I would have expected to be much worse at the time, definitely forgettable though.

After the match Undertaker celebrates with an American flag and we go down to King and JR who hype up the Shawn Michaels/Triple H street fight about to start. JR points out that it’s been 1,609 days since Michaels last wrestled and he’s coming out of retirement tonight out of pride and passion. A pretty awesome video package plays showing HBK and HHH’s history. 02 Raw was shit but when you put it in video package form it looks amazing.

Unsanctioned Street Fight: Shawn Michaels vs Triple H
Pretty hyped to watch this again since it’s one of the two HBK/HHH matches I actually really liked that didn’t involve Benoit. Michaels is in jeans and boots while HHH is in regular ring gear. Pretty good brawl to start off and show that Michaels can still go and it’s obvious early on that he can. Michaels introduces weapons early with a trash can and does some of his signature shit for the crowd. HHH quickly goes to the back with a sick backbreaker though that Michaels sells like he broke it again. JR’s commentary is awesome putting over Michaels’s back injury and how sadistic HHH is and thankfully King shuts up for the most part. Michaels is still the better wrestler so he catches HHH with a few roll-ups here and there, but when it goes back to brawling HHH gets the advantage and keeps attacking the back. Michaels gets busted open after a DDT onto a char, but manages to kick out so HHH starts whipping Michaels with his own belt HHH gets the sledgehammer, but Michaels is able to stop him from using it only for HHH to just go back to the back. Earl Hebner gets FED UP though and we get an awesome shoving battle between him and HHH untIl EARL BACKS HHH INTO THE CORNER SAYING HE’S SICK OF EVERYTHING AND POINTING IN HIS FACE Michaels starts coming back, but Hebner can’t save him from HHH’s beat down as HHH hits this sick backbreaker on a chair and JR yells at Hebner to quick count Michaels just to stop the match but Michaels keeps kicking out HHH goes for a Pedigree on a chair, but Michaels counters with a low blow and then hits Sweet Chin Music onto a chair to the face of HHH HHH is bleeding a shit ton now and Michaels starts hitting his signature stuff and the pop from the kip-up was insane They go back outside the ring and Michaels is just killing HHH with weapons at this point for some awesome revenge including one of the Spanish announcer’s shoes Michaels pulls out a ladder and HHH just take a fucking beating with it. Michaels makes his first pin in awhile and the crowd is so fuckin’ hot for him. They have a really fun counter exchange late in the match with Michaels getting some nice near falls before HHH brings the steps into the ring and Michaels introduces a table. I feel like I need to point out how much blood HHH has lost so far. Michaels uses a fire extinguisher to knock HHH out onto the table outside the ring and then Michaels hits a diving splash through the table and HHH Michaels sets up the ladder in the ring and hits the big elbow drop they used to show in video packages all the time and the crowd is crazy hot now as he tunes up the band. HHH counters and goes for a Pedigree but Michaels reverses into a jackknife pin for the win I still think I might like the December 03 Raw match better but man this match is so good, one of two HBK/HHH matches worth watching, well one of three bc the December 97 Raw match was hilarious too.

Michaels doesn’t get to celebrate too long bc HHH nails him in the back with the fuckin’ sledgehammer and gets amazing heat from both the crowd and JR as they bring out a stretcher for Michaels. HHH stumbles up the ramp smiling a sick smile as the crowd chants “HBK” bruh go get yourself cleaned up Hunter and don’t blade that deep anymore, Michaels wasn’t even bleeding at the end of the match from his.

Howard Finkel is in the ring and says before the main event he has a few things he wants to get off his chest He’s proud to say that this is the first PPV he’s announced at this arena since WrestleMania 2 and that while the MLB is going on strike we’ll always have THE FINK! I so forgot about this dude’s heel run in 02 Trish Stratus comes out looking fine as fuck. Fink calls her out for embarrassing him the last couple weeks and says just because she’s in an arena of Long Island skanks, she doesn’t’ get the right to think she’s hot stuff Trish says she’s never realized how sexy Fink’s voice is and Fink says Trish has the puppies while he has his wiener BRUH WHAT! Trish gives him a hug and says the real surprise is LILIAN GARCIA! She’s behind Fink and slaps him for stealing her job and kicks him in his wiener. Bro fuck 2002 Raw this fuckin’ ring announcer feud.

Michael Cole and Tazz are calling the main event tonight so they put it over and lead us into a video package showing Brock winning the King of the Ring and The Rock winning the Undisputed Championship at Vengeance. Heyman was amazing during Lesnar’s rookie year, like damn.

WWE Undisputed Championship: The Rock (c) vs Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman)
Rock sprints down the ramp to take the fight right to Lesnar Lesnar takes control early with his power working over Rock’s injured ribs. Heyman even takes a cheap shot early and man this is really fun. Rock just bumps around like crazy making Lesnar look amazing and he’s clearly improved just from when I last saw him at King of the Ring. The crowd knows Rock’s about to leave again so they’re on Lesnar’s side completely and we get a lot of “Rocky Sucks” chants whenever he tries to make comebacks before Lesnar stuffs them. Rock starts to come back finally after Lesnar gets sent into the post and both guys do a kip-up at one point Rock takes control and is able to lock on a Sharpshooter and it’s not a very good one but they work it well until Heyman gets onto the apron and drops a chair into the ring. Rock drops the hold to take out Heyman and the distraction lets Lesnar recover. Lesnar uses the chair while Heyman distracts the ref and is a GENIUS bc he hits Rock in the injured ribs with the end of the chair so the ref doesn’t even hear it Lesnar locks on the bearhug he murdered Hogan with recently and they work that for awhile which would have gotten kinda boring if the crowd wasn’t so hot. The crowd finally starts chanting for Rock as he fights back and Heyman tries to distract the ref again but it backfires this time as Rock hits Lesnar with a low blow. Rock sends Lesnar outside and starts stripping the Spanish announce table. He catapults Lesnar into the ring post and then ROCK BOTTOMS HEYMAN THROUGH THE ANNOUNCE TABLE Back in the ring, Rock is able to hit a Rock Bottom but Lesnar kicks out and then comes back with his own BROCK BOTTOM for Rock to kick out of. ROck tries to go for the People’s Elbow, but Lesnar nails him with a clothesline and goes for an F5. Rock counters and goes for another Rock Bottom, but Lesnar swings out of it into the F5 for the win Pretty good match, especially with Brock still being kinda green until he gets to work with Angle but they booked this one really well knowing the crowd would be hostile.

The PPV ends super quick after that, Lesnar barely gets to celebrate but man what a show. Top-to-bottom one of the best WWE cards ever and other than the Fink/Trish stuff it was match after match for 3 hours, I forgot what that felt like.

 

[Chris]

Event: Backlash
Date: April 27, 2003
Venue: Worcester Centrum in Worcester, Massachusetts
Attendance: ~10,000
Commentators: Jerry Lawler & Jonathan Coachman (RAW) & Michael Cole & Tazz (SmackDown!)

World Heavyweight Champion: Triple H
World Tag Team Champions: Kane & Rob Van Dam
WWE Women’s Champion: Trish Stratus

WWE Champion: Brock Lesnar
WWE Tag Team Champions: Team Angle (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin)
WWE Cruiserweight Champion: Matt Hardy

A video package hyping up the Rock/Goldberg match later airs to start the show and GOD DAMMIT FUCK Coach welcomes us to the show bc JR is out They send it to Cole and Tazz bc they haven’t separated the PPVs yet and Smackdown is opening the show. Team Angle come out with a picture of Kurt Angle bc they’re dedicating this match to him lol

WWE Tag Team Championship: Team Angle (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) (c) vs Los Guerreros (Chavo & Eddie Guerrero)
This is solid, nothing special or anything but it’s a good match to open the PPV. Good technical mat work from all four guys to start until Los Guerreros take control with their awesome face cheating. They isolate Benjamin for a bit until Team Angle is able to use the same cheating spots to isolate Eddie. Team Angle hit their awesome leapfrog move and they keep the fight to Eddie. Chavo has to interfere to save Eddie a couple times and this heat segment goes on too long but Eddie ends up making a pretty fun comeback to tag in Chavo who I wouldn’t have picked to get the hot tag here but it’s not bad, he takes out both champs before Benjamin kills him with a powerbomb. Eddie takes out Benjamin with a missile dropkick and hits Three Amigos on Haas which gets a super close two count for Chavo. Eddie hits the Frog Splash even though he’s not the legal man and Chavo again crawls to the cover and Benjamin pulls him out too late so Haas still had to kick out lol Benjamin sends Eddie into the steps and they do the spot where Benjamin holds Chavo’s feet down while Haas covers him for the win. Good first match, would have been a fine opener on a good show but sadly I think it ends up being the best match of the night.

Team Angle celebrate with the picture of Angle but Eddie sends Chavo over the top rope onto them and then they STEAL the tag team titles. Los Guerreros are shown backstage leaving in a low-rider with the tag titles while Team Angle watch on for the ring

Backstage Torrie Wilson is telling Test to stop calling and leaving her messages bc Stacy is her friend. Test says she doesn’t have to know and calls Torrie a tease bc he’s seen her picture in playboy and starts eye fucking her. This dumbass thinks bc she was nude in Playboy that means she wants him specifically like we ain't all jerk to those pics. She says she wants nothing to do with him and he says she doesn’t mean it and force kisses her. She walks away upset and we see Sable looking on. What the fuck was that shit.

Roddy Piper comes down to the ring with a basket of coconuts referencing him hitting Jimmy Snuka and more recently Rikishi with one. Piper says he has a lovely bunch of coconuts before introducing Sean O’Haire and trying to put him over.

Rikishi vs Sean O’Haire (w/ Roddy Piper)
They brawl outside a second before the match starts and man this sucks. Piper gets involved so much it’s basically a handicap match and it’s pretty basic bc of who’s involved. Some shit starts happening in the crowd so they get loud af but it’s not anything to do with the match, someone is probably fighting or something. Rikishi tries for a Stink Face but O’Haire counters and Piper comes in with a coconut. The ref is busy with him while both guys superkick each other in a pretty cool spot. Piper tries to get involved again and Rikishi gets revenge for his uncle by hitting Piper with a coconut this time. This lets O’Haire counter into his finisher that Tazz just says “IT’S THAT MOVE!” I think they call it the Widowmaker on Here Comes the Pain. Shit filler match that belonged on Velocity.

Piper got busted open hardway a little from the coconut

Stacy Keibler is backstage getting catering when Sable walks up and they meet each other for the first time and Sable SNITCHES on Torrie for going after Test smh can’t trust any of these hoes. Sable says she saw Torrie kiss Test which I guess isn’t a lie but fuck this angle. Stacy angrily throws down her salad and leaves.

Kane and RVD are backstage getting ready to defend their titles and RVD says this situation ain’t cool since Chief Morley is the special referee and he doesn’t think Morley will let them win no matter what they do. Kane says the only thing they can do is take them down, cool. Also lol at the Chief Morley gimmick I completely forgot about that.

World Tag Team Championship (w/ Guest Referee Chief Morley): Kane & Rob Van Dam (c) vs The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley)
Bubba attacks RVD from behind to start the match and they try to have this little counter exchange that was alright but a little awkward. RVD actually looks mostly motivated here and Bubba is too but D-Von and Kane couldn't care less about this match and they’re exchange fuckin sucks. Kane has a better one with Bubba but everyone is just kinda doing their own stuff and not building to anything. I’m probably overrating the Bubba/RVD exchanges just bc the rest are ass but they’re at least watchable. King says RVD called him earlier today asking for his telephone number RVD gets isolated by the Dudleys for the first turning point in the match and they do some pretty basic beatdown stuff with Morley not stopping Bubba from biting or raking the eyes of RVD. Kane gets a hot tag and again this is all really basic but at least not as sloppy as some of the opening moments. RVD gets tagged back in pretty quick before either Dudley even left the ring so he basically continues the hot tag until D-Von catches him with a sweet rope-hung neckbreaker. Kane takes out D-Von with a flying clothesline but Morley hits Kane with a low blow when he goes for the Chokeslam and then counts a fall even though RVD is legal. Morley throws Kane out of the ring and then accidentally clotheslines Bubba instead of RVD so D-Von gets pissed and takes out Morley until Lance Storm returns after 3 weeks to stop it but he eats a Bubba Bomb. Morley starts brawling with Bubba now until the Dudleys hit a 3D on him. The match continues and Kane hits a Chokeslam on Bubba and RVD hits a Five Star Frog Splash and another ref comes to count the pin. FUCKERY ON TOP OF FUCKERY!

Backstage Stacy enters the women’s locker room and confronts Torrie and after some terrible acting they have a catfight that’s broken up by the other divas including Ivory in a towel. There’s was also an actual cat at one point that I saw run out of frame that probably hates loud bitches as much as mine.

Teddy Long comes out with Jazz and says tonight is about vindication for Jazz who’s gonna rise above all bigotry and beat Trish for the Women’s title. BELIEVE DAT PLAYA! Jazz says “Tonight the bitch is back and the bitch is black BELIE DAT!”

WWE Women’s Championship: Trish Stratus vs Jazz (w/ Theodore Long)
Trish is nursing injured ribs after an attack from Jazz last week so that’s Jazz’s main strategy so watching her just throw around Trish is kinda fun and Trish is definitely getting better at selling. Jazz runs out of moves to do like 2 minutes in so she unties the turnbuckle pad which saves her from a pin bc the ref was tying it back on. They have a hilariously bad striking exchange until Jazz reverses the Stratusphere into a WOAT boston crab until Trish fights out and does her own and even tries an STF transition but Long helps Jazz get to the ropes. Trish is able to hit the Chick Kick but Jazz kicks out and fights back until Trish counters into the Stratusfaction but TEDDY LONG THROWS A SHOE AT HER TO BREAK UP THE PIN Long blames a fan and Trish throws the shoe back at him but the distraction lets Jazz cover Trish while using the ropes to win. MORE FUCKERY! But that shoe spot

Booker T, Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash are in the locker room getting ready for their 6-man tag team match. Nash says leave Triple H to him.

Tazz and Cole hype up the Big Show/Rey Mysterio feud and show a replay of Mysterio knocking Show on his ass a couple weeks ago and then causes him to lose to Tajiri last week. I forget how much fun this era Rey was tbh.

Big Show vs Rey Mysterio
They ring the bell with Mysterio on the outside bc he’s playing cat and mouse. Mysterio rocks Show with a kick but gets caught pretty early and starts getting thrown around and chopped like crazy. Show pretty much stops all Mysterio’s speed moves he tries and just throws him around and slams him until Mysterio says fuck this and gets a chair so he doesn’t die and nails Show with it after Show pushed the ref away. Mysterio takes Show down for the only time with a flying senton for a two count and then hits a 619 to the gut, then the ass and finally one to the head that Tazz was ready to call an 1857 Show catches him in a Chokeslam to win in 3:47 though. Lol they just booked Show to squash an up and coming super over talent in less than 4 minutes.

The ref calls some EMTs to come out and stretcher Mysterio after that Chokeslam. Show comes back out and BASEBALL SWINGS THE STRETCHER WITH MYSTERIO ON IT INTO THE RING POST HOLY SHIT! Mysterio’s face hit super fucking hard on the ground after that bc his hands were strapped and he couldn’t stop himself with them. That was sick af, I would have accused them of switching Rey out with a stunt double if it wasn’t live TV.

Lilian Garcia interviews Triple H, Chris Jericho, and Ric Flair. HHH says that Nash might be gunning for him, but he has Flair and Jericho and Jericho calls this the most dangerous team ever assembled and says tonight he plans on putting Shawn Michaels in the Walls of Jericho. Naitch calls out Booker T so everyone’s got their own little rival here. HHH says Nash forced his hand and tonight he’ll found out what it means to be against THE GAME!

Stacy and Torrie continue their brawl about two seconds too late once the camera was rolling and a plastic bin falls on Stacy’s head Scott Steiner comes out to check on her and goes to take her to a trainer while Torrie just on concerned. Test shows up asking Steiner what he’s doing with her girl and leaves Stacy with Test, bro this really been an angle all night. Wait I just realized Sable actually started the Steiner/Test feud technically, that bitch.

Cole calls this “Remedy” by Cold song “kickin” before hyping up this Lesnar/Cena match and showing a video package that shows how much Cena improved in his first year. He doesn’t deserve this title match yet, but he got so over so fast it’s not a bad test for him on this shitty PPV.

Cena comes out with a mic and says we’re listening to the next WWE Champion and cuts a rap promo using a lot of play on words with past champions including a hilarious one using Foley’s three gimmicks. “I’m attacking from all Angles, you’ll be calling me Kurt and I’m wearing this Yankees jersey bc Massachusetts makes me sick and if you don’t like that then you can SUCK MY….” rapper Cena bruh

WWE Championship: Brock Lesnar (c) vs John Cena
Lesnar has a bandage on his head bc Cena attacked him with a chain and chair last week. This match is weird, like it’s not good at all but it’s almost a spectacle bc of who’s involved even though that wouldn’t have meant shit at the time. Lesnar takes control early with power and wrestling skill, he throws Cena around a little but it’s mostly pretty boring. They end up outside the ring and I guess Cena is taking so much of a beating he doesn’t care about the belt bc he tries to get a chair but Lesnar keeps pushing him around until Cena is able to desperately reverse and send Lesnar into the steel steps. But instead of capitalizing he takes the title belt and taunts to the crowd. Lesnar is bleeding from his wound and Cena starts his incredibly limited early 03 offense. He works the head with random stuff, mostly punches and kicks and Lesnar bumps pretty well for it. Lesnar’s blood loss hurts his comeback attempts so Cena continues his super boring offense. Lesnar starts to make a comeback finally and they botch a little bit of it before the ref almost take a bump but Cena uses that distraction to hit a low blow and a roll-up for two. Cena tris to use the steel chain, but the ref stops him and Lesnar is able to hit an F-5 for the win. Yeah this isn’t worth watching at all unless you wanna see a disappointing early Cena/Lesnar match, but all their future ones are better.

A replay of Kevin Nash returning to save Shawn Michaels from HHH, Flair and Jericho airs showing Nash/Booker/Michaels not really being on the same page the last few weeks. Man 03 Raw was something else.

Booker T, Kevin Nash, & Shawn Michaels vs Chris Jericho, Ric Flair, & Triple H
Each guy gets their own entrance so that lasts longer than a few of the matches tonight. Jericho/Michaels have a really fun exchange to start until Nash comes in and Jericho bumps around for his weak offense again like it’s 1998. Booker comes in as they keep isolating Jericho and he’s on fire too so as long as Nash is in the match minimally this could be good. Shit kinda breaks down and Michaels hits Sweet Chin Music on Flair but HHH comes in to hit a Pedigree on Michaels so he can’t make the pin and dips before Nash can do anything. The heels have a pretty decent heat segment on Michaels, working over his leg for Naitch. Nash ends up getting the hot tag and the crowd is pretty dead for it. They try and get all 6 guys involved and parts are a little awkward bc it was obvious they were waiting on cues but it’s mostly fine. Everyone but Booker is down at one point and the crowd pops huge for a Spin-a-rooni. Nash and HHH are the legal men and end up brawling up the ramp while Michaels gets locked in a Figure-4 by Flair and takes a Lionsault from Jericho but he’s not a legal man so he’s just taking a fucking beating and can’t even tap Nash strips the Smackdown announce table but sees Michaels getting killed and chooses to help his friend instead of hurting his old friend. The ref takes a bump out of the ring as Nash hits a Jackknife Powerbomb on Jericho, but HHH saw the ref fall so he takes out Nash with a sledgehammer to the face and gets the pin. Yeah that was pretty decent, overbooked as shit and they could even have HHH lose in a 6-man match during his long ass title run LOL but still pretty decent.

Michael Cole and Tazz have an update on Mysterio but all they say is he’s at a trauma center and his vital signs are good. Tazz done took his glasses off and everything to show this shit serious.

Video package for the Rock/Goldberg match airs before Terri who STILL has a job interviews Rock. Rock says the only thing he hasn’t done is make a white baby He says he’s got nothing to be afraid of and does his awesome last heel run stuff before calling Goldberg a “whisker biscuit bald headed bitch”

Goldberg vs The Rock
They don’t do jack shit for the first few minutes, just playing the crowd and doing a stare down and shit and then the bell finally rings so that wasn’t even part of the match. Goldberg just throws Rock around at first who bumps around hilariously and talks so much shit while getting his ass beat Rock gets some shit in but Goldberg steals the Rock Bottom and goes for a Spear, but Rock sends him into the post. Rock locks on his ugly ass Sharpshooter and I will say Goldberg’s bumping and selling is better than I’d expect here, it’s really both these guys’ offense that’s lacking so much. Rock hits Goldberg with a low blow, but Goldberg is able to hit a Spear out of nowhere and even sells his hurt shoulder for it. They do this counter exchange where Rock gets desperate and SPEARS GOLDBERG Rock nails a Rock Bottom but only gets a two count so Rock hits the People’s Elbow but still only gets two. The very next move in the match is a Spear by Goldberg that Rock sells hilariously and then takes forever to get up from before Goldberg hits another one and then a Jackhammer for the win in his first ever WWE match. Another meh match to end this PPV that maybe had one or two decent matches.

 

[Crippler]

Was that suppose to be the worse PPV of 2003? if so, they're tripping I can pick 3 maybe 4 worse.

 

[Chris]

Was that suppose to be the worse PPV of 2003? if so, they're tripping I can pick 3 maybe 4 worse.

Yeah it was just meh, I think Rock/Brock being so hyped it was got it the worst but it almost just felt like a barely below average 03 PPV. No Angle or Benoit was a travesty though, but I think Kurt was hurt.

 

[Crippler]

Yeah it was just meh, I think Rock/Brock being so hyped it was got it the worst but it almost just felt like a barely below average 03 PPV. No Angle or Benoit was a travesty though, but I think Kurt was hurt.

I get that, but no way that show is worse than Bad Blood, Survivor Series or my personal worse Armageddon.

 

[Chris]

I get that, but no way that show is worse than Bad Blood, Survivor Series or my personal worse Armageddon.

Meltzer does his dumbass year of December-November so Armageddon would have been on the 04 ballot that was won by your favorite Great American Bash PPV. Judgement Day was the one I was thinking of that I would have picked, but I'd say Backlash was even worse than that Survivor Series show, it was just more forgettable.

 

[Chris]

Event: Pride FC: Final Conflict 2003
Date: November 9, 2003
Venue: Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan
Attendance: 67,450
Commentators: Bas Rutten & Damon Perry

Pride Heavyweight Champion: Fedor Emelianeko
Pride Middleweight Champion: Wanderlei Silva

So tonight features the semifinals and finals of the 2003 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix tournament and also an interim Heavyweight Championship bout and a few other fights as well rounding out to 8 total. Bas Rutten and Damon Perry are in the ring before the show starts hyping up the fights, mostly the Middleweight tournament. Rutten is wearing camo and says he’s supporting the troops in Iraq bc they’re watching via satellite.

A highlight video of the first round from Total Elimination plays with Ric Flair’s theme Chuck Liddell KO’d a young Overeem, Rampage beat some dude idk by decision, Hidehiko Yoshida submitted some dude and Wanderlei Silva KO’d Sakuraba in what was probably a great fight.

Perry starts shitting on the UFC saying Liddell won’t stand a chance against the Pride fighters with UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture comes up and threatens him, so Rutten calls him an old man and Couture takes him down It’s time for the show to actually start so we get the super extra Japanese opening that only they can do, I’m talking they got a live orchestra, hella streamers and ALLLLL DA PYRO They introduce all the fighters that have fights tonight so it takes a little bit but it’s whatever.

In a pre-recorded promo backstage the two announcers are talking about this first fight UGH I don’t know if I’m gonna like it if they do this for every fight.

Dan Bobish vs Gary Goodridge
Bobish has 30 pounds on Goodridge BUT THIS BITCH GETS TKO’d IN 18 SECONDS Bobish’s eye is fucked, he’s bitching that he got a finger in his eye and that’s why he stopped defending himself. So Vince stole the 18 second opener from Pride :hm:

Prerecorded promo of Rampage saying he doesn’t a fuck who’s in the finals with him bc he’s gonna do his shit and he’s taking this motherfucking tournament home with him FUCK IT! We then get a Rampage highlight video showing him murdering folks. Chuck Liddell gets his own highlight video too but since he’s a UFC guy and not a Pride guy they’re plugging Rampage way more. Apparently a young Dana (w/ hair) put up $250,000 on Chuck taking this tournament

2003 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament Semifinal: Chuck Liddell vs Quinton Jackson
Dana White is on commentary to watch his boy. First round starts with some really fun stand-up stuff with Jackson landing the stronger punches for sure but Liddell doesn’t look too phased and pushes the pace well. Dana is super disappointed that Liddell isn’t throwing more leg kicks so there’s his excuse if Jackson wins. Jackson goes for his first takedown about 7 minutes in but Liddell is able to block it, crowd got hot af when they thought they’d get a slam though. Jackson is able to rock Liddell pretty soon after and takes him down but it wasn’t a slam or anything. Liddell fights to his feet but eats some knees along the way. Liddell gets rocked again but his fuckin’ chin is invincible so he stumbles up to his feet like nothing happened and finishes the round in control kinda. The second round is only 5 minutes instead of 10 and Liddell starts it a little more winded than Jackson, definitely still feeling the probable concussion he received in round one. Jackson takes advantage of the fatigue but Liddell keeps eating these shots until he gets slammed down. Jackson starts killing Liddell’s body with ground and pain until the corner finally throws in the towel bc Liddell is barely defending himself.

We get like less than half of the pre-match pre-recorded stuff for the next semifinal as the first one. Wanderlei Silva is so obviously the favorite that both announcers even act like this is a walkover and Silva even called Jackson winning against Liddell and says nothing about his opponent The English announcers shit on Yoshida for wearing a gi and says he needs a miracle to beat Silva. Silva didn’t even get an entrance I’m guessing he said fuck all that noise.

2003 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament Semifinal: Hidehiko Yoshida vs Wanderlei Silva
I already reviewed this for a FOTY I think (I should really remember but I’m never sober enough). The crowd is way hotter for this one bc they love Yoshida and he gets a takedown early so they go FUCKIN NUTS! Silva’s defense is amazing and he’s almost able to get a triangle locked in but Yoshida fights out and instantly gets side mount but they’re in the ropes so they restart back in the center in side mount. Silva fights out so he can end up on top and they don’t really do much until they have to restart again bc cage > ring for fighting. Silva finally stands back up but Yoshida wants to keep it on the ground so the ref has to stand him up since Silva doesn’t take the bait. Yoshida gets a takedown pretty quick again for another huge pop but he isn’t able to get a submission in before the first round ends. The announcers are super salty that Silva didn’t win that first round LOL. Silva finally stuffs a takedown to open the seconds round and they have this AWESOME strike exchange with Silva landing some huge shots. Silva really has an answer for everything this second round and Yoshida starts getting more desperate for a takedown. Silva easily ends up on top in half guard after a shitty takedown attempt by Yoshida and Silva continues to own this round to make these judges have a hard job deciding who won this great fight. Easy owning of the second round by Silva, but you’d have to give the first and longer round to Yoshida even if he wasn’t near as dominant as Silva in the second round. IDK why I’m acting like Jackson/Silva wasn’t the plan from the beginning though bc Silva obviously takes this decision regardless. Really fun fight tho.

We get like 30 seconds of hype for this reserve match up next, I guess the winner of this one will replace either Silva or Jackson if they can’t compete tonight IDK thought but I get a Dan Henderson fight on this card fuck yeah

2003 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament Reserve: Dan Henderson vs Murilo Bustamante
Bustamante looks to have the height and reach but that don’t mean shit bc Henderson catches him with a knee and TKOs him with punches in 53 seconds

Pre-recorded interview of Perry interviewing Kevin Randleman who talks about having a seizure while driving and almost dying but got to leave the hospital the next day so from now on he’s not gonna be crazy he’s gonna be a focused fighter and that we’ll love his submission. He’s gonna be against Kazushi Sakuraba later so they show some highlights of him while the announcers talk about the fight.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs Kevin Randleman
UFC Middleweight Champion Randy Couture hands each of these guys a bouquet of flowers before the fight starts. Randleman comes out strong with a quick takedown but just rides his back without doing anything so the ref breaks it up. This stand-up is kinda boring, but Randleman is able to hit a nice leg kick before taking Sakuraba down again. He can’t really do much though bc Sakuraba has some decent submission attempts from the bottom but again nothing really happens for a few minutes. Pretty boring 10 minutes, we’ve got two 5 minute rounds left since this isn’t a tournament fight. Randleman hits a nice leg sweep to begin the second round and we get some decent stand-up from both guys but it’s mostly just leg kicks. Randleman catches a head kick and takes Sakuraba down but again the submission attempts causes Randleman to not really do much. Randleman probably won both rounds but they were pretty fuckin’ boring. Much faster pace in the third round by Randleman, it looks like Bas was right about him stalling to save energy for the last round. He takes Sakuraba’s back early, but Sakuraba counters into an Armbar attempt and the crowd livens up a good bit for it and after a minute or so he’s able to flatten out and Randleman has to tap.

Sakuraba says something after the match but neither announcer knows Japanese so Bas says Sakuraba just said Bas was the best fighter in the world or some shit

They hype up the Interim Heavyweight title match up next bc Fedor is injured I think so it’s gonna be Nogeira/Cro Cop. Cro Cop is the favorite bc Nog is still young so he plays off as not being worried at all.

Interim Pride Heavyweight Championship: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Mirko Cro Cop
This is good shit, Cro Cop ends up on top early and lands some sick hammer fists. They have some fun ground work, way better than the last fight. They end up back on their feet and Cro Cop is just insanely on with his strikes here, he’s not landing anything huge just the sheer volume is great and Nogueira ends up getting rocked but Cro Cop stands him back up bc he doesn’t want to take it to the ground. They continue this for the rest of the round bc Nogueira’s chin is strong as shit but he EATS a head kick and probably would have lost if he didn’t get saved by the bell 5 minute round two starts off the exact same as round one except this time Cro Cop can’t manage a sprawl so Nogueira gets the early takedown to a huge pop He lands some decent shots but misses a lot more so Cro Cop goes to throw him off but NOG LOCKS ON AN ARMBAR TIGHT AS SHIT AND CRO COP TAPS THE FUCKIN’ UPSET!

Nogueira cuts a promo after and Bas translates bc he actually speaks Portuguese but this Damon fuck interrupts to make a joke about Nog’s dog dying WHAT THE FUCK!

2003 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament Final: Quinton Jackson vs Wanderlei Silva
Randy Couture is on commentary for this one fuck yeah. AWESOME staredown to start and then Jackson goes for a slam early but Silva locks on a guillotine to stop it to prevent it and is able to bring Jackson down but Jackson fights out of it into a full guard. They stay pretty busy but no one lands anything of note until Silva goes for an armbar attempt but that lets Jackson land some crazy strong strikes and move on to half guard but Silva is able to get back in full guard pretty quick. Silva is busted open after some solid shots, but they end up getting back up. Silva gets a yellow card for some infraction, not sure what but then they have this amazing strike exchange and Silva lands some SICK fuckin’ knees. Jackson just eats so many of these sick knees until finally he drops and they have to call it WOW! That only lasted like 6 minutes or so and they have better fights in the future but what a great way to end this show.

All the fighters come out as Silva is honored for the tournament and they have the big Japanese celebration. Randy Couture says he wants to put his UFC title on the line against Silva and the Pride announcers have a lot of fun for that.

 

[Deezy]

Watching Wanderlei beat up Rampage never gets old.

 

[Deezy]

Forget to say....Murillo Bustamante the guy Rampage beat was a former UFC champion bruh.