Stojy watches WWE 2002

[Stojy]

WWF January 2002

Top 5 Matches of the month​

WWF Undisputed Championship Match: Chris Jericho (c) vs. The Rock – Royal Rumble. (match of the month)
Number One Contenders Match: Kurt Angle vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin – January 28th, Raw
Kurt Angle vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin – January 10th, Smackdown
Street Fight: Ric Flair vs Vince McMahon – Royal Rumble
Chris Jericho and Test vs. Rob Van Dam and The Rock – January 10th Smackdown

Bottom 5 Matches of the month​

Bubba Ray Dudley w/D’Von Dudley vs. Spike Dudley w/Tazz – January 14th, Raw
Billy and Chuck vs. Kane and The Big Show – January 21st, Raw
Jazz vs. Trish Stratus – January 24th, Smackdown
Chris Jericho, Christian and Lance Storm vs. Rikishi and The APA – January 14th, Raw
Booker T vs. The Big Show – January 14th, Raw

Top 5 Wrestlers of the month​

The Rock
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Kurt Angle
The Undertaker
Chris Jericho

Bottom 5 Wrestlers of the month​

Jazz
Trish Stratus
Faarooq
Bradshaw
Chuck

 

[Stojy]

WWF Heat
February 3rd, 2002
Norfolk, Virginia

Match One
Funaki vs. The Godfather

As usual, The Godfather gets quite the ovation because everybody in the crowd is a fan of the Ho’s. It turns out the fans aren’t the only ones, as Funaki initially shows interest in wanting to spend time with the girls, as opposed to wrestling The Godfather. The Godfather hands over his escort services card because he’s legitimate now, but in the biggest heel move of the year so far, Funaki rips the card up. The Godfather is pissed and dominates the match, until Funaki manages to get some fingers in the eyes. Funaki takes over, dropping Godfather and hammering away, but Godfather is quickly back up with a Short Arm Clothesline. He sends Funaki into the corner, Ho Train connects, followed by the Pimp Drop, and by god, it feels like it’s 1999 all over again. An extended squash here, with the Ho’s getting the best reaction of all the talent involved. Godfather character never reconnected after the Right To Censor run, and funnily enough, there’s another talent on the show which was probably hurt even worse than Godfather by being a part of that faction. Anyway, this match was pretty poor and there’s no real reason to care for it. *

Match Two
Lance Storm vs. The Hurricane

These two begin with some mat wrestling, with Hurricane taking Storm down with a nifty Fireman’s Carry. The Superhero remains on top, which infuriates Storm, and Hurricane eventually throws Storm over the top rope and to the outside. After some action on the outside, they get back in and Storm attempts a Back Suplex, but Hurricane reverses and connects with a Neckbreaker. Hurricane fails to get the win here and gets another near fall, after ducking a Clothesline and scoring with a Roll Up. Storm is able to take over with a Snap Suplex, and then sends Hurricane crashing face first into the corner. Now it’s Hurricane’s turn to fight back as he lands a Headscissors Takedown. The momentum sends Storm through the ropes and to the outside, allowing Hurricane to get a high risk move on the outside. The finish comes when they get back inside, and Storm blocks a Superkick from Hurricane, only to connect with one of his own for the win. Again, not much to write home about here, a throw away Heat match, although I’m all for Storm getting a victory. Still frustrates me how little was done with him during his WWF/WWE run. *1/2​

Val Venis is out for the next match. Just to make it super clear, Val is the wrestler I was referring to earlier that was ruined by the Right To Censor. I’d argue late ’99, early ’00 saw Val on the run of his career, and he was putting on good matches with the awesome WWF mid card of the time. After joining RTC, it all went down the drain and he never truly recovered under the Val Venis gimmick. Anyway, Val gets the mic and goes with his usual gimmick here, bringing a lady from the crowd to take off his towel. He tells the lady that he doesn’t want to know her name, so she doesn’t get attached. She removes the towel, and they swap saliva to apparently give us some excitement before the next match.

Match Three
Perry Saturn vs. Val Venis

The fun and games are over once the match starts, with Saturn starting strong with a Knee Lift, and having his way with Val in the corner. After being beaten up, Venis fights out of the corner with some Clotheslines and right hands. Saturn eventually sends Val chest first into the corner and when Venis stumbles back towards the centre of the ring, Saturn gets him with a Leg Sweep. Love this because it reminds me of TOTAL ELIMINATION~! Saturn continues on the offensive, including hitting a Swinging Neckbreaker for a near fall. Saturn gets a bit cocky here and begins focusing on mocking the fans to much, and it allows Val to recover, and hit him with a Dropkick to the knee in the next sequence. Val continues to work on the leg now, taking Saturn down with a Chop Block. Saturn shows some fight, hitting a Northern Lights Suplex for the near fall, but the story here is his suddenly bad leg. Val gets back onto it after taking Saturn back down with a Drop Toe Hold, and then locks in an Indian Death Lock. And holy shit, Saturn actually taps. Did not expect that ending at all. I guess it’s a pretty basic story here though. Val found an injured limb, focused on it and used to win, but definitely the first time I’ve seen Val win a match by submission before. Despite the effort to tell somewhat of a coherent story, really not a good/interesting match. Typical Heat really. *1/2

Match Four
Big Bossman vs. Crash Holly

It’s a relief to finally have a match that feels like it has some sort of atmosphere behind it. In 2002, Crash isn’t exactly the most over babyface in the world, but Bossman manages to generate some hatred from the fans, with a few “Bossman sucks” chants thrown in. Crash tries to stick and move in the early stages, until Bossman catches him with a knee in the mid-section, allowing him to hammer away with right hands. Crash’s speed continues to give Bossman trouble, until Crash plays to the fans, giving Bossman time to drop him again. After hanging Crash on the middle rope, Bossman does his awesome slide to the floor and land a right-hand move. I thought that was the coolest thing ever growing up, and apparently, I still like it now. Bossman gets back in the ring and continues the assault, blatantly choking Crash in the middle of the ring. Bossman just casually sits on Crash for the pin, in what felt like a weird spot, but Crash reverses into a Roll Up for a near fall of his own. I get the idea of giving Crash a flash pin false finish, but the set up felt very unnatural. Once they’re both back up, Crash tried to build some momentum but runs straight into the Bossman Slam, which sees the end of this one. A long running squash more than anything, neither man is doing anything overly exciting at this point and it’s likely to stay that way. Match wasn’t good. *

Match Five
Scotty Too Hotty vs. Tajiri

It’s an all babyface main event here so let’s see how we go. The match is very back and forth in the early stages, with Tajiri landing a Suplex, but Scotty able to quickly come back and send Tajiri falling to the canvas. They then take turns with Dropkicks, with Scotty landing the more traditional version, whilst Tajiri then lands a Dropkick to the back of Scotty, to set up a Standing Moonsault. Tajiri unleashes some of his vicious kicks in the corner of the ring, but Scotty gets a Tilt A Whirl Backbreaker out of nowhere. Scotty blocks Tajiri’s Handspring Elbow, and both men end up down after a Double Clothesline. The finishing sequence sees a lot of reversals, or blocks starting with Tajiri missing a Moonsault. Scotty tries for his Bulldog, but Tajiri blocks and tries the Tarantula, but Scotty escapes before it’s locked in. Scotty goes to the well again with the Tilt A Whirl, but this time Tajiri gets out and scores with a Roll Up, which gets the three count. Not much here in terms of match as well, but definitely glad that Tajiri is the winner, with much more upside for him. *1/2 ​

A pretty meh episode of Heat if I’m honest. Thankfully the show is short.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Raw
February 4th, 2002
Las Vegas, Nevada

In what makes perfect sense after the way Smackdown went off the air, Michael Cole interviews Ric Flair to start the show, asking him whether he’s having second thoughts about his decision to not sell his stock back to Vince McMahon. Flair admits having second thoughts all week long, but he stands by his decision. When Cole further pushes about the ramifications of his actions, Flair admits that if Vince does bring in the NWO, there will be a huge problem. Can’t fault this really, makes sense to open up with something like this after the events of Smackdown.

We then bet the pyro and ballyhoo of the standard opening to a WWE show, as the commentators hype a tag team match tonight which will be Chris Jericho and The Undertaker vs. Stone Cold and The Rock.

Triple H comes out to the ring in his wrestling gear, and he doesn’t look to be in a good mood. A furious Triple H talks about how Kurt Angle made two mistakes on Smackdown when he tried to break his ankle, Kurt didn’t get the job done and he screwed with the wrong guy. Triple H calls Kurt out by telling him to bring his “Olympic Ass” out here, but Booker T makes an appearance instead. Trips is annoyed at this as Booker basically calls Triple H a loser and tells him he’s going to beat his ass on national TV for the second week in a row. Eh, solid enough way to set up an opening matching, I guess.

Match One
Booker T vs. Triple H

Triple H is a bad ass in case you hadn’t realised by now, and he’s pissed too. Trips meets Booker halfway down the ramp and beats him up on the outside, including sending him into the steel steps. After this, he gets Booker into the ring and the match officially begins. Whilst this is short and sharp and gets nowhere near the time last week’s match on Raw got (if I remember correctly), it actually makes the match more enjoyable. Both guys weaknesses are hidden well, as we just have big move after big move and a bunch of cool exchanges in what is basically a sprint. In the end, Trips looks for the Pedigree, but Booker escapes and goes for the Scissors Kick. Hunter moves and this time he’s able to nail the Pedigree. The sequence was smooth so props to these guys, and as Triple H goes for the pin, Kurt Angle breaks up the count, ending this match in a DQ. Fun for what it was, and I guess at least they only semi squashed Booker, and didn’t completely bury him by completing the three count. **1/2

After the match, Kurt Angle pounds on Triple H in the corner, before finishing him off with the Angle Slam.

In the back, Triple H is FURIOUS, stomping through the halls like only he can, looking for Kurt Angle. He finds one of the WWE officials and asks them, and they tell Triple H that they saw Kurt heading to Vince McMahon’s office. Maybe could have done with something else here before we got more Triple H so soon. I get he’d be furious after Angle got the better of him, but I would have preferred some selling of the beat down.

Now we head to the women’s locker room where Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson look hot… Oh and they also argue over some bullshit lipstick, until Billy and Chuck appear showing off their surely hilarious calendar. They gloat that it blows the Divas calendar away, but Torrie and Stacy don’t seem very impressed. Stacy says that her and Torrie could do all of those poses better and it ends with Billy and Chuck challenging the Divas to a pose down on Smackdown. They also mention that they’ll be able to pose with the Tag Titles after they win them tonight. I’m probably in the minority here, but whilst I thought Billy and Chuck sucked in ring as a team, the gimmick had potential even if they weren’t to be taken to seriously. Harmless fun, and I’m all for a pose down.

By this stage, the angry Triple H has found his way to Vince McMahon’s office, but the door is blocked by some police officers. Triple H can’t get through and is even ANGRIER, when Kurt Angle decides to open the door and stick his head out. With a sly grin, Kurt says he just finished speaking to Vince, and they will meet at No Way Out with Triple H’s title shot on the line. I’m not the biggest fan of Rumble winners defending their title shots. Still think these two have plenty of heat here though so I’m okay with how this has all come about, would just prefer it without the stipulation.

Match Two
Bubba Ray Dudley w/D’Von Dudley and Stacy Keibler vs. Rob Van Dam

The story in this one is quite simple; they play on the number’s advantage. RVD continuously looks a class above, but the numbers continue to allow Bubba to get back into the contest. D’Von distracts Van Dam for Bubba to get the jump early, then when Van Dam makes a comeback and hits Rolling Thunder, Stacy distracts the ref so D’Von can get involved again. This time the interferes get caught and the ref ejects them both. Bubba still manages to hit the Bubba Bomb and have his short period of domination here. Van Dam bumps great like usual and there’s a really cool moment where Bubba calls for D’Von to get the tables, but he isn’t out there. Love the idea of Bubba instinctively expecting D'Von to be there by his side as he is in basically all their other matches. In the end though, RVD makes a pretty basic comeback and finishes things off with the Five Star Frog Splash. Not a lot of time and nothing special *3/4

After the match, Van Dam’s celebration is interrupted because it’s time for another Shattered Dreams production. Awesome bit of Goldust dialogue as usual, where he tells Van Dam then when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true. Goldust admits that RVD is the rising star that he’s had his eyes on, but Van Dam’s dreams are about to be shattered. As Van Dam looks confused, Goldust comes from behind and beats the shit out of Van Dam, including nailing him with the Shattered Dreams, and an awesome Falling Neckbreaker. RVD is generally pretty good at this time, and Goldust’s promo work to build to this moment has been brilliant. Colour me excited for this angle.

In the back, Triple H is STILL FURIOUS, as he yells to Stephanie McMahon Helmsley about what Vince McMahon and Kurt Angle have concocted. Steph has a smile on her face which pisses Hunter more, so he yells at her about it. She stays calm and says that she has news which will change Triple H’s world which she will announce later tonight. I know Steph is supposed to be the bitch that everybody hates, but this isn’t the first segment between them where Triple H has just come across like a verbally abusive/shit husband when barely provoked. Probably not the exact dynamic they are going for with their babyface right?

Michael Cole tries to interview The Undertaker but ‘Taker just bullies him, making sure that Cole is scared of him. He’s glad that Cole fears him because that shows a sign of respect. ‘Taker then segues into talking about The Rock, saying lately The Rock has shown him disrespect, but tonight, ‘Taker would teach him the meaning of the word. After he’s done with The Rock, he’ll teach Austin as well. ‘Taker’s tag team partner for later tonight, the WWF Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho then appears and after sucking up to ‘Taker, and tooting his own horn, Jericho says if ‘Taker has any problem teaching Austin and Rock about respect tonight, Jericho has his back. The Undertaker doesn’t seem all that impressed with his partner as we fade away. Solid enough promo to hype tonight’s main event.

WWF Tag Team Championship;
Elimination Match:
Spike Dudley and Tazz (c) vs. Billy and Chuck vs. The Acolytes

I know for a majority of their more recent history, the WWE hasn’t really given a toss about their tag division, but this getting less time than the Trips/Booker match which barely hit four minutes irritates me. Not entirely sure why you’d look at booking an Elimination match in such short time. A terrible decision and one that’s always going to struggle to make the talent losing look like anything less than easybeats. I’ve also really enjoyed Spike and Tazz’s title reign so it’s a little sad to see them not get a little more time to put on a show here. The APA are probably actually involved in the action and the match for probably less than one minute when Bradshaw gets eliminated by Billy thanks to the Fameasser. Wow. The APA look like a worthy team now, don’t they? Pretty generic fun stuff after the first elimination, and despite the lack of time, Spike and Tazz manage to carry Billy and Chuck to something that somewhat resembles fun. The earlier elimination comes back to bite Billy and Chuck though, with Bradshaw tripping Billy when he hits the ropes, allowing Spike to get the Dudley Dog for the victory. Wish this had more time because by the end, I actually think Spike and Tazz could have dragged this into something good. Still, I feel like I’ve sounded quite negative, but this was far from offensive. **

It’s time for more follow up from the big events on Smackdown as Vince McMahon makes his way out to the ring. Vince says last week on Smackdown, Flair was supposed to do the right thing, but the lying SOB didn’t. McMahon doesn’t understand what explanation Flair can have for this, but they are all about to find out. Vince calls Flair out, and it doesn’t take long for The Nature Boy to make his way down the ramp. Before Flair can talk, Vince jumps the gun and says he thinks he knows why Flair backflipped. He thinks Flair is selfish and wanted to keep himself in the spotlight. Flair shoots down that reason, so Vince asks if it was because of Austin. Again, Flair says it wasn’t. Vince is confused as he stops guessing and asks Flair why then? Ric says it was because of the fans. Vince says the fans don’t know what’s good for them, but that’s all fine because now nobody can stop these men from coming into the WWF. In an EPIC moment, Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall images appear on the titantron, and Vince confirms that these three men will be coming and there will be No Way Out. Another really nice building block for the eventual debut of the NWO. Trying to forget about what becomes of this angle, it’s looking really positive with the way they’ve made it feel like such a huge deal to this point.

In the back, we get a STOOGE’S appearance as Pat Patterson and Gerald Briscoe ask Arn Anderson about the NWO. Arn tells them that he knows firsthand what the NWO is about because they are poison and to powerful. Arn believes Flair made the wrong call on Smackdown. Adding to my thoughts on the above, Double A disagreeing with Flair’s judgment is a really big deal considering their history. Nice little touch.

Match Four
WWF Intercontinental Championship Match
William Regal (c) vs. Rikishi

As is usual with Regal during this time period, I love his facial expressions as he looks offended as hell. Why? Because referee Teddy Long decides to search him for brass knucks before the match begins. Again, relatively short and not having a definitive finish probably hurts this one, but what we did get to see was quite fun. His head wrench, his stiff strikes, Regal is just so savage on offense that it’s hard not to enjoy, and whilst Rikishi is nowhere near as consistent as he was in 2000 in the year 2002, I thought he had a fine enough performance here. Eventually, Rikishi gets on top and ascends the ropes to go for the Bonzai Drop, but Regal rolls out of the way. Finally, the champion then gets his hands on the brass knucks, but before he can do anything with them, he gets Speared to the mat by Edge. Regal wins by DQ. Really fun well it lasted, my favourite match of the night so far. **3/4

After the match, Edge continues to hammer away on Regal until a whole bunch of people come to drag the furious Edge away from Regal. As this happens, Rikishi recovers and decides to give Regal the Stinkface.

Over at WWF New York, we see the new WWF European Champion Diamond Dallas Page having a fun time with his fans.

The Coach interviews The Rock and asks him about a big announcement that he apparently has to make. The Rock says that his announcement has nothing to do with the NWO, his announcement has everything to do with The Undertaker. He talks about how two weeks ago, The Undertaker cost him the WWF Undisputed Championship so now at No Way Out, he gets to go one on one with The Great One. I guess that’s a challenge from The Rock. The Rock talks about how he doesn’t care if ‘Taker is mad about Rock talking about Maven eliminating ‘Taker from the Rumble (uh oh, he did it again), because he’s not The Undertaker’s Champion, he’s The People’s Champion. From there, Rocky sings some Viva Rock Vegas, hits the If You Smell and leaves. I love a Rock promo, and this was fun but surely, he could have mentioned a little more about the main event tag match that isn’t all that far away on tonight’s show.

Stephanie McMahon Helmsley comes down to the ring and she’s all happy and smiles just as she was earlier in the night. Her dick of a husband can’t hold her down, damn it. Anyway, smile still on, Steph starts by calling out Triple H to be here for her announcement. Triple H makes his way out to the ring and surprise, surprise, he looks irritated again. Stephanie talks about how her interview with JR gave her an epiphany, because their marriage is falling apart, and they need to do something to change that. Next week on Raw, they will renew their wedding vows. Triple H screws up his face and shoots the idea down pretty quickly. Despite Hunter calling it the stupidest idea he’s ever heard; Stephanie goes on a long tirade about them proving their love. Again, Triple H shoots it down, and now Steph brings on the water works. She starts crying and says he HAS to do this for her. He doesn’t like that, losing his shit as he says no again because not everything is about her. Triple H looks set to leave the ring but then a panicked Steph blurts out that she’s pregnant. That’s apparently why she’s been so moody lately, but she knows how bad they both want this, which is why they should renew their vowels so they can be a family. After Triple H pauses, building the anticipation, he runs and hugs and kisses Steph, all happy that he’s going to be a dad and seemingly happy to renew the vows next week as well. Let’s not get into the whole wrestling and wedding angle fixations. I dislike them, and I’m not looking forward to the segment next week, however the one thing I think they got right here, is Triple H is happy and content with Steph in the end. He really has come across like a dick so far, which does him no good. Now that he’s doing the right thing and looking a little more like a nice guy/loving husband/willing father, at least when shit goes down, there’s some reasons to feel some sympathy towards him. So yes, I hate this direction, but I still think there was a step in the right direction in terms of Triple H’s attitude towards Steph.

After a break, we see a quick glimpse of Triple H and Stephanie leaving the arena, and Trips is holding all the luggage because his baby momma’ can’t be straining.

Match Five
WWF Womens Championship Match
Trish Stratus (c) vs. Jazz

I was probably a little surprised with this match. No, it wasn’t a barnburner and it’s not going to win any match of the year awards, but I thought this was a solid effort from both. After missing the Crossbody and landing on her injured hand, I thought the selling of that from Trish throughout was class. Probably some of the best we’ve seen to this point from the women. Meanwhile, as much as I dislike Jazz, it even seemed like she was trying extra hard tonight. She was solid enough on offense, and in the end, she wins the title cleanly with the Fisherman’s Buster. Nothing overly amazing, not by a long shot, but better than what I expected based on what I’d seen previously. *3/4

Match Six
Chris Jericho and The Undertaker vs. Steve Austin and The Rock

The match begins with Jericho and ‘Taker taking their time on the outside, and Austin/Rock get frustrated, meeting them out there and starting a fun brawl all around ringside. Of course, eventually the match settles down, and this was okay, but I can’t help but be a little disappointed. Jericho and ‘Taker kind of eventually isolated Austin after the faces started on fire, and it was solid enough, I guess. In this match, Austin had none of the usual energy and fire that he brings, and to be honest, looked a far cry from the world beater that he was for 2001. Austin his able to fight back after some half assed work on his shoulder and he makes the hot tag to The Rock. All hell breaks loose not long after this and we end up with Rock/Jericho in the ring and Taker/Austin brawling on the outside. I guess it’s smart to pair the opposite with each other so that the PPV matches still feel somewhat fresh once they come along. The Rock managed to land a Rock Bottom, but the ref isn’t around to count the three due to a previous ref bump. ‘Taker manages to grab a pipe from his bike and nail The Rock with it, and then whilst Austin is distracted with ‘Taker on the outside, Jericho gets the pin. Not bad but not at the level I thought it would be either. Slightly disappointing finish to the show. **1/4

A pretty mediocre show. Outside of the NWO stuff and the brief Goldust/RVD segment, there wasn’t much on this show worth viewing. I was tired of Triple H by the end of it and have no interest in the wedding next week. The main event wasn’t what I thought it would be, and any other match that had potential did not get enough time to shine. ​

 

[Stojy]

WWF Smackdown
February 7th, 2002
Los Angeles, California

We open the show with The Rock who clearly isn’t in a good mood after being hit with a lead pipe by The Undertaker on Raw. The Rock talks a little about how The Undertaker wants respect, and Rock says he has respect for him. After the pipe shot though, he doesn’t care about The Undertaker’s match with Maven tonight, he’s calling him out right now. Booker T interrupts (he seems to be making a habit of this) and says he can’t stand a suck up with a big ego. Booker talks about how he beat Triple H’s ass last week and now tonight, he’ll make an example of The Rock. Rock tells Booker he can be in a movie called ‘Rock Whoopin Your Ass All Over Smackdown’ and that’s enough for Booker to run down and start a brawl, which turns into an impromptu match. The Rock calling out ‘Taker makes sense, Booker just kind of being inserted into this jobber to the stars roll makes me sad. Especially to the point where he’s basically doing the same thing, he did with Triple H twice here. At least mix up the formula or something. Both these guys are enjoyable on the mic though, so whilst I don’t agree with the booking, the segment itself was still fine.

Match One
Booker T vs. The Rock

A by the numbers match here, nothing overly exciting. After the war of words, of course they begin with some basic brawling, and after landing a Hook Kick, Booker takes the action to the outside. Booker sends The Rock into the barricade into a few times where they end up back in the ring. There’s a heated back and forth run to the finish, however after Booker nails the Scissors Kick, he opts for the Spinaroonie. This ends up being his undoing as he leaves himself open for the Spinebuster and The Peoples Elbow. The Rock wins. This was maybe a little better than their match they had earlier in the year, but it still wasn’t great by any means. Come to think of it, I don’t think these two have had that one really good match together, even during their series in 2001 where both men were running hot. The Rock is still running hot, but I do wonder if the awful booking has made Booker a little demotivated because he looked a shell of himself here if I’m honest. Hopefully that doesn’t last to long. **1/4

In the back, Stephanie McMahon Helmsley introduces Triple H to her doctor. The doctor shows the sonogram and talks about how the baby is as should be at eight weeks. Steph says that they already had their problems but now they know the baby is the most important thing. She then states that they are renewing their vows on Raw. I can’t wait for this to be over, at least they aren’t building towards the vow’s ceremony for over a month or something crazy.

Kurt Angle makes his way to the ring wheeling a baby’s pram into the ring. Kurt starts off by talking about how he’ll be going to WrestleMania now that Vince McMahon has given him the match, he deserves against Triple H at No Way Out. Angle talks about how he believes Stephanie will make a great mum, but can you imagine Triple H as a dad. Kurt says that Triple H is already stupider than the foetus, basically making references to say Triple H isn’t human. He goes on with it, saying that he knows the baby will look like, and he pulls out an ape teddy. To make this even better, there’s a large, fake nose stuck to the ape’s face. Kurt says he has a gift for the baby, and he pulls out some bananas, and even epically says that they’re that damn good. What an awesome time to pull out that line. A furious Triple H eventually comes to the ring and throws Kurt from the ring, before throwing the pram after him. The only good thing to come out of this fake pregnancy angle. A fun performance from Kurt here for sure, and it’s not all just humour, as it still adds head to this high-profile feud.

Match Two
Edge, Rikishi and Rob Van Dam vs. The Dudley Boyz and William Regal

A pretty formulaic approach here (as with most WWE tag matches to be fair), with the faces starting off on fire, with RVD doing some damage, before making the tag to Edge. Edge then also rolls through some offense, before Bubba and Regal illegally attack Edge to give the heels the advantage. Edge is isolated momentarily, before making the hot tag to The Big Kish. As expected, all hell breaks loose, and it ends up with everybody in the ring hitting big moves on each other. Rikishi manages to land the Stinkface on Bubba Ray, but he leaves himself vulnerable to get caught with the 3D. The heels win. This was okay but I thought it could have been better. Considering their standing in the company at the moment, it seemed really strange that Van Dam had such a miniscule role, Edge was the face in peril, and then Rikishi is the guy getting the hot tag and turning the match. Just felt strange and unnatural and I felt like it hurt the match some, but overall, these guys clearly tried really hard. **1/2

After the match, Edge continues his angry gimmick, attacking and beating the hell out of Regal on the ramp, only for The Dudleyz to stop him. The Dudleyz pull him back and hold him, allowing Regal to land a brutal brass knucks shot to the mid-section. Edge goes down and a furious Regal applies the Regal Stretch.

A quick promo for the NWO airs, including mixing in images of Hogan and comparing him to Adolf Hitler. Holy shit, this was awesome, but man would they probably get cancelled today for this.

The WWF Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho is out next, and he brags about beating The Rock for the sixth time. He says you’d think after that, people would respect Jericho, but no, instead everybody just thinks that Stone Cold is going to kick his ass at No Way Out. A fired-up Jericho says well screw that and screw No Way Out, Jericho wants to fight Austin tonight so he calls him out. Instead of Austin actually coming out, it’s Will Sasso from Mad TV doing an Austin impression. Sasso does his schtick but compliments and talks up Jericho which obviously annoys the fans. Sasso says his watch tells him it’s time to admit that Jericho is the better man, and that’s the final straw. The real Stone Cold comes down and Jericho immediately escapes the ring, staying away from Austin. Austin insults Sasso quite a bit, until Jericho attempts a sneak attack. It fails though and Austin sends Jericho to the outside. Jericho gives up for the night and then Austin does his beer drinking bit with Sasso, leading to Sasso getting a Stunner. I don’t think we needed this here tonight after the Angle/ape segment which was heaps better. I’m probably even more sour on this because I think the impression is genuinely bad and unfunny. I guess it adds more heat to Jericho/Austin but meh, didn’t completely feel this.

In the back, Al Snow pumps up Maven for his match tonight with The Undertaker. Snow makes sure to tell Maven he’s proud of him, probably just making sure he says it before Maven dies tonight.

In a different area in the back, Chris Jericho is approached by Ric Flair. Being the face authority figure, Flair has to get back at Jericho for what he did just before, so he lets Jericho know he’ll be facing Triple H in a non-title match tonight. Flair trying to get at Jericho and be the face authority figure is fine in theory, but booking your World Champion against your Royal Rumble winner in a singles match for free only a month or so away from when they are supposed to headline WrestleMania is awful booking. I know kayfabe wise, the ‘Mania main event could still change based on No Way Out results, but we all know the way this pans out. Terrible decision making here.

Match Three
WWF Hardcore Championship Match
The Undertaker (c) vs. Maven w/Al Snow

As The Undertaker makes his way out, Al arms Maven with a trash can lid, and Maven swings for the fences with it, however it’s only a matter of time until ‘Taker slaps it away and gets to work. From here, it’s brutal ‘Taker domination, and the only times Maven even looks like he’ll get in some offense is when Snow interferes. To be fair, that’s probably how it should be to. Even after copping a ring bell shot from Snow, ‘Taker is still able to bounce back up and land a Big Boot to send Snow tumbling to the outside. With no further support, Maven is in trouble as ‘Taker locks in the Dragon Sleeper, but The Rock comes from nowhere and hits ‘Taker with a chair. Rock follows up with The Rock Bottom and Maven gets the pin for the HUGE upset. I actually thought ‘Taker was a good Hardcore Champ when he actually defended the title. His brutal style worked here, and Maven’s average but at least he tries. **

Okay folks, it’s time for the highly anticipated pose down seeing Billy and Chuck go up against Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson. The King is hosting this as well for those who care. Billy and Chuck take off their robes to reveal hilarious bathing suits, whilst the girls show off in bikinis. It’s obvious who is winning this before it even starts to be honest. Anyway, they go through three poses each, and Billy and Chuck get laughed at, whilst Torrie and Stacy win because they look hot, and a majority of the fans are male. Afterwards, Torrie and Stacy celebrate in what is a feel good moment I guess. A nothing segment as expected, but I would have liked this to somehow do something for Billy and Chuck. Maybe The APA could have made an appearance or something? I don’t know.

In the back, Triple H walks into Vince McMahon’s office and confronts him. Triple H talks about how he injured himself putting money in Vince’s pocket. He doesn’t understand why Vince hates him so much and after all this, Trips comes back, wins the Rumble, and now he’s still trying to take Triple H’s title shot away. Vince looks to respond but Hunter cuts him off and tells him to shut up. Trips basically says that despite everything, Stephanie still loves Vince and would love for Vince to walk her down the aisle on Raw. McMahon says he’ll think about it, and Trips also tells him to think about the fact that Vince will never get near their kid. Vince then tells Triple H to think about his match tonight now being a Handicap match against Angle and Jericho. This was great. Triple H again putting his differences aside with Vince to try and do the right thing for his wife. He looks like a good husband again here, which is how he needs to look for people to feel empathetic later. After my rant earlier, I’m also glad they switched away from the one on one Jericho/Triple H match.

The Coach interviews The Rock in the parking lot and asks if Rock and The Undertaker are even now that The Rock cost him the Hardcore Title. Rocky says that they aren’t even because ‘Taker cost The Rock a shot at the Undisputed Title. The Undertaker then attacks the Rock, culminating with a Chokeslam on the hood of the car, and an even better Tombstone on the roof of the car. ‘Taker says that The Rock’s right, they are not even. This was a fun attack, although after reading a similar review elsewhere, I saw somebody mention that the driver just stayed in the car the entire time which was weird. Heaps of fun though.

After the break, EMT’s are working on The Rock to put over the damage done by The Undertaker’s attack.

Match Four
Handicap Match
Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle vs. Triple H

All these guys can be good performers and nothing was overly wrong with this, but I just think it’s the booking that irritated me here. In doing so, it brought down the enjoyment of the match for me for sure. Chris Jericho is the Undisputed Champion, Angle is also one of your top guys, and I just felt like Triple H got WAY too much in here. It just felt to close for my liking. Triple H started out on fire, which is typical and fine, but eventually Angle snaps off a German Suplex to get control. Jericho and Angle even double team Triple H some, really putting over their numbers advantage. The end sequence with Triple H making his comeback is where I got annoyed. I just thought Triple H looked to good. He drills Jericho with a Spinebuster, locks in the Walls of Jericho, and then he goes ahead and applies the Ankle Lock to Angle. Trips then almost has the Pedigree hit three times, twice on Angle and once on Jericho, only luckily the other one is able to make the save. In the end, Angle gets the Angle Slam for the win, but this was a little more competitive than it needed to be. I will say that Kurt pinning Triple H pre-No Way Out is the right call, it makes it look like he’s a legitimate chance to take the number one contender spot at No Way Out. Or does it after how much help he needed from Jericho? I’m probably over analysing here. Not the biggest fan of the booking, but a solid enough performance from all involved. **1/2

Solid show but far from perfect. Wrestling was consistently okayish throughout. My main concern is that the three big in ring segments were all surrounded by comedy. I don’t mind comedy in wrestling, but I don’t like it being the main aspect of the show. The only one that hit the mark was the Angle one, Jericho’s and the pose down not so much. Maybe if they all hit, I wouldn’t be complaining.​