Stojy watches WWE 2002

[Stojy]

WWE Raw
May 6th, 2002
Hartford, Connecticut​

We are welcomed to WWE Raw by JR and The King. Get the F out and all that, before they hype the main event tonight, pitting Bradshaw, Ric Flair and Stone Cold vs. the New World Order.

Match One
WWF Womens Championship
No Disqualification Match
Jazz (c) w/Steven Richards vs. Trish Stratus

To be fair, these two have gone at it numerous times now and yet to really put on a good match in a one-on-one contest, and that streak continues here. This isn’t very good. Feels like they’re trying, but they didn’t have a lot of time, and the layout of this one was really confusing. When a match is branded No DQ, you actually expect that stipulation to be used but they didn’t here at all. The match comes to an end when Trish avoids a Clothesline from Jazz and then nails her with the Stratusfaction. When Trish goes for the pin, Stevie pulls the ref out, which then allows him to get in and nail Trish with a Superkick. And Jazz gets the cover to win. Continues the strange relationship between Jazz and Richards, but not a good match. *1/4​

After the match, Bubba Ray Dudley runs down because he wants the WWF Hardcore Championship back from Steven Richards. Bubba gets a Back Body Drop on Richards, before hammering away with strikes, and taking Richards and Jazz down with a Double Elbow. Bubba goes out and gets a table, setting it up in the ring, before avoiding a Superkick from Richards and hitting a Bubba Bomb to become the new Hardcore Champion. Raven then comes from nowhere and hits an Evenflow DDT on Bubba to become the champion, only to immediately walk into a Superkick from Justin Credible, and now he’s the Hardcore Champ. Before Credible can escape, Crash Holly hits him with a Missile Dropkick from the top rope to win the title. Bubba is back up now, and hits Crash with a trash can, but Trish steals the pin and wins the Hardcore Title. Jazz gets a fire extinguisher and sprays it in the eyes of Bubba, and as he’s blinded, he accidentally Powerbombs Trish through the table, thinking it was Jazz. This allows Richards to sneak the pin, and he leaves with the Hardcore Title. Bubba then gets some water and wipes his eyes so that he can see again. Once he has realised what he has done, he picks up Trish and helps her to the back. Just too much happening here and it’s not really fun and unpredictable anymore, as it’s seemingly the same guys chasing the title every week.

We get a clip glimpse of the NWO leaving their locker room as Scott Hall says, “let’s do this”.

It’s now time for some in ring promo time from the NWO. Big Show starts by saying that two years ago, he was in the main event of WrestleMania. This year he wasn’t on Mania, instead he was at WWF New York pretending to have a good time. He’s reminding people that he’s the biggest and baddest man to ever come through here. The NWO just got bigger and there’s nothing that Austin or Flair can do about it. Raw Owner Ric Flair comes out onto the stage to interrupt and tells Show to quit whining, because Flair never whined, he worked hard night after night to get everything that he got. Flair says if Show has a problem with his position on Raw, then he needs to look in the mirror. Flair then strangely hypes him being in tonight’s main event as if it’s a new announcement before Scott Hall says tonight the NWO has a huge surprise for everyone. I don’t mind Show’s explanation here. Maybe the correlation between Austin being injured and Show headlining is a bit of a stretch, but I’m okay with it. It doesn’t need to be overly complicated, I’m happy with his a big giant who isn’t doing anything, so he decided to change that. Flair’s bit here was okay, without adding anything new, and then obviously the surprise angle now gives us a hook to want to see what happens later on tonight. Solid segment here.

We see footage of Spike Dudley injuring his ankle at Insurrextion, before it’s mentioned that he already signed for this match before his injury. In essence, this booking doesn’t make sense. How would he already sign for this match when he was defending the title at Insurrextion? He might have lost, right? Again, not sure why they need to overcomplicate things here. All this needs to be is Spike has heart and is tough and is willing to defend the title injured.

Match Two
WWF European Championship Match
Spike Dudley (c) vs. William Regal

Spike has the protection of the injured ankle here, so this one is a tool to show off Regal’s vicious side and get him the European Championship back. Spike ends up tapping out to a single legged Boston Crab. Not much of a match but I’m giving it a terrible rating, because I HATE the booking of this entire program. They wasted Regal finally get a comeuppance on Spike, just to run this weird angle where he’s champ for two weeks and then Regal gets it back. Just feels like a major missed opportunity, so due to my unhappiness this gets a bad rating. ½* ​

After the match, William Regal gets on the microphone and says he’d like to take this opportunity to say he’s the greatest European Champion of all time. He then looks to continue to attack Spike, until D’Lo Brown makes the save and clear the ring. I don’t remember D’Lo getting involved with Regal here, so I can’t see it lasting long, but I am down for a battle between the two greatest European Champs of all time for real.

We see a clip from earlier today where Booker T is at a 7/11, doing his best to hide from Goldust. Booker goes and gets himself a Slurpee as per his pre match ritual, when Goldust appears undercover in ‘street’ wear. Goldust is sad that Booker T is teaming with Eddie Guerrero tonight, but Booker says they’re done. Goldust then says if Booker gives him a suck of his Slurpee, he’ll let him take a bite of his wiener. Of course, Goldust is holding a hot dog, but it’s an innuendo so Booker freaks out. Another really fun one I’d recommend going to watch. These two are comedy gold.

Ric Flair is back in his office talking to Arn Anderson. Flair tells Arn that he wants to know what the NWO surprise is. Flair decides he’s going to go to the NWO locker room right now and find out what it is. A fine segment to continue the major arch on tonight’s show.

Ric Flair ends up entering the NWO locker room however it’s empty. Although he does find an APA hat in there, which makes him think Bradshaw could be joining the NWO. Similar to above, a nice tease of the surprise, and now we wonder if Bradshaw is joining the NWO.

Backstage, The Undertaker rides up to the arena on his bike and he tells some backstage staff member to watch his bike because he won’t be long. Yay. ‘Taker’s here.

Match Three
Brock Lesnar w/Paul Heyman vs. Shawn Stasiak

Not much to say here, it’s barely a match. Just another Brock Lesnar squash, where he destroys an opponent. Booking wise it’s fine, however Stasiak doesn’t have the crazy bumping ability of The Hardyz to make this super enjoyable. Still, loving the Brock booking though. *​

In the back, The Undertaker is looking for his bike, but it’s gone. The crew member who was supposed to watch it tells him that Hulk Hogan took it. Okay, cool. Hogan wants revenge for ‘Taker beating him up last week which makes sense.

We get the ‘get the f out’ commercial airing here as well.

And now it’s in ring promo time as The Undertaker’s music plays but WWF Undisputed Champion Hulk Hogan rides down the ramp on ‘Taker’s bike. Hogan uses the bike to goad ‘Taker out, and ‘Taker comes onto the stage, telling Hogan that you don’t touch another man’s bike. He will give Hogan one chance to give the bike back, but Hogan tells ‘Taker that he’s a bitch and says he’ll bring the bike to him. This leads to the hilarious moment where Hogan can’t figure out how to not stall the bike, and it takes numerous attempts for him to ride the bike up the ramp. The crowd are audibly laughing, and they have to put the camera on Undertaker, and then even JR and King to stop showing the embarrassment on live TV. Eventually, Hogan gets the bike to move and rides the bike up the ramp, chasing ‘Taker to the back. Solid stuff here, I guess. Be nice for them to actually talk about the Undisputed Title, but again, Hogan wanting revenge after being attacked last week makes sense. It also makes sense for ‘Taker’s bike to be used against him as motivation to fight.

Hulk Hogan rides the bike to the back looking for The Undertaker and daring him to fight but he can’t find him. A frustrated Hogan eventually turns off the bike, parking it in front of one of the WWE trucks. He screams for ‘Taker to come and save his bike but ‘Taker doesn’t show up. Hogan then runs over the bike with the truck, destroying it in the process, before continuing down the hallway to look for The Undertaker. Truck running over a bike isn’t that big of a deal compared to some of the vehicle spots in the past, however again, it should do the job of pissing Undertaker off.

Match Four
Booker T and Eddie Guerrero vs. Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam

This was a good match, with Booker and Jeff just two extra heads to play their role, with the main story here being the continuation of the feud between Eddie and RVD. All four do well, but it’s clear that Eddie is one if the best of the world at this point. His bumping, especially for some of Van Dam’s Monkey Flips is amazing. There’s a pretty great finish for this match as well, with the only issue really being that the crowd could have probably been a little more enthusiastic. The ending comes about when Goldust tries to interfere to help Booker, but Hardy throws him over the top rope and to the outside, and Goldust actually lands on Booker. It's then a two on one in the ring and Eddie gets dropped, before Jeff hits a Swanton Bomb, and RVD immediately comes after with a Five Star Frog Splash for the win. Good stuff here, and I don’t mind RVD getting a pin over the champ. Easily the match of the night. **3/4 ​

Backstage, The Coach interviews Terri and she talks about how she has challenged the pure, wholesome Molly Holly to a swimsuit competition tonight. Terri then unties her robe and shows Coach a preview and he’s gobsmacked. Hypes the swimsuit competition, and this is one I’m actually looking forward to. This feels like it won’t just be girls half naked for the sake of it, as there’s room for character work here for Molly.

Ric Flair is talking to Arn Anderson again in his office and he says that something is wrong. Nobody actually saw Bradshaw get attacked by The Big Show a few weeks ago. “What if Bradshaw is involved in this somehow”? Flair is now going to go and confront Bradshaw. Another solid segment to hype the NWO surprise, with everything Flair saying making a lot of sense, most likely meaning it’s a swerve and Bradshaw is not joining the NWO.

Now The King is in the ring to host the swimsuit competition, and he gets Terri and Molly Holly to come to the ring. Molly wears an old school, very conservative swimsuit which suits her character perfectly. As expected, Terri wins because she’s wearing a thong and showing off much more of her assets. After the fans cheer for Terri, Molly says the audience doesn’t deserve to see her virgin body in a state of undress. As Terri looks to continue to celebrate, Molly attacks her. Again, a solid segment here because I’m enjoying the character work from Molly, and well, Terri is Terri.

Backstage, Ric Flair enters Bradshaw’s locker room, which is also empty, but he does find a Kane mask lying in there. Flair speaks to himself saying that Bradshaw has some explaining to do. Flair leaves the locker room with The APA hat and the Kane mask, wanting to find Bradshaw. Another fine segment to continue this storyline.

In the back, Ric Flair eventually goes to Stone Cold’s locker room to look for him, but Debra says he’s gone to get his knees strapped. Bradshaw approaches Flair and asks if he’s looking for him. Flair tells Bradshaw how he found The APA hat in the NWO locker room and Kane’s mask in Bradshaw’s locker room. Bradshaw is mad and says he doesn’t have to explain anything to Flair and says that he and Austin are going to kick the NWO’s ass. More good stuff here.

In the back, The Undertaker finds his bike stuck under the truck that Hogan ran it over with. ‘Taker flips out and is mad. The reaction we’d expect from ‘Taker here. Still wish they’d talk about the title in this feud though.

As The Undertaker leaves, a limo arrives and Kevin Nash steps out of it. Nice moment here. Is Nash arriving the surprise? Is he no longer suspended? So many questions.

Match Five
Bradshaw, Ric Flair and Stone Cold vs. New World Order

This was a solid main event, without being spectacular. It’s really hard to not do a six man well, because you book it in a way to make sure the good wrestlers do most the work, and you cover potentially the wrestlers not so good by allowing them to do less. I thought they did that here for the most part. There’s some nice psychology to this as well, with Austin and Bradshaw never really tagging Flair into the match because they don’t trust him. A big spot comes in this one when Big Show manages to Chokeslam Bradshaw through the announce table. As this happens, Austin gets the Double Stunner on Scott Hall and X Pac, but Show breaks up the pin and begins beating up Austin. There’s eventually a ref bump and Austin managed to hit Show with a Stunner, but Flair comes back in the ring and takes out Austin with a steel chair. The turn from Flair finally happens here, but honestly, outside of positioning himself with the NWO, I actually understand Flair’s position here after how much of a douche Austin has been to him lately. Anyway, this one is basically a no contest from here, and non-finish aside, thought this was solid. **1/4​

After the match, Flair continues to go nuts with the chair, now focusing on Austin’s legs. Flair then gets on the mic and says at Judgment Day, it will be Stone Cold vs Big Show and Ric Flair in a Handicap match. Flair then applies the Figure Four to Austin for further punishment, before Flair and Show celebrate together to end Raw Aftermath here was fine. Glad they’ve advanced this angle finally as well, as Flair repeatedly trying to suck up to Austin was becoming a bit stale.

An okay episode of Raw. Maybe just below solid, I wouldn’t say it was bad as they executed the main angle well, and the tag match with Eddie and RVD involved was good. Main bit dragging this down is probably the ‘Taker/Hogan stuff if I’m honest. Not very enjoyable.

 

[Tyronesaurus24]

Been following and enjoying these flashbacks.

Part of me always thought it was a rib that on night one of the new company name they make Lilian announce "new WWE Hardcore Champion" like 5 times haha

 

[Stojy]

Been following and enjoying these flashbacks.

Part of me always thought it was a rib that on night one of the new company name they make Lilian announce "new WWE Hardcore Champion" like 5 times haha

Haha never really thought of that before, I'm sure Vince was cackling away behind the scenes. Things have slowed down in here because of work and stuff, but determined to get through this. Good to have you on board.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Smackdown
May 9th, 2002
Bridgeport, Connecticut ​

The show opens with Stacy Keibler making her way to the ring to perform her assistant duties, which means she introduces Vince McMahon, who then also comes out. McMahon starts off by praising Stacy for being a model employee, before saying not everyone has been one, most notably Triple H. Triple H distracted Jericho last week, which allowed Hogan to retain the WWE Undisputed Championship. He goes on to say Triple H will stay ten feet away from him and do what he says otherwise there will be hell to pay. Triple H interrupts and gets right in Vince’s face, wanting to know what Vince meant by “hell to pay”. Triple H then makes fun of Vince and Stacy with a bunch of sex and dick jokes, but he also makes sure to flirt with Stacy a bit as well. Suddenly, Test, Christian, Hardcore Holly, Reverend D’Von and Lance Storm come down and attack Triple H. With a huge grin on his face, Chris Jericho comes down, sitting on a steel chair, but when Trips lunges at him, Jericho beats him down with the chair. Triple H gets busted wide open from the chair shot as Jericho then applies the Walls Of Jericho. As the hold is locked in, Vince screams at Triple H before announcing that he'll face Jericho at Judgment Day in the Hell in a Call. A solid opening here. The Vince/Triple H stuff continues, which is what it is, but the beat down from all the heels wanting to impress Vince makes sense. Jericho gets more heat here than he did in almost the entire build up of their Mania feud to so that’s a positive. Hell in a Cell will hopefully be good.

Match One
WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match
Tajiri (c) w/Torrie Wilson vs. The Hurricane

This one is pure angle advancement. It’s less about the match, which probably could have been really good, and is instead more about Torrie finally getting fed up with Tajiri constantly treating her like trash. Back to the match, it is a solid three minutes or so, but we just don’t get enough for it to eventuate to anything. Tajiri and Hurricane are fighting in the ring, with Tajiri in control, when a fed-up Torrie climbs onto the announce table and takes off her geisha, revealing bra and panties. Tajiri immediately forgets about the match and goes out to confront Tajiri, and this leads to him getting counted out. So Hurricane wins but Tajiri retains the title. As I said, match wasn’t much, but these two definitely have potential together. *3/4​

After being counted out, Tajiri rolls back into the ring, but Hurricane takes him down with a Chokeslam. Match result and aftermath says we’ll get a rematch here, which I’m looking forward to seeing.

Backstage, a gleeful Chris Jericho tells Vince McMahon that he is going to end Triple H’s career at Judgment Day. Vince doesn’t want to wait until Judgment Day and wants to start now by booking Triple H in a match tonight against Reverend D’Von. Solid enough segment. The action of the heels wanting to soften up Triple H even further is logical.

In the back, The Hurricane bumps into Al Snow, wearing a ‘Spiderman’ t-shirt and Hurricane says that The Hurricane is better. They have a bit of a joke around, and Hurricane offers Snow one of his shirts, before finding a note directed to him which reads “congratulations, now you’re a star, unfortunately for you, I know who you are” … It’s obviously not him, but kind of similar to the stuff Goldust was saying about RVD back in February. Anyway, I know where this is heading, but it’s an intriguing enough mystery angle to play out for a little while. Plus, it leads to an epic pairing, so I’ll give it a thumbs up.

Match Two
Mark Henry vs. Test

You would think these two could put on a semi decent big man hoss fight. Apparently not. They try and throw each other around for a while, but it just doesn’t click. The ending comes about when Henry locks in a Full Nelson, but Test shoves the ref away to break the hold with a low blow. He follows up with the Big Boot for the win. Terrible match, I blame Test because Henry is awesome. *​

In the back, Christian and Kurt Angle meet up and have a conversation. Angle lets Christian know that after Judgment Day, Edge will be known as the ugly brother. Decent enough to promote the Angle/Edge PPV match.

In the back, WWE Tag Team Champions Billy and Chuck, along with their stylist Rico promotes the fact that Rico is a karate expert. They say they’ll get revenge tonight on Maven, Al Snow and Rikishi for all of the embarrassment lately. Meh. At the very least, hypes the match scheduled for later, but I’m definitely not looking forward to this one considering the talent involved.

Reverend D’Von comes out for his match against Triple H, but before that happens, we need to hype the HUGE man standing at ringside holding his collections box. That’s right, it’s the debut of Deacon Batista!

Match Three
Reverend D’Von w/Deacon Batista vs Triple H

The angle here is this match is to torture Triple H before Hell in a Cell and after he has already been beaten up tonight. To further demonstrate that, Triple H has dried blood all over his face and a bandage on. I don’t really rate Triple H as a face, he’s just a natural heel, but this, whilst not his best match of the year, is probably his best individual performance of the year. Being forced to sell the huge beat down he suffered earlier in the night means he finally gets the role of face in peril and plays it well. Of course, he started off with a ton of adrenaline, but once he took a big hit, that completely disappeared and all that was left was the pain from earlier in the night. This obviously does wonders for D’Von as well, really putting him on another level with the dominant offense he’s able to put on one of the company’s main eventers. At one stage on the outside, Batista gets some time to shine, mowing down Triple H with a nice Lariat, to put over just how deadly he is. Triple H does eventually start to make what looks to be his big comeback, but D’Von is able to cut it off with a Neckbreaker, which causes Triple H to roll out of the ring. Once back in, he almost hits the Pedigree, but Batista proves his worth again, distracting the referee. Chris Jericho then runs in and knocks out Triple H with the collections box. Triple H is out cold and D’Von crawls on top for the victory. A shock result, but a shock result that works because of the booking, and a shockingly good match as well. Well done to all involved. **3/4​

Next, it’s time for an in-ring promo from Kurt Angle. He shows fake pictures up on the tron of what Edge would look like if he was bald. Angle is loving it as he says he’s going to show another, but the next shot appears, is the same type of picture but this time it’s a picture of Angle. Kurt is mad and he says he knows Edge did it, so he calls Edge out. Instead WWE Undisputed Champion Hulk Hogan comes out and he asks Kurt if he has a problem with people who are bald. Hogan says some of the best champions ever were bald and names Billy Graham, Stone Cold and himself as examples. An annoyed Angle says that he hopes The Undertaker kicks his ass, but if not, he’ll be waiting. Angle says he’s the only real American here, but then Hogan nails Kurt with a right hand, and Angle quickly bails to the outside. As Angle heads up the ramp, he gets Speared on the stage by Edge. An okay segment. The bald stuff being played up makes sense, but Hogan coming out to defend bald people just felt a little meh to me. This does do the job for what’s to come though and Edge getting in another shot on Angle isn’t a bad thing. Middling segment for me.

After the break, in the back, Kurt Angle is furious as he complains to Vince McMahon but can’t decide whether he wants Edge or Hulk Hogan in a match. Vince books a tag match for tonight’s main event instead which will be Edge and Hogan versus Angle and Chris Jericho. This follow up from the previous segment is good, and hopefully we’ve now got ourselves a decent main event.

Match Four
Al Snow, Maven and Rikishi vs. Billy, Chuck and Rico

By no means is this good, it’s not, but it’s honestly probably not a bad match, and better than I expected, considering the people involved in this one. The other part of this I like is the result as the tag champs and Rico get the win, which means they’ve now seen off Al Snow and Maven at Backlash, and here, so hopefully this awful program is now done with. So yeah, took everything in me not to just skip this match but I battled through it. In the end, Rico illegally hits a Spinning Heel Kick on Al Snow, which softens him up for the Fameasser so Billy can get the win. I said some kind words here, but it still wasn’t good. *3/4​

We now get a replay of Hardcore Holly hitting an Alabama Slam to Randy Orton on the steel stage last week. This was a rough spot; glad they’re giving it the replay treatment to make it feel like a big deal.

In the back, Randy Orton talks about how sometimes you have to learn to move on. Lance Storm approaches and mocks Orton’s recent success, and after the two trade words, Storm challenges Orton to a match tonight, which Orton is happy with. Orton’s reactions to that huge spot is sometimes you have to move on… Wow. Talk about a flop. That reaction basically makes the bump last week pointless. I don’t mind another veteran in Storm coming up and wanting a crack at the youngster though. This is a nice trend developing here.

Match Five
Special Guest Referee: Hardcore Holly
Lance Storm vs. Randy Orton

This is obviously angle driven with the issues Orton and Holly have and Holly being the ref here. Every time Orton has the advantage and goes for a pin, Holly counts really slowly. Outside of that, Storm and Orton actually put on a semi decent match, with some nice spots, including Orton’s awesome Crossbody off the top, which I wish he never put on the shelf as a move. It was so nice. Anyway, in the end, Storm gets Orton in a Half Crab, and Orton is trying to make the ropes, but Holly pushes the ropes further away from Orton’s grasp. With no choice, the youngster taps out and Storm wins. Continues the feud between Orton and Holly, Storm gets a win and the match wasn’t bad. **​

After the match, Holly and Storm continue a beat down on Orton, until Val Venis slides in and makes the save. The heels bail. Booking 101 here, setting up a tag match for next week most likely. Not everything has to be super complicated, this is good.

Backstage, Edge walks into Hulk Hogan’s locker room but nobody is in there. Edge fanboys here and puts on Hogan’s bandana and bows. Edge gets caught posing and trying to cut a Hogan promo, but then Hogan catches him and tells him he’ll show him how it’s really done. This was actually a really enjoyable segment. A lot of fun.

Match Six
Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle vs. Edge and Hulk Hogan

This was a pretty solid match here, although admittedly carried by three of the four competitors involved. Jericho and Angle stooged and bumped hard for all of their opponents offense, and they actually worked really well as a cohesive unit as well. For some reason, this has me wishing we got a 6-month run of these two as tag champs when there maybe wasn’t room in the upper card/main event scene for them. Only thing that hurts this match, and has it rated lower than the D’Von/Triple H match from earlier is the fact that it has a non-finish. This was still acceptable for six minutes, and Hogan still got his spots in, whilst not spending to long in the ring. A highlight was definitely the Angle/Edge sequences, although that shouldn’t be a surprise at this point. After a few weeks where it felt like the crowd reaction was dwindling, it’s also worth noting that Hogan was SUPER OVER with this crowd. The reception he got when he received the hot tag was crazy. Anyway, this one comes to an end when Jericho manages to lock Hogan in the Walls Of Jericho. Triple H, still battered and bloodied, runs out with a sledgehammer and decides to murder everybody, including the referee, so this one is determined to be a No Contest. A better finish and this is probably match of the night. Still solid though. **1/2​

After the match, as Triple H stands tall in the ring, Vince McMahon comes out and tells Triple H to try and hit him with the sledgehammer. Vince gets onto the apron and taunts Triple H, and Triple H viciously swings at Vince, but Vince manages to get off the apron in time. It’s a great distraction as it allows Jericho to come from behind and lay out Triple H with a steel chair for the second time tonight. Jericho stands tall, looking down at Triple H yet again as the show comes to an end.

Probably a middling episode of SD this week. A couple of good matches, but then a couple of really bad ones, and there’s probably pros and cons in terms of this week’s booking as well.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Heat
May 12th, 2002
Hartford, Connecticut
​

We start with the ‘GET THE F OUT’ ad, as Heat is the last show to officially air under the new banner. Yay.

Match One
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Eddie Guerrero (c) vs. Tommy Dreamer

One thing that I always found strange about attitude era booking, which we’re still kind of on the tail end here, is that they’d make random matches for the title without justification. This is a prime example of that here, as in what has Tommy actually done to deserve a title shot. And unless you pull the odd swerve, considering the match for Judgment Day between Eddie and RVD is already signed, the winner here is EVEN MORE predictable. I’m not necessarily complaining about this, or saying it ruins the show or the match, more or less just some general thoughts on the philosophy of a method the WWE used for so long. Anyway, Eddie is the ultimate sneaky heel, meaning he attacks Dreamer before the bell rings and goes to work, immediately getting the advantage. After landing a barrage of strikes, he also gets a Belly-To-Belly Suplex! Of course, Eddie carries this, his charisma shining through as he has plenty of fun taunting the crowd as he beats up Dreamer. The tide eventually turns when Dreamer catches Eddie unexpectedly with a Spinebuster. Both men battle back to their feet, but Tommy wins a fist fight, before scoring with a Back Body Drop. He follows up with a Russian Leg Sweep. Tommy runs at Eddie in the corner, but Eddie gets an elbow up. Eddie then runs at Tommy, straight into a Powerslam which gets Dreamer a two count. In the next sequence, Eddie attempts a Leap Frog, but Tommy catches him on his shoulders for the Death Valley Driver. Eddie breaks free, but then Dreamer catches him with a DDT instead. This sequence was awesome and led to a pretty cool, almost believable false finish. Tommy then heads up the top to attempt a Frog Splash, but Eddie moves. Ugh, don’t think I’ve ever seen Tommy go for a move like this, not sure why he’d try now. I hate the sort of stuff that makes the wrestler seem dumb, this was one of those. This allows Eddie to come back with a Brainbuster and the Frog Splash for the victory. Far from perfect, but a decent match overall, and probably something of good quality for an episode of Heat. **​

We see a video recap of Ric Flair joining the New World Order on Raw. This will be the last time we see Scott Hall on screen. I will do a separate post before the next Raw on the plane ride from hell.

We then get a video package of some behind the scenes stuff of The Scorpion King to promote The Rock.

A video package then plays detailing Lita’s neck surgery after she broke her neck on the set of Dark Angel.

Match Two
Matt Hardy vs. Mr. Perfect

Mr. Perfect has managed to sober up from the plane ride from hell for one last match here. Similar to what I mentioned with Hall, this will be Perfect’s final appearance in here, and in the WWE in general with the sad events that are to come. Being a huge Perfect fan, this still feels sad now. Onto the match itself, and they start by locking up, vying for position, but neither man can gain the advantage. They break into some chain wrestling and Perfect looks good, as he eventually manages to send Hardy to the outside. Hardy nails a right hand from the floor though and then gets back in, turning the match into more of a brawl. Perfect tries to revert back to what was working with a Side Headlock, but Hardy sends him to the ropes and nails a Dropkick. Hardy controls from here, landing some kicks to the ribs, before hitting the Side Effect. It’s academic from here as he follows up with his top rope Leg Drop, followed by a Twist of Fate for the easy win. Would have been nice for Perfect to show a bit more resistance here. A rather uneventful last appearance for him, where he basically got squashed. A solid win for Matt, although it probably doesn’t mean as much as it could have due to how the match was booked. Nowhere near what these two should or could produce. *​

We get a couple more replays from Raw, first showing Hulk Hogan and his escapades with The Undertaker’s bike, and we then see details of the multiple Hardcore Title changes.

Match Three
Goldust vs. Rob Van Dam

Yeah, look. This definitely isn’t their No Way Out match, as Goldust is no longer being taken seriously as a singles competitor, and RVD is on to bigger and better things. RVD starts off with a Dropkick immediately, sending Goldust out to the floor. He goes out and hangs Goldust over the crowd barricade, before landing his awesome Spinning Leg Drop across said barricade. RVD gets it back in the ring for a two count, but in the next chain, Goldust manages to get a Catapult to change the momentum. After kicking away at RVD, Goldust hits a Manhattan Drop, followed by a Clothesline for a near fall. The tide turns again when Goldust telegraphs a Back Body Drop, allowing RVD to hit a Facebuster, and he follows with his Step Over Heel Kick! Rolling Thunder follows up for a two count. RVD keeps Goldust down and hits the Five Star Frog Splash for the win. Based on him being involved in a program of sorts now, would be nice to see Goldust look a little better, but I completely understand Van Dam winning this as he chases the IC Title. Still, these two did MUCH better on PPV, as they were clearly doing the bare minimum here. Disappointing match for the talent involved. *​

This episode of Heat was disappointing. I don’t necessarily expect much from Heat, but this was disappointing because we had some matches with some top end talent, but outside of maybe the opener, nothing delivered.

 

[Chris]

We didn't do Heat but when we were watching 2002, I was also surprised how many random midcard title matches there were with no justification. As a kid I thought most were, they were just loosely justified or required you to watch Heat or Velocity, but nah a lot literally were just random bc the champs were retaining