Stojy watches WWE 2002

[Stojy]

WWF Smackdown
January 3rd, 2002
Washington, D.C.
​

Well, here we are, the first show of the year and let’s see if I can actually stick to something this time. The main things getting hyped up by the commentary team tonight (Cole and Lawler) is Booker T vs. The Rock in a number one contender’s match as well as The Undertaker defending the Hardcore Title against The Big Show.

Match One
WWF Tag Team Championship Match:
The Dudley Boyz (c) w/Stacy Keibler vs. Spike Dudley and Tazz

Can you believe it? We’re kicking off the new year with a wrestling match on a wrestling show, that’s different. Anyway, this one has come about because last week Spike Dudley and Tazz managed to defeat the current champions on last week’s episode of Smackdown. A tick to me for my research, I think so. They obviously play on the size differential between the two teams and Tazz is supposed to a bad ass which means Spike spends a fair bit of the match being thrown around the ring by The Dudleyz. Luckily, Spike, Bubba and D’Von all have fairly good chemistry together and work the brothers angle quite well. Eventually, Tazz gets the hot tag and kicks ass nicely, even managing to lock the Tazzmission on Bubba. At the same time, Spike is preparing to land the Dudley Dog on D’Von, when the amazing Stacy Keibler gets onto the apron to provide a distraction. Spike pulls her skirt down, but Stacy’s amazing ass (sorry, it’s true) distracts Spike long enough for D’Von to hand him over to Bubba, who had gotten rid of Tazz, to land a Superbomb for the victory. A solid start to in ring action for the year 2002. **3/4
​

Backstage, Lilian Garcia gets stuck with the unenviable task of interviewing Jazz. She made it pretty clear that she didn’t want to be interviewed, but she did say that she won’t sleep her way to the top, instead she’ll fight her way to the top of the division. She’s going to make an example out of Molly tonight and none of these blonde sluts can stop her. She’s never going to be cutting amazing promos, but she certainly made it believable that she’s looking to make a statement tonight.

Now we are reminded that last week on Smackdown, Ric Flair vs. Vince McMahon was announced for the Royal Rumble. If my memory serves me correct, I’m looking forward to that one.

I guess that reminder was just a segue as now it’s Vinnie Mac promo time. McMahon comes to the ring and talks about New Years Resolutions and how his are to annihilate and embarrass Ric Flair at the Royal Rumble. In typical egomaniac fashion, he then switches gears and shows off the TIME magazine Man of the Year cover that went to Rudy Guliani. He makes it clear that he’s not a fan of Rudy winning the award and that he should have been considered for it. Because at this point in time, Stone Cold had broken fans, the “WHAT” chants are frequent here, and they make McMahon angry. He dares them to chant what one more time, stating that he’s so powerful that he’ll shut down the whole show. Obviously, the fans oblige, and Vince gets all the lights shut off in what is just a really cool visual. Suddenly, Austin’s music hits and McMahon screams for the lights to come back on, and when they switch on, Stone Cold is behind Vince. Austin talks about his own New Years resolutions which epically go a little something like this…

“Drink more beer… WHAT? Drink more whiskey… WHAT? Drink more tequila… WHAT? More vodka… WHAT? More red wine… WHAT? And kick Vince McMahon’s ass”.

I know the “WHAT” stuff wasn’t for everybody, but I loved the way Austin played off of it. Anyway, Austin now looks to corner Vince but Vince’s henchmen Booker T and Big Bossman run out and attack Austin. They beat him down and Bossman busts Austin open with some microphone shots to the skull. A pretty fun segment overall in my book.

Match Two
Jazz vs. Mighty Molly

No star rating for this one because it’s a squash which completely serves its purpose of making Jazz look dominant. I can’t wait until they start using Molly better later on in the year. Jazz finishes this off with a Fisherman Suplex which is turned into a Brainbuster. SQUASH.
​

Stephanie McMahon Helmsley is trying to get into the arena, but she’s stopped by a security guard. He tells her she’s not on the list but and she flips out, telling the guard that her husband Triple H is back in 4 days and then she’ll have power again. When she has her power back, she will fire the guard. I don’t mind this as some simple Triple H return hype.

Backstage, the WWF Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho hands out gifts to his friends, Christian, Lance Storm and Test. He tells them it’s for all the great things they have done in their careers. Christian sees right through the bullshit and asks if this act of kindness has anything to do with Triple H returning on Raw. Jericho laughs off Christian’s question, just stating that it’s great to have the kind of friends who watch each other’s backs.

Short and sharp backstage interview from The Coach with The Undertaker. He says he isn’t afraid of Big Show and tonight he will teach him about respect.

Backstage, Test still hasn’t opened his gift from Jericho and he’s trying to figure out what it could be, when the epic Torrie Wilson walks into the scene. Test tries to lay it on thick, giving Torrie the gift, saying it’s from him, and when Torrie opens it, it’s a Jericho t-shirt (which is awesome). Wilson doesn’t seem overly impressed and that angers Test, who tells her it’s the thought that counts. Test then says they should go out sometime, which Torrie declines because she’s taken. The lady killer that he is, Test says he’s not looking for a relationship, which doesn’t go down well. After being rejected, a furious Test demands to wrestle Tajiri later on tonight, because that’s who Torrie is dating.

Match Three
WWF Hardcore Championship Match:
The Undertaker (c) vs. The Big Show

I think the Hardcore stipulation definitely helped this one. Big Show ran to catch ‘Taker riding his bike up the ramp which made for a pretty fun/unique start to the match. They do some work with a trash can and trash can lid early on, with Show getting the advantage, until he misses a Big Boot and kicks the ring post. This allows ‘Taker to take the advantage, which he does by ramming the steps into Show’s now compromised right knee. Eventually they get back into the ring and trade off some moves, before Show attempts a Last Ride, but ‘Taker slips out and locks in the Dragon Sleeper for the submission victory. Very fun match, much better than I thought it would be. **3/4
​

This time Stephanie McMahon Helmsley tries to get herself into the arena by accompanying Mr. Dudley, but the security guard is onto it and doesn’t let her through. She then reverts to flirting her way in, but the guard tells her that he’s gay. On cue, Billy and Chuck then roll through and they hug and high five the guard, much to the dismay of Stephanie. The guard then tells her that Billy and Chuck should do a calendar. WHAT AWESOME FORESHADOWING~!

Match Four
Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle vs. Edge and Rob Van Dam

This one goes for approximately six minutes and considering the guys involved, it’s probably no surprise that it’s good. RVD has a pretty awesome run in the early stages, landing a few moves on both opponents, until after a Rolling Thunder, he goes up top for a Five Star Frog Splash on Angle. Unfortunately for him, Jericho pushes him off the top rope. This allows Jericho and Angle to isolate RVD, which is probably a good thing because I don’t think Edge was much of a good seller during this period of time. His facial expressions were terrible at times, imo, although not as bad as his psychotic 2004/2005 run. He admittedly had a really good run off the hot tag here, and I thought the finishing sequence was quite good as well. Edge tries to lock Kurt in the Ankle Lock, but Jericho makes the save, only to miss a Lionsault and get Speared by Edge. RVD misses a Split Legged Moonsault on Angle, but at the same time, Edge levels Jericho with the Edgecution. Angle sneaks from behind with an Angle Slam on Edge, only for Van Dam to Cactus Clothesline Kurt over the top rope and to the outside. This allows our Undisputed Champion (Jericho) to crawl on top of Edge and get the three count. Good match and best on the show as far as I’m concerned. ***
​

In the back, Ric Flair arrives because he’s a responsible co-owner who shows up late to his own shit. I mark for the Arn Anderson appearance though as he explains what happened earlier with Vince McMahon and Stone Cold. Naitch says he’s going to take care of Vinnie Mac tonight.

It’s Ric Flair promo time now which is never really a bad thing. As expected, he’s out to talk quite a bit about his match with Vince McMahon at the upcoming Royal Rumble. Flair gets intense as only he can, talking about how he’s going to gouge Vince’s eyes, kick him in the balls and make him bleed. Suddenly, there’s a commotion at ringside as Stephanie McMahon Helmsley tries to jump the crowd barricade. Security apprehends her but Flair tells them to let her go. Stephanie tries to suck up to Flair, saying when she was younger, she had a crush on him, before talking about how much she enjoyed watching him. I’m stealing this train of thought from something I read online but it’s hilarious to think of Vince allowing his kids to watch the NWA on TV. Doubtful lol. Anyway, after buttering him up, Steph says in the ring he’s the man, but in the business world she’s the man, and he needs her help. Flair goes into epic Flair mode and starts elbow dropping his jacket and going nuts. Steph cracks it and yells at Ric for thinking this is a joke, before slapping him across the face. That stops Flair’s fun as McMahon states that Flair has four days to decide if he wants her help, before The Game begins.

Match Five
Tajiri w/Torrie Wilson vs. Test

This all just stems from the segment earlier in the night where Test demanded to face Tajiri because he couldn’t steal his girlfriend. For the most part this is a squash, but Tajiri gets his moments with some of his epic kicks, and he bumps around really well like a small man should against the bigger guy. In the end, Test runs through Tajiri with his epic Big Boot to get the win. Take that, Torrie. Solid enough despite the almost squash status. **1/2
​

A promo similar to this one airs for Triple H’s return next week on Raw, but obviously it says next week, not Triple H returning tonight.

Triple H Returns Promo U2 Beautiful Day - YouTube

Before the main event, The Coach decides to have an interview with The Rock. The Rock asks Coach what he did for New Years, before making fun of him for liking Barry Manilow, including making him sing Copa Cabana. Eventually Rocky kicks coach out of camera shot, before running down Booker T and stating his desires to win the WWF Undisputed Title. I’d recommend for people to youtube this promo as well, one of The Rock’s best making fun of Coach ones, imo.

Match Six
Number One Contender’s Match
Booker T vs. The Rock

This was solid enough for the opening few minutes with Booker having the advantage, until they go to the outside and Rock sends Booker into the steel steps. Only after about four minutes, Vince McMahon comes down to attack The Rock and help Booker T, only for Ric Flair to intervene. Flair tosses McMahon into the crowd, and they brawl through the audience, allowing the match to back to a one-on-one contest. The Rock gets on top again and looks for The People’s Elbow after landing a Spinebuster, but Bossman intervenes. The Rock manages to overcome Bossman’s interference and land a Rock Bottom on booker to get the win, and pencil himself in to face Chris Jericho for the Undisputed Title at the Rumble. Solidish main event. **1/2
​

After the match, Bossman and Booker gang up on The Rock, until Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out to make the save and get revenge for earlier. Austin doesn’t get very far though as Booker drops him with a chair shot and Bossman/Booker stand tall over the iconic Rock and Austin to end the show.

I thought this show was solid at best. Nothing amazing but it wasn’t offensive and definitely watchable. The 3-star tag match was easily the match of the night, but there was still plenty of other matches that were passable. On top of that, the Flair/McMahon hype was good, Jericho/Triple H foreshadowing for now is okay, even though I know I’ll hate it eventually. Finally, a lot of Triple H hype on this show but that’s a good thing considering his return is on the next episode of Raw.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Monday Night Raw
January 7th, 2002
New York City, New York​

The commentators open the show by hyping a big-time tag team match tonight stemming from the actions of last week’s Smackdown. It will be Big Bossman and Booker T teaming up to take on the dream team of Stone Cold and The Rock. Also, tonight, we will finally see the return of Triple H, which means I get to enjoy watching the awesome ovation he gets once again.

The show opens up with Vince McMahon making his way to the ring, carrying a mysterious blue box, which looks like it’s wrapped up like a gift. Vince cleverly gets even more heat early on by saying he has something more important than Triple H’s return tonight to talk about. He wants to talk about his match with Ric Flair at the Royal Rumble, and he wants to talk about how some people say Flair isn’t in his league (what lol), but they are wrong. From there, Vinnie Mac plays a pretty awesome Flair tribute on the titantron, showing plenty of highlights from the 80’s and 90’s. Thanks for the library, WCW. Vince nags a little about the 5 stitches he required after Flair attacked him on Smackdown, before he finally reveals what’s in the blue box. Vince has a blond wig and a Flair robe and puts it on. He continues to mock Flair by strutting around the ring and pretty entertaining fashion. As expected, the imitation is interrupted by Ric Flair himself who is furious. Flair slaps the wig off of Vince’s head and demands him to take off the robe right now. Vince looks scared, doing as his told, only to pull out a lead pipe he was concealing, and he nails Flair in the head with it. Flair is busted open, and Vince beats on him some more, including ramming him into the steps and ring post. I kind of enjoyed Vince deciding to stop on the robe a little as well. More enjoyable hype for this angle.

Match One
Rob Van Dam vs. Test

A surprisingly quick match, or at least quicker than expected with the match going under four minutes. Probably not the best for a guy like Test, but in this short time, they still managed to squeeze in a solid showcase for Van Dam, and that’s all this really was. After getting frustrated with the way the match is going, Test brings a chair into the ring, only for Van Dam to nail the Van Daminator. He then heads up top and lands the Five Star Frog Splash for the victory. Okay match probably could have been something decent if given more time. **1/2
​

In the backstage area, The Coach is eagerly anticipating a chance to interview the returning Triple H when he arrives but is instead greeted by Kurt Angle. The Coach doesn’t seem all that interested in interviewing Angle, but Kurt insists he gets interviewed because he actually made it to the arena on time. Angle teases some big news and a big announcement he has to make tonight, bigger than anything Triple H could say. When The Coach asks what the announcement is, Kurt refuses to answer Coach’s pity questions. Damn I love Kurt.

We now head to one of those awkward WWF New York segments where Trish Stratus is approached by Terri Runnels. Terri decides to challenge Stratus to a wet t-shirt contest, going as far as to say that Trish doesn’t measure up. Stratus accepts the challenge. It’s not exactly the women’s revolution or women’s empowerment but if there were ever two women, I’d want to see in a wet t-shirt contest in this time period, these would be the two.

Match Two
Albert and Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Billy and Chuck

I was always taught that if I had nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all, so I’ll keep this brief. I like Albert and I dug the Billy and Chuck gimmick, but this match wasn’t particularly good. I’d go as far as to say it was bad. Scotty actually looked like he might be ready to win when he was set to hit The Worm on Billy, but Chuck managed to pull him out of the way. Chuck is then able to keep Albert occupied, as Billy gets the win with the Fameasser on Scotty. Not good. *1/2​

Backstage, it’s time for Michael Cole to do his best to interview Stone Cold Steve Austin. As with everything Austin does in this time period, there a plenty of “WHAT” chants. Austin previews what he’s about to talk about by saying he has three things to discuss tonight. First, Triple H is back but he doesn’t want to wish him luck because he’s coming back from an injury. Second, he announces that he will be in the Royal Rumble, and he’ll throw 29 other guys over the top rope. Finally, he and The Rock will whip Booker and Bossman’s ass tonight, but of course, he plays with the “WHAT” chants in fun fashion yet again…

“Two sumbitches… WHAT? Two sumbitches… WHAT? Two sumbitches… WHAT? Two sumbitches gonna’ get their ass whipped tonight”.

Match Three
WWF Intercontinental Championship Match:
Edge (c) vs. Lance Storm

This one is a weird one as it’s probably getting quite a high rating despite the fact that it went for less than two minutes. I’d argue you wouldn’t find many better short matches than this. Really fun stuff with a lot of great reversals up until the finish where after reaching the ropes to break a Maple Leaf, Edge was able to land the Edgecution to get the win. Really fun but to short, definitely made me want to see these guys get some more time in the future. It’s a shame that they probably won’t. **1/4​

As Edge backed his way up the ramp, celebrating with his Intercontinental Title, he gets attacked from behind and knocked unconscious by William Regal and some brass knucks. THE POWER OF THE PUNCH~! I’m so down for an Edge/Regal program here.

In the backstage area, Kurt Angle is having a conversation with Christian and he’s still pretty unhappy with all the hype surrounding Triple H’s big return tonight. Angle doesn’t understand what the big deal about Triple H is. He even goes as far to ask where Triple H was when Kurt saved the WWF from the Alliance. Christian says that he thinks Triple H was listening to the U2 CD, which is awesome because “Beautiful Day” by U2 has been backing the Triple H return hype videos. Angle then hilariously scoffs at that, stating that it was a beautiful day when he won his gold medals, or when he won the WWF Title. Angle then gets a little more personal, saying Triple H was out for eight months after a torn quad, because he’s a wuss. Kurt says that he tore his quad this morning but he’s still here. Kurt was phenomenal here, plays a douche so well.

Match Four
Big Bossman and Booker T vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock

My original thoughts were a bit of surprise that this wasn’t the main event, however I think the match placement makes a lot of sense here. It allows the fans to go nuts over two of the all-time greats, and then gives the fans time to get their second wind, before going nuts for the Triple H return at the end of the show. Smart show structuring. As for the match itself, which is what I’m supposed to be talking about, I thought it was solid. As I expected, Rock and Austin come out like a house on fire, until Bossman low bridges The Rock over the top rope and hits him with the nightstick on the outside. This allows Booker and Bossman to isolate The Rock, and I honestly thought the performances of Rock and Bossman in particular were quite good here. After receiving a beating and spending nearly the entire match in the ring, The Rock avoids a Scissors Kick and drills Booker with a DDT. The hot tag happens, and Austin runs roughshod, before The Rock is back in to take care of Booker T. Bossman looks to use the nightstick again, this time on Austin, but Stone Cold avoids it and nails the Stunner for the victory. Austin literally barely did anything and then came in and finished things off. Interesting match structure, but the big names carried it. **3/4

Match Five
Chris Jericho vs. Rikishi

Two matches in a row? Is this sports entertainment or professional wrestling? I thought Jericho bumped around nicely for Rikishi in the early stages, before he goaded him to the outside and sent him into the ring post. Jericho’s domination doesn’t last long as Rikishi fights back with a Samoan drop, and eventually looks set to try the Bonzai Drop. Once he’s up top, Nick Patrick gets in the way because he’s still rolling with the crooked referee gimmick at this point. Jericho manages to roll away thanks to Patrick, but Rikishi gives him karma, because Jericho avoids the Stinkface, but Patrick doesn’t. After the Stinkface which of course gets a huge pop, Rikishi comes out of the corner only to be hit in the head with one of the title belts by Jericho. That’s enough to finish things off with the dodgy referee counting to three, even though The Kish clearly gets a shoulder up. Another solid match, although less so than the previous one. **1/2​

In the backstage area, The Big Show is talking to Tajiri and Torrie Wilson and the topic: more Triple H return hype. The Big Show is all excited about Triple H returning, talking about how he raises the bar for everybody. This kind of annoys me If I’m honest. Triple H/Big Show have had issues in the past for a giant to just be all happy like this really annoys me. Plus, there’s some guys on the roster who’re better so not sure Triple H is really raising the bar, but that’s me being nit-picky. They get interrupted by Kurt Angle (thankfully) and Kurt calls them a bunch of fan boys. He says that Triple H is a horrible person and then asks or was it somebody else who was bashing people in the head with a sledgehammer? Show just looks like an idiot here whilst Kurt makes the most sense. Not a fan of the way this panned out at all.

In another area in the back, The Dudleyz bully Spike Dudley, mocking him and whatever, until Spike’s partner Tazz appears. Tazz wonders why The Dudleyz still have a chip in their shoulder, and D’Von pretty coolly challenges them to knock it off. They trade words with Tazz telling them that they have forgotten where they all came from (ECDUB, ECDUB, ECDUB), but Bubba says they didn’t forget and reuses the old “BEAT US IF YOU CAN”, and Tazz finishes off with the “SURVIVE IF WE LET YOU”. For those who frequent the BTB section, you’d know I’m a big time ECW guy, which means I enjoyed the hell out of this. A nice tension builder.

Match Six
WWF Tag Team Championship;
Hardcore Match:
The Dudley Boyz (c) w/Stacy Keibler vs. Spike Dudley and Tazz

Another relatively short match but another one that I thought was pretty solid. Considering the result of this one, I like this taking the “in ring main event” spot of the evening. Plenty of violence which really made this feel like a Hardcore match. Bubba whipping Spike with a tag team title, Tazz copping a nice cookie sheet shot, the obligatory fire extinguisher spot, stop signs, trash can lid, plenty of harmless fun. Spike gets tossed away after attempting a Dudley Dog on Bubba, but then before he can attack Tazz, Bubba is distracted by Stacy Keibler on the apron. She’s showing her ass again, trying to distract Tazz. Instead, Bubba is Suplexed onto a table by Tazz but it’s sort of just his head hitting the edge of the table. That shit would have hurt and I’ve no idea if the spot was meant to go down like that. Anyway, that was brutal and then a Dudley Dog through the table follows for Spike and Tazz to become tag champs. Solid stuff, another that could have done with some more time. I appreciate the fact that they’ve built this issue between The Dudleyz and Spike for a bit now, and this felt like the appropriate pay off. **3/4​

We get some more Triple H return hype here, with a quick promo from The Undertaker. He talks about how nobody actually respects Triple H, and they all want to see him get injured again. Savage. If a lot of the backstage stuff about Hunter during his in-ring career is true, I wonder how many people actually thought exactly the same as ‘Taker’s promo here? Anyway, he finishes off by giving Triple H a reminder that he runs the yard and announces that he’ll be in the Royal Rumble. Good stuff from ‘Taker here, although I enjoyed most of his mic work with The American Badass gimmick.

I completely forgot about the wet t-shirt stuff if I’m honest. Anyway, they both come out in white t-shirts because it should actually be illegal to wear anything else to a wet t-shirt contest. I know this is the sort of stuff a lot of people are happy women in wrestling have moved away from, as am I, but I still think this segment served its purpose. They hit their key demographic with Terri’s fake, wet tits, and then Jazz gets MAJOR heat by attacking Trish before she can, erm, get wet. Hypes their feud well, whilst still delivering on at least some portion of the wet t-shirt stuff. Degrading for sure, but I’ll take the Trish/Jazz hype.

And now it’s time for what they’ve been building towards for the last two shows, the return of Triple H. I remember as a youngster being taken aback by the ovation Triple H gets during his entrance. It honestly gives me shivers and I’d recommend anybody to go see it. However, being that he is Triple H, he milks it with posing and whatever for about 4-5 minutes, and by the end of it, the crowd are no longer as excited. Kind of feels like he killed the crowd doing to much, which is a little disappointing and not something I remembered. Short and sharp with some cool delivery as Triple H states “I am The Game. You can bet your ass I’m back”! He then goes on to announce that he will be in the Royal Rumble. For me, the segment took a massive turn in the right direction when Triple H was interrupted by Kurt Angle. Kurt wonders who the hell Triple H thinks he is, and pissed on his injury, stating that he won a gold medal with a broken freaking neck. Kurt tries to overshadow Triple H, stating that he will be in the Royal Rumble for the first time ever. The final dig is what gets it for me, awesome work from Kurt when he says he would have entered the Rumble last year, but he was to busy pinning Triple H to retain the WWF Title. Awesome. A furious Triple H then attacks Kurt and they brawl a little until Hunter drops Angle with the Pedigree. Triple H celebrates, looking on top of the world to end the show, as he should in his return. Good ending to the show.

A solid show. I continue to enjoy the Vince/Flair stuff, and I thought the Triple H return, was hyped well throughout the night, and then certainly delivered (mainly thanks to Kurt as Hunter did his best to kill the crowd). The tag title change was certainly a highlight for me, and there wasn’t anything here that I found to offensive.

 

[Leon TrotSky]

"Using Molly better" in the same year where she was treated as a heel for having a big ass?

 

[Stojy]

"Using Molly better" in the same year where she was treated as a heel for having a big ass?

When I say use better, I mean treated as #1 heel, womens champ, used on every weekly show, etc, as opposed to doing nothing. Junk in the trunk wasn't ideal but I still think virtuous Molly in general was a good character and somewhat successful during the time.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Smackdown
January 10th, 2002
New York City, New York
​

Before the opening credits, we see Stephanie McMahon Helmsley strutting around in the back, all smiles now that she’s allowed back in the arena due to her relationship with Triple H. Steph runs into Debra, who just so happens to be Stone Cold’s wife, and Steph lets Debra know that Triple H is going to kick Austin’s ass in the Royal Rumble. I don’t mind this, I think it’s fine follow up from the stuff that happened with Stephanie last week, and it already begins to plan the seeds for potential issues between Austin and Triple H.

Our commentators now hype up our big-time match for the night which is apparently Chris Jericho and Test vs. Rob Van Dam and The Rock.

Now we get Stephanie in the ring for the opening promo, where she thanks the fans for their respect to Triple H on Raw. She then switches gears, stating that he’s not here yet but she feels like she can do whatever she wants. Steph talks about how her business savvy guided Triple H to success, and basically says that she’s the reason he had success because he relied on her brains. With her by his side, he will win the Rumble and go on to win the WWF Undisputed Championship. She even goes as far as to say, when she points her finger, Triple H destroys. Now she brings up Ric Flair after their conversation last week and she says if Flair listened to her, he wouldn’t be in the hospital at the hands of her father right now. Flair needs to be careful because he doesn’t want Stephanie to point her finger at him, because Triple H will destroy him. Somewhat confusingly, security then come out to escort Steph to the back, which doesn’t make a world of sense to me if she’s granted access to the arena and whatever. The promo itself was fine but I hate that less than a week after Triple H’s return, it’s all about Stephanie. I’m probably biased because I know how this all ends up (poor Jericho), but I can’t help but be slightly annoyed by this.

Backstage, we see Christian and Lance Storm (what a team) clearly overlooking the new tag champs, as they talk about how easy it will be to win the titles tonight against Spike Dudley and Tazz. Then they get some epic cheap heat where Christian says, “they’ll be easier to beat in Madison Square Garden than the Knicks”. Epic. Storm then says Americans suck at hockey and walks off, whilst Christian proclaims they suck at basketball as well. I enjoyed this.

Match One
WWF Tag Team Championship Match:
Spike Dudley and Tazz (c) vs. Christian and Lance Storm

The match was fun enough without being really good. In the early stages, Spike is looking good, taking out Storm with a Top Rope Crossbody on the floor, and it’s feeling kind of meh. Spike isn’t really any good unless he’s being destroyed by bigger, stronger guys, in my opinion. Christian rams Spike gut first into the ring steps, and things do get better when Spike is being isolated. The hot tag is pretty great though as Tazz is an awesome ass kicker. He goes to town with Clotheslines and Suplexes on both Christian and Storm. All hell breaks loose as per normal in these matches and Christian gets Spike in position for a Reverse DDT, only for Tazz to come from behind and lock Christian in the Tazzmission to get the submission victory. Harmless fun but nothing to write home about. **1/4​

After the match, the former champs The Dudley Boyz try and attack Spike Dudley and Tazz, but little brother Spike and Tazz are able to clean house.

Next up, we get an announcement that the porn star himself, Val Venis will be in this year’s Royal Rumble. I know from a booking perspective his best years are already behind him from an in-ring perspective (Chief Morley was fine), but I’m still happy to see Val. I’ve always thought he’s a solid hand.

Match Two
WWF Intercontinental Championship Match:
Edge (c) vs. Big Bossman

This is just a basic back and forth contest here, and for the most part, I thought it was solid stuff. Edge was okay here, and I’ve always thought the Bossman was incredibly underrated. Okay, he’s not going to put on many/any 5-star classics, but his offense and mannerisms surrounding his character are brutal and always quite believable. In what is far from a new idea, Bossman looks for his knight stick to help finish things off, but Edge avoids it and ends up giving Bossman an Edgecution on the fallen knight stick to get the three count. Solid. **3/4​

Edge’s celebration gets interrupted by William Regal appearing on the titantron and I thought he cut a pretty solid promo here. The Englishman talks about how he had to get three surgeries on his nose. Edge spilled his pure English blood and Edge should know that the English are the most barbaric, evil, wicked, spiteful bastards ever. He goes as far as to say that Edge has gambled with the devil, and he’s come to collect. I honestly thought all of that was good, but Edge kind of just turning it into a joke lost impact for me. He almost comically asks what the hell Regal is talking about, and then finally Regal challenges Edge to an Intercontinental Title match at the Royal Rumble and Edge accepts.

It’s announced that Goldust will be returning at the Royal Rumble as well. Another awesome pick for mine, especially considering the awesome year Goldust is set to have.

Backstage interview time with Kurt Angle. Kurt talks about the confrontation with Triple H on Raw, as well as the Royal Rumble. The fans keep chanting “WHAT” at the top of their lungs and Kurt cracks it and threatens to leave if they don’t stop. A frustrated Angle blames the “WHAT” chants on Stone Cold and says that he’ll kick his ass in a match tonight. Whoa, unannounced Angle/Austin match. Awesome.

Match Three
Chris Jericho and Test vs. Rob Van Dam and The Rock

Well, hey, this match actually gets some good time, around 10 minutes or so and it delivers. It’s just a really fun match. At this point, The Rock is awesome at virtually everything he does and he’s brawling with Test, whilst Jericho tries to avoid him at all costs is quite good. Jericho gets a few licks in on The Rock after a cheap shot but is quick to get back out when The Rock recovers. After landing a Samoan Drop to Test, Rock makes the call to Van Dam. RVD comes in and does some pretty cool stuff as well, cleaning house with a Spinning Heel Kick and a Step Over Heel Kick on Test. Jericho gets a Rolling Thunder, and also a Somersault Dive over the top rope and to the outside. On the outside, Jericho manages to take over from Van Dam, which leads to the isolation period of the match. RVD is a good seller when it comes to general offence, with his only real weaknesses being when he has to sell a sore limb for the entire match. Test and Jericho’s offense doesn’t focus on a limb which suits RVD well. Eventually, Rock and Jericho get tagged in and have a great finishing sequence. Rock dominated and nailed the Rock Bottom, but Test breaks up the count. All hell breaks loose from there and it allows Jericho to nail The Rock with a Title Belt. After taking a kick from Van Dam, Jericho is still able to make the pin but Rocky kicks out. Finally, Jericho fails at a Lionsault with The Rock getting his knees up, and he follows up with a Spinebuster and a Sharpshooter for the win. A really good match here. I’m a little old school in terms of your champion looking strong, so maybe Jericho submitting to Rock’s Sharpshooter (which doesn’t finish off a lot of people) is a bit off for me but doesn’t sour the overall good performance. ***1/4​

We now get a sit-down interview with Vince McMahon conducted by Jim Ross. JR firstly seems interested in how Vince feels about Stephanie McMahon Helmsley being back, but he refuses to talk about it. He runs down Flair a little, before saying that he enjoys destroying people’s lives, it turns him on. That is an epic evil, villain line right there. Vince then talks about how he wants Flair’s family at the Rumble so they can see what he does to him at the Rumble. He wants them to see him destroy Ric’s life so then he can see them crying. A deranged Vinnie Mac ends things by saying after the Rumble, Flair will be begging him to buy his stock back. Another home run in this Vince/Flair build.

Another Rumble announcement and this time it’s Mr. Perfect returning. All three-return announcement have been good ones so far.

Next up, we’re supposed to get a match between Booker T and Rikishi, but it doesn’t really happen. They brawl for a little while before The Kish is able to nail Booker with the Stinkface! Afterwards, a disgusted Booker T dry heaves around ringside before vomiting on Michael Cole. Being embarrassed by it all, Booker just leaves and Rikishi dances in the ring. Look, this got a nice pop from the fans and all, but I didn’t enjoy this. Feels like a guy like Booker T, at this point in his career, should be doing much better things than this.

After the commercial break, Booker T is attempting to wash up in the bathroom when Diamond Dallas Page appears. DDP sounds as if he’s giving Booker a motivation speech, but ends it with it’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing because the Stinkface didn’t happen to DDP. I guess this will lead to a future match between the two. DDP is another talent that WWE wasted. I like WWE, so I won’t sit here and trash them, but definitely a missed opportunity with Page.

Now The Godfather is announced to be returning at the Royal Rumble. The less of all the announced returns for me, but the nostalgia has me excited anyway.

The Rock gets interviewed by The Coach and there’s some referenced genital humour in here that I’ll let you go watch for yourself. The promo itself was pretty awesome though, with Rocky talking about how the clock is ticking on Jericho’s title reign. He then says at the Rumble he will beat Jericho like he did tonight by shoving his boot up his ass.

Match Four
Kurt Angle vs. Steve Austin

Second match in a row that gets a lot of time and a second match that delivers. Probably not a surprise considering the history between these two though. The match has somewhat of a weird feel to it in the early stages, but I enjoyed it. Austin uses the ring post and ring steps to hurt Angle’s shoulder and he then keeps him grounded by focusing on it. He seems to be using a ground heavy attack, which almost makes this feel a little like the roles are reversed. This does lead to Angle getting frustrated and trying to brawl to get back into the contest. It takes awhile but it’s eventually a low blow that gets Angle in control. The dynamic of the Gold Medallist being frustrated at being out wrestled so then he goes into brawl mode is awesome. They trade German Suplexes and then Angle goes up and actually hits the Moonsault. That always feels kind of rare at least at this point in time. After that, it’s the Ankle Lock but Austin rolls through and almost gets a three count. They bounce back up and Austin counters the Angle Slam into a Stunner! Before a count can be made, Kane makes a random appearance and Chokeslams both men, basically ending the match. Kane getting involved and the aftermath all make sense for Rumble hype so I can live with it. Despite the weak ending, this match still delivered. ***1/4 ​

With Angle and Austin both down, Kane stands tall until The Big Show makes an appearance. They do their standard double goozle dual, which leads to Show overpowering Kane and nailing him with a Chokeslam. Now Show stands tall until Triple H appears, and he gets another HUGE ovation. Triple H can’t get Show down at first, but then lands a kick to the balls, which allows him to land the Pedigree. It’s kind of humorous that this happened to Show considering how ‘excited’ he was for Triple H to return just a few days ago. Anyway, to make things more interesting, The Undertaker appears at the top of the ramp but decides to fight another day, allowing Triple H to stand tall. Really good hype for the Rumble match with all the big names getting involved here.

This was a really good show for mine. Some good wrestling in the second half of the show, which is good to see, and even the earlier matches were at least solid. All of the appropriate programs seem to be getting hyped up ahead of the upcoming PPV as well, with the only down point here for me being the use of Booker T.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Heat
January 13th, 2002
New York City, New York
​

Show starts with Michael Cole congratulating his broadcasting partner, Tazz on winning the WWF Tag Team Champions. On the subject of the win, they mention that tonight’s special guest on heat is none other than the other half of the new champions, Spike Dudley.

Match One
Albert and Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Crash Holly and Funaki

This ones a pretty one-sided affair. Albert dominates early, until Scotty eventually gets caught up for a brief period of control. During the early stages, Albert does take Crash down with a pretty awesome giant swing. Scotty ends up tagged back in and Funaki hits him with a cheap shot which is what gives the heels the advantage. They aren’t on top for long as a Neckbreaker on Crash allows Scotty to make the hot tag. Albert comes in and starts swinging those right hands. After Albert does his work, Scotty sets up Funaki for The Worm, but Crash interrupts. Albert then takes Crash down and he gets The Worm instead and that’s enough for the win. Not a good match really, and the result was never in doubt. *1/4​

The Dudley Boyz meet Sergeant Slaughter backstage and asks where their locker room is. Slaughter doesn’t back down from the rude Dudleyz and gets into his whole maggot routine that we’ve all seen before. The Dudleyz keep their cool until he calls them former champs. The Dudleyz decide to just beat down Slaughter in the back before challenging him to a tag team match tonight. Kind of didn’t really feel like The Dudleyz did a lot wrong for Slaughter to go into full insult mode. Can kind of understand why they wanted to beat him up, to be honest.

After the break, Perry Saturn meets up with Sergeant Slaughter and because they both have military backgrounds, Saturn wants to be his partner. Guess it makes sense for them to play on the patriotism thing since they are in New York, less than half a year after Sept 11.

As the special guest, Spike Dudley comes out for an interview and the fans greet him and Tazz with one of those famous EC DUB chants. There’s some generic stuff here from Spike and Tazz about how they have a history together, and how they make a great them before they mention they want to defend the tag titles against The Dudley Boyz at the Royal Rumble. Spike tells The Dudleyz to come and get it. Michael Cole then wants to go clubbing with the champs, but Spike tells him they won’t pick up any women lol. I’ve enjoyed The Dudleyz/Spike and Tazz stuff so down for another match at the Rumble.

In the back, Spike Dudley meets somebody who can help him pick up chicks. It’s the guy from Kung Pow Chicken plugging a movie. Then for some reason a woman with one breast comes in and takes Spike out of the room. I’m not sure what I just watched, but it was horrible. That’s all I’ll comment on this one.

Match Two
Billy w/Chuck vs. Tajiri w/Torrie Wilson

Tajiri starts the match landing one of his patented kicks, but Billy quickly takes over, only to send Tajiri into the corner, but run into a boot. Gunn takes back over though and lands a Vertical Suplex and then a Powerslam. Billy heads to the top rope but Tajiri catches him and gets him in a Tree of Woe position, before hitting a Baseball Slide Dropkick to the back of the head. Tajiri stays on top and gets his Handspring Elbow. Tajiri catches Billy with the Tarantula as well, but Chuck breaks it up by punching Tajiri from the outside. Tajiri gets Chuck off the apron, but the distraction is enough for the Fame-Asser. Billy gets the win. Better than the last match because Tajiri has awesome offense, but still would not recommend watching. *1/2​

After the match, Billy and Chuck continue to attack Tajiri until The Hurricane makes the save. Hurricane hits a big Flying Crossbody on Billy, before a DDT takes down Chuck. Hurricane and Tajiri then land a Double Superkick on Billy… I don’t think this goes anywhere but Tajiri and Hurricane could probably be a semi decent team.

Match Three
Perry Saturn and Sergeant Slaughter vs. The Dudley Boyz w/Stacy Keibler

Saturn and D’Von are the two that start things out for the respective teams. They go back and forth with the Reverse Elbow connecting for D’Von, but Saturn comes back with a Springboard Crossbody. Overhead Suplex is next from Saturn before he tags in Slaughter. Sarge has his way with D’Von, and Bubba tries to intervene and gets taken down as well. I get nostalgia act, and patriotism considering world events, but I’m not big on a potentially sixty-year-old man being able to take down the former tag champs, who’re also in line for the next title shot. Doesn’t work for me. Of course that means only once Saturn is tagged back in are The Dudleyz able to win back the advantage. They manage to hit the WASSSSAAAAAP Headbutt on Saturn and that’s what allows them to take over. They isolate Saturn until Bubba missed a Senton Bomb, and Saturn nails a Superkick before making the hot tag to Sarge. Hot tag means Sarge takes care of business, although he very nearly drops D’Von on his head with a Vertical Suplex attempt. That shit was scary. Bubba comes in to help out, and Saturn takes himself and D’Von to the outside. D’Von gets back in and The Dudleyz try to double team the veteran, but Sarge just starts whipping them with his belt and the ref calls a DQ. Nice moment of nostalgia but does nothing for The Dudleyz and was not a pretty match. *1/4
​

After the match, having taken care of The Dudleys, Slaughter brings Stacy Keibler into the ring and spanks her with his belt. In 2024, am I allowed to say this was the best part of the show? This is my thread so I’m rolling with it.

Never really watched much Heat before. I know it’s a C show, but this was awful.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Raw
January 14th, 2002
Dallas, Texas ​

JR and The King welcome us to the show like only they can, before we are joined by ‘The Nature Boy’ himself, Ric Flair. He makes his way to the ring and starts off by putting over Dallas’ wrestling history, before touching on his history in Dallas, including a match in 1984 when he went to Texas Stadium and wrestled Kerry Von Erich (hey, maybe I’ll review that one day). Blatant pandering to the fans here to begin but he’s Flair and he’s good at it so it works. Flair admits that he’s been humbled recently by Vince McMahon, before showing clips of being beaten down last week on Raw, and Vince’s epic promo on Smackdown. Flair goes on to talk about Vince and abusing his power, even calling him a “no good son of a bitch”, before he admits that he’s going to abuse some of his own power. How? By making their match at the Royal Rumble a Street Fight, which is honestly a good decision for anytime a McMahon it trying to wrestle. Getting all fired up, Flair then goes into epic Flair mode, beating up the microphone with elbow drops and knee drops, begging Vince to come fight now. In what really feels like a surprise, instead of Vince McMahon, the WWF Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho makes his way to the ring instead. Jericho teases Flair a little about expecting somebody else before delivering an epic line of truth, “there used to be a time in this company when it revolved around one man, and one man only, and that sure as hell wasn’t the owner, it was the champion”. Thought this was an awesome line because it kind of fits in with my philosophy. Jericho accuses Flair of only getting into a match to try and outdo him and show he’s still got it. Then Jericho goes one further and says Flair will do the same thing as a man with a lot of power, he’ll choke like George W. Bush at the Rumble. Well, that did it. Plenty of heat from the fans and as Jericho drops his mic, Flair has finally had enough and attacks with punches, chops, and a low blow, before applying the Figure Four. The fans are loving it until Vinnie Mac makes his way out and hits Flair in the back of the head with the same lead pipe from last week. I get that he’s Flair and the fans loved it, but it bothers me that our World Champion is being beaten down by one co-owner and forced to be saved by the other one. Keep in mind, both of these guys at this time are non-wrestlers. Vince apologizes to Jericho and slaps Flair, and then Jericho holds Flair up, so McMahon can give him a shot to the gut with the pipe. The Flair/McMahon hype has been fine for awhile now and I guess this still accomplished more for that, but the idea of sacrificing your champion in this spot for no reason doesn’t work for me. I’m sure this will be the first of many qualms regarding Jericho’s booking as champion.

Chris Jericho is greeted in the back by Christian and Lance Storm, and they pretty pumped with his Bush/Texas insults, congratulating him on a job well done. The American patriot himself, Bradshaw appears and yells at them for bad mouthing his home state and the President of the USA. Bradshaw then challenges the three of them to a match tonight, saying that he’ll find some partners. After Bradshaw leaves, Christian says they don’t need to worry because Bradshaw doesn’t have any friends, which I thought was pretty funny.

We then get a “during the break” video which shows Vince McMahon getting in his limo and hurrying away from the arena, clearly not wanting any of Flair.

Match One
Bubba Ray Dudley w/D’Von Dudley and Stacy Keibler vs. Spike Dudley w/Tazz

Honestly, not much to say about this one. Extremely short and very uneventful. Bubba threw Spike around and beat him down for a little while, which was probably the highlight of the match. Eventually Spike manages to get in position to hit a Dudley Dog, but Bubba gets out of it. Stacy decides to provide a distraction on the apron, and with the ref preoccupied, The Dudleyz looks for their “WAASSSSSSUUUP” headbutt from the top rope. Tazz knocked D’Von off the top before he could jump off, and Spike turns Bubba into a Victory Roll for the flash pin victory. *​

We now head to the parking lot where a limo pulls up and out steps Stephanie McMahon Helmsley and Triple H. Stephanie is furious at the limo driver, yelling at the driver for making them late to the arena. Stephanie is so frustrated that she wants Triple H to beat up the bell clerk, but Hunter doesn’t want a bar of it. He tells her to “go take a walk or something” to calm down, before admitting he will kick somebody’s ass tonight, but it won’t be the bell clerk. A short, harmless segment which begins to put over the difference in personality between these two effectively.

Now we get some Billy and Chuck mic time before their upcoming match. Apparently on Sunday Night Heat, they were attempting to double team Tajiri when The Hurricane made a save and ruined their attempt. Billy says that they were so upset that they had to cancel their double date with two hot chicks over what happened. They then talk about how they aren’t sure what Hurricane’s deal is, and if anybody should be superheroes, it’s them because of their amazing bodies. The Hurricane and Tajiri then make their way out where The Hurricane so elegantly states “these two with hot chicks? WHASSSUPWITHDAT”? He then tells them that the only superhero they resemble is the Human Torch. Erm, it’s 2002 folks.

Match Two
Billy and Chuck vs. Tajiri and The Hurricane w/Mighty Molly and Torrie Wilson

I thought the action itself acceptable for what it was, but they weren’t really given time to do anything, which I guess isn’t that much of a surprise in this time period. Whilst I say acceptable, I’ll still mark it pretty harshly because I think it could have been much better. Billy and Chuck attacked them to start off, annoyed with the war of words, and started off an isolation period on The Hurricane. It obviously didn’t last long and once Tajiri got in, he did what he always does and made things fun with all of his kicks. All hell broke loose and Tajiri continues to dominate, getting Chuck in the Tarantula, but he lets go, to attack Billy for dropping The Hurricane. He does so effectively but then Tajiri turns back into a Superkick from Chuck, and that’s enough for the win. *1/2​

We then see a clip of The Undertaker riding into the parking lot, apparently arriving incredibly late to the show.

In the back, we have Michael Cole interviewing an annoyed Kurt Angle, who isn’t happy with how things went down on Smackdown in his match with Stone Cold. Even though it ended in a No Contest due to Kane’s interference, the feeling is that Austin had Angle beat after nailing the Stunner. Kurt disagrees, saying he had Austin right where he wanted him and “Kane stuck his stupid burned nose where it didn’t belong”. Kurt shows no signs of fear from Kane, and even quotes Shakira, saying if he wants a piece of him, “wherever, whenever”. Angle states that in their match tonight, he’s going to make an example out of Kane. Angle hilariously says that Kane almost won last year’s Rumble, but he has a gold medal and Kane doesn’t because “being a big freak isn’t an Olympic sport”. Angle finished off by saying he’s going to break Kane’s ankle and it’s hard to eliminate 29 other guys with a broken ankle. Awesome promo. I love Kurt.

In the backstage area, Debra and Stephanie McMahon Helmsley have a confrontation. They trade barbs over each other’s husband kicking the other’s ass and eliminating the other from the Rumble before they start brawling i.e., Trading hair pulls and slaps. The best part of this is easily Harvey Whippleman trying to get Debra to calm down and she just slaps him. Whilst these sorts of catty women’s segments don’t usually do much for me, I actually think this is pretty effective in terms of subtle Triple H/Austin tension.

Well, it looks like we are getting the WWF Women’s Champion Trish Stratus out to do some commentary because up next is the number one contender’s match for the Women’s Title.

Match Three
Number One Contender’s Match
Jackie vs. Jazz

This match run time ran just over a minute so I’m not even sure why Trish was on commentary. Don’t think she would have been adding a lot of insight here. Anyway, onto the action, well, it’s a squash. Jackie does land some offense, but I don’t think anybody is every questioning the result. In a kind of bad ass move, Jazz got dropped with a Clothesline, only to immediately nail Jackie with one, and then it’s the Fisherman Buster for the three count. SQUASH
​

After the match, Jazz and Trish share some words (I guess that’s why she was out there), and they try and brawl, but they get separated. Keynote: I’m sure Jerry Lawler loved every moment of restraining Trish.

Match Four
Kane vs. Kurt Angle

I felt like both men put on a decent performance here. It seemed like a good night for Kane, and Kurt’s bumping for Kane’s moves was terrific throughout. Kane dominates with some basic punches in the early stages and then Angle uses the heelish tactic of rolling outside for a breather. It backfires though with Kane dominating on the outside as well, sending Angle chest first into the crowd barricade. From here, it’s just more of the same back inside of the ring, with Kane landing a bunch of power moves, including a Power Slam and a Sidewalk Slam. However, when Kane goes to the top rope, Kurt incredible leaps up to the top rope and hits a Belly-to-Belly Suplex off the top. Awesome spot, and potentially the first time I can remember seeing it (please keep in mind I haven’t watched 2001 in forever so I could be missing something). Big time spot though, although I do find it weird that he’d bust it out during a TV match. I’m a firm believer in there being a difference between TV vs. PPV matches, and this one feels like a PPV spot. Still, awesome to see it though and to hear the crowd reaction. Some nice Ankle Lock teases come after this, with Angle going for it, but Kane showing some nice athleticism and landing an Enziguri. They then have a nice period where Kane attempts the Tombstone and Chokeslam, but Angle gets out of both, reversing the latter into a takedown and transitioning into the Ankle Lock. Kane looks terrific by getting to the ropes and then Angle loses his shit after getting a near fall from an Angle Slam. Kane sits up and in what is a pretty awesome spot, Kane looks for the Chokeslam, but Kurt pulls the ref in front of him as Kane gets the Goozle, but Kane just Chokeslams both of them at the same time. With the ref down, there’s no pinfall but Kane locks in the Ankle Lock and Angle taps. Eventually, Kane tries to wake up the ref and locks in the Ankle Lock again, but this time Kurt gets a Roll Up and holds the ropes for the win. A solid showing, I thought and one of Kane’s better recent performances. **1/2
​

In the backstage area, Stephanie McMahon Helmsley and Triple H are together, and Stephanie is ranting about her earlier confrontation with Debra. After clearly getting a headache, Triple H yells over the top of her, telling her enough is enough. He tells her that these are distractions that he doesn’t need. Trying to get him on side, Steph tells Hunter that Debra said Austin is going to kick Triple H’s ass at the Rumble. Triple H rebuts by saying that he’s kicked Austin’s ass in the past, and he can do it again. I liked this. The Triple H/Austin stuff continues to be a fun build to the Rumble, and I don’t mind the idea of Triple H/Steph being a slow burn at this point. There are hints of dissention but would be a little crazy if they just broke up right away because Hunter is a ‘good guy’ now.

We now head to The APA’s office, which is epic, and drinking and playing poker are Bradshaw, Faarooq and The Big Show. The best is that because their office is just a door, Booker kind of just walks through the background and Bradshaw scalds him for it. “This isn’t a damn barn, use the front door”. Got a chuckle out of me. Booker T says he’s looking for the trainer’s room, but Faarooq says he needs to find a barber. The Big Show then chimes in with his own gem, stating that “we were talking about kicking ass, but with Rikishi, Booker T was licking a lot of ass”. A furious Booker T then challenges Show to a match, and they have some back and forth until Show chases Booker away. Bradshaw does mention to Faarooq that this gives him an idea for a partner tonight though. Harmless fun I guess, but I think I made it clear last show that I don’t like this booking for Booker T.

Match Five
Edge and Rob Van Dam vs. Test and William Regal

Somewhat fun but another one of those ones that’s just hurt by the lack of time so I can’t give it a good rating. I feel like this might be something that I sound like a broken record about for a little while. A pretty fun, somewhat out of the box start though, with Regal being checked by the referee for brass knucks, leading to Test coming through the crowd and getting a jump on the opponents. As that happens, Regal gets the brass knuckles out from under the ring and stashes them. Van Dam starts off on fire, but a Full Nelson Slam from Test turns him into the face in peril. As usual in this position, Van Dam does a rather good job. It’s a pretty basic period of domination really but RVD’s selling is on point, before he fights out of a Chinlock, nails Test with a Heel Kick and makes the hot tag. To his credit, Edge comes off and plays a fairly good hot tag role as well. Edge goes to town on both opponents, before getting an Edge O Matic on Regal for a two count. As things progress, Van Dam lands his flying Sidekick on Test, but then gets hit with the brass knucks by Regal. Meanwhile, Edge nails Test with the Edgeacution, but then falls victim to a brass knucks shot as well. With all hell breaking loose, the ref didn’t see any illegal stuff and makes the three count. *3/4​

One half of tonight’s main event, Chris Jericho, Christian and Lance Storm are in the back and Christian seems worried that Bradshaw might have some sort of plan. The arrogant Jericho says that he doesn’t care because he beat The Rock and Stone Cold in the same night. LOL. On the monitor, they then see The APA chatting to Rikishi and they aren’t happy. Rikishi is their partner? I have multiple issues with this. The Rock, the number one contender for Jericho’s title at the Rumble isn’t even on this show. Surely this should have been his spot. This isn’t 2000 anymore, I’ve no interest in Rikishi being in weekly show main events, especially when storyline wise, he doesn’t logically fit in there.

Match Six
Booker T vs. The Big Show

Booker tries to get the jump, attacking Show as he enters the ring, but that sequence just leads to Booker T eventually running into a Powerslam. Show is able to nail a Sidewalk Slam as well, and Booker doesn’t really do anything, until he’s able to low bridge Show to the outside. On the outside, Booker goes to work, before they get back inside, and he is able to nail the Scissor Kick but Show kicks out. I probably should have mentioned a turnbuckle was exposed earlier, and after sending Booker into the corner, Show charges in but Booker kicks him in the knee, and Show goes face first into the corner. The Big Show is unconscious after that and it’s all she wrote. Short and still not particularly good. *
​

The highlight of the match was easily the Spinaroonie afterwards, but at this point I’m just happy for Booker to somewhat rebound after the terrible Smackdown escapades.

Next up, Michael Cole is in the back, ready to conduct an interview with Stone Cold. This promo from Austin might not be for everybody because there’s a lot of rambling and a lot of “WHAT” baiting, but I loved it. First, he starts by telling the story of a man who came to a bar in Dallas to drink beer, of course with “WHAT” happening, and he describes all the different ways he rode the mechanical bull. He talks about throwing everybody out of the bar to prep for the Rumble. He gets a little more serious when he talks about Triple H, and all the things he’s done/will do in his life, but he won’t eliminate Austin from the Rumble. He then says that by drinking beer, he’s actually working on his strategy, because his beer belly lowers his centre of gravity so it’s harder to be thrown over the top. That’s some amazing stuff right there. He then finishes with the bottom line is that Austin is winning the Rumble, because Stone Cold said so. Another one of these not to serious promos I’d recommend to go watch, because I enjoyed it.

Match Seven
Chris Jericho, Christian and Lance Storm vs. Rikishi and The APA

I’m not all that enthusiastic about this one but let’s see how it goes. They’re all out fast and it’s a brawl to start things off. The Kish dominates the Undisputed Champion, nailing a Samoan Drop, and he sets up for the Stinkface, but Jericho manages to escape to the outside before ass can meet face. Storm tries to come from behind and attack Rikishi, and probably distract him, but when Jericho gets back in, he still gets owned with a Belly To Belly Suplex. The rest of the match just kind of happens, with not much to note, which probably paints an idea of the rating it’s going to get. In the end, Faarooq gets tagged in and goes to town with his awesome Spinebusters. It breaks out into an all-in brawl and as everything happens, Jericho manages to nail Faarooq with a Breakdown for the three count. *​

Before he makes his way to the ring, Triple H tells Stephanie that he wants to go out alone. Judging by the look on her face, she isn’t impressed, which is some more subtle advancement with their issues.

Triple H comes out now and admittedly he gets another HUGE reaction from the crowd. He recaps his return last week and everything he has been through, and of course, the annoying fans “WHAT” chant at him the entire time. I really liked the part of the promo where Hunter references JR saying on commentary that the comeback was complete. He disagrees, because he didn’t come back and go through all that pain to just be another guy, he came back to win the Rumble, go to WrestleMania, and become the WWF Undisputed Champion. I actually thought he got his passion across nicely here and cut a pretty good promo. As he goes into a little bit more detail about the Rumble, he’s interrupted by Stone Cold. As Austin tries to make his way to the corner to pose for the fans, they use the cool spot where Triple H gets in his way. This leads to them jaw jacking at each other and the brawl is on. They both tease hitting each other with their finisher, until The Undertaker comes from nowhere and hits Triple H from ringside with the chair. This causes Hunter to stagger into a Stunner, but then, ‘Taker nails Austin with a chair shot as well. The Undertaker is the last man standing as we head towards the Rumble. I enjoyed this, thought it did what it needed to in terms of hype for the Rumble.

The wrestling on this show wasn’t all that great, but I still think it did what it needed to for a go home show for the PPV… Outside of the lack of The Rock which is pretty silly and inexcusable. Oh well. Still, I’ll give this one a tick based on what it did for the bigger picture.

 

[Crippler]

my condolences to you sir, but keep up the good work.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Smackdown
January 17th, 2002
Bossier City, Louisiana​

The show opens up showing the arrival of the Rock into the arena. We’re already off to a better start than Raw, at least the number one contender will be on the show tonight. Anyway, The Rock walks in and comes across Stone Cold. I shouldn’t fan boy to much here, because this segment is pretty basic, but everybody who talks about the chemistry between these two is right. It’s usually amazing. They share some banter with Austin asking the Rock where he has been, and The Rock says he was at a joint called “just bring it”. The Rock then invites Austin to the joint, but Austin comes back an awesome response, saying he’s already been there. Austin then talks about how he’s got some good news and some bad news. The good news he’s winning the Rumble and going to WrestleMania, the bad news for The Rock is that means they’ll meet at WrestleMania, and Austin is up 2-0. Things get tense as The Rock states he remembers the record, especially the last time they were in the ring at Survivor Series when The Rock pinned Austin. They then both somewhat sarcastically wish each other good luck for tonight. When these two get together, things are fun and that’s exactly what this was.

We get some commentary hype for the big match of the night which will pit Booker T and Kurt Angle up against Stone Cold and Triple H. Interesting to have Austin and Hunter teaming after they brawled on Raw. Can’t help but feel like Booker will be the weak link here with how he’s been booked recently but we’ll see.

Oh, I was also reading something somewhere online where they highlighted this gem from Michael Cole. “If Austin and Triple H can get on the same page as a team tonight, can you imagine the kind of power in that duo”? Well, yes, I can. Two Man Power trip less than a year ago.

Match One
Rob Van Dam vs. William Regal​

This is a bit of a weird one for me. It gets better as the match goes on and the two seem to settle in, but the early stages, especially throughout Regal’s offence, everything looked a little off. Maybe a little sloppy. I wouldn’t say anything to glaringly obvious, but it’s like the timing is just off a bit. Still, once Van Dam fights back and lands an Enziguri, Heel Kick, Senton and Crossbody from the top, Regal’s bumping is fantastic. It definitely gives the match a more quality feel, and eventually Regal is able to ram Van Dam’s face into the corner. After being checked by the referee earlier, it turns out Regal had the brass knucks at the announcers table, and he manages to find them. Once he gets back into the ring, Van Dam gets on top, before going for Shoulder Thrusts in the corner, but on the third attempt, Regal lands a shot with the knucks and that’s enough for the three count. **3/4

We now see Kurt Angle walking around backstage, finding the locker room of The Rock. Seemingly offended at the barge in, Rock asks Angle if he knocked, and Kurt dopily says I get it, who’s there. Probably the least funny attempted humour by Angle this year. Angle’s basically just there to tell The Rock that it will be Angle vs. Rock at ‘Mania because it’s Kurt’s first Rumble and he always wins his first time. The Rock helps Kurt talk up the match, listing Kurt’s big moves, saying Kurt will whoop his ass at ‘Mania, before telling him to wake up. Rock tells Kurt it’s a dream and not to get ahead of himself. This and the Austin segment from earlier are leading to an awesome piece of business between Rock/Jericho later on in the night.

Match Two
Billy w/Chuck vs. Tajiri w/Torrie Wilson

It’s crazy how often matches are seemingly carried/enjoyable because of the guy who is clearly just there to job. That’s what happens here from me. Gunn just isn’t good at wrestling singles matches, whilst Tajiri is great and makes things bearable. Tajiri basically goes to town here, landing plenty of offense until Billy sends him to the outside. Once back in, Tajiri goes wild again with an Acid Drop, a Handspring Back Elbow, and the Tarantula. Having Billy where he wants him, Tajiri sets up for the Buzzsaw Kick, only for Chuck to run to try and intervene. Tajiri spits mist into the face of Chuck, but then falls to the Fameasser for the three count. **​

After the match, Billy and Chuck continue to assault Tajiri because they are assholes. It ends with Billy holding Tajiri up so Chuck can nail him with the Superkick. A good way for them to get heat, I guess.

Much like earlier in the night with angle, now it’s Triple H entering The Rock’s locker room, and they have a pretty intense stare down, playing off their extensive history. They both agree that they have unfinished business before Triple H says that he’s going to win the Rumble. The Rock tells Triple H that once he wins the title, they’ll settle their business at WrestleMania. Triple H finishes things off by saying whoever walks into ‘Mania with the title is losing it to him. More good stuff here.

Lilian Garcia is trying to interview Trish Stratus about Jazz in the back, but before Trish can answer, Jazz attacks the Women’s Champion. Jazz beats on her before smashing an equipment box over her hand, so now Trish can play with the broken hand angle. Solid heat building from Jazz, at least they aren’t strutting around in bikinis.

Match Three
If DDP Wins, He Gets A Contract
Big Bossman vs. Diamond Dallas Page

I’m not sold on the booking of this one. There’s been no real mention of this DDP angle on TV, even though he appeared briefly on Smackdown last week, but now he’s fighting for a contract. He gets a spot in the Rumble to if he wins, so not sure why that just wasn’t the angle. Anyway, I’ll finish my nagging now because the longer I get to see DDP on my TV, the more I’m happy. A solid match here, with Bossman doing well at playing his evil, brutal self, whilst Page works really hard with his bumping and selling, showing that he genuinely wants to be there. Unfortunately, with the way he has been booked, it’s probably to late at this point. Anyway, Bossman starts off strong, before putting in the dreaded Sleeper hold. Page fights back from there and hits a Neckbreaker and a Clothesline. Bossman fights back with the ever-underhanded low blow, before tossing Page into the corner. Bossman eventually loos for a Scoop Slam, but Page slips out and lands the Diamond Cutter to secure himself a job. Solid from two pros at what they do. **1/2​

We get The Rock backstage again but this time he’s ready to leave his locker room when The Undertaker decides to walk in. The American Badass says smart money is on The Rock, so he tells him that he’s winning the Rumble and it will be Rock/’Taker at WrestleMania. The Rock says that’s fine with him, before asking ‘Taker if he’s done and announcing that he’s going to the ring. I’m excited.

The Rock makes his way to the ring for what’s about to be an incredible bit of business. The Rock talks about how this year’s Rumble’s different because apparently everybody is going to win it. Even Goldust sent him a postcard saying he was going to win. He then goes into standard Rock joke made, stating the camera man said he’s going to win the Rumble. Rocky takes the camera and records the camera man, telling him to wave to his Uncle Joe and his boyfriend Mike. The Rock says that he’ll face whoever wins because the only thing Undisputed is him leaving the Rumble as champion. Everything has been solid enough from here, but this goes up numerous levels when Chris Jericho storms through the curtain. Jericho goes on a huge rant, berating The Rock for disrespecting him because he’s spoken to all these other guys, and hasn’t even mentioned Jericho’s name. He says anybody and everybody who thinks he is a transitional or fluke champion can go to hell because the truth hurts, and the truth is The Rock had a chance to become Undisputed Champion last month, but he failed. Jericho continues to yell and scream, stating he will still be the champion at WrestleMania. The Rock says everybody is talking to him about after the Rumble, because the guys in the back, the people, the millions, they all know that The Rock is better than you. Rocky looks to finish off with his If Ya’ Smell catchphrase, but Jericho interrupts with epic passion. “NO!!! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! THIS IS NOT A JOKE! I AM NOT A JOKE! I AM SERIOUS AND YOU WILL NOT LOOK PAST ME, YOU STUPID SON OF A BITCH”!!! Jericho’s mannerisms here here, and the look in his eyes, the tone of voice, they’re all just sensational. I’d put it up there with some of the best promo work he’s ever done. Anyway, The Rock takes off his shades, which always shows off his INTENSITY~!, and he then tells Jericho that he’s taking him dead serious and he’s going to whoop his ass at the Rumble. If you smell what The Rock is cooking. Right up there with some of the best promo work before a PPV in, well, ever. Go watch this, you won’t regret it.

Match Four
Two On One Handicap Over The Top Rope Match
Christian and Lance Storm vs. Rikishi

Not a lot to say about this one really, just a generic match with the over-the-top rope stipulation in effect to hype the Rumble. I guess they were all involved in the main event on Raw as well, so we can pretend there’s some real heat there. Obviously, Storm and Christian go straight into double team mode but are quickly taken down with a double Clothesline. Christian tries a Sunset Flip, but Rikishi doesn’t go down. Luckily, before Rikishi can squash Christian, Storm nails him with a Spinning Heel Kick. Eventually, Rikishi is able to Storm down for a Stinkface, and he then eliminates him with a Superkick. Storm tries to grab Rikishi’s foot and help out on the outside, but it’s not enough, and Rikishi manages to eliminate Christian as well. I guess this kind of happened, not terrible. **​

We see clips from earlier tonight in the parking lot where The Dudley Boyz attacked the WWF Tag Team Champions Spike Dudley and Tazz. They lock Tazz in the boot of a car, before giving Spike a brutal 3D on the concrete. Nothing crazy but is solid enough go home show PPV hype.

Backstage, we see a fuming Debra standing by with Stone Cold. Debra lets it be known that she isn’t happy with Stephanie McMahon Helmsley and wants to go down to the ring. Getting along better than Triple H and Stephanie, Austin shuts it down, saying he can’t have her running around when he needs to team with Triple H tonight. Debra rather amicably agrees.

Booker T and Kurt Angle are backstage, having a friendly chat before they team up in the main event tonight. Booker talks about how badly he wants to take Austin and Triple H out before the Rumble. Kurt, quite frankly trying to be black, hilariously blurts out “sweet and sour like an ice-cold shower. Word”. Booker has some hilarious facial expressions to, so this bit was fantastic. They then begin to bicker because both men stating they’re going to win the Rumble, with Booker saying he doesn’t need medals to throw Kurt’s ass out. They decide to stop fighting when Angle says they can worry about it later, tonight they need to team up. Booker agrees and they’re back on the same page. This was fun, hypes the main event, but still shows both men’s desire to win the Rumble. Good stuff.

Match Five
Edge vs. Test

Honestly, this is still passable but eh, I don’t know. The more I watch Edge the more I sour on him and realise he was never really that great on offense. That trend continued here as without any obvious botches; his offence just looked terrible in general. I’m not even really sure how to portray it in words so I’d just say to go watch it. Anyway, both men just trade a bunch of moves really, with no real heat period, and both are able to gain near falls. I guess it’s solid enough but it’s all just building to get them on the outside so William Regal can come down with the brass knucks. Edge attacks Regal, allowing Test to grab a chair but Edge turns in time to Spear Test. Edge grabs the chair and clocks Regal with it, and then Edge nails Test with the chair as well, so the referee has no option but to call the DQ. **​

After the match, the referee scalds Edge so Edge beats his ass with a chair shot as well. That’s what you get for being a heel sometimes, Nick Patrick! Again, solid enough Edge/Regal hype, and whilst the match didn’t impress me, Edge showing some more intensity could be fun. It could be what he needs, and the idea of Edge being fed up to the point of snapping because of all the brass knucks shots is logical and effective.

Next up is a Royal Rumble video package set to Cocky by Kid Rock. WWE do these well.

Backstage, Stephanie McMahon Helmsley is all happy, talking about how Debra is useless, but she’ll be at ringside tonight. Triple H tells her to stay back as well. It’s his first match in 8 months, he doesn’t even want to be teaming with Austin, he needs less distractions. Steph looks like she’s been slapped in the face, continuing the slow burn here.

Match Six
Booker T and Kurt Angle vs. Stone Cold and Triple H

Of course, there has to be tension between Austin and Triple H, so they argue over who will start the match, until Angle stupidly charges at them. They double team him until eventually Austin remains in the ring with Angle. There are some quick tags early on, giving everybody some time to shine, before Booker T and Angle isolate Austin. This is pretty enjoyable, as the structure of this match suits the scenario perfectly. Angle and Booker work on Austin, which is solid, whilst they build towards the hot tag to Triple H. Austin is probably the better ‘finishing run’ guy in general, but Hunter has all the hype behind him with his return, so it makes sense for him to be that guy here. Triple H goes to town on both men off the tag, nailing Booker with a Clothesline and Angle with a Running Knee Strike. Angle misses a Spear and charges into the ring post and then Triple H does his weird Spear into a choke thing he started in 2002. Not sure how that’s a babyface move but whatever. One thing I want to mention is that Angle also bumps so much better than Booker here, the class difference is clear as day. Anyway, Triple H looks to get Booker in the Pedigree, but Kurt comes from behind with a German Suplex. Austin comes back in, having recovered from earlier and he throws Kurt out of the ring. Booker looks for a kick, but Austin avoids it and nails the Stunner, which sends Booker straight into the Pedigree. Again, first match back, return, all that stuff, makes sense for Triple H to get the victory here. Solid stuff. **3/4​

After the match, Austin and Triple have a nice little stare down, hyping that they probably will come to blows at some stage during the Rumble match. Before they can come to blows tonight, they are interrupted by The Undertaker, who remains on the ramp and the three biggest names in the Rumble stare each other down to end the show.

About all you can want in a go home show here. Solid wrestling virtually all night, a lot of Royal Rumble match hype, and the Jericho/Rock angle was gold. Good stuff.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Royal Rumble
January 20th, 2002
Atlanta, Georgia

Match One
WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Spike Dudley and Tazz (c) vs. The Dudley Boyz w/Stacy Keibler

A short and sharp PPV opener for the year 2002 with the match only going about five minutes or so, but it worked for what it was. As a matter of fact, considering the chemistry these two teams have already proven to have throughout this year, it’s no surprise to me that this is fun to watch. They play off the angle on Smackdown with The Dudleyz giving Spike as 3D in the parking lot, as Spike even comes to the ring wearing a neck brace. The Dudleyz take care of Tazz early, removing him from the equation so that they can isolate Spike. As with pretty much every match they have had so far, The Dudleyz throwing Spike around and pummelling him is fun to watch, and Spike bumps around for them like a lunatic. A hot opener in terms of crowd reaction, as they marked out when Spike was able to make the hot tag to Tazz. I honestly feel like Spike and Tazz are the perfect team with Spike only good at getting his ass kicked, and Tazz one of the better ass kickers. Tazz comes in off the hot tag and starts hurling around both Dudleyz with Suplexes. As with nearly every WWE tag team match ever, all four men end up in the ring for the finish, with Spike nailing Bubba with a Dudley Dog, whilst the crowd go insane as Tazz forces D’Von to submit to the Tazzmission. Short, fun, and this certainly did its job of getting the crowd into the show. **1/4​

In the backstage area, and he cuts a really good promo, as he seems to have taken to this more serious character he’s started to portray. Edge mentions that Regal likes to talk a big game, and they could have a hell of fight if they wanted to, but instead, Regal likes to play dirty (clearly referring to the constant use of brass knucks). Suddenly, Edge shows a steel chair, with some good fire in his eyes, as he talks about how it was a chair like the one he’s holding that broke Regal’s nose. Outside of the IC Title, the broken nose has been Regal’s main motivation for coming at Edge. Edge talks up his ability at using a steel chair, before coming back with a nice line to rebut Regal’s cool devil promo in the build-up. “Regal talks about gambling with the devil, but tonight, the devil gets burnt”. In my opinion, at this point in time, Edge hadn’t really done much good, serious stuff, so this was a nice change of pace.

Match Two
WWF Intercontinental Championship Match
Edge (c) vs. William Regal

As what’s becoming the norm, the referee pats down Regal before the match, and on this occasion, the referee manages to find the brass knucks and take them away from Regal. This felt like a nice moment considering how often Regal has used the brass knucks recently. I really thought this was a good match, with the stiff nature of it probably no surprise because Regal was involved, but I thought Edge really stepped up and held his own in that department as well. A pretty standard formulaic approach with Regal using his epic offense to ground Edge, only for Edge to make a comeback. If I remember accurately, I felt like the two felt more familiar with each other here, and I think they delivered a better match here than last month at Vengeance. Regal gets a nosebleed during the match, which probably wasn’t intention, but it works perfectly considering the broken nose angle. I would have probably liked Regal to maybe be a little more angered by that or reference it a little more once it started to bleed. Edge hit a pretty cool apron DDT as well, which I can’t recall seeing in the WWF previously. In the end, in a nice twist after the referee had confiscated the knucks, Regal had another pair stashed in the ring apron. He grabs them, before eventually pulling the referee in front of a Spear attempt from Edge. With the referee down, Regal lands the Power of The Punch and the ref slowly makes the cover. We’ve got a new IC Champ, folks, and it was a good match that got us there. ***​

After the match, Michael Cole interviews William Regal regarding his suspicious victory, but Regal thanks the god above because he has been blessed with the power of the punch. Awesome stuff from Regal here, and I’m excited to have him as champ.

Match Three
WWF Women’s Championship
Special Referee: Jackie
Trish Stratus (c) vs. Jazz

Considering what she’s go on to achieve, it’s really difficult to put into perspective how fresh Trish was as a wrestler here. I’d argue that whilst this is still far from good, this is probably her first singles match that wasn’t downright terrible. If you want to see what terrible looks like, go watch her title match against Jackie at Vengeance. Again though, speaking for the era that we are in, this is probably classified as good for a women’s match. One thing that’s noticeable is Trish has clearly improved in terms of taking a bump and selling, which is good because Jazz spends a majority of the match beating her up. A clear focal point helps them as well, as Jazz works on the broken hand of Trish, which makes perfect sense. I’m not that big on Jackie being involved here but I guess she’s the most recent title challenger, and she’s had some issues with Jazz in the last few weeks. Anyway, we get to a point where Jazz and Jackie share some not to friendly words, and this allows Trish to get back into the match and get the win with the Stratusfaction. Good for this time period, but not good overall. *1/4​

We see clips from Sunday Night Heat where Ric Flair brought his family into the building. Coming back to current time, we see that they are now at ringside ahead of tonight’s big match, which is the perfect thing to do considering some of the stuff Vince McMahon said about Flair’s family in the build-up.

Of course, this match gets the high stakes video package treatment as well.

Match Four
Street Fight
Ric Flair vs. Vince McMahon

This one was a bit of a tale of two matches for me. Firstly, it’s awesome to see Flair back in action again, knowing his history and how he was feeling at the time. I don’t want to sound to critical because honestly, Vince probably doesn’t get enough credit for the way he puts himself out there and does this sort of thing. Not many rich folks who’d be willing to go out and bust themselves open and put themselves through hell without needing to. As you can imagine though, the early stages with Vince dominating due to his power advantage were pretty awful. A bunch of random brawling, but it’s clear that Vinnie Mac doesn’t really know how to structure a match. Luckily, it wasn’t to long before McMahon got the weapons involved. This turned the match into something more interesting, and it allowed Flair to cut one of his awesome blade jobs. That image of blood-stained peroxide hair is still one of my all-time favourites in wrestling. The bit with McMahon dragging a bloody Flair towards his family and taking a picture with Flair’s daughters’ camera is amazing. The weapon use and the drama filled moments like this are cleverly inserted to cover for the fact that Vince isn’t an active wrestler. After Vince’s second half of his heat period is finished (which was the fun part), things pick up again when Flair takes over. He’s awesome at just beating the piss out of Vince, it’s brutal to watch at times, but Flair’s mannerisms just make everything so full of hate. Of course, they runback the camera moment, with a beaten-up Vince now getting photographed as well which was a nice callback. The ending is smart to, with Flair nailing Vince with a lead pipe to get revenge for all the lead pipes attack he’s been on the end of. It’s all she wrote after that, with the Figure Four finishing things off. I was concerned early but once the weapons got involved and this felt full of such intense hatred, this was good. ***1/4​

In the backstage area, Stephanie McMahon Helmsley is yet again running her mouth, talking about how Triple H is going to kick everybody’s ass tonight. Being catty and all, she makes fun of Debra as well, until Stone Cold appears and yells “WHAT” at Steph a bunch of times to make her leave. He then cuts a generic Rumble hype promo, with all the “WHAT” chants in there from the fans as well. Probably the first time since I started watching 2002 where the “WHAT” chants are starting to feel a little old.

Match Five
WWF Undisputed Championship Match
Chris Jericho (c) vs. The Rock

These two have had quite the feud going, dating back to probably October 2001 if I remember correctly, and I recall enjoying their series of matches together. I’m probably going to trash on the booking of this one quite a bit, so let me just premise that by saying these two have an amazing chemistry together. That’s clear as day, however this is probably the worst match of the series for mine, because whilst technically it’s done well, the booking is atrocious for Jericho. He’s the World Champ, presumably heading into WrestleMania, and the whole angle has been about him being determined to get people to take him seriously, but I don’t think that happened here. If they want him to be that heel champ who always escaped by the skin of his teeth, I can live with that as well, but this was to far over the top for me. The match started off really well, with Jericho putting in some good work on The Rock, whilst adding in those awesome, disrespectful Jericho trademarks (slaps, just general trash talking). I truly believe The Rock was one of the best sellers in the game in 02 as well, and he’s selling, and comeback teases were all hot as hell. My first issue is that Jericho lands two Lionsaults, which is supposed to be one of his finisher’s, randomly in the middle of the match and The Rock kicks out. Not sure why two are needed and not sure why it’s needed as a spot in the middle of the match. As The Rock looks to take some control, we get interference from Christian and Lance Storm, allowing Jericho to get another near fall off of a Rock Bottom. After all of that resilience by The Rock, he has Jericho down for longer than a three count after a damn DDT, only for Nick Patrick to refuse to make the count. I should probably commend Jericho for the Rock Bottom through the table spot he took, that was epic. After a People’s Elbow, Rock gets ANOTHER visual pin, but there’s no ref to make the count. Jericho then manages to sneak a low blow, send Rocky into an exposed turnbuckle, and get a roll up with his feet on the ropes to pick up the win. I still enjoyed this, I did, and it had the potential of being a **** to ****1/2 match for me, but the booking of Jericho brings it down. This was TO MUCH. ***3/4​

Of course, we then get a Royal Rumble video package because that’s really what everybody is here for.

Knowing what’s to come later in the year, I got pretty excited by the Shawn Michaels appearance here. No, he’s not at the event itself, but he’s at WWF New York, and he’s asked for his prediction on who he thinks will win the Rumble. He says that either Stone Cold or The Undertaker will win.

Match Six
Royal Rumble

I’m not the biggest Royal Rumble guy. I enjoy the concept and the mystery, and I make sure to watch every year (even to this day), but there’s usually a big lull in portions of the match which make it hard to get through. That sort of happened in the beginning here for mine, with the only interesting thing happening until The Undertaker comes in at #8 being Goldust’s return. I’m a Dustin Rhodes guy though, and he looked good in here, until being Chokeslammed over the top rope by The Undertaker. ‘Taker’s bit is so fun here, as he beats the hell out of and eliminates everybody, including Rikishi until we get probably our second big moment, which is Matt Hardy coming out with Lita. They’re back together and all that stuff that happened last year clearly doesn’t matter. Jeff Hardy would be the next entrant, signalling a Hardyz reunion, which is a nice moment, and they also have some nice offense on ‘Taker, until he eliminates them. Next up is Maven for one of the most famous Rumble moments for mine. The Hardy’s distract ‘Taker which allows the Tough Enough Winner to Dropkick ‘Taker in the back, eliminating him. The Undertaker’s facial expressions here and the brutality of the beat down on Maven are epic. Ending with ramming through the popcorn machine glass was crazy as well. It kind of slowed down for a longish portion again here. The Godfather made his return and Val Venis is back to his old porn star gimmick, but they didn’t add much to the match. The next excitement pick up is at entrant #19, which is a fair distance away, when Stone Cold enters the Rumble. Austin clears the ring, which is plenty of fun and not long after, Triple H is out at #22. Why does Triple H have to absolutely milk everything? He wastes the entire two minutes getting to the ring, meaning before they can really get it on, they are interrupted by The Hurricane. This created the epic moment where The Hurricane hilariously tries to Chokeslam them both. He fails and gets eliminated. The ending feels pretty fun with Austin and Triple H being accompanied by Mr, Perfect (YES), Kurt Angle, The Big Show, Kane, Rob Van Dam and Booker T. At least there’s some big names to finish things off.

Kane and Big Show end up having a nice, big man stare down that ends with Kane lifting Show up and throwing him over the top rope. Whilst I still think the final four were quite good, it was disappointing that the last two entrants, RVD and Booker T barely lasted. Most years it feels like there’s a mid-card talent that they give a rub by a very impressible Rumble performance, but that didn’t happen this year. At least we got to see a Spinaroonie I guess. The final four is Austin, Perfect, Angle and Triple H and surprisingly Austin is the first to go. He’s focusing on trying to get Perfect out, but then Angle gets him from behind. A pissed off Stone Cold comes back and knocks out all three remaining participants with a steel chair, which adds some intrigue to the finish. Mr. Perfect has his way with Angle, landing a Perfect Plex, only to be thrown out by Triple H. Considering the build and what happened on Triple H’s return night, it makes sense for Trips and Kurt to be the final two here. Angle thinks he has eliminated Triple H, but he hasn’t, and he then runs into a High Knee, before being thrown out. Triple H wins the Rumble!

I do completely think they made the right call with the booking of the finish. The ‘Taker stuff with the cleaning house, The Hardyz reunion and the Maven stuff was epic as well. Even the little Hurricane moment was terrific, as was Austin dropping the remaining participants after being eliminated. Oh, and I almost forgot the way Kane eliminated Big Show. When I think of the Royal Rumble in general, some of those moments are what I think of as the best Rumble moments. Some real big high spots in this Rumble, potentially some of the biggest in Rumble history, but there was just still to long where not enough happened. I still remember the good stuff, but in some of the slow phases it dragged so I’ll end by saying this was solid. **3/4 ​

I actually thought this was a pretty strong start in terms of PPV’s in 2002. I don’t think there was anything overly bad except for Trish/Jazz, and even that was an improvement on their division. Everything else at least delivered a solid viewing, and whilst I still don’t like the booking of the Undisputed Title match, I’d still recommend watching it. Good show overall, and now we have Triple H seemingly heading to WrestleMania to face a man who he competed against when he tore his quad, Chris Jericho.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Monday Night Raw
January 21st, 2002
Greensville, South Carolina​

After the obligatory post Royal Rumble video package, focusing on the history of the Rumble as well as last night’s winner, Triple H, our commentary team welcome us to the show. They hype up the big tag team which has been announced for tonight’s show pitting Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle up against The Rock and Triple H. Four big names, hopefully it’ll be good.

Match One
Booker T and The Dudley Boyz w/Stacy Keibler vs. Rob Van Dam, Spike Dudley and Tazz

Six perfectly capable competitors results in a solid six-man tag to kick off the show. The only thing missing from this turning this into a better match was Spike Dudley, who is still sporting a neck brace, jumping around like a million bucks as The Dudleyz destroy him. Instead, Spike gets knocked to the outside and drilled with a Neckbreaker and then barely participates until the ending. I guess they’re selling the injury. Van Dam was great in the early stages, flying around with his fun offense, until Bubba illegally chokes Tazz, and Booker drops him with one of his patented kicks. To his credit, Tazz still did okay as the guy who received the beat down, but he’s just not on the level of Spike in that role. Whilst they moved away from a working formula, they have met quite a bit recently and I appreciate the idea of trying to freshen things up a little. A small moment here which I really enjoyed which is really just a character/attitude thing is after Booker nails the Scissors Kick on Tazz, he wants to perform the Spinaroonie. The Dudleyz stop him though, demanding he make the tag so they can keep beating down Tazz instead. Something that doesn’t necessarily have any real consequence, but it was a terrific moment. After an epic Head and Arm Suplex on D’Von, Tazz makes the hot tag to Van Dam, who comes in and goes to town. The finishing sequence kicks in after a fun passage where RVD looks set for a Rolling Thunder, but Booker distracts the ref, and The Dudleyz give him a 3D. All hell breaks loose after Spike breaks up the count, leading to Tazz receiving a 3D, but RVD lands the Five Star Frog Splash as D’Von is still down after the move. Nice timing of it all, and all these guys yet again did a pretty solid job. **3/4​

A smug Chris Jericho comes to the ring next, ready to cut a promo on how he proved everybody wrong and retained the WWF Undisputed Championship last night. Jericho talks about how nobody gave him a chance, and people were even inviting their friends over saying, “let’s watch The Rock kick Chris Jericho’s ass”, but that’s not what happened. After rubbing in his superiority, the champion demands a standing ovation from the fans, which obviously gets him plenty of heat. He then brags that there is nobody that he hasn’t beaten which draws out the winner of last night’s Royal Rumble, Triple H. ‘The Game’ mocks Jericho because the fans didn’t cheer him but says it’s due to all of the crap that Jericho has dissed out. He then tells the champ that saying he’s beaten everybody is a blatant lie because he has never beaten Triple H. This rubs Jericho the wrong way, but Hunter continues, saying that he’ll be going to WrestleMania no matter what, but will Jericho even make it to ‘Mania as the Undisputed Champion? He says that Jericho has two months to prove to the world that he’s not a fluke champion, but only two months, because if he makes it that far, it will be time to play the game. Before champion and number one contender can come to blows, Kurt Angle’s music hits and he makes his way out to the ramp. Kurt isn’t happy with how the Rumble ended last night, saying Triple H attacked him from behind and that’s unfair. It’s not Triple H style to fight people fairly but unlike Triple H, Kurt attacks people to their face, like right now. With that, Angle runs to the ring and initially Triple H gets the better of Jericho and Angle, until he spends two long trying to hit Kurt with a Pedigree. This allows Jericho to attack him from behind. After a shot with the title and an Angle Slam, Jericho locks the Walls of Jericho onto Triple H, until The Rock comes down to make the save. Jericho gets out of harms away and The Rock clears the ring of Angle. I like getting the hype for Jericho/Triple H kick started here, and it was all well and good until Triple H started bringing up this whole ‘fluke’ champion thing again. Based off of last night’s booking, I’m a little against that topic when it relates to Jericho at the moment. Still, solid hype for the current ‘Mania main event, and they intertwined that with some hype for tonight’s tag match as well, with then inclusion of Rock and Angle. Good stuff.

Match Two
WWF Intercontinental Championship Match
William Regal (c)vs. Edge

This one comes about after Regal stole the title from Edge with the brass knucks last night at the Royal Rumble. Apparently, Edge immediately demanded his contracted rematch tonight. Edge is continuing to play the angry, aggressive guy here, and I think he did a good job with this again here. As Regal makes his entrance, Edge comes from the ring and immediately goes on the attack, and then beats the hell out of Regal. The outside of the ring action culminates with a Suplex from with the crowd to over the barricade and back to ringside. Inside of the ring, Edge lands a few big moves and gets some near falls, and Regal heads back outside of the ring. Edge follows him, but Regal manages to ram Edge face first into the ring post. After Regal’s great selling job, now he gets the chance to unleash his offense, and as usual everything looks really stiff and snug, as Regal, in my opinion, carries Edge to a good match. Eventually, Edge makes a comeback and then heads to the top rope, but whilst the referee pays attention to Edge, Regal pulls the brass knucks out of his tights. Edge comes off with a Dropkick from the top rope, and this is the second time he used this move in the same match which is kind of strange. Anyway, the Dropkick sends Regal into referee Nick Patrick’s knee, but also causes Regal to drop the knucks. As Patrick limps away, Edge picks up the knucks and nails Regal with them. Edge makes the cover but after counting to two, the referee spots the knucks on Edge’s hand and calls a DQ. Much like the Rumble, another good match between these two. ***​

After the match, if he hadn’t already, Edge has officially lost it now as he drops the referee with the brass knucks. They can’t get Edge out of the ring, so more ref’s come down to get Edge to relax, but he throws them out of the ring, and nails some of them with Spears as well.

Back from the break, and we see Edge getting escorted out of the arena by a bunch of security.

In the backstage area, The Big Show confronts Kane, and they have a stare down, tension between them after the epic way Kane eliminated Show at the Royal Rumble. Big Show breaks the silence, telling Kane that what happened at the Rumble had never happened to Show before, and he wants to shake Kane’s hand. Show offers his hand and Kane accepts. Despite the friendly nature of the segment, Show finishes off by letting Kane know it will never happen again. As Show leaves, he’s replaced by Billy and Chuck. Kane gives them the old sideways look, whilst as they talk about how they noticed Kane loves red, and they clearly love red, so they got him something. And it’s a red bandana like what they were with the name “KANE” written on it. AWESOME. Chuck tries to put it on, and Kane pushes him away. Billy yells at him, and then the two deliver a quick beatdown to Kane. A harmless way to build to a weekly show match, which is what I assume is happening here. The antics of B&C were a load of fun here though, and I guess the follow up on the Show/Kane stuff was fine as well.

Somewhere else in the back, Mr. Perfect runs into Debra, and he starts complaining to her about Austin came back into the Rumble last night and eliminated him illegally. He says Austin cost him the Rumble, and he might be the toughest S.O.B., but he isn’t perfect. I really wish they went all guns blazing with a full-time program for these two.

Now we see a satisfied looking Ric Flair walking through the backstage area, ready to cut a promo after the break.

‘The Nature Boy’ makes his way down to the ring, obligatory bandage on his head after last night’s war, but he struts around, feeling pretty good about himself anyway. We’re in South Carolina too, which means Flair Country, so the ovation is magic for Flair. He sort of gives us a quick recap of the past 25 years, talking about wrestling day in and out, paying the price to be a wrestler. In the process though, he left his family behind. Over the last few years though, he’s had a new goal and he’s trying really hard to get his kids to look past Ric Flair the wrestler. He wants them to see him as a father and somebody that they can be proud of. So, when Vinnie Mac started mentioning his family, Flair had to change a famous catchphrase. “To be the man, you gotta’ beat Vince McMahon”! He thanks his family, before showing the pictures taken during the Rumble, which shows a bloodied Vince McMahon. Coming out to interrupt the party is none other than Vince McMahon himself. Once Vince gets into the ring, Flair takes off his jacket, ready to go for round two, but Vinnie Mac decides against it. McMahon claims that he’s not the only one who lost at the Rumble. Flair, the locker room, and the fans also lost. An eerie Vince then says he’s going to do something that even he will regret, and Flair just needs to wait and see. McMahon’s facial expressions here are great as he really comes across like a sadist, and Flair’s promo was good because he’s Ric Flair.

Match Three
Mr. Perfect vs. Val Venis

Val Venis is now adding to his gimmick, where he gets a woman from the crowd to step in and remove his towel for him. Cool. This one only goes about 90 seconds, when Stone Cold’s music hits so Perfect throws Venis out of the ring. Austin gets into the ring and drills Perfect with a chair shot. That’s a quick DQ finish but because I love Perfect, I’ll still give this a good rating for what it was. ** ​

Surprisingly, Austin just goes to leave after the match, but Val Venis stupidly calls him back. Val doesn’t seem to have an issue with what happened to Perfect, claiming he got what he deserved for not being able to deliver his message to Austin face to face. He lets it be known that if he ever had a problem with Austin, he wouldn’t run to his wife, he’d tell him face to face. As a matter of fact, Val goes as far to say that he’d whoop Austin’s ass. Stone Cold takes the mic, but instead of actually saying anything, he just drills Venis with a Stunner. Austin then makes fun of Val, including “WHAT” chants for the fans before he wants to tell a little story. He then gives a slightly custom version of The Beverly Hillbillies opening. No real substance to this, but was still pretty fun, nonetheless. It’s worth a watch. After all that though, Austin says that’s not his story. His story is that after all the good he ate, all the alcohol he drank, two sumbitches eliminated him from the Rumble. He admits he isn’t becoming the champion at WrestleMania, but he’s officially entering the 2003 Royal Rumble. Considering everything that happens in the next 12 months, that’s probably a funny thing to think about in retrospect. Austin finishes off by saying he’s still going to whip somebody’s ass at ‘Mania and that’s the bottom line because Stone Cold said so. Entertaining stuff.

We get a quick graphic on screen which tells us we’re only 8 weeks away from WrestleMania.

Match Four
Billy and Chuck vs. Kane and The Big Show

A bit of a fun start at least, with Kane coming out, only for Billy and Chuck to decide that they don’t want any part of Kane. As they head back up the ramp, The Big Show comes down and drops them with a Double Clothesline. This sets up a tag team match, but in all honesty, it’s pretty awful. Kane and Big Show dominate without any real offense from Billy and Chuck, until Kane goes up top for a Clothesline. At the same time, Big Show bounces off the ropes, accidentally knocking Kane off the top. With Kane out of commission and Show momentarily distracted, Billy hits him with a Fameasser. Billy makes the cover and Chuck holds down Show’s legs from the outside for the victory. This continues the Billy and Chuck push and sets up a seemingly eventual Show/Kane confrontation, but this wasn’t good. Not even close. *​

In the back, Triple H and The Rock are together and Triple H is annoyed at what went down earlier tonight. Instead of being annoyed at the guys who attacked him though, he lets The Rock know that he doesn’t need him to be his saviour. The Rock doesn’t understand why Triple H is angle. He won the Rumble, he’s going to WrestleMania, he should go get some ice cream and be happy. The Rock then gets a little more serious, saying that all he wanted was to kick Jericho’s ass. This is fine to hype the main event and whether these two will get along, building off their past and showing clear tension between them.

The epic Undertaker/Maven stuff from the Rumble is recapped next. For those who aren’t in the know, Maven eliminated ‘Taker and then ‘Taker beat the living daylight out of him.

Obligatory WWF New York segment is up next, where Bradshaw talks about the Rumble, stating that the biggest thing that happened was the return of The Godfather. Meh.

We then see The Godfather knock on a door in the backstage area because it’s time to get the escorts out.

After the break, we get The Godfather in the ring with his ‘escorts’ and he talks up how he is now legit. His philosophy on life has seemingly changed as he says, “people don’t want Ho’s, they want ass as well as class”. That just made me chuckle. Anyway, he advertises his completely legitimate escort agency until he’s interrupted by Lance Storm. The Canadian comes out and hits us with the epic “can I be serious for a minute” line, before saying The Godfather is as legitimate as a three-legged donkey. Storm says the ring is a sacred place and the escorts are soiling it. People would much rather see him in athletic competition. He gets boos for this but hell, if I’m watching a wrestling show, I’d much rather see Storm wrestle. Storm threatens Godfather if he doesn’t leave and take the escorts and The Godfather says he’ll whip Storm’s ass. Storm runs down and they have a quick brawl which ends with Godfather landing the Ho Train! Does this now become the escort train? Storm rolls out of the ring as The Godfather and his escorts dance the night away. A typical WWE junk segment here really.

Goldust promo which is always a good time. One day I need to write a piece on the underrated career of Dustin Rhodes. The guy is a star. He kicks things off with the movie quote and he picks a doozy here. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in – Al Pacino, The Godfather III, 1991”. He talks about how he’s been gone for a long time, waiting to make a comeback that would make even John Travolta snivel in jealousy. In Goldust language, which is awesome, he basically says that as big of a star as he is, there is a star out there that is shining brighter. Clearly a promo to begin to build towards whoever Goldust is going to target. A good time this is, Goldust rules.

In the back, Stephanie McMahon Helmsley is trying to give Triple H a pep talk. Instead of hyping him up for his opponents though, Steph wants her husband to kill The Rock for all the mean things he’s ever said about her. Having heard enough, Triple H stands up to cut her off and asks when she’ll realise that the whole world doesn’t revolve around her. An offended Stephanie says he’s changed, talking about how he hasn’t public acknowledged her regarding his comeback, or the Rumble win yet. Then Triple H returns with the epic line of “make a contribution to my sanity and to the one thing you can never do – shut up”! More relationship problems here which I guess is effectively building too somewhere.

Match Five
Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle vs. The Rock and Triple H

Probably not surprising considering the guys involved but this was another enjoyable match. It’s probably to do with hindsight but it is a little awkward seeing Triple H as a babyface here. I’ve just felt like it has never suited him and he’s not that good at it. He’s still fine to put on a solid match, but next to a guy like The Rock, who is arguably one of the greatest babyfaces of all time, the difference in ability to play that role is clear to see. Still, a fun match. The Rock and Triple H start off like a house on fire, until The Rock looks to land The People’s Elbow on Jericho, but Angle low bridges the top rope to send Rocky flying out. This allows the heels to have a little bit of control, until the hot tag is made to Triple H. Hunter dominates until he looks to land a Pedigree on Angle, but he notices Jericho on the top rope. Triple H sends Angle into the ropes, crotching the champ on the top rope, before landing the Pedigree on Angle. Trips with the cover, but Jericho breaks up the count. The Rock and Jericho end up getting tagged in and all hell breaks loose, with Jericho eventually able to land a Bulldog. He goes to the outside and grabs the ring bell, before accidentally hitting Angle with it. The Rock avoided the bell shot, nailed Jericho with the Rock Bottom and got the three count. A solid match but considering my issues with the way Jericho has looked as champ, it’s safe to say The Rock getting his win back twenty-four hours later doesn’t do a lot for me. **3/4
​

A solid show coming off the Rumble. Solid in ring action throughout and the McMahon/Flair segment sets the tone for something big.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Smackdown
January 24th, 2002
Charleston, South Carolina ​

The show opens up with Michael Cole and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler giving us the rundown on commentary. Tonight, sees the beginning of a four-man number one contender tournament to see who will face Chris Jericho for the WWF Undisputed Championship at No Way Out. Tonight’s matches will see Booker T vs. Stone Cold and Kurt Angle vs. The Rock. The winners will face each other on Raw.

Match One
Rob Van Dam vs. William Regal

Well, this definitely wasn’t what I expected. I thought these two would put on a pretty good contest, but instead Van Dam nails Regal with a Plancha when he’s still outside the ring. Back inside, Van Dam runs through some kicks and the Rolling Thunder, before getting the win with the Five Star Frog Splash. Strange to book your IC Champ to job like this in a random match that isn’t related to the program he’s currently in. Disappointed we didn’t get to see more of a match here, can’t rate this as anything but bad because of the booking. *​

To make this arguably the worst night in Regal’s career, as he’s trying to recover after the match, Edge comes out and nails him with a Spear. Now at least this hypes the existing IC Title program.

In a weird, eerie setting, Vince McMahon is seemingly having a conversation with somebody who is off camera. The Chairman of the Board looks a little unhinged as he tells the person he knows they think he doesn’t have the guts to do what he said he would but they’re wrong. He claims that he has no alternative, and he will do something even he will regret, and he’s going to do it tonight. A nice tease for what’s to come here.

We get a quick video from the Rumble, showing Rikishi giving Big Bossman a Stinkface and eliminating him from the Rumble. Bossman wanting revenge is probably why we have the next match.

Match Two
Big Bossman vs. Rikishi

Not that it’s overly important but it’s worth noting that Jacqueline is the referee for this one, which means she’s probably out of the Women’s Title picture for good. When Rikishi comes out, he dances around with her for a bit, and Jackie takes Bossman’s nightstick away, showing she means business. As for the match, it was okay. Not overly long which is probably good for these two, but there was some decent action here. Bossman sends Rikishi into the steps on the outside, before landing some stuff inside the ring but being unable to put Rikishi away. Eventually, Rikishi comes back with a Superkick, followed by a Banzai Drop for the win. Not bad from these two. **1/4​

In the backstage area, Stephanie McMahon Helmsley is getting herself a coffee, when she is approached by Lilian Garcia. Being a good Samaritan, Lilian checks in on Steph regarding her marital problems, stating that after what happened on Raw, she’s here if Steph needs to talk. Clearly on edge, and an asshole, Steph says her and Triple don’t have any problems and the only problem is Lilian. Steph then proceeds to throw the coffee on Garcia before walking away.

Match Three
WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Spike Dudley and Tazz (c) vs. Albert and Scotty 2 Hotty

Despite not being a team for to long, Spike and Tazz have clearly identified a formula that works for them, and it’s surrounding Spike being thrown around by bigger, stronger guys. After an opening exchange that sees Tazz get the better of Scotty, both men make tags. From here, we get some really fun stuff as Albert just beats up Spike, throwing him around the ring. As usual, Spike’s selling is on point as well. There was a nice moment here before Albert started dominating where Spike attempted a Spear but hurt his own neck. I like the continuity here as Spike is selling that attack from The Dudleyz on last week’s edition of Smackdown. Albert lands some nice stuff on Spike, including an epic Giant Swing~! After a Guillotine on the ropes, Albert goes for the pin, but Tazz breaks up the count. Scotty gets tagged in and lands some unremarkable offence on Spike, only to miss a Spear. This allows Spike to tag in Tazz, who goes to work on Scotty. He eventually nails Scotty with a T Bone Suplex, but Albert charges and nails Tazz with a Body Splash. All hell breaks loose with Spike able to come in and nail Albert with a Dudley Dog, whilst after surviving the Worm, Tazz makes Scotty submit with the Tazzmission. Solid stuff. **1/2​

Stephanie McMahon Helmsley is backstage with Triple H, and she brags about what she did to Lilian, but Triple H doesn’t react. This annoys Steph as she asks if he’s listening to her and what her problem is. She is a McMahon and she’s the reason he is where he is today. Finally, this gets Triple H’s attention. He states that Vinnie Mac is an asshole, before asking how she’s proud after everything he’s done to her. Steph bites back, letting Triple H know that she’s proud of her family and accusing him of marrying her for her last name. But Trips disagrees, he married her in spite of her last name. Vince never thought he was good enough for her. Steph says maybe her dad was right, and an annoyed Triple H states maybe everybody was right about Steph. I understand the marriage issues are an angle here, but this segment annoyed me a little. I hate when WWE annoy their history and the fact that these two are talking about their marriage as if it was normal irritates me. It’s not like Triple H proposed and Vince said no, and they fought against the odds. This wasn’t a love story. Triple H had Steph’s drink drugged and then he took her through a drive through chapel. Probably a small thing in the whole picture but it bothers me when they ignore stuff like this.

We head to somewhere else in the back where The Coach is about to interview The Rock. You know what that means? Shenanigans. The Rock talks a little about the Royal Rumble, talking about all the crazy things that happened at the Rumble, including Maven eliminating The Undertaker. The Coach looks like he’s uninterested, so Rocky makes him dance the Charleston and then kicks him out of screenshot. Lol Coach. Good times but not on the level of the Copacabana promo earlier in the year. The Rock then remembers last year’s No Way Out when he beat Kurt Angle to become the WWF Champion. He’ll beat Kurt again tonight and then he’ll become the champion at No Way Out. Rock then says that this years WrestleMania will be The Rock’s WrestleMania. Solid promo as ever from The Rock.

Next up, we see a pissed off Triple H, now by himself in the back, clearly annoyed after his previous argument with his wife. Sharmell (this may be her first WWE appearance?) approached and asks if he’s okay, but he sends her away pretty quickly. Christian then happens to be walking by, and says he feels for Triple H. He talks about Steph’s temper before wishing Triple H luck. Christian didn’t actually seem overly sarcastic or anything here, but then Triple H attacks him and beats the hell out of him in the back. Eh, a bit of an overreaction from mine and didn’t feel like a justified babyface response.

Another Vince McMahon segment where he’s speaking to somebody off screen. He informs them that since the Rumble, Ric Flair has assumed a position of leadership. Vince doesn’t like it but that’s what has happened, and under Flair’s leadership, the WWF has a terminal cancer. Under Flair’s leadership, the WWF will slowly die. Vince implores whoever he is speaking to that they know what they have to do. Again, the build here towards the eventual reveal is really good.

Just to further remind us of that crazy Royal Rumble moment, we see a clip of Maven eliminating The Undertaker, only to have the shit kicked out of him afterward.

Match Four
Booker T vs. Stone Cold

The winner of this one goes on to Raw to face the winner of Kurt Angle vs. The Rock later in the night. The winner of that match on Raw will face Chris Jericho for the Undisputed Title at No Way Out. A solid TV match here, following a pretty basic formula, but it’s clear that neither man was trying to set the world on fire here. Austin started off well, landing a Spinebuster and a Neckbreaker, but Booker eventually hits a Superkick which changes the momentum of the match. After sending Austin into the steps twice on the outside, Booker begins to focus on the leg of Austin. I didn’t mind this as it gave Booker’s offense a point of focus, but what irritated me was as soon as Austin started making his comeback, it’s like the leg work was completely ignored. Booker never tries to go back to it and Austin doesn’t sell it either. Austin goes to work on the comeback, but Booker manages to counter the Stunner, which he celebrates with a Spinaroonie after knocking Austin down. Booker then lands the Scissors Kick but only gets a two count. He looks to follow up with the Stunner, but Austin breaks free and lands a Stunner of his own for the victory. Solid yet again. **1/2​

Sharmell is now with Ric Flair in the back, and she asks him what Vince was talking about earlier. Flair admits that he has no idea what Vince was talking about, but he needs to accept his loss at the Rumble and let it go. The WWF is in good shape and continues to grow. Again, building towards the announcement of whatever Vince is preparing to do, this does a really good job.

Match Five
Tables Match
Kane and The Big Show vs. The Dudley Boyz w/Stacy Keibler

The booking of this match surprises me a little. Kane and The Big Show aren’t necessarily a tag team, only teaming together on Raw because they both had issues with Billy and Chuck. After they had a miscommunication there, it doesn’t really make sense for them to want to team together, unless they are suddenly chasing tag team gold. That doesn’t seem likely, so it feels they are teaming for no reason against a team that they don’t have any issues with. At least they made it a Tables match which should be fun. I guess the point of this is to show that Kane and Show continue to miscommunicate, leading to an eventual match between the pair. They do some nice table teases throughout, with Kane moving the table so The Dudleyz can’t Flapjack Show through it. There’s another tease as well where Show Chokeslams D’Von but Bubba gets the table out of the way. In the end, there’s a table set up on the outside and Kane’s on the apron, and Show whips Bubba into Kane, which causes Kane to fall and crash through the table. It seems they’re foregoing the usual both team members have to get put through a table as this ones over. I admittedly wasn’t that excited going into this one, but it certainly didn’t deliver either. *1/2​

After the match, Kane confronts The Big Show, and the two behemoths are separated by a bunch of referees. Looks like they will be running Kane/Show at some point.

Yet another Vince McMahon segment here. It’s almost like he’s in mourning here as he says it’s a damn shame, but everything has to come to an end sometime. Even so, he never pictured that it would be like this. He talks about how the WWF is what he built and now it’s crashing down around him, because somebody is taking it from him. He literally takes it to the next level her, crying as he says somebody injected his baby with cancer. After a few moments, McMahon gets a hold of himself and calmly states that’s to damn bad. The mood change here was awesome, showing how unhinged he is right now. I continue to enjoy these quick promos throughout the night.

Now we get a quick Goldust promo, where he talks about how the WWF has changed since he first showed up, and how he has his greatest performance ever ready. Goldust once again brings up the shining star, saying that he needs this from Goldust. It’s time for his star to rise, everybody will know the name of…. Goldust. Good stuff again here.

Following on from the Goldust promo, we see Billy and Chuck in the back. Chuck compliments Goldust’s hair, but Billy lets Chuck know that Chuck’s hair is better. LOL. They then talk about how they should be the WWF Tag Team Champions. They talk up their physiques, saying they definitely have the look, plus the chicks dig them. They then perform their own secret handshake before Billy slaps Chuck on the ass. Look, in ring wise these two haven’t really delivered yet, but I do enjoy the gimmick. Some of their backstage stuff has been pretty fun.

The Coach now looks to interview Kurt Angle ahead of his main event match with The Rock tonight. Angle talks about how even though he didn’t win the Rumble, beating The Rock tonight is still his chance to become the WWF Champion. As always, the fans do the “WHAT” thing to Angle which pisses off. He talks about how he brought honour to this country, he’s a Gold Medallist and they do this to him. He says if they say “WHAT” one more time, he’s out of here. Of course, they do, so Kurt cuts the interview short and storms off.

Match Six
Jazz vs. Trish Stratus

The action throughout here is still a little sloppy, but I thought the booking of this was pretty on point. Trish comes out and is still major pissed off with her injured hand, so she bursts out of the gate, eventually landing a nice kick to the head for a near fall. Jazz does fight back though, showing off her strength advantage with a hair toss, and a nice Double Armed Suplex. On the outside, Jazz starts to work on the injured hand of Trish and the shoulder which makes complete sense. Eventually, Jazz locks in a hold on the arm, but Trish makes the ropes, yet Jazz won’t let up the count. After the count of five, the referee has no choice to DQ Jazz. I honestly don’t mind the booking here. Sure, Jazz just lost a match, but it was a non-title match and she’s trying to soften up her rival. This still wasn’t much in terms of in ring action though. * ​

After the match, Jazz drills Trish with a DDT!

Another eerie Vince McMahon promo. He tells whoever he is speaking to not to try and talk him out of what he’s going to do. It has to be done, there’s no other way if there was, he’d do it. There’s no other logical way for this to happen. When you care as much as Vince does, this has to be done and he can’t be talked out of it. Suddenly, Vince starts doing weird shit, convulsing and whatever, only to say that it’s starting to feel good. That was creepy, but more good build up here.

Match Seven
Kurt Angle vs. The Rock

Having his issues with The Rock recently, the WWF Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho decides to come down and do some commentary on the main event. I’m not entirely sure if these two know how to put on a bad match with each other. More solid wrestling here. If you’ve seen these two wrestle before, there’s nothing new here, but it’s still entertaining. They start off strong, with the two eventually trading Belly to Belly Suplexes but Kurt’s is way better. Angle throws Rocky to the outside and Jericho throws Rock into the announce table and the ring post. Once back in the ring, Kurt continues to have his way, eventually locking in the Ankle Lock. The Rock makes it to the ropes, and this allows him to start making his comeback. This time it’s Angle who gets tossed outside, and when The Rock goes out, he gets revenge, beating on Jericho. In a nice spot, he ends up being able to ram Angle’s head into Jericho’s groin. The Rock gets Angle back into the ring and is able to land the Spinebuster, followed by a Sharpshooter. Angle taps, but the referee doesn’t see it because Jericho has pulled the referee out of the ring. As Jericho keeps the referee distracted, The Undertaker randomly appears and nails The Rock with a Chokeslam. ‘Taker disappears and Jericho allows the ref to get back into the ring, and Kurt covers for the win. Another solid match. **3/4​

After the break, The Coach wants to get Stone Cold’s thoughts on facing Kurt Angle on Raw. Austin doesn’t really get very far, not saying much of importance, when Angle attacks him. The two brawl and Kurt ends up being able to apply the Ankle Lock, keeping it locked in until a bunch of referees are able to pull him off. I guess this is fine to add some more heat to their pending match on Raw.

And to end the show, we get one last promo from Vinnie Mac, still in the same dark, eerie backstage area. He talks about how the WWF is going to die, it has cancer because of Ric Flair. Ric Flair is killing the WWF, but Vince won’t let Flair kill what he created. Completely unhinges and with some awesome facial expressions, Vince says “I’m going to kill what I created. I’m going to inject the WWF with a lethal dose of poison. If anyone’s going to kill it, it’s going to be me… Me and the…” He awesomely spins his chair around, revealing that he’s been talking to himself all night, staring in a mirror. The chair also reveals who he will be bringing in and it says the last thing we hear him say for the night… “NWO! An awesome night of hype for the NWO reveal for mine, terrific stuff throughout. Potentially the highlight of the entire NWO bit in the WWE but that’s for another day. Very strong ending to the show.

The NWO stuff was obviously a big portion of this show and I enjoyed it. From an in-ring perspective, we got a bit of a mixed bag. Show was middling for me this week; it was just okay.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Heat
January 27th, 2002
North Carolina​

The show starts off with the arrival of Stacy Kiebler. Michael Cole and Tazz mention that she’s the special guest for the night, and at sometime during tonight, she’s going to dance for us. I’m all in for the Miss Hancock flashback.

Match One
Lance Storm vs. The Godfather

These two had a confrontation of Raw which ended with The Godfather clearing the ring of Storm. I’m all for matches on Heat having some sort of build behind them, especially if they’re getting some Raw time. To I guess put over his fury, Storm attacks Godfather from behind in this one to get going. The angle with Godfather is that he’s gone legit as he now owns an official escort business. The “ho’s” attire is a little more conservative as well which I guess further puts over that point. Godfather eventually fights back after catching Storm with a Big Boot. Godfather tries to end things quickly, setting Storm up for the Ho Train, but Lance rolls out of the ring. Or do we call it the escort train now? Anyway, Godfather follows Storm outside but the Canadian manages to send Godfather smashing into the steel steps. Back inside the ring, Storm hits a cool looking Springboard Forearm shot. He charges at Godfather, who moves, so Storm crashes into the corner, and this time he gets caught with the Ho Train. In what I think is a new move to his arsenal. Godfather then lands a Reverse Shoulder breaker before getting the pin. Godfather’s a harmless, fun gimmick for sure, but Storm doing the job here makes me sad. Match was only a few minutes long so didn’t really get a chance to get going. *1/2​

Val Venis is next out to the ring, and he mentions that it’s fitting that they are on MTV tonight. He then uses MTV tv show names for his nightly sexual innuendo, which was kind of neat, or maybe I just think it’s neat because I’ve always liked Val. “Once I get unplugged and undressed, I will fill your total request live”. Anyway, after this he reverts to his usual gimmick since his return, where he picks a lady from the crowd to remove his towel. After the towel removal, they make out and that’s the end of the segment. Okay then.

We then see clips of Stacy Keibler dancing outside on the marquee of the success that was WWF New York. Yay, Stacy dancing.

Match Two
Billy and Chuck vs. Crash and Funaki

Chuck and Crash start for the two teams with the two locking up, before Chuck shows off his strength advantage and throws Crash to the canvas. As Crash continues to struggle with Billy and Chuck, Michael Cole and Tazz talk about the announcement of the NWO coming to the WWF because that’s way more important than this match. Eventually Funaki gets in there with Billy and Funaki geta flattened by Billy but bumps really well for him. Funaki gets isolated and Billy tries to put him away multiple times but can’t keep him down for three. Chuck gets tagged in and hits a nice Overhead Belly to Belly Suplex for another near fall. Next up, Chuck tries for a Running Powerslam, but it gets reversed into a Tornado DDT by Funaki. This allows him to make the hot tag to Crash, which unfortunately gets little to no reaction from the crowd. Crash comes in and cleans house as expected. It’s a two on one with Crash doing okay for a while, before finally falling to the Famouser from Billy for the three count. Simply a match to give Billy and Chuck another win, but the team of Funaki and Crash were decent, even if they were never going to win. Not the worst, but not good either. **​

We see another shot of Stacy Keibler rubbing her body. Seems they’re playing the long game with this dance routine.

Match Three
Christian vs. Diamond Dallas Page

Once the match gets going and they head to the corner, Christian heels it up with an eye poke, which allows him to drop DDP and go to town with stomps. He then mocks the ridiculous DDP smile, and to be honest, Christian actually has a pretty good DDP impression. Taking to long to have fun allows DDP to turn the tide and get in control in the corner. DDP then lands a Clothesline followed by a Sidewalk Slam for a two count. As Christian gets up, he gets Clotheslined over the top rope and to the outside. They fight on the outside for a bit before getting back in, where Christian maintains the advantage for a while. Christian uses the Abdominal Stretch which has always been one of my favourites. After breaking the submission hold, Christian nails his patented Inverted Backbreaker. This only get a count of two which leads to Christian throwing a massive temper tantrum. This allows DDP time to recover and he fights back with a Clothesline. Christian manages to avoid a second Clothesline and hits a Reverse DDT for another near fall. DDP ends up reversing Christian’s next move and looks for a Diamond Cutter. Christian pushes DDP into the ropes and then looks for a Hip Toss, which DDP reverses into a Diamond Cutter for the win. Honestly, I can’t help but look back at this and be sad at how on top of the world DDP was two years ago, until where he is here. If I ever watch WWF 2001, we can talk about the program that ruined DDP. Anyway, this was a solid back and forth match, really good for a Heat main event. **1/2​

Stacy then dances on the stage at WWF New York. This was hyped the most throughout the night, and closes the show because it’s clearly the most important thing on the show… Yes, this is sarcasm.

A solid show here really. Comparing to last week’s episode of Heat, this was quite strong. More of this and I’ll be happy watching the C show.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Monday Night Raw
January 28th, 2002
Richmond, Virginia ​

We get the usual JR and King welcome to the show, before they run down some of the big hitters on tonight’s card which includes: Booker T vs. Triple H, Chris Jericho defending the WWF Undisputed Title against Maven and Kurt Angle vs. Stone Cold in a number one contender’s match. The winner of the last match will face the Undisputed Champion at No Way Out.

Match One
Kane vs. The Big Show

With these two failing as a team on last week’s Raw and Smackdown, it was only a matter of time until this happened. Whilst the build to this match hasn’t done a lot for me, considering their recent performances and match quality, this was actually pretty good. A fun hoss battle with these two just unloading power moves on each other. The highlights are probably the Sidewalk Slam from Show, whilst Kane shows incredible strength like he did at the Rumble to nail Show with a Scoop Slam. After the Scoop Slam, Kane heads up to the top, looking for his Flying Clothesline, but Show catches him and nails a Chokeslam! Kane manages to kick out and Show audibly swears which I enjoyed for some reason. In a pretty weak transition to get Kane back on top, Show just goes for a lazy Elbow Drop and misses. Kane fights his way to his feet, and with the aid of a Big Boot nails Show with the Chokeslam for the win. A lot better than what I expected from these two. **1/2​

In the back, Ric Flair is on the phone, talking in a concerned tone to somebody about Vince McMahon and the NWO, when The APA enter the room. Bradshaw and Faarooq want to know what’s going in with this NWO stuff, however Flair isn’t sure. He says he’s going to speak to Vince as soon as he gets here because he’s out of his mind. If anybody knows about how the NWO can be, it’s Ric Flair. In a nice soundbite, Bradshaw says that if it’s who he thinks it is, “they’re no good, backstabbing, ass kissing, self serving, shit disturbing sone of bitches”. Flair doesn’t seem to disagree and Faarooq adds on that’s being nice about it. I really like the insight here, showing what members of the locker room are thinking after Vince’s announcement. Makes it feel like a huge deal, as it should.

Goldust promo time, baby! I’m excited. “The greatest trick the Devil ever played was making the world believe he didn’t exist”. “Kevin Spacey – The Usual Suspects, 1995”. Love this movie quote gimmick so much. Goldust says that he is very much real, and that’s a reality that “he” (whoever Goldust is targeting) is that much closer to getting a taste of. Goldust talks about how he was impressed with “him” last week, and so were the people who like him, they really like him. Goldust congratulates “him” for being liked, but also states that he liked that “he” has no idea what’s coming. “He” will soon look back on his life now and miss having so much fun, before his life was changed by the life of… Goldust. Awesome stuff here.

We get a clip of the Maven/Undertaker stuff from the Rumble, including Maven eliminating ‘Taker, only for ‘Taker to beat the hell out of him afterward.

Michael Cole interviews Chris Jericho in the back and asks him if it’s true he gave Maven the WWF Undisputed Title shot tonight. Jericho admits that it was, but it’s not because he’s a fighting champion. He gave Maven the shot because everybody is talking about how Maven eliminated The Undertaker from the Royal Rumble, but nobody is talking about how Jericho beat The Rock for a FIFTH time at the Royal Rumble. Jericho says tonight the question won’t be whether Maven is Tough Enough, it will be whether he’s good enough. After the match, he’ll watch Austin and Angle tear each other apart and then at No Way Out, he’ll give them what Maven is getting tonight, an Undisputed beating. Nice Jericho promo, such an egomaniac with the reason behind wanting to face Maven.

Match Two
WWF Intercontinental Championship Match
William Regal (c) vs. Rob Van Dam

It’s logical for Van Dam to have earned a title shot after beating the champ in just over a minute on Smackdown so I’m okay with this. Once Regal gets into the ring, Teddy Long does to town, searching everywhere on Regal for the brass knuckles, until Van Dam has had enough and goes on the attack to start the match. RVD uses the ring post and the steel stairs to his advantage, before laying out Regal with a Step Over Spinning Heel Kick when they are back in the ring. This gets a near fall, and this was enjoyable as hell as Van Dam quickly lands a few moves, including a Rolling Thunder. This is going pretty similar to last week’s match, which makes it feel like Van Dam just might have Regal’s number. It seems Regal thinks that way as well as he gets up and kicks Van Dam below the belt for the blatant DQ. Way to short yet again, but a nice teaser and you can’t help but think Van Dam will get another title shot down the line. **
​

After the match, Regal gets the IC Title and looks to get out of dodge, but Van Dam stomps him and starts beating him up. Out of nowhere, The Dudleyz come down and stop RVD from attacking Regal, and they use their numbers advantage to beat down Van Dam. Then Edge comes down to even the odds somewhat, by Spearing both Regal and Bubba. RVD nails Bubba with a Crossbody on the outside, whilst Edge lands on D’Von with a pretty sloppy Flipping Senton. Back inside of the ring, Edge tries a high risk move on Regal, but Regal had snuck on the brass knucks and he knocks out Edge. RVD drops Regal with the Flying Sidekick but then turns into a 3D from The Dudleyz meaning the heels stand tall. This was pretty entertaining but from a logical standpoint, I’m not really sure what the motivation is for The Dudleyz being out here. Doesn’t make a whole heap of sense.

In the back, Stephanie McMahon Helmsley has a go at Ric Flair for booking Triple H in a match with Booker T tonight. She asks who the hell Flair thinks he is because he didn’t take her plans into account tonight. Flair sarcastically apologized for not bowing down to her every demand, but also lets her know that Vince McMahon booked the match. Steph asks if it’s because Triple H called Vince an asshole last week, but Flair doesn’t know or care. He does let Steph know if she wants to talk to Vince, she’ll have to wait behind him, because he’s discussing this NWO stuff with him as soon as possible. Continuing a couple of angles with this little segment, I didn’t mind it.

The Godfather and Diamond Dallas Page cut a quick promo before their match, with Godfather letting everybody know that DDP is a satisfied customer of his escort service. Page hasn’t been able to stop smiling and that’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing. Eh, whatever. Match please.

Match Three
Christian and Lance Storm vs. Diamond Dallas Page and The Godfather

I don’t mean to constantly sound like a cynic but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. The Godfather has never really done anything for me in terms of in ring stuff, but this might have been one of his better performances, to be honest. It’s a short match where he doesn’t have to do to much, but when he does play the face in peril, he bumps and sells pretty well. The period of domination from Storm and Christian was pretty stock standard, kicking off with Christian illegally low bridging the top rope. Godfather eventually manages to ram Christian shoulder first into the corner, which allows him to make the hot tag to DDP. We all know Page is a pro so he has a fun hot tag here. He looks set to nail Storm with the Diamond Cutter but Christian gets involved and then so does The Godfather. In the end, Christian tries a high risk move, but Page sends Storm into the ropes, which in turn crotches Christian. Christian ends up receiving a Ho Train, whilst DDP finishes off Storm with the Diamond Cutter for the three count. Solid which is better than I expected here. **3/4​

Next, we see a clip from the parking lot which shows Vince McMahon arrive in his typical stretch limo.

Ric Flair promo time now. He makes his way out and starts off by reminiscing about some of his memories here in Richmond. I get it because it’s Flair and it’ll get a nice ovation, but when he’s stressed about this NWO stuff, I would rather him just get straight to the point. It would make the situation feel more serious. Admittedly he does then say that there is more important things to talk about then himself which brings things back on track. He talks about leaving the Rumble on such a high, only to see Vince completely lose his mind on Smackdown and mention the NWO. Flair obviously doesn’t want this to happen so he had to think about how to impress a billionaire. He thinks he’s found a way and goes on to play an epic video package detailing some WWF history. This is another one of those things I recommend youtubing, awesome stuff really. After the video has completed, Flair calls out Vince McMahon. Honestly, once Vinnie Mac arrives Flair’s promo goes to AWESOME Flair levels, as he tells Vince that the WWF is his baby and all the people want to love him for that. If he’s done something so wrong in the last two months to make Vince want to bring in the NWO, then he’s sorry. Vince just won’t look at Flair as he speaks, and Flair gets all red faced, as king if Vince wants to pin him, or make him bleed, or hit him in the head with the pipe again. “God damn it, what do you want me to do? Do not do this to your company”. Finally, McMahon decides to speak and he says that he wants 100% of his company and he wants Flair out. Vince says he’ll give Flair until Smackdown to think about it, however if he says no, he’s going to inject the poison of the NWO into WWF veins, slowly killing it. He finishes off by saying he’ll see everybody in hell, because on the NWO killing fields, he’ll be the last to survive. Keep in mind, the entire time, Vince still won’t look at Flair which just really added to this segment. Really makes you further question the mindset of McMahon at this time. Right now, the NWO feels like a huge deal, as it should, and well, Flair’s delivery here for the most part was amazing. Really good stuff.

We quickly go to WWF New York where Nidia talks about how proud she is of Maven for showing how their hard work through Tough Enough pays off.

Match Four
WWF Undisputed Championship Match
Chris Jericho (c) vs. Maven

The match only goes for about four minutes but this was a lot of fun, as both men worked hard to tell the story that suited this match perfectly. Jericho played the role of the arrogant, conceded champion, overlooking his challenger really well. Especially in the early stages, when he just slaps Maven and turns his back on him, full of confidence. As for Maven, he plays the role of plucky, fired up challenger really well, taking it to Jericho, and even sending him into the stairs on the outside. Eventually, Jericho manages to ram Maven shoulder first into the ringpost and as the ref checks on Maven, Jericho exposes the top turnbuckle. In a really nice near fall moment, Jericho goes for a Dropkick, but Maven catches his legs and catapults him into the exposed turnbuckle, followed by a School Boy for a near fall. After another Roll Up attempt, Jericho rolls through and applies the Walls of Jericho. They give Maven a bit of time in the hold, trying to fight it, before Jericho applies more pressure and Maven submits. Solid stuff. **1/2​

As soon as the bell rings, Maven’s in more trouble because The Undertaker makes his way out to the ring. Jericho knows to leave the ring but just kind of sits at the announcers table to watch the show as ‘Taker beats the piss out of Maven. In a pretty cool moment, ‘Taker throws the first show to the ribs but Maven immediately retaliates, which causes ‘Taker to lose his shit. He goes on to destroy Maven, ending the attack with the epic chair against the larynx and ramming the chair into the ground move. I’ve really no idea what else to call it, but it was awesome, and ‘Taker’s attacks on Maven have been enjoyable so far.

After the break, The Coach catches up to The Undertaker and asks him about the Maven attack. Undertaker delivers a fine threat to Coach, telling him if he mentions the name Maven around ‘Taker again, ‘Taker will be wearing Coach’s teeth as a necklace. He then goes on to basically say that he’ll continue to beat up Maven until he decides he’s had enough. The Coach then asks about the attack on The Rock, which happened due to The Rock mentioning Maven eliminating ‘Taker from the Rumble in a promo. ‘Taker’s response here was pretty bad ass, “Everything’s a joke, song and dance to The Rock, but I’m not cute and I don’t sing or dance, and I DO NOT get disrespected”. He finished by stating what happened to The Rock will continue to happen each time he disrespects ‘Taker. A good promo here really.

In the back, a confused Jazz hears some sexual noises and walks into the locker room to find Billy and Chuck stretching before their match. Chuck suggests working the groin and they do some more suggestive stretches whilst Jazz clearly looks confused as to what the hell they are doing.

Even though they aren’t necessarily arguing here, in a subtle way the issues with Stephanie McMahon Helmsley and Triple H continues, as they’re in the back and Steph queries where his wedding ring is. He says he doesn’t wear it when he wrestles though. From there, Stephanie tells him that her dad made the match tonight but Triple H doesn’t care, he’s ready to kick some ass. Stephanie offers to go to the ring with Triple H because he might need some help but Triple H turns it down, saying he’ll be fine. Again, not as much of an argument here but still a segment clearly showing the issues these two are having.

Match Five
Billy, Chuck and Jazz vs. The APA and Trish Stratus

There isn’t a lot to say about this one, to be honest. Simple booking philosophy here by meshing two angles into one to create a weekly tag match. I do like that the women start the match here. A lot of times in these intergender matches, it’s always the men starting things out. Even though the wrestling at this stage isn’t anywhere near the quality it would become, it’s cool to see that Jazz and Trish are actually being taken somewhat serious here. Or maybe I’m just overthinking it, I don’t know. Anyway, Trish and Jazz go back and forth which is pretty uneventful until Trish gets a cradle which is broken up by Chuck. He tags himself in and Bradshaw comes in from the other side, automatically making this match much stiffer. It’s pretty back and forth action between the four men as this match is rather quick so there isn’t a real heat period. In the end, Faarooq lands a Spinebuster on Chuck and goes for the pin but Billy breaks it up. The APA focus on Billy on the outside, whilst Trish knocks Jazz off the apron, and begins attacking Chuck in the corner. Unfortunately, Chuck nails her with a Powerbomb to get the win. Not a good match by any means, but from a booking perspective, does what it needed to. *3/4​

Michael Cole is interviewing Kurt Angle in the back now, querying whether Kurt’s worried about the rumours that Austin will take his frustrations out on Kurt after the attack on Raw. A smug Kurt hopes that Austin is mad because he can win this the easy way or the hard way. Austin can go and get himself disqualified or he’ll be so angry he makes a mistake and Kurt will make him tap. Solid stuff here, setting up a nice story for the match tonight.

Match Six
Booker T vs. Triple H

This match didn’t really do anything for me either if I’m honest. This is one of Triple H’s first singles matches since returning and it seems he isn’t back in his groove yet (I’m not actually sure he ever consistently finds it again but that’s a story for another day). He was fine on offence, landing his Spear into mounted punches, and a fiery Spinebuster, but his selling was a little iffy here. As for Booker T, he’s run in the early stages of 2002 weren’t great. It almost looks like the shitty booking he’s received has demotivated him, and he probably won’t start turning in some decent performances until after the draft. Anyway, Triple H ends up Clotheslining Booker to the outside, before eventually dropping him with another Clothesline on the outside, and sending him back into the ring. With the referee paying attention to Booker, Christian runs out from the back and drills Triple H with a Reverse DDT. I will say I like the continuity here with Christian getting payback on H’s asshole attack. What really annoys me here is how quickly Triple H recovers from this. That should be a turning point not a throw away spot. When Triple H gets back in, Booker scores a near fall and then goes for a Scissors Kick, but Trips gets him with the high knee instead. That means that the Reverse DDT on the outside kept Triple H at a disadvantage for about 15 seconds. Ugh. Christian comes back down again, not wanting Trips to win, when Stephanie runs down and gets on the apron, slapping Christian in the face. Triple H knocks Christian off the apron and yells at Stephanie. I know he told her to stay at the back but she’s legitimately rescuing him here and he’s coming across like a douche. Anyway, Triple H allows himself to be distracted, Booker hits him which sends Triple H staggering into Steph, and Booker gets a Schoolboy with the tights for the win. Holy shit, go Booker T. It’s maybe worth pointing out I think this is Triple H’s first loss since his epic return. The match itself wasn’t awful but wasn’t good either. **1/4​

After the match, Stephanie is upset and crying as Triple H does his tremble with rage face and storms up the ramp. The next scene we see is them backstage and a distraught Stephanie is apologising. Triple H slams the door in her face, only to open it again, throw Stephanie her bags and shut the door again. I admit that was a cool moment, but in general, I don’t know if Triple H’s actions here make him very likeable. Feels like a huge overreaction to me.

And for those keeping up, we did see a 7 weeks until Mania announcement.

Match Seven
Number One Contender’s Match
Kurt Angle vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin

Probably not surprising considering who’s involved but this was easily match of the night here. I love the psychology and the story in the early stages as they basically stick to exactly what Kurt mentioned in his promo earlier in the night. Austin comes out like a house on fire, pissed off, beating the shit out of Angle, until Angle is able to reverse the Lou Thesz press into a Powerslam and immediately go for an Ankle Lock. The anger of Austin got him into that position just like Angle predicted which was great, but Austin manages to counter into a Victory Roll for a two count. They bounce back up and Austin hits the Lou Thesz press, but eventually gets caught with an Overhead Belly to Belly Suplex which changes the game. Angle holds the advantage now, landing his Triple German’s and beating up Austin quite a bit, until Austin manages to land a Superplex. Kurt rolls to the outside for a reprieve and they show that a brawl is more down Austin’s alley, as he destroys Kurt on the outside. Once back inside, Kurt gets a low blow and grabs a steel chair from the outside and throws it into the ring. Kurt gets back in but Austin grabs the chair, and in an awesome moment playing on Austin’s anger, Angle begs him to hit him with the chair. Stone Cold is smart enough not to do it, knowing a title shot is at stake. Instead, Austin drops the chair and goes for the Stunner, but Kurt reverses by sending Austin into Earl Hebner. With the referee down, Kurt now goes to town with chair shots on Austin before making the cover but Austin kicks out. From here, we get the Ankle Lock again but after sustaining some time in the hold, Austin makes it to the ropes. Kurt then hits the Angle Slam but Austin gets his foot on the ropes. I hate this sort of ending but they do the whole Kurt celebrates because he thinks he won. I just find this illogical because the bell never rings and his music doesn’t play so how does he think he won? Anyway, the celebrating for no reason from Kurt allows Austin to recover and land the Stunner for the in. Outside of the ending which I just generally don’t like, this was really good on a show that needed it. ***1/2​

After the match, Jericho runs down to try and gain the upper hand on Austin but he gets nailed with a Stunner. We then get the obligatory Austin beer bash to end the show.

 

[Stojy]

WWF Smackdown
January 31st, 2002
Norfolk, Virginia​

After a video package highlighting the decision Ric Flair has to make tonight (whether Flair gives full ownership to Vince McMahon to avoid the NWO being brought in), Michael Cole and ‘The King’ formally welcome us to the show. They further hype the consequences of Flair’s decision tonight before selling the main event which will see Kurt Angle and The Undertaker team up to take on The Rock and Triple H. Rock and Triple H teaming together feels so unnatural by the way, after despising each other for the better part of four years.

Match One
Chris Jericho vs. Tazz

If I ever make it through these reviews at a decent pace, you’ll probably get sick of hearing this when I am able to call it out, but I’m always down to kick off with some wrestling. For those who care, a fun fact to point out is that Jackie is the referee here. Anyway, on commentary, Michael Cole puts over how Tazz has apparently challenged Jericho because he didn’t like Jericho’s assault on Maven. That logic doesn’t work for me. Tazz has his own shit going on as one half of the tag champs and should just stick to looking after Spike, but more importantly than that, Tazz has basically been a bully forever. I’m pretty sure Tazz and Maven even maybe wrestled previously when Tazz was being a bully. And finally, Jericho just wrestled against Maven, it was Undertaker who put the hurting on Maven. Does this mean Tazz is too scared to challenge ‘Taker? I’ll stop complaining now but from a booking perspective this just doesn’t work from my perspective. I do appreciate Jericho giving Tazz quite a bit in this match though as he is still one half of the tag team champions. Plenty of fun offense from Tazz here as he throws Jericho around with a variety of Suplexes and even has a Judo Throw in there. The Undisputed Champion comes back with a Bulldog but misses a Lionsault. Tazz gets in the Tazzmission but Jericho counters with a low blow and the Breakdown for the win. Only four minutes but a lot of fun, that’s putting my booking issues aside. I also don’t really like that Jericho needs to cheat to beat everybody. If you want a chicken shit heel champion, I understand cheating in big matches and what not, but Jericho should be winning cleanly against guys like Tazz and Maven. A solid match though, all qualms with the booking aside. **3/4​

After the match, it’s pretty obvious that Jackie doesn’t want to raise Jericho’s hand in victory. She does though and Jericho mouths off to her, and Jackie shows how tough she is by pushing Jericho. The champ snaps and puts her in the Walls of Jericho.

Right before the commercial break, we see Ric Flair in the back, looking into the distance, as if he’s really mulling over the decision he needs to make later tonight.

The APA are chilling in their ‘office’, playing poker with Chris Klein and LL Cool J. They’re probably there to hype some movie but got no idea what it is if I’m honest. Oh wait, it’s Rollerball. Rebecca Romjin-Stamos rolls up and Bradshaw tries to play it smooth, pulling out an appletini and some fruity drink and offering it to her. What a classy man. She says she wants to have a beer though which makes The APA happy and probably horny. A fine enough segment I guess, no real impact on anything other then to have some celebrity interaction.

It’s Ric Flair time already. I’m a little surprised, I thought for sure this would end the show. In typical Flair fashion, he’s almost in tears as he does some reminiscing about his time in Norfolk. I guess when you’re Ric Flair, you can probably remember awesome moments in every town. He says his history with Norfolk makes this decision even harder, but it’s not just about him. It’s about the WWF, it’s about the fans and it’s about the young stars in the back that need to be taken care of. He’s here to say goodbye. Flair talks about how this is good that he gets this opportunity, because last year (WCW closure reference) he didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. He wants to thank everybody in the arena but also everybody watching at home. He lists a bunch of current wrestlers and talks about how they don’t need to have to deal with the NWO. He cherishes this moment and hopes his family is proud and he thanks everybody again. Well, certainly a little anticlimactic for mine. Surely there’s more to this, especially with the awkward positioning on the show. With that being said, it’s Flair so the delivery and emotion was still fantastic.

Match Two
WWF European Championship Match
Christian (c) vs. Diamond Dallas Page

This one was solid enough without being outstanding. Christian slaps DDP to start and then they do the whole face chases heel around the ring spot, before the match actually properly starts. It’s a pretty back and forth contest, but nothing to eventful happens. After blocking a Diamond Cutter by grabbing the ropes, Christian goes for the pin, whilst placing his foot on the ropes and only gets two count. This leads to Christian getting frustrated and throwing one of his temper tantrums, allowing DDP time to recover. DDP eventually reverses an Unprettier and lands a Diamond Cutter and we’ve got an unexpected title change. Okay, but not as good as the opener. DDP’s run in the WWF was pretty lacklustre in general but it’s nice to see him at least get some sort of title. **1/2​

Next up, Vince McMahon arrives with THREE lawyers, and he talks about how Ric Flair isn’t done yet. Apparently, Flair is going to sign away his stock tonight in the middle of the ring.

Yes, it’s Shattered Dreams production time which means another fun Goldust promo. This time the movie quote of the night is “Come out, come out, wherever you are” – Robert DeNiro, Cape Fear, 1991. Goldust talks about how he’s tired of waiting and hiding. He also talks about how “he” (we still don’t know who he is at this point) must be wondering when this madness will end. Goldust ends the promo by saying that this Monday Night on Raw, he (Goldust) will reveal himself to “him”. Well, that’s creepy. I’m honestly going to be sad that these promos are ending. They’ve been great.

It's sit-down interview time where JR gets the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie McMahon Helmsley. JR starts with a hard-hitting question about how people are apparently saying that her career is over, and she’s only here because of her husband. She warns the fans to wait and see what she can do. They shouldn’t forget about what she has accomplished, including forming the Alliance and getting Triple H back into the position he is after the injury. A clip is shown now of Stephanie accidentally costing Triple H his match against Booker T on Raw, and Hunter’s less than positive reaction. She talks about how her feelings were hurt with how Triple H reacted, but he was angry, and she still loves him, so she forgives him. She denies every cheating on him and knows he wouldn’t cheat on her either. She talks about the state of their relationship and how people only see them 4 hours every week on TV, in real life they’re fine. As far as her marriage is concerned, she’s going to prove how much Triple H loves her. Look, I hate the angle, but Stephanie’s talk about how all the hours they are not on TV is a reflection of their relationship being fine makes heaps of sense. Just a point more than anything, not much else to add here.

The crew are still playing poker in the back, with The APA enjoying their time with Chris Klein, LL Cool J and definitely Rebecca Romjin-Stamos. Of course, they do their thing and do their best to hype the hell out of Rollerball. Suddenly, Booker T barges into the office and he’s irritated at LL for not getting him tickets to the premiere (why would you want to go?). He then complains more, wondering why he wasn’t the lead in Rollerball. Again Booker, it probably worked out well for your career that you weren’t. LL Cool J comes up with the awesome response about how Booker wasn’t in the movie because there wasn’t a scene where somebody gets their ass kicked in a grocery store. A furious and embarrassed Booker T then says he’ll find a tag partner and challenges The APA to a tag team match.

WWE Intercontinental Champion William Regal is out to do commentary for the next match.

Match Three
Edge and Rob Van Dam vs. The Dudley Boyz w/Stacy Keibler

Of course, the first thing the referee does is frisk Regal at the desk to make sure he hasn’t got his brass knucks on him. I love this approach. One of the only times the referees don’t look completely dumb, as they’ve done their ‘research’ and know Regal ALWAYS uses the weapon. So, they look for it to get rid of it. A minor detail but one that I really appreciate. Before the match officially kicks off, both Edge and RVD leap over the announce table to get at Regal, which leaves them in a position for The Dudley Boyz to get an early jump. We know what The Dudleyz bring to the tag team table, so I want comment to much on them, but RVD and Edge have been in a few tag matches now, and they honestly seem to have worked out their best formula. Van Dam plays the face in peril role and does a really good job of bumping his ass off, and then Edge comes in and delivers a great hot tag run. An awesome moment when it’s revealed that Stacy was hiding Regal’s knucks in her skirt. The dastardly Regal gets on the apron with the knucks, but Edge manages to send Bubba Ray colliding into Regal, and Edge nails the Edgecution for the victory. Really solid stuff from all involved. **1/4​

Booker T is backstage and pretty pissed off after his interactions with The APA and the Rollerball cast earlier in the night. He mutters to himself this gem of a line, “mama said knock you out… I’ll knock his mama out”. To be honest, there wasn’t much better at comedy than Booker T throughout this 2001-2002 period. Booker is then approached by Test who offers to be his tag team partner tonight. Booker is excited about potentially beating up LL Cool J, however Test just wants to impress Rebecca Romjin-Stamos.

We then see a clip of Vince McMahon reviewing papers with his lawyers/parasites.

Lilian Garcia gets the lucky task of interviewing an irritated Kurt Angle. Garcia asks about his state of mind and Angle goes straight into a rant about how he’s not a loser. He talks about how he accomplishes everything and how he is a winner. Hilariously, Garcia corrects him and points out that he didn’t win the Royal Rumble. Obviously, that’s all Triple H’s fault (the actual winner) and he’ll never forgive Triple H for stealing his moment. Before leaving, Kurt lets it be known that he’s going to go “Olympic” on Triple H’s ass tonight. Solid stuff, love Kurt.

In another area backstage, Ric Flair approaches The Rock to say goodbye and tell him that Rock is everything Flair wanted him to be. The Rock thanks Flair for the memories.

Match Four
Booker T and Test vs. The APA w/Chris Klein, LL Cool J and Rebecca Romjin-Stamos

Honestly, not much to say about this one. A very quick match, to quick considering who is involved in my opinion. It’s a brawl early and then there’s a few moments where Booker and Test try and isolate Faarooq. One thing that at least suits with the character motivations is Test approached Stamos and tries to hit on her. He fails miserably but him trying suits all the stuff he said before the match. Bradshaw eventually gets the hot tag and makes a run before all hell breaks loose with all four men involved. Booker drops Faarooq with a Scissors Kick, but Bradshaw avoids the Big Boot from Test, meaning Test accidentally nails Booker. Test then tries a Pumphandle Slam on Faarooq but gets nailed with a Clothesline From Hell from Bradshaw for the three count. Literally less than three minutes. Both Booker and Test deserve better than jobbing in less than three minutes. Especially Booker T, who is just coming off a pretty big win against a running hot/freshly returned Triple H on Raw. This is awful booking of Booker, but hey, the celebrities at least get their moment, right? *1/2​

After the match, there’s a nice celebration with The APA and the celebrities which I don’t care all that much about.

Main Event
Kurt Angle and The Undertaker vs. The Rock and Triple H

I thought this was match was solid throughout but for me, it really highlighted something that if it wasn’t already obvious to see, it is in this one. Triple H’s decline. He was amazing before his injury on that incredible run he had, and since returning he’s just not the same. To make matters worse here, Angle’s bumping in this one is awesome, ‘Taker’s character work makes his offence awesome, and Hunter is paired with arguably the best babyface/hot tag/energetic comeback person in the business at this time. It means this version of Triple H, who admittedly still might be easing back into things after so long out, is just not on that same level. With that being said, due to the awesomeness of Angle, the Trips/Kurt exchanges were still okay, but ‘Taker/Triple H just didn’t really work for me. Which is kind of ironic considering they never really had any singles chemistry until those back-to-back ‘Mania matches much later on (depending on how you rate them of course). Despite his performance being the lesser of all four involved, of course Triple H was about to get the win after nailing Kurt with the Pedigree, however luckily Undertaker makes the save by hitting Trips with a chair. DQ finish, yay. I probably nagged about Triple H a lot here. I just want to clarify I appreciate Triple H and don’t hate him like some, and I don’t think he was necessarily bad here, just not as good as three exceptional performers at this time. **3/4
​

After the match, ‘Taker lands another chair shot to Trips. He looks to line up for another one, but The Rock makes the save and sends ‘Taker from the ring. Rocky follows him out and they brawl on the outside, leading to The Rock finding some time to strip the announce table. Oh damn, he takes to long and walks into a Big Boot, before ‘Taker sends him into the steps. ‘Taker finds himself in possession of the dreaded steel chair again and looks to use it (guess he’d be an expert as the Hardcore Champion and all), but instead he walks into a Rock Bottom through the announce table. LOVE a good announce table spot. As this was going on, inside of the ring, Angle managed to get the Ankle Lock on Triple H, only for a group of referees to pull him off. Later on, Angle gets it on again on the entrance ramp. Not watching live and knowing what the No Way Out card looks like, I’d say this match and aftermath did a good enough job of working towards two of the higher profile matches on the card.

This airs much like it did on Raw. Ignore Flair at the start as that is from Raw. Probably one of my favourite WWE packages off the top of my head. Also, Kid Rock doesn’t necessarily sound like himself which could be a good thing depending on your taste. Link below for anybody who wants to watch the video package and get hit in the feels:

WWF Desire - Lonely Road of Faith - YouTube

To build up the emotion of what’s about to happen, Ric Flair bumps into Arn Anderson on his way towards the ring and the two don’t speak but share a hug. Just a nice little moment before Flair ‘exits’.

Vince McMahon is out first with his group of flunkies/lawyers. In all of his glory, McMahon cuts a pretty good promo here about how the McMahon’s always beat the Flair’s of the world. He talks about how Flair isn’t signing the contract to give his stock back to Vince for the fans, he’s doing it because he lost. McMahon says that if the NWO came into the WWF, they would have cut it open, but as this contract states, if Vince has 100% stock, he can’t bring in the NWO. Flair eventually makes his way out and Vince lays it on thick, telling Flair he feels sorry that Flair’s last WOOOOOO is in a town like Norfolk, Virginia. Once it’s time to sign, Flair takes his time, stalling really, and he eventually signs his first name, before getting up and walking around. Vince gets pretty agitated and demands that Flair finish signing the contract. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out to save the day, throwing some insults at Vince before telling the fans to give him a hell yeah if they think Flair should rip up the contract and tell McMahon and the NWO to go to hell. Obviously, the fans oblige with a booming HELL YEAH, so a furious Vince swings at Naitch, Flair ducks and decks McMahon with a right hand. Austin hits the Stunner, Flair/Austin share beers and Flair makes sure to rip up the contract to end the show. A fine segment here, nothing ground-breaking really, but smart to continue to sell the seriousness of the NWO coming in.

An okay show here. The Stephanie/Triple H stuff getting another lengthy bit of dialogue from Steph was a downer, but the opener/main event were solid, and the show focused mainly on the Flair/Vince/NWO stuff which was fine. Solid show.