Stojy watches WWE 2002

[Chris]

That was the first Raw my mom let me stay up and watch the second hour of. And it ended with my favorite wrestler at the time losing, typical

 

[Stojy]

That was the first Raw my mom let me stay up and watch the second hour of. And it ended with my favorite wrestler at the time losing, typical

lol thanks for nothing mom.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Smackdown
July 4th, 2002
Boston, Massachusetts​

Michael Cole and Tazz welcome us to Smackdown on Independence Day. Two big title matches are on the card with The Undertaker defending the WWE Undisputed Championship against Kurt Angle. Also, Billy and Chuck will defend the WWE Tag Team Titles against Edge and Hulk Hogan. Can you guess which one of these two matches I’m excited for, and which I’m not excited for?

Lilian Garcia kicks things off in the middle of the ring, singing America The Beautiful to celebrate America’s birthday. She gets interrupted midway through by Christian, Lance Storm and test, who get booed out of the building for the interruption. Storm says he’s had enough of this crap whilst Christian asks the fans if they even know why they’re celebrating. Christian believes the fans think it’s in reference to the Will Smith movie titled Independence Day. Storm then says this is what really happened, America was founded as British Colonies and on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six, America declared its independence and turned its back on Britain. America showed no gratitude, and soon enough, America unleashed its warlike tendencies on the rest of the world. Storm even asks what right America had to be in Korea or Vietnam. They lost the Vietnam war, and they are hypocrites. The US doesn’t like the truth and doesn’t want to hear what the rest of the world have to say. All three get together and yell into the mic that AMERICA SUCKS!!! Awesome segment for heat building for the trio here. Firstly, interrupting America The Beautiful is an awesome heel tactic, and whilst they all briefly spoke, Storm with the history lesson and stuff was really venomous here. Another terrific promo from Storm.

Match One
Lance Storm w/Christian and Test vs. Rikishi

Quick match here to kick off the in-ring action tonight and it’s not really a good match either unfortunately. Storm gets the win here, but he doesn’t get a lot of offense and needs help from Christian and Test to get the victory. Lance bumped around for Rikishi, but Rikishi is passed it, and his offense isn’t what it once was. Both Christian and Test try to interfere, but Rikishi knocks them both off the apron. Christian gets back on the apron soon after to distract the ref, allowing Test to sneak a Big Boot on Rikishi. Storm then covers to get the win. The right result but not a good start to the show. *1/2​

In the parking lot, the WWE Undisputed Champion The Undertaker arrives to the arena. Yay, ‘Taker’s here. Commentary team to a good job discussing how beat up ‘Taker might be after his ladder match on Raw.

In another area backstage, Stacy Keibler knocks on a locker room door which is opened by Mark Henry. Stacy asks for John Cena and Henry gets him. Once in front of Cena, Stacy tells him that Mr. McMahon would like to see him in his office. She checks Cena out as he walks away. A bit of a nothing segment. Guess in some way Cena seems cool by Stacy being into him. I guess this hypes Cena interacting with McMahon later.

Match Two
Deacon Batista and Reverend D’Von vs. Randy Orton and Val Venis

D’Von as the brains and Batista as the muscle who comes in at the end destroys is something I can get behind. This was solid work here. Batista looked awesome with his violent offense and power moves, however when things get complicated and break down at the end, he does look a little lost. It’s why things are working well as D’Von is trying to work most the duration of their matches together. There is a crazy Lariat that Batista lands on Val in the early stages of this one as well. D’Von is solid as expected, as were the face team really. In the end, for the second week in a row, Batista catches Orton with the Spinebuster to get the win. Really solid match, well done to the veterans for keeping this together. **1/2​

In the back, Chris Jericho rants to Vince McMahon about Edge and Vince books Jericho vs. Edge at Vengeance. As the conversation continues, John Cena enters the arena to meet with Vince. Cena looks nervous and Vince tells him not to be nervous because he was impressed with Cena last week. Cena holds his hand out and introduces himself to Jericho, but Jericho isn’t happy and ignores Cena’s handshake offer. Jericho asks who the hell he thinks he is with his haircut and tights and “ruthless aggression”, and Cena responds by slapping the hell out of Jericho, leaving him on the floor. Good stuff here. Love the new blood feeling on Smackdown with Orton, Batista and now Cena.

We see a clip from during the commercial break where Jericho told McMahon that he wanted Cena tonight. Looking forward to this match.

In the back, Kurt Angle is interviewed and says that he had the flu last week. But he’s a national hero and it’s the fourth of July. If any night was his to win the WWE Title, it’s tonight. Solid promo from Kurt to hype tonight’s main event. LOL at Angle claiming Cena only was competitive last week because of the flu.

A video package airs, hyping the return of The Rock to Smackdown next week. Can’t wait.

Earlier in the day, the WWE Tag Team Champions Billy and Chuck had their own picnic by eating hot dogs in the locker room. Rico comes in and asks what they are doing. He says hot dogs are disgusting. They have a big match tonight and don’t need to be filling up with hot dogs. Meh. I guess this suits their gimmick and hypes their title defence but yeah, just meh.

Match Three
WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Billy and Chuck (c) w/Rico vs. Edge and Hulk Hogan

Surprisingly this was good, which doesn’t happen often for a Billy and Chuck title defence. The action is solid enough throughout, but then given the fans are feeling patriotic tonight, they’re behind every little thing which carries the match to further heights. They got plenty of time to tell a story which would have helped also. Hogan really USA’d it up, coming out to Real American, wearing the colours, it was a fun spectacle for sure. This could have and probably should have been a lot worse. Edge especially had a fantastic performance in his first match back in a few weeks. Hogan and Edge hit a Double Big Boot on their opponents, before a Leg Drop allows Hogan to pin Chuck. A feel-good moment here, and again, match was good. **3/4

Match Four
Chris Jericho vs. John Cena

These two put on a solid match as they continue the big push for Cena, as he gets a huge rub by working with the two biggest heels on Smackdown. Angle last week and Jericho this week, it doesn’t get much better than that. Whilst this was solid, it certainly wasn’t perfect. And If I’m honest, whilst still passable, this wasn’t quite at the level of last week’s Cena vs. Angle confrontation. There’s a couple of botches throughout, which makes sense with how green Cena is, but things pick up late with some cool false finishes. Cena looks really good on the babyface comeback to. To be fair, Cena busted his ass here whilst Jericho was just a warm body, seemingly unmotivated. Jericho gets the win after hitting a Flashback. Solid and again, probably the right call with Cena losing again **1/2​

After the match, Jericho offers Cena a handshake and as Cena goes to accept, Jericho decks him with a right hand instead. Jericho looks to stay on the attack but Cena fights back and throws Jericho out of the ring. Aftermath makes it seem like these two will do battle again. Much like last week, this is some great booking for Cena.

We get another video package reminder that Rey Mysterio is coming to the WWE. Yay.

Next, we see footage of Torrie Wilson winning the golden thong award over the weekend. Stacy Keibler says that the only reason why Torrie won is because she’s sleeping with one of the judges in Maven. Torrie retorts that Stacy is sleeping with Vince McMahon and the two get into a brawl. Meh. Catty stuff leads to a confrontation tonight.

Jamie Noble parks his truck at a trailer park. I won’t recap this, but Noble reveals to Nidia the new doublewide they brought with the Cruiserweight Title earnings. Have opted against recapping this in detail, but it’s a great segment. Funny, need to go watch people.

Match Five
Bra And Panties Match
Stacy Keibler vs. Torrie Wilson

Debauchery reigns supreme here. With the Womens Title feuds on Raw, where they are trying to establish serious competition amongst the women, I don’t really like the sexualisation of women tactics for a cheap pop. I feel like it sets them back. On Smackdown, considering no women there are trying to be legitimate wrestlers at this time, I can kind of just enjoy this for what it is. Two hot women trying to rip each other’s clothes off. Torrie manages to rip Stacy’s clothes off without losing any of her own. Dominant performance from Torrie, and yes, this was heaps of fun for me. **3/4​

Marc Lloyd interviews The Undertaker and asks why he’s upset with Vince McMahon. ‘Taker says for the amount of time he has been in the company, Vince should have confidence in him. He then says that he might not be the model citizen that Kurt Angle is, but in a foxhole or a time of panic or crisis, would you rather have a nice boy like Kurt or a true honest to god American Badass. Awesome promo here from ‘Taker. Puts himself and the main event over.

Match Six
WWE Undisputed Championship Match
The Undertaker (c) vs. Kurt Angle

Another good match between these two. Probably at a similar level to their match a week or two ago. They still putting on something acceptable but aren’t quite tearing the house down either. One of the big issues for me here is that they seemed to use the Ankle Lock for LONG periods of time, just to fill time. Angle surprisingly tries to play the power game with ‘Taker in the early stages which doesn’t work, so he cleverly changes it up. A lot of cool, subtle psychology moments from these two. For example, Angle gets mad at ‘Taker for controlling with a Side Headlock in the early stages. He then takes over with his amateur wrestling skills but when he falls into throwing right hands, he enters ‘Taker’s domain and loses control of the match all over again. Maybe I expected something better from these two the second time round, so whilst it’s still good, maybe I’m a bit disappointed. The match starts with all the great psychology I mentioned but then falls into a bunch of spots with no real rhyme or reason behind them. They do have some pretty cool false finishes and reversals though, with Angle reversing The Last Ride into a Triangle Choke, and a Tombstone into the Ankle Lock. The Last Ride into the Triangle Choke is where the ending comes about, as the ref counts Angle’s shoulders down, and just as the hand hits the mat for the third time, ‘Taker taps out. A ‘bullshit’ ending of sorts which probably hurts the overall product of this match as well, but again, whilst far from perfect, was still low level good. **3/4​

After the match, the referee is confused as to who to award the match to. When we return from the break, there are now three referees in the ring discussing it. The original referee eventually decides to call the match a draw. With the result official, Angle gets pissed and attacks ‘Taker from behind, briefly locking in the Ankle Lock. Kurt eventually let’s go of the hold and leaves the ring, letting ‘Taker know, “I made you tap”!... Aftermath here was enjoyable, showing that the issues between ‘Taker and Angle are far from over.

Not on the level of Raw or anything crazy like that, but I still thought this episode of Smackdown was pretty good. An enjoyable week on the A shows this week.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Velocity
July 6th, 2002
Boston, Massachusetts

Match One
Billy Kidman vs. Tajiri

This was disappointing. Looking back a few months ago, these two had a relatively fun series of matches, including a nice one on the debut episode of Velocity. Unfortunately that’s not what we get here. I think the main issue I had here was they just didn’t have the time to cook something up. They only had about four minutes here, so they definitely needed more time to build into the match and not feel so rushed. I did appreciate the finish though with Kidman running into the green mist, I thought the finish was unpredictable which was nice, as the mist led to Tajiri being able to land a kick to the head for the win. Finish was okay, but they went for an epic finishing run, with a bunch of false finishes, which doesn’t really work well when you’ve only got four minutes to play with. I’ll just have a quick whinge about inconsistencies to, as last week Tajiri wrestled as a face against Albert, and now he’s back to heeling it up like he does on Smackdown. Weird. Anyway, always nice to see Tajiri get a win, but this wasn’t good at all. *1/2

Match Two
Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Hardcore Holly

I know this is just the way WWE like to book but Michael Cole made it clear on commentary that Chavo is a Cruiserweight and Holly isn’t, and it kind of already made it seem as if Chavo had no chance of winning. Just wish they’d put some respect on the cruiserweights. Anyway, my complaint aside, this is another match that just doesn’t deliver, although with Holly involved, I honestly wasn’t expecting much. Credit to them, outside of the lacklustre match for the most part, there was one moment where they caught me. Chavo reversed an Alabama Slam into a Roll Up, and I genuinely thought we might get an upset, so that was a nice false finish. In the end, Holly gets back on top and hits the Alabama Slam for the win. Another match that wasn’t good. *1/2

Match Three
Albert vs. Rob Conway

I still must admit I find it so strange to see Conway playing this generic character, as opposed to being with La Resistance, or being the con man. Anyway, this one was surprising in the sense that I thought it just might be a complete squash, but they actually gave Conway the chance to get in some offense. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised since Albert has been a jobber on Velocity lately. The issue with Conway getting a chance to be on offense, is that, well, he just isn’t any good. This means we get another subpar match, which Albert finishes off with an epic looking Shoulder Backbreaker. A bad match, but at least Albert FINALLY gets a win. *1/2​

We get a video recap of the New World Order wishing Triple H good luck at King Of The Ring, before we cut to the Shawn Michaels promo from Raw, where he says Triple H will be the newest member of the NWO.

Match Four
Christian vs. Mark Henry

Henry uses his strength to throw Christian around here, but yet again, it’s another bad match. Actually this one just doesn’t click, I’m not even sure why, but it’s probably worse than everything else on the show so far. The finish was good though, as Christian had previously tried to use a chair, which was sitting outside the ring. After Henry collides with the referee, Christian is outside the ring, and Henry reaches out to grab Christian, when Christian nails him with the steel chair. From there, Christian quickly gets back in the ring and gets a Roll Up, using the ropes for leverage to get the win. From a booking perspective, Henry has an out for losing and Christian, as one of the evil foreigner members wins by cheating, despite their claims of prejudice. Booking makes sense, but the match certainly didn’t deliver. *

Match Five
WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match
Jamie Noble (c) w/Nidia vs. The Hurricane

Feels like a big-time main event for Velocity here, as not only is it a title match, but it’s a rematch from the King Of The Ring event. The two work okay together here. It’s not as snug or as good as their pay per view match, which is understandable, but they still put on a solid main event. The strategy and psychology here is simply yet effective. Noble works on the leg of Hurricane, softening him up for the Trailer Hitch submission, and Hurricane sells the leg well. Noble continues to look really good in general, and Hurricane doesn’t lose anything here, as Nidia gets involved to protect him. The match finishes with Hurricane attempting a Chokeslam, but Noble gets out of it and gets a Dragon Screw Leg Whip. Noble follows up with the Trailer Hitch and all the work on the leg pays off as Hurricane taps out. Simple yet effective, solid main event. **​

A pretty meh episode of Velocity here. Main event was solid, but everything else was outright bad and skippable. First look at a five-match format for this show says that it doesn’t work, so hoping we revert back to 3-4 match format next week.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Heat
July 7th, 2002
Manchester, New Hampshire

Match One
Trish Stratus vs. Victoria

I’ll start this off by saying the match isn’t the worst by divas standards in 2002, but it’s still not necessarily good. Before I get into that though, a positive here for sure, the debut of Victoria. If my memory serves me correctly, in a few months, this feud will be money but for now, it’s cool to see Victoria, as basically an unknown, getting a match here. Trish is the face of the division though, so this match is more of a showcase for her than anything else. With that being said, Victoria gets a little bit of time to show what she can do. She’ll clearly be a good addition to the roster as she grows in her roll, even if this match wasn’t good. Also, referee Jacqueline makes another appearance here, and Trish eventually gets the win with a Stratusfaction. They tried hard, and this makes me excited for what’s to come, even if the first match isn’t good. *1/2 ​

There’s an advertisement for viewers to call in and get a FREE Shopzone Catalogue.

Match Two
Johnny Stamboli vs. Shawn Stasiak

The only positive I can think of here is The Coach on commentary, not being happy with Stamboli for hitting on Terri last week. These journalists have to stick together. This one was truly awful on multiple levels. Not only is the action sloppy, but it’s also incredibly boring with nothing really noteworthy happening throughout the entire match. On top of that, similar to Tajiri on Velocity, the booking of Stamboli here doesn’t make sense. Last week he was a heel, The Coach has even referenced his heelish actions with Terri tonight, but now he’s suddenly wrestling Stasiak as a face? Very strange. No wonder the crowd are dead and don’t react for Stamboli at all. And yeah, Stasiak is just nowhere near good enough to be the experienced one and lead somebody through a match, which was clear here for all to see. Stamboli hits the Forget About It to win, but nobody cares, and this was an absolute stinker. ½*​

The ”he’s coming” video package hyping the debut of Rey Mysterio airs. Yay.

Earlier today, Raven was interviewed by Terri. As she approaches, Raven is banging his head on a locker room door. Terri asks how Raven is feeling since he can no longer appear on Raw. Raven says he feel betrayed and ripped off by Vince McMahon. His career is in jeopardy. He’s a pawn in a billionaire’s chest game. He also can’t believe that he was escorted out of Raw when he lost. Tommy Dreamer will pay for his actions. Raven finishes by promising the wrath of his retribution. A pretty enjoyable promo here from Raven. Glad to see they haven’t completely dropped this angle. Raven getting promo time is the highlight of every episode of Heat where it happens.

Match Three
Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer

I’m not calling this out as a positive or a negative here, but the first thing is that the result here really surprised me. I just assumed that based on the fact that Dreamer can appear on Raw and Raven can’t, Tommy would be treated like the bigger deal and win. So it’s safe to say I was shocked when Raven got the win here. It does give me hope that this will lead somewhere. This is probably lesser than their match on Raw a couple of weeks ago, which means this isn’t good. These two naturally need that ECW style to put on a good match, so without that stipulation, and without the hatred of their ECW feud, this just falls extremely flat. The one positive is that the crowd are clearly into Raven and the angle he’s running with. Raven wins with his DDT finish, but it doesn’t save a bad match. *1/2​

We see a clip of The Rock giving the WWE Undisputed Champion The Undertaker a Rock Bottom and People’s Elbow at King Of The Ring to promote The Rock’s return to Smackdown this week.

Match Four
Matt Hardy vs. Steven Richards

A really solid main event from these two, which is probably better than I expected this time around. There is no real story here, but they built the match nicely, taking the live audience with them, and as things heat up towards the end, the crowd are really buying into the false finishes, which is perfect. Easily the most the fans have cared on this episode, which makes sense since Matt Hardy is involved. They work well together, and it probably shows what I’ve believed for awhile now, and that’s that Richards is underrated. Solid stuff and the ending comes about when Richards attempts a Double Axe Handle from the top. Hardy greets him with a kick to the gut, followed by the Twist Of Fate for the win. Seems like the right booking call and match was okay. **1/4​

A solid edition for Heat here. Main event was more than passable, the character work of Raven keeps me interested and I’m hyped for the Victoria debut.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Raw
July 8th, 2002
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania​

We start off with a pre-taped promo from Vince McMahon. Vince talks about the controversial ending to the WWE Undisputed Championship match between The Undertaker and Kurt Angle on Smackdown, and he confirms ‘Taker has the night off tonight. ‘Taker will be welcoming The Rock back to the WWE at Smackdown. Vince then says in the interest of fairness, it will now be ‘Taker vs. The Rock vs. Kurt Angle for the WWE Title at Vengeance. Solid enough promo to explain ‘Taker’s absence tonight. Based on Rock/’Taker chemistry, or lack thereof, I’m happy with the decision to add Angle to the match.

JR and The King then formally welcome us to the show, and they hype the match tonight between Bubba Ray Dudley and Chris Benoit.

Now it’s in ring promo time for Booker T. On commentary, JR mentions that Booker is scheduled for a match tonight. Booker says that the New World Order has promised to take him out tonight. He’d rather do it now than wait and he calls out the NWO. Booker makes a promise tonight that he’s not going to whine like X Pac. Instead of the NWO, Eddie Guerrero comes out and says Booker T is a real sucker, because everyone knows the NWO won’t attack him out here. Last week The Dudleyz screwed Eddie out of a win, and Eddie promised himself and Chris Benoit that he would come out and take out the first guy to run his mouth, and that’s obviously Booker T. Promo time was okay. Eddie was good here; however Booker stumbled over his words and sounded a bit lost before the Guerrero interruption. I’m down for an impromptu match between these two for sure though.

Match One
Booker T vs. Eddie Guerrero

They only get about three minutes to work with it, but damn, they go fast paced, they go hard and do some awesome stuff for three minutes. It actually makes me wish they got longer. Anyway, after some back and forth, Booker shocks Eddie with a Roll Up for the quick win. For some reason there’s a weird delay where the bell isn’t run for a while, but still, about as good as a three-minute match can get here. These two need more time. **3/4
​

After the match, Booker is ready to do the Spinarooni, but Chris Benoit runs down and attacks Booker from behind. Goldust runs down to make the save but Benoit and Eddie beat him up as well. That’s until Bubba Ray Dudley and Spike Dudley run out with steel chairs. Guerrero manages to escape but Benoit cops a chair across the back from Bubba before leaving the ring. Aftermath here is fine, continuing Dudleyz issue with Benoit/Eddie and hypes the Bubba/Benoit match scheduled for tonight.

A vignette promoting the debut of Rey Mysterio is shown. Will continue to say “yay”, until he debuts.

Booker T and Goldust are backstage and Goldust starts to dance with Booker, saying that Book Dust is victorious once again. Booker says they ain’t out of the woods yet and now they gotta worry about the NWO. Goldust says he’s going down in a blaze of glory if the NWO is coming for him. A vendor is shown, selling pretzels, and Booker attacks him because he looks like X Pac. A nice blend of comedy and seriousness in this one as they prepare for a showdown with the NWO. This was good.

In the back, The Coach shows Trish Stratus and Jackie Gayda the footage from last week, which shows Jackie fighting with WWE Womens Champion Molly Holly, until Trish got involved. Trish thinks that Molly got what she had coming to her last week. Jackie says that Trish stuck her nose in Jackie’s business last week. Trish just HAD to get involved because she is jealous of her. Gayda thinks it’s because she’s taller and has a great body. She was talked about way more than Trish before she even fought in the ring. Trish tells Jackie that she lives in a fantasy world. Christopher Nowinski comes over and says Trish is the one living in a fantasy world with her stupid cowboy hat. As a fellow Tough Enough graduate, and as a Harvard graduate, he wonders if it’s required for everyone here to have the mental acumen and dress like they’ve just come from a seven-year-olds birthday party. Trish tells them she wants to settle this in a Mixed Tag Team match. Nowinski accepts and asks if her partner is Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger or Yosemite Sam. Trish says her partner will be Bradshaw and Nowinski looks worried. A solid enough segment here. Jackie just doesn’t seem completely comfortable in her role yet. Trish was fine, and Nowinski continues to play his character amazingly well. The only issue is now we have to see the match that has been booked. Yikes.

We get a video package reminding us that The Rock is returning on Smackdown. Double yay.

Backstage, Goldust is dressed as Benjamin Franklin as he approaches and talks to Bubba Ray Dudley and Spike Dudley. He tells them that he travelled through time to tell them that they should join Booker T and Goldust to get the NWO. Bubba says they don’t like or care about him or Booker T, they were after Guerrero and Benoit. Franklin asks what about Goldust and Bubba just stares at him incredulously. Bubba tells Goldust they aren’t going to fight the NWO. Not one of Goldust’s best comedy segment, to be honest. Didn’t necessarily make me laugh at all, which made this awkward to watch more than anything. The Dudleyz declining the offer is interesting if it leads somewhere.

Match Two
Bubba Ray Dudley w/Spike Dudley vs. Chris Benoit w/Eddie Guerrero

No obvious ring rust from Benoit in his first singles match back, as he shows why he’s one of the greatest. He’s just brutal in beating up Bubba, who sells and bumps really well, so credit to him also. They only get about four minutes, and it’s back and forth, but man, Benoit is just so intense. A good match for the short amount of time, similar to the opener, and I think it’s the right result here with Benoit winning his first singles match back. Only thing I probably haven’t mentioned yet is that Benoit sold well when Bubba was in control also. Ending comes about when Bubba hits the Bubba Bomb, but on the outside, Eddie rolls Spike into the ring and into the ref to break the count. Eddie then gets on the apron to further distract Bubba, allowing Benoit to get in the Crippler Crossface and Bubba taps. Another good match. **3/4​

After the match, Benoit and Eddie continue to attack both Dudleyz, until Booker T and Goldust run down to make the save. Eddie and Benoit quickly bail. Good stuff here. Really enjoying the way these feuds are linking together tonight. Some really fun stuff.

A segment on Christopher Nowinski airs, where he talks about playing football for Harvard and shows us around the Harvard campus. Meh. He was arrogant as usual, but this wasn’t all that honestly. Basically calling himself a nerdy jock seems like a weird thing for a character like him to do also.

We then see a video recap of the ladder match between The Undertaker and Jeff Hardy last week.

Backstage, Ric Flair chats with Jeff Hardy and puts him over for his effort last week. Jeff thanks Ric for his comments and says he appreciates it. Flair tells Jeff that he’s on his way and wishes him luck against William Regal tonight. After Jeff leaves, Steven Richards mock claps for Flair and says that he hasn’t looked all that legendary in recent memory. He says it’s guys like Ric Flair who take the spotlight away from him. Flair challenges him to a match tonight and Richards accepts. Richards then decks Flair with a right hand and walks off. Smart to have Flair give Jeff his stamp of approval, giving him a further rub after last week. Richards/Flair stuff was fine to set up the match. Not a barnburner or anything, but it gets Flair in the ring and gets Richards a chance to shine in ECW territory. Smart booking.

Match Three
Bradshaw and Trish Stratus vs. Christopher Nowinski and Jackie Gayda

This match is disgustingly bad, and honestly will be right up there, or down there, at the end of the year as one of the worst of the year. Way to sloppy because half the competitors aren’t trained properly, and to make it worse, the crowd didn’t care either. The women fail a Headscissors spot because Jackie doesn’t grab Trish like she’s supposed to. Jackie doesn’t flip when Trish attempts a Monkey Flip, so it just looks like Trish does a weird fall on her back for no reason. And Trish tries a Bulldog from the top rope and Jackie decides to take a bump a minute after Trish has already landed. By this point Bradshaw and Nowinski had disappeared to the back, and Trish pins Jackie for the win. Interestingly enough, Jackie kicks out before three, but the ref counts the finish anyway. I wonder if somebody in the back realised how awful this was and decided to put us out of misery early. Poor Trish for having to deal with Gayda. This was HORRIBLE. ¼*​

Backstage, Chris Benoit tells Eddie Guerrero that the Dudleyz are going to pay. The NWO come up to them and X Pac tells Benoit to chill. Kevin Nash says as good as they are, there are strength in numbers. The NWO walks off, but Shawn Michaels quickly tells them to listen up. Interesting segment here, I didn’t mind it. Clearly teasing for further advancement later on.

We get another video package reminding us that The Rock is returning on Smackdown. Triple yay.

Now it’s time for the NWO to have in ring promo time. Michaels starts and says you’re either with the NWO or against us. Shawn shows a video of the friendly interaction between Triple H and the NWO at King Of The Ring, before talking about The Kliq. He says they have extended an offer to Triple H to comeback where he belongs. He talks about how The Kliq got hammered together and travelled the roads together. Triple H still hasn’t answered, and he needs them a lot more than they need him. Shawn is giving Triple H two weeks to reply. Long before the NWO, there was The Kliq, and like the NWO, The Kliq is for life. Kevin Nash then books a ten-man tag of NWO, Benoit and Eddie vs. Booker T, Goldust, Bubba, Spike and any fifth man they want. Nash then says he knows Triple H isn’t going to turn his back on family. If Triple H does turn his back on family, Nash will do to him what he does to Booker T tonight. Solid enough from the NWO. Continuing the Triple H angle and booking the huge match tonight, which makes so much sense with how the show has been booked so far. Even if it will be VERY short lived, Nash returning to the ring feels like a big deal to.

Match Four
Ric Flair vs. Steven Richards

This isn’t good. Richards didn’t exactly get a chance to shine like I thought he would. Flair just beats him up for a few minutes, but yes, is not good. Flair eventually makes Richards submit to the Figure Four. Meh. *1/2​

Another reminder that The Rock is returning on Smackdown. I guess they are really driving this one home.

More in ring promo time next, and this time it’s Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman. Heyman says though he walks through the valley of extreme tonight, he fears not reprisals from his enemies, for he walks with The Next Big Thing, Brock Lesnar. He says it doesn’t matter who wins the Undisputed Title at Vengeance, because whoever it is, they will be the sacrificial lamb. Heyman then announces that Brock/RVD at Vengeance is now for the WWE Intercontinental Title. Lesnar will destroy Rob and walkout as champion. Heyman says he created RVD, hell he exploited RVD, Tommy Dreamer, Tajiri and others. He did it to make money off these bloodthirsty idiots. These fans called Heyman a genius. That’s why he was able to sign BROCK LESNAR. Tommy Dreamer comes out with a kendo stick and claims that Heyman never made anyone. Everyone in ECW busted their ass because they love the business and the fans. Heyman asks if Tommy is done as Tommy starts walking towards the ring. Heyman tells him to go in the back and eat some gross stuff or put his head in a toilet or something he’s actually good at now. Tommy says before all of that, he was the INNOVATOR OF VIOLENCE. Dreamer hits Lesnar from the floor in the legs with the kendo stick. Tommy clears the ring of Brock, brings some chairs in the ring and then looks to attack Heyman. Brock runs through Tommy with a Lariat. Lesnar takes Tommy to the floor and F5’s him on the floor. RVD runs down and cleans house on Brock. He then goes up top with a steel chair and hits the VAN TERMINATOR on Heyman. Awesome, awesome stuff here. Philly got pumped for the ECW use, and this is just smart booking based on the city you’re in. They all pulled it off really well, this was fun.

The Coach is in the crowd talking to former Philadelphia 76ers President Pat Croce. They promote a new sport debuting on Saturday August 3rd at 8pm on TNN. Meh, could care less. Just being thorough.

Match Five
WWE European Championship Match
William Regal (c) vs. Jeff Hardy

Okay, so this was extremely disappointing. After what he just did with The Undertaker, Jeff really needed to turn it on here and put on another good performance. It felt like Hardy and Regal’s styles just didn’t mesh here. Especially early on, before adjustments, it was just sloppy and all over the place. As things progressed, it got better, and I think by the end, I’d even call it low level solid. One thing I did appreciate was Jeff selling the impacts from the ladder match last week, love details such as that. To continue his momentum, Jeff hits a Swanton Bomb on Regal and becomes the new European Champion. Probably a bit generous here, but I’ll call this solid. **​

Backstage, The Coach talks to William Regal about the loss. Regal starts crying, falling to his knees, completely distraught. Christopher Nowinski comes along and consoles Regal. Eh, not really into this. The whole crying thing is a bit much for me and doesn’t do anything positive for the type of low-level character Regal currently is.

Backstage, Bubba Ray Dudley and Spike Dudley are speaking to somebody off camera. They say they were thinking of one man who could step toe to toe with the NWO, Benoit and Guerrero. Nobody is as extreme as he is. And hey, it’s revealed to be Rob Van Dam. RVD as the fifth man works, especially teaming with other ECW folk in Philly.

Match Six
Booker T, Bubba Ray Dudley, Goldust, Rob Van Dam and Spike Dudley vs. Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Kevin Nash, The Big Show and X Pac

It’s a solid main event here but the talking point out of this is the injury to Kevin Nash. Nash tears his quad after only being tagged in for about ten seconds. It’s bad timing as well as they’ve worked hard to rebuild the NWO over the past month or so, and it looks as if they’re just about to enter a major angle with Triple H. Former boxing champion Joe Frazier is at ringside to which is a cool shoutout. This could have been better, but they mapped this out wrong in my opinion. For some reason, Bubba, Show and X Pac wrestled most the match, whilst guys like Booker, Goldust, RVD, Eddie and Benoit stood on the apron. I’m also okay with the booking for the most part here, with the heels getting the win so the faces can continue to chase them. Eddie and Benoit are probably only in this one for one minute combined which is a damn shame. Admittedly, RVD does get some time to shine in the middle though, and he delivers. Late in the match, RVD chases Shawn Michaels up the ramp, but Brock Lesnar comes from behind the curtain and Clotheslines RVD. Brock drills RVD with the F5 on the stage. After Nash’s injury, they do a good job of thinking on the fly with all hell breaking loose. Michaels sneaks in with the referee distracted and hits Sweet Chin Music on Booker, allowing Show to then finish him off with the Chokeslam for the win. Plenty wrong with this, including the unfortunate injury, but it was still solid overall. **1/2​

After the match, Shawn Michaels says that Triple H is looking at his future. He warns Triple H to make the right decision as the show ends. Solid ending.

Honestly, outside of one horrible match, this was another strong episode of Raw. The booking to set up the main event, and the ECW themed stuff in Philly was all executed really well. Two in a row for Raw, very unexpected. Will enjoy it well it lasts.

 

[Chris]

Lmaoooo that mixed tag match

 

[Stojy]

Lmaoooo that mixed tag match

An absolute horrendous watch. I don't think we are getting worse then that this year lol.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Smackdown
July 11th, 2002
Atlantic City, New Jersey​

Michael Cole and Tazz welcome us to the show and run down some of the big stuff already planned for tonight’s show. The Rock is returning to Smackdown, Edge and Hulk Hogan will defend their WWE Tag Team Championships against Billy and Chuck, and Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle will team up to take on John Cena and the WWE Undisputed Champion The Undertaker in the main event. Rock being back and main event tag sound good.

Match One
WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Edge and Hulk Hogan (c) vs. Billy and Chuck w/Rico

This ones a bit of an end of an era so to speak, as it’s the last time Billy and Chuck, as a heel duo, will be right at the top of the tag team division. Overall, I’m pretty happy with that. They had some enjoyable character work in the early days of their partnership, but that’s kind of dried up recently, and they just don’t cut it in the ring. With that being said, this match was surprisingly good. Edge was arguably on the hottest streak of his career here in terms of in ring performance, and he sold his ass off throughout to make Billy and Chuck’s underwhelming offense look good. With that being said, the former champions were decent as well, which is a fair improvement from the putrid in ring stuff they’ve delivered for most of their run. The champs never really felt like they were at risk of losing the titles though, so kind of came across like an extended squash. Hogan’s hot tag, whilst in slow motion, was carried by the awesome crowd reaction. Hogan dominates for the finishing run, and drops the big Leg Drop on Billy to get the win. Pleasantly surprised at how fun this one was. **3/4​

In the parking lot, The Undertaker is waiting for The Rock to arrive. John Cena then comes up to The Undertaker. Cena says he thanked Mr. McMahon for their match tonight, and now he wants to thank ‘Taker because it’s a big honour. ‘Taker asks if Cena has ever met The Rock and Cena says he hasn’t. ‘Taker tells Cena that Rock is a punk, and he is going to take him down. ‘Taker says Cena should be honoured but ‘Taker doesn’t care about their match tonight, he’s just here for The Rock. He then says Cena should be on his way now, unless he wants to end up like The Rock. Cena smartly leaves. A fun segment here. ‘Taker waiting on The Rock, and then giving Cena, who’s just trying to be respectful, a hard time was really good. Creates a potentially interesting dynamic for their tag match later.

Earlier today, Torrie Wilson was doing a photo shoot on the beach. WWE Womens Champion Molly Holly shows up and says she should be the focus because she’s the champion. Torrie may be the winner of the “golden thong award”, but if she wanted to win a real award, she should face Molly for the WWE Womens Title. Torrie agrees to the match. Nice surprise to see the Womens Title back on Smackdown. Feels like it has been a while. With Molly’s character, this booking and match makes perfect sense. Good stuff.

Back to the parking lot, a few producers are trying to get The Undertaker into the arena. Finlay is one of them and he tells ‘Taker that Mr. McMahon is on his way. A limo arrives, and Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle get out of it. Angle says that ‘Taker is holding his championship. Angle asks when ‘Taker tapped out last and then says oh yeah, it was last week. ‘Taker argues back, and then Jericho says they should call him The Undertapper. ‘Taker punches Jericho which leads to a brawl between the three men. Officials separate it and Vince McMahon comes over and yells at ‘Taker, saying he can have The Rock, but get him in the arena. Another enjoyable segment here. Another ‘Taker looking like a babyface segment, and this hypes the main event tag and the eventual Rock/’Taker confrontation.

In the back, The Undertaker finds John Cena putting his gear on and yells at him. He is pissed that Cena wasn’t there to help. Cena says that ‘Taker told him to leave if he didn’t want to get his ass kicked, and ‘Taker tells him not to tell him what he said. He wants to know that Cena has his back for their match tonight. Cena says yes. ‘Taker tells Cena to get his head straight or he’s not going to last long. LOL more fun. ‘Taker just needing to blow off steam and taking out on his partner for the night, even whilst being illogical, and then playing the veteran card was awesome.

Match Two
WWE Womens Championship Match
Molly Holly (c) vs. Torrie Wilson

Not good at all from these two, it’s awful. Torrie’s only in ring skill at this point is those roll around and look hot matches with Stacy Keibler, but that’s not what this is. They try to plug here into an actual wrestling match, and it just doesn’t work. This is horrible, and after a Powerbomb out of the corner, Molly a strange Roll Up type pin to get the win. The right decision at least in terms of the winner, and the booking of this match makes sense, but this was awful. ½*​

We now see The Rock arriving to the arena. Yay.

Earlier tonight, Randy Orton talked to Mark Henry saying that with Henry he can’t lose, unlike with his other partners. Meh, this was weird. Sounded like an ungrateful rookie, trashing his former partners, who are veterans who went out of their way to try and help him. Not sure it was supposed to come across like that, but it did to me.

Match Three
Deacon Batista and Reverend D’Von vs. Mark Henry and Randy Orton

Probably a level lower than the opening tag, but this was a very solid match from these four. The idea of Orton working through partners, continuing to try, because he’s determined to finally beat Batista is a really good one. An effective way of getting both men over in their own way. Even though they are still relatively inexperienced, getting showcased every week is clearly helping, as Batista and Orton both looked pretty impressive throughout. Their interactions with each other are great, already building a nice chemistry. Orton hits an epic Crossbody on D’Von, and it’s most likely in that moment that he broke his forearm. The match continues with Batista and Henry in the ring, as they have a fun hoss battle, and then Batista beats Henry with the Spinebuster. Sad that Orton is likely going to miss awhile, but man, Batista is looking AMAZINGLY strong at the moment. Very solid from all involved. **1/2​

Backstage, Edge tells Hulk Hogan that they are going to the casino. He tells Hogan that holding the Tag Team Championships with him is a dream come true. Hogan says these kind of moments remind him of his match with The Rock at WrestleMania. It was cool when thousands of Hulkamaniacs were cheering his name. The Rock then appears behind them, listening in to the conversation. The Rock then congratulates them on winning the Tag Titles, and Edge invites him to come gambling. Rock says he’s up for that, but he has some business to take care of first. The Rock leaves and Hogan tells Edge that he could have beaten The Rock, but Rock is back behind Hogan, mocking him. Typical Rock shenanigans, not one of his finest, but still a fun segment here.

Now it’s in ring promo time for The Rock as he comes down, getting a huge “Rocky, Rocky” chant from the crowd. He says the jabroni beating, pie eating, heart stopping, elbow dropping, psyched, amped People’s Champ is back. He’s back on his show Smackdown. The crowd continue to chant and go nuts for The Rock, as he paces around the ring. The Rock then brings Busta Rhymes into the ring, and they hype the movie Halloween: Resurrection. The Rock puts over Busta’s new album as well. Rock asks Busta if he dies in Halloween since “they always go after the brother first”. They then sing a rendition of Under The Boardwalk, before Busta goes back to the crowd and Rock talks about Vengeance. He says The Undertaker is going to have some problems when The Rock wins the title. He is right here and if ‘Taker wants to do something, The Rock only has one thing to say, “just bring it”. Kurt Angle then comes out and says that he’s winning the title at Vengeance. The Rock doesn’t need to worry about ‘Taker at Vengeance, he needs to worry about him. Angle says he’s been on a roll lately, firstly making Hulk Hogan tap at King Of The Ring, and then making ‘Taker tap last week on Smackdown. Rock acts confused and said he looks like Kurt Angle, but he’s not, until he realises, SOMEBODY GOT A HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIRCUUUUUUUUUUUT!!! Angle is annoyed but says he’s the number one man now and Smackdown is his show. Rock thinks he’s so great because he won a Teen Choice Award, but teens love Angle. They line up around the block to get his autograph. Angle challenges him to a match next week, saying he knows The Rock can sing, but next week, he’ll make him tap. Rock accepts the challenge for next week. Rock then says he wants some action tonight. Angle refuses but Rock attacks him, but ‘Taker runs out to attack The Rock. ‘Taker then Chokeslams Angle. ‘Taker then also Chokeslams The Rock. Really entertaining. Fun segment as Rock does his teasing stuff, and Kurt is one of the best at being on the receiving end, never afraid to make fun of himself. ‘Taker coming out and laying both out works to, great hype for the PPV, and Rock/Angle next week should be great.

A video package airs showing Christian, Lance Storm and Test cutting off Lilian Garcia whilst she was signing America The Beautiful last week.

Christian and Lance Storm accompany Test to the ring for the next match, deciding to join Cole and Tazz on commentary. I’m okay with this.

Match Four
Rikishi vs. Test

Not good stuff from these two here, as this was a pretty average match. I’m not sure I agree with the booking here as well, as with basically a three on one advantage, I feel like Test losing here is to soon. It does damage to the group when they’re still only establishing them as a unit. But like I said, this wasn’t good. Late in the match, Rikishi goes for the Bonzai Drop, but Test manages to get his knees up. In easily the highlight of the match, Test shows terrific strength, nailing Rikishi with a Pumphandle Slam. Rikishi gets a shoulder up though, and then avoids a Big Boot and hits a Samoan Drop for the win. The Samoan Drop isn’t even a finisher for Rikishi, so again, just not the way to book Test at this point in time. Not a great match, and I don’t agree with the booking either. *3/4 ​

After the match, Christian and Storm get into the ring and start beating on Rikishi. Edge and Hogan run down to save and run off the Canadians. Fine enough, I guess. Looks like we’ll be getting a six man soon.

Backstage, Vince McMahon is with Stacy Keibler, and she starts to undress him. Vince says if she’s going to take his shirt off, he’s going to take her dress off. Chris Jericho then comes in and interrupts. Jericho asks if Vince saw what was going on with Hogan and Edge. He suggests that Hogan and Edge be forced to defend against Storm and Christian. Vince says he wants to see that match as well. But he says it should be at Vengeance. Edge has a match with Jericho at Vengeance, but if Jericho steps aside at the pay per view, then Storm and Christian get a tag title shot. Jericho says he would step aside. Vince says he’ll take care of Jericho and then makes the tag title match official. Eh. Jericho/Edge was one of the matches with the most heat behind it, so to just reshuffle and change stuff around for Edge/Hogan to have a tag match is disappointing to me.

Earlier today, WWE Cruiserweight Champion Jamie Noble and Nidia enjoyed a meal at a casino. Tajiri is with them as well and Nidia shares spaghetti, which leads to her making out with both of them. Noble says the WWE Cruiserweight Championship prevents him from being poor and allows them to live this lifestyle. I know, I sound like a broken record. Noble/Nidia segments right now are stealing the show, and Tajiri is a fun inclusion to. If you haven’t seen this one before, go find it. It’s hilariously awesome.

Match Five
Billy Kidman and The Hurricane vs. Jamie Noble and Tajiri w/Nidia

This match feels like a shame here. It’s enjoyable, but they didn’t have enough time. It’s a spot fest or a sprint, with not much else happening, with spot after spot where maybe at times it feels like too much in a short space of time. I don’t want to take to much away though because I still think for a four-minute match, this was pretty fantastic. Kept up a nice, fast pace which kept the fans engaged throughout. The match ends when Noble and Tajiri end up down and out on the outside of the ring. Hurricane hits an awesome dive to take out the opponents. Kidman then brings Noble in, and despite Nidia getting involves, manages to hit a Sit Out Spinebuster from the middle rope. Nice spot to finish a good, yet rushed match, and can only assume after pinning the champ, Noble/Kidman is on the agenda for Vengeance. **3/4​

The Rock is pacing backstage, and Marc Lloyd comes up to him. The Rock shits all over and embarrasses Marc Lloyd, before saying The Undertaker has been a great champion but the countdown is on. Rock is going to stay here as long as ‘Taker and Angle are in the building. He says he did some gambling in Atlantic City, and it basically came up that he’ll be champ. My recap doesn’t do it justice, this was an amazing promo from The Rock. Go find it. Also, whilst being fun, it still promotes Vengeance and the fact that The Rock might not be done tonight.

Another video package hyping the debut of Rey Mysterio. This time it tells us he’s coming to Smackdown in two weeks. Only two weeks until Mysterio debuts? Awesome.

Match Six
Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle vs. John Cena and the Undertaker

This match had been built well throughout the night, and I thought they delivered a good, if unspectacular main event here. And in booking news, even though there’s a big assist from ‘Taker, Cena picking up the win here feels kind of huge for him as well. In there with three veterans, Cena did look a little inexperienced at times, but they were able to cover for him for the most part. Cena did play the face in peril role well though, and Angle/Jericho were an awesome heel team, bumping like crazy for ‘Taker and Cena to play off. I can’t compliment enough how much this makes Cena feel like a mid-carder ready for his main event push. ‘Taker has an epic hot tag, coming and beating people up, and as the match breaks down, Cena eventually gets an Oklahoma Roll on Jericho to sneak the win. A good main event. **3/4​

After the match, a furious Jericho attacks Cena and nails him with the Breakdown. As they clear the ring, Kurt Angle and The Undertaker fight, with ‘Taker locking Angle in the Dragon Sleeper. The Rock then runs down and fights with ‘Taker, before nailing him with the Rock Bottom. Angle then this Rocky from behind and begins stomping on him. Rock fights back and drills Angle with a Rock Bottom as well, standing tall to end the show. A solid ending to continue that Vengeance main event build. No issues.

WWE in July 2002 is officially on a roll. I’m sure it won’t last long but probably the fourth weekly show in a row where they have delivered the goods.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Velocity
July 13th, 2002
Atlantic City, New Jersey

Match One
Billy Kidman vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

A really good opening match here between these two. I should stop being surprised, and maybe he’s being carried by good opponents, but Kidman continues to have a better 2002 than I thought. But anyway, this was good, including a sick Powerbomb over the crowd barricade spot that Chavo delivered to Kidman. This then set up the heat period where Chavo could work on Kidman’s back. Michael Cole and Al Snow are surprisingly good on commentary here as well, really putting over the psychology of the match, and the pain Kidman must have in his lower back/kidney area. Even during the heat period from Chavo, there was never to much of a lull, with the pace remaining steady throughout. Chavo was truly the MVP here, with some terrific offense throughout. On the other side of things, Kidman was steady enough, however not finishing off a match with the Shooting Star Press for the second match in a row is disappointing. Kidman wins this week with a Hurricanrana from the top rope. Still, really good stuff from these two. **3/4

Match Two
Shannon Moore vs. Tajiri

This was great, even better than the opener. The debut on Velocity thing is probably never a good sign, but Moore was clearly determined to make an awesome first impression in WWE, and in my opinion, he certainly did that. There’s a really small but cool spot which stands out to me in this one, where Moore is in the ring, and Tajiri is on the apron, and Tajiri is able to kick Moore’s legs out. Moore bumps hard for it to, and it’s a really miniscule moment in the match, but I thought it was great. Tajiri is always fantastic, but Moore definitely matched him here. Wanting to show out, Moore hits a nice Moonsault, but then an even more epic Hand Spring Heel Plancha! He also hit a cool Brainbuster variation as well. These two had chemistry right from the get-go, and in the end, Moore goes up top one time to many, and Tajiri catches him on the way down with a kick, followed by a Buzzsaw kick for the win. Great match. ***

Match Three
Albert vs. Randy Orton

I guess the run had to end at some point after two pleasing matches to kick off Velocity. This is by no means horrible and awful, but it’s not good either. Just a standard generic Roll Up from Orton after Albert misses a corner splash felt like a bit of a “meh” ending, for lack of a better term. Just really uninspired stuff. From a booking standpoint, it’s a huge win for Orton, although unfortunately I believe he injured his forearm later on at this taping (SD tag match in previous post), so it won’t mean much in the long run. I notice an Orton sign in the audience to, which is kind of cool seeing that some fans are slowly getting behind him. I know I mention this all the time, but I still wish Albert got treated better since his heel turn. Bit of an awkward moment when Albert is looking for a Bonzai Drop, and Orton gets his knees up before Albert even leaves the ropes. They also played off some fun psychology with Orton trying to work Albert’s legs, but Albert didn’t sell and then Orton forgot about it or didn’t go back to it which hindered the match also. Also, this isn’t mentioned at all, but I LOVE the idea of Orton struggling with Batista, so he takes up the challenge of facing another big man on Velocity to further improve. Still though, not very good unfortunately, I would have expected better from these two. *3/4​

After the match, Albert destroys Orton with a Bicycle Kick, a Torture Rack Neckbreaker and a Baldo Bomb! Unfortunately this won’t lead to anything because of Orton’s injury… I think… Albert gets some heat back at least, I guess.

Match Four
Test vs. Val Venis

And I guess they saved the worst for the last? The main event does not deliver, which is a shame because Val is usually good, whereas Test is terrible from 2002 onwards outside of the odd performance. There’s so much from a booking standpoint that perplexes me here. Why is Test struggling to beat Val here on Velocity and has to get himself disqualified with a low blow? After losing to Rikishi despite having the numbers advantage on Smackdown, surely this should be a win for Test to make the ‘muscle’ of the anti-American group look strong. Weird. Also, they’re doing the whole UnAmerican thing (even if they aren’t called that yet), so representing the fight for America is Val Venis… A Canadian. That’s more tongue in cheek since Val is billed from Las Vegas but still lol. Again, Val works on the leg a bit here, and Test sells it at first, but then hits the Big Boot after the match without a care in the world. Not a good match, booking makes it worse, and why would you end your show with a DQ finish? Problems galore here, not good. *1/2​

Yeah, so I kind of already referred to it but after the match, Test runs through Val with the Big Boot to end the night looking strong. Meh. I mean at least they did this but would have preferred him to just win the match. It’s crazy to think what Test will be doing just one month later at Summerslam.

This episode of Velocity still gets a pass for me. The last two matches weren’t good, but the first two were great, and as long as we’re getting some solid wrestling on the B shows, I’m content.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Heat
July 14th, 2002
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania​

Earlier today, Lilian Garcia chatted with the WWE Hardcore Champion Bradshaw. He unveils his new Texas style Hardcore Title. He says he wasn’t good in school and drank to much beer and played to much football. He then badmouths Christopher Nowinski and his opponent for tonight, Raven before leaving with his cowbell. Meh, not a great promo. I guess it promotes his program with Nowinski and his match tonight, but just came across very unnatural as a “trying to be funny” babyface. Miles away from the epic promo work he’d deliver just a couple of years later.

Match One
WWE Hardcore Championship Match
Bradshaw (c) vs. Raven

Bradshaw is a brawler and a brute, but Raven has quite the Hardcore background himself. I was hoping for some more craft offense from Raven, but it didn’t happen. Lazy performance by him, and this match ended up just feeling like an extended squash. The more I think about it the more I think this was terrible. I did like the finish though as Bradshaw wrapped the cowbell rope around his arm before hitting the Clothesline From Hell. Still, left a lot to be desired. *

Match Two
Sean O’Haire vs. Shawn Stasiak

Two from two in terms of stinkers tonight which isn’t ideal. This kind of feels like a low-level episode of WCW TV in 2000 or 2001 type of match. Maybe one day I’ll watch that to. Anyway, from a Stasiak perspective, it’s a better match than the one he had last week with Johnny Stamboli, but not by much. Now that his ‘Planet Stasiak’ stuff has been watered down and he’s actually having to wrestle as a heel and control matches, he’s really being exposed. O’Haire continues to have a great look but needs plenty of in ring work still. Maybe the only place he’ll get a good run is mine and rant’s WWE 2004 BTB (cheap plug). Anyway, O’Haire wins this one with his Reverse Death Valley Driver, which they are now calling Cruel Intentions. Another bad match unfortunately, even if an O’Haire win makes me happy. *​

We get a video package which hypes Kurt Angle vs. The Rock scheduled for next week’s episode of Smackdown. These two usually have great chemistry so looking forward to it.

Before the next match, Crash Holly is introduced as the Special Guest Referee. Crash is the cousin of the WWE Womens Champion Molly Holly, who is defending her title against Jacqueline, who is a referee in her own right and has had issues with Crash. Deck stacked against Jackie, seems pretty obvious that Crash will cost her here. Weird for somebody to just allow Crash to be the referee here though.

Match Three
WWE Womens Championship Match
Special Guest Referee: Crash Holly
Molly Holly (c) vs. Jacqueline

Another pretty bad match if I’m completely honest. I like Jackie as a character, but she’s not very good in the ring, and it showed here. They booked this a little differently than I thought, as whilst Crash did cost Jackie the win, he didn’t just directly cost her. Instead, Jackie went for a Crossbody off the top to Molly, and Molly moves, so Jackie nailed Crash instead. Seizing the opportunity, Crash held onto Jackie, keeping her in position so Molly could hit her with the Womens Title and get the pin. Another bad match, but I didn’t mind the ending. *​

We get another video package which hyped the main event of Vengeance. The Undertaker defending the WWE Undisputed Championship against both Kurt Angle and The Rock in a Triple Threat Match. Can’t wait.

Match Four
Matt Hardy vs. The Big Show

Another match that I would not recommend watching, and another I’d consider bad, but admittedly, this is better than everything else that’s been on the show. The issue with this one isn’t so much the action, as both are experienced and work a smart match. They just simply don’t have enough time to deliver anything of substance. But they smartly stick to the psychology that they should, which is a basic big versus small match. Hardy’s stick and move offense, fast pace, including an epic Moonsault off the top to the outside keep the fans excited, but Matt isn’t doing a lot at the moment, whereas Show is heavily featured each week, so he was always winning this one. Show catches Matt leaping off the top with a leaping nothing (literally no idea what he was trying to do) and Show drills him with the Chokeslam for the win. Match of the night, but nothing to brag about. Still pretty bad. *1/2​

It's Heat so I’ll try not to be to down about it, but this definitely ended the hot run of shows WWE had been on for a couple of weeks. This was very bad. Nothing worth watching.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Raw
July 15th, 2002
East Rutherford, New Jersey​

WWE Undisputed Champion The Undertaker is talking with Paul Heyman in the locker room. Heyman says that tonight’s main event, Brock Lesnar and ‘Taker versus Ric Flair and WWE Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam was all his idea. It’s a great honour to team with ‘Taker, on behalf of Lesnar. ‘Taker tells Heyman that he better hope that he loses on Sunday because he has a tendency of making people famous, usually by making them disappear. Heyman wants to focus on tonight and tries to shake ‘Taker’s hand, but that backfires and he walks off after ‘Taker tells Heyman to never touch him again. A fun confrontation here between Heyman and ‘Taker, teasing some tension for when Brock/’Taker eventually meet.

Vince McMahon comes out to NWO music for in ring promo time. He says he figures the fans wanted to hear the NWO music one last time and says the music will never play again. The NWO is now history. The NWO era is now history, no different than many other preceding eras in WWE history, including the Buddy Rogers era, the Bruno Sammartino era, the Pedro Morales era, the Superstar Billy Graham era, the Hulk Hogan era, the Ultimate Warrior era, the Bret Hart era, and most recently, the Stone Cold Steve Austin era. WWE has changed with the times, and they must change now, too. The crowd start chanting asshole at Vince and he asks for some respect. McMahon talks about the birth of Raw at the Manhattan Centre. Very soon, WWE will celebrate the five hundredth episode, but right now, it’s time to shake up Raw and Smackdown. It’s time to shake up the entire brand. The shakeup starts tonight. He’s hired two new General Managers, one for Raw and one for Smackdown, both of whom will have full authorisation and he’s support. He will name the new General Manager of Raw within the hour. And the new GM will give the fans what they want and deserve. GM’s being introduced for the first time really feels like a new era, and they definitely got these first two picks of GM’s right, so excited for that to start. Fine enough promo from Vince to get his point across.

Just want to touch on the NWO in the WWE. They were doomed from the start. The beauty of the renegade group in WCW is that they kayfabe weren’t employed by WCW and just causes mayhem, trying to take over. Booking the same group of wrestlers, with the same name, but just having them be treated like an employee listening to Vince, or listening to Flair, it just wasn’t what the NWO was about. All the appealing, cool aspects were gone almost immediately. Disappointing.

Backstage, the Raw locker room are sitting by the television watching the show and talking about who could be the new GM. I love little segments like this, they can really help sell something as a huge deal.

Terri catches up with Ric Flair in the back and asks him to speculate who the new GM is. Flair has no idea who the GM could be. As a former co-owner of the company he can’t think of anybody without the name “McMahon” who would do it. Ditto my comments from the last segment. All these little, quick interactions to hype the mystery of the GM are great.

Match One
Elimination Match
Bubba Ray Dudley, Jeff Hardy and Spike Dudley vs. Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and William Regal

What a terrific way to open up the in-ring action for the night. This felt like it hit all the right notes from a booking perspective, whilst allowing the six competitors to go out and get it. For an episode of Raw and a mid-card confrontation, they got plenty of time at fourteen odd minutes. That puts me in heaven compared to the three-minute rush jobs that are usually rushed and finished before they can become good. This all just clicked really well. The heel team were at their brutal best on offense, all three having that side of them as a performer. The heat period on Jeff was really good, and they kept the fans into it the whole way through. I thought the booking was good for the most part, as it went down to Benoit and Jeff, probably the two highest profile singles wrestlers from each team. Jeff was already fighting against a two on one disadvantage, so when he finally got it back to one on one, him losing cleanly to Benoit after attempting to defy the odds would have been fine. Eddie having to come back and interfere after being eliminated so Benoit could beat Hardy was a bit much for me. It’s actually crazy how much more over Hardy is since that ladder match with ‘Taker. Anyway, with Eddie distracting the ref, Regal hits Hardy with the brass knuckles, allowing Benoit to lock in the Crippler Crossface to get the submission win. Outside of the overbooked ending, this was fantastic. ***1/2
​

After the match, Eddie gets back in the ring, and together with Benoit they set up a table. Before they can put Jeff through the table, The Dudleyz run out and Benoit and Eddie run off. Simple yet effective way to hype their tag team tables match coming at Vengeance.

Backstage, The Coach is waiting outside Vince McMahon’s locker room, saying he wants a word with Vince about the new Raw GM. He talks about possible GM’s, even Vince’s brother, Rod. Suddenly, Paul Heyman approaches the dressing room door. Heyman says he’s about to find out what’s going on himself and asks who’s more qualified than him before entering the room. A woman walks into the locker room and tells Vince that “he” has arrived. Vince is excited to hear this whilst Heyman is all confused and leaves. Again, just making this whole thing seem like the biggest thing in the world which I can’t fault them for. Announcing “him” as being here adds to the drama also.

Backstage, Vince McMahon is getting ready to meet the new GM, when Shane McMahon walks in. Vince is shocked and says that Shane is not the GM. Shane says no, he isn’t, but he’s here to prevent him from making the single biggest mistake in his life. Vince recalls Shane trying to take him out of business. Shane says at least in that case it was within the family. Shane being concerned is another epic way to add to the drama of this mystery. Also, they low key confirm that the GM is not a McMahon which adds to the speculation also. More good stuff here.

Backstage, Tommy Dreamer meets with Rob Van Dam, and they talk about the GM rumours. They then talk about RVD’s Van Terminator on Paul Heyman last week. RVD says that Heyman had that coming for years. He just hopes he can do the same thing to Brock Lesnar at Vengeance. RVD leaves to get ready for his match and Steven Richards enters the scene and gives Dreamer props for standing up to Lesnar last week. Deep down he knows Tommy only did it for himself. Richards want their match tonight to be a Singapore Cane match and Tommy agrees. Richards then nails Tommy with a cheap shot with one of the Singapore Canes. Again, more GM talk equals thumbs up. The rest of this segment was random as hell. I guess Richards played his role decently. I don’t know.

Match Two
Singapore Cane Match
Steven Richards vs. Tommy Dreamer

Genuinely surprised and in an awesome way at how good this was. They got a good amount of time, and they really wound back the clock, as this felt very stiff and ECW like. They used the Singapore Canes as about as good as it gets here. It felt like each shot got worse then the last, building to the climax of the match. They had a cool exchange as well, whilst Tommy still had a Cane in his hand, where Richards went for a Super Kick, but Dreamer caught his leg, spun Richards around and hits the DDT. Just quickly, this is the type of performance that tells me I’d love to see Richards have a more prominent role than just a jobber here. They also have a good false finish where Dreamer jumps off the middle rope with the Cane, but Richards hits the Superkick out of nowhere. Dreamer’s sympathy card and never quit attitude to get the fans invested was probably the most it has caught on ever since the ECW days here, was quite good. In the end, Tommy hits Richards with such a stiff shot that the Cane explodes, and that’s enough for Tommy to win. Enjoyed this, a nice blast from the past and both worked hard. **3/4​

Backstage, The Coach is talking to Booker T regarding the GM and the NWO disbanding. Booker talks about his history with the NWO and how he wants to celebrate that the group has broken up. Booker wants Coach to do a Spinarooni. Booker gets offended when Coach doesn’t want to do it. He convinces Coach to do one and it’s bad. Booker asks what was that and questions if Coach is black. Booker then says he’s about to pull an Allen Iverson and show Big Show why you don’t put your hands on a five-time champion. Booker stops suddenly as Eric Bischoff arrives. Bischoff says it’s nice to see Booker again and walks off. Booker tells Coach, “tell me I didn’t just see that” … Some fun comedy stuff mixed with serious stuff. This was good although I never understood doing the Bischoff reveal this way. Vince was just about to go out and announce him, to air this first and do the reveal on a smaller scale like this was a strange move. I didn’t like it.

Vince McMahon comes out to the stage and says that it takes a real son of a bitch to be successful in this business. He then announces the new GM for Raw, Eric Bischoff! They hug, shake hands and raise each other’s hands in the air. Bischoff then continues on to the ring as Vince goes to the back. Bischoff lets everybody know that he ran the old WCW, not the watered-down version that invaded the former WWF. He was made famous during the Monday Night War. When Vince talked about “ruthless aggression”, who do you think he was talking about? He talks about all the guys he signed to beat WWE just because he could. He took the little family business run by the McMahons and gave it a kick in the crotch. He raided the company dry. And for those people who say he was successful only because of Ted Turner’s money, he has news for them. He was innovative. He reminds the fans of spoiling Raw results, so fans didn’t have to watch the program. He talks about how he made Alundra Blazy show up on Nitro and throw the WWF Womens Title into the trash. He made Vince change the way he did television. He created the NWO and Nitro beat Raw eighty-four weeks in a row. He came so close to putting the WWF out of business forever. There was one talent he couldn’t steal away, and he believes if he did, Nitro would still be on the air instead of Raw. And that man is Triple H, who will sign with him and not the NWO. People like to work for him, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the money, but rather he’s a winner. He says he’s here to stay and put the “E” in WWE. What a moment in time. The death of the NWO but then we see Bischoff and McMahon hugging on stage. An absolutely monumental moment if you followed during the Monday Night Wars. An inspired choice for sure, and Bischoff’s long winded, self-promoting promo was a nice way of getting over the character that he will be portraying. Great stuff here.

WWE Hardcore Champion Bradshaw and The Undertaker are talking in the back. Eric Bischoff comes over and says ‘Taker is the one guy he’s always wanted to meet and sign. If there’s anything ‘Taker ever needs, but Bradshaw cuts Bischoff and says it’s nice to meet him and what not. Bischoff shrugs Bradshaw off and tells ‘Taker if he ever needs anything, Bischoff will be there. Bischoff leaves and Bradshaw and ‘Taker both look disgusted. I don’t mind this as a way for more wrestlers to react to Bischoff. Also, shows Bischoff is only polite to people he seems to care about.

Match Three
WWE Womens Championship Match
Molly Holly (c) vs. Trish Stratus

Another match between these two that didn’t quite deliver. Considering that they are arguably the two of the best in the division, I’d expect better, but they just don’t seem to be clicking. I do like the booking of Trish having to further chase the title, as Molly retains and keeps her reign going though. The ending of this one is when Trish goes for Stratusfaction, but Molly reverses into a Back Suplex, and uses the ropes for leverage to get the pin. A nice defence kayfabe for Molly, but the match was bad. *1/4​

Backstage, we see Ric Flair walking when he meets Eric Bischoff. Bischoff says they have a lot of history together and he wants to leave that in the past. WWE is a whole knew start for both of them and he wants Flair to think about it. Flair says he wouldn’t use the words surprised in regard to how he feels and then walks off for his match tonight. LOVE this. So smart to play off their history, interesting confrontation.

Match Four
Booker T vs. The Big Show

Eh, just didn’t do anything for me this time around. Show does his power guy stuff at an extremely slow pace, looking dominating. Booker bumps around and tries hard for his comeback, but just something about this doesn’t work for me. Probably because it feels like they’re just randomly doing stuff to kill time until the booking. Very uninspired. I think this is the right move from a booking perspective though, keeping Show involved with Booker T and a fun feud, even with the NWO being no more. The match ends when Booker Clothesline Show over the top rope. Booker then gets s a steel chair and swings at Show but misses and hits the ring post. Show then grabs Booker and throws him into the ring. Show grabs the chair and throws the referee out of the ring before hitting Booker across the back with the chair. This is enough for Show to get disqualified. I get where this is heading but this wasn’t good. *3/4
​

After the match, they end up back on the floor and Booker goes for a Side Kick, but Show avoids it and Chokeslams Booker through the announce table. I think this is smart booking. This feud needed something to keep it hot and memorable now that the NWO isn’t around anymore. This sort of spot should do the job for a midcard feud.

Backstage, Brock Lesnar is doing bicep curls using a piece of the Raw set. Paul Heyman hypes up Lesnar. Heyman says he’s happy with the new GM and that anything can truly happen in WWE. Brock asks Heyman if he’s talked to The Undertaker. Heyman instead talks about Vengeance and how their situation is perfect. Brock can become Intercontinental champ and then go on to face the World Champion at Summerslam. Heyman says ‘Taker has no idea why he’s teaming with Lesnar. Nice segment to hype the main event. Love the tension between Brock and ‘Taker, despite them not really having many interactions with each other before tonight.

Before the next match, Christopher Nowinski says that he doesn’t want a Hardcore match and neither do the fans. He will allow Bradshaw to beat him lay on the match. Solid continuation of the angle where the Harvard graduate doesn’t want a Hardcore match, and Bradshaw is getting frustrated. Don’t mind this for a fun, lower card angle.

Match Five
WWE Hardcore Championship Match
Bradshaw (c) vs. Christopher Nowinski

This match isn’t good but based off the speech Nowinski just mentioned, I need to mention the awesome start. Nowinski lays down, but when Bradshaw goes for the free pin, Nowinski gets a small package out of nowhere, but Bradshaw escaped before three. From here, it’s just meandering typical Hardcore stuff, which isn’t all that interesting and fun anymore. Then out of nowhere, Johnny ‘The Bull’ Stamboli attacks Bradshaw and pins him to win the title. Match was bad, booking Stamboli as champ might be even worse. Yuck. *1/2​

Backstage, Big Show meets with Eric Bischoff and asks what is going on. He says that with the NWO gone, he thought he was screwed, but he’s excited that Bischoff is here now. Show has a favour to ask. He has a huge pain in the ass and it’s Booker T. He wants a piece of Booker at Vengeance in a no count out, no disqualification match. Bischoff says there is no guarantee Booker will even be able to wrestle, but Show insists. Bischoff doesn’t want to piss anyone off on his first night. But then he reconsiders saying they have history and finally, he relents and says that he’ll make the match and talk to Vince about it. Show hugs Bischoff. Then after Show leaves, Bischoff turns on a Triple H video. Show using his previous relationship with Bischoff to get what he wants is smart. More good stuff here and reminds us of Bischoff wanting to hype Triple H as well.

After the break, WWE Hardcore Champion Johnny Stamboli is talking to Eric Bischoff about beating Bradshaw for the WWE Hardcore Championship. Bischoff says it wasn’t his doing, all he did was give him the opportunity. Other than that, Stamboli did it on his own. Bradshaw then storms into the room and nails Stamboli with the Clothesline From Hell, and pins Stamboli. Not even sure what the point of this was, Stamboli shouldn’t be near any gold, even if it’s only for a few minutes. At least I’m happy that Bradshaw is champ again.

Backstage, Paul Heyman is talking to Brock Lesnar, about Vengeance and Summerslam and saying this is the summer of the next big thing. The Undertaker walks over and ‘Taker and Brock go face to face. Lesnar stops Heyman from talking and they head towards the ring. I’ve really enjoyed the dynamic being built between this team tonight, so this gets a pass from me.

Match Six
Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker vs. Ric Flair and Rob Van Dam

Solid main event here, but it’s clear they weren’t trying to kill themselves right before Vengeance. I don’t mind the booking here as well as RVD is already established as the mid card champion, so him getting pinned cleanly by ‘Taker here really isn’t the end of the world. Action was solid throughout, and it stayed rather fast paced, with ‘Taker and Lesnar not making things to plodding whenever they were in control. The ending comes about when RVD manages to get the Five Star Frog Splash on Lesnar, only for ‘Taker to nail RVD with The Last Ride for the pin. Solid stuff heading into Vengeance. **1/2​

After the match, ‘Taker stands tall, holding his title in the air. Brock then attacks him from behind and drills ‘Taker with the F5. Lesnar kicks the belt next to Taker’s body and then picks it up and looks at it. Honestly, whilst I enjoyed the show, seems wild they went all in on ‘Taker/Brock stuff, yet they wouldn’t feud together for another few months.

Backstage, Eric Bischoff makes a phone call and leaves a message for The Rock. He says he’s the GM of Raw and he’s a huge fan of The Rock. He believes that Raw needs The Rock and he’ll talk to Rock at Smackdown. This was an AWESOME finish. All night Bischoff has been talking about Triple H, but now we’re getting hit with him wanting The Rock as well. Good stuff.

Raw was back to more of a middling show this week. Some good stuff, some bad stuff and not much in between. They handled the Bischoff stuff really well for the most part.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Smackdown
July 18th, 2002
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania​

Michael Cole and Tazz welcome us to the show, and they hype the main event which will be Kurt Angle vs. The Rock. On top of that, the first ever Smackdown General Manager will be announced tonight. Pumped for both of these things, hopefully it’s the sign of a good show.

Marc Lloyd is waiting in the parking lot for the arrival of the new Smackdown GM. He will wait there until we find out who it is. Much like on Raw, looks like there continuing the trend of segments around who the GM will be, which is great.

Match One
Chris Jericho vs. John Cena

I doubt this was done intentionally but is kind of hilarious. Jericho really looks like the veteran here, where awesome pink and black attire, whilst Cena is wearing this mustard and brown colour stuff that looks awful. Really makes him seem like a rookie who has to wear this terrible stuff until he ‘makes it’ and gets better attire. I doubt it, but if this was intentional, that’s amazing. This was solid stuff for the time they got, and clearly have a good match in them, but this only went three minutes. The booking makes it seem like we will see another match between the two of them so hoping they get more time to make it happen in that one. It's really cool seeing Cena before he becomes a gimmick guy who brawls, and then becomes the guy everybody thinks can’t wrestle, but has one of the greatest title runs of all time… Anyway, it’s cool to see him have a different arsenal to what we’re used to and bust out some really cool reversals of things as well. In the end, Cena gets an Oklahoma Roll, which is what pinned Jericho in a tag match last week, but this time, Jericho gets out and then low blows Cena. The ref has no choice but to call for the DQ. Solid action even if it was short, and clearly focusing on angle advancement here. **1/2 ​

After the match, Jericho applies the Walls of Jericho until a bunch of referees pull him off. Jericho then grabs a steel chair and hits Cena in the back with the chair numerous times. Aftermath basically confirms they’ll definitely be fighting again. No issues with that, simple yet effective booking here.

Marc Lloyd is still in the back when a white limo pulls up. It’s Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff who has arrived to try and steal Smackdown talent. Nice tease, but having the RAW GM here, trying to poach talent, plants the seeds for plenty of drama later. I like it.

Backstage, Eric Bischoff meets Randy Orton and then gets directions to Hulk Hogan’s locker room. Bischoff walks in and Hogan hesitantly says it’s nice to see Bischoff, before saying he heard Bischoff was attempting to sign Triple H. Bischoff talks about signing Hogan. Hogan knows that Bischoff is here to talk to The Rock. Bischoff asks where Edge is and asks if Edge and Hogan are a package deal. Hogan asks if this is a negotiation, and Bischoff says Hogan taught him that he should always negotiate and then Bischoff leaves. Good segment. LOVE the idea of Bischoff chasing basically everybody, and Hogan being weary of his old friend plays off their history nicely. No complaints.

Match Two
Chavo Guerrero vs. The Hurricane

The match is good. Two Cruiserweights trying hard and putting on a good match. My confusion here for the most part is with the booking. It just feels so awkward to see Chavo, who has done next to nothing for his entire time in the company, come in and beat The Hurricane, who was literally fighting as the WWE Cruiserweight Champion at the last pay per view. What helps this match is that it isn’t just a typical Cruiserweight spot fest. Chavo’s offense has focus as he brutally works on the knee of Hurricane. It’s only four minutes, which again is a hindrance, but they do well enough with what they have. A good match and a good effort from Hurricane to, who sold the leg extremely well throughout. Whether on offense or defence, it was clear he always had one mind on the leg. They have some nice false finishes in the last minute or so as well. In the end, after an awesome Stretch Muffler Slam, Chavo locks in an STF and Hurricane taps. Strange result seemingly out of nowhere, even more so with Hurricane tapping, but I like Chavo, and the match was good, so it works for me. **3/4​

After the match Chavo gets on the time and starts by saying escuchame, escuchame, which just felt weird to see somebody else do Armando Estrada’s bit, even if it is four years to early. He says that he is the premiere Latin American superstar. So basically, he’s annoyed at all the vignettes, so he challenges Rey Mysterio to a match on Mysterio’s Smackdown debut next week. Promo was okay from Chavo. Now the booking makes sense. Build up a heel Cruiserweight who is not the champion so Rey can come in and beat them to look awesome in his debut. Maybe could have been done better, with Chavo’s rise not seeing so forced and random, but it makes sense.

In the parking lot, another limo has arrived, and Marc Lloyd thinks it’s the Smackdown GM. It’s not, it’s Vince McMahon. Vince is surprised that Bischoff is here and suggests that this will be an interesting evening. More teasing of the GM situation, all good.

Elsewhere Rico offers his services to Bischoff, but Bischoff just wants to know where The Rock’s dressing room is. Bischoff comes across Vince McMahon as he’s heading towards The Rock’s locker room. Bischoff tells Vince he had to come and check out Smackdown, the competition. He also says he’s not worried about the new Smackdown GM. Nice segment to remind us that Bischoff is off trying to raid Smackdown. And then yet another GM tease. I don’t know what else to say about these things. They all do their job and make these new positions seem like a huge deal.

Earlier today, Michael Cole had a sit-down interview with the WWE Undisputed Champion The Undertaker. ‘Taker says he is the Undisputed Champion not because he kissed ass and was protected, he is the Undisputed Champion because he defended his title. Nobody can beat him in a championship match. The Rock attacked him at King Of The Ring because he knows one on one, he can’t beat him. The Rock attacked him to get his attention. The Rock needs to expect ‘Taker’s wrath. He then accuses Kurt Angle of living in a delusional world for thinking he made him tap out. Angle can not make him tap ever. ‘Taker promises to straighten out a lot of things at Vengeance this Sunday. Kurt Angle and The Rock will find out that the WWE is his yard, “and if they get caught in it, they’re gonna’ get hurt” … Nothing amazing but solid promo from ‘Taker to promote the main event of Vengeance.

So apparently this next match was initially taped for Velocity, which is why the Velocity logo appears as the wrestlers make their entrances. Michael Cole tries to cover for it on commentary by saying that it’s an advertisement for Velocity. LOL, isn’t SD a taped show? Couldn’t they have sorted this out somehow?

Match Three
Billy and Chuck w/Rico vs. Hardcore Holly and Val Venis

Considering three of the four men involved in this are abysmal I expected terrible things, as I did when they met on Smackdown a few weeks ago. They surprised me then with putting on a low-level solid match, and hell, this one was even better. I’m not even stretching and being generous when I say this is solid, they just work well together it seems. Safe to say I was disappointed at a rematch initially lol. A surprising outcome as well, as it’s not the former champs who win, instead Holly and Venis get the victory. They clear the ring of Chuck and then Holly hits an Alabama Slam on Billy, allowing Val to finish things off with the Money Shot. Surprisingly solid work. **1/2

Match Four
Christian, Lance Storm and Test vs. Edge, Hulk Hogan and Rikishi

A good match here, but it is dampened somewhat by some questionable booking. The heel team here have just been getting jobbed out a little to often lately and it happened again here. Unsure why the team who is getting a title shot at Vengeance needs to take the fall over a guy like Rikishi who is adding no value since early 2001. Still, this was fun despite half the contestants in Test, Hogan and Rikishi being no good. Everyone just seemed to be on here, with weaknesses being hidden well, and a good match happening. So unfortunately Christian/Storm don’t really look like viable challengers at this point, or the faction including Test as a threat at all. Edge is the MVP here as he continues his great year. The heat segment on him was good as the heels punished him nicely, and Edge’s bursts of offense were enjoyable. Rikishi was also hardly in the match which most likely helped with match quality. Thumbs down for not having more Edge and Christian interactions in this match though, because they are always fun. Hogan gets the hot tag and does a good job, followed by a hot finishing run. A strong seven minutes which ends with Edge hitting the Edge-a-Cution on Storm and getting the pin. Fun match. **3/4​

In the back, Eric Bischoff finds The Rock and tries to get him on Raw. Bischoff thinks they would make a great team. Rock says he will be on Raw on Monday, but not because of Bischoff’s stupid offer. He’ll be on Raw because he’ll be the Undisputed Champion, and he can go on ANY show he wants. Rock then tells Bischoff that he was doing his part to take WCW out of business while Bischoff was using his creative influence on WCW. Good stuff here. Cool to see Bischoff finally really get put in his place by somebody he tried to recruit. Bischoff honestly feels as if he’s brought fresh life into the product which is great.

Vince McMahon comes out and says before he introduces the GM, he announces that if anyone on Raw or Smackdown wants to jump, they are allowed to try and negotiate with GM’s. He says that Bischoff is the best person for the job. Raw deserves the GM they got; he is not sure if Smackdown deserves the GM they are getting. And it’s Stephanie McMahon. We get a quick glimpse of wrestlers in the back who are confused by the decision. It’s not the final version she will use regularly, but we also here a version of “ALL GROWN UP” for the first time, which is an epic theme. Stephanie says she won’t allow Bischoff to take her Smackdown roster of guys like Rock, Hogan, Edge and the man who would have made WCW a success and is THE best in the world today, Triple H. At Vengeance the egg will be on Bischoff’s face when Triple H leaves to come back to Smackdown. Her first official act as GM will take place immediately. She’s going to get Bischoff thrown out of the building. The camera follows her as she goes looking for Bischoff backstage. She finds him talking to Christian, Lance Storm and Test. She tells him he has two choices. He could leave on his own or be thrown out. Bischoff opts to leave without causing problems. I’m probably being more positive about this because I’m looking at it in hindsight, and the fact is that up until the last month or so, Steph’s run as GM is pretty great. Admittedly, initially wanted to cringe at Vince choosing Steph to take over, but it works out well. A thumbs up for the first of many Bischoff/Steph interactions to kick off the competition aspect of the GM’s, which is great because it makes more things feel like high stakes.

They announce that Jamie Noble defending his WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Billy Kidman is official for Vengeance. Sounds good to me.

Match Five
Billy Kidman vs. Tajiri

A good match between these two, which shouldn’t be surprising with the amount of matches they’ve had against each other this year. On top of that, the right booking accompanies this with Kidman going over to continue to build his momentum heading into his title shot at the pay per view. Tajiri is the MVP though, absolutely awesome. Nice reversals, nice spots, and obviously Tajiri’s strikes are epic. It’s a shame that Kidman botches his Shooting Star Press somewhat, with his chest barely landing on Tajiri. Still that’s enough for Kidman to get the win. A good match here in spite of Kidman. Good work Tajiri. **3/4​

After the match, Jamie Noble tries to attack Kidman but is met with right hands. Tajiri gets Kidman with the green mist. Noble then hits Kidman with a Powerbomb and makes out with Nidia. Simple yet effective heat building. Looking forward to this match. More Noble and Nidia segments though please.

Backstage, Chris Jericho knocks on a door and meets with Stephanie McMahon. She is happy to see him. He congratulates her on the job and tries to suck up. He is thrilled to have her on Smackdown. Stephanie thanks Jericho for the compliments. She then compliments him on his unselfishness in stepping down from his match with Edge at Vengeance. As a reward, she books Edge vs. Jericho for next week. Jericho walks off all pissed off and when he leaves the room, he calls her a bitch under his breath. I enjoyed this as a nice play on their history working together earlier in the year. Good segment and sets the scene for the babyface no nonsense character that Steph will be playing.

Another Rey Mysterio hype vignette. He’ll be here next week. Finally. Yay!

Kurt Angle comes out for the main event but has some in ring promo time first. He says that he’s going to be the next WWE Undisputed Champion and it’s a given because he’s made The Undertaker tap out and he can do the same to The Rock. The Undertaker then comes out to do commentary for the main event. The Rock sprints down with Angle distracted and beats up Angle, ramming his head into ‘Taker’s bike and Suplexing him on the ramp. All fine enough, simple hype for Vengeance and the match that’s about to happen.

Match Six
Kurt Angle vs. The Rock

This is a good match, it’s decent but they are clearly holding back on the pay per view. These guys have had plenty of matches together at this point, and quite a few have been better than this. Again, this isn’t necessarily bad, just high expectations on this pairing, I guess. A fine conclusion to give some last-minute promotion for the main event this Sunday from a booking perspective as well. They were a bit lazy though as there was a lot of just pointless punching and kicking to fill to much time. They get ten minutes, and it heats up late and they deliver okay. The match breaks down at the end, and Undertaker attacks The Rock, who accidentally hit him earlier, for the DQ finish. Good match. **3/4​

After the match, The Undertaker pummels The Rock. Angle then hits ‘Taker with a chair. Rock attempts the Rock Bottom on Angle, but Angle reverses into the Ankle Lock, making Rock tap out. Angle stands tall. All solid enough. Looking this strong confirms Angle probably isn’t winning at Vengeance.

Outside, Marc Lloyd asks Triple H who he will sign with. Stephanie McMahon says she needs to talk to him, and it is strictly business. She asks for a minute to speak with him. He asks her if she’s sure she wants to be alone with him and is sure that she doesn’t want her lawyer present. She acknowledges that she deserves that. He says that on Sunday he will hear what she has to say and will make his decision. He then looks her up and down and asks if she’s gaining weight. Triple H gets in the limo and the window rolls down to reveal Eric Bischoff. He says she looks great before the limo drives off. Awesome ending. Covers the battle of signing Triple H, the competition between the GM’s, and again, continuity always wins points with the mentioning of Trips and Steph’s divorce from earlier in the year.

A really good episode of Smackdown. ALL of the wrestling delivered, and the GM stuff feels really fresh and exciting. Obviously need time for each show to set into their new groove after these changes to really judge, but this was great.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Velocity
July 20th, 2002
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Match One
Hugh Morrus vs. Shannon Moore

Eh, a bit of a meh match here. After looking like a million bucks in his debut last week, Moore kind of comes crashing back down to earth here. Not that I think it’s his fault, in terms of a big vs. small match, he played his role as the plucky underdog quite well. Unfortunately Morrus didn’t quite come to the party and the match didn’t click. Was difficult to buy into this one or be invested for one reason or another. After knocking Morrus off the top rope when he was attempting a Moonsault, Moore then climbs up top and hits a Corkscrew Moonsault for the win. The whole “I’ll pull you down from a Moonsault and then I’ll immediately do one” finish felt a little uninspired, but a surprising win for Moore here. Felt like he might have been the underdog here. Still match was not very good. *1/2​

We see a pre-taped promo from The Rock where he talks about Vengeance being only twenty-four hours away. He’s excited and can’t explain the feeling. He’s looking forward to making history as a seven-time WWE Champion. It’s The Rock so the promo is never going to be bad. A real basic one here just to promote Vengeance which is fine. Having a big name appear on Velocity, even for something as small as this, is great. Also on a side note, funny how back in 2002 being a 7-time champion would be considered a huge number, and now we look at what guys like Cena, Orton, Triple H have done instead.

Match Two
Albert vs. Nick Dinsmore

Albert and Hugh Morrus continue to have very similar matches on episodes of Velocity. Considering it’s only twenty-five minutes of new content on the show, would be nice if things could be spaced out or something. Feels very same/same. Now I don’t want to mix the message here, this match wasn’t good either, probably on a similar level to the last one. I did have a keen interest in this one though, as it’s the first time I’ve seen Dinsmore wrestle outside of the Eugene character he would eventually portray. I didn’t really like the match, but they didn’t just have Albert run over Dinsmore. The newcomer got a fair bit of offense in, which makes me think even at this time they saw some potential in him. Albert starting to get some wins on the board makes me happy, and on commentary, they even talk about how Albert could be a force in the WWE. Again, bad match, but feels like things are heading in the right direction here so I’ll take it. *1/2​

Surprisingly for an episode of Velocity, we now get some in ring promo time from the WWE Womens Champion Molly Holly. She has a responsibility against the women of both Raw and Smackdown for the fans. She loves to hear the fans cheer for her, but she hears them snickering and laughing at her. She says they all laughed when Trish Stratus pulled her pants down. She knows they all think she has a big behind, but that’s okay. She is pure and wholesome. She is a role model and believes the women should strive to be like her. She knows the men wouldn’t even know how to treat her. She has decided she is not going to defend the champions tonight. She then leaves. Ugh, promo is so frustrating. It’s good to get some promo work on Velocity, however she could do the exact same thing here and refuse the title defence by talking about how she’s pure and wholesome, and that they are vulgar and rude so on and so forth. The big ass stuff just needs to go away. Annoying me more by the episode. Also if Molly was scheduled to defend her title tonight, I wonder who it was against and why they didn’t appear to dispute Molly refusing to compete?

Match Three
WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match
Jamie Noble w/Nidia (c) vs. Funaki

Now this one was really disappointing, not only as a main event, but just the quality of the match in general. It’s probably at about the same level as the previous two matches on the show, but I’d think Noble and Funaki are two who could do a lot better. Noble tries to work on the leg of Funaki, softening it up for the Trailer Hitch, but Funaki doesn’t really sell it well, which ruins the focus of the match. This is another one of those pointless ‘wrestler gets a title match for no reason’ matches, and considering Noble has a title defence at Vengeance tomorrow night, the result is never in question. I get that Noble relies on Nidia a lot, but I also think when facing a guy like Funaki, who isn’t at the top level of the division, Noble should be able to get a clean win. Nidia forced to get involved here probably actually hurts Noble more than anything. She distracts the referee after Funaki nails a Tornado DDT to ensure Noble doesn’t get pinned. Noble does a pretty cool reversal of a German Suplex attempt by rolling into the Trailer Hitch to get the submission victory. Action was meh, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the way the finish was booked either. *1/2​

Probably the most disappointing episode of Velocity in a while. I can usually always find something worth watching on the show, but not this week. Completely skippable.

 

[Stojy]

WWE Heat
July 21st, 2002
Detroit, Michigan​

The show begins with a video recapping, highlighting the biggest news of the week. Vince McMahon announced Eric Bischoff as the new Raw General Manager and Stephanie McMahon as the new Smackdown General Manager.

Backstage, Lilian Garcia interviews John Cena. Cena says Jericho beat him with a chair on Smackdown, but he didn’t finish him off. Cena is here tonight for one reason and that is to challenge Jericho. He isn’t only the rookie with “ruthless aggression”, but he is also the rookie who will kick Jericho’s ass. Cena then does an awful rewind thing and repeats that he’s going to kick Jericho’s ass. Solid enough promo from Cena, although the ending fell flat and wasn’t ‘cool’ so to speak. I do like the challenge being laid out to Jericho tonight though, because this would likely be a really good addition to the Vengeance card.

Note: I genuinely just don’t feel like recapping all of the video package/hype segments with no new content, so just going to stick to the new content portion of the show.

We see a clip from moments ago which shows Triple H arriving at the arena. This allows The Coach and D’Lo Brown discuss whether he will join Raw or stay with Smackdown. Cool.

We get the at this point obligatory Rey Mysterio debut vignette. This time it says “he’s coming this Thursday” … Still can’t wait for this.

Match One
Goldust vs. Steven Richards

This one is nothing to write home about. A below average match to hold the fans over until the good stuff at Vengeance kicks off. Nothing necessarily wrong with this, just clearly low effort and killing time for the most part. There are some positives here though. The fans did seem to buy into some of the false finishes that Richards produced, which is a good thing for him. And the fans are really into Goldust as a babyface now, which is mainly due to his character work with Booker T. This is fantastic for what’s to come. Anyway, match wasn’t great and Goldust hits a Snap Powerslam out of nowhere to get the win, in what was a weird ending. Not very good from these two. *1/2 ​

We see a clip of The Rock now arriving in the arena, allowing the commentary team to hype the main event of Vengeance. Also cool.

Backstage, Terri interviews Chris Jericho regarding John Cena’s challenge from earlier. Jericho calls Cena a stupid, clueless jackass. He recalls hitting Cena with a chair a bunch of times. After seventy fife chair shots, you would think Cena wouldn’t come back for more. Jericho accepts Cena’s challenge for a wrestling match. He’s accepting for two reasons. One, he wants to teach the kid another lesson and two, he wants to prevent disaster and prevent something catastrophic from happening. He should get a reward for being on the show and preventing a mass refund. Good promo from Jericho, accepting the challenge and effectively portraying how he feels about Cena. LOVED the arrogance around the fan revolt if he wasn’t on Vengeance, so he’s appearing for the better of everybody. Such epic delusion.

We come back from commercials and Michael Cole and Tazz come out. They stand in front of the announcers table where JR and The King sit, and Tazz gets a mic, saying that JR and The King are the greatest broadcast team in their business. He demands that he and Cole get to do some pay per view commentary. He talks about how they deserve an opportunity to, and King seems against it, but JR offers to let Cole and Tazz call the first half of the pay per view, and then he and King will do the second half. Cole and Tazz accept the offer. Love the idea of Cole and Tazz just taking initiative here, good stuff. Obviously, they still haven’t got the formula exactly right, with them splitting the PPV in half, as opposed to each brands commentators calling their brands matches, but we’ll get there in due course.

Always difficult to judge this episode of Heat. The one match wasn’t good, but this show is mainly just to hype the PPV that starts straight after.