Gorman

FTFY

Wrestling Observer Mustard ****** 1/2

Thoughts on Rebellion 2002 What can we expect from a UK-only, Smackdown-only pay-per-view? Matches like Crash vs. Funaki and Simmons & D-Von vs. Palumbo & Venis. Something tells me those bouts wouldn't have been booked on a US-based PPV. John Cena teamed with Dawn Marie, as he was still in the "Before They Were Stars" era. Kidman can tell his grandkids that he beat John Cena and Hulk Hogan. "Yeah, right, Grandpa!" If Rikishi doesn't win a Kiss My Ass match, then what are we doing here? Fortunately, he beat Albert, gave him the Stinkface, and danced with the Smackdown announcers. Booker T was a special guest from Raw, beating Matt Hardy v1.0 in the opener. This was to make up for the absence of Undertaker, who was getting ready to become a dad. Edge almost won the WWE title in a handicap match with Lesnar & Heyman. This main-event appearance foreshadowed Edge's many World titles. Jamie Noble is the MVP. He defended the Cruiserweight title in an elimination match against Tajiri and Rey Jr. ... and he pinned them both!

Whoops -- we need an MVP. It's Lesnar again, for busting Taker WIDE open and pinning him in the middle of the ring in Taker's specialty match.

Hoping for a 1920 rematch - same result

Thoughts on No Mercy 2002 WWE piled on the “Attitude Era” stupidity leading up to this show. This was not necessary to hype Lesnar-Undertaker in the Cell and HHH-Kane to unify the World and IC titles. The Katie Vick stuff caused me to change the channel for the first and only time in almost 40 years as a wrestling fan. Smackdown needed its own half-baked Clinton-era sex scandal, so Taker’s former girlfriend Tracy made allegations about him. She admitted on the PPV that she had lied. Really? “I didn’t know he was married,” she said about the guy with a giant SARA tattoo on his neck. Al Wilson even quoted Clinton when Funaki asked him the hard-hitting question, “Why did you have your clothes on in the shower?” The WWE ran a video package on the Intercontinental title, featuring outstanding matches and all-time great wrestlers. Look at this amazing thing we're throwing away! Dawn Marie made her PPV wrestling debut in the WWE, after only serving as a manager on ECW pay-per-views. She did pretty well in a losing effort against Torrie Wilson. Big Show demanded that Eric Bischoff put him in a PPV main event or he would break Bischoff’s neck. That doesn’t seem to be the best way to deal with your boss … unless you work for WWE.

Jose Ramirez is one homer away from the becoming the seventh member of the 40/40 club (Canseco, Bonds, A-Rod, Soriano, Acuna, Ohtani). If he also hits a double, he'll join the 40/40/40 club (Soriano).

Thoughts on Unforgiven 2002 Molly Holly lost the women’s title back to Trish Stratus, but at least the commentators were more respectful to her. The HLA segment took up valuable pay-per-view time, just like the Triple H free agency segment at Vengeance. Rikishi’s disguise was not on the world-class level as Bischoff’s preacher costume from the Chuck & Billy wedding. Undertaker had an inconclusive match in September with Brock Lesnar, followed by a Hell in a Cell match in October. That’s exactly what happened with Shawn Michaels five years earlier. Taker went on to have even more famous matches with both opponents at WrestleMania. Ric Flair’s “final big run” came to a screeching halt as he lost his IC title match against Jericho. Triple H went backstage and called him a loser, and then Flair helped HHH retain the World title against RVD. I expected them to laugh at their clever SWERVE~!, but it wasn’t a swerve! HHH really convinced Flair that he didn’t have it anymore and should be relegated to helping Hunter retain the World title. For turning Ric Flair into Arn Anderson, Triple H is the MVP.

Even Chavo Guerrero Sr. had to be "Chavo Classic"

Thoughts on SummerSlam 2002 Kurt Angle was the perfect first opponent on PPV for Rey Misterio. In this case, WWE was justified in defying Lucha Libre tradition and WCW history by letting Rey Jr. wear his mask. He never should have lost it in the first place. Ric Flair continued his career renaissance, adding a win over Chris Jericho to his victory over Eddy Guerrero. Aside from The Importance of Being Triple H, the other main storyline in WWE was the Battle for Brand Supremacy between Eric Bischoff’s Raw and Stephanie McMahon’s Smackdown. This was a focal point of the RVD-Benoit match for the IC title. Both bosses had been villains for years, so who were the fans supposed to cheer? Test helped the Un-Americans retain the tag team belts over Booker & Goldust, but of course, he lost to The Undertaker. Here’s another invasion that Taker could repel all by himself. I don’t like to split the MVP vote, but leaving one of these two out would be a crime against wrestling. Shawn Michaels is an MVP for returning after a four-year absence, surviving a brutal beating from former friend Triple H, and pinning him in the middle of the ring. Having a healthy Shawn Michaels back in the fold was a game changer (no pun intended). Remember when Undertaker put together a perfect rookie year and capped it off by winning the title? Brock Lesnar did it in five months, pinning The Rock to win the WWE title and his own MVP award. Lesnar wasn’t undefeated, but he seemed almost as unbeatable as Goldberg in his march to the title. The kids were cheering for the Rock, but the guys in the crowd were ready for Brock to take over.

As a former editor on the Bleacher Report website in its early years (when it was written by fans - hence the name), I found it hilarious that later in its existence, you could actually WATCH sports on Bleacher Report.

Thoughts on Vengeance 2002 Chris Benoit returned to PPV after being injured at King of the Ring 2001. He press-slammed Spike Dudley through a table, only to get put through a table by Bubba Ray Dudley. Maybe the WWE era will include actually winning your specialty match. John Cena debuted on PPV with an upset win over Chris Jericho. It was strange to see Cena coming out to a generic rock song, rather than his own rap music. Edge was the rare partner of Hulk Hogan who didn’t turn on him. If he had, Edge could have rejoined Christian, taken over the Un-Americans, and had a big match with the Hulkster at SummerSlam. Instead, Jericho came back and caused Edge & Hogan to lose the tag team title. Booker T challenged the 500-pound Big Show to a no-DQ match and beat him in the middle of the ring with the Harlem Houston Hangover leg drop. Booker celebrated with the Spinnaroonie and earned the MVP award. Welcome to the era of WWE in which Triple H is the most important person on the show. Even though Bischoff and Stephanie could have a bidding war for any wrestler, they focused on HHH. This long segment didn’t have to be on PPV. Despite divorcing her earlier in the show, Hunter chose Stephanie, only to be talked out of it at the last minute by Shawn Michaels, who promised him “friendship and fun!” Speaking of ex-wives, Terri interviewed Booker T for his thoughts on this development, and she completely ignored Goldust. The Rock-Undertaker-Angle main event was surprisingly great. It was a non-stop fireworks display of action. Rock finally pinned Angle to win Undertaker’s title and set up the SummerSlam main event against Brock Lesnar.

Guardians are in the playoffs! New manager, they lose Shane Bieber in April, they did it anyway!

Thoughts on King of the Ring 2002 Molly Holly won the women’s title from Trish Stratus, but the announcers spent the whole match falsely accusing Molly of having a big behind. That was garbage. Speaking of disrespecting women, Nidia was never taken seriously as a wrestler because she became the focus of the Noble-Hurricane feud. That means the cruiserweight title (which Noble won) was not the focus. When Steve Austin left the company, Ric Flair was yanked out of his spot as owner of Raw and plugged into Austin’s feud with Eddy. It’s a shame we missed out on that. Flair beat Eddy after interference from Bubba Ray Dudley (of all people). The Rock interfered in the Undertaker-HHH main event, seemingly setting up a three-way for Vengeance, but Kurt Angle ended up in Hunter’s spot. Hogan-Angle was a surprisingly good match. Before it started, Angle said he earned “real American hero” status in the Olympics, while Vince McMahon merely gave that mantle to the Hulkster. Brock Lesnar is the MVP for beating Test and RVD to become King of the Ring. Paul Heyman lent a hand in both matches, but Brock had a Thanos-like inevitability in his march to the crown and eventually the WWE title.

Yep, that was it. The ref counted the 1, 2, 3, on top of the Cell, just as if they were in the ring.

Thoughts on Judgment Day 2002 Eddy-RVD for the IC title was a great match to start the WWE era on PPV. It was billed as the Battle of the Frog Splashes, but both men crashed and burned. Eddy used his feet on the ropes to retain the title before his “lie-cheat-steal” ethos became popular. The Dudleys didn’t have the same “nice to see ya” moment after the brand split like the APA had at Backlash. D-Von and Deacon Batista put Bubba through a table, so they went back to their early ECW days when they couldn’t stop fighting. When the nWo arrived three months earlier, it was the original lineup of Hogan, Nash, and Hall. On this show, it was already diluted to Big Show, X-Pac, and Booker T. Austin earned the MVP award by defeating Flair and Big Show in a handicap match. Rico became WWE tag team champion after accompanying the champs, Billy & Chuck, to the ring. He was named Rikishi’s mystery partner, which was supposed to put Rikishi at a 3-on-1 disadvantage. Instead, Rico accidentally superkicked Chuck (his opponent!) and won the title. Triple H and Chris Jericho battled in a Hell in a Cell match, taking out their frustrations over both losing the WWE title in the previous two months. HHH scored the pin on top of the Cell, which shouldn’t have been legal. Speaking of wrestlers who have each other’s number, Undertaker won the title from Hulk Hogan, just like he did at Survivor Series 91. So the WWE burned through the nWo nostalgia and the Hulkamania nostalgia in three months.

I have published my ECW history book, "King of Philadelphia: Who Was the MVP of Extreme Championship Wrestling?" Here's the link: King of Philadelphia: Who Was the MVP of Extreme Championship Wrestling? (Jeff Gorman's Pro Wrestling History): GORMAN, JEFF: 9798327497351: Amazon.com: Books. As per tradition, let's see how many Dean tributes I put in this book: For taking psychological warfare to the EXTREME~!, Raven is the MVP. New Jack's unique brand of mayhem (including a STAPLE GUN~!) was only available in ECW. He decided this match needed MORE COWBELL~! and taped a second one to Corino's head. Making up the rules as you go along is EXTREME~! Because copyright infringement is EXTREME~!

I'm proud to announce the publication of my new ECW history book, "King of Philadelphia." This finishes the "Attitude Era" trilogy that started with "King of New York (WWF)" and continued with "King of Atlanta (WCW)." As always, kudos to my cousin Dan Gorman for the amazing cover artwork. I hope you are all enjoying this collection of wrestling history books. King of Philadelphia: Who Was the MVP of Extreme Championship Wrestling? (Jeff Gorman's Pro Wrestling History): GORMAN, JEFF: 9798327497351: Amazon.com: Books

My friend and former broadcast partner "Hot $hot" Drew Lazario of Wildcat Belts made it. He's done a lot of other championships for WWE, and he does the belts for the hot dog contest on ESPN.

I was actually there! I was in Florida for a newspaper internship, and I made the trip from Lakeland to Jacksonville for Clash 13.

I will agree and I will add the second Razor-HBK ladder match at SummerSlam 95. I was at both of these shows!

Very blessed that I got to call AmDrag's Iron Man match with Doug Williams in the main event of ROH Scramble Madness. Also, thanks to Bryan for letting me borrow his watch for the 60-minute match between Samoa Joe and CM Punk at World Title Classic.

She must have attended the Mr. Hughes School of Bodyguarding. One thing I learned when writing the WWF-WCW-ECW books is that Mr. Hughes only had a 20 percent effectiveness rate as a bodyguard.

I made sure to put it in "King of Atlanta:" PAGE 25: "This version of the VAH-sity Club won the belts from The Road Warriors ..." PAGE 88: "Kevin Sullivan disposed of his brother at SuperBrawl and Brutus here, so he was free to answer the call of his FATHAH~! to form the Dungeon of Doom and attempt to destroy Hulkamania." PAGE 179: "Duggan needed help against the Revolution, so he brought in the VAH-SITY Club ..."

I am imagining a harbor where everyone is working peacefully on Piers 1-5 and 7-10, but on Pier 6 they are throwing haymakers.