In Your House

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I think I'd probably take the Mania match honestly, just because I liked Jericho's performance in that one if nothing else. It probably wouldn't be as shit on as it is if not for the circumstances.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Vengeance 2002.

 

Bubba Ray and Spike Dudley Vs Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit: Tables match, like it's 2000 all over again. I remember how disappointed I was at the time that Benoit returned from his injury and was put straight into this midcard feud. He and Eddie probably would have been a really great team had they tagged together more consistently, as they obviously had a chemistry, and each brought different things to the table. This was structured kinda like a lucha match, with the heels getting an early lead and just dominating for a long time before the faces made a comeback. Crowd is into this, and it's pretty decent, the Duds getting the win after Benoit takes a Bubba Bomb through a table (which is kind of a shit bump, but there you go). Eddie is still getting lots of heat at this point. I wonder when the crowd turns back in his favour.

 

Jamie Noble Vs Billy Kidman: This isn't a patch on the Kidman/Tajiri match, though I love Noble's act, and Nidia really adds a lot too. Underrated valet. Very spotty this one though. Kidman not looking good. Nice win for Noble.

 

Jeff Hardy Vs William Regal: For Hardy's Euro title. They show footage of Regal crying after he lost the belt to Hardy. That's a winning gimmick. Just a short match, so doesn't really get going, but Regal shows some flashes before succumbing to the Swanton and crying again.

 

Chris Jericho Vs John Cena: Christ, Cena already? For some reason I was thinking it'd be about another year before he showed up, but this makes sense. Very generic here. Funny that they seemed to push him pretty hard coming out the gate, like they had high hopes for him, but then he ended up having to save himself from the scrap heap with the rapper gimmick. Basic match, fine for what they were going for, but this is a big drop off for Jericho from going into Mania as the champ to putting over a rookie in the midcard.

 

Rob van Dam Vs Brock Lesnar: For RVD's IC title. This is wrestled a bit more even than previous Brock matches, though he's still dominant. Cheap DQ win for RVD when Heyman pulls the ref out of the ring as he counts after a 5-star frog splash. It annoys me that JR and King don't put over that Brock actually kicked out of the frog splash anyway.

 

Booker T Vs The Big Show: Booker is a fully-fledged face now, after his short stint in the nWo, and is very popular. This is a spirited little no DQ match, and I like that it ends with a dominant win for Booker. Nice to see when the style of multiple nearfalls is so prevalent. Axe kick through the announce table, axe kick in the ring, Houston Hangover, and done. That axe kick is poor though. I think it was one of Dean's commix that depicted the recipient of the kick growing old while he waited hunched over for it to be hit.

 

After this there was a 20 minute or so segment where Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon were both trying to sign Triple H to their brand, which came off like a total waste of time and ego trip for the Game. He chooses Steph, but then Shawn Michaels comes out and persuades him to pick Raw so that they can cause havoc together again like the old days. Fuck this.

 

We then get interviews with Rikishi and Booker T about the Triple H decision, just to emphasise how big a deal it is, although the latter set up a BookDust skit, so I'm down with that. They were great together.

 

Lance Storm and Christian Vs Hulk Hogan and Edge: Tag title match. Stellar commentary in this one, as JR explains that Edge witnessed Hogan wrestling the Ultimate Warrior at the Skydome at WrestleMania 3. He then corrects himself to say that of course WrestleMania 3 was held "right here in Chicago". I guess it's forgiveable not knowing where Mania 3 was, but not knowing in which city he's sitting at that precise moment is a bit more worrisome (Mania 3 was in Pontiac, by the way). Still, this was all better than Lawler ranting about all the great things America does for countries all over the world, "and are they grateful? No". Plus jokes about how weak Canada's army is. I'm remembering why I was so pleased when Coach and Al Snow took over for that short period of time. Storm and Christian steal the belts with help from Test and Jericho in a basic and solid match.

 

The Undertaker Vs The Rock Vs Kurt Angle: Man, I hate this match. Seen it a couple of times recently as I think it's on a couple of different DVDs, and I think it's garbage every time. Some really egregious examples of guys just lying around on the outside whilst the other two fight it out (I think Angle sells a clothesline for 20 minutes at one point), and my least favourite thing ever, finisher swapping. Rocky doing a chokeslam and Taker doing an Angle Slam just looks so stupid. Oh well, the crowd were rocking and rolling for this, so at least they enjoyed it. Rock wins the title so he can job it to Brock at Summerslam. I think Taker could have had a longer run with the belt, but it makes more sense for Brock to win it from Rock.

 

Match of the night: Nothing really stands out. Maybe just plump for the tables match at about 2 3/4 stars.

 

Show rating: I guess how much you like the show depends on how you feel about the main event. I hate it, and there just isn't enough quality on the undercard to make me recommend this. 2 stars.

[Brian Fowler]

I was there.

It was fun.

I didn't go to RAW the next night where Eddy wrestled Rock.

I still hate myself.

[RandomAct]

I remember every pimping that 3 way heavily at the time.  To me it was disappointing simply because ROH had already run Dragon/Ki/Daniels, and TNA had run the stellar Ki/Lynn/Styles 3 way like, a month before.

[AxB]

 Still, this was all better than Lawler ranting about all the great things America does for countries all over the world, "and are they grateful? No". Plus jokes about how weak Canada's army is. 

 

I remember when Angle won the title in late 2001, and JR started taking how great it was that we had a Patriotic American as World Champion, and how 'all is right with the world... or at least the Wrestling bit of it'. They're so keen to tell us that they're being watched in all these Countries around the world but they never stop to think about how cringeworthy the nationalism they espouse would seem overseas.

 

See when you've finished the IYH/non-big 4 WWF/E series, are you going to watch every WCW Clash of the Champions ever?

 

Some of them are really good.

[Jiji]

I think I would actually be on board and watch along if you were to do a Clash marathon. I haven't seen most of them, particularly the earlier ones, and I know I love me some NWA/WCW zaniness.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I did the Clashes along with all the WCW ppvs not long before I started this project. I'm planning on doing ECW (TV and ppv) next. Would love for people to join me for the ride.

[Brysynner]

Still, this was all better than Lawler ranting about all the great things America does for countries all over the world, "and are they grateful? No". Plus jokes about how weak Canada's army is.

I remember when Angle won the title in late 2001, and JR started taking how great it was that we had a Patriotic American as World Champion, and how 'all is right with the world... or at least the Wrestling bit of it'. They're so keen to tell us that they're being watched in all these Countries around the world but they never stop to think about how cringeworthy the nationalism they espouse would seem overseas.

To be fair to WWE the win you're thinking of was shortly after the 9/11 attacks so America as a whole was in full cheerleader mode. It made sense to put the belt on Angle at that time and promote him as an American hero.

[cwoy2j]

 

Chris Jericho Vs John Cena: Christ, Cena already? For some reason I was thinking it'd be about another year before he showed up, but this makes sense. Very generic here. Funny that they seemed to push him pretty hard coming out the gate, like they had high hopes for him, but then he ended up having to save himself from the scrap heap with the rapper gimmick. Basic match, fine for what they were going for, but this is a big drop off for Jericho from going into Mania as the champ to putting over a rookie in the midcard.

 

Jericho said that he requested to work with Cena. Remember that Smackdown where Cena and Edge were in a cage fighting against Jericho, Test, Christian and Rey came off the top and hte show ended with Michael Cole screaming about "look at the future of Smackdown"? According to Jericho, he was under the impression they were going to work a long UnAmericans vs. Rey/Edge/Cena program but Vince felt like RAW needed more star power so he drafted Y2J to that show. Jericho was pretty miffed b/c he thought that angle would've elevated everyone and they would've made a lot of money together. Would've been interesting if they went that route. Would we have ever seen Cena's rapping character if that would've happened?

[cwoy2j]

I think I would actually be on board and watch along if you were to do a Clash marathon. I haven't seen most of them, particularly the earlier ones, and I know I love me some NWA/WCW zaniness.

 

One thing I love about those early Clashes is that seemingly every time they needed a warm body to fill out a match, they just threw a mask on Jack Victory.

 

Super Destroyer!

Russian Assassin!

The Terrorist!

And my personal favorite......THE BLACKMAILER!!!

[cwoy2j]

I was there.

It was fun.

I didn't go to RAW the next night where Eddy wrestled Rock.

I still hate myself.

 

Eddy's roll-up counter to the Rock Bottom is one of the slickest things I've seen inside a wrestling ring.

 

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Unforgiven 2002.

 

Test, Lance Storm, Christian and William Regal Vs Kane, Booker T, Bubba Ray Dudley and Goldust: This could have been really good if it had got more time. As it is it was just good. Not sure why Regal was wrestling in a t.shirt, but it's good to see him on ppv again. Needed more Regal/Goldust interaction. Goldust was looking really good in this, and Booker was really over. Standard finisher train stuff to finish, with the faces going over.

 

Chris Jericho Vs Ric Flair: Jericho is IC champ again. Nothing really much to this match. Jericho does the old fake an injury routine, which is actually really funny because it literally leads right to the finish. Jericho simply whips Flair into the Walls, and Flair taps.

 

Eddie Guerrero Vs Edge: The Smackdown 6-era is growing in momentum, and this is better than any of the Angle/Edge matches I've watched for this. Eddie is just a better heel than Kurt, better at building heat, and this is a more story-driven match, with Edge having some post-concussion issues and Eddie focusing on the head. Nice finish with Edge's head being driven into the exposed turnbuckle, and Eddie snapping off a wicked sunset flip powerbomb. I imagine if you remember this match for anything it would be that finisher, because even I remembered that and I have a terrible memory for wrestling, as might be apparent.

 

3-Minute Warning Vs Billy and Chuck: Oh, the gay wedding angle. It started off so, so bad, and then became so, so awesome with the Bischoff reveal. This whole angle is mindblowing. If Billy and Chuck lose Stephanie has to partake in hot, lesbian action. My wife happened to walk in while I was watching this, and her eyes nearly rolled out of her head. Bischoff has a trio of women in the back who are begging to be the one who gets to HLA it up with Steph, and then Bischoff gets them chanting HLA. I've seen porn that started similar to this. This is amazing in its unabashed trashiness, but, y'know, it's so ridiculous and unapologetic that it's hard to be offended by it. The match is bland as hell, not helped by the fact that everyone wanted the heels to win for the HLA pay-off.

 

Triple H Vs Rob van Dam: This is pretty bad. These two are just a terrible match-up, as RVD really only has a chance of being fun in shorter spotty trainwreck-style matches, and Hunter is in full-on NWA champ mode here, meaning this goes nearly 20 mins. RVD really shits the bed from his end too. His offence, particularly his strikes, look terrible, and there's a moment early on where he clearly doesn't make it back into the ring before the 10 count, and even JR has to admit that the ref made a bad call letting the match continue. I guess this match is notable for being the start of the on-screen Hunter/Flair alliance, as Flair comes out and gives RVD a sledgehammer shot to help Trips retain.

 

Trish Stratus Vs Molly Holly: Trish wins back the women's title. Bad match, although I liked this little heel run from Molly.

 

Chris Benoit Vs Kurt Angle: The resumption of an old rivalry. This is actually probably better than any of there more well-known matches, since it doesn't feel as overblown. Although, having said that, there's still a shit-tonne of Germans, and finisher reversals. I did like that Benoit cheated to win, with his feet on the ropes.

 

HLA time, and Bischoff is introduced as being accompanied by "the lesbians". This was pretty uncomfortable, and brought to mind the Trish "bark like a dog" segment, as far as a heel man sexually humiliating a babyface female, with the crowd lapping it up. Then Rikishi saved it.

 

Brock Lesnar Vs The Undertaker: Now this was a match. Two monsters just throwing everything at each other, both guys juicing. Brock continues to look awesome, especially for his experience level. This is the best Taker has looked in ages too. I was really pissed with the double DQ finish (as were the crowd), because a match this hard-fought deserved a winner. I hated the finish to Lesnar/Reigns for the same reason. The post-match brawl was great though. I loved how exhausted they both were (great selling or not), but both refused to back down. I'm looking forward to revisiting the cell match, which I loved at the time.

 

MOTN: Taker/Lesnar which I'd put around 3 and 3/4 stars. Edge/Eddie gets 3.

Show rating: Pretty decent show overall. A couple of nothing matches, and the bad WHC match, but everything else ranged from decent to really good. The HLA stuff is at least insane to think about. 3 stars.

[Brian Fowler]

Closing in on one of the best b ppvs ever.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE No Mercy 2002.

 

Goldust and Booker T Vs Chris Jericho and Christian: Jericho and Christian are tag champs. BookDust are one of my favourite tag teams. This is a really hot opening match. Goldust continues to look great during this run, and Booker is bringing it too recently. They did a lot with the time they were given (under 10 mins). The second turnbuckle breaks as Jericho attempts a Lionsault, so he ends up having to improvise and hit a top rope moonsault for the win.

 

Torrie Wilson Vs Dawn Marie: I remember being shockingly impressed by a match these two had at Royal Rumble 2003, specifically by Dawn Marie. That was the blow-off to the Al Wilson saga, and here it's just beginning. What a crazy time to be a wrestling fan. This is terrible. It feels at least double its 5 minute length, and really these girls shouldn't be going more than 3 mins anyway.

 

Rob van Dam Vs Ric Flair: Flair has been looking better than I remembered during this run. I'm completely done with RVD at this point. Short basic match with RVD getting a pretty comfortable win.

 

Jamie Noble Vs Tajiri: Man, Noble and Nidia were such a good act. They could have just run with them as an act forever and I don't think I would have got bored of it. Tajiri is great too, of course, and it showing tonnes  of charisma here back in a babyface role. The finish (Nidia helps Noble counter a victory roll) is a bit of a let-down but the post-match makes up for it, with Tajiri planting a kiss on Nidia, and then, when Noble 'shows him how it's done', Tajiri gives him the buzzsaw kick in the back of the head.

 

Triple H Vs Kane: Katie Vick was such a shitty angle. Not just because it was so trashy and in bad taste, but because it totally killed Kane's backstory, and was really something that no-one gave a shit about. The match bore that out, as it was pretty heatless, especially early on before all the shenanigans kicked in (Flair and Hurricane run-ins, sledgehammer shots). It seems in the early going like Hunter is deliberately trying to sandbag Kane, and just in general he looks pretty crap in this. His bumping, which was one of his strengths, has really gone to shit. He looks weird too- clean-shaven and poofy haired. Kane is rocking a weird beard, so all in all the aesthetic of this match is throwing me off. This really sucks. Hunter, of course, wins, and that's it for the IC title for now. King, by the way, is fucking unbearable calling this match. All he talks about is Katie Vick. Just horrible altogether.

 

Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit Vs Rey Mysterio and Edge: Final of the WWE tag title tournament. The first 7/8 mins of this are pretty forgettable, but then they kick it into top gear and this turns into a really good match. Edge and Mysterio had some awesome double team offence, mostly consisting of Edge throwing Mysterio onto people. Mysterio and Angle were the stars of the match. Angle worked better as the over-confident bully, rather than going 50/50 with guys. This breaks down and we get nearfall after nearfall, but it's all good stuff, the best one being Angle kicking out of an inadvertent flying headbutt from Benoit. Finally Edge taps to the ankle lock and Benoit and Angle are the champs.

 

Trish Stratus Vs Victoria: Victoria has a couple of nice spots, but overall doesn't look good here. Trish has been looking crap more often than not in these ppv matches. Trish retains the title. I did like how in the post-match Victoria gives Trish a kick to the face, and the ref immediately dives in to wrestle Victoria out of the ring- made Victoria look really dangerous for the ref to react like that.

 

The Undertaker Vs Brock Lesnar: Hell in a cell. The negative first- the stuff with Taker's wife seemed really unnecessary, and there was an all-time bad level backstage bit earlier between Stephanie and Tracy, the woman who is supposedly having an affair with "Mark". But come bell-time that's all forgotten about, and these two put on a classic, one of the best cell matches ever. So violent and hate-filled. It isn't quite Kong/Hotta, but Brock's attack on Taker's hand is pretty damn brutal in its own right. I love all the stuff involving Heyman, and him juicing added a lot to the match. Taker's blade job is epic, and the finish is so great, with Brock reversing the tombstone and then just popping Taker onto his shoulders for the F5. This was really the match that made Brock, I think, even more than the Hogan or Rock matches. It's along match, nearly half an hour, but it never drags.

 

MOTN: Taker/Brock which I have at about 4.5 stars. I give the SD tag match 3.75, the Raw tag 3.25, and the cruiserweights 3.

Show rating: Hunter/Kane is like the stone of shame dragging this one down (the two women's matches suck, but you expect that and they don't take up much time). Otherwise you have 4 matches that range from good to MOTYC. I guess I'd go about 3.75 on this.

[Brian Fowler]

Man, I totally blocked the RAW half of that show from my memory. Cruisers + tag final + HIAC, Smackdown delivered.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

Kinda endemic of the whole era, don't you think? I'm open to finding some Raw gems though. BookDust are my favourite act in the company at this time, so there is that.

[cwoy2j]

 

Rob van Dam Vs Ric Flair: Flair has been looking better than I remembered during this run. I'm completely done with RVD at this point. Short basic match with RVD getting a pretty comfortable win.

 

I think Flair was roiding up a bunch during the mid-00s. In his book, Hardcore Holly said that when they implemented the Wellness Policy, both Flair and Taker flat out refused to take the tests and somehow got away with it. He said that HHH, Cena and Batista were all tested but he has no clue what they were tested for b/c he was fairly certain they were all on the gas and never got suspended or fined.

[cwoy2j]

 

The Undertaker Vs Brock Lesnar: Hell in a cell. The negative first- the stuff with Taker's wife seemed really unnecessary, and there was an all-time bad level backstage bit earlier between Stephanie and Tracy, the woman who is supposedly having an affair with "Mark". But come bell-time that's all forgotten about, and these two put on a classic, one of the best cell matches ever. So violent and hate-filled. It isn't quite Kong/Hotta, but Brock's attack on Taker's hand is pretty damn brutal in its own right. I love all the stuff involving Heyman, and him juicing added a lot to the match. Taker's blade job is epic, and the finish is so great, with Brock reversing the tombstone and then just popping Taker onto his shoulders for the F5. This was really the match that made Brock, I think, even more than the Hogan or Rock matches. It's along match, nearly half an hour, but it never drags.

 

I want whatever drugs Taker got injected into his hand before this match. Brock worked on his hand but Taker basically worked the match as if his hand was 100%. Despite that, it was still awesome. So glad they forgot about all of that horseshit with Taker cheating on his wife and just had a brawl. Brock's heave-ho of Taker into an F5 was super impressive. Up there with him giving Big Show a running powerbomb in terms of visual displays of power.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Rebellion 2002.

 

Booker T Vs Matt Hardy: Smackdown's first solo ppv starts with a Raw guy going over. Solid TV-style match. Booker really feels like a guy on the cusp at this point. It's a shame there was no upward mobility on Raw at the time.

 

Billy Kidman and Torrie Wilson Vs John Cena and Dawn Marie: So weird seeing Cena in these kinds of matches, playing a dastardly heel (he's taking cheap shots at Torrie here), and doing the job. Put Kidman on the short list of guys who have wins over both Hogan and Cena. Torrie kisses Kidman after the match to establish them as an on-screen pair. See, important stuff does happen on these UK ppvs.

 

Funaki Vs Crash: I'm not sure what Crash's gimmick is here. He's no longer a Holly. I think he's supposed to be a little unhinged. Funaki gets a nice reception. I don't know that there was ever a ppv match between two guys lower on the totem pole than this.

 

Jamie Noble Vs Tajiri Vs Rey Mysterio: This was great. Tajiri is eliminated really early on, which was a bit of a surprise as I thought we were gonna get lots of funky triple threat spots, but instead we got a really cool Noble/Mysterio sequence, with Noble attacking Rey's arm with gusto, and lots of good nearfalls. Nidia again proves the difference with the assist, and then she takes a sweet bump off the 619 post-match. Nidia is awesome.

 

D-Von Dudley and Ron Simmons Vs The Big Valbowski and Chuck Palumbo: Another high profile match here. What was with Val going by Big Valbowski for that period. That was his dick's name. This was actually good for a sub-5 minute nothing match. Val and Palumbo looked good out there.

 

Rikishi Vs Albert: This was a kiss my ass match, for no discernible reason. Decent big man contest, and then a long post-match which saw Albert attack Kish, Kish fight back and deliver a stinkface, and then Kish call up Cole, Tazz and Chimmel to dance with him.

 

Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit Vs Los Guerreros: Lots of filler on this show, as we also get an interminably long Los Guerreros promo in the back, which consisted on Eddie saying "vatos" like, a million times. Match was a little disappointing. Started okay, with the Guerreros controlling the match, but when it broke down it just didn't have the wow factor of the tournament final. I think they would have been better off working it as a traditional tag match rather than a spotfest.

 

Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman Vs Edge: Really odd, on paper, main event. I guess it was meant to be Taker in Edge's spot, which makes a lot more sense, but he stayed home, maybe because Sara was in the late stages of pregnancy. I wonder if that's why there was so much filler on the show too, because Edge probably would have been plugged in elsewhere on the card. This was a little weak for a big Brock match. Felt kinda slow, but did pick up towards the finish. Just told me Edge wasn't main event-ready yet.

 

Match of the night: The three way, 3 and a half stars. Tag title match gets 3.

Show rating: Really odd show, in a lot of ways. Basically felt like a Smackdown taping, complete with Velocity matches. Nothing really offensive at least. 2 stars.

[caley]

 

D-Von Dudley and Ron Simmons Vs The Big Valbowski and Chuck Palumbo: Another high profile match here. What was with Val going by Big Valbowski for that period. That was his dick's name. This was actually good for a sub-5 minute nothing match. Val and Palumbo looked good out there.

 

Might be my favourite line in a wrestling-related review ever.

[SirSmUgly]

I just saw Buried Alive (yeah, way behind). Yo-Yo wasn't too overwhelmed by the show, but I thought that it was fantastic. Everything was at leastsolid, including Sid/Vader, and Austin/HHH was actually pretty fantastic. The finish made me laugh out loud (Austin misses a move into the ropes, but bounces back off and no-sells it by double-birding everyone before hitting the stunner). Plus, though often color commentator hijinks take away from the matches, Ross and Perfect were great on color commentary, and Perfect spitting fire at both Hunter and Austin was awesome. I do agree that Perfect was so easy to get behind as the returning babyface, and his work here is what put me over the top on it. What ended up happening was disappointing.

 

I thought Austin/Hunter and Mankind/Taker were legit very good and both worth seeking out in particular as far as the wrestling goes, but this show was the first one I've seen where it really feels like WWF is figuring out how to do compelling storylines and characters in a style that would end up first peaking at Hart Foundation vs. Austin the next year and then peaking again at Austin/McMahon/Rock throughout '98 and '99. 

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

WWE Armageddon 2002.

 

Chris Jericho and Christian Vs Booker T and Goldust Vs Lance Storm and William Regal Vs The Dudley Boyz: This was elimination stylie, for the tag belts. The first two elims happened pretty quickly, Regal and Bubba Ray somehow messing up a pin (Regal had too much leverage and Bubba rolled over on top of him, so they had to redo it), and then Goldust pinning Regal. That led to a tremendous segment between BookDust and Jericho/Christian, which ended with Booker pinning Jericho to get a feel-good victory. I wish this had been a straight tag match between these two teams, as it would have meant more I think, but this still came off as a nice moment, and Book got some mic time afterwards to big up Goldie. Love this team.

 

Edge Vs A-Train: Another attempt to push Albert. This was when Heyman pitched for Matt Hardy to get the rub for taking out Mysterio, but they decided to give it to Albert instead. A-Train is a terrible name. There wasn't a whole lot to this. Edge was coming in with an injured leg, but you wouldn't know it. A-Train is dq'ed for using a chair, but Edge goes postal on him with it.

 

Chris Benoit Vs Eddie Guerrero: No surprise these two have good chemistry together. I didn't like that they fell into the suplex-trading stuff you'd see in the Benoit/Angle matches, and Eddie did a classic Angle pop-up-to-lock-on-a-submission no-sell, but otherwise this was a good match. I wish this feud had extended because it was an interesting storyline (Eddie throwing away their friendship).

 

Dawn Marie and Al Wilson came out for an in-ring segment. This storyline is just amazing stuff. I'd forgotten all about this wrinkle of Dawn promising to call off the wedding to Al if Torrie had sex with her. She bribed her into having sex with her. And Torrie ended up enjoying it! This is trashier than anything from the Attitude Era. Dawn has video footage from the hotel room, and the crowd pops huge when Dawn and Torrie kiss. Al puts his foot down and tells Dawn to stop the footage. This is so weird. Going by the actual story, Torrie is the obvious babyface, Dawn the obvious heel, and Al should be this John Garfield/Fred MacMurray-type patsy. But really, Torrie is a babyface because she's the only sympathetic one in the story, Dawn is a babyface because she's slutty and doesn't mind sharing that with the world, and Al is the villain of the piece because he's a terrible performer, and doesn't want people to see the sex tape his future wife made with his daughter. Between this and HLA I think Vince must have been going through a dry spell or something.

 

Batista Vs Kane: No more Deacon, and Batista and Flair are paired up now (no Evolution yet though). This is pretty terrible stuff, but thankfully short. Batista wins, but no-one really cares.

 

Victoria Vs Trish Stratus Vs Jacqueline: Victoria is the women's champ now. This was approaching 'okay-for-a-diva-match' territory, but then fell apart. I can't help thinking it was mostly Victoria's fault too, as she looked the worst in the match. I always liked her, but she's looked poor in the two matches so far.

 

The Big Show Vs Kurt Angle: I wonder if the plan was always to do the quick turnaround from Brock to Show to Kurt, with Kurt and Heyman aligning. It seems a waste of Brock's streak. This was an okay match. Heyman's reactions are better in hindsight knowing his masterplan. A-Train runs interference, but finally Brock comes out and helps Angle win. I like how Angle always makes his wins seem like big deals.

 

Shawn Michaels Vs Triple H: 3 stages of hell. I see this starts 45 mins from the end of the show, and 3 stages of hell sounds about right. This is seriously dire stuff. Shawn's athletic stuff looks like crap (he struggles to even get over Hunter with a leap frog), and Hunter is just sluggish and unconvincing and dull. The first fall is a street fight, the longest and worst fall. They pull out all the stops, including a flaming barbed wire baseball bat, but that, and most of the spots actually, just remind you of how much better Foley was at this kind of stuff. Hunter won the first fall, and Shawn won the second in a steel cage. The third fall was a ladder match, and only seemed to go about 6 mins. Shawn ended up going through a stack of tables on the outside, and I thought he was going to undershoot the jump and seriously hurt himself. Thankfully he didn't, but it looked awkward as hell. Match time was around 40 mins. It's funny how this match is pretty much forgotten, and not even talked about by the company as a classic match, when other things of this ilk like Hunter/Jack and Shawn/Diesel are still so fondly remembered.

 

Match of the night: Easily the tag match at about 3 1/4. Benoit/Eddie was 3 stars.

Show rating: This is a terrible show, only worth going out of your way to see for the tag title switch, and the Dawn Marie angle, which just beggars belief.

[Brian Fowler]

For two guys with as many great matches as Triple H and HBK, and as close as friends as they are, they really didn't have much chemistry as opponents.

[cwoy2j]

For two guys with as many great matches as Triple H and HBK, and as close as friends as they are, they really didn't have much chemistry as opponents.

 

I think they're really hit or miss. Either really good and drama filled (the RAW match where HBK ended up pinning himself by accident, HBK's Summerslam return match) or long, overdrawn boring matches (the Royal Rumble LMS, Hell in a Cell).

[Brian Fowler]

The RAW match was good.

The SummerSlam match is fucking god awful though. It's like the Shawn/Diesel match, but stretched out way too long and without any of the fun.

I did like the match at Taboo Tuesday I think where Shawn sold his knee the entire match.