Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
By the time Unforgiven 2002 rolled around in the September of '02, the WWE landscape had evolved even further away from the WWF of old.
In the midst of her ongoing rivalry with Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff, Smackdown boss Stephanie McMahon had lured WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to the blue brand, locking him in on an exclusive contract which ultimately meant that the Monday night show would have no world champion.
Looking to solve that problem, Eric Bischoff brought out The Big Gold Belt and declared it to be the new World Heavyweight Championship.
Not only that, but rather than holding a tournament, a battle royal, or even a single match to determine the new champion, Sleazy E simply awarded the champion to the brand's top heel, The Game, Triple H.
Tonight, The Game would need to prove whether he was worthy of such a title when he put it on the line against Rob...Van... Dam.
Here's what went down when Unforgiven came to Los Angeles, California.
A Night Like No Other
First of all, there was the newly restored World Heavyweight Championship.
The video linked the current title to the long lineage from WCW and the NWA, showing stars like Harley Race, Ric Flair, Sting, and Vader all holding the belt before noting how it had been brought back and simply handed to Triple H.
While the company gets a lot of stick for awarding The Game the belt without having to compete for it, I personally think it was a smart move to make Raw’s top heel even more despised.
Tonight, we’d see him defend the Big Gold Belt against Rob Van Dam to see if he actually deserved to be called champion.
Elsewhere, we looked at Brock Lesnar's dominant streak before and after dethroning The Rock at Summerslam 2002 and how he would defend the belt tonight against The Undertaker.
With that, it was pyro and crowd shots galore as Jim Ross and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler welcomed us to Unforgiven 2002 and our first match got set to start.
00.04.12 - Announcers
8-Man Tag
The Un-Americans (William Regal, Test, and WWE Tag Team Champions Lance Storm and Christian) vs. Booker T, Goldust, Bubba Ray Dudley, and Kane
That aside, this was a fun opener, even if it did follow a predictable formula.
After a few minutes of proper tag team action which gave most of the combatants an opportunity to shine, the match inevitably broke down into a free-for-all with everyone hitting their signature spots.
Eventually, Kane chokeslammed Lance Storm for the win, putting an end to what had been a very decent effort.
Your Winners: Booker T, Goldust, Bubba Ray Dudley, and Kane
Post match, Bubba Ray Dudley pulled Old Glory from under the ring and waved it about to the delight of the crowd.
A Pep Talk From Steph
Out in the back, Stephanie McMahon gave a pep talk to Billy & Chuck ahead of their inter-promotional match against 3 Minute Warning.
Steph wanted the boys to do it for Smackdown pride, but Billy Gunn thought it had more to do with Steph not wanting to “French kiss a lesbian.”
Chuck Palumbo assured the Smackdown GM that he and Billy would get the job done and that Eric Bischoff would end up kissing her ass tonight.
WWE Intercontinental Championship
WWE Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho vs. Nature Boy Ric Flair
Both champ and challenger went at it hard and fast in a good contest with a neat finish.
Chris Jericho pretended to have injured his knee, prompting referee Charles Robinson to call for a trainer.
Then, when Nature Boy’s back was turned, Y2J blindsided him and made him tap to the Walls of Jericho.
Your Winner and Still Intercontinental Champion: Chris Jericho
Backstage, Eric Bischoff told Rosie and Jamal that he had recruited Rico as their manager for the evening as nobody knew their opponents better than WWE’s resident stylist.
Rico arrived on the scene and promised Bischoff that, when he was done, the Raw GM could grab some popcorn, some Vaseline, and enjoy some HLA.
With that, we swapped over to Smackdown for our next match.
Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge
Unlike the last match, I wouldn’t say this was better than their previous PPV bout, but it was still fantastic in its own right.
Half of the story between these two was Eddie Guerrero being jealous of Edge’s pretty-boy looks, so he spent half the match trying to break his rival’s face, all while Edge continued to sell the effects of an apparent concussion he suffered on Smackdown.
Eventually, the future world champion made a comeback to give us a thrilling finale to a great match.
Alas, it wasn’t to be Edge’s night. Guerrero got him with a handful of tights to put their PPV record at one win a piece...just like Jericho and Flair.
Your Winner: Eddie Guerrero
Out in the back, Triple H confronted Rob Van Dam and made fun of him for being so cool, calm, and collected before their big title fight.
Hunter then turned his attention to Ric Flair, who was recovering from his match in the background. The World Heavyweight Champion mocked Nature Boy for being a shell of his former self, but before Flair could confront the champ, RVD insisted that he’d rather associate with a “loser” like Flair than an “alleged winner” like HHH any day.
3 Minutes
Prior to the next match, we got a look back at Eric Bischoff interrupting a “commitment ceremony” between Billy & Chuck by revealing himself to be the officiate and then setting Rosie & Jamal on them.
On Raw, Bischoff found himself confronted by a woman’s protest group who he called a “horde of lesbians” before realising that Steph was one of them. She set Billy & Chuck on the attack and thus, tonight’s match was born.
Interpromotional Match
Billy & Chuck vs. Jamal & Rosie (w/ Rico)
Rosie and Jamal had been around since Eric Bischoff’s first official night in charge on the Raw after Vengeance 2002, but this was their first official PPV match.
A good match it was, too.
Nobody was expecting this to steal the show, but it was performed well and had a hot crowd that helped to make it a fun watch.
The more things went on, the more Billy & Chuck looked as though they could genuinely defeat their unstoppable opponents, but interference from Rico led to Billy eating a Samoan Drop to lose the match.
Your Winners: Rosie & Jamal
In the GM’s office, Jonathan Coachman asked Bischoff who he would send to make out with Steph, but Sleazy E simply led a group of three women in a chant of HLA.
This stuff really hasn’t aged well.
Time to Play the Game
Before the next match, we got another look at Triple H being awarded the World Heavyweight Championship and Rob Van Dam winning a four-way elimination match to become the number one contender.
This led to the two having a showdown on Raw where RVD made fun of The Game in a very funny moment.
Pretending to be putting his opponent over, Rob said:
“And you have proved that you really can..spit a lot of water!”
I won’t lie, I laughed so hard at that.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Triple H vs. Rob Van Dam
Rob Van Dam started off strong, embarrassing The Game by continually out-wrestling him and then taking a bottle of water and mocking his opponent’s pre-match ritual.
It was another hilarious moment, but Hunter clearly didn’t see the funny side and made RVD pay by beating him senseless.
Van Dam made a spirited comeback and legitimately looked to be in with a shot of winning, but then Earl Hebner took a tumble and the predictable happened.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I wasn’t watching wrestling at all in 2002 and I’ve never seen this event before nor heard much about it, but it was blatantly obvious that Ric Flair was going to run in and turn on RVD because he didn’t like that Mr. PPV had called him a loser.
That happened, and it allowed The Game to win with a pedigree.
Your Winner and Still World Heavyweight Champion: Triple H
I know HHH gets a lot of stick for not putting people over, but he helped RVD look so damn good here that the mind boggles as to why Van Dam wasn’t a full-time main eventer right after this.
Afterwards, Flair handed The Game his belt and celebrated with him. The journey to Evolution had begun.
The Young and The Restless
Backstage, D’Lo Brown and Billy Kidman were talking about Ric Flair’s dastardly behavior when some dude from The Young and The Restless turned up and started whispering and mumbling so bad that it was impossible to tell what he was saying.
This all led to Dawn Marie appearing and saying the mumbling dude was with her.
Well alright then.
WWE Women’s Championship
WWE Women’s Champion Molly Holly vs. Trish Stratus
After absorbing a fair amount of punishment from the champion, Trish Stratus finally put Molly down to win her third Women’s Championship.
Your Winner and New Women’s Champion: Trish Stratus
After the match, Jonathan Coachman caught up with Trish for a ringside interview. The new women's champion gave an emotional speech in which she talked about how much she loved pro wrestling, the fans, and being the champion.
Orgy Time
Back in the GM's office. Rico, Rosie, and Jamal celebrated their big victory with a harem of women while Eric Bischoff looked on approvingly like the world's creepiest father.
Even Rico -who we were all supposed to believe was gay- was having a good time, and suggested they take the party elsewhere.
Everyone left except for two of the women, who Eric kept behind to help him "with a little HLA."
I feel dirty after watching that.
I felt a little better watching the hype video for our next match, recapping the rivalry between Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle.
Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit
Whether it was their bout at Wrestlemania 17, their classic at Judgement Day 2001, or tonight, the duo never failed to put on a pro wrestling masterclass that was utterly enthralling from start to finish.
We had both men trading the advantage, we had ankle locks and crossfaces galore, and just delivered everything you'd want from a match.
After a very excellent back-and-forth battle, Chris Benoit rolled up Angle and used the ropes for leverage, which was weird since he was a babyface, but oh well.
Your Winner: Chris Benoit
Out in the back, Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman that they had no problem making their feud with The Undertaker personal.
Lesnar vowed to end 'Taker once and for all tonight.
HLA
That meant that we got Howard Finkle giving us this unique introduction:
"Accompanied by THE LESBIANS, Eric Bischoff!"
It was awful and yet somehow ridiculously hilarious.
Bischoff teased having two women (called "Peaches & Cream") make out on their own, but then stopped and invited Stephanie McMahon to the ring.
Then, he had "The Lesbians" give her a massage, and they were almost about to make out when he changed his mind, sent Peaches & Cream packing, and introduced Steph's real make out partner, a big, ugly, old woman who was clearly a man in drag called "Hildergard."
Bischoff couldn't wait to humiliate his Smackdown rival by having her snog Hildergard, but then became surprised and disgusted when Steph proved to be very, very into it.
"What the hell?" exclaimed Bisch, that being the cue for Hildegard to rip her own plastic face off and reveal herself to be Rikishi.
Naturally, a big, ol' stinky stink face to the Raw GM followed.
While the reveal and subsequent stinkface were kind of entertaining, the rest of this segment just felt awkward and uncomfortable, not to mention the fact that it took up the best part of 10 minutes of PPV time that people had paid their hard-earned money for.
Main Event Time
Prior to our final match, we got an excellent video package highlighting Undertaker's history as the Phenom of the WWE, Lesnar's history as a bad ass legit wrestler, and their collision course towards tonight's meeting.
WWE Undisputed Championship
WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman) vs. The Undertaker
It was violent, bloody, and out of control, so out of control in fact, that referee Brian Hebner ultimately threw the whole match out as 'Taker and Lesnar simply punched the living daylights out of each other.
While the ending may not be to everyone's liking, this fan thought it worked well, putting Lesnar on the same level as WWE's resident living legend and making both men look unstoppable in the process.
Before the ending, everything else was solid, making this a very good way to end the show.
No Contest
Post-match, the two men continued to brawl. Undertaker eventually got the upper hand and launched Lesnar through the Unforgiven staging as the show came to an end.
Unforgiven 2002 may not have been quite on the same level as the excellent Summerslam 2002 the month before, but that show had been so good from start to finish that it was always going be difficult to top.
Still, that didn't mean that this event wasn't great in its own right.
Edge/Gurrero, RVD/HHH, and the main event were all really good matches, though the highlight was, as you might have guessed, Angle/Benoit.
Elsewhere, nothing on the show was bad apart from the whole HLA thing, and overall, this was a very enjoyable 2 hours, 40-something minutes of wrestling.
Other 2002 pro wrestling reviews:
- WWF Royal Rumble 2002
- WWF No Way Out 2002
- WWA - The Revolution
- WWF Wrestlemania X8
- WWF Backlash 2002
- WWF Insurrexion 2002
- WWE Judgement Day 2002
- NWA-TNA: Weekly PPV #1
- WWE King of the Ring 2002
- WWE Vengeance 2002
- WWE Global Warning 2002
- WWE Summerslam 2002
Other WWF Unforgiven reviews:
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2 Comments
It made since that HHH was just handed the belt since he never lost it. He beat Y2J to win the WCW and WWF titles then vacated the WCW title and then lost the WWF title to Hogan. He never lost the World title. ;)
ReplyDeleteGood point! Hadn't thought of that! :)
ReplyDelete