PPV REVIEW: WWE No Way Out 2003

February 23, 2003, 

Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

No Way Out 2003 was the first event of this name to come under the WWE name, so it was interesting that the show featured three returning superstars from the glory days of the World Wrestling Federation.

First of all, Hulk Hogan was once again donning the red and yellow after last being seen on PPV back at Vengeance 2002 and taking a break shortly after.

Tonight, he was going up against rising Hollywood star The Rock. The Great One had also enjoyed a lengthy break after Summerslam 2002 and was now heel, a role he was almost forced to play after the crowds began to turn on him due to his growing movie career.

Still, while this was both men's first PPV appearance in months, the real story tonight was that No Way Out 2003 would mark the return of Stone Cold Steve Austin, a man who had famously walked out of the company the previous summer.

Here's what went down when three of WWE's all-time biggest stars returned to action:

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A Boring Opening

Long-time Retro Pro Wrestling readers will probably know that I have a certain fondness for the WWE’s opening video packages.

99.9% of the time, they do a great job of setting the scene and getting me pumped up about what I’m about to watch.

This was different though. This was about six seconds of a random computer animation that took us up a flight of stairs to a locked window and then showed some distressed bald dude hanging to some railings.

It was pretty rubbish, but I guess WWE could only get so much mileage out of rolling stock footage of Freddie Blassie chilling out in an abandoned warehouse.

Anyway, with that brief and boring intro out of the way, Jonathan Coachman welcomed us to No Way Out 2003, informing us that since JR had suffered a concussion on Raw, he -Coach- would be sitting alongside Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler tonight.

Chris Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy

As Chris Jericho made his way out for tonight’s opening contest, Coach informed us that Raw GM Eric Bischoff had granted The King of the World’s request to have Shawn Michaels banned from ringside before noting that this was the first WWE PPV in Montreal since Survivor Series 1997.

The match soon got underway and quickly turned into an exciting opener that remained utterly compelling from start to finish.

With the crowds torn between rooting for fellow countryman Jericho and perennial babyface Hardy, both gave it their all before a hot crowd who hung on every move.

After a solid effort, the self-proclaimed King of the World countered a top-rope hurricanrana attempt with a superbomb before locking his adversary in the Walls of Jericho.

The Charasmatic Enigma tried to hold on, but when he found himself dragged into the middle of the ring with no chance of escape, he had no choice but tap out and give the match to his opponent.

Your Winner: Chris Jericho

Post match, Jericho refused to relinquish his hold on Hardy, prompting HBK to rush to the rescue.

Unsurprisingly, the man whose name will be forever linked to the Montreal Screwjob received a frosty reception.

At least he did until Christian ran into help out his running mate, at which point Michaels managed to win the audience over by taking both men out with a double DDT, delivering a clothesline to the outside on Y2J and a well-placed Sweet Chin Music to Christian.

A Team Angle Pep Talk

Out in the back, Kurt Angle blasted the Canadian audience and promised that tonight, he, Shelton Benjamin, and Charlie Haas would prevail over Brock Lesnar, Edge, and Chris Benoit because there was simply no way that Team Angle could lose to “a walking gorilla and two Canucks.”

The Olympic Gold Medalist looked set to talk strategy with his two henchmen, but before we could hear what he had to say, we cut to the parking lot where Evolution arrived in a limousine.

Tonight, Evolution leader Triple H would defend the World Heavyweight Championship against Scott Steiner, but first, this:

WWE World Tag Team Championship
WWE Tag Team Champions William Regal & Lance Storm vs. Rob Van Dam & Kane

Though the general consensus seems to be that this match wasn’t all that good, this fan in particular enjoyed it very much.

Relatively short, this one made Lance Storm and William Regal look like credible, fighting champions, even if they did only pick up the win when Kane accidentally chokeslammed RVD due to having his vision impaired by an Ill-placed match.

Your Winners and Still Tag Team Champions: Lance Storm & William Regal

Out in the back, Matt Hardy was about to talk about how he miraculously cut weight in order to challenge for the cruise weight title when he was distracted by the appearance of his brother, Jeff Hardy.

Confronting his clearly wounded sibling, the Master of Mattitude insisted that Jeff would actually begin winning some matches if he started following his brother’s teachings.

Rather than get into it, Jeff simply slapped the taste out of V1’s mouth and walked off, leaving an irate Matt to be restrained by his lackey, Shannon Moore.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman vs. Matt Hardy V1 (w/ Shannon Moore)

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’d stopped actively watching wrestling by 2003, so when I eventually came back to it, I was always confused how Matt Hardy -a man who was clearly no Cruiserweight- had managed to compete in the division.

The explanation here that he’d had to work hard to cut weight made a lot of sense, but unfortunately, it didn’t make for a great match.

Don’t get me wrong, there was nothing particularly wrong with this one, but the crowd clearly weren’t into it and that had a negative impact on the way this one played out.

After a decent but kinda blah match, Hardy hit Billy Kidman with an admittedly excellent Twist of Fate to capture a title which he really had no rights competing for in the first place.

Your Winner and New WWE Cruiserweight Champion: Matt Hardy

Backstage, Brock Lesnar and Chris Benoit tended to Edge, who had been mysteriously laid out backstage at the hands of an unknown assailant.

Smackdown GM Stephanie McMahon and a gaggle of officials also came to the former Intercontinental champions aid, but it looked like Edge was officially out of action for tonight.

Not just tonight, either. By all accounts, this was just a way to write Adam Copeland off TV so that he could have surgery for a recent injury.

We wouldn’t see him again until the following year.

The Big Show (w/ Paul Heyman) vs. The Undertaker

Prior to the match, we got a look back at how The Undertaker had returned to action to get revenge on Big Show for taking him out of commission in the fall.

Show had been awol, but had sent Big Evil a number of gifts, including Brian Kendrick dressed as a bell boy, ‘Taker’s first manager, Brother Love, and, for some reason, a singing Chris Kanyon.

The Dead Man had destroyed all of them and now, tonight looked to destroy Big Show in a better-than-average big man brawl.

Though it was far from a classic, the two did the best with what they had to make sure that this, the longest match on the card, never felt boring or sluggish.

After a decent effort, a busted open ‘Taker got his revenge by drilling Show to the mat for the cover, the count, and the fall.

Your Winner: The Undertaker

Backstage, Edge was wheeled into an ambulance, confirming that we wouldn’t see him compete tonight.

Elsewhere, Chief Morley and Eric Bischoff talked about what a good team they had behind them, only for Vince McMahon to inform them that if anybody got involved in Bischoff’s match with Stone Cold Steve Austin, they’d be fired on the spot.

Handicap Match
WWE Champion Kurt Angle & WWE Tag Team Champions Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas (w/ Paul Heyman) vs. Brock Lesnar & Chris Benoit

As the combatants made their way out for tonight’s match, Michael Cole informed us that Stephanie had given Brock & Benoit the option to choose another partner but they had refused, instead opting to take on Team Angle in a 2 vs. 3 handicap match.

This turned out to be a good match that could have -perhaps should have- been much better.

Though you had a whole bunch of talented performers here, the match took a while to really kick it up a gear, and even then, it wasn’t until the final minute or so that we got the kind of balls-to-the-wall wrestling spectacular it had the potential to be all along.

Perhaps expectations were just too high given the caliber of performers involved, but while this was certainly the best match of the night so far, this ram expected a little more.

In the end, Benoit made Charlie Haas tap to the crossface while Lesnar took out his rival, Angle, with an F5.

Your Winners: Brock Lesnar & Chris Benoit

Prior to the next match, we got a look back at the rivalry between Triple H and Scott Steiner, and how they feud had led to the World Heavyweight Champion forming the Evolution stable to back him up.

Those two would be in action next.

WWE World Heavyweight Championship
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Triple H (w/ Ric Flair) vs. Scott Steiner

This was far, far from the best match on the card, but it was certainly the most interesting in terms of fan reaction.

Despite being the babyface here, Steiner’s shit-show of performance back at the 2002 Royal Rumble meant that he was routinely booed by the Montreal faithful while dastardly heel HHH was cheered every time he struck an offensive move.

The biggest heel of the match, however, was referee Earl Hebner, who received a hostile reception for his role in the Montreal Screwjob five years earlier.

In fact, Hebner’s mere presence here overshadowed everything the two combatants did, and when Hunter got into a shoving match with the official, it received the biggest pop of the night so far.

After a somewhat lackluster effort that was, at least, marginally better than their Rumble outing, we got an inevitable run-in from Batista and Randy Orton.

That distracted the challenger long enough to be whacked in the face with the world title belt by his opponent.

That didn’t quite put him away, but a quick pedigree a few moments later did.

Your Winner and Still World Heavyweight Champion: Triple H

Post-match, the champion made his way triumphantly to the back, being congratulated by Orton.

Eric Bischoff vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

Prior to this one, we got a look back at the storyline which basically amounted to Bischoff failing to resign Austin, Austin deciding to come back anyway, and Vince McMahon booking the two against one another.

Jim Ross then came out, ostensibly to help call the action, but really just to cheer on his buddy Steve Austin as he whooped Bischoff from pillar to post.

It would be a stretch to call this a match, but it was fun to see Austin do his thing to the absolute delight of the Montreal faithful.

Your Winner: Stone Cold Steve Austin

Afterwards, Austin celebrated his return while Jim Ross absolutely lost his shit.

I’m not exaggerating either.

I get that Ross was out there to put over Austin’s return, but his level of over-the-top enthusiasm was ridiculous.

It was hilarious at first, but then it was just sadly kind of embarrassing and I actually felt bad for JR.

The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan

By this time, The Rock was one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood but had no problems coming back to WWE to assist Vince McMahon in his rivalry with Hulk Hogan.

That had brought us to tonight, a rematch from Wrestlemania X8 that was never going to live up to the original but was still entertaining enough in its own right.

At least it was until the finish.

After hitting The Rock with a big hoot and leg drop of doom, Hogan made the count but the lights in the arena went off before the referee -Sylvian Greenier- could count to three.

When they came back up, Hogan and Greenier were both out and a chair had been placed in the middle of the ring.

Vince McMahon then made his way out, distracting Hogan long enough for The Great One to destroy his opponent with a chair.

At that point, referee Greenier sprang to his feet, revealing himself as in cahoots with Rock and McMahon, and made the three count.

Your Winner: The Rock

“It’s a Screwjob! It’s a Screwjob!” Yelled Michael Cole in the most obviously rehearsed fashion ever.

Seriously, it was very apparent that Cole had been waiting for the whole match just for his moment to say that line.

As he did so, McMahon mocked and ridiculed a battered Hogan to bring No Way Out 2003 to a close.

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All in all, WWE No Way Out 2003 is a difficult show to sum up. None of the matches were outright terrible (not even HHH/Steiner II), but you almost got the sense that many of the company's major players were either holding back or simply having an off night, resulting in matches which were never quite as a good as they had the potential to be.

Still, there was a lot of fun to be had here. Austin's return was entertaining, the handicap match was still good even though it could have been better, and the whole Rock/Hogan thing was as good as it was going to get right up until the rather necessary finish. 

Ultimately then, despite featuring the PPV returns of  three all-time greats, No Way Out 2003 wasn't a very significant show, nor is it something anyone need go out of the way to watch. 

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Other 2003 pro wrestling reviews: 

• WWE Royal Rumble 2003

More WWF/WWE No Way Out Reviews

WWF No Way Out of Texas 1998

WWF No Way Out 2001

WWF No Way Out 2002

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PPV REVIEW: WWE Vengeance 2002

July 21, 2002

Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan

Vengeance 2002 came hot on the heels of a marked shift in the direction of World Wrestling Entertainment.

Since February, the New World Order had tried -and largely failed- to recapture the magic they once had in WCW, only for Scott Hall's firing, the random inclusion of Booker T, and multiple injuries to Kevin Nash all scuppering plans.

In fact, Nash injured himself in March, taken a few months off to recover, and then immedietly reinjured himself in his first match back on Raw, ultimately putting him on the shelf until the spring of 2003.

By this point, Vince McMahon had seen enough.

The following week, he came out to inform fans that he had officially disbanded the nWo once and for all. 

Still, those pining for the glory days of World Championship Wrestling didn't have to miss out altogether as Vince introduced another icon of the Monday Night Wars - none other than his former rival Eric Bischoff- as the new Raw General Manager.

With Easy E in charge of Raw and Vince's daughter Stephanie McMahon heading up Smackdown, the stage was set for Vengeance.

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Here's what went down:  

I Will Strike Down Upon Thee With Great Vengeance

Vengeance 2002 kicked off with one the WWF’s usual compelling opening videos.

This one had a biblical theme, with the participants in tonight’s main event -Undertaker, Rock, and Kurt Angle- reciting Ezekiel 25:17 as clips played off them looking awesome in the ring. 

Yes, I know this is more familiar to people from Pulp Fiction and that most people talk about this video being a nod to that movie, but since the Good Book precedes Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece by a few thousand years, I think its fair to say that this is the proper source of the reference.

Anyway, It was good stuff that eventually led us to the obligatory opening pyro, crowd shots, and a check-in with The World in New York.

Michael Cole and Tazz then welcomed us to the show, informing us that they’d cover the first half of the event with Jim Ross and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler taking the second half.

With that, it was onto the ring for our first match of the evening.

Tag Team Table Match
Bubba Ray & Spike Dudley vs. Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit

This may not have been the best tag team tables match of all time, but it was still an entertaining opener with a surprising finish.

Last seen on PPV at King of the Ring 2001, Chris Benoit had subsequently spent 13 months on the shelf with a broken neck.

The Crippler had recently returned and aligned himself with former Radicalz team mate Eddie Guerrero.

One thing this fan really liked about the duo during this time was that whenever they teamed together they always wore their respective ring gear in matching colours. It was a small touch, but one that definitely helped to present them as a cohesive unit.

Here, the duo spent the first half of the match destroying Bubba Ray Dudley. It was decent, but obviously, it was only when the tables came into play that the match really took off.

At one point, Bubba lay Benoit on a table and lept off the ropes. Benoit moved and Dudley crashed through the table but was allowed to continue since it wasn’t an offensive move.

Later, Spike Dudley put Eddie through a table with a Dudley Drop to the outside in what looked to be a nasty spot.

Benoit then hurled Spike over the ropes on the other side of the ring and eliminated him, but then Bubba planted Benoit through a third table and that was that.

Your Winners: The Dudley Boyz

Backstage, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff gave an interview to Jonathan Coachman before getting distracted by the arrival of Triple H.

Both Bischoff and The Game’s estranged wife Stephanie McMahon (now Smackdown GM) had been trying to secure his services for their respective brands, and Bischoff was none too happy that Hunter was on his way to negotiate with Steph.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Jamie Noble (w/ Nidia) vs. Kidman

To paraphrase what I said about the last match, this wasn’t the greatest Cruiserweight match in the world but it was still good for what it was.

Jamie Noble and Billy Kidman were both talented performers and gave us a fine match, but it just wasn’t the absolute all-out stormer it could have been.

Noble retained his title after a good effort.

Your Winner and Still Cruiserweight Champion: Jamie Noble

Backstage, Kurt Angle’s interview with Marc Lloyd was interrupted by the arrival of Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman.

Heyman reminded Angle that Lesnar had a guaranteed title shot at Summerslam as a result of winning the 2002 King of the Ring and would face the winner of Angle’s match with The Rock and The Undertaker.

Unperturbed, Angle promised Lesnar that when the two did meet, The Next Big Thing would be taken down by the Olympic Gold Medalist.

This was good stuff.

WWE European Championship
WWE European Champion Jeff Hardy vs. William Regal

Possibly the best match on the card so far, this saw both champ and challenger go back and forth in an entertaining, technically sound match that this fan enjoyed a lot.

After a very good, albeit short, battle, The Charasmatic Enigma retained his gold.

Your Winner and Still European Champion: Jeff Hardy

Post match, Hardy was congratulated backstage by both Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan.

Once Jeff left, Hogan told Flair that he was considering going to the top rope and doing a swanton bomb of his own in his match tonight. This prompted Flair to mock Hogan, saying he’d be too slow climbing up to the top and would make a mess of the move.

It was a very funny moment, but the two legends found nothing funny about Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon running the company and questioned whether Bischoff in particular would run WWE out of business.

Chris Jericho vs. John Cena

And so it begins.

Yes, ladies and gents, this was the Pay Per View debut of the one and only John Cena.

The future legend had arrived on the scene a few weeks earlier and promptly set about trying to embarrass Kurt Angle before entering into a feud with Chris Jericho.

Tonight, the two went tooth-and-nail in a match which was much better than the unenthusiastic crowd would have you believe.

Moving at a good pace, Cena and Jericho worked hard to deliver an entertaining performance before the rookie scored the upset in his first major win.

Your Winner: John Cena

Out in the back, Eric Bischoff accosted Stephanie McMahon’s lawyer whom she had summoned to deliver some important documents. Fearing that he was about to lose HHH, Bisch’ was livid.

Say what you will about Eric Bischoff, he was always a very entertaining personality in front of the camera.

RVD and Brock are Ready for War

As we moved into the second half of the show, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler made their way out to take over from Cole and Tazz.

Their first task was to show us clips of Brock Lesnar and Rob Van Dam preparing for their upcoming Intercontinental Championship clash.

This was followed by an ace video highlighting their rivalry which was soundtracked by the kind of dramatic music you’d normally here in the Smackdown video games for the PS2 around this time.

WWE Intercontinental Championship
WWE Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam vs. Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman)

This card continued to get better as it went on.

RVD vs. Lesnar was a fine match that ignited the crowd for the first time on the show.

The champion continually countered the challenger’s brute power with quickness and innovative offence and even looked to have the match won.

After a very fine match indeed, RVD hit the Five Star Frog Splash and made the cover, only for Paul Heyman to yank referee Charles Robinson out of the ring and cause the DQ.

The ending was pretty predictable given that Lesnar couldn’t really lose and yet didn’t need the IC belt either, but before that, this was a lot of fun.

Your Winner by DQ: Rob Van Dam

Post match, we got even more fun as Charles Robinson began to rain down on Heyman with the weakest looking punches in wrestling history, only for Lesnar to pick him up and toss him aside like a rag doll.

RVD then came careening off the top rope and took out The Next Big Thing, only for Lesnar to recover and destroy the champion with an F5 onto a steel chair.

He Signed

Backstage, a forlorn Stephanie McMahon emerged from her office looking dejected.

Naturally, Bischoff jumped to conclusions and began gloating about her inability to sign Triple H.

“He signed,” said Steph, wiping the smirk off the Raw GM’s face before walking away.

Moments later, The Game himself emerged and was railroaded by Bischoff for making the wrong choice.

That’s when Hunter set him straight, informing the former WCW head that the papers he signed were actually his divorce papers and that he still hadn’t decided which brand to work for.

This pleased Easy E no end.

No Disqualification Match
The Big Show vs. Booker T

Booker T and Big Show had been feuding ever since ‘T had been kicked out of the now-defunct New World Order.

Their No DQ match tonight was never going to be the best thing on the card but it was surprisingly more enjoyable than anyone could have expected.

This, of course, was largely due to the sweet spot where Booker ran off the US announce table and scissor kicked Big Show through the Spanish announce table.

This short match didn’t last long after that, but it was fun while it lasted.

Your Winner: Booker T

Meanwhile, over at The World, Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie argued about who had the best butt.

Time to Play The Game

Up next, Triple H came to the ring to reveal whether he’d sign for Raw or Smackdown, prompting both Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon to hit the ring for one last sales pitch.

Just when it looked like The Game was about to side with Steph, none other than Shawn Michaels hit the ring.

HBK reminded us that while Hunter had been out with a minor injury, it was he, Shawn, who had been promising to head to Vengeance and bring his buddy “home” to the nWo before “Big Kev” had gotten hurt and Vince had dissolved that faction.

With the fans all chanting for DX, Michaels reminded HHH how much fun they used to have together, and that seems to do the trick, promoting Hunter to announce he was signing with Raw so that he and HBK could make Bischoff’s life a living hell.

Reacting to Triple H

Backstage, Rikishi expressed his disappointment about Triple H joining Raw, telling Marc Lloyd that it was a big loss to the young guys on Smackdown who looked to The Game as a leader.

Across the way, Terri interrupted Booker T and Goldust to get their thoughts.

Hilariously, Goldust sheepishly covered his crotch when Terri walked in the room. He then stood by while an enlivened Booker ranted about the time Shawn Michaels super kicked him out of the nWo.

“That’s right Booker,” said Goldust. “He may be The Game, but we’re the ones with the bigger joysticks.”

“Imma ignore that,” quipped Booker as Goldie left the room.

This was, as you might expect, a very entertaining segment.

Prior to the next match, we got a brief look back at the rivalry between Edge & Hulk Hogan and Christian & Lance Storm.

WWE Tag Team Championship
WWE Tag team Champions Edge & Hulk Hogan vs. Lance Storm & Christian

Hogan spent the first half of the match doing the work for his team, giving us a very old-school style match until getting beat down and eventually making the hot tag to Edge.

It was at that point that the match really kicked up a notch and started to get exciting.

A ref bump allowed to Test to run in for his Canadian team mates, but that wasn’t enough to give Lance Storm and Christian the win, so Jericho had to get involved, interfering to help his fellow countrymen capture the tag team titles.

It wasn’t the best match on the card, but it was a perfectly serviceable tag bout that served a purpose.

Your Winners and NEW Tag Team Champions: Lance Storm & Christian

Out in the back, Eric Bischoff tried to recruit Kurt Angle to Raw, but the Olympic Gold Medalist was far too focused on his match to think about that right now.

Elsewhere, Marc Lloyd asked Stephanie McMahon about Bischoff’s heavy-handed recruitment tactics.

Steph wasn’t concerned about Bischoff, telling Lloyd that she was in direct contact with every Raw superstar and would “rip the heart” out of the red brand.

“What does that mean?” Asked Lawler. “Are you going to Smackdown, JR?”

“Nope, I’m a Raw guy. Besides, I’m not the heart of Raw,” replied Ross. “I may be the butt.”

Bless JR, that was funny.

WWE Undisputed Championship
WWE Undisputed Champion The Undertaker vs. The Rock vs. Kurt Angle

Time and time again, this triple-threat match has been referred to as a classic and considered one of the best triple threat matches of all time.

While I can neither confirm nor deny that it is, I can certainly say that it was a damn good match which, though it started slow, got infinitely better as it progressed.

Though the WWE's tried-and-trusted formula of one guy napping on the outside while the other work and then switch certainly came into effect here, it was a formula that was used sparringly and effectively.

For the most part, all three world-class performers worked their asses off to deliver.

There were peaks, there were valleys, there was drama and suspense and everything you'd want from a compelling match. 

There was even a five-minute Finisher Fest at the end too, and though I suppose that could be cause for criticism, it, like everything else in this match, worked.

After a gripping 20 minute epic, The Rock drove Kurt Angle into the mat and pinned him to become the new undisputed champion.

Your Winner and NEW Undisputed Champion: The Rock 

As JR yelled about how The Rock was the first-ever seven time champion, The Great One posed for the fans and this writer questioned whether having him pin Angle rather than The Undertaker was such a smart move.

Ultimately, I think it was. 

Sure, pinning the actual champion rather than the third-man would have added a little more kudos and credibility to The Rock's win, but was The F'N Rock for crying out loud. At this point in the game, he simply didn't need any more kudos or credibility to be considered a worthy champion.

Plus, by the sheer fact alone that he had never been pinned for the gold, The Dead Man would have a legitimate reason to jump right back into the title picture post-Summerslam.

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And so Vengeance 2002 was over and had proved to be a decent but hardly spectacular show.

The main event was off-the-page excellent, but the rest of the card was full of those "good but not great" matches which, while they may have been entertaining, didn't really go all out to impress.

Still, this was a watchable show with nothing noticeably terrible going on, so if you're looking for a dose of Ruthless Aggression-era nostalgia capped off with a smoking hot main event, this may be worth your time. 

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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 WWE Vengeance Reviews:

• WWE Vengeance 2001

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook, Instagram @retroprofessionalwrestling or Twitter @RetroPWrestling.

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PPV REVIEW: WWF Backlash 2002

April 21, 2002, 

Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri. 

Much had changed in the World Wrestling Federation in  the month between Wrestlemania X8 and Backlash 2002.

Following his iconic performance against The Rock, Hulk Hogan had fully severed ties with the New World Order and resurrected the Red and Yellow.

Yes, Hulkamania was well and truly running wild towards a nostalgia-fueled main event run for Hogan, leading to him challenging Triple H for the Undisputed title on tonight's show.

In the meantime, the company had also executed their first draft, telling us that Superstars and owners would be exclusive to either Raw or Smackdown and then completely disregarding that rule.

Literally on the very first show of the Brand Extension era, Smackdown boss Vince McMahon turned up on Raw and basically said "I know I'm not supposed to be here, but F**k it, I am anyway."

This made the show the first PPV since the first draft, as well as the first show at the Kemper Arena since the tragedy of Over the Edge 1999. 

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Yet as much as it was a show of firsts, it was also a show of lasts, being the last PPV to take place in North America before the WWF became the WWE. It wasn't technically the last PPV of the brand era as the company would run a UK PPV a few weeks later, but since I'm not entirely show how much anyone actually gave a damn about those events, this was essentially the last hoorah for WWF PPV in America.

Anyway, with that long and winding intro out of the way, let's get on and review the show. 

The Game vs. The Icon 

Backlash 2002 show started with a dramatic opening video for tonight’s main event, an all-babyface clash between WWF Undisputed Champion Triple H and Hulk Hogan.

A compelling video, this one saw Hogan talking about how desperately he needed to become the champion to prove that the legacy of Hulkamania wasn’t all a dream while Triple H talked about how he would go to any lengths to retain the title.

It was good stuff as these videos usually always were.

Moving to the live show, crowd shots from the arena and WWF New York followed as Jim Ross and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler welcomed us to the show and Tajiri’s music hit in readiness for our opening contest.

World Wrestling Federation Cruiserweight Championship 
WWF Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman vs. Tajiri (w/ Torrie Wilson)

Tajiri had recently turned heel, placing Torrie in the role of ‘reluctant girlfriend who puts up with her evil boyfriend’s crap but will predictably get sick of it and leave him.’

Almost immediately, this seemed like a way to realign her with Kidman, and honestly, if that meant we got more matches like this one, that’s not a bad thing at all.

This was a stormer of an opening match in which the highlight wasn’t any fancy move or special high spot, but simply the sheer ferocity with which the challenger tried to kick the champion’s head off.

Seriously, these were the kind of kicks that make you wince and go “ooof” even though you know full well that pro wrestling is a work.

It was good stuff, and only part of what made this the best PPV openers of the year so far.

In the end, Tajiri won thanks to Evil Mist and a roll up. 

Your Winner and new Cruiserweight Champion: Tajiri

Post-match, Michael Cole tried to get a word with the new champion but Tajiri gave his whole promo in Japanese so who knows what he said?

An APA Reunion 

Farooq and Bradshaw had been split up in the draft. In the last Smackdown before said draft took effect, the two had closed the APA office for good in what had, surprisingly, been a genuinely touching moment.

The following week on Raw, the New World Order had taken over the office and graffitied the door, leading to a feud of sorts between Bradshaw and Scott Hall.

Those two would meet next, but first, Farooq and Bradshaw reunited backstage with the latter clearly calling his partner “Ron” despite the announcers still exclusively using the name Farooq.

Scott Hall (w/ X-Pac) vs. Bradshaw (w/ Farooq)

A year shy of a decade since the 123 Kid upset Razor Ramon, X-Pac accompanied Scott Hall to the ring and proceeded to give the nWo the numbers advantage against a solo Bradshaw until the APA’s music hit again and Farooq stormed to ringside to even the score.

It was a cool moment, sure, but surely it would have been even cooler if they’d made it a surprise and kept the reunion until after the match, rather than before it.

Speaking of the match, all I’m going to say is this:

Jim Ross spent most of the latter part of the bout repeatedly telling us that the match was “bowling shoe ugly,” which as we all know was JR’s way of saying “this is awful.”

Scott Hall won with a bowling shoe ugly roll-up.

Your Winner: Scott Hall 

Backstage, Ric Flair was in his office talking with his assistant/lackey/buddy/whatever-he-was Arn Anderson when Vince McMahon barged in with no other agenda than to basically troll the Nature Boy for a bit.

After spending some time winding up Flair, Vince gave him a sly nod and wink while hinting that Flair may not be the upstanding babyface he was pretending to be.

“I will NEVER be like Vince McMahon,” insisted Flair, adamantly.

“No,” replied Vince. “But you can try.”

OK, I laughed at that.

World Wrestling Federation Women’s Championship 
WWF Women’s Champion Jazz vs. Trish Stratus

Before this one got underway, Molly Holly marched to ringside to have a word with Trish Stratus.

Molly had recently turned heel, first by waffling Hurricane with a frying pan back at Wrestlemania X8, then by kicking his arse on the first post-Mania Smackdown, and then taking the stance that all of the other divas were sluts with low morals.

Holly had tried to beat Trish with a handful of tights to win a shot at Jazz’s title but Stratus had reversed the pin attempt, grabbed a handful of tights of her own and earned the win.

Tonight, Holly confronted Trish about her cheating ways and the two got into it for a bit before Jazz came down to get this short match underway.

Although it wasn’t great, it wasn’t awful either, and it was pretty clear that both women tried to do the best they could with what they had.

After a few minutes or so-so action, Jazz put the STF on her opponent to retain her title.

Your Winner and Still Women’s Champion: Jazz

Post match, some interviewer called Mr. Michael WhoTFAmI RandomDude tried to get a word with Jazz and pointed a microphone in her face but the women’s champion said nothing, probably because she had no idea who this stranger was.

Seriously, who was this dude? For a split second I thought it was Kevin Kelly, but there’s two problems with that theory:

The guy was too young to be Kevin Kelly

The guy looked nothing like Kevin Kelly.

He sounded like Chris Jericho and looked kinda like a British ventriloquist called Paul Zerdin and...never mind, I just found out his name is Marc Lloyd, though personally, I think Michael WhoTFAmI is a way better name.

Paul Heyman - Panty Sniffer

The night after Wrestlemania 18, Brock Lesnar had made his debut by interfering in a Hardcore match between Maven and Al Snow and killing everybody involved dead.

For the next few weeks, the future Mr. Sable went around destroying people at random while his agent, Paul Heyman soaked it up. 

Recently, Heyman had tried to use having Lesnar in his camp to his advantage by playing with Lita’s underwear and insinuating that if she didn’t give him sexy times, he’d have Lesnar take out her boyfriend, Matt Hardy.

Lita didn’t give him sexy times, so Lesnar made good on the promise to beat Hardy up while Heyman frolicked around in a bag of Lita’s panties like a kid rustling through a haul of Halloween candy.

With Matt out of action, it was up to Jeff Hardy to avenge his brother in what would be Lesnar’s first official match.

First though, it was promo time.

In that promo, the sleazy panty sniffer put over Lesnar as The Next Big Thing.

To his credit, Heyman was at least correct on that one.

Jeff Hardy (w/ Lita) vs. Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman)

And so, Big Brock’s debut match saw him demolish Jeff Hardy from pillar to post in an utterly sadistic fashion.

An elevated squash, this was made all the more entertaining by the last-minute hope spot Jeff pulled out of his pocket, electrifying the crowd with a comeback that made him look -if only for a fleeting moment- that he might actually prevail.

Alas, it wasn’t to be Hardy’s night. 

Lesnar took great pleasure in pulverizing his opponent until Teddy Long was forced to stop the match to stop Jeff Hardy’s organs from literally being splattered all over the ring.

Your Winner via Referee Stoppage: Brock Lesnar  

After a quick look at the rivalry between Edge and Kurt Angle, the two locked up in our next match.

Kurt Angle vs. Edge 

And what a match it was.

This was very good indeed. It was one of those matches that looks like it might be a little underwhelming at first but then builds and builds into an all-out, balls-to-the-wall classic that has you on the edge of your seat.

Though it was definitely Edge’s finest hour as a solo star at this point in his career, that didn’t mean he was to walk away with a victory.

After a scorcher of a match, the Olympic Gold Medalist hit the Angle Slam for the cover, the count, and the fall.

Your Winner: Kurt Angle

Jerry Lawler had enjoyed the match so much that he gave Kurt a standing ovation.

Chris Jericho’s Got Hurt Feelings

After a weird edit that it made it seem like they cut something out of the show, we jumped to Chris Jericho marching down to ringside.

The first-ever Undisputed Champion was out to bemoan the fact that he’d gone from main eventing Wrestlemania to not having a match on tonight’s card, all within the space of a month.

If you think about it, that’s a fairly legitimate complaint.

Still, despite not being booked, Jericho didn’t want all of that bouncing on a trampoline in his underoos to go to waste, so he lambasted the crowd, talked about his feelings being hurt, and then went home.

Taker Warns Flair

Well, he didn’t really warn him as much as he did walk into the Raw boss’s office, stare him down a bit and point a finger at him as if to say ‘just you watch yourself, mister.’

World Wrestling Federation Intercontinental Championship 
WWF Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam vs. Eddie Guerrero

After recently returning to the company, Eddie Guerrero made his first PPV appearance since WWA - The Revolution earlier that year and his first WWF PPV appearance since facing Brian Christopher WWF Insurrection 2001, all in the name of dethroning Rob Van Dam for the Intercontinental Championship.

To that end, he was successful. A quick smack upside his opponent’s head with the title belt and a beautiful frog splash gave Latino Heat the win, but that wasn’t what was really important here.

What was really important was that this match was awesome. Like, just non-stop solid wrestling that was a joy to watch. 

It even produced a chuckle at one point, though that was due to Jim Ross.

Giving the match a notable backstory, he and King talked about how both men used the frog splash as a finisher.

“Well, let me ask you, JR. Who was the first person in the WWF you saw using the frog splash?” Asked Lawler, insinuating that RVD had stolen the move.

“D’Lo Brown,” answered Ross, bluntly.

“Well, OK then,” replied King. “Who was the second?”

Everything about this match was a lot of fun.

Your Winner and New Intercontinental Champion: Eddie Guerrero

After Jim Ross spent time shilling The Rock’s movie, The Scorpion King as though his life depended on it, we got a video package looking at how Steve Austin and The Undertaker had come to face off to earn a title shot.

That match was next.

Number One Contender’s Match for a shot at the Undisputed Championship 
The Undertaker vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin 

Special Referee: Ric Flair

Steve Austin and The Undertaker had a weird of history of sometimes having excellent matches and sometimes being dull and tedious. 

Their matches at WWF Rock Bottom and WWF In Your House 15: A Cold Day in Hell didn’t do it for me at all whereas their their bouts at Summerslam 1998 and Judgement Day 2001 absolutely delivered. 

This one somehow managed to be the best and worst of Austin/Taker all rolled into one match. 

The first half was a very fun, engaging match with a lot to enjoy, but then the second half of a match that went nigh-on half an hour really started to drag.

The first part saw Austin bust out some technical wrestling and both match bringing their A-Game, but as time went on it gradually deteriorated.

At one point, Hall and X-Pac came and stood in the entranceway and watched the match.

They didn’t interfere or get involved in any way, they just stood there. By the time the match was over they were nowhere to be seen, making their presence entirely pointless.

Later, Flair got ref-bumped and spent ten days knocked out. I know Naitch was getting on a bit, but let’s not forget that he just wrestled a whole match with ‘Taker a month before and now we’re supposed to believe that one little bump could knock him out for ages?

Was there really something about putting on a referee shirt that made people absolute weaklings?

Anyway, after a long effort, Undertaker kicked a chair in Austin’s face and pinned him.

Stone Cold got his foot on the ropes but Flair didn’t see it and gave the fall to Booger Red.

Your Winner: The Undertaker

Afterwards, Austin gave his rival a stunner and drank a beer while Jonathan Coachman showed Flair footage of the finish.

“Mr. Flair, what do you have to say about that?” Asked Coach.

“Aw, shit,” replied Flair.

Weird that they didn’t beep that.

World Wrestling World Tag Championship 
WWF Tag Team Champions Billy & Chuck (w/ Rico) vs. Maven & Al Snow

I don’t care what anyone says, Billy & Chuck were an entertaining tag team. Adding Rico, their stylist, into the mix only made them more so.

Maven & Al Snow?

Not so much.

Maven’s whole gimmick was that he won Tough Enough yet wasn’t quite good enough to hang with the main roster, which doesn’t really say much about Tough Enough, does it?

Anyway, the match was fine and had some fun spots which elevated it above and beyond the ‘ cool down the crowd before the main event’ role it was so obviously meant to fulfil.

Unsurprisingly given that nobody cared about Maven & Al Snow, Billy & Chuck retained their titles.

Finally, it was time for our main event.

Undisputed World Wrestling Federation Championship 
Undisputed WWF Champion Triple H vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan 

Earlier in the show, a fan’s sign pointed out that Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan was essentially Triple H vs. Triple H and that’s all I’ve been able to think about for the whole show.

Obviously, this wasn’t a technical masterpiece, but if you’re watching a Hulk Hogan match for technical wrestling then you’re probably the same person that watches hardcore nudey films for the romance.

Besides, it was still very good, and probably the best actual wrestling match Hogan had been involved in for years. OK, so it didn’t have the same kind of Once in a Lifetime feel as his ‘Mania match, but Hogan vs. Rock was a spectacle first and a wrestling match second.

Hogan vs. Triple H was all about Hogan putting in some decent effort to prove he could hang with The Game...

...At least it was until the whole story boiled down to the champion wearing down the challenger with a figure four, a sleeper, and other “let’s lie on the mat and do nothing” holds which nearly sent this writer to sleep.

Eventually, things picked up and we got cameos from Chris Jericho and The Undertaker.

Y2J tried to help Hunter to win while ‘Taker apparently had his eye on using his title shot to face Hogan for the gold.

Neither were successful as both HHH and HHH saw off the invaders and proved that they wanted to do this without anyone’s help.

Eventually, after a good bit of Hulking Up, Hogan dropped the leg on Helmsley to win his first WWF title since Wrestlemania 9.

Your Winner and New Undisputed Champion: Hulk Hogan

Afterwards, a battered and bloody Triple H stared down Hogan with a vengeful look in his eye but then shook his hand before leaving the new champion to celebrate as this enjoyable show went off the air.

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And yes, it really was an enjoyable show.

The main event may not have been the best match on the card, but it certainly exceeded expectations given the kind of stinkers Hogan had been putting on in WCW for the last few years of that company’s existence.

Elsewhere, Tajiri/Kidman, Edge/Angle and Guerrero/RVD were all great matches and even Austin/Taker had its moments.

All in all, Backlash 2002 was a fun show that you probably won’t regret watching.

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Other 2002 pro wrestling reviews: 

• WWF Royal Rumble 2002 
• WWF No Way Out 2002 
• WWA - The Revolution
• WWF Wrestlemania X8
• NWA-TNA: Weekly PPV #1

More Backlash reviews:

• WWF Backlash 1999
• WWF Backlash 2000
• WWF Backlash 2001

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook or Twitter @RetroPWrestling. 

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PPV REVIEW: WWF Vengeance 2001

December 9, 2001
San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, California.

WWF Vengeance 2001 was the first World Wrestling Federation Pay Per View to take place in the aftermath of The Invasion storyline.

If you recall, the whole thing had ended with Team WWF emerging triumphant in a Winner-Takes-All elimination match at Survivor Series 2001.

The following night on Raw, Ric Flair styled, profiled, and walked that ailse en route to the ring. There, he declared that he had purchased Shane and Stephanie McMahon's shares in the WWF, which had not only given the McMahon kids the money they needed to fun their hostile takeover event, but more importantly meant that The Nature Boy was now a co-owner of the WWF alongside Vince McMahon.

That created an immediate rivalry between the two as they tried to deal with the fall out of the Invasion. 

That, of course, meant unifying the WWF and WCW titles to create one undisputed champion. 

It isn't a spoiler to say that we all know who won. After all, the first undisputed champion would spend pretty much the rest of his career bragging about his accomplishments on a night which would ensure that things would never evvvvvvvvvvvvvver be the same...

...Again.

With that being said, let's down to San Diego for Vengeance 2001.

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Four Men. Three Matches. Two Titles. One Undisputed Champion

Remember that awesome Freddie Fellini movie from Summerslam 2000? The mysterious film director was at it again for tonight’s show with a quirky opening video that seemed like something you’d get if you fed David Lynch a bunch of happy films.

As many opening videos did around this time, the Vengeance video featured an elderly Classy Freddy Blassie wandering around an abandoned warehouse. This time, he sat in a chair watching the champions of yesteryear while dancers danced, clowns clowned and Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King played.

All of this led to Blassie getting up and dancing with the dancers which was, naturally, the perfect way to hype up the serious importance of tonight’s show.

From there, it was pyro and crowd shots galore as Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler welcomed us to Vengeance.

‘Mr. McMahon Discusses Joining His Own Club’

‘Mr. McMahon Discusses Joining His Own Club’ - that’s what this segment is called on WWE Network and it makes me laugh a lot because it’s just such a polite way of saying ‘Vince McMahon came to the ring and talked about having his face rammed into Rikishi’s ass’ which is what actually happened.

The Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club had been launched the night after Survivor Series 2001 when Vince made William Regal pucker up to get his job back.

The dumb storyline -which often threatened to overshadow the build to the title unification matches- culminated in Vince being required to kiss The Rock’s ass, only for The Great One to make Vince basically smooch his cousin’s bumhole.

If you missed all that, you needn’t have worried - Vince started tonight’s show by telling us all about it before turning on the crowd to remind them “he who laughs last, laughs loudest”

This brought out Vince’s rival Nature Boy Ric Flair for his first WWF PPV appearance since the 1993 Royal Rumble.

Flair didn’t have much to say, his basic role was to pop the crowd and move things along by introducing our opening contest.

WWF European Champion Christian & Test vs. Scotty 2 Hotty & Albert

This all started when Test had beaten up Scotty 2 Hotty back at Survivor Series to get a shot in the immunity battle royal which, if you recall, he won.

The feud had then brought in Test’s ‘last men standing from The Alliance’ colleague Christian while Scotty had formed a random alliance of his own with the ‘Hip Hop Hippo’ Albert.

Not once in this whole feud was any mention made of the fact that Test and Albert used to team up.

Anyway, the match was...OK.

It certainly wasn’t bad and nobody did anything that could be classed as outright offensive, but it just wasn’t that interesting and failed to capture the attention.

After a reasonable yet uninspired effort, Albert destroyed Christian with the Baldo Bomb to win the match which didn’t bode well for the European Champion’s prospects.

Your Winners: Scotty 2 Hotty & Albert

Backstage, William Regal gave a strong interview to Jonathan Coachman in which he claimed that as excellent an athlete as Edge was, he’d never before incurred the wrath of someone with Regal’s experience.

This was a good performance from the Blackpool native, being much more Bad Ass Regal than Comic Foil Regal.

World Wrestling Federation Intercontinental Championship
WWF Intercontinental Champion Edge vs. William Regal

Regal continued to prove his worth as a performer in a strong match against Edge that was met with an unusually quiet reception from the live crowd.

The story was simple:

The aggressive veteran getting the upper hand on the young champion but growing increasingly more frustrated -and thus resorting to more and more dirty, underhand tactics- when his efforts proved too little to win the match.

Eventually, Regal’s desperation saw him reach for a pair of brass knuckles only for an exhausted yet determined Intercontinental champion to pull one last spear out of his arsenal and win the contest.

Your Winner and Still Intercontinental Champion: Edge

Backstage, we got a little comedy courtesy of Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle and new WWF co-owner Nature Boy Ric Flair.

Angle interrupted Flair’s phone call to let him know that tonight, he was going to do what Flair never had:

Become the Undisputed Champion.

“Well that’s awesome,” said Flair. “You’ve certainly got the skills to do it.”

Expecting an argument but not getting one, Kurt continued to try and antagonise Flair with his insistence that he was the man for the job tonight. The more Flair agreed with him, the more frustrated our Olympic Hero got.

I’m never too good at describing the humor in these moments, but trust me, it was comical.

Meanwhile, across the way, Matt Hardy tried to sweeten up his girlfriend Lita so that she’d be on his side in her role as special referee when Matt met Jeff Hardy to settle their recent differences.

Much to Matt’s chagrin, Lita said that she was always on his side as his girlfriend, she would call things right down the middle in tonight’s match.

Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy

Special guest referee: Lita

This had all started at Survivor Series when Jeff decided to dive off the top of a steel cage and crash through a table rather than win the match for his team.

Matt accused Jeff of being selfish and putting his love of taking risks before helping his team to victory. He had a point of course, but since the elder Hardy was being a bit of a d**k about the whole thing (as he had about other things such as ogling other members of the female roster), he had been cast in the role of heel.

Tonight, he continued his slow turn into a fully-fledged baddie in a match that he pretty much dominated from start to finish.

It was a weird one because although it wasn’t technically bad or anything, it still played out in front of a quiet crowd who were more into Lita than anything the two brothers were doing.

Besides, when you watch a Jeff Hardy match your kind of want to see him jumping around the place and at least breaking out a few fun spots. Outside of his match-winning Swanton bomb, however, there was none of that.

This was mostly just Matt beating up his brother and Jeff occasionally getting the briefest of comebacks before finally making the aforementioned swanton.

He made the cover, Matt got his foot on the ropes but Jeff pulled it off before Lita could see it and won the match.

Your Winner: Jeff Hardy

Afterwards, Matt protested his loss and, again, was completely justified in his complaint.

Trish Smells What The Rock is Cookin’

WWF Women’s Champion Trish Stratus had become a little infatuated with The Rock after The People’s Champion had saved her from joining the Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club and then snogged her face off backstage on either Raw or Smackdown (I forget which).

Tonight, she let herself into The Rock’s dressing room to give him a peck on the cheek for luck in his match tonight.

Before she left, Rocky told her that while he was completely focussed on that match, after it was done Trish would have plenty of time to smell what The Rock was cooking, which I think was a fairly gross way of saying he was going to shag her.

World Wrestling Federation World Tag Team Championship
WWF Tag Team Champions The Dudleyz (Bubba Ray & D’Von Dudley w/ Stacy Kiebler) vs. The Big Show & Kane

This certainly wasn’t awful or anything, and you could tell all four men were at least trying hard, but this tag team title match just wasn’t all that interesting.

Sure, there were a few notable moments. Big Show pulled Stacy’s pants down and smacked her bum because this was a different time in history when you could get away with that sort of thing.

Kane tried playing face-in-peril which, as a huge monster character, was just unbelievable, and then he and Big Show had a bit of a falling out because they weren’t as well gelled as a team as The Dudleyz and kept accidentally hitting each other.

In the end, Bubba Ray & D’Von nailed Show with a 3D onto an exposed turnbuckle to win the match.

Your Winners and Still Tag Team Champions: The Dudley Boyz

Out in the back, Lita tried to convince Matt Hardy that she hadn’t seen his foot on the rope. An irate Hardy was having none of it and simply packed his bags and left.

World Wrestling Federation Hardcore Championship
WWF Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam vs. The Undertaker

Though the hardcore title was well below the stature of both competitors at this stage, Rob Van Dam has held the belt for pretty much the entire Invasion storyline, so they had to at least do something with it.

Meanwhile, The Undertaker had now completed his transformation into a heel after feeling annoyed that Vince McMahon didn’t trust him enough to let him know that Kurt Angle was actually working as a mole when he switched to The Alliance.

Complaining about disrespect, ‘Taker felt so slighted that he decided the best thing to do would be to ram Jim Ross’ face in McMahon’s ass, then get his haircut and start beating up RVD.

Tonight, the American Bad Ass and The Whole F’N Show had the best match on the card up to this point by a large margin.

This was the first time all night that the crowd actually came alive, and who can blame them? They were watching a match that was captivating, enthralling, and peppered with enough big spots to get those loud *Holy s**t* chants going.

Speaking of which, the whole thing came to ahead when ‘Taker chokeslamed the champion off the stage through some tables to capture his first hardcore title.

Your Winner and New Hardcore Champion: The Undertaker

Back in Ric Flair‘s office, Chris Jericho confronted Nature Boy Ric Flair. 

Not unlike Kurt Angle earlier, Jericho insisted that Flair didn’t believe Jericho could get the job done tonight.

This time, Flair couldn’t really deny that, instead simply stating that if Jericho could do it, then more power to him. 

Whoever won the gold, Flair would walk the isle tomorrow night on Raw and award them the Undisputed Championship.

World Wrestling Federation Women’s Championship
WWF Women’s Champion Trish Stratus vs. Jacqueline

Though Trish would go on to be a competent and successful wrestler, she seemed very much over her head while locking up with the more experienced Jacqueline, making several mistakes that made the whole thing come off a little sloppy.

Of course, you can hardly blame her when she and Jacquie were trying to have an actual wrestling match and all the fans cared about was puppies.

Even Jerry Lawler, whose job it was to help get this stuff over, could only fixate on the colour of Trish’s bra.

After a minute or so of not very much, Trish hit her patented Bulldog to retain her title.

Your Winner and Still Women’s Champion: Trish Stratus

Prior to our main events, we were taken back to Smackdown and the moment The Rock burried Vince’s face in Rikishi’s ass.

Live from WWF New York, ‘Kishi joked about his concern that he might have to have McMahon’s ass surgically removed from his ass before telling us that he was now back and ready to back that ass up.

This was followed by a recap video of tonight’s undisputed championship matches set to the WWF Vengeance 2001 theme song, Sinner by Drowning Pool.

World Wrestling Federation Championship
WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle

Interestingly, Stone Cold Steve Austin came out to his classic Glass Shatters theme after months of using themes by Disturbed, firmly establishing the fact that his heel run was officially over.

His theme music wasn’t the only thing Austin brought back tonight. His older ring style also made a comeback...well, at least kind of.

This was the first time in perhaps years that we’d seen Austin having an actual wrestling match on PPV rather than the usual brawl up and down the isle and around ringside.

The champion even borrowed Angle’s own rolling German suplex move and hit him with five of the things in quick succession. Suplex city, bitch indeed.

Of course, Angle was no slouch either. The Olympic Gold Medalist worked hard here, but despite all that, this one fell short of their previous matches such as the one at Unforgiven 2001.

Your Winner and Still WWF Champion: Stone Cold Steve Austin

Because we couldn’t just go from one match to the next for some reason, this historic occasion was interrupted by a backstage skit in which Test hit on his former manager Trish Stratus, only for the women’s champion to send him packing.

World Championship
World Champion The Rock vs. Chris Jericho

Now this was more like the kind of WWF main event this writer was expecting; a compelling battle between two arch rivals with the intensity turned all the way up to 11.

While it wasn’t quite as good as their awesome outing at No Mercy 2001, it was still a damn fine match in which Jericho looked strong against The Rock.

Ok, so he was still a heel and acted accordingly, and ok, so he won the match after hitting Rock with a low blow after the champion was distracted by Vince McMahon interference, but this wasn’t a case of Y2J getting whooped every which way til Sunday then fluking a victory.

Prior to the cheating, Jericho actually looked like he belonged as he took one step closer to immortality.

Your Winner and New World Champion: Chris Jericho

Jericho had no time to celebrate, or even rest for that matter, as Austin charged the ring and immediately went after him.

The WWF Champion was then taken out with a chair courtesy of Angle before Rock returned to the ring and planted Chris Jericho with a rock bottom.

Thus, our final match of the evening began with both men lying on their backs, sucking air.

Undisputed Championship Match
WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. World Champion Chris Jericho

This was another decent match. Not as good as Jericho’s outing with The Rock, but passable as a main event and marred only by the fact that the crowd were obviously waiting for a run-in from a returning Triple H and that was never going to happen.

It wasn’t completely ludicrous to expect The Game to put in a cameo. His face was all over the advertisements for tonight while sledgehammers -his weapon of choice- were a prominent part of the show’s motif.

Alas, it wasn’t Hunter who was returning tonight but Booker T.

After failing to get his job back on a recent episode of Raw, the former Alliance member ran through the crowd and blasted his one-time leader in the head with a title belt. Then, Jericho made the cover. Earl Hebner made the count, and that was that.

Your Winner and New Undisputed Champion: Chris Jericho

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Jericho had just beaten The Rock and Steve Austin in the same night. He would spend the rest of his career bragging about it.

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Understandably, Vengeance 2001 is remembered more for its historical significance regarding the Undisputed Championship than it is for its in ring quality, but that’s not to say that this wasn’t a good show.

The opener was fun, Regal/Edge was solid, and Rock/Jericho was a riot.

Match of the night goes to Undertaker/RVD, a really enjoyable bout that is definitely worth watching at least once.

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Other reviews of 2001 pro wrestling events: 

• WCW Sin
• WWF Royal Rumble 2001
• WCW Superbrawl: Revenge 
• WWF No Way Out 2001
• WCW Greed
• WWF Wrestlemania 17
• WWF Backlash 2001
• WWF Insurrextion 2001
• WWF King of the Ring 2001
• WWF Invasion
• WWF Summerslam 2001 
• WWA The Inception
• WWF Unforgiven 2001
• WWF No Mercy 2001
• WWF Rebellion 2001
• WWF Survivor Series 2001

Be the first to catch the latest Retro Pro Wrestling reviews by following on Facebook or Twitter @RetroPWrestling.

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