Mike Reviews WWE SummerSlam 2002

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I reviewed a Stinker show from WWE last week, so this week I’ll redress the balance by reviewing one of the better shows they ever put on in the form of SummerSlam 2002. WWE’s product was a bit of a mixed bag at the time of SummerSlam 2002, as the Smackdown brand was usually putting on good shows built around the likes of Brock Lesnar and the famed Smackdown Six, whilst Raw was becoming a vehicle that existed seemingly only to get Triple H over and the quality of the television was suffering as a result.

Going into SummerSlam 2002, the two big storylines were Shawn Michaels coming out of retirement for a match with His H’ness and Brock Lesnar going for his first World Title against The Rock. If those two matches delivered then the show would be an automatic thumbs up, but a lot of matches on the under card promised to be good as well, meaning there was much intrigue prior to the event.

I owned the official VHS for SummerSlam 2002 as I got it for Christmas that year and my Christmas of 2002 alternated between watching this show and playing Kelly Slater Pro Surfer on the PS2, so I had quite a good time all told! Let’s see if SummerSlam 2002 stands up to the rigours of time though.

You can view the card by clicking below;

Card with guide « WWE SummerSlam 2002 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database

The event is emanating from Uniondale, New York on the 25th of August 2002

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry The King Lawler for Raw, whilst Michael Cole and The Human Suplex Machine Taz handle the commentary duties for Smackdown.

Opening Match
The Olympic Hero Kurt Angle Vs Rey Mysterio Jr

Rey had debuted in the summer of 2002 and had quickly gotten over, with this match being his first appearance on a WWE pay per view event. Angle was coming off a win over Hulk Hogan at King of the Ring and a fantastic man of the match performance at Vengeance 2002 in a World Title match. Rey actually comes from under the ring to attack Angle to start. I remember from the Rey Mysterio DVD that WWE released around 03/04 that he said he barely got his mask on in-time whilst he waited under the ring.

Rey runs wild on Angle to start, with the action being really exciting due to both men being “on” and having good chemistry with one another. Angle eventually manages to cut Rey off outside the ring and works him over back inside, with Rey of course selling that well. Angle is drawing great heat here, but the crowd is also enjoying the action, especially when Angle starts throwing Rey around with some big suplexes.

Some of the counters in this one are really smoothly done, such as Angle turning a Rey spinning head scissors into a side slam at one stage. That looked fantastic and it’s really impressive how Angle is able to adapt his style to hang with Rey in this sort of scenario. Angle is actually lightning fast at points during this, as his body hadn’t been utterly destroyed by working a hard style night in night out yet.

Rey eventually low bridges Angle and follows up with a TOPE CON HILO for a big pop, as he’s basically already a big star just one pay per view in, which is a testament to how good he’s looked but also to how good a job Angle has done at making Rey look like he’s on his level. The finishing stretch is done excellently as well, as Rey gets a fantastic near fall off a rana, but when he tries another one Angle is able to counter it to the ankle lock and that’s enough for the clean submission win. Rey lost nothing in that defeat though.

WINNER: KURT ANGLE
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This one is deservedly remembered for being a great match, as the wrestling was really fun and the match itself had some of the best crowd heat on the entire show. Angle went over clean but he gave Rey so much offence that Rey ended up being a bigger star after it than when he came in, whilst Angle lost nothing from making the newcomer look like a genuine threat. Big thumbs up for this one, I really enjoyed it!

Warring General Managers Eric Bischoff (Raw) and Stephanie McMahon (Smackdown) decide to watch the pay per view together, with Bischoff being his usual smarmy self.

Match Two
The King of the World Chris Jericho Vs The Nature Boy Ric Flair

Jericho had jumped from Smackdown to Raw in order to shore up the roster over there as Smackdown had pretty much all the best wrestlers at one stage and Raw needed some of them. Jericho had found himself in a feud with Flair, who was back to being a wrestler after a failed stint of playing the Heel authority figure on Raw. According to Jericho’s second book, Flair was dealing with some serious imposter syndrome at the time and Jericho had to give him a pep talk or two in order to get Flair firing in their matches.

Flair’s shine mostly features him throwing chops, which the crowd enjoys, but Jericho kind of takes the lions share of the offence, with Flair only getting the odd moment of offence for himself. Flair is a good seller though and Jericho does a solid job of being an insufferable Heel, so the match itself is watchable, but it’s not as good as it might have been had the two been able to work a proper program together during the WCW days. I think they had a few singles matches there, but that was when Jericho was a babyface.

Jericho does a lot of cheating, which you can bet is deliberate seeing as Flair’s nickname was that he was “The Dirtiest Player in the Game”, so Jericho trying to out cheat Flair in a big match situation is very much on point for Jericho considering how he thinks about psychology and storytelling in his matches. Jericho eventually misses a shoulder tackle in the corner and that allows Flair to make the comeback with some more thunderous chops, which the crowd appreciates. Jericho does a nice job bumping for everything and the match remains entertaining.

Things pick up a bit in the closing stages, with both wrestlers going for bigger moves, including both of them trying to defeat their opponent with their own trademark submission move. Jericho manages to lock Flair in the Figure Four, and it leads to a weird spot where Flair taps at the exact same time he grabs the ropes, meaning it doesn’t count. I think the idea is that Flair is playing mind games by making Jericho think he’s tapped out when he hasn’t, but they don’t do a really good job of telling that story and the crowd doesn’t seem to understand it. Flair quickly applies his own Figure Four following that, preceded by a low blow that the ref misses, and that’s the submission victory for The Nature Boy.

WINNER: RIC FLAIR
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: The finish didn’t really work, but the match itself was good lower card fun and they gave Jericho his win back at the next pay per view, so Flair winning here didn’t do the younger guy any harm and the live crowd was happy to see the legend win, so it all worked out in the end

Brock Lesnar is warming up, whilst his Agent gives him the usual Heyman pep talk. This was an effective segment that got both Lesnar and Heyman over.

Match Three
Latino Heat Eddy Guerrero Vs Edge

Eddy had jumped over to Smackdown with Chris Benoit whilst The Un-Americanz and Jericho had gone the other way, with the idea being that it would balance out the rosters a bit and give younger up and coming wrestlers like Edge some experienced opponents to work with who could get the best out of them. This timeframe would go on to be known as the “Smackdown Six” Era of the show, and it’s still remembered quite fondly by those who were watching at the time. This was the standard feud of the more grizzled Eddy having none of the youthful Edge’s exuberance, leading to the two clashing.

Edge’s near seizure inducing light show for his entrance should come with some kind of health warning attached to it, although I do enjoy the Rob Zombie song. Edge was probably my favourite wrestler around this time, and I remember being really into this feud, especially when they did a big hardcore match on an episode of Smackdown in order to blow it off. Edge shows some good babyface fire in the early stages, bumping Eddy around with big moves, whilst Eddy takes some nice bumps for him.

The cut off comes when Edge misses a Spear and ends up tumbling to the floor, leading to Eddy targeting the left arm and shoulder. Edge does a good job selling the injured body part and Eddy gives his usual strong performance of being a vicious bad guy going after a weakened appendage of his opponent. Eddy was always great when he was allowed to tap into RUDO EDDY mode, and it works really well here thanks to Edge’s selling and facial expressions. This is the first match where the crowd heat is a little disappointing though, as they don’t seem into the whole working the body part psychology, even though the two wrestlers are telling that story well.

I have to give credit to Michael Cole and Tazz, as they do a great job getting across the psychology of the bout, with Tazz enjoying the chance to comment on the punishing holds that Eddy is locking in on his seemingly injured opponent. Edge eventually makes the one armed comeback, actually only using his right arm in a nice touch, including with moves like back body drops. Eddy continues to take some excellent bumps, especially as he has to do quite a bit of the work on some of them seeing as Edge is doing most of them with just the use of one arm.

We head into the closing stretch following that, with both wrestlers getting some nicely timed near falls, as they are really working darn hard here in order to have a good match. It really doesn’t feel like they’re holding back due to their spot on the card, and they are happy to do some of the big moves in their respective arsenals, such as Edge getting an Implant DDT and Eddy getting a Frogsplash, with neither move securing the win. Sadly they undo a lot of the good work when it comes to the finish, as Edge ends up getting a Spear OUTTA NOWHERE for the win, and he uses the injured shoulder to do it, without even doing a big sell job for it upon contact.

WINNER: EDGE
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: It’s a shame about the finish, as the match was really good up to that point, with the selling being a big reason as to why, so Edge kind of just ignoring it for the finish ruined things somewhat for me. In my opinion, if Edge is winning then a better finish would have been Edge getting the Spear, selling his arm big and delaying on the cover. When Edge finally makes the cover, you have Eddy latch on a nasty arm based submission hold that Edge has to counter into some kind of desperation pinning hold for the win. You still get Edge winning in a last gasp manner, but you do it in a way that doesn’t disregard all the arm work and actually kind of pays it off. Aside from the disappointing finish though, this was a good match, and if they’d stuck the landing it might have ended up being rated even higher

We get a promo video hyping that there is no off-season in WWE. Is that something they should want to brag about? “Oh yeah, we care so little about the health of our athletes that we force them to wrestle all year round!”

The Un-Americanz still hate America. I know, I’m shocked!

Match Four
WWE World Tag Team Titles
Champs: The Un-Americanz (Lance T. Storm and Christian) Vs Booker T and Goldust

Storm, Christian and Test were doing the anti-American gimmick, with William Regal eventually getting added to the ranks as well. It was standard cheap heat stuff, although I think Storm might have gotten the odd death threat as well, being that 9/11 was still fresh in most people’s minds and being openly against MURICA could tend to rile people up somewhat. Booker and Goldust had done some comedy skits in the spring and it had gotten over, so they’d been paired up as a team. They were actually a really good babyface tandem.

The Challengers shine on The Champs to start, and it’s good stuff, but eventually Goldust ends up taking a trip into the ring post, and then the ringside barricades, and that’s our cut off. The crowd is into the cheap heat aspect of this storyline, chanting “USA” for the babyfaces and getting into the idea of a Booker T hot tag. Storm and Christian are a good Heel tag team and cut the ring off well, so this is a well-worked and entertaining match that hits the notes it needs to and pushes the crowd’s buttons the way it has to as well.

The Champs try and Con-Chair-To Goldust at one stage whilst the ref is distracted with Booker, but he ducks that and then makes the tag to Booker, who runs wild and looks good doing so. The ref ends up taking a bump, meaning that he isn’t there to count when the challengers clearly have the bout won. Test makes good use of this by running in and giving Booker a big boot so that that The Champs can steal the three count.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: THE UN-AMERICANZ
RATING: ***

Thoughts: They worked the formula well here and all four wrestlers were experienced pro’s, so the work was to a good standard and the crowd was into the story being told. The finish was kind of cheap, but they were trying to get some heat on The Un-Americanz at the time, hence the mega push. Ironically, they would end up derailing the push in about a months’ time when Vince got annoyed that Test and Christian wouldn’t cut their hair in order to look more like Storm and Regal

At WWF New York (or whatever it was called at the time) Nidia makes out with someone whilst her boyfriend Jamie Noble eggs her on. This was certainly a segment that happened on this pay per view.

The General Managers continue to squabble, with Stephanie doing her women’s empowerment spiel. Just wait till 2016 when she invents women’s wrestling!

Match Five
WWE Intercontinental Title
Champ: Crippler Chris Benoit Vs Mr. Monday Night Rob Van Dam

Benoit won the belt as a Raw wrestler but then jumped to Smackdown. However, Stacey Keibler then stole some documents from Dawn Marie and jumped to Raw, meaning that Raw GM Eric Bischoff was able to get RVD a rematch for the belt. They’ve gone to the trouble of blurring out the name plate on the belt here, which seems kind of random seeing as Benoit is wearing the belt on the way to the ring and Tony Chimel announces his name. It’s not like we aren’t going to be able to work out that Benoit was the Champ at the time you know?

Benoit is someone who wasn’t going to mind if RVD laid his kicks in, whilst RVD was happy to be turned inside out from Benoit’s vicious suplexes, so you’d think they’d be ideal opponents for one another. The wrestling in general is of a good quality in this one, although RVD doesn’t get to do a lot of his trademark high flying offence as the focus of the match is more on Benoit battering him with punishing holds and devastating throws. RVD does a solid job of selling everything, but this match is kind of counter intuitive in regards to playing to RVD’s strengths.

The match really does more for Benoit than it does RVD, even though the work is generally very good and they do a reasonable job of telling the story that RVD is swimming against the tide but still finding a way to hang on and create some openings. It’s just not the most exciting match they could have had, and kind of highlights a problem with WWE’s obsession with everyone working a more traditional type of match. RVD’s initial selling point was that he had exciting back and forth matches that focused more on athleticism, but in WWE a babyface has to be able to work long matches where they get beaten up a lot before making a comeback, so instead they try and fit the square peg into the round hole rather than just letting RVD be RVD.

That all being said, I can’t complain with the actual quality of the wrestling on display, it’s just not really the best way to showcase RVD, who was the guy they were trying to get over as the top babyface on the Raw brand to oppose Triple H. It does an excellent job of making Benoit look like a vicious wrestling machine though which, considering he was due to feud with Kurt Angle over the autumn, was definitely a smart thing to do. RVD actually gets so beaten up at one stage that we get the rare visual of seeing RVD without his ponytail, as his bob gets lost at some point. RVD with long flowing hair gives off some Juventud Guerrera vibes actually.

RVD eventually survives some Crossface attempts from Benoit, and even gets a Crossface of his own at one stage. Benoit shrugs that off though and continues to brutalise RVD, setting him up for a back suplex from the top rope. RVD manages to shift his weight however and lands on top, leading to RVD quickly heading to the top rope and delivering the Five Star Frogsplash for the three count. The finish got a nice pop at least, but the crowd kind of sat on their hands for large parts of it, likely due to the fact that the majority of the match was just Benoit beating the cheese soufflé out of RVD and barely giving him anything, thus meaning the crowd didn’t have many opportunities get excited.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: ROB VAN DAM
RATING: ***

Thoughts: Thank goodness they let RVD win that one, as I was getting some Backlash 2002 vibes at one stage, which featured a match where RVD got utterly battered for about 85% of the match by Eddy Guerrero before getting pinned at the end, which really made RVD look like a chump and made them course correct at the Judgment Day pay per view by giving RVD considerably more offence. Thankfully they at least had RVD weather the storm and eke out the win on this occasion. This was one of those matches where the quality of the wrestling was good, owing to Benoit being on another level during this timeframe, but the match story they chose to tell didn’t really work to RVD’s strengths. The crowd reactions were a bit disappointing as a result, but overall it was a good match, just not as good as it could have been if they’d done more of an RVD Style bout

Bischoff brags about the IC Title being exclusive to Raw, but Stephanie laughs that off in a shrieking Wicked Witch of the West kind of way. Ugh, Bischoff is just such a creep in storyline and yet I still have zero desire to cheer for the insufferable Stephanie over him. Stephanie was laughing because she was going to sign the WWE Champ to an exclusive deal following that, something The Bisch wasn’t aware of until the following night on Raw.

We get a video package for the next week, focusing on The Un-Americanz and their hatred of America. Wow, they were really trying to get this angle over at the time.

Match Six
Test Vs The Undertaker

Undertaker had been a Heel for most of 2002, but his love for America was strong enough to overcome his inherent evilness and now he’s a good guy taking on the devious foreigners. This is two big blokes throwing down, and it’s actually quite entertaining. If that sort of match doesn’t interest you then you probably won’t enjoy this, but if you like that genre of wrestling then I think you’ll probably find this to be fun. Taker shines on Test to start, but Test shoves the ref into the ropes in order to counter the Old School rope walk and that’s the cut off.

Taker does a decent job fighting from underneath whilst Test works him over, as Test is big enough that Undertaker feels comfortable selling for him, although I don’t think the crowd really buys that Test has any real chance of winning, which was often the case when they put Test in situations like this. Test was just always that level below the top guys and, try as they might, the company could never quite get Test to that next level, even though he was often given opportunities to work with the top guys and he was rarely buried when in there with them.

Taker eventually makes the comeback, with the crowd popping big when it looks like a Choke Slam is coming. Test had great facials for that actually. Taker does eventually deliver the move, which is the cue for Storm and Christian to run down and try to help their stablemate. Taker beats them both up, which the referee lets slide because Taker brought them in to the ring (kudos to Jim Ross for explaining that on commentary). Test gets a Big Boot in the commotion for two in a good near fall, which is probably the one time in the match the crowd thought Test might win, so they got them once at least. Test tries to use a chair following that, but Taker kicks it in Test’s face and the Tombstone follows for the three.

WINNER: THE UNDERTAKER
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: They worked that at a reasonable clip considering that it was two very big men throwing down. The one downside was that, aside from that one near fall near the end, the crowd never really bought in to Test as a potential winner there, which hurt the crowd reactions during the body of the bout. However, despite that, the work was fine for two big lads wrestling and the crowd enjoyed the closing stages when Taker started his comeback, so overall it was entertaining for the most part

Undertaker celebrates with the American flag following that, whilst Jim Ross gushes over it. Nice to know that Jim was happy to forgive the guy that shoved his face into Vince McMahon’s derriere in his home town just because he held a flag up. Ah, wrestling.

Semi-Main
Non-Sanctioned Bout
The Game Triple H Vs The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels

Shawn hadn’t wrestled a match in WWF/E since 1998, although I think he’d done a match for his Texas Wrestling Academy training school in between then and this show. The story here was that Shawn had come back to lead the nWo faction, but then everyone in it got either injured or fired, so they decided to just disband the group and Shawn was back to being a babyface. Shawn’s next gambit was to try to reform DX with Triple H, but Tri gave him a Pedigree instead and then threw Shawn head first through a car window in order to really heat things up.

There was a stupid whodunit thing with Shawn’s window attack, even though it came after Triple H had already gone Heel, so Triple H being revealed as the perpetrator was hardly a surprise. To be honest, I don’t know why Triple H even denied it to begin with, as he didn’t seem to be too bothered when he was rumbled. Maybe it was a Vince thing that he insisted on being added into the storyline and the two guys just decided to treat it as an afterthought so people would just focus on the existing issue between the two.

Shawn shines on Triple H to start, doing a lot of his traditional spots, including the skinning of the cat, and looking good doing so. However, Tri is able to dodge the Sweet Chin Music and delivers a big back breaker for the cut off. Shawn sells that perfectly, and the crowd immediately buys into how dangerous such a move is as they know that Shawn had to retire due to a back injury. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler do an excellent job on commentary getting across the jeopardy that Shawn is in here, whilst Triple H performs the role of the bigger bully fantastically, as he methodically destroys Shawn’s back with basic moves, as Shawn’s back is so damaged that those moves are all he needs. It’s masterful storytelling, and they don’t even have to do anything that dangerous either.

Tri eventually introduces a chair into proceedings and goes on to deliver one of the moves this match is best known for, as he sets the chair up in a seated position and then drops Shawn back first onto it in a brutal looking spot. Shawn is soon bleeding and seemingly one move away from paralysis, and he sells it all exceptionally. Shawn works far better in this sort of role than RVD did in the earlier match, as he was always a great seller and he’s perfectly suited to being destroyed for long periods of time before making some well-timed comebacks. Timing, selling and storytelling were all ways that Shawn was able to still be one of the better workers in the entire business, even though he wasn’t able to do the same things he did in the 90’s with such regularity, and he was able to get an entire second career out of it, not unlike how Keiji Muto did around the same time in Japan.

Triple H tries to use his trusty sledgehammer at one stage, but Shawn manages to fight Triple H off before that can be used, so Tri goes to a rope assisted abdominal stretch instead whilst Jim Ross almost has a fit on commentary about how Shawn’s career is hanging by a thread. Earl Hebner eventually manages to back Triple H down and get him to break the hold, but Tri shoves Earl into the ropes in order to prevent a Shawn attack and then does the aforementioned back breaker spot with the chair as the crowd totally freaks out over it. Jerry Lawler is actively imploring Shawn to just stay down at this stage, but Shawn keeps kicking out and refusing to stay down. Jim Ross even wants Hebner to fast count Shawn just to get the match over with, as everyone’s performances are completely on point here.

Shawn eventually manages to counter the Pedigree with a swift shot to Triple H’s sledgehammer, and then he follows that up by kicking a chair into Tri’s face, which leads to The Game doing his own blade job, and it’s a gory one. Shawn now makes the big comeback, looking great in the process and playing all the hits, including the running forearm and kip-up as the crowd goes nuts. Shawn pummels Triple H both inside and outside the ring, and even takes the boot away from Spanish announcer Hugo to use as a weapon, in what might have been a call back to when he hit Kevin Nash with Mad Dog Vachon’s false leg. Shawn eventually enters a ladder into proceedings, just for old times’ sake, and the crowd loves that as well.

This hasn’t been the most responsive crowd all night, but they’ve absolutely loved this one, with Shawn knowing exactly what to do in order to get them excited. Triple H is actually great here, as he stumbles around and sells big for Shawn’s offence, soon becoming a bloody and quivering mess as Shawn dishes out some revenge. Shawn not only comes off the top rope with a splash through a table at one stage, but then he ups the ante further by coming off a ladder with an elbow drop inside the ring, as the crowd continues to be utterly entranced by the entire spectacle of it. Shawn looks to finish following the elbow drop with the Sweet Chin Music, but Triple H looks to counter it with a Pedigree. Shawn has one last counter himself however, as he diverts the Pedigree into a pinning hold and that’s enough for the flash three count.

WINNER: SHAWN MICHAELS
RATING: *****

Thoughts: I’ve watched this match multiple times over the past 20 years or so, and I still love it. I’m not sure what people were really expecting from Shawn at the time when this match was announced, but I’m sure those expectations ended up been exceeded by what we actually got once the bell rung. Shawn was excellent here, but Triple H was an equally good dance partner and the work from Earl Hebner and the commentary team all contributed to making this match an all-time classic. Shawn ended up having an entire second run following this, having even more great matches along the way, but he could have easily hung the boots up following this and it would have been a suitably awesome way to close the book on his career. The selling, the storytelling and the work were all here and were all brilliant, and they ended up getting a crowd that could be iffy at points totally invested in the action. If you’ve never seen this match then you need to, as it’s one of the best matches from any company in 2002, and WWE alone had some crackers during this year

At the time there was a modicum of controversy around Shawn using up what might have been one of his few remaining matches to work with someone like Triple H, who was already over and didn’t need any of the rub from working with Shawn in the same way an Edge or Booker T might have benefitted. However, Shawn then started wrestling pretty regularly again and went on until 2010, putting over the likes of Chris Jericho, Edge, Randy Orton, John Cena, Batista and others in the course of those 8 years, so those concerns didn’t end up becoming reality. But hey, everyone has 20/20 hindsight at the end of the day. Instead of being an exciting cap to the end of his career, this instead became the kickstart that led to us getting nearly 8 more years of Old Man Shawn having great matches!

Shawn doesn’t get much time to celebrate his victory as Triple H attacks him with a sledgehammer, which lead to Shawn coming back in the Autumn for further matches.

They have a cool-down segment following that, where Howard Finkel insults Lillian Garcia until Trish Stratus comes down to the ring to distract him so that Lillian can kick Howard square in his microphone. I have very little memory of Heel Howard Finkel, but I’m guessing it was just a way for them to make fun of him, as Vince seemed to love humiliating Howard for some reason.

Main Event
WWE Undisputed Title
Champ: The Rock Vs The Next Big Thing Brock Lesnar w/ Paul “The Walrus” Heyman

Brock hit the main roster in 2002 after developing his skills in OVW and they immediately gave him a monster push by having him win the King of the Ring and then beating Hulk Hogan clean with a bear hug before leaving him a bloody mess. Rock had come back from making movies again and this was his last brief run as a babyface before coming back as Hollywood Rock in early 2003, for a feud with Hogan of all people. They did a very good build up where they kept physical interaction between the two men scarce and then filmed some videos of them training really hard and looking like athletes, which was a very non-WWE thing to do at the time and gave the match a special feel.

As Brock makes his entrance I notice that someone has a sign with “PORK” on it, which I seem to recall was a bit of a running gag at the time where people would bring PORK signs to events. Do I have that right or have I imagined it? A lot of the Nassau crowd seems to side with Brock on this one, and it was the second time in 2002 that a crowd at a big event had cheered for supposed babyface Rock’s opponent instead of him, which probably got everyone’s brains whirring in favour of the eventual heel turn. Rock doesn’t really get a shine, as Brock destroys him from the opening bell, with Paul getting the odd cheap shot in when he can as well. Even back in 2002 Brock did a good job at being a believable monster, although a less refined one.

Rock does get some flurries now and then, often to a torrent of boo’s, although they are some who are still cheering for him. Rock goes to a Sharpshooter at one stage and surprisingly they don’t do the spot of Brock powering out but instead have Paul provide a distraction so that Rock breaks the hold to attack him, allowing Brock to hit him with a chair in the ribs and then go to the Hogan killing bear hug. Rock sells that big and the crowd buys it as a dangerous move due to Hogan losing to it, which is booking 101 in how to get a move over. The crowd heat is great here, with the opposing fan bases giving it the feel of a real sporting event.

Rock manages to survive the bear hug and fights back with punches to send Brock to the floor, where he preps the Spanish table. Brock takes a fantastic catapult bump into the ring post (he FLEW into that post) and Paul takes a Rock Bottom through the table to pay off all the interference spots, sending the crowd to near fever pitch. The Rock Bottom to Brock follows back inside, which gets two in a great near fall. Rock sells the kick out fantastically, going from shock to anger to calming himself down and readying to go again. Brock pops up with a Brock Bottom, which gets a two in another good near fall. Rock looks to respond with the People’s Elbow, but Brock pops up and mows him down with a clothesline and that leads to finisher counter sequence, which ends with Brock getting the F-5 for the pin and monster pop.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: BROCK LESNAR
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This was an excellent match, where Rock sold to make Brock look like a star and then did a clean job, but not before getting some offence in of his own so that he didn’t look weak in the process. It went pretty much perfectly for what they wanted and essentially “made” Brock in one night. The action was good, the crowd was great and the storytelling was on point. Definitely worth a watch if you’ve never seen it!

My interest in WWE was waning at the time due to a combination of getting a bit bored of the product and the company no longer having a presence on terrestrial TV, but Brock winning the belt piqued my interest and I started bugging my friend who had a satellite to tape episodes of Smackdown for me, so I managed to catch the best period of the “Smackdown Six” Era of Smackdown and it pretty much rescued my wrestling fandom.

As a result, this match has a pretty strong personal importance to me as I could have easily given up on wrestling entirely without that period of Smackdown pulling me back in and reminding me why I liked wrestling to begin with. Then I discovered ROH and NOAH not soon after, and I was pretty much a fan for life regardless of how good or bad WWE was because there would always be some form of wrestling that I could enjoy.

Brock celebrates with his new belt like an excitable gigantic child who just got an N64 for Christmas before looking at it longingly and we’re out.

In Conclusion

This is not only a great show, but it’s probably one of the best events WWF/E has ever put on, with good matches up and down the card and a very strong one-two punch to close. Angle Vs Rey-Rey is a great opener, most of the matches on the undercard are either in the *** range or higher, and then the two big matches to close deliver everything you would want from them. This is one of the easiest thumbs ups for a show that I think I’ll ever give.

Recommended Show!