Austin101's- WWE Armageddon 2002 Review:
(No, I don't know why she is on the cover.....)
"JR, I watch Smackdown a little bit...and one of the things I don't like about it is Al Wilson. Now...I REALLY don't like him!" -King (After Al Wilson cuts off the Dawn/Torrie footage)
-Live on PPV Sunday, December the 15th, 2002 from the Office Depot Center in the Ft. Lauderdale suburb of Sunrise, Florida.
-The main feud heading into the event was between Angle and The Big Show for the WWE Championship. Lesnar was also looking for revenge on Heyman and the WWE Champion The Big Show and was focused on playing apart in the outcome of this match. The other main event was between The Game Triple H looking to regain his World Title against the comeback kid, HBK. They would fight in a 3 stages of hell match for the gold.
-The broadcasters for this PPV were Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler for the Raw matches and Micheal Cole and Tazz for Smackdown's.
-This PPV featured about a 15 minute segment of Dawn Marie and AL Wilson in the ring showing footage of what happened in Room 357 with Dawn and Torrie. They slowly make out and strip a little then Al Wilson cuts of the footage and everyone is pissed. Personally I was pissed this shit got PPV time.
-On Sunday Night Heat before the event Jeff Hardy pinned D-Lo Brown after a Diving Crossbody and hooking the tights for leverage at 4:56.
Now, onto the PPV......
1) Booker T and Goldust vs Lance Storm and William Regal vs The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) vs Y2J Chris Jericho and Christian (c) in a Fatal Four-Way Elimination match for the World Tag Team Championship
Good tag action to begin the night.
Regal pinned Bubba after a Top rope leg drop by Storm at 5:23 to eliminate the Dudleyz first.
Goldust pinned Regal after a Director's Cut 5:32 just 9 seconds later to eliminate Regal and Storm.
It was not down to the final two teams, the champions Jericho and Christian and Golddust and Booker T.
In the end Booker T pinned Jericho after a Book End 16:43 after a series of near falls. We have new champions and the place explodes.
Very SOLID opener. This match was the perfect way to kick off the show and it was long as well.
New champions being crowned never hurts to begin a PPV either.
** 3/4
2) A-Train vs Edge
The A-Train never got over properly but from late 2002-2004 they tried extremely hard on Smackdown placing him in feuds with the likes of Taker, Benoit and Edge.
He put on some decent matches with Taker and Benoit but not even Edge (when he was in very good condition) could put on that great of a match with the hairy beast here.
This was pretty boring for the most part as are most matches with Albert. Albert usually is better off in tag teams or released but this is thankfully relatively short.
A-Train was disqualified for hitting Edge with a chair at 7:12 giving Edge the win.
After the match Edge got revenge though by hitting The A-Train seven times with a chair.
This was one of those cases where it was not all that bad but not anywhere near good either.
* 1/2
3) Eddie Guererro vs Chris Benoit
Time for a good single's match now.
These two rarely dissapoint but I am a little shocked they've never put on a near five star match (that I know of) considering they're history together and how good of workers they are.
Either way they've had amazing matches in Japan, WCW and the WWE, this is one of them. I love them both and miss them dearly...two of the all time top workers ever in a ring that's for sure.
Great mat wrestling here as you'd expect and the contest really went back and forth. Tazz is good as a color guy to break down what's happening in a match.
The crowd was into this one so that always helps.
In the end Chris Benoit forced Guerrero to submit with the Crippler Crossface at 16:47. I LOVED THE FACT THIS MATCH GOT NEARLY 17 minutes with to work.
This was almost as good or somewhat better in parts then there Vengeance 2003 bout but is never discussed which is confusing.
An underrated classic. Enough said.
*** 3/4
4) Batista (w/Ric Flair) vs Kane
Big man match.
A change of pace from the last one. Batista was still GREEN and he didn't mix with Kane.
Dave even botched a powerbomb and the crowd booed as it was clearly obvious.
Rather boring as it was mostly brawling outside of the occasional big man power move.
Batista pinned Kane after a Batista Bomb at 6:38. Kane being jobbed out to rookies continues...and would continue for the next few years (probably still does today)
3/4*
5) Victoria (c) vs Trish Stratus vs Jacqueline in a Triple Threat match for the WWE Women's Championship
I loved Victoria's theme here it suited her good. Anything is better then that dance music crap she turned to after anyway...
Short work here but it felt long as it wasn't all that great. Trish and Victoria could have done a lot better as they'd prove with another black female Jazz at Wrestlemania 19.
This was easy on the eyes of course because it contains Trish Stratus but the match was pretty sloppy and the crowd was dead.
Victoria pinned Jacqueline after Stratus hit a Clothesline to Jacqueline and Victoria knocked out Trish with the title belt at 4:28. Victoria retains the gold.
One of your typical women's matches but not exactly terrible.
*
6) Kurt Angle vs The Big Show (c) (w/Paul Heyman) for the WWE Championship
This match took place during Big Show's 87th push as a MONSTER on the Smackdown brand. He was WWE Champion this time around as he beat Lesnar in the Garden at Survivor Series the month before with help from Heyman who turned his back on Lesnar. Kurt Angle was the #1 contender and this was the main event for Smackdown on this PPV event.
Chair shots were sick here and the match flowed pretty good for a Big Show match.
Angle always seems to be able to work with Big men pretty good.
The crowd chanted for Lesnar and they got him.
Angle pinned Big Show after Brock Lesnar interfered and hit Big Show with the F-5 at 12:36 (Amazing strength yet again by Lesnar) and we have a new champion.
This was pretty fun actually, and pretty good as well overall but nothing overly special. These two have worked together many times and this one is a match I can watch more then the other bouts they had together anyway.
New Champion definately helped as well.
** 1/2
7) Main Event- "The Game" Triple H vs "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels (c) in a Three Stages Of Hell match for the World Heavyweight Championship
Many people have many problems with this encounter between The Game and The Heartbreak Kid.
As I'm writing this review on May 14th, 2008 this match has been discussed in the regular DVD review thread the past couple of days. Some love it, some hate it. I had only seen it twice and remember it being rather average but this re-watch definately helped me come to a conclusion for me anyway.
Michaels was not really all there in my opinion until his **** 3/4 classic with Y2J at Wrestlemania 19. Don't get me wrong his return match at Summerslam was GREAT as was the EC at Survivor Series but he just seemed a little off at times, and this night was one of those times.
The pace was brutal.
Very slow especially for the first fall. Hunter is capable of much more and lets just say he wouldn't go on to have the most impressive 2003 being placed with the likes of Steiner, Goldberg and Nash. Hunter's best work that year came with Booker T and that is something many agree with. Trips also got a lot of bashing online as he was starting to sate Stephanie off screen, many felt he got the push over many others. He got the world title handed to him just because of no reason in September of 02. Then he loses it for 3 weeks and in this match immediately gets it back?
Yeah that's not going to sit well with a lot of people. He'd go on to hold it another 9-10 months and that didn't sit well with a lot of people either. (Especially considering he won it back 2-3 months after losing it that time)
Among many other reigns.
The psychology was flaws here as WF Poster Straightedge pointed out the other day. Michaels worked on HHH's back when HHH had the bad leg. HHH worked on Michaels leg when HBK had the bad back. Plus they never remained consistent.
Good bumps against the cage, off the ladder through a tables (often seen in the don't try this at home adds) but overall this was a pretty big dissapointment. Could of been more quality instead of quantity.
The falls happened like this....
Triple H pinned Michaels in a Street Fight after a Pedigree 20:33. Yeah it took 20 minutes for the first fall and a lot of the action was slow.
Michaels tied it up at 1 a piece and pinned Triple H in a Steel cage match after a Splash off the cage through a table 29:45.
In the final fall, Triple H defeated Michaels in a Ladder match after retrieving the title belt 35:25 after that famous bump. The Game wins back the title and the ladder match which was 5 minutes featured very little of "The Ladder" itself.
With my rating of this match I'm probably being generous but I've seen this match rated all the way from
* 1/2 to
**** 1/2.
I can give it three stars for SOME of the effort although it should have been much better, and there was WAY to many problems with this encounter. Usually Shawn and Hunter know what to do but they were a little off this night to say the least.
Still somewhat enjoyable anyway.
***
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Final Rating for WWE Armageddon 2002 = 6/10
Benoit and Guerrero is a match that never gets talked about from this event. It was very solid as was the tag opener which also got 16 and a half minutes to work, Angle and Show was pretty good as was the main event despite some of the dissapointments. The Dawn/Torrie shit didn't need to be here and neither did the A-Train match, plus the ladies three way dance was just below mediocre. This event is not a must buy by any means but still contains enough pretty good material to get a rating just above average.
Feedback appreciated as always if you want to discuss.....
Up Next From Austin101: "WWE Armageddon 2003"
(stay tuned.....)
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