Austin101's- WWE Judgment Day 2003 Review:
"Booker just got out of Jail Tuesday? Why are you such a Booker fan anyway JR?!" -Lawler
-Live on PPV Sunday, May the 18th, 2003 at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. (aka Flair Country)
-This was the last joint pay-per-view before WWE started having brand exclusive PPV's monthly.
-The main feud heading into the event was between Triple H and Kevin Nash for the World title. On the Smackdown side of things it was between Brock Lesnar and The Big Show for the WWE title.
-The broadcasters for this PPV were Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler for the Raw matches and Micheal Cole with Tazz for the Smackdown matches.
-On Sunday Night Heat before the event Hurricane pinned Steven Richards after a Shining Wizard at 2:38.
-To open the show the new Raw Co-GM Stone Cold Steve Austin came out and delivered a quick 5 minute promo to hype the show. Throughout the night, backstage promo's aired with him and Bischoff from a sky box in the arena.
Now, onto the PPV matches......
1) John Cena and The F.B.I. (Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli) vs Chris Benoit, Rhyno and Spanky
Cena cuts a freestyle before the fans fully accepted him to start this match. A pretty decent one with references to mob movies since he was teaming with the Italians here.
Waaaaay to short to fully rate. Barely any of these guys got any time to shine. If Benoit and say Cena got a fair amount of time to work here for instance, perhaps it could of been somewhat decent.
It surely was fine for what it was but as a whole it was much to short to appreciate.
Palumbo pinned Spanky after the Kiss of Death at 3:58. Heels win.
*
2) La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier and René Duprée) vs Test and Scott Steiner (w/Stacy Keibler)
Stacy looked great here as always. This was during the on and off feud or triangle between Test, Steiner and Stacy which should only be remembered for Stacy's lap dance to Steiner in the summer of 03. I still laugh at whenever I hear "That Test has a lot of potential" during every one of his matches no matter what year or what failed push he is currently on.
Anyway this was basic tag work Raw quality.
Grenier pinned Steiner after a Bonsoir at 6:19. The heels win again.
Average at best.
* 1/4
3) Eddie Guerrero and Tajiri vs Team Angle (c) (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) in a Ladder match for the WWE Tag Team Championship
This was a great match.
An underrated one for sure but not something I need to rant and rave about for a year.
It has its moments such as Shelton's jump off the ladder onto Tajiri on the other ladder which got a great responce.
Eddie's frog splash did as well, as the team of Eddie and Tajiri were very over with the crowd. A lot of the big spots in this one were well recieved as you'd expect from these four talented individuals.
To be honest these guys were probably capable of putting on an even BETTER match then this but this one was still pretty great so no complaints.
One of the better matches on the show.
Eddie grabbed the belts to win at 14:18 and him and Tajiri became the new champions. Went by extremely quick due to how good it was.
** 3/4
4) Christian won a Battle Royal also involving: Val Venis, Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Test, Rob Van Dam, Kane, Goldust and Booker T to win the re-activated WWE Intercontinental Championship
Booker T was the only guy in this battle royal who wasn't a former IC Champion.
King was hillarious talking about why Booker didn't deserve to be there.
Kane got eliminated early which was bullshit and it's clear they needed to change him (as the unmasking happened shortly after a few weeks after this event) and the placed booed loud.
Almost as much bullshit as the idea of getting rid of the IC title to begin with. What a terrible idea. Anyways at least they brought it back.
Booker, Jericho and Christian were the last three.
Jericho and Christian double team Booker for awhile and right when Y2J is about to spring off the ropes Christian pushes him out and the place is shocked. Brilliant move.
Booker wins but the ref was knocked out, then came back to awake and see Christian who had just shoved down the first ever IC Champ Patterson at ringside eliminate Booker who had already won. Pretty flawed logic but they did it 97 Rumble style. Christian screwed Booker and the two feud ALLLLLLL SUMMER long for that belt.
Christian last eliminated Booker T to win the vacant IC title at 11:38.
Pretty good in the second half when there were the final three guys left in paticular........
**
5) Sable vs Torrie Wilson in a Bikini Contest
Unmatched psychology.
Perfect story telling.
Flawless action throughout.
Tremendous workrate.
Tazz was the host and declared Torrie Wilson the winner after she stripped some more.
*****
But due note in all seriousness I'm not rating this bikini contest like I would a normal match. So those 5 stars are in comparison to other Bikini Contests.
And for Bikini Contests in the WWE this could very well be the hottest one ever, so it is 5 stars.
6) Mr. America aka Hulk Hogan (w/Zach Gowen) vs "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (w/Sean O'Haire)
Terrible in every way you could think of it being.
Mr. America pinned Piper after a leg drop at 4:58.
DUD
7) "The Game" Triple H (c) (W/"Nature Boy" Ric Flair) vs Kevin Nash (W/"The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels) for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
A very slow moving match that was pretty terrible for the most part.
Triple H was disqualified after hitting referee Earl Hebner with a sledgehammer at 7:25, Nash wins the match but Triple H retained the title. The next time they'd wrestle it'd at least be inside a Hell in a Cell.
DISASTER.
Almost as bad as Steiner/Triple H although the bump at the end where Nash jacknifed The Game through the table was vicious and saved the ending.
Dq endings are never smart on PPV's in big title matches where the heel retains, thought they'd learn from Rumble 03. (Especially when the match isn't good to start with.)
* 3/4
8) Jazz (c) vs Victoria vs Jacqueline vs Trish Stratus in a Fatal Four-Way Match for the WWE Women's Championship
This match took place during a time when not everyone treated the division like a joke although most still did which is why it didn't last.
They actually had good female wrestlers on the roster at this point at least.
Crowd was dead like most Ladies attractions.
Short match, in the end Jazz defeated Jacqueline at 4:48 to retain here title.
Decent but not very good at all.
* 1/4
9) Main Event- Brock Lesnar (c) vs The Big Show in a Stretcher match to for the WWE Championship
Thankfully Lesnar (who you can usually ALWAYS count on) saves the 2nd half of this show from being a COMPLETE disaster.
A lot of good back and forth power moves here an in interesting match concept.
Lesnar can carry anyone and Show is alright in his own right here.
Got pretty violent and the crowd was into it for the most part which is more then I can say for most of the show.
Brock Lesnar put Big Show on the stretcher on a forklift and dragged him across the line, to win the match at 15:27 to retain the title.
Very solid main event although the two have done better.
***
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Final Rating for WWE Judgment Day 2003 = 5/10
This show sucks for the most part. It was the last time the PPV tried to squeeze both storylines for Raw and SD into a non big four PPV event. They needed some change in creative after this disaster but there first one didn't exactly pass with flying colors at Bad Blood 2003. There was SOME good on this show which is why it gets a passing grade (barely) with a 5/10 rating. The tag team ladder match, The Stretcher match, the battle royal were all okay and the bikini contest was hot. Says a lot about your show though when one of it's brightest spots was a BIKINI contest.
Feedback appreciated as always if you want to discuss.....
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Thought I'd re-post a JDAY 04 review I did a long ways back when my reviewing style was sort of different and it was short since the show sucked.
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Austin101's Judgment Day 2004 review:
The Staples Center was packed for a show that didn't look solid on paper, and looked the exact way on PPV.
1) RVD and Rey vs The Dudleyz
Rey Rey and Van Dam took on the newly turned heel Dudley Boyz in a fast paced tag team opener that saw a lot of high flying and some pretty good work by the four in the match.
The bout ran somewhere between 15-20 minutes and LA was into it as was I.
Good opener to be fair.
***
2) Dawn vs Torrie
Dawn's thong gives this half a star, otherwise it's the "Who gives a Katie Vick fuck match of the night"
1/2*
3) Mordecai vs Scotty 2 Hotty
If it wasn't clear before that Scotty is Mr. Job it should be now. He gets jobbed out to every new commer at every given oppurtunity, but hey it's PPV time right Scotty?
Not exactly sure why Mordecai failed, he had promise was slightly original and didn't come off bad at least to me. He would have been interesting in a feud with The Undertaker.
A quick squash win for Mordecai after his version of the Razor's edge which got a good pop from the LA crowd.
*
4) Tag Titles- Rico & Charlie Haas w/ Miss Jackie (c) vs Hardcore Holly & Billy Gunn
Yawn.
Billy and Bobby have been in a number of different tag teams over the years and these two were thrown together the week before and were actually billed as the "Favourites" going in by Cole. Right, Micheal....
Rico at least made the match entertaining with his homosexual tactics and Charlie tried to show off his amateur background. About the only two things good in the match as the tag champs retain.
* 3/4
5) Cruiser title- Jackie (c) vs Chavo
Jackie was the cruiser champ.
Chavo had one armed time behind his back.
Chavo Classic helped Chavo Junior cheat.
Chavo wins back the gold (Thank god)
The quick painful match is over. (Thank god)
Not sure what "CREATIVE" thought when they booked this angle as Jackie is mega annoying and Chavo deserved better.
*
6) US Title- John Cena (c) vs Rene Dupree
This was a little better then expected and the crowd was very into Cena. For me this was when Cena started to get cheesy but his character was gold till this point at least in my eyes.
Pretty entertaining stuff here given who was in the match.
** 3/4
7) Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer vs Booker T
Taker's first PPV bout since Wrestlemania 20 (maybe his first match since then as well if memory serves correct?) One of Bearer's last appearances before being buried at the 04 bash in Concrete.
These two styles of T and Taker don't exactly mesh well in the ring at least for me. Booker slugged away with right hands to the dead man through the first half, then it went back and forth in the second half. Not bad by any means but not overly impressive.
Taker wins with the tombstone.
**
8) Main Event WWE Title- Eddie Guererro(c) vs JBL
Lets be fair here. Sure JBL recieved X-Pac heat because he was brand new in the main event scene but he handled his character amazingly on the mic and told good stories in the ring throughout his run. Have to absolutely give credit where it's due here.
My god.
WOW.
Eddie's blood loss after that sick chair shot (and possibly a major blade job in the corner by Eddie) busted him up BADLY, and made Austin at Wrestlemania 13 look like a healthy SOB. LA who by the way was very into Eddie (as a lot of people in his culture was surely in attendance) just gave a HUGE "OOOOOHHH" when they showed Eddie's blood loss on the Tron. Amazing.
Instant credibility to the match which was alread a solid 25 minute brawl.
JBL really came into his own in this contest and I'd go as far as labelling it a classic brawl.
Eddie gets Dq'd and keeps the title as both men lose a tremendous amount of blood.
GREAT MAIN EVENT.
****
Overall PPV Rating=5/10
It's true that the big matches saved this PPV (more so the main event) however everything else kind of came off as BLAH, Free Smackdown material giving this PPV a mediocre rating, at least in Austin101's book!
Up Next From Austin101: "WWE Judgment Day 2005"
(stay tuned.....)
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