[zep81]

The one thing that annoys me with some of the WWE DVD's, like the WCW Nitro Set, is the pointless borders on either side of the screen

[Callamus]

They are there because the DVD's are released in Widescreen but the footage is not. They go away automatically on most DVD players, bluray players I understand have to be messed about with to get rid of them (never tried), and on the PC they are there too, never tried to get rid of them though lol.

[zep81]

Originally Posted by KingCal

They are there because the DVD's are released in Widescreen but the footage is not.

Ah, never thought of that lol, just watching The Best of Raw - 15th Anniversary DVD (4 Discs), only on Disc 1 atm, some memories, like 123 kid's title shot vs Bret!!

[Starbuck]

I mentioned a while back how I had borrowed the entire 2003 PPV year to keep me occupied during study breaks over the next few weeks. I've decided to watch HHH's entire year, God save me lol, and kicked things off with the Rumble and NWO last night. Some preliminary notes, ring wise this is Trips absolute worst year. I think he was way too big when he came back from injury in 2002 and it really restricted his agility and thus his abilities in the ring. Throw on to that the fact that he was injured for pretty much the whole year and his opponents weren't exactly stellar and well, it's pretty much a recipe for disaster lol. I will say this though, he was injured, not at his best by a long shot and worked with Scott Steiner, Booker T, Kevin Nash, Goldberg and fucking Kane for the year. I'd like to see who would be able to produce the goods with that lot lol. Even 00-01 HHH would have struggled with that, haha. Alright, excuses over lol. Here we go.


Royal Rumble 2003
World Heavyweight Championship
Triple H(c) w/Ric Flair vs. Scott Steiner

Not really much to say on the actual match itself here. Truly horrible tbh. Disjointed, plodding, repetitive, just bad and actually dangerous. There was a clothesline botch and a neckbreaker botch, both of which looked horrible. But then there was a God awful underhook powerbomb botch that could have landed HHH right on his damn head. I think there were around 10 belly to belly suplexes in this thing too which the fans didn’t seem to like at all. Speaking of which, I’m surprised the fans didn’t crap all over this tbh. For whatever reason, they seemed to reserve that for Steiner. I’m not quite sure why this happened. Heading in the fans seemed to be fully on Steiner’s side iirc. Then they pull a 180, cheer for HHH, boo Steiner’s offence and heavily boo him at the end when he celebrates. I don’t get it. The only thing I can think of is something they kept mentioning when it was over. JR/King had never seen HHH so scared etc etc. So he can stand up to and kick the asses of Rock, Austin, Taker, Foley, HBK etc but he can’t with Steiner? They turned him into a chickenshit heel and had him try to end the match using chickenshit heel tactics which HHH never did before, not to that extent anyways. When watching it I couldn’t help but think he was acting the way Miz would act and it was just fucking stupid and overall had a very strange vibe to the whole thing. Best thing about this was Ric Flair. Outright fucking horrible match tbh which was only made worse by the classic Angle/Benoit put on after it.

I give it * 1/2. * for the simple fact that they went out and put together a match, 1/4 for the blade job and 1/4 for Flair.

No Way Out 2003
World Heavyweight Championship
Triple H(c) w/Ric Flair vs. Scott Steiner

The rematch, ugh. We’re in Canada for this one and the fans once again turn this thing on its head. at the heat Steiner gets for doing the figure four. This is like a damn Cena match today with the fans booing the face, cheering the heel and then in true ‘bizarro land’ fashion, directing ‘You Screwed Bret’ chants to the heel also although I don’t know if they were for HHH or Hebner lol. This time the fans did shit on the match with scattered boring chants here and there and I really can’t say I blame them. Again the match is slow, disjointed, repetitive and just plain crap. Basically the same as the Rumble match but without the botches and less suplexes. There isn’t really much else to say tbh.

I give it *1/2 too. * again for the fact that they actually went out and put together a match, 1/4 for Flair again and 1/4 for the fans this time.

Yup, I basically talked about everything that went on there besides the actual matches themselves because there isn't anything to talk about. Shitty matches and a shitty start to the year. I know they don't get too much better but honestly, they'd have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to get any worse lol. Next will be Mania and Backlash.

[Word]

The only good thing about Triple H is 2003 was his match with Booker T at Wrestlemania, I really enjoyed that. To save you from boredom, I would just watch everything Smackdown, that was consistently good with Cena, Taker, Lesnar, Show, Angle, Eddie, Rey and Benoit.

I must say though Extreme Rules is the only PPV I've cared about since MITB. Built up the matches pretty good from Mania, could be really interesting tonight.

[Phil_Mc_90]

I must really be in the minority but I thought HHH's run in 2003 was brilliant, he was so hated it was unreal, every week I tuned in thinking ok this is the week he's finally going to lose the belt, The Kevin Nash feud was a waste though and should have been replaced by him continuing to feud with Booker, at the time I enjoyed his feud with Goldberg although I'm not sure how I would feel about it now

[Callamus]

I find it hard to enjoy someone's run when they have crappy matches all the time . Good stuff with Booker T at WM. Then yeah. That was kinda it.

[Gamblor]

I think the Steiner matches are some of the worst HHH matches at least during his main event run (2000-present). I think the match with Booker was very good, can't remember what his match was at Backlash that year. Nash/HHH, while a poor cell match was still a decent enough bout when not remembering it's a cell match. Summerslam was the EC and I do think it was on the lower end of the spectrum of EC's... but HHH wasn't even involved in most of it so I wouldn't put that on him. It was just booked to be a glorified Goldberg multi-squash match until HHH did the squashing at the end with a single sledge hammer shot from what I recall. The HHH/Goldberg series isn't anything good, but I think it was as decent as it was going to be. The Goldberg/Kane/HHH match was alright as well.

Some TV matches I vaguely remember are his matches against Kane (where Kane took the mask off after), RVD the week or two after, and then there was the Flair match in the mix somewhere where Flair turned face for like a couple of weeks, and from what I remember, those were some decent matches that were all better than the majority of his PPV bouts that year. Then of course there is the HBK/HHH match at the end of the year on Raw which was fantastic.

I'm not sure what's worse personally for HHH. 02 or 03? His matches against Jericho at Mania and in the cell were subpar at best, Angle matches were alright but nothing great, his match with Hogan was abysmal at Backlash, his match with Taker was awful at KOTR, but then from Summerslam onwards he had a classic with a returning HBK, was a big part in the first and best EC, had a couple decent PPV bouts with RVD and Kane, but then of course the 3SOH with Shawn was fucking awful.

2002 considering the talent HHH had to work with, I think his match resume was very subpar and never exceeded what should've been expectations. HHH's matches in 03, while worse, I think he did get more out of what he could get out of what he was given, despite them overall not being too good.

[Word]

You may have enjoyed his segments, promos whatever on RAW but I don't think you could honestly enjoy his matches that year on PPV. I buy the excuse that the competition was shit. Put anyone in their prime and try wrestle against the golden oldies, it's not gonna happen.

[Callamus]

I wonder how HHH in his prime would have done in 02/03.