King of the Ring - Nationwide Arena, Columbus Ohio, June 23rd, 2002

I like the opening video, recapping former King of the Ring winners. They smartly only show the ones who went on to bigger things and skip 1995, 1998 and 1999. Mabel and Ken Shamrock are both fair to leave out - neither of them still work for the company but 1999’s winner, Billy Gunn, is one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions! I wonder if he was offended? 

The PPV theme song is Neurotica’s “Ride of your life”. Not my favourite.

King of the Ring Tournament Semi Final

WWF Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam (Raw) vs. Chris Jericho (Smackdown)

This match should be, on paper at least, an all time great PPV opener. Two fantastic wrestlers and internet favourites. As a kid, I thought adding the “winner of the tournament gets a title shot at Summerslam” stipulation meant that Chris Jericho was definitely going to win because he’s the only man in the final four who was already a main eventer. What a mark. RVD is one of the most popular men in all of WWE and this might have been the time to pull the trigger on him too.

The two start out with chain wrestling and switch waist locks and shoulder tackles with neither getting an advantage. 

It finally steps up when Jericho misse his springboard dropkick off the apron, landing outside and then RVD follows with a dive of his own.

Back in the ring, Jericho blocks a Five Star Frog Splash attempt and brings the IC champion off the top rope the hard way with a superplex for a near fall.

Jericho slows things down and works over RVD, choking him in the corner and on the ropes. He exposes a turnbuckle to use and as the referee is busy trying to repair that (he fails) he misses RVD’s small package and visual victory. Jericho kicks out and moves to using his own wrist tape to choke Van Dam.

RVD mounts his comeback with a spinning kick (what else?) and follows with a handspring into a standing moonsault for a close nearfall. Jericho comes back with a kick to the head of his own. They’re very evenly matched.

Jericho sends Van Dam flying with a German suplex and he lands high and tight, folding in half for a close near fall. 

Jericho keeps up the pressure and they both score close near falls from rollups. The pace picks up and Jericho blocks a kick and turns it into a Walls of Jericho but RVD reaches the ropes. 

Jericho tries for a superplex, positioning Rob on the ropes but Van Dam sends him flying with a kick to the head which leaves Jericho rolling into the middle of the ring. RVD flies off the ropes and crashes with a Five Star Frog Splash and that’s enough for Van Dam to advance to the King of the Ring finals in a good but not great match.

That match review isn’t just mine, that was the consensus at the time too. In 2002, Chris Jericho had his own website which was not WWE managed. He posted a weekly blog - sometimes in character and sometimes not depending on what he wanted to talk about - and after this PPV, he posted an angry rant about the internet’s reaction to the match. It wasn’t positive enough for Y2J’s liking and he called the fans ignorant losers and some other stuff. It was the last thing he posted on his website for almost three years. He did later back peddle and claim that he was “in heel character” but the content of the rant and the three year gap with no posts would suggest otherwise. Jericho had thin skin then and he has thin skin now.

After the match, Jerry Lawler gets into the ring for some comments from RVD. He says he doesn’t care if its Test or Brock Lesnar, he’s going to win the finals and go to Summerslam. He’s attacked from behind by Chris Jericho and the sore loser beats up RVD until a bunch of referees manage to restrain him. Backstage, Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar are watching and have a laugh at RVD’s misfortune but mostly his attitude - it does matter because people still don’t get it. Brock Lesnar is who everyone should be intimidated by.

King of the Ring Tournament Semi Final

Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman) (Raw) vs. Test (Smackdown)

Brock Lesnar finally has his familiar theme song, debuting it last week on Raw. It’s the same one he has in 2025 but I was quite fond of his original theme too.

The fans chant “Goldberg” as these two lock up which is something they’ve been doing on Raw too. It’s unfair to compare Lesnar to Goldberg as Brock hasn’t been squashing people and has needed Heyman’s help more than once.

This match, much like the previous one, gained online fame later as in real life, Test was upset that Brock was the new “big muscular guy getting a push” and saw him as stealing his spot. He saw this match as his chance to impress management and so he works very stiff with Brock who is happy to return the favour. What I’m saying is that these two men kicked the shit out of each other and it’s pretty awesome.

Brock Lesnar has yet to speak on WWE TV (unless you count the UK exclusive Insurrextion PPV, which I don’t). 

After a brutal back and forth, Lesnar slows things down sending Test hard to the turnbuckle and dropping him with a sidewalk slam.

He has no problem lifting the almost 300lbs Test and walking around the ring with him like he weighs nothing - say what you want about Brock but the man has always been a freak athlete with both strength and speed.

Test guts it out and the fans have decided he’s the default babyface as they cheer for his comeback and pop for him powerslamming Lesnar and getting a near fall, as well as for him countering a powerbomb and scoring with his Big Boot finisher! Heyman screams hysterically during the cover but Brock kicks out.

Test sets up a second boot but Heyman distracts and he instead walks right into an F5 - the move finally has its name and JR calls it as such - and that’s enough to give the Next Big Thing his Next Big Victory. I liked this match a lot.

The King of the Ring final is set and it’s an all-Raw match. No one is silly enough to try and interview Brock Lesnar or Paul Heyman after this match but backstage, Jonathan Coachman goes to the Raw locker room to get their thoughts on an all Raw final as well as who they think might win. Bubba Ray Dudley is proud that it’s all Raw and as much as he hopes it’s RVD, he thinks it’ll be Brock Lesnar. He’s too big and strong. He then transitions to talking about himself and making an impact so let’s move on.

Elsewhere, Mark Lloyd goes to the Smackdown locker room and asks the same questions. He catches Lance Storm and Christian who repeat their comments from Smackdown - it should have been an all Smackdown final but once again two Canadians got screwed over. This is typical of Americans and this is why the whole world hates America. I don’t disagree, Lance. It’s more true in 2025 than it was in 2002.

Before the next match, Smackdown’s commentary team Tazz and Michael Cole talk about it and recap the feud so far plus a video package.

It’s needlessly awesome, especially the music. Delighted for The Hurricane that his match is being given the video package treatment and does this make Jamie Noble the first man in WWE history to have a video package promoting his first ever PPV match? He did wrestle in WCW for a while in its final year so he and Hurricane/Shane Helms know each other pretty well.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship

The Hurricane © vs. Jamie Noble (w/Nidia)

Hurricane is pumped up after the sneak attacks and theft of his cape so he attacks with fury and bounces Noble around the ring with clotheslines and back elbows as JR and King discuss whether Nidia counts as “trailer park trash”. The fans chant “she’s a crack whore” at Nidia which is mean, but at least the gimmick is working? 

Hurricane locks Noble in a headlock but he powers out of it and they continue to go back and forth until Nidia trips Hurricane. He chases her around the ring and it works perfectly as he walks right into a stiff clothesline from Noble for him to gain control.

He slows things down and gets a string of near falls. Hurricane mounts a come back but when he goes for a hurricanrana and hops up onto Noble’s shoulders he’s dropped flat on his back and clamped in a sitting abdominal stretch which I think looks really good. 

King spends most of the match talking about how attracted he is to Nidia and not being very subtle about the sexual inuendo. I could do without it especially since it’s all we’ll get from him during the women’s title match later.

Hurricane mounts another comeback and gets a nearfall of a neckbreaker and then another off his blockbuster flipping neckbreaker off the ropes which Tazz and Cole have dubbed the Overcast. You’d think it having a name would make it his finisher but Noble kicks out. The action is good but sadly the crowd isn’t very into it and sit on their hands during this flurry of nearfalls. Hurricane connects with the Eye of the Hurricane which actually was his finisher but Noble kicks out of that too. 

The superhero goes to get his cape but Nidia snatches it back off him. He sends Noble to the outside with a cool looking suplex and Noble takes a rough bump, and then Hurricane follows with a dive to the outside. They battle to the top rope for an attempted superplex but Hurricane brings him off with a swinging neckbreaker into the ring. That looked awesome and is enough for a three count but Nidia has the referee distracted. Hurricane runs Noble into her, knocking her off the apron and hits a chokeslam on the challenger. That seems like the end but Noble kicks out of that too and that false finish finally gets a big reaction from the crowd. 

Hurricane goes to the top rope but Noble bounces off the ropes knocking him down. He spikes Hurricane with a stiff looking powerbomb and covers but Hurricane gets his foot on the ropes. Nidia knocks the foot off the ropes before the referee sees it and with a little bit of help, Jamie Noble wins the Cruiserweight title in what ends up being a really good match.

Earlier tonight on Sunday Night Heat, The Rock arrived at the arena. He told us he’d be here but not what he’d be doing or why. He’s returned from the promotional tour for the Scorpion King movie a couple of weeks early because of the whole Stone Cold Steve Austin situation.

Terri interviews Eddie Guerrero before his big match with Ric Flair. This match is rather out of the blue but the departure of Austin forced storylines to be changed and the now babyface former owner of Raw is back to being just another wrestler, if a legendary one. Eddie and Benoit blame Flair for Stone Cold leaving. I very much like the set dressing of interviewing him in front of the Throne cum electric chair. They spent a lot of time and effort on these visual touches I’m sure, I wonder why we don’t see more of them? Eddie spends most of the interview giving a shout out to his entire family, listing them all. I think it’s a stereotypical joke about big Latino families but also makes the point that this is the biggest match of Eddie’s life and everyone is watching. Eddie says that Flair can’t do half the things he can do in the ring and that he’s in the best shape of his life. That’s probably true - Latino Heat looks like a million dollars.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Ric Flair

For some reason, Ric Flair’s classic theme song is dubbed on this copy of the show with his old royalty free theme from his 1991 WWF run. That tells me that this version of the show is the same one as the original 2002 home video release. It was dubbed on all of my 2003 DVD collection too. Weird rights issue I guess but they’ve obviously figured something out because he hasn’t been an issue since.

Ric Flair has wrestled a few times since returning to the WWE now but this is a new challenge in that it’s a straight wrestling match where he’ll be expected to simply work without any distractions or gimmicks. He couldn’t ask for a better opponent than the absolutely world class Eddie Guerrero.

There’s a feeling out process as they grapple and lock up. Eddie fires up and pummels Flair in the corner with punches and chops but chops are Flair’s thing so that just wakes him up and he reverses with a string of chops of his own. He points the referee to the other side of the ring and hits a low blow which is a classic spot. 

Eddie is motivated and after enduring an onslaught slows it down with a dropkick to the knee and turns his attention to it, wrapping it around the ring post and laying it across the ropes to bring his weight down onto it.

Eddie locks Flair in his own Figure Leg lock but it has zero heat from the crowd - no one believes that will be the end, or this quickly.

Flair reverses it to break the hold and after Eddie continues to pummel him with punches and chops he goes for a sleeper hold which JR and King question - why wouldn’t he keep the pressure on the leg?

Flair fights back with chops of his own and kicks to the leg and a knee breaker softens up Eddie for a Figure Four of his own. He locks it in just as Guerrero’s buddy Chris Benoit makes his way down to the ring for a closer look.

Eddie gets to the ropes to break the Figure Four and the two of them continue to grapple and go back and forth. Sadly as good as the action is, the fans are almost silent and only pop with a WOO for the occasional chop to the chest.

Eddie scores with a tornado DDT but Flair gets his foot on the ropes to break the pin. Eddie hammers him with punches and chokes until the referee is forced to physically restrain him. With the referee distracted doing that, Benoit pulls Flair out of the ring and locks him in the Crippler Crossface at ringside. The referee doesn’t see it but does still eject Benoit from ringside. With the referee distracted again arguing with him, Bubba Ray Dudley comes through the crowd and spikes Eddie with a Bubba-Bomb! 

Benoit runs back to the ring and chases Bubba through the crowd but the damage is done and Flair crawls into a cover and wins the match - the Bubba Bomb was enough to keep Eddie down for a three count even with a big delay before the pin.

Benoit runs back to the ring but Flair quickly escapes and leaves the former Radicals furious in the ring with a victory under his belt.

I mentioned during the Preview that there’s some new Get the F Out commercials - one of them is shown here but here’s all three to enjoy.

Live at The World in New York, European Champion William Regal and Harvard Graduate Christopher Nowinski complain about how slow the service is and Nowinski insults the waitress about what school she’s going to in her spare time - Nassau Community College is no Harvard. She secretly puts her finger in his food before she hands it to him. Always be nice to your servers. 

WWE Women’s Championship

Trish Stratus © vs. Molly Holly

The build to this match has been Trish making fun of Molly’s “big fat ass” and King relentlessly talking about nothing else since. Molly did deserve taking down a peg of two with her sneak attacks and all the talk of being wholesome but I’m not sure body shaming is the way forward. But it was 2002 when “heroin chic” was still very much in so a girl with some junk in the trunk wasn’t as popular as she’d be in 2025.

Trish attacks quickly, angry over the latest sneak attack on Raw but Molly takes her down with an armbar. She’s a talented wrestler and Trish gets better with every match so these two can have a good match. King keeps talking about thongs and trying to get the crowd to chant “she’s a fat ass” as Molly which makes my brain itchy in a way that makes me want to mute the show.

Trish counters an eclectic chair into a nice rollup for a near fall and keeps the pressure up with two more, which Molly also kicks out of. 

Molly sends Trish to the outside and beats her up, throwing her into the security wall and briefly into the crowd but back in the ring Trish blocks her on the top rope and brings her down with a hurricanrana. A Stratusfaction bulldog is blocked and turned into a German suplex for a near fall for the challenger.

Molly’s attempted Molly-Go-Round off the top rope is avoided and Trish rolls her up but Molly reverses that and grabs a handful of tights to keep Trish down and give herself the victory and the Women’s Championship! Our second title change tonight.

I’d like to take a minute and be positive about the women’s division if I may. I’ve been pretty critical in my Preview of how they’re treating Molly Holly and the way the women are still used first and foremost as sex objects however, the fact that both of the Tough Enough 2 winners were women as well as the women’s championship being featured so prominently on Raw as well as having multiple women’s segments on both Raw and Smackdown do prove that the company was trying to make them a bigger part of the show. It’s an improvement and I’d argue that being used somewhat poorly but consistently is better than not being used at all. The women’s division will continue to grow and improve for the rest of 2002 and beyond. This era of women’s wrestling wasn’t without its flaws but it very much laid the foundation for women’s wrestling as it is in the WWE today. 

Mark Lloyd interviews a wig wearing Kurt Angle backstage. He calls the match the battle of the real American heroes. Kurt takes issue with that - Hulk Hogan is NOT a real American hero. He’s the one with Olympic gold medals. I’m with Kurt on this one. Kurt dedicated his life to it, but Hogan is only a real American because Vince McMahon told him to be. He could have easily been a zookeeper instead. Kurt reminds us of his history at King of the Ring - winning it in 2000 and wrestling three times and almost killing Shane McMahon in 2001. God, how long ago does that feel now? He repeats his promise from Smackdown - he’s going to make Hulk Hogan tap out and might even break his ankle too.

Much like the Cruiserweight title match earlier, Smackdown’s Michael Cole and Tazz give us a bit of a rundown ahead of this match and throw to the video package

Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. Kurt Angle

There’s quite a funny moment early as heel-loving King obviously has too many good jokes about wigs to maintain Kurt’s charade and so mocks him which was rare enough. He also hesitates and stumbles for a long moment before making jokes about Vince McMahon wearing wigs - he never did, but people used to say he did and its one of those inside jokes. Vince will have been in his ear as he was for the commentators on all shows and I’m sure he was nervous the boss wouldn’t find himself being mocked funny. Vince could take a joke…but not always. A tense working situation for all involved.

The American heroes lock up and the bigger, stronger Hogan wins and takes Kurt down with a shoulder tackle which sends him to the outside to regroup. 

Back in the ring, Hogan has some nice big crowd pleasing spots where he punches and bounces Angle off the turnbuckles so  the crowd can chant and count along. 

He gets a little too focused on removing Kurt’s wig and headgear and pays for it when Kurt takes him down with a back suplex and controls the tempo from there, working over Hogan with punches and kicks in the corner.

Kurt gets near falls with some more back suplexes and when Hogan mounts a comeback with a vertical suplex and a bodyslam, he shuts him back down with a sleeper hold to keep this match on the mat.

Hogan’s comeback is shut down with another back suplex and then an Angle slam but Hogan kicks out and starts to Hulk up.

He shakes and blocks Kurt’s right hand and puts down the Olympian with a big boot but delays going for the leg drop and pulls Kurt’s wig off instead so we can see him in all his bald glory. Kurt is furious and considers walking out but when he sees Hogan taunting him and wearing his wig he runs back to the ring with a steel chair.

It bounces back in his own face and he gets a big boot but when Hogan goes for the Leg Drop, Kurt rolls through and grabs the leg, turning it into the ankle lock!

Hogan holds on for as long as he can and tries to kick Angle off but he’s like a bulldog and keeps hold of the ankle and continues to rip and pull, stopping Hulk from getting to the ropes time and time again until finally the Immoral Hulk Hogan taps out! 

Kurt Angle wins a pretty good match that the fans loved with his ankle lock, making Hogan submit to do it! 

Backstage, Goldust is dressed as The Rock and chats with his buddy Booker T about how exciting it is that The Rock is there. As he does his impression, The Rock arrives behind him. This is a pretty funny segment as he has good fun making fun of Goldust for being weird and stroking his own body as he speaks. Booker praises The Rock’s promo about loving the WWE on Raw. The Rock thanks him and says he’s here to watch the main event because he has his eyes set on the WWE Undisputed title. It’s nice to get such solid confirmation that Booker T is very much a babyface, and The Rock tells Booker that he needs to whoop the nWo’s candy asses.

King of the Ring Tournament Final

WWF Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam (Raw) vs. Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman) (Raw)

This is obviously the biggest match of Lesnar’s very short career so far but given that the winner will face the champion at Summerslam, it’s probably the biggest of Rob’s too.

He strikes fast and fights Lesnar back to the corner but his mounted punches are turned into a power bomb and Lesnar has no problems throwing RVD around, picking him up and running him back first from one corner to the other across the ring. Lesnar works RVD over and focuses his assault on the ribs and back as Heyman continually screams “title shot! Summerslam! Title shot!” at ringside to keep his client motivated and focused on what’s at stake here. 

RVD mounted a comeback with spinning kicks and a diving one from the top rope followed by Rolling Thunder for a near fall.

RVD scores with the Five Star Frog Splash but is too hurt to go for a cover and by the time he does, Lesnar kicks out. 

He recovers quickly and catches RVD’s crossbody, turning it into the F5 and just like that, Brock Lesnar is the 2002 King of the Ring and will now face the WWE Undisputed Champion at Summerslam. That is insane for someone who only debuted three months ago. The Next Big Thing indeed.

As Triple H makes his way through the back he runs into the nWo, fronted by old buddies Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash. They tease it being a tense conversation before it turns to smiles and hugs. He has been close friends with them for years. It’s not a long conversation as they tell him that “if he needs the help” to throw up the “too sweet” hand gesture and they’ll be there for him. Interesting.

I said I’d talk about Shawn Michaels’ return here and I will. I glossed over it in the Preview when he did show up but it would be wrong not to acknowledge what a big deal this was in 2002. Shawn was very slightly before my time and as a kid I didn’t get the hype however HBK is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time and along with Bret Hart was the face of the era before Attitude. 

After his back injury in 1998, most assumed he’d never wrestle again but Shawn spent a few years resting, having surgeries and working out at his wrestling school and by 2002 he was ready to go once again.

This return was not intended to be an in-ring one, at least not initially but from day one the discussions were about him wrestling Vince McMahon at Summerslam or even the following Wrestlemania. It took a while for that storyline to materialise but we will see plenty of Shawn matches between now and when I end this journey at Wrestlemania XIX.

Shawn’s return was also due in big part to his new found religion - Shawn was, by all accounts including his own, a nightmare to deal with in the 90s and was deep into the drinking and pills culture that was prevalent at the time. He was an asshole who rubbed everyone the wrong way and he spiraled into depression and got worse after his forced retirement in 1998. His wife Rebecca helped him find God and as a born again Christian he cleaned up his act and made amends with a lot of the people he wronged. However you feel about religion it is nice that he found peace and it made him a much better man. 

Triple H’s connection to Shawn Michaels is clear on screen as they were the co-founders of D-Generation X. In real life they were best friends going back even further. The two of them, along with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman (X-Pac) comprised “The Klic” who spent much of the mid 90s using their backstage power and friendships to make sure they were all promoted to the top of the card and the people they didn’t like were not. Many people in wrestling have grudges they hold to this day against the men in The Klic because they “ruined their careers” and in some cases that is justified. I could talk endlessly about this group and the Curtain Call incident but that is something that probably needs its own dedicated article to cover in full.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kliq 

After the video package for this match, at ringside Paul Heyman has joined the commentary team as now the winner of this match will potentially face his client - the new King of the Ring - at Summerslam. 

WWE Undisputed Championship

The Undertaker vs. Triple H

The Undertaker enters first - I don’t like that, the champion coming out first - followed by Triple H. JR sings his praises and points out that in addition to being only one of three men to have won the original grand slam at that time (WWF/WWE, Tag Team, Intercontinental and European Championships. Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho being the other two) he’s also been King of the Ring and won a Royal Rumble which puts him in a class alone. 

The bell rings and despite the heated nature of their feud and how physical it's been between them for months, they’re slow to start and get face to face to talk trash first. Undertaker wins the first exchange of punches but Triple H gets the first knock down with a clothesline. 

It’s lovely hearing Heyman on commentary again and he puts over the importance of the Championship and what it means to win it. JR gets weirdly anti-semetic when he accuses Heyman of being obsessed with money. 

The fight spills to the outside and neither man has the advantage as they take turns hammering each other with punches and then no-selling and returning the favour. It’s a brawl.

Back in the ring, Undertaker hammers Triple H and slows things down focusing on the lower back and going for covers after punches. It’s just a slow fight basically and the fans aren’t that into it even when Triple H mounts his comebacks. He runs into a sidewalk slam. Heyman continues to talk about the Championship and asks King if he would “sell 6 of his 9 ex wives for a shot at the title” and there’s a long delay before he responds which I hope means he hurt his feelings. 

They continue to plod through a slow brawl with Undertaker getting near falls off a leg drop and big elbow drop.

Triple H fights back with a backdrop but is stopped with a big clothesline. And on it goes. 

Paul Heyman adds some interest to the match thankfully as he says that the reason The Rock isn’t out here is because backstage, Brock Lesnar kicked his ass and The Rock ran away. Neither King nor JR believe him and look for confirmation. More on that later. 

The fans are sitting on their hands through this match and I can’t say I blame them - it is slow and dull and there’s no story as they just take turns working each other with punches.

Triple H reverses a whip into an exposed turnbuckle which was The Undertaker’s doing and takes him down with a neckbreaker and finally picks up the pace with a spinebuster for his most significant nearfall so far. 

Triple H goes for a Pedigree but it’s countered into a slingshot which crushes the referee and with no official they take each other down with a double clothesline.

That is the moment where The Rock arrives and when Heyman sees him, he runs off through the crowd. The Rock joins commentary and clarifies that Brock Lesnar did not come to confront him but if he did, he’d have shaken his hand and congratulated him.

The Rock is here to see these two warriors go at it for the title, so he says. 

Undertaker gets a steel chair but Triple H stops him from using it and they fight to the outside. Undertaker decides to kick The Rock in the face and grabs a chair to use on Triple H but The Rock stops him and swings with it himself, missing Undertaker and cracking Triple H with it instead by mistake!

Undertaker runs The Rock into the ring post and throws a bloody Triple H back into the ring and drills him with a Last Ride. A second referee runs down but the long delay before the pin gives The Game time to recover and he kicks out.

A frustrated Undertaker punches the replacement referee in the face which means The Rock can run in and he drills Undertaker with a Rock Bottom! Both men are down and The Rock leaves them to continue as the original referee slowly wakes up. 

Triple H takes an ice age to crawl into the cover, enormously overmilking the reaction which kind of isn’t there honestly - the fans aren’t into this. He FINALLY gets a hand on Undertaker’s chest and Earl Hebner recovers and counts - he also takes an ice age and after a comically slow count, Undertaker kicks out of the Rock Bottom he took about four minutes previously. 

They slowly climb to their feet and Triple H hits a Pedigree and both men are down and we get another very, very slow crawl into a pin but there’s still no referee to count the visual three. Triple H tries to get the referee up and drags him to the middle of the ring but leaves himself open to a low blow and a school boy roll up. Undertaker holds him down and that’s enough for the three count.

Undertaker retains the title in a long, slow and quite dull match. I can only assume that the overbooked finish was written by Triple H himself, or his girlfriend Stephanie McMahon because I’ve never seen someone so heavily, heavily protected in defeat.

Undertaker taunts and talks trash to The Rock who was still watching from the top of the ramp. He dares The Rock to come and get him so he does and The Rock plants him with a spinebuster and a People’s Elbow. He walks right into a Pedigree from a frustrated Triple H who is apparently still upset about that accidental chairshot.