Raw - March 18th, 2002

The Board’s Decision

WWF CEO Linda McMahon has a huge announcement during this Raw, which JR and King hyped up all night long. This is the decision of the board of directors about the feud between co-owners of the WWF Vince McMahon and Ric Flair. This is the original brand split, “the brand extension” as it's known. The excitement and gravity of the announcement is ruined somewhat by Linda’s deadpan, monotone delivery but the gist is that Vince McMahon will take Smackdown, Ric Flair will take Raw and next week on Raw there will be a draft where each owner will draft their roster who will be exclusive to their show. The Undisputed WWF Champion and WWF Women’s Champion will be available to both brands but there’s no mention of the other championships.

JR and King do their best to hype the announcement and reexplain it and after a commercial break, Vince McMahon heads down to the ring to talk about it. Vince says that he is now banned from Raw and so he’s here now to say goodbye. Vince says he won’t miss the fans but we’ll miss him. The crowd are too busy loudly singing “hey hey hey, goodbye” to hear a word he’s saying and Vince’s monologue about how Raw is stuck with the consolidation prize in Ric Flair and how Ric isn’t as good as him is eventually cut off by the man himself. Despite losing to The Undertaker last night, Flair is all smiles and seems happy with the board of director’s decision to give him control of Raw with no Vince McMahon to interfere. Vince calls Ric a failure and taunts him about his loss to The Undertaker last night. Ric says he can’t wait and that Raw will be much better than Smackdown because Vince won’t be on it! Vince says he’ll prove he’s the better drafter next week and after a coin toss to see who drafts first next week - it’s heads and Vince wins - McMahon punches Ric in the face! He struts but pays for it as the Nature Boy gets right back up and puts McMahon in the Figure Four! The owner of Raw stands tall. This brand extension and draft is a huge deal and I hope it came across that way to the fans in the arena and at home as this has shaped the WWF/WWE for most of the 23 years since.

The Return of Hulkamania

Raw opens with Hollywood Hulk Hogan. Raw is in Montreal and much like at Wrestlemania last night, the Canadians give him a very very warm welcome. After losing to The Rock last night he shook his hand and then was beaten up by fellow nWo members Scott Hall and Kevin Nash which would seem to denote that he’s now a babyface but here, he comes out to the nWo theme and still wearing the black and white. You can tell he’s a good guy now because unlike since his return at No Way Out, JR is really complimentary about Hogan. The crowd is deafening cheering for Hulk and he soaks in every second of it. He says that he expected to have a great match with The Rock and he expected Hall and Nash to respect his wishes and not get involved, and that he’d be etched in stone as the only icon in the WWF after beating The Rock. He didn’t expect the fans to cheer for him the way they did however. He thanks the fans (who chant “Hogan” after he encourages them to do so) and thanks The Rock. He says he came back to take out The Rock and he didn’t expect Rocky to come back and beat him the way he did. He respects The Rock and says that one day they’ll have a rematch and he’ll beat him that time. The fans chant “Rocky sucks” as Hogan talks, and The Rock himself comes out to respond to what Hogan is saying. The way JR and King talk about the Wrestlemania match is like it was all about Hogan and The Rock was just lucky to be there. “It takes two….”. The Rock won the damn match! I talked plenty about the way Hogan stole The Rock’s thunder as most expected him to do so I won’t belabour the point here.

The Rock makes sure to milk every second of the crowd reaction here too and seems a little thrown off by the boos for him! The Rock thanks him and the fans for their passion and that a rematch would be his honour. He pauses when he sees Hogan’s nWo t-shirt and asks why he’s still wearing those colours after Nash and Hall turned on him. He tells Hogan to let his former brothers know how he feels and so he tears off the shirt and throws it out of the ring. That brings out what's left of the nWo - Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. Nash mocks Hogan for tearing off the shirt and says that Hogan turned on them first. They were brought in as the lethal injection into the WWF and the plan was simple. The first guy they were supposed to destroy was Austin but Hogan got distracted by The Rock. Nash is angry. This feels like the first promo he’s actually cut since his return. Their plan to get rid of Stone Cold didn’t work because of Hogan. The crowd chants “asshole” at Nash which is a bit funny because of their thick French Canadian accents in Montreal. Nash also calls Hogan a son of a bitch about four times as he rants. They don’t care about the PEOPLE, it’s about them and about money and taking over the WWF and it’s Hogan’s fault they failed. The Rock cuts him off and after mocking him and calling Big Daddy Cool “Big Daddy bitch” challenges them to a tag team match tonight! Scott Hall calls Hogan a traitor and accepts! The promo gets a bit stumbly at the end, it's like none of them were sure who was meant to have the last word and are waiting for a cue. The Rock got some laughs making fun of Hall and Nash at least.

In the main event, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall take on the team of Hulk Hogan and The Rock. Hogan comes out to his solo theme song in WCW, Voodoo Child by Jimmi Hendrix. It is sadly heavily, heavily dubbed on this version of the show and I suspect it will be on all of them. That song is about the only thing I like about Hogan. The match is a pretty standard tag team match and after a hot tag to Hogan, he puts down Hall with a big boot and Leg Drop. Nash pulls his buddy out of the ring before the three can be counted and the nWo walk out, giving Rock and Hogan the victory by count out which is unsatisfying to everyone especially the fans in the arena.

Ultimatum Game

New Undisputed WWF Champion Triple H heads down to the ring to address the crowd. He struggles a bit with how to hold both massive title belts at the same time - it won’t be long until he gets a proper unified one, don’t worry. He talks about the self doubt he experienced after the injury but now that he’s got the title he knows he’s just as good as he ever was. He shows some footage to put a smile on everyone’s face - him giving Stephanie a Pedigree at Wrestlemania.

That brings her out in a neck brace and she smugly says that Chris Jericho wants his rematch next week on Raw. Triple H points out that he’s rushing it because he knows The Game’s leg is still hurt but he accepts as long as it's a handicap match for the title - Triple H vs. Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon! Steph tears up and screeches that she refuses. Triple H says that if she loses, she has to leave the WWF forever. She screams and cries and hurts her own neck as the fans cheer the idea of her leaving forever and sing the same goodbye song they gave her dad earlier tonight. Triple H says that if Stephanie doesn’t accept his stipulation for next week then Jericho will just have to wait until after the draft and take his chances with whichever show he ends up on. Stephanie accepts and says that she and Jericho will kick his ass next week!

An Important Debut

Maven defends the Hardcore Championship against Al Snow in a teacher vs. student battle. As Snow hammers Maven with a trash can lid, Spike Dudley runs down and hits Snow with a stop sign. Before he can take advantage of the 24/7 rule we get a game changing debut - a 24 year old freak athlete by the name of Brock Lesnar comes through the crowd and with a spine buster to Al Snow through a trash can and then a spinning slam that would later become known as the F5 to Maven, he finishes with three brutal, disgusting, STIFF powerbombs to Spike Dudley which look like they killed him. Brock Lesnar is here with his manager - the returning Paul Heyman, who JR and King are both disgusted to see after his departure the night after Survivor Series. If you’re reading this you probably already know that Brock Lesnar is a big deal.

Other Happenings

• Rob Van Dam defends his newly won Intercontinental Championship against Christian. He had a memorable night at Wrestlemania, losing to DDP for the European title but then briefly holding the Hardcore title later in the night. This is a good little match but ultimately just a showcase for new champion RVD. Christian tries to just walk out with the Intercontinental title belt but he’s sent back to the ring by Diamond Dallas Page and walks into a spinning kick and a Five Star Frog Splash to give Van Dam his first title defence. 
• Former Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho arrives backstage looking very upset. A member of the crew backstage says that the fans of Montreal can’t wait to see him and rub his face in it for losing - that feels very cheeky for no reason? Jericho attacks him and beats the hell out of him, slamming him from wall to wall. The crew member was future Superstar and multi time Tag Team Champion Slyvain Grenier, just as a bit of trivia. During the next match JR mentions that Jericho has turned around and just left the arena for the night.
• Trish Stratus goes one on one with her old rival Lita. They both failed to win the women’s title last night at Wrestlemania so have something to prove. Despite both being very popular, these two have real issues and Trish actually attacks Lita before the bell to start the match. The fans in 2002 weren’t interested in women’s wrestling and chanted “we want puppies” as they exchanged grapples. Lita wins a short match clean as a whistle with her moonsault and is attacked immediately after by women’s champion Jazz. Trish attacks Jazz and helps out Lita which brings out Ivory - she’s not been around since the end of the Invasion and after throwing Lita out of the ring and slamming Trish into the mat, shakes hands with Jazz and they leave together. 

• Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley challenge Billy and Chuck for the WWF Tag Team titles. A clash of two heel teams and while you’d assume the champions would be protected by the draft, after the previous segment with Matt Hardy and Lita it's in everyone’s minds that these teams could now be split up. The fans sing “Hey Stacy” to the tune of “Hey Baby” which is something the fans do in modern times for Bayley. A nice little reference through the years. Stacy hits Billy Gunn from behind leading to him getting a 3D but The Dudleyz can’t win the tag team titles because the referee saw Stacy do that - they’re disqualified! Bubba and D-Von - angry at having been cost the Tag Team titles, grab Stacy by the hair and call for D-Von to get the table! It's a blast from 2000 as Bubba Dudley drives a woman through a table from the top rope. I guess that ends that managerial pairing.

• Booker T and Kurt Angle take on their respective Wrestlemania opponents in Edge and Kane. This is all action and after a chokeslam to Angle from Kane, while Booker and Kane fight on the outside Booker accidentally kicks his own partner in the face spending him spinning into a Spear and then an Impaler DDT and Edge pins Kurt Angle to pick up his second big win over a former World Champion in 24 hours.
• Backstage Matt Hardy and Lita passionately makeup. No reason for this, it's all a bit much. William Regal walks by and teases them a bit before pointing out that next week during the draft, they could all be split up and end up on different shows. He seems very pleased with himself and that certainly wiped the smiles off their faces.

Smackdown - March 21st, 2002

Raising the Stakes for Raw

Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon head down to the ring together. Jericho has spruced up his wardrobe as he’s now wearing a sparkly tracksuit looking outfit with matching pants and jacket. It’s a strong look. Jericho crows about how he and Stephanie are going to take the Undisputed title from Triple H on Raw and he rants about how the people won’t rob him of his dignity and self respect. He says that he won’t let Triple H banish Steph from the WWF because we all NEED her. That brings out Triple H and the Undisputed Champion says that no one needs Steph and calls for a highlight reel of what she’s contributed. It’s a video entitled Stephanie’s most embarrassing moments.

There’s lots of her getting stinkfaces, getting covered in food, being insulted (including by Chris Jericho) and stripped. It’s all kind of base humour but the crowd loves it. Much like on Raw, Triple H takes a quick poll of the live audience with cheers and boos for her to leave or stay - they overwhelmingly want her gone, obviously and sing “hey hey goodbye” at her again. He brings the focus back to the two actual wrestlers and says that Jericho has his respect and that no one can ever take away that he was the first Undisputed Champion but that doesn’t mean he’s the best. Triple H talks about the match on Raw and that feels like a nice stopping point but Stephanie keeps the the segment going and says that on Raw Triple H won’t be leaving as Undisputed Champion and neither will Chris Jericho - it’s no longer a handicap match, it’s now a triple threat match! She says SHE will be the Undisputed Champion after Raw. Jericho looks blown away, and Triple H actually looks a little concerned now. It being a triple threat certainly makes things a bit more chaotic. Backstage after a commercial break, Lillian Garcia asks Jericho for his reaction to the announcement. Jericho initially seems worried until he realises that he can now win by pinning Stephanie - something that would be a lot easier than pinning Triple H!

Strength in Numbers

Hulk Hogan is shown arriving backstage at the arena and much like on Raw, the commentators go nuts about how loud the crowd is for him, how beloved he is. Hogan bumps into Vince McMahon. There’s a lot of history here! Vince sarcastically bigs Hulk up before saying that just for the record, he MADE Hogan and whenever he tries to do something solo he falls flat on his ass. He asks if Hogan wants to be his number one draft pick i.e. will he suck up to Vince and be HIS guy again? He tells him to think about it and take the night off. The real reason he wants to give him the night off is because The Rock is facing Kevin Nash later and he doesn’t want Rocky to have backup. Hogan says he’s sticking around.

Backstage Scott Hall pumps up Nash for his main event match. Big Daddy Cool says that he’ll do what Hogan couldn’t do at Wrestlemania and kick The Rock’s ass! 

Backstage, Vince wishes Nash luck in his match with The Rock and tells him to castrate the Brahma Bull. He says that he’s arranged for the nWo to be drafted as a unit and is sure Ric Flair won’t want any more nWo and they’ll end up on Smackdown with him. 

In the main event, a first time ever match between The Rock and former WWF and WCW World Champion Kevin Nash (with Scott Hall at ringside, taking cheap shots and helping big Kev cheat every chance he gets). Nash was 43 years old at the time but looks a lot better for his age than either Hogan or Hall. There's a reason he was known as Big Sexy. He works over The Rock slowly, grinding him down with a long bear hug. The Rock fights back and sends Hall packing with a string of punches and drops Nash with a spinebuster and People’s Elbow. Hall breaks up the pin right in front of the referee to cause a disqualification. The Rock is furious and clears off the announce desk wanting to put Hall through it but Nash stops him and in awesome looking spot, Jackknife powerbombs The Rock through the announce table.

Hulk Hogan slowly makes his way down to the ring (a walk in rather than a run in) to help his new buddy and easily beats up both Hall and Nash, putting them both down with big boot and Leg Drop combos. That brings the returning X-Pac - head to toe in nWo colours - running to the ring and he hits Hogan square in the head with a stiff chairshot, busting him open! Hall and Nash take turns hitting the Hulkster with chairshots of their own and a bloody Hogan is laid out so that X-Pac can strip his t-shirt off and spray paint nWo on his back in black. The nWo is back up to three members and ends Smackdown standing tall and dominant. I’ll talk a lot more about X-Pac and his nWo links at Backlash.

A Pair of Smackdown Debuts

The Hurricane faces his sidekick Mighty Molly in an intergender match. This is after Molly hit him with a frying pan to win the Hardcore title at Wrestlemania. Molly offers a handshake at first but then attacks her mentor. Hurricane is about to give her a chokeslam but stops and tries to leave, showing compassion. He doesn’t want to fight his sidekick but she has no issue beating him up! I think this signals the end of this partnership. Molly is thrown to the outside but before any more action takes place, Brock Lesnar once again appears and flattens Hurricane with an unnamed big spinning slam (the F5) and gives Molly a stiff clothesline for good measure. What a beast.

Backstage before their Tag Team title defence against The Hardy Boyz, Billy and Chuck meet their new stylist, Rico. Another debut. During their entrance, King says that he's heard of Rico and read about him and he is the world’s greatest stylist. He’s actually a former police officer from Las Vegas who started training as a wrestler in 2000. Matt and Jeff have the titles won with a Twist of Fate and Swanton combo on Chuck but Ric proves to be more than just a stylist, breaking up the pin and then hanging Matt Hardy up on the ropes allowing Billy to capitalise with a Fameasser to retain the Tag Team titles.

Other Happenings

• In the opening match, Edge faces Booker T in a Wrestlemania rematch. Kurt Angle joins commentary which he says is because he’s “homies” with Booker T but he is clearly angry about Edge pinning him in a tag team match on Raw. Kurt confidently predicts that he’ll be the number one draft pick on Raw. Edge thwarts Kurt’s first attempt to interfere but after Booker knocks down the referee with a misplaced kick, Kurt drops Edge with an Angle Slam. Booker follows with a Scissors Kick to win the match.

• Backstage, the APA are playing poker and ask William Regal to loan them a little more money. Much like on Raw with Matt Hardy and Lita, Regal delights in pointing out that they could be drafted to different shows which would put the APA out of business. Bradshaw says that might be ok because if they do get split up at least one of them will be able to beat up Regal! He leaves and bumps into the European Champion Diamond Dallas Page. DDP asks why he’s so focused on the bad things that could happen instead of the good things? Regal says he's mad because a grinning idiot like him is the European Champion so a challenge goes down for later tonight. DDP says that when he beats Regal it won’t be a bad thing - it's a good thing! 
• From opponents on Raw to partners tonight, Trish Stratus and Lita take on Ivory and the Women’s Champion Jazz. I mentioned that Lita hasn’t been on TV since the Invasion during Raw but she has been heavily involved as a trainer on Tough Enough. She was never unattractive but I have to say she looks absolutely gorgeous here. I think it’s the shiny straightened hair. This is a good match and after Lita pulls Ivory to the outside, Trish follows up with a Stratusfaction bulldog to pin the women’s champion! Lita and Trish are friends after the match so it seems like they’re united again.

• Lillian Garcia interviews Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam. She asks where RVD thinks he’ll end up after the draft? He doesn’t mind, he knows they’ll both want him and wherever he ends up is cool with him. Insightful.
• DDP defends the European Championship against William Regal. This is good but short. DDP hits the Diamond Cutter and has the match won but Christian slips to ringside and pulls him off the cover, breaking it up. With the referee distracted, Regal clocks Page with his brass knuckles loaded punch and locks the unconscious champion in the Regal stretch. The referee calls for the bell and William Regal is once again the European Champion thanks to Christian.

• The Undertaker arrives at the arena and is looking for Ric Flair, who he finds in his office. He sinisterly asks Flair to make sure he drafts him on Raw basically implying it’s so that he can beat him up again. Alright then.
• WWF Cruiserweight Champion Tajiri (w/Torrie Wilson) faces Test. Test is big and strong but Tajiri is so fast and smooth, he puts up a really good fight. Test gets distracted by Torrie and walks into a superkick which almost ends the match. Tajiri is an incredible wrestler. The finish comes after more counters when Test connects with his Big Boot.

Raw - March 25th, 2002

Goodbye to Thorn in your Eye

This episode of Raw is the final one to feature the old Raw theme song and Raw is War style logo. The show has badly needed a graphics upgrade for months, with none of the nWo or many of the current big names even featured in the Raw opening by this point. It’s the end of an era that has been on its last legs for a while - no one has said “Attitude” in months.

The Draft

Raw opens with the assembled WWF roster watching Linda McMahon on a monitor (lucky them), It’s funny to see Kurt Angle, The Rock and even Hulk Hogan sitting around with all the other superstars like just “one of the boys”. Linda explains the rules for tonight’s Draft. Vince McMahon picks first for Smackdown, Ric Flair picks for Raw. We’ll only see the first 20 picks tonight with the rest of the roster being allocated by a lottery after the show. None of the participants in tonight’s main event Undisputed Championship match (Triple H, Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon) are eligible to be picked as the Champion will be able to appear on both shows (as will Women’s Champion Jazz) and also Stone Cold Steve Austin is not eligible to be picked due to “a contract clause". The real reason is because he’s not actually here tonight after walking out of the company due to burn out right after Wrestlemania.

After the first match, we see a glimpse of Ric Flair and Mr. McMahon’s war rooms and Vince heads out onto the stage to make the historic first pick. The assumption is that it will be “his boy” Kurt Angle, or even the nWo but to everyone’s shock the first choice is The Rock! The Rock is shown reacting to the news backstage and looks shocked! It’s quite funny to see that The Rock was standing next to The Undertaker, who he bitterly feuded with only a few weeks ago, Kane and…Scotty 2 Hotty. The Rock heads out into the arena to see Vince who lays down the law and tells The Rock that he can’t ever put his hands on Mr. McMahon or talk about shoving things up people’s asses. He basically bans The Rock from using all of his catchphrases. He also quotes Bill Cosby during this little rant which is just perfect considering what has come out about both those men in the years since, though in fairness Bill Cosby is in prison for what he did. The Rock says that since this will be his last Raw appearance, he wants to go out with a bang. He reminds us of some of his biggest Raw moments - winning the WWF title, the Rock N Sock Connection and “shoving Vince’s face up Rikishi’s ass” which actually happened on Smackdown but he’s on a roll. The Rock leads the crowd in chanting “you are an asshole” at Vince until he finally just leaves. 

Ric Flair, with a smile on his face, heads out onto the stage next to make his own first draft pick for Raw - much like Vince, he ignores all the choices that you’d expect and goes for his own rival The Undertaker! He looks as shocked as The Rock did and throws a chair in a rage. I guess he was being sarcastic when he told Flair to pick him on Smackdown. In Vince’s war room, he’s disappointed. He clearly wanted Taker himself. He’s joined by an angry Kurt Angle who says that Vince has hurt his feelings by not picking him first! He’s an Olympic Gold Medalist. Undertaker is next and is also angry at Vince - he promised he’d end up on Smackdown with Vince. Later in McMahon’s war room, Kurt continues to read out a never ending list of his accomplishments to convince him that he should be the next choice. Vince is worried Flair might throw another curve ball and pick the nWo next but Kurt is certain that he’ll pick him! Vince has to pick Kurt next or Flair will poach him. Vince agrees and makes Kurt Angle his second official choice in the draft.

Ric Flair returns out onto the stage to make his second choice. Before he does, he promises that he will work as hard as he can to make sure that he brings Stone Cold Steve Austin - the only free agent - to Raw and with that, his second choice is the nWo! Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and the returning X-Pac. Vince is furious about the nWo pick and so Kurt encourages Vince to throw Flair his own curve ball - pick someone who’s coming back soon and who is bigger, stronger and faster than ever. Vince ponders it for a moment before announcing that his third pick is Chris Benoit!

In Ric’s war room, the nWo intimidate him and tell him that they’ll never do what he says. He makes his third pick right in front of them - the big red machine, Kane. 

Vince McMahon makes his fourth pick from the top of the entrance ramp at the podium, choosing Hulk Hogan. We waste no time and after a quick commercial break Flair comes back with his own fourth pick, Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam. Vince is angry that Flair picked RVD - not so much for Van Dam himself but he wanted the Intercontinental title. Kurt says that he’s right here and he can just go and win the title tonight! Vince loves that idea and sanctions the match. Maybe he should have been the number one pick?

Vince McMahon’s next pick is the WWF Tag Team Champions Billy and Chuck (and their new stylist Rico). They only got drafted as a unit because they’re the champions - all the other teams are in danger of being broken up.

Vince McMahon bursts into Ric Flair’s office and after yelling at him for stealing The Undertaker and for sending Kane out to help Rock and Hogan against the nWo just now. Booker tells McMahon to get out of his face and takes another of Vince’s buddies - Booker T! Vince says he’ll take a man who had a big victory over Booker at Wrestlemania - Edge! Flair says speaking of Big, he’ll take The Big Show! Vince returns with a big man of his own - Rikishi! Flair says he hopes Rikishi shoves his ass in his face again so Vince shoves him and leaves before it turns into a brawl. That’s four more big draft picks.

Ric Flair says that he is looking to secure the most dominant tag team in wrestling and picks Bubba Ray Dudley. Vince McMahon says he says what Flair is doing and so out of spite, he picks D-Von Dudley. The break up of a tag team. In the waiting area, Bubba and D-Von embrace and then go their separate ways. They probably had achieved all they could as a team and needed something fresh but is this a mistake? I guess we’ll see (it was).

William Regal defends the European Championship against Rikishi, who was drafted by Mr. McMahon earlier. As regal makes his entrance, for the third show in a row the massive Brock Lesnar comes through the crowd and in an awesome show of strength, throws and lifts Rikishi with ease. Once again, Paul Heyman gets into the ring to raise his charge’s hand to a chorus of boos.

Vince McMahon comes out following that segment and picks Brock Lesnar, but it's not his turn. Ric Flair comes out and tells McMahon as much. Vince tells him he can have two picks but Ric isn’t having it - it’s Raw’s turn and HE picks Brock Lesnar. Vince says that he will pick someone else with unlimited potential - the world’s strongest man Mark Henry. Ric Flair bags another championship for Raw and picks European Champion William Regal. Vince calls him out and says he can’t have every title so he’s picking Hardcore Champion Maven. Ric Flair makes his last and final pick - Lita. Vince laughs about Flair picking “a woman” as his last choice and calls him a pig. Vince just casually burying the entire women’s division and brings up the lottery which will be on WWF.com after the show and allocate the remainder of the roster to either show. Vince tells Flair and his Raw guys to bring it to their final Smackdown appearance this week. Flair agrees with the crowd that McMahon is an asshole. That brings the first draft and the first ever brand split to a close. It still doesn’t seem to have quite sunk in for people what a huge change this is and it is oddly bitter sweet knowing the future and how many of these “game changing, first round draft picks” would end up being gone by the end of the year, and how many “last Raw appearance ever” type comments ended up being laughable. But for now, let's be positive and say that I thought the brand split was really exciting at the time and I still think it's a good idea. The first couple of years of its existence is the strongest the concept ever was.

Nah Nah Nah Nah, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye

In the main event, Triple H defends the Undisputed WWF Championship against Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon. Neither man was drafted because the winner of this will appear on both shows anyway. This has the added stipulation that if Triple H pins Stephanie to win this match, she has to leave the WWF “forever”. Obviously forever isn’t ACTUALLY forever but by the time she does come back she’ll finally have her own theme song which I think makes this the last time we hear Triple H’s old theme song “My Time” on WWF/WWE TV which is a tragedy because I love that song. This match has been hyped up all night long and JR has continually said he smells a rat and a trap. Sure enough, Stephanie claps for Jericho and they look like they’re talking strategy as The Game makes his entrance.

The plan becomes clear very quickly as Jericho sends Triple H to the outside and Stephanie immediately lays down to let Jericho pin her! Triple H stops the pin and remains focused but it is still two on one and Stephanie is if nothing else a big distraction. She works with Jericho to focus on Triple H’s surgically repaired leg as the fans rain “slut” chants on her. There’s some miscommunication and after Stephanie slaps Jericho, he shoves her on her ass! She talks sense and tells him to focus but after he misses a Lionsault she pins Jericho and he kicks out. She tries to slap him again so he puts her in a Walls of Jericho but Triple H puts a stop to that right away before she can tap out. Triple H and Jericho have the same idea and with a title belt each, hit one another and both go down! Stephanie gets into the ring and pins both, one after another but they both kick out. Stephanie continues to be a factor as she breaks up Jericho’s Walls of Jericho on Triple H, and breaks up Triple H’s pin after a Pedigree but The Game plants her with a big swinging spinebuster and THAT puts her down for three.

Triple H retains the title and, because he pinned Stephanie, she is gone! Earl Hebner, as usual, absolutely ruins a great photo opportunity by insisting on remaining in the ring front and centre as Triple H poses over her body with the titles, and then again remaining in the ring as Triple H taunts her with a wave goodbye. Sweet baby Jesus I hate that man. Triple H takes great delight in calling security to the ring and despite her best efforts to hold onto the ring post is forcibly removed from the arena for the “final” time. She is dragged from the arena as Triple H leads the crowd in signing goodbye at his soon to be ex-wife. 

Other Happenings

• In the opening match, Tazz goes one on one with Mr. Perfect. Perfect cuts a brief prematch promo where to me, it sounded like he was slurring his words. Tazz wins a short match by submission with the Tazzmission. Perfect immediately jumps out of the ring, no-selling the move. 
• Edge teams with Diamond Dallas Page against Christian and Booker T. A pair of Wrestlemania rematches in one match, but of course Kurt Angle cost Edge his match with Booker on Smackdown, and Christian cost DDP his European title on Smackdown too so there’s extra fuel on the fire here. This is good stuff and with Christian and Edge fighting on the outside, DDP hits the Diamond Cutter on Booker and has it in the bag. Christian breaks up the pin and flattens his rival with the Unprettier. He’s taken out again by Edge but Booker follows up with a Scissors Kick and picks up the victory for his team.
• A battle of two former Women’s Champions between Trish Stratus and Ivory. I’m glad to see Ivory back, the women’s division is finally getting some momentum beyond bra and panties matches and bikinis with Jazz too. The fans don’t seem to be picking that up however and chant “we want puppies” as they wrestle, and King doesn’t help squealing that JR should “look at the puppies!” Trish picks up a decent win with a top rope hurricanrana and a Stratusfaction bulldog. 
• Backstage, Hulk Hogan goes to see The Rock. The two new Smackdown co-workers. They’re good friends and shake hands and talk about how Vince made neither of them - the People did. Hogan says that since the nWo have been drafted to Raw, they should challenge them to a handicap match tonight and get their payback while they can. The Rock is pumped and agrees and it is on, and they say each other’s catchphrases.

• Hulk Hogan (still in his nWo black and white, but with the awesome Voodoo Child as his theme song) teams with The Rock against Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and X-Pac (who is carrying nunchucks, his weapon of choice back in 2000 during his feud with Chris Jericho). The handicap match is next and Hogan and X-Pac start as the legal men - Pac is sent immediately flying to the outside from a lockup. This match is all about Hogan and it is surreal seeing him wrestling week to week on free TV in 2002. He remains legal and is worked over by the nWo, intermittently no-selling to pop the crowd. The three on two odds are a bit much for Hogan and Rock and that brings out Kane who seems to have taken issue with the nWo’s comments about him as he was drafted earlier. He helps Hogan and Rock clear the ring, shrugging off a chair shot from X-Pac and spikes Hall with a chokeslam, sending the nWo running.

• Jeff Hardy (with Matt Hardy and Lita) takes on Billy (with Chuck and Rico). The Hardyz are still nervous waiting to see if they’ll be split up in the draft and of course Matt Hardy and Lita are a couple. Rico tries to get involved but is taken out by a Lita hurricanrana off the apron. That distracts Billy who gets rolled up by Jeff to give him the victory. 
• Kurt Angle challenges Rob Van Dam for the Intercontinental Championship. Kurt grabs RVD and throws him with a german suplex before the bell even rings to start this off aggressively. Kurt is off balance and pulls the referee in front of a kick from RVD. The referee uses some sense and actually disqualifies Kurt for that, so he punishes Van Dam with an ankle lock. That brings out Edge who brawls with Kurt until referees are able to split them up. Of course both men have been drafted by Smackdown so it's unlikely this feud is over.

Smackdown - March 28th, 2002

The Outcome of the Draft

The draft was on Raw and the lottery continued on WWF.com but we’ll find out the rest of the roster allocations tonight on Smackdown. This is the “final time” that all of these superstars will be under one roof. In a nice touch, throughout the show as people make their entrance they are given Raw and Smackdown nameplates to denote which brands they’re now assigned to. They don’t seem to have decided that the plan for the announcers is yet as Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole are calling this show. One fewer show with Jerry Lawler per week sounds like heaven to me.

Owner vs. Owner

Smackdown’s Kurt Angle heads down to the ring with loud “You Suck” chants directed at him. He’s still upset about not being drafted first by Mr. McMahon but perhaps is more focused on Edge just now. He reads the people the riot act, mostly about the lack of respect they’re showing to him but about the lack of respect for a “bright, beautiful flower” like Stephanie McMahon and demands a moment’s silence for her, as he puts a still image of her looking sad on the titantron, like she’s died. Kurt continues to rant about the crowd’s disrespect until finally he’s interrupted by the leader of Smackdown, Mr. McMahon. He echoes Kurt’s thoughts and blames everything on Triple H - he seduced her, married her, made her what she is and then humiliated and even beat her up. He’s not entirely wrong. That bad mouthing brings out the WWF Champion himself, Triple H. He takes great pleasure in Stephanie’s downfall and shows footage from the end of Raw of her being kicked out of the arena. Kurt wants to fight Triple H tonight, but so does Vince so he makes a handicap match of himself and Kurt Angle vs. Triple H but following that announcement, Raw’s owner Ric Flair struts out onto the stage.

Vince isn’t in full control of Smackdown until next week so he’s not allowing it to be a handicap match. Since it’s his last Smackdown appearance, it'll be the Nature Boy himself. He tells Triple H to keep Angle off him so that he can kick Vince’s ass! I got a laugh at the end of the segment as Triple H offers a hand to Flair but he doesn’t notice and leaves him hanging.

Backstage Vince and Kurt discuss the loss of the Hardcore title to Raw and Kurt says that Stone Cold Steve Austin will be on Raw this week. Vince says that he will be there too to make sure they sign the free agent and bring him to Smackdown. 

In the main event, Ric Flair (with no ring gear, he’s just in his suit pants and belt) and WWF Champion Triple H face Vince McMahon and Kurt Angle. King points out continually how much better Vince’s physique is than Ric Flair’s. He’s right but Vince wasn’t a full time wrestler for two decades and has, to be generous, abused steroids for his entire adult life. That’s not even an “allegedly”, he just has. Vince wants to start the match for his team as does Flair, but Triple H insists on starting so he can beat up his soon to be future father in law. He sarcastically tags out in fear after Vince flexes his muscles, and so does Vince so we get a dream match of sorts with Ric Flair vs. Kurt Angle - two of the most renowned in ring performers in wrestling history. Ric wins that exchange with chops and tags out. You’d think Triple H and Kurt would do the bulk of the wrestling here but there’s a long exchange of McMahon vs. Flair, which Ric also wins. McMahon and Angle isolate Ric, including Vince putting the Nature Boy in his own figure four and after a tag to Triple H, Vince hits him in the face with the WWF title belt which almost gives Angle the victory. It breaks down and as Ric prepares to lock the Figure Four on Vince, Raw’s number one draft pick The Undertaker runs down and floors him with a Big Boot. That gives McMahon and Angle the victory to end Smackdown. 

Putting the nWo in its Place

Backstage,The Rock and Hulk Hogan discuss their match later with the nWo. Their last chance to settle the score. Tonight however they have a partner in Kane. Kane joins them and gets some laughs.This is a pretty famous promo so here it is to enjoy in full;

Smackdown’s Hulk Hogan and The Rock team with Raw’s Kane against Raw’s nWo - Nash, Hall and X-Pac. Flair described Kane as a man he drafted to “keep the nWo in check” and I thought it was a throw away comment but Michael Cole brings it up continuously as a major plot point. This is just a classic big names tag match with the heels taking turns working over the good guys in short bursts and each good guy getting a chance to fight back and look strong. Hall ends up bleeding which seems to have been from a punch from Hogan. Clumsy. It all breaks down after a hot tag to Kane and in the chaos he plants X-Pac with a chokeslam to win the match for his team. 

Endings and Beginnings

Backstage, Bubba Ray and D-Von talk strategy. They weren’t the only tag team to be broken up by the draft with Bradshaw on Raw and Faarooq on Smackdown. They’ve got a Tag Team title match tonight and D-Von stresses that they need to win tonight to stay together. The show is in Philly, the home of ECW and so this is the perfect place for their final match as a team if it comes to that. That leads straight into the Tag Team title match with Billy and Chuck. With some help from Rico stopping a 3D attempt, Billy and Chuck retain the tiles after a Fameasser on Bubba. The Dudleyz have this one last appearance to make the fans happy and officially turn themselves face again so a 3D on Billy, the return of the Wazzup on Chuck and then finally a 3D through the table. The happiness is short lived as Bubba realises what this means and he and D-Von hug for the last time before going their separate ways. King is really nasty about The Dudleyz during all of this for some reason, being homophobic about them.

From one split up tag team to another, in the APA’s office Bradshaw and Faarooq say their goodbyes. They're more emotional than you’d imagine but call Tajiri and Torrie Wilson over to tell them about a big final party tonight - much beer for everybody! Tajiri runs off to do that as Bradshaw convinces Torrie to stay and play strip poker. Later in the show, the APA have amassed a good number of superstars for their party - it's an odd mix of heels and faces and Tajiri winning a hand at poker means Torrie Wilson has to remove an item of clothing. She takes off some jewelry. Christian loses the hand and throws a massive temper tantrum, banging on the table like a child. Later, the Hurricane chugs a beer and actually collapses as everyone else cheers him on.

William Regal walks in and ruins the fun, calling the women tarts and smugly saying that he predicted the APA would be out of business and now it is. Bradshaw says they’ve run out of beer, the party is over and attacks Regal, beating him up and slamming the poker table on top of him as everyone else runs off. Bradshaw and Faarooq are the last men standing and say a sad goodbye, hanging a closed sign on their door as they go. The fans boo that but cheer when they shake hands and walk off in opposite directions.

Other Happenings

• In the opening match, Raw’s Booker T takes on Smackdown’s DDP. Two former WCW Champions and Alliance members and men I’m a big fan of, most importantly. This is really good and much like on Raw in the tag match, DDP hits the Diamond Cutter and has Booker T pinned but Raw’s Brock Lesnar comes through the crowd and with Paul Heyman screaming encouragement, he flattens someone for the fourth show in a row laying out Page with an F5. He is freaky strong and looks like a million dollars but as I said last week, I probably don’t need to over explain why Brock Lesnar’s arrival is a big deal.
• Lillian Garcia interviews Matt Hardy and Lita and their happiness about staying together and with Jeff on  Raw is interrupted by Smackdown’s Chris Jericho. He is furious at their happiness after failing to become Undisputed Champion. Matt Hardy calls him a hasbeen so Jericho attacks Matt from behind, knocking down Lita in the process.
• Former Undisputed Champion. Smackdown’s Chris Jericho goes one on one with Raw’s Matt Hardy later in the show with Lita in his corner. Matt runs right to the ring looking for payback for earlier. Jericho picks up a hard fought win with the Lionsault and then as he loses, puts Lita in the Walls of Jericho just to prove a point. I guess he has nothing to worry about - he’s on the other brand and won’t see The Hardyz or Lita again any time soon. This is actually the last time we’ll see Lita at all as while filming an appearance on the TV show Dark Angel, she was dropped on her head during stunt practice and cracked three vertebrae, needing surgery to repair it. I’ll talk a bit more about her later.

• Raven is back and was drafted by Raw. Tonight, he’s challenging Maven for the Hardcore title. He is interviewed by Jonathan Coachman backstage and talks some nonsense about the Raven Effect. That match is next and the Hardcore title is the only singles championship Smackdown has possession of at the moment. They trade stiff shots with trashcan lids and stop signs until the match is interrupted by another returning ECW alumni and former Alliance member Tommy Dreamer. He tries to steal the Hardcore title with the 24/7 rule but fails and with a DDT, Raven pins Maven to win the Hardcore title which he’ll now bring to Raw too! 

• Raw’s Rob Van Dam defends the Intercontinental Championship against Smackdown’s Test. Test has a chance to earn lots of favour with Vince by bringing the IC title to Smackdown here. Test uses the ropes a couple of times and keeps being caught by referee Earl Hebner. Test shoves him around and so when RVD rolls him up, Earl counts fast and Van Dam retains the title.

Raw - April 1st, 2002

This is a huge Raw. The show finally, after months of no updates, has new opening graphics and a logo and a theme song. The end of an era, which was a long time coming as the show has not been Raw is War since the summer. I love this Raw theme song, but it doesn’t carry the same nostalgia as the previous one of course. Ric Flair opens the show in his office and shows us the new Undisputed Championship belt which will be presented to Triple H later in the show. Here’s the new opening and a good look at the new stage too. The commentary team is still Jerry Lawler and JR, so we’ll find out what that means for Smackdown’s commentary desk on Thursday. I'm taking this chance to do my own little visual upgrades to the website, and I'll be doing lots more colour coding and leaning into the whole Red for Raw and Blue for Smackdown themes.

Stone Cold Decision

Vince McMahon shows up out of the blue after the RVD and Booker match, apparently coming through the crowd. He says he’s here to sign Stone Cold to Smackdown! In a nice touch as this is an unscheduled invasion, as Vince talks we go to a commercial break and when the show returns, security has come down to the ring to escort him from the building! Vince continues to call out Austin and says he’s not leaving until Stone Cold comes out and signs the contract. That finally brings out the Raw owner, Ric Flair. After some back and forth and threatening each other, Vince mistakenly says that there’s no one big or bad enough to get him out of the arena. On cue, The Big Show’s music plays and he walks to the ring with a smile. Vince still refuses to leave to Show grabs him and throws him across his shoulders, carrying him all the way out of the arena and ejects him into the parking lot, all while Vince continues to rant about how Austin will want to hear what he has to say and that this is a big mistake. I suspect that isn’t the last we’ll see of him tonight.

Jonathan Coachman interviews Debra and asks her if her husband has made a decision yet - will Stone Cold sign with Raw or Smackdown? Flair or McMahon? He promises that he will make his decision tonight either way.

Out in the parking lot, Vince McMahon is in his limo talking to someone on the phone assuring them that he’s not going anywhere and still plans on signing Stone Cold Steve Austin tonight.

After hyping it up all night, the first appearance of Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out of nowhere as he walks into Ric Flair’s office and wants to know why he won’t let Vince McMahon in the building? He wants him let in so that he can hear both the offer from Flair and Raw and Vince and Smackdown. He says it’s only fair that he listens to what the man has to say so after the next match, he’s going to head down to the ring and wants to hear from both of them so he can make up his mind. That takes JR and King by surprise. The Rattlesnake is being a business man and taking this decision seriously.

In the main event of the show, Ric Flair heads down to the ring and with security now allowing him back inside, Smackdown’s leader Vince McMahon heads down to the ring - this time with theme music and everything. They’ve both got their contracts on clipboards to give Austin the hard sell for joining their respective brands. It is creative they turned this whole free agent thing into a storyline as the reality is that Stone Cold walked out of the company for two weeks following Wrestlemania, citing burnout and unhappiness with his recent booking as the cause. It’s good that he was talked into coming back of course but that is a temporary fix for a much bigger issue with the Rattlesnake.

Vince gives a long speech about how he invented everything from wrestling itself to cable TV to PPV to Stone Cold Steve Austin. Stone Cold comes to the ring and marches around the corners as Vince follows him, and then tries to suck up to him by complimenting his t-shirt and telling off Flair for interrupting him! Austin reminds us of everything bad Vince ever did to him, but better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. He respects Flair for everything he’s done, he even respects Vince for how successful he was during Vince’s tenure as owner. He tells Vince that he will sign with Smackdown and shakes his hand, telling Ric there’s no hard feelings. That is a shocker, and mostly because Raw really seems like it needs Austin! Stone Cold takes his time looking through the Smackdown contract before wishing McMahon a happy April Fools Day and dropping him with a Stone Cold Stunner! Austin celebrates with his music playing as Ric Flair celebrates with him and calls for beers! He gets Stone Cold’s cooler to have a beer with Raw’s newest superstar and as they toast...Stone Cold gives him a Stunner too! He does still sign the Raw contract before he leaves so his decision stands, and Raw closes with Austin having a beer bash over both fallen owners. I have to say, this was a great episode of Raw and a really strong start for the Brand Extension era.

New Era, New Championship

Out in the arena, Ric Flair heads down to the ring with the new Undisputed WWF Championship belt to present it to Triple H, replacing the two title belts he’s currently lugging around. This is another sad end of an era for me as while I do love this title belt and think it's gorgeous, the classic “big Eagle” Attitude era WWF Championship belt is my favourite title belt of all time. I will miss seeing it every week.

Flair sings Triple H’s praises for coming back from the serious injury to win the Rumble and the title and asks him to come to the ring but it's not The Game, it’s The Undertaker. Flair’s number one draft pick, his chief rival for the past couple of months and who cost him a match on Smackdown by kicking him square in the face. So it’s tense. King detracts from this moment by spending his entire entrance needling JR about the “Booger Red” nickname he’s given The Undertaker. In fairness to King, it doesn’t make a ton of sense and is a pretty lame nickname but stop going on about it. Undertaker basically tells Flair that by giving the title and all this praise to Triple H, it is disrespectful to him. He beat Flair at this year’s Wrestlemania but he also beat Triple H at last years - every time they’ve wrestled, he’s kicked Triple H’s ass and so he should be the Undisputed Champion.

He’s about to attack the Nature Boy but before he can get his jacket off, Triple H’s music hits and he comes out instead. He hands his current pair of belts to Ric Flair and gets in Undertaker’s face, telling him that he may have kicked his ass at Wrestlemania X7 but things have changed and he dares him to try again now. Undertaker challenges him to an Undisputed title match at Backlash which The Game accepts, but then takes off his t-shirt and tells him they don’t have to wait and can fight tonight. The Undertaker has talked a big game, but backs down and says he’s happy to wait for Backlash. He gets the new title belt from Flair and admires it before presenting it to Triple H himself and tells him to keep it warm for him. Now, not to get too spoilery but that match doesn’t happen even though both men do wrestle at Backlash so I’m very interested in how the next couple of weeks play out. 

The nWo makes some friends

The nWo stroll backstage and say that they hope Flair does sign Austin so that they can beat him up again, and X-Pac talks some trash about his match with Kane later tonight. They come across the demolished APA office following their goodbye party and decide to make it the nWo’s office for the night. In the next segment, Crash Holly tells Bradshaw about it and he’s furious at the lack of respect and charges off to confront them. The desecration continues as by the time Bradshaw gets there they’ve spray painted nWo on the door. The big Texan bursts in and attacks all three of them but pays for it and with a big boot from Nash and some chairshots from X-Pac he’s left beaten down in the rubble of the old APA office.

X-Pac (backed up by Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) takes on Kane, who debuts new theme music tonight. It’s his awesome Slow Chemical “this fire burns” song as the promotion of the Forcible Entry CD continues. That CD is a banger to be fair. Kane is distracted by Nash so that Pac can get some shots in but the size difference is too much. These two have a big history of course but there’s no mention of it here. Kane is in the middle of a big push here with his funny promo on Smackdown, him becoming more humanised and being put over as the most dominant force in a match which also featured The Rock and Hulk Hogan. Flair signed him “to keep the nWo in check” which is no mean feat. The action here is good with Nash and Hall continually interfering to help X-Pac get the advantage. He battles through and as he prepares to chokeslam X-Pac, they rush the ring to cause a disqualification. Before the three on one assault can continue, Bradshaw runs down to help out Kane and they send the nWo packing. HIlariously, Kane signals for his pyro and nothing happens. His theme song plays and then about 30 seconds later, the pyro randomly explodes. Made me laugh at least.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Backstage, Terri confronts Trish Stratus and accuses her of thinking she’s better than everyone else these days and is clearly upset that Trish was on the front cover of the Divas magazine over Terri, who calls herself the Diva of all Divas. That nickname didn’t catch on. Their argument is interrupted by Ric Flair who books Paddle on a Pole match later tonight. The more things change, the more they stay the same. He speaks so softly during this segment I could barely hear what he was saying, made worse by King squealing about puppies all through the segment.

The Bikini/Paddle on a Pole match is what you’d expect. I’m not a prude and going to pretend these aren’t very beautiful women in not a lot of clothing but if you don’t get that this is demeaning you’re being intentionally obtuse. Trish wins by getting the paddle from the pole but before she can use it, Molly Holly who has seemingly ditched the superhero sidekick gimmick attacks both ladies, kicking Terri out of the ring and hitting Trish in the head with the wooden paddle, breaking it over her head!

Other Happenings

• The opening match of this new era of Raw is Rob Van Dam defending the Intercontinental Championship against Booker T. This is really good and on such a big episode of Raw feels more like a PPV opener with JR and King calling it as a serious affair. The fans are hot too and after a couple of close falls for Booker, Van Dam picks up the win with a Five Star Frog Splash to retain the title. This was great. As RVD celebrates we get a big return - Eddie Guerrero! Latino Heat is back and brings Van Dam off the top rope with a powerbomb and gives him a Frog Splash of his own! Eddie is back and I’ll talk a lot more about him at Backlash. 

• Bubba Ray Dudley - now a singles competitor with D-Von on Smackdown - challenges Raven for his newly won Hardcore Championship. Raw does seem to have scooped up most of the old ECW guys which is fitting with them having the Hardcore title now. This is a fun match with lots of hitting each other with weapons and near falls. It reminds me of classic 1999 Hardcore title action which is a big compliment from me. The fans don’t really pop for most of the weapon shots so I think the novelty had sadly worn off by 2002. I liked this a lot though and Bubba picks up the win with a Bubba Bomb to become the new Hardcore champion and kick off his singles career on a strong note.

• The Hardy Boyz (with no Lita this week as she’s off filming Dark Angel, which I mentioned during Smackdown) take on the makeshift team of Boss Man (no Big) and Mr. Perfect. Perfect and Boss Man both feel old and past it but that's unfair and mostly due to the advancements of TV technology making their era feel like a million years ago - in reality, they have been wrestling less time than someone like The Miz or R-Truth has been with the WWE in 2025 and age wise, aren’t that far off people like Cody Rhodes or AJ Styles in modern day. It’s funny how times change like that. The Hardyz win a short match but as they celebrate they’re this week’s victims of Brock Lesnar. He flattens Matt Hardy with an F5 and catches Jeff in midair, spiking him with three powerbombs, one of them as he runs around the ring first! He’s a freak of nature. 

• In a non-title match, European Champion William Regal takes on Spike Dudley. As Spike makes his entrance, Regal makes sure to secretly hide his brass knuckles behind the turnbuckle cover. Unknown to Regal, referee Nick Patrick saw it and he removed them shortly after. This is a showcase match for Regal and he brutalises Spike with ease for longer than strictly necessary I’d have said. During this match, JR mentions the upcoming show in the UK on May 4th. Unbeknownst to them, that would be the final WWF broadcast, but we’ll get to that. King continually mentions during this match that on this day the Queen Mother died. That’s trivia if nothing else. The finish comes when Regal goes looking for his brass knuckles only to find that they aren’t there. He’s distracted and Spike capitalises with the Dudley Dog, picking up a big upset victory over the European Champion!

Smackdown - April 4th, 2002

Unlike Raw, Smackdown hasn’t had a significant appearance upgrade which is fair enough as they only did so in August. The show does start with a statement from the show's owner however and Vince McMahon says that the Undertaker being named number one contender with a match with Triple H at Backlash was a mistake and that the first challenger for the title belongs to Smackdown. He will be naming Triple H’s real challenger at Backlash tonight on Smackdown. Here’s the updated Smackdown intro with some new faces and all the Raw exclusive talents removed. The Smackdown commentary team is Michael Cole and Tazz, and they remained the duo for this show for a few years after this so it's nice to see the pairing in place at last.

Main Eventers fight for their spot

The first Smackdown of this new era opens with Kurt Angle heading down to the ring. He says that he is here to say yes, he will accept the match with Triple H for the Undisputed title at Backlash, and proceeds to list the reasons and his own accompaniments. He gets to reason 4 of 30 before he’s interrupted by Chris Jericho. He calls Kurt a pompous jackass and says that NO ONE deserves the match at Backlash more than him. He hasn’t had his one on one rematch since Wrestlemania. Jericho rants like a maniac about how he is not a hasbeen. The crowd chant “asshole” at him, which Cole says is a “hasbeen” chant. There’s only one way to settle this - Jericho vs. Angle tonight with the winner facing Triple H for the title at Backlash. They agree and shake hands but that is interrupted by The Rock, who comes out onto the stage to a massive cheer (obviously, it's The Rock). The Rock says he’s had more big matches with Triple H than anyone and no one deserves a title match more than him…but stops himself and says maybe there is someone else who is worthy of being considered. The Rock knows that one day he’ll get his title match and become champion once again but until then, there is one man who deserves a title match a little bit more than The Rock. He pauses and lets the crowd chant “Hogan”. This is weird, why is The Rock stepping aside for the man he beat at Wrestlemania? He says they should give the title shot at Backlash to a legend and an Icon - Hollywood Hulk Hogan! This all reeks of convenience as really The Rock is about to take another leave of absence from the WWF for movie related reasons and so won’t be at Backlash. He encourages the fans to chant for the man they want to see challenge for the title at Backlash because this is the People’s show - they chant for Hogan, obviously. 

Backstage, new backstage interviewer Mark Lloyd catches up with Mr. McMahon and asks if he knows who the number one contender will be? Vince says he has but he will not succumb to public pressure. He doesn’t care what the fans want, or what The Rock wants and so Triple H will defend the Undisputed Championship against…Hulk Hogan! This is very odd, but this is real life interfering with the booking. I’ll talk about it at Backlash. Elsewhere backstage, Chris Jericho watches the announcement and loses his temper. He runs into The Rock and blames the whole thing on him. Hogan couldn’t beat The Rock at Wrestlemania but Jericho says he beat him at No Mercy, and he beat him at Judgment Day (he means Vengeance) so The Rock cuts him off and tells him he can try to beat him tonight. Jericho accepts.

Backstage, Kurt Angle loudly complains to no one about Hogan being named number one contender. He's approached by his opponent for tonight, Edge, who has some nice photos of them together and used to be good friends. This is another infamous segment and is the one most people blame for having started the You Suck chants, which as I’ve documented, they’ve been going for months by now.

They actually parodied this same segment almost 20 years later on an episode of Raw in the lead up to Kurt Angle’s retirement which tells you how well known it is.

Kurt Angle vs. Edge in a one on one match has been building since Wrestlemania with sneak attacks and interference in each other’s matches. The action here is good but it doesn’t last long before a frustrated Angle throws a steel chair into Edge’s face which cuts him open above his eyebrow and causes the disqualification. Edge fights Angle off who bails out of the ring. This feud is not over.

In the main event, The Rock and Chris Jericho renew their rivalry from late 2001 - early 2002. This match gets some time for a TV main event and Jericho jumps The Rock before the bell for the advantage and works him over, keeping control in the early going. It breaks down after Jericho misplaces a flying forearm which knocks down the referee. Kurt Angle runs down and gives The Rock an Angle Slam but The Rock has time to recover and kicks out by the time the referee wakes up. Kurt is about to go back to the ring and attack again but his own rival Edge runs down to attack him and the pair fight off through the crowd. Back in the ring, with the referee awake again The Rock pulls Jericho into a Rock Bottom and wins the main event of the first Smackdown of the Brand Extension era. This wasn’t as good a show as Raw this week but there’s certainly a lot going on and I appreciate that splitting the roster has already allowed TV time for some people we don’t see very often. It feels nice and fresh. 

Hogan Plays The Game

Undisputed WWF Champion Triple H, with his new very good looking title belt, heads down to the ring to address his Backlash challenge which is now official - Triple H vs. Hulk Hogan. They did announce Triple H vs. Undertaker on Raw so I’d be thinking of a triple threat match, but that’s not the way it goes. It’s slightly messy booking which makes me think plans changed somewhere along the way, but we’ll get to all of that on the show itself. He recaps the events of tonight where the Backlash match has been changed to him vs. Hogan and sends a message to the Undertaker and tells him that he hasn’t lost his title match because once he beats Hogan, he’ll beat Undertaker next. That brings out Hulk Hogan himself and for the first time since his return, he’s in his classic red and yellow. Cole and Tazz make a big deal about this symbolic visual return. He air guitars to the ring and says he was just as surprised as he is that Vince gave him the title match. Hogan talks about his own history, mentioning Wrestlemanias 1, 3 and 18. It’s kind of nauseating the way that since he turned face, the commentators have all fawned over and worshiped him.

“Hulkamania is back, brother” Hogan says that if the fans believe in him then he’ll take his shot. The fans loudly chant “Hogan” and as much as I don’t like it, you can’t argue with the crowd reactions he’s been getting since Wrestlemania. Triple H says that while it will be an honour to face him, it makes him sad that he’ll have to hurt him. He won’t hesitate and when they’re in the ring he’s not immortal or an icon - he is just like everyone else and he will run him down. The fans boo Triple H here. I mean if they booed The Rock against Hogan then he had no chance did he? Hogan ends on “whatcha gonna do when Hulkamania runs wild on you?!” and the fans lose their mind as Triple H and Hogan stare down and talk trash off-mic while Hogan’s theme song plays. Both these men have very big noses so hilariously they keep pressing against each other as they get way too close during the staredown.

New Face, New Era, New Attitude, New Champion

Tonight, Tajiri defends the WWF Cruiserweight Championship against Billy Kidman. Backstage before the match, Kidman approaches Torrie Wilson (who he amazingly dated in real life - he was punching!) and discusses he and Torrie’s storyline history in WCW and says there’s no hard feelings. The two share a friendly hug as Torrie’s boyfriend Tajiri walks into the shot and seems to be a bit paranoid, insisting Torrie kiss him in front of Kidman.

That match is next and is really good! Kidman misses his Shooting Star Press and walks into a stiff kick to the head which I was sure would be the finish but he kicked out. A frustrated Tajiri picks up the title belt and puts it in the corner of the ring. Torrie sees it sitting there so picks it up but when Tajiri goes back to get it and use it as a weapon, its missing. The distraction allows Kidman to roll him up and Billy Kidman wins the Cruiserweight Championship! A significantly more villainous Tajiri is very upset at Torrie and blames her for costing him the title, demanding a microphone and screaming at her in Japanese. He’s such a loveable comedy character so making him an abusive boyfriend towards his far more attractive girlfriend is a very odd choice. Torrie’s acting is pretty shocking here as she pulls upset faces during and after his rant.

Other Happenings

• Backstage the team of Scotty 2 Hotty and Albert talk about their chance to win the WWF Tag Team titles tonight. They’ve got some nice matching gear now with a red, orange and yellow colour scheme. I like it. That leads right into the Tag Team title match with Billy and Chuck being led to the ring by their stylist Rico. This is a short match and thanks to Rico, Billy and Chuck pick up the victory. After the match, Scotty tries to make Rico pay for his interference with a bulldog and sets up the Worm but as he hops around, Albert gives a big bicycle kick to his own partner! Seems the loss hit the big man hard and he beats up Scotty and flattens him with a Baldo Bomb while ranting about how Scotty made him dance for six months and turned him into a joke. 

• Christian faces his former mentor and Wrestlemania opponent DDP. This match actually gets a little video package, mostly focused on Christian’s temper tantrums! Here it is, mostly because I love Christian and I love DDP. 

• This is a good little match and Christian actually throws what turns out to be a fake temper tantrum, suckering DDP into a low blow and an Unprettier to pick up the victory.
• Backstage, Mr. McMahon is angry about something and needs to get it off his chest. He didn’t draft Maven because he liked him, he drafted him because he wanted the Hardcore Championship on Smackdown which he ruined by losing it! He tells the returning Hardcore Holly to make sure he punishes Maven for that tonight and shakes his hand,
• Stacy Keibler drops in to see Mr. McMahon (please, call me Vince) and offers to be his personal assistant. He drops his paperwork when she offers her “services”. Watching this in 2025, this kind of storyline hits far far too close to home. Stacy sucks up to the boss and a sleazy McMahon offers her a job.
• D-Von Dudley goes to see Vince McMahon and he’s angry with him for splitting up him and Bubba Ray. They were the best Tag Team of all time and because of his petty issues with Ric Flair they’re no longer together. He demands Vince explain himself. Vince shifts the focus to Ric Flair - he picked Bubba first so it was his fault. Vince calls D-Von the better of the two brothers and encourages him to step up and climb the ladder of success as a singles performer and get the hell out of his office. “Find out who the hell you are”

• Backstage, Al Snow talks to Maven and heaps praise on him and all he’s accomplished but tonight he’s going to get his ass kicked by Hardcore Holly. He kisses him on the cheek and wishes him luck. That match is next. I’m worried for Maven here - Bob Holly is famous for being a bully and taking great pleasure in beating rookies senseless to prove a point and “toughten them up”. He wasn’t the only one and the death of that kind of toxic attitude in wrestling locker rooms is a good thing. Fans of very pretty dropkicks will like this match however and there’s about 12 of them in quite a short match. Holly wins clean with a stiff Alabama Slam.

Raw - April 8th, 2002

Number One Contender Confusion

After a recap of the events of Smackdown, where Vince McMahon removed Undertaker as number one contender at Backlash and replaced him with Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker heads down to the ring and he is PISSED. He challenged Triple H, Triple H accepted and he had his title match locked in. He calls it bullshit and says Raw isn’t going any further - someone needs to come out and explain this to him. Ric Flair’s music hits and the owner of Raw comes down to the ring to do just that. His explanation is that he was a little over ambitious last week and wanted to see Undertaker vs. Triple H, but McMahon is right and the agreement was that Smackdown would name the first challenger for the title post-draft. He tells Undertaker not to throw his weight around, and says that since he’ll be naming the next challenger after Backlash he better show him some respect. He calls Flair a liar, a no good son of a bitch and accuses him of messing with him. He demands to be named next challenger after Backlash because no one deserves a title match as much as him. His threats are cut off by the glass shatter and the arrival of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Ric doesn’t seem to happy to see the Rattlesnake - he signed him to Raw last week, but he also Stunned his new boss just for fun. Austin can’t believe he’s about to give Undertaker a title match. Why? Because of his stupid bandana? WHAT. His stupid tattoos? WHAT. Because he has “deadman” on his shirt? WHAT. What does that even mean? WHAT. You’re dead? WHAT. You’re deceased? WHAT. and so on. Stone Cold has this crowd eating out of the palm of his hand as he berates Undertaker. Unsurprisingly Stone Cold thinks that HE should get a shot at the Undisputed WWF Championship next.

He tells Ric Flair that he better decide, and Undertaker no-sells all of Austin’s insults and agrees - he needs to make a decision. Undertaker or Stone Cold Steve Austin. Ric stands up for himself and tells both of them that they’re going the wrong way and showing him nothing but disrespect. He recaps all that Undertaker has done to him, and the Stunner last week (which puts a big smile on Austin’s face). He says that if anyone puts their hands on him going forward there will be hell to pay - that sounds like a dare to Stone Cold. Ric gets to his decision - tonight on Raw, Undertaker will face Rob Van Dam and Stone Cold Steve Austin will face Scott Hall. They’re both number one contenders matches apparently. Undertaker continues to insult Ric Flair, so Austin attacks him and fights him out of the ring. He is about to stun Ric Flair too but the owner of Raw avoids that. The segment ends in chaos with referees and officials holding Undertaker back. Flair was going to explain the rest of his plans for the number one contendership but Undertaker interrupted him so it’s left to our imagination what happens if both men win their matches.

The Undertaker faces Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam in a non-title match. This is a number one contendership match but only in Undertaker’s direction as if he wins then he is number one contender, but the same doesn’t go for RVD. Lillian Garcia messes up during the entrances and says the winner of this match becomes number one contender AT Backlash but that’s not the case and they’ll get their title match AFTER Backlash. In fairness to her, it is a little over complicated. This was an awesome match with RVD looking very, very strong. He has Undertaker beat as he sets up a Frog Splash but Eddie Guerrero runs down. Van Dam dives out onto him when he sees him coming and kicks out of a chokeslam. He avoids a Last Ride and connects with the Five Star Frog Splash but Eddie hits him with the Intercontinental title belt and then collapses pretending to be hurt so the referee doesn’t detect him - he’s a genius. That allows Undertaker to recover and hit the Last Ride to win the match and become Number One Contender, officially. I loved all of this, and I remain delighted that Eddie Guerrero is back.

Backstage, Stone Cold goes to see Ric Flair and makes himself at him in the Nature Boy’s office, putting his feet up on the desk. He hangs around through a commercial break and JR and King’s recap of the events of the night so far so that by the time Flair arrives the Rattlesnake is pissed. He needs an explanation from Flair as to what happens next. Flair says that if Austin wins his match then it’ll be Undertaker vs. Stone Cold at Backlash with the winner being the future number one contender for the Undisputed title. Flair tries to reason with Austin and says he likes but Stone Cold remains unfriendly. He doesn’t like anyone.

Scott Hall (with X-Pac still carrying Kane’s mask as his backup) vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin is the main event. If Austin loses here, Undertaker is number one contender but if he wins then it’ll be Austin vs. Undertaker at Backlash. I’d argue that that stipulation makes the outcome seem quite obvious and they maybe should have saved it for after the match but what do I know? The nWo duo work well together with Hall keeping the referee busy so X-Pac can get in some cheap shots on Stone Cold. The referee does down and while Stone Cold fights off X-Pac, The Undertaker runs down and chokeslams Austin. He doesn’t want to face him at Backlash. Bradshaw runs down and attacks The Undertaker - he has issues with the nWo but I’m not sure what his beef with Undertaker is. They fight off through the crowd and Stone Cold kicks out of Hall’s pin by the time the referee recovers. The referee does down and Hall and Pac once again try to double team Austin but Ric Flair runs down to try and help. Austin stuns X-Pac, he stuns Scott Hall and pins him to win the match and then when Ric Flair tries to raise his hand in victory he stuns him too! Stone Cold is an unstoppable stunning machine and now he’s going to Backlash to face The Undertaker for the number one contendership. Raw ends with Stone Cold celebrating with beers over the fallen Ric Flair. 

Goodbye Kane (for now)

Terri, who now seems to have a job as a backstage interviewer, goes to speak to Kane and catches him looking at the divas magazine. He flirts with her a bit. She asks what has inspired his change in attitude lately. He says he’s always been a freak and a monster but being around The Rock and Hulk Hogan getting all those cheers made him realise freaks are bad ass and freaks are cool! He says that starting tonight in his Falls Count Anywhere match he’s going to show X-Pac how bad ass and cool he is. He leads the fans in an “X-Pac sucks” chant for good measure.

In the nWo locker room, X-Pac asks Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to stay in the back because he doesn’t need their help. He even leaves his nunchucks behind - why is he so confident?

That match is next and starts fast with spinning heel kicks to Kane’s face which he no-sells and throws his former tag team partner around with ease. He throws X-Pac out of the ring and uppercuts him over the security wall, taking the fight into the crowd. X-Pac leads Kane backstage with the referee in tow - falls count anywhere after all - but as soon as they get backstage, Scott Hall with a pipe and Kevin Nash with a 2x4 attack beating Kane down with weapons. X-Pac finishes with a chair shot and pins him on the concrete to officially win the match. With Kane beaten down 3 on 1, X-Pac pulls Kane’s mask off and with him laying face down on the floor, hammers him with another chairshot to the head.

Bradshaw runs in to try and help out but its too late - Kane is badly beaten and unmasked by the nWo. This is the last we’ll see of Kane for a while as this was to write him off TV so that he could have surgery to repair a bicep tear. As Kane is loaded onto a stretcher (with Bradshaw kindly covering his face with a towel to maintain his dignity), X-Pac is now wearing Kane’s mask and showing off. Ric Flair goes to see the nWo and yells at them for what they just did, saying there will be no more gang assaults. Kevin Nash argues with him and is suspended without pay! He dares Hall and Pac to do the same, but they stay quiet. Flair means business, and that gets rid of Kevin Nash for a little while. This was to write him off TV for a little while so he could go and film a TV show appearance. 

The Next Big Thing

Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman as his agent) heads down to the ring. Backstage, Paul begs a silent Lesnar to keep his temper under control and not attack anyone in the crowd. Brock doesn’t have his familiar theme music here, but the song he does come out to is pretty awesome anyway. Heyman is going to speak and introduce us to Brock properly, but as Heyman insulted the town backstage before the match, the fans chant “Yankees suck” at the New York native. For anyone who’s watched WWE in the past 10 years you’ll be very familiar with Paul Heyman promos talking about how incredible Brock Lesnar is and this is no different. He signs his own praises - Brock picked him as his agent because Heyman managed Stone Cold, The Undertaker and created ECW and therefore WWF Attitude. He can always spot “The Next Big Thing” and that makes Brock Lesnar “The Next Big Thing”. He asks for some footage to prove his point and we get a highlight reel of the absolute destruction Brock has demonstrated since showing up the night after Wrestlemania. Lesnar is an absolute freak athlete and Heyman is absolutely right to call him the Next Big Thing. We’ve seen nothing yet. The video ends with his attack on The Hardyz last week and so as Heyman continues to talk, Matt and Jeff come from behind and attack Lesnar two on one. It's ineffective and he jumps Jeff to the outside and then gorilla presses Matt out onto him. The Hardyz grab a steel chair each and rush him and it's the different maker as they blast him with a pair of brutal, stiff shots to the head. Lesnar doesn’t even leave his feet! Those chairshots clanged so loudly and Lesnar shrugged them off like nothing and smiled as Heyman backs him up the ramp to save the fight for another day. 

Other Happenings

• Raw’s opening match is Bubba Ray Dudley defending the Hardcore Championship against Booker T. Before the match, Book says that the real reason all these people are here is to see the most electrifying move in sports entertainment, the Spinarooni and he gives us one! He challenges Bubba to show us what he’s got. Bubba asks for some “funky music for this white boy” and with strobe lights and disco music playing, he dances until Booker attacks him to start the match. This is a classic hardcore match with lots of trash cans and stop signs. Booker T is about to drive Bubba through a table with a Book End but Goldust runs down to try and cash in on the 24/7 rule. Booker is hit with a trash can and knocked out of the ring, so Bubba Ray powerbombs Goldust through the table and pins him for good measure to win this “match” which I guess turned into a triple threat at the end? Bubba Ray’s funky music plays again as he leaves so he has a little dance at the top of the stage to celebrate. 

• Jonathan Coachman interviews Trish Stratus and after a replay of Molly Holly breaking a wooden paddle over her head last week, asks Trish what she has planned for Molly tonight in their match. Trish says last week she attacked from behind but this week it’ll be face to face and she’s going to show her how pissed off she is. She’s interrupted by European Champion William Regal. Regal talls her a tart and a scrubber and says all she’s good for is standing around in her knickers. Trish laughs at him for losing to Spike Dudley last week. There’s a rematch tonight but this time for the European title. The champion is pissed and calls the victory a mistake, just like how Spike himself was a mistake and says he’ll turn him into a vegetable tonight. Extreme.

• William Regal defends the European Championship against Spike Dudley who earned a big upset victory over him last week. Regal “accidentally” drops his brass knuckles as he gets in the ring which the referee pounces on but it was a distraction and he hides a second pair behind the turnbuckle. It backfires as when Spike gets to the ring, he immediately grabs them himself and knocks Regal out cold! The referee counts and in record time, Spike Dudley wins the European Championship! When Spike gets backstage he’s stopped by Johnathan Coachman for an interview but that's interrupted by Tommy Dreamer and then The Big Show to congratulate him! The mood changes when Spike’s big brother Bubba Ray enters but he shakes Spike’s hand and congratulates him too! 

• WWF Women’s Champion Jazz joins commentary to watch Trish Stratus vs. Molly Holly, but she refuses to speak and ignores all of King and JR’s questions. Jazz has a really brutal looking black eye which she got at a house show over the weekend. It looks really nasty. Terri interviews Molly before the match and she explains her change in attitude. She ditched the superhero stuff because she is one of the best women’s wrestlers in the world and she’s stuck in the back watching blondes parade around in bikinis. Terri calls her jealous, so Molly says she’s beautiful but also pure and wholesome unlike Terri or Trish. Trish attacks right away and is aggressive here and the action here is good but the fans make Molly’s point for her by ignoring all of that to chant “we want puppies” instead. I enjoyed this match. Trish goes out to confront Jazz and during a brief skirmish where the referee went down, Jazz hits her with the women’s title belt. Molly Holly takes advantage and back in the ring uses a unique looking roll up to show off her wrestling skills and to pin Trish Stratus. 

• Mr. Perfect goes one on one with The Big Show. Big of trivia but back in WCW, Mr. Perfect (Curt Hennig) actually managed to give the Perfect-plex to the huge Paul Wight. That was back when he was a few years younger and probably close to 100lbs lighter however during this match, Perfect actually managed to do it again! That was amazing, but Show kicks out easily and spikes Perfect with a chokeslam immediately after to win the match. 

Smackdown - April 11th, 2002

Friendships and Falling Outs

Smackdown opens with Kurt Angle coming down to the ring. He has requested and been granted a non-title match with Triple H tonight so perhaps now he’ll explain why. He starts by being outraged that Hollywood Hulk Hogan has been given a title match. The people don’t want to see that! They want to see an Olympic hero challenge for the Undisputed title. His anger is made worse by the fact that Raw gets to decide who the next challenger is after Backlash so Kurt will need to wait even LONGER to get a championship match. He’s going to prove how good he is tonight by beating Triple H and after he defeats the Undisputed Champion no one will be able to deny him his title match. He tries to get the crowd to chant “Its True” between his lines instead of “what” but it doesn’t work. His ranting at the crowd is interrupted by Edge who mocks Angle for still going on about the Olympics - they were six years ago, get over it! Kurt challenges him to a match at Backlash, which Edge accepts. He then tells Kurt that the crowd shouldn’t be chanting WHAT seeing as Stone Cold is on Raw, they should chant something that is more Angle - they should chant “you suck”. Kurt wants his music played but then changes his mind as he realises Edge will just lead them to chant You Suck to the tune of his music too. 

After a commercial break, Chris Jericho goes to see Kurt Angle in his locker room and says that not only does he have issues with Edge, Edge interfered in his business last week too and so in his match with Edge later he’ll even the odds for both of them. Kurt says he hates loud mouthed Canadians with long blonde hair and who dress like rockstars…apart from Jericho obviously, he’s cool. Jericho says that people like Edge, Triple H and Hogan are NOT cool and so he thinks he and Kurt should form an alliance. They shake on it.

Sharmell interviews Hollywood Hulk Hogan and asks if he’s ready for his Undisputed title match at Backlash. Hogan says that he’s spent the week talking to the Hulkamaniacs and there’s nothing more in the world he wants than one last chance to prove Hulkamania conquers all and be WWF Champion again. Hogan praises Triple H but as he starts to get into a flow he's interrupted by Chris Jericho. He tells Hogan that win, lose or draw he’ll still be an Icon but if Triple H loses then he loses everything and his eight months of rehab and victory at Wrestlemania were for nothing. He is kind of right but it feels like a dangerous thing to point out on TV and potentially make The Game look weak. He says Triple H will be desperate and do anything it takes to win and he needs to be careful because Backlash won’t be ending with a handshake this time. 

Chris Jericho vs. Edge is a good match and is given plenty of time to develop in the ring. Jericho is furious about his recent losses and works very aggressively, dominating Edge for much of the match. The pace picks up as Edge gets back into the fight and when Kurt Angle runs down to interfere Edge cuts him off with a Spear and doesn’t miss a beat with a close near fall on Jericho right after. Edge slingshots Jericho into the referee knocking him down which means he doesn’t see Jericho tap out to Edge’s Educator (backwards sharpshooter) and allows Jericho to bring a steel chair in the ring. It doesn’t work but Angle and Jericho’s new alliance works out as Kurt hangs Edge up on the ropes allowing Jericho to steal the pin with a rollup. Edge chases Angle up the ramp and backstage. After replays of the finish, Kurt and Edge are brawling backstage. Jericho arrives to give Angle the advantage and he gives Edge an Angle Slam on the concrete. He puts Edge in the ankle lock but Hulk Hogan arrives to chase off both Jericho and Angle for their comments about him earlier no doubt. 

As Triple H prepares for his non-title match with Kurt Angle, Hulk Hogan drops in to see him. He says that since Angle and Jericho have formed a little alliance to watch each other’s backs, he is happy to watch The Game’s and help out if Jericho interferes in the main event. Triple H shrugs it off and says that their match won’t be a class of egos like his match with The Rock, it’s going to be a fight and Triple H will do anything it takes to beat him. They are not friends and the next time Hogan barges into his locker room he’ll take it as an act of aggression and respond accordingly. He tells Hogan “thanks but no thanks”. He does talk about what the WWF title means and that it makes him “the king of kings” which is a nickname he wouldn’t adopt full time until a couple of years later.

Kurt Angle enters first for the main event. I am a big fan of the new WWF Championship belt, which I know I’ve mentioned but it is worth repeating. This is a straight wrestling match between two very talented guys. Triple H goes for a sunset flip and pulls Kurt’s wrestling gear down below his butt cheeks, exposing Angle’s entire ass in a small thong! It gets a big reaction from the crowd and unlike most times someone does this spot in wrestling he doesn’t cover up with The Game beating him up around the ring with his ass hanging out. He even slaps Kurt across the cheeks which gets a big pop. Kurt takes control back in the ring and finally pulls his trunks back up to protect his modesty.

Angle slows the match down and throws the Undisputed champion around with suplexes and chops and wears him out with a long sleeper hold. Triple H fights back and when Jericho runs down to the ring to interfere, he takes an Angle slam. That brings out Hulk Hogan who ignores Triple H’s request and fights off Jericho, distracting Angle. Triple H follows up with a Pedigree to win the match and then gets on the mic demanding Hogan come back to the ring. He TOLD him not to get involved. Hogan says that until Backlash, Triple H is his business. He turns to leave and Kurt Angle hits Triple H from behind sending him crashing into Hogan. Hogan assumes Triple H attacked him and so beats him up and flattens him with a big boot and Leg Drop. Hogan poses with the title but is jumped by Chris Jericho and he and Angle swarm the ring, hitting both Hogan and Triple H with the Undisputed title belt to leave them both laid out on their backs with Jericho and Angle celebrating in the ring.

Vince McMahon; Meme Maker

Stacy Keibler, dressed in a very short pantsuit, looks around for Mr. McMahon and lays on the couch in his office reading WWF Magazine waiting for him. Later Vince does finally arrive and asks if he’s thought about making her his personal assistant but he says he has some other candidates and is going to do some interviews tonight in the ring.

Mr. McMahon heads down to the ring to conduct live interviews for the role as his personal assistant. This immediately feels like a waste of time, but the ring is carpeted and there’s a desk and two chairs in the ring. He brings out the first candidate - a mousey looking librarian type who’s all covered up. Vince puts his feet up on the desk and calls her toots. She speaks with a nasally voice and is clearly an actress, but gets a lot of boos from the crowd who have fallen into 2000s teen comedy territory of thinking she’s ugly because she’s wearing glasses. The next candidate is a man. The implication is that Vince is looking for an assistant he can sleep with, so a man coming out is basically just a big gay joke. The fans chant “asshole” at him, which seems very unfair. He plays it super camp and Vince gets a big cheer for immediately kicking him out of the ring. Jesus Christ. It’s not the first time I’ve commented on this but this kind of segment with Vince playing a leering pervert has aged like milk. I don’t feel like I need to recap the whole thing blow by blow but the finish is Stacy Keibler coming out to show off her qualifications. She gets up on the desk and dances for Vince as he pulls ridiculous faces and finally collapses out of his chair. You’ll know of this segment because Vince’s reactions here have become a pretty popular meme format. At least Vince booked himself to look like a bit of an idiot at the end, even if it is an idiot who is now implied to be sleeping with a beautiful 20 year old girl. She unsurprisingly gets the job as his assistant. 

Other Happenings

• Tajiri drags his girlfriend Torrie Wilson out onto the stage dressed like a geisha. It seems that he’s still very angry at her for “costing him” the Cruiserweight title last week and is leaning into the abusive boyfriend gimmick, which is sad. Cole and Tazz call this a disrespectful display meant to make Torrie feel beneath him.

• His opponent is The Hurricane, who has cut his hair short and spiked it up, now dyed green. I like it! During this match, Michael Cole mentions that Tajiri’s rematch for the Cruiserweight title with Billy Kidman will take place at Backlash. Torrie continues to cheer on Tajiri despite their issues. This is really good and despite a strong showing by Hurricane, Tajiri wins with a stiff kick to the head. After the match Tajiri once again calls Torrie into the ring and rants at her angrily in Japanese while circling her like a predator. Torrie is still a terrible actress and looks upset like she knows what he’s saying. Billy Kidman comes to the ring and takes out Tajiri with a missile dropkick, shutting up the Japanese Buzzsaw for the night.

• Albert with a new look - wrestling in short trunks so we can see how big and yes, how hairy he is takes on his former partner that he turned on last week, Scotty 2 Hotty. Albert squares Scotty, finishing him off quickly with the Baldo bomb but keeps the attack going and throws him across the ring with a powerslam and then squashes him with a splash off the middle rope. Scotty’s old tag team partner Rikishi runs down to the ring and chases Albert off with some punches and a superkick. 

• Backstage the WWF Tag Team Champions Billy and Chuck stumble upon Maven. Rico makes fun of Maven’s appearance and outfit until Al Snow arrives to back him up. He insults Rico’s massive sideburns and after some more playground level insults, Chuck challenges Snow to a match later tonight.

• After sending D-Von Dudley away to “find himself” last week, D-Von returns in a sharp suit with an evangelical preacher gimmick. He found the man upstairs and he is here to concern himself with the sinner on Smackdown! He only needs one thing and that's a benefactor! He’s a great promo and convinces Vince to be his benefactor to assist him with testifying! Vince is a very rich and righteous man and shakes D-Von’s hand with a big smile.

• In the parking lot, various Smackdown superstars are assembled by Faarooq who is taking bets on whether Mark Henry, the World’s Strongest Man, is able to hold back an accelerating car for 30 seconds. There’s a rabble as everyone places their bets on him doing it or not. Test doesn’t think he can and is happy to be the one to drive the car. In an amazing feat of strength - but probably not a real one - Mark puts his back against a wall and holds back the car while Test guns the accelerator. He IS the World’s Strongest Man. The entire segment kind of shatters kayfabe as hated rivals Christian and DDP are both present but everyone is far more focused on Mark showing off the power of his legs. Test takes things too far and refuses to stop even after the 30 seconds until Faarooq forces him to stop. Mark wins the bet and Test’s money though! 

• Chuck (with Billy and Rico) vs. Al Snow (with Maven) later in the show is a decent match that the fans are into more than I expected. Snow is still popular and my boy, more importantly. Rico keeps interfering and so Maven chases him, running off through the crowd. That still leaves Billy at ringside and he wipes out Al with a clothesline but he kicks out of Chuck’s cover. Snow fights through the two on one odds and pins Chuck with Maven returning just in time to stop Billy from breaking up the cover. Al Snow wins and he and Maven get one over on the WWF Tag Team Champions.

Raw - April 15th, 2002

Austin provokes the Nature Boy

Raw opens with the owner of Raw, Nature Boy Ric Flair. He says that tonight he has a great show for us but he needs to talk about Stone Cold Steve Austin. He says he has no desire to go to war with Austin like Vince McMahon did. He says they have a lot in common and that he respects and even likes Stone Cold but he has stunned him twice and he did promise that if he laid his hands on him again there would be hell to pay. The crowd in Texas LOUDLY WHAT everything Ric says, and just as he’s about to tell Austin what the consequences are, the glass shatters and Stone Cold comes to the ring. He doesn’t get to finish his four corners salute as Flair steps in his way to block him and tries to continue what he was saying. Ric fines Austin $5000 for stunning him, which JR and King react to as a lot of money. That is a lot of beer. Austin gets in Flair’s face and, while listing things so the fans can bellow WHAT between each, tells Flair that the match last week was him vs. Scott Hall and so anyone else who comes out gets a Stunner and that's just the way it is. He tells Ric he didn’t ask for his help and he doesn’t need a protective angel or a helper dog. He didn’t need his help last week and he won’t need his help at Backlash against The Undertaker either. He’ll whip his ass and become number one contender and that’s the bottom line WHAT because Stone Cold said so!

That brings out his PPV opponent The Undertaker to respond. He says that he and Austin have had a lot of battles where they’ve both won and lost, and bust each other open but this match isn’t personal - this is about the title. He tells Austin that he needs Flair’s help. Austin says he’ll kick Flair’s ass. Undertaker says HE’ll kick Flair’s ass. The Nature Boy adds himself as the special referee to their match at Backlash. The nWo - Scott Hall and X-Pac - come out and Hall wants a rematch with Austin tonight, and calls out “that other Texas redneck” Bradshaw for also getting involved. Flair refuses to make the match and as Hall and Pac get close to the ring, Bradshaw runs down and it turns into a wild brawl with Austin and Undertaker fighting in the corner. Flair accidentally takes a punch to the face during the fight and with Austin and Bradshaw holding the ring, Flair is furious at having been hit again! Stone Cold finds it amusing and has beers with Bradshaw. After a commercial break, Ric Flair screams at Arn Anderson about the lack of respect! He has snapped and makes tonight’s main event Stone Cold and Bradshaw vs. the nWo and The Undertaker in a three on two handicap match! 

Later, backstage as Stone Cold’s wife Debra gets a coffee, The Undertaker sneaks up on her and she gets a fright and spills coffee on him, running away. The segment just ends which means it's either an odd segment, or they cut something out.

Backstage, Terri interviews Bradshaw about not only tonight’s main event but his match with Scott Hall at Backlash which Ric Flair has made official. Terri shows footage of the nWo’s violent three on one assault on Kane last week where X-Pac finished by stealing Kane’s mask. Bradshaw says they put Kane down but not out. That’s misleading, as Kane is out and will be for a few months. Bradshaw says that he’s going to kick Hall’s ass tonight and makes a bunch of jokes about Scott Hall having no nuts. It’s not great, and features lots of him talking about Bradshaw sports heroes which all means nothing to me. He does give a shout out to George W. Bush which is something he’s done plenty of times in the past few months. I still hate Bradshaw. 

Elsewhere backstage, Hall and X-Pac are watching Bradshaw’s promo. X-Pac has taken to wearing Kane’s mask as his trophy and Hall says that since Undertaker will take out Austin tonight they can focus on Bradshaw and soften him up for Backlash.

In the main event, The Undertaker, Scott Hall and X-Pac face Bradshaw (announced as “from the great state of Texas” to try and get him a bigger pop) and Stone Cold Steve Austin. This is chaotic but the crowd is really into it. They’re red hot for Austin and get all OVER X-Pac with loud “X-Pac sucks” chants. The match breaks down and Bradshaw is booked really strong, motoring through Hall, Taker and X-Pac, eventually pinning the latter with a Clothesline from Hell. The fighting continues after the match and on the outside, Undertaker floors Austin with a brutal chairshot, busting him open. In the ring, Hall and Pac hammer Bradshaw two on one as Raw goes off the air.

Final Warning to the Hulkster

In the ring, JR recaps the events of Smackdown between Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Triple H - the main event at Backlash - before welcoming the Undisputed WWF Champion Triple H to the ring. This is an odd creation of the brand split where they want to promote the PPV’s main event but it’s a Smackdown match. As The Game makes his entrance, King explains that the main event of this week’s Smackdown will be Triple H and Hogan teaming together against Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle. JR asks the questions you’d expect him to - how do you feel about Hogan, Hulkamania, facing the “immoral icon, legendary Hulk Hogan” and so on. Triple H says Hogan did him a favour because now he knows exactly what he’s gonna do when Hulkamania runs wild on him - he’s going to kick his ass. JR asks if he retains the title at Backlash, does he have a preference of facing Austin or Undertaker next. He says it could go either way but it doesn’t matter which one of them it is - he’ll still be champion, and he’ll be ready for them. He finishes with his catchphrases. He’ll win because he’s The Game and he is That Damn Good. This was nothing really and the fans didn’t seem that into it. I think they wanted Hogan to show up.

Odd Couples and Creepy Overtures 

Backstage, Goldust goes to see Booker T. The crowd laughs at Booker’s antics, getting a fright at the freaky Goldust. He has requested a tag team match tonight with Booker as his partner. Booker doesn’t like or trust him, but Goldust thinks Booker is the brightest star in the WWF and together they can make the best odd couple blockbuster since Lethal Weapon! Booker gets a big laugh at the end, copying Danny Glover’s “Man I'm getting too old for this shit” line.

Coach interviews Lita in her locker room. He mentions her neck injury, which I also mentioned a couple of weeks ago. She has three cracked vertebrae so I’m shocked to see her back on TV, but I believe it took a few weeks for them to realise how severe it was and that surgery is required. Paul Heyman interrupts and after picking up a pair of her underwear, he creepily implies that she needs to sleep with him or else Brock Lesnar will destroy both Matt and Jeff Hardy. She slaps him and he laughs and says he likes it rough. That is sinister as hell. In the next match, Matt, Jeff and Lita make their way to the ring for their match with Booker T and Goldust, who we heard from earlier. During their entrances, JR mentions that Matt Hardy is scheduled to go one on one with Brock Lesnar at Backlash. The Hardyz are obviously the more experienced team. Paul Heyman comes out with a pair of Lita’s underwear which distracts Matt and he charges off after him, leaving Jeff to be double teamed and defeated by Booker T and Goldust! Paul comes back out onto the stage with Lita’s suitcase and starts going through her clothes, which brings Matt rushing up to get him again. This time Brock Lesnar is waiting for him and he shrugs off a low blow to flatten Matt with an F5 spinning slam on the steel. Jeff runs up with a chair which sends Brock and Heyman scurrying and he and Lita are left to check on the well being of Matt Hardy who seems to be badly injured by Brock Lesnar.

Midcard champions in action

Terri interviews Eddie Guerrero. RVD has accepted his challenge for the Intercontinental title at Backlash. Eddie leers at Terri for a bit before he speaks, saying that lately he’s been getting his life back on track (which is a reference to him having gotten clean after going to rehab - good for you Eddie, I’ll talk about that a bit at Backlash) and says that Rob Van Dam stole his Intercontinental title and stole his Frog Splash and he’ll take back BOTH at Backlash and he’ll start tonight in his match where he and William Regal take on RVD and Spike Dudley.

Backstage, William Regal calls losing the European title to Spike Dudley last week the most humiliating moment of his life. When Coach points out that he was the first man to join the Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club. Regal flies into a rage and between flowery overly verbose insults promises to beat Spike within an inch of his life and take his title back at the earliest opportunity. 

Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam and European Champion Spike Dudley take on Eddie Guerrero - making his official in-ring return to the WWF since disappearing almost a full year ago - and William Regal. It’s strange but nice to see Spike with a title belt around his waist. Regal and Eddie isolate the smaller Spike as you’d expect but when RVD is tagged in he shows off all of his usual spectacular offence with even King on commentary praising him for how cool it all is. As Regal and Van Dam fight on the outside, Eddie drills Spike with a gorgeous brainbuster and an even prettier Frog Splash to win the match for his team. RVD attacks as he celebrates and boosts him up to catch him with a falling dropkick. He’s about to drill his challenger at Backlash with a Frog Splash of his own but his partner pulls him out of the ring and they escape, victorious. 

Other Happenings

• Bubba Ray Dudley defends the Hardcore Championship against Raven, who has a new theme song. It’s a lot more heavy metal than his old one. I didn’t know this but JR mentioned during his entrance he’s been acting as commentator on Sunday Night Heat since the brand split. This is a wild brawl but when Bubba goes out to get a table, Raven dropkicks it into his face. He follows up with a DDT and Raven wins the Hardcore title. He celebrates for a beat before Tommy Dreamer runs down and flattens him with a Death Valley Driver to win the Hardcore title. He turns into a superkick from Steven Richards and he wins the Hardcore title but the chaos ends when a recovered Bubba Ray smashes a guitar over his head to pin him and regain his Hardcore title. Phew, how many times did I just type Hardcore title? 

• Jonathan Coachman interviews the returning Shawn Stasiak. He speaks in rhyme and about how he’s from Planet Stasiak. His gimmick is that he’s mental basically and that's confirmed as in his return match to Raw he has challenged The Big Show. His theme song is pretty good, if a little generic. Shawn puts up a bit of a fight and tries to work on the big man’s legs but he is easily beaten up and finished off with an enormous chokeslam. Easy victory for Big Show. 

• Molly Holly takes on Trish Stratus with the winner facing Jazz at Backlash for the Women’s Championship. Before the match, Coach (who is having a busy night) interviews Trish but that's interrupted by Molly who asks Coach, as a man, which of their pictures in the Divas magazine he prefers. Molly says she will be the first women’s champion to be “pure and wholesome”. Back in the arena, King giggles like a maniac as he explains to JR that she means she’s a virgin. King spends the entire match talking about that and Trish’s “puppies” as JR does his best to talk about wrestling and how much they want to be women’s champion. The fans are more on King’s wave length and chant for puppies. This is heated and feels quite long for a WWF women’s match in 2002. Molly rolls up Trish but she reverses it and actually grabs Molly’s tights for leverage to win the match and get herself a title match.

• Crash Holly takes on Jacqueline in an intergender match. They wrestled last night on Sunday Night Heat too and Crash won by putting his feet on the ropes for added leverage. Jackie is tough as nails and in an interview with Terri before the match she says she’ll kick his ass in her home state. She wins a very short match with a rollup of her own. You’re still my boy Crash, don’t worry. 

Smackdown - April 18th, 2002

Hogan Plays The Game

Backstage, Mr. McMahon’s personal assistant Stacy Keibler goes to see Hulk Hogan and tells him that Vince demands to see him. Stacy does some cringe “bending over” humour and in the next segment when he does go to see Vince, Stacy awkwardly flirts with the two men more than double her age, which I assume Vince wrote. She leaves and Hogan stands there silently as Vince cuts a promo about Hogan and the fact that he could win the WWF title at Backlash. Hulkamania has risen from the ashes and might just carry him to the title he first won in 1984 but what happens when reality sets in? Is he really ready at his age, after everything that’s happened between them, to be Vince’s champion once again? I’m not really sure what point they were going for here.

Hollywood Hulk Hogan makes his way down to the ring. I’m sure the crowd was going absolutely nuts for him but it’s impossible to tell on these shows with his theme song so heavily dubbed. He talks about his return, how happy the fans are to see him, how much that’s warmed his heart and says it’s not impossible that he’ll win the WWF title one more time at Backlash. He finishes with his classic “whatcha gonna do?” and t-shirt tear, but he’s interrupted before he can finish by one of his opponents tonight - Chris Jericho. He rants about how Hogan isn’t that big of a deal and that he’s a bigger star. He was the first Undisputed Champion ever - a living legend who was robbed of his title by Triple H, who he despises. But he’ll enjoy seeing Triple H destroy Hogan at Backlash because Hogan is a hasbeen who lost his only one on one match since returning. Hogan challenges Jericho to say it to his face, which he does but its a setup and Kurt Angle quickly joins him for the two on one advantage. That doesn’t last long as Edge - Angle’s Backlash opponent - rushes to the ring to help the Hulkster and they fight off Jericho and Angle. 

After a commercial break, Vince McMahon berates Edge for getting involved in his business and for helping out Hogan - it seems like he wanted to see Jericho and Angle hurt him. He tells Edge to get the hell out of the arena but he makes sure to get in McMahon’s face and intimidate him before he does. Stacy asks Vince what she can do to help him unwind (sex, I assume) but he tells her to go and get Triple H and bring him to his office.

Backstage, Stacy goes to get Triple H as requested. The Game takes his t-shirt off and she gets all flustered and turned on by his muscles. I absolutely hate the way Stacy has been portrayed since the brand split. She’s only 20 years old and deserves better than these constant sex jokes and innuendo. Later, Triple H does as he’s asked and goes to see Vince. Much like with Hogan earlier, Vince gives him a weird pep talk. I’m not sure what Vince is going for here as he is encouraging them both, but then also wanted Jericho and Angle to hurt Hogan earlier, and is making them team up tonight. He reminds Triple H that if he does lose to Hogan, he’ll become exclusive property of Smackdown.

Backstage, Jericho and Angle pump each other up for the main event and when Jericho says the word “suck” innocently, Angle gets upset - he does NOT suck.

In the main event, the Backlash main event of Triple H and Hollywood Hulk Hogan take on Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle. Kurt has his own match with Edge at Backlash but Jericho is very upset that he isn’t scheduled for the PPV at all.

Triple H ignores Hulk as he makes his entrance but once he’s done posing he makes Hogan go to the corner so he can start the match. Much like last week, Triple H whips down Kurt’s trunks so we can all see his thong as he fails to pull them back up. Jericho loses a test of strength to Hogan. This is basically a big house show main event with posing and comedy spots but the crowd absolutely loves it. The match breaks down and Jericho throws the referee out of the ring so he can use a steel chair. Triple H fights him off, and Angle but the two on one odds are too much for the Undisputed Champion. Hogan saves Triple H and gets the chair himself but when he swings for Angle he misses and blasts Triple H instead. Edge returns, coming through the crowd to stop Angle from using the chair and takes him down with a Spear. Edge and Angle fight off through the crowd leaving Hogan and Jericho one on one. Hulk drops the big leg on Jericho but turns right into a big swinging chairshot from The Game. Triple H has had enough of Hogan and has taken him out before Backlash. The show ends with Hogan and Triple H presumably having won by disqualification, and Triple H standing over the fallen Hogan.

And That’s a Bad Thing (Goodbye DDP)

Backstage, Sharmell interviews no one’s favourite superstar, Hardcore Holly. This isn’t noteworthy but this interview is the birth of his “how do you like me now?” catchphrase. He has said it before but this is the start of it being “a thing”. His opponent tonight is Diamond Dallas Page. DDP arrives with a smile and tells Holly he’s a bully and he needs to be nicer to Shamell. He says Holly’s bad attitude is starting to piss him off, and gives him a big smile. That match is next and DDP gets a big cheer. Sadly, this is Page’s final WWF match, his final match as a full time performer and one of the final matches of his entire storied career. I’ll get to that in a moment. After a bit of a back and forth, DDP brings Holly down off the top rope with a superplex. It looked mostly fine but Page did land quite high and tight on his own neck. Holly finishes Page off quite quickly after that with a dropkick. The fighting continues and after Holly tries to attack Page again, he drops him with a Diamond Cutter and ends up standing tall. DDP landing high on that superplex badly injured his neck and by the next morning he was having serious issues with pain and mobility. It required major surgery and he announced his retirement officially in June 2002. Page has wrestled a handful of matches in TNA and on the indies since but that awkward superplex landing was the end of his career.

The World’s Strongest Man

The World’s Strongest Man Mark Henry comes out onto the stage to give us another of his weekly feats of strength. Last week he held back a speeding car with the power of his legs and this week he’s going to lift a car off its wheels. He tells the boys in the back that they can place bets all they want - he’s doing this to prove he’s the world’s strongest man. Before the challenge begins, Test comes out to call the whole thing a scam. He makes Faarooq prove that it's a real car with an engine inside and even tries to lift it himself but can’t. They place their bets along with Godfather and Val Venis and then, after strapping on his weight lifting belt, Mark manages to get the car up off two wheels!

Test is a sore loser and attacks Faarooq, slamming the car door into him and then slamming him on the hood of the car. Hilarious Faarooq totally no-sells it and he and Test have to be held apart by the other Superstars. 

As a result of their interactions earlier in the show, Test goes one on one with Faarooq. Cole and Tazz make sure to mention that Test still has his immunity that he earned at Survivor Series so he’s still bullying referees. I haven’t mentioned it much but it has become enormously obvious in the past few weeks - Smackdown being pre-taped means that they often sweeten the crowd noises and add fake cheers. There’s a very distinctive, high pitched “whooo” that begins it and they seem to only have that one audio clip of a cheer as its used over and over and over again. Here’s a little montage of it;

Test tries to cheat and use the ropes but he’s caught and told off by the referee. Faarooq turns it against him and uses a roll up and the ropes of his own to win the match.

Other Happenings

• Out in the arena, Mr. McMahon’s “spiritual advisor” D-Von Dudley heads down to the ring. He’s dressed as a priest and has church organ music as his theme song. Reverend D-Von speaks to the congregation to stand before us as a humble servant of the man above. He’s doing a sort of angry preacher gimmick, and refers to Mr. McMahon as a profit who showed him the way. He finishes his sermon and then goes around the front row with a collection plate, asking for donations from the fans.

• Backstage, Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman is watching Shawn Stasiak’s promo from Raw and remarking on how dumb a gimmick it is when The Hurricane drops in to see him. Kidman complains that he’s the champion, he has a big match with Tajiri at Backlash and still no one cares about him. Hurricane leads him through some cheap pops from the Texas crowd. Kidman says that when he’s done with Tajiri, all the people will have something to talk about. Hurricane finishes with a final cheap pop for the local sports team.

• Tajiri (with Torrie Wilson, who he is still making dress like a geisha and she looks really unhappy about it) teams with Chavo Guerrero (making his Smackdown debut, but he has been on TV a bit lately as a trainer on Tough Enough 2) against The Hurricane and Cruiserweight Champion Billy Kidman. I really appreciate the effort they’re putting into the cruiserweight division since the brand split so far, featuring them every week and giving them storylines. I spoke endlessly about the missed opportunities of the Light Heavyweight division so I approve of this. I’m not sure Billy Kidman adopting a self pitying “no one knows who I am” gimmick is a smart move though. Hurricane is a stand out in this match, getting the best reaction from the crowd and hitting a chokeslam and a really nice looking jumping neckbreaker. Tajiri and Chavo show better team work and Tajiri wins the match for his team with a stiff kick to Hurricane’s head and one to the back of Kidman’s head after the match for good measure. For the third week in a row, he gets a microphone and berates Torrie in angry Japanese. Michael Cole continues to tell us what a horribly misogynistic pig Tajiri has become. 

• The opening match is a six man tag team match with Albert teaming with the WWF Tag Team Champions Billy and Chuck (with Rico) against Al Snow, Maven and Rikishi. During this we learn that Billy and Chuck will defend the tag team titles at Backlash against Snow and Maven thanks to Al’s victory over Chuck last week. Maven and Snow show off their team work and isolate Chuck for a bit. Not sure how I feel about Albert’s new look. I don’t think he was ever going to main event wearing pants and a shirt but I also don’t think he looks like a main eventer as a big hairy baby. Rikishi gets the hot tag and is really impressive, destroying the tag team champions and Albert single handedly. He brings Rico into the ring the hard way but Albert stops the Stinkface with a big pump kick. Albert is also impressive, lifting and slamming the massive Rikishi with ease. This match ended up being WAY better than I expected and Maven picks up the win for his team with a top rope crossbody on Chuck in the chaos.