Raw - August 26th 2002

Undisputed No More

Brock Lesnar enters with Paul Heyman as the new WWE Undisputed Champion. At 25 years old he is the youngest champion in WWE history, surpassing the previous record holder - Yokozuna was only 26 when he won his first world title. Heyman gives a rousing “I told you all so” speech about the greatness of his client and then hands off the mic to Brock himself who talks about how he’s the youngest ever champion. No one has achieved greatness faster than him. He’s not wrong.

He says that NO ONE can beat him and is interrupted by Shawn Michaels’ theme music. It’s not HBK though - he was smashed in the back twice by Triple H last night at Summerslam. It’s Triple H himself who struts out mimicking Shawn and he gets a lot of boos. His change in image is more or less complete as clean shaven and wearing a suit with no jacket, this is the beginning of the reign of terror. I’ll talk a lot more about that at Unforgiven but let's get there first. Triple H promises that the fans will never hear Shawn Michaels music again and will never see him in the ring again. JR somberly says that is likely true, thereby guaranteeing it’s not true by the rules of wrestling. With a big smile on his face, Triple H says that Shawn might never walk again and then turns his attention to Brock Lesnar.

He takes the credit for Lesnar even being champion because he softened up The Rock for him last week and reminds us that he promised last week that when Lesnar showed up with his title, he would be waiting. Triple H says that the Next Big Thing owes him a title match. Their face to face confrontation is interrupted by the American Badass, The Undertaker. He has some history with Lesnar going back to just after the King of the Ring and they got physical a couple of times in the last two Previews (which of course, you all remember). Undertaker wants first crack at Lesnar and his title because he’s the number one contender. Triple H jumps Undertaker from behind and The Game and Lesnar actually work together and beat down Undertaker two on one. They’re distracted, getting in each other’s faces so Undertaker fights back and pummels them both! He clears them both out of the ring and Triple H gets big boos when he backs down rather than keep fighting. After the commercial break, Eric Bischoff announces tonight’s main event - Undertaker vs. Triple H with the winner being the number one contender for Brock Lesnar’s WWE Undisputed title.

Terri interviews Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman and asks who Brock would rather face out of Triple H or Undertaker - he doesn’t care, and it doesn’t matter. Whichever one of them it is, he’ll beat them. 

In the main event, Triple H takes on The Undertaker with the winner being the number one contender for Brock Lesnar’s WWE Undisputed Championship. A big main event on a pretty great episode of Raw. Triple H attacks Undertaker on the outside to start the match early and with him in control. He maintains control in the ring and keeps things slow and on the mat until Undertaker fights back with strikes. The referee goes down and Undertaker hits a big chokeslam but with no official, Brock Lesnar runs down and hits Undertaker with the Undisputed title belt. Triple H crawls into a cover and steals the victory becoming the number one contender.

Out in the parking lot after the match, Smackdown General Manager Stephanie McMahon is here. Eric is smug until she breaks the news that Brock Lesnar is exclusive to Smackdown so Triple H is now number one contender to nothing - there’s no Undisputed World Champion on Raw anymore. They all get into the limo together and leave Bischoff looking distraught. His brand doesn’t have a World title. For now.

Bischoff’s big announcements - a farewell to Hardcore

Raw opens with General Manager Eric Bischoff making a couple of big announcements. The Hardcore Champion Tommy Dreamer will face the Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam in a championship unification match. The Hardcore title, much like the European title last month, is being absorbed into the Intercontinental title. He also says that a Hall of Fame level performer will be honoured tonight in the ring here in New York City. He then gives way to the new WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar.

Eric Bischoff introduces tonight’s special guest. A legend and Hall of Famer, Superfly Jimmy Snuka. Much like Moolah, this is another old school wrestling personality whose reputation has been ruined in recent years. I don’t want to get into it too much but there’s a Dark Side of the Ring episode about the fact that Jimmy almost certainly got away with murder in the 80s.

After a touching video tribute and being presented with the WWE Lifetime Achievement Award, Bischoff mentions that the tribute has lasted about three minutes which is the cue for Rosey and Jamal to rush the ring and beat Snuka up, finishing with a splash off the top rope. 

In a hardcore rules match, new Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam faces Hardcore Champion Tommy Dreamer. They’ve been slightly vague on the details so JR can’t explain it to us yet but this match, just like the ladder match with Jeff Hardy last month, is the end of the Hardcore title with it being absorbed into the Intercontinental title. I’ve written an article about the decision and the Hardcore title itself here.

I do wonder if it was a last minute decision as since winning the title, Tommy has taken the time to get himself a custom championship belt. Being in New York there’s ECW chants and both men get a good reaction from the crowd. This is a fun match and they use a ladder, a chair and stay away from classic WWE Hardcore weapons like the trash cans and lids and what-have-you. I spoke too soon - this isn’t just a fun match, this is an awesome match and after some innovative stuff with the ladder in the corner, Van Dam finishes with a Five Star Frog Splash to retain his Intercontinental title and end the Hardcore Championship. What a performance from Tommy Dreamer though.

Big Red, White and Blue Machine

In the opening match, Booker T (with Goldust) faces one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, the Un-American’s Christian (with Lance Storm). This match stands as promotion for the new t-shirt Jerry Lawler is wearing - the WWE logo in American flag colours. How manipulative. Despite Storm’s best efforts to cheat, Goldust is there to stop it and Booker T picks up the win with a Scissors Kick. After this match there’s a video package about the WWE’s “pro-America” Smackdown your Vote campaign to encourage everyone to vote. They’ve done that for a couple of years at this point however in 2002, so shortly after 9/11 and with the war in Afghanistan starting, the WWE’s pro-George W. Bush's stance had become painfully obvious. As a teenager when I watched this period of wrestling I was pretty oblivious to it but as an adult, it’s kind of ridiculous how ham fisted and blatant it all is. The whole Un-American storyline was born out of hurt American feelings that the rest of the world wasn’t rallying behind them as strongly as they expected. Not much has changed in 2025 - the average American still thinks the idea that every country on Earth doesn’t worship them is baffling. Backstage after the video, Christian and Storm are angry at having lost the match but Test tells them to relax because he has big plans for later tonight which will get everyone talking.

The Un-Americans head down to the ring to unveil their plan - they’re going to burn the American flag right in the middle of the ring! JR and King are beyond disgusted and the angrier they are, the funnier it gets. Kane’s pyro explodes and we see the same video heralding his return that we’ve seen multiple times now! Kane is here to stop the Un-Americans. Or is he? The video ends without Kane’s arrival so Test, Christian and Storm shake it off and go back to trying to burn the flag. Booker T and Goldust run down and make the save, but it’s three on two so they’re quickly beaten up and kicked out of the ring. Test goes back and for the third time is about to burn the flag but Kane’s pyro explodes. He IS here! The big Red Machine is back and the fans go NUTS. Kane is fired up and moves quicker than I’ve ever seen. He bounces Test and Storm around and shrugs off a chair shot by Christian to plant him with a chokeslam. Kane dunks Test with a massive chokeslam too and Kane - looking slimmer and with a new mask exposing his mouth so that he’s able to speak - has saved the American flag from the Un-Americans.

Booker T gives the crowd a Spinarooni but Kane stops Booker from leaving so he can do the same thing - Kane gives us a Kane-arooni! Kane’s Spinarooni isn’t bad and he blows his pyro to end the segment. Kane is back and is a big pro-America babyface. This was good stuff, even if I did kind of want to see Test burn the flag. I mentioned it previously but Kane has his new theme song too which is a banger. 

Other Happenings

• Bubba Ray Dudley and Spike Dudley take on the team of William Regal, Christopher Nowinski (with WWE Women’s Champion Molly Holly). Earlier tonight, Nowinski asked Molly to be in his corner - he’s still trying to woo her because he wants to claim her virginity. Molly presumably doesn’t watch Raw and is unaware of it. Her friend Victoria was also there but doesn’t have a character or personality yet. The match is a little chaotic as Bubba and Spike try to introduce a table. Bubba picks up the win with a Bubba-bomb on William Regal and then sets up a table with an eye to putting Molly through it! She’s refused by Regal and Nowinski who catches Molly and carries her heroically to the back. Regal is left all alone with the Dudleys and when Spike’s Dudley Dog doesn’t break the table (the fans boo that), Bubba saves it on the fly with a powerbomb to break the table properly. Backstage after a break, Molly gives Chris a big hug and tells him that she’d do anything to repay him for saving her.

• Chris Jericho enters for his match with Jeff Hardy. As he reaches the ring, Jimmy Snuka is still being helped out of the ring after Rosey and Jamal’s attack so he locks him in the Walls of Jericho and has a good laugh about it. Jericho rants about hasbeens and old men - he’s salty about his loss to Ric Flair last night at Summerslam. He shoves footage of Flair tapping out last night, but while holding the ropes so it didn’t count. He says he’ll take out his aggression on Jeff Hardy tonight but first he’s going to sing for us and start to perform “New York, New York”. Jericho is still singing after a commercial break and is thankfully interrupted by Jeff Hardy. This match is given more time than I expected but that’s mostly thanks to Jeff now being positioned as a singles staff with Matt on Smackdown. He is SO popular, especially with the women in the crowd - the cheers for Jeff are always very high pitched screams. I get it girls. Jeff comes close to victory more than once but when Jericho locks in the Walls of Jericho, Jeff makes it to the ropes. Jericho refuses to break the hold and after a long period of the referee trying, he disqualifies Jericho. He still won’t release the hold and it takes quite a few referees to finally get Jericho off of Hardy. Losing to Flair seems to have caused Jericho to snap. This was a good match.

• In a first ever match, a combined Evening Gown/Tuxedo match. Howard Finkle vs. Lillian Garcia to decide who the permanent ring announcer for Raw will be. Stacy Keibler comes out before the match and tells Howard that she’s here to make sure Trish doesn’t cheat. He makes a crass comment about her arousing him, which is gross. Lillian and Howard roll around and tug at each other’s clothes as the fans boo the idea of Lilian winning - they want her to lose so we see her in her underwear. He shoves her down and says that blondes belong on their backs so fellow blondes Trish and Stacy swarm him and the three women strip him to his underwear. Howard runs away as Trish declares Lillian Garcia the winner. It’s funny because in kayfabe, General Manager Eric Bischoff got rid of the Hardcore title because he finds Hardcore matches boring, but he likes stuff like this? Putting this segment on immediately after the Hardcore match between RVD and Tommy Dreamer makes him look like an idiot. 

Smackdown - August 29th 2002

The Lesnar Era Begins

Smackdown opens with Smackdown General Manager Stephanie McMahon who crows about having made the WWE Undisputed Champion exclusive to Smackdown. Raw’s number one contender’s match ended up being for nothing so she’s going to name the REAL number one contender tonight. It’s going to be a single elimination tournament with the winner being the number one contender. She kicks off and brings out the first match which is Edge vs. Eddie Guerrero in a Summerslam rematch. They’re vague about the rules of this tournament with Cole calling it a “survivor style series of matches” rather than just a normal tournament with brackets. This is another good match between two very talented guys - I’m glad their feud isn’t quite over yet. Eddie sneaks two chairs to ringside and while the referee is distracted getting rid of one, he’s able to use the other. The birth of Lying, Cheating and Stealing. Eddie follows up with a Frog Splash to pick up the win.

The rules of the tournament are then cleared up - Eddie will now face Rikishi later in the show, so it’s more like a gauntlet match but spread out over the whole show rather than back to back matches.

Backstage, Hardcore Holly rants to Stephanie that he should be included in the Number One Contenders series. She seems underwhelmed by the idea and is thankfully saved from the conversation by Dawn Marie who has an urgent phone call for her boss. The phone call after the break is with an unknown party who is apparently jumping ship from Raw and is in the area. Stephanie rushes the papers over to him. Matt Hardy interrupts and hangs up the phone on her because he needs to talk about getting a title match. She’s furious at him and gives him a non-title match against Brock Lesnar tonight and he’s actually excited.

Mark Lloyd interviews Rikishi ahead of his match with Eddie Guerrero Rikishi needs to earn a title shot so he can get revenge for the F5 he got a couple of weeks ago. Eddie shows up and speaks Spanish and makes some jokes about Rikishi’s diaper being too tonight because it cuts off the blood to his head. That match is next and Rikishi has no problem dominating the smaller Latino Heat until he takes control with a dropkick to the knee. Eddie works on Rikishi’s leg but the big man guts it out and picks up the victory with a Samoan drop. Rikishi is immediately attacked by Chris Benoit and the two hammer Rikishi, working on his leg even more. Benoit encourages Eddie to crash onto him with a Frog Splash and then Benoit locks Rikishi in the Crossface until Edge runs down to put an end to the violence. Rikishi is hurt and still has at least one more match tonight in this number one contender series.

When Benoit gets backstage, Stephane McMahon is still angry at him for losing the Intercontinental title to RVD at Summerslam so books him as the next opponent for Rikishi in the series. That doesn’t make a ton of sense as it means not only is she rewarding Benoit with a chance to be number one contender but she’s apparently making this whole tournament up as she goes along.

Chris Benoit vs. Rikishi is what you’d expect with Benoit hammering Rikishi’s injured leg and quikcly clamping him in the Crossface. Rikishi holds on for a hilariously long time until finally submitting. Benoit advances and has only one more match to determine Brock Lesnar’s first challenger. 

Backstage, Mark Lloyd asks Kurt Angle if he’s concerned that he hasn’t been mentioned in the number one contender series yet. He makes a joke about Rey Mysterio being one of the seven dwarfs and says “save the best for last”. The main event will be Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit with the winner officially being number one contender for Brock Lesnar’s title. Kurt mentions he and Benoit’s history (their feud in 2001 over the stolen gold medals) and promises victory over both Benoit and eventually Lesnar.

Smackdown’s Number One Announcer Funaki asks Paul Heyman for an interview with Brock Lesnar. Heyman asks Funaki if he really wants to interupt Lesnar’s match preparation and bother him. Funaki thinks twice of it and tries to back away. Matt Hardy shows up and says that tonight is the start of the era of Matt Hardy. No longer there is WWE Attitude, there is WWE Mattitude! Heyman says Matt Hardy has a death wish. That match is next. 

Brock Lesnar looks so good with the WWE title belt. It suits him. This is very much a new era and while it doesn’t last very long in hindsight, this original Brock Lesnar main event run was a huge shift in WWE. I’ll talk about that a lot more at Unforgiven of course. This match might mark the birth of Mattitude as a catchphrase, and he called himself Matt Hardy 1.0 a couple of weeks ago too, but he’s still using The Hardyz theme song. I’ll let you all know when he shifts to his awesome solo song. Brock absolutely destroys Matt Hardy, clobbering him with clothesline after clothesline while never releasing his wrist, pulling him back to his feet and into the next one. It’s brutal. Matt does put up a bit of a fight but his dive to the outside is caught with ease and Lesnar muscles him out of a Twist of Fate into an F5 to score a dominant victory. After Lesnar leaves the ring, Matt pulls himself to his feet so the Next Big Thing goes back and hammers Hardy with a pair of stiff powerbombs and leaves him flat on his back. 

In the main event, Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle is somewhat of a dream match. Moments before the match, Dawn Marie delivers signed paperwork. Stephanie has poached another big name from Raw and she says tonight’s main event is now a triple threat with her newest Smackdown superstar joining Benoit and Angle. That superstar turns out to be The Undertaker who wants to get his hands on Brock Lesnar so badly he’s switched brands to chase him! Benoit and Angle smartly attack Undertaker two on one and hammer him down in the corner to begin with. It’s a chaotic triple theat with a steel chair coming into play. Benoit and Angle lock Undertaker in their submission holds at the same time but with neither having the advantage they have to break it and go at each other.

They counter for counter, locking each other in the Crossface and Angle lock respectively until Undertaker sends Kurt to the outside and finishes Benoit with a Last Ride to win the match and officially become number one contender for Lesnar’s title. 

Other Happenings

• Reverend D-Von takes on John Cena. Cena should have an easy time with this one given how many main eventers he’s mixed it up with since debuting but after a strong showing, D-Von wins it clean. He doesn’t get to celebrate as Batista comes down and wearing new, more brightly coloured gear, attacks D-Von and drills him with a sit down powerbomb. This is the birth of the Batista Bomb as until now he’s been using a spinebuster as his finisher. This is also the debut of his solo theme song which he had for a couple of years until upgrading to the awesome I Walk Alone by Saliva for the rest of his career.

• Tajiri, with Jamie Noble and Nidia takes on Shannon Moore, with The Hurricane. Shannon has his own theme song which is a cheerful lyricless pop song. He’s in a bit of a roll, mostly in tag team action with Hurricane as his partner. This is a good little match. Shannon isn’t great but he’s fast and athletic and a good match for the excellent Tajiri. Hurricane and Noble get into a brawl on the outside and Moore reverses a roll up into one of his own to get a big victory. 

• Rey Mysterio takes on Rico (with Billy and Chuck). Billy and Chuck distract Rey which helps Rico take control but they get ejected from ringside for it. Rico actually dominates for a bit but Rey is faster and gets to show off some spectacular dives, springboards and flips which get a big reaction from the crowd and after a 619 and West Coast Pop combo, Rey Mysterio picks up the victory. 

Raw - September 2nd 2002

World Heavyweight Championship

Raw opens with the General Manager Eric Bischoff. He has a big smile on his face despite how Raw ended last week. He has a silver briefcase with him. He says that Brock Lesnar calls himself the Undisputed Champion but now that he’s exclusive to Smackdown, the title is very disputed. The fans of Raw deserve better than that and they deserve their own World Champion. He says that Stephanie and Smackdown can pretend that Undertaker is the number one contender - he jumped to Smackdown to be a big fish in a little pond rather than swim with sharks here on Raw, so says Bischoff. He introduces the man who defeated Undertaker last week and is the REAL number one contender, Triple H. He has a big smile on his face to match Bischoff’s. Triple H says that Lesnar and Undertaker both ran away to Smackdown rather than fight him. Bischoff sucks up to The Game and talks about how great he is before revealing the contents of his briefcase - it’s the World Heavyweight Championship belt. He presents it to Triple H, who was technically the last man to hold that physical belt.

 You might wonder why there was no match for it, and no tournament and you’re not alone. I’ll talk about that at Unforgiven. This begins the infamous Reign of Terror with Triple H ruling over Raw. He says that he deserves this and he’s the only man who does. He’s about to continue a speech about how amazing he is when Nature Boy Ric Flair’s music hits and the 16 time world champion struts to the ring. Flair signs Triple H’s praises but says he might be the last person to hold it but Flair has held it 16 times and he wants a crack at the title tonight. Eric Bischoff loves the idea and makes it official - Triple H’s first defence tonight against Ric Flair. Triple H shakes Bischoff’s hand and then clocks Flair with a cheap shot.

After the commercial break, when Triple H gets backstage he doesn’t like the way Bubba Ray Dudley is looking at him. He patronisingly tells him that he’ll get his shot, same as everyone else. He says everyone is jealous of him. Bubba says the look isn’t jealousy - it’s hunger for the gold. Bubba really puts over the importance of the title itself and ends by telling the Game to wipe the smug smile off his face before he smacks it off.

Backstage as Ric Flair laces up his boots for his World title match later, Chris Jericho approaches and he’s disgusted that Flair is getting the first World title match and stealing his thunder on a night where he has an Intercontinental title match. He tells Flair that he hopes he wins so that when they have a rematch he can take the World title from Flair.

For the first time since Summerslam, we hear from Shawn Michaels. Sitting in a wheel chair, JR and King conduct the interview live via satellite. Shawn explains that he has feeling in his legs but he has lost mobility and isn’t where he wants to be. He’s staying in this chair while he conducts physical therapy and tries to get back to where he was before the match. King asks him if it was worth it and Shawn cheerful says that it was because he missed performing and he missed the people and if they loved the match then so did he. The match didn’t put him in a wheelchair, Triple H put him in a wheelchair. JR asks if he has a message for Triple H - Don’t hunt what you can’t kill. He picks up a sledgehammer and tells The Game that what goes around, comes around.

In the first World Heavyweight Championship match, Triple H defends against Ric Flair. This is their first ever match against each other but The Game is a life-long superfan of Flair so I’m sure this was a big deal for him. It’s a good match and after Flair puts up a good fight and locks in the Figure Four (Triple H gets to the ropes) an undetected low blow leads to a Pedigree and Triple H retains the title. Jericho runs down and puts Flair in the Walls of Jericho as Triple H leaves with a smile.

Rob Van Dam, Jericho’s opponent later, runs down to make the save but as he does he knocks into Triple H. The champion is offended it seems so he goes back to the ring to attack RVD for the disrespect but the Intercontinental Champion fights him off too and lays him out with a big spinning heel kick. 

Backstage, a furious Triple H wants a match with Rob Van Dam tonight. He needs to put him in his place. Eric Bischoff says no because Jericho is supposed to get an Intercontinental title match tonight. Triple H puts his foot down and it seems like Eric is about to back down. Jericho shows up and is pissed that his title match is being taken from him. Bischoff is a busy guy trying to find out who might be leaving for Smackdown so he books a tag match - them vs. RVD and Ric Flair tonight. 

That tag team match is of course the main event. I’m sure Jericho will get his Intercontinental title match at some later date because Triple H really screwed him over here. Triple H does his full entrance again even though we’ve already seen it twice tonight. Jericho and Triple H jump RVD two on one before Ric makes his entrance to get an early advantage but this tag match turns into a showcase for Rob Van Dam as he is the star of the show, easily fighting off both Jericho and The Game when he gets a chance. It’s chaotic and when it breaks down, Triple H tries to use the World title belt as a weapon and its kicked back in his face. A Five Star Frog Splash later, RVD pins the World Heavyweight Champion to win this match and Raw ends with Rob celebrating with both his and Triple H’s title belts. 

Kane’s Return

Tonight, the WWE Tag Team Champions Lance Storm and Christian face Kane in a handicap match. Jonathan Coachman interviews them before the match. Storm and Christian talk about Americans loving sweat shop produced clothing and how morally bankrupt the country is. Test enters with a blowtorch and says that after they beat Kane they’ll finish their business from last week by burning the flag.

Kane faces Lance Storm and Christian in a handicap match later in the show. Kane is worked over two on one until a misplaced Storm superkick takes out Christian. A chokeslam from Kane gives him the victory but he walks right into a Big Boot by Test. The Un-Americans still want to burn the American flag but Bradshaw runs down to stop that and with Kane’s help they fight off the three Canadians. 

Innovator of Violence

Back in Bischoff’s office, Big Show is furious about the attack by Rosey and Jamal a couple of weeks ago and about Triple H being handed the World title without him getting a chance to win it. He wants a title shot. Bischoff tells Show that if he wants to be number one contender he better go out to the ring and impress him - he dares Show to impress him. 

Big Show faces Tommy Dreamer and while Tommy has a big smile - he had an awesome performance last week - but Show looks furious especially after those words from Bischoff. JR spends much of the match talking about the toughness and heart of Tommy Dreamer in a way which makes me think they’re working towards a push for him. Show brutalises Tommy who grabs a steel chair and hammers Show with chairshot after chairshot - brutal ones to the head! Tommy loses by disqualification but not only has he survived Big Show, he’s left him laying with a steel chair assault. 

Family Defection

Eric Bischoff gets a phone call from an anonymous source who tips him off that someone is going to leave Raw tonight so that they can go to Smackdown and be with a family member. That could be a few people!

Jeff Hardy is scheduled to face Crash Holly. Before the match can begin, Eric Bischoff comes out and says he knows that Jeff is the one trying to leave for Smackdown to get his hands on Matt. He wanted some notice - even if it was only three minutes notice. On cue, Rosey and Jamal rush the ring and destroy Jeff Hardy with slams and an enormous splash off the top rope. Crash Holly grabs the mic and tells Eric that it’s not Jeff who’s leaving for Smackdown - it’s him! That’s a good idea honestly - he and Hardcore could reform their tag team, or he could compete in the Cruiserweight division. There’s potential there, I like this idea.

Other Happenings

• After his earlier run in with Triple H, Bubba’s match tonight which is an intergender tag team tables match, Bubba and Trish vs. Nowinski and Molly. Both members of a team need to go through tables for a victory. Before the match, Nowinski has a backstage interview where he says that after busting Bubba and Trish through tables he’ll go busting through Molly’s hymen. That is GRAPHIC and it sets Jerry Lawler off as he spends the entire match squealing and continually asking JR what a hymen is. He says hymen about 100 times. I’ve been saying it for years now but sweet Jesus do I despise Jerry Lawler. The crowd are really into this match as some miscommunication leads to Nowinski landing face first between Molly’s legs, and then a Wazzup headbutt from Trish to the Harvard graduate. Nowinski tries to splash Trish from the top rope to a table on the floor but she rolls clear and he crashes through. By traditional table match rules that shouldn’t count but it does, and Bubba spikes Molly through a table in the ring to give himself and Trish the victory.

• Eric Bischoff explains to Terri and Stacy Keibler that they’ll compete in a lingerie pillow fight tonight and insists on checking out their clothing beneath their robes. Terri says she’d rather just interview but he isn’t interested. Stacy makes a crack about Terri having fake boobs. Bischoff’s gimmick has become that he doesn’t respect women and enjoys forcing them to strip off against their wills. The problem is that in WWE, that’s not a gimmick, it's just how management really views the female performers.

• After lobbying for it all night, Jerry Lawler referees the lingerie pillow fight match between Terri and Stacy. There’s a bed set up in the ring and the two hit each other with pillows and teddy bears as King squeals and screetches into the mic. The fans react to the more risque poses where the girls show the most skin but are otherwise pretty unmoved by this. It’s funny that in 2002, WWE felt that the Hardcore division was overdone but still thought there was a place for this kind of stuff. Terri “wins” this “match” with a roll up so sore loser Stacy hits Terri in the back of the head with a pillow which she’d hidden an alarm clock inside. It knocks her out and then Stacy gets a bucket of a thick brown liquid from under the ring and pours it all over her. She bursts a pillow and literally tars and feathers poor Terri. This whole thing lasted about three times longer than it needed to and I don’t think it got the reaction from the crowd that they expected. It was kind of just humiliating for everyone involved. 

• Booker T takes on William Regal. This is a good match between two of my favourites from this era. Booker picks up the win with a Scissors Kick to Regal, followed by what all the people came to see - a big victory Spinarooni.

Smackdown - September 5th 2002

Loaded Main Event

Brock Lesnar has a face to face confrontation with his Unforgiven opponent The Undertaker later but he also has a match with Randy Orton. Paul Heyman actually puts Orton over and stresses that they trained together in OVW so Randy knows Lesnar better than any opponent he’s faced so far and he needs to be wary of it and not look past him. Randy approaches and confidently tells Lesnar that he should listen to Paul - he respects him but doesn’t sweat him.

Edge goes to talk to Rikishi ahead of their six man tag team match later. Edge asks Rikishi if he’s going to give their opponents the Stink Face later because it’s hilarious. Rikishi says that the Stink Face isn’t supposed to be funny - it’s symbolic and is about how life gives people like him the ass end. He likes to do that to his opponents to remind them that life sometimes stinks. That’s….deep.

WWE Champion (no longer Undisputed because of Raw’s new World title) Brock Lesnar faces Randy Orton in a non-title match. This is amazingly one of only a couple of times these men ever wrestled. Their only proper, marquee match in their 20+ year careers as main events was at Summerslam 2016. This is a really entertaining sprint as Randy moves at 100mph and goes for roll ups and a victory early while Lesnar slows him down with massive suplexes. The finish is cool as Lesnar rolls through a crossbody and effortlessly turns it into an F5 for the victory.

Backstage in a dark room, Stephanie McMahon moderates a face to face interview between the WWE Championship match at Unforgiven - Undertaker and Brock Lesnar sit down opposite each other at a very small table. This is a good promo segment as Lesnar lists all of his accolades both professional and from the amateur ranks and talks about how young he is. Undertaker fires back that age makes him inexperienced and says that the Next Big Thing hasn’t yet been tested the way he will test him. He’s going to brutalise him and take him into deep water he’s never been in. Paul Heyman turns things deeply personal, informing us that Undertaker has some family issues to worry about as his wife Sara is pregnant. He says he’ll always take care of Taker’s wife for him but he refuses to care for his unborn child when Lesnar cripples him. Undertaker jumps up to attack but Lesnar gets in his face and Heyman pleads with his client to back down and not fight yet. 

In the villain locker room, Eddie Guerrero admires Kurt Angle’s gold medals and they talk about the six man tag too. Eddie says that Rikishi cost him the chance to be number one contender last week so he’s going to make him pay. Kurt says that HE was the one who got screwed last week - he had Undertaker beat, just like he has before. Eddie asks why he didn’t win then? Angle blames it on their other partner tonight, Chris Benoit. Benoit enters as he’s blaming him for the loss and laughing at him being the one to be pinned. Kurt mocks his rabid wolverine nickname and calls him the rabid puppydog until finally he’s interrupted by Benoit’s big fake laugh. Benoit and Kurt have a more intense “you think you’re better than me?” and Benoit dares him to prove that he can make him tap out. Eddie calms them down and tells them to focus on tonight’s main event and not on each other. 

In the main event, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero take on Edge, Rikishi and The Undertaker. Benoit and Guerrero are still very much a team, entering together to combo theme music and getting a combined announced weight. This is a strong main event with the heels taking turns isolating Rikishi and then Edge as they all keep their distance from a motivated Undertaker. There’s more teasing of the tension between Benoit and Angle but they do work together. When it all breaks down, Rikishi gives Kurt Angle a Stink Face but after Benoit clears the big man out of the ring, he laughs at Kurt’s misfortune and they get in each other’s face forcing Eddie to play peacekeeper. Benoit actually shoves his buddy Eddie down which causes even more tension and with Benoit and Angle fighting each other on the outside, Guerrero is left all along with all three opponents.

Eddie gets some big laughs, trying to be their friend and then leave but he’s forced face-first into Rikishi’s ass and then planted with an enormous one-handed chokeslam by Undertaker to give them the victory. Undertaker cements his babyface status with handshakes and hugs to both Edge and Rikishi. He has become insanely popular since Vengeance!

A Marriage Proposal and Reactions to It

Smackdown opens with Rey Mysterio vs. the much larger Billy, with Chuck and Rico. Billy wants revenge for Rico’s loss to Rey last week which is as good a story for a throwaway match as you’ll get. Billy dominates but despite some interference from Chuck, Rey rolls up Billy to win the match and makes a quick escape. After the match, Billy is very upset but Rico grabs a mic and calms him down, and says this can still be the greatest moment of his life. With a lot of encouragement from Rico, a tentative Chuck pulls a ring box out of his trunks and asks Billy to marry him! The people of 2002 were not as open minded and so there’s some boos when Billy says yes. Rico is happy though and cheers for them as they embrace. Michael Cole and Tazz are vaguely homophobic about it too. Come on guys, open your minds. 

Backstage, Mark Henry stops by Billy and Chuck on his way to the ring and shakes their hands and congratulates him on their engagement. That’s nice of him. Conversely, Reverend D-Von drops by General Manager Stephanie McMahon’s office and says that the Bible says Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. She tells us that the commitment ceremony will take place on Smackdown and that he better focus less on impersonating a preacher and more on his match with Batista.

Mark Henry’s match is against Tajiri, which seems like a mismatch for the former Cruiserweight Champion. It is. Mark easily squashes Tajiri with a running powerslam for the victory.

Reverend D-Von vs. Batista is surprisingly heated and while the referee stops Batista from using a chair, D-Von is able to use one of his own. The big rookie shrugs it off and quickly finishes D-Von with the Batista Bomb. He’s so amped up and roars in intensity as Cole and Tazz discuss what a psycho he is. That’s his gimmick - he is intense to the point of it being dangerous. 

Backstage, Nidia tells Jamie Noble how romantic Billy and Chuck getting married is and asks if they’ll ever get married. Noble pulls a face over her shoulder but says they’ll have the more romantic wedding in the whole trailer park.

Smackdown’s Number One Announcer Funaki asks Rico what we can expect from the same-sex wedding ceremony next week. Rico promises that this will be the biggest and most amazing event of all time. He says he’ll be both Billy and Chuck’s best man. He also says that the event will be a Happening, which is a Gorilla Monsoon line which I’ve used since the start of this website.

Other Happenings

• Cruiserweight Champion Jamie Noble defends his title against Shannon Moore who pinned Noble in a tag team match and who defeated Noble’s buddy Tajiri last week to earn it. This is a good match as most Cruiserweight matches from this era are but the fans are too busy chanting “we want puppies” at Nidia. They switch to chanting “trailer trash” so at least they’re paying attention to the gimmicks. Moore gets really close to victory a few times but a nice looking double underhook into a sitdown powerbomb (Tiger bomb) gives Noble the victory.
• Backstage, Matt Hardy shows footage of his losing effort to Brock Lesnar last week to Shannon Moore. He doesn’t focus on his loss and the footage is edited to only show the parts where he had the advantage. He tells Shannon he has potential and he should listen to how loud the crowd is for him, and watch his match tonight with Hardcore Holly for tips. Holly approaches and asks why Matt didn’t show the part where he lost? Matt accuses Hardcore of being jealous and says he’ll get a dose of Mattitude tonight.

• Crash Holly makes his Smackdown debut about Hurricame. We’ve seen Crash twice already tonight - signing his contract with Stephanie McMahon and then shaking hands with his cousin Hardcore who wished him luck in his debut match. Cole explains that Crash came to Smackdown specifically to join the cruiserweight division. This is fun with Hurricane wowing the crowd with a swinging neckbreaker off the top. Crash gets the win with a roll up out of nowhere but it was fair and square, so Hurricane shakes and then raises his hand after the match. What a superhero.

• Hardcore Holly vs. the conceited Matt Hardy who is more interested in the reaction he gets from the crowd than on the actual outcome of his matches. He is clearly a heel but still mostly wrestling other heels and getting cheers so it's a slow burn. This is a surprisingly good match and when Matt tries to cheat and use the tights on a roll up which Hardcore reverses and uses the tights himself to steal the win.

Raw - September 9th 2002

HLA

Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff heads down to the ring to make an announcement. Jerry Lawler spent the previous match talking endlessly about how this announcement is going to be the biggest Earth-shattering announcement in Raw history. He has enormously oversold it. The announcement is a Fatal Four Way Elimination match with the winner becoming the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship - Chris Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Big Show vs. Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam. The winner will face Triple H at Unforgiven. That’s not the announcement King was talking about and I’ll discuss that in the next section. Bischoff says that this week on Smackdown they’re going to have a same-sex commitment ceremony between Billy and Chuck and hypes up all of the press it’s received. That’s true and I’ll talk a lot more about that in future shows.

Bischoff is disgusted that everyone is writing about Chuck and Billy which gets an “eww” from Jerry Lawler and both his rant and the crowd's boos come across as enormously homophobic. Bischoff says that if Smackdown is going to have a same-sex controversy that grabs headlines, so is he. He says that for the first time ever he has some beautiful women to take part in HLA - Hot Lesbian Action. If you don’t think this offensive I’d dare you to watch it with Jerry Lawler’s squealing, screaming commentary and not want to smash your screen. JR is obviously more interested in the Fatal Four Way and the World title situation, as am I. 

Backstage, Terri and Trish Stratus make their way through backstage as Jerry Lawler pops a blood vessel screaming about Hot Lesbian Action. Trish and Terri pass a locker room door which says “Lesbians” and giggle like high school kids. Jesus Christ. It’s literally all Jerry Lawler talks about for the rest of the show. I thought I hated him before. 

Stacy Keibler and Victoria take on Terri and Trish in a tag team match. Jerry Lawler has, for some reason, assumed these women will be the ones supplying the HLA and has binoculars to get a better view of the match. I don’t want anyone reading this to think I’m exaggerating - Jerry Lawler hasn’t said a single sentence that wasn’t about Lesbians since the start of the show. I despise him more than it should be possible to hate a man you’ve never met. There’s a replay of Stacy tarring and feathering Terri last week. Terri and Trish win. 

Backstage as Spike Dudley heads to the ring for his match he meets the two lesbians who wish him luck and then disappear into their locker room to make out. They’re just two actresses, not wrestlers as far as I’m aware.

After spending the entire show getting angry at Jerry Lawler, when the Hot Lesbian Action finally arrives its “hosted” by Eric Bischoff. He calls Smackdown’s commitment ceremony a crass, headline grabbing publicity stunt whereas what he’s giving us is class and culture and welcomes “The Lesbians”.

I’ll save you the blow by blow, and I have a lot to say about the casual homophobia and all of this cheap gay baiting but I’ll save it for Unforgiven as there is a match there that will give me the chance. I cannot fathom how anyone would find this erotic with Jerry Lawler screaming and squealing the whole time and with Eric Bischoff putting on his creepiest voice to narrate and direct what they’re doing in the ring. I HATE this. He has them slowly strip each other but before they can start kissing he says it’s gone on three minutes too long and Rosey and Jamal arrive to beat the two skinny women in their underwear up. Jamal superkicks the brunette in the chest which sends her FLYING and then the blonde gets a Samoan drop. They stack the two unconscious women on top of each other and crash down with a splash while Bischoff laughs about it. 

World Title Contention 

Terri interviews Chris Jericho who is, bizarrely, eating an apple as he speaks and sprays all over Terri while he talks. He brags about being the first Undisputed Champion and the longest running Undisputed Champion and says that after tonight he’ll go on to face Triple H and regain the World title. 

Elsewhere, Coach interviews World Champion Triple H who asks if he doesn’t want to face Rob Van Dam after he got pinned last week in the tag team main event. Triple H laughs it off and says he’s not afraid to face anyone. He doesn’t care who wins the four way match, he’ll beat whoever it is at Unforgiven. He’s interrupted by Bubba Ray Dudley who lets us know Triple H is facing Spike Dudley tonight and asks if The Game doesn’t have the balls to face him instead? Triple H says he doesn’t have to wrestle anyone tonight but he is because he’s a fighting champion and says that Spike is the better of the Dudleyz anyway. Bubba is attacked from behind by his opponent, Steven Richards who tells Bubba to worry more about him than Triple H.

Steven Richards enters first for his match and is attacked during his entrance by an angry Bubba Ray Dudley. Bubba wins with a powerbomb off the middle rope.

World Heavyweight Champion Triple H takes on the 150lbs Spike Dudley in a non-title match. Triple H offers him a handshake but it comes across as deeply patronising. Triple H takes Spike lightly and pays for it as Dudley mounts a few big moves and gets a couple of near falls before finally being put down with a Pedigree. Triple H doesn’t go for the cover and decides to make an example of Spike, slapping at him and giving him a second Pedigree. It almost backfires as Triple H shoves the referee and Spike blocks the second one with a low blow! He hits the Dudley Dog and Triple H has to get his foot on the ropes to break the pin. Spike almost beat the World Champion. Triple H is done messing around and clamps Spike in a tight sleeper hold, shaking and ragdolling him until he passes out and Triple H wins by referee stoppage. This match actually did quite a lot for Spike in the end.

Triple H wants to keep the attack going but Bubba Ray runs down and stares down Triple H. The World champion backs down and his fight with the larger Dudley will have to wait for another day.

Backstage in a pair of segments building up the main event, Eric Bischoff smugly tells Jeff Hardy he should thank him for the opportunity tonight. Jeff gets fired up and says he wasn’t given anything and doesn’t owe Bischoff anything - he earned it! He’s extra mad at Bischoff after the beating he unfairly received from Rosey and Jamal last week. Elsewhere, Chris Jericho suggests he and Big Show team up to eliminate RVD and Jericho to make it one on one. Show doesn’t need the help and chokes out Johnny the Bull for suggesting he take the deal.

Before the main event, Ric Flair stops RVD and wishes him luck in the main event. He talks about how great Rob was in the main event tag team match last week and mentions how much the crowd loved seeing him dive off the top rope. He’s so happy he pinned Triple H and he knows he can do it again if he gets the chance at Unforgiven. 

This is, on paper, an awesome main event for Raw and you don’t often see elimination rules fatal four ways. It is fairly obvious who’s winning this of course given what happened last week and that prematch promo with Ric Flair. Jericho and Show’s agreement to work together seems to be in place in the early going but RVD and Jeff try to work together to counter it. Jericho uses a steel chair and clonks both RVD and Hardy with shots to the head. He hits Big Show in the back too but he no-sells it and swats the chair away. Earl Hebner catches Big Show holding the chair and disqualifies him. Big Show is the first man eliminated and plants all three of them with big chokeslams before he leaves. Show is furious. After a few minutes of good action, Jericho eliminates Jeff Hardy with a Lionsault bringing it down to a one on one match. Jericho sends Van Dam flying with a high German suplex and he crashes down high and hard on the top of his head. Triple H comes out to get a closer look and as RVD sends Jericho into the turnbuckle he himself exposed, the IC champion catches him with a heel kick and then a Five Stag Frog Splash to officially become number one contender. Triple H said he doesn’t care who he faces at Unforgiven but he certainly looks concerned at the end of Raw as RVD celebrates! 

Other Happenings

• Raw wastes zero time tonight with the show opening pyro replaced by Kane’s entrance pyro. The unlikely team of Kane and Bradshaw challenge Lance Storm and Christian for the Un-American’s WWE Tag Team Championships. Before the match begins, Bradshaw grabs the mic and cuts a shouty pro-America promo. You have a microphone buddy, you don’t need to shout. The more he screams about America the more I hope the Canadians kick his ass. Maybe I’m a heel? The fans are RED hot for this match. Kane and Bradshaw throw around the smaller opponents and look like they have a victory and the titles in the bag but the referee goes down. Test drops Kane with a Big Boot but Bradshaw clobbers him with a clothesline from hell. He turns into a brass knuckle assisted punch from William Regal which shocks everyone. The Un-Americans retain the tag team titles and seem to have gained a fourth member. This is the last time we’ll see Bradshaw as he suffered a bicep tear at a house show later this week and was out of action until June 2003, by which point I’ll have stopped covering these shows.

• Backstage, Christopher Nowinski asks why Regal has given up on being his mentor to join the Un-Americans. Regal says he hasn’t joined anything - he’s always been an Un-American since he came to this ghastly country. Nowinski mentions HLA so Regal slaps him in the face and tells him that he’s the smartest man here and shouldn’t be thinking about lesbians or trying to shag Molly Holly. He should be focused on winning and making something of himself. Following that segment, Nowinski heads down to the ring to address the crowd. He calls everyone stupid and shares some rhymes about how they’ll all work for him one day. He’s interrupted by Tommy Dreamer who has a rhyme of his own about singapore canes and then blasts Nowinski with multiple shots to the body and across the back with a kendo stick until the Harvard graduate is forced to run away.

• Booker T and Goldust are scheduled to take on Test and William Regal. Coach interviews Booker about it but hes interrupted by Goldust in a Kane mask. He impersonates Kane until the man himself shows up and Goldust cowers. Bradshaw also shows up to wish them luck against the Un-Americans and then invites them all to drink beer with him and watch the Lesbians later. They are all, even Kane, into the idea. That match is next with the newest Un-American William Regal and Test against Booker T and Goldust. The Un-Americans isolate and work over Goldust until he makes the tag to Booker who puts down Regal with the Scissors Kick, performs the Spinarooni and drops Test with a heel kick. Regal uses his brass knuckles to knock out Booker T which brings Kane, Bradshaw and then Lance Storm and Christian down. The match ends in a chaotic disqualification and the Americans celebrate in the ring to loud USA chants while the Un-Americans back up the ramp. 

Smackdown - September 12th 2002

Happily Ever After?

Rico makes a phone call about the wedding cake for Billy and Chuck’s ceremony later and drops in to see GM Stephanie McMahon and asks her to attend. She says she’d love to but she has really bad luck with weddings and she doesn’t want to be a jinx. Rico looks really upset and won’t accept no for an answer - he’s having a meltdown! The singer hasn’t arrived, the flowers are a disaster and her saying no is just another thing going wrong! He begs her to attend and so she reconsiders and says she’ll be there to be the witness. I’m not a fan of the way the crowd seems to be booing whenever the graphics for the wedding are shown on screen.

There’s a wedding set up in the ring for Billy and Chuck’s commitment ceremony. The fans are lightly booing but Tazz is delightfully open minded, cheering on the same-sex wedding. Rico fusses over the details and after a commercial break, the grooms are in the ring along with Stephanie McMahon as witness and a very old man as the justice of the peace to perform the wedding. Chuck and Billy read out their own vows and the fans boo as they place rings on each other’s fingers which I find very troubling. Rico throws to a video package he put together entitled Our Love but the main thing it highlights is that the bulk of the “Billy and Chuck are gay” segments and hints were months ago before Rico joined their act and hadn’t really been referenced since Wrestlemania.

Rico cries and the minister continues with the ceremony until the Godfather and a bunch of his ladies of the night head down to the ring. He had to stop the ceremony because he KNOWS Billy Gunn is a dog and back in the day he had to tell the women to stay away from him because they were all giving it to him for free! He says Chuck was the same way - he says Chuck was a legendary skirt chaser too! Much like his last run, they’re very careful not to call the Godfather’s ladies hoes anymore. Rico has them ejected from the building and Rico tells them to continue with the ceremony.

Billy and Chuck interrupt. They explain that they’re NOT gay and that this has gone too far - it was, just as Eric Bischoff suggested on Raw, a publicity stunt set up entirely by Rico. The crowd loudly cheers when Billy says that he’s not gay which I feel pretty disappointed by. Rico starts to yell at them for screwing up his plan until the minister cuts them off to say that commitment can last any length of time including three minutes. He drops the old man voice and morphs into Eric Bischoff. “Wait a second, did I just say three minutes?” He peels off his very impressive prosthetics and it was Bischoff all along!

At the cue of three minutes, his henchmen Rosey and Jamal rush the ring! Rico kicks Billy low and cheers on Bischoff and three minute warning as they destroy the wedding and Billy and Chuck. Eric holds Stephanie hostage until finally feeding her to them. She gets a Samoan drop but before she can get a splash, the Smackdown locker room empties out and chases Bischoff, Rico, Rosey and Jamal through the crowd. It really sells how serious all this Raw vs. Smackdown business is that everyone is there to protect their General Manager. 

This was a very well done segment and my own feelings about the homophobia displayed over the last couple of weeks aside, it really did get the WWE a lot of publicity and press. They got attention and praise from gay rights groups who were left deeply disappointed when it turned out the way it did, which in turn led to a flurry of negative press coverage for the crass publicity stunt. I’ll talk a bit more about that at Unforgiven but this angle got a decent amount of real world press coverage for better or worse. 

Lesnar goes too far (twice)

Smackdown opens with a non-title match between WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Hardcore Holly. Holly is a bully, which is something I’ve mentioned before. He likes to slap around rookies and shove them how tough wrestling is and he tries to do that here to the Next Big Thing who has only been around for 6 months despite being WWE Champion. He’s stiff with Lesnar who holds his own. That stiffness might have contributed to what happens next as Lesnar dumps Holly right on the back of his head with a powerbomb. Holly guts it out and finishes the match, losing to an F5 but that landing broke Hardcore’s neck. He required cervical fusion surgery and this is the last we’d see of him for 13 months. 

Backstage, Undertaker is shown arriving at the arena with his heavily pregnant wife Sara. It’s fairly contrived that the first time we’ve seen her in about a year is a week after Heyman mentioned her.

Mark Lloyd goes to interview Undertaker and asks why he brought Sara tonight. He says its no one’s business but she has friends in the area. He’s approached by Matt Hardy who gives him all his congratulations and asks to see Sara so he can say congrats in person. He’s a little pushy and obnoxious so Undertaker shoves him hard against the door. Matt says that someone definitely needs a Mattitude adjustment.

Matt Hardy bursts into Stephanie’s office with a demand of his own - he wants a match with the Undertaker! He wants to try and give him a Mattitude adjustment. Matt Hardy Version 1 vs. Undertaker tonight. She agrees, mostly because he’s annoying and she wants to see him get beat up.

Undertaker takes on Matt Hardy, who goes to get Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar backstage before heading down to the ring. That explains his confidence. This match marks the debut of Matt Hardy’s new solo theme song - the absolutely awesome Live for the Moment by Monster Magnet

Matt gets the advantage with a low blow as the referee is distracted throwing out Paul Heyman for getting on the apron, and then another when the referee is distracted throwing out Brock Lesnar for trying to interfere too. With it now being a one on one match, Undertaker has no problems beating up Matt until, on the titantron, Paul Heyman creeps into Undertaker’s locker room to see Sara. He is deeply unpleasant. Undertaker leaves the ring and sprints backstage, attacking Heyman but Lesnar floors him with a stiff chairshot to rescue his agent and before he leaves, he actually puts his hands on Undertaker’s wife, feeling her baby bump! Undertaker is going to murder him when he gets up. They leave and Sara checks on her fallen husband as Smackdown goes off the air. 

Other Happenings

• Eddie and Chavo Guerrero take on the team of Edge and John Cena. Eddie still has his issues with Edge and they’ve continued to take shots at each other since their Summerslam match. Eddie jumps Edge during his entrance to start the match in a hurry. Eddie and Chavo pick up the win with a brainbuster and Frog Splash combo on John Cena. Eddie still wants revenge for the Stink Face Edge forced him to get last week so Chavo pulls down his tights and pulls his pants up into a wedgie so Eddie can force Edge into a Stink Face of his own. Edge turns the tables and shoves Eddie’s face into his nephew’s butt instead! 

• In a Summerslam rematch, Kurt Angle takes on Rey Mysterio. Their match at Summerslam was a legit match of the year contender in 2002. Before the match, Kurt Angle tells everyone that him beating Rey tonight will be funnier than him getting a Stink Face last week and that if he catches Chris Benoit laughing at him again he’ll kick his butt too. Much like Summerslam, this is a very good match which Kurt wins with an Angle slam off the top rope. Great stuff.

• Chris Benoit battles Rikishi. It’s a fairly intense battle with Benoit actually holding Rikishi up on his shoulders to drop him. His attempt for the flying headbutt is stopped by Kurt Angle who shoves Benoit off the top rope to cause the disqualification. Angle actually holds Benoit in place so that Rikishi can give him a Stink Face returning the favour for last week. He has a good laugh at Benoit. There’s a lot of Stink Face dependent feuds on this show!

• After a commercial break, Benoit goes to see Stephanie McMahon and demands a match with Kurt Angle at Unforgiven. She’s happy to book it.
• Torrie Wilson battles Nidia. Smackdown does still in theory have access to the women’s champion Molly Holly but that title has been mostly Raw focused since the brand split with Smackdown’s women’s division being more of the 1999 style “skanks brawling” era. Torrie did train and gave becoming a wrestler her best shot but didn’t take to it the way another former model, Trish Stratus, did and never moved above this level. She did win this short match cleanly with a DDT though.

Raw - September 16th 2002

Controversy Creates Cash

Raw opens with a video package recapping the events of Smackdown where Eric Bischoff, Rosey and Jamal, with the help of defector Rico, crashed Billy and Chuck’s wedding ceremony and gave both of them as well as Smackdown General Manager a beating. This is actually the version of the same video which opened the following Smackdown because it has a bit more detail about what actually happened

In the arena, Eric opens the show in the ring with a smug, self congratulating promo about what he did. Rico emerges from the shadows and Bischoff gives him his debut Raw match tonight against Ric Flair. He also announces that ahead of their match at Unforgiven both Rob Van Dam and Triple H will defend their respective Championships tonight on Raw. Big moves to start the show off hot! He also slipped in his “controversy creates cash” catchphrase which is what he named his book, released a few years later.

Outside the arena a large gathering of women are protesting the event with signs that read “equality” and “women’s rights” as King and JR dismissively say they have no idea what they’re even protesting. I assume neither of them have paid attention to the show since Bischoff took over. Later, they try to get into the arena but are stopped by security. 

Coach gets an interview with the lead protestor later who calls the treatment of women on Raw deplorable and they aren’t going anywhere until she gets to speak to Eric Bischoff. Later, someone does fetch Bischoff who tells them to let the women into the arena because “he’s got a few minutes”. By now, everyone knows what that means. 

After making the female protestors wait in his office for a while, Bischoff has them summoned down to the ring for his meeting with the concerned feminists. It’s mentioned by JR that we were scheduled to have a triple threat match for the Women’s title tonight but that’s been cancelled to make room for this segment. Bischoff struggles to keep a straight face as he talks about how women are just as smart and powerful as men. The problem with having a heel belittle and insult women like this is that a lot of fans will cheer him on. Jerry Lawler cheers him on too as it happens. The female protestors come out and the woman in charge talks about the disgusting way women are treated on Raw with bra and panties matches, mud matches and last week’s Hot Lesbian Action. Bischoff accuses them all of being lesbians and gets the fans to chant HLA as Jerry Lawler giggles like a moron. Bischoff starts to ramp up to say three minutes, summoning Rosey and Jamal, but one of the women steps forward and kicks him in the balls! It’s Stephanie McMahon in a wig.

The Smackdown General Manager shouts three minutes and Billy and Chuck rush the ring and lay out Eric with a double team mood as Stephanie screams encouragement. Rosey and Jamal run down to make the save but Billy and Chuck are amped up and have no problem beating up the two big men too. The Smackdown trio make their getaway through the crowd! After a commercial break, Bischoff fights through the pain (he misspeaks and says Intercontinental instead of Interbrand) and challenges Billy and Chuck to a tag team match with Rosey and Jamal. He offers up a suggestion - if Rosey and Jamal lose, he will kiss Stephanie’s ass but if Billy and Chuck lose Stephanie has to perform some HLA of her own. 

Title Matches and Upset Victories

After Bischoff’s opening promo, World Heavyweight Champion Triple H swaggers down to the ring looking a lot more confident than he did at the end of Raw last week. Triple H mocks the fans for thinking that he’s scared of RVD. Van Dam can’t beat him because he’s not championship material apparently. He rants that he is the World Champion and deserves everyone’s respect. He says he’s bothered by the RVD chants (which doesn’t make sense because he told us all last month the fans cheering for him disgusts him) and mentions defending the title “all around the world” which is crazy seeing as he’s only had it for two weeks. He is finally interrupted by the number one contender, Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam.

RVD tells Triple H to calm down, and that he seems too angry. Triple H gets in his face and rants that his anger is what makes him the best and keeps him motivated. RVD laughs it off and says he is super impressed by what Triple H has accomplished. No one spits water as well as he does, and growls and mocks Triple H’s serious angry face as he waits for the queue in his music to spray. He is so impressed. Triple H says that RVD is just like all the people in the crowd - an underachiever who, for all his cool moves, won’t amount to anything. He repeats his claim that Van Dam isn’t championship material. RVD laughs in his face and basically calls him jealous of how much the fans love him. Triple H tries a cheap shot but Van Dam catches his kick and steps over into a heel kick of his own to leave the World Champion laying.

Rico vs. Ric Flair is an odd choice. Rico comes out to Billy and Chuck’s theme but with his own titantron video now. This match is taking place on the 21st anniversary of Ric Flair’s first ever World title victory. King has a good laugh about what Rico and Bischoff did to Smackdown this past week - he’s totally bought into the brand rivalry. Ric Flair has his way with Rico until he walks into a spinning heel kick out of nowhere. It doesn’t really make contact but it’s the finish and Rico scores a big upset over the 16 time World Champion. Rico looks shocked when he gets the three count and JR and King call it a massive upset.

Bischoff finally reveals later in the show that RVD’s challenger for the title is Chris Jericho in a backstage segment, which leads directly into the Intercontinental Championship match. This is another good match between two guys who’ve worked together a lot recently. Jericho focuses on Van Dam’s lower back but RVD fights back with kicks and goes to the top rope. He sees Triple H running down to the ring so he changes direction and dives to the outside and takes out the World Champion. The match continues but Triple H again tries to get involved. His distraction helps and Jericho locks Van Dam in the Walls of Jericho. Triple H taunts Van Dam from the apron as he’s forced to tap out and Chris Jericho wins the Intercontinental Championship - thanks to Triple H

Jericho leaves in triumph and Triple H enjoys having cost RVD his title, planting him with a Pedigree in the middle of the ring. 

Jericho obnoxiously celebrates backstage, spraying champagne everywhere. He runs into Eric Bischoff and laughs about Ric Flair’s loss earlier. He wants his redemption while he’s riding high and Flair is at a low - he wants to defend the title against Ric Flair at Unforgiven. Bischoff makes it official. 

Backstage, Terri asks Ric for an interview and he is in a very depressed mood after losing to Rico. Triple H stops by and he says that Flair is humiliated because he should be. He used to be the man, a 16 time world champion and now he’s losing to men like Rico. He gets right in the Nature Boy’s face and tells him that he’s lost it and he should just retire. Flair fires up when The Game calls him pathetic and calls Triple H pathetic for carrying around a title he didn’t win and says he has no idea what he’s capable of.

In the main event, Triple H defends the World Heavyweight Championship against a mystery opponent. Bischoff still hasn’t shared it with us but with all the matches earlier we know it’s not going to be Bubba Ray or Ric Flair who he’s interacted with a few times lately. As Triple H finishes his entrance he’s attacked by RVD who hammers The Game with punches and beats on him until four referees are able to pull him off. Van Dam grabs the World title belt and clocks Triple H with it before he’s finally out of the ring and actually carried to the back.

Triple H’s opponent is Jeff Hardy who now has a huge advantage over a bleeding Triple H and he beats him from pillar to post. Jeff is shut down and Triple H uses his new finishing move - a sleeper hold - to put Jeff out and wins the match by technical submission. Triple H can’t celebrate as RVD returns to wipe him out with a big spinning heel kick and crashes onto him with a Five Star Frog Splash to end Raw standing over the fallen champion ahead of their title match at Unforgiven.

Other Happenings

• Terri interviews Booker T. He has a match with Test tonight and they mention his history as tag team champions with Test. Booker talks about how much he’s always hated tests since he was in school but tonight he’s going to pass the test. Book is pumped up and makes Terri laugh with his “5 time, 5 time, 5 time, 5 time, 5 time WCW Champion!”

• The match is physical and the crowd breaks out into a Booker T chant. His popularity isn’t just because of his feud with the Un-Americans - he’s gotten really popular since all his dealings with the nWo. You can tell he’s a good guy now as JR talks a lot about his history as the youngest of 8 kids and how he’s battled adversity to get where he is. JR also mentions that this week on Confidential there’s a special about Booker T’s criminal history. He served time for armed robbery when he was younger. It’s back and forth and there’s a big pop when Booker kicks out of Test’s pumphandle slam. Booker ducks a Big Boot and comes out of the corner with a roll up to win the match and get a big pop. 

• In the first of four title matches tonight, Lance Storm and Christian defend the Tag Team titles against Bubba Ray and Spike Dudley. The Un-Americans cut off and isolate Spike, stopping Bubba from introducing a table and making sure the referee didn’t see the tag to keep Spike in the ring. It all breaks down after Spike is finally able to make a tag and Christian and Storm are able to take advantage of the table Bubba set up at ringside, launching Spike from the ring to the outside with an almighty crash through the table. Referee Earl Hebner continues to be the worst referee in history as he’s too busy checking on Spike to see Bubba has the victory in the ring, but does get back in the ring in time for Christian’s roll up. The Un-Americans retain the title and Spike seems to be hurt badly, being loaded onto a stretcher and carried out of the arena. Backstage, Triple H walks past and laughs at poor Spike’s misfortune as he struggles to catch his breath. 

• The newest member of the Un-Americans William Regal takes on Kane. Before the match, Regal calls Kane everything that is wrong with America - ugly people hiding behind masks. I’ve no idea what he means by that. Regal takes advantage of Kane on the outside and controls the match. I did mention it but since returning Kane looks much slimmer and combined with his new mask and ring gear he looks like a totally different wrestler. He wrestles differently too, moving faster and selling more when knocked down. Not a bad idea to change things up after 5 years of being heavily featured. Regal gets himself disqualified using the brass knuckles but Kane fights him off before he can really use them. Test runs down, followed by Bubba Ray Dudley. That brings out Lance Storm and Christian and then Booker T and Goldust. The four Un-Americans are fought off and sent packing and Booker T challenges the Un-Americans to an 8 man tag team match at Unforgiven, which is accepted. 

Smackdown - September 19th 2002

Lesnar Running Scared

Backstage, Paul Heyman goes to see Stephanie McMahon and says that he’s hired personal security for Brock Lesnar to protect Unforgiven’s Smackdown main event. She breaks the news that Undertaker isn’t here yet because his wife went into false labour, but he is on his way and will be here tonight. Heyman regroups with Brock and his security force and breaks the news that Undertaker is on his way.

Backstage, Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar are about to head out to the ring but their security breaks the news that they were only hired to protect them backstage and so won’t be coming out into the arena with them. Lesnar’s match is a non-title match with John Cena. To say that these two men and their feuds and matches have become closely identified with each other is an understatement and as I write this in 2025, watching their first ever match together on TV is oddly poetic as it looks like Lesnar may be Cena’s final opponent in his retirement tour. Heyman encourages Lesnar to end this match quickly - he wants to get backstage and safely with his security team before Undertaker arrives tonight. It’s a dominant performance and with an F5, Lesnar beats Cena. Heyman quickly celebrates and then hustles him to the back. 

There’s a video package about Undertaker during the show, set to the PPV’s theme song which I thought was pretty cool.

In Lesnar’s locker room, Heyman begs his client to just leave the arean for the night before Undertaker arrives. Heyman suddenly thinks twice and assumes Undertaker is here and is waiting outside! It’s a trap, so they sit back down and decide to stay and wait him out. Paranoia is getting to them.

The Undertaker finally arrives at the arena and heads straight down to the ring. This isn’t business, it's personal. He demands Lesnar come out and face him or he’ll come looking for him. Lesnar does as he’s asked and heads down to the ring with Hyeman trying desperately to stop him. Brock shoves his agent out of the way and rushes the ring and Lesnar and Undertaker fight it out. Undertaker wins the exchange so Heyman calls for help. Matt Hardy runs down and attacks Undertaker which is ineffective but it does help Lesnar escape. Undertaker makes an example of Matt Hardy and beats the hell out of him while the WWE Champion escapes with Heyman. I want to mention that Undertaker didn’t come out to the theme song he’s been using since Judgment Day and it was instead some tuneless instrumental I couldn’t place. No idea what thats about. Undertaker purses Heyman and Lesnar backstage where they hide behind a wall of security guards. Lesnar is wearing cuffs - he’s been placed in “protective custody” and Heyman taunts Undertaker as they escape in a police car, leaving Undertaker seething at the arena exit. 

Smackdown gets ready for War

General Manager Stephanie McMahon heads down to the ring and recaps her ambush of Eric Bischoff on Raw, including his challenge to a Raw vs. Smackdown match at Unforgiven. If his team wins, Stephanie has to perform “hot lesbian action” with another woman, but if Steph’s team wins then he will have to kiss her ass. Stephanie accepts the challenge but says she’ll talk about the stipulations during their video chat via satellite later. She brings out Smackdown’s team for Unforgiven, Billy and Chuck. They’re babyfaces now. Problematically, they seem to mostly be babyfaces because they’ve come out as not being gay after all, but I’m probably being too hard on 2002 for this stuff. Billy talks about being in a tag team or going back to being a singles performer so Chuck makes a joke about going both ways. They promise to kick Rosey and Jamal’s asses at Unforgiven and get their hands on Rico. They are interrupted by Kurt Angle who calls last week a cheap attempt to get publicity. Chuck turns the “you suck” chants directed at Angle into an obvious gay joke. He challenges any one of them to a match tonight. Stephanie says she wants them in tag team action to get ready for Unforgiven. He is over confident and says they can even pick his partner because it won’t matter - they choose his Unforgiven opponent Chris Benoit to be his partner. Kurt says that’s fine and he’s still going to be the winner to crawl on top of them for the victory (more gay jokes).

Smackdown and Raw’s respective General Managers Stephanie McMahon and Eric Bischoff go face to face via satellite. She taunts him about having kicked him in the balls on Raw, and he gets the fans to chant “HLA” and says the fans will love him for getting her to kiss another woman. She calls what he does sleazy, cheap thrills. Stephanie actually has a hard time keeping a straight face as Bischoff hams it up and taunts her and laughs at his own jokes. She does officially accept the stipulations and they both promise victory for their respective teams and brands. 

In the main event, Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit take on Billy and Chuck. Before the match, Angle and Benoit are shown arguing backstage and that continues when they get to the ring. Can they co-exist before their match at Unforgiven? Probably not right, cos it’s wrestling? Chuck and Billy do a good job of dominating this tag team match as Benoit and Angle laugh at each other being beaten up. It breaks down into a flurry of suplexes and Benoit attacks his own partner to stop him getting the submission victory, locking in a Crossface of his own. Angle then attacks Benoit and the miscommunication allows Chuck to superkick and pin Benoit. A huge victory for Billy and Chuck. Angle is pissed and drops Benoit with an Angle Slam and locks him in an ankle lock. Benoit rolls through it and turns it into a Crippler Crossface. Both men tap to each other’s holds until referees split up the fighting.

Other Happenings

• This episode of Smackdown is the first episode for ring announcer Justin Roberts who remained with WWE for many years and is still active in wrestling now.

• Smackdown opens with Torrie Wilson and Rey Mysterio in a mixed tag team match against Cruiserweight Champion Jamie Noble and Nidia. This comes from Torrie’s victory over Nidia last week. There’s some comedy at the finish as Torrie gives Nidia a bronco buster. Noble asks for one of his own but Mysterio gives it to him which leads to a victory for Rey and Torrie.
• Eddie and Chavo Guerrero take on the team of Edge and Rikishi. Before the match there’s a short video about Rikishi’s past - the large scar on his stomach was caused by a gunshot wound in 1987. He was an innocent bystander to a driveby shooting which I’m sure was very scary. Before the match, Eddie furiously scrubs at his face, still upset over the Stink faces he’s received thanks to Edge from both Rikishi two weeks ago and Chavo last week. Chavo thinks it's funny. Eddie promises to teach Edge some respect for Latino Heat at Unforgiven and mangle his “pretty face”. Eddie and Michael Cole keep talking about how pretty Edge is and how much the girls love him - I think they’ve both got a little crush on Edge. Chavo uses one of the heavy TV cameras as a weapon to knock out Rikishi and picks up the win for him and his uncle Eddie in a decent tag team match. Edge attacks after the match and he takes down Chavo with a Spear but Eddie blasts him with a brutal chairshot to the head to have the last laugh. 

• Matt Hardy (with his new awesome theme song, which I just love) takes on The Hurricane who has a bit of a new look. Before the match, Matt explains that he asked for this match because he sees potential in Hurricane and wants to teach him the ways of Mattitude. The fans chant “we want Jeff” at Matt. Matt also brags about having defeated Undertaker last week (via countout) and calls himself Matt Hardy Version 1 again. The fans continue to chant “we want Jeff” and transition into “we want Lita” as Matt and Hurricane have a good match together with some very close near falls. Matt connects with an undetected low blow and the Twist of Fate to win the match. The new cocky, arrogant Matt Hardy is on a roll.

Four very eventful weeks with another midcard title disappearing but we gained a main event title and RVD finally returns to the main events. We are already firmly into the Lesnar era only four weeks into his title reign and the Unforgiven card, while featuring a few rematches from Summerslam and a women’s title match we’ve seen about 20 times now, is a good one I think. The Raw vs. Smackdown shenanigans with Bischoff and Stephanie has built to a head and I’m ready to move on from it now.