Vengeance - Joe Louis Arena, Detroit Michigan, July 21st, 2002

Raw and Smackdown present Vengeance! The July PPV was Fully Loaded for three years, then last year it was Invasion but in 2002 it’s stolen December’s name - December 2002 is back to being Armageddon y’see. Elephant in the room - yes that’s Stone Cold on the PPV poster. It was released before he left the company, obviously but he is still officially under contact so it’s not a legal issue. There was a different poster released closer to the event to save the awkward “Stone Cold isn’t here” embarrassment and that’s the one they used for the DVD and VHS releases too obviously.

The theme song for this PPV is one of my all time favourites - Downfall by Trust Company. I still listen to this song all the time but couldn’t remember exactly which show it was used for - it was a lovely surprise to hear it on Raw and Smackdown in the build up to this event. 

Huge shifts on TV in the past week as both Raw and Smackdown now have new General Managers running the show in lieu of us getting multiple “Vince McMahon trying to shag a woman a third his age” segments so to me it’s a major positive. I’ll talk about the new GMs as they appear on the show. They’re both in the opening video too - not my favourite one to be honest. The new voice over guy is a little bit cheesy I think, and I don’t think the music is a good match for what’s being said? Just my opinion of course. Downfall is still a banger though.

Little bit of a surprise to start off - it’s Smackdown’s commentary team Michael Cole and Tazz! New Smackdown General Manager Stephanie McMahon pushed for her guys to call the first half of the show before Raw’s team of JR and King take over for the second. That’s sensible enough but it does still mean you have Smackdown’s guys talking about Raw’s matches and vice versa. They finally figured it out for Summerslam next month.

Tag Team Tables match

Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero vs. Bubba Ray Dudley and Spike Dudley

Chris Benoit’s return to PPV and only his third match since King of the Ring 2001. I do love this theme song - Whatever by Our Lady Peace. Bubba has had quite the push since the brand split - he’s been booked super strong and had Brock Lesnar beat more than once if not for Paul Heyman’s interference and has a clean victory over Latino Heat.

Despite being a table match they start this out as a traditional tag team match with Benoit and Guerrero tagging in and out frequently and isolating little Spike Dudley. 

Bubba doesn’t do much better against them when he tags in, but Tazz does a good job putting over the danger and pain of being put through a table. All that snapping and cracking, you don’t know if it's the table or your own spine! I like that, good job Tazz.

Eddie goes to the outside and sets up a table but is wiped out by a Spike dive over the top rope and the match starts to break down. Eddie and Benoit have beaten down Bubba enough that he can’t recover quickly and set up a double superplex through the table but Spike moves the table out of the way at the last minute. Bubba is still down and so Eddie and Benoit try to throw Spike into a table set up in the corner but a tackle from Bubba to his own partner saves him and the Dudleys mount their comeback. 

They hit a string of double teams on both men, culminating in the old Wazzup headbutt to Benoit. Bubba is the first man to taste the wood as he tries to drive Benoit through one with a senton off the middle rope but he rolls out of the way and Bubba puts himself through it, which doesn’t count. 

Eddie and Spike fight it out on the apron and Spike grabs Latino Heat and runs up the turnbuckles performing a Dudley Dog from the apron through a table at ringside! It looked really painful as the table broke and folded up under Eddie so that his ribs crashed into the edge. 

Benoit wastes no time in a great looking spot, military presses Spike over the top rope and through a table on the outside. That leaves as one on one which Bubba quickly wins with a Bubba Bomb, driving Benoit ass-first through a table to win this match for the Dudleyz! 

This was a really good match and with Benoit and Guerrero involved that might seem obvious but Bubba and Spike more than hold their own - Bubba has been involved in a few really great matches on Raw lately too. 

Backstage, Jonathan Coachman interviews the new Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff. He is delighted with the performance of those four Raw superstars and says he’s here tonight to sign the most ruthless superstar he knows of - Triple H. He spots The Game walking nearby and runs over to tell him how great it was to talk to him on Thursday, stopping him from entering Smackdown General Manager Stephanie McMahon’s office. Triple H heard Eric’s sales pitch and now he wants to hear Stephanie’s. Bischoff looks unhappy that he’s still negotiating.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship

Jamie Noble © (w/Nidia) vs. Billy Kidman

I’ve really been enjoying Noble and Nidia’s “trailer park trash who’ve come into money” segments over the past couple of weeks. I like this pairing a lot and Noble is a great wrestler. Kidman earned this match by pinning Noble in a tag match two weeks ago and of course the champion and his “hot tomato” girlfriend beat up Kidman on Smackdown to prove a point.

Kidman is too fast for Noble in the early going so he’s forced to go to the outside and get some inspiration from Nidia. Noble says that being champion is what’s made him rich and so the title means more than life itself to him. 

Noble gets back in and the same happens with Billy being way too quick for him and sending him to the outside. Noble goes out again but this time Kidman follows. Jamie uses Nidia as a human shield but she doesn’t seem to mind one bit as it works and Noble is able to take his challenger down with an arm breaker and then runs his shoulder into the ring post for good measure. 

He works over Kidman’s arm in the ring with submissions for a while until his attempted superplex is countered with a nice powerbomb off the ropes by Kidman. Noble kicks out but it leaves him prey for a Shooting Star Press. Kidman goes for it all but misses and Noble follows up with a gorgeous sit-down double underhook powerbomb to win the match and retain the Cruiserweight title in a good match which I wish had gone another few minutes.

Backstage, Mark Lloyd interviews Kurt Angle and moments after he says he’ll win the WWE title tonight he’s cut off by Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar. Heyman starts to give him the usual spiel about the Next Big Thing but Kurt cuts him off and says he heard him give the same song and dance to Undertaker on Raw. Kurt says he’d love to face Brock at Summerslam but this isn’t “the summer of Brock”, it’s “all year Angle”. Lesnar gets right in the Olympian’s face and wishes him luck tonight. Two world class amateur wrestlers was certainly a dream match and people immediately compared the two in 2002 so this was a cool moment, their first on screen meeting.

WWE European Championship

Jeff Hardy © vs. William Regal

Jeff won the title a couple of weeks ago - something that made Regal sob his poor heart out. Regal looks disgusted when they show the footage of that on the titantron once he’s in the ring but he also looks a bit like he’s trying not to laugh which is probably the case. He never took himself too seriously.

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Jeff has really stepped up in the past month. He was always super popular of course but his performances against Undertaker and now winning a singles title - he’s a major player on Raw. 

Regal is aggressive early and takes Jeff down with a stiff elbow and goes for repeated pin attempts, and blocks Jeff’s sunset flip by driving his knee into Hardy’s head for another near fall.

Jeff mounts a come back and gets a near fall of his own with a jawbreaker and sends Regal to the outside and follows with a baseball slide into a hurricanrana (which they almost botched) and his now trademark security barrier walk into a crossbody.

A Swanton Bomb is countered by Regal getting his knees up into Jeff’s back and he dumps him on his head with a half nelson suplex but Jeff kicks out. 

The finish comes out of nowhere as Jeff withstands more abuse on his back before surprising Regal with a rollup to retain the European title. He quickly leaves and just like two weeks ago, Regal is very emotional about the loss and cries about it. This match was too short to be anything other than “fine”

When Jeff gets backstage he’s met by a waiting Ric Flair and Hollywood Hulk Hogan. The two legends give him a ton of praise and after he walks off have a laugh about Hogan trying to use the Swanton Bomb in his match later tonight - Flair says he’ll fall on his ass. They get more serious talking about the arrival of new General Manager Eric Bischoff - a man they both know very well from their WCW day. In real life, Hogan and Eric were very close friends but Flair and Eric were not and there was a lot of tension and animosity between them. There was a famous incident around 2003 when it finally came to a head and they had a loud argument backstage, but thankfully did bury the hatchet after that. They both share their concern for the younger stars in the company who’s careers are now in the hands of Easy E, and to a lesser extent Stephanie McMahon on Smackdown. A cool segment for Jeff Hardy and some nice storyline furthering stuff for the new GMs too. 

No one knew it at the time but this was the final European Championnship match ever. I hinted at it in the previous Preview but tomorrow night on Raw, the European title is disbanded and absorbed into the Intercontinental Championship. You can read all about that in the next Preview but I wanted to say a goodbye to this title which as a kid, was one of my favourites. Maybe its because I am European myself or maybe its because its position on the card meant it was usually scrappy up and comers winning it. Maybe I just always liked the way it looked. I've written a full article about the title itself but I want to give special mention to my favourites to hold this title - D'Lo Brown, William Regal, Christian and Eddie Guerrero. Fare thee well, European title. Say hi to the Light Heavyweight title for me when you get to Championship heaven. 

Chris Jericho vs. John Cena

This match came about as Cena challenged Jericho earlier tonight on Sunday Night Heat. Cena’s lone TV victory came with a roll up on Jericho in a tag team match, and Jericho got himself disqualified in their last meeting.

Maybe I’m being mean here but I think Jericho’s ring gear is very ugly. I remember thinking it at the time and in the run up to this show thought to myself “Oh, isn’t that the PPV where he had the ugly ring gear?” and sure enough, it’s the one I was thinking of. What do you make of it? Am I being unfair?

Jericho grabs a chair as Cena makes his entrance and tries to jump him but it backfires and it’s the first Undisputed Champion who gets a chairshot to the back before the match begins.

In the ring the explosive rookie sends Jericho flying with clotheslines and he’s forced to take a breather before hanging John up on the ropes to get the advantage and slow things down. This is an ironic first PPV match for Cena as he and Jericho feuded many times in the years that followed, mostly over World titles. 

Cena continually kicks out of Jericho’s big moves and when he mounts his own comeback he goes for a pin after every move - a suplex, a back suplex, a belly to belly suplex - with Jericho kicking out. Jericho counters a charge with a dropkick to the gut but misses the follow up Lionsault. 

Jericho goes for the Walls of Jericho which Cena counters with a roll up and in a shocker, wins his first PPV match against a former Undisputed Champion! 

Cena looks shocked and Jericho throws a hissy fit, slamming a steel chair against the ring post and kicking over the ringsteps as he leaves.

John Cena was the last member of the OVW “class of 2002” to debut which is something I’ve talked about here

Why did John Cena get such a strong push right out of the gate? Well because he impressed Vince McMahon of course. After Vince’s famous “Ruthless Aggression” promo where he dared the superstars to step up and impress him, Cena approached the boss backstage and in no uncertain terms told him that he could be “his guy”. He said he was willing to do anything and whatever it took to become a success and that he really thought that with Vince’s guidance he could be a megastar. He obviously turned out to be correct, but the rest of 2002 was ropey for John before he found his feet. 

I talked about it in the Preview during the promo itself but we are now officially into the Ruthless Aggression era of WWE. Vince McMahon’s promo on live TV was very much intended as real for the superstars listening to it and was a real life ultimatum handed out to his employees - step up and grab the brass ring, show me something special. 

Why the desperation? Something else I’ve mentioned recently is the waning popularity of the WWE. It started long before the name change and the fact is the company is around half as popular as it was two years ago during the peak of the Attitude era. It remains highly profitable but TV ratings and PPV buy rates were in free-fall. They never recovered to their Attitude era peak, partly because TV changed but mostly because the company has never achieved that same level of white-hot, everyone-is-obsessed-with-it, mainstream popularity again. That isn’t entirely their own fault - fads come and go and nothing stays that popular forever, wrestling had simply had its day, but part of it is their own fault as Vince and his creative team headed by his daughter Stephanie began booking poorly and the more they tried to grasp onto the Attitude era, the worse it got. 

You can see some of the desperation in the way the PPVs and shows are being promoted - JR and Michael Cole have returned to their 1997 and 1998 habit of shilling ticket sales for upcoming events as they don’t sell out as easily as they did in 1999 - 2001, and the PPV events are marketed as all-star games with Raw and Smackdown talent all featured. No one had to beg the audience to buy a PPV when Stone Cold was main eventing, that’s for sure. 

Backstage, Eric Bischoff and Coach are still patiently waiting for Triple H to come out of Stephanie’s office. He is desperate to sign The Game to a Raw contract. A man in a suit shows up with some legal documents. Bischoff is very unhappy with that and assumes it means Stephanie has been able to convince her Ex to remain with Smackdown.

JR and King now come down to ringside and take over the commentary duties for the rest of the show. If you think that Cole looked genuinely annoyed by this then you’re right - the brand split was designed to create some real tension and rivalry on the roster to motivate the superstars into giving 110%. That desire to be “the better show” extended to the behind the scenes staff and Cole and Tazz’s chip on their shoulder over being on the B Team only got worse as they pushed to be taken seriously. They’re cordial here as they shake JR and King’s hands but here’s Tazz and Cole hosting the internet show Byte This! in 2005 and being significantly less cool about Smackdown’s status as the B show.

WWE Intercontinental Championship

Rob Van Dam © vs. Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman)

This is an exciting match as we’re going to either see a new champion, or the end of an undefeated streak. Right? Those are the only two possible outcomes aren’t they? Hmm. Lesnar’s Summerslam main event spot is not on the line in this match but maybe it should have been.

RVD is one of if not the most popular person on Raw these days. I commented on it during the Preview after Vince’s motivational “Ruthless Aggression” promo but it seems like the fans have told him exactly who the next person to get a big push should be with their “RVD” chants. I’ve no idea why they never pulled the trigger, especially during an era where they were so desperate for stars.

RVD out-runs Lesnar early, avoiding shoulder tackles and clotheslines and dropping him with a drop toe hold before sending him to the outside with a dropkick. Lesnar’s huge over confidence has taken a knock - he expects to win the title here and there’s no doubt in his or Heyman’s minds that he will.

Van Dam keeps his challenger off balance with kicks and a sliding dropkick into the face. Van Dam’s first mistake is a moonsault off the apron to a standing Lesnar which he effortlessly catches and slams RVD hard on the outside to gain control of the match, focusing on RVD’s back with clubs and slams.

JR brings up some fun trivia - RVD’s WWE debut took place almost one year ago to the day on July 22nd 2001 at Invasion when he won the Hardcore Championship. 

RVD punches RVD on the outside and sends him into the security wall and then the ring steps, keeping up the pressure on the Intercontinental Champion and squeezes the life out of him with a long bear hug, which Van Dam fights out of with elbows and comes back with kicks as Heyman pleads “Don’t lose!” RVD drops him with a straight kick and goes for the Five Star Frog Splash but Lesnar pulls him off the ropes into an F5. RVD counters that into a tornado DDT and goes back up for a Frog Splash for a second time, which he hits! It’s over and Heyman senses it too as he pulls the referee out of the ring, which gets his client disqualified. RVD wins by DQ and keeps his Intercontinental title, and Lesnar keeps his unpinned streak. 

Van Dam baseball slides Heyman in the back which allows referee Charles Robinson to lay into him with punches until Brock pulls him off his agent and throws him like a sack of potatoes. RVD crashes onto Lesnar with an awesome looking dive from the top rope to the floor and gets a steel chair, preparing to drill Lesnar with the Van Terminator but Heyman grabs his leg and the distraction allows Brock to recover with a suplex and then an F5 onto the steel chair. Lesnar regroups as Heyman tells him to focus on Summerslam now, and that the loss tonight doesn’t matter. RVD needs medical attention and is helped by referees. On the replay, it looked like Lesnar was going to kick out of the Frog Splash anyway so Heyman should have kept his hands to himself. This was an ok match but if nothing else it did a good job of making Brock look strong while protecting RVD and the Intercontinental title.

Back at the Smackdown General Manager’s office, Stephanie emerges with a sad look on her face. A smug Bischoff assumes that means that Triple H hasn’t signed but she solemnly says that he did sign and walks off. Triple H exits next and Bischoff starts to yell at him, calling him an idiot for signing with Smackdown untill a pissed off Game snaps at him that it was his divorce papers he was signing! He says he hasn’t made up his mind about Raw vs. Smackdown yet, and when he leaves a confident Bischoff tells Coach that Triple H is his, he can feel it. Just in case anyone is wondering - yes, Triple H and Stephanie were still very much a happy item in real life. They’re still together 20+ years later in fact and have three daughters now. 

No Disqualification match

The Big Show vs. Booker T

I’ll talk a bit about the lead up to this match and the death of the nWo in a minute but the creation of this match was Big Show getting himself disqualified and destroying Booker T on Raw with a chokeslam through the announce table. This match also marks the first one Eric Bischoff personally made as the new GM of Raw. 

Booker T has gotten so popular in the last month - he’s hilarious in backstage skits and his move set and Spinarooni lend themselves much better to being a show off babyface than a smug heel, at least in my opinion.

Show dominates early and has no issues beating up Booker, stepping on his back with his full weight which should be cheating but isn’t. 

This turns into a slow, plodding brawl on the outside as Show uses his size to dominate but Booker comes back by avoiding a charge and sending Show into the ring post, and then choking him with a camera cable.

Booker blasts Show in the head with a TV monitor and clears off both announce desks and then, in an awesome spot, jumps from one table to the other, driving Big Show through the desk with a Scissors Kick! That gets a “Holy shit” chant and a big reaction from King on commentary too. 

Back in the ring, Big Show grabs Booker for a chokeslam but he blocks it with a big kick to the balls, another Scissors Kick and then he ends with one of his old WCW finishers - a front flip from the top rope into a leg drop known as the Houston Hangover - to win this match in a super impressive performance.

This was a big moment for Booker T and JR and King loved it, cheering him on as the fans went nuts for the Spinarooni. Great stuff, if not a great match. It only went six minutes.

This match marked the end of the Booker T vs. the nWo storyline. It might have lasted longer if not for the end of the group but it’s onto better things for both himself and Big Show after this. 

Kevin Nash’s injury officially ended the New World Order in the WWE but they’d been on borrowed time since Scott Hall was fired. The group dominated WCW - they were the biggest and sometimes only storyline that company produced for years and saturated every broadcast. Bischoff was right on Raw when he called the WWE version a stale retread. The legacy of WWE’s nWo version is that no one ever talks about it - when the nWo comes up now, people talk exclusively about the WCW version which, in fairness, changed the wrestling world in a very real way which needs its own article really. It made WCW successful, and also contributed to what killed it. 

Live at The World in Times Square, New York Smackdown’s Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie are standing by. They both give their picks for tonight’s main event (The Rock and The Undertaker respectively) and then argue over who has the nicer butt and should have won the Golden Thong Award. Thankfully, JR ends the segment there.

Back at the arena, significantly more important, Triple H heads down to the ring to make his decision - will he remain on Smackdown, run by his now ex-wife Stephanie McMahon, or will he jump ship to Eric Bischoff’s Raw? Before Triple H can even speak, Bischoff’s awesome theme song plays and he comes out to apologise for what he said backstage and getting involved in his personal business. He sells their lack of personal history as a benefit - with him, it’s all business opposed to with his ex-wife on Smackdown. He says that he spent the last two years networking and cultivating relationships in Hollywood and while everyone is talking about The Rock, they’re also talking about who the next WWE Superstar to break Hollywood will be and people want Triple H. He actually almost said WCW but caught himself. Bischoff says he even has a sneaker deal in the works! Smackdown’s General Manager Stephanie McMahon comes out next in an all white suit. King talks about how hot she is and JR refuses to comment - I’d imagine working closely with Vince makes calling his 25 year old daughter hot feel weird to most normal people but not Jerry Lawler.

Stephanie says that she knows Triple H better than anyone and they have dealt with their personal situation so now they can be all business going forward. Bischoff cuts off her speech and calls it whining and says he knows talent better than her. She points out that a young Triple H used to work for WCW and Bischoff once told him that he had no talent. They go back and forth like that for a bit until Triple H cuts them off. He says that he’d rather stick with the devil he knows and seems to be decided on Smackdown until Shawn Michaels theme music hits and Triple H’s best buddy heads down to the ring, much to everyone’s surprise. 

I wonder if its intentional that Shawn and Triple H have their hair styled the same here and are dressed identically? 

Shawn brings up that it was originally him who said he’d come out at Vengeance and try to bring Triple H home to the nWo, but the nWo no longer exists. Shawn has a sales pitch of his own. “Friendship and Fun”. He should come to Raw so that they can basically reform D-Generation X and make Eric Bischoff’s life a living hell. He winces at that, but ultimately is happy that Shawn is pushing for Triple H to sign with his brand. It works and Triple H says sorry to Stephanie before hugging Shawn Michaels. His music plays to end the segment and he and Shawn Michaels leave together - Triple H is coming to Raw and he’s reunited with his best friend in the whole, wide world. I’ll talk a lot more about their real life friendship both on screen and behind it at Summerslam.

WWE Tag Team Championships

Hulk Hogan and Edge © vs. Lance Storm and Christian

This match gets a video package because it’s about America. I had a bit of fun in the Preview cheering on the Anti-Americans and poking fun at America but you know what? I meant every word. I pledge allegiance to the Anti-Americans. This group does eventually get a better stable name. Anti-Americans is more of a descriptor than a group name. 

Before the match, Christian says that the only solace tonight is that since they’re in Detroit, after the win they can escape over the Detroit river to Canada and get the hell out of this country. 

As much as I don’t like Hogan, I was a full blown Hulkamania in 2002 and seeing him play the Tag title belt like a guitar during his entrance made me smile, as did JR’s Hogan impression. 

Hogan and Christian start off and Christian is immediately launched to the outside from a lock up with a loud “USA” chant. 

Hard to ignore the fact that this is not the first time Edge and Christian have been in the same tag team title match - they of course won seven of them together, with this reign with Hogan marking Edge’s eighth.

The Anti-Americans try to double team Hogan for an advantage but he’s too much for them and pretty easily fights them off while JR and King discuss how most Canadians probably don’t hate America. JR goes on a bit of a right wing rant about how other countries are ungrateful for everything America does for them - I suspect that means that at the time, Vince had a bee in his bonnet about international aid and the international reaction to George W. Bush’s “War on Terror”. 

Hogan tags out to Edge which was a mistake as he’s more susceptible to Storm and Christian’s double teaming. 

The match is in fast forward as Edge is worked over for mere moments before a hot tag to Hogan. Hogan puts down Christian with a big boot and Immortal Leg Drop but Lance Storm breaks up the pin and puts Hogan down with a superkick on the outside. Hogan is then very briefly double teamed until he gets a hot tag of his own to Edge. He runs through both Christian and Storm but his attempted Spear on Storm is leapfrogged and the referee goes down. Edge connects with his Edgeucution DDT but there’s no referee to count. There being no referee also means the third Anti-American Test is free to run down and attack Hogan on the outside and knock out Edge with a Big Boot. Storm crawls into the cover but Edge kicks out! 

Christian fights with Hogan on the outside and as Lance distracts the referee, Chris Jericho who has a match scheduled with Edge for Smackdown, which was originally supposed to happen on this PPV, comes from behind and knocks out Edge a second time with one of the WWE Tag Team title belts. Christian restrains Hogan allowing Lance Storm to get the victory. Christian starts his eight Tag Team title reign by ending Edge’s.

This Tag Team title reign is not only Hulk Hogan’s first ever Tag Title reign, it’s the first and only non-world title he ever held in any wrestling company. A six time WWF champion and six time WCW champion, the number of times he even challenged for a non-world title was in the single digits - the most famous being the main event of Wrestlemania VI where both the WWF title and Intercontinental titles were on the line, and when he and Brutus Beefcake challenged for these same Tag Team titles at Wrestlemania IX. Goes to show that the number of titles won is ultimately pretty meaningless in pro-wrestling.

Kurt Angle makes his way through the back for tonight’s main event (wearing some very cool camouflage gear in red, white and blue) and is stopped by Eric Bischoff who makes him a sales pitch to join Raw just like Triple H did. He’s too distracted by his upcoming title match to discuss it. Stephanie McMahon is watching and tells Mark Lloyd that while Eric may have won the battle tonight, she’ll win the war. She’s in direct contact with every WWE Superstar and when the time is right, she’ll “tear the heart right out of Raw”. Whatever could that mean?

WWE Undisputed Championship

The Undertaker © vs. Kurt Angle vs. The Rock

The winner of this match will of course be the WWE Undisputed Champion but they’ll also be defending said Undisputed title at Summerslam against King of the Ring Brock Lesnar. Assuming they don’t lose it to someone else between now and then, obviously. No one seems to be considering that though. 

As seen in the above video, Kurt Angle made both The Rock and The Undertaker tap out in the build to this match. The Undertaker one is especially impressive as it’s the only time he’d ever tapped out in his career. He also handed Hulk Hogan his first WWE submission loss at the King of the Ring and was the first man to make both Kane tap out at all and while (heel) Stone Cold had tapped out previously, Angle was the first and only man to do it in order to win a match.

The Rock’s WWE career was winding down obviously, as his Hollywood career exploded. It’s a bit spoilery but I want to make note of it - I mentioned in the Preview that his match with Kurt Angle on Smackdown was their last ever singles match together and this is the final time he was ever involved in a match with either Kurt Angle or The Undertaker. That’s significant. 

JR mentions that The Undertaker won his first ever WWE title in this very building at the 1991 Survivor Series PPV. That is true but what’s also true is that Kurt Angle also made his WWE debut in this building. All three of these men made their debuts at the Survivor Series - 1990 (Undertaker), 1996 (The Rock) and 1999 (Kurt Angle) which isn’t relevant but is a cool bit of trivia (I think). 

Angle takes issue with The Rock and Undertaker focusing on each other and ignoring him but pays for it when they both punch him and send him out of the ring. The Rock wins the first exchange with Undertaker and when he goes to the outside, Kurt throws the champion into the ring steps and then drops The Rock with a German suplex in the ring. Kurt Angle is awesome, but that’s not news.

Their fight is broken up by The Undertaker who sends Kurt to the outside and focuses on The Rock who he’s wanted to get his hands on since last month. The Rock actually gives Undertaker a chokeslam but we’ll never know if that would have ended it as Kurt Angle breaks up the cover and tees off on The Rock. The Rock counters with a belly to belly suplex and steals another finisher, locking Kurt in the ankle lock. Kurt rolls through his own move and then gives The Rock a Rock Bottom! Undertaker breaks up that pin. He gets in on the fun by giving Kurt an Angle Slam and The Rock breaks up that pin to keep the match going. 

The Rock puts Undertaker down with a spinebuster and connects with a People’s Elbow. Kurt pulls Rock out of the ring and drops him across the announce table and tries to steal his pin - Undertaker kicks out. 

The fight goes back to the outside and Undertaker bangs Kurt’s head into the ring post, busting him open. 

Undertaker dominates a bloody Kurt and gets a near fall with Old School but Rock gets back into the fight. It’s back and forth with all three men stealing finishers and getting close near falls. 

A bloody Kurt gets a steel chair and blasts Undertaker, knocking him out. He hits the Angle Slam on The Rock but he’s too hurt to go for a cover and by the time he finally does, Undertaker kicks out. He crawls to The Rock and he kicks out too. 

The Rock surprises Kurt and takes him down and into the sharpshooter. The Undertaker stops that with a big boot and gives The Rock a Last Ride. That’ll end it but Kurt Angle breaks that pin by dragging Undertaker into an ankle lock!

He’s held in that for a long time until Taker rolls through to break it. He gets Kurt up for the Last Ride but much like their match on Smackdown, Kurt blocks it by clamping his legs into a triangle choke. It almost ends the same way but despite Undertaker’s best efforts to lift Kurt and slam him to break the hold he fades and collapses. Kurt has the match won by submission for sure but The Rock breaks up the hold. He goes for a Rock Bottom but Angle is like a man possessed and snaps down to his knees and puts Rock in the ankle lock. He’s a machine. Rock rolls him up into a pin but Kurt kicks out. He charges and runs right into an Undertaker chokeslam who in turn walks into a Rock Bottom! That’s the end for sure but Undertaker kicks out! Holy shit. This was 23 years ago and that false finish even got me! 

The parade of finishes continues and after an Angle Slam on Undertaker, Kurt pulls down his straps and taunts for just a beat too long, walking into a Rock Bottom. Undertaker flails to break it up but it’s too late - The Rock gets the three on Kurt Angle and wins the WWE Championship in an incredible triple threat match. 

This was an awesome, awesome main event. This was perhaps Undertaker’s best match and might be Rock’s too. I noticed at the end here that while the rest of the title belts still have the old WWF logo on them, they have finally updated the Undisputed title belt to the WWE one. That wasn’t the case on Smackdown so this is the belt’s first appearance. It looks way bigger on The Rock than it did on the Undertaker too.