I want to introduce the year 2003 by painting the scenario for all of you. It's the year 2003, the first full year of the new Ruthless Aggression Era, as well as the first full year of the brand split between RAW and SmackDown. To display a roster of talent, you have the following wrestlers in the company: Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Big Show, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rob Van Dam, Kane, John Cena, Randy Orton, Kevin Nash, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, and even Goldberg. With all these guys and so much more, it's easy to see why fans would enjoy sitting through this year. But is it worth the fuss? I usually regard 2003 as one of my favorite years, especially since the Aggression Era is my personal favorite, but is it a bias due to the size of the roster when the real focus should be on overall match quality? Well that's what we're here to find out.
So let's not wait any further and head to the first show of the year 2003...
1. Royal Rumble
If you wanna see how 2003 has some of the best and worst wrestling imaginable, look no further than the world title matches. As for the best, we have an amazing WWE Championship match with Kurt Angle defending the title against Chris Benoit. This match was so good it could have easily main evented WrestleMania, but here, it's the first stop on the Road to WrestleMania. On the other side of the spectrum was an abysmal World Heavyweight Championship match with Triple H and Scott Steiner. Talk about a letdown with some of the worst ring work imaginable. Steiner very famously provided way too many suplexes to carry the match work (and not in a cool way like Lesnar, Angle, or Benoit). Worst part of it....Angle/Benoit didn't get a PPV rematch after this and Triple H/Steiner DID!!!!The Royal Rumble match is pretty basic as well. Very by the books with a few standout performances, most noticeably Chris Jericho for lasting a really long time and also seeking to outperform Shawn Michaels. At the end of the match, it came down to the two everyone wanted it to: the Undertaker, who was making his return after an injury at the hands of the Big Show, and Brock Lesnar, who had to win a match earlier in the night to qualify for the Rumble. It was only a tease of a return match from their epic Hell in a Cell match from 2002, but it was a very satisfying showdown to end an average Rumble match.
Mild Recommendation
2. No Way Out
Let's start with the big men match between Undertaker and Big Show. This was at the point when Taker was getting by in the ring solely on respect from the fans, cause all he could do was his signature moves and throw punches. That's not very entertaining to watch for 15 minutes when your opponent can't do a heck of a lot better either. Then, in the Royal Rumble rematch NO ONE wanted to see, Scott Steiner tries once again to take the World Heavyweight Championship from Triple H. This is only a minor improvement from their previous encounter, but there's also a turd polishing metaphor I could use in the same regard. It's still a crap match to sit through. And speaking of rematches, in a WrestleMania rematch that I'm sure loads of fans did want to see, The Rock took on Hulk Hogan in a match that in no way (AND THE ROCK MEANS....NO WAY....couldn't help it) had the same electricity (I gotta stop with the Rock jokes) as the moment they created at Mania X8.
Skip It
3. WrestleMania XIX
In terms of match quality, this is what I would consider to be the best WrestleMania. PERIOD. Before getting into the main event matches, let me just explain how solid the undercard was leading up to it. There's really only 2 bumps in the road match wise and that's with the Undertaker's handicap match against Big Show and A-Train (you can only imagine the damage these 3 men did for nearly 10 minutes) and the ridiculous pillow fight-like match that featured Stacy Keibler, Torrie Wilson, and the Miller Lite Catfight Girls (which bumped the World Tag Team Championship match to the dark match). But still, this show opened with a fast-paced Cruiserweight Championship match between Matt Hardy (V.1...AH!) and Rey Mysterio, one of the greatest Women's Championship matches of all-time with Victoria taking on Jazz and Trish Stratus in a Triple Threat, Team Angle defending the WWE Tag Team Championships in a Triple Threat match against Los Guerreros and the team of Chris Benoit and Rhyno, and TWO performances from Limp Bizkit (who were referred to as the WWE's favorite band in the entire world....which doesn't sound dated at all).Now on to some of the main event matches on this epic evening. We begin with one that I'm not sure was intended to be considered a main event, but was more on that blurred line of upper midcard match that stole the show, and that would be the match between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho. All I need to say about what's so great about this match is that it's the first one-on-one PPV encounter between my top 2 wrestlers of all-time (Michaels 1 and Jericho 2), so I'm instantly sold on that one. The show continues with Triple H defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Booker T, in a match that I tend to find overlooked due to the actual match result and the IMPLIED racial undertones (when in reality it was a dig at Booker's criminal past and roots in WCW that made him unfit to be World Champion). Still, I enjoy it (especially thanks to the manager antics of Ric Flair and the commentary from Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler...just helps bring everything together) and think more fans need to talk about it. Then, Hulk Hogan took on Vince McMahon in a bloody No Holds Barred match that NEVER should have been as fun as it was, but fans really got into it and the spots are very memorable (including a surprise return from an enemy of both Hogan and McMahon).
Rounding off the show were the main events from both brands. For RAW, it was the epic conclusion to the WrestleMania trilogy of matches between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. This is easily my favorite of the three because there is no interference from anybody else or pointless heel turns. It was a simple story: Rock feels he's done it all, except for one thing and that's beating Austin at Mania. It's not about titles or making money, it's a personal battle between two of wrestling's biggest icons on the grandest stage in sports entertainment. For SmackDown, Brock Lesnar tried to regain his WWE Championship by taking it off of Kurt Angle in a dream match for wrestling purists. The match may be known for Brock botching the Shooting Star Press at the end of the match, but watch it again and really pay attention to the chemistry between Angle and Lesnar, and the great match these two are able to have prior to the Shooting Star. It's faced paced, well wrestled, and the momentum is always constantly switching between the two that you had no idea who had the upper hand to win. It's a fantastic main event to end one of the greatest evenings in PPV history. A must watch for all wrestling fans.
Highly Recommended
4. Backlash
On this night, Goldberg wrestled his first WWE match against The Rock in a dream match fans of the Monday Night Wars were clamoring to see. In reality, the match was just alright, but if these were two of your guys during the late '90s, then it should be entertaining enough to mask that their match was just "meh." And this would be just the first point in Goldberg's mediocre run in the WWE.
Mild Recommendation
5. Judgment Day
I'm actually surprised with how much I enjoyed this show. There's a good amount of variety presented throughout the evening, all tied together with some hilarious scenes of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff sharing the Sky Box together as RAW's Co-General Managers. But onto the action. Sure, there are some disappointments like the match between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Mr. America (who was CLEARLY Hulk Hogan). These guys may have been a top draw with personality to hide what they may have lacked in the ring, and that might have been ok in the '80s, but it certainly wasn't going to be tolerated by fans during the heart of the Ruthless Aggression Era. Remember what I said in my 2011 review about Triple H and Kevin Nash? Well, it wasn't much better in 2003. It was better, but only by a little. Not to mention this was the first (second if you count Backlash) of three (or four) consecutive PPV main events together.Now let's get to what's memorable in a good way. There was an entertaining battle royal to crown a new Intercontinental Champion (with the title being reinstated after it was merged with the World Title back at No Mercy in 2002), a bikini challenge with Sable and Torrie Wilson, and a very underrated ladder match for the WWE Tag Team Championships with Team Angle defending against Eddie Guerrero and Tajiri (who was replacing the recently injured Chavo Guerrero). The show was main evented by a stretcher match for the WWE Championship. You wouldn't expect Brock Lesnar and Big Show to have as good a match as they can, but they have a really strong chemistry together and are solely responsible for reviving the stretcher match for modern fans to enjoy...Bravo guys.
Recommended
Initial Thoughts: With the exception of Mania, the beginning of 2003 was a tad rocky. Not too many matches stood out as compelling outside of maybe one or two main events on each show. This was usually the case during the In Your House Days of the New Generation and were tolerable back then. But like I said earlier, this was the first full year of the Ruthless Aggression Era, the first full year of the brand split, and the fans were looking for shows that had quality flowing throughout each show. Still, you couldn't deny a roster of epic proportions that accurately featured the past, present, and future of the business, and that was helping them get by for a while. Would the quality improve throughout the year or would there still be a lot of bumps in the road?
Continued in Part II...
All rights and images are copyrighted and owned by World Wrestling Entertainment
No comments:
Post a Comment