The Year in PPV- 2003, Part II

2003 continues by taking a trip to their fans in the UK...


6. Insurrextion

With a week until Bad Blood, you can guarantee this UK show is pure filler. Most, if not all of the matches carry on at the next show, so this PPV is really pointless. The only match that's really fun to watch is probably the main event. Triple H defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Kevin Nash in a Street Fight. You can only imagine that their in-ring work isn't the greatest, so the use of blood and weapons definitely helped.

There's only one thing that every fan could get into on this show and it's when Chris Jericho hosted the Highlight Reel and invited Eric Bischoff and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Sadly, Jericho and Austin never had that long-term feud with each other, so I always look forward to anytime these guys had something together and this segment is incredibly entertaining, especially with Bischoff added in the mix. Sadly, when an in-ring comedy segment is the most memorable part of the show, you know there's a problem in the execution of a PPV. After this, the WWE never did any more UK exclusive PPVs, so maybe this was the final nail in the coffin that showed these types of shows weren't drawing the greatest results.

Skip It


7. Bad Blood

Here, a comedy segment featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff worked better since it wasn't the only memorable thing on the card. Austin and Bischoff partook in the Redneck Triathlon, which consisted of a variety of activities from a burping contest to a pie eating contest (I ain't talking pastries by the way...). But now onto the matches, starting with a feud that started as a failed concept in WCW: Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg. Now that Jericho was an official main event talent, this feud carried a bit more weight to it than when they "attempted" a minor feud in the old WCW days. This show also featured the first ever one-on-one encounter between Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair. The epicness of that match writes itself.

The main event was Triple H vs. Kevin Nash in a Hell in a Cell match for the World Heavyweight Championship. As an added bonus, when no referee wanted anything to do with this match, Mick Foley was special guest referee. Add his tension with Triple H and you have an extra bit of depth and psychology in this brutal and barbaric match. Is it the greatest Cell match ever? It's Triple H vs. Nash...what do you think? No. But the storyline and bloody and innovative use of tools as weapons allows this match to stand out as a unique approach to Hell in a Cell.

Recommended


8. Vengeance

This show is near PERFECTION. It has everything imaginable and is proof of why SmackDown was the the dominant brand in the early days of the brand split. It opens with an intense and exhausting match with Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero to crown the United States Champion. Then it has a humorous match where Billy Gunn took on Jamie Noble, which if Noble won, he would earn a night alone with Torrie Wilson. Then, the APA hosted an Invitational Bar Room Brawl featuring the likes of Brother Love, Matt Hardy, the Brooklyn Brawler, and the Easter Bunny. Then, the WWE Tag Team Championships were defended when the World's Greatest Tag Team (formerly Team Angle) took on Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman in a match that fans of technical wrestling and high flying should enjoy.

For any fans of a good catfight, this show also offers a match between Sable and Stephanie McMahon. Then, in what many fans nowadays would consider one of the last dream matches to hold on a PPV, John Cena (during his battle rapping days) took on the Undertaker (in his biker gang days) in an ultimate battle of respect. Then, in something truly unique, Mr. McMahon took on Zach Gowen, a one legged wrestler. That's right...if you ever wanted to see Vince McMahon take on a one legged wrestler...this show has that TOO. And in the main event, a Triple Threat match was held for the WWE Championship with Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, and Big Show. This show is awesome from beginning to end and is one of the best shows of the year...and possibly in WWE history.

Highly Recommended


9. SummerSlam

Once you sift through some of the poorly worked matches on the card, there's some stuff to enjoy at this SummerSlam. I really enjoyed 5 of the 7 matches on this show and I wanted to separate the RAW from SmackDown matches in order to prove a point. On the SmackDown side, we had a Fatal 4-Way for the United States Championship (Eddie Guerrero vs. Rhyno vs. Tajiri vs. Chris Benoit) and a one-on-one match for the WWE Championship (Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar). Here, SmackDown focused more on displaying the wrestling talent of its wrestlers than go for stuff that was too gimmicky. Sure, a Fatal 4-Way is a match that can easily get carried away and the WWE Championship match could've relied too heavily on Brock Lesnar's heel turn and alliance with Mr. McMahon, but on this show both matches are downplayed on the storylines and focus more on the in-ring work.

For RAW, they relied a LOT more on gimmicky matches (with Eric Bischoff in control....I am in NO way surprised). In fact, Bischoff has a Falls Count Anywhere match with Shane McMahon that relied HEAVILY on the storyline to carry the match. Then, they had a No Holds Barred Match between Rob Van Dam and the freshly unmasked Kane. The match is a bit of a letdown for me, since both men are capable of better, but for Kane's first high profile feud since unmasking, it did the job. Finally, the main event saw Triple H defend the World Heavyweight Championship in an Elimination Chamber match against Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, and Goldberg. This match was about 90% Goldberg laying waste to everyone else, and the match was significantly shorter than the first one back at Survivor Series 2002. Needless to say, it was an underwhelming follow up to the original Chamber match (especially when you get to the ending).

Recommendation


Thoughts: The second part of the year had a lot of high profile matches, but is also a mixed bag on quality. It wasn't until they split into brand specific PPVs where we saw the brands have to put more than their midcard and main event matches together. We had to see these brands put on exclusive shows featuring solely their show's talent. Both had different results. RAW, with Bischoff, relied more on the main event talent (again...I am in NO way surprised). Whereas SmackDown tried to give the fans a little bit of everything...which proved to be much more effective in displaying brand supremacy. So let's see what efforts both brands put forward to bring 2003 to an end.

Concluded in Part III...


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