The Year in PPV- 2003, Part III

2003 comes to an end with the McMahon family all over the product...


10. Unforgiven

The big fight feel was present on this night when Goldberg put his career on the line against Triple H and the World Heavyweight Championship. I think it was painfully obvious who was gonna win this one, but you still gotta live for the moment right? Well, the match is just alright, but the moment at the time seemed pretty good. But here we have the biggest problem with Goldberg that existed was in his lack of quality ring work. Once you put the World Championship on a guy who is known for destroying everything in his path, you have to rely on him to have 20 minute wrestling matches, which Goldberg could NOT do. In the case of the World Heavyweight Championship, I would have just stuck with Triple H running the show. Not to mention there's the big problem of the complete death of Evolution's momentum.

However there are two matches on the undercard that outshined the main event. The first was a match between Randy Orton and Shawn Michaels, which is often credited as the match that gave Orton the Legend Killer gimmick. The other match was a Last Man Standing match between Kane and Shane McMahon, which may have been bowling shoe ugly, but at least told a solid story and had some memorable spots to make the audience happy.

Mild Recommendation


11. No Mercy

The show opens with a nice Crusierweight Championship match with Rey Mysterio defending against Tajiri, but that's not the selling point that would have people tuning into the show. The second half of No Mercy is really the stuff that's worth checking out, but not all of it is for the right reasons. In terms of actually well wrestled matches, there's an early match between John Cena and Kurt Angle, which was the last major feud Cena had before turning face and never looking back. Also included is the United States Championship match between Eddie Guerrero and Big Show, which many wouldn't expect being good because of Show's limited skills, but with Guerrero attached, I'm not surprised with how good it turned out.

No we enter the crap that is so bad it's good to watch. One that may surprise many would by the nearly 25 minute match for the WWE Championship. Any match with Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker is a memorable and entertaining experience, but when you add a goofy stipulation like a Biker Chain on a pole, then you've got something that belongs NOWHERE near the end of the show, nor a match that should be 25 minutes. It's a fine match, but a regular wrestling match would've sufficed as well. Then, if things couldn't get more ridiculous, Mr. McMahon took on his own daughter Stephanie in the only father/daughter I Quit match. They actually had a solid match, but the concept itself is so goofy that it's really hard to not only laugh, but be disturbed in the process.

Skip It


12. Survivor Series

Admittedly, the main event with Goldberg and Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship told a more interesting story, but it had about the same match quality as before. Of the FIVE main events on this card, this one's definitely the lowest ranked....and why it went on last is beyond me. Were people really invested THAT much with Goldberg/Triple H over these other matches? Anyways, two of the other main events involved a member of the McMahon family taking on one of the Brothers of Destruction. Shane McMahon finished his feud with Kane in an Ambulance match and the Undertaker looked to defeat Mr. McMahon in a Buried Alive match. The Buried Alive match for sure stands out because of how bloody Mr. McMahon gets (after ONE punch to the face by Taker).

But then we have the two Survivor Series elimination tag team matches. Now for some reason, I feel the roles switched, with SmackDown favoring bigger men and brawlers with Team Lesnar (Brock Lesnar, A-Train, Big Show, Matt Morgan, and Nathan Jones) taking on Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Bradshaw, Hardcore Holly, and John Cena). Whereas RAW had much better overall wrestling in their match, as well as a great storyline where their team captains put everything on the line. Stone Cold Steve Austin captained the team of Shawn Michaels, the Dudley Boyz, Rob Van Dam, and Booker T, and if his team lost, he would lose his job as Co-General Manager of RAW. Eric Bischoff helmed the team of Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Scott Steiner, Christian, and Mark Henry, where if he lost, Stone Cold would be able open a can of you know what on anyone in his path. So the stakes were HUGE going into this match, and it did NOT disappoint at all.

Recommended


13. Armageddon

It's normally against my moral fiber to completely spoil a PPV unless the results are obvious. So with that being said, this is the show that ended with Evolution holding all of the titles on RAW. In terms of execution, it's a phenomenal moment to properly restore credibility to Evolution, not just with winning titles but how they did so. For example, when Randy Orton won the Intercontinental Championship, he defeated a GREAT champion in Rob Van Dam. After losing a match to Shawn Michaels, which still made him look strong (take notes Roman Reigns...), Batista teamed with Ric Flair to crash the end of the Tag Team Turmoil match for the World Tag Team Championships. Flair and Batista also won the titles by beating the Dudley Boyz specifically, which is instant credibility for a tag team since the Dudley Boyz are the most decorated tag team in history.

Maybe the only Evolution member that didn't have credibility restored is the one who needed it least. For all of 2003, Triple H had been the mainstay of the main event and on this evening he regained the World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Goldberg and Kane in a Triple Threat. On this night, it was about paving the way for the future with Orton and Batista, and that final image with Evolution toasting with the four title belts is an iconic moment for sure and the proper way to end the last show of the year.

Recommended


Final Thoughts: If we were basing who won the year in terms of their final PPV image, RAW would win in a heartbeat. But since we're grading on an overall scale....SmackDown takes it without a doubt. RAW's main event scene was AWFUL with Triple H taking on Steiner, Nash, and Goldberg to lukewarm reception while the WWE Championship was having the likes of Angle, Lesnar, and Benoit, busting their humps on PPV to put on actual wrestling matches. SmackDown also had a more diverse undercard with the Cruiserweight division, more compelling tag teams, not as many Diva matches to hold the momentum back, and performers like Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, John Cena, and the Undertaker to round out the rosters. As the first year of a new era goes, this one did a great job at creating the overall image of what made the Ruthless Aggression Era popular. It had a deep roster of talent and had tons of match quality, you just have to sift through some crap to find it.


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