WWE 2002

[WWFChilli]

I've been watching through a mountain of TV from 2002 (don't ask why, sadism etc) and fucking hell! What a weird year it was.

 

It's a strange transitional era for WWF/E at the time. There are contributing factors to this I feel. The Invasion coming to an end and WCW therefore not existing even in storyline anymore. So it's the first real annual year where the WWE is the only game in town. The change from WWF to WWE is also significant as the entire company faces an identity change with the 'Get the F' Out' campaign. The year also suffers from so many inconclusive angles (dropped due to injuries or just fuck all any interest anymore) not to mention the loss of some major stars. You also had the inauguration of the Brand Split.

 

There was some positives to be honest. Of course Brock Lesnar came of age at Summerslam 2002 and began showing some grand strides as soon as he went to Smackdown. On Raw, Lesnar was very impressive but he was lumbered with bollocks feuds with the Hardyz and to be fair this was understandable as he was being established. I cannot really explain what it is but as soon as Lesnar fucked off to the blue brand, his work rate also vastly improved. He could not talk for shit still but that was Heyman's job. Lesnar had an awesome 2002. His PPV bouts with RVD, The Rock and The Undertaker was stellar affairs, as was his utter demolishing of Hulk Hogan. Lesnar for me was The Man of 2002 in terms of WWE creating a new star.

 

From a TV show standpoint, Smackdown absolutely murders Raw in terms of quality. It seems that whoever wrote Raw decided that Raw would be the place for the gimmicks and the Divas, and Smackdown would be the 'wrestling' show. In the autumn and winter of 2002 you had Triple H doing his Katie Vick angle with Kane, Eric Bischoff getting 3MW to smack the shit out of lesbians, Pat Patterson, Lillian Garcia and pretty much everyone else. Smackdown on the other hand had its stonking fantastic tag division with Los Guerrero's, Benoit/Angle and Edge/Mysterio, as well as Brock Lesnar on top and The Undertaker having by far the best run of his American Baddass persona. Raw should not be dissed all that much though. They had the brilliant Raw Roulette show, a motivated RVD and Shawn Michaels making his early comeback to TV as a regular character.

 

The big transitions of the year was an influx of new stars who went on to be the next main event players, and the loss of the two biggest of the Attitude era in Austin and The Rock, as well as the departure of Hogan. Austin had a fucking awful 2002 for the five months he was around. He had a balls of a match with Jericho and then that forgettable bout with Hall at X8 before messing about with Flair, nWo and Eddie Guerrero before doing a high-tail over the Brock affair. Austin by the time for me was worn out as a character. I really disliked his shit this year, down to a mix of an unmotivated Austin and tired writers. There was one skit I recall in particular where Stone Cold attacked Arn Anderson in GM Flair's office. While Flair is in the ring, Austin cuts a promo and then from off-camera, pisses on Double A. I thought at the time, 'What a twat'. Why is he pissing on Arn Anderson... the fuck is the point. Austin needed to fuck off, perhaps the break did him good?

 

The Rock on the other hand was in a transition as he knew where his future lay. Rock was as selfless as ever, putting over Jericho (albeit with interference) and the his epic match with Hogan at Mania. Rock then did his shifts at Vengeance and Summerslam as well as some fucking brilliant TV matches. Losing the Rock was a shame but it was something that I guess was inevitable, plus his return gave us chance to see 'Hollywood' Rock. Which none of us would have wanted to miss. Hogan had a really fantastic year. Some of his best matches came from his 2002 run, it was as if the big lad wanted to prove a point. He worked the crowd like a maestro at Mania, then had the fun matches with Triple H and Jericho, and then an outstanding effort against Angle, and of course Lesnar. This was not the young lads work either, The Hulkster put his graft in. Relative to new stars, it's bizarre to see Cena, Orton and Batista in there original forms. Orton and Cena as the whitest of white-meat blue eyes (Orton sports some fucking atrocious attire in his first run as well as his shit OVERDRIVE finisher), and then you have Batista, playing a beefed up collection plate man for D-Von Dudley doing a black Brother Love gimmick. Who'd have thought those three would have made it.

 

Like all years though 2002 had its highlights. TLC IV, The RVD/Eddie Guerrero series, the aforementioned 'Smackdown Six', The Angle/Edge feud, Triple H's fun series of matches on Smackdown against Lance Storm, Test and others, some great PPV's Vengeance, No Mercy, Survivor Series to name the highlights, the Elimination Chamber Match, the formation of Team Angle, the nWo debut at No Way Out, Hogan/Rock, Jamie Noble, Matt Hardy's jump to Smackdown (the birth of his 'V1' run), the Undertaker/Jeff Hardy Ladder match (including JR's commentary all through that match), Booker & Goldie, "GIMME THE FUCKING MIC", Shawn Michaels big return after four years, Rey Mysterio's brilliant first few months in the promotion until December, Maven eliminating the Undertaker from the Rumble, Vince McMahon and Ric Flair's amusing verbal duels, The Brand Split (hey it was interesting and something different), The Edge/Eddie Guerrero three Match series from Aug/Sept, Cena's debut against Kurt Angle, Psycho Victoria and the Billy & Chuck wedding.

 

There was also some stuff I've completely forgotten about and stuff that was absolutely shit. The Hardcore Division was on it's fucking arse in 2002. The division just died as a Raw exclusive title with Bubba Dudley doing a Dusty Rhodes gimmick and Steven Richards wearing shit pants. The title also got gimmicked. Tommy Dreamers version of the title looked like a licence plate and Bradshaw had a version that had bullhorns on it. The title was passed its usefulness, it deserved to die. the 24/7 rule had ran it's life-cycle. 2002 also had the random things like Rikishi in drag, Mark Henry breaking frying pans, Bradshaw doing his blackjack gimmick again, Val Venis being called 'The Big Valbowski' instead of Val Venis, Mr. Perfect being jobbed out , the team Scotty 2 Hotty & Albert (The Hip-Hop Hippo), Mike Awesome getting his arse handed to him by Funaki on Velocity, Maven shagging Torrie Wilson in a hospital whiles Tajiri watched them dressed as a doctor, Revered D-Von and Ron Simmons as a team, Blue-eye Billy & Chuck, The Godfather as a heel, Bill DeMott, Planet Stasiak, The Edge/Regal feud of utter boredom, The Hardyz being completely anachronistic when a year before they were a big must-see thing, Chris Nowinski and Tommy Dreamer having a fight in a class room, X-Pac unmasking Kane, Ric Flair joining the nWo, Booker T joining the nWo, TOO MANY MIXED FUCKING TAG MATCHES on Raw, Linda Miles and Jackie Gayda wrestling and Dawn Marie the Grandpa hunter and raving lesbian (god bless her).

 

2002 was a bloody odd one.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

WWF/WWE in 2002 was a complete mess in some ways. They'd hit a massive wall business wise and were desperate to get things back on track. Look at the moves they made:

-Brought back the nWo

-Put the belt on their former headliner

-Split the brands

-Did what WCW usually did when things got a bit stale, and spent a shitload on a new set and intro music thinking it was going to do wonders

-Brought back Vince Russo to write for them

-Started a new "RUTHLESS AGGGGGGGGGGGGRESSION!!" campaign, in place of the old "WWF Attitude" slogan.

-Put the belt on a young green bloke from OVW

-Brought in the man who almost put them in the ground to be the new GM

-Tried to do an extreme angle (which TNN and Sky Sports went mental about) like Triple H fucking a dummy

-Brought back Shawn Michaels and put the belt on him

 

What a mental year. They tried about a million things and most of them died on their arse. It wasnt until about 2005 until the things seemed different. 2002 seemed like the ghost of the Attitude era (that had been dead since early 2001 to be honest) was still lurking and they couldnt get rid of it. People wanted something different, and Cena and Batista helped a lot. It showed in 2003, when Hogan, Austin, Rock and Michaels were on the WrestleMania card and it bombed huge. Wrestling was very stale during this period.

 

It had its moments, though.

[WWFChilli]

WWF/WWE in 2002 was a complete mess in some ways. They'd hit a massive wall business wise and were desperate to get things back on track. Look at the moves they made:

-Brought back the nWo

-Put the belt on their former headliner

-Split the brands

-Did what WCW usually did when things got a bit stale, and spent a shitload on a new set and intro music thinking it was going to do wonders

-Brought back Vince Russo to write for them

-Started a new "RUTHLESS AGGGGGGGGGGGGRESSION!!" campaign, in place of the old "WWF Attitude" slogan.

-Put the belt on a young green bloke from OVW

-Brought in the man who almost put them in the ground to be the new GM

-Tried to do extreme angle (which TNN and Sky Sports went mental about) like Triple H fucking a dummy

-Brought back Shawn Michaels and put the belt on him

 

What a mental year. They tried about a million things and most of them died on their arse. It wasnt until about 2005 until the things seemed different. 2002 seemed like the ghost of the Attitude era (that had been dead since early 2001 to be honest) was still lurking and they couldnt get rid of it.

 

I couldn't remember this phrase for the life of me when typing up the OP. It was like the failed version of 'New Generation' and 'Attitude', just never clicked. The promotion was making money but it was on it's arse. They never really promoted the 'Ruthless Aggression' angle and name much either for it to really take off, and let's face it. It wasn't really that catchy.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Great post, Chilli_Dog. I actually kind of loved 2002. Granted, it was mainly because it happened to be during the period I was most hooked on wrestling, but there was a hell of a lot to enjoy at the time. I'd watch and check results religiously, plus I still had friends at school who watched wrestling... okay, looking back, 2002 made them all turn off, but ... okay, point taken about it being erratic. I still loved it, though.

 

 

Maven shagging Torrie Wilson in a hospital whiles Tajiri watched them dressed as a doctor

 

I had totally forgotten this happened, but fuck, that happened, didn't it?!

[NEWM]

I've not long finished working through 2002 Raw, and even with nostalgia, very little of that shite has improved.

 

As you've touched on, this began a serious identity crisis for the WWE that they didn't come out of until about 05/06 when Cena and Batista were firmly implanted as the guys on top and for the future.

 

But content-wise, there's just so much...bollocks in there. Pretty much all covered above, but I'd like to note the sheer malaise and cloud that hangs over Raw every week, especially from the summer onwards. The show is so devoid of focus, the fans lose interest in such a shocking degree. The most mental thing about the fucking barmy ideas such as Katie Vick and HLA are, for the most part, the fans sit there not giving a flying fuck. The company is out there committing creative suicide on an almost weekly basis, and they don't even seem to achieve the "OMG THAT'S MAD AND OUT THERE THAT IS!" response. People just don't give a shit.

 

Most notably on a personal level, 2002 was definitely the year wrestling became largely a solitary hobby again. After all your mates suddenly wanted to talk Steve Austin with you, you actively avoided getting the casual observers round for Raw, just in case they'd serve up a plate of some of this stuff. I can morbidly enjoy virtually any wrestling content (including many ofthe depths they plunged to around this time), but the dire boredom that sunk so many Raw's is rough going. Fucking HHH steamrolling through RVD is heartbreaking. Booker T and Goldust not winning those bastard belts till Armageddon is NOT a good chase - it's just the ONLY over characters on the entire show LOSING EVERY WEEK. Austin is horrible, Bradshaw is horrible, the nWo is the pits, HHH is beyond horrendous, Kane is shit, the Unamericans/Storm & Regal are dull, the whole thing is just so bloody bleak.

 

It's really, really, mega shite, basically. The only ones who enjoy 2002 for what it is rather than what it isn't (if that makes sense) are those who were only just discovering wrestling around the time. You always love your own first few years. They're lucky to be able to appreciate this shit.

 

MOVE TO MA MUSIC, PLAY THAT F-KIN MUSIC, MOVE TO THA MUSIC, YEAHHHHH.

 

*shudder*

 

Actually, one last thing - the Divas are genuinely fucking great. In the "Comments...." thread, I've popped in a few times to pontificate on various bits of where I'm up to, and I bummed them all over the shop. If anything, the million mixed tags really drag them down. Give Trish, Jacqueline, Jazz, Molly and Victoria 5 minutes without the blokes each week and they owned the show. Really great stuff.

 

And I'm up to March 2003 and it's not really on the mend. Not on Raw anyhow. When Hollywood Rock fucks off soon we're all going to shitsville again.

[WWFChilli]

re-Maven: It happened just after Maven did his knee in on a May episode of Smackdown and Torrie had just fucked off Tajiri during his 'I want my sushi on the table when I get home bitch!' angle.

 

I'm more confused at the heel version of the Godfather personally.

[PunkStep]

Great post Chilli Dog. 2002 was a mixed bag for me, too. I absolutely hated Raw, even with Michaels' return. It was surely Triple H's worst year in terms of his in-ring and creativity, well possibly 2003 but that year did have Evolution.

 

Smackdown however was superb, with the 'Smackdown six' putting on cracking bouts and Brock emerging as a star. Really enjoyed the blue brand. The lack of competition for me did hinder WWE in putting together a decent overall product, as there was little incentive to work their arses off. Like many others that missed WCW & ECW, started to look at other alternatives to WWE, like the new TNA & ROH promotions and also watching FWA.

[cobra_gordo]

Yeah, ace post Chilli.

WWE were peddaling some shit in '02 but the one thing that really stamd out for me is the heel American Badass Undertaker. I liked him as a face but he was tremdous during that run, he looked terrifying during the Rumble destroying Maven. Other than that, everything else is a bit "meh". 2002 was the year that I started to drift from wrestling a bit and didn't really get back involved properly til 2005 when things started to get a bit more consistant on teh creative front.

[Professor Paul's Bin]

2002 was a quality year in the WWE. Only problem was it was a difficult period to keep elements of the Attitude Era and make the transition into the future of the company. Some of the stuff didn't work out such as the European Title being on RAW aswell as the Hardcore title which were then unified with the IC title (which they never fucking reference). But as said before SmackDown had a top notch show and raw was the weaker one.

 

Talking about the WWE in 2002 but its abit off topic. I always forget that Lesnar debuted on RAW when it was still the WWF. I don't know why I just find it weird. Also his debut was brilliant.

[Dingo Warrior]

The WWF back in 2002 was in a transition period as Chilli_dog stated and the same argument could be said for the WWE of today.

[WWFChilli]

The WWF back in 2002 was in a transition period as Chilli_dog stated and the same argument could be said for the WWE of today.

 

Go on, give us the argument on how...

[MinceMcMahon]

Most notably on a personal level, 2002 was definitely the year wrestling became largely a solitary hobby again. After all your mates suddenly wanted to talk Steve Austin with you, you actively avoided getting the casual observers round for Raw, just in case they'd serve up a plate of some of this stuff. I can morbidly enjoy virtually any wrestling content (including many ofthe depths they plunged to around this time), but the dire boredom that sunk so many Raw's is rough going.

 

Yeah, I can definitely relate to that. Wrestling was on its ass and the 90's culture that gave birth to the Attitude era had finally died off. I don't think the WWE will ever get back to those heights but things have been getting steadily better in the last 5/6 years.

[Dr.PeterVenkman]

It's really, really, mega shite, basically. The only ones who enjoy 2002 for what it is rather than what it isn't (if that makes sense) are those who were only just discovering wrestling around the time. You always love your own first few years. They're lucky to be able to appreciate this shit.

 

I admit I must be in the minority but I'd say from mid 2004 until about mid 2010, WWE was nowhere near as good as 2002/3, at least there was stuff going on around then, some of it admittedly shite but at least it wasn't boring as fuck like 2005/6 were

 

Plus I'd been watching for 11 years by 2002 so I hadn't just got into it, as I say I must be in the minority because everyone else who's posted seem to agree that 2002 was crap

[Magnum]

It's really, really, mega shite, basically. The only ones who enjoy 2002 for what it is rather than what it isn't (if that makes sense) are those who were only just discovering wrestling around the time. You always love your own first few years. They're lucky to be able to appreciate this shit.

 

I admit I must be in the minority but I'd say from mid 2004 until about mid 2010, WWE was nowhere near as good as 2002/3, at least there was stuff going on around then, some of it admittedly shite but at least it wasn't boring as fuck like 2005/6 were

 

Plus I'd been watching for 11 years by 2002 so I hadn't just got into it, as I say I must be in the minority because everyone else who's posted seem to agree that 2002 was crap

 

I'd be joining you in that minority, then. While I hadn't just got into wrestling then, I think I was more invested in it personally at the time thanks to the brilliant period that had preceded it. For that reason, I think finding the odd diamond in the shite every few weeks (the Smackdown Six matches, the initial markout value of the nWo/Bischoff/Steiner, Lesnar's push, Matt Hardy actually being entertaining, innumerate wanking opportunities over Trish/Torrie/Stacy) was more than enough to keep me watching. From 2004-2011, my interest had waned so I was more reliant on them presenting something out of the ordinary to hook me again, and neither the business model nor the creative side was set up to do that.

 

As bad wrestling TV goes, I do tend to prefer the 'throwing shit at the wall', somewhat chaotic approach to the 'slow, formulaic, don't take any risks that might piss the existing fanbase off' fare that we got in the latter part of the decade.

[CleetusVanDamme]

That was the year the magic left, for me. Raw was shit, Smackdown was worse. Rock was half gone, Undertaker looked finished (how wrong was I?) Austin was finished. A good portion of the angles were embarrassing and made me ashamed to be a fan.

 

The worst part of it all was the feeling that they were never going to turn it around. At the start of 2003 things seemed bleaker than ever. Raw was still atrocious, Steiner had bombed, and BOOKER T was being lined up to be the top babyface. Smackdown's idea of "freshening" things up was to insert the Worlds Blandest Tag Team into the "Smackdown six" mix and have decent (but completely pointless) matches with the same people over and over and over and over and over again. Lesnar was bombing as a face and there was barely a couple of good angles between both brands in the god awul build to Wrestlemania.

 

They did turn it around though, thank fuck!

 

 

And I'm up to March 2003 and it's not really on the mend. Not on Raw anyhow. When Hollywood Rock fucks off soon we're all going to shitsville again.

 

I don't know if you'll enjoy it the same, but I thought Raw throughout the summer was great! That was what got me back into Our Great Sport. Goldberg was hitting his stride, Kev and HHH were having a great feud, Evolution was just getting started, Shawn Michaels was wrestling regularly again, and Kane was rejuvenated as a monster after the unmasking (for a couple of months, anyway.) The show seemed to keep gathering momentum as Evolution got more prominent and they kept carrying it on right through 2004 and 2005.

 

That was the summer Smackdown had a temporary upturn in quality, too. Lesnar's heel turn and alliance with Vince actually gave the show a hook. Mr. America was great fun, Angle was getting the best face reactions of his career, Cena was progressing well, Undertaker looked motivated again and Eddie was white-hot. They managed to piss all of it away by September/October time, though.