House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[Ironic Indie Lad]

21 minutes ago, air_raid said:

It’s like you read my mind. Within a year they’ll have close to the greatest fantasy roster of all time including HBK coming back and Austin’s last night crossing over 24 hours with Goldberg’s first. Giving rise to the best of the SmackDown games, Here Comes The Pain, where you had all the major players of the halcyon days of 2000-01 plus Shawn, Hogan, Nash, Flair, Goldberg, Lesnar and if you played it to 2005 and beyond like me you could create dupes of Orton and Batista with maxed out stats in the career mode so they could play like main eventers. And you could pretend EVERYONE was in their prime.

2002 was honestly such a mad period. You had many of the biggest attitude era guys still around, various WCW and ECW survivors of the invasion and a strange assortment of future stars and legends.

I often think of this because the first WWF/E show I ever attended was in 2002. In one house show I saw Austin, HHH, Lesnar, Flair, Undertaker, RVD, Booker T, Hall and Nash, Eddie Guererro, Big Show, Mr Perfect and the Hardyz. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

Was Metal still a thing around this time? I’m sure I remember Bobby Roode as one of the regular jobbers on there, but maybe it was a bit later in time and it was Heat or something.

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Was Metal still a thing around this time? I’m sure I remember Bobby Roode as one of the regular jobbers on there, but maybe it was a bit later in time and it was Heat or something.

Metal and Jakked were the same show in different markets and yes, they both ran until May 2002 before they became Velocity. Spoilers for future post - my favourite memory from the weekend show in question is a 2003 match I was excited to see where ROH's Paul London went up against Matt Hardy, and V1 gave him a competitive match before pinning him with the Twist Of Fate after a missed London Calling. Fairly sure it was the showing that earned London his job.

[air_raid]

APRIL 2002

The brand split is here! Suddenly there are two crews all the time! This is going to be a headache.

THE MAIN EVENTS

RAW

It’s the return of Steve Austin vs The Undertaker at last. 2nd in Reading PA it’s Austin & Kane vs Undertaker & Booker T then 6th in Salt Lake City, 7th in Denver, 12th in Amarillo, 13th in Odessa and 14th in Abilene, it’s Austin/Taker one on one with Taker winning though Stone Cold doest beat him 19th at Nassau Coliseum (9000). 20th in Des Moines is not the usual night-before-PPV mess but the top guys are off, Rob Van Dam vs Booker T for the ICT main events.

SMACKDOWN

Triple H vs Chris Jericho rematches for the belt in Davis and Fresno, 8th in Yuma AZ Hunter is needed for Raw TV so it’s Edge vs Kurt Angle. HHH vs Y2J rolls on 13th in Montgomery AL and 14th in Hattiesburg MS, 15th in Denton clashes with Raw again so it’s Edge/Angle again, as it is 20th in Topeka for big guns’ night off and 22nd in Valparaiso IN, 28th in Syracuse and 29th in Erie, though Hunter vs Jericho does go on without the belt 27th in Baltimore (9500).

THE CARDS - RAW

Rob Van Dam vs Eddy Guerrero happens a few times then Rob’s against Booker T for the ICT for the rest of the month. Kane vs X-Pac is back on until Kane gets hurt. Bradshaw vs Scott Hall takes place when said injury scuppers a few scheduled tags. The Hardy Boys have a run with Mr Perfect & Shawn Stasiak. Brock Lesnar is on the road initially with - RECOGNIZE! - D’Lo Brown, before having a few in Texas with Bradshaw (including a defeat to the hometown boy in Abilene) then working Jeff in a couple of dry runs for Backlash, where Matt vs Stasiak runs as a singles. D’Lo follows with wins over Big Boss Man. Bubba Ray Dudley vs William Regal is the odd choice for the HCT match which usually triggers multiple changes each night under 24/7 bollocks. Goldust vs Raven also gets a run, then shows closer to Backlash move to Bubba vs Goldust and Regal chasing new short term Euro champ Spike Dudley. Goldust works a couple with Bradshaw too. There’s usually a tag of Trish Stratus & Jacquelyn vs Jazz & Molly Holly though there are exceptions. An extra tag usually includes random other bodies ; initially Spike & Crash Holly vs Tommy Dreamer & Steven Richards, then three editions through Texas where Big Show and Justin Credible are added to make it a six man, then when Spike starts defending against Regal D’Lo joins the babyface team.

SMACKDOWN

Edge vs Kurt Angle takes place all month in a very even feud, including some No DQ matches. Chris Jericho vs Rikishi is often the substitute when Hunters absent. Billy & Chuck start off defending the belts against Hurricane & Rikishi then move to eliminators involving Hugh Morrus & Chavo Guerrero Jr and sometimes that last pair and sometimes Al Snow & Maven before a long run of straight tags against Snow and his protégé. Division sure looks on its arse. Earlier, Snow/Maven vs Morrus/Chavo was on the undercard. Billy Kidman vs Yoshihiro Tajiri for the Cruiser belt has a few repeats, there are a few rounds where Hurricane gets added then several further towns it’s a four-way with Chavo, finally reverting to one on one when Tajiri regains the belt. Diamond Dallas Page vs Christian carries on going 50/50 for a couple of weeks then DDP starts trading wins with Test and Christian with Farooq. A televised split precipitates Scotty Too Hotty & Randy Orton vs Albert & Lance Storm up to the PPV plus Val Venis swapping wins with D-Von Dudley and pre-Page, Test does a fair few jobs for Hardcore Holly - who moves on to Maven, then does a few jobs to Taz before landing on Orton (50/50) after Backlash. We also end up with D-Von beating Taz, Farooq swapping wins with Test, and Chavo beating Sho Funaki, there’s a brief move to Orton and - look who’s back - Mark Henry vs Storm & Christian before Backlash before it becomes Val, Hurricane and Mizark beating Albert, Lance & Captain Charisma. There’s a few matches with Dawn Marie trading wins with Kim Neilson who you probably don’t remember and while we’re at it - bikini contests are back featuring Torrie Wilson (winner), Stacy Kiebler and the otherwise useless at this point Ivory.

VARIATIONS - RAW

Reading is unique. Crash vs Credible, Jackie vs Molly, X-Pac vs Raven and one final ICT defence for Rob with Regal. In Salt Lake City Justin loses to Bradshaw. In Denver he beats Ron Waterman and it’s Trish vs Molly one on one. In Abilene as a sub for the injured Kane, Show crushes X-Pac. Finally in Des Moines Jazz makes a title defence against Trish and Raven pins Boss Man.

VARIATIONS - SMACKDOWN

Topeka the night before Backlash has lone examples of Albert vs Morrus in singles (ugh) and Test vs Rikishi. 22nd in Valparaiso has Morrus & Venis vs Albert & D-Von. In Baltimore with Y2J in the main event, Rikishi works D-Von and Taz gets the night off.

TVs - must I?

1st in Albany D’Lo beats Chris Harvard (Nowinski) in what probably was a test if he was still over to their audience, and Credible beats (here’s that name again) Inferno Kid. Perfect watch - he and Boss Man lose to the Hardys on Raw. Next night in Rochester it’s Rikishi beating Nowinski and D-Von pins Jerry Tuite who was The Wall in WCW and who will be Malice in early NWA-TNA. 8th Raw in Phoenix has the Perfect/Show match where there’s an unexpected Perfect-Plex (kicked out of). 9th in Tucson Farooq beats Test which isn’t even worth using on Jakked! 15th in College Station TX Perfect pins Richards for Heat. Next night in Houston Neilson does a job dark for Ivory but 23rd in Peoria she goes over Dawn Marie - WWE still thinking Dawns a wrestler at this point. Meanwhile 22nd Raw, Perfect loses to RVD and 29th for Heat he pins Dreamer. 

DEPARTURES

Diamond Dallas Page, who’d just found a foothold after a shaky start with his cheesy self-help gimmick and a run with the Euro title, sustains an injury not long after he tapes a televised loss to Hardcore, and is released from contract before he’s fit again. As someone who loved DDP in WCW, I can think of few guys that came into the WWF/WWE with market value and found themselves stripped of everything that made them themselves worse than Page. Maybe Goldberg, who of course we’ll get to in time. Shame.

 

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by air_raid

[air_raid]

MAY 2002

Two crews is exhausting to review, imagine booking it?

THE MAIN EVENTS

RAW

We’re off on an ill-fated European jaunt with a jumble of mains. 1st in Cologne (10,000) with Steve Austin vs Undertaker, 2nd in Glasgow it’s Triple H and Ric Flair on last with Taker and William Regal with Austin underneath against Big Show. Next night in Brum Austin closes with Scott Hall while Taker teams with Brock Lesnar to beat Hunter and, umm, Matt Hardy. By 17th/18th we’ve moved to Austin vs Flair & Show inside a cage in Louisville and Raleigh as the clock ticks down on the Rattlesnakes run, 24th in Duluth MN is a bit B so Eddy Guerrero vs Rob Van Dam for the ICT goes on last but 25th in Winnipeg and 26th in Red Deer, Alberta it’s the match that never made it to PPV - Austin beating Eddy non title plus a new title match underneath Taker vs RVD which goes in a cage in Winnipeg.

SMACKDOWN

1st in Wheeling Edge vs Kurt Angle goes inside the cage then 4th in Fort Lauderdale 12,000 show up for a huge card topped with Hulk Hogan & The Rock vs Angle & Chris Jericho. Hollywood works Worcester too, defending against Y2J, then 6th in Lowell Edge teams with Taz (OK) against Jericho and Angle. Edge vs Angle as a No DQ or cage match runs through Quebec City, Halifax and Cornwall, Ontario then a straight singles in Macon GA the night before the PPV. Triple H vs Kurt Angle takes over as a main event 20th in Birmingham (Hogan vs Jericho underneath), and 25th-27th in Saskatoon, Regina (both Saskatchewan) and Lethbridge, Alberta.

THE CARDS - RAW

Eddy Guerrero vs Rob Van Dam for the ICT goes on for most of three weeks until both graduate to their main event opponents, though Eddy works Jeff Hardy two nights in Europe while Robs with X-Pac which I bet was pretty smooth. The (first) Bradshaw experiment has him doing a surprising mid month program with chum The Undertaker before he settles down back to losing to Big Show when Taker wins the title. Spike Dudley vs William Regal takes place all month regardless of who has the European title. Booker T has no regular opponent but lands on Matt Hardy in Canada. Brock Lesnar has a run with D’Lo Brown before a longer run beating Bubba Ray Dudley usually after interference from Regal. I 100% don’t remember that after Bubba lost the HCT the feud was Steven Richards vs Tommy Dreamer usually involving 4/5 switches a night under 24/7 although two shows down south Richards beats Bubba no frills. Jazz vs Trish Stratus continues until Trish wins the belt back then she starts defending against Molly Holly - Europe aside where Jazz usually finds herself defending against Jacquelyn and the Trish/Molly feud takes in mixed tags with - what a treat this is - partners The King and Mr Perfect A random run back home of Crash Holly swapping wins with Jackie (yes) is a run I don’t imagine did much for either. There’s a Hardy Boys vs Shawn Stasiak & Goldust run that devolves into Stasiak & D’Lo vs Goldust & Justin Credible.

VARIATIONS

In Cologne Lesnar squashes Crash, Jeff works one off with X-Pac and Flair beats Booker. In Glasgow Jackie trades with Trish and goes into the mixed tag, Hall revives his run with Bradshaw, Richards’ initial challenger is Stasiak, Lesnars back with Matt Hardy and Spike & Dreamer are with - is this their first tag together? - Booker & Goldust. At the NEC it’s Dreamer vs Goldust and the HCT starts as Richards vs Stasiak vs Credible vs Crash. In Louisville rather naturally there’s an OVW presence - Nick Dinsmore (Eugene) & Rob Conway beat Doug Basham & Damaja (Danny Basham) for the tag belts. In Raleigh there’s another shot for Bull Buchanan beating Ron Waterman. Finally in Duluth, X-Pac is with Matt Hardy as well as Bradshaw vs Booker T.

THE CARDS - SMACKDOWN 

Up to Judgment Day we’re still in familiar territory - when not in other main events it’s usually Edge vs Kurt Angle in no DQ or cage matches with Edge winning most, and Chris Jericho vs Rikishi, then after the PPV Edge vs Y2J kicks off with the ex champ winning every night. Unbelievably Billy & Chuck vs Al Snow & Maven continues for the tag belts most of the month, then after their brief hiccup the defences are against the barely better Val Venis & Randy Orton. Jesus. Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Billy Kidman for the Cruiser belt continues until Hurricane wins the title then it’s usually three or four ways involving the other pair and/or Chavo Guerrero Jr or occasionally straight rematches with “the Buzzsaw.” Lance Storm starts the month tagging with Chavo to beat Helms and Sho Funaki then there’s a run of him tagging with Albert and Godfather (??) to face Hurricane, Val & Mark Henry, and caps off an erratic month beating Hardcore Holly through Saskatchewan. Christian is all over the shop paying the price for versatility by wrestling any spare body and doing several jobs he shouldn’t, only finding any stability in trading wins (!) with Funaki in Canada. We start the month with continuing 50/50 runs of Farooq vs Test (though Test does work Rikishi when Y2J is busy) and Taz vs Reverend D-Von plus Orton looking at the lights for Hardcore. Mid month 3 Count vs Jung Dragons FINALLY reaches WWE as there’s a run down South of Jamie Noble vs Shannon Moore, and in Saskatoon & Regina there are runs of Test vs Maven and the odd group of Kidman, Mizark & Hugh Morrus beat Albert, D-Von and Deacon Batista. Oh, and the swimsuit contests are still happening.

VARIATIONS

Wheeling is the last of Chavo vs Funaki and Venis/Henry/Hurricane vs Storm/Christian/Albert. On the bumper (Hulkster/Rock) Fort Lauderdale Show Edge is back with Test because Kurt’s in the gigantic main, Rikishi back with D-Von, Christian loses to Henry, Godfather beats Morrus and curtain jerker is Orlando Jordan vs Sly (Sylvan Grenier). In Worcester Albert/Godfather vs Henry/Morrus happens as a tag. In Lowell Godfather loses to Albert, Ortons with Lance and Christian loses to Kidman - he’s finally back winning in Quebec City against local lad Sylvan (wrestling as such) and Cornwall against D-Von (presumably he worked face for that one). Macon the night before the PPV is the usual mess - Taz beats Holly, our favourite Deacon bests Morrus (probably wasn’t pretty), for reasons unknown Farooq vs Test is upgraded to a street fight (won by Ron) and there’s a good old 8-man clusterfuck as Kidman, Orton, Val and Henry beat Storm, Christian, Albert and D-Von. Plus the increasingly visible Victoria is an extra participant in the swimsuit contest. 

Birmingham (another Hogan show) is also wonky, the Monday between the PPV and the next taping. It’s Storm/Holly vs Venis/Orton, Henry/Maven vs Christian/Albert (yes, Christian jobbed), D-Von/Batista vs Farooq/Morrus and Edge vs Test again when Edge loses Y2J to Hogan. Oh and Victoria again is in the flesh fest. Finally Lethbridge throws out much of the card from the previous two nights - Kidman vs Funaki, Batista vs Val, Henry & Morrus vs Christian & Albert, Storm vs D-Von, Maven/Orton vs Holly/Chavo, and Rikishi & Rico make a lone defence of the tag belts against once and future champs Chuck & Billy which was no doubt a glorified handicap match with shenanigans affecting the result.

TVs

Insurrextion has a cracker of a dark match - Perfect vs Goldust! 6th in Hartford while punishments have yet to be delivered for the Plane Ride From Hell, Perfect jobs to Matt Hardy for Heat on the way out, and on the live Raw Hall, Show and X-Pac do a non finish with Austin, Bradshaw and Flair when Flair turns. This entitles him to become Steve’s punching bag for a couple of weeks until they hastily will have to turn Ric back to fill a babyface void when Austin fucks off - which they will do in a loss to Vince. None of which, incidentally, I consider especially fair to Flair. 14th in Montreal Christian is dark with Grenier, 20th in Memphis Waterman beats Crash and Buchanan pins Spike. 21st in Tupelo there’s loads of extras - Noble vs Moore, The King defeats Albert, and Michael Shane vs Sonny Siaki sounds so TNA it’s crazy. I’d be amiss if I didn’t mention 27th Raw in Edmonton is the return to TV of hometown hero Chris Benoit though he isn’t back in the ring yet.

DEPARTURES

Do you really need all the details of the Plane Ride From Hell? Probably not but I Mr Perfect loses his job as a direct consequence of it ; the fight he started with Brock Lesnar got perilously close to an emergency exit which could have become life or death for all onboard. Heartbreakingly for his fans, he’ll live for less than another year before overdosing, having never let the wild days behind. Remarkably there was no incident attributed to Scott Hall who was too drunk to do anything other than sleep during the flight itself but his general behaviour and level of alcohol abuse during the trip convinces management he’s more trouble than he’s worth with the nWo stuttering and Hall clearly a disaster waiting to happen. He’ll redeem himself in a manner, and certainly this final stint is not how I prefer to remember him, Chico.

How certain others kept their jobs is beyond me.

Edited August 31, 2023 by air_raid

[Mikeymike83]

So I don't want this to resort into "Tempus Fugit", Peter Kay stand up routine.. "remember when..." style post, but I was thinking you'd stop doing these once you got to, say, 2000. Purely for the reasons of "it only happened the other year" type scenario. So have been a bit befuddled seeing you continue with them. And it's only just now hit me, even at your current time frame (2002), it was 21 bloody years ago. And although I am almost upon this, it's still counts as more than half my life ago! Bizarre how something so fresh in the memory, legitimately falls under the nostalgic, old as all fuckery, umbrella.

I should add, under no circumstances do I want you stopping these. And hope long may you continue. It was more of an observation.

[CleetusVanDamme]

On 2/13/2023 at 6:29 AM, air_raid said:

Robs with X-Pac which I bet was pretty smooth.

Seen this in Glasgow. It was!

Pointless note that I think you'll pointlessly want to know about that show: They must have been in limbo with the company name change at that point and weirdly kept calling it "WWFE" or "WWF:E" all night. It was a really confusing few days until they Got The F Out.

[BomberPat]

It was briefly WWFE on all Sky TV listings as well, for maybe a week or two, didn't realise they'd ever said the name out loud though 

[Mikeymike83]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

It was briefly WWFE on all Sky TV listings as well, for maybe a week or two, didn't realise they'd ever said the name out loud though 

Maybe this is just my brain misremembering, but I seem to recall it being called WWFE on channel guides and what not for several months. Of course they may have been treading water in anticipation of potentially losing the 'F', but as we didn't have the internet til later that year I had no idea of the behind the scenes court case going on. So I found it really quite strange, and just put it down to a non wresling fan in charge of the listings.

[air_raid]

13 hours ago, CleetusVanDamme said:

Seen this in Glasgow. It was!

Pointless note that I think you'll pointlessly want to know about that show: They must have been in limbo with the company name change at that point and weirdly kept calling it "WWFE" or "WWF:E" all night. It was a really confusing few days until they Got The F Out.

Absolutely I love pointless trivia about house show attendance. Which you'll note when I get as far as the Passport To Pain tour.

[air_raid]

JUNE 2002

Austin takes his ball and goes home. And this month is the worst ever for inconsistent cards.

THE MAIN EVENTS

RAW

2nd in New Orleans (4000), 7th in Lexington its still Steve Austin vs Eddy Guerrero with Undertaker vs Rob Van Dam for the belt underneath. 8th in Knoxville and 9th in Columbus we move back to Austin with Ric Flair in a cage, then the shit hits the fan. 14th in Albuquerque Taker and RVD go on last but 15th we pivot to a one off Undertaker vs Triple H, though 16th in Bakersfield its RVD again, and 22nd in Cincinatti RVD and Eddy go in the cage. 28th Hulk Hogan is on a Raw show in Washington for no apparent logical reason, challenging Taker, and then the same 29th at (holy shit) MSG plus RVD and Eddy bringing the ladder into play, before 30th in Uncasville CT we move to Undertaker vs Ric Flair for the belt with RVD moving on to Brock Lesnar, though strangely Booker T, Goldust and what's left of the nWo go on last.

SMACKDOWN

Still Triple H vs Kurt Angle in Pensacola, Jackson MS and Tulsa with 8th in Albany/9th in Augusta (GA) being Hunters nights off and the frankly insane finale of Angle doing a job for Hardcore Holly (in for an injured Edge) though Hunters back 10th in Florence. 15th in Honolulu we have The Rock vs Chris Jericho then 16th in Anaheim a nutty one two of Hulk Hogan vs Kurt Angle then Triple H vs Chris Jericho in a cage (Hunter's a busy man) before 17th in Fresno HHH is back with Kurt, then 22nd in Huntington its HHH/Y2J back in the cage while Kurt jobs for Rikishi - which main events Moline on 24th because Hunter's hurt. Thankfully Edge vs Kurt Angle resumes 29th in Providence and 30th in Augusta (ME).

THE CARDS - FUCKING MESS

RAW

Rob Van Dam vs Eddy Guerrero is back on when Rob stops working Taker. There are a fair few instances of Eddy with Matt Hardy when Rob is busy including losing to him on 30th, and Matt otherwise works a lot with Raven, although he's all over the place. Brock Lesnar vs Bubba Ray Dudley continues before Lesnar has a run beating new HCT holder Bradshaw in non title matches then at the end of the month he has a few high profile wins over Ric Flair including at MSG. Booker T vs Big Show goes on for a while after the nWo end Booker's brief membership, soon transitioning into Booker & Goldust vs Show & X-Pac. Show had previously had a week run challenging Bradshaw - the latter ends the month flip flopping between defences against Raven or Shawn Stasiak. Trish Stratus & Spike Dudley vs Molly Holly & William Regal is virtually permanent up until the PPV then it switches to rematches with Molly defending the belt against Trish, plus Spike & Bubba vs Regal & Chris Norwinski. Stasiak & D'Lo Brown vs Goldust & Justin Credible continues early month before Goldie kills some time with Steven Richards before starting to tag with Booker. Richards vs Tommy Dreamer continues early month even after Richards loses the HCT and resumes month end, but Dreamer also naturally finds himself working Raven quite often. Crash Holly is doing quite a few jobs for Prototype (yes) on the road until he ends up saddled with Credible, Prototype starts losing to Shelton Benjamin and yet another “partners collide” run with D’Lo vs Stasiak, and post PPV we get a run of D’Lo vs Credible. More joy for Crash - he also lands the ref gig for a few rounds of Jacquelyn vs Victoria. We also get a few more rounds of Bull Buchanan vs Ron Waterman.

Interestingly Jeff Hardy is off the road though he is doing all the TVs including a hell of a non title match with Taker month end which will lead to the ladder match in July. Burned out? Kane is still injured.

VARIATIONS

In New Orleans its Booker T & X-Pac (Booker still nWo here) going over Matt Hardy & Bradshaw, plus the last of Steven Richards vs Tommy Dreamer as the scheduled HCT match and Regal vs D’Lo for the Euro title the latter used to covet so. In Lexington Matt wrestles X-Pac one on one as a one off. San Diego is very muddled - D’Lo & Trish vs Regal & Molly, Matt vs Stasiak and old partners Raven & Credible vs equally well acquainted Dreamer & Spike in a hardcore match (ECW! ECW!). In Cincinnati Booker actually tags with Matt against the nWo while Goldust pads the card with now former partner Credible, its Trish & D'Lo vs Molly & Nowinski, Shelton loses to Richards, Dreamer pins Prototype (Christ), and Lance Cade defends the HWA belt against Johnny Stamboli. Finally Uncasville has Spike vs “Harvard Chris” one on one and Dreamer vs Credible.

SMACKDOWN

Kurt Angle vs Rikishi happens at least three times and Kurt loses them all. Chris Jericho vs Hardcore Holly is an unexpected run when Edge is hurt though not too hurt to interfere giving Bob more ridiculous wins. Nights Holly main events Jericho gets to beat Val Venis, and Bob often works twice going on early with Hugh Morrus. Chuck & Billy have a couple more nonsensical spots as challengers to Rikishi & Rico before they get the belts back, then make a handful of defences each against Kish and Taz, him and Billy Kidman, and Val & Bobcore. As I mentioned last time, since the draft the division is on its arse. Christian is again all over the place, initially trading wins with Randy Orton (though he loses most) before a six man series with seeds of the faction that will be Christians route back to better things, teamed with Lance Storm & Test against Orton and partners, most often Morrus & Sho Funaki though there are substitutes on either side. Lance is similarly muddled though he has a run swapping wins with Kidman. Hurricane vs Yoshihiro Tajiri concludes while Jamie Noble loses to Chavo Guerrero Jr then Helms vs Noble happens for a couple of weeks interspersed with three ways with Tajiri then it’s Hurricane chasing Noble and a new tag team of Tajiri & Chavo work a few against Shannon Moore & Rob Conway then a fair few more against Kidman and - WHOS THAT JUMPING OUT THE SKY, R-E-Y Rey Misterio Jr making his mark on the road - only after Rey vs Chavito one on one a couple of times on the West Coast. Test vs Sean O’Haire is a run you didn’t know about, Test also works Rikishi a few times, and a few with old mate Val, or with Hardcore, Farooq vs Reverend D-Von was probably fun. Val & Orton swap a couple of wins early month with the good Reverend and Deacon Batista, and while the swimsuit contests go on, Torrie Wilson vs Stacy Keibler also sometimes happens as a match both under stripper rules but sometimes requiring a pinfall.

VARIATIONS - HOLY FUCK

1st in Pensacola it’s Kidman vs Noble, Chavo vs Waterman and The Island Boys (Kimo/Jamal/Umaga & Ekmo/Rosie) upsetting Christian & Test. 2nd in Jackson Christian finally wins a match - against Kidman, and Test goes over Conway. 3rd in Tulsa it’s Kidman vs Conway and Venis/Morrus vs D-Von/Batista. 8th in Albany Tajiri & Chavo beat Moore & Waterman, 10th in Florence Storm works O’Haire. In Honolulu Christian jobs for Tajiri, Orton & Funaki lose to D-Von & Albert and Billy & Chuck actually defend against Farooq & Morrus (ON ITS ARSE), in Anaheim that six man I mentioned has Albert in place of Test for the heels, Tajiri is with Conway. In Fresno it’s Albert vs Conway, In Huntington Chavo vs Conway, Kidman replaces Funaki in that six man, and Alberts with O’Haire. In Moline it’s even more random ; Edge returns to the ring against Storm, the tag title challengers are Orton & Farooq, D-Vons beating Shelton Benjamin and Albert & Christian beat Conway & Prototype which sounds terrible. In Providence John Cena (himself, having just debuted on telly) upsets Albert, Storm & Christian work Funaki & Mark Henry and D-Von & Conway beat Morrus & Steve Bradley. Finally (phew) in Augusta Cena pins Christian, Albert beats Bradley, Storm over Conway and D-Von/Batista lose to Mizark/Morrus.

TVs

3rd in Dallas Shelton vs Prototype continues dark. Next night in Oklahoma City Prototype has to lose to Albert and Shelton beats Conway - Linda Miles (who will be Shaniqua) tapes a job to the virtually-forgotten Ivory for Velocity. 10th in Atlanta Buchanan beats Waterman and Prototype beats - look who it is - Scott Vick. This being the night Austin no shows so they hastily turn Ric Flair back face and have him lose control of his show to Vince, which is definitely not fair to Flair. Next night in Greenville Vick and O’Haire beat Moore & Conway, then Shannon also loses to Chavo. 17th in Oakland Benjamin beats Prototype again, then again next night in Sacramento plus local boy Rey pinning Funaki. At King of the Ring the Hardys actually beat Raven & Richards for a dark match, next night in Cleveland Crash & Richards beat the Island Boys and in Raw Trish tags with Miles to beat the equally useless Jackie Gayda teaming with Molly. Finally 25th in Chicago Shelton beats Conway - the night Cena appears on TV for the first time.

DEPARTURES

Stone Cold Steve Austin is less than enamoured to learn he has to lose a King of the Ring qualifier to Brock Lesnar - not the loss per se, but that’s on free TV with one weeks build and he thinks you don’t beat Steve Austin like that. He tells Vince to reconsider or he’s done, Vince calls his bluff and finds out he wasn’t blufffing, so Austin will sit at home for eight months.

At the absolute opposite end of the spectrum from historical significance, this is the last month of try outs for Ron Waterman.

Here's Cena and Shelton ;

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by air_raid

[Ironic Indie Lad]

On 2/14/2023 at 7:32 PM, CleetusVanDamme said:

Seen this in Glasgow. It was!

Pointless note that I think you'll pointlessly want to know about that show: They must have been in limbo with the company name change at that point and weirdly kept calling it "WWFE" or "WWF:E" all night. It was a really confusing few days until they Got The F Out.

I still have my ticket stub for this and it says WWF/E on there.

I was in my early teens at the time. This was my first time seeing WWE live and it was right in the middle of my peak fandom. Difficult to even describe how excited I was for this.

From memory:

RVD v X-Pac and Eddy v Jeff Hardy were both really good matches.

Seeing Brock in person and up close was freaky. Absolute monster.

Nash got involved in the finish of the Hall v Bradshaw match. From my seat, I couldnt even see him so I was pissed.

People near me were claiming that Goldust came out from backstage and got his arse out to some lucky people in the queue at the time. 

 

 

[air_raid]

6 hours ago, Ironic Indie Lad said:

This was my first time seeing WWE live and it was right in the middle of my peak fandom. Difficult to even describe how excited I was for this.

This may be a common theme. I got into the WWF relatively late for my age group, during Bret’s first title reign, and I went to see it live on the first night of the tour five days after Mania X, and as I’m fond of reminding people, got to see Hitmans first title defence of his second reign, literally the first time defending the belt anywhere in the world. Blew my tiny mind.

[air_raid]

JULY 2002

THE MAIN EVENTS - Raw
6th in Frederick MD and 7th in Wildwood NJ the biggest match is Rob Van Dam vs Brock Lesnar for the ICT though Booker T vs Big Show goes on last. 12th in Lakeland FL we've got the return to Undertaker vs Ric Flair for the belt, 13th in Daytona Beach they mix back to Taker/RVD and Lesnar/Flair but resume the status quo 14th in Bethlehem. 20th in Sarnia Ontario we have the usual mess the night before the PPV, a combined Raw/SD show has RVD/Lesnar on last. 26th/27th in Houston and san Antonio Taker plays face in Texas, its Undertaker & Booker T vs Brock Lesnar & Big Show, 28th in Columbia SC Taker teams with Flair as a one off.

SmackDown
1st with our old friends in Portland ME its still Edge vs Kurt Angle, 6th in Mobile, 7th in Savannah, 8th in Salisbury MD,  we finally move to Edge vs Chris Jericho but 14th in St Johns, Newfoundland and 15th in Binghamton its back to Edge and Kurt. 22nd in Flint we're back to Edge/Y2J, 27th in Jonesboro AR its Edge & John Cena vs Angle and Jericho, then 28th in Little Rock and 29th in Asheville Hulk Hogan vs Kurt Angle is the main - interestingly in Asheville new acquisition Lesnar closes with Edge, with interference from Kurt.

THE CARDS - RAW
Rob Van Dam vs Brock Lesnar for the ICT goes on for most of the month then post-Vengeance after Brock becomes exclusive property of SmackDown, Rob goes back to giving William Regal the rematch. Booker T vs Big Show also takes place for most of the month. Regal vs Bubba Ray Dudley for the Euro belt and a random Eddy Guerrero vs Spike Dudley run early month give way to Bubba & Spike vs Eddy & Chris Benoit for the rest of the month, sometimes in tables matches, which mid month leaves Regal with a rather random Tommy Dreamer. We have a lot of Matt Hardy vs Raven. The Womens title remains Molly Holly vs Trish Stratus then after the PPV we switch to Trish & Linda Miles (Shaniqua) vs Molly & Jackie Gayda which I bet was terrible. Bradshaw vs Steven Richards starts the month as the HCT match along with D'Lo Brown vs Shawn Stasiak though that changes fairly quickly to a consistent match that starts as Bradshaw vs Stasiak but devolves into many title changes before Bradshaw leaves with the belt - leaving D'Lo with Richards. Goldust vs Chris Norwinski happens all month. Frederick and Wildwood see Trish having nights off so Jacquelyn fills in, plus there's an opener of Dreamer, Shelton Benjamin & Sean O'Haire against Justin Credible, Crash Holly & Richards. Post PPV cards are rounded out with Dreamer vs Richards and Benjamin vs Credible.

VARIATIONS
Lakeland is special - Bradshaw's defence starts off against Show, Booker & Goldust work Benoit & Eddy, D'Lo's with Credible, Norwinski vs Spike and Stasiak actually winning a match against Richards. Daytona has one planned switch, the Tough Enough girls aren't on it so it becomes a mixed tag of Trish & Matt vs Molly & Raven, plus one unscheduled where Bubba misses it so Dreamer tags with Spike against the former Radicals and Regal has no match, just running in on Norwinski vs Goldust. The joint card in Sarnia has Jeff Hardy actually make a road gig tagging with big bruv to beat Regal & Norwinski. Finally Columbia is completely different to the Texas shows, Shelton beating half of the Island Boys (reporter knows not which), a David Flair sighting (Christ) beating Crash, Booker slumming it with Richards, and the only time I think the HCT run-ins merit a mention - having won his tables match earlier in the night, Eddy actually gets a go with the belt in pinning Bradshaw - before it quickly passes to Credible, to Stasiak then back to Bradshaw.

SMACKDOWN
Edge you know about, usually with Chris Jericho or Kurt Angle. When Kurt's not with Edge, he's with Rikishi still in a variety of finishes - wins, losses, DQs - and Y2J fills in a couple of his breaks from Edge by swapping wins with rookie John Cena. Rikishi swaps wins with Test when he's not with Kurt. Lance Storm & Christian work, with a few exceptions, Val Venis & Hardcore Holly with various results until they pick up the tag straps at the PPV then start to beat them in scheduled defences until Val sustains a serious injury in training, and his replacement in shows is down south is The King. Test is this months utility body working all over but he at least manages a couple of matches with Cena. Cena also swaps a few wins with future buddy Albert. Jamie Noble vs Billy Kidman is the most common CWT match though there are a few three ways involving various combinations with Hurricane and/or Chavo Guerrero Jr and post PPV at least two where it's Kidman and Sho Funaki. Rey Misterio Jr continues tagging with Kidman against Yoshihiro Tajiri & Chavo, when Kidman becomes busy with Noble, Rey often tags with Shannon Moore but there are a couple where its Hurricane instead, at least two instances of Rey vs Tajiri as a singles, and depending on who's in the CWT match Funaki subs in as either Rey's partner or Tajiri's partner. Chameleon. There's a tag a few times of Randy Orton & Mark Henry vs Reverend D-Von & Deacon Batista, plus a few singles between the future Evolution stablemates, one of which has Orton take a knock that leaves him needing a couple of days off. There are also a couple of tags where Mark teams with Hurricane. Once Chuck & Billy lose the tag belts they contest a nightly six man tagging with stylist Rico and I really can't be arsed listing all the combinations they wrestle, winning some, losing some, sufficient to say they are ALL "variations" in that it's literally never the same three babyfaces twice. Let's just summarize that its some thrown together team of Henry, Farooq, Moore, Hurricane, Funaki, Hugh Morrus, Rob Conway, Nick Dinsmore (Eugene), Bull Buchanan, Mike Awesome (back from injury), Hardcore and Orton. OK, so technically Ron, Mike & Bull team up twice for that match but who cares. Torrie Wilson vs Dawn Marie happens all month as a clothes-ripper, sometimes ref'd by Stacy Keibler. Hurricane vs Albert happens a few times, and Funaki beats Dinsmore twice in Canada.

Triple H, still on the SmackDown roster until Vengeance, is out with an elbow injury all month.

VARIATIONS
Portland is, as it frequently has been over the years, a maverick card - Funaki pins Rico, Storm & Christian beat Cena and Steve Bradley, D-Von/Batista/Albert go over Henry/Morrus/Conway, Torrie vs Stacy happens in the stripping debacle, and interestingly an injured Scotty Too Hotty (a Maine native) appears both at the start of the card promising to return soon and at the end, helping other babyfaces clear the ring of heels after the main. In Mobile Funaki upsets Albert, D-Von/Batista wrestle Conway & Dinsmore, Kidman vs Tajiri happens one on one and Test goes over Orton. In Savannah its Val/Orton vs D-Von/Batista, Storm/Christian over Henry/Funaki and Holly over Test. In Salisbury, Test beats Dinsmore, in Binghamton its Albert beating the future Eugene as Funaki subs for the injured Orton with Henry, vs D-Von & Batista. In Flint, Albert beats Henry, Chuck & Billy beat Hurricane & Moore in a straight tag (no pun intended) and Reverend and Deacon beat Awesome & O'Haire. Test vs Albert returns in Jonesboro, and in Asheville Rikishi beats Albert, Awesome goes over Buchanan and D'Von/Batista do a job for Farooq & Henry.

TVs
1st in Manchester Credible beats Shelton dark - this is the Raw with the famous Taker/Jeff ladder match. 2nd at the FleetCenter Funaki beats Bradley. 8th in Philadelphia it’s Credible/Shelton again but the live broadcast is eventful - the infamously bad Bradshaw & Trish vs Norwinski & Gayda match, and the first and last televised match for Kevin Nash as an nWo member leading Show, X-Pac, Benoit & Eddy to victory over RVD, Booker, Goldust, Bubba and Spike, with a rather famous injury mishap to Big Sexy. Next night in Atlantic City Rey beats Funaki dark (he still hasn’t debuted on TV). 15th Raw has no dark matches but Johnny Stamboli (Johnny The Bull) debuts as part of the HCT scene on TV. 16th in Wilkes-Barre Shannon beats Morrus and a tryout for regular tag partners sees Simon Diamond over Johnny Swinger. 23rd in Indianapolis before SmackDown O’Haire beats Funaki and in a strange call for a dark match Torrie & Victoria beat Molly & Dawn Marie - Torrie actually pinning the champ(??). 29th in Greensboro Crash teams with Danny DeNucci (a Bobby Eaton trainee, no relation to Dominic) to beat former stablemates Stasiak & O’Haire. Next night in Charlotte (whooo!) with Ric on Raw the “hometown” of the Flairs still get David (LOL teaming with DeNucci to lose to Chavo & Bull - what an odd foursome that is.

DEPARTURES
Short term, Hugh Morrus disappears after this month. He'll be back under his real name next year, sadly. Cunt.

Longer team, this is the final end of X-Pac. After the ten man where big Kev does his quad virtually with his first steps into the ring as a legal wrestler back in the company, they decide to drop the nWo altogether as it seems a bit pointless without any of Hogan, Hall or Nash, and the Shawn/Hunter storyline doesn't need to revolve around recruiting Trips to the order and will make more sense if Shawn can just be a babyface immediately. And this is the end of Waltman's second whirl with Vince's crew, as there's no real plan for a direction for him and they part ways in August without acrimony, even acknowledged by JR on comms at SummerSlam. Depending on who you ask, Pac was injured again, he passed out at an airport and they decided to cut the cord, he wasn't getting on with Gewirtz, or he was just miserable there and happy to walk away by the end. Remarkably he never wrestled another match for the company despite making numerous appearances in the intervening years and proving time and time again in TNA, Chikara (where he'll even reprise "1-2-3 Kid") and elsewhere that he's had plenty left to give in the ring. I still can't believe he hasn't done one last match.

[BomberPat]

6 minutes ago, air_raid said:

I still can't believe he hasn't done one last match.

For years he was unable to get medically cleared - he was diagnosed with Hep-C in 2009, so the time when he by rights should have been in the running for another match (say, around 2011, when he had an incredible match as 123 Kid against El Generico in CHIKARA), WWE wouldn't have touched him. Before that, his issues with drugs would have had them keeping their distance anyway. He also had some long-term injuries that he just worked through, which was an option on the indies, but WWE might have been less keen on it.

Assuming there's no other health issues or anything around concussions, it's surprising he hasn't had even a Royal Rumble spot since he got healthy, though.