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AUGUST 2002

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

3rd in Miami there’s no turning back on Taker as babyface - it’s Undertaker & Booker T vs Brock Lesnar & Big Show, then 4th in Pittsburgh Rob Van Dam vs Chris Jericho is last match above a baffling crack at Lance Storm & Christian for the tag belts by Taker & Ric Flair. 9th onwards we’re in Canada with Booker vs Eddy Guerrero atop Chris Benoit giving RVD rematches for the ICT in Kelowna and Kamloops (BC) before 11th in Vancouver it’s Taker & Flair vs Show & Eddy. 17th in Terre Haute it’s Taker & RVD vs Benoit & Guerrero in a cage, 18th in Evansville The Crippler vs RVD for the belt is in the cage with Booker vs Eddy and Taker vs Brock Lesnar (Lesnar by DQ) underneath, 23rd in Youngstown (Ohio) Van Dam is with Show though the tag belts go on last then 24th in Trenton the night before SummerSlam Robs back with Y2J. 30th in Lincoln NE and 31st in Springfield MA we have a new WWE title match in Brock Lesnar vs The Undertaker (which technically is SmackDowns match now) with disappointing DQ finishes half way up the card before Robby V sends them home happy retaining the ICT against Show in no DQ matches.

SMACKDOWN

Global Warming in Melbourne technically isn't a house show as it was televised and had a home release but still, worth dwelling on a reported gate of 56,000 and a main of The Rock vs Triple H vs Brock Lesnar, alleged to be the only in-ring meeting between Lesnar and Hunter for over a decade (which we’ll soon find to be a lie) and featuring Lesnar kicking out after a Pedigree, in a real sign of things to come. There are actually few reports from SmackDown shows this month, 24th the night before the PPV in Albany it's Edge & John Cena vs Chris Benoit & Eddy Guerrero (new acquisitions) with Kurt Angle vs Rey Misterio Jr having their dry run, night after the PPV in New Haven its a tease of things to come - Edge & Rey vs Kurt & Eddy. By 31st they're in Corpus Christi and anyone that's truly main event is either off or still wrestling for Raw so it's Edge vs Benoit on top of Rey vs Eddy one on one - lucky Texans.

THE CARDS - RAW

Rob Van Dam you mostly know about, he’s usually chasing Chris Benoit for the ICT before SummerSlam and defending against Big Show after it. Chris Jericho is not booked on any shows which he’s not main eventing before the PPV then after it he starts his rehabilitation by beating Bubba Ray Dudley. For the rest of the month Bubba and Show swapped wins in tables matches. Varied month for Booker T, facing William Regal a few times when he isn’t with Eddy Guerrero, then tagging with Goldust to take a couple of shots at new arrivals Lance Storm & Christian, then after the PPV they’re wrestling Regal & Chris Nowinski. Regal vs D’Lo Brown and Nowinski vs Goldust early month give way to Regal vs Goldust, D-Lo going 50/50 with Raven and Nowinski vs Bradshaw mid month then the latter ends up randomly fighting Lance in singles after SummerSlam. The Hardy Boys vs Raven & Justin Credible runs up until the PPV even after their split and Matt moving to SmackDown - latterly Matts doing the walk out but Jeff wins anyway. Shelton Benjamin continues to get ring time, losing to Steven Richards, trading wins with Sean O’Haire then later with Credible. Spike Dudley also sandwiches in wins and losses with Sean in between similarly even runs with Johnny Stamboli. Women’s title usually has Molly Holly vs Trish Stratus through Victoria gets a few shots in British Columbia, after the PPV it moves to Trish & Jacquelyn vs Molly & Vic. The last consistent holder of the HCT is Tommy Dreamer, with series of matches starting vs Bradshaw early month, Shawn Stasiak mid month and Richards just before SummerSlam after which the belt is assimilated by the ICT - Dreamer vs Richards continues without it.

Triple H, exclusive property of Raw all month, isn’t on the road for them yet.

VARIATIONS

Miami has Bubba beat Eddy in a No DQ match to effectively end that feud. In Pittsburgh D’Lo works O’ Haire. Vancouver is unique, with Trish vs Victoria, Goldust vs O’Haire, Bubba vs Stamboli and D’Lo & Spike vs Shelton & Stasiak. Jamal (yes, Umaga) beats Shelton in Terre Haute and D’Lo in Evansville with Rosey and the corresponding babyface in the corners. Booker randomly works Richards in Terre Haute too. Trenton has one off Jeff/Bradshaw vs Regal/Nowinski. One offs after SummerSlam have Dreamer vs Raven vs Richards in Lincoln, reported as a three man battle royal, in Springfield Raven loses to Spike.

SMACKDOWN

John Cena vs Matt Hardy with not the result you expect takes place after SummerSlam. Batista vs Bull Buchanan happens in Albany and New Haven, in Corpus Christi Bull's losing to Kane (who I don't think was actually on the SD roster on TV all year) and D-Von Dudley is getting revenge on Dave after their split - his previous two gigs being wins over young Randy Orton. Chris Benoit beats Rikishi in New Haven, the Phat Man otherwise loses to Brock Lesnar in Albany and beats Rico in Texas. The CWT is Jamie Noble vs Billy Kidman in Albany, then Chavo Guerrero Jr is added in New Haven, concurrent with Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Sho Funaki, but in Corpus Christi its a fun six man where Kidman teams with former 3 Count buddies Shannon Moore and Hurricane to beat Noble, Chavo and Tajiri. There's some crossover with the tag teams as Helms & Moore are otherwise programmed with Chuck & Billy although in Albany Rico has to sub for Gunn ; by Corpus Christi they've moved on to Orton and Hardcore Holly - Bobcore having done the honours for Mattitude in Albany and beaten Albert in New Haven. Mark Henry beating Albert in Texas is the last mans match to report ; Torrie Wilson vs Dawn Marie happens a couple of times with Nidia on ref duty.

VARIATIONS - none, I've covered all three reports above.

TVs

12th in Seattle is the first dark match of the month as O’Haire pins former stablemate Stamboli. Next night SmackDown is in the same building and here’s a generation gap thing AND clash of styles - Orton beats Mike Awesome. 26th at MSG Shelton pins Stasiak and next night in Uncasville Awesome goes over Slyk Wagner Brown who literally I only remember because he tagged with April Hunter.

DEPARTURES

4th on a rare Sunday SmackDown taping Hulk Hogan drops a match to Lesnar in devastating fashion, writing him out for six months. It’s said that Hogan bargained to put Lesnar over so convincingly if he could return and take the title off him at Survivor Series. It’s possible they put that to the Hulkster as a possibility to get him onside but I put no stock in it ever really being considered. It would have made marginally more sense than Big Show suddenly being a main eventer again, but could have made things tricky getting to Angle vs Lesnar for Mania which they’ve already started hinting at.

So too to disappear for a bit is Hollywood’s next PPV opponent The Rock, disappearing back to, err, Hollywood, and by now, his real job. Still gutted it didn’t become the Hollywood Elbow.

Edited by air_raid
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SEPTEMBER 2002

I genuinely thought it would become less interesting after Mania 17 to do these but actually the diversity of the roster with so many varied styles and backgrounds actually keeps it fascinating especially after the draft. Worth finding out that while the TV I remember as fairly rubbish at the time the actual wrestling cards you could go and see usually read as pretty good!

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

1st in Chicago it’s still Brock Lesnar vs The Undertaker (though both are SmackDown talents for TV) then 6th in Sioux Falls - are you ready for this? - Lesnar PINS Triple H in defence of the WWE title. 7th in Rapid City Hunters finally defending Big Gold against Bubba Ray Dudley (thank God for ICT support) and 8th in Cedar Rapids it’s Rob Van Dam. Hunter moves on to Kane 13th in St Louis and 14/15 in Casper and Laramie (both Wyoming), 21st in Fresno it’s a night before a PPV special so Lance Storm & Christian defend against Booker T & Goldust 2/3 Falls with the ICT underneath. 28th in West Palm Beach and 29th in Beaumont it’s Bubba again challenging HHH. Random. Bubba Cutter = main event, right @BomberPat?

SMACKDOWN

1st in Dallas, Brocks doing his last advertised Raw show so it’s Edge vs Chris Benoit with strong support. 2nd in LaCrosse on a fairly loaded show it’s Brock Lesnar vs Edge for the belt then 7th in Washington/8th in Cleveland it’s finally Brock and The Undertaker for the blue brand. 9th in Mankato NM of all places the Mania main event comes early - Lesnar vs Kurt Angle, heel vs heel (with another heel in Benoit interfering), 15th in Billings MT it’s back to Edge, 16th in Salt Lake City it’s Taker. 21st the night before Unforgiven in San Jose they actually get a title fight as Brock defends against (Raw’s) Kane with some great support. 23rd in Santa Barbara he’s back with Edge again, and 29th in Bossier City LA, before he rounds off quite the varied month 30th in Monroe LA with Benoit. Giving Bret a run for his money in the “all shapes and sizes” stakes!

THE CARDS - RAW

Rob Van Dam vs Chris Jericho is very common this month with either holding the ICT although start of the month RVD finishes his run with Big Show as does Y2J his with Bubba Ray Dudley, mid month when RVD main events or has a couple off Jericho works Unforgiven opponent Ric Flair who conveniently is RVDs post-PPV road rival. Lance Storm & Christian vs Booker T & Goldust happens up to the PPV usually best of 3, after the PPV the UnAmericans start chasing new champs Kane & Hurricane. Jeff Hardy vs William Regal revives a feud that had been running on TV for the defunct Euro belt. When Bubba isn’t doing the job for bigger names he has a mini run beating Test, who post Unforgiven starts beating new arrival Randy Orton. D’Lo Brown vs Raven and Tommy Dreamer vs Steven Richards both wrap up and Dreamer starts losing to Show in 10 minute challenge matches. The even feuds of Shelton Benjamin vs Justin Credible and Spike Dudley vs Johnny Stamboli both conclude, plus a truncated run of Bradshaw vs Steven, then we’re supposed to get a run of Spike and Bradshaw against Three Minute Warning but JBLs hurt so Jeff does double duty. 3MW work Booker & Goldust after the PPV. Trish Stratus & Jacquelyn vs Molly Holly & Victoria continues all month except a couple of nights Molly vs Jackie takes place with Vicky as the ref and Stacy Keibler doing intros. A mid month run of D’Lo, Shelton & Stamboli beating Credible, Shawn Stasiak & Chris Nowinski seemingly exists just to get a few more guys a cheque or two, after Unforgiven it becomes D’Lo/Stamboli/Mark Jindrak vs Raven/Richards/Credible.

VARIATIONS

In Chicago we wrap up Shelton & Crash Holly vs Credible & Stasiak and Spike & Bradshaw vs Regal & Nowinski, in Sioux Falls Bradshaw beats “Harvard Chris” one on one. In Rapid City Booker is missing so Bradshaw teams up with Goldust for the scheduled three way with the tag champs and, as chance has it, Regal & Nowinski - D’Lo works Richards instead with Raven’s duties downplayed to Stevie’s second. In Cedar Rapids the three way tag goes as planned and Jeff works Test. Fresno is the usual thrown together pre PPV hash - Spike vs Steven, Show vs D’Lo, Shelton/Stamboli/Jindrak vs Credible/Stasiak/Nowinski. When we get to West Palm Rico is on the Raw roster beating Spike, in Beaumont Spike teams with Goldust to lose to 3MW because Booker is upgraded to challenging Y2J for the ICT.

SMACKDOWN

Yet again Kurt Angle vs Rikishi takes place on nearly every show, perplexingly in the “Kiss My Ass” stip - Kurt wins up to Unforgiven then starts losing again. Chris Benoit has a few different opponents but he’s most commonly with Edge, along with Eddy Guerrero vs Rey Misterio Jr, which are frequently combined into a tag too. Jamie Noble vs Billy Kidman is the most common CWT match (though Rey is already getting a few shots too) and after the PPV it moves to the fun of the mixed tag involving Nidia and Torrie Wilson respectively. Billy & Chuck, ousted as tag champs before the belts moved to Raw, are most often winning or losing against some combination of Randy Orton, Hardcore Holly or Mark Henry or at least once all three in combination with Rico before he also moves to Raw. After Unforgiven they’re beating Reverend D-Von and the newly rechristened Ron SimmonsMatt Hardy has numerous opponents but he’s most commonly with John Cena, future MFer Shannon Moore or Hardcore. Batista is smashing D-Von every night until the PPV and Mizark vs Albert happens more than once. Undercards are all over the shop but there is often a tag of Hurricane & Moore vs Chavo Guerrero Jr & Yoshihiro Tajiri until Helms moves to Raw, though a couple of times early it’s combined with the Noble/Kidman feud for a six man.

VARIATIONS - MANY

In Dallas it’s the last Stacy Keibler vs Dawn Marie “bra and panties match” (ugh) ref’d by Nidia, and another random Kane appearance on a blue show, against Bull Buchanan. In LaCrosse, Benoits with Cena, Mattitude with Sho Funaki, Rico jobbing to Albert and Buchanan to Henry. In Washington Bull pins Horace Hogan (jobs for the boys!), in Cleveland Rico loses to Hardcore, Orton beats Hardy, Billy & Chuck have another round with Moore & Hurricane, and Chavo/Tajiri/Bull beat Cena/Henry/Horace. In Mankato, Rikishi is robbed of Angle for a night so beats Rico, and Cena, Val Venis and Horace beat Albert, Bull and Mike Awesome plus how’s this for a fun one? Eddy vs Kidman. In Billings it’s Tajiri vs Kidman, Matt actually loses to buddy Hurricane, Eddy teams with Chavito against Cena & Val, plus Henry/Batista/Moore vs Bull/D-Von/Albert. In Salt Lake City Hurricane beats Funaki, Orton & Cena tag (!) against Chavo & Tajiri, Val beats Albert and it’s Henry/Batista/Hardcore vs D-Von/Bull/Horace which sounds meaty. San Jose the night before Unforgiven has Noble vs Kidman vs Rey in a three way dance, Cena vs future sidekick Bull, Billy & Chuck against Henry and new arrival Crash Holly, Orton with D-Von, Hardy with Venis, Helms & Moore vs Tajiri and OVWs Doug Basham, and as well as the WWE title there’s Edge & Rikishi vs Los Guerreros and a Benoit vs Angle dry run. In Santa Barbara Batista is with Bull again, Chuck & Billy vs Venis & Basham, Moore vs Tajiri, D-Von pins Funaki, and on last Rey teams with Crash to beat an equally random Benoit & Chavo. It stays random in Bossier City - Batista & Basham vs Albert & Bull, Funaki beats Crash, Cena vs Shelton Benjamin, Rey vs Chavo and Benoit vs Venis. Finally in Monroe, Val refs a Dawn Marie v Torrie clothes-ripper, Chavo beats Moore, it’s Cena/Batista/Basham vs Albert/Bull/Benjamin and when the top of the card is shuffled Rikishi ends up downgraded to Hardy and there’s a one night reprise of Edge vs Angle.

TVs

2nd in Milwaukee Sean O’Haire again wrestles former stablemate Stamboli dark and for Heat Stasiaks losing to rookie Shelton. No dark matches next night in Green Bay but writings on the wall for Awesome - he loses to Funaki for Velocity. 9th in Ames IA, Shelton beats Credible and Jindrak pins Basham. Next night in Minneapolis Val beats Horace and Jindrak teams with Lenny Lane to beat Bull & Basham. 16th in Denver Jindrak teams with Dreamer to beat Nowinski & Doug Schaeffer about whom I know nothing unless it’s the amateur wrestler from Illinois which I doubt. Next night in Colorado Springs Henry & Jindrak beat Horace & Bull, Bashams with Val. 24th in San Diego Molly who’s two nights removed from losing the belt does a bizarre job dark to the virtually forgotten Ivory and the equally MIA Al Snow goes over Horshu who will eventually have a forgettable run as Luther Reigns, no relation to the Tribal Chief implied. Finally 30th in Houston Stamboli goes over talented FBI alumnus Little Guido, who I’ll never get over them christening the even sillier sounding “Nunzio.”

DEPARTURES

They cut their losses this month on two guys as not worth persevering with - Shawn Stasiak and just-back-from-injury Mike Awesome after a flurry of jobs on the weekend shows for both. Stasiak was always fairly bland and Awesome had a style that even for the Hardcore division, phased out while he was injured, would have been perceived as too risky. Plus he got tarred with Takers dreaded “can’t work” brush so he was doomed.

No, Horace didn’t get signed or booked again.

EDIT - regular readers might want to check out this edit I just made to a previous post ;

 

 

 

Edited by air_raid
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OCTOBER 2002

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

Triple H vs Rob Van Dam for Big Gold goes on 4th-6th in Boise, Sacramento and Reno, 11th-12th Hunters off so Rob works Ric Flair instead in Utica and Rochester but the latter has the bonus of SmackDowns Kurt Angle vs Kane for the ICT with old flame Stephanie in his corner - makes sense given the times Kanes been on their shows! 13th in Buffalo Hunters back but 19th in Texarkana AR is another B show the night before the PPV so the Whole F’N Show closes with Slick Ric again. 25th-27th in Topeka, Wichita and Toledo it moves to HHH vs Kane rematches.

SMACKDOWN

We’ve still got Brock Lesnar vs Edge in Kansas City, San Angelo TX and Tucson, 12th in Edmonton it’s a highly logical shot for hometown hero Chris Benoit then 13th in Calgary they borrow Chris Jericho from Raw - no, I didn’t know Lesnar vs Jericho had happened either. 14th in London Ontario it’s back to Edge, then on the Euro tour Taker is absent so they get a lend of Booker T who challenges Brock 24th in Helsinki then Edge 25th in Belfast (as well as at Rebellion in that handicap match) before 27th Sheffield has (not for the first time) a unique main - Brock teams with Matt Hardy to lose to Booker and Rikishi. Support in Europe is a tag title match featuring different combinations from “the SmackDown Six.”

CARDS - RAW

The endlessly reliable Rob Van Dam vs Test is back on for the early month and whenever Rob isn’t with Ric Flair while Chris Jericho vs Jeff Hardy has a nice run before Y2Js Canadian excursion, during which Jeff works William Regal, plus Goldust vs Big Show is a new run in matches where Show would kiss Goldys backside if he didn’t win in 10 minutes. Kane & Hurricane do a few title defences against Three Minute Warning, before unexpected additions from SmackDown, Chuck & Billy start seeking revenge on 3MW - Hurricane does a mini feud with Rico while Kane is usually back with Test. Bubba Ray & Spike Dudley work the new pairing of Lance Storm & Regal. After No Mercy new tag champs Y2J & Christian work Bubba & Jeff, while Storm & Regal are strangely losing to Spike & Hurricane. D’Lo Brown vs Raven is back on for most of the month and the women’s match is still usually Trish Stratus & Jacquelyn vs Molly Holly & Victoria. Otherwise we have an early month/late month sandwich series of Justin Credible & Steven Richards vs Johnny Stamboli & Mark Jindrak, either side of extra bodies mixing up some singles and six mans (see below), after No Mercy new arrival Batista starts beating Redd Dogg (who will be Rodney Mack) and Rico trades wins with Tommy Dreamer

VARIATIONS

Booker T is the ultimate utility player this month - he beats Regal in Utica and former partner Test in Rochester, loses to Show in Buffalo and tags with Goldust for a first crack at C-Squared for the belts in Texarkana before he’s needed to support the blue brand. Boise  has the last match of several runs - Spike vs Rico, Test vs Dreamer and the last D’Lo/Stamboli/Jindrak vs Raven/Credible/Richards before it’s split into two matches, as well as a one off Bubba/Hardy vs Storm/Regal, and the other Torrie Wilson vs Dawn Marie titillation happens on a Raw show so Torrie can wrestle in her hometown. There’s a real sense of road testing big Dave as a babyface - in Utica he teams with Charlie Haas to beat Credible & Redd while Jindrak pins Richards, in Rochester Stevie beats Haas and D’Lo/Batista/Jindrak beat Raven/Credible/Dogg, if Buffalo Dave pins Credible and the rest contest the six man. Texarkana has Batista beat Richards, Stamboli/Haas/Jindrak lose to Credible & 3MW, and Redd does a job for - who’s this again? - Al Snow. Finally in Topeka Trish vs Molly happens as a title defence with Jackie and Vicky in their corners.

SMACKDOWN

Kurt Angle vs Rikishi in the Kiss My Ass match continues until No Mercy with Kurt having to do ALL the jobs, and Chris Benoit vs Val Venis rolls on until The Crippler does a couple of gigs with Matt Hardy right before the PPV ; thereafter, depending on what’s the main event, Angle & Benoit are defending their new gold against either Edge & Rey Misterio Jr or Los Guerreros. Eddy had some time off, Chavo spent the early month teaming with Yoshihiro Tajiri against Shannon Moore & Billy Kidman. Rey spends the month before No Mercy challenging Jamie Noble for the CWT ; on subsequent nights Reys in the tag title match, Noble works Tajiri. Still busy are Chuck & Billy swapping wins with Ron Simmons & D-Von Dudley before their Raw holiday - London is supposed to be the start of a run filling in gaps in the Guerreros dance card but sadly another injury for Billy curtails that at the first hurdle, so Venis ends up filling in. Early month runs have Hardy swapping wins with Sho Funaki and John Cena with Albert, and a real odd couple tag of Crash Holly & Bill DeMott (TAFKA Hugh Morrus) vs Shelton Benjamin & Bull Buchanan. Undercards are spotty in Canada and Europe except two instances of Funaki upsetting Albert, the only real consistency being Torrie Wilson vs Dawn Marie which never ends.

The Undertaker is off the road with a combination of injury and paternity leave.

VARIATIONS

Chris Jericho is also borrowed for Edmonton and inherits Matt Hardy from Benoit, Edge beats Eddy on last with help from face-for-the-night Benoit, and for two nights Raw lends fellow Canucks Lance Storm & Christian - Christian beats D-Von and Storm goes over Cena. Next night in Calgary - Christ! - Lance beats D-Von with the Sharpshooter in Calgary and there’s a one night Edge & Christian reunion to beat Los Guerreros! Otherwise Edmonton has Venis beat Shelton, in Calgary Tajiri pins Funaki, Val beats Buchanan, Kidman & Moore beat Shelton & Cena and for real local flavour we get Harry Smith vs Teddy Hart, and in London Tajiri beats Crash, Shelton & Bull beat Cena & Moore and D-Von & Simmons beat Venis & Kidman. In Helsinki Kidman pins Cena (!), Funaki & Moore beat Crash & Albert, D-Von pins DeMott and Rikishi beats Matt, in Belfast Booker T works Hardy, Rikishi with D-Von, Funaki & Moore vs Crash & DeMott, thrown together Chuck & Venis lose to Cena & Albert, and Rey & Kidman reunite to best Noble & Tajiri. Finally in Sheffield, Moore/Palumbo/DeMott beat D-Von/Simmons/Crash (umm, aren’t Bill & Crash a team??), Kidman pins Chavo and Cena pins Val. Some real fag packet booking going on here, it’s virtually impossible to remember if many of these guys were supposed to be heels or faces by their various opponents or tag partners.

TVs

1st in Lafayette Venis beats Shelton and Funaki pins Little Guido (again, he’ll later be Nunzio) - most interesting dark thing here is at the end of the show after Angle causes Benoit to lose to Rey both are fighting and Lesnar comes down and hits an F5 on each of them, which never got used on TV. 7th in Vegas Horshu (who will be Luther Reigns) loses to Solo Snuka (a/k/a Jimmy Snuka Jr, who eventually will be Deuce). Next night in Phoenix Venis & DeMott beat Shelton & Buchanan, and Moore goes over Spanky (you’re likely to better know as Brian Kendrick). 14th in Montreal Credible beats Flash Flanagan, next night in Toronto Val beats Shelton, Haas teams with Sylvan Grenier to beat Buchanan & Redd Dogg, and - here he is again! - Scott Vick pins Tyson Dux. 22nd in Memphis Venis & DeMott beat - together at last - Haas & Benjamin, and Redd has the honour of doing a job for local hero Jerry Lawler. There’s actually a dark match at Rebellion - DeMott goes over Moore. 28th in Detroit - somebody call his mama! Ernest Miller pins Stamboli. Next night in Grand Rapids Shelton beats Bull and Miller jobs for Venis.

DEPARTURES

I  don’t think anyone leaves this month. I could be wrong.

 

 

Edited by air_raid
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NOVEMBER 2002

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

1st in Springfield MA then 8th-10th in State College, Philadelphia and Hershey it’s still Triple H vs Kane but 2nd in Halifax and 3rd in Moncton we’re struggling - Hunter doesn’t deign to go to Canada so Chris Jericho & Christian vs Jeff Hardy & Bubba Ray Dudley goes on last. 16th in Reading it’s the usual night off before a PPV for Hunter - C-Squared defend the tag belts against Booker T & Goldust. Post Survivors they’re off to India without the belt or the injured HHH able to wrestle, to get some decent gate receipts - 18.000 in New Delhi apparently- with three unique cards all of which have Kane on top, beating Test in New Delhi, William Regal in Mumbai (complete with Attitude run in chaos featuring Lance, Hunter and the Nature Boy) then Y2J in Bangalore. 30th In Amarillo they’re back home, Hunters back in the ring, and finally doing a main event job for “The Big Red Machine.”

SMACKDOWN 

2nd-4th in Wilkes-Barre, Bethlehem and Bangor we’re immediately running Brock Lesnar vs Big Show for the belt plus 9th in Champaign IL, 10th in Peoria, 11th in Wheeling and 16th in Baltimore - it’s the night before the PPV but nobody from the “workrate brand” takes the night off. After the PPV Show defends the belt against Edge in Syracuse and Elmira NY, Raleigh and Abilene TX - consistent.

THE CARDS - RAW

Rob Van Dam vs Test is on again before the PPV (and in Bangalore) whenever the latter is not needed further up the card ; in Canada (and New Delhi) Robs with Rico in matches billed as “Martial Arts Challenge” - in Reading and Amarillo he’s with Lance Storm. In Canada Tests back with his other frequent adversary, Kane - who also squeezes in a couple of dances with William Regal. Tag title is a bit all over the place for Chris Jericho & Christian - as well as a couple of shots from Booker T & Goldust and the series with Jeff Hardy & Bubba Ray Dudley through Springfield and Springfield and Canada, on a couple of the Pennsylvania shows it’s actually Booker & Bubba challenging. Spike Dudley & Hurricane continue beating Regal & Storm, Batista vs Justin Credible and D’Lo Brown vs Raven continue, Goldust vs Chris Nowinski starts up early month (as well as in Mumbai) as well as Three Minute Warning vs Tommy Dreamer & Johnny Stamboli, then these give way to 3MW vs the Bull & Sean O’Haire and a reprise of Dreamer vs Steven Richards (which also happens in Mumbai), Nowinski vs Al Snow (which also happens in New Delhi) and Goldust & Spike Dudley vs Regal & Storm through  Pennsylvania. We also move from Trish Stratus & Jacquelyn vs Molly Holly & Victoria to title matches between Trish and Vic who assumes position as top antagonist to Stratus. Between Reading, India and new runs starting in Amarillo, everything else falls under exceptions.

VARIATIONS 

Y2J and Goldust miss State College so Booker wrestles Test, RVD teams with Spike against Regal & Storm, and Bubba beats Christian in a singles tables match. In Reading it’s Batista vs Richards, Hurricane & D’Lo vs Raven & Stamboli, Dreamer vs Credible and Jeff, Bubba & Spike work a dry run vs Rico & 3MW albeit a straight six man without tables. India shuffle thus ; in New Delhi Bubba & Spike reunite vs Storm & Regal, Hurricane vs Richards, Raven vs D’Lo vs Dreamer and Jeff vs Credible, in Mumbai it’s Booker v Storm, Bubba & Spike vs Raven & Credible, Hurricane vs Rico and D’Lo vs Test, and in Bangalore Booker vs Christian, Jeff vs Rico, Storm & Regal vs Snow & Dreamer, Spike & Bubba somehow losing to Nowinski & Richards, Hurricane vs D’Lo vs Raven and Goldust vs Credible. New runs in Amarillo after Survivors - Booker vs Regal, Batistas back squashing Dreamer, 3MW are with Hardy & Hurricane, there’s an eight man with Maven, Stamboli, D’Lo and Spike beating Raven, Credible, Nowinski and O’Haire, and the the tag title scene has a new twist - they’ve reunited those damn Dudley Boys!

SMACKDOWN 

Edge & Rey Misterio Jr vs Los Guerreros happens most nights before Survivors both before and after the tag title switch. Underneath we start with Chris Benoit vs Matt Hardy and Rikishi vs Albert then in Peoria it switches from those straightforward bouts to Rikishi beating V1 but Benoit v Albert interrupted by Show attacking both and demanding Lesnar come out - their match then ending no contest after multiple run ins when up to that night, Brock had been pinning him. Dark days. After Survivors Edge is main eventing, Rey is added to a CWT four way, and Benoit & Kurt Angle are chasing Eddy & Chavo. Plus Rikishi vs Hardy continues, now in the dreaded “Kiss My Ass” match. The CWT match most of the month is Jamie Noble vs Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Crash Holly apart from a couple of Noble/Tajiri singles matches In Illinois, after Survivors Noble, Tajiri and Rey are all chasing new champ Billy Kidman. In tags Chuck Palumbo & Sho Funaki are swapping wins with D-Von Dudley & Ron Simmons (Funaki in for the injured Billy Gunn) then we have a couple of gigs with Chuckie and Kidman beating John Cena & Doug Basham, after Survivors Kidman’s out and Funaki’s back in, but the month wraps with Chuck and Cena swapping singles wins. Early doors it had been Shelton Benjamin & Sean O’Haire vs Bull Buchanan & Basham plus Nathan Jones on the road beating Val Venis, mid month when O’Haire temporarily moves to the Raw crew Shelts tags with Eric Angle instead, except Peoria and Wheeling have a six man of Shelton/Eric/Venis vs Bull/D-Von/Simmons. Kidman & Torrie Wilson vs Cena & Dawn Marie is a match you never imagined for most of the month save two “bra and panties” matches (LOL) in Peoria and Wheeling ; after the PPV the stripping resumes but Nidia is listed as a sub for Torrie, I know not why, but at least Dawn gets to win a few. Otherwise post Survivors we add Crash & Little Guido vs Shannon Moore & Spanky, plus Albert, Bull and recently of Raws crew Redd Dogg trading wins with O’Haire, Shelton and… Charlie Haas. Feel the magic.

VARIATIONS

In Bangor Val wrestles Shelton, O’Haire teams with Crash to face Bull & Basham and the odd man out, Jones, doesn’t wrestle - in Champaign it’s Crash getting a night off. In Peoria Jones beats Holly and Basham doesn’t wrestle, robbed of Val to the six man and Crash to the CWT Nathan again has the night off in Wheeling. Baltimore has a slight shuffle - Edge & Rey vs Angle & Benoit goes on last, Noble and Kidman do a dry run, Chavo pins Funaki, Albert vs Val is the match ruined by Show, Tajiri is Torrie’s partner for one night only, the six man is Moore/Crash/Chuck vs D-Von/Bull/O’Haire, and would-be Team Angle beat Basham & Redd. Post PPV is consistent but in Raleigh Kurt’s off so Benoit vs Eddy goes on last as a singles match and Chavo gets a night off too, plus Redd beats Basham, Team Angle work Bull & Albert and O’Haire & Funaki get a night off, and finally in Abilene Crash jobs to Albert, Team Angle lose to BullDogg (LOL), and Moore/Funaki/Spanky beat Guido, Basham & Bill DeMott - O’Haire off again.

TVs

4th at the Boston FleetCenter Spike vs D’Lo is a decent Coliseum Exclusive opener and Nathan Jones is getting his look against Rhode Island’s Arch Kincaid. Next night in Manchester he beats Basham. 11th in Cincinnati Jones beats Rob Conway and Haas teams with Lance Cade (… it’s good but it’s not the one…) to beat Damaja (who will be Danny Basham) and the comeback-trail hopeful Kanyon, next night in Columbus Kanyon pins young Rene Dupree and Haas/Cade beat Val & Nova - yes, ECW Nova who they’ll eventually hire and make into Simon Dean. Night after Survivors in Bridgeport CT, Haas & Benjamin (!) beat ex ECW Danny Doring and - still knocking - Danny Inferno, and interesting note from Heat is Raven beating Aaron Stevens (Idol Stevens/Damien Sandow). Next night in Hartford Haas & Redd lose to O’Haire & Basham dark and a really eventful Velocity has Doring job for DeMott and Inferno for Palumbo. Finally of note 26th in Columbia SC Team Angle beat Moore & Spanky.

Of course, it won’t affect house show cards straight away but Survivors has Shawn Michaels edge back towards the ring full time by, ummm, winning the World title, and Scott Steiner make his debut. Give him a fuckin mic.

DEPARTURES

Again, I don’t think anyone.

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DECEMBER 2002

MAIN EVENTS- RAW

1st in Laredo it’s Kane vs Triple H in a no DQ match with HHH returning one of a million jobs Kane’s done for him. After TVs 6th in Richmond, 7th in Pensacola and 8th in Chattanooga it’s Rob Van Dam pinning Hunter before 13th/14th in Norfolk and Fort Myers future tag champs RVD & Kane beat Hunter & Batista. No reports between Armageddon and New Year.

SMACKDOWN

1st in San Antonio it’s new month, new main as Big Show vs Brock Lesnar starts back up with no finish, but 2nd in Corpus Christi it’s back to Edge as a one off. 6th in Hamilton it’s Show/Lesnar DQ, then 8th at Nassau it’s a cage match with the flukey “cage breaks” win for Show, then 14th another DQ in Jacksonville. 16 in Sarasota (ohhh yeahhh) it’s the one night where Kurt Angle defends the belt as a babyface in a three way, which is the last report of the year.

THE CARDS - RAW

Kane vs Batista goes three nights before the tag main starts. The tag title feud barely registers any matches due to nights off for one or another of the competitors - Booker T vs Christian happens a few times then as Booker goes off it becomes Chris Jericho vs Test (suddenly babyface) and Christian vs Goldust. There’s a nightly tables match with The Dudley Boys vs Lance Storm & William Regal. There are a couple more editions of Trish Stratus & Jacquelyn vs Victoria & Molly Holly before a switch to Vic vs Trish vs Jackie for the belt. Maven vs Chris Nowinski happens all month as does Three Minute Warning vs Spike Dudley & D’Lo Brown though Jamal misses a few so Rico has to sub. Early month cards are rounded off with Test beating Steven Richards (with the Test Drive), Hurricane vs Raven and Tommy Dreamer vs Sean O’Haire, before pre PPV TVs after which Richards and Hurricane get the week off and Raven starts beating Johnny Stamboli.

Of course, Shawn Michaels is World Champion for two weeks of the month but isn’t ready for a road schedule yet.

VARIATIONS 

C-Squared vs Booker & Goldust manages to happen in Laredo, and though Booker & Y2J cross over from breaks in Chattanooga, Goldie is missing so the champs drop a non title match (boooo) to Booker & Test. RVDs last road gig without Hunter is booked as Rico but he misses Laredo so it’s Raven for Rob instead, and also a Victoria/Trish rematch. Runs that end in Laredo see Jeff Hardy & Hurricane beat 3MW, Batista squash Dreamer, and the six man of D’Lo/Maven/Stamboli over Nowinski, O’Haire and Justin Credible. That’s it - pretty tight month from JR.

SMACKDOWN 

Welcome to the final month of the “SmackDown Six.” It’s usually Los Guerreros vs Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit for the tag belts. The CWT is usually Billy Kidman vs Jamie Noble. Both Rikishi vs Matt Hardy and Chuck Palumbo vs John Cena continue early month but Chuck also does a couple of jobs to Matt at Copps Coliseum and Nassau. Dawn Marie does a couple more victories over Nidia in the clothes-tearing debacle then starts swapping the honours in matches with Gail Kim which is not how I expected to introduce her! The tag continues with usually Shannon Moore & Spanky vs Crash Holly & Nunzio (now using that name) and Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin work a few matches with Albert & Bill DeMott, plus against Bull Buchanan & Redd Dogg but also some six man tags against different combinations where DeMott and Doug Basham are always involved but exchange back and forth who is on the babyface team - more fag packet booking from you know who. As a consequence the rest of the undercards are muddled too.

In a baffling turn of events, Edge having any match at all in December is the exception rather than the rule while tag partner Rey Mysterio is out with knee surgery. The Undertaker is still injured too.

VARIATIONS

Starting at the top - San Antonio has the final three way elimination rematch for the tag belts, in Corpus Christi while Edge is on top Reys added to the CWT match, in Sarasota with his partner on top Benoit works Basham - I imagine “The Crippler” vs “The Machine” was technically tight. The Guerreros are off. Scott Steiner will eventually choose Raw on TV but he gets his eye in beating Buchanan in Hamilton, Matt in Long Island and Cena in Jacksonville. Otherwise in San Antonio Sho Funaki upsets Albert, in Corpus Christi Albert loses to Crash while Funaki tags with Moore & Spanky to beat Nunzio, Basham & DeMott, in Hamilton Funaki tags with Sylvan Grenier to beat Redd & Basham, in Jacksonville Basham vs Dogg is a rare singles match for both, and in Sarasota everything’s moved about - Kidman is now with Spanky, Rikishi with Cena, Noble tags with Nunzio against Moore & Crash, Albert beats Shelton as does Chuck, DeMott.

TVs

2nd in Austin it’s two tryouts for HBKs school - his cousin Michael Shane drops frequent rival Paul London, and American Dragon (Bryan Danielson) loses to O’Haire, plus Credible does a final TV job to Test for Heat. Next night in Dallas Dragon loses to Nunzio, Shane teams with Spanky to lose to Team Angle (sounds fun) and London makes it to Velocity, losing to Cena. 9th in Knoxville there’s a tryout for Kid Kash, 16th in Orlando it’s the Shane Twins (later know as the equally forgettable Gymini) and once more 17th in Tampa where they lose to Haas & Benjamin. Finally 22nd in Tulsa Spanky pins Redd Dogg.

DEPARTURE 

First week of December is the end of booking Justin Credible as his contract is allowed to run down without renewal. After X-Factor dissolved and the demise of the Hardcore division he never really had a spot and was just another body they didn’t need on the payroll.

Edited by air_raid
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JANUARY 2003

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

 2nd-3rd they’re in Honolulu where a few stories from night 1 extend into night 2 - on top, Triple H & Batista vs Rob Van Dam & Kane features the odd sight of babyface Kane abandoning his partner after a miscue leading to defeat and the booking of the next nights main where Rob tags with Scott Steiner who elicits the submission from The Game with the Steiner Recliner after interference from Ric Flair, Chief Morley and crucially, Shawn Michaels. The same tag 4th in Anaheim and 5th in Colorado Springs has Van Dam pin Batista, 7th in El Paso we start Triple H vs Big Poppa Pump for the belt (DQ finish) and the same 12th in Atlantic City. Post Rumble they’re off to Asia with Steiner & Kane swapping wins with Hunter & Dave in Seoul and the first night at Yoyogi (Tokyo), next night Kane vs Batista and RVD vs Chris Jericho might be the real biggest matches, Hunter closes with Yoshihiro Tajiri - one for the locals. 31st they’re in Minneapolis and again, to please the locals (plus Hunter’s been injured) a distinctly Raw show borrows a main event from SmackDown - Brock Lesnar vs Shelton Benjamin. Leading me to….

SMACKDOWN 

3rd at the Cow Palace we’re still running Brock Lesnar vs Big Show in a No DQ match as we do 4th in Fairbanks and 5th in Anchorage (both Alaska) and 11th in Trenton. Post Rumble the belt is back, it’s a return to Kurt Angle vs Edge in Poughkeepsie (Lesnar/Show underneath), Saskatoon, Regina and Milwaukee.

THE CARDS - RAW

The early month tag title feud doesn’t get many actual tags, far more common is Booker T vs Chris Jericho no DQ though in Seoul and first night at Yoyogi Y2J is with Yoshihiro Tajiri, LOSING to him in Tokyo to hype Tajiri’s title shot next night. Rob Van Dam vs Batista goes 50/50 before the Rumble, on tour RVD picks up a couple of wins over Christian. The Dudley Boys & Spike Dudley work a tables match early month with D’Lo Brown, Chris Nowinski & Steven Richards sometimes split into separate tag and singles matches, and after the Rumble the Boys are either chasing new champs Lance Storm & William Regal or doing the tables match with Three Minute Warning, Spike usually still with Richards or sometimes Rico, D’Lo often with Test from middle of the month. 

The women’s match is fluid this month with a couple of Victoria vs Trish Stratus rematches, an occasional Vic vs Molly Holly vs Jacquelyn, at least two instances of a four corners pre Rumble and a couple of returns to the tag post. Kane vs Rosey no DQ is an odd run while Jamal is still out. Early month we have Lance vs Tommy Dreamer, Test vs Raven and Hurricane vs Rico before mid month Hurricane starts going 50/50 with Sean O’Haire and does Nowinski with Maven. The rest is a bit messy and a couple of lads feel “of no fixed abode” at parts of the month.

Jeff Hardy is off the road again, and it’s not looking good. They’re in the middle of a heel turn on TV which ends up aborted.

VARIATIONS

Not a match but needs a mention - unadvertised and not mentioned on TV, The Rock appears at Anaheim, saving Booker T from C-Squared. Scott Steiner has exceptions when not on last, beating Raven first night in Honolulu, Christian second night at Yoyogi and Batista in Minneapolis. Booker & Goldust make one defence vs Y2J and the CLB first night in Hawaii, then in El Paso Booker tags with Kane to beat the Canadian pair. T & Dust lose to Regal & Storm in Seoul but Booker is oddly not booked in Tokyo, before he beats Christian In Minneapolis. Goldie pins Captain Charisma second night of Honolulu, misses a couple of weeks, pins Chief Morley first night at Yoyogi then tags with Hurricane to beat 3MW on the second. RVD and Y2J also have a couple of variations wrestling each other last night in Asia then in Minnesota Rob finishes his month with fellow frog splash aficionado D’Lo, Jericho back with Test. Otherwise night 2 in Hawaii has Dreamer vs Rico and Lance beating Spike, Hurricane vs Raven and a revenge match for interference in the previous nights title match with Trish & Test beating Molly & Morley while Victoria defends vs Jackie (not used on night 1). Also the Dudleys table match is a 2vs3 handicap with Spike otherwise booked - the extra body on the card being Rosey who had night 1 off. In El Paso the tables match is all three Dudleys plus Dreamer against Raven, Richards, Storm & Morley. In Atlantic City Christian beats Dreamer, Seoul has Hurricane vs Richards, night 1 of Tokyo is rounded off with Storm & Regal vs Spike & Hurricane plus Rico oddly working face vs Richards, next night he does the same beating Morley and Test & Jackie vs D’Lo & Molly is random as fuck. Finally In Minneapolis no idea who played face in O’Haire vs Rico.

SMACKDOWN 

Los Guerreros vs Team Angle is nearly every night. It’s usually Edge vs A-Train before the Rumble and Chris Benoit vs A-Train after it. CWT is usually Billy Kidman vs Yoshihiro Tajiri pre PPV then vs Nunzio. Still some laughs from Rikishi vs John Cena and continuation of Matt Hardy vs Chuck Palumbo until Canada, then it’s Palumbo on ass duty. Jamie Noble vs Spanky is common post Rumble and either side of a run of Spanky & Sho Funaki vs Noble & Nunzio. Bill DeMott beating former partner Crash Holly then Kanyon are runs you needn’t care about. After the Rumble Rey Mysterio & Nova vs Cena & Redd Dogg is quite a trial run for the future Simon Dean, and Matt has to do jobs for Nathan Jones. We finish the Dawn Marie vs Gail Kim stripperthon and from Canada onwards it’s Torrie Wilson & Gail vs Dawn & Nidia in a standard tag.

Rey is recovering from knee surgery and Benoit gets time off working one house show before the Rumble. Kurt’s carrying a knock too, soon to be revealed as a serious neck injury. The Undertaker returns at the PPV but isn’t back on the road yet.

VARIATIONS

A couple of great exceptions for Edge - in Fairbanks its future WWE title rivals Edge vs Cena and in Trenton he’s tagging with Benoit to go on last against Team Angle with Eddy & Chavo off. In Fairbanks also, Spanky upsets Albert, Matt teams with DeMott to beat Crash & Funaki, Rikishi is with Noble. In Trenton Funaki pins Redd, Noble & Nunzio beat Nova & Spanky and DeMott pins Shannon Moore. In Poughkeepsie the CWT is a three way with Kidman vs Noble vs Nunzio, Hardy vs Spanky, Dawn Marie beats Nidia as a one off, DeMott & Palumbo beat Tajiri & Funaki and interesting footnote ; after Rikishi vs Cena, Rikishi is saved from a beating by Cena and new sidekick Redd Dogg by former sidekick Bull Buchanan. Fun note from Saskatchewan - Spanky wrestles under a mask as “The Roughrider” - a reference to the CFL team.

TVs

In Phoenix on the 6th O’Haire pins Horshu (Luther Reigns). Next night in Tucson Horshu and Redd Dogg lose to Doug Basham and a wrestler the reporters didn’t identify - I suspect Damaja. Also dark Dawn Marie beats Gail and a fun Velocity has “Diamondback” (Spanky in a mask, again) beat Funaki and Keiji Sakoda (first name Ryan, soon to be part of Kyo Dai) does a job for Palumbo. A Sunday taping at the former Meadowlands on 12th  has Nova beat Aaron Stevens dark and the most indyrrific Velocity ever has The Jet (Spanky again) pin Moore, Bryan Danielson do a job for the man he’ll take the ROH belt from one day, Noble, and Palumbo goes over the CURRENT ROH champ, Xavier. This being the night Cena falls out with B2 and Redd Dogg takes his place. More ROH alumni 27th in Chicago - Chad Collyer goes down to Johnny Stamboli and Michael Shane to O’ Haire, also Ken Anderson tapes a tag loss to 3MW for Heat, which is odd because the house show the same night is in Milwaukee and next night SmackDown is taped in Green Bay which would have been far more convenient for him! Said night in Green Bay Kanyon loses to Jones dark and Nova appears on Velocity under his real name losing to Noble.

DEPARTURES

Raven does a TV job to Jeff with a Rumble spot at stake then he’s granted his release. Stories of “Who the fuck hired Johnny Polo?” now being legendary, the relationship was cursed before it began.

After six years of trying, they give up on Barry Buchanan. The office being high on Redd/Mack, they just give Bulls position to him and decide they haven’t got anything for Buchanan who did have some talent and will land steady work for a good few years in All Japan while WWE spends a couple of years finding spots on TV for a series of worthless goons far more limited than him.

Heres night 1 of Raw in Hawaii ;

 

 

Edited by air_raid
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FEBRUARY 2003

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

1st they’re at Madison Square Garden but Hunters still injured so to give them a main worthy of MSG SmackDown lends them a gauntlet of Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle & Team Angle - as these things tend to go, Brock pinned Shelton then Charlie before the inevitable DQ finish, plus pre match shenanigans with Heyman and Stephanie. Brocks also on hand 2nd in Binghamton to pin Batista (yes, that match happened on the main roster) though tag belts go on last. 7th in Houston hometown boy Booker T goes on last with Big Dave then it’s Scott Steiner pinning Batista on last 8th in Fresno and 9th in San Diego. 14th onwards Hunters fit enough for tags so it’s Steiner & Rob Van Dam vs Triple H & Batista in Saginaw and Kalamazoo, 16th in Huntington Booker is Steiners partner (how ironic).

SMACKDOWN 

White Plains on 3rd Brock Lesnar vs A-Train & Paul Heyman in a handicap is as odd one (tag belts on last), Boise on 9th and Davis CA on 10th its Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit for the belt, and it will revert to that 16th in Detroit and 17th in Cincinnati, but 15th in Winnipeg SmackDown again borrows Chris Jericho for a crack at Kurt in his hometown. We're off on tour of South Africa after No Way Out - 27th in Cape Town its again Angle vs Benoit, 28th in Durban its Lesnar & Benoit vs all three of Team Angle in 2/3 falls!

THE CARDS - RAW

Rob Van Dam & Kane start their march to the tag belts by beating Three Minute Warning most nights and when Rob's main eventing in his home state, Kane vs Jamal (oof) is a one on one. Scott Steiner vs Batista is both an occasional main and support at MSG. Chris Jericho vs Test goes on most nights in readiness for their PPV match that never happens. Booker T vs Christian is nearly every night too. Lance Storm & William Regal vs The Dudley Boys for the tag belts rolls on. Womens title is most commonly Victoria vs Molly Holly vs Jacquelyn but Molly and Jackie swap a few wins in singles when Vic is off then closer to No Way Out its Vicky vs Molly one on one. Early month D'Lo Brown vs Spike Dudley and Sean O'Haire vs Rico are fairly one sided, then after a pivotal Raw taping it moves to Rodney Mack swapping wins with Spike, and room opens up for Maven vs Chris Nowinski and Tommy Dreamer vs Steven Richards no DQ, which are both fairly even, though Spike occasionally works Rico or Richards and - how about this? - Jeff Hardy makes a few road gigs to beat Rico.

VARIATIONS

9th in San Diego there's another in the recent "hometown love" card variants - Rey Mysterio pins Eddy Guerrero via Havoc 97 finish. MSG has the end of RVD vs D'Lo. In Binghamton RVD beats Christian, Booker occupies himself with Richards and Vic vs Jackie is a one on one. In Houston Dreamer beats Rico and Christian works Steiner, O'Haire is with Richards. In Fresno O'Haire beats D'Lo, then in San Diego D'Lo beats Dreamer. In Kalamazoo Maven teams with Matt Cappotelli to beat Nowinski & Chief Morley, then in Huntington it becomes a six man with Dreamer/Maven/Al Snow over Nowinski/Morley/Richards.

SMACKDOWN

The beer mat booking is out of control this month though it’s not all Heyman's fault. Brock Lesnar vs Albert & Paul Heyman as a handicap happens a few times beneath the title match but nearer the PPV and in Cape Town its Big Show, logically, as the partner for bookerman. Team Angle vs Los Guerreros happens a few times for the tag belts but they're a bit all over the shop, including Rey Mysterio & Rikishi getting involved for a three way in Winnipeg and Cape Town. Rikishi vs John Cena is revisited more than once but far from every night. The Undertaker & Nathan Jones vs A-Train & Bill DeMott gets Taker back in the ring and Jones valuable minutes ahead of a planned and sumarily aborted Mania outing. Billy Kidman vs Jamie Noble for the CWT happens nearly every night. A fairly common Torrie Wilson vs Nidia takes place with Torrie losing because of guest ref Dawn Marie although there are a handful more of Torrie vs Dawn in the dreaded Bra & Panties match. Mark Henry is easing back in, with Cena both nights in South Africa.

VARIATIONS - JESUS SWEET FUCK

Even Brock has a variation - in Davis the handicap match is Heyman & Shelton. Rey teams with Rikishi to lose in Los Guerreros' last defence in White Plains, then to beat special Raw guests Chris Jericho & Christian in Detroit before pinning Matt Hardy in Cincinnati as another Mania rehearsal, and - incredibly - pins Big Show in Durban. Also in White Plains Benoit inexplicably tags with Jones to beat Team Angle in their last match before winning the belts, then "the Crippler" beats A-Train in Winnipeg. Edge pins Cena in White Plains, tags with Rikishi to lose to Team Angle in Boise (Rey working Raw in San Diego) then beats Haas in Davis before his month comes to a screeching hault with a serious neck injury - lot of that going around! Eddy & Chavo do a pretty conspicuous job to Rikishi & Sho Funaki in Durban. Kidman defends against Nunzio in White Plains, teams with mrs Torrie to face Cena & Dawn Marie in Torrie's hometown of Boise, and in Cincinnati its a four way against Nunzio, Noble and Funaki. By Cape Town he's chasing Hardy who's won the belt at the PPV, in Durban he beats DeMott. V1 jobs to Jones in Detroit and beats Noble in Durban which I expect was hilarious. Kanyon is the most versatile member of the crew this month - he loses to Noble in White Plains, Redd Dogg in Boise, teams with Brian Kendrick to WIN against Nunzio & Chuck Palumbo in Davis, jobs to Mattitude in Winnipeg and A-Train in Detroit, and teams with Palumbo to lose to Chuck's former partner Sean O'Haire & Kendrick in Cincinnati - Kendrick vs Palumbo having occured one on one in Boise.

Otherwise - in White Plain, Dogg beats Shannon Moore and DeMott squashes Funaki, in Boise DeMott pins Jones and Noble wins a three way over Moore and Nunzio, in Davis Moore does a job to John Hennigan (soon to be Johnny Blaz/Spade/Nitro and eventually John Morrison) and Nidia has to lose to Dawn Marie in the stripper match, in Winnipeg Cena goes over O'Haire then teams with DeMott to beat O'Haire & Funaki in Detroit and Cape Town has Funaki upset Noble.

TVs

3rd in Washington, O'Haire goes over ECW alumnus Julio Dinero. Two nights later in Philadelphia a rather famous Velocity match has Cena give Bryan Danielson four competitive minutes before pinning him with the Protobomb, 10th at the Staples Center O'Haire pins Mike Knox dark and Ryan Sakoda and Frankie Kazarian are on opposite sides of a tag. Also of note on the 18th Velocity taping Nunzio and Palumbo (now doing the FBI gimmick) go over Nova & Johnny Jeter - that's Johnny from the Spirit Squad. Toronto and London following No Way Out have a couple of looks at Tyson Dux and in London O'Haire goes over a young Bobby Roode.

DEPARTURES

For the second month in a row a guys out the door over Redd Dogg/Rodney Mack! D’Lo Brown loses to Booker T on the 10th Raw then on footage that airs on Heat, Teddy Long berates him for losing to a “sellout” and “Uncle Tom” and D’Lo gets blindsided by the backup plan, Mack. A week or so later he’s let go. Pretty messed up that they gave him the Cena gig and changed course so soon but not before sacking Bull! All for a guy probably best remembered as Jazz’ husband.

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MARCH 2003

What a month of moving parts this is! Hunters half fit, Brocks about to give himself a concussion, Kurt needs to go off get his neck fixed, Edge is already off with his. What else can go wrong…? Still, some good news. Shawns working a few TV matches, Hogans back, Austin’s back for a bit mainly to do one last big favour for Rock, who in turn is back chiefly to do a favour for Goldberg. Plus we’re only a month away from the return of the patron sexy saint of the UKevFF. Though those last few names aren’t going to have much influence on the months road results. Much.

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

1st in Reading we’re off immediately with Triple H vs Booker T for the belt but 2nd in Rochester is a bit weakened so Test vs Chris Jericho goes on last. 8th in East Lansing we revert to Scott Steiner getting the title shot, 14th in Moline, 15th in Lincoln and 16th in Columbia MO it’s Booker again which takes us to Mania.

SMACKDOWN 

1st in Johannesburg we conclude the South Africa trip with Brock Lesnar vs Big Show & Paul Heyman which continues 8th in Birmingham (AL) and 9th in Youngstown No DQ without Paul E which actually goes on first (Benoit goes on last). 15th in Miami is the kind of one off that birthed this thread - The Rock vs Brock Lesnar with the Great One avenging his most recent loss in front of a hometown crowd. 16th in Tampa Takers tag goes on last but Lesnars the man and he’s with John Cena and thus do reports for March end.

THE CARDS - RAW

Chris Jericho vs Test is again all month but the rest of the cards are thrown into chaos by some early month injuries. We start out with a few programs without issues - Scott Steiner vs Lance Storm, Jeff Hardy vs Chris Nowinski, Hurricane vs Steven Richards and Spike Dudley & Jacquelyn vs Rico & Molly Holly as a tag or two singles. After disaster in Reading there’s some shuffling but after East Lansing things settle down into Rob Van Dam & Kane vs Three Minute Warning, Spike & D-Von Dudley vs Storm & Chief Morley in a tables match, Maven vs Rico, Goldust vs Richards, Victoria vs Trish Stratus vs Jazz, Hurricane vs Rodney Mack, and Jeff completing his last house show loop for three years by beating Christian every night. Steiner finds himself without an opponent, rapidly sinking after such high initial hopes.

William Regal has not wrestled since No Way Out and he’ll be on the shelf for over a year with a combination of concussion and what doctors will find are complications caused by a heart parasite contracted in India the year before.

VARIATIONS

So…. Reading has the first outing of the first attempt at Evolution as a four strong stable and we’re a bit fucked as both Randy Orton, Batista and Bubba Ray Dudley sustain injuries. In one match. RVD vs Morley is our other one off there. In Rochester Rico pins Matt Cappotelli before losing to Spike “impromptu”, Christian clocks in to lose to RVD and with injuries piling up D-Von pins Morley. In East Lansing Maven loses to Mack, Morley to Spike, Lance to Tommy Dreamer (WTF) and Rico has to sub for Jamal tagging with Rosey to lose to Van Dam/Kane. Then we get some consistency for three reports.

SMACKDOWN

Domestically it’s absolutely a game of two halves - Team Angle vs Los Guerreros goes all month but early month we have Chris Benoit vs A-Train topping those cards where Lesnar opens, Rhino vs John Cena to get the former back in the groove, Rey Mysterio vs Jamie Noble, CWT is Matt Hardy giving Billy Kidman the rematch, plus Nathan Jones vs Kanyon as they hope beyond hope Jones will be ready for Mania. Through Florida it’s Undertaker & Nate vs Big Show & Albert, V1 vs the 619, Rhino vs Kanyon and an FBI six man with Nunzio, Johnny Stamboli & Chuck Palumbo losing to Sean O’Haire, Brian Kendrick….. and Sgt Slaughter???? Otherwise Rikishi and Yoshihiro Tajiri work one match each in Florida with Bill DeMott and Noble respectively. Benoit gets (calendar wise) oddly timed time off. If you’re wondering who the spare body was in Miami, Cena is relegated to a run in during Rikishi vs DeMott which doesn’t change the outcome. Oh… Torrie Wilson vs Nidia is all month, usually a regular wrestling match.

Kurt Angle, WWE Champion, you may have noticed is not on the road between the South Africa tour and Mania because he is, to use a medical term, fucked.

VARIATIONS 

Johannesburg has Benoit & Rikishi beat Kurt & Cena, Team Angle vs Rey & Kidman (hnng), Matt defend against Chavo, Eddy vs Noble (I bet that was fun), Torrie defrocking Dawn Marie once more and Mark Henry over DeMott.

TVs

4th in Bridgeport Aaron Stevens does a job for Kanyon. 10th in Cleveland Matt Stryker loses to Spike for Heat - Stryker who won the ROH Field Of Honor, not Striker who ends up on comms. 11th in Pittsburgh they have Jackie Gayda with Rico as he goes over Shark Boy (!). 18th in Louisville has suitably OVW extras - Nick Dinsmore & Rob Conway beat Rene Dupree & Lance Cade (La Res explode??) plus Kanyon does another job for O’Haire. Finally 25th in San Jose Kanyon drops Chad Collyer. 31st Raw of course is the TV debut of Bill Goldberg.

DEPARTURE 

He’s back, then he’s done. Steve Austin returns for that one last big gig, putting over Rocky nice and clean at Mania XIX, then quietly retires for 19 years. He stays on the books and part of the onscreen storyline for at least another 12 months but it’s the end of Stone Cold as a full time wrestler.

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APRIL 2003

Austin’s out, Rocks about to be out, Goldberg and Nash are in, Kurt’s injured. I remember the months following Mania XIX as some of the worst TV I’d ever seen to that point so I’m really interested to see what the live shows looked like. Although both my sources are a bit light on reports this month.

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

12th in Roanoke is the first report and fuck me, look at this - Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels & Booker T vs Triple H, Ric Flair & Chris Jericho - fittingly in a WCW haunt Nash pins the wearer of the Big Gold Belt after the Jacknife. This happens again 13th in Charlottesville VA, 26th in Portland ME night before Backlash there’s no big names so we have a reprisal of Jericho vs Test then tag belts on last.

SMACKDOWN 

12th-14th in Daytona Beach, Montgomery and Fayetteville we’re gearing up for Backlash on the blue brand too - it’s Brock Lesnar vs John Cena for the WWE title. 26th in Springfield MA Brock uncharacteristically has the night before the PPV off - Cena beats Chris Benoit on last. 28th Burlington Lesnars back and still defending against the Doctor Of Thugonomics.

THE CARDS - RAW

It’s Kane & Rob Van Dam vs The Dudley Boys vs Lance Storm & Chief Morley twice, then straight tag vs the Dudleys in Portland refereed by Morley. Test vs Christian occurs twice then in Portland Christian jobs for Scott Steiner, otherwise invisible. Trish Stratus vs Victoria vs Molly Holly is the usual title match and a planned six woman in Portland becomes Jacquelyn & Ivory vs Vic & Jazz ref’d by Molly when Trish doesn’t make it. Everything else is pretty weak ; three outings for Three Minute Warning vs Maven & Hurricane, two instances of Rico vs Tommy Dreamer when Rico’s scheduled opponent gets shitcanned (see below), Goldust vs Steven Richards, Spike Dudley losing to Chris Nowinski, then Portland has Spike over Richards, Rodney Mack beating Dreamer and Nowinski pinning Al Snow. Oh and another hometown appearance for Scotty Too Hotty claiming he was cleared to wrestle but Morley telling him to fuck off - naturally Scotty helps the Dudleys clear the Chief out after the main.

VARIATIONS

You’ve read the lot.

SMACKDOWN

Some consistency here - Team Angle vs Los Guerreros continues every night (it will take Chavo getting injured to stop the run), Chris Benoit & Rhino vs Big Show & A-Train happens three times either side of Backlash, the most common CWT match is Matt Hardy vs Rey Mysterio vs Jamie Noble. Also Sean O’Haire gets repeated wins over Crash Holly, the Nathan Jones experiment carries on with ring time with Bill DeMott, an FBI six man has Nunzio, Johnny Stamboli & Chuck Palumbo face assorted babyfaces with the most common being Rikishi, Yoshihiro Tajiri & Brian Kendrick, plus Nidia works equal numbers of singles matches with Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie

Kurt Angle is of course getting his neck looked after and will be out for months as well as Edge long term who had the surgery. After 12 years of the grind The Undertaker isn’t working a full schedule any more and incredibly won’t be asked to do a champions schedule with either belt for another four years. Billy Kidman is not booked this month, unsure as to whether taking time off or injured.

VARIATIONS 

Daytona Beach is notable for the return (of sorts) to the road circuit of Sable who guest ring announces Torrie’s match. In Fayetteville Benoit vs Show and Rhino vs Albert become split singles matches, Crash steps up to third man in the CWT match, DeMott takes Tajiri’s spot in the six man, “the Buzzsaw” jobs to O’Haire and Jones beats Noble. Short-staffed Springfield has Sho Funaki tag with Kendrick and Tajiri, Jones pin A-Train and Rhino beat DeMott - Show and Rikishi off as well as Lesnar. In Burlington Rikishi’s now working (and squashing) O’Haire, Matt defends against Tajiri, Noble pins Funaki and Palumbo/Stamboli beat Kendrick/DeMott - Rey is out for a couple of weeks with a knock, I believe sustained in the ludicrously dangerous aftermath of his match with Show at Backlash.

TVs 

1st in Spokane O’Haire pins Sylvan Grenier, most recently Mr McMahons bent ref and soon to be one of La Resistance. 7th in Milwaukee there are tryouts again for Chad Collyer and Shark Boy and local Ken Anderson jobs for Mack on Heat. Next night in Chicago O’Haire wins another dark match so they can sure everyone recognises him when he appears alongside Roddy Piper later, and Kanyon beats Tyson Dux. 14th in Richmond ECW alumni and long time tag team Christian York & Joey Matthews have a trial - Matthews eventually will be Joey Mercury. Next night in Norfolk they actually wear masks as Los Chihuahuas (spoofing the Guerreros) in a loss to Team Angle that airs on Velocity. 21st in Atlanta has an appropriately WCW feel - SOMEBODY CALL HIS MAMA! Ernest Miller vs Johnny Swinger and Mark Jindrak vs Norman Smiley are our dark matches. Next night in Nashville Jindrak jobs for DeMott and Smiley for Miller. On the SmackDown taping Piper actually wrestles Rikishi - briefly. 28th Raw in Boston Aaron Stevens (Damien Sandow) goes over local lad John Walters - The Embassy forever. Finally in Manchester NH next night Stevens tags with Chad Austin to lose to - here it is - Grenier & René Dupree.

DEPARTURE

To steal a line from his future theme, he didn’t see the writing on the wall ; Jeff Hardy gets lamped by The Rock on the 7th April Raw and that’s the last match of his first run - the difference between the athlete and superstar of 2001 is stark and this match is everything you need to know about his decline - he’s skinny, drawn and tired looking. He’s become unreliable, no showing some house shows, and refusing to go to rehab, so they cut him loose. He blames burnout at the time which of course could have been part of the problem but we all know by far not the biggest part.

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MAY 2003

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

2nd-4th they’re in Ontario, Oshawa and Kitchener have the odd sight of Test on top, first against Scott Steiner (billed as Canada vs USA) then against Chris Jericho next night, before 4th in Ottawa its Triple H vs Kevin Nash for the belt likewise 9th in Wilkes-Barre, 10th in Newark and 11th in Bethlehem. 23rd in Bossier City and 24th in Baton Rouge Trips is back with Steiner, 25th in New Orleans and 31st in Portland we have a Dusty finish robbing Kev of the belt.

SMACKDOWN 

We’ve still got Brock Lesnar vs John Cena 3rd in Quebec City, 4th in Fredericton (New Brunswick) and 5th in Sydney (Nova Scotia) before they’re on tour. 8th-10th in Aberdeen, London, Belfast Brocks with Big Show, 11th in Sheffield he’s back with Cena. 19th in Johnson City TN we move to Lesnar & Rey Mysterio vs Cena & Show, 24th in Fort Myers and 26th in Dothan AL it’s again Show going for gold, and 31st in Vegas is very peculiar - Brock teams with The Undertaker to win a 2 vs 3 handicap against The Full Blooded Italians.

THE CARDS - RAW

Early month Rob Van Dam & Kane finish up their defences against Lance Storm & Chief Morley plus a couple more of Chris Jericho vs Test no DQ and Scott Steiner vs Christian a couple of times, before Kane starts working Christian (Robs off), Steiner & Test start losing to La Resistance every night when they fail to get on, Storm & Morley do opening match losses to Hurricane & Maven, then Helms does double duty - Bookers injured so Y2J has Hurricane as a guest on the Highlight Reel leading to an impromptu match - which Hurricane wins! Bet that went down a treat. After Judgment Day there’s a run of Christian defending the revived ICT against the equally revived Val Venis character, RVD/Kane are defending against La Res, a continuation of Spike Dudley & The Dudley Boys vs Rico & Three Minute Warning in a tables match and - did you remember this? - Lance swaps wins with Steve Williams. Which isn’t leading to Dr Death coming back. Women’s title is usually Jazz vs Trish Stratus vs Victoria vs Jacquelyn in Ontario with Jackie out leaving a three way on US shows before the PPV and a four way involving Molly Holly after it. Otherwise in Ontario it’s Spike vs Steven Richards and that tables match a 2vs3 handicap, La Res picking up the win from Maven & Helms and Rodney Mack pinning Tommy Dreamer, and in Louisiana Goldust swaps wins with Mark Jindrak and Mack teams with Chris Nowinski to beat Lance Cade & John Heidenreich (ugh).

No continuation of life on the road yet for Shawn Michaels but he’ll get there.

VARIATIONS 

We’ll start with Booker T - he beats Mack in Wilkes-Barre before getting hurt, and 31st in Oregon he’s recovered to take his first crack at Christian. Otherwise In Oshawa Dudleys vs 3MW is a straight tag, Rico works Richards and since Y2J is off the odd man out is Spike who has no match. Trish is off in Ottawa leaving Jazz vs Vic vs Jackie. In Wilkes-Barre Nowinski beats Dreamer then with Booker out in Newark Kane pins Mack with Nowinski attempting a run in and Christian pins Dreamer. New Orleans has a final Dudleys vs 3MW tag, Mack/Nowinski beat Spike & Maven, Christian retains over Hurricane, Steiner pins Rico and Goldust/Venis/Cade beat Lance/Jindrak/Richards, before in Portland Mack & Harvard Chris graduate to beating Bubba & D-Von, Test pins Venis, Rico (with Jackie Gayda) beats Cade and Goldust & Maven beat Storm & Jindrak.

SMACKDOWN 

Chris Benoit vs Big Show happens a lot, as does “The Crippler” vs John Cena depending on who is in their with Lesnar, his tag partner Rhino vs A-Train is fairly common alongside Sean O’Haire vs Brian Kendrick - whenever Rhino and O’Haire aren’t with each other - and with some symmetry Benoit vs O’Haire happens twice too. Team Angle vs Los Guerreros continues most nights until Chavo tears his bicep the week before the PPV ; unsurprisingly Haas & Benjamin chase Eddy and Yoshihiro Tajiri thereafter. Matt Hardy vs Jamie Noble for the CWT becomes a threeway when Rey Mysterio returns for the UK tour. Early month Rikishi & Tajiri had been doing the honours for Johnny Stamboli & Chuck Palumbo, after Judgment Day Nunzio is added for a six man vs various others, most often Rikishi, Kendrick and Bill DeMott. A-Train & Kanyon vs The Basham Brothers starts up after the PPV, and we start the month with Nidia vs Dawn Marie with Sho Funaki as the ref switches back to Torrie Wilson vs Nidia was occasionally Dawn as the ref and often Sable as ring announcer including every night over here. Crash Holly makes his way onto cards too, usually with Funaki before the tour and new face Orlando Jordan after the PPV.

VARIATIONS

One offs in Quebec City have usual opponents swapping as Crash puts over Kendrick and O’Haire pins Funaki, plus Rick Martel makes a special appearance after the main. In Aberdeen the Guerreros work the FBI and Team Angle beat Rikishi/Tajiri. Sheffield has plenty of exceptions as it always did right back to the UK Rampage tapes - O’Haire pins Tajiri, A-Train pins Kendrick, Rikishi teams with the Guerreros against all three FBI to close and Rey takes a break from Matt to team with Rhino against Team Angle. In Johnson City Kanyon takes Kendrick’s place in the FBI six man and by Vegas Cena has moved on to Rikishi, the Bashams tag with A-Train against Rey, Spanky and DeMott, and Crash picks up a welcome win from Funaki.

TVs

5th in Halifax there’s another round of Aaron Stevens vs John Walters. Next night in the same building it’s Tyson Dux vs Bobby Roode dark then Dux loses to Noble for Velocity. 12th in Philly at the First Union Center (formerly CoreStates, now Wells Fargo, not to be confused with First Union Spectrum which was THE Spectrum of Golden Era fame) begins a very odd 24 hours… CM Punk beats fellow Chicago native Khalsa Singh and Crowbar (with Daffney in his corner) pins old Mike Bell in dark matches, and Joey Matthews loses to Lance for Heat, but live to the nation Legion of Doom turn up and lose to RVD/Kane. No idea why such a road test (no pun intended) happened on live TV. Next night in Baltimore Matthews pins Crowbar and Punk teams with Doug Delicious to lose to LOD - but dark. This being the night Chavo does his bicep. 19th in Greenville Dreamer beats Carly Colon (yes, Carlito) and - David Flair sighting! - he teams with Maven to lose to Horshu (Luther Reigns) & Brent Dail from Puerto Rico. 26th in Mobile David & Hurricane go over Cade & Jindrak and Ultimo Dragon pins Rico - high hopes there, which will sadly go unfulfilled. He beats Crash next night in Pensacola too.

DEPARTURES 

None that I can tell.

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JUNE 2003

THE MAIN EVENTS - RAW

We’ve still got Triple H vs Kevin Nash with a Dusty DQ 1st in Albuquerque then they’re over here - 6th in Nottingham is the only stop before Insurrextion with Nash & Scott Steiner (the Main Event Mafia live!!) beating HHH & Chris Jericho when Kev pins the champ. Tulsa on 14th is fairly B show without the title match or Y2J - Christian vs Booker T for the ICT then tag belts on last. 21st in Hartford 22nd in Albany the title match becomes a streetfight so Hunter finally starts pinning his big buddy. 23rd they do Raw at MSG which is TV rather than a house show but I feel the gate is relevant - they announce shy of 14,500 which considering they cry “sell out” north of 16,000 and some of the numbers they’ve squeezed into the building in years prior, it’s stunning. New York was always the barometer and fans are sitting at home rather than come out for the Raw product. 27th-29th in Poughkeepsie, Elmira and Syracuse we return to Triple H vs Rob Van Dam.

SMACKDOWN 

Brock Lesnar & The Undertaker are curiously still working a handicap against the Full Blooded Italians 1st in Oakland, 2nd in Sacramento and 7th in Austin then 8th in Laredo we revert to Lesnar vs John Cena for the belt, and 14th-16th in Odessa  Lubbock and Corpus Christi the FBI match becomes a six man as Kurt Angle returns from non surgical neck treatment. Brock has to miss 21st-23rd in Washington, Hershey and Uncasville CT so it’s a reunion of Angle and Chris Benoit to beat Big Show, Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin. 28th-30th at the wonderfully named Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, in Augusta (ME) and Utica, it’s Brock Lesnar & Kurt Angle vs Big Show & John Cena.

THE CARDS - RAW

Christian vs Booker T and Rob Van Dam & Kane vs La Resistance title matches continue most of the month either side of Bad Blood until New York post MSG when it becomes Christian vs Goldust and La Res vs The Dudley Boys. Prior, the Duds were losing to Rodney Mack & Chris Nowinski before the PPV but beating them after it. All month it’s Scott Steiner vs Test. Not much consistency in the Women’s match but mid month there’s the odd sight of Jazz vs Victoria a couple of times where heel Vic beats heel champ Jazz by DQ when her male stablemates interfere and the Dudleys make the save. Post MSG it’s Vic & Molly Holly swapping wins with Gail Kim & Ivory - yes, Ivory is still employed. Otherwise Albuquerque and Nottingham both see Test swap wins with Val Venis, in Hartford & Albany Goldust pins Rico and Randy Orton puts away Maven with what we now call the RKO (which also happens in Poughkeepsie). We’ve then got Tommy Dreamer beating Rico (revenge from Tulsa), Venis & Hurricane vs Mack & Rosey, and two nights of (Evolution trial?) Orton & Mark Jindrak going over Maven and future Jindrak partner Garrison Cade when each opponent on one night or the other goes down to the RKO.

Chris Jericho doesn’t wrestle again for most of this month - the reports don’t mention it but I believe this is the period Y2J talks about with fondness in his second book where he hosts a Highlight Reel on the house shows with guest Stone Cold Steve Austin where they drink beers and Y2J accidentally touches Austin - which he can interpret as “physical provocation” per the TV storyline, giving him excuse to give Jericho numerous Stunners.

VARIATIONS

Rico vs Cade and Goldie/Maven vs Storm/Jindrak both end in Albuquerque where the Women’s title is Jazz vs Vic vs Ivory vs Jacquelyn. In Nottingham Hurricane blows away Storm, Maven pins mentor Al Snow, and Jazz vs Victoria vs Trish Stratus occurs. Tulsa has Jindrak drop Spike Dudley and Lance Storm beat (still Lance) Cade and Trish win (as announced) a contenders match over Vicky and Molly. Y2J does actually appear in a match in Hartford ; after interfering in Booker vs Christian he’s challenged to a match for later by Venis, which he wins. There’s also Dreamer & Hurricane vs Storm & Rosey (lol), then in Albany there’s a six man of Venis/Hurricane/Dreamer against Lance, Rosey and spare body Steven Richards. Finally in Poughkeepsie Test has a night off so versatile Lance does a job to Scotty.

SMACKDOWN 

A lot of guys have four or five different weeks. Chris Benoit vs Sean O’Haire has a couple more rounds early month then tags with Rhino to lose to Big Show & John Cena before filling in on those main events before him and Rhino end the month with various tags. O’Haire swaps some wins with the returning Billy Gunn, then with Bill DeMott (ew) before doing some tags with A-Train. Billy works Cena first and fourth with O’Haire then Albert in the middle, and wraps his month up with Matt Hardy. All those runs bar Benoit/O’Haire go 50/50. Eddy Guerrero & Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin continues for three weeks then as things get jumbled their most consistent challenge is from O’Haire and Albert as the WGTT mini-feud with Benoit & Rhino. When Benoits main event, Rikishi & Rhino work Johnny Stamboli & Chuck Palumbo. CWT has Matt Hardy vs Jamie Noble in Cali before Rey Mysterio drops Matt for the belt on TV then there are various combinations but mid month most common is a four way eliminator with those three men plus Ultimo Dragon then around and after MSG Rey gives multiple straight singles shots to both Mattitude and Billy Kidman, while it’s Dragon vs Noble. In Cali Rey was still doing a “spare bodies” six man tagging with DeMott and Rikishi against Albert and the Basham Brothers. About the only gap in big Kish’s month is a few tags teaming with Brian Kendrick trading Ws with the Bashams. Early month repeats of Torrie Wilson vs Nidia give way to Gail Kim vs Dawn Marie, Dawn having been the ref in the former, both runs having Sable do the ring announcer gig, then after MSG the landscape changes again when as you’ve read above, Gail gets moved to the Raw crew (which makes sense as they have, you know, a title to wrestle for, which she wins on the 30th episode of Raw) and the other three lasses begin playing to their true strengths in the old faithful bikini contest with Sable on MC duties. You know, even in 2003, I don’t consider that “fully utilising her strengths.” A really fun late month is Kendrick and the reformed APA going 50/50 with all three FBI stemming from a tv save of Simmons and Bradshaw for their real life pal Taker. Otherwise we have Kendrick & Sho Funaki beating the MFer Shannon Moore and his “Moore-on” Crash Holly plus Orlando Jordan sitting under the learning tree with Chris Kanyon in Cali, Funaki & Kanyon putting the Bashams over in Austin and Laredo, Crash swapping wins with Jordan in Lubbock, Corpus Christi and Washington, Kidman & Kendrick beating Crash & Moore in Hershey and Connecticut, and a couple of instances of Moore putting over Kendrick in singles and Noble beating Jordan.

VARIATIONS

Tag mix up late month thus : in Augusta Benoit & Rhino put over the Bashams, Eddy & Tajiri beat WGTT and O’Haire/Albert in an eliminator and in Utica the champs beat the Bashams and the other three teams contest a three way dance won by former Team Angle. Cena has two one-offs, back with Rikishi in Austin and beating Jordan in Uncasville. CWT exceptions thus : Rey vs Matt vs Kendrick in Austin and Rey vs Matt vs Noble in Laredo. Rey has a night off in Washington where it’s Kidman vs Hardy vs Noble - Matt returns the favour from No Way Out and drops the fall to Billy. Finally it’s Rhino & DeMott beating Crash & Albert in less than a minute in Austin, Rhino over Albert and Nunzio/Stamboli/Palumbo over Rikishi/DeMott/Jordan in Laredo, Funaki pinning Jordan in Odessa and Billy pinning Noble in Uncasville.

TVs

1st in San Diego Jindrak pins Aaron Aguilera who eventually will enjoy a cup of coffee as Carlitos goon, Frankie Kazarian beats Keiji Sakoda soon to be of Kyo Dai, and Maven pins Mike Knox. Next night in Anaheim Dragon preps for TV debut by beating Moore. There are dark matches at Insurrextion! Maven beats Christian X about whom I know nothing and Hurricane pins Storm. Raw in Miami has Rico go over Norman Smiley, next night in Orlando Dragon beats Noble. 16th in Dallas Jindrak pins Dreamer and there’s a tag tryout for Paul London and Jimmy Yang, both of whom of course will snag deals, and Michael Shane loses to Hurricane for Heat. Next night in San Antonio Gail pins Dawn Marie, Dragon pins Shane, and in my favourite Velocity match of all time Matt pins London after a missed London Calling in a match where Hardy gave him everything short of the win. 23rd we’re at MSG for the first of two huge nights and dark matches have Jindrak beat Spike and Aaron Stevens (Damien Sandow) pin Primo Carnera III - a really odd tryout, ECW hardcores may barely remember Primo as Big Guido, but then I guess they were reviving the FBI at the time. It’s worth mentioning both shows are momentous with MSG reacting positively to Goldberg ending the White Boy Challenge of Mack after a pretty lukewarm start for Bill, and Dragon making his debut - of course most noteworthy are Roddy Piper getting pinned by Eddy during a tag title shot (I wonder if those shots on the road for O’Haire & Albert were meant to be Roddy) and the end of Mr America - find me another show at MSG where Hogan and Piper both did jobs by pinfall???? Finally 30th in Buffalo they give another chance to (Just) Joe Legend.

DEPARTURES - EEP

This is a hell of a one-two. Rowdy Roddy Piper gets let go this month when HBO airs an interview with him that doesn’t cast the industry in a flattering light. He’ll be back. Following him out the door shortly after the MSG tapings is Hulk Hogan, seemingly upset about everything from his payoff for Mania, his direction as the Mr America character, the fact he’s on SmackDown rather than Raw which he perceives as less important, right down to thinking he was presented as below Lesnar and Angle on the totem pole by having to drop the fall to Show in his final match. He’ll wrestle in Japan and lead TNA on like the thirst trap he always was, but ultimately he’ll be back.

We also lose Jamal of 3MW on various disciplinary matters including allegedly getting into a bar fight. Eventually he’ll salvage his reputation as a worker with some solid stuff in All Japan, shed the perception that he’s a loose cannon, and be back as Umaga. However none of these compare to the tragedy of Crash Holly. Despite being part of Hardys entourage and being involved in Matts televised title loss to Rey, at the end of the month after four years as a full timer his contract is not renewed and he’s let go. He wrestles for TNA between July and October but then in November while staying at Stevie Richards’ house with a divorce on the horizon he takes his own life with a combination of alcohol and prescription meds.

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9 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Maven beats Christian X about whom I know nothing

This is because the name's wrong - it was Christian "Ecki" Eckstein. Long-time wrestler and promoter in Germany, ran the European Wrestling Promotion for years. May still be going, I have no idea.

He occasionally did some spots in Japan, popped up on these shores from time to time, for All-Star, Premier Promotions and the like. Not someone I'd ever imagine would have got a 2003 WWE try-out.

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43 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

This is because the name's wrong - it was Christian "Ecki" Eckstein.

That makes sense. There have been a few occasions where I've fixed what I've read from one site or another because I know it's inaccurate, mistaken identity etc. We don't want another Papa Shango on our hands.

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