I decided to rewatch this show because of that viral tweet talking about how the IWC would hate this show if it existed in 2002 which it did and I was part of and I remember being hyped for this show. Mostly I was really looking forward to HHH vs. HBK which is one of my favorite WWE matches ever and when I saw the rest of the card I was surprised I didn't remember anything else on this show. The card looked great so I figured it was a good time to rewatch this show.
Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio
Pretty sure these two men don't have bad matches against each other. Cocky heel Angle is very good and he is really disliked by the crowd despite how good he is at everything. I love the bit where the ref stops Rey from doing a dive to check on the opponent and then Rey just leaps over the ref, crowd loves it to as it gets a “Holy Shit” chant from the crowd. Love when Rey hit the West Coast Pop as a springboard 'rana instead of a plancha really spiked Angle with it too. Angle does a good job of countering so many moves and escapes by Rey into the ankle lock even if Mysterio gets out of a lot of them pretty quickly.
On rewatch I remember the match and watch it fairly regularly. It's a great example of how to do a short sprint of a match. A great way to start the show off even if the heel got the win. I watch a ton of Rey matches because he's great, but I don't watch enough Angle stuff anymore and so much of the little touches he does in this match really make this match sing and they stand out more. Angle's full body follow through on his clotheslines is delightful. Angle has enough size on Rey that he can play the bully, but not so much that he can't wrestle just as quickly and smoothly as Rey and it just works really well.
8/10
Chris Jericho vs. Ric Flair
A lot of solid wrestling to start the match off between the two men and Jericho does a great job of both dominating Flair and selling for the offense that Flair gets in. These guys are both great and they demonstrate it in this match where Flair can't quite do the Flair flipping bump over the corner to the floor so Jericho just hits him with a clothesline over the top. No awkward pause after something didn't go right or setting the spot up again they just keep going with the match. Around six minutes in Jericho starts to go for some shady tactics like uncovering the top of the ringside guardrail, loosening turnbuckle pads and choking Flair with his wrist tape. Love Flair getting to stop Jericho on the top rope and throw somebody off. Flair hits a beautiful belly to back suplex on Jericho with some taunting before, during, and after. Flair fighting off Jericho's figure four is a masterclass in selling and how to be in a submission. Not a big fan of the ending to this match, but I'm guessing its so these two could keep feuding.
Despite a kind of abrupt ending to this match is was a really good back and forth affair and Flair really holds his own in this match, its not Jericho doing all the work to make him look good. An impressive performance from a man Flair's age. It is just a really well wrestled match and doesn't rely on the charisma and storytelling ability of both men, although that is present from both men as well.
7/10
Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge
Edge sells a hurt arm and Eddie goes after it with a vengeance after he sees it. Love Edge hitting a suplex over the ropes to the floor on Eddie. Big fan of the Edgecution, never should have switched from that to the spear as his finisher. Eddie stops a superplex and throws Edge to the ground then hits a frog splash onto the injured arm. Edge hits a spear with the injured shoulder and grabs Eddie for the three count.
Eddie does a great job of working the shoulder after Edge hurts it falling to the floor and just wraps his entire offense around destroying that body part. Edge then does a shit job of selling that injury. Yeah, he walks around selling its hurt, but whenever he's wrestling it doesn't effect him and how he does his moves which is a bummer. I could overlook it more if it wasn't the entire point of the match. It's still a really good match because Eddie Guerrero is at the top of his game at this point and he just viciously demolishes the arm, its beautiful work. Edge is good as well, but this is just a showcase of Eddie.
6/10
Lance Storm & Christian vs. Booker T & Goldust
Storm tosses Goldust over the corner to the floor in what has become a theme on this show dudes taking bumps over the ropes straight to the floor. Heels isolate Goldust int eh corner and beat him up and then do my least favorite spot in wrestling where the ref doesn't see the hot tag and nullifies it, then lets the heels make a tag behind his back. Booker eventually gets the hot tag and its a good one. Storm kills the ref with a leg lariat and he misses a three count on Christian and then Test runs in and nails a big boot on Booker T so Christian can get the three count.
A perfectly fine tag team match from these guys. All four of them are really good wrestlers so that's not really much of a surprise. Only really impressive thing is Booker hitting the axe kick on Christian and Storm at the same time.
5/10
Chris Benoit vs. RVD
A bunch of striking exchanges between the two men before Benoit hits a brutal German suplex. RVD's offense works very well for getting spurts of the advantage against the relentless style of Benoit. He's not going quite as all in on working the arm as Eddie did earlier, but Benoit is modifying his moves especially the northern lights suplex to make sure RVD is landing on the arm. RVD is also not doing a great job of selling the injured arm. RVD counters the avalanche belly to back suplex with a crossbody then hits the Five Star Frog Splash for the three count.
Really good hard hitting match between these two men. Benoit's arm destroying offense is not as viscerally satisfying as Eddie's earlier, but he does have the submission move that really focuses on the body part which is a nice touch to working on the arm.
6/10
Test vs. Undertaker
Test controls the early parts of the match with some shady tactics before Undertaker powers up by the cheers of the crowd and starts to get the momentum on his side. Storm and Christian run down to interfere and both of them get choke slams and an especially impressive one on Storm who loves to jump super high for those moves. Test tries to cheat with a chair and it backfires on him with Taker hitting a big boot knocking it into his face then hitting a tombstone.
Much better than I thought I was going to get from a Test vs Undertaker match. This style never really did much for me, but both of these guys are moving pretty well in the ring as well as hitting each other with some nice moves in between punches and elbows.
6/10
HHH vs. Shawn Michaels
First match back in years and Michaels wrestles it in jeans and cowboy boots, as well as his belt having a big buckle on it as well. He's a crazy person. Michaels dominates early until HHH hits a backbreaker and follows up with a second and Michaels is selling like its broken again. HHH does an Irish Whip to the corner where he throws himself to the mat to add more momentum and its such a nice touch. Michaels is often a very animated seller so there's a lot of times in this match when he takes a shot to the back and he just acts like he's dead to sell and it really adds more to it since its so out of character for how he sells. HHH brings the sledgehammer in, but Michaels hits some kicks to the midsection to stop HHH then falls to his knees and crawls forward to keep hitting HHH with punches to the midsection. He's fighting so desperately to get some offense in. HHH hits a nice backbreaker over the chair and destroys the seat. HHH comes at Michaels with the chair and he hits Sweet Chin Music to send it into HHH's face and he is immediately a bloody mess. Michaels hits a running forearm then kips up and the place comes unglued. Michaels steals Hugo's boot on commentary and hits HHH with it. Michaels sets HHH up on the table then cliumbs to the top rope and mimes being crazy before jumping off to the floor with splash. Michaels sets up the ladder in the ring and hits the elbow drop off.
This match still fucking rules. HHH's dominance in the early part of the match just makes Michaels' comeback even better and the fact that HHH hits a gusher of a blade job just makes all of that even more perfect. A great use of weapons throughout the match and just a strong story throughout while both men are just working their asses off and selling perfectly. Michaels hits all of his signature spots in this match in different ways and the splash off the top is phenomenal. The craziest thing to me is that it has the rollup win to stop a definitive win from happening with HHH beating Michaels up after the match and it takes nothing away from this one. This is two guys who work perfectly with each other having a perfect match.
10/10
Brock Lesnar vs. The Rock
Rock rusn down eager to start the match and gets an overhead belly to belly suplex for his troubles. Heyman is very actively interfering in this match to help Brock. Cole talks about how Heyman could become a millionaire managing Brock and Taz says hopefully he becomes a billionaire because he owes a lot of people money. Brock dominates early and hurts himself when Rock dodges out of a spear in the corner and Brock hits the post. Both men end up down and kip up at the same time. Rock makes a comeback, but the crowd seems pretty against Rock and for Brock even with all the Heyman interference. Rock does a slingshot into the ringpost and Lesnar jumps so fucking high to hit the post. Rock puts Heyman through the announce table with a terrible looking Rock Bottom because Heyman can't jump. Back in the ring Rock hits a beautiful Rock Bottom because Lesnar jumps really high and kicks out at two. A nice back and forth exchange of finishers and counters ends with Lesnar hitting the F-5 for the win.
This match was a little too long for what it was. The sharpshooter so early in the match and lasting as long as it did while it looks bad doesn't help the start of this match at all. A bunch of Heyman interference that doesn't really do much for the match either. This would rule as an all out sprint version in seven minutes that at times they were doing the pace to have. This match also isn't well served following the previous match. With all that said it is a good match its just not the best match these two guys could have. Everything they do looks good, except for Rock's sharpshooter, and you can't go wrong with Brock's intensity when he is on in a match.
7/10
This show fucking rules. The worst match on the show is a perfectly fine tag match so you should definitely rewatch it if you haven't in a while. It has what is one of the best opening matches you're going to see on a wrestling show and also one of my top ten favorite WWE matches so the fact that the rest of the show is all good as well is just a nice cherry on top of that.
