Unforgiven 2002 Review

A PPV featuring the first encounter between Undertaker & Brock Lesnar, the first defense of the World Heayyweight Championship on PPV and one of the many Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle encounters.

Match #1

The Un-Americans (Christian, Test, Lance Storm & William Regal) vs Kane, Booker T, Goldust & Bubba Ray Dudley

I’ve got to commend them for putting together a really cool face team here. Bookdust have been wonderful together, Kane had jut come back and was still red hot and Bubba Ray has been a really underrated part of the Raw roster at this point. The Un-Americans team is pretty damn cool too. Test had a much better 2002 than I expected him to have, getting a win over Triple H, having a competitive match with Lesnar and another with Undertaker at Summerslam. Was more entertained by him than I was as a kid during this time period. The match itself is pretty fun. It goes by the basic 8 man tag formula and I wouldn’t really say it stands out as too unique but it’s certainly still good! Booker plays the face in peril for a lot of the match and considering he was super over at the time, it definitely makes sense. Kane gets the hot tag and ultimately leads to one of those big segments where everyone hits their finisher, which I honestly generally enjoy. Kane gets the victory for the faces, chokeslaming Lance Storm for the victory. Nothing incredible but a pretty fun match for sure!

Match #2 – Intercontinental Championship

Chris Jericho (c) vs Ric Flair

This feud began at Summerslam and Flair got the win there via some trickery. Ric hits a knee drop off the middle rope! All these years he just had to do his high risk moves from one rope lower and they’d hit. Jericho misses a Lionsault and fakes a knee injury on the landing. The doctor comes down and while the ref is talking to the doctor, Flair is distracted and Jericho attacks from behind, locking in the Walls of Jericho. Flair has no choice but to tap out. Kind of short match but still pretty enjoyable for what it was.

We get a nice tasteful segment backstage where Eric Bischoff and Rico talk up Three Minute Warning and how they can’t wait to see Stephanie McMahon have to participate in some Hot Lesbian Action.

Match #3

Eddie Guerrero vs Edge

Another rematch from Summerslam, this time featuring Smackdown superstars. Edge is coming off a concussion given to him on Smackdown and after an early tornado DDT, Edge seems out of it. Eddie keeps on brutally attacking th head of Edge, not allowing him to gain his composure for even a second. Edge keeps slowly trying to fight back and occasionally getting in a move but Eddie always bounces back. Edge manages to catch and powerbomb Eddie, resulting in a near fall. Edge has Eddie up on the ropes but Eddie does a brutal sunset flip powerbomb, obliterating Edge and getting the victory. This is one of my favorite matches of 2002. Fantastic stuff.

Triple H shows up backstage and mocks RVD for warming up for his match with a loser like Ric Flair.

Match #4 – If Billy & Chuck lose, Stephanie McMahon has to participate in Hot Lesbian Action

Billy & Chuck vs Rosey & Jamal

First off, the booking here is too odd. So you’ve got Billy & Chuck as a face team, who were a heel team the majority of the year and weren’t particularly over. Now you’ve got a team of two new monsters and if the heel team wins, Stephanie McMahon has to make out with other women in the ring. At the very least during this era, the crowd is going to be cheering for that option. So you’ve already thrown out the crowd being able to enhance this match at all. Then the match itself is incredibly unremarkable. They honestly could’ve started this match with the finishing stretch, had it go about a minute and it would have had the same effect. Rosey & Jamal get the victory in a very weak match. And to be honest, it’s not like the talent in this match is bad. Billy Gunn was a solid midcarder most of his career. Jamal (Umaga) was fantastic, although I don’t know if those skills were acquired between his debut here and his debut as Umaga or not. Palumbo was always a decent wrestler. And Rosey…well I don’t actually know if Rosey was any good or not but he did have some decent tags with Hurricane in 2005.

Backstage segment with Bischoff recruiting lesbians for later.

Match #5 – World Heavyweight Championship

Triple H (c) vs Rob Van Dam

On paper this sounds great, but it was really slow and uneventful for the majority of the match. Early on RVD grabs a water bottle from ringside and mocks Triple H’s entrance, doing the water spit thing. Pretty funny stuff. Then you get that classic overly long Triple H control segment with the beloved sleeper holds. Ref bump from Earl ‘You guys paid to see me tonight’ Hebner. RVD hits the Five Star Frog Splash but of course the ref is out cold. Triple H with a low blow to RVD and he grabs the sledgehammer. RVD fights him off and both guys are down. Ric Flair runs down and grabs the sledgehammer. He taunts Triple H with it but hits RVD instead. Pedigree from Triple H. Certainly not the worst match. Hell, probably not even a top five worst Triple H title match in 2002-2003. But it’s just so uneventful until the last few minutes.

Backstage segment featuring D-Lo Brown, Billy Kidman and some Soap actor. Soap actor ends up seduced by Dawn Marie.

Match #6 – Women’s Championship

Molly Holly (c) vs Trish Stratus

While I’m not really a fan of Trish, especially as a face, she is a fantastic bumper and seller. She really makes Molly’s offense look impactful here. And Molly is just fantastic. Great overall wrestler and a very good heel. Molly beats down Trish for most of the match and locks in a pretty mean straightjacket sleeper with knees to the back. Trish gets the victory via bulldog. Not the Stratusfaction, just a bulldog. Decent match but it’s one of those things where it’s clear WWE didn’t want you to care about the match and if they wrestled to their potential, they’d have probably gotten in trouble for it. I forget if it’s from his book or podcast but Jericho once mentioned how Melina and Michelle McCool got in trouble after their PPV match was ‘too good’. So these women were really fighting an uphill battle.

Backstage is Bischoff, Rico, Rosey & Jamal and somehow the lesbians have multiplied from 3 to about 8. Bischoff gives Rosey, Jamal and Rico the rest of the night off and they leave with most of the lesbians except the two that Bischoff as handpicked for Stephanie. Bischoff was such a creep when it came to the McMahon family.

Match #7

Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit

This one is quite unique for WWE, especially in this era. Start off with a lot of jockeying for position and counters. I’ve never been a huge fan of overly technical wrestling but it really works here. And it’s not that I think it’s bad or anything, just not really my style. I’ve never really been able to get into people like ZSJ despite understanding how good they are. Crazy amount of counters in this match, which I love. Benoit hits a mean looking shoulderbreaker out of the tombstone at one point. We get a ridiculously cool sequence where Benoit has Angle in the crossface and Angle manages to turn it into an ankle lock. Benoit gets the ropes so Angle locks in the crossface but Benoit reverses it and rolls him up, holding the ropes for the win in a fantastic match.

Alright now Bischoff is in the ring with the two lesbians and Stephanie comes out. The lesbians ‘warm’ Stephanie up, removing her jacket and teasing her before Bischoff sends them off. He says he wants Stephanie to do HLA with the fattest, ugliest lesbian in the world. So this woman that is clearly Rikishi in drag comes out. Stephanie gladly makes out with this ‘lesbian’ and Bischoff seems confused. Bischoff gets superkicked by the lesbian who is revealedto be Rikishi. Stinkface to Bischoff from Rikishi and Stephanie and him celebrate. Now here’s the thing, for this to work for Stephanie, Stephanie would have to find Rikishi, convince him to dress in drag in case Billy/Chuck lose. Then Bischoff would have to find this ‘lesbian’ not realize it’s actually Rikishi and get ‘her’ ready. Then Stephanie has to assume here that Bischoff is going to send Rosey/Jamal home and send off the original lesbians and bring out the Rikishi one. She’s certainly lucky all those things happened!

Main Event – WWE Championship

Brock Lesnar (c) vs The Undertaker

A lot of Lesnar beating down and working over Taker in the early going. Ref bump and Matt Hardy runs in, attacking Undertaker. Undertaker easily Last Rides him but walks into a spinebuster from Lesnar. A second ref bump! Heyman gives Lesnar a chair but Taker boots Lesnar in the head. Taker takes Lesnar’s heads off with multiple chair shots to the head that are far harder to watch now than they were in 2002. Taker hits a big boot and leg drop for a two counter brother! Undertaker and Lesnar start brawling while the ref tries to split them apart and eventually the referee calls for the bell, ending the mach via double DQ. Taker and Lesnar brawl down the aisle and Taker throws Lesnar through the Unforgiven logo to end the show. Not the best match but not terrible either. This was a weak ending for the main event of a PPV though.

Overall Thoughts

Overall this was a decent show. Edge/Eddie and Angle/Benoit were both fantastic matches and the opening tag and Flair/Jericho were enjoyable. Triple H/RVD was kind of weak and a bit too boring at times. I don’t have any issues with a slow match but this was a bit too slow for me.Lesnar/Taker had aspects of a good match but I wasn’t overly into it. Trish/Molly was good for what it got but uneventful. And the Billy/Chuck vs Rosey/Jamal match was brutal. Up next will be No Mercy 2002!