We now move into 2002, where by far the biggest story to start the year in wrestling was the return of Triple H. "The Game", who had frequently turned in the best match on the card all throughout 2001 and the start of 2001 before tearing his quad in a tag match on Raw was back, and gunning for the Undisputed title. Hunter has never been at his best as a face, but the fans were just so happy to see him back that it made no difference, with his return on the January 7th edition of Raw resulting in one of the loudest pops in WWE history. Even with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Undertaker and Kurt Angle all declaring for the Rumble, in addition to the announced returns of fan favorites like Goldust, The Godfather and Mr. Perfect, it was blatantly obvious that Triple H was winning this match. In hindsight, most Rumble winners tend to be obvious, the company doesn't want to trust a featured match at WrestleMania to either a complete afterthought or an inexperienced worker, but this was an example of a Rumble that literally anyone could've predicted. That being said, I personally don't watch wrestling just to know the result, I'm here for the journey, and the 2002 Royal Rumble provided a pretty good one.
- Royal Rumble 2002 comes to you from the Philips (now State Farm) Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, the home of the Hawks. This is a venue that should be well known to fans of MMA and wrestling, having hosted numerous UFC and WWE pay-per-views, and even an episode of AEW Dynamite in February of this year. Ironically, it was constructed at the behest of Ted Turner, who was the owner of the Hawks and wanted the NHL to return to Atlanta, with this becoming the new host of the expansion Atlanta Thrashers, long may they live.
- Our opening contest is a continuation of the feud between Spike Dudley and his brothers Bubba Ray and D-Von, as Little Spike is now teaming up with Tazz to take them on in a tag match. Spike and Tazz managed to take the tag titles away from Bubba and D-Von on Raw, and now defend the straps here. This is a fine match, with Spike taking some big bumps to put over the power of the challengers, before Tazz manages to slap the Tazzmission on D-Von, who quickly taps out. I always like what Spike can bring to the table in these kind of matches, he's the perfect guy to take a bunch of offense and play the face in peril.
- In a rematch from Vengeance, Edge is once again defending his Intercontinental title against William Regal. This is a slow match but even though there's not a ton of offense to talk about, both guys manage to hit some really punishing moves. Regal drops Edge on his head with a suplex, which looked nasty, and later the champion responds with a DDT on the apron. Both men take turns applying the Regal Stretch, before Edge accidentally hits referee Nick Patrick with a Spear. Regal seizes the opportunity to drill Edge with his brass knuckles, becoming Intercontinental Champion for the first time. In a terrific interview afterward, Regal thanks God, I guess, for gifting him the "Power of the Punch", which I think might be a reference to the recently passed Diego Maradona. Regal might not be everyone's cup of tea but I just love how dastardly he can be as a heel.
- Trish Stratus now defends her Women's Championship against Jazz, as the WWF continues to form their revitalized women's division around Trish, giving her a monster heel to fight. I thought both women did a really good job selling just how powerful Jazz is, giving her a very different feel to every other woman in the division. It seems like Jazz is well on her way to victory after delivering a crisp DDT, but she stops to fight with guest referee Jacqueline for a moment too long, allowing Trish to countering an attack in the corner with a boot to the face and a running bulldog for the win.
- Now here's something I was really interested to see, a Street Fight between Ric Flair and Vince McMahon. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler do a good job hyping this one up on commentary, the face of WCW and the NWA against the face of the WWF, the man who killed territorial wrestling in his pursuit to take over the country. Both have come to blows as co-owners of the WWF, forcing them to settle their issues in a blood-soaked battle, because of course they both bled buckets, it's Ric Flair and Vince McMahon. Before we get to all the blading, Vince draws massive heat for over-powering Flair and running through his signature poses, even stealing Flair's iconic strut to a loud "a**hole" chant. It's all building to a big Flair comeback late in the match after a lot of brawling outside of the ring, as slick Ric nails a low blow to a big pop. A shot from a TV monitor and a lead pipe allowing Flair to lock in the Figure Four and get the tap as the crowd goes wild. This match wasn't an absolute barnburner, and both would have better in the years to come, but it was still really fun and provided a feel-good win for Flair to get his second run with the company off to the right start.
- Chris Jericho and The Rock met twice on pay-per-view in 2001, with Y2J coming out on top at No Mercy and Vengeance, winning the WCW Championship on both occasions. They met again here to finish off the trilogy, this time with both Big Gold and the WWF title at stake. Jericho did sort of get punked out by Rocky in the build, as he's not been presented well as Undisputed Champion, but at least he's presented as a top-tier competitor inside the ropes. Both men exchange offense for the first ten or so minutes, with Jericho looking good after hitting two Lionsaults. Rock locks in the Sharpshooter, which is the cue for Canadian henchmen Lance Storm and Christian to run out, distracting referee Earl Hebner from seeing the champion tap out. Rock and Jericho run back one of their favorite spots, as Y2J attempts to hit the People's Elbow, but this time the challenger tosses him out of the ring. On the outside, Chris gets put through an announce table with a Rock Bottom, as both men jumped from one table to the other in a great spot. Earl Hebner goes down from a clothesline by The Rock, bringing out Nick Patrick. He refuses to count for Rock, which felt unnecessary, there were enough outside shenanigans already in this match. Rock lays out Patrick and hits a People's Elbow on Jericho, but Hebner hasn't recovered yet to make the count. Jericho hits a low blow, gaining leverage with his feet on the ropes to beat Rocky for the third straight time. Other than the involvement with Patrick, I loved this match, the drama just built and built, it's obvious that both men really enjoy working together and taking the fans on one Hell of a ride. I'm not sure if it's better than their No Mercy match but it's certainly well worth watching.
- Main event time, as the 2002 Royal Rumble determines who will go on to headline WrestleMania 18. The match starts off slow with a whole slew of midcarders alongside the returning Goldust, which is set up to have tons of fodder in the ring when The Undertaker enters at number eight. He clears the ring before going to war with Matt and Jeff Hardy along with Lita, as all three have been victims of "Big Evil". Undertaker takes out all of Team Xtreme, but they continue to fight as the first winner of Tough Enough, Maven, makes his entrance. Commentary intentionally ignore Maven, while the crowd are obviously just waiting for a bigger name to make his entrance, someone who could actually be worthy of eliminating 'Taker. Then Maven delivers a dropkick, and Undertaker tumbles to the floor, stunning everyone in the arena. Everything about this moment is perfectly done, showcasing the best of what proper booking can provide for any guy on the roster. It's a real shame Maven didn't go on to better things after this, because this would be a great origin story. Undertaker ends up eliminating Maven anyway, absolutely slaughtering the poor rookie, even throwing him into a popcorn machine before stopping for a snack in a brilliant piece of heel character work. For the next ten minutes, the match calms back down again, before Steve Austin enters at number nineteen. Shorty afterward Triple H enters, and it's pretty much a sprint to the finish. There is another great spot before the final stages of the match, as The Hurricane attempts to chokeslam both Austin and Triple H before getting tossed out, that would've been even crazier than Undertaker's elimination. It comes down to those two, Angle and Mr. Perfect, and the crowd decides to rally around Hennig, both as a former WCW stalwart and also the obvious underdog in this situation. The Perfect-plex does connect on Angle, but Hunter tosses him out, before skinning the cat to survive a back drop from Kurt, tossing the Olympian to the floor to secure victory. Not all of this match was entertaining, with a real drag between spots and big name entrants, but it was still one of my favorite Rumble matches I've seen.
8/10
Just about everything before the main event was a hit for me, especially the Street Fight, that was a ton of fun. Chris Jericho and The Rock provided another great title match, and even though the Rumble match dragged, it was almost 70 minutes long, the big moments really worked, especially everything to do with Maven and Undertaker. If I did decimal ratings, this would probably get an 8.5, as it's better than many I give 8s to but worse than ones I've a 9. Unfortunately, I only do round numbers, but regardless of the final score, I highly recommend you check this show out.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Now that we're out of the Attitude Era, I'm going to start skipping a lot of shows, as many just aren't worth watching. I'm moving ahead to Judgment Day 2002, the first pay-per-view after the WWF became the WWE. See you soon.
- Henry
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