Just two reviews ago, I took a look at the first Vengeance pay-per-view in WWE history, and now I'm already back for the second one. We're now in July 2002, coming off King of the Ring, where Brock Lesnar continued his ascent into the main event scene, taking down Test before outlasting Rob Van Dam in the final to win the tournament, guaranteeing himself a main event WWE Undisputed title match at SummerSlam. That was a really cool idea that the company just abandoned after one year, which is a shame as the Royal Rumble has proven that the promise of high stakes, even for a completely different show, can work in it's favor. In order to prep Brock for SummerSlam, he was booked for an IC title match with RVD here, giving him the opportunity to work a non-squash match and see how he would fare. Meanwhile in the main event, The Undertaker would defend the Undisputed title against both The Rock and Kurt Angle. While nothing in the build for that match is particularly noteworthy, it's certainly a clash I'm looking forward to seeing. So let's get on with it, here is the final stop before the Biggest Party of the Summer.
- Vengeance 2002 comes to you from the long-time home of the Detroit Red Wings, the Joe Louis Arena. This is the third time WWE has hosted a pay-per-view in this venue, but I didn't cover the 1991 and 1999 editions of the Survivor Series, so it's the first time the Joe has been mentioned on this blog. The atmosphere is one of the main reasons the Red Wings stayed for so long, and while the crowd in attendance on this night weren't consistently engaged, they were very hot for the biggest matches on the card.
- Our opening contest is a tag team tables match, as Bubba Ray and Spike Dudley team up to take on Eddie Guerrero and the recently returned Chris Benoit. The first half of this match is extremely slow, as Benoit and Guerrero, who are both currently heels, dominate Bubba while Spike's only role is to occasionally knock a table out of the way. When Little Spike does get involved, the action really picks up, as he once again puts his body on the line to produce some hair raising table spots. A Dudley Dog eliminates Eddie, but Chris just effing launches Spike through a table with a Military Press Slam, an awesome moment. Left on his own, Bubba gets the job done, hitting Benoit with a Bubba Bomb through a table for the win. If you're willing to hang with this one through the opening 8-10 minutes of relative inactivity, you'll be rewarded with some really great table smashing action, and I have to tip my cap to Spike Dudley, who never fails to impress.
- Jamie Noble just made his WWE debut last month, quickly picking up the Cruiserweight title from The Hurricane at King of the Ring. The trailer trash couple gimmick with himself and Nidia would prove to be one of the highlights of the first incarnation of the cruiserweight division, and Noble being so quickly hot-shotted to the top of the division does giving the pairing some extra legitimacy. Jamie is defending his gold against Billy Kidman here, and while the two do try to put together something great, the crowd just doesn't care. Noble spends some effort wearing down Kidman's shoulder, before catching him with a Tiger Driver to retain. I do like what both of these guys bring to the table but it's obvious that cruiserweight wrestling just wasn't going to a featured part of WWE programming.
- The final European Championship match on pay-per-view is next, as Jeff Hardy defends the strap against former champion William Regal. The only highlight of this match is Jeff running the barricade, coming dangerously closing to slipping at the start, before launching himself at Regal and crashing face-first into the floor. Jeff recovers and wins the match with a roll-up, going on to lose the belt in a title unification match the following night on Raw.
- The legendary OVW 4, consisting of Brock Lesnar, Batista, John Cena and Randy Orton, all made their main roster debuts during this year, providing a massive influx of talent, all of whom would go on to be crowned world champions many times over. Other than Brock, the member of the foursome who made the biggest impact out of the gate is Cena, with his "Ruthless Aggression" hailed by WWE, at least, as one of their most iconic debuts. Even though Cena did make a big splash on his first night, the rest of his year was definitely not smooth sailing, as he didn't have any defined character traits to make him stand out and his moveset was incredibly lacking. Cena does pick up a win over Chris Jericho here, which really only shows how far Y2J has fallen since his Undisputed title run. The story of Jericho being too arrogant to pick up an easy win does nothing to help either man, as Jericho looks like an idiot and Cena looks like a chump. Good work everyone.
- Over the past few years in real life, Brock Lesnar has proven that he's at his best when working with a smaller guy that can bump for him, and he's been given the perfect opponent in Rob Van Dam to be presented as a true main event player. RVD is at the top of his game in this Intercontinental title clash, taking a ton of punishment to put this new monster over, including a stiff running powerslam on the floor. To his credit, Brock gives it right back, making Van Dam look right on his level and presenting a very even match, drawing in the fans by showing vulnerability, which is always where Lesnar truly excels. This is a terrific ten minute sprint, nothing but thrilling action, and I really wish we could've actually seen a high profile match between the two, I think these two could've main evented any pay-per-view together if they really wanted too. It seems like the WWE does plan to save this, as after RVD counters the F-5 into a DDT and nails the Frog Splash, Heyman pulls the referee out of the ring, getting his client disqualified and avoiding the possibility of either potential star taking a clean loss. It's a disappointing ending for sure, but at least the post-match angle sort of makes up for it, with Lesnar planting RVD on a chair with an F-5, which only added anticipation for another match between them for me. It's a shame that never happened, but this was still great.
- The WWE's version of the New World Order has somehow already disintegrated, despite only being introduced back in February, another showcase of just how poor the company handled anything to do with WCW. Booker T, who was kicked out of the group, literally, when Shawn Michaels joined, has been feuding with them over the past month or so, leading to a No DQ match with the Big Show. This is the perfect opportunity to get Booker over as a face, as the crowd pops big for a Scissors Kick through the announce table and the finishing Houston Hangover. Booker's team with Goldust would prove to be one of the most popular acts on Raw, and this certainly helped elevate him.
- Throughout the night, Raw GM Eric Bischoff has been attempting to talk to Triple H in a bid to convince him to sign with his brand, though Hunter was in SmackDown GM Stephanie McMahon's office instead, ostensibly to negotiate, although it's later revealed that they were actually signing divorce papers. We get a very long segment before the final two matches of the night, as Triple H attempts to determine where he'll sign while mocking both Bischoff and his ex-wife. There's no real urgency to any of this, but it does get interesting when Shawn Michaels enters, convincing his buddy to join him on Raw and reform D-Generation X. Of course, that didn't really happen, and this is instead the beginning of their multi-year feud, which at least gave this segment a reason to exist, though it was still about five minutes too long.
- Even though he's no longer the WWE champion, Hulk Hogan is still a feature on TV, now in a tag team with Edge, building off of Adam Copeland's childhood love of the Hulkster. The two are the current tag team champions and face off with the team of Lance Storm and Christian here, who are working a stereotypical anti-American gimmick, even literally working under that name on this show. This is a very standard Hogan match, with tons of cheating by the heels, a ref bump, a Hulk up and a run-in, this time coming from Chris Jericho, who blasts Edge with one of the tag straps to cost the faces the match. Nothing much to say about this, Hogan was still incredibly over with the live crowd but his matches are routinely the worst of the night.
- Main event time, as The Undertaker, Kurt Angle and The Rock square off for the Undisputed Championship. This match has all the trimmings, finisher stealing, near falls, a chair shot or two, but even though this doesn't do a ton to stand out from many other world title matches around this time, the crowd goes wild for everything. In fairness, it is a good match, the drama is just so high and all three guys are near the top of their game, but it did lack a really gripping story to get me fully invested. I will say, the sequence where Undertaker manages to chokeslam Angle from his knees, only to immediately go down to a Rock Bottom and kick out just before three was incredible, and I'll always pop for seeing Undertaker hit the Last Ride. In the end, Angle hits an Angle Slam on the champion, before turning into another Rock Bottom and going down for three, with Undertaker just a moment too late to break up the pinfall. The Rock is now a 7-time WWE Champion, which was a record at the time and has since only been passed by Triple H, Randy Orton and John Cena. This now sets up a big-time collision between Rock and Brock at SummerSlam.
7/10
I thought this was a really solid show, with the best match of the night coming from Brock and RVD, though the main event definitely had it's moments. The opener was also fun and I enjoyed watching Booker T put down Big Show, with the only real negative being the Triple H segment, although it does have some historical significance as the start of his feud with Shawn Michaels, which resulted in tons of main event matches in the years to come. I would definitely recommend checking Vengeance out, especially as a primer for SummerSlam.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: SummerSlam 2002, where Brock Lesnar reached the top of the mountain against The Rock and Shawn Michaels made his return to wrestling after over four years on the shelf. See you soon.
- Henry
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