The big hook coming into Unforgiven, at least according to the opening hype package, is the fact that WWE now has two world titles, with Eric Bischoff bringing back the Big Gold Belt for Raw. It's safe to say, though, that one brand has thus far gotten the far better end in the creative department for their world title, and it sure ain't the red one. Triple H was infamously just handed the World Heavyweight title, making it feel like a cheap prop rather than the most valuable piece of hardware in the company. Meanwhile on SmackDown, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker were engaged in a deeply personal war, more than worthy of a pay-per-view main event. Undertaker's then-wife Sara was once again dragged back into the mix, as she was pregnant at the time, which Lesnar and Paul Heyman used to their advantage to play mind games, Heyman promising to take care of Sara, but not the couple's unborn child, in a brilliant piece of deranged heel work. In the midst of a very outlandish month of programming, more on that later, the feud between Lesnar and Undertaker was necessary to provide a sense of actual legitimacy to the product. Finally, we have a character that can truly match Brock in terms of pure dominance, and I'm excited to see these two titans collide for the very first time.
- Unforgiven 2002 comes to you from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, the first of a great many WWE pay-per-views hosted in the home of the Lakers. Despite the fact that initial interest in the brand split was starting to fade as summer turned to fall, this crowd is red hot for most of the action.
- Our opening contest takes advantage of that rabid crowd, as Lance Storm, Christian and Test of The Un-Americans, who have now added William Regal to their ranks, face off with Booker T, Goldust, Bubba Ray Dudley and Kane. There's nothing too special to this one, just your standard WWE fare of guys running in, performing a move, taking another one and rolling out of the ring, but these fans just love it. Say what you will about how generic and stale The Un-American gimmick was, it drew some tremendous heat, enough to the point that everyone except Regal grew uncomfortable, and the group was disbanded shortly after this night. As such, the finish is obvious, as Storm goes down to a Chokeslam from Kane, setting him up for the f***ing Katie Vick feud with Triple H.
- We now have back to back SummerSlam rematches, with the first seeing Chris Jericho defend the Intercontinental Championship, which he took from Rob Van Dam on the go-home show thanks to an assist from Triple H, against Ric Flair, who defeated Y2J one month prior. This match is only half the length of their previous encounter, and I thought that definitely improved it, with Flair going right after the new champ, showing some extra intensity which had been lacking before. Ric is as good as ever targeting the leg, which results in Chris suffering an apparent injury after missing the Lionsault. But a concerned Flair is suckered into a trap, as Jericho ambushes the unsuspecting challenger to lock in the Walls of Jericho for a title retention. The finish did make Ric look very dumb, but it does play into his actions later in the show, so I'll give it a pass.
- The second SummerSlam rematch is between Eddie Guerrero and Edge, featuring an all-time great heel performance by Eddie. He is just money for this entire 13 minutes, wrenching at Edge's hair during a rest hold, playfully dodging some right hands before catching one on the chin and crashing to the canvas, and showcasing some beautiful offense, including one of his always great brainbusters and the best tornado DDT that I have ever seen, which drew actual gasps of amazement from the crowd. The folks in the Staples Center really didn't care about seeing these two guys wrestle again, but Eddie made them care, just in time for a heart-stopping near fall, as Edge catches Eddie walking the ropes and plants him with a powerbomb. The finish sees Eddie take advantage of a turnbuckle he exposed earlier in the match, whacking Edge face first first off the steel before finishing the youngster off with an impactful sunset flip powerbomb, with an extra grab of the tights because why the heck not. Man, Eddie Guerrero in his prime was something else.
- I don't really know how best to set-up this tag match between Jamal and Rosey of Three Minute Warning and the team of Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo, so I'll just tell you what happened and let you formulate your own opinion. So, for the past 8 or 9 months, Billy and Chuck had hinted at something of a relationship, a tag team partners for life kind of deal, which led to Palumbo proposing on SmackDown. One week later, the two had a "commitment ceremony", which was considered a pretty big progressive step by the WWE, with GLAAD even getting involved to make sure the wedding would be handled with dignity and grace, oh how am I kidding, it was a dumpster fire. Billy and Chuck revealed that they were not gay, it was just a publicity stunt they cooked up with stylist Rico, but that was quickly forgotten when the minister was revealed to be Eric Bischoff in prosthetics, which was admittedly a great swerve, but one that completely undermined any mainstream goodwill the company could've gotten. Somehow, that led to Unforgiven, where Eric and competing GM Stephanie McMahon will each be embarrassed should the team representing their brand lose. Either Bischoff will kiss Stephanie's rear end, or she will be forced to participate in HLA("Hot Lesbian Action"), which is it's own can of worms but we don't have time to dig into it right now. Got all that? Good.
- You know, for all the big chances this storyline took and how much airtime the company devoted to it, the tag match itself was totally uninteresting and completely forgettable. Now that the cat is out of the bag with Billy and Chuck, the crowd doesn't care about them, and while Jamal and Rosey's sudden attacks at the behest of Bischoff had gotten over, they were just too vanilla as a team, a copy-paste of all the other powerhouse teams that had come before them. After a drab six minutes of action, save for a random moonsault, Jamal gets the win with a Pop-Up Samoan Drop, ensuring we would avoid seeing Steph's a**, at least on this night.
- Speaking of Stephanie, her husband is in action up next, as Triple H defends the World Heavyweight Championship against Rob Van Dam. This is exactly what you'd expect from a world title match involving "The Game", a slow back and forth affair with rest holds galore. RVD does make things interesting by performing Triple H's signature entrance pose with a water bottle, before getting the crowd invested by splatting on the floor attempting a big dive. Down the stretch, we get a ref bump and a Frog Splash, before Ric Flair runs out. "The Nature Boy" was disrespected after his loss by the champ and appears to be out here to get revenge, but if you've watched literally anything involving Flair, you know what's coming next. Ric turns heel by blasting RVD with the sledgehammer, and a Pedigree seals the deal. Not a bad match, but one that I wasn't terribly invested in, as it hadn't been built well and the Triple H main event formula had already gotten extremely stale. Flair's heel turn was obvious and this finish proved to be massively damaging to Van Dam, one of many times the company reinforced the idea that he couldn't hang in the main event.
- The final match for Raw on the night was a Women's Championship bout between Molly Holly and Trish Stratus, and it's indistinguishable from many other women's matches in WWE at this time. The crowd doesn't care, though the work is fine, Molly is a really intense heel and both women have worked together enough times by this point to get through about six minutes of clean wrestling. Trish regains the title with the Stratusfaction, and at least the three count got a sizeable pop.
- I think I've spent enough time talking about the Stephanie McMahon-Eric Bischoff shenanigans already, so we can pretty much just breeze through their "HLA" segment. Eric goes out of his way to humiliate Stephanie, bringing in a rotund woman for her to make out with, but it turns to be Rikishi in drag, and Uncle Eric takes a Stinkface. The WWE has always been a classy and respectful company, and this storyline played a huge role in uplifting the LGBTQ community, who were never once exploited for TV ratings or fetishized for cheap titillation. No sir, not at all.
- One of 2001's best feuds has been revisited recently, with Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, now both heels, butting heads after both were subjected to the Stinkface. The lack of a heel/face divide gives this match a different dynamic to the three pay-per-view bouts they had last year, though the wrestling itself was virtually identical. Not that there's anything wrong with that, watching these guys trade holds is always fun, but it doesn't feel special because we've seen this before. The lack of any story other than which submission hold would force a tap-out doesn't help, but the second half of the match does really bring the drama and intensity, building to a great finish. Both men trade rolling German suplexes, before they go into an absolute battle of wills. It's so fun to watch them trade reversals, in and out of holds in mere seconds. After both find the bottom rope to escape their opponent's signature submission, Angle takes the mind games to another level, locking in the Crippler Crossface. He tries to press off the bottom rope to avoid a break, getting into a fight with the official that ultimately costs him, as Benoit is able to score the win with a roll-up and two feet on the middle rope.
- Main event time, as Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker collide for the WWE title. These are two of the most imposing characters the company had created by this point, and just seeing them beat the stuffing out of each other was pretty exciting. The match is very slow, much like the first world title match earlier in the night, but at least this feels like it has more of a purpose, with Brock methodically taking his challenger apart. Undertaker is eventually busted open, and that fires him up, taking the fight to Lesnar in a way that no one had since Brock's debut. The crowd is with 'Taker the entire way, as the challenger hits a Chokeslam, takes down an interfering Matt Hardy with a Last Ride, before absolutely rocking Brock with a sick chair shot to the dome. Unfortunately, we don't get a clean finish to this one, as both men just start throwing rights and lefts, and when referee Brian Hebner tries to get things under control, he gets attacked by Lesnar and throws the match out. The crowd is rightfully pissed, but Undertaker does win them back by tossing Brock through the set in a great moment to end the night. A non-finish on a pay-per-view is definitely lame, but everything prior to that point had been intense and compelling, and the post-match brawl did at least feel worthy of closing the show.
7/10
Unforgiven 2002 was not a spectacular show, and nothing felt truly must-watch, but it was still entertaining and set up plenty of stories to come, especially on SmackDown. In what will be a familiar refrain as we go through this time period, the blue brand carried this show, providing plenty of great wrestling in their three featured bouts.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: No Mercy 2002, where Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker enter Hell in a Cell, while Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit form an uneasy alliance in pursuit of tag team gold. See you soon.
- Henry
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