Henry's World

 It's fair to say that what we've seen out of the brand split, at least on pay-per-view, has been very hit or miss thus far. The WWE creative team had found it difficult to still tell compelling stories when each roster was severely lacking in starpower, and both Raw and SmackDown had struggled to find an identity. But they had a savior on his way, a man know for doing so much with very little in his past and possessed one of the most creative minds in the business, Paul Heyman. Heyman took charge of the writing team on the blue brand in July, and it was under his leadership that SmackDown was transformed into the "wrestling show", featuring incredible athletic competition every single week. I'm guessing Heyman managed to get into Vince's ear when it came to booking the card for SummerSlam as well, because this entire show is built around pure wrestling, allowing some of the greatest in-ring performers the company has ever or will ever see the freedom to go ou...

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, ...

 The start of 2002 in the WWE's main event scene was dominated by the return of Triple H, but at WrestleMania 18, "The Game" took a complete back seat to the return of Hulk Hogan. Fueled by the pure essence of nostalgia, Hogan's showdown with The Rock captivated those in attendance in the Toronto SkyDome, immediately turning the red and yellow warrior into the face of the company once more. You can read my review of both that match and the entirety of WrestleMania X8 here . Triple H just couldn't compete with the starpower Hogan provided, so a changing of the guard was quickly made at Backlash, with Hulk picking up the WWE Undisputed title as a result. With the first brand split now in effect, Vince McMahon needed someone to carry the company until the creative team could figure how best to utilize this new system, and much like he was back in '83, Hogan was the right man at the right time. Hulk was given The Undertaker as his first major challenger, which had...

 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 ...

 The most lasting impact of the Invasion was the elevation of some of the best midcard acts in the WWF, most notably Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle. Technically, both men had already become a world champion prior to the start of the storyline(although Jericho was only champ for about an hour and his reign is not officially recognized), but they both took major steps towards becoming two of the biggest stars in the business from SummerSlam to Survivor Series. Now we arrive at Vengeance, where both men, alongside the two established top names in "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock, compete in a one night mini-tournament to unify the WWF and WCW titles. This is a huge chance to make either Jericho or Angle the true face of the company, with both Austin and Rock nearing the end of their full-time runs. While history has shown us that that never really happened, it's nice to believe this could be the truly historic night the company was promising. Who will be the first to con...

 As Boyz II Men would say, we've come to the end of the road, a massive showdown between the WWF and the Alliance here at the Survivor Series. Tonight's outing is headlined by the Winner Take All main event, where the two sides meet in a match where the loser must disband. That stipulation was a dead giveaway for the result of the match, as no one in their right mind thought there was any chance Vince would allow WCW and ECW to take over his entire programming, even if they were bastardized versions of his former competitors. Considering the astronomical amount of hype the WWF put into selling this show, the card is surprisingly weak, so that's another major warning sign. It seemed like after months of effort, the company was dropping the ball at the worst possible time. The Invasion angle had been a very mixed bag for months, and now it was time to provide closure. Let's see if one of the biggest storylines in company history would end with a bang or a whimper.  - Surv...

 I'm not really sure how I feel about "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's heel run, even after getting the opportunity to see plenty of his work from this year. On one hand, it does feel a bit strange, and the lack of established top faces for him to fight resulted in declining business and a general lack of interest from the fanbase. On the other hand, he's still incredible entertaining regardless of disposition, as evidenced by the build to the main event of this show. Austin won the WWF title back from Kurt Angle on an episode of SmackDown about two weeks after Unforgiven thanks to a betrayal from William Regal, who had jumped ship to The Alliance. Mick Foley was reinstated to his post as WWF Commissioner, quickly announcing a triple threat title match for No Mercy, with Austin defending against Angle and one of Steve's fellow Alliance members, perhaps the hottest rising star in the company, Rob Van Dam. This allowed the booking team to go back to what worked earli...

 I rarely mention the date of the pay-per-view I'm reviewing, partly because that's information that any reader can easily find on their own, mostly because it just never matters. I mean, the difference between a show taking place on, say, July 2nd versus July 18th would be pretty minimal, right? Unforgiven is an exception to the norm, as it's important for me to tell you that it took place on September 23rd, 2001. You probably know exactly where this is going. 12 days prior, the United States of America were devastated when two hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, resulting in the single deadliest terrorist attack in the history of humankind. The impact of life both in the US and across the world was significant, but I'm just going to focus on the impact of 9/11 on the WWF. An episode of SmackDown was initially scheduled to be taped on that day, before being aired live two days later in one of the first major public gatherings across the cou...

 It's probably not good when the biggest storyline in company history has reached it's peak less than three months in, but SummerSlam is definitely the best pay-per-view for the Invasion story arc. Now, me saying that does sound a bit snarky, however that assertion is not at all to the detriment of this show itself, because it's pretty great. The card is headlined by the return of The Rock, who had been on hiatus since the Raw after WrestleMania X-Seven, which was due to his role in The Scorpion King. Dwayne is immediately launched right into the world title picture, but instead of fighting "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, the man who turned heel on him earlier in the year and drove him out of the company in kayfabe, he's going after Booker T and the WCW Championship instead. Kurt Angle is given the honor of fighting Austin, gunning for revenge on behalf of Mr. McMahon for Austin's betrayal of the WWF at InVasion. It may not make much sense for Austin and Rock t...