Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, and the Big Show have all danced around the WWE Championship for over half a year heading into Vengeance 2003, where the trio collide in a triple threat match. This all began with Brock as champion, losing the gold to Show at last year's Survivor Series after a betrayal from Paul Heyman. Angle and Lesnar formed a brief partnership that helped Angle quickly climb to the top, winning the title from Show at Armageddon with help from Lesnar, but Kurt is a devious SOB, and he aligned with the treacherous Heyman one night later, leaving Lesnar on the outside looking in. Brock bulldozed through Big Show at the Royal Rumble, going on to win the titular match later that night, and in the main event of WrestleMania 19, Lesnar survived a horribly botched Shooting Star Press to end Angle's reign as champ. With Angle now sidelined after neck surgery, Show quickly rose right back to the top of the card, but failed to take the WWE title away from Brock in a highly entertaining Stretcher Match at Judgment Day. In the months since then, the rivalry between Big Show and Brock has continued, with the added wrinkle of the return of Angle, who has formed a mutual respect with Lesnar, though both men will butt heads with Kurt intent on reclaiming the gold. You're looking at 9 months of carefully crafted storytelling, with three men who all have a claim to the best on SmackDown, and all of them have believable reasons to hate each other, and one common goal in the richest prize in the industry. Lesnar, Angle, Big Show; who will reign supreme?
- Vengeance 2003 comes to you from the Pepsi Center (recently renamed the Ball Arena) in Denver, Colorado, the home of the Nuggets and Avalanche. This is the first SmackDown exclusive pay-per-view to air worldwide, following on from Raw's exclusive show, Bad Blood, last month. The blue brand's announce team of Michael Cole and Tazz are on the call.
- Our opening contest is the finals of a tournament to crown a new United States Champion, as Eddie Guerrero faces Chris Benoit. The US title was part of the assets included in the WCW buyout in 2001, and had a minor role in the "Invasion" storyline, retired at Survivor Series 2001 in a unification match between Edge and Test. Obviously, Vince and the creative team have realized that the brand split didn't include enough gold to fight for, with the Intercontinental title brought back on Raw in the past few months, and now SmackDown get it's own lesser tier championship, adding some extra gravitas to storylines in the midcard. As you would expect, Guerrero and Benoit put on an excellent showing here, given 22 minutes to work and knocking the stuffing out of each other. It does take a little while to get going, with a lot of early mat wrestling and trading holds, but once both men hit that next gear, this match steadily builds towards a high-stakes finale. Both men trade suplexes off the top rope, Benoit with a back suplex and Guerrero with a superplex after delivering Two of the Three Amigos, but Eddie can't hit the Frog Splash. Benoit annihilates Guerrero with a stiff a** powerbomb, but Eddie gets to the ropes to force a break while trapped in the Crippler Crossface, one of many times he had to fight for a rope break. Eddie is clearly outmatched, and brings in the US belt, braining Benoit with it. Chris kicks out of the Frog Splash, and Eddie comes up with a new plan, walloping the referee in the kidneys with the belt, then laying it on Benoit's chest in an attempt to get a cheap DQ win. Eddie is a dumb-dumb, though, and has forgotten that all wrestling referees are made of glass, so hitting one with a title belt is tantamount to murder. Eddie, frustrated, falls prey to the Crossface again, and this time taps out, but of course, the official is still down. Eddie regains the belt but takes a German suplex, and the poor referee is subject to even more punishment, as Benoit accidentally connects with a diving headbutt to the official, who was attempting to take the US title away from Guerrero. Finally, the fatal blow comes when Rhyno, who has been established as an ally of Benoit's on SmackDown, mows down the "Rabid Wolverine" with a Gore, and a confused but opportunistic Guerrero shrugs, before delivering a Frog Splash for the win. Lots of great action here, and although the finish felt a little cheap, expecting Eddie Guerrero to win a match without cheating would be foolish.
- It's certainly quite a stretch to go from that opener into a match between Jamie Noble and Billy Gunn, where if Noble wins, he gets to sleep with Gunn's girlfriend, Torrie Wilson, next week on SmackDown. There's a lot of aspects of this era in the WWE that have aged extremely poorly, but I can't imagine finding creepy sex pest Jamie Noble entertaining at the time either. Noble and Gunn don't do much before both Torrie and Noble's current boo, Nidia, get involved, each taking it in turns to slap Noble for his insidious ways. Despite the numbers disadvantage, Jamie still triumphs, escaping the Gunnslinger and shoving Gunn into Wilson, which distracts Billy for a moment, allowing Noble to roll him up for a three count. Let's just move on.
- Well, you can't say SmackDown doesn't have a wide variety of content to offer potential viewers, as we now head to the APA's Invitational Bar Room Brawl. Bradshaw and Faarooq an eclectic cast of characters from across the brand the chance to show up and duke it out at their own personalized bar, which is set up beside the ramp. The participants include the likes of the Basham Brothers, Funaki, Spanky, Sean O'Haire, Matt Hardy, Shannon Moore, and Brother Love, with Love getting a good portion of the airtime, blathering at everyone on the mic for a bit before the brawl begins when he starts swinging with a bar stool. My absolute favorite part of this "match" is Funaki, who has no part to play in the actual fighting, getting hammered at the bar the entire time, before comedically falling off his stool. Bradshaw bludgeons Love in the head with a beer can, which gets him declared the winner, as everyone other than Faarooq is out cold.
- We return to more legitimate competition with Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, now having taken up the moniker of the "World's Greatest Tag Team" defend the WWE tag straps against Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio, who had previously teamed together as part of the Filthy Animals stable in WCW. Putting these four midcard workhorses out there and letting them go at it for almost 15 minutes was an excellent choice, and unlike the opener, there was basically no down time, as these guys pack a ton of action into this one. This is just a perfect meshing of styles, the two rapid high-fliers against the more methodical mat wrestlers, and the dichotomy of the two approaches secures tons of crowd support for Mysterio and Kidman. A fantastic sequence sees Rey trip Benjamin when he attempts the leapfrog hip drop onto a suspended Kidman, who quickly gets Haas into position for the 619, and the speed at which the challengers have turned the situation around enthralls the crowd. Shelton then gets Rey back, stopping the 619 from connecting, but Mysterio and Kidman then take to the skies, with the former landing a springboard seated senton, and the latter stealing the show with a gorgeous Shooting Star Press onto both Benjamin and Haas on the outside. Benjamin and Haas retake control, Shelton breaking up a move I've never seen before, some sort of inverted Bow and Arrow hold while lying horizontal on the mat. The challengers make a comeback, though, and Rey shines with some phenomenal springboard moves, including an attempted wheelbarrow facebuster to Haas that turns into a DDT, awesome stuff. Kidman gives Rey a boost to soar up and bring Haas flying down with a top rope frankensteiner that almost did it, with the crowd biting hard on this near fall, anxious to see Mysterio and Kidman prevail. Unfortunately, it's not to be, as with Rey on Haas' shoulders, Benjamin makes a blind tag and leaps up high to bring Mysterio crashing down with a neckbreaker, a tremendous impact that secures victory. This was outstanding, potentially even better than the already great opener, and one of the best tag matches I've seen on pay-per-view.
- Stephanie McMahon, the General Manager of SmackDown, has been getting a little more work in the ring lately, which is tied into the ongoing conflict between her and her maniacal father Vince, who has been on a massive power trip since beginning his feud with Hulk Hogan. Tensions between the two McMahons have been accentuated by the presence of Sable, Vince's latest mistress, who faces Steph in a match here at Vengeance. These two were never anything close to polished in-ring performers, and they just about get through a 6 minute match without looking completely incompetent. The match mostly just consists of Stephanie beating Sable from pillar to post, hitting tons of strikes and a few slaps, plus some choking in the corner. Stephanie does do a fairly good job in the aggrieved babyface role, but you can tell it just doesn't suit her personality that well, she was looked more comfortable as a demeaning heel. The crowd is relatively hot for most of this match, and really wake up when Sable's top is ripped. Referee Brian Hebner, a true gentleman, whips off his own shirt to help her cover up, and in the ensuing chaos, A-Train enters the ring to flatten Stephanie, allowing Sable to get the win. Much like with the opener, this interference seems very random on the surface, but it does tie into what was to come for Stephanie.
- John Cena's stock just keeps rocketing upward, as after challenging for the WWE Championship at Backlash, he now gets a pay-per-view match with The Undertaker. This is the only major singles bout these two legends have ever had, and while Cena still hasn't reached his peak as a performer, he brings the fight in another intense battle with a much larger opponent. The story of the feud between these two men, and the match itself, is disrespect, which Cena has shown often, going as far as filming a vignette on SmackDown where he took a leak on a grave to mock "The Deadman", and he starts this match by spitting water into Undertaker's face. From there, Undertaker completely dominates, taking Cena apart, but in a clever little twist, the booking displays how little respect Undertaker has for Cena as well, lifting Cena off the canvas after hitting a chokeslam. Undertaker wants to put the braggadocios youngster in his place, but Undertaker's decision to opt out of a clean win costs him, as Cena counters the Last Ride. The fight is on after Cena lands a DDT, and Undertaker shows real vulnerability, bleeding from the mouth after an internal injury. With Undertaker starting to weaken, Cena has now pulled even, and almost gets a defining win, bludgeoning Undertaker's midsection with his own biker chain and getting a narrow near fall with the F-U (Attitude Adjustment). I loved Cena's look of fury after that wasn't enough to finish it, and ultimately he is too caught up in the emotions of the moment, foolishly deciding to pose while mounted on Undertaker in the corner, falling prey to the Last Ride and defeat. Even though this match was far from the best of the night in terms of action, it absolutely nailed the psychology and presentation of these two characters, clearly defining the mindset of each and how they felt about each other. It's a damn shame we never got to see a follow-up later in their careers when they were in more iconic personas, but this was still great.
- You just know Vince McMahon was very excited to wrestle the one-legged Zach Gowen from the moment Gowen signed with Vince's promotion, with the opportunity to draw nuclear levels of cheap heat just waiting to be seized. The two came into conflict after Gowen stood up for Hulk Hogan, both in kayfabe and in shoot, as he was unhappy with the creative direction of the "Mr. America" character and Vince just let him go, a true sign of the changing of the times, as Vince had fought so hard to keep Hogan happy throughout the 80s and early 90s. So Gowen is now on his own, and at a big disadvantage heading into a match with Mr. McMahon, who has two solid legs and no qualms with hurting people. Vince is put into the rare position of actually being more of the "ring general" in this one, as Gowen is still fairly green, and McMahon is a more established performer. Vince largely dominates the first half of this match, although Gowen has a few hope spots, hitting an Asai Moonsault to the floor and a springboard leg drop inside the ring. Of course, Vince works Gowen's leg, slamming it into the mat, kicking it out from under Gowen when he tries to rise, then slamming the leg around the ring post, and all of this work is complemented with plenty of flexing and gloating from McMahon, really trying to make Gowen as sympathetic as possible. It works, as the crowd is solidly in Gowen's corner, and the booking really helps, as Gowen gives McMahon his just desserts, pulling Vince's groin into the ring post and wrapping McMahon's leg around the steel. Gowen almost pulls off the upset, landing the moonsault, but Vince gets a rope break, and tries to take the cheap way out by grabbing a chair. But Gowen puts a stop to it, kicking the chair into Vince's face, and the eldest McMahon has a heck of a blade job, gushing blood in a pretty gross display. Gowen wants another moonsault, but Vince has just enough wits about him to evade it, flumping on top of Gowen to pick up the win. This was about as good as you could expect from two guys with very little experience between them, as they worked the crowd well and told an engaging, straight-forward story that easily clicked given Vince's diabolical reputation and Gowen's inherent disadvantage.
- Main event time, as Brock Lesnar defends the WWE Championship against Kurt Angle and the Big Show. Like many of the matches that preceded it on this night, the story of this triple threat is easy to define, with Brock and Kurt as the fan favorites looking to slay the angry giant. Full credit to Show for his work here, as the big man took a number of bumps to get the other two men over, and provided plenty of highlight reel fare with the punishment he took. Early on, Angle and Lesnar are overpowered by Big Show, but Kurt, ever the opportunist, takes advantage of the no disqualification rules, teeing off on Show with a garbage can lid, which Brock also gets in on. The two then attempt a double suplex, which Show counters into suplexing both of them, but Angle and Lesnar recover to hit a dual chokeslam on Show. Brock then lands an F-5 on both of his challengers, but Angle, who received the first one, keeps his dream alive by pulling the referee out of the ring when Show is being pinned. Brock then pulls off the highlight of the night, and perhaps of the year, hitting a running sit-out powerbomb on Big Show that left my jaw on the floor. Angle then wallops Lesnar with a chair shot, and tries his hand at making some magic, driving Show through the Spanish announce table with an Angle Slam. This is absolute insanity. Lesnar and Angle then trade offense, and they continue to up the stakes, as Brock flips onto his stomach taking a release German suplex from Kurt, this is so much fun. Lesnar applies a rear naked choke on Angle, and Show breaks it up by landing a big leg drop on both men, then lifts both up in the air to hit a double chokeslam. Brock kicks out of the cover that follows, then recovers in time to break up the cover on Kurt, another subtle little moment to establish just how unstoppable Brock is, getting back to his feet before Kurt, who we already know is extremely resilient. But even the beastly Brock is no match for a driven Kurt, who lands an Angle Slam on both Lesnar and Show, pinning the champion to win his fourth and final WWE title. This was absolutely phenomenal, easily one of my favorite pay-per-view main events I've ever seen, providing the always excellent workrate of Angle and Lesnar and contrasting it with the absolute dominance of Big Show, and the spots these three put together have to be seen to be believed.
9/10
Yeah, the Noble/Gunn match sucked and the storyline was deeply uncomfortable, and Sable vs Stephanie was no mat classic or anything, but overall, Vengeance 2003 ruled. Between the opener, the tag title match, or any of the final three contests, they all could have been a potential match of the night on a card any less stacked than this one. Combining all of that together, and ending with a bang with that terrific main event, resulted in a near flawless night for the blue brand.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: SummerSlam 2003, where Triple H defends his World Heavyweight Championship inside the Elimination Chamber, and Brock Lesnar attempts to regain the WWE Championship from Kurt Angle. See you soon.
- Henry
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