Grilling JR - Judgement Day 2003 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Let’s get into it. 20 years ago the WWE was picking up the pieces of the most snake bitten WrestleMania in WrestleMania 19 and we covered that earlier this year which you can check out at GrillingJRonYoutube.com!

Big changes in the company as Steve Austin is now officially retired, Goldberg has entered the company and would face and defeat The Rock at Backlash, which we covered on our Goldberg in WWE episode as well as all the issues such as the Goldust angle.

Over on SmackDown, Brock Lesnar is the WWE Champion and Kurt Angle is off with neck surgery.

Vince McMahon fired Hulk Hogan in storyline (or really was gonna pay him to just sit at home) and we now have the mysterious newcomer Mr. America here.

Roddy Piper is also back in WWE following his surprise return at WrestleMania.

Sable is also back to WWE full-time too on SmackDown

Lot of resets and trying new things coming out of that Mania wasn’t there?

Was this one of the bigger roster upheavals you can think of during your time in talent relations?

The Raw the night after Mania would see Bischoff fire Austin beginning the dual GM gimmick but it featured you cutting a Red Ass JR promo on Bischoff finishing with the well known.. “No good son of a bitch” line. When did Steve tell you he was hanging up the boots? Right after Mania?

It was important to keep Austin on TV wasn’t it?

Even with Austin the ratings for Raw weren’t good:

“Raw on 3/31 drew a 3.74 rating (3.64 first hour; 3.84 second hour/4.79 million viewers). Last year’s show the night after Wrestlemania did a 5.28 rating for comparison, so it’s a 30% annual drop. There is no way to frame it other than a disaster of a number.”

How important is your job as head of talent relations when it’s obvious something has to change - and we know the head of creative isn’t going anywhere?

It’s not just TV ratings that are down but there are canceled house shows all over the place. SmackDown had two shows canceled due to weak advances.

From the Observer

Because the post-Mania advances are weak, they only have six house shows left on the books (not including TV’s) for both crews combined in April. A full schedule would be roughly 21 non-TV house shows per month. This is a killer to the wrestlers, whose regular paycheck is determined by appearing on house shows and the gross on those shows. The decision was partially because of weak advances, but also because the Smackdown crew would have had a tough schedule because of going from San Jose to Seattle and being eight straight days away from home. The weaker schedule is also because they’ve canceled shows over Easter week, and the following weekend is the PPV, and they don’t like running shows before the PPV if at all possible.

How unhappy are talent when they’re losing that money out of their pocket?

On April 7th, Eric Bischoff would fire you from Raw.

From the Observer

They showed a clip of Ross doing his impassioned speech last week about Bischoff being a no good son of a bitch for firing Austin. That was a hell of a promo until you actually think that Bischoff wasn’t allowing a guy with a career ending injury into the ring because he was risking paralysis, and he was the heel in this. Bischoff challenged Ross to say it to his face. Ross said he meant every word of it, quit, and walked off. Crowd went nuts. Bischoff then fired him.

Jonathan Coachman then takes over for JR the rest of the show and the following few weeks.

Was this just an angle to give you some time off - or was it a tryout for Coach do you remember?

Also on April 7th we’d see the return of Kevin Nash from his quad injury - as a babyface - to start his feud with Triple H over the World Title. Did you think Kevin had one more run at the top in him?

From the Observer

There was actually talk of bringing in Tony Schiavone for a few weeks to announce Raw. The feeling is they have to keep Jim Ross off for several weeks to sell the angle and that everyone knows Jonathan Coachman is terrible. Kevin Dunn nixed the idea.

Was that real? Do you know if that was even considered?

The story on Raw is going to revolve around Hunter, Nash & Shawn being best friends…but being at complete odds with each other. This program is…7 years too late is it not?

The main event was Booker & Hurricane defeating Flair & Hunter.

From the Observer

Flair was about to beat Hurricane in the figure four, when Michaels hit Flair with a superkick and Hurricane pinned him. It should be noted that even though Booker had pinned HHH in a tag last week and is getting a shot next week, that bit of info was never talked about, which also explains why nobody cares about the product. HHH nailed Hurricane with a post-match pedigree. Jericho came out and gave Michaels a backbreaker. HHH got the sledge hammer when Nash walked to the ring. They smiled at each other until Nash grabbed the sledge hammer. Then they stood there. Then they stood there even longer. Actually it wasn’t that long watching it, but it must have been really long standing there. HHH was screaming at Booker to get in position. Finally, while HHH and Nash had to stand there, Booker got in position and Nash accidentally decked him. Booker then decked Michaels and walked off on his partners. And that was the end.

How messy is all this when you’re trying to get the product back to being entertaining?

Are you at these shows? Are you producing Coach in the back? What is your role when you’re “off TV?”

Also off TV is Tough Enough. MTV declined to renew the show. Was that a surprise to you? It was the highest rated show on the night it ran on the station.

From the Observer

“Jeff Hardy, 25, was officially fired on 4/21, which is no surprise. He was taken off the house shows last weekend and suspended. He had been very negative as to the political nature of the company in his media appearances promoting his book. As reported before, he had twice asked to be released to concentrate on his music. He had looked terrible in the ring of late, had been suspended in the past, and also a compromise had been reached where he was working a far more limited schedule in an effort to work with him, but it wasn’t working.”

It was best for everyone at this point to just part ways was it not?

Raw 4/21:

“Main was HHH NC Booker in 18:00 of a title match. This was the opposite of Mania. At Mania, they worked a good match, but the crowd was dead because there were matches they couldn’t wait to see and just wanted it over. Here, this was the main event so the crowd was alive even though the match was crap. Booker was sluggish and HHH was slow and off a little on just about everything. Jericho attacked Booker. After this, Coach said that as long as Jericho doesn’t interfere, he should be allowed to stay at ringside. My head had been spinning so it was no big deal. Then Coachman started talking about how the kliq used to rule. Pardon me if I’m mistaken, but was the kliq ever used as the name of the group on television? This is as bad as WCW, where they assume fans know about insider stuff from eight years ago. After an ax kick, Flair and Jericho attacked Michaels. Nash came out for the save, but HHH double-crossed Nash and gave him a low blow, leaving him laying. For the live crowd, Nash came back and beat up HHH. Problem was, Booker was still there and Nash had to tell him to leave and it came off very awkward.”

There’s a shockingly lack of detail - between the commentary, the wrestlers in the ring, and that’s not like WWE in this era. Where do you think all the miscommunication is coming from?

From the Observer:

“Vince McMahon held a meeting with almost all of the talent before the Backlash PPV, to emphasize what the agents and Jim Ross have been urging talent, which is a change in the style to a more mat- based, psychology oriented product.

The results are going to be more growing pains, or actually, non- growing educational pains. It is far easier to appeal to the audience with a high-ying and faster-paced product, particularly the young male demo the company covets. Switching styles is even more dangerous because the 80s wrestling audience that understands the style they are trying to implement has largely been run off. The newest audience was weaned on dangerous spots. And with the company’s economic indicators all falling, this would seem like the worst time possible for such a change. But it is largely necessary.”

JR - this had long been pushed by you and with it coming from Vince takes a new hold on things doesn’t it?

Why was it important to get the ring style to change?

How hard was it to convince Vince it was now or never?

Coming out of Backlash the four biggest pushes were Goldberg becoming the new lead babyface with his win over Rock, Kevin Nash attempting to be portrayed as a legit title contender, John Cena as a possible new main eventer and Sean O’Haire getting the Roddy Piper rub. But it all fell flat at the pay-per-view. Was creative just serving up what the audience didn’t want to see?

The next night on Raw Goldberg is booked as a monster, destroying Steven Richards, Rico, Rosey, Jamal, Christian & Chris Jericho during a highlight reel. How important was getting Goldberg hot to the companies success in 2003?

From the Observer

“Ultimo Dragon has officially signed his contract. He had asked to start in May, and is ready to do so as he’s planning on putting protege Cima over clean on the next major Toryumon show. The plan was for Dragon to make the announcement after either his 5/5 match with Great Sasuke or 5/6 match with Cima about signing with WWE and leaving Japan.”

We know Ultimo Dragon didn’t work out for the WWE but who was pushing to get him into the company?

From Raw there’s quite the angle…

“Main was Bischoff vs Stratus, with Stratus getting a title shot if she won, but having to sleep with Bischoff if she lost. Stratus missed with a kick that Bischoff had to sell. Victoria laid out Stratus, as did Jazz, and Bischoff got the pin in 3:16.

Linda McMahon showed up and hinted Bischoff would be fired for his behavior. He explained he really wasn’t going to sleep with Stratus, but that the stipulation made for compelling television. On the Tron, when she came out, they accidentally put the Austin tape on for a split second. Anyway, before she could make her announcement, Bischoff started hitting on her as well, saying he’s far more interested in a mature woman. Now that was creepy.

She announced Austin was the new co-G.M. Austin has gained some weight and it’s clear his neck is in far worse shape than anyone can imagine because it has almost no rotation. He ended up giving Bischoff a stunner to a big pop to end the show.”

Was it good to see Austin back - and how bad truly was his neck?

Over on Smackdown - new talent is coming in left and right…and by new talent I mean Hulk Hogan is now Mr. America. Hulk in the old school Midnight Rider gimmick…what’d you think?

The story is based around Vince firing Hogan, Stephanie signing Hulk as Mr. America “sight unseen” and debuts on a Piper Pit where Roddy says its Hogan, Vince says its Hogan, Mr. America of course denies it and they attack to try and unmask him and Hulk fires back to end the show. Hogan must pose I guess.

From the Observer

According to those backstage watching, at Raw last week, Vince on the headsets at the Gorilla position was screaming at Coachman all night that “you’re blowing it” and Coach was so frazzled at times he was afraid to talk.

Vince yelling at announcers and being in their ear is a narrative that’s 20 years old now. Back then though - how bad was he with Coach?

The Observer would also report that Dutch Mantel - who’s booking IWA in Puerto Rico - was recently turned down when applying for a writing job in WWE without an interview. How does this happen JR? Do you remember speaking with Dutch about this?

In hell freezes over moments, Vince reaches a deal with “Superstar” Billy Graham regarding his book and bringing him back into the fold. Did you ever see that happening after what happened in 1991 regarding steroids?

Miss Elizabeth sadly passes away on May 1st. How do you hear what happened with her? Were you keeping eyes on the situation with Lex as well?

When there’s trouble in paradise there are loose lips and they’re talking to the Observer during this era. Wrestlers are telling Dave that Vince tells the boys to tone down the matches, then announces a ladder match three days later for the pay-per-view. Vince says in the meeting that the wrestlers should come up with ideas of their own to help the writers but the television is now based around performers who don’t go to the house shows. Then the shows don’t draw because the TV stars aren’t there and the payoffs are bad because attendance is down. How do you navigate all this in talent relations?

As everything is being built on TV for Judgment Day - with the plan of this being the last of the brand exclusive pay-per-views, the main programs are Hogan vs. Piper - which are not going to wrestle at the pay-per-view, and Goldberg as the new top babyface - isn’t even scheduled to wrestle on the show. JR - what are we doing?

Also on Smackdown - Sable has returned. Jim did you ever expect to see Rena Mero back in the WWF?

The intercontinental title is scheduled to return on Raw and to crown the first champion of the reinstated belt there will be a battle royal open to all former IC champions. Did you agree that the IC title needed to return?

From the Observer

Wrestlers have been given the hints with the far lower than projected buys for Mania, that payoffs will be much lower than expected.

Are you the one who breaks that news to the talent? How hard is it to have those conversations with people?

Finally on May 5th you return to Raw and are back where you belong, behind a commentary desk. I’m sure you were excited to be back - and so was Jerry Lawler to have you wasn’t he?

From the Observer

“Lawler pinned Morley so Ross could be announcer again in 3:18 when Ross shoved Morley off the top rope and Lawler got the pin with a fist drop. Coach was horrible calling this match, talking about how he’d love to be part of a three-man team with Ross, who was called the greatest announcer of all-time several times during this segment, and Lawler. Bischoff slapped Morley for blowing it again. Austin told Coachman to come to the ring. He teased firing Coachman, but then seemed to tease a three-man team, until giving Coachman the stunner and firing him. That’s going to make it weird if he’s back on Heat. Bischoff then fired Morley. Morley met with Austin and Austin was mad that Bischoff fired him because they were supposed to agree on personnel decisions. Austin and Bischoff started arguing again, and then Morley kissed up to Austin. Austin then turned on Morley and fired him. That was funny.”

This was a lot going on but all that matters is you’re back right?

What was your relationship with Coachman? Do you think he ever got a fair shake in commentary?

“Booker pinned Storm in 2:34 with an ax kick. Storm came out waving the Canadian flag and was a total babyface. Biggest pop was when Storm used a sharpshooter.”

Why do you think the company was always insistent on beating wrestlers in their hometown? I mean you look at their most recent show Backlash, where Zelina Vega was treated like a star, Carlito, hell even Savio Vega. What did the company see in just defeating people when you could make them hot?

La Resistance made their way into the company…Rene Dupree & Sylvan Grenier. What did you think of these two and their start in the company?

From the Observer - and Dave makes a great point here.

“Bischoff was on the phone to Linda McMahon complaining about Austin. Bischoff started hitting on Linda but she hung up. He thought it was bad cell service. I think Bischoff hitting on Linda is great, but it would have been 50 times more effective if he hadn’t hugged Vince. I wish I had just one-tenth of the money they’ve thrown in the incinerator over the past two years.”

Do you think millions of dollars were flushed down the drain when Vince hugged Eric?

“Goldberg vs. Christian main event never took place, because the company, after two hours of advertising Goldberg’s first match ever on Raw, did a bait-and-switch. Seriously, that was really dumb. Also dumb, although on the level of dumb things they’ve done with Goldberg, this was kind of minor, they’ve changed him from the black trunks. Rosey & Jamal & Rico came out for revenge. They doubled on Goldberg, and he sold, but did a double tackle to Rosey & Jamal and gave Rico the jackhammer. Crowd chanted Goldberg’s name a lot and he seemed like a star.

Austin came out while Goldberg was in the ring. It was the first ever confrontation between the two people in the dream match from five years ago when wrestling’s popularity was at its apex and boy was it a letdown. I guess with Austin injured, they really couldn’t make it too special because there was nowhere to go with it. Austin offered Goldberg a match with Christian next week. Goldberg said he had a problem with that and fans booed. Austin then said he would be a cage match. They were best friends and they drank tons of beer in the ring together.”

It’s important for Steve to give the rub here to Goldberg but why were there so many tweaks to what was just an awesome character?

“Batista tore his right triceps muscle again, which is turning into a chronic thing that could be career threatening. The report was that he fell last week while jogging with his wife. He underwent surgery on 5/1 under Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham. This second injury was worse than the first and he’s expected out of action until October or November.”

This…this is not good for Dave at this point in his career is it?

The Observer would compare the business from 2002 to 2003 and let’s break it down JR.

Attendance is down 35% from April of 02 to April of 03. Gates are down 40%. The average Raw rating is down 22.6%. Smackdown is down 13%. Did everyone feel the ship turning?

Just as quickly as Roddy Piper is in the fold, he’s out of the fold and it’s a crazy story.

“Roddy Piper didn’t appear on Smackdown on 5/8 due to problems with reaching a deal between the two sides. Piper was advertised for Halifax and was in Eastern Canada at least a day before the show. Piper did not have a contract with the company before doing Mania and the past few weeks of Smackdown. The company had been unable to reach a deal, or even come, and there was a time when a decision was going to have to be made. Besides Piper’s own personal deal, another one of the hold-ups is that WWE doesn’t want to put Lewis Rach, Piper’s personal assistant, on payroll and pay for his ticket to fly in. I believe that Hulk Hogan pays for Jimmy Hart when he comes in. The two sides were at an impasse before TV. Piper was never mentioned once on the show. It was all worked out before TV on 5/15, as Piper was back and they set up his match with Hogan. Unfortunately, that match was announced just three days before the PPV and for a bout like that to be effective, it would have needed a few weeks of build-up.”

How strong was Vince & Roddy’s relationship that a contract was never signed? This was just a disaster waiting to happen wasn’t it?

On the go-home Raw:

“RVD & Kane beat Road Warriors in 3:10. Animal was blown up in 40 seconds. Hawk missed the doomsday device and Kane choke slammed him and RVD frog splashed him for the win. Bischoff said he had signed them for Raw. At this point neither had signed a contract and there were no dates booked for them after Baltimore on 5/12. Road Warriors looked terrible, but it was short enough that the crowd seemed okay with it. Hawk got right up. There has been a long and negative history of Hawk and Vince, but Vince told Hawk before the show to let bygones be bygones.”

This was the last shot for Hawk in the WWE wasn’t it?

“Teddy Long complained that Rodney Mack should be in the Battle Royal because there was nobody of color in there. Austin realized that, so he added Booker T to the Battle Royal.”

Jesus JR. That’s all I can say about that.

This Raw also featured Freddie Blassie coming out in a wheelchair after he calls Eric Bischoff a stuttering prick in a backstage promo. It would lead to 3 Minute Warning coming out and it’s all a setup to bring the Dudleys back on TV and included Freddie Blassie saying D-von get the tables. Can you put into words what Blassie meant to Vince?

“Goldberg beat Christian in a cage match in 6:49. That time is all you need to know, because that was five minutes too long. Christian brought out the “people’s chair,” which is the one Rock dented up with Goldberg’s skull. Christian gave Goldberg a sick chair shot to the head and seven more chair shots to the body. Christian went for a spear, missed and went into the cage. He bladed. Goldberg threw him into the cage three times, hit the spear and jackhammer for the pin. Goldberg wasn’t over nearly as much as people expected. Nobody to blame but themselves.”

You can’t make a second first impression and Goldberg badly needed one didn’t he?

From the Observer on this Raw

“Flair and Austin were having a discussion when Hurricane showed up. This turned into a match, with Flair wrestling in his clothes. As it turned out, this got the best reaction of anything on the show. Flair has so much more charisma when he’s allowed to do something than the guys they have on top, it’s almost like Hogan, to where it works against building new stars. Flair’s pants were torn up so you could see his red briefs. At one point you could see his ass. Then, in ripped pants, he made a comeback, worked over Hurricane’s knee, and used a figure four. The figure four worked for the first time ever in WWE, with the ref stopping it in 4:47. The place came unglued for Flair as a face. HHH came out, and literally sucked all the heat out of a hot crowd by delivering a pedigree to Hurricane.”

Do you think Vince thought Ric had one more run in him as well? I mean crazy to say that and considering we saw Ric’s last match last year and this is 20 years ago - but Flair was always over…

Why do you think they cut off Hurricane’s push? What’s up with that?

“Piper’s Pit saw Piper start yelling at a fan waving a U.S. flag. O’Haire threw the kid (Tenacious Z aka Zach Gowen) into the ring. Piper “accidentally” pulled his prosthetic leg off. Mr. America ran in for the save and the two left together.

Vince was mad at Piper claiming that the kid would probably file a lawsuit against the company, but he then said that Piper has a black heart and wanted him to face Mr. America. It’s Vince who has the black heart putting this match on a PPV already loaded with bad matches.”

When Zach Gowen is brought into the company, the legendary story of the wrong one legged wrestler being hired has grown almost into folklore about what Johnny Ace did. Can you walk us through that story?

What did you see in Zach Gowen?

“Mysterio was backstage doing an interview saying he was scared his career may be over. Show attacked him and carried him into the ring. Show did a number on him until Lesnar made the save and hit an F-5 on Show”

This is all to setup a stretcher match at the pay-per-view…was Show the right person to be Brock’s first challenger after Kurt or was there really no one else on the roster that was ready?

To see how much the business had dropped…the 02 Judgment Day headlined by Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker for the Undisputed Title had 373,000 buys. This show only draws 315,000…still not bad but that’s a big drop is it not JR?

The show is not well received by the Wrestling Observer readers with 77% voting thumbs down. Is this one of the lower points for WWE creatively?

The show is in Charlotte at the Charlotte Coliseum and Meltzer would bring up a show from 4 years prior. WCW SuperBrawl - with Hogan vs. Flair on top - drew a 1.15 buy rate which at the time was 455,000 buys. One year later, the same main event, drew a .13 buy rate, or 50,000 buys. Now the drop from 02 to 03 for the WWE is much less - but Meltzer makes the point that WCW in 1999 isn’t far from what the WWE is 2003. Would you agree with that assessment?

Meltzer would also have this to say:

“Worse than the match quality on the show, which was bad, was the new concept of PPV. Instead of basing the show around strong matches, they are now following the TV direction. Since most of the pushed commodities on TV now either don’t wrestle, or shouldn’t wrestle very long, there was far more emphasis on Raw-like skits.

We had a show long sketch with Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff in the luxury box, leading to Austin getting Bischoff drunk on beer and him hurling all over a waitress and theoretically on the crowd. Boy, if that wasn’t a metaphor for the current wrestling. The vomit sketch was said to be Vince’s idea. Kevin Dunn was the major proponent for more backstage and more sketches and less wrestling, and in particular the need for more Austin on the show.”

Should a pay-per-view seem like the TV product or be more focused on wrestling JR?

Chavo Guerrero is hurt at Smackdown before the pay-per-view which causes a change in the ladder match and kills a Los Guerreros babyface run that was scheduled. Just poor timing for Chavo was it not?

“Live attendance for the show was about 13,000. The Coliseum holds 23,000, but nearly half the building was blocked off.”

Was this just one of those things where even pay-per-views weren’t selling out?

“The PPV opened with Austin coming out for a promo and said he was going to be watching the show from the skyboxes. Later Bischoff joined him and Austin fed him bad food and had him drinking beer throughout the show until he was acting drunk and sick, leading to the big hurl, which was shown in replay as if it was one of the shining moments of the show. Austin’s character is now similar to the Ric Flair babyface co-owner role, in that he’s a cheerleader about the product. Flair was okay with it, as that’s been Flair’s character from day one. Anti-establishment Austin talking about how Nash proved to really be the man after stinking out the building just doesn’t come across well.”

It just didn’t fit Steve well did it?

“1. John Cena & Chuck Palumbo & Johnny Stamboli beat Chris Benoit & Rhyno & Spanky in 3:58. Match was way too short. Spanky did a flip dive early before they got heat on him. He made the hot tag to Benoit, who started with the German suplexes. Spanky was cut under his eye and was hospitalized legit after the match with a concussion. He was stiff kicked in the head by Stamboli. He shook it off after being stunned, and continued the match fine. When he was back in the dressing room, he got dizzy and numb and ended up being taken out of the building on a stretcher to the hospital. *¼”

What a tag team this is, John Cena & the FBI. Were just throwing everything out there to see what will stick huh JR?

“2. La Resistance (Sylvain Grenier & Rene Dupre) beat Scott Steiner & Test in 6:19.

Resistance did get a lot of Anti-American heat. It was okay early. Big spot where Grenier dropkicked Test into Stacy Keibler, who fell off the apron but right into the arms of Steiner. Test was mad and nearly got schoolboyed. Later Test went to give Grenier a high kick, but he moved, and Test nailed Steiner. Resistance did what Jim Ross called a flapjack, and their finisher up to this point was a apjack, but instead put Steiner down in the opposite direction kind of like the Harris Twins’ H-bomb move, and Grenier pinned Steiner. By the end, Grenier was totally lost.

*¼”

Were these guys ever ready for prime time?

“3. Eddy Guerrero & Tajiri beat Team Angle (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) to win Smackdown tag titles in a ladder match in 14:18.

This match would have been better as just a regular match because Tajiri and Team Angle had never worked with ladders before and it came off as an indie version of a ladder match. Guerrero was the star of the night. Guerrero did a frog splash from nearly the top of an eight foot ladder and later did a sunset flip power bomb spot over the ladder on Haas. Finish saw Guerrero and Benjamin both climbing the ladder at the same time, and Tajiri climbed up underneath Guerrero and blew mist in Benjamin’s eyes allowing Guerrero to get the belts.

***”

How tough is it for 3 guys who have never done a ladder match to go in there - after the company said to tone down - and have a ladder match?

Was Team Angle lost without Kurt there?

“4. Christian won the Battle Royal to become IC champion in 11:38.

The big surprise entrant from Sean Morley coming out as Val Venis, doing his old shtick. Everyone except Booker T, Christian, Chris Jericho and Goldust were eliminated within two minutes. Don’t they realize how bad it makes talent, especially babyfaces, look when fans see them programmed as basically jobbers? Kane threw out Lance Storm in 44 seconds. Then everyone together threw out Kane at 1:08. Kane came back and choke slammed Test (who got to work twice), Venis and Rob Van Dam. Booker threw out Test in 1:51. Goldust threw out Venis in 2:00. Jericho dropkicked Van Dam out in 2:06. At 4:53, Goldust was eliminated. Booker did a spinaroonie and Goldust tried to surprise attack him and throw him out, but it got reversed. This allowed Booker to be double- teamed for several minutes. In a cool spot, Jericho went for the lionsault on Booker, when Christian surprised him and caught him Jericho and tossed him over in 8:19. Christian dropkicked ref Chad Patton, for the ref bump. Booker side kicked Christian over the top. This is where it got stupid. Christian went over the top, the bell rang and Booker’s music played. When they showed the replay on Raw the next night, they edited out the bell ringing when Christian went over. Christian then grabbed the belt from Pat Patterson, who was to present it to the winner. He decked Patterson and then gave Booker a belt shot and threw him over. Ref Patton saw that and raised Christian’s hand.

*¼”

This whole thing - like this show - is a goddamn mess is it not JR? How do you overbook a battle royal like this?

Did anyone actually think Val Venis returning would be a thing?

“The bikini contest was next, supposedly judged by the fans, which I knew would be a problem. As the two were doing their stripper dances, there was surprisingly little crowd reaction. Tazz asked the crowd who they thought won. Sable got a moderate pop. Wilson got a slightly lesser pop, but far more boos, which was an embarrassment because she was supposed to win and was the face. She then explained she wasn’t done, took off her bikini to reveal basically nothing but strings taped around her nipples, up her butt and over her crotch. She did her stripper dance with that. Tazz, or someone in his ear, recognizing a potential problem, instead of going to the fans, simply announced her as the winner. Some cheered and some booed. The big thing (which there were people internally raving about beforehand as this angle that is going to be so shocking that it would turn around business) was Wilson, wearing almost nothing, rubbing herself all over Sable, rubbing her boobs and kissing her. They showed cutaways of Jerry Lawler almost passing out.”

Listen, roll tide.

“5. Mr. America pinned Roddy Piper in 4:58.

Well, Hogan can say that in the end, he got to pin Piper in the WWE. Being that it was Charlotte, Hogan did get noticeable boos and his pop wasn’t nearly what it would have been anywhere else, but still got far more cheers. Piper actually wore the t-shirt listing the names of the dead wrestlers on his back. They were very careful not to shoot the back of it. Sean O’Haire kept interfering. Piper actually jumped off the apron with a double sledge, which was more than Hogan did. Crowd was dead except for the easy spots like the count to ten punches in the corner and wiggling the hand while caught in the sleeper. It was more like a cartoon match. Hogan hulked up and Vince McMahon came out. He gave O’Haire a pipe. O’Haire went to hit Hogan, but instead hit Piper. Hogan did the legdrop.

Zach Gowen, whom Hogan brought out at the start of the match, then tackled Vince as he tried to interfere in the pin. DUD”

How hard is it to sit at ringside and watch this when just a few years before you were talking about Age in the Cage?

“6. Kevin Nash beat HHH via DQ, so HHH retained the Raw title, in 7:52.

Before the match, they did a tease of Stephanie wishing HHH well, so they are teasing putting them back together. Well, the wedding episode will draw good ratings. Unfortunately it will be death almost every week before and forever after. Shawn Michaels came out and hugged ref Earl Hebner. Ric Flair came out and got the biggest pop on the show. They brawled real quick and were sent to the back. I had figured they would be used to save the match, but instead, the company felt that if Flair was at ringside, fans would boo Nash, and that wasn’t what they desired. There is no logical explanation on a show that looked this bad on paper that they couldn’t have done a Flair vs. Michaels singles match. If Flair was at his worst, it would still have been the third best match on the show. HHH and Nash guys kept knocking down the ref. Finally HHH clotheslined Hebner and used a low blow. He undid the turnbuckles. Nash’s head hit the buckle, but a good looking man like himself doesn’t need to juice. HHH used a pedigree but it doesn’t work on your best friend. HHH went for the sledge hammer. Hebner tried to stop him. HHH hit Hebner with it (in taking the bump, Hebner ended up injuring his shoulder) for the DQ. After the match, Nash did the snake eyes on HHH on the exposed metal turnbuckle, and then dragged him to the announcers’ position and power bombed him through the table. DUD”

JR - when something isn’t working - and it’s a big title match - and you’re doing your best to sell it - how exhausting is it?

“7. Jazz retained the women’s title in a four-way over Jacqueline, Trish Stratus and Victoria in 4:48. Victoria threw Stratus over the top rope to block the Stratusfaction. This left Jazz to DDT and pin Jacqueline. Stratus wound up with a bloody lip.

*¾”

The women were put in a death spot again which happened a lot - but these 4 worked hard and fast did they not?

“8. Brock Lesnar beat Big Show in 15:27 in a stretcher match to retain the Smackdown title.

Show did hard stretcher shots on Lesnar, followed by a choke slam and a legdrop. He tried to wheel Lesnar out, but he got off the stretcher. Lesnar came back with stretcher shots. They brawled a lot outside the ring. Lesnar jumped up and grabbed a bar at the entrance and dropkicked Show, and then speared him hard. Later Show smashed Lesnar into the post and it appeared Lesnar hit the back of his head hard. Rey Mysterio hit the ring and did a 619, before Show treated him like a midget wrestler. Lesnar came back with a forklift. Somewhere in all this, Mysterio did a magic act and disappeared. After a vertical suplex (this was so much smarter saving the suplex until late in the match, as it got a huge pop as compared to their matches last year where Lesnar would suplex him all over the place early to a lot less reaction) and F-5, Lesnar rolled him onto the forklift and carried him to the back.

***¼”

This is a really good match looking back because Lesnar is working with busted ribs and in a tough gimmick with a big man - but when this show is over you have to feel a sense of relief that it ended right?

What say you JR - thumbs up, thumbs down?

What could’ve saved this card - if anything? Flair vs. Shawn?

Was it weird to think this would be the last dual branded pay-per-view - at least for a few years?