WWE Armageddon 2002
December 15, 2002
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Reviewed on March 13, 2014
Background: 2002 was perhaps the strangest year in WWE history. What started with a HHH comeback and the end of the InVasion era with the NWO ended with two new (for different reasons) faces on the top of the card. Those faces were Brock Lesnar, someone who received a ridiculous mega push and impressively handled it, and Shawn Michaels, who was out as an active wrestler for four (of the most profitable) years but made a very unlikely return. Never mind that there are now two World Champions, a splitting of the roster (Brand Extension!) and just a real overall change of who WWE was going with. Gone were the days of Stone Cold vs. The Rock headlining (although they’d have one more big match). It was now guys like Lesnar, HBK, HHH, Kurt Angle and Undertaker. A lot of the Alliance guys had spots on the card and would be all over the place. For the first time, I’d argue there were too many guys that could have been at the top, and not enough in the midcard (which is why guys like Jericho, RVD and Kane would never stay in the main event.
I didn’t even get into the WWE debuts/returns of Hulk Hogan, Scott Steiner and Eric Bischoff.
With that being said, let’s see how it all comes together.
The Card
I am always going to be a fan of the Armageddon theme.
World Tag Team Championship
Chris Jericho and Christian© vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. Lance Storm and William Regal vs. Booker T and Goldust
Quick 2002 recaps for these guys: Jericho went from Undisputed Champ to midcard with random main event runs, Christian was in an awesome team with Storm, Dudleyz were broken up most of 02 due to the Brand Extension…but at Survivor Series they reunited. Storm and Regal were in the midcard. Booker T hadn’t gotten a big push…yet, Goldust was lucky to be employed.
As with most 4 way tags, there is no flow early on as there are so many pieces and different teams tagging in and out.
For some reason Goldust and Bubba Ray Dudley are working together. This is exactly what I mean about flow.
First elimination is botched. Storm top rope legdrops Bubba Ray and Regal tries to pin him and get the tights…only he pulls so hard so Bubba actually pins him…then Regal redoes it to get the pin. Goldust then pins Regal anyway, so we’re down to Jericho and Christian vs. Booker and Goldust.
Goldust takes a nice bump by missing a crossbody and flying out of the ring.
Fans are really into Booker T here.
This tag match really went up quality wise when we went to two teams.
Nice false finish with Jericho hitting Booker with the belt and a Lionsault!
Booker T and Goldust win the title when Booker pins Chris Jericho in 16:43. Jericho tries to hit Booker again with the title, but Booker turns it into a Book-End for the win! Pretty good match once it went down to two teams. Didn’t see the point of adding Storm and Regal and the Dudleyz considering how they went out. Nice opener.
Josh Matthews backstage interviews Brock Lesnar. Lesnar was turned face here because of the Paul Heyman turn at Survivor Series. He’s here to make an impact!
Edge vs. A-Train
Here comes the A-Train push. I thought he was actually better than people give him credit for in 2003. Doesn’t mean he was good though.
Story here: A-Train is looking to make an impact. He beat up Rey Mysterio Jr.. Then attacked Edge. Here we are.
A-Train took a weird bump on a roll-up. Match has been pretty uneventful.
Edge with a tornado Edgeucator? The way he pin A-Train was dangerous though…(unless you’d want to see A-Train’s balls).
Edge wins by DQ. A-Train nails Edge in the leg with a chair. That’s a TV finish, not a PPV finish. Edge gets revenge though and kinda kills any monster gimmick from A-Train there. Match was uneventful and boring. A-Train still isn’t ready as his timing was off (weird roll-up bump, dove on a facebuster are two examples). Whatever.
World Champ Big Show is angry about Brock being in Kurt Angle’s corner later. Heyman said he’ll take care of it.
Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit
No crowd reaction for either guy…but that’s because Benoit kinda sorta turned when Eddie attacked him. He’s still probably a tweener here.
Even though it’s been a fast paced hard hitting start, some small errors by Eddie and Benoit on armdrags.
Eddie with a sick looking legheadlock.
They kinda mess up the skyhigh pancake as well. Timing very off between the two.
Indian Deathlock from Eddie! One of my favorite holds!
Totally forgot about Eddie’s Lasso From El Paso submission hold.
German suplex after German suplex after German suplex etc. etc. Poor Eddie.
More Germans. Eddie finally counters and gets some on Benoit though!
Perfect Frog Splash from Eddie! Kickout from Benoit!
Chavo’s out here. He smacks Benoit with the tag title belt!
Lasso From El Paso! I think it’s a variation of the Texas Cloverleaf, so maybe it’s a Malenko tribute.
Ridiculous powerbomb by Benoit. Wow.
I cringe a bit when I see the Benoit Diving Headbutt, but it’s still damn impressive.
Chris Benoit makes Eddie Guerrero submit in 16:47. Benoit tries to lock in the Crossface, then makes an awesome switch of the sides when Eddie went for the ropes. Roll through…but Benoit holds on and Eddie taps. Sure, it was a slow start, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is a great match. I’m sure that surprised no one.
Heyman-Stephanie interaction. Nothing special here, Steph just holds that Lesnar will be here.
We get the Dawn Marie, Torrie Wilson, Al Wilson angle. Dawn Marie tries to show the night her and Torrie spent together. Of course, it’s teased, but we don’t see anything significant before Al Wilson calls it off. Fans are pissed, and rightfully so.
Interestingly, WWE was doing a bunch of gay and lesbian angles through 2002. HLA. Billy and Chuck. Now this. Torrie and Dawn do make out in the video, I’m not sure if that’s considered risky TV in 2002.
Anyway, this is ultimately a waste of time. This was the highlight of the angle.
Kane vs. Batista
It’s easily forgotten, but it wasn’t as if WWE just suddenly pushes Batista to the moon in 2005. They were trying since 2002.
Batista had an ugly spear.
Kane looks like he’s moving in slow motion.
Ric Flair with the highlights of the match as he viciously attacks Kane…and Kane no sells it all. It was pretty funny.
Batista was really really green here and it shows. Everything is off.
Batista botches the Batista Bomb. Couldn’t get him up all the way.
Pretty bad spinebuster that JR calls the Sidewalk Slam.
Batista pins Kane in 6:38. Kane hits the chokeslam, but Flair distracts the ref. Batista Bomb for the win. You know Kane was on fire (not literally) when he came back in July. Once the whole Katie Vick deal happened the idea of a serious Kane push was gone. Now he’s making a rookie Batista look good in 6 minutes. They’d try again with Kane next year too.
Angle’s looking for Lesnar!
A VERY early Thuganomics John Cena is out here for a rap. He’s with B-Squared! Um..ok then. That was it.
WWE Women’s Championship
Victoria© vs. Trist Stratus vs. Jacqueline
Psycho Victoria was an awesome gimmick.
Wow crazy start. Skinning the cat from Jackie. Victoria with a somersault legdrop on Trish from the outside.
Trish’s Stratusfaction gets turned into a double back suplex!
Sick superplex on Trish from Victoria.
Jackie and Trish mess up a pin spot as Jackie released before Trish kicked out.
Trish with a great kick combo to Victoria!
Messed up pin there. Victoria wasn’t in position to break it up, so Trish unnecessarily stalled on a pin and it looked bad.
Victoria retains when she pinned Jackie in 4:28. Victoria whacks Trish in the head with the title belt when she had a pin, and Victoria steals it. Had a great start, but fell apart midway unfortunately. Still, I mean, usually if the Women’s match is good it’s a bonus.
Angle gives Lesnar a tape of Heyman screwing him over. Really trying to convince him to be in his corner.
WWE Championship
Big Show© vs. Kurt Angle
Story: Show vs. Lesnar at Survivor Series. Heyman screws Lesnar. Lesnar attacks all of Smackdown and gets suspended. Angle wins #1 contendership and asks Lesnar to help him in return to helping gets his suspension lifted. Question is, can Angle beat the Big Show?
Honestly, this would be solid. Except…Big Show had been an absolute joke for 2 years before the title win. While this would rebuild him, it didn’t help the story. Big Show couldn’t be a more obvious transitional champion.
Angle was also in the Benoit type tweener role…but since this is the Big Show, he became a face by default.
Show accidentally tosses Angle over the top rope onto Paul Heyman. Pretty funny.
This was Big Show’s weird black jeans wearing period.
BEARHUG!
Tornado DDT was pretty cool. Match was pretty boring before that.
Top rope missile dropkick from Angle! Don’t recall seeing that often.
Crowd is not into this…because they are waiting for Brock.
Angle Slam…but Show kicks out!
Kurt Angle wins the WWE Title by pin in 12:36. Angle makes Show tap but there’s no ref. A-Train runs in and takes out Angle. Chokeslam by Big Show…but here comes Lesnar, F5! Angle gets the pin there. This match wasn’t good, but Angle jumping all over the place gave it something. For the record the twist in this storyline to get Angle on Heyman’s side made no sense.
RVD is at The World live from Times Square! What a waste.
World Heavyweight Championship: Three Stages of Hell
Shawn Michaels© vs. Triple H
Fall 1 is a Streetfight. Fall 2 is a Steel Cage. Fall 3 is a Ladder Match.
Story: HBK returned after HHH turned on him. HHH vs. HBK at Summerslam was arguable match of the year. HBK then went into the first ever Elimination Chamber and won HHH’s World Title. This is HHH’s return match.
This is still the period where we were all kind of shocked that HBK was wrestling at all, nevermind the champ.
This was a true throwback to 95-96 HBK. He has the hat, the outfit and the red heart pants.
HBK mocks Flair to start which is pretty funny. It gets Flair banned, which is also funny.
Opening sequence is oddly timed, it even had a part where HHH just shoved HBK into the ropes.
Shawn with a crossbody into HHH and a trashcan. That made no sense to be fair.
HBK with a table. I think this is a first for HBK (that isn’t an announcer’s desk).
They’ve set two tables on the outside. I hope they use them before the cage match, as if they don’t it will be obvious it’s going three falls (I guess it’s obvious anyway).
HHH messes up blocking Sweet Chin Music, as it clearly hit him before he grabbed the foot.
This street fight is not clicking for me. Very slow.
Figure Four! I’m beginning to think HHH and HBK wanted to do a straight wrestling match but someone told them they had to do a Street Fight.
2×4 with barbed wire. Weird weapon to have in this feud.
Now HHH lights it on fire. Even weirder.
HBK gets possession and nails HHH with the 2×4 wrapped with barbed wire on fire! Again, I get it’s supposed to be a real hate feud and all that, but it’s not a weapon that makes sense for these two. Now a sledgehammer I would understand.
That also wasn’t the finish of fall one. Just weird.
HHH wins the first fall in about 20 minutes. He hits a messed up pedigree (HBK’s foot never left the canvas). Also, HBK was been selling the leg since the Figure Four. I did not like that street fight. All over the place. No psychology whatsoever. Barbed wire/fire seemed really wasted here.
Cage time.
HHH brings a table into the cage before it drops.
Flair’s back as HHH and HBK go at it at the top of the cage.
Flair sets up another table out there. To be fair, they are selling the whole they could fall from the cage through the table idea.
Flair’s in the cage! Kinda defeats the purpose of the cage.
Flair takes an entertaining ass-kicking. Flair has been one of the best parts of this show.
HBK sets HHH on the table. Top of the cage splash through the table! HBK gets the pin, and its Ladder Match time!
Flair’s a bloody mess.
HBK misses a top of a big ladder splash. Ouch.
Another Pedigree where HBK doesn’t pick one of his feet from the canvas. Weird.
HHH wins the World Title in 38:35. HBK nails Sweet Chin Music! HBK slowly climbs to the top of the ladder, but HHH is back and shoves him off through the stack of tables! HHH grabs the title for the win. Really didn’t like this match for some reason. While I loved how it was structured (1st fall should be the longest, 3rd should be the shortest) I felt as if it just dragged. The first fall didn’t know if it wanted to be a wrestling match or a street fight. 2nd fall seemed to be more about Flair. 3rd fall being a ladder match was okay I guess. It was just one or two high spots then the finish. Not a bad match by any means, but not even close to what they did at Summerslam in just a Street Fight.
This isn’t a bad PPV by any means, but you can tell this was just a lot of transition. Benoit was in mid turn. Angle was in mid turn. A-Train was being established, which sucked. Big Show was an odd champion and a clear transitional one. HBK was supposed to be temporary. Three title changes as well. Nothing really hit the ball out of the park for this PPV, but I did think Eddie vs. Benoit was very good.
2002 was a strange year indeed, and to be fair a lot of the card looked nothing like it did at the beginning of 2002, so I guess there’s some extra credit for transition or something.
Final Grade: C+