American Airlines Center – Dallas TX | TV Rating: 4.4
The Good
Kurt Angle avoids the “What?” chants long enough to work in Shakira lyrics into his promo about how he will break Kane’s ankle tonight. The Main Event is Jericho, Christian & Lance Storm (A pre-cursor to the Super Canadian – Unamerican Teams later this year?)
Steve Austin’s rambling promo isn’t his best. And the “What” chants are still very annoying, even when the person speaking is trying to elicit them from the crowd. But his crack about Triple H being in great shape but that Austin’s beer belly is a strategy because it changes his centre of gravity and thus makes him harder to throw over the top rope is so funny that one, I genuinely laughed out loud and two, cracks the fans up so much that they forget to do the what chants (until Austin leads them into it again).
The Bad
In of itself, as clichéd as it is, the opening Ric Flair promo, where he acts insane and makes his match with Vince at the Royal Rule into a streetfight, isn’t all that bad. It’s Flair in 2002 so has entertainment value. The fact that it is interrupted by WORLD CHAMPION Canadian Chris Jericho doesn’t even make it worse. But the fact that those two brawls and Flair gets the upper hand by putting on the figure four and it takes Vince to run in to make the save…well at this point is there anything good to say about the presentation of Jericho? This took up to 20 minutes of course. When there are less than 30 minutes of wrestling in the seven matches tonight.
Debra and Stephanie arguing about which of their husbands is the better wrestler is excruciating television… So why, less than a week away from his match with Top Tier Candian Chris Jericho at the Royal Rumble isn’t The Rock here?
The Indifferent
Ok so Bubba Vs Spike takes up all of two minutes but at least it’s an attempt to build up the tag team match happening on Sunday. Remarkably the tag team match between Tajiri & Hurricane Helms and Billy & Chuck was set up on Heat. Because Billy was upset he had to cancel his team’s date with some hot women or something. But still, storylines! Again, you can’t criticise the wrestlers’ when they are only given three minutes but this is a whole lot of nothing.
Jazz and Jacqueline go around a minute in a match to decide who gets a Women’s Title shot at Trish Stratus at the Rumble… Needless to say, we’re in Texas so Jackie loses.
Kurt Angle and Kane get nearly ten minutes to play with. They don’t do a lot with those ten minutes but hey we can’t have everything. Angle looks good though. And if it seems a theme, I’m sorry but Edge & Rob Van Dam against William Regal & Test is another non-event, with RVD and Test only being there to prevent too much interaction between Regal and Edge who will meet on Sunday at the Rumble.
Booker T and Big Show go less than three minutes but if we’re being kind at least it’s a win for Booker, something he needed any way he could get them around this time.
Let’s make it a clean sweep, There’s not much that the Super Canadian Team of Chris Jericho, Lance Storm and Christian along with the APA and Rikishi can do in a three-minute main event match that no one cares about given who DOESN’T show up.
Triple H’s main event promo slot doesn’t do anything other than offer Austin a chance to run in for a brawl. It’s slightly saved by Undertaker running in and battering both men in an attempt to make you believe that the only and obvious winner of the Rumble might not win…
Overall
The fact that there’s no wrestling in the “good” section says it all. And basically, all that is in there are two promo’s for one good line in each. It’s not an AWFUL show, it’s just a complete auto-pilot show of “let’s just let people fighting on Sunday hype their matches up a bit” proportions. Canadian