Richmond Coliseum, Richmond, Virginia – TV Rating: 4.5
The Good: The Vince/Flair in-ring confrontation gets in here just by virtue of Ric’s “History of WWE” video that he shows (in an attempt to get Vince to rethink his idea of injecting the nWo poison into WWE) is really top-notch stuff. Also, Kid Rock; Lonely Road of Faith is on it. Anyone in 2002 who had been a long-term fan of the WWE could not have failed to enjoy that video. The promo battle itself is quite stirring too even if the storyline doesn’t really withstand close scrutiny of the little details.
It’s far from a “great” wrestling match but the Chris Jericho/Maven match over Jericho’s Undisputed Title is a very good piece of wrestling work. The fans are REALLY into the prospect that Maven might win and of course, not even Jericho’s title reign was so bad that there was ever that prospect, but the two work a good, believable match before Jericho wraps things up with possibly the only clean win of his entire reign. And Jericho’s reasoning behind offering the match (he’s sick that his win over the Rock at the Rumble was overshadowed by Maven eliminating Undertaker from the Rumble match) is pleasantly logical too.
The main event between Kurt Angle and Steve Austin, to decide who gets a crack at Jericho at No Way Out, is predictably good stuff between two performers who had a hell of a lot of chemistry. They had better matches last year but this is still a very good TV match.
The Bad: Rob Van Dam against William Regal doesn’t exactly sound like the best idea for WWE TV in 2002 with it’s short matches and lame non-finishes. But this lasts less than 90 seconds and gets the lamest of lame non-finishes as Regal gets disqualified after a low blow. Post-match, Dudley’s attack RVD and Edge makes the save, all of which suggests a tag team match at some point.
One Stephanie McMahon backstage promo would be too much. Three hurts my ears… And of course, although Booker T defeats Triple H (in somewhat of a surprise) it’s only because Stephanie gets involved and HHH having to save her allows Booker the opportunity for a roll-up via a handful of trunks. Plus it’s clear that added muscle has slowed down HHH and he’s still rusty given he’s only recently coming back from a long term injury absence. It’s almost as if he’s rushed back before he was truly ready to make sure he gets the WrestleMania spotlight…
The Indifferent: We’re running through the Kane/Big Show storyline arch as after a couple of weeks as a team they’re fighting tonight. As befits such a long winding storyline with so many twists and turns, Kane wins clean in less than three minutes. It’s not as bad as you might think it would be, at least.
Diamond Dallas Page is now a client of the Godfather’s escort agency and they team up to defeat Lance Storm and Christian. There have been worse matches on WWE TV so far in 2002 but neither is there much to write home about. DDP never really settled in WWE and the Godfather doesn’t appear to property fit into the “new” WWE. So of course, they win.
Billy, Chuck, and Jazz defeating The APA and Trish Stratus is about as much as you’d expect in terms of “action” though a couple of amusing spots towards the end keep it away from being “bad”.
Overall: There’s enough that’s good here to make this show worth a watch. The main event is a great match and the Jericho/Maven stuff alongside the Vince/Flair stuff is very good too. There’s no escape from the feeling that we’re killing time until Hogan, Hall and Nash turn up (and until HHH wins the title at WrestleMania) but there’s enough going on to keep you going in the meantime. The Lonely Road of Faith video is pretty iconic.