WWE Vengeance 2003

WWE Vengeance 2003
Denver, Colorado - July 2003

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this SmackDown-exclusive event, Brock Lesnar is the reigning WWE World Champion, the vacant US Championship will be decided, and the WWE Tag Team Championships are held by the World's Greatest Tag Team, Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. Rey Mysterio is the reigning Cruiserweight Champion going into the show, but is going for the Tag Titles on the show.

COMMENTARY: Michael Cole and Tazz

Talk about an opening contest for the first ever Smackdown-exclusive pay-per-view - Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit to kick things off for the vacant United States Championship. Evenly matched, fast-paced wrestling to start things off with the longtime rivals trading pin attempts and hip tosses. Guerrero tries to slow things down by applying a side headlock and is able to keep it latched on despite some impressive escapes by the Crippler. Benoit is eventually able to break out and hit a shoulderbreaker but can't lock in his crossface. To the outside they go, Benoit launching himself for a suicide dive through the middle ropes. In the ring, Benoit works to weaken Guerrero's arms with a half nelson on the mat but its not long before both men are back on their feet and the match returns to a breakneck pace, the crowd popping big for a stiff chop from Benoit and a flashy hurricanrana from Eddie. Minutes later, Benoit hits a back suplex off the top rope (!) for two. Benoit follows it up with two more german suplexes and then a Crippler Crossface in the center of the ring. Guerrero is able to reach the ropes with his right leg, though, breaking the hold. Guerrero gets a second wind, though, and is able to piece together a trio of suplexes of his own - two straight-up vertical and one superplex. Guerrero goes for his frog splash but Benoit rolls away at the last possible moment, avoiding most of the contact. Back on his feet, Benoit uses his strength to spike Guerrero back to the mat with a powerbomb for another two. Again Benoit goes for the crossface, but again Guerrero reaches the ropes. The referee ends up knocked out from a collision with Benoit and Eddie grabs the US Championship. After striking Benoit with the gold and then landing a spot-on frog splash, it looks like Guerrero has the match in the bag but somehow Benoit kicks out at two! Guerrero grabs the belt again and knocks out the ref, but tries to make it look like Benoit was the culprit. As Eddie tries to wake the ref, Benoit locks in the crossface as the crowd goes wild and Eddie taps repeatedly (with the ref still down and out). The shenanigans continue with the ref getting hit with a Benoit headbutt and Rhyno running in and seemingly turning heel all leading to a third and final frog splash to wrap things up. The first 2/3rds of this match are undeniably great and I wasn't opposed to things getting a little gimmicky for the final act, but the overbooking and Rhyno cameo nudged this one out of all-time classic territory for me. Still, a very good opener. (3.5/5)

Vince and Steph are backstage. They argue about what Kane did to Linda on RAW but Steph doesn't wanna hear about it. 

An "Indecent Proposal Match" is next - Billy Gunn vs. Jamie Noble with Gunn's valet, Torrie Wilson, on the line. The build-up to this match made pretty much no sense, as Gunn had defeated Noble on SmackDown a couple weeks before and it was Torrie Wilson who issued the challenge, putting herself on the line for no reason at all (much to Gunn's confusion). Just stupid. Noble brings a suitcase full of sex toys in it to make sure the sleaze level of this match doesn't waver below Full Sleaze. Noble and Gunn are such dependable hands that the wrestling in this match is actually good-to-great, well above what the storyline deserved. Gunn sells a damaged knee from early on which helps explain why Noble, the noticeably smaller athlete is able to maintain some control. Nidia makes her way down the aisle, obviously upset with her "boyfriend" for his amorous intentions with Torrie. Well-executed sequence leading to the finish - I can't support an angle like this, but in terms of match quality, this exceeded my expectations considerably. (3/5)

Funaki is backstage with the APA. The Easter Bunny hops across the screen. Did this show not happen 2 full months after Easter?

It is now time for the APA Invitational - before the match, off the side of the stage there is a bar set up where various workers are drinking while Tony Chimel announces the various teams and performers who will be competing, including some special guests like Brother Love and Doink. Finally, The APA themselves show up, drinks in hand. JBL grabs a mic and explains the rules of the contest - basically, the last man drinking wins. Brother Love grabs the mic, though, and asks for everyone to participate in a short group prayer. As anyone remotely familiar with the genre of pro-wrestling would guess, things turn into a brawl with all sorts of table spots and weapon smashes and whatnot. Even compared to similar comedy brawls or gimmick battle royals this one is pretty tedious. Filler on pay-per-view was a pretty big insult to the fans who actually spent $30+ to see shows like this, but even in the Network Era this would be a waste of time. I'll give it a point just because there is a little bit of enjoyment in looking at some of these guys and wondering whatever happened to them. (1/5)

Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio challenge the World's Greatest Tag Team, Haas and Benjamin, next. Benjamin and Mysterio start things off, Shelt bringing Rey to the mat and keeping him there using his collegiate wrestling background. There's a timing issue early, but they right themselves with a big hurricanrana spot followed by Kidman locking in some airplane headscissors. Haas comes in to try to slow things down, but Kidman keeps the speed up and helps Rey connect with a crowd-pleasing guillotine leg drop from the top rope. Moments later, Haas hits a weird kickout inverted spinebuster that looks vicious and then a piledriver slam - honestly, if you were to just look at Haas here you'd think he was destined for a serious singles run as a heel because his offense and demeanor are nasty. Its important to note how hot the crowd is for this match, especially for Mysterio - rising on their feet in unison for a 619 tease and then breaking out into a "Holy Shit" chant for Billy Kidman hitting a 7 Year Itch from the top rope to the arena floor! Back in the ring, Kidman can get only get two and the crowd is rightly pissed but no doubt pleased that the match will continue. With Mysterio momentarily distracting the ref, Benjamin capitalizes and Kidman ends up in double-team trouble. In a great moment of tag wrestling, Kidman is able to get a tag in - but Chioda misses it and sends Mysterio back out, leading to some more punishment to the former Flock member. Shelton hits a powerbomb, but when he attempts another, Kidman is able to reverse it and Mysterio hits a somersault dropkick followed by an enziguiri on a hot tag! Everything Rey does is beautiful, but even a springboard-assisted DDT isn't enough to put Benjamin down. Haas comes in, but thanks to some help from Kidman he ends up in an unfortunate position for the 619. Rey follows it with a West Coast Pop but poor positioning from Kidman prevents him from getting the three count as Chioda is too busy tending to his partner. The match continues and we get one of the most sensational nearfalls I think I've seen this decade - a very loud "Bullshit" chant starting following Chioda's count. The actual finish follows somewhere around a minute later and, though its unclear if its 100% clean, it doesn't really matter - this is an almost flawless tag team match where everybody comes out of it looking better, including the announcers, who did an amazing job of hyping the backgrounds, experiences, and talents of all the competitors. (4/5)


A clip from the previous week's SmackDown helps give us some background for the next match - a no-countout cat fight between General Manager Stephanie McMahon and Sable. In this match you will see some of the worst things ever - worst hair toss, worst spear, worst Lou Thesz Press. There were some positives, though, specifically Stephanie's convincing fire and the last bump of the match. Unfortunately, even that last bump is weakened a bit by Steph's stupid melodramatic selling after the match. (0.5/5)

A video package recaps the feud leading up to the next match - John Cena vs. The Undertaker. This is one of the more interesting matches I've covered on this blog as we're talking about two of the biggest stars in WWE history. Context is important here, though. In 2003, Cena was still an up-and-comer while The Undertaker was in his BikerTaker persona. This is like if "Stunning" Steve had wrestled Hulk Hogan in WCW in 94' - you know the outcome, but the fun is seeing how much the main eventer is going to give the blue chipper and how much of the future can be seen in the past. This match offers plenty to fans seeking that sort of experience - even in his white rapper gimmick with an arsenal of moves much thinner than the one he utilizes 14 years later, Cena wrestles "big," his timing and selling lending main event-level drama to what was essentially an upper-midcard-at-best match. The layout, criticized at the time, holds up much better with the benefit of a dozen years of seeing Cena basically wrestling the opposite match of this. In 2003, Cena came in with bravado, tried to step to Taker with brawling, and only had a shot when Taker himself got too cocky. In the end, Cena's arrogance cost him the match anyway - the lesson not sinking in after getting squashed for the first 5 minutes and still obviously not learned when he finally has the Deadman literally on the ropes. Recommended viewing not just because its a solid match, but because of how interesting a match it is. (3.5/5)

One of the most shameful storylines ever continues next - Vince McMahon wrestling the one-legged Zach Gowan because, well, as Vince put it, beating up a one-legged man is the one thing he hasn't done. McMahon dominates early and no matter how much you tell yourself that Gowan is a trained wrestler who is fully "in" on what is happening, watching McMahon clothesline him out of his boot is still cringeworthy. As the match continues, McMahon finds himself in trouble and the crowd loves it, rallying behind Gowan, whose crowd-pleasing, high-flying offense is amazing to watch. Like so many of the better Vince matches, the twists and turns are fun and logical - Gowan working on McMahon's leg, Gowan failing to finish Vince with the same moonsault he took out Big Show with, the addition of a chair and way, way more blood than any match has ever called for. This was never going to be a classic and its no doubt a distasteful match in more ways than one, but it was more entertaining than a typical match. (3/5)

Before our main event, a video package recounts Kurt Angle's career and the near-tragic turn it took at WrestleMania XIX when Angle competed against Brock Lesnar with a broken neck. Angle came back two months after the show and Lesnar agreed to put up his title...but Big Show had other plans, bothered that the former champ was jumping to the head of the line - hence, the next match...

Main event time - Brock Lesnar defending the WWE Championship against The Big Show and Kurt Angle in a Triple Threat. Big Show takes control early, neither Lesnar or Angle able to take the big man off his feet. Angle is eventually able to gain some traction by grabbing a trash can, the match very quickly degenerating into a sports-entertainment bout more than a wrestling contest. Lesnar and Angle team up to (weakly) chokeslam Big Show. Lesnar hits an F-5 on Angle, but the Gold Medalist wisely rolls out of the ring. Lesnar then does the same to Show, but Angle pulls the ref out of the ring from the outside at 2! Lesnar heads out to punish Angle and ends up busting him open by sending him face first into the post. Back in the ring, Lesnar goes after Big Show and after some back and forth, ends up in the position to hit Show with a running powerbomb for a loud Holy Shit chant! Angle comes in with a chair, though, first bashing Lesnar in the back and then striking him straight to the head with the kind of shot you just won't see in the WWE post-2005 or so. Angle and Show are on the outside now and the ridiculousness continues, this time as Angle hits Show with an Angle Slam through an announcer's table! Lesnar and Angle make their way back to the ring, both cut open, and its Angle who ends up striking first, Lesnar selling big time for Angle's rights before rallying a bit himself and tossing his rival out of the ring. After sending Lesnar into the stairs, Angle takes control and connects with a German Suplex and then an insane Release German that flips Lesnar inside out! Angle tries to finish him off with Angle Slam, but Lesnar connects with a spinebuster for two. Lesnar locks in a rear naked choke that Tazz wisely plays up on commentary - not only because its the move he took Hulk Hogan out with months earlier, but because its not dissimilar to Tazz's own Tazmission. Show comes back in to break things up and hits a double chokeslam, pinning both guys for two. A low blow cuts off Big Show's momentum and we're back to Lesnar/Angle, with Angle briefly locking in the Ankle Lock before Show cuts him off. Angle hits an Angle Slam on Show and then, in a shocking finish, does the same to Lesnar to finish him off 100% clean. Very good, surprisingly clean main event, though, I kind of wish the ending had been as awe-inspiring as some of the other spots in this match as one more big "I've Never Seen That Before!" moment would've probably elevated this into all-time classic territory. (4/5)



The Kwang Score doesn't quite tell the whole picture of. A 2.81-out-of-5 wouldn't seem like the kind of show to warrant a full viewing, but there is something strangely brilliant about the way this whole card plays out, the match order and variety of characters and action coming together in a highly entertaining package that will please fans of both great in-ring action (the opener, the Tag Titles match, and the main event) and of extreme, ridiculous, and borderline offensive "sports-entertainment" (Vince McMahon vs. Zach Gowan and, with its high spots and blood, the main event again). Sable/Stephanie is a bad match, but it does nearly descend into "so bad-it's good" territory, while Noble/Gunn, if you ignore the highly offensive premise of the match, is actually really well-wrestled, maybe the perfect distillation of the card itself. Cena/Taker is a fun match to revisit knowing where Cena's career would go and that, despite ten more years in the company together, they'd never wrestle again on PPV even though this match proves they could've easily put on an all-time classic. This show may not have the score of WrestleMania XIX, but it is almost more digestible because of its up-and-down pacing. 

FINAL RATING - Watch It