Opinion by DrVenkman

Welcome to the OFFICIAL* WrestlingDB “WWE Unforgiven” Preview! (and bonus 12 month recap)

Unforgiven 2002 will be live this Sunday on Pay-Per-View, so I figured, “what the hell, I’ll write a preview for the best wrestling news site out there today”. Unfortunately, LOP, WrestleZone, and ProWrestling.com all rejected this, so here it is, a WDB Exclusive.

Well, with the comedy out of the way (<Reader> comedy?), let’s get right into it. Since this is the first opportunity I’ve had - for that matter, the first chance any other article writers on this site has had, it just happened to be me who decided to take the “job” of doing “official” previews, anyone else can feel free to do their own - to write a PPV preview, I thought I’d take a look back at the year that has been WWE PPV.

PART I: WWE September 2001 - WWE September 2002

12 months ago, WWE was 3 months into it’s InVasion angle. Unforgiven 2001 (more on that event tomorrow in the “Look back at Unforgiven”) featured 8 matches, 7 of which were title matches, a number even more astounding when you note that 4 existing titles - European, Women's, Light heavyweight, and Cruiserweight - weren’t even defended . The following months offering, No Mercy, didn’t have quite as many title matches, and the title matches it did present were ok (Edge vs. Christian) to good (Hardyz vs Storm and Hurricane, Austin vs. Angle vs. RVD) to Match of the Year Contender (Jericho vs Rock). The invasion angle came to its end at Survivor Series, which featured (in my opinion) a solid card that was underrated at the time due to not delivering anything big or amazing to close out what in theory should have been the company’s biggest angle ever. Vengeance suffered the same fate, as it featured an excellent triple main event, but did not deliver the return of Triple H, who at the time internet fans WANTED to see return to television, leaving some fans disappointed.

Moving on to the current year, the WWE started strong with an excellent Royal Rumble. The Rumble match had some solid booking to it, and many fans were happy to see the return of Goldust and Mr. Perfect. It also featured the 3rd PPV encounter between Rock and Jericho, which Jericho once again won with the help of 37 people. The PPV gave a promising look at the year to come, but it only took 4 weeks to turn that around.

No Way Out 2002, in my opinion (and this is MY article, so it’s all my opinion - not necessarily yours, and not something I‘m forcing you to agree with, of course) was the worst PPV of the year. A lot of people like to throw around “Worst PPV Ever” like they’re some sort of comedic genius for watching The Simpson's, but with all the talent currently under contract by WWE, and the way the style is now compared to 20, even 10 years ago, it is very doubtful any modern day PPV will eclipse some of the atrocious shows forced onto the unsuspecting world many years ago. For the record, I consider King of the Ring 95 the worst WWF/E PPV of all time. I’ve heard terrible things about the first and 2nd In Your Houses, but they had at least 1 really good match - KOTR 95’s best match was probably Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly vs The Roadie. Anyway, I’ve gone off topic, where was I now... ah, yes, No Way Out 2002. This marked the 2nd failed crossover angle (nWo, a WCW creation, being in WWE) although the angle hadn’t yet tanked at this show. I liked Goldust vs RVD and The Rock’s backstage segment enough for me to buy a VHS of the show on sale at Music World for $10 Canadian, but I would not have been thrilled if I had paid $35 for this show (I watch PPV’s at a local restaurant / bar). Austin and Jericho have never clicked in the ring - their best effort being at Vengeance in 2001 - and as a result this shows main event was pretty boring, a trend that would continue for most of 2002.

WrestleMania X8 - you either loved it or you hated it. Again, I can clearly see why anyone who paid $40 or so - especially in US funds - would think this show was terrible; it was a 4 hour Raw with a heavily hyped Hogan vs Rock match.. Again, since I watched the show for free, I found the matches on the card good for what they were, and nothing was really bad - just a lot of average. If you’re a work rate freak, I’m sure you hated Rock vs Hogan, but I still enjoy watching it even after the fact I know all the classic Hogan spots coming. HHH vs Jericho was a disappointment, in not just match quality but match build up as well. A passable main event, but not the match people we’re expecting to see based on past encounters between the two.

The next 3 PPVs were not well reviewed by many people. Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge WWE mark, and always tend to focus on the positives their shows have rather than point out everything that sucked. I, once AGAIN, can see how people who spent $90 - $100 US on the PPVs from April - June could have felt ripped off, and I was even a little reluctant to spend the $17 Canadian to buy the KOTR DVD this month, but I thought each show had some good. However, and this is the big one, each show also had a really, really bad main event. Some people out there will trash an entire show based on a bad main event. Another problem Backlash and Judgment Day had was the fact that people had been expecting ***** matches from RVD and Guerrero, and seem displeased with the ***3/4 + matches they received instead. To their credit, Backlash and Judgment Day did feature excellent Kurt Angle vs. Edge matches. King of the Ring had a pretty good Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Jericho match to open the show - the very match that made Scott Batura famous within the Internet Wrestling Community and caused Jericho to cut off communication via his webpage with the net. People were let down by Hurricane vs Noble, as it did not meet the cruiserweight standard match that people had been used to in WCW or even some matches in WWE (Kidman vs Tajiri at Backlash, for instance), but out of the CW context I enjoyed the match (and Hurricane’s neckbreaker off the top rope was pretty cool). KOTR 2002’s main problem, outside of the horrendous Undertaker vs Triple H match, was that it was a very well intentioned show for storyline purposes that resulted in bad matches. Angle vs Hogan existed to put Angle over, but the match wasn’t very good. Brock squashed RVD, even kicked out of his 5 Star Frogsplash, to show he was dominant, but much like Goldberg before him, it took away from what could have been a good match.

July 2002 was a turn around for WWE. The new General Manager angle was put into effect, and a good percentage of the TV shows were well reviewed by the IWC, and leading up to SummerSlam in August proved to be even better television, most notably Rey Mysterio’s matches on SmackDown. both of these shows were met well by most people (a certain inexplicably popular Canadian wasn’t thrilled with Vengeance 2002). Misfortune would fall upon WWE after SummerSlam, though, as their Monday night broadcasts have been less than well received by fans. SmackDown continues to be good, but overall the ratings are way down. This has led to some uneasiness as to whether or not Unforgiven will continue the trend of the last 2 PPVs and be good, or become another victim of a solid undercard with a main event that leaves a poor taste in the mouths of all who watch it.

With that, we move too....

PART II: UNFORGIVEN 2002 - PREVIEW AND PREDICTIONS

At this point, I’ve realized I’ve rambled on WAY too much, and should probably remove any references to this being an Unforgiven 2002 preview and call it “WWE: The Past 12 Months in Review”. HOWEVER, I am only able to write 1 article per day, and as I stated, I already have a planned article for tomorrow, and I still want to do show previews every month, so onward I move on with this. This will probably end up being pretty short, too. I expect No Mercy 2002’s preview to be a more in-depth preview. I’m not trying to knock my work or make excuses, I’m just letting you know in advance what to expect:

Bubba Ray Dudley, Kane, Goldust, and Booker T vs. The Un-Americans (Storm, Christian, Test, Regal): Bubba is taking the spot of Bradshaw, and I think that is a great improvement. If they open the show with this match, I would expect a hot crowd, otherwise it’s a bit iffy. Booker should be over, though. When you have talent in the ring, you can’t really screw this sort of match up - you wrestle, do some nice spots, tag out before you get gassed. It should be a decent, if not good or very good, match.

Predicted Winners: Team America
Predicted Quality: **1/2 - ***1/2

Billy and Chuck vs Jamal and Rosie/Rosey (WWE.com says one thing, the graphic on SmackDown said another): I think myself and many people have fallen under the WWE Marketing Machine. The former Island Boyz have been impressive in short segments, but so was Rikishi 3 years ago in squash matches. You put those two in a real match, and it probably won’t be pretty. I’m ready to be proven wrong, though. Billy and Chuck were quite hated no less than 1 month ago, but ever since the wedding angle some people seem to like them all of the sudden. While they are still the same tag team at heart, based on the past week of television they do seem to be working harder. This match also has some interesting stipulations, but I’m sure you all know about that.

Predicted Winners: Billy and Chuck
Predicted Quality: * - **1/4

Intercontinental Championship Match - Chris Jericho (C) vs Ric Flair: Their SummerSlam match was average, and I’m not expecting a big turn around this month either. There is still potential to it, however.

Predicted Winner: Chris Jericho (end the 5 PPV losing streak, Chris!)
Predicted Quality: ** - ***

Edge vs Eddie Guererro: Should be really solid as their past 4 weeks of TV matches, including SummerSlam, have all been good. However, I expect, much like at SummerSlam, this match won’t be well received by those in attendance.

Predicted Winner: <flips a coin - heads is Edge, tails is Eddie> Edge
Predicted Quality: *** - ****

WWE Women’s Championship: Molly Holly (C) vs Trish Stratus: I thought for sure they would do the triple threat with Victoria at the PPV after it was cancelled on Raw, but this should be fine. I always enjoy the matches these two have when it’s one on one, and I don’t expect this to be much different. However, all ladies matches are booked to be under 7 minutes, and are generally not well received by the crowds when it’s not fought under a perverted gimmick.

Predicted winner: Trish
Predicted Quality: *3/4 - ***

Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit: I think the participants tell the story of the match. Crowd loves reacting to anything Angle does, which saves this heel vs heel encounter from bombing with the in house crowd.

Predicted winner: Benoit (he has to win at SOME show this year, doesn’t he?)
Predicted quality: ***3/4 - ****1/2+

WWE Championship: Brock Lesnar (C) vs. The Undertaker: They’re might be messing up big time if they put this one on last. If Undertaker doesn’t sell, this match will be terrible, and people will only remember how bad the main event was like the April - June block of PPVs, and it will only be worse if Taker wins the title. If Taker sells (and I know Brock will, he always does), I believe the match can be a good power vs power big man affair. It’s up to you, Mark. Do you want to have a DUD or a quality title match?

Predicted winner: Brock Lesnar
Predicted quality: DUD - * if Taker doesn’t co-operate, *-*1/4 if he tries, *1/2 - *** if he goes all out to have a good power match with Brock.

World Title Match: Triple H (C) vs Rob Van Dam: I’ve really enjoyed the segments these two have had on TV, and I believe it will be a good match, regardless of what you think of Trip’s in ring ability at the moment. Most people will be really mad if Rob does the job here, and frankly I want him to win too, but him losing is not the worst thing. Rob going over HHH on TV, then making a fool out of him in the promo last week on Raw have been good for Rob. If you look back at June 2001’s attempted push of Benoit and Jericho, you see that Austin always went over both of them before the PPV, then won at the PPV, more or less killing off their steam. RVD has a lot of momentum going in to the PPV, and I don’t think a loss will kill it. However, if he loses and his momentum going into the show is not carried over to post-Unforgiven Raw’s, I will not be happy. In the end, I think it would just be best to have RVD go over here.

Predicted Winner: RVD (going with the long shot)
Predicted Quality: This one is all over the map, just like Taker’s match: if HHH tries like he did with Michaels, it could be good. If he works in slow motion, and worst case scenario RVD is having an off day and misses all his spots, it will be a train wreck. As always, I am going into this match (and entire show overall) optimistic, and we’ll see what happens. **1/2 - ***3/4+

Overall, I think this should be a solid show, almost a reverse Vengeance 2002. Vengeance had an average undercard with the best main event of the year, while this show had main events that could disappoint but a solid undercard that should keep the overall show quality up.

Also, I’d like to mention a little website where you can make your own Unforgiven predictions. Check out the Play Per View section at www.stablewars.com. Myself and fellow WDB article writer SPMAN have been playing there since Backlash, and it’s always fun to check out who made the best predictions.

Steve “DrVenkman” Gray
stevegray_21@yahoo.com


*Not authorized as official by anyone affiliated with WrestlingDB.com