Mike Reviews WWE Judgment Day 2002

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We continue on with our journey into 2002 WWF/E today with Judgment Day, the first pay per view event to officially use the WWE initials,

Judgment Day 2002 was a show I actually watched a lot back in the day, as a friend was able to acquire the tape for me as I didn’t have satellite television at the time. The big match on Judgment Day is Hulk Hogan defending the Undisputed Title against The Undertaker, but there should hopefully be enough good action on the under card to offset that.

You can view the card for Judgment Day by clicking the link below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2297&page=3

Judgment Day is emanating from Nashville, Tennessee on the 19th of May 2002

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

We get a very macabre opening, showing a gallows, leading to someone being hung to death. Wow, you wouldn’t get that one from WWE today for obvious reasons.

Broken by 12 Stones is the theme this evening, which is about as 2002 a song as you can get.

Opening Match
WWE Intercontinental Title
Champ: “Latino Heat” Eddy Guerrero Vs “Mr. PPV” Rob Van Dam

Eddy dismantled RVD at the previous pay per view, so the challenger is looking to get back on track here by displaying a better account of himself. RVD gets an extended shine on Eddy in the early going, with the Champ struggling to gain a foothold. This allows RVD to bust out the surfboard into a slam move that he used to use a lot in ECW, mainly because Eddy is light enough and flexible enough to actually take the bump. Someone actually has a “I miss ECW” sign in the crowd. Well have no fear my friend, because Dynamite is on this Wednesday and that’s about as close as you can get to the original ECW in 2024, and you get the benefit of a stronger overall roster and better production values!

The crowd is really into RVD, and gives his offence some great reactions. Eddy is excellent in his role of the befuddled Heel as well, as he struggles to find some way to oppose RVD’s onslaught, with little avail. Eddy eventually begs off and gets a cheap shot, which allows him to get the cut off on RVD and work some heat. Eddy, as to be expected, is a tremendous nefarious villain, so the heat segment is entertaining to watch, but it doesn’t really last that long, as they are doing the opposite of the Backlash bout between the two by giving the lion’s share of the offence to RVD. Eddy manages to weather the RVD storm though and gets a powerbomb before heading up for a Frogsplash, but RVD manages to dodge it.

RVD tries his own Frogsplash following that, but Eddy manages to dodge that, as they are gelling very well as opponents here and much better than at Backlash, which I think is down to the fact that they’d had a chance to work together a few times by this point and thus had managed to get into a groove as opponents. RVD gets some near falls from moves like a cross body and a backslide, but Eddy manages to get a last gasp victory by pulling off a rope assisted three count. Thus RVD loses again, but he has a reason to still be in contention, whilst still giving the fans a pin fall finish. I’ll take it!

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: EDDY GUERRERO
RATING: ***1/3

Thoughts: This one felt like a course correction following Backlash, with RVD getting a lot more offence and only losing due to Eddy’s cheating, which is really what needed to happen after Eddy won the belt so easily in their first outing. RVD showed that he was definitely in Eddy’s league here, and because he lost in such a cheap manner it left the door open for further matches between the two. The match itself was good fun, with the two working well together and the crowd being really into RVD, so it ended up being a strong start to Judgment Day!

Reverend D-Von gives a pre-match prayer ahead of the next match in favour of Stacy Keibler whilst Vince McMahon and Deacon Batista look on. D-Von drags the prayer out though, so Vince demands he pick up the pace, to which D-Von dutifully does. D-Von assures that his brother Bubba will not be a factor tonight, which may as well be a neon sign saying “BUBBA WILL SHOW UP LATER”

A “Get the F OUT” advert plays, as this was the first WWE pay per view since the name change.

Match Two
WWE Women’s Title
Champ: Trish Stratus w/ Bubba Ray Dudley Vs Stacy Keibler w/ Reverend D-Von and Deacon Batista

Keibler was playing Vince McMahon’s mistress at the time (and boy does THAT come with way more uncomfortable connotations these days), so he’d arranged for an unfair title shot for her here, with D-Von and Batista primed to help out. Bubba isn’t having that thought and opposes his half-brother so that Stratus can get a fair shake. Interestingly the Kid Rock and Saliva tracks for Stacy and Bubba respectively are left in here on WWE Network, as sometimes they get dubbed out. Stratus wasn’t as good as she’d become yet, and often she needed to be carried to her better matches by the likes of Jazz and Ivory during this era, although she would improve dramatically over the course of the year.

Despite that, this match isn’t bad when you consider that Keibler was never really much of a wrestler and Stratus was still in the Wartortle stage of her evolution cycle. Stratus gets the better of things to start, but Keibler argues with Bubba and that allows Batista to attack Stratus whilst the ref is distracted by the commotion between Keibler and Bubba. Stratus quickly shrugs off Keibler’s attempts at working some heat though and eventually Keibler collides with Batista, which lays the table nicely for the Champ to deliver a running bulldog for the three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: TRISH STRATUS
RATING: *

Thoughts: They got barely any time here, but what we got was fine for the most part when you consider the respective experience levels of both competitors

D-Von and Batista put Bubba through a table following the match, which I don’t think ended up going anywhere. Indeed, D-Von and Bubba were tagging again by the end of the year.

Vince McMahon (the Smackdown owner) visits the freshly Heel turned Raw Owner Ric Flair and they bond over their collective hatred of Stone Cold.

Match Three
“The Next Big Thing” Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman Vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff)

Lesnar had been destroying The Hardyz for a couple of months prior to this, with this match designed so that The Hardyz could get some revenge on both Lesnar and his evil manager. This is your standard Power Vs Speed match-up here, with Lesnar trying to get hold of The Hardyz so that he can crush them whilst The Hardyz try to stick and move in order to survive long enough in order to get a chance to remove Lesnar from the picture so that they can finally get their hands on Heyman. It’s a decent enough example of the genre, although some of the live crowd start chanting “Goldberg” towards Lesnar at one stage in reaction to the monster push he was getting at the time.

Lesnar works some heat on Matt, but Jeff eventually gets the hot tag and runs wild, leading to The Hardyz using plenty of double team offence in order to put Lesnar on the back foot, which protects Lesnar but also makes them look like a good tag team. The Hardyz do finally get their hands on Heyman for a bit, but Lesnar saves his Agent from taking a Swanton Bomb from Jeff and then flattens poor Brother Nero with an F-5, taking out Matt in the process. Heyman demands the tag following that, and the three count follows to give the Heels the win, in a testament to just how hard they were pushing Lesnar at the time that they didn’t even have him on the losing side in a match like this where he wouldn’t even need to be pinned.

WINNERS: LESNAR & HEYMAN
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was fine, with them telling the story well. Some at the time felt that Lesnar took too much offence from The Hardyz in these matches and it diluted his monster image somewhat, but I didn’t think that watching this match. Whenever Lesnar could grab hold of a Hardy in a one on one situation, he invariably dominated, but when they used their speed and the numbers advantage they were able to get some offence on him, offence that he eventually shrugged off anyway. This was probably the best way to do this sort of match, although I’m not sure I would have had the Heels win. Lesnar being on the losing side because his non-wrestler manager got pinned probably wouldn’t have hurt him much here and it would have let The Hardyz take a little something from the feud

New nWo member Booker T is being interviewed by Mark Lloyd. He’s happy to be an nWo member, although he doesn’t mention that his brother used to be a member. Booker gets distracted by a pretty woman though, which leads to her handing him the key to her hotel room. Booker was very entertaining in this segment.

We get a look at the barbers chair, which will be used later on in the haircut match.

We get a video package for the next match.

Match Four
Two on One Handicap Tag Bout
Raw Owner Ric Flair and The Giant Vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

The story here is that Flair and Big Show both got sick of being babyfaces for differing reasons and decided to team up on Austin. For Flair, he was sick of dealing with Austin as an Authority Figure, whilst Big Show was bitter at being left off WrestleMania, leading to him doing roughly his 13th career turn and joining up with the nWo for the third time. Austin runs wild on both of the Heels to start, and actually succeeds in applying the Figure Four to both of them. The Heels look like bumbling buffoons here actually, which I guess doesn’t matter too much in that Flair wasn’t a regular wrestler at the time and nobody really took Big Show seriously to begin with during this era, but it’s an interesting way to structure the match.

The referee eventually manages to calm things down and prevents Austin from using a chair, which leads to the match settling into the tag rules it was originally supposed to have. Austin continues to shine on the Heels, and even teases having a mid-match beer at one stage. The actual wrestling has been decent here, with Flair and Austin having some nice exchanges in particular, with the two of them trading chops whilst the crowd trades “Woo” and “WHAT” chants. The Heels continue to fail to gain a foothold in the bout, as it’s basically been one long Austin showcase thus far. The crowd have enjoyed it, but it’s not done much to help make the Heels look like a credible threat. Big Show does eventually come into the ring with an illegal Powerslam, and that looks to be the cut off.

Indeed, the Heels do work Austin over following that, with Flair doing the majority of the work and the action being good for the most part. You do get the sense from watching this that Austin may not have enjoyed the general direction his career was going at the time, but he was enjoying the chance to wrestle Ric Flair at least. Austin does manage to catch Flair in the Figure Four at one stage, but Big Show comes in with a leg drop to put a stop to that. Austin keeps coming though, and flies off the second rope with the Thesz Press onto The Giant in a cute spot that the crowd loves. That is essentially the hot tag spot actually, as Austin makes the comeback on both Heels, which leads to X-Pac coming down to try and help. That ends up going awry though and Austin follows up with a Stunner to Flair for the three count after essentially beating three men all by himself.

WINNER: STONE COLD
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was one of those matches where the booking and match structure was arguably quite counterproductive, but the match itself was entertaining due to the wrestlers involved, so I ended up having fun with it. Having Big Show and Flair, both former World Champions, getting wellied by one wrestler for so long in the early going was certainly a choice, but the crowd enjoyed it and they did eventually manage to cut Austin off for a bit, so they didn’t end up looking like COMPLETE goofs, even though they were certainly leaning towards the goof side of the spectrum for the majority of the run time. I think if Austin was going to win then he probably didn’t need such a big babyface shine, as it would have been better to give the Heels some credibility in the match itself seeing as they were going to blow it in the end and Austin was going to gain something merely from winning due to the match stipulation. Still, I might very well be alone in that thinking, and the match was entertaining overall, if a little oddly structured

Michael Cole and Tazz ponder what the wrestler’s in the next match will look like if they don’t have any hair. Angle looks a lot better than Edge.

We get a video package for the next match.

Match Five
Luchas de Apuestas
Hair Vs Hair
“American Hero” Kurt Angle Vs Edge

This is a follow-up to the previous pay per view, where Angle had defeated Edge. Edge wasn’t ready to let things go and came up with an insulting shirt for Angle, so a Hair match was booked between the two in order to settle things. They work this at a quick clip in the early going and the action is really good, with Edge getting the better of things for the most part until Angle matches to catch him unawares with a big suplex from inside the ring to the floor. Ooof, no wonder Edge ended up with neck issues when he was taking bumps like that! Edge is not surprisingly on the defensive following that, which leads to Angle getting the heat. Edge sells that well and Angle does a good job on offence, focusing mostly on the back and neck in order to follow up on damage done by the suplex.

Angle is actually throwing a lot of punches and stomps tonight, which I think he’s doing in order to show how intense he is this evening due to how heated the issue with Edge has gotten. Edge eventually manages to fight his way out of a front face lock and gets a suplex of his own before making the comeback, getting the Edge-O-Matic for two. Edge even busts out a flying plancha to the floor at one stage, as they are both working really hard in this one to make it a good match. The crowd has been a little bit flat here actually, and I’m not sure why as they’ve been pretty hot for Judgment Day thus far. Maybe the Austin match tired them out a bit? They do start getting a bit more into it as we head into the closing stretch, with Edge coming off the top with a dropkick and getting some near falls.

Edge tries going up again, but he takes too long and that allows Angle to charge up the ropes and suplex Edge back into the ring for two in a good near fall that the Edge loving ladies in the crowd bit on. The referee ends up taking an errant Spear from Edge at one stage, and that allows Angle to head outside for a chair. However, Edge gets the Spear before Angle can swing the chair, but the referee is still down and there’s no one to count. Edge manages yet another Spear after slipping out of an Olympic Slam attempt, and this time the ref is able to wake up for a count of…two in a great near fall. Angle manages the Slam soon after that, but that’s only a two as well, as the crowd is getting way into this now after taking their time to get invested in it. Angle tries some Ankle Lockage following the near falls, but Edge refuses to tap and eventually manages to catch Angle with a roll-up for the three count to save his hair.

WINNER: EDGE
RATING: ****1/4

Thoughts: The work was great here for the most part, but it took a while for the crowd to really get into it. Once they did though, the match had great drama with the near falls and it ended up being an excellent match. Angle and Edge were just on a roll during the first half of 2002 whenever they wrestled one another, and this was another great outing in their series

Angle flees rather than have his head shaved, but Edge gives chase and I’m sure we’ll revisit this later on in the show.

Booker T visits the lady from earlier, which leads to them getting into bed and turning off the light. Exaggerated fake kissing noises follow, but Booker’s fun is interrupted by Goldust, complete with sexy nightgown over his wrestling gear. Goldust was trying to befriend Booker at the time, and this was another of his failed attempts. Booker storms off, arse on show, whilst Goldust laments that he got dressed up for nothing. This was a ridiculous angle, and campy as all heck, but I actually found it kind of funny and everyone involved gave a good performance.

The Hell in a Cell cage looms above the ring whilst foreboding music plays. The commentary team does a good job getting across how dangerous the match is, which helps make the Cell feel like a big deal.

Match Six
Hell in a Cell
“The King of the World” Chris Jericho Vs “The Game” Triple H

This was supposed to be the final match between these two, with Jericho being bitter that Tri defeated him at Mania X8. However, the build focused more on Vince McMahon and Triple H, with Jericho kind of just being there as Vince’s lackey more than anything else. They have Jericho mix it up with HHH early on here, rather than having him trying to get on his bicycle and failing like Shawn Michaels did against The Undertaker. Triple H still dominates proceedings in the early going, but Jericho doesn’t look scared at least, so they have given him something from a perception standpoint. HHH clobbers Jericho from one end of the cage to the other, with Jericho eventually coming up with blood on his shoulder area. Triple H tries to give Jericho a Piledriver onto the ring steps at Cell-side, but Jericho counters and then catapults HHH into the Cell wall, which leads to Tri doing a blade job and bleeding from the forehead.

We get possibly the first instance of a ladder getting used in a Cell match (although don’t hold me to that) as Jericho pulls one out from under the ring and bashes HHH with it before flinging it onto him for good measure. Triple H’s selling is good here, with Jericho being decent on offence and trying to bring some intensity to things by cussing HHH out as he beats him up. Jericho attempts to brain HHH with the metal ring steps at one stage, but Tri catches him with a drop-toe-hold to rescue himself and then flings the steps at Jericho’s already bleeding shoulder. Tri sends Jericho face first into the cage at ringside following the attack with the steps, and that leads us to the spot the match is probably best known for. As Jericho heads back into the ring following that; Triple H chases him down and then sends him into the ropes, just as referee Tim White tries to get back into the ring as well. The force of the collision sends White flying into the cage, leading to him coming up bleeding and also with a legitimate shoulder injury that essentially ended his refereeing career.

Jericho gets a visual pin fall following that with a chair shot, but White is still down and can’t count, so Jericho brutally attacks White, leading to a gaggle of referees breaking into the cage in order to ensure White gets some medical assistance. Triple H uses the commotion to clock Jericho with a sledgehammer so that he can get a visual pin fall of his own. The commotion with White of course leaves the Cell door unlocked, meaning that Jericho is able to crawl out of the door and then swing it into Triple H’s face. We get a brawl by the commentary tables following that, with Jericho attempting to Pedigree his opponent through the Spanish table. However, HHH fights that off and then sends Jericho through the table with a DDT, which is followed by Tri finding Mick Foley’s barbed wire 2×4. Jericho not unwisely flees following that, with Triple H giving chase so that both wrestler’s are atop the Cell.

We get some okay brawling up there, with both using the 2×4 as a weapon. Jericho manages to lock Triple H in THE DREADED YOUNG LION BOSTON CRAB, but Tri refuses to tap and the bout continues. Jericho tries to finish HHH off with the 2×4, but HHH clocks him right in the Irvine’s to block it. We then get a spot that would have led to someone going through the roof if this match were happening a year or two earlier, as Tri preps for the Pedigree but Jericho counters with a back body drop, sending HHH landing neatly onto one of the roof panels, but the roof holds firm and Triple H recovers with a 2×4 shot and a Pedigree to get a three count on top of the Cell for three.

WINNER: TRIPLE H
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: This was the last Cell match for a while that featured folks fighting outside the cage, as they made the thing less easy to escape from over the next few years in order to retrain fans not to think that a big crazy bump from the top was coming. This was a good match mechanically, but I felt like it lacked some passion and intensity, meaning that it didn’t reach the level of other Cell matches, even though we got the requisite brawling, blood, Cell antics and weapon shots. Tim White’s bump is very memorable, but for all of the wrong reasons. I thought the WrestleMania match between the two was better in 2002, and this didn’t come close to their excellent bout at Fully Loaded 2000 either

Kurt Angle is hiding from Edge backstage.

We get another “Get the F Out” advert, this time showing a couple canoodling in a car whilst the Sexual Chocolate music plays in the background.

Meanwhile, at WWE New York, Torrie Wilson and Maven go on a date. Jerry Lawler is annoyed that things seem to be so tame. Well, yeah, it might be tame by a borderline sex addict’s standards, but in the real world dates are often filled with stilted dialogue whilst everyone is fully clothed…

Cool Down Match
WWE Tag Team Titles
Champs: Billy and Chuck w/ Rico Vs Rikishi and a Mystery Partner

Pour one out for these poor sods. Vince McMahon is messing with another babyface here, by having Rikishi tag with Rico. But, Rico is the manager of the Champion’s! How are he and Rikishi possibly supposed to work together?!?! Rikishi basically wrestles the match on his own, with Rico rarely getting involved. The action actually isn’t that bad, but the crowd sounds like they’d rather be doing anything else other than watch this match, like tucking into a particularly tasty watercress sandwich or putting the peel back on an orange. Rikishi does okay for himself in the early going, but eventually the Champs double up on him and that puts Rikishi on the back foot, although he does manage to kick out of a Rocker Dropper from Gunn at one stage. Rikishi eventually makes a comeback, but the crowd raises barely a whimper for it. Rico tries to turn on Rikishi with a kick, but Rikishi is able to dodge the kick, leading to Rico hitting his own man. Rikishi covers Chuck following that and that’s enough for the three count.

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: RIKISHI & RICO
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This match had so little crowd heat that you could practically chip icicles off of it, although the actual wrestling was fine for the most part

Rikishi does a celebratory dance following that, whilst Rico gets yelled at by his team. Rico does make sure to take his half of the tag belts with him though.

Kurt Angle and Edge brawl to the barber area, where Angle tries to turn the tables on Edge and shave the young Canadian’s head. However, Edge puts Angle out with a sleeper and then shaves Angle himself, which is something you can actually do on the Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth game. Edge encourages the crowd to chant “you’re bald” at Angle following that, but that didn’t really catch on. Angle did a good job doing the Bobby Heenan shtick of “Heel wakes up and realises something bad has happened to him” routine.

Main Event
WWE Undisputed Title
Champ: Hollywood Hulk Hogan Vs The Undertaker

Hogan defeated Triple H for the belt at Backlash as the WWF was trying to cash in on the amazing Indian Summer he was having. Sadly Hogan’s reign wasn’t going too well, which was probably because even though the fans liked him and enjoyed his nostalgic act, they didn’t see him as the guy who should be the Champ. Taker had defeated Austin at Backlash to get the Title shot and had actually played a part in Hogan defeating Triple H to win the belt in the first place.

Taker debuts his new more generic heel theme here, as I guess they either got sick of paying for “Rollin’” or felt that he needed a more boring entrance theme now that he was a bad guy? Taker doesn’t even have his bike tonight, and even Hogan seems to be taking this less seriously than usual as he doesn’t have his feather boa’s with him. This really does feel like a flat Main Event, especially when you consider the awesome Hair match and the big Cell match earlier on.

Taker jumps Hogan as he enters the ring, but Hogan fights back with punches before sending Taker outside with a clothesline. Hogan was looking a lot like a past his peak Billy Graham at this stage, although he might not have been as bad physically as Graham was when he came in to work with Butch Reed in the Hulkamania Era. Despite being pretty broken down by this stage in his career, Hogan still delivers a superplex for two, which is pretty impressive given the circumstances.

Taker goes after the leg/knee to get himself into the match and then works it over. Hogan was still capable of getting fans behind him during this period, so they clap for him and fights his way back into the match before going for the leg drop. Taker catches that and goes to a single leg crab (although it wasn’t very smoothly done) but Hogan manages to make it to the ropes.

Taker delivers a terrible choke slam (Hogan barely went up for it) and that leads to the Hulk Up™ spot. It’s still over, though not as much as usual. Hogan successfully drops the leg this time, but Taker kicks out at two. This leads to Vince McMahon coming down to distract Hogan, which allows Taker to get a chair shot and an improved choke slam for the three count.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: THE UNDERTAKER
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This was a lousy match, but the crowd was into bits of it at least. I’ll be honest and say I’m not really sure why Undertaker had to be the guy to beat Hogan, especially as it wasn’t as if Taker was moving the needle much either. Transitioning it back to Triple H would have probably made more sense, especially as he would get his win back over Hogan not too long after this show anyway. They might as well just have made it for the belt and ended the Hogan experiment that way

Undertaker beats Hogan up following the match, which feels counterproductive if you’re just moving both guys onto new feuds. Arguably there’s now a reason to book a rematch so that Hogan can get revenge, but it never happened.

In Conclusion

It’s ironic, as Triple H closed Mania when it should have been Hogan, and arguably Hogan closed Judgment Day when it should have been Triple H, as Taker and Hogan had no chance of following the Cell match, nor the Angle Vs Edge match. It’s not like Jericho Vs Triple H was a classic or anything, but compared to the WWE Title match it may as well have been Kawada Vs Kobashi. Triple H standing atop the cage victorious would have been a good visual to close out the show on too. There are enough good matches here that Judgment Day is an easy thumbs up, but there’s not much worth seeing once Angle gets his ears lowered.

Recommended show!