Mike Reviews WWE Survivor Series 2002

Happy Survival Saturday Everyone!

We continue with our journey into 2002 WWE with Survivor Series. Back at No Mercy; Triple H and Brock Lesnar retained their respective World Titles, but they’ve got to put them on the line again here at Survivor Series, as Tri steps into the inagural Elimination Chamber match with a bunch of folk that hate him, whilst Lesnar has to contend with The Big Show.

Will either Champ be able to leave Survivor Series with their belts still around their waist? Let’s watch on and find out! You can view the full card for Survivor Series by clicking below;

WWE Survivor Series 2002 Card

Survivor Series is emanating from Madison Square Garden on the 17th of November 2002

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler for Raw, whilst Michael Cole and Taz handle things for SmackDown

The opening video package focuses on the two World Title matches tonight.

Opening Match
Six Man Table Elimination Match
3 Minute Warning (Rosey, Jamal and Rico) Vs The New Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and Spike) and Jeff Hardy

Rosey and Jamal are big Islanders and would go on to become a Super Hero In Training and wild Samoan Savage respectively once this tag team run ended in 2003 due to Jamal getting fired. Rico was a former police officer who decided to get into Pro Wrestling quite late in life. Rico was pretty much the standout guy in OVW for years, but he was never able to get past the mid-card on the main roster. Bubba and Spike were tagging mostly due to opportunities in the singles division running dry for them, whilst Jeff was still pretty over despite his work getting sloppier with every appearance due to him essentially giving up sometime in 2002. 3MW had battered all three of the babyfaces on different occasions, so we’ve got a tables match here in order to settle things. In the ongoing saga of music getting dubbed on WWE Network/Peacock, The Dudleyz’ Saliva theme is left in tact here, but 3MW’s theme is dubbed out with something more generic.

This one is a wild brawl from the off, as they thankfully dispense with doing tag rules for this and just have all six wrestlers going at it, which keeps things exciting and gets the crowd into the action. If you like wild brawls then there should be plenty here for you to enjoy, but if you don’t then it’s unlikely that there’s anything that will convert you. The babyface trio eventually gain the upper hand, which leads to Bubba requesting that Jeff and Spike find some tables. However, this gives the Heels a chance to fight back, with poor Spike getting the worst of it. Rosey tries to splash Spike through a table that’s propped up in the corner, but Spike moves and Rosey goes through it. However, you have to actively be put through a table by an opponent, so Rosey is still in the match and then goes into a rage where he destroys everyone within reach. Spike tries to rebound by attacking Rico, but The Island Boyz put a stop to that and FLING Spike through a table to eliminate him.

Spike Dudley eliminated by Rosey (1) and Jamal (1)

Spike, as always, took plenty of his trademark big bumps here and succeeded in making both Rosey and Jamal look like terrifying monsters, so job done in that regard. Rosey and Jeff head into the crowd following that, whilst Bubba tries to fight off both Jamal and Rico all by his lonesome, which goes about as well as you’d expect. Rosey sets up Jeff on a table in the crowd and looks to put Jeff through it, but Heel miscommunication allows Bubba to lay the Heels out and head into the crowd as well. Bubba lays Rosey across a table out there and Jeff gets the Swanton Bomb off an entrance way to eliminate Rosey.

Rosey eliminated by Jeff Hardy (1)

We get a pretty infamous moment next, where Jamal sets Bubba up on a table in the ring for a Rico Moonsault, but Jeff is supposed to break it up. However, Jeff takes forever to get there, so Rico has to stall and literally starts shouting for Jeff after a certain point. There have been a few sloppy moments like that in this one actually, which has knocked it down a little bit, even though it’s mostly been entertaining. Jeff does eventually make it in time to stop Rico, so Bubba remains in the match for now. In a precursor of things to come in the mid-00’s, Jamal and Jeff do a nice little segment together, showing the chemistry that would present itself when both would return to WWE later in the decade. Jeff sadly botches his trademark “Rail Running” spot, but Jamal shrugs that off and then Splashes Jeff through a table out on the floor to eliminate young Jeffery.

Jeff Hardy eliminated by Jamal (2)

Jamal stupidly tries to top rope rana Bubba through a table after that, but Bubba easily counters that into a powerbomb and now Jamal is eliminated.

Jamal eliminated by Bubba Ray (1)

The previously eliminated Rosey comes in to help Rico following that, which seems to suggest that Bubba is done for due to the numbers game. However, D-Von Dudley makes his return to The Dudley Boy gimmick after previously being a vicar over on SmackDown, and that leads to The Dudleyz teaming up to send Rosey and Jamal packing before giving Rico a 3-D through the table in order to give the babyfaces the win.

Rico eliminated by Bubba Ray (2)

SURVIVOR(S): BUBBA RAY DUDLEY
MOST ELIMINATIONS: BUBBA RAY & JAMAL (2)
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Some sloppy moments, both when it came to the work and timing, knocked this down a bit, but it was decent for the most part and the crowd enjoyed it, so it did it’s job. D-Von coming back was a nice surprise and they at least just went straight to the fireworks factory with a brawl from the off, rather than messing around with doing an actual tag match first, as that sort of thing never works in a tables match due to there inherently being no rules, so why would you stand around on the apron watching your buddy get battered when you can just get in there and help them?

Match Two
WWE Cruiserweight Title Match
Champ: Jamie “Bah Gud” Noble w/ Nidia Vs “The BK Bomber” Billy Kidman

Kidman got some non-Title wins over Noble on SmackDown, so they’ve made a Title match here tonight for Survivor Series. A simple story, but one that makes sense and actually makes wins and losses matter, so I’m all for it. Kidman debuts new music here, which isn’t a patch on his WCW music but still better than the generic theme he was using prior to this. This one is back and forth to start, with Kidman trying to catch Noble with a quick pin, but Noble eventually manages to catch Kidman and works the challenger over. Noble even soup cans Kidman to the floor at one stage and follows with a TOPE SUICIDA, but Kidman catches Noble with a dropkick back inside and makes the comeback, with the action being good. Kidman even busts out a version of the Ushi-Garoshi at one stage, but Noble is able to kick out at two.

As it’s a WWE show where two smaller wrestlers are going at it, the crowd mostly sits on their hands, although some of the near falls and high spots do get some reactions. Nidia tries getting involved, but Kidman runs the two Heels into one another and gets a short powerbomb for a near fall. Kidman kicks out of some of Noble’s bigger moves, including a Tiger Bomb and a DDT out of the corner, which continues to push the narrative that Noble just can’t get the better of Kidman in this feud. Noble does a great “shocked kick out face” following the DDT, really selling the frustration at not being able to defeat this challenger. Nidia gets involved again and seemingly prevents the Shooting Star Press, but Kidman fends her off and the SSP gives us a new Champion.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: KIDMAN
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: The work here was really good, with some tight near falls and some nicely executed big moves. The match continued the story of Jamie Noble just not having an answer for Kidman, with Kidman surviving all of the usual match ending spots and moves to finally pick up the win. Sadly the crowd didn’t get that into it outside of a few isolated moments, but that’s sadly par for the course with Cruiserweight matches in WWE during this timeframe, as WWE had conditioned the fans not to care about the division and it meant they often sat on their hands, even when the matches were good and actually had storyline reasons to exist

Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit are arguing backstage about their match later on, but eventually they hug it out.

Chris Jericho is warming up for later.

A hidden camera shows Victoria being all crazy backstage and destroying a cardboard cut out of Trish Stratus.

We get a video package for the next match.

Match Three
Hardcore Match for the WWE Women’s World Title
Champ: Trish Stratus Vs Victoria

Stratus managed to snatch a last gasp victory over the violent psycho Victoria back at No Mercy, but Victoria is continuing to hassle the Champ, so we get a hardcore match here at Survivor Series in an effort to settle things once and for all (it wouldn’t). In a nice touch, the entrance way tonight is a screen that opens, so Victoria makes a big show of shoving the two sides of the screen open like someone storming into a bar for a punch up. The match fits into a formula of Victoria trying to destroy Stratus with the assorted weaponry whilst Stratus tries to find ways around that so that she can fight back. It works well enough and both wrestlers are working hard in an effort to have a good match here, so we get a watchable spectacle as a result. We of course get an ironing board as a weapon at one stage

Oh ho! Is funny because traditional gender roles dictate that women should be doing domesticated tasks like ironing! Oh ho hoooo!!!

Anyway, after Stratus does the ironing, she grabs a Singapore cane and tries to end Victoria’s evening, but Victoria survives that and then clocks Stratus with a metal bin lid. Victoria is bleeding from the nose here from something or another. We get a cool spot where Victoria blocks Stratus’ handspring rana, but Stratus finds the bin lid on the match and bridges up to clock Victoria in the face with it. We get some near falls following that, with Stratus getting a sloppy bulldog for two at one stage. Victoria tries blasting Stratus in the face with a fire extinguisher at one stage, but there’s a bit of a delay because she can’t get it to work. It does eventually though, and Victoria quickly pounces with a Snap Suplex of all things for a three count. Well, it is Survivor Series so someone getting pinned by a transition move is on brand at least.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: VICTORIA
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: They tried here, they really did, but things fell apart a bit in the closing stages and that took the match down a bit. I appreciate the effort levels and the fact they gave a women’s match a proper storyline reason for existing, but after a promising start they didn’t quite stick the landing

Booker T is warming up backstage.

Jonathon Coachman is backstage trying to interview Eric Bischoff.The Big Show interrupts though and taunts Sleazy E about how Big Show is going to win the SmackDown Title up next after previously being a Raw wrestler.

Paul Heyman gives Brock Lesnar one last pep talk ahead of the SmackDown Title match. Heyman promises that he’ll do everything he can tonight to make sure his client leaves MSG as the Champion.

We get a video package for the next match.

Match Four
SmackDown Heavyweight Title
Champ: “The Next Big Thing” Brock Lesnar w/ Paul Heyman Vs The Big Show

Lesnar had defeated Undertaker back at No Mercy, but Big Show then showed up on SmackDown and promptly injured Undertaker by flinging him off the stage, thus leading to Big Show becoming the new #1 contender. Paul Heyman was against Big Show challenging for the Title, feeling that Lesnar was too beaten up from No Mercy to take the match, but Lesnar refused to listen to his manager and took the match anyway, sowing seeds of dissension between the two. Going in the big story was whether Brock Lesnar could Suplex Big Show, F5 Big Show and the defeat Big Show, so expect to see one or more of those things in this match. Lesnar got hurt on a House Show working against Big Show prior to Survivor Series, so he’s got a serious case of DDPitis as a result, with his ribs shoot taped up. Both of these wrestlers are ostensibly Heel here, but the crowd decides that they’ll be cheering for Lesnar, so Lesnar is the de facto babyface tonight.

They keep this one short, and it’s pretty much the perfect way to structure a match like this, as who really wanted to see these two go 20 minutes in a technical wrestling contest? Big Show gets a little bit of heat on the Champion until it’s time for Lesnar to fight back, at which point Lesnar gets some suplexes to show that he is indeed a big scary man. The referee gets bumped, leading to Heyman throwing a chair into the ring. Lesnar chairs Big Show and then follows up with an F-5 to seemingly pick up the win. However, Heyman pulls out the replacement referee at two and decks him, leading to Lesnar chasing his former manager around the ring. This allows Big Show to get a chair shot and a Choke Slam onto the chair before getting a three count from the revived referee to pick up another World Title for his collection.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: BIG SHOW
RATING: ***

Thoughts: An obvious question here is why Paul Heyman went ahead with the turn when it was clear that his fears about Lesnar not being able to win were unfounded? I think the answer is that, even though Lesnar was on his way to winning, he’d already pretty much stopped listening to Heyman at this stage, so Heyman’s influence was going to wane. By comparison, Big Show actually needed Heyman, as this match showed, so Heyman would be in a stronger position managing the wrestler that wanted and needed him as opposed to the one that didn’t. As for the match itself, I’ve always quite liked this one and I still do. They kept it short and didn’t overstay their welcome, and the finishing sequence was well done. Lesnar was protected in defeat, as he got to do a bunch of cool stuff and only lost because his manager betrayed him. Big Show was in bad shape and was carrying injuries, so he just wasn’t very good during this period and the way the match was structured did a good job of hiding that. Overall smoke and mirrors did it’s job and this was a good match as a result

Heyman and Big Show flee the building following that. They show numerous replays of the finish too in order to ensure that the finish sinks in, which is something WWE has always been good at. They know how to make something feel important.

We get a video package for the next match.

Al Wilson and Dawn Marie are watching in the crowd in one of their first public appearances since they were engaged to be wed, thus continuing the traditional romantic trope of a happy couple attending a wrestling even together. I believe there’s a deleted chapter in Tess of the d’Urbervilles where Tess and Angel go to see Carl Abs wrestle a bear actually, but it got removed because Queen Victoria refused to accept that bears actually existed.

Match Five
Three Way Elimination Bout for the Smackdown Tag Titles
Champs: Edge and Rey Mysterio Jr Vs Los Guerreros (Eddy and Chavo) Vs Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit

Angle and Benoit became the inaugural Champs back at No Mercy, but Edge and Rey managed to win them on an episode of SmackDown. Los Guerreros were annoyed about not being in the Title picture though, so we’ve got a Three Way Elimination contest here for the belts, because Paul Heyman is booking and he loves stuff like that. I remember this one being considered a bit of a disappointment at the time due to the calibre of matches they were having on SmackDown each week. Let’s see how it’s aged though.

It’s all action to start, with Edge and Rey shining on both opposing teams and it being good fun. An attempted Rey rana on Angle looks to go awry at one stage, but everyone is a pro here so they just act like it was supposed to happen and continue onwards with Angle getting some heat on Rey. Rey sells that well, with Angle and Benoit keeping the King of Mystery in their third of the ring. The crowd doesn’t really get that into it sadly, leaving to the section feeling a bit flat, but the wrestling itself is good. Rey eventually gets some slick counters and it’s hot tag Edge, whilst Los Guerreros refuse to tag in, and really why would they?

Eventually all six wrestlers are going at it, which leads to Rey diving out onto Angle and Chavo at one stage. We get an awesome spot back inside the ring, where Eddy gets a Sunset Flip on Benoit whilst Benoit has Edge in a waistlock, which leads to a combined Powerbomb/German Suplex combo move. Benoit recovers and flings Eddy out of the ring following that, which gives us a Benoit Vs Edge battle, where Benoit gets the better of things. Benoit heads up for the Swandive Headbutt onto Edge, but Eddy comes flying off the top rope with a Frogsplash to Edge. Rather than just allow Edge to be eliminated, Benoit is annoyed at Eddy stealing his Thunder and comes off the top with the Headbutt to Eddy. Angle goes to the Ankle Lock on Eddy whilst Benoit gets the crossface to Edge, but that leads to Chavo coming in and hitting Benoit with a Title belt. Angle disposes of Chavo, but Benoit thinks that Angle is the one that used the belt and they argue. This allows Rey to run Angle and Benoit into one another, leading to Edge Spearing Benoit for three.

Angle and Benoit eliminated by Edge and Rey – Edge Spears Benoit

Angle and Benoit are sore losers and lay out the other two teams before storming off. Los Guerreros are the fresher of the two remaining tandems though, so they settle into a heat segment on Edge, which Edge sells well, although the crowd reactions continue to be a bit disappointing. Eventually Edge manages to catch the challengers with a double Flapjack and it’s hot tag Rey, with Rey even managing to look somewhat believable as he runs wild on the Heels thanks to how good a wrestler all three of them are. We get some decent near falls, but the crowd reactions are still a bit flat. Chavo brings the belt into play again, hitting Rey this time, and Eddy locks Rey in his trademark Laso From El Paso submission hold for the victory and the belts.

Edge and Rey eliminated by Los Guerreros – Laso From El Paso from Eddy onto Rey-Rey

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: LOS GUERREROS
RATING: ***1/2

Kane is warming up backstage.

Chris Nowinski of Raw joins us and insults the New York crowd, stating that they are stupid. However, Matt Hardy Version 1.0 of SmackDown interrupts to seemingly come to the New Yorker’s defence. Matt declares that the New York fans are not stupid, but in fact losers. After a polite and reasoned debate, Nowinski and Matt decide that the fans are both losers and stupid, “lupid” if you will. This wonderful coming together of a Raw and SmackDown talent cannot continue however, as Scott Steiner makes his return to WWE after 8 years away and absolutely batters the pair of them whilst the crowd goes nuts. Or are they going crazy? Let’s go with a combination of nuts and crazy; “nazy” if you will. Normally I’d balk at having a segment like this on pay per view, but they’d been hyping Steiner up and he wasn’t ready to actually wrestle a match yet, so bringing him to do this was a good use of him and the live crowd enjoyed it.

Terri Runnels tries to interview Shawn Michaels, but a Randy Orton news update cuts in so that we can find out the current status of his shoulder injury. Orton let’s us know that he thankfully managed to avoid further injury on the plane ride to New York, thanks to sexy air hostess Sherry and her extra pillow. Funny delivery from Orton there, as they had stopped presenting him as a squeaky clean babyface and instead just let him be an arrogant entitled jerk, which was far more in line with his real personality at the time.

We get a video package for the Main Event.

HHH w/ Ric Flair delivers a solid backstage promo with Jonathon Coachman in order to hype up the match we’re about to see.

We get MORE filler, as Eric Bischoff joins us to brag about how good a General Manager he is, although he does at least explain what this whole Elimination Chamber thing is at last.

Main Event
Elimination Chamber Match for the Raw World Title
Champ: “The Game” Triple H w/ “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair Vs “The King of the World” Chris Jericho Vs “The Big Red Freak” Kane Vs Booker T Vs “The Whole Damn Show” Rob Van Dam

This was an occasion where having Triple H screw a bunch of babyfaces actually made sense, as he now has to face the music against them all in the first ever Chamber match. Shawn was the main babyface coming for vengeance as Triple H had destroyed him with a sledgehammer at Summer Slam. Jericho is the only other Heel in the match, but he has a good reason to hate Triple H as well due to The H’ster ending his WWF Title run earlier in the year. Of course it probably would have been better to have one Booker or RVD be the main babyface threat so as to elevate them rather than going with Shawn, but beggars couldn’t be choosers I guess.

Jericho was one of the Raw Tag Champs at the time with Christian, and he gets sung down to the ring by Saliva at WWF New York. He gets in the Chamber a bit too quickly though, which means he has to hang around in his pod whilst Saliva keep singing. For those of you who have never seen one of these, The Chamber is a big cage like thing with four pods made of “bullet proof” plexi-glass. Four guys start off in the Chambers, with one randomly opening every 3 or 5 minutes depending on which interpretation of the rules we’re going with. It’s kind of like if some mad Eastern European scientist tried gene splicing War Games with Hell in a Cell. Michaels has a memorable pair of poo coloured tights here, combined with a truly horrible haircut. He’d adapt his look much better as the 00’s rolled on.

RVD and Triple H start us out, and they do a good segment together, with Triple H bumping and selling for RVD, including some nasty looking bumps onto the steel grating around the ringside. Apparently landing on those was absolutely horrible and they’ve made them nicer to bump on in years since. Triple H does his customary big pay per view blade job, with RVD getting to use the Chamber to do some inventive spots, such as getting the Rolling Thunder from the ring to the outside, as well as landing on the Chamber wall like Spiderman at one stage.

Jericho is the first guy out of his Chamber, which leads to him and Triple H doubling up on RVD at one point. Jericho and Triple H had a strange relationship at the time where they clearly hated one another, but they were both Heels and would still team up now and then when it was beneficial for them to do so. It’s like Scott Keith used to say, Heels have allies and babyfaces have friends. RVD sells it all well, and Triple H clearly appreciates the chance for a breather as this was during the period of his career where he got ludicrously overly muscled, and it hampered his working ability quite a bit. Thankfully when he trimmed down in 2007 he ended up getting most of his mojo back and had possibly his best year as a worker in 2008.

Booker is in next and he runs wild on everyone, looking good in the process. 2002 was the year I came closest to giving up on wrestling actually, but the emergence of Brock Lesnar and the greatness of the Smackdown Six kept me around, with Booker being one of the few reasons I continued to care about Raw at the time also. We get an infamous spot following Booker’s rally where RVD heads up to the top of a Chamber to Frogsplash Triple H. However, Triple H is too near to the corner and the lack of space between the Chamber and the roof means RVD can’t jump properly either, which combines to lead to RVD landing knee first on Triple H’s throat. This was such a rough landing that Triple H legit needed some time off to recover from it, and it’s ugly just to look at. It proves to be the last thing RVD does in the match too, as Booker comes off the ropes with a missile dropkick and that ends RVD’s night.

Rob Van Dam Eliminated by Booker T (1) – Missile Dropkick

I have to question eliminating the most over guy in the match so early like that, as the crowd hated it and it wasn’t even like Booker beat a lot of people with that move in WWE either. Triple H shows his usual guts by refusing to get eliminated early and soldiering on for the rest of the contest. Say what you want about Triple H (And there’s a lot you can say) but he’s always gutted it out when needed in situations like this. Kane is next out, and he quickly flings Jericho through one of the Chambers to pop the crowd, as I have to say that (RVD elimination aside) they’ve done a great job of pacing this and spacing out all the big spots and bumps so that every section of the match has had something going on and a story beat to hit. Kane Choke Slams Booker and then stops to brawl with Triple H, which allows Jericho to sneak back in from his Chambering in order to steal the pin.

Booker T Eliminated by Chris Jericho (1) – Lionsault

The timing and pacing is spot on again, with all three guys doing a triple down just in time for Shawn to come in and run wild to pop the crowd. Kane fights back and destroys everyone, which leads to them all deciding to attack him together and hit him with finishers, with Jericho getting the last shot to send him to the showers. That was another great example of how well they’ve put this together, as we got the Shawn flurry followed by a sensible way of eliminating Kane that keeps him looking strong, and now we get a segment with Shawn, Jericho and Triple H where the Heels can double up on Shawn in order to give him a mountain to climb.

Kane Eliminated by Chris Jericho (2) – Lionsault

Unlike at the Survivor Series in 1996; the MSG crowd is into Shawn on this night, which was probably always going to happen but they made sure that it would happen by having two of the best Heels on the roster batter him first, so that he could sell and get sympathy. Seriously, whoever agented this match deserves a sturdy pat on the back because it’s been structured pretty much perfectly. Shawn does the big Main Event blade job and makes sporadic comebacks in his usual fighting from underneath babyface style. In some ways I prefer Shawn post-back injury because he had to slow down a little bit and focus more on selling and timing his comebacks, which he was extraordinarily good at, and I think it actually made him a better worker as a result. Jericho and Triple H’s loose alliance finally crumbles and they do their usual good match with one another whilst Shawn gets a chance to catch a breather. Jericho gets Triple H in THE DREADED YOUNG LION BOSTON CRAB, but Shawn plays him some Sweet Chin Music before Triple H can cry uncle, and that’s it for Jericho.

Chris Jericho Eliminated by Shawn Michaels (1) – Chin Music

So we now get the big Triple H Vs Shawn collision the match has been building to, and it’s really good. I remember actually that when SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain came out they sold the fact the Chamber would be in the game by actually animating some of this Shawn Vs Triple H stuff and putting it into the trailer. Triple H catapults Shawn through one of the Chambers and things look bleak for ol’ HBK, which makes me think we’ve reached…

Yes, we’ve reached that.

Anyway, Shawn manages to kick out back inside and the match continues, with Shawn making the odd sporadic attempt to fight back, only to get mowed down each time. One good thing about the Shawn Vs Triple H matches not taking place until the early-to-mid-00’s is that they could present them as the bigger Triple H bullying the smaller Michaels, which is a story they really couldn’t have done if they’d split up and feuded in 1998 as Triple H wasn’t so fully jacked yet. Shawn manages to get the elbow off the top of a Chamber and TUNES UP THE BAND, only to get caught with a Pedigree in a great counter for two. That near fall was excellent and the crowd really bit on it. Triple H tries the Pedigree again, but Shawn back body drops to counter and this time Triple H is forced to listen to the Chin Music to give Shawn another improbable World Title and blow the roof off the joint!

Triple H Eliminated by Shawn Michaels (2) – Sweet Chin Music

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: SHAWN MICHAELS
MOST ELIMINATIONS: SHAWN MICHAELS & CHRIS JERICHO (2)
RATING: ****

Thoughts: I was worried how this one would come across after 22 years, but it’s aged extraordinarily well. The work was really good for the most part, Triple H’s injury aside, but what I liked most about it was the pacing and match structure. You can make an argument that 5 minutes was too long a gap between Chambers opening, but they always made sure to have something happen in every section, be it an elimination or a big spot, so it always felt like something important was on the horizon, and the match didn’t drag for me at all despite how long it was. Really I don’t think they could have structured it any better than they did, and it certainly worked as the crowd were super into the closing section with Michaels and Triple H. I’m pleased to say that I still liked it after all these years!

In Conclusion

I enjoyed Survivor Series 2002 back in the day and I still enjoyed it on this rewatch. There’s quite a bit too much filler at points, but there’s nothing I’d classify as bad here and the majority of the matches are good to great. Big Show Vs Brock Lesnar is far better than it had any real right to be, the Cruiserweight and Tag Title matches feature good wrestling with flatter than ideal crowd reactions, and the Main Event is a genuinely excellent match. All of that combined makes Survivor Series 2002 an easy thumbs up and definitely worth a watch

Recommended show!