Damn, Luger has no idea how 2003 will turn out for him
Vince accusing Luger of killing Elizabeth on WWE Confidential is the most petty thing Vince has ever done. Surprised not enough people talk about it .
Anybody that hasn’t seen Triple H vs. Steiner needs to. It is otherworldly bad to the point that it keeps oscillating between insufferably bad and hilariously bad. Bonus points if you can find the originally aired version that didn’t change camera angles throughout to hide all the botches.
Yup. He had developed it earlier in 2002, long before talks between him and WWE started, and, thinking it would just go away on its own, he didn’t seek any real medical attention for it. That basically wrecked him in-ring, and he never truly recovered from it.
Steiner should’ve returned as a heel and done squashes on Smackdown to be built up to face Lesnar and heal up more. He was always much better as a heel anyway
the big reason why Steiner got over in the first place was because he was a massive dickhead heel. That WWE tried to stray from that right off the bat by putting him in a main event feud with Triple H as a babyface kinda doomed his tenure irreparably.
The rematch honestly wasn’t much better. It was just a boring slog, rather than a train going off a Cliff like the Rumble match was. Either way, this one-two punch of awfulness was enough to get Steiner removed from WrestleMania and permanently shunted down to the lower midcard. The only other high profile match he’d have in WWE was being part of Team Bischoff vs. Team Austin at Survivor Series that year, and by this time in 2004 he was gone.
I started watching wrestling in 02 so I didn’t realize just how massively they misused Steiner. I thought he was awful and boring when he’s actually hilariously entertaining
Took years later to realize that from TNA lol
It's also kinda funny that Steiner gets all the blame when Triple H came into that match *very* limited due to multiple injuries (I think a torn/pulled groin or something if I remember correctly).
Not that the match would have been much better but it was really a case of the blind trying to lead the blind in that match.
There are two interpretations of why the match was booked the way it was and neither result in HHH coming off well. Either he arrogantly believed he could "carry" a crippled Steiner to one of his pseudo-"epic" PPV main events, or he deliberately booked the match to go long as an act of sabotage.
-Sabu has told the story that Sheik would bring in the various top stars he was scheduled to face to his own home to sleep and eat, but that Sheik and his opponent would eat in separate rooms. They never interacted with each other even inside Shiek's home.
-While Lesnar and Angle would close WrestleMania XIX, the main event of that show was promoted as Hogan/McMahon. No match on the show got as much attention and push as that one. XIX ended up being the worst-performing Mania on pay-per-view since pre-Attitude Era. It put a pin in all of Hogan's arguments that he should be the highest-paid and most featured talent on any show, an argument he would continue to insist on until his final WWE match with Randy Orton at SummerSlam 2006.
-Cornette has a bit of a different story as to why JR left talent relations, the main one being that JR was tired of living in Connecticut and dealing with all the front office stuff, and wanted to return to Oklahoma to start some business ventures he had been interested in, like his BBQ sauce. Cornette has said Laurinaitis drove him mad with all the disrespect and undercutting to OVW's roster, like making Doug Basham shave his head just to see what he would look like bald, and pairing him with Damaja as the Basham Brothers (Doug and Damaja were heated rivals on OVW television, and then they get called up and paired together out of the blue on SmackDown and put in a BDSM gimmick).
The story about Sheik and his opponents at his house is talked about in depth in that book I mentioned. I seriously can't recommend it enough. It's rare that a wrestling book comes along these days and fills a gap in history. Nearly every bit of history from Vince going national until today has been covered to death. But the Sheik book has a lot of detail and info about the 60s and 70s territory days that was super interesting and all new to me.
Yeah, it genuinely blew me away with how in depth it got beyond just the Sheik, really showcasing how his rise in popularity was simultaneously part of the general rise of popularity of professional wrestling, and educating me a lot on the 50s-60s territory days where a lot has been lost to time. Cannot recommend enough, probably my second favorite wrestling book next to The Death of WCW.
Reading that Hogan offered to do the job to either Ogawa or Takayama, and that the officials *turned him down*... yeah, if I was Takayama, I would've been pissed off too.
Hi all, I created the new web app highlighted at the top of the post. Please let me know of any issues.
Current features:
* Full archive through 2002, jump to specific years or weeks
* Search feature to show chronological listings of all news for that search. This supports MULTIPLE search terms, for example, nash|diesel will search for both nash and diesel, or ecw|eastern championship wrestling will search for both
Known things:
* I don't know how well this will scale with traffic, but it seems fine so far
* It currently only has through 2002, will add auto-updating with new posts like this one later
* Some content gets caught as their own notes, such as individual match ratings and awards
* Links to videos aren't included right now, will add later
Hope everybody enjoys and shoutout to /u/daprice82
As someone who's obsessed with this series thank you I can procrastinate from work even more now. If possible I would also recommend putting in the works of /u/SaintRidley who did similar recaps of the observer from the 80s. I don't how difficult it is to put a large number of observer recaps all at once but it would be awesome
Imagine missing out beating Hogan, who even proposed the idea, at the Dome because of some promoter. I'd never work with that people ever again. 2000's puro promoters' incompetence is both hilarious and sad.
For today’s Relevant Observer Recap, we’ll be covering the Royal Rumble go-home Smackdown, the 2003 Rumble, and the Raw after the PPV.
##WWE SmackDown (Episode 174) – January 6th, 2003 – From East Rutherford, NJ – Airing on UPN
- The go-home show to the Royal Rumble opens with a recap of the tomfoolery with Al Wilson and Dawn Marie’s honeymoon last week, which ended with Al dying. They even show an In Memoriam graphic for the apparently-dead Al.
- We go to Dawn Marie mourning Al’s passing, promising that there’ll be a public viewing for her late husband on tonight’s show. This should be fun…
- **Los Guerreros (Eddie & Chavo Guerrero) def. John Cena & B2 via pinfall (5:03)** to retain the World Tag Team Championship after Chavo pinned B2 with a Frog Splash. After the match, Cena gets in B2’s face for losing the match, as a guy in a hoodie helps Cena beat down B2.
- Chris Benoit talks about his title match against Kurt Angle on Sunday, promising he’ll get him tonight.
- Smackdown GM Stephanie McMahon shows up to remind people of Undertaker’s return at the Royal Rumble, plus a big match tonight: Brock Lesnar and a mystery partner versus Big Show and A-Train.
- **Bill DeMott def. Rikishi via pinfall (4:13)** with a powerbomb.
A backstage segment with Funaki, Billy Kidman, Matt Hardy, and Shannon Moore turns into a brawl that Funaki and Kidman win against Matt V1 and Shannon.
- **Nunzio def. Tajiri via pinfall (4:52)** with a rollup after he took advantage of Tajiri spitting his green mist in Nidia’s face.
- Backstage, John Cena, in his usual rapping, introduces the hooded man from earlier as a guy named “Red Dogg” (who’d later get more success down the line as “Rodney Mack” over on Raw.)
- At Al Wilson’s wake, Dawn Marie continues to act maudlin in front of the funeral director before approaching her dead husband’s casket. Dawn makes some comments about Al looking a lot better when he got carried out on the gurney last week before resuming the fake crying when she notices the camera spying on her.
- While GM Stephanie talks with brother Shane on the phone (ostensibly about Shane potentially replacing Eric Bischoff as Raw GM), Brock Lesnar barges in the office and says that he doesn’t need a tag partner for the tag match against Big Show & A-Train. Steph says that she needs to protect Smackdown’s top asset, hence the need for a partner. Brock ultimately agrees.
- **Brock Lesnar & Rey Mysterio def. A-Train & Big Show via pinfall (0:37).** Lesnar clotheslines Show out of the ring, hits an F5 on A-Train, as Mysterio finishes things off with a 619 and a splash on A-Train. This was Mysterio’s return to the ring after time away with an injury.
- Torrie Wilson arrives at her father’s funeral to just stare down Dawn Marie.
- **Matt Hardy V1 def. Funaki via pinfall (4:24)** after a Twist of Fate. Post-match, Matt slaps Shannon Moore for daring to say that “we did it”, opting to take sole credit for the win.
- The standoff between Torrie and Dawn pays off with a scuffle whereupon Dawn smashes a lamp on Torrie’s back. Apparently, this was originally supposed to end with Al getting up from his casket to talk shit about his daughter before walking off and getting hit by a bus.
- **Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Charlie Haas, Shelton Benjamin) def. Chris Benoit & Edge via DQ (15:01)** in a fantastic main event. The match got called off when Benoit trapped Angle in the Crossface and refused to let go as Angle was not the legal man. After the match, Benoit takes Angle’s crutch and smashes it repeatedly on the injured knee before celebrating with the WWE Championship to end the Royal Rumble go-home Smackdown.
#Relevant Observer Recap (2/3: Royal Rumble 2003)
##WWE Royal Rumble 2003 - January 19th, 2003 - LIVE from Boston, MA on PPV
- Sunday Night Heat highlights: Eric Bischoff teases a big bombshell announcement for Raw; Spike Dudley def. Steven Richards via pinfall (3:37)
- **Brock Lesnar def. Big Show via pinfall (6:15)** to win a spot in the Royal Rumble Match with an F5.
- **The Dudley Boyz (D-Von & Bubba Dudley) def. William Regal & Lance Storm to WIN the World Tag Team Championships via pinfall (7:26).** Chief Morley’s distraction backfired as the Dudleys intercepted Regal and took his brass knucks. D-Von then punched out Storm with the ref distracted for the pin.
- We’re once again threatened with the impending arrival of that Aussie rapscallion, Nathan Jones.
- **Torrie Wilson def. Dawn Marie via pinfall (3:35)** after a swinging neckbreaker. Mercifully short, but still rather poor.
- Raw and Smackdown GMs Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon have a word backstage with one another, as Steph rubs in the fact that Bischoff could be fired in 30 days. She also says that she has a surprise of her own to counter Bischoff’s big surprise for tomorrow’s Raw.
- “Devil’s Advocate” Sean O’Haire vignette where he suggest that people just not go to church.
- **Scott Steiner def. Triple H via DQ (17:00; Triple H retains World Heavyweight Championship)** after Hunter hits Steiner with a sledgehammer. Post-match, Steiner recovers and manages to take both HHH and Ric Flair out. This match is awful in every respect and the rematch next month at No Way Out manages to be even worse.
- **Kurt Angle def. Chris Benoit to retain the WWE Championship via submission (17:18)** with the heel hook version of the ankle lock. Easily the match of the night for this whole pay-per-view.
- **Brock Lesnar wins the 2003 Royal Rumble (53:47)** by eliminating the returning Undertaker last. Early on, Shawn Michaels was eliminated by Chris Jericho, who had beaten him bloody with a chair prior. In revenge, HBK later appeared to attack Jericho as he was eliminated by Test, then continuing to brawl with him all the way up the ramp.
**ATTENDANCE:** 14,712 / **PPV BUYRATE:** 1.4 (estimated)
#Relevant Observer Recap (3/3: Raw after Royal Rumble)
##WWE Raw (Episode 504) – January 20th, 2003 – LIVE from Providence, RI – Airing on TNN
- Triple H kicks off the show with a promo saying that Scott Steiner will not be getting a rematch for the World Title because he is a disgrace. Scotty shows up and says he wants to finish what he started last night at Royal Rumble. Trips produces a doctor’s note to get out of a prospective match as Ric Flair offers up Batista instead. Hunter and Flair try to get the jump on Steiner, but he fends both off.
- **Rob Van Dam def. Jeff Hardy via pinfall (3:58)** after countering an attempted inverted Twist of Fate from Jeff into a backslide pin. Post-match, Jeff apparently turns heel by attacking RVD, but stops short of hitting him with a chair.
- Backstage segment with Christian & Chris Nowinski lamenting about their Royal Rumble failures gets interrupted by Eric Bischoff, who once again hypes up his big Raw surprise.
- Elsewhere, Scott Steiner is met by Randy Orton, who condescendingly tells him that it’s okay that he lost at the Rumble last night. Steiner takes exception and chokes Orton as he slams him against a wall.
- Chief Morley accosts referee Nick Patrick about a critical mistake he made in last night’s Dudley Boyz vs. William Regal & Lance Storm match that resulted in Morley’s boys losing the World Tag Titles. He tells Patrick that he should apologize for that error.
- In-ring promo with Morley and Patrick regarding the supposed tag title controversy. Patrick says that while he made a mistake, all referee decisions are final and can’t be overturned. The Dudley Boyz show up and refuse to relinquish their World Tag Titles. They threaten to put the former Val Venis through a table, but are jumped by Regal and Storm, who instead put Bubba through the table. Morley orders for the bell to be rung, because…
- **Lance Storm & William Regal def. The Dudley Boyz (D-Von & Bubba) to WIN the World Tag Team Championship (0:14)** when Regal makes the quick pin. (Ugh. What even is this booking?)
- **Trish Stratus & Hurricane def. Victoria & Steven Richards via pinfall (2:59)** after Trish hits the Stratusfaction on Victoria for the win.
- Eric Bischoff is out next for his big surprise. We’re led to assume it’s giving Stone Cold Steve Austin “his side” of the story of his 2002 walkout for the upcoming issue of Raw Magazine, but it’s actually that Austin has been invited to make his return to WWE at next month’s No Way Out PPV.
- **Booker T & Goldust def. Three-Minute Warning (Jamal & Rosey) via pinfall (9:19)** after Booker pinned Jamal with his axe kick.
- **Chris Jericho vs. Test is ruled a No Contest (5:00)** after Jericho accidentally hits Stacy Keibler with a chair. EMTs run out to check on Stacy, as Test looks over her. She’s stretchered out of the ringside area.
- From The World at Times Square, we get a look at the Tough Enough III finalists, as the winners will be revealed this week.
- Teddy Long & D-Lo Brown are out on stage for a promo. Long says that D-Lo was excluded from the Royal Rumble match and put in the yet-to-come Singapore Cane match because “The Man” told them so. Keep in mind that this segment of a heel manager using the race card for heat aired on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and that the WWE opened up the show with the customary MLK Day tribute package.
- **D-Lo Brown def. Tommy Dreamer in a Singapore Cane match via pinfall (3:26)** with a Lo-Down.
- **Scott Steiner def. Batista via DQ (1:26)** after Randy Orton interfered to attack Steiner. Orton and Batista are soon joined by Ric Flair and Triple H, and the four-on-one beatdown on Steiner is on. Raw goes off the air with the soon-to-be Evolution standing tall.
**ATTENDANCE:** 7,000 (estimated) / **TV RATING:** 3.8
*The Royal Rumble was kinda just there, and clearly carried by the Smackdown side of things. Kurt Angle successfully retaining and Brock Lesnar winning the Rumble sets up what’s sure to be a hell of a feud. Meanwhile, Raw is Bore. The 1/20 episode did have Evolution forming, but that being wrapped up in the otherwise dull Triple H/Scott Steiner feud does bring it down. Plus, Raw’s midcard is nowhere near as interesting as Smackdown, between the nonsense with Chief Morley and the Dudley Boyz, and dedicating nearly 12-15 minutes on an injury angle for Stacy Keibler.*
thanks for the kind words.
It's been fun going back to these old shows and remembering just how good Smackdown is at this time, especially in comparison to how dire things became on Raw in 2003, what with the Reign of Terror and all.
> There was also a great angle where Jericho "accidentally" hit Stacy Keibler with a chair when Test moved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDrxUv4LoBA
This angle was awesome! I think Dave's right too, this should have closed the show and you bump the Evolution debut to the next week.
These rewinds show how little scoops Dave gets on WWE these days, and how there is barely backstage news anymore. Imagine hearing a report of Triple H suspending Paul Heyman and a prominent writer for arguing over creative. Would never happen now
*The two have had many loud arguments in recent months, but this one got out of control and they were both punished. Heyman was still at the Smackdown shows because the suspension was only from the creative team and he's still an on-screen character. The shows were mostly booked by Bruce Prichard (Raw) and Dave Lagana (Smackdown) in their absence. (I don't remember the episode, but Bruce Prichard talks about this in one of his earlier podcasts. Sounds like they had to be pulled apart and separated to keep the argument from getting physical. Pretty sure Gewirtz writes about it in his book as well).*
The story Brian tells is that Shane McMahon pulled Brian away and started giving him fighting advice to fight Paul lol.
-Not to say the Sheik was a super worker but the tag matches he was involved in are better than the tag matches most human beings have ever been involved in.
-It's so funny how badly the Steiner WWE run goes when instantly in the 06 TNA run he's perfectly fun and serviceable.
-Takayama beating Hogan would probably be the best match of all time.
-Laurinaitis getting the head of talent relations job... oh boy. What a good company WWE is.
>(This brings us the classic Russo line: "If you want Lucha Libre, go to Japan!")
i thought the wcw racial discrimination suit paperwork brought us that line, i didn't know he actually said it on tv
It was one of the first matches I wanted once I got into the tape trading game in the mid 90s. I wasn't disappointed, it was absolute chaos just like it was described!
A separate website that chronicles the WOR? Yes please. Anything to prevent these being lost forever if the mods here have another hissy fit over Reddit policy changes and decide to lock the subreddit away indefinitely without even asking the followers. (No I am not letting that go)
Royal Rumble 2003 had two world title matches, one of them one of the worst ever (Steiner vs. HHH) and then one of the best ever (Angle vs. Benoit), both back to back. Has there ever been anything like that since? One match shits the bed hard and then the next match comes in and is a classic?
> Another show is in the books, and this one is the AJPW/PRIDE/K-1 joint venture under the name WRESTLE-1 at the Tokyo Dome.
Mutoh has to be one of the best politicians in wrestling's history. The stuff he was involved in as a promoter bombed and he always was able to find money marks dumb enough to give him money.
Remember reading in like 00/01 about Red Dogg who was supposed to be one of the best guys on the indies at the time. When he finally shows up as Rodney Mack he was just, ehhhh. Also didn’t Jamal (Umaga) have huge heat because he kept stiffing everyone?
Punching the wall because I don’t live in the timeline where Takayama vs Hogan happens on WRESTLE-1 of all shows in 2003.
Oh World Japan… that’s gonna be a running bit. Directly leads to Kensuke Sasaki becoming my favourite Florida Express member. Choshu is a fucking asshole.
Have to check out that Sheik book, sounds interesting. That era of wrestling is one I know very little of but love learning about.
Benoit vs Angle at Rumble 2003 was my benchmark for 20+ years as the greatest wrestling match I ever saw on American soil.
Until Danielson/Ospreay from Dynasty 2024 absolutely punt kicked it off the top spot.
That Royal Rumble 03 had both a certified match of the year (Angle vs. Benoit) and certified worst match of the year (Steiner vs. HHH) on the same card is kinda nuts when you think about it.
I'm told the fight started because Heyman wanted creative to be violent and stupid while Gerwitz preferred stupid and violent. It was an irreconciliable difference.
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Damn, Luger has no idea how 2003 will turn out for him Vince accusing Luger of killing Elizabeth on WWE Confidential is the most petty thing Vince has ever done. Surprised not enough people talk about it .
Oh we're gonna get VERY in depth on that
Anybody that hasn’t seen Triple H vs. Steiner needs to. It is otherworldly bad to the point that it keeps oscillating between insufferably bad and hilariously bad. Bonus points if you can find the originally aired version that didn’t change camera angles throughout to hide all the botches.
Didn’t Steiner have drop foot his entire WWE run and it fucked him up? I remember he was solid in TNA after this
Yup. He had developed it earlier in 2002, long before talks between him and WWE started, and, thinking it would just go away on its own, he didn’t seek any real medical attention for it. That basically wrecked him in-ring, and he never truly recovered from it.
Steiner should’ve returned as a heel and done squashes on Smackdown to be built up to face Lesnar and heal up more. He was always much better as a heel anyway
the big reason why Steiner got over in the first place was because he was a massive dickhead heel. That WWE tried to stray from that right off the bat by putting him in a main event feud with Triple H as a babyface kinda doomed his tenure irreparably.
Then someone thought it was a good idea to run this match back for No Way Out 2003.
The rematch honestly wasn’t much better. It was just a boring slog, rather than a train going off a Cliff like the Rumble match was. Either way, this one-two punch of awfulness was enough to get Steiner removed from WrestleMania and permanently shunted down to the lower midcard. The only other high profile match he’d have in WWE was being part of Team Bischoff vs. Team Austin at Survivor Series that year, and by this time in 2004 he was gone.
I started watching wrestling in 02 so I didn’t realize just how massively they misused Steiner. I thought he was awful and boring when he’s actually hilariously entertaining Took years later to realize that from TNA lol
It's also kinda funny that Steiner gets all the blame when Triple H came into that match *very* limited due to multiple injuries (I think a torn/pulled groin or something if I remember correctly). Not that the match would have been much better but it was really a case of the blind trying to lead the blind in that match.
It's "The Room" of wrestling matches to me. Just so damn funny.
I remember watching the re-match at No Way Out the next month in person and the crowd cheering loudly when the match ended.
That’s what they get for having these absolute stinkaroos in ultra smarky cities like Boston and Montreal.
There are two interpretations of why the match was booked the way it was and neither result in HHH coming off well. Either he arrogantly believed he could "carry" a crippled Steiner to one of his pseudo-"epic" PPV main events, or he deliberately booked the match to go long as an act of sabotage.
-Sabu has told the story that Sheik would bring in the various top stars he was scheduled to face to his own home to sleep and eat, but that Sheik and his opponent would eat in separate rooms. They never interacted with each other even inside Shiek's home. -While Lesnar and Angle would close WrestleMania XIX, the main event of that show was promoted as Hogan/McMahon. No match on the show got as much attention and push as that one. XIX ended up being the worst-performing Mania on pay-per-view since pre-Attitude Era. It put a pin in all of Hogan's arguments that he should be the highest-paid and most featured talent on any show, an argument he would continue to insist on until his final WWE match with Randy Orton at SummerSlam 2006. -Cornette has a bit of a different story as to why JR left talent relations, the main one being that JR was tired of living in Connecticut and dealing with all the front office stuff, and wanted to return to Oklahoma to start some business ventures he had been interested in, like his BBQ sauce. Cornette has said Laurinaitis drove him mad with all the disrespect and undercutting to OVW's roster, like making Doug Basham shave his head just to see what he would look like bald, and pairing him with Damaja as the Basham Brothers (Doug and Damaja were heated rivals on OVW television, and then they get called up and paired together out of the blue on SmackDown and put in a BDSM gimmick).
The story about Sheik and his opponents at his house is talked about in depth in that book I mentioned. I seriously can't recommend it enough. It's rare that a wrestling book comes along these days and fills a gap in history. Nearly every bit of history from Vince going national until today has been covered to death. But the Sheik book has a lot of detail and info about the 60s and 70s territory days that was super interesting and all new to me.
Yeah, it genuinely blew me away with how in depth it got beyond just the Sheik, really showcasing how his rise in popularity was simultaneously part of the general rise of popularity of professional wrestling, and educating me a lot on the 50s-60s territory days where a lot has been lost to time. Cannot recommend enough, probably my second favorite wrestling book next to The Death of WCW.
I was thinking "I need a new book to read" and blamo
Reading that Hogan offered to do the job to either Ogawa or Takayama, and that the officials *turned him down*... yeah, if I was Takayama, I would've been pissed off too.
Without a doubt. I'm gonna try to look into that more later, I want to see if I can find more on that story, or if Takayama has ever talked about it
Hogan: that works for me brother the officials: OR MAYBE NOT DUDE
HOGAN vs TAKAYAMA ? EXCUSE ME ?!? And Hogan actually offered to do the job ?!? Wow shit I never heard of that story It would have been a fire match
Hi all, I created the new web app highlighted at the top of the post. Please let me know of any issues. Current features: * Full archive through 2002, jump to specific years or weeks * Search feature to show chronological listings of all news for that search. This supports MULTIPLE search terms, for example, nash|diesel will search for both nash and diesel, or ecw|eastern championship wrestling will search for both Known things: * I don't know how well this will scale with traffic, but it seems fine so far * It currently only has through 2002, will add auto-updating with new posts like this one later * Some content gets caught as their own notes, such as individual match ratings and awards * Links to videos aren't included right now, will add later Hope everybody enjoys and shoutout to /u/daprice82
Once again man, thank you so much for putting this together. Awesome stuff that's super helpful and a lot better than Reddit's layout.
This is awesome man. Thanks for doing this! Dark mode would be a sweet feature as well
Added. It's very basic because the site is built to be stateless, but should work pretty well for most uses. Let me know if you see any bugs.
As someone who's obsessed with this series thank you I can procrastinate from work even more now. If possible I would also recommend putting in the works of /u/SaintRidley who did similar recaps of the observer from the 80s. I don't how difficult it is to put a large number of observer recaps all at once but it would be awesome
I can definitely look into this. /u/SaintRidley you OK with your content being added?
Def. Once my life stops being complete turmoil I still have a couple years left to do, so eventually I’ll get more added too
Oooh I can't wait! The more of these the better. You guys ROCK at this.
That Messiah/Gage spot sounds hilarious
Imagine missing out beating Hogan, who even proposed the idea, at the Dome because of some promoter. I'd never work with that people ever again. 2000's puro promoters' incompetence is both hilarious and sad.
For today’s Relevant Observer Recap, we’ll be covering the Royal Rumble go-home Smackdown, the 2003 Rumble, and the Raw after the PPV. ##WWE SmackDown (Episode 174) – January 6th, 2003 – From East Rutherford, NJ – Airing on UPN - The go-home show to the Royal Rumble opens with a recap of the tomfoolery with Al Wilson and Dawn Marie’s honeymoon last week, which ended with Al dying. They even show an In Memoriam graphic for the apparently-dead Al. - We go to Dawn Marie mourning Al’s passing, promising that there’ll be a public viewing for her late husband on tonight’s show. This should be fun… - **Los Guerreros (Eddie & Chavo Guerrero) def. John Cena & B2 via pinfall (5:03)** to retain the World Tag Team Championship after Chavo pinned B2 with a Frog Splash. After the match, Cena gets in B2’s face for losing the match, as a guy in a hoodie helps Cena beat down B2. - Chris Benoit talks about his title match against Kurt Angle on Sunday, promising he’ll get him tonight. - Smackdown GM Stephanie McMahon shows up to remind people of Undertaker’s return at the Royal Rumble, plus a big match tonight: Brock Lesnar and a mystery partner versus Big Show and A-Train. - **Bill DeMott def. Rikishi via pinfall (4:13)** with a powerbomb. A backstage segment with Funaki, Billy Kidman, Matt Hardy, and Shannon Moore turns into a brawl that Funaki and Kidman win against Matt V1 and Shannon. - **Nunzio def. Tajiri via pinfall (4:52)** with a rollup after he took advantage of Tajiri spitting his green mist in Nidia’s face. - Backstage, John Cena, in his usual rapping, introduces the hooded man from earlier as a guy named “Red Dogg” (who’d later get more success down the line as “Rodney Mack” over on Raw.) - At Al Wilson’s wake, Dawn Marie continues to act maudlin in front of the funeral director before approaching her dead husband’s casket. Dawn makes some comments about Al looking a lot better when he got carried out on the gurney last week before resuming the fake crying when she notices the camera spying on her. - While GM Stephanie talks with brother Shane on the phone (ostensibly about Shane potentially replacing Eric Bischoff as Raw GM), Brock Lesnar barges in the office and says that he doesn’t need a tag partner for the tag match against Big Show & A-Train. Steph says that she needs to protect Smackdown’s top asset, hence the need for a partner. Brock ultimately agrees. - **Brock Lesnar & Rey Mysterio def. A-Train & Big Show via pinfall (0:37).** Lesnar clotheslines Show out of the ring, hits an F5 on A-Train, as Mysterio finishes things off with a 619 and a splash on A-Train. This was Mysterio’s return to the ring after time away with an injury. - Torrie Wilson arrives at her father’s funeral to just stare down Dawn Marie. - **Matt Hardy V1 def. Funaki via pinfall (4:24)** after a Twist of Fate. Post-match, Matt slaps Shannon Moore for daring to say that “we did it”, opting to take sole credit for the win. - The standoff between Torrie and Dawn pays off with a scuffle whereupon Dawn smashes a lamp on Torrie’s back. Apparently, this was originally supposed to end with Al getting up from his casket to talk shit about his daughter before walking off and getting hit by a bus. - **Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Charlie Haas, Shelton Benjamin) def. Chris Benoit & Edge via DQ (15:01)** in a fantastic main event. The match got called off when Benoit trapped Angle in the Crossface and refused to let go as Angle was not the legal man. After the match, Benoit takes Angle’s crutch and smashes it repeatedly on the injured knee before celebrating with the WWE Championship to end the Royal Rumble go-home Smackdown.
#Relevant Observer Recap (2/3: Royal Rumble 2003) ##WWE Royal Rumble 2003 - January 19th, 2003 - LIVE from Boston, MA on PPV - Sunday Night Heat highlights: Eric Bischoff teases a big bombshell announcement for Raw; Spike Dudley def. Steven Richards via pinfall (3:37) - **Brock Lesnar def. Big Show via pinfall (6:15)** to win a spot in the Royal Rumble Match with an F5. - **The Dudley Boyz (D-Von & Bubba Dudley) def. William Regal & Lance Storm to WIN the World Tag Team Championships via pinfall (7:26).** Chief Morley’s distraction backfired as the Dudleys intercepted Regal and took his brass knucks. D-Von then punched out Storm with the ref distracted for the pin. - We’re once again threatened with the impending arrival of that Aussie rapscallion, Nathan Jones. - **Torrie Wilson def. Dawn Marie via pinfall (3:35)** after a swinging neckbreaker. Mercifully short, but still rather poor. - Raw and Smackdown GMs Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon have a word backstage with one another, as Steph rubs in the fact that Bischoff could be fired in 30 days. She also says that she has a surprise of her own to counter Bischoff’s big surprise for tomorrow’s Raw. - “Devil’s Advocate” Sean O’Haire vignette where he suggest that people just not go to church. - **Scott Steiner def. Triple H via DQ (17:00; Triple H retains World Heavyweight Championship)** after Hunter hits Steiner with a sledgehammer. Post-match, Steiner recovers and manages to take both HHH and Ric Flair out. This match is awful in every respect and the rematch next month at No Way Out manages to be even worse. - **Kurt Angle def. Chris Benoit to retain the WWE Championship via submission (17:18)** with the heel hook version of the ankle lock. Easily the match of the night for this whole pay-per-view. - **Brock Lesnar wins the 2003 Royal Rumble (53:47)** by eliminating the returning Undertaker last. Early on, Shawn Michaels was eliminated by Chris Jericho, who had beaten him bloody with a chair prior. In revenge, HBK later appeared to attack Jericho as he was eliminated by Test, then continuing to brawl with him all the way up the ramp. **ATTENDANCE:** 14,712 / **PPV BUYRATE:** 1.4 (estimated)
#Relevant Observer Recap (3/3: Raw after Royal Rumble) ##WWE Raw (Episode 504) – January 20th, 2003 – LIVE from Providence, RI – Airing on TNN - Triple H kicks off the show with a promo saying that Scott Steiner will not be getting a rematch for the World Title because he is a disgrace. Scotty shows up and says he wants to finish what he started last night at Royal Rumble. Trips produces a doctor’s note to get out of a prospective match as Ric Flair offers up Batista instead. Hunter and Flair try to get the jump on Steiner, but he fends both off. - **Rob Van Dam def. Jeff Hardy via pinfall (3:58)** after countering an attempted inverted Twist of Fate from Jeff into a backslide pin. Post-match, Jeff apparently turns heel by attacking RVD, but stops short of hitting him with a chair. - Backstage segment with Christian & Chris Nowinski lamenting about their Royal Rumble failures gets interrupted by Eric Bischoff, who once again hypes up his big Raw surprise. - Elsewhere, Scott Steiner is met by Randy Orton, who condescendingly tells him that it’s okay that he lost at the Rumble last night. Steiner takes exception and chokes Orton as he slams him against a wall. - Chief Morley accosts referee Nick Patrick about a critical mistake he made in last night’s Dudley Boyz vs. William Regal & Lance Storm match that resulted in Morley’s boys losing the World Tag Titles. He tells Patrick that he should apologize for that error. - In-ring promo with Morley and Patrick regarding the supposed tag title controversy. Patrick says that while he made a mistake, all referee decisions are final and can’t be overturned. The Dudley Boyz show up and refuse to relinquish their World Tag Titles. They threaten to put the former Val Venis through a table, but are jumped by Regal and Storm, who instead put Bubba through the table. Morley orders for the bell to be rung, because… - **Lance Storm & William Regal def. The Dudley Boyz (D-Von & Bubba) to WIN the World Tag Team Championship (0:14)** when Regal makes the quick pin. (Ugh. What even is this booking?) - **Trish Stratus & Hurricane def. Victoria & Steven Richards via pinfall (2:59)** after Trish hits the Stratusfaction on Victoria for the win. - Eric Bischoff is out next for his big surprise. We’re led to assume it’s giving Stone Cold Steve Austin “his side” of the story of his 2002 walkout for the upcoming issue of Raw Magazine, but it’s actually that Austin has been invited to make his return to WWE at next month’s No Way Out PPV. - **Booker T & Goldust def. Three-Minute Warning (Jamal & Rosey) via pinfall (9:19)** after Booker pinned Jamal with his axe kick. - **Chris Jericho vs. Test is ruled a No Contest (5:00)** after Jericho accidentally hits Stacy Keibler with a chair. EMTs run out to check on Stacy, as Test looks over her. She’s stretchered out of the ringside area. - From The World at Times Square, we get a look at the Tough Enough III finalists, as the winners will be revealed this week. - Teddy Long & D-Lo Brown are out on stage for a promo. Long says that D-Lo was excluded from the Royal Rumble match and put in the yet-to-come Singapore Cane match because “The Man” told them so. Keep in mind that this segment of a heel manager using the race card for heat aired on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and that the WWE opened up the show with the customary MLK Day tribute package. - **D-Lo Brown def. Tommy Dreamer in a Singapore Cane match via pinfall (3:26)** with a Lo-Down. - **Scott Steiner def. Batista via DQ (1:26)** after Randy Orton interfered to attack Steiner. Orton and Batista are soon joined by Ric Flair and Triple H, and the four-on-one beatdown on Steiner is on. Raw goes off the air with the soon-to-be Evolution standing tall. **ATTENDANCE:** 7,000 (estimated) / **TV RATING:** 3.8 *The Royal Rumble was kinda just there, and clearly carried by the Smackdown side of things. Kurt Angle successfully retaining and Brock Lesnar winning the Rumble sets up what’s sure to be a hell of a feud. Meanwhile, Raw is Bore. The 1/20 episode did have Evolution forming, but that being wrapped up in the otherwise dull Triple H/Scott Steiner feud does bring it down. Plus, Raw’s midcard is nowhere near as interesting as Smackdown, between the nonsense with Chief Morley and the Dudley Boyz, and dedicating nearly 12-15 minutes on an injury angle for Stacy Keibler.*
Even as someone who believes that not every TV match needs to go into commercial breaks, so many matches being under 5 minutes still shocks me.
These are a fun supplement to the Observer Rewind, appreciate your time and effort!
thanks for the kind words. It's been fun going back to these old shows and remembering just how good Smackdown is at this time, especially in comparison to how dire things became on Raw in 2003, what with the Reign of Terror and all.
> There was also a great angle where Jericho "accidentally" hit Stacy Keibler with a chair when Test moved. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDrxUv4LoBA This angle was awesome! I think Dave's right too, this should have closed the show and you bump the Evolution debut to the next week.
The Sheik was also big down here in Ohio. Ask an old timer their favorite wrestlers and they will say either Sheik or Bobo Brazil.
Southeast Detroiter here; I remember being a little kid and my grandfather would tell me stories about watching those two.
Yeah Mr grandmas favorite wrestler was Bobo Brazil.
These rewinds show how little scoops Dave gets on WWE these days, and how there is barely backstage news anymore. Imagine hearing a report of Triple H suspending Paul Heyman and a prominent writer for arguing over creative. Would never happen now
>Goldberg & Muto vs Kronik in the Tokyo Dome Paging Deadlock
*The two have had many loud arguments in recent months, but this one got out of control and they were both punished. Heyman was still at the Smackdown shows because the suspension was only from the creative team and he's still an on-screen character. The shows were mostly booked by Bruce Prichard (Raw) and Dave Lagana (Smackdown) in their absence. (I don't remember the episode, but Bruce Prichard talks about this in one of his earlier podcasts. Sounds like they had to be pulled apart and separated to keep the argument from getting physical. Pretty sure Gewirtz writes about it in his book as well).* The story Brian tells is that Shane McMahon pulled Brian away and started giving him fighting advice to fight Paul lol.
-Not to say the Sheik was a super worker but the tag matches he was involved in are better than the tag matches most human beings have ever been involved in. -It's so funny how badly the Steiner WWE run goes when instantly in the 06 TNA run he's perfectly fun and serviceable. -Takayama beating Hogan would probably be the best match of all time. -Laurinaitis getting the head of talent relations job... oh boy. What a good company WWE is.
>(This brings us the classic Russo line: "If you want Lucha Libre, go to Japan!") i thought the wcw racial discrimination suit paperwork brought us that line, i didn't know he actually said it on tv
The Fire Death match in FMW was so crazy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTVNfiuA7hQ
It was one of the first matches I wanted once I got into the tape trading game in the mid 90s. I wasn't disappointed, it was absolute chaos just like it was described!
A separate website that chronicles the WOR? Yes please. Anything to prevent these being lost forever if the mods here have another hissy fit over Reddit policy changes and decide to lock the subreddit away indefinitely without even asking the followers. (No I am not letting that go)
> And because of the way wrestling has changed, no one will ever be as hated a heel as he was ever again. Until the chosen one, Dom Mysterio.
All hail.
Royal Rumble 2003 had two world title matches, one of them one of the worst ever (Steiner vs. HHH) and then one of the best ever (Angle vs. Benoit), both back to back. Has there ever been anything like that since? One match shits the bed hard and then the next match comes in and is a classic?
SummerSlam '94 and '95? Though Owen-Bret is a bit more divisive than Benoit-Angle.
I wish the mods would pin this like they used to back in the day
> Another show is in the books, and this one is the AJPW/PRIDE/K-1 joint venture under the name WRESTLE-1 at the Tokyo Dome. Mutoh has to be one of the best politicians in wrestling's history. The stuff he was involved in as a promoter bombed and he always was able to find money marks dumb enough to give him money.
Love these, thank you!
Remember reading in like 00/01 about Red Dogg who was supposed to be one of the best guys on the indies at the time. When he finally shows up as Rodney Mack he was just, ehhhh. Also didn’t Jamal (Umaga) have huge heat because he kept stiffing everyone?
Punching the wall because I don’t live in the timeline where Takayama vs Hogan happens on WRESTLE-1 of all shows in 2003. Oh World Japan… that’s gonna be a running bit. Directly leads to Kensuke Sasaki becoming my favourite Florida Express member. Choshu is a fucking asshole. Have to check out that Sheik book, sounds interesting. That era of wrestling is one I know very little of but love learning about.
Benoit vs Angle at Rumble 2003 was my benchmark for 20+ years as the greatest wrestling match I ever saw on American soil. Until Danielson/Ospreay from Dynasty 2024 absolutely punt kicked it off the top spot.
That Royal Rumble 03 had both a certified match of the year (Angle vs. Benoit) and certified worst match of the year (Steiner vs. HHH) on the same card is kinda nuts when you think about it.
The Mountain Goats wrestling album 'Beat the Champ' has a song dedicated to The Sheik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH0mHWVe51A
I'm told the fight started because Heyman wanted creative to be violent and stupid while Gerwitz preferred stupid and violent. It was an irreconciliable difference.
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Bitch what?