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Morning Glory #24: Report Card - WWE Bad Blood 2003
Following on from my recent review of WWE Vengeance 2003 (which you can find HERE), this is my take on June’s Raw-exclusive PPV, WWE Bad Blood 2003. My main reasoning for doing this review is to compare it to Vengeance, and how each brand is building towards Summerslam, but c’mon….you all wanna know how highly I rated a PPV that had Kevin Nash main eventing, right? As always, the grades for the matches, and the PPV, range from A* to U, just like they would on a school report. Wasting no more time….
WWE Bad Blood 2003
Houston, Texas, June 15th, 2003
Chris Nowinski & Rodney Mack d. The Dudley Boyz @ 7:07
This was pretty much your basic tag match, and not a good one at that. Mack and Nowinski went over after Mack used Nowinski’s mask as a weapon, but really, is this the sort of match you’d want to begin the first-ever Brand Exclusive PPV with? I don’t think so. Compare this with the opener from Smackdown’s Vengeance (Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit), and there’s really no contest. I think the difference between the two brands is that Smackdown has tons more talent, and just doesn’t use it, while Raw is forced to scrape the barrel for it’s PPVs, and comes up with crap like this. The bad thing is, I can’t think of a match which could’ve replaced this, other than a Women’s Title match (which, having said that, would’ve been decent). This kind of match wouldn’t look out of place on a regular, weekly episode of Raw, and, coupled with the shoddy set, made the PPV seem like a longer Raw right out of the bat.
The Dudley Boyz are one of my most hated teams on WWE TV right now. They’re running on a totally stale gimmick, which, while it may be hugely over with live crowds, is boring as hell on TV. The problem being, of course, that while they are popping the live crowds, they’re still going to be pushed. It wouldn’t be so much of a problem if the tag division was even half-decent, but quite frankly, it’s not. The Dudleyz and La Resistance are the only ‘real’ tag teams on Raw, and this makes for a crappy division. Moving on after this feud, I think the Dudleyz have entered into a feud with La Resistance over the Tag Titles, but does it interest me? Not at all. I’m hoping they don’t get a spot on Summerslam’s card, because, really, they’d be better off using the time on the upper card matches.
Rodney Mack and Chris Nowinski seem to have split up and been taken off TV right now, which is probably a good thing. The only entertaining thing about the ‘Black Power’ angle was Teddy Long, and the major problem was, of course, that Mack was the whitest black man they could have possibly picked for the role. Seriously, my dad looks blacker than him after a week on the Isle of Wight, and I say this with no sarcasm whatsoever. The fact that he couldn’t work and wasn’t over was also a factor, I guess. Nowinski reminds me of a really old school type of heel, and had he arrived ten years earlier, he would probably have done well in a Honky Tonk Man type role. As it is though, although he’s easy to hate, his character’s too one-dimensional to really mean anything in the long run. In the long run, both teams here have very little to offer to the Raw brand.
E-
Scott Steiner d. Test @ 6:24 for Stacy Kiebler’s services
This was my surprise of the night, as it wasn’t half as bad as I was expecting. While I used to be a mark for Test, he had slipped in my estimations, since he started the ‘Testicles’ gimmick really. However, right here, Test began to redeem himself, as he put in a phenomenal heel performance, despite losing the match. The match itself, while short, was probably Steiner’s best match since his arrival in the WWE. After a truly disastrous start, when he slipped off the apron while attempting a double axhandle, Steiner played his role decently enough, and eventually finished cleanly with the Flatliner (does Scotty have a name for it yet?). This match was your basic payoff to your basic angle, which, given WWE’s recent form, is pretty damn good. However, I think the whole feud and angle could’ve amounted to a lot more than it did.
Test displayed a lot of heel charisma here, and has done ever since, mocking Steiner’s push-ups, jumping jacks, and playing the cowardly heel to perfection. The thing I haven’t enjoyed recently about Test is the woman-beating angle, but that does seem to have died down over the past week or so. I think the WWE had a great opportunity to get Test over hugely if they’d have put him over here, as he could’ve played the abusive, asshole boyfriend brilliantly, and earned a ton of heat. As it is, Stacy is now with Steiner, and they’ve continued the feud with Test throughout July. Where both men go now I don’t know, as there’s no real reason for a blowoff match as such – this WAS the blowoff, and Steiner’s now basically rubbing it in. This is your basic problem with Raw’s midcard – they have guys who are relatively over, but due to the main event being so shut off, they end up floating around doing nothing. Therefore….I can’t honestly see either guy making the Summerslam card.
C-
Booker T d. Christian via DQ @ 7:52 but did not win the Intercontinental Title
The WWE really dropped the ball with Christian’s Intercontinental Title run, and if they only planned to have him hold the belt for a short while, they should’ve just switched it to Booker here. Christian was supposed to be booked as the ‘new Honky Tonk Man’, in that he’d retain his belt by all the cheap means necessary, until the fans were absolutely desperate to see him drop it. Of course, the WWE screwed this up, by firstly giving him only one opponent (Booker) for about five different matches, and then having him drop the title to Booker in a meaningless match on Raw, after managing to kill Booker’s hometown crowd here. To be blunt, the ending to this match was brutal, and one of the worst PPV match endings we’ve had in a long, long time.
Christian, after getting his ass handed to him, attempted to simply ‘walk out’ of the match, until the referee threatened that he would lose the title if he didn’t make it back in ten seconds. Usually, this would be the cue for the babyface to put together one last flurry of offense, and win the gold. This wasn’t the case, as Christian bopped Booker with the belt, and got himself disqualified. Really, that’s not a PPV finish, and only added to the ‘extended Raw’ feel that the PPV had at that point. The match? It was also horrid. Some guys just don’t click, however good workers they are (Triple H and Kurt Angle come to mind), and Booker T and Christian fit that bill. I’m a big fan of both guys, but to give them around five matches with one another was just a crime. Christian’s work is usually good, but with Booker, it wasn’t, while Booker is just on cruise control at this point, knowing that he’s never going to main event.
That’s the problem with Raw now, as a lot of the upper-midcard faces who have been feuding with HHH, then slipped down the card are just not working hard in the ring at all. Booker, Van Dam, and Kane (before his recent angle development) all seemed to be on cruise control. That’s why someone needs to get the title of HHH as soon as possible, and keep it for more than one month, because it opens up the whole main event scene again. The WWE’s short run of pushing Christian seems to have ended, as he’s settled back into his ‘weak comedy heel’ role and doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere soon, which is sad. Booker is expected to defend the IC Title against Randy Orton at Summerslam, but if Randy ends up facing Shawn Michaels, I’m not sure who Booker’s challenger will be. Maybe Test or Christian again? I don’t know.
D-
La Resistance d. Rob Van Dam & Kane for the World Tag Team Titles @ 5:46
I’ve discussed the Tag Team Title situation earlier, and as I said, I have very little hope for the division. La Resistance are as green as Kermit the Frog, and if the company had a half-decent Tag division, they wouldn’t be champions. As it goes though, I prefer them over the horrible team of Kane and Rob Van Dam, who seem to have headed in totally opposite directions following Bad Blood. While the unmasking of Kane in the first couple of weeks seemed like a really bad idea, the angle has now progressed nicely, getting Kane over as a total psychopathic tweener type. He’s been booked as a total monster, and now appears to be heading towards a Summerslam showdown with Shane McMahon. This will get him over nicely again, as Shane is the type to bump like a pinball in order to get someone over. Of course, the problem then comes with what to do with Kane next. I’d probably push him into a World Title shot at Unforgiven against Goldberg, but that could potentially kill his heat.
Rob Van Dam, on the other hand, has gone nowhere but down since Bad Blood. It’s become seriously frustrating for Van Dam fans like me, as just two short years ago, it seemed like RVD would become THE next big breakout star. However, since the end of the Alliance angle, RVD has been utterly wasted, and just when you thought he couldn’t go any lower than the awful team with Kane, he’s now been squashed by Kane and hasn’t made an appearance on Raw since. You can whine on about how misused Ultimo Dragon is or whatever, but there is not one man who has been more misused than Rob Van Dam. It’s not looking like Van Dam is gonna get a decent feud, or a Summerslam match any time soon, and like Booker T, he seems on cruise control at this point. Give it another year, and he could very well go down as the biggest waste in the history of the sport. Oh, the match? It fucking blew.
E
Goldberg d. Chris Jericho @ 10:58
Call me a mark, or dumb, or whatever, but I enjoyed this match just as much as any of the matches offered at Vengeance. I think what we saw here was probably the performance of the year so far by Jericho, getting the best match of Goldberg’s life out of him (though vouching for DDP’s match with Bill at Halloween Havoc 98 would be understandable). Goldberg also played his part well, and anyone who says this was a total carry job is wrong. Goldberg, known as a poor seller, sold his arm injury (from a spear into the barricade) throughout the match, and Jericho showed just how good he is, by working it all the way, hitting a single arm DDT, and locking in a sweet armbar. I didn’t mind the ending to the match at all, as it was the blowoff match, and Goldberg going over was the right decision. The one thing that pissed me off about this match was the crowd. One minute they’d be booing Jericho, the next they’d be booing Goldberg…just pick one guy, and stick with it!
For the whiners that complained about Jericho’s loss here, he has gone on to better things, meaning a huge tapout victory over Shawn Michaels on Raw. However, now he’s done with HBK, it seems that Jericho still isn’t being pushed back up to the main event level, and again, I blame this on HHH’s title reign. It’s not a knock on HHH himself, because I’m enjoying his work lately – but while he’s holding the title, there’s only room for one main event heel – him. If he drops the title to Goldberg, Goldberg could feud with a multitude of heels – including Jericho – and open up the main event scene once again. The prevailing question, of course, is whether Goldberg is really the right man to be taking the strap off HHH and keeping it for a while. Personally, I don’t think he’s the right man, as such, in that he’s not captured the WWE audiences as much as people expected him to, and his ringwork leaves a lot to be desired. However, at this point, it doesn’t matter how good he is. He’s a main event level face, and he’s literally the only man left to challenge HHH that hasn’t lost to the champ before.
This is why Goldberg must go over at Summerslam, and keep the belt for a reasonable amount of time, feuding with different people, and not just HHH. I don’t think it’s a question at this point that HHH does have a ton of backstage clout, and that is the reason for his long title reign. The problem is, though, that by pulling this stunt, and making so many challengers look like lame ducks, he’s also tied up the credibility of Raw, himself, and the World Title. Goldberg is his last challenger – if he ends up buried like the others before him, where do they go from there? Jericho is not an option, as we know the WWE has no faith in him as a face. The only real options would be to trade someone from Smackdown (which would have no effect if HHH treated that challenger as he has treated those before him), or to turn HHH face. The latter will probably be the route they’ll go if he does retain against Goldberg, and needless to say – that’ll be bad, too, because they have few credible heels left at this point as well. Booker T would have been the ‘right man’ to take the title, back at Wrestlemania. But as it is, we’re left with very little choice. Raw NEEDS Goldberg as champion.
Back to the match. As I said earlier – awesome psychology from both men, great offense from Jericho, Goldberg’s offense seemed ‘on’ here as opposed to when he seems sloppy, and the ending made sense in both the context of the feud and the match itself. Easily the best match on this card, and probably the one thing to redeem it overall, in my eyes at least. I’d say Jericho’s the WWE wrestler of the half-year, without any doubt. Angle would come close, of course, but due to his absence between April and July, and Jericho’s working with far worse opponents (he got good matches out of Scott Steiner and Jeff Hardy, and this match out of Goldberg here) clinches it for him. As Jericho himself says, he’s bulletproof at this point – he’s so good that he can lose and lose and lose, and still remain credible. Give it up for Chris Jericho, your Raw Saviour.
A-
Ric Flair d. Shawn Michaels @ 14:18
I’m probably going to get some stick for my review of this one, but fuck it. This was the match that many people bought this PPV for. Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels. Two of the three greatest wrestlers in the history of North America (Bret Hart being the third). Sure, Flair’s past his prime, and Michaels is pretty close to being past it too, but as we’ve seen in the past year or so, both men are fully capable of having fucking awesome matches. So, given that both men are past their primes, one because of an INJURY CAUSED BY HIGHSPOTS, and they’re two of the BEST WRESTLERS EVER, why do they feel the need to put in a garbagy, pointless, table spot? For me, that ruined the whole match. It wasn’t bad at all beforehand, and could’ve been built into a decent match, even with the ref bump and the shoddy finish. If you want to get Randy Orton over as a uber-heel, fine, do the ref bump and have Orton do his run-in and end the match there. Don’t waste time fucking around with a table, something that any monkey can do. The main event saw HHH and Kevin Nash use a toolbox. That’s because they CAN’T put together a mat classic, and need to use weapons to create decent action. Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels CAN still put together a mat wrestling classic, so LET THEM. On a tangent, Randy Orton has been really impressive since Bad Blood, and while he shouldn’t call himself a ‘Legend Killer’ until he’s actually…beaten a legend in the ring, but he IS on the fast track to becoming a bloody good heel, and if he goes over HBK at Summerslam, or some time soon, he could well be the next big thing.
So……the match was good, therefore it’s a B grade. Take away a grade and half for the pointless table spot, and another grade for the poor finish, and we’re onto a D-. Add back another grade for the push of Orton, and we get the full grade of this match, a totally overwhelming disappointment from what it should have been.
C
Steve Austin d. Eric Bischoff in the Redneck Triathlon
If you want the definition of ‘fucking waste of time’, look no further than this crap. This was quite possibly the worst thing we’ve seen on PPV in the past five years. The first round of this, the Burping Contest, wasn’t offensive, but it was certainly disgusting. This kind of childish, toilet humour has absolutely no place on WWE TV, and to waste the amount of time that they did on this is criminal. Austin won the first round, for your information. Toilet humour is one thing. The second part of this contest – ‘Pie Eating’ – crossed lines that should not have been crossed. Firstly, selling a contest on the promise that the fans would see oral sex is pretty poor, because everyone and his dog knows they’d have to bait-and-switch. However, it would’ve been pretty harmless had they just got Austin and Bischoff to eat apple pie or something, as that bait-and-switch. The worst I envisaged was Rikishi giving someone a Stinkface.
What we saw was far, far worse than that. Mae Young, for some horrific reason introduced back onto WWE TV, proceeded to strip to her lingerie (I struggled to keep my food down at this point), and gave Bischoff a Bronco Buster. If that wasn’t bad enough, Austin then hit her with the Stunner. So…not only did we see some sickening shots of Mae, the man who was convicted for HITTING A WOMAN does exactly that, and the fans are expected to cheer for it. Then again, it’s not like this segment did anything different to what it advertised – it was a ‘Redneck Triathlon’, and Austin behaved like exactly that – a redneck. The third part is barely worth talking about. Originally a singing contest, it ended up with Austin deciding he could change the rules, and throwing Bischoff into pigshit. I love Bischoff’s character. I was hoping they’d change Austin into a megalomaniac tweener type, but he’s remained the same stale face as he was when wrestling. Thankfully, he can no longer attack wrestlers at will, like he was doing a couple of weeks back. This whole segment, from the Burps to the Pigshit sucked dick. It’s not like they could’ve added any matches (well, maybe a Woman’s match) but even so – they could’ve added the time to HBK/Flair or Goldberg/Jericho. Total waste of time.
U
Triple H d. Kevin Nash in Hell In A Cell @ 21:01 to retain the WWE World Title
Well, on one hand, this certainly didn’t suck as much as Judgment Day’s effort. Nash worked his ass off, Hunter worked his ass off, and Mick Foley, the guest referee, added the extra dimension that the match so badly needed. On the other hand, it wasn’t exactly what you’d call a ‘good match’, they were forced to use a multitude of weapons to make it interesting, and the cell itself never really figured into the match – they may as well have made it a Street Fight. The finish was certainly right, and probably one of the only times that 99% of fans were thankful for HHH winning. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Kevin Nash fan – but it’s painfully obvious that the guy is done at this point. I respect the hell out of Kev for coming back after his quad tear, but it’s time to hang up the boots. If the WWE had anything about them, they’d use Nash as Raw’s color commentator, getting rid of the horribly grating Lawler.
The video package for this match was absolutely dope, but the problem was, of course, that it made you want to see Mick Foley vs HHH, not Kevin Nash vs HHH. Foley was used extremely well – he played the referee, and provided some more opposition to Helmsley, while also pulling off a nice bladejob along the way. The result of the match was never really in question – poor Kev was built very poorly going into the event – being relegated to doing run ins, and was never really in contention to take the title from HHH. I’ve discussed HHH earlier – he’s moving on to face Goldberg at Summerslam, and in my opinion, the future of Raw is much dependant on whether he finally drops the gold there. Nash seems to have moved on to a feud with Chris Jericho, with a possible Summerslam match coming up, and while Jericho is awesome, whether he can carry Big Kev to something watchable with no gimmick at this point is another matter.
Hell In A Cell, while enjoyable enough, was not a good match. It had some decent spots – the snake eyes onto the barbwire was certainly memorable – but in terms of workrate, it was pretty poor. Any pair of monkeys could’ve done what Nash and HHH did here – hit one another with a load of weapons before building to a finish. Some people will say that ‘HIAC is meant to be brutal, therefore this was good’, but they’d be wrong. Lesnar vs Undertaker was good, but that had psychology, a lot of use of the cell itself, and a nicely done finish. This was your basic garbage match. Buuuut….seeing as it didn’t totally suck, I’m willing to give it a half-decent grade, if only for the effort that all three men put in.
C
The Bottom Line…...
Compared to Vengeance, in terms of matches and ringwork, this came nowhere near to matching what Smackdown put on. While Vengeance contained no really, really horrible matches, the only one I’d consider ‘good’ at Bad Blood was Jericho vs Goldberg. Bad Blood’s major plus point was that it contained a lot of blowoff matches (Test/Steiner, Goldberg/Jericho, HHH/Nash) and pretty much ended angles, rather than continuing them on, like Vengeance. Very little of what happened at Bad Blood is going to affect Raw’s side of the Summerslam card – obviously they saw that they had two months to build to that, and did so rather than beginning the build here, and that’s the major difference between this and Vengeance, which was primarily a Summerslam set-up show.
As I said in my Vengeance review, though, I still think Raw is headed in a better direction than Smackdown. While Smackdown does appear to be doing some things right, judging on the first post-Vengeance show, it still does not have the characters to appeal to me like Raw does. In simple terms, Smackdown’s matches appeal to me a lot, whereas Raw’s angles appeal to me. I’m pretty much enjoying both shows right now – although they could be so much better – but Raw just edges Smackdown out. If HHH finally drops the title to Goldberg, opening up the main event again, the upcoming months for Raw could be very interesting indeed. Let’s just hope Hunter does the right thing for once, eh?
Overall Grade
D
Peace,
Scott Newman:
scott.newman@ntlworld.com
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