Dark Pegasus Video Review: Vengeance 2003

Vengeance 2003 by J.D. Dunn Ah, Denver. I’m not sure what the WWE has against us, but it took nearly eight years to even get Raw to come here. Before that, the only significant thing to happen here (WWE-wise) was the impromptu title switch from the Legion of Doom to Money Inc.. I guess it’s because we love our “real” sports so much that we don’t have much time left for sports entertainment. July 27, 2003 Live from Denver, Colo. Your hosts are Michael Cole and Tazz Vacant United States Championship Tournament Finals: Chris Benoit vs. Eddy Guerrero. Eddy had recently turned heel and become more popular than ever. Benoit defeated Rhyno and Matt Hardy to get to this point. That becomes important later. Benoit elbows out of a hammerlock and steamrolls Eddy down. Eddy returns the favor. Denver crowd is really into it, making me proud. Benoit wins a test of strength, but Eddy takes him down. Eddy goes for a rana, reversed to a sunset flip by Benoit, reversed to a jackknife rollup, reversed back to a sunset flip for two, into a rollup by Guerrero for two, into another Benoit rollup for two. Awesome! They go at it on the mat, and Eddy goes for a Tombstone Piledriver. Benoit reverses to a shoulderbreaker. CRIPPLER CROSSFACE! Eddy breaks on the ropes and takes a powder. Benoit follows him out with a tope. Back in, Benoit targets Guerrero’s shoulder with a half-Nelson. Guerrero rolls through a school boy attempt and sets Benoit up for the huracanrana. It gets two. Crowd chants “Benoit!” Guerrero cuts that off with a backdrop suplex for two. They exchange chops, and Guerrero goes to the eyes. Benoit delivers a super backdrop suplex for a double KO. Benoit covers. ONE, TWO, THRE—NOOO!!! Benoit recovers first and hits Rolling Germans! Eddy reverses the last one but winds up in the Crippler Crossface. Eddy just gets his foot on the ropes to break the hold. Eddy comes back with two vertical suplexes and a SUPERPLEX! Eddy goes up for the frogsplash, but Benoit MOVES at the last second. Benoit destroys Guerrero with a powerbomb, but it only gets two. Crippler Crossface, but Eddy’s at the ropes. Eddy spears Benoit right into Referee Mike Chioda. Guerrero grabs the title and BLASTS Benoit with it. FROGSPLASH! ONE, TWO, THRE–NOO!!!! Eddy grabs the title again and blasts the referee. He tosses the belt onto Benoit so the referee will disqualify him, but the ref is out! Benoit recovers and locks Guerrero in the Crossface. The ref is still out, so Benoit tries to revive him. Benoit goes up for the Swandive Headbutt, but Guerrero pulls the ref in the way. Tazz: Mike Chioda’s getting his ass kicked in this match! Rhyno comes down, seemingly ready to gore Eddy. Instead, he gores Benoit out of jealousy. Eddy goes up and delivers the frogsplash for the win and the title at 22:13. Lots of overbooking held this one down, but it was still a fun match. Eddy would get so over as a heal that they had to turn him face only to try to turn him heel again and get him even more over as a face. Funny how things work out. ***3/4 In the back, Vince McMahon stops by Stephanie McMahon’s office to ask her to play nice because Kane attacked Linda McMahon on Raw. Billy Gunn (w/Torrie Wilson) vs. Jamie Noble. If Noble wins, Torrie has to sleep with him. This comes after he offered her $25,000 to sleep with him. Maybe he should have offered it to Ashley Massaro. Noble brings a briefcase down to ringside, but Billy takes it away and opens it. Oh, sex toys! How humorous. Jamie avoids the Stinger Splash and dropkicks Gunn’s head into the steps. Nidia, wearing a fur coat, walks down to ringside to observe. Gunn comes back with The One and Only. The Fameasser misses, so Billy hits the Ace Crusher. He goes up, but Jamie catches him and hits a Super DDT. Don’t see that enough anymore. ONE, TWO, THRE-Nidia puts Billy’s foot on the bottom rope. See, she doesn’t want her man sleeping with another woman. Torrie gets involved in their argument, allowing Gunn to sneak up on Noble and toss him back in. He goes for the swinging uranage, but Noble shoves him into Torrie and rolls him up for the win at 4:59. Torrie is in shock, but it would lead to a foursome anyway. Noble is an underutilized talent because he can wrestle and do sports entertainment when necessary. **1/4 Bar Room Brawl: I’ve missed the FBI’s “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn” ripoff. Your participants are Matt Hardy, Shannon Moore, Spanky, Bradshaw, Ron Simmons, Brother Love, the Easter Bunny, Doug Basham, Danny Basham, Doink the Clown (Nick Dinsmore), Kanyon (I guess it’s the Blue Oyster Bar), Funaki, Chuck Palumbo, Nunzio, Johnny the Bull, Sean O’Haire, Orlando Jordan, a pair of masked jobbers, and the Brooklyn Brawler. Brother Love offers to say a prayer and then takes out the masked jobbers with a bar stool. Brawler chokes out Doink. Nunzio goes after the Easter Bunny. O’Haire grabs some pool sticks and destroys the APA. Shannon Moore dives on somebody. Brother Love tosses him into the mirror. Jesus Herman Christ! (It’s another guy. You don’t know him.) Brother Love has gone hardcore. I guess time in prison for embezzling church funds will do that to you. Bradshaw thinks about double-crossing Funaki, but Funaki has been drinking the whole time and falls off the stool. Bradshaw knocks out Brother Love with a beer bottle and declares victory at 4:29. Well, this was brief. Demented fun. ** In the back, Jamie Noble looks at his sticky, wrinkled Torrie Wilson edition of Playboy and relishes the thought of touching her sweet, sweet ass. WWE Tag Team Titles: The Worlds Greatest Tag Team vs. Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman. Speaking of underutilized cruiserweights, Mysterio and Kidman were a great team just waiting to be exploited. Unfortunately for Kidman, he was the Marty Janetty or Jim Neidhart of the team, and everyone knew it before the team even formed in the WWE. The babyfaces dazzle the heels with quick maneuvers early. Haas catches Rey with a Full Nelson Bomb. He counters a headscissors to a slam. Kidman gets the hot tag and hits a BK Bomb. Have it your way! Mysterio and Kidman block the AWA Special, but Benjamin thwarts the 619. Kidman tosses Haas and hits a Shooting Star Plancha onto TWGTT. Back in. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Haas gets his shoulder up. Kidman lands on the apron, so Benjamin tosses him into the post. Kidman assumes the face-in-peril role, which is good formula because we just got the false finish – a place where it made perfect sense to end the match, but the match didn’t end. Benjamin stretches Kidman in a ringer and then a bow-and-arrow. Kidman dives and makes the tag, but Benjamin has the ref distracted. Awesome. Benjamin adds a powerbomb for two. He tries again, but YOU CAN’T POWERBOMB BILLY KIDMAN TWICE! Kidman powers to the facebuster and gets the hot tag to Rey. Rey sends Haas over the top and sunset flips Benjamin for two. Rey hits the springboard seated senton, but Benjamin kicks him in the head. Kidman comes in and lofts Rey up into a super huracanrana on Haas. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Everyone in the arena thought that was it. Rey tries a huracanrana, but Haas blocks, and TWGTT turn it into a springboard Doomsday Device at 14:53. Excellent, unsung little match. Mysterio and Kidman didn’t do much as a team, and even Benjamin and Haas, who were penciled in for greatness as a team were broken up only a year later. **** Recap of the Stephanie McMahon/Sable feud. This is no way for a GM to comport herself, but then she didn’t have Mae Young’s crotch rubbed in her face and fall in pig shit, so she kind of wins the dignity war by default. No COR/No DQ: Sable vs. Stephanie McMahon. For some reason, Mae Young comes out to Sable’s music. Oh wait. No, that *is* Sable. Stephanie starts out strong, smacking Sable around quite a bit. Sable gets in a cheapshot and grinds over Stephanie. Sable runs into a reverse elbow, and Stephanie hits a Thesz Press. Steph grabs a chair, but Brian Hebner keeps her from using it. Steph slaps Sable in the face and rubs her face against the canvas, thus burning the canvas!. Stephanie actually hits a Hennig necksnap and rips Sable’s top off. RELEASE THE HOUNDS! Brian Hebner takes his shirt off and gives it to Sable to cover herself. That gives A-Train the opening to come in and steamroll Steph with an avalanche. Sable crawls into the cover and gets the win at 7:25. Stephanie has that McMahon gene that allows her to make a match interesting based on intuition rather than actual skill. That’s really about all this match has to offer. * Recap of the Undertaker demanding respect from John Cena and getting none. John Cena vs. The Undertaker. Cena slaps Taker in the face, triggering a flurry from Big Evil. Taker gets a rabbit punch and boots Cena to the floor. Cena spits water in Taker’s face but gets whipped to the barrier. Taker rams him into the ringpost. Taker runs through his usual stuff, including the apron legdrop and Old School Ropewalk Forearm. A chokeslam gets two before Taker picks Cena up. Cena counters the Last Ride to a DDT. Cena unties the turnbuckle pad and blatantly chokes the Taker. Taker charges but goes into the exposed turnbuckle. Cena beats him around the ring, slowing the match down quite a bit. Taker responds with a clothesline and the Dragon Sleeper. Cena makes the ropes and gets two off a spinebuster. Taker fires back and gets a weak clothesline for two. Cena counters the Tombstone to an FU, but Taker counters that with a boot to the face. Referee Mike Chioda has to pull Taker off Cena, giving Cena a chance to pull out his chain and pound Taker in the gut with it. FU! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Cena climbs the turnbuckle for the mounted punches, but he pauses for the “Word Life” taunt enabling Taker to deliver the Last Ride at 15:59. I think what impressed the WWE about Cena most is that he was jobbed out in high-profile matches but he continued to get over through personality and gimmick. By the end of the year, the fans were salivating for a face turn. **1/4 Recap of Vince McMahon and Sable berating Zach Gowen for being 3/4-man, 1/4-amazing. Gowen and Steph would upset the Big Show in a handicap match to earn Gowen a wrestling contract. Mr. McMahon vs. Zach Gowen. McMahon knocks Zach around and taunts him for a looooong segment. Gowen comes back with a sliding dropkick and an Asai Moonsault. Vince kicks Gowen’s leg out from his leg and wraps it around the ringpost. Back in, Vince applies a half-crab. Gowen makes the ropes, which is supposed to be a huge emotional moment, but no one cares. Gowen dropkicks his way back and crotches Vince on the ringpost. The moonsault hits! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Vince grabs a chair, but it backfires when Zach dropkicks it back in his face. Vince gets a sick cut in his forehead. Gowen goes up again, but his twisting senton misses. Vince covers for the win at 14:01. Way too long for the story they were telling. Gowen’s offense is overly contrived (duh), and it’s hard to get involved in the story. McMahon did a good job of wrestling himself, though. *3/4 In the back, Eddy Guerrero says he doesn’t think his victory is tainted. If Benoit didn’t want to get double-crossed, he shouldn’t have friends. WWE Heavyweight Title, No DQ: Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle vs. The Big Show. Show goes for the finish early, chokeslamming Brock. Angle saves, so Show tosses Angle and hits the Final Cut on Brock. Angle brings in some trash can lids, and he and Brock take turns pinballing Show back and forth. They both go for a double suplex, but Show reverses and tosses them both back. He tries a double chokeslam, but now they block and double chokeslam him. Lesnar gets two, triggering a brawl between Brock and Kurt. F5 to Kurt. Kurt rolls to the floor, but Brock goes after him and whips him into the steps. Big Show drags Brock back in and drops a leg for two. Show sets up for a superplex on Brock, but Angle distracts him long enough for Brock to hit a MOTHERFUCKING RUNNING POWERBOMB ON SHOW! Ho-lee shit! Angle saves the match with a chairshot to Brock and gets two of his own. Angle and Show fight to the floor where Angle ducks a swing and Angleslams Show through the announce table! Who would have thought that Show would be taking all the bumps?!? Angle and Brock crawl back in and stare each other down. Angle wins a slugfest (with Brock comically overselling). Brock scoops Angle up and tosses him over the top. They brawl on the outside for a bit before taking it back in. Angle ducks a swing and hits the full-rotation German Suplex! Brock slips out of the Angleslam and hits a spinebuster. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Brock tries to choke Angle out, so Big Show returns and hits a legdrop on both guys. NOW, he successfully hits the double chokeslam. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Brock gets his shoulder up. Show is pissed, so he grabs Brock for the chokeslam. Brock kicks him low, though. Angle locks in the Anklelock on Brock, Angleslams Show, and then Angleslams Brock for the win and the title at 17:29. This was pretty good when it was either Show/Brock or Brock/Angle. It had the usual problems with triple threat matches. Either you have to do finisher-save-finisher-save or you have to find a way to eliminate one guy for a while only to have him return and save at the last second. In a long match like this, that starts to become cliché. ***1/4

The 411:  If you cut out the McMahon stuff, this isn't a bad PPV at all. You'd think that with a dozen or so guys involved in the bar room brawl, they wouldn't have to pad a PPV and they could do Sable/Steph and Vince/Gowen on Smackdown. Sadly, it would lead to a big overblown feud between Steph and Vince where Steph was "fighting for her soul." The good outweighs the bad, though, and you really should check out Eddy/Benoit and the tag match, so this gets a recommendation. Thumbs up.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]