As I write this column, we are just hours away from the New Year, which means another year of WWE wrestling has nearly passed us by yet again. So, was 2002 a good year for WWE wrestling? Well, I would say "yes and no".
Good things about 2002: Hulk Hogan's return, along with the NWO (hey it was exciting at the very beginning of the NWO's run, and the hype for their return was huge), Hogan's history making match with The Rock at Wrestlemania, Eric Bischoff's appearance on Raw as the General Manager, the court ruling with The World Wildlife Fund that forced the McMahons get rid of the WWF initials (it was good for me, as I got loads of old and new videos and DVDs for cheap), Shawn Michaels' return to active competition, and the exciting Elimination Chamber Match at Survivor Series, amongst other things.
Bad things about 2002: The c**k up that was the NWO "revival", Triple H's selfish slaughter of Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam and Booker T, the court case with the real WWF (it cost the McMahon's a ton of money, and is far from over), Kane's new look and attitude, "HLA", the amount of cheap finish's at Unforgiven, the Triple H/Kane/Katie Vick saga, the Al Wilson/Torrie Wilson/Dawn Marie saga, and The Undertaker's selfish attitude that screwed up the finish of the Unforgiven main event, to name but a few things.
Wrestler Of The Year: Kurt Angle
It's been quite a year for our Olympic Hero. He came up short in the Royal Rumble, but was the last man to be eliminated (by Triple H of course). Then with HHH's soon-to-be ex-wife (at the time) by his side, he took on HHH at No Way Out and predictably beat him (Steph was the guest ref after all). However, he lost his no 1 contendership back to Helmsley in a re-match (surely it would have made more sense to have a triple threat match at Wrestlemania with Angle, HHH and Y2J). Instead, Kurt was put against Kane in a good bout that had little storyline build-up and a badly executed finish. At Backlash, Kurt took on and beat Edge in a great match, which was part of an entertaining but short feud. (Kurt lost his hair to Edge at Judgement Day).
At King Of The Ring, Kurt beat Hulk Hogan cleanly via ankle-lock submission in a better than expected match (thanks to Angle). At Summerslam, he beat Rey Mysterio in a perplexing short feud. After that, he had a tag team partnership and rivalry with Chris Benoit, which gave our Olympic Hero a Smackdown! tag title reign (although a place in the tag division was a waste of our man's talents, IMO). Oddly enough, a week before Armageddon Kurt turned babyface and beat The Big Show for the SD! Undisputed Title, before turning heel again and admitting that he had been in cahoots with Paul Heyman for a while (?)Still, despite this confusing nonsense at the end of the year, Angle has been consistently superb all year long, on the mic aswell as in the ring. I hope he decides to not go to the 2004 Olympics after all.
Worst Wrestler Of The Year: The Big Show
A few people would be cruel and vote TE2 winner Jackie Gayda, based on her performance in that abysmal mixed tag on Raw. But not many people get it right first time, do they? Anyway, The Big Show has been his usual boring, lazy self this year. He was involved with the weaker, watered-down NWO, and has shown no improvement in the ring.
Amazingly, all this led to a world title reign in November, with the The Big Slow beating Brock Lesnar with assistance from Paul Heyman. Luckily for us, The Show's reign was fleeting and he dropped the belt to Kurt Angle at Armageddon. But, The Big Show is still involved in the title picture, which is very worrying for the fans.
Babyface Of The Year: Hulk Hogan
He came back as a heel (as part of the NWO) but the crowd just couldn't hate the Hulkster. This was proven at Wrestlemania when the crowd turned against The Rock and cheered Hogan more! The inevitable babyface turn soon followed, as well as a brief title reign. While none of Hogan's matches have been abysmal this year, his match with Triple H at Backlash was disappointing and his Judgement Day clash with Undertaker was pointless. But Hogan still has the appeal with the fans and can still work good matches with the right opponents. Plus he's willing to put over younger talent like The Rock, Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar.
Hogan had a brief and pointless tag title run with Edge, and was last seen in a WWE ring in August, putting over Brock Lesnar. Apparently, after that he had a contractual dispute with Vince, and then he rubbed the WWE up the wrong way with his autobiography. But with rumours rampant of a 2003 return, you'd be a fool to count a Hogan return out just yet.
Heel Of The Year: Eric Bischoff
As the former owner of WCW, he's despised by the pro-WWE fans and plays off his heel heat well. He doesn't even have to say or do anything. Just stand there with that smug grin. I can't wait for the Vince McMahon VS Eric Bischoff feud part 2.
Character Of The Year: Kurt Angle
Like last year (and the year before) Angle has been hilarious this year. Highlights include "I just got beaten by a freakin' 12 year old!" (on his loss to Rey Mysterio), "Sorry son, you have to be this tall to touch Kurt Angle" (another joke at Rey's expense) and "I was winning NCAA titles when you were playing Hungry freakin' Hippos, buster!" (to Brock Lesnar).
Female Wrestler Of The Year: Molly Holly
The "Mighty Molly" gimmick was getting her nowhere, so a change of character was needed. Molly developed into a RTC (Right To Censor) like figure who was disgusted with the other WWE women (especially Trish). She died her hair and changed her colours to plain black and white. She also had some good matches with Trish, but the feud got well past it's sell-by-date. The same goes for the big butt jokes at Molly's expense.
Molly is probably the best women grappler there, but after speaking out against the company's "HLA" publicity stunt in September, Molly was forced to drop her Women's title to Trish, and didn't get on PPV (and rarely got on Raw) for the rest of the year. While Trish and Victoria were impressing with their feud, Molly was left floundering. With the WWE intent on pushing one women's feud at a time, it's questionable whether Molly will have a bigger and better 2003.
Diva Of The Year: Trish Stratus
Trish is the hottest of the divas in my opinion and her risks in the ring certainly haven't damaged her looks. Trish has greatly improved her ring work this year. Many thought her match with Jazz at Royal Rumble wouldn't be much good, but they were proved wrong. Trish hasn't been afraid of dangerous bumps this year either (or pointless mud matches). After recovering from her eye problems after the mud match, Trish needed a fresh feud, and got it with Victoria. Intent on doing her best to get the feud over, Trish took a vicious chair-shot to the head from Victoria, and even mixed it up in a entertaining Hardcore Match. While their matches haven't been consistently great, the feud has been entertaining and has shown just how far Trish (and the women's division) has come in the last year.
Match Of The Year: The Rock VS Hollywood Hulk Hogan (Wrestlemania)
True, HHH VS HBK (Summerslam) was one hell of a match but did you really think you would ever see The Rock tangle with Hulk Hogan? True, it wasn't the greatest pure wrestling match of all time, but for emotion and entertainment value, hell just the sight of seeing them square off in the ring, it won't be beaten.
Worst Match Of The Year: Trish Stratus and Bradshaw VS Jackie Gayda and Chris Nowinski (Raw, July 8)
Poor Jackie Gayda managed to screw up every move possible (she missed Trish in the ropes, and didn't take a top-rope bulldog properly). It was so bad that the crowd booed the women and both girls were in tears after the match (as were the fans). In fairness to Jackie, she was inexperienced and had rarely performed on a live show before. I question the WWE's decision to put her out there so soon.
Most Shocking Moment Of The Year: Eric Bishoff's appearance on Raw (July)
It's a moment every wrestling fan thought they'd never see. True, that has been said of The Rock VS Hogan at Wrestlemania, but this moment was even MORE shocking. After competing with Vince Mcmahon during the "Monday Night Wars" and nearly putting the WWF out of business at one point, Eric Bischoff walked past Booker T on Raw!
I kept thinking that that didn't actually happen, but when Vince Mcmahon introduced "Easy E" as the new GM of Raw, I knew that it was indeed true: Eric Bishoff had joined the WWE! Infact, 5 months on, and I'm still a little shell-shocked. Never say never!
Most Offensive Storyline Of The Year: Triple H/Kane/Katie Vick
This year has been exceptionally bad for scraping the barrel of poor taste in a quest for ratings, but as far as sickening and low storylines go, this one took the biscuit. It started with Triple H accusing Kane of being a murderer (apparently, he murdered a girl called Katie Vick after a party, despite the fact that he was meant to be a burned recluse who didn't go to parties and pick up women). As fans worlwide groaned in unison, the WWE took it further and had Triple H insinuate that Kane had raped the girl after killing her.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the WWE then ran a disgusting angle where HHH went into a (knowing WWE, a real) Funeral home dressed as Kane and proceeded to you-know-what a dummy dressed up to look like the body of the dead girl. Thanks to Sky Sports' editing of the segment, UK fans were spared the site of HHH undressing the "corpse" and throwing "her brains" at the camera lens. The feud came to end with a Casket Match between Kane and HHH on Raw. This ill-judged publicity stunt only succeeded in even more people switching off WWE programming, making fools of Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn, and by the looks of thing at the moment, wrecking the career of Kane.
Card Of The Year: Royal Rumble
The WWE produced 3 very strong cards in 2002: Royal Rumble, Summerslam and Survivor Series. Out of all 3, I enjoyed RR the most. There wasn't one bad match on the show and the Edge/William Regal, Vince McMahon/Ric Flair and Trish Stratus/Jazz matches exceeded expectations. And despite the predictability of HHH winning the Royal Rumble, the rumble itself was very exciting and action-packed.
Previously posted on Smash Wrestling:
http://www.firetank.com/smashwrestling/
