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WWF(E): A Year in Review - 2002
November 25, 2002 - by Darryl Craven

Lets break this year down, as it has been said over the course of this year 2002 was meant to be the new begining after the farce that was the WCW/ECW Invasion which was possibly the biggest letdown in the history of wrestling...

It started out well enough with Jericho being on top, one of the new line of "superstars" holding the title. And then there was the much publicised return of Triple H which most people thought they wanted only he turned out to be one of the worst things of 2002 with his over exposure and blatant favour within the company as well as his backstage politics dominating the wrestling news sites of the internet.

Things got from bad to worse in February with the arrival of the nWo, Hogan, Nash and Hall, once a formidable force in the industry were now just has beens and liabilities. Hogan stayed with the group until Wresltemania X-8 a month after arriving. Hall was fired shortly afterward and Kevin Nash has wrestled scarcely and has been on the sick list for 95% of his current tenure.

A weird thing happened right after Wrestlemania, the company decided to split its roster in two and have two exclusive shows for these two groups of wrestlers. RAW and Smackdown were the shows and the Heads of these shows were Ric Flair (Raw) and Vince McMahon (Smackdown) these would later be replaced by other people. You know the story. The only people who were allowed to wrestle both shows were the undisputed champ, by this time HHH.

May 6th 2002, a pivotal point in the Wrestling industry and history. The WWF (World Wreslting Federation) had been in a long legal battle with um, the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) over the rights to use the intials WWF. A court ruling here in good ol' Blightey meant that the WWF (World Wreslting Federation) now was banned from using the intials WWF. Something nobody who loved wrestling was happy about. People are now used to the term WWE but it still doesnt seem right to me.

One of the WWE's biggest and best stars walked away from the company in June, Stone Cold, sick of the crap storylines he was being asked to participate in. Some say selfish, some said he got out at the right time either way he had gone.

Then something good happened, the emergence of one Brock Lesnar from the ranks of OVW and became a force in the WWE winning not just the King of The Ring in June but also going on to win the WWE Undisputed title (which immediately became worthless - more on that in a minute) and then went on to defeat The Undertaker in a Hell in the Cell match before dropping the title to Big Show at Survivor Series.

The undisputed title was made worthless when the night after Summerslam on RAW Stephanie, (oh yeah shes back as well to confound things), made Brock "Exclusive" to Smackdown. Therefore Bischoff (Oh yeah hes back too) GAVE a title to Triple H saying it was the true world title and he was exclusive to RAW, needless to say this pissed a lot of people inside and outside the locker room off.

HLA and the Gay Wedding dont even deserve a description.

Then came back Kane after a 6 month injury lay off, we all wanted a monster Kane, you know, the Kane that first appeared in the WWE and kicked Takers ass for months. What did we get, a FUN Kane, a Kane that did spineroonies, a Kane that high fived his way back to the locker room, but this wasnt the worst of it.

The worst is yet to come.

Necrophilia. Yes, Necrophilia = Ratings apparently. Kane murdered someone called Katie Vick, ok this is bad enough, no it isnt not according to the RAW writing staff. HHH and Kane were having a fued when this whole Katie Vick crap came about and it was HHH who was saying that Kane was a necrophiliac after he murderd Katie Vick he apparently raped her. Only this still isnt the worst of it. A video segment of HHH in a Kane T-Shirt and Kane mask was seen in a funeral home and proceeded to rape a mannequin in a cheerleading outfit. Yes tasteful TV folks. Thankfully Kane was screwed out of winning the title and the angle was dropped.

Shawn Micheals made an apperance at Summerslam and defeated HHH in a street fight only HHH smashed a "sledghammer" into HBK's back and apparently confined him to a wheel chair, nope, HBK was on the comeback trail and was set in the elimination chamber with 5 other guys HHH, RVD, YJ2, Kane and Booker T. He won the title whoop de doo. Not Booker T, not Jericho not RVD or even Kane but a knackered man who just happened to be HHH's best friend.

To make things worse, Big Show is now undisputed Champion of Smackdown, probably the only bad thing about Smackdown at the moment.

That about brings us up to speed really, we're in the now, and have u noticed that theres next to nothing on the Smackdown side of things that have been bad???

2003 has a lot to do to make things better than they have been this year. Firstly give Angle, Benoit, Jericho and Booker T title reigns. Give us back feuds and decent storylines albeit cut down promos and build ups. Give us better matches such as Angle v Lesnar or Angle v Benoit, Edge v Eddie Guerrero both of whom have proved themselves very very useful this year. I would like to see more old school wrestling, a traditional Survivor Series, a deserving champion in someone like the 4 guys I have mentioned. I want to see less of HHH on RAW (or The HHH Show as it has been dubbed) and most of all I want to sit down and love watching wrestling again.

Predictions:

Royal Rumble Winner: Kurt Angle..
Wrestlemania Main Events: Chris Jericho vs Booker T AND Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar..
King of The Ring Winner: Randy Orton..
Summerslam Main Event: Booker T vs RVD AND Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit..
Survivor Series Main Event: Chris Benoit vs Edge AND Triple H (well hes not had one all year) vs Stone Cold (I figure he will be back before long)..
I also think there will be a reformation of the 4 Horsemen with:
- Ric Flair (obviously)
- Triple H
- Randy Orton
- Dave Batista

Big Players in 2003:

Kurt Angle
Brock Lesnar
Chris Jericho
Chris Benoit
Eddie Guerrero
Edge
Booker T
Rob Van Dam
Randy Orton
John Cena

I hope I am correct and god I hope we dont see the proposed Vince McMahon v Hulk Hogan Main evert at Wrestlemania 19. I hope I can love wrestling like I used to again, and I hope 2003 is better (it cant be worse surely) than 2002.

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