WWE Insurrexion 2003 Review

Another show that I’ve never seen before, and another show there might be a good reason for not seeing.

Women’s Championship Match:

Jazz(c) w/Teddy Long vs. Trish Stratus

Trish was still really good her but Jazz had none of the aggression that I really liked from singles match at Backlash. Jazz’s control segment was just flat as she didn’t really do anything that made her look like the badass bitch she was supposed to be playing. Trish’s comeback was at least really good as her performance seemed to be just as good as their Backlash match. The crowd was behind as she did a good job of getting sympathy and support. I’m not going to act like I really remember a lot of Jazz matches but I’m not sure which Jazz we normally see, I just know she was very unimpressive here.

*½

Intercontinental Championship Match:

Christian(c) vs. Booker T

Not a very impressive match. The match is all Booker T for a really long time to start things off. It wasn’t too interesting but it made sense considering Christian had recently won the title in a battle royal that he had already been eliminated from. So he was purposely made to look totally outmatched the entire time. He got some offense in through cheating and luck but there was never really a time when Booker didn’t look like he was significantly better. Booker’s comeback wasn’t anything special either. I won’t say it was terrible but there really isn’t a lot of praise I can give this. For the amount of time it had I was hoping for a lot more.

**

World Tag Team Championship Match:

Rob Van Dam and Kane(c) vs. La Resistance

This is a house show match. RVD and Kane kick some ass to start things off, we see a weak and short control segment on RVD, a hot tag, and they take it home a minute later. The match was sloppy, La Resistance had terrible looking offense, and at no point did they ever look like they had a chance in this match.I bet had you been to a house show they had on this tour of England you would have seen the same exact match. La Resistance wasn’t good and Kane and RVD phoned it in.

*

Rico vs. Goldust

Another house show match. It was OK. Rico mostly did some weak looking kicks early on. The match did make me laugh when Rico hit the softest backhand slap to Goldust ever, it was done intentionally I’m sure and it was just hilarious. They pick things up a little at the end and we got a minute or two of what I would call good but for the most part this was something you would see on a house show or Heat. I literally watched this 5 minutes ago and I remember almost nothing.

*¼

Rodney Mack, Christopher Nowinski, and Teddy Long vs. Bubba-Ray, D-Von, and Spike Dudley

This was pretty bad, the heels just weren’t good in the ring at all and there is only so much you can expect the Dudleys to get out of bad opponents. They go back and forth for while in some forgettable exchanges before the heels work the isolation segment on Spike before a not so hot tag is made to Bubba. There’s nothing good about that other than the fact that it was kept short. Another house show match, and a bad one at that. Teddy Long wasn’t even entertaining as the manager that was stuck in the match.

½*

Scott Steiner vs. Test w/Stacy Keibler

Special Referee: Val Venis

Yes this was really the semi-main event. It was terrible and I don’t think it’s really worth explaining why. The match was best summed up when Stacy threw a towel at Test’s face and he sold it like he was punched in the face and this allowed Steiner to start his comeback.

¼*

Street Fight for the World Heavyweight Championship:

Triple H(c) w/Ric Flair vs. Kevin Nash w/Shawn Michaels

Well this was comfortably the best match of the night. Not that it was great but it was honestly the only match that I got any enjoyment out of. Flair was just the man here. Hebner tells everyone that he will eject Michaels or Flair if they get involved. So naturally Flair jumps Nash in the opening minutes, which brings Michaels into the match as well. With 3 minutes Flair is bleeding buckets and is soon forced out of the ring by officials. It was pretty hilarious. Triple H and Nash were OK on their own as they just fought everywhere and Triple H did the always smart strategy of going after Nash’s legs for a little bit. They weren’t alone for all that long before more fuckery ensued. Flair makes his triumphant return, followed by Michaels, there were some ref bumps, every took a finsiher, I don’t know all sorts of crazy shit was going on. It was a total clusterfuck but I enjoyed it because stuff was actually happening in a match. They had a solid 15 minute match that was at least exciting and entertaining. Maybe I’m rating it higher because everything else was so bad but I thought as a stand alone match it was pretty good.

**¾

Well that sucked. Just unpleasant to sit through. Jericho and Austin even had a bad highlight reel together. It was about 10% as funny as the classic interview that they did after Raw from around the same time period. This PPV is a good example of why you shouldn’t book a PPV and have 3 of the best workers on the roster (Jericho, Michaels, Flair) not be booked in matches.