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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Oct 1, 2024 4:53:40 GMT 1
Part LX: WWF Royal Rumble 2002
So I'm going to do something a little different for this post, since the 2002 Royal Rumble Match is deciding a new WWF Champion. I'm going to go over the first five matches on this six match PPV card (and all of the happenings surrounding them). Then at some point in the next few days, I'll make my post on the actual Royal Rumble itself. I figured that might be a better way to do it, since in this series, I usually post the results straight away. This way, I won't spoil the result of the Royal Rumble Match right out of the gate.
Just like in OTL, this show takes place on January 20th, 2002 from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
1.) Non-Title Steel Cage Match - Winner Advances To The Royal Rumble Match - Shane McMahon def. WWF Hardcore Champion Malice (with Father James Mitchell)
On the January 1st edition of Tuesday Night RAW, we finally got the conclusion of the rivalry between The Disciples Of The New Church and X-Factor. They had an Anything Goes Match where the losing unit was forced to disband. It was a wild and crazy match, but when the dust settled, The Disciples Of The New Church (represented by Brian Lee, Malice, Slash, and Vampiro) defeated the X-Factor team of X-Pac, Albert, Justin Credible, and Kid Romeo to keep that stable alive. However, in a bit of a shocking revelation, they formed an alliance of sorts with a returning Vince McMahon just one week later. Essentially, Vince had enlisted them in his war against his son, Shane McMahon. The first thing Vince did was give Malice, the biggest and toughest member of The Disciples Of The New Church, a shot at the WWF Hardcore Title. On the January 9th SmackDown, Malice would end up taking the title from Shane, who put up a good fight against Malice before ultimately succumbing to superior numbers when others members of Father James Mitchell's crew got involved. The next thing Vince wanted to do was to take away Shane's spot in the Royal Rumble, or at the very least, weaken him to the point that he'd barely be a factor. While Shane had already declared for the Royal Rumble Match, it was announced by Vince (not long after Shane lost the WWF Hardcore Title) that Shane would face Malice again....this time inside a Steel Cage....at the Royal Rumble PPV. The winner would advance to the Royal Rumble Match. Safe to say that Vince stacked the odds against his son, but despite taking a brutal beating at the hands of Malice, Shane would escape with the victory to keep his spot in the main event.
2.) Eight-Man Tag - The Bone Street Krew (The Undertaker, Rikishi, & Kronik [Brian Adams & Bryan Clark]) def. Shawn Michaels, The Rock, & The Samoan Destruction Crew (Jamal & Rosey)
Oh yes....your eyes are not deceiving you. The other notorious backstage alliance from the WWF in the mid-90's has taken center stage, in front of the cameras. I had mentioned in my previous posts that The Undertaker had turned heel. Well, following the events of Vengeance 2001, The Undertaker decided that it was time for him and his friends to take back control. On the December 19th edition of SmackDown, a dream tag team match took place for the WWF World Tag Team Titles, as Shawn Michaels and The Rock (who buried the hatchet after their feud from earlier in the year) won the titles from Steve Austin and Triple H. However, after the match, all four men were attacked by the group known as The Bone Street Krew. The Undertaker, Rikishi (newly heel), The Godfather (newly heel), KroniK (yes, I know Brian Adams was a member in OTL and Bryan Clark wasn't, but I wanted to keep KroniK together here), and a returning Savio Vega attacked all four guys and, much like The Disciples Of The New Church, formed an unofficial alliance with Vince McMahon. This led to a match on the January 8th Tuesday Night RAW where Rikishi and The Undertaker won the WWF World Tag Team Titles from Shawn Michaels and The Rock. Hurt by the betrayal of one of his family members, The Rock decided to list the help of some of his other relatives....Jamal and Rosey of the Samoan Destruction Squad....to help them fight back against The Bone Street Krew. An eight-man tag was set up for the PPV, and while The Undertaker's side emerged victorious, the war was far from over.
3.) Psycho Sid def. Tank Abbott (with Vince Russo)
This match essentially stems from the events of Vengeance 2001. In a tag team match where the WWF Intercontinental Title was on the line, Triple H (teaming with Stephanie McMahon) won the title from Psycho Sid when he pinned his partner, Vince Russo. Understandably upset, Sid spent the next few weeks trying to go after Russo, who decided to bring Tank Abbott back into the fold to be his protection. So this is basically Sid vs. Vince Russo's hired muscle. The match itself would only be a few minutes, and in the end, Sid would score the victory.
4.) WWF Light Heavyweight Title - Jason Jett def. Brian Christopher (c)
I decided to have two buffer matches with the lower card titles in the lead-up to the Royal Rumble Match. The first of those sees Jason Jett (the former EZ Money) defeating Brian Christopher to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Title. Jett had been building some momentum over the last few months, and this was sort of the culmination of that. Definitely not a great night for New Blood, as their leader's title reign gets cut a little short.
5.) WWF Women's Title - Fatal Four-Way Match - Jazz (c) def. Ivory, Jacqueline, & Molly Holly
Finally, we have another title defense for Jazz, as she wins a Fatal Four-Way Match against three of her previous challengers....Ivory, Jacqueline, and Molly Holly. Jazz has certainly proven to be a dominant champion, and she's showing no signs of slowing down.
There you have it! The undercard for the Royal Rumble 2002 PPV. Tune in next time as I go over the Royal Rumble Match itself. Who will be the next WWF Champion?
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Oct 3, 2024 5:43:28 GMT 1
Alright, it's time to go over all of the happenings from the 2002 Royal Rumble Match! Of course, as I've mentioned already, this match is for the vacant WWF Championship, and is happening ten years after the famous 1992 Royal Rumble Match that saw Ric Flair win the vacant WWF Title. Triple H won the 2002 Royal Rumble Match in OTL. Will he be able to pull off the win in this version of events as well, or will someone else bring home the gold? Let's get to it!
The 1st and 2nd Entrants of the 2002 Royal Rumble Match are The Rock and Rikishi (respectively) and they pretty much picked up where they left off from earlier in the night in the Eight-Man Tag. Bone Street Krew member The Godfather was the 3rd Entrant, and helped Rikishi double team The Rock until Shawn Michaels came out as the 4th Entrant to help even the odds. Shortly after Michaels made his entrance, the two sides spilled out to the floor (nobody went over the top rope, however), and they started brawling in the crowd and all over the arena. This left Big Bossman (the 5th Entrant) all alone in the ring waiting for the 6th Entrant, which turned out to be a returning Goldust! At the start of the year, Big Bossman and Bull Buchanan had actually put Dustin Rhodes out of commission, so this is him making his return (and the first appearance as Goldust proper since I believe 1998) as he attempts to get some revenge.
While the first four entrants were still brawling on the floor, the ring started to fill up a bit. Billy Gunn was the 7th Entrant into the match, while Al Snow was the 8th Entrant. The next notable surprise was none other than Sabu, who entered the match as the 9th Entrance. Sabu was coming off a four year run in WCW, and hadn't made an appearance in the WWF since the ECW "invasion" of 1997. After getting some weapons in the ring, he quickly took the fight to everyone in the ring, as well as the 10th Entrant, Justin Credible. It was shortly after Credible's entrance that the first official elimination of the night when Goldust finally tossed out Big Bossman. X-Pac and Albert entering at 11th and 12th respectively, leading to a brief X-Factor reunion after they were forced to disband earlier in the month.
Business picked up in a major way as The Undertaker made his appearance as the 13th Entrant. The Deadman quickly cleaned house, tossing out Goldust, Billy Gunn, Al Snow, and Justin Credible. The next two entrants (14th and 15th) were Faarooq and Bradshaw of The APA. Faarooq went after The Undertaker upon his entrance, and after Bradshaw entered, they tried to double-team The Undertaker, and they were briefly successful before The Deadman tossed out Faarooq. Kicking off the second half of the match as the 16th Entrant was one of the co-winners of the first season of Tough Enough....Maven. Yes, Tough Enough still exists in this alternate timeline, and the results of the first season pretty much mirrored the results from OTL (Maven and Nidia were the two winners). Maven was immediately taken down by The Undertaker, but he became distracted when he saw his Bone Street Krew stablemates brawling with Shawn Michaels and The Rock near the entrance stage. As he tried to call them back to the ring (so that they could gang up on and eliminate those two), Maven connects with a dropkick and sends The Undertaker over the top rope for the elimination! A shocked and incensed Undertaker then gets back in, beats up Maven, and eliminates him before leaving. This pretty much unfolds very similarly to what happened in the actual Royal Rumble Match from 2002.
Shortly after Vampiro made his entrance into the match as the 17th Entrant (the lone Disciples Of The New Church representative), the first four entrants that have been brawling since the beginning of the match finally made their way back to the ring. The 18th Entrant saw the return of another wrestler who was coming off a WCW run....Bam Bam Bigelow! This is the first time Bigelow's appeared in the WWF since late 1998, when he jumped to WCW for a run that lasted a tad over three years. Business would pick up once again as Steve Austin would enter the match as the 19th Entrant, and he immediately made an impact when he tossed out Albert. Following Austin as the 20th Entrant was another famous beer drinking wrestler who was ALSO making his return to the WWF after an extended WCW run....The Sandman! Now The Sandman actually had a bit of a longer run in the WWF following the closure of ECW, as he was in the company for around a year before leaving for WCW at the very end of 1999. His run in WCW lasted about two years, and now he's back in the WWF. As you would expect, The Sandman does his long entrance, and that leads to him sharing some beer in Steve Austin in the ring.
With everyone else down or brawling on the floor (in the case of Shawn Michaels, The Rock, and the Bone Street Krew members), Val Venis....now back to his original gimmick....was the 21st Entrant as he made his first appearance since the breakup of Right To Censor. This led to a brief comedy spot with Austin and The Sandman before the two of them teamed up to dump out Venis. Kane, the current WWF European Champion (he won the title from Ken Shamrock on the January 2nd SmackDown) was out next as the 22nd Entrant. Shortly after Kane entered, X-Pac managed to eliminate Sabu, but then he was eliminated by his former parter/rival Kane. Tripe H was the 23rd Entrant, and got a couple of more names tossed out after he entered. One of the original four was finally eliminated when The Rock tossed out The Godfather, and then Bam Bam Bigelow was eliminated by Triple H. Up next was Shane McMahon as the 24th Entrant, and he was clearly still not 100% after the Steel Cage Match with Malice from earlier in the next. It was at this point that Shawn Michaels tossed out Vampiro (bookmark that one for a future post). As you can probably tell, this match was backloaded with a lot of big names. Psycho Sid was the 25th Entrant, a returning Lex Luger was the 26th Entrant, Hollywood Hulk Hogan (making his first appearance since September) was the 27th Entrant, and Jeff Jarrett (the reason why this match was for the title in the first place) was the 28th Entrant. After Jarrett's entrance, we got a couple more eliminations. The Sandman was tossed by Jeff Jarrett, Lex Luger was tossed by Psycho Sid, and Bradshaw was tossed by Jeff Jarrett, in that order.
Vince McMahon came out as the 29th Entrant. Following his son's victory in the Steel Cage Match earlier in the night, Vince had done a backstage interview where he said that he would ensure that Shane wouldn't win the Royal Rumble, and it seemed that entering the match himself was part of that plan. However, he didn't count on the 30th and final Entrant getting in his way. That entrant was Mick Foley! So at this point, the remaining wrestlers in the match are Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Jeff Jarrett, Kane, Mick Foley, Psycho Sid, Rikishi, Shane McMahon, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, and Vince McMahon. Quite the star-studded list of names.
After Foley entered he went after Vince, but his focus on going after Vince eventually left him wide open for a guitar shot from Jeff Jarrett, who then tossed him out. Jarrett himself was then tossed out by Psycho Sid. Incensed by his elimination, Jarrett tried to grab Sid by the arm to pull him out. While Jarrett wasn't able to get Sid out by himself, this action left Sid wide open for Hulk Hogan to send Sid over the top rope (a bit of a callback to 1992 in some ways). Following that, Rikishi scored two big eliminations as he tossed out both Kane and Shawn Michaels, but then he was eliminated by the combined efforts of Shane McMahon and The Rock. After Rikishi was eliminated, Vince ordered that he help him go after Shane (remember Vince has an alliance of sorts with the BSK). Rikishi obliged, and the two put Shane through the announce desk on the floor. Not long after that, The Rock was tossed out by Hogan, and then Triple H tossed out Hogan. Vince had actually started trash talking at The Rock following his elimination, and Rock responded with a Rock Bottom to Vince on the floor.
At this point, the final two guys in the ring were Steve Austin and Triple H. The fans got really excited to see these two go at it, and moments later, they did just that. They had a back and forth exchange for a few minutes before a dramatic battle by the ropes led to Triple H's elimination. A recovered Vince McMahon then came from behind and (in a replay on the 1999 Royal Rumble) eliminated Steve Austin! It looked as though history was going to repeat itself, and Vince McMahon was going to win his 2nd Royal Rumble and the WWF Title. However, he had forgotten about his son. As Vince was celebrating what he believed to be his victory, Shane McMahon came from behind and tossed out his father! Shane McMahon is the winner of the 2002 Royal Rumble Match, and the new WWF Champion!
The PPV goes off the air with Shane celebrating with the title in a storm of confetti as Vince looks on, visibly upset that his son got the better of him.
I'll wait to post the actual entrant/elimination list for a few days, just so everyone can go read through this unspoiled.
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Post by Josh Spicer on Oct 3, 2024 5:58:53 GMT 1
Damn. The desperation from the WWF.
No wonder they lost the wars lol
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Oct 3, 2024 15:14:39 GMT 1
Damn. The desperation from the WWF. No wonder they lost the wars lol |
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Oct 18, 2024 2:11:49 GMT 1
Here is the full list of entrants and eliminations for the 2002 Royal Rumble Match:
1.) [25] The Rock by Hollywood Hulk Hogan
2.) [24] Rikishi by Shane McMahon & The Rock
3.) [13] The Godfather by The Rock
4.) [23] Shawn Michaels by Rikishi
5.) [1] Big Bossman by Goldust
6.) [2] Goldust by The Undertaker
7.) [3] Billy Gunn by The Undertaker
8.) [4] Al Snow by The Undertaker
9.) [11] Sabu by X-Pac
10.) [5] Justin Credible by The Undertaker
11.) [12] X-Pac by Kane
12.) [9] Albert by Steve Austin
13.) [7] The Undertaker by Maven
14.) [6] Faarooq by The Undertaker
15.) [18] Bradshaw by Jeff Jarrett
16.) [8] Maven by The Undertaker
17.) [15] Vampiro by Shawn Michaels
18.) [14] Bam Bam Bigelow by Triple H
19.) [28] Steve Austin by Vince McMahon
20.) [16] The Sandman by Jeff Jarrett
21.) [10] Val Venis by Steve Austin & The Sandman
22.) [22] Kane by Rikishi
23.) [27] Triple H by Steve Austin
24.) [WINNER] Shane McMahon
25.) [21] Psycho Sid by Hollywood Hulk Hogan
26.) [17] Lex Luger by Psycho Sid
27.) [26] Hollywood Hulk Hogan by Triple H
28.) [20] Jeff Jarrett by Psycho Sid
29.) [29] Vince McMahon by Shane McMahon
30.) [19] Mick Foley by Jeff Jarrett
I should have my post on No Way Out 2002 out sometime in the next few days.
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Oct 24, 2024 2:35:41 GMT 1
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Oct 26, 2024 18:40:53 GMT 1
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Post by dxvsnwo1994 on Oct 30, 2024 4:46:50 GMT 1
Part LXI: WWF No Way Out 2002
WWF No Way Out 2002February 17th, 2002 - Bradley Center - Milwaukee, WisconsinSunday Night Heat1.) Super Dragon def. Justin CrediblePPV1.) WWF Hardcore Title - Hardcore Invitational - Malice (c) def. Big Bossman, Bull Buchanan, Goldust, KroniK (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark), Sabu, Steve Blackman, The APA (Bradshaw & Faarooq), The Sandman, & Vampiro2.) WWF Light Heavyweight Title - Brian Christopher def. Jason Jett (c)3.) Special Guest Referee: Chris Candido - The Triple Threat (Bam Bam Bigelow & Shane Douglas) def. New Blood (Julio Dinero & Kid Kash)4.) Steve Austin def. Buff Bagwell via DQ5.) WWF Intercontinental Title - Jeff Jarrett (c) def. Psycho Sid6.) Biker Chain Match - The Undertaker def. Maven7.) WWF Title - Scott Steiner def. Shane McMahon (c)8.) #1 Contender's Elimination Chamber Match - Triple H def. WWF European Champion Kane, Rikishi, Shawn Michaels, The Rock, & X-Pac So a lot of things have gone down in the weeks between Royal Rumble and No Way Out. Certainly an eventful start to the year for the WWF, as they acquired several talents who contracts with WCW had recently expired. A number of those talents (such as Bam Bam Bigelow, Sabu, and The Sandman) made their return to the WWF in the Royal Rumble Match itself. In the cases of those names, their contracts with WCW expired at the end of December 2001. At the start of February, more talents made the jump after their contracts with WCW expired at the end of January. By far the biggest acquisition of the bunch was a man who, only a few months prior, had been the WCW World Heavyweight Champion....none other than "Big Poppa Pump" himself, Scott Steiner. At WCW's Mayhem PPV in January, Steiner had lost a Loser Leaves WCW Triple Cage Match to Booker T, so the move to the WWF wasn't exactly unexpected. Joining Scott Steiner in making the jump to the WWF would be his brother Rick Steiner (marking the first time since 1994 that the brothers had appeared in the WWF), Buff Bagwell (a longtime WCW stalwart), and a young Mark Jindrak (who had been part of the Natural Born Thrillers stable). They all made their presence known on the February 5th edition of Tuesday Night RAW, which is the first WWF television program they could actually appear on. Following Shane McMahon's WWF Title win in the 2002 Royal Rumble Match, Vince McMahon had come out in the ensuing week or so and proclaimed that he would be bringing in an invading force from outside the WWF to destroy his son and to take the WWF Title from him. On that February 5th RAW, Vince put Shane in a non-title match against Jeff Jarrett. The match was interrupted when Buff Bagwell, Mark Jindrak, and Rick Steiner (along with Lex Luger) got in the ring and swarmed Shane. Jarrett joined in on the assault, and not far behind was Scott Steiner, who was the clear leader/centerpiece of this invading army. Vince would then announce that Scott Steiner's in-ring return to the WWF would be at No Way Out, where he would face his son Shane for the WWF Title. The actual bout itself would certainly be fascinating one, in terms of how it might play out. Shane would fight valiantly, but in the end, a timely interference spot from Vince (who had a steel pipe in his hand) would seal Shane's fate, as Scott Steiner then forced Shane to pass out in the Steiner Recliner to capture the WWF Championship. So in just his first match back in the WWF, Big Poppa Pump was already at the top of the mountain.To rewind a bit, something that Vince McMahon announced shortly after the Royal Rumble PPV was that, because the Royal Rumble Match was used to crown a new WWF Champion, a match was needed to decide who would challenge for the WWF Title in the main event of WrestleMania. Vince then revealed his latest diabolical invention....a match that would be designed to punish the bodies of some of the top stars of the WWF as they scratched and clawed for just an opportunity at the company's top prize. He announced the creation of the Elimination Chamber Match, and that there would be six qualifying matches that would take place on WWF television to determine the lineup. On the January 29th edition of Tuesday Night RAW, the first three qualifying matches would take place. The Rock would defeat The Undertaker (thanks to a little help from Maven), Triple H would defeat Vampiro, and Rikishi would defeat Psycho Sid (after Jeff Jarrett got involved). On the January 30th SmackDown, the final three spots would be decided in the second set of qualifying matches. Shawn Michaels defeated Jeff Jarrett (with Sid getting involved to get some revenge on Jarrett for the night before), Kane defeated Bam Bam Bigelow, and X-Pac defeated Bradshaw from The APA. X-Pac was originally scheduled to face Steve Austin, but earlier in the night, Austin had been found unconscious backstage after an apparent attack (it would later be revealed that the yet-to-debut Steiner Army had taken out Austin....off-screen of course, as they weren't able to actually appear for the WWF until February 1st.....on orders from Vince McMahon). So the lineup for the inaugural Elimination Chamber Match would be Kane, Rikishi, Shawn Michaels, The Rock, Triple H, and X-Pac. The match would ultimately come down to The Rock and Triple H, and when the dust settled, Triple H would emerge victorious, thus securing himself a shot at Scott Steiner's WWF Title at WrestleMania. The order of entry and elimination for the first-ever Elimination Chamber Match were as follows (entry order listed first, with elimination order in brackets, similar to the Royal Rumble Match):1.) [4] Shawn Michaels by Triple H2.) [1] X-Pac by Kane3.) [5] The Rock by Triple H4.) [3] Kane by Shawn Michaels5.) [WINNER] Triple H6.) [2] Rikishi by The RockTheir were a couple of matches on this No Way Out PPV that were set up by what happened in the Elimination Chamber qualifying matches. One of the most shocking moments of the Royal Rumble Match was Maven surprise elimination of The Undertaker. While The Undertaker had considered the matter settled after he got back in the ring and eliminated Maven anyway, Maven continued to provide The Deadman, feeling emboldened by what happened in the Royal Rumble Match. He prevented The Undertaker from using a steel chair in the aforementioned Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match (which led to The Rock's victory), and then...in another shocking upset....Maven and his Tough Enough Trainer Al Snow captured the WWF World Tag Team Titles from The Undertaker and Rikishi on the February 5th Tuesday Night RAW after The Rock and Shawn Michaels thwarted attempts by The Bone Street Krew to interfere. The Undertaker had just about enough of this young upstart at this point, but thanks to Vince McMahon, he would get the change to eviscerate Maven at No Way Out, as the two would do battle in a Biker Chain Match, with Al Snow handcuffed to one of the ring posts at ringside (so that he would be forced to watch his pupil get destroyed). The match did end up being a VERY one sided affair, and while Maven did get some shots in here and there, The Undertaker won handily. However, after the match, The Undertaker would continue his assault on both Maven and a still-handcuffed Al Snow. This would bring out Mick Foley, who tried to stop this beatdown. Unfortunately for Foley, he would be on the receiving end of an attack by The Undertaker and some of the other members of The Bone Street Krew. There's no question that The Bone Street Krew made a violent and bloody statement in this moment, but unbeknownst to them at that moment, they had awakened something in Foley that had been dormant for many years.The other match on the PPV that came out of the Elimination Chamber qualifiers was Jeff Jarrett vs. Psycho Sid for the WWF Intercontinental Title. By the time the Royal Rumble Match came around, Sid had turned babyface, and was focused on going after Jarrett as well as Vince Russo. After the two cost each other their Elimination Chamber Qualifying bouts, they were put into a Triple Threat Match with Triple H for the WWF Intercontinental Title on the February 6th SmackDown. Triple H was removed from the equation as he was dragged into a brawl with Steiner's Army after they got involved in the title bout. This left Jarrett and Sid alone in the ring, and it was a low blow from Russo that allowed Jarrett to capitalize and capture the WWF Intercontinental Title. Thus, a one-on-one match was set for No Way Out. Sid came close to winning the title, but once again, Jarrett managed to cheat his way to victory. It's safe to say that the feud between these two is not over, as Sid will continue to look for revenge on Jeff Jarrett and Vince Russo.After it was revealed that The Steiner Army were the ones who cost Steve Austin his chance at qualifying for the Elimination Chamber Match, he was begging for any of them to step up and fight him. The one who would take the challenge wound up being the always cocky, always arrogant Buff Bagwell. Their match at the PPV would ultimately end in a DQ after Lex Luger, Rick Steiner, and Mark Jindrak ran down and attacked Austin. Fortunately, The APA and The Sandman would run out to make the save for Austin, and the four babyfaces sent the heels packing.New Blood would be involved in a couple of matches on the undercard. The first of those saw Brian Christopher regain the WWF Light Heavyweight Title from Jason Jett in a rematch from the Royal Rumble PPV. That bout would bleed right into the next one, which was a tag team match between New Blood and The Triple Threat with Chris Candido as the Special Guest Referee. Candido had been a founding member of New Blood, but since Bam Bam Bigelow's return at the Royal Rumble, he and Shane Douglas had been trying to get Candido to join back up with them as The Triple Threat. Torn between the two sides, Candido was made the referee of this tag team match that saw Bigelow and Douglas team against Julio Dinero and Kid Kash. For pretty much the entire match, Candido called it right down the middle. He not only stopping New Blood member Erik Watts from interfering, but prevented Dinero and Kash from cheating at a couple points. This eventually led to a clean victory for Bigelow and Douglas. With the rest of the New Blood members getting in his face, Candido finally had enough and turned on New Blood. He sent them packing along with Bigelow and Douglas, and thus, The Triple Threat was officially reunited.The opener of the PPV would a Hardcore Invitational for the WWF Hardcore Title, with Malice defending against nearly a dozen opponents. This match had a fifteen minute time limit, and had rules similar to the Hardcore Battle Royal at WrestleMania 2000 in OTL. There'd be a fifteen minute time limit, with the title being able to change hands throughout the bout. However, the person who was the champion by the end of the time limit would be the WWF Hardcore Champion. The title would change hands a few times during the match (the participants in the match are listed on the card at the top of the post), and Sabu appeared to be on the verge of making it to the time limit to win the title, but Malice beat him in the final few seconds to remain the WWF Hardcore Champion.To wrap things up, Super Dragon picked up a victory over Justin Credible on Sunday Night.That's all for No Way Out 2002! Tune in next time as the WWF heads back to the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for WrestleMania X8! It should be a pretty packed card, so look out for that sometime in November. |
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