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King K Cool
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I tried my best to cut down on gifs and images this week and I think I did pretty well until I got to SmackDown.
SmackDown is just Gif City this week.
Raw:
• Raw this week was in Atlanta and it was one of those Raw's that was "flipped" or "mirrored" or whatever you want to call it, so instead of the hard camera being where it usually is, it was the opposite side, so it was kinda like watching Raw via a mirror.
As a kid, I always use to wonder why it was only like that when they went to Atlanta and I always hated it when everything was flipped. I'd watch the intro and look forward to the show and then I'd see that the camera was on the other side and all that and it would just kill the buzz I had.
I also noticed (by watching today) that it also threw off some wrestlers as they would go to the wrong side (and by wrong side, I mean the side they would normal go to) for example, Booker T went to the wrong side when he wanted a microphone, Regal did the same when he wanted his European Championship and even Vince himself went to the wrong side when he wanted to grab the bell during his match.
Anyway, this is also the episode of Raw that Austin no-showed. You can tell that by the beginning when Vince randomly appears and pretty much rips him apart and then randomly challenges Ric Flair to a No Holds Barred Match for 100% ownership of WWE.
At the time, I didn't think anything of it but now, it's quite clear that this was all incredibly rushed at the last second because Austin no-showed. I'm now wondering what the plan was originally going to be for Austin and Flair and the whole "Flair is Austin's Personal Assistant" storyline. I wonder how that would have worked out.
• We see a backstage segment with the nWo and I remember it all so vividly as it's the one where Booker T sings his own version of Shawn Michaels' theme and then corpses near the end.
• We then see Booker T backstage and Goldust appears dressed as Undercover Brother. He then says something that I didn't notice at first but now, it sounds like Goldust insinuated that Shawn Michaels is racist and that he doesn't like black people.
Goldust said "I know Shawn Michaels very well though and if he's that same person that he used to be, well then Book, I'm afraid my feeling is that your days are numbered in the nWo.
Booker T then asks him what he's talking about and Goldust says "Let's just say that Shawn Michaels isn't exactly a fan of our kind".
I wouldn't have gotten that vibe however if Goldust hadn't said all that as he was dressed as a fictional black man, massive afro wig and all.
• Terri is interviewing Molly Holly and Molly brings out a poster of Terri and points out how she can practically see Terri's nipples on the poster. She then tells Terri that she and Trish set a horrible example for women today by exploiting their bodies.
Trish then appears and claims she knows why Molly dislikes her and Terri so much and it's because she (Molly) has a "big ass". Trish then begins to make fun of Molly Holly and her ass whilst Terri laughs. After a match is made, Molly walks away covering up her ass with a magazine whilst Trish and Terri watch her and laugh.
If that promo was done today, Trish & Terri would be seen as heels. It was weird watching it as it did feel like Trish and Terri were being heels but at the time, it would have felt like they were faces like they were.
Me feeling like that has probably got to do with so much "body positive" stuff being on our screens these days, including WWE TV with the most recent being during Alexa Bliss' feud with Nia Jax. Both Bliss and Mickie James made fun of Nia Jax because of the way she looked and that she was bigger but they were heels.
So what were face actions in 2002 are now heel actions in 2018.
Also, I'm sure today that a woman being told that she has a "big ass" would be seen as a compliment. I could be wrong but women seem to chase having a big ass and enjoy flaunting it when they do.
And finally though, for the record, I've always liked Molly's ass.
• European Championship Match now and title matches seem to be a weekly thing back in 2002, which is great. Bradshaw vs Regal and this is Chris Nowinski's debut as he jumped the barricade and threw brass knucks towards Regal.
Regal won the match and they both left together.
• Trish Stratus vs Molly Holly and the match was around five minutes or so long but for those five minutes, Lawler constantly made "big ass jokes" about Molly Holly.
At one point he called her "Blubber Butt". How times have changed. If Lawler did that now, he'd be vilified all over social media and hoards of angry feminists and equality campaigners would be calling for him to lose his job. Something like that anyway.
There was one good exchange during that match though that again, went over my head as a kid but now it got a bit of a laugh out of me.
Lawler: Do you think Trish would marry me?
JR: King, how many wives have you had!?
Lawler: Oh, I've had several wives JR. Three of them my own!
• King of the Ring Qualifying Match between Rob Van Dam and Eddie Guerrero, with the ending appearing to be botched when the referee counted three even though Guerrero had his shoulder up and RVD was still getting into position for his pin.
After the three count both RVD and Guerrero appeared to be confused at first.
There was a shot of a sign during RVD's entrance and I can only assume that back in 2002, Vince & Co. had no idea was 420 referenced.
• After around a month without his motorcycle, Undertaker appears on one.
During his promo towards Triple H, he said that the only shot he (HHH) is going to get is "me kicking your face right off your head". A part of me thinks what he meant to say was "me kicking your head off your shoulders" or "me kicking your face in" but his brain wanted to say both at the same time.
It has to be either one as what he said doesn't really sound right or make much sense.
• King of the Ring Qualifying Match between Bubba Ray Dudley and Brock Lesnar and this is the debut of Brock Lesnar's signature theme.
At one point of the match Paul Heyman hits Bubba from behind outside the ring and Bubba just turns around and stares at him. Heyman then lets out a very audible "Oh Shit!" before jumping behind the announce table.
• Shawn Micheals starts his promo and immediately says "WWF". He then sarcastically corrects himself (I remember all that).
He later says that he's been watching the nWo and that there is something that "stands out" to him. Later, he tells X-Pac that he is "the most talented performer in our business today" he then Super Kicked Booker T (which I remember so vividly) and tells him that he's "the problem".
Now, with what Goldust said earlier, and Micheals himself saying that something "stands out" to him in the nWo and that it's "the problem" and kicking Booker in the face, it really does make Michaels come across as being a massive racist.
• Main Event match between Vince and Flair and not much happened other than Vince hitting flair with the bell but it not producing a cheap bell sound effect like the bell did on SmackDown last week.
Maybe both brands have different bells and Raw's bell was broken at that time?
SmackDown:
• At the beginning of SmackDown, we saw a recap of Raw and Flair was portrayed as the hero during it, we saw him getting the upper hand of Vince along with heroic music playing. This also seemed to be the case during Raw when JR kept singing Flair's praises and defending him even though the previous weeks, Flair was a heel and JR practically hated him.
I'm sure however that this sudden change all had to do with Austin walking out.
• There's a contract signing for the Undisputed Championship match at King of the Ring to start off SmackDown and Undertaker comes out without his motorcycle, even though on Raw he did.
Triple H then nearly kills a man with a wooden chair.
The contract signing was just a setup and Triple H gets attacked by the security that were there but he demolishes them all and bring out a sledgehammer which makes Undertaker and Vince run away. Triple H demands Undertaker comes back and threatens not to leave the ring until Undertaker appears.
A break has just finished and Triple H is still in the ring but Billy, Chuck and Rico are at the top of the ramp and they tell Triple H to get out of the ring as Rico has a match tonight (I always like it when we see interactions like this, when it's interactions between guys you wouldn't normal expect or see).
Anyway, Triple H then starts making gay jokes towards them because it's 2002.
He then manages to get Vince to come out after threatening to break a camera.
• King of the Ring Qualifying Match between Test and The Hurricane and after the match, Jamie Noble and Nidia come out to attack Hurricane and Noble is now wearing his usual jean shorts attire, even though when he made his debut last week backstage, he wore tights.
• King of the Ring Qualifying Match between Tajiri and Hardcore Holly and I've never noticed it until now how badly SmackDown was edited.
Along with stuff like in that gif (which I've noticed happens a lot), there were times where you could tell that Cole and Tazz's lines were recorded later in a studio and also times where their lines has been either removed or added as you could see Cole and Tazz in the background either not talking or one was talking but you were hearing the other.
• The Thrillseekers Chris Jericho & Lance Storm vs The Big Valbowski & Billy Kidman was a nice tag team match which ended with Lance Storm getting screwed.
I'm also surprised that they actually showed this sign on TV.
It reads "Y2J is Way 2 Gay".
I was thinking maybe it was a mistake as the camera slowly moves away from it but it if was, then it would have been edited out from the broadcast all together. Also, Triple H made gay jokes earlier so I guess back then, WWE were fine with anyone making gay jokes. Wrestler or fan.
• Reverend D-Von does his much known promo on masturbation where Faarooq comes out and declares that he masturbates. I don't know why that was the topic of this promo.
Also, the match was nine seconds long.
• Trish Stratus & Linda (Tough Enough II Winner) vs Ivory & Jackie (Tough Enough II Winner) and this was Jackie's debut and she didn't suck.
• Backstage we see Vince and Stacy and at the door is Dawn Marie and her randomly shiny boobs.
After nobody answers the door, we see the most uncomfortable kiss of all time.
I legitimately felt bad for Stacy.
• Undertaker & Angle vs Triple H & Hulk Hogan but Hogan got attacked before the match so he wasn't there.
During the match, Triple H hit Undertaker with a chair but didn't get disqualified but 35 seconds later he hit Undertaker with a sledgehammer and then gets disqualified.
After the match, Hogan comes out and attacks Angle and this is the episode of SmackDown that Kurt Angle is first seen completely bald.
Even though SmackDown was recorded back then and quite heavily edited, you could tell by the noise of the pop that was generated from seeing Angle's bald head was legit as it sounds nothing like the cheers in WWE's sound library.
Also, the amount of flashes from photographs being taken was crazy. All that because of a bald head.
I think maybe that was the last time a moment (not an entrance) on WWE television got that amount of flashes from photographs being taken, as now we all use our phones to take pictures and they don't really need a flash to produce a good photo.
• Finally, I'll end with this photo with no context.
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