WWE Summerslam ‘03
August 24, 2003
Phoenix, AZ
Reviewed on August 2, 2014

We are in the era of Triple H and his wannabe Ric Flair run. The Brand Extension is off and running, although the talent level still hasn’t quite caught up. In June we just started with Brand-specific PPVs which led to a rather weak Bad Blood 2003 and Vengeance 2003 (although, neither show was really weak, it was just a clear talent dropoff from the combined PPVs from before).

The Smackdown Brand seems strongest wrestling wise, although holding them down a little bit was perhaps the weakest Undertaker year, the back in the main event Big Show and the injury to Edge. It still had Guerrero, Benoit, Angle, Mysterio and Lesnaretc., so not all was lost. RAW was the HHH vs. WCW show, as through 2003 HHH would go over Scott Steiner, Booker T, Kevin Nash, and now, he is matched up with Goldberg.

Goldberg wasn’t working as well as WWE liked, a lot of that was his booking. Goldberg is limited in that he is only really effective as a top guy destroying everyone. Remember that for the review.

Also worth noting that a some of the seeds of the future were planted around this time. Batista was injured (some things don’t change), John Cena was fighting Undertaker and Randy Orton is notably in the main event. In fact, Orton’s PPV debut was in a main event World Title match. You don’t see that often.

2003 was a tough year for WWE. Let’s see how they did with Summerslam!

The Card

I always approve of a Lilian Garcia National Anthem.

This is one of the best PPV intro videos for sure. Sadly, the Network doesn’t have the St. Anger theme.

World Tag Team Championship
La Resistance © vs. The Dudley Boyz

I could name probably three teams off the top of my head would should be in this spot other than La Resistance. But, when you got Pat Patterson connections it doesn’t really matter…(one of those teams would be The World’s Greatest Tag Team).

This feud did have the debut of Rob Conway, if that matters at all.

The Dudleyz were staler than stale at this point.

Nice telegraphed hiptoss by D-Von, although not sure who’s fault it was.

More mistiming between the two when a D-Von tackle is off.

Greiner and Dupree were just too young to be in this spot. Dupree would get better later on at least.

WASSUP! I can’t believe this was still a thing in 2003.

La Resistance retains when Dupree pins D-Von in 7:49. 3D to Dupree, but Bubba and Greiner go at it and the ref doesn’t see a cameraman nail D-Von with a camera. Totally killed the crowd. Camera man was Conway obviously. Match sucked and the fans really wanted the belts on the Dudleyz. And I don’t think it was just because they were the faces.

Coach interviews the Dudleyz and mentions that La Resistance was clever in their tactics. Bubba doesn’t have the strongest interview.

Christian questions Eric Bischoff about the IC Champion not having a match (great question!). Bischoff blames Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The Undertaker vs. A-Train

The A-Train run in 2003 was not a good one. Pretty horrible that this is Taker vs. A-Train and not Taker vs. John Cena.

By the way, who the hell thought this was a good idea? Taker vs. A-Train? DIdn’t Taker beat him AND Big Show in a handicap match at Mania?

A-Train brings out Sable with him. Sable’s 2003 comeback was a little funny considering her role and what she sued WWE for 4 years prior.

This feels like a Smackdown main event. Not sure if this is a compliment or not.

This match isn’t much so far. Basic Undertaker offense and A-Train doesn’t really offer anything unique.

Sleeper from the Undertaker! Woo! I don’t remember seeing a lot of that.

Blocked Snake Eyes looked botched to me. It wasn’t though.

Ref takes an awesome bump on the Taker clothesline.

Undertaker pins A-Train in 9:19. Taker goes for the Tombstone, but it’s countered and Taker gets a chokeslam for the three. Why tease the Tombstone? Sable postmatch saves A-Train from a Last Ride trying to seduce Taker, but Taker grabs her throat forStephanie McMahon to come out and take her out. Woo? Anyway, we are 2 for 2 in bad matches.

Eric Bischoff vs. Shane McMahon

This was a spinoff of the Kane turn after he tombstoned Linda. Bischoff put JR in a position to get burned alive, and this led to him having to face Shane. Shane was back obviously defending his mother as well.

This match seems like it should have many bucketloads of money. Shame that Bischoff’s name value was lowered too much at this point.

The idea that Bischoff raped Linda McMahon is pretty uncomfortable, although to his defense Bischoff isn’t presenting it that way.

Shane kicks Bischoff’s ass all over, leading to…

The Coach HEEL TURN! Coach smacks Shane with a chair twice, and Bischoff declares the match no DQ and Falls Count Anywhere!

Really, the Coach heel turn is so out of nowhere it’s awesome. Lawler and JR was in total shock.

Bischoff cuts JR and Lawler’s mics off. He lets Coach do play by play and he makes fun of JR. It’s not bad!

It does go a little too long. Shane gets a comeback, but Coach hits a low blow.

Here comes Stone Cold!

Coach reminds Austin he can’t touch him unless physically provoked, but Shane shoves him into Austin! Charles Robinson’s reaction is great here. Coach doesn’t last.

Shane makes Bischoff slap Austin, and Austin responds with a Stunner!

Shane McMahon pins Erich Bischoff in 10:33. Shane decides to put Bischoff on the announcer’s desk and drives him through with a top rope elbow drop. Sure why not? Match wasn’t really a match, but I got a laugh out of the whole Coach deal. Still, did the Coach heel turn need to be at the 2nd biggest show of the year?

Ric Flair tells Randy Orton that HHH has to leave the Chamber as World Champion. No what ifs.

United States Championship
Eddie Guerrero© vs. Tajiri vs. Rhyno vs. Chris Benoit

Guerrero had just won the new US Title beating Benoit. He also was part of a team with Tajiri when Chavo went down, but turned on him after Tajiri landed on his low rider. Benoit and Rhyno had also been feuding.

This Eddie heel run didn’t last. He needed to be a face at this point and the fans wouldn’t stop chanting “Eddie” until he was.

At least we should finally get some good wrestling here!

Funny Eddie stuff with him running from everyone, but sneak attacking everyone when he can.

Eddie just non-chalantly suplexes Benoit over the top and out of the ring.

The issue with this match is that it has no flow. It’s some good spots, but then someone breaks up something.

Lasso From El Paso!

Crossface! Nice spot.

Eddie breaks Benoit’s crossface by hitting a LOW dropkick to Benoit. Nice!

Tajiri goes for his handspring again but he runs into Rhyno on the apron, which leads to Benoit hitting a German. That spot woulda been better if Benoit just caught the normal move and Germaned him.

Tajiri with the best German Suplex of the night!

GORE to Eddie…but Eddie had the title belt and Rhyno hit his head!

Tajiri with an awesome save! He went from the Tree of Woe to stopping a pin in a second!

Eddie Guerrero retains when he pinned Rhyno in 10:50. Tajiri and Benoit fight to the outside and allows Guerrero to hit the Frog Splash for the win. What a shame. If this got five more minutes I’m sure the middle sequences would have been better and there woulda been more flow. Instead we get a disjointed four way with an awesome finish. Oh well. Still pretty good.

We see a video of Lesnar getting close to killing Zach Gowen.

Matt Hardy also made sure that Gowen lost by forfeit on Velocity.

WWE Championship
Kurt Angle© vs. Brock Lesnar

Angle won the title he lost to Lesnar at Mania XIX back at Vengeance in a three way. Lesnar turned heel and aligned with Vince as he felt Angle stole his title. Basically, the roles are now reversed from Mania XIX. Lesnar was a lot better as a heel.

Fun fact, the build-up contains the only Lesnar vs. Vince match ever.

This is a pretty action packed match, but I will say it’s not their Mania match so far.

Lesnar actually presses Angle over his head and throws him out of the ring. For someone with a fragile neck as Angle, I’m surprised they did that. Then again, Angle’s nuts, as we all found out later.

Crazy tilt-a-whirl from Lesnar.

Lesnar seems to be doing more power stuff and less technical stuff, probably because he’s a heel now.

Good psychology with Lesnar holding the shoulder as he’s German suplexed (he hit the post before).

Lesnar barely survives an Angle Slam!

Angle took off the straps for the Angle Slam. Hilariously, he puts them back on, just to take them back off for the Angle Lock!

Angle puts Lesnar in a crazy sleeper, but with his legs. Tazz calls it as a Figure Four which is incredible for all the wrong reasons.

Birthday Vince breaks up an Angle Lock when the ref was out.

Kurt Angle retains by submission in 21:17. Angle Lock gets it done. Lesnar tapping is an odd choice. Angle hits an Angle Slam on Vince through a chair, which had to hurt. A very good match, but not as good as Mania XIX. Lesnar tapping seemed pretty counterproductive, but it IS Angle and it didn’t matter in the long run at all.

Jaime Koeppe won the Diva Search. I have no idea who that is.

No Holds Barred
Rob Van Dam vs. Kane

This was the blow off for the Kane taking off his mask angle. I love RVD, but lol at this whole idea. The Kane taking off his mask angle could have made HUGE money.

This feud also already lost steam as Shane McMahon and Kane already began interacting.

The idea that the Kane mask angle had nothing to do with the Undertaker is ridiculous.

Moonsault from the barricade from RVD!

Some ladder action. RVD seesaws it into Kane’s face.

To be honest for a big monster they are having Kane give way too much here. This and Unforgiven 2003 were big reasons this Kane run went nowhere.

JR calls Kane and hideous and smelly monster. That B.O.!

Match really slows to a crawl with Kane’s offense.

It’s edited out, but Kane actually falls off the top rope going for a flying clothesline to the outside. He misses anyway.

RVD begins killing Kane. Rolling Thunder on a chair and a skateboard!

RVD actually goes for the Van Terminator, but Kane moved out of the way…JR calls it as it hit. Moving JR and Lawler away from ringside was a bad idea.

Kane pinned Rob Van Dam in 12:49. Kane tombstones RVD on the steps. That’s it for RVD. This match had some good spots a lot of meh inbetween. Like RVD was ever winning this anyway. Kane for some reason doesn’t make a convincing monster here, probably because Brock Lesnar looked a lot more intimidating as a monster earlier. At least he hasn’t yet been owned by a non-wrestler!

Linda gets a good slap on Eric Bischoff!

World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber Match
Triple H © vs. Randy Orton vs. Kevin Nash vs. Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg vs. Shawn Michaels

Fun fact about this match. It was supposed to be Goldberg vs. HHH, but HHH suffered an abdominal injury (we’ll get to that) and we got this instead. I wonder what this card would have looked like otherwise.

Also, there are 3 minute intervals between each entrant as opposed to five last November.

Nash had lost a hair vs. hair match with Jericho right before this on RAW. Needed it for a movie.

HBK and Jericho start us off!

HHH is wearing longer tights, so maybe it was a quad injury.

Jericho beating Rock and Stone Cold in the same night kept him over for a LONG time. I mean, he woulda stayed over anyway, but this only helped. I wonder what the last PPV that was brought up in is. This is 21 months later.

Good opening sequence but no one cares. They want Goldberg.

Here comes Orton.

Orton’s old finisher, the High Crossbody, comes out here!

Not much to say there. Here comes Big Daddy Cool!

Best sidewalk slam in the business!

Jericho eliminates Nash after a HBK SCM. Two minutes of work for Nash there. With one bump. This would be the last time we’d see him in a WWE ring until the Royal Rumble in 2011.

HHH is next! HBK promptly superkicks him and HHH falls back into his pod.

Nash powerbombs Jericho and Orton as his last act. The Nash 2002-2003 run wasn’t pretty.

A little preface here. HBK, Orton and Jericho (and HHH, kinda) are left. What is about to happen is the best 3 minutes of booking that WWE Goldberg has ever had.

Goldberg kills everyone not named HHH, as HHH is still in his pod.

Goldberg nearly breaks Orton in half.

He almost does it again as he spears Orton! Orton is gone.

Goldberg proceeds to destroy Y2J next, tossing him from the ring into the chain wall.

Goldberg actually breaks Jericho in pieces when he spears him through the pexi-glass! It wasn’t a clean break, but, um…yeah it looked awesome. Poor Jericho is 2 for 2 in being thrown through pod class walls.

We get some Goldberg vs. HBK, which is historic I suppose. Goldberg kills him too. Jackhammer and he’s gone.

Goldberg pulls what’s left of Jericho and spears him again for good measure. Jackhammer and we are down to HHH vs. Goldberg.

Fans are in a frenzy! Anything that went wrong with Goldberg before this show was fixed by those three minutes.

HHH hides in the pod, so Goldberg BUSTS through the glass!

Goldberg begins to whip HHH’s ass. This is like the rich man’s December to Dismember Chamber match.

HHH comeback! Er…what? Goldberg ends that quickly thankfully.

HHH retains the title when he pins Goldberg in 19:12. Goldberg goes for a spear, but Flair throws the sledgehammer into the ring through the chain wall, and HHH gets Goldberg in the head mid spear! HHH pins him for the win. Well, that put the nail in the coffin for Goldberg’s WWE run. He’d win the title the next month in a 20 minute boring match and the draw was just gone.

I mean isn’t this the perfect way for Goldberg to win the WWE Title? Destroying everyone, spears and jackhammers everywhere? That is what Goldberg is! What a horrible result of the reign of terror from 2003 HHH. Unreal.

Nevermind that HHH wrestled a total of 3 minutes here because of his injury! Once HBK superkicked him we didn’t see him until the end! Just horrible all around.

Historically, Goldberg won the title but no one cared anymore. Angle and Lesnar kept going and Lesnar would win the title, but he would be gone six months later. Kane was done after Taker beat him at Mania, although Benoit almost brought him back.

I mean, Eddie Guerrero won, that matters right? Oh and Randy Orton’s PPV debut (how many people have made their WWE PPV in a world title match? It’s him, Hogan and Piper, right?)

A lot of bad stuff, some good stuff, nothing really great or notable here. And that finish is just incredibly bad.

Final Grade: C