We’re firmly on the road to Vengeance 2002 as today we continue our Ruthless Aggression journey with another episode of WWE RAW. Last week The Undertaker beat Jeff Hardy in a divisive ladder match for the undisputed title; Taker has since defended it on Smackdown, retaining in controversial fashion against Kurt Angle. Rob Van Dam also continued his rivalry with, the next big thing, Brock Lesnar with that match also booked for Vengeance.

Tonight’s opening promo is solely focused on The Undertaker/Kurt Angle match on Smackdown where Taker tapped out at the same time he pinned Angle. The show begins with Vince McMahon announcing he has given Taker the night off ahead of him welcoming the Rock back on Smackdown. McMahon announces that due to events of Smackdown the Vengeance main event will now be The Rock v The Undertaker v Kurt Angle for the somewhat disputed WWE World Championship.

Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler welcome us to this weeks RAW live from Philadelphia just two weeks away from Vengeance.

Straight away Booker T makes his entrance. He asks Philly what’s up before telling us all he’s heard is that he has to watch his back as the NWO wants to get him back for what he did to X-Pac (this was never confirmed so I’m assuming he’s confirming this now?). He asks NWO to bring it, calling them out right now. Booker goes on to ramble about three things his Dad said with the only legible one being Can You Dig That Sucka?

Booker T is then greeted not by the NWO, but by Eddie Guerrero who makes his entrance before taking the mic. He calls Booker a sucka before saying that the NWO will kick Booker’s ass but not on Booker terms (why Eddie had to convey this I have no clue). Eddie says he wants to take out his recent frustrations on whoever runs their mouth first which is Booker. A brawl begins the match.

Booker T v Eddie Guerrero

Summary: The match starts off at a very fast pace, both men take turns slugging each other before Guerrero goes to work on Booker’s leg. Eddie goes for a pin but is caught with his legs on the top rope, he then hammers away on Booker first with an elbow to the back before going right back to the leg with elbows and strikes.

Eddie runs straight into a big kick from Booker off the ropes but Booker hurts himself delivering the move. Eddie brings the match back with a suplex followed by a modified neckbreaker which Booker kicks out of at two. Booker is sent into the corner by Eddie but when Eddie charges he gets caught by Booker in a roll up for the three.

Stitch’s Rating. N/A. A three minute sprint that didn’t have enough time to do anything notable, not much more to say than that unfortunately.

Post match, Benoit attacks Booker before Benoit and Guerrero team up on the former World Champion. Goldust tries to make the save but meets the same fate until Spike and Bubba rush to the ring with chairs as the heels flee.

Rey Mysterio is still on his way.

Goldust and Booker T have a dance backstage before Goldust informs him that he has another plan, despite the real threat, he could get his ass kicked again (Booker T’s words not mine). Booker T then superkicks a man who kind of looks like X-Pac but is actually just selling pretzels.

Also backstage, Jackie and Trish start arguing about who’s jealous of who. Christopher Nowinski appears, for some reason, mocking Trish’s cowboy hat. A match is made tonight with Nowinski and Gayda v Trish and a partner: Bradshaw.

More Rock flashbacks before our next match:

Chris Benoit (W/ Eddie Guerrero) v Bubba Ray Dudley (W/Spike)

Summary: Before they make their entrance The Dudleyz run into Goldust dressed as Benjamin Franklin trying to get them to join forces but Bubba refuses. Goldust launches into a speech about punching Thomas Jefferson in the gonads but that doesn’t sway Bubba.

This match continues the ongoing rivalry between Benoit/Guerrero and the Dudleyz after last weeks tag match where Bubba and Spike got the win but were viciously beatdown once again afterwards.

Once the match begins Benoit hits a huge Irish whip, shoulder block and then suplex in the early stages to take control. He continues with strikes and kicks before Bubba gets some offence in with chops and a back suplex. Bubba goes up top but misses a splash as Benoit moves away, Bubba takes some stiff shots to the spine before receiving a German suplex. Bubba hits a German of his own, finally taking his competitor down, this leads to a sideslam which Benoit kicks out of at two. Bubba hits the Bubba Bomb but Eddie throws Spike into the ref, the distraction leads to the crossface for the submission win.

Winner Chris Benoit

Post match Guerrero and Benoit once more beat down the Dudleyz with Bubba in another crossface before Booker T and Goldust make the save.

Stitch’s Rating: N/A. Virtually Squash. Another nothing match in a rivalry where the matches virtually mean nothing because you know Benoit will lock in a crossface on Bubba after the match regardless of what happens. I’m three RAW;s into this series and i’ve already seen way too much of these kind of matches.

Christopher Nowinski does a promo in Harvard talking about how great it is before we get highlights from last weeks ladder match main event. We see footage of Jeff hobbling in, running into Ric Flair who says it’s one of the best performances he’s ever seen. Flair reveals Jeff is fighting William Regal for the European title tonight. As Jeff leaves, Steven Richards mocks Flair for a bit mainly calling him old which leads to another match being booked for tonight. Richards sucker punches Flair before he leaves.

Trish Stratus & Bradshaw v Jackie Gayda & Christopher Nowinski

Summary: Another three minute match here which starts with Nowinski running from Bradshaw. Trish trys to get some wrestling from Jackie Gayda before Bradshaw tee’s of on Nowinski. Nowinski runs into the crowd with Bradshaw in pursuit. The match ends with Trish trying to hit a bulldog from the top rope but Gayda waits to sell it till about 6 seconds after she’s been hit. Trish gets the win and leaves visibly fuming.

Winner Trish Stratus & Bradshaw

Stitch’s Rating: N/A. Squash. I don’t have any more words for this. Just wow…

Backstage Benoit and Guerrero are fuming, the NWO finally make an appearance with Nash telling the duo there’s strength in numbers. Michaels tells them to watch what they have to say.

NWO (feels just wrong to call this version of the group this) make their entrance. Last week Michaels told us Triple H will join the NWO so we’re expecting a follow up tonight. Footage is shown from KotR where Triple H embraces with the NWO backstage, Michaels tells us he wants Triple H to come back to where he belongs he talks the Cliq, how they were family.

Shawn reveals they haven’t heard back from Triple H, Shawn says they won’t be ignored, Shawn says HHH needs them more than they need him. After mocking Triple H some more he says HHH has two weeks (Vengeance) to decide if he is with them or against them. Nash takes the mic to say he’s medically cleared and wants to have Benoit and Guerrero tag with them against Booker T, Goldust, Bubba Ray and Spike, this is confirmed for the main event. This is another long promo from the NWO where not much has been said.

Ric Flair v Steven Richards

Summary: This match comes from Richards running his mouth to Flair earlier tonight. The match begins with Richards being just as annoying as he was earlier until Flair lights him up with some chops and stomps in the corner. Flair beats down Richards more as JR and Lawler are more concerned about the main event being a 5 on 4 Handicap match.

More chops from Flair to Richards before the figure four is locked in and Richards taps at just over three minutes.

Winner Ric Flair

Stitch’s Rating: N/A. Squash. Another match that can’t even break four minutes let alone five, not only was this a squash but it was an absolutely pointless one, I’d have understood this match if they’d been given some time because I think both men could have got a good match but what exactly does this squash do for anyone involved. It’s all so ridiculous especially when you have NWO promo’s talking about nothing taking up a chunk of your tv time! We are an hour into RAW and we have had twenty minutes of wrestling, I know that’s part of parcel for this era but in honesty Smackdown are having a similar format with the same amount of time and still putting on better shows!!

Cue Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar for what I’m sure will be another long promo, Heyman is of course very popular in Philly being the home of ECW. Heyman talks about their interest in the Vengeance title match saying that the winner will be a sacrificial lamb for the Next Big Thing Brock Lesnar. Lesnar also announces that the Vengeance match between himself and Rob Van Dam will be for the Intercontinental Championship. Heyman says that he made Rob Van Dam before stating he exploited RVD and the rest of the ECW roster for the Philadelphia animals. Tommy Dreamer interrupts Heyman’s rant with a kendo stick, he says everyone in ECW did it because they loved this business and they loved performing for these fans.

Heyman tells Dreamer to go back stage and eat strange things, Dreamer says there’s no beating Lesnar can give him that he can’t take, he follows this up by hitting Lesnar in the ankle with the Kendo stick. Shots to the ribs follow before a shot to the head knocks Lesnar out the ring, chairs are thrown into the ring and Dreamer sets them up. Heyman tries to attack Dreamer, he fails but does hold him long enough for Brock to recover, hitting an F-5 on the outside.

As this happens RVD appears and hits a spinning kick to Heyman, he takes out Lesnar before hitting a coast to coast with a chair on Paul Heyman. This segment went nearly ten minutes and whilst I think in Philly, with the ECW talent they had, this is the kind of segment you want but it just shows how badly paced this whole show is.

WWE European Championship
Jeff Hardy v William Regal (c)

Summary: This is a match that has came out of nowhere really, Jeff is selling his injuries from the ladder match hard as he makes his entrance. Jeff takes the match to Regal straight away with a springboard in one corner followed by a whisper in the wind in the other, this gets a one count multiple times before Regal takes control throwing Hardy into the stairs. An uppercut rocks Hardy but he follows it with a sunset flip that gets a near fall. Regal responds with a neck breaker but that can only get him a two count.

Regal takes down Hardy with a knee and follows up with an elbow drop, but Hardy kicks out again as Regal goes to take the turnbuckle cover off. Hardy uses Regal turning his back, to kick him into the corner and follow up with a swanton for the pin and the title.

Winner and NEW European Champion Jeff Hardy

Stitch’s Rating: N/A. Another short match but we did get to four minutes so yay, not enough for me to rate though, a very simple match where nothing really happened but the title change. Feels like they just wanted to give Jeff a title after his fan reaction and this was the only one he could have.

Backstage Regal is in tears after losing his European title, Nowinski comforts him and carries him away. Elsewhere Bubba Ray is looking for a partner for the main event, Bubba talks to an unknown ECW superstar which turns out to be Rob Van Dam, who agrees.

Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero & NWO (Kevin Nash, X-Pac & Big Show) v Booker T, Bubba Ray Dudley, Goldust, RVD & Spike Dudley

Summary: X-Pac and RVD start us off exchanging punches before RVD hits his spinning kick to the face followed by a splash that gets a two. Goldust is in next hitting an atomic drop followed by a bodyslam. X-Pac gets a further beating from Bubba before it’s Spike’s turn to tag in. He drops X-Pac with a hurricanrana before getting dropped by X-Pac with a bodyslam. Benoit next in as Spike is worked over in the heels corner before Guerrero is in to hand out further beatings. Spike hits a dropkick and manages to get out, tagging in RVD.

The monkey flip drops Guerrero but he can’t capitalise. Big show tags in throwing RVD across the ring (Shawn Michaels, who is ringside, should be given pom poms to further excentuate his gestures and encouragement). X-Pac comes back in which allows RVD to get some momentum again until Michaels knocks him from the top rope preventing the Frog Splash. Bubba is back throwing punches to everyone but is caught by Michaels allowing Big Show to hit a sideslam. Rob Van Dam decides to chase Michaels up the ramp for some reason(?) and predictably runs straight into Brock Lesnar and an F-5.

Booker T and Kevin Nash are in, Nash hits a big boot before attempting to take out his opponents on the apron. As Nash gets there he falls to the ground in agony – now it’s worth noting that this is Kevin Nash’s return to action after a lengthy injury. As everyone wonders what’s happened it turns out that on this night Nash blew his quad, what a return!! Whilst no one has any idea what to do, Michaels hits a superkick on Booker and a chokeslam from Big Show ends the match.

Stitch’s Rating: 4/10. I gave it a four mainly because I actually got to rate a match on this show woooo!! This wasn’t great, at nine minutes it struggled to fit in the number of competitors it had. Eddie and Benoit felt really tagged on and Booker was barely in the match. This match was a product of a really scattered show unfortunately and of course Nash injuring himself didn’t help either.

Final Rating: 2/10. My first two, but there was just nothing on this show, the first two matches were made pointless by the main event with the same men. A third of the show was taken up by just two promo’s and nothing really moved forward. We also have the mixed tag match which is known as possibly one of the worst ever and the Flair v Richards match which makes absolutely zero sense to be there especially when all but one match was four minutes or less!!! Disastrously paced with time spent in the wrong places which ultimately comes from a lack of interesting storylines. I think Lesnar/RVD is the only interesting RAW storyline right now (with Taker now switching to Rock and Angle on SD) so I hope as we go forward we get some change soon.