From the peak of WWF PPV we now begin a very slow descent, beginning with Steve Austin’s heel run (leading into his retirement). After quick nostalgia runs for Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker, a shift was made to focusing on best bout machines like Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero, as well a freakish new upstart.
September 23, 2001 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Kurt Angle def. Steve Austin {WWF Championship Match}
From the third Unforgiven. They beat the living crap out of each other here. The match was terrific, the atmosphere was crazy in Angle’s favor, and the post-match was a feel-good moment that the crowd clearly really needed. This match came two weeks after 9/11, and they played Angle’s underdog American story well. The positioning of the WWF as the defending entity under attack made it feel powerful when the Rock came out to show Angle his respect after the match. Great stuff, and an underrated moment in WWE history. It was also the first time in years that the title changed hands in a match between two guys with no interference. Everyone remembers their SummerSlam match, but this had a finish and while it seems jingoistic in hindsight, it’s no Ultimate Warrior tearing a foreign flag dressed in red white and blue. Angle won in 23:54. ****¼
October 8, 2001 – Indianapolis, Indiana
Steve Austin def. Kurt Angle {WWF Championship Match}
From Raw 437. This was very much a TV version of what they were doing on PPV, appropriately I suppose. I’ll hand it to Angle for bringing his brilliant nuances to even Raw main events. But the lazy William Regal heel turn interference finish at 17:21 was a boring way to get the back belt on Austin now that Angle’s American Resilience run was over. ***¾
December 9, 2001 – San Diego, California
Chris Jericho def. Steve Austin {WWF Undisputed Championship Match}
From the inaugural Vengeance. I was enjoying this quite a bit for a while. They’d both wrestled a match already and were showing the effects here, though beat on each other viciously regardless. But then it devolved into unearned finisher-theft and lame interference, and ended because Booker T hit Austin with a title belt at 12:31. Jericho unified the WCW and WWF titles here, creating the first Undisputed Championship (a moniker only needed for the period after the main title is disputed), ***
March 17, 2002 – Toronto, Ontario
Triple H def. Chris Jericho {WWF Undisputed Championship Match}
From WrestleMania X-8. This wasn’t outright bad, but a lot of Stephanie McMahon’s interference was poorly timed and it killed the crowd. Both guys worked hard but they didn’t put together anything all that interesting. Triple H hitting his wife with a Pedigree was a pretty weak pillar for a match in hindsight. He won the title at 18:43. ***
April 21, 2002 – Kansas City, Missouri
Hulk Hogan def. Triple H {WWF Undisputed Championship Match}
From the fourth Backlash. This was so bad that WWF changed their name after it. It slowed down after just a few minutes and then lasted an eternity. The crowd was so quiet (except when they were booing the babyface Triple H) that the commentators had to make weak excuses for it. Chris Jericho’s interference was worthless but for the fact that the match was dying anyway. Undertaker’s interference was at least interesting, as he wanted to give Hogan the win but Hogan wouldn’t take it… but then Hogan hit a leg drop on the unconscious Triple H at 22:00 so he ended up using Undertaker’s help after all. *¾
May 19, 2002 – Nashville, Tennessee
The Undertaker def. Hulk Hogan {WWE Undisputed Championship Match}
From the third Judgment Day. WWF lost in court to the World Wildlife Fund and changed their name to WWE. It took me and most of the world a long time to get used to saying WWE, but it’s been this way for 18 years now and I currently have trouble remembering to type WWF when appropriate. Thankfully, Undertaker wrestled a more aggressive style here than when they did this thing ten years earlier. Even at half the length of the Backlash match this could have been a minute or two shorter and the Vince McMahon interference was pointless. But this wasn’t the debacle that Backlash was, so that’s a win. Undertaker won at 11:20, ending Hogan’s final world championship reign. **½
July 21, 2002 – Detroit, Michigan
The Rock def. The Undertaker and Kurt Angle {WWE Undisputed Championship Triple Threat Match}
From the second Vengeance. A little too much finisher theft for my taste in this one, but that’s my only complaint of a great match. What’s the psychology behind finisher theft in a triple threat match? Who are you psyching out, exactly? What is the Rock proving by hitting a little chokeslam on the Undertaker? It doesn’t track. That said, this was a wild one by every other metric and a nice change of pace after a series of meandering title changes with too much interference. The finish was especially great, as everyone was desperate to go for pins and break up pins and Undertaker just couldn’t get to the Rock fast enough to stop him from pinning Angle at 19:47. ****
August 25, 2002 – Uniondale, New York
Brock Lesnar def. The Rock {WWE Undisputed Championship Match}
From the 15th SummerSlam. Lesnar was a force of nature that the Rock could not stop. The crowd was in the bag for the challenger here, and the Rock showed that he was cracking thanks to Brock’s resilience and the loss of his own fans. Heyman’s interference here was unnecessary, but everyone seemed to dig when Rock got revenge by putting him through an announce table. Lesnar hit the F5 for the win at 15:58. ***¾
November 17, 2002 – New York, New York
The Big Show def. Brock Lesnar {WWE Championship Match}
From the 16th annual Survivor Series. Lesnar brought the title to Smackdown exclusively, so
Raw dusted off the Big Gold Belt
and made this belt disputed again. Show definitely excelled in a short match like this. The whole match was Lesnar hitting suplexes, hitting his finisher, getting double crossed, and getting pinned at 4:23. It was exactly what it needed to be in the time it needed to be. I was so upset when I watched this 18 years ago that I smoked half a pack of cigarettes (and quit smoking like two days later), and in hindsight that’s a testament to how invested I was in the angle. ***
December 15, 2002 – Sunrise, Florida
Kurt Angle def. The Big Show {WWE Championship Match}
From the third Armageddon. This was less good than I remembered. Big Show controlled a lot, so the match was slow and felt long, even at just 12:36. The interference at the end was absurd; A-Train came out for no reason and what he did resulted in nothing. The referee was knocked out by minimal contact for a ridiculous amount of time. Brock Lesnar’s F5 led directly to the finish, meaning Big Show was down for a 60-count when he lost. I very much disliked this. *¾
March 30, 2003 – Seattle, Washington
Brock Lesnar def. Kurt Angle {WWE Championship Match}
From WrestleMania XIX. Lesnar KO’ing himself and stunting the finish isn’t the only thing that came off worse in hindsight than it did 17 years ago. The exhausted crowd wasn’t interested in main event mat wrestling and didn’t come back to life until the final few minutes of the match. Angle also controlled a ton of this match, which was irritating in a WrestleMania blow off main event featuring Brock fuggin’ Lesnar. Not the classic I remembered, but still good and nobody interfered. Lesnar somehow fought through falling on his head while going for a Shooting Star Press and hit the F5 to win back the title at 21:07. ***¾
July 27, 2003 – Denver, Colorado
Kurt Angle def. Brock Lesnar and The Big Show {WWE Championship Triple Threat Match}
From the third Vengeance. The two-in-one-out bits here were well-enough earned, as was the blood. From there they amped up the action and only used Big Show sparingly for feats of strength. The finish was a little flat because Angle hitting the Angle Slam on each opponent to win the title at 17:38 just didn’t feel like the culmination of the match, but rather a step on the way to it. ***¾
September 16, 2003 – Raleigh, North Carolina
Brock Lesnar def. Kurt Angle {WWE Championship Iron Man Match}
From Smackdown 212. What made this match great was the way Lesnar worked the rules. After the precedent of Triple H cheating late in his Iron Man match was established, Lesnar did the same but early on. From there he used every dirty trick to exploit the format. My favorite was the way he used his strength to make the most of a ref bump; Angle couldn’t get a point off of a pin but moments later Brock hit him with the title belt and then threw the referee by his waistband into position to count a pin. I also really liked Angle losing a fall to a superplex during a commercial break just to subvert expectations. The magic ended with tragedy, as Angle seemed poised to use Lesnar’s own nefarious tactics against him as he came back, but it wasn’t enough to make up the deficit in time. The finish was kind of flat and the crowd wasn’t into it, though. 45:12 were shown of the hour. If this were to air today it would probably be only half of the match shown because of commercials. ****¼
February 15, 2004 – Daly City, California
Eddie Guerrero def. Brock Lesnar {WWE Championship Match}
From the fifth No Way Out. In hindsight, this was a template for the extended Lesnar squashes after his comeback years later, with the difference here being that Guerrero made a slow yet steady comeback to stay alive until he was able to cheat to win the title. I suppose in that regard it was aped as much by WALTER and Tyler Bate as it was by Lesnar and Daniel Bryan. The Goldberg interference was less egregious than I remembered it being, as he attacked Lesnar to stop him from cheating, not just for the hell of it. What was egregious was the referee being knocked out for five straight minutes at the end of the match, even after counting a half conscious near-fall. Very lame. Guerrero won his miracle title at 29:55. ****¼
June 27, 2004 – Norfolk, Virginia
John Bradshaw Layfield def. Eddie Guerrero {WWE Championship Texas Bullrope Match}
This was super boring. Their previous PPV match in which Guerrero retained was completely uninteresting except for Guerrero’s torture porn blade job. This match was completely uninteresting, period. The stipulation was poorly implemented and JBL’s weak attempt to match Guerrero’s face gash shouldn’t have even been a thought conjured by anyone. How can someone be as boring as JBL? He won at 21:11. *½
With Brock Lesnar gone and the Rock quietly bidding a more permanent farewell, WWE went from focusing on these internet darling workhorses to a handful of guys they’d been building.
From Diamond Ring Kensuke Office Changes. They emphasize that Nakajima beat Dragon Gate wrestler Kenichiro Arai 
From Dynamite 131. This is a qualifying match for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. Joe debuted at ROH Supercard of Honor, saving Jonathan Gresham from Jay Lethal (whose soul searching apparently led him to turn heel) & Sonjay Dutt after the main event. And now that ROH and AEW are the same thing, that seems worth mentioning. Caster’s pre-match rap was cute. This was real squashy, with Joe needing only two minutes to put Caster down with the Muscle Buster at 2:52. Lethal & Dutt pop up on the big screens and Lethal says he’d been trying to get a hold of Joe during his difficult soul searching time, and Joe never picked up. They have a present for Joe next week. N/A
From Dynamite 132. Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt were in the front row cheering on Joe. Sarcastically, probably, as they brawled with Joe at ROH Supercard of Honor XV. 
From Rampage 39. 
From Dynamite 137. 
From Dynamite 138. This is a 
From Double or Nothing. 
From PWF York Cougar Football Fundraiser. I didn't know that this match happened until over a month after the fact. This started out as a non-title match, but we'll get to why I've listed it as a title match in a moment. FTR have Mick Foley in their corner while their opponents have Bill Behrens. I’ve never actually seen Behrens do an on-camera gig before. He's holding a tennis racket, presumably as an Umaga to Jim Cornette. But it's confusing because there was actually a tennis player named Bill Behrens. They announce this match as having a 20-minute time limit. Only 11 minutes in, they say there are three minutes remaining. Until then, this was as run-of-the-mill as a modern FTR match gets. But the announcement snapped everyone out of their heat-on-Wheeler funk and forced them to go for desperate pins. They announce ten seconds remaining a couple of times, but no one can get the roll up pin they're looking for. The 20-minute time limit expires at 1
From NXT UK 183. McGuinness started by essentially saying that Fraser is going to pee or poo himself during the match. Unnecessary. Had Shawn Michaels been game to have a good match against Vader, this is what it would have looked like. Actually, a more appropriate and modern analogue is Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins from SummerSlam. Much like that match, Frazer used quick strikes and avoided his larger opponent’s signature big move to stay alive. Here it was the powerbomb whereas there it was suplexes. Here, Frazer also successfully damaged WALTER’s knee, which slowed the big man down and made it hard for WALTER to hit the powerbomb. Unfortunately for Frazer, WALTER was able to bide his time and clothesline Frazer’s legs out from under him. An inevitable powerbomb followed and won the match for WALTER at 14:02. I hate to say this because I’m happy that he’s healthier, but the way WALTER has slimmed down has taken some of the magic away from his aura. At least for me it has. That said, dude can clearly still go as well as ever in the ring. ****
From NXT 659. Strong was feeling it here, which is thanks in large part to the crowd being maniacally loud from the get go I’m sure. His whole game was fast and devastating stick and move attacks. That worked pretty well, as WALTER was dazed from time to time. But as with all good WALTER matches (which is pretty much all WALTER matches), everything WALTER does is devastating here so it takes very little for him to take back control. And eventually he did just that and hit the powerbomb for the win at 9:46 (shown of 12:18). After the match, WALTER gets on the microphone and says that his name is Gunther now. I did not think WALTER would be a victim of the renaming curse this far into his run. What will they rename Strong?! ***¾
From NXT UK 185. Andy Shepherd helpfully announces from inside the ring that the reason for the stipulation is that the feud has gotten so violent that it wouldn’t be safe to have fans around. Devlin says during the match that it’s because he thinks Dragunov could only muster the energy to win if he had the crowd behind him. I like that explanation a lot more. The only real reason I could think of to do this without fans is that there was a scheduling conflict with one of the wrestlers for the regular TV taping date and they needed to get this thing filmed. We just had such a long stretch of empty arena NXT UK episodes that I can’t imagine anyone was dying to get another taste of it. This aired the day after Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy in a match that was also no disqualification and falls count anywhere, and this served up everything I felt was missing from that match. Now you might say, “Brad, Cassidy is not the same kind of character as Devlin or Dragunov, how could you expect the same level of violence or intensity?” To that I say, when Cassidy started his match by breaking his own sunglasses and rapidly punching Cole, he was indicating that level of violence and/or intensity. And instead the match was mostly wacky. Anyway, this was not wacky. It was stiff and intense and featured weapons that made sense and spots the didn’t take forever to set up. Dragunov got in trouble when his eye injury acted up. Devlin took control and beat the crap out of him. I wasn’t wild about how meek Dragunov was when Devlin was zip tying his hands, but I did like that in the end it turned out to be an error on Devlin’s part anyway because Dragunov’s finisher requires no hands. And indeed, a bound Dragunov jumped off the steel steps (which had been brought into the ring) and hit the Torpedo Moskau on Devlin for the win at 21:43. NXT UK is still sneaking in these dope matches that no one is watching. Y’all should watch them. ****¼ 
From AAA Triplemania Regia. FTR come out with Vickie Guerrero. This was supposed to be explained at an earlier AAA taping but FTR and Guerrero all missed them. AAA is notorious for having this kind of luck/being incompetent lately. FTR is also wearing Eddie Guerrero tribute tights, with American flags on one side and flames on the other, I suppose to pay homage to his Gringos Locos and Latino Heat gimmicks. This match mostly sucked, but one cool spot saw FTR tie Pentagon’s mask to the ropes and force him to unmask with his hands over his face to stop them from climbing the ladder. That would have been a very meaningful moment to lead up to the Lucha Brothers winning the titles back, but unfortunately instead it led into nothing. He just got his mask back and the match continued on in its lame, derivative way. At one point, Pentagon was the only man standing, but instead of climbing the ladder he grabbed a table from the floor. So the titles mean enough to him that he’d unmask to stop his opponents from winning, but not enough for him to get the titles when he had a clear path to do it? Vickie powered Pentagon, causing him to voluntarily jump through the table and Harwood grabbed the belts at 12:12. This was abysmal. *
From AEW Full Gear. Silver was hamming it up a lot more here than he was the year before in New York. That said, this had stronger just-a-match vibes than the aforementioned match. After Silver ripped out Cassidy’s pockets, Cassidy turned up the heat and these guys put on a middle of the row undercard match. Not bad by any means, but nothing memorable either. Cassidy hit the Beach Break rather out of nowhere for the win at 9:42. **¾ 
From the second Honor Reigns Supreme. The commentators sold this as Gresham getting a big shot against a top ROH guy after being an also-ran in the Television Championship division for a while. This was terrific. Both guys did a fantastic job selling their respective targeted limbs, and Gresham in particular played the role of the tenacious underdog perfectly. He didn’t just watch to see where Lethal would have trouble executing his finisher because of the damage he’d done to the former ROH Champion’s arm, he pressed the assault whenever he could, taking out the arm to make sure the Lethal Injection would never come. But what he couldn’t do was stop Lethal from battering his knee and ultimately winning with a Figure 4 Leglock at 17:54. ****¼ 
From the second Masters of the Craft. Columbus has way more Gresham fans than Concord did. That’s a neat little advancement to the plot, innit? They both went after the same limbs that earned them dividends in their previous match. And then they went ahead and built an incredible match out of that story. At first it seemed as though Lethal wasn’t going to be able to get Gresham’s leg to give out. But about halfway through the match, Gresham’s knee was in trouble. Gresham was able to escape the leglock this time by using the momentum of Lethal pulling him away from the ropes to shift to an armbar. But Gresham’s focus on the arm bit him in the ass. Lethal went for the Lethal Injection and collapsed again, but when Gresham went for a roll up after that Lethal cut back on it for the win at 18:27. This is one of the best American examples that I've seen of a match building on the match that came before. Rather than try to outdo the maneuvers from their first meeting for the sake of a big crowd reaction, they adjust their game plans in logical ways that, to me, were just as exciting. I think this match is slept on, by virtue of the fact that I’ve never heard anything about it before watching it. ****½ 
From ROH Wrestling 364. In real life, 
From Death Before Dishonor XVII. Gresham and Lethal had been teaming, but Gresham grew frustrated and started heeling. Ultimately, he turned on Lethal. It took them a little while to get there, but once they got into a groove this was exactly what I wanted from this match. It was back to their old tricks, with Lethal targeting the leg to set up for the Figure 4 Leglock and Gresham targeting the arm to block the Lethal Injection and set up for his Octopus. In the end, Lethal tried the cutback trick that worked for him in Columbus, but Gresham countered to a pin and then put on the gnarliest Octopus for his first win over Lethal at 17:20. This is the best kind of wrestling series. And none of it felt stale because it was a year after they’d wrestled last and because they found ways to energize the old tropes. And that’s not to mention Gresham busting out what I can only describe as a sumo-style assault. Gresham and Lethal make up after the match. ****
From ROH Wrestling 500. During the pandemic, ROH made the most of their empty arena shows by kicking them off with a tournament to crown a champion for the revived Pure Championship. Gresham won the tournament, and this was his fourth defense of the title. Lethal and Gresham were still allies here. In an interesting move, the other match on this milestone episode was two other partners fighting in Jay and Mark Briscoe. They cut to a commercial break about six minutes in, though the action didn’t get beyond (admittedly fast-moving) mat wrestling until the 10-minute mark. That had me thinking this was going to go long, but things took a different turn. Both guys had abused the other’s shoulders, and Lethal used that to his advantage best. He forced Gresham to use his first rope break to stop a pin, and his second to escape a crab. Then, he used the failed Lethal Injection to bait Gresham into a crossface, forcing the champ to use his final rope break. But he made the mistake of giving Gresham a breather and was quickly caught in a head scissor takedown giving Gresham the winning pin at 14:06 (shown of 16:40). For an empty arena match, this held my attention. It was totally different than their previous matches while still using a couple elements from the rivalry to elevate it just a bit. Not essential viewing, but if you’re working your way through their series you shouldn’t skip it. ***¼ 
