PPV review

Here's my review of Unforgiven 2003 from Hershey, Pennsylvania.

As usual, the show opens up with a good video package setting the stage for a few of the night's matches but primarily the main event. The opening tag team title tables match was pretty good. It was supposed to be a six man tag between La Resistance and The Dudley Boyz. But Spike legitimately took a nasty bump off of a table two Raws earlier so he wasn't there. Spike was too injured to compete so GM Stone Cold Steve Austin made it for the titles. Table matches are always exciting and this one was no disappointment either. The best spot was probably Bubba Ray and D-Von giving Rob Conway a spinebuster from the ring to the outside through two tables. This was just a solid match and good work from all 5 men. Grade: B

Scott Steiner and Test were originally a tag team that wasn't too over with the fans, and then became a feud that they didn't care much for earlier. Steiner had become pretty sloppy in the ring and it shows in this match. He often looked like he was going through the motions and it kind of takes the viewer out of it. I miss Test though, and thought he was perfect for this. This was when he was in control of Stacy Keibler and by winning this match he also won Scott Steiner's services as well. Test was a real jerk towards Stacy. Test was always great at playing a real arrogant SOB. Stacy looked gorgeous as usual throughout this match. She's never been one of my favorite divas, but she's still smokin'. It's a shame they can never seem to find something for her to do. The end was good though as she accidentally hit Steiner with a chair giving Test the win. Grade: C

Then we had another match which could be billed as Legend vs. Legend Killer. Randy Orton challenging Shawn Michaels. HBK was awesome in this match and Randy Orton more than held his own with him. In addition, Flair was going absolutely nuts on the outside throughout the whole match. Many think The Nature Boy is the greatest wrestler of all-time, which is a long debate for another place and time. But he is one of my favorite managers of all-time. The dirtiest player in the game knows exactly what to do to distract the ref, attack the opponent, and get furious about what's going on in the ring. I hate the ending of this match. HBK pins Orton after Sweet Chin Music, but right after the three count as the ref is getting up, Flair puts Orton's foot on the bottom rope. The ref sees it, and keeps the match going although there's no official announcement that it's restarting. Flair slips Orton some brass knucks which help The Legend Killer get the victory. It was a great match otherwise. Grade: A

The women's tag match wasn't bad although it was predictable. This was Lita's first big match since coming back from her broken neck, so of course she's getting the win, which she does by hitting a moonsault on Molly Holly. I hope that WWE will rehire Molly someday as I think she is the best Diva wrestler, and the women's division (what little there is left of it) needs all the talented wrestlers it can get. Grade: C+

Speaking of predictable matches, we have the Last Man Standing match between Kane and Shane McMahon. I'm not saying the outcome was predictable. What was predictable was that if Shane McMahon is in a match, expect him to do some crazy things you'll never forget. The beginning of this match was brutal, with various weapons being used and being used viciously. Shane leapt from one turnbuckle to another, driving the steel steps into Kane. When the action was outside the ring, it became even more furious. I especially liked Shane driving the boom camera right into Kane's face. Nice innovative offense. And it ended with Shane-O-Mac making a suicidal leap from the top of the Unforgiven stage about 35 feet below. Kane rolled out of the way of the falling McMahon and Shane was unable to get up before the count of 10. What bothered me about this though was that Kane didn't even have to roll out of the way. It was like Shane wasn't even aimed for Kane. Which of course, he wasn't as I'm sure he needed to hit exactly where he hit not to get injured, but not even landing where Kane was takes a bit of the realism away from it. Not to mention that Shane's leap wasn't really a move. It was like the equivalent of a belly flop, but it was a back flop instead. It wasn't something you'd ever see a wrestler do. It wasn't an elbow drop, or a frog splash, or a leg drop, or a swanton. It was just him jumping. Put those two things together and it was like the move was just an excuse for Shane to do something crazy. But, it's still impressive to watch and the match itself was brutal and considering the build-up to this with Kane Tombstoning Shane's mom Linda, everything worked real nice. Grade: A

The Triple Threat Intercontinental Title match was pretty good. It was especially good to see RVD who's been out with an injury for about five months now. One thing that bothered me was how silent the crowd was for most of this match. I think it was because they were all spent from going nuts during the Last Man Standing match. Probably my favorite spot of the whole night was the triple powerbomb in the corner. Chris Jericho was on top of Van Dam's shoulders on top of the turnbuckle and Christian came from underneath, got under RVD and powerbombed both of them. Christian would later retain when he stuck his knees and the IC Title up as Van Dam came off the top with a frogsplash. It was an exciting matchup, but I think one thing that was hurting it was that there was little buildup for it. There was no real feud and the match wasn't announced until the previous Raw so that might have explained some for the crowd being dead. Grade: B+

Next was The Coach and Al Snow trying to win the Raw announcing jobs away from JR and The King. This match was interesting in that there was no announcing. You could hear everything that the four participants would shout to each other. The King still looked pretty good in the ring. If WWE wanted to use him more in the ring, I don's think that would be a bad thing. He's definitely better than Flair at this point in their careers. It was interesting because watching this PPV now, I expected JR and The King to win. I forgot that Y2J interfered in an attempt to get to Austin. I know The Coach and Al Snow were the announcers the next night on Raw but I think it was the following Monday where JR and The King won their jobs back. They both did a good job after this match selling how devastated they were to lose their jobs. Most people will probably hate this match, but if you into it expecting to see two announcers and two ex-wrestlers going at it, then you'll probably enjoy it and won't be disappointed. Grade: C

I think that Triple H was working the main event hurt if I recall correctly. I was suprised how quick the match seemed to be. Goldberg got very little offense before winning the match, although Hunter of course found time to get busted open. Not a bad match, but when held up against other PPV main events, it's ultimately fairly forgettable. Grade: B+

For a one-brand PPV, this one is pretty good. It was the second Raw-only event, and every match felt like a storyline was ending or being set up to continue on, and everything felt right. Not to mention some pretty good matches too, especially Orton-Michaels.

P.S. Check my profile for other PPV reviews I've done. Check them out and let me know what you think.