Grilling JR - SummerSlam 2002 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Welcome to Grilling JR! And today we’re gonna look at the build up to SummerSlam 2002 and the event itself from 20 years ago. A highly regarded PPV at the time, and still now if you watch it today.

The two main things on the show were of course Shawn Michaels’ return to the ring after 4 years and defeating HHH in a “non-sanctioned match” and of course Brock Lesnar defeating The Rock to become at the time the youngest WWE Champion in history. There’s a lot going on at the time so let’s get into it.

We’ve been chronologically going through a lot of WWE 2002 PPVs this year JR, and the last event we looked at was King of the Ring ‘02 back in June.

Since then quite a few things have gone down…

John Cena debuted on TV a few days after KOTR and challenged Kurt Angle.

Undertaker and Jeff Hardy had their memorable ladder match to main event the July 1st Raw.

Edge & Hulk Hogan won the WWE Tag Titles from Billy & Chuck on the special July 4th edition of Smackdown. Noteworthy as it’s Hogan’s final time with a WWE title.

Kevin Nash tore his quad in his first match back on Raw on July 8th and the nWo angle was disbanded.

While it sucks for Nash, it was probably a blessing in disguise as the nWo stuff really wasn’t cutting it, and what seemed to be an alteration in plans to set up the HHH vs HBK match turned out way for the better.

Eric Bischoff debuted as the on-screen general manager on the July 15th Raw (we did a watchalong of this full show about a year ago, so go check that out in the archives)

Stephanie McMahon was named the on-screen general manager for Smackdown.

So now realistically Vince would be taking a temporary break from his presence on-screen by having general managers run the shows.

Was this the idea do you think? That Vince perhaps felt he was getting overexposed being on TV too much?

Vengeance 2002 took place on July 21 in Detroit and among the highlights were:

Rob Van Dam defeated Brock Lesnar via DQ to keep the IC title. Lesnar and Kurt Angle have their first on-screen interaction backstage in a stare down.

The Un-Americans - Christian & Lance Storm defeated Hulk Hogan & Edge to become WWE Tag Champions.

While it was probably no-par on the Hart Foundation in 1997 - what did you think of the Un-Americans gimmick with Storm, Christian and Test they did for a few months here?

Triple H joined Raw in a segment with Bischoff and Stephanie, after Shawn Michaels convinced him to be with him on the same show, after it seemed HHH was gonna sign with Stephanie on Smackdown.

The Rock defeated Kurt Angle and WWE Undisputed Champion The Undertaker to win the title in really great triple threat match

The day after Vengeance was another hot Raw. Among some of the highlights:

The European title was officially no more, and was unified with the IC title when RVD defeated Jeff Hardy in a ladder match. Was it time to merge some of these titles in your mind?

The soon to be named “Three Minute Warning” - Rosey & Jamal debuted and beat up D’Lo Brown and Shawn Stasiak while they were having a match.

Were there high expectations for the team when they first came in? A crying shame both of these men left us so young.

Why do you think it never really worked out with Stasiak in WWE?

Same could be said with D’Lo after his great run in the Attitude era. We know he wasn’t the same after the Droz accident, but here in July 2002 he’s only 31 years old and could have probably still made an impact for a few more years.

“Rock beat Eddie Guerrero in 8:31 with a people's elbow. Coolest spot was Guerrero doing an inside cradle off the rock bottom. Personally I felt Rock making Guerrero look like an equal the whole match, even in beating him, did more to elevate Guerrero than anything in the brief Austin program. Lesnar came out and grabbed the belt, then threw it on the ground.”

The only time Rock and Eddie got to go at it in a singles match and it’s a banger. What could’ve been with these two?

Show ended with Bischoff & Stephanie hanging out in the parking lot. Stephanie was about to beat up Eric when Lesnar came out to protect him. Bischoff laughed, but as always, Stephanie got the last laugh as Lesnar and Heyman got in the limo with her and they announced they've jumped to Smackdown.

After all this talk of the World Champion being on both shows…why the change do you think?

Is it fair to say the first 2-3 months of getting the brand extension across well on TV was a bit flat and the fans were not invested in it? And now with the feuding GMs and switching talent from shows did it start to bring a little sizzle to Raw vs Smackdown?

Rey Mysterio debuted on TV defeating Chavo Guerrero on Smackdown. Had you been wanting to bring Rey in for a long time at this point?

Raw on 7/29 in Greensboro featured The Rock vs Ric Flair for the only time ever in a singles match.

Should this have been saved for a PPV? Or was it known Rock would be limited going forward now and with the show in Greensboro, it would essentially be now or never?

Benoit defeated RVD for the IC Title.

Rosey & Jamal this week beat up Moolah & Mae Young. The shock value of seeing two 80-year old women get beat up had been done enough at this point and didn’t need retreading would you agree?

Shawn Michaels was shown in the parking lot in a bloody pulp, with the assumption that he had been beaten up by a mystery assailant, and HHH showing sympathy to try to lead us to believe it’s someone else.

There was more brand switching as Jericho moved over to Raw and attacked Flair following his loss to the Rock. He was also joined by the Un-Americans trio in moving over, bringing the tag titles with them

Then on Smackdown, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero were moved over with Benoit bringing the IC Title with him.

Is this now too many guys switching brands to make any sort of impact?

The long time rumor and innuendo is that these were legitimate trades between the writers of Raw & SmackDown. From a talent relations point of view - how much did you have to do with it and did you have to handle it from a talent perspective?

The next Raw was the big reveal of HHH as the mystery attacker of Shawn to confirm their match for SummerSlam

“Whole show was built around HHH playing badass on all the heels, leading to the revelation it was he who destroyed Michaels at the end of the show. It was a scenario I've seen in similar form

dozens of times in wrestling where the young heel insults the old legend leading for him to come out of retirement, not for a wrestling match, but for a fight, one last time. Like with last week, HHH said all the right words and it was a scenario that probably looked great on paper, but Michaels after all these years saying he was coming back got remarkably little reaction. The live crowd seemed bored by the lengthy interview, probably because almost all of them had figured out HHH was the guy who did it long before it was revealed.

Show ended with HHH doing an interview and Michaels was via satellite with a tremendous make-up job making him look like Don Frye's last opponent. The two had a love-fest, like they were best friends. They showed supposed surveillance camera footage showing HHH as the assailant. Michaels vowed to come back at SummerSlam. HHH said it was a joke Michaels thought he could compete with him, said he'd hurt him badly, said he'd make it so he couldn't hold his baby, couldn't satisfy his wife, etc. All that stuff that would have been tremendous if anyone took anything serious. But when you are taught you're stupid to care and to expect a swerve, well, even wrestling fans don't want to be stupid and they didn't care, even though I thought it was a little long, but well done.”

Hunter had this amazing buildup to his return - super over babyface - and here we are 7 months later and he’s back to being a heel. It’s obvious that’s where he was most comfortable but was this too soon? Was his babyface run a failure in your mind?

This week also had Rosey & Jamal beat up ring announcer Lilian Garcia who was starting a mini feud with Howard Finkel.

Is a feud with non-wrestler ring announcer’s necessary? And beating up a ring announcer does wonders to get over Three Minute Warning as credible threats when they do start having matches on TV doesn’t it?

On the next Smackdown, Hulk Hogan was put out of WWE and left a bloody mess from Brock Lesnar.

So Hogan’s big comeback lasted just under 6 months.

What do you remember about Hogan leaving here? Another cash or creative deal?

He was heavily advertised for WWE’s first show in Australia for 16 years a few days later and reportedly asked to be pulled out as he didn’t think his back could handle the two long flights over, and wanted to be home on his birthday.

The return to Australia was a big success regardless at Melbourne‘s Colonial Stadium on August 10, and WWE has run tours almost every year ever since up until COVID.

“The 8/12 live Raw from Key Arena in Seattle saw a hot crowd and strong show, building to a white hot eight-man with The UnAmericans & HHH over Rock & Booker & Goldust & Undertaker when Test kicked Undertaker in the face after he was getting ready to power bomb Storm and Test pinned him to set up their match. This was an excellent match with the crowd (already hot to begin with), going bonkers. It was so much fun to see, because the UnAmericans toned down their act from the week before. They had main event heel heat and hopefully the toning down won't affect it. Think about how far in a short time those three have come, as Christian pretty much died ever since Edge left him, Storm was floundering and Test was one of those guys because of his size everyone wanted to push but never figured out how. They did a ton of false finishes. The ending on paper would be a surprise because of how few jobs Undertaker does, but it was necessary to get Test over for their singles match (which Test is most likely not winning) at S.S.”

Taker doesn’t lose a lot - but you’re getting ready in the run up to the 1 year anniversary of 9/11 - you knew this was going to get them more heat correct?

Lesnar appeared with Heyman as fans in the audience for an opening angle, where Lesnar distracted Rock and HHH laid him out with a pedigree. They tried to get fans to chant "Howard the Coward" at Finkel, who is playing heel ring announcer to set up a probable confrontation with Lillian Garcia (evening gown match?). Dreamer got a huge ECW chant doing his old character in a hardcore title match with Richards. It's amazing how a character that hasn't been used in 18 months put on a character who was totally dead not that many weeks ago can get over like that. Just goes to show how badly they botched up the potential of ECW as a group within WWE last year.

Could there had been more with Dreamer?

Matt Hardy turned heel on Jeff (again?), costing him a match with Van Dam. However, Matt then jumped to Smackdown, so it doesn't appear there will be a prolonged feud between the two, because they could only wrestle on PPV. Stacy Keibler also jumped from Smackdown to Raw and took off her shorts and did a table dance in her underwear. The only disappointment is the documents Keibler stole from Stephanie, which I had hoped would become a major part of the storyline for high stakes were simply an excuse to say Van Dam had a rematch clause in his contract. Stephanie was going to shred it (haven't they learned about shredding contracts and legal documents?), so they've got a reason for Benoit vs. Van Dam for the IC belt at SummerSlam. That was played up big on Smackdown, because Raw has a chance to steal the IC title.”

Does this hurt or help the brand extension in your mind?

Observer 8/26:

“Another 15 front office employees were let go this past week. This was part of an attempt to slash $20 million total in expenses from the budget due to the revenue shortfall. One thing about WWE is that when it becomes apparent revenues are going down, they make the business call to maintain profitability rather than so many companies that seemingly let these problems get way out of control until it's too late. The developmental cuts a few weeks back were a small part of the slashing of expenses.”

How were decisions made on cutting talent or front office employees? Are you involved in those conversations?

“Raw notes from 8/19 in Norfolk. This was a hell of a show to hype SummerSlam, as they did the most focused build-up to make the show special with video packages of any show in a long time. This took precedence over the wrestling, and there wasn't much of it, on this show. Undertaker did your typical U.S. patriotic badass interview, which didn't get over all that great. Test came out on a motorcycle with the upside down flag and Undertaker was beating on him. This brought out Storm & Christian to make it a three- on-one. Why was I not shocked that Undertaker held his own with all three. He really didn't want to sell. Goldust & Booker came out for the save to set up a match.”

Do you think Taker went out of his way to not sell or do you think that’s how he was instructed?

“Bischoff killed the 24/7 rule for the hardcore title, and only a year too late. He ordered a six minute Battle Royal type match with a bunch of ex-champs (Jeff Hardy, Terri--who immediately ran away and wasn't part of this, Crash Holly, Spike dudley, Bubba, Richards, Bradshaw and Dreamer) and whomever held it at the end would be champ and I guess defend it in regular singles matches. I guess this means there won't be another 166 hardcore title changes over the rest of the year. Went from Bradshaw to Crash back to Dreamer. Dreamer was pounded until the time limit, but kept either being saved or kicking out, so he was kind of the survivor.”

As you retire the European title it’s resetting the Hardcore title. The end goal was to just to merge them all was it not?

“They did the Kane music, but he wasn't there. I think he's going to Smackdown. Fans booed that he wasn't there. Stratus pinned Keibler in a mud wrestling bra and panties match. This was far less sexy than it sounds. Stratus was thrown off the stage into the mud. They were so drenched that neither looked attractive. Charles Robinson got thrown in the mud and ended up looking like Fit Finlay. Finkel also took a spill in the mud, for the comedy pleasure of him ring announcing the rest of the show drenched in mud.”

Why did Fink eat so much shit? Vince?

“Rock got a package of photos of Hogan all bloodied from Heyman. HHH did an interview and wanted Michaels to sign papers that he wouldn't sue him if he hurt him. Michaels signed them later in the show as they teased he wasn't there. It ended up being made a lights out match. Jericho came out and cut a promo on HHH, who buried him again by laughing at everything he said, but not laughing in a good way. Jericho said both were fighting has-beens at S.S. Jericho said they were both alike except he had more talent and made sure to insult the crowd so they wouldn't like his singing later. He also said that Flair would be an easier opponent than Michaels. Flair came out and put Jericho in a garbage can.”

Jericho being made to look bad by Hunter while supposed to be on the same side … what was that about do you think?

“UnAmericans beat Undertaker & Goldust & Booker when Christian pinned Goldust after a belt shot in 6:19. Nowhere near the match of the previous week. JR was out of control trying to sell the UnAmericans angle like he had Bill Watts flashbacks. They had a confrontation to set up RVD vs. Show. The idea was Bischoff didn't want Show to hurt RVD so he wouldn't be less than 100% for the Benoit match. Flair did an interview but Jericho attacked and bloodied him up.”

What say you to that report from Meltzer?

“Rock vs. HHH had a no DQ main event, which ended without a finish. Nitro lives. Rock has dropped a lot of weight doing all that conditioning work with the Dolphins at camp. It was funny how he and HHH used to be the same size and speed, and now HHH is huge and Rock runs circles around him. They had a solid match, but not the level of some of a lot of TV bouts of late. Lesnar came out with Heyman holding tickets before the match and Bischoff even confronted them. Lesnar got in the ring after a ref bump. Michaels also ran in. HHH clotheslined Michaels, who took a bump and set up the pedigree. Rock saved. Lesnar tried to interfere but Michaels superkicked him out of the ring. Rock departed from the spotlight. Michaels' back seemed hurting already and then he tried a running dive over the top, but didn't clear the top rope. Luckily, he wasn't hurt on this and he and HHH brawled to a wild ending. I've got little doubt Michaels will have a really good match, but hope he doesn't hurt his back in the process.``

How much worry is there regarding Shawn?

We’re at the show Jim and it is a resounding success. 99.7% voted a thumbs up on the show from the Wrestling Observer readers. You’re at the Nassau Coliseum and it drew a sellout 14,797 fans paying $893,625. That’s a huge success at the gate is it not?

From Meltzer: “SummerSlam '02 on 8/25 at the Nassau Coliseum will go down as one of the best received PPVs in company history and the night of anointing Brock Lesnar as the company's new superstar.

Of course, that decision was made months ago, and was rocky at first. Lesnar's early push was reminiscent of sputtering pushes given to others that some people in the company were behind, and others were railroading. Instead of being a monster, he was portrayed as a guy who needed manager interference to save him from being pinned by mid-carders like Bubba Ray Dudley and the Hardys. His win at King of the Ring came across far more impressive for the majority of fans who skipped that PPV and only heard about it on television. But going back to old-fashioned booking, making a headliner, and long-term planning, paid off. While Lesnar winning the title was no secret, and the long-term plan was hardly a secret months ago, there were no changes in plan that would "fool people," even though they might hurt the ultimate goal. The end result seems to have been a successful show during a period when all aspects of business are way down. The idea was that to get Lesnar over as a fresh money draw, the guy he needed to beat was Rock, and that Rock would do it the right way. The fact he was untarnished, in that fans never saw him lose (well, except those who did at house shows before his TV push started), for all the talk of winning and losing not meaning anything, was part of the reason this worked. And they went full steam ahead in that direction, with the great finishing touches being the training videos for both that aired on many different shows. Rock, to his credit, put Lesnar over in the middle with the F-5, and whatever Lesnar's career does from here certainly can't be blamed on Rock not giving him the proper sendoff.”

It is a pivotal moment not just for Brock but the company as the transition begins to Brock on top. The show gets 540,000 buys - the 4th most successful pay-per-view of the year behind the Rumble, No Way Out & WrestleMania. It is down 30,000 buys from the year before which featured Rock vs. Booker T for the WCW Title and Austin vs. Angle for the WWF title. Do you attribute the success of the show to Brock, Rock or Michaels’ return in your mind?

“The non-wrestling on the show was kept to a minimum. There was a deal where they had Stephanie and Bischoff share an office, and did a few brief interludes with them.

Stephanie is so wrong for the role, but that's a dead horse. Only major thing was after Rob

Van Dam won the IC title from Chris Benoit, Bischoff was bragging about how Raw got the belt back and Stephanie annoyingly laughed in his face.”

Was Stephanie the right person in this role and it’s just Meltzer being critical?

“They alternated announcing crews, with Michael Cole & Tazz at ringside, like they would be for Smackdown, and Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler away from the ring, like at Raw. Basically each did their own crews matches. Ross & Lawler did Benoit-Van Dam, since that gave each side four matches. This wound up as a success for several reasons. First, each crew got breaks. Plus, the natural competitive spirit flowed, and Ross in particular was on, particularly selling with Michaels return huge since it was "his" main event. Cole & Tazz, by getting to do the PPV main event and an historic match, gave them credibility as an "equal" crew as opposed to their perception of the "B" crew. Tazz ended up with the line of the night, because Cole said that if Lesnar wins the title, it would make Paul Heyman a millionaire. Tazz then said, "a millionaire who owes a lot of people money." It may have hurt not having Ross do the main event as far as getting over Lesnar's title win, but on the flip side, it was good for Cole's positioning to be able to call it.”

What say you Jim? Were you still getting used to this format and type of action or were you happy with the breaks and rests?

“1. Kurt Angle beat Rey Mysterio in 9:20. They clicked and had a tremendous opener. Real fast paced early with good reversals by Mysterio off Angle's moves. Mysterio did a hilo dive off the back of the ref onto Angle on the floor after the ref seemingly got in the way of his first dive. Mysterio got a great near fall with the West Coast pop after the 619. Finish saw Angle block a Frankensteiner off the top and turn it into an ankle lock. ***¾”

This is one of the best opening matches of all-time in my mind and Rey’s pay-per-view debut. These two just clicked together did they not? Surprised to have Rey lose in his pay-per-view debut?

“2. Ric Flair beat Chris Jericho in 10:22 by submission with the figure four. Ross said Flair was 52, which is quite the admission (actually 53). Flair's clean win was designed to set up a rematch where Jericho would get a clean win. Flair was "up" for the match. Jericho seemed like he was having fun working with someone who was probably a childhood hero. Flair even brought his flip into the turnbuckle out of retirement, but probably wished he hadn't, as he landed awkwardly, to say the least. Ross made several Hall of Fame references, including that they may have to name a wing at the Hall of Fame after Flair. Jericho did the Flair bump off the top rope. Flair used a half crab, similar to the walls, after Jericho missed the lionsault. Jericho turned that into the figure four and Flair did a tremendous sell job on it. Big spot was Flair grabbing the ropes a split-second before tapping, for controversy. Jericho argued with ref Charles Robinson. Flair then used a low blow and figure four. Jericho submitted. Nobody saw that submission coming. **¾”

This is strong to be putting Ric over here…and crazy that just a few weeks ago he had his last match at 73. What a great match between these two!

“3. Edge pinned Eddy Guerrero in 11:47 with the spear. Edge missed a tackle and Guerrero spent much of the match working on his left shoulder. Fans weren't into the different shoulder submissions Guerrero used like a chicken wing crossface and Fujiwara armbar. Turned into a strong match with the unique counters, such as a Guerrero dropkick on a spear attempt. Edge got his knees up from a frog splash. Guerrero kicked out of the implant DDT. Guerrero used a Northern Lights suplex and a neckbreaker as well as a frog splash onto the shoulder, all for near falls. Edge got the pin with a spear, with the idea that Guerrero had claimed Edge had never speared him before. ***¼”

It has to be somewhat of a disappointment for Eddy here does it not? Earlier in the year on his return he’s positioned with Austin before he walked out…then gets a big match against Rock on TV and here he is losing to Edge. Was this just still trying to figure out the level of star you had with him?

“4. Lance Storm & Christian retained the WWE tag titles over Booker T & Goldust in 9:37. Storm & Christian did a funny promo before the match, talking about how the fans would probably not react and sit on their hands. For the first few minutes, they were right. Eventually it was old-style tag team strategy, with them getting heat on Goldust. Fans chanted "USA" and they did the ref missing the tag spot. Another time Goldust got to the corner but Booker wasn't there. Finally the hot tag, with Booker getting a near fall on Christian with a missile dropkick. After some reversals, Booker laid both to waste with an ax kick (on both, not two different ones). Booker hit Christian with a side kick, but no ref. Storm tried for the belt shot finish, but it was blocked. However, Test interfered and laid out Booker with a high kick to set up the pin. ***”

Great old school tag team match between 4 great workers. For as funny and comedic BookDust was…man they could go couldn’t they?

“5. Rob Van Dam pinned Chris Benoit in 16:30 to win the IC title. The best technical match on the show. Very Japanese style late in the match. Van Dan ended up winning clean with the

frog splash. ***½”

It was important to put the IC title on Raw since Brock was taking the Undisputed title to Smackdown…but the plan changes at some point. Did that hurt the IC title?

“6. Undertaker pinned Test in 8:18. Since they need a strong challenger for Lesnar, Taker had to go over convincingly here. So he did. Test got to kick out of the choke slam. Storm & Christian both interfered, but Undertaker laid them both to waste with choke slams. Test hit the high kick, but Undertaker kicked out. Undertaker kicked a chair that Storm gave to Test, into Test's face and then brought the old tombstone out of retirement for the pin. **¼”

Only on the big shows was the Tombstone used and obviously to line up Taker with Brock he had to get the win. But man it feels like there were so many close moments to having Test be a top guy and he never got there. Why do you think that is?

“7. Shawn Michaels beat HHH in what was called a non-sanctioned match in 27:20. Ross was pushing that it was Michaels' first match since Wrestlemania in 1998, or more than four years. He wore jeans and they did a street fight match using weapons. Michaels did a plancha right away before selling his back for much of the match. Michaels' selling was the best on the show (only one close was Flair), but that's actually the part of the match that didn't seem to get over with the crowd. They pushed the back injury hard, and HHH spent the match working over the back, doing old style backbreakers including one on a chair. Michaels juiced early, and the blood actually had dried up by late in the match. HHH pulled off Michaels' belt and whipped him with it. He even used an abdominal stretch as well as chair shots to the back. HHH at one point pulled out a sledge hammer, but didn't use it due to Earl Hebner getting in his face. He also gave Michaels a side slam on a chair. Michaels made a comeback by superkicking a chair into HHH's face, and he juiced heavy. Michaels' punches in the comeback weren't quite the same as the past, and he was smaller, but he didn't seem to get tired and looked in very good shape, particularly for a guy with a bad back. HHH took a Harley Race bump over the top and Michaels came back with his belt, whipping him back. Michaels used spanish announcer Hugo Savinovich's shoe and a facebuster on a chair. Ross was throwing around Hall of Fame references for Michaels. Michaels pulled out a ladder, symbolic of his famous ladder matches years ago. He catapulted HHH into the ladder and even delivered a superplex (Michaels turned to take the bump on his side). Outside the ring, after leveling HHH with a fire extinguisher shot, he gave him a plancha to the floor through a table. In the ring, he came off from about seven feet on a ladder with an elbow drop. Finish saw a blocked superkick, a blocked pedigree, and then Michaels scoring the pin with a cradle. HHH destroyed him afterwards with two sledge hammer shots to the back and Michaels went out on a stretcher. A hell of an emotional ride. ****¼”

This is one of the all-time great Summerslam matches and considering Shawn’s first match in such a long time…he had to come back against Hunter to do this right?

Did you know right when it was over Shawn was going to be back for the long haul?

“8. Brock Lesnar won the WWE title from Rock in 16:01. The crowd almost took attention away from the match, because of the pro-Lesnar reactions being so strong. This was similar to the Rock-Hogan match at Mania in that the announcers, who play to the babyface, didn't know how to handle it. Cole really didn't acknowledge it at all early, until Tazz made a reference to fans having the right to cheer for whoever they wanted, but they continually portrayed it as a mixed crowd, as opposed to what started out that way but grew progressively pro-Lesnar. Heavy booing when Rock got Lesnar in a sharpshooter, and cheering when Lesnar got out. Heavy booing when Rock raised his arm after it fell twice, teasing the Hogan finish from Smackdown. They booed Rock out of the building for a low blow. Rock made a comeback catapulting Lesnar into the ringpost and using a Rock bottom on Paul Heyman that put him through a table. That wasn't pretty. Lesnar kicked out of the rock bottom. Lesnar then hit a rock bottom of his own that Rock kicked out of. Rock teased the people's elbow, but as he came across the ring, Lesnar popped up and clotheslined him. After a series of reversals, Lesnar hit the F-5 in the middle, and Rock stayed down for three. Hope Lesnar recognizes enough to give the guy a nice Christmas present for that one. ***¼”

Hard to think of a better way to make Lesnar into not the Next Big Thing…but the Actual Big Thing and it’s a passing of the torch not seen in the WWE at that point since Shawn - Austin at Mania 14 wouldn’t you agree?