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The spring of 2002 brought a major change to the WWE. With two weekly multi-hour television programs and two and a half companies worth of talent, the WWE made a bold move in splitting up the rosters with one traveling group plying their trade on Monday Night Raw and the other doing their thing on Thursday night Smackdown! For a man who had only returned to watching wrestling full-time the year before, it was a pretty interesting concept. The novel idea was criticized by some, but I think a lot of people understood the potential that was there. It was expected to create new stars a little easier since there wouldn't be as much of a log jam at the top, first and foremost. There were several possible benefits, but in the beginning the WWE shuffled things around a lot to try and figure out what was going to work best. Just a few months after the initial draft to help set-up the split, storyline wise, there was an open trading season where a lot of moving and shaking took place. Meanwhile, certain older stars were beginning to wind down their careers to make room for some newer talent. Scott Hall and Mr. Perfect were fired, Kevin Nash suffered a severe injury, and Stone Cold Steve Austin "took his ball and went home." This was all taking place in the midst of a name change, by the way. After decades of being known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the company was forced to change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment. Thus, one could argue that during the middle of what was essentially the merging of three companies into one (WWE, WCW, and ECW), they were also going through the emotions of a quite understandable loss of brand identity. So, it was fair to say that the summer of 2002 was tumultuous for the world's number one sports entertainment entity. August 25th of that year provided just what the doctor ordered to help build some much needed positive momentum... Summerslam, on paper, had the makings of a great card; some might've called it Wrestlemania-worthy. There were a lot of younger, newer talents on display in various levels of matches and perhaps no one that night made a bigger impression as to what we could expect from him in the future than the former WCW star making his WWE PPV debut: Rey Mysterio. In what I've called the best 8-minute match of all-time, Mysterio and fellow future Hall of Famer, Kurt Angle, put on a thrilling show. It took less than ten-minutes for the two of them to take the audience on a roller coaster ride of back and forth action featuring crisp sequences with high degrees of difficulty made to look easy. The opening contest is expected to set the tone for the remainder of a PPV, so when you open up your show with a fantastic match of that caliber, it means good things. Well, my motto is that if you think good things, you get good things...and I couldn't think of any reason not to allow my mind to wonder whether or not this PPV had the chance to be one of the all-time greats. A dream match, of sorts, between Chris Jericho and Ric Flair had the unfortunate task of following the opener. While it did not match its predecessor, it was certainly no stinker. Edge and Eddie Guerrero followed nicely with a 3-star match that showed flashes of why they'd go on to have one of Smackdown's all-time greatest TV matches just a few weeks later. This would be a great time to mention the Nassau Coliseum crowd that electrified with constant enthusiasm for every match, including the tag title match that pitted the red hot Un-American stable against the unlikely duo of Goldust and Booker T. I firmly believe that it was this Summerslam crowd that planted the seeds for Book getting a World title shot several months later at Wrestlemania. He was popular going into the match, but this crowd made him out to be a mega-star. Great PPVs always seem to have a match that gets lost in the shuffle amongst other matches that help make the event worthy of praise. Wrestlemania X-Seven, for example, was littered with high profile matches that delivered in spades, but the hidden gem is Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit. Summerslam 2002 had a similar match, also featuring Chris Benoit. On an episode of Monday Night Raw in the month prior to this show, Benoit won the Intercontinental title from Rob Van Dam (I was in attendance). Benoit and RVD had their return match at Summerslam and, in a 16-minute match that no one ever talks about, really put on a helluva performance. Benoit was the perfect guy to face RVD, as he was able to lend purpose and logic to the high flyer's many signature spots. It was a highly entertaining little dance that the Crippler led the way through and it was the type of bout that continued the momentum that so many of the matches before it had previously built up. If there was one match on the card that figured to potentially thwart that momentum, it was the match between the Un-American Test and the American Badass, the Undertaker. Taker had an off and on year to that point, where he had as many dud performances as he'd had strong ones. Yet, he got back on track and had a nice match with Test that, again, the crowd at Nassau Coliseum elevated. There are a hand full of occasions in wrestling where you've gone into a match with uncertain expectations only to see magic happen right before your eyes. It's a rarity that it happens twice in back to back matches, but that's exactly what happened at Summerslam 2002. Shawn Michaels is my all-time favorite performer, but to expect his return match against Triple H to be great was a little ambitious, to say the least. I was just hoping he would make it out of the match without re-injuring or embarrassing himself. Four years is a long layoff. Triple H, much like the Taker, had somewhat of an up and down year in 2002 to that point, as well. There were questions of whether or not he was up to the task of getting HBK through this match. And then the match started...and 27 brilliant minutes later, I walked away feeling like I'd just seen one of the all-time classic matches in history that I'd absolutely never forget. What a perfect story they told. Agony, triumph, evil, heartache, passion, and compassion all wrapped up into one masterful performance for the ages. How that match could've been any better, I'm not sure I can pinpoint. How do you go on after THAT? Such was the task given to The Rock and Brock Lesnar. Battling in the final match contested for the Undisputed Championship, the relative rookie with all the untapped potential in the world (Lesnar) had to go out and try to follow arguably the greatest match in Summerslam history. The Rock was known for being able to elevate his game, but Lesnar was an unknown. At least in the previous match, uncertain expectations could be put into perspective by a knowledge that HBK had once been able to go at the highest level. But what of Lesnar, the Next Big Thing? And then the match started...and 16 excellent minutes later, another highly entertaining story had been told. While not at the level of the Non-Sanctioned Street Fight, The Rock and Brock Lesnar's match far exceeded expectations and delivered a relative classic match of their own. I bring up this event because I’m probably not the only one that is the type of fan (at this stage of my life) that has to reach for something to keep me intrigued at this time of the year. Once the Mania buzz wears off, my interest level takes at least a few steps backward if not more. Yet, I’ve always felt that Summerslam was the kind of event that SHOULD bring us all back. It has enough history and it’s positioned at just the right time of the year to be able to draw some post-Mania stragglers back. So, I looked to an event that defines Summerslam – and really professional wrestling as a whole - at its best; the hope is that it will start getting me hyped and help me, help you start getting hyped. Summerslam 2002 is the greatest PPV of all-time, from a pure in-ring product perspective. With an astounding 3.25 star average match rating (a nearly impossible feat) by my scale, it stands tall among even the greatest Wrestlemanias. Summerslam is an event that delivers time and time again, much like Mania. I'm not sure what lay ahead for Summerslam 2011, but one can expect that it will be a quality PPV worthy of the name. I will use the upcoming Summerslam event as the vehicle to keep my passion alive for the time being. When you need a boost in wrestling passion...turn to an outstanding event like Summerslam 2002. For those of you that haven't seen it, don't bother trying to watch it online. Go ahead and buy it, watch it, and then lock it away for future viewing...
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