Sunday, March 22, 2020

Ruthless Aggression Era Project: WWE Raw Review - July 8th, 2002

WWE Raw
July 8th, 2002 
Philadelphia, PA 


Vince McMahon starts the broadcast and announces Taker/Angle/Rock for Vengeance. 

Booker T opens the show fired the hell up. He wants NWO to the ring right now. Eddie Guerrero interrupts and says he promised Chris Benoit to beat up the first person he saw tonight and that person is Booker. 

1) Booker T vs. Eddie Guerrero 

Booker strikes first and this is fiery for a few moments. Then Booker gets a weird quick pinning combo finish for the win. Eddie is flustered and Chris Benoit attacks Booker soon after. This brings out GOLDUST. This brings out BUBBA AND SPIKE DUDLEY. Big brawl. Benoit eats a nasty chair shot from Bubba. 

Backstage Booker T accidentally attacks a vending machine worker that looks like X PAC and then steals a pretzel from him. 

2) Chris Benoit vs. Bubba Ray Dudley 

This sorta carried over from earlier. This show is so weirdly booked. Benoit & Bubba trade big moves and stiff shots. Bubba hits the bubba bomb, Eddie is at ringside and throws Spike onto the ref. This allows Benoit to lock in the crossface for the win. Eddie & Benoit assault Bubba after. Booker & Goldy run down for another brawl. Alright then.

Jeff Hardy shows up to the arena after replays of his epic ladder match against Taker from last week. Ric Flair welcomes him and says he was impressed and wishes him luck in his European Title Match with Regal tonight. As Flair walks off, Stevie Richards starts shit with him and cheap shots him, they face off later on.

3) Trish Stratus & Bradshaw vs. Chris Nowinski & Jackie Gayda

Aye. This was a damn mess. I'm gonna leave it at that. Bradshaw looked good though!

NWO is finally here. Michaels, Nash, X-Pac, and Big Show. Guess the dissension from last week is gone bc now they're just talking about Triple H and basically forcing him to accept their invitation to join the group. They give him two weeks. Nash says he's clear to compete and proposes a big 10 man tag later tonight. 

4) Ric Flair vs. Stevie Richards 

SQUASH. Flair locks in the figure four after a minute or two of going back and forth. Richards taps. 

Brock & Paul are here~~~~ this was HELL. We are in Philly so Paul talks about the stars he made in ECW and how Brock is his next big thing. Tommy Dreamer comes out to refute those claims and starts beating Brock with a kendo stick. Dreamer ends up getting an F5 on the floor. Rob Van Dam runs down and takes out Brock and does A COAST TO COAST FLYING CHAIR TO THE FACE ON PAUL HEYMAN. Dear god. 

5) William Regal (c) vs. Jeff Hardy - WWE European Title Match

This felt like just a quick way to capitalize on Hardy's momentum from last week or almost a reward for the match. But with that in mind, Regal was completely disregarded and this wasn't what could've been between these two. None the less, it's not terrible and easy to watch. Plus Hardy wins a singles belt!! 

They have been showing The Rock's "people's moments" in hype of his return to Smackdown this coming Thursday. IN CASE YA FORGOT. 

6) Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, X-Pac, The Big Show & Kevin Nash (w/ Shawn Michaels) vs. Rob Van Dam, Bubba Ray Dudley, Spike Dudley, Booker T & Goldust  

What a god damn line up. Too bad this shows been such a mess there's no real heat behind it. So this continues the clusterfuck trend. Nash blows out his leg/knee. NWO wins and threatens Triple H with their offer to join after the match. 

Oof. Glad this shows over. So far, these Raw's have been very dull and hard to get through.

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