Survivor Series 2002 Review

Survivor Series 2002 Review


This is one of my personal favourite PPVs ever, and one of the first that I watched. Does it still hold up today? Let's head to Madison Square Garden to find out!



Bubba Ray Dudley / Spike Dudley / Jeff Hardy vs 3 Minute Warning : Tables Match
Elimination rules apply here which sounds good to me. I'm not too big a fan of table matches, but this one was a lot of fun and one of the better tables matches I've seen. Plus this one also led to the reunion of the Dudley Boyz, as D-Von interfered for the finish. Fun garbage match that got the MSG crowd fired up for the night. ***



Saliva perform their song 'Always'. I don't usually like musical segments on PPVs, but I like this song so I'm gonna let this one slide.



Jamie Noble vs Billy Kidman
Cruiserweight Title on the line. Noble has got to be one of the most underutilized talents that the WWE has ever had under contract. The guy has tons of skill but he's never really had a chance to show it off except in the cruiserweight division that really didn't mean anything anyway. Nice, fast-paced, high-flying match here. With more time it could have been great, but as it is, it's still good. ***



Trish Stratus vs Victoria : Hardcore Match
Women's Title on the line. This is one of the more memorable divas matches I've seen, even if the weapons provided for the women were incredibly sexist, such as an ironing board and a broom. Both ladies managed to work through the sexism and create an entertaining womens match that did seem stiff at times, with Victoria's nose bleeding after a trash can to the face. The snap suplex did seem like an abrupt finish. **1/2



Brock Lesnar vs The Big Show
The WWE Title is on the line. Quite the historical match here, as it marked the first time that Lesnar had been beaten by pinfall. Big Show was just the transitional champ so that the belt could go to Angle and set up Wrestlemania. I thought it was strange that the match was given barely any time, as both guys were capable of putting on a good match, mainly thanks to the fact that Brock could suplex Show. Brock hitting the F5 was awesome. *1/2



Los Guerreros vs Edge & Rey Mysterio vs Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit
Ah, the Smackdown Six. These guys made Smackdown the must-see wrestling show of 2002. So many great matches and this was another one. This was for the newly made Smackdown tag titles.  Elimination rules apply. A lot of people seemed disappointed by this match at the time since it wasn't as good as some of the other matches, but it was a still an awesome bout itself. Benoit is pinned after a spear, eliminating his team. This match is just non-stop fast paced action. Eddie makes Rey tap to win the match and the titles. Excellent match. ****



Triple H vs Shawn Michaels vs Kane vs Chris Jericho vs Booker T vs Rob Van Dam : Elimination Chamber
Here we have the very first Chamber match in WWE history. You never can beat the original. Until I read Jericho's Undisputed book, I never knew that a lot went wrong with this match. Kane came out earlier than he was supposed to, HBK came out later than he was supposed to and this meant that they had to improvise most of the action, so it's amazing that it's as it is. HBK winning was a nice, feel-good moment and finally put HHH's reign to an end (well for a month at least). All in all it's still an excellent match worth watching. ****1/2



8.5/10. Still a great PPV in my eyes. The Chamber match and the Tag Title match both totally delivered with some great action there. The undercard wasn't bad either and even the very short WWE Title match was pretty entertaining. An easy recommendation from me.