Royal Rumble 2003
Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar
This match was alright. Better than their Survivor Series match. Fairly short, too, which is nothing but good when it comes to Big Show. Show can bump well for a guy his size, though. Lesnar also starts the night's trend of overhead belly-to-belly suplexes, though these are fairly impressive on a 500 pounder. Nothing great, but nothing offensive, like you'll see later. **1/4
Dudley Boyz vs. Team Excitement
What a good decision WWE made. They decided to take the belts off of Booker T and Goldust, who re-energized the Raw tag division with their feud with Jericho and Christian, and give them to a team that is not over with many people, other than JR, who usually creamed himself when talking about how great Storm and Regal were. And I don't see the point of putting the Dudleyz over here, because they would lose the titles the next night. The match itself here is just there. A whole bunch of nothing happens, until D-Von takes the knux from Regal, and pins him. The usual Team Excitement edge-of-your-seat thriller. **
Dawn Marie vs. Torrie Wilson
This match was fairly inoffensive in terms of quality, as there weren't a ton of blown stuff, but this is offensive in terms of buildup. The match is three minutes long, yet it was built up over MONTHS of garbage that took up 20 minute chunks of Smackdown (and Armageddon). Thankfully, after this, the storyline was forgotten. 1/2*
HHH vs. Scott Steiner
This is one of the reasons I bought the DVD (it's on the bottom of the list, but it's there). Why? It's one of the funniest damn matches I have ever seen. Seriously, Steiner's lack of oxygen, moveset, and force behind his punches made me laugh out loud. Also in this match is the MOST DEVASTATING MOVE KNOWN TO ALL OF MAN: Stumble Bomb '03. The funnier thing is that Steiner went for the cover after he did that. This match also features the absolute weakest belt shot I've ever seen. He just shoves the leather strap on HHH's face with about as much force as a marshmallow, and HHH actually blades for that, in a desparate attempt to get the crowd back into it. I would also be remiss if I hadn't mentioned the endless belly-to-belly suplexes, or the "I'll just lift my arms and have HHH jump for me" suplexes. I actually have to give HHH credit here, though, because he tried like a madman to make this match seem interesting by selling all of Steiner's shit. This match is one of the worst matches I have ever seen, but it amuses me quite a bit. -**
Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle
If HHH vs. Steiner was an example of how NOT to have a match, then this is a textbook example of how to have a WRESTLING match. This is the best match of both men's careers. An emotional rollercoaster, with lots of counters, reversals, holds, psychology, and all-round goodness. This also got the crowd back into the event after being killed in the last match and screwed by Kane. I also love this match because it had a CLEAN finish, which was something I wanted in a Benoit vs. Angle match. This also had plenty of belly-to-belly suplexes, but they were done right, with snap, force, and speed, unlike Steiner's. This is honestly one of the best matches I've ever seen, and the applause for Benoit afterward almost gets me teary-eyed, because he deserved it. Boston rules. *****
Royal Rumble match
It was 90-second or 2-minute intervals, depending on the mood of the crackhead timing them. I liked the setup at the beginning, where Christian posed as Jericho, and Jericho attacked Michaels from behind, and made him his bitch. As an aside, I don't think Jericho was hurt by not going over HBK at Wrestlemania. He should have gone over, but it didn't do harm to him when he barely lost via a fluke rollup. It's better to lose a great match, than go over in a subpar one. Anyways, the Rumble was filled up with really good workers in the early stages, mostly from Smackdown. This is one of my favorite Rumbles, mainly because it was filled up for the most part, and had a lot of good undercard involvemnet. The Matt Hardy and Shannon Moore stuff was funny as hell. I didn't like how they got rid of Jericho before the end in another failed attempt to get Test over. It should have been down to Jericho and Lesnar, with Michaels costing Jericho the Rumble there. The final four wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. There was Undertaker, Undertaker v2.0, Brock Lesnar, and Brock Lesnar v2.0. HOSSAMANIA IS RUNNING WILD, BROTHER! This was the best Rumble in quite some time. ****1/2
DVD Extras
A lot more than the usual WWE PPV DVD. Plenty of interviews, and a few TV spots, including the Undertaker teasers that had many people on GameFAQs making topics at a fast rate of speed about "TEH DEDMAN NUDERTKAER IS KOMING BAK!". It also features the Over The Top challenge from Raw, with RVD vs. Kane vs. Jericho vs. Batista, but that sucked. The best part was the Royal Rumble moments montage from Confidential. Not a bad assortment of extras at all. ***1/4
Verdict: This was a worthy DVD, just for Benoit vs. Angle and the Rumble match. Steiner vs. HHH is total comic relief, and the rest of the undercard is nothing special. Thumbs up, just for the last two matches.
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