As requested, here are some recaps of the year in wrestling, 2002.

The year started off shaky. When January rolled around, Chris
Jericho was the Undisputed Champion, and he was NOT being pushed
correctly. He wasn't used half as much as he should have been, and
when he was used he was usually either in a midcard match or he was
getting his ass kicked by an already established main eventer. This
infuriated me, because I'd been hoping for a World title reign by
Jericho for almost two years and now that he finally had won the big
one, he was being disrespected. The big deal was that the WWF did
not have faith in Jericho, they were blaming the decreasing ratings
on him and that he was not ready to hold the WWF Championship. It
didn't help that all of Jericho's PPV title defenses had no buildup
and were usually thrown together at the last moment. Jericho faced
The Rock at the 2002 Royal Rumble, and they wrestled a well accepted
match, which was helped by Jericho cutting the best promo of his
career a week earlier (in which he called the Rock a "stupid son of
a bitch").

Jericho's No Way Out title defense was overshadowed by the arrival
of the nWo. For some reason, Vince McMahon seemed to think that the
arrival of three washed up superstars would spike the ratings. It
did... for about a week. But that's what the WWE did this year, they
tried to spike ratings by having quick hotshot angles and returns
(Triple H). Nothing was built up right as far as storylines and PPV
matches went. Anyways, Scott Hall was fired quickley (big surprise)
and Kevin Nash was injured quickley (another big surprise). What did
surprise me was that Hulk Hogan was able to reach main event status
again and become the most popular star in the company. That shocked
me the most, and another big shocker was that the Rock/Hogan match
at Wrestlemania did NOT SUCK.

Now moving on to Wrestlemania, it was a so-so show this year. Maven
got to be on the show while Test, Lance Storm, Mr. Perfect, Scotty 2
Hotty, Albert, and Rikishi had to settle for a one minute six man
tag match on Heat prior to the event. That was disapointing. In
other news, the Maven vs Goldust match sucked! The best wrestled
match on the Wrestlemania card this year was actually the tag team
title match, where Billy and Chuck beat the APA, the Hardy Boyz, and
the Dudley Boyz. The Jericho/Triple H main event was a big letdown,
and did not live up to its potential (a few weeks later, they had a
much better rematch on Smackdown). Jericho's career was hurt badly
by the Wrestlemania storyline, where he had to step around in
Stephanie McMahon's shadows and walk her dog. Basically Triple H was
feuding with Kurt Angle and Stephanie when he should have been
feuding with Chris Jericho. Once again, on the Smackdown before
Wrestlemania, Jericho and Triple H had their first real encounter,
but it was too little too late. Jericho had been held down again.

Everything changed after Wrestlemania. The WWF had to change their
name to the WWE. Hulk Hogan became the Undisputed Champion, beating
Triple H a mere month after his Wrestlemania win. Jericho was shoved
back into a midcard position. Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, and Rico
debuted. The roster split occured, which brought back Raven, Shawn
Stasiak, Justin Credible, Mark Henry, Tommy Dreamer, and all the
other former Alliance stars who had been kept off TV. Diamond Dallas
Page retired. Kurt Angle was shaved bald. All of this happened
between March and June.

The two biggest things to happen during this time (aside from maybe
the roster split) is that the WWE lost their two biggest stars.
Shortly after Wrestlemania, The Rock left to do some sort of press
work for The Scorpion King, came back for a couple of months in the
summer (won the Undisputed championship in the process) and then
left to work on another movie. Also, after Judgement Day Stone Cold
Steve Austin walked out on the WWE. This was due to his unhappiness
with the company, stemming back to his role in Wrestlemania (a
midcard match against the drunken Scott Hall) and a shortage of good
storylines (Austin faced Undertaker in a craptacular Backlash match
and then faced Big Show and Ric Flair at Judgement Day). The final
straw was being told he had to job to Brock Lesnar on Raw. Now, this
really was a bad bad idea. An Austin/Lesnar match would have been
HUGE on PPV, but to give it away for free on Raw was bad decision
making, especially since Brock had only been on the active roster
for about three months and had only defeated the likes of the Hardy
Boyz, Shawn Stasiak, and Bubba Ray Dudley at this point. However,
Austin walked out without saying a word, which forced Ric Flair to
turn back into a babyface that night and the main event had to be
changed to a less than exciting Ric Flair vs Vince McMahon matchup.
On a side not, Chris Benoit had returned just a few weeks earlier,
and the potential for a very exciting Austin vs Benoit feud was
thrown out the window, along with the Eddie Guerrero/Stone Cold
match that was supposed to happen at the King of The Ring.

The summer was not a bad time for the WWE this year. After King of
The Ring, Vengeance and Summerslam were two great PPVs. Summerslam
2002 was one of the best shows in WWE history, and was highlighted
by Brock Lesnar vs The Rock, and also had Booker T and Goldust vs
Lance Storm and Christian, Triple H vs Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio
vs Kurt Angle, and Undertaker vs Test. Vengeance in July, saw John
Cena make his PPV debut against Chris Jericho, and pulled off an
upset victory. John Cena is one of my favorite newcomers and he
received a HUGE push in his first two months on the active roster,
but afterwards was sent to Velocity to beat jobbers and Albert.

Things stopped going well for Raw when the fall came around. Eric
Bishoff had been added to Raw as General Manager in July, and his
role had not shaken things up the way the WWE had hoped. Raw became
pathetic at times, especially with the old WCW championship being
brought back and GIVEN to Triple H. Since then, Rob Van Dam and the
returning Kane were given PPV shots at the "World Title" and Triple
H buried both of them in the process. During this time, Raw decided
to try to use shock methods into gaining ratings. This included "Hot
Lesbian Action" where for no apparent reason, Bischoff had two
lesbians make out and fondle eachover in the middle of the ring,
which resulted in 3 Minute Warning (Rosey and Jamal) destroying the
two lesbians. Soon afterwards, Triple H accused Kane of being a
murderer, who had been drunk driving and killed the young lady
(Katie Vick) who had been accompying him. Triple H later accused
Kane of having sex with Katie's dead body. The breaking point was
when Triple H dressed up like Kane and pretended to have sex with a
dead boy. That segment had to have been the worst in Raw history
(excpept maybe when Mae Young gave birth to a hand). Meanwhile on
Smackdown, Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar were accusing The Undertaker
of cheating on his pregnant wife. Both storylines really did suck
and it was a relief to have them both end.

The Undertaker probably had the best year of his career. He defeated
Hulk Hogan for the Undisputed championship at Judgement Day and
retained it against Triple H at King of The Ring. Undertaker
defended the title in a hard fought ladder match against Jeff Hardy
and to a close draw against Kurt Angle... all in the same week.
After dropping the title to the Rock at Vengeance, Undertaker had a
good match with Test at Summerslam and then faced Brock Lesnar at
Unforgiven and No Mercy. At No Mercy, 'Taker showed he could still
give a four star performance and had a bloody spectacle of a match
with The Next Big Thing. At No Mercy, 'Taker put Brock Lesnar over.
Brock was now a bonafide star, thanks in part to the Undertaker.
After No Mercy, Undertaker took some much needed time off, and his
wife gave birth.

After No Mercy, it was time for random pushes. Big Show was traded
from Raw to Smackdown and instantly became the number one contender.
After jobbing to everyone for an entire year, Big Show defeated
Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series to become the WWE Champion.
Meanwhile, Shawn Michaels defeated Triple H, Chris Jericho, Booker
T, Kane, and Rob Van Dam to win the World title in the first ever
Eliminiation match. HBK's title reign cost him some dignity (he had
two title defenses) but it resulted in a good 3 Stages of Hell match
at Armegeddon, where he lost the title back to Triple H. During this
time, Randy Orton was switched to Raw where he was constantly
praised for skills he did not seem to posess. After a few weeks,
Orton was injured and turned heel. From that point on, RNN Special
Updates kept flashing up to inform everyone on how poor Orton was
doing. John Cena also turned heel, and become a white rapper along
with Bull Buchanan who was now going by B2. Albert was also pushed
randomly, he picked up a clean win over Rey Mysterio and then
started going by the name of A-Train. Meanwhile, Deacon Bautista,
who had been Reverend D-Von's assistan, reappered on Raw going by
the name of Dave Batista. He was soon hooked up with Ric Flair, and
there is a rumor going around that Batista, Flair, Triple H, and
Randy Orton are going to become the new 4 Horsemen.

During all of this, Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Edge, Rey Mysterio,
Chavo Guerrero, and Eddie Guerrero became known as the "Smackdown
Six" after week after week of great matches. The six men were booked
against eachover in some fasion each and every week and always
produced something exciting to watch. They basically carried
Smackdown. Jamie Noble also debuted in June, and has become an
established Smackdown star. Noble held the Cruiserweight
Championship for five months, and has recently recruited the former
Little Guido (now known as Nunzio) to be his tag partner.

The last PPV of the year was Armegeddon. At this event, Kurt Angle
beat Big Show to become a three time WWE champion. Angle's recent
title reign is turning out to be his best, he is teamed up with Paul
Heyman, and the Big Show and is dominating Smackdown. Paul Heyman
even recruited Shelton Benjamin and Charlie "R.C." Haas to
become "Team Angle." They are Angle's cronies, and its turned out to
be a very good idea. Scott Steiner also debuted in November, by
beating up Christopher Nowinski and Matt Hardy (both of these guys
have come a long way and are very entertaining). Its yet to be
determined whether or not the WWE's investment in Scott Steiner will
be worth it or not.

Outside of the WWE, Ring of Honor has become the most popular indy
company in the country. They promote sportsmanship by having mostly
clean finishes to matches, and by promoting ring work over mic work.
Low-Ki, Scoot Andrews, Spanky, AJ Styles, and others have all
contributed work there and they look like they could become the next
ECW (except for the extreme part).

NWA-TNA also debuted this year in June. The company became a good
alternative to the WWE for a little while, holding two hour PPVs
every wednesday. The former K-Kwik started going by his real name of
Ron Killings and became the first ever black NWA Champion. Jerry
Lynn, who had been disrespected in his WWF run, became a big player
in TNA, and helped build up the X Division. The talented AJ Styles
became the first X Champion, and has created presige for the
championship. X-Pac joined TNA as Syxx Pac and had a brief, yet good
run. He had a few great matches with AJ Styles and proved that he
still had a lot to contribute to the business. Jeff Jarrett, a co-
owner of TNA, showed a lot of restraint and worked as a midcarder
for months before winning the NWA Championship. TNA also is home to
many breakout stars, including Sonny Siaki, The Amazing Red, Jorge
Estrada, Low-Ki, Storm and Harris, and Malice. Vince Russo returning
to an on air role and revamping the company hasn't been such a great
thing, and the team of Brian Lee and Slash as the Tag Champions is
really boring. TNA should strive more to be different than the WWE
instead on relying on cheap gimmicks.

To sum everything up, wrestling is a lot better now than it was a
year ago. A year ago, the WWF was the only thing making headlines
and they had a LOT of talent who they weren't using. Now the roster
split makes sure that most of the roster gets a televised match
every week, and has helped stars like Booker T get the exposure they
needed. It has hurt some workers, such as Rob Van Dam, but in
general the roster split has been a good idea. I hate how Raw
retired all of their titles except for the tag titles and the World
Title. Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam united the European Championship
with the Intercontinental Championship. Around this time, RVD also
united the IC title with the Hardcore Title, which was last held by
Tommy Dreamer. Finally, at No Mercy, Triple H and Kane retired the
IC title. That really upsets me, I have visions that John Cena,
Randy Orton, Batista, and many others could have really been built
up well had they been given the chance to be Intercontinental
Champion. They will not have the same benefits that Chris Jericho,
Chris Benoit, Edge, and Rob Van Dam had.

The wrestling has improved this year too. We went from sucky
Undertaker vs Hulk Hogan main events to Chris Benoit vs Kurt Angle
main events. Dead weight like Big Show and A-Train proved they were
more than dead weight (while Rikishi hasn't) and Rey Mysterio has
never been more popular. On the injury list, Mike Awesome and Perry
Saturn were released from the WWE. Shawn Stasiak was released back
in the summer without ever really been given a chance to shine. The
talent on Heat are going no where. Steven Richards, Justin Credible,
Johnny Stamboli, Raven, Tommy Dreamer, and Spike really don't have
any sort of future at this rate. Its apparent that any push they
receive will only be temporary. Test and D'Lo Brown should watch out
too.

All in all, this has not been a bad year as far as quality of
matches goes. The storylines were aweful (I left out my rant on Dawn
Marie and Al Wilson for a reason) and the crowds have become much
smaller and less enthusiastic. Raw is really struggling but
Smackdown is currently thriving. Things could go either way now. Its
best to hope that the WWE has already sunken as low as its going to.

I hope I didn't forget anything.

-Rings