This Sunday, October 25th, the WWE will be presenting, for the sixth year, the Hell in a Cell PPV live on the WWE Network. The show has consistently not been a great drawing card but there is always some intrigue when it comes to the Cell due to its illustrious history. For 18 years, the Cell has been presented as one of the WWE’s biggest and most legendary matches the company has ever created and there is no arguing that. Ever since the move to TV-PG, the Cell has lost a lot of its luster but I believe we could go back even further and realize that the Cell was already losing its luster even before that. However, I am taking this time to reflect on one of the most important Hell in a Cell matches in company history and quite frankly, it involves the two men who will be competing in the very same match this Sunday. That, my friends, is the Hell in a Cell match for the WWE Title between Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker from No Mercy 2002…….which took place 13 years ago. Yes, despite what the WWE tells you, these two have gone to Hell before and my, what a journey it was. I’ve seen the match numerous times but I had the privilege to go back and reexamine the match on its 13th anniversary. We’ll get into that very soon but for now, we will discuss the year that the two men were having back in 2002, the buildup and eventually my thoughts on the match in general along with asking the question: can Taker/Lesnar II inside Hell in a Cell live up to its predecessor? Let’s not waste any time…….let’s hop in the Delorean, travel back through time and let’s reexamine the year that was 2002 for these two men!!!
Year in Review: 2002 (Brock Lesnar)
2002 was a very big year for the company and it’s quite amazing how much really did happen when you look back on it in retrospective. We had Triple H return from injury, the NWO return to the WWE, Rock vs Hogan, Austin leaving the company, Ric Flair as the Co-Owner of the WWE, the Brand Split, Eric Bischoff becoming RAW GM, the run of the Undisputed Title, Hulk Hogan as Undisputed champion, the Smackdown Six, The Reign of Terror (Triple H on top of RAW) beginning and Shawn Michaels making his triumphant return to the ring. That’s a hell of a lot to process and it literally ALL happened in 2002! If anything, 2002 cannot be considered a boring year for the company because so much was going on that it was very hard to follow at times. I know this first hand: 2002 was the year where I was REALLY starting to become a major WWE fan, despite having watched in 2000 and 2001 as well. But it was in 2002 that my love for wrestling reached to the points of where it is today and I thank the WWE for allowing that love to become what it is by putting on such a very entertaining and, quite frankly, chaotic year of the company! Sure, there are a lot of things we can look back on and just freakin’ cringe at it (like the aforementioned NWO return…….which bombed like a gigantic and loud FART) but there are numerous things that did happened that just made me smile back then and still make me smile to this day. My two most famous memories from that year: watching my very first episode of Smackdown (I didn’t have the WGN, the channel it was on, and I couldn’t watch it for years……I finally found out that they showed in late on Friday nights on FOX), which just so happened to be the night of Edge and Eddie Guerrero’s FANTASTIC No DQ match that ended their feud. My second favorite memory of that year: watching one of my beloved favorites, Jeff Hardy, damn near win the Undisputed Title against the Undertaker in one of the most memorable ladder matches ever. Even though the match is very sloppy at times, the drama fucking SUCKS ME IN every single time I watch it and it’s one that I look back on and cherish every day. However……..something else happened in 2002 that I have not mentioned yet……what could it be? Oh yea, the WWE debut of THIS guy……..
I actually missed Brock’s debut on that RAW but I did catch it on one of their week in review shows (like Livewire or something like that) and it was fucking nuts. I mean, yea, he destroyed guys like Al Snow, Maven and Spike Dudley but this guy was a freak of nature! The attacks continued and Brock Lesnar was quickly establishing himself as a monster to be reckoned with. Hell, his first initial feud with the company was taking on my beloved Hardy Boyz and remember the moment distinctly of the Hardyz both just FUCKING MURDERING Brock with some vicious unprotected chair shots (go back and watch them……IT’S ON THE WWE NETWORK!!!). I remember following Brock’s run all the way to his KOTR victory, his feud with Rob Van Dam and I even watched the match where he busted open Hulk Hogan and made him pass out in the Bear Hug………the sight of Brock wiping Hogan’s blood across his chest is still one of the greatest moments in wrestling history, in my opinion. This led to his Summerslam match with The Rock for the Undisputed Title, a match I was looking forward to. Summerslam 2002 easily goes down as one of the greatest PPVs in company history and on that night, Brock Lesnar became the youngest WWE champion in company history! In less than 6 months, this guy went from a relative unknown to defeating one of the biggest stars in company history to become the youngest WWE champion……
WHERE IS THAT KIND OF BUILD AND SENSE OF IMPORTANCE TODAY???!!!! However, Brock needed a first feud for the WWE Title so that takes me to our second participant.
Year in Review: 2002 (Undertaker)
Yes, this was dead smack in the middle of Undertaker’s “Biker Taker” phase. Now, maybe it was because I grew up watching Taker during this phase, but I’ve always kind of had a soft spot for it. I thought it introduced a new side to Taker that was relatable, I thought it made him more vulnerable and I thought it allowed him to actually to have realistic feuds instead of the hokey goofy ones he was having before. The Biker Taker phase started at Judgment Day 2000, right near the end of the classic Rock/HHH Iron Man match (if you have not seen…..go watch it……IT’S ON THE WWE NETWORK!!!). Immediately, people didn’t like the look because it wasn’t Taker……it was just some big chubby old guy with long hair, a long leather duster and denim attire (plus, people don’t seem to like Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit too much these days either…..so that doesn’t help). Taker didn’t make a whole lot of fans during this run either as he proceeded to get extremely lazy in the ring, let himself go (the term and nickname of “Nacho Gut” was distinctly used on multiple occasions) and he was presented as so much of a grumpy old bastard that it was kind of off putting. I think the Biker Taker 2000-2001 version fucking sucked……especially moreso today than back then!! However, things turned around for Taker when he turned heel in late ’01 (his final heel turn of his career actually) and I thought that Taker started re-inventing himself. He cut his hair, his promos got better (probably fueled by real anger at fans), the grumpy old man fit him as a heel moreso than a face and, even better, his physique got much better as he got back to exercising and it showed……which meant his in-ring work was getting better. While Taker wasn’t the in-ring workhorse yet that he would become, the early part of 2002 still was a better run for Taker than anything he did in 2000 and 2001. Yes, he does have quite a few stinkers (his match with Austin at Backlash, his match with Hogan at Judgment Day and his match with HHH at KOTR) but he does have quite the gems during that stretch (his match with Flair at WM 18, his triple threat match against Rock and Kurt Angle at Vengeance, he and Kurt had a great match on Smackdown and his aforementioned Ladder match with Jeff Hardy).
However (and this is something Metalhead brought up today on Slack), Taker had pissed off a good portion of fans during this Biker Taker phase due to all the problems I mentioned. People thought that he was just some grumpy old bastard who was trying to protect his spot and burying anybody who got in his way (see Angle, Kurt from Fully Loaded 2000) and his poor in-ring work didn’t help matters. Basically, this was probably the most backlash Taker had ever received in his entire career and it’s been well-documented that the sheer mention or utterance of “Biker Taker” around Vince is an instant pink slip; Vince loves the Taker character and feels the need to protect its mystique every chance he gets and that leads me to believe that the Biker Taker gimmick was more of a Taker decision than a Vince one (or maybe it was a Vince decision, which makes sense, but I think Taker had a big hand in it). So when we found out that it was going to be Brock vs Taker with Brock as the hot new WWE champion, people cringed and groaned out loud. They were worried that Taker was NOT going to put Brock over the correct way, he was gonna sandbag him and ruin Brock’s run and career! People didn’t even like Taker going to Smackdown because Paul Heyman was setting up quite the roster on Smackdown that was full of fresh young talent and everybody thought that Taker was the odd man out. Nobody liked this idea, everybody thought it was stupid and nobody really wanted to believe that it could succeed. Thankfully, that is what we are here to discuss today!!
Part 1: The Feud Begins!
The feud started on 8/26 RAW, the night after Summerslam. Despite losing his Street Fight the night before against Shawn Michaels (in HBK’s return to the ring after 4 years), Triple H came out to brag about taking out HBK afterwards and he felt that he instantly deserved a WWE Undisputed Title shot (because REASONS!!). However, Taker (who defeated Test in the weakest match of the PPV) felt that, he too, deserved a title shot so the match was made: Triple H vs Undertaker with the winner getting the next title shot at Brock Lesnar for Unforgiven. Thanks to Brock interference, Triple H won the match and earned the title shot but immediately after that, Brock Lesnar signed a deal to become EXCLUSIVE Smackdown property (because the Undisputed champion would appear on both shows back then) and he took the Undisputed Title with him. What that meant was that instead of Triple H getting the title shot at the PPV, he just decided to have his own title created and given specifically to him without earning it whatsoever!!!!! So……NYAH!! However, Taker was still kind of pissed at Brock so at the following Smackdown, Taker was the newest talent signed to Smackdown and he faced Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle in a triple threat match for the title shot. Taker won and he got his title shot against Brock at Unforgiven!
However, that wasn’t enough for these two to feud so they decided to add a little spice to get things going. On the 9/5 Smackdown, Taker and Brock had a sit down interview in a dark lit room with Paul Heyman and Smackdown GM, Stephanie McMahon, present (Fun fact: Brock Lesnar wrestled and won a match earlier in the night. The opponent: RANDY ORTON!!! Why the hell hasn’t the WWE done that feud yet, by the way? I mean, GOD FORBID we miss ANOTHER Brock/Big Show match, a Brock/HHH match or a Brock/Taker match but couldn’t Orton get a crack at Brock at least once?). Taker pretty much told Brock that while he’s accomplished a lot in the short amount of time he’s been there, he hasn’t been tested yet nor as he faced Taker yet. However, Paul Heyman decided to bring up Taker’s real-life wife at the time, Sara……you guys remember Sara right? The one who Diamond Dallas Page stalked during the Invasion angle and she beat him clean as a whistle on RAW? Yes, THAT Sara! Apparently Sara was preggers with baby Taker and Heyman said that after Brock destroys Taker, he will make sure to take care of Sara for him…..but he will NOT take care of Taker’s unborn child. Obviously, that led to tables being thrown around and a stare down! On the 9/12 Smackdown (the same episode of the very infamous Billy & Chuck marriage/ceremony thing), Taker fought Matt Hardy (V ONENAAAAAHHHHH!!!) but Heyman was creeping around Sara backstage so Taker ran back there to beat the shit out of him. Brock ambushed Taker with a chair shot, placed his hand on Sara’s stomach and told her “Life’s a bitch!” Obviously, Taker was freaking pissed off and the next week, the two got into a big brawl with Paul and Brock escaping.
Part 2: Unforgiven 2002: WWE Title match: Brock Lesnar © w/Paul Heyman vs Undertaker
These two giant monsters finally went toe to toe to main event the PPV. The card, up to this point, basically went like this: Smackdown was awesome, RAW was eh. On Smackdown, you had Edge/Eddie & Benoit/Angle……on RAW, you had HHH/RVD (not as good as you’d think) and HOT…..LESBIAN……ACTION!!!! The actual match between Taker and Brock was actually pretty solid and, in ring wise, it was one of the better WWE Title matches of the year for most of it (it was certainly better than HHH/Hogan, Hogan/Taker, HHH/Taker and maybe even Jericho/Austin). The match showcased the difference in approach between the two men: Brock wanted to ground Taker with his wrestling and his strength while Taker’s strength was his brawling. Both men stuck to that and for a long time, the match was wrestled from that perspective with Michael Cole and Tazz being very good on commentary. However, the match is remembered for being a bit of an overbooked mess and I can see why: we had a Matt Hardy run-in (which is the closest Matt ever got to a PPV main event), some SICK chair shots from Taker, a ref bump and the finish was a Double DQ that pissed everybody off. The final shot of the show was Taker launching Brock through the Unforgiven sign in the entrance way and Taker being quite pleased with himself but still not happy about not being able to beat Lesnar.
IMMEDIATELY, fans were PISSED OFF!!! The complaints came flying out of the woodwork and the most common one: “TAKER DIDN’T WANT TO DO THE JOB TO BROCK LESNAR, WHAT A SELFISH ASSHOLE!!!!” Now…….at the time…….it’s very easy to think that way. Like I said earlier, Taker was on the outs with a lot of fans around that time and this was basically just another example of that and the fans now had something else to gripe with him about. It did appear that Taker just didn’t want to put Brock over and it did appear that Taker really just didn’t want Brock to get over on him (due to some of his comments on Smackdown and this match here). However, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s quite clear to see where they were going. The finish protects both guys and does its job in setting up the rematch greatly. Sure, the Double DQ decision is lame but it’s a necessary evil to get to the next chapter of the story. I don’t think Taker sandbagged Lesnar nor did he refuse to job one bit (if he did, it may have been more along the lines of “We should build to a rematch and I’ll do it then”)…….it was a necessary progression to get to the next match and to set up the more violent affair at the next month. I still think that the match, as a whole, is a very solid main event albeit with a few problems that hinder it. It still does show that Brock was extremely confident as champion, did not look one bit out of place in the main event and Taker did a good job of making him look good. So now……we must set up the rematch……the long road to No Mercy.
Part 3: The Feud Continues!
October of 2002 may be remembered as one of the worst months (storyline wise) in company history. The reason for this is because both brands turned their big title matches at the PPV coming up into another fucking episode of “Days of Our Lives!” It’s bad enough that Taker and Lesnar had to be stuck with the whole Sara bullshit but that’s not even nearly as fucking stupid as the next wrinkle in the story. However, it’s even worse when you realize that, in the month of October in 2002 on RAW, we subjected to the KATIE VICK ANGLE!!! Yes, the very infamous angle that completely destroyed Kane’s character, retconned his previous backstory to switch it out for a new one and the one where Triple H banged a mannequin in a casket on live television……..I’m pretty sure I can speak freely about this because I REMEMBER WATCHING THIS VERY SEGMENT ON RAW WHEN IT HAPPENED!!!! You see, while Kane was dealing with a situation dealing with a girl from the past on RAW…..so was Taker on Smackdown (boy, for a dead guy and a guy that we thought was burned alive and raised in a funeral home……….these two had no problems pulling bitches, did they?). Things kicked up into high gear on the 10/2 Smackdown (in Lafayette, Louisiana…….an hour from where I was born and raised!!) when Taker faced Matt Hardy in a Falls Count Anywhere match. As the match headed backstage, Brock cost Taker the match (yes, MATT HARDY, who was just a MID-CARDER, defeated the Undertaker in a match on Smackdown…….meanwhile, the current day WWE champion has only won ONE MATCH ON TELEVISION since Night of Champions) and after that, Brock slammed a propane tank into Taker’s hand, breaking it in several places. However, all that did was A) piss Taker off even more and B) give him a new weapon: a cast. And that allowed Stephanie to officially make the rematch a HELL IN A CELL MATCH!!! On the 10/9 Smackdown, Taker finally decided to showcase his new weapon by hitting Brock with the cast, busting the Next Big Thing open but that allowed Heyman to get desperate. The next week, Heyman introduced……*sigh*……..Tracy. Apparently, “Tracy” was Taker’s mistress and revealed that she had known Taker for a long while but didn’t return her calls. Taker didn’t seem to know who she was and proclaimed that she was lying……but he did reveal that he did in fact know who she was the next week but hadn’t seen her in a long time.
This was fucking stupid! You had the hook with the broken hand and the cast…….WHY WAS THIS TRACY CHARACTER INTRODUCED?!!! It added nothing and the only reason why it was being done was because the WWE writers were former soap writers and thought they would be good ideas. Well, THEY WEREN’T!! We were seeing the exact same thing going down on RAW but at least, this angle was more reserved and less……FUCKING MORONIC!! But it still made no sense: one minute Taker says he doesn’t know who she is and the next, he hasn’t seen her in 7 years! The whole thing was thankfully dropped the night of the PPV before the match started and played no factor into the match whatsoever…….but it’s still remembered and it still puts a damper on this feud. The whole feud had been pretty solid for most of it with some great violent moments thrown in……but once they kept going back to the “drama”, the feud sucked and surprisingly enough, it was able to recover unlike Triple H/Kane (although how CAN you recover from the Katie Vick Angle?). It was revealed that Tracy was paid by Heyman to say all of those things (what’s funny is that reveals this at the PPV……to Stephanie…….in what is supposed to be a private conversation……..while the cameras are rolling…….and the WWE thinks their FANS ARE FUCKING IDIOTS??????? They seem to be pretty idiotic for enough of us!). So, now that we have the build out of the way……it’s time to go to (say it with your Vince McMahon voice!) HELLLLLLL!!!
Part 4: Hell in a Cell!
The No Mercy PPV, in general, was very solid overall. Smackdown, once again, blew away RAW in their matches, especially since Triple H vs Kane sucked so much. Plus, No Mercy 2002 does contain the only Tag Team match I have EVER given a perfect rating to: Edge & Rey Mysterio vs Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle for the Vacant Smackdown Tag Team Titles. If you have not seen this match……go watch it…….IT’S ON THE NETWORK!!! However, it is now time to get to what I’ve been building up to……..the actual match itself. Let it be known that I watched this match just yesterday and is still very fresh in my mind. I’ve watched this match several times over the years (I have the No Mercy 2002 DVD) and my opinions of it have changed slightly. So…..let us get started!
Brock Lesnar entered the match first and to show how much BETTER the commentary was back then, Michael Cole actually mentions why this was done. He says that it was because Brock wanted to get a feel for the Cell before the match started and to witness it in its entirety. It’s a great point and it really shows that Brock just might not know what he’s getting himself into……plus, you can factor in the interview that Cole and Tazz did with Rikishi before the match (who Taker famously Chokeslammed off the Cell in 2000) to give extra build to this. What is also quite odd is that Taker doesn’t come down riding his bike like normal…..he’s just walking to the ring with the cast on his right hand. Earlier in the night, in a backstage segment, Taker demanded the doctor give him an injection into his hand to numb the pain and get him through the match…….it’s a great detail and it adds legitimacy along with actual sympathy and reality to the situation. It’s the little details, folks, things the company just does not pay attention to enough of these days!
The match opens up a lot like it did at Unforgiven although both men are more clear this time around with their strategies: Taker, riding off emotion, wants to turn this into a brawl early and Brock wants to keep Taker grounded with wrestling. It’s quite the stalemate in the first five minutes with both men exchanging control with their respective strategies. However, that does eventually allow the equalizer, Taker’s cast, to come into play and with that, Taker has the first real advantage of the match as he lands a gut shot then a head shot with the cast to draw blood from the champion (very good blade job too from Brock, showing that the guy just had an AMAZING learning curve at such a young age). Taker proceeds to spend the next few minutes DOMINATING Brock on the floor by using his fists, his kicks and the Cell to punish Brock. Heyman, desperate to save his client, tries to reach in through the Cell to get at Taker but Taker boots the cell into Heyman’s face, drawing blood from Heyman!!! This sets up the funniest spot of the match as Taker yanks Heyman face first into the Cell multiple times by his tie!! However, that allows the Beast to finally gain control by ramming Taker into the post and into the Cell.
Brock’s attack is focused on one thing: get that freakin’ cast off Taker’s hand! We get one of the NASTIEST visuals in company history as Heyman pulls on a belt wrapped around Taker’s right hand to raise it up and Brock DESTROYS Taker’s protected hand with vicious chair shots!!! The camera is RIGHT THERE in the action and it’s a very uncomfortable sight (but it’s one that’s not dangerous either so it’s fine)!! Brock proceeds to try and get the cast off but every time he does, Taker claws at him like a wounded animal until Brock finally gets the cast off, leaving Taker exposed and naked. This sets up another great spot as Brock sits Taker on the top rope, climbs up, grabs hold of the chair and repeatedly KICKS TAKER IN THE FACE!!!! It’s a great but ingenious spot, showing how little superstars of today use the damn Cell to have unique moments like that! However, Taker makes the comeback and boots Brock off the apron into the Cell to set up a Tope! From there, we get the most memorable spot of the match: Brock picks up the stairs (after Taker can’t due to the broken hand) and RAMS them into Taker’s face, drawing one of the most VILE blade jobs in company history!!! I mean, it’s takes SECONDS for Taker’s face to be the complete crimson mask, it’s that bad! Cole does a great job on commentary by explaining that the edge of the steps must have hit Taker to create a hole in his head to force all of that blood out!!! This is what Taker looked like after being busted open…….
Yea…..pretty nasty. From there, Taker’s no longer selling the hand…..which is a minor bit of criticism (the whole match was built around Taker’s broken hand and the cast and now he’s just perfectly fine……to be fair, he didn’t have a freakin’ hole in his head earlier either!). That does lead us into the near falls as Taker nearly puts Brock away with the Chokeslam and the Running DDT! Brock’s still surviving but he gets cocky as he mounts Taker in the corner for the mounted punches only for Taker to respond with the Last Ride! Brock, SOMEHOW, grabs the bottom rope but from there, Taker signals for the Tombstone. In a finish for the ages, Lesnar floats out of the Tombstone, has Taker up in the Tombstone position then LIFTS Taker up onto his shoulders and hits the F-5!!!! One 3 count later and Brock Lesnar defeats the Undertaker CLEAN AS A WHISTLE to retain the WWE Title in a Hell in a Cell match at a little over 27 minutes!!!
First off, the match is in my top 4 of greatest Cell matches ever (behind Taker/Shawn, Foley/Taker and HHH/Batista)!! What I really loved about this match was how grounded it was and how it didn’t have to resort to multiple weapons or crazy stunts to get its story across. The only weapons they used was a chair, the steps and the cast……that’s about it…..yet all three men were bloody messes by the end of the match (including Heyman). The match was a vicious fight inside of the Cell, bringing the Cell back to its animalistic roots of when Taker used it to try and rip apart the Heartbreak Kid instead of it being a launching pad for stupid stunts. The fight FELT real and the intensity these two brought to this one was top notch! These two didn’t do anything fancy nor did they have to, this was what a true legitimate caged fight should look like and to that extent, it succeeded. While the match is a little long at over 27 minutes and there are some minor criticisms of the match, the complete package is fantastic and it’s easily Taker’s best match in a long time (at this point) and Brock’s best match in the company (at this point as well).
Secondly, it also should have put the rumors to bed about Taker not wanting to job out clean. People, at the time, made it seem like Taker had to be dragged kicking and screaming to job clean to Brock but the proof is in the pudding: Undertaker was defeated CLEAN with one F-5 after being left a bloody freakin’ mess in the ring in HIS VERY OWN MATCH THAT HE MADE FAMOUS!!!! If THAT is not putting someone over, then you’re a moron……hell, he also didn’t have too much of a problem LETTING BROCK LESNAR END HIS WRESTLEMANIA UNDEFEATED STREAK!!!! If there is one guy in this company that Taker had no problem laying down for (and he did it consistently), it was Brock Lesnar….a man Taker has never TECHNICALLY beaten (he really didn’t win at Summerslam…..let’s be honest). Hell, Taker lost to Brock again a year later at the very same PPV in a Biker Chain match (a lesser match than this one, a match that shouldn’t have happened and a match where Brock needed a lot of help to win).
Thirdly, THIS match opened the door for a new generation of stars. With this match, it fully was closing the book on the Attitude Era and was welcoming in the new age. Guys like Brock, Angle, Benoit, Jericho, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Eddie and others were the present and the future while guys like Taker, Austin, Rock, HHH and Hogan were yesterday’s news and no one cared about them too much. Sure, Brock lost the belt the next month to BIG SHOW but he regained it at Wrestlemania against Kurt Angle in a great match and that fully showed how invested with this new crop of talent that the company was (WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT TODAY?????!!!!!). Plus, some guys named John Cena and Randy Orton were beginning to become the characters everyone would know, love and hate around this time (hell, Cena became Thuganomics Cena two Smackdowns later and Orton would soon start his “Get Well, Randy” vignettes that led to him joining Evolution). And, it also showed that when motivated, Taker could still go in the ring. It was not too long after this that Taker started incorporating MMA style grapples and strikes into his repertoire that he would tweak for years before getting it down pat around 2006……which kickstarted his epic run of great matches over the next few years. So this match accomplished a lot while also being a fantastic match on its own…….so the question is how can Taker and Brock top THAT this Sunday?
Part 5: Brock vs Taker Hell in a Cell II
The short answer: there is NO way they can top the first one. The first one is remembered for its brutality, its violence and the massive amount of blood lost…….that ain’t happening this Sunday. Secondly, it’s having to follow ANOTHER HELL IN A CELL MATCH…….meaning the mystique of the match is somewhat dampened. And finally, both men are 13 years older. Taker was 38 at the time……now he’s 51 and Brock was very young at 25 but now he’s Taker’s age when they had their first Cell match! There is no way that they can honestly have as good of a match in this environment this time around as they did back then…….especially with all of the restrictions and such on the programming. WWE was a lot looser with things back then and didn’t mind showcasing this level of violence and sex that they did in 2002…….now they have placed so many restrictions on things that the Hell in a Cell match is no longer an exciting match anymore……it’s just there. Plus, people are just tired of Taker vs Brock and want Brock to move on and fight someone new (like RANDY ORTON or someone, geez!). This will be the 6th PPV match against each other and their second time inside Hell in a Cell against each other…..enough is enough. The build to the match has been weak because……WHAT BUILD TO THE MATCH??!!! Yea, both guys just showed up for the first time this past Monday Night RAW to finally promote the damn thing but up to that point, both men had been absent mostly! Yea, Brock kicked Big Show’s ass at MSG and the night after but Taker’s been MIA since Summerslam. The match doesn’t feel special anymore, the match doesn’t feel big anymore……it’s a tired sequel 13 years too late and it’s just not gonna hook viewers the same way. It’s basically like one of those Hollywood films that is a big success and all of these years later, that film gets a sequel and no one cares (like Godfather Part 3, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and 300: Rise of An Empire). I feel that this match has the exact same stigma about it and thus, I’m not really looking forward to it. I think the match will be fine because both men will bust their asses but the magic won’t be there, it’s not going to shut Taker haters up and it’s not going to kickstart the revolution of a new generation because neither man is new anymore. It’s a tired match between two part-timers having one last go around because the company doesn’t know how to build any freakin’ new stars anymore and this is what we’re left with.
However, I will always look back on that one night and see two men beat the holy hell out of each other for my enjoyment and take part in a match that I believe has just only gotten better with each passing year.
The next Retrospective will be on the very first PPV I ever watched live: Survivor Series 2000!! It will arrive some time in November!!! Thanks for reading!!!
