Ruthless Aggression Era Project: WWE Raw Review - September 30th, 2002

WWE Raw 

September 30th, 2002 

Houston, Texas

Commentary - Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler

Eric Bischoff and Lita are in the ring to start the show. Bischoff loads the card with three title matches to try to draw people in from watching football instead. He then confronts Lita for saying she thought Smackdown was the better show in a WWE.com interview. This leads to the 3 Minute Crew bullshit. JEFF HARDY makes the save before they can attack Lita. Huge pop from the crowd and from me on that one. Lita is just coming back from having a broken neck. Rosey & Jamal fight off Hardy which brings out Booker & Goldust who clean house.

1) Booker T & Goldust vs. 3 Minute Crew (Jamal & Rosey) (w/ Rico) 

That leads to this match. Unfortunately Jamal & Rosey win and that's so lame and dumb. Book & Goldust are so over as a team and as individuals. Match was still fun, but DAMN. 

Match rating - **1/4

Jericho tells Terri that Kane's chances of winning tonight are about as real as her chest.. The Hurric-- I mean.. Gregory Helms walks up dressed as a reporter and basically says he can't beat Kane. Jericho mouths off and Kane walks up and makes it awkward. Jericho says the interview is over and walks off. Terri kisses Kane when Jericho walks off to follow up him kissing her last week. Kane says "chicks dig the mask" 

2) Randy Orton vs. Lance Storm 

Orton gets the huge upset pretty quickly in his second week on Raw. This brings out Storm’s partner Christian who steals JR’s cowboy hat and says he’s gonna teach Orton a lesson.

3) Randy Orton vs. Christian 

This is interesting considering the feud these two would go on to have in 2011 and the match that brought Christian out of retirement just a few months ago in 2020 but it’s really not anything special. And the finish is awkward. But Orton gets another huge upset and returns JR’s cowboy hat on his way out. 

Bischoff is scolding Jeff Hardy for his interference on 3 Min Crew’s attempted Lita attack. He has to face Big Show later. Ric Flair walks up and Bischoff says he wants more results and less talk as far as getting an ex Smackdown talent. Flair says he’s working on something for him and he will get results. 

4) Jeff Hardy vs. The Big Show - Special Ref: Jacqueline 

Okay why is Jackie the ref? Whatever, Jeff attacks Show before the bell but eats shit. They brawl around the ring and get in the ring for a bit. Finish comes when Jeff kicks a chair in Show’s face and sends him over the railing. This allows Jeff to get the count out win. Show runs faster than I’ve ever seen him run when this happens. 

 

Book and Jericho have a backstage segment that I admittedly miss. Give me some slack I have a stomach ache tonight. 

5) Triple H (c) vs. Bubba Ray Dudley - World Heavyweight Title Match 

Not even gonna cap, knowing the singles star Bubba would become a decade later as Bully Ray, I hope this is good and am honestly excited. Esp with Bubba’s entrance where he sets up a table and spray paints HHH  on it. Plus this has back story with Bubba and H coming nose to nose in backstage segments a couple of times in the past month or two. BUT this really wasn’t that great. It simply never felt at all like Bubba had a shot at all at actually dethroning Hunter. They did some fun stuff near the end but this didn’t have much fire behind it at all. Bubba reverses out of the pedigree only to get caught in it again off a Flair distraction (there were multiple of those here) and H wins with the pedigree. 

Match rating - **

Victoria attacks Trish at the catering table. They have a women’s title match later on. 

6) Trish Stratus (c) vs. Victoria - Women’s Title Match

This is the second of the three title matches Bischoff tried to use to sway viewers from football and it ends in a DQ. Admittedly it’s not terrible and the backstage brawl and what ensued here was fine, but none of these title matches have delivered in a worth going out of your way to see way like atleast one of them should’ve. We still have Jericho/Kane though I guess and the stakes are high in that one. 

7) William Regal & Test vs. Rob Van Dam & Tommy Dreamer 

I actually enjoyed this more than anything else tonight but that’s not saying much. Van Dam gets isolated for a minute and fires back. Dreamer gets a hot tag and they clean house real quick and Dreamer gets a roll up for the win. 

Match rating - **

Post match, Lance Storm and Christian attack the baby faces to try and help their unamerican brethren, but Van Dam and Dreamer overcome. 

8) Chris Jericho (c) vs. Kane - Intercontinental Championship Match 

The winner of this faces Triple H with both titles on the line at the upcoming No Mercy PPV. They actually get a bunch of time to work with here and it’s fine, but also could’ve easily been condensed down. H and Flair come down for some interference as they clearly don’t want Kane winning. That adds some drama down the stretch as Kane wins and becomes a double champ and will challenge H at No Mercy with the potential to become a triple champ. Who knew 2002 was the year of Kane? 

Match rating - **1/2