WWE Summerslam 2003 Review

Written by Ben Hercik

This show had a lot to live up to. It was following a from 2002 that had a lot of fantastic moments, so how do the try to top that? In order to try and top it, they used a great fatal four way for the United States Championship, a fantastic WWE Championship match, and the second ever Elimination Chamber Match. Was it able to exceed Summerslam 2002, no. But this one stood out in its own way.

La Résistance (C) Vs. The Dudley Boyz (World Tag Team Championships)

This was the basic heel vs face matchup, where the heels were the heavy underdogs and were thought to be losing their championships. Remee Dupree and Sylvan Grenier were never going to be Hall of Famers, but they were up to the task in this match. The used classic heel tactics to get the win, as Rob Conway was disguised as a cameraman and attacked D-Von Dudley to help La Resistance get the win and retain the championships. While this match was nothing to write home about, it still did its job and kicked off the show in decent fashion.

The Undertaker Vs. A-Train

This was a bit of a weird time for WWE, because outside of Triple H, there was no real other top heel at the time. You had guys that were midcard level guys that WWE thought could live up to the main event level, and one of them was A-Train. Matt Bloom wouldn’t find his way into the main event scene in WWE, that doesn’t mean that Bloom wasn’t talented in the ring. A-Train as WWE Champion just doesn’t have a good ring to it. I don’t think Undertaker winning was much of a surprise. There were no real highlights in the match and Taker winning was never in question. At this point in his biker gimmick, we all knew that it had run its course, but it was still Undertaker and everyone loved him. This kind of felt like a holdover feud until Taker could go on to feud with Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship.

Shane McMahon Vs. Eric Bischoff (Fall Counts Anywhere)

This was more of an angle that they did to get a full match card for the show. The match was made after a video of Bischoff kissing Linda McMahon, Shane’s mother, was aired on Raw. These two being non wrestlers, one would expect a lot of interference in the match, but that was not the case as there were only two spots of interference. One was a heel turn by Jonathan Coachman, for some weird reason. The other was Stone Cold coming out to help beat down Bischoff. Shane won in what was a good match for two guys that didn’t wrestle often at that point in their careers.

Eddie Guerrero (C) Vs. Chris Benoit Vs. Tajiri Vs. Rhyno (WWE United States Championship)

These four wrestlers were all at different points in their careers. Guerrero and Benoit were only months away from reaching the mountain top in pro wrestling as WWE and World Heavyweight Champion respectively. Tajiri was in a bit of a weird place as he was still a talented wrestler, but was a cruiserweight who hadn’t proved he could go with the heavyweights in WWE at that point. He was a former ECW Television Champion, but other than that, he hadn’t done much to prove why he should be United States Champion. Rhyno never really reached the heights he did in ECW during his first run with WWE. There were two clear cut favorites in this match and that was Guerrero and Benoit. This match was fast from the get go and everyone played their part. With the win, it showed that Eddie was a star that was rising in WWE and it was only a matter of time before he was a main event player. Even though they didn’t win, the others all looked strong as well and nobody suffered from failing to win the championship here.

Kurt Angle (C) Vs. Brock Lesnar (WWE Championship)

These two just worked so well together. They just had some sort of chemistry that very few wrestlers have together. Lesnar had recently turned heel and aligned himself with Vince McMahon, so it seemed like a championship win was on the way here. After a ref bump and interference for Lesnar, it seemed to be the direction that they were going. However, that was not the case. Angle fought back and the audience were on the edge of their seats towards the end. It was rather surprising to see Lesnar submit, but that is exactly what happened here. This made Angle looked like a monster champion, and this match set up for the legendary Iron Man match that the two would have a few months later.

Kane Vs. Rob Van Dam (No Holds Barred)

It’s weird to me that a No Holds Barred match was the bridge match between main event matches here, but it was a very solid match in itself. You had a guy in Kane that has always been a great worker and RVD in a match that fit his style very well. Van Dam is someone that thrives when the rules are thrown out and he did just that here. He used ladders, chairs, and his own body to try and slow Kane down, but he couldn’t. Kane would win with a spot that was teased a week before when he tombstoned RVD onto the ring steps. I feel like this match could’ve been a few minutes longer, but was a good match between former tag team champions.

Triple H Vs. Goldberg Vs. Shawn Michaels Vs. Chris Jericho Vs. Randy Orton Vs. Kevin Nash (Elimination Chamber; World Heavyweight Championship)

This match didn’t live up to the first one, but was still a good match. You could tell it was going to be different when Triple H came out and was wearing long tights instead of his usual ring gear. This was to help with a groin injury that he was working through. The match started with Jericho and Michales flying around and having a good match. Orton was the next to come out and slowed the pace down considerably. Nash was out next and was dominating, but was eliminated by Jericho. This sent Nash on a rampage and he hit Jackknife Powerbombed everyone that was in the ring. Triple H was the next out, but got hit with a Sweet Chin Music right away so he laid in his pod for a while. Goldberg was the last entrant and destroyed everyone else in the match. He eliminated Orton, Michales and Jericho. This is also the match where Jericho was speared through the pod in the clip that is always used to hype up the Elimination Chamber match. The final two were Goldberg and Triple H. Nothing seemed to be standing in the way of Goldberg winning the World Heavyweight Championship, but that is what you would think. Triple H hit Goldberg with a sledgehammer once and was able to pin him. Are you serious? Just one sledgehammer shot is enough to beat Goldberg? Gotta love WWE sometimes. Aside from that moment, this was a decent match as everyone played their roles perfectly. Also, throughout the night their had been videos of the wrestlers warming up backstage before the match. When Orton was shown he talked about what if tonight is the night he wins the championship, foreshadowing to SummerSlam in 2004. That was a nice little touch for done by WWE.

Overall this wasn’t a bad show. You had a young heel team use heel tactics to win, you had a dominant face shut down a cocky young heel. You had great fatal four way for the United States Championship and a fantastic WWE Championship match. Topped off with an Elimination Chamber match that had stories for the future of all the combatants involved, and you have a pretty good show.

Rating: 7/10