Forgotten Favorites 03.12.09: SmackDown 2003 - Undertaker & Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar & John Cena

Posted by Jim Grimm on 03.12.2009

It was the new generation taking on the one prior when these four guys stepped into the ring in Fall 2003. Which would prevail: youth or experience?

Are you worried, wrestling fans? Worried that some dude with a rhyming name is going to come along and expose further shortcomings in your wrestling-obsessed memory with yet another obscure match? Well, worry not, fans. My aim is not to stump you, but to refresh your memories. I am merely here to strengthen your faith in the Church of Wrestling. I am a guide of sorts. You may call me Father Jim, and yes, I am currently accepting donations.

Now, you might think, 'There's no way he'll reuse the same intro from the last two weeks.' And if you think that, you're wrong. So here's my purpose, as assigned by the excellent people at 411:

The evil master of wrestling history, who rules from his titanic towers of evil, takes great joy in robbing his followers of cherished memories. He has even gone so far as to wave his billion-dollar wand on more than one occasion in an attempt to completely erase particular pockets of time. Well, we, the people, have refused to stand for such injustices, and as a result, I have been called upon to right the wrongs of time.

With that out of the way, let's get down to some great wrestling.


SmackDown - October 2, 2003
Undertaker & Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar & John Cena

HOW IT WENT DOWN


One Sunday night in Seattle, 54,000 fans watched Brock Lesnar culminate the ultimate babyface journey when he closed WrestleMania with his second WWE Championship. After the match he was embraced and congratulated by his opponent Kurt Angle, who many at the time believed was wrestling for the last time. Just weeks prior to WrestleMania XIX, Angle's long list of nagging injuries had finally caught up with him in a major way, particularly his bad neck. Although he was rumored to have been risking paralysis by competing, Kurt Angle is Kurt Angle and nobody but God or a painkiller is going to tell him he can't work. Despite Angle's condition, he and Lesnar worked an amazing main event that was well worth its place at the end of the year's biggest show. Almost immediately after Mania, Angle met with a mad scientist/witch doctor/Criss Angel and went under the knife. The standard surgery for Angle's condition would have kept him out of action for at least twelve months, as it had with Steve Austin, Chris Benoit, and Edge. Angle's projected return was half that time. And he came back even sooner than that.

Another guy worth looking at is someone who didn't quite make it onto the card of WrestleMania XIX. Even though he didn't make it onto the actual show, this guy named John Cena came out on the Heat broadcast before the PPV. He cut a promo that involved insulting a cardboard Jay-Z and claiming that he would main event WrestleMania XX the following year. This was a pretty unbelievable claim at the time, but not long after Mania, Cena started proving himself to the fans. With Angle out and unable to exercise his rematch clause, a number one contender had to be named for Lesnar's WWE Championship. In a damned shocking moment, John Cena made it to the finals of a number one contender tournament, defeating Chris Benoit to earn a title shot at Backlash. Although Cena lost to Lesnar at Backlash, it was still a huge step in Cena's career, marking his first WWE Title match on PPV.

A couple of months later, building steam and more arrogant than ever, John Cena issued an open challenge to anyone in WWE to mark his first year in the company. Well, there's one guy who doesn't take kindly to young punks making open challenges, and his name's Mark. Er, the Undertaker. Just to remind the many Cena-haters (myself usually included) that there was a time when the dude was not unbearably lame, let's relive this feud, shall we?

He pissed on a grave, man. That's, like ... serious.

So these two met at Vengeance in July, where Undertaker soundly (and cleanly, as I remember) defeated Cena. Later that night there was a Triple Threat match held for the WWE Championship. Defending champion Brock Lesnar put his title on the line against The Big Show and a (miraculously) already-returning Kurt Angle. Since his return to the SmackDown brand a month prior, a now-babyface Angle had made amends with Lesnar, who had apparently supported the Olympic Champion throughout his rehabilitation. So when Kurt Angle walked out of Vengeance as the new WWE Champion, you'd think that his new buddy Brock Lesnar would be happy for him, right? Well ... not so much ...

When Brock Lesnar asked his friend for a rematch on SmackDown, it seemed that it would be a standard face versus face confrontation over the title. That was until Vince McMahon entered the equation and said that Lesnar would have to earn his rematch by defeating the Chairman himself. To make matters more ridiculous, this match would be inside a Steel Cage. And then to go from ridiculous to obvious swerve, Kurt Angle was named the guest referee. When all three men were inside the Cage, Lesnar revealed that he indeed had no soul, and with Vince McMahon at his side he violently beat down his former friend.

From here we move into an excellent series of WWE Title matches happening within about a month's time. The first was the one on one rematch between Angle and Lesnar at SummerSlam, where Brock tapped out to the Ankle Lock. The following week on SmackDown, Angle defended the title against the Undertaker in yet another classic confrontation between two old rivals. Lesnar made sure there wasn't a decisive winner, interfering with an attack on both men. This set up one of the finest matches in the history of televised wrestling when two weeks later Lesnar won the WWE Title from Angle in an Iron Man match.

Following the Iron Man match, Angle's quest for a rematch was brought to a halt by an emerging problem by the name of John Cena. And while Cena provided a distraction for Angle, this allowed Undertaker to get his revenge and move into a one on one program with Lesnar. At No Mercy in just a couple of weeks, Angle would face Cena and Lesnar would defend the title against Undertaker. But before that, these four guys would all step into the ring at once for a star-studded tag team contest.

The match



WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

I am just as guilty as plenty of other wrestling fans of giving John Cena a lot of crap. WWE has dramatically changed its programming over the last few years in an effort to predominantly target a much younger audience, and John Cena, lame fifth grade jokes and all, has led the way. But, my people of the anti-Cena movement, I tell you that the man was not always this bad! There was a time when John Cena was the hottest rising heel in WWE. Every week the crowd reactions got louder and louder, with more participation in his pre-match raps. The only problem encountered was that when the fans' reactions got so loud as to justify a face turn, WWE lost their heads on how to book Cena. When Kurt Angle was assembling a Survivor Series team to take on Brock Lesnar's team of giants, there was real tension over who Cena would end up siding with. And even if he were to wrestle on the face team, there was no telling how he would interact with his teammates, as it was not within Cena's character at the time to blindly buddy up with a fellow babyface. There was a real "second coming of Austin" vibe surrounding him at the time, and it was damned exciting stuff. The only difference was that when they turned Austin face, they let him keep the outlaw image that had defined him. He truly was a Rattlesnake that could strike anyone at anytime, regardless of face or heel status. This was not true of face Cena. A couple of months into Cena's face turn, it was clear that he was no longer the same Doctor of Thuganomics. He grew increasingly cartoonish and kid-friendly over the course of the following year, changing to such an extent that he was barely the same character when he debuted on Raw with the WWE Championship. Two years after their first No Mercy encounter, Cena and Angle engaged in a series of matches over the WWE Title. Ironically, the same fans who had cheered heel Cena over face Angle in 2003 were cheering heel Angle over face Cena in 2005.

Now let me come right out and say this first: I love the Undertaker. Not in any I-wanna-run-away-to-San-Francisco-and-do-Pilates-with-him kind of way, but more in a holy-shit-it's-awesome-watching-that-dude-steal-souls kind of way. And I'll admit, when the Deadman returned to his supernatural ways at WrestleMania XX, I was all sorts of psyched. But now that it's been five years, I have to wonder, was it the right choice? For questions like this, a fan is well-served to go back and take a look at matches like this week's tag team contest. Just over a month after this match, Vince McMahon -- with Kane's help -- buried Undertaker alive at Survivor Series, marking Taker's last appearance in mortal, biking-enthusiast form. When he returned in his current zombiefied state, he was the Undertaker of old: a mysterious force with (sometimes, when it's convenient) super powers who was immune to the offense of nearly the entire roster. The American Badass was another step in Undertaker's maturation both as a character and a competitor. He showed more emotion in interviews, sold his opponents' offense much more, and seemed like a real dude. But that was gone after WrestleMania XX. I won't argue that Taker has let his guard down in the last couple of years and had some classics against guys like Edge, Batista, and (again) Kurt Angle, but he still remains a zombie with super powers. I'm not saying this is good or bad, because I've always enjoyed Undertaker's work regardless of his abilities to command lightning or ride a motorcycle. But the excellent quality of some of his matches as a short-haired Big Evil makes me think the classics of the last few years might have been different kinds of (and possibly superior) classics. It's a tough call, and ultimately it's a testament to how good the Undertaker really is. No matter what kind of character he portrays, he's able to pull it off perfectly.


Stay out of his yard or dude will make you famous.


WHY IT ISN'T REMEMBERED

Think John Cena's the kind of guy who would encourage pissing on a headstone? Allow me to Adjust your Attitude! The John Cena that you see on WWE television these days is a cash cow when it comes to the kids. Like him or not, the man sells a shit ton of merchandise and, arguably more than any other guy, puts the asses in the seats. They may be small asses, but their small asses mean larger parental asses in other seats, and all in all, that's a lot of ass profit. Now, I'm not trying to say that John Cena's fans are asses (or to see how many times I can say ass in one paragraph), but let's face it, these parents are being suckered out of a lot of money by both Vince and their own kid(s). My point here is that parents love satisfying their children and, lucky for WWE, John Cena loves satisfying children (open to interpretation). And as long as the kids keep buying his new t-shirt, expect John Cena to continue to move further and further from the untouchable thug fueled by ruthless aggression. So anytime WWE reflects on Cena they're going to remember his superhero babyface adventures, not the badass stuff he did as a heel. 2007's John Cena: My Life DVD is disgusting in its treatment of Cena's early career, with a worthless televised match against RIKISHI being the only match featured from 2003. It really is a shame considering Cena did some great work that year before his face turn, and it deserves remembrance.


What happened to the foul mouth, Dr. Cena?

I'm willing to bet another reason why fans might not immediately remember this match is because of the history between John Cena and Brock Lesnar. These two battled earlier in the year with Cena playing the heel and Brock the face, then later in the year with the roles reversed. They were rarely ever on the same page. When a fan thinks of Lesnar and Cena in 2003, they're going to think of the Backlash title match or their SmackDown confrontations later in the year, not of an alliance formed between the two men. The same goes for their opponents, two guys who probably weren't going out for a couple beers after the show. Over the years, the Undertaker and Kurt Angle have given fans some of the best wrestling matches of all time. 2003 in particular featured a hell of a WWE Title match between the two, occurring just weeks before they would join forces against Lesnar and Cena. When fans think of Undertaker and Kurt Angle, they think of kickass matches against one another over a span of several years, not the two of them teaming up together.


WILL IT BE REMEMBERED?

Well, the date showing up at the beginning of the video I found leads me to believe this has been released on DVD. I'm just not sure what DVD that is. I'm sure somebody out there has the answer, so please, do your duty to the wrestling world and share this knowledge with your fellow faux-sport fans.

Other than that, this is a hell of a combination of stars, so I don't see why fans wouldn't remember this one over time. With all of the stuff available on YouTube, this one's bound to stand out to both newer and older fans who are searching for classic matches. Younger fans may find it hard to believe that this match actually did happen, considering it would be pretty enormous if it took place today. WWE may not care for the match, but the fans will keep it alive.

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No feedback this week because my classes are consuming my life. I know this is contrary to what I said last week, where I claimed I'd respond to everybody's comments, but yeah ... my bad. Regardless, I did read everybody's comments and I appreciate all the positive feedback. My goal is always to be more interesting than whatever else you should be doing at the moment at work or school or wherever, and I hope that I am succeeding in that.

Until next time, stay safe and out of jail.