WWF No Way Out 2002

I actually watched No Way Out on Sky Sports nine years ago, yes nine years, it has been that long. It is always nice to go back to the stuff that I can hardly remember.

No Way Out 2002 has 7 matches on the card as well as a promo from the NWO who debuted that night.

The show starts with the debut of the NWO despite being one of the things that killed WCW the NWO was met quite well by fans. Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan made their way to the ring and explained that they were not at WWE to cause trouble and that they were just fans who wanted to hang out with the boys in the back. Thankfully the promo was no longer than it needed to be and it served its purpose of making us aware of the NWO.

Match 1 - Tag Team Turmoil
This is a 6 team elimination tag match where in which two teams go at it in the ring and a new one enters whenever a team is pinned.
The 6 teams involved in the match were:
Scotty 2 Hotty & Albert - Scotty was never going to win this but as always he did his job as the hype man and got the crowd in the right mood.
Christian & Lance Storm - The heel tag team didn't get any cheers nor did they get heel heat likes boos, crowd don't care for them that much.
The Hardy Boyz - The Hardy Boyz had been gone for a while so they got a good pop from he crowd when they returned.
The Dudley Boyz - The Dudleys as always came in with a bang and got a crowd reaction that matched that of the Hardy Boyz.
Billy & Chuck - They are not a bad team or anything but compared to the Dudleys and the Hardys no one really cared about them.
APA - The APA were the last team to enter and got a decent crowd pop.

The match started with Scotty 2 Hotty & Albert going up against Christian and Albert. All for put up a decent performance. Scotty went for the worm on Lance Storm but has hit by Christians Unprettier. After that the Hardy Boyz returned with Lita, at that point it because a game of who could reverse the most finishers. hardys got the pin after hitting Christian with a Twist of Fate and Sawnton Bomb. The Dudleys come out and the two teams brawl for a few minutes, Jeff Hardy takes out Bubba Ray Dudley by somersaulting out of the ring and Matt Hardy gets a roll up pin on D-Von Dudley. The Dudleys kick off and beat up the Hardys, they 3D Jeff head first into the outer ring mat. Billy & Chuck enter the ring and it becomes a handicap match as only Matt can fight, the two easily walk over Matt Hardy and get the pin. The APA comes out the two teams fight for a few minutes and the APA win and become number one contenders after Bradshaw hits Billy (or was it Chuck) with a clothesline from hell.
In all because of the nature of the match there wasn't enough time for wrestling so the teams beat the crap out of each other.

Match 2 - Goldust Vs. Rob Van Dam

This is one of those filler matches, the type that are there to help fill the 2 1/2 hours. Lots of mind games by Goldust and lots of high flying by RVD. For the first half of the match we see RVD getting beaten up by Goldust, RVD turns it around and hits Goldust with some kicks and a rolling thunder, he goes for a 5 star frog splash but misses, Goldust goes for a curtain call, RVD counters and continues to fight back he hits Goldust with a spinning heel kick and pins him after hitting a 5 star frog splash. A short match and not that interesting.

Match 3 - World Tag Team Championship Tazz & Spike Dudley Vs. Booker T & Test

For the most of this match Spike and Tazz get their asses kicked by Booker T and Test they throw the odd counter move to help get them back in the match. After the initial beat down Tazz and Spike turn it around, Tazz spends more time in the ring beating up Booker T and Test, Spike doesn't do much in this match, Tazz gets the win using the Tazzmission on Test after he is pushed by the ref. Again short match and not too interesting.

Match 4 - Brass Knuckles on a pole match for the intercontinental championship William Regal Vs. Edge

This is a Vince Russo style gimmick match where the two wrestlers have to fight over an object on a pole. This is actually a normal match you don't have to use the Brass Knuckles to win you just have to pin the opponent which kind of kills the match really. If you get the beat down on your opponent why would you risk your dominance by climbing the pole where you are defenseless, this kind of gimmick match defines pointless. Anyway the two pair up well and it would have been a good match if they didn't have to fight over the brass knuckles on a pole. Regal wins after pulling a second pair of brass knuckles from his tights so instead of fairly winning with brass knuckles he illegally wins with brass knuckles. Bit of a waste if you ask me.

Match 5 - The Undertaker Vs. The Rock

After losing to Jericho at the Royal Rumble The Rock had nothing to do so he was thrown in a short feud with The Undertaker where Taker was mad with The Rock for taking the piss out of him for being knocked out of the Royal Rumble by Maven from tough enough series 1.
This wasn't a great match but then again there was nothing at stake like Goldust and RVD before them this match was there to fill the 2 1/2 hours. The match had a slow pace and for for first half we watched The Rock get beat around by Undertaker both in the ring and out the ring. We see the two fight though the crowd and the arena, Undertaker beats The Rock around some more, the match starts to become really tired and dull so The Rock starts to fight back but Undertaker chock slams him. Soon enough Undertaker gets bored of the dullness and takes matters into his own hands but pulling a lead pipe out of his motorcycle, just then Ric Flair runs in and attacks Undertaker, Take knocks Flair out with the big boot. The Rock gets up and puts Taker into a sharp shooter to turn the match around, Vince McMahon runs in to distract The Rock, Take goes to Tombstone The Rock but Ric Flair hits him with the lead pipe, The Rock hits Taker with the Rock Bottom and gets the pin. In all this was a dull boring match by the two of them and it will be easily forgotten.

Match 6 - #1 contender match Kurt Angle Vs. Triple H
Triple H won the Royal Rumble after being out for 8 months with an injury and became the #1 contender for the WWF Undisputed championship at Wrestlemania. Kurt Angle blamed Triple H for ruining his chance to win the Rumble on his first try and wanted revenge. Triple H was having marriage problems with Stephanie and was on the verge of breaking up with her, she didn't want to lose Triple H so she lied to him about being pregnant so they they would renew their wedding vows. Triple H found out about this and split with her. Stephanie wanting revenge made her self the special ref for the match.
The match starts off quite quickly with both wrestlers showing an impressive display of offense, Stephanie is knocked out after being hit with a Kurt Angle clothesline. After that the match goes on and it continues to impress the Pace is constant and the two are giving it everything they have got. Stephanie soon enough returns to the ring and makes herself the ref again, thankfully she takes another ref bump and is KO'd again. Tom White becomes ref again but is attacked by Stephine who will do what it takes to see that Triple H loses. Kurt Angle gets up and nails Triple H across the head with a chair and pins Triple H to win the match. Kurt must have hit Triple H hard because he vomited after the match.
In all it was a pretty good match just a shame that Stephanie was involved.

Match 7 - Undisputed Championship Chris Jericho Vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin
This was an OK match but it isn't particularly memorable. The two give the type of title match that you would expect, it is long and evenly paced, the early parts of the match are spent with the 2 wearing each other down, the match becomes much faster paced towards the end. There was nothing wrong with the match itself it was watchable. The match ends when the NWO run in and attack Austin giving Jericho the win.

In all it was an alright PPV, it wasn't anything special though and its only real purpose was to build up to Wrestlemania X8 that came a month later. The PPV is included in the WWE Tagged Classics range and is bundled with Backlash 2002. As tagged classics go it is one of the cheaper ones but then again these two Pay Per Views will be easily forgotten.