10 shocking moments from WWE 2002

Many fans refer to 2001 as the last great year for the WWF before their post-Attitude Era decline and the eventual arrival of the PG era. That being said, 2002 was by no means a poor year for the company. In fact, one might say it even surpassed some of the Attitude Era years in terms of entertainment and storytelling value.

However you look at it, 2002 was a year of real change for the company both inside and outside the ropes. Away went the over-reliance on Austin and Rock and in came new superstars that would set the company in a completely different direction to the controversial, car crash TV fans had grown so accustomed to.

The year might have marked the official death of the Attitude Era, but it was not without its share of shocking moments. Here are the top 10 shocking moments from WWE 2002:

#1 WWF gets the 'F' out

The year 2002 signalled big changes for the company had finally secured an unrivalled position at the top of the wrestling world. The organization, known to many as the World Wrestling Federation, which had entertained millions and set the bar in terms of the cultural impact of pro-wrestling on the Western world and beyond, was about to receive a not-so-welcomed facelift.

On the 5th of May, 2002, the WWF announced that it would be changing its company name to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). This was much more than a simple name change, however. Vince McMahon's entire vision for the product had been set on a course that would eventually turn many former fans away. By 2017, the company is almost unrecognizable from the heydeys of 1998-2001, and much of that began here, with the name change.

Of course, there were still ongoing legal disputes with the World Wildlife Fund to consider, but the change from 'Federation' to 'Entertainment' also meant that Vince could finally pursue his real dream of making his conglomerate more than just a wrestling company.

Today, if asked, Vince is probably more likely to describe WWE as being part of the movie making industry that rubs shoulders with other high-entertainment outlets such as MTV or FOX. The wrestling is just one string to Vince's bow and he wanted the world to know it.

Whether or not the name change can be directly blamed for the decline in fortunes for the company is a very contested point, but what we did know back in 2002 was that while the World Wrestling Federation was all about the second 'W', World Wrestling Entertainment would be predominantly about the 'E'

#2 The NWO arrives in WWE

The relationship between the NWO and WCW is a strange one, to say the least. In one sense, the heel faction that formed at Bash at the Beach 1996 helped the Southern promotion to race ahead of the WWF in the television ratings and establish dominance overall in the Monday Night Wars. In another sense, however, the overreliance on the NWO and the highly convoluted storylines it was involved in also encouraged fans to turn back to the WWF in 1998, signalling the downfall of WCW for good.

Back in 96, it made every bit of sense to capitalise on the popularity of the group. They weren't only contributing in terms of ratings, but they were also helping WCW with merchandise sales and PPV buys. When you have something that 'hot' within your wrestling promotion, you do everything you can to exploit it.

But as we all know, a wrestling faction or storyline can soon become tiresome, especially if there isn't much else to draw on. WCW's dependence eventually led to a weakening of the product overall and the group eventually died with its host company in 2001.

By February 2002, the NWO would reappear, this time as a WWE owned faction. The group that had initially sent shockwaves through the wrestling business and forced Vince McMahon to stare directly into the abyss was now representing the company it nearly defeated.

In kayfabe terms, the group was brought in at No Way Out 2002 to help Vince McMahon destroy the WWF after Ric Flair announced he had purchased half of the company's shares. In many ways, this felt like the kind of 'Invasion Angle' that fans had missed out on in 2001, with NWO main event stars Hogan, Hall, and Nash going after Stone Cold and The Rock. Whatever you might think about WWE's version of the group, it did lead to some interesting showdowns at Wrestlemania 18.

The WWE NWO was fairly short-lived and uneventful, but for a short time, it provided quite the shock to wrestling fans worldwide.

#3 Brock Lesnar defeats Hulk Hogan

Any list about WWE in 2002 will inevitably include multiple mentions of Brock Lesnar. The full extent of Lesnar's arrival in WWE will be discussed later, but of his many dominant victories on the way to becoming the company's 'next big thing', one, in particular, deserves special treatment here.

As a way to ready Lesnar for his shot at Rock's Undisputed Title, the current WWE Universal Champion met the legendary Hulk Hogan on an episode of Smackdown in August 2002. Hogan had recently turned babyface after leaving the NWO following his match with Rock at Wrestlemania. This helped to set the stage for a historic and beloved icon to meet a hungry young heel.

The match was by no means a one-sided affair, but it is clear throughout that Hogan didn't really pose much of a threat to Lesnar. The company wanted to paint this newcomer as a serious threat to everybody on the roster, regardless of how long you'd been around or how many championships you had to your name.

Lesnar finished the match by effectively draining all the energy from Hogan's body after applying a bear hug submission move. For years, fans were used to seeing Hogan's arm be raised and dropped twice by the referee only for him to regain his power by resisting the third drop and coming back to win the match. This time, no such comeback was on the table as the Beast walked away with a dominant win.

#4 John Cena takes Kurt Angle to the limit

WWE's biggest legends don't always have memorable debuts to their name. Stone Cold originally began with the company as 'The Ringmaster' while The Rock was busy trying to get a doomed vanilla babyface gimmick over with a hostile crowd. Even Hulk Hogan, perhaps the biggest legend of them all, began his wrestling career as an underwhelming heel before creating Hulkamania.

The same cannot be said for John Cena, however, as he made a huge impact on his main roster debut. The WWE loving cutting back to footage of Cena's first match as it makes his career look like a long, carefully constructed and highly successful endeavour, and in many ways, this is exactly what it was.

After Vince McMahon announced to the roster that he was looking for 'Ruthless Aggression' from his cohort of stars, Cena answered the boss's call by accepting an open challenge from Kurt Angle. Despite losing against the Olympian, the young lion came close to causing a shock upset on multiple occasions.

After the match, Cena came face to face with the Undertaker who asked him for his name and offered a hand as a signal of respect and admiration for his efforts. Fans should have known back then that big things were in store for this muscle bound, highly energised individual.

Like him or not, you can't deny that few have had better debuts in WWE than the one and only John Cena.

#5 Eric Bishoff debuts on WWE TV

Despite the Monday Night Wars technically being between Vince McMahon and Ted Turner as owners of their respective companies, Eric Bishoff was always seen as Vince's true rival. The two were highly involved in the onscreen action of WCW and WWF over the years, challenging each other to be as crazy and psychotic as humanly possible.

With WWF's purchase of WCW in 2001, Bishoff would eventually become another employee of Vince McMahon. Despite the embarrassment this must have caused the former NWO boss, Vince recognised that it wouldn't have been wise to keep Bishoff's talents down.

On the July 15th episode of Monday Night RAW 2002, Bishoff was announced as the new RAW General Manager. This would prove to be a fairly successful position for Bishoff, who became one of the longest reigning General Managers in WWE history.

In his first promo segment on WWE TV, Bishoff reminded fans that due to his influence on the wrestling business, Vince and the WWF had been forced to change the way they did business, effectively changing the landscape for good.

Few can argue against this summation. Bishoff deserves his recognition despite losing the Monday Night Wars and condemning the rest of us to a WWE-dominated wrestling landscape for so many years. In all fairness, the problems within WCW went far beyond Bishoff's control and it is only right that we remember the good times just as much as the bad.

#6 Shawn Michaels joins the NWO

While WCW and the NWO were busy scoring consecutive ratings victories over the WWF throughout 1996-1998, Vince McMahon's company was reliant on certain competitors, tasked with the job of not allowing the WWF to go completely out of business.

Before Rock and Austin turned up, WWF placed almost all their eggs in the Shawn Michaels basket. The Heartbreak Kid was raced to the top of the billing after two Royal Rumble victories and a defeat of Bret Hart in a 60-minute Iron Man Match at Wrestlemania 12. For better or worse, Shawn was the guy to carry the company through its darkest hour.

In 2002, fans were treated to bizarre scenes when Michaels, after being away from WWE TV for over a year, came to the ring wearing the shirt of the faction he had previously tried so hard to counter. With Hogan now babyface and free from the black and white brand, Kevin Nash needed to bring in more faces. At his time of need, he turned to his former Kliq buddy and gave his faction a brand new look.

Shawn, to this day, is the only NWO member to have never wrestled for WCW. This in itself is a further indication of how dominant WWF's victory over WCW was. Their once greatest asset was now but the plaything of Vince McMahon and the WWF roster.

Shawn might not have accomplished much as an NWO member, but it did help temporarily revive the fortunes of the faction and gave Vince an excuse to bring Michaels back into the fold.

#7 The World Heavyweight Championship returns

Throughout the years, the WWF/WWE Championship has always been seen as the primary championship belt for the company. That being said, other championship belts have occasionally come to challenge its dominance, such as the Universal Title which currently represents the RAW brand in 2017.

Perhaps the second most prestigious title the company has seen over the years is the World Heavyweight Championship which began life back in 2002. With the brand extension a cemented reality at the time, it was no longer sustainable for the WWE to have so many different main event stars all challenging for one belt.

With Lesnar as the Undisputed Champion following his victory over Rock at Summerslam, Smackdown GM Stephanie McMahon secured the Beast as a Smackdown exclusive competitor, leaving RAW without a champion.

Then GM Eric Bishoff announced that a new championship would be formed, which paid homage to prestigious wrestling belts from the past. Back when the NWA was at its height of popularity, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was the ultimate prize in wrestling. Over the years, and with the cessation of WCW from the NWO, the belt became known as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

This incarnation of the belt temporarily appeared on WWF television until it was incorporated into the Undisputed WWF Championship in 2001. Now, with two sets of rosters to consider, the 'big gold belt' was finally allowed to return and would become a staple of the WWE product until a second unification took place in 2014 leading to the situation we know today.

#8 Triple H turns on Shawn Michaels

When Shawn Michaels returned to in-ring action in 2002, there was something of a 'Darth Vader and Obi Wan' dynamic going on between him and his former DX partner Triple H. When Shawn left, Triple H was the apprentice, now he was very much the master.

It made sense for the partnership to be revived on HBK's return seeing as the two were so closely associated with each other back in 1998. Shawn had initially become a surprise member of the NWO, joining Kevin Nash and Big Show.

For a while, it seemed as though the group had intentions of recruiting the Game in an attempt to reform the Kliq faction that ruled the WWF for a period of time between 94-96. This particular angle didn't go anywhere, however, but after the NWO was disbanded, Shawn and Hunter would eventually cross paths.

After initially looking like the pair had reformed DX, Triple H decided he would show Michaels just how much things had changed since he left. In the middle of the 'Suck it!' taunt, made famous by the pair back in 97, Triple H turned on his best friend and delivered a Pedigree.

This began a feud that lasted for a lengthy period, starting with Shawn's first in-ring match since Wrestlemania 14, meeting the Game at Summerslam in an unsanctioned street fight. It's clear the two have great chemistry inside and outside the ring and 2002 was certainly a strong example of this.

#9 Brock Lesnar becomes the youngest Champion in WWE history

As previously mentioned, a big part of WWE 2002 involved the ascension of Brock Lesnar. Along with Cena, Orton and Batista, Brock is a member of the now infamous OVW class of 2002 which helped to shape the future of the company for years to come. While the other three were still finding their feet in 2002, Lesnar was on a rocket ship to the very top of the main event scene.

Billed as 'the next big thing', Lesnar was assigned to Paul Heyman who would act as his mouth piece and primary advocate, similar to the dynamic the pair enjoy today. Lesnar received his first worthy challenge by taking on both members of the Hardy Boys and making short work of the two of them.

He then became the 2002 King of the Ring, defeating the likes of Test and RVD. This earned him a shot at the Undisputed title, which was held by the Rock. As a way to further cement his dominance, Lesnar even defeated the legendary Hulk Hogan on an episode of Smackdown along the way.

Summerslam 2002 was presented very much as Lesnar's night. The main event saw him take on Rock and become WWE's undisputed champion and de facto 'top guy'. Lesnar's victory made him the youngest champion in WWE history at the age of 25.

His victory also saw him become the second fastest wrestler to win the WWE's main championship since his debut, achieving the feat in just 126 days.

If 2002 was to prove to be a year of real change for the WWE, Brock Lesnar was going to be a huge part of it.

#10 The Canadian crowd turn on Rock at Wrestlemania 18

If the Invasion Angle of 2001 was ultimately a letdown, the WWE made a slight amends in 2002 with the arrival of the NWO. Following their debut at No Way Out, Stone Cold Steve Austin began a feud with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall while The Rock set his sights on Hollywood Hulk Hogan.

The two met at Wrestlemania 18, an event which also saw Stone Cold take on and defeat his two adversaries. Rock vs. Hogan was billed as the ultimate showdown between two legends from different eras. As Jerry Lawler said on commentary, boxing fans never got to see Tyson vs. Ali, but wrestling fans were being treated to Rock vs. Hogan.

Whether it was the fact that the event was held in Canada or whether nostalgia took the better of them, the crowd in attendance immediately made it clear that they were siding with Hogan, despite him going into the match as the heel.

As a result, The Rock, one of the biggest legends of the Attitude Era, received nothing but a chorus of boos. While Hogan's moves were met with adulation and praise, Rock was subjected to the exact opposite treatment.

This makes the match, which generally lacked in terms of technical wrestling, an instant classic in the annals of wrestling history. It was an early example of the kind of hijacking that WWE crowds so often attempt today. The reaction of the crowd when Hogan began to 'hulk-up' is still one of the biggest pops of all time.

Even the commentators were forced to acknowledge it, calling Canada 'bizarre-o-land', while Rock, to his credit, took the whole thing in his stride and allowed Hogan to play the de facto babyface in his place.

This also led to a Hulk Hogan face turn, seeing him adorn his red and yellow attire for the first time on WWE programming since 1993.

By the end of the year, both men's positions on the roster were slightly diminished, and a new cohort began to take over. In many ways, this match feels like one last major moment in the spotlight for two of the industry's biggest ever stars.

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