Professional wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross who currently works as a colour commentator in the All Elite Wrestling recently looked back at the WWE Championship match between Brock Lesnar and The Big Show that took place at Survivor Series 2002. Ross called the match “Crazy and Illogical.”
Brock Lesnar was built as the next big thing in WWE upon his debut in 2002. He defeated almost all the big names of the Attitude Era in order to cement himself as the biggest star of WWE during his time. He started his WWE career with the victories over Hulk Hogan, The Rock and The Undertaker respectively. He defeated the Rock at SummerSlam 2002 to win the WWE Championship.
He dropped the WWE championship for the first time at Survivor Series 2002 when he went one on one with the Big Show. It was not a clean win though. Lesnar’s manager Paul Heyman betrayed him and sided with Big Show. The feud went on for a number of months more and it was ultimately won by Lesnar.
The feud was really not that bad and it was pretty well received. Lesnar went on to win the Royal Rumble match of 2003 and challenge Kurt Angle for the WWE championship at WrestleMania XIX. He defeated Angle on the main event of WrestleMania XIX to win his second WWE Championship. The Big Show gave him a very good push and we really do not think it was completely meaningless.
Jim Ross who currently works as a colour commentator in the All Elite Wrestling recently spoke on his Grillin JR podcast where he looked back at the WWE Championship match between Brock Lesnar and The Big Show that took place at Survivor Series 2002. Ross called the match “Crazy and Illogical.” He said;
“It is crazy, it’s illogical. Why do we need to change the championship? And I wouldn’t have booked that match. The match should never have happened if I had the proverbial pencil, which has the most powerful weapon in all of wrestling on one end, the eraser.
“I would never have booked it. Again, protect your attraction, the seven foot 500 pound, 400 pound, whatever guys come up, they don’t come along that often. He’s an attraction that can’t be replaced as far as look and perception and size.”
“So [it was] crazy, don’t book that match, book another match that Brock and go out and have an athletic contest with. You notice that they kept this mess short because they didn’t want to overexpose either guy.
“And to have a title match that goes 4 minutes and one of your biggest stars who is going to be one of the biggest stars in the company gets beat in four minutes. I don’t know what we accomplished. I really don’t.”
H/T and transcribed by Inside The Ropes