5 Worst wrestling matches of 2003

When people look back at 2003 in WWE, only one word comes to mind: McMahon. This isn’t just because Vince owned the company. It’s also because the extended McMahon family (which also includes Triple H, who officially married Stephanie that year) were all over the product. And it wasn’t very good.

The biggest and most important feuds on WWE programming seemed to focus on this family more than anyone else. On nearly every big show there was one of the four McMahons involved in some big angle, and they all featured prominently on weekly TV shows as well. They were so over-exposed on their own programs that some people started calling RAW, for example, ‘Monday Night McMahon’.

Behind the scenes, the McMahon family seemed to take complete control over the booking process, especially on RAW. This is why there was a much greater focus on the bigger superstars than smaller grapplers. That change was especially noticeable given how SmackDown was a runaway success during the era of the SmackDown Six.

Sadly, that shift in focus meant that one man was more or less in complete control of RAW: Triple H. While accusations of backstage politicking were never proven beyond a doubt, he was completely unstoppable on-screen.

He demolished people left and right, despite having some problems with his actual wrestling. on several occasions, he looked so bad and immobile that he risked turning into one of the glacial monsters that were fed to the Undertaker during the prior decade?

So were the worst matches of 2003 really that bad? Read onwards to find out…

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#5 The Undertaker vs. Big Show & A-Train – WrestleMania XIX

This was originally meant to be a tag team match, with Australian behemoth Nathan Jones initially planned to be ‘Taker’s partner. But Jones was ‘attacked backstage earlier that night’ (read: he was so bad in the ring WWE removed him from the match), turning this into a handicap match.

But that change didn’t help this match get over. It was Undertaker versus two men that were bigger than he was, which is rarely, if ever, a winning formula. Worse, 2002-2003 was a period highlighted by Undertaker’s awkward MMA phase, during which he’d throw ten thousand punches and hit submission holds out of nowhere (despite having no submission background, unlike Kurt Angle or Brock Lesnar).

It just felt weird seeing Undertaker trying to be this weird hybrid of wrestler and MMA fighter, simply because he couldn’t make it work at the time.

That aside, this match was boring. It was three huge wrestlers hitting power moves and punching each other. There was only minimal drama, and even with the Streak starting to be mentioned, it didn’t have that ‘big match feel’ to it. Undertaker clearly deserved better opponents for WrestleMania, but unfortunately it would take another four years for WWE to figure that out.

#4 Triple H vs. Kevin Nash - Judgment Day 2003

Triple H vs. Kevin Nash sounded like a good idea on paper, but like many ideas like that, it was terrible in execution. Triple H in 2003 was so big he looked like he was going to explode out of his own skin, while Nash was already suffering from back and quad problems.

Perhaps both of them understood each other’s limitations, which is why they put together this basic and underwhelming performance. The entire in-ring contest lasted just under eight minutes long, and featured a lot of messing with the referee (Earl Hebner) and illegal manoeuvres.

The glacial action came to an end when Triple H attacked the referee, causing both a disqualification and a rematch down the road. Neither of those two things sounded that good when they were announced, but the rematch was worse because it meant more of what had been seen in this match here.

#3 Mr. America vs. Roddy Piper - Judgment Day 2003

In case you’re wondering, Mr. America was Hulk Hogan in a not-so-subtle Captain America costume. Here he was, in 2003, still wrestling, against Roddy Piper. Two wrestlers whose peak years were decades prior were now ‘wrestling’ and taking up precious PPV time.

Also keep in mind that Piper and Mr. America were joined by Zack Gowen and Sean O’Haire, respectively. So to summarize, in a feud that involved two old veterans, a one-legged wrestler, and a solid wrestler with an interesting gimmick, it was the two old-timers that wrestled.

I use that term loosely because they did almost nothing of interest in this match. The double-team by Piper & O’Haire at the start garnered no heat, Hogan’s (sorry, Mr. America’s) comeback was as Hogan-like as it was boring, and Vince McMahon got involved which didn’t make things any better.

Of course, Hogan won (because, Hogan), which effectively killed what little upward momentum O’Haire had at the time.

#2 Triple H vs. Scott Steiner – No Way Out 2003

If there was one word that could be used to describe most of Triple H’s main-event matches during the early 2000s, it would be ‘over-booked’. You see, 2003 is widely regarded as a dark period in RAW history due to it falling under Triple H’s ‘reign of terror’. He was constantly in the main-event/world title picture, and didn’t always wrestle to such a standard.

This was one such an example, as Triple H wrestled a shenanigans-filled match complete with outside interference, referee shoves, and an opponent that was booked to look like a moron against him. However, another problem with this match was that Scott Steiner wasn’t the ideal opponent for HHH inside the ring. Steiner might’ve looked terrifying, but his conditioning was off and some of his work was sloppy.

Those elements came together in a maelstrom of subpar wrestling that elicited groans and boos from the audience for both wrestlers. Whoever booked this match clearly had no idea what people wanted to see. This match suffered from too many unnecessary participants and terrible in-ring action. You’d think this was something that was transported straight out of the Attitude Era, or something.

#1 Triple H vs. Scott Steiner – Rumble 03

Sometimes the best part of a feud is the part when the rivals are NOT actually wrestling

In November 2002, Scott Steiner returned to WWE to a thunderous ovation, and looked like he was on his way to a world title match with Triple H. Unfortunately, this match ended up being one of the biggest trainwrecks in Triple H’s career.

This was mainly due to Scott Steiner’s work in the ring. For reasons known only to him, he kept doing different suplexes over and over and over again. He hit a ridiculous twelve suplexes in this match, ten of them being Kurt Angle-style overhead-belly-to-belly suplexes.

This became annoying fast, as those moves lost their meaning due to how often they were used (kind of how Brock Lesnar using only German Suplexes doesn’t get as much of a reaction as it used to).

Triple H wasn’t innocent either. His in-ring offense here was so simple and basic that a trainee could do more complex moves. Nothing in HHH’s arsenal stood out here, and he wasn’t even doing a good job of hitting big strikes either.

Ultimately, this will go down as the single-most boring main event match in Triple H’s career. Even his WrestleMania main events that got booed out of the building at least had fans reacting throughout. This match had…crickets.