by Rick Scaia
OnlineOnslaught.com

It was not just a meet and greet, with highlights airing on a Thursday night, but rather an entire SD! broadcast taped live, in broad daylight, just miles from an active war zone outside Baghdad.  The makeshift arena, surrounded by about 5000 troops and tons of heavy ordinance, was certainly a unique and once-in-a-lifetime sort of venue for pro wrestling.

The show itself was rather non-descript: no storylines were advanced, although the troops got a dose of pure wrestling (Eddie vs. Benoit), some T&A (Dawn, Torrie, and Sable in a glorified lingerie exhibition), and even some patented WWE surprises (Steve Austin, ostensibly banished forever from WWE and last seen on RAW, showed up to Stunner Vince McScrooge).  But the atmosphere and the between-match segments made it clear that this was a special show, nonetheless.

You can check a recap of the remarkable program right here.

The 20 or so WWE workers (plus another dozen or so staff) taped the show on the Monday prior to Christmas, and then flew back stateside, barely making it home in time for their own holiday extravaganzas.  But by all counts, none of them would have traded it for anything. [As an aside, Kurt Angle made a separate trip to Iraq, as part of a USO tour with Robin Williams, but went back home before the SD! crew arrived for their big event.]

For all of them, it was their second major overseas trip of the month, too.  In early December, SD! toured Asia and the Pacific Rim.  It was a rocky trip, with difficult and nerve-wracking flights, even more so than usual.  The trip, which included a stop in Australia, spelled the end of Nathan Jones' WWE tenure; unable to cope with the schedule or workload, Jones got to his homeland and decided he wanted to stay.  He walked out of the arena, and was never seen again on WWE TV.

IN OTHER NEWS

• Mick Foley made a surprise return to WWE as an "outside consultant" empowered to do whatever he wanted to reign in Eric Bischoff. Foley instantly made himself the co-GM of RAW, and was a thorn in the side of Bischoff for the 3 weeks he'd stick around (mostly by spear-heading the "Bring Back Stone Cold" petition). More importantly, he also became a thorn in the side of Randy Orton, first by guest refereeing one of his matches and then by talking his way into an IC Title match against Orton on the final pre-holiday RAW... only to walk out on the match before it even started (kicking off the "Mick Foley: Hardcore Coward") storyline...
• Foley was also confirmed as being attached to a TV pilot being produced for CBS. Described as a buddy cop show (with Foley supplying the more comic relief role, like Cheech on "Nash Bridges"), Foley would co-star as a police detective in the project that may or may not get picked up for CBS' fall schedule...
• Cameras caught Chris Jericho and Christian backstage, revealing that their individual pursuits of Trish Stratus and Lita was just part of a one dollar (Canadian) bet between the two. Both had made significant in-roads with his assigned babe, but that was off once Trish overheard their conversation. Predictably, this got messy once Jericho realized he really HAD fallen for Trish (even though Christian had no similar sincere feelings for Lita). And thus, the Love Rhombus was pared down to a Love Dyad, but didn't lose very much of its frustrating addictiveness...
• NWA-TNA introduced a commendably-ground-breaking concept on their website. For seven bucks a pop, fans with broadband internet connections can view any previous TNA pay-per-view they want over the web. The only caveat: TNA insists on a 2 month delay between the Wednesday night broadcasts and making the PPVs available for on-demand download...
• Following a outstanding Thursday night showdown between Chris Benoit and Brock Lesnar (in which Brock needed a steel chair and a new submission hold since dubbed the Brock Lock to win), Paul Heyman swore to never again allow Benoit to get a WWE Title shot as long as he (Heyman) was GM of SD!. The promise threatens to have serious implications on which roster Benoit will compete on in 2004...
• Ric Flair joined the SD! crew for the aforementioned tour of Asia. From his NWA days, Flair retains a strong fan base there, and was also needed to help offset the absence of Kurt Angle due to neck surgery...
• Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho wrestled an utterly-forgettable "inter-brand" match at the SpikeTV Video Game Awards in December. In fact, the two didn't even figure into the finish, as run-ins by Victoria and Trish resulted in those two working the latter half of the match while the men disappeared into thin air. Oh, and Trish won...
• Confirmation is received that WWE has listed a bell-time of 7pm for events at MSG on the night of WrestleMania XX, and has purchased satellite time through midnight. The five hour block is expected to be broken down as one hour for Heat and four hours for the PPV, though some sources jumped to the conclusion that WMXX would be a five hour PPV telecast...
• The Rock accepted a featured, but non-starring, role in "Stay Cool," the sequel to "Get Shorty." As part of a very strong ensemble cast, Rock will play a gay Samoan bodyguard with aspirations of becoming an actor or a singer (if the character stays true to the book, at least). The production ends up shuffling its schedule so that the Rock can complete his work prior to WMXX, and can jump into WWE business in time for the big show...
• The Rock did make a special one-night-only appearance on RAW in December, showing up to briefly reform the Rock 'n' Sock Connection in an extremely fun throw-away segment when Mick Foley was harassed by both members of La Resistance...
• A final wrestling death for 2003: Jerry Tuite, who wrestled most famously as "The Wall" in WCW, passed away at age 36 of an apparent heart attack. Tuite had been on a tour of Japan at the time of his death... 
• Shawn Michaels did a round of interviews promoting the Armageddon PPV in which he revealed he had essentially OK'ed a return to a mostly-full slate of in-ring work. Coming off his amazing work at the Survivor Series, this was very welcome news from a guy who, just a year previous, was sticking to a "one, maybe two matches per month" schedule...
• Denver Broncos running back Clinton Portis had a huge game against Kansas City, and in the closing stages, was seen by CBS cameras posing on the sidelines with a replica World Title belt. Although WWE had no part in Portis obtaining the belt (it was a gift from a rapper friend of his), they publicized the footage on RAW the next week...
• Shannon "Daffney" Ward was released from her WWE developmental contract...
• Kurt Angle was named Wrestler of the Year in the RSPW Acheivement Awards, despite working essentially half a year...
• Jazz returned to house shows, a harbinger of her return to TV on the first RAW of 2004....
• Hacksaw Jim Duggan apparently wanted to put a new deck on his house or something... he auctioned off the WCW TV Title belt (which was retired in while in his hands) and his original "King Duggan" cape and crown on eBay. The same bidder got the entire package for just over $8000...
• In storylines, Goldberg was "de-activated" by Eric Bischoff after losing the World Title back to HHH. The arrangement was actually one part taking a deep breath to figure out what to do next with Goldberg (whose contract had an out following WM20) and one part making room on Goldberg's schedule for him to fly to Japan for a major show there around the New Year...
• Following the pre-holiday TV tapings, Brock Lesnar skipped the Iraq trip and instead reported for a pair of surgeries: one on his troublesome knee and one on his elbow. Both were minor surgeries, more clean-up jobs than anything, and were designed to have Lesnar back at 100% in time for the Royal Rumble...
• NWA-TNA's last effort before a two week holiday hiatus saw Sting defeat Jeff Jarrett, but in a non-title match. And since AJ Styles actually lent a big assist to Sting, many viewed it as more a continuation of the Styles/Jarrett feud than a chance at Sting becoming a TNA regular and possible NWA champ....
• Even as his MSNBC talk show was finally being officially cancelled in December, Jesse Ventura was making headlines as his portrait at the Minnesota State House was unveiled, and was said to contain subtle "Da Vinci Code"-esque coded messages about Jesse's wrestling and military days. The painting was done by a former tag team partner of Jesse's, who refused to either confirm or deny the existence of "The Ventura Code"....
• Dick Slater, one time WWF mid-carder and former WCW tag champ, was arrested for the attempted murder of his (ex-)girlfriend. The case is still, obviously, pending...
• Kevin Nash officially parted ways with WWE at the end of 2003: still unable to work, and likely never to adopt a full wrestling schedule again after neck surgery, there was no way WWE was interested in renewing Nash at anything resembling his previous rate of pay. Nash was uninterested (at the present time) in taking a pay cut to work 5 days a week in Connecticut and on the road as a road agent or creative consultant. So the two just parted company, with the door very much open for future partnerships...
• RAW ended 2003 on an incredible high note. On December 29, they delivered the return of Steve Austin (in the lazy, unimaginative, and somewhat silly role as "Sheriff" of RAW based on popular demand as witness by Mick Foley's petition) which got a huge pop... but best of all, they also delivered the brand's best Free TV match of the year, as Shawn Michaels took HHH to the limit and even seemed to have him beat for the World Title until Eric Bischoff interjected himself for a classic Dusty Finish....
   

NOTABLE quOOtables

RATINGS TRENDS
(Note: RAW's cable ratings are converted to broadcast numbers 
for our monthly comparisons)

PAY-PER-VIEW RESULTS

TITLE CHANGES

Triple H beat Bill Goldberg and Kane in a 3-way match to win the World Heavyweight Title on 12/14... Randy Orton beat Rob Van Dam to win the InterContinental Title on 12/14... Ric Flair and Batista emerged victorious in a seven team gauntlet-style match to win the World Tag Team Titles on 12/14... Rey Mysterio beat Tajiri to win the WWE Cruiserweight Title on 12/30 (aired on 1/01/2004)... 
 

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