by Rick Scaia
OnlineOnslaught.com

In fact, HHH got off to an early start in July, suffering his third deep thigh bruise in under a year.  He missed about a week's worth of bookings, but was getting back to 100% as the end of the month neared.  With the promotional machine in full swing, WWE had done a press conference to announce HHH vs. Goldberg as the Main Event for SummerSlam.  On the very same night that WWE showed that footage on RAW, HHH suffered his groin pull/hernia/whatever it was.  It happened in a post-RAW dark match against Goldberg.

Instantly, the one-on-one match for SummerSlam was in serious trouble.  HHH could barely walk for the first few weeks after the injury, and so WWE made the decision to change SummerSlam to a six-man Elimination Chamber match where HHH could "hide" and let others do the work.  HHH made all of a 2 minute appearance in that match, using a sledgehammer to score the cheap win.  This was booked in hopes of HHH recovering enough to put on a good one-on-one match at the September RAW PPV.  But that didn't quite pan out, as HHH was still visibly limited and wearing his little biker shorts under his tights to make sure he didn't hurt himself further.  In a mediocre affair, HHH dropped the title to Goldberg, and then adopted a schedule where he was around about one out of every three RAWs for the rest of the year.  In that time, he'd be slowly recovering and doing movies and getting married and stuff like that, while he sicced bounty hunters and whatnot on Goldberg.

HHH FINALLY looked back to something over 80% in December, when he regained the title in a three-way match at Armageddon, and looked close to 100% at year's end in a killer match against Shawn Michaels.  But still: that injury suffered in July was felt (by fans as much as by HHH) throughout the rest of 2003.

IN OTHER NEWS

• WWE released Michael "Crash Holly" Lockwood, in what was something of a mutual decision. Lockwood had not been pleased with his role as a third-string SD! star (he was the lackey of Shannon Moore, who himself was Matt Hardy's lackey), and WWE was more than happy to grant the disgruntled Crash the freedom to pursue more fulfilling opportunities. Crash would debut before the end of the month in TNA as "Mad Mikey"...
• SD! attempted to turn Eddie Guerrero heel in July, having him attack his tag team partner Tajiri after the duo lost the WWE Tag Titles. Although the attack was brutal, fans were too enamored of Eddie to bring themselves to boo him. His own past getting cheered for "lying, cheating, and stealing" only made matters worse. By the end of the month, audible cheers were facing Eddie at every turn, and he became, essentially, a de facto babyface once again...
• Ordered by a judge to post a $2.5 million bond to cover possible losses by Viacom should his case not be decided in his favor, Spike Lee slunk quietly into the shadows and did not pursue the matter any further. Advised (quite rightly) that he'd lose that money, Lee didn't post the bond, and The New TNN was finally free to morph into SpikeTV. The change would eventually happen several weeks after the no-show (and 2 months behind schedule) on August 11...
• Mirroring RAW's decision, SD! resurrected a secondary title: the old WCW US Title. Redubbed the WWE United States Title, it was put up for grabs in an 8 man tournament. The finals, on the excellent SD!-only Vengeance PPV, saw Eddie Guerrero win the revived title with a win over Chris Benoit...
• Both Paul London and Shannon "Daffney" Ward signed developmental deals in July. One of them would rapidly be called up to the main roster. The other would be released, outright, by the end of the year...
• Goldberg suffered an elbow infection and missed about 2 weeks worth of bookings (including two shots on RAW)...
• Without his cousin and tag team partner, Rosey briefly flirted with a heel alliance with Rodney Mack and Teddy Long before those two turned on him and forced him into a partnership with the Hurricane. Within the month, Rosey became Hurricane's Super Hero In Training...
• Torrie Wilson and Billy Kidman finally tied the knot in July. The honeymoon had to be delayed by several weeks, however, as they immediately jetted to a SD! tour of Asia two days after the wedding...
• In one of the first signs that the Kane unmasking was going horribly awry, WWE had the guy set Jim Ross on fire as the climax of a live RAW. The memorable-for-all-the-wrong-reasons show was still the subject of my Favorite RAW Recap of 2003. The barbeque of JR meant the full-time return to the commentary desk of Jonathan Coachman, which itself would set the stage for the Great Announcer Feud of 2003 when JR did finally return...
• Forgotten semi-star of the early 90's Darryl Peterson sued Rockstar Games and affiliated companies over their videogame "Max Payne." Peterson, prior to tanking as "Man Mountain Rock" in the WWF, worked as "Maxx Payne" in WCW (where he enjoyed moderate success as a sometimes partner to Cactus Jack). The suit struck me as frivolous, but as far as I know, no settlement was reached and it is still pending to this day...
• Kevin Nash was pulled from the latter part of a Australia tour with what was diagnosed as a pinched nerve. Nash had actually feinted during a personal appearance, and although the final diagnosis wouldn't come until he got back stateside, local docs felt it best if he didn't work the remaining 2 dates of the tour...
• Rather than traveling with his RAW mates to Australia, Lance Storm jumped over to SD! for a tour of Canada, including a show stealing match against US Champ Eddie Guerrero in his hometown of Calgary...
   

NOTABLE quOOtables

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

PAY-PER-VIEW RESULTS

TITLE CHANGES

Charlie Haas/Shelton Benjamin beat Eddie Guerrero/Tajiri to win the WWE Tag Team Titles on 7/01... Booker T beat Christian to win the InterContinental Title on 7/07... Kurt Angle beat Brock Lesnar and Big Show in a 3-way match to win the WWE World Title on 7/27... Eddie Guerrero beat Chris Benoit in a tournament final to win the revived WWE United States Title... Molly Holly beat Gail Kim to win the World Women's Title on 7/28...

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