25 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Ruthless Aggression PPV

25. Vengeance 2002 Was One Hell Of A Kickoff

What a way to make a first impression.

Vince's call to see more "Ruthless Aggression" from his roster was still ringing in everyone's ears when Vengeance 2002 went live on the air in July. There was a vibrancy to the pay-per-view that hadn't been there for King Of The Ring the prior month. The live crowd in Detroit? Right up for the night, and so was every worker who came through the curtain.

The first RA pay-per-view opened with a fun tables bout pitting Bubba Ray and Spike Dudley vs. Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. From there, people were treated to John Cena’s PPV debut vs. Chris Jericho, RVD vs. Brock Lesnar for the Intercontinental belt (they'd been opponents in the KOTR final), Christian and Lance Storm vs. Edge and Hulk Hogan, and a fab Triple Threat main event pitting The Rock vs. Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker.

It proved to be an unbelievably fun start to the era in terms of supershows. There was even a teaser for things to come when Triple H agonised over whether or not he should sign with Eric Bischoff's Raw or Stephanie McMahon's SmackDown. His old buddy Shawn Michaels emerged to get the ball rolling on a D-Generation X reunion.

Vengeance was stacked. Even lesser bouts like Jamie Noble vs. Billy Kidman, Booker T vs. Big Show and Jeff Hardy vs. William Regal had varying degrees of something to offer. The show really couldn't have gone better, and it reflected Vince's call to arms in late-June.

Cena's first PPV and a main event 3-way often called one of the greatest WWE matches ever would've been enough, but the card had way more to shout about above and beyond those gems.