25 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Ruthless Aggression PPV
7. UK Only PPVs Had To Go
Today, WWE is more likely to bring proper PLEs to England, Scotland or Wales, but that wasn't always the case. Towards the start of 'Ruthless Aggression', they were still running the old Insurrextion and Rebellion shows. The last one was Insurrextion 2003, and…it sucked. It was a glorified house show with camera beamed from Newcastle.
Christian vs. Booker T for the Intercontinental Title was decent, but pretty much everything else was second rate. Goldust vs. Rico, for example. That's the kind of filler match you'd see on Sunday Night Heat, for crying out loud. Not on some must see exclusive from the UK. Triple H vs. Kevin Nash in a ‘Street Fight’ for the World Title was a boring main event too.
WWE scrapped these standalone events and started bringing Raw or SmackDown to the UK from 2004 onwards. They wouldn’t run another PPV/PLE in the UK until Clash At The Castle in 2022, and they didn’t produce a supershow on English soil until Money In The Bank 2023. No wonder. Those who sat through some of these snorefests would understand the hate they're getting here.
Yes, they were surely exciting to attend in person (seeing WWE's product in your hometown is always a laugh), but packaging Insurrextion and Rebellion as bespoke essentials on the calendars was pushing it. It was the right decision internally to get rid of them and go the TV road instead.
Again, many of the matches on these UK only PPVs would've been better placed on episodes of Raw and SmackDown anyway.