12 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 2003
3. It’s Unbelievable That This Match Headlined
When asked to guess what headlined the 14 August 2003 SmackDown before watching, this fan thought something involving SummerSlam foes Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar sounded plausible. Or, maybe The Undertaker would step up to the mark. Failing that, perhaps something to do with Los Guerreros, The World's Greatest Tag-Team/Team Angle and the tag straps would suffice.
Nope, nope and nope.
WWE put Stephanie McMahon in the ring with A-Train for the headline attraction on that episode. In storyline, this was Vince's doing and a way to punish his daughter for defying his orders. That eventually led to their super-awkward father vs. daughter 'No Holds Barred I Quit' encounter at No Mercy '03. Admittedly, that's worth seeing once just to shake your head and wonder what they were even thinking, but it wasn't a banner pay-per-view.
Weirdly, this short bout with A-Train wasn't Steph's only SmackDown main event that year. She'd previously teamed with Zach Gowan vs. Big Show in a handicap match on the 3 July show too. Mixing things up a little is cool and all, but this was unacceptable when WWE wasn't short of options to blow off episodes in 2003.
The sight of A-Train hoisting a helpless Stephanie up over his shoulders and preparing to put her down for the count remains one of those curious screengrabs from company history. Both stared right into the hard cam and probably had the exact same thought: 'How on earth did we get here in the first place?!'.
Not a main event which sits snugly next to Angle vs. Lesnar then, and definitely not one of the greatest WWE matches of all time.