Preliminary Matches
After Sunday Night Heat, the pay-per-view event began with a standard match for the vacant WWE United States Championship between Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. The match was contested evenly between both men, with both of them performing a variety of offensive maneuvers. Guerrero eventually gained the upper hand when Rhyno interfered in the match while the referee was kayfabe unconscious, performing a spear, a variation of a take down to Benoit. Following this, Guerrero performed a body splash from the top turnbuckle onto Benoit, a move called a frog splash. Guerrero then covered Benoit for a pin, becoming the new WWE United States Champion.
The following bout was a standard match between Billy Gunn, escorted by Torrie Wilson, and Jamie Noble. The stipulation on this match was that if Noble won, he would be allowed to sleep with Torrie. During the match, Noble performed a DDT from the top turnbuckle on Gunn and attempted a cover, but Nidia interfered and placed Gunn's foot on the rope, causing the pin to be broken. This angered Noble, who confronted Nidia. Torrie attempted to slap him, but he instead kissed her. Following this, Nidia and Torrie both slapped Noble. Noble returned to the inside of the ring, only to be tripped by Torrie. While he was confronting her, Gunn attempted to lift Noble, spin him 180°, and slam him onto his back, a move known as a spinning side slam or Gunnslinger, but Noble pushed him into Torrie. Noble then performed a roll-up on Gunn, pinning him.
The third contest was a Bar Room Brawl hosted by the Acolytes Protection Agency (Bradshaw and Faarooq). In the match, the last man who was still capable of standing won. In addition to the APA, it featured Shannon Moore, Doink the Clown, Brother Love, Nunzio, Matt Hardy, Kanyon, Danny Basham, Doug Basham, the Easter Bunny, Sean O'Haire, John Hennigan, Orlando Jordan, Funaki, Los Conquistadores (Rob Conway and Johnny Jeter), the Brooklyn Brawler, Johnny Stamboli, Chuck Palumbo, Matt Cappotelli, and Spanky. During the match, Spanky was put through a table, Sean O'Haire used a pool cue as a weapon, and Brother Love threw Shannon Moore through a mirror. After knocking down Brother Love, Bradshaw remained the last man standing and won the match.
The next match was a tag team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship, where the champions, the World's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) defended their titles against the team of Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman. Throughout the match, both teams performed many offensive maneuvers, though the World's Greatest Tag Team gained the advantage with a combination of a powerbomb by Haas and a diving lariat from the top turnbuckle by Benjamin. This was followed by a cover for a pin, and the World's Greatest Tag Team retained their championship.
Read more about this topic: Vengeance (2003), Event
Famous quotes containing the words preliminary and/or matches:
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