2003-04 and 2002-03 WWE MVP

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

Like before I am bunching these years together because I have the same MVP for both years. I am interested to hear other peoples opinion for either year especially if its different from mine because I came to this wrestler fairly quickly and did not consider anyone else.

Anyways, for me the MVP for both these years is Brock Lesnar. He made his debut right at the beginning of the 02-03 year the night after Mania 18. He was built super strong, super fast on his way to squashing guys like the Hardy's en route to winning King of the Ring in a great match against RVD. This lead to his first lost the month after by DQ, but at SummerSlam he beats The Rock for the title and goes on to destroy Taker before getting screwed out of the title which set up his road to Mania retribution story in a match against Angle that was one botched move away from being a top 5 Mania match of all time.

He than begins the 03-04 year by being a babyface champ before turning heel once more having many more great matches with Angle including their iron man match on Smackdown. Brock was a more ruthless heel this time around and had some real viscous moments as champ (especially with Zach Gowan) before dropping the title the month before Mania to set up his match against Goldberg which probably would have been a title match had at least one of those guys stayed with the company. While his last month and Mania XX were subpar, I couldn't look past the other 11 months.

 

[FlairFan2003]

The problem I have with Lesnar is right after S-Slam he was sent to exclusively to the "B" Show Smackdown. RAW was the centerpiece show even during the early days of The Brand Extension. Late 02 is when RAW started The Evolution Storyline which would dominate the next few years of WWE and typically involved all of the biggest names (sans Undertaker). HHH was #1 guy on the #1 show in the #1 stable with the best feuds. Lesnar did very well during this time, as did Kurt Angle, but HHH was the top star.

 

[TheHellmouth]

I know everyone calls it the "Reign of Terror" but I'd give these years to Triple H. Maybe it was just because I was a kid and didn't know any better but Triple H was an awesome, as opposed to boring, villain for me and the period being evaluated here ends in Benoit finally vanquishing him. As much as I don't like to talk about it now, 12 year old me was really behind Benoit and stoked as hell when he finally made Triple H tap out at WM XX. It wouldn't have been so exciting had Triple H not been such an effective villain.

 

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

The problem I have with Lesnar is right after S-Slam he was sent to exclusively to the "B" Show Smackdown. RAW was the centerpiece show even during the early days of The Brand Extension. Late 02 is when RAW started The Evolution Storyline which would dominate the next few years of WWE and typically involved all of the biggest names (sans Undertaker). HHH was #1 guy on the #1 show in the #1 stable with the best feuds. Lesnar did very well during this time, as did Kurt Angle, but HHH was the top star.

I can get on board with Triple H for 03-04. He was the biggest thing on Raw for the duration of that year and was in the center of the World Heavyweight Title picture the entire time. While Smackdown is clearly the B show today, I am not so sure that it was back than. While Raw was always the top show, this time frame was probably the closest the two shows were to each other. While I would still give the slight edge to Brock for 03-04, I certainty get the argument for Trips and have no issue with considering him the MVP for that year.