WWE RAW - December 23, 2002 Full Breakdown - JR/King Tag Closes 2002 In OKC - Steiner/HHH ArmWrestle

Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler teaming for the first time against William Regal/Lance Storm w/Eric Bischoff & Sean Morley on commentary to headline the first RAW from the new Ford Center in Oklahoma with JR entering to a `Boomer Sooner` live performance from the Oklahoma University band in an all time career highlight in front of the hometown crowd Triple H calls out Scott Steiner in follow up segment to their first confrontation challenging Steiner to an arm wrestling match ending with Steiner going over after swerving HHH to continue strong build up to the Royal Rumble WHC match Booker T/Goldust vs. Chris Jericho/Christian tag titles Kane/Rob Van Dam vs. 3 Minute Warning w/RVD giving Kane holiday gift Batista w/Ric Flair vs. Spike Dudley Test vs. D`Lo Brown Trish Stratus/Stacy Keibler/Jackie vs. Victoria/Ivory/Molly Holly Christmas tag match Christopher Nowinski vs. Hurricane Jesse Ventura & Tony Schiavone rare mention on WWF TV with Eric Bischoff threatening to bring them in to replace Lawler & JR amid talks of Ventura making WWE return to the ring alongside Brock Lesnar and Schiavone signing with TNA Best of WWF/E 2002 highlight TV special set for December 30 built around the first televised showing of the Rock vs. Hogan WrestleMania 18 match along with advertising the Las Vegas TLC match from October 7 before returning with the first live RAW of 2003 on January 6 Royal Rumble 2003 selling out the FleetCenter in Boston on Saturday hours after tickets were put on sale with Eric Bischoff announcing the rules for the first brand split Rumble match with 15 wrestlers from RAW & SmackDown and the winner challenging the champion of his brand at WrestleMania 19 Sean O'Haire debuts on WWE TV at the RAW taping on Saturday after months in OVW in a skit featuring him as a heel Santa that ended up not airing on the TV broadcast with the company also reshooting the D`Lo Brown/Test match with a different finish of Test going over before ending up airing the original match Bill Goldberg comments on the potential Goldberg vs. Rock WrestleMania 19 main event in a website chat during the week saying that his WWE signing is currently up to Vince McMahon as there`s still obstacles in negotiations while outside of Rock mentioning Austin, Angle, Undertaker & Hogan as the WWE opponents he wants to work with if he signs Jim Ross returns to Oklahoma after the past two shows in the market saw him getting a major beatdown from Steve Austin & joining Vince McMahon`s KMA Club in April-November 2001 to end the night with a swerve of a swerve with Vince putting him over and him delivering big again as a TV draw established since drawing a huge 7.0 quarter in March 1999 that blitzed Nitro by a record margin Triple H suffering quad injury to take him out of the ring for the next several weeks after initially injuring his leg in the December 9th RAW match against Jeff Hardy before getting worse from there with a partial tear in his right quad to create a situation of the two world champions of both brands being taken out of the ring until the Royal Rumble PPV with Kurt Angle undergoing knee surgery last Thursday Final RAW broadcast of 2002 going off the air with the biggest audience in 4 months for the JR/King vs. Regal/Storm tag match peaking at 5.53m viewers with Jim Ross` drawing reputation continuing with the biggest main event viewership since August building up on another strong segment for the Steiner/HHH feud doing the biggest gain of the night to the top full quarter at 10:45pm with 5.26m viewers going back to back with a significant increase in viewers per home driving the most watched 10:00-11:10pm hour of RAW in over 2 months with 4.88m viewers 2002 in one of the most chaotic years in company history that started still at near peak Attitude Era numbers with the biggest star power talent roster in history before gradually sliding down with a series of forced and self inflicted decisions from the WWF name change to the brand split and irreplaceable loss of major players throughout with hopes of a massive rebound to start 2003 with the company facing an unprecedented situation of anticipating the returns/signings of five of the biggest difference makers in wrestling TV history with Rock, Hogan, Austin, Goldberg & Vince McMahon all about to come in at the same time. #WWF #WCW #MondayNightWars #WCWNitro #WWFRAW #Wrestling #VinceMcMahon #EricBishcoff #WWE #WrestleMania #VinceMcMahon #WWE #Wrestling #WCW #WWF #MondayNightWars #Rock #Austin #Hogan #Savage #McMahon #Bischoff #Mankind #Flair #Hall #Nash #Goldberg #ECW #nWo #BretHart #Nitro #WWF #WWFATTITUDEERA #Hulkamania #RAW #Rock #Austin #ReyMysterio #WWE #Mysterio #WWE #WWESmackdownvsRAW #SmackDownvsRAW #WWE #WWF #Attitude #WCW #RuthlessAggression #Hogan #McMahon #Goldberg #Foley #KurtAngle #HBK #HHH #RAW #SmackDown #Eddie #Benoit #Batista #Edge #Cena #Mysterio #Wrestling #nWo #WWF #WCW #Wrestling #RAW #Nitro