WWE: Passport To Pain

11th October 2003 - NEC, Birmingham

For the first time for several years, the WWE returned to Birmingham, England as part of the Smackdown! Passport To Pain tour. We managed to get hold of tickets for the show at the NEC, and to say that it was a great night out would be an understatement.

We'll update this into a full feature on the show as soon as we can, but we wanted to get something online as well as some of the photos we took (from a selection of over 250!!). All of the photos here appear in the order in which they were taken during the night...

The Matches

There were quite a few matches during the three hour show. To see some of the photos from the matches, click on each of the thumbnail images. We'll be posting detailed match reports soon as well as all the results and plenty of photos, but for now the card for the night was:-

US Title - Eddie Guerrero vs Rhyno (winner: Eddie Guerrero)

While I haven't got a full report for this match yet, one thing of note was the way the match ended. It was VERY similar to the method Eddie used against Rhyno on Smackdown! on 16th October 2003. Looks like they used Passport To Pain to try a new idea out!

Matt Hardy vs A-Train (winner: A-Train)

Triple Threat Match - Ultimo Dragon vs Nunzio vs Funaki (winner: Funaki)

Chavo Guerrero vs Charlie Haas accompanied by Shelton Benjamin (winner: Chavo Guerrero)

Tag Team match - Basham Brothers vs Billy Kidman and Jamie Noble

(winners: Billy Kidman and Jamie Noble)

Cruiserweight Title - Tajiri vs Rey Mysterio (winner: Tajiri)

Tag Team match - Big Show and John Cena vs Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit

(winners: Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit)

Bikini Contest - Torrie Wilson vs Sable vs Dawn Marie vs Nidia (winner: Torrie Wilson)

WWE Championship - Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar (winner: Brock Lesnar)

Overall, there were no surprises in the matches themselves. With several of the titles planned for matches at No Mercy, there was no way that they were going to change hands unless they were going to change back again in Manchester the following day.

Merchandise

There was the usual ShopZone at the NEC selling a load of new t-shirts. There were only a couple of event-specific items - a programme and tour t-shirt, but they were generally of a very high quality. The programme wasn't cheap at £10, neither were the t-shirts at £18 each, but that didn't stop a massive crowd forming at the stall.

It was a fantastic night out, and despite the cost, was exceptional value for money. As they say on TV, there's nothing like seeing the WWE live, and this was a night to remember. Roll on the next UK appearance...

Simon Plumbe and Matt Jackson (last updated: 26th December 2003)