"Very good Tag Team Match. Hated the undertaker match it was the weak link of the episode rock vs booker wasnt any better..."

[6.0] "Solid show for the first weekly of the year, the segments were great, and the wresling also especially with the tag match."

[8.0] "A good, fun show. Stephanie McMahon is annoying- but The Rock, Stone Cold, Jericho are all great. There were a couple of fun matches, nothing bad I would say. The Ric Flair/Stephanie angle I didn't really understand."

[7.0] "Rock beat Booker T for #1 contender match. It was actually a pretty good match. I haven't been a fan of Booker's wrestling since joining WWF. I've more been a fan of his acting and character development, quite a bit. But this match was good! I fully expected the Rock to win this because I can't believe that out of the top talents the WWF currently has, and guys projected to soon come back from injury, they'd choose Booker T for the main event at the Rumble to eventually main event WM18. With that said, even though I practically knew the rock would win this, it was still entertaining. Also, he cut a great long promo before hand backstage, which was worth the watch of this episode alone if you like Rock promos. Looking at the match guide it's confusing that there's a dark match at the end, including the rock? I saw this thinking maybe I missed something, but I guess it was dark for a reason. For the rest of the episode, it was pretty good. The dudley's tag title match wasn't as good as last week's, but because spike/tazz won last week, it felt like they had a chance. Not a fan of jazz going over on molly so quickly but molly didn't really look good here so whatever. TEST beating tajiri was annoying really. They've been trying to push TEST forever and he isn't getting over with the crowd. During this match you can see clearly in the front there's a guy with a sign "Test Sucks". It couldn't be clearer than that. It wasn't a cute or funny sign, it was plain, plain like TEST. Tajiri is already over with the crowd but man it would be nice if they let him beat a scrub. Was refreshing to see jericho wrestle a non-title match for a change, and letting the title shot stuff have a breather. It's clear that he still is not completely over as a heel and is trying too hard, but the match itself was fun. Undertaker/Big Show match doesn't need the "hardcore" stipulation. RVD was the perfect title holder for this and I wish they'd have stuck with having this title be more ECW-oriented. It has been boring since Undertaker won the belt. HHH is back next week and the Flair/Stephanie stuff is a little awkward. Not sure where it's going. Seems as if HHH may be a face when he comes back, if I'm reading this right... but that is confusing. I guess it's ok for this stuff to be confusing for an episode or so as long as there's a payoff. Looking forward to how they bring HHH back and if he'll be able to wrestle right away. Good show overall, 3 matches went 5+ mins which is a miracle for WWF during this era, and there were interesting/funny promos."

[7.0] "this episode of smackdown was pretty good I enjoyed everything except the hardcore title match between undertaker and big show"

[9.0] "I had a ton of fun going back to watch this show. Usually when watching old wwe there's a match or two that stinks the whole show up, but this show was devoid of any such match. The Hard-core match has an abrupt finish but was really entertaining asides from that and the tag match between Jericho/Angle v Edge/RVD Was super fun and had a really cool finish. The McMahon Austin segment was as funny as you'd expect and the main event was hot after Rocky cut an amazing Promo. I never felt particularly bored watching this show."

[5.0] "I would say a slightly below average Smackdown for the time period, Vince & Stone Cold segment was funny, The Rock talked about his penis which was weird and funny, and the tag matches were both good. Wish Taz & Dudley got a little bit more time but other than that this was a very middle of the road episode."