UK only PPV's are a thing of the past these days - and rightfully so. They were rarely ever essential viewing and, really, would only appeal to the most die hard of fans. Rebellion 2002 is firmly in that category - entertaining, but nothing special. The down side to these shows is that, coming at the end of a UK tour, they feature pointless matches that are only there to give all of the Superstars something to do (see.Rikishi vs Albert, Valbowski & Palumbo vs D-Von & Simmons and especially Crash vs Funaki). All that said, there are some decent bouts - Booker T vs Matt Hardy is not bad; Kidman & Wilson vs Cena & Dawn Marie is decent enough; and the Cruiserweight title match is a little on the short side but fun nonetheless. The top two matches are damn fine - the Tag Team Championship match is really good (but then look at the participants - how could it not be?) and Lesnar & Heyman vs Edge Handicap match is well worth seeing, especially because Heyman keeps well out of the way. But best of all is the Shawn Michaels vs Davey Boy Smith match from the One Night Only show; it's a fantastic match in front of a rabid audience and is a must see. It's just a pity that the best match on the DVD is an extra.

UK-exclusive PPVs from the WWE often got a bad press from wrestling pundits and fans, and rightly so. Although not every event would be awful, most would be so average and unimportant, they'd only have the feel of a glorified, televised house show, or at the most, a below-par episode of Raw or SmackDown. Could Rebellion from Manchester, the second UK-only PPV of 2002 and the first ever SmackDown-only event, buck the trend?

The event got off to a good start when Stephanie McMahon announced that, for tonight only, SmackDown had secured the services of the popular Raw wrestler and 5-time WCW Champion Booker T. The buddy of Goldust despatched Matt Hardy in a very good match. But the rot soon started to set in, as a mixed tag team match pitting Billy Kidman and Torrie Wilson against John Cena and Dawn Marie stunk the M.E.N Arena up.

A match between cruiserweights Funaki and Crash Holly was short and pointless. Another cruiser clash that immediately followed it was thankfully a lot better. A Triple Threat match fought under elimination rules (making it reminiscent of an ECW three way dance) between Cruiserweight Champion Jamie Noble, relative WWE newcomer Rey Mysterio, and Tajiri was very good and was appreciated by the Manchester crowd and those of us watching at home.

The Big Valbowski (yes, Val Venis was going by his nickname at this point in his career) and Chuck Palumbo next met the makeshift tag team partnership of Reverend D-Von and Ron 'Faarooq' Simmons in a nothing match. A super-heavyweight clash between Rikishi and Albert (soon to be rechristened A-Train) was at least a slight improvement.

Match of the night honours went to the always-reliable WWE Tag Team Champions Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit defending against Chavo and Eddie Guerrero. A fine doubles encounter, which may not have been the best SmackDown tag team match seen on PPV in recent times, but was still very, very good. The main-event was a handicap match for the WWE Championship where Brock Lesnar teamed with agent Paul Heyman to defend the gold against Edge. There was some great action in this, but with no proper storyline going into Rebellion, and Edge at this stage in his career only being an upper mid-card wrestler, nobody really believed the Toronto native could get the win and the result was never in question.,

Rebellion was sadly a mostly mundane PPV, like so many UK events that preceeded it. There was some good wrestling on offer, but even the Tag Team title and WWE title matches were overshadowed by sheer garbage, lazily booked by WWE staffers who didn't care about giving the British fans proper angles and match-ups that made sense.