Armageddon | |||
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Promotion | World Wrestling Entertainment | ||
Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown! | ||
Date | December 15, 2002 | ||
City | Sunrise, Florida | ||
Venue | Office Depot Center | ||
Attendance | 9,000[1] | ||
Buy rate | 335,000[2] | ||
Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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Armageddon chronology | |||
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The 2002 Armageddon was the third Armageddon professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. The event took place on December 15, 2002, at the Office Depot Center in Sunrise, a suburb of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was the first Armageddon held since 2000, in turn being the first Armageddon held under the WWE name after the promotion had been renamed from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE earlier in May that year. It was also the first Armageddon held after the introduction of the brand split.
The main match on the Raw brand was a Three Stages of Hell match for the World Heavyweight Championship between champion Shawn Michaels and Triple H. The first match was a Street Fight, which Triple H won after performing a Pedigree. The second match was a Steel cage match, which Michaels won by pinfall after jumping off the top of the steel cage onto Triple H through a table. The third and final match was a Ladder match, which Triple H won after retrieving the belt suspended above the ring. The predominant match on the SmackDown! brand was Big Show versus Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship. Angle won the match and the WWE Championship after pinning Big Show following interference from Brock Lesnar. One of the primary matches on the undercard was Chris Benoit versus Eddie Guerrero, which Benoit won by forcing Guerrero to submit with the Crippler Crossface.