Rebellion

The 2002 Rebellion was the fourth annual and final Rebellion professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the American promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's SmackDown! brand division, which made it WWE's first-ever SmackDown!-exclusive PPV. The event took place on October 26, 2002, at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England and was broadcast exclusively in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It was the first Rebellion held under the WWE name, after the promotion had been renamed from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE in May earlier that year. Rebellion was discontinued after this 2002 event due to the promotion's discontinuation of UK-exclusive PPVs in 2003. Production Background Rebellion was an annual United Kingdom-exclusive pay-per-view (PPV) produced by the American professional wrestling promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), since 1999. The 2002 event was the fourth event in the Rebellion chronology. It was scheduled to be held on October 26, 2002, at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. It was also the first Rebellion produced under the WWE name, as the company was renamed from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE in May earlier that year. It was also the first Rebellion produced under the brand extension that was introduced in March, which divided the roster into two separate brands, Raw and SmackDown!, where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform. The 2002 event was in turn held exclusively for wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand, which was the promotion's first SmackDown!-exclusive PPV produced. Storylines The event featured nine professional wrestling matches and two pre-show matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWE's writers on the SmackDown! brand. Storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television show SmackDown!.