World Wrestling Federation – King Of The Ring 2001 – 24th June 2001
In the weeks leading up to this show, WWF’s TV had been AWESOME! We had the Power Trip vs Jericho/Benoit Tag Title switch, the Angle/Benoit Cage match, the great Austin WWF Title defences against Jericho and Benoit – plus TLC3. Which is why it makes no sense that this show feels so undercooked. Having balked at the declining numbers during the Power Trip vs Brothers Of Destruction feud, the creative team finally listened to the fans and put Jericho and Benoit into main event spots. Unfortunately they immediately lost Triple H to a quad injury…and by this show, when numbers hadn’t instantly skyrocketed (following an admittedly killer month of TV) Vince had already given up on the Jericho/Benoit push and was onto the next great white hope – the Invasion angle. The main event sees Steve Austin defending the WWF Title in a triple threat against the two Canadians, with Benoit carrying a serious neck injury sustained during TLC3 a few weeks earlier. The actual King Of The Ring tournament is at the semi-final stage and is contested by the four heels making up the group fans dubbed ‘Team RECK’. Rhyno, Edge and Christian join Kurt Angle – who looks to simultaneously become the first man to be repeat KOTR winner, whilst also beating up Shane McMahon in a Street Fight. Meanwhile Undertaker is coming for revenge on Diamond Dallas Page, who revealed himself to be Sara’s stalker the last Raw before this ppv. Jim Ross and Paul Heyman are at the announce table in East Rutherford, NJ.
SIDENOTE – At the time, DDP’s debut was a huge deal. With the bulk of WCW’s main event names like Hall, Nash, Hogan, Goldberg, Sting, Steiner and so on either not trusted by Vince, or happy to sit at home collecting the remainder of their massive guarantees from Ted Turner – it seemed like the influx of WCW talent wouldn’t include any names of significant note. Although the Undertaker/Sara stalking thing was kind of weird, Dallas Page was a legitimate top level guy for WCW and his jump to WWF was big news – and the logic of wanting to pick a fight with one of WWF’s most legendary figures made sense. Unfortunately a combination of Vince and Undertaker’s ego soon killed it…
DDP’s music opens the show, and the man himself comes in through the crowd. He gloats about having x-rated footage of Sara…and reveals his plan to beat up Undertaker in his own yard, then become the first WCW star to enter Madison Square Garden tomorrow night. He takes a seat in the front row and is ready for Undertaker at any time…
JR and Paul Heyman discuss a rumour that Jericho and Benoit are negotiating with WCW – planning to take the WWF Championship to them
Kurt Angle vs Christian
It could be a long evening for Angle, as he plans to become the first ever repeat KOTR winner…and has to do it whilst keeping enough in reserve to face Shane McMahon in a Street Fight later. All four semi-finalists are friends, so there should be a certain amount of familiarity between them all.
Christian tries to jump Angle…who fights him off with a KILLER front slam. Kurt dashes around the ring looking to finish things as quickly as possible, but he makes an error and gives Christian the chance to take him down with a neckbreaker. He blocks the Anklelock only to be taken down with a belly to belly suplex instead. Christian climbs to the top…and is shoved off all the way to the floor! It’s a move which cements Angle’s advantage and opens up the opportunity to toss Christian around the ring with a variety of suplexes. Christian lands a spinning heel kick…as Shane McMahon strolls down the ramp. Kurt is distracted and misses a moonsault – handing the initiative to Christian who lands an inverted backbreaker for 2. Unprettier COUNTERED to the Anklelock! Christian trips the ref and crawls up him to make the ropes. Olympic Slam COUNTERED TO THE UNPRETTIER! Shane breaks the fall! OLYMPIC SLAM OVER THE ROPES! Kurt advances at 08:16
Rating - ** - This started painfully slowly, but really built to a hot finish with a couple of awesome counter sequences. Shane helping Kurt to ensure he works two matches before their Street Fight was a nifty little touch as well.
Steve Austin looks edgy in his locker room, clearly expecting the arrival of Vince McMahon – despite Vince telling him that he wouldn’t be attending the show tonight.
Paul Heyman tries to interview DDP, but is interrupted by footage on the tron of Page being stalked as he eats his breakfast.
Edge vs Rhyno
This is the second KOTR semi-final, with Kurt Angle awaiting in the final. Edge has enjoyed unprecedented success in the tag division, but winning King Of The Ring would undoubtedly give his singles career a real boost. His opponent (and friend) tonight is Rhyno, a man who has enjoyed significant success as a singles wrestler – with multiple Hardcore Title reigns in the WWF to go alongside being the last ever ECW World and TV Champion.
Rhyno gets a serious pop, and looks set to overwhelm Edge with his significant power advantage. Edge knocks him off the apron with a dropkick, pursuing him to the outside to crotch him on the crowd barricade. Rhyno retaliates by flapjacking him into the metal rails which line the aisle! He starts working over Edge’s ribs – removing the middle turnbuckle pad and driving his sternum into it. If that wasn’t enough, he also hits a running bootscrape for 2. Michinoku Driver plants him, and Rhyno goes upstairs for a SUPERFLY SPLASH! More damage done to the ribcage! Edge hits a neckbreaker but can’t walk particularly well and is struggling with injury. Rhyno drills him into the mat again with a spinebuster…and drops into the corner. GORE COUNTERED WITH THE SPEAR! Edge dodges another Gore, driving Rhyno into the exposed turnbuckle bolt. Edge-ecution DDT wins it at 08:51
Rating - *** - I enjoyed this, with Rhyno proving he could work a decent match without needing all the props and elaborate stunt bumps that the Hardcore Title environment provided. At this point he was a far more polished singles wrestler than Edge was.
EARLIER TONIGHT – Spike Dudley challenges the Dudley Boyz to a Tag Title Match tonight because he has grown unhappy with the ‘tough love’ they’ve shown him
Now JR catches up with Spike again – who promises he has a BIG surprise tagging with him. The Dudley Boyz themselves interrupt looking to intimidate him
Chris Jericho isn’t happy that Tazz barged into his locker room looking for a scoop on the WCW rumours. Y2J messes with him, and says nothing
Dudley Boyz vs Spike Dudley/Kane – WWF Tag Title Match
The Dudleyz won the belts back from Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit on the lead-in Smackdown to this pay-per-view as suspicions grew about exactly how healthy Benoit’s neck actually was. They’d been trying to toughen their little half brother up for sometime, and had been continually disrespectful to his girlfriend Molly Holly – until Spike could take it no more and laid down this challenge. He recruited the Intercontinental Champion, Kane, to be his partner – putting the titles in serious jeopardy.
Spike looks like a child with his parent as he walks to the ring with Kane. He STANDS on Bubba Ray before hitting him with a jumping rana which is pretty cool. Bubba tosses him at Kane – who simply catches him and throws him back! D-Von fakes an injury to get an advantage over his little brother. The champions start isolating Spike…Bubba getting a nearfall with a massive Ligerbomb! The hot tag finally comes, instantly turning the match in the challengers’ favour. He lifts Spike over his head and tosses him into a colossal plancha to the floor aimed at both his brothers. Diving lariat by the IC Champion gets 2! ACID DROP! D-Von saves at the last moment. Wassup Headbutt scores, albeit without the ‘Wassup’ as the Dudz are trying to be heels. They win with the 3-D at 08:34
Rating - * - A few somewhat entertaining spots couldn’t mask that this was nothing more than filler to flesh out the ppv. Spike had a really successful run in the WWE, where many thought he’d never succeed – the reason being that he took a hell of a beating and really knew how to work the underdog gimmick. Most of the best things in this match came from him.
Kane saves Spike from going through a table…and Chokeslams Bubba through it instead.
Edge is still suffering from his rib injury, and tries his best to stretch them out as Christian comes up and wishes him good luck in the finals.
More DDP stalking footage, prompting the man himself to scream at Undertaker to come out and fight him the arena tonight.
For the second ppv running, the WWF superstar hosting the show at WWF New York cuts a promo b*tching about being stuck at the restaurant rather than booked on the show. This time it’s Billy Gunn complaining that he won the King Of The Ring tournament in 1999 yet wasn’t even included in the field at all this year.
Kurt Angle vs Edge – King Of The Ring Final
Kurt is on the brink of another historical career achievement – just one match away from becoming the first man ever to repeat as King Of The Ring winner. His friend Edge stands in his way, with the spectre of his Street Fight against Shane McMahon later still hanging over him. Edge, meanwhile, comes in with injured ribs after his physical semi-final against Rhyno.
Kurt makes nice with his friend, and asks Edge if he’ll forfeit this match to give him more recovery time for his Street Fight – and save Edge from the embarrassment of an ass-kicking. ‘I think I know you’ – Kurt to Edge. Unsurprisingly, Edge isn’t interested in quitting and lifts Kurt into the sky for a flapjack. Kurt fights back with a BELLY TO BELLY TO THE FLOOR! Edge is dropped straight onto his ribs, and it gets worse as his opponent drills them into the steel steps too. Looking to conserve energy, Kurt clings to a chinlock for as long as he possibly can. Just when it looks like Edge is ready to mount a fightback another belly to belly suplex puts him on the deck again. The live audience starts to lose interest during another lengthy chinlock spot – which ends when Angle tosses Edge over the top rope to the floor again. Reverse suplex on the rails does yet more damage to the near-motionless 7-time Tag Champion. Edge hits a desperate frankensteiner but comes up clutching his ribs. Olympic Slam blocked…Edge-cution blocked…Anklelock countered to a roll-up for 2! Edge-O-Matic nailed, with Christian on the apron distracting the referee just when his brother looks to have won it! The ref is bumped, and Kurt makes Edge tap with the Anklelock. Shane McMahon has run in too – sprinting into a spear on Angle! Edge-cution DDT nailed, and Edge is the 2001 KOTR at 10:18
Rating - ** - In hindsight, Edge was absolutely the right call to win this tournament. He wasn’t a particularly exceptional singles worker at this point, but clearly those in the know realised his potential and realised he had something worth investing in. Unfortunately the match was the victim of the rather ridiculous booking of the show. Kurt had no choice but to conserve energy, so had to work at a brutally slow pace and incorporate multiple rest holds. Thankfully nowadays people only remember that Edge won, and don’t remember how mediocre the 2001 KOTR tournament actually was.
Chris Benoit has no interest in answering Tazz’s questions about the WCW rumours
Edge proclaims that his win will kick-start an ‘Era Of Awesomeness’. Kurt stomps the corridors in a rage and says he’ll get any WCW wrestler who tries to interfere in his Street Fight fired…
Jeff Hardy vs X-Pac – WWF Light Heavyweight Title Match
Last month Jerry Lynn complained that the Light Heavyweight Title wasn’t being defended on ppv. Tonight he has his wish, albeit he’d subsequently lost the belt to Hardy. Jeff is a talented guy, but could be extremely out-matched against a veteran of the junior heavyweight scene like Sean Waltman.
X-Pac proves his dominance over Hardy as he grounds and rides him with ease. Hardy retorts with the guardrail run lariat! Whisper In The Wind misses, giving Pac the chance to lock on an abdominal stretch. When Jeff counters it X-Pac simply hiptosses him over the ropes then wipes him out again with a springboard suicide dive. He scores with multiple kicks, but then misses the Bronco Buster through over-confidence. They then botch something horribly, to the extent that I really don’t know what they were even attempting. Thankfully Jeff recovers to hit Whisper In The Wind, getting the crowd back on side quickly. X-Factor nailed for three…but Jeff’s foot was on the ropes so there’s no victory. This is such a popcorn match you can actually see multiple people coming back with popcorn. Jeff counters another X-Factor with a jawbreaker. Swanton Bomb wins it at 07:08
Rating - * - Again, outside of killing time to allow Kurt Angle a break, I don’t get the point of this match. Jeff Hardy was the champion and is outrageously popular – so I don’t see what he gains from being treated like a b*tch by someone like X-Pac for 90% of the match. The botch didn’t help of course, but it’s not like this was anything special before it. By the next ppv X-Pac would hold the belt
William Regal (with his new lackey Tajiri) is in the Commissioner’s office – with Steve Austin barging in to use his phone. Austin is BRILLIANT doing his side of a conversation with Vince – pleading with him to come to the arena with rumours abounding that the WWF Title could be on it’s way to WCW.
Dallas Page continues to react angrily to clips being shown of him being stalked and jumps the rails again to call out Undertaker. His stalker is revealed to be Sara…and here comes the Deadman. There’s no match booked here, so Page and Taker launch straight into an unsanctioned fight. And by fight, we actually mean Undertaker remorselessly beating DDP up – to the point of no selling all of his offence, including low blows and chair shots. Sara is at ringside filming the end of DDP’s career. Page eventually runs away like a little b*tch, probably wondering why he accepted a buy-out on his big fat Time Warner contract in the first place…
SIDENOTE – This was the end of the Invasion angle. I know it hasn’t technically begun yet, but it was the end. DDP was a legitimate WCW main event wrestler – one of the few willing to sign on with WWF. Punking him out was the most retarded, short-sighted move imaginable if you wanted to push a genuine Invasion storyline. Page (and by proxy, WCW) had his entire credibility massacred just to stroke Undertaker and Vince’s massive egos. Of course, the Invasion angle would continue, but this was an indication of exactly how it would progress. Any legitimate star of ECW or WCW (e.g. Raven, Dreamer, DDP, Booker T etc) would be treated as vastly inferior…and the eventual angle was booked to feature predominantly WWF wrestlers…split amongst three factions ALL lead by a McMahon. I really don’t believe there’s a greater missed opportunity in professional wrestling history than the Invasion angle – but due to ego and financial reasons Vince blew it, and the industry in many ways still hasn’t recovered.
Stone Cold is in the parking lot frantically awaiting the arrival of Vince McMahon.
Shane McMahon vs Kurt Angle – Street Fight
Kurt wanted to celebrate victory over Chris Benoit and the reclamation of his gold medals by recreating the Olympic Gold Medal ceremony on Raw. Unfortunately for him, Shane decided to hijack the segment as part of his pro-WCW propaganda campaign. Kurt took offence, bad-mouthed WCW and attacked it’s owner to start a feud which now culminates in a Street Fight. As ever, since he’s not a trained wrestler Shane would appear to be at a disadvantage – although by helping him defeat Christian earlier he ensured that Kurt had already wrestled two matches by this point.
Angle starts in a rage, showing his amateur skills by taking McMahon down and making him humble on the deck. He drives repeated knees to the midsection…but shows his fatigue as he allows Shane-O to bust out some armdrags then actually take HIM down with some amateur stuff. It looks like he also potato’d Kurt with one of his punches as Angle’s eye looks to have split open. Fair to say Angle doesn’t look too impressed with that, and very obviously isn’t pulling any of his strikes at all for the next few minutes. Shane gets his ass kicked and slumps in the corner struggling just to catch his breath after being taught a lesson by Angle. He’s had enough of trying to wrestle with the Olympic Gold Medallist…so viciously punts him in the ribs! He flees the ring to escape the irate Kurt, before hopping the rails and hitting a DIVING LARIAT OVER THE ANNOUNCE TABLE! He pulls out a kendo stick and does his best to wear Angle out…and again he visibly stiffs the former WWF champion so Angle angrily shunts him into the ringpost. Armdrag into the guardrail nailed, and as Angle crawls away he tackles him into the steps! Still Angle is trying to show up McMahon – this time by BRIDGING out of pinfalls rather than simply kicking out. The Street Fight starts to get hardcore now, with Shane pulling out an assortment of weapons under the ring. He rattles Kurt across the nose with a metal sign…and slaps him in the Amklelock! KURT KICKS HIM IN THE FACE! Like, seriously punts him as hard as possible in the face. Remarkably McMahon isn’t dead from that, and crawls back to his feet to hit a tilta-whirl DDT. He stumbles around the ring and barely manages to put Kurt in a Scorpion Deathlock (he’s WCW chairman, he can have Sting’s terminology)…before Angle grabs the kendo stick and blasts his way free.
Shane’s response is to start pasting him across the stomach (not the face) with a trash can – then position it on top of him. SHOOTING STAR PRESS…THROUGH THE TRASH CAN! Kurt moved though – leaving both men down! Heyman speculates that Kurt will now be annoyed that it’s taken so long to beat an untrained, part-time wrestler…so perhaps that’s why he drags him out of the ring to teach him a lesson. They brawl up the aisle towards the massive stage set-up, with Kurt (who has clocked up over 35 minutes of ring-time tonight now) literally tripping over his own feet through fatigue. BELLY TO BELLY INTO THE SET! The glass didn’t break, so Shane legit lands on his head. Kurt pulls him up…BELLY TO BELLY THROUGH THE GLASS! Immediately Kurt is bleeding from glass fragments in his shoulder, whilst McMahon appears to have been lacerated somewhere on the side of the head. ANOTHER BELLY TO BELLY…THE GLASS DOESN’T BREAK! AND AGAIN! Poor Shane keeps getting dropped on his f*cking head! Kurt has had enough, and RAMS HIS FACE THROUGH THE GLASS! The set is now smeared with the blood of both wrestlers, and they’re both so beaten up they can’t help but crawl around and scratch themselves up in the glass even more! In the end Angle props his opponent up on a wheeled equipment case and has to drag his unconscious body back into the ring. Amazingly, Shane opts not to be counted out and instead grabs a trash can lid to start whacking Kurt in the face. OLYMPIC SLAM by Shane! Kurt is unimpressed and sets McMahon up in the corner to start bashing his spine with a wooden board. He uses the board to make a platform on the top rope. AVALANCHE ANGLE SLAM NAILED! It’s finally over, with Kurt taking a gruelling victory at 25:59
Rating - ****1/2 - Unlike a lot of the stuff I’m revisiting in these retro WWF reviews, I’ve actually seen this match a number of times over the years – and I’ve gone back and forth in my opinion of it. At the time I loved it, but subsequently I became a little jaded and was in the camp of critics who felt it was an over-rated, botch-filled spotfest. But, having watched it again here for the first time in a while (and reviewed it for the first time), I fell in love with it all over again. What a f*cking war this was. Maybe Shane’s early miscued punch lit a fire in Kurt, but Jesus he held NOTHING back on Shane. The stiffness of even a simple forearm strike would rattle McMahon’s face, and by the end he had noticeable welts and bruises all over. Everyone remembers the famous glass-smashing spots (and the effort they had to put in to break them) but there are other ridiculous spots I’d completely forgotten about. Shane’s dive over the announce table, or his SSP into the trash can. The guy is fearless, and in this one he showed incredible courage and a willingness to take a near-suicidal beating in the pursuit of entertainment. The story was actually a pretty simple one – with a pissed off Angle looking to use his amateur wrestling to make Shane his b*tch, then growing more and more pissed off every time McMahon defied him and retaliated with some offence of his own. It wasn’t the ‘story’ they were telling that made this, it was the violence. I don’t mean like guys blading, or elaborate stunt bumps off ladders or cages etc – I mean like two men very obviously beating the piss out of each other. It was as brutal as any match I’ve ever seen from the WWF in that regard.
The challengers for the WWF Title go through their final preparations ahead of the main event – with Austin still freaking out in the parking lot waiting for Vince.
Steve Austin vs Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho – WWF Title Match
Although he’d been a heel for a while, it was HHH’s quad injury and the subsequent end of the Two Man Power Trip which really let Austin cut loose as a heel champion. Having lost the Tag Titles to Jericho and Benoit, and lost his cohort Triple H – he became increasingly unhinged with some devastatingly entertaining results. He’d crave Vince’s hugs, he’d assault commentators and women – whilst still having crazily good title matches, like TV defences against Benoit and Jericho which were miles better than anything he’d been doing with Undertaker and Kane in the previous months. Having cost Benoit and Jericho the Tag Titles, and having beaten both of them for the title, he felt he was done with them – until Linda booked him into a triple threat defence here. Vince doesn’t like the new psychotic, hug-loving Rattlesnake either and has told him to win tonight or their alliance is over. As an aside, Benoit injured his neck during TLC3 – and despite initially brushing it off as a minor problem it got worse and worse, to the point where this wound up being his last match before missing over a year of his career to neck surgery and rehab.
Austin comes out looking over his shoulder, hoping to see Vince coming out after him. The Canadians are in no mood for his stalling tactics and decide to attack him in the aisle…so he runs away through the crowd! He gives Jericho a nasty spill by back dropping him over the guardrail, but the combined forces of the former Tag Champions are proving too much for him. Finally Jericho inadvertently levels Benoit with a spinning heel kick, and since it’s every man for himself they have no problems piling into each other with strikes. Y2J counters the Thesz Press to the Walls Of Jericho, only for Benoit to grab him and BACK SUPLEX HIM TO THE FLOOR! Austin then has to scramble into the ropes to avoid the Crippler Crossface. With Jericho out of commission, Stone Cold starts taking the fight to the Wolverine, albeit with some liberal interpretations of the rules. Stunner attempt…countered to an Ace Crusher by Benoit! With the referee looking elsewhere he levels the champ with his own title belt, only for Jericho to save the match – then toss Benoit into the ringpost. As thanks Austin tries to put Jericho in his own submission hold! He settles for applying a sleeper hold, and has the luxury of time to do so since Y2J knocked out his own tag partner outside the ring. Jericho escapes the hold, knocking Benoit down again with a springboard missile dropkick on the way. Lionsault COUNTERED with Austin’s heavily-braced knees to the ribs. Benoit runs in with a chair…and inadvertently LEVELS Jericho with it! STUNNER ON BENOIT! I guess this is No DQ then?
Austin targets the still semi-conscious Jericho with a couple of huge superplexes…and becomes increasingly unhinged when he keeps kicking out. Finally Benoit saves Jericho with ROLLING GERMANS on the champion. WALLS OF JERICHO/CRIPPLER CROSSFACE COMBO! Austin taps…but since they both had submissions Earl Hebner decides they can’t be co-Champions so the match continues (if only they’d applied that logic with Jericho and Chyna for the IC Title). The Canadian Chris’ trade submission holds, then chops – and still have the wherewithal to dropkick a chair into Austin’s face as he tries to bring it into the ring. WCW Champion Booker T jumps the rails – and BACK DROPS AUSTIN THROUGH THE ANNOUNCE TABLE! Now that’s how WCW should have invaded! In the ring Jericho and Benoit are still tearing it up, with Y2J countering more German suplexes into the Walls Of Jericho again! He hits an UGLY Lionsault, so bad in fact that he seems to injure himself doing it. A Cactus clothesline knocks the pair of them to the floor…with Y2J up first to start roughing up a still-motionless WWF Champion with the remnants of the table he was put through. MOONSAULT by Jericho, with Benoit again breaking the fall and delivering the FLYING WOLVERINE! Jericho drags Hebner out as he counts the fall! An irate Crippler back suplexes Jericho off the top…and snap goes his neck. He rolls around clutching his head and neck. Whether that was the planned finish or not, Austin crawls over him and pins him for the win at 27:50
Rating - *** - I had a hard time rating this one as it was a real mixed bag. Some of it was awesome, some of it was outright terrible, possibly the highlight of the Invasion in Booker T’s debut (outside of RVD’s success) was here…and ended with one of the company’s top workers suffering a serious neck injury that would put him out for over a year. It had a lot of the hallmarks of the triple threats I hate (one guy lies around, the other two fight…rinse and repeat) and I hated the bizarre interpretations of the rules which enabled them to use weapons, force people to submit and so forth with seemingly no ramifications. However, the quality of the three individuals was such that this never once felt boring – despite going the best part of half an hour. In truth all the highlights of this feud were on television, and by this point Vince had lost interest in what they were doing and moved on to his new toy (the Invasion) anyway. It’s a shame they couldn’t end it with a better ppv match though
Tape Rating - ** - A couple of decent matches at the end went some way to redeeming what had been, before that, a truly dire pay-per-view. The all-heel King Of The Ring was basically used as a machine to hype Angle/Shane, rendering Edge’s victory extremely hollow. Why not run the ‘Kurt wants to repeat at KOTR’ storyline next year instead (he’d have had Brock Lesnar to contend with then too!)? Undertaker’s emphatic crushing of Dallas Page signalled that the WWF had absolutely no intention of putting WCW over in any form during the pending Invasion storyline – and up until the two main events nothing in the ring was particularly good either. It’s one of those events where us fans, as armchair bookers, could probably come up with MULTIPLE different scenarios which would all be considerably better than what they actually went with. Thankfully, Shane and Kurt saved the show with a legendary match that is well worth checking out – and presumably isn’t on too many compilation DVD’s either. Everything else is completely skippable
Top 3 Matches
3) Edge vs Rhyno (***)
2) Steve Austin vs Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho (***)
1) Kurt Angle vs Shane McMahon (****1/2)