World Wrestling Federation – Unforgiven 2001 – 23rd September 2001
The tragic terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001 cast an extremely dark shadow over not just their own country, but across the entire world. But it was in that darkness a light was shone on what a positive message the WWF can transmit, and what a powerful weapon entertainment can be. The first major event on US soil post-9/11 was the September 13th live edition of Smackdown. To this day many remember Vince McMahon’s stirring, defiant and impassioned address to the people of Houston, along with Lillian Garcia’s heartfelt rendition of the national anthem which had the entire arena and most of the WWF/Alliance locker rooms in tears. Here WWF presents it’s first post-9/11 ppv in Pennsylvania, one of the states impacted by the terrorist attacks just a couple of weeks previously. The Invasion angle will continue, and as Vince said in Houston, presenting the show, providing entertainment and allowing all global citizens to conduct their lives normally, even in the face of the most extreme and upsetting of circumstances, is a potent weapon of defiance to global terrorism. The show goes on – with a scheduled main event that will get the red, white and blue blood pumping. American Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle challenges Steve Austin for the WWF Championship, in his hometown, with all his family and friends sitting ringside. Elsewhere The Rock defends the WCW World Title against Booker T and Shane McMahon, Chris Jericho challenges Rob Van Dam for the Hardcore Championship, and Kronik make their infamous sole WWF ppv appearance. We’re in an emotional Pittsburgh, PA with Jim Ross and Paul Heyman on commentary.
We open with ‘America the Beautiful’, a festivity usually reserved for WrestleMania only, to kick start what is sure to be a very patriotic evening.
SIDENOTE – Perhaps one of WWF’s biggest issues at this time is that there were SO MANY championships floating around, and so many pointless title changes, that most belts became pretty much meaningless. Seven of our eight scheduled matches tonight are title matches – and there are still four titles (WWF Women’s, WWF Light Heavyweight, WWF European, WCW Cruiserweight) which aren’t contested.
Dudley Boyz vs Hardy Boyz vs The Hurricane/Lance Storm vs Big Show/Spike Dudley – WWF Tag Title Match
I think The Hurricane gimmick was only a couple of weeks old by this point, but was deemed entertaining enough for the creative guys to put one of the 30,000 titles the company have at the moment as he is current European Champion. I think this may be before Molly Holly left Spike to join him as Mighty Molly though. The Dudleyz are the defending Alliance champions, having defeated the Brothers Of Destruction to bring them back over the last month on television. They are responsible for Spike missing some ringtime with a leg fracture and, of course, have a long-standing rivalry with the Hardy Boyz. How will the WWF/Alliance relationships play out here? It’s every team for itself, and elimination rules – but will there be any coexistence between teams representing the same promotion?
The Dudleyz aren’t even allowed into the ring before Big Show lays them both out. Hurricane starts with the man he defeated for the Euro Title in Matt Hardy (who makes fun of his superhero poses). Jeff tries to wrestle in a purple baseball cap – which clearly Bubba objects to as he rips it off his head despite not being legal. Spike wants to get in with Hurricane, who has apparently been making advances towards Molly (albeit she hasn’t joined him yet). Storm joins Helms in the ring for a DOUBLE TKO on Spike! With their little brother on the floor, the Dudleyz tag in and take pleasure in tossing him around. Hurricane fastens his cape to hit a FLYING crossbody! Acid Drop out of nowhere on Storm, allowing Dudley to make the big tag to Big Show. All four Alliance guys fail in an attempt to gang up on him…and with everyone else on the outside Spike jumps OFF SHOW’S SHOULDERS for a SUICIDE DIVE TO THE FLOOR! In the comedy spot of the night, Hurricane hilarious tries to chokeslam Big Show…only to be knocked away for a Showstopper on Storm. Hurri-Storm are eliminated at 06:52. NECK DROP double back suplex from the Dudleyz to Show! Spike counters Matt’s Twist Of Fate with a neckbreaker for 2…only for the Acid Drop to be countered right back to the Twist Of Fate. Show and Spike are gone next at 07:56 – so we’re down to the Hardyz and the Dudleyz. Bubba Ray jerks Jeff’s hair to stop a Poetry In Motion attempt, enabling the champions to isolate the younger Hardy. He gets a real beating, including a nasty Irish whip sending him hip-first into the ring steps. He defies the punishment to hit a desperation Whisper In The Wind and inches towards a hot tag to Matt – who deposits them both outside and hits a TOP ROPE MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! D-Von counters the Twist Of Fate into the 3-D! JEFF SAVES WITH A SWANTON! Bubba Bomb on Matt wins it at 14:20
Rating - *** - That significantly exceeded my expectations for this. To my surprise, they got enough time to work a really decent, spot-filled match. Hurricane, Show and Spike were particularly fun in their cameo appearances whilst the Hardyz and the Dudleyz can sleepwalk their way through a half decent formula tag – as they did in the second half.
Rob Van Dam is greeted backstage by Stephanie McMahon and her huge tits. She offers him any help he needs to beat Chris Jericho tonight. He declines her help, but does need a locker room ‘big enough for his superstar status’.
Michael Cole is in the crowd with the Angle family. His mother picks him to win…unsurprisingly.
Raven vs Perry Saturn
So Saturn left Terri Runnels to be with a mop – much to her disgust. Together with Raven, she abducted Moppy and destroyed her in a wood chipper (Raven was hysterical in that skit)…so tonight Perry wants revenge for his mop girlfriend. That seriously is the build for this…
Despite having worked for ECW and WCW, Perry is representing the WWF. Paul Heyman openly makes fun of this angle on commentary. Raven legsweeps him into the guardrails after a distraction from Terri…then gives him the Raven Drop Toehold into the stairs. Paul E. gets another laugh from me as he asks JR why he never watched Nitro. Cobra clutch locked in by Raven who then knees Perry out of the ring when he dares to escape. That appears to bust his eye open so it’s a bit of a surprise when he levels Raven with a superkick and a flurry of suplexes. He scales the ropes, but has a super rana blocked for Raven to land a diving lariat. Saturn catapults him into an imaginary mop (seriously), and wins with the Moss Covered Three Handled Family Credunza at 05:07
Rating - * - This actually had a decent energy about it for a few minutes. Raven was crisp and on point with his offence, and the crowd were into Saturn’s oddball mop-loving gimmick. They probably went a minute or two too long because, even at a mere five minutes, the crowd had slumped to silence and become bored with the increasingly unfocused exchange of filler spots these two served up.
Christian tells Lillian Garcia he will prove his superiority over his brother tonight.
Edge vs Christian – WWF Intercontinental Title Match
We’ve seen this feud slow-burning throughout the summer months as Christian became increasingly consumed by his jealousy over Edge’s success. Edge won the 2001 King Of The Ring, then the IC Title from Lance Storm at Summerslam – causing his brother to petulantly snap and demand the spotlight for himself. He was fed up of it being ‘Edge & Christian’ and will prove he was the better half of the team by taking the title tonight. Incidentally his new entrance, with new music, operatic choral intro and wall of golden pyro is amongst my favourite WWF entrances.
Edge starts hot, hitting an instant flapjack to take his brother down. Christian takes evasive action, making it up the ramp before the champ catches him and catapults him into the set. He begs forgiveness from Edge but of course it’s a fake-out – enabling him to drive him into the ringpost. Inverted DDT over the knee gets 2 with Christian clearly now looking to work on the back. The pace slows drastically with Christian looking more and more concerned with hurling abuse at his brother and posing to the audience than winning the title. It’s an oversight which sees Edge land a Russian legsweep then a crisp German suplex for 2. Spear evaded though, with Christian knocking Edge back using a dropkick. The two brothers collide in the middle of the ring attempting crossbody blocks leaving them both down on the mat. Edge has a cut under his eye which the challenger looks to exploit, causing Edge to defend himself by dragging him around by the hair. Edge-O-Matic blocked, only for the Unprettier to be countered back to the Edge-O-Matic second time around! Christian hits his own version of the Spear, coming up hugely frustrated when it doesn’t win him the title there and then. He brings a couple of steel chairs in looking to repeat the one-man Con-Chair-To he hit Edge with on TV…but this time Edge kicks his legs from under him, causing him to whack his own face with the chair. Edge looks for some retribution but Christian jabs him in the nutsack with the side of one of those chairs. The ref didn’t see it and Christian is the new IC Champion at 11:53
Rating - ** - Having worked almost exclusively as a tag team on television for more than two years neither man was a particularly seasoned singles practitioner at this point…and it showed. There wasn’t anything wrong with what they were doing, it was just fought at such a slow and unexciting pace and never produced a genuine hook or selling point to reel you in. We were used to seeing them work tag matches with such excellence that this rather cumbersome singles contest seemed extremely jarring in comparison to their performances as a duo.
Undertaker accuses Kronik of being ‘muscle-bound statues'. Shame Kronik couldn't cut a promo in response where they pointed out what an egotistical, over the hill, sloth of a performer he'd been in 2001...
Undertaker/Kane vs Kronik – WCW Tag Title Match
Right around the time he was monopolising the main event scene, dragging Steve Austin down and holding back Benoit and Jericho in the process, Undertaker also single-handedly dismantled Right To Censor in a 4-on-1 Handicap Match (his ego was so out of control this year). Steven Richards never forgot that, and a week before this event returned with some new muscle to extract revenge. Kronik (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark) were a pretty popular and over duo in WCW but hadn’t been brought in as part of the initial WCW buy-out. They have now been brought in, and are looking to regain their WCW Tag Titles and inflict revenge on Undertaker for their new manager Steven.
Adams and Clark try to attack the Brothers before the bell. Haven’t they read the script for Undertaker vs WCW guys matches? It’s supposed to be an uninterrupted beatdown! Sure enough, Taker and Kane don’t sell a thing and the Deadman begins decimating Adams inside the ring. Taker tags out so Kronik can get at least some offence in on Kane. Crush hits a semi-competent backbreaker then tags in Clark for a few strikes. That lasts all of thirty seconds until Undertaker tags in again to work over Clark’s arm. A Kronik double team sequence actually allows them to put the Phenom on the ground. Adams looks really uncoordinated in there, with several of Undertaker’s moves looking like they barely connect with him. Clark hits Taker with a shoulder tackle off the apron for 2. Kane throttles both the challengers (who are absolutely gassed) then takes them both down with a clothesline. Undertaker floors Steven…before Adams hits him with a dreadful jawbreaker – which annoys Taker so much he audibly screams ‘F*CK’ at the top of his voice. Kronik are put out of their misery as the Phenom takes out Clark with a Chokeslam to win at 10:21
Rating - DUD - This match is notoriously bad, and in that regard it lived up to it’s reputation. It is a truly awful performance from Kronik, which is a shame as they actually were pretty cool in the dying days of WCW. I read somewhere that Adams had a pretty serious back injury, which would explain why he barely bumped and looked terrible doing ANYTHING. Essentially this was four big, slow guys meandering around the ring trading sloppy punch/kick sequences for far too long. I’d argue it was better than the bullsh*t Cage Match versus DDP and Kanyon at Summerslam though!
Steven Richards gets assaulted after the match for good measure.
SIDENOTE – Kronik were supposedly fired before Raw the following night, taking the blame for how bad this match was and copping serious heat for their ‘bad attitude’. Rumour has it that Adams in particular had a major falling out with Undertaker the preceding week. They clearly weren’t in any fit state to work this match, but personally I think they got a raw deal. Like I said, they were a decent act in WCW, but hardly anyone watched that promotion by that point, meaning their entire careers are generally remembered as Crush, Adam Bomb and this match. And if they were firing people just for having bad matches at this point – how does Undertaker still have a job? He’s been stinking up the joint every time out since Backlash.
Booker T and Shane McMahon rev themselves up for their WCW Title challenge later. Tazz strolls in and pokes fun at them by pointing out that ‘even Stephanie’ has beaten The Rock
Stephanie arrives at (what she thinks is) RVD’s locker room. It’s her birthday tomorrow and she wants the present of a Chris Jericho beating. Unbeknownst to her, Y2J himself is standing right behind her to make more big fat titty jokes. Ironically, since RVD’s music hits seconds later, he clearly wasn’t even in his locker room to hear her anyway
Rob Van Dam vs Chris Jericho – WWF Hardcore Title Match
Jericho’s issues with Stephanie McMahon have continued, even though he survived the advances of her hired Man Beast, Rhyno, last month at Summerslam. She now sends the breakout star of the Alliance, Hardcore Champion RVD to succeed where Rhyno failed.
JR tries to piss off Heyman by making fun of ECW, but gets his facts wrong so comes off like more of a dickhead. In the ring these two extremely talented individuals go back and forth at a fast pace, struggling to lay a glove on the other man such is their skill level. Van Dam flips out of a hiptoss, only for Chris to block his monkey flip attempt and they roll around on the ground attempting pinfalls. RVD’s popularity significantly eclipses Jericho’s by this stage…prompting Y2J to slap him in the face. He jumps a heel kick attempt from Rob and socks him across the side of the head with an enzi kick for 2. Van Dam retaliates with a springboard heel kick, and tosses Jericho out of the ring to flatten him with a pescado. Spinning leg drop off the apron MISSES, causing him to collide with the railing. Jericho pulls out a ladder, running through Rob’s face with it. Jericho then counters another one of Van Dam’s signature spots, evading his backflip shoulder tackle in the corner to drill his shoulder into the post. SNAP SUPLEX ON THE LADDER! He tries the same spot again only to have his repetition punished as RVD suplexes him on it right back. Whole sections of the audience are on their feet doing RVD’s thumb pose with the man himself rewarding them with a rolling frog splash for 2. Split-legged moonsault blocked – the third time Y2J has managed to avoid one of Rob’s key manoeuvres. RVD rolls out of the path of the Lionsault though, dropping him with a spinning heel kick. FIVE STAR FROG SPLASH MISSES! For the third show ppv running RVD has split his opponent open with a clumsy kick by the way. Jericho’s eye is BUSTED. DROP TOEHOLD ON THE LADDER! Y2J took a terrible landing on that too. Van Dam climbs the ladder but takes too long posing to his fans that it afford Jericho the chance to toss a chair into his face. WALLS OF JERICHO at the top of the ladder! RVD starts crawling away, so Jericho maliciously dumps him all the way to the floor. TOP ROPE SUICIDE DIVE MISSES – and Chris eats guardrail! Tope suicida BLOCKED with a mid-air chair shot by Jericho! This match is really brutal. The stepover spinning heel kick visibly clatters into Jericho’s unfortunate face, but amazingly this time he absorbs the shot and tries to tap Van Dam out with a Fujiwara armbar. He starts drilling RVD in the shoulder with the chair…so Stephanie McMahon sprints down to the ring to snatch the chair from him. VAN DAMINATOR ON JERICHO! ARM-SELLING FIVE STAR FROG SPLASH! Van Dam retains at 16:29
Rating - **** - RVD’s exceptional debut year in the WWF continued with another potentially show-stealing performance here. Much as with the RVD/Hardy Ladder Match from the month before, not all of this was particularly clean (Van Dam’s sloppy, clumsy strikes were becoming such a problem he was getting serious backstage heat), but in a Hardcore Title environment the obvious brutality and violence of what they were doing excuses it somewhat. Credit to Jericho who was a total pro throughout, despite obviously getting stiffed on multiple occasions. He’s worked in Japan and ECW, and having slummed it with some pretty mediocre workers in his WWF tenure, he clearly relished getting some serious time to showcase his skills with someone like Van Dam.
SIDENOTE – It was this ppv where you really started to realise just how much momentum that RVD had built, with an entire arena chanting for him rather than the established and traditionally uber-popular babyface Y2J. He’d be inserted into main events for the next couple of months, and get to work with Undertaker by the year’s end (before they relegated him back down the card and did their best to erode the fan support as they had done with the likes of Jericho before him). Jericho apparently had serious heat with RVD after this. Some of his alleged issues have genuine merit – like his desire to pre-plan matches to maximise their effect, or his annoyance that Van Dam kept potato-ing him. Some of them seemed to be petty jealousy though – such as annoyance that RVD was more popular, getting pushed in his place, and being allowed to do things in his matches, or giving time allowances that Jericho felt he could use more than Van Dam. Chalk it up to a personality clash between them. In the ring they were solid gold though.
Booker T heads to the ring for his match, with Shane McMahon hanging back to envision himself winning a World Championship for the first time.
The Rock vs Booker T/Shane McMahon – WCW World Title Handicap Match
Rocky ended the fifth WCW Championship reign of Booker T at Summerslam. Booker felt he’d been robbed of the belt, and delivered some fantastic character work complaining about the amount of disrespect he’d had to endure since he came to the WWF. Since the WCW Title is under the authority of WCW owner Shane McMahon, he booked this in an obvious attempt to stack the decks against the People’s Champion, and bring the belt back to the Alliance.
Rock and Booker start, with Rock instantly made aware of his handicap as he lands a swinging neckbreaker but immediately gets his pinfall attempt broken by the WCW owner. McMahon tries to flee from The Rock, eventually jumping him after Booker cheap shots him in the back of the head. He gets too cocky, peppering Rock with jabs which have little effect…so Rocky puts him in a Sharpshooter. Obviously T breaks that up in an instant, and Shane-O takes the fight to the floor where he lands a flying clothesline from the guardrails. JR points out that WCW referee Nick Patrick is being extremely selective enforcing tag rules – evidenced by Rock tossing Booker out of the ring and turning into another clothesline from McMahon. The two challengers attack him on the floor too, with Shane missing a chair shot before Booker catapults him into the ringpost. Booker is so confident he breaks out the Spinaroonie…then preps the Spanish announce table. There will be no Shane McMahon elbow drop tonight though as Rocky fights back to hit a Samoan drop. McMahon looks to turn his lights out with the title belt…but gets Booker by accident! He knocks out Rock with the belt second time of asking, and naturally Patrick has no interest in disqualifying him. He misses the Macho Elbow and Rock dives through both opponents with a double clothesline…although he soon succumbs to the numbers again. McMahon tries to steal the People’s Elbow, only to be countered in mid-run to the Rock Bottom. Test runs in to assault Rock with the Big Boot as he lines up a People’s Elbow on Book. Bradshaw chases Test off with a pipe, whilst the referee drags Rock back into the ring rather than count him out. WWF referee Mike Chioda returns the favour by breaking the next Shane McMahon pinfall then decking Patrick! T decks Chioda…but has the Bookend countered to the Rock Bottom. Earl Hebner arrives, counting The Rock to victory at 15:22
Rating - ** - This had some undeniable entertainment value, but it was overbooked to sh*t – mostly to make a WCW talent recruit look extremely weak when positioned next to a WWF guy...as we’ve seen throughout the sham invasion angle. Booker T couldn’t beat Rock despite having Shane, a biased referee and a run-in from Test. It’s not that this wasn’t a fun fifteen minutes of work, it’s that in the long term it did little more than inexorably damage Booker’s value as a main event player. WWF’s constant insistence that WCW guys were inferior or they couldn’t get over, therefore should be squashed at every turn by the ‘home team’ had become infuriating by this point. Booker was seriously over by this point because, up to here, he’d managed to avoid getting buried. He couldn’t run forever though, with this show being his turn to learn his ‘place’ (i.e. well below WWF’s main eventers).
Tajiri is pretty banged up after an assault from Steve Austin. His new girlfriend Torrie Wilson (how adorable was that relationship??) pleads to Commissioner Regal to be allowed at ringside for his match
Stacy Keibler is in WWF New York, showing them footage of her shaving her legs. Huh??
Tajiri vs Rhyno – WCW United States Title Match
Presumably Tajiri has beaten Kanyon for the WCW US Title somewhere along the line? He took a nasty Gore on the Raw stage (‘Gore, Gore, Gore on the floor, floor, floor’ – JR) and was attacked by Stone Cold in the last week of television so comes out with taped ribs.
Tajiri avoids the initial charge of the Man Beast, knocking him out of the ring into the path of an Asai Moonsault. Of course, that hurts his ribs as much as it damages Rhyno – and the challenger mows through his injured sternum with a shoulder block in the corner. A belly to belly suplex exacerbates the injury further…and even after hitting the handspring elbow Tajiri is so wounded that he hobbles into an explosive spinebuster. Torrie pleads for Tajiri’s life, and as her heel gives way Rhyno lines her up for the Gore! Tajiri saves her bacon with a kick to Rhyno’s face as he runs at her! He is too injured to apply the Tarantula and Rhyno tosses him back with a T-bone suplex. GORE! Rhyno wins at 04:50
Rating - ** - It was disappointingly brief, but they told a fun and entertaining little story very well. I’m a fan of both of these guys and they did as much as they could do with such a scrawny time allowance. The Rhyno/Torrie teased Gore spot was really cool.
Steve Austin vs Kurt Angle – WWF Title Match
These two contested an absolute war at Summerslam, with Austin eventually retaining after he intentionally got disqualified for attacking multiple WWF referees because Kurt kept kicking out of Stunners. Angle was furious, and crashed the ‘Stone Cold Appreciation Ceremony’ the following night on Raw to drench the whole Alliance in milk. The feud intensified with Austin tossing Kurt’s medals into the river, Angle abducting Stone Cold and making him cry, beg and offer him a title rematch…and on the final Smackdown before the ppv Austin targeted Kurt’s previously-broken neck with a piledriver on the floor. Apparently Angle isn’t cleared to compete here and has only been allowed to wrestle having signed a liability waiver for Commissioner Regal.
The Fink doesn’t get through Stone Cold’s introduction before Angle pounces on him in the aisle. Austin tries to set up the Stunner but is nervous about doing so as he fears Angle countering it to the Anklelock. Kurt isn’t so hesitant and climbs into him with a Thesz press – one of his own signature moves. Angle hits a superplex which gets a 2-count, although he noticeably grabs his neck before rolling into the cover. Steve tries to capitalise on it and wraps his arms around the aforementioned neck with a snug sleeper hold. The challenger finds a way to escape but this time slumps against the ropes taking his time recover…as Austin grabs his belt and tries to leave. Kurt gives chase and catches him on the ramp…to toss him to the concrete floor as payback for Austin doing the same thing to him a couple of weeks earlier. We return to ringside, where the challenger tears up the protective mats to expose the hard floor. Stone Cold smashes his head into the announce desks before Kurt can extract revenge for the Smackdown piledriver. Kurt manages to back drop him on the concrete though, and cuts his eye open as he mounts him right there. In return the Rattlesnake back drops Angle on the concrete – further injuring his neck. GOURDBUSTERS ON THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! Austin hits three of those with each one wrenching the neck and crushing the challenger’s chest. The match returns to the ring with Steve mercilessly hitting him in the neck…then hopping to the floor to swear at Kurt’s wife! Somehow Angle floats into the rolling Germans, albeit at a vastly slower pace than he normally executes them. They put Austin on the mat but once again cause him to cling to his neck in discomfort. It’s that delay which sees him caught on the top rope as he lines up a moonsault. Austin wants to finish the job with a back superplex but Angle saves his title challenge in mid-air. The damage to the champion appears minimal though, with Stone Cold dropping him on the neck again with a spinebuster. The champion grows increasingly frustrated and starts trying to get himself DQ’d as he did at Summerslam; first with an intentional low blow then by tossing Earl Hebner across the ring. Angle uses that sideshow to hit him with a DDT which drops Austin on his own surgically repaired neck. STUNNER ON AUSTIN! Angle Slam countered to a back suplex, dropping him on his neck again! PILEDRIVER NAILED! The enraged WWF champion climbs on Kurt’s back and clubs at the neck. STUNNER…COUNTERED TO THE ANKLELOCK! AUSTIN TAPS! KURT WINS! In his hometown, he’s the new champion at 23:12!
Rating - **** - I marginally prefer the Summerslam match, but this was a hell of a sequel. In such troubled times for the USA, Kurt Angle – the Olympic Gold Medallist who comes out dressed in stars and stripes singlets – was the perfect babyface challenger. He provided a traumatised wrestling fanbase with the ideal guy to get behind as they sought an escape from the cold realities of the ‘real world’ through the WWF’s brand of sports-entertainment. As such, the tidal wave-esque outpouring of ecstacy when Stone Cold tapped out was as memorable as anything the World Wrestling Federation would manage all year and, from a creative standpoint, the highlight of the entire Invasion angle. The match itself was really good, with loads of subtle references to key moments in their feud, plenty of familiarity counters and a fair amount of drama centred around Kurt’s kayfabe neck injury. I felt that they needed a little more time to finish the match though. The ending felt extremely sudden and jarring, coming after an elongated period of Austin dominace. It was so sudden that a lot of the crowd didn’t react right away, lessening what should have been a monumental pop for the title switch. Had they just stretched the finish out for another couple of minutes, with potentially a couple of heated false finishes, I think the pop would have been insane.
The Angle family piles into the ring to celebrate – soon followed by a hoard of wrestlers from the WWF locker room led by The Rock. Angle has tears in his eyes as the show ends
Tape Rating - ** - This show is typically only remembered for the main event, and to be honest, there’s a reason for that. In fairness, it is significantly better than Invasion or King Of The Ring in terms of consistency…but the whole card is such a forgettable, drab affair. There are a ton of matches tossed together at the last minute, plenty of bad matches (the Brothers of Destruction and Kronik take centre stage on that front) and we also got the inevitable burial of Booker T (like DDP before him). In truth, WWF simply HAD to pull the trigger on a title change here. Kurt had become such a focal point of pro-US sentiment after 9/11, with a ppv booked in his hometown they really didn’t have a choice but to put the belt on him. Austin won it back a couple of weeks later (his hand was under the ropes when he tapped out, so he got an instant rematch) ultimately rendering the main event a memorable moment, but a short-lived one. Austin/Angle and RVD/Jericho are really good…but it’s slim pickings from the rest of the show making this only a marginal recommend from me.
Top 3 Matches
3) Dudley Boyz vs Hardy Boyz vs Big Show/Spike Dudley vs The Hurricane/Lance Storm (***)
2) Rob Van Dam vs Chris Jericho (****)
1) Steve Austin vs Kurt Angle (****)