World Wrestling Federation – Vengeance 2001 – 9th December 2001
With the Invasion angle having limped to a conclusion, the only remaining loose end to tie up was what the WWF would do with all their title belts – which had been introduced to television and passed around like party favours for much of the preceding five months. Most of the work was done at Survivor Series – where the Tag Titles and the Intercontinental/United States Titles were merged. However, we still had Steve Austin as WWF Champion, and The Rock as WCW Champion. That situation is remedied in a historic four-man tournament tonight – with the winner to emerge as the WWE Undisputed World Champion. Steve Austin and Kurt Angle, rivals since the summer, would contest the WWF Title, whilst The Rock and Chris Jericho would look to settle their feud over the WCW Title – with the two winners (and therefore champions) advancing to a final to combine the belts. Much of the card pales into insignificance compared to those matches, but there are some intriguing ones that standout – such as William Regal challenging Edge for the Intercontinental Title, the Hardy Boyz fighting each other and RVD signed up to get the DDP/Kanyon/Booker T treatment – he’s next to be crushed on pay-per-view by the Undertaker. We’re in San Diego, CA with Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler (returning to ppv for the first time since midway through No Way Out).
SIDENOTE – One suspects that, initially, this ppv was designated as Triple H’s big return show. The poster for the event was The Game himself posing with his sledgehammer – and the whole event, including on-screen graphics has a sledgehammer theme. Unfortunately his slower-than-expected recovery from quad surgery meant he wasn’t ready, so his comeback was pushed back into 2002.
Vince McMahon marches out to the ring, apparently still indignant about being given the Stinkface by Rikishi on television. The live crowd seem to enjoy revelling in his misery, but their puppeted pops can’t hide the fact that this is a rather colossal waste of air time. His 50/50 partner Ric Flair comes onto the stage to point that out and get him out of the ring so we can see some wrestling
Albert/Scotty 2 Hotty vs Test/Christian
I’m guessing you don’t remember these two wildly successful tag team endeavours? Albert had nothing to do after the Invasion (which broke up X-Factor when Justin Credible joined the Alliance, whilst X-Pac quietly slipped onto the long-term injured list), so they stuck him in a team with Scotty (who also had nothing to do since Grand Masta Sexay had been fired) as the ‘Hip Hop Hippo’. His wrestling wasn’t any different, he just wore one of Grand Masta’s old do-rags to the ring and did a bizarre ‘churning the butter’ dance before matches. Their opponents in this ‘bonus match’ are Test and Christian – who were both Canadian, blonde-haired, former Alliance members with little else to do so got thrown together (despite Christian’s music proclaiming his delight at being on his own) as a prelude to 2002’s Un-Americans stable.
Scotty drags Christian in the ring whilst former tag partners Test and Albert rumble in the aisle. The two big men then take to the squared circle where Albert scores a nearfall with a Warrior Splash. The European Champion Christian intervenes to throttle S2H on the top rope – handing the advantage to the ex-Alliance duo as they start isolating the smallest man in the match. The Hip Hop Hippo is eventually tagged, breaking out more of his horrendous dance moves before giving Christian the giant swing. Test drags him out before he can hit the Baldo Bomb…and in the ring Christian counters The Worm with his inverted DDT. Big Boot on Test gets 2…but Test turned his back on Scotty, leaving him in prime position for The Worm this time. Baldo Bomb on Christian wins it at 06:19
Rating - * - I understand the merits of popping a live crowd early, and after they had to sit through that time-wasting Vince/Flair promo an early babyface victory makes some sense…but I just don’t see any merit in putting Scotty and Albert, who were a HORRIBLE team, over Christian and Test who had significantly more potential. The match itself featured four guys going through the motions.
William Regal takes offence to The Coach questioning his methods, and plans to take Edge’s Intercontinental Title tonight.
Edge vs William Regal – WWF Intercontinental Title Match
WWF were trying to rebuild Regal after they shattered all his credibility by having him kiss Vince’s ass on Raw following Survivor Series in a ludicrous skit designed to do nothing more than inflate the boss’ ego. To do that they’d given his character a much tougher edge, ditched the pretentious Brit gimmick and started emphasising his street fighting past. They’d also introduced his ‘Power Of The Punch’ finisher using concealed brass knucks to knock an opponent out.
Regal has an obvious experience advantage over the younger Edge, who has spent most of his career in tag matches. He starts looking to control the champion on the canvas, but soon drags the champ to the floor where he tosses him around with ease. Having weakened Edge out there he brings him inside and goes to town with elbows, forearms and knee strikes…and has no time for the Canadian’s theatrical, fast-paced moves as he blocks his opponent running at him to knee him right in the neck! He also spends most of the match dragging Edge around by his long hair. Eventually Edge manages to avoid a wild European uppercut attempt to drag William down into the Edge-O-Matic. A frankensteiner increases the pace further which obviously favours the champion. He tries a Spear off the apron, but gets thrown INTO THE STEPS! As the referee checks on Edge after that Regal searches under the ring and finds his knucks; tucking them into his trunks for use later. ROLLING TIGER DRIVERS gets 2! The former Commissioner is getting increasingly agitated that he can’t put the wounded Edge away, and as he reaches for the knucks Edge flies at him with the SPEAR! In a flash it’s over at 09:06
Rating - *** - Low-end 3* rating for this, because I appreciate the effort they made in very obviously trying to rebuild William Regal. Pushing him as a legitimate tough guy and world class wrestler is preferable to a generic, stuffy British heel gimmick, and this entire match was designed to make him look like a killer. Edge too looked okay in victory, having shown great resilience to survive such a beating, and the effectiveness of his Spear (which to this point had largely been a signature move rather than a finisher) emphasised.
Kurt Angle storms into Flair’s office and acts all pissed off even though the Nature Boy is being thoroughly complimentary of him. Amusing skit…
Lita has donned some AMAZING refereeing gear – and she is joined by Matt Hardy who reminds her how important his match is tonight. She points out that she has to call it down the middle
Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy
Dissension between the Hardyz had been teased before, but came to a head at Survivor Series when Jeff decided to try a high risk move from the top of the cage for his own ego, rather than simply climb out and win the match for his team. The Hardyz wound up losing the WWF/WCW Tag Title unification match to the Dudley Boyz as a result – yet weirdly Matt was the one who was pushed as the ‘heel’. He was trying to get Jeff focused on winning matches rather than being such a daredevil, only for Jeff to react angrily and accuse him of trying to ‘control’ him. Their bickering turned into a full-scale feud, much to the distress of Lita who unsuccessfully tried to keep the peace. Matt, annoyed that she didn’t automatically side with him as her boyfriend, demanded that she referee the match and prove her allegiance tonight at Vengeance.
Matt demonstrates his superiority as a wrestler by taking his brother down to the ground and literally walking all over him. The pace remains slow, obviously favouring Matt rather than Jeff, so it’s the older brother who takes charge of the majority of the action. He scores the first significant nearfall of the match with a running neckbreaker, then looks to control Jeff with a sleeper hold. When Jeff counters to a sleeper of his own Matt finds it significantly easier to escape – planting him with a back suplex. But now comes a mistake from Matt as he heads up the ropes, taking to the air which would normally be his brother’s domain. Jeff evades the needless pointing/screaming leg drop, lays him out with a jawbreaker then scrambles upstairs for his own equivalent of the same scream/point leg drop. Whisper In The Wind attempted – the same showboating that has cost Jeff in recent weeks – only for Matt to counter by crotching him on the top rope. Matt lines up a sunset flip bomb to the floor, but it’s COUNTERED into a hurricanrana! Once again Jeff’s needless flashiness costs him, as he tries to flip over the ropes into the ring and damages his leg. Despite being his brother and tag partner, Matt is in no mood to show any mercy and launches into an attack on the injured limb. Half crab applied, then a spinning toehold which is broken by the hobbling Jeff Hardy kicking his brother out of the ring. He wants a pescado but collapses in pain before he can hit the move. Twist Of Fate blocked with the double heel drop to the lower abdomen, and Jeff limps up to the top rope. It takes far too long so there’s no chance for him to hit the Swanton before Matt press slams him from the turnbuckles. They both attempt the Twist Of Fate, each block it, and frantically try to pin each other as they roll on the ground. Matt grabs the ropes for extra leverage…and rounds on Lita when she refuses to count the pin! He sets up an avalanche Twist Of Fate…COUNTERED TO THE SWANTON BOMB! He limps into a cover, and despite Matt’s foot being on the ropes, Lita counts three at 12:31
Rating - *** - This was actually a really solid match, but it was rather unfairly crapped on at the time. Nobody really wanted the Hardy Boyz to split up, and if they did have to fight – they certainly expected a faster paced and more spot-packed affair than this. In truth they told a great story, which stuck extremely closely to the source material the preceding feud had provided for them. Matt angrily tried to prove himself superior to his brother, whilst Jeff constantly made mistakes going for fancy moves rather than simply trying to wrestle his brother. Matt, positioned as the antagonist of the piece therefore the more desperate to win, tried to cheat – and in defeat has an ‘out’ as the girlfriend that HE demanded officiate the match showed her refereeing inexperience in the finish. I know it sounds a little odd because people were pretty bored by this one – but I think they actually needed more time in the ring. They had told a great story going through the match, but it wasn’t what fans wanted to see. Had they got more time to throw a hotter finish on the end with a few more high impact spots and a false finish or two I think the crowd really would have warmed up to the action, and overall this match would have a far better reputation than it actually has.
Matt Hardy angrily yells at Lita then storms off rather than congratulate his brother on the win
Women’s Champion Trish Stratus enters WCW Champion The Rock’s locker room. She congratulates him on forcing Vince into the Stinkface on Smackdown and gives him a good luck kiss for the Undisputed Title tournament. The Rock says she can ‘smell what [he]’s cooking’ later. Not sure what the point of this was?
Dudley Boyz vs Kane/Big Show – WWF Tag Title Match
Not sure why this was booked, although Big Show has had a couple of cracks at the Dudley Boyz (with considerably smaller partners) at recent pay-per-view events so maybe it’s related to that. Bubba and D-Von, having done pretty much everything they could possibly do as a team at this stage, were treading water now – but at least were getting acknowledged as one of the greatest tag teams in professional wrestling history.
Lawler missed out on the Invasion angle, so has a lot of perving on Stacy Keibler to catch up on. He gets started during this match and barely even mentions the wrestlers or the match he’s supposed to be calling. He’s missing Big Show easily picking apart both Dudleyz – first separately then at the same time. Kane heads to the top for a SUICIDE DIVE TO THE FLOOR which wipes them both out. With the champs down Show amuses himself by pulling Stacy’s skirt down and spanking her…which is treated as comic relief rather than sexual harassment. It causes enough of a distraction to give Bubba and D-Von a route back into the match, hitting the Big Red Machine with the Wassup Headbutt for their first genuine offensive strike at nearly four minutes in. Kane smashes his way out of the Dudley Death Drop and brings Show back in for more effortless destruction of the champions. Kane inadvertently clocks Show with his flying clothesline…and in turn Show accidentally shoulder blocks him off the apron. The Dudleyz FLAPJACK Show into an exposed turnbuckle bolt to win at 06:49
Rating - * - This was as uninspiring and pointless as the opening tag match. That one had better wrestling, but this one had Kane’s dive’s to the floor and Stacy Keibler in panties. Call it a tie...
Matt Hardy is having an epic temper tantrum in the locker room. He packs his bags and walks out despite the protestations of Lita.
Rob Van Dam vs Undertaker – WWF Hardcore Title Match
Having proven to be a flop as a main event babyface in his ‘American Badass’ gimmick, with fans largely bored or turning on him – albeit mostly because he was so caught up in being booked like a superhero that his matches were boring as sh*t and nobody liked watching him anymore. To stunt the waning popularity of the eleven-year veteran, WWF turned him heel – cutting his hair and moving to the ‘Big Evil’ second stage of the American Badass era. He bitterly proclaimed that he had kissed Vince’s ass more than anyone else to stick around for so long whilst the likes of Hogan, Warrior, Savage, Piper, Bret and Shawn had all walked out, and cemented a heel turn by attacking JR and forcing him into Vince’s ‘Kiss My Ass’ club when he refused to join voluntarily. Demanding respect for his time in the WWF he set about beating up and assaulting multiple wrestlers – in particular targeting the cocky and extremely popular Hardcore Champion – RVD. In a kayfabe segment which presumably mirrored real life, he stood over a fallen Van Dam and told him he had a ‘lot to learn’ if he wanted to make it in the WWF. When Rob refused to take his lesson lying down and started fighting back the following week on TV, this match was booked for ppv.
There vast majority of the signs visible to the hard camera contain the initials ‘RVD’. He was SO over at this point, and the place goes nuts for him. Undertaker, as you’d expect, doesn’t look remotely impressed. Van Dam knows he has to work quick, and uses his martial arts striking to knock his challenger back into the corner. SOMERSAULT SENTON out of the corner scores, followed by a spinning double heel kick as he continues to hit and run. Taker is rattled, but perches him on the ropes for a big boot which knocks him all the way to the floor. More kicks come back in his direction from Van Dam…but the champ foolishly tries to springboard off the guardrail and propels himself straight into a big punch. However, even after being choked remorselessly in the crowd, he hops up onto the hockey hoardings for a MOONSAULT PRESS! Big Evil responds by stomping a segment of guardrail into his face…and angrily rants at nearby fans for continuing to chant for RVD. The champ himself unloads a fire extinguisher into his face then swings a trash can into his face as he struggles to regain his vision. Up onto a balcony goes Van Dam…CROSSBODY OFF THE BALCONY NAILED! The fight spills onto the stage with Mr PPV getting a nearfall with a spinning leg drop on the steel. Taker has been knocked silly, but still has a serious size advantage and uses it to scoop the Hardcore Champion up and drive him head-first into the Titantron. Last Ride attempted…but RVD CLIMBS THE SET to escape it! Spinning heel kick blocks another chair shot, followed by the ROLLING THUNDER ON THE STAGE! CHAIR SURF SCORES! Van Daminator misses though, and the Phenom KILLS him with some nasty chair shots. CHOKESLAM OFF THE STAGE – THROUGH TWO TABLES! Undertaker wins the Hardcore Title at 11:04
Rating - *** - On the face of it the booking seems needless. Van Dam was crazily over and having great matches with the Hardcore Title, whilst the championship was simply a superfluous prop to Undertaker (which he wound up dropping to Maven, of all people). However, the match itself was considerably better than most expected. After he’d crushed Booker T and Dallas Page, WCW talents he seemingly didn’t deem worthy of WWF ringtime, in embarrassingly one-sided pay-per-view showings, most expected Van Dam to get the same treatment here. Now granted Undertaker didn’t make great efforts to sell anything RVD did that hard – but the fact that he was willing to be the base against which Rob could do his usual plethora of innovative and entertaining spots was a genuine surprise…and it led to possibly Undertaker’s best ppv match of the entire year. Rob was noticeably being extremely cautious with his errant kicking too which probably helped him. In truth taking the belt from Rob, and making him work ‘regular’ matches was the first phase of WWF trying to subtly de-push him as they realised his antics in hardcore matches were getting huge reactions and ‘stealing heat’ from people like Undertaker who would rather plod around, no-selling and punch-kick-stalling through supposed ‘main events’ – however, if he wanted to progress to become a legitimate main eventer he had to transition out of the Hardcore division one way or another. At least he did it in a strong match against a top tier talent like the Deadman.
Chris Jericho is the latest athlete to barge into Flair’s office, complaining about nobody believing he can beat the likes of Rock, Austin and Angle to become Undisputed Champion. He wants Naitch to ceremonially present him with the Undisputed Championship on Raw tomorrow after he wins.
Trish Stratus vs Jacqueline – WWF Women’s Title Match
We saw how much it meant to Trish when she was crowned Women’s Champion last month at Survivor Series. Now she has a target on her back with the rest of the females in the WWF locker room gunning for her. Her first pay-per-view title defence is against the veteran Jacqueline. Stratus was considered an outsider in the Survivor Series match to crown a new champion, and will now be looking to prove it wasn’t a fluke.
The two women set about trying to have a serious wrestling match, so you have to feel sorry for them as King and the fans are only interested in ‘puppies’. Jackie stomps Trish into the mat and gives her repeated body slams – making the point that she’s the experienced worker and has victory in the bag. It gets real sloppy in the middle portion with Stratus botching a couple of spots in quick succession. Stratusfaction blocked and countered with a dropkick to the neck by Jackie before the two divas bump heads and fall to the ground. Trish retains with a backslide at 03:34
Rating - DUD - Pretty much a failure on every level unfortunately. I quite liked the idea of Jackie, the veteran challenger, looking to boss an inexperienced valet-turned-wrestler around, but their execution was horrible. Trish showed her inexperience and looked sloppy as hell, whilst on commentary Lawler was a complete disgrace and failed to mention the actual wrestling AT ANY POINT as he opted to talk about black bras and tits for the whole match. In the ring the two women let themselves down, but they could have been producing Misawa/Kawada levels of goodness and you feel like nobody would have given a sh*t.
Highlights of The Rock forcibly closing the ‘Kiss My Ass’ club by forcing Vince into the Stinkface of the returning Rikishi on Smackdown are broadcast – with Kish then joining us from WWFNY to gloat.
Steve Austin vs Kurt Angle – WWF Title Match
Ric Flair’s initial suggestion to resolve the two World Championships problem was to book them to face each other at this pay-per-view. He wanted Austin vs Rock, champion vs champion. Instead Vince suggested a tournament, firstly to allow the mole who ‘saved’ the WWF in the Invasion (Kurt Angle) a title shot, and also to let two of the highest profile World Championship feuds of the year reach their conclusions (Austin/Angle and Rock/Jericho). First up it’s Stone Cold and Kurt – with the prevalent theory being that Austin can’t beat Angle. He needed a corrupt WCW referee to disqualify him in order to retain against Kurt at Summerslam, lost the WWF Championship to him during a memorable night in Pittsburgh for Unforgiven – and only got the belt back from Kurt thanks to then-WWF Commissioner William Regal turning on Angle to join the Alliance. Austin was also the final man beaten in the Winner Takes All Survivor Series main event – thanks to Kurt Angle betraying the Alliance and revealing himself to be the WWF insider on the team. The next night on Raw Vince wanted to strip Stone Cold of the belt, with Austin (reverting back to his old persona after spending most of the year as a heel) only getting to keep his belt thanks to the emergence of Flair. Can Angle defeat Stone Cold again, or can Steve finally put down one of the toughest rivals of his career?
Austin seems hesitant to lock up with Kurt – clearly very aware of his prior failures to overcome his challenges to the WWF Title. Angle revels in having the psychological edge, gleefully giving Austin clean breaks and taking delight in backing him into corners. And when Steve finally succeeds in landing a few strikes Angle instantly flees the ring to kill his momentum. Ironically, Stone Cold does the exact same thing right back to him when Kurt looks to grapple him and get involved in amateur-style work on the ground. Stunner blocked…Anklelock countered…as are Kurt’s attempted rolling Germans. The Rattlesnake rakes his opponent’s eyes and starts choking him in the ropes, happily breaking the rules in his desperation to score a definitive victory over the Olympic gold medal winner. He starts battering Angle’s arm into the ringpost…prompting Angle to go on the defensive by stomping on the ever-problematic neck. An armbar DDT from Steve cuts that approach short, only for Angle to trap him in the Anklelock! BACK DROP TO THE FLOOR to break that even though Austin is limping badly as a result. He gets his legs driven into the post now, succeeded by the obligatory Figure 4 around the post too. Back to the Anklelock goes Angle with Stone Cold scrapping and kicking just to stay alive in the match. He manages to get out of the submission but stumbles blindly into a belly to belly suplex. Rolling Germans come next, repeatedly driving the neck into the canvas. Unfortunately for the challenger, his picture perfect moonsault misses…and he walks into the Thesz Press. ROLLING GERMANS BY AUSTIN! After spending all year absorbing these suplexes from Benoit and Angle, Stone Cold has had enough and goes crazy with Germans on his opponent! Kurt needs a sneaky low blow to free himself before nailing the Angle Slam. STUNNER LANDS! Austin wins at 15:01
Rating - *** - The psychology at the start of this one was really awesome, with Austin showing great respect for Kurt (who has beaten him all year to this point), whilst the challenger looked supremely confident and dominated the early-going buoyed by already having two pay-per-view victories over Austin in 2001. Unfortunately, with Steve’s injuries really starting to rack up at this point he really didn’t have the gas to work full pace in this match then work the finals too…meaning that whilst the story they were telling was really good, it was significantly slower and vastly less intense than Summerslam or Unforgiven. A decent finale to their feud, but it took a back seat to the Undisputed Title tournament.
Test barges into Trish Stratus’ locker room looking to give her a congratulatory kiss for retaining her Women’s Title tonight. She declines, so he rants about his immunity from being fired. Huh?
The Rock vs Chris Jericho – World Heavyweight Title Match
With the demise of the Alliance at Survivor Series, it’s main title (held by The Rock) was rechristened the World Heavyweight Title to remove all mention of WCW. In truth, the most significant feud for the title under the WWF’s ownership was between these two World Wrestling Federation competitors anyway. Rock and Jericho were never the best of friends, and when they were booked to face each other at No Mercy tensions boiled over – with Rock accusing Y2J of being a choker who always fails to win ‘the big one’. Albeit with an inadvertent assist from Stephanie McMahon and a steel chair, Jericho wound up victorious in a hell of a match at that pay-per-view – but the rivalry continued even when they were supposed to be on the same team fighting for the survival of the company against WCW and ECW. Jericho assaulted Rock during the Survivor Series main event, and has a repeat victory over the Great One in his sights this evening – even though most people consider him to be the rank outsider to win this thing (something he’d bitched about on multiple occasions).
There is actually a smattering of ‘Rocky sucks’ chants as he controls the opening exchanges, and the crowd is surprisingly split considering that Jericho had been pushed hard as a heel coming into this. Y2J kick-starts his work in the match with his springboard dropkick to the apron…before hostilities between these two rivals spill over on the floor where they take turns driving their skulls into the announce tables and the steps. Jericho shows his growth as a performer in recent months as he starts to dominate Rock – without cheating and simply by using his wrestling skill. Even when the champ lands a couple of offensive moves he doesn’t panic, and simply moves to minimise the size differential between them by dragging him to the ground in a sleeper hold. The Lionsault only gets 2 though, provoking an enraged reaction from Y2J. His anger causes him to make an error – climbing to the top rope far too slowly and allowing himself to be crotched by a resurgent World Champion. Rock violently launches Jericho face-first OVER the turnbuckles, bouncing off the top of the post before slumping to the floor. Jericho doesn’t like that one bit and retorts with a catapult into the post himself…before stripping JR and King’s announce table back. The two men position themselves on the table, with Rock blocking Chris’ attempt at a Rock Bottom into a DDT THROUGH THE TABLE! Jericho somehow survives that, and back inside the ring counters the Rock Bottom into the Breakdown to leave them both on the mat! Jericho-holics Elbow blocked…Scorpion Deathlock countered – into the SHARPSHOOTER ON ROCK! The Rock barely escapes with his title at that juncture, and but explodes back into the fight with a ROCK BOTTOM! That was all the energy he had though, and he remains on the canvas. Vince McMahon jogs down the aisle and distracts Earl Hebner, then gets into a brawl with The Rock as he hits the People’s Elbow! Low blow by Jericho goes unseen! ROCK BOTTOM! JERICHO WINS! Using Rock’s own finisher Jericho is the new World Champion at 19:04
Rating - *** - As with Austin/Angle, the stipulations of the evening meant this was a big step down in quality from their top notch pay-per-view showing earlier in the year. Unlike most of Jericho’s Undisputed Title reign, I liked that the match itself made a serious effort to convey him as a genuine main eventer, as he dominated Rock for long periods without cheating – simply by beating a damn good wrestler. Unfortunately he was once again denied a clean victory, instead being handed the win by Vince’s inexplicable feud with Rock (again) which went nowhere.
Steve Austin vs Chris Jericho – WWF Undisputed Title Tournament Final
There’s no time to rest for Y2J. Within seconds of Hebner’s hand hitting the mat for his victory over Rock, the glass is shattering and Stone Cold is making his way to the ring. It’s time for the WWF Championship to be unified with the former-WCW Title, with the winner being crowned the first undisputed World Champion of recent times in North America. You’ll notice immediately that the crowd has already fallen a little flat. As over as Jericho is – they wanted a Rock/Austin final, and voice their disappointment with audible boos and even ‘Triple H’ chants as this one begins.
Austin is still limping after the Angle match…speaking of which, Kurt sprints out before the bell even rings to level him with a chair. Rock evens the score by giving Jericho a Rock Bottom – meaning they’ll both start semi-conscious. It’s the World Champion who stirs first, with Austin looking totally gassed – barely able to even lift his arms to sell Jericho’s strikes. Y2J tries to run away when Austin attempts the Stunner but Stone Cold is wise to his strategy and viciously shunts him off the apron! The trip outside the ring isn’t a favourable one for Jericho who gets propelled repeatedly into the metal posts. Austin exposes the concrete floor, but is knocked backwards and takes a NASTY spill cracking the top of his own head on the concrete. You could hear the crack of his skull on the ground, so it’s to his credit that he somehow escapes the Walls Of Jericho on the Spanish announce table to suplex Chris onto the concrete! It’s Jericho’s turn to send his opponent into the post (the whole roster has seriously over-used that spot tonight), softening up the Rattlesnake’s arm for a Fujiwara armbar with the added leverage of the ropes. He doesn’t get the tap-out there, but it does enough damage to the WWF Champion to enable Chris to apply the Walls Of Jericho instead. No submission there either, and the crowd, in truth, has largely fallen into a subdued silence. They then boo and chant for HHH again when Hebner is bumped. Jericho hits a Stunner, although Austin is so exhausted he can’t even sell it. Nick Patrick (now a WWF corrupt referee apparently) is led out by Vince to count Stone Cold down…only for Ric Flair to run down and make the save. Flair takes a SICK bump against the ringpost at the hands of McMahon…before Stone Cold charges at Vince. He beats him down and heads into the ring to make Jericho tap with his own finisher – without a referee in sight to spot it. Booker T returns to the company, grabbing the World Title on the way, and levelling Austin with it. Jericho crawls over, almost in tears as he does so, to pin Stone Cold and become the Undisputed Champion at 12:35
Rating - * - It shouldn't really be a surprise that, after the WWF have spent three quarters of the year booking like absolute cretins, they’d also botch such a historic moment as the unification of the WWF and WCW Championships. It seemed such an easy thing to book – Rock and Austin ending the year in a rematch of their epic WrestleMania main event with the Undisputed Championship at stake. If they were so desperate to put the big prize on Jericho, why not give your fans the pay-off they wanted to see, then put the belts on Jericho at Royal Rumble the following month (when he and Rock faced off again). This wasn’t a great match, but everything felt much worse in front of a crowd which vocally didn’t give a sh*t and very obviously felt screwed out of Rock/Austin (plus HHH’s return which never materialised). In terms of his in-ring wrestling match quality, 2001 was possibly Austin’s greatest year as a performer. Unfortunately it took such a heavy physical toll on him that he was really starting to break down by this point – and he was SO slow, clumsy and uncoordinated here. When you add that to Chris Jericho, drenched in sweat, unpopular with the fans, and having just wrestled a 20-minute match himself…and throw in ridiculous overbooking with two referees, Vince, Flair and Booker’s return at the end (all but cementing the complete redundancy of the ‘Winner Takes All’ match last month) it was a recipe for disaster. To this day I couldn’t tell you why Vince was absent-mindedly feuding with both babyfaces…other than to stoke his ego and keep him floating around the main event scene like a sh*t that can’t be flushed. A horrible, anti-climactic hash up of what, again, should have been a defining moment in modern professional wrestling.
They barely even show Jericho after his victory (which is a shame as he looks so emotional), with the camera focusing on Vince McMahon celebrating in the aisle. In fact, Chris only even gets in the shot when he retreats down the aisle so Vince can raise his hand…
Tape Rating - ** - Sometimes the simple things are the best. There was a reason everyone was clamouring for Rock/Austin in the finals. Hell, there was a reason nobody wanted the tournament and just wanted a Rock/Austin unification match in the first place. There was also a reason why nobody believed Jericho could win. This is actually a rather consistent show, but you won’t remember that. All you’ll remember is the overwhelming ‘eh’ feeling you had when Chris Jericho was the first ever Undisputed Champion. I love Jericho, but there’s no f*cking way he should have won this. People wanted Rock/Austin – and Rock HAD to win here. They could still have put the belt on Jericho the next month anyway, since the feud with Y2J still hadn’t been settled. Even worse, Chris’ win was SO tarnished by Vince, Booker, Nick Patrick and Kurt Angle that it didn’t feel like he’d ‘won’ it at all anyway. He felt like a champion ‘because Vince had allowed it’. He wasn’t booked to look like a serious contender much beyond the first 10 minutes of his match with Rock, and his farcical win here would set the template for one of the most disappointing, underwhelming and laughable championship reigns in recent memory. The tournament set-up (each match one after the other) didn’t help things either. Austin was so broken down by this point he could barely work one match, let alone two, whilst Jericho and Rock obviously had to work slower as they had the longest match of the night, with Jericho holding something back for the main event. A suitably frustrating conclusion to one of the most irritating years to be a pro-wrestling fan ever. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight well over a decade later, I can’t help but wonder how different the industry, and World Wrestling Entertainment itself might be now if it hadn’t so spectacularly messed up 2001 – when it had the opportunity to book some of the biggest dream matches of the modern era and squandered it because they couldn’t get over their boner for themselves.
Top 3 Matches
3) Steve Austin vs Kurt Angle (***)
2) The Rock vs Chris Jericho (***)
1) Rob Van Dam vs Undertaker (***)
Top 10 WWF 2001 PPV Matches
10) Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit (**** - WrestleMania 17)
9) Steve Austin vs Kurt Angle (**** - Unforgiven)
8) Royal Rumble Match (**** - Royal Rumble)
7) Steve Austin vs Kurt Angle (**** - Summerslam)
6) Dudley Boyz vs Edge & Christian vs Hardy Boyz (****1/2 - WrestleMania 17)
5) Kurt Angle vs Shane McMahon (****1/2 - King Of The Ring)
4) The Rock vs Chris Jericho (****1/2 - No Mercy)
3) Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho (****1/2 - Royal Rumble)
2) Triple H vs Steve Austin (****1/2 - No Way Out)
1) The Rock vs Steve Austin (****1/2 - WrestleMania 17)
My biggest regret about 2001 is that, due to the creative failures of the company he worked for, Stone Cold’s finest year as an in-ring performer is largely forgotten about. Although he’d been hotter as an act and a draw in the late-90’s, this was the year that, inside the ring, he enjoyed his richest vein of form. He started the year with a memorable Royal Rumble victory, then produced two all-time classics at back-to-back pay-per-view events with the legendary Three Stages Of Hell Match against HHH, then the headliner at WrestleMania 17 with The Rock. After initially getting stuck with Undertaker (who was as lousy as Austin was great this year), Austin spent the rest of the year KILLING it with the up and coming talent WWF was grooming for the future. First he had an outstanding (largely TV-only) feud with Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho (his title defences against Benoit, in particular, were spectacular), then one of the most competitive rivalries of his entire career as he and Kurt Angle went to war against the backdrop of the botched Alliance Invasion – a feud which produced one of the most emotional climaxes to a pay-per-view ever when he dropped the WWF Title to Kurt, in his hometown just weeks after the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Unfortunately his body was already pretty f*cked for several years (even in the late-90’s), and under the pressure of being the top guy, having been put through hell producing countless classics over the year (and being German suplexed more times than he should ever have done) by the end of the year he was a wreck. He limped along to WrestleMania 18 with a number of lacklustre pay-per-view matches, but was never the same again after 2001. He quit, came back, then had quit again by 2002 – eventually returning in ’03 for his farewell/retirement match. 2001 was his finest, and last great year as a professional wrestler – so it absolutely sucks the WWF was in the creative toilet.