King of the Ring 2001 - Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford New Jersey, June 24th, 2001

The 9th annual King of the Ring PPV! The video package touches on all the big happenings - Stone Cold Steve Austin’s WWF title defense, and the man who stalked The Undertaker’s wife Sara being here live in the arena - Diamond Dallas Page. They also briefly touch on the Kurt Angle and Shane McMahon street fight. You’ll notice there’s no mention of the tournament itself! Don’t worry folks - I’ve got you.

This is the 9th PPV version but the King of the Ring was a house show tour for many years prior to 1993. There’s a LOT of talk about Kurt Angle trying to be the first man to repeat as King of the Ring but the truth is that Bret Hart already had - once on PPV and once off. They acknowledge that nowadays but didn’t back in 2001.

I mentioned this at Backlash but the 2001 PPV graphics and stage were like an evolved version of the 2000 graphics and stage. At Backlash it was the same large swinging scythes but in 2001 they had spikes added and at King of the Ring it's the same metal throne stage and graphics as 2000 but with leather straps and electric effects added to turn that throne into an electric chair.

Diamond Dallas Page - not an official WWF superstar - gets entrance music and a titantron video (loaded up with WCW logos) as he comes through the crowd to sit in the front row. He said he’d be here even if he had to buy a ticket which he seems to have done, but he does also get in the ring to show us his “MAKE ME FAMOUS” sign. His being here and being allowed to do this does make sense as Undertaker threatened Vince McMahon to make sure he was given access. DDP says that he doesn’t understand why Taker is so pissed off - he should thank him for only showing the PG rated footage he has. We’ll come back to this angle later in the show of course and after DDP says he’s going to be the one doing the ass kicking tonight, he says that tomorrow night on Raw he’s going to be the first WCW performer in history to set foot into Madison Square Garden. That’s obviously an exaggeration but it is fair to say that throughout the 90s MSG was the WWF’s “home arena”. No other wrestling company had ever promoted a show there (something that remained true up until about 2021). Page takes a seat in the front row and says he’s going to wait for the Undertaker to show up and “make him famous”.

Before we get into the first match - say it with me - “it was all kicking off on Sunday Night Heat”. Firstly, Spike Dudley has challenged his brothers Bubba Ray and D-Von for their new WWF Tag Team titles but we don’t yet know who Spike’s partner is. In BIGGER news, Paul Heyman explains that there is a rumour that either Chris Jericho OR Chris Benoit has been secretly negotiating with WCW meaning that if one of them were to win the WWF Championship tonight they’d then defect to WCW as champion live in Madison Square Garden on Raw is War. Mr. McMahon had told Stone Cold that he refused to be with him and help him tonight (more on that later) but will this rumour change his mind? 

King of the Ring Semi-final 

Kurt Angle vs. Christian

This is the start of Kurt’s attempt to repeat as King. He also has a street fight with Shane McMahon later meaning that if Kurt is successful here he’ll wrestle three times on this PPV. 

Kurt starts fast and aggressive but is quickly reversed into the corner by Chistian who takes over with stomps and a chinlock.
Edge and Christian have had a little fall out with Kurt lately and there’s been a great deal of tension between them over this tournament as well. Christian has - in fairness - had the toughest road to this point having to defeat Intercontinental Champion Kane and The Big Show! Kurt picked up victories over Hardcore Holly and Light Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy. 

Kurt goes for an early ankle lock but Christian rolls through and the brawl spills to the outside. Christian is keeping pace with Kurt Angle who’s recent rhetoric is that he is a real life superhero. He’s right - he won a gold medal with a broken freakin’ neck!

Kurt sends Christian from the top rope crashing to the security barrier and that allows him to dominate with a series of suplexes and throws in the ring for near falls.

Christian fights back with a spinning heel kick and as both men struggle back to their feet, Shane McMahon struts down to the ring wearing a WCW t-shirt and gives Kurt a wave from the ramp. 

The distraction causes Kurt to miss his moonsault attempt but he does kick out of Christian’s follow up rollup and then reverse DDT.

The finish comes as Christian fights out of an ankle lock and then counters an Angle slam into an Unprettier! Christian has Kurt Angle beat fair and square but bizarrely Shane McMahon breaks up the pin, helping Kurt. 

Christian is distracted and Angle follows with an Angle slam to win the match and advance to the King of the Ring final for the second year in a row.

Everyone is mystified by Shane McMahon’s actions but it seems pretty clear that Shane helped Kurt win so that he’d have to wrestle an extra match tonight before getting to Shane. He’ll be extra tired and that gives Shane and advantage.The commentators do eventually put that together after a lot of discussion.

Backstage, Jonathan Coachman goes to see Stone Cold Steve Austin who seems to be in denial about Vince’s ultimatum and still expects him here tonight. Coach mentions the Benoit/Jericho WCW defection rumours which seems to be news to Stone Cold! 

On the PPV, they show a video package recapping the events between Undertaker and DDP so far here - Page has been stalking Sara for about a month and it has driven the Deadman into a murderous rage. 

Afterwards, Paul Heyman goes over to speak to DDP with a microphone and asks him about his actions. As he speaks, the titantron shows candid footage of DDP himself eating breakfast at the hotel. Page stops mid-sentence and loses his temper, accusing Heyman of being behind it. It seems like Undertaker is giving Page a little taste of his own medicine and he does not like it.

None of this gets much of a crowd reaction which is sad - the show is in Page’s hometown but it seems like the WWF fans don’t have much awareness or interest in a storyline around a WCW performer. Even a former main event, world champion performer like DDP.

King of the Ring Semi-final

Edge vs. Rhyno

Much like with Christian and Angle earlier, these are two friends turned enemies as they all bicker and fight over who should be King of the Ring. To get here, Rhyno defeated two fellow ECW alums in Tazz and Tajiri while Edge went through Hardcoe Champion Test and Perry Saturn. 

This match is physical and goes to brawling outside the ring immediately.

The heavier, stronger Rhyno takes control and focuses his assault on Edge’s midsection.

Paul Heyman says the same three or four soundbites over and over during every Rhyno match, usually about his weight and being from “the big bad street of Detroit Michigan”. 

Rhyno dominates, focusing on Edge’s ribs with stomps,punches and driving him into the corners before locking in a body scissors.

Edge has a couple of hope spots like countering a superplex into a sunset flip powerbomb for a close near fall. Rhyno keeps up the pressure and goes for his Gore but Edge turns into a Spear and the two collide in a move which might dislocate both their shoulders if it was real!

Edge sidesteps Rhyno’s second Gore attempt, sending him into a turnbuckle and then counters with an Impaler DDT to pick up what feels like an upset victory! Rhyno has been strongly pushed as a singles guy (mostly in the Hardcore division) but Tag Team specialist Edge wins and moves on to the final to face Kurt Angle. 

Spike Dudley (and Molly) are interviewed by JR who asks if Spike has a partner for his Tag Title match. Spike does but he wants it to be a surprise. Bubba and D-Von arrive and mock their little brother, calling both he and Molly big disappointments. Mean. 

Tazz interviews one of the challengers for the WWF title tonight, asking him directly about the WCW rumours. Jericho has a little fun teasing giving us a real answer but is coy about it won’t say one way or the other.

WWF Tag Team Championships

The Dudley Boyz © (Bubba Ray and D-von Dudley) vs. Spike Dudley and WWF Intercontinental Champion Kane

The Dudleyz enter first and after a long pause their confidence is shattered when Kane’s pyro explodes! The big red machine is here to back up Spike.

He throws Bubba around before tagging out to Spike to let the little man get some payback on his brother. Bubba military presses Spike and throws him to Kane who catches Spike and throws him back into a crossbody for a near fall.

With Kane’s help, Spike outmatches his brothers and the challengers have all the control and momentum in the early going.

There’s some miscommunication as it seems like D-Von might be hurt but he no-sells it and attacks Spike so it seems like he was trying to do a heelish “playing opossum” spot and it just looked strange. 

Bubba and D-Von dominate Spike as the fans chant “we want tables”. The people in New Jersey haven’t gotten the memo that The Dudleyz are heels now. 

Spike weathers the storm and tags in Kane who motors through both Tag champions and with them down on the outside, picks up Spike and throws him from the ring onto both his brothers! 

Kane connects with a flying clothesline on Bubba and Spike gets a near fall and then has the match won with a Dudley Dog but D-Von breaks up the cover. 

The Dudleyz give Kane their Wazzup headbutt without the Wazzup (no cheering for these fans). D-Von counters the Dudley Dog and a 3D later, pin Spike to retain the Tag Team titles in a short, ok match.

D-Von gets a table out from under the ring and it seems that they aren’t done with little Spike but Kane is there to the rescue. He flattens D-Von with a powerbomb, chokeslams Bubba through the table and signals his pyro before the dominant Intercontinental Champion carries his little injured tag partner to the back with one arm.

Christian goes to see Edge and after assuming that he’s going to bicker and argue as they’ve done in recent weeks, Christian instead wishes his brother luck against Kurt.

Back at ringside there’s another bit of hidden footage of DDP in the parking lot outside his hotel. He is immediately flustered and angry about it. Seems like Page has remarkably thin skin and resistance to mind games despite what he’s done for the past month. 

Live from WWF New York, The One Billy Gunn is there to talk about the King of the Ring. JR asks him about who he thinks will win and just like Jerry Lynn last month, he kicks off at JR about the fact that he’s in New York and wasn’t in the tournament or at the PPV. This has become a tradition. Billy won the tournament in 1999 but you’d be forgiven for having forgotten because he is easily the least impactful King of the Ring of all time.

King of the Ring Final

Kurt Angle vs. Edge

Coming into the final, Edge is selling his ribs from earlier and Rhyno’s attack but Kurt seems in remarkably good condition.

Before the match, he gets a mic and apologises for their falling out on Smackdown. They shake hands, and then Kurt reminds Edge that he still has a street fight tonight. He says that since Edge has no chance of winning anyway, he should just lay down and let Kurt win so that he can stay fresh for Shane later. It’s the right thing to do as his friend.

 “Shockingly” Edge isn’t into the idea and answers with a punch and goes on the offence immediately with punches, clotheslines and a big flapjack.

Paul Heyman smartly speculates that perhaps Shane helped Kurt earlier because he actually wants him to win for the prestige of the WCW Owner defeating the WWF’s King of the Ring. A nice theory honestly. 

Kurt dominates and with a big overhead belly to belly throw over the top rope to the floor which puts him firmly in the driving seat.

Edge gets a couple of hope spots with roll ups but Kurt kicks out with ease and keeps up the pressure, focusing on Edge’s ribs just like Rhyno did earlier. 

They fight to the outside and get close to DDP but don’t interact with him - he has just been sitting there all night long. 

Edge gets his biggest comeback so far by catching Kurt on the top rope with a dropkick and then bringing him down with a hurricanana.

This is a good match but just like they have been all night, the fans are pretty quiet. Dead crowd in New Jersey.

There’s a nice exchange as Edge counters the Angle slam into a Impaler DDT, which Kurt counters into an Angle lock. Edge rolls through that into a slam and has the visual three count but Christian runs down to the ring and distracts the referee. Was it an accident or did Christian just cost Edge this match on purpose? 

Edge tries a spear but misses and the referee gets knocked down. Kurt locks in the Angle lock and Edge taps out but there’s no referee to call it. 

Shane McMahon comes through the crowd and flattens Kurt with a spear of his own, and Edge capitalises with an Impaler DDT just as the referee wakes up to count the three. Edge is the 2001 King of the Ring! There’s not a lot of grandeur to his victory as he gets out of the ring and limps to the back almost immediately. I’d have liked to see Edge celebrate in the ring a bit but regardless, he’s the King of the Ring and Shane McMahon got another big advantage over Kurt.

Much like earlier, Tazz asks Chris Benoit about the WCW defection rumours and - just like Jericho - he messes with him a bit and acts like he’s angered by the question, but then tells him it was a good question. Jeez guys, give Tazz a break.

Coachman interviews the new King of the Ring Edge who is delighted of course. Christian comes in and after explaining that he only came out to try and help Edge - why else would you have come out Christian? - and goes to get champagne and balloons! Edge has a big babyface promo here - he reeks of royalty! 

WWF Light Heavyweight Championship

Jeff Hardy © vs. X-Pac

This match has had a little build as The Hardyz have had a few run ins with X-Factor. All three of them have come close to taking Matt’s European title in fact.

On this show the WWE Network hasn’t dubbed Uncle Kracker! We did it lads. 

I expected all of their various friends to be out with them for this match but JR explains that it was agreed both Pac and Jeff would fly solo.

During the entrances for this match, JR promotes the next PPV, Fully Loaded. That ends up not happening but there will be a LOT more on that in the next Preview of course. 

This match starts fast with mat exchanges and counters with Jeff getting the first advantage, sending X-Pac to the outside and following with a running clothesline off the security wall.

2001 so far has been Jeff Hardy’s breakout year. Edge and Christian are obviously moving towards singles careers and Matt and Jeff Hardy are both holding singles titles but Jeff is the biggest star so far - picked up his first and second singles titles, had those strong showings against Triple H and Stone Cold back in May and now has what I believe is his first ever PPV singles match. 

X-Pac is the experienced wrestler in this match despite only being 29 years old and dominates, picking up a near fall off (what else?) a spinning heel kick and then grinding down Jeff with a chin lock. He’s showered in “X-Pac Sucks!” chants for his troubles.

The momentum shifts and Jeff mounts a comeback but there’s a botch as X-Pac tries a leap frog and so does Jeff and they collide in midair. They come back from it quickly with a Whisper in the Wind twisting moonsault and a loud squeal from the ladies in attendance as Jeff strips off his mesh tank top.

X-Pac hits an X-Factor and gets the three count but Jeff has his foot on the bottom rope so the match continues. 

Jeff counters a charge into the corner with a big boot and follows with a Swanton Bomb to win the match and retain his Light Heavyweight title.

It was so nice to see the Light Heavyweight title back on PPV and it's a subject I’ve mentioned a few times. We’ll actually see a fair bit more of it in the coming months on TV and PPV. Delighted. 

Back in the Commissioner’s office, William Regal and Tajiri discuss the King of the Ring as Stone Cold walks in. He’s playing with his cell phone and asks to use Regal’s landline. Seems like Vince is blocking his calls. He calls McMahon and tells him about the Benoit and Jericho defection rumours! Vince doesn’t believe him - he thinks it's a ploy to get him to the arena despite his ultimatum so Austin has Regal confirm it. I’ll talk more about the Austin/McMahon relationship before the main event. 

For the third time tonight, DDP is shown at ringside losing his temper. He’s sick of waiting and expected Undertaker to show up and attack him as soon as the PPV started. There’s more hidden footage of DDP making his way into the arena earlier and that's the last straw. DDP has lost his cool and his upperhand mentally and hops the barrier and grabs a mic. In the ring, DDP says he’s calling Undertaker out and wants him to come and fight him right now! 

The whole concept of Undertaker “making people famous” comes from Mick Foley. He “made Foley famous” by throwing him off the Hell in a Cell in 1998 and so it's become a catchphrase for him - making people famous just means beating them up. There’s a fourth and final video but this time the camera turns around to reveal Undertaker’s wife Sara has been the one filming all of this.

She tells DDP to get ready to get famous and that cues up Undertaker’s theme music in the arena.

Page paces like a wild animal in the ring as Undertaker walks out onto the stage and calmly, slowly puts on his gloves. He is taking his time but when he does finally get in the ring the crowd is a LOT quieter than you’d expect as the Deadman easily dominates and rains punches on DDP’s head and face. DDP uses a low blow to get a little bit of a break from the punches but this is a pretty one-sided beating. It’s not a match, it’s just a fight which Undertaker easily wins. 

As the beating continues, Sara comes down to the ring with a video camera to film the beating and even with DDP using a steel chair, Undertaker no-sells it and keeps the long, slow beating going all around the ringside area. This really does have about 10% of the heat you’d expect and I blame the quiet crowd. They’ve sucked all show long. 

After what feels like an eternity but was only really about 6 minutes, Undertaker big boots DDP out of the ring and he runs off through the crowd - he's as famous as his body will allow. 

I don’t want to get to spoilery but this portrayal - the WCW guy had the advantage, they started him strong letting him get in Taker’s head but then the WWF guy easily turned the tables on him and made him look like a total loser - is something we should all bear in mind for the rest of 2001. 

Out in the parking lot, Stone Cold is pacing and waiting for Mr. McMahon. He can’t wait all night and after a member of staff confirms it takes about 90 minutes to drive from Connecticut to New Jersey, he tells him that as soon as Vince arrives he has to come and find him.

Street Fight

Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon

This feud felt a little out of nowhere but the video package does a good job of recapping their run-ins. I’m not sure it warranted a street fight stipulation but a match full of weapons and shortcuts is what Shane needs to have a good match. I’m a huge Shane O’Mac fan and this (spoilers) is probably his greatest ever match.

This is the third year in a row that Shane has been involved in a match at King of the Ring PPV but the first time his match wasn’t the main event - that six man tag in 2000 feels like a lifetime ago and the handicap ladder match at the 1999 King of the Ring might as well have been a different century. 

Kurt looks full of rage as he walks to the ring and wastes zero time, tackling the owner of WCW off his feet and effortlessly throwing him around the ring. He’s so focused on beating up Shane that he even threw down his own medals!

Shane shows off a little with a pair of arm drags and a take down before bailing out of the ring for a breather.

Kurt, outraged at being outwrestled, gets on all fours and dares Shane to try and wrestle him properly. Kurt already has a cut above one of his eyes and is bleeding surprisingly heavily. 

Shane tries to mount Kurt who easily wrestles out of it and hammers him with forearms and a pair of suplexes. Kurt is, as you’d expect, absolutely dominating Shane.

After a pummelling, Kurt gets on all fours and once again dares Shane to try to wrestle him but Shane boots Kurt in the ribs and takes this WWF-style with punches and clotheslines. Shane gives him the runaround and gives Kurt a pair of diving clotheslines from the security wall, one of them clear across the announce table. Shane is a daredevil and he’ll need that to win. He gets a kendo stick from under the ring and lights Kurt up with shot after shot to the ribs and back. Kurt’s cut above his eye looks really nasty and he charges Shane into the ring post to give himself a break. Shane continues to put up a good fight, arm dragging Kurt into the security barrier a couple of times and running him into the ring steps.

Kurt bridges out of three pin falls attempts to show off his massive neck strength and Shane drops a pair of elbows on him and goes to get more weapons - stop signs and trash cans. He hammers Kurt with shot after shot to the body and the head each with a crack but when he goes for a cover, Kurt rolls through it and strikes Shane in a way that makes this look like a real fight! He peppers Shane with punches and when he rolls through and locks in an Ankle lock of his own, Kurt boots Shane in the face to break it. Shane hits a messy looking float-over into a DDT and JR obviously thought it looked messy too as he brings up that Shane is not formally trained. He proves both of our points by tripping when trying to lock in a sharpshooter and Kurt powers to the ropes, which doesn’t break the hold in a no disqualification match. Kurt uses the kendo stick to break the hold.

Shane beats on Kurt with a trash can and then lays it on Kurt to try a shooting star press! Kurt rolls clear but leaves the trash can in place which Shane lands on and crushes. The fans chant “holy shit” for that. Where did Shane pull a shooting star press from? He kicks out of the pin but Kurt is finally back into the fight. He launches Shane out of the ring and pummels him up the entrance ramp and drives Shane’s head into the King of the Ring throne set. That brings us to one of the most famous spots in wrestling history as Kurt overhead belly suplexes Shane into a glass panel. It was supposed to smash but didn’t on the first attempt and Shane landed head first on the concrete. Kurt wasn’t deterred and on the second attempt send Shane sailing through the glass sheet, landing in the dark and covered in blood!

Kurt follows him through and after two failed attempts to drive Shane through the other one back out into the arena, just launches Shane head first through the glass which looked amazing! If anything, the failed attempts really sold the spot and made the point that the glass is obviously very thick and heavy. 

With both men covered in blood and broken glass, Kurt uses an equipment case on wheels to get Shane’s limp body back to the ring. Considering all the huge dives and spots Shane has done over the years, this is the first time I can remember seeing him bleed! Miraculously, Shane McMahon kicks out.

Kurt takes too long to set up a shot with a trash can kid and Shane uses a low blow and some shots of his own to get back in the fight. He gives Kurt an Angle Slam but the Olympian kicks out of that too. 

Kurt catapults Shane to the top rope and then uses a wooden board to build himself a platform, balancing it on the top ropes. From that height and with that base, he brings Kurt down from the top rope with an Angle Slam! That looked awesome and got another “Holy shit” chant. Top rope finishers are pretty common in 2024 but they weren’t in 2001! That is finally enough to keep Shane down and Kurt Angle wins a bloody and brutal street fight.

This is a great match, full of drama and ending with a series of awesome looking big moves. It’s so fondly remembered that there’s a 20 minute documentary with interviews with both men on the WWE Network just about this one match. Brilliant stuff. It’s thanks to matches like this that for years the stipulation “street fight” had a much more brutal and bloody and dangerous reputation than your standard no disqualification match. 

Before the main event, Jericho and Benoit are both shown getting pumped up and ready to compete, focused on the WWF title. The champion is still more concerned about Vince McMahon’s whereabouts and is out in the parking lot looking for him! 

Before we get to the main event, I want to talk a little bit about the booking of Stone Cold Steve Austin. His heel turn at Wrestlemania saw him portrayed as a psychopath. An angry, dangerous man who launched brutal steel chair assaults and was almost immediately addicted to “doing whatever he wanted” thanks to his new found alliance with McMahon. They never fully explained his heel turn but they left us enough bread crumbs about paranoia, fear about not being good enough anymore and him having “snapped” mentally that it's easy to figure out your own theory.

In the past month since Triple H’s injury, his natural charisma and showmanship is undermining his heel turn - the fact is that Stone Cold is very funny! His antics in backstage segments and his delivery of lines has fans laughing and even cheering him again. Even his shift to being like a child who needs his dad - hugging Mr. McMahon and bringing him presents - is damn entertaining. 

Vince’s ultimatum makes sense too - he’s told Austin that he has to win tonight all by himself because, from Vince’s point of view, the Stone Cold he cut a deal with in April was the man who couldn’t be stopped. We watched Austin overcome ridiculous odds single handedly time and time again so why WOULDN’T you want him to be your Corporate Champion? This new needy, psychotic Austin seems to need a LOT of help to win his matches and so in Vince’s shoes you might feel a little short changed. He needs Austin to prove he was a good investment, before he picks him over his wife and the divorce proceedings he’s trying to stop (not because he loves Linda, he just doesn’t want to give half his money away).
There’s layers to all of this and it is clever, but also somehow feels rushed. That was par for the course during the Attitude era but I guess they have a lot to get out of the way before the big WCW relaunch storyline begins. WCW has been mentioned a LOT during this PPV - not just because Shane’s the owner and DDP is one of “their” performers but with this rumour about a Benoit/Jericho defection and also just in a lot of passing chatter between JR and Heyman on commentary. Something is coming. 

WWF Championship

Stone Cold Steve Austin © vs. Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho

I’m not sure what the original plans were for the Two Man Power Trip before Triple H’s injury but I suspect it was something very similar to what we got, but with it being a fatal four way also involving The Game. 

Austin enters last and he’s too busy looking over his shoulder waiting for Vince so the challengers rush him and jump him on the entrance ramp attacking two on one. He tries to escape and runs through the crowd but Jericho and Benoit follow and continue the beating. He manages to get a little separation with a backdrop but the two on one assault continues back into the ring.

In the build up, Benoit has been shown to be the real threat and the likely next WWF Champion. Jericho is more popular but has still mostly been booked as the midcard champion he’s always been to this point.

There’s the first bit of tension as Jericho goes for a cover and Benoit breaks it up. He didn’t need to because Stone Cold would obviously kick out of a forearm 5 minutes into this match but it begins the story.

Austin ducks a Jericho spinning heel kick which takes out Benoit and that sets the tag team partners off and fighting themselves.

Austin tries a Thez Press on Jericho which is blocked and turned into a Walls of Jericho until Benoit breaks it up and suplexes Jericho up and over the top rope.

Benoit tries a Crossface but Austin is too close to the ropes so he drops him with a snap suplex for a near fall instead. 

Austin counters with a thumb to the eye and gets some momentum, dominating Benoit with strikes and kicks. He ramps him into the ring steps and the announce desk and when he sees Jericho getting back up, knocks him down. 

In the ring, he runs Benoit into Jericho, clocking their heads together and sending him back to the floor.

Austin goes for a Stunner but Benoit shoves him right into the referee. He stumbles back and Benoit gives Austin a Stunner but there’s no referee to count! Benoit gets the WWF title belt and knocks out Stone Cold but Jericho finally revives and breaks up the fall, sending Benoit head first into the ring post to take him out of the match.

Jericho tries a cover but Austin has had way too much time to recover and kicks out. 

Austin tries to put Jericho in a Walls of Jericho but he knows how to counter his own move and retaliates with one of his own but much like with the Crossface earlier, he’s way too close to the ropes.

Austin hits a desperate spinebuster and gets a breather with all three men down (Benoit on the outside). 

Stone Cold wears down Jericho with a long sleeper which he eventually fights out of with a back suplex. Jericho gets on a roll with forearms and elbows and knocks Benoit off the apron with a springboard dropkick. 

Austin blocks the Lionsault and when Benoit gets back into the ring and swings with a steel chair, the WWF Champion ducks and Benoit clatters it off Jericho’s head with a stiff shot! Austin drops Benoit with a Stunner but when he covers Jericho, Y2J kicks out.

Benoit rolls to the outside and so Austin keeps his focus on Jericho and gives him a superplex, which Jericho kicks out of. He gives Jericho a second superplex which he again kicks out of. Stone Cold tries to set up a third but Benoit stops him and clasps his hands, giving the Rattlesnake five German suplexes until he stops it with a low blow. All three men are down in the ring.

They all stumble to their feet and Jericho locks in the Walls of Jericho. Benoit put him in the Crossface and with both moves locked in Stone Cold taps out! Smartly the referee points out that can’t end the match - they can’t both win! I suspect, because it’s Earl Hebner, this wasn’t about doing the right thing and he just wanted to get some attention. Hate Earl. 

Austin rolls to the outside and leaves Benoit and Jericho to trade chops and suplexes and reverse each other’s finishers in the ring. One of their classic exchanges. Austin grabs a steel chair on the outside but Benoit sees it and stops him with a baseball slide dropkick. 

With Benoit and Jericho knocking each other down in the ring, the WCW Champion Booker T makes his shocking WWF debut, jumping the security wall and dropping the WWF Champion with a Scissors kick before slamming him through the announce table! Austin is down and out as security rush to the ring to escort him out of the arena.

Austin out cold on what’s left of the announce table as Benoit and Jericho continue the match in the ring. This would certainly make the rumours seem to be true - WCW sending their champion to make sure either Benoit or Jericho win the title to bring it to WCW! 

Jericho stops Benoit from performing the top rope headbutt but seems to badly botch his Lionsault. Unable to beat Benoit, Jericho brings Austin into the ring and with a moonsault off the top rope has the WWF title won until Benoit breaks it up.

He gives Stone Cold a diving headbutt and HE has the match won but Jericho pulls the referee out of the ring. 

Benoit and Jericho climb to the top rope and with a back suplex from the top rope both crash to the mat. Jericho bounces and rolls clear and with Benoit out cold and flat on his back, Austin crawls into a cover and wins the WWF title in a pretty flat finish. 

Austin gets the WWF title handed to him and he can barely move as he crawls out of the ring and staggers up the entrance ramp. Austin didn’t win - he survived. The big story on screen is the interference by the WCW Champion Booker T - a huge shot fired in this pending Invasion by WCW. As Austin gets to the top of the ramp he doesn’t even celebrate - he did it all by himself beating Benoit and Jericho, even with Booker T attacking him. Was it luck or was it skill?