Raw is War - May 21st, 2001

Momentous Main Event

An odd start to this episode of Raw as there’s no Raw intro. After the WWF signature it’s a hard cut to inside the arena. The glass shatters and the unhinged WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin makes his way down to the ring. I had a laugh as he got out of the ring to get in the face of a woman in the front row who’s aggressively talking trash at him. Fair play, she doesn’t back down. He berates the fans, he gets loud boos and “asshole” chants, tells Undertaker that there will be no rematch and continues to beat us over the head with his new catchphrase. “My name is Stone Cold Steve Austin, I am the World Wrestling Federation Champion and I do not deserve to be treated this way”. It’s working as when he even starts saying it, the fans boo.

As he continues to explain that no one can stop him, Chris Jericho of all people interrupts. Last night at Judgment Day, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit became the number one contenders to the Tag Team titles - a championship Austin also holds with Triple H. The fans get loudly behind Y2J telling Austin to “shut the hell up”. It’s a good promo as he says he doesn’t even care why Austin sold his soul anymore - interesting that they’d acknowledge he still hasn’t really explained why he turned heel - but says that by selling his mind, body and soul to Mr. McMahon he’s proved himself to be an even bigger slut than Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley! He then challenges Austin and Triple H to put the titles on the line against he and Benoit tonight, before rushing the ring to start a fight! It doesn’t last long before Austin’s tag partner Triple H turns down to help. Benoit follows to stop the two on one odds and Benoit and Jericho clear Austin and Triple H out of the ring as referees swarm the ringside to hold the Two Man Power Trip at bay. Just like that, we have a Tag Team Championship main event. That match is infamous, but we’ll get to that in due course. Backstage, Austin and Triple H complain to Vince McMahon about how they’ve been treated. 

Backstage after a couple of segments where Stone Cold is looking for his wife, he asks Commissioner Regal if he’s seen her. William suggests that maybe The Undertaker has abducted her.

Stone Cold finally finds Debra in their locker room drinking a coffee and he's relieved to see she's ok. Undertaker bursts in and after threatening Debra, tells Austin that this isn’t over until HE says it's over. He made this personal and he’s not done making him pay yet. After two months of intense physicality and sneak attacks it feels weird to see them just standing together not throwing punches. Taker tells Austin to never mess with his family again and leaves. Despite their words, it definitely does feel like the feud is over. 

In the Two Man Power Trip locker room, Triple H blames Austin for costing him the IC title last night, but gives himself credit for helping Austin keep his WWF title. He emphasises that they are supposed to be a team.

Before the main event, Benoit and Jericho give each other a pep talk - all the things they’ve been through together as friends and enemies, name dropping their times in Japan and “all the crap down south” (they mean in WCW). They’re giving this main event some real big fight feel. Stone Cold Steve Austin enters first to what I'd call a subdued reaction. During his matches and promos he does manage to get the fans booing him and chanting at him with his excellent heel work but during his entrance it's clear the fans don’t want to boo him. There's a funny bit during his entrance for those keeping track of my feud with Earl Hebner - he totally gets in the way as Austin is posing on the turnbuckles and the WWF Champion has to basically shove him out of the way. Both Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho get big cheers for their entrances. This is the last time we’ll see Triple H make this entrance for a long time, but I’ll stop teasing and just talk about “that” in a bit I promise. We start out with a straight tag match as Benoit and Jericho tag in and out and outclass the Two Man Power Trip in the early going. The first dramatic near fall comes as Benoit locks Austin in the Crossface, the referee is too busy trying to get Jericho out of the ring to see Triple H blast him with a steel chair. Austin covers but Benoit kicks out. The Game and the Rattlesnake take over control and isolate Benoit, working him over with double teams in the ring and on the outside. After a long time, Benoit counters a sleeper into a German suplex on Triple H but the referee doesn’t see the tag. The match breaks down and as Austin and Jericho fight on the outside, Triple H spikes Benoit with a Pedigree. There’s no referee to count and Jericho drops Triple H with a missile dropkick leaving both men crawling for a tag which they get. Jericho strings together lots of clotheslines and chops and heel kicks and forearms and counters a Thesz Press attempt into a Walls of Jericho on Austin. It’s at this point that Triple H comes from behind with a club to Jericho to break the hold. You wouldn’t know it at the time - apart from Triple H’s limp - but The Game just tore his quad muscle completely off the bone. He guts it out and keeps the match going like a warrior, and Jericho actually locks him in the Walls of Jericho on the announce desk which looks amazing.

The (terrible) referee is too busy watching that and doesn’t count when Benoit gives Austin a diving headbutt in the ring. Austin drops him with a Stunner in return but Jericho pulls the referee out of the ring to stop that count! Jericho rushes the ring and gives Austin a Lionsault! Triple H tries to break up the pin with his sledgehammer but Jericho moves and he hits Austin in the stomach! Benoit tackles Triple H, Jericho covers Austin and the fans absolutely explode as the referee counts. Benoit and Jericho win the WWF Tag Team titles in a great match - the biggest win of their careers beating these two men! Raw ends quickly there but the real story is off camera. I mentioned above that Triple H tore his quad off the bone and it wasn’t just a minor injury - this was the big one. This is the last time we’ll see Triple H until January 2002. It’s hard to know exactly where the Two Man Power Trip storyline was going but most people think they’d have turned on each other with Triple H being the good guy. I can see that. We’ll never know as The Game now needs massive surgery and even sadder for him, he’ll miss the fairly enormous storyline the WWF had cooking for the rest of 2001. 

Shane O’Mac is Back

A smiling Kurt Angle arrives at the arena. He shows his medals off to some staff backstage (I didn’t recognise any of the extras) and is planning an Olympic medal ceremony tonight. There’s a few segments like this dotted through the show as he obnoxiously tells anyone who’ll listen about the ceremony tonight. In my favourite one, he asks Edge and Christian if they want to come out and stand on the silver and bronze podiums with him. They aren’t keen, and as has been the case for a few weeks the Canadians seem less and less interested in being Kurt’s friend. 

Kurt Angle enters the arena with the ring adorned with American flags and an Olympic medal stand set up. He reads a poem entitled “What is a hero?” from a scroll. He gets a ton of boos and “you suck” chants as he lectures us on how lucky we are to have him and how great he is. He is right, of course. Pyro explodes as Kurt poses on the podium with a hand on his heart.

The audio sounds off. Seems like whatever song they used in 2001 wasn’t cleared for use on the WWE Network and has been heavily dubbed over. It’s distracting, but Kurt is great as he tears up at the emotion…until Shane McMahon’s “here comes the money” theme song interrupts! He has the good version of his music now. Kurt looks angry and confused as to why the owner of WCW is here. He swaggers to the ring which by now is covered in a thick carpet of red, white and blue confetti which was falling from the ceiling. Shane talks about WCW, which is starting soon, but is unclear on why he interrupted Kurt to make this point. There’s no mention of their previous friendship. Shane kind of witters on as Kurt gets annoyed but when he climbs onto the medal stand and calls Kurt a “wussy”, Angle’s had enough and springs into action, giving Shane an awesome looking Angle slam off the podium to the mat and putting him in the ankle lock and making Shane tap out. I enjoyed this segment a lot.

After a commercial break, Shane is shown being escorted out of the building by security. His dad still doesn’t want the owner of WCW hanging around it seems. 

Backstage, Mr. McMahon apologises to Kurt Angle on behalf of the McMahon family for ruining his ceremony. Kurt says that he hopes Vince isn’t upset with hm for putting his son in the ankle lock - he’s only upset that he didn’t break Shane’s ankle! He then gives Kurt a chance to get more gold with a shot at the Intercontinental title tonight against Kane.

Kane defends his newly won Intercontinental Championship against Kurt Angle. Kurt focuses his attack and submissions on Kane’s arm for the bulk of the match but as Kane mounts a come back and sends Angle to the outside, Shane McMahon returns, sprinting down with a stiff clothesline to Kurt and throwing him back into the ring for a waiting Chokeslam! Kane retains the Intercontinental title thanks to Shane O’Mac. 

Table for Two

Backstage, Molly Holly and Spike Dudley are sitting on a big equipment case discussing their feuding family. He presents her with some Dudley-style lens-less glasses as a gift. 

Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley (with Spike) take on Hardcore and Crash Holly (with Molly). This feud has all come from Molly and Spike’s budding friendship and the Hollys (fair) distrust of The Dudleyz around women. Hardcore put D-Von through a table last night at Judgment Day which cost them Tag Team Turmoil. The fans are red hot for The Dudleyz who give Hardcore the Wazzup headbutt and call for the tables. Spike tries to convince his brother D-Von not to use the table and Crash capitalises by dropkicking it into their faces. Crash then tries to use the ring bell as a weapon but Molly takes it off him. As they argue, Hardcore grabs the ring bell and uses it on Bubba to win the match. H and Crash sarcastically thank Molly for handing them the ring bell - she didn’t! 

D-Von is angry at Molly for helping her cousins beat them as Spike pleads with them that she didn’t do anything on purpose and didn’t mean it. Bubba ends by saying that “that bitch is going through a table”. 

Other Happenings

• Rhyno defends the Hardcore Championship against the Big Show, who he pinned in a triple threat last night at Judgment Day. Rhyno dominates Show and focuses his attack on his right arm, stopping him from being able to use the chokeslam in theory. There’s lots of really loud, cracking shots to the head and shoulder with stop signs. He weathers the stop and with a chokeslam through a trash can, Big Show pins Rhyno and wins the Hardcore title. He’s victorious but heavily selling his right arm. Rhyno lost but came out of this looking great. 

• Terri goes to see the APA and aftr telling them they should be warming up for their tag match with The Radicals later, pours a beer over her white t-shirt. It doesn’t really do anything or go see through but it's enough to distract Bradshaw and Faarooq for Perry and Dean to jump them from behind and get an early advantage.
• The APA faces Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko. Terri is pretty clearly wearing a robe with a bikini underneath but no one acknowledges it during her entrance so I assume that’ll be a reveal later in the match. I don’t mention Terri much because she adds nothing to any of the acts she manages. She does get up on the apron and flashes Bradshaw but I think she missed her cue as all it really did was distract Perry Saturn - her own man - and it wasn’t the finish of the match. The finish is weird when it does come as the APA give him their double powerbomb finisher, then debate pinning him before picking him back up and giving him another with another long delay before the cover by Bradshaw. After the match, the referee and Malenko check on him and the commentators put it over like Perry has been knocked goofy, so I guess it was on purpose.Later backstage as medical staff check on Perry Saturn he stares off into space and says “You’re welcome” out of context. 

• Matt Hardy (with Jeff and Lita) defends the European Championship against X-Pac (with Justin Credible and Albert). This is a good match and it all breaks down with everyone fighting outside the ring. It’s Eddie Guererro in a Hardyz t-shirt who makes the difference, attacking X-Pac and allowing Matt to follow with a Twist of Fate and retain his European title. The commentators are pretty vocal about how they don’t get what's going on with Eddie and the Hardyz. He’s up to something. 

• In The Hardyz locker room, Eddie tells Matt to stay backstage and relax after his title defence as he and Jeff team up against Edge and Christian. 
• Live from WWF New York, the former leader of the Right to Censor Steven Richards is about to make an important announcement about the Right to Censor - Paul Heyman cuts him off and tells him that no one cares! They cut him short. Ha, that was good. This is the last time we’ll see Steven Richards under the Right to Censor gimmick.
• The odd couple team of Eddie Guerrero and Jeff Hardy have Lita with them to take on Edge and Christian. Eddie and Jeff work well as a team and with a little help from Lita, Eddie counters Christian into a top rope sunset flip powerbomb to pick up an upset victory over the former 7 time Tag Team Champions.

Smackdown! - May 24th, 2001

TLC 3

Mr. McMahon opens Smackdown and promises a historic episode of Smackdown tonight. He calls Benoit and Jericho’s title victory a miracle, and then breaks the news that Triple H suffered a severe leg injury (which the fans actually cheer - they had more respect for kayfabe back then) and says that he’ll be gone for 4 - 6 months. It actually ended up being more like 8. He says that Benoit and Jericho’s title reign will be a short one and says that tonight’s main event will be them defending their titles in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match against The Dudley Boyz, The Hardyz and Edge and Christian. The first four team TLC match, and the first on television. That is an enormous main event. 

In The Dudleyz locker room Spike tries to tell Bubba and D-Von that Molly didn’t screw them over on Raw by handing the ring bell to Hardcore. They aren't buying it and are still focused on putting her through a table. That kind of talk is exactly why The Hollys didn’t want Molly to be friends with Spike in the first place. 

Lillian Garcia interviews Edge and Christian about TLC 3 tonight. They’re extremely confident. They have won both the previous TLC matches and won the Triangle Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 2000, the unofficial birth of the match too. They’re right to be confident.

Before the main event, Benoit and Jericho discuss their chances. They were underdogs on Raw and they won, and the odds are against them tonight but they’re going to prove their victory wasn’t a miracle or a fluke.

The main event has a lot of hype all throughout the show and with the titles hung above the ring and the weapons assembled this does feel like the biggest main event in Smackdown history. After multiple exchanges with the ladders and everyone getting their shots in, Benoit tries a diving headbutt from the top rope to a table on the outside of the ring. Matt Hardy rolls out of the way and he crashes through, seemingly knocking himself unconscious.

Tazz even gets up from commentary to check on Benoit who is eventually taken away on a stretcher and leaving Jericho fighting for the tag titles on his own. In the next cool spot as Edge lays across the top of two ladders, Jericho puts him in a Walls of Jericho at the top of the ladders! Contrived but it looked great.

After several big bumps off the ladder and with everyone down, Benoit returns from the back holding his ribs and fights off Edge and Christian single handedly until they focus on his ribs and actually give him a con-chair-to. He sees it coming and covers his head so they aim for his injured ribs instead. He screams in anguish and it looks like Edge and Christian are going to win the tag titles for an 8th time. After more ladder bumps and an awesome looking 3D to Christian through a table in the ring, Jeff Hardy blows everyone away with a leapfrog leg drop from one ladder, up and over a taller ladder and down onto Bubba Dudley driving him through the announce table. That was amazing looking! After 20 minutes of mayhem and Edge bringing Jericho down from the top of a ladder with a diving spear, the injured Benoit manages to climb the ladder and pull down the Tag Team titles to retain for himself and Jericho. This is a fantastic match - all action and just as good as the TLC matches we saw on PPV. Smackdown closes with Benoit and Jericho posing at the top of a ladder with their Tag Team title belts. 

“My Name is Stone Cold Steve Austin, I am the World Wrestling Federation Champion….”

WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin heads down to the ring to address a few things. He calls his being pinned on Raw a fluke and freak accident. He is disgusted that he was pinned by Chris Jericho of all people. He then places the blame for the loss of the Tag Team titles squarely on Triple H. You have to assume that this was sowing the seeds for a feud when The Game returns but that ended up not happening. Austin calls Jericho’s finisher “the lion tamer” which was the name for the Walls of Jericho in WCW. His final point is directed at the Undertaker. He told him it’s not over but Stone Cold says that it is! He wants nothing more to do with Undertaker. He finishes by talking about how he’s a fighting champion and will fight anyone…but not tonight in this piece of crap town. 

Love is in the Air, and Kurt sends a message

After a recap of Shane McMahon’s antics with Kurt Angle on Raw, Kurt arrives at the arena and tells people backstage to let him know if Shane shows up tonight.

Elsewhere backstage, Molly is waiting for Spike to come and see her. Kurt Angle shows up and grills her about Shane McMahon and reminds us that he once broke her cousin Hardcore’s arm. He gets aggressive with her just as Spike shows up who barks “leave my girlfriend alone!” which brings a big smile to Molly’s face. Spike demands a match with Kurt right now and marches off to the ring, followed by Kurt who isn’t even dressed to compete. Spike is defending his girl’s honour! They get to the ring and the arena chants “Angle sucks” as Spike calls him chicken and goads him to get in the ring and start the match. A referee does show up and ring the bell so this is official. Spike gives Kurt the run around but when he does catch him he throws him around with suplexes and gives him an Angle slam from the ring steps to the floor outside the ring. He gives him another Angle slam in the ring and then clamps on the ankle lock. He wins by submission but won’t break the hold so Molly Holly runs down to save her boyfriend. Hardcore and Crash run down and pull Molly out of the ring - they save her and carry her away kicking and screaming, but leave Spike to be punished with more ankle lock.

Backstage Lillian Garcia asks Kurt why he did that to Spike. He says that that was a message to Shane McMahon and after getting the green light from Vince, he looks forward to breaking Shane’s ankle.

A Debut and a Departure

In Commissioner Regal’s office a young man is chattering away in Japanese. He introduces himself as Tajii - another ECW alumni. He wants to be a WWF Superstar, and Regal does give him praise for being a great performer but he can’t just give him a job. He needs to pay some dues and be the Commissioner's friend first and so Regal makes Tajiri his assistant. He tells Tajiri we don’t do racial stereotypes in the WWF and sends him to fetch his tea and crumpets. That’s a good gag, and this is the beginning of a comedy pairing which is fondly remembered. 

As Steve Blackman warms up with his kendo stick, Trish Stratus arrives and gets changed behind a partition where her shadow is cast and we can see that she’s getting naked. Blackman drops his weapon. They team up for a mixed tag team match later. They do the Austin Powers gimmick where he goes around to help her with her zip and he holds his kendo stick like a penis, just as Grandmaster Sexay walks in and sees the whole thing. It’s as funny as it sounds.

Grandmaster Sexay, Steve Blackman and Trish Stratus take on the Right to Censor team of Bull Buchanan, The Goodfather and Ivory. This feels like such a big step down for Trish who was involved in one of the biggest stories in the company up to Wrestlemania. She is quietly training hard to become a good in ring worker (which she absolutely did soon enough). The good guys win and dance together after the match - Trish even does the worm! This match is meaningful as this is the final appearance of the Right to Censor in any form. We’ll see Ivory again later in 2001 with a new gimmick and look but much like Val Venis, won’t see Goodfather again until he returns as The Godfather hoes and pimp train and all at the 2002 Royal Rumble. 

Other Happenings

• X-Pac takes on Eddie Guerrero. Both parties have agreed to keep this one on one with neither the rest of X-Factor nor the Hardyz and Lita at ringside. This is short but decent and to my shock, X-Pac flips Eddie off the top into the X-Factor which looked really cool but didn’t get much of a reaction. A clean win for X-Pac and it hurts me to say it but Eddie looked pretty out of it in this one. Uncoordinated and regularly out of position with a mostly blank expression on his face.
• Rhyno goes to see Commissioner Regal and demands a rematch for the Hardcore title. Regal says that it's not happening tonight. He wants a match with Austin for the WWF title (ha) but Stone Cold has already said he won’t wrestle tonight. He then says he wants Kane for the Intercontinental title. Regal can’t believe anyone would ask for a match with Kane, but he does agree to it. Later, Kane defends the Intercontinental Championship against Rhyno. Rhyno gets plenty of offence and looks strong but the still one-armed Kane finishes him off with a one-armed chokeslam to retain the title.

• Dean Malenko faces Raven. He’s got Perry Saturn and Terri with him. Perry gives Raven a neckbreaker behind the referee’s back, which allows Dean to pick up the victory. The Radicals try to assault Raven two on one with a steel chair after the match but he ducks and Saturn superkicks it back into Dean’s face, followed by a DDT to Saturn onto the steel chair. Just like on Raw, Saturn sells his head as Dean and Terri tend to him. They’re basically doing a “head trauma gives him a wacky personality” gimmick which is a little uncomfortable in hindsight.

Raw is War - May 28th, 2001

Canadian Heroes

Raw opens with an energetic recap of Smackdown which I included so you can see all the TLC 3 highlights.

Mr. McMahon swaggers down to the ring to open the show in the arena. He spends a few minutes making fun of Canada and Candians (they’re in Canada for this show, Calgary specifically. The home of Bret Hart and the Hart family) and then apparently wants to just leave after that with no announcement or bigger points. Fortunately his exit is interrupted by Canada’s own Chris Jericho. The fans cheer and scream about Canada and loudly chant “Y2J”. It takes him three attempts to get a working microphone and then he dramatically throws a broken one into the crowd - something that Jericho said he was told off for doing in his book - and then challenges Stone Cold to a WWF title match tonight. Vince refuses so Jericho mocks his hair calling it an obvious wig (Vince hilariously doesn’t deny it and instead looks sheepish and touches it) and says that he created the two biggest sluts in the world - Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and Stone Cold Steve Austin. He then shows footage from the 1987 Slammy awards of Vince singing and dancing to “Stand Back” which gets a lot of laughs and Vince sells as being deeply embarrassing. Vince finally relents and gives Jericho a title match tonight - not against Austin for the WWF title no, he can face Big Show for the Hardcore title. That brings out Y2J’s Tag Team Championship partner Chris Benoit who wants in on the fun. Benoit says that since Jericho has a match, he wants to challenge Stone Cold instead and goads Mr. McMahon getting them to show more of the Stand Back dance on the titantron. He doesn’t give Benoit a WWF title match either and instead books him against Rhyno. He does say that whichever one of them impresses him the most in their matches can have a WWF title match later. 

Chris Benoit, who has taped ribs from TLC 3 on Smackdown, takes on Rhyno who focuses on his midsection. Benoit guts it out and with a barrage of suplexes and countering the Gore into a Crippler Crossface picks up the win by submission.

The Big Show defends his Hardcore title against Chris Jericho. The big man throws Jericho around and uses an array of weapons - mostly trash cans and stop signs - until Jericho dropkicks the ring steps back into Show’s face and follows with a Lionsault to win the Hardcore title! Chris Jericho becomes a double champion and might have earned a shot at a third title tonight as well. Jericho leaves in pain but as he celebrates with both his title belts at the top of the ramp it's former Hardcore Champion Rhyno who ruins his party with a Gore, bringing his own referee to cash in on the 24/7 rule and win the Hardcore title back. Y2J’s reign as a double champion didn’t last long.

Backstage as Benoit and Jericho tend to their wounds and talk about their matches, Vince McMahon approaches and says that while they both impressed him tonight it’ll be Chris Benoit who gets a WWF title match tonight. It seems likely he picked whichever one of them was most hurt after their match - Benoit still has taped ribs. Jericho isn’t a sore loser about it and congratulates Benoit and hypes him up.

Mr. McMahon drops in on Commissioner Regal and is introduced to Tajiri who continues to energetically bow and chat away in Japanese. They send him to get fresh coffee for the boss and Vince tells William that Stone Cold has a big surprise for his WWF title match with Benoit later, and tells him to just sit back and enjoy.

In the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin defends the WWF Championship against Chris Benoit. Stone Cold has Mr. McMahon with him, and we don’t know what his surprise is. This show is the debut of his more colourful ring jacket - it was always white/silver writing on the waistcoat but here its blood red. Unusually, Howard Finkle gives mention of who the referee is for this match (Earl Hebner, who always gets a lot of boos in Canada because of the part he played in the Montreal screwjob) and gives the in-ring boxing style ring announcements for Austin and Benoit. That's something they always do for Championship matches nowadays. Heyman has talked about how there’s something in the air tonight, and this has a big fight feel. They’ve done a good job of making it seem like Chris Benoit might actually win the WWF title tonight. This is a physical match and honestly its PPV quality. The fans are really strongly behind their countryman and explode when he locks in a sharpshooter on Stone Cold and again when he drags him away from the ropes. Austin tries to use the WWF title belt as a weapon but the referee stops him. Vince argues with Earl at ringside but it backfires as Austin drops Benoit with a Stunner and there’s no referee to count. Vince accidentally keeps the referee distracted long enough for Benoit to recover and clock Austin with the title belt instead for a very close near fall. In the good old days Vince would have cost Austin on purpose but tonight it was purely accidental. The finish comes after more back and forth when Stone Cold locks Benoit in the Crossface and Vince rings the bell and has him declared the winner. Benoit never submitted, but this is just Montreal.

Stone Cold gives Earl Hebner a Stunner as he leaves the ring for good measure. None of this got the reaction or heat that they wanted as the fans are absolutely silent at the finish but they do pop when Chris Jericho attacks Austin and McMahon and gets them back into the ring. Jericho locks Stone Cold in the Walls of Jericho and the Rattlesnake taps out, but Benoit gets the biggest pop when he puts Vince McMahon in the Crippler Crossface and makes the chairman tap out! Raw ends with an army of referees trying to get the Tag Team Champions to release their holds. The fans were loud all night but particularly loud after both Benoit and Jericho’s singles victories earlier in the show and here for the double submission spot.

Mrs. Undertaker

JR explains at the top of the show that a courier handed him an unsigned letter earlier explaining that we would meet the Undertaker’s wife tonight. That’s especially odd because the Undertaker isn’t here tonight. Mysterious. 

Late in the show there’s some hidden camera footage as a heavily digitised voice shows The Undertaker’s wife Sara in her home brushing her hair and getting ready for bed. She doesn’t know the camera is there. This is the thing JR was talking about, something he’d mentioned multiple times during the show too. Someone is stalking Undertaker’s wife it seems! 

First Shot Fired by WCW

Steve Blackman and Trish Stratus face Terri and Perry Saturn in mixed tag team action. Trish and Terri have a little slagging match backstage at the makeup mirror (because girls) beforehand and they actually show that Blackman and Trish Austin Powers segment from Smackdown that I made fun of. Someone was obviously proud of that joke. The action between the women is what you’d expect (not great, mostly because it’s Terri) but even after all these shows and being used to it the fan’s gross reaction to seeing women makes me a little sad. In a very impressive looking spot, Blackman throws Terri up and over his head and she spins about 3 times before Saturn catches her. In the chaos we get the answer to a trivia question - who was the first WCW wrestler to appear on WWF TV and be called as such? Lance Storm. He runs in and drops Saturn with a superkick, giving Blackman and Trish the victory. JR and Heyman make the point that this isn’t a debut - he is a WCW performer and during the break, Lance Storm sprints through the back and leaves with Shane McMahon in his limo. Heyman ominously tells us that this is “just the beginning”. After the commercial break, Vince reads the security guards the riot act for letting it happen.

War of the Roses

Backstage Spike Dudley and Molly Holly are holding hands and making moon faces at each other. Kurt Angle shows up and lectures them on the birds and the bees and preaches abstinence. Kurt beat the hell out of Spike on Smackdown and he hasn’t learned his lesson as he slaps Kurt in the face for disrespecting his girlfriend. Kurt beats Spike silly and so Molly runs off looking for Bubba Ray and D-Von! She’s putting her own well being at risk here (Bubba and D-Von keep threatening to put her through a table) to get some help for Spike but it backfires as when they follow her out, Crash and Hardcore just so happen to be walking past and jump them instead. Molly was just trying to help Spike but again it’s going to make her look guilty and like she set them up! After the commercial Spike goes to check on his brothers and they accuse Molly of having done exactly that. Tonight it’s supposed to be all three Hollys against all three Dudleyz in a 6 person table match and Bubba and D-Von get angry and promise to put Molly through a table tonight. 

This match was advertised as a 6 person table match but it's now Bubba and D-Von vs. Crash and Hardcore with Spike and Molly only accompanying them to the ring. The Dudleyz are pretty beat up from TLC but gut it out and win the match with a 3D on Hardcore Holly through a table. Afterwards, Molly stupidly gets in the ring to check on him which leads to Bubba and D-Von stalking her and intending to drive her through the table. Spike gets in the ring and pleads with them not to do this to his girlfriend. Bubba shoves Spike down which gets boos, and Spike actually lays across the table refusing to allow this but Bubba doesn’t listen and just powerbombs Molly through his own little brother Spike and through the table! After the break, Molly and Spike are tended to by medical staff and just keep asking about each other. I think Bubba Ray and D-Von just turned heel.

Other Happenings

• There’s a video package about Triple H’s injury as he - pretty much out of character - explains what happened and how bad the injury is. There’s footage from the doctor and the surgery itself. It’s quite a long video and has comments from Stephanie who was there with him. It’s odd seeing her with her natural makeup and hair and not hamming it up as her TV persona. By this point she was his real life girlfriend too of course. They’re vague about his comeback time and hint that it’ll be around four months. It was longer.

• Howard Finkle gives a warm welcome to The Hart Family who are assembled en masse in the front row. Bret is the only one people would care about and he isn’t there of course. The WWF’s relationship with The Harts was always pretty awkward after Montreal and then Owen’s death. 
• X-Pac and Justin Credible (with Albert) take on The Hardyz (with Eddie Guerrero and Lita). It’s a chaotic match and as Albert and Eddie get involved, Jeff picks up the victory with a Swanton Bomb on X-Pac. Albert tries to powerbomb Jeff afterwards but Eddie - who is dressing more and more like the Hardyz with his t-shirt and sleeve - dropkicks Albert out of the ring to make the save. Later, Albert goes to see Commissioner Regal and demands a match with Eddie Guerrero. He agrees but bans everyone else from ringside. 
• Back in Commissioner Regal’s office he praises his new assistant’s tea making abilities and asks Tajiri to hang a portrait of the Queen for him. Regal is starting to veer babyface, getting laughs mocking Albert and Rhyno’s big heads and pretending to understand Tajiri’s Japanese.

• From WWF New York, Al Snow promotes the first season of Tough Enough. You’ll remember me mentioning that they had a casting call out for this show last year.
• Albert faces Eddie Guerrero. There’s a weird audio glitch on the WWE Network as the audio reduces to a whisper apart from the commentary which remains loud and clear. Albert uses his size and strength to bully Latino Heat but Lita comes down to ringside and distracts Albert allowing Eddie to roll him up for the victory. Eddie gives Lita a hug afterwards which is a little awkward.

Smackdown! - May 31st, 2001

Benoit’s Rematch

Smackdown tonight is also in Canada, specifically Edmonton which is Chris Benoit’s hometown. Chris Jericho opens the show in the arena followed by Chris Benoit. The WWF Tag Team Champions say that they want to give the former champions a rematch tonight but since Triple H is out for 6 months with a leg injury, Y2J suggests that Stone Cold teams up with Mr. McMahon instead! The fans are into it but we have now entered the era where Smackdown uses that distinctive high pitched fake crowd noise that they used relentlessly for about 15 years so it's hard to tell. It sounds like seagulls. Benoit gets some cheap pops hyping up the local sports teams and reminding everyone we’re in his hometown before goading Austin to accept his challenge. That brings Vince out onto the stage with a smirk on his face like he’s up to something. Vince says that if he did accept the challenge, he and Stone Cold would win the tag team titles tonight. He has plans for them individually though and books Chris Jericho against Kurt Angle and says that if he fought Benoit, he’d be the one pinning him. The hometown boy says that next time he and Vince are together in the ring he’s going to kick his ass. Vince tempts Benoit with a rematch with Stone Cold for the WWF title but says the WWF Champion has the night off. I guess he didn’t get the memo because that brings Stone Cold himself out onto the stage. It seems like McMahon is having a hard time controlling his champion and Austin rants like a maniac about how it bothers him that people call him a cheater after Raw. He knows that he can beat Benoit and he knows he DID submit on Raw so Austin accepts his challenge tonight.

He and Vince argue about it off mic as they make their way to the back - This new villainous version of Stone Cold isn’t a total coward then, and Mr. McMahon might have him on side but doesn’t quite have him on a leash.

Backstage, Vince goes to see Stone Cold and Debra and asks him to reconsider defending the title tonight. Austin accuses them both of doubting him and thinking he can’t beat Benoit, talks about the fans saying Benoit can beat him any time. He makes Vince repeat his name and assure him that he believes in Austin. What's funny is that pre-heel turn, Austin was so strongly booked that he beat everyone clean as a whistle but his whole loss of confidence and having to rely on McMahon’s tricks more and more is the theme of this heel run so far. Not being able to feed off the crowd anymore seems to have badly hurt his game.

In a pair of backstage segments, Benoit has his ribs taped up and Stone Cold stares at and caresses the WWF title belt like he’s in love with it. 

Chris Benoit enters first for the main event but before Stone Cold can be introduced, Mr. McMahon’s music plays and he comes out first in a referee shirt. He says that he’ll be the “special enforcer” to ensure the rules are followed. It’s unclear whether Stone Cold knew this was McMahon’s plan. Maybe it was his plan all along? He seems very friendly with Vince and talks strategy with him before the bell so it would certainly seem that way.

This is a super physical match and gets about 20 minutes which was still unusual for a TV match in this era, even after the Attitude era was over (or at least on the wind-down). They trade belt shots and counter submissions back and forther while Vince cheers on the WWF Champion and the fans chant “Let's go Benoit” pretty much non-stop. Stone Cold focuses his assault on Benoit’s taped up ribs as you’d expect. Benoit gives Austin German after German, holding onto the waist lock and driving the WWF Champion to the mat time and time again as Stone Cold calls for a Time Out that won’t ever come.

After 10 suplexes in a row, Mr McMahon gets on the apron so Benoit knocks him off and then locks Stone Cold in the Crossface. Vince gets in the ring and punches the referee out and charges Benoit with a steel chair which is blocked with a low blow. Benoit takes the chair and absolutely hammers McMahon with chair shot after chair shot, wearing out the owner of the WWF until finally Stone Cold is able to roll him up and even grabs the tights for extra leverage. The original referee counts and Stone Cold just barely holds onto the WWF title in a very good, PPV quality main event for Smackdown.

WCW 1

An out of breath Commissioner Regal and Tajiri run in to see Mr. McMahon. He lets the boss know that a limo with the licence plate “WCW 1” has been seen circling the arena. Vince is immediately concerned about Shane, and after a replay of Lance Storm’s dramatic interference on Raw the ringside area is surrounded by additional security tasked with stopping any more WCW run-ins. 

Chris Jericho takes on Kurt Angle. Kurt had a pre-match promo backstage where he insulted Canadian sports teams and their history in the Olympics. This match is the one that Vince is concerned about WCW interference in considering Kurt’s interaction with Shane McMahon last week. A good back and forth match but as Kurt locks in the ankle lock after Jericho jams his knee on a missed Lionsault, Shane McMahon comes through the crowd to try and attack Kurt! Security are quick to get the Owner of WCW over the barrier and through the crowd and with the referee and everyone distracted Spike Dudley - who’s had issues with Kurt bullying him - runs down and gives Angle his Dudley Dog finishing move! Jericho follows with a Lionsault to win this match and Kurt loses thanks to Shane and Spike, who probably weren't working together but the commentators act like they were. 

Shane McMahon cost Kurt his match with Chris Jericho, so Angle goes to see Commissioner Regal and demands a match with Shane at King of the Ring. Regal promises to do everything in his power to make the match happen. Tajiri keeps bowing to Kurt which gets on his nerves so he attacks him and beats him up. Regal seems outraged but after Kurt leaves, smiles about it.

Peeping Tom

They replay the footage from Raw where someone was watching The Undertaker’s wife in secret and then later in the show, there’s new footage - its Undertaker and Sara riding 4x4s and having fun together as a heavily digitised voice says that he’s having as much fun as they are just watching them. How very creepy, and someone is taking their life in their hands provoking the Undertaker in such a deeply personal, line-crossing way.

Happy Families

The Dudley Boyz are making their way through the back for their match. Spike tries to join them so they stop and ask what he’s doing. D-von and Bubba tell him that since he came to the WWF he’s just made their lives worse and that’s doubly true since he started dating Molly Holly. Bubba tells him to stay away from them. 

Bubba Ray and D-Von are heels now in my opinion and are a lot more subdued during their entrance to match their attitude but the fans haven’t quite got the message yet as there's still plenty of signs. The match itself is Bubba Ray vs. Hardcore Holly in singles action. Crash comes out with him too. With a little help from Crash and the ropes for leverage, Hadcore picks up the victory.

Jonathan Coachman interviews Spike Dudley and asks him about Molly’s health after being put through a table and really hammers home that Spike is a hero for laying on that table on Raw and trying to sacrifice himself for Molly. Spike says she’s fine and will be back soon and takes the chance to tell us and Molly how much he likes her. He’s playing it like a shy 16 year old boy but Spike is a grown man with a goatee so it feels appropriately comical. 

Other Happenings

• Kane defends the Intercontinental title against Edge. Christian isn’t here tonight as he was hurt in TLC 3 but he’ll be back on Raw. Edge puts up a good fight but Kane pretty quickly defeats him with a powerbomb to retain the title. Interesting there was no chokeslam - powerbomb is a new finisher?

• Rhyno defends the Hardcore title against Raven in a rematch of their great match at Backlash. This is also very good and Rhyno picks up the win with a running spinebuster through a table which looked awesome. 
• After a repeat of the lengthy video about Triple H’s injury from Raw (it's shorter, they’ve edited it down and made it tighter) Stephanie cuts a promo from the hospital calling out Stone Cold specifically for his nasty comments about The Game. None of this actually gets followed up on though.
• In The Hardyz locker room, Eddie Guerrero criticises Matt Hardy for being more focused on making out with Lita than on warming up for their match tonight. In Matt’s defence, this might be the best Lita has ever looked. 

• The match itself is a six man tag between Eddie and The Hardyz and the X-Factor trio of Albert, X-Pac and Justin Credible. Eddie seems to have won over both Jeff Hardy and Lita, but European Champion Matt continues to be wary of Latino Heat’s motives. I’m not sure where he’s going with all this friendship either but it's hard to believe it’s genuine. Matt has the match well in hand but when he sees Lita checking on Eddie Guerrero outside the ring after Albert appears to have injured his knee, the distraction allows Albert to drop Matt with a Baldo-Bomb and pick up the win.  Pinning Matt should earn Albert a shot at the European title surely. This is the last time we’ll see Eddie for now. I’ve alluded to this a couple of times already but we’ll never find out where this story with the Hardyz was going. They blame Albert for injuring him to explain his absence from TV but really he was sent to rehab and then quietly released in November. I’ll talk about it in full at the King of the Ring.

Raw is War - June 4th, 2001

Y2J’s Big Break

After a commercial break, a furious looking VInce McMahon makes his way down to the ring. He’s probably upset about the WCW invasion earlier (see the other section) but he might also be upset about the steel chair beating Chris Benoit gave him on Smackdown. He addresses both and after telling Shane that there will be no more WCW interference tonight, rewards Benoit for his “valiant efforts” to become WWF Champion last week with a one on one match with The Big Show tonight. He’s interrupted by Mick Foley (who’s mostly here to plug his new book, which is another New York Times best seller) who is here with another of the mystery stack of documents that Linda McMahon signed for him back in March. The previous ones have allowed him to insert himself as a special referee and book Raw main events and that's what this one does too. He books tonight’s main event - Stone Cold defending the WWF Championship against Chris Jericho. He bans both Benoit and Vince himself from ringside for it for good measure. Vince says that he’s fallen for this trick before and the last contract wasn’t actually valid so this one won’t be either. Mick says he thought Vince might see through it so he brings out a good friend of his - Governor Jesse Ventura, who just happens to be Governor of the state they’re in tonight. He tells Vince that he couldn’t control him when he worked for him and can’t control him now. He needs to learn that there are more powerful men than him and he’s one of them - Jesse makes sure the match is official and shakes Mick’s hand. “Have a nice day!”. Mick promises that he has one more big surprise for him tonight too before leaving

Backstage Stone Cold is shown arriving at the arena and making Debra carry his bag. Later as he polishes up the WWF title belt, Vince breaks the news to him about the match with Jericho tonight. Austin is pretty funny here telling Vince to just get a divorce because his marriage problems are affecting him, bad mouthing women but then catching himself when he realises his own wife is in the room. The Rattlesnake is not happy. 

WWF Tag Team Champion Chris Benoit faces the 500lbs Big Show. They’ve mentioned Benoit’s 10 German suplexes to Austin on Smackdown about 50 times so far tonight. Benoit counters a chokeslam attempt into a Crippler Crossface and in a massive upset manages to make the Big Show tap out! Another very strong showing for Chris Benoit. 

Stone Cold is stressed about his title defence tonight and wants to know what this other surprise Mick Foley has planned is. He sends Debra to find out, since she was his Lieutenant Commissioner and they’re still friends. She does but he gives nothing away and gives her a signed copy of his book instead.

Michael Cole interviews Chris Jericho before his WWF title match tonight. He does a shockingly bad impression of Austin and calls him a “soul selling slut” which was a good line. 

Before the main event, Mick Foley comes down to ringside to act as the special troubleshooting referee on the outside of the ring. That’s his big surprise. Stone Cold Steve Austin jumps Jericho as he gets into the ring and stomps the hell out of him while he’s still wearing his WWF Tag Team title belt. They talk a lot about Austin’s bad back after the 10 German suplexes he absorbed on Smackdown and it's tested with an early Walls of Jericho, but Austin gets to the ropes. Referee Earl Hebner goes down and so Mick Foley gets in the ring just as Jericho locks Austin in the Walls of Jericho.

Mick gets in the ring to call the match but then Commissioner Regal - presumably sent by Mr. McMahon who’s banned from ringside - down to the ring to attack Foley. Jericho goes out to try and help him but as Mick swings a steel chair for Regal, he hits Jericho by mistake. A Stone Cold Stunner later and Stone Cold retains the WWF title again. He leaves quickly and so Mick throws Regal into the ring so Jericho can punish him with the Walls of Jericho. Regal taps out as Mick puts on Socko and gives Regal a Mandible Claw for good measure. 

The Undertaker wants Answers

The Undertaker arrives at the arena on his bike and heads right down to the ring. He paces like a caged animal addressing the man who is stalking him and his wife and showing these sneaky hidden camera videos. He is more emotional than we’ve ever seen him. He gets out of the ring and questions JR about the letter he originally received. JR can’t offer any more information and when Paul Heyman says “if it was my old lady…” Taker slaps him in the face. JR suggests the Deadman go to speak with Mr. McMahon. He knows everything else that happens around here. At that moment, another video appears on the titantron. It’s Undertaker’s wife Sara at home with her dog. He talks about how she’s all alone and that whoever the man behind the video is closer than she thinks, and that she only “thinks she's safe” in the house. A distraught Undertaker marches backstage. Whoever this is, messing with Undertaker’s wife, has a death wish.

Taker takes JR’s advice and goes to confront Vince McMahon, kicking his office door off its hinges. He grabs McMahon and pulls him in close who frantically denies any knowledge or involvement. He says that we’ve already seen someone in the production truck tonight who shouldn’t be there - he played music and flashed logos so why couldn’t it have been him that showed the stalkers video? Vince has pointed the furious Undertaker at his son, Shane! 

The Invasion is underway

Raw opens with Kane defending the Intercontinental Championship against Christian. He retained against Edge on Smackdown. On their walk to the ring, Edge and Christian cut a classic “mocking the local sports teams” promo. They’re demonstrating that Kane’s “broken arm” is healing by making his soft cast smaller and smaller, which is 100% not how a broken arm heals. It’s either broken and needs a cast or it doesn’t.

Shortly into the match as Christian distracts the referee, Edge tries to interfere and gets a chokeslam for his troubles. At that point, “music” which sounds like an air raid siren plays and the WCW logo flashes up on the titantron. WCW wrestler Hugh Morrus comes through the crowd and gives Edge a moonsault before running off. There’s a shot of an excited Shane McMahon in the TV production truck explaining the music and titantron logo. Kane finishes Christian off with a powerbomb to retain his title but the real story here is more WCW interference in Raw. Paul Heyman somberly says that “the invasion has begun”, giving this storyline its name. Most wrestling fans know about and remember The Invasion even if they weren’t around for it and these are the seeds being planted.

The Start of the King of the Ring

In the first King of the Ring qualifying match, European Champion Matt Hardy faces his brother Jeff. Lita once again looks incredible here. All three of them enter together and do their tag team entrance before getting serious. The match is fast paced and the fans chant for “Lita”. Jeff counters a Twist of Fate into a backslide to pick up the victory and advance. 

In the second King of the Ring qualifier, Hardcore Champion Rhyno faces fellow former ECW World Champion Tazz. Tazz puts up a good fight but Rhyno finishes him off with a Gore out of nowhere to advance. 

In the locker room, Christian is disappointed he didn’t win the IC title tonight. He wants to accomplish something on his own and so he says he’s entered the 2001 King of the Ring tournament. Edge is against the idea because he also has entered the tournament. Things are a little tense between the former 7 time tag team champions as they wish each other luck and go their separate ways. 

Other Happenings

• Mick Foley runs into Trish Stratus and talks to her about her issues with Terri. His promo gets a little muddled but he does manage to convince Trish to challenge her to a bra and panties match. Trish is into the idea because, and I’ve said this before, in this period of wrestling women have to act like they love exposing themselves to get cheered.

• Kurt Angle busts in on Commissioner Regal who’s teaching Tajiri how to make perfect tea. Regal says that Shane has accepted Kurt’s challenge to a match at King of the Ring and is surprised to learn that Angle wants to be in the King of the Ring tournament as well. Kurt wants a match with Spike Dudley too to punish him for what he did on Smackdown so Regal adds him to the Dudleyz/Hollys match tonight and makes it a six man tag. Kurt recites all the terrible things he's done to the Hollys, but says he forgives them. Elsewhere having heard the news, Bubba and D-Von continue to berate their little brother and tell him to stay focused on the match and not on Molly Holly.

• At WWF New York, Molly Holly is live and wearing a lovely dress. She tells us that she also really likes Spike and back at the arena, Spike is overjoyed like a lovesick puppy.
• That match is next and while the Hollys aren’t happy to be teaming with Angle, they are looking forward to another match with The Dudleyz. Spike has a big goofy smile after Molly’s comments, and Heyman says that Spike is the one who bullies his big brothers which JR finds laughable. You know Bubba Ray and D-Von are veering heel now because Jim Ross is criticising them and their recent actions. A spirited match but the former WWF Champion makes the difference and with an Angle slam on Bubba Ray picks up the victory for his team. No tables tonight.
• In the bra and panties match, Trish has a huge advantage as she’s wearing long pants and a top whereas Terri has a short skirt and a thin blouse on which look incredibly easy to pull off. She’s also wrestling in high heels. They pull at each other’s clothes until finally Perry Saturn comes down in a robe and reveals that he’s the one wearing a bra and panties. He’s still doing the “knocked goofy” gimmick thanks to his concussions. The distraction allows Trish to pull off Terri’s skirt and win the match.

Smackdown! - June 7th, 2001

Tag Team Odds are stacked

Stone Cold makes his way out into the arena. It’s already been announced that tonight he’ll team with Vince McMahon to challenge Benoit and Jericho for the Tag Team titles, a match Benoit actually suggested last week. Michael Cole says it's the first time McMahon and Austin have ever teamed but that’s not true - they were on the same team in a six man tag a couple of years ago, around the time the Corporate Ministry was formed. Austin promises that he and Vince will put the Tag Team titles back around his waist tonight, and then says he can beat Benoit and Jericho single handedly at the same time and recaps all of the unfair and nefarious victories he’s picked up over Benoit and Jericho in the past two weeks. He ends by saying no one can stop him and the promo just…ends.

Stone Cold talks a lot these days about what he deserves and doesn’t deserve. He wants things handed to him. Later he makes Debra agree that he deserves to be the WWF Tag Team Champions again. She continues to be unenthusiastic about his partnership with Vince and heel turn but does appear to be slowly warming to it. She’s certainly on his side.

For the main event, after Tag Team Champions Benoit and Jericho have entered, just as the ring announcer is about to bring out Stone Cold and Mr. McMahon, Commissioner Regal comes out first. He says that before they defend the titles against McMahon and Austin they’ll first have a non-title match with Bradshaw and Faarooq, the APA. Cole and Tazz speculate that the APA has been paid for their services to soften up the Tag Team champions for them. The APA beat the snot out of the champions but with a Benoit DDT and a Lionsault from Jericho, he pins Faarooq to win the match.

Commissioner Regal comes back out and says that the victory was so impressive they can have another non-title match against Hardcore Champion Rhyno and the Big Show who rush down and set about brutalising the Tag Team Champions even further. After several minutes of beating them down, Benoit and Jericho work over Show with double teams and manage to get him in their combination Walls of Jericho/Crossface.

We’ll never know if he’d have tapped out as Rhyno cracks Jericho in the head with a steel chair to get his team disqualified. The beating continues and after two massive chokeslams to Benoit and two Gores to Jericho, William Regal gleefully announces their opponents for the Tag Team Championship match. McMahon and Austin come down all smiles and confidence as the champions lay broken in the ring.

Vince starts and pins Benoit who kicks out, so he tags out to Stone Cold. After several minutes of action, Jericho get Vince in the Walls of Jericho. He taps out but neither of them are legal. It does distract the referee enough that he misses the Stone Cold Stunner on Benoit and so can’t count. Austin takes out Jericho with a Stunner too and Benoit rolls Austin up, grabbing the tights and exposing quite a lot of Austin’s backside as he gets the three count! Despite the hugely stacked deck, Benoit and Jericho retain the Tag Team titles and perhaps even more importantly, Chris Benoit just pinned the WWF Champion.

Undertaker hunts for suspects

In the locker room a furious Undertaker paces on the spot and tells Kane that he’s going out to the parking lot to wait for Shane McMahon. That’s because on Raw, Vince nudged Undertaker into believing Shane might know something about whoever is stalking his wife with these creepy videos. 

While Vince is on the phone bragging to some unidentified person about becoming a tag team champion tonight, William Regal and his “house boy” Tajiri enters. Regal breaks the news that the WCW limo is again circling the building but this time, Vince wants him let in - he knows that the Undertaker is waiting to speak to him. Really, he knows Kurt Angle wants to try and break Shane’s ankle too so he should let him for that reason too.

Another hidden camera video of The Undertaker’s wife Sara. She appears to be grocery shopping. The creepy digitised voice says that the Undertaker is threatening him and that he doesn’t respond well to being threatened. The Undertaker is out in the parking lot waiting on Shane so it’s unclear if he saw the video.

Shane arrives in his WCW 1 Limo and Undertaker stands in front of it to make it stop. It’s not Shane that’s in the limo, but we don’t see who it is and its left to our imaginations which WCW performer it might have been.

Shane McMahon is backstage and bumps into Test who congratulates Shane on the WCW invasion and how much he’s driving his dad nuts. Shane is looking for Undertaker as he wants to clear up the misunderstanding and assure him he has nothing to do with the stalking of his wife. Test tells him to leave it alone and avoid the Deadman instead. 

Shane finds Kane and asks to speak to Undertaker who then appears and violently assaults Shane, throwing him around and against walls. Kane calms his brother down before he goes too far and says he believes Shane and vouches for him so Taker stops the beating and slumps against the wall, defeated.

Xtreme Title change

Jeff Hardy (with Lita) challenges Jerry Lynn for the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship. This is a good match and the fans are really into it, mostly due to how much they love Jeff Hardy and Lita. Jeff wins a back and forth exchange with a Swanton Bomb to become the new Light Heavyweight Champion! European Champion Matt Hardy runs down to join and celebrate with his brother. Both Hardyz have singles titles, and Jeff has advanced in the King of the Ring! 

King of the Ring

Smackdown opens with a King of the Ring qualifying match. Last year’s winner Kurt Angle takes on Hardcore Holly. Kurt is looking at a very busy night if he progresses as he’s already scheduled to wrestle Shane McMahon at the KOTR PPV event. Hardcore actually dominates but Angle is able to fight through and with an Angle Slam defeats Holly to advance. 

Edge and Christian watch The Hardyz (and Lita) leave the arena, both with singles gold. They have another passive aggressive chat about how they both crave some singles glory of their own and say they’ll cheer each other on in the King of the Ring and hope they meet in the finals. “Good” “Good” “Fine” “Fine”. That leads into Edge’s qualifying match as he faces fellow Canadian, Test. Cristian is true to his word, distracting Test and putting Edge’s foot on the ropes to break a pin. It’s enough and Edge capitalises with an impaler DDT to win the match and advance. 

Other Happenings

• Backstage as Spike Dudley and Molly Holly make moon faces at each other and talk about how much they like each other they’re interrupted by Perry Saturn. He’s goofy and says something about monkeys and dolphins. 

• In the back as Spike and Molly try to find a new spot to kiss after Saturn disturbed them, Tajiri bumps into them and tells them off in Japanese for making him drop the popcorn Regal sent him to get. 
• Kane defends the Intercontinental Championship against X-Pac. This is a VERY storied rivalry of course. Pac has his X-Factor buddies with him for back up. Kane fights off interference from Albert and Credible to beat X-Pac with his new powerbomb finisher to retain the title. Aftr the match, X-Factor jumps Kane three on one and Albert lays Kane out with a Baldo bomb as the commentators really put over how easily Albert manhandled the big red machine.

• Mick Foley approaches Chris Jericho in the locker room because he wanted to apologise for accidentally hitting him in the head with a steel chair on Raw. Jericho accepts it and promises that when he does win the WWF title one day he’ll do it all by himself. 

• William Regal heads down to the ring and explains his actions from Raw. He says that Mick Foley was about to ring the bell and “Montreal” Stone Cold so he came down to stop it. That’s not exactly what he said but i’m paraphrasing. It makes sense that Regal would save the WWF title for Austin bth because he loves McMahon and is allied with them but also because of his hatred of Chris Jericho. He tells Foley that he’s the superior commissioner and that he’s not in charge anymore. He mocks Foley’s writing accomplishments and says Shakespear would turn in his grave if he knew Mick was a number one best selling author. That eventually brings “The Micker” out to confront Commissioner Regal. Mick says that when he was commissioner, the WWF was fun to watch. As we get deeper into 2001, that might not be a thread they want to pull on TV as the fact is that while ratings and PPV buys were still sky high, attendance and overall interest and mainstream attention for the company were both starting to drop off. I’ll talk more about that here and there I’m sure. Foley says he’s going to come down and use Socko on Regal as William shouts for security to come out and stop him which they eventually do. The security guards are all massive and obviously trainee wrestlers but I didn’t recognise anyone. 
• Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley take on Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko, with Terri. Perry is smiling and messing around during his entrance as Terri and Dean look concerned. All those knocks to the head seem to have had a permanent effect on Perry. Perry gets distracted by the Dudleyz glasses and then joins them in a Wazzup to his own partner. “D-Von, get the muffins! You’re welcome!” A confused Perry turns into a 3D and the Dudleyz pick up the win.
• Backstage Spike and Molly try a third time to kiss and this time are interrupted by Taka Michinoku and Funaki. They have their comedy bad dubbing backstage too and ask to stay and watch as they are very lonely. “Indeed”

Raw is War - June 11th, 2001

King of the Ring main event is Set

Raw opens with Commissioner Regal who says that the world today doesn’t promote sportsmanship or fair play. He shows footage from Smackdown as Chris Benoit pinned Stone Cold Steve Austin with a roll up and by holding the tights. He does make a good joke about Austin’s butt being mostly exposed, accusing him of promoting nudity. Regal says he might just step down as Commissioner if that’s what makes a champion in the WWF and the fans break out in a “Foley” chant. It does seem like they’re working towards bringing back Mick as Commissioner. He says that to punish them  for cheating, Jericho will have to face Rhyno and Big Show in a handicap match, and Benoit will face Kurt Angle inside a steel cage. He turns his attention to deciding the main event of King of the Ring which brings out Mick Foley. He gets a huge pop and after some more funny back and forth - these two were good friends in real life for years and you can tell they had good fun winding each other up - Mick brings out his special guest, Linda McMahon. Regal immediately starts sucking up to her of course. It seems that she has decided what the main event of the King of the Ring should be. She initially suggests having Austin defend the title twice in one night against both Benoit and Jericho but decided that would be unfair as if Benoit beat Austin first, Jericho wouldn’t get a title shot. So she shelved that idea, and then showed footage from Smackdown of Stone Cold saying he could beat Benoit and Jericho at the same time. That gave Mick an idea and he was the one who suggested a triple threat match at King of the Ring, which Linda loves and makes official. 

Stone Cold and Debra arrive and pass Linda McMahon and Mick Foley in the parking lot. The WWF Champion berates Linda like a mad man about the stress he’s causing Vince and himself until Mick stands up to him and tells him to get out of her face. He breaks the news about the King of the Ring main event which sends Austin into a fury as he screams and chases after the limo calling them both “sons of bitches”.

Stone Cold Steve Austin goes to see Commissioner Regal and is very angry. He rants at Regal about how there’s a conspiracy against him and everyone is trying to screw him. His name is Stone Cold Steve Austin etc. Regal tries to stand up for himself and blames Mr. McMahon’s marital issues. Tajiri steps in to stand up for his boss and so the Rattlesnake beats the hell out of him.

Austin catches Vince entering the arena and after screaming at him about the unfairness of the match at King of the Ring - Vince looks genuinely afraid of this monster he’s created - Austin pulls him in for a hug. The camera pans around to show an utterly demented look on the face of the WWF Champion. Something in Austin’s head has snapped - JR said it best. 

Benoit and Jericho discuss their WWF title match at King of the Ring. They’re respectful but competitive and both say that if and when they win the title, they’ll give the other a shot at it. 

Tag Team Champion Chris Jericho faces Big Show and Hardcore Champion Rhyno in a handicap match. Y2J puts up a good fight but after a massive chokeslam from Big Show it’s over. Rhyno Gores his own partner and steals the pin, leaving Show in a rage. Afterwards, Michael Cole asks Rhyno backstage why he did that and he points out that now if Jericho wins the WWF title at the PPV that makes him the number one contender. Pretty smart.

While Chris Jericho is being tended to in the trainer's room he’s jumped and assaulted by Stone Cold Steve Austin who beats up one of his challengers at King of the Ring all over the room and leaves him in a heap.

Before the main event, WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin comes down to the ring and joins commentary. He spends a lot of time being extremely aggressive towards JR. It’s entertaining but distracting. 

In the steel cage match they start fast by throwing each other into the cage very quickly. Benoit brings Angle off the top rope with a German suplex which looked awesome. Kurt actually has the match won fair and square after a low blow and an Angle slam but doesn’t cover and goes up the cage and comes off with an amazing looking death defying moonsault instead!

Benoit rolls out of the way and Kurt gets nothing but a rough landing! The match continues as Angle seems to shrug that off surprisingly easily. Benoit sends him to the cage and follows up with a barrage of German suplexes - nine to be precise. Benoit climbs the cage and looks like he can escape and win the match but Austin jumps up and swings with a steel chair, not letting Benoit climb down to victory. He stands on top of the cage and, given the options, decides to dive back into the cage with a headbutt to Angle instead! That was an insanely risky move as I wasn’t planning to mention this until the King of the Ring itself but Chris Benoit suffered a neck injury during TLC3 and doesn’t have very long at all until, much like Triple H, he’ll be gone for an extended period to have surgery. Benoit crawls to the door but Stone Cold holds that shut too. He slams the cage door on Benoit’s head and that gives Kurt Angle the victory - he decides to climb out rather than walk past Stone Cold at the door. Everyone is a little afraid of the demented WWF Champion. Kurt Angle wins the match and after the bell, Stone Cold gets in the cage wit ha steel chair and absolutely leathers Benoit with it. Of course Earl Hebner stays in the cage the whole time to be in the way and keep the camera on himself. It’s an incredible savage beating with about 30 chair shots in total to Benoit’s back, head, legs and torso. 

King of the Ring

Backstage, Edge chats to his buddy Rhyno about being Hardcore champion. Christian approaches and gets all huffy and paranoid about how they’ve both already advanced in the King of the Ring tournament. His qualifier is tonight against Intercontinental Champion Kane, which he’s right in saying is a much harder match than either of them had. Christian walks away and Edge says that his brother can sometimes be “a total bitch”.

That match is next and with Edge at ringside, Christian appears to be totally overmatched and is easily thrown around and dominated by Kane. With a distraction from Edge and a run in and Baldo bomb by Albert who seems to have his sights set on the Intercontinental title, Christian advances against the odds.

In another King of the Ring qualifying match, Perry Saturn (with Terri and Dean Malenko) faces Steve Blackman (with Trish Stratus). Perry is still all knocked silly and continues to goof around during his entrance. Saturn picks up the victory with a bridging suplex. After the match, Terri and Trish get into a fight and Malenko threatens to hit Trish with a kendo stick. Blackman stops him and he clears out the Radicals.

Terri, Perry and Dean go to see Commissioner Regal and they ask for a day off during Smackdown so they can get his head checked out. 

Undertaker’s Fury helps out Shane McMahon

Backstage, owner of WCW Shane McMahon tracks down Kane. He thanks him for vouching for him with Undertaker on Smackdown and says he’s had a thought. Who is someone who was always messing with another marriage specifically Triple H and Stephanie’s - his King of the Ring opponent Kurt Angle! 

Kurt Angle heads down to the ring and after singing his own praises and showing us footage of his being inducted into the amateur wrestling hall of fame, he talks about his plans to become a two-time King of the Ring and then beat Shane McMahon all in the same night. He challenges Shane to come out and fight him but instead its The Undertaker who comes out. He accuses Kurt of knowing something about his wife’s stalker. Kurt says he’s met Taker’s wife and didn’t even like her, so the Deadman hammers him with a Last Ride.

As he stands in the ring, another video from his stalker appears on the titantron - he’s in Undertaker and Sara’s hotel room! He walks around touching their stuff and writes “i know where you are” in her lipstick on the mirror. Undertaker leaves and runs backstage to check on his wife and as Kurt struggles to his feet in the ring, Shane McMahon comes through the crowd and lays out Kurt with his own move - the Angle slam! 

Other Happenings

• Some personal trivia to start us off - this Raw took place the day after my 13th birthday. What a time to be alive.
• European Champion Matt Hardy and Light Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy (with Lita) face X-Pac and Justin Credible. During the entrances, JR tells us that Eddie Guerrero was injured by Albert and will be gone for “several weeks”. I’ve already addressed this and the real reason he’s done, but his absence ended up being close to a full year. A hurricanrana by Lita leads to a Swanton Bomb by Jeff who pins X-Pac to win the match. Afterwards. Credible drops Matt with a DDT on the outside and sore loser X-Pac cracks Jeff with a stiff chair shot to the head. 
• There's another medical update on Triple H's leg surgery and rehab thus far. This is the last update for a while as reality set in that The Game would miss the rest of 2001.

• Trish Stratus goes to see Steve Blackman and asks to be at ringside with him for his match with Perry Saturn later. He says it's just because she wants to get her hands on Terri again, but Trish flirts a little with him.
• Molly and Spike discuss their ongoing family issues. They are affectionate and sweet to each other despite being on opposite ends of a six person tag match later. They're about to kiss when Bubba shows up and pulls Spike’s hair, threatening Molly. 

• After a backstage segment where Hardcore and Crash Holly taunt Molly about her relationship with Spike and say they’re going to make her be the one to pin him tonight, the new much more heel-like Bubba Ray and D-Von enter with a reluctant looking Spike. The warring families tag the two love birds in and scream at them to fight each other but they obviously refuse until Hardcore gets sick of waiting and tags himself in to beat down Spike in the corner. The match is chaotic and amidst all the attempts to goad Spike and Molly to get more involved, Bubba and D-Von set up a table on the outside. They finish Crash with a 3D to officially win the match and then afterwards as the brawl continues, Hardcore and Bubba end up coming off the apron together and crashing through the table. With everyone down and out of the way, Molly and Spike FINALLY have the kiss they’ve been teasing for a few weeks in the middle of the ring to a big pop and leave together holding hands, smiles on their faces.

• Live from WWF New York, Test is asked if he’d consider joining Shane McMahon’s WCW. He says that if all the rumours he’s heard about Shane’s plans then yeah he might want to jump ship.

Smackdown! - June 14th, 2001

Love birds and a petition

Backstage as Molly Holly and Spike Dudley share a quiet moment, Bubba Ray and D-Von demand a private word. They tell him off for choosing a girl over their own family. Bubba calls Spike selfish and says that if he gets in any trouble tonight they won’t make any effort to help him out. What kind of trouble could Spike get into? Do they know something we don’t?

Backstage, Stone Cold Steve Austin walks around backstage with a petition to get his match at the King of the Ring cancelled. Austin is overly nice and sucks up to Sgt. Slaughter. It’s pretty funny as he shakes his hand and asks how the family are. Kevin Kelly approaches and asks him about the petition. Austin explains and makes Kevin sign it too, while telling him what a good kid he is.

Stone Cold’s quest for signatures continues and he runs into JR. It’s deeply uncomfortable as he alternates between abuse and compliments before forcing JR to sign it which he does just to avoid a beating. 

Stone Cold goes to see William Regal and Tajiri and gets two more signatures. His interaction with Tajiri is hilarious as the Japanese superstar cowers, Austin apologises because he's on a charm offensive and they get their wires crossed between bowing and shaking hands. Very funny to see Austin bow. 

There’s more segments with Austin getting signatures, intimidating backstage staff while being false-nice and bullying Howard Finkle and even getting Big Show to sign it while sitting on the toilet with loud fart sound effects playing. 

Stone Cold’s mission with his petition leads him to Spike Dudley and Molly Holly. He demands Spike sign it which he does but when the Rattlesnake calls Molly a bimbo, Spike changes his mind and refuses to sign it! He stands up for Molly and gets in Austin’s face and tears up the petition! Stone Cold looks beyond shocked and falls to his knees to try and salvage it. After a commercial break, Austin goes straight to see William Regal and is distraught. He demands a match with Spike Dudley tonight and even says he’ll put the WWF title on the line! 

In the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin defends the WWF title against, of all people, Spike Dudley! Austin attacks early and beats Spike senseless. He doesn’t even take his waist coat off. As the beating continues, Spike’s girlfriend Molly comes down to ringside to cheer him on. Spike counters a charge and sends Austin up and over the announce desk and throws lots of punches, biting and scapping at the champion but it’s not enough to build any real momentum. Austin finally ends the one sided beating with a Stone Cold Stunner and a three count. Austin still looks pissed off, like he can’t believe the fans are booing him. Austin leaves in victory but when he sees Molly comforting Spike in the ring, goes back and beats on him with a steel chair. Just as it looks like he might hit Molly too, Benoit and Jericho run down with chairs of their own to clear out the WWF Champion and rescue Spike and Molly. 

King of the Ring

Smackdown opens with Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit defending the Tag Team titles against Edge and Christian. E+C have been far more focused on singles glory lately, and with a WWF title match at King of the Ring that’s true of Benoit and Jericho too really. This is a good match which goes about 15 minutes. Christian tries a spear which misses and takes out his own partner. Jericho follows with a Lionsault and Benoit and Jericho retain the Tag Team titles.

After the match a frustrated Edge shoves Christian and the two argue. In great timing - I guess everyone saw where this storyline was going - a fan holds up a huge sign which says “Breaking up Edge and Chistian totally reeks of suckitude” which is quickly confiscated by security. The tension of both being in the King of the Ring tournament and both wanting some singles glory is starting to get to Edge and Christian. 

In the first of two King of the Ring qualifiers, Big Show faces Raven. Raven tries his best but with a big chokeslam, Big Show advances. I haven’t mentioned it and his chokeslam still looks great but since returning at the 2001 Royal Rumble he has stopped dropping to his knees when delivering it.

Commissioner Regal informs Tajiri that because he’s gotten so good at making tea and he stood up for him on Raw against Stone Cold, he’s rewarding him with a King of the Ring qualifier tonight. He doesn’t say who the opponent is.

In the final King of the Ring qualifying match, Tajiri makes his WWF debut (with Commissioner Regal in his corner) against Crash Holly. There’s a loud ECW chant for former talent Tajiri. He shows off some impressive kicks and even William Regal looks impressed. Tajiri is a fantastic performer - I’m a big fan. Tajiri shows off his trademark kicks and Tarantula submission holds as William Regal looks incredibly impressed. Tajiri wins and Regal gives him a hug and raises his arms after the match. 

Brothers of Destruction

X-Factor discusses strategy as Albert has an Intercontinental title match tonight. Kurt Angle, who has a match with Undertaker tonight, enters and asks if they want to form a partnership and help each other out against the Brothers of Destruction. They agree and Kurt acts like he JUST got the pun name “Justin Credible” which makes X-Pac break character and laugh away from the camera.

On his way to the ring for his match with Undertaker, Kurt calls himself a superhero and the best wrestler in the whole world. He’s probably right. He also challenges Shane to make their match at King of the Ring a street fight, and ends by saying he’s going to beat an apology out of The Undertaker. He’s being extra brave because he knows he’s got backup from X-Factor. Undertaker loses his temper - he’s so emotional about all of this stalker business and hits Kurt with the ring steps right in front of the referee. He continues the beating until X-Pac and Justin Credible run down to help him out. He easily fights them off too and plants them both with massive chokeslams. He isn’t done and scoops them both up for a second chokeslam to Credible and a massive Last Ride to X-Pac. The American Badass is angrier than we’ve ever seen him. 

Test’s interview later in the show is interrupted by another creepy stalker video directed at the Undertaker’s wife - this one showing her in a bikini, and that Undertaker has left multiple personal security guarding his house. “It’s time for my dreams to come true”. 

Kane defends the Intercontinental Championship against Albert. This is a physical big man match. Albert very impressively military presses Kane, lifting him above his head. Kane battles through and despite a strong showing by Albert, Kane finishes him off with a chokeslam to retain his title. Kurt didn’t even try to live up to his side of the bargain.

Other Happenings

• Rhyno defends the Hardcore title against Test. This is a good and physical match. Test might have the title won with a top rope elbow drop driving Rhyno through a table but as they lay on the mat, we get another WCW Invasion and Shane McMahon coms out with WCW’s Stacy Kiebler on his arm. She’s wearing little shorts to show off her famous long legs. She gets on the apron and distracts Rhyno allowing Test to give him a big boot and win the Hardcore title. The irony of course is that Stacy and Test would end up dating for a long time years later. Security escorts Shane and Stacy out of the arena but Test is the new Hardcore champion.

• Kevin Kelly interviews new Hardcore Champion Test who says that the title is hard to hold onto because of the 24/7 rule but he welcomes all challenges. 
• There’s multiple segments with Terri and Perry Saturn on a double date with Dean Malenko and a beautiful blonde. Dean and Terri look annoyed at Perry’s crazy gibberish but Dean’s date finds it adorable and develops a shine for him. In the final one of these segments, Terri gets sick of the other woman and tries to hit her with a serving tray but she ducks and Perry takes another shot to the head. I know what they were going for but none of this was funny.

• Matt Hardy (with the incredible looking Lita) defends his European Championship against K-Kwik, who we haven’t seen much of lately but is still appealing on Sunday Night Heat regularly. It’s a good match which Matt wins with a Twist of Fate to retain his title.

Raw is War - June 18th 2001

Stone Cold’s Ultimatum 

Raw opens in surprising fashion as it’s Spike Dudley (the bully of Dudleyville as Paul Heyman calls him) and his girlfriend Molly Holly. Later tonight Spike’s big brothers Bubba Ray and D-Von are scheduled to challenge Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit for the WWF Tag Team titles. Spike says that on Smackdown he may not have won, being in the ring with the WWF Champion was a thrill. He’d have been happy to have that career highlight and move on but because Stone Cold threatened to hit Molly with a steel chair he has no choice but to call out Stone Cold Steve Austin! The WWF Champion marches to the ring looking as pissed off as he’s ever looked. Spike shows no fear and refuses to back down - he is calling out the Rattlesnake and wants a WWF title match tonight! Austin finds it amusing until Spike asks the crowd to “give me a hell yeah” if they want to see the match and gets it. Stone Cold gets angry again and tells Spike that he doesn’t even deserve to be in the same ring as him! The crowd is red hot for this exchange and starts chanting “Austin sucks!”. He gives Spike credit for having guts but when he insults Molly and calls her a bimbo and a two dollar tramp, Molly slaps the champion across the face! That gets a BIG reaction from the crowd and the commentators. He laughs it off and tells them that there still won’t be a title shot but they earned his respect and he offers Spike a handshake. Spike accepts and as it looks like Austin will leave without incident, he drops Molly Holly with a Stone Cold Stunner! Spike is too busy tending to her to attack Austin who leaves proudly talking trash. 

Backstage, Austin walks past Bubba and D-Von who let him pass and say nothing despite how he’s treated their little brother. 

The Dudleyz then go to see Spike and Molly in the trainer's room and instead of consoling them, berate Spike for daring to get a title shot before them. He stands up for himself but his two older brothers bully him into silence. 

In Stone Cold’s locker room he angrily paces and says to Debra that he needs a friend and a confidant. When she suggests he can talk to her - his wife - he laughs at the idea that her being women’s champion makes her qualified to talk to about his woes as WWF Champion. In the next segment, he goes to see William Regal to be told that tonight’s main event has been changed - the tag team title match can wait until Smackdown and it’s now going to be Austin and The Dudley Boyz against Spike, Benoit and Jericho. Austin says he needs a friend and Regal assumes he means him but the Rattlesnake asks him to leave - he means Tajiri. Later, Austin complains to Tajiri that Vince McMahon is letting a woman ruin his life and its having a knock on effect on him. Austin would NEVER let a woman run his life. He lets Tajiri hold the WWF title belt but then snatches it back off him which gets a big laugh from the live crowd. He asks Tajiri what he thinks and thanks him for his advice despite it all being in Japanese. Austin gives him a grateful bow. This was all very funny, but is cut short when Regal has to take Tajiri off for his King of the Ring match.

Mr. McMahon arrives late in the show and is sporting a spiffy look! He says that he’s just been through the wringer with his wife’s lawyer and wants to know where he can find Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Vince McMahon goes to see Stone Cold and says he has to get something off his chest. He says that the hug that Austin gave him troubled him. Austin asks if he felt good, but Vince says when he looked back and saw the demented look in his eyes he had to ask what he was thinking. McMahon questions him about the petition and giving Spike Dudley a title shot…it seems that the boss is starting to be troubled by the way that Austin has snapped lately too. Austin loses his temper and tells Vince that he has to choose - it’s Linda McMahon or Stone Cold Steve Austin! He can’t have them both.

Spike Dudley thanks Benoit and Jericho for their help on Smackdown. Benoit fires up and is a dick to Spike asking him over and over if he thinks this is about him and if he deserves to be in the ring with them…before laughing and telling Spike to lighten up. He was just messing with him.

In the main event Spike Dudley teams with WWF Tag Team Champions Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho to take on Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley and the WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin. Teaming with the Rattlesnake opposite their own brother would seem to confirm something I thought was the case for a few weeks now - Bubba and D-Von are heels. This Raw marks the debut of Chris Jericho’s updated titantron graphics and slightly tweaked theme song. More bass, and more modern (for 2001) graphics. There’s no hesitation between the Dudley boys all fighting each other once the match begins as Paul Heyman continues to tell us that the tiny 150lbs Spike bullies the much larger Bubba and D-Von. As Stone Cold grinds down Spike in the ring, Bubba and D-Von set up a pair of tables at ringside. I’m sure those will come in handy later. We get the first table break after a hot tag to Benoit and a flurry of chaos, Jericho hits a cool looking springboard shoulder tackle knocking D-Von Dudley off the apron and sending them both crashing through the table he set up. The “rules of wrestling” are that whenever someone sets up a table, they’re usually the one who goes through it. Spike Dudley tries a Dudley-Dog on Stone Cold but the champion blocks it and holding Spike in the air, launches him out of the ring and through another table with a crash.

Austin has lost it and hammers Benoit with punches and shoves referee Earl Hebner down. He gets a steel chair but Jericho stops him from using it! The two challengers for his WWF title at King of the Ring lock him in their combination Walls of Jericho - Crossface! Stone Cold taps out which gives Benoit, Jericho and Spike the victory in this six man tag but if that happens in the triple threat match on Sunday, who wins the WWF title? The two Canadians refuse to break the hold and Raw ends with them torturing the WWF Champion

Make Me Famous! 

After a montage of the various clips of the Undertaker’s stalker so far and we get JR revealing that Undertaker is back home with his wife in Texas, there’s a new clip that was recorded yesterday of both Sara and Taker going about their business. The stalker is here tonight on Raw and is going to reveal himself to the world later in the show! 

Mid-way through the show, Undertaker’s music hits and after a moment of thinking he’s here it's a masked man in black who rides to the ring on Undertaker’s motorbike. The masked man is the stalker and he unmasks quickly - it’s WCW performer Diamond Dallas Page! This was a shock to a lot of people as when we last saw DDP, he was the ultimate babyface in WCW. He explains his motives. To make an impact you have to go through the biggest, baddest dog in the yard and so that’s what he did. He wants the best of Undertaker and he wants him to “make him famous”. He showed weakness when he told Stone Cold that he better not mess with his wife - that’s what gave DDP the idea. He taunts the Deadman about how scared he’s been and how much DDP has gotten inside his head. He’s made Sara famous and so now he deserves to be made famous in return. “Undertaker - MAKE ME FAMOUS!” He’s going to use Undertaker to get to the top and even if he has to buy a ticket, he’ll be there waiting for him at the King of the Ring PPV. Paul Heyman once again refers to this as being “the invasion” by WCW. I’ll obviously talk a lot about this at the King of the Ring. 

King of the Ring

In the first of four King of the Ring quarter finals tonight, Kurt Angle faces Light Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy. Kurt isn’t just in the tournament of course - his challenge to Shane McMahon for a street fight has also been accepted. Kurt wins a short but good match when he yanks Jeff off the top rope and locks in the Angle lock for a submission.

In the commissioner’s office, William Regal talks up his “man servant” Tajiri and his impressive showing in the King of the Ring thus far. 

Backstage, Edge and Christian bicker over their recent miscommunications. Christian points out that Edge has a much easier time than him in the tournament (he is right) but Angle is there to calm them down until he points out that he’s already in the semi-finals so neither of them has a chance! 

Tajiri faces Rhyno in the second King of the Ring quarter final and as Tajiri counters a Gore with a stiff kick to the head might have the match won. Regal encourages Tajiri to go to the top rope but it backfires as he dives into a mid-air Gore giving Rhyno the victory. Another impressive showing for Tajiri even in defeat. Backstage, Regal shouts at poor Tajiri for “letting him down” and chases him off. 

Thirdly, Edge faces Perry Saturn (with Terri) to qualify for the King of the Ring semi-finals. Perry is still very silly acting due to all the recent head trauma. Despite their cross words earlier, Christian is at ringside too and cheers Edge on. Christian distracts Saturn and Edge follows with a big Impaler DDT to win and advance to the semi-finals where he’ll now face Rhyno.

As Edge and Rhyno discuss their chances of winning the King of the Ring, Christian walks in and yells at them. They had an easy time beating Tajiri in his second match and “a guy who eats mustard and crayons” but he has The Big Show! Rhyno sarcastically says that none of them have a chance anyway against Kurt Angle.

Kurt heads down to the ring and joins commentary for the fourth and final quarter final - Christian vs. Big Show. Kurt will face the winner of this in the next round. Show dominates but after Kurt distracts the referee, Edge brings a pair of steel chairs into the ring and with some chair shots and a con-chair-to, Christian advances with a victory over the Big Show! Kurt ends on commentary by once again promising to repeat as back to back King of the Ring and beat Shane McMahon in a street fight on the same night! 

Other Happenings

• After a video promoting Tough Enough and an interview with Tazz conducted by Michael Cole, Hardcore Holly laughs at the idea of Tazz as a trainer on that show and questions whether he really is “tough enough” leading to a match challenge. They’ve got to promote the show somehow.
• At WWF New York, as a kid plays one of the claw games Intercontinental Champion Kane approaches and after failing to win anything just punches out the glass and gives the boy a bunch of the prizes from inside.

• Hardcore Holly vs. Tazz in a match which mostly exists to promote Tough Enough. That’ll come up periodically in conversation and both the male and female winners will be given WWF contracts. Tazz wins pretty quickly with a Tazzmission which is a rare sight since he moved to commentary. “He is plenty Tough Enough!”. Yeah we get it JR.
• Matt Hardy (with Lita) defends the European Championship against Albert of the X-Factor. He doesn’t have X-Pac or Justin Credible with him to my surprise. Albert gets himself disqualified (idiot) for not breaking a choke so Matt Hardy retains the title. X-Pac and Justin Credible come down to join in a beating, followed by Jeff Hardy. The three on two odds are too much and they leave both Hardyz laid out.

Smackdown! - June 21st, 2001

Vince McMahon’s Ultimatum

Stone Cold goes to see Vince McMahon who is more preoccupied with the DDP stuff and WCW’s invasions in general. He wants to know if Vince has an answer to his ultimatum from Raw - it’s him or Linda. Vince stalls for time saying he’s thinking about it and Austin presents him with a hunting bow and a Stone Cold cap. Later, Stone Cold has Debra bring Vince a big plate of cookies that she baked herself. He makes Vince try one and from his face we can tell that the cookies are not very good. Vince says they’re delicious which shocks Stone Cold because he’s always thought they taste like crap. 

Stone Cold presents Vince with another gift - this one is actually quite nice as it's a framed photo of their handshake at Wrestlemania which he’s signed and personalised. 

WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin heads down to the ring but rather than go into the ring he gets a mic and stands over Michael Cole and starts intimidating him while the fans chant “asshole” at him. It seems that the Rattlesnake has taken some issue with Cole’s commentary tonight. All through the show so far, Cole and Heyman have bickered about whether the triple threat at King of the Ring is fair to Austin and whether he might lose the title. Austin is pissed off that Michael seems to think he’s going to lose the title, and that he “hasn’t been the same since he sold his soul to the devil”. He’s offended that he’s calling Vince McMahon the devil! The tension of this scene is ruined by the fans in the front row who look very drunk and are more focused with gurning and grinning into the TV cameras rather than paying attention. Austin slaps Cole and after a long build up of intimidating and bullying where Cole looks absolutely pathetic, Austin beats him senseless. It gets really uncomfortable as he strips his top off and stomps on him for a long time. Austin has been very funny in his heel antics on the last few shows so I think this was good to remind everyone what an evil psycho he has become since Wrestlemania. JR joined Paul Heyman on commentary for the rest of the show. Tazz would have stood up for Cole if he’d been here but he’s busy with Tough Enough.

After several segments of Stone Cold looking for Vince McMahon, he eventually finds all of his gifts abandoned in the office with Vince nowhere to be found, but assumes that Vince must have had to rush off for an important business reason.

In the main event, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit defend the Tag Team titles against Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley. It seems like Benoit is the one who’s been most strongly pushed as likely to win the title from Austin despite Jericho being the more popular of the two. The Dudleyz cement that they are heels now by not doing their usual crowd pleasing “wazzup” or “get the tables” spots, doing both without interacting with the crowd. D-Von has a table set up on one side of the ring so Jericho takes it upon himself to set up his own on the other side. It’s a flurry of finishing moves as Jericho has it won with a Lionsault and a Walls of Jericho, and Bubba has it won with a 3D on Benoit but the pins are broken up. D-Von tries to put Jericho through a table but he’s backdropped from the announce desk and crashes through his own table.

The referee is knocked down, Benoit locks Bubba in a Crippler Crossface and has a submission win but Stone Cold Steve Austin runs to the ring and clubs Benoit in the back of the head with his WWF title belt! The referee wakes up as Bubba gets an arm across Benoit’s chest and just like that, The Dudley Boyz are once again the WWF Tag Team Champions thanks to Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Austin marches backstage and bumps into Vince - the boss is pissed off! Where has he been? He was at the hospital with Michael Cole trying to talk him out of suing the company! Vince says that he’s still thinking about Steve’s ultimatum but as for King of the Ring, he's on his own. He has his OWN ultimatum. He tells Austin that he needs to leave King of the Ring as WWF Champion all on his own or their relationship is done! Austin looks traumatised by the news! 

Undertaker’s Threat

Out in the parking lot The Undertaker and his wife Sara - making her official debut on TV after all the hidden camera footage which doesn’t count - are awaiting the arrival of Diamond Dallas Page. He hasn’t said he’ll be here tonight though, he said he’ll be at the King of the Ring. In the next segment, Undertaker pounces as soon as a limo arrives but it's only Vince McMahon. Vince assures him that DDP won’t be able to get near the building but Taker cuts him off and demands that whatever happens, DDP is allowed to enter the building so the Deadman can get his hands on him.

Undertaker and Sara, sick of waiting in the parking lot for DDP all night, head down to the ring. As they do, Kane stops him backstage to let his big brother know that he’s got his back if he needs it. There’s a nice moment between them. Taker talks trash about Page, basically saying “who are you?” and promising a wicked beating at King of the Ring. DDP interrupts on the titantron and shows lots of footage of himself alone in Taker and Sara’s house, going through her underwear drawer and bouncing around on their bed.

King of the Ring Momentum

Smackdown opens with Kurt Angle. He says that people think he’s big headed for calling himself a superhero (which he has a lot lately, as has Paul Heyman) but he is a hero and he is super. He patronisingly congratulates his good friends Edge, Christian and Rhyno making it to the semi-finals of the King of the Ring with him and insults them saying that they’re boys playing with a man. That brings out Edge and Christian as Kurt tries to back peddle. This promo marks the start of Edge and Christian shifting towards babyface as they refuse Kurt’s half hearted apology and call him a dork. It is a weird dynamic as all four of the final men in the tournament are heels. Edge says that he’ll beat Kurt in the finals which causes Christian to take issue with Edge assuming that Kurt would beat Christian to get into the finals. Kurt loses his temper and calls them ungrateful snot nosed punks and says that he MADE them.

Kurt threatens Edge and Christian and that brings out Rhyno. He tells Kurt that Edge and Christian never needed Kurt and that the three of them will stop Kurt from winning - Rhyno then flattens Edge with a Gore, and Kurt drops Christian with an Angle slam! 

Backstage, Kurt Angle and Rhyno discuss their shared philosophy of every man for themself in the King of the Ring. That leads into a tag team match of Edge and Christian vs. Angle and Rhyno. I mentioned Chris Jericho’s updated titantron graphics on Raw and Kurt Angle debuts his own tonight. A back and forth match which Rhyno and Kurt win with an Angle slam on Edge. As Kurt celebrates in the ring he turns right into a stiff kendo stick shot to the head from WCW Owner Shane McMahon! He knocked him OUT! WWF’s security rush down to escort Shane from the ring but he bolts through the crowd before they catch him.

Other Happenings

• Backstage, Spike Dudley tells his girlfriend Molly Holly to wait backstage as last time she got a Stunner from Stone Cold. Spike’s match tonight is punishment from Mr. McMahon on behalf of Stone Cold - a no disqualification match with The Big Show (who looks like he’s growing his hair out again. He has it slicked back and it looks terrible). 500lbs vs. 150lbs. Show brutalises Spike until a low blow and a Dudley Dog (very unrealistic). Spike’s big brothers run to the ring and drop Spike with a 3D which Big Show follows with a giant chokeslam for an easy victory. Can’t imagine Show needed the help but he got it. 

• In one of those fun “blast from the past” moments, this Smackdown is sponsored by the first Fast and the Furious movie. That franchise is still running 20 years later and eventually included both The Rock and future WWE Superstar John Cena. 
• In a championship filled six man tag, Intercontinental Champion Kane teams with European Champion Matt Hardy (with Lita) and Light Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy against Albert, X-Pac and Justin Credible of X-Factor. Paul Heyman confirms during this that Jeff Hardy will defend his title against X-Pac at the King of the Ring. A short match which the crowd is absolutely red hot for. Loud “we want Kane” chants which i’ve never heard before. A chokeslam and Swanton Bomb combo on X-Pac gives the all champions team the victory.
• In the commissioner’s office, Taka Michinoku walks in and demands a shot at the Light Heavyweight title. Jeff Hardy has already competed tonight and as Taka and Funaki shout at Regal, Tajiri jumps onto his desk and retorts in Japanese leading to a match between the two later.
• Test (with taped ribs) defends the Hardcore Championship against Perry Saturn. This is a fun classic WWF hardcore match and the finish comes when Test big boots a mop back into Saturn’s face to retain the title. After the bell, Saturn is fascinated by the mop and takes it with him. 

• Taka Michinoku (with Funaki) takes on Tajiri (with William Regal). Taka cuts a “promo” with the poor lib dubbing calling out Tajiri for his offensive portrayal of Japanese stereotypes. That’s pretty funny. This is very short but Tajiri again looks very good and finishes off Taka with a stiff kick to the head for a victory.

In my opinion, a disjointed build to the King of the Ring. The first couple of weeks were packed with happenings and the card fell into place, and then for the remaining couple of weeks the show coasted towards the PPV. I have to believe a big part of that is due to Triple H’s injury and them having to change their plans, and the ever shifting plan for what to do with the WCW brand as they tried (and failed) to launch it as its own entity before deciding to instead bring it to WWF TV. I’ve talked about that in passing a few times during the “official” Attitude era but will go into a lot more detail soon enough. The card feels short by Attitude era PPV standards but there is one more title match to be added to the show on Sunday Night Heat. The card as it stands at the end of Smackdown;

WWF Championship

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

Street Fight

Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon

Diamond Dallas Page will be live in the arena for a confrontation with The Undertaker after spending a month stalking his wife.

WWF Light Heavyweight Championship

Jeff Hardy © (w/WWF European Champion Matt Hardy and Lita) vs. X-Pac (w/ Albert and Justin Credible)

Plus the Semi-finals and Finals of the 2001 King of the Ring Tournament