Raw is War - January 22nd, 2001

Mixed Tag Main Event

Triple H and his wife Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley open the show in the arena, Triple H is carrying a sledgehammer and on this show debuts one of his more iconic/famous looks with the denim jacket over the leather jacket. He is in a furious mood after Stone Cold cost him the WWF title, but he failed to cost Austin the Royal Rumble in return. Austin won his record setting 3rd Rumble match - a record that still stands 23 years later. The Game says he’s been looking forward to this Raw and being in this city for a long time because he fully expected to be standing in the ring as the new WWF Champion. “A long time” must only be a week or so as that’s when he found out he had the title shot at the Rumble. He says one man is responsible and it wasn’t WWF Champion Kurt Angle, it was Stone Cold Steve Austin. He’s tired of all the games and the back and forth and he’s sick of Stone Cold Steve Austin. He promises that as soon as Austin arrives here tonight, he’s going to be waiting for him with the sledgehammer to “end him”.

He promises that Austin will see it coming, he just won’t be able to stop it. That brings out Kurt Angle who calls Triple H a whiner and crybaby and takes full credit for having beat Triple H last night. Kurt’s pretty funny making fun of The Game’s losses and says that he can only win matches with weapons and help and can’t win anything with natural ability. Triple H says that after he’s done caving in Austin’s head he’ll put down the sledgehammer for a WWF title match tonight. Kurt agrees! His new business partner Trish Stratus comes out and says that she and Steph could have been friends but she wanted to be difficult so she challenges her to a match tonight too! Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, feminist icon, makes some more slut jokes about Trish before agreeing. She also says Trish’s next spanking will be her hand across her face - that’s not a spanking then is it Stephanie? She throws in a couple of “bitch” for good measure. You’d swear Vince Russo was still writing this.

Vince McMahon arrives at the arena in a limo. Michael Cole stops him to ask how he feels about the two big matches that were just announced - Mr. McMahon says that HE’s the boss and so those matches might happen but they might not. Later, Triple H goes to see Vince and argues with him about maybe not getting his title rematch tonight. He accuses Vince of thinking with his dick RE: Trish. 

Triple H complains loudly to his wife about how Vince is refusing to confirm he has a title match tonight after he was screwed last night. Steph says that her dad is a very fair man and will probably give him his title shot. She wants to know about HER match so Triple H tells her to go and speak to him herself before leaving with his sledgehammer to wait for Stone Cold. Stephanie does just that and after the commercial break she pushes for both her and Triple H’s matches to take place. He continues to refuse to confirm either but tells her to go and get ready anyway. He also says that both she and Trish embarrassed him with their fighting at the Royal Rumble.

Trish Stratus goes to talk to Kurt Angle about their respective matches tonight. Compared to Triple H, Kurt has the opposite reaction and seems happy enough that they won’t take place. Trish says she’ll go and talk to Mr. McMahon and give him some “advisement”. She means sex but in case you didn’t get it, JR and King beat us over the head with it. 

Triple H is shown late in the show still waiting in the parking lot with his sledgehammer for the arrival of Stone Cold. 

After a private meeting between Trish and Vince McMahon where Trish comes out with messed up hair, Mr. McMahon tells Michael Cole that the main event will be a mixed tag team match of Triple H and Stephanie against Trish and Kurt. Stephanie takes Triple H’s ring gear out to him in the parking lot and breaks the news. He’d been out there all night waiting for Austin who still had not arrived as both teams made their way to the ring for the main event mixed tag. Triple H starts the match with a baseball slide to Kurt and they fight around the ring. King can’t stop making jokes about how Trish is already sweaty from her “match” with Vince earlier long enough to call the match properly. This match is the first time I recall JR calling Triple H “the cerebral assassin” which is one of the nicknames that caught on and stuck around for the rest of his career. The match breaks down and with the men fighting out on the floor, Trish and Steph have a fight in the ring rolling around and pulling at each other’s hair as Jerry Lawler makes cat noises and giggles and squeals like a child. Zero dignity. Trish gets the better of the exchange and plants Stephanie with a running bulldog but Triple H stops the pin and gives Trish a Pedigree and drags his wife into a cover. The McMahon-Helmsleys win the match. Kurt pulls the unconscious Trish out of the ring and carries her to the back and with Triple H distracted by Kurt, he doesn’t see Stone Cold arrive through the crowd! He jumps into the ring and with a barrage of punches and a Stone Cold Stunner, leaves The Game flat on his back in the ring! 

Return of The Big Show

After a replay of The Big Show’s dramatic return at the Rumble where he racked up a few eliminations and then spiked half the match with chokeslams before being eliminated by The Rock. He finished his rampage with a chokeslam to The Rock through the announce table. Michael Cole then sits down with The Rock to see how he’s feeling. He’s disappointed to have not won the Rumble (duh) and respects Austin but doesn’t care that he won. The Rock didn’t win so it's on to the next thing and the next opportunity to main event Wrestlemania. 

The Rock teams with new Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho against Chris Benoit and The Big Show. I’ve made plenty of mention of management being down on Show’s physical condition and sending him off to “fat camp” but they must have got sick of waiting because he looks way bigger (fatter) here than he was during his return in the summer of 2000. He’s also wearing a WWF Attitude t-shirt instead of his own merch. What a jobber. Benoit and Jericho start the match off but it doesn’t take long to break down and Big Show gives Jericho a massive chokeslam on the floor outside the ring effectively taking him out of this match entirely and leaving The Rock to fight both Show and Benoit two on one. Jericho is eventually helped to the back by a pair of referees. The Rock is worked over but continues to come back and when Show tries to drive him through the announce table again, Rocky knocks him out with a ring bell instead. King calls him “a beached whale”.

 Jericho limps back down to ringside and throws Benoit into the steps and then back into the ring into a waiting Rock Bottom to give Rock and Jericho the victory. The Rock celebrates in the ring until he turns into a waiting chokeslam from a recovered Big Show. He plants Jericho with one and then when Benoit shoves him and blames him for the loss, Big Show drills him with a one-armed chokeslam too. This is when Show’s chokeslam looked its most impressive as he’d lift them with one arm and drop to his knees as he brought them down. Looked awesome. His bad knees would eventually put an end to that. 

Family Ties

Rikishi faces Kane. Weirdly even though Rikishi is supposed to be a super serious main event heel these days, they still do the comedy shot of his giant ass while he does warm up squats backstage. He gets almost zero reaction when he comes out in the arena. Kane gets a bit of a cheer though partly off the back of his amazing Rumble performance, and partly because he seems to be friends with The Undertaker again. Kane has the match won in short time until Rikishi’s fellow islander Haku - who returned at the Royal Rumble - runs down to break up the pin and cause a disqualification. The two beat down Kane until Undertaker arrives to rescue his younger brother. Rikishi and Haku pairing on TV is based on real life family ties and it’s funny timing getting to this now because as I write this, Haku’s real life sons have just debuted in WWE and formed a partnership with Rikishi’s real life son. Deep bonds. Kane recovers and the Brothers of Destruction fight off Haku and plant Rikishi with a huge double chokeslam. Kane cues his pyro and Undertaker’s music plays. The brothers are definitely together. Afterwards, Kevin Kelly interviews an angry Rikishi who challenges Undertaker to a no holds barred match on Smackdown.

Midcard Title Changes

William Regal defends the European Championship against a man he’s been launching unprovoked sneak attacks on for weeks, Test. Regal speaks before the match and says he’ll make Test feel like he’s been hacked up with a bloody hatchet. That’s a threat he uses often. Test runs right to the ring and is all business - I think this recent babyface turn marks the 4th or 5th attempt by the company to give Test a big push. Test hammers Regal and pretty quickly and easily pins him with a diving elbow drop from the top rope to win the European title! JR and King are shocked that anyone could beat Regal that quickly - it does seem to be very odd given how hard they’ve pushed Regal lately. 

Al Snow challenges Raven for the Hardcore title. Al Snow actually took a month or so off after Raven hit him with a concrete block and returned during the Rumble match which didn’t get nearly enough attention. This is a fun match as they fight into th pyro area where some of it triggers and the loud bangs almost deafen both men and the referee. They fight though the table and outside the arena, Snow hits Raven with a shovel and wins the Hardcore title. He gets no time to celebrate as a mysterious figure in all black - the one who’s helped Raven a few times - breaks a 2x4 over Snow’s head and using the 24/7 rule Raven wins his title back and jumps in the waiting car to make his getaway with the person in black. JR says he couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman and King says “it its a man, he’s got some nice breasts!”. That was funny. It’s Tori under the mask but to the best of my knowledge, I don’t think that ever gets revealed on TV and the storyline is quietly dropped.

Other Happenings

• Bradshaw and Faarooq face Matt and Jeff Hardy. Jacqueline and Lita are both at ringside. This is a battle of two babyface teams off the back of The APA beating The Hardyz on Smackdown. Matt and Jeff seem to be having issues, which JR puts down to their interactions in the Rumble match and the fact that they eliminated each other. The Hardyz being off their game costs them as Faarooq pins Jeff Hardy with a Dominator to win the match clean as a whistle.
• WWF Women’s Champion Ivory and Steven Richards of the Right to Censor come down to the ring as JR and King discuss Chyna’s injury last night at the Rumble. Ivory has a copy of Chyna’s book and calls herself the 10th Wonder of the World. Her opponent is Molly Holly (with Crash) who is challenging for the women’s title. Molly says she’ll shut Ivory’s weasley mouth. These two are both good wrestlers but they don’t get long and Richards trips Molly off the top rope leading to Ivory’s victory. 
• The Dudley Boyz defend their newly won Tag Team titles against Lo Down - D’Lo Brown and Chaz. This title shot was given to Lo Down as an apology for Vince taking their Royal Rumble match spot and giving it to Drew Carrey. Tiger Ali Singh joins commentary to watch his team's challenge. Lo Down are now both wrestling in full Indian garb. The gimmick and look change has not been explained on TV. Tiger calls Americans racist. JR takes exception to that, but Jerry Lawler has called this man “rag head” on TV more than once. Tiger says that D’Lo and Chaz have adopted Indian culture to give them more unity. Tiger presents King with an honorary ceremonial turban. He and JR are as respectful of it as you’d expect. Chaz brings a title belt into the ring to use as a weapon but Bubba uses it instead and gets him and D-Von disqualified. Tiger celebrates with the Tag title belts like they’ve won the championships so The Dudleyz give him a 3D through a table. 

Smackdown! - January 25th, 2001

Brothers United, and Angle’s Punishment

Smackdown opens up with a challenge that was thrown out on Raw. Undertaker accepted and faced Rikishi in a No Holds Barred match. Actually no, this match ISN’T no holds barred. That’s what Rikishi said but the explanation for the rule change is that Rikishi backed out of that stipulation. Pretty much as soon as Undertaker gets control of the match, Haku comes down to save his new bestie. That brings out Kane and the four big men throw punches with Kane and Undertaker getting the advantage and holding the ring. Taker and Kane make their partnership official when Undertaker raises his little brother’s arm and they leave together.

Vince McMahon arrives at the arena and angrily berates his limo driver for making him 20 minutes late before firing him. Mr. McMahon then heads out into the arena and it would appear he is in a foul mood already tonight. He’s upset about the ending of Raw - seeing his daughter and his “friend” Trish fight each other on Raw. He says he’s given Triple H and Stone Cold the night off and says that their issues must come to an end and they will come to an end with one final match at No Way Out. He then says there is another person who shoulders the blame for how Raw ended - specifically his “friend” Trish getting a Pedigree from Triple H - her tag team partner Kurt Angle. He calls the WWF Champion down to the ring. Kurt makes out like he’s going to stand up to Vince…but sucks upstead saying how much he respects Mr. McMahon and offers a big apology. Vince says that sorry isn’t good enough and books Kurt to defend his WWF Championship against a man who deserves it based on his record breaking performance at the Royal Rumble - Kane. 

In the main event, Kurt Angle defends the WWF Championship against Kane. Before the match, Kurt says he respects Kane and knows he was WWF Champion for about 12 seconds but he’s not afraid of him. He makes fun of Kane’s status as a burn victim and says his many fans in trauma wards are all heroes, but Kane is a coward who hides his face. Kane takes control of the match early and dominates Kurt around the ring. Meanwhile, Rikishi and Haku attack The Undertaker from behind while he watches the match backstage and leave him laid out. The match continues and Kurt even tries to use a steel chair but Kane is too big, too strong and too focused for Angle. Flying clothesline and Kane stalks for a chokeslam but Rikishi and Haku are there to stop Kane’s momentum. Rikishi distracts the referee as Haku hits Kane with multiple chair shots and a superkick, allowing Kurt Angle to cover and retain the WWF Championship. Kurt leaves and the two big men continue to assault Kane until Undertaker runs down for the save. He’s showing the effects from his own beating backstage and the Islanders are easily able to beat him down too. A pair of Banzai drops and Smackdown ends with Rikishi and Haku on top.

Hide and Seek

Vince McMahon is shown being sweet to someone on the phone and telling them to just rest up and take care of themselves. King assumes it's Linda but then her doctor calls on the other line and he’s very cold and mean about Linda to him. It’s Trish that he’s being nice to. Vince told the doctor to double LInda’s medication. He’s then distracted by the arrival of Triple H who is angrily looking for Austin backstage. The Game storms into his office and Vince doesn’t appreciate his angry demands regarding a WWF title match or his expecting to find Austin here tonight. He’s still angry about the Pedigree to Trish clearly.

The reveal that Stone Cold is also here tonight is pretty casual and underwhelming as they just…show him getting coffee. After a commercial break, Triple H busts into that room demanding to know where he went. Later Stone Cold was shown sitting outside chugging beers in the parking lot. Triple H once again arrived too late and found only the empty discarded beer cans. 

Triple H’s search for Austin continues as he sees Austin sharing some beers with Kaientai on a monitor. By the time The Game gets there, Stone Cold is gone and Triple H beats up a drunk Funaki and Taka. The Rattlesnake continues to toy with Triple H. 

Having spent the entire show looking for Stone Cold, Triple H is called to Mr. McMahon’s office by a messenger. He goes to see his father-in-law who he meets outside his office and they’re both confused - Vince didn’t ask to see him. They put it together and realise that it must be a setup by Stone Cold. The two of them stage an argument as they walk into his office and prowl around expecting to find a waiting Rattlesnake. He’s behind the door and when Triple H swings with a metal sheet weapon, Austin uses Vince as a shield who takes it to the head instead. Austin strikes and beats Triple H around the office before smashing a lamp over his head. Austin’s plan worked a treat! 

The Rock and The Big Show

The Rock arrives and takes a seat on commentary to watch The Big Show challenge Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental title. Michael Cole asks why The Rock is here - he asks Cole if he knows what it’s like to be chump-slammed two days in a row by Big Show which made me laugh. Michael Cole suggests that being chokeslammed through the announce table is what cost The Rock the Royal Rumble.

The Rock says that Michael Cole “thinks he's a psychologist” suggesting that The Rock does in fact, not know what a psychologist is. He says it twice too. Big Show debuts his very short lived second finisher “The Final Cut” reverse DDT but we’ll never know if it would have won him the title as Chris Benoit runs down to attack him and cause a disqualification. Show chases after Benoit, and Rock fights him at ringside, dropping him with a Rock Bottom on the floor outside the ring.

Test’s push

Test defends his newly won European Championship against Christian. The former tag team champion is flying solo and before the match he explains that Edge isn’t here because he got food poisoning from the food in Alabama. The referee gets knocked down right away and Test easily dominates Christian but there's no referee to count. Christian uses the European title belt as a weapon and almost wins the title when the referee recovers but Test kicks out. This is a decent match which Test wins with a running big boot to the face to retain his title. 

Other Happenings

• In a weird mix up of teams. Bradshaw teams with Jeff Hardy to take on Faarooq and Matt Hardy. Matt and Jeff had their issues, and this match was apparently booked by Vince McMahon “in the interest of fairness” to see how they all fair. The fans don’t really know how to react to seeing Matt and Jeff fight each other. Jacqueline and Lita are shown backstage watching together, refusing to take sides. The match breaks down and Matt gives his own partner a Twist of Fate and Jeff follows with a Swanton to win the match for him and…Bradshaw? It’s confusing but the main thing is that Matt and Jeff are very much united again. 

• On this show there was an advert for the first series of reality show Tough Enough, which did eventually give us a few WWE Superstars. There’s a montage of some of the cringe audition tapes including future WWE and AEW ring announcer Justin Roberts. 

• Tazz faces K-Kwik. It’s actually pretty hard to remember to call him K-Kwik and not R-Truth. Kaientai comes down to the ring and as Taka Michinoku and Funaki badly lip sync a promo, K-Kwik is distracted allowing Tazz to lock in a Tazzmission and win the match via submission. Taka says that Kaientai are now EVIL. “Indeed!”. I love this gimmick.

• After a medical update on Chyna - she has bone fragments in her neck and she needs exploratory surgery - Ivory and Steven Richards accompany Goodfather and Bull Buchanan to the ring for a match with Crash and Hardcore Holly (with Molly). Ivory tries to help her RtC brethren and hit Hardcore with her women’s title belt but misses and hits Bull in the head instead, allowing Holly to follow with a dropkick and win the match. 

Raw is War - January 29th, 2001

Number One Contender

Raw opens with WWF Champion Kurt Angle in the arena. They’re in his home state but he still gets booed. Kurt says that he’s an Olympic champion and WWF Champion but also holds the record for how many women request his “olympic seed” at the sperm clinic! He makes a bunch of local sports jokes that I don’t get, and then addresses tonight's main event which is a fatal four way with the winner challenging him for the WWF title on Smackdown. He lists Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit and The Big Show but ignores the four participants so he comes out to introduce himself - The Rock. He makes some gay jokes about how Kurt doesn’t like pie, but asks if he likes pizza before showing an old commercial for a local pizza place that Kurt Angle filmed a few years previously. It’s funny. The Rock promises to win tonight’s main event and then win the WWF title on Smackdown but before he can end his promo on a high, he’s jumped by The Big Show who flattens him with a pair of big clotheslines until referees split them up. 

In a pair of interviews, The Rock confirms that he’s fine after Big Show’s attack earlier and will be in tonight’s main event and Tazz speaks to Chris Benoit who calls his opponents “a giant, a big mouth and a primadona” and promises victory.

WWF Champion Kurt Angle joins commentary to watch the main event.

Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho enters first and has some words for Kurt Angle promising to save the WWF title from him. His opponents are Chris Benoit, The Big Show and The Rock. The Rock enters last and sprints to the ring and is immediately planted with a massive chokeslam for a near fall. The action is frantic as there was only eight minutes left of Raw when the match started. Show almost wins with a Final Cut on Jericho, and Benoit locks Show in a Crossface which is also broken up. Rock hits a spinebuster on Benoit, and Jericho follows with a Lionsault for another near fall. Jericho gets The Rock in a Walls of Jericho but Show grabs him by the throat to break it. Benoit kicks Show with a low blow to stop that. Jericho dumps Benoit and Big Show over the top rope, but turns into a waiting Rock Bottom and The Rock wins to become number one contender, officially. 

The Rattlesnake and The Game make it official

Triple H arrives with his lawyer and legal team to talk to Vince ahead of tonight’s contract signing. There’s a bunch of these little “remember there’s a contract signing later” segments.

Mr. McMahon enters first for the contract signing. This is the first one I remember from this era, but they’re pretty common in modern WWE. Triple H has been shown all night being very anxious to get this signed and not trusting it will go down. Stone Cold has said he’ll happily sign first because he wants to make this happen as soon as possible. Vince explains that in this contract there is a stipulation that once it’s signed neither man can show any physical aggression to the other outside of an official match. The penalties, regardless of who starts it, is a six month unpaid suspension for Triple H and the loss of his Wrestlemania main event for Stone Cold Steve Austin. That should do the trick. He introduces Triple H first who has Stephanie with him as well as his attorney “Brian Gerwitz”. That's the name of one of WWF/WWE’s main writers for many years who famously worked closely with The Rock on his promos, but I’m not sure if the man on TV here is actually him or an actor. When Austin enters, he looks pissed. He has an awesome superstar aura (duh) as he paces to the ring and sneers at Triple H full of rage. If looks could kill everyone in that ring would be dead. Austin calls for a couple of beers to drink during the signing which gets a big pop.

Austin signs without even taking his eyes off Triple H, who passes the contract to his lawyer first. Vince gets annoyed at him wanting to read it again - I feel like this detail was included just so Vince could show his utter disdain for lawyers on TV. He apparently finds something he doesn’t like and huddles with Triple H to discuss it. The Game does sign it, making the match official and hands off the contract to McMahon. As Austin turns to leave, Triple H blindsides him with a metal briefcase and hammers on the Rattlesnake laying in a wicked beating as JR and King scream about how he’s just cost himself a six month suspension. He finishes with a Pedigree in the middle of the ring. Mr. McMahon says that Triple H just got himself suspended - Triple H stops him and reveals that he didn’t actually sign the contract. He just pretended to. He signs it now, and so the no physical contact rule locks in now. He got in his final beating and now Austin has to wait until No Way Out to return fire. 

Family Blood

The Undertaker (with Kane in his corner) faces Haku (with Rikishi). Haku’s first singles match in the WWF since 1992.

The match breaks down into a brawl on the outside and Rikishi uses a steel chair on Kane’s apparently injured ribs. Undertaker wins the match with a chokeslam in the middle of the ring but Rikishi with a chair blasts him in the head and busts him open. The two big Islanders continue the assault with a chair on both brothers but just as they start to mount a comeback, Rikishi and Haku run off. Backstage, Michael Cole tries to ask Taker a question but with blood running down his face he cuts him off and says there’s been too much talking and challenges them to a First Blood tag team match on Smackdown. 

Matches made for “Smackdown Extreme”

They’ve been announcing matches and hyping up “Smackdown Extreme” this week. I’ve no idea why this week’s Smackdown is Extreme but it is, and they’ve loading it with matches like they’re worried about a bad rating or something. Most of Kurt Angle’s stint on commentary was spent grilling him about how “extreme” he’s going to be on Smackdown. 

The APA (with Jacqueline) face The Hardy Boyz (with Lita) and Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather in a triple threat where the winning team gets a Tag Title match on Smackdown. The Hardyz and Acolytes get into a fight before the RtC even arrive, and Lita and Jackie start to fight on the ramp and disappear backstage quite quickly. It’s a chaotic six man brawl with The Hardyz picking up the victory with a Swanton Bomb on Bull. 

WWF Women’s Champion Ivory joins commentary to watch Lita vs. Jacqueline. This match comes from their fight earlier, but now has the added juice that the winner gets a title match on Smackdown. Ivory spends most of the match berating both women as well as King (which makes her a babyface to me) until Lita and Jacqueline both dive on the champion and attack her two on one. So there’s no number one contender but I suspect we’ll get a triple threat now. 

Other Happenings

• The Dudley Boyz defend their Tag Team titles against former champions Edge and Christian. Or that’s what's scheduled at least - Edge and Christian come out in non-wrestling attire. Christian says that as former champions they get to pick when they get their rematch but Edge is too ill to compete tonight. They introduce their replacements - Kaientai! Taka and Funaki thank Edge and Christian “by the power of greyskull” for this opportunity. “Indeed!” Edge and Christian join commentary and after trashing The Dudleyz, Edge shows there’s nothing wrong with him as he sneaks into the ring and gives Bubba a spear behind the referee’s back. That’s the closest Kaientai get to victory but Bubba kicks out and they follow up with a 3D on Funaki to retain the tag team titles. Edge and Christian’s feud with The Dudleyz continues I guess.

• Crash Holly faces Raven for the Hardcore title. The fight immediately goes up through the crowd with Crash diving from the stands onto Raven. They fight to the outside and into the snow outside the arena. Crash calls for Molly to help him and they try to drive Raven into a tree, crotch first. Crash pins out in the snow but the masked woman in black once again saves the save with a 2x4, knocking out Crash and Molly and escaping with Raven in a waiting car. 

• Michael Cole interviews The One, Billy Gunn who says that he’s been encouraging Chyna to focus on the positives and to move on with her life after the injury. That leads into a replay from Sunday Night Heat of Steven Richards trying to convince Steve Blackman to put down his weapons. He was given a beating for his efforts and that brings us to Val Venis vs. Steve Blackman tonight. Val wins with a roll up after a distraction from Ivory, but post match Blackman grabs his weapons and starts to light up the RtC. The big numbers advantage catches up to him but Hardcore Holly runs down with a steel chair to save the day. They’ve had their own issues and fights over who’s the most hardcore but they’re united against the Right to Censor.
• There’s another advert for Tough Enough where a bunch of wannabes give shouty 80s style promos to the camera about how much charisma they have. Only one I recognise is future WWE and TNA commentator Josh Matthews. 
• William Regal drops in on Vince McMahon with a cup of tea to warm his spirits. The Boss seems to appreciate the sentiment. What a suck up. 

Smackdown! Xtreme - February 1st, 2001

Smackdown Xtreme?

This episode of Smackdown was marketed as “Smackdown Extreme”. I’ve yet to find out why or what that means but on Raw they promoted and hyped up multiple big matches, and on the show itself there’s a big red X splashed all over the Smackdown logo including during the opening video. The only theory I have is that it’s Smackdown Extreme to promote the kick off of the XFL the following weekend, but there’s no more XFL promotion on this episode than there was on any of the other shows in the past two months. 

The Rattlesnake toys with The Game

Stone Cold is shown sitting chugging beers and watching a replay of the contract signing on Raw. He disappears but when Triple H and Stephanie arrive they’re disgusted to find that he was doing this in their locker room. He casually returns from their private bathroom having stunk it up and acts very friendly towards them both which infuriates The Game. He wanted to be under Austin’s skin but it seems that the Rattlesnake is happy to use their no-touching rule to wind him up! 

In a pair of segments, Vince is on the phone to the same mystery person as on Raw and is excited to learn they’re in the area. Then Trish is shown in a bubble bath seductively inviting someone to come and visit her (while soft jazz porno music places, in case it was all too subtle for you). 

Triple H is furious at Austin. Steph encourages him to focus on the WWF title instead and says she’s got an idea that she wants to talk to her dad about. 

Vince McMahon frantically yells for his limo driver, seemingly desperate to leave and meet up with Trish. None of this is explicitly stated but it’s obvious. Stephanie catches him as he’s leaving and asks for Triple H to be added to tonight’s WWF title match to make it a triple threat match. Vince is in too much of a hurry to argue and agrees as long as they stay away from Stone Cold and ends up driving the limo himself. 

Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock about Triple H having now been added to the WWF Championship match. He earned the title match by winning a fatal four way, but once again Triple H gets handed a title shot because of who he’s married to. Later Kurt is asked the same thing and he basically says the same thing but adds about how unfairly he’s been treated and yet he continues to win and remain WWF Champion.

Backstage in a locker room, Stone Cold continues to drink beers and with a smirk on his face violently shakes a couple of them up but doesn’t open them. Later he pops in to see Triple H to sarcastically wish him luck for his title match and share a beer with him which of course sprays all over him when Austin opens his beer. 

In the main event, Triple H (who didn’t earn it) and The Rock (who did) challenge Kurt Angle for the WWF Championship. The Rock and The Game start fighting and go at it in the ring before Kurt is even out but he sprints down to join the fight fast enough. Triple H hits a Pedigree very early but Kurt breaks up the pin. Stone Cold’s music hits and he comes out with a cooler of beer - he can’t touch Triple H but he’s wound him up all night and I’m sure can find a non-physical way to cost him the WWF title. He does as the distraction allows Kurt to hit an Olympic Slam, but The Rock breaks up that pin. Austin takes a seat at ringside to continue drinking beer and watching this match unfold. The Rock hits a Rock Bottom on Angle but Stephanie distracts the referee from counting. The Rock grabs her by the hair but Triple H saves his wife. Rock sets up a People’s Elbow on Triple H but is stopped by an Olympic Slam. Stephanie again distracts the referee from counting. The ref is then taken out properly as he’s crushed in the corner by Triple H, who is then too distracted taunting Austin to hit a Pedigree leading to an Angle low blow and a small package. In a spot that makes no sense whatsoever, Austin then slides into the ring and counts a very fast three count with the referee’s limp hand which does seemingly end the match and give Angle the official victory. Very odd end to a good episode Smackdown. 

Team Xtreme chase Championships

Smackdown opens with a Tag Team title table match - The Dudleyz vs. The Hardyz, who earned this title shot by beating the APA and Right to Censor in a triple threat match on Raw. Opening with a table match - this Smackdown IS extreme. These two teams work great together as you’d imagine given that they’ve wrestled about 8000 times by this point. There’s lots of clever spots as both teams move tables in and out of each other's way and a cool spot where Matt Hardy puts himself through a table so that it’s unavailable to Bubba to use and win the match. The Hardyz introduce ladders (standard) and there’s a very scary spot as Matt and D-Von are knocked off a ladder and fall towards two tables but fall short and only clip one, flipping it but not breaking it. That landing must have sucked and it takes a while for them both to recover. The finish comes when Bubba and Jeff fight up the ramp and Bubba is able to give Jeff his full-nelson atomic drop which he calls the Bubba Bomb off the stage and through two tables to the concrete to retain the Tag Team Championships. Great match.

Afterwards both teams are getting attended to by medical personnel backstage and Matt encourages Lita to not worry about them and go focus on her own title match tonight. 

Lita and Jacqueline challenge Ivory for the WWF Women’s title in a triple threat match. This wasn’t announced on Raw but was set up - it was pretty obvious where they were going with it (which isn’t a knock, that’s a good thing - logical).

The fans are red hot for Lita. A short but good match. Lita hits a moonsault on Jackie and has the title won but Ivory throws her out of the ring and steals the pin and the victory to retain her title. A rare clean victory for the Right to Censor. 

First Blood

After a video highlighting Kane’s very strong performance in the Royal Rumble match, and an interview with both Undertaker and Kane where they finally explain their union (kind of, they just say “blood is thicker than water”) we get the first (and as far as I know, only) tag team first blood match. Undertaker and Kane vs. Rikishi and Haku. They still haven’t been officially given their Brothers of Destruction moniker on TV which makes me wonder if that’s just one of those fan invented things. Kane and Taker go out to meet the Islanders on the ramp and start the match there. The match is just a big brawl. Lots of punches and clotheslines and fighting in and out of the ring. Undertaker splits Haku’s head open on the outside with a steel chair, but the referee doesn’t see it so Kane is free to drill Rikishi with a chokeslam and then hit him with ring steps to bust him open too for good measure. With Rikishi and Haku both bleeding, Taker and Kane win. They continue to beat down the Islanders as the ring fills with referees to split them up. It’s quite fun seeing Kane play a proper babyface again as he raises his arms and poses for the fans with his brother. I guess he doesn’t feel like an unloved monster anymore. There’s a massive edit as after a little replay, Taker and Kane basically teleport to the top of the ramp to pose and end the segment. 

Other Happenings

• Edge and Christian enter and somberly explain that tonight will be their most dangerous challenge - they’re facing Kaientai, and laugh and high five expecting an easy victory. Taka and Funaki come out and explain (via bad dubbing) that Funaki has a rash and can’t wrestle so they have hired some replacements. The APA.

Bradshaw and Faarooq dominate Edge and Christian who grab a pair of steel chairs. Funaki saves Faarooq from a con-chair-to and takes it in his place, which allows The Acolytes to pick up the victory with a Dominator on Christian.

• Jonathan Coachman interviews Billy Gunn about Chyna. He’s interrupted by The Big Show who beats up Billy and pushes Coach against the wall, angry that he was gone for months and since returning he’s had no interviews and not enough attention. That’s fair.

• That leads to a match later in the show between The Big Show and The One Billy Gunn. Billy tries his best but it's a dominant performance from Show who easily finishes him off with a one-armed chokeslam to win the match. 
• The Kat makes her first TV appearance in a few months, coming out onto the stage to show off her body in a glittery silver bikini. She’d been off TV because she was notoriously unpopular backstage but I’ll actually talk a lot more about that at No Way Out. She wants to show other ways to get extreme and hardcore by stripping off her clothes. Jerry Lawler is, as I'm sure you can imagine, insufferable during all of this. The fans explode when she says “full frontal nudity” but the whole performance is obviously stopped by the Right to Censor. They throw a big white sack over her and drag her to the back leaving Steven Richards with a microphone to berate the crowd for being perverts. He’s very angry! He says he no longer blames the WWF for the moral depravity around here, he blames the people for encouraging it.

• Chris Jericho heads down to the ring and offers to defend his Intercontinental title in an Extreme open challenge. Will it be Albert and his extremely big head? Benoit and his extremely gapped teeth? Triple H and his extremely big nose? All decent jokes but it’s accepted by Tazz who “knows all about extreme” because of ECW. Tazz calls Jericho extremely funny, and beats us over the head with the ECW connection without actually saying it. ECW was sadly long dead by this point. Take a shot every time someone says extreme. Jericho wins a short back and forth match with a Lionsault to retain the IC title.

Raw is War - February 5th, 2001

Tag Team Chaos

The Rock is shown arriving in the parking lot. Kevin Kelly wants to speak to him but Rocky just drops his bag and coat and walks directly out into the arena. He looks very angry after losing his chance to become WWF Champion on Smackdown. The Rock says that everyone has only one question - how can Triple H be such a bonafide horse’s ass? He blames Triple H specifically for costing him the WWF title by forcing his way into his match on Smackdown. He even says he has no ill will towards Stone Cold because he did what he had to do to screw Triple H but he also screwed The Rock. The Rock is focusing his fury on The Game and after a string of funny abuse about both The Game and his wife, tells him to come to the ring and bring his slut wife with him and try to earn a WWF title match.

That brings out Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley solo. The Rock doesn’t even let her speak and after another joke about her being a slut, Triple H comes out too. He says that he deserves as many title matches as he wants because he’s The Game etc. Triple H says that he was screwed by Stone Cold and tries to put the focus back on him. Triple H takes off his coat (or two coats, it’s the styling denim over leather ensemble) and gets ready to fight The Rock which brings out the WWF Champion Kurt Angle. He says that they want to have a match to decide who gets a title shot against him but he’ll say this slowly so they understand. Neither of them can beat him. He says that the Wrestlemania main event is set - Stone Cold will challenge him. But he invites them to have a match anyway to see who he beats again. That then brings out Mr. McMahon who mentions the XFL a bunch of times. The Rock cuts him off and demands to know if he has a match with Triple H tonight or not, and threatens to shove an XFL football up his candy ass. Kurt sucks up to Vince a little. McMahon books a big main event tag team match - Triple H will team with Stone Cold (and reminds us of their strict zero tolerance policy about fighting each other) against The Rock and Kurt Angle! No one is happy about that.

Stone Cold Steve Austin arrives at the arena where Kevin Kelly breaks the news to him about tonight’s tag team match and being forced to team with Triple H. He’s pissed and goes to find Vince. Austin walks on on Vince and Trish getting all flirty again but to everyone’s shock, Steve is happy with the match. He thinks it's a great idea. He makes a joke about Vince trying to screw someone else and leaves. 

Kurt Angle goes looking for The Rock ahead of teaming up tonight. He’s obnoxious asking Rock to be a good partner. He agrees and says he wants to make Kurt happy because he won’t be happy for long. He gets quiet and intense in a way that we’re not used to seeing from The Rock, and even refers to himself as “me” rather than in the third person as he calmly explains to Kurt that he is going to take his WWF Championship from him much sooner than Angle expects.

Stephanie goes to see her dad and wants to talk about stipulations for the Triple H/Stone Cold match at No Way Out. He isn’t interested and tells her to go and calm down and tell Triple H to do the same. As they have that conversation with Triple H worked up into a rage over the whole situation, Austin drops in to wish him luck and compliment Steph’s hair. What does the Rattlesnake have up his sleeve?

For the main event itself, The Rock enters first followed by WWF Champion Kurt Angle who once again has his sometimes business partner Trish Stratus with him. I thought they’d quietly dropped that after Royal Rumble. Triple H is next out with his wife and finally his partner, Stone Cold Steve Austin! The match begins as a proper tag team match with Austin keeping his fighting to Angle, and Rock keeping his for Triple H. Austin tags Triple H rather aggressively which he takes exception to and that just leads to him being distracted and The Rock getting the advantage. Angle tries to push The Rock around and so he becomes the first one to hit his own partner, rocking Angle with a big punch. Triple H returns the aggressive tag to Austin. The match turns into a chaotic brawl as Angle returns the favour and attacks his own partner as The Big Show arrives. Angle throws The Rock out to him and the 500lbs giant beats up The Rock and gives him the Final Cut reverse DDT on the floor on the outside before leaving.

 It’s not officially two on one but Austin and Triple H hate each other. They have a contest of bouncing Kurt’s head off the announce desk and I know you’ll be bored of me mentioning this but no one in history has ever been more in the way as Earl Hebner is in EVERYONE’s way during this entire exchange. I hate him. Austin “accidentally” causes Triple H to fall through the ropes and sarcastically checks if he’s ok. Back in the ring, Triple H hits the Pedigree on Angle but Stone Cold distracts the referee. They get into an argument and almost come to blows but in the end it's all a big distraction as Angle blasts Triple H with a brutal chair shot. Austin feigns being sad about both that, and losing the match when Kurt pins him but then drops Angle with a Stone Cold Stunner and closes Raw celebrating with a beer bash. Austin outsmarted The Game again. 

Is Vince caught out?

Backstage, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley rants to the make-up lady about having found a women’s earring in his hotel room and finally having some proof of his affair with Trish Stratus. William Regal is shown watching and listening. She does go to confront her dad and after ranting at him about finding the earring, William Regal enters and thanks Vince for letting him use his hotel room and takes the earring to return it to its rightful owner. Regal has saved Vince’s bacon there and he reassures his daughter that he and Trish are indeed “just friends”. 

Radical Returns

Raw kicks off with an Intercontinental Championship match. Chris Jericho defends against Matt Hardy (with Lita). Jeff Hardy isn’t here tonight after being put through a table by Bubba Ray on Smackdown Extreme. Before the match begins, Dean Malenko returns to watch this match from the ramp, seemingly continuing his storyline/attempted rape of Lita from before his knee surgery. If that wasn’t enough to make me angry, Jerry Lawler’s commentary about it certainly is. This is a good match and Lita even gives Jercho a diving hurricanrana off the top behind the referee’s back, almost giving Matt the victory and the title. Dean rushes the ring while Matt is on the outside, hitting him from behind and driving Lita into the ring apron too. That lets Jericho retain with the Lionsault in the ring. Dean approaches Lita licking his lips and looking for all the world like he actually is going to sexually assault her but Matt attacks him from behind. Dean gets backup from Perry Saturn, but Jericho does the right thing and saves Matt. Jericho wants to fight but is attacked from behind by the returning Eddie Guerrero who we haven’t seen in weeks and weeks. He jumps Jericho from behind with the IC title belt and Malenko and Saturn join in as the three Radicals beat Jericho senseless and hold him down for Eddie to drive the IC title belt right into Y2J’s head and face. That was a unique spot. Eddie is back and has his sights set on Jericho and the IC title, and Dean is back and (still) has his sights set on Lita unfortunately. 

The Right to Nudity

The Kat goes to see the APA and asks for their protection as she starts the “right to nudity” to combat the Right to Censor. She doesn’t have any cash so she just flashes them instead which they react to like excited teenage boys and accept that as payment. 

Kat comes down to the ring backed by the APA. After a long speech about the right to nudity and why we should all be allowed to get as naked as we want (including an admittedly funny bit where King got topless at ringside in agreement) the Right to Censor came down to stop this. Bradshaw and Faarooq go out to fight with them. Steven Richards gets in the ring and screams at Kat that she’s a slut so she forces a kiss on him and he turns right into a clothesline from hell by Bradshaw. The segment ends with Kat chasing off Ivory to explain why she doesn’t get naked. 

XFL

This Raw took place 48 hours after the first ever XFL game. It gets mentioned a lot including a segment where Vince was on the phone to someone saying he “doesn’t care what the critics say” and ranting about how great the ratings for the game were. Don’t get too used to that Vince - they absolutely tanked for week 2 and got worse from there. Late in the show, JR and King introduced a video package hyping up the first broadcast and targeting one of the critics who was mean about the whole thing, especially their commentary. King makes a couple of gay jokes about him. Winning hearts and minds. I’m going to do a whole bit about the XFL during No Way Out. 

Other Happenings

• Edge and Christian face Kaientai after their various run-ins over the past two weeks. Before the match, Edge and Christian reverse the comedy dubbed promo by “speaking” Japanese. Taka returns fire in “English” and says that their Japanese is poor. “Indeed!”. Funaki is still showing the effects of a con-chair-to on Smackdown. Edge and Christian take Kaientai lightly and it almost costs them as Taka and Funaki put up a good fight and get close to victory but the former Tag Team Champions hold out and finish off Taka with their old finisher, the double stacked superplex.

• Michael Cole goes out to find Molly Holly in the parking lot waiting for Raven and his mystery woman to arrive. They cost her cousin Crash the Hardcore title last week and so she owes this masked woman a beating. She also copies Crash’s old super heavyweight gimmick claiming she weighs 275lbs of solid muscle. Raven would later show up and say that while the mystery woman isn’t “his woman” she will be here for a fight later. She does show up and when the two women brawl, Raven is there to pull Molly’s hair and give his accomplice the advantage. The woman and Raven escape.
• The Undertaker and Kane challenge The Dudley Boyz for the WWF Tag Team Championships. The Dudleyz hold their own and the match is back and forth but in the end, Taker and Kane are too much for the champions. Undertaker drills Bubba with a chokeslam but Edge and Christian run out with steel chairs. Taker avoids a con-chair-to and sends them packing with a brutal chair shot to Christian but in the confusion the referee thinks Undertaker used a chair on Bubba and disqualifies them. JR speculates that Edge and Christian likely didn’t want them to win the tag team titles because they’d be much harder opponents for them when trying to win the titles back. That makes sense. 

• Al Snow goes to see Mr. McMahon (walking in on him and Trish) and says he wants to talk about his friend Mick Foley and the way Vince treated him. Vince says he doesn’t care about Foley but does care about Al and gives him a match later but doesn’t say who it’s with. The opponent would turn out to be Chris Benoit and Snow held his own for a bit and even almost wins with a nice pair of moonsaults but with Benoit being on the cusp of becoming a main eventer he ultimately beats Snow clean with the Crippler Crossface in a short but decent match. 
• Chyna was live at WWF New York promoting her new book and talking about all the talk shows she’s been on lately. She’s trying to focus on the good in her life instead of her injury and forget about the Right to Censor. Good advice for us all.

• Michael Cole speaks to Too Cool ahead of their match with Rikishi and Haku later. They talk about their heartbreak at losing their best friend and how much he’s changed since they stopped hanging out and it's interrupted by a sneering and aggressive Rikishi and Haku who mock them. That leads into the match itself. Too Cool put up a good fight but are ultimately defeated pretty easily by the much larger opponents and a Banzai drop to Grandmaster Sexay.

Smackdown! - February 8th, 2001

Search for Stipulations

Mr. McMahon opens the show in the ring. He has a large golden tumbler but doesn’t explain that right away. He instead talks about fairness. “In the interest of fairness” is his new catchphrase. He shows footage of The Big Show attacking The Rock during the main event of Raw and so makes tonight’s main event a singles match between the two where the winner will challenge for the WWF title at No Way Out. The other matter was in that same match when Triple H swung for Austin and fortunately missed, otherwise it would have caused him a 6 month suspension, and cost Austin his Wrestlmania main event. He books another match for tonight where Stone Cold and Triple H both get to pick a representative and tonight they’ll fight where the winner will decide the stipulation for their match at No Way Out. That’s what the tumbler is for - it’ll decide who the representatives are. He asks for an impartial volunteer to pick the names and the fans all cheer assuming it’ll be one of them but William Regal comes out instead, with Vince’s “friend” Trish Stratus on his arm. Regal implies that he and Trish are an item, which is seemingly a ruse between all three of them to hide Vince and Trish’s relationship from Stephanie. Trish plucks out the balls with names in them (Vince compliments her “orbs”) and the names are revealed.

Stone Cold’s representative is The One, Billy Gunn and Triple H’s representative is Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho. Watching on from his locker room, Triple H is furious that he has Jericho - he’s sure that Y2J will lose on purpose just to screw him over. Stephanie is more upset about Trish and Regal’s clearly fake relationship. Later, Triple H goes to see Billy Gunn and asks him to take a dive and let Jericho win so that he can name the stipulations for his match with Austin. The One isn’t interested and tells The Game to beat it, so Triple H attacks him from behind, clubbing him over the back of the head with a fire extinguisher!

Kevin Kelly interviews Mr. McMahon about the fact that Billy Gunn now can’t compete. He’s outraged and books Triple H to face Chris Jericho instead. No mention as to whether there’s still a stipulation at No Way Out on the line.

When Jericho and Triple H enter for their match, Michael Cole explains that yes this match no longer decides who picks the stipulations for Triple H vs. Stone Cold at No Way Out. They’ll need to decide that later. These two work really well together and go back and forth for a few minutes but after a distraction by Eddie Guerrero, Triple H follows up with a Pedigree for the victory. Eddie is targeting the IC title, but also Jericho for being the one to injure him. Stone Cold comes out after the match and offers Triple H a beer. The Game won’t take it but Guerrero says he will. Austin ignores him so Eddie shoves the Rattlesnake. Big mistake, and he’s dropped with a Stone Cold Stunner! He keeps Triple H distracted which allows Y2J to attack from behind and lock him in the Walls of Jericho. Austin delights in seeing Triple H have his back punished and pours some beer on his head for good measure. Austin has the time of his life taunting the Game and celebrating with more beers. 

Backstage while on the phone to someone and openly promoting more XFL stuff, Vince says to Johnathan Coachman that on Raw it’ll be Rikishi representing Stone Cold against The Rock representing Triple H. Whoever wins, their cornerman will get to pick the stipulation for No Way Out. 

Number One Contender Main Event

The WWF Champion Kurt Angle joins commentary for the main event. The Rock vs. The Big Show with the winner facing Kurt for the WWF title at No Way Out. Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock before the match where he promises to win, to whoop his ass, to win the WWF title at No Way Out. Standard promo. The match itself is one of Big Show’s better ones. Some opponents just knew how to work with his size and style and Rock was one of them. Show works over The Rock and uses his size and weight to grind him down. They fight around the ring and in front of the announce table and as Show clears the table off to put Rock through it, Angle gets aggressive calling Big Show a “big ugly lug” and “tub of crap”. He attacks the WWF Champion and throws him into the crowd but the distraction let's Rock recover and he hammers the big man with punches until he falls backwards, crushing the table. I’ve never seen someone punched through the announce table before. Back in the ring, Rock drops Show with a DDT and follows with a People’s Elbow but Big Show kicks out much to Rocky’s shock. Show is actually back on his feet first and no-sells the elbow, stalking Rock for a chokeslam. As he lifts him, Rock’s feet catch the referee in the face knocking him down. Big Show has the match won with a massive chokeslam but with no referee to count, Kurt Angle enters the ring and hits him in the head with a pair of chair shots. He tries to hit The Rock too but he ducks and sends Kurt to the outside followed by a Rock Bottom on Big Show onto the steel chair. Show is so massive he completely hides the chair and the referee doesn’t see it and counts the three. The Rock wins and is officially the number one contender to challenge for the title at No Way Out.

After the match, a furious Big Show plants Kurt with a massive chokeslam, followed by an even bigger one to The Rock. The No Way Out main event are both laid out on their back in the ring and Smackdown closes with Big Show on top. 

Tag Team Title Hunt

Edge and Christian challenge The Dudley Boyz for the Tag Team titles. This is officially E + C cashing in their rematch clause after losing the titles at the Royal Rumble. This is a really good match and impressively is totally different from their match at the Royal Rumble. As it breaks down, The Undertaker and Kane arrive apparently still having designs on the Tag Team titles and angry at Edge and Christian for costing them. Taker drills Edge with a chokeslam which causes a disqualification. The Dudleys get in his face and are angry at him for getting involved so he spits his chewing tobacco on D-Von’s shirt (disgusting, I hate that spot) and that turns into a fight. Kane and Undertaker plant Bubba and D-Von with a pair of chokeslams too and leave both teams laid out.

fterwards, Edge and Christian go to see Vince McMahon and are angry at losing their shot at the titles. He appeases them by letting them co-host Sunday Night Heat on MTV (they were still trying to push that show as it was the only WWF show not getting great ratings at the time) and books them against Undertaker and Kane in a number one contenders tag team match on Raw. Winners face The Dudleyz at No Way Out. 

Other Happenings

• The Hardy Boyz face Chris Jericho and Perry Saturn of The Radicals. Before the match begins, Dean Malenko comes down to the ring (presumably to stalk Lita again) and the distraction lets Benoit and Saturn get the early jump. Dean hasn’t had his Light Heavyweight Championship with him in either return appearance so far and there’s been no mention of him still being the champion. The Hardyz have the match won with a Swanton Bomb on Benoit but Terri distracts the referee from counting. Lita goes to stop her, and that brings Malenko around to grab her. The Hardyz rush to defend Lita and so Dean throws Jeff into the ring steps and sends him into the ring to be locked in a Crossface giving The Radicals the submission victory. Honestly if I didn’t utterly loathe this Malenko and Lita storyline last month it’s making me furiously angry to watch now. 
• Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley goes to confront Regal and Trish about their ruse. Trish excuses herself and leaves (after telling William to never kiss her in public again) and Regal explains that he and Trish are very much together. Stephanie says that he may want her dad as a friend but he doesn’t want her as an enemy. Regal asks her to sit down and talk to him and let him explain. Stephanie would later leave the office with a smile on her face. What did Regal say to smooth things over?
• Al Snow goes to speak to Vince McMahon and just like on Raw he wants to talk about Mick Foley. Once again, Vince swats him away again with a match against an unnamed opponent. Snow rushes out to the ring and isn’t even dressed to compete when his opponent enters - it’s Rikishi, with Haku. Snow does his best but Rikishi wins by sitting on him. Afterwards Rikishi encourages Haku to attack Snow more with a choke.

• Raven defends the Hardcore Championship against Hardcore Holly. He has Molly with him who is still chasing down Raven’s mysterious ninja woman in black that keeps helping him escape with the title. As the two men wrestle, the masked woman sneaks to ringside with a 2x4 but is intercepted by Molly Holly with a clothesline off the ringsteps. Hardcore Holly actually pins Raven to win the Hardcore title but I missed how as the cameras were focused on Molly and the woman in black. Molly almost unmasks her but Raven saves her. She takes out Molly with a trash can lid and then as Raven and Holly fight, she gets a cheap shot in with the 2x4 and that allows Raven to regain his title using the 24/7 rule. They scamper off together.

• The APA plays strip poker with The Kat and Jacqueline. Bradshaw is losing and is far too keen to take his pants off in front of the women. Fortunately they stop him and all head out to the ring for their match with the Right to Censor. Kevin Kelly has some “earlier today” comments with Steven Richards who continues to target The Kat and her desire to be naked on television. That match is an eight person tag with Bull, Godfather, Steven and Ivory against the APA, Kat and Jackie. Ivory tags herself in and wants to fight The Kat, whose ring gear consists of a very small leopard print bikini. She gets Jacqueline instead. When the match falls apart, Jackie softens up Ivory who gets a DDT from Kat and then a Bronco Buster. Her joy is short-lived as Ivory rolls her up and gets her feet on the ropes for leverage to win the match for the RtC team.
• There’s another video package about the first few games of the XFL, including a shot of the cover of Sports Illustrated covering the league. They’ve left the headline “Cheap Thrills” visible, but edited out the other writing which is basically slamming it. Jerry Lawler’s promotion for the next games concerns who’ll be commentating. If the big selling point is that JR and Jesse Ventura don’t get along and will spend the whole game arguing you’re already in trouble right? 
• Kurt Angle in his locker room can’t find his new t-shirt. He accuses Esse Rios of stealing it to sell for tequila money. He’s deeply patronising, leading to Esse demanding a match with the WWF Champion. Kurt’s taken the odd funny little shot at Esse for months - he makes him the punchline in a lot of his jokes as a substitute for a nobody or loser or unworthy challenger basically. That match is made for Sunday Night Heat (Kurt won, obviously).

Raw is War - February 12th, 2001

Triple H gets the upper hand

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley open the show in the arena. He has a very strange night ahead of him as The Rock of all people will represent him in a match with Rikishi, representing Stone Cold. If The Rock wins Triple H gets to pick the stipulations for his No Way Out match with Austin so he’s now got to cheer on The Rock! Triple H starts by getting very nasty about the people in New Jersey. He then moves onto tonight’s match - he understands Vince’s decision making about the no touching rule, and the representatives but he doesn’t understand why he must be represented by a man he hates almost as much as Austin. He says that the people need to understand that when they cheer for Rock later, they’re cheering for him because if The Rock wins the stipulations he has in mind for Stone Cold will make the mind boggle. He then tells The Rock that he needs to get the job done and not do anything stupid. That brings Rocky out to respond. He says that how dare Triple H tell him not to do anything stupid after he married “the biggest slut in the Western hemisphere”. That gets a big pop and a “slut” chant. The Rock says he’s more focused on his own match at No Way Out where he guarantees he will win the WWF Championship. He then offers Triple H a choice - he can shut up and Rocky will go and get ready for the match, or he can keep running his mouth and The Rock will come down and kick his ass. Stephanie starts to say something so The Rock just heads down to the ring. Before violence breaks out, The Rock’s opponent tonight Rikishi comes down. He tells The Rock to worry more about him than Triple H. Rikishi calls his match with The Rock as “easy as a hit and run” and makes some jokes about running people over. That brings out Stone Cold Steve Austin. He’s awesome as he berates Rikishi and says that since he needs him to win tonight so he can name the stipulation but once that match is over he promises to beat Rikishi’s ass all over again.

He says he’ll be at ringside, and so Triple H says he will be too and warns The Rock that he better know his role and do as he has to. The Rock attacks Triple H, and so Rikishi attacks him! Austin stands by and doesn’t make any attempt to save The Rock, but gets a superkick from Rikishi after Triple H distracts him. It’s all very combustible for later! 

Triple H goes to see Rikishi and asks him to do him a favour just like he did with Billy Gunn on Smackdown. He wants Rikishi to lay down and take a dive so that he can name the stipulation at No Way Out. Rikishi politely refuses and Triple H seems to accept it but just as he picks up a weapon and looks set to do the same to him as he did to Billy, Haku walks in and catches him in the act. 

Triple H faces The One Billy Gunn. Kevin Kelly speaks to Billy before the match who is fired up and angry at The Game for what he did to him on Smackdown (clubbed him unconscious with a fire extinguisher for refusing to take a dive). I didn’t mention it earlier but Stephanie looks especially good on this episode of Raw. Must be something about her hair. A back and forth match where Billy looks strong but after some mistimed spots where I think they miscommunicated or forget their spots, Triple H wins with a Pedigree. 

As Vince and William congratulate themselves backstage after beating up Al Snow (see Other Happenings)  Stone Cold confronts Vince and asks if he thinks he's funny making him be in the corner of the man that ran him over? Austin promises that if he wins he’ll tie a chain around Vince’s grapefruits and drag him behind a car himself.

In the main event, The Rock (with Triple H in his corner) vs. Rikishi (with Stone Cold Steve Austin in his). Triple H and Austin enter first and take their places at ringside to watch. The fight is physical and when they fight on the outside, Triple H actually gets in Rikishi’s face and the two allies trade blows. This match has created some strange bedfellows. There’s a fun spot as both men go down and while Stephanie has the referee distracted, Triple H drags The Rock into a cover but Austin gets in the ring and reverses it. The Rock kicks out. Stone Cold and Triple H get into a big argument at ringside and Stephanie slaps the Rattlesnake. As the two shout and argue, The Rock finishes Rikishi with a Rock Bottom and wins the match. Triple H now gts to pick the stipulation for No Way Out. Triple H gets in the ring and raises Rock’s hand to taunt Austin but he doesn’t appreciate it as he starts to lay the smackdown on The Game.

Rikishi joins in the fight and Austin hesitates getting involved bcause he can’t touch Triple H but does charge the ring and drop Rikishi with a Stone Cold Stunner. Raw ends with Triple H and Stone Cold face to face and nose to nose, desperate to fight each other but unable to act on it. 

All-Champions Tag Team

Kurt Angle accused Esse Rios of stealing his t-shirt and selling it for tequila money. They fought on Sunday Night Heat which Angle won, and then gave him a second Olympic Slam after the match for good measure. As Kurt talks to Edge and Christian tonight, Michael Cole approaches Kurt and tells him that Esse has challenged him to a rematch. Angle is a fronted and says he won’t fight him one on one, but if he can find a partner then Kurt will find one too and they can have a tag team match. 

Michael Cole goes to see Kurt later to find out if he has a partner yet. He’s taking Esse Rios very lightly and sarcastically picks a woman who’s working at the arena refilling the vending machines. He’s not at all worried about Esse Rios and whoever he picks. Hardcore Champion Raven approaches and offers to be Kurt’s partner and Angle accepts. Later when Cole checks in on Esse Rios about the same thing, it’s revealed that his partner is The Big Show! 

Just before they head to the ring, Raven chases down Kurt and tries to back out of the tag team match now that he knows Big Show is Esse’s partner. Kurt tells him that he’ll handle Rios as long as Raven handles Big Show! 

WWF Champion Kurt Angle and Hardcore Champion Raven face Esse Rios and Big Show. This seems to have been Show’s idea to trick Angle into fighting him tonight. He’s not number one contender, but getting his hands on the Champion is another way to earn a shot down the line. Big Show debuts the ring gear he’d wear for the next big stage of his career here wearing a black singlet. It’s a much better look than his little black trunks, or shorts he wore previously. Raven actually wins the match quickly with a DDT on Esse Rios while Angle has Show distracted. Raven’s mystery ninja woman shows up with some weapons and she, Raven and Kurt all hit Big Show with weapons. He shrugs it all off and Angle runs away, Show spikes Raven with a massive chokeslam totally no-selling having a 2x4 broken over his head. He has his eyes still set on Kurt Angle. 

A Return and a Debut

Eddie Guerrero challenges Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental title. Eddie returned last week and launched a brutal sneak attack on Y2J for being the man who injured him in the first place. That’s not true and I believe Eddie was actually off TV related to his substance abuse issues. He wrestles with no t-shirt on here which is the first time he’s done that in months and months having finally gained some muscle back (also related to substance abuse issues, Eddie famously took the MOST steroids). This is as good as you’d expect given that Eddie is one of the greatest of all time, and as Jericho locks him in the Walls of Jericho we get another return - X-Pac. He’s been out for three months after Y2J injured him in the steel cage match back at No Mercy. X-Pac jumps him from behind causing a disqualification and leaves Jericho laid out with a spinning heel kick. 

The returning X-Pac faces Scotty 2 Hotty of Too Cool. A trip from Grandmaster behind the referee’s back allows Scotty to hit the Worm but X-Pac kicks out. Scotty backflips off the top rope and lands awkwardly, collapsing and selling his knee. He seems badly injured. X-Pac grabs a mic and says that he’s waited three months for his comeback and his first match back can’t end like this and he shoves Grandmaster Sexay and dares him to take his partner's place. Scotty is helped out by referees as X-Pac and Grandmaster start a new match. X-Pac wins that with an X-Factor but he gets no time to celebrate as Chris Jericho runs down to return the favour from earlier and takes out X-Pac and gives him a Lionsault. He’s blasted from behind with a steel chair by the debuting Justin Credible! With the end of ECW back in January, we’ll see more and more former ECW guys filter into the WWF. Credible and X-Pac lay out Y2J and have apparently formed an alliance. Much like Tazz and Raven, Credible is a former ECW World Champion. 

Every Tag Team for Themselves

The WWF Tag Team Champions Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley join commentary for the number one contenders match. It’s Undertaker and Kane against Edge and Christian. The Brothers of Destruction (they still don’t have that name even on commentary) debut their tandem entrance here as Kane comes out first and then signals his pyro to kick off Undertaker’s entrance. Undertaker and Christian fight on the outside and as Taker is distracted arguing with The Dudleyz, Kane plants Edge with a chokeslam in the ring. Christian hits him with a stiff chair shot behind the referee’s back but by the time Edge crawls to a cover Kane kicks out. The match continues and the big men dominate but when Kane throws Edge into both Dudleyz at ringside, that involves them in the fight and the match is ruled a no contest as all six men brawl and scrap on the outside of the ring until many referees and officials manage to split them all up. The fans loudly chant for tables. Later when asked what this outcome means, Vince McMahon makes the Tag Team title match at No Way Out a triple threat match.

Other Happenings

• Raw opens with what I think was a botch as the traditional opening show pyro fires frantically and without rhythm. It’s like they set it all off at once.
• Mr. McMahon is shown arriving at the arena in a limo. He has Trish Stratus with him which looks deeply suspicious until William Regal gets out too. See it’s Regal that’s “dating” Trish. But not really, it’s to help cover up Vince and Trish’ “just friends” relationship. 
• The Hardyz and Lita face the Radicals team of Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn and Terri. The moment the match begins, Dean Malenko comes out to watch the match from the top of the ramp. I’m sick of mentioning how deeply gross I find this whole storyline but Jerry Lawler continues to make it worse. The Hardyz and Lita win a short match when Lita gives Terri a Twist of Fate and then a moonsault. After the bell, with Matt and Jeff down on the outside Perry Saturn gives Lita a backbreaker. Dean looks like he’s going to save her but then gives her a stiff clothesline instead. For about the 40th time, the segment ends with Lita down in pain and Malenko staring at her like a rapist licking his lips.
• In a backstage segment, Vince McMahon casually reveals that he’s planning on showing a special valentine’s message to his wife Linda on Smackdown including putting her on tape (in her deeply sedated state, which outrages JR). 
• Al Snow comes out dressed as Mick Foley. Mankind (complete with mask and curly wig) and some classic Foley flannel on top of that. Snow has tried to talk to Vince about Mick twice and both times was given a match as punishment. Snow says that this is a protest - he accuses McMahon of not being in the interest of fairness, he’s only interested in screwing. Not him, or Trish, but the WWF fans and superstars especially Mick Foley. He says he’s staying out as a sit down strike and leads the fans in a “Foley” chant until Mr. McMahon himself comes out to address the Foley issue. How dare he talk about screwing, says Vince. He assures everyone that he and Trish are just friends and tells Al to leave or he’ll make him leave physically. McMahon takes his jacket off and looks ready to fight Al Snow but before they come to blows, William Regal comes out. Trish’s “real” boyfriend. He tells Vince that a man of his class need not lower himself to violence and as he waffles, Vince gives Snow a low blow from behind. Regal gives him a really vicious beating with kicks and punches and he and McMahon leave together with poor Al Snow beaten down in the ring still dressed as Mankind. 

• The Kat continues her promotion of the Right to Nudity at WWF New York, wearing red lingerie and dancing on a pole. Back at the arena, Steven Richards stoically watches as the rest of the RtC whisper in his ear about her lack of morals and depravity. He promises he’ll deal with Kat personally.

Smackdown! - February 15th, 2001

Stipulations Set

Smackdown opens with Vince McMahon. He says that he likes to share his life with us and so later he will show us a special video of his valentines day visit to his wife Linda in the mental home. But before that, he brings out another family member - Triple H. When The Game gets to the ring he asks if Stephanie is still mad at him. Triple H confirms that she is very angry at her dad, but that’s not what they’re here to talk about. He’s here to tell us the stipulations for his match with Stone Cold at No Way Out. He’s thought about it a lot and explains the rules - it’ll be two out of three falls, but with each fall having meaning. The first fall will be a straight wrestling match and is about pride. He’s going to break Austin’s spirit by beating him fair and square. The second fall will be a street fight and he reminds us of his battles with Cactus Jack last year. The last fall, if needed assuming he doesn’t beat Austin two in a row, will be a steel cage match. He promises to end The Rattlesnake once and for all at No Way Out and whoever survives their match will have proven he is the best. Vince says that in order to test Austin’s wrestling skills tonight he’ll face the best technical wrestler in the WWF today Chris Benoit. He also says that in order to show Triple H’s gratitude to The Rock for winning and giving him this opportunity to name the stipulation it’ll be Triple H vs. The Rock tonight as well. 

Stone Cold Steve Austin arrives at the arena. Kevin Kelly is waiting for him in the parking lot. He breaks the news about his match with Chris Benoit later, and explains the stipulations for the match at No Way Out. The Rattlesnake seems very happy about them.

Stone Cold Steve Austin faces Chris Benoit. It’s an intense fight with Benoit looking very strong against the Rattlesnake. He counters an early Stunner attempt into a Crossface but Austin manages to crawl to the bottom rope to break it. As Austin rallies with a submission of his own in the STF, Triple H comes down to ringside for a closer look and smirks as Benoit fights back and punishes Austin outside the ring, slamming him into the announce table and beating him down. We actually lose commentary for a bit as both King and Cole’s headsets are knocked off/damaged during the fight on the announce table. Triple H distracts the referee when Austin has the match won, and slides a chair into the ring for Benoit to use but its not enough and Stone Cold ducks a chair shot and hits a Stunner to win the match. Triple H tried to screw him but it wasn’t enough and he looks furious as he heads to the back defeated.

Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock ahead of his main event match with Triple H. This is a pretty famous promo - it's the one where The Rock caught Kevin picking his nose. Before the match itself, Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out and joins commentary to watch his No Way Out opponent battle The Rock, who he might be facing at Wrestlemania if The Rock beats Angle at the PPV. Tonight was the first explicit mention of that possibility - we’d all put two and two together but this was the company drawing our attention to it. Austin says that he’s hated many people in his life, but he’s never hated anyone like he hates Triple H. He’s about to vomit out of pure rage just watching his entrance. Austin is incredible to just listen to. The biggest issue with his late 2000 - 2001 post-neck surgery run is that he doesn’t cut nearly enough promos compared to his 98 - 99 heyday. I have mentioned previously that The Rock and Triple H didn’t have many more matches involving each other left in their career - this is the 4th to last time they were ever in the ring together, and their second last singles match ever. They wrestled once more on an episode of Raw in August of 2002 which would prove to be the last time they’d ever cross paths. That feels like a huge deal to me given how much of the Attitude era was defined by their rivalry. I wonder if either of them would have been emotional if they’d known that this right here is so very close to the end. It’s a very good match too - these guys knew each other so well by this point. With the referee down, Triple H throws The Rock to the outside where WWF Champion Kurt Angle sneaks down and hits his No Way Out challenger in the head with the WWF title belt. He throws The Rock back inside and tries to wake up the referee but Austin attacks Angle and delays the referee just as Triple H hits a Pedigree. Stone Cold is costing Triple H the match again! The Rock hits a Rock Bottom and THEN Austin throws the referee back into the ring to count. Angle breaks up the pin and that brings Stone Cold in to fight him again. Chris Benoit, Austin’s opponent from earlier, runs down to join the fight and its a chaotic brawl. Benoit locks Austin in the Crossface as Angle locks The Rock in an ankle lock - a move he’s only used a coule of times before. With both men screaming in pain, Triple H taunts Austin with one of his own beers and even pours it over Stone Cold’s head at the end of Smackdown. 

More McMahon Drama

After multiple teases, showing Linda sitting in a home staring out of a window in a catatonic state, Vince comes down to the ring and shows us a video of his visit to the sanitarium. He popped in to visit Linda who is in a zombie-like catatonic state. He explains that he still does love her, and explains that he doesn’t want a divorce anymore because she’d have got 50% of his money and control of the company but now that she’s ill he doesn’t have to. It's basically implied that he’s drugging her to keep her in this condition so that he can save himself the expense of the divorce. He brings in his “friend” Trish, who says that Linda reminds her of her grandmother and gives her a kiss, commenting on how cold she is. Vince takes Linda’s flowers back from her and gives them to Trish instead.

Back in the arena, he brings out his two friends Trish Stratus and William Regal. They’re keeping up the pretence that Trish and Vince are just friends and that she’s actually dating Regal. Before anything else can be said, a furious Stephanie marches down to the ring and tackles Trish, beating her up. She slaps Regal across the face as her dad holds her back and Regal drags Trish to the back. Stephanie’s had enough of Trish, and seemingly had enough of her dad’s totally transparent affair. Michael Cole is so disgusted by Vince’s actions that he throws to a replay of the segment later. As Vince loads Regal and Trish into a limo to leave the arena, William suggests Vince book Steph against Trish at No Way Out. He’s immediately against the idea but when Regal points out the potential money making on PPV, he changes his tune and the match is official! 

Hardcore Big Show

Kevin Kelly interviews Raven and asks why he’d choose to defend the Hardcore title against Big Show tonight. Raven says that he loves a challenge and puts on false bravado only to crumble and confess that Mr. McMahon is making him. 

Raven wheels a shopping cart full of weapons down to the ring before his Hardcore title defence against The Big Show. Raven hits Show with weapons but the big man just no-sells them all and keeps coming like the Terminator. Raven’s mysterious accomplice in black comes down and hits Big Show with a 2x4 which he also no-sells. In a cool spot he picks the shopping cart up above his head and throws it at Raven who moves and it crashes into the ring steps. With Big Show in control, a bunch of people run down to try and cash in on the 24/7 rule. Both members of Kaientai are given a double chokeslam. Albert gets the same fate and K-Kwik is chokeslammed onto a trash can, crumpling it. Big Show punches a trash can back into Raven’s face. Val Venis runs down to try and steal a pin but is driven into the ring post by Show. He’s just walking around demolishing everyone who comes at him - this might be the best he’s ever been booked! He chases Raven through the crowd where Tazz tries to win the title and is driven into the security barricade by Big Show too. Backstage, Hardcore Holly and Steve Blackman join in the fight and they’re no match for Big Show either but it does distract him long enough for Raven to jump in a waiting car and escape with his masked accomplice. The match officially ends as a no-contest.

Other Happenings

• Kane (with Undertaker) faces Edge (with Christian). Before the match begins, The Dudley Boyz come down with a table and take a seat on it at the bottom of the ramp. As Edge is dominated by Kane in the ring, Christian attacks Undertaker from behind and pays for it as the American Badass fights him through the crowd and back to the ring. These three teams will compete at No Way Out in a triple threat match for the Tag Team titles. Kane easily beats Edge with a chokeslam. There’s a bit of a brawl where Kane is knocked off the apron and through the table (kind of, it doesn’t break but one of the legs collapses) and The Dudleyz are shocked when Kane gets right back up and no-sells it. Kane and Undertaker drill Edge and Christian with a pair of stereo chokeslams in the ring.

• Al Snow leaves the arena in the middle of the show, saying he’s going to go and visit Mick Foley (they’re in Long Island). Later in the show, the cameras follow and he does indeed. Mick’s first appearance since he was fired as Commissioner at Christmas. Snow is outraged but Mick seems to have made his peace with the whole thing. He’s had time to write more books and play with his kids and has no plans on coming back. Snow gets angry and wishes he’d known that before he got beat up three times! Mick suggests that Al Snow get back at Vince and continue his legacy by becoming WWF Commissioner himself! He presents him with his gavel.

• Matt Hardy faces Perry Saturn. Before the match, Matt tries to encourage Lita to stay backstage because we all know Dean Malenko is going to make an appearance again. She wants to be at ringside and Jeff agrees with her and promises to watch her back so they both accompany him to the ring. Perry Saturn only has Terri with him. It’s a fair straight match until predictably Dean Malenko comes down to the ring. He forces a kiss on Lita who slaps him hard across the face. Malenko leaves and Lita gets into the ring with a mic. The fans chant “Lita” so at least she’s popular despite this utterly horrific storyline. She tells Malenko to leave her alone and that this needs to end. She challenges him to a match on Raw (King speculates that what she actually means is to sleep with him. In the ring. During Raw. What a dumbass). I hope and pray that the match on Raw is the end of this storyline. It’s weird because they’re all acting quite cordial like he hasn’t beat her up and tried to literally rape her multiple times.
• Chris Jericho defends the Intercontinental Championship against X-Pac. Before the match, Y2J mocks X-Pac for having never changed his look or theme music (something I’ve been making fun of him for since DX split at Summerslam last year) and reminds us that X-Pac has a new friend in Justin Credible. Y2J gets a low blow and an X-Factor and X-Pac might have the title won (his insanely strong booking for no reason continues) but Eddie Guerrero runs down and breaks up the pin causing a disqualification. Hes focused on fighting Jericho, Justin Credible comes down to join the fight and he and X-Pac hit and run, leaving the ring as Jericho blasts Latin Heat with a chair shot to the head. 

• There’s been almost no mention of the XFL on these last two shows after the huge amount of promotion they got last week. That’s not a coincidence - the wheels had already fallen off that experiment.

Raw is War - February 19th, 2001

No Way Out’s Double Main Event

Out in the parking lot, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley wait for Trish Stratus’ arrival. She is pacing and wants to attack her as soon as she arrives. Vince has booked a mixed tag team match tonight with Steph and Triple H against Trish and William Regal. When Trish and Regal’s limo arrives, Steph dives at Trish and tries to tear her hair out. Regal gets Trish to safety as a laughing Triple H restrains his wife. I don’t know if he was supposed to be laughing or if he just broke while they were filming it. Either way he had a good giggle.

Kevin Kelly hosts a sit down interview with Kurt Angle. It’s a really good promo as Kurt explains that he is jealous of The Rock - he’s jealous that The Rock is a terrible person but still gets cheered. He questions his people’s champion moniker and asks Kevin if he feels like Rocky is a man of the people when he’s relentlessly bullying and making fun of him. Angle says his reign on top is far from over, and he’s going to remain WWF Champion at No Way Out and go to Wrestlemania

Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley heads down to the ring. She says her dad isn’t here tonight so that leaves her in charge. She says that the next scheduled match was supposed to be The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit but we’ll all have to wait because she has business to handle first. She shows a replay of Vince and Trish’s visit to see Linda in the mental home from Smackdown. We assume that Stephanie is going to have issues with the way Vince is treating Linda but instead takes credit for helping Vince “put her in her place”. She is happy to have Linda quiet and subdued because there can only be one dominant female. That female is her, but it seems like Trish is trying to force her way in. Jerry Lawler is odious as he giggles and squeals at all of Stephanie’s slut and “bitch” jokes at Trish. Steph says she’s not afraid of anyone and reminds us all that she slapped Stone Cold in the face last Monday on Raw. The fans loudly chant “slut” at her. She says she doesn’t want the mixed tag team match with Triple H and William Regal and wants Trish Stratus one on one. She doesn’t get Trish, she gets Stone Cold Steve Austin. He comes out looking pissed off, talking trash as he marches to the ring. Stephanie looks terrified of him as she probably should be. He thanks her for flapping her gums and showing that clip to remind him of what she did on Raw. He can’t touch Triple H before No Way Out but he has a present for her, and he drops Stephanie with a Stone Cold Stunner! The Rattlesnake has struck! He calls for beers as Triple H sprints to the ring. He can’t attack Austin without costing himself six months of his own career! Austin gives him the finger and toasts him with beers as The Game seeths in the ring. Stephanie had that Stunner coming for a while and for a non-wrestler she took it REALLY well. It looked great.

As Triple H tends to his wife, in their locker room Trish laughs at her misfortune and assumes the match is now cancelled. Regal says that with Austin stunning women they should leave and go back to the hotel for safety. 

Triple H loads his injured wife into a car as she makes him promise he won’t attack Austin and will wait until No Way Out.

Michael Cole interviews The Rock who addresses Kurt Angle’s comments earlier. He didn’t make himself the people’s champion - the people did. That's fair, they cheered for him when he was still a bad guy. He makes fun of Kurt for whining and complaining and being holier than thou. He’s right about that. 

Triple H comes down to ringside and takes a seat with commentary for the main event. Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock vs. Chris Benoit and WWF Champion Kurt Angle. Triple H jumps up off commentary when he hears Austin’s music and has to be physically held back by King! He’s going to blow a gasket and cost himself six months of his career. The Game is boiling. Austin continues to provoke Triple H, opening up a couple of beers and planting them on the table in front of him to enjoy with a big smile on his face. There’s a ton of tension in the situation and at ringside but there’s no tension in the match as Austin and Rock work seamlessly together. Austin takes Angle out to fight in front of Triple H, staring right into his eyes and continuing to dare him to attack Austin. There is also some focus on Rock and Angle’s upcoming WWF title match but the Austin/Triple H match is very much dominating this match. It’s a good match, and as Austin hits a Stunner on Angle and has the match won, Triple H pulls the referee out of the ring to stop the count. Benoit tries to hit Austin with the WWF title belt but he moves and Triple H is knocked off the apron instead. Benoit turns into a Rock Bottom and the referee recovers and counts. The Rock and Stone Cold win, and there’s a tense moment as Austin picks up the WWF title belt and he and The Rock stare down, before he tosses the belt to The Rock. Rocky celebrates with the title like he’s already won it which in wrestling is usually a sign that the challenger is going to lose! Raw ends with Rock and Angle staring down on one side of the ring as Triple H and Austin stare down on the other. 

Edge and Christian’s Master Plan

Raw opens with a triple threat preview of the Tag Team title match at No Way Out. D-Von Dudley vs. The Undertaker vs. Christian. The respective tag team partners are banned from ringside but Edge comes out with Christian and joins commentary where he talks trash about both rival teams at the PPV. D-Von gets a chokeslam and despite Edge’s best efforts, Christian gets a Last Ride powerbomb (haven’t seen that for a few weeks) and Undertaker wins. Edge gets a huge chokeslam for good measure. It seems like Kane and Undertaker are sure fire favourites to become the new WWF Tag Team Champions. Backstage, Edge and Christian lick their wounds and say they need a plan B to outsmart their PPV opponents.

Edge and Christian’s master plan unfolds later in the show as they send a messenger off to find Undertaker and Kane while they challenge The Dudley Boyz to come and fight them in the parking lot. The messenger tells Undertaker that The Dudleyz are messing up his bike and sure enough when Bubba Ray and D-Von arrive in the parking lot, Edge and Christian are gone but Taker’s bike has some pieces broken off of it. Undertaker arrives, sees it, and flies into a blind rage fighting with Bubba and D-Von. He throws the Tag Team Champions around up and over cars but the two on one odds give The Dudleyz the advantage. Kane arrives but too little, too late. The Dudleyz are gone. As he tries to check on a fallen Taker, Edge and Christian return with steel chairs and give Kane a con-chair-to. That WAS a genius setup. 

Love is in the Air

In a match she requested, Lita faces Dean Malenko. There’s a video package before it (which isn’t very good, it’s just clips set to electronic music with an ugly red filter over the top of it) so hopefully this is the end of this God-awful storyline. Dean doesn’t have his Light Heavyweight title belt and isn’t announced as being the champion so that title seems to have been quietly dropped sadly. I’ve spoken a few times about how I felt that was a missed opportunity. Lita gets a couple of near falls with roll ups, but Dean keeps this match going to continue the punishment when he has a clear victory, putting Lita’s foot on the ropes and letting her kick out. The referee is knocked down when Dean swings Lita’s legs into him and he gets a steel chair to use as a weapon. That brings out Matt Hardy who unarms Malenko and hits him with the steel chair. The referee recovers and Lita gets a cover and the victory over Dean Malenko. As Matt and Lita celebrate after the match, Matt gets carried away and plants a passionate kiss on Lita. She looks shocked as he leaves, but she chases him up the ramp and gives him an even bigger kiss which gets a monstrous pop from the crowd!

Matt and Lita had been dating for a while and now they are on TV too. They’d date until 2006 when…well…

https://www.thesportster.com/lita-edge-matt-hardy-saga-explained/

Fight for your Right

The Kat screams at the APA that she is desperate to get naked in public but the Right to Censor keeps stopping her. Bradshaw suggests they go to a strip club in the area that he knows about. It’s such trash that all the babyface women have to want to get naked in public (they even had Lita strip off to her underwear in WWF New York last month) but the heel women have to all be prudes. There’s a couple of segments at the strip club and as Kat is about to finally get naked on stage, Steven Richards and Ivory arrive to cover her up. Bradshaw and Faarooq are about to beat Richards up but the rest of the Right to Censor arrive and with beer bottles and pool cues as weapons leave the APA in a bloody heap on the strip club floor before abducting The Kat.

Back in the arena, the Right to Censor have returned from their foray to the strip club and Steven Richards and Ivory drag a crying Kat behind them. He berates her and the people for their immorality and just as it looks like he’s going to get physical with Kat, Jerry Lawler has had enough and jumps up into the ring to defend his real life wife. This whole thing is so trashy as he says he just wants to see her naked and will fight to do it. This leads to a match for No Way Out - Jerry Lawler vs. Steven Richards. If King wins, Kat can get naked and if Richards wins she must join the Right to Censor. There’s a message about censorship and freedom of expression in here but it comes out as a trashy storyline where a dirty old man who doesn’t respect women just wants them to get their boobs out because that’s all they’re good for. This segment ends with King punching Richards in the face. 

Other Happenings

• There’s lots of promotion during this episode of Raw for WWF The Music volume 5. Some absolute bangers on that, not including the dreadful “Pie” which is an innuendo filled comedy song by The Rock singing about how much he loves Pie. 
• Chris Jericho acts as special referee for a match between his two most fierce rivals - Eddie Guerrero and X-Pac, who keep getting involved in each other's matches with Y2J. Jericho wears an XFL jersey instead of a referee shirt and it has “He Hate Me” on the back of it. That’s a reference to Rob Smart, an XFL player who exercised his right to have a nickname or gimmick on his shirt instead of his own name. It’s as lame as it sounds.

Jericho seems to be playing favourites as he counts very fast when X-Pac has a cover and very slowly when Eddie has a cover. Eddie refuses to break a submission hold or stop pulling X-Pac’s hair so Jericho physically restrains him. Jericho’s favouritism doesn’t last long as he gets into an argument with X-Pac too which brings out Justin Credible. The new tag team on the block beat up Jericho. Eddie gets involved - not to save Jericho, just because they keep attacking him too - and they fight off X-Pac and Credible, but then Eddie attacks Jericho too and the Intercontinental Champion gives him a running bulldog and Lionsault to have the last laugh. Or does he? As Jericho leaves he’s jumped from behind by Eddie Guerrero’s fellow Radical and former IC champion Chris Benoit who spikes him with a DDT on the top of the entrance ramp. 

• Matt and Jeff Hardy take on Rikishi and Haku. The Hardyz take the early advantage diving at the huge Islanders before they’re even in the ring. The big men win the match thanks to a headbutt by Haku, and then after the match he locks them both in a choke at the same time until they collapse. 
• Al Snow has taken Mick Foley’s advice from Smackdown to heart and appears at ringside handing out campaign buttons. He’s campaigning to be the new WWF Commissioner. 
• Raven defends the Hardcore Championship against Crash Holly. It’s a fun brawl as they fight backstage and we get a crossbody into a tank of dirty water and a couple of pins in there too. The Big Show arrives and manhandles both men but Raven’s mystery accomplice shows up and hits him in the knee with a 2x4 which is enough of a distraction to allow Raven to escape with her. Molly Holly attacks her and tries to stop them escaping in the car but Raven is so desperate to escape Big Show he drives off with Molly and the masked woman still fighting in the back seat! He pulls over long enough to kick Molly out and Raven gets away from an angry Big Show. 

Smackdown! February 22nd, 2001

Champions get the upper hand over No Way Out challengers

WWF Champion Kurt Angle opens the show in the arena. The main event tonight is Kurt, Edge and Christian taking on The Rock, Undertaker and Kane. Kurt fires back at The Rock’s claims that his title reign is on borrowed time. Kurt actually says “ass” which King sells as being a really big deal - Kurt NEVER curses. He also has an issue with The Rock being on the front cover of the new WWF The Music volume 5. He plays a little bit of the song “Pie” that Rock recorded for it. They must have REALLY thought that would sell th CD. It includes specifically the bit where The Rock is overtly racist about Chinese people doing his comedy made up Chinese. Awful. Dreadful. Kurt then shows his favourite song from the CD. It’s his own theme song and a montage of him beating up The Rock. He actually plays it twice and interestingly the fans chant “You suck” in time to his music. That wouldn’t become “a thing” until Edge started doing it in 2002. This crowd was ahead of the times! Kurt shows a lot more intensity here than he has done - he’s left goofy and more serious about retaining his WWF title. He ends on an “If ya smell what the champ is cooking”.

Kevin Kelly interviews The Dudley Boyz. Bubba Ray lets us know that Vince McMahon has changed the triple threat title match at No Way Out to be a table match. They are very happy and confident. It being a table match gives them a huge advantage it seems. Weirdly Bubba makes super intense eye contact with his own partner while warning Undertaker, Kane, Edge and Christian.

Bubba and D-Von brought a table down to ringside before the main event and spray painted “No Way Out” on it. They leave it at ringside ahead of the main event so that Undertaker, Kane, Edge and Christian all can see it. 

For the main event, Edge and Christian enter first alongside their bestie, WWF Champion Kurt Angle. They are united. Edge and Christian take note of the table left at ringside by The Dudley Boyz earlier which is still there. I wonder if it’ll come into play? (It will). Undertaker and Kane enter together and Tazz on commentary refers to them as “the brothers of destruction” for what I believe is the first time on TV. Pretty cool that Tazz gave them the name. The Rock is last and he is by far the most popular star in the company. He surpassed Stone Cold at some point around late 2000 but it’s official by this point. Edge and Christian work over The Rock with Angle not tagging in until he’s down and out. This match is no disqualification and so The Dudleyz run down and bring the table into the ring, giving Christian a Wazzup headbutt and setting the table up to put him through it. Undertake stops that and the three teams involved in the Tag Team title match at the PPV fight it out on the entrance ramp leaving just Angle and Rock alone in the ring. Rock flattens him with a spinebuster and locks Kurt in a sharpshooter. He taps out but the referee doesn’t see it. Edge saves Kurt and is quickly fought off but Angle recovers and drives Rock through the table with an Olympic Slam and covers to win the match for his team.

Kurt gets some huge momentum by pinning his PPV challenger just three days before the match. He locks Rock in his new finisher, the ankle lock, screaming like a mad man and Smackdown closes with The Rock tapping out as referees try to get Kurt off of him! 

The Game gets Personal

Stephanie is still selling her neck from the Stunner on Raw. She pleads with her husband not to lose his cool and attack Stone Cold later. Vince McMahon has ordered an interview in the ring by JR with both Austin and Triple H present. 

Jim Ross heads down to the ring to conduct his Vince McMahon mandated interview with both Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin. He reminds us of the rules for No Way Out and what's at stake if these two men come to blows before then and shows off the video package for the match too. He introduces Austin first but Triple H comes out instead. He didn’t want to wait his turn I guess. The Game promises that he’s not going to lose his cool tonight and he’s happy to wait until No Way Out. Stephanie getting the Stunner pushed him to the edge and while he isn’t going to hit Austin, he does have an answer. He boots JR in the gut and gives Steve Austin’s close friend a Pedigree in the middle of the ring. That brings Austin sprinting to the ring but he can’t do anything about it and he and Triple H are forced to simply stare down.

Right to Censor take a stand

The Kat (in very skimpy ring attire) challenges Ivory for the WWF Women’s Championship. This is Kat’s last match on WWF (or WWE) television. She’s had some training and is a little better than she was the last time she was in the ring but that might be thanks to Ivory. Ivory gets too distracted shouting abuse at Jerry Lawler and so Kat strips her blouse off. That brings out the rest of the Right to Censor. King jumps up with a steel chair to defend Kat but he’s ambushed by Steven Richards who was dressed as a security guard. He lays out King with a superkick and then throws him into the ring where he takes a corner charge splash from Goodfather, a scissors kick from Bull and then a Money Shot from Val Venis. Ivory makes Kat watch the whole thing and as she weeps, Richards finishes off with a DDT onto the steel chair. With King laid out by multiple finishing moves and a DDT onto a chair, and JR still recuperating from being Pedigreed earlier Michael Cole is joined on commentary by Tazz for the rest of the show. You know what? I quite enjoyed seeing Jerry Lawler take a beating. I’ve not made it a secret how much I hate his commentary and it’s fitting that this is his last Smackdown appearance for quite a while.

Trish takes Stephanie to the farm

A limo pulls up in the parking lot, but it’s not in the parking lot. It’s in a part of the arena which has stables and a bunch of horses. It’s shown a couple of times until Trish Stratus goes out to meet whoever is inside, calling them “sweetie”.

Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley watches a lingering camera shot of the limo that we saw Trish getting into earlier and which now appears to have steamed up windows and is maybe rocking slightly? She’s furious and storms off to confront Trish. She screams and pulls at the door handles but Trish wasn’t in the limo anymore and jumps her from behind. Trish slams Stephanie into the limo and beats her up in the parking lot. It seems that Trish was NEVER in the limo with anyone - it was a setup. She throws Stephanie into the haybales and pushes her face into a pile of horse manure. Stephanie cries and screams for help and Trish ends by dumping a bucket of some thick brown liquid over her head. This has been a GREAT Smackdown for me, enjoying seeing people suffer who deserve it (Jerry Lawler) as Stephanie has been an evil, deplorable heel for about 18 months at this point and almost never faces any consequences for her actions. This was greatly deserved. 

Other Happenings

• Jeff Hardy (with Lita) faces Rikishi. Short match which Rikishi wins clean with a Banzai drop. He tries to give Jeff a second one but Lita stops him. She gets a Stink Face for her troubles (remember when that was good fun?) until Matt runs down to save his now on-screen girlfriend. 
• Backstage, Kurt Angle goes to see his business partner Trish and formally ends their business relationship. William Regal is happy about it because Trish can now accompany him, but she says she has another commitment and leaves Angle and Regal to discuss how much she clearly likes him. 
• Hardcore Champion Raven heads down to the ring with his shopping cart full of weapons to join commentary for the next match. It’s a sort of hardcore battle royal with the winner facing Raven for the title at No Way Out. The participants are Crash Holly, Steve Blackman, K-Kwik, Perry Saturn, Hardcore Holly and finally The Big Show. Raven spends the match talking about who his mysterious ninja accomplice is but won’t reveal the identity. Big Show drills K-Kwik with a chokeslam for the victory. Raven rushes him with a stop sign but Show fights him off too and gives him the Final Cut. Given the 24/7 rule one of them could just pin Raven right now but we’ll ignore that. 
• Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho is forced to team up with hated rival X-Pac against the Radical team of Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero. At No Way Out, these four men will compete in a fatal four way match for the Intercontinental Championship. X-Pac and Jericho predictably don’t work well as a team as Eddie and Benoit work over Y2J and X-Pac refuses to tag in and help. He kicks his own partner in the face as he attempts a Lionsault and Benoit locks him in the Crippler Crossface for the submission victory. Benoit continues to wrench at Jericho and Eddie and X-Pac start to right. Justin Credible runs down to give Eddie a low blow and X-Pac is able to lay both Guerrero and Benoit out with X-Factors. X-Pac is the last man standing tonight.

• Edge and Christian are very upset about having to fight Undertaker and Kane again tonight, and their title match at No Way Out now being a table match. Kurt is thankfully there to give them a pep talk - the young brash cocky Canadians he knows and loves will be fine tonight, and will regain their Tag Team titles at No Way Out.
• William Regal faces Test for the European Championship. Test hasn’t been on TV since the week after he won the title - they should have just left it on Regal. During the match, Al Snow comes out hanging out buttons and badges with his face on them. He’s campaigning to be made Commissioner like it’s an election. That would have been a good payoff to this story actually. That’s not where it goes. Regal gets distracted by Snow and grabs at his hair so he gets Head to the face and stumbles backwards into a Test big boot for the victory and to retain his European title.