Raw is War - August 20th, 2001

Austin Appreciation Night

Stone Cold arrives in the Alliance locker room to a cheering crowd who clap and chant his name. Tonight is “Austin Appreciation Night” it seems and he tells them all how much he appreciates them too. Of note, everyone is in an Austin t-shirt apart from Tazz (who’s wearing his own merch) and Hurricane Helms who’s wearing a big Green Lantern t-shirt. In the arena when a graphic is shown on the titantron promoting the Appreciation night the live crowd boos. We’re also told early in the show that Stone Cold hard warned Kurt Angle to stay away from the arena tonight. 

Throughout the show there’s a string of segments where members of The Alliance tell us how much Stone Cold means to them. Hurricane Helms (not just calling himself The Hurricane) explains that Green Lantern was his number one and shows off an impressive knowledge of comic book lore before remembering where he is and saying that Austin has shown him new heights of what a hero can be. In the second one, Shawn Staziak tries his best and it becomes a comical blooper reel where it takes dozens of takes and can’t get his words out. It’s pretty funny.

The third is Tazz who thanks the Rattlesnake for using tough love to bring back the old Tazz.

In the main event segment of the show, the entire Alliance (led to the ring by Stephanie McMahon, Paul Heyman and Debra) comes out to Drowning Pool’s “Let The Bodies Hit the Floor”. They fill the ring for Austin Appreciation Night. It’s a sea of Stone Cold t-shirts and among other things this is the official confirmation that Terri has also joined the Alliance and is with Raven now. Paul Heyman gives a long speech about great men in history before bringing out the man of the hour, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Steve looks like he’s having a hard time not laughing as he’s showered in sickenly sweet praise. Hurricane starts and gives Austin his personal Green Lantern t-shirt to reveal his Austin one underneath, the WCW US Champion Kanyon gets in the ring and says he finally has the answer to “who better than Kanyon?” It’s Stone Cold! He presents him with a t-shirt too “who better than Austin?” There’s lots of hugging going on. JR is mean about Kanyon’s lisp for no reason. He’s been kind of a dick tonight. His wife Debra presents him with a plate of cookies and then Paul introduces a video tribute to “the greatest leader that Sports Entertainment has ever known”. I was hoping it would be funny but instead its just a dramatic video package of him violently beating people up over the past month.

Austin seems moved by it anyway and back from the video, the entire Alliance is now in the ring with him. Stone Cold is overjoyed, calling the Alliance his family and says he beat up Kurt Angle for all of them. The fans start chanting “Angle”. Stone Cold goes around everyone praising their Austin and Alliance t-shirts until he lands on Tazz who is still wearing his own merch. I’m not sure how that disagreement resolved itself as sadly there’s a big chunk missing from the segment on the WWE Network. Stephanie led the Alliance troops in singing a rendition of Wind Beneath our Wings (changed to Ring) which presumably for copyright reasons is gone. The segment ends with the arrival of Kurt Angle who in classic Stone Cold style drives a vehicle into the building, specifically a milk truck. Kurt hurls cartons of milk at the crowd and then pulls out a hose, spraying every man and woman in the ring with a torrent of milk while screaming. JR loses his mind on commentary. “Milk--o-Mania is running wild!” It seems that our Olympic Hero isn’t done with the Rattlesnake. This is a well remembered and beloved segment so here’s the closing minutes

Booker Wee

The New WCW Champion The Rock heads down to the ring in the arena and after making fun of Booker T a bit, brings out the former champion. His music plays but it’s not Booker T - its a midget dressed as Booker T. He does a decent impression of The Book and he has the midget dance for him for a bit until Lance Storm comes out to interrupt. It’s funny but it feels like it’s aged terribly. Jokes about midgets are very 20 years ago. He calls The Rock a joke and has a go at him for making the WCW title a joke before challenging him to a WCW title match tonight on Raw. The Rock drops a “who in the blue hell are you?” on Lance, which is a new catchphrase for The Great One and then accepts. Lance calls that “splendid” and promises The Rock’s days of “unabashed hijinks” are coming to an end. Lance drops Booker Wee with a superkick and bails out of the ring like a coward. At least JR called him “the little guy” and no one actually said midget which is nice.

The Rock makes his first WCW title defence against Lance Storm. The Rock wins a short match with a Rock Bottom clean as a whistle. Nothing really to report during the match itself but The Rock calls Booker Wee back down to the ring and as Lance lays prone in the middle of the ring The Rock encourages him to give him a People’s Elbow (or tries to but trips) so Rocky has to give him tips and pointers. He completes the move and the WCW Champion and his midget friend celebrate. He even gets Little Book to give us a Spinarooni (he struggles). 

Booker T finally arrives at the arena and as he walks through the back notices everyone laughing at him and is understandably confused as to why since he hasn’t seen the rest of the show.

Tajiri is checking out this month’s WWF Magazine (which has Regal on the cover) and when he checks what his manservant is actually looking at it's the bikini photos of Terri inside. Regal and Tajiri are so funny together. Booker T storms in and asks for the WCW title match tonight. Regal says The Rock has already wrestled and after recapping the segment from earlier and laughing, The Book demands a match with Tajiri. Tajiri hilariously strips his clothes off instantly to reveal his ring gear. Booker says he’s not even going to get changed for this match and walks down to the ring in a shirt, smart trousers and his street shoes.

JR keeps making comments about Booker T’s hair and how he’s “not a good example for young people” and it all feels weirdly racial.  Before Tajiri comes out, Booker says that he is sick of being disrespected and tonight he’s going to make us all respect him. Tajiri gets some early kicks in but Booker beats the Japanese Buzzsaw silly all around the ring, shoving the referee to get himself disqualified and beating Tajiri up badly. 

Sara Settles the Score

Backstage, Sara shadowboxes to warm up - The Undertaker’s wife has challenged DDP to a one on one match tonight and Page has accepted! 

Michael Cole interviews DDP about his match with Sara later. Page seems convinced that she didn’t ask for the match to hurt him, she asked for it because she wants him and wants to touch him. He’s so happy Undertaker will be at ringside too and have to watch him get his hands all over his wife. 

DDP enters first and limps to the ring, holding his lower back and showing a lot of the signs of the beating he took in a steel cage last night at Summerslam. Sara is accompanied by her husband (who rides her to the ring on his motorbike). Taker is one half of the WWF and WCW Tag Team Champions but there’s no mention of those titles tonight. DDP shoves Sara down and gets over confident so he’s dragged out of the ring and spiked with a chokeslam by Undertaker on the outside - fair play to him for taking that, it looked like it sucked - and is then rolled back inside to be easily pinned by Sara. She defeats her stalker. This is the end of DDP as a main event level threat. He actually gets removed from the Smackdown opening too so it seems like WWF management weren’t impressed by his work enough to have any significant future plans for him. That’s a real shame. 

Y2J fails the Test

Backstage as Bubba, D-Von and Test congratulate themselves on their six man tag victory at Summerslam, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley walks in and asks for a private word with Test. They address the elephant in the room - their former engagement and all the bitterness over the past two years - and she asks him to put it all behind them and do her a favour tonight and take out Chris Jericho for her. Test leans in and teases he isn’t into it, but then calls her a “good bitch” and agrees to take out Y2J. They shake hands to boos from the crowd.

Chris Jericho takes on Test. During Y2J’s entrance JR says that he was concussed at Summerslam. These days he wouldn’t wrestle for a couple of weeks because of that but in 2001 he’s in the ring the next night. It wasn’t all great back in the day. Test has Stephanie at ringside with him and after a distraction from her and from Rhyno who runs down, Test finishes off Jericho with a Big Boot to win the match.

Other Happenings

• The opening match is a six woman tag team match with the WWF’s Lita, Jacqueline and Molly Holly taking on the Alliance’s Stacey Keibler, Torrie Wilson and Ivory. Last night on Sunday Night Heat the three Alliance ladies jumped Lita backstage and injured her leg so she’s limping here. For as poor as the women’s division has been all throughout this 1998 - 2001 era, its cool that the division is now deep enough to support a six woman’s tag. Jackie wins it for her team in a short disjointed match with a tornado DDT on Ivory. 

• In a 12 man tag team match, Billy Gunn, Big Show, Bradshaw, Faarooq, Spike Dudley and Scotty 2 Hotty take on The Dudley Boyz, Chuck Palumbo, Sean O’Haire, Hugh Morrus and Tommy Dreamer. This is Tommy’s in ring debut since the Invasion begun. Lillian messed up O’Haire’s name again. She’s awful. I did get a laugh seeing the WWF Team’s nameplate simply read “The WWF”. These six men. This crowd. They are The WWF. There’s obviously too much going on here for me to call it all but aftr a flurry of finishes including a 3D, Fameasser, a Worm The Big Show finishes off Tommy Dreamer with a chokeslam to win it for the Alliance.
• Backstage as Edge admires his new Intercontinental title. Christian enters excited about his own title match tonight. He says that “we” won the King of the Ring and “we” won the Intercontinental title but tonight “he” is going to win the European title. He even takes Edge’s trophy with him to the ring. 

• In an interview with Mick Foley who is live at WWF New York, he gives a lot of praise to Kurt Angle for kicking out of three Stone Cold Stunners at Summerslam and he knows he’ll be WWF Champion soon.
• There’s an emotional video package about Perry Saturn having lost his best friend/lover Moppy. Poor Perry.
• In a rare WWF vs. WWF match, Christian challenges Matt Hardy for the European title. This is the first European title defence in a while. Christian cuts a pre match promo making fun of the local sports teams. Classic Edge and Christian behaviour but he’s supposed to be a good guy these days isn’t he? Intrigue. JR points out Christian’s selective use of “we” and “me” in regards to Edge’s accomplishments earlier too. A short back and forth match between two guys who know each other really well ends with a Twist of Fate and a successful title defence for Matt. Christian throws a temper tantrum in the ring, pulling out his own hair and punching at the mat, flailing around in a fury.

Smackdown! - August 23rd, 2001

Title matches and Alliance issues

In the opening match, Rob Van Dam defends the Hardcore title against Jeff Hardy. They had great matches at Invasion (the only good match on that PPV in fact) and Summerslam so hopefully this gets a few minutes. Michael Cole makes mention of the 24/7 rule during this match which no one has really used for the past few months - Jeff used it to regain the title from Rob a couple of weeks ago though. This is another great match between the two that ends with Jeff missing a Swanton Bomb from the top of the giant ladder on the outside of the ring and crashing through a table which explodes into a million pieces.

The referee calls for medical help for Jeff and RVD shows some concern for his opponent, helping clear the table rubble out of the way so that Jeff can be put on a stretcher. He doesn’t want the stretcher and so walks to the back on his own power. With everyone distracted, Raven appears and attacks his fellow Alliance member with a trash can lid! Raven wants the Hardcore title. A bulldog onto a steel chair and a DDT later and Raven seems to have an easy victory but RVD kicks out! Tazz on commentary is distraught at this Alliance on Alliance violence as Raven frantically tries to win the Hardcore title. RVD fights back and knocks out Raven with a trash can lid and follows with a Five Star Frog Splash and pins him for good measure. RVD is still the Hardcore Champion. As both men still lay in the ring, the owner of ECW Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley comes to the ring screeching that they need to stop fighting! She tells them that she did not spend her hard earned money on ECW to see it fall apart and insists they shake hands like gentlemen. She’s a pretty great heel as she exaggerates how high pitched and shrill her voice is, and says her money is hard earned (whereas really she’s a spoiled daddy’s girl). Raven won’t shake RVD’s hand and as Stephanie tries to stop them from fighting anymore, the leader of the Alliance himself Stone Cold Steve Austin marches to the ring, shoving over the ladder and berating both men.

I’d argue that this isn’t RVD’s fault. Stone Cold rants about how Kurt Angle ruined his Appreciation night on Raw and tells them to stick together and not let Angle ruin the Alliance itself! He continues to ask question and bark “what?” in their faces before they can answer. I mention the “what?” thing as anyone who’s still watching wrestling in 2024 knows that the “what” chants are a plague. It’s funny when Steve does it though. He makes them go backstage and stays in the ring to threaten and rant at Kurt Angle. He hands the mic off to Stephanie and as she tells us that every night should be Austin Appreciation night, Chris Jericho comes out! He asks Austin “got milk?” and plays footage of Kurt’s milk-o-mania on Raw. Y2J challenges Austin to put the WWF title on the line against him tonight. Austin agrees…but not tonight. Jericho does at least get Stone Cold to face him in a non-title match tonight where if he wins he’ll be the number one contender. That’s fair.

Raven goes to confront Rob Van Dam and tells him that he’s not done with him. He’s going to speak to Stone Cold and get it cleared but he wants a Hardcore title match on Raw. 

Stone Cold Steve Austin enters first for the main event where he’s quickly interrupted by WWF Commissioner William Regal who tells Austin that he doesn’t make the matches around here - the match will take place and it WILL be for the WWF Championship! Austin smirks and doesn’t look very worried about that. Chris Jericho wastes no time and runs to the ring to get this title match started. This is a straight up wrestling match with the two quickly grappling and exchanging holds in the ring.

Austin must have enjoyed getting to show off his mat skills as a heel opposed to the straight brawling he always did as a babyface. Jericho focuses his attack on Austin’ shoulder with holds and running him into the ring post. After an engaging match where Stone Cold’s title is in real danger, he counter’s a roll up into one of his own and grabs the middle rope for leverage. Austin steals a victory and remains the WWF Champion. I thought we might see a Kurt Angle run in at the end - he was shown watching the match backstage intently - but Smackdown just ends with a disappointed Y2J in the ring watching Austin quickly leave with his WWF title belt.

Booker T stays focused on The Rock

Backstage, The Rock is looking for The APA - they team up tonight to face an Alliance team led by Booker T. He finds them and after they insist on him knocking on their office door before entering, he sits down with Bradshaw and Faarooq to have a beer and play a little poker. But he makes sure they’re both amped up to kick ass tonight. The Rock has four aces and wins all of their money. 

The Alliance team of Booker T, Test and Rhyno face Bradshaw and Faarooq, with the WCW Champion The Rock. The match is chaotic with Booker T avoiding tagging in to face The Rock unless he’s already down. The match breaks down and after a Gore from Rhyno and a Scissors Kick from The Book, Booker T pins Faarooq to win the match for his team. He stops at the top of the ramp and gives us all a look at the most electrifying move in sports entertainment - the Spinarooni - as The Rock looks on from the ring.

Unwanted Tag Title shot

In the back, Edge is on the phone to his grandma talking about how excited he is to make his first Intercontinental title defence tonight. Christian enters and grandma is mysteriously disconnected when Christian takes the phone. He tells Edge he has good news - Edge will definitely leave as the champion tonight because…he got his match cancelled! They’re going to challenge Undertaker and Kane for the WWF Tag Team titles instead. Edge seems pretty annoyed by that but Christian is very pleased with himself.

Edge and Christian try to win their 8th WWF Tag Team title in another WWF vs. WWF match for Christian. Undertaker and Kane are always an awesome sight as a team but with both sets of Tag Team title belts they look even more so. Edge doesn’t look too happy with Christian for getting them into this match. They put up a good fight and with a Spear from Edge they almost win the gold but when Kane drags him out of the ring, Christian is finished off with a Last Ride and Undertaker and Kane retain their titles. 

Other Happenings

• They’ve updated the new Smackdown intro already to include a bunch of clips from last week’s show. Looks like there’s fewer Alliance people in it now too. This show does add the graphics upgrade where the match cards move around. It’s hard to tell how they did that as a lot of the shots used are older ones - in Stone Cold’s he’s still holding the version of the WWF title that has the old school blocky logo on it. In 2024 I’d assume AI but this was 2001 so It’s interesting (to me at least). As it happens this week’s show is also live so we get a bunch of “look at WWF New York” shots. 
• The Dudley Boyz face the team of Big Show and Billy Gunn. They’ve dropped the “Show Gunns” name at least. Big Show actually dives off the top rope in this match and as the Dudleyz are physically unable to lift him into a 3D, he finishes Bubba with a chokeslam to win it for the WWF.
• Kurt Angle faces WCW United States Champion Chris Kanyon in a non-title match. Before the match, Kanyon talks about how honoured he is that Stone Cold picked him personally to get revenge on Kurt tonight and gets a bunch of other Alliance members like Palumbo, O’Haire and Justin Credible to chant his name. This is a good back and forth match which Kurt wins with an Angle slam and ankle lock combination. He won’t break the hold until the referee physically makes him so he throws him out of the ring too. An intense and focused Kurt Angle who is still gunning for the WWF title. 

• Live at WWF New York, the joint holder of the WCW Cruiserweight and WWF Light Heavyweight Championships X-Pac tells us that holding both of these titles mean he is one of the greatest of all time. He brought this division back to prominence and holds titles in both companies at the same time. 

• In Commissioner Regal’s office, William presents Perry Saturn with “Moppy”. Perry can immediately tell that it’s not HIS Moppy and slams it up against the wall, dropping to his knees and dramatically screaming “MOPPY! MOPPY!”
• In this week’s recap of Tough Enough we see a few more of the finalists including Chris Nowinski, a legit Harvard grad who did also eventually make it to the WWE. He’d retire very shortly due to severe post concussion syndrome and has dedicated his life to sports science and raising awareness around concussion caused health issues. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Nowinski
• Lita faces Ivory. Lita’s abs look incredibly shredded here - she is ripped! Hurricane Helms slinks down to ringside to help out his Alliance mate Ivory and with a distraction, Ivory does win. It looks like they’re going to keep the attack on her going but Lita’s boyfriend Matt Hardy runs down and chases them off before more damage can be done. Helms has worked with The Hardyz a lot since the start of the Invasion - that’s because he’s good friends with them in real life. They’re all from North Carolina and trained and came up through the ranks together. 

Raw is War - August 27th, 2001

One-Armed Rattlesnake

Backstage Stone Cold has his arm in a sling after Jericho focused his attack on it on Smackdown. RVD and Raven enter together seeking his permission to have an Alliance vs. Alliance match tonight for the Hardcore title. Austin calls them selfish and so the two of them offer to take his place in tonight’s tag team match vs. Angle and Jericho, which was the other big WWF vs. Alliance main event announced for tonight. Austin is full of false bravado but “reluctantly” agrees and says he will be at ringside to watch them kick Jericho and Angle’s asses! 

Backstage Michael Cole tries to get an interview with Kurt Angle but he’s too focused on finding one of his new opponents tonight. He finds Raven and appears to break his ankle with the ankle lock! He screams at Raven to tell Stone Cold that if he wants to kick his ass so badly, he can come and do it tonight. RVD needs a new partner for tonight. 

Lita is shown in the trainer's room having her knee iced and screaming in pain (see other happenings). Raven limps in and is joined by Stone Cold who is distraught to learn that the trainer doesn’t think Raven can compete tonight! Shawn Staziak follows and asks if he can take Raven’s place. Austin has no faith in Shawn but dares him to go out there and prove it to him! Stone Cold is heartless to poor injured Raven calling him selfish for getting injured. He’s just upset that now he has to join RVD in the tag team match as scheduled and punches Raven in the ankle as he leaves! 

Backstage as Austin rants to Debra that he now has to step up and find a replacement for Raven (and accidentally gives away that there’s nothing wrong with his arm) Rob Van Dam enters and sings his own praises, saying that he knows Austin would love to team with RVD. Austin seems a little defensive.

Shawn Staziak stalks Kurt Angle though the backstage area. Stacey Kiebler approaches him and asks what he’s doing and why he’s even trying when he’s failed so many times. Shawn promises he has a full proof plan this time! Later, we find out his plan - he’s set up a bucket of rancid milk above the door of catering so that it’ll catch him unaware when he comes to get his traditional pre-match glass of milk. They hide and wait for the big moment but it’s not Kurt Angle - it’s Debra! Shawn and Stacey quietly leave out of the back door of the kitchen as she screams for Steve! She finds him after a commercial break and after more yelling at each other, she demands that he defend her honour against the man they both assume is responsible - Kurt Angle. 

Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley approaches Jericho and tells him that the letters Y2J are done and now it’s all about RVD. Jericho calls her a H.O.E. Clever. Well not really but that’s the level.

We head into the main event with one of the teams unknown - Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle will definitely face the Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam but WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin is being cagey about his “arm injury”. No one is calling him out for it but it's clear that he’s fine and just doesn’t want to be in the ring with Kurt Angle. Austin does enter last but he’s not dressed to compete and has his arm in a sling. He brings out RVD’s partner - it’s Tazz! Stone Cold does at least stay at ringside to watch the action up close. After a back and forth match, it breaks down. RVD hitsa Five Star Frog Splash on Angle. Tazz follows up with a cover but he kicks out! Jericho locks RVD in the Walls of Jericho on the outside and Stone Cold springs into action. He hits Jericho from behind and distracts Angle so that Tazz can lock in the Tazzmission. Kurt turns it into an Angle slam to win the match but gets no time to celebrate as Stone Cold jumps him from behind and hammers Kurt in the back of the head with the WWF title belt. Austin stops to put Kurt’s medals around his neck and continues to drill him in the head with belt shot after belt shot, leaving the Olympian laid out in the ring. He takes Kurt’s medals too for good measure.

Back in May, JR thought it was hilarious when Chris Benoit stole them but now that he’s a babyface, Austin stealing them is the most evil thing JR has ever seen. Raw ends with Austin in possession of both the WWF and Olympic gold and Kurt in the ring struggling to regain his senses after the assault. 

The Rock and Booker T

Raw opens with, for the first time we’ve seen him since Summerslam, Shane McMahon. Two big WWF vs. Alliance matches are already announced and one of them is The Rock defending the WCW title against Rhyno. Shane says that he purchased WCW with his “hard earned money” because he wanted to own the most dominant brand in sports entertainment and put the WWF and his dad out of business. He talks about how he also bought WCW for Booker T and the current WCW Champion is not worthy of that title. He says The Rock doesn’t care about WCW or the WCW title. That brings out The Rock who is pretty good talking about some of the more prestigious champions in history (like Ric Flair) and also pokes some fun at the recent champions like DDP, Booker T and David Arquette. The Rock says that if Shane wants to take the title from him, he can come down to the ring and give him a title shot. Shane tells him to “just bring it” and The Rock does but Shane bails out of the ring. It was all a distraction to allow Rhyno to drop The Rock with a Gore! The Rock is left lying ahead of his title match with Rhyno later.

After a video package recapping why Test joined the Alliance, he has his good friend Shane McMahon at ringside for his match with Bradshaw (with Faarooq). Much like at Summerslam, thanks to a ton of interference and distraction from Shane, Test picks up the victory with a Big Boot.

The Rock defends the WCW title against Rhyno. The match starts with a fight outside the ring and Rhyno gives The Rock ANOTHER Gore so he starts this match on the back foot, Rhyno focusing all his energy and attacks on the People’s Champion’s ribs. The Rock fights through the pain and as he looks set to drop the People’s Elbow, Shane McMahon appears. He’s had a busy night! He distracts The Rock so that Rhyno can give him a low blow. Bradshaw runs down and chases Shane O’Mac through the crowd and in the ring, Rocky sidesteps a Gore attempt and follows with the Rock Bottom to hold onto his WCW Championship! 

Michael Cole interviews Booker T and enrages him by showing the Booker Wee footage and then an interview from earlier today with his opponent tonight, The Big Show. Booker is wearing a dreadlock wig and does a pretty borderline racist impression of the former WCW Champion. Booker promises to make him pay tonight.

When Booker T enters, JR mentions that Shane McMahon isn’t with Booker as he’d normally be - he’s probably still running from the APA. Big Show enters still wearing the dreadlock wig and mimicking Booker T’s mannerisms.

He asks for a moment before the match and drops to one knee, trying the Spinarooni. It’s not very good and Booker jumps him while he’s on the ground. Booker puts up a good fight and dominates - he needs that to be taken seriously - and gets himself disqualified with a steel chair. He is making a point. He hammers Show’s knee and leaves him beaten down at ringside. People need to stop making fun of Booker T - the man is cracking. 

Other Happenings

• In a WWF vs. WWF match, Undertaker faces Albert (with X-Pac). JR says that Kane isn’t here tonight due to an elbow injury he suffered at Summerslam (he did have one of his arms heavily bandaged on the previous Smackdown). Despite some interference from X-Pac, Undertaker still steamrolls to a victory with a chokeslam on the 350lbs Albert. 
• Michael Cole speaks to Hurricane Helms backstage about his “unhealthy obsession with the Green Lantern” and asks if he believes in Superheroes. This is all so dumb - he likes comic books. What’s wrong with that? He does debut his high pitched “what’s up with that?!” catchphrase here and promises that tonight we’ll see the birth of a real life superhero in his European title match with Matt Hardy. That match is next and Matt enters alongside girlfriend Lita. Matt’s been European champion since April which makes him one of the longest reigning champions of this era. As promised, Hurricane Helms enters with a new theme song and dressed as a superhero complete with green cape. JR laughs at how ridiculous he looks but this would be Shane Helms’ most famous incarnation. Matt stares slack jawed at The Hurricane. Ivory comes to ringside with a metal bar and uses it on Lita’s injured knee and hits Matt with it too, leading to Hurricane capitalising and winning the match and the European title! The Hurricane wins gold! 

• Backstage the Alliance’s Hugh Morrus approaches Edge and mocks his name and his love of sodas. Before he can respond, Christian appears and after some thinly veiled shots at his own brother and partner’s name as well, volunteers Edge to defend the Intercontinental title against Morrus later. 

• Edge defends the Intercontinental title against Hugh Morrus. Christian accompanies Edge and joins commentary to watch this match. He spends most of the match assuring Heyman and JR that there is no jealousy about Edge’s accomplishments and he is nothing but proud of his brother. He says that he easily could have been King of the Ring and IC Champion instead of Edge but he’s happy to support Edge. Christian spontaneously takes issue with Morrus “talking trash” at him and interferes in the match, getting Edge disqualified. The champion easily had the match won but thanks to Christian, he lost by disqualification.

Smackdown! - August 30th, 2001

Olympic Larceny and a busy night for Booker T

Kurt Angle heads down to the ring with fire in his eyes. He is furious to have had his medals stolen by Stone Cold Steve Austin. I mentioned it on Raw but its funny that they did this same storyline with Benoit in May and everyone laughed at heel Kurt but now that he’s a babyface Michael Cole and JR are treating this as seriously as a heart attack. Kurt recaps all of the events since Summerslam and says since Austin took his most prized possession, he’s going to take his. He challenges Stone Cold to a WWF title match at Unforgiven (which just so happens to be in Kurt Angle’s home town) and tells him to come to the ring like a man and fight him so he can get his medals back tonight. Instead of the WWF Champion, it’s Booker T and WCW Owner Shane McMahon who come down to the ring instead. Booker tells Kurt that no one cares that he had his medals taken - he was the one who was robbed. The Rock stole his WCW title at Summerslam.

Kurt makes fun of Booker’s dancing and his auditioning to be in movies, and then his intelligence. I don’t really care for the borderline racist way Booker is portrayed as regards to making fun of his hair and speech patterns, and mocking his intelligence makes him a joke rather than a threat to The Rock or Kurt Angle. Booker challenges Kurt to a match tonight and when he accepts, Shane gets in Angle’s face and sings the praises of the 5 time WCW Champion. Booker shows off with a Spinarooni, Kurt punches Shane and the brawl ends with an Angle Slam on Shane and Kurt holding strong in the ring. Booker and Shane leave and it feels like the segment is over but Stone Cold appears on the titantron. He asks Kurt if he wants the WWF title belt, or does he want his medals back? Austin continues his new trademark of asking rhetorical questions and barking “what?” before anyone can answer. He says he’s backstage and Kurt should come back and try to take his medals. The Olympian runs backstage and the show goes to a commercial break. When the show returns we learn that by the time Angle got backstage Stone Cold was gone, apparently having left the arena.

Out in the parking lot, Stone Cold is sitting on the roof of a limo, berating Kurt Angle and telling him to come and find him. He wants to talk to him man to man and face to face. “What?” I think the What thing is supposed to symbolise that Austin is hearing voices. Predictably when Kurt Angle gets there Austin is nowhere to be seen. Trivia note - this Smackdown is at the same arena where Stone Cold was run over in that very parking lot. A car pulls in - it's got Alliance member Tommy Dreamer driving so Kurt pulls him out of the car and gives him a beating. Stone Cold then speeds around the corner and tries to run over Kurt Angle in the exact same spot where he himself was run over in 1999. The commentators don’t make mention of the symbolism or connection or history for some reason. 

Chris Jericho and WCW Champion The Rock take on WWF Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam and Rhyno. Another match where RVD gets to show off and impress. His sequences with both Jericho and The Rock are very good. He is by miles the most popular member of the Alliance and the more the commentators talk about it the more true it becomes. The Rock is very focused on Rhyno after their match on Raw and locks him in a sharpshooter. Booker T runs to the ring and distracts Rocky. He rallies and sets up a People’s Elbow on Rhyno but he’s attacked by Shane McMahon. The referee is busy with Booker T on the outside. Jericho locks Shane in a Walls of Jericho but he’s taken out by RVD with a diving kick from the ropes. He turns into a Rock Bottom but the People’s Champion is hung up on the ropes by Booker T. He turns into a Gore and Rhyno pins the WCW Champion to win the match for the Alliance (with a lot of help). Rhyno has pinned The Rock which is a massive victory, even with Booker and Shane’s assistance. 

Mike Awesome goes to see Kurt Angle and after acting like he’s upset to see Stone Cold steal his medals. He offers him a peace offering - it’s a plastic replica of the WWF title belt. Awesome gets in his face and taunts him and tells him he’ll never be WWF Champion and will never get his medals back either. Kurt attacks Awesome, beating the crap out of him and locking him in the ankle lock! 

Another Stone Cold taunting Kurt Angle segment. He’s no longer in the arena - he's on the streets of Detroit and taunts Angle threatening to drop them into an open sewer.

In the main event, Booker T (with Shane McMahon) takes on Kurt Angle. Shane gets plenty of cheap shots in on the outside allowing Booker to take control, running him into the announce table and ring post. Booke dominates until Kurt rallies with an Angle slam and as he prepares to lock in the Ankle lock, Shane slides into the ring and gives Kurt an Angle slam of his own! The referee is a WCW official and so doesn’t call for the obvious disqualification. That brings The Rock to the ring and he and Kurt beat up Shane and Booker.

Kurt drops him with a bridging German suplex and WWF referee Earl Hebner runs down and counts the three. Kurt officially wins the match, and him and Rock stand tall in the ring with Booker and Shane down at ringside. Kurt asks The Rock not to leave and he calls for cartoons of milk, encouraging The Rock to join him in an Austin-style beer bash but with cartoons of milk! They toast and drink it (making a huge mess of themselves) and Rock leaves. Kurt’s celebration is cut short by the final Stone Cold segment on the titantron. He’s still outside the arena. He’s on a nearby bridge. We’ve seen this bridge before too - Austin threw The Rock’s Intercontinental title off it in 1997, and The Rock threw both the Smoking Skull belt - and Austin himself - off of it in 1999. He continues to berate and taunt Angle and asks what he’d do to get his medals back. He asks if he’s too proud to ask for them, and then asks if he’s too proud to beg for his medals, or for a shot at the WWF title. He tells Angle t get on his knees and then tells him to cry for him. He’s an insufferable bully in this segment in a way that makes me feel really angry watching it. He tells Kurt that if he cries he’ll give him his medals and a shot at the WWF title. Austin finally ties Kurt’s medals to a concrete block and throws them off the bridge while taunting the Olympian about his patriotism and the pledge of allegiance. All of this pro-American rhetoric is about to become topical in the most intense and tragic of circumstances but we’ll get to that when we get to it. Smackdown ends in an uncomfortable silence as Austin has thrown Kurt’s medals into a river, and Angle is left in the ring looking so angry he might actually cry.

Brotherly Misunderstanding

Elsewhere backstage, Christian tries to call his Grandma - the one who keeps hanging up on him - but can’t get through. Edge approaches and seems like he’s a little sick of Christian. He has a champion vs. champion match with Chris Kanyon tonight with the WCW US title on the line and he asks Christian to stay away from the ring and let him do it solo. Christian misunderstands and things Edge is saying it with a knowing wink and doesn’t really mean it.

Kanyon defends the United States title against Intercontinental Champion Edge. As predicted, Christian has ignored/misunderstood Edge’s request and comes down to the ring (with the King of the Ring Trophy) to watch at ringside. Undertaker and Kane have both sets of Tag Team titles, and X-Pac has the Cruiserweight and Light Heavyweight titles so Edge unifying the two mid-card titles seems like a no bainer. Kanyon tries to use his United States title belt as a weapon so Christian puts a stop to it. His interference backfires and he accidentally hits Edge with the title belt, costing him the match. Kanyon retains the title and leaves, and Christian gets on the mic and apologises to Edge. He promises to make it up to him on Raw “in my hometown of Toronto” (it’s Edge’s hometown too) by challenging The Rock for the WCW title. Edge looks confused and rightfully so - how does that make anything up to Edge?

Interpromotional Love

Alliance member Torrie Wilson goes to see William Regal and asks for a job in the Commissioner’s office and is very flirty with him. He says that he cannot give an Alliance member a job in his office. She says that she can’t hide her attraction anymore - a man with an accent drives her wild. Tajiri! She has a big crush on Tajiri! Lance Storm bursts in and demands a match for the Intercontinental title. Tajiri makes fun of him (which Torrie loves) and so Lance Storm challenges Tajiri to a match tonight. 

Lance Storm vs. Tajiri is a good match. Tajiri is knocked to the outside and Torrie Wilson comes down to check on her new love interest and helps him back into the ring where he’s dropped with a superkick. Lance Storm wins the match and Torrie checks on the down Tajiri. Given she’s an Alliance member they could play up that she’s up to something but it all seems very sincere.

Other Happenings

• Smackdown opens with a six man tag team match - Test and The Dudley Boyz from the Alliance vs. the massive WWF team of Big Show and the APA. Despite a very impressive 3D on the 500lbs Big Show (with some help from Test to lift him) Bradshaw wins the match for the WWF with a clothesline from hell on D-Von.

• For the first time in months, Undertaker rolls to the ring on his own. His dual Tag Team Championship partner Kane is out with an elbow injury and his wife Sara isn’t here tonight. I think she’s gone for good now that the story with DDP has ended. His opponent is Albert who has his X-Factor partner X-Pac with him (another dual WWF and WCW Champion). They attack him two on one before the bell rings and Albert almost steals a victory but the deadman kicks out. More help from X-Pac and a steel chair almost steals another win so a frustrated Undertaker uses the chair on Albert to get himself disqualified and flattens X-Pac with a Last Ride. it feels like we’re building to an X-Factor vs. Brothers of Destruction Tag Title match. Aren’t there any Alliance Teams they could feud with rather than this WWF vs. WWF action?
• Backstage, Stacey Kiebler and Shawn Staziak have a plan to make things up with Debra and Stone Cold after their plans to get Kurt Angle on Raw ended up with Debra taking a bucket of milk on top of her head. They go to see Mrs. Austin with a tray of apology cookies. Debra has one and acts like she accepts the apology until snapping and slapping the tray up into Stacey’s face and chasing them out of her locker room.

• Lillian Garcia interviews the new WWF European Champion The Hurricane. She asks if Ivory helping him win the title with a crowbar is the actions of a hero. Hurricane speaks about truth and justice. Lillian mentions his match tonight alongside Ivory against Spike Dudley and Molly Holly and he makes fun of Underdog (because Spike is an Underdog, and Underdog is also the name of a superhero that Hurricane doesn’t like, it’s hard to explain). To the Hurri-cave! 
• Spike Dudley and his girlfriend Molly Holly take on the Alliance’s Ivory and The Hurricane. The match is back and forth and Hurricane accidentally superkicks Molly Holly. He seems upset to have struck a woman but doesn’t dwell on it and finishes Spike off with a reverse DDT/elbow drop combo. It’s like Big Show’s briefly used finisher The Final Cut. 

• Perry Saturn goes to see Commissioner Regal. He has some bad news - an envelope arrived with a polaroid of Moppy with today’s news paper and a ransom note demanding $100k to get her back. Saturn screams - where is he going to get $100,000! 

Raw is War - September 3rd, 2001

Kidnapping! 

Stone Cold and Debra arrive and when he enters his locker room he’s startled by a large group welcoming him with a surprise party! Stephanie says that they need to thank him for what he did to Kurt’s medals on Smackdown after spraying them all with milk. They joke about how Kurt isn’t here because he’s learning scuba to try and get his medals back. Stephanie promises him a huge surprise tonight. “I love you guys!” and they all clap and cheer. This was all comically insufferable. 

Live at WWF New York is WCW United States Champion Chris Kanyon. He gives his love to Stone Cold and moves himself to tears. Back at the arena, Austin heaps praise onto Kanyon for the nice things he said about him. Stephanie arrives to let him know that his big surprise will be here soon. Stone Cold is very funny being paranoid about where Kurt Angle is and passing it off as Debra being the concerned one. He’s a riot.

Backstage Stephanie McMahon and Debra jump around and scream like excited children - Stone Cold’s surprise is here! After a commercial break, Stephanie heads down to the ring in the arena. She makes fun of Canada and talks about how great America is for a bit before bringing out the WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin. She wastes no time and directs him to his surprise - a brand new custom pickup truck! On the titantron, Debra is in the parking lot and talks him through the special features. I don’t know if it's intentional as a prank at her expense but they leave her talking for way longer than is comfortable and she has nothing to say and clearly knows nothing about cars, pointing out the paint and the mirrors. It got really awkward but Austin and Stephanie look pretty entertained by it. She finally invites her husband to come out to the parking lot and check it out in person, which he thankfully does. He goes out and after admiring the truck he stands on the flatbed and screams “I’m the King of the World” which gets a big laugh. He’s attacked from behind by Kurt Angle who knocks Stone Cold out with a steel pipe, loads some chains and concrete blocks in and kidnaps the WWF Champion in the back of his new truck! 

In the Alliance locker room, Debra sobs for her husband’s safety as Stephanie calls the police. They’re cut off by a video on the screens. Kurt Angle has arrived at a bridge and has Stone Cold blindfolded and bound with chains. He unloads the WWF Champion and tells him that he’s going to throw him off of this bridge, removing the blindfold to make him face his fate. Kurt is terrifying here, making Stone Cold apologise (the crowd laugh when Kurt taunts him with his own “what?” taunt each time. Angle makes Stone Cold beg for forgiveness. Kurt calms down and agrees that he doesn’t want to do this. Austin is relieved but Kurt says that this bridge isn’t high enough!

He loads Austin back into the truck and drives off to a new location! Back at the arena, Stephanie screams for the Alliance to go and do something to help him! 

In the main event segment of the show, Kurt Angle arrives with Stone Cold at a much higher bridge. He makes Austin beg and plead to not be thrown over and keeps him blindfolded to think about begging and crying. Back at the arena, Stone Cold’s wife Debra is in the ring and with tears in her eyes shows off her acting skills begging Kurt not to throw her husband off “that 200 foot bridge”. There’s been a LOT of Debra on this show. Paul Heyman gets up into the ring to try and calm her down. It feels like they’ve mistimed something here as there’s a long awkward period of silence as Heyman talks to Debra. I think their mic is broken. On the wide shot, people keep running between the timekeeper’s table and Heyman like notes and messages are being passed. They do FINALLY get a working mic to Heyman so that he can talk to the people.

After a commercial break, Debra is still in the ring and Heyman isn’t. She says almost word for word the same things she said before the break too - definite big technical issues here. Eventually after what feels like forever, Kurt and Stone Cold appear on the titantron again. He makes the WWF Champion beg and plead and cry for him - he’s not very convincing but Kurt continues to berate and insult the Rattlesnake and forces him to agree to a rematch for the WWF title at Unforgiven. Kurt finally tells Austin he’s still going in the water and shoves him into an inflatable swimming pool! Austin flails around in the water, still chained up and screaming abuse after Angle as he drives off in his truck.  I enjoyed this segment so here’s the recap of it that opened the following Smackdown.

Christian! At Last…

Backstage, Christian talks to a security guard about his upcoming WCW title match tonight. Two fans walk by and call him “Edge’s brother”. Christian is nice to their faces but when they walk off, he tells the security guard to put them in the back row because he can’t have any ugly people in all the photos that will be taken after his victory. 

As Christian polishes Edge’s King of the Ring trophy backstage, Booker T and Shane McMahon approach and offer their help tonight. They want to help him win the WCW title tonight in exchange for Christian giving Booker a title match on Smackdown. He agrees and makes a deal with the Alliance leaders.

Backstage, Edge goes to see Christian and says that despite everything lately he still wants to see Christian win the WCW title tonight. Christian tells Edge to stay in the back and let him do this alone, and even gives him his King of the Ring trophy. It seems like Christian is finally acknowledging his bad behaviour lately but he ends it by saying that the WCW title is more prestigious than the IC title. 

Booker T and Shane McMahon head down to the ring to be at ringside for The Rock’s WCW title defence. Booker gets on the mic and introduces himself as the special guest ring announcer. He then introduces the special guest time keeper (he has to ask the referee what the job is called first) Shane McMahon. Christian gets a big warm babyface welcome in his hometown despite his heel antics lately. This is a big moment for him. Christian is really friendly with Booker when he gets into the ring. Booker is very insulting when introducing The Rock of course. Booker and Shane use cheap shots and distract the referee giving Christian a heavy advantage and control of the match. Christian comes heartbreakingly close to winning the title on more than one occasion with plenty of help from The Book and Shane O’Mac but with a Rock Bottom, the People’s Champion holds on and keeps the WCW title. Christian leaves looking equal parts angry and sad.

The cameras stay focused on his face but once he’s gone, The Rock is in the ring and dares Booker to Just Bring It. He has Shane to help and the two on one attack gives them the advantage. It’s short lived as the APA run down and the sight of Bradshaw sends Shane and Booker scurrying into the crowd and running for their lives. 

Backstage Edge checks on Christian who is staring off into space, distraught about losing his title match earlier. He’s interrupted by Lance Storm who calls them both and the city of Toronto pathetic. Edge calls a 30 year old man who’s never kissed a girl pathetic and promises to kick Storm’s ass later in their Intercontinental title match. 

When Edge enters for his Intercontinental title defence he is, for the first time since winning it in June, carrying his own King of the Ring trophy. Storm and Edge work much quicker than they did in their Summerslam match so even though this is shorter than that one, I think it’s better. Edge wins with a roll up and when Storm tries to use a steel chair after the match, Christian runs down to save his brother. Cjristian chases Storm off and they hug. I’m sure Jay Reso and Adam Copeland, the men behind these characters, had real emotions about what they were about to do. Christian hands Edge his King of the Ring trophy..and then blasts his own brother and tag team partner with a stiff steel chair shot! Christian has finally turned on Edge. He drives the trophy into Edge’s stomach and then we get the birth of the one man con-chair-to, laying Edge’s head on one steel chair and bringing a second one down with an almighty crack, sandwiching Edge’s head. He screams that this is all Edge’s fault and leaves him sprawled out in the ring. This was on the cards since before King of the Ring but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. I’ll talk a lot more about them at Unforgiven but this was the end of my favourite Tag Team of this era.

A Righteous Return

The show opens with a match between Undertaker and Test. In recent weeks, Undertaker has changed up his wrestling style adding more wrestling moves and submissions to his repertoire. He shows that off here with a deep arm drag and working towards submissions. Test controls the match and overpowers and brawls with Undertaker. He fights back and as it looks like he may win the match, Steven Richards makes his dramatic return and superkicks Undertaker, giving him the win via disqualification. Test floors him with a Big Boot and Undertaker is left flat on his back by the newest Alliance member and Test. After a commercial break, Richards is shown leaving the arena in a hurry. Michael Cole stops him and asks about his actions and motivation - Richards challenges Undertaker to a match on Smackdown and hustles out of the arena before the Deadman can catch up to him.

Moppy Still Missing

Perry Saturn is distraught about Moppy and the ransom note he’s now received. He doesn’t have $100k. He goes to The Hurricane - he’s a superhero so he can probably help him! Hurricane connects some dots that aren't there and points poor confused Perry towards Matt Hardy. See Matt and Moppy both start with the letter M so he must be the culprit! 

Matt Hardy and Lita (who’s still walking with a limp after the attacks on her knee last week and at Summerslam) take on The Hurricane and Ivory in a mixed tag team match. The fans spontaneously break out in a loud Hurricane chant in the middle of this match - it looks like the gimmick change is working for him in Canada at least. Thanks to his detective work earlier, Perry Saturn comes down to question Matt Hardy about the abduction of Moppy. The distraction allows Hurricane to win the match but Saturn realises he’s been used and lays out the superhero with a suplex. 

Other Happenings

• In the Commissioner’s office, William Regal tells Tajiri he shouldn’t trust his new love interest, the Alliance’s Torrie Wilson. He asks if Tajiri has found a patent tonight for his number one contender’s match with The Dudley Boyz? The Big Show enters and after appearing to speak fluent Japanese, they head off for their tag team match. 
• Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley face the WWF Team of Tajiri and The Big Show. The winners get a shot at Undertaker and Kane’s WWF Tag Team titles. Heyman and JR spend a lot of the match discussing Tajiri and Torrie Wilson’s would-be relationship. Heyman does NOT approve of interpromotional relationships. Torie comes down to watch the match and cheer on Tajiri - she’s in a skin tight black bodysuit and looks sensational. Distractingly so. Tajiri tries to use his mist but it backfires when D-von ducks and he gets Big Show instead. A 3D later and The Dudleyz are the number one contenders for the WWF Tag Team titles. Big Show in his blinded state knocked down poor Torrie and to his credit is more concerned about her wellbeing than what happened in the match, carrying her to the back for medical attention. With Tajiri left alone, Bubba and D-Von set up a table in the ring and drive him through it with a top rope powerbomb. Big Show runs back down to help but it's too late.

• Rhyno and the WWF Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam take on Chris Jericho and the returning Jeff Hardy who we haven’t seen since that table crash a couple of weeks ago. Heyman makes note that Rhyno is the first man to pin The Rock since Wrestlemania. Earl Hebner is the referee for this match and, only 4 years removed from the Montreal screwjob the Canadian crowd give him loud “you screwed Bret” chants. I think I’m Canadian because I hate Earl Hebner too. Y2J wins this match for his team with a roll up on RVD - exactly the same roll up counter that Edge used to beat Lance Storm in the previous match actually. They probably should have talked to each other about it beforehand. 

• Shawn Staziak (with Stacey Kiebler) takes on Spike Dudley (with Molly Holly). Stacey and Shawn were a pair in WCW too with little to no success. Spike quickly wins this match with the Dudley Dog. After the match, Stacey gets in the ring and confronts Spike and is beaten up by Molly for her troubles. 

Smackdown! - September 4th, 2001

Stone Cold takes out his anger

Stone Cold Steve Austin arrives in the Alliance locker room. None of them will look him in the eyes. He’s angry and barks in their faces to look at him, to look into his eyes. They all avert their gaze. Austin says that be begged on Raw for all of them and for the Alliance. Stone Cold says that if he was all on his own he’d have told Kurt to just throw him off the bridge but he had to survive and beg for all of their benefit. While he’s mid-rant, Chavo Guerrero arrives late due to traffic and so Stone Cold attacks him and beats the hell out of him while the rest of the Alliance watch on in horror. Austin swears up a storm so there’s a LOT of beeping since they’re on Smackdown. 

Austin continues to rant to Debra about what a hard time he’s having. Shawn Staziak arrives with a coffee which Stone Cold says it’s too hot and throws the scalding coffee in Shawn’s face and lays him out. He tells Debra to get a paramedic - not for Staziak, for his burnt mouth! 

Still moping in this locker room - now about his burned mouth - Stone Cold is encouraged to go and speak to the public by his wife. He needs to confront the people. He’ll think about it.

Stone Cold goes to the ring and after berating the fans in Canada and talking trash about Kurt Angle, the Olympian comes out. He shows footage from Raw and he and the crowd have a good laugh at him begging and crying. It’s hard to describe the segment as there’s no real content - just back and forth arguments. In the back, Austin explodes into the Alliance locker room and he is furious and pissed off and looking for a fight. He gets in everyone’s faces and says that the first man to walk through the locker room door he’s going to whip their ass. After a long wait, that man ends up being Rob Van Dam. That’s who the fans were chanting for so I do wonder if that was a change on the fly for the crowd’s benefit. 

In Stone Cold’s locker room he paces on the spot and RVD walks in to ask him about tonight’s match. Stone Cold tells him that tonight, Rob’s name is Kurt Angle. He smirks and says that he’s not Kurt Angle - he’s Rob Van Dam! RVD leaves and Austin screams at Debra that he is Kurt Angle! He’s Kurt Angle! 

In the main event we have an Alliance vs. Alliance match in WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. WWF Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam. Austin jumps RVD as soon as the match begins and is extremely aggressive and fired up. He grinds RVD in the corner with a big smile on his face. It’s a huge show of faith to put RVD in this position - kayface and storyline aside, you can tell WWF management is impressed by Mr. Monday Night. This match is brutal as Austin beats RVD up all around the ring. He tries to use a chair which is kicked back in his face.Van Dam misses his Five Star Frog Splash and Stone Cold follows with a Stunner but instead of going for a pin, he puts Rob in the ankle lock. Kurt Angle’s music hits and the distraction allows RVD to roll Austin up with a school boy and pin the WWF Champion! The show ends with Kurt Angle coming out onto the stage with a big smile having cost Stone Cold a non-title match to one of his Alliance subordinates.

WCW title match set for Unforgiven

In the Commissioner’s office, Shane McMahon and Booker T go to see William Regal to discuss who The Rock’s next opponent and challenger should be. Shane throws his weight around as the owner of WCW and says The Rock will defend the title at Unforgiven in a handicap match against both Booker and Shane. Tonight’s main event is already set as Booker and The Rock will be on opposite sides of an eight man tag team match later. 

Lillian Garcia interviews The Rock and asks him about his WCW title defence at Unforgiven. He doesn’t answer and instead we get a pretty well known segment where he instead is incredibly sexual towards her asking if she gets wet...with perspiration and if she wants to try his “strudel”. Lillian comes across like a flustered love sick school girl as Rock shifts his focus to the Unforgiven match. He is oddly homophobic about Booker and Shane’s friendship but that’s kind of par for the course with Rock promos. He is, as you’d expect, unintimidated by the prospect of a handicap match. 

WCW Champion The Rock, Chris Jericho and the APA take on Booker T, The Dudley Boyz and Rhyno in an eight man tag team match. Interestingly, while the WWF guys all enter separately to their own themes, the Alliance team comes out together to Bodies by Drowning Pool, led by Shane McMahon. This is a very short match and with a flury of finishers, Shane stops Rock from pinning Booker T off a Rock Bottom and Rhyno finishes Jericho with a Gore to win the match for the Alliance.

Christian Explains himself

In the arena, Christian makes his way down to the ring. He’s still using he and Edge’s theme song (technically Edge’s theme song but he hasn’t used his own solo theme since some time in early 2000). Christian calls Raw the best night of his life and says he hasn’t felt that good since he moved to Florida and became a US citizen. That gets a lot of boos from his fellow Canadians in the crowd. He explains that Edge has always been jealous of him and holding him back. He says that it was always Edge and Christian and never Christian and Edge. He’s special too! He calls Edge selfish and says that he made Christian turn on him. He gets “asshole” and “you suck” chants as he continues to say that he doesn’t need Edge - not even to hit a con-chair-to anymore. Edge has nothing that he needs but he does have something he wants and that's the Intercontinental title. Christian challenges Edge to a title match at Unforgiven. 

Other Happenings

• This episode of Smackdown aired on a Tuesday, only 24 hours after Raw. It’s also Live as every episode appears to have been since the change of logo and theme song. They’re making a big deal about the partnership with their Canadian broadcaster TSN and that’s because it was announced during Raw that the next Wrestlemania will take place in Toronto, which this episode of Smackdown also emanates from. 
• In the opening match, Matt and Jeff Hardy (with Lita) take on Raven (with Terri) and Justin Credible. The Hardyz win with a Swanton Bomb on Justin Credible. After the match, Terri gets in their faces and is given a Twist of Fate by Lita for her troubles.
• Steven Richards in the ring explains why he attacked The Undertaker on Raw and why he challenged him to a match tonight. He is furious that of all the people who tried to break up the Right to Censor, The Undertaker was the one who succeeded. He made them all turn on him and now he’s back to get even. He shows no fear until Undertaker gets to the ring and then gives him the runaround, staying out of the ring. With Undertaker distracted by Steven and following him up the entrance ramp it allows two new debuts - WCW’s Kronik. The tag team was composed of Brian Adams and Bryan Clark. They attack and assault the Undertaker, kicking over his motorbike and laying him out in the ring. This is the WWF return of Brian Adams. He was Crush in the early 90s, probably his most famous ring name. This seems to confirm Richards’ joining the Alliance and gives them a new big-man tag team for their ranks.  

• Test faces Billy Gunn. Shout to Billy here - he looks in amazing, 10/10 shape. Huge and shredded at the same time, he has an action figure body. Not a very interesting match which Test wins clean with a Big Boot (his new official finisher). 
• WWF European Champion The Hurricane comes down to the ring for his “super-open-challenge”. His promo is pretty funny and gets some laughs from the crowd. The challenger for his title is the 500lbs Big Show. This is a short comedy match as Hurricane tries to use moves like a chokeslam on the much larger opponent. Show swats him off and looks ready to win with a chokeslam but Hurricane’s Alliance team mate Lance Storm runs down with a drop kick to the knee, causing a disqualification. Show spikes them both with a double chokeslam in frustration. 

• Live at WWF New York, Hardcore Holly is standing by. Michael Cole asks why we haven’t seen much of him lately. He says that it’s because no one from the Alliance has challenged him. He trips and stumbles through a promo about what a big shot he is until eventually the production staff play music over him to end the segment.

Raw is War - September 10th, 2001

Austin targets Angle’s neck

Raw opens with Stone Cold leading the entire Alliance to the ring to his own theme song. He gets in the ring and parades his WWF title belt to the crowd in his home state of Texas as the rest of the Alliance troops surround the ring. Austin says he isn’t ashamed that Kurt Angle made him beg and cry last week, and he isn’t ashamed that he lost to a fellow Alliance member on Smackdown. He’s ashamed of all the people in the crowd and at home watching him on TV. The fans drown him out with “Austin sucks” chants (he barks “what?!” between each one). He also says he’s ashamed of people taking credit for things they didn’t do and he calls RVD into the ring. He tells Van Dam that he doesn’t like him, and is stunned when the Hardcore champion stops him and says that he doesn’t like him either! Austin seems offended that RVD doesn’t like him and gives him a big hug!

He says he likes a man with confidence and has now changed his mind - he DOES like him. He says that since he has so much confidence he’s sure RVD will challenge Kurt Angle to a match tonight. RVD says it would be an honour to compete with a great athlete. Austin asks the rest of the Alliance to show their confidence. Test jumps up into the ring and says he has the confidence to challenge The Rock to a non-title match tonight. Kanyon is next and with his new found confidence he’s issuing an open challenge for his US title tonight. Tazz is next and misreads the situation - he tells Austin that at Unforgiven there’s a good chance Kurt Angle might kick his ass and take the WWF title from him. He pays for it with a Stone Cold Stunner and then has RVD, Test and Kanyon stomp on Tazz three on one. He gets a Big Boot and then a Five Star Frog Splash too. Austin continues to brutally lead by example and has the Alliance troops worked up into a frenzy. 

RVD goes to see Stone Cold. Kurt Angle has accepted his challenge and he wants to know if Austin thinks he should put his Hardcore title on the line. RVD inadvertently shows up Austin by being unafraid to put his title on the line - something Austin has avoided for his own WWF title at every turn - and when Stone Cold tells him that he could be the next Stone Cold, RVD says that he’d rather be Rob Van Dam. He leaves and when Debra says she likes the way he points at himself and says his name, Austin barks at his wife to sit down and shut up! The Rattlesnake seems a little put out by Van Dam’s confidence and attitude.

Rob Van Dam defends the WWF Hardcore Championship against Kurt Angle. Before the match, Austin rants at RVD that pinning him on Smackdown pisses him off and he needs to make it up to him tonight by beating Kurt’s ass tonight. RVD asks Austin why he’s so worked up - it’s not good for his blood pressure. He adds that he’ll do something Stone Cold couldn’t do at Summerslam and that’s pin Kurt Angle. RVD’s confidence continues to infuriate the Rattlesnake. He looks like he might kill him! RVD enters first for the actual match - he is very popular - followed by the number one contender for the WWF title Kurt Angle. Kurt’s elbow is bandaged but I’m not sure when and how he hurt it. This is a great little match with RVD’s innovative and unusual offence is on full display and Kurt takes to that environment like a duck to water, bumping his ass off for RVD. At the top of the ramp, Kurt gets RVD in the ankle lock and Van Dam taps out! Kurt Angle is the new Hardcore champion.

Stone Cold appears and bum rushes Angle from behind sending him crashing off the entrance ramp to the concrete below. He helps RVD up and then throws him off the ramp too, landing on Kurt Angle. He points out to the referee that RVD is on top of Kurt and so he runs down and counts and thanks to the 24/7 rule, RVD immediately regains his Hardcore title. Thanks (?) to Stone Cold Steve Austin. Kurt flipped off the ramp head first and it looked like a devastating bump.

After a commercial break, he’s loaded onto a stretcher as the medical personnel check on him. JR hammers home that Kurt went to the Olympics with a broken neck and Stone Cold may have damaged it again tonight. With Billy Gunn and The Undertaker (see other section) that’s the third WWF Superstar to be hospitalised tonight. JR and Paul Heyman have a loud screaming match with each other at ringside which I really enjoyed! I love their dynamic. Later as Stone Cold leaves the arena with Debra, Michael Cole stops him and asks if he’s heard about Kurt’s neck and back injury and says he might not have an opponent at the PPV anymore. Austin grabs Cole and screams nonsense in his face in between “what”s. He is demented.

The Rock overcomes the odds

Backstage after the Chistian and Billy Gunn match, Test and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley have a really unnatural “get you get a load of that?” conversation. He promises that he’s going to soften The Rock up for Booker and Shane at Unforgiven. Their dynamic is oddly flirty. Stephanie says that they should give Rock a real sample of Unforgiven and let him pick any member of the Alliance to team with Test tonight and make it a handicap match.

Backstage Michael Cole tries to get an interview with The Rock. He barges into the WCW champion’s locker room and we get a bunch of “were you looking at my strudel” jokes as The Rock implies Cole is gay. Hilarious. He comes back after a break and The Rock is ready. He has to pick Test’s partner for a handicap match and he ponders it and says that the partner needs certain traits - speed to balance with Test’s size, easy to manipulate and a lack of testicles. Fast, easy and no testicles. With that he picks Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley herself! Later Test tells Stephanie that he’ll tell The Rock that it’s going to be a singles match but no, Stephanie is into it! She’s fired up and wants to fight The Rock tonight!

Out in the parking lot, Stephanie McMahon (in a much more revealing ring outfit than she used to wear) is on the phone to her brother Shane. The WCW Owner isn’t here tonight and he’s trying to talk her out of getting in the ring and in harm’s way. She plays the feminist card and insists on wrestling tonight. This Raw is actually in the same building where she won the WWF Women’s title in March 2000.

In the main event, WCW Champion The Rock takes on Test and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley in a handicap match. Stephanie sits down at ringside and joins commentary leaving Test and The Rock to go at it one on one. He does join in with some kicks and a slap to the People’s Champion when he’s down at ringside. She continues to stay out of the way until The Rock is about to win with a People’s Elbow. She trips him and so he grabs her by the hair. The distraction allows Test to drop the champion with a Big Boot and probably has the match won but Stephanie insists on tagging in so that she can pin him. The Rock kicks out and knocks Test off the apron leaving he and Stephanie legal in the ring. Test saves her from taking a Rock Bottom as Stephanie waves to the back for Booker T to come down. Rock knocks her off the apron, she lands on Booker T and he gives Test a Rock Bottom to win the match. He grabs a steel chair quickly to hold Booker at bay and save himself from a two on one beat down, ending Raw on top. 

A Buzzsaw of a Champion

In the Commissioner’s office, Tajiri and Torrie Wilson are all over each other like a pair of giggling, randy teenagers. Tajiri has accepted Kanyon’s open challenge for the US title tonight and Regal stresses Tajiri needs to focus on his championship match and not on Torrie - remember, she is a member of the Alliance and not to be trusted. So far her infatuation with Tajiri has only led to him losing and being put through a table so maybe Regal has a point. 

Kanyon defends the WCW United States title against Tajiri (with Torrie Wilson, who is bubbly and full of smiles cheering on her new boyfriend Tajiri). Torrie accidentally hits Tajiri with the US title belt while trying to stop Kanyon using it and just as you start to be suspicious of her motives, she redeems herself telling the referee that Kanyon is cheating and using the ropes! Tajiri sprays the green mist and with a stiff kick to the head wins the WCW US title! Torrie is overjoyed and the two leave together arm in arm.

Kronik Takes Their Shot

The Undertaker faces Booker T one on one. This is a big physical match between two main event level talents. Booker needs a lot of attention and some strong performances to undo all the damage Rock has done to his aura by calling him stupid and treating him like a joke. Undertaker sets up Booker for a chokeslam which brings Steven Richards down. He runs into a big boot, but the distraction gives Booker a chance to hit his Scissors Kick and pins The Undertaker - a huge win for the former WCW champion. Booker leaves quickly and Undertaker sets up Richards for a Last Ride. He’s rescued by Brian Adams and Bryan Clark again. Kronik gives the Undertaker a beating in the ring two on one as the fans chant for Kane. Sadly he’s still out with his elbow injury. Kronik prepares to give Undertaker a double chokeslam in the ring but at Steven’s urging, they give it to him through the announce table instead. One half of the WWF and WCW Tag Team Champions has been left flattened. He did put up a good fight prior to being put down though.

Other Happenings

• This Raw takes place less than 12 hours before the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks in New York City. That’ll be discussed a lot more on Smackdown but given its proximity it’s hard not to think about it and I felt like I had to acknowledge it. It’s one of the most significant historical events in the 21st Century. It certainly makes the various shots of WWF New York during this show feel a little different. 
• Christian debuts his new solo theme song with an orchestral bent. It’s incredible and while he doesn’t have the final version of it on this show, here is the best version of it because I love it so much;

• His opponent here is Billy Gunn, making this a WWF vs. WWF match (because the Alliance doesn’t have any babyfaces for Christian and WWF heels like him to wrestle, X-Pac and Albert have the same issue). Christian wins the match with a roll up and using the ropes for leverage and then for good measure, gives him a one man con-chair-to on the outside of the ring. Christian has found his mean streak.

• In a six person tag team match, Matt and Jeff Hardy and Lita take on Lance Storm, European Champion The Hurricane and Ivory. Backstage before the match, Lance praises Hurricane for his genius portrayal of a superhero as a way of mocking the WWF. Hurricane thanks “citizen Storm” but asks what he means about “pretending” to be a superhero. See Hurricane is a REAL superhero. Able to leap tall cruiserweights in a single bound, faster than a luchador, up there in the ring is it a bird? A plane? No, it’s a HURRICANE! Heyman cracked me up on commentary with that. The fans loudly chant for Lita as soon as this match begins. The match is physical and in this one, the men and women can wrestle each other. The Hardyz save Lita from an attempted superplex by Storm and Matt drops Ivory with a Twist of Fate and roughly pulls her into position for a Lita moonsault and a victory for Team Xtreme. 
• Chris Jericho teams with Bradshaw and Faarooq to take on Rhyno and The Dudley Boyz. A clothesline from hell on Rhyno gives Team WWF the victory in a fun but uneventful six man tag. Bradshaw wins a lot these days.

Smackdown! - September 13th, 2001

9/11

It feels wrong to cover and critique the parts of this show which talk about the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks in my normal way so I’m grouping it all together here. Vince McMahon opens the show (his first TV appearance since just after Invasion) with a speech about Americans showing no fear and then after the Smackdown opening, the entire assembled roster of both the WWF and Alliance come out onto the stage and fight back tears while Lillian Garcia sings the American national anthem. The show is peppered with talking head segments where various performers and backstage agents discuss their feelings and emotions following the events in New York only 48 hours prior. On a less serious note, while most of the segments and comments from performers and WWF staff were very sincere and moving - several of them crying while they spoke - there’s a couple that everyone remembers for the wrong reasons. Native Texan Bradshaw (and huge George W. Bush supporter which he makes sure to mention) cuts a firey pro-rasslin’ promo about how they’re going to kick the culprits asses, and I’m not sure what Bubba Ray Dudley was going to say but his comments faded out before he finished. I suspect something similar. My personal favourite is Stephanie McMahon tearfully comparing the terrorist attacks to the US Federal Government’s “attack” on her family in the mid 90s when her father was tried for steroid distribution. Yikes. I really thought they’d remove that from the WWE Network version of the show. It’s all very emotional and it’s tough for me to do justice to any of it. On a personal level, I visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York in February 2024 and found it to be a deeply moving experience which totally shifted my feelings on this event into something more personal and profound. My personal favourite element of the show is JR and Paul Heyman’s commentary as the pair of them do their best to have fun and put their bickering aside. They still disagree and argue but it’s a lot more light hearted and Heyman makes JR laugh out loud quite a few times. It’s nice to hear them being friends as I’m sure they were behind the scenes and it added some much needed fun to what is otherwise quite a heavy episode of Smackdown. 

Kurt Angle wins big

In the show’s main event, Rhyno faces Kurt Angle. The crowd breaks out in a loud USA chant immediately.This is a good match - with Angle matches you’re never sure if that means these two have great chemistry, Rhyno is much better in the ring than I thought or if Kurt Angle is just SO good that everyone he wrestles looks like a million bucks. Rhyno perseveres through a string of suplexes to hit a Gore but Kurt Angle kicks out of his opponent’s finisher to show how tough he is, which has become his new gimmick really. Rhyno focused his attack on Kurt’s neck - Austin reinjuring it on Raw has become a major plot point heading into Unforgiven but with an Angle Slam the Olympic (and American) hero picks up the victory.  Smackdown ends on that happy note, with Kurt leading the crowd in a USA chant. 

The Rock talks Pie

WCW Champion The Rock heads down to the ring and after saying this is a special night and that he’s here in Texas to have fun, he issues an open challenge to anyone who wants a shot. The challenge is seemingly quickly accepted by Shawn Staziak (with Stacey Keibler). Staziak rushes the ring and is side-stepped and sent up and over the top rope. The Rock doesn’t miss a beat “like I was saying…does anyone want to accept the challenge?”Staziak tries again and the same thing happens. Shawn tries a third time and this time The Rock just puts up his hand and stops him in his tracks. The Rock finally addresses him and asks what he is doing and why he keeps knocking himself out - maybe he has a depth perception issue? The Rock asks Staziak if he likes pie. Shawn misunderstands and says he HATES pie. The Rock gets borderline homophobic and asks if he likes strudel (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The Rock asks Stacey Keibler if she likes the people’s strudel (and does a little hip thrust so we all get the joke) and she smiles and nods. By law, all women in the WWF need to act at all times like they’re in love with The Rock. Stacey was only 21 years old at the time which is crazy to me. In fairness, I’m sure most of them were very attracted to him for real. Women love The Rock. Rock finally gets serious and tells Staziak he can have his WCW title match and immediately pulls him into a Rock Bottom and pins him for a three count. The Rock wasn’t even in his ring gear! And there was no bell ringing! #justiceforstaziak

Other Happenings

• In the opening match, European Champion The Hurricane and Lance Storm (with Ivory) take on Matt and Jeff Hardy (with Lita). It’s a short but fun match which The Hardyz win with a Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb combo on Lance Storm. 
• In a non-title match, WWF Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam defeats Spike Dudley with a Five Star Frog Splash. The fans love RVD.
• Christian enters for his match and cuts a promo before it, drawing our attention to his new epic operatic theme song and entrance pyro - golden sparks rain from the sky which he says is because soon he’ll have Intercontinental gold around his waist. He’s cut short by his opponent tonight, Chris Jericho. Y2J makes fun of Christian’s new music and then rushes to the ring to start the match. These two work smoothly together and Christian gets a very close near fall from a reverse DDT. As he argues with the referee over the two count, Jericho rolls him up with a school boy and steals the win.
• Bradshaw and Faarooq - the APA - take on the X-Factor duo of Albert and WCW Cruiserweight and WWF Light Heavyweight Champion X-Pac. I spent most of 2000 criticising X-Pac for not changing up his gear, music or style but in fairness to him here he’s borderline unrecognisable - hair slicked back, long tights instead of his classic singlet, smaller facial hair and of course a different theme song. He still enormously overuses the spinning heel kick though because somethings are forever. Bradshaw wins this match for his team with a stiff Clothesline from Hell on the much smaller X-Pac. 
• Booker T faces The Big Show in a rematch from a couple of weeks ago. Show uses his size and power, Booker puts up a good fight against the much larger opponent and scores with two back to back Scissors kicks which Show kicks out of. He hits a front flip into a leg drop across the back of Show’s head and that wins it for the former 5 time WCW Champion. Paul crows about how Booker didn’t even need the Spinarooni tonight. 
• Later in the show, Lita faces Ivory one on one. JR mentions that both of them are former Women’s Champions which is the first time the women’s title has been mentioned at all since Judgment Day when we last saw the title with Chyna. She quietly left the company back in June over a contract dispute without losing the title but I’ve talked about that elsewhere. Now that she’s no longer in the Right to Censor, JR and Heyman have decided she’s attractive again and give her the same kind of comments as they give to Lita, who wins the match with a moonsault. 
• The Dudley Boyz and Test (who come out together to Test’s theme song, they’ve really gotten behind him with a big on screen push since he joined the Alliance) take on the WWF team of Scotty 2 Hotty, new WCW US Champion Tajiri (with Torrie Wilson) and Commissioner William Regal. They come out to Scotty’s theme song because it’s a banger. This is a fun house show match where Scotty and Tajiri do a lot of comedy spots. Scotty gives D-Von the Worm and would have the match won but Test drops him with a running Big Boot to pick up a victory for the Alliance. 

Raw is War - September 17th, 2001

Handicap Mania

Backstage Shane McMahon speaks to his sister about her plan tonight - she’s booked a rematch from last week where she and Test will face The Rock in a handicap match. Shane is very concerned about his sister’s well being and shows footage from last week where she almost got Rock Bottomed. She has faith in Test to protect her and she plans on being on the apron and getting more involved this week. 

A conversation between Shane and Stephanie McMahon is interrupted by Tazz. He says he has a lot of anger and frustration build up over how the Alliance is treating him. Shane tells him he can have a match later to get that out of his system. Later he goes to see Shane again and ask who his opponent will be - Shane sarcastically praises his timing and now he’s interrupting he and Booker T’s conversation but that brings him to his opponent. Shane and Booker T will get a warm up for their Unforgiven match with The Rock against Tazz tonight.

Booker T and Shane McMahon face Tazz in a handicap match. Punishment for Tazz for speaking up and having some bad timing, and a warm up for Booker and Shane who fight The Rock in a handicap match at Unforgiven for the WCW title. Tazz puts up a decent fight and works like an underdog babyface and it works because the fans really get behind him as he throws Booker and Shane around the ring with suplexes and locks Shane in a Tazzmission. He gets it on Booker too! But the two on one odds are too much for him and with a Scissiors kick, the same flip into a leg drop he used on Smackdown and then a top rope elbow drop from Shane O’Mac, Tazz is soundly defeated. Booker didn’t use that flip into a leg drop for long because he often landed back first on his opponent’s head and nearly injured them. Not a very safe move.

Stephanie McMahon-Helmsely enters first (and is back to using My Time as her theme instead of Bodies) followed by Test. She must have a plan for tonight as she’s very confident considering she’s about to be in a match with The Rock. This is basically a straight singles match between The Rock and Test as the WCW Champion continually teases getting his hands on Stephanie. The referee (WCW’s Nick Patrick) won’t count for The Rock after a Rock Bottom and so he gets one too for his troubles. That was a mistake as with no referee, Booker T and Shane McMahon run down to join the fight. All three men beat down The Rock and after a Big Boot, a Scissiors Kick, a top rope elbow drop and finally a Book End, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley pins The Rock. Total humiliation for the WCW Champion and a victory for Test and Stephanie (with a lot of help).

Uneasy Tag Partners

WWF Champion Stone Cold and Debra arrive and find Hardcore Champion RVD sitting waiting for him in their locker room. He’s made himself at home - feet up on the sofa eating his snacks. RVD checks that they’re cool before their tag team match with Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho tonight. Austin is cold but says they’re cool.

Van Dam says that when Stone Cold’s not around he is willing to be acting leader of the Alliance and says a lot of the boys are already coming to him for advice. Austin rants to Debra after he leaves about how everyone should be coming to HIM for advice.

Michael Cole interviews Kurt Angle and asks how he’s feeling after being thrown off the stage last week. He says he’s fine and he’s planning kicking Austin’s ass at Unforgiven. He’s interrupted by Rob Van Dam who says he likes listening to people, and especially loves listening to the crowds chant “RVD”. Kurt says the fans will be chanting three other initials tonight and at Unforgiven - USA.

RVD goes to see Stone Cold again before their main event tag team match. Austin’s door is locked and he tells Van Dam to go away! RVD continues to knock and be annoying until Austin comes to the door and gets in his face. Rob’s confident, over familiar attitude is starting to really grate on the Rattlesnake who wants timid obedience from his Alliance subordinates. Out in the arena, Chris Jericho enters first followed by Kurt Angle. Two Unforgiven previews in this match as we now have two singles titles matches at the PPV. Austin and Angle go at it right away and Jericho dives out of the ring onto RVD to get the match going. This is an energetic match and the fans are red hot for all four men.

There’s some miscommunication where RVD accidentally catches Austin with a spinning heel kick. They don’t make anything of it during the match but I bet that comes up again later. They trade off finishers and both Jericho and Angle look for ankle locks but RVD and Austin to their credit continually save each other. Stone Cold clubs Jericho in the back of the head with the ring bell which takes him out of the match. Kurt Angle flattens Austin with an Angle Slam and pins the WWF Champion only 6 days before their title match at Unforgiven. Raw ends with a triumphant Angle staring into the eyes of a depressed looking Stone Cold laying in the ring. 

Midcard Title Focus

Backstage, Jonathan Coachman asks Christian if he’s seen or heard from Edge since his attack as we’ve not seen him since it happened. Christian ignores his question initially - he says everyone is here tonight to see his entrance - but adds that Edge is probably spending time with his Intercontinental title before losing it on Sunday. He says that tonight he’s challenging Tajiri for the WCW United States title and that’ll make their match at Unforgiven a title for title match. 

In the make up department, Shane McMahon approaches Torrie Wilson and questions her motives in helping the WWF’s Tajiri win the WCW US title. He says he’s sure that a master manipulator like her has a plan and he trusts her to pull the plug on Tajiri when the time is right. He walks off and she bites her nails and looks very worried by his words. I think she really does like Tajiri! 

Christian, who’s outfits have gotten even louder and sillier since turning on Edge, challenges Tajiri for the WCW United States title. Paul Heyman spends a lot of time talking about how great Christian’s theme music is but in truth, this isn’t even the best version of it! That’s still to come. Torrie Wilson is with Tajiri and gives him a big kiss on the cheek before the match. JR speculates that Torrie is up to something after Shane’s comments earlier but he has been suggesting that since day one of this relationship. Torrie seems to prove herself, blocking Christian from using a steel chair but the referee is sprayed with Tajiri’s mist when the challenger ducks. That ends the match via disqualification but Christian keeps the attack going and sets up a one man con-chair-to on Tajiri in the ring. Fortunately Edge arrives just in time to tackle Christian and save the US Champion. Christian leaves quickly and avoids further attacks. During the commercial break as Torrie and Tajiri leave, Rhyno appears from nowhere and floors him with a Gore at the top of the ramp! As a reward when he gets backstage, Shane McMahon grants Rhyno a US title match this Sunday at Unforgiven. 

Victory Parade in Dudleyville

In the opening match, The Undertaker and Kane defend the WWF Tag Team titles against the Alliance’s Dudley Boyz. Taker and Kane are also the WCW Tag Team Champions but those belts aren’t on the line in this match. This is the first time we’ve seen Kane since the night after Summerslam as he’s been recovering from a nasty elbow infection.

He still has his arm bandaged here and so Bubba and D-Von focus their attacks on it and keep Kane in the ring. They also set up a table at ringside mid-way through the match - I’m sure that’ll come in handy later. The referee is knocked down and Steven Richards and his new team of Kronik run to the ring. Adams and Clark double chokeslam Kane through the table (told you) and after a distraction by Richards, The Dudleys hit Undertaker with a 3D to win their 5th WWF Tag Team titles thanks to a lot of help from the three newest Alliance members. They make that official backstage as they leave the arena, running into Shane McMahon as they leave the building. He welcomes them to the team and gives them a match with Undertaker and Kane at Unforgiven for their WCW Tag Team titles.

Other Happenings

• Raw opens with JR explaining, much like on Smackdown, that they have been encouraged by the President and America’s leaders to return to normal and that’s what they want to do tonight. I’m sure 9/11 and its consequences as well as the ferocious patriotism it inspired in Americans will come up regularly over the next several shows. There’s already been some graphic changes as the WWF logo has been replaced at the top of the ramp with an American flag, and the large screens on either side of the ramp which normally display WWF and WCW/ECW respectively are now back to being just the Raw is War logo. 
• In his locker room, Lance Storm is looking through this month’s WWF magazine and lectures The Hurricane on how immoral the way The Hardyz and Lita dress is. Hurricane agrees and says that there is too much evil for just one Superhero and he needs a sidekick! Storm suggests Ivory - he praises her but he needs someone who is 100% pure and rushes off (with a whoosh sound effect) to find his new sidekick.
• Lance Storm (with Ivory) takes on Jeff Hardy (with Lita). This is a very crisp match where Storm gets to show off his considerable in ring skills. Ivory and Lita do their best to help their men but Storm counters a top rope hurricanrana into a single leg boston crab for a submission victory for the Alliance.
• Shawn Staziak (with Stacey Keibler) faces Perry Saturn. There’s a video package for his quest to find his missing best friend Moppy as he walks to the ring - he dumped Terri for Moppy and she’s now been missing for several weeks. Terri has since joined the Alliance and is now managing Raven (there’s been no hints that their relationship is anything but managerial). Perry wins a short match with a fisherman suplex and as he celebrates, his former girlfriend Terri and Raven show up on the titantron. Raven has Moppy tied to a log and feeds her into a wood chipper as poor Perry is forced to watch helplessly. Returning from commercial, JR shows great sympathy for Perry - he wasn’t hurting anybody! - but Heyman thinks the whole thing is hilarious. 

• Stephanie McMahon is angry about what her brother said and talks to Rob Van Dam about it. Their interaction is very flirty (which draws “slut” chants from the crowd) and she asks him to not only pin Chris Jericho for her in tonight’s main event but to beat him at Unforgiven in a Hardcore title match. 
• The Hurricane appears out of nowhere as Molly Holly warms up for her match later. The European Champion asks her to leave Spike Dudley and be his sidekick! She looks uninterested and the Hurricane vanishes (with a whoosh and puff of wind) when Spike arrives to question his motives. 
• The Hurricane defends the WWF European title against Spike Dudley (with Molly Holly) Of note, since their split Spike has been using the same theme song as Bubba and D-Von but is now using their original WWF theme to provide a bit of separation. I prefer that one anyway. Molly doesn’t look very impressed with Hurricane and is seemingly not entertaining the idea of becoming his sidekick. Molly throws Hurricane’s cape into the ring which distracts the referee and tries to give Hurricane a missile dropkick. He moves and she hits Spike by mistake, which Helms follows up with his Eye of the Hurricane finisher to retain the title. Molly checks on Spike as Hurricane gives her a knowing nod. JR telegraphs where this storyline might be going by pondering out loud if that was an accident on Molly’s part.
• When we get our weekly shot of WWF New York, there isn’t any Alliance or WWF superstars on hand as tonight, 6 days removed from 9/11, the fans in attendance and the New Yorkers are the real stars.

Smackdown! - September 20th, 2001

Austin Crosses a Line

Stone Cold opens Smackdown wearing his new t-shirt which says “Ragin’ Redneck”. No memory of that one but his merch has been getting worse and worse all year. He says that Kurt Angle may have beat him on Monday but it won’t happen at Unforgiven. He says that the WWF title belt has been specially designed to sit on his shoulder (not a million miles from the truth, he was the first man to carry this version) and talks about making Kurt’s family cry at Unforgiven. The PPV is in his hometown so his brother’s and mother are going to watch Stone Cold kick Kurt’sass and beg for him to stop. He says that he is a man’s man and he isn’t going to wait until Sunday to address his problems. You’d think he’s going to call out Kurt Angle or even Rob Van Dam but instead it's Torrie Wilson! The big tough Rattlesnake berates and intimidates the tiny blonde and his issue with her is what you’d expect - she’s a member of the Alliance but is dating a member of the WWF roster. She even helped Tajiri win the WCW United States title from Kanyon! Torrie isn’t a great actress and she cries as Austin calls her pathetic and says that doesn’t deserve to be in his ring. He continually asks her questions and barks “what?!” and “shut up!” in her face before she can speak. He says she dresses like trash and that she is trash!

After several minutes of bullying, it looks like Stone Cold is about to assault her until her new boyfriend Tajiri runs down to save Torrie. Austin easily beats him up and then accuses her of having set him up! He screams at her to stand up and face him and that brings Kurt Angle down at last. Austin goes to meet him and the two brawl around the ring with fury. Tazz jumps up off commentary to help the Alliance leader and gets an Angle slam on the mats at ringside for his troubles. The distraction lets Stone Cold recover and he drives Kurt’s head into the ring post over and over just like at Summerslam. He hits his challenger with multiple chair shots and then, in a sick act on a man with a history of neck troubles, lifts up the mats at ringside to expose the bare concrete and piledrives Kurt Angle!

A hush falls as many people including referees, Sgt Slaughter and Jim Ross run down to check on Kurt Angle. He’s slowly loaded onto a stretcher as Kurt doesn’t move and we can hear him exclaiming that he’s unable to move his hands and arm. Austin stays at ringside watching and staring at what he’s caused with an unreadable look on his face - does he regret what he’s done or is he proud of himself? This lasts some time as Kurt is loaded into an ambulance and taken away from the arena as the rest of the WWF roster looks on, upset. Jim Ross replaced Tazz on commentary for the rest of the show and provided running health updates on Kurt from the hospital telling us in stages that his neck is not broken and that he has regained feeling in his arm and legs. 

In the back, Stone Cold addresses the Alliance who all look disgusted by his actions in trying to break Kurt Angle’s neck. He explains that he didn’t do it for him - he did it for all of them. The Alliance must win this war so that they all have a future! He continues to berate them all and says that tonight he’s going to whip Tajiri’s ass and gets them all back on his side, cheering for their “brave” leader.

In the Commissioner’s office, Stone Cold busts into the room and demands a fight with Tajiri. William Regal has had enough and shoves Austin screaming at him to calm down and offering to fight himself. Stone Cold has no problem with the Commissioner and says he wants to fight “that little karate son of a bitch” (racist) and so Regal makes it official but adds that it will be for Stone Cold’s WWF Championship! 

Stone Cold is telling Debra that he’s going to teach Tajiri a lesson tonight and RVD shows up to tell him the big news. Van Dam toys with him a bit and reveals that he’s heard Kurt Angle checked himself out of the hospital and is on his way back to the arena. Austin insincerely thanks RVD for the news, says he’s glad Kurt is ok and that he’s a good man. That leads into his match after a commercial break - Stone Cold Steve Austin defends the WWF title against WCW United States Champion Tajiri. He doesn’t have Torrie Wilson with him - she’s probably traumatised from her run in with the Rattlesnake at the start of the show. Tajiri’s ribs are taped up thanks to the Gore from Rhyno on Raw and from Austin’s attack earlier and that’s where Austin focuses his offence in this match. He hammers the Japanese Buzzsaw and finishes him with a Stone Cold Stunner in a very one sided match. He prepares to give Tajiri a piledriver in the middle of the ring but Kurt Angle’s music plays. He doesn’t rush the ring and there’s no fight - Kurt Angle, with a neck brace on and tears in his eyes passionately promises Austin at Unforgiven in his hometown he’s going to take the WWF Championship from him. Stone Cold looks very worried - not a big cartoonish performance, just quietly panicked by Angle’s return and intensity. 

The Rock continues to overcome the odds

Before the main event, after a recap of the events of Raw where he was pinned by Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley following a three on one assault, The Rock is standing by with Johnathan Coachman. He calls it like it is - the WCW Champion got his ass kicked on Raw. This is a funny promo about a local music legend (Jerry Lee Lewis who wrote “Great Balls of Fire”, hes in the front row!) and leads into the match. The Rock teams with Bradshaw and Faarooq to face Booker T, Test and Rhyno in a six man elimination tag team match. Shane is at ringside with the Alliance team. A steel chair shot frm Shane to Bradshaw’s back leads to his elimination and he takes the loss hard, chasing the boy wonder away from the ring. A few minutes later a Big Boot from Test eliminates Farooq leaving the WCW Champion in a three on one situation. The Rock side steps a Gore attempt sending Rhyno crashing into Test and a DDT later, he pins Rhyno to even the odds slightly. The Rock holds on and after a long double team, drops Test with a Rock Bottom to eliminate him too. With the match now one on one, without even Shane O’Mac at ringside to help, Booker takes a walk and gets himself counted out. The Rock wins, coming back against three on one odds and ends Smackdown celebrating with his WCW title belt. 

Table for Four (teams)

The Hurricane and Lance Storm (with Ivory) face the makeshift team of The Big Show and Spike Dudley (with Molly Holly). Michael Cole tells us during this that at Unforgiven, The Dudley Boyz will defend the WWF Tag Team titles against both of these teams and The Hardy Boyz in a four team elimination match at Unforgiven. The other story here is that as of Raw, Hurricane is trying to recruit Molly as his sidekick because he said she is “100% pure”. She’s knocked off the apron and Hurricane catches her and safely puts her back on her feet to show what a true hero he is. A distraction by Ivory leads to an Eye of the Hurricane on Spike and an Alliance victory. The Big Show has fallen so far down the card - he wasn’t even a factor in this match. As Ivory and Molly fight at ringside and Hurricane and Storm work to separate the two, The Dudley Boyz run down and hit both Spike and Show with their tag title belts. They throw Spike out of the ring and in an impressive effort, double suplex the 500lbs Big Show through a table! 

The new WWF Tag Team Champions Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley face their old rivals The Hardy Boyz in a non-title match. A match we’ve seen before between these two teams but they work so effortlessly together now it’s never bad. Thanks to Spike Dudley shoving his brother D-Von off the top rope and a roll up by Matt on Bubba, The Hardyz win! Lance Storm and Hurricane reappear and take out Spike with a dual superkick at the top of the ramp and for the second time tonight, The Dudleyz put one of their PPV opponents through a table - this time with a 3D on Matt Hardy. 

Other Happenings

• Kronik - Brian Adams and Bryan Clark - with Steven Richards make their in ring debut against Kaientai. Taka Michenoku and Funaki are much smaller than the former WCW Tag Team champions and they hit lots of big power moves for an easy victory. 
• Chris Jericho comes down to the ring and joins commentary to watch RVD against fellow Alliance member Raven (with Terri). This match was set up a few weeks ago and Austin wouldn’t let it happen but I guess he has bigger things to worry about now. It’s not for Rob’s Hardcore title because he’s slated to defend that against Chris Jericho at Unforgiven. When they show Jericho at ringside it looks like he’s reading all of his many jokes about Stephanie McMahon off the desk and not coming up with them off the cuff. Terri tries to help with a distraction but it doesn’t work and with a Five Star Frog Splash RVD wins. After he leaves, Perry Saturn runs down to avenge Moppy, strangling Raven until Terri slaps at him. The distraction allows Raven to lay out Perry with his Raven effect DDT. 

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Edge debuts his new theme song by Rob Zombie. Much like X-Factor’s Uncle Kracker theme, this one is well remembered by fans of a certain age and opinion is VERY divided on if it’s good or not. Personally I like it. Edge is facing Chris Kanyon here and shows a real mean streak, super focused on his brother vs. brother match with Christian at Unforgiven. Christian runs down to try and cost Edge the match but he leapfrog’s his brother’s Spear attempt. Christian doesn’t try his luck again and takes off leaving Edge to finish Kanyon with an Impaler DDT and win the match. Edge looks confident and Christian looks concerned heading into their PPV match.