Raw is War - February 26th, 2001

Hardcore Main Event

Raw opens with the new WWF Champion The Rock. It isn’t mentioned here but he made history at No Way Out as at the time, a 6th title reign made him the most decorated WWF Champion in history. He promised us that he’d win the title and he did. He gives some credit to Kurt Angle, and praises and respects the vicious, mean streak especially he showcased in the match. He then mocks Kurt for crying about losing afterwards and calls him a virgin. His celebration is short-lived as Royal Rumble winner Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out. JR and King talk about how Austin is stealing The Rock’s thunder here. This is our Wrestlemania main event. Austin is out here to get some stuff off his chest. He gives The Rock praise for winning the title - the better man won. Congrats. But then he gets in The Rock’s face and tells him to stay healthy. Austin has wild, crazy eyes as he says it. The man is obsessed with winning the WWF title. The Rock stops Stone Cold from leaving to give him some advice of his own. “Get ready”. The two stare down and the electricity is in the air. Even I got goosebumps watching this! He ends with a slow “If ya smell what The Rock is cooking” and Austin smirks. Neither man shows any fear or intimidation.

Kurt Angle makes his way through the backstage area. Jonathan Coachman tries to get a word with him but the former Champion is too focused and won’t talk to him. He goes to see Mr. McMahon and demands a title match. Vince says he’ll think about it.

The Big Show goes to see Mr. McMahon. He has the Hardcore title belt slung over his shoulder and he wants a WWF title match tonight. Vince says that as punishment for getting involved last night he’ll defend the Hardcore title against both Kurt Angle and The Rock in a triple threat match! 

Michael Cole goes to ask The Rock how he feels about his match tonight and challenging for the Hardcore title. The Rock directs Cole to his t-shirt which reads “it doesn’t matter”.

Kevin Kelly interviews Kurt Angle. Something that Angle demanded. He is very happy about tonight’s main event. He’s played by the rules his whole life and now he doesn’t want to play by the rules anymore. A hardcore match means he can do whatever he wants to whoever he wants. He doesn’t care that The Rock respects him now, and says he’ll make Big Show pay for getting involved in his match last night. 

In the main event, The Big Show defends his newly won Hardcore title against both Kurt Angle and WWF Champion The Rock. An odd match, but it makes lots of sense with Angle’s new mean streak and Big Show having been so involved in the build to No Way Out including coming out AT No Way Out and planting them both with chokeslams.

This is a chaotic brawl but they work it as main eventer no disqualification style and don’t involve the usual Hardcore weapons. Rock and Angle take Show out with a massive double suplex and as they fight each other, the usual suspects run in to try and cash in on the 24/7 rule. Steve Blackman, Hardcore Holly and Albert all get near falls with weapons shots to Big Show’s head. Perry Saturn joins in the fight as they all brawl up the ramp where Esse Rios and Crash Holly both dive onto the champion. He catches both men and the fight disappears backstage. In the ring, Kurt Angle enlists the help of Perry Saturn and Albert and the three of them beat down the WWF Champion, The Rock.

The fighting backstage is even more chaotic as Big Show fights off Billy Gunn and Steve Blackman. Referee Earl Hebner has followed the backstage fight and counts a three count as Big Show pins Esse Rios against a wall to retain his title, I guess? It’s unclear. But the match is over as Angle continues to lead a three on one assault on The Rock. He fights back and beats back Albert and Saturn but is taken down into an ankle lock by Kurt Angle. That brings Rock’s Wrestlemania challenger to the ring and with a Stone Cold Stunner on Angle and Saturn, Stone Cold turns back the tide. It looks like Rock might want to give him a Rock Bottom but Albert rushes him and he gets it instead. Raw ends the same way it began -  with The Rock and Stone Cold locking eyes.

Humiliating Trish

Out in the parking lot, William Regal is pacing nervously and waiting for the arrival of Mr. McMahon. He wants to try and talk him out of the mixed tag team match he booked at No Way Out for tonight. Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley comes out and tells him that Vince will never cancel it and he needs to go and get ready. Later when Vince and Trish do arrive together in a limo (more “did you enjoy the ride?” innuendo) Regal tries to smooth things over but Vince doesn’t want to hear it. He’s seemingly furious at Regal for doing the wrong thing last night.

Later in Vince’s office he shows off a mop bucket full of swill and dirt and mess to Trish and promises her they’ll use it in their match later to cause some humiliation to someone. 

Stephanie goes to see her dad and shares her concern that they might have to come to blows during the match. Vince says that’s Regal’s fault and on him, and says that he’ll do what he has to do if he finds himself in the ring with his daughter tonight.

Mr. McMahon (wheeling his mop bucket full of slop) and Trish Stratus take on the team of William Regal and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. Full disclaimer and this is a spoiler - this is one of the most hated segments in WWF history. Everyone universally despised this angle. A perfect example of Vince’s weird views on women and relationships and enjoying doing messed up stuff on TV. The story all along has been that Trish is clearly “seeing” Vince and they’ve done a bad job of keeping it a secret. The storyline could have worked if Trish was portrayed as in control and manipulating Vince but it’s never been like that. Trish and Steph trade moves until Trish tags in and it looks like Mr. McMahon is about to beat up his own daughter. Stephanie crawls for a tag and Regal steps off the apron not wanting to get involved which gets a big pop. Stephanie begs her dad for mercy as Regal passes a mic to Vince, and brings the slop bucket into the ring. The big reveal - Vince was using Trish, he's bored of her, Stephanie slaps her, Regal gives her a neckbreaker, Stephanie puts the dirty mop in her face as JR screams about how it “smells like a urinal”. JR and King mimic vomiting as Regal and Stephanie pour the slop all over Trish while Vince berates her and calls Stephanie “daddy’s little girl” and they embrace. Genuinely one of the worst segments in WWF history. Disgusting and hard to watch. Amazingly Vince sinks even lower next week. Michael Cole tries to interview a disgusted and distressed Trish backstage like an idiot. 

A pair of farewells

The Right to Censor is shown arriving in the parking lot in a white van. They have their news member The Kat with them who is now dressed like Ivory and appears to have been crying. 

Jerry “The King” Lawler teams with Bradshaw and Faarooq to take on the Right to Censor team of Val Venis, Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather. Much like at No Way Out, Tazz has replaced King on commentary. The RtC has the newest (unwilling) member The Kat at ringside.

Richards joins commentary and spends the match bickering with both Tazz and JR. Kat attacks Ivory at ringside and with the rest of Right to Censor distracted by that, the APA hammer Val Venis with a clothesline and powerbomb and allow King to get the victory, pinning him with a fist drop from the middle rope. This is King and Kat’s last appearance. I’ll talk more about King at the start of next week’s show, and I talked about Kat at No Way Out. Good riddance to both, quite frankly. 

Radical Problems

In The Radicals locker room, there’s some tension between Benoit and Guerrero after they came to blows multiple times in the Intercontinental title match at No Way Out. Latino Heat is fired up and tells Benoit that maybe they should fight to see who the real best technical wrestler is. Malenko acts as peacekeeper and the two reluctantly fist bump.

That leads into a tag team match - Justin Credible making his in ring debut to team with X-Pac against Benoit and Guerrero. X-Pac and Credible have a team entrance, but not yet a team name. (It’s not the Uncle Cracker song yet, they don’t get that until after Wrestlemania sadly). Benoit and Guerrero have some tension and seem off their game. X-Pac wins the match clean with a roll up on Benoit. I do not understand why he continues to be booked so strongly. X-Pac out-wrestled Benoit and after he and Credible leave, Benoit and Guerrero leave together while exchanging side-eyes and seem very unfriendly.

Other Happenings

• Molly Holly (with Crash) takes on Lita (with her boyfriend Matt Hardy) for the number one contendership for the women’s title. Jerry Lawler is absolutely insufferable during this match, saying Lita slept her way to the top and ripping on her and Matt’s relationship. I am delighted that this is his last Raw for a while. (More on that next week). After an alternation on the outside and a fight between Matt and Crash distracts the referee, Raven’s masked accomplice ninja, who Molly has been on the trail of for a couple of weeks, slips to the ring and gives Molly a DDT while allows Lita to follow up with a moonsault to win the match and earn a women’s title shot. 
• Al Snow is live at WWF New York. He’s still campaigning to be made Commissioner. He thinks that if he gets the people behind him, Vince will listen to them and make him Commissioner. He says his main two objectives are bringing more midgets to the WWF, and to get rid of some of the British people.
• The Dudley Boyz defend the WWF Tag Team titles against Rikishi and Haku. Before the match begins, Undertaker and Kane who were cost the Tag Titles last night by Rikishi and Haku, come out onto the stage to watch. The referee goes down, The Dudleyz hit a 3D on Haku and have the match won but there’s no referee to count. Rikishi takes out D-Von with a banzai drop and that brings down Undertaker and Kane. They lay waste to Rikishi and Haku and Bubba Dudley crawls into a cover to retain the titles, but then Undertaker and Kane lay them both out with a pair of chokeslams too. 

• Raven comes down and says that he’s cemented himself as the greatest Hardcore champion of all time and asks us all to reflect on his greatest achievements. That brings out his opponent tonight, Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho who tells Raisen to “shut the hell up”. Raven’s masked ninja tries to interfere again but after Molly Holly distracts her, she accidentally hits Raven with her 2x4 leading to a Lionsault and a victory for Y2J. Molly attacks the masked woman after the match and tries to unmask her but fails and only manages to show us she has blonde hair. This is the masked woman in black’s final appearance. As I mentioned at No Way Out (and probably before that too) it was X-Pac and Kane’s former girlfriend Tori under the mask. I’m not sure why they stopped using her but she sat on the bench until finally being released in June.

• Dean Malenko defends the Light Heavyweight Championship against Taka Michinoku. This is the first mention that this title even still exists since Dean returned. Dean still has his “ladies man” gimmick so Taka and Funaki bring out Taka’s girlfriend and with their poor dubbing explain that this is Taka’s girlfriend and she is “eeeevil”. “Indeed”. She then shoves Funaki and kisses Taka. Funny stuff. This is a good but short match, Taka hits the Michinoku Driver but Dean amazingly kicks out, and then reverses a Tornado DDT and quickly locks in the Texas Cloverleaf for a submission victory.

Smackdown - March 1st, 2001

Who will Fire the First Shot?

Smackdown opens with former WWF Champion Kurt Angle. He lists his accomplishments and says that he’s achieved everything he ever wanted to but on Raw he failed in his goal to break The Rock’s ankle. He shows multiple replays for the ankle lock - a move he only started using a couple of weeks ago - and lays the blame for not managing to do it at the door of Stone Cold Steve Austin for saving The Rock. He sarcastically calls them good friends, and then shows the footage of The Rock teasing a Rock Bottom on Austin until he was stopped by Albert. Kurt issues a challenge to either Austin or Rock - the first one to show up and accept gets the honour being carried out with a broken ankle. That brings out Stone Cold. He says that he and Rock aren’t friends but while he’s WWF Champion he has a vested interest in his health but he doesn’t give a rats ass about Kurt’s health and just as he’s about to accept the challenge tonight, The Rock comes out. He makes it clear to the Rattlesnake that he does not want or need his help. He wants to fight Kurt. Austin and Rock stare down and just as it seems like they might come to blows, that brings out Mr. McMahon with William Regal in tow. He says he admires Kurt’s guts for challenging both Austin and Rock and so he has a solution - The Rock will defend the WWF Championship against William Regal (so we might get Regal vs. Austin at Wrestlemania!) and Stone Cold will fight Kurt. Austin says “why wait until later?” and throws a punch at Kurt and it breaks down into a brawl with Austin and Rock clearing their future opponents out of the ring to end the segment. 

The Rock defends the WWF Championship against William Regal, a title shot he only has because of his friendship with Mr. McMahon. Regal jumps Rock as he enters the ring and controls the early going as he’s showered in loud “Regal sucks” chants. Stone Cold is shown watching backstage. The Rock rallies and hits a spinebuster and locks in the sharpshooter. Kurt Angle runs to the ring and hits Rock from behind causing a disqualification. He tries for an ankle lock, determined to break Rock’s ankle, but the champion scurries out of the ring and grabs a steel chair. Kurt runs away so Rock blasts Regal in the head with it instead in frustration. Backstage after the match, William Regal apologises to Mr. McMahon for letting him down. Vince reassures him that he didn’t let him down and tonight is just part of a much bigger plan.

Ahead of the Stone Cold vs. Kurt Angle main event, WWF Champion The Rock joins commentary. Kurt’s new angry and focused attitude is on display as he rushes out to meet Austin during his entrance and the fight begins on the outside. Austin dominates Kurt as The Rock explains that maybe was going to Rock Bottom the Rattlesnake on Raw but maybe he wasn’t and was just playing mind games. Kurt gets Austin the ankle lock and both he and the commentators sell it big as a killer submission hold. Kurt’s ankle lock is the most dangerous move in wrestling it seems. Having lost the WWF title, Kurt has lost a lot of his goofiness and is rapidly becoming a killer wrestling machine. Austin fights back but just as he starts to build some momentum, William Regal runs down to ringside. The Rock rushes over to attack him first and throws him into the ring, but all this does is make it two on one against Stone Cold as he takes his seat at commentary. Regal and Angle beat up Stone Cold two on one as JR questions whether The Rock just set the Rattlesnake up? Stone Cold fights them both off and The Rock slides into the ring once again stalking him for a Rock Bottom. Austin turns around and backs off and he and The Rock stare down. Was The Rock thinking about a Rock Bottom or just making the point that he could if he wanted to? Smackdown ends with Austin and Rock face to face while Michael Cole questions who will strike first between the two of them?

Tag Team Wars Continue

Christian goes to see Kurt Angle and gives him some support. Christian says that when Edge’s back is healed and he’s back they’ll get revenge on The Dudleyz. Kurt tells Christian not to wait until Edge is back - he needs to strike now and make a statement. Christian appreciated the advice, and in the next segment attacked Bubba Dudley while he was on the phone with a stiff chairshot to the back and then another to the head. 

Christian teams with Haku and Rikishi against the team of D-Von Dudley, Undertaker and Kane. This odd mismatch of teams is because Edge is out (for a little while) with a back injury from No Way Out and Bubba Ray is hurt from Christian’s steel chair assault earlier. There’s extra tension as Undertaker and Kane attacked The Dudley Boyz on Raw as well as Haku and Rikishi. This is a pretty straight forward match but there’s a good comedy spot when Kane is in the ring with Christian, D-Von climbs to the top rope and encourages him to do the Wazzup headbutt. Kane does, and Undertaker rolls his eyes. The match breaks down from there and Undertaker finishes Christian with a chokeslam and an awesome looking Last Ride to win the match for his team. 

Radical Distrust

In the Radicals locker room, Benoit and Guerrero continue to have issues as Benoit tells Eddie that he doesn’t trust him and he needs to stay away from his match tonight. Eddie is hurt. He’s never let Chris down and has even bled for him. Eddie screams in his face - what gives him the right to speak to him like that? Benoit dares Eddie to cross him tonight.

Benoit’s match is next and is a singles match with X-Pac who has Justin Credible with him. Before the match even begins, Eddie ignores Benoit’s warning and comes down to the ring with a smirk to be at ringside for his “buddy”. Benoit stares daggers at Eddie who mostly ignores him and joins commentary. Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko both come down too and try to talk sense to Latino Heat. It all distracts Benoit and allows X-Pac to get control of the match. JR asks Eddie if he thinks he's better than Benoit and he plays coy and says maybe he should try to find out. Justin tries to help X-Pac and is jumped by Saturn and Malenko. With the referee distracted, Eddie knocks down X-Pac allowing Benoit to win with the Crossface. They clear X-Pac and Credible out of the ring and on paper Eddie and Benoit worked together but there's still plenty of tension between them. 

Other Happenings

• Commentary on the show is handled by Michael Cole and Jim Ross. It’s not addressed as to why Jerry Lawler isn’t there but as I’ve mentioned many times, he’s no longer with the company as of Raw on Monday. I feel vindicated. 
• Lillian Garcia speaks to Jeff Hardy and asks how he feels about Matt and Lita’s relationship. He says he always considered Lita a sister and while he may not see as much of Matt anymore but as long as he’s happy thats all that matters. Lovely. That leads into a mixed tag team match of Matt Hardy and Lita against Crash and Molly Holly. Matt and Lita win with a Twist of Fate and moonsault combo and Lita plants a big, passionate kiss on Matt.

• Backstage, Bull, Goodfather and Ivory wait patiently to learn the outcome of Steven Richards interrogating Val Venis. There’s no context to this - Richards explains they may need to take action as he fears the worst may have happened, and then behind closed doors screams at Val. Later, a sweaty Val emerges from the room having confessed to whatever he did and takes his punishment in the form of a brutal beating from Bull and Goodfather before being dragged off. 

• The Right to Censor heads down to the ring. There’s no mention of The Kat and their now abandoned storyline with her and Jerry Lawler. A sweaty and emotional Val Venis explains that he is no longer able to look at himself in the mirror after what he did wrong. He has no excuse and chose lust above all else. This is quite clever really as by keeping it all quite vague it’s easy to assume that Kat managed to seduce him and that’s what caused this and why she has been removed from the group and TV. Or maybe in kayfabe they just had her killed? Probably for the best to just not mention any of it. Val cries on his knees and begs for forgiveness which they eventually give him. The emotional reconciliation is eventually interrupted by the APA and despite the five on two odds, Bradshaw and Faarooq clear the ring and punish Richards with a stiff clothesline and powerbomb. 

• There is an extended video package about the Vince/Linda/Stephanie McMahon/Trish Stratus storyline so far including the horrific segment from this past Raw. 

Raw is War - March 5th, 2001

Commentary Changes

Raw opens with a big shocker and change. Jim Ross is joined on commentary by Jerry Lawler’s replacement - Paul Heyman! To my shock, Paul’s opening rant is left on the WWE Network as he explains quite candidly that last Tuesday night, The Kat was fired and so her real life husband (to his credit) Jerry Lawler walked out alongside her. With the death of ECW back in January, and his long time friendship with Vince McMahon it’s not really a shock that he ended up in the WWF but this is certainly an interesting role for him. I’ll be interested to see how much I mention Heyman’s commentary going forward as full disclosure, he is one of my all time favourite talkers in wrestling and my memory of his run on commentary is that he was excellent at it and he certainly was during this episode of Raw. He even takes a couple of shots at King. I love you Paul. Oh and in the opening, JR coins the phrase “Road to Wrestlemania” which I’m certain hadn’t been said on TV before this. Certainly not in this era. They did bring out a Nintendo Gameboy game around this time called “Road to Wrestlemania” too. 

The Road to Wrestlemania

Triple H makes his first appearance since No Way Out, entering with his wife Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. JR and Heyman really put over his victory over Austin at No Way Out, specifically that he won two straight falls (the 2nd and 3rd). Stephanie looks really pretty this week - she always looked her best when her hair was straight rather than all early 2000s music video chic. He says it’s hard to be as humble when you’re as good as him, and takes issue with the Wrestlemania main event. The Rock called him and Stone Cold the two biggest stars in the business and he thinks that’s a load of crap. He says he’s been kicking The Rock’s ass for years and he beat Austin at the PPV and so he should be in the main event. He refers to himself as “the King of Kings” which would become one of his dozens of nicknames later in his career. Paul Heyman also coined “billion dollar Princess” for Stephanie on this show.

He calls out Austin, promising to take him out so that he can take his place at Wrestlemania. That’s also Kurt Angle’s current plan - trying to break The Rock’s ankle - and so when Stone Cold sprints to the ring and starts to brawl with The Game, Kurt Angle follows and the two of them beat down The Rattlesnake. WWF Champion The Rock is thankfully there to make the save and as he beats Kurt around the ring and sends him up and over the announce table, Stone Cold stomps Triple H down until he's bored and just leaves. Returning from the commercial break, Kurt is still at ringside ranting like a mad man as William Regal tries to calm him down and he announces tonight’s main event on behalf of Mr. McMahon. Kurt teams with Triple H to face The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Kurt is beyond angry and still won’t leave ringside so when Too Cool enters for their tag team match against X-Pac and Justin Credible, he’s still there pacing like a rabid animal. He gets in the ring and after watching Scotty 2 Hotty and Grandmaster Sexay dance, attacks them both. He throws Grandmaster out of the ring and puts Scotty in the ankle lock, “breaking” Scotty’s ankle. This was an awesome segment and made Kurt and his new submission finisher the most dangerous thing in wrestling. It also allowed them to write Scotty off TV for a little while as he needed surgery. 

Kevin Kelly interviews Kurt Angle and asks why he broke Scotty’s ankle. Kurt continues to show his new, angry intensity. He’s sick and tired and he hated seeing Too Cool dance. He promises to break The Rock, Austin and even Triple H’s ankles tonight if he has to. 

Debra goes to visit Vince McMahon. She resigns as Lieutenant Commissioner (who even remembered she had that job? She hasn’t been on TV since January) and asks if she can go back to managing a superstar. Vince says that there has been a big change since she last managed - she is now married to Stone Cold Steve Austin. Vince asks her to go and make sure Steve is ok with her being a manager again before he puts her with someone.

She does, and Austin is initially outraged that she spoke to Vince at all, but says he’s fine with her being a manager but asks if they can talk about it properly later because he’s too focused on tonight’s main event tag team match to think about it just now. Debra goes back to see Mr. McMahon and doesn’t want to commit until she and Steve have spoken again. Vince pressures her to accept the “once in a lifetime” opportunity he has for her. He doesn’t say who she’d be managing but she does accept his offer.

In the main event, the new angry and aggressive Kurt Angle teams with his old rival Triple H to take on the Wrestlemania main event, Royal Rumble winner Stone Cold Steve Austin and WWF Champion The Rock. This whole match and feud makes a ton of sense really as Triple H and Kurt Angle both have the same plan - if they injure Rock or Austin, they’d be the natural choice to replace them in the Wrestlemania main event. I mentioned it at No Way Out but I’ll mention it again now - this is the 2nd to last time Austin and Triple H would ever fight each other in a match. They crossed paths again in the 2002 Royal Rumble match, which doesn’t even really count. The Game only has a handful of matches left with The Rock, too. After Kurt and Triple H have entered but before Rock and Austin have, Vince McMahon comes down to the ring and introduces Debra. He brings her down to the ring and breaks the news that she is now managing the WWF Champion The Rock! The Rock comes down and gets right in Vince’s face - he doesn’t want this. He doesn’t want his Wrestlemania opponent’s wife in his corner. This is Vince trying to mess with them both. Austin is even less happy about it and grabs Vince to attack him but doesn’t get a chance as Triple H jumps him from behind to officially start the match. This match is all action and great stuff. The fans are electric and Heyman is a joy to listen to on commentary. Kurt Angle in particular looks like a million dollars here, throwing Rock and Austin around with suplexes. The match breaks down and The Rock has the match won with a Rock Bottom on Angle but Triple H breaks up the pin. Austin fights Triple H to the outside and Kurt gets an ankle lock on The Rock. Austin comes back in and drops Angle with a Stone Cold Stunner. Debra accidentally has the referee distracted and when Stone Cold goes to question his wife, The Rock “steals” the pin and wins the match. After the match as The Rock celebrates and Debra claps and cheers on her new client, Austin looks on deeply confused and concerned that his wife is now in his rival’s corner full-time.

Vince puts Trish in her Place

Trish Stratus arrives and tells Michael Cole that she plans on letting Mr. McMahon and all of us exactly how she felt about last week before heading right down to the ring. I talked about it enough last week but that whole segment with the slop being dumped on her and Vince turning on her is utterly disgusting and even worse in hindsight. This one is worse to the point where I wanted to skip it entirely. Trish calls Vince out and seems like she’s going to tell him off but when McMahon does strut down to the ring she instead apologises and begs his forgiveness. She says that Stephanie is the dominant one and cries as Vince smiles and makes her beg even more. He makes her prove how sorry she is - while making a bunch of nasty comments about his catatonic wife in a mental home - and forces her to get on her hands and knees and bark like a dog before stripping to her underwear while she cries and looks like she doesn’t want to do it.

He ends it after making her take her bra off, but does at least cover her up with his jacket. Just absolutely horrific to sit through and made worse by the fans cheering the entire time. I’m not sure why Vince decided that his heel antics needed to go so intensely sexual and perverted from late 2000 onwards but it made me feel weird and uncomfortable as a kid and it makes me angry as an adult. Even angrier watching it in 2024 after Vince had been outed as one of the most prolific perverts and abusers in history. A disgusting human being who clearly got off on acting on TV the way he liked to act in real life. The main point though is that he appears to have accepted Trish’s apology and she is now in his pocket. This is confirmed later as Stephanie gloats over Trish being “put in her place” and taunts her about barking like a dog before sending her off to get coffee.

Radical Break-up

In the Radical locker room earlier today, they were told by Mr. McMahon that one of them could challenge Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental title. You’d expect more drama between Benoit and Guerrero but to everyone’s surprise they instead push for the other to take the title shot and show a great deal of respect and friendship. Benoit convinces Eddie to take the title shot and so that match is next. Chris Benoit comes down to join commentary with Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho entering first, followed by Benoit’s Radical friend, Eddie Guerrero. Benoit is quiet and stoic on commentary and Heyman makes me laugh asking JR if he’d swap seats with him. Heyman actually impresses a lot and shows how much he’s been watching the shows, quoting JR from Smackdown and having a deep knowledge of the stories in this match (the tension, and Jericho injuring Eddie a couple of months ago). This is a good match, as you’d expect. The referee goes down and after Eddie misses a Frog Splash, Benoit leaves commentary and climbs the top rope. It seems like he’s going to give a Diving Headbutt to Jericho but he hits Eddie instead and Jericho retains the IC title. Benoit has a big smirk and clearly did what he intended. Malenko, Saturn and Terri all come out to question Benoit and console Eddie.

A Surprising Title Change

Lita challenges Ivory for the WWF Women’s title. Before the match there’s a bit of drama backstage as Jeff Hardy wants to keep getting ready for he and Matt’s match later but Matt is more interested in looking after Lita. They’ve given him an overbearing boyfriend gimmick, weirdly. It was good they did come out as Ivory has Val Venis and Steven Richards with her. In the thick of the match, Jeff dives at Val Venis who ducks and Jeff hits Lita by mistake, which costs her the match. Matt and Jeff have words after the match. It seems like they’re working towards Matt Hardy turning heel and feuding with Jeff. They did eventually do that storyline years later and it was terrible. 

The Dudley Boyz defend the WWF Tag Team titles against The Hardy Boyz. Matt and Jeff continue to not be on the same page, bumping into each other and showing signs of dissension. The Dudleyz have all the momentum and after a Wazzup headbutt, D-Von goes to get a table but gets cracked by Christian across the back with a steel chair. Hes rolled back inside and Matt follows up with a Twist of Fate and The Hardy Boyz win the Tag Team titles, thanks to Christian avenging Edge’s current back injury! The Hardyz win the Tag Team titles and that is a shock as I had no memory of this title change! Lita comes out to celebrate on the stage with Matt and Jeff as Bubba looks furious in the ring.

Other Happenings

• Al Snow continues to campaign to be made WWF Commissioner. He has a couple of midgets with him this week, just like he promised.

• The Undertaker and Kane take on Rikishi and Haku. Taker and Kane enter first and then jump the Islanders during their entrance. It’s a really physical match and mostly just a fight. Kane clears out the ring and Undertaker plants Haku with a chokeslam to win the match in clean, dominant fashion. I believe the plan was for these two teams to fight at Wrestlemania in some kind of gimmick match but the plans have changed and this is a pretty definitive end to the feud. 

• In the McMahon office, William Regal congratulates him on how he handled Trish Stratus. Al Snow arrives with his midgets and asks to be made Commissioner. It’s what the people want! Vince says he’ll consider it as long as Al competes tonight. He books him in a Hardcore title match with The Big Show. 
• Al Snow enters first for his Hardcore title match, grabbing a kendo stick and hiding down the side of the ramp to be able to jump the champion from behind and get the early advantage. Al isn’t even dressed to compete and the early advantage doesn’t help as Show throws him around and punches a steel chair back into Snow’s face. It makes an almighty bang when he does it too. Cool spot. This is actually a really entertaining brawl with Snow putting up a really good fight against the Hardcore champion with steel chairs and the steel steps. Al was always my favourite Hardcore champion and this is a nice reminder of why. Snow sts up a bunch of steep chairs almost like a table, and Show military presses him onto them which looked cool and got a big groan from the crowd, before finishing him with The Final Cut to retain his Hardcore title. 

Smackdown! - March 8th, 2001

Protective Rattlesnake

Stone Cold Steve Austin talks to his wife Debra. He’s very upset that she’s managing The Rock and he calls Vince a user and manipulator. He says it puts them both in an impossible situation and he hopes it all works out for the best. He does at least seem like a supportive husband! 

Tonight’s main event is WWF Champion The Rock facing Rikishi and Haku in a handicap match. Backstage, Rikishi tells Haku that he might have run over Stone Cold but tonight he’s going to run his ass into Austin’s wife’s face with a Stink Face.

Elsewhere, Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock and asks him how he feels about having Debra as his manager. Rock says his path to Wrestlemania was clear but Vince McMahon has made things messy and more complicated. He asks Debra if she can accept the fact that in the biggest match of all time, she can’t stop him from whipping her husband’s candy ass! Austin is still here, pacing backstage.

In the main event, Rikishi seems hell bent on both taking out his old rival The Rock, and giving Stone Cold’s wife Debra a Stink Face. When The Rock enters, Debra is walking far behind him. The WWF Champion makes it pretty clear he wants no part of having a manager at all. The two big Islanders dominate The Rock. Rikishi brings a chair into the ring which The Rock gets hold of and uses with a stiff shot to Haku’s head - Haku no-sells it! The “savage with a hard head” gimmick was alive and well in 2001. The Rock perseveres and with a Rock Bottom on Rikishi, wins the handicap match. He is quickly taken out by Haku, and dropped with a Rikishi superkick and then a Banzai drop. With Rock out of the way, they turn their attention to Debra and with Haku holding her in the corner Rikishi prepares to give her a Stink Face. Before he can, Stone Cold Steve Austin splints to the ring and fights them both off, dropping Rikishi with a Stone Cold Stunner! The Rattlesnake is pissed and leaves as Debra tends to her fallen client in the ring. Austin stops when he sees that on the titantron and looks pretty wounded that his wife stayed with The Rock rather than leave with him. That’s how Smackdown ends - with an emotional Stone Cold watching her from the stage.

Of note is that this is Rikishi and Haku’s last appearances for a while. Rikishi suffered a ruptured eardrum during this match and so would miss Wrestlemania. He returned in May as, unbelievably, a babyface. 

McMahon Manipulates

Debra goes to see Mr. McMahon. She has two things to talk about - the first being his disgusting treatment of Trish on Raw. He says that he loves and respects women but Trish is trash and doesn’t deserve any better. He does admit he probably went too far though. Secondly, she feels manipulated by him putting her in The Rock’s corner to oppose her husband Stone Cold. He takes issue with this idea that he’s a manipulator who likes to toy with people and says that he just wanted to reward her for her years of loyal service by letting her manage the WWF Champion because she’s a career woman. She doesn’t seem to believe him but accepts it.

Vince McMahon on the phone with Trish asks that he hurry up and bring his big surprise for tonight. She’s on her way to the arena with a still catatonic Linda McMahon.

Vince McMahon continues his streak of really unpleasant hard to watch segments in order to make himself the most hated man in America. He has Trish wheel Linda McMahon out onto the stage in a wheelchair. Linda is like a zombie. Vince talks about how he stopped the divorce proceedings when Linda had her nervous breakdown but really he just didn’t want to give her half his money. It’s heavily implied that Linda’s zombie-state is because Vince is intentionally overmedicating her. It’s a long, waffling promo by Vince. He must always feel like he has to go 10+ minutes even when he has nothing to say. He talks about having proven Trishs loyalty and obedience and explains that he makes sure the care home staff always make Linda watch WWF programs so she can see what Vince gets up to. Vince pulls Trish in and passionately makes out with her in front of his comatose wife, utterly humiliating her. I thought that the Lita and Dean Malenko storyline would be the thing I hated most from this run but this Vince and Trish stuff really does turn my stomach. It’s making me legitimately angry to watch. It’s not wrestling heel heat - it's “go away” heat. I’d skip these segments if I wasn’t so committed to covering these shows for you good people. Later as Trish is wheeling Linda out of the arena thy run into Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley who are just arriving. They’re very sarcastically happy to see her and wish her well.

The Game in The Yard

Triple H and Stephanie head down into the arena. It’s a fairly generic promo from The Game as he currently has no feud and no clear path to Wrestlemania. He talks about how great he is, and says that its a disgrace that the Wrestlemania main event is between two men he’s beaten. He’s beaten everyone. That brings out a man that he has not beaten - The Undertaker. Ironically this is pretty much how the build to their match at Wrestlemania 27 began too. But Undertaker tells Triple H that this is his yard and The Game is trespassing. He says that while Triple H was scratching and clawing to climb the mountain, he was burying people under it. He says that while Triple H may “run the yard one day” which is a bit hilarious watching back from 2024 where he literally runs the company on screen and off. Undertaker says that he’s no people’s champion, he’s no Rattlesnake - he’s the Deadman and if Triple H wants to try him then he’ll make him famous.

Undertaker doesn’t like him, doesn’t respect him and definitely doesn’t fear him. Triple H makes like he wants to back off but tries a cheap shot. It doesn’t work as he’s clubbed with big right hands and thrown out of the ring. Undertaker stands tall in his yard. Triple H wants to keep fighting but his wife holds him back and leads him backstage. 

Benoit Runs the Gauntlet

Chris Benoit goes into The Radical locker room and goads Eddie Guerrero into attacking him after costing him the IC title on Raw. He says they can settle all their issues in the ring and challenges all three other Radicals to a gauntlet match! 

Chris Benoit enters first and his first opponent in the gauntlet is Perry Saturn. Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko, Terri and Eddie Guerrero watch from the stage. Saturn dominates but misses his top rope elbow and Benoit quickly takes him down into a Crossface for the submission victory. Next up is Dean Malenko who, being so fresh, has no problems taking control of Benoit. After a short wrestling showcase, Benoit rolls Dean up to pin him leaving just Eddie Guerrero. Eddie looks hesitant to get in the ring with his former friend and keeps Benoit distracted allowing Saturn and Malenko to jump him from behind. They beat him down with a backbreaker/elbow drop combo and then with Benoit down and hurt, Eddie tells them to get out of the ring and the match begins. A brainbuster and a Frog Splash later and Eddie pins Chris Benoit to win the gauntlet match. With a lot of help. 

Fighting Commissioner

In a match set up by Mr. McMahon, William Regal face Al Snow with the winner becoming the new Commissioner of the WWF. Snow has his two midget friends with him but this match would appear to be very unfair given that Snow was in a brutal hardcore match with Big Show on Raw. He’s very heavily bandaged up and limping. Regal quotes some famous politicians and promises to be a Commissioner of the People during the Regal Regime. Despite his best efforts and some help from the midgets, Regal easily defeats Snow with a neckbreaker and celebrates by flattening one of the little guys with a suplex. William Regal is the new WWF Commissioner and backstage Vince gives him loud congratulations. Regal looks like he took a shot to the face and is going to have a nasty black eye. 

Other Happenings

• On Raw Paul Heyman took Jerry Lawler’s place on commentary. On Smackdown it’s Tazz filling in. This would be the permanent Smackdown announce team for the better part of the next decade. Interestingly Tazz pretty much plays a straight up babyface from here on out. 
• Smackdown opens with The Dudley Boyz getting a rematch from Raw and challenging The Hardyz for the Tag Team titles. The Dudleys hit a 3D and look set to regain their titles but Christian pulls the referee out of the ring to stop the count. Matt follows up with a Twist of Fate on D-Von to retain the Tag Team titles. As payback, The Dudleyz get their hands on Christian and after a Wazzup headbutt, drive him through a table with a powerbomb off the top rope. 

• Val Venis challenges Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship. WWF Women’s Champion Ivory joins commentary and Michael Cole shares with her that he’s heard rumours that Chyna may return soon and challenge her to a match at Wrestlemania. What a weird way to announce that and ruin a surprise. Very odd. The rest of Right to Censor try to help Val win the title which brings out the APA to even the odds. It works and Jericho hits Val with a bulldog and Lionsault to retain his title. 

• Kevin Kelly interviews Kurt Angle and asks him about breaking Scotty 2 Hotty’s ankle on Raw. He says the only thing he regrets is how long it took him to actually break it. Off to the side, Grandmaster Sexay tries to attack Kurt as he’s held back by multiple men including European Champion Test. Kurt keeps calling Grandmaster “little man” so the much larger Test steps up and challenges Kurt to a match tonight. 
• WWF European Champion Test faced Kurt Angle in a non-title match. Kurt keeps going for the leg and ankle as Test makes a good showing of himself by avoiding the ankle lock and getting near falls with big power moves. He avoids the Olympic Slam and sends Kurt to the outside where a frustrated Angle hits Test in the face with his own European title belt. It goes undetected by the referee and back in the ring Kurt follows with his beautiful moonsault but Test kicks out! Kurt shoves Test into the referee, hits a low blow and then the Olympic Slam to win the match. He gets no time to celebrate as Grandmaster Sexay charges in for an attack but it backfires as Kurt takes him down into an ankle lock. Test saves him and sends Kurt running with a big boot. Kurt still looks like a maniac and Test looked really strong in defeat here.
• This Smackdown has the first hints of the most famous wrestling video package of all time, with a selection of clips for the build to Rock vs. Austin set to Limp Bizkit’s “My Way”. Don't you worry guys, we’ll get there. 
• There’s an advert for the XFL which by this point was dying on its arse. They even refer to taking the cameras inside the cheerleader’s locker rooms as a “desperate ploy to increase ratings”. 

Raw is War - March 12th, 2001

WWF Championship Main Event

Raw opens with Kurt Angle pacing in the parking lot awaiting the arrival of someone but we don’t know who. Paul Heyman says that he has gone postal lately. In a later segment, it's revealed that he’s been waiting for the new Commissioner William Regal. Regal is too busy to stay and talk to him and is in a hurry to go and talk to the people. Kurt wants a WWF title match tonight with The Rock. William won’t commit here but does make that match official when he heads down to the ring later.

Michael Cole interviews Kurt Angle. He calls waiting this long for a WWF title match an insult, and promises to break The Rock’s ankle as well as regain the WWF title. He also tells Debra that if she gets in his way, he’ll break her ankle too. Sinister.

Stone Cold Steve Austin goes to see Kurt Angle about his comments about Debra earlier. Austin barks in Angle’s face that he is the LAST son of a bitch he wants to piss off and he better stay away from Debra.

Stone Cold goes to see The Rock and warns him that he better take good care of his wife tonight. The Rock tells Austin that he doesn’t take orders and his only concern tonight is retaining his WWF title against Kurt Angle. He tells Austin the only thing he should be worried about is getting ready (for Wrestlemania, presumably). 

In the main event, Kurt Angle challenges The Rock for the WWF Championship. The outcome seems pretty obvious here as moments before they showed another video package for The Rock vs. Stone Cold set to “My Way”. The Rock still has Debra with him but has yet to actually interact with her on TV.

This match has a ton of time for a match on Raw, going over 15 minutes. Rock and Angle have amazing chemistry and have had more than one classic with each other by this point. The early story is The Rock’s explosive offensive and multiple early pin attempts but on the outside, Kurt drives a steel chair into Rock’s ribs while the referee is distracted to take control. Kurt wears The Rock down, focusing his attack on the WWF Champion’s ribs and getting near fall after near fall with suplex after suplex and grinding him out with a bearhug. Kurt misses his moonsault but quickly recovers with an Olympic Slam! Kurt is too hurt to cover quickly and by the time he gets into a pin, Rock has recovered too much and kicks out. After an extended bearhug, Rock fights out and hits a Rock Bottom but much like Kurt with the Olympic Slam by the time he crawls into a pin attempt Kurt has had too much time to recover and kicks out. Kurt is thrown into the ring and rolls into referee Earl Hebner’s legs who takes one of the more hilarious ref bumps as that’s apparently enough to knock him down and injure his knee. The Rock gives Kurt a spinebuster and a People’s Elbow but by the time the referee recovers enough to count, Angle kicks out. The Rock goes to kick at the referee and get him to pay attention and it gives Angle enough time to cover and he gets The Rock into an ankle lock! The Rock crawls to the ropes and that should break the hold but Angle refuses to let go of the ankle lock. The Rock actually taps out but he’s already on the ropes. Angle refuses to break the move and so he is disqualified. What an idiot. A dumb finish to another great match. Debra gets in the ring to try and get Kurt to break the hold and Angle takes her down!

Kurt Angle is about to put an ankle lock on Debra which brings Stone Cold Steve Austin sprinting to the ring to defend his wife. He beats the hell out of Kurt Angle and throws him out of the ring and drops The Rock with a Stone Cold Stunner to end Raw. He told The Rock to protect his wife and I guess he feels like the WWF Champion failed.

Return of The Mac

Vince McMahon and Trish Stratus arrive together in a limo. HIlariously Heyman rants about whoever is showing up this late should be fined and suspended until the door opens and shows that it’s McMahon. Vince says that since they’re in Hollywood, they should go to the ring and perform a live sex scene. I can already tell I’ll hate this.

Vince McMahon heads down to the ring with a big smile on his face and Trish Stratus on his arm. JR promotes Vince’s appearance on “On the Record” on NBC later on in the week. That interview would end up being pretty famous as Vince was made to look like a weirdo and a creep in equal measure and the commentators take multiple digs at Bob Costas (the interviewer) the following week. Vince pervs over Trish, describing her looks and saying she’d do anything to be famous just like the women in Hollywood. He shows all the utterly grim footage from last week’s segment. Trish looks like an idiot standing there taking all this abuse with a smile. Vince makes her say that she wasn’t forced, and Trish says that she’ll degrade herself as much as he needs to for the right cause and that she’ll do anything for Vince McMahon. He gets Trish to lay down on the mat and lays down next to her and prepares to act out a sex scene with her. This whole segment goes on for what feels like an eternity until finally Vince is interrupted by the returning Shane McMahon. Shane gets a big pop. and he looks pissed off. Vince looks terrified of his only son who marches to the ring. Vince tries to plead with Shane to calm down and reveals they’ve barely spoken in months. He asks Shane for a handshake from father to son but Shane punches Vince in the face, hammering him down to the mat and beating on him! William Regal rushes to the ring and pulls Shane off of Vince, allowing Mr. McMahon to escape. Shane beats the hell out of Regal too and sprints after his dad chasing him out into the parking lot! A desperate Vince drags Trish by the hand and dives into his limo barking at the driver to get them out of here. Shane is back and is clearly not a fan of Vince’s actions or the way he’s been treating his mother.

Jericho Crosses the Commissioner

New WWF Commissioner William Regal heads down to the ring to address the people. He welcomes us to the first day of the Regal Regime. It’s nice to see Regal get a big role on TV like this after all his great work with Vince, Rock and Austin in the past few months. He’s brilliant. He chastises people for being suck-ups and bum-kissers, while of course praising Mr. McMahon. He begins to explain what his rule will mean for the WWF but is interrupted by Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho. Regal has a look on his face like he can smell rotten fish as Jericho tells him to shut the hell up. Jericho reminds us that he was the person to confront Regal the very first time he appeared on WWF TV and shows footage from last September when Jericho came to the ring and smashed up the new Commissioner’s tea party. He says that if Regal is going to continue having his nose up Mr. McMahon’s butt then he’ll keep coming out and humiliating him. He also debuted the insult “assclown” which he used liberally for the next couple of years. Y2J’s verbal attack on Regal ends and the Commissioner has a knowing smirk on his face. He looks really sinister with a black eye and a dark red blood shot eye at the end of the segment. 

William Regal calls Johnathan Coachman into his office and says he wants to see Chris Jericho in non-title action tonight. He’ll fight The Right to Censor. All of them. A four on one handicap match. 

Chris Jericho faces all four members of Right to Censor who have WWF Women’s Champion Ivory at ringside with them for good measure. Jericho puts up a good fight and after some miscommunication between Bull and Goodfather, they get into a fight on the outside! With Richards busy separating a shoving match between RtC members, Jericho locks Val Venis in the Walls of Jericho! The other members see it and rush the ring with Jericho releasing and dropping each of them into a Walls of Jericho one after another but it's not enough as the match is still four on one. The RtC members mend fences after Val finishes off Jericho with a spinning powerbomb to win the match. Commissioner Regal is shown watching from his office, very pleased with the results.

Triple H makes himself Famous

The Undertaker challenges Big Show for the Hardcore Championship. Big Show enters first and backstage as Undertaker is getting onto his motorbike ready to make his entrance he’s jumped from behind by Triple H. The Game knocks him over with the bike falling too and crushing Undertaker’s leg and pinning him to the ground under the weight of it. Triple H calmly sets up a steel chair across Undertaker’s throat and sits on it. He tells Undertaker that he doesn’t need to be made famous - he’s famous as the guy who cripples people and if Undertaker crosses him again he’ll cripple him next. Undertaker shows no fear and tells Triple H he better take him out while he has the chance. Undertaker actually looks really badass as Triple H takes aim with a steel chair and Taker tells him “to make a good shot, bitch!”.

Triple H runs off before hitting him when he sees Kane running for the save but he’s then jumped in turn by Big Show who plants Kane through a table with a chokeslam to the concrete. Undertaker and Kane are both left laying by Triple H and Big Show. This was a really awesome segment - coolest Undertaker has looked in a long time and it looks like we’re on the way to Big Show defending his Hardcore title against Kane at Wrestlemania too. 

Other Happenings

• The Hardy Boyz defend the WWF Tag Team Championships against X-Pac and Justin Credible. I’m not sure what they did to earn this title shot but it’s nice to see Matt and Jeff wrestling someone other than The Dudleyz or Edge and Christian. This is a good match between four high flying, talented workers. Jeff hits a Swanton Bomb on Justin Credible and has the match won until Albert appears and drags him out of the ring to break up the pin and cause disqualification. Albert throws Jeff into the crowd and flattens Matt with a sit-down choke-bomb. X-Pac, Justin Credible and Albert pose together and it would appear we have the formation of a new stable.

• In The Radicals locker room, Eddie Guerrero talks strategy with Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn. Eddie has a singles match with Chris Benoit later and they talk strategy and making “that traitor” pay. They leave the room to look for him but Perry lags behind and Benoit was in hiding around the corner, attacking Saturn and locking him in the Crippler Crossface in the locker room. He tears at his former friend’s shoulder and seemingly takes him out for the rest of tonight. 

• Christian (without Edge, who is still off and recuperating from a back injury he sustained at No Way Out, which Christian blames The Dudleyz for) takes on D-Von Dudley. The winner will earn a Tag Team title match for he and his partner. It’s an even match but when the referee goes down thanks to an errant clothesline from D-Von, Christian gets a steel chair. He prepares to use it but Bubba Dudley makes the save for his half brother and they drop Christian with a 3D. The referee recovers and D-Von wins which earns them another Tag Team title match with The Hardyz. 
• The last two standing Radicals Eddie and Malenko hunt for Benoit. He locks Eddie in a closet and beats down Malenko before unlocking Eddie and telling him he’ll see him in the ring later.
• Chris Benoit faces Eddie Guerrero. Benoit is officially out of The Radicals now of course, and while he’s feuding with them doesn’t seem to have fully turned babyface. He’s on the way though. This match is as good as you’d expect with both men going to war with each other and knowing each other so well. Heyman on commentary is great too, really putting over both men and their skills and relationship with each other. Benoit wins a very good technical match with a Crippler Crossface and a quick submission from Eddie.

•  JR casually reveals on commentary that Ivory is fighting Chyna at Wrestlemania. I wonder why they’ve done Chyna’s return like that on commentary with JR and Michael Cole just telling us, rather than have her dramatically return? I have theories which I’ll talk about at Wrestlemania. They show a replay of Chyna’s injury at the Royal Rumble as well as Ivory responding to Chyna’s challenge last night on Sunday Night Heat. JR and Heyman bicker about the health of Chyna’s neck. That match is official for Wrestlemania.

• After an extended video package about the XFL, JR and Paul Heyman basically beg fans to call their local radio stations and sports writers and ask why they aren’t covering the XFL? It seems that the very little mainstream coverage the XFL gets is overwhelmingly negative (not even speculation on my part, JR actually said it) and Vince McMahon is getting desperate. I talked about this all at No Way Out. 
• Test defends the European Championship against Raven. The big man wins in a short dominant performance.

Smackdown! - March 15th, 2001

More Shots Fired

Earlier today, Jim Ross sat down with Stone Cold Steve Austin for an interview about everything going on lately, and Wrestlemania. Austin talks about his obsession with getting the WWF title back, and how much being at Wrestlemania with The Rock in his home state means to him. He’s asked about his wife Debra being in The Rock’s corner which Austin puts down to Vince McMahon hating him and wanting to screw with him. He explains his Stunner to The Rock on Raw and it's pretty clear. He wanted The Rock to take care of his wife and he didn’t so he dropped him just like he promised. He’s fighting Kurt Angle tonight and Stone Cold promises to whip his ass and make him pay for trying to put the ankle lock on his wife on Raw. It’s an intense, passionate interview from the Rattlesnake. He ends with a message to The Rock - they aren’t friends, he doesn’t hate the man, but his advice is that The Rock watch from backstage and stay out of his way because he is focused on kicking The Rock’s ass at Wrestlemania to take the WWF title. 

KevIn Kelly interviews Kurt Angle who shows no fear over Austin’s comments earlier and says that his request was granted by Commissioner Regal. Tonight’s match is no disqualification, and Regal has promised that if for whatever reason Stone Cold doesn’t make it to Wrestlemania, Kurt will take his place. So he has a big incentive to injure the Rattlesnake tonight. 

In the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin faces Kurt Angle in a no disqualification match. Kurt wants to take out Austin so he can take his place at Wrestlemania, and much has been made of the fact that The Rock is here tonight - he’s been pacing backstage all show long, but hasn’t said a word. He is pissed that Austin dropped him with a Stunner on Raw (even though Austin did warn him what would happen).

This is a super intense brawl and fight, with Austin practically foaming at the mouth wanting to hurt Angle. They fight in and out of the ring with Kurt having to be sneaky (or smart) to get control. Austin uses a steel chair to hammer Kurt’s leg seemingly wanting to break HIS ankle but stupidly, Earl Hebner gets in the way and stops the Rattlesnake. Kurt manages to use the ring bell as a weapon to knock out Stone Cold and at that moment The Rock comes down to the ring and actually throws Kurt into the ring allowing him to pin Stone Cold. Did The Rock intentionally help Angle? The WWF Champion goes and joins commentary and says he wasn’t helping Kurt he just wanted the match to continue. Kurt dominates Austin as a pissed off The Rock says that NO ONE threatens The Rock - not Stone Cold, not Vince McMahon and not even George W. Bush himself! He refuses to take any responsibility for Debra’s well being. She’s not HIS wife. There’s a lot of hot tempers here as Rock paces like a caged animal on commentary ranting about Austin and Vince (for creating this situation with Debra in the first place). Kurt throws Austin into The Rock knocking both men down, and then swings with a steel chair. Austin ducks and The Rock gets hit instead right in the head! He knocks out Austin too and tries to win the match with a moonsault. Angle again shoves Austin into The Rock, this time knocking him off the apron and gets the Rattlesnake in an ankle lock! The Rock has had enough and breaks up that move and beats down Angle with punches before stalking Austin for a Rock Bottom. Kurt stops the Rock Bottom from happening and takes the fight to the WWF Champion. He gets a Rock Bottom but Rock turns around into ANOTHER Stunner, and Stone Cold pins Angle to win the match. Austin wins, and he gave The Rock his second Stone Cold Stunner in a week. Austin calls for a few beers and celebrates over both fallen opponents to close out a chaotic Smackdown! 

A Bad Night for Taker and Kane

Out in the parking lot, Undertaker is awaiting the arrival of Triple H after the attack on Raw. Kane goes to check on his brother and offers to wait with him but the American Badass says he wants to handle this solo and tells Kane to go and do his own thing. 

Commissioner William Regal goes out to see Undertaker who is still waiting for Triple H in the parking lot. He asks him to come inside and discuss the issues over a spot of tea. He gets quite forceful as Undertaker ignores him but backs off when Taker threatens him with a steel pipe. 

Triple H and Stephanie finally arrive in a limo to find the waiting Undertaker. The Game locks the door and refuses to come out and face Undertaker so the Deadman smashes the window with the pipe! Triple H gets out the outside and keeps his distance until finally an army of police officers show up for him to hide behind. Triple H and Stephanie goad Undertaker as he’s arrested and when he’s led off Stephanie suddenly loses her confidence and quietly asks her husband what they’ll do when he gets out? Triple H suddenly looks concerned too. Even Triple H should be a little afraid of what The Undertaker will do to him.

In Commissioner Regal’s office, Triple H and Stephanie tell him that they want to press charges. Regal reveals that he was the one who called the cops after he was threatened earlier.

Kane goes to see Commissioner Regal and demands a match with Triple H tonight. He wants revenge. Regal offers him some tea. Kane leans in and says he knows Regal called the cops but there’s no police here to save him now. Regal is successfully intimidated and books the match.

Triple H takes on Kane. Kane wants revenge for his brother but also himself as he was beaten down on Raw too thanks to Triple H, but mostly by Hardcore Champion Big Show. Kane absolutely dominates Triple H, hammering him around ringside and fighting him to the top of the ramp. Impressively he boosts the massive Triple H up into a military press and wants to throw him off the stage but the referee stops him and that gives The Game time to wriggle free and get back into the match, bringing the fight back down to the ring. As Kane gets back into it, Hardcore Champion Big Show heads down towards the ring which gives Triple H the distraction to get back into the fight. This match might be the best Kane has been booked in a couple of years! Triple H is no match for the big Red Machine even with Big Show looking on from the ramp. The appearance of Big Show does make the difference as he gives Kane a Final Cut on the outside, and then throws him back into a Pedigree and a Triple H victory. The Game taunts Kane who sits up and grabs him by the throat, no-selling two finishers! It’s two on one though and Big Show puts Kane down with a massive chokeslam to leave him on his back.

Shane Speaks

At WWF HQ, Shane McMahon sits with Johnathan Coachman and discusses his return. He was away focusing on the business because he is a business man just like his father but he is now ashamed to even share Vince’s last name. He recaps all the disgusting things Vince has done to his mother including manipulating his own daughter to have Linda drugged and locked in a sanitarium. He says when he returned he didn’t have a plan but as he walked towards Vince he got angrier and angrier and when he looked into his father’s eyes he knew he had to attack him. He says he’s sick to his stomach that he attacked his own father, but on the other hand it probably makes him better than his father. He took pleasure in it, and his dad got what he deserved. He says he doesn’t care what his dad has planned for him next but his relationship with his father is now over. Brutal.

Vengeful Commissioner

Smackdown opens with Test defending his European Championship against Eddie Guerrero. This was set up earlier today when Eddie went to see Commissioner Regal. He wanted a rematch with Chris Benoit but Regal held a grudge against Test for taking the title from him and so he encouraged Eddie to go and take it off him.

Eddie has Perry Saturn and Terri with him at ringside too for good measure. A short match. Perry distracts the referee and Eddie tries to use the European title as a weapon but Chris Jericho runs to the ring and stops it, hanging Eddie up on the top rope and Test wins with a big boot. Why did Jericho cost Eddie the title? Well they’ve had their issues but it's mostly because he wanted to ruin the plan of Commissioner Regal.

William Regal calls Kevin Kelly in his office and asks him to go and let Chris Jericho know that he’ll compete tonight in a tag team table match with The Dudley Boyz. But Jericho won’t have a partner. So it’s another handicap match! 

In a match ordered by Commissioner Regal, he continues to punish the Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho with a handicap table match with The Dudley Boyz. These guys have all been pretty friendly on TV previously but the match is the match and Bubba and D-Von show no hesitation. Jericho holds his own and comes close to victory a couple of times but it’s two on one against the former Tag Champions and a 3D through a table ends it. Regal is shown sipping tea in his office and enjoying the carnage.

Other Happenings

• The One Billy Gunn teams with WWF Tag Team Champions The Hardy Boyz to take on the new stable of Albert, X-Pac and Justin Credible (who don’t have a name yet). Albert debuted to help X-Pac and Credible beat down The Hardyz on Raw, and X-Pac beat Billy Gunn on Sunday Night Heat thanks to interference from Justin so there’s a bit of build here. Albert is the power of his new group and dominates both Hardyz as they tag in and out and X-Pac lights up Jeff with a Bronco Buster. The match breaks down to a brawl. Billy has it won with a One and Only on Credible but X-Pac breaks it up and gives him an X-Factor. Matt gives Pac a Twist of Fate and the referee just throws the match out as a no contest as the six men won’t stop fighting. Albert ends the brawl with a military press to Jeff, sending him out of the ring all the way to the floor. The new three man stable stands tall.
• In the locker room, Grandmaster Sexay plays his favourite songs from WWF The Music Volume 5 to an unseen person and asks that person to help him keep Too Cool alive in Scotty 2 Hotty’s absence. That person is Steve Blackman, who agrees to join him as his partner against Right to Censor tonight.
• Grandmaster Sexay and Steve Blackman take on The Goodfather and Bull Buchanan. Former Tag Team Champions, and they showed a little sign of falling out on Raw. The Right to Censor seems to be winding down in general after the big issue with Val Venis last week too. The loss of Jerry Lawler and The Kat basically ended the big storyline they had planned for Wrestlemania and so they’re now just feuding with the APA again. As the match progresses, Steven Richards tries to use a steel chair so Tazz gets off commentary and puts him in the Tazzmission! The distraction allows Blackman to pin Bull after a big martial arts kick, and then Tazz gets in the ring and sends RtC packing to allow Blackman and Grandmaster to celebrate properly. Sexay offers the sunglasses to Blackman and wants him to dance. The Lethal Weapon isn’t keen but when the sunglasses go on it appears their magical powers are strong enough to even work on Blackman, and he does indeed join Grandmaster in Too Cool’s victory dance! I like the gimmick of those sunglasses being magic and making anyone dance - he should try and put them on Stone Cold! 

Raw is War - March 19th, 2001

Handicap Main Event

Raw opens with an unfamiliar sight. A very rattled and angry Rock pacing in the parking lot awaiting the arrival of Stone Cold Steve Austin. He got a Stunner on both Raw and Smackdown last week. It's funny the things that I notice - they’re in Albany New York, and I recognize the parking lot as the one where Stone Cold tried to murder Rikishi back at No Mercy 2000. 

Jonathan Coachman goes out to the parking lot and tells The Rock that Stone Cold has a delayed flight and will be a while. The Rock calls that convenient and tells Coach to go to the airport and let Austin know the second he waits off the plane that The Rock is at the arena waiting for him. Coach actually does go and we get multiple updates from the airport as he waits. It was also revealed that tonight’ main event is scheduled to be The Rock facing both Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit in a handicap match.

Steven Richards faces Tazz.This match comes from Tazz attacking Richards on Smackdown. It was mostly unprovoked but it makes sense for anyone to attack RtC because of their gimmick. Everyone hates them. Really Tazz is just subbing into this storyline for the departed Jerry Lawler, which I’m fine with. Venis knoks down the referee and attacks Tazz, who valiantly holds them off two on one and gets both in a Tazzmission but ultimately they overwhelm. Before the two on one attack goes any further, to everyone’s surprise the WWF Champion The Rock comes out! He effortlessly sends Venis and Richards packing and drops Tazz with a spinebuster too! He is angry. He says that he wanted to say this to Austin’s face but since he isn’t here he’ll just come out and say it anyway. He implied that Austin’s travel issues are made up, and he’s just avoiding The Rock after giving him two Stunners last week. The Rock doesn’t want to wait until Wrestlemania - he tells Stone Cold to enjoy what’s left of his flight because the second he arrives at the arena his ass belongs to The Rock! 

This Raw has one of the best known segments of this era as Chris Jericho continues his feud with Commissioner Regal by sneaking into his office and - off camera - taking a piss in his tea pot.

In the next segment, Regal is shown sipping tea and gets to showcase his hilarious facials reacting to the taste and smell. Funny stuff. In a later segment, he has found out what Jericho did and in a fury books Y2J against himself for the Intercontinental title at Wrestlemania. He also adds himself and Jericho to tonight’s handicap main event - it’ll be The Rock and Chris Jericho taking on Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit and William Regal in a two on three handicap match! 

Stone Cold and Debra have arrived. Jonathan Coachman tells him, as requested by The Rock, that the WWF Champion is waiting for him at the arena and looking for a fight. Austin fires up immediately and says he’ll kick The Rock’s ass when he gets there. 

Backstage, Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit talk strategy. Kurt says that Regal is focused on Jericho, so they can focus on The Rock. Angle is pretty condescending and suggests Benoit use the Crossface to set up his ankle lock. Benoit isn’t too happy as his move being treated as the lesser move. 

WWF Champion The Rock teams with Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho to take on the three man team of Commissioner William Regal, Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit. Jericho has some pre match comments for Regal about their now official title match at Wrestlemania, which mostly consist of mocking him for accidentally drinking his pee earlier tonight. There’s chaos as after a long period of working over The Rock, the match breaks down into a brawl. With Rocky fighting Angle on the outside, Jericho pulls Regal in the Walls of Jericho, and hits a Lionsault on Benoit but the odds are too much and with a shot to the head from the Intercontinental title belt, William Regal pins Chris Jericho to win the match.

The three men continue the assault until the arrival of Stone Cold Steve Austin! He runs to the ring and fights with Angle and Benoit but it's chaos as he and The Rock keep trying to get shots in at each other. The Rock hits Austin in the face with the WWF title belt and then after some more back and forth with Benoit plants Stone Cold with a Rock Bottom! Raw ends with The Rock standing tall over the fallen Rattlesnake. 

McMahon (un)Civil War

Shane McMahon heads down to the ring carrying a clipboard. He returned last week and has made it very clear that he is done with his father, and wants revenge for his mother and the humiliation she has faced. Shane tells us what it’s like to be Vince’s son. He says it's always been great because his dad is invincible. He says that Austin, Rock, Foley and even billionaire Ted Turner couldn’t stop his dad (more on that last one next week!) He says that his dad has gone too far and he has to be stopped. He says that what he has is a contract for a match - a match between them at Wrestlemania.

He says that if Vince has the grapefruits, he’ll come out and accept. He says that after Wrestlemania, no one will ask him what it’s like to be Vince’s son, they’ll ask Vince what it’s like to be Shane’s dad. It’s not Vince that comes out it’s Shane’s sister Stephanie instead. She begs him to reconsider and says that everything their dad does is for their own good. She says she wants to be one big happy family, and that comment brings out Vince McMahon himself, with Trish Stratus on his arm. From the top of the stage, he taunts Shane. He does an impression of his wife Linda in her zombie-state, and says his mother would be ashamed of him for challenging his own father to a match. Vince says that Shane has tried him multiple times and always failed and so he sends Trish down to get the contract. Vince looks it over and then walks down to the ring. He says he’s never backed down in his life! Stephanie holds Shane back - he wants to fight his dad right here and now! Vince circles the ring and makes JR be witness as Vince signs the contract on the announce desk. He says that Shane gets him at Wrestlemania, but he can have a bit of him right now. Stephanie does her best to keep her brother and father apart. It's all tactical and with Shane’s back to the entrance ramp, he’s jumped from behind by Triple H. His brother-in-law lays in a stiff beating as Vince encourages him to drill Shane with a Pedigree! Vince gets in Shane’s face and tells him that he’ll never forgive Linda for giving birth to Shane. He says Linda will be at ringside to see Vince kick his ass. After a commercial break, the beating continues as Triple H and Vince beat Shane in the backstage area and throw him into a limo. Vince says it’ll be a street fight, and hits his son with a steel chair as he hangs limply out of the limo window before telling the driver to leave. The chair shot was pretty bad - Vince very clearly missed entirely. I guess it’s nice that he didn’t want to hit his son in the head for real. 

Undertaker Restrained

In the arena, Hardcore Champion The Big Show opens the show with a title defence against Raven. Raven has his shopping cart full of hardcore weapons and goodies with him too. Show dominates and plants Raven but before he can secure victory, Kane’s pyro explodes and he marches to the ring with his own referee in tow. Big Show involved himself with Kane last week and cost him a match to Triple H on Smackdown so this is justified. The match continues and as Show sets up a Final Cut on Raven, Kane drops him with a flying clothesline and Raven gets the cover and regains the Hardcore title! Raven should have just run but he hits Kane with a stop sign instead. Kane no-sells it, so Raven gets his title belt and runs away. He doesn’t have his masked ninja accomplice anymore to help him so he escapes on foot. 

The Undertaker arrives at the arena and wants Triple H. He’s stopped in the back by Commissioner Regal and multiple security guards where he’s served with a restraining order. Not by Triple H - Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. Undertaker can’t go within 25 feet of them. Taker promises Regal that he hasn’t seen the last of him tonight. 

Triple H goes to see Commissioner Regal and says that beating up Shane has got him itching for a fight and he wants a match with Test. Regal isn’t so keen but Triple H promises him that he’ll make him pay for taking Regal’s European title. Triple H then goes to see Big Show and asks if he wants revenge on Kane for costing him the Hardcore title earlier. He has a plan on how to get back at Kane by going through The Undertaker.

Triple H faces Test in a match that is announced as being for Test’s European title. As The Game dominates Test, Undertaker’s theme music hits and he walks out onto the stage. He can’t get any closer to the ring without being arrested. The Big Show appears behind him planning to attack Undertaker from behind (Triple H’s plan, no doubt) but is stopped by Kane! Kane blasts Show with a steel chair, and then Undertaker sends Kane down to the ring.

He doesn’t go after Triple H, he chases Stephanie who runs off through the crowd. With Stephanie gone, there’s nothing stopping Undertaker from going to the ring and he calmly removes his jacket and paces towards Triple H who looks pretty panicked! He tries to strike first but Undertaker is too quick for him. The Big Show stops Undertaker from chokeslamming Triple H, and they make their getaway. Test stupidly gets in Undertaker’s face for getting involved in his title match and so Undertaker drops the European Champion with a big chokeslam instead. After a long recap and a commercial break, we learn that Kane has caught Stephanie and he’s holding her high above his head on a staircase, threatening to drop her about 60 feet to the concrete. It’s a cool shot with that in the background as Undertaker calmly extorts a panicky Commissioner Regal. Kane gets a match with Big Show at Wrestlemania, and Undertaker gets a match with Triple H! 

Two Title Changes and Two Debuts

The Hardy Boyz defend the Tag Team titles against The Dudley Boyz. Bubba Ray and D-Von earned this shot last week but before The Dudleyz come out it’s instead Christian and the returning Edge. Edge says that The Dudleyz aren’t here. Edge and Christian challenge them instead. Matt and Jeff accept and the match is on but where are The Dudleyz? The referee gets knocked down when Christian uses him as a human shield, which allows Lita to give Christian a diving hurricanrana. She pays for it when Edge gives her a reverse DDT. Jeff gives Edge a Swanton Bomb but before he can cover we get the debut of another ECW alumni - the last ever ECW Champion, Rhyno! He runs through Jeff Hardy with a beautiful looking Spear (Which he calls a Gore) and Edge crawls into a cover. Edge and Christian regain the Tag Team titles, thanks to the debut of their new friend Rhyno! This victory makes Edge and Christian 6 time Tag Team Champions which at the time was an all time record.

Later with Johnathan Coachman waiting at the airport for Stone Cold he encounters The Dudleyz who say that someone cancelled all their reservations and they’ve just arrived. They think they still have a title match and rush to the arena.

The Dudley Boyz arrive at the arena and tell Commissioner Regal that they want the Tag Title match they earned. He says they’ll have to wait as the titles have already changed hands tonight but they are pretty insistent and Regal makes it official - Edge and Christian will defend their brand new titles tonight against Bubba Ray and D-Von.

The Dudley Boyz enter first for their Tag Team title match - our second of the night. Edge and Christian have only been champions for about an hour, and look very unhappy to be defending their titles again. It's another good match between two teams with a ton of chemistry and history and this time Edge and Christian don’t have Rhyno to help them. They put up a good fight and would appear to have the match in hand until we get ANOTHER former ECW wrestler debuting. Bubba and D-Von’s little brother Spike runs to the ring and the runt of the litter gives Christian a sort of springboard stunner onto a steel chair (which he called the Acid Drop in ECW but was known as the Dudley Dog) in WWF and with that done, Bubba and D-Von regain the WWF Tag Team titles!

Two Tag title changes, and two former ECW talents debuting to cause them. A wild night and a badly needed refresh for the issues and feuds between three teams who have faced each other dozens of times.

Other Happenings

• Grandmaster Sexay and Steve Blackman take on the team of X-Pac and Justin Credible, with Albert. The new three man group does seem to finally have branded themselves as X-Factor, but aren’t announced as that when they come out. It's all over their titantron though. Interference from Albert gives Pac and Credible the victory.
• WWF Women’s Champion Ivory heads down to the ring with a full sized cardboard cutout of Chyna. After a long promo where Ivory calls Chyna trash and dumb and laughs about having broken her neck says that unless Chyna signs the contract saying that neither Ivory or the WWF will face any repercussions if Chyna gets hurt. She says it’ll never happen so she gives us a preview of the Mania match and beats up the cutout, tearing it’s head off and giving it a piledriver! Chyna makes her long awaited return (and looks the best she ever has in my opinion with the soft curls in her hair and diamond choker and low rise jeans) and drops Ivory with a DDT before signing the contract! The match is official. 

• At WWF New York, Eddie Guerrero is rude to a waiter. He has challenged Test to a European title match at Wrestlemania. They announced so many Wrestlemania matches on this episode of Raw!

Smackdown! - March 22nd, 2001

Face to Face

Tonight, Jim Ross is going to moderate a face to face interview between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. During the show they replay the Stunners and Rock Bottoms so far, and both men go to see JR separately and ask what the plan is and whether this will be a conversation or a fight. After a sort of precursor version of the incredible “My Way” video package we’ll eventually see in all its glory at Wrestlemania, we get exactly that - both halves of the Wrestlemania main event face to face, with JR there to lead the conversation. Neither man will look at each other as JR thanks them for their professionalism and not letting this get physical. JR starts with tonight’s main event which is scheduled to be The Rock vs. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit. He asks Steve if he’ll be Rock’s partner, but Rock cuts him off and says he doesn’t want or need a partner. This whole interview is classic, and is fantastic. I can’t do it justice. Both men speak passionately about the WWF Championship and what it means to them both. Being champion to The Rock means he’s the absolute best. Being champion to Stone Cold means that he is back after his neck surgery. It’s the end of a journey. They address the Debra situation and Rock continues to take no responsibility for her well being, and Austin doesn’t like the conflict of interest. Vince McMahon has muddied the waters and created this tension between them. Austin warns The Rock to take the bass out of his voice. It looks like it’s going to get physical. Austin says they need to forget about Debra - it's as simple as The Rock has the WWF Championship and Stone Cold wants it. He wants it more than anything in the world. They talk about professional respect and personal dislike. It’s just fantastic stuff. Stone Cold comes across as utterly obsessed with the WWF Championship at the end. “I need to beat you Rock. I need it more than anything you can imagine”. 

Kurt Angle talks strategy with Chris Benoit ahead of their handicap match with The Rock. Much like on Raw, Kurt continues to be patronising, basically calling the Crippler Crossface Benoit’s “cute little move”. Angle says they need to work together and break The Rock down tonight. Elsewhere backstage, Stone Cold sits down with a cooler of beers to watch the main event from the locker room. 

In the main event, WWF Champion The Rock still has Debra as his manager. That’s already lasted longer than I thought it would. Angle is still convinced that if he’s able to injure either The Rock or Stone Cold before Wrestlemania, Commissioner Regal would still sub him in as the replacement. Before The Rock makes his entrance, Mr. McMahon makes an unexpected appearance and heads down to the ring and joins commentary, basically replacing Tazz. Cole asks Vince if he’s here to watch over Debra because of Austin’s warning but he says he’s only here to help out Michael Cole in Tazz’s absence. The Rock fights off both Angle and Benoit and during a fight on the outside, The Rock actually aims Benoit and throws him at Vince intentionally, knocking down the boss! Back in the ring, Benoit punishes Rock with German suplexes. Vince regains his composure and rejoins commentary. There’s some more tension between Angle and Benoit as when Chris has The Rock in the Crossface, Kurt actually puts Rock’s foot on the ropes to break up the hold. It would seem that Kurt wants to be the one to hurt The Rock, not Benoit. It backfires as The Rock quickly finishes Angle off with a Rock Bottom and wins the match! Benoit tries to keep the fight going but Rock drops him with a spinebuster and locks in the sharpshooter. Kurt doesn’t help his partner and actually laughs at Benoit’s misfortune. Referees try to drag The Rock off of Benoit but he won’t listen until Vince McMahon himself gets in the ring to break it up. He actually punches referee Earl Hebner in the face, and so The Rock drops Vince with a Rock Bottom! He’s then jumped from behind by Kurt Angle and Smackdon ends with Kurt tearing at The Rock’s ankle. Austin is still watching backstage and is shown getting up out of his chair like he’s going to run down and save The Rock but instead comes back moments later and sits back down with a beer. He doesn’t have any intentions of saving The Rock and Smackdown ends with Angle ripping at The Rock’s ankle with referees trying to stop it. 

The Undertaker Plays The Game

Backstage, Triple H is shown plotting with Big Show. We can’t hear what they’re saying but they team up tonight to face Undertaker and Kane

The Undertaker arrives at the arena but is immediately attacked from behind by Triple H and beaten up a little. Triple H calmly leaves and in the next segment, lures Undertaker into a locker room where Stephanie and some police officers are waiting. Undertaker has of course come within 25 feet of Stephanie which violates his restraining order and he’s arrested. He asks Stephane what it's like being married to a man with no balls. Steph says she doesn’t know if she wants to press charges yet so asks the officers to keep him here in their locker room while they decide his fate. Undertaker is handcuffed and guarded in the McMahon-Helmsley office while Triple H heads off to get ready for what was supposed to be a tag team match. Jonathan Coachman goes to see Commissioner Regal and asks him what he’s going to do about tonight’s tag team match and he says the match will just go ahead with Kane having no partner. 

The Big Show and Triple H face Kane in what is now a handicap match. The Undertaker is shown in the McMahon-Helmsley locker room, still handcuffed and watching on as his younger brother fights two men. Kane shows no fear. Big Show goes out to meet Kane during his entrance and starts the match before they even get to the ring. They hammer Kane two on one but to everyone’s amazement, Kane just keeps sitting up and no-selling Big Show’s offence. Triple H and Big Show deserve credit for selling it as incredible. Undertaker is continually shown cheering on Kane from his handcuffed position. The two on one odds are too much and after a low blow from Triple H, Show plants Kane with a chokeslam to win the match. They keep the beating going after the bell with chair shots and after a Pedigree onto a chair, it’s finally too much for Undertaker to watch as he fights off the police officers and even handcuffed heads down to the ring showing no fear! Triple H goads and dares him to bring it, which he does but in handcuffs and against both Triple H and Big Show he really stands no chance and is quickly beaten down too. More chair shots to both brothers across the ribs and back. Triple H stays on the mic and taunts Undertaker as he keeps the beating going and reveals that the police officers aren’t real - they’re hired by The Game. He has them handcuff Kane too and says that he’s going to enjoy destroying the whole family. That comment makes it feel like Paul Bearer was due a comeback, but that’s not on the cards. Big Show kind of just stands back and lets this all happen and looks a bit of a goof really as Triple H makes it all about him, ending with a sledgehammer shot to Undertaker’s head which busts him open. Big Show does at least get more shots in on Kane in the background too for good measure.

More Wrestlemania Matches and two in-ring debuts

In a segment with Michael Cole and Tazz they announce two more matches for Wrestlemania. A gimmick battle royal featuring a bunch of classic retro 80s and early 90s gimmicks but FAR more importantly, a rematch of the greatest match of the year 2000 - TLC 2. Tables, Ladders and Chairs for the WWF Tag Team Championships. Edge and Christian vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz. Announcing that match is all the build it needs after their performances at Wrestlemania 2000 and Summerslam 2000. All three of these teams held the titles at one point during Raw and we get a replay of both title changes as well as the debuts of Rhyno as Edge and Christian’s muscle, and Spike Dudley - Bubba and D-Von’s little brother. 

That leads into a six man tag team match and the in ring debut of two ECW alumni - Edge, Christian and Rhyno take on all three Dudley Boyz - Bubba, D-Von and Spike. The math falls apart when The Dudleyz try to use a table. It backfires as Christian and Edge avoid it, and then get themselves disqualified with a brutal pair of chair shots to Bubba and D-Von’s heads. Really stiff ones too. Edge and Christian miss a con-chair-to on Spike but he isn’t able to avoid Rhyno’s Gore, driving his little 150lbs body through the table in the corner of the ring. The Dudleyz win via disqualification, but it’s Edge, Christian and Rhyno who have the last laugh.

Other Happenings

• Smackdown opens with Chris Jericho’s chance to become a double champion. Intercontinental Champion challenging Raven for the Hardcore title. This seems suspicious as Commissioner Regal has been punishing Jericho but a chance to win a second title is a reward surely? He must be up to something. This is a damn entertaining brawl, and classic WWF Hardcore action as they fight backstage and through the back and end up in Commissioner Regal’s office. Jericho uses a framed picture of the Queen Mother as a weapon and then Regal throws hot tea in Jericho’s face and smashes a vase over his head. A blinded Raven used a baking tray covered in scones to bash Commissioner Regal in the head and pins him to end the match and keep his Hardcore title. Regal’s plan kind of worked? A vengeful Regal isn’t happy about Raven having hit him in the head and so he adds Raven to the Big Show vs. Kane match at Wrestlemania to defend his Hardcore title.

• The new makeshift team of Grandmaster Sexay and Steve Blackman join forces with K-Kwik (who would have been a much better fit as Scotty 2 Hotty’s replacement than Blackman) to take on X-Pac, Justin Credible and Albert. The big Albert does most of the work for his team. The match breaks down into a brawl and in the chaos, X-Pac’s team pick up the victory. As usual. X-Pac continues to be one of the most protected men on the roster.

• As Vince McMahon gets himself a coffee he’s cornered by Stone Cold Steve Austin. He makes it clear that if anything happens to Debra tonight he’s holding The Rock responsible, but he’s holding Vince McMahon responsible too.
• The Right to Censor heads down to the ring. The Goodfather and Bull Buchanan forcefully remove Michael Cole and sit on either side of Tazz, trying to intimidate him. Ivory gets a mic and promises to end Chyna’s career at Wrestlemania. Steven Richards takes the mic and goes out to get in Tazz’s face, promising to censor him tonight too. Tazz shows no fear and dives over the table to attack Richards but is overwhelmed by four on one odds until Bradshaw and Faarooq run down to make the save and the APA and Tazz chase off the RtC. Tazz would be missing for the rest of the show.

Note: This next Raw officially marks the end of the Monday Night War. WCW is dead. I’ve written a piece about the end of the War and WCW so if you haven’t already read that, go and check it out!

Raw is War - March 26th, 2001

The Death of WCW

This Raw opens with one of the most iconic moments in all of wrestling history as Vince McMahon addresses us from his office mostly out of character. He has two TV sets with one displaying Raw is War and the other displaying WCW Nitro (kind of, the footage being shown was recorded specially for this segment and wasn’t actually on Nitro). Vince McMahon purchased the dying WCW and so ended the Monday Night Wars. I’ve captured it for you here;

And just for fun, here’s how WCW Nitro opened the same night from WWE’s YouTube channel

There’s the first of many video packages with Vince McMahon gloating about his WCW purchase. He is sitting with Trish and watching more pre-recorded Nitro footage. The only interesting thing in this segment is that he is talking to Stephanie, and mentions that neither she nor Triple H will be at Raw tonight. It descends into more sexual innuendo and creepiness between Vince and Trish. There’s a ton of these and they aren’t all worth recapping. Amazingly on Nitro the same night there were even MORE and they were all different. Vince must have filmed a solid 45 minutes of content in that office to spread across both shows. It’s especially egregious on Nitro as it was the last ever WCW show and the time should have been spent on letting them say goodbye.

Half way through Raw, just as the final WCW show ever was ending, Vince McMahon struts down to the ring. They mistimed things and Vince was out before Nitro was done and so he makes them do his entrance again just for fun. Sting and Ric Flair were still in the ring, no doubt being told to hurry up and end things. What follows is 20 minutes of the most important segment in wrestling history. Vince McMahon put his last big competitor out of business. He bought WCW and subsequently owned all of wrestling, both metaphorically and literally. This same promo was beamed out on the other channel at Nitro and in a sight that no one could believe at the time - Vince McMahon appeared on Monday Nitro. It’s impossible to do justice to what an enormous, Earth shattering segment this was at the time. The reality was that the deal was done but just for fun, Vince says that at Wrestlemania he’s going to make Ted Turner himself walk down to the ring and let him sign the contract there. He spends some time rolling around in the moment and gloating and bragging and having defeated a billionaire and a billion dollar company by becoming a billionaire himself. He enjoys bringing up some of the big WCW stars by name and letting the fans cheer or boo on whether he should bring them to the WWF. The segment ends with the big reveal that Shane McMahon is at WCW Nitro and he appears on the titantron to let his father know that he has swooped in and bought WCW right from under his father.

Shane owns WCW and promises that just like he’ll kick Vince’s ass at Wrestlemania in a street fight, WCW will kick the WWF’s ass all over again. I really can’t do the emotion, performance and moment justice so here’s another video from WWE’s YouTube channel;

And just like that, the last ever WCW show ends with JR loudly shouting about tonight’s Raw main event, mentioning what channel they’re on as often as possible to get people to change the channel from Nitro, and a commercial for Wrestlemania X7. 

All-Star Main Event

Michael Cole catches Debra as she comes out of her husband's locker room. He asks her if The Rock and Stone Cold can co-exist tonight in a tag team match against The Undertaker and Kane? She isn’t sure and doesn’t want to talk about that right now. She’s clearly torn between her warring husband and client. Later Johnathan Coachman caught her coming out of The Rock’s locker room with the exact same results. 

Kevin Kelly speaks to Undertaker and Kane ahead of tonight’s main event. He asks Undertaker about Triple H having taken the night off. Undertaker says he doesn’t blame him for abiding him after Smackdown, but he’s a patient man and Triple H can’t avoid him at Wrestlemania. He says that he has no issues with Rock or Austin but if they don’t get on the same page tonight they might not make it to Wrestlemania.

WWF Champion The Rock goes to visit Stone Cold Steve Austin. He tells Austin that they need to focus on the tag team match and Undertaker and Kane. Neither wants to be the other’s partner. Austin tells Rock that once the match is over, all bets are off. That suits The Rock just fine. 

In the main event, Kane and The Undertaker face the Wrestlemania main event. WWF Champion The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. You can cut the tension with a knife here. Taker and Kane isolate The Rock in their corner and are a united team. Austin gets a hot tag but is quickly shut down and its his turn to be isolated. With Kane and The Rock fighting on the outside and keeping the referee distracted, Undertaker plants Austin with a chokeslam and sets up a Last Ride but Triple H - who we were told wasn’t here tonight - shows up to hammer Undertaker across the back of the head with a steel chair. Austin crawls into a cover as the referee turns around and in a somewhat heel move, Stone Cold beats Undertaker thanks to a steel chair shot from his old nemesis Triple H! Undertaker and Kane leave pursuing Triple H and Stone Cold celebrates his victory with beers and salutes to the crowd. He turns around right into The Rock who drops Austin with a Stone Cold Stunner! The champion laid out his challenger and symbolically places an open beer next to his head to end the final Raw before Wrestlemania X7 and, for my money, the final Raw of the Attitude era. A fitting end because this was an awesome show. 

Mr. McMahon’s bad Night

After the blockbuster announcement by Shane, Vince McMahon screams at his lawyers down the phone for letting Shane steal the WCW purchase from under him. Amazingly, Vince’s bad night isn’t over yet. 

To everyone’s shock and surprise, former Commissioner and WWF Champion Mick Foley is here! No one was expecting him but it’s lovely to see him. Given the way he was fired in December and how involved he was with Kurt Angle at the time it would have really made sense for him to be the man fighting either Vince McMahon or Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania. He gets a couple of cheap pops and promotes his second book (which is great, but not as good as his first one). He says he has a big announcement about a match at Wrestlemania but before he gets a chance to tell us what, Vince comes out to cut him off. McMahon says that he’s had a bad enough night already and wants Foley gone. Mick says that he can and gives us a little history lesson, talking about Vince leaving for a while last June which led to his wife Linda making Mick Commissioner. He then shows us a video on the titantron from December 5th 2000. He’s with Linda in her office and amazingly Mick’s hair is considerably shorter so they really did film this months ago! That’s a great touch. Basically he and Linda signed a bunch of contracts while Mick was still Commissioner, and that means that Mick has a bunch of surprises for Vince in the near future. That’s a wonderful storyline idea going forward and they should have made Mick the Commissioner again but sadly they didn’t really follow up on this. The contract he wants to talk about tonight is the one that says he can referee any match at Wrestlemania he wants and so he’s going to be special referee for the McMahon vs. McMahon Street Fight! 

Benoit/Angle, and TLC II

In the arena, Kurt Angle opens the show. With only six days until Wrestlemania, the former WWF Champion doesn’t have a match on the show yet. Kurt talks about how we must all be reeling from the big news. The shocking, world moving news. You’d assume he means the WCW purchase but he means that he doesn’t have a match for Wrestlemania yet! Kurt calls himself the best wrestler in the world and that brings out Chris Benoit. He takes issue with that and says the good news and bad news for Kurt is that he doesn’t have a Wrestlemania opponent either. He’s sick of listening to Kurt whine and complain and moan. Benoit’s split from the Radicals started this face turn but he comes across as a real babyface here calling Kurt annoying but focuses more on the best wrestler claim. That bothers him most of all. Benoit says he’s the best wrestler and all he needs is a match to make Kurt “tap like the bitch that you are”. Kurt asks if Canada even has an Olympic team? He says he’s carried Benoit the past week and so he accepts Benoit’s challenge. That was a very exciting prospect in 2001 - two of the legitimate best wrestlers on the planet facing each other at Wrestlemania hell bent on making each other tap out to prove who the better wrestler is. They come to blows and trade punches. Angle goes for an ankle lock but Benoit scurries free and gets Angle in the Crossface - Angle taps out, and it gets a big pop from the live crowd! Edge and Christian run down to save their friend Kurt and with three on one odds, Benoit is beaten up easily.

Later in the Angle locker room as he explains that he WASN’T tapping out and was just trying to reach the ropes, Edge and Christian let him know that they’re teaming up tonight to face Benoit and The Hardy Boyz. They also introduce him to their old friend Rhyno who intensely tells Kurt he’s a big fan and he will bleed for them if he has to. Rhyno debuted last week on Raw, and had an impressive showing on Smackdown in his in-ring debut when he Speared Spike Dudley through a table. 

Matt and Jeff Hardy team with Chris Benoit, which seemingly cements a face turn Benoit has been teasing for a month or so, to take on Edge, Christian and Kurt Angle. Benoit rushes out to meet Angle during his entrance so The Hardyz follow and the match begins as a brawl before settling down into a proper tag team match. Benoit wins the match very quickly with a Crossface on Christian for a tap out, and then Angle goes on the attack immediately. Benoit dives through the ropes to take him out, leaving Matt and Jeff fighting with Edge and Christian. Rhyno runs in and flattens Matt with a Gore, and then gives one to Lita too as she checks on him! Edge and Christian get the last laugh, thanks to Rhyno. 

WWF Tag Team Champions Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley are at WWF New York. They hype up TLC2 and promise that they’ll stay Tag Team Champions.

Y2-Doink

Commissioner William Regal faces “a member of the Holly family” in a match which serves as both a tune up match for Regal ahead of his Intercontinental title match at Wrestlemania, and a chance to promote the Gimmick Battle Royal. Paul Heyman is pretty funny angrily ranting about how much he hates gimmicks. Crash Holly is the new WWF Light Heavyweight Champion! He won that title on Sunday Night Heat the previous week. That’s the fourth different championship Crash has held.

Crash isn’t Regal’s opponent though - Molly is. He beats up poor Molly and puts her in the Regal stretch and the does the same to Crash until he's attacked by Doink the Clown! Doink drops Regal and puts him in the Walls of Jericho! It’s Chris Jericho in disguise! Backstage, an angry Regal tells Michael Cole that he’s facing The Big Show in a non-title match. (see Other Happenings)

Little bit of backstage drama here as he isn’t on the show but Shawn Michaels was backstage on this episode of Raw. He was still deep in his substance abuse issues and when seeing Jericho dressed as Doink, got very confused and thought that the company was changing his gimmick. Jericho explained that it was just a ruse three or four times to HBK who just wasn’t getting it - he was off his face on pills. He’d later had a huge argument with his best friend Triple H and leave the arena in a fury and the two didn’t speak for several months during which time Shawn Michaels cleaned up his act and got sober. A happy ending to a sad story. 

Other Happenings

• For fans of trivia, former WWF mainstay Roaddogg actually showed up at the final episode of WCW Nitro in Florida. He hadn’t heard the news and was there to ask for a job. I can only imagine his shock at arriving to find WWF’s production staff and Shane McMahon himself backstage. Jerry Lawler and The Kat didn’t show up at the last Nitro but did leave the WWF a few weeks prior with every expectation of landing a job in WCW too. Oops. 
• Tazz faces Val Venis. Val has the rest of RtC with him, and Tazz has backup from the APA. It’s over super quickly as there’s tons of brawling on the outside. Richards gives Tazz a sneaky superkick but Tazz avoids Venis’ Money Shot splash and wins with a bridging Northern Lights suplex. Tazz and the APA face The Right to Censor in a six man tag team match at Wrestlemania. 
• European Champion Test faces X-Pac (with Justin Credible and Albert) in a non-title match. Commissioner Regal has made Eddie Guerrero - Test’s Wrestlemania opponent - the referee too so Test has no chance here. X-Pac’s stable now has their name officially and are known as X-Factor, but don’t get their infamous Uncle Cracker theme song until next month. Test gets sick of Eddie’s unfair officiating and knocks him down. He has X-Pac beat with a powerbomb but when a real referee comes out to count, Eddie stops him. With the two referees distracted Albert interferes and X-Pac wins the match. Eddie gets some shots in on Test after the match for good measure too. 

• Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho faces The Big Show in a non-title match, set up to soften up Jericho by Commissioner Regal. Show dominates Jericho, throwing him around until one of Show’s Wrestlemania opponents Kane comes down and assaults Show. That brings down their other opponent, Hardcore Champion Raven. As Raven hits Kane with weapons and they fight on the outside, Jericho hits a Lionsault on Show but Regal breaks up that pin and gives him a neckbreaker. Big Show spikes Jericho with a big chokeslam to win the match. Kane hits Big Show with a steel chair, and when Raven attacks Kane from behind he’s easily stopped and planted with a chokeslam too. Kane grabs the steel chair and gives chase to The Big Show.

Smackdown! - March 29th, 2001

My Way or the Highway

WWF Champion The Rock is shown arriving at the arena. He’s stopped by Commissioner Regal who says that his orders tonight are to keep him and Stone Cold apart so that the Wrestlemania main event is not put in jeopardy. He asks The Rock to wait in his dressing room and stay quiet. The Rock mocks Regal for drinking pee last week but does agree. I suspect he doesn’t mean it.  Later, Regal called Debra into his office and told her that as Austin’s wife and The Rock’s manager she better use her influence and keep them apart or Mr. McMahon will hold her personally responsible. 

Stone Cold finally arrives at the arena in the middle of the show. Regal tells him that he’s under strict orders from Mr. McMahon to stay away from The Rock and not put the Wrestlemania main event in any jeopardy. Austin ignores him and heads straight out into the arena. As it happens, they’re in the same arena where Austin was “run over” at Survivor Series 1999 so its symbolic they’re back here for the final show before Wrestlemania which Austin has called the end of his comeback journey more than once. He wastes no time in calling out The Rock but he gets Mr. McMahon instead. Vince tells Austin to keep his cool because he doesn’t want the Wrestlemania main event ruined. Austin drops Vince with a punch and kicks him out of the ring which brings The Rock out. He gets right in Stone Cold’s face. Austin takes issue with being dropped by his own Stunner, and The Rock taking one of his beers. He tells The Rock that he respects what he did and calls for a couple of beers. He opens one and aggressively hands it to The Rock by slamming it into his chest and then aggressively tossing him too, telling The Rock that he wants to toast him being WWF Champion for the last time. The Rock snatches the mic and toasts to Austin getting his ass whooped at Wrestlemania and returns the aggressive toast. All this tension and spilled beer leads to them throwing punches and as the two biggest stars of the attitude era brawl and fight Vince calls for an army of referees to separate them. They're not able to do it so he calls down some WWF Superstars and half the midcard empties out to try and keep the Wrestlemania main event apart. They spill into the crowd as security guards join the fray to try and get these two to stop throwing punches. The fight spills backstage and both men are finally restrained into their respective locker rooms.

In the final of many Vince McMahon segments on this show, he calls Debra into his office and tells her that as much as he hates her husband, that’s not why he’s doing this - she failed to protect the Wrestlemania main event and so she is now fired as The Rock’s manager and will no longer be at ringside for the Wrestlemania main event. That’s for the best in storyline and reality. 

Smackdown technically ends with the Jericho/Kane/Regal/Show tag team match but in reality the last thing we see is the awesome Stone Cold vs. The Rock video package, set to Limp Bizkit’s My Way. You’ll see that in all its glory at Wrestlemania. After the video, an extremely angry Stone Cold Steve Austin leaves the arena ranting like a mad man at Kevin Kelly. He says that he NEEDS to be WWF Champion but then stops to take one last look back at the arena with a sinister, downright evil smirk on his face. 

Undertaker in Cuffs (again)

Smackdown opens with Triple H in his final form - enormously muscular wearing his classic 2000/2001 denim-over-leather jacket and his 1999 leather motorcycle cap. He has his wife Stephanie and a small team of personal security with him. Two of them are played by future WWE Superstars Ken Kennedy and Bobby Roode! Triple H says that he came out on Smackdown a few weeks ago and asked a simple question - how is it that he, as the best in the world, didn’t have a title match at Wrestlemania? That was answered by a man who is without a doubt a legend, and a phenom but is a man who made the biggest mistake of his career by crossing Triple H. The Undertaker felt Triple H disrespected him by saying he’d beaten everyone and simply challenged him to a match. Triple H is the one who escalated this into a personal feud by not just accepting and instead going on a sneak-attack spree. He says Undertaker has only seen a tiny bit of what The Game is capable of. He shows all the various ways he has gotten the best of Undertaker lately and tells him that when he plays The Game, he will lose. The Undertaker eventually comes out onto the stage but can't come any closer because of Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley’s restraining order. Undertaker says that when he was at school they used to send him home at recess because he doesn’t play games. He walks to the ring as he continues to threaten Triple H.

Stephanie squeals loudly that he is now within 25 feet of her and so has violated the restraining order. Undertaker then reveals his big twist - he called a lawyer and a bail bondsman before he even showed up here tonight knowing that he might get himself arrested. He rushes the ring and hammers Triple H with punches back to the corner, and throws him into the police, sending them falling like bowling pins! He sends Triple H out of the ring and gets arrested again! Undertaker doesn’t care - he was willing to spend a night in jail just to get some last shots in on Triple H before Wrestlemania. 

Much later in the show, Undertaker’s music hits and there’s confusion over the fact as Undetaker has been arrested. It’s actually Triple H riding his motorbike and he calls for his wife to bring him his sledgehammer. Triple H hammer’s Undertaker’s bike badly smashing it up and then he shoves it off the stage, sending it crashing 6 or 7 feet to the concrete arena floor. Triple H has destroyed Undertaker’s motorbike (and gets loud “asshole” chants for doing so). 

Possible WCW Recruitment

Shane McMahon arrives at the arena in a long black limo. The new owner of WCW interacts with Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Billy Gunn and The Hardyz backstage with the implication that he’s trying to poach talent for his new WCW. Michael Cole and Paul Heyman explain on commentary that they’re banned from talking about WCW by Vince. 

As Shane walks around backstage saying hello, his sister Stephanie arrives and tells him that their dad is the angriest he’s ever been and might actually kill Shane at Wrestlemania. Shane isn’t worried, and even rubs it in that since he owns part of the WWF, and the whole of WCW by himself he’s now the most powerful McMahon. 

Vince tries to leave the arena with Trish Stratus but upon seeing Shane’s limo with its “WCW” vanity licence plate, loses his temper and goes to find his son instead. 

As Vince is consoled by Trish after being punched by Stone Cold earlier, he sees Shane McMahon chatting to Chris Jericho on a monitor and runs off to confront him! Vince does catch up to Y2J and reminds him that he’s under WWF contract. Jericho has a big smile on his face as he enjoys Vince’s upset and paranoia. 

Tables and Ladders and Chairs

Rhyno (with Edge and Christian) makes his singles in ring debut against Matt Hardy (with Jeff and Lita). This is Matt chasing revenge for his girlfriend being speared by Rhyno on Raw. It turns into a big brawl with the men on the outside and Christian uses the chaos to lay out Matt with an Unprettier behind the referee’s back which gives Rhyno the victory. Afterwards, Edge and Christian get a ladder intending to use it as a weapon but Jeff is up with a steel chair to their backs, and he and Matt use the ladder as a weapon to knock both Edge and Christian out of the ring followed by a Twist of Fate on Rhyno onto a chair, and a Swanton Bomb. They Hardyz aren’t done and go and get a table from under the ring but the appearance of a table summons the WWF Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz, who debut a new theme song during their run in! This is their more familiar theme which has lyrics. They clear out The Hardyz and give Rhyno a 3D through the table as revenge for him having taken out their little brother Spike last week! 

Other Happenings

• Bradshaw and Faarooq, with Jacqueline face X-Pac and Justin Credible, with Albert. Before long, the Right to Censor came down to get involved, attacking the APA ahead of the six man tag team match at Wrestlemania. That brings Tazz off commentary to get involved. In the chaos, Bull Buchanan lays out Faarooq with a scissors kick, allowing X-Pac to win the match for his team. In the melee, the RtC laid out both APA members and set up Tazz for a Val Venis Frog Splash. They get the final advantage heading into Wrestlemania. Paul Heyman replaced Tazz for the rest of the show. They’re an unrated team - I really enjoyed Heyman and Cole together! 
• Vince back in his office says he feels better now that he knows Shane has left the arena, but he asks Trish to go and compete in a non-title bra and panties match with Ivory for his own amusement. She cheerfully agrees.
• Trish Stratus faces Ivory in a bra and panties match. It’s over as quickly as it starts as Ivory tears off Trish’s top but then Ivory’s Wrestlemania opponent Chyna appears and strips the Right to Censor member down to her beige granny panties and sends her running to the back to protect her dignity. 

• In the main event of the final show before Wrestlemania, Commissioner William Regal teams with The Big Show against their respective Wrestlemania opponents, Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho and Kane. Much has been made during the show of Jericho and Kane’s previous rivalry and how they cannot possibly get along as partners here. Jericho gets isolated but Kane and he work well as a team. When Big Show and Kane’s other opponent Raven comes to ringside with a collection of hardcore weapons, that distracts both of them and the referee. Regal takes advantage and uses a fire extinguisher as a weapon, hitting Jericho in the head and then locking him in the Regal stretch for a submission victory.

• Chris Benoit and European Champion Test team against their respective Wrestlemania opponents in Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero. Angle is still in deep denial about having tapped out to Benoit on Raw. It’s a short, energetic match which Chris Benoit wins for his team with a Crippler Crossface on Eddie Guerrero. He’s slow to release the hold and Kurt Angle takes advantage, locking Benoit in the ankle lock! Benoit is forced to tap out, making these men even ahead of their Wrestlemania clash.