Summerslam - Compaq Centre, San Jose California, August 19th, 2001

The 14th annual Summerslam! I have said previously that in 1998, 1999 and 2000 the PPV of the year was, in my opinion, Summerslam. It seems unlikely that’ll hold true in 2001 when it has Wrestlemania X7 to compete with.

The opening video isn’t just a mix of footage of WWF and Alliance superstars going at it but also features a healthy amount of footage from the actual music video for this year’s theme song - Drowning Pool’s “Let the Bodies hit the Floor”. The song is undubbed on the WWE Network which is great and I think because WWE used this song as ECW’s theme song right up to 2007. 

I mentioned previously that the company moving to calling this Invading force “The Alliance” instead of WCW and/or ECW was a legal necessity. That’s because (and if you’ve ready my Death of ECW article elsewhere you’ll know this) the WWF/WWE didn’t actually own the rights to ECW until 2003. The bankruptcy proceedings against ECW and Paul Heyman were still ongoing at the time and the courts were not impressed by the on screen claims that Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley had purchased the company. It also made sense to downplay the WCW connection as it’s fair to say this “interpromotional invasion” was far from what the fans wanted or expected. Better to just frame them as warring factions under the WWF umbrella. 

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Lance Storm (Alliance) © vs. Edge (WWF)

Right into the action with our first of six championship matches (eight titles on the line overall). Before the match, Lance Storm cuts a short promo telling Edge off for his “off-beat shenanigans” and the WWF locker room (with Christian front and centre with Edge’s King of the Ring trophy) are shown watching backstage during Edge’s entrance, cheering him on. 

The action starts thick and fast with Edge sending Storm to the outside and following with a baseball slide.

Storm recovers with a reverse suplex dropping Edge’s tummy on the top rope and then focuses his offence on Edge’s ribs and midsection with stomps and a leg scissors.

Storm gets nearfalls off of suplexes and strings of knee strikes to Edge’s ribs and stomach as he continues the pressure on the midsection of the 2001 King of the Ring. 

Edge does his best to fight back and mounts a comeback with clotheslines and a sit-down slam driving Storm’s back and head to the mat - sort of a sitdown X-Factor - and then counters a hurricanrana into a powerbomb for another near fall. This is a slow match but it’s good stuff when the pace picks up.

Storm rolls through a charge off the ropes into a single leg boston crab and the fans wake up, cheering for Edge to make it to the ropes which, with some effort, he does. 

Christian runs down to try and help his brother but it almost backfires as Storm leapfrogs his spear attempt and he takes out Edge by mistake. Christian is superkicked out of the ring and Edge is able to kick out, and then quickly counters into an Impaler DDT to win the match and his second Intercontinental Championship! 

Given how he won it this time, this feels like his first proper singles title victory however. Christian hugs his brother after the match and leaves Edge to celebrate solo. JR stresses that this is a big victory for the WWF and they have drawn “first blood” tonight. Our first big clue that Christian might be considering the darkside? Paul Heyman heaps praise on him for being a loving, caring brother. If Heyman likes you, you know you’re a heel.

As the Alliance team makes its way to the ring for the next match, Michael Cole stops The Dudley Boyz and Test and asks why he jumped ship to the Alliance. Test gets angry and blames the APA and the WWF locker room for beating him up when he didn’t deserve it. He praises Bubba and D-Von too and says no wonder they jumped too when the fans and WWF overlooked them for their runt of a brother. 

Lillian Garcia interviews Chris Jericho and asks how he feels about facing the one man he’s neve defeated in Rhyno. Y2J segues that into talking about first times and implies Stephanie lost her virginity being gangbanged by every boy in her high school. He ends with a joke about her breast implants because of course he does. Misogyny is Jericho. (But it was 2001, let's not judge too harshly I guess).

The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) and Test (Alliance) vs. The APA (Bradshaw and Faarooq) and Spike Dudley (w/Molly Holly) (WWF)

There’s a few plot threads here. Of course the ongoing family squabbles between the three Dudley brothers, but the APA led the mole hunt back in June and violently beat Test. He wasn’t the mole at the time but sure has jumped ship now. Paul Heyman has a good laugh on commentary about the fact that HE was the mole and Test took his beating for him. Test jumped ship to the Alliance by costing Bradshaw and Faarooq their WWF Tag Team titles last week. Titles they won from The Dudley Boyz. See? There’s layers to it. 

One of Paul Heyman’s funnier running bits is his insistence that the 150lbs Spike Dudley was the real bully of the family and mistreated Bubba and D-Von for years.

The Alliance team isolate Faarooq initially but he makes the tag to Spike and he takes his place as the default punching bag for the heels with Bubba, D-Von and Test tagging in and out quickly and taking turns hammering him with kicks, punches and slams. 

The Dudleyz set up a table on the outside and Test teases throwing Spike from the ring with a military press to the table but the little guy wriggles free and avoids that fate but remains in the ring being worked over until a hot tag to Bradshaw who motors through both Dudleyz and drills Spike with a big powerbomb. Bubba breaks up the pin and with the APA and Dudleyz fighting on the outside, Test counters Spike’s Dudley Dog attempt by throwing him from the ring to the table on the outside!

Test walks into a Clothesline from Hell but before he can cover, WCW Owner Shane McMahon runs to the ring and cracks Bradshaw with a stiff chairshot to the head! Test covers, Shane escapes like a thief in the night and The Alliance pick up their first win of the night. 

In the WWF locker room as everyone congratulates Edge on winning the IC title, Christian appears and announces he has a shot at Matt Hardy’s European title tomorrow night on Raw, raining on everyone’s parade. Their grandma calls and wants to speak to Edge but when he hands the phone back to Christian she is “mysteriously disconnected”.

In Stone Cold’s locker room, the WWF Champion isn’t there but his wife Debra is. Shawn Staziak bursts in without knocking and wants to talk to Steve about changing his tights and focusing on himself a bit. Debra rightly tells him off as Austin has more important things to worry about tonight and does the same as Stone Cold himself has been doing - she tells him to go and make an impact! 

WWF Light Heavyweight Championship and WCW Cruiserweight Championship

Tajiri (WWF) ©  vs. X-Pac (WWF) © 

This is the lone WWF vs. WWF match on this PPV and it should be a good one. A couple of weeks ago X-Pac came out to his old theme and I thought he’d made the switch back but he’s back to his X-Factor theme here (which is dubbed on the WWE Network as usual). JR talks up X-Pac’s achievement as the first man to have held a WWF and WCW title at the same time. Paul Heyman talks instead about how happy the Alliance is to see WWF on WWF violence. The more they fight each other the stronger the Alliance gets (he says, I don’t know how true that is).

The action here is very smooth and as they counter back and forth its Tajiri who gets the advantage. X-Pac slows things down to a pace he’s more comfortable with and with a spinebuster and kicks in the corner tries for a Bronco Buster which is countered and followed with a stiff baseball slide dropkick from Tajiri into X-Pac’s face! He comes off the ropes with a handspring elbow for a near fall. The fans are really into this and love Tajiri, popping huge when he locks in the Tarantula.

X-Pac rolls through a top rope crossbody for a near fall to get back into the match. Really back and forth and really good stuff.

The match continues with a gorgeous bridging German suplex from Tajiri, and a really nice diving flip by X-Pac from the ring to the floor taking out Tajiri. He follows with an X-Factor but is too slow to get into a cover and Tajiri kicks out.

With X-Pac in trouble his tag team partner Albert heads down to the ring. He gets onto the apron and Tajiri sprays green mist in his eyes but he does still provide enough of a distraction for X-Pac to follow with a second X-Factor to win the match, retaining his WCW Cruiserweight title and winning the WWF Light Heavyweight Champion, once again a double champion.

Live from WWF New York, Perry Saturn is still looking for Moppy. He issues a heart felt plea - she must have been kidnapped, she wouldn’t run away. They’re in love. He shows that she’s been put on the side of milk cartons like a real missing person. Please help Perry find his lost love. You’re Welcome.

In their locker room Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley amps up Rhyno and makes him promise to end Y2J once and for all. Jericho’s issues with Stephanie have been on and off for well over a year now.

Rhyno (w/Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) (Alliance) vs. Chris Jericho (WWF)

This match gets a video package which is pretty good for a midcard match.

This is a feud that they’d been setting up prior to the Invasion in the weeks before King of the Ring and reveals something about the booking. The Invasion provides a framework but the card is littered with matches that would have happened regardless and the WWF just moved the heels to the Alliance so that they could still happen. This isn’t the only example - Kurt Angle and Stone Cold is another and we’ll see the biggest example next month at Unforgiven (when we get there). 

Jericho gets the early advantage moving quickly and knocking Rhyno to the outside with a springboard dropkick. He climbs to the top rope but Stephanie distracts him long enough for Rhyno to recover so that when he jumps with a crossbody, Rhyno Gores him out of midair on the outside of the ring. That would probably be enough for the victory if they were in the ring and Rhyno could cover.

Rhyno does get Jericho in the ring and distracts the referee so that Stephanie can lay into him with a big, hard slap which makes the crowd groan. 

Rhyno wears down Y2J with a long body scissors, gets a near fall from an airplane spin into a neckbreaker and then goes back to a long chin lock. Another near fall with a snap suplex and tries to follow with a big splash off the top rope which he misses. 

Jericho hits a standing Lionsault into a roll up which looks cool but Rhyno kicks out. Stephanie gets onto the apron to distract Jericho and he forces a kiss on her (like this storyline wasn’t problematic enough already) and follows with a normal Lionsault but Rhyno surprisingly kicks out. He rallies with a spinebuster and locks Jericho in his own hold - the Walls of Jericho - which should have got a big reaction but really doesn’t. The fans do at least chant Y2J as he crawls to and gets to the ropes.

Rhyno sets up for a Gore but Jericho moves, he hits the corner and Jericho rolls him through into a Walls of Jericho! He locks it in nasty with a knee on the back of Rhyno’s head and finally secures a tap out and submission victory. Jericho breaks his personal losing streak against Rhyno and brings tonight’s WWF vs. Alliance total to 2 -1. Stephanie throws a little temper tantrum and stomps to the back as a replay of Jericho’s forced kiss on Stephanie plays. 

Backstage, The Rock (in his new Team Bring It t-shirt) is walking backstage. He’s stopped by Commissioner William Regal who asks the People’s Champion if he’s ok to compete tonight after the ending of Smackdown. He leans in and asks Regal if he “hears it” and the fans start chanting “Rocky”. As they keep talking they casually step apart as Shawn Staziak charges, misses them both and knocks himself out on the wall. They step back together and keep talking like nothing happened. Staziak’s Looney Tunes gimmick continues, but bless him at least he’s trying to take Stone Cold’s advice and make an impact. 

Ladder match for the WWF Hardcore Championship

Jeff Hardy © (WWF) vs. Rob Van Dam (Alliance)

RVD lost the Hardcore title back to Jeff Hardy this past week to set up this ladder match. Summerslam was/is famous for its links to ladders with Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon in 1995, The Rock and Triple H in 1998 and the first TLC match in 2000. These two had - by miles - the best match at Invasion last month so a rematch was a good idea. 

The pair lock up and start the match with a fast paced wrestling exchange going from headlocks to the mat and back, bringing a round of applause from the fans when they break. 

JR calls this the first hardcore ladder match in history which is technically true if that’s what they’re calling it but it’s not the first ladder match for the Hardcore title - the first ever Hardcore title change in October 1998 was in a ladder match.

Jeff hits a springboard flip from the middle rope onto RVD on the floor which looked really dangerous but both men are unscathed and RVD regains control with his trademark twisting leg drop to Jeff’s back as he’s hanging from the security wall. He’s the first one to introduce a ladder after that and as he does so a fan in the front row can be heard shouting “fuck him up!” really audibly.

Jeff stops him at the bottom of the aisle with his run along the top of the security wall into a crossbody.

The two trade spots using the ladder as a seesaw on the ropes into each other, and then Jeff follows with a slingshot moonsault onto RVD who’s prone on the ladder. RVD responds with his Rolling Thunder flipping senton onto Jeff as he’s suspended on the ladder which is laid between the ropes as a platform. It looked cool but it’s hard to describe! Paul Heyman mentions Sabu without mentioning him, saying that RVD’s mentor was “homicidal, suicidal and genocidal” which is a nice reference for the ECW fans who’ll get the reference. 

Jeff is the first man to try to climb the ladder but RVD knocks him off of it with a diving kick from the top rope. 

The two take turns climbing and knocking each other off the ladder and it crescendos with RVD bringing Jeff down from the top of the ladder with an almighty superplex, drawing a “holy shit” chant. Jeff retaliates moments later by climbing back up the ladder and bringing RVD back down on the other side with a sunset flip powerbomb!

Jeff climbs and grabs the title belt but before he can unclip it, RVD pulls the ladder out from under him leading Hardy swinging about the ring! RVD dives off the top rope with a spinning heel kick but Jeff’s too high and he misses, barely clipping his ankles. Jeff drops anyway seconds later and lands on his feet which I'm sure killed his ankles.

Both men race to climb the ladder and RVD gets there first, just barely retrieving the Hardcore title and regaining it for the Alliance. Both men collapse from the ladder the second the bell rings. That makes the score tonight between the WWF and Alliance 2 - 2. 

RVD and Jeff manage to sit up and stare at each other across the ring. There’s a nod and a show of respect between these two men. This was another great match between two super talented young guys. 

In the back, Shane McMahon presents the WCW Champion Booker T with a gift - it's a wooden book end made from the announce table that he Book Ended The Rock through on Smackdown. That’s actually a very thoughtful gift! Booker T agrees and dedicates his title defence tonight to Shane O’Mac. 

Steel Cage match for the WWF and WCW Tag Team Championships

Diamond Dallas Page and WCW United States Champion Chris Kanyon (Alliance) ©  vs. The Brothers of Destruction (Undertaker and Kane) (w/Sara) (WWF) ©

This one has a video package and considering the heated nature of the Undertaker and DDP feud it feels odd that THIS is the blow off with the focus shifted to the Tag Team titles.

Chris Kanyon looks very concerned as he walks to the ring. He’s a double champion of course but has little confidence in he and DDP tonight. Paul Heyman explains that he thinks DDP and Kanyon are the best WWF Tag Team Champions of all time which outrages JR. He CANNOT mean that. Not because of their skills or lack thereof, but more because they’ve only had the titles for about a week! 

Bizarrely The Undertaker’s entrance is dubbed on the WWE Network. He was still using Limp Bizkit’s Rollin which hasn’t been dubbed once since he started using it. I’m not sure what that’s about. Kane and Undertaker are an imposing sight with the WCW Tag Team titles. 

Sara symbolically locks the cage door and drops the key into her own cleavage. The moment the bell rings Kanyon and DDP sprint for the cage to climb out but Kane and Taker stop them and pummel them with punches.

I have nothing to say or report here as Undertaker and Kane just pound on the WWF Tag Team Champions, running them into the cage and dropping them with big boots and clotheslines for a long period in this match.

Kane plants Kanyon with a chokeslam out of nowhere which is the first actual move in this match. He doesn't cover and follows up with a powerbomb but instead of completing the move, runs him into the cage. Kanyon comes back off the top rope with a flying clothesline into Undertaker and then drops Kane with a bulldog off the top rope. He and DDP try to climb out quickly but the Brothers of Destruction sit up simultaneous and follow their opponents. They end up with Undertaker standing at the top of the cage kicking down at DDP. Kane is bouncing Kanyon off the wall as he hangs upside down until Undertaker tells his brother to let Kanyon go! That seems odd but that leaves DDP alone in the steel cage with Kane and The Undertaker. The deadman retrieves a steel chain and wraps it around his first and in a two on one assault, they hammer DDP from corner to corner. Undertaker gets multiple covers where he lifts DDP’s shoulder up at the two count himself to keep the match going.

Undertaker stands DDP up in the corner and tells him that he can leave as long as he promises to never even LOOK at Sara again! 

Page starts to climb out and it seems like he and Kanyon are about to become unified tag team champions but it was a setup and Undertaker brings Page down from the top rope with a chokeslam and finishes him with a Last Ride. The Undertaker and Kane are now the WWF and WCW Tag Team Champions at the same time, and it looks like Undertaker is finished with DDP. 

Sara gets in the ring and talks some trash at the fallen DDP. The moment is a little ruined for me personally due to the weirdly dubbed music. Still not sure why that’s the case here - he hasn’t been dubbed on a single other show so far. I hope that’s not a new thing.

In the trainer’s room, The Rock is getting checked out and much like earlier with Regal he assures him that he’s perfectly healthy for tonight’s main event. Also like earlier, Shawn Staziak runs in to take out The Rock and comically misses. What a goof.

WWF Championship

Stone Cold Steve Austin (Alliance) © vs. Kurt Angle (WWF)

Ahead of the main event the WWF and Alliance locker rooms are shown assembled and watching the monitors closely ahead of these two World title encounters. The video package for this one is awesome too with lots of footage of the dementd Austin, the super focused babyface Kurt Angle and lots of use of tonight’s theme song.

I’ve mentioned it a bunch during the preview for this event but they seem to be having a hard time settling on a theme song for this new villainous, sinister version of Stone Cold Steve Austin. It’s changed three times since Invasion but tonight it’s the version that I best remember from this period so this is the final form.

Kurt Angle waits for Austin at the bottom of the aisle and the champion and challenger rush to meet each other, starting the match with a brawl on the entrance ramp. The natural brawler Austin wins that exchange and when the match gets into the ring and officially starts, he focuses his attack on the Olympian’s leg - the leg he injured with a steel chair on Smackdown last week.

Kurt rolls through into an ankle lock in the early going but the Rattlesnake gets to the ropes and rolls to the outside, using the separate to retaliate with a clothesline.

Austin pummels Kurt with punches, knees and suplexes going for a cover after each one. It seems that he’s trying to make a point against Kurt with all these suplexes but it backfires as Kurt reverses and drops the WWF Champion with seven back to back German suplexes! Angle poses for the crowd and to my shock gets a mixed reaction. Austin still has his fans it seems (he is damn entertaining which is part of the reason no one likes his run as a heel - he’s too good to boo!)

Austin drops Kurt with a superplex and then a Stone Cold Stunner but Kurt kicks out! 

He quickly drops the Olympian with a second Stunner but instead of going for a cover, drags him to the outside and runs his challenger’s head into the ring post!

Kurt deserves a ton of credit here for making these shots to the post look as good as they do - his head really seems to bounce violently off the hard metal post. Austin drives his head in over and over drawing a heavy flow of blood from Kurt’s head and finally rolls him to the inside where Kurt amazingly kicks out again! 

Back on the outside, Austin keeps the brutality coming with more head into the post shots and a suplex over the security wall and bringing Angle down on the concrete. He takes a little too long to taunt the fans and so Kurt recovers and locks Stone Cold in an ankle lock as he lays across the security wall! Angle rips and pulls at the Rattlesnake’s ankle and drags him by the ankle up the ring steps and into the ring, locking it in in the middle of the ring! He’s going to break Austin’s ankle...but the champion gets to the ropes again to break the hold.

The fighting continues on the outside as Austin trades punches with Kurt who is now bleeding really heavily. Kurt drops Austin with a back suplex on the mats at ringside which I bet really hurt! 

Kurt turns up the intensity and bounces Austin off the announce desk a few times before rolling him inside. He makes an error of judgement going for his moonsault - a move which looks great but he always misses - but amazingly he hits it! Kurt Angle connects with his moonsault! But Stone Cold kicks out all the same. 

Austin finally slows things down by using a cobra clutch - his old finishing move when he was The Ringmaster - and brings the challenger down to the mat. A smart move to lock in a hold like this when his opponent is so tired and bleeding. 

Austin drops Kurt with a third Stone Cold Stunner and that MUST be it but Kurt Angle kicks out! Between the blood, the viciousness of Austin’s attack and Kurt continually kicking out this is a star-making performance designed to show Angle’s toughness. 

Austin taunts Kurt and tries to kick him to set up a fourth Stunner but Kurt sidesteps and hits an Angle slam! He’s too slow to crawl into a cover and Austin kicks out. 

Austin gets desperate and punches referee Earl Hebner right in the face knocking him out of the ring! There’s no referee to count as as Kurt drops Stone Cold with a DDT, a second WWF referee runs down to count the fall but Austin kicks out of that too.

Stone Cold uses a blatant low blow in front of the referee and then gives him a Stone Cold Stunner! Austin goes out of the ring and gets his WWF title belt to use as a weapon. A third WWF referee runs down and Austin hits him in the face with the title belt! Kurt gives him an Angle slam and covers but the fourth referee who runs down is WCW’s Nick Patrick. He slides into the ring but instead of counting Angle’s pin he rings the bell instead. Stone Cold has been disqualified and so Kurt Angle wins the match but doesn’t win the Championship! 

Austin bails out of the ring and runs off with his WWF title belt leaving Nick Patrick to face the music with an ankle lock while JR screams for Kurt to “break his damn ankle!” Kurt Angle has been screwed over but Austin hangs onto the title he twice sold his soul for. 

This was one of Stone Cold’s career best matches and the screwy finish doesn’t detract from it. 

I’ll take a moment between these matches to talk about the Invasion in general and how it’s going so far. This PPV has a few fresh faces - genuine WCW and ECW imports - which make this feel like a true interpromotional story. DDP, Kanyon, Lance Storm and Rob Van Dam. The issue is that none of these men have been positioned as big deals and it would be a stretch to say that they were competing in the DREAM MATCHES we were promised. Booker T has been positioned as a top WCW guy but is still vastly inferior to the WWF stars and the new leader of the Alliance Stone Cold Steve Austin. A great deal of the card is made up of WWF vs. WWF talents, but with some of them wearing WCW or ECW t-shirts. Fans saw through this and rejected it. It actually gets even more pronounced going forward as - no spoilers - there’s even fewer WCW and ECW imports on the next three PPVs. It’s for that reason that it’s better to take this storyline as what it had become - Shane and Stephanie McMahon leading a heel group known as The Alliance, trying to force their dad out of the WWF. If you forget about the WCW and ECW names and the wasted potential therein, it's a much better storyline. 

WCW Championship

Booker T (w/Shane McMahon) (Alliance) © vs. The Rock (WWF)

JR has hyped this all night long as “The Rock’s return to PPV” after being “suspended” since Wrestlemania. In truth he was off filming the Scorpion King, a movie which launched his career and eventually turned Dwayne Johnson into one of the most famous and successful men on planet Earth. But tonight’s not about that. Tonight’s about the WCW Championship.

This marks the first time in WWF history (and potentially wrestling history) where two black men main evented a PPV event. That is very cool and a huge feather in the cap for both of these men. 

I don’t like the champion entering first but in fairness, the return of The Rock was one of the biggest selling points for this entire show. Counting Angle’s DQ victory, going into this match the WWF is ahead for the night 4 - 2 which both JR and Heyman have stopped keeping track of now. Seeing as Kurt didn’t win the title I’d say it's 3 - 3 anyway.

The Rock knocks Booker down immediately and sprints after Shane McMahon chasing him around the ring and knocking down a camera man as they go. He doesn’t catch Shane but Booker’s attempt to catch him off guard doesn’t work either and he’s taken down with a Samoan drop. The Rock is dominating Booker T and takes him outside the ring and bounces him off the announce table and uses a blatant low blow in front of the referee (but doesn’t get disqualified). 

Heyman keeps continually calling the WCW Champion The Book which gets on JR’s nerves. Booker finally mounts a comeback reversing The Rock into the ring steps and fighting with him out into the crowd. 

Booker takes control, beating up Rocky and sending him back to ringside, running him into the ring post and dropping him across the security wall. 

It must have felt like a dream to Booker T to go from worrying he didn’t have a job anymore when WCW closed in March to now main eventing the second biggest WWF show of the year with The Rock. 

Back in the ring he dominates with knees while Shane cheers him on from ringside. A big side kick gets a near fall and then Booker grinds him down with a sleeper while JR and Heyman argue over whether the Spinrooni is silly or not. “By God if the WWF gets wiped out by a spinarooni then we deserve to get wiped out!”

Rock comes back with punches and locks in a sharpshooter which brings Shane onto the apron. The distraction makes Rocky break the hold and walk into a superkick for another near fall.

The Rock fights back with a spinebuster and as Booker distracts the referee, Shane knocks out the People’s Champion with a steel chair. Both men are down in the ring and that brings the APA to the ring after Shane’s interference earlier. Faarooq chases the Boy Wonder around the ring and he runs right into a clothesline from hell from Bradshaw! Shane is OUT. 

In the ring, Rock and Book fight to their feet and the WCW Champion drops his challenger with a Book End! The Rock kicks out barely at two and with that they’re both back in the fight going back and forth off the ropes. Rock gets a near fall with another Samoan drop and follows up with a spinebuster in the middle of the ring. A People’s Elbow has the match and the title won but Shane McMahon dives across the ring and drags the referee out of the ring. The Rock has had enough and goes to the outside, spiking Shane with a Rock Bottom! 

The Rock is on a roll and lays the Smackown but runs into a spine buster and after a Scissors kick,Booker takes that moment to show us all the most electrifying move in sports entertainment, the Spinarooni!

It draws boos and proves to be his undoing as The Rock kips up and he walks right into a Rock Bottom! One, two, three and The Rock is the new WCW World Champion! 

The WWF locker room is shown celebrating and the PPV ends on a high with The Rock celebrating proudly with the big gold WCW title - a belt no one thought in a million years he’d ever hold. 

This was a great show - it felt momentous, it felt like a real battle between the Alliance and the WWF and it had four good - great matches in the Cruiserweight title, Ladder match and the WWF and WCW title matches. I don’t think Summerslam beats out Wrestlemania X7 for the best PPV of the year but it’s a very worthy follow up to the legacy of 1998, 1999 and 2000. Thumbs up all the way to Unforgiven!