WWE Unforgiven
September 23, 2001 The Dudley Boyz (c) vs The Hardy Boyz vs The Big Show and Spike Dudley vs Lance Storm and Hurricane Helms - WWE Tag Titles
6 days prior to the event on Raw, Kronik cost Taker/Kane the WWE Tag titles to the Dudleys. Match starts with Matt Hardy imitating Hurricane with the superhero poses. IIRC, Hardy and Helms were just about finished with their mini feud and Helms was just starting the one with Spike. Soon Spike comes in ready to destroy the Hurricane. Later on the Hardy Boyz hits crossbodies onto all the members of the Alliance on the outside. Spike gets on Big Show's shoulders (about a foot higher than the top rope) and jumps on everyone. Show gets a huge pop when goes to the ropes to fly. Bubba stops him though. Damn, that could of been fun. Chokeslam to Storm and chokeslam to Helms. Show pins Helms. Matt Hardy quickly hits the Twist of Fate on Spike to eliminate Spike/Show. It's down to Duds vs Hardys yet again. Jeff and D-Von botches a powerslam. Jeff hits the Poetry of Motion to D-Von, but D-von pulls Jeff down by his hair before he can do the same to Bubba. Matt gets the 3D, but Jeff breaks it up with a Swanton Bomb. Behind the ref's back, Bubba hits a Bubba Bomb to Matt and D-Von covers him to win the match and retain their titles. Ross isn't happy that the Dudley Boyz cheated, even though if Jeff wouldn't have cheated, it would of been over a minute before. The match was a lot of fun until it got down to the Dudleys and Hardys. This match is a great example of what was wrong with the Invasion. You had some great new wrestlers such as Storm and Hurricane (An underrated team at that), but they never tried anything new. Both "Brother" teams were already established. Hell, they've been wrestling each other for nearly 2 straight years. So why not spotlight some of your new wrestlers some? Perhaps someone felt the same way though since The Hardy Boyz would be booked against Storm/Hurricane at No Mercy. Sadly, that's about as far as Storm/Hurricane went together. Personally, I would of made this a fatal fourway and just keep the excitement going for twice as long. Decent opener though.
15 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars.
Backstage, RVD is looking for his lockerroom when he runs into Stephanie. Stephanie tries whoring herself out, but Rob would rather just find his room to smoke up. Pointless.
Raven w/ Terri vs Perry Saturn
With such a history as these two had of being BFF and then enemies on any given night, it seemed as if this would be an easy feud to book. Just keep bringing up the Flock and let them build off of there. Instead, this is about Raven putting Saturn's beloved Mop in a wood chipper and committing Mopicide. Saturn hits a few nice suplexes while he gets a cut under his eye. Eye accident #1. Out of no where, Saturn hits his twisting Perfect-Plex to win the match. It's a decent Raw/SD match, but the WWE put zero effort into making this match/feud seem important. Due to that, the crowd isn't even paying attention and neither should you. These two could of had a great feud had the WWE just treated it better.
6 Minutes. 1 and 1/2 Stars.
Backstage, Christian plugs his title match against Edge.
Edge (c) vs Christian - IC Title
Recently, a jealous Christian turned on Edge. This is before he joined the Alliance as another case of the WWE making the feud be WWE vs WWE. The two fights at the entrance and Christian is introduced to the set. Back to the ring, Christian punches Edge a few times until Edge gets a cut under his eye. Eye accident #2. Christian sets up an one man Con-Chair-To, but Edge sweeps Christian's feet from under him and Cage's chair lands on top of him. Edge sets Christian up for the Con-Chair-To, but the ref stops him. Christian lowblows Edge with the chair. Cage covers Edge and becomes the new IC champion. The match was very start and stop. Whenever they did a fast move, they took their time before setting up for the next move. That really hurt getting into the match. A lot better than their Cage Match at Rebellion, but still not as good as I expected.
11 Minutes. 2 1/2 Stars.
Backstage, Taker plugs his title match.
The Undertaker and Kane (c) vs Kronik w/ Steven Richards - WCW Tag Titles
This all started because Taker destroyed the RTC. Steven Richards brings in Kronik to get some revenge. In reality, it was Taker who brought them in since they were his friends. They start off with some brawling before the ref gets control. Bryan Clarke works his ass off hitting some nice kicks, shoulder blocks and anything else to make this different from other big men vs big men matches. Brian Adams is very slow and doesn't even look like he gives a damn about putting on a good match. Taker pins Clarke after a chokeslam to retain the tag titles. Post match has Kane and taker beating Richards up. A lot of people have said that this is perhaps the worst PPV match ever. Personally, I think they couldn't be more wrong if they tried. It's not great, but Clarke works hard and it's passable at best. Adams on the other hand; was complete crap and he didn't deserve to be back.
10 Minutes. 1 1/2 Stars.
Backstage, Tazz wishes Booker and Shane look in their match against the Rock. He brings up how funny/pathetic it'd be if they can't beat the Rock while Stephanie could. Booker gets pissed so Tazz runs off. In case you're wondering, The Rock faced Stephanie and Test in back to back Raw matches with the former couple winning a match.
Elsewhere in the building, Stephanie talks to RVD's door trying to convince him to destroy Jericho since it's her bday tomorrow night. Jericho ends up standing behind her and wishes her the "Breast of luck."
Rob Van Dam (c) vs Chris Jericho - Hardcore Title
Moments later, RVD is coming out which makes Stephanie look like a moron for not knowing that RVD wouldn't be in his lockerroom. Besides Kidman, RVD is the only member of the Alliance who could outpop his WWE opponent on any given night. RVD misses his legdrop to the opponent on the barricade and looks like he hurt his shoulder. Back inside, they introduce a ladder to the delight of the fans. RVD suplexes Jericho on the ladder. Jericho returns the favor. RVD goes to the top of the ladder but Jericho hits a Smash Mouth (Chair thrown in the face) which makes a huge thud sound. Jericho locks in the Walls of Jericho on top of the ladder (ala Jericho vs Benoit RR 2001). Jericho reverses spinning heel kick into an ARMBAR~! (Remember, Jericho is the man of 1,004 holds). Somewhere around this point, I see that Jericho has a cut under his eye as well. Eye accident #3. Stephanie comes out to distract Jericho, but nearly gets hit by a chair. Jericho turns his attention back to RVD, but is hit with the Van Daminator. 1-2-3, RVD retains his Hardcore Title. Finally, we get something good out of this PPV. These two would wrestle again in about 9 months at the KOTR, while it was the Match of the night, it just wasn't as good as this match. That really just shows that RVD was very limited when he couldn't use weapons. The crowd loved the match with chanting "Y-2-J" and "R-V-D" at various points of the match. JR even calls this a 5 star match. Based on the sheer crapittude of this match, I'm inclined to bump the rating up a bit higher.
17 Minutes. 4 Stars.
Backstage, Shane and Booker pumps each other up. Once Booker leaves, Shane wonders what it'd be like to be WCW champion. Hmm.
The Rock (c) vs Shane McMahon and Booker T - WCW World Title
This is a handicap match, with whomever pins The Rock will be the champion. Rock and Book starts it off with nothing special. The match is mainly just the Rock getting his ass kicked, but whenever he comes back, Book or Shane (Whoever isn't the legal man) would interfere. Booker sets Rock up on the Spanish announce table for Shane to do his elbow. Rock gets off and hits Shane with a closeline. Back inside, Shane accidentally hits Booker with the WCW title, but then hits Rocky with the title. Shane goes for the People's Elbow, but walks right into a Rock Bottom. Spinebuster to Booker followed by the People's Elbow. Test runs in and lays Rocky out. Bradshaw runs from the back and chases Test away. Shane covers The Rock, but WWE ref Mike Chioda pulls Shane out. Nick Patrick and Chicoda fights with Chicoda knocking Patrick out of the ring, Booker knocks Chicoda out of the ring, but walks right into the Rock Bottom. Rocky covers Booker and eventually Earl Hebner runs down and counts to 3. Holy Run-in Batman~! Could they have involved any more people? This was the critical match where they made Booker out to be a complete jobber like they did to DDP at Summerslam. Booker had Shane McMahon as a partner, a crooked referee in Nick Patrick AND a run-in by Test, but he still couldn't beat the one man army known as the Rock. What was even the point of signing Booker T if you were just going to turn him from main eventer to jobber in a few months? You could of easily just had Hugh Morris in that role and spent a lot less money. If you want to see a good Booker/Rock match, watch Summerslam.
16 Minutes. 2 Stars.
Backstage, William Regal tells Tajiri he's thought about banning everyone from ringside during the US title match. Tajiri begs Regal not to so that his Alliance GF, Torrie Wilson can come with him. Regal rolls his eyes and lets it be.
Tajiri (c) w/ Torrie Wilson vs Rhyno - WCW US Title
A few days earlier on SD, Rhyno gored Tajiri on the entrance way, thus Tajiri's ribs are taped up. Tajiri starts the match with some stiff kicks while Rhyno works over his ribs. Rhyno chases Torrie around the ring and Torrie falls down in the ring. Rhyno goes to Gore Torrie, but Tajiri hits a stiff kick. Tajiri botches a Tarantula, but at least they can say it was because of the hurt ribs. Rhyno hits a nice Exploder Suplex that would make B.J. Whitmer proud. Gore Gore Gore~!~!~! Rhyno pins Tajiri and wins the US title. Because the match had very little build the fans didn't care at all. JR and Heyman even plugged the main event during most of this match. Like Saturn and Raven, this could of been an easy feud to begin. Both men really started out in ECW in Steve Corino's faction. Instead, they just base the feud off of one Gore 3 days before the PPV. Once again, no one cares and neither should you.
5 Minutes. 1 1/2 Stars.
Over at WWF New York, Stacey Kiebler shows a video of her shaving her legs in a bathtub. Um...gross?
Steve Austin (c) vs Kurt Angle - WWE World Title
On Smackdown 3 days prior, Austin piledrive Angle on the floor, re injuring Angle's neck. Doctors told Angle not to wrestle, but Regal allowed him to. To cheer him on, Angle's family is here as well since this is in Angle's hometown. Add in the fact that this was just 11 days since 9/11, it makes the outcome of the match fairly obvious. Angle beats Austin up in the ring, so Austin grabs the belt and tries to escape. Angle chases him and drags him back to the ring. Austin hits 3 Stun Guns (Front suplexes) on the Spanish Announce table. Steve gives Karen Angle the finger. Back inside, Angle hits the Stunner for a 2 count. Austin gives Angle a suplex (Ross tries to sell it as an Angle slam, but it's not even close) for a 2. Austin piledrives Angle for a 2. Austin finally tries to hit the Stunner, but Angle grabs his leg and locks in the Ankle Lock. Austin can't hold out and gives up giving Angle his second WWE Title in just under 2 years since coming into the company. Post-match has the entire Angle family and the WWE locker room celebrating with Angle in the ring. Big moment for Angle that would become meaningless when Austin beats him a couple of weeks later. Good match, but I prefer their Summerslam match.
24 Minutes. 3 Stars. Overall
This show sums up exactly what the Invasion was all about. Jobbing out WCW wrestlers (Booker T/Shane vs Rock), putting on meaningless matches (Raven vs Saturn), matches that would end up being reversed (Angle vs Austin), WWF vs WWF always (WWE Tag titles match) and just flat out bad matches (WCW tag titles match). The WWE threw a year and a half worth of feuds/matches within 6 months which made this such a clusterfuck time period. Thank god for RVD and Chris Jericho though.
Best Match: RVD vs Chris Jericho
Worst Match: Taker/Kane vs Kronik
Grade: D+
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