The NeelDown: WWF Vengeance 2001
– From San Diego, California
– Hosts are JR and Jerry Lawler
– Vince starts the show with a 10 minute in-ring rant about Rock forcing him to join Rikishi’s ass kissing club. The whole thing is stretched out and gets worthless, so Flair comes out to basically say “this shit ends now” and out come the jobbers.
Scotty II Jobby & Prince Back Hair v. Pop Quiz & Christian
Christian starts with Scotty and begs off to get the tag to Test, so Scotty does the opposite in tagging in Albert. Test draws the tag back to Scotty and Christian comes in to scoop slam him. Evil heels isolate Jobby but Albert makes some saves. Scotty gets the MARTIAL ARTS KICK OF DEATH and makes the hot tag to Albert although the crowd remains dead. He gets the Giant Swing on Christian for two. Christian plants Scott with a reverse DDT and goes for a version of his own Worm which gets broken up. Scotty gets the bulldog and Worm on Test, Baldo Bomb on Christian ends things. Okay match if they must feature it on the PPV, but it’s still pretty pointless since this team is only temporary. *1/2
Winners: Scotty II Jobby & Prince Back Hair
Edge v. William Regal – Intercontinental Championship
Edge gets ahead early with the missile dropkick sending Regal to take a rest, but he was really just drawing Edge out and takes advantage. Shoulder by Regal gets two. Edge counters a full nelson and gets a sunset flip, but Regal gets out and pulls a HHH by dropping a knee to Edge’s neck for two. Regal tries the DUELING PINS to no luck. Edge fights back into it with a neckbreaker and Edge-O-Matic for two, followed by a corner ranna for the same. He follows up with a Northern Lights suplex which gets two. Regal gets his neck caught on the rope while trying to get flipped out, but gets out anyway and then feeds Edge to the steps. He gets the brass knuckles that were taped to the ring post. He saves them for later, however, and pointlessly tries pinning, but ropes. Regal gets a tiger bomb for two. Two more Tiger bombs (~!) get two. He tries blatantly pulling out the knucks but Edge nails the Spear to retain the title. Whole match was basically a series of Regal’s moveset, which isn’t a bad thing despite that they wasted a perfectly good opportunity of a match. Still okay-ish. **1/2
Winner: Edge
– Superhot special guest referee Lita stretches in the back, where Matt tries to get her to swing his way in the match, which doesn’t go over well.
Jeff Hardy v. Matt Hardy
They fight over a lockup to start and Matt plays cocky and steps over Jeff’s back. Jeff gets a hiptoss and works over an armbar. Matt gets a scoop slam for two and they trade chops. Matt results to a sleeper, reversed by Jeff, reversed to a back suplex by Matt. Matt’s leg drop misses and Jeff gets a jawbreaker and is able to hit the leg drop for two. Lita actually shouts out the number of the count as she counts. Jeff rannas Matt off the apron, where Matt takes an awkward misfire bump and lands on his neck. Jeff tweaks a weakness in his knee which Matt chopblocks and continues to work over. Whoa! Just now was the first time King referenced Lita’s referee outfit! Count me shocked. Matt continues on the knee with a Boston Crab but eventually gets kicked off and to the floor where Jeff follows with a baseball slide, then attempts to fly out but his knee of course buckles. Jeff counters the Twist of Fate and gets the double crotch leg drop, but can’t climb. Twist of Fate is countered again, Jeff tries it himself, but gets backslid for two. Matt tries pinning with rope leverage but Lita won’t count it. Oh, the drama. Jeff winds up with the Swanton Bomb for the pin, despite Matt’s foot being on the rope, Jeff pulling it off, and then Lita counting a fourth count. But the screwy finish wasn’t what ruined it, it was the fake knee injury mixed with a bunch of abnormal working between both guys, which turned into a complete mess. Lacking in too many ways to count. **
Winner: Jeff Hardy
– Trish sneaks into Rock’s locker room and kisses him. Rock says that after he walks out Undisputed champion, Trish can smell what the rock is cooking, while thrusting his crotch.
The Dudley Boyz v. Big Show & Kane – Tag Team Championship
Kane cleans house to start and tags in Show who does the same on Bubba and gets a couple of close falls on both of them. Dudleyz get sandwiched and then dumped where Kane hits them with a flying clothesline. That leaves Show in the ring to pull down Stacy’s shorts and spank her. Nothing like that to get King into the match. Dudleys are finally able to turn the pace and get the Wazzup on Kane then flapjack him. They go for the 3D but Kane pummels them both and gets the hot tag to Show. Kane accidentally hits the flying clothesline on his partner, which ends up being pointless since the Dudleys get no offense from it. Oh, now there’s a miscommunication between them. The Dudleyz to not like yet another attempt at Show trying to fondle Stacy, and flapjack him into the exposed turnbuckle for the win. A complete sloppy mess, but at least the miscommunication saved us from a lot of more future boredom from the team. 1/2*
Winner: The Dudley Boyz
Rob Van Dam v. Undertaker – Hardcore Championship
They decide to thrown in the don’t try this at home clips before this one. RVD gets a flipping senton rather quickly for two, then a spin kick for two. Stuff spills outside where Taker gets dumped into the crowd where Taker sidesteps a crossbody. Deeper into the steps they brawl where Taker chokes him with a fan’s Irish flag. RVD comes back with a moonsault. They brawl to a new, more spacy area next to the stage where RVD avoids a chair wack by extinguishing Taker. RVD heads up to the cheap seats and gets a crossbody for two. They brawl behind the titantron, which I don’t ever remember seeing down before. Rob pins him back there for two, and then attacks with a trash can lid for two. Taker thumbs the eyes, supposedly he is allowed to get away with that with the patriotic biker persona. Taker tries climbing the set but Taker knocks him off and gets a random chair, but RVD spin kicks him and gets Rolling Thunder followed by the Vandamintor for two. He stupidly tries a second one and gets beat down with the chair, then Chokeslammed off the stage through a couple of tables that just happen to be set up down there, giving him the Hardcore title. As good of a garbage match as you can ask for, that actually had some of that wrestling stuff in it supplied by Van Dam. **3/4
Winner: The Undertaker
Trish Stratus v. Jacqueline – Unimportant Championship
Putting matches like these on such a high card spot just puzzles me. A bunch of the usual women’s stuff starts it and Jackie gets a pair of slams before being clotheslined. Sloppy chick kick misses, and then one of most AWFUL f*cked cradles I’ve ever seen occurs. Talk about an ugly botch, right there. Jackie pushes her off on the Stratusfaction and gets a basement dropkick for two. Trish gets a sloppy elbow, imagine that, and then a backslide for the win. Um … not only was that a completely blind finish from nowhere, about a minute and a half long, but loaded with a bunch of botches. Matches like this are why the women’s division is a joke, as I promptly summed up in my match title for this. -* and then some.
Winner: Trish Stratus
– We tune in with Rikishi at WWF New York for like 30 seconds for the further marking out of Vince getting the stinkface.
Steve Austin v. Kurt Angle – WWF Championship
I guess it’s appropriate to name this show a triple main event. Stareoff lasts eternity and they fight over a lockup until another one. Austin’s stomps and chops cause Angle to bail, he comes back in and pounds Austin into bailing. Austin fires away but Austin grabs the Ankle Lock, which Austin quickly rolls out of. Austin can’t keep up with you know, actually wrestling, so he thumbs the eyes then dumps Angle and sends him into the post a few times. Angle has some great painful facial expressions here, everyone should check out. Back in Austin gets a DDT for two. Angle quickly counters to the Ankle Lock, but likely being it this early, and because of it being Austin, he gets to the ropes quickly, then dumps Angle. Geez, how many times is Austin going to dump Angle and get a few moves outside before going back in? Guess what, Austin goes out, and does just that. Angle slips out and crotches him on the post, then works the knee on it. Angle then locks in a Figure Four while he is locked in the corner. Nice. Back in a third Ankle Lock is locked in, but Austin kicks out of it. Rolling Germans get two, the sweet moonsault misses. Lou Thesz press, spinebuster, the usual stuff from Austin follows, but then he delivers five rolling Germans on Austin, uncharacteristically. That only gets two, as does the Angle Slam that follows. Angle tries to even the score and goes for a Stunner, but that misses, and the real one advances Austin to the winner of the Rock-Jericho World title match. As for the match itself, had its high points although all of it being adjusted to Austin’s style had it missing in a lot of ways. ***
Winner: Steve Austin
The Rock v. Chris Jericho – World Championship
Rock goes in control to start but Jericho knocks him down, then Rock returns the favor. Rock pulls Jericho by the in-style red dye tips, but Jericho gets a spinning heel kick forcing Rock to bail. Springing missile dropkick sends Rock from the apron back down. They exchange some shots into Hector’s table and then Rock gets sent into the steps for good measure. Jericho gets a flying elbow back in for two. Back and fourth they go, Rock getting a flying forearm for two, Jericho with a back suplex for two. The Jerichoholics finally start to chime in but Rock LAYETHS THE SMACKDOWN via belly to belly suplex and then Samoan Drop, but only for two. Jericho rests things with a headlock. Lionsault misses but the bulldog and second Lionsault doesn’t, but it only gets two. Rock uses the ropes to crotch Y2J up top and chops him down to size. Rock rolls through a high crossbody and gets two. Jericho misses a charge, hits the post and tosses himself out in the process. Rock can’t capitalize and gets catapulted into the post. Jericho clears off the announce table and tries stealing the Rock Bottom, but that gets reversed and Rock DDTs him through the table rather nicely. King pretends he can’t see the action because Jericho rid them of the monitors, despite the ring behind two feet away from them. Jericho counters the Rock Bottom into the Breakdown and attempts the People’s Elbow, but we all know that doesn’t go over well, as Rock blocks it and gets a Sharpshooter, countered into his own by Jericho, but Rock gets the ropes. Rock Bottom, but he’s too weak to make the cover, pursuing Vince to come out and distract the ref, so Rock slugs him off and Jericho runs into a spinebuster. The real People’s Elbow hits, but Jericho goes low and steals the Rock Bottom giving him the World title. This was just an awesomely great match anyway you look at it, despite the Vince run-in. One of my all-time favorite WWF matches. ****1/2
Winner: Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho v. Steve Austin – Undisputed Championship
Angle comes in and wacks Austin with a chair quickly, but Rock takes care of him and they head to the back. Double KO from that, but Jericho ends up with a cover that gets two. Austin comes back with a spear out of the corner and gives him ten shots to the turnbuckle pad. Jericho is able to dodge the Stunner, but gets tossed. They brawl on the floor and Jericho eats post. Austin pulls up the pad but that buys Jericho time to attack him on the Spanish table where another Stunner is countered, but Austin kicks him off. Jericho begins working the shoulder that hit post on a missed charge, and chops away. Dropkick misses and Austin slingshots him into the corner for two. Suplex sets up a crossbody that Austin counters with a gut punch, but Jericho gets the Walls of Jericho locked in, but Austin makes the ropes. Hebner takes a big bump allowing Y2J to go low and get the Stunner. Vince is back out to bring in Nick Patrick, but Ric Flair apparently thinks he is bias, so eh comes out and pulls him off, leading to a Vince-Flair brawl. Back to the match where Austin goes low and then takes out McMahon. Austin counters the missile dropkick into the Walls, Jericho taps, but no refs. In comes Booker T who levels Austin with the belt, then scurries the hell out of there. That’s enough to give Jericho the cover and three count, thus unifying the titles and making Jericho the first Undisputed Champion. Both guys had a lot still left in them to offer for this match, and it was steal finisher city. However, all the ref stuff and run-ins to decide the first Undisputed champion kind of threw it off line. ***1/4
Winner: Chris Jericho
End of show.
