WWF Vengeance was a 2001 professional wrestling event put on by the World Wrestling Federation. It was the third Vengeance event, the 7th event of 2001, and the 139th event overall in the alternate WWF timeline. Emanating from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, the main event was a WWF Championship match featuring WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin defending against King of the Ring winner Chris Jericho. Other matches on the card included an Intercontinental Title match between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, a tag team title match with Austin & Angle defending against The Brothers of Destruction, and a brother vs brother encounter between Matt and Jeff Hardy for the television title.
Prelude[]
The two main stars of the Syndicate, namely WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin and WWF Intercontinental Champion Kurt Angle, had been engaged in a tentative partnership that was held together by Angle's seeming obliviousness to everything besides his own greatness, despite Austin's unique paranoia and viewing of everyone around him as a threat to the WWF title. This paranoia was ramped up even higher after Angle failed to win the King of the Ring tournament, losing to Chris Jericho, which granted Y2J a title shot at Austin. Their partnership was made more concrete, seemingly, after Angle and Austin defeated Benoit and Jericho for the Tag Team titles the night after King of the Ring. However this would prove to be a Pyhrric victory, as the WWF would suddenly be (temporarily) ruled by a new WWF Commissioner in The Big Show, who had won the job from William Regal for thirty days. As a result, the duo were ordered to defend both their tag team titles (against Kane & The Undertaker, who defeated Edge & Christian in a #1 contenders match on Smackdown) and their individual titles at Vengeance, with Austin set to face Jericho and Angle set to defend his Intercontinental Title against Chris Benoit.
The duo of Edge & Christian, also members of The Syndicate, was starting to fray along the edges as well, as Christian was growing increasingly jealous of his tag team partner's continued singles success. This was augmented when Edge made it to the Semifinals of the King of the Ring tournament (further than Christian had), and had refused to "play ball" with stablemate Kurt Angle by lying down for him. The two had a competitive match, one that Christian inadvertantly cost Edge when he "accidentally" tripped him on the ropes, allowing Angle to score the win with a rollup. Edge forgave his longtime friend, but the tension between the two was still palpable after they lost a #1 contenders match for the tag team titles to The Brothers of Destruction. Each was looking to try and mend their relationship, as they teamed with Rikishi in a six man tag team match against Rob Van Dam and The Dudley Boys.
Another tag team that seemed to be on the verge of collapse was the team of Matt and Jeff Hardy. The two had been on the outs since Wrestlemania, with Matt accusing Jeff of being more concerned with his singles career, while Jeff accused Matt of being more concerned of his relationship with Lita than their (or his own) success. This reached a crescendo when Jeff managed to defeat Rikishi to win the Television title, only for Matt to refuse to shake his hand afterwards and walk away from the celebration. On the following episode of Raw, when Jeff tried to clear the air between them, Matt instead challenged Jeff to a one on one match for the television title, which Jeff accepted.
Event[]
Coming Soon...
Results[]
No. | Results | Stipulations | Time |
---|---|---|---|
Pre-Show | Tazz d. Al Snow by Submission | Singles Match | 11:24 |
1 | Chris Benoit d. Kurt Angle (c) by Pinfall | Singles Match for the WWF Intercontinental Title | 16:33 |
2 | Spike Dudley d. C.W. Anderson (c) by Pinfall | Singles Match for the WWF Hardcore Title | 8:17 |
3 | Dean Malenko d. Kidman, The Hurricane (c) & Evan Karagias by Submission | Fatal Fourway Match for the WWF Light Heavyweight Title | 13:20 |
4 | Lita & Jazz (c) fought to a No Contest | Singles Match for the WWF Women's Title | 9:20 |
5 | The Brothers of Destruction [Kane & The Undertaker] d. Kurt Angle & Stone Cold Steve Austin (c) by Pinfall | Tag Team Match for the WWF Tag Team Titles | 11:00 |
6 | Edge, Christian & Rikishi d. Rob Van Dam & The Dudley Boys [Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley] w/Paul Heyman by Pinfall | Six Man Tag Team Match | 10:45 |
7 | Jeff Hardy (c) & Matt Hardy Wrestled to a Time Limit Draw | Singles Match for the WWF Television Title | 15:00 |
8 | Stone Cold Steve Austin (c) d. Chris Jericho by Pinfall | Singles Match for the WWF Championship | 15:15 |
Aftermath[]
Austin's paranoia finally exploded the next night on Raw, as he viciously attacked Kurt Angle, turning the latter face for the first time in his career, and leading to a match between the two at Summerslam. The Big Show turning heel led to a feud between he and Chris Jericho that would lead to a match at Summerslam as well. Sadly, injuries continued to plague the WWF, as Chris Benoit suffered a near career ending neck injury the following night on Raw, cutting his Intercontinental Title reign short and putting him on the shelf for almost a year. Rikishi would win a tournament for the vacant title on Smackdown, leading to an eventual match between he and Edge as the Syndicate continued to collapse.