The 2001 Vengeance was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the inaugural Vengeance and took place on December 9, 2001, at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, California.
The event temporarily replaced the promotion's annual December PPV, Armageddon, for the year 2001 in response to the September 11 attacks as the WWF felt the name "Armageddon" may be offensive to the victims. The following year, Vengeance was moved up to July as Armageddon was reinstated for that December. As such, it was the only Vengeance held before the introduction of the brand extension in March 2002 and the only Vengeance promoted under the WWF name as the promotion was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002.
The event is notable for its triple main event, which was a three-match tournament to unify the WWF Championship and the World Championship (formerly the WCW Championship) as the Undisputed WWF Championship. In the first match, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin defeated Kurt Angle to retain the WWF Championship. In the second match, Chris Jericho defeated The Rock to win the World Championship. In the final match, Jericho defeated Austin to become the Undisputed WWF Champion. The Undisputed WWF Championship followed the lineage of the WWF Championship while the lineage of the World Championship was immediately retired after Jericho's win, with Jericho recognized as its final holder although he would carry both belts as the undisputed champion—a singular championship belt was introduced in April 2002 after Jericho lost the undisputed title to Triple H at WrestleMania X8.
Production Background In 1999 and 2000, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) held a December professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event entitled Armageddon. The event was originally planned to return in 2001, however, following the September 11 attacks, WWF staff felt that the "Armageddon" name may potentially be considered offensive to the victims of the terrorist attacks. In turn, the WWF replaced that year's Armageddon with an event titled Vengeance, and it was scheduled to be held on December 9, 2001, at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, California.
Storylines The Invasion, which began in March 2001, ended at Survivor Series when Team WWF won a "Winner Takes All" Survivor Series match. The Alliance was forced to close business as a result, and all their titles, except for the WCW Championship, which was rebranded simply as the World Championship, were abandoned (the remaining championships were unified with their respective WWF equivalents, and subsequently deactivated, except for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, which became a WWF title in favor over the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship). On Raw the following night, WWF Owner Vince McMahon attempted to strip "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, who was a member of The Alliance, of his WWF Championship, and award it to Kurt Angle due to his actions in costing The Alliance the match at Survivor Series. However, before he could do so, Ric Flair, who had not been seen on any wrestling program since Vince's purchase of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001, interrupted Vince and explained that the leaders of The Alliance, Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon, had sold their stake in the WWF to him, and that he was now equal partners with Vince. Austin then attacked both Angle and Vince, after which, Flair presented him with his title belt.
Soon after, Flair scheduled a match between Austin and The Rock, the holder of the World Championship, to unify both titles and create one undisputed championship. Vince, however, convinced Flair to create a four-man tournament instead. Two matches were made, with Austin defending the WWF Championship against Angle, and The Rock defending the World Championship against Chris Jericho. The winners of these matches would then face each other in a third match where the winner would be the first Undisputed WWF Champion.
Both title matches were rooted in feuds that were carrying over from earlier in the year. Austin and Angle had become allies after Triple H, with whom Austin had been in a team as The Two-Man Power Trip since after WrestleMania X-Seven, went down with an injury, leaving Austin without a partner. Around this time, The Invasion was taking hold of the WWF, and in July at the InVasion event, Austin and Angle were part of Team WWF in a 10-man tag team match against five members of The Alliance. During the match, Austin turned on Team WWF and hit Angle with a Stone Cold Stunner, allowing Team Alliance to win. On the July 23 episode of Raw Is War, Austin, now the leader of The Alliance, stated that he did this because he felt that Vince was grooming Angle to take over his spot, and that he was "unappreciated" when Vince insisted he return to the old Austin.
Angle, who became a fan favorite as a result of Austin's treachery, immediately began challenging Austin for the WWF Championship. His first chance came at SummerSlam, which Angle won by disqualification, allowing Austin to retain the title. At Unforgiven in September, Angle forced Austin to submit to his ankle lock, and won the WWF Championship in front of his hometown fans in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Austin demanded a rematch, claiming his hand was under the ropes when he tapped out, and received it on the October 8 episode of Raw. Austin regained the title when William Regal, the WWF Commissioner and special enforcer, attacked Angle and joined The Alliance.
Three weeks later, Angle successfully defended the WCW United States Championship against Regal. Angle later joined The Alliance during a WrestleMania X-Seven rematch between Vince and then-WCW owner and son Shane: he interfered seemingly to aid Vince, but instead struck the members of the team representing WWF with a steel chair. However, Vince revealed that he had planted a "mole" in The Alliance, and Angle revealed himself to be that person at Survivor Series, which led to the aforementioned events involving Flair and Austin.
The feud between The Rock and Jericho had started while the two were uneasy allies due to their mutual hatred of Alliance co-owner Stephanie. The Rock kept reminding Jericho that he had never won "the big one" (a world heavyweight championship), and wrote Jericho off as a "comedy act". On the October 11 episode of SmackDown!, Jericho defeated Rob Van Dam of The Alliance to become the number one contender to The Rock's WCW Championship (later renamed the World Championship after Survivor Series). At No Mercy, Jericho defeated The Rock to win the title, becoming a world champion for the first time in his career. The following night on Raw, Jericho and The Rock set aside their differences and won the WWF Tag Team Championship when they defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley). On the October 29 episode of Raw, The Rock and Jericho successfully defended the WWF Tag Team Championship against then-Alliance members Booker T and Test, but a few days later on SmackDown!, they dropped the titles to Booker T and Test after Jericho inadvertently missile dropkicked The Rock, enabling Test to hit Rock with a big boot for the victory. After the match, The Rock and Jericho stared each other down, which ended with The Rock hitting Jericho with two Rock Bottoms. Later that episode, The Rock challenged Jericho for the WCW Championship in a No Mercy rematch. On the November 5 episode of Raw, The Rock defeated Jericho to win the title back with a surprise roll up, beginning his second WCW Championship reign. Irate at having lost the title, Jericho savagely attacked The Rock after the match, and hit him with a steel chair and the championship belt. Jericho was made part of Team WWF for the Winner Take All match at Survivor Series, promising that he would set aside his differences with The Rock for the good of the company. However, Jericho attacked The Rock following his elimination from the match, and nearly cost Team WWF the victory. The feud resumed after Jericho attacked The Rock on Raw the next night, and escalated leading up to Vengeance.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsJim RossJerry LawlerSpanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraHugo SavinovichBackstage interviewersJonathan CoachmanRing announcerHoward FinkelRefereesCharles RobinsonMike ChiodaNick PatrickTeddy LongEarl HebnerTim WhiteChad Patton
Sunday Night Heat Before the event went live on pay-per-view, The APA (Bradshaw and Faarooq) defeated Billy and Chuck in a match, taped for Sunday Night Heat.
Preliminary matches The opening match was a tag team match between Scotty 2 Hotty and Albert, and Christian and Test. Before the match had even started, Scotty and Albert started attacking Christian and Test. Scotty dominated in the beginning, but the much larger Test soon tagged in. Albert, who was of Test's size, then tagged in. Scotty and Albert double-teamed Test before Christian attacked Scotty. Test and Christian took the opportunity and assaulted Scotty, preventing him from tagging in Albert. Scotty fought them off however and tagged in Albert. Albert dominated both of them and set Christian up for a Baldo Bomb, but Test pulled Albert out of the ring. Scotty hit Christian with a bulldog, and attempted a Worm, but Christian knocked him down. Christian tried to hit the Worm, but Albert stopped him. Test made the save by hitting Albert with a big boot. Scotty hit a bulldog on Test, and hit a Worm. Christian tried to hit Scotty with an Unprettier, but Albert hit Christian with a Baldo Bomb for the victory.
The second match was between Edge and William Regal for Edge's WWF Intercontinental Championship. At the beginning of the match Edge had the advantage, showing his speed and agility. However Regal threw Edge out of the ring, and knocked him against the barricade. In the ring, Regal hit Edge with a series of European uppercuts, and reversed a sunset flip into a knee drop. Edge fought back and got several near-falls before Regal knocked Edge with a forearm smash, but Edge kicked Regal to the outside. On the ring apron, Edge tried to hit Regal with a diving spear on the floor but Regal sidestepped and Edge crashed into the steel ring steps. As the referee was distracted, Regal took out a pair of brass knuckles from under the ring and stuffed them into his tights. In the ring, Regal hit Edge with a powerbomb and two double underhook suplexes. Regal then hit Edge with a series of brutal kicks and, when the referee turned around, he took out his brass knuckles. Edge immediately speared Regal to win and retain his title.