WWE Unforgiven 2001

RATING LEVELS:

Curt Hennig – A “GOAT” show, as Perfect as possible

Watch It – A consistently good show worth watching in its entirety

Watch It…With Remote in Hand – 3 or more above-average ratings

High Risk Maneuver – Mostly filler, inessential, but 1-2 good matches

DUDleyville – Zero redeeming qualities, chore to watch

Unforgiven 2001 - September 2001

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

 CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, Steve Austin holds the WWF Championship while The Rock is the WCW World Champion. Edge is the Intercontinental Champion, Tajiri is the United States Champion, the European Champion is Hurricane Helms, the Cruiserweight Champion is X-Pac, and the Hardcore Champion is Rob Van Dam. The Women's Champion is Chyna, though, she does not appear on this show (in fact, she'd wrestled her last match for the company some months earlier). The WWF World Tag Team Champions were The Dudley Boys, while Kane and the Undertaker were the recognized WCW World Tag Team Champions.

COMMENTATORS: Jim Ross and Paul Heyman

Mere weeks after the 9/11 attacks, the WWE came to Pittsburgh and put on Unforgiven. Watching this show years later, it’s difficult to muster the same emotions as the audience felt that night, gathered together a short time after a national tragedy to enjoy some good ol' American pro 'rasslin. With that in mind, I'm not going to rate the opening segment, a heartfelt delivery of one of our country's most patriotic anthems.

The first match of the night is a Fatal Fourway for the WWF Tag Team Championships - The Hardy Boys vs. Big Show and Spike Dudley vs. Lance Storm and (WWF European Champion) Hurricane Helms vs. the defending champs The Dudleys. I'm usually not a huge fan of matches like this, but the mix of performers allows for several good sequences and the crowd eats up the major spots - including an awesome Big Show plancha tease. The first two eliminations are lean, though, I would've actually preferred a bit longer and more of a showcase for at least one of the final three. Almost as soon as this match is down to two teams, the "We Want Tables" chants start - an albatross that hang over so many Dudleys matches from this time. The crowd doesn't get what it wants, which is good in this case because, as heels, the Dudleys should not be crowd-pleasing. Instead, they slow the pace, picking it up towards the finish. Good, not great opener. (2.5/5)

Backstage, Stephanie McMahon offers her support to Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam for his matcha against Chris Jericho.

Then, it’s to the front row, where Michael Cole interviews the Angle Family, including Kurt's mother and brother Dave.

Saturn vs. Raven is next, the build-up based on Raven feeding Saturn's best friend, a mop named Moppy, into a wood chipper. You can tell from the rate they cut early on that these guys came out to impress - there's lots of physicality and high-impact moves in rapid succession to kick things off. Regardless of their efforts, though, the crowd is not interested, even when Saturn delivers a series of excellent suplexes that look as good as any I've ever seen. The finish makes it even clearer that the audience was not paying any attention at all. A decent match that the crowd just absolutely crushed with indifference. (1/5)

Backstage, Christian cuts a short promo on his "brother" and opponent tonight, Intercontinental Champion, Edge, before their match. While both men would evolve into even better performers than they were here, it's impossible not to respect their efforts in this match, working hard to put together a match that would elevate both of them and prove their value as true singles stars. Christian's control stretch is well done - his strikes on Edge look sharp and his choice of moves are heel standards. Meanwhile, Edge plays the babyface role equally well, but not necessarily well enough to lure the quiet crowd into truly caring about every twist and turn of this match. The fact that both men end up bloodied (with Edge suffering a noticeably bigger cut under his left eye), seemingly "hard way," adds some extra drama, but the match doesn't seem to really kick into a higher gear until Christian grabs two chairs in order to perform a One-Man Con-chair-to on his fallen brother. Unfortunately, the finish comes so quickly after that a fever pitch is never truly reached. (2.5/5)

The Undertaker and Kane are backstage, holding the WCW World Tag Team Championships, talking up their opponents, Stevie Richards' hired goons, KroNik. A video package reminds viewers that KroNik, the team of Bryan Clark and Brian Adams, cost the Brothers of Destruction their WWF Tag Titles in their match against the Dudleys a few weeks prior. The challengers arrive first in matching outfits, before the familiar sounds of Limp Bizkit announce the arrival of Taker and Kane. The match begins with straight-up brawling on the outside before Mike Chioda gets a handle on things. It noticeably suffers when the heels are in control as their offense looks terrible. Adams can't seem to lift Kane for a backbreaker, while Clark's jumping kicks are the opposite of devastating, especially compared to the varied and stylized moveset of Taker, who follows a vintage Old School with an MMA-influenced crossarm submission. Still, while KroNik come across as not even remotely in the same league as the champs, its not as if Taker and Kane do anything to elevate their opponents, dominating the contest with such little effort that it comes off as an elongated squash match, not a PPV-worthy title defense. I've seen this match ranked as one of the worst bouts ever, and it is definitely not good...but it is also not nearly as "full of botches" as internet lore makes it out to be. Bad, but not cringeworthy. (1/5)

Saving the day is our next match, a highly physical and very hardcore battle between Rob Van Dam and Chris Jericho. The crowd is red hot for Van Dam, but by the end, Jericho has earned a considerable number of cheers himself. There are several great moments in this match, including a tarantula submission at the top of a ladder, a number of very rough-looking chair spots, and Van Dam bumping to the outside with reckless abandon. This may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it is hard to argue with the shot-in-the-arm this bout gave to the show and the live audience. Dave Meltzer gave it 4 stars in his review, which I think is a bit high, but this is easily the match of the night so far. (3.5/5)

Next up - the WCW World Championship match, with The Rock defending against Booker T and Shane McMahon in a handicap match. The first 2/3rds of this match are very predictable and full of cliche exchanges and sequences - so much so that I was worried this bout would never get into a higher gear. The final 4-5 minutes, though, are fantastic Attitude Era drama, the wrestling equivalent of a kitchen sink being tossed into a blender and put on high. We get all sorts of ref bumps, run-ins from two midcarders that have little business even touching The Rock, and false finishes galore. While not a career highlight for any of the three competitors and, definitely a letdown considering the fact that the names involved are generally strong performers, at least the closing stretch is exciting. (2.5/5)

Rhyno vs. Tajiri is next. Tajiri's few minutes of in-ring work upstages anything we saw in the previous bout. A "We Want Puppies" chant is audible in the early minutes, but subsides with each impressive maneuver Tajiri pulls out of his bag of tricks. Rhyno, to his credit, displays some strong offense and sells Tajiri's strikes like a pro. Short and to-the-point with some good spots, this is an average match executed well, a clear example of how less can be more and the freshness of a rivalry or a match's participants can lift it beyond being the bathroom break it was obviously intended to be. A few more minutes of action would've raised this one even higher. (2.5/5)

Main event time - Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle for the WWF Championship in a rematch from SummerSlam. The physicality and storytelling draws in the viewer, but having this match in Angle's hometown certainly helps too. Unlike the WCW World Championship match, at no point does this match succumb to cheap novelties or throw in trademark spots that serve no greater purpose. Austin's offense is vicious throughout, causing Angle to play defense for most of the time, not even delivering one of his patented suplexes into well into the match. I also like how Austin and Angle do so much with just two set pieces - the exposed concrete floor and the seemingly unbreakable Spanish announce table. Instead of relying on weapons, Angle and Austin stick with simple elements to give this match a genuine feeling of danger and brutality. Unfortunately, the finisher-trading sequence is a bit convoluted and unnecessary, and while it is followed by a pitch-perfect piledriver spot, the clusterfuck, overbooked finish hurts this match considerably. Any fan with passing knowledge of the rules of rope breaks will be thoroughly disappointed. (3/5)

With an average match rating of 2.31-out-of-5, Unforgiven 2001 has its high points, but is hard to recommend as a whole. The lows are low too: the Brothers of Destruction/Kronik and Saturn/Raven matches are among the worst bouts that I've seen on my journey through WWE's 2001 PPV season. The Rock's title defense is uninspired, its saving grace being the frenzy of its final moments. Austin/Angle is a great match that ends too abruptly to make it a classic. It is an epic "in the making" that is pulled out of the oven before it's fully baked. The match of the night is, without question, the Hardcore Championship match, but its hard to justify sitting through this entire show for less than an hour of high quality action.

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver