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
No Way Out 2001 –
February 2001
Las Vegas, Nevada
CHAMPION RUNDOWN:
Heading into tonight's main event, the reigning WWE Champion is Kurt Angle,
Raven is the Hardcore Champion, and Chris Jericho is the Intercontinental
Champion. Ivory is the WWE Women's Champion. The Tag Team Championships are
held by the Dudley Boys.
COMMENTATORS: Jim
Ross, Jerry Lawler/Tazz
Kicking off tonight's show is WWE Hardcore Champion, Raven, defending against the Big Show. Big Show looks lean and
mean here, while Raven just seems so out of place in a WWE ring. From the first
minute, there is all sorts of interference - a female ninja, a
popcorn vendor (Crash Holly?), Steve Blackman, Hardcore Holly - that it's mostly a mess. Billy Gunn wins the title by running in
and pinning Raven, but as there is a 24/7 rule in place, his reign is
short-lived as Raven wins the title back moments later. This is followed up by
Big Show connecting with a chokeslam and winning the title himself. Horrendous. (0.5/5)
Chris Jericho vs.
Chris Benoit vs. XPac vs. Eddie Guerrero for Jericho's IC Title is second
on the card. I couldn't follow the story here at all. Things pick up a bit as the match progresses, but blatant
interference in a title match, while the ref does nothing, is counterproductive
in pro-wrestling. Still, there are enough interesting spots from the veterans to make this enjoyable and slightly above-average. (3/5)
Backstage segment with Vince and Regal. McMahon is talking
about Trish and Stephanie and telling Regal that he'll "know what to
do" when the time is right.
This is followed by a video package for Trish and Steph's
feud. At this point, Vince had Linda placed in a sanitarium and Trish Stratus
had swooped in to woo the Billionaire.
Cut to Test at WWE New York. Test's two lines are
ridiculous. Network Nugget of Awkwardness!
Trish Stratus and
Stephanie McMahon square off next.
This is a very physical match from the get-go, with Stephanie taking some big
bumps. The match gets a bit too depraved for me when Trist gets soaked by a
pitcher of water. Regal comes in and makes it 3-out-of-3 for interference in tonight's
matches. While this one is hard to stomach with
modern eyes, the action and storytelling draws the audience in tremendously,
which is no small feat for a "divas match" in any era. (3.5/5)
A WrestleMania commercial airs. It is oddly similar to what
Tim & Eric might put together. Again, like the Test
segment, I could've used a few more minutes of this.
The video package for Triple H/Austin is the first thing
that I've seen in tonight's show that was well-produced.
The Three Stages of Hell Match is next - Austin vs. Triple H
in a regular match, street fight, and, if necessary, cage match. Austin arrives
to arguably the most horrendous music the WWE ever produced. The crowd is wide awake, though, I'm surprised the show itself didn't build more for
this match, which surely deserved to be the main event. The first
fall is a straight-up wrestling match, with a pretty good figure four spot in
the middle. The finish gets a huge crowd reaction and the
crowd is amped for the second fall. The next round is a weapons-heavy war
featuring all the usual suspects of an Attitude Era "main event"
style match - table spots, chairs, barbwire, blood. As imperfect as the very
idea of this match is, both guys work incredibly hard to constantly up the intensity. The finish for the second fall is as well-executed as the first
fall and a final fall is
necessary. A cage lowers while Austin and Triple H pick themselves up off the
mat, though, had the match ended after two, I think we'd still have had an
above-average, highly entertaining bout for the history books. They save plenty of big spots
and twists and turns for the final act, though, finding extra stores of energy and
brutality to deliver a closing that delivers on the promise of the first two
segments. (4.5/5)
Tazz arrives next to join the commentary desk for our next
match - Stevie Richards vs. Jerry Lawler.
The stipulation is that if Lawler wins, the Kat gets to strip, while if he
loses, she is forced to join the Right to Censor stable. The Kat was Lawler's
real life girlfriend at the time. The King is a legend no doubt,
and he can still throw a mean worked punch, but this is not a PPV-worthy contest. Dave Meltzer gave it 1-and-a-quarter star in The Wrestling Observer, but I think that's
actually generous. (0.5/5)
In case you hadn't had your fill of violence, the next match
is a Triple Threat Table Match for the Dudley Boys' WWE Tag Team Championships.
Their opponents are none other than Edge and Christian and the Brothers of Destruction,
Kane and the Undertaker. Things get brutal when Team 3D deliver some nasty
chairshots to the Deadmen, but Edge and Christian definitely take the brunt of
the beatdowns. While there's certainly not anything remotely
technical on display here, the match is still loads of fun to watch - possibly
because the spots are well-paced, make sense, and are sold by the competitors.
I'm also not sure I've seen a better Taker & Kane tag match, as they really
mirror each other's maneuvers perfectly in this one (it also helps that in this
context they can look dominant, but not invincible). Outside interference
rears its ugly head into this match, deflating it a bit towards the end, but
for what it was, this match is certainly an enjoyable 15 minutes or so. (3.5/5)
Our main event is upon us - The Rock vs. Kurt Angle for the
WWE Championship (and a spot in the WrestleMania 17 main event against Rumble
winner, Steve Austin). The crowd is electric for this one and both men work in some of their better
offense, though, this certainly ain't a clinic. A ref bump leads to
yet another instance of outside interference, this time featuring full on music
and intro, which I really feel makes it seem a bit too premeditated and not
opportunistic enough. Big Show, for no apparent reason, levels both men with
chokeslams (instead of just going after, say, The Rock, who had defeated him to
become number one contender for Angle's title). After that, shenanigans
continue with The Rock connecting with a belt shot against the Olympic Gold
Medalist and, while the crowd is certainly popping big, I doubt
modern audiences would be pulled in nearly as much when you consider just how
little these dramatic turns were built up in the first part of the match. The final 3-4 minutes are
action-packed and as over-the-top as any match I've seen, but that
doesn't mean they make a lick of a sense. Still, the crowd reaction and the
excellent work by Tazz and JR on commentary push this one up in my book as
being a better-than-average match, especially if you abandon any
notion of believability and just enjoy the contest for being an "Attitude
Era" clash of two mega stars. (4/5)
With an average match rating of 2.78-out-of-5, No Way Out 2001 is an uneven show. The opening contest is useless, as is the Lawler/Richards
match, but on a show like this, which featured some heavily gimmicked
encounters involving some much bigger stars, it is not surprising the WWE opted
to give its audience some "bathroom breaks." The best match of the
night sits at the center of the show as Austin and Triple H put on an
excellent and brutal series of falls that, unfortunately, are made less special
when they are surrounded with so many other matches that relied on the same
tricks, namely an abundance of weapons and finisher kick-outs. Similarly, no
less than 4 matches featured interference before the Big Show decided to come
in and, for almost no rhyme or reason, lay out both the Rock and Angle in the main event. When a
wrestler interferes, shouldn't he have the goal of ruining one man's career by costing him a match to the other? If not, what is his motivation to strike during the match and not
before or after? Similarly, the interference for the Tag Team Championship match was
notably lackluster and inconsequential when you consider the "natural"
feud stemming from this match (Meng & Haku vs. The Brothers of Destruction)
wouldn’t be given any attention on the next month’s WrestleMania card.
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