Unforgiven 2001 Review

This is the first ppv to take place since the 9/11 attacks, and since the show was taking place in Pittsburgh and the hometown all american hero Kurt Angle was meeting Austin in a rematch from Summerslam, it was overwhelmingly obvious who would be walking out with the gold. JR and Heyman are on commentary.


Match #1

WWF Tag Team Championship 4 Team Elimination Match

The Dudley Boyz Vs The Hardy Boyz Vs The Big Show And Spike Dudley Vs The European Champion Huricane Helms And Lance Storm


Kronik made their debute about 2 weeks previous and cost Kane and Taker the belts to the Dudleyz. Matt and Helms start and Huricane is getting pretty over at this point, and even JR is satrting to like him. Hardyz doubleteam Hurricane . Bubba yanks Jeff out, but Jeff dropkicks Hurricane into Bubba and gets 2. Spike comes in and gets nailed by Storm. Hurricane misses an elbow and Spike clotheslines him, but Storm and Hurricane team up for a double neckbreaker. Hurricane puts on his cape and hits the flying crossbody. Gutbuster gets 2 on Spike. Storm comes in and takes the dudley dog, and Spike to make the hot tag to the Big Show. Big pop for Show which is unusual. He cleans house, but everyone’s in and it’s a battle royale. Hardyz hit topes onto the Dudleyz outside, then Show launches Spike onto everyone on the floor and gets a huge pop. He teases going up top but Bubba stops him. Aw man, if he suceeded everyone would of probably been counted out and carted out. Hurricane comes back in to go for the chokeslam on Show who shrugs him off easy, Storm gets chokeslammed and pinned about 6 minutes in. Soon after, Spike eats a twist of fate from Matt and is pinned to leave Hardyz/Dudleyz. Poetry in Motion, but Jeff gets tripped by Bubba. Jeff takes a nasty backdrop and gets Whazzup. D-Von goes to the chinlock. Then a Powerslam gets 2. Jeff gets tossed and sent to the stairs. Back inside D-Von gets 2 and Jeff gets a desperation corkscrew senton, hot tag Matt. They clean up and a ddt gets 2. Matt follows with a moonsault off the top onto them. Twist of Fate is reversed to 3D, but Jeff breaks it up with the swanton. But he not only squashes D-Von, but Matt who was underneath. Bubba sneaks in and bombs Matt so D-Von can pin him at 14:23. I like elimination matches, and the stuff with Huricane, and Show was fun. Crowd is into it tonight. 3 stars.


Match #2

Singles Match

Raven w Terri Vs Perry Saturn


The blowoff to that abysmal Moppy storyline. The story goes that Saturn beat up a preliminary jobber and his punishment was to act like a retard and carry around a mop. Best moment of the feud? Raven putting Moppy into a wood chipper. Saturn gets a springboard dropkick. Raven bails and they brawl. Saturn meets the steps. JR and Heyman talk about their WCW tag title run in 99 and the flock and other stuff you would of NEVER heard on WWF television. Raven bulldog gets 2. Raven with the cobra clutch. Still not talking to Dibiasie so they call it by what Slaughter called it. Raven blocks a sunset flip with help from the ropes for 2. Saturn superkick and a belly to belly and flying forearm for 2. Blind charge misses but a rollup gets 2. They go up, but Raven shoves him off and clotheslines him for 2. Sunset flip gets 2. Saturn with a catapult and a three handled moss covered family credenza wins it for Saturn at 5:08. Match was alright even though the fans couldn't give a **** really. 1 1/2 star.


Match #3

Intercontinental Championship Match

Edge Vs Christian


New music for Edge. New music for Christian. Alot of people like his very first opera theme that he used for about 2 weeks, but I prefer this, his more familiar version that he used until 2003. Edge flapjacks him, then they fight up the walkway. Edge catapults him into the diorahma set and they head back in. Christian posts him and they brawl out again as Edge eats stairs. Back in, Christian’s backbreaker gets 2. Powerslam gets 2, and Christian chops away. Edge fights back with a russian legsweep. He goes up and misses something, but lands on his feet and gets a german suplex for 2. Spear hits post instead of Christian, and Christian gets 2. They punch eachother and collide on a crossbody attempt for a double KO. Edge tosses Christian out of the corner to come back by his hair. Edge-O-Matic gets 2. Edge gets dumped, but slips under the ring and reappears on the other side with a bodypress for 2. Christian spears him for 2 and grabs some chairs. Edge escapes the one man conchairto by tripping Christian up, then goes for his own. But in a moment of bad logic, hte referee stops Edge because he's the good guy, and the faces aren't allowed to bash peoples heads in. The ref grabs the chair and in the stupidity of the booking, Christian lowblows and pins Edge at 11:55. Lame ending, but it was a pretty good match. Another interesting thing is you can trace the feud all the way back to KOTR when Christian yanked the trophy away and spent most of the months as his brothers trophy holder. They let it simmer for 3 months before pulling the trigger which is unusual for this time period. Most feuds they go right into them without any buildup and are one and done inside of 90 days. Im going 3 stars.


Match #4

WCW Tag Team Championship Match

The Brothers Of Destruction Vs Kronik


Now, this match has been dumped on for YEARS now. It comes up in almost every conversation involving crappy matches. Kronik had one match on Smackdown before this, where they squashed Kai En Tai. Ill just go through what i could pick out. Brian Adams seems to be the culprit for why people thought it sucked. Well overall, the fans weren't into it. Just 4 big guys not really selling the other guys offense for long. It was a back and forth sluggish punchfest mostly. Bad spots: Undertaker punching at Adams and you can see daylight between his hand and Adams head, about 4 inches of space. Adams tries a jawbreaker but it doesn't work so well, and Taker f bombs on camera. Interesting notes: "LETS GO JACOBS" chant early on. So I assume the home video is not doctored in anyway if they left that and the f bomb in. Positive: Adams hits a dropkick, haven't seen him do that in years, if ever. Taker no sells that and Adams no sells the zombie situp and clotheslines him outside. Taker drags him out and tries posting adams who does nothing on contact. Brawl breaks out, Kane hits a flying clothesline on Adams to send him away, and Taker chokeslams Clark to get the pin at 10:23. Richards gets killed postmatch in a funny bit. This match is by far NOT the worst match ever. I wouldn't even consider it in my top 10 worst. What's wrong?: Four big slow guys punching eachother, neither one selling for more than 5 seconds before going on the offense, Adams sandbagging and not putting effort into it. Clark did some good stuff and was probably the most working guy out there. To me it felt like any monster vs monster tag match from Superstars in the late 80s early 90s. Just didn't fit into this timeline. Another thing: Alot of people say Kronik sucked, and if you factor in this match and the fact that they were multi time tag champs at the very tail end of a dying promotion, you can understand why these two guys like alot of people only became champs in WCW's apocolyptic downfall. Nearly all their champs sucked in the last year or so. Ill give it 1/2 star.


Match #5

Hardcore Championship Match

Rob Van Dam Vs Chris Jericho


Crowd is torn. Flip flop to start, crowd applauds. They trade headlocks and fight over a backslide. Jericho with the chops and they do a pinfall reversal sequence. Rob does the thumb bit, pissing of Jericho, who takes him down and pounds him. Enzuigiri gets 2. Jericho flapjacks him, but the springboard misses and Jericho splats. RVD pescado gets 2. Jericho eats post, but Rob misses the guillotine legdrop on the barricade. Jericho grabs a ladder. Back in, more chops, Rob runs and hits the post. Suplex on the ladder gets 2. Rob misses a rana and gets caught in the Walls, but powers out and hits a rolling splash for 2. Spinning legdrop gets 2. Jericho is cut above his right eye. Jericho blocks the moonsault but misses the Lionsault. Rob gets a heel kick, but misses the frog splash. Rollup gets 2 for Jericho. Jericho charges with the ladder but Rob trips him up and Jericho meets the ladder facefirst. Rob grabs a chair and slams Jericho on it, but he gloats on the ladder and gets hit in the face with a chair as a result. Jericho does the Rumble 01/Benoit spot on the ladder. Jericho dumps him then misses on something and lands on the railing outside. Back in, but Rob knocks him to the floor again. Rob hits a tope, then RVD crashes into a chair and Jericho covers on the floor for 2. Jericho works the shoulder and they head back in. RVD gets a heel kick for two, reversed to a fujiwara armbar by Jericho, and Rob makes the ropes. Rob bails, but meets the stairs. Back in, Jericho beats him up with a chair then Nipples runs out and gets in Jericho's face. He takes a swing at her and RVD daminates the chair back in his face then gets the frogsplash at 16:26 to retain. 3 1/2 stars. I liked RVD/Jeff more.


Match #6

WCW Championship Handicap Match

The Rock Vs Booker T And Shane McMahon


Either heel can win the title. Rock clotheslines Booker. Neckbreaker gets 2. Backdrop suplex gets 2. Shane comes in and runs away, but Rock cuts him off and kicks his ass. Cheapshot puts Rock down, Booker sideslam gets 2. They work him over, but Shane gets suplexed in. Rock puts the sharpshooter on Shane and Booker saves. Fight outside and the heels beat up Rock. Back in, Rock gets posted and Booker gets 2. Rock tosses him, but Shane then tosses Rock. Rock and Booker fight, and " The Book" wins it. Back in, the delayed kneedrop sets up the spinarooni, which some fans cheer. Rock simply rolls him up for a 2 count. Booker tosses Rock again, and bounces him off the Spanish table. Shane sets up for the Suicide Elbow, but Rock moves before anything can happen. Back in, Rock gets the samoan drop, but Shane grabs the WCW title and hits Booker by mistake. Shane whacks Rock and gets a 2. DDT on Booker gets 2. Shane nails him and goes for the flying elbow, but Rock kips up and hits Rock Bottom!! Spinebuster for Booker, but Test runs in and boots Rock, Bradshaw chases off Test. Nick Patrick hauls the fallen Rock in, but now Mike Ciota runs in to protest. He pulls Shane off at 2, then Booker gets 2. The refs brawl, Rock Bottom on Booker follows, and Earl Hebner runs in on the side of justice to make the pinfall count at 15:15. Didn't like Shane in there to begin with because it steered the spotlight away from Booker, and the ending was way overbooked. Ill be nice and go 2 1/2 stars.


Match #7

United States Championship Match

Tajiri w Torrie Wilson Vs Rhyno


Rhyno pounds Tajiri to start, Tajri unleashes the sidekick and dropkick, but Rhyno hits the bad ribs and powerslams him for 2. Tajiri rollup gets 2, Rhyno suplexes him for 2. Tajiri gets a rana for 2. Handspring elbow gets 2, but he walks into a spinebuster for 2. Rhyno works the ribs and then goes after Torrie, but Tajiri buzzsaw kicks him in the face to prevent the goar from hitting his girlfriend. Tarantula follows and Rhyno hits an exploder suplex then finishes with the goar to end this nothing title match at 4:47. 1 1/2 star.


Match #8

WWF Championship Match

Stone Cold Steve Austin Vs Kurt Angle


Angle attacks Austin on the entrance and Angle kicks ass. Into the ring, there they slug it out and Angle gets a thesz Press?. Superplex attempt, but Angle changes his mind and just pounds away on Austin until he falls out of the ring. Superplex, but Angle hurts his own neck and gets 2. Austin sleeper, countered with a jawbreaker. Austin gets dumped and takes a walk, but Angle follows and continues beating the snot out of him. He tosses him off the stage, then dumps him back into the ring and tries pulling up the outside mats for a piledriver. Austin cuts him off with a kneelift and tries himself, but Angle backdrops out. So Angle tries it, same thing. Austin bleeds here. Austin suplexes him onto the Spanish table, three times and it won't break. Into the ring, they slug it out and Angle eats knee. Austin works the neck. Austin with a chinlock. Angle rollup gets 2. Austin gets caught in the triple german suplex. Angle hurts himself in the process, but goes up. He gets crotched. Austin whiplashes him and goes low, and Angle goes outside. Back in, Angle returns the favor to the groin and a DDT sends Austin outside. Back in, Angle does the kick wham stunner....but only 2. Angle Slam is reversed to an Austin Slam for 2. Piledriver connects but Angle kicks out at 2 and 3 quarters. Austin preps for the big one, he flips off Angle and goes to kick but Angle catches the foot and turns it into the anglelock and Austin taps out at 23:30ish by my count. Crowd errupts. The Angle family runs in and they do the Luger/Summerslam 93 celebration as the WWF guys come out and it's a party in Pittsburgh. This all ammounted to absolutely NOTHING as Angle became a member of the Alliance a littlewhile later, but it turned out he was a mole and turned on Austin at SS to help Vince eliminate WCW/ECW. Somehow this made Angle the bad guy and Austin the good guy. Why the hell the Alliance would trust Angle in the first place (bad booking being ignored of course) is eluding me. Call it 4 stars.


Overall Opinion: An up and down ppv pretty much. A good match then bad/mediocre match then another good match seemed to be the formula.


Final Score: 6.9 stars