Reviews of every WWE “B” PPV event from 2001 including Invasion

Let’s discuss the WWE “B” PPV events from 2001. During this period, the landscape of wrestling shifted as WWE purchased its competition, WCW and ECW.

No Way Out 2001

No Way Out — one month before WrestleMania 17 — was a strong show.

You had the Three Stages of Hell Match with Triple H and Steve Austin. The first match was a standard match that Austin won. Then they had a Street Fight, which Triple H won, and Triple H also won the third fall, which was the cage match. Triple H looked really strong here, and one would think they would follow that up with Austin winning the title at WrestleMania, then Austin and Triple H having another match, but that didn’t happen. Still, this was really strong stuff.

Stephanie McMahon vs. Trish Stratus was an entertaining storyline with Vince wanting a divorce from Linda and having Trish by his side, while Stephanie got pissed off. This was fun.

The Intercontinental Title match — Jericho vs. Benoit vs. Guerrero vs. X-Pac in a Fatal 4-Way — was really fun.

The Hardcore Title match was entertaining: Big Show and Raven, with all these other people interfering.

Then in the main event, you had Kurt Angle vs. The Rock. This was another good match between the two. Big Show interfered randomly, but in the end The Rock won the title. The finish was a bit awkward because Rock hit a Rock Bottom and it didn’t look like Kurt Angle kicked out. There seemed to be a moment of confusion, and Rock went for a second Rock Bottom and then got the win. Not sure if that was a mistake or what happened, but still, The Rock won the title and it set up your big WrestleMania 17 match: Rock vs. Austin.

A very solid pay-per-view.

Backlash 2021

At the time, I considered this pay-per-view and the following one, Judgment Day, to be “lame duck” shows. I was waiting for something to happen with The Invasion, and to me, these events felt like time fillers. Looking back on them now, not much has changed. There are a few highlights here and there, but overall, both pay-per-views are pretty forgettable.

The Backlash card was solid enough. I enjoyed the Hardcore Championship match between Rhyno and Raven — both guys formerly from ECW — and it was one of Raven’s better matches during his WWE run.

William Regal vs. Chris Jericho in the “Duchess of Queensbury” match was just ridiculous. It felt like something straight out of Vince Russo’s playbook — every time Jericho would have the match won, the Duchess would change the rules. “Oh, now it’s a No DQ match,” or “now it’s no count-outs.” It was very similar to Russo’s WCW antics. Not a big fan of this one.

Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit in a 30-minute submission match was very good — not their best match, in my opinion, but there’s no such thing as a bad Angle vs. Benoit bout. Definitely the match of the night.

Shane McMahon vs. Big Show was just silly. As the new owner of WCW, Shane should have been leading the invasion, not wrestling Big Show on a WWE pay-per-view. The storyline was that Shane wanted Big Show in WCW since he had history there, but Show stayed loyal to Vince. The match was weird and confusing — you didn’t know who to cheer for since Shane was technically the WCW guy but still portrayed as a face. The only memorable part was Shane’s huge leap off the stage onto Big Show, with Test helping him to beat the ten count.

The main event featured the “Two-Man Power Trip” — Steve Austin and Triple H — against the tag champions, Undertaker and Kane. I liked the idea of all the titles being on the line, but Austin’s heel turn wasn’t working for me and really hurt the match. It felt like the whole thing was about Triple H, who ended up getting the win for the team while Austin seemed like the secondary player. The Chicago crowd was hot, but overall, it was a very forgettable pay-per-view.

Judgment Day 2001

In my opinion, Judgment Day was more of the same — another lame duck pay-per-view waiting for the invasion to start.

Chyna had her final WWF appearance, facing Lita. The storyline was strange — Chyna acted heelish, then turned friendly after the match. Her top slipped during the bout, which was honestly the only memorable part.

Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit in a ladder match was excellent — even better than their Iron Man match the previous month. Edge and Christian interfered, helping Angle, which tied into the later tag title match where Jericho brought out Benoit as his mystery partner. They ended up winning the titles together — solid storytelling.

Rikishi vs. William Regal saw Rikishi turning babyface again after his failed heel run, but he got injured during the match and was out for six months.

The main event matches saw Kane beating Triple H for the Intercontinental title, and Steve Austin defeating The Undertaker for the WWF title. Austin vs. Taker had potential but ended up being overbooked with interference, teasing a split between Austin and Triple H that never happened due to Triple H’s quad injury the next night on Raw.

Invasion 2001

Invasion was a historic pay-per-view, but maybe not for the right reasons. It should’ve been the biggest show ever, but while it was solid overall, it could have been so much better — especially the main event.

It didn’t feel authentic. Instead of a true interpromotional battle, it felt like WWF guys pretending to be WCW or ECW wrestlers. The main event, Team WWF vs. The Alliance, was entertaining, but Steve Austin’s heel turn ruined it.

Austin turning on WWF because Vince gave Kurt Angle more hugs? That was the explanation. Completely ridiculous. The ending soured the whole show.

This should’ve been the night we saw big WCW names like Goldberg or Sting to kick off The Invasion properly, maybe even lead to a separate WCW show. Instead, we got the Dudley Boyz and other WWF guys switching sides to “ECW.” Austin joining The Alliance made zero sense given his history with WCW.

Unforgiven 2001

The most interesting thing about Unforgiven was the poster. It was the first WWF pay-per-view after 9/11, so the company played it safe — nothing controversial.

Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle in the main event was fine on paper, with Angle winning the WWE Title in his hometown of Pittsburgh. But having Austin tap out was baffling. This was the guy who refused to quit against Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13. It completely damaged his character.

Then you had the infamous Undertaker and Kane vs. Chronic match — not the worst of all time, but definitely bad enough that Chronic was released soon after.

The Rock beat Booker T and Shane McMahon in a handicap match, continuing to bury Booker T. Edge vs. Christian was notable as their first one-on-one match, with Christian winning the IC Title. RVD vs. Jericho for the Hardcore Title was the best match of the show. And from Invasion, I should add — Jeff Hardy vs. RVD was easily the match of that event.

No Mercy 2001

No Mercy was a decent show. The triple threat between Austin, Angle, and RVD was strong, with RVD outshining everyone on the Alliance side. He was becoming the company’s breakout star, which irritated Austin — a good story idea if Austin’s heel run hadn’t already been so awkward.

Chris Jericho finally got his big win, defeating The Rock in an excellent match. It had a lot of outside interference from Stephanie McMahon, but still very entertaining.

Edge vs. Christian in a ladder match was solid but a step down from their tag team ladder matches with the Dudleys and Hardys. Overall, No Mercy was decent but nothing spectacular.

Vengeance 2001

This show replaced Armageddon in December due to 9/11 sensitivity. It’s remembered for one thing: Chris Jericho becoming the Undisputed Champion by beating both The Rock and Steve Austin in one night.

Yes, there was a ton of interference, but Jericho still pulled it off. The backstage segments with Ric Flair and Jericho were great.

The Hardy Boyz faced each other with Lita as referee, but the match didn’t work — fans didn’t want to see them feud. WWE even reunited them weeks later. Undertaker beating RVD for the Hardcore Title was another solid highlight.