Furious Arnold - The Raw Files: 2001

THE

RAW

FILES

2001

Arnold Furious

Dan Hey

Jonathan Sullivan

James Dixon

Benjamin Richardson

Bob Dahlstrom

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Contents

Venue: Austin, TX

Raw Rating: 4.5

Nitro Rating: N/A

Welcome to another fabulous year of RAW recaps from the History of Wrestling team. 2001 was one of the most turbulent years in modern wrestling history and therefore one of the most intriguing to look back on. Were in for a rollercoaster ride of changes with new faces aplenty, booking disasters and dream matches that never quite transpire. At the time, with both WCW and ECW dying (one because of haemorrhaging cash losses, the other because they lost their TV deal), the WWF were on top of the wrestling world. When the year started they were still hot from Attitude, which is an era considered to formally end around March and WrestleMania time in 2001, leading the way in wrestling action. Naturally at the forefront of the booking was Stephanie McMahon because nepotism is king in sportz entertainment.

Were in Austin, Texas. Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler .

We kick things off with a video clip from SmackDown where Steve Austin stood up to the billion-dollar princess by pouring beer all over her only for Steph to take it out on fellow babyfaces The Undertaker and The Rock . Steve arrives for tonights show and gets ordered, by stooge Earl Hebner, to report to Stephs office.

The Undertaker vs. Rikishi

This is part of a mini-tournament to determine the next opponent for WWF Champion Kurt Angle . If it slipped your memory Kish was heel after revealing he ran over Steve Austin. In the interim Rikishi has been thrown off the Hell in a Cell by his opponent here but seems to be fine considering. Taker is in the midst of one of his worst runs in wrestling, as the Bikertaker (Underbiker), and his usual no-selling antics are even more painful than usual. Rikishi isnt the man to carry him, despite this being his peak on any roster as one of the top heels. 2001wasnt a good year for him with injuries taking their toll. Rikishis importance to the company is plain to see when Taker downs him inside five minutes with a DDT. A move Taker normally uses as a transition. Not that Rikishi could take any of Takers other finishers but surely hes worth a chokeslam.

Final Rating : *1/2

Video Control takes backstage to Steve Austin demanding a title shot from Steph. Mrs Helmsley orders Austin to sell all the Budweiser theyve got knocking around or hell never get another title shot. Cute booking to keep Austin out of the title picture, for tonight at least. Something WWE have had a bad habit with, over the years, is not explaining why certain people who should be involved in big matches are not.

APA & Billy Gunn vs. Right to Censor

APA are cornered by Jacqueline seeing as shes the premier lass-kicker in WWF Land. It allows APA to take out their contracts on lady folk too. RTC took out Chyna with a piledriver so Billy is here for revenge. There was so much going on in2001 that this match has several angles and the announcers still spend a chunk of the match talking about the XFL. Billy gets a measure of revenge by pinning Val with the One and Only. This was by the numbers, especially considering Gunns attempts at revenge.

Final Rating : *

Video Control takes us to Steve Austin who has a mustard malfunction and accidentally sprays Stephs chest area. You want any onions with that? asks Austin. Austins antics extend to testing all the beer hes about to sell. Vince McMahon rings in some booking to Steph, which appear to be favouring Trish Stratus . Steph takes it out on Trish.

WWF Hardcore Championship

Raven (c) vs. Tazz

Raven blindsided Steve Blackman to win the title backstage last week. This is Ravens first, of many, Hardcore titles. He claims this will be the year of the Raven. Not if Vince McMahon has anything to do with it pal. Raven & Tazz were a tag team in 2000 when Raven debuted in the company. The highlight of this one is Raven getting his head dunked into a toilet and the water is suspiciously yellow, if you catch my drift. The match is interrupted by several run ins before Raven uses a fire extinguisher and pins Crash Holly to retain. Every time I see old Hardcore title matches I get disappointed at how much fun the division could have been only for WWF to use it as uncreative, repetitive filler.

Final Rating : *

Promo Time: Steve Austin

He claims to have sold all the beers he was assigned (to the APA oddly enough) and tells Steph to come out here and give him his title shot. Trying to re-do Austin-McMahon with Steph replacing Vince was not a good idea. They restored parity by returning to Austin-McMahon around WrestleMania time. Austin snapping at Steph puts her in her place here, but its uncomfortable viewing knowing Austins inclination toward spousal abuse. Steph books Austin vs. William Regal tonight. Winner gets into a triple threat on SmackDown with Taker and whoever wins the Kane-Rock match. Austin put Steph in her place here, which is something that needs to happen more frequently. Steph does a fine job of selling the abuse both verbal and physical (as Austin accidentally tears her top off to end the segment).

Tag Team Tables Match

Chris Jericho & The Dudley Boyz

vs. Kurt Angle, Edge & Christian

It seems odd that the WWF champion is stuck in a six-man undercard match and is essentially paired off with Bubba. The match continues under normal tag team rules, for no apparent reason, as the only way to win is by tabling your opponent. So why bother tagging? There are no DQs. The stupidity of tagging rather takes away from the nuclear heat the match has, as everyone is over huge and the table could run for president and win. Angle takes at least one needless bump on his neck, which makes me wince knowing his ongoing neck injuries in the years that follow this. The near fall table teases are pretty great with various people moving tables and dodging around them until the 3D takes out Edge for the babyface win. If you can ignore the bizarre adherence to tag rules in the early going this was good fun.

Final Rating : **1/4

Video Control takes us backstage where Test is pissed off with Trish for spending the holidays with Vince McMahon instead of managing T&A business. Or rather T business as Albert turned on Test last week on SmackDown. This leads directly into lots of XFL chatter. If only they knew how much this was going to suck.

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Chris Benoit (c) vs. Test

The crowd do not care about this one as the combined personality level is pretty low. This plods along with Benoit technically dominating and looking close to victory several times. Albert comes down, which bizarrely leads to Test running through all his power spots. Surely interference benefits the other guy? Anyway, Trish turns on Test and Benoit retains. The Albert vs. Test thing never had any traction because nobody cares about either of them. Quite why they decided to split up a good team just because they werent a great team is anyones guess. Of course they couldnt have put together the phenomenal X-Factor team without Albert! Best guess would be they needed to free up Trish and figured the team was doomed without her.

Final Rating : *1/4

Video Control takes us to William Regal who out-verbiages Debra . Hes hilarious with minimal effort. Debra was still technically lieutenant commissioner. Lieutenant to no commissioner as Mick Foley had been fired. Switching authority figures from Foley back to the McMahons was a horrible decision.