Vengeance (2002)

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Vengeance (2002)
Details
Promotion	World Wrestling Entertainment
Brand (s)	RAW SmackDown!
Date	July 21, 2002
Venue	Joe Louis Arena
City	Detroit, Michigan
Attendance	12,000
Pay-per-view chronology
King of the Ring (2002)	Vengeance (2002)	SummerSlam (2002)
Vengeance chronology
Vengeance (2001)	Vengeance (2002)	Vengeance (2003)

Vengeance (2002) was the second annual Vengeance professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event from World Wrestling Entertainment. It took place on July 21, 2002 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. The tagline was "Quick & Merciless". The official theme song was "Downfall" by Trust Company.

The main event saw The Rock win the WWE Undisputed Championship in a Triple Threat match also involving Kurt Angle and The Undertaker. The main matches on the undercard were John Cena versus Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam versus Brock Lesnar for the WWE Intercontinental Championship and The Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian) versus Hollywood Hogan and Edge for the WWE Tag Team Championship.^[1]

Contents 1 Report 1.1 Background 1.2 Event 1.3 Aftermath 2 Results 3 References

[edit] Report

[edit] Background

The main feud heading into Vengeance was between The Rock, Kurt Angle and The Undertaker battling for the WWE Undisputed Championship.^[1] The match was originally The Rock vs. The Undertaker for the WWE Undisputed Championship, but on the July 4th edition of SmackDown!, The Undertaker and Kurt Angle wrestled to a draw, causing Angle to be put in the match with Undertaker and Rock at Vengeance.

Another ordeal heading into Vengeance was Triple H determining what roster he would permanently stay on. The choices were either to stay on SmackDown! with new general manager Stephanie McMahon, or head back to RAW with new general manager Eric Bischoff. Originally, the New World Order (nWo) was planning to threaten Triple H to join the nWo on his return to Raw, but due to backstage circumstances, the nWo was kicked off television a week before Vengeance. Shawn Michaels, however, would still promise to bring Triple H back to Raw.

On the undercard, the biggest match was Rob Van Dam defending the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Brock Lesnar, who had just defeated Van Dam a month earlier to win the 2002 King of the Ring. John Cena made his WWE debut on SmackDown! a month before Vengeance and had entered a minor feud with Chris Jericho. Chris Jericho and Edge were feuding at the time, and at one point were originally booked to fight each other at Vengeance, until Edge and Hollywood Hogan won the World Tag Team Championship from Billy and Chuck on the July 4th edition of SmackDown!. Jericho then asked Stephanie McMahon to let The Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian) wrestle Edge and Hogan for the tag team titles at Vengeance instead.

Finally, on the lower tier of the card, Jeff Hardy had defeated William Regal to win the WWE European Championship a week before Vengeance. As a result, Regal used his rematch clause for Vengeance. Booker T was still feuding with the New World Order at the time of their demise, so he was granted a no disqualification match with The Big Show.

[edit] Event

[edit] Aftermath

After winning the WWE Undisputed Championship, The Rock then entered a feud with the number one contender Brock Lesnar for the upcoming ppv SummerSlam. Brock Lesnar would go on to win the match and become the youngest WWE Champion in history. It would also be the last match for The Rock until early 2003.

Triple H and Shawn Michaels came out the night after Vengeance and what appeared to be a reunion for D-Generation X was instead Triple H nailing a Pedigree on Michaels. This caused Michaels to retaliate and challenge Triple H to a street fight at Summerslam, marking his first official match since Wrestlemania XIV. Shawn Michaels would go on to win in a miraculous upset, though Triple H would still send him out of the arena on a stretcher.

A night after Vengeance, Eric Bischoff decided to merge the WWE Intercontinental Championship and the WWE European Championship into one, putting Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy against each other in a ladder match. RVD would win the match, and the European Championship was retired. A week later, Van Dam lost the Intercontinental Championship to Chris Benoit, who would then jump to SmackDown!. Van Dam used his rematch clause for Summerslam and brought the Intercontinental title back to RAW.

After losing to John Cena, Chris Jericho had to face Edge in a steel cage match on the July 25th edition of SmackDown!. Edge would go on to win the match, and Jericho, along with The Un-Americans, would jump to RAW. Jericho went on to feud with Ric Flair. Lance Storm and Christian began to feud with Booker T and Goldust, while Test had a one-month feud with The Undertaker. After his cage match win over Chris Jericho, Edge began a two-month long feud with Eddie Guerrero.

After losing the triple threat match to The Rock, Kurt Angle would soon be pinned by Rey Mysterio in a tag team match on SmackDown! and would challenge Mysterio to a match at Summerslam.

[edit] Results

Numbers in parentheses indicate the length of the match.

• Sunday Night HEAT match: Goldust defeated Steven Richards (3:49)
  • Goldust pinned Richards.
• Bubba Ray Dudley and Spike Dudley defeated Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit in an Elimination Tables Match (14:59)^[1]
  • Spike put Guerrero through a table with the Dudley Dog (13:15)
  • Benoit tossed Spike over the top rope and through a table (14:30)
  • Bubba Ray put Benoit through a table with the Bubba Bomb (14:59)
• Jamie Noble (w/Nidia) defeated Billy Kidman to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship (7:34)^[1]
  • Noble pinned Kidman after a Nobilizer.
• Jeff Hardy defeated William Regal to retain the WWE European Championship (4:16)^[1]
  • Hardy pinned Regal with a roll-up.
  • After the match Regal started to cry.
• John Cena defeated Chris Jericho (6:21)^[1]
  • Cena pinned Jericho after countering the Walls of Jericho into a roll-up.
• Rob Van Dam defeated Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman) by disqualification to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship (9:38)^[1]
  • Lesnar was disqualified after Heyman pulled the referee from the ring, thus RVD retained the title.
  • After the match, Lesnar delivered the F-5 to Van Dam on a steel chair.
• Booker T defeated The Big Show in a No Disqualification match (6:12)^[1]
  • Booker pinned Big Show after a Houston Hangover.
• The Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian) defeated Hollywood Hogan and Edge to win the WWE Tag Team Championship (10:00)^[1]
  • Storm pinned Edge after Chris Jericho hit Edge with a tag title belt.
• The Rock defeated Kurt Angle and The Undertaker (c) in a Triple threat match to win the WWE Undisputed Championship (19:35)^[1]
  • Rock pinned Angle after a Rock Bottom.
  • The match was originally going to be a singles match between Rock and Undertaker, but Kurt Angle earned an opportunity at the title by wrestling to a draw with Undertaker.^[2]

[edit] References