From the Beginning

[Guest Brian]

WWF RAW IS WAR – 11/26/01

 

Mike Tenay and Scott Hudson open up WWF RAW. They say that last weekend was one of the best weekends they’ve seen in wrestling. They quickly go over the cruiserweight tournament results from the second week of the tournament. Rey Mysterio pinned Spike Dudley in “Bracket A” to take the lead with four points, two wins and no losses. Juventud pinned Matt Hardy. “Bracket B” leader Kidman also has four points after pinning Christopher Daniels. Two matches went the full ten minutes to a tie this weekend, as Chavo and Tajiri were left with three points, while TAKA and Funaki earned their first point. X-Pac makes his way down for the usual commentary.

 

Juventud Guerrera vs. Hurricane Helms

Slowly throughout the match, Helms gets pissed and sheds his gimmick. He throws away the cape by the five minute mark. At the seven minute mark, Helms stops the taunts and just goes straight for the win. At 8:12, he hits the vertibreaker for the win. Tenay says that with the win gives Helms his first two points. Helms gets on the mic and says he’s tired of playing super-hero, and it’s about time the world got used to seeing Sugar Shane.

 

 

<Commercial Break>

 

 

A replay airs of the vertibreaker.

 

Booker T makes his way down to the ring and says he’s offering an open challenge to the locker room for anyone. Edge’s music hits and he charges the ring. Booker stomps him down and the bell rings.

Booker T vs. Edge

Booker takes control early, but Edge begins to take control about four minutes in. Booker T regains control with a spinkick, but sees RVD on the rampway and pauses to yell at him. Out of the crowd comes D-Von and Buh Buh and Booker walks right into the 3-D. RVD runs down the ramp, as the Impact Player get in the ring and give Edge a double superkick. RVD delivers a five-star frogsplash to Booker, and Mike Awesome delivers a frog splash to Edge. They pick up Edge as Heyman, Raven, and Dreamer comes out of the crowd. Heyman grabs the mic and says he’s tired of being disrespected. In the Alliance, they were disrespected. On the announce table, he was disrespected. Heyman says his boys didn’t even get contracts from Ric Flair. If Vince wants someone to stop Ric Flair from taking over the WWF, Vince better give them some contracts and some respect.

 

 

<Commercial Break>

 

 

Vince gets on the titantron via teleprompter. He says he hopes his partner doesn’t mind that he’s signed this group to take out the Ric Flair’s stars. He’s going to get his WWF wrestlers out of the building and let Heyman’s ECW fight Flair’s WWF. The nature boy’s music hits, and he says he doesn’t care about Vince or Heyman. All three men proceed to get in a mic war, with Heyman and Flair doing the most. Booker and Edge get out of the ring, as Booker staggers up the ramp and Edge through the crowd. Vince says that tonight, Christian will defend his IC title against Lance Storm. Ten former Alliance wrestlers will participate in the IC Contendership Battle Royal. Tazz will take on Austin, and HHH, the Dudleys, RVD, and Mike Awesome will challenge Jericho, Booker T, Test, Chuck Palumbo, and Sean O’Haire. In the main event, Tazz will get to redeem himself after months of humiliation when he faces Stone Cold.

 

 

<Commercial Break>

 

 

Many of the WWF wrestlers are shown leaving the arena. They get into their cars and drive off.

 

Intercontinental Championship

Lance Storm vs. Christian

Mat work to start, but eventually Christian pulls out the heel tactics to take control of the match. Christian wins at 6:05 when he catches Storm with a roll-up and the tights.

 

Edge is shown on the titantron talking to Vince. He tells Vince that he doesn’t want to leave tonight, he wants his shot at Christian. Vince says no, but if he wants a shot at Christian, he’d better win the battle royal at SmackDown. He yells at Vince because Vince used him as bait tonight.

 

 

<Commercial Break>

 

 

Booker T is shown backstage in Commissioner Regal’s office, telling him that he wants RVD at Vengeance. RVD never showed him any respect, and took the spotlight from the rest of the Alliance. Regal signs the match, and says that Booker will get a shot to prove himself. Regal leaves toward the ring as Booker breaks a smile

 

Tazz vs. Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer vs. Justin Credible vs. Mike Awesome vs. William Regal vs. DDP vs. Shawn Stasiak vs. Hugh Morrus vs. Test

Tazz and Test eliminate each other to end the match at 7:31. Both men brawl on the outside of the ring.

 

 

<Commercial Break>

 

 

HHH makes his way to the ring. He says that without a doubt he will beat Jericho at Vengeance. History will repeat itself. Jericho has never done better than a fluke win against him. Jericho interrupts and says that it’s time for HHH to realize what Jericho has become. He retired the Undertaker, a man who Triple H couldn’t beat at WrestleMania. He beat the Rock for the WCW championship, a belt Triple H has never held. Triple H interrupts, adding that he will hold it. Jericho says that, to steal a line from Flair, he has to beat the man to be the man.

 

 

<Commercial Break>

 

 

Tazz and Test continue to brawl backstage before being broken up by officials. Christian jumps Tazz from behind and both men throw the refs away, and beat down Tazz. Tazz tries to get up continually but gets pounded down.

 

HHH/RVD/Awesome/Dudleys vs. Jericho/Booker T/ Test/Palumbo/O’Haire

Jericho hits the lionsault on HHH at 11:58 for the pinfall, after each team hits a number of nearfalls and big spots in the last five minutes of the match. Jericho celebrates as the other Alliance members leave. HHH starts yelling at Jericho, and Jericho teases going back, then starts taunting the crowd.

 

Test gets back into Commissioner Regal’s office where Austin and Christian are waiting. Austin says that Test and Christian did a great job taking care of Tazz for later tonight. It’s almost too bad the two of them are going to be involved in a match at Vengeance, and Christian glances at Test.

 

 

<Commercial Break>

 

 

Tazz vs. Austin

Austin dominates the early part of the match before Tazz hits a T-Bone tazplex in transition about 3:40 in, and begins to work over the neck. Tazz runs through a few suplexes and a few close falls. Tazz goes for the choke at about 6:20, and holds in for almost ten second before Austin can break it into the corner. Tazz tries to come out with a clothesline, but Austin takes over again. At almost 10:50, Austin goes for the stunner. Austin’s kick is caught by Tazz, and Tazz goes for a Tazplex. Austin elbows out, but Austin tries for another stunner and is thrown to the ropes Tazz misses a clothesline and Austin comes off the other ropes with a Thesz press, but Tazz catches it and hits a spinebuster. Austin grabs his neck, and Tazz tries to lock in the Tazmission. Austin blocks with his arm, so Tazz works a camel clutch. Tazz lets Austin expend some energy and rolls Austin into the Tazmission, but Austin finds the ropes. Tazz picks Autin up and whips him across, ducks an Austin clothesline, goes for a standing Tazmission, but Austin lowblows him. Austin staggers a little, goes for another stunner, but Tazz catches him and throws him into the ropes. Tazz kicks Austin and goes for a suplex, but Austin drops out and hits a stunner to end the match at 13:17. Austin rolls out of the ring, taunts the crowd, grabs his belt, and goes back into the ring to beat on Tazz, but HHH music hits and he clears Austin of the ring.

(After RAW ends, HHH cuts a promo in front of the live crowd, saying he’ll never forget how much pain he had to get through to get to this point. He says he can’t wait until the day he gets a shot at Austin to take his title away. Tazz grabs the mic and says that Austin got lucky. He cuts into an ECW-style promo, and ends with the classic “Beat me if you can, survive if I let you” line.)