I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ - WWF had No Way Out on Sunday, 02/25/2001. On paper, it looked to have three potentially strong matches, and it turned out that two of them delivered in spades: HHH vs. Steve Austin, and Rock vs. Kurt Angle. Yes indeed, this show was the best PPV of the year so far. It's not like it was great top to bottom, but the bad stuff was kept short and the two main events really delivered. I thought the IC Title match was disappointing, given who was involved, and felt that they should have had more time to tell their story. I was incredibly turned off by Big Slow storming the ring during the main event, for no apparent reason since they were having such a good match, and I didn't seem to be alone in that feeling, as the live crowd seemed to be out of the match for a few minutes afterwards. Rundown: * Raven faced Big Slow for the Hardcore Title: Slow is just so brutal. At one point, Jim Ross said that Raven had to hit Slow with something "big and stiff," with Jerry Lawler saying that Slow sure is big. That was a jab right there. Anyhow, match was total shit, with everybody running in. Billy Gunn managed to score a pin on Raven, who pinned Gunn to regain the title a few seconds later. Slow then ended up pinning Raven to win the title. Really bad. Molly Holly chaired Raven's ninja girl. Lawler said, "Big Slow may be the first champion in the WWF to have no challengers." And I swear that I heard "...no talent." Terrible opener, although it was at least pretty darn short. * Chris Jericho beat Eddie Guerrero & X-Pac & Chris Benoit to retain the IC Title: It was hard for these guys to follow the previous match. You know, the crowd wwas so hot after that incredible action. Ha ha. Okay, erase your memory and pretend that the PPV started with this match. We'll all feel better if we just make that agreement. I was hoping that Benoit, coming off yet another "let's put Benoit in a tag match on TV so he can make it great and do the job all at once" brain fart from the book manipulators at Smackdown, would regain the title. After all, Chris Jericho is in the doghouse. Match was missing something early, since they basically brawled the whole way. Jericho could lose his title if anybody was pinned or submitted. They tried pairing off in the ring with the other two wrestlers fighting outside, but things never built since the pairings lasted for a minute tops. So, they paired for a minute, one guy hit his finisher, and somebody from the outside broke it up, establishing a new inring pairing. I found it frustrating, because any two of these four guys could have built a great match in the same time. After various pairings, Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit finally paired up in the ring, with the commentators mildly excited that the Radicalz would fight each other. The camera had to miss the out of the ring action for the most part or jump back and forth disjointedly, also hurting the match. Benoit hit a top rope superplex on Eddie, but sold it himself. They acted like they were 20 minutes in to one of their New Japan classic matches, while we were still in single digits. Don't get me wrong: it was great to watch all four of these guys work, but it was hard to get past feeling that they were working one minute spots, not a match. Now, traditional Lucha Libre would be structured this way, and the New Japan Juniors have done it too, but in those settings, the pairings make up the first five or eight minutes of a half-hour bout that does build. Here, I had no hope of that, because they were hitting finishers every minute. As Jericho put the Walls of Jericho on each guy in turn, Justin Credible surfaced at ringside. The commentators said that the match was chaotic, which I guess is similar to what my complaint is: I could never get into it because of all of the discontinuities. After Credible's interference, they did a few neat save spots. As Benoit had the crossface on, Eddie Guerrero nailed him with a snap mare like neckbreaker kinda move that was way cool. Literally out of nowhere, Jericho scored a roll up pin on X-Pac. Everything was well executed, but it was still a really messy match because it never developed a rhythm. I expected this to be at four star or better level, so I was disappointed. * Stephanie McMahon beat Trish: Before the match, Vince McMahon told William Regal that he (William) would know what to do when the match was on. After McMahon left, Regal muttered that he didn't know what the bloody hell to do. That was funny. Jim Ross said, "This is going to be unorthodox." Sheesh. Stephanie tore into Trish, trying to rip Trish's hair out. Trish's tights rode up into her butt, and the crowd booed loudly shen she pulled it back out a few minutes later. Trish took a bump off the top rope and out of the ring. Trish scored some near falls with a horrible bulldog and a horrible DDT. Stephanie scored a two count with a DDT. She pulled down Trish's tights and spanked her thonged butt. She tried to rip off Trish's top too. How could they get this long? Match looked exactly like what it was: two genuinely unskilled women working a parody of a wrestling match. Yet somehow it was nowhere near as bad as it should have been. Does that make sense? Regal ran in and put Trish on top when the ref was down. He then put Steph's foot on the rope, shaking his head as if to suggest that he didn't know what to do. He then went into the ring to be yelled at by Trish. He laid out Trish, and Steph scored the pin. "Is that what Mr. McMahon wanted?" "Stephanie has proven that she is the dominant female in the WWF!" Oh puleaze! This was better than it had any right to be given who was in it, but it was still bad except for the T&A. The match set up Vince & Trish vs. Regal & Steph on RAW the next night. * HHH beat Steve Austin in a two-out-of-three falls match: Interesting that this appeared at this point on the show. When you watched the video package to hype this match and they showed the clip of Austin dropping HHH's limo off of that really high fork lift, did you shake your head at the fact that HHH was back in the ring eight nights later showing no signs of damage. What an asshole. Hey, they don't call him the cerebral assassin for nothing! The first fall was a (cough, cough) technical wrestling match. The technical wrestling match started with punches and kicks and a greco roman clothesline. Austin did this totally lame looking Lou Thesz press, with HHH dropping him across the top rope. Austin countered the pedigree attempt - what would a WWF match be without somebody trying his finisher in less than three minutes? - with an armbreaker. He started working on HHH's arm. Jerry Lawler pointed out that if this was the technical wrestling match, he couldn't imagine what the street fight would look like. Indeed. Austin actually went to an armbar for a while, with Jim Ross killing the idea of a submission by saying neither guy would quit while he was still breathing. Jeez, you'd think they would push the idea that somebody might submit in the first fall to stay as strong as possible for the later falls. Jim Ross called HHH "the cerebral assassin!" Woo-hoo! Mark it down. I think that's the third time in his life! And Jim Ross doesn't call him that for nothing, you know. With HHH putting the figure four on Austin, the commentators finally started talking about somebody submitting to preserve himself for the next fall. Austin got out. Built into a heated, strong match, with the commentators trying to get over the pscyhological impact of winning/losing the first fall in the series. Austin tried for the stunner late in the match, when it at least had credibility, but HHH countered with a neckbreaker. Austin hit the stunner after another minute for the pin. The second fall was a street fight. This meant that they could now walk around the arena. They walked around ringside and they walked into the crowd. Austin chaired HHH. I don't really enjoy HHH because he's such a politician, so I was sort of hoping that they'd just put Austin over in two straight falls, but that surely wasn't going to happen. Austin scored a near three after the chair shots. After loads of brawling, Austin pulled out the barbed wire wrapped board, with the crowd chanting Mick Foley's surname. HHH got the rubber covered stick and whacked Austin, who bladed. Austin turn at pitching was over; time to catch. HHH dismantled the English language commentary table, with Jim Ross being silenced in the process. I hate it when Lawler is left to sputter alone. It reveals just how bad he is. Austin backdropped HHH from the English language table to the Spanish language commentary table. That was a tremendous spot. I hate the generic table spot where somebody take forever to set up a table while the opponent sells forever. This kind of table spot is unbelievably awesome, and I even started to like HHH again. Austin whacked HHH with a beer. HHH nailed Austin with the ring bell for a two in the ring. We were just short of a half-hour into this pairing, and it seemed quite likely that this would become a (garbagy) match of the year contender. Austin hit the sleeper, but HHH back suplexed him on a chair for another two count. Pedigree on a chair was countered by a backdrop to the floor. Post shot. "Austin tatooed the game right between his evil eyes with that chair." Over the top, to be sure, but just right when I'm on the edge of my seat into a match. They continued to brawl at ringside. This is the sort of stuff that HHH has done really well in the period that he has gotten over, so it is no surprise that this segment was really good. Austin was always a super brawler and has come back even better in all aspects. He went for a sledge hammer shot on Austin, but Austin dodged it with a punch to the gut. Back in the ring, HHH hit a pedigree after a sledge hammer shot for the pin, tying things up. The third fall was a cage match. The cage did not enclose the ringside area; it had no roof. They had gone 30 to 35 minutes at this point. The ring intros started 36 minutes ago; not sure how long that dragged out before the match started. HHH gouged Austin's forehead with the rubber barbed wire. Austin used a chair to shake HHH off before returning the favour with the barbed wire. HHH clearly had his arms up, but the commentators pushed it like he was getting his face shredded. Crowd was silent. Maybe this barbed wire grinding bit was too much, or maybe they lost interest after a half-hour. Crowd started an "Austin!" chant that died. Kicks and punches. Flair flop by HHH. HHH seemingly tried to climb out. Austin caught him. They traded shots against the cage. Austin crotched himself. Austin went for a pin after Katching HHH with a slam off the ropes. So this was a pinfall type cage match not an escape type cage match. Pedigree, but Austin kicked out. HHH acted shocked. Chair shot by HHH. Another pedigree, no, Austin slingshotted HHH into the cage. Stunner. Slow cover, two count. HHH & Austin whacked each other with weapons, both collapsed, HHH landed on top of Austin, the referee counted it. Disappointing uncommitted finish. Tremendous match. Ross pulled out the old "I don't know that these two will ever be the same again." "It may be weeks until these guys are right again. It may be months. It may be never." Well, why would I order WrestleMania then?! Austin hit a stunner so the match could end with his music. Well, will HHH be in the WrestleMania main event? Or is Austin vs. HHH our summer program? The match with intros and exits ran 50 minutes, so the actual bout was probably around 40 minutes. Really nice, and there was still one likely good match to come. * Steven Richards beat Jerry Lawler: The match stipulations were that Kat would join the RTC if Lawler lost and Kat could strip if Lawler won. Jim Ross intoned "[Kat is] dying to be naked here tonight at No Way Out." Boy, did they run a lot of commercials during this PPV or what? RAW. Next PPV. Fanatix. The "we're trained, don't try this" commercial. Chyna. It never ended. Tazz came out to do commentary. Oh lord, if Lawler gets punked, Tazz would be doing commentary during the title match. Ugh. Steven came out with Ivory. They pushed Lawler hard, which meant that we would get the opposite result. The premise for this match once again shows that guys that write wrestling shows have warped impressions of women. Lawler started with his punches. Let's look at the card so far: bad match, good match, bad match, great match. Uh-oh. I didn't like the chances for this match. As the girls argued at ringside, Lawler took a post shot. Steven lost his shirt. Richards did the Goodfather's Ho Train spot, but Lawler moved. Punches. Crowd started chanting "We Want Puppies!" 'cause the wrestling was so engrossing. Richards set himself up for a low blow while wielding a chair in a really sad spot. Kat ran in. Richards almost got a belt shot in. Lawler slammed Ivory. As the ref and Lawler acted like idiots pushing Ivory out, Richards tried for another belt shot, but missed again. This was getting beyond farcical. Kat accidentally whacked Lawler with the belt. The RTC came out to carry Kat out in a burlap sack. It was really lame. * Dudleyz beat Edge & Christian & Undertaker & Kane to retain the WWF Tag Titles: Tazz explained that the rules were simple: "the first team through a table loses." Huh? Who wins the titles, Tazz? Prematch, Undertaker explained that the match was about pain and suffering...for the viewers of the match! Okay, they didn't say the last six words. Hey, Kane can speak clearly now. If anybody every completes the challenge of mapping out the title history of the Hardcore title, he might then try to map out all of the story lines involving Kane & Undertaker. Undertaker is as bad as anybody who has ever stepped into the house. Hey, I'm just quoting the commentators. It's all in the interpretation of the words, though,