We now move forward to June in 2001, where the Invasion is just about to get underway. While Backlash and Judgment Day were more so transitional shows to cover the aftermath of WrestleMania X-Seven, King of the Ring has the future firmly in sight, with many of the most prominent figures of the months to come featuring heavily on this night. The build to this show sees "Stone Cold" Steve Austin doing perhaps the best character work of his career, as he has begun to grow more and more paranoid after Linda McMahon announced he would be defending his WWF title against both Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit. After Austin blamed Vince for his wife's decision, Mr. McMahon upped the ante, declaring that he and Austin would be through if Steve failed to walk out of King of the Ring still as champion. With everything he had worked so hard to cultivate on the line, going into a seemingly no-win situation against two of the best the WWF has to offer, Austin has spiraled out of control, culminating in a bizarre segment where he ended up hugging Vince. This storyline is so much fun, as Austin and Vince, two of the best characters in the company, have squeezed every last bit of drama out of this situation. It definitely makes the decision to turn Austin heel in the first place seem totally worth it, as it gives the fans the ability to see an entirely different version of the Stone Cold/Vince McMahon dynamic, but one that is still just as riveting to follow as their initial feud during '98 and '99. Aside from the brilliant main event storyline, there's also plenty of unpack with Kurt Angle, who is the absolute star of this show, as he attempts to repeat as King of the Ring while also preparing for a Street Fight with Shane McMahon, which is the style of match where Shane is at his best, both in and out of kayfabe. Let's dig into this.
- King of the Ring 2001 comes to from the Continental Airlines(now Meadowlands) Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Many WWE events have been hosted in this venue, including three different SummerSlams, before it was shutdown in 2015, leaving the company to instead start using the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. This is pretty much a spiritual home for the WWE, so you can always expect a pretty raucous crowd, and this was no exception.
- We open with the two semi-finals matches in the King of the Ring tournament, with all four members of Team RECK colliding. First up, Kurt Angle takes on Christian, and this match starts well, with Angle tossing Christian around the ring with suplexes to the delight of the crowd. It does slow down from there, before the finishing stretch is very dramatic, with both guys trading finisher attempts. Before either can score a clean win, Shane O'Mac interferes, helping Kurt win the match, much to the surprise of Jim Ross and Paul Heyman on commentary. More on Shane and Kurt later, but I thought this was a solid opener.
- The second semi-final sees Edge take on Rhyno in a battle of the Spears. This is not quite as good as the first match, as neither man is anywhere close to the level of a guy like Kurt just yet, but it does feature a pretty cool spot as Edge hits a Spear on Rhyno while the "Man Beast" is attempting a Gore, resulting in both men crashing into each other. Rhyno attempts another Gore but eats an exposed turnbuckle, as Edge hits his Impaler DDT right on the now-injured shoulder of Rhyno for the win, a hint at Edge's future more cerebral character.
- Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley are now heels, turning on Spike after he began dating Molly Holly. Spike challenged his two bigger brothers to a tag title match, promising that he had found a tag partner that could take the fight to the champions. He definitely had, as his partner was revealed to be Kane, whom creative had nothing for at this time with The Undertaker busy with the recently debuted Diamond Dallas Page, more on that later. Bubba and D-Von heel it up in this one, taking little Spike apart in a fairly standard beatdown that did include one heck of a powerbomb from Bubba. Kane gets the hot tag and goes wild, but Spike is still extremely eager for revenge and wants to tag back in. That proves to be his undoing, as D-Von saves Bubba after Spike hits a Dudley Dog, and the champions connect with a 3D for the win.
- After getting a bit of rest, Kurt Angle and Edge are back again, now facing off in the finals of the King of the Ring tournament. In a pre-match promo, Angle tries to convince Edge to be a good friend and forfeit, allowing Kurt to stay fresh for his match with Shane, but Edge refuses, cementing his face turn. These two were capable of some incredible matches, but this didn't quite reach that level, as large parts of it are very slow and full of dull rest holds. Christian "accidentally" costs Edge a chance to win after reversing the Ankle Lock into a roll-up, then the referee gets wiped out after a wild clothesline from Edge. Shane McMahon runs in again, hitting a Spear on Kurt, which I guess he only did because Edge was present, I don't remember Shane ever using a Spear. Edge hits the Impaler DDT one more time to secure the three count, becoming the 2001 King of the Ring, though it's obvious that there is trouble brewing between him and Christian. As for why Shane helped Kurt earlier before costing him here, a furious Angle deduces that Shane wanted him to wrestle one extra match, to tire him out before their Street Fight. That was my guess and it was cool to see that the booking team was on the same page, that was a very clever little piece of booking that sets up the Shane-Kurt match perfectly.
- Thanks to seeing two Kurt Angle matches to this point, we've witnessed a lot more mat-wrestling, so it's time to change things up with a Light Heavyweight Championship match, as Jeff Hardy defends against X-Pac. You can always count on these two for some fun acrobatics, and they get some of that in, though the match was given just 7 minutes so they don't quite get out of second gear. X-Pac gets the three count after hitting an X-Factor, but the ref quickly realizes that Jeff got his foot to the bottom rope and the match continues. Hardy hits a Swanton Bomb for the win.
- As mentioned earlier, Diamond Dallas Page, one of the biggest stars left in WCW by it's closure back in March, has recently made his debut in the WWF as the stalker of The Undertaker's wife, Sara. This storyline started off well enough, as the home footage of Sara was suitably creepy and DDP unmasking on Raw got a big pop. Page cut a promo at the start of the show, making it clear that he wanted Undertaker to "make him famous" rather than actually being obsessed with Sara, which is the right way to approach this. Page challenged Undertaker to face him, taking a seat at ringside. It's worth noting that at this point, the WWF had handled this storyline quite well, and it's important to stress that because it quickly goes off the rails. Throughout the night, footage is shown of DDP, who now appears to have someone stalking him. This would be an interesting storyline development if Page were doing anything scandalous that was actually worth watching, but he's just making his way into the arena and arguing with some fans, and it's all very boring. Undertaker himself finally turns after the Light Heavyweight title match, and absolutely embarrasses Page in a hideous showing for the former three-time WCW Champion. Page does get some offense in during the brawl, but it all looks very weak, and he mostly just gets his a** kicked, all while Sara herself videotapes everything. This is an absolute burial, a crystal clear message that the best WCW has to offer isn't even in the same solar system as a man who isn't even worthy of fighting for the WWF title. A beatdown this one-sided might have been okay if it was at the end of a feud, but starting the storyline like this is a really bad sign. Damn Vince, did you have to be this blatant?
- We've seen plenty of Kurt Angle and Shane McMahon throughout the night, but now it's finally time to see them fight. How much you enjoy the first 5-10 minutes of this match depends heavily on whether you can buy Shane as a legit wrestler, as he stays one step ahead of Kurt. I will admit, it's pretty stupid that Shane out-wrestles Angle on multiple occasions, but at least Kurt has the excuse that he's wrestled two matches already. The brawl up to the stage, where multiple glass panes are set up to the side, and you know where this is going. Angle tries to suplex Shane through one of the panes, which refuses to break, as they weren't gimmicked properly. Shane, the absolute madman, demands Kurt try the spot again, and Angle obliges, as this time it gives way, pelting both men with glass. Now inside of the set, Shane is suplexed into another sheet of glass, which again doesn't break, as Shane once more comes crashing down onto his damn neck. Holy sh**, how on Earth did Shane not break his effing neck in this match? My goodness. Kurt has had enough and just tosses Shane through the glass, head first, because he's a bastard. The crowd is absolutely losing their minds while both men have shards of plate glass sticking out of them, which makes me want to throw up. Shane is dead weight, so Kurt loads him onto a crate and wheels him back into the ring. But the young McMahon is not done yet, and comes very close to winning the match with an Angle Slam. Kurt recovers, lifting Shane to the top rope and whacking him repeatedly in the back with a wooden board. He then positions the board across the top two ropes, standing on top of it to deliver one Hell on an Angle Slam, as the crowd flips out again, before finally making the cover for the win. This was a brutal match and a terrific spectacle, easily the match of the night. Shane had to have earned the respect of everyone in the back for insisting on taking those glass spots, though I have to imagine however failed to gimmick them properly was likely let go after this one, that could've gone so much worse and it already looked dreadful.
- Main event time, as Steve Austin's WWF title is in serious jeopardy, defending against the two Chrises. The crowd needs some time to recover from the last match, so the beginning exchanges are contested in near-silence. Much of this match is focused around Austin, just like the build, as both babyfaces get extended periods working with the champion. Most of this is a bit dull but it was still interesting to see Austin do some mat-wrestling rather than just brawling, which had been his MO for much of the last three years. Benoit and Jericho apply their combination Walls of Jericho/Crippler Crossface move, which Stone Cold quickly taps out to, sparking confusion. Earl Hebner declares that the match must continue, which was a bit stupid but whatever. The most interesting part of this match was the run-in from WCW Champion Booker T, who makes his debut, hitting Austin with a Scissors Kick before smashing him through the Spanish announce table and escaping through the crowd. Benoit and Jericho are now on their own, and rekindle some of the magic from their 2000 rivalry, but it's short-lived. Benoit hits a back suplex off the top rope, and it's obvious immediately that something has gone horribly wrong, as he grasps at his head and neck and doesn't seem to be able to move. It's a very similar sort of feeling to the Owen Hart-Stone Cold match at SummerSlam '97, which is appropriate, as Benoit has just broken his neck. In what I'm pretty certain was an audible, Austin then makes the cover on Benoit to retain his title, once again escaping by the skin of his teeth. Benoit breaking his neck was very scary to watch, but this was otherwise a very solid main event, which you would expect from these three.
8/10
King of the Ring 2001 focused heavily on Kurt Angle, and Paul Heyman's Olympic Hero was more than up to the task of carrying this show. The undercard was very solid although not spectacular, then the Street Fight absolutely blew everything else out of the water. Really, the only main negatives for me was the DDP-Undertaker brawl and Benoit breaking his neck, everything else was fun to watch and included some great character work, especially from Angle. Think what you will about what was to come in the months ahead, but even though this show was saddled with beginning the underwhelming Invasion angle, it definitely stands on it's own away from that trainwreck.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: WWF InVasion, as it's time to jump head first into one of wrestling's biggest dropped balls. See you soon.
- Henry
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