The Contentious Ten 9.21.09: The Top Ten Unforgivens

Comments

I really enjoyed the comments last week because it was interesting to see what a divisive topic the World Heavyweight Title is. I didn’t count them up but about half of the people seemed to agree with my assessment that the World Heavyweight Title is the WCW Title and the other half didn’t. A few of the people that disagreed posed interesting counter arguments. Over two posts TRUTH wrote this:

First and Foremost, World Wrestling Entertainment recognizes three world championships: WWE, ECW, & World Heavyweight. (watch summerslam’s ecw title match as christian enters the ring) Second, allusions are often made to the WCW and NWA titles only because WWE often amalgamates the history of this championship with the history of the belt that represents it, which is the Big Gold Belt. So the “pulled out the old WCW Championship” quote is in reference to the “belt.” The NWA title was represented by the Big Gold Belt, as was the WCW title and the WCW International title. Now the WWE’s World Heavyweight title is being represented by the belt. These titles are only connected through the belt that represented them but none of these title are one and the same.

Let it be made clear. A “Belt” is not a “Title”. A “Title” is a “Recognition of you being Champion”. A “Belt” is only the “Physical Representation” of a “Title”. Let me put it to you this way, if I drove my ass to the Staples Center, broke into the Lakers’ locker room, and stole the Larry O’Brien Trophy, would that make me the NBA Champion? Hell no. Let me bring this closer to home. With Rhyno supposedly still in possession of the old ECW belt, does that make him the ECW champion? No, because again, a “Belt” is not a “Title”. A “Title” is a “Recognition of you being Champion”. A “Belt” is only the “Physical Representation” of a “Title”.

I agree that TRUTH is technically right in this regard, a belt is only the physical representation of the concept of a champion, much in the same way a wedding ring is only a representation of a marriage. However, I think that revelation ultimately furthers my point. If the Big Gold Belt’s lineage (or what it represents) is rendered meaningless because it now represents a “new” championship, why use the Big Gold Belt at all? WWE could have just created a new belt, but they didn’t want to. They wanted to use a belt that was already a known representation of a World Championship, it was already endowed with meaning. Because they chose that belt for what it already represented it seems silly that they don’t recognize it as a continuation of what it used to represent.

I guess I can forgive WWE for dropping their decade long, annual, September pay per view, Unforgiven. On the surface it was a fairly directionless show that featured a number of disappointing main event outcomes, but also it provided some really memorable moments over its eleven-year history: The Inferno Match, Triple H winning his second WWF Championship, Kurt Angle’s emotional post 9/11 title victory, and Matt Hardy’s steel cage revenge on Edge. Therefore, in honor of the show’s retirement in favor of Breaking Point, I’ve decided to rank all eleven Unforgivens. It was an interesting process because the shows ranged in quality from God-awful to really great. For those of you that remember my awful SummerSlam ranking system, I didn’t do anything like that here. I just ranked them in the order I liked them.

Dishonorable Mention

XI

Unforgiven 2007

ECW Champion CM Punk defeated Elijah Burke

WWE Tag Team Champions Matt Hardy and Montel Vontavious Porter defeated Deuce ‘n Domino (with Cherry)

Triple H defeated Carlito in a match where Carlito could not be disqualified

WWE Women’s Champion Candice Michelle defeated Beth Phoenix

Batista defeated Rey Mysterio and World Heavyweight Champion The Great Khali (with Ranjin Singh) in a Triple Threat match

World Tag Team Champions Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch defeated Paul London and Brian Kendrick

Randy Orton defeated WWE Champion John Cena by disqualification

The Undertaker defeated Mark Henry

This was the first Unforgiven to feature all three of WWE’s brands.

The Good
I will say right now that this show was pretty bad. Some bright spots included the World Tag Team Title match and the Women’s Title match, but neither were all that great. Batista, Rey Mysterio and The Great Khali actually managed to pull off a decent match that saw Batista, who was added at the last minute because WWE must have realized having Khali vs. Mysterio would have been a big mistake, finally win back the World Heavyweight Championship. The thing is, that nothing here would have made the “good” section on most of the other shows.

The Bad
When I’m writing that even the good stuff is not very good, you know the bad stuff has got to be pretty bad. Unquestionably the worst match of the night was John Cena vs. Randy Orton (my God this feud has been going on a long time), the two beat each other up for a few minutes then Cena held Orton outside in a STFU and let his dad kick Orton in the head drawing a disqualification. The match could have been good, but they simply used it to advertise No Mercy because immediately after the match Jon Coachman announced that the two would meet again in a Last Man Standing match at that event. I guess WWE thought the World Heavyweight Title match was going to suck, and they couldn’t finish the show with the awful Cena vs. Orton match, so they had Undertaker return to fight Mark Henry in the main event. The results should be self-explanatory. Finally, how “weak” does a wrestler have to be to get special no DQ privileges in order to look like he’s a possible threat to Triple H?

The Reason it’s Number 11
It was close, but I think Unforgiven 2007 is just a little bit worse than the one I ranked at number 10. There was almost nothing of redeemable quality, except for a tag team match that very few probably even remember happening. The seven minute WWE Title match was the very personification of a “rip-off” and the fact that WWE knew both their World Title matches would be so bad that they decided the only way to send the fans home happy would be the Undertaker’s return, says a lot about the awful quality of the show.

The Top Ten Unforgivens

X

Unforgiven 2003

The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) defeated Rob Conway and World Tag Team Champions La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier and René Duprée) in a Handicap Tables match for the World Tag Team Championship

Test (with Stacy Keibler) defeated Scott Steiner

Randy Orton (with Ric Flair) defeated Shawn Michaels

Trish Stratus and Lita defeated Molly Holly and Gail Kim

Kane defeated Shane McMahon in a Last Man Standing match

WWE Intercontinental Champion Christian defeated Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam in a Triple Threat match

Al Snow and Jonathan Coachman defeated Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler for right to be the announcers for Raw

Goldberg defeated World Heavyweight Champion Triple H

This was the first Raw only Unforgiven, as the two brands now only shared the Big Four pay per views.

The Good
As sad as it sounds, there really wasn’t anything that I would describe as good. The closest thing to good would be the Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton match. At this point Orton was still pretty green in the ring, but Michaels made him look pretty good. Nevertheless the match was certainly not a classic, and the two would go on to have much better matches. The end saw Michaels back suplex Orton, but on the way down Orton hit Michaels several times in the face with brass knuckles to get the victory. I guess I would say that the outcome to the World Heavyweight Title match was good too.

The Bad
The outcome may have been good, but the World Heavyweight Title match itself was pretty bad, and very predictable as there was a stipulation in place that would have forced Goldberg to retire if he didn’t win. Everyone knew that wasn’t going to happen, thus the ending was highly predictable. There was also the awful announcer match which I think just showcased what a bad idea the single-branded pay per views were. Even the Intercontinental Title match between Christian, Rob Van Dam, and Chris Jericho was dull.

The Reason it’s Number 10
Much like 2007, Unforgiven 2003 really offered very little of value. The one thing it did offer was a main event that at least had a payoff. The Goldberg vs. Triple H match wasn’t great, but it did provide a memorable moment. Other than that the show was pretty weak. In fact, while reviewing these shows I found it hard to believe that WWE was able to promote single brand shows for four years.

IX

Unforgiven 2004

Chris Benoit and William Regal defeated Evolution (Ric Flair and Batista)

WWE Women’s Champion Trish Stratus (with Tyson Tomko) defeated Victoria

Tyson Tomko defeated Steven Richards

Chris Jericho defeated Christian in a Ladder match for the vacant WWE Intercontinental Championship

Shawn Michaels defeated Kane (with Lita)in a No Disqualification Match

World Tag Team Champions La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier and Robért Conway) defeated Tajiri and Rhyno

Triple H defeated World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton

The Good
Even though the outcome of the match cut Orton off at the knees and it took him years to recover from it, the World Heavyweight Title match between him and Triple H was a pretty solid main event. The match was set up when Triple H and Evolution turned on Orton after he had won the World Heavyweight Title at SummerSlam. Orton actually hands Triple H a pretty solid beating and is made to look more than capable of going toe to toe with his former mentor, but the other Evolution members were just too much for Orton to handle, and in the end he ate a Pedigree on a chair and was defeated. Other than the main event Shawn Michaels and Kane managed to put together a decent match that Michaels won after Kane’s wife, Lita, interfered on Michaels’s behalf, and the ladder match between Chris Jericho and Christian, while formulaic, was pretty good. Neither, however was anything other than above average.

The Bad
The worst part about this show was that nothing really stood out. Even the matches I listed as good were all pretty standard matches, and Triple H winning the title was more of a return to normalcy than anything else. Tyson Tomko and Steven Richards in drag had a pretty awful impromptu match, and the Tag Team Title match was really weak filler. Every thing else, like I wrote before, was just pretty bland.

The Reason it’s Number 9
Most of the stuff I classified as good was merely acceptable, the rest of the show ranged from pretty bad to merely dull. When Chris Jericho and Christian can only piece together an acceptable ladder match you know that there are some serious problems with the excitement level of a show. I ranked this Unforgiven at number 9 because there was nothing painfully bad, but there was nothing really good either.

VIII

Unforgiven 2002

Kane, Goldust, Booker T and Bubba Ray Dudley defeated The Un-Americans (Lance Storm, Christian, William Regal and Test)

WWE Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho defeated Ric Flair

Eddie Guerrero defeated Edge

3-Minute Warning (Rosey and Jamal) (with Rico) defeated Billy and Chuck

World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeated Rob Van Dam

Trish Stratus defeated WWE Women’s Champion Molly Holly

Chris Benoit defeated Kurt Angle

WWE Champion Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) fought The Undertaker to a double disqualification

This was the first Unforgiven post brand extension, and the first one that featured WWE’s version of the World Heavyweight Title. At this point the brands had really started to establish themselves as distinct entities. SmackDown featured great wrestling matches and Raw featured the gimmicky storylines.

The Good
Despite having two World Title matches the best matches of the show took place between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, and Edge and Eddie Guerrero. Benoit and Angle, predictably had a very good match, as the two had delivered excellent matches in the past. The problem was, that while it was good nothing was particularly fresh. In the end Benoit reversed the Anklelock, rolled up Angle, and put his feet on the ropes for leverage. Eddie Guerrero and Edge had an exciting match that ended in Guerrero hitting a top rope powerbomb and pinning Edge.

The Bad
The most disappointing match of the show was the WWE Title match between Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker. The two beat the snot out of each other, but it felt like they were killing time as opposed to building toward a finish. That said, the match ended in a double disqualification when the referee could no longer control the match. This match set up the Hell in a Cell match a month later at No Mercy. There was also a really awful segment that involved Eric Bischoff and his HLA (Hot Lesbian Action, does anyone else think that John Cena’s AWA look-a-like HLR t-shirt looks like an HLA t-shirt?) Stephanie McMahon, and Rikishi dressed up like a woman. The segment ended with Bischoff getting the Stink Face. The rest of the card, including the World Heavyweight Title match was pretty weak, but the World Heavyweight Title match at least laid the foundation for the creation of Evolution.

The Reason it’s Number 8
This was clearly a SmackDown dominated show as the two good matches were SmackDown matches, and of the two main events Lesnar vs. Undertaker was better. The Raw side of the card did not carry its weight, and the Triple H vs. Rob Van Dam match felt more like a mediocre Raw main event than a pay per view main event. On occasion it’s alright to end a show on a disqualification, and I guess this is one of those times. The finish of Lesnar vs. Undertaker was a downer, but it wouldn’t have made sense to let either man win decisively. It comes in at number 8 because only half the show was decent.

VII

Unforgiven 2000

Right to Censor (Steven Richards, Val Venis, Bull Buchanan, and The Goodfather) defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) and The APA (Faarooq and Bradshaw)

Tazz defeated Jerry Lawler in a Strap Match

WWF Hardcore Champion Steve Blackman defeated Test, Perry Saturn, Crash Holly, Al Snow, and Funaki in a 10-Minute Hardcore Battle Royal

Chris Jericho defeated X-Pac

The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff) defeated WWF Tag Team Champions Edge and Christian in a Steel Cage match

WWF Intercontinental Champion Eddie Guerrero (w/Chyna) defeated Rikishi by disqualification

Triple H (w/Stephanie McMahon) defeated Kurt Angle (w/Mick Foley as Special Guest Referee) in a No DQ match

WWF Champion The Rock defeated Chris Benoit, The Undertaker and Kane in a Fatal Four-Way match

Unforgiven 2000 was near the end of the “who ran down Steve Austin” angle that started at the 1999 Survivor Series. Austin returned just prior to the event and was going around backstage looking for the culprit. In addition to the matches there was a segment where Austin confronted Steve Blackman and Shane McMahon.

The Good
The best match of the night was the Hardy Boyz vs. Edge and Christian in a Steel Cage match. In 2000 the ongoing feud between the Hardys, Edge and Christian, and the Dudleys was one of the best things going in the WWF. However, the rivalry was starting to run out of gas by Unforgiven. The match itself was good, but not jaw dropping incredible when considering what the two teams were capable of. In the end the Hardy Boyz both escaped the cage after they hit Edge with a con-chair-to. Additionally the Fatal Four-Way main event was pretty good, and featured a false finish that saw Chris Benoit score a three count on the Undertaker. Benoit was announced as the winner and handed the belt, but Commissioner Mick Foley explained to the referee that the Undertaker’s foot was on the rope. Subsequently the match was restarted and The Rock ended up pinning Benoit.

The Bad
There was nothing really egregiously bad, but there were a number of stinkers. The Intercontinental Title match was disappointing and short. I guess they were keeping Rikishi strong for the impending revelation that he had been the guy who ran down Steve Austin. Chris Jericho and X-Pac had a disappointing match when compared to the previous year. Finally the first three matches, the six man tag, the strap match, and the Hardcore Invitational were all pretty weak. Once again, none of these matches were at an unwatchable level of bad, they just weren’t very good.

The Reason it’s Number 7
Like I wrote in the “Bad” section, nothing was really bad on the show, but like Unforgiven 2004, even the stuff I classified as “Good” was simply above average. Unforgiven 2000 gets ranked at number 7 because the bad stuff was less bad than most of the bad stuff on the cards I’ve ranked lower than it.

VI

Unforgiven 2005

Ric Flair defeated WWE Intercontinental Champion Carlito

Trish Stratus and Ashley Massaro defeated The Ladies in Pink (Victoria and Torrie Wilson) (with Candice Michelle)

The Big Show defeated Snitsky

Shelton Benjamin defeated Kerwin White

Matt Hardy defeated Edge (with Lita) in a Steel cage match

Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch defeated World Tag Team Champions Rosey and The Hurricane

Shawn Michaels defeated Chris Masters

Kurt Angle defeated WWE Champion John Cena by disqualification

The event took place when the audience’s distain for John Cena was growing to a fever pitch, and in many ways was the start of the transition from the edgy WWE to the PG WWE.

The Good
There were several good matches on this card, but the most memorable was probably the Steel Cage match between Edge and Matt Hardy. The storyline build up to the match was the supposed (I only say this because I’m skeptical about every “shoot” in wrestling) real life betrayal of Hardy’s girlfriend Lita with his friend Edge. The story was then intertwined with a wrestling angle. Hardy got his ass handed to him in his comeback match a month before, but got a second chance in the cage. The match was intense and suitably brutal. Although Matt would unquestionably be the loser of the feud he beat Edge to a pulp by the end of the match and topped it off with a legdrop from the top of the cage.

In addition to the cage match Shawn Michaels has a surprisingly good match with Chris Masters, and Ric Flair actually got to hit a top rope move on Carlito en route to his Intercontinental Title victory in the feel-good moment of the night. The main event between Kurt Angle and John Cena was also a really solid match that simply had a disappointing disqualification ending.

The Bad
A disqualification ending to a pay per view is always a real letdown, but I think this one was especially bad because so many people were ready for Angle to take the WWE Title from Cena, and it was painfully obvious that the non-finish was just a way to stretch the feud out for two more months. Aside from the DQ ending the only other stuff I would classify as bad was the World Tag Team Title match, and the women’s tag team match. Even Big Show vs. Sniksky and Shelton Benjamin vs. Kerwin White were decent enough.

The Reason it’s Number 6
Finally at number 6, is a card that I would describe tentatively as good. Even with the disqualification finish the main event was good, the cage match felt like an appropriate payoff for the months and months of build up to an Edge and Hardy confrontation, and everything else was satisfactory. The show could have been better, but overall it was pretty good.

V

Unforgiven 2008

Matt Hardy defeated ECW Champion Mark Henry, The Miz, Chavo Guerrero, and Finlay in a Championship Scramble match

World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase defeated Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard and JTG)

Shawn Michaels defeated Chris Jericho when the referee stopped the fight in a Unsanctioned match

WWE Champion Triple H defeated Jeff Hardy, The Brian Kendrick, Shelton Benjamin, and Montel Vontavious Porter in a Championship Scramble Match

WWE Divas Champion Michelle McCool defeated Maryse

Chris Jericho defeated John “Bradshaw” Layfield, Batista, Rey Mysterio and Kane in a Championship Scramble Match for the Vacant World Heavyweight Championship

It seemed like WWE had found the “gimmick” for Unforgiven by introducing the Scramble matches. However, one year later Unforgiven was phased out in favor of Breaking Point.

The Good
Each brand featured a Scramble match for their top championship. The ECW Title match kicked things off and got the crowd familiar with the concept and provided a feel good moment as Matt Hardy captured his first top-tier title. Also, the WWE Title Scramble match was pretty good too, even though Jeff Hardy was the only guy who even had a shot of walking out with the belt, so the outcome was a bit too predictable. While the Scramble matches were good the match of the night was the unsanctioned match between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels, whose feud was, by far, the best thing going in pro wrestling at the time. Michaels wanted revenge on Jericho so bad that he risked his sight to get his hands on Jericho. The two fought in a psychological and absolutely brutal match. In the end Shawn Michaels simply beat the shit out of Jericho so badly that the referee stopped the fight, which, of course was what Jericho had done a few months previously to Michaels. Jericho would get the last laugh though and sneak his way into the World Heavyweight Title Scramble Match, filling the void left by CM Punk. Jericho eked out a victory.

The Bad
The bad stuff at this event was pretty harmless. Maryse and Michelle McCool had a pretty weak match over the new Diva’s Championship. Everything else was pretty decent, but nothing, aside form the Jericho-Michaels feud, was great.

The Reason it’s Number 5
I think the Scramble match concept is sort of take-it or leave-it. I can’t say I was a big fan of them, but they were new and provided some genuine excitement, they just felt a little too much like a hardcore battle royal to me. I suppose it’s appropriate that Unforgiven 2008 lands at number 5, because so much hinged on whether or not the Scramble concept was successful or not. In the end each Scramble match was decent to good and as a result the entire show was good, but not great.

IV

Unforgiven 1998

Faarooq, Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman defeated The Nation (The Rock, D’Lo Brown and Mark Henry) (with Kama Mustafa)

WWF European Champion Triple H (with Chyna) defeated Owen Hart in a match where Chyna was locked in a suspended cage

The NWA World Tag Team Champions The New Midnight Express (Bodacious Bart and Bombastic Bob) (with Jim Cornette) defeated The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson)

Luna Vachon (with The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust) defeated Sable in an Evening Gown Match

WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn and Road Dogg) defeated Legion of Doom (Animal and Hawk) (with Sunny)

The Undertaker defeated Kane (with Paul Bearer) in an Inferno match

Dude Love defeated WWF Champion Steve Austin by disqualification

This Unforgiven is a bit odd because it was the first and took place in April, not September. The WWF was still holding In Your House pay per views with subtitles, and this was one of them. It was also the first ppv after WrestleMania XIV.

The Good
Mick Foley’s Dude Love persona may have seemed like a bizarre choice to be Steve Austin’s first challenger after winning the WWF Title at WrestleMania XIV, but the feud immediately clicked. When Austin refused to go corporate to please Vince McMahon, McMahon found someone who would and that someone was Austin’s former tag partner Dude Love. In other words Love was McMahon’s first surrogate wrestler in the Austin vs. McMahon feud. The match was an exciting and wild brawl that saw all sorts of interference from McMahon. Near the end the referee was knocked out and eventually Austin struck McMahon on the head with a chair. All of this might sound fairly routine, but at the time it was still fresh and highly entertaining.

Some of the other good stuff includes, the fun match between Owen Hart and Triple H, which saw Chyna locked in a suspended steel cage. Chyna managed to bend the bars to escape and the rest of DX interfered to make sure the European Title would remain the property of Triple H. Additionally, although the actual match was no where near as good as their WrestleMania encounter, the Inferno match between Undertaker and Kane was quite impressive visually and added to the overall spectacle of the show.

The Bad
Both tag team title matches were really bad. I think I forgot just how stupid the New Midnight Express gimmick was, and the fact that this was associated with the NWA showed how close the WWF had really been to the brink in their war with WCW. “Bombastic” Bob and “Bodacious” Bart (maybe it was just the names that were stupid) managed to beat the (at this point very old) Rock and Roll Express. The New Age Outlaws, who were at least over, barely managed to keep their WWF Tag Team Titles in their match with the Road Warriors (LOD 2000), and the match ended with the weak “German suplex, both guys shoulders are down but the guy who was suplexed managed to get one up” spot.

The Reason it’s Number 4
It certainly seems like the first Unforgiven set a reoccurring trend for disqualifications in WWE Title matches. Overall four Unforgiven WWE Title matches ended in disqualification. In this case though, I don’t think the disqualification really hurt the match or the show, because it really kicked off the Austin/McMahon feud. Outside of the two tag team matches everything else was pretty fun.

III

Unforgiven 1999

Val Venis defeated Steve Blackman

D’Lo Brown defeated WWF European Champion Mark Henry

WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett (with Miss Kitty) defeated Chyna by disqualification

The Acolytes (Faarooq and Bradshaw) defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von)

WWF Women’s Champion Ivory defeated Luna Vachon in a Hardcore match

WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn and Road Dogg) defeated Edge and Christian

WWF Hardcore Champion Al Snow (with Head) defeated The Big Boss Man in a Kennel from Hell Match

X-Pac defeated Chris Jericho (w/Curtis Hughes) by disqualification

Triple H defeated The Rock, Mankind, Kane, The Big Show and The British Bulldog (w/Stone Cold Steve Austin as Special Outside Enforcer) in a Six-Pack Challenge to win the vacant WWF Championship (20:28)

Unforgiven 1999, was in its own minor way a themed pay per view, as nearly every match featured a “guest” referee (maybe WWE should use that gimmick for Judgment Day). The regular referees had finally gotten fed up with all the abuse and went on strike. The result is some matches have intentionally awful officiating.

The Good
The main event was the first ever “Six-Pack Challenge” for the vacant WWF Title. Triple H had defeated Mankind the night after SummerSlam to win his first WWF Title but lost it to Vince McMahon only a few weeks later. McMahon forfeited the title and put it up for grabs in the Six-Pack Challenge. When you get six wrestlers (and Steve Austin) of varying ability and stick them in the ring together there is a good chance you could end up with a train wreck, but this match proved to be quite entertaining. The funniest part of the match happened near the end when the striking referees came down and attacked Jim Korderas (the only ref not on strike). This led to Austin counting the fall for Triple H who pinned The Rock after a Pedigree.

In addition to the main event, Chris Jericho made his WWF in ring pay per view debut in a match with X-Pac. Despite the disqualification ending the match really clicked and helped establish Jericho early in his WWF career. Also the Tag Team Title match between the New Age Outlaws and the still relatively personality-free Edge and Christian was good and contributed to the growing tag team renaissance in the WWF.

The Bad
Sometimes certain things are so bad they’re good, and Unforgiven 99 featured the Plan 9 From Outer Space of wrestling matches: “The Kennel From Hell” between the Big Boss Man and Al Snow for the Hardcore Title. The story was Boss Man dognapped Pepper, Al Snow’s pet Chihuahua and after taunting Snow for several weeks invited him over and fed him some “Pepper Steak” (this recipe was in the WWF Cookbook). The payoff for this really bad wannabe Titus Andronicus was The Kennel From Hell. The set up actually sounded kind of cool to me, a steel cage enclosed inside a Hell in a Cell with angry dogs in between the two cages. But when you factor in the fact that it’s an Al Snow and Big Boss Man match it was obvious that there was no way it was going to work, and it didn’t. Some other bad stuff includes the Intercontinental Title Match which wasn’t very good and had a screwy finish, and the interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying hardcore match for the Women’s Title.

You can thank me in the comments section.

The Reason it’s Number 3
I have to admit that the Kennel from Hell is a guilty pleasure of mine and it’s even better with Mick Foley and Kevin Kelly mocking it the whole time, so I can’t really penalize the show for it. While it had the potential to be a disaster the Six-Man match ended up being quite good, and it really helped establish Triple H as a top star due to the fact that he beat out five other wrestlers for the WWF Title. The rest of the card (outside a few instances) ranged from fairly solid to quite good.

II

Unforgiven 2006

WWE Intercontinental Champion Johnny Nitro (with Melina) defeated Jeff Hardy

Kane fought Umaga (with Armando Alejandro Estrada) to a double countout

World Tag Team Champions Spirit Squad (Kenny and Mikey) (with Mitch, Johnny, and Nicky) defeated The Highlanders (Robbie and Rory McAllister)

D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) defeated Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon and ECW Champion The Big Show in a Handicap Hell in a Cell match

Trish Stratus defeated WWE Women’s Champions Lita

Randy Orton defeated Carlito

John Cena defeated WWE Champion Edge in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match

The Good
There was a lot of good going on during this edition of Unforgiven. The main event was an incredible Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match between WWE Champion Edge and John Cena. Even by 2006 the ladder match had been significantly over played, but these two pulled out all the stops to create a very memorable match even if they had to repeat a number of spots from previous ladder matches. The finish saw Cena FU Edge off the top of a ladder through a stack of tables, and retrieved the championship. Although it would have been the match of the night by any normal standards, the most emotional match of the night was Trish Stratus’s retirement match. Stratus and Lita had feuded for years so it was appropriate that she would be Stratus’s final opponent. The match was very good and ended when Trish locked Lita in the highly crowd pleasing Sharpshooter. Tears flowed from Stratus, and Lilian Garcia as she made the announcement that Trish had won the Women’s Championship.

In addition to these two really good matches was the opening bout between Johnny Nitro and Jeff Hardy. The Hell in the Cell match between D-Generation X and the McMahon’s plus The Big Show, was fun in a mostly comedic kind of way. I’m not sure that’s the best idea when the Hell in a Cell has a reputation to uphold, but the match was definitely better than bad.

The Bad
The only match that was really bad at this show was Kane vs. Umaga. The match looked bad enough on paper, and wasn’t any better in the ring. The worst part may have been the predictable brawl up the ramp that led to the double countout. Additionally The World Tag Team Title match was pure filler, and the match between Orton and Carlito went nowhere fast.

The Reason it’s Number 2
This card featured one great match in the TLC, a fun Hell in a Cell (once again, I’m not sure HIAC should be fun, but whatever), and emotional sendoff for one of the greatest women wrestlers in WWE history. Additionally the bad stuff really wasn’t all that bad. This makes this edition of Unforgiven pretty hard to top.

I

Unforgiven 2001

WWF Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) defeated The Big Show and Spike Dudley, Lance Storm and The Hurricane, and The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff) in a Fatal Four-Way Elimination match ship

Perry Saturn defeated Raven

WWF Intercontinental Champion Christian defeated Edge

WCW Tag Team Champions The Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane) defeated KroniK (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark) (w/Steven Richards)

WWF Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam defeated Chris Jericho

WCW Champion The Rock defeated Booker T and Shane McMahon in a Handicap match

Rhyno defeated WCW United States Champion Tajiri (w/Torrie Wilson)

Kurt Angle defeated WWF Champion Steve Austin

This show was right in the middle of the WCW/ECW Invasion angle, and was also the WWF’s first pay per view following the September 11th terrorist attacks.

The Good
In some ways watching the show less than two weeks after 9/11 seemed rather frivolous, but for once the WWF got the patriotism thing right, and opened the show with Jennifer Holliday singing a stirring rendition of “America the Beautiful.” The main event, particularly Kurt Angle’s victory celebration made the show instantly memorable. Although it was just a wrestling storyline seeing a wrestler, who was the embodiment of America defeat the dastardly Steve Austin was the happy ending the show needed. The match was really good too, almost as good as their classic confrontation at SummerSlam a month earlier. In the end Austin tapped out to the Anklelock resulting in one of the more emotional match finishes in WWF history.

In addition to the main event, Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam had a great, and brutal match for the Hardcore Title. Edge and Christian had a good match for the Intercontinental Title. And, the four-way elimination match for the WWF Tag Team Titles was really fun to watch.

The Bad
Unquestionably the worst match of the show was the WCW Tag Team Title match between The Brothers of Destruction an Kronick. The match was particularly disappointing because Kronick’s debut looked like it would give some much needed fire power to the Alliance. However, the match was so bad that both members of Kronick were released almost immediately after. Nothing else came close to that level of bad, but the handicap match for the WCW Title was mildly disappointing.

The Reason it’s Number 1
Much like SummerSlam 2001, Unforgiven 2001 stands out as an island of greatness in the sea of crap that was the invasion angle. It’s by no means a perfect card, but the good stuff was really good, and the bad stuff was fairly minimal. The reason it gets the number one spot is that the booking of the main event was perfect, and it resulted in an emotionally charged victory celebration that, for me anyway, felt like a real victory. Maybe that had a lot to do with September 11th, but when Kurt Angle won the WWF Title it seemed like it was more than just the outcome of a pro-wrestling match, but a victory that was symbolic of something greater.