WWF No Way Out 2001
February 25, 2001
Las Vegas, NV
Reviewed on February 8, 2015

AKA: The Final Ass Kicking.

This would be the last WWF PPV to take place while WCW was still alive. No Way Out was the final PPV spot before what is shaping up to be the biggest Wrestlemania of them all.

As I wrote in my Royal Rumble 2001 background…the WWF was rolling. But admittedly, there were subtle signs that things may not be going as smoothly as they were say, 12-18 months ago.

For one, some star making attempts hadn’t went well. Rikishi’s heel turn had just about fizzled out at this point. Billy Gunn was pretty much given up on after Armageddon 2000. Eddie Guerrero was having personal problems. Even Chyna went from the WWF’s version of Wonder Woman to someone who’s ego may have been getting way too big. She wouldn’t last much longer (of course, who knows how much the HHH-Stephanie deal played a part in that). Then again, this is nitpicking. Kurt Angle was doing just fine afterall.

Also, it seems that the WWF may have been running out of ideas. The Armageddon Hell in a Cell back in December was a cool concept on paper (and was a very good match), but it also hurt the aura of the Hell in a Cell itself. The post-Wrestlemania scene is probably going to have a lot of familiar faces in it (which it ultimately did), and at some point that’s not just going to draw huge. When I get to those PPVs I’ll write about that.

Lastly, and something I did address in the Rumble ’01 review, ratings were down during Austin’s comeback. While they got back in the 5.0 range during Rumble time, we’re still a bit under 5 in February. That’s about a 16% decrease from the same time the year before. And that’s WITHOUT Austin.

Still, the WWF was rolling and rolling strongly at this point. There’s nothing to be alarmed about…

Yet.

The Card

WWF Hardcore Division
Raven© vs. Big Show

This was an odd period for the Big Show, where he came back at the Rumble…but was immediately regulated to midcard status after being a main eventer his whole career.

Also, the WWF brought in Raven, but still held on to the 24/7 Hardcore model for the title. It was kind of a waste since well, this is Raven we’re talking about here.

In a forgotten angle, Raven’s ninja (Tori) attacks Show, but she doesn’t help.

Crash Holly as a popcorn vendor gets involved…then Steve Blackman and Hardcore Holly get involved as well. It’s 24/7!

Billy Gunn runs in and he gets a pin on Raven for the title!

Raven gets his title back.

Big Show pins Raven in 4:20. Big Show gets a chokeslam. He gets the pin. Billy Gunn keeps trying, but Big Show fights him off. It’s a fun start to the show at least.

Kevin Kelly talks to an arriving Kurt Angle. Angle says he’s ready.

Lillian Garcia asks Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit how they will co-exist. Well, they are going against one another so…that’s not really necessary is it? At least JR points that out.

Fatal Four Way Match: Intercontinental Championship
Chris Jericho© vs. Eddie Guerrero vs. X-Pac vs. Chris Benoit

A lot of stories here. Jericho sidelined X-Pac for a few months in their cage match at No Mercy. Jericho also sidelined Guerrero according to the Guerrero interview we just had. Benoit and Guerrero are part of the reformed Radicalz. Lastly, Jericho beat Benoit for the IC title at the Rumble in a great ladder match.

Radicalz do work together early on, but seeds of doubt are planted when Benoit tries to go for the win when Guerrero went up top for a Frog Splash.

Something else weird. Jericho is the only face here…but X-Pac took a lot of the Radicalz beating early on.

Guerrero and Benoit come to blows!

Beautiful hurricanrana by Guerrero to Benoit.

We get a few minutes of some Benoit-Jericho greatness.

Jericho gets everyone in the Walls…until Justin Credible provides a distraction for X-Pac.

X Marks the Spot (double superkick) by X-Factor to Benoit!

Guerrero breaks up a Benoit Crossface with a flip over neckbreaker. Wow!

Chris Jericho retains when he pins X-Pac in 12:17. Roll-up with a bridge for the win. Wow, match really picked up in the 2nd half and was pretty good the whole way. One of the more entertaining four way matches you’ll ever see.

Vince McMahon tells William Regal that he’s confident he’ll do the right thing for the Stephanie McMahon vs. Trish Stratus match. Regal doesn’t have a damn clue what to do. Regal’s hilarious.

Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley vs. Trish Stratus

After Vince asked Linda for a divorce, Linda went into a catatonic state. Stephanie planned to be the dominant female in the WWF, but with Vince’s affair with Trish, she feels threatened. This actually started a bit earlier when HHH took on Kurt Angle at the Rumble, and Trish managed Angle.

One of the biggest shockers here: Trish and Stephanie BRAWL. No catfight here, just a flat out brawl.

Stephanie jumps off the barricade with a clothesline to Trish. What?

Trish with a hangman’s sleeper in the corner. This is crazy good.

Stephanie powerbombs Trish out of a hurricanrana attempt. I mean just wow.

Regal is here after a double KO. Will he do the right thing? He puts Trish on Stephanie!

Regal changes his mind as the ref counts and puts Steph’s foot on the rope!

SMH wins by pin in 8:29. Trish yells at Regal…and gets a neckbreaker for her troubles. Stephanie gets the pin. Did Regal do the right thing? Anyway…that’s one of the greatest women’s matches in WWF/E history right there. No exaggeration. I assume this spawned Trish actually becoming a wrestler later in 2001. Just wow.

And no…REGAL WAS WRONG. Vince chews him out.

Three Stages of Hell
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Triple H

This feud really began back at Summerslam ’99 when HHH took Austin out after their three way with Mankind. They feuded a bit for the rest of the year…but then Austin was run over. After the failed idea that Rikishi was the driver, HHH was revealed to be his accomplice. Austin dropped HHH from a crane in a limo (another one of those shortsighted ideas that showed the WWF was running out of ideas), but HHH returned in like a month and cost Austin the WWF Title. Austin cost HHH the WWF Title at the Royal Rumble. HHH tried to screw Austin over at the Rumble…but Austin somehow won anyway. Vince wanted to protect the big money match, so he had Austin and HHH sign no contact waivers. If Austin violated it he would lose his Mania match. If HHH violated it, he was suspended for six months. In an AWESOME heel moment, HHH pretended to sign it, then beat the hell out of Austin. THEN he signed the contract (Austin did already). Austin gave Stephanie a stunner, which was a pretty sick response. HHH went after JR of course. Just an amazingly built feud here.

First Fall: Straight Wrestling Match. Second Fall: Street Fight. Third Fall: Cage Match.

There’s the assumption that HHH was a lock to win the first fall, but Austin was a lock to win the 2nd. This line of thinking played out beautifully here.

Austin is outright WHIPPING HHH early on.

HHH finally gets control and works on the neck. Smart, since Austin was out with a neck injury twice in his career, specifically from the hit and run.

Huge pop for a HHH Figure Four. Fans are really into this.

HHH comes off the top, but Austin catches him with a boot and the Stunner. Austin wins fall one. My only nitpick is that it was a little too short at about 12 minutes. But it was an awesome 12 minutes for sure. Just non-stop action.

Austin tosses HHH out of the ring for fall #2!

Well look at that, Austin did the whole Mania X7 chair shot deal to HHH first in this match. Austin is destroying HHH here.

Austin brings Barbie into the mix. Barbie is a barbed wire 2X4. HHH gets control of it though and takes out Austin with it. And now we have blood.

Austin backdrops HHH from once announce desk through the other! A holy shit bump if I ever saw one. Also a nice touch of psychology right before that as well. HHH was going for the Pedigree, but tended to the arm first. Austin worked on the arm in the first fall.

HHH gets two neckbreakers on a chair and a back suplex as well on the same chair. All focusing on the neck.

ANOTHER great HHH bump, this time he gets backdropped over the top from a Pegidree attempt! I mean god damn what a match.

Damn what a chair shot by Austin.

HHH brings in the ultimate equalizer…the sledgehammer! Austin goes for a stunner, but HHH shoves off and takes Austin out with the sledgehammer! Pedigree gets the pin. Awesome finish to the 2nd fall! Brilliant booking too, which I’ll get into.

Third fall coming up. All the weapons are still in the ring for the cage too!

The violence continues! Austin eats cage twice, then gets Barbie to the heat. Austin comes back with another chairshot!

Now HHH gets a face full of Barbie.

Austin survives a Pedigree.

Catapult into the cage by Austin! Anything can finish at this point!

HHH survives a Stunner!

Triple H wins 2-1 when he pinned Austin in 39:26. One of my favorite finishes ever. HHH gets the sledgehammer, and Austin gets Barbie. Both men hit one another at the same time…but Austin falls down first and HHH lands on him for the pin. Let’s talk about all the awesome booking points of this match here. First, Austin winning the first fall and HHH winning the second fall was smart in itself. This is because it furthered HHH’s run as a top tier guy. Even though HHH had been on top in 2000 and even proved himself brawl wise in his feud with Foley…he could arguably still be perceived as a tier lower than someone like Stone Cold. Austin putting over HHH in the 2nd fall ended that perception. The finish itself was brilliant, as it can be seen as practically a draw for Austin, not hurting him one bit…but also putting over HHH as a top guy. This should have led to a further feud after Wrestlemania and not been the blow off. What the WWF did instead was one of the dumbest booking decisions in history and one of the reasons they lost so much steam. Even if Austin still turns heel, your top tier babyface is RIGHT THERE in HHH. The crowd even told us this on the RAW after Mania with the huge reaction HHH got when he was out to save Rock from Austin. Instead, all the work this match did for HHH got undone when he suddenly played second fiddle to Austin in the Two Man Power Trip. Damn shame. This booking is actually an offshoot of Bret-Owen, where Owen got the win first, and thus was the clear #1 Contender when Bret won the title.

That doesn’t change the fact that…and it’s close with TLC II…but that this is my 2001 Match of the Year. It’s just incredible. Austin gets a stunner in for good measure.

If Jerry Lawler wins, The Kat gets naked, if Steven Richards wins, The Kat joins the Right To Censor
Jerry Lawler vs. Steven Richards

Here is your cool down match.

Tazz is out here to replace Lawler on commentary. What a thirteen months for him.

The RTC-Kat storyline should be pretty clear.

Richards using his own version of the Ho Train avalanche is pretty brilliant.

Steven Richards pins Jerry Lawler in 5:32. Richards holds Lawler for no reason other for Kat to accidentally hit him with Ivory’s Women’s title. Terrible finish that made no sense. Match was bad too, Richards’s timing was clearly off.

We wouldn’t get the payoff either. WWF fired Kat basically as soon as she got to the back. Lawler, Kat’s real life then husband, quit in protest as well. This is the last time we’d see Lawler until after the InVasion.

World Tag Team Championship: Three Way Tables Match
The Dudley Boyz© vs. Edge and Christian vs. Undertaker and Kane

An odd match that really got thrown together at the last minute, at least the Taker and Kane part. The Dudleyz won the tag belts from E and C at the Rumble.

Undertaker is oddly wearing tights that resemble his Ministry look.

Bubba busts his ass sliding on a chair. Good thing that was after some sick chair shots.

This has been two different matches so far. The Dudleyz beating up E and C, and Taker and Kane beating up E and C.

Now Taker and Kane beat up the Dudleyz.

Taker and Kane destroy everyone with chokeslams and the win seems academic…although it isn’t…

Because Rikishi and Haku are out here to stop Taker and Kane from winning.

The Dudley Boyz retain in 12:04. 3D to Christian through a table. Good match, but we didn’t need to see Taker and Kane bury the tag division. It was necessary though, since Taker was slated to face HHH at Mania (although, was the original plan Taker and Kane vs. Rikishi and Haku…and perhaps Austin vs. Rock vs. HHH? Probably not). Really just a placeholder to get to TLC II at Mania for sure though.

WWF Championship
Kurt Angle© vs. The Rock

Really obvious who’s winning here, but that’s okay. Angle beat Rock back at No Mercy to win the title in the first place. Rock beat Big Show for this title shot.

Kurt Angle established the Ankle Lock as a finisher in this feud with the Rock.

Angle and Rock with a great start. I like Rock’s exaggerated Russian Leg Sweep.

JR sells the Ankle Lock like death. What a great finish that turned out to be for Angle.

You can tell they are working at an accelerated pace due to them running short on time. As a result they just do everything faster without resting. Sometimes the psychology doesn’t work…but it’s working here for sure. Reminds me of the Summerslam ’02 main.

For some reason The Big Show has decided to come out here midway to chokeslam the ref, Angle and The Rock. This didn’t lead to anything though, as Show was in the Hardcore division for the next couple months. Anyway, back to our four star match.

Crazy intensity from Angle when he traps Rock in the Ankle Lock. “Give it up before I break your fucking ankle!”

Angle shockingly survives a People’s Elbow. Angle still looked like a million bucks here. Huge bullshit chant too.

Great false finish with Angle sending Rock into an unprotected corner…and an Angle Slam.

I think the finish gets screwed up here. Rock Bottom gets two, and Earl Hebner doesn’t count three despite the fact it looks like Angle doesn’t move. Weird too, considering Rock would just hit another Rock Bottom.

The Rock wins the title by pin in 16:53. That Rock Bottom wins it, which makes me wonder why they just didn’t go with the first one since Angle didn’t kick out. Nonetheless, this was a great match, obvious finish aside. Angle’s first title reign put him in that main event category. It’s amazing to look at the difference between Angle’s 1st reign and Jericho’s Undisputed reign a year later. Angle was booked strongly all reign and looked like a star afterwards. Jericho was booked like a chump mostly and struggled afterwards.

Anyway, this show owns. Can’t give it the full A+ as there’s a little too much lack of direction with some guys. I mean what the hell Big Show? Taker and Kane being in the tag title match and being attacked by Rikishi and Haku is another example. But those are nitpicks. The show was great. Angle vs. Rock? Great. Austin vs. HHH? Incredible. Even Stephanie vs. Trish was great considering expecations. The WWF might have been nearing the end of its peak, but damn what a peak it was.

Final Grade: A