Memories of WWE No Mercy 2002
Long time no speak! I've been busy drowning in a sea of Long Island presidential debate and economic stuff ... but with No Mercy in the rear-view mirror and WWE releasing a Hell in the Cell DVD retrospective, now seemed like as good a time as any to share some memories of No Mercy '02, one of my favorite shows from my time on the WWE creative team. Here's a few ...
... I have a confession to make: That odd promo that Rob Van Dam cut prior to his match with Ric Flair (the one where he referred to himself as a chair-smashing, frog splashing, head banging, yinging and yanging dude named RVD) was my doing. I thought it would be fun, and Rob was game for it (though he messed up a few lines --- mostly because it was just so not him). So my bad on that one ...
... Though the end of that interview contained one of my favorite moments ever -- as Coach runs over to interview Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar and Tracy (remember her?), Tracy refers to the Undertaker as a "scumbag" -- a word I'd been trying to sneak into a promo for months.
... Most of the talk at the pre-show production meeting was about the Lesnar-Hogan plans having to change for Survivor Series. The plan all along was for Hogan to return from the beating Lesnar gave him on SmackDown in August (when Lesnar went over clean with the bear hug) and for him to challenge Lesnar for the title at Survivor Series at the Garden -- and for Hogan to again lose clean, putting Lesnar over huge. But Hogan was now saying he wanted the title, which Vince obviously wasn't gonna do. So there was much talk over where to go next, which wound up being the Big Show.
... The Taker-Brock Hell in a Cell was originally slated to be a Texas Death Match. I and many of the other writers fought that one hard, since I think most fans view Texas Death Matches the same way they view matches like Last Man Standing and Stretched Matches -- as complete and utter B.S., since there's really no finish! Fans want pinfalls or submissions, not countouts. Especially after we'd screwed over the fans the previous month at Unforgiven with a Taker-Brock Double DQ (Brock was supposed to have gone over clean), it seemed we'd need something on a grand scale to make it up to fans. Hell in the Cell was it, and Vince, to his credit, heard our arguments and agreed.
... There was talk at random points leading up to Hell in the Cell about either Paul Heyman or Matt Hardy "going for the ride" -- that is, taking a big bump off the cell itself. For reasons I don't completely remember, this never came to fruition -- likely to keep the focus on Taker and Brock.
... The finals of the SmackDown Tag Title Tournament (Angle/Benoit vs. Rey/Edge) is still one of my favorite matches of all time. From the time I joined the team in late July -- shortly after the Bischoff/Stephanie GM storyline revitalized the brand extension -- I'd been a huge proponent of establishing a Tag Title on SmackDown, and I'd also been pitching making Angle and Benoit the first tag champs and letting them run with the ball for a while, knowing they'd bring instant legitemacy to the titles.
... The No Mercy PPV was the swan song for Paul Guay, the very talented Hollywood writer of "Liar Liar" and other big-time movies who'd been brought in as a consultant for the writing team. Being that Paul was an honest guy with good ideas, he didn't stand a chance of making it at WWE in the longterm. Realizing that, he took his leave from the company shortly after this show.
... The HHH-Kane match is what it is -- like I've said, the plan at one point was for Kane to win the title and become the first man in history to unify the WWE, IC and Tag Titles. Obviously, that didn't happen. Instead, it was the "culmination" of the Katie Vick storyline.
... RAW the night after No Mercy was fun for a few reasons. If memory serves, it was the night they did the backstage sketch with Triple H at the funeral home with the Katie Vick mannequin and the "I screwed your brains out" punchline that Vince was pitching for weeks leading up to it. Most of the production people went to the funeral home to shoot the segment, so I wrote just about every interview on RAW that night (with revisions and production notes after the fact, of course). Also worth noting was the first-ever announcement of the Elimination Chamber match, Eric Bischoff's reaction to Hell in a Cell. You should know that we didn't even come up with the term "Elimination Chamber" until that very weekend, possibly even the day of RAW, and even when Bischoff announced it, we still weren't exactly sure how the whole thing would work.
... SmackDown the Thursday (actually Tuesday) after No Mercy marked the introduction of Al Wilson. You're welcome again for that one.
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Comments (13)
i think the undertaker should resurrect al wilson...thatd be awesome.
Who is Tracy that was with Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar? I don't remember her at all.
Who decided to name the new tag title the WWE tag team title and rename the other one?
I wasnt watching at the time but I have this PPV on VHS - I think Tracy was someone heyman brought in to claim she had an affair with Undertaker. I remember she called him Mark in one of the promos on the PPV.
I'm pretty sure I have this PPV on vhs as well. Now I'm intrigued and will try to watch it tonight or tomorrow.
What was Tracy's last name? I recall hearing that she was Brock Lesnar's real-life, Ployboy model girlfriend at the time, but I am not sure if that was true or it just sounded reasonable enough to report online.
According to the story, Pure Dynamite was right - at the time, Undertaker's real-life wife Sara was pregnant so the mind games were Paul Heyman presenting this woman as someone with whom Undertaker was cheating on Sara for the past few months. Between Unforgiven and No Mercy, Tracy was introduced to keep Undertaker's mind off the match. Undertaker's hand was broken at the time, so my friend humorously applauded the realism of the angle.... "C'mon, you can't fault the Undertaker for having Tracy on the side. His wife is pregnant - his hand is broken - he's only human!" Good stuff.
Why did the Undertaker-Lesnar match at Unforgiven end in a DQ instead of Brock going over clean?
That Hell In A Cell between Taker and Brock is my all time favorite. The finish where Brock reversed the tombstone into an F5 was just gold.
Having Hulk Hogan lose clean at Survivor Series would have been huge for Brock. Him beating Hulk on Smackdown is usually forgotten when listing his career accomplishments.
I recall Seth writing about how the original plan for WM 19 was a Raw/Smackdown matchup between Rob Van Dam and Brock Lesnar.
I think Brock winning against Hogan would have been a good buildup to that match, cementing Brock as a huge heel. As it actually happened, Brock lost the title to The Big Show, turning face in the process.
Although, I can't complain too much. A face Lesnar vs. a heel Kurt Angle was an amazing match and no doubt better than a heel Lesnar vs. face Rob Van Dam.
I was actually at this ppv, as it was for some strange reason held in Little Rock. Besides the HIAC, the thing i remember most is when Jericho went for a Lionsault, all the ring ropes fell apart. It was one of the strangest things I have ever seen happen in a wrestling ring as all the wrestlers had no idea what to do.
I was actually at this ppv, as it was for some strange reason held in Little Rock. Besides the HIAC, the thing i remember most is when Jericho went for a Lionsault, all the ring ropes fell apart. It was one of the strangest things I have ever seen happen in a wrestling ring as all the wrestlers had no idea what to do.
Tracy is jacuzzi girl number 2 from back to the future part 2..............you can thank J.D.Dunn for that nugget of info :D
I miss Al Wilson.