Armageddon (2000) - Aftermath

Aftermath

After Kurt Angle retained the WWF Championship against Stone Cold Steve Austin on the January 8, 2001 edition of Raw, Vince McMahon announced that Angle would defend his title against his son-in-law Triple H at the Royal Rumble. Triple H claimed that Angle could only have become the champion because he (Triple H) allowed him to. Angle disagreed. At the PPV Kurt Angle defeated Triple H in a Singles Match for the WWF Championship following interference from Austin.

WWF Commissioner Mick Foley would opt to resign due to a promise that he made on Sunday Night Heat where if anyone suffered serious injury in the 6-man Hell In A Cell match, he would resign as Commissioner. Instead, Foley chose to keep his job due to support from Steve Austin and the WWF fans. However, on the December 18, 2000 edition of Raw, when the Board of Directors deemed Linda McMahon incompetent to continue being CEO due to a (kayfabe) nervous breakdown, they granted Vince McMahon 100% control of the WWF, allowing him to fire Foley as Commissioner.

The Undertaker also began to feud with Triple H, albeit immediately after HHH's feud with Angle began to wane. On an episode of Smackdown, Undertaker had a restraining order placed against him after attacking Triple H's on-screen wife, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, but Taker would exploit a loophole in his restraining order by assigning his kayfabe half-brother, Kane, to stalk Stephanie. When new WWF Commissioner William Regal refused to grant him a match against Triple H at Wrestlemania, an event Undertaker had never lost at, he threatened him with Kane holding Stephanie over his head and about to toss her off the balcony just above them. Commissioner Regal finally gave Taker his match. Undertaker would go on to up his Mania record to 9-0 with his victory over "The Game".

Stone Cold Steve Austin would go on to enter the Royal Rumble Match at the Royal Rumble PPV despite being attacked and busted open by Triple H before Austin officially participated in it by entering the ring for costing him a chance to become the WWF Champion earlier that night in revenge for Triple H robbing Austin of a reign with the same title on a past episode of Raw Is War. On the way he fought long-time rival The Rock, who claimed to have won the Royal Rumble for the second time in a row. At the PPV Steve Austin won the match after eliminating Kane. He would go to WrestleMania to defeat The Rock in a No Disqualification Match to win the WWF Championship with some highly unlikely help from former arch-rival Mr. McMahon, thus being his heel turn.