No Mercy (2002) - Background

Background

The event featured nine professional wrestling matches with outcomes predetermined by WWE script writers. The matches featured wrestlers portraying their characters in planned storylines that took place before, during and after the event. All wrestlers were from either one of the WWE's brands - SmackDown or Raw - the two storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees.

The main rivalry from the SmackDown brand was between Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker over the WWE Championship. At Unforgiven, Lesnar defended the title against Undertaker in a standard wrestling match. The match resulted in a no contest after the referee was attacked by brawling Lesnar and Undertaker. On September 25 edition of SmackDown, Undertaker defeated Matt Hardy, who interfered in Lesnar and Undertaker's match at Unforgiven. After the match, Lesnar attacked Undertaker with the WWE title belt. On October 3 edition of SmackDown, Matt Hardy defeated The Undertaker in a Falls Count Anywhere match after Lesnar interfered and hit an F-5 on Undertaker. Afterwords, Lesnar grabbed the propane tank and tossed to Undertaker's hand into the cage. Later that night, Lesnar was informed by his manager Paul Heyman that the SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon had ordered Lesnar to defend the title against Undertaker in a rematch. Stephanie, however, announced that Lesnar would defend the title against Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match at No Mercy. The following week on SmackDown!, Lesnar and Paul Heyman found an unorthodox but very effective way to distract the Undertaker leading up to their Hell in a Cell match for the WWE title at No Mercy. Heyman and Lesnar escorted a young woman to the arena, causing speculation to swirl about her identity. During the segment, Heyman tipped his hand as he explained that the woman - Tracy - would show just what kind of man the Undertaker really is. As The Undertaker made his way to the ring, Tracy found herself in the ring staring face to face with him. She erupted into a fury and accused Taker of lying to her and sleeping with her for three months. She stated that she had no idea that Taker was married and his wife Sara was pregnant and apologized to Sara, saying she hated that the news had to be broken that way. Taker claimmed that he had never even seen Tracy before, much less had an affair with her. But all that earned him was a slap to the face from her that ended the segment. Moments later, Undertaker attempted to convince Sara over the phone that he was innocent until it became obvious that Sara wasn't buying his alibi. Sara also got a call from Lesnar as Lesnar told Sara in a mockingly insincere tone that he was concerned for her state of mind. Toward the end of the show, Undertaker would vent his frustrations on Lesnar at the end of the evening as he assaulted him, using the cast on his broken hand as a weapon. The following week on SmackDown!, Undertaker admitted in an interview that he lied about not knowing Tracy and that he knew Tracy, but insisted that it was years before he and his wife Sara even met. Tracy, however, begged to differ, and let SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon know that she and Undertaker had been together as recently as ten days earlier! Lesnar and Heyman, with their own axe of grind, demanded that Stephanie prohibit Undertaker from wearing his cast during their upcoming Hell in the Cell match at No Mercy. Intent on exacting vengeance upon Lesnar, who broke his hand in the first place, Undertaker unleashed an unspeakable fury by nailing Lesnar with the cast, bloodying him in the process. Despite that, Stephanie affirmed that Undertaker would be permitted to wear the cast into the Cell at No Mercy.

The main rivalry from the Raw brand was between the World Heavyweight Champion Triple H and the WWE Intercontinental Champion Kane. At Unforgiven, Triple H defeated Rob Van Dam to retain the World title. On September 30 edition of Raw, the Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff announced that the World Heavyweight Champion Triple H would wrestle the Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho in a Title unification match at No Mercy and the two would defend their titles later that night. Triple H advanced to No Mercy by retaining the World Championship against Bubba Ray Dudley. However, Kane defeated Jericho to win the Intercontinental Championship and advance to the title unification match against Triple H at No Mercy. The following week on Raw, Kane successfully singlehandedly defended the World Tag Team Championship (that he had won on September 23rd) in a four team Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match as The Hurricane had been attacked earlier that evening (by Triple H and Flair) and was thus unable to compete. As Kane celebrated his first Tag team title defense in a TLC match, Triple H and Flair came out with Triple H stating that Kane said, "for the first time in my life, i'm happy". He then said that he knew all about Katie Vick and accused Kane of killing her. As the show went off the air, Triple H uttered the words by saying, "Kane, you are a murderer!". On the last edition of Raw, after Kane and The Hurricane lost the World Tag team titles to Jericho and Christian, Kane addressed the crowd and admitted that he was somewhat responsible for Katie Vick's death, however, he claimed that it was an accident. According to Kane, he was simply driving her home from a party because she had too much to drink. Triple H soon came out to interject. He stated that Kane's story was only partly true and that Kane apparently forgot to mention that he too had been drinking. In addition, Triple H mentioned that at Katie's autopsy, doctors found traces of Kane's semen, leaving him to ask two upsetting questions: Did Kane force himself on her while she was alive? Or did he wait until she was dead? Toward the end of the show, Kane attempted to gain revenge on Triple H as he got to the ring, but Triple H quickly escaped. Kane then targeted his assault on half of the Raw roster by Chokeslamming them and then stared down at Triple H as they were set to square off in their Unification title match at No Mercy.

Another predominant rivalry from the Raw brand was between Rob Van Dam and Ric Flair. At Unforgiven, Flair interfered in RVD's World Heavyweight Championship title shot against Triple H. During the match, Triple H tried to attack RVD with a sledgehammer but Flair interfered in the match and snatched it from Triple H. Flair turned on RVD by hitting him with the sledgehammer and allowed Triple H to win the match. As a result of the betrayal, Flair became a villain. On September 23 edition of Raw, Triple H and Flair defeated RVD and Bubba Ray Dudley in a tag team match. After the match, RVD attacked Triple H and performed a Diving Legdrop on Triple H through the announce table. On October 14 edition of Raw, Eric Bischoff announced that RVD would wrestle Flair in a match at No Mercy. Later that night, Triple H defeated RVD in Canadian lumberjack strap match after Ric Flair nailed RVD from behind with the World title belt while the referee was distracted.

The secondary rivalry from the SmackDown brand heading into No Mercy was between the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit and the team of Edge and Rey Mysterio to crown the first WWE Tag Team Champions. SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon announced that a tag team tournament would take place to determine the new Tag Team Champions for the brand. The tournament started on October 3 edition of SmackDown, with the quarterfinals. Los Guerreros (Eddie and Chavo) defeated Mark Henry and Rikishi in the first match and Reverend D-Von and Ron Simmons defeated Billy and Chuck in the second match. The other two matches of the quarterfinal round took place on October 10 edition of SmackDown, as Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit defeated John Cena and Billy Kidman, and Edge and Rey Mysterio defeated Brock Lesnar and Tajiri. On October 17 edition of SmackDown, the semifinal round took place, where Angle and Benoit defeated Los Guerreros, and Edge and Mysterio defeated D-Von and Simmons. This set up the final round match pitting Angle and Benoit against Edge and Mysterio to crown the new champions at No Mercy.

The third rivalry from the Raw brand heading into the event was between the team of Chris Jericho and Christian and the team of Booker T and Goldust over the World Tag Team Championship. On September 23 edition of Raw, Jericho defeated Goldust to retain the Intercontinental Championship in a match ordered by the Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff. On September 30 edition of Raw, Jericho was confronted by Goldust's tag team partner Booker in a backstage segment. On October 7 edition of Raw, Booker defeated The Big Show in a Steel Cage match. After the match, Jericho attacked Booker. On October 14 edition of Raw, Booker retaliated by attacking Jericho before Jericho and Christian's World Tag Team Championship match against Kane and The Hurricane. However, Jericho and Christian managed to win the championships. After the match, Bischoff announced that Jericho and Christian would defend the titles against Booker and Goldust at No Mercy.

The third rivalry from the SmackDown brand heading into the event was between Jamie Noble and Tajiri over the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. On October 10 edition of SmackDown, Noble's valet Nidia was involved in a backstage confrontation with Rey Mysterio and Noble was not there to support her. She then confronted Noble, enabling the security guard to ask what the problem was. Nidia responded by slapping Noble's water bottle (w/water in it) out of Noble's hand onto the guard, prompting him to remove the two out of the arena for the night. On that evening, Noble was scheduled to team with Tajiri to take on Edge & Mysterio in the quarterfinals to crown the new WWE Tag team championship but since Noble got removed from the arena, he was replaced by Brock Lesnar in the tag team match. Edge and Mysterio still managed to win the match and advance to the Semi-Finals. On October 17 edition of SmackDown, Noble's tag team partner Tajiri served as the special referee in a match between Noble and Nidia. Noble won the match. After the match, Tajiri tried to help Nidia to her feet but she slapped him on the face, enabling Noble to attacked Tajiri from behind. As a result, Noble and Nidia kept their alliance. This led to a match between Noble and Tajiri for the Cruiserweight Championship at No Mercy.

The Divas rivalry from the Raw brand heading into the event was between Trish Stratus and Victoria over the WWE Women's Championship. At Unforgiven, Stratus defeated Molly Holly to win the title. On September 23 edition of Raw, Stratus defeated Molly and Victoria in a Triple Threat match to retain the title. On September 30 edition of Raw, Victoria attacked Stratus from behind backstage before their title match. Stratus, however, defeated Victoria by disqualification to retain the title after Victoria nailed Stratus with a steel chair. On October 7 edition of Raw, Victoria attacked Stratus after Stratus retained the title against Stacy Keibler in a Bra and Panties match. This led to a title match between Stratus and Victoria at No Mercy.

The Divas rivalry from the SmackDown brand heading into the event was between Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie. On September 26 edition of SmackDown, Wilson defeated Nidia in a Bikini contest via crowd reaction. After the contest ended, Wilson was confronted by Dawn in a backstage segment. On October 3 edition of SmackDown, Wilson introduced her father Al Wilson to Billy and Chuck. Dawn started getting affected towards Al shortly thereafter. Later that night, Torrie defeated Dawn in a Bikini contest. After the contest ended, Dawn was about to shake Torrie's hand but instead she slapped her down and tossed her out of the ring. The following week, Torrie defeated Dawn in a Lingerie contest. Afterword, Dawn wanted to shake Torrie's hand this time but Torrie this time declined and walked away as if it looks like she wasn't going to fall for another trick to an assault that happened to her the previous week. Backstage, Dawn continued to attract Al towards herself, which lead to a match between Torrie and Dawn at No Mercy. On the final edition of SmackDown, Dawn and Matt Hardy defeated Torrie and Rikishi in a mixed tag team match. Moments later, Torrie started looking for her dad until she went to the Women's locker room and found him in a shower with Dawn.