Vengeance (2001) - Background

Background

The Invasion, which began in June 2001, ended at Survivor Series, the previous event, when Team WWF won a "Winner Takes All" Survivor Series match. The Alliance was forced to close business as a result, and all their titles except for the WCW Championship were abandoned (the remaining championships were unified with WWF championships in matches at Survivor Series and deactivated, and the WCW Cruiserweight Championship would later be revived as a WWF title). On Raw the following night, WWF Owner Vince McMahon attempted to strip Steve Austin, who was a member of The Alliance, of his WWF Championship, and award it to Kurt Angle. At this moment, Ric Flair debuted, and revealed that the owners of The Alliance sold their stock to Flair, making McMahon and Flair co-owners. Flair then prevented McMahon from stripping Austin of his title. McMahon and Flair then agreed to a tournament at Vengeance to unify the remaining WCW Championship (which became unbranded and referred to only as the World Championship) with the WWF Championship. The tournament would feature a match between WWF Champion Austin and Angle, and a match between World Champion The Rock and Chris Jericho. The winners of both matches would then face each other in the final to determine the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion.

Austin and Angle started a feud over the WWF Championship at the Invasion event, where Team WWF, which Austin and Angle were a part of, faced Team Alliance in a five-on-five tag team match. During the match, Austin turned on Team WWF and hit Angle with a Stone Cold Stunner, allowing Team Alliance to win. On the July 23 episode of Raw Is War, Austin stated that he did this because he felt that Vince McMahon was grooming Angle to take over his spot, and that he was "unappreciated" when McMahon insisted he return to the old Austin. Austin and Angle would then begin a rivalry, with Angle challenging Austin for the WWF Championship at SummerSlam, which Angle won by disqualification, thus Austin retained the title. Angle then won the WWF title in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA at Unforgiven, but lost it back to Austin when then-WWF Commissioner William Regal joined The Alliance and cost Angle the match on the October 8 episode of Raw. On the October 29 episode of Raw, Angle successfully defended the WCW United States Championship over William Regal. Angle later joined The Alliance during a WrestleMania X-Seven rematch between Vince McMahon and then-WCW owner Shane McMahon, he interfered seemingly to aid Vince but instead struck the members of team WWF with a steel chair. However, he was later revealed to be a planted mole by Vince McMahon, helping Team WWF defeat Team Alliance at Survivor Series when he helped The Rock last eliminate Austin in the winner take all match.

The feud between The Rock and Jericho, both members of the WWF, began when Jericho grew jealous of The Rock. The Rock kept reminding Jericho that he had never won "the big one" (a World Heavyweight Championship) and wrote Jericho off as a "comedy act." On the October 11 episode of SmackDown!, Jericho defeated Rob Van Dam to become the number one contender to Rock's WCW Championship. At No Mercy he defeated The Rock to win the title, becoming a world champion for the first time in his career. The following night on Raw, Jericho and The Rock put their differences aside and won the WWF Tag Team Championship when they defeated the Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von). On the October 29 episode of Raw, Rock and Jericho successfully defended the WWF Tag team titles against then Alliance members, Booker T and Test but a few days later on SmackDown!, they dropped the titles to Booker T and Test after Jericho inadvertently Missile dropkicked The Rock, enabling Test to nail Rock with the big boot for the victory. After the match, The Rock and Jericho stared each other down, which ended with Rock nailing Jericho with two Rock Bottoms. Later on that episode, Rock challenged Jericho for the WCW Championship in a No Mercy rematch. On the November 5 episode of Raw, The Rock defeated Jericho to win the title back with a surprise roll up. Jericho turned on The Rock following the match, brutally assaulting him with the belt and a steel chair. He also attacked The Rock by delivering a Russian legsweep following his elimination in the WWF vs. Alliance winner take all match at Survivor Series the previous month and nearly cost team WWF the match, and the feud between the two continued to escalate in the weeks leading up to Vengeance.