User:Adster95/vengeance2002

Vengeance (2002) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on July 21, 2002 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. It was the second annual Vengeance produced by WWE. Professional wrestling is a type of sports entertainment in which theatrical events are combined with a competitive sport. The buildup to the matches and the scenarios that took place before, during, and after the event, were planned by WWE's script writers. The event starred wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brands: storyline expansions of the promotion where employees are assigned to wrestling brands under the WWE banner.

The main event saw The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) win the WWE Undisputed Championship in a Triple Threat match also involving Kurt Angle and The Undertaker (Mark Callaway). The main matches on the undercard were John Cena versus Chris Jericho (Chris Irvine), Rob Van Dam (Robert Szatkowski) versus Brock Lesnar for the WWE Intercontinental Championship and The Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian [ Jason Reso ] versus Hollywood Hogan (Terry Bollea) and Edge (Adam Copeland) for the WWE Tag Team Championship.

Background
The Main Feud heading into Vengeance was between The Rock (Dwayne Johnson), Kurt Angle and The Undertaker (Mark Callaway) fighting for Undisputed Championship. At King of the Ring (2002) Undertaker defeated Triple H (Paul Levesque) to retain the Undisputed Championship. During the match The Rock interfered hitting Undertaker with a rock bottom. Undertaking fuming with The Rock's interference asks Mr. McMahon for a match with The Rock. Vince books the match for Vengeance and tells The Undertaker it will be for the Undisputed Championship. But on the 4th of July edition SmackDown!" The Undertaker wrestled Kurt Angle to a draw when Undertaker won by pinfall and taps out to Angle's submission hold. And on the following RAW Mr McMahon announced that Angle would be added to the match.

Another storyline heading into Vengeance was Triple H (Paul Levesque) determining what brand he would permanently join. He could either stay on SmackDown! with then new General Manager Stephanie McMahon or move back to Monday Night Raw with General Manager Eric Bischoff. Originally New World Order (nWo) was planning to threaten Triple H to join the nWo on his return to Raw, but due to backstage circumstances, the nWo was written off television a week before Vengeance. Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom), however, would still promise to bring Triple H back to Raw.

The biggest match on the undercard was Brock Lesnar vs Rob Van Dam (Robert Szatkowski) for the Intercontinental championship. Last month at King of the Ring Brock Lesnar defeated RVD to become King of the Ring 2002 and get a WWE Undisputed championship shot at SummerSlam. RVD had held the Intercontinental championship since 27th of May edition of RAW when he defeated Eddie Guerrero in a laddder match.

John Cena had made is WWE debut a month before Vengeance on the 27th June edition of SmackDown! and had entered a minor feud with Chris Jericho (Chris Irvine). Jericho and Edge (Adam Copeland) were also feuding at that time and were booked to fight each other at Vengeance. Until Hollywood Hogan (Terry Bollea) and Edge defeated Billy and Chuck for the World Tag Team Championship on the 4th July edition of SmackDown! Chris Jericho then asked Mr McMahon to let The Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian [ Jason Reso ] to wrestle Hogan and Edge for the Tag Titles at Vengeance instead. Which McMahon agreed to.

On the Lower end of the card Jeff Hardy had defeated William Regal (Darren Matthews) to win the European Championship on the 8th July edition of RAW. Regal upset after his loss to the young rookie used his rematch clause at Vengeance. . Booker T (Booker Huffman) had been feuding with the NWO (at the time of their dimise) after being literally kicked out of it. On the 15th July edition of RAW Booker T defeated former NWO member The Big Show (Paul Wight) by disqualification aftr Show hit Booker with a chair. After the match Show asked RAW G.M. Eric Bishoff that at Vengeance if he could fight Booker in a No Disqualification match which Bishoff granted. Finally Jamie Noble (James Gibson) and had debuted a month before Vengeance and (at King of the Ring) defeated The Hurricane (Gregory Helms) for the Cruiserweight Championship. Billy Kidman (Peter Gruner) then challenged Jamie Noble to a Cruiserweight Championship match at Vengeance.

Event
Before the event went live on pay-per-view, Goldust (Dustin Runnels) defeated Stevie Richards (Michael Manna) in a standard wrestling match taped for Sunday Night HEAT. The show began with Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler until Tazz (Peter Senerchia) and Michael Cole (Michael Coulthard) say they deserve to call WWE Vengeance just as much as Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler should. Jim Ross agrees and lets Tazz and Michael Cole call the first half of the show.

Preliminary matches
After Sunday Night Heat, the event began with a tag team elimination tables match between the teams of Bubba Ray Dudley (Mark LoMonaco) and Spike Dudley (Matt Hyson) and Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. Eddie Guerrero was eliminated first after a Dudley Dog from Spike onto a table. Spike was then eliminated by Chris Benoit after Benoit tossed spike to the outside table. Bubba and Spike won after Benoit was eliminated by a Bubba bomb onto a table.

The following was a standard wrestling match between Jamie Noble (James Gibson) (with Nidia vs Billy Kidman (Peter Gruner) for the Cruiserweight Championship. Kidman dominated the early goings until Noble pushed Nidia into Kidman and performed a DDT onto the steel floor. Noble took control with suplex and focused on Kidmans left arm. Till Kidman countered a powerbomb into a facecrusher and Kidman continued to dominate noble until Kidman missed a Shooting Star press and Jamie Noble took advantage. And after Noble executed a double underhook powerbomb Noble covered Kidman for the win and to retain the Cruiserweight Championship.

The third match was contested under standard wrestling rules between Jeff Hardy vs William Regal (Darren Matthews) for the European Championship. Hardy had the advantage in the early goings. he then went for a Swanton but Regal put his knees up. Regal then dominated Hardy with suplexs and hard strikes until Hardy caught him off guard with a roll up for the win and to retain the European Championship.

Next was a standard wrestling match Chris Jericho (Chris Irvine) vs John Cena. Before this match got started Jericho ran at Cena with a chair but missed and Cena grapped the chair and hit jericho with it. Cena then through Jericho in the ring and the ref started this match. This match saw both superstars get the advantage over each other. Near the conclusion of the match Jericho started to dominate, he performed a lionsault and tried to lock in The Walls of Jericho but Cena reversed it into a school boy and won.

Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler join the announers table and Tazz and Michael Cole leave.

Main event matches
The next match was the featured preliminary match from the Raw brand: a standard wrestling match between Rob Van Dam (Robert Szatkowski) (Champion) and Brock Lesnar for the Intercontinental championship. It was a pretty balanced match with no superstar getting a clear advantage until RVD started to dominate with some high flying moves and performed a Five Star Frog Splash and went for the pin. Seeing that his client was in danger Paul Heyman grapped referee Charles Robinson to the outside Robinson immediately disqualified Lesnar thus RVD wins and retains his championship.

The sixth match was a No Disqualification match between Booker T (Booker Huffman) and The Big Show (Paul Wight). Booker T dominated the match after Big Show missed Booker T and ran straight into the steel post. One notable spot in the match happened when Booker T did a scissors kick to Big Show who was on the spanish announce table. The match ended when Booker T executed a Houston Hangover off the top rope onto Show and covered him for the win.

After the sixth match there was a segment with Triple H (Paul Levesque) deciding which brand he wanted to be on. Before Triple H could get a word out Raw General Manager Eric Bishoff came out and said Triple H should go to Raw and he could have a chance in hollywood. SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon came out and told Bishoff to "Shut up". She then said Triple H should come to SmackDown! And she also said nothing personal would come between them! Triple said he'd came to a decison. He then started to say and this week on SmackDown! And as he said this Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom) came down to the ring. Michaels then said that they could reform DX. Triple H said that he will now go to Raw. Triple H and Shawn Michaels then left. Bishoff then started to gloat and McMahon slapped him.

The seventh match was a Tag Team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship between champions Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea and Edge (Adam Copeland) and The Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian (Jason Reso). Edge and Hogan dominated the match looking like they were going to retain until Test (Andrew Martin) big booted Edge though Edge seemed to recover but then Chris Jericho interfered and hit Edge with one of the tag title belts allowing Lance Storm to cover Edge and win the tag team titles.

The Main Event was a standard wrestling match involving three wrestlers for the Undisputed Championship, where Undertaker (Mark Calaway)] defended his championship against The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) and Kurt Angle. A notable spot in this match had all three competitors copy each others finishing moves as The Rock put Kurt Angle in the Ankle lock, Kurt Angle then performed a Rock Bottom on The Rock. Undertaker then gave Kurt Angle an Angle Slam. The Rock won the match after a Rock Bottom on Kurt Angle and became Undisputed champion. This would start The Rock's 7th and final record breaking reign.

Aftermath
After winning the WWE Undisputed Championship, The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) then entered a feud with the number one contender Brock Lesnar for the upcoming PPV SummerSlam. Brock Lesnar would go on to win the match and become the youngest WWE Champion in history. It would also be the last match for The Rock until early 2003 and The Rock's last reign as WWE Champion.

Triple H ((Paul Levesque) and Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom) came out the night after Vengeance and what appeared to be a reunion for D-Generation X was instead Triple H nailing a Pedigree on Michaels. This caused Michaels to retaliate and challenge Triple H to a street fight at Summerslam, marking his first official match since WrestleMania XIV.  Shawn Michaels would go on to win in a miraculous upset, though Triple H would still send him out of the arena on a stretcher.

A night after Vengeance, Eric Bischoff decided to merge the WWE Intercontinental Championship and the WWE European Championship into one, putting Rob Van Dam (Robert Szatkowski) and Jeff Hardy against each other in a ladder match. RVD would win the match, and the European Championship was retired. A week later, Van Dam lost the Intercontinental Championship to Chris Benoit, who would then jump to SmackDown!. Van Dam used his rematch clause for Summerslam and brought the Intercontinental title back to RAW.

After losing to John Cena, Chris Jericho (Chris Irvine) had to face Edge (Adam Copeland) in a steel cage match on the July 25th edition of SmackDown!. Edge would go on to win the match, and Jericho, along with The Un-Americans, would jump to RAW. Jericho went on to feud with Ric Flair (Fleir). Lance Storm and Christian (Jason Resso) began to feud with Booker T (Booker Huffman) and Goldust (Dustin Runnels), while Test (Andrew Martin) had a one-month feud with  The Undertaker (Mark Callaway). After his cage match win over Chris Jericho, Edge began a two-month long feud with Eddie Guerrero.

After losing the triple threat match to The Rock, Kurt Angle would soon be pinned by Rey Mysterio (Oscar Gutierrez) in a six man tag team match on the 8th of August edition of SmackDown! And would challenge Mysterio to a match at Summerslam which Mysterio would accept.