Unforgiven was first held as the pay-per-view (PPV) in April 1998; In Your House was a series of monthly PPV shows first produced by the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in May 1995. The In Your House branding was retired following February 1999's event, as the company moved to install permanent names for each of its monthly PPVs. Unforgiven then returned in September 1999 as its own PPV event, thus establishing Unforgiven as the annual September PPV for the promotion. The 2002 event was the fifth event in the Unforgiven chronology and took place on September 22 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It was also the first held under the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) name, as the promotion was renamed from WWF to WWE in May. It was also the first Unforgiven held during the brand extension that was introduced in March, a storyline subdivision in which the promotion divided its roster into two separate brands, Raw and SmackDown!, where wrestlers exclusively performed. The 2002 event in turn featured wrestlers from both brands, though the following year, the event was made exclusive to the Raw brand.