No Mercy 2002

No Mercy 2002 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) that took place on October 20, 2002, at the Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas. It was the fifth annual WWE No Mercy event and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brand.
The event featured two main events. The main event from the SmackDown! brand featured WWE Champion Brock Lesnar defeat The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match to retain the title. The main event from the Raw brand was a title unification match, where World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeated WWE Intercontinental Champion Kane to unify both titles.
The undercard featured Trish Stratus versus Victoria for the WWE Women's Championship, Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit versus Edge and Rey Mysterio for the new WWE Tag Team Championship, Jamie Noble versus Tajiri for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, Rob Van Dam versus Ric Flair, Torrie Wilson versus Dawn Marie and Chris Jericho and Christian versus Booker T and Goldust for the World Tag Team Championship.
==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, 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. Later that night, Stephanie announced that Lesnar would defend the title against Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match 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 October 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.
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 heel. 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.
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 October 7 edition of Raw, Booker defeated 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.
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 the September 23 episode of Raw, Stratus defeated Molly and Victoria in a Triple Threat match to retain the title. On the September 30 episode 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.  The following week, 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 the September 26 episode 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 the October 3 episode 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 led to a match between Torrie and Dawn at No Mercy. On the final episode 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.
==Results==
;
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*Sunday Night Heat: The Hurricane defeated Steven Richards (3:05)
*Chris Jericho & Christian (c) defeated Booker T & Goldust to retain the World Tag Team Championship (8:46)
*Torrie Wilson defeated Dawn Marie (4:40)
*Rob Van Dam defeated Ric Flair (7:59)
*Jamie Noble (w/ Nidia) (c) defeated Tajiri to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship (8:15)
*World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeated WWE Intercontinental Champion Kane in a title unification match (16:16)
*Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit defeated Rey Mysterio and Edge to be crowned the first WWE Tag Team Champions (22:03)
*Trish Stratus (c) defeated Victoria to retain the WWE Women's Championship (5:31)
*Brock Lesnar (c) (w/ Paul Heyman) defeated The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match to retain the WWE Championship (27:18)
==WWE Tag Team Champions tournament==
The tournament was held between October 3 and October 20, 2002. The tournament brackets were:
==Other on-screen talent==
;Commentators
*Jerry Lawler
*Jim Ross
*Michael Cole
*Tazz
;Interviewers
*Jonathan Coachman
;Ring announcer
*Howard Finkel
*Tony Chimel	
;Referees
*Charles Robinson
*Mike Sparks
*Nick Patrick
*Brian Hebner
*Jimmy Korderas
*Jack Doan
*Mike Chioda
==See also==
*List of WWE pay-per-view events
*WWE Event History
*No Mercy
==DVD release==
* No Mercy 2002 on DVD
==External links==
* No Mercy 2002 Official Website
* No Mercy 2002 at CAGEMATCH.net
* No Mercy 2002 at Online World of Wrestling
* on WWE Network
Category:Events with Hell in a Cell matches
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events
Category:No Mercy
Category:2002 pay-per-view events