Judgment Day 2001

Judgment Day 2001 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It was the third such annual event and took place on May 20, 2001 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California.
Seven professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's card. The main event was Steve Austin defending the WWF Championship against The Undertaker in a No Holds Barred match. Austin won the match, and as a result, he retained his championship. Two featured bouts were scheduled on the undercard. In a Chain match, challenger Kane defeated defending WWF Intercontinental Champion Triple H to win the title. The other featured bout was a Two out of three falls match, which saw Kurt Angle defeat Chris Benoit, two falls to one, to recapture his Olympic gold medal.
The event grossed over $670,000 in ticket sales from an attendance of 13,623—higher than the previous year's event. The 2001 event received a lower buyrate than that of the previous year's amount, however, as it received less than 300,000 pay-per-view buys.
==Background==
The event featured seven professional wrestling matches with outcomes predetermined by the WWF's creative writers. Wrestlers portrayed either a villainous or fan-favorite gimmick as they followed a series of events which generally built tension, leading to a wrestling match. The name of a wrestler's character was not always the person's birth name, as wrestlers often use a Stage name to portray their character.
The main event at Judgment Day featured a No Holds Barred match, a match with no disqualifications nor countouts, in which Steve Austin defended the WWF Championship against The Undertaker. The buildup to the match began on the April 30 edition of Raw, Austin retained the WWF Championship against Undertaker, though by disqualification after executing a low blow on Undertaker, thus resulting in the decision. In the following weeks, Undertaker attacked Austin, and at one point taking his vest and the WWF Championship. Around that tie, Undertaker, received a (kayfabe) phone call stating that his wife had been involved in a (kayfabe) car accident. The Undertaker found out that everything was okay and there had not been a car accident. The Undertaker then began to hunt down whoever made the phone call. On the May 17 edition of SmackDown!, during Undertaker's match with Triple H, WWF Champion, Steve Austin appeared on the screen and admitted that he had made the phone call.
Another main event at Judgment Day featured a Chain match, in which Triple H defended the WWF Intercontinental Championship against Kane. The buildup to the match started after WrestleMania X-Seven on the April 5 edition of SmackDown!, when Triple H won the Intercontinental title by defeating Chris Jericho after WWF Commissioner William Regal interfered. Two weeks later on SmackDown!, Triple H and Steve Austin interfered in Kane's WWF Hardcore Championship defense against Rhyno by injuring his left arm (Kayfabe) with multiple steel chair shots, enabling Rhyno to win the title. At Backlash, WWF Champion Steve Austin and I.C. Champion Triple H defeated The Undertaker and Kane to win the WWF Tag Team Championship in a tag team match, in which Austin's WWF title and Triple H's Intercontinental title was also on the line. Their victory was due to interference from both Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and her father Vince McMahon, enabling Triple H to nail Kane in his injured elbow and in the head with the sledgehammer for the victory. The following night on Raw, Kane was scheduled to challenge Steve Austin for the WWF Championship but got attacked backstage by Austin & Triple H before the match started. Therefore, The Undertaker replaced Kane in the title match and defeated Austin by disqualification, but not the title. Afterwords, Kane came down to save Taker from the beatdown but ended up being put out of action for two weeks after Austin and Triple H targeted his left arm. Kane returned on the May 10th edition SmackDown!, and saved Undertaker from an assault at the hands of Austin. On the May 14 edition of Raw, Triple H announced a chain match for the Intercontinental title between himself and Kane at Judgment Day.
The third match heading into the event was Chris Benoit versus Kurt Angle in a two out of three falls match. The buildup to the match started after Benoit stole Angle's medals by picking them up from the ring after throwing Angle over the top rope and out of the ring. This rivalry escalated more when Benoit announced that he was going to keep the gold medals in a "safe" and "warm" place, which turned out to be in the crotch of his tights. On the following SmackDown!, Angle faced Benoit and retrieved his medals, but when he went to kiss them he was repulsed by Benoit's crotch odor, which gave Benoit enough time to apply the Crippler Crossface on Angle. Angle dropped the medals and submitted, and on the following Raw Is War, Angle challenged Benoit to a two out of three falls match at Judgment Day. The first fall would be a pinfalls-only match, and the second a submission match. If the third fall was needed, it would be contested as a ladder match.
==Results==
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*WWF Sunday Night Heat: Raven defeated Val Venis (4:09)
*WWF Sunday Night Heat: The Holly Cousins (Hardcore Holly & Crash Holly) defeated Kai En Tai (Taka Michinoku & Sho Funaki) (3:46)
*William Regal defeated Rikishi (3:57)
*Kurt Angle defeated Chris Benoit by 2 falls to 1 in a Three Stages of Hell match (23:54)
:*Benoit won a "pinfalls only" match (1:07)
:*Angle won a "submissions only" match (12:10)
:*Angle won a ladder match (23:54)
*Rhyno (c) defeated Test and The Big Show to retain the Hardcore Championship (9:15)
*Chyna (c) defeated Lita to retain the Women's Championship (6:29)
*Kane defeated Triple H (c) in a "chain" match to win the Intercontinental Championship (12:29)
*Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit won a "tag team turmoil" match by last eliminating Edge & Christian (25:48)
:*The A.P.A (Farooq & Bradshaw) eliminated Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko (1:32) when Farooq pinned Saturn.
:*The A.P.A eliminated The Dudley Boyz (D-Von & Bubba Ray Dudley) (6:28) when Bradshaw pinned Bubba Ray.
:*X-Factor (X-Pac & Justin Credible) eliminated The A.P.A (10:13) when X-Pac pinned Bradshaw.
:*X-Factor eliminated The Hardy Boyz (Matt & Jeff Hardy) (13:24) when X-Pac pinned Matt.
:*Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit eliminated X-Factor (18:40) when Benoit and Jericho both forced Credible and X-Pac to submit.
:*Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit eliminated Edge & Christian (25:48)
*Steve Austin (c) defeated The Undertaker (23:07) in a "No Holds Barred" match to retain the WWF Championship
==Other on-screen talent==
;Commentators
*Jim Ross
*Paul Heyman
*Carlos Cabrera
*Hugo Savinovich
;Interviewers
*Jonathan Coachman
*Michael Cole	
;Ring announcer
*Howard Finkel
;Referees
*Teddy Long
*Jack Doan
*Jimmy Korderas
*Tim White
*Chad Patton
*Mike Chioda
*Earl Hebner
==See also==
*WWE Judgment Day
*List of WWE pay-per-view events
==DVD release==
* Judgment Day 2001 on DVD
==External links==
* Judgment Day 2001 Official website
* on WWE Network
* Judgment Day 2001 at CAGEMATCH.net
* Judgment Day 2001 at Online World of Wrestling
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events
Category:Judgment Day
Category:2001 pay-per-view events
Category:Events with Chain matches
Category:Events with No Holds Barred matches