10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About No Mercy
3. Steve Austin's Destruction Job Of Rikishi
No mercy 2000 was built around the in-ring return of Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Texas Rattlesnake hadn't wrestled a match in almost a year since going down with a serious neck injury which required major surgery. Now he was back and going after Rikishi, the man who was credited with running Austin over (the storyline excuse for Austin's long absence).
Austin Stunnered just about everyone on the roster before the Too Cool man revealed that he had done it in order for family member The Rock to shoot up the card. 'Kish was presented as a badass top-line heel, capable of getting the best of established guys like Kane, The Undertaker and The Rock. But he couldn't get the best of a determined Austin, who positively steamrolled Rikishi in their meeting at No Mercy.
It wasn't a match as much as it was a brawl/angle, with Austin pummelling the 400 pounder, busting him open with a chair and dumping him in the back of his pickup truck. From there, Austin discarded of his foe and tried to run him over with his truck, before he was stopped by the local police force at the last second. And like that, any hope of Rikishi having a long tenure as a top heel were over.
It was a situation similar to the CM Punk/Big Daddy V match from earlier in that WWE wanted Austin to look strong and at the same time couldn't have Rikishi lose per se, hence the non-finish. Whatever the case, it torpedoed Rikishi's main event aspirations and painted WWE's lead babyface as a borderline psychopathic attempted murderer.