In the immediate aftermath of Steve Austins sudden departure in June 2002, WWE was scrambling to find a new star in their Ruthless Aggression era. They blew up the Vince McMahon/Ric Flair power struggle by having Vince win control of both shows, and the week before Vengeance they established a General Manager on each show, with Vince dropping the bombshell that the new GM of Raw was his old WCW nemesis, Eric Bischoff. Stephanie McMahon was named GM of Smackdown in a less-shocking announcement. This was the first show in this new era for WWE. A storyline on the PPV was which show Triple H was going to choose between Raw and Smackdown. It looked like he was in negotiations with Stephanie behind closed doors, but it turns out they were just finalizing their divorce. Stephanie made a good plea in the ring to get Trips to come back to Smackdown, but Shawn Michaels made a good pitch for Hunter to come to Raw (of course, Hunter would turn on Shawn the very next night). The main event of Undertaker defending the Undisputed Championship against The Rock and Kurt Angle in a Triple Threat Match was one of the most unexpectedly great matches of the year, and had a feel-good ending of Rock winning back the title after more than a year of not being champion. Of course, it was all a transition to put the belt on Brock Lesnar the next month at Summerslam. This show also featured the Pay Per View debut of John Cena, who beat Chris Jericho in an upset. It also featured Booker T, who had just turned babyface, hit the Harlem Hangover on The Big Show, and it solidified Book as an up-and-coming star for Raw in the absence of Austin.
