WWE No Mercy 2001: 5 Awesome Things And 5 That Sucked

1. Chris Jericho Won His First World Title By Pinning The Rock

"Chris Jericho has damn sure won the big one." - Jim Ross The Rock was the WCW World Champion and this was at a time when the WCW Title meant something. Jericho was the talented younger wrestler that hadn't won "the big one" at this point and there were all kinds of questions about whether or not he could win a major title against a guy that was the caliber of The Rock. The commentary team of Jim Ross & Paul Heyman did an awesome job of driving that point home. Jericho wasn't fully a heel at this point although against The Rock, pretty much anybody was a heel. It was the start of heel Jericho. They had a back and forth match with a number of nearfalls and near submissions. A big spot towards the end was when The Rock drove Jericho through the Spanish Announce Table. The ref did the slowest count ever and Rock was able to break the count. Shouldn't it be a DQ if a table is broken? It doesn't really matter either way. After 20 plus minutes of action, The Rock was all set to finish Jericho off. He nailed the Spinebuster and set up Jericho for the People's Elbow, but Jericho countered into the Walls of Jericho, which generated a huge reaction from the crowd. All of a sudden, Stephanie McMahon showed up. She was a heel that was part of the WCW/ECW Invasion group as the ECW "owner" although she wasn't a friend of either guy. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz5oko_the-rock-vs-chris-jericho-no-mercy-2001-wcw-championship_sport For the finish, Jericho went after Stephanie at first. Rock hit a DDT on Jericho. Then Rock brought Stephanie into the ring and gave her a Rock Bottom. This was 2001. Man on woman violence happened whether we liked it or not. With the ref checking on Stephanie, Jericho hit a Full Nelson Facebuster on The Rock with Rock hitting the chair and he covered for the victory after 24 minutes of amazing action. When it was over, Rock teased attacking Jericho with the chair. Instead, he gave it back to him and left. They had several more matches with The Rock getting the title back a few weeks later and then Jericho ended up winning a few of their other matches including the one at Armageddon 2001 when he became the first Undisputed Champion. Jericho's win drew a huge reaction from the fans. They treated it like a big deal because in the build up to the match they drove home the point that Jericho had never been "the man" before. It was a great story and one of the best matches of the year in a year that was full of so many exceptional matches.