The 2002 No Mercy was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the fifth No Mercy and took place on October 20, 2002, at the Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions.
This was the first No Mercy held following the introduction of the brand extension in March and was subsequently the last No Mercy to feature multiple brands until 2007, as beginning with Bad Blood in June 2003, all monthly PPVs outside of the "Big Four" (WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Royal Rumble) became brand-exclusive until brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued after WrestleMania 23 in April 2007. This was also the first No Mercy held under the WWE name after the promotion was renamed from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE in May.
The event featured two main events. The main event from the SmackDown! brand featured WWE Champion Brock Lesnar defeating 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 the Intercontinental Championship into the World Heavyweight Championship, deactivating the Intercontinental Championship (until it was reactivated the following year).
The undercard featured Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit versus Edge and Rey Mysterio to determine SmackDown!'s inaugural WWE Tag Team Champions. Other matches included Trish Stratus versus Victoria for Raw's WWE Women's Championship, Jamie Noble versus Tajiri for SmackDown!'s 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 Raw's World Tag Team Championship.
Production
Background No Mercy was first held by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a United Kingdom-exclusive professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) in May 1999. A second No Mercy was then held later that same year in October, but in the United States, which established No Mercy as the annual October PPV for the promotion. The fifth No Mercy event was held on October 20, 2002, at the Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
This was the first No Mercy held under the WWE name as the promotion was renamed from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE in May. It was also the first No Mercy to be held after the introduction of the brand extension in March, in which the promotion divided its roster between the Raw and SmackDown! brands, where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform. The 2002 event in turn featured wrestlers from both brands.
Storylines The event featured nine professional wrestling matches with outcomes predetermined by WWE. 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 WWE's brands – Raw or SmackDown! – 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 The Undertaker in a singles match. The match resulted in a no contest after the referee was attacked by the brawling Lesnar and The Undertaker. On the September 26 episode of SmackDown!, The Undertaker defeated Matt Hardy, who had interfered in Lesnar and The Undertaker's match at Unforgiven. After the match, Lesnar attacked The Undertaker with the WWE title belt. On the October 3 episode of SmackDown!, Hardy defeated The Undertaker in a Falls Count Anywhere match after Lesnar interfered, and hit an F-5 on The Undertaker. Afterwards, Lesnar broke The Undertaker's hand with a propane tank. Later that night, Lesnar was informed by his manager Paul Heyman that the SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon had ordered Lesnar to defend the title against The Undertaker in a rematch at No Mercy, this time in a Hell in a Cell match. On the October 10 episode of SmackDown!, Lesnar and Heyman found an unorthodox, but very effective way to distract The Undertaker leading up to their match. Heyman and Lesnar escorted a young woman to the arena, causing speculation to swirl about her identity. During the segment, Heyman tipped his hand as he explained that the woman – Tracy – would show just what kind of man The Undertaker was. As The Undertaker made his way to the ring, Tracy found herself in the ring staring face-to-face with him. She erupted into a fury, and accused The Undertaker of lying to her and sleeping with her for three months. She stated that she had no idea that The Undertaker was married and that his wife Sara was pregnant, and apologized to Sara, saying she hated that the news had to be broken that way. The Undertaker claimed that he had never even seen Tracy before, much less had an affair with her. This he earned him a slap to the face from her that ended the segment. Moments later, The Undertaker attempted to convince Sara over the phone that he was innocent until it became obvious that Sara was not buying his alibi. Sara also got a call from Lesnar as Lesnar told Sara in a mockingly insincere tone that he was concerned for her state of mind. Toward the end of the show, The Undertaker would vent his frustrations on Lesnar at the end of the evening as he assaulted him, using the cast on his broken hand as a weapon. On the October 17 episode of SmackDown!, The Undertaker admitted in an interview that he lied about not knowing Tracy, and that he knew Tracy, but insisted that it was years before he and Sara even met; however, Tracy begged to differ, and let McMahon know that she and The Undertaker had been together as recently as ten days earlier. Lesnar and Heyman, with their own axe to grind, demanded that McMahon prohibit The Undertaker from wearing his cast during their upcoming match. Intent on exacting vengeance upon Lesnar, The Undertaker attacked Lesnar with the cast, bloodying him in the process. Despite that, McMahon affirmed that The Undertaker would be permitted to wear the cast.
The main rivalry from the Raw brand was between the World Heavyweight Champion Triple H and the WWE Intercontinental Champion Kane, and was part of an ongoing storyline where Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff was seeking to have one overall champion to reign over his roster; to this effect, earlier in 2002, the WWE Hardcore Championship, and the WWE European Championship had been unified with the Intercontinental Championship in separate bouts where Rob Van Dam, the then-reigning champion, defeated European Champion Jeff Hardy and Hardcore Champion Tommy Dreamer.
At Unforgiven, Triple H defeated Rob Van Dam to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. On the September 30 episode of Raw, Bischoff announced that the World Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships would be at stake in a unification match at No Mercy. Both Triple H and Chris Jericho, the reigning Intercontinental Champion, would defend their titles in matches that night, with the winners advancing to No Mercy. While Triple H was successful in his defense against Bubba Ray Dudley, Jericho was not, losing to Kane. On the October 7 episode of Raw, Kane successfully singlehandedly defended the World Tag Team Championship (that he had won on September 23) in a four team Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match, as The Hurricane had been attacked earlier that evening (by Triple H and Ric Flair), and was thus unable to compete. As Kane celebrated his title defense in the TLC match, Triple H and Flair came out, with Triple H stating that he knew all about Katie Vick, and accused Kane of killing her. On the October 14 episode of Raw, after Kane and Hurricane lost the World Tag Team Championship to Jericho and Christian, Kane addressed the crowd, and admitted that he was somewhat responsible for Vick's death; however, he claimed that it was an accident. According to Kane, he was simply driving her home from a party because she had too much to drink. Triple H soon came out to interrupt. He stated that Kane's story was only partly true, and that Kane apparently forgot to mention that he too had been drinking. In addition, Triple H mentioned that at Katie's autopsy, doctors found traces of Kane's semen, leaving Triple H to accuse Kane of necrophilia. Toward the end of the show, Kane attempted to gain revenge on Triple H as he got to the ring, but Triple H quickly escaped. Kane then attacked half of the Raw roster by Chokeslamming them, and then stared down at Triple H as they were set to square off in their title unification match at No Mercy.
Another predominant rivalry from the Raw brand was between Rob Van Dam and Ric Flair. At Unforgiven, Flair interfered in Van Dam's World Heavyweight Championship match against Triple H. During the match, Triple H tried to attack Van Dam with a sledgehammer, but Flair interfered in the match, and snatched it from Triple H. Flair turned on Van Dam by hitting him with the sledgehammer, and allowed Triple H to win the match. As a result of the betrayal, Flair turned heel. On the September 23 episode of Raw, Triple H and Flair defeated Van Dam and Bubba Ray Dudley in a tag team match. After the match, Van Dam attacked Triple H and performed a Diving Legdrop on Triple H through the announce table. On the October 14 episode of Raw, Eric Bischoff announced that Van Dam would wrestle Flair in a match at No Mercy. Later that night, Triple H defeated Van Dam in a Canadian lumberjack strap match after Ric Flair nailed Van Dam from behind with the World Heavyweight title belt while the referee was distracted.
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-ever WWE Tag Team Champions. SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon announced that a tag team tournament would take place to determine the new champions for the brand. The tournament started on the October 3 episode of SmackDown!, with the quarterfinals. Los Guerreros (Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero Jr.) 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 the October 10 episode of SmackDown!, as Angle and Benoit defeated John Cena and Billy Kidman, in which led to Cena's heel turn after the match, and Edge and Mysterio defeated Brock Lesnar and Tajiri. On the October 17 episode 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 the September 23 episode of Raw, Jericho defeated Goldust to retain the Intercontinental Championship in a match ordered by the Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff. On the September 30 episode of Raw, Jericho was confronted by Goldust's tag team partner Booker T in a backstage segment. On the October 7 episode of Raw, Booker T defeated Big Show in a Steel Cage match. After the match, Jericho attacked Booker T. On the October 14 episode of Raw, Booker T 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 championship. After the match, Bischoff announced that Jericho and Christian would defend the titles against Booker T and Goldust at No Mercy.