PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

THE 2001 SERIES, PART 9: THE NOVEMBER 19TH RAW, FEATURING THE WWF RETURNS OF RIC FLAIR AND JERRY LAWLER, THE FINAL DEMISE OF THE ALLIANCE, AND A WHOLE LOT OF GLOATING BY VINCE MCMAHON AND KURT ANGLE

Survivor Series had come and gone and, as most had suspected, the WWF won the war and the WCW/ECW Alliance was dead forever. But if you thought they would just move on the next night on Raw and never mention the InVasion ever again, you were sadly mistaken. While some new directions would be set and changes would be made, the Raw after Survivor Series amounted to a two hour ego stroke by Vince McMahon that somehow surpassed even what we saw on the last episode of Nitro eight months earlier. While there would be other matches and angles, almost the entire episode consisted of Vince humiliating the leaders of the conquered Alliance and asserting his dominance in sadistic fashion.

Kane defeated Chris Jericho by DQ when Jericho hit him with a chair, then put Kane in the Walls, Regal attacked Tazz backstage after kissing Vince's ass and then squashed him in about a minute

After an opening segment in which Mick Foley officially quit his job as WWF Commissioner on board the WWF's private jet, Vince McMahon started the show proper with an in-ring promo talking about how the WWF had killed the Alliance, ECW, and WCW, and then declared that the WCW World Title, the last remnant of the company, would now be known simply as the World Heavyweight Title. He announced the formation of the Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club, and invited anyone in the Alliance who wanted a job to come out later in the evening and join the club. He pointed out that he has a plan for Stone Cold Steve Austin tonight, but since he's not here yet he'll take care of other business until Austin arrives. He points out the empty seat next to Jim Ross that had previously been occupied by Paul Heyman, and calls Heyman out to the ring. A cautious Heyman joins Vince, who says that he remembered what Heyman had said to him about destroying the wrestling business, but wants Heyman to know that he's okay with it because he is a supporter of the First Amendment. Heyman seems to relax after hearing that, and then Vince informs him that he will now exercise his own First Amendment rights and tells Heyman that "YOU'RE FIIIIIIIIRED!" A panicked Heyman jumps out of the ring and tries to dive into the broadcast booth, but Jim Ross pulls his shirt over his face and repeatedly punches him in the head until security comes to haul Heyman away. As Heyman is being escorted to the back, Vince introduces his replacement: Jerry "The King" Lawler, who emerged to a huge pop. Lawler had walked out of the WWF the previous January when they had fired his wife Stacy Carter, who had then left him shortly afterward and left Lawler totally out in the cold. Fans were not happy with his departure and had speculated for weeks that Lawler would return the night after Survivor Series, and indeed he came out to the cheers of the fans and rejoined his partner Jim Ross at ringside.

Vince went backstage and addressed the Alliance wrestlers who had managed to save their jobs by holding titles when the Alliance was disbanded: Tag Team Champions Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley, European Champion Christian, Hardcore Champion Rob Van Dam, and Test, who had won the Immunity Battle Royal. They may have saved their jobs, but Vince was going to have some fun now that he had them under his thumb, and started by booking RVD against the Dudleyz in a Tables Match that night. Christian tried to tell Vince that he knew the WWF would win all along, but Vince just told him to get out of his face.

Vince came back out to the ring for our second round of public humiliation, this time bringing Shane & Stephanie McMahon (who had to drive themselves to the arena) out to face their father/conqueror and ask if they have anything to say for themselves. Ever the honorable man, Shane simply congratulates Vince, telling him that he won and that Shane had lost to the better man, then leaves the ring and walks to the back. Stephanie, on the other hand, tried in dramatic fashion to regain her father's favor, claiming that she had made a lot of mistakes, and that the worst one was listening to Shane. She said that the entire InVasion was Shane's idea and everything she had done since then: buying ECW, slapping her mother on TV, and telling Vince that she wanted him to die, were all things Shane made her do. She said she knew that Vince would win all along, gives him the puppy dog eyes, and tells him that she's sorry. The ever compassionate Vince, having patiently listened to Stephanie make her speech, now called for security to come out and have "this woman" removed from his ring. Security came in and dragged Stephanie, who was desperately clinging to her father's leg, out of the ring and carried her to the back. Stephanie's delivery here was classic, and epitomized the Billion Dollar Princess character that was so much more entertaining than anyone was willing to give her credit for at the time.

Vince returned to the back, found Chris Jericho, and asked him what the hell had happened with him at Survivor Series. Jericho said his ego had gotten the better of him and apologized to Vince, but Vince doesn't like guys with big egos, so he books Jericho into a match with Kane.

Since we have a little bit of time before our next segment with Vince, let's catch up on the matches that had taken place up to this point: Kane won the match by DQ when Jericho nailed him with a chair and put him in the Walls Of Jericho after the match, the Dudleyz beat RVD by putting him through a table with two 3Ds (the first one failed to put RVD through the table so they had to do it a second time), and Trish Stratus successfully defended the Women's Title against Lita when Matt Hardy, trying to help Lita back into the ring, inadvertently set her up to get pinned by Trish.

Okay, back to what really matters: Vince McMahon comes back to the ring yet a third time and, since he's still waiting for Steve Austin to arrive at the arena, he brings William Regal out to the ring to make him the first inductee into the Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club. Regal thought Vince just expected him to perform demeaning tasks for him, but Vince explained to him in clear terms that if he wanted a job, he would have to kiss Vince's ass because if Regal didn't, there was a whole line of Alliance guys in the locker room who would. Vince hikes his pants and underwear down and tells Regal to kiss his ass, and even shows everyone that his ass can do tricks before handing Regal a tube of chapstick since he doesn't want anyone with chapped lips kissing his ass. Regal puts the chapstick on, steels himself, and kisses Vince McMahon's ass. Both men's delivery here was pure gold.

Before we get back to Vince, let's back up a bit and follow the exploits of Kurt Angle, who was very proud of being the mole in the Alliance and how turning on Steve Austin at Survivor Series had helped lead the WWF to victory. He was not the slightest bit modest about what he had done, and went around backstage telling everyone that they should thank him for saving the company. The Rock took exception because he said he would have beaten Austin with or without Angle, who had spent a month attacking WWF wrestlers so he could set himself up for his selfish little moment where he could be a hero. Rock said that Angle may have other people fooled with his goofball act, but Rock will never trust him. This leads to a match later in the evening where Rock defended the World Title against Angle, and Rock came out on top by pinning Angle with a victory roll. Angle attacked Rock after the match but ended up eating a Rock Bottom, leading to Jericho running in and attacking Rock and putting him in the Walls Of Jericho.

An embarrassed Angle went backstage and started complaining to Edge about his treatment, but Edge wasn't sympathetic since he had guaranteed himself a job by winning both the Intercontinental and US Titles, so Kurt hadn't done anything for him. Edge then accused Angle of playing both sides and says that Angle had set himself up as a hero no matter who had won at Survivor Series, and he had done so for only one person: Kurt Angle.

Vince McMahon found a dejected Angle sulking backstage because nobody appreciated what he did for the WWF. Vince asks him how he would like to be the WWF Champion, and brings him out to the ring to proclaim him a hero and thank him on behalf of the WWF and the fans. Vince mocked Austin for not showing up, saying that it was typical of Austin to not show his face after getting beat. Vince said that we need a champion with honor and dignity, and he was hoping Austin would show up so he could strip him of the title in person, but in the absence of that, as the sole owner of the WWF, he would like to-

Before Vince could continue, the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey plays in the arena and Ric Flair comes out to a thunderous ovation in front of his hometown fans. Vince wants an explanation, and Flair says that he bet on a winner last night, because when Shane and Stephanie sold their WWF stock to a consortium to buy WCW and ECW, the consortium was him. Flair gives a shocked Vince a big hug and then Steve Austin finally arrives at Raw, comes out to the ring, and attacks Kurt Angle. When Vince McMahon tries to intervene, Austin attacks Vince as well and both Vince and Angle bail out of the ring and hightail it up the rampway as Austin takes his WWF Title belt back and has a beer bash in the ring with Ric Flair to close the show.

* * *

The InVasion had failed to live up to expectations for a variety of reasons: the WCW wrestlers were totally buried, Stephanie (beret or no) was impossible to take seriously as the owner of ECW, and no main eventers had jumped to the WWF after the buyout other than Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page. Interestingly, a lot of fans treated the six months of the InVasion angle as a bad dream and expected the WWF to "go back to normal" once it had ended and return to what it had been like during the Monday Night Wars.

On the surface, that would appear to be what happened on November 19th: Shane & Stephanie were gone, Paul Heyman was gone, Jerry Lawler was back, and Ric Flair had finally returned to the WWF where he would be treated with respect, unlike the way he had been in the later years of WCW. Unfortunately, fans at the time didn't seem to realize how simplistic that view was, and also didn't get that what we had just spent six months watching was the result of Vince McMahon booking whatever he wanted without any fear of competition, not just him booking a six month vanity storyline.

But there was still the matter of the former WCW World Title, which would need to be done away with to truly bury WCW once and for all. After all these years, it was finally time to unify the WWF and WCW World Titles, and we'll find out how they did it in Part 10: Vengeance 2001!

Monday Night Raw: 11/19/2001 in Charlotte, North Carolina

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!

• Tweet