A Look Back: The 1st Undisputed Champion (Vengeance 2001)

One of the most legendary and memorable moments in WWE's history happened just 20 years ago: the crowning of the first-ever Undisputed Champion. It was on December 9, 2001 that the then-named World Wrestling Federation held the first Vengeance pay-per-view event, which served as the spotlight for the aftermath of a very heated Survivor Series event. So what led to this momentous event? As "Stone Cold" Steve Austin would say, "Here's the bottom line":

The Origin: Survivor Series 2001 saw the end of the angle that pitted the WWF against The Alliance, a villainous joint corporation consisting of talent from World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), as well as some WWF villains who defected. The main defector was "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, who was the WWF Champion at the time, and during that run, Kurt Angle was the main leader for the WWF and feuded with Austin over the title. Angle won the WWF Championship at Unforgiven, only to lose it back to Austin over a week later. As for The Rock, he (ironically) held the WCW Championship, and he and Chris Jericho were built up as top guys on the WWF side. Then they began crossing each other for the title, which Jericho won, but lost back to Rock in a matter of days, and that's when the friction began.

After Angle betrayed the WWF to join The Alliance, it was up to Rock and Jericho to basically serve as leaders in the big Winner Take All match at Survivor Series, and the 5-on-5 bout ended up being down to two-on-two: Rock and Jericho for the WWF, and Austin and Angle for The Alliance. Angle's elimination gave WWF the advantage, but after Jericho was eliminated by Austin, he would face plant Rock and nearly cost the WWF the match and their existence. However, Rock managed to get the win thanks to yet another Angle betrayal, this time against Austin.

The Announcement: The night after Survivor Series ended with Ric Flair returning to WWF for the first time in eight years, and give a surprising announcement: Flair had purchased Shane and Stephanie McMahon's stock in the company, meaning that he and Vince McMahon were co-owners of the WWF. The announcement interrupted Vince's plans to strip Austin of the WWF Championship and award it outright to Angle, though Austin beating down both Angle and Vince was another factor. Even so, while Survivor Series saw the other championships unified, it ended with two World Champions still in tow. Austin had the WWF Championship, while The Rock had the renamed World Championship in his possession.

So what to do? Flair's plan was simple: there could only be one true World Champion in the WWF, so Austin and Rock should fight it out for the right to be named the first-ever Undisputed Champion. However, Vince appeared and added a few tweaks in Flair's vision: in the form of Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho. Feeling that the champions should have the opportunity to get their hands on their respective foes, Vince suggested that the Undisputed Championship should be decided in a round-robin format. Austin would defend the WWF Championship against Angle, Rock would defend the World Championship against Jericho, and the winners would face each other on that same night. Flair signed off on that, though it was clear that Vince made the additions because he couldn't fathom the idea of either Austin or Rock as Undisputed Champion.

The Matches: Of course, the Undisputed Championship tournament served as the main event. Taking place at the first Vengeance PPV on December 9, 2001, Austin vs Angle kicked off the three match run, and it served as a finale, of sorts, of a rivalry that spanned five months and saw the title change hands twice. It was also the early stages of Angle's gimmick that saw him portrayed as Vince McMahon's "boy"; as Jim Ross often put it on commentary. All the while, Austin had returned to his heroic "Texas Rattlesnake" persona after spending nearly eight months as a heel. The bout was back and forth between the combatants, even seeing Austin use technical wrestling towards Angle, while Angle actually attempted to deliver the Stunner to Austin. However, Austin showed Angle how the Stunner was done, and he successfully defended the title against Angle.

The World Championship match was where the controversy began. Rock and Jericho's match was straight up...until Vince McMahon decided to get involved. Vince was coming off an embarrassing night on SmackDown; he was on the receiving end of a stinkface from Rikishi, and he pretty much vowed to have the last laugh at Vengeance. Austin winning against Angle derailed things for Vince, and to prevent an Austin/Rock Undisputed Championship final, he got involved as much as possible. The distraction allowed Jericho to deliver a low blow and, yes, a Rock Bottom to get the victory and the World Championship.

Jericho's celebration was short-lived, as Austin emerged and went after Jericho, wasting no time to get their Undisputed Championship match started. Angle appeared and went after Austin, though Angle ended up beaten down by Rock, who chased Angle out of the area, allowing Austin and Jericho to have their match. Another straight up and back-and-forth affair, but once the ref was down, the controversy continued. With Earl Hebner down, Vince brought in Nick Patrick, and that was part of Vince's gimmick; using former Alliance members to do his dirty work. In this case, Nick Patrick was instilled to make sure Jericho won, though Ric Flair entered and took Patrick out of the equation--and got beaten down by Vince for it. Austin placed Jericho in the Sharpshooter, but at that moment, Booker T (who was portrayed as not even having a job in WWF) entered and attacked Austin, allowing Jericho to get his iconic and historic victory.

Aftermath: Chris Jericho became the first-ever Undisputed Champion, with the wins representing his 2nd and 3rd of his six World Championship victories in WWF/E. Vengeance ended what would be Austin's sixth and final run as WWF Champion, and regarding Jericho, he would defeat The Rock and Austin in separate title rematches at the Royal Rumble (vs Rock) and No Way Out (vs Austin) in 2002. Jericho's run as Undisputed Champion ended at WrestleMania X8, which saw him dethroned by Triple H.

As for the Undisputed Championship itself, two weeks after Triple H's victory, the two belts that formed the Undisputed Championship were replaced with a solitary belt pictured above. The Undisputed Championship changed hands a lot in 2002, as Triple H ended up losing the title at Backlash to Hulk Hogan, who was later defeated by The Undertaker at Judgment Day--the first PPV to take place after the World Wrestling Federation became World Wrestling Entertainment. At 2002's Vengeance event that summer, The Rock defeated The Undertaker and Kurt Angle to capture the WWE Undisputed Championship, but at SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar won the title from Rock and later took the title to SmackDown, thus removing the "Undisputed" name. Many fans connect this exact belt to the late Eddie Guerrero, as this was the belt he held during his run as WWE Champion in 2004.

As for Chris Jericho, it would be six years before he would become World Champion again, as he captured the World Heavyweight Championship twice during the fall of 2008, and once more in early 2010. Jericho would add a seventh World Championship when he became the first ever AEW World Champion in 2019, but Jericho's greatest moment was that night, 20 years ago, when he became the first Undisputed Champion--a moment that we, as fans, love hearing him boast about.

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