Unforgiven (2000)

Unforgiven featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Raw is War and SmackDown!—World Wrestling Federation's (WWF) television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[6]

The main rivalry heading into the event was between The Rock, Chris Benoit, The Undertaker and Kane over Rock's WWF Championship. On the August 28 episode of Raw is War, Undertaker cost Kane a title opportunity against Rock.[7] On the August 31 episode of SmackDown!, Undertaker and Benoit wrestled in a number one contender's match which Undertaker won by disqualification after being attacked by Kane. However, due to earning the victory by disqualification, Undertaker was not made the number one contender.[8] This led to a number one contender's match between Benoit and Kane on the September 4 episode of Raw is War. Benoit was disqualified again for hitting Kane with a chair and the position of the number one contender remained vacant.[9] On the September 11 episode of Raw is War, Benoit and Kane defeated Rock and Undertaker in a tag team match. After the match, the WWF Commissioner Mick Foley announced that Rock would defend the title against Benoit, Undertaker and Kane in a fatal four-Way match at Unforgiven.[10]

Triple H wrestled Kurt Angle in a No Disqualification match at Unforgiven.

Another predominant rivalry heading into the event was between Triple H and Kurt Angle. At SummerSlam, The Rock defeated Triple H and Angle in a Triple Threat match to retain the WWF Championship after Angle received a concussion at the hands of Triple H.[11] Angle had started taking a liking to Triple H's on-screen wife, Stephanie McMahon which made Triple H, jealous of Angle. On the August 28 episode of Raw is War, Angle interfered in a match between Eddie Guerrero and Triple H by attacking both men with a chair. Guerrero's valet and Triple H's former on-screen girlfriend, the WWF Intercontinental Champion Chyna checked on both men and hugged Triple H.[7] On the August 31 episode of SmackDown!, Angle showed McMahon, a video of Triple H and Chyna hugging each other to create differences between Triple H and McMahon. Later that night, Triple H was arrested by police officers before his scheduled match against Guerrero and Angle.[8] On the September 4 episode of Raw is War, Test was revealed to have complained to the officers to have Triple H arrested.[8] On the September 11 episode of Raw is War, Angle interfered in Triple H's match with Chris Jericho and distracted Triple H, causing Triple H to leave the ring and chase Angle. Later that night, Angle attacked both Triple H and McMahon after his Handicap match against T & A (Test and Albert). As a result, the WWF Commissioner Mick Foley announced that Triple H and Angle would wrestle at Unforgiven.[10]

At SummerSlam, Edge and Christian defeated Hardy Boyz (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) and The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) in the first-ever Tables, Ladders and Chairs match to retain the WWF Tag Team Championship.[12] The following night on Raw is War, Edge and Christian mocked Hardy Boyz and Dudley Boyz by bringing out four midgets portraying the Hardyz and the Dudleyz. This caused the Hardyz to come out and attack Edge and Christian.[7] On the September 11 episode of Raw is War, the Hardy Boyz defeated the Dudley Boyz in a number one contender's match for the Tag Team Championship.[10] On the September 14 episode of SmackDown!, the WWF Commissioner Mick Foley announced that Edge and Christian would defend the titles against Hardy Boyz in a steel cage match at Unforgiven.[13]

Eddie Guerrero defended the WWF Intercontinental Championship against Rikishi at Unforgiven.

At SummerSlam, Chyna and Eddie Guerrero defeated the WWF Intercontinental Champion Val Venis and Trish Stratus in a mixed tag team match by pinning Venis for his WWF Intercontinental Championship.[12] The next night on Raw is War, Chyna and Guerrero involved themselves in a rivalry between Triple H and Kurt Angle as Guerrero and Triple H had a match, in which Angle interfered and attacked both men.[7] After the match, Chyna and Triple H hugged. Angle tried to create differences between Chyna and Guerrero, leading to a title match between Chyna and Angle on the September 4 episode of Raw is War. However, Guerrero wanted to second Chyna but the WWF Commissioner inserted him into the Intercontinental Championship match, making it a Triple Threat match. Angle knocked out Chyna and Guerrero accidentally pinned her as he attempted to revive her. After the match, Chyna and Guerrero argued and Guerrero tried to return the belt to her but she refused and they hugged. It was followed by a vicious smile by Guerrero, creating a doubt that Guerrero was plotting this to win the title.[9] He would follow by sneak attacks on Chyna's allies, Road Dogg and Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty and Grand Master Sexay).[14] Following Guerrero's assault on Too Cool on the September 11 episode of Raw is War, Too Cool's ally Rikishi came to rescue the team but was attacked by Chyna.[10] On the September 14 episode of SmackDown!, Guerrero cost the team of Rikishi and Scotty, a tag team match against Right to Censor (Val Venis and Steven Richards) by attacking Rikishi.[13] This led to an Intercontinental Championship match between Guerrero and Rikishi at Unforgiven. Through out all of this, tension was building between Eddie and Chyna, with Chyna being uncomfortable with Eddie cheating to retain his title, and Eddie being upset over Chyna posing for Playboy, even going to the Playboy Mansion to stop the photos from being released. On the September 18 episode of Raw, Eddie faked an illness to get out of a match with Rikishi, who ended up facing Chyna instead. Eddie would come down to ringside at the start of the match and spray Rikishi in the eyes with mace. When Chyna attempted to check on him, Rikishi attacked her to goad Eddie into the ring and hit the Banzai Drop, but Eddie wouldn't make the save. On the September 21 episode of SmackDown, Eddie would apologize to Chyna for all the horrible things he had done over the past month, but Rikishi would expose Eddie with a security video of Eddie trying to break into Playboy Headquarters to stop Chyna's Playboy spread from being released. After seeing that video, a heartbroken Chyna was about to leave Eddie for good, but Eddie quickly pulled Chyna back into his clutches by proposing to her.

At SummerSlam, Jerry Lawler defeated Tazz in a standard wrestling match.[12] The following night on Raw is War, Tazz had a scheduled WWF Hardcore Championship match against Steve Blackman. Tazz began attacking Lawler, causing Lawler and Jim Ross to interfere in the match and cost Tazz, the title opportunity against Blackman.[7] On the August 31 episode of SmackDown!, Lawler cost Tazz, a match against Chris Jericho.[8] On the September 4 episode of Raw is War, Lawler and Jericho defeated Tazz and Mideon in a tag team match when Lawler pinned Tazz. After the match, Tazz attacked Lawler with a leather strap.[9] On the September 11 episode of Raw is War, Lawler cost Tazz a WWF European Championship match against Al Snow and after the match, Tazz decided to quit WWF.[10] However, on the September 14 episode of SmackDown, the WWF Commissioner Mick Foley convinced Tazz to stay in WWF and announced that Tazz would wrestle Lawler in a Strap match at Unforgiven.[13]

On the September 7 episode of SmackDown!, X-Pac defeated Chris Jericho in a standard wrestling match.[14] On the September 11 episode of Raw is War, X-Pac interfered in Jericho's match against Triple H by attacking Jericho and causing Triple H to get disqualified. Later that night, Jericho cost X-Pac, a WWF Hardcore Championship match against Steve Blackman.[10] On the September 18 episode of Raw is War, Jericho ruined the returning Steven Regal's ceremony and X-Pac attacked Jericho from behind.[15] This would lead to a match between Jericho and X-Pac at Unforgiven.

At SummerSlam, Right to Censor (Steven Richards, Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather) defeated Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty, Grand Master Sexay and Rikishi) in a six-man tag team match.[12] On the August 31 episode of SmackDown!, RTC helped Val Venis in defeating Rikishi.[8] On the September 11 episode of Raw is War, Goodfather and Buchanan defeated Acolytes Protection Agency (Faarooq and Bradshaw) in a tag team match. After the match, Venis attacked APA and joined RTC.[10] On the September 18 episode of Raw is War, Goodfather and Buchanan defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) in a tag team match through the same way. After the match, RTC began attacking Dudley Boyz until APA came out to rescue Dudley Boyz.[15] This would lead to an eight-man tag team match between the team of APA and Dudley Boyz against Right to Censor at Unforgiven.

On the September 21 episode of SmackDown!, Steve Blackman defended the WWF Hardcore Championship against the WWF European Champion Al Snow. During the match, Funaki, Test, Perry Saturn and Crash Holly interfered and attacked Blackman to take advantage of the 24/7 rule. Blackman pinned Funaki to retain the title.[16] This set up a title defense for Blackman against Funaki, Test, Saturn, Holly and Snow in a Hardcore Battle Royal for the Hardcore Championship at Unforgiven.

On the September 7 episode of SmackDown!, Stone Cold Steve Austin, who had been out of action for almost ten months since he got ran over by a car at the previous year's Survivor Series in Detroit, appeared in an interview and announced that he will be returning at Unforgiven to find out who ran over him.

The following night, on the September 25 episode of Raw is War, The Rock and Triple H exchanged rivals with Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle as Triple H and Stephanie McMahon came out to check on a knocked out Shane McMahon during a WWF Championship match between Rock and Benoit. Benoit attacked Triple H while Angle started attacking on Triple H until Rock tried to rescue Triple H but failed as Benoit and Angle attacked both men.[18] On the October 2 episode of Raw is War, Angle defeated Triple H to become the number one contender for the WWF title and eventually defeated Rock at No Mercy for his first WWF Championship.[19][20] Since Triple H was defeated due to interference by Benoit, the two wrestled in a match at No Mercy, which Triple H won.[21]

The Hardy Boyz (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) continued their rivalry with Edge and Christian over the WWF Tag Team Championship, leading to the controversial Los Conquistadores storyline. Los Conquistadores attacked Hardy Boyz on numerous occasions and became the number one contenders for the tag titles by winning a tag team battle royal on the October 19 episode of SmackDown.[22][23][24] At No Mercy, Los Conquistadores defeated Hardy Boyz for the Tag Team Championship.[21] The following night on Raw is War, Los Conquistadores defeated Edge and Christian to retain the titles but unmasked themselves after the match to reveal Hardy Boyz. Hardy Boyz revealed that Edge and Christian were wearing the golden costumes and masks the entire time but in some segments gave it to their hired goons which featured Edge and Christian talking to Los Conquistadores.[25]

Stone Cold continued to search for his attacker. On the October 5 episode of SmackDown!, Commissioner Mick Foley suspended Austin for interfering in matches and took over interrogating members of the roster to find out who ran over him. On the October 9 episode of Raw is War, Rock's cousin, Rikishi confessed to running over Austin after Scotty 2 Hotty told Foley that they were in Detroit partying at the time; Foley soon realized that Rikishi hadn't made his debut at the time. Rikishi then said he did it for the Rock and the people because the WWE had always held back members of the Anoa'i family. After that, Rikishi turned heel. On the October 12 episode of SmackDown!, Foley announced that Austin and Rikishi would battle each other in a No Holds Barred match at No Mercy at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York. On the October 16 episode of Raw is War, Stone Cold returned to Detroit at the Joe Louis Arena and was being interviewed by Michael Cole when Rikishi interrupted him when he appeared on the titantron, telling Austin to come fight him at the same parking lot of the arena where he ran Austin over. When Austin exited the arena and got to the parking lot, he couldn't find him, but when Austin got closer, Rikishi drove up after destroying some boxes and attempted to run over Austin again, but he got out of the way just in time and he told Austin to be at No Mercy on Sunday. On the October 19 episode of SmackDown!, while Austin was being interviewed by his close friend Jim Ross, Rikishi appeared in the parking garage of the arena and smashed up Stone Cold's Ford F-150 pickup truck and was found out by Jonathan Coachman and when Austin and Ross went to the garage, Austin saw his truck destroyed and then saw a car, believing that Rikishi was in it, left the arena and gave chase, but Rikishi still appeared and attacked J.R., then was ordered by Foley to leave the arena. When Austin found out that J.R. was assaulted and Edge, Christian and X-Pac making fun of him, Austin interrupted the match, and attacked them, Chris Jericho and The Hardy Boyz. At No Mercy, Austin and Rikishi fought in a No Holds Barred match, which was deemed a no contest after Austin was arrested by Albany police when he tried to run over Rikishi, but Foley later bailed him out.

• Unforgiven 2000 official website