Chapter 2

As the year drew to a close in 2001, the dreadful invasion angle was put out to pasture completely at Survivor Series 2001, as a WWF-lead team captained by the Rock defeated an Alliance-led team captained by Steve Austin.  In typical fashion, it featured almost no one from the original WCW side on the WCW team.  Rob Van Dam in fact was better associated with ECW than WCW, and it was fairly surprising that he was even allowed into the main event scene again, as his rapid rise to popularity rivaling the top stars’ was ruffling more than a few feathers on top and causing the usual suspects to freak out.  The process of burying him began in earnest, with losses to Edge, and HHH began a smear campaign against him decrying the evils of his kicks, as did Steve Austin (who defended the WWF title against both Angle & RVD at the No Mercy PPV in October 2001).  The end result was a guy stuck in the doldrums of his career, quickly realizing the that the glass ceiling was very real.  Let’s take another look at the match, shall we?

Chapter 1

Some days give you hope for the future, and some days yank the rug from underneath your feet and then stomp on your head for fun.  That’s kind of what I was feeling like as a wrestling fan at the beginning of 2002.