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Unforgiven 2002 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) that took place on September 22, 2002, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It was the fifth annual WWE Unforgiven event and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brands.

Eight professional wrestling matches were scheduled for the event—which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main bout. The first match from the SmackDown! brand featured WWE Champion Brock Lesnar fighting The Undertaker to retain the title after both men were disqualified. After the match, The Undertaker continued to attack Lesnar, throwing him through the wall of a set. The second match from the Raw brand featured World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeating Rob Van Dam to retain the title. Four matches were featured on the undercard. The first was a singles match where Chris Benoit defeated Kurt Angle. The next was between Trish Stratus and WWE Women's Champion Molly Holly, where Stratus won and captured the title. The third was a singles match between Eddie Guerrero and Edge, in which Guerrero won. The final featured undercard match had WWE Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho defeating Ric Flair to retain the title.

Background[]

The event featured nine professional wrestling matches, with outcomes predetermined by WWE script writers. The matches featured wrestlers portraying their characters in planned storylines that took place before, during and after the event. All wrestlers were from one of the WWE's brands--SmackDown or Raw—the two storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees.

The main feud heading into Unforgiven on the SmackDown! brand was between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar, with the two feuding over the WWE Championship. On the August 29th Smackdown, as Lesnar became an exclusive Smackdown wrestler, Stephanie McMahon made a single elimination series of matches to declare the #1 contender for the title. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit came to the finals, but Stephanie put the debuting Undertaker in the match, which Undertaker won. The next week, Lesnar and Undertaker confronted each other. At September 12, during Undertaker's match with Matt Hardy, Lesnar threatened the Undertaker's wife, Sara, making the Undertaker to run and try save his wife. Lesnar, however, attacked him. The next week, Undertaker tried to attack Lesnar, but Lesnar's security stopped Undertaker.

The main feud on the Raw brand was between Triple H and Rob Van Dam for the World Heavyweight Title. On September 2, Triple H was awarded the World Title by Eric Bischoff, and retained it against Ric Flair. However, RVD and Flair defeated Triple H and Jericho by RVD pinning Triple H on the same night. The next week, RVD won a #1 contenders match. A week later, RVD attacked Triple H. Triple H cost RVD his IC title during a match against Chris Jericho, and then confronted Ric Flair. RVD attacked Triple H and almost made him lose his title match with Jeff Hardy, but Triple H won the match. RVD then attacked Triple H again.

Another feud on the Raw brand was between Molly Holly and Trish Stratus for the WWE Women's Championship. Four month's prior, Holly and Stratus began a feud which lead to a Women's Championship match between the two at King of the Ring in which at the event, Holly defeated Stratus to win the title. The following night, Holly proclaimed that she had bought dignity and respect back to the Women's Championship by not being a "tramp who sleeps her way to the top" referring to Stratus. On July 15, Holly successfully defended her title against Stratus. On September 2, Stratus and Bubba Ray Dudley defeated Chris Nowinski and Holly in a mixed tag team match.

Another main feud on the SmackDown! brand was between SmackDown General Manager, Stephanie McMahon and Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff. It all started when Billy and Chuck had a same-sex commitment ceremony on SmackDown. The priest of the ceremony was later to be revealed as Bischoff. He had Billy and Chuck attacked by 3 Minute Warning, setting up a tag team match scheduled for Unforgiven. If 3 Minute Warning won, Stephanie was forced to be the victim of some Hot Lesbian Action with two other women in their underwear. Had Billy and Chuck won, Bischoff would've had to kiss Stephanie's ass.

Results[]

Numbers in parentheses indicate the length of the match.
(c) refers to the champion(s) heading into the match.

Other on-screen talent[]

Commentators
Interviewers
Ring announcer
Referees

See also[]

DVD release[]

External links[]

Unforgiven
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2002 World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-views
Royal RumbleNo Way OutWrestleManiaBacklashInsurrextionJudgment DayKing of the RingVengeanceSummerSlamUnforgivenNo MercyRebellionSurvivor SeriesArmageddon
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