• OLD SCHOOL HISTORY (March 12, 2001) – WWF RAW IS WAR
On this day in 2001, the World Wrestling Federation aired another LIVE episode of their weekly TV show ‘WWF RAW IS WAR’.
It was broadcasted from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California and featured matches, interviews & segments, on the road to the ‘WWF WrestleMania X-Seven’ PPV.
Here’s the card:
1. WWF World Tag Titles: Hardy Boyz vs. Justin Credible & X-Pac
2. WWF World Tag Titles – No. 1 Contenders Match: D-Von Dudley vs. Christian
3. Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero
4. Handicap Match: RTC vs. Chris Jericho
5. WWF European Title: Test vs. Raven
6. WWF World Title: The Rock vs. Kurt Angle
WATCH: The Undertaker Burned During His Entrance Live On PPV:
• Backstory On How Vince McMahon Once Wanted Now-WWE Hall Of Famer To End The Undertaker’s WrestleMania Streak
During the latest edition of Something To Wrestle podcast, Old School WWF Veteran Bruce Prichard revealed that Vince McMahon was once interested in having now-WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry end The Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak in 2006 at WrestleMania 22.
Below is what Prichard said:
“I was sitting at my desk in Houston and Vince calls me and says, ‘I’ve got an idea. What do you think about ending Undertaker’s streak?’ I said, ‘Well, with the right guy he’s made.’ He says, ‘Goddamn, that big bastard Mark Henry – he’s ready!’ There was silence. I’m like, ‘Really?’ Mark had been here 10 years and it wasn’t anything against Mark, but I didn’t think that Mark Henry beating and ending the streak would catapult him to the next level.
I wanted to do it with somebody – for example, Randy Orton the year before would have made Randy and that would have been a hell of an investment going forward.
Mark Henry wasn’t ready at that point. Now, Mark became a hell of an attraction later on and Mark was the World Champion and ECW Champion, and he did a great job. But I just didn’t think he was ready and there was also a part of me that was thinking, ‘Sh*t, I’ve got to pitch this,’ and I said, ‘Well, I’ll run it by him.’
And I ran it by him and his reaction was the same as mine. It was pretty much silence, and he asked what I thought and I told him, ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea, but try it on. See if there’s something you think that might work.’ He came back and said, ‘OK, if that’s what you guys want to do – if that’s really what Vince wants.’
Vince, as we got closer to it, got cold feet I guess and just realized that maybe Mark wasn’t ready at that time for it, and I don’t know that there was a real solid plan on the other side either to make it work. Paul Heyman hated it.
I don’t know anybody that was like, ‘Wooo hooo! Let’s go do this,’ other than Vince. Sometimes you just got to try sh*t on and throw it out there. Sometimes you throw it out there and you need to just throw it the f*ck away, too, but that’s how we got there.”
