by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

Although Hogan's nostalgia red-and-yellow run seemed to be losing some steam (at least, domestically), he still was drawing decent fan reactions.  The same cannot be said for the Undertaker, who has spent recent months drawing little but fan apathy.

Taker now earns the right to appear on both RAW and SmackDown!, while one would presume that Hulk Hogan will end up as the property of SD! (since he's now got a logical feud with SD! owner Vince McMahon).  We'll have to see what the Fed's thinking on this title change is as the various issues play out.

Elsewhere on the show, Triple H beat Chris Jericho in a very good Hell in the Cell match, while Edge pinned Kurt Angle in another stand-out contest (Angle was later shaved bald, as per the pre-match stipulation).

Here are the complete results of the Judgment Day PPV:

• In a match broadcast on MTV's Sunday Night Heat, William Regal used a handful of tights to pin D'Lo Brown to retain the Euro Title.
   
  
• In the PPV opener, Eddie Guerrero scored a win over Rob Van Dam, retaining the IC Title.  The improvement over their match from last month was noticeable, and from the start, there were a ton of cool spots.  RVD was on the offensive early, targeting Eddie's lower back.  Eddie was able to battle back, and he went after RVD's left knee.  Eventually, both men were able to attempt their renditions of the Frog Splash...  but in both cases, the opposition moved out of the way.  The match, instead, was decided by a quick backslide by Guerrero, who then used the added assistance of his feet on the ropes to get the win.  Great action, good crowd heat, and about a solid an opener as you'll see.
   
  
• Trish Stratus defeated Stacy Keibler to retain the Women's Title.  Stacy had Reverend D-Von and Deacon Bautista in her corner, while Trish was seconded by Bubba Ray Dudley.  Sure enough, the half-brothers wound up coming into play.  After a very brief exchange of wrestling holds, Trish got the pinfall win following failed interference by Bautista and D-Von.  
   
  The match itself was basically the prelude to a post-match angle in which D-Von feigned making peace with Bubba, only to have Bautista attack.  D-Von then joined in the attack, and assisted Bautista in putting Bubba through a table.  Of course, with the Dudleys on separate rosters, there's not much chance of seeing any resolution to this issue (at least, not till the Duds magically wind up on opposite sides of the ring in a KotR tourney match, perhaps?).
   
  
• Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman beat the Hardy Boyz.  From the start, Lesnar was in control, until the Hardys hit a mid-match heat sequence, hitting most of their big moves on Brock, momentarily removing him from the equation.  The Hardys then got a few licks in on Heyman, until Lesnar recovered enough to make the save.  Eventually, with Matt out of commission at ringside, Lesnar hit his as-yet-unnamed finisher on Jeff.  Heyman then requested to be tagged into the match, and he himself scored the deciding pinfall.  Just about what you'd expect, action-wise, though the finish should go a long way to keeping some serious heel heat on Heyman and Lesnar.
   
  
• Booker T was being interviewed backstage about his new nWo allegiance when he was distracted by a tasty little dish who was standing just off camera.  She wound up inviting Booker back to her hotel room...  later in the show, a skit at the hotel saw the woman crawl into bed with Booker, turn out the lights, and then...  you guessed it:  Goldust materialized in the bed, saying that he set up this entire scheme as a way of talking to Booker, who had not returned any of his phone calls in the last week.  A freaked-out Booker scurried out of the bed, bare-assed.  Kinda funny, I guess, but also confusing since it definitely cast Booker as the babyface at a time when he's ostensibly the newest big-time heel in the nWo.
   
  
• Steve Austin managed to defeat both Ric Flair and the Big Show in a handicap match.  Flair did most of the work for his team, and for the most part, the results were solidly entertaining.  Flair and Austin seemed like they spent half the match trading knife-edge chops, but over all, the pace was quick.  Flair made well-timed tags to Show, who came in, hit a few big man moves on Austin, and then tagged Flair back in, so as not to slow down the pace of the match too much.  The nWo members went after Austin's knee, and Flair was able to briefly cinch in the Figure Four before Austin made his big comeback.  Austin may have had the match won after hitting a Stunner on Show, but X-Pac ran in to break things up.  However, X-Pac's interference backfired, as he wound up taking out Show with a kick to the face.  Austin Stunned X-Pac, and then hit another Stunner on Flair, which was more than enough to secure him the pinfall win.
   
  
• Edge defeated Kurt Angle, marking his first big-time PPV win over Angle and at the same time ensuring that Angle would be shaved as bald as Austin at night's end.  Hot start, with lots of ringside-area brawling and even a plancha by Edge.  The pace continued briskly for a few minutes, but then slowed down, as both men traded chinlocks or headlocks or what have you.  After the mid-match interlude, things picked up again, as Angle went for his run-up superplex only to have it blocked by Edge.  From there, the action was non-stop, as they duo traded suplexes, spears, and everything else in the arsenal.  During a ref bumps, there were some coulda-been falls, and then once the ref was awake again, a series of false-finishes had people on the edges of their seats.  Both men kicked out of potential finishers more than once as JR sold how important it was to both men to not be shaved bald.  Finally, Angle decided to try for an Anklelock submission, but Edge managed to kick him off into the ropes; when Angle bounced back, Edge rolled him up neatly into a small package, and got the pinfall win out of nowhere.  Nice little finish to a match that was really good.  
   
  After the match, Angle managed to escape Edge's clutches, and tried to get out of being shaved.  Over the next hour or so, Angle was shown getting chased by Edge backstage.  Finally (just prior to the final match), Angle took the fight to Edge, KO'ing him with a few foreign object shots backstage; his intent was to shave Edge bald.  The two made it back to the barber stage in the main arena, where Edge suddenly rallied, locking in a sleeper hold on Angle.  While Angle dozed, Edge sloppily cut off most of Angle's hair.  When Edge revived Angle with a chop to the back of the neck and showed him the results in a mirror, Angle went berzerk, and wound up scurrying to the back, trying to hide his head in shame.
   
  
• Triple H pinned Chris Jericho on top of the Cell to win their match.  Great stuff here, with a quick start that never seemed to let up.  Jericho was bleeding (from the arm) inside of 5 minutes, while HHH followed up with a crimson mask a few minutes later.  By the end of the match, Jericho was also bleeding from the forehead, and even ref Timmy White bladed.  A play-by-play would be next to impossible, but these two used chairs, a ladder, and the steel ring steps to execute a ton of great spots.  The intrigue kicked in when a ref bump sent White sprawling off the ring apron and into the Cell wall.  Jericho and HHH both had near falls while the ref was out, but Jericho finally realized this was his chance to cheat his ass off.  He started brutalizing the already-semi-conscious ref, which brought out a phalanx of officials, who quickly decided to use bolt cutters to enter the locked cage.  As you might expect, it wasn't too long before Jericho decided to leave the Cell through the now-open door.  But HHH followed, and the duo brawled all over ringside.  HHH managed to DDT Jericho through the Spanish Announce table, and then went for a secret weapon:  a barbed-wire 2"x4".  When Jericho saw the weapon, he tried to escape the only way he could:  by going up.  Again, HHH followed, and Jericho and HHH started battling it out on top of the Cell.  They traded the advantage (and traded shots with the barbed wire board) until finally Jericho locked in the Walls of Jericho.  Ref Mike Chioda decided that this had suddenly become a Falls Count Anywhere match, and ascended the cage to see if HHH wanted to submit.  Of course, he didn't.  HHH rallied, and after a barbed wire board shot to Jericho's head, he followed up with a Pedigree on top of the Cell to get the pinfall win.  No single spectacular moment here, but a very good match none-the-less.
   
  
• Rikishi was saddled with Rico as his "surprise partner," but still managed to just about single-handedly win the Tag Team Titles.  Upon finding out that Billy and Chuck's stylist was his partner, Rikishi started the match, and then steadfastly refused to tag out.  The finish saw Rico attempt to help B&C, but the interference backfired, allowing Rikishi to get the win via pinfall.  Rico was upset that he caused his boys to lose; but not so upset that he didn't head back to the ring to get his tag title belt after the match.  The booking opens up some semi-interesting possibilities, but this was nothing more than a palate-cleanser, action-wise.
   
  
• In the main event, the Undertaker pinned Hulk Hogan to become the new Undisputed Champion.  Prior to the "official" start of the match, both men traded shots with Hogan's weightlifting belt, before settling in for the long haul.  The storyline here had Taker working over Hogan's knee, while Hogan did his level best to stay in control.  One highlight saw Hogan hit a superplex Taker to regain an advantage.  Taker finally used a half-crab to ground Hogan, and then a chokeslam (which saw Hogan take just about the shittiest bump ever) for what could have been the finish.  But no!  Hogan hulked up, and eventually hit the big boot/leg drop combo...  Taker kicked out, but it was clear the momentum had shifted.  So out came Vince McMahon, who managed to distract the ref while Hogan when for another pin.  Hogan tried to drag Vince into the ring, and while the ref was trying to break that up, Taker struck from behind, nailing Hogan with a chairshot.  After another chokeslam (this one was sold competently by Hogan), Taker got the pinfall and the Undisputed Title.  After the match, Taker continued the assault on Hogan, using hit chair-to-the-throat move to further debilitate the Hulkster.  Just about as good a match as you could get out of these two, but still nowhere near the level of the night's trio of really good contests.  And needless to say, the idea of Taker as the Champ leaves me cold.
  

We'll have lots more fall-out from Judgment Day -- along with a big Scott Keith PPV Rant -- here on OO on Monday.  Come on back to check it out!  

E-MAIL RICK SCAIA
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Rick Scaia is a wrestling fan from Dayton, OH.  He's been doing this since 1995, but enjoyed it best when the suckers from SportsLine were actually PAYING him to be a fan.

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