By: Jason Esteve

At first glace, this looks like a pretty thin card. Even with 5 titles on the line, I can't really see dropping actual money on this Pay Per View. Maybe it's just the lack of hype, but I can't foresee anything mind altering or jaw dropping happening Sunday night. Regardless of whether or not it’s just a place holder sort of event, the WWF will hold the “No Mercy” Pay Per View and I may as well let everyone know who I think is going to win. With my Apathy-meter pegged, let’s try and break down the matches

Hardy Boyz -v- The Hurricane & Lance Storm

WCW Tag Team Championship

Ugh. My first thought when I saw this match had been added to the card was “Huh?” Obviously in the eleventh hour someone realized that there were only seven matches signed for the event, so they had to add one. I thought Hurricane was feuding with the APA. This match has had no build up and I think the match will be just as interesting as the hype surrounding it. I’m hoping that the writers realize that it makes no sense to give a singles champion a tag belt, even if it is only the European Championship. I’m hoping this is the start of a long standing storyline and not a (further) waste of true talent like Helms and Storm.

Damn. Did someone lose the storylines for the past month? Maybe I missed a couple of shows, but I thought the Bog Show was teaming with Spike Dudley. If Spike’s hurt (again), then blow off the feud on TV and give someone who deserves it this slot. I could see Tajiri against his former boss and now WCW Commissioner William Regal. They could have set that up pretty easily on Smackdown last Thursday. The only way I see those dastardly Dudleys dropping the belts is if the writers want to get the belts onto representatives from the correct organization. I can’t see that happening until the WCW gets closer to having their own timeslot, though.

MMMmmm. Necessary palette cleanser. I’m hoping that they decide to put this match right before the top three matches (the Ladder match and the two championship matches). This is the sort of fluff that would be a defining firewall between the (horrific) undercard and the (lackluster) top of the card. I haven’t head any word about the “rules” of the match, but I’m assuming that it has to do with the ladies wrestling in lingerie. This stipulation makes me smile, but given the fact that both of these ladies have appeared on TV in much less, I fail to understand why it’s being hailed as so historic.

Oh, it’s the old “my tag team partner challenged a member of another tag team to a singles match to gain respect so I’ll support him by challenging the other tag team partner” story line. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that one. This is dreck! Someone (Shane) thinks that Test is deserving of a push so he’s going to get rammed down our throats. I can deal with that, but I’m not going to pay to have it rammed down my throat. Save this crap for Raw or Smackdown. Shane’s new best friend gets the duke in this one.

So Booker wants respect so he challenges Undertaker to a match? I guess we could call that “backstory” if we really wanted to. I think half of this match is going to be very good. Unfortunately it’s the half that Booker T is carrying. The Undertaker will continue to refuse to put anyone over and still get paid for it. And that’s a real shame because this could have been a pretty good match. If Undertaker were still doing his “dead man” shtick, then I could buy it, but even the “American Bad Ass” should be fazed by the offense of the five-time WCW champion. I can see Booker winning here, but it will be because of interference or count out or some other way that will let Undertaker not have to get pinned.

Finally, we get to the good stuff. Hopefully, people who’ve order this piece of crap event have stayed around because I think this one may make the whole thing worth it. Well, maybe not worth full price of the pay per view, but at least it will be worth the cover you’d pay at a bar that’s showing the pay per view. Edge and Christian know ladder matches. Everyone knew the feud was leading to this. I only hope the bookers have told Torrie and Stacey they’ve only got five minutes so E & C can do their thing. Ending-wise, I think it’s about the right time for Christian to drop the title to Edge and drop back to the mid-card. With Christian’s sudden switch over to the Alliace, thought, I don’t think that’s the way the writers see it. Looks like interference from his new friends and Christian retains.

I love this feud. It was well developed and I honestly don’t know who’s going to win. That doesn’t happen very often lately. Either way, it’s going to be a great match. I look for Rock to delve deep into his moveset and break out some submission stuff to complement the Walls of Jericho (I still call it the Liontamer every now and then). If they do this right, they can turn Jericho “soft-heel” with a controversial loss. By soft-heel, I mean that the Jerochoholics would still be behind him because they feel cheated, but everyone else would feel it was just sour grapes on the part of Y2J. This gives Jericho some heel heat while still being able to cut wicked-funny promos, which really makes me happy. Let’s let the Rock keep the Title for at least one more month.

Mick Foley added the no DQ stip on Heat, in case you’re wondering. Good to know Heat is good for something. This is another one of those “if I could by it by the match” ones. I wouldn’t pay full price for just this match, but I would like to see it. The unknown quantity here is RVD. Before Smackdown, I would have just said that Austin retains without thinking about it, but now that it appears that Vince is in the corner of Mr. PPV, I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I still think it’s a little early in his WWF career to give him the belt, especially by going over either SCSA or Angle. I could see RVD costing SCSA the match with Angle getting the pin due to misplaced interference by Vinnie K. Good thing you can’t bet on these things in Vegas, because I’d lose some serious ducets on this one.