Judgment Day (2001)

The 2001 Judgment Day was the third Judgment Day professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was sponsored by RC Cola. The event took place on May 20, 2001, at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California. It was the final Judgment Day promoted under the WWF name as the promotion was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002, although early promotional material for that year's Judgment Day event still bore the WWF logo. It was also the last Judgment Day held before the introduction of the brand extension in March 2002.

Seven professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's card. The main event was Stone Cold Steve Austin defending the WWF Championship against The Undertaker in a No Holds Barred match. The featured bouts on the undercard included Triple H defending the Intercontinental Championship against Kane in a Chain match, and a Two-out-of three falls match between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit for Angle's 1996 Olympic Gold Medals.

The event grossed over $670,000 in ticket sales from an attendance of 13,623, which was higher than the previous year's event.

Judgment Day was first held as the 25th In Your House pay-per-view (PPV) in October 1998; In Your House was a series of monthly PPV shows first produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in May 1995. The In Your House branding was retired following February 1999's St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House event, as the company moved to install permanent names for each of its monthly PPVs. After two years, Judgment Day returned in May 2000 as its own PPV, replacing Over the Edge, thus establishing Judgment Day as the annual May PPV for the promotion. The 2001 event was the third event in the Judgment Day chronology and was held on May 20 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California.

The event featured seven professional wrestling matches with outcomes predetermined by the WWF's creative writers. Wrestlers portrayed either a villainous or fan-favorite role as they followed a series of events which build tension, leading to a wrestling match. The name of a wrestler's character was not always the person's birth name, as wrestlers often use a stage name to portray their character.

The main event at Judgment Day featured a No Holds Barred match, a match with no disqualifications nor countouts, in which Stone Cold Steve Austin defended the WWF Championship against The Undertaker. The buildup to the match began on the April 30 episode of Raw Is War, Austin retained the WWF Championship against The Undertaker, though by disqualification after executing a low blow on The Undertaker, thus resulting in the decision. In the following weeks, The Undertaker attacked Austin, and at one point taking his vest and the WWF Championship. Around that time, The Undertaker, received a phone call stating that his wife, Sara, had been involved in a car accident. The Undertaker found out that everything was okay and that there had not been a car accident at all. The Undertaker began to hunt down whoever made the phone call. On the May 17 episode of SmackDown!, during Undertaker's match with Triple H, Austin appeared on the Titantron and admitted that he and Triple H were the ones who had made the phone call. During the early part of the pay-per-view, The Undertaker threatened to inflict bodily harm on Commissioner William Regal unless he made the title match a No Holds Barred match, which Regal did.

The buildup to the Two-out-of-three falls match started after Chris Benoit stole Kurt Angle's medals by picking them up from the ring after throwing Angle over the top rope and out of the ring. This rivalry escalated more when Benoit announced that he was going to keep the gold medals in a "safe" and "warm" place, which turned out to be in the crotch of his tights. On the following SmackDown!, Angle faced Benoit and retrieved his medals, but when he went to kiss them he was repulsed by Benoit's crotch odor, which gave Benoit enough time to apply the Crippler Crossface on Angle. Angle dropped the medals and submitted, and on the following Raw Is War Angle challenged Benoit to a Two-out-of-three falls match. The first fall would be a pinfalls-only match, and the second a submission match. If the third fall was needed, it would be contested as a ladder match.

One main event at Judgment Day featured a Chain match, with Triple H defending his WWF Intercontinental Championship against Kane. The buildup to the match all started after WrestleMania X-Seven on the April 5 episode of SmackDown! when Triple H won the Intercontinental title by defeating Chris Jericho after WWF Commissioner William Regal interfered. Two weeks later on SmackDown!, Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin interfered in Kane's WWF Hardcore Championship defense against Rhyno by injuring his left arm with multiple steel chair shots, enabling Rhyno to win the title. At Backlash, WWF Champion, Austin and WWF Intercontinental Champion, Triple H defeated The Undertaker and Kane to win the WWF Tag Team Championship in a tag team match, in which Austin's WWF title and Triple H's Intercontinental title were also on the line after interference from both Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and her father Vince McMahon. The following night on Monday Night's Raw Is War, Kane was scheduled to challenge Austin for the WWF Championship, but Kane was attacked backstage by Austin and Triple H before the match even started. Therefore, The Undertaker replaced Kane in the WWF Championship match and defeated Austin by disqualification, but did not win the WWF Title because of the disqualification. Afterward, Kane came down to the ring to save The Undertaker from the assault given to him by Austin and Triple H, but Kane ended up being put out of action for two weeks after Austin and Triple H targeted his left arm. Kane returned on the May 10 episode of SmackDown! and saved The Undertaker from an assault by Austin. On the May 14 episode of Raw Is War, Triple H announced a chain match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship between himself and Kane at Judgment Day.