Hardcore fans had been calling for a Jericho heel turn for most of 2001, feeling that his career would be best served by reprising the arrogant asshole bad guy act he worked to perfection during his WCW career. And though the WWF finally seemed ready to go that direction, they didn't jump in with both feet. The first PPV confrontation between the Rock and Jericho was played as a babyface vs. babyface affair. Fans were free to cheer for whomever they wanted... and the build up for the match even had the Rock acting heelishly so that you couldn't be sure who was really "in the right," and who deserved to be booed.

Jericho won his first singles world title by defeating the Rock in their contest at No Mercy; he used a low blow to do it, but still didn't come across as a full-on heel in the wake of that match. In fact, at the behest of Vince McMahon, Jericho and the Rock even became tag team partners following Y2J's singles win over the Rock, as they worked together to bring the WWF tag titles back from the alliance.

The slow-burn turned out to be highly effective. Rather than giving fans just one dramatic moment to judge Jericho by, they fed us months of his increasingly poor behavior, supplying ample reason to jeer the one-time fan favorite. The slow pacing to the feud and the fact that Jericho and the Rock made-up and become partners (and later teammates at the Survivor Series) before finally shoving the heel turn into high gear provided some extra context that gave the turn added realism and plausibility.

By year's end, Jericho had silenced most critics, not only establishing himself as a heel, but as the very TOP heel on the WWF's roster. And it all started inconspicuously enough in October.

Conspicuous by its absence in October were updates to WrestleLine.com, the former home of Online Onslaught and some of the other features you currently read on THIS website. On October 18, the site was discontinued without any warning to freelance contributors (such as myself) or even to the site's salaried producer. In my case, I found out hours after the notification was posted to the WrestleLine home page, which was a bit of a shock.

I respect SportsLine's need to make a dollars-and-cents-based decision, but found their handling of the situation to be utterly bush league. Without any forewarning, none of us could prepare for the post-WL future... which is worth mentioning here in this Year in Review because without any warning, there was a huge gap in OO updates between Oct. 18 and Nov. 19. If this month's Review seems a bit thin, either on news or quotables, it's because I only had half the usual archive available to me to scan for monthly highlights.

My apologies.

Tori was released from the WWF roster; her slot as a trainer on "Tough Enough 2" was announced as being filled by Ivory...

Helen Hart, matriarch of the Hart Wrestling Family, passed away late in October; she suffered a diabetic seizure and slipped into a coma early in the month only to regain consciousness briefly around mid-month. She slipped back into a coma and remained there for the rest of October...

Kurt Angle's (ghost-written) autobiography debuted at #13 on the NY Times non-fiction best-sellers list, an impressive feat, although not as impressive as #1 best-sellers from Mick Foley and the Rock...

Vince Russo completely walked away from pro wrestling upon the expiration of his Time Warner contract in October; he even stepped off the World Wrestling All-stars creative team, living up to a promise he made to leave wrestling after two years under contract to WCW...

Steve Corino also announced his retirement despite being the current NWA Champion; he said he would honor title defense through November before wrestling his last match; on October 13, he lost the title in controversial fashion as a referee stopped a match against Shin'ya Hashimoto, and awarded the title to Hashimoto because Corino was so bloodied that he could not continue...

The WWF started running split-crew house shows on the weekends, a practice not seen since the golden days of the Hogan Era; top stars populated shows in major markets while a "B-team" of stars ran smaller towns...

The WWF miscalculated with hype for the 10/8 edition of RAW, promising a "history making biggest RAW ever"; the show was a good one and featured a Steve Austin WWF Title win over Kurt Angle, but was nothing to write home about...

"Gentleman" Chris Adams -- a Dallas wrestling mainstay who was instrumental in Steve Austin's early career -- was shot and killed following an argument in Texas...

After a last-second agreement allowed DirecTV subscribers to view September's Unforgiven PPV, no deal could be struck between the WWF and DTV in October; for the remainder of the year, DTV subscribers could not purchase WWF PPVs...

"But the ideas of temporal wars fought from the future and Vulcan broads who don't mind co-ed bathing facilities? Those'll keep me coming back for at least a few more weeks." -- OO, always a Trekker at heart, correctly notes that there's nothing hotter than a chesty baby who's ruled by logic and not emotion despite being 100% off-base about the ultimate watch-a-bility of "Star Trek: Enterprise", 10/01/01

"How off base would I be if I said I wanted to have something in writing making SPLN liable for payments in return for services rendered (both past and future)? There are enough horror stories about dot-coms going down that this case of ludicrously slow-pay has got me thinking..." -- OO's (unintentionally prophetic) unpublished internal memo to SportsLine regarding concerns over slow-arriving checks, 10/03/01

"It's almost like people have forgotten WCW Thunder or the Heroes of Wrestling PPV when tossing around adjectives like 'brutal.' Then again, hyperbole is something the smarks do almost as well as Tony Schiavone used to." -- OO on wrestling fans' tendencies to be short-sighted and long-winded when tossing around criticisms, 10/03/01

"While granting, in one breath, that Russo did a lot to shape the style and tone of televised wrestling as it exists today, it also bears mentioning that he was just as good at self-promotion and self-preservation as he was at scripting TV. One does not go from magazine writer to WCW Champion without an innate ability to put oneself in the right place at the right time. There are a lot of scenarios that I can conceive of in which we would never have really heard about Vince Russo. But no: he managed to make himself into the biggest 'free agent signing' of 1999 when he jumped to WCW, and turned himself into a major player worthy of several paragraphs of farewell prose upon his retirement." -- OO's last words on Vince Russo upon his departure from wrestling, 10/05/01

"Although I will point out that -- as an A student who learned very well how to spout management-school clichés with the best of 'em -- I really wish the Fed would SHOW me instead of TELLING me how big tonight is gonna be." -- OO on the hype surrounding the "biggest RAW ever," which did turn out to be disappointing, 10/08/01

"If something happens once or twice, and then is not repeated, it's completely forgotten, and talk of backstage reprisals is complete nonsense. Just look at Booker T, who injured Steve Austin on his first night in the company, was rumored to be instantly in the dog house, but who instead cleaned up his act and became one of the WWF/Alliance's biggest heels. There have even been falsely-amplified rumors attached to RVD in recent months, if you recall... word spread among smarts that the Van Daminator was out-lawed by WWF officials (after being considered too dangerous). The move has since appeared in several matches over the last month and a half." -- OO on people blowing Rob Van Dam's "hit list" way out of proportion, 10/15/01

"With that, I'm about fresh out of material for today... I'll be back with Q&A tomorrow, and then Friday, it'll be a big No Mercy PPV preview here in OO." -- OO's (in)famous last words, promising future updates with what turned out to be the very last new sentence published on WrestleLine.com, 10/17/01

WWF No Mercy (10/21/01) -- The Alliance's Steve Austin survived a triple threat match to hold on to his WWF Title; he turned back the challenges of the WWF's Kurt Angle and his insubordinate fellow Alliance member Rob Van Dam (who wrestled his first WWF PPV main event at this show). Other match results: the Hardy Boyz beat Lance Storm and the Hurricane to retain the WCW Tag Team Titles... Test defeated Kane... Torrie Wilson beat Stacy Keibler in a Lingerie Match... Edge defeated Christian in a Ladder Match to win the WWF IC Title... the Dudley Boyz beat Big Show and Spike Dudley to hold on to the WWF Tag Team Titles... the Undertaker defeated Booker T... and Chris Jericho upset the Rock to take the WCW Title.

Steve Austin beat Kurt Angle to win the WWF Title (10/8)... the Hardy Boyz beat Booker T and Test to win the WCW Tag Team Titles (10/08)... Billy Kidman defeated X-Pac to win the WCW Cruiserweight Title (10/09)... Chris Jericho beat the Rock to win the WCW Title (10/21)... Edge beat Christian to win the WWF IC Title (10/21)... Kurt Angle beat Rhyno to win the WCW US Title (10/22)... The Rock and Chris Jericho beat the Dudley Boyz to win the WWF Tag Team Titles (10/22)... Bradshaw beat the Hurricane to win the WWF European Title (10/22)... Tajiri beat Billy Kidman to win the WCW Cruiserweight Title (10/22)... the Dudley Boyz beat the Hardy Boyz to win the WCW Tag Team Titles (10/23)... Christian beat Bradshaw to win the Euro Title (10/30).