Background No Mercy was first held by
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a United Kingdom-exclusive
pay-per-view (PPV) in May 1999. A second
No Mercy was then held later that same year in October, but in the United States, which established
No Mercy as the annual October PPV for the promotion. The 2002 event was the fifth event under the No Mercy name, and was held on October 20 at the
Alltel Arena in
North Little Rock, Arkansas. It was also the first No Mercy held under the WWE name as the promotion was renamed from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE in May. It was also the first No Mercy to be held after the introduction of the
brand extension in March, in which the promotion divided its roster between the
Raw, and
SmackDown! brands, where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform. The 2002 event in turn featured wrestlers from both brands. On the September 26 episode of
SmackDown!, The Undertaker defeated
Matt Hardy, who had interfered in Lesnar and The Undertaker's match at Unforgiven. On the October 3 episode of
SmackDown!, Hardy defeated The Undertaker in a
Falls Count Anywhere match after Lesnar interfered, and hit an
F-5 on The Undertaker. Afterwards, Lesnar broke The Undertaker's hand with a propane tank. Later that night, Lesnar was informed by his
manager Paul Heyman that the
SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon had ordered Lesnar to defend the title against The Undertaker in a rematch at No Mercy, this time in a
Hell in a Cell match. On the October 10 episode of
SmackDown!, Lesnar and Heyman found an unorthodox, but very effective way to distract The Undertaker leading up to their match. Heyman and Lesnar escorted a young woman to the arena, causing speculation to swirl about her identity. During the segment, Heyman tipped his hand as he explained that the woman – Tracy – would show just what kind of man The Undertaker was. As The Undertaker made his way to the ring, Tracy found herself in the ring staring face-to-face with him. She erupted into a fury, and accused The Undertaker of lying to her and sleeping with her for three months. She stated that she had no idea that The Undertaker was married and that his wife
Sara was pregnant, and apologized to Sara, saying she hated that the news had to be broken that way. The Undertaker claimed that he had never even seen Tracy before, much less had an affair with her. This he earned him a slap to the face from her that ended the segment. Moments later, The Undertaker attempted to convince Sara over the phone that he was innocent until it became obvious that Sara was not buying his alibi. Sara also got a call from Lesnar as Lesnar told Sara in a mockingly insincere tone that he was concerned for her state of mind. Toward the end of the show, The Undertaker would vent his frustrations on Lesnar at the end of the evening as he assaulted him, using the cast on his broken hand as a weapon. On the October 17 episode of
SmackDown!, The Undertaker admitted in an interview that he lied about not knowing Tracy, and that he knew Tracy, but insisted that it was years before he and Sara even met; however, Tracy begged to differ, and let McMahon know that she and The Undertaker had been together as recently as ten days earlier. Lesnar and Heyman, with their own axe to grind, demanded that McMahon prohibit The Undertaker from wearing his cast during their upcoming match. Intent on exacting vengeance upon Lesnar, The Undertaker attacked Lesnar with the cast, bloodying him in the process. Despite that, McMahon affirmed that The Undertaker would be permitted to wear the cast. The main rivalry from the Raw brand was between the
World Heavyweight Champion Triple H and the
WWE Intercontinental Champion Kane, and was part of an ongoing storyline where
Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff was seeking to have one overall champion to reign over his roster; to this effect, earlier in 2002, the
WWE Hardcore Championship, and the
WWE European Championship had been unified with the Intercontinental Championship in separate bouts where
Rob Van Dam, the then-reigning champion, defeated European Champion
Jeff Hardy and Hardcore Champion
Tommy Dreamer. At Unforgiven, Triple H defeated
Rob Van Dam to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. On the September 30 episode of
Raw, Bischoff announced that the World Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships would be at stake in a
unification match at No Mercy. Both Triple H and
Chris Jericho, the reigning Intercontinental Champion, would defend their titles in matches that night, with the winners advancing to No Mercy. While Triple H was successful in his defense against
Bubba Ray Dudley, Jericho was not, losing to
Kane. On the October 7 episode of
Raw, Kane successfully singlehandedly defended the
World Tag Team Championship (that he had won on September 23) in a four team
Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match, as
The Hurricane had been attacked earlier that evening (by Triple H and
Ric Flair), and was thus unable to compete. As Kane celebrated his title defense in the TLC match, Triple H and Flair came out, with Triple H stating that he knew all about Katie Vick, and accused Kane of killing her. On the October 14 episode of
Raw, after Kane and Hurricane lost the World Tag Team Championship to Jericho and Christian, Kane addressed the crowd, and admitted that he was somewhat responsible for Vick's death; however, he claimed that it was an accident. According to Kane, he was simply driving her home from a party because she had too much to drink. Triple H soon came out to interrupt. He stated that Kane's story was only partly true, and that Kane apparently forgot to mention that he too had been drinking. In addition, Triple H mentioned that at Katie's autopsy, doctors found traces of Kane's semen, leaving Triple H to accuse Kane of necrophilia. Toward the end of the show, Kane attempted to gain revenge on Triple H as he got to the ring, but Triple H quickly escaped. Kane then attacked half of the Raw roster by
Chokeslamming them, and then stared down at Triple H as they were set to square off in their title unification match at No Mercy. Another predominant rivalry from the Raw brand was between Rob Van Dam and Ric Flair. At Unforgiven, Flair interfered in Van Dam's World Heavyweight Championship match against Triple H. During the match, Triple H tried to attack Van Dam with a
sledgehammer, but Flair interfered in the match, and snatched it from Triple H. Flair
turned on Van Dam by hitting him with the sledgehammer, and allowed Triple H to win the match. On the October 14 episode of
Raw, Eric Bischoff announced that Van Dam would wrestle Flair in a match at No Mercy. Later that night, Triple H defeated Van Dam in a Canadian
lumberjack strap match after Ric Flair nailed Van Dam from behind with the World Heavyweight title belt while the referee was distracted. The secondary rivalry from the SmackDown! brand heading into No Mercy was between the team of
Kurt Angle and
Chris Benoit and the team of
Edge and
Rey Mysterio to crown the first-ever
WWE Tag Team Champions. SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon announced that a tag team tournament would take place to determine the new champions for the brand. The tournament started on the October 3 episode of
SmackDown!, with the quarterfinals.
Los Guerreros (
Eddie Guerrero and
Chavo Guerrero Jr.) defeated
Mark Henry and
Rikishi in the first match, and
Reverend D-Von and
Ron Simmons defeated
Billy and Chuck in the second match. On the October 17 episode of
SmackDown!, the semifinal round took place, where Angle and Benoit defeated Los Guerreros, and Edge and Mysterio defeated D-Von and Simmons. This set up the final round match pitting Angle and Benoit against Edge and Mysterio to crown the new champions at No Mercy. The third rivalry from the Raw brand heading into the event was between the team of Chris Jericho and
Christian and the team of
Booker T and
Goldust over the World Tag Team Championship. On the September 23 episode of
Raw, Jericho defeated Goldust to retain the Intercontinental Championship in a match ordered by the Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff. On the October 14 episode of
Raw, Booker T retaliated by attacking Jericho before Jericho and Christian's World Tag Team Championship match against Kane and The Hurricane. However, Jericho and Christian managed to win the championship. After the match, Bischoff announced that Jericho and Christian would defend the titles against Booker T and Goldust at No Mercy. On the September 23 episode of
Raw, Stratus defeated Molly and Victoria in a
Triple Threat match to retain the title. On the September 30 episode of
Raw, Victoria attacked Stratus from behind backstage before their title match. Stratus, however, defeated Victoria by
disqualification to retain the title after Victoria nailed Stratus with a steel chair. On the October 7 episode of
Raw, Victoria attacked Stratus after Stratus retained the title against
Stacy Keibler in a
Bra and Panties match. This led to a title match between Stratus and Victoria at No Mercy. The Divas' rivalry from the SmackDown! brand heading into the event was between
Torrie Wilson and
Dawn Marie. On the September 26 episode of
SmackDown!, Wilson defeated
Nidia in a
Bikini contest via crowd reaction. After the contest ended, Wilson was confronted by Dawn in a backstage segment. On the October 3 episode of
SmackDown!, Wilson introduced her father Al Wilson to
Billy and Chuck. Dawn started getting affections for Al shortly thereafter. Later that night, Torrie defeated Dawn in a Bikini contest. After the contest ended, Dawn was about to shake Torrie's hand, but instead she slapped her down and tossed her out of the ring. On the October 10 episode of
SmackDown!, Torrie defeated Dawn in a
Lingerie contest. Afterward, Dawn wanted to shake Torrie's hand this time but Torrie this time declined and walked away as if it looked like she wasn't going to fall for another trick after the assault that happened to her the previous week. Backstage, Dawn continued to attract Al towards herself, which led to a match between Torrie and Dawn at No Mercy. On the October 17 episode of
SmackDown!, Dawn and Matt Hardy defeated Torrie and Rikishi in a mixed tag team match. Moments later, Torrie started looking for her dad until she went to the Women's locker room and found him in a shower with Dawn. ==Event==