The 2002 No Mercy was the fifth No Mercy professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. The event took place on October 20, 2002, at the Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas. It was the first No Mercy held following the introduction of the brand extension, as well as the first No Mercy held under the WWE name after the promotion was renamed from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE in May. To date, it is the only WWE pay-per-view event ever held in the state of Arkansas.
The event featured two main events. The main event from the SmackDown! brand featured WWE Champion Brock Lesnar defeat The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match to retain the title. The main event from the Raw brand was a title unification match, where World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeated WWE Intercontinental Champion Kane to unify the Intercontinental Championship into the World Heavyweight Championship.
The undercard featured Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit versus Edge and Rey Mysterio to determine the inaugural WWE Tag Team Champions. Other matches included Trish Stratus versus Victoria for the WWE Women's Championship, Jamie Noble versus Tajiri for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, Rob Van Dam versus Ric Flair, Torrie Wilson versus Dawn Marie, and Chris Jericho and Christian versus Booker T and Goldust for the World Tag Team Championship.
Production
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.
Storylines
The event featured nine professional wrestling matches with outcomes predetermined by WWE The matches featured wrestlers portraying their characters in planned storylines that took place before, during and after the event. All wrestlers were from either one of the WWE's brands – SmackDown! or Raw – the two storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees.