‘No Mercy’ pivotal event for WWF

I want to believe that the WWF is doing its best to produce a quality wrestling product. I want to believe that the WWF is just as good as it was two or three years ago. I want to believe that tonight's pay-per-view, 'No Mercy,' will shock, entertain and delight sports entertainment fans.

But, I just can't.

The latest version of WWF 'Attitude' has seemed more like WWF 'Whatever.' The creative team lacks focus, and many of the wrestlers lack direction.

The sporadic quality of WWF programming is evident, especially when comparing 'Raw' to 'Smackdown' at any time on a weekly basis over the past few months. The recent formula is inconsistent - a solid 'Raw' followed by an average 'Smackdown,' or vice versa.

The WWF made a strong push for 'No Mercy' two weeks ago on 'Smackdown.' Just before the Kurt Angle-William Regal main event, the WWF listed the entire card with live action shots of the participants.

Not since the days of the WWF's Saturday morning show, 'Mania,' has the WWF made it a point to announce or preview matches for upcoming pay-per-views - at least not on a consistent basis. During the early years of 'Raw,' the WWF had a pay-per-view report that updated viewers on matches during the show.

After more than sufficient buildup on 'Smackdown' two weeks ago, 'Raw' last Monday failed to capture the allure of tonight's event. Other than The Rock-Chris Jericho match for the WCW championship, the rest of the card seems predictable - or worse yet, not interesting.

The main event pits newly crowned WWF champion Steve Austin against former champion Kurt Angle and the WWF's hottest rising star and Hardcore champion, Rob Van Dam, in a three-way match for Austin's gold.

If you think about the direction the WWF has taken its product over the last month or so, this one should be simple: Kurt Angle just had the title, and Rob Van Dam isn't ready to be WWF champion. The result: Steve Austin retains.

Giving the title to Angle would make little, if any, sense, because he just had the WWF championship. If the WWF was content with Angle being champion, it wouldn't have taken the title from him after a one-month reign.

As for RVD, his chemistry and subsequent friction with Austin in recent weeks is amusing, suggesting that the main event for 'No Mercy' should have been RVD vs. Austin in a one-on-one match.

Instead, the WWF got lazy and threw Angle into the mix - not that he doesn't belong there, but he had a built-in feud with William Regal that the WWF failed to capitalize on after the new WCW commissioner turned his back on Angle during his title match with Austin a few weeks ago on 'Raw.'

A Regal-Angle match would have made sense and would have made Regal's heel turn seem important. As it stands now, Regal's turn was just a poor excuse to make 'Raw' seem eventful and give the title back to Austin.

Given Regal's biceps injury that he sustained last Sunday at Madison Square Garden, a match with Angle would have been changed anyway.

The second half of tonight's main event features WCW champion, The Rock, against Chris Jericho. This feud has been intriguing over the past two weeks for a number of reasons - The Rock finally has a different opponent other than Shane McMahon and The Dudley Boys, and Jericho gets another opportunity on the main-event level. The Rock-Jericho promo from last Thursday's 'Smackdown' was both amusing and intense.

Jericho doesn't necessarily have to win the title; he just needs to have a strong showing against a proven main-venter in The Rock. If the 'Scorpion King' decides to squash the pesky Y2J, then Jericho's fate will be no better than that of Booker T, whom The Rock made a habit of beating on a consistent basis.

And speaking of the Booker, he faces The Undertaker in your typical one-on-one pro wrestling 'grudge' match. Because Booker has done little since arriving in the WWF, a convincing win against 'Taker is a must.

Booker T's feud with 'The Great One' was a disaster, with The Rock dominating all of their matches, including a nonsensical win over Booker T in a handicap match with Shane McMahon last month at 'Unforgiven.' Since Shane also was in the match, why couldn't he have been the one to get pinned•

Those are the kind of decisions that have long-time WWF purists wondering why they keep watching 'Raw,' 'Smackdown' or the monthly pay-per-view events. If Vince McMahon is just going through the motions until Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Roy Mister Jr. and possibly Scott Steiner arrive early next year, then he'll also watch his company's stock fall dramatically.

He can't depend on those former WCW stars to inject life into his waning product. Furthermore, McMahon can no longer depend on his 'Mr. McMahon' character to save the day either.

Last week's 'Raw,' which had little competition from the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins snoozefest, drew a 4.1 rating. McMahon and company will blame baseball or network TV, but the fact remains that the WWF is just not interesting anymore.

Will tonight's 'No Mercy' continue this downward trend, or will it start the WWF in the right direction•

I want to believe the latter, but I'd bet on the former.

Rennie De Tore writes the Pro Wrestling Insider for the Tribune-Review.