This event also marked the return of Stone Cold Steve Austin after a ten-month absence, with the exception of his appearances at Backlash as well as Raw is War and SmackDown!

Benoit was disqualified again for hitting Kane with a chair and the position of the number one contender remained vacant.

On the September 11 episode of Raw is War, Benoit and Kane defeated Rock and Undertaker in a tag team match.

On the August 28 episode of Raw is War, Angle interfered in a match between Eddie Guerrero and Triple H by attacking both men with a chair.

As a result, the WWF Commissioner Mick Foley announced that Triple H and Angle would wrestle at Unforgiven.

[9] On the September 14 episode of SmackDown!, the WWF Commissioner Mick Foley announced that Edge and Christian would defend the titles against Hardy Boyz in a steel cage match at Unforgiven.

[8] He would follow by sneak attacks on Chyna's allies, Road Dogg and Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty and Grand Master Sexay).

On the September 18 episode of Raw, Eddie faked an illness to get out of a match with Rikishi, who ended up facing Chyna instead.

[11] The following night on Raw is War, Tazz had a scheduled WWF Hardcore Championship match against Steve Blackman.

At SummerSlam, Right to Censor (Steven Richards, Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather) defeated Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty, Grand Master Sexay and Rikishi) in a six-man tag team match.

[7] On the September 11 episode of Raw is War, Goodfather and Buchanan defeated Acolytes Protection Agency (Faarooq and Bradshaw) in a tag team match.

During the match, Funaki, Test, Perry Saturn and Crash Holly interfered and attacked Blackman to take advantage of the 24/7 rule.

On the September 7 episode of SmackDown!, Stone Cold Steve Austin, who had been out of action for almost ten months since he got run over by a car at the previous year's Survivor Series in Detroit, appeared in an interview and announced that he would be returning at Unforgiven to find out who ran over him.

However, after the match, the Dudley Boyz and Acolytes Protection Agency attacked Richards and slammed him through a table.

Steve Blackman defended the title against Test, Perry Saturn, Crash Holly, the WWF European Champion Al Snow and Funaki.

After the match, Kurt Angle complained to the WWF Commissioner Mick Foley over Stone Cold Steve Austin's attack on him.

Matt was left alone and needed to escape the cage or pin anyone of Edge and Christian to win the match.

[4][16] After the WWF Tag Team Championship match, Stone Cold Steve Austin continued his search of the culprit and entered Stephanie McMahon's locker room.

Foley announced that he would be the special guest referee for Triple H's match with Kurt Angle, later in the night.

As a result, Rikishi was disqualified but he continued to attack Chyna by hitting her with a Savate Kick and a Banzai Drop from the second rope.

Benoit and The Rock battled to the outside until Kane made the first pinfall attempt of the match on The Undertaker after hitting him a Flying Clothesline but got a near-fall.

[4][18][16] The following night, on the September 25 episode of Raw is War, The Rock and Triple H exchanged rivals with Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle as Triple H and Stephanie McMahon came out to check on a knocked out Shane McMahon during a WWF Championship match between Rock and Benoit.

[22] The following night on Raw is War, Los Conquistadores defeated Edge and Christian to retain the titles but unmasked themselves after the match to reveal Hardy Boyz.

On the October 5 episode of SmackDown!, Commissioner Mick Foley suspended Austin for interfering in matches and took over interrogating members of the roster to find out who ran over him.

On the October 9 episode of Raw is War, Rock's cousin, Rikishi confessed to running over Austin after Scotty 2 Hotty told Foley that they were in Detroit partying at the time; Foley soon realized that Rikishi hadn't made his debut at the time.

On the October 12 episode of SmackDown!, Foley announced that Austin and Rikishi would battle each other in a No Holds Barred match at No Mercy at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York.

On the October 16 episode of Raw is War, Stone Cold returned to Detroit at the Joe Louis Arena and was being interviewed by Michael Cole when Rikishi interrupted him when he appeared on the titantron, telling Austin to come fight him at the same parking lot of the arena where he ran Austin over.

On the October 19 episode of SmackDown!, while Austin was being interviewed by his close friend Jim Ross, Rikishi appeared in the parking garage of the arena and smashed up Stone Cold's Ford F-150 pickup truck and was found out by Jonathan Coachman and when Austin and Ross went to the garage, Austin saw his truck destroyed and then saw a car, believing that Rikishi was in it, left the arena and gave chase, but Rikishi still appeared and attacked J.R., then was ordered by Foley to leave the arena.

Dunn of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 4.5 [Poor], stating, "Proving that even the beloved Chris Kreski wasn't infallible, this show fell about as flat as you can get for such a hot lead-up.

Angle would go on to claim the title, but he was immediately demoted to #2 heel when Triple H revealed he tried to have Austin killed.