Two featured bouts on the undercard was another standard match, in which Shawn Michaels defeated Chris Masters.

Unforgiven grossed over $485,000 in ticket sales from an attendance of approximately 8,000, and received about 243,000 pay-per-view buys.

Unforgiven was first held by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as the 21st in Your House pay-per-view (PPV) in April 1998.

[2] Eight professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the event's card beforehand, which were planned with predetermined outcomes by WWE's script writers.

The event featured wrestlers and other talent from Raw's brand – a storyline expansion in which WWE assigned its employees.

[3] Wrestlers portrayed either a villainous or fan favorite gimmick, as they followed a series of events which generally built tension, leading to a wrestling match.

The match saw Cena win, and Bischoff fired a pleading Jericho, who was carried out of the arena by security.

As Cena was down, Bischoff announced that Angle was the new contender for the WWE Championship, claiming that Jericho "couldn't get the job done".

This feud began the night after SummerSlam, where Michaels lost a match to Hulk Hogan.

[11][14] The other predominant rivalry heading into the event was between Matt Hardy and Edge, a real life issue transformed into a storyline.

[10][13] After the match, Snitsky threatened to hit Hardy with a ring bell but The Big Show came down.

[10][13] The Divas rivalry heading into the event was between Ashley Massaro and the stable known as Vince's Devils.

[20] Before the event went live on pay-per-view, Rob Conway defeated Tajiri in a match taped for Heat, one of WWE's secondary television programs.

[21] The first televised match was for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, which involved the champion Carlito and challenger Ric Flair.

Snitsky then took the upper hand over Big Show, as he applied an armbar hold, after countering a chokeslam.

The match concluded after White grabbed a golf club that he hid in the steel steps and tried to assault Benjamin with it.

[3][21] In the fifth match Matt Hardy faced Edge, who was accompanied by Lita, inside a Steel Cage.

As the bell rang, Hardy tried to throw Edge face-first into the cage wall but didn't succeed.

[3][21] The next match was Rosey and The Hurricane defending the World Tag Team Championship against Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch.

The match concluded when Cade pinned the legitimately injured Hurricane, to win the World Tag Team Championship.

Michaels then leaped over the top rope and landed on the ring apron, causing the referee to order Masters to break the hold.

[3][21] In the main event, John Cena faced Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship.

Cena rolled out of the move, grabbed the championship belt, which Bischoff had brought with him, and hit Angle with it.

[28] Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section rated the entire event a 6 out of 10 stars.

[33][34][35] On the October 17 episode of Raw, Bischoff announced that a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship would take place between Cena, Angle and the fans' choice at Taboo Tuesday.

[36][37] Bischoff announced three series of qualifying matches, in which the winner would receive a spot on the ballot as a potential challenger to join Cena and Angle.

[40][41] At Taboo Tuesday, Michaels won the fans' choice to join Cena and Angle in the championship match.

[43][44] He took part in a match, teaming up with Ric Flair, who was a fan favorite during Triple H's absence, to take on Chris Masters and Carlito.

[36][45] At Taboo Tuesday, Triple H and Flair met in a steel cage match, a stipulation chosen by the fans, for the WWE Intercontinental Championship.