Great American Bash '98

Legacy Review

Great American Bash '98

June 14, 1998 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

 

The NWO Civil War continues.

WCW World Television Championship #1 Contender's Best of 7 Series Match 7 (3-3): Booker T def Chris Benoit in 16:20- This has been something you otherwise never saw in this era of WCW, a feud based purely on awesome wrestling and a battle for respect. I called Savage/DDP WCW's last great feud, but this is also very much a contender. Technically this is the 8th match in the series. The first game 7 was thrown out thanks to Bret Hart trying to help Benoit win and Benoit refusing to take it that way, then Booker also refusing the win by DQ. Bret and Benoit would be an awesome and logical pairing, but of course this is WCW so Bret was just trying to recruit Benoit into NWO Hollywood. The winner of this match will get his TV title shot against Fit Finlay later tonight. Lockup and quick Benoit armdrag. Booker hiptosses Benoit out of the next lockup. Speed run and Benoit gets a drop toe hold. After a Booker powder to think both guys exchange hammerlocks as the very good groundwork laying continues. Booker cradles Benoit in a hammerlock for the first near fall. While in a Benoit hammerlock Booker back elbows out, cranking things up a notch. Another back elbow for 2. Forearms in the corner. Benoit grabs a Booker kick and gives him a dragon screw! Booker is supposedly coming into this match with a bad knee from the previous matches but they don't do much of anything with it. Doesn't stop Heenan from constantly talking about it though. Huge 11 on a scale of 10 Benoit chops. Back suplex for 2. They turn on the jets again and Benoit slams on the brakes after ducking a leapfrog to hit another chop for 2. Snap suplex. Benoit goes for another back suplex. Booker twists in midair into a cover for just 1. Benoit grounds Booker with a chinlock, something he'll do off and on a good portion of the match. Booker gets suplex dropped on the top rope and Benoit hits a clothesline for 2. He stretches Booker's arms out in a surfboard style hold. Booker manages to reverse it. Powerslam! He goes up top but Benoit dodges a reverse crossbody and Booker splats on the mat. He goes for the crossface! Booker feels it and falls into the ropes. Kick counters and Booker hits an enzuguri. Spinebuster. Flapjack. Spinaroonie! He goes up top again. Benoit crotches him and hits a superplex. Both guys are down. Slow Benoit cover for a long 2. ROOOOOOOOOOOOLING GERMANS! Booker counters after two. Standing switch. Benoit ducks a clothesline and hits a dragon suplex! Booker *just* kicks out! Booker does a fancy floatover dodge in the corner. Benoit says "that's nice" and chops him again when he lands. Setup slam. Headbutt off the top! Again Benoit can't cover right away and when he does Booker kicks out. Booker small package for 2. Bret bump from Benoit. Harlem sick kick to the back of his head! Another to the front! Booker's up top again. Missile dropkick! That was Booker's finisher at this time, and that gets the pin! Another phenomenal match between these two, and this one was refreshingly old school in style. Booker's singles breakout has been one of the highlights of the year so far. ****

 

Kanyon def Saturn in 14:46- Kanyon, the former Mortis, unmasked at Slamboree and declared war on the Flock. Saturn is supposedly not officially in the Flock, just a friend of Raven, but it seems like pointless semantics to me. Kanyon comes out in his old Mortis gear....no, it's a RUSE! Fake Mortis from one direction, Kanyon sneaks in and attacks from the other. Tony keeps calling him a "master of disguise" but this is Black Scorpion level stuff. The Master (Doctor Who), a true master of disguise, thinks this is amateur hour. Swinging neckbreaker and electric chair slam from Kanyon. Lodi and Kidman both run in and get taken out, and Saturn goes over the top rope and out. Saturn trips Kanyon coming back in and gives him a slingshot splash. Corner kick combo. Corner dodge and Saturn posts his shoulder. Kanyon faceplants him for 2. The Flock distracts the ref and beat Kanyon down on the floor. Saturn dives onto all of them! He made it clear he didn't want any help. Guardrail shot for Kanyon. Saturn climbs to the second rope for some extra welly on an apron suplex for 2. Drop toe hold into an ankle lock. Kanyon gets a rope break. Saturn keeps him grounded and hooks on an almost cattle mutilation. Another rope break. Kanyon gets planted on the top rope in the middle of the ring, then Saturn springboard clotheslines him to the floor. Saturn gets a chair, but as usual not to hit with, but to jump off of. Chair springboard dropkick in the corner. Chair to rope double springboard moonsault! That gets 2. Kanyon hits a counter Russian leg sweep. He catches a slingshotting Saturn into a northern lights suplex for 2. Swinging neckbreaker from Saturn. Kanyon hits a back suplex. Hot shot. Small package for 2. Saturn gets a backslide for 2. Kanyon jackknife cover for 2. He hits a back elbow that Saturn somehow does a 180 sell of. Kanyon puts Saturn up in a fireman's carry and hits an almost F5! That gets 2. Downward spiral gets blocked into a Saturn exploder suplex for 2. He puts Kanyon up for the DVD. Kanyon escapes but takes a Saturn superkick. Top rope fight. Both guys get crotched and fall to the floor! The guy in Mortis gear comes in again. Wait, there's a second one! The Mortises (Morti?) are fighting each other! They fall out of the ring still going at it. Kanyon hits Saturn with a reverse Russian leg sweep and that gets the pin. Neither of these guys are generally considered good, but every once in a while they could surprise you. They were both willing to do crazy ass spots and moves that were innovative for the time, that's for sure. The match seemed to lose rather than gain momentum during the stretch run. **3/4

After the bell one of the Mortiseseses celebrates with Kanyon....then plants him with a DDT on the floor! Mask off and it's Raven. Raven takes a mic and gives Saturn the "you had one job" speech. Saturn has enough and attacks Raven! The whole Flock beat Saturn down! Saturn fights them all off because none of them have any credibility, they're all just bodies to be tossed around. I guess Saturn really is not in the Flock now.

Next we get a recap of Dean Malenko voluntarily vacating the Cruiserweight title in order to get another match with Jericho because Malenko is that confident he can win it back. After Malenko's shock return at Slamboree Jericho's gone full conspiracy nut. Just before this show he had another one of the legendary bits from his WCW run, the video of him going all over Washington complaining about conspiracies and being screwed. Sadly way too many people holding office in DC sound like him now. He's also continued to verbally abuse Malenko's family.

 

Vacant WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Chris Jericho def Dean Malenko by DQ in 13:52- Big "Jericho sucks" chant after the bell. Both guys try a quick jump with Jericho getting the early edge. Malenko flips over and plants Jericho with a German suplex. A Jericho buckle shot produces a really loud "THUNK" sound. Are those turnbuckles secured properly? Crazed corner beatdown from Malenko. Jericho gets a boot up in the opposite corner and hits some shots. Shoulderblock and Jericho plays to the crowd a bit. Slide under, double leg takedown and Jericho goes for the Liontamer. Malenko counters before it's on. Suplex from Malenko for 2. Reverse chinlock into a surfboard stretch. Nice reverse kick escape from Jericho. Corner whip and Jericho flips upside down in the corner, lands on the top rope, and then after a delay his head falls down onto the ring post. Jericho just keeping himself amused there. He falls back down into the tree of woe. Malenko charges but Jericho dodges the slide and Malenko goes to the floor. Jericho with a plancha! He's bleeding a bit, presumably from hitting the post, but commentary doesn't mention it and the camera stays in wide shot for a long while because Turner's paranoid about blood. Delayed suplex and arrogant cover. Sleeper! Malenko escapes and hooks on his own sleeper. Jericho back suplexes out. Some more cocky crowd playing follows. Malenko dodges the Lionsault! Leg lariat from Malenko. Cradle for 2. Faceplant off the second rope for 2. After some corner dodges Malenko sets up for the super gutbuster. Jericho fights out. Hurricanrana! Both guys are down. Jericho pops up at 9 to cover for 2. Malenko fights out of a powerbomb attempt and lands on Jericho. Jericho rolls over and has the Liontamer on! Malenko fights to the ropes. Jericho goes up and hits an Alabama slam into Liontamer position. After a series of roll counters Malenko goes for the cloverleaf! Now Jericho quickly scrambles to get to the ropes. The crowd bit hard on that one. More counters into a Jericho double underhook backbreaker. He slaps Malenko in the corner and says "You're nothing, just like your dead father!". Malenko snaps! They go to the floor. Malenko knocks Penzer down! He takes Penzer's chair and nails Jericho with it! The ref has no choice but to call the DQ. Malenko doesn't hear it and keeps laying into Jericho. They head up the aisle, right past the alter, down the ramp and out the door. While fighting backstage Malenko keeps a table from falling onto Jericho. Nice guy. They go all the way past the production truck outside. Malenko finally gets held back by officials. Jericho literally runs across the street and keeps on running. Commentary isn't sure what the title situation is with the DQ. They assume Jericho won it but tune in tomorrow night on Nitro to find out for sure. Jericho did indeed get the title back. Another rock solid but not quite great match between these two. ***1/2

 

Juventud Guerrera def Reese (w/Lodi) in 8:45- Reese has been in the Flock for a while but this is his first PPV match. His sole claim to a spot is the fact he's 7'2" (and you can't teach that). The top of Juvy's head barely reaches his chest, which is honestly a great visual. Juvy says a little prayer in the corner just after the bell. Probably a good idea. He tries some dodge and stick but Reese tosses him around. Juvy rolls out for a rethink. He gets Reese to chase him and hits a rope assisted swing kick. Springboard crossbody. Reese catches him in midair and posts his back, then presses Juvy back in the ring. While Reese is getting back in Juvy kicks his leg against the ropes. Reese pushes him away. More Juvy hammy kicks. He goes up top and leaps on Reese's back, hooking on a straight choke. Almost exactly the same technique Westley used to take down Fezzik in The Princess Bride. Juvy studied the classics. Reese goes down to one knee, but then recovers and backs Juvy into the corner. Backbreaker with a stretch from Reese. Huge hiptoss. Reese hooks on the inevitable bear hug, but fortunately not for long. Juvy tries to slide under but Reese grabs him. Juvy with a low blow kick! Another one! Juvy hits the ropes. Reese goes to his knees and literally puts his fist up so Juvy can run into it. Blackadder did the same thing to Baldrick one time. Suplex from Reese. Instead of a pin he wants a KO count. Juvy uses Lil' Naitch to pull himself back up at 9. Reese goes out and get a chair. Lil' Naitch grabs it away from him! Former Flock member Hammer is out. He takes the chair and hits Reese with it! Juvy gives Reese the second worst hurricanrana ever (Nia Jax at Bad Blood '24 will always be the worst now) and gets the pin! That could have been a hell of a lot worse. *

 

Chavo Guerrero Jr def Eddie Guerrero in 14:46- This is the culmination of months of Eddie trying to control his nephew Chavo's life and career. Chavo finally snapped recently on weekly TV. Eddie was actually willing to let him walk because he didn't want to fight family, but Chavo insisted on this match to prove a point and because he now has a screw loose. Kinda like the face/heel inversion there. After the bell Eddie still doesn't want to fight. Chavo slaps him! Eddie shoves. Nose to nose jawing. Eddie hits a chop and it's on. Chavo responds with his own chops. Big backdrop. Full on roll around brawl. The ref forces a break in the corner. Both guys exchange hot shots into the corner. Eddie's arm scraped against the turnbuckle on his and gave him a nasty red welt there. Eddie tries to hide but Chavo is all over him. Buckle shots all the way down. Flying headscissors. Eddie grabs the ropes after a whip, bails and walks. Chavo quickly chases and throws him back in. As Chavo's getting back in Eddie kicks the rope to crotch him. Back suplex. Eddie works on Chavo's arm a bit. Chavo flips an armdrag to escape, then hits a monkey flip. He goes up top, sees Eddie up, flips over and lands on his feet, goes up the other side, and hits a moonsault for 2. Eddie ducks and Chavo flies over the top to the floor. Brain buster from Eddie. But no cover. Instead he slaps Chavo. Bad move. Chavo goozle! He chokes Eddie down and has to be physically pulled off by the ref. Eddie runs and we get a full on chase around the ring. Eddie then tries to hide behind the ref. When Chavo gives him an opening Eddie clips his knee! Basement dropkick to the knee. Figure four! Chavo won't quit so Eddie lets it go. Gory special! Chavo armdrags out. Eddie dodges and hits a dropkick. Camel clutch. After messing with the crowd a bit Eddie puts on a Canadian backbreaker, then helicopter spins Chavo around and drops him. Chavo backdrops Eddie to the floor! Tope con hilo! As they get back in a loud "We want Flair" chant starts. Sounds just like the Baltimore Arena 7 years before for Great American Bash '91. This was in the period when Flair and Bischoff really didn't get along, less than usual, and Flair had been suspended. Chavo hits a bulldog for 2. He goes up top. Eddie hits the ropes to crotch him. Chavo dodges the frog splash! They lay close to each other and have what looks like a quick discussion. Chavo goes for the tornado DDT, but does an extra midair twist and snaps Eddie over the top rope instead. Springboard DDT! That gets the pin! I think Eddie might have hurt something on that missed frog splash and they had to call a quick finish. Still a good match, though not the blowaway amazing match you'd hope for from these two. ***1/4

 

WCW World Television Championship: Booker T def Fit Finlay (c) in 13:13- Booker comes out sans gloves for his second match tonight. After the bell they circle a bit and Booker gets the first shots in. Wild clothesline that Finlay barely sells. Hook kick. Finlay does a leg takedown into a partial STF. Rope break reset with both guys very cautious. Booker gets a huge head of steam and hits a flying forearm. Chops. He 360 clotheslines Finlay to the floor. Booker plancha! Finlay counters a scissors kick attempt with another leg takedown into a half crab. He starts working through leg holds, using the ZSJ rule of never holding anything longer than 6 seconds before switching it up. After Booker escapes Finlay lays some kicks on the knee and gives it an apron shot. Booker does a floatover with a spiffy little spin in the corner into cradle for 2. Finlay is quickly back on the knee and puts on a stretch muffler/El Deperado's Numero Dos. Booker slowly rolls over and lays in some ground and pound. Finlay hits a kneebreaker and tosses Booker out. He grabs a chair, and when the ref comes out to stops him puts it down in a hilariously disappointed way, like he's a kid that just got told by his dad not to do it. Instead he posts Booker's knee. Back in Finlay hits a setup slam and Vader bomb. Booker ducks a clothesline and hits the side kick. Powerslam. Scissors kick. Spinaroonie! Finlay responds with a clothesline that Booker does a 360 sell of. Finlay hooks up for the tombstone. Booker tries to reverse it but can't hold Finlay up and drops him. He goes for it again and falls down himself. Finlay covers by covering Booker for 2. That was all kinds of ugly. Booker dodges in the corner. He hooks Finlay up and plants him with a REVERSE piledriver! That gets the pin and the title back! Stevie Ray comes out to celebrate with his brother. It's not mentioned on TV, but with the then unofficial now official house show title swaps with Benoit this is Booker's 5th TV title win, tying him with Paul Jones for the most all time. A record Booker will later break. The match was pretty sloppy. They definitely had communication and chemistry issues and the finish really got messed up. They also had to deal with the crowd getting distracted multiple times which didn't help any. **

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Goldberg (c) def Konnan (w/Rick Rude and Curt Hennig) in 1:57- We now come to the NWO portion of the night. Konnan, Hennig and Rude are all in NWO Wolfpac. Goldberg is coming into this match 99-0. What an amazingly incredible coincidence he can get win number 100 on a PPV. Goldberg is THE guy this crowd came to see. They're nuts for him and those chants are not piped in. Lockup, Goldberg shove and Konnan quickly bails to the floor. Back in Goldberg cranks a headlock. Konnan counters into a hammerlock but Goldberg quickly counters the counter with a leg takedown. Konnan gets a few wild shots in. Spear! The jackhammer hits and Goldberg squash done we're up to 100-0. Given it was both win #100 and he was up against Konnad I have zero issues with this. It would also turn out to be very smart to keep Goldberg looking so dominant. Keep reading after the show wrapup for some bonus coverage regarding that. NR

After the bell Hennig and Rude jump Konnan! Hennig takes his shirt off and he has an NWO Hollywood shirt on under! Nash and Luger run out to make the save. Welcome to the NWO civil war, where the #1 swerve we have is guys switching sides between the two factions.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan and Bret "Hitman" Hart (w/The Disciple) def "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and "Macho Man" Randy Savage in 11:40- This won't be a shock to anyone, but notorious hotheads Piper and Savage not only can't get along, they have a match against each other scheduled right after this one where they're teaming together. Bret's fully joined NWO Hollywood now, which is not a great fit. Disciple gets to hold the world title belt ringside. The only time Brutus Beefcake ever touched a belt is when Hogan gave one to him. Lots of stalling and arguing at the start from both sides. Finally they settle on Piper and Hogan. More Hogan stalling. Piper has enough and jumps him. Hogan gets caught in the wrong corner with Piper and Savage actually working as a team, quick tagging him to keep him isolated. Piper hits the ropes and Disciple whacks him in the back with the belt. Bret tags in and pounds away on Piper. Remember their tremendous Wrestlemania 8 match? Seems like two lifetimes ago, but it's only been 6 years. Piper tries to hulk up off Hogan shots, including the dreaded back rake, but gets caught in the heel corner. They keep maneuvering Piper around to work the ref and keep madman Savage running in every two seconds. It's too easy. Piper gets Bret with a slo-mo small package for 2. Bret reverses it. Savage tags Piper's back but Nick Patrick doesn't see it. Front facelock fight and ANOTHER phantom tag spot. Savage gets a chair. Bret goes for the headbutt to the gut on Piper. Savage puts the chair on Piper's stomach and Bret headbutts that! OK, that was good. Tags on both sides. Savage goes semi-nuts. Hogan accidentally clotheslines Bret. Half speed donnybrook time. Savage goes up top to hit Bret with the elbow. Hogan whips Piper into the ropes, knocking Savage down and tweaking his permanently hurt knee again. Hogan posts the knee. Bret hooks the Sharpshooter on Savage and it's over. 3/4*

Mean Gene gets in the ring to ask Piper if he's really going to go through with the next match seeing how badly Savage is hurt. Piper blows Okerlund off, but then helps Savage up to his feet. Savage clotheslines him! The bell rings to start the next match.

 

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper def "Macho Man" Randy Savage in 1:37- Savage chokes away. The elbow off the top hits! But Savage hurt his knee again on the landing. Slow cover and Piper kicks out. Savage decides to deck Lil' Natch, like Naitch hurt his knee or something. Piper low blows Savage and kicks his leg out. Figure four. The backup ref runs in and Savage submits for the second straight match. DUD

 

Singles Match for Control of the WCW World Tag Team Championship: Sting def The Giant in 6:40- Giant joined NWO Hollywood soon after the NWO split. At Slamboree he teamed with Sting to defeat The Outsiders for the tag titles, with the help of Scott Hall switching sides from the Wolfpac to Hollywood. Sting was still lone wolf Sting at the time, but since then he's done the previously unfathomable and joined an NWO faction, the Wolfpac, and is now wearing red and black face paint. The winner of this match will win control of the tag titles for his NWO faction, and will be allowed to choose his partner. Giant has already said it'll be the Disciple, likely on Hogan's orders. It's generally expected that Sting will choose best bud Lex Luger, who followed Sting into the Wolfpac. Oh yeah, this is also the time that Giant tried to really heel it up by smoking. Yes, smoking. Cigarettes. In the ring. He lights one up during his entrance and smokes it during both his and Sting's entrances. After the bell Giant takes a huge puff and blows the smoke in Sting's face. Sting smacks him upside the head. Giant charges but Sting dodges and Giant gets caught on the ropes. Stinger Splash! He goes again but flies right into Giant's boot. Sting gets a huge head of steam off the ropes and tries a crossbody but literally bounces off Giant's chest. Press slam from Giant and he tosses Sting into the corner, an almost super snake eyes. Bear hug. We do the full arm drops before Sting bell rings and bites to get out. He dropkicks Giant's knee. Stinger Splash to Giant's back. A second one to the front. Sting slams Giant! Scorpion Death Lock! Giant powers out. Scorpion Death Drop! Giant kicks out! Goozle. Sting....counters the chokeslam? Or Giant's knee gave out. One or the other. Another Scorpion Death Drop and another kickout. Sting goes up top, hooks Giant up, makes him think about it for a second, and hits an avalanche Scorpion Death Drop. That gets the pin! Commentary says Sting will pick his partner on Nitro tomorrow night. Instead of the expected Luger pick, Sting would choose Wolfpac leader Kevin Nash instead. They worked in a couple of cool moments, but it was still a low level Nitro main event match. *1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Stop me if you've heard this one before: the undercard is full of pretty consistent good to great quality, then once the NWO stuff kicks in at the top of the card it all goes downhill.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+

 

Bonus Match Review

Monday Night Nitro (July 6, 1998 from the Georgia Dome)

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: WCW United States Champion Goldberg def Hollywood Hogan (c) in 8:11- This is easily the biggest match WCW could possibly put on at this point in time. Either Goldberg defeats perennial champion Hogan to cap off his ascent to the top, or Hogan ends the undefeated streak. Naturally WCW put this, a guaranteed PPV seller, on Nitro to try to pop a one week rating and get back on top of WWF for at least one week. Not only that, they didn't announce or even set up the match until the Thunder the week before. Goldberg himself only found out about it by watching Thunder. Earlier in the night Goldberg had to clear one last Hogan demanded hurdle by defeating Scott Hall. Goldberg gets the full security walk entrance. The crowd is crazy bonkers for Goldberg. Circle and lockup into a Goldberg headlock. He hits a shoulderblock and Hogan quickly backs off. Hogan works a font facelock and Goldberg backs him into the corner. Knucklelock test of strength that Goldberg wins. Hogan takes a rope break, then goes into some eye pokey back rakey offense before taking his weightlifting belt off and whipping Goldberg with it. Goldberg takes the belt away! He doesn't even think about using it, just tosses it out of the ring. Hogan works in his Japan wrestling playbook workaround into a hammerlock. Golberg reverses it into a full nelson. Hogan low blows him. Clothesline. Slam. Goldberg dodges elbow drops and pops up with a clothesline. Hogan goes to the floor and retrieves his weightlifting belt. Back in Hogan hits some corner knees and tosses Goldberg out. He gets a chair and gives Goldberg a couple of chairshots. Another slam back in. Legdrop! A second one! Curt Hennig, now in NWO Hollywood, makes his way out. He's followed by DDP and Karl Malone. Hogan and Dennis Rodman vs DDP and Karl Malone has already been booked for Bash at the Beach. Off camera Goldberg kicked out of the double legdrop. Way to step all over what should have been a seminal moment. Malone Diamond Cutters Hennig! Hogan gets distracted by the goings on outside. He turns around into a spear! The crowd starts throwing trash in the ring, but this time like it's a party instead of in protest. There's even something that looks like streamers, or toilet paper, being tossed in the crowd. Jackhammer! Good night Hogan the Goldberg era is here. HUGE pop for the win. Heenan also celebrates like crazy from the booth. I always liked how Heenan was consistent in his hatred for Hogan no matter which side of the face/heel fence Hogan was on. That match went as well as it possibly could have. It was extremely well laid out. Reminded me a bit of the Hogan/Ultimate Warrior Wrestlemania 6 match in that regard. The nuclear hot crowd also helped tremendously. I still would have built this up WAY more and put it on PPV though. **1/2

King of the Ring 2000

Legacy Review

King of the Ring 2000

June 25, 2000 from the Fleet Center in Boston

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

2000 featured the largest King of the Ring tournament of all time, a full 32 wrestlers. It's like the New Japan Cup if New Japan didn't care about match length or quality (only two matches in the first two rounds went past 5 minutes and most were in the 2-3 minute range). The first two rounds took place on weekly TV with the final 8 wrestlers making it to tonight.

Quarterfinals: WWF Intercontinental Champion Rikishi def Chris Benoit by DQ in 3:25- Rikishi defeated Shane McMahon and Too Cool teammate Scotty2Hotty to get here, while Benoit defeated the DX duo of Road Dogg and X-Pac. This is also an IC Title match rematch. Rikishi defeated Benoit to win his first ever title in WWF on Smackdown the week prior. In fact, in deference to their insane overness everyone in Too Cool has won gold since Judgment Day as we'll see later. Jump start slugfest. Benoit hits some chops. Rikishi hits a Samoan drop. They go to the floor and Benoit takes the first stairs shot of the night. Back in Benoit tries a German suplex but Rikishi's ass is too big. Benoit gives him a few shots in the back, goes again, and hits the German! Nice big crowd reaction for that. Benoit goes into corner beatdown mode and hooks on his modified standing crossface to wear Rikishi down. More Benoit chops. Rikishi misses in the corner and Benoit hooks the full crossface on. After a bit of a fight Rikishi gets to the ropes. Benoit goes out, gets a chair, comes back in and whacks Rikishi in the face with it to draw the cheap DQ. After the bell Benoit continues with the chairshots and hooks the crossface on again. The full ref plus Sgt. Slaughter gaggle has to come in to break it up. Benoit goes up top and flies over the refs to hit the headbutt off the top rope! After another quick crossface Benoit leaves. I think that guarantees Rikishi is going to make to at least the final tonight. *1/4

 

Quarterfinals: Val Venus (w/Trish Stratus) def Eddie Guerrero (w/Chyna) in 8:04- Eddie defeated Matt Hardy and his own girlfriend Chyna (no hard feelings) in the first two rounds. Venus took out Christian and Jeff Hardy. Venus is in the midst of a renewed push after falling off the radar for a while after Vince Russo's departure. He's also much more serious and does a lot less goofing around. His association with Trish is specifically called a "business arrangement". No side action. Rough lockup that Venus wins, leading to an early Venus edge. Guerrero reverses a corner whip and hits a basement dropkick while Venus is on his knees. Leg lariat. Venus responds with some big chops. Guerrero flips Venus over the top rope to the floor. Chops from Guerrero down there. Venus drops him on the barricade. Coming back in Guerrero hits a very wobbly superplex. Drop toe hold into a Guerrero surfboard. Venus eye gouges out. Guerrero dropkicks Venus' back in the corner and backslides him for 2. Faceplant counter from Venus. Back elbow/elbow drop combo for 2. Backbreaker with a stretch from Venus. Guerrero pops up with a counter hurricanrana to a big crowd reaction. Back suplex. Guerrero goes up top. Venus dodges, but Guerrero sees and rolls through. Spinebuster from Venus. He goes up for the Money Shot. Guerrero gets his knees up. Running magistral from Guerrero for 2. Top rope hurricanrana! Trish gets up on the apron. Chyna pulls her down. Venus pulls Chyna up by the hair. Chyna nails him with a forearm! Guerrero cradles Venus but only gets 2. He goes for the brain buster but Venus counters out. Standing switches. Venus hits a perfectplex! That gets the pin! Benoit and Guerrero out the first two matches. I'm sure many keyboards were destroyed over that. The match was perfectly fine for the time with lots of effort from both guys. **1/2

Pat Patterson knows his dress size by heart. I have no further comment.

 

Quarterfinals: Crash Holly def Bull Buchanan in 4:07- Crash Holly defeated Albert and cousin Hardcore Holly and is getting this year's Cinderella run. Buchanan beat Steve Blackman and D'Von Dudley. Buchanan is a classic Vince McMahon "looks great, can't wrestle, push him anyway" guy. After a bit of jawing Crash tries some hit and run. Buchanan stays on him and gets a press slam. Clothesline. Double backbreaker. It's all Buchanan as some "boring" chants float around the arena. Crash tries to fight back but gets cut off. He manages to counter a Buchanan slam attempt into a small package for 2. Buchanan pops up with another clothesline. Flapjack. Crash dodges the scissors kick. He gets a half nelson cradle on Buchanan, and that gets the pin! Honestly think the count was fast but whatever. The Cinderella run continues, and we're spared any more Buchanan matches tonight. 1/2*

 

Quarterfinals: Kurt Angle def Chris Jericho in 9:50- Jericho took out Test and Edge, while Angle defeated Bradshaw and Bubba Ray Dudley. There's a definite pop for Angle in some sections of the arena. Quite a few pro-Angle signs out there too. Angle tries to get some heat back by running down the lack of titles for Boston sports teams. Now, I know this will come as a shock for you younger readers who are used to Boston winning stuff all the time in all major sports, but at the time Boston was in a hell of a championship drought. The Patriots had only been to two Super Bowls, had lost them both and were generally known as one of the NFL's weakest franchises. They wouldn't win their first until the 2001 season to kick off the Brady era. The Red Sox were still mired in the Curse that wouldn't be broken until 2004. The Celtics hadn't been to an NBA Finals since their last great Larry Bird led run in the '80s, and the Bruins hadn't been to a Stanley Cup final in a decade and hadn't won one since 1972. After the bell Angle gets a quick slugging edge. Belly to belly suplex for 2. Jericho hits a flying forearm and some chops. Angle tries to backdrop Jericho over the top rope but Jericho lands on his feet on the apron. He pops right up the ropes and hits a missile dropkick for 2. Misdirection bulldog. Lionsault! Angle just gets a foot on the rope! Jericho hits the springboard dropkick. After getting knocked around a bit on the floor Angle hiptosses Jericho over the barricade! I love how even on the floor Angle is using wrestling moves. Jericho takes a stair shot. Back in Angle hits a suplex with a floatover cover for 2. He grinds Jericho down with a chinlock/leg grapevine combo. Off a rope run Jericho slides under and hits the double underhook backbreaker. Angle dodges a dropkick and slingshots Jericho into the corner. Off the rebound he hits a back suplex for 2. Clothesline from Angle. He ducks under a Jericho clothesline and hits a German for 2. Jericho takes a beatdown in the corner before coming back with chops. Angle gets a boot up in the corner and hops up to the second rope. Jericho dropkicks him into the corner! Hurricanrana from Jericho! Spinning heel kick for 2. He goes for the misdirection again but Angle cuts it off with a clothesline. You're not going to fool Angle twice. He hooks up for the Angle Slam. Jericho slips out, gets a leg takedown, and goes for the Walls! Stephanie McMahon is out! She's got the women's title belt with her. This is at the start of the Steph/Angle "relationship" that will culminate at Summerslam. She distracts ref Teddy Long while Angle is tapping out to the Walls. Jericho goes over to argue. Angle hits him from behind and Long goes down too. Steph comes in. Jericho ducks and Angle takes the shot from the belt! From the camera angle it was clearly a mile off but still. Jericho grabs Steph and kisses her! Angle comes from behind. Angle Slam! That gets the pin! Not up to the standards you'd expect from these two but still a good match, but let down by the overbooking. Benoit, Guerrero and now Jericho all out in the quarterfinals. Some IWC members are probably ritually burning their computers in protest. **3/4

We're reminded that WWF New York exists. Mick Foley is there with his new short haircut. It's not too long before his Commissioner run starts.

 

Fatal Four Way Elimination Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: Edge & Christian def The Hardy Boyz, T&A and Too Cool (c) in 14:11- I mentioned earlier everyone in Too Cool getting titles due to how crazy over they were. The main Too Cool team of Scotty2Hotty and Grandmaster Sexay defeated Edge and Christian for the tag titles on Raw the week after Judgment Day for their one and only title win. E&C's five second pose is another legendary one. Like Angle, they dip into the saga of Boston sports history to retell the epic of Bill Buckner and the Missed Ground Ball. A story that would be painful for Red Sox fans until October 27, 2004. Lita is making her PPV debut as part of the Hardyz unit. Think that worked out OK for her career. Scotty's wearing his tag belt upside down in what I assume is a deliberate creative decision. Jeff and Albert start. Jeff escapes a press slam but gets backdropped. Another press slam attempt and Jeff lands on his feet and hits a basement dropkick. Jeff turns on the jets and flies around the lunk Albert. Matt blind tags in and the Hardyz double team. Trish grabs Matt's foot. Albert comes over and gives Matt a really bad clothesline. T&A go into double team mode. Big boot from Test. Matt hooks up for the Twist of Fate. Trish is up on the apron again. Matt knocks her down. Lita runs over and takes Trish out from behind! Matt hits a dropkick on Test. Test with a powerslam. Jeff swanton bombs Test over the running in Albert, then crossbodys Albert to the floor to take him out. Matt covers and pins Test to eliminate them. Reset with Scotty and Jeff. Fresh Scotty quickly takes control and hits a flapjack. He does the moonwalk, but into E&C's corner and Christian tags himself in. Jeff drop toe holds him as he runs in. Matt hits a legdrop off the second rope for 2. Poetry in Motion hits. Double suplex on Edge. The shirts are off. E&C work the ref to ambush Jeff on the floor. Jeff/Edge double clothesline. Christian and Matt don't wait for tags and run in. Lita goes up top and flying hurricanranas Edge! Jeff covers for 2. Tag to Matt. After a bit of a hot tag cleanout the two team donnybrook continues. Too Cool is more than happy to let them fight it out, which is WAY smarter than I ever thought they could be. Matt hits the Twist of Fate on Christian but Edge pulls him out of the pin. Jeff goes up top but Edge pulls him down. Christian hits Matt with the unprettier and the Hardyz are gone. Rereset with Sexay and Edge. Sexay hits a neckbreaker. Dropkick off the second rope. Too Cool goes for double teams on both guys. Christian distracts Scotty and Edge nails him with a spinning heel kick. Christian does some crazy mocking of Too Cool's dancing and that sets them off. Christian weathers the storm and hits a Russian leg sweep. E&C double headbutt for 2. Scotty gets boots up in the corner and hits a clothesline. Both sides tag. Edge gets tied up in the ropes. Sexay slugs away on him, then slingshots Edge into Christian on the apron and rolls Edge up for 2. Sitout powerbomb on Edge for 2. E&C come back with a double flapjack. Double Worm mocking! Scotty runs in and stops it, then time stops for Scotty to hit the real Worm on Edge. Christian runs in with one of the belts but gets cut off. Sexay hits the guillotine legdrop on Edge and covers. Christian hits him with the belt! Edge covers and E&C win the titles back! Not a popular decision on the night, but I think it was the right one. It's not that Too Cool is *bad*, but so much of what they do is predicated on them doing a lot of dancing around and crowd playing between moves and it makes their matches really disjointed, as well as not very believable because their opponents have to lay around forever while they're doing it. As popular as they are, they're much better suited as a midcard attraction rather than at the top of the tag division. The match was decent enough. **1/4

 

Semifinals: Rikishi def Val Venus (w/Trish Stratus) in 3:15- Rikishi jumps Venus when he hits the ring. Superkick. To the floor and Venus goes into the stairs. Several times. Rikishi hits a legdrop back in. Reverse avalanche. Venus manages to hit an armbar slam to finally take advantage of Rikishi's hurt arm. He posts the arm. Slugfest with Rikishi using his non-hurt arm. Venus hits a DDT. He goes up top. He sees Rikishi standing up but goes for it anyway. Rikishi catches him, gives him a belly to belly suplex, and gets the pin. After the bell Trish tries to attack Rikishi and gets wiped out. Rikishi goes to give her the banzai drop but Venus low blows him. After that Venus tosses the stairs in the ring and hits Rikishi's bad arm with them. Then he gives the arm one last chairshot against the stairs. I think it's safe to say Rikishi is sufficiently protected should he end up losing the final. 1/4*

 

Venus would get revenge a couple of weeks later on Smackdown, and keep his resurgent push going, when he defeated Rikishi to win the IC title for the second time in his career.

 

Semifinals: Kurt Angle def Crash Holly in 3:58- Lockup! Proper wrestling start instead of a brawl one. Crash works a headlock and hits a quick shoulderblock for 1. Reset lockup. Fantastic running cradle from Angle for 2. Crash powerslam for 2. Angle hits a belly to belly. He keeps Holly in the corner for a bit then hits a corner clothesline. Suplex for 2. Crash's comeback attempts are cut off by a knee to the gut and an eye rake. Eventually Crash does slug back. Back elbow. Backdrop. Angle Bret bumps and Crash clotheslines him in the back. Missile dropkick for a long 2. Young Angle continues to already have his timing down nearly perfect. Angle hits a hot shot. Angle Slam! That does it. They did a pretty good job working a lot into a little window. **

Next up we get a recap of the Gerald Brisco/Pat Patterson "epic" over the Hardcore title. Long story short, Patterson turned on Brisco to win the title and explode the Stooges. After that they both took to wearing women's clothes like lumberjacks and hiding from each other in the women's dressing room. No one knows why.

 

Hardcore Evening Gown Match for the WWF Hardcore Championship: Pat Patterson (c) and Gerald Brisco no contest in 3:07- Brisco comes out to Real American. He's also got a 2x4. So he's Hogan and Duggan. In a black dress. Patterson comes out with a shopping cart full of soft "weapons" only the Spanish Inquisition would think of using. He also looks way too comfortable and experienced in this clothing. Patterson takes a mic and offers to lay down for Brisco to preserve their friendship. They hug....then Patterson hits a low blow! He stuffs a banana in Brisco's face. Then he pulls a frakking maxi pad out of his....panties and stuffs it in Brisco's face. Patterson goes for a stinkface but Brisco low blows him. JR straight up says "This is hideous". The crowd is booing and generally shitting all over this farce. The best thing about it is JR and Lawler both say screw it, embrace the insanity and literally just shoot the shit and laugh about it instead of trying to call it like they normally would. Both the wigs are off. Brisco does the slowest run up of all time and gives Patterson a bronco buster. Now the dresses are coming off. Crash Holly runs in! He attacks both guys and finishes the dress stripping job. Trash can shot on Patterson! Crash gets the pin and gets his baby back! He grabs the belt and runs for the hills. JR: "The best thing about that, other than Crash is Hardcore champion again, is this match is over". Let us never speak of it again. MINUS FIVE STARS

 

Handicap Tables Dumpster Match: D-Generation X def The Dudley Boyz in 9:45- The Dudleyz' attempts to put Tori through a table continue to be cocktableblocked, which only makes them more obsessed by the week. On top of that, DX and Edge & Christian teamed up on Raw to stuff the Dudleyz in a dumpster and roll it off the stage, a callback to the far superior DX/Mick Foley and Terry Funk feud. That brings us to tonight. The rules are that for DX to win they have to put the Dudleyz in the dumpster and close the lid. The Dudleyz have to put all the members of DX, including Tori, through tables for them to win. Backstage before the match the Dudleyz spraypaint a table with Tori's name and add it to the 47 other tables sitting around ringside. It looks like we're going to have jump start but things actually calm down and we start proper with Bubba Ray and Road Dogg. As soon as the enrance music stops the "X-Pac sucks" chants start up. Dogg and Bubba Ray go back and forth with Bubba Ray hitting a clothesline off the second rope. Flying back elbow from D'Von. Pac does some of his flippydo escape but D'Von just waits for it to end and nails him with a clothesline. Dogg distracts and Pac hits D'Von with a swing kick. Tori tags in as we get even louder "X-Pac sucks" chants. She hits a few kicks and tags right back out. D'Von double clotheslines both DX guys and tags. Bubba Bomb on Dogg. Side suplex on Pac. Both DX guys take the crotch headbutt. Tori runs in all kinds of pissed off, so the Dudleyz give her one too! D'Von stays where he is after contact a LONG time. Bubba Ray has to pull him off and pushes him out to go get some tables. There they find Pac and Dogg, who were taking a walk. The Dudleyz have to almost literally handwalk the DX guys through some floor spots. The Dudleyz get run into the dumpster. The lid is opened and the Dudleyz are dumped in. Lid closed. The match should be over, but the ref is over checking on Tori where he conveniently can't see anything. The Dudleyz escape through the dumpster's small side doors and crawl under the ring. DX haul the ref over and open the doors to show him the Dudleyz in there. There's no Dudleyz! They escaped the trash compactor. The Dudleyz come out from under the ring and ambush DX with chairs! Bubba Ray tosses the stairs into the ring, and almost legit right on top of Dogg. They set up a double layer table stack on the floor. Bubba Ray climbs the stairs in the ring, gets handed Dogg, and drops Dogg down through both layers of tables! Pac runs in and takes the Dudleyz out. He sets up a table, which can't be a good idea. D'Von superplexes Pac through the table! Told you. Only Tori left to go. The Dudleyz corner her in the ring. One of her arms is dangling, possibly legit hurt. Tori decides to hide in the dumpster. DX ambush the Dudleyz with chairs! The Dudleyz are in the dumpster! Lid closed and it's over! The crowd is PISSED. Damn, the Dudleyz can't freaking buy a PPV win. *1/2

Dogg and Pac leave not realizing they left Tori behind in the dumpster. The Dudleyz corner her again. The DX guys try to make the save but both take 3Ds. The Tori table is brought in. She's up......and the Dudleyz FINALLY put Tori through a table! Bubba Ray is satisfied. The crowd loves it. No one cares about the match result now.

We get a repeat of the nice video package that started the show, highlighting the success of (most of) the past KOTR winners.

 

King of the Ring Final: Kurt Angle def Rikishi in 5:56- Jump start in the aisle. Rikishi slugs away. Angle tries to slam him but Rikishi has too much ass. Rikishi hits his own slam. Corner clothesline. Angle is in the ass drop zone. Rikishi goes for the stinkface but Angle cuts it off with I think a low blow but from the camera angle it was hard to tell. Clothesline. Angle stomps Rikishi down in the corner. On the floor Rikishi gets run hurt arm first into the stairs. About time that got noticed. And then it's forgotten about again. Rikishi hits some jabs with his good arm before Angle slugs back. Angle is extremely sluggy tonight. Lots of fists throwing, very little wrestling. I don't know who told him to do that but it's not playing to his strengths at all. Rikishi comes back with a clothesline and Samoan drop. Running cutter. Avalanche. The stinkface hits this time. Angle Slam outta nowhere! Rikishi kicks out! Angle sunset flips but gets butt splashed for a LONG 2 that the crowd thought was 3. Rikishi goes up top and gets crotched. Angle joins him. Rikishi tries to fight it off with headbutts, but Angle hits a SUPER BELLY TO BELLY SUPLEX! That gets the pin and the crown for Angle! Once again, there's definitely people in the arena cheering for Angle. Very disappointing match that completely ignored Rikishi's hurt arm that had been set up (to the point it was over the top) all night long. Classic Angle would have picked it apart the entire time and likely gotten a submission. Again, I don't know who told Angle to do hardly anything but brawl tonight but that does not work for him. Great finish to make Angle look amazing though. *

It's another underwhelming KOTR tournament as a whole, hard to have a great wrestling tournament when almost every match is 5 minutes or under, but at least they got the winner right for the first time since '97. Though with Benoit, Jericho, Guerrero and Angle all in the mix you really couldn't have gone wrong with any of them, but Angle was the least experienced and arguably needed it the most so I say they got it right. Angle's only officially been with WWF since November '99 and already has a European title, an Intercontinental title and now King of the Ring on his resume. It's all up from here.

To set up tonight's main event- this match was the brainchild of Linda McMahon as a way to sow dissension in the McMahon-Helmsley regime and continues to keep the Linda/Vince on-screen feud percolating. The rules are that if any of Rock, Undertaker or Kane get the decision, they are WWF Champion regardless of who they pin. Which has the knock back effect of the face team also having issues, because understandably all three want to be champion.

 

6 Man Tag Team Match for the WWF Championship: The Rock and The Brothers of Destruction def Triple H (c), Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon (w/Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) in 17:54- I should point out that this is Taker's first PPV match after returning from injury, and his first as the American Badass character. His return also instantly got Kane out of the midcard hell he'd been mired in for months. The heels argue over who should go first. Hebner seems to tell Shane it's him, or that the other team wants it to be Shane. Shane tries to jump Kane and fails. Kane offers him a free shot after the ring clears out. Shane takes it to zero effect. Kane's shots are a bit more effective. Shame escapes out to the floor. Taker tosses him back in. Shane flips all around Kane but ends up taking a clothesline. Big Ultimate Warrior style gorilla press from Kane. Goozle. Vince runs in. Double goozle! HHH breaks it all up. Kane double clothesline on both McMahons. Rock tags himself in. He clears the McMahons out, then stares down with HHH. Shane tries an attack from behind and HHH hits a clothesline. Rock tosses Shane over the top to the floor. Now Taker tags himself in. He narrates his beatdown of Shane. Chokeslam! Rock breaks the pin up! HHH comes in with no tag. Hebner makes some token arguments, but Taker starts beating HHH down in the corner so we continue as is. Big boot. DDT. Now Kane breaks a Taker pin attempt up. Rock tags himself in again. HHH tags Shane but Shane wants nothing to do with it. Rock flips him back in. HHH pulls the top rope down to send Rock crashing to the floor. We go into gang beatdown mode, then everyone separates for some floor brawling. Rock and HHH get back in the ring. Swinging neckbreaker from Rock. Kick wham Pedigree! Rock kicks out! Taker was there too but was a tick late so Rock had to kick out. HHH gets run into the post. Rock wobblelegs himself back up but despite having two outstretched hands begging to get in he refuses to tag anyone. HHH clothesline. Rock is down in the wrong corner. Shane does some extended dancing jabs. Vince tags in, slaps Rock, and tags right back out. Tori did more when she got tagged in. HHH hits a suplex. Kneedrop. Rock catches HHH coming off the top rope. HHH ducks a clothesline and hits a neckbreaker. Vince tags in and low blows Rock for 2. He tags HHH back in and says "Finish him off!". HHH/Rock slugfest. Rock hits a Samoan drop. DONNYBROOK! Taker and Kane pair off with the McMahons on the floor again. In the ring HHH gives Rock a facebuster. Kane takes Taker out on the floor! Rock spinebuster on HHH. Elbow pad off. Kane cuts off the People's Elbow! Chokeslam on Rock! HHH is very happy, giving Kane a thumbs up, thinking he's back with the group. Kane disagrees. Tombstone on HHH! Taker pulls Kane out. He grabs a chair and takes Kane out with it. Shane goes to the top rope. Taker chokeslams him off the top rope THROUGH THE ENGLISH ANNOUNCE TABLE! There's your big Shane spot. Vince is in the ring with Rock down. Vince elbow pad off. He hits the ropes for the slowest People's Elbow ever. Rock cuts him off. ROCK BOTTOM ON VINCE! Rock pins Vince and wins back the title! HUGE pop! HHH is on the floor furious Vince lost his title. Having your world title on the line in a tag match is never a good idea. Despite everyone's best efforts, and everyone was trying hard out there, this was failed in conception from the start. Quite the comedown from Judgement Day's awesome Ironman match. We're also getting past the point, especially with how deep the roster is getting, where the McMahons need to get out of the main event. *3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- It's getting pretty easy to see why KOTR will be discontinued as a yearly PPV in a couple of years. It's regularly one of the worst shows of the year, and nearly zero effort is being put into the tournament from a wrestling standpoint. There are some good moments through the show though, including Rock winning the title back despite the bad idea the actual match was. Fortunately this would be little more than a small speed bump in the otherwise excellent year of 2000.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

Slamboree '98

Legacy Review

Slamboree '98

May 17, 1998 from The Centrum in Worcester (pronounced WOOSTAH), MA

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

In case anyone forgets this show is Slamboree, the stage is little more than a humongous Slamboree logo with a door in the middle for entrances. Since Spring Stampede the NWO civil war has continued to develop and we now have two distinct factions: NWO Hollywood (white) and NWO Wolfpac (red). There's quite a few of the new red NWO shirts in the crowd tonight. Personally regardless of the wrestlers or factions involved I think the red just plain looks better than the white.

This is the show where Eric Bischoff infamously challenged Vince McMahon to show up for a fight. Bischoff even went so far on Thunder (where no one would see it) to read the letter he got from Vince's lawyers saying Vince wouldn't be there and Bischoff was opening himself up to legal action by telling people to expect Vince to be there. We then get footage from earlier today of Vince NOT SHOWING UP with some obvious plants posing as fans. Seriously, this reeks of the most base, insane desperation. WWF had just started beating WCW in the weekly TV ratings for the first time since the start of the NWO and WCW was already in full on panic mode. What benefit would it be to Vince to actually show up to this? Zero. Absolutely none. And yet WCW thought they were doing themselves a favor by talking about Vince. They saw Vince as the one that was driving WWF's ratings boom, there's no way it could be that Steve Austin guy that was cast off from WCW soon after Hogan's arrival. Hogan said he would never draw dammit!

WCW World Television Championship: Fit Finlay (c) def Chris Benoit in 14:52- Finlay interrupted the Booker T/Benoit feud to defeat Booker for the title on Nitro a couple of weeks prior. Interesting note: per the now official title history, Booker and Benoit traded the title back and forth no less than four times on the house show loop before Finlay won it, title changes than I'm sure WCW never officially recognized. Those would be Benoit's first title wins in WCW. Lockup, shove, Benoit chop. This has all the intensity you'd expect from these two right from the start. I hope the guy in the crowd holding the "Where are you Vince, we're waiting" sign got a good payday from WCW for it. Headlock into a top wristlock fight into a knucklelock test of strength. Benoit does a nice bridge, then does a fancy escape into a cradle that leads into some cradle counters. Nice World of Sport style stuff here. Drop toe hold from Benoit. He goes for the crossface but Finlay counters into a hammerlock. Speed run and Benoit does a hiptoss straight into a cover for 2. Standoff reset. Both guys cautiously go back in. Benoit hits some more chops. Tiltawhirl backbreaker. Finlay gets a leg takedown. He tries for a Boston crab but Benoit flips him out of it. Then Benoit runs into a Finlay clothesline. He rolls out to the floor. Finlay slams him on the floor. Short clothesline. Back in Finlay hits a double stomp to the gut. Benoit gets out of a chinlock with an electric chair. Backslide from Finlay for 2. More chops from Benoit. Finlay cuts it off with an eye poke. PK kick to the back. He slams Benoit's throat on the apron, then goes for a chair. Benoit cuts it off and gives Finlay the chairshot. Benoit loads up in the ring....tope suicida INTO FINLAY'S WAITING CHAIR! Da. Yumn. Finlay hauls Benoit's carcass back in the ring, but is in no hurry to finish it, going into full cocky mode. After a slam he finally covers for 2. Another clothesline. Finlay's still going at about quarter speed. Benoit dodges in the corner and Finlay runs his shoulder into the middle turnbuckle. RRRRRRRRRRRROLLING GERMANS! Benoit gets two before Finlay counters by pushing him into the ropes. He goes for another short clothesline. Benoit ducks and goes for the crossface! Finlay gets in the ropes before it's on. Snap suplex from Benoit. He calls for the top rope headbutt. Booker T makes his way out in a shirt and tie. Benoit goes out to jaw at him, allowing Finlay to dropkick him in the back. Benoit manages to get a flash small package for 2. Finlay plants him with a tombstone and it's over. Benoit loses yet another title match on TV. Everything you'd expect from these two, but not quite enough to really get it up to great. ***1/2

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger def Brian Adams (w/Vincent) in 5:05- Adams, the former Crush, and Vincent are both on the Hollywood side of the NWO fight. The is the lowest Luger's been on the card for a while. He spent a long while being booked as WCW's #1 babyface even though in reality DDP and Sting were way more popular than him. Slugfest start and Adams does a 360 over the top rope off a punch. Luger gives the heels a classic double noggin knocker, then works on Adams' shoulder around the ring post. Powerslam back in. Vincent gets on the apron, allowing Adams to hit from behind. Sloppy piledriver from Adams. He's still selling the shoulder, I'll give him that. Dull kicky chokey heel offense from Adams. Backbreaker for 2. Legdrops for 2. Double clothesline. Adams calls Vincent up again and Luger pops him back down. Luger ducks a clothesline to hook Adams up in the Torture Rack and it's over. Also what you'd expect from these two. 1/4*

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship #1 Contender Battle Royale- The winner of this will immediately face Chris Jericho for the title. Jericho comes out and interrupts Dave Penzer, then proceeds to handle the intros himself. It's mostly funny. In this match are: Super Calo, Silver King, Villano IV, El Dandy, El Grio (who does not look like a cruiserweight), Psychosis, Ciclope, Chavo Guerrero Jr, Damien, Evan Karagias, Kidman, Johnny Swinger, Lenny Lane, and Marty Janetty (yes really, he'd been with WCW since January as a jobber/lowcarder). The official rules are elimination by pinfall or women's battle royale two feet hit the floor no matter if they go over the top rope or not rules. In reality everyone works it like a normal over the top rope battle royale. This is a pretty typical WCW battle royale, as in lots of dull brawling with no real attempt at a story, with some attempts at high spots added because it's the cruiserweights. Many of them don't go that well. At one point Janetty pulls up legit lame and quickly gets tossed out. Chavo goes out at 5 and the final four are Juvy, Psychosis, Ciclope and Kidman. Psychosis misses a move in the corner and flies out, though it looked like he pretty much eliminated himself. Juvy dumps Kidman while they're both on the ropes. The final two of Juvy and Ciclope circle and stare down. For a long time. A REAL long time. Juvy hops over the top rope and lets Ciclope win! The hell? Ciclope takes his mask off.....IT'S DEAN MALENKO! Malenko is back! HUGE pop for that reveal. Malenko hadn't been seen since he said he was going "home" after losing to Jericho at Uncensored, and Jericho has been throwing a bunch of insults at Malenko's family ever since. Jericho is in the ring absolutely shocked as we move straight into the next match.... *

 

WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Dean Malenko def Chris Jericho (c) in 7:02- Malenko pounds away on Jericho, still with the belt on, while the crowd continues to go nuts. Jericho gets the belt off while he's down in the corner. Backdrop. Dropkick. Jericho blocks a suplex but Malenko continues to pound away. A leg lariat sends Jericho to the floor. Malenko's dive is missed on screen because the camera was on Juvy still out there cheering him on. Jericho attacks as they get back in the ring but Malenko quickly gets back on top. Jericho begs off. Speed run and Jericho gets a hot shot to finally turn things around. Running senton. Jericho still can't believe it's Malenko. He looks like he's seen Adam Cole's ghost. Delayed suplex and arrogant cover. Lionsault! Malenko kicks out. Malenko flips out of a pumphandle slam attempt. Standing switches. Jericho gets a double underhook backbreaker and goes for the Liontamer. Malenko counters into an ankle lock. Jericho quickly gets to the ropes. Back elbow off the top rope for 2. Slaps in the corner fire Malenko up. Fight on the top rope. Malenko hits the super gutbuster! It didn't fully connect but still. The cloverleaf is on! Jericho tries to get to the ropes but Malenko drags him back to the center. Jericho taps! Malenko gets the title back! Good stuff and a rare great long term payoff in this era of WCW, especially one where the face comes out on top. ***1/4

Commentary gets super excited about a white limo on the "Vinny Mac Cam". It parks outside the arena and Doug Dellinger goes out to take a look. Tony: "If Jim Ross jumps out carrying his bags, that's Vince". Oh Tony. That's pathetic and so beneath you. I know it's very likely a fed line but still.

 

Bowery Death Match: Diamond Dallas Page def Raven (w/riot squad) in 14:35- Putting a final bow on this feud that was originally over the US Title. So what is a Bowery Death Match? Well, the rules are normal death match rules with a win only by a 10 count KO. The difference is this is in a cage. Not just any cage, a cage with a ROOF. Fortunately we're still about a month before the legendary Mankind/Undertaker Hell in a Cell match so they won't be trying to top that. Might be aping the first HIAC match from the previous fall by putting a roof on the cage though. There's also a bunch of plunder inside the cage. DDP gets up and poses on the roof during his entrance. Raven comes out flanked by security in riot gear. I'm not clear on if the protection was something Raven asked for because of "unsafe working conditions" or if it's something WCW forced on him. After a bit of staring down it's a hot start from DDP. He goes for one of the garbage cans but Raven runs him into it. Twice. Then DDP takes a cage shot. Raven unhooks both garbage cans and dumps out all the toys contained therein. Including an old wood paneled VCR. It's 1998, wood paneled electronics went out over a decade before so it's probably time to euthanize it. Hell, my family got our first VCR in the mid-'80s and we never had a wood paneled one. A silver top loader, but no wood panel. DDP jumps Raven from behind and hits a clothesline. He picks out a bullrope and chokes Raven with it. He even strings it through the beams on the roof and literally hangs Raven. Raven is counted but is up at 8. DDP breaks the VCR over his head! Yeah, put it out of its misery. Again I'm kind of pining for some insane Dusty commentary for this one. DDP does his Kenny Omega circa 2016 impersonation and cleans the ring out while Raven's being counted. Raven pushes with his legs and DDP goes into a hanging trash can again. More can shots. Cookie sheet shots, Raven hits a Greco Roman Nut Elbow, and yet more sheet shots. Raven does his usual chair setup that never ends well for him. Sleeper from Raven! HARDCORE! DDP backs Raven into the corner can, then jawbreakers out and as usual Raven gets drop toe holded into his own chair. The Flock comes out and take the riot squad guys out, then open the cage. Hammer, who'd recently been excommunicated by the Flock, then comes out, gets the standard Flock giant stop sign, and takes out all the Flock guys. The riot squad then order him and his nipple ring out. DDP is back up and pounding away. Two of the riot squad guys get in the cage and attack DDP! They take their helmets off and it's Kidman (again) and Horace Boulder. Kidman, as always, misses the target. Diamond Cutter on Boulder. Diamond Cutter off the roof on Kidman. Raven can't get the fire extinguisher to go off so he hits DDP with it instead. Evenflow! DDP stirs before 10 so Raven attacks him before he gets back up. Slugfest. Raven maneuvers into hitting his own Diamond Cutter! DDP is back up before 10. He ducks a Raven chairshot! Diamond Cutter! Both guys are down. DDP barely wobblelegs himself back up at 9. Raven is down and out! Definitely not at the level of their previous matches, but the last couple of minutes after all the interference was well done. **3/4

After DDP leaves a riot squad guy slowly handcuffs every single Flock member to the guardrail or cage, tosses Raven into the cage, then handcuffs him too. He takes his helmet off. It's Mortis! Zero crowd reaction. Then he takes his mask off, unveiling his face for the first time! More zero crowd reaction. Commentary deduces this is the same guy that's been attacking Raven for weeks. Chairshot to Raven and end segment.

We cut to one of the arena attendants holding a paper with photos of Vince and various other WWF wrestlers to help identify anyone that might try to sneak in. Like he wouldn't know them on sight. Then we go to a feed of, I kid you not, the building security system to see if Vince is hiding anywhere. It's all time killing while everything from the last match gets cleaned up.

 

Eddie Guerrero (w/Chavo Guerrero Jr) def Ultimo Dragon in 11:09- Chavo lost to Dragon at Spring Stampede so now uncle Eddie is taking his shot. A Dragon win would mean Chavo would be freed from being his uncle's forced lackey. Eddie bypasses the lockup to go right into some chain wrestling. Dragon works some counters, armdrag and stalemate. More nice mat wrestling. Dragon works a headscissors into an armbreaker attempt. Eddie gets a knucklelock and tries for a pin. Dragon bridges and we go into some crazy knucklelock flippydo. Eddie dodges Dragon's rapid fire kicks and hits a legdrop. Corner chops and European uppercuts. Dragon gets a corner flying headscissors, monkey flips Eddie and goes into his kick combo. Eddie powders to kill the momentum. Dragon snap mare into his PK back kicks. He hooks on a half crab as the crowd is clearly distracted by something up in the arena, not like they were paying much attention anyway. Dragon transitions into a Mutalock. Eddie gets a rope break and goes to the old eye poke. Clothesline. Brain buster for 2. He tosses Dragon out and gives him a guardrail shot. Cable choke. Eddie slaps Chavo! Top rope fight back in and Eddie gets crotched. Dragon kicks him down to the floor. Asai moonsault! Still no reaction from the crowd. Back in Dragon does his tiltawhirl airplane spin backbreaker for 2. Moonsault for 2. Eddie cuts off a top rope hurricanrana attempt and hits a tornado DDT. Chavo's pissed because that's his move. Dragon dodges the frog splash! Magistral cradle for 2. Dragon moonsaults into the dragon sleeper! Eddie uses the ropes to reverse it! He tries for rope leverage but Chavo pushes his feet off. More family slapping into shoving. Dragon comes up but Eddie ducks and Dragon takes Chavo out! Brain buster, frog splash and done. Pretty disappointing for these two. The Masshole crowd clearly didn't give a flying fuck about any of it no matter what they did, that didn't help. **3/4

Chavo snaps and attacks Dragon! Eddie's so shocked he actually tries to pull Chavo off but Chavo wants none of it. Eddie gets down and offers Chavo a free shot! Chavo won't take it, and eventually gives Eddie a reluctant peck on the cheek. Family still rules.

We get a shot of Vince's "private dressing room". The sign says Vince "The Reason For the Ratings" McMahon. This is so, so sad.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Goldberg (c) def Perry Saturn in 7:01- This is a rematch from Spring Stampede and Goldberg's first PPV title defense. He defeated Raven for the title the Nitro after Spring Stampede, ending Raven's reign at a whole one day. Nonconformists like Raven don't care about titles anyway. Saturn starts out with some chain wrestling. Goldberg tosses him. Saturn tries again. Goldberg clotheslines him. Press powerslam followed by an Ultimate Warrior style gorilla press. Another clothesline and Saturn powders. He attacks Goldberg getting back in and lays in a bunch of corner kicks. Goldberg responds with his own back kick. Saturn leg sweep. He slaps Goldberg! Don't think that was smart. Goldberg tosses him in the corner and pounds him down. They go back to the floor and Saturn suckers Goldberg into hitting the post. Flying kick off the apron. Saturn hits a spinning heel kick off the top rope for 1. Leg lariat. Saturn tries a sleeper. Goldberg squashes him in the corner. Another sleeper go. Goldberg powers out and belly to belly suplexes Saturn. Saturn hits a swinging neckbreaker and tries the sleeper again. Goldberg wants NOTHING to do with the ref's attempts at arm drops! That was funny. He does a kind of swinging neckbreaker of his own to get Saturn down. Saturn dodges in the corner and hits a suplex. He goes and gets a chair, but not to hit with. To jump off of. Chair springboard dropkick. Saturn goes again. Goldberg spears him out of midair. Jackhammer and good night. Not as "good" as their Spring Stampede match, but it's still easy to see why Goldberg is quickly becoming a phenomenon even if all he can really do is extended squash matches. *1/2

They actually haul Buffer out with two matches left on the card to do full intros for the Bischoff/McMahon "match". I guess they're really going through with it. Bischoff comes out. Buffer does a full intro for Vince, who shocks everyone stupid by not being there. In one way I should probably be glad they didn't do a bad impersonator, which is something Vince would absolutely have done. Bischoff then has the bell ring and actually does a full 10 count to take a "victory" by forfeit. I've just about run out of ways to say how pathetic all this has been. If Vince watched this it was probably a surefire sign to him that he'd already won, it was just a matter of finishing it off.

OK, bear with me here. Savage defeated Sting at Spring Stampede to win the World title, pre-formal NWO split though he and Hogan had been butting heads for months to set it up. The next night on Nitro, Bret Hart of all people turned heel to help Hogan defeat Savage to win the title back. Yes, rest easy, the past few months have been hard, but Hogan is champion again and all is right in the world. In Hogan's mind at least. When the NWO split officially took place Savage joined the Wolfpac side. Bret is still non-NWO for now but he is most definitely the heel here. I get that Bret had a great heel run in '97, but having him be anything other than your next big anti-NWO babyface is moronic booking to me, especially seeing as how they've already destroyed Sting. Of course that brings up the point that they had zero interest in any anti-NWO babyfaces anymore which is another level of stupid.

 

"Hitman" Bret Hart def "Macho Man" Randy Savage in 16:38- Tony was careful to say at the top of the show this is their first match *on PPV*. They actually had a singles match on a Saturday Night's Main Event back in late '87 when Savage was between his heel IC Title and face WWF Title runs, and when they were first tinkering with the idea of moving Bret to singles. And it was AWESOME. Nothing less than the greatest match in the whole original SNME run. Possibly EVER ever, I'd need to revisit the SNME revival to say for sure. Buffer gives up halfway through Bret's name. Oh yeah, Roddy Piper is also the guest ref for this match. After the bell Bret stalls on the floor. Piper holds Savage back, then goes out and tosses Bret in! More stalling in the ring. Lockup and Savage immediately eye rakes. Bret shrugs it off and slugs away. Very punchy chokey offense from possibly the best technical wrestler ever. Piper shouts "WRESTLE!". Now Savage goes into kicky eye rakey chokey mode. Clothesline. Jabs in the corner. Bret comes back with a headbutt and snap legdrop. Apron suplex. Gut headbutt. They go out and Bret knocks Savage around on the floor. Savage dodges being squashed by the stairs. Bret dumps Savage over the guardrail and they go into crowd brawl mode for a bit. Savage slams Bret on the floor ringside. Back in Bret kicks at Savage's still bum knee and starts picking the knee apart. Very slowly with lots of jawing at the crowd. Then a few minutes later, in a very un-Bret like manner, he completely forgets about the knee. Instead he hits a Russian leg sweep for 2. Piledriver for 2. After arguing the count with Piper he hits a DDT for 2. Still he's mixing in a lot of barking at the crowd between moves. '97 Bret Hart this is not. The backbreaker hits but the elbow off the second rope misses. Savage hits an ugly elbow drop that catches Bret in the face as he was rolling away. Suplex for 2. Savage goes up top and the elbow hits! But he hurt his knee on the landing. Crawl and cover for 2. Bret gets a leg takedown and hooks on the Sharpshooter. Elizabeth runs out. Savage reverses the Sharpshooter! Bret gets to the ropes. Elizabeth comes in the ring and gets right in Piper's face. Bret low blows Savage behind Piper's back then pushes Piper from behind. I guess Bret got knucks from somewhere because Savage takes them from him. Bret begs off. Now Hogan is out. He clips Savage's GOOD knee (wonderful). Bret hooks the Sharpshooter on again. Piper checks Savage, then calls for the bell, holding the knucks. Submission or DQ? Hell if I know. Commentary, as usual for WCW, is no help. Cagematch says DQ. Wiki says not DQ. Take your pick. What a mess. How the mighty have fallen. *3/4

Right. There's a lot going into the next match too. First off, Hall is making his first appearance in a while after being forced by WCW to go to rehab. He's so wobbly during his entrance and the survey I'm not at all sure if he's mocking everyone or still genuinely plastered. I think it goes without saying Nash and Hall are the de facto leaders of NWO Wolfpac. When the NWO split formally happened, Giant made a completely nonsensical turn to rejoin the NWO on the Hollywood side. Even though he's teaming with Giant, Sting is still "I'm on no one's side" Sting. Giant is pressing him hard to join NWO Hollywood, but in a nice this would be so cool way, not in a I'll break your kneecaps way.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Sting and The Giant def The Outsiders (c) (w/Dusty Rhodes) in 14:46- Sting and Hall start. The Masshole crowd is pretty hot for the Wolfpac, I'll admit that. In case anyone's wondering I was living in southern New Hampshire in 1998 so I claim full right to use the term Masshole. I lived with those people. Toothpick flick/crotch chop exchange. Hall goes right to the arm work. Sting hits a back elbow. Hall uses hiptoss blocks to hit a chokeslam and does his usual Giant mocking. Sting hits a faceplant and a couple of inverted atomic drops. Short Stinger Splash to Hall's back. Full Splash to his front. Sting goes for the Scorpion Deathlock early. Nash runs in and we have a very short donnybrook before the Outsiders bail. Giant tags in. Nash tags in. The old rivals stare down again. Nash slugs away and teases a quick jackknife. Giant backs him into the corner. Nash does his usual corner knees and choke. Corner clothesline. Giant response corner clothesline and big boot. He does some Andre style squashes in the corner. With more hip gyration, which is slightly disturbing. Sting tags in and they do a very obvious distraction setup for Nash to big boot him. Fallaway slam from Hall. Nash hits snake eyes. Sting is fully in peril. The Outsiders work their usual midmatch stuff. Hall abdominal stretch with help. Nash hits a side suplex and hooks on a bear hug. After arm drops Sting bell rings out. He dives back on Nash and just reaches out enough to tag Giant. Giant pounds Nash down. Crotch headbutt. Legdrop for 2. The strap is down. But no chokeslam call. Instead Giant goes up top. Nash dodges a very big splash! Dusty gets on the apron, along with a tag belt. Nash puts the straps down and sets up the jackknife. Hall picks the belt up.....AND HITS NASH WITH IT! Check off one of the big turns they hadn't done yet. Giant covers and gets the pin to win the titles! Sting is stunned. Literally can't move off the apron stunned. Giant, Hall and Dusty all hug. The crowd is less than enthused, in other words your usual NWO era PPV ending. So Sting now has a really big decision to make. When will he make it? Well tomorrow night on Nitro of course. Typical low effort Outsiders match. A big problem is even though they're essentially faces in this they made no attempt to change up or alter their usual formula. 1/2*

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Most of the show falls into the OKish territory with the usual NWO era duds at the top of the card. The whole nonsense with challenging Vince to show up really drags the show down it's so freaking stupid.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

Judgment Day 2000

Legacy Review

Judgment Day 2000

May 21, 2000 from Freedom Hall in Louisville, KY

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

Following a really cool opener laying out the one hour Ironman match concept we cut almost immediately to the very full McMahon-Helmsely/DX locker room. Pretty sad seeing what's left of DX, Road Dogg and X-Pac, willingly selling themselves out to the corporate man. Exactly the opposite of what DX is supposed to be about. Brand new Hardcore champion Gerald Brisco walks in late. Vince berates him and asks where Pat Patterson is. Out sick, apparently. Well, Vince has important work for Brisco to do. Everyone has coffee orders. Trips: "You know how I like mine? Quick! Go!". After Brisco leaves Vince hypes up all the matches various members of the regime are in tonight.

We cut to Brisco being attacked elsewhere in the back! 24/7 rule! He's had coffee spilled all over him! Damn, he already paid for them too. Getting a refund from an internet food delivery company is hell. He gets stuffed in a side room as we cut away to.....Shawn Michaels walking. In his ref shirt and disturbingly '80s short spandex shorts. Shawn's making his first appearance tonight since leaving the Commissioner role to be the special guest referee for the Ironman match, since he's the only wrestler on the roster to have been in an official televised one previously. Incidentally, we're at just about the exact halfway point of his injury forced temporary retirement. Two more years.

Too Cool and Rikishi def Team ECK in 9:47- Team ECK is the newly formed teamup of Kurt Angle and WWF tag team champs Edge and Christian. See, Edge and Angle had a relationship years before Edge tricked him into holding up some silly signs on Smackdown. Three future world champs early in their careers too. Everyone cuts promos before the match, including Christian calling the town "Lewisville", then....."For the benefit of those with flash photography...". Yes! First Five Second Pose on PPV. And it's one of the most famous ones ever. The jug band! Kentucky's greatest export. I'd have thought that'd be West Virginia but whatever. Sorry West Virginia. After Too Cool make their entrance ECK try to jump them but TC were ready for them. All the heels get stacked in the corner. Scotty and Sexay hip attack them, then Rikishi loads up to squash them all with the power of the ass. The heels get the hell out of town before he can. Reset with Edge and Sexay. Speed run, counters, and Sexay hits an enzuguri. Dropkick off the second rope. TC do some double teams. Edge goes to the ol' heel eye poke on Scotty. They crank it up, do some more counters, and Scotty hits a suplex, kips up and moonwalks. Christian hits him from behind. Both sides do some teammate corner blocking shenanigans with Edge getting hung out to dry. He gets drop toe holded into Christian's crotch. While the heels are on the floor regrouping Sexay loses his pants! The hell? Scotty's laughing and apparently he caused it somehow. Wonder if that was planned or a legit rib, Sexay seemed pretty shocked. Christian comes in and jumps from behind again. Tag to Rikishi. He cleans house all over. Angle tries a sunset flip and manages to dodge Rikishi's counter butt splash. Rikishi gets triple teamed in the ECK corner. He fights out and tags. Bulldog from Scotty. Angle kills the Worm before it can be unleashed. Scotty gets worked over. Tag match expert ref Teddy Long somehow lets the heels swap without tagging to keep Scotty in peril. Suplex from Angle for 2. Scotty gets boots up in the corner on Christian. He counters a Christian powerbomb into a hot shot. Tag to Edge. Tag to Rikishi! Again Rikishi knocks everyone around. He goes for the triple layer corner squash again and gets it this time. Stinkface on Angle. A Christian/Angle double DDT on Rikishi is no sold. Samoan head. Edge spear! He mocks Scotty's worm. Bulldog from Scotty and here's the real Worm. Angle takes a Sexay superkick. Christian runs in with the bell and hits Rikishi with it! Long's distracted, so Sexay goes up and hits Edge with the Hip Hop Drop! Rikishi drapes an arm over and Angle is *just* a split second too late to prevent him from getting the pin! It was so close a lot of people weren't sure if it was a pin or not. Angle already showing off his amazing timing. Fantastic high octane 6 man opener. It's easy to forget with the passage of time but good lord Too Cool and Rikishi were the absolute definition of bonkers over in this period. ***1/2

Shawn promises to Michael Cole that he'll be impartial tonight no matter who he might be visiting before the match, and gets a good little dig in at the internet dirt sheets.

 

Triple Threat Match for the WWF European Championship: Eddie Guerrero (c) (w/Chyna) def Perry Saturn and WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko in 7:56- The dissolution of the Radicalz continues. It's already clear WWF only really wanted two of the four of them. How is Light Heavyweight champ Malenko wrestling for a heavyweight title? Malenko comes in last, charges in and we have another jump start. Saturn and Malenko team up early on Guerrero. Decapitation Device. They shake hands. Will it last? Guerrero gets trapped in the corner. Saturn hits a corner clothesline. Malenko charges in to follow up....and runs into a Saturn clothesline! Already over. Malenko leg lariat on Saturn. Saturn goes to suplex Guerrero. Malenko tries to use it for himself, grabbing at Guerrero. Guerrero lands on his feet and low blows both guys! He leg lairats Saturn and hurricanranas Malenko. Malenko counters another Guerrero flying headscissors attempt into a side suplex for 2. Guerrero, after some clunky setup, tornado DDTs Saturn. Malenko double underhook powerbomb on Guerrero for 2. Guerrero counters another powerbomb attempt into a sunset flip. Malenko rolls through that and goes for the cloverleaf. He sees Saturn coming to break it up and clotheslines him. Saturn breaks up a Guerrero superplex. Malenko fights off Saturn on the top rope. Guerrero goes up again. Malenko hits Guerrero with the super gutbuster! Saturn quickly knocks Malenko out of the ring. Frog splash on Guerrero! Malenko breaks the pin up. Now Saturn tries to put a cloverleaf on Malenko. Guerrero breaks that up. Guerrero brain buster on Saturn. Everyone takes turns breaking up submission holds. Saturn misses a punch and falls to the floor. Malenko back suplex on Guerrero. He hits a splash off the top rope. Saturn comes in and suplexes everyone at once! He ends up on the floor again. Chyna hits Saturn with her Roses of Suspicious Heft +2! He's done. Guerrero goes for a sunset flip. Malenko blocks it. Chyna gets on the apron and goes after Malenko with the roses. Malenko blocks that and grabs the bunch away from her. Chyna trips Malenko and he goes face first into the roses! Guerrero magistral cradles him and gets the pin. Afterward Guerrero and Chyna confirm what we already knew- there was a lead pipe inside the bunch of roses. Fairly good match working a lot into a short time for a triple threat match, but clunky at times. **3/4

Next up is footage from last week's Smackdown of Brisco winning the Hardcore title, sneaking into the locker room while Crash Holly was napping and pinning him. The ref doing a silent count and everyone in commentary whispering during it all is freaking hilarious. Very Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship vibes from all this. We go live to Brisco trying to hide in the bathroom. Again Lawler whispers because he's SNEAKING. Fantastic. Brisco sees his own reflection in the mirror and freaks out. Then he punches the mirror! 24/7 rule paranoia at its height.

 

Falls Count Anywhere Match: Shane McMahon def The Big Show in 7:11- Show was the first one eliminated in the Wrestlemania main event, something Shane berated him for as he was Shane's representative in the match. That caused Show to snap, leading him into his "just want to have fun" period. After numerous attacks by Shane and DX the past few weeks, Show is super cereal again. While Show's making his entrance Shane over the top rope tope dives onto him! Show catches Shane and posts him! Shane takes some shots on the stairs and Show smashes his hand on them. He presses Shane over the top rope back into the ring. Back in Show literally kicks Shane's ass. I mean it, he's kicking Shane in the ass. Short clothesline. Big boot. Show calls for the chokeslam and an early finish. Old Show rival the Big Boss Man runs in! He goes after Show's knee with his nightstick. Show shrugs it off and headbutts Boss Man. Powerbomb on Boss Man. Now T&A run in with chairs. Show punches the chairs into their faces to put them down. Trish Stratus is in. She low blows Show! She must have missed because that had no effect. Show picks Trish up and throws her down onto T&A on the floor! Trish taking the big bumps already. While all that was happening Shane was slowly crawling up the aisle trying to get away. Show chases him down. Shane gets tossed into the stage. Show breaks a piece of the stage off. Shane does a pull up on one of the stage poles and swing kicks Show. T&A attack again. They put the stage piece Show broke off onto a rolling cart and Shane runs it into show. That's like shooting Mongo, it only made Show mad. He takes everyone out. Test and Albert both meet the stage. Shane tries to climb the stage to get away. Now Bull Buchanan is out here! This is starting to be like the Undertaker/Yokozuna '94 Royal Rumble match with the entire heel locker room running in. While Buchanan attacks Show Shane gets up one of the tech areas. Shane pushes a giant speaker down onto Show's leg! With sparks flying everywhere! Buchanan gets on top of the speaker to press it down more onto Show's leg. Shane breaks a cinder block over Show's head! He pins Show! Not a terribly bad little all arena brawl there, but I have to question the call of Shane winning. **

 

This last match was a textbook example of how bad Lawler can run something into the ground. During the build Shane called himself Simba because of his cat like reflexes. Never been heard before. It was fresh. About a minute into the match I was completely sick of Lawler calling Shane "Simba" or "cat like" every five seconds.

A gaggle of officials, including Sgt. Slaughter, get Show free and help him out of the arena all the way into an ambulance.

Elsewhere, Brisco wants to hang out in the ref locker room. Seeing as how people look for refs to take advantage of the 24/7 rule I don't know how smart that is. Brisco is exhausted from all the running he's had to do the last three days. As soon as he sits down he's out quicker than Worf on the Enterprise D bridge after the big finale battle in the last season of Picard. The refs look like they're thinking about taking advantage. Brisco jumps back up! The refs play it off as a joke. Brisco is not amused and leaves.

Elsewhere elsewhere, Shawn and Trips catch up. Planning for that day when Trips will be running the wrestling side of the company, and who better than Shawn to take over developmental while he's doing that? What am I talking about, that's crazy. THESE two, running the whole thing? Please. Trips asks Shawn "You're not going to wear those shorts are you?". Shawn says he loves those shorts. Trips says it looks like he's smuggling bananas.

 

Submission Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: Chris Benoit (c) def Chris Jericho in 13:22- This is intended to be the big final blowoff for this feud, at least for a bit. They've certainly done an incredible job in not only making the IC title feel important again, but also getting it back to being the "worker's" title. For now. Both guys are coming in with hurt body parts. Jericho's shoulder is less than 100% thanks to damage from crossfaces in previous Benoit matches, while Benoit's got a bum knee with a brace on thanks to an attack by Hardcore Holly on the most recent Smackdown. Lockup! Ref Tim White has to force a corner break. Another lockup and Benoit says screw the rope break, laying into Jericho. Corner chops. Jericho slides under Benoit and hits a bulldog. He gives Benoit some return chops. Jericho does the misdirection run that usually leads to the bulldog, but instead tries to wrap Benoit up in a Fujiwara armbar. Benoit escapes and tombstone scoops Jericho. Tombstone reversal. Another reversal. Instead of a tombstone, because that's kinda copyright protected in WWF, Benoit hits a shoulderbreaker on Jericho's bad shoulder. Headbutt off the top onto the shoulder! Benoit wraps Jericho's arm up. Jericho escapes, gets a double leg takedown, and goes for the Walls. Benoit flips Jericho out to escape. Both guys hit the ropes and Jericho hits a back elbow full speed. Springboard dropkick. On the floor Benoit whips Jericho into the stairs and he hits bad shoulder first. Jericho kneebreakers Benoit on the stairs! Back in Jericho hits a double underhook backbreaker. Chop exchange into a full on chopfest. Benoit dodges in the corner and Jericho posts his shoulder. Benoit takes the top turnbuckle pad off and runs Jericho's shoulder into it. He hooks on a modified ARMBAR. Jericho gets up and armdrags out. More chopfest. Snap suplex from Benoit. Kneedrop on the shoulder. Short clothesline. Benoit goes for a cross armbreaker! Jericho tries to block it but Benoit gets it fully applied. Jericho slowly fights across and just gets a foot on the rope for a break. Now Jericho dodges in the corner and Benoit knees the exposed turnbuckle. Flapjack. Jericho does a sort of dragon screw into some ground and pound. Despite Benoit's attempts to resist he manages to get Benoit's knee brace off. Jericho hits the bad knee with the brace! Running forearm with the brace. He goes for a figure four. Benoit hits some STIFF kicks to Jericho's head to break it up. Jericho basement dropkicks the knee. Lionsault! Jericho dangles Benoit over the ropes and stretches out a rope assisted Walls! Bit of a psychology or inconsistent rules lapse here as White asks Benoit if he submits even though Jericho got a rope break earlier. Benoit has to fight out the hard way. Benoit goes for an enzuguri that Jericho in theory ducks. Or just no sells. Duck under and it's ROLLLLLING GERMANS time. Benoit only gets two before Jericho fights free. Another Walls attempt. Benoit grabs the brace and hits Jericho with it! Counter into the crossface! Jericho almost gets to the ropes but Benoit lets go and drags him back to the center! Jericho keeps fighting. Benoit lets go again, pounds down on Jericho, then hooks the crossface on again, but this time putting his hands down on Jericho's throat to choke him! He STRETCHES Jericho back! Jericho goes out and White calls it! Benoit won't let go and it takes two refs to get him to release. Yeahhhhhhhhhh that makes your mind instantly go THERE, you can't help it. Still, this was their best match yet, nicely stiff and with pretty tight psychology. It also felt a bit short. As great as it was, they clearly left a lot on the table. ****1/4

Cole is with Brisco. While Brisco's complaining that the last three days have been hell, he's not even safe in the BRISCO BODY SHOP for God's sake, a couple of concession workers come in behind them. Then a ref. Brisco sees and attacks the concession guys! Popcorn and drinks are everywhere! Preemptive strike, and Brisco's gone again.

Elsewhere, the Rock lectures Shawn about not screwing him tonight or else. We all remember last time Shawn was guest ref in a Rock/Trips WWF Title match on Smackdown, Shawn did screw Rock over to help his buddy Trips. Shawn's got about the same look on his face as he did whenever Commissioner Slaughter was reading him the riot act back in '97.

 

Tables Match: Road Dogg and X-Pac (w/Tori) def The Dudley Boyz in 10:55- After Trish became the first woman to avoid a Dudley table shot, Tori one upped her by turning the, er, tables and putting Bubba Ray through a table on a recent Raw. Bubba Ray's vowed revenge ever since. The crowd reactions make it pretty clear this incarnation of DX has more than run its course. The Dudleyz set a table up in the aisle on their entrance and charge in. DX bail instead of jump starting, and we get a proper start with Road Dogg and D'Von. The crowd instantly starts serenading Pac on the apron with a huge "X-Pac sucks" chant. D'Von hits a tackle and back elbow. Pac tags in and also takes a tackle. Bubba Ray hits some jabs. Pac gives him a spin kick. He goes out for a table. Plenty to choose from. Bubba Ray cuts him off and gets him back in the ring because that's his thing dammit. Big corner chops on Pac. Clothesline off the second rope. The Dudleyz hit both guys with the crotch headbutt. Thanks for distracting the ref, Tori. DX regroup and count their nuts on the floor, then decide to walk. The Dudleyz chase them down and we get a bit of a floor brawl. Bubba Ray and Tori stare down and you can see in Bubba Ray's eyes he's DESPERATE to get this woman some wood. That allows DX to double team D'Von in the ring. Pac hits the bronco buster to huge boos, as that shit move deserves. Heel choking shenanigans follow. They work in the phantom tag spot that you could see coming a mile away. Leg lariat from Pac. D'Von hits a double clothesline and tags. Bubba Ray side suplex on Pac. Bubba Bomb on Road Dogg. Get the tables! They set two up in opposite corners. Dogg reverses a floor whip and sends D'Von into the stairs. Dogg sets a table up, and puts D'Von through it! Now a third table is set up in the ring. Bubba Ray catches Pac leapfrogging and puts him through the table! Dogg starts hitting his dancing jabs. Bubba Ray responds and it turns into almost an enjoyable slugfest between the two. The ref tries to stop the closed fists. Both Bubba Ray and Dogg hiptoss him through a table! Well that was different. DDT from Bubba Ray. Gerald Brisco is out! The Dudleyz 3D Dogg through a table! That should be the match, but the ref is still out. Brisco pulls Dogg out. Tori gets in Bubba Ray's face. Bad move. He grabs her by the hair. Table set up. Tori is set up. Brisco punches Bubba Ray to save her! Pac goes up and avalanche X-Factors Bubba Ray through the table! The ref saw that and that gives DX the win. OK match, but like the Shane match a questionable booking call. It's also interesting how they worked it like a straight tag match until the very end. But it might have been for the best, Dogg and Pac are no Hardyz. **1/4

Brisco stays to gloat, giving the Dudleyz a crotch chop. The Dudleyz respond by giving him a 3D through one last table. Sadly neither of them tries to take the Hardcore title.

We get another play of the horror style promo with creepy young girls talking about judgment coming. I mistook this for a Judgment Day ad at Insurrextion, but I'm fairly certain that this is for Undertaker's imminent return from injury, though of course when he comes back he will be very different than we've ever seen him before.

 

60 Minute Ironman Match for the WWF Championship: Triple H (w/the McMahons) def The Rock (c)- Shawn's still wearing the shorts. After his entrance HHH takes a mic and says this is between him and Rock, he needs to do this alone to prove himself, and sends the rest of the family to the back.

FIRST FALL- Lots of jawing after the bell. They go nose to nose. Rough, long lockup and stalemate. Another lockup and both guys jockey for position in the corner. They break and shove. Rock cranks a headlock. Top wristlock fight. Rock does a nice bridge and gets the headlock back on. Quick tackles off the ropes for 2 counts. HHH tries for a knee to the gut but Rock rolls around it into a roll up for 2. HHH goes outside for a mental reset. Back in he hooks on a headlock. Rock gets the better of him on a speed run and HHH powders again. Another speed run and again it's all Rock. He knocks HHH around the corners. HHH counters with a back elbow and clothesline. He cranks an arm wringer on Rock. ARMBAR! HHH armbar slam for 2. Rock backs him into the corner. Shawn has to force a break. Rock punches HHH over him. Rock Bottom outta nowhere! Rock gets the first pin! Well, clearly this isn't going to be like the Shawn/Bret Ironman match with no falls at all until overtime. 49:18 left, 1-0 Rock

SECOND FALL- HHH flops out of the ring off the Rock Bottom. Rock gives him some barricade shots as they go a bit up the aisle. Rock dodges and HHH knees the barricade. Rock suplexes HHH back in the ring for 2. He posts HHH's knee as he clearly now has a target. Apron shot for the knee. Kneebreaker on the stairs! HHH tries to back off in the ring. Rock stays on the knee. It's not his wheelhouse but he's doing pretty good with it. Figure four! I really like the strategery involved with doing this now. Under different circumstances HHH might have sacrificed a fall to get free of the hold, but now he can't afford to go down 2-0. After a long fight HHH tries to reverse but can't. Near fall. Another go and HHH gets the reversal. Rock holds it for a minute then rolls into the ropes. They go back to the floor. HHH reverses a whip and hits a clothesline, then tries to shake the knee off. He tosses Rock into the crowd and it's crowd brawl time. Two lesser wrestlers probably would have killed a good 15 minutes here going all over the arena. These two though, they're barely in there at all. Rock gets backdropped back to ringside. Back in the ring with HHH still shaking the knee off. Suplex from HHH. He hits a couple of elbow drops and covers for 2. Long leverage fight on the mat with HHH trying to hold Rock down for a pin. Rock kicks at the bad knee. HHH momentum tosses Rock over the top to the floor. HHH gets whipped into the stairs. Back in Rock is on the knee again. He wraps the leg up in a grapevine. HHH eye rakes to get free. Kneebreaker from Rock. He goes for another figure four. HHH pushes him out into the corner. Kick wham Pedigree! Pin and it's tied up! 35:34 left, 1-1 tie

THIRD FALL- HHH hooks on a choke. Shawn physically pulls him off. Rock tries a whip reversal, but HHH gets him in a half DDT Paul Smackage for a pin! 34:34 left, 2-1 HHH

FOURTH FALL- Rock comes back up slugging. HHH tights pulls him out to the floor. Another walk up the aisle, this time all the way up to the stage. HHH gets whipped into the stage. HHH suplexes Rock in the aisle. They wander back toward the ring. Rock gets a back suplex in the aisle as we hit the halfway mark. HHH gets whipped into the ring and backdropped in the aisle off the rebound. Rock continues the pounding back in. HHH hits the facebuster. Pedig....no, he goes for a piledriver instead! It hits and HHH gets another pin! 28:48 left, 3-1 HHH

FIFTH FALL- Now HHH can practically go into prevent defense. Or, as my good friend and footy fanatic Cody would say, park the bus. HHH stomps Rock down in the corner. Shawn backs him up. Rock pops out with a clothesline. HHH back elbow for 2. He goes up top. Rock Flair slams him back down. After a near 10 count both guys get up with some wobblelegged slugging. Back elbow from Rock. Magistral cradle! That gets 2. HHH high knee for 2. More slugfest. HHH hooks on a sleeper! Rock slowly goes down. Shawn can't even get one arm drop so HHH gets some extra rope leverage to put Rock down again. Shawn misses it. More arm drops. This time Shawn catches HHH's feet on the ropes and channels his inner Hebner to kick them off. HHH and Shawn argue. The sleeper is back on. Rock hits a belly to belly suplex! Slow arm drape over for 2. Rock goes for the spinny DDT, slips off, but recovers nicely with a kick and hits the DDT. That gets a pin! He's back in it. 19:27 left, 3-2 HHH

SIXTH FALL- They go out to the floor again. HHH gets dropped on the timekeeper's table. After getting Rock down he gets a chair. Shawn takes it away! HHH gets run hard into the stairs. Rock shrugs off a barricade whip and hits a swinging neckbreaker on the floor. HHH begs off in the ring, then kicks Rock when he gets close. He gets the chair again and nails Rock with it! Shawn DQ's him for it! 17:30 left, 3-3 tie

SEVENTH FALL- HHH takes advantage of the chairshot, stacking Rock up, gets his feet on the ropes for extra leverage, and gets a pin to go back ahead. 16:54 left, 4-3 HHH

EIGHTH FALL- Rock's slightly busted open from the chairshot but not too bad. HHH goes back to the sleeper. Rock tries to fight it all he can, but eventually HHH gets him out enough for three arm drops and picks up another fall. 13:45 left, 5-3 HHH

NINTH FALL- Once again HHH is in a spot he can put 5 DBs in and play them 15 yards off the line. But will he? HHH keeps the sleeper on. Shawn wants a break since there was a fall. HHH refuses so Shawn pulls him off by the hair! HHH shoves Shawn! They go at it, verbally. More shoving. Finally HHH backs down. Rock wobbles up and uses the argument opening to slug away. Trips flip! He takes a cameraman out as he goes down! Back in HHH hits a DDT for 2. 10 minutes left. HHH gets crotched on the top rope. HHH tries to fight him off but Rock hits the superplex. Slow crawl over and HHH *just* kicks out! Both guys' fatigue shows with a very rough whip and Rock hitting a weak back elbow. He 360 clotheslines HHH to the floor. Another ringside knockaround. HHH lets his emotions get the better of him and clears off the English announce table. He wants to Rock Bottom Rock onto the table! Rock gets free! He Pedigrees HHH onto the table! And it doesn't break! Oh man, HHH. That's not parking the bus, that's driving it off a cliff. After some fairly obvious traffic directing, think they were getting tight on time for what they had left, Shawn starts a pretty fast count. HHH is counted out! 3:54 left, 5-4 HHH

TENTH FALL- To the shock of no one the McMahons are back out. HHH is also busted open now. He staggers back to the ring and just beats out another countout. Rock lays in the smackdown right hands. Clothesline. DDT. Shane and Vince get on the apron. Rock takes them out. HHH starts to set up a Pedigree but Rock counters it into a spinebuster! People's Elbow! Pin and it's even! 2:01 left, 5-5 tie

ELEVENTH FALL- Overbooking time. Shane pulls Shawn out. Shawn takes both Shane and Vince out on the floor. While that's happening Road Dogg and X-Pac lay into Rock in the ring. During all this the creepy little girl promo is playing in the arena. Rock hits a Rock Bottom on HHH but Shawn's out elsewhere. The promo video ends. IT'S THE UNDERTAKER! THE UNDERTAKER IS BACK! AND HE'S GOT A BICYCLE MOTORCYCLE! Biker Taker is here! HHH hits a Pedigree on Rock. Taker comes in and completely cleans house of everyone McMahon-Helmsley or DX. Steph gets in Taker's face. He goes to chokeslam her but HHH makes the save. Chokeslam on HHH! Taker scoops HHH up for a Tombstone. Shawn sees it and warns him. Taker hits it anyway! The buzzer goes off, but I think time had already elapsed. The whole last few minutes of this match were really rushed, the time got away from them a bit. Shawn goes over to Fink. The official announcement is the winner of the final fall by DQ, and the match 6-5.....TRIPLE H! HHH gets the title back! Shawn does a good job of making you unsure if he's mad at himself or if he'd been with HHH all along. The crowd is PISSED. Taker stalks Shawn back up the aisle while the regime celebrates, Rock recovers in the ring, and trash is thrown everywhere. End show. I won't be making an original observation saying this, but that was 58 minutes of phenomenal wrestling, and two minutes of total insanity to cap it off. The overall package is still superb. A lot of people were worried going into this if Rock and HHH had the experience or the moveset variety to carry a match this long, especially because the art of the 60 minute match was already a long lost one in mainstream wrestling (neither had worked a match longer than 30 minutes ever before this one). They proved everyone wrong, though they definitely did whip out some new stuff for the occasion. ****1/2

 

Side thought here before we wrap up: 60 minute Ironman matches are seriously one of my favorites of all gimmick matches, if not my #1 favorite. People criticize them for lacking drama because you know you're going to go the distance no matter what, I get that, but to me it only alters the drama to more like a sports game where the score ebbs and flows, tactics change based on that, and when put together right can be something completely different to a normal wrestling match in the best ways possible. Of course I also love the art of the 60 minute draw. Either way, I'd really like some more full hour matches in wrestling. Not a ton, but more.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- This is one of the pinnacles of the fantastic year WWF had in 2000. The company was firing on all cylinders creatively, everyone showed up with their working boots on, there was a nuclear hot crowd the whole show in a city not normally known for it, pretty much everything you could ask for. The show long saga of Gerald Brisco with the Hardcore title was a superb entertaining cherry on top. If you want to quibble about anything it would be that everyone associated with the McMahon-Helmsley regime won whether it really made sense or not. I'm sure that was a sticking point at the time, but looking back I don't think it hurts all that much.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-