WrestleMania 2000 (16)

Legacy Review

WrestleMania 2000 (16)

April 2, 2000 from The Pond in Anaheim, CA

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

I wonder what name they'll use for the real Wrestlemania 2000. They'll probably Madden 25 it and just use 2000 again. This is a bit of an odd WM as historically it's generally most known as the one before much more well remembered ones. The four years after this produced the greatest four year run in WM history (17, 19 and 20 in no particular order are my top 3 favorite WMs of all time, and while 18 isn't as good it is underrated). This is also the last of the regular size arena WMs before they get back to the large stadiums the next year for the first time in nearly a decade. The Pond in Anaheim joins the list of venues that have hosted more than one WM, WM 12 was also held here.

Everyone expected the main event of this show to be Triple H vs the Rock with Rock getting his long awaited first WWF Title win as a face. It seemed to be confirmed when Rock, the overwhelming favorite, won the 2000 Royal Rumble. However, it surfaced later that Rock's win was tainted by an apparent bad call, opening the door for Big Show to challenge Rock for the WM title shot at No Way Out. Show won that match thanks to the help of the returning Shane McMahon, throwing the whole WM main event into chaos. Everyone knew there was no way there would be a heel vs heel WM main event. Rock was forced to go through an additional gauntlet to be added back to the match, and was aided by the reemergence of Vince McMahon from exile in his corner. The McMahon-Helmsley regime then attempted to have the now triple threat match on weekly TV instead of WM but that was nixed by the also returning LINDA McMahon to get all the McMahons involved. She not only forced the match to take place at WM, she made it a Fatal Four Way. To keep the theme she needed her own wrestler to enter. Lacking any other options, Mick Foley was pressed back into service to get his dream WM main event slot after all, barely a month after losing a title vs career match to Triple H that was legitimately intended to be his retirement match. All that setup brings us the tagline for this year's WM, "A McMahon In Every Corner". For those of you sick of the McMahons, here's ALL THE MCMAHONS.

 

 

In-house singer Lillian Garcia starts us off with the National Anthem, one of the rare occasions a Vince-run WM didn't open with America the Beautiful. The future voice of Admiral Anderson in the Mass Effect trilogy (longtime character actor/voice artist Keith David) narrates the opening video. For the first time in the show's history there's been a full reworking of the WM logo. I prefer the original of course, but this one is pretty good and fits in with the "year 2000" theme. You kids have no idea how HUGE a deal that was before it happened. The stage is pretty good for an arena WM with what I think are some higher resolution video screens being used for the first time. But hold on....HOLD ON....BLACK RING ROPES! Yes! Their PPV debut. The best of all rope colors that should never have gone away for PPVs.

 

Bull Buchanan and The Big Boss Man def The Godfather and D'Lo Brown (w/Ice T and hos) in 9:08- Godfather and Brown's entrance has been completely cut off on the Network/Peacock copy. If I remember right from my old Anthology DVD set Ice T sang them to the ring so that saves some royalty money. This is during the period Brown was a mini Godfather or Godfather in Training. Buchanan (who had just returned from a "you suck, go down and work on it" remedial training stint in OVW) and Brown start. Back and forth start and Brown hits a leg lariat. Boss Man tries to come in but Godfather cuts him off with a clothesline. The faces do some double team work. Godfather wildly misses an elbow drop. Like Buchanan was out of town before he even leapt missed. Boss Man takes a Bret bump and clothesline in the back. Godfather hook kick for 2. Brown hits mounted punches on Buchanan. Buchanan responds with a springboard clothesline off the second rope. BM blind tags in and drop toe holds Brown into a double sliding uppercut. Big boot from Boss Man. Buchanan shows he watched some Booker T tape in OVW by hitting a scissors kick for 2. While Boss Man is dropping Brown on the barricade Godfather almost legit clotheslines the ref trying to get at Buchanan. Brown stays in peril for a bit. Bear hug from Buchanan. Well, where he's got his arms it's more like an ass hug. They do the arm drops, Brown escapes and runs into a back elbow. More heel double teams. Boss Man catches a Brown crossbody and hits a backbreaker. JR says "That's like an XFL fair catch. There isn't one" which is 1. super forced and b. as far as I can remember the first mention of the XFL on a PPV. Buchanan goes up top and Godfather shakes the rope to crotch him. Brown hits a hurricanrana! Tag to Godfather. Hot tag flurry. Boss Man gets hit by the Ho Train. Brown goes up top for the frog splash but Buchanan pushes him off. Brown lands on his feet and takes Buchanan out. Brown runs into a Boss Man Slam! That gets the pin. Not exactly a high octane opener. After the bell the heel team chases the hos off. *

In their private dressing room Triple H and Steph are admiring their belts and generally chilling without a care in the world. Steph had used her new power to maneuver herself into being women's champion so she'd have a belt too. After that we get footage from earlier today of ref Tim White laying down the rules for everyone in the upcoming Hardcore battle royale.

 

15 Minute Hardcore Battle Royale for the WWF Hardcore Championship- The rules of this match are it will go the full 15 minutes no matter what, full hardcore rules including falls count anywhere, if you pin the champion at any time in that 15 minutes you win the title, there can be an unlimited number of title changes during the match, and whoever's champion at the end of the time limit stays champion, at least until tomorrow when the 24/7 rule goes back into effect. Taking part in this are reigning Hardcore champ Crash Holly, Hardcore Holly, Tazz (already becoming just another body after a pretty high profile signing), Mosh, Thrasher, Faarooq, Bradshaw, Pete Gas, Joey Abs, Rodney, Viscera, Taka Michinoku and Funaki. There's toys placed all around ringside before the match. This is pure chaos all over the place so I'll recap as best I can. Generally TV stays focused on whoever's champion at the time so that helps. Everyone gets in the ring during entrances but as soon as the bell rings the brawl spills to the floor. Tazz gets a suplex on Crash and pins him to win the title. He goes down to the floor looking for a fight. Viscera posts Tazz's back and pins him. I love how Fink is announcing the new champion every time there's a pin. There's plunder shots happening all over. Among the more normal pieces of weaponry you'd see in hardcore matches there's also a large box fan and a phone. Sadly no kitchen sink. Gas and Rodney gang up on Viscera and others soon follow suit. Crash is already bleeding. The APA pound away on Viscera. It's separated out to where there's a whole bunch of little fights happening all around the ring. Bradshaw works everyone over with a cookie sheet. Hardcore gets a trash can lid shot on Viscera for 2. Mosh covers for 2. 10 minutes left and no one's been in the ring other than the first 30 seconds or so. More guys are bleeding too. Guys slowly start trickling back in the ring. Viscera has a cookie sheet and goes to town with it. The APA lay Kaientai out, then slam Viscera off the top rope! Faarooq breaks a 2x4 over Viscera. Tackle off the top rope from Bradshaw. The APA, instead of covering themselves, put Kaientai on top of Viscera to pin him! Funaki is announced as champion. His partner Taka punches him out! Funaki takes off running up the aisle! Everyone quickly follows as we go all the way to backstage. The APA toss Funaki into a stack of guardrails. Rodney pushes his teammate Abs aside and pins Funaki! Abs clothesline! He pins Rodney. Thrasher gets a pin on Abs. Everyone pounds on Thrasher as we move back out to the stage area. Gas gives Thrasher a fire extinguisher shot! Gas, covered in blood, gets the pin. All three of the Mean Street Posse have won the title in this match. Tazz drags Gas to ringside. 5 minutes left. Tazz suplexes Gas on the floor and pins him to win the title for the second time tonight. Hardcore tosses Tazz into the stairs for 2. We settle back into all around plunder brawl mode for a bit. Mosh gets some near falls on the floor. The Hollys push Tazz into the ring. They take turns pounding on Tazz and fighting with each other. Crash tries a cover on Tazz and Hardcore doesn't like that. 2 minutes left. Tazz tosses Crash with a suplex. Hardcore powerslam on Tazz. Both Hollys get 2. Hardcore throws Crash out of the ring. Dropkick on Tazz for 2. 1 minute. Tazz hits a belly to belly suplex and is in the ring alone. Crash runs in and whacks him with a cookie sheet! He pins Tazz! Tazzmission on Crash! Hardcore comes in and smashes JR's candy jar over Crash's head! He covers Crash. Crash doesn't kick out, but White pulls up before counting 3 and the bell rings after that. Everyone's confused. After a pause, Fink announces Hardcore as the champion. Crash leaves with the belt, but White takes it and gives it to Hardcore. They messed the ending up, the bell was supposed to save Crash and let him leave as champion but it came late. No big deal, it's just the Hardcore title, they can easily fix it tomorrow on Raw. Which is exactly what they did when Crash won it back. Botched finish aside that was a reasonably fun chaos brawl with all the pins and title changes helping make it more fun. **1/2

For those people that are statistically inclined like me, that was 10 title changes within that 15 minutes. Eat your heart out, DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship.

We get a long video package highlighting the events at this year's Axxess. After that Al Snow promises Steve Blackman there will be absolutely no hijinks tonight no sir it's Wrestlemania I wouldn't do that. Pay no attention to the midget in the bathroom stall.

 

T&A (w/Trish Stratus) def Head Cheese (w/Chester McCheeserton) in 7:04- Head Cheese is the aforementioned team of Snow and Blackman. Snow is trying to teach Blackman how to find a sense of humor and in a bit of fourth wall breaking trying to find a gimmick that will get him over. I can't remember where the team name came from. Think it had something to do with Green Bay Packers Cheeseheads. After their intros Snow takes a mic and introduces the team's new mascot, Chester McCheeserton. Who is a midget in a cheese costume, with the ass cheeks cut out. This is most definitely one of those things that's only funny to one man. Unfortunately it's the man running the show. T&A are Test and Albert, who were mostly brought together because they really wanted the team Trish Stratus was managing to be called T&A for the double entendre. Speaking of Trish, she'd been in WWF barely a month and at this point, truth be told, she was little more than a hot blonde pair of boobs with zero indication of the legend she'd become. That's why you take shots on people like Dana Brooke or Maxxine Dupri, you never know. I have zero idea what the face/heel dynamic here is, both teams could honestly go both ways and the match doesn't help. Blackman tries to jump but Test is ready for him. Blackman hits a superkick. JR is having some bad headset trouble and goes off air for a bit. Snow takes shots from both directions. He slides out of a corner whip and hits a clothesline. Enzuguri on Albert for 2. Blackman and Albert take turns tackling each other. Sweep kick from Blackman and we're already donnybrooking. Albert presses Snow but Blackman clips his knee. Double clothesline on Albert for 2. Blackman headbutt off the second rope for 2 as Albert goes in peril. He manages to get a double underhook suplex on Snow. Both sides tag and Test gets the hot tag run. Everyone's in the pool again. T&A double powerbomb Snow. Blackman breaks the pin up. Snow asai moonsault to the floor on Albert! Head Cheese hit a decapitation device legdrop on Test but Albert breaks the pin up. Albert presses Test onto Snow. ANOTHER pin breakup. This is starting to feel like a tag match on 2K that you're desperately trying to end but the partner on the AI team keeps coming in and breaking pins up. A press slam/elbow off the top combination on Blackman mercifully finally finishes this off. No one cares. JR spent most of the second half of the match low key shitting all over it. 1/4*

Snow takes a mic and apologizes to Blackman, the mascot was a terrible idea after all. Cheeserton can't get in the ring so Snow has to physically lift him into it. Snow says "It's time to cut the cheese" and nails him with the mic, and gets a bad feedback pop from the audio issues they've been having. I think I figured out the whole reason for this absurdity. Vince wanted to get that "cut the cheese" line in really badly. The Head Cheese experiment wouldn't last much longer.

In their locker room Mae Young and the Kat do some Austin Powers style props covering nudity comedy. Fortunately it's Kat almost showing the goods, not Young.

 

Triangle Ladder Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: Edge and Christian def The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz (c) in 23:30- Edge & Christian and the Hardyz had a fantastic genre defining ladder match at No Mercy. The Dudleyz and Hardyz had a really good and groundbreaking tables match at the Rumble. Now all three teams come together as the evolution continues. For the first time in a WWF ladder match there's not just one or two ladders, but a whole multitude of them all down the aisle. The Dudleyz come out last as champs, and as they do E&C jump the Hardyz from behind, then go out to meet the Dudleyz. After some aisle brawling they do a bit where a couple of guys do some speed stuff in the ring while the others brawl on the floor. Bubba Ray tears Jeff's shirt off and gives him some chops in the corner. Jeff hits Bubba Ray with a springboard corkscrew moonsault. Bubba Ray gets a backdrop and hits the Bubba bomb. Christian brings the first ladder into the ring. Everyone files in with another ladder. Ladders get tossed into the corners. The Hardyz hit Poetry in Motion into a ladder with Bubba Ray under it! D'Von gets slammed on a ladder. Matt gives him an elbow off the second rope and D'Von does a crazy spasm sell. Jeff DDTs Bubba Ray and sets him on a ladder, then goes up top. 450 splash! Bubba Ray dodges and Jeff crashes into the ladder! Bubba Ray hits a senton off the second rope onto a ladder with Jeff underneath. Think that hurt Bubba Ray more. Edge goes up top with a ladder and drops it down onto another ladder with Matt underneath. D'Von legdrops a ladder with Edge under. Bubba Ray puts the ladder necklace on and it's the everyone run into the spinning ladder time. They fall for it every single time. Edge dropkicks a ladder into Bubba Ray! E&C flapjack D'Von into a corner ladder. They set a ladder up on the edge of the ring. Christian crossbody off the ladder to the floor! Jeff sets a ladder up and climbs for the belts. Edge goes to the top rope and spears Jeff off the ladder! That was awesome. Matt pulls a climbing Edge down and gives him a Razor's Edge bomb. D'Von slams Matt off the ladder. Christian throws a ladder into a climbing D'Von. We get a trio of ladders set up in the ring. Christian and Bubba Ray climb. Solo 3D off the ladders! The Hardys pull the ladders into the corners, go up, and hit Bubba Ray with a splash/legdrop combo. E&C double superplex D'Von off a ladder! We're up to about 3 or 4 holy shit chants already and they're barely getting warmed up. E&C and the Hardyz fight up midring ladders. Twist of Fate on one end, Russian leg sweep on the other and everyone's down again. We get another triple ladder setup and everyone climbs. Christian and Jeff get dumped outside to the floor! Everyone else comes crashing down. The Dudleyz give Christian a ladder sandwich! 3D on Edge! Bubba Ray has that look in his eye. Here come the tables! They spend a bit of time setting everything up. The Dudleyz set two ladders back up in the ring, then put a table on top of them as a bridge. They start to climb but the Hardyz stop them. More tables get set up inside and out of the ring. Bubba Ray gets Matt up on the Spanish announce table. Jeff is on a table in the ring. D'Von comes off a ladder with a splash but Jeff dodges and D'Von goes through the table! Right after Bubba Ray powerbombs Matt through a table! Bubba Ray gets that post-table breakage euphoric trance-like look. Jeff tries to run the barricade but Bubba Ray throws a ladder at him! Bubba Ray goes to the aisle and gets a tall ladder. A very tall ladder. Ladies and gentleman, we have the first appearance of the Jeff Hardy Suicide Ladder. JR calls it 20 feet high. Bubba Ray then sets up another table next to it. He brings Jeff over and sets him up on the table. Christian charges in and nails Bubba Ray with the bell! Now Bubba Ray is on the table. Jeff fights Christian off. The shirt is off. Jeff climbs. And climbs. And balances himself right on the tippy top of the 20 foot ladder. SWANTON BOMB OFF THE LADDER PUTTING BUBBA RAY THROUGH THE TABLE! Both guys are presumably out for good and we return focus to the ring. D'Von is slow climbing with the table bridge still in place under the belts. Matt pulls him down. Twist of Fate! Matt climbs. Christian climbs the other side. They're on the table bridge. Edge sneaks up the ladder behind Matt. He pushes Matt down and Matt goes through the table set up in the ring! And absolutely shatters it! Edge and Christian are all alone, and get the belts to win! Seriously, how smart were they. They let the other two teams do all the crazy shit because they knew they couldn't resist, then swooped in and took the win. Brilliant. It's a strategy that will serve them well the next couple of years. The bar has been raised yet again with another incredible match. There's only one thing left to do: TLC. My only nitpick of this particular match is once the tables came out things slowed down a lot to set them up where they were needed. That's a kink they'll iron out in future matches. ****1/4

 

Catfight Match: Terri Runnels (w/The Fabulous Moolah) def The Kat (w/Mae Young) in 2:24- Here we have the very definition of a cool down match. It's old school women's battle royale rules here, you have to throw your opponent to the floor to win. Val Venus comes out first to be the special guest referee. The striped ref towel is a nice touch. I can't remember what it was that put Moolah and Young temporarily on opposite sides, but it's probably not worth remembering. Terri is the heel here and Kat the face, I don't expect anyone to know that off the top of their head. Terri is in her "horny little she devil" phase so Lawler can say horny a lot. Both women immediately start working Venus over with feminine wiles before the bell even rings. It quickly turns into a, well, cat fight. Venus physically picks Terri up off Kat. When he does Terri kisses him! Kat sees that and kisses Venus too. Back to the brawl. Young gets on the apron to do what she was completely obsessed with in this period, taking her ancient puppies out for a walk. Venus goes over to stop her and probably save lives, or at least eyesight, in the process. While he's doing that he doesn't see Kat throw Terri out to the floor. The olds get in. Young kisses Venus! Again he misses Terri getting tossed. JR: "Val's had enough! He's tapping out!". Moolah rolls Terri back in the ring and pulls Kat out. Venus finally gets himself free, sees Kat on the floor, and calls the match for Terri. Young takes Moolah out and gives her, as JR puts it, "The oldest bronco buster in captivity". Kat then pulls Terri's tights off to fully expose her ass for some reason. Speaking of ass, that's definitely what this was, but no one expected anything less and at least JR sounded like he was having fun with it. It's a real puzzler why no one took women's wrestling seriously back then. DUD

 

Too Cool and Chyna def The Radicalz in 9:38- It's Eddie Guerrero, Saturn and new WWF Light Heavyweight champ (yes that's somehow still around, the belt even still has the old WWF logo on it) Dean Malenko representing the Radicalz in this match. The entire story here is Eddie is trying to charm Chyna, the story that gave birth to Latino Heat. Before the bell Guerrero eyes Chyna across the ring and tosses his shirt at her. Watching this you still can't convince me Eddie's not Dom Mysterio's real father. Chyna ignores it all and Scotty starts with Guerrero instead. Nice speed run with Scotty getting a monkey flip and tiltawhirl backbreaker. Scotty moonwalks back and tags Chyna. Guerrero gets the hell out of town on his knees, tagging Malenko in. Chyna clotheslines him. Malenko hooks up for a powerbomb but very obviously sets himself up to be clotheslined by Scotty off the apron. Sexay and Chyna hit a double suplex and do some dancing. Malenko gets slammed and tags out. Scotty back suplexes Guerrero. Sexay goes up top for his legdrop but Saturn pushes him off. Saturn tags in, knocks Sexay around and puts his do rag on. Scotty tags in and Guerrero hot shots him. He stares Chyna down again. Slingshot senton from Guerrero and more gestures at Chyna. Sexay distracts the ref and Guerrero takes the opening to run Chyna into the turnbuckle! I guess that's one way to show a woman you like her. Sexay suplexes Guerrero out of the ring to the floor. Everyone runs in and Scotty hits a double worm on Malenko and Saturn. I like JR's sarcasitc "Not the double worm!". Guerero tries to hide behind the ref. While everyone else fights on the floor the ref stops Chyna from going after Guerrero in the ring because she's not legal. Things settle back in with Scotty in peril. Saturn hits an elbow off the top rope. Guerrero goes up top for the frog splash. Scotty crotches him and hits a superplex. Chyna tags in and Guerrero runs on his knees again. Chyna takes everyone out easily. Way too easily. Handspring elbows. Double low blow. Guerrero uses that to run in and hit Chyna. He hooks Chyna up for a powerbomb with a lot of bump and grind. Chyna lands on her feet and gives Guerrero a powerbomb instead. Greco Roman Nut Lock! Chyna press slams Guerrero. Sleeper into a kind of reverse DDT and Chyna gets the pin. Once again the Radicalz look like a bunch of geeks soon after coming over from WCW. I'm sure there were a few angry message board posts about this match. It was OKish. I still don't like the clash between Too Cool's "hit the big pop high spots" style and the Radicalz more technical based approach. **

We get a clip from earlier tonight on Heat where Bob Backlund reveals to Eurocontinental champion Kurt Angle he was the architect of the next match as a way to help Angle become the best he can possibly be. Angle thanks Backlund by putting him in his own crossface chickenwing.

 

Two Fall Triple Threat Match for the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championships: Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho def Kurt Angle (cc) in 13:48- One title is on the line in each fall in this unique matchup. It sounds like Angle's music has been replaced by...his regular music? Guess he had some special music here I'd forgotten about.

FIRST FALL (Intercontinental Title)- Benoit jumps Angle before he can get in the ring. We get some standard triple threat opening three way back and forth to start. Benoit gives Jericho some chops. Jericho dropkicks Benoit in the back, sending him out to the floor. Angle takes a dropkick. Jericho goes for the springboard dropkick but Benoit pushes him off the ropes. Angle and Benoit start fighting on the apron. Jericho springboard dropkicks them both off! Baseball slide on Benoit. Angle hot shots Jericho into the stairs. Belly to belly suplex from Angle in the ring. Benoit clothesline on Angle for 2. Jericho gives Benoit some chop receipts. Double underhook backbreaker on Angle. Jericho goes up top. Benoit charges and pushes Jericho off. Jericho flies all the way into the Spanish announce table! Snap suplex on Angle for 2. Back suplex for 2. Jericho dropkicks Benoit in the back again. Missile dropkick on Angle. Benoit backbreaker on Jericho. Angle snap suplexes Benoit. Jericho bulldog on Angle. Benoit and Jericho slug it out a bit. Canadian hockey fight. Angle gives Benoit a back suplex. Jericho comes off the second rope onto both of them. Camel clutch on Benoit. "Ask him!". Jericho hits Angle with a delayed suplex. Benoit pushes him away and covers Angle for 2! Jericho and Angle do a nice counter run with Angle hitting a belly to belly. Jericho tries a corner roll up on Benoit but Benoit stacks him up for 2. Angle dropkicks Benoit while he's down there. More Jericho/Angle counters. Angle puts Jericho in the crossface chickenwing! I wouldn't have hated if he'd kept that in his moveset, though the ankle lock is definitely superior once he starts using it. The ref starts arm drops but Benoit breaks it up before three. He tosses Angle out of the ring, then over the barricade into the crowd. Headbutt off the top on Jericho! Benoit gets the pin and wins the Intercontinental title! There's no celebration as we're right off into the next fall.

SECOND FALL (European Title)- Benoit immediately covers Jericho again but Angle breaks it up. Suplex on Benoit for 2. Setup slam. Angle goes up top. Jericho crotches him. Benoit makes it all three on the ropes. He back superplexes Jericho off. Angle is still up there. Moonsault! Benoit dodges and Angle splats! All three guys are down. Angle slowly drapes an arm over Benoit for 2. Jericho covers Angle for 2. Walls of Jericho on Angle! Benoit breaks it up. More three way back and forth. Jericho gets Benoit out of the ring and gives Angle the double powerbomb. Benoit gets back in, grabs Jericho and it's ROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLING GERMANS time! He bridges on the third but Angle breaks the pin up. Benoit dragon suplex on Angle! They have a tough time getting in the right position for a near fall. Tim White counts anyway but that was pretty ugly. Benoit ducks and Jericho takes White out. Crossface! Jericho taps! But there's no ref. Walls on Benoit! Angle comes in with the IC belt and nails Jericho with it. He covers but Benoit makes the save. Another back suplex on Angle. Angle dodges the headbutt off the top! Jericho comes in with the Lionsault on Benoit! He gets the pin and wins the European title! It certainly wasn't anywhere near bad, but considering the talent in there, even with Angle still in his early months and learning, that was a disappointment. They had a hard time finding a rhythm, looked oddly off in places, and the crowd never got into it. Having Angle lose both titles without taking a pin was genius though. Perfect for his character. **3/4

 

Kane and Rikishi (w/Paul Bearer) def X-Pac and Road Dogg (w/Tori) in 4:00- Pac and Dogg are the last vestiges of the great institution that used to be D-Generation X, which at this point can't die soon enough. Well not die, but go away until the great 2006 nostalgia run with the guys that actually mattered. This whole Kane/Pac/Tori thing desperately needs to end too. They have a new version of DX's music tonight. Tori slaps Bearer before the bell. Bearer completely no sells it the misogynist. Kane goes out to help Bearer so DX jump Rikishi in the ring. I can't for the life of me remember how Kane and Rikishi ended up teaming. Rikishi is on loan from Too Cool. Pac saves Tori from Kane. Rikishi squashes Dogg in the corner and gives him the stinkface. Tori ends up in the ring. She sees Rikishi and backs off into the corner. Prime stinkfacing territory. Rikishi warms the ass cheeks up but Pac saves her. DX walks and are chased down. Once they get back in Pac leg lariats Rikishi and hits his corner kicks. Huge "X-Pac sucks" chant. Bronco buster. Dogg hits his dancing jabs and kneedrop. Rikishi hulks up off Pac shots. Faceplant and tag to Kane. Kane destroys everyone. Dogg gets 360 clotheslined to the floor. Corner clothesline on Pac. Kane indicates he wants Rikishi to give Pac his ass. Pac escapes the stinkface. Bearer puts Tori in the ring. Kane chokeslams Tori HARD into the corner! Damn. This time Tori gets the stinkface. Tombstone on Pac and it's over. Please please please let that be the end of this Kane/Pac feud that refuses to die. Pretty useless match, and the following angle will be longer than the match was. 3/4*

Too Cool come out and it's dance break time. Wait, it's the San Diego Chicken! Commentary immediately knows it's eternal Kane nemesis Pete Rose, who's been in that costume before. Kane sees the Chicken but seems content to contemplate rather than act. Rikishi's glasses go on and it's full Too Cool dance number time. The Chicken joins in. And does not dance like you'd expect Pete Rose to. They go through the whole dance number and finally Kane decides to strike. Goozle on the chicken! Hold on! Pete Rose runs in from behind with a bat! SWERVE! Rikishi grabs the bat to stop him. Chokeslam on Rose! Too Cool pull him into the corner. Stinkface on Rose! I'm pretty sure I saw Rose corpsing while taking that. Your score after three innings, Kane 3, Pete Rose 0.

The Rock has a two minute backstage promo that sets up and sells the main event better than any 10 minute long video package could.

 

Fatal Four Way Elimination Match for the WWF Championshp: Triple H (c) (w/Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) def The Rock (w/Vince McMahon), Mick Foley (w/Linda McMahon) and The Big Show (w/Shane McMahon) in 38:00- Foley is wrestling as himself rather than any of his characters, and the way JR talks I'm pretty sure he's made it clear that this is absolutely, positively his last match no matter what. I assume if he won the title he would have retired as champion. He's still got the scars on his arm from getting scraped open from the bottom of the fence in the Hell in a Cell match. That was nasty. Everyone picks a corner to stare down from, then we get a 2 by 2 pair off based on the prior feuds: HHH and Foley, Rock and Show. Foley pounds HHH down like crazy in the corner and hits the running knee. Bang bang! Show double clotheslines Foley and HHH, then spends a couple of minutes tossing everyone around because he's big and strong. Side suplex on Rock. He hooks up to chokeslam HHH. Foley low blows Show to break it up. All three guys gradually team up to pound Show down. Triple stomp on Show while he's down, until HHH hits Foley. Cactus Clothesline on HHH! Show gets a big boot on Rock. Foley gives HHH a chair in the gut. Shane tries to trip Rock and fails. Foley chairshot to Show! Rock Bottom! Rock pins Show and Show is eliminated! The three remaining guys have a reset staredown in the ring while a ref gaggle gets Show and Shane out. HHH tries to negotiate a deal with Foley. Nothing doing. HHH turns and tries to negotiate with Rock! He was never into any of that Rock N Sock stuff anyway, right? Rock says yes, but as soon as he has a clear view of HHH's back Rock nails him! The Rock N Sock Connection will never die! HHH gets pounded around. Foley loudly (on purpose) calls a double clothesline spot and it hits. HHH gets tossed out and we get some floor brawling. Foley gets the bell and gives it to Rock. HHH ducks and Rock takes Foley out with the bell! While HHH is working Rock over Foley gets the barbed wire covered 2x4 out! HHH sees it and freaks out. Foley goes for a shot but HHH ducks it in the corner and low blows Foley. The 2x4 rebounded off the turnbuckle pad and just about hit Foley legit in the face. HHH gets the 2x4 and goes to use it. Rock cuts him off and the 2x4 ends up on the floor. Rock gets tossed over the top and out. Foley double underhook DDT on HHH! Socko is out! Mandible Claw! Rock comes in with the belt and hits HHH with it. HHH is laying in the middle of the ring. Rock takes the elbow pad off....CLAW ON ROCK! Foley took his opening! Not the first time he's done that to Rock in a match like this. HHH low blows both guys to break it all up. Vince puts a chair in the ring. Foley clotheslines Rock for 2. Double underhook DDT on Rock for 2. Foley takes the chair in the ring. Rock kicks it into Foley's face. DDT. Now HHH and Foley strike a deal to take Rock out then settle it between themselves. Double team on Rock for 2. Double suplex! HHH kneedrop for 2. They go to the floor again with the unlikely alliance continuing. Whip reversal and Foley crashes hard into the stairs. Rock chokes HHH with a TV cable. Foley runs the stairs into Rock's face! HHH sets Rock up on the Spanish announce table and tells Foley to go up. Foley does. Cactus Elbow! Foley comes up short and hits the table! The table doesn't break. HHH dives onto Rock from somewhere off camera and the table STILL doesn't break. Finally HHH climbs up on the barricade and comes straight down on Rock. The table turns over then slowly collapses. That was a mess. On the replay we can see Foley hit the corner of the table HARD. Back in the ring. Pedigree on Foley! Foley kicks out! HHH chairshot to Foley. Pedigree on the chair! Foley is done. Big boos for that. He takes a moment to raise his fist for the crowd and gets a nice little sendoff even though the match is still going on. Then he comes back! He hits HHH with the 2x4! One last shot. A last fist raise and Foley leaves. This really would be his retirement match, for a time. He'd work as Commissioner over the summer and fall with his famous gavel gimmick, then go off the road completely until his surprise return in the 2004 Royal Rumble to kick off his part time career. As always, wrestling retirement is like death in sci-fi or comics. Never permanent. We're down to the last two that were expected to be in this match by themselves. Rock slowly crawls over and covers. HHH kicks out! Slugfest and HHH gets 360 clotheslined out. They go straight up the aisle for the stage brawl portion of the program. HHH gets suplexed on the aisle. They do the crowd brawl as they come back to ringside. Rock picks the stairs up. HHH chairshots them into Rock, and then pummels them with more chairshots. Piledriver onto the stairs! Cover. Rock kicks out! Rock slugs back. HHH counters out of a Rock Bottom. Rock backdrops out of a Pedigree, sending HHH back to the floor. Crowd brawl 2 on the other side of the arena. Rock sets up the English announce table. He suplexes HHH onto it! This time the table does break on command. HHH drop toe holds Rock into the stairs. Vince hits HHH! Well here we go. This was inevitable. Shane returns, sneaks around and hits Vince from behind. He nails Vince with a TV monitor. Steph's shock face full in camera is one for the ages. She was definitely still learning this whole acting thing. Vince gets up and he's pissed. He pummels Shane down. Shane low blows Vince. Chairshot to Vince. Vince gets helped out as we finally turn focus back to the ring and the guys actually wrestling this main event match. Rock DDT for 2. Tiltawhirl slam for 2. Trips hits the facebuster. He gets the 2x4 and hits Rock with it! Shane gets in the ring. Rock counters a Pedigree and, never seeing Shane, slingshots HHH into him. Rock Bottom! Rock can't cover. Vince runs back in! He takes Shane out again. Vince gets a chair in the ring and....hits ROCK with it! WHAT? Swerve! HHH covers. Rock kicks out! Another chairshot from Vince. HHH covers again, and gets the win no one, I mean *nobody*, expected. Heel Vince is back. HHH becomes the first ever heel to walk out of WM the main event winner (if you count Yokozuna vs Hogan as the WM 9 main event). The match was overlong and overMcMahoned but overall came together pretty decent, though not what you'd expect from a WM main event. ***

Trash is being thrown into the ring like you never see on WWF shows. It's almost NWO levels. Steph gets in the ring. She and Vince hug! Just because Russo's gone it doesn't mean the nonsensical swerves are. There's no logic behind this, it's a turn for the sake of a turn. And to get Vince back heel I guess. Shane is there too and seems to be wondering if Vince hitting him was all part of the plan. He seems to have been left out. Rock runs back into the ring. Rock Bottom for Shane. Rock Bottom for Vince. He looks at Steph. Steph gets up and right in Rock's face. She slaps him! Rock Bottom on Steph! Steph takes the People's Elbow! Rock leaves and the McMahons put the pieces back together as we end the show. This is definitely a prime example of "it's all about the McMahons" syndrome.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- It's ironic that in the incredible year WWF put on in 2000 with great PPV after great PPV, the biggest show of the year is about the only one that doesn't rise to the occasion. The worst part is that for the most part it doesn't feel like WM, but just another PPV. That's something they'd definitely fix starting the next year. The whole McMahonified four way main event was likely overcompensation panic for Austin and Undertaker both being out with injuries. The triangle ladder match is by far the only thing on this show really worth going out of your way to watch, but even that is more a stepping stone to even greater things than a stand alone great match. It's not the *worst* WM, or even in the discussion for the truly worst, but it might be the most skippable.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-