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-