Fully Loaded 2000

Legacy Review

Fully Loaded 2000

July 23, 2000 from the Reunion Arena in Dallas, TX

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

This is the last year the July PPV will be known as Fully Loaded. Next year this month will be home to the ill fated Invasion before becoming Vengeance in 2002.

Got a rare entrance aisle on hard camera right instead of left show tonight. Yes, these are the things I notice.

Mixed Tag Team Match: Team Xtreme def T&A in 13:09- Interestingly it's Trish and Lita that have been carrying this feud, beating the hell out of each other for weeks. Lita's got a huge bruise on her side from getting whipped with a belt by Trish. Just the beginning of what would be in store for them over the next few years. It's also a very early foray into the ring for Trish, this is only her fourth recorded official match. As soon as everyone's in the ring it's on. Everyone pairs off for the big brawl, then Albert and Matt get settled in the ring. The crowd chants for Lita. Matt tries but Albert's power is too much for him. Matt uses a knucklelock to get leverage and hit a lucha style armdrag. Albert backdrops him over the top to the floor in the corner. Matt fights from underneath with Test, hits a legdrop off the second rope and tags Jeff. The Hardyz hit a couple of spiffy double teams. Test comes back with a side suplex on Jeff. Jeff works him to the floor and hits a plancha. Test gets trapped in the face corner. He blocks a Matt suplex attempt so Matt small packages him for 2. Big boot from Test and Trish tags in. Matt ducks and Trish slaps Test! Matt rolls Trish up! Test makes the save then DDTs Matt. Trish decides to try an elbow drop that Matt dodges. Tag to Lita! The crowd goes nuts for her. Trish immediately runs away and tags Albert in. Lita goes into dodge mode and the Hardyz jump Albert from behind. Poetry in Motion hits. Double suplex. All of Team Xtreme hook up Test and Trish and we have a three on two suplex! The shirts are off. Not Lita's. No, YES LITA'S TOO! I think Lawler just had a heart attack. Again. Albert grabs Jeff, presses him and dumps him out to the floor. Double underhook suplex for 2. T&A double backdrop. Jeff didn't turn over right at first and Albert almost had to save him from falling on his head. Little did Albert know that wouldn't have hurt Jeff anyway. He was indestructible in his younger days. Jeff gets his corner roll up on Test for 2. Full nelson slam from Test. Jeff runs into a pop up powerbomb. Test goes up top. Jeff dodges the elbow! Test tries to hold him back, but Jeff kicks him away and gets the tag to Matt. Clothesline off the top rope. Faceplant off the second rope. Matt goes after Albert on the apron and that gives Test an opening to hit a pumphandle powerslam. Jeff breaks the cover up with a swanton bomb! Matt DDT on Albert as things break down. Lita tornado DDTs Test! She goes up top again. Dive down to Albert on the floor! Up top AGAIN! Flying headscissors on Test! Test kicks out! Albert hits Lita from behind. Test plants her with a gutwrench powerbomb. Now Trish wants in. She covers but Lita kicks out! Trish hits a bulldog for 2. Back elbow in the corner. She goes up top. Lita joins her. Superplex! Cover but Albert breaks it up. DONNYBROOK! The guys fight on the floor. Lita moonsault on Trish! That gets the pin! After the bell Albert nails Lita with a forearm in the head. Matt and Jeff get taken out. Trish gets a belt and whips Lita with it again right in the same spot as before. There's a website somewhere already trying to buy that footage. Very fun match, super annoying Lawler drooling over the women commentary notwithstanding, and the first inkling of the renaissance that's soon to come in women's wrestling in WWF with Trish and Lita at the forefront. Trish did look extremely raw here but that's forgivable given her lack of experience and how good we know she'd end up being. ***1/4

In the back, newly installed WWF Commissioner Mick Foley is approached by Edge. Apparently Christian's come over with a bout of food poisoning and can't wrestle tonight. Foley is dubious. Edge says get a doctor and we'll prove it.

Elsewhere, Undertaker chases Kurt Angle through the back of the arena on his motorcycle!

 

Tazz def Al Snow (w/Head) in 5:09- Tazz recently made his return after a couple of months off and has been going nuts attacking whoever he felt like. This is Snow's first PPV payday in a while too. Jump start #2. Snow is all business tonight. He even dumps Head aside like she meant nothing. Russian leg sweep from Snow and Tazz goes to the floor. Slugfest back in with Tazz taking the advantage. Snow fights off a suplex and hits a superkick. Spinebuster from Snow for 2. Tazz grabs Snow trying to float over in the corner and Alabama slams him. Another corner dodge and Snow puts Tazz down with a straight right. A Snow legdrop off the top hits. Instead of covering Snow goes up again. Moonsault! That gets 2. Snow gets Head. Tazz clips his knee from behind. Drop toe hold and Tazz pounds away. Snow hooks his arm and hits his headbutts and a couple of kicks. Tazz grabs a kick swing and hits an exploder suplex. He goes for the Tazzmission but Snow counters out. Another go and despite Snow's attempts Tazz gets it on. Snow has no choice but to tap. Eh. Snow getting so much offense in was weird. It's already pretty clear WWF is never going to see Tazz as a top guy. *1/2

Back to the back and Edge is listening to Christian making some very ugly noises in the bathroom. Foley arrives with a doctor. Christian comes out of his stall, gets checked, and the doctor says he doesn't think Christian can go tonight. Foley apologizes for his assumptions.

Elsewehere elsewhere, Trips and Steph are doing their usual locker room chilling. That's a lot of flowers in there. As they're recovering from listening to Christian's regurgitations MORE flowers arrive. Trips says this is getting ridiculous and wants to know where they're coming from. Steph is disappointed they're not, as she assumed, from him. Someone's in trouble now. Trips goes hunting for a card and finds one. "Stephanie, best of luck to you and 'your man' tonight. It's true, it's true!". Ruh roh. Now someone else is in trouble.

 

WWF European Championship: Perry Saturn (w/Terri) def Eddie Guerrero (c) (w/Chyna) in 5:30- There's been a turn here as Guerrero and Chyna are now faces with Saturn solidifying his heel status by hooking up with Terri. Oh great, we're still doing the "horny little she devil" thing so Lawler can say horny. Chyna punches Saturn out in the aisle and goes after Terri! Guerrero runs out and helps her before throwing Saturn in the ring. Chyna runs Terri off. Back suplex from Guerrero. Slingshot senton. Leg lariat and Saturn powders....right into a Chyna clothesline! She rolls Saturn back in the ring. Hurricanarana off the top rope from Guerrero. Arrogant one knee cover for 2. Clothesline. Saturn looks way off tonight. He looks like he's taking bumps underwater. Guerrero tosses him out again and Chyna runs him into the stairs. Guerrero dive off the top to the floor! Flying headscissors off the top from Guerrero for 2. Saturn ducks a clothesline and powerbombs Guerrero. After some back and forth in the corner Guerrero hits a tornado DDT. Saturn's bleeding a bit on the top of his head. Saturn catches Guerrero in the corner and tosses him across the ring. Front backdrop. Guerrero counters a pop up powerbomb with a hurricanrana. Saturn slips out of a brain buster attempt. Guerrero then counters a suplex attempt into a roll up for 2. Saturn hits the pop up powerbomb, and then sucks some wind in the corner. He definitely doesn't look right. Guerrero dodges a moonsault. Brain buster! Guerrero goes up top. He sees Saturn dodging and rolls through. Counter run, Guerrero ends up on Saturn's shoulders and Saturn just PLANTS him on the mat. Half nelson cradle for 2. Saturn goes up. Guerrero joins him and dropkicks him off to the floor! Chyna tries to attack again but Saturn finally says enough is enough and clotheslines Chyna over the announce table. Terri runs back out. Saturn tries to hide behind her. Guerrero, suddenly overcome with a case of gentleman, isn't sure what to do. Terri gives him a straight Greco Roman Nut Kick! Saturn rolls Guerrero back in, hits an elbow off the top rope, and gets the pin and the title! Other than getting a couple of Hardcore title "wins" in battle royals this is Saturn's one and only title win in WWF. OKish match. **1/4

Edge and Christian are bragging about pulling one over on everyone while packing their bags to leave. "Food poisoning rules!". Foley walks in and BUSTED. Christian tries to cover by running into the stall and making noises again. This time Foley looks over the stall wall to verify and Christian, shock, is just fine. The tag title match is still on. No gavel needed.

Taker cuts off an interview with Michael Cole when he sees on a monitor Angle is trying to ride his motorcycle. Angle definitely has a death wish.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The APA def Edge & Christian (c) by DQ in 8:10- E&C do some fairly generic running down of Dallas then go for the five second pose but are interrupted by the APA's entrance. Bradshaw gets a mic and he's HOT anyone had the gall to try to get some cheap heat on the great city of Dallas. As a native Texan myself if I was forced to live in any major metro area in the state, it'd be Dallas. Fortunately I don't have to because I hate cities in general. Bradshaw drops the mic and the big brawl kicks off on the floor. Faarooq is swinging the stairs around on Christian like they weigh nothing. Christian gets free and saves Edge from the wrath of Bradshaw. E&C go for their version of Poetry in Motion but Bradshaw catches Christian, climbs up, gives him an avalanche fallaway slam, then follows it up with a big boot. Double shoulderblock and elbowdrop from Bradshaw for 2. Powerbomb. He goes for another. Christian cuts it off with a missile dropkick! E&C work some quick tags on Bradshaw. Swinging neckbreaker from Edge for 2. More quick tags in the corner. Bradshaw fights off a double superplex! Tackle off the top on Edge. Tag to Faarooq! Powerslam on Christian. Spinebuster on Edge. Bradshaw runs in and MURDERS Christian with a clothesline! Faarooq hits the Dominator on Christian. Edge stops the ref to make sure he sees and then hits Faarooq with a tag belt to deliberately get DQ'd. The fight continues up the aisle afterward. Crap finish aside I actually didn't hate this, and even that finish fits perfectly into Edge and Christian's characters. All the build up during the show was effective too. **1/2

Trips is still annoyed about the flowers and that it's distracting him from his match tonight. Steph gets annoyed at him and tells him to go ask Angle what's up with all this if it bothers him so much.

 

Otherwhere, Taker is still stalking Angle through the back of the arena. Angle sneaks around and hits him in the leg with a wrench!

We get footage from two weeks ago on Smackdown where maniac man Tazz helped Val Venus defeat Rikishi for the Intercontinental title by taking Rikishi out with one of the TV cameras.

 

Steel Cage Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: Val Venus (c) (w/Trish Stratus) def Rikishi in 14:08- Hey, they got all the cage setup done during the backstage segments. Nice. I miss the cage lowering music, but nice. Venus' new more serious character is now complete with shorter hair. As soon as Venus cautiously gets in the cage he tries to climb and escape. Rikishi cuts him off and lays on the punishment. This is pin or escape rules tonight by the way. Venus gets run into every side of the cage. Rikishi starts to climb. Venus follows but Rikishi fights him off and keeps climbing. Venus switches gears and decides to try to beat Rikishi by going out the door. Rikishi comes down to pull him back in and hits a back suplex. Venus fights back and Rikishi takes a cage shot. Corner whip reversal and Venus goes down right in the target zone. Venus blocks the stinkface with a low blow. He goes for a bulldog off the second rope but neither guy really pulls it off right. Big Venus clothesline with a 360 Rikishi sell! Venus tries to climb but has a legit hard time getting footholds on the cage. Rikishi also goes up and Venus runs his head into the top of the cage. Venus elbow drop off the middle of the top rope for 2. Venus climbs and gets all the way to the top of the cage. Rikishi grabs him as he's going over, rams him into the cage, and drags him back down. Big top rope fight. Simultaneous cage shots! Both guys collapse back into the ring. Venus is bleeding a bit. He stops Rikishi from going out the door and slugs away. Rikishi momentum throws Venus into the cage and hits a Samoan drop. Avalanche. Banzai drop! Venus gets a foot on the rope to save the pin. Another stagger to the door. Trish slams the door in Rikishi's face! Venus Rude Awakening style neckbreaker. He goes up to the top rope, but not to escape. Money Shot! Rikishi kicks out! Lita runs out. And she's got a belt! Trish gets whipped! Off comes Trish's top. I have no issue with what's happening now. More belt whips as Trish tries to escape. Lita slaps the ref trying to stop her! The women vacate the premises. Back in the ring, both guys are climbing. More top of cage shots. Venus goes down, and takes ref Teddy Long with him. Rikishi stays on the top rope. He thinks, then climbs up to the top of the cage. But he doesn't climb over to go down. He turns around and looks into the ring. He slowly steps across to stand on the middle of the cage. One last look. BIG SPLASH OFF THE TOP OF THE CAGE! Get a spatula and scrape Venus off the mat, he's done. Now Tazz is out here. He's got a TV camera and nails Rikishi with it again just as Rikishi was about to get out of the door! Venus crawls over, gets an arm over, and gets the pin to retain. Good stuff. Maybe a bit too overbooked but at least they were serving other feuds while doing it. Venus was not too bad a wrestler the rare times he was motivated to go for it (see also his Summerslam '98 match with D'Lo Brown). ***

Back to Taker. He wipes the days count off the arena's "days since last accident sign" before limping away. Fantastic. Elseotherwhere Trips is trying to hunt down Angle/the flower sender. He runs into a younger version of Harvey Wippleman that has MORE flowers for Steph. Trips demands to know where the sender is. Wippleman Jr leads him to a locker room. Trips says "Kurt Angle is about to get his ass kicked" and walks in. The door closes and we stay outside as the sounds of much violence and door banging come out. The door opens and it's.....Chris Jericho! "Hope you like lying on your ass, jackass". Well, Trips is on his stomach but we get the point. So who's really sending the flowers? Questions for another day.

Shane McMahon makes a full entrance to the ring. He's got one of Rock's "Just bring it" shirts on. Taking what the crowd gives him he says he's out here to prove he's not, as they say, a pussy and calls Rock out for a match right now. Non-title of course. Rock's music hits and here he is. He says he knows this is a setup and asks where Benoit is. Benoit shows up on the tron. Benoit trying to go toe to toe with the Rock on the mic is not a good idea. He's in Rock's locker room. He tears up all of Rock's expensive clothes! That's gonna set him back a bit. All the backstage segments so far tonight have been really good, but this was a Raw-style in ring promo segment on PPV that really didn't do much.

Recap of the Angle/Taker feud. The whole thing started, crazily enough, when Angle got a bit too exuberant celebrating a win and got milk all over Taker's bike. Angle's delivery of "As they would say on the streets....*air quotes* 'My bad'" is phenomenal and hilarious. He's a natural. Then Angle tried to offer Taker a moped as a peace offering! Taker was less than amused. Later on Angle "accidentally" hit Taker in the head with a sledgehammer while going for Triple H, sealing the death warrant with his name on it.

 

The Undertaker def Kurt Angle in 7:33- Angle comes out still holding his wrench from earlier. He's so on edge his pyro scares him! Biggest pyro jump I've seen since mid '90s WCW when everyone got scared by their pyro. Taker comes out on his bike during Angle's entrance and jumps him! They brawl through the crowd and to ringside. Taker knocks Angle all around ringside. Angle tries to get a jump in the ring but runs into a big boot. Elbow drop. Taker covers but pulls Angle back up. Delayed suplex and he pulls Angle up at 2 again. Angle manages to get a boot up in the corner and leaps on Taker's back with a sleeper. Taker backs him into the corner. Corner clothesline. Side suplex. This time Angle kicks out at 2. Taker tosses him out to the floor. Angle has the wrench and hits Taker in the leg with it again. Back in Angle tries to target the leg but Taker right hands fight him off. Angle ducks a clothesline and takes the bad leg out. Now Angle goes to work on it. Taker fights out and we have a stand up slugfest. Goozle! Angle kicks free and leg takedowns Taker to get back on the knee. Angle's clearly still learning this end of things because there's not much happening here. Taker reverses and gives Angle's knee a shot. More slugfest. Taker hits rapid fire body shots and an uppercut. Goozle again. Chokeslam! The Last Ride hits! Good night. After all the fun buildup that was definitely a letdown, though the crowd was into it the whole time. Much better days are ahead for these two. *3/4

 

Last Man Standing Match: Triple H (w/Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) def Chris Jericho in 23:10- After their fantastic IC title feud earlier this year the two Chrises, Jericho and Benoit, are getting their first test run at the top of the card in WWF. This got started when Jericho locked lips with Steph at King of the Ring, setting off HHH's jealous rage. In the ensuing weeks Jericho cost HHH a match against the freaking BROOKLYN BRAWLER. Talk about the ultimate humiliation. Officially this just the second Last Man Standing match in WWF history (Rock vs Mankind being the first). Another jump start with Jericho doing the jumping and here we go. Jericho has taped up ribs from their weekly TV fights. A dropkick sends HHH to the floor. The springboard dropkick puts him back out there. I'm just now noticing the Spanish announce table is already destroyed. Think that was from Chyna earlier. Might have been accidental breakage. Jericho hits HHH with a piece of the table. Flying back elbow off the top back in from Jericho and he continues the ground and pound. HHH hits the facebuster to finally get some breathing space. Jericho gets 360 clotheslined out to the floor. HHH hot shots Jericho on the barricade. Back in HHH starts working on the hurt ribs and tears some of the tape off. He goes nuts with shoulderblocks on Jericho's ribs in the corner and ref Mike Chioda has to back him off. Knee to the gut and there goes more of the tape. HHH chokes Jericho with it. Kneedrop on the ribs. Back to the floor and HHH lets Steph get a slap in. HHH hits a suplex in the aisle. Jericho slugs back in the ring. HHH hooks on an abdominal stretch, which really works here given Jericho's wounded body part. HHH really wrenches back on it while Chioda reminds him there's no submissions in this match. HHH doesn't care. Jericho tries to fight so HHH grabs some rope leverage. Chioda has an issue with that and Jericho hiptosses out. HHH gets in a shoving match with Chioda and Jericho takes the opening. Spinning heel kick. Lionsault! HHH gets his knees up! Kick wham HHH DDT. HHH hooks on a sleeper. Jericho goes down and HHH wraps up a bodyscissors. HHH lets go and says count. Jericho drags himself up by the ropes at 9. HHH is right back on him, but surprised Jericho still has fight left in him. Jericho gets up and gives HHH a crotch chop! Angry Pedigree! HHH lounges in the corner while Chioda counts. Jericho stirs and HHH is furious. He goes out and gets a chair. Chairshots to the ribs. He sets up for a Pedigree on the chair. Choida takes issue and gets shoved down. Jericho low blow! Chairshot to HHH's head! HHH is gushing blood. After some back and forth slugging Jericho hits a flying forearm. Missile dropkick off the second rope. Misdirection bulldog onto the chair! Whip reversals and we get the Trips flip in the corner. HHH reverses a whip and Jericho goes ribs first into the stairs. HHH sets up for a Pedigree on the stairs! Jericho backdrops out. Both guys take monitors from the announce table and nail each other at the same time! Double count. Both are up at 9. Back in HHH goes for the Pedigree again. Jericho counters into the Walls! HHH taps but it doesn't matter. He crawls over and manages to grab a rope. Chioda doesn't enforce a rope break, as you shouldn't in this match. Jericho drags HHH back to the middle! Steph comes in and pulls Jericho off! Jericho blocks a slap. Steph gets hooked up in the Walls! She's tapping out with BOTH hands! HHH ambushes Jericho from behind. HHH goes under the ring and there's Mr. Sledgehammer. Which wasn't quite yet a HHH signature. Jericho ducks a swing and HHH hits the post with it. Leg takedown and Jericho slingshots HHH into the post. Now he has the sledge and hits HHH with it in the gut. HHH is on the announce table. Jericho climbs some convienently placed steps. HHH is up with a low blow. He back suplexes Jericho through the announce table! Another double count. HHH JUST manages to wobbleleg himself up at 9.5. Jericho is called down at 10! It's over and HHH immediately collapses again. Absolutely tremendous. Jericho lost nothing in losing as he put up a hell of a fight. Minimal interference and a clean finish also helped a ton. ****1/2

A group of refs carry HHH out while Steph cries. Fantastic. We don't see but I assume Jericho got carried out too. You know, HHH has had some kind of 2000 so far. All of his one on one PPV matches have knocked it out of the park. Two hardcore style classics with Mick Foley, two great matches with the Rock including a tremendous Ironman match, and now this. It's getting to be an '89 Ric Flair or '94 Bret Hart like run. He's solidified his place as one of the best there is, no one should doubt him now.

The hype video for the main event is pretty freaking amazing. Back in the days they would still use good music too, instead of whatever slop is considered "popular" today.

 

WWF Championship: The Rock (c) def Chris Benoit (w/Shane McMahon) in 25:10- The DQ rule has been waived for this match, meaning Rock can lose the title if he's DQ'd. Benoit and Shane is a strange pairing, but Shane's been involved in every WWF Title match in some capacity for a while now so I guess it's necessary. It's also good they got Rock and HHH away from each other for a bit. Not that it was bad, it was just time to freshen things up a bit. Benoit comes out in one of Rock's torn up shirts. Shane tries to sneak behind Rock while Rock's posing in the corner and staring Benoit down. Rock sees and Shane runs, but Benoit uses that opening to jump. Rock cuts off an early crossface attempt and hits a back elbow. Benoit goes to the floor. Rock follows and gives him some shots, then he decides to chase Shane around the ring. Shane cuts through the ring. Rock slides in the ring, clotheslines an attempting to ambush Benoit without breaking stride, and slides right back out to keep chasing Shane! Fantastic. They try again and this time Rock inverted atomic drops Benoit. He slingshots Benoit into Shane. Shane falls back into the commentary area. Rock tries to put a crossface on Benoit! Benoit gets the hell out of town. Back in Benoit hits a knee to the gut to get on offense for the first time. Gutwrench gutbuster. Shane gets a cheap shot in. On the floor Benoit chops Rock so hard Rock falls back into a TV camera. Rock comes back with a front suplex dropping Benoit on the top rope. Benoit gets crotched on the top rope and Rock hits a back superplex. Both guys are down and very slow to recover. Shane slides the title belt in the ring, distracts Hebner and Benoit nails Rock with it. Rock kicks out! Snap suplex from Benoit for 2. Rock comes back with powerslam for 2. Benoit straight drop back suplex. Sharpshooter! Rock fights and crawls to the ropes. Benoit plants Rock's knee and goes for the Sharpshooter again. Rock slugs out before it's on. Shane pulls the top rope down and Rock tumbles to the floor. Benoit takes a stair shot. Rock picks Benoit up and crotches him on the ring post! That'll give you a negative attitude. Back in Rock hits a dragon screw! Looked good too even though that's not his wheelhouse. Figure four! Shane tries to get in but Hebner cuts him off, then Benoit gets a rope break. Benoit 360 clotheslines Rock to the floor. Shane runs in with a clothesline. Another Shane clothesline sends Rock over the barricade into the crowd. Rock grabs a drink and throws it in Benoit's face! Benoit grabs Rock and suplexes him on the floor. Back in Rock hits a DDT outta nowhere for 2. Clothesline from Benoit for 2. Backbreaker for 2. More cheap shots from Shane. Neckbreaker from Benoit for 2. Standing slugfest. Rock ducks a shot and drops Benoit with a NASTY looking hot shot. I'm not sure if that was deliberate or if Rock lost his balance. It worked though. Hard forearm from Benoit for 2. Setup slam and Benoit calls for the finish. Headbutt off the top! Benoit's hurt too and can't cover. Finally he does for 2. Rock hits the spinebuster! Pad off. People's Elbow! Shane gets on the apron just long enough for Benoit to kick out. Rock Bret bumps and Benoit hits a chop. Superplex from Benoit! Both guys are down again. Slow cover from Benoit for another long 2. Benoit stomps away in the corner. Hebner tries to stop him and Benoit takes issue with that. Rock pops out with a clothesline! Benoit turns a whip attempt into a short clothesline. He goes out and gets a chair. Rock manages to get it. Shane comes in and whacks Hebner in the back with a different chair! Rock takes Shane out and gives Benoit the smackdown fists in the corner. Rock grabs his chair and takes a wild swing at an escaping Shane. Hebner sees Rock with the chair. Rock gets the crossface on Benoit! Hebner calls for the bell! Rock won't release the crossface. Hebner confirms with Fink. The winner.....by DQ......and NEW WWF Champion CHRIS BENOIT! Rock is FURIOUS. Shane comes in and nails Rock with a chair. He and Benoit celebrate as trash is thrown in the ring. Rock is bleeding from the chairshot. We do the full series of replays as if that really is the finish. BUT WAIT! Here comes the commish! Foley walks right past Benoit and Shane straight to the ring. He takes a mic and says he said the title could change hands on a DQ, but he didn't see a DQ! As commissioner he orders this match to continue! Rock does the "bring it" wave. Rock slugs away. Benoit ducks under. ROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLING GERMANS! The last one with a bridge gets a 2 count. Crossface! Rock does a nice little thing, keeping his hand closed in a fist to help keep from tapping out. He sloooooooooowly crawls over and gets a rope break! ROCK BOTTOM OUTTA NOWHERE! Rock gets the pin! Back to back great matches to close the show. Like many WWF Title matches of the era it has too much Shane but they overcame that. The false finish was probably also unnecessary, but they did a great job of making it look like it really was the end. It's kind of the 2000 version of the Triple H booking trick of throwing the copyright box up before a big angle at the end of the show. ****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- After the speed bump of another dreadful King of the Ring 2000 WWF is back on track. The undercard has a couple of good matches and nothing that really approaches outright bad, while the top two matches delivered in full. On paper all the backstage segments might look like a negative, but it works because, other than the in-ring promo, they all had a clear purpose, were individually short, and were all really good.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-