King of the Ring 2000

Legacy Review

King of the Ring 2000

June 25, 2000 from the Fleet Center in Boston

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

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

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+