Summerslam 2000

Legacy Review

Summerslam 2000

August 27, 2000 from the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena in Raleigh, NC

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

 

For the third straight year we have a new Summerslam logo, but unlike the last couple this one will stick around for a while. Nothing tops the classic one of course, but this is the best one since then so I approve. JR's sporting a bandage over a wound next to his eye, the result of an attack by Tazz. More on that when we get there. I will say off the top this is the angle that turned Lawler face, instantly changing the dynamic in the booth. Lawler will still lean heel on occasion, but overall booth is a more casual and relaxed one, an instant improvement. The best JR/Lawler years are here.

WWF was in the midst of one of its greatest "soap opera" style storylines ever coming into this show. It started when Triple H got caught in completely innocent but seemingly compromising positions with Trish Stratus. Steph only saw the surface, freaked out a bit and demanded she needed some space. While in that space she got some solace from one Kurt Angle and a new friendship was born. Despite Steph's protestations that they were just friends Trips was none too pleased. To crank up the tension even further Commissioner Mick Foley had Trips and Angle compete to see who would be the #1 contender for the Rock's WWF Title. When that proved inconclusive a triple threat match was booked for Summerslam. For a short time it seemed like Trips and Angle had gotten on the same page against Rock, but it wasn't long before Trips' jealous rage took hold again. The most recent Smackdown blew everything up. Steph teamed with Angle in a mixed tag match. During the match she got knocked off the apron and hit her head on the stairs. Trips came out, carried her to the back, then told her he'd go help Kurt. After the match Angle went to check on Steph, admitted how much he cared about her, then kissed her! Loopy Steph seemed to succumb to it. Tonight we get the aftershocks of that moment. And, you know, a title match.

Right To Censor def Too Cool in 5:12- The RTC is making their PPV debut here soon after their formation. They're intended to be a very Vince McMahon style parody of TV watchdog groups who had taken issue with WWF's turn into non-family friendly content during the Attitude Era. The group was put together and is led by former ECW star Stephen (formerly Stevie) Richards, who had recently made his WWF debut. Joining him in this six man match are Bull Buchanan and the heel turned Godfather, now known as the Goodfather. Their entrance "music" is some of the most annoying there's ever been, just a siren screeching nonstop. The Too Cool trio are coming off their sole title reigns and are now on the downslope from the mega popularity they had earlier in the year. Still popular though. Rikishi has two of Godfather's old hos (hoes?) with him, one of whom is future women's division star Victoria. The RTC jump before the bell. Rikishi 360 clotheslines Goodfather to the floor. Things settle in with Scotty and Buchanan in the ring. Scotty does a long run of dodging all around Buchanan and hits a crossbody off the top for 2. Double suplex from Too Cool and Scotty moonwalks. Sexay dodges a Goodfather superkick and backdrops him over the top to the floor. Hard landing on the apron on the way down for Goodfather there. Victoria goes to slap him but Goodfather pushes both women down. That leads to a "save the hos" chant from the crowd. Goodfather big boot on Sexay back in, then he and Buchanan give him a double big boot for 2. Richards tags in and hits a powerbomb for 2. Sexay crotches him on the top rope and hits a superplex. Enzuguri and tag to Rikishi, who fights off everyone. The RTC get stacked up in the corner, then squashed one by one, climaxed with Rikishi ass squashing Richards. Samoan drop on Goodfather. Buchanan hits a legdrop off the top on Rikishi. Scotty faceplants Buchanan and sets up the Worm. Richards cuts it off with a superkick and pins Scotty! The crowd does not like that. A quick, clean win to give the new group some credibility. 3/4*

We get some footage from earlier tonight on Heat. Angle arrived at the arena and refused to answer questions about Steph. A bit later Steph arrived. She asks Coach if Trips was here yet. Coach says no but then, almost stirring the pot deliberately, he says Kurt is here and went that way. Steph starts to walk in that direction, stops, thinks, then heads off a different way.

 

X-Pac def Road Dogg in 4:31- We are now fully into the final death rattles for the original version of DX. Pac and Dogg have been butting heads lately so this is supposed to be a "friendly rivalry" match to see who the better man is. The crowd is almost fully behind Dogg because Pac was generally one of the most loathed men in wrestling at this point because, well, he was pretty much a douchebag that never really tried anymore. Not that Dogg had been any better in the effort department the past year or so. Pac opens up with some chain wrestling and rides Dogg. Mandatory "X-Pac sucks" chant from the crowd. After ducking a leapfrog Dogg turns around and literally kicks Pac in the ass, sending Pac all the way out to the floor. Pac does his flippy hiptoss escape. Dogg blocks a swing kick and hits a clothesline. Corner kick combo from Pac. He goes for the bronco buster but Dogg gets the hell out of town, saying he knew that was coming. Pac hooks on a sleeper. Dogg fights out but runs into a spinning heel kick for 2. The bronco buster hits to almost no reaction. JR admits the crowd is "somewhat mixed". Dogg comes back with his dancing jabs and shimmy kneedrop for 2. He goes for the pumphandle slam. Pac counters out. Dogg blocks the X-Factor. He goes for the pumphandle slam again. Pac with a low blow kick! X-Factor! That gets the pin. After the bell Pac gets a mic and says no hard feelings, now we know, and offers a handshake. Dogg plants him with the pumphandle slam! Pretty bleh match that admittedly didn't get much time, but at the same time they did look like they were putting a bit of effort in there, much more than usual for them lately. Like the intra-Kliq matches of the mid '90s, they'll make the effort for each other but not anyone else. *

 

Mixed Tag Team Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: Chyna and Eddie Guerrero def Trish Stratus and Val Venus (c) in 7:04- As usual in these tag matches for singles titles, whoever gets the pin will be the champion regardless of who they get the pin on. Thanks to Chyna's experience working with the men the normal intergender rules are waived, anyone can wrestle anyone else. Venus is in his all white gear now. The guys start. Lockup! Venus slaps. Guerrero slugs. After taking a shoulderblock Guerrero does a nice trip of Venus from the mat. Dropkick. Northern lights suplex for 2. After a Guerrero flip counter Venus lays in some elbows. Backbreaker. Guerrero blocks a kick and Chyna comes behind Venus with a clothesline. After a bit of unsure setup the face team hits a double flapjack and Chyna covers for 2. She gives Venus a hard corner whip and some kicks. She counters a Venus slam attempt into a back elbow. Another hard clothesline. Trish distracts and Venus attacks Chyna from behind. Venus back suplex on Chyna. Delayed suplex. Chyna dodges an elbow off the second rope. Venus cuts a tag off. Low blow from Chyna! She hooks up for a powerbomb but Venus backdrops out. Chyna switches gears and hits a DDT. Tag to Guerrero. He hits a series of clotheslines, then makes for Trish, who quickly bails. Knucklelock hurricanrana for 2. Venus hot shots Guerrero in the corner. Powerbomb. Midring flying forearm collision. Trish tags in, runs over and covers Guerrero for 2. She lays in some kicks. Guerrero blocks one and gets a takedown. Tag to Chyna. Clotheslines. Venus pulls her down by the hair in the corner. The heels go for a double clothesline. Guerrero pulls Venus out to the floor. Trish runs into Chyna and goes straight down! That was Ric Flair bumping off the Giant level. Fantastic. Chyna press slams Trish, covers, and gets the pin to win the title! It's Chyna's second IC title win, and would also be her last. True to his word Guerrero is anything but upset, celebrating with Chyna and happy for her. It would be short lived however. A week later on Raw Guerrero would win the title for the first time by "accidentally" pinning Chyna in a triple threat match after Kurt Angle hit her with the belt, causing a rift in their relationship that will last a while. The match itself wasn't too bad when Guerrero and Venus were in, there's probably a good match in there. Trish is clearly still learning though, and Chyna peaked back the last time she was wrestling guys. *3/4

 

Steph is having some girl talk with one of the makup ladies and admits Angle is a good kisser.

The reign of terror Tazz has been on since his return recently extended to the broadcast booth after he decided to make JR a target. That caused Lawler to jump in to his broadcast partner's defense, formally turning him face. The previous Smackdown Tazz kidnapped JR, put him in Lawler's rental car, then smashed the passenger window in JR's face, causing the injury we see on this show. Just before the match starts JR offers Lawler some candy from the candy jar that has absolutely positively been there every single show they've ever done (I think I've seen it once on PPV before and that was earlier this year).

 

Jerry "The King" Lawler def Tazz in 4:21- Incidentally this is Lawler's first televised WWF match in over two and a half years, though he'd been working regular matches on house shows and in the indys (which WWF gave him permission to do, almost unheard of at the time) in the interim. Tazz comes out playing blind to mock JR. He goes to the booth asking if anyone's seen JR. Lawler says "See if he sees this", drops his headset, gets up and pops Tazz. In the ring Lawler hits a dropkick to Tazz's back and a clothesline, then lays in some ground and pound. Slam. Fist drop off the second rope. Tazz dodges another one and pounds Lawler down, taunting JR as he does so. Clothesline. He gouges Lawler's eyes and tosses him out. More JR taunting to his face. Lawler attacks from behind. Back in Tazz begs off, then hits a headbutt to Lawler's gut or perhaps lower. Setup slam. Lawler dodges a senton off the top rope. The strap is down! Piledriver! Tazz pops right back up! Ref Teddy Long gets knocked down. Tazz tells JR "I'm gonna choke him out, then I'm coming after you". He hooks on the Tazzmission and tells JR "Come on redneck!". JR's had enough! He's up out of the booth. He grabs the candy jar and smashes it over Tazz's head! Candy and sugar glass are everywhere! Lawler covers and Long, completely unquestioning of how that mess got there, counts the pin! The match was fine for the time they got but the whole angle was fun, even if it meant Tazz was absolutely not going to ever get anywhere in WWF. *1/2

JR gets back in the booth and says "Let's see how that feels you son of a bitch!". Tazz's head is busted open. Lawler celebrates and gets back in the booth. JR shows him that his finger is bleeding from the jar shot. Lawler says "He thought he was going to outsmart two old timers. I told you we had a plan". JR also says "We had a plan" then, in the absolute perfect cherry on top of the whole thing, looks right into camera and says "TAZZ CAN GO TO HELL!".

Shane's interview is interrupted by Blackman, who chases Shane to the ring.

 

WWF Hardcore Championship: Steve Blackman def Shane McMahon (c) in 10:17- This is in a period where Blackman was having a bit of a career revival by becoming the newest star of the Hardcore division. Shane defeated him for the title on Smackdown with the help of both T&A and Edge & Christian. If we have to have Shane on TV all the time this is much better than him being involved in every WWF Title match. Shane's still running and looking back during his entrance. Blackman comes in with a trash can and kendo stick. After getting in the ring he tosses Shane the stick. Shane doesn't want it and tosses it back. They repeat this a couple more times, then Blackman puts the stick at Shane's feet and turns around to offer a free shot. Shane takes it....and Blackman was ready for him! Suckered him right in. Shane quickly bails and runs all the way into the crowd. Blackman follows and gives Shane a trash can shot in the crowd. Commentary does a bit of a riff on Survivor. If you weren't around in the summer of 2000 you have no idea what a HUGE cultural phenomenon that first season of Survivor was. In a rarity for me, Mr. Anti-Trend, I got on board late that first season and immediately fell in love with the game, becoming a fan of the show for a good decade plus. I stopped watching for a long time, but over the past few years slowly watched again, or for the first time for later seasons, on Paramount+ and have really enjoyed getting back into it (nice to use PPlus for something other than the new Star Trek shows and occasional new South Park special too). The only reality show I'll ever watch, competition or otherwise, in my life. Anyway, Blackman tosses Shane back ringside and gives him a fairly weak leaping kick off the barricade. He gets a couple of trash can lids from under the ring. Lid shot to Shane's knees. Ouch. Spinning backfist with the lid to the back of Shane's head. Back under the ring Blackman gets his short sticks I'm sorry I have no idea what they're called that's not my area, and a leather strap. He puts a trash can on Shane then goes nuts hitting it with his sticks. Superkick to the can. Back suplex on Shane. A wrestling move! Blackman puts the strap around Shane's neck, then yanks him down off the second rope with it. Single leg crab with the strap pulling on the other side! That's clever. T&A run in and attack Blackman. After beating him down they hold him for Shane. Flying shot with a street sign on Blackman from Shane. T&A use the strap to drag Blackman past the stage into the tech area. Blackman dodges a large speaker or box almost dropped on top of him. He fights back and takes T&A out with a kendo stick. Shane tries to escape the only way he sees- he starts climbing up the stage. Blackman follows. They go up. And up. And UP. They're literally at the top of the entire stage, it has to be a good 50 feet up if not more. Easily twice Hell in a Cell height. Blackman gives Shane some kendo shots. They reposition. More kendo shots. SHANE FALLS OFF THE STAGE ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE FLOOR! HOLY SHIT! Blackman climbs down a bit, then leaps down onto Shane from about 20 feet up! He's hurt too, but manages to drape one arm over and gets the pin to win the title back! Well, the bar for crazy stunts in wrestling has just been raised. That was insane. You could see on replay Shane fell into a disguised well padded area and it was as safe as it could be, but still, pretty damn nuts. The match for the most part was OK, but all anyone remembers from this is the fall and rightly so. **1/2

Shane gets stretchered out. Steph is in her locker room beside herself about her brother. Angle walks in. Steph wants to know if Shane is OK. Angle pretty much blows the question off. "Yeah, he's fine, he just got the wind knocked out of him or something". Steph's still distraught so Angle takes the opportunity to give her a big old hug. Commissioner Foley walks in! Angle flies backward so quick he almost knocks the sofa over. Foley asks if he's interrupting "anything". Steph says emphatically no and asks about Shane. Foley says he'll take Steph to him.

 

Two out of Three Falls Match: Chris Benoit def Chris Jericho in 13:01- Running this back one more time because why not. If anything it's gotten even more intense despite there no longer being a title involved. Benoit and Shane are still paired up but Shane is obviously in no condition to be at ringside now.

FIRST FALL- Hockey fight jump start. Roll around brawl on the mat. They go into the corner still fighting. Ref Mike Chioda tries to break it up and all three tumble through the ropes to the floor! The fight continues uninterrupted down there. Finally Chioda backs Jericho off. He charges and Benoit runs him into the post! Back in Benoit gets a drop toe hold and tries for an STF. Jericho fights out and tries for the Walls. Since Benoit's fighting that he turns it into a corner slingshot. German suplex from Jericho for 2. Benoit does a tombstone reversal and hits a shoulderbreaker. Jericho gets a bulldog. He goes for the Lionsault but Benoit gets his knees up. Crossface! Jericho tries to fight it, but ends up tapping out.

SECOND FALL- No rest period tonight. we're right back into it. Benoit immediately tries to get the crossface back on. After a bit of resistance he does and really wrenches it back. Jericho very slowly drags himself over and manages to get a rope break. Bret bump from Jericho and Benoit puts him in the tree of woe, then goes down to the floor and cranks Jericho's shoulder back some more. More shoulder postings for Jericho all over the ring. Benoit covers for 2 before targeting the shoulder some more. Jericho gets a big open hand slap to try to start fighting back. Benoit ducks a shot and goes into ROOOOOOLING GERMANS. He only gets one before Jericho fights back. Benoit tries again. Jericho rolls him around and goes for the Walls! He gets it fully hooked in Liontamer style! Benoit taps out!

THIRD FALL- Jericho hits a backbreaker for 2. Chops. Corner back elbow. Flying back elbow off the top rope for 2. Benoit goes for a powerbomb but Jericho flips out. Benoit counters a powerbomb attempt into the bridge up/backslide spot. Switch from Benoit and he hits a dragon suplex for 2. He goes up top. Jericho joins him. Hurricanarana! Jericho's shoulder is hurt again and by the time he covers Benoit kicks out. Clotheslines from Jericho. Spinning heel kick. Back elbow. The Lionsault hits! Again the shoulder gets tweaked and Jericho can't cover. Running rolling cradle from Jericho. Benoit reverses it, grabs a rope for leverage out of Chioda's view, and gets the pin! Damn good stuff as always from these two, but not quite great or at the level of some of their previous (or future) matches. They didn't get nearly enough time to take full advantage of the 2/3 falls stip. ***1/2

 

Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: Edge and Christian (c) def The Hardy Boyz and the Dudley Boyz in 18:38- Here we are, the final culmination of everything these teams have been doing for almost the past year. The genesis of the idea for this match was that all three teams bring in their expertise. For the Hardyz it's ladders, the Dudleyz are obviously tables, which left chairs for E&C. This is also a hometown-ish match for the Hardyz (Raleigh is the closest city to their small hometown of Cameron) and the crowd is understandably nuts for them. The Hardyz are last to enter, charge in and it's on. E&C try to come in with chairs but the Hardyz take them away. A chair gets tossed in Bubba Ray's face. Bubba Ray then throws the chair into Jeff during a Poetry in Motion attempt! Barely a minute in and the crowd is already gasping. Christian hits a chair springboard corner crossbody on D'Von, then Edge drop toe holds him into the same chair. Edge is the first to bring a ladder in. Bubba Ray dodges a charge and Edge runs right into the ladder! Bubba Ray DDT on Christian. He's the first to try a climb. The Hardyz pull him down. Bubba Ray's leg gets caught in the ladder, dragging it down with him. Ouch. That could have been bad. You can see the Hardyz quickly check on him before continuing. Two ladders are now up. Jeff and D'Von climb. Edge Russian leg sweeps them both back down! Christian starts to climb. Bubba Ray gives him a Bubba Bomb off the ladder! Now Jeff climbs one ladder while two other ladders are stacked in the corner. Edge pushes him down. Jeff falls into one ladder, ricocheting the other one up right into Matt's face! That looked NASTY and even worse on replay. E&C hit some more chairshots before being run over by Bubba Ray with a ladder. Jeff also takes the ladder. Trying to use a chair as a shield did not work out for him. Edge takes the Dudleyz Whazzup drop. "D'Von........GET THE TABLES!". While D'Von does that Bubba Ray drops a ladder on Jeff just because. The table is in and set up. The Dudleyz 3D Christian through it! They go out for more tables and set up a double table stack at the end of the entrance aisle. Edge hits the Dudleyz with some chairshots. Matt Twist of Fate on Edge. He hits a legdrop off the ladder. Jeff follows up with a legdrop OVER the ladder. Edge gets put in a ladder sandwich. Christian tries to sneak up the top rope behind Matt. Matt sees and tosses Christian off into the ladder Edge is in the middle of! Meanwhile, Jeff has Bubba Ray set up on a table on the floor. The Jeff Hardy Suicide Ladder is out! All 20 feet of it. Jeff sets it up and climbs, as usual, all the way up to the very tippy top. Swanton Bomb! Bubba Ray dodges and Jeff crashes through the tables! Matt takes the 20 footer and sets it up in the ring. He climbs but Christian reverse DDTs him back down. On the other side Edge and D'Von come down into the ropes. A very wobbly Bubba Ray, who took a chairshot in the head from Edge earlier, manages to get in the ring. He starts to climb. E&C push the ladder and Bubba Ray FLIES down into the double table stack! He got three out of four. Not bad. Now E&C set the ladder up to a ton of boos. They start to climb. Lita runs out! She pushes the ladder and E&C go into the ropes! Matt gets the ladder back up and starts to climb. D'Von tilts it another direction and Matt goes flying down into more tables that we didn't even see get set up! On the floor Edge runs up and spears Lita! The back of Lita's head hit one of the ladders laying down there. Now Jeff, somehow still alive, and D'Von climb up. They get up top and fight for the belts. E&C come up and take the ladder away. Jeff and D'Von dangle by the belt hooks! They're still fighting! D'Von goes down into the ring! E&C hit Jeff with a ladder and Jeff falls down! E&C climb again and get the belts to retain to a huge chorus of boos. The crowd's not happy at first, but then as everyone leaves they give everyone involved an ovation for that masterpiece we just witnessed. Personally this is my favorite of the whole series of matches. It's shorter and tighter than the WM triangle ladder match. Not a single move this entire match was wasted or without a point. I also prefer it to the essentially 3v3v3 match that TLC II turns into. A whole new subgenre of wrestling matches was born here, and it couldn't have gone better. *****

 

Stinkface Match: The Kat (w/Al Snow and Head) def Terri (w/Perry Saturn) in 3:07- Talk about the textbook definition of a cooldown match. Saturn tries to cover Terri up during her entrance. I guess that's an audition for a spot in Right to Censor. The rules are the only way to win is by stinkfacing your opponent so of course it's thongs all around. Lawler predictably goes nuts the whole match, but he does have one funny line at the start: "Why can't we be in this match? I get Tazz!". After initial tossing around by Kat Saturn saves Terri from a stinkface. He carries her around the ring until Snow cuts him off. Back in Kat hits Terri with about the worst tackle or clothesline there's ever been, then follows up with some extremely weak cat fighting stuff. Kat does a bronco buster on Terri. Saturn gets on the apron and shoves Kat down. Terri hits an acceptable bulldog. Much better clothesline from Kat and a slam. She misses a butt splash. Terri goes for a stinkface but Kat kicks her away right into the ref's groinal area. Snow tosses Kat Head and she nails Terri with it. Stinkface and it's over. "Action" wise this is honestly worthy of a MINUS FIVE STARS, but no one expected anything better, it's pure T&A (not the tag team) disguised as a wrestling match, so I'll go easy on it. Plus Kat still looks pretty damn good and she's not wearing a whole lot. DUD

 

The Undertaker and Kane no contest in 7:33- It took no time at all for Kane to turn on Taker again after Taker's injury return. I'm fairly certain this is the debut of Kane's singlet top. JR makes a point to say no one wanted to ref this match and the one that got stuck with it, Jack Doan, has no intention of doing anything but let them have at it. Taker meets Kane in the aisle and we jump start with some back and forth slugging. Taker goes for Kane's mask. Kane snaps him over the top rope to get free and beats Taker down in the corner. He goes out and gets a chair. Taker cuts him off with rapid fire body shots and gives him a chairshot. Taker goes for the mask again and manages to rip the top part off. Kane's forehead is exposed. Hide the children. That sets Kane off. On the floor he goes for Taker with the stairs. Taker ducks and Kane runs the stairs into the post, which bounce back in his face. Taker then lifts the stairs and throws them in Kane's face! He gestures and shouts "Gonna take the fucking mask off!". Yes it is bleeped. Kane, taking advantage of having part of the mask off, is bleeding from the stair shot. Back in Kane hits a low blow and slugs on Taker. Taker hits a tackle and lays in some ground and pound. He goes for the mask again. Kane goozles him. Taker low blows to escape. The mask is off! Kane runs for the hills. Taker's music instantly hits. The match is over? The hell? JR says he never heard a bell to start but I'm pretty sure there was. Not that they were doing anything special anyway, but that non-ending is atrocious. I'm starting to think they'll never equal that first good match they had at WM 14. *1/4

Angle gets out his 2000 cell phone and calls Steph. Steph tries to pretend it's her mom. Trips wants to talk to her. Steph hands over the phone...."What the hell? Your mother just hung up on me".

 

Triple Threat Match for the WWF Championship: The Rock (c) def Triple H and Kurt Angle in 20:11- Among all the story insanity it's easy to forget this is Angle's first ever PPV main event. He takes Fink's mic after his entrance and not only doesn't apologize, says he should have done it sooner and he gave Steph the passion that HHH never could. HHH comes in (with I'm pretty sure remixed music) and he's HOT. He charges in and the fight is on Rock or no Rock with HHH out for blood. Hebner tries to stop it and gets shoved down. Angle takes that opening and hits a clothesline. Cactus clothesline! They get back in and HHH sidesteps Angle to use his momentum to toss him back out. The Spanish announce table gets cleared off. HHH sets up for a Pedigree on the table.....and the table has premature breakage! Angle's face went right into the table when that happened. HHH clearly and obviously checks on him while they're down and it's obvious Angle is completely out of it, to the point HHH pulls him down by the tights to keep him where he is so he can get checked out. He leaves Angle, goes under the ring, and gets Mr. Sledgehammer out. Rock's music hits and here he comes. He ducks a sledge shot and slugs away as the bell rings to officially start the match. Clothesline. Samoan drop. They go down into floor brawl mode while the medics are still checking on Angle. A stretcher comes out while HHH and Rock do some basic stuff in the ring, clearly waiting to see how they're going to have to proceed. Angle's put on the stretcher and carried out. HHH does a sloppy drop of Rock on the top rope and Rock falls to the floor. HHH chases after Angle! He pulls the stretcher back into the aisle and punches Angle a couple of times. Here comes Rock. Some fairly typical stage brawling follows with Angle on the stretcher still sitting there. As they work back toward the ring Steph comes out to check on Angle, then leads the stretcher to the back. Some more floor brawling between HHH and Rock as they're clearly having to change the whole match on the fly. Steph comes out to ringside despite the fact HHH told her to stay in the back for the match. He's not happy, but recovers composure to hit Rock with a high knee for 2. He tells Steph to get the belt. Steph slaps timekeeper Mark Yeaton before taking it! It's not like he was trying to keep it away, that was just letting out frustration. She gets in the ring. Rock gets set up, but ducks and HHH takes the belt shot! Rock stares Steph down. He grabs her by the hair to try to drag her back in. HHH low blows him from behind. Slaughter comes out to take Steph to the back, emphatically encouraged by HHH. Rock hits a diving clothesline. HHH with a neckbreaker. He goes out to get the sledge. Rock initially dodges it, but off a whip takes a sledge shot in the gut. JR is LIVID. Running kicks to Rock's now hurt ribs from HHH. Shoulders to the ribs. Rock's clearly hurt but manages to slug back. HHH hits the facebuster for 2. Knee to the gut. He goes out and posts Rock's back/ribs. More Rock sluggy comeback is cut off with another knee to the gut. Rock gets a swinging neckbreaker. Another knee to the gut from HHH. He goes up top. Rock joins and hits a superplex. We cut to the back and Steph, giving possibly the worst acting performance on a wrestling show ever outside Hulk Hogan in the Dungeon of Doom (no rehearsal time, this was all improv), begs Angle to please go and help HHH. Angle says he'll do it for her. Back to the ring. After an unsure exchange Rock hits a belly to belly suplex for 2. Steph drags a clearly still very loopy Angle down the aisle, and I don't think he's selling. He manages to trip Rock. HHH hits the Pedigree! Angle pulls him out of the ring! So much for helping HHH. He tosses HHH into the stairs! Steph is SHOCKED. Angle gets in and kicks Rock and he tries to get his equilibrium back. Back elbow for 2. Belly to belly on Rock for 2. Rock gives Angle a throw and hits a DDT for 2. Angle gets whipped into HHH and knocks him off the apron. Rock Bottom! HHH pulls Rock out! He tells Steph to go get the sledge. They try to set up a double team in the ring. HHH accidentally punches Steph out! That can't help the marital problems any. Or I dunno, maybe it will. Angle hits HHH with the sledge! Cover. Rock breaks it up and punches Angle 360 to the floor. People's Elbow on HHH! Cover and Rock gets the pin to retain! I've said Rock and HHH had gotten to the point they could have a good match in their sleep. This is as close as you can get to that. They clearly had to call the match on the fly after Angle got hurt in the botched table spot and, after some settling in, did it just fine. All credit to a clearly concussed Angle coming back in and managing to get his end run spots in with no issues too. ***1/4

As Rock celebrates on some of the staging area Angle pulls Steph out of the ring and carries her to the back. End show.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Another solid Summerslam in what's been a good run of them for several years now, and another good 2000 PPV. It's one of those shows where the match quality might not be there the whole show, but the great story work and overall creative hot streak atmosphere help make up for it. TLC I and Shane's fall are absolutely essential viewing.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B