Armageddon 2000

Legacy Review

Armageddon 2000

December 10, 2000 from the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham, AL

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

They've brought back the pile of trashed cars motif for the stage tonight, but not nearly as large as the first Over the Edge in '98. No ads for the legendary Brisco Body Shop either. During the open the Hell in a Cell cage, three quarters of the way lowered, gets spotlighted. Tonight's main event is a SIX way Cell match for the WWF Title. We get a clip of Commissioner Mick Foley from Heat, who put this match together despite protests, promising that if anyone gets seriously injured in the match he will resign as commissioner. We then cut live to the back as the Stooges greet Vince coming out of his limo. Vince is hobbling around on a cane. Completely forgot that. Can't remember if that's real or story. He's on a mission to stop the main event tonight. As he enters he walks by a truck with a bed full of sawdust we may or may not see again later tonight.

Elimination Match: The Radicalz (w/Terri) def Team Xtreme in 9:17- This got started when Lita, taking advantage of Chyna making intergender matches a thing in WWF for a time, challenged Dean Malenko for the Light Heavyweight title with the caveat that if she lost she'd have to go on a date with Malenko. She lost. The following week the date happened. Malenko and Lita both confessed feelings for each other with porno level acting. Maybe even worse. Things moved on to the hotel room, where a lingerie clad Lita asked Malenko what his wife thought of all this. He's even still wearing his damn wedding ring! He says it's all cool. Lita says that's fine with her and turns out the lights. The lights go back on and the Hardy Boyz are there! Sick creeps trying to watch. Oh, they attack Malenko. That makes more sense. All a RUSE by Lita. Lita's the only woman in the match so it's clearly anyone can wrestle anyone rules. Malenko looks super cereal even by his standards during the Radicalz' entrance. We get a jump start as soon as they hit the ring with Malenko trying to corner Lita while the others fight. Matt comes behind Malenko and back suplexes him to save Lita. Hardyz double suplex on Saturn, and another one on Guerrero. Gurerrero pulls Malenko out of the ring to save him, but Jeff comes down with a plancha on both of them. Saturn jumps Matt from behind in the ring. While talking about the date Lawler says "NEVER wear your wedding ring on a date". I'm pretty certain he's speaking from experience. Saturn suplex on Matt. The Radicalz look a bit legit discombobulated when Saturn goes to tag Guerrero in. Matt hot shots Guerrero in the corner, hits a back suplex and tags Jeff. Backdrop on Guerrero. Now Jeff and Guerrero look completely lost when Guerrero whips Jeff in the direction of the heel corner and then it goes nowhere. Jeff blocks a top rope hurricanrana. Lita comes in and hits a Twist of Fate on Guerrero. Jeff hits the swanton bomb and pins Guerrero to eliminate him. Jeff hits Saturn with a corkscrew moonsault. Poetry in Motion on Malenko. They try for that on Saturn as well but Saturn catches Jeff, hits him with a DVD, and Jeff is eliminated. Matt sunset flip on Saturn for 2. Diving clothesline for 2. Terri grabs Matt's foot and Saturn gives him a superkick. Matt counters into a Twist of Fate attempt, but Saturn re-counters that into a dragon suplex for 2. Saturn tries for a flying headscissors but Matt counters that and hits a legdrop off the second rope for 2. Malenko tries to come in but gets tossed out. Twist of Fate on Saturn and he's gone. Terri gets in the ring and slaps Matt! Lita spear on Terri! Malenko comes from behind, rolls Matt up, and pins him. It's down to Malenko and Lita. What an amazing coincidence. After a stare down Lita gets a flying headscissors! Victory roll for 2. Moonsault for 2. Lita hops on Malenko's shoulders again but sees Malenko trying to counter so she switches to hit a DDT for 2. They go up top. Malenko superplex! He covers but pulls Lita up at 2. Short clotheslines. Lita ducks a third one but catches a Malenko back elbow. Backbreaker, cover and again Malenko pulls Lita up. He hooks on the cloverleaf and Lita taps to end it. After the bell Malenko tosses Lita out to the floor and the Hardyz come out to save her. Lita and Matt look very snuggly there, the first real on screen hint of their real life relationship. **

Lillian Garcia interrupts Kurt Angle's warm ups and gets taken to task for it. It's one of those promos that goes on for so long you're not sure why it's still going, but it never gets outright bad, Angle keeps it together.

 

WWF European Championship: William Regal (c) def Hardcore Holly in 5:00- This is a rematch from Survivor Series. Regal had just been upset by Holly's cousin Crash at the UK PPV the week before this show and won the title back on the last Raw. This is Holly's home state and he gets a commiserate pop. Jump start #2 with Holly jumping. Regal powders and pulls Holly to the floor. After a slugfest Holly gets posted. Back in Holly hits a back suplex. He comes off the top rope into a Regal boot. European uppercuts from Regal. Superplex for 2. Regal puts Holly in a bow and arrow. After giving up on that Regal hooks Holly up in a double underhook. Holly counters, lifting Regal up on his back for a good 5-10 seconds! Impressive show of strength there. Holly then drops him for 2. Dropkick for 2. Setup slam and Holly hits a legdrop off the top rope for 2. Regal hits a counter powerbomb. He goes for an STF or the Regal Stretch but Holly's in the ropes. Holly hits a ripcord elbow with the Lex Luger forearm plate he has now following his broken arm. Before he can cover Raven runs in and plants Holly with the Evenflow! Regal, completely oblivious to Raven's interference, covers for the pin. *

Rikishi says that even though Angle broke up the three way heel alliance for the Cell match he and Trips are still cool.

 

Val Venus (w/Ivory) def Chyna in 5:05- Intergender match #2 tonight, and jump start #3 as Chyna storms the aisle to attack Venus. Right to Censor are targeting Chyna because of her recently released Playboy shoot. Ivory tries to get involved and gets tossed aside. Venus takes a stairs shot. In the ring Chyna gets a drop toe hold and lays in some ground and pound. Forearms and stomps in the corner. She ducks a Venus clothesline and hits a DDT for 2. Venus comes back with his short knees against the ropes and a Russian leg sweep. He tosses Chyna out and Ivory stomps her a bit. Double underhook suplex from Venus for 2. Chyna tries to slug back so Venus goes to the ol' eye poke. Slam but Chyna dodges an elbow drop. Sort of swinging neckbreaker from Chyna for 2. Another Venus short knee. Chyna clothesline for 2. Venus hits a powerslam and goes up top. Chyna dodges the Money Shot and covers for 2. Ivory trips Chyna and gets Chyna to chase her. Coming back in Venus hooks her up, hits a perfectplex, and gets the pin. After the bell Venus saves Ivory from a Chyna Pedigree and plants Chyna with a blue thunder bomb. It's still protect the RTC at all costs booking right now no matter how quickly stale the act has gotten. 1/2*

Steph pulls Vince aside backstage. Vince thinks it's to talk about his impending divorce, but Steph says no, she wants the main event cancelled tonight because she's scared what might happen to Trips if it goes ahead based on his past HIAC match. Vince says he's going to kill it right now. We then cut to a long video from earlier today of the Undertaker inside the Cell going over the highlights of his previous two HIAC matches, and promising he will make someone else famous in the same way tonight.

Vince's music hits and he hobbles his way out to the ring along with the Stooges. He starts out by saying he regrets nothing about what he said on last week's Smackdown, including demanding a divorce from Linda. He then says he's concerned for the wrestlers in the main event, asks for five seconds of silence for them and tries to get the crowd to turn against the match. When that doesn't work he storms off in a huff. That was like a 15 foot broken pencil- long and pointless.

 

Last Man Standing Match: Chris Jericho def Kane in 17:15- Another reminder all this started over a spilled cup of coffee. Kane's been burned by way, way worse. Jump start #4 again in the aisle. They quickly go straight back through the curtain to the back. We sit with an arena shot a long time while they try to "find a camera" in the back. Finally we cut back there. Jericho ducks an anvil case Kane tosses at him. They fight to, again, the truck with all the sawdust in the bed. There's a couple of workers that are just sitting on the truck bed chilling and suddenly there's two angry wrestlers barreling toward them. Freaking hilarious. Jericho ducks a shovel swing from Kane. Then somehow Mideon gets caught between the two of them and they BOTH punch him because it's Mideon. Also freaking hilarious. Thankfully he does have some clothes on. They continue brawling up the tunnel toward Gorilla and back out into the arena. Kane gets posted. They finally get in the ring and Jericho hits a diving back elbow off the top rope. A sort of Cactus clothesline, Jericho lands on the apron, sends Kane back out onto the floor. Jericho dives off the apron but Kane catches him and posts his back. Powerslam from Kane on the floor! Kane goes into slow beatdown mode both outside and in the ring. Big hiptoss from Kane and he hangs Jericho off his back, a move we've seen in all their matches. After a bit ref Teddy Long gets three arm drops on Jericho and orders Kane to release the hold, then he starts counting. I don't see the point of that. Kane sees Jericho almost back up at 7 and attacks him again. Jericho tries a spinning heel kick but Kane catches and slams him. After a couple of dodges Jericho goes for the heel kick again and hits it this time. A Lionsault attempt ends up on Kane's knees. Kane hits a clothesline off the top rope and punches Jericho down a few more times. Jericho gets up and makes it clear he wants more, then gives Kane a Spaceballs salute. Chokeslam! Jericho barely gets up at 9.5! Kane is furious and goes out and gets a chair. Chair to Jericho's gut. Chairshot to the back. Kane calls for a Tombstone. Jericho squirts free and hits a low blow, then a DDT. Chairshot to Kane's head. Flying forearm. Missile dropkick. Bulldog. Jericho puts the chair on top of Kane. Lionsault onto the chair! Kane sits up at 9. In theory at least, Long stopped counting at 8 when Jericho got up. Kane presses Jericho down to the floor! They wander through the destroyed cars to a tech area behind a huge stack of barrels that's also part of the state decorations. Kane gets up on a box and sets up to chokeslam Jericho through a table. Jericho fights out and bulldogs Kane through the table! The table just barely broke and Jericho clearly checks on Kane after. Jericho knows that still won't be enough. He pushes the giant stack of barrels onto Kane! As Long counts Jericho slowly staggers up the overturned barrels. Kane's hand pops through them, but Long gets to 10 and it's over! One of the most underwhelming Last Man Standing matches ever. It's not even in the same galaxy as the fantastic one Jericho had with Triple H earlier in the year. The only positives are the "bury the monster under a giant pile of shit" finish in these matches wasn't cliche or overdone yet, and this feud that's done no favors for anyone is mercifully over. *3/4

Coach catches up with Foley in his office. He asks if Foley has second thoughts about the main event after seeing that last match. Foley says the people want the match so despite any reservations it's going ahead. After that Shawn Michaels makes an appearance at WWF New York and JR quizzes him about his HIAC memories.

 

Fatal Four Way Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: Edge & Christian def Right to Censor (c) (w/Steven Richards) , The Dudley Boyz and K-Kiwk & Road Dogg in 9:27- Richards is gimpy on RTC's entrance. On the last Smackdown the Dudleyz acted like they were going to join RTC, then yelled "FOOLED YOU" and put Richards through a table. Kwik and Dogg are pandering to the crowd, wearing Crimson Tide gear. Hard as it might be for younger readers to imagine, Bama's football program was mired in a long slump of mediocrity before Nick Saban took over in 2008. RTC attack the Dudleyz at the bell. Close enough for jump start #5. Double team on D'Von and cover for 2. D'Von hits his diving back elbow. Buchanan responds with a big boot. Goodfather comes in and the no more hos train actually hits. Bubba Ray runs in and the Dudleyz high/low Goodfather for 2. Dogg tags himself in to the chagrin of D'Von. Then Edge tags himself in on Goodfather. E&C sucker Bubba Ray in. Bubba Ray and Dogg hit stereo mirrored jabs on E&C, until they turn and punch each other out! E&C then cover both for 2. Not bad at all. Kwik tags in, hits a flippy leg lariat on Edge and generally bounces all over the place. Christian grabs Kwik's arm from the apron and snaps it over the top rope. E&C start picking the target apart. Edge gets an armbar slam for 2. Goodfather tags himself in and continues the arm work, grounding Kwik with a hammerlock. Edge then tags himself back in on Buchanan. Kwik blocks an Edge double ax handle off the second rope and gives him a neckbreaker. Christian pulls Dogg off the apron, so Kwik changes gears and dives over to tag Bubba Ray. Commence hot tag run and soon it's EVERYONE IN THE POOL time. RTC get tossed out. Kwik goes for a plancha on them but they catch him and Goodfather gives him a shoulderbreaker. Dogg then dives onto all of them but then takes a Richards superkick. Back in the ring the Dudleyz give Edge the Whazzup Drop. Get the tables! D'Von runs over RTC on the floor with a table. The Dudleyz hit Edge with a Doomsday Device! Christian breaks the pin up. 3D on Buchanan. 3D on Goodfather with some nice rapid repositioning by Bubba Ray. Christian takes the Whazzup Drop. D'Von goes out for the table but Richards DDTs him onto it. Edge spear on Bubba Ray! Bubba Ray kicks out! Christian plants Bubba Ray with the Unprettier, Edge covers again, and E&C win the tag titles again, their 5th reign so far. Solid enough match even with all the guys in there. I always prefer four ways or more to be elimination matches, especially for tag teams. Despite the Venus/Chyna match earlier in the evening, this would be the start of RTC's slow fizzle out. **1/2

Steph tries to talk Trips out of wrestling in the HIAC match. Trips responds emphatically that the WWF Title is THE most important thing in his life and he will fight for it down to his last breath. As he leaves Steph looks still scared, but also proud.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Chris Benoit def "The One" Billy Gunn (c) in 10:03- Lockup! Hell yes, this is a proper IC title match now. After a rough corner break and reset Benoit gets the first real shots in. Speed run and Gunn does a full speed drop toe hold and hits a couple of armdrags. Hiptoss with a floatover cover for 2. Benoit gets tossed over the top to the floor. Gunn whips him into the post. Benoit whips Gunn into the stairs. Back in Benoit starts picking apart Gunn's knee. Gunn counters a kneebreaker into a sunset flip for 2. Benoit hits a basement dropkick to the knee and goes back to work on it. Dragon screw. Figure four! Gunn reverses and Benoit takes a rope break. Gunn slugs back. Benoit dodges a Stinger splash. ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLING GERMANS! Benoit hits all three and says that's it. Gunn dodges the headbutt off the top rope. Powerslam for 2. Press slam. Jackhammer. Gunn's still shaking the knee off. Fameasser! Benoit kicks out! Gunn tries to hook up for the cobra clutch slam. Benoit counters into the crossface! Gunn tries to fight it but Benoit gets it on! Gunn manages to get a foot on the bottom rope. Gunn completely fucks up a tiltawhirl attempt, then both guys lie there for a really long time trying to figure out what to do next. The crowd boos the fuck up and that. They try to get back going with Benoit getting a boot up in the corner and covering for 2 but everything still feels off. Straight drop back suplex from Benoit for 2. Gunn gets a flash small package for 2. Benoit wraps Gunn up and the crossface is back on! Gunn taps out! Benoit is now a three time IC champ. Gunn's one and only run with the belt lasted a whole 19 days (or 16 if you go by broadcast dates), which is also about the average length of a Billy Gunn singles push. The match was OKish but well below Benoit's usual standard. The crowd didn't care either even before the horrible botch toward the end. They dislike Benoit, but they still want nothing to do with Gunn no matter how many times WWF has tried to make him a singles star. **

Earlier today JR had a sit down....well, stand up at the bar, with his best friend Steve Austin. Austin's past the attempted vehicular homicide (thank God) and just wants to take ass and kick names.

 

Triple Threat Match for the WWF Women's Championship: Ivory (c) def Molly Holly and Trish Stratus in 1:40- Holly tackles Trish after the bell while Ivory watches. Hair whip. Holly hits some chops in the corner. Trish reverses a corner whip and gives Holly a monkey flip. Holly lands on her feet, but right into an Ivory clothesline. Holly ducks a double clothesline and hits a double dropkick. Small package on Trish. Ivory breaks it up. Holly tries a backslide on Ivory. Trish breaks that up. Trish and Ivory both hook Holly up, argue for a bit, then decide to hit a double suplex. High five between the heels! Then Ivory pops Trish from behind! They argue again. Holly hits a crossbody off the top rope onto both of them! That gets a 2 count. Ivory gets backdropped to the floor. Holly plants Trish with a Ligerbomb! Ivory comes back in, dumps Holly out, and covers Trish to get the pin! Way too short to matter but the wrestling itself was just fine. Miles better than recent women's matches in that regard. They're slowly improving. 3/4*

After the bell T&A come out and corner Holly. Crash runs in to save his cousin! He wants to fight T&A. Test laughs as T&A get in the ring. Music hits! THE APA ARE BACK! And they're even more pissed than usual at the guys that took them out. They hit the ring and fight T&A off to a pretty big reaction.

The Rock hypes up the main event with a pretty below standard promo for him. I was really hoping this was the one where he impersonated all his opponents in this match, but that one was on Raw the week prior. I'm including it here because it's one of Rock's best ever. "I did it.....for da Rock."

 

6 Man Hell in a Cell Match for the WWF Championship: Kurt Angle (c) def Rikishi, Triple H, The Undertaker, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock in 32:20- You can't deny the talent in this match. Five legitimate first ballot Hall of Famers at various stages of their careers, and Rikishi. Angle comes out third of the six, which like I said for the UK PPV doesn't say much about his status even as champion. Taker appears to have left his bike at home. This is also one of the few shows where his Limp Bizkit theme hasn't been dubbed over on the Network copy. During entrances every WWF referee is in the ring to keep everyone separated. Angle hangs out by the door while everyone else gets in. Austin comes out last, makes a beeline for the ring, then makes a hard right to jump Angle and here we go. With six guys and all the chaos I'm going to recap as best I can. Everyone pairs off in the cage based on previous feuds: Austin and HHH, Rikishi and Rock, Angle and Taker. Angle and Taker are first in the ring. We get a shot of the door being locked. Why do they bother when everyone knows they'll find a way to get out like always? I feel bad for the cameraman that has to work inside the cage, with six guys in there he's got much less room than usual, which is never much to start with. Taker takes his bandanna off and chokes Angle with it. Switch to Rock and Rikishi in the ring. Rock hits a flying clothesline. Another switch and Austin and HHH rotate in. Facebuster. Thesz press. Austin elbow drop for 2. Rock and Angle also get in. HHH hits the high knee on Austin. Rock Samoan drop on Angle for 2. HHH suplexes Austin on the floor. Angle baseball slides Rikishi into the cage. Austin rakes HHH's face on the cage and HHH is the first bleeder in the match. After some more cheese grater Austin tells the protesting Hebner he's #1, then rakes HHH's face all the way across the entire cage! Rikishi legdrops Austin as he's getting in the ring to save HHH. He helps HHH up. They hug....KICK WHAM PEDIGREE ON RIKISHI! Every man for himself. Rock breaks the pin up. Rock DDT on HHH. Angle breaks up the pin. Angle Slam on Rock! Austin saves that pin. Stunner on Angle! Taker makes the save. Chokeslam on Austin! HHH kills that pin and we've gone all around the finisher world. Taker tosses HHH into the cage all over. Austin dodges a Rikishi avalanche and hits a clothesline, then Thesz presses him. Wait a minute. That truck with all the sawdust in the bed is backing up the aisle, with Vince and the Stooges standing in it! It backs all the way up to the cage. A couple of workers hook up the door and use the truck to rip the door off! That's not enough for Vince. He says he wants the whole cage down. The workers hook up to the cage. Foley's music hits! Here he comes. He argues with Vince, then pops the Stooges! By the way, while all this has been happening we've gone literally minutes without a single shot of the actual match. Vince threatens Foley with his cane. Security come in and haul Vince off! He screams "I own this damn place!" as he's dragged off. Finally back to the match. HHH is wobbling up the aisle past the truck. Austin charges and clotheslines him in the back! They go to the stage area and Austin introduces HHH to the broken down cars there. Then Austin grabs the crane camera and swings it into HHH! Everyone's out of the cage now and fighting in the stage area around the cars. HHH pulls Austin into the truck and Austin's head goes through the side window! Austin's bleeding now. We get a replay of the crane camera shot on HHH from the camera's perspective. That's fantastic. Rock gets HHH on a car roof. HHH fights out of a Rock Bottom attempt on there. Pedigree on the roof! Now Rock's bleeding. Taker slams Angle on a car hood. Austin slingshots HHH into a car! HHH got some amazing hang time on that. Back toward the cage Taker chokes Angle with Fink's mic cord. Angle gets a chair and nails Taker with it. Taker's bleeding. HHH starts to climb the cage to get away from Austin. Austin tries to pull him back down, exposing some HHH butt crack as he does so. Austin changes tacks and climbs over on the other side, ambushing HHH from behind. They brawl on the roof. HHH teases falling off before slugging back. Now Angle and Taker are climbing. Austin gives HHH a Stunner on the roof! Now four guys are up there and we get a slow, thanks to the footing, four way brawl. HHH takes the smart road and climbs back down. Austin tries to stop him but then follows him down. Taker pounds on Angle on the roof. JR says Angle's bleeding. We won't see it for a while but he definitely is, as much as anyone in the match. Now Rikishi starts to climb. Rock looks like he's going to then says "Nah, you guys have at it". While the camera is focused on Rikishi climbing someone is trying to throw a chair up to Taker and failing miserably, drawing the ire of the crowd. On the third try Taker finally gets it. Chairshot on Angle. Rikishi gets the chair and wears Taker out with it while Angle climbs back down to get away from that. Taker gets up and slugs Rikishi close to the edge. They headbutt each other. The other four guys are all back in the ring. Rikishi wobbles on the edge. Goozle! TAKER PUSHES AND RIKISHI FALLS OFF THE CAGE INTO THE SAWDUST TRUCK BED! There's your Taker making someone famous moment. Ironically, this is the fall off the top of the cage moment that's pretty much been forgotten about today. It's also the last time anyone went off the top of the cage until Shane McMahon at Wrestlemania 32 in 2016 (which I was there in person for). After some recovery/replay time we cut to a shot of Rock and Austin nose to nose in the ring. There they go! The crowd goes nuts for it. Rock fights off a Stunner and hits a spinebuster. He slowly wobblelegs himself back up. Pad off. HHH jumps Rock before he can go for the People's Elbow! Rock lays in the smackdown punches on HHH. Angle gets in the ring and runs right into a Rock Bottom! Austin *barely* breaks the pin up in time! Stunner on Rock! With mandatory oversell. HHH grabs Austin and gives him a neckbreaker. While that was happening Angle crawled over and just barely draped an arm over Rock. Hebner counts 3 and Angle gets the win, pinning Rock! Great finish. That's the third I, intelligence. Angle's a bloody mess too, it looks like he's bleeding from an ear instead of the usual forehead bladejob. After the bell Austin gives Angle a Stunner to send the crowd home relatively happy. With six guys in there you knew it'd be pure chaos, and they'd get out of the cage at some point because it was almost mandatory. On the whole they did a fine job, but I think the match went a bit too long, particularly the segment they were all brawling around the cars it bogged down a bit. Cut 5-7 minutes off and it's likely a better match. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Like Survivor Series this is a perfectly average show with a serviceable undercard, nothing great nothing truly awful, and a solid main event. For the December PPV though, average is a step up from the usual. WWF closes out an overall spectacular 2000 more on a lull than a high note, but it was still a great year that pretty much finished off WCW for good (aided by WCW having their head firmly up their ass most of the year). Personally I still think 1997 is the best year of the era by just a tick over 2000, but that takes nothing away from this year. As we head into 2001 we'll be getting a Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania season for the ages, and a spring that will change the face of wrestling forever.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C