World Wrestling Federation – Judgment Day 2000 – 21st May 2000
So what do you do after your biggest star defeats your most dastardly heel for the top prize in your company in the main event of one of your most memorable pay-per-view events of all time? In 2000 that was the conundrum the WWF were posed with – and their solution was simply to book it again. But in true sports-entertainment fashion this one was going to be bigger, longer and more elaborate. This time they were going to put The Rock and HHH in the first Iron Man Match for years. With Steve Austin still injured, Undertaker not (quite) back yet, Shawn Michaels still a couple of years from returning and growing stars like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit deemed not ready for the main event scene, certainly it’s an understandable decision. But even looking back some thirteen years later, the decision to book this one seems colossally ambitious. Hunter and Rocky are at their peaks, but most people doubted they had sufficient material to fill a 60-minute bout. To this day opinion is still split about how good the Bret/Shawn Iron Man Match was, and these two definitely aren’t in that league. At least HBK will be in the ring (as guest referee) to help them out as things progress. Elsewhere on the card Benoit and Jericho collide again, this time in a Submission Match for the Intercontinental Title. The Radicalz implode with Eddie Guerrero defending the European Championship against both Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko, whilst the Dudley Boyz meet D-X (Road Dogg and X-Pac) but are presumably more interested in putting Tori through a table. We’re in Louisville, KY with Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler on commentary.
Show opens with the famous ‘In One Hour’ video package. In a phenomenal year for ppv-opening hype videos this is quite possibly the best (even over the Foley/HHH at the Rumble and No Way Out).
The McMahon-Helmsley Faction gear up for a successful evening, after sending Hardcore Champion Gerald Brisco out for some beverages. He doesn’t make it far before the Headbangers assault him and look to win the title under 24/7 rules…
Edge/Christian/Kurt Angle vs Too Cool/Rikishi
The alliance between the Olympic Gold Medal winner and Edge & Christian was an interesting one. It produced some wildly entertaining skits, helped showcase a completely different side to Angle’s persona, and helped E&C slide into a cocky heel gimmick which ended up doing huge business for them. Tonight they come up against the crazily over Too Cool/Rikishi group. Grand Masta missed Backlash with a knee injury – so presumably won’t be fully fit now just a month later.
The pre-match festivities have Kurt Angle preaching abstinence, then joining Edge & Christian in a ‘jug band’ Five Second Pose. This was a great time to be a WWF fan! Too Cool and Rikishi crash the party, with E&C having to save Kurt from a big butt splash. Too Cool hit some combo moves on Edge, and enjoy similar success on Christian when he tags in. It’s a wildly unsuccessful start for the Tag Champions, with Edge getting ploughed into his own partner’s crotch with a drop toehold. Indeed, it’s goes so well that Scotty and Grand Masta start joking amongst themselves…and Rikishi gets his hands on Angle! The heels try to use the numbers to get the better of Rikishi – a tactic that works to a certain extent as he has to tag Scotty in, and he’s certainly easier to work over than the big Samoan. ALLEY OOP INTO THE TOP ROPE from Scotty to Christian! This time there’s no stopping Rikishi and he mows his opponents down like grass. Kurt gets the Stinkface…but recovers to save Edge from the Rikishi Driver. Edge attempts The Worm on Rikishi…COUNTERED to The Worm by Scotty! Christian nails Rikishi with the ring bell…but Sexay lands the HIP HOP DROP on Edge! He drags the unconscious Rikishi on top of Edge, and that’s the win for his team at 09:44
Rating - ** - The crowd absolutely loved this, so you have to count it as a success. However, there have been a number of undercard trios tag matches on WWF ppvs thus far this year and if I’m honest I thought this was one of the weaker ones. No disrespect to Too Cool and Rikishi, but they aren’t better workers than Edge, Christian and Kurt – yet they spent far more of the match on offence. There were some genuinely fun and exciting moments of course, but a lot of this was lost to somewhat bland, gimmicky and vapid babyface spots. The finish continues Rikishi’s little push though, and nicely sets the scene for Too Cool to be E&C’s next major challengers.
Michael Cole quizzes Shawn Michaels on his agenda as Guest Referee in the main event. He sidesteps every question and doesn’t confirm if he’ll be impartial or if he’ll favour one of the workers.
Clips from Sunday Night Heat next – showing Eddie Guerrero arriving with Chyna, and Dean Malenko showing up to tell to play fair in the European Title Match this evening. He says it should be settled between the three Radicalz…and Eddie ‘agrees’. Perry Saturn grumbles something too…but less people care about what he has to say.
Eddie Guerrero vs Perry Saturn vs Dean Malenko – WWF European Title Match
So after taking the WWF by storm when they debuted at the end of January, and after delivering multiple fun matches and really proving they belonged in the promotion, the company decided to make the slightly strange decision of splitting them up. Benoit was viewed (rightly) as the break-out star, so he was pulled away from the other three – who now squabble amongst themselves over Eddie’s European Championship. Perry and Dean think Chyna has driven a wedge between he and the group, whilst Saturn’s jealousy at being the only Radical not to win a championship thus far is a sore point for him. There are plenty of bragging rights to be had here, alongside the title.
Eddie and Perry start fighting whilst Malenko makes his entrance, and since it’s first pinfall wins that forces the Light Heavyweight Champion into a sprint just to make it into the ring. The two challengers realise they are the least over of the four Radicalz, so form an alliance to assault Guerrero. It doesn’t last long though, with Saturn snatching an opportunity to clock an unsuspecting Malenko with a clothesline. Eddie low blows both of them (lying, cheating and stealing of course), then grabs Dean for a ROPE RUN flying headscissors. He goes for another headscissors only to have it countered into a sidewalk slam for 2 from Malenko. The champion has better luck catching Saturn with a tornado DDT seconds later…but turns a blind eye to his other challenger allowing Dean to pounce and hit the Tiger Driver for his own nearfall. Texas Cloverleaf broken by Perry though. AVALANCHE GUTBUSTER from Malenko to Guerrero! Saturn tries to steal the win by stealing Eddie’s finisher – getting 2 on him with a frog splash. Having seen that attempt fail, he then lifts Malenko’s finisher by putting him in the Texas Cloverleaf. No dice on that either though, as Eddie pulls him up for a brainbuster. Malenko puts the Rings Of Saturn on Perry! Dean hits a horrendous frog splash on Guerrero too! On the outside Chyna knocks Saturn unconscious with the lead pipe concealed in her bouquet of flowers. Malenko tries to grab the pipe…only for Chyna to trip him straight down on top of it. Eddie capitalises with La Magistral, and gets the victory at 07:56
Rating - ** - These guys needed more time I think. They made the best of what they had, and threw as many spots as they could out there, but it all felt a little hectic and uncoordinated. I liked the sequences where they stole each others moves, and it was cool to see Eddie lying, cheating and stealing way before he made it his gimmick. By this point it was already clear that Guerrero was the star of this trio, with this match really only existing to emphasise that point. As a pure wrestling fan I’d have preferred them to have booked an Eddie/Dean singles match.
Gerald Brisco is so paranoid about challengers coming after his Hardcore Title that he bumps for his own reflection in the bathroom mirror.
Shane McMahon vs Big Show – No DQ Match
As far back as No Way Out we saw Shane and Show form an alliance. Shane helped Big Show defeat The Rock that night. He was in Show’s corner during the Wrestlemania main event too. Big Show has also had Shane and the McMahon-Helmsley Alliance’s back against several of their enemies. But after falling out of the World Title picture Big Show wanted to have a little fun. He dressed up like Hulk Hogan on pay-per-view. He dressed like a Scotsman, he danced with Rikishi and the crowd really loved it. But McMahon didn’t. He called Show an ‘unmotivated slob’, and after being caught mocking the ‘Big Nasty Bastard’ (I loved that shirt), he challenged him to this match. On Smackdown Shane orchestrated a 7-on-1 assault, assisted by Road Dogg, X-Pac, Test, Albert, Bossman and Bull Buchanan. Big Show will be desperate for some revenge.
McMahon tries to catch the giant by surprise, but is caught in mid-air attempting a suicide dive and tossed effortlessly into the ringpost. A body slam into the steel steps comes next in a chastening first minute of the match for Shane. Big Show is dominant…until Big Bossman runs in and starts assaulting him with the nightstick. Jack-knife powerbomb scores on the Bossman, but here come T&A with chairs! Show PUNCHES the chairs into their faces! Trish Stratus is in the ring! SHOW THROWS HER OVER THE ROPES AT T&A! Shane McMahon has used the distraction to flee, but is caught in the aisle and launched into the metal set! Show rips out a hunk of scaffold from the set, only for Shane to swing off the Titantron and boot it into his face. Nice resourcefulness from him, and with Test and Albert still on hand a three-on-one assault ensues. Bull Buchanan appears and gives Big Show another nightstick beating. Shane then tips a heavy amp over on Show’s leg. Stupid amounts of pyro are involved in that stunt…and with Show trapped Shane lugs over a cinderblock (in reality a really badly disguised breezeblock) and smashes it over his head! With lots of help, it’s a McMahon win at 07:11
Rating - ** - Inevitably this was massively overbooked, but some of the stunts were actually entertaining. Shane took some wicked bumps, the Trish bump from the ring to T&A on the floor was wild and it felt totally out of control with wrestlers tearing up the set to beat each other up. The finish was a little juvenile and, to me, didn’t look particularly realistic. Even watching this show live I thought they’d gone too far and it felt too cartoonish.
In the continuing adventures of Gerald Brisco, he creeps into the referee’s locker room seeking refuge to take a nap. He can’t even shut his eyes before two of the refs think about stealing his championship.
Elsewhere, Triple H and Shawn Michaels are catching up. They talk like old friends, but aside from a question about HBK’s refereeing shorts the main event isn’t mentioned at all.
Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho – WWF Intercontinental Title Submission Match
This feud for the IC Championship continues at pace. Benoit won the title at Wrestlemania, and immediately had to deal with his old rival Y2J chasing him for it. They produced an absolute war at Backlash, which ended when Jericho smashed Benoit’s face in by getting the championship belt (which Benoit had brought into the ring), getting himself disqualified. The Wolverine was irate at the damage done to his face, and offered Y2J a rematch here tonight – with the stipulation being that it would be a submission match. In a late twist, Benoit comes in carrying a knee injury after he was assaulted by Hardcore Holly on Smackdown this week.
These two start where they left off at Backlash – ripping into each other with some vicious strikes. The first submission attempt comes from Jericho, who grabs a Fujiwara armbar but can’t make it stick for the win. Benoit hits back with a shoulderbreaker, instantly starting to soften his opponent up for the Crossface. FLYING WOLVERINE ON THE SHOULDER! The damage is immediate and obvious as Y2J goes for the Walls only for Benoit to easily kick his way free. A springboard dropkick knocks the Crippler out of the ring – which works out to the champion’s advantage as he flings Jericho shoulder-first into the steps. SHINBREAKER ON THE STEPS by Jericho, attacking the injured knee of Benoit for the first time. Back in the ring they go, absolutely toasting each other with a flurry of chops before the Wolverine evades a sprinting Jericho to drive his shoulder into the ringpost. If that wasn’t bad enough, he then exposes the turnbuckle bolt and starts slamming Jericho’s arm into it. Benoit is such a f*cking genius when it comes to this sort of thing. When he hits a snap suplex he is clutching at the bad arm. When he hits a simple knee drop it’s right across the shoulder. Even a cross armbreaker is applied at a really high angle to ensure maximum damage to Y2J. The challenger is up against it, but has a stroke of luck as he ducks a knee strike and causes Benoit’s bad leg to jar into that exposed turnbuckle bolt. He instantly capitalises with a dragon screw…before ripping the protective knee brace off. Spinning toehold attempted only for Benoit to BOOT HIM RIGHT IN THE FACE! Jericho puts the champ down again with the Lionsault. WALLS OF JERICHO IN THE ROPES! Benoit gets his arm free, then kicks at Jericho’s shoulder to escape the hold. ROLLING GERMANS! Check out Y2J kicking at the leg between the suplexes trying to stop them! Benoit grabs his metal knee brace and waffles Jericho with it to block the Walls Of Jericho again. CRIPPLER CROSSFACE! Jericho fights it, but can’t shake off the tenacious champion, who has him round the throat. The ref stops it at 13:26
Rating - **** - Another awesome match from these guys. If anything this was better than Backlash, and was once again a really physical and brilliant clash between two opponents who know each other inside out. We saw two masters of their craft here, doing so many clever and subtle little things that most people wouldn’t even dream of. The way Benoit was attacking the shoulder with almost every motion was superb. The neat little things Jericho was doing to sell the assault were perfect. It’s hard to talk about Benoit these days without feeling guilty, which, as a wrestling fan, is so tough because these two are absolute magic in the ring together.
Looking for revenge after his face was caved in at Backlash, Benoit refuses to let go of the hold despite the fact that Jericho has been choked into unconsciousness. I’m not touching that one…
Michael Cole has caught up with Gerald Brisco, who sulks about everyone trying to take his title. He assaults some popcorn vendors who appear to have funny ideas, then leaves
The Rock has caught up with Shawn Michaels. There’s no friendly chit-chat between those two – with the champ telling HBK to call it down the middle or deal with him.
Road Dogg/X-Pac vs Dudley Boyz – Table Match
We all know the Dudleyz have a fetish for putting women through tables. They have their targets locked onto Tori, after suffering more than one beating at the hands of the D-X duo. Both these two would love shots at the Tag Titles too, making a win in a big grudge match like this vitally important. A recap package reminds me that Tori actually put Bubba Ray through a table by diving off the top rope to a table on the floor. She was annoying as hell but f*ck me she earned her spot in the first half of 2000 with some crazy bumps and spots.
For some reason they start working this like a regulation tag match, which is annoying. D-X look well in control for 90 seconds or so – until X-Pac goes for a table and finds himself getting battered by Bubba. The Dudleyz give both opponents Wassup Headbutts, with Tori distracting the ref (not that it would matter since it’s a Tables Match), and with that the trio decide to call it a night. They don’t even get as far as Shane McMahon got earlier in the show, and are captured halfway up the aisle for more punishment from the former Tag Champions. Another distraction from Tori proves more effective, as she gets Bubba Ray’s attention whilst Road Dogg and X-Pac beat his brother up behind his back. Once again we go back to standard tag format – which has become so annoying that even JR and Lawler point out that Bubba being forced out of the ring by referee Mike Chioda is ridiculous. D-Von makes a tag, not that it matters, but since the ref didn’t see it he doesn’t allow the tag. IT’S A TABLES MATCH! Finally D-Von makes a tag which is considered legal in a match with no rules, allowing Bubba to dish out punishment to both opponents. The Dudleyz fill the ring with tables but take so long doing so that Dogg has time to recover…PUMPHANDLE SLAM THROUGH A TABLE ON D-VON! X-Pac tries to make it worse with a hugely impractical Bronco Buster through another table on the same guy, but is interrupted by Bubba…who POWERBOMBS him through a table. Waltman landed with an absolute splat there! Fed up with him trying to enforce the rules, Bubba and Road Dogg toss the ref through a table too! Gerald Brisco has come to the ring and has to watch as the Dudleyz put Dogg through a table with the 3-D. Of course, the referee is down so hasn’t seen that…and here comes Tori! Brisco punches Bubba in the nuts to save her from a table…and X-Pac counters with a TOP ROPE X-FACTOR THROUGH A TABLE! Chioda sees that, and awards D-X the win at 10:54
Rating - * - We got some good table spots which, to an extent, saved what was an awful match before that. If officials didn’t want these guys working an ‘ECW style’ match (as we saw between the Dudleyz and the Hardyz at the Royal Rumble) then why book this match at all? Or why not at least stipulate that it’s a ‘normal match’ and everything other than tables results in a DQ? The crowd (who have been excellent all night) weren’t buying it, and when even JR and Lawler, with the production team in their headsets feeding them lines, can’t figure out a way to explain why Bubba is being thrown out of the ring by the referee you know you have problems.
Having won the match for his team, Brisco inexplicably doesn’t leave – and instead gets in the ring to give the ‘suck it’ gesture to Bubba. 3-D THROUGH A TABLE! Despite having the Hardcore Title at their mercy and a slew of referees at ringside, neither Dudley opts to pin him for the belt.
HIS JUDGEMENT DAY IS…HERE – A video package is played. Creepy little girls, ominous abandoned factories, Kid Rock…connect the dots.
The Rock vs Triple H – WWF Title Iron Man Match
Anybody who thought that HHH and the McMahon-Helmsley Faction would accept losing the title at Backlash and go quietly into the night was obviously mistaken. Triple H wanted his rematch, and he issued the challenge to The Rock – he wanted an Iron Man Match. Given that The Rock isn’t renowned for his strategy and technical wrestling skill, whilst HHH has a reputation for being one of the most cerebral workers around, it’s obvious the match favoured him…but still the champ accepted. Enter Shawn Michaels, who won the most famous WWF Iron Man Match of them all when he beat Bret Hart at Wrestlemania to win the title. The selection of him as referee is particularly interesting. Not only does he have experience with this type of match, but he’s also got prior experience refereeing WWF Title Matches between Hunter and Rocky – including screwing The Rock out of victory in favour of his best friend. After months of war between these two, after all the beatings, the bloody assaults, the table bumps, the Wrestlemania screw job, the McMahon-Helmsley Faction, and after those memorable scenes at Backlash it all comes down to one final match between these great rivals. They have one hour, a massive axe to grind and an overwhelming desire to prove who the best man is and who deserves to be WWF Champion. To that end, Triple H sends Stephanie, Shane and Vince to the back so he can settle the score with The Rock man-to-man.
The crowd is genuinely in a frenzy from the moment The Rock’s music hit. The WWF in 2000 was truly a remarkable spectacle. With Lawler and JR debating how he should change his strategy, Rocky has clearly thought about his approach and deliberately starts slowly, trying to grind HHH down with headlocks. He can’t maintain that sort of methodical pace though, and soon starts sprinting into shoulder blocks. Hunter leaves the ring to kill his momentum, although with the champ sucking air in the ring with Shawn Michaels the challenger may actually have done him a favour. In the early going that’s a tactic Hunter uses often – repeatedly leaving the ring to stop Rock building up a head of steam. At last HHH looks to go on offence, unsurprisingly adopting a more cerebral approach. He starts attacking the arm – not particularly to win a fall, but simply to wear Rocky down without exerting too much energy himself. At 10 minutes he gets the first nearfall with an armbar DDT. ROCK BOTTOM! It’s nailed out of nowhere, and The Rock goes 1-0 up at 10:43! With the comfort of a fall in the bag Rock cranks up the aggression and drags his adversary to the floor and puts a beating on him against the guardrails. Helmsley crunches his leg against the barricade, and it gets worse for him as The Rock starts repeatedly smashing it against the ringpost. Figure 4 Leglock applied (Rock used that to win a Submission Match a couple of months ago on Raw)…but despite the pain he’s in HHH knows he simply can’t afford to go 2-0 down!
He manages to escape the hold without tapping but is limping badly at this stage. They go into the crowd – but quickly have to evacuate back to ringside as the fans go completely nuts and swarm them. We’re a third of the match down and Helmsley seems a long way behind right now. He goes back to a strategy of wearing Rocky down, dropping elbows across his chest then mounting him for a basic knucklelock which forces the champ to expend vast amounts of energy simply to avoid being pinned. Rock takes the match back to the floor and whips Triple H knees-first into the steps. The commentators voice their surprise that it’s the champion who is displaying the more coherent strategy and dealing with the Iron Man stipulations more sensibly. Almost as a last resort Hunter goes for the home run swing…PEDIGREE NAILED! Despite being utterly dominated, he has somehow made it 1-1 at 25:27. With The Rock dazed a wounded HHH realises this is his window of opportunity. He pounces – choking and punching at his opponent. One small package later, and HHH finds himself leading 2-1 in a time of 26:27! This match just turned on it’s head in the space of a minute! Just as Rocky did after he hit his finishing move and took the lead, Helmsley takes the match to the outside, hauling the champion all the way up the aisle to throw him into the entrance set. BACK SUPLEX ON THE FLOOR BY ROCK! But he collapses as he hits it and both men are down. This is now the longest match either man has ever competed in as we cross the halfway point. Shawn isn’t counting and is letting them trade big bumps on the floor, telling JR that he doesn’t want a ‘BS double count-out’. They go back into the ring, and just as The Rock looks to crank up the aggression and even the scores, Hunter cuts him off with a JUMPING PILEDRIVER! IT’S 3-1! 32:22 is the time, and the challenger looks to have an unassailable lead.
So confident is he that he tries an uncharacteristic top rope move…and finds it countered with a ROPE RUN ARMDRAG! As if that wasn’t enough of a surprise, Rocky breaks out La Magistral too – but it’s not enough to get a fall back, and HHH drops him again with a jumping knee strike. In a quite genius move Triple H locks in a sleeper hold. It kills time, it further exhausts the champion and it is an energy-efficient move to execute. With just over 20 minutes left on the clock this looks all but over. HHH gets too cocky trying to use the ropes to his advantage, and when HBK calls him out on it he gives Rock an opportunity to escape with a desperate belly to belly suplex. He’s so exhausted he semi-botches his floatover DDT, but recovers quickly and nails an EVENFLOW DDT! At 40:34 he takes the score back to 3-2! Triple H tries to pop Rocky with a chair…only for Michaels to snatch it from him mid-swing! SWINGING NECKBREAKER ON THE FLOOR! HHH SMACKS HIM WITH THE CHAIR! Shawn has to DQ Triple H, meaning it becomes 3-3 at 43:40…and then it immediately becomes 4-3 HHH because he pins the unconscious Rock! And since the champ is bleeding as we enter the fourth quarter it looks like it was a risk worth taking. He cranks on the sleeper hold again and looks to be cruising to the WWF Title. Rock is unconscious and unresponsive, prompting Shawn to award another fall to Hunter at 47:27. It’s now 5-3. HBK has to drag Triple H off The Rock to break the hold, and the former D-X brothers get into a shoving match whilst Rocky peels himself off the canvas.
With a remarkable surge of energy he whips HHH with such force that it catapults him over the turnbuckles, to the floor and into a cameraman. The crowd are absolutely begging Rocky to get back into the match and the pop when he plants The Game with a superplex is enormous. Neither man has a lot left in the tank, simultaneously botching a basic Irish whip spot and flopping out of the ring in a stumbling heap. The Rock needs to be the aggressor here and acts as such by catapulting his opponent into the ringpost. There’s basically five minutes left as Hunter starts peeling equipment away from JR’s announce table. He wants to ROCK BOTTOM The Rock through it! The ultimate insult…UNTIL ROCK COUNTERS FOR A PEDIGREE INTO THE TABLE! Yes – INTO the table. It didn’t break and HHH took a horrendous faceplant landing. At 56:03 HHH is counted out moving Rock to within a fall at 5-4. It’s crunch time and HHH is bleeding, but if he needed a lift here come Vince, Shane and Steph to lend their support. Rock has three minutes to find a fall! DDT again, but Shane and Vince hop onto the apron to stop him pinning him. SPINEBUSTER! PEOPLE’S ELBOW! IT’S 5-5 AT 57:59! On the floor Shawn Michaels is fighting with Vince and Shane! Road Dogg and X-Pac have appeared and they assault Rocky just as he lays out Hunter with another Rock Bottom. It’s chaos, and amidst it all that creepy video package with the little girls has started playing on the Titantron. UNDERTAKER IS BACK! There’s less than a minute to go, and the Phenom is laying waste to the entire McMahon-Helmsley Faction! HHH saves Stephanie. CHOKESLAM ON HELMSLEY! THE TIME HAS EXPIRED! And HBK saw Undertaker give Triple H that chokeslam! Rock loses a fall by disqualification – meaning HHH wins it 6-5!
Rating - **** - Over the years this has become a really divisive match. I’ve seen some people really low ball this ratings-wise, and equally I’ve seen people inexplicably give it 5*’s. I’m somewhere in the middle. It’s nowhere near a five star match, but considering their limitations and the extraordinary intricacy of their closing sequence, this was actually really good. Lets call a spade a spade, The Rock has no business wrestling 60-minutes. He’s a wonderful performer, he’s incredibly charismatic and, particularly at this stage of his career, he was great at working the ‘WWF style’. But he was horribly exposed as a one dimensional worker in an hour. HHH tried to feed him storyline threads (working the arm, injuring his leg etc) but it just wasn’t happening. However, they did work some interesting little plot devices in there. I liked that they both tried to become more aggressive and take more risks when they had the safety of a fall advantage. The chair spot was utterly BRILLIANT. And, for as overbooked as it was, that finish was a magnificent spectacle. There were bodies flying everywhere, crazily OTT video packages, Undertaker on a motorbike and a finish which was remarkable in it’s precision execution (even if the decision to give the belt back to Hunter was an odd one). It’s not in the league of HBK/Bret, and it’s certainly not even close to some other 60-minute matches of the modern era (the Joe/Punk 60-minute draws in ROH for instance) but I thought this had aged rather well. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler were superb on commentary too. Not an all time classic, but a great main event for one of the smaller ppvs. Nobody thought these guys could pull off ‘the hour’ – but they had a solid plan laid out, executed it well and they proved a lot of people wrong in making this as good as it was.
Undertaker Tombstones Triple H…and the crowd is going mental as they think it ended 5-5. The disappointment and anger as HHH is announced as the winner is palpable. Trash quickly fills the ring as the new WWF Champion is carried out.
Tape Rating - *** - This is a two match show, but since they were the only two matches that got any significant time they are all anyone really remembers. Most of the ppv was filled with short, inconsequential and almost immediately forgettable fillers matches. Shane/Big Show was ok for what it was, the opener produced some laughs, the Euro Title match was packed full of spots…and in fact, other than the awful D-X/Dudleyz Table Match, there’s nothing to hate and everything flies by. Benoit and Jericho topped what they did at Backlash to produce another classic on the midcard – and the majority of the ppv was taken up with the main event. The Rock/HHH Iron Man is well worth checking out if you’ve not seen it. Watching two great workers bust their asses to the maximum to produce a surprisingly gripping and unpredictable 60-minute match is truly a great spectacle. Undertaker’s return somewhat got lost in the shuffle but certainly added to the dramatic conclusion. We enter the summer months with The Game once again on top of the mountain…
Top 3 Matches
3) Eddie Guerrero vs Perry Saturn vs Dean Malenko (**)
2) Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho (****)
1) The Rock vs Triple H (****)