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Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF InVasion

WWF InVasion
July 22, 2001
Cleveland, OH

When Vince McMahon bought WCW it was obvious wrestling was going to change forever. Fans hoped that it would be in a good way. Afterall, the WWF had been doing amazing business for years behind Vince’s booking and the year 2000 alone received critical acclaim in the ring (compared to ’98 and ’99, where despite the great business there was some horrible wrestling out there).

Now it’s not Vince’s fault that he couldn’t get all of the big players in WCW. Because of the outlandish deals with Ted Turner, there was no Sting, no Goldberg, etc. The biggest names the WWF received were Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page. To be honest, with the WWF hype machine behind each of them both could have been major players and the disappointment of no top WCW guys could have been at least lessened. And while the WWF completely missed with Page with the whole stalker of Undertaker’s wife angle, the WWF actually did a really good job with Booker T for the most part. Booker came in at King of the Ring 2001, dropped Stone Cold on his head through a table (which probably was a big reason he didn’t get the super push, as he legitimately hurt Austin here) and actually looked like a big deal. He was clearly the wrestling leader of this pack. The only thing that went wrong really was that match against Buff Bagwell that was pretty awful. Why they couldn’t just put Booker against someone like Chris Jericho orKurt Angle early on is a mystery to me. We really needed to have “authentic” WCW guys? The failure of the Booker-Bagwell match changed the angle big time, but it should be pointed out that Booker T was the leader of this Alliance team heading into the PPV.

When ECW entered the picture, it seemed really cool for one night until we realized these were all WWF guys sans Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer. For the record, as underrated as Rhyno was at the time, it should have come as no surprise that Rob Van Dam would be crazy over. RVD in the main could have helped. Nonetheless, when Stephanie McMahon was introduced as owner of ECW…well, it should have been obvious that this angle just wasn’t going to be what we were all hoping for.

Still, InVasion posted one of the biggest buyrates in WWF history, so despite the mess of booking, WWF vs. WCW and ECW was the main draw here. So let’s see how it goes.

The Card

Lance Storm and Mike Awesome vs. Edge and Christian

One of the issues with the InVasion: some guys turning when their role was working out so well. Not sure, it looked like an Edge face turn was in the works, but we loved Edge and Christian as a heel team.

Christian nearly kills himself early on by not getting enough height jumping over the top rope onto Storm and Awesome.

One reason J.R. is amazing on commentary: he sees the botch and after explaining how important InVasion is, explains that Edge and Christian have pre-match jitters. Just really smart.

If there was ever someone who had all the physical tools but who’s mic skills held him back, it was Mike Awesome. His frog splash was just incredible.

Christian really works as a face-in-peril.

Edge and Christian win when Edge pinned Awesome in 10:10. Awesome went for an Awesome Bomb on Edge, but Christian speared him and Edge landed on top for the win. Good opener for sure. During the match, Michael Cole and J.R. really put over this match as one of the most important ever due to it being the opener for the InVasion. The effort is great. Problem is, as we’ll see later, those words were very overblown and made Cole and J.R. look stupid.

Pretty funny promo with Vince and William Regal as Vince wants Regal to be like the Americans during the Revolutionary War. Not only is it funny on the surface because Regal is British, but it’s also funny because the idea that the WWF is the underdog here is ridiculous.

Nick Patrick vs. Earl Hebner
Mick Foley is the Special Guest Referee

Vince had access to so much talent now that we needed referees to wrestle. Great.

In all those wrestling magazines, how many “dream WWF vs. WCW card” articles had Patrick vs. Hebner on there?

We get an referee brawl on the outside! Foley throws the WCW referees out.

Earl Hebner pins Nick Patrick in 2:50. Patrick argues with Foley, allowing Hebner to tackle him for the three. This was awful but at least short. What was Vince thinking here?! 2-0 WWF. Foley blasts Patrick afterward and gets Mr. Socko on him.

Tough Enough commercial! Weird that the first one was 14 years ago.

Ugh, stalker DDP was so awful.

Sara (Taker’s wife) calls Taker Mark when talking to Debra. That was pretty unexpected.

The APA vs. Sean O’Haire and Chuck Palumbo

WWF vs. WCW Tag Champs here. I do like how the APA were like the midcard leaders on-screen. O’Haire and Palumbo were only the tag champs in WCW as WCW was finally trying to use their younger talent. They definitely had potential though.

Fun fact: Faarooq is a former WCW World Champion. I thought that could have been a fun little turn during the InVasion storyline.

The APA win when Bradshaw pins Chuck Palumbo in 7:17. Clothesline From Hell takes out Palumbo after Palumbo “hit” Faarooq with a superkick. This was okay I guess. I do think the wrong team won, but then again the WWF never went with Palumbo and O’Haire. 3-0 WWF, which seems ridiculous at this point.

Billy Kidman vs. X-Pac

Kidman was the WCW Cruiserweight Champion and X-Pac was the WWF Lightheavyweight Champion.

X-Pac is booed out of the building. And you know, that’s a good example of the WWF NOT changing someone’s alignment just because they’re team WWF. Not that they could at this point anyway.

It should be pointed out that it was a really good idea for the WWF to put the WCW Cruiserweight Title on Kidman. I considered Kidman to be in the top tier of WCW Cruiserweights, and in fact he was the last guy to get to that point in 1998.

Weird dynamic here as I think the fans want to cheer for Kidman…but can’t quite bring themselves to do it because he’s a WCW guy.

Another weird dynamic: X-Pac’s trying to wrestle a riskier, high flying style but can’t quite do it (he had stopped after his neck injury in the mid 90s). It really makes for a mess of a match unfortunately.

Billy Kidman pins X-Pac in 7:12. Kidman hits the Shooting Star Press and the fans pop. And rightfully so, that move is awesome. So much for not cheering Kidman. Give X-Pac credit too, he let Kidman kickout of an X-Factor and jobbed to Kidman’s best move. Still not a good match though.

3-1 WWF! The Alliance is on board!

DDP quote: “Debra is sweet but she’s no Sara.” Yeah, like we don’t know DDP is married to Kimberly. Come on now.

Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler feel disappointed for the fans that they’ll have to settle for seeing Trish and Lita in their panties. I mean, it’s win-win either way, but I do agree Torrie and Stacy are hotter.

William Regal vs. Raven

Before watching this I could predict that this would be a huge clash of styles.

And that’s exactly what we get. Face Regal wasn’t really working either.

The timing for everything is just off. A clothesline from Raven is timed incorrectly. A bulldog from Raven, same thing. It’s not actively bad, but it is noticeable. Crowd is completely quiet as well.

Raven pins Regal in 6:34. Tazz runs in and hits a T-Bone Suplex to Regal…and Raven hits a sloppy Evenflow DDT for the win. 3-2 WCW.

Big Show, Billy Gunn and Albert vs. Sean Stasiak, Kanyon and Hugh Morrus

I know the WWF was quite low on Big Show at this point, but Show on the WCW team would have made a lot of sense and helped the star power issue.

Nice Meat chants for Stasiak.

Morrus, Stasiak and Kanyon win when Morrus pins Gunn in 4:23. Match can be described this way: WWF guys destroy WCW guys, WCW gets a cheap win. What a joke. Also, the Big Show destroys the WCW guys after the match too. Real waste of Kanyon here too. But we’re tied!

Oh, sorry, WCW/ECW is up 4-3 now. Apparently Chavo Guerrero Jr’s victory over Scotty 2 Hotty counts. Way to ignore than when the WWF was up 3-0.

Tazz vs. Tajiri

Tazz is ECW, Tajiri is WWF. Isn’t it crazy how just two years prior this was an ECW PPV World Title Match?

By the way, I would have put Tajiri in X-Pac’s spot here.

Tajiri pins Tazz in 5:44. Tajiri gets the Green Mist and kicks Tazz in the face for the win. Fun little match here where Tajiri took a lot of Tazz’s offense. Too bad it wasn’t longer. 4-4.

RVD takes Matt Hardy out with a chair right in Jeff Hardy’s face. Pretty awesome segment.

Hardcore Holly berates a WCW fan at WWF New York. Also a funny segment.

WWF Hardcore Championship
Jeff Hardy© vs. Rob Van Dam

Really…the first match on this card that really makes of sense. RVD vs. Jeff Hardy in a battle of the daredevils.

I wish after RVD just took Matt Hardy out that Jeff ran down to take out RVD.

HUGE RVD chants.

A really creative start, including Jeff legdropping RVD in a way where RVD ends up crunched like an accordion.

With all the hotdogging he’s doing, I can’t help but think RVD would have made for an awesome WWF heel. Of course, he’d be cheered, but who cares!

Seeing RVD in the WWF for the “first” time was crazy. All these crazy moves that worked in ECW…worked in the WWF too! For example…a moonsault off the barricade in the crowd. This was true for Tajiri as well, but it really got RVD over big time.

Spinning heel kick off the apron onto a hanging Jeff Hardy on the barricade. Years later people would complain it was the same old shit with RVD, but in 2001 on a global stage: holy shit.

Jeff Hardy with a sunset flip powerbomb from the ring onto the floor! RVD just gets slammed on the floor. Sick spot.

In one of my favorite spots ever, Jeff beats RVD down with a chair, leading RVD to beg from his knees for Jeff to stop. In a split second, RVD hops to his feet and hits the Van Daminator and sends off flying off the stage. Just wow.

RVD takes a DDT and a German Suplex and sells it the only way RVD can. Great stuff here.

RVD pins Jeff Hardy to win the title in 12:24. Jeff misses the Swanton…and RVD hits the Five Star Frog Splash for the win. A really fun spotfest that seemed revolutionary at the time. Great match. The first (and ultimately, only) match on this supercard that really felt it belonged.

5-4 WCW/ECW!

Bra and Panties Match
Trish Stratus and Lita vs. Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler

In the funniest moment of the entire event Mick Foley comes out to referee. That was pretty good.

There’s a pretty good story surrounding this: Torrie and Stacy tried to seduce the Hardyz.

Lita and Trish win in 5:03. There’s actually some decent fighting in this, although clearly that’s not the purpose. Fun of course. Oh and we’re tied!

The Inaugural Brawl
Team Alliance (Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Rhyno and the Dudley Boyz) vs. Team WWF (Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Kane, Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho)

One of the big selling points of this match was that the old Stone Cold was coming to InVasion. After being a cowardly heel for four months, Austin’s return to being a bad ass was nothing short of amazing. Just listen to that crowd reaction on RAW. It’s crazy. Honestly, if you told me that really sold the show instead of the actual InVasion I actually might agree.

Obviously Austin’s pop is amazing, but Angle gets a big one too. One positive of the InVasion: Kurt Angle getting to that next level.

I can’t help but think that this InVasion could have worked with DDP as the top heel. He’s getting great reactions and he’s a huge name of course.

The match is about 20 minutes of back and forth and while it isn’t bad it is pretty boring overall. Crowd is really into it though.

The match takes a strange turn to get to the finish. Kurt Angle is your Team WWF member in peril, but oddly he’d never make the hot tag as Undertaker just runs in to attack Page. A huge ten man brawl breaks out from that.

Stone Cold hurt his knee! Oh no! Also, everyone else gets taken out somehow. Angle suddenly begins to kick serious ass and the crowd is electric for him.

Team Alliance wins when Booker T pinned Kurt Angle in 29:30. Angle has Booker T locked in the Ankle Lock and tapping, but Stone Cold comes in and hits Angle with a Stunner and turns on the WWF. Booker gets the pin, but it’s Austin who celebrates with Shane, Stephanie and Heyman. Man what a stupid decision that turned out to be for the storyline and Austin’s career (although it helped make Kurt Angle). Match was good I suppose, but it seemed a bit boring at times and the finish sucked.

The angle really could have worked if they went with Booker vs. Rock and Page vs. Austin, but Page apparently pissed too many people off, including Undertaker and it never worked out for him. Booker did go on to fight Rock but after getting beat twice he dropped to the midcard. As for Austin, this was his last chance to regain that babyface level only he and Hogan (and I guess Rock) ever reached, only it was thrown away with this re-turn. When Austin turns face again in December the crowd reaction for him isn’t the same as it once was.

As for this show, I feel like only one match really delivered and that was RVD vs. Jeff Hardy. Yes the opener was good and the Bra and Panties Match was fun, but everything else really left you disappointed. What a shame.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWF Summerslam 2000

SummerSlam2000poster

WWF Summerslam ‘00
August 27, 2000
Raleigh, NC
Reviewed on August 1, 2014

Could the WWF survive without Stone Cold Steve Austin?

The answer was clearly yes. The Rock and Triple H carried the main events while newcomers like Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit were all on their way to becoming stars. Add in a fresh Undertaker and you were still very strong up top. Ratings had survived Austin’s departure just fine with consistent low 6s and high 5s each week. It may have not been quite the Attitude Era, but people were still watching.

Interestingly though, the WWF Attitude product was different by this time. There were still your Attitude gimmicks…but it wasn’t AS much as 1999. Instead, you got top notch wrestling from Jericho, Benoit, Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Edge and Christian, The Hardyz and Dudleyz. Even guys like Tazz, while not a big a draw as he hoped to be, was an improvement in opening matches than the Blue Meanie.

Of course, there is a small debate that this style led to ratings falling off at the end of 2000 (I think the real reason is “I did it for da Rock” and that disappointment), but for now, it was full steam ahead. As a bonus, WCW was practically dead at this point quality rise. I had reviewed New Blood Rising and it would only get worse with Halloween Havoc a couple of months later.

So, Summerslam 2000!

The Card

Interesting intro promo for Summerslam, going with the love triangle of Angle-HHH and Stephanie, playing Ode to Joy, which coincidentally was HHH’s old theme.

I also think a lot of the visuals were in Christian’s future titantron (white masks in opera).

Right to Censor vs. Rikishi and Too Cool

Right to Censor is one of the greatest midcard acts in wrestling history. Perfect heel group for this era.

The Rikishi heel turn sadly killed Too Cool…although Christopher would have done that in 2001 anyway.

Victoria actually debuted as a Godfather ho at this time, then joined Rikishi and Too Cool when he turned into the Goodfather.

Goodfather actually shoves Victoria and ho #2 down. “Save the hos” chant. Good heat.

For those who think the RTC killed the Godfather and later Val Venis, I think the WWF going public killed that.

Right to Censor defeats Too Cool and Rikishi in 5:12 when Richards pinned Scotty. Scotty goes for a WORM that will obviously be countered somehow as Buchanan is in the middle of the ring and Scotty doesn’t have room to do it. Richards Steven Kicks him and that’s that. Match wasn’t much, but the crowd was hot for the whole thing as Too Cool and Rikishi were over as hell, and so was RTC.

We get a history of the Kurt-Steph-HHH triangle…and Kurt kissed Steph on Smackdown, which added a whole new element.

Hardcore Champ Shane McMahon! Steve Blackman finds him. Although I am not a big Shane fan, this is my favorite feud of his.

Road Dogg vs. X-Pac

People stopped caring about the rest of DX after King of the Ring 2000. Road Dogg and X-Pac kept going, but eventually had problems and this led to a “friendly rivalry”. Considering Road Dogg was rapping with K-Kwik a few months later and X-Pac was nowhere to be seen (due to injury to be fair) that should tell you how this went.

Road Dogg kicks X-Pac in the ass and he sells it as way stronger than it was and goes flying out of the ring. Looked funny I guess.

To me since I just watched Mania XI, this feels like a culmination of a five year storyline (the Kid vs. Roadie stuff after the IC title match).

To be clear, no one cares about this. DX died with the McMahon-Helmsley Era. I think it always hurt, especially Road Dogg, that Billy Gunn got injured as the Outlaws were still a big deal earlier in the year.

X-Pac pins Road Dogg in 4:42. Low blow from X-Pac and X Factor for the win. Pretty bad. And still no one cares. X-Pac declares it’s over, Road Dogg fakes a handshake and gets revenge. X-Pac would get to fight Jericho before he got hurt at least.

Intercontinental Championship
Val Venis© and Trish Stratus vs. Eddie Guerrero and Chyna

The catch here is Val can lose the title if Trish is pinned or made to submit.

The Eddie Guerrero and Chyna team seemed so random after years of HHH and Chyna. Of course, it was entertaining, probably because everything Guerrero did was. Trish laments Chyna being centerfold material and asks Val Venis who’s prettier, and Val snaps at her. I always liked this dynamic, as Test and Albert were always clearly Trish’s henchmen, while Val actually stood up to her. Not that it mattered soon.

Weird double team mistiming early on where the ref just lets Eddie do it after stopping him.

At this point if you told me Trish would be arguably the greatest WWE Women’s wrestler of all time and Chyna would be unemployed in 8 months I wouldn’t have believed you.
Chyna wins the title when she pins Trish in 7:13. Chyna gets Trish alone and press slams her for the win. Match was a surprising mess, as Guerrero seemed off with several timing issues. The booking is weird too. I’d get protecting Val if he was gonna be in the hunt, but Val joined RTC right after this. So why the tag? Why not a triple threat. I do understand Chyna needing to win as it set up Guerrero’s heel turn. Match quality wise, this card is off to a tough start, but the characters not Road Dogg and X-Pac are over and it doesn’t really matter.

It’s amazing how much better Stephanie McMahon is now than she was in 2000.

Jerry Lawler vs. Tazz

Yeah, the Tazz run didn’t last. The feud here is Tazz came back as a thug after a middle of the year injury and attacked guys like Al Snow and Rikishi. Then he attacked JR for some reason and this led to a feud with Lawler. Tazz did have one of the all time great heel lines to JR: “I’d slap you in the face, but it looks like God already did it”, a reference to his balls palsy. Tazz looked pretty bad ass in this build up, too bad it’s being wasted on Lawler. On Smackdown Tazz smashed in the window on Lawler’s rental car, with JR in it (blinding him).

Tazz comes out with a cowboy hat acting blind, which is pretty funny.

Lawler dominates the first part of the match. Well then.

Tazz takes over, but it’s nothing exciting at all.

Tazz with a missed senton bomb, which is odd considering I’d never seen Tazz do that and his neck was always an injury concern.

Tazz no sells the piledriver! How ECW of him!

Jerry Lawler pins Tazz in 4:24. Tazz chokes Lawler out with the Tazmission, but the ref was knocked down. Tazz calls out JR while choking out Lawler…so JR gets a glass jar of candy and smashes it over Tazz’s head. Lawler gets the pin to a big pop. Good moment, but if Tazz wasn’t dead before he was as good as dead losing to Lawler. Also, another subpar match.

WWF Hardcore Championship
Shane McMahon© vs. Steve Blackman

Shane gets interviewed…but Blackman finds him again. We head to the ring!

For those who liked the 24/7 Crash run, I always thought Blackman’s run was more entertaining.

Shane runs for his life!

Shane takes an entertaining ass kicking in a garbage can.

Lawler is disappointed that he doesn’t think Shane can tap out in a Hardcore match. Er…why not?

Jeez, a half crab, but Blackman also wraps a strap around Shane’s throat and pulls. Sick hold.

Here comes T and A to “even” the odds! This is how Shane matches should be booked.

Good midcard note you don’t see anymore. JR explaining why Test, who was left at the altar by Stephanie last year, is helping Shane (Test last saw Stephanie and was counting his blessings). You just don’t see that anymore.

They go for a drop the amp spot on Blackman, same move they took out Big Show with at Judgment Day. Blackman moves.

Blackman beats the crap out of T and A with a kendo stick, then Shane runs by climbing the titantron!

Steve Blackman wins the Hardcore Title in 10:08. Blackman chases Shane up the titantron and catches his legs with the kendo stick (also underrated, as Shane didn’t just stop to wait for Blackman). Blackman gets some shots to the back…and Shane goes flying 50 feet! Blackman climbs down a little, then drops a elbow drop from about 20 feet up! Wow. Obvious pin here. Really fun Hardcore match that could have helped rebuild the Hardcore division after 24/7. You know what amazes me? Even though fans were really into Blackman and all…he never got over from this at all. Once he stopped fighting Shane, no one cared about Blackman again. Very odd. Really fun match though.

Stephanie is distraught about Shane, and Kurt comes in with the line of the show (“I think he just got the wind knocked out of him”). They hug, but Mick Foley comes in and says that Shane might have hurt his kisser. Funny stuff.

Best Two of Three Falls
Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit

Interesting feud here. So, the Judgment Day match seemed to be the blow off between these two as Jericho moved to HHH and Benoit had feuds with Rock and Rikishi. But, once those feuds ended it seemed like there was nowhere else to put these guys, so they just continued their feud. Of course, this feud was incredible and they’d have one more PPV match at Royal Rumble 2001. Then they’d be tag champs.

Jericho and Benoit take the referee out of the ring with their roll around punch sequence. Creative and unique.

STF from Benoit. Regal would be here soon so that would be the end of that.

Benoit gets the crossface 5 minutes in and Jericho taps. Normally I’d be against that, but I’ll explain at the end why I am okay with it and I think it’s actually genius.

Benoit let’s go…and goes for it again! Jericho can’t tap out this time obviously and fights it. Great psychology there all around.

Another unique submission. Benoit locks Jericho in the Tree of Woe, then goes to the outside and puts him in a Full Nelson. Jeez.

Jericho fights back and counters a German into the Liontamer, and Jericho gets the tap out, tying the match at 1-1.

Perfect powerbomb reversal from Jericho, but Benoit reverses one to pin, which Jericho bridges out of it. Perfect.

Benoit then busts out a full nelson (Dragon) suplex!

Top rope frankensteiner…but Jericho actually leaped up there! Jericho lands on the shoulder Benoit’s been working on, so he can’t make the pin right away. Still, some amazing stuff here.

Lionsault, but more Jericho shoulder stuff.

Chris Benoit defeated Chris Jericho 2-1 in 15:33. Jericho gets a roll-up, but Benoit with an awesome reversal in which he also grabs the bottom rope to win! Awesome match with awesome psychology. The commentary really put over that Jericho chose to tap in the first fall to survive, which is why I am okay with it. These last two matches have really kicked Summerslam into gear.

HHH has arrived! They replay Angle and Steph from earlier, and Lawler even thought Angle’s “wind knocked out of him” line was ridiculous.

WWF World Tag Team Championship: Tables, Ladders and Chairs
Edge and Christian© vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz

We already know this is awesome.

Small dynamic change from Wrestlemania 2000’s Triangle Ladder Match. Edge and Christian are now cocky chicken-shit heels. The Dudleyz are faces due to powerbombing women through tables. Hardyz are exciting faces.

TLC was such a cool concept, even if the only difference is that chairs and tables are readily available (because you could use them in regular ladder matches) around the ring. WWE has a PPV named after the match now, which should say how marketable it was…it also should get credit for Money in the Bank as well.

The Hardyz are the hometown team!

Matt Hardy busts out some Sabu chair throwing.

Bubba gets his leg caught in the ladder as he’s thrown off. That coulda been a lot worse.

Bubba Bomb from the top of a ladder!

Matt Hardy gets tossed into a ladder…I don’t know how to describe it, but it also seesaws and takes out Jeff. You don’t see creative spots like that in today’s MITBs.

WASSSSSSUPPPPP!

D-VON! GET THE TABLES!

Jeff Hardy looks dead from the seesaw.

Christian gets 3Ded through the table!

Bubba begins to build his own resting place with the table structure on the outside.

Jeff’s leap over the ladder legdrop always owned.

Jeff goes for another crazy Swanton on the outside, but unlike Wrestlemania 2000…Bubba moves! Jeff’s broken on the outside.

Bubba goes flying through the 8 billion tables on the outside! Serves you right Bubba!

Lita saves the titles for the Hardyz as Edge and Christian were guaranteed to win it!

Matt Hardy gets tosses through ANOTHER table structure I didn’t notice…then Edge takes out Lita with a spear!

First ever hanging from the titles spot from D-Von and Jeff, and crowd pops huge when D-Von actually crashes to the mat.

Edge and Christian retain the title in 19:33. Once Jeff and D-Von crash, Edge and Christian are all that’s left. Somehow still the 2nd best mutli-man ladder match ever (Mania X7). All the MITB’s are great, but there’s so much creativity here and it never looks like they are just setting up spots. Also, big credit for this being the first match at this level of its kind. Absolutely incredible.

It took three days, but HHH finally confronts Steph about the kiss. Steph sells Angle down the river of course.

Stinkface Match
The Kat vs. Terri

For some reason Al Snow is with the Kat.

These two actually fought at Mania.

Oh, Snow was feuding with Perry Saturn here, who was with Terri.

I mean, the crowd loved it, so I get why it’s here. I’ll leave it at that.

The Kat wins in 3:06 Here’s a Al Snow Head shot in this, for what it’s worth. Something to bring down the crowd I guess.

APA is at the bar!

The Undertaker vs. Kane

I sense this was to be Big Show vs. Undertaker, as there is a much forgotten Big Show return and heel turn, but I guess WWE wasn’t happy with him since Taker got revenge and tossed Big Show off the stage and he was gone till the Rumble. Kane then turned heel because Taker returned “as one of them” and Kane is a MONSTER. Really the same logic that he used to bury Taker alive three years later.

This was the start of the new Kane look, the “Bret Hart look”.

Randomly this is a No DQ brawl. We never got a bell here.

Taker rips part of Kane’s mask off, which is the only thing making this match worthwhile.

Taker goes for the mask again!

Taker gets it off, and he kinda see Kane’s face! A lot bigger of a deal then. Then Kane runs for it. The bell never rang, so this isn’t an official match? Not sure why it was done this way but whatever. Not really good either, just a random brawl when we’ve seen two better ones earlier in this show. A very forced storyline.

WWF Championship
The Rock© vs. Kurt Angle vs. Triple H

Angle’s shot at the main event. The HHH-Steph-Angle love triangle was the main part of the feud, with the Rock kinda on the side. They got this title shot by double pinning Chris Jericho.

The love triangle was also smartly hinted at as early as December 99, when HHH and Steph would watch in the locker room and she would call Kurt cute. You don’t see things like that anymore either.

Angle on the mic tells HHH he gave his wife more passion that he ever could. I loved how Angle’s character got more confident after his feud with Undertaker in July. Of course, HHH comes down to beat the crap out of Angle.

The infamous table breaking spot happens here. HHH goes to Pedigree Angle through the table, but the table gives way too early, and Angle gets a concussion. It’s CLEAR what happens to Angle here as well, he looks totally out of it. Really scary moment in retrospect (and then too).

HHH gets the sledgehammer, but here comes the Rock!

For the record, this entire match was improvised from Rock and HHH as Angle had to be carried to the back, and while he played a part in the finish, it’s all HHH vs. Rock.

HHH actually comes down and stops the stretcher and hits Kurt with two punches. Of course they are worked, but it’s interesting they did that (although it made sense storyline wise).

Stephanie comes out to tend to Angle. Even the backstage improvising was smart.

You see Hebner say something to HHH with the camera goes away from while HHH yells at Steph to get the belt for a spot. According to some research, Hebner told HHH that he (I assume Vince) wanted Stephanie to go to the back, to film the upcoming angle.

Sledgehammer to The Rock. I guess it’s a given it’s no DQ for this too.

Backstage Stephanie begs Angle to help HHH as Rock took control. Angle says he’ll do it for her.

Here comes Angle with Steph. Angle is dazed, and I assume he’s acting now.

Angle pulls Rock’s leg as he hits the ropes, leading to a Pedigree. HHH clearly checks on Angle to see if he’s in position, then goes for the pin as Angle breaks it up.

Angle nearly stealing the title got a huge reaction as he pinned Rock after that pedigree.

Angle seems to be on point. While wrestling with a concussion is seriously dangerous, Bret Hart sadly showed it could be done at the end of 1999.

HHH accidentally punches Stephanie, then Angle takes HHH out with the hammer!

The Rock retains the title in 24:33 when he pinned HHH. Rock dumps Angle, then the People’s Elbow to the KOed HHH wins it. Considering the match was already screwed up from the start, Rock and HHH saved it and the ending was very good. In fact, they pulled it all off so well people had no idea if Kurt was really hurt until later. Angle then carries Stephanie to the back, continuing that. I will say though, especially as I’m older and I’ve learned more about concussions, that sending Angle back out there kinda scares me. That doesn’t seem like a safe decision. Also, HHH vs. Rock, while good, didn’t have the normal heat it had earlier in year as Angle vs. HHH was the main story here (and a hot one at that) and Rock was just a part of this one. This is especially apparent as the crowd doesn’t buy too much until Angle returns.

The WWF PPVs of 2000 are…pretty awesome it seems. Summerslam was another excellent show with Beniot vs. Jericho, TLC, the main event and Blackman vs. Shane. Historically it put Kurt Angle in his first PPV main event and he somehow shined despite getting legit hurt and not being in 90% of it. TLC also debuted here and is part of WWE today. Once Austin came back booking did get a bit jumbled (as this whole Angle-HHH thing was leading to a HHH face turn which died when he became Rikishi’s accomplice), although that jumbling seemed apparent with Benoit, Kane, Taker and Jericho anyway.

Can’t give it a solid A as there was some stuff here that was meh (Lawler-Tazz, Kat-Terri, Road Dogg-X-Pac) and the main did have some small issues. But it’s still a great show.

Final Grade: A-

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews the WWE 2003 Royal Rumble

Royal_Rumble_2003

WWE Royal Rumble 2003
January 19, 2003
Boston, MA

The Brand Extension is in full force.

The WWE has established their monopoly of pro wrestling in the United States at this point (TNA was still pretty new…although they’d never be a real threat anyway). Vince McMahon decided he needed to instill competition into the product and the Brand Extension was born. The Brand Extension allowed WWE to push new talent, although it would be shown a lot of them weren’t ready for the challenge.

One of them that looked more than ready was Brock Lesnar. Lesnar, who just dropped the WWE Title at Survivor Series was on his way to the massive face push that would make him the WWE’s top guy (Lesnar would be the Hogan on Smackdown, where HHH would be the Flair on RAW). In a post Austin and full time Rock world, WWE needed to create some megastars on top in the babyface mold. HHH showed he was a lot better off as a heel. Undertaker would never fit that mold. Austin was gone, Rock was basically gone. Goldberg wasn’t here yet. Angle was a heel at the time (although he got a shot at the face run later) and Benoit would never have the charisma to be that guy, although he got a shot later.

Still, the early days of Brand Extension provided interesting content on both sides for sure. Returning legends (HBK, Hogan, Flair), guys way too talented not to be in the main event but somehow not in it (Jericho, Benoit, Booker T), top guys who weren’t ready to leave the top (Taker, HHH) and top newcomers (Lesnar) were just some of the elements out there. I mean in that group I didn’t even mention Angle or Big Show.

Let’s see how the first Brand Extension Royal Rumble plays out.

The Card

Winner Gets in the Royal Rumble
Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show

Story here: Lesnar dropped the WWE Title (and was pinned for the first time) to Big Show at Survivor Series when Paul Heyman turned on him. In actuality two things caused that change: Lesnar had injured ribs that WWE wasn’t sure of the extent of, and WWE was planning Lesnar vs. Angle at Mania and decided to switch the face/heel alignments, so had to make Lesnar a face. Of course, face Angle had to beat heel Big Show for the belt, which led to a weird Angle heel turn, but I guess that was the best way to make this happen. Angle would JOIN Heyman afterwards, and for some reason this didn’t turn Big Show face.

Back to the story, Lesnar then cost Big Show the title at Armageddon against Angle. So we got this match. I’m usually not a big fan of these type matches, as for a storyline like this it’s obvious Lesnar is winning this match AND the Rumble. There was one other option for the Rumble winner, which I’ll get into when we get there.

The way Lesnar would just suplex Big Show all over the place was ridiculous.

The way Show would throw Lesnar around was also ridiculous. While he obviously could, no one else did anything like that to Brock up to this point.

Big Show does a great, if not hilarious shocked face when Lesnar kicks out of the chokeslam.

Brock Lesnar pins Big Show in 6:29. Lesnar escapes a 2nd chokeslam attempt, and gets the F5! That’s so damn impressive and the crowd pops huge. Lesnar gets the pin and is in the Rumble. Good match, if only for how smooth Lesnar is in throwing around Big Show. These two had a strange chemistry.

Terri interviews Chris Jericho. She asks him about Jericho choosing #2 when he had the choice to pick any number. Jericho says because HBK was #1 Jericho HAD to be #2. This was setting up the Jericho-HBK feud.

Jericho sure got A LOT of mileage out of beating Austin and Rock the same night to become Undisputed Champion (as he should have).

RAW World Tag Team Championship
William Regal and Lance Storm vs. The Dudley Boyz

This would be the third Rumble in a row that the Dudleyz were in the World Tag Title slot. They are already 15 Time World Tag Team Champions at this point.

Regal and Storm were what was left of the UnAmericans. Test started being advertised by male genitalia. Christian became Jericho’s sidekick.

Regal still had the brass knuckles gimmick going at this point as well.

The Dudleyz actually weren’t stale here, as they were split up throughout most of 2002 due to the Brand Extension (that led to Reverend D-Von!). D-Von was part of the Big Show to Smackdown trade and immediately rejoined Bubba at Survivor Series.

One of the problems with the Dudley reunion was they didn’t change anything up at all. They literally acted like the same team they always did, moves and all.

Chief Morley comes out to argue about something, and Regal has Brass Knucks!

The Dudley Boyz wins the title when D-Von pinned Storm in 7:24. Regal has the Knucks…but gets the 3D anyway. D-Von picks up the knucks and nails Storm for the win. A good pop for the Dudley title win. This is a waste of Storm and Regal though. Match wasn’t anything special and pretty boring.

Nathan Jones promo! He escaped from prison in Tasmania! It’s like Nailz all over again.

Stepmother vs. Stepdaughter
Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie

Oh god. This storyline was Wrestlecrap from the get go. Dawn Marie fell in love with Torrie Wilson’s father, Al Wilson. This at first seemed like an attempt to have a fling with Torrie, which was “shown” at Armageddon. Dawn and Al continued their relationship and got married, but Al died on the honeymoon because of a heart attack as a result of too much sex or something. Then Torrie and Dawn fought at the wake. It was actually worse than it sounds.

I mean who the hell thought any of that was a good idea?

Torrie doesn’t fall on the Dawn Marie armbar. That could have been a broken arm right there.

Dawn Marie with a springboard clothesline! How about that. It didn’t look great though.

Torrie Wilson pins Dawn Marie in 3:36. Swinging neckbreaker for the win. Torrie and Dawn are not really wrestlers, so to expect anything more than a bad match would be unrealistic. We got that springboard clothesline so there’s that at least? At least this was short. Storyline is still horrid.

Stephanie McMahon and Eric Bischoff meet backstage (where Bischoff was speaking to a still rookie Randy Orton). Steph tells Bischoff good bye, as Vince had given Bischoff 30 days to turn RAW around. Bischoff said he had a bombshell to save his job (which turned out to be Austin). Stephanie said she had a bombshell of her own (which turned out to be Hogan).

Sean O’Haire vignette! I still think he would have worked out if not for Roddy Piper’s involvement in the angle.

World Heavyweight Championship
Triple H© vs. Scott Steiner

Story: Steiner debuted at Survivor Series (as a face no less. Pretty sure that was the opposite of what the Big Poppa Pump character was about) and decided on RAW as his home. A part of the agreement was he gets a World Title shot.

The match actually has a solid start. Hard hitting from Steiner followed by a gorilla press slam. It would get worse though…

I hate Boston Crabs where the guy doesn’t sit on the back. That’s the point Steiner!

Steiner with a belly to belly suplex! He goes for the Recliner but Flair pulls HHH out.

Steiner is breathing HEAVY. He’s already exhausted.

Another belly to belly (kinda) from Steiner.

We get a weird Tombstone reversal sequence which ends with a botched HHH neckbreaker.

Steiner catches HHH coming off the top…for another belly to belly suplex.

Fans begin turning on Steiner….there’s ANOTHER belly to belly.

Another belly to belly. It’s clear Steiner has nothing else. Fans booing.

A sixth belly to belly.

Steiner goes for a double underhook suplex, and Steiner FALLS before the move is finished. Yikes.

HHH gets busted open by the leather part of the World Title.

ANOTHER BELLY TO BELLY.

Steiner doing his push-up taunt is like a NFL defensive lineman celebrating a sack when his team is down 30 points.

HHH tries to get counted out and DQed, but Earl Hebner won’t allow it. Steiner throws in yet another belly to belly while he’s at it.

Scott Steiner wins by DQ in 18:14. HHH finally uses the sledgehammer, forcing the DQ. Post match, Steiner destroys HHH and locks him in the Recliner. Crowd is dead for it. Match was historically bad, and has an argument for being the worst PPV World Title match ever. Scott Steiner was dreadful. There’s a reason he was a midcarder after this (although he did get a HHH rematch at No Way Out).

WWE World Championship
Kurt Angle© vs. Chris Benoit

We covered Angle’s story earlier. We’ll add here that this feud also involved the debut of Team Angle, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, which owned.

Benoit actually turned amidst all this as well, and became the #1 contender after being Big Show on Smackdown. Angle and Benoit were reluctant Smackdown Tag Team Champions back in October, and even had a match at Unforgiven as well. This was the end of Benoit the heel, as this face run would go through the rest of his career.

So, as all Benoit vs. Angle feuds go, it comes down to who’s the better wrestler?

Team Angle gets ejected quickly for trying to hold Benoit back.

Watching this match makes me feel that Steiner and HHH was in slow motion.

Benoit DDTs Angle on the apron! Nice.

Angle’s belly to belly suplexes are about 100 times better than Steiner’s.

This has been a non-stop action packed match from the get go.

Rolling Germans from Benoit…but Angle counters into his own!

Benoit re-counters!

I never got why Benoit did that snot thing.

Angle tosses Benoit off the top rope with a belly to belly!

Angle Slam attempt turns into the Crossface! Crowd is very into it. Angle survives though.

Benoit locks Angle into the Ankle Lock…but Angle reverses into his own Ankle Lock! THAT gets turned into the Crossface!

Angle counters a Crossface with an Angle Slam! Wow!

Another great false finish with Benoit countering a German with a victory roll.

Benoit gets a German…only it turns into an overhead release German where Angle lands face first!

Flying Headbutt 3/4th of the ring away!

Angle drops Benoit face first on the turnbuckles leading to another Angle Slam…but Benoit survives THAT too.

Kurt Angle retains by submission in 19:50. Angle counters another Crossface into the Ankle Lock. Benoit tries to escape, but Angle hangs on. Benoit does an amazing sell job here, screaming in pain. Angle grapevines the leg and Benoit is trapped, and taps out (makes you wonder why Angle didn’t always do that). I was blown away the first time I saw this 12 years ago, but it holds up today as well. Incredible match. This match was the match that showed Benoit could play an incredible underdog babyface, and he rode that all the way to winning the title at Mania XX (well, there was a haphazard team with Rhino in there). Just an amazing match. Benoit gets a standing ovation afterwards.

Kane and Rob Van Dam talk about how it’s every man for himself. This leads to a good spot later.

The Royal Rumble

#1 is Shawn Michaels. Jericho is supposed to be #2, but for some reason Christian shows up in the entrance way. Jericho attacks HBK from behind and beats the holy hell out of him. Jericho lays HBK out with a chair and HBK sells it like a million bucks. Chris Nowinski is #3, but he waits on the outside. Jericho beats on HBK a bit more then dumps him, to the horror of the crowd.

#4 is Rey Mysterio, and he owns Jericho for a bit. Nowinski finally gets in there to attack Rey from behind.

Edge is #5. Edge and Rey had been a team, so they natural work together. They eventually go at it though and there’s a false elimination that I think gets screwed up. I think Edge’s feet do hit the floor. No biggie though.

Christian is #6, for real this time. He tries to get on Edge’s good side to double team Mysterio. Edge spears him though.

Rey and Edge hit a double dropkick off the top to Nowinski, but the timing is off and I think Nowinski got hurt here as Edge’s leg lands on his face.

#7 is Chavo Guerrero. Good workrate early on for sure. Rey gets Nowinski out. Jericho gets out Rey. Great heat for Jericho eliminating HBK and Rey so far.

#8 is Tajiri. Crazy airplane spin on Chavo.

#9 is Bill DeMott. What a random push this was.

#10 is Tommy Dreamer. It’s Hardcore Rumble II! Dreamer accidentally legit cracks Jericho in the eye with a kendo stick, busting him open bad.

Con-garbage can lid-to on Dreamer! He’s gone by Jericho and Christian.

#11 is B2. Too lazy to super script here. He’s injured as John Cena turned on him on Smackdown. He lasts about 30 seconds. Jericho gets rid of Tajiri. Edge gets rid of Chavo. Jericho gets rid of Edge and Christian. Jericho is alone in the ring.

#12 is Rob Van Dam! A great near-elimination is in there, where Jericho barely hangs on.

Matt Strongly Dislikes Mustard. #13 is Matt Hardy! Hardy and Jericho double team RVD. Jericho takes a Five Star Frog Splash!

#14 is Eddie Guerrero. No reaction for Eddie…but boy would that change over the next year.

Eddie with a kinda botched Frog Splash there. Matt turns right on him and hits a Twist of Fate. Just in time for…

Jeff Hardy at #15! The Hardys did not get along at this point.

Shannon Moore tries to push Matt back into the ring with his feet. He then takes a Swanton for Matt! Shannon Moore was a great sidekick.

#16 is Rosey. Out goes the workrate.

#17 is Test. The Testicle marketing was just weird.

#18 is John Cena, and we get a whole rap on his way to the ring. He rhymes explain to ya and Wrestlemania. So there’s that. We get Latrell Sprewell and Mike Tyson references as well.

#19 is Team Angle’s Charlie Haas

RVD gets rid of Jeff when Jeff went to the top rope and RVD shoved him off.

#20 is Rikishi. Apparently he’s been in more Royal Rumbles than anyone else in history at this point. RIkishi’s spinning sell of the clothesline was already pretty good.

#21 is Jamal. Both members of Three Minute Warning are in there.

#22 is Kane. JR mentions no one has come close to Kane’s 11 man elimination record…even though the previous record was 10. He gets rid of Rosey on cue.

#23 is Shelton Benjamin. Both members of Team Angle in there now.

#24 is Booker T. This is the other possible winner I mentioned earlier. There were rumors he would win (which made sense since he eventually got the World Title slot at Mania against HHH), but Lesnar was the “safe choice”. In retrospect you had to do Lesnar for the story. But Booker was the dark horse.

Booker dumps Eddie!

#25 is A-Train. He immediately derails Cena, a precursor to the Tensai-Cena feud nine years later surely.

Shawn Michaels runs in and attacks Jericho, and it’s enough of a distraction for Test to eliminate Jericho. While this set up Jericho vs. HBK…what the hell was Test eliminating Jericho for? Weird choice there.

#26 is Maven. Not much to say here.

#27 is Goldust. It was pretty crazy Goldust actually got a full time run in 2002, but he wouldn’t last that much longer. He’d come back a lot later though. Charlie Haas eliminates him after about 40 seconds.

Team Angle surprisingly eliminates Booker T. Odd choice there too.

#28 is Batista with awesome music. He gets rid of Test and Rikishi.

#29 is Brock Lesnar! Team Angle double teams, but Lesnar sends them both out. Matt Hardy is F5ed onto them as well.

A-Train kills both Batista and Lesnar in one sequence. How weird does that seem now.

#30 is Undertaker. While the crowd pops, this was a pretty big disappointment. There were several promo videos about Taker coming back at the Rumble, but the first one hinted he could be the Deadman, and the second mentioned the Ministry. So there was hope he would be back in the Deadman character here.

Taker is the only man to have three #30 Rumble appearances I believe, ’97, ’03 and ’07.

Taker gets rid of Cena and Jamal. A great spot follows though, as Maven dropkicks Taker and immediately celebrates. Maven shocking eliminated Taker in this manner in 2002. Taker sends Maven out.

RVD, A-Train, Kane, Lesnar, Batista and Taker left. All the workrate didn’t make it.

RVD and Kane work together to get rid of A-Train. Then another great moment: Kane goes to slam RVD on Batista…only to toss RVD out instead! They foreshadowed this in their promo earlier.

Batista, Lesnar, Taker and Kane are your final four. Crazy final four considering what Batista would become later.

Lesnar and Taker almost mess up a hangman, and Taker almost goes over the top rope. Lesnar noticeably saves him.

Interestingly, Taker tombstones Lesnar here, but Lesnar’s head is obviously too high up. It’s interesting because the same thing happens at Wrestlemania XXX.

Taker clotheslines Batista out, then tries to convince Kane to double team Lesnar. Taker turns on Kane immediately (not a big fan of that either) and tosses him. Batista runs in with a chair but Taker takes him out and whacks him with the chair.

Brock Lesnar wins the Royal Rumble in 53:41, last eliminating the Undertaker. Taker says something to Batista, and Lesnar sneaks up behind him and dumps him. Taker shakes his head in disbelief and gives Lesnar props. I am not a big fan of this ending though and this only fueled the idea that HHH and Taker were holding people down (I’ve come to think Taker wasn’t really doing this though). Taker took out Batista twice, outsmarted his brother, and Lesnar could only beat him by a sneak attack? While there are certainly some good moments, the outcome was never in doubt and the Rumble itself, while fine, is mostly forgettable.

It’s rare that a Royal Rumble PPV is known more for the title matches than the Rumble match itself, but that is what happened here. HHH vs. Steiner is remembered for all the wrong reasons. Benoit vs. Angle for all the right ones. Having one of the worst World Title matches and best World Title matches back to back is quite the oddity. Steiner didn’t last too long as a main eventer and was a midcarder by Mania (and wasn’t on the Mania card!). Benoit eventually got to the top. So at least something went right there. The Lesnar win was expected obviously, but the finish was pretty weak. I love Undertaker, but that whole return was pretty weak as well, and there was no need to make everyone look bad there.

I’ll give this show a historical bonus though. Cena Royal Rumble debut. Randy Orton on PPV (his first time maybe? His first PPV match wasn’t until Summerslam I know that). Batista with his first top 4 Rumble finish (in fact, in every Rumble Batista has been in he ended up in the top 4). The Lesnar victory. These were small building blocks to the future.

Final Grade: B

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews the 2001 WWF Royal Rumble

Royal_Rumble_2001

WWF Royal Rumble 2001
January 21, 2001
New Orleans, LA

It’s over.

WCW didn’t really believe it to be so, but at this point it really was. The WWF vs. WCW war hadn’t really mattered to the WWF in over a year. WCW then proceeded to put on one of the worst years, if not the worst year, that a major wrestling promotion had ever put together. While WCW would have some strong moments in 2001 before its demise, it was way too little and way too late.

Meanwhile, the WWF was riding high. New stars such as Kurt Angle had really hit their stride. The WWF was also pushing the hell out of former WCW stars Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, and even taking chances with guys like Rikishi. The WWF had all of that talent while also having their mainstays be at the very top. Stone Cold, HHH, Undertaker, Kane and The Rock were still at the top of their games. While that wouldn’t actually remain viable forever (not enough top spots), at this point the WWF was simply rolling.

Then again, there was some small concerns. Ratings in December were low comparing to past years, and that’s with the ultra-hot Austin comeback. Shouldn’t be a problem on the Road to Wrestlemania though…right?

The Card

WWF World Tag Team Championship: Edge and Christian © vs. The Dudley Boyz

From 2000 on, it’s just safe to assume the Hardyz, E and C and Dudleyz were feuding with one another. The con-chair-to was an awesome move. Shame we won’t ever see it again, although it’s for the best.

I always thought the chemistry between the three teams was awesome…especially since the Dudleyz adapted to the WWF style practically instantly.

This whole match revolves around the Dudleyz having concussions. My how times have changed.

Edge and Christian miss the con-chair-to and D-Von hot tags Bubba! The crowd is very into all of this.

“D-VON! GET THE TABLES!”

The Dudley Boyz win when D-Von Dudley pins Edge in 9:59. Edge and Christian go for the Dudleyz’ WASSUP! Headbutt, but it’s reversed. Edge eats the 3D, and the Dudleyz win the title! Crowd pops huge for a very good opening match. Chemistry was just perfect with these teams.

Drew Carey is here! I think he’s promoting a PPV or something. He talks to HHH and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and promotes his PPV.

Crash Holly then threatens The APA about the Rumble. Good for a laugh.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Chris Benoit © vs. Chris Jericho

Their entire promo video is just them beating the hell out of one another throughout 2000. Sounds good to me.

Benoit and Jericho just go at it right away. No time to waste here.

One of the most cringeworthy moments I’ve ever seen: Benoit goes for a tope…and Jericho whacks him right in the head with a chair. Worse when you think about what ultimately happened with Benoit. What a sick spot.

This is just hard hitting stuff back and forth, not a lot of flying. It’s an old school ladder match and it’s awesome.

Ridiculous ladder teeter-totter spot that got Benoit in the face. Jeez.

Walls of Jericho on top of the ladder!

Benoit misses a top of the ladder diving headbutt. Sick.

Chris Jericho wins the title in 18:48. Jericho nails Benoit with a chair, then shoves him off the ladder and over the top. It’s enough time for Jericho to grab the IC Title. Great great match. One of the best ladder matches of all time. It’s forgotten because of the Benoit deal. Hard hitting, great spots and a great crowd. 2/2 so far tonight!

Drew Carey hits on Trish Stratus…but here comes Vince! Vince isn’t happy…so he has Drew enter the Royal Rumble! When Trish says it would impress her…Drew goes for it!

WWF Women’s Championship: Ivory© vs. Chyna

Storyline here: The Right to Censor injured Chyna’s neck…and Chyna wants revenge.

It may have been fun to see Chyna destroy Ivory at the time, but in retrospect this killed the Women’s title until Trish revived it at the end of the year.

Ivory retains the title via pin in 3:32. Chyna goes for her cartwheel elbow, but goes down and holds her neck. Ivory pins her. Chyna is stretchered out. Really a glorified angle. Chyna would crush Ivory two months later anyway.

Drew Carey meets Kane. Kane should be afraid.

WWF Championship: Kurt Angle© vs. Triple H

Weird match here. HHH and Angle had feuded in 2000 in the love triangle storyline, but we got past that randomly in the last couple of months…and HHH had turned heel on Stone Cold. Suddenly HHH is the #1 contender causing Angle to think he’s against the McMahon family…but he’s still a heel and enlists Trish to help him, which infuriates Stephanie (well that and Vince’s flirtations with Vince). Still, both are heels, and the match actually feels like a backdrop of the Steph-Trish feud sadly.

As a result, except for some early “Angle Sucks” chants, the crowd really isn’t into it.

HHH works on the knee, even using a chair against Angle’s knee against the post. This makes Angle the face of the match then?

HHH with a strange Indian Deathlock. He had been using the Indian Deathlock in late 2000, notably against Benoit at No Mercy 2000.

Trish breaks up a Figure Four, leading to a Steph-Trish catfight…and the crowd goes nuts.

Razor’s Edge! Angle kicks out.

Moonsault from Angle! HHH survives though.

The crowd is on HHH’s side now.

Ref gets taken out…twice! HHH has it won…

Kurt Angle retains by pin in 24:16. Stone Cold comes out and beats the hell out of HHH…and hits him with a Stunner. Angle gets the pin. While this is a very good match, the Trish-Steph angle was distracting, and we didn’t even get remotely a good finish. I mean, I know Angle is a chicken-shit heel, but he really struggled to beat anyone during this reign…this match included.

The Royal Rumble

#1 is Jeff Hardy. #2 is Bull Buchanan.

#3 is Matt Hardy, pretty much ending the Bull Buchanan run.

The Hardyz oddly don’t wait for the next guy and go at it after dumping Bull.

#4 is Faarooq, who fends for himself pretty well for a minute before getting eliminated.

#5 is Drew Carey! Carey watches on the outside…and the Hardyz eliminate each other at the same time! Drew wins!

#6 is Kane. Kane slowly walks around the ring and Drew begs him not to hurt him. Drew hilariously offers money, but Kane says no. Kane is about to chokeslam drew, but #7, Raven saves him with a kendo stick shot. Drew eliminates himself.

It’s a Hardcore Rumble!

Al Snow runs in early and attacks Raven he confirms himself to be #8 shortly.

Raven takes a bowling ball to the nuts. Ouch.

#9 is Saturn. Interestingly, Saturn’s titantron has the same style that would be used for Chris Jericho’s Save.Us campaign later.

#10 is Steve Blackman as the Hardcore Division keeps coming out.

#11 is Grandmaster Sexay. It would be his last appearance until 2004.

Kane literally has a “fuck this moment”. Trash can shot knocks out Grandmaster. Blackman is next. Then Al Snow. Raven goes afterwards….then Saturn as well. Kane has cleaned house!

#12 is The Honky Tonk Man! He wants to sing his song. He does so, before Kane whacks him with a guitar and throws him out.

#13 is The Rock. Business has picked up!

#14 is The Goodfather! Goodfather never recovered from his RTC heel turn sadly.

And Rock takes out the Goodfather. That was fast.

#15 is Tazz, and he lasts less time than the Goodfather does. Kane knocks him out in about 5 seconds.

#16 is Bradshaw. He actually kicks some ass and takes Rock out with a clothesline.

#17 is Albert.

#18 is Hardcore Holly. Five guys in there now.

GETTING ROWDY! #19 is K-Kwik. Amazing that Killings never really got higher than this spot other than his heel run in 2011.

#20 is a Right to Censored Val Venis. It seems like we are just waiting for someone to clean house here.

#21 is William Regal. Test follows at #22, and dumps Regal.

Business picks up now as The Big Show returns and is #23. Show was last seen in July after being sent to OVW to lose weight (which he didn’t do, for the record). He chokeslams everyone in sight and gets rid of K-Kwik and Test. The Rock counters the chokeslam and out goes Show.

Big Show drags Rock under the ropes as #24, Crash Holly gets in. Big Show chokeslams The Rock through the Announcer’s table before leaving.

Undertaker is #25, and he and Kane clean out the ring…and DON’T attack one another (see Hardyz, it works!). Scotty 2 Hotty comes out in total fear, and is promptly chokeslammed and eliminated.

#27 is Stone Cold Steve Austin, leading to one of my all time favorite Rumble moments. Taker and Kane in the ring where Stone Cold comes down with no fear. HHH ruins the moment though by attacking Austin. Austin doesn’t make it to the ring. Rock gets back in and fight Taker and Kane.

#28 is Billy Gunn. Gunn gets some good offense in, probably the last good offense he’d get in until 2013.

#29 is Haku. Haku is the current WCW Hardcore Champion! You knew it was a death knell for WCW when the WWF didn’t even acknowledge that they stole Haku.

#30 is Rikishi. Rikishi sees Austin trying to get back to the ring and tries to take advantage, but Austin springs into action and attacks! Anyway, Rikishi, Gunn, Austin, Rock, Kane, Haku and Undertaker are the final seven.

Austin dumps Haku.

You can see there is a little Austin fatigue at this point. It’s not that Austin couldn’t be a top draw, but his out of nowhere attack of Rikishi would have gotten a huge reaction before. Now, it’s just something Austin did.

Rikishi superkicks Undertaker out!

Rikishi goes for a Banzaii Drop, but Rock knocks him over the top rope. Really bad showing from Rikishi here kayfabe wise. All that hype for #30 and he ended up lasting 5 minutes?

Austin, Gunn, Kane, Rock is the final four. One of these is not like the other.

Gunn hits Austin with the Fameasser…then Austin throws Gunn out just like that. Down to three.

Austin and Rock have locked eyes. These two went at one another at Armageddon the month prior as well.

Austin and Rock going at each other here was a huge deal. It was funny when WWE tried to replicate it with Orton and Cena in 2011.

Austin and Rock keep going at it and Austin even gets a Stunner. Austin tries to dump Rock, but Rock counters and tries to dump Austin. Kane comes from behind and tries to dump both, but only succeeds in dumping Rock (the record setting 11th elimination).

Stone Cold wins the Royal Rumble at 61:55, last eliminating Kane. Austin and Kane go at it, and Kane grabs a chair. Austin gets the chair though and whacks Kane a few times, before clotheslining him over the top for the win. Very good Royal Rumble. Had some slow moments…but clearly had its moments as well.

A really good PPV here. Only one match was lacking, and it only lasted three minutes. Everything else ranged from awesome (the IC Ladder Match) to very good (the WWF Title match). Historically this was Austin’s last great babyface moment of the Attitude Era, and Kane got a historical accolade that took 13 years to beat. Kane did kinda get wasted though after this.

Royal Rumble really had some good stuff. Comedy with Carey, Honky Tonk and Scotty 2 Hotty. Kane’s reign of terror. The hardcore part of the Rumble. The Austin-Rock staredown. The Big Show comeback (it got a good pop and he was a main guy always before this).

The entire show did provide good build-up for Wrestlemania as well. Can’t go wrong there.

Final Grade: A