King of the Ring 2000 - Fleet Centre, Boston Massachusetts, June 25th, 2000

The eighth annual King of the Ring PPV. This is by far the most important the tournament has ever felt with the 32 person brackets unfolding over the entire month to get us to tonight’s final eight. That’s reflected in the presentation of the tournament in the opening video package too.

Tonight’s main event is a big, confusing six man tag team match where Triple H could lose his WWF Championship without being pinned. This is a night of tag team matches with unusual rules, but we’ll get to those as they come. 

King of the Ring Quarter final match

Chris Benoit vs. WWF Intercontinental Champion Rikishi

Rikishi is the brand new Intercontinental Champion. He beat Benoit on Smackdown and got a vicious steel chair beating and Crippler Crossface for his troubles. 

Benoit got here by beating Roaddogg and X-Pac, while Rikishi defeated Shane McMahon and his buddy Scotty 2 Hotty. 

The story of this match is Rikishi’s arm and shoulder which took a brutal beating on Smackdown already and Benoit is angry and focused and goes at Rikishi with strikes and kicks but Rikishi weathers the storm and rallies with a Samoan drop and then running the Canadian into the ring steps after he rolled to the outside.

Benoit fights back with an impressive German suplex and then goes to work on the much bigger man’s arm. We see here that there’s a big, deep bruise on Rikishi’s arm too. 

JR calls Rikishi’s Intercontinental title victory on Smackdown “Benoit’s most significant loss to date” and that’s actually true. 

Benoit takes Rikishi down into the Crossface and unlike everyone else he’s locked in it thus far, there’s no tap out and the big man holds on and gets to the ropes to break the hold.

That’s too much for Benoit and he goes and gets a steel chair, blasting Rikishi right in front of the referee to get himself disqualified.

Rikishi advances to the semi finals but the real story here is Benoit’s fury at losing his IC title. He hits Rikishi with several more chair shots and then locks in the Crippler Crossface for a while until referee’s manage to get him to release it. 

He goes to the top rope and dives right through the crowd of officials with a headbutt to the shoulder and locks in the Crossface AGAIN until finally, he leaves.

Rikishi needs a lot of medical attention and has advanced but the big story is that his already injured arm took a wicked beating.

Earlier tonight on Heat (It was all kicking off) Linda McMahon arrived and told Michael Cole she was here to confront her husband. Elsewhere backstage, we see Vince’s reaction to this. The rest of the Faction plead with Vince to keep his cool and not let Linda get under his skin as Vince promises that he is “Joe Cool”. That’s been the story lately as Linda uses her CEO powers to put Vince in his place and he continues to lose his temper and get goaded into silly things, like putting the WWF title on the line in tonight’s main event.

Michael Cole talks to Chris Benoit and asks him why he threw away his shot at becoming King of the Ring. He says that the world already knows he’s the best technical wrestler in the world and now he’s proved he does whatever he wants, whenever he wants. I mean ok cool, but you lost mate.

King of the Ring Quarter final match

WWF European Champion Eddie Guerrero (w/Chyna) vs. Val Venis (w/Trish Stratus)

Val Venis beat out Al Snow and Jeff Hardy to get here, while Eddie picked up wins over Matt Hardy and Chyna (there’s no hard feelings with Mamacita though).

Val got in a cheap shot against Eddie on Smackdown but his REAL feud has been with new Intercontinental Champion Rikishi, who he has engaged in multiple brutal weapons filled brawls with lately all stemming from Rikishi giving Trish Stratus a Stink Face.

This is the third or fourth time they’ve tried to give Val Venis the big “I’m serious now” push and to be fair, this is the best it's worked though the fans might just be into Trish Stratus. 

The action is fast paced and Eddie controls the tempo but Val takes it to the outside and brawls himself back into the match, dropping Guerrero across the ring barrier and sending him into the ring steps. 

Eddie - who’s sporting a new haircut - catches Val up top and brings him into the ring with a superplex for the near fall. 

Eddie locks Val in the Mexican surfboard and stretches Val all the way back into a dragon sleeper which looked really impressive. Venis breaks the hold with a thumb to the eye. 

That becomes Eddie’s strategy as he works on Val’s back but the fans are too busy chanting “we want puppies” at Trish and/or Chyna (but probably just Trish) to pay attention to the match. 

Val gets back into the match and uses a back breaker and stretches Eddie into a submission hold, and then a side Russian leg sweep for near falls. 

The referee catches Val trying to use the ropes during a roll up and puts a stop to that which allows Eddie to mount a comeback with a flurry of punches and suplexing Val up to the rope rope and bringing him back down with a hurricanrana. 

Trish distracts the referee so he can’t count, but Chyna knocks her down. Val grabs Chyna by the hair and she clocks him with a forearm sending him into a roll up for a very nearfall.

Val counters through and hits a fisherman’s suplex with a tight cover to win this match and advance to the semi finals. 

Backstage Pat Patterson discusses what dress he’s going to wear for his Evening Gown match. It’s pretty fun. He wants to look sexy and glamorous. He has to look better than Brisco because he’s the champion. 

Jonathan Coachman talks to Rikishi for a medical update. Rikishi isn’t worried and is even more fired up knowing his next opponent is his rival, Val Venis. 

King of the Ring Quarter final match

Crash Holly vs. Bull Buchanan

Crash Holly is the “Cinderella story” of this tournament, so they say. He beat the massive Albert in a shock upset rollup, and then defeated Hardcore Holly via disqualification when Brisco stole his Hardcore title. To get here, Bull Buchanan (who debuts new theme music now that he’s split from The Big Bossman) beat Steve Blackman and Perry Saturn.. He’s done a lot of dirty work for the McMahon-Helmsley Faction lately. 

Bull just dominates Crash, picking him up and driving him down with multiple backbreakers in a row and then just kicking him in the face.

The fans start chanting something but I can’t tell what. I don’t think it was flattering as the commentators ignored it and talked over it. I think it’s basically a “boring” chant at poor Bull who is a legit amazing athlete.

He dominates Crash until missing his scissors kick finisher, allowing Crash to roll him up tight and win the match!

Crash Holly advances, and gets out of the ring and sprints to the back immediately.

Backstage, Vince McMahon goes to see Linda. As Triple H and Shane predicated, he gets all worked up and recaps all the various ways Linda has foiled his plans lately (including misspeaking and saying she brought back referee Dave Hebner, rather than his twin brother Earl who was actually in the storyline). She asks Vince if he’s going to do what he did on Smackdown and have it be twelve on three tonight. Vince flies off the handle and says that since The Rock, The Undertaker and Kane will end up defeating themselves and fighting over the WWF title he promises there will be no interference tonight. 

King of the Ring Quarter final match

Kurt Angle vs. Chris Jericho

Before the match, Kurt Angle cuts his now trademark “the local sports teams suck” promo. He promises that unlike them, our Olympic Hero will bring home the gold. He beat Bradshaw and Bubba Ray Dudley to get to this point. Jericho retorts to Angle’s insults when he enters. He says Kurt is already a king - he’s the king of ugly ring attire, the kind of the nerds and the king of the 30 year old virgins. Jericho’s path to the quarter finals was through two other long haired Canadians in Test and Edge. 

The action is fast and furious and Jericho gets the first near fall with a missile dropkick. Y2J very quickly hits the running bulldog and Lionsault combo he’s used as his finisher for months now but Angle has his foot on the ropes to break the pin. Jericho then sends Angle to the outside with a springboard dropkick and they fight around the outside of the ring while a fan loudly shouts “kick his ass Jericho” in a comically thick Boston accent. 

Jericho chops Angle and bounces him off the ring barrier but Angle reverses an Irish whip and sends Jericho into the ring steps.

Back in the ring he takes control with a suplex and grinds Y2J down with a chinlock as it becomes clear that Angle’s chest is covered in nasty red welts and is even bleeding slightly from those chops.

Jericho hits the double underhook backbreaker. Angle comes back with a catapult into the corner. They’re trading big moves and the fans are very into both men. Angle is scarily proficient and is so good and polished that you forget he’s only been on TV for 7 months. 

Kurt gets a nearfall with a bridging German suplex and gets frustrated needing to be told off by the referee for punches in the corner. Jericho stops a top rope dive with a dropkick to the gut and follows with a top rope hurricanrana and this match is too close to call. 

Jericho counters an Olympic Slam attempt and gets Kurt in the Walls of Jericho, which brings WWF Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley down to the ring. The referee misses Angle’s tap out as he’s busy trying to stop her from getting in the ring, and then the referee gets knocked down when Kurt hits Jericho into him. She tries to hit Y2J with her title belt but she hits Kurt by mistake. Jericho blocks her slap attempt and in a spot that feels especially icky in 2024, grabs Steph and forces a kiss on her to a massive cheer.

The distraction is enough and Kurt hits the Olympic Slam just as the referee recovers to pin Jericho and advance to the semi finals. 

This was by far the longest tournament match of the night (and maybe the whole tournament?) and was pretty great.

Backstage, Shane McMahon expresses to his dad how upset he is that Vince lost his cool and promised no interference. Vince again tries to calm him down and explains that The Rock, Undertaker and Kane cannot possibly co-exist in tonight’s main event. They couldn’t even order lunch together, he says. I bet they could - they’d all get a steak right? Kane’s would be well done. Badum tish.

At WWF New York, Mick Foley is there (with a new haircut - he’s shaved his head) and Ivory tending bar. It’s pretty funny really because between the crowd going mental and chanting for both him and Ivory and the fact that he famously only has one ear, he is obviously struggling to hear what JR is saying and asking him. Mick says that his personal pick for the King of the Ring tournament is Kurt Angle, and that he’ll be on Raw tomorrow night. Interesting.

Fatal Four Way Elimination match for the WWF Tag Team Championships

Too Cool © (Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty) vs. Edge and Christian vs. T&A (Test and Albert, w/Trish Stratus) vs. The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy, w/Lita)

I mentioned it at the start of the show but this is the first of three tag team matches with unusual rules. This one is elimination rules.

Edge and Christian enter first and much like Kurt Angle, cut their trademark “the local sports teams suck” promo. Edge reveals that he’s wearing a New York Mets jersey under his coat and the five second pose mocks some classic time that Boston lost a baseball game. I don’t get the references but it certainly riles up the crowd. Amazingly, this is the first time Lita accompanied The Hardyz to the ring for a match. They teased teaming up for a while and teamed up on Smackdown and the rest, they say, is history. I’m not sure exactly when they gained the Team Xtreme name but this is a combo that worked for them.

Too Cool have been Tag Team Champions for close to a month now and racked up a couple of defences on TV. Scotty is wearing his title belt upside down, which is something he did the whole time. Because it’s cool? I dunno.

JR and King argue about strategy in this type of match but JR is right - you want to stay on the apron and not tag in because it’s elimination rules. You can’t be eliminated if you’re not in the match. 

Albert and Jeff start the match and he press slams Hardy who flips and lands on his feet which was very nice. I’m not going to be able to call all of the action in this one but The Hardyz work well as a team and double team Albert until his size allows a comeback and a tag to Test. He runs through Matt with a big boot but an attempted powerslam is countered. Trish and Lita have a fight outside the ring with Trish going down, but Test grabs Lita’s hair. She slaps him and he stumbles into a Twist of Fate. Albert pulls Lita into the ring too but Matt dropkicks her. Jeff hits a Swanton Bomb on Test allowing Matt to get the cover and T&A are the first team eliminated at 3:40. 

Scotty 2 Hotty gets in the ring for his team and the action is fast paced with him and Jeff in the ring. Scotty moonwalks to the wrong corner and Christian tags himself in which was a mistake as Matt takes him down and gets a near fall with a leg drop off the middle rope. The Hardyz hit Christian with a poetry in motion and then a double suplex on Edge before pulling off their tops which gets a loud, distinctly female cheer.

With the referee distracted, Lita comes off the top rope with a diving hurricanrana on Edge which gets a near fall for Jeff. Matt hits a Twist of Fate on Christian but Edge pulls him out of the ring. Jeff tries for a Swanton Bomb but Edge hangs Jeff across the top rope allowing Christian to hit the Unprettier (or Killswitch, whatever you prefer) to pin and eliminate The Hardyz at 7:55. That leaves this as a match between the champions and the former champions. Too Cool used double team moves to take down Edge and then Christian to a great reaction from the crowd. Christian rallies and works on Scotty for a bit until he hits a bit clothesline and they tag on both sides. Grandmaster gets Edge tied up in the ropes and then slingshots him into Christian too. Too Cool look great as Grandmaster is too quick and smart for Edge and Christian, getting a near fall with a sit down powerbomb on Edge. The challengers put down Sexay with a flapjack and try their own version of the Worm but taunt for too long so Scotty takes them down with a double bulldog and gives Edge the Worm. 

Christian grabs one of the Tag Team title belts and tries to use it as a weapon but its ducked and he’s sent to the outside. Too Cool hit their double team leg drop on Edge and have the clear three count but the referee is too busy getting Scotty out of the ring to see Christian hit Grandmaster Sexay in the head with the tag team title belt and reverse the pin.

That’s enough to end the match, and Edge and Christian regain the WWF Tag Team Championships.

Michael Cole interviews Crash Holly about how well he’s done in the King of the Ring tournament. He expresses unhappiness that everyone is so surprised, before talking about wanting to get his Hardcore title belt back from “those dirty old men”. 

King of the Ring Semi final match

WWF Intercontinental Champion Rikishi vs. Val Venis (w/Trish Stratus)

Rikishi is slow to head to the ring. He doesn’t even have his Intercontinental title belt with him, and the bruise on his arm looks like it’s gotten much bigger since earlier. I’m honestly not even sure if it's a real bruise or not but it certainly adds to the story. 

There’s replays of Rikishi’s previous matches with Val on Smackdown where they used chairs and ring steps and put each other through announce tables, knocked each other off the ramp and even splashed each other off the ramp. Both men bled, but especially Rikishi who was busted wide open. 

The match starts aggressively and they fight outside, running each other into the ring post, ring steps and security wall. 

In the ring, Rikishi hits a leg drop for a near fall but Val comes back with shots to the arm and stomps Rikishi down in the corner before wrapping the bad arm around the ring post. 

Val tries a top rope axe handle but Rikishi catches him and turns it into a belly to belly suplex for the victory and to advance to the finals of the King of the Ring. 

After the match, Trish jumps onto Rikishi’s back so he flips her over and sets her up for a Banzai drop but Val saves her with a low blow on Rikishi and then throws him off the second rope. He brings the steel ring steps into the ring and hits Rikishi right in the shoulder with them.

He gets a steel chair and lays Rikishi’s arm across the ringsteps, sandwiching it between them and the chair with a hard chairshot. Much like earlier, Rikishi had advanced but the real story is the health of his arm and whether he is physically able to continue. 

Jonathan Coachman interviews Gerry Brisco and laughs as he talks about the Evening Gown match and his chance to get the Hardcore title back. Brisco tries to make this serious by saying he wants revenge and that he’s all man, just as his dress arrives.

King of the Ring Semi final match

Crash Holly vs. Kurt Angle

There’s no pre-match promo this time - we’ve already had one tonight. Kurt Angle is all smiles and is supremely confident that he is going to win this tournament. He has been for weeks.

Crash looks competitive, getting near falls with a suplex and a bodyslam but Angle fights back with an overhead belly to belly suplex of his own. 

I think they expected the fans to be more into Crash’s underdog, Cinderella story but they’re pretty quiet during this. Angle dominates Crash and just as he mounts a comeback, Kurt drops him across the top rope with a hangman and follows with an Olympic Slam to win a short match and advance to the final. 

There’s coverage of the WWF’s house shows at Madison Square Garden the night before, including an appearance by Donald Trump. Gross. King interviewed him who mentioned that he’s best friends with Vince and that The Rock is his favourite WWF Superstar. Here's a picture of two of my least favourite human beings on planet Earth. 

Michael Cole interviews Kane and asks how he’s feeling about tonight’s main event. Kane says that all this is about is HIM becoming WWF Champion. Elsewhere, Jonathan Coachman asks The Undertaker the same who puts over the importance of the WWF title itself and says he didn’t come to Boston to lose.

Evening Gown match for the WWF Hardcore Championship

Pat Patterson © vs. Gerald Brisco

This match gets an honest to goodness video package. Insane. You know what though? It’s a good one. 

The crux of the story is that these two old men stole the Hardcore title from Crash, and then Patterson stole it from Brisco and dressed in drag to hide from him in the women’s locker room. Brisco then dressed in drag to get the title back. 

Brisco is in a long black dress, and comes out to Real American and carrying a 2x4. 

Patterson is in a red dress and seems a lot more into this whole thing. He came out to the classic stripper music as his theme song but oddly it’s been replaced on the WWE Network and heavily dubbed by some weird sounding comedy music. The weapons he’s brought consist of a teddy bear and toilet rolls.

Patterson gets a microphone and says that Brisco looks like an old drag queen. He says that they shouldn’t fight and offers to lay down and let Brisco pin him. He then jumps him anyway and gets Brisco down in the corner, stuffing a banana into his mouth and using a tampon as a weapon while JR and King laugh hysterically.

The fans loudly boo the action and start chanting “boring” as Brisco mounts his comeback and hits a Bronco Buster.

The boos continue to amplify as these two old men scrap at each other and pull at their dresses. Brisco uses Patterson’s own stuffed bra as a weapon in the corner until Crash Holly runs to the ring with his own referee. He beats them up and strips both men to their bra and panties, I think effectively ending the match. He hits Patterson with a trashcan and pins him, which DOES get a loud cheer. Crash Holly gets his Hardcore title back and runs away in victory while JR and King giggle at the state of Brisco and Patterson in the ring. This is pretty much Crash Holly's "last hurrah" as Hardcore Champion and the last time he'd be the focus of the division, certainly on PPV. End of an era.

Backstage, D-Von fires up Bubba Ray and promises that D-Generation X will know that thou shalt not mess with The Dudleyz. Bubba reveals that they have a table with Tori’s name on it. Literally. 

Handicap Tables-Dumpster match

D-Generation X (Roaddogg, X-Pac and Tori) vs. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley)

For The Dudleys to win, they must put all three members of DX through tables.

For DX to win, they must put both Dudleyz inside a dumpster and close the lid.

There’s a video package for this one too. This match has been building since just after Backlash. 

Another tag team match with weird rules. I told you that was a theme tonight.

I want to comment on something here - DX just does not lose matches. I don’t know if it's out of respect for them having been around so long, or if it's due to their friendship with upper management (on and off camera) but Roaddogg and X-Pac, whether in singles or as a tag team, just never seem to lose and if they do, it's always due to outside interference and even the babyfaces need to cheat to beat these guys. They have been on almost every PPV since I started this journey through the Attitude Era and I really had no memory of what big fixtures they were or how incredibly strongly they were always booked. 

This match starts as a normal tag team match with everyone assembling on their corners and tagging in and out of the ring. That won’t last.

DX isolates D-Von for a bit until he tags in Bubba and they light up DX with double teams. They give Roaddogg their tag team headbutt off the top rope to the groin, and then the same to Tori! D-Von stays laid out with his face in her crotch a lot longer than he had to.

Tori rolls to the outside and it was during this spot that she started hugging right arm very close to her body. More on that later.

The tag teams fight up the ramp and DX runs The Dudleyz head into the metal dumper and manages to get them inside, closing the lids. DX technically won this match but the referee was too busy checking on Tori and missed it. The Dudleyz slip out the side doors and crawl under the ring and by the time DX get the referee to check, The Dudleyz are behind them and knock BOTH men down with stereo chair shots to the head. 

Bubba sets up a table on the outside of the ring, and then a second table on top of it. He throws the ring steps into the ring and steps up onto them as a platform and with some help from D-Von, powerbombs Roaddogg from the ring and through both tables, crashing all the way to the floor. That looked spectacular. 

X-Pac slams Bubba off the ringsteps, and then hits D-Von with a spinning heel kick before setting up a table and laying D-Von across it. He’s stopped from jumping off the top by Bubba, and D-Von superplexes X-Pac through a table. So to win, The Dudleyz now only have to put Tori through a table.

As she runs around the ring, it's very obvious her arm and shoulder is badly hurt. She runs and hides in the dumpster and it works as a great distraction as while Bubba and D-Von stand on the apron looking down at her, X-Pac and Roaddogg knock them out with chair shots sending them falling into the dumpster. They shut the lids and D-Generation X wins the match.

Afterwards, X-Pac looks for Tori with no idea that she’s in the dumpster with The Dudleyz!

They climb out and grab Tori by the hair. DX runs down and tries to save her but a pair of 3Ds to take them out. That leaves Tori all alone and Bubba terrorises her with his tongue in the corner (it’s weird).  D-Von sets up the table that has “Tori” spray painted on it and Bubba finally gets to drive her through a table with a jumping powerbomb from the top rope, just like they did to Terri, BB, Lita and Trish.

This is pretty much the last time we’d see Tori. She popped up again in 2001 as a “masked ninja” that was hardly on TV and didn’t go anywhere. She suffered a torn rotator cuff (the shoulder injury I mentioned a couple of times) either just before, or during this match and needed surgery. It’s interesting looking back at this period in hindsight as Tori was a full fledged member of D-Generation X for over 6 months but it’s never brought up and certainly wasn’t mentioned when DX were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. She had a couple of very memorable storylines with Kane especially and I suppose with the wrestling business and the WWF during this time period moving so quickly she was old news by the time she was ready to return. She was officially released in September 2001 and retired from wrestling entirely. Fare thee well, Tori. 

Michael Cole interviews Kurt Angle ahead of the King of the Ring final which he calls the most important match of his career. Kurt says that Rikishi is great if you like dancing and rubbing your butt in other people’s faces. The party is over, and he must win this match. He mentions again that he’ll face Triple H for the WWF title after doing so. I’ll talk about that a bit more before the main event.

King of the Ring Final match

WWF Intercontinental Champion Rikishi vs. Kurt Angle

There was a video package for this one, but it’s just the King of the Ring portion of the video that opened the PPV. 

Rikishi’s arm now has a large white bandage on it, under his armband. Kurt Angle goes out to meet him on the ramp and starts the fight early but it backfires as Rikishi is the stronger striker and he punches him back to the ring and slams the Olympian around. 

Kurt weathers the storm and gets control with shots to the arm, sending him shoulder first into the ring steps shoulder first. 

Rikishi fights back with a running cutter and a Samoan drop but he’s in too much pain to cover properly and Kurt kicks out at one. Rikishi does get Kurt in the corner and gives him a Stink Face but it just seems to fire Angle up who immediately comes up swinging and hits an Olympic Slam! Rikishi just barely kicks out and that gets a shocked reaction from the crowd and the commentators.

Angle tries a sunset flip but Rikishi blocks and sits down on him for another near fall. 

In a bizarre move, Rikishi decides to go to the top rope - something he’s never done. It backfires and Kurt stops him with punches and hits an awesome belly to belly suplex from the top rope. That’s enough to keep the big man down and Kurt Angle wins the match to become the 2000 King of the Ring! 

It's an emotional reaction from Kurt who is delighted to have won and is worlds away from last year's tournament and Billy Gunn’s victory, of which I was highly critical. The official coronation will take place tomorrow night on Raw.

Six man tag team match for the WWF Championship

Triple H © (w/ WWF Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley), Shane McMahon and Vince McMahon vs. The Rock, The Undertaker and Kane

If Triple H’s team wins, he retains the title and the winner of the KOTR will be number one contender.

If either The Rock, The Undertaker or Kane score the winning pinfall or submission, they become WWF Champion.

It’s here that I want to talk a bit about the booking into this show. In truth they went around the houses a bit to get to this match - there was a point where all three challengers were officially number one contender at the same time and they undid that, just to start over and force all three back into number one contender spots again. They also really played up the fact that if Triple H retained the title here, the number one contender would be the King of the Ring. Between Kurt Angle’s relationship with Stephanie, Jericho’s feud with both her and Triple H and Benoit’s connection to The Faction and even The Rock, it seemed likely that the winner of the King of the Ring would at the very least try to interfere in this match. It would have been genius of Kurt to try and help Triple H and the McMahons win to guarantee his own title match in July. Basically, there were lots of things they COULD have done and didn’t. But maybe that’s what makes it unpredictable right? 

Vince and Shane enter first and together as JR reminds us that last year at this PPV, they were a successful tag team in a handicap ladder match against Stone Cold Steve Austin. God that feels like a million years ago. Kane is out first for the challengers, followed by The Undertaker who yes, used Kid Rock’s American Badass as his theme music but on the WWE Network it is heavily dubbed by his 2003 WWE produced, royalty free theme song. Disappointing but I’m used to it by now. The Rock is out last to a nice loud reaction. He and Triple H’s feud really ended at Judgment Day and it’s just circumstance that has them still working together. Honestly in the build to this PPV, this match is more about Vince McMahon being goaded into things by his wife Linda. 

Shane starts the match for his team amid loud “Shane’s a pussy” chants and hits Kane from behind. Kane stalks him to the corner, and then offers him a free shot, daring Shane to punch him in the face. He does, and it has no effect. He follows up with more punches which also bounce off Kane’s mask with zero impact. Kane grabs him by the fist and then lifts him by the throat, throwing him to the corner. 

Shane tries to run but he’s stopped by Undertaker and sent back into the ring to a waiting clothesline. Kane Gorilla presses Shane and even does a couple of reps with him before dropping him and setting up for a chokeslam.

Vince rescues his son and is grabbed by the throat too. Triple H helps and the McMahon boys try to double team Kane but go down from a double clothesline. The Rock manages to tag himself in, much to Kane’s annoyance. 

The Rock doesn’t want to beat up the McMahons and he tells Triple H to “just bring it”. A little help from Shane lets Triple H get a cheap shot and Shane takes over on The Rock. It doesn’t last long and The Rock shrugs it off and beats up Shane before throwing him up and over the top rope to the floor. 

The Undertaker tags himself in as The Rock tries to leave the ring and takes Shane back inside. He dominates Shane and plants him with an enormous chokeslam and he has the match won but The Rock is the one who stops the pin, and just like that Vince’s strategy pays off. 

As The Undertaker is distracted arguing with The Rock, Shane manages to tag in Triple H who doesn’t fare any better and is beaten from corner to corner by The American Badass. He might have another pin off a big DDT but this time Kane stops the cover, and when he goes to argue with his brother The Rock tags himself in. 

Triple H goes and tags in Shane to take a breather on the outside but Shane doesn’t want to get in the ring and encourages Triple H to do it instead. The Rock brings Shane in the hardway, over the top rope. 

The match breaks down from there as Triple H attacks The Rock, Kane goes after Shane and The Undertaker beats down Vince McMahon. 

In the ring, Triple H hits a Pedigree on The Rock but The Undertaker is too slow to break up the pin so The Rock has to kick out instead. Oops. 

Taker pulls The Game out of the ring and with the two McMahon boys out of action, it’s basically three on one. 

The Rock refuses to tag out - he can’t win the WWF title on the apron - but he’s still groggy after the Pedigree and so The Faction dominates and beats down the People’s Champion in the corner. This match is the debut of Shane’s familiar ring gear as he’s wearing a custom “Shane O’Mac” baseball jersey, rather than one of his opponent’s t-shirt’s he’s customised with an insult which is what he’d always worn up until now. 

They work over The Rock for a while until he mounts a comeback and has a cover off a Samoan drop, but when Shane breaks up that cover the match once again breaks down with Triple H and The Rock in the ring.

On the outside, Kane turns on The Undertaker! A couple of uppercuts and then running his big brother into the ring steps.

The Rock attempts the People’s Elbow on The Game but runs right into Kane’s waiting hand and a massive chokeslam.

King celebrates, assuming that this is Vince’s master plan and that Kane is back in the fold. Triple H pats Kane on the back and gives him a thumbs up….but then Kane drops him with a tombstone! 

Kane has the WWF title won, but The Undertaker pulls Kane out of the ring and throws him into the ring steps before clearing off the announce table, and hammering Kane in the head with a brutal chair shot.

The Undertaker catches Shane on the top rope and in an amazing spot, jumps off the apron and brings Shane with him effectively chokeslamming the Boy Wonder from the top rope all the way to the announce table!

In the ring, Vince tries to give The Rock a People’s elbow, but he pops up and catches him in a Rock Bottom instead!

The Rock pins Vince McMahon to win his fifth WWF title! It’s not mentioned but this at the time tied The Rock with Bret Hart as the most decorated WWF Champion of all time.

On the outside, Triple H reacts strongly to losing his title without being pinned and storms to the back in a fury while the new champion celebrates in the ring. The Undertaker sits atop the motorbike and tells The Rock that he owes him one. It wasn’t clear during the finish itself but on the replay, it was clear that Triple H could have gotten into the ring and stopped the final pin but The Undertaker stopped him, effectively handing the title to The Rock. 

Vince stumbles to his feet so The Rock hits him in the head with the WWF title belt and celebrates with his foot on the bosses chest to end the PPV on a high.