Raw is War - June 26th 2000

A New Era and a New Commissioner

Wasting no time with the new WWF Champion The Rock, who heads right on down to the ring. JR calls him “A Rock for all ages” which is something that has been said a few times lately. Maybe a new nickname they were trying out but that definitely didn’t stick. Finally, he is the WWF Champion. He tells Vince that he has a lot to be thankful for. He is still the owner of the WWF, the owner of a big house, the owner of luxury cars and the owner of the best penis implant money can buy (lol) but after last night, The Rock owns the WWF title and owns Vince’s candy ass. Vince is expecting a fight and tells them to Just Bring It, because the McMahon-Helmsley era is over and The Rock’s era has begun. That brings Vince McMahon down to the ring. He seems defeated and even politely asks The Rock for a microphone. Vince says that as he lay on his back at King of the Ring he had a great realisation and epiphany. Why would his wife Linda have been so kind to his adversaries and make business decisions that upset him? Why would she risk the wrath of his retribution? Well, it’s because she loves him so much. He loves her too and because she’s so clearly been clamouring for his attention, he’s going to give it to her. Both her and his lives will change for the better because he’s going to give her as much attention and love as she wants. He goes on about it a bit and basically ends by saying that Linda wants another baby and that he’ll be here “genetic jackhammer”. “Linda, Daddy is coming home!”. He then offers The Rock a handshake. The Rock accepts and gives Vince a big smile, but then won’t release. “Before you go home to make babies with Linda” and after a couple more insults, pulls him into a Rock Bottom as a parting gift. This is a significant segment as this is the last we’ll see of Vince for a few months. It was a good idea to take him off TV for a bit - the McMahon fatigue was getting pretty bad by this point. 

Shawn Michaels - the WWF spokesman - arrives in the parking lot and in the next segment, Vince leaves. Stephanie pleads with her dad to stay but Vince tells her to apologise to Triple H for him. It seems that the McMahon-Helmsley faction really is losing control.

In the parking lot, Triple H arrives and Stephanie, X-Pac and Roaddogg are waiting for him. He doesn’t listen to them and walks off in a rage. Roaddogg chases after him to tell him about Shawn Michaels and check on him as Stephanie says that she and X-Pac will deal with Chris Jericho themselves.

Before his match with X-Pac, Chris Jericho has an insulting pre-match promo where he lobs more horrific insults at Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. She accompanies X-Pac to the ring for the match. Jericho has control of the match and Stephanie distracts him. Roaddogg runs down to try and help his DX mate too and is also fought off. Jericho hits the double powerbomb and a Lionsault but Stephanie distracts the referee and Roaddogg hits him, knocking him out and reversing the cover. X-Pac wins, and then DX continues the assault after the match. They hold Jericho prone for a couple of slaps from the WWF Women’s Champion and then a stiff kick right to the crotch. Stephanie is evil and that but it’s hard to argue that Jericho deserved that. 

Shawn Michaels enters the arena to a big reaction. He pauses on the entrance ramp to pose on the throne that is set up for Kurt Angle’s coronation and then tips it off the ramp where its legs break on impact. HBK says that he is here to make a big announcement about the number one contendership for the WWF title. Before he gets any further, former champion Triple H comes steaming to the ring. They shake hands and after talking about how badly he was screwed out of the WWF title last night at King of the Ring, assumes that Shawn is going to name him the number one contender. Michaels says that he is right and that he can’t argue but there is a small issue. He’s not the WWF commissioner anymore and so it's not up to him. He doesn’t get to make decisions like that. His announcement is that there is a new commissioner and that man is Mick Foley! Mick has his new shaved head, and says that Triple H must be awestruck by how powerful Mick Foley looks now. He says that he’s sick of listening to Triple H’s whining and bitching and now with Vince McMahon gone he has all the power to make the matches and decisions and he’s going to make sure no one ever has to listen to a boring twenty minute Triple H promo ever again.

Triple H demands to be made the number one contender and threatens to beat up Mick Foley and name drops Mick’s tendency to mention the name of the town they’re in for a “cheap pop” which would become a long running Foley joke. After all this complaining, Kurt Angle heads down to the ring wearing his big silly crown and robe and carrying a sceptre. He says that he’s sick of waiting for his coronation and now he’s here to point out that as the new King of the Ring he should be the number one contender. He’s right! Mick has a good laugh at how silly Kurt Angle looks, before announcing that tonight there will be a triple threat match between Triple H, Kurt Angle and The Rock and if either of them wins they can get a title shot on Smackdown this week.

Triple H loses his temper and punches Kurt and throws him out of the ring. The Game seems ready to explode.  The most important part of this whole segment is that as commissioner, Mick Foley’s power is absolute. 

When King Kurt Angle enters for the main event, he now has pyro included in his entrance. A royal gold medalist. He joins commentary, planning to let The Rock and Triple H go at it one on one for a while before he joins in. It’s a chaotic main event as all three men come close to victory but as Triple H has Angle down on the outside and a Pedigree on The Rock, Chris Jericho runs to the ring and hangs The Game up on the top rope, sending him spinning into a Rock Bottom. The Rock pins Triple H to legitimise his title win at King of the Ring, and officially kicks Triple H out of the number one contenders spot. Jericho has screwed Triple H and all because his wife wouldn’t leave Y2J alone. 

Sodas Rule!

Backstage, Edge and Christian complain about how The Rock gets his own locker room and that they don’t. Mick Foley appears and in the first instance of another attitude era staple, commissioner Foley goofs around with Edge and Christian and promises them their own locker room. In a later segment, they’re reclined in a pair of big leather armchairs and say that they want Foley to bring them some sodas because “sodas rule”. As Foley does, he casually mentions to them that they have a match tonight with Kane and The Undertaker. Edge and Christian are not happy! They refuse, and so Foley tells them that they’ll be stripped of their titles if they don’t. 

Edge and Christian look very upset as they make their way to the ring for a non-title match with The Undertaker and Kane. The Brothers of Destruction haven’t been given that team name yet, and have had a tense relationship but their issues with The Faction seems to have gotten them on the same side. Undertaker and Kane win very quickly and easily with stereo chokeslams as JR speculates that they are together and on the same page. It certainly seems that way after the match! 

Other Happenings

• Rikishi defends the Intercontinental Championship against the former champion Chris Benoit. Benoit absolutely brutalised Rikishi both on Smackdown after losing the title and then against the King of the Ring. Rikishi’s arm and shoulder are in a bad way after both Benoit and Val Venis’ assaults on it. Rikishi doesn’t actually have the belt with him, which is odd. Rikishi seems to have the match won and sets Benoit up for a Banzai drop but the match is ruined when Tazz runs to the ring and hits Rikishi with a steel chair. That ends the match via disqualification, and after Tazz leaves Benoit hits Rikishi with another chair shot and a top rope headbutt to the shoulder. JR asks the obvious question - since Benoit was the one who injured Tazz, why did Tazz attack Rikishi instead? 

• Eddie Guerrero defends the European title against Val Venis. We see both men walking to the ring and while Trish and Val are all business and very focused, Eddie and Chyna are all laughs and smiles. He doesn’t seem too worried about the match. The match itself is good but short and after Trish gets in a cheap shot on Eddie, Chyna gets involved too. The match ends via disqualification and then in the ring, Eddie and Chyna lay out Val with a double DDT. Chyna ends it with a powerbomb on Trish Stratus which gets a massive reaction. Eddie Guerrero is still the European Champion.

• Dean Malenko - ladies man - plays pool in the back with Terri and some other ladies. Dean is facing Jerry Lawler tonight in an “over the top, topless match” in which they try to throw each other over the top rope and every time they do, their corner-women (The Kat and Terri) will have to remove clothing. That match is next and with Terri and Kat up on the ramp, Lawler and Malenko wrestle. They throw each other over the top and both women remove clothes, with the strip tease music playing in a short burst each time. There’s not a ton to say about this “match”. Forcing women to strip against their will feels creepy even by 2000 standards. With both men in their underwear, King gets the last throw over the top rop which means that Terri has to remove her bra. She does, but with her back to the camera and before she can “show us the goods” we get an important debut - Stevie Richards with short hair and in shirt and tie appears to cover her with a huge “Censored” board and hide her breasts. The birth of the Right to Censor.

A tag team battle royal for the number one contendership for the tag team titles. The APA starts brawling with the teams already in the ring before all the teams have even entered. After a commercial break, the rest of the teams enter which includes all the ones you’d expect but also Perry Saturn and D’Lo Brown. It’s a bit messy, but the APA won it and will now get a tag team title match on Smackdown.

Smackdown! - June 29th, 2000

Y2J plays The Game

Smackdown opens with a furious Triple H going to see new commissioner Mick Foley in his “office” which is basically a corner of the backstage area with a small desk and a lot of plants. Triple H is furious and he wants Jericho so that he can make the beatings he gave Foley seem like child’s play. Mick says he doesn’t bow down to threats and intimidation but he will do the right and fair thing.

Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley heads down to the ring. She has sent Triple H outside for a breath of air to calm down and she says that her husband was screwed at King of the Ring because of her father and his unhealthy relationship with her mother. Stephanie says that she stands by her man, and he stands by her. She says she is an impatient woman and she is tired of waiting to hear whether Mick Foley will give Triple H the match with Chris Jericho or not. She demands Foley come to the ring. Her voice is very shrill here and I hope she’s putting it on as part of her heel character, otherwise it’s just a very annoying voice. Mick Foley does come to the ring as requested. After reminding Steph of his history with her and Triple H but now he’s free to screw around with Triple H’s career as much as he wants. He doesn’t feel any guilt or remorse for Triple H, but he’s not here to make the WWF his playground. He’s here to make sure the fans (“right here, in Hartford Connecticut”. For the cheap pop) have a great show. He says that he will give Triple H a match with Chris Jericho tonight….in a six man tag team match. Triple H can team up with Roaddogg and X-Pac against Y2J and The Dudley Boyz. 

In the main event, Chris Jericho and The Dudleyz vs. D-Generation X. For long time fans you’ll be pleased to know that by this point X-Pac is deep into his faux kung fu “karate kid” poses and loudly shouting “hiya!” and other “kung fu noises” as he throws spinning heel kicks. They are very much his only move. The Dudleyz are on fire and give both Roaddogg and X-Pac the diving headbutt to the groin combo. Bubba Ray loudly tells D-Von to “get the table” which would eventually become a massive spot for them too. The crowd roars as D-Von gets a table out from under the ring. It doesn’t pay off yet and the match continues and the crowd is rabid. In the chaos, Triple H gives Bubba a Pedigree and wins the match. The Dudleyz try to put Stephanie through a table afterwards and while X-Pac manages to save her, Chris Jericho dropkicks Triple H off the apron which sends The Game crashing through a table at ringside. 

Edge and Christian

Edge and Christian go to see commissioner Foley and ask to not defend their tag team titles against the APA tonight. He agrees and instead books them in a pair of singles matches against The Undertaker and Kane. 

Christian (with Edge) faces Kane. This is a surprisingly long match with Christian putting up a good fight (mostly with Edge’s help) until the referee goes down, getting squashed in the corner. Edge tries to help and uses a chair but just as Kane is about to double-chokeslam the tag team champions Tazz runs to the ring and hits Kane with several chair shots. Edge and Christian grab a chair each and debut the con-chair-to (which doesn’t have a name yet of course) and bang the chairs together with Kane’s head in the middle. Christian pins Kane and officially wins this match, and just like his assault on Rikishi on Raw - what was Tazz’s motive here?

After a couple of backstage skits where Jericho tries to talk strategy with The Dudleyz, and Christian motivates Edge to win his match just like he did, Edge vs. The Undertaker is next. Christian gets a chair shot from the outside as King discusses Edge and Christian being masters of the chair and the new Chair-men of the WWF. Edge tries his best but a big chokeslam from The Undertaker ends this quickly with a victory. Christian attacks him after the match and the tag team champions double team Taker in the corner until Kane arrives to save the day. Kane chokeslams Christian as The Undertaker debuts the Last Ride elevated-powerbomb on Edge. The Undertaker and Kane seem to be fully united now. 

A new (Hardcore) era

Mick Foley offers Al Snow a title shot backstage, and laughs when Snow assumes he means against The Rock. No, it's for the Hardcore title and sure enough that match is next.

Al Snow is back to his own trunks and music and is no longer copying Steve Blackman and faces Crash Holly for the Hardcore title. Snow hides under the ring and gets the jump on Crash as he looks for weapons. After months of 24/7 title changes and all the Brisco and Patterson nonsense, this is a good fun, classic Hardcore title match with them using lots of creative weapons including Snow putting on a bowling shirt and rolling a bowling ball into Crash in the corner. Steve Blackman makes his way to the ring and uses his nunchucks to take out both men and pins Crash to win the Hardcore title. Blackman leaves the arena and as he gets to his car, the Mean Street Posse tries to jump him. He wipes them out with his nunchucks too and leaves in his car.

Other Happenings

• In the arena, the show opens with the super popular European Champion Eddie Guerrero and his mamacita, Chyna. He teams with Intercontinental Champion Rikishi against Val Venis (with no Trish, who is selling being powerbombed by Chyna on Raw) and Chris Benoit. There’s no mention made of Eddie and Benoit’s history as Radicals and that they entered the WWF together. It’s a chaotic finish as Trish leads her other clients, T&A to the ring to get revenge on Chyna for the powerbomb. It turns into a four on three brawl, but Too Cool is quick to join in and help out Rikishi. They chase off Val, Test, Albert and Benoit and then Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty along with Rikishi invite Eddie and Chyna to dance with them. 

• In the locker room, Kurt Angle explains to Kaientai that they should call him King Kurt from now on. Hardcore Holly comes in to tell Angle off for patronising and says “they're Japanese, not stupid”. That’s oddly PC of him. He kicks Kurt’s crown and challenges him to a match, next. He busts out his “How do you like me now?” catchphrase too. 
• Kurt enters for the match wearing his robe and sceptre and is fully leaning into the King gimmick. That doesn’t last long. Before the match, Kurt mocks Holly’s buck teeth and claims that by kicking the crown he has caused thousands of dollars in damages. This match is what it is, but the important thing coming out of it is that Hardcore Holly suffered a broken arm. One of the very rare times Kurt actually connected with his moonsault and his knees were driven hard into Holly’s arm on the landing. He’d be gone for a few months. Holly was very tough and gutted it out to finish the match which he lost via an Olympic Slam.

• The Godfather (alongside four hoes) faces Bull Buchanan. Bull interrupts Godfather’s pre-match promo. He tries again when Bull’s in the ring but is interrupted a second time by a loud buzzy dial tone theme song. It’s Stevie Richards, who informs us that he is Steven Richards now and that on Raw he saved us all from seeing Terri’s breasts. Steven Richards does what the network and producers will not and could not do and takes responsibility for censoring what he finds to be vile, profane and irresponsible. He says this is fair warning to The Godfather to clean up his act and to stop bringing half naked women to the ring and promoting sexuality or he’ll be forced to censor him. Bull jumps Godfather from behind to start the match. Bull wins a short physical match when The Godfather gets distracted by his hoes and he lands a big scissors kick to the head.

Raw is War - July 3rd, 2000

A new Number One Contender emerges

The first match of the show is Eddie Guerrero defending the European title against Chris Benoit. Just like when they clashed in a tag team match on Smackdown there’s no mention of their history as Radicals. This is a very good match. Benoit tries to use the title belt as a weapon and when Chyna stops him, the match ends via disqualification. Benoit knocks out Eddie with the belt anyway and then locks Chyna in the Crippler Crossface which gets a very strong reaction from the crowd. They’ve put that hold over as the most dangerous thing in the world. 

Mick Foley heads out into the arena and after talking about how much he loves his new job and joking that he’s going to ban “the Worm”, he addresses the number one contendership for the WWF title. Tonight (in Orlando, Florida, for the cheap pop) the possibilities are wide open. That brings the WWF Champion himself, The Rock down to the ring. The Rock gives Mick a sincere welcome back and shakes his hand. Mick asks The Rock how he feels and cuts him off with a “it doesn’t matter!” which The Rock laughs off as Mick runs around the ring in victory leading his own “Foley” chant. Now that he’s retired and with all of their history, The Rock is willing to show Mick some love and actually be his friend. He then demands that a new number one contender be named as he’s sick of waiting, and that brings Shane McMahon out onto the stage. Shane reminds us all of his ordeal at the King of the Ring being driven through the announce table while the fans chant “Shane’s a pussy”. Shane recounts everything he’s been through lately including his mother and father embarrassing themselves, his brother in law losing the title without being pinned and the fans calling his sister a “slut”. He says he should be in charge and should decide who the number one contender is, declaring this his independence day. Foley deliberately mishears him and says that Shane wants to be the number one contender. The Rock smells what he’s cooking and agrees - The Rock vs. Shane McMahon tonight. 

In a pair of backstage segments, Patterson and Brisco go to see Mick Foley and beg him to reconsider tonight’s main event and not put Shane McMahon against The Rock tonight. Shane is still hurt from the King of the Ring and they’re worried about his safety. Foley is obviously unmoved.

Shane McMahon complains to Mick Foley backstage about being too hurt to wrestle The Rock tonight and Foley fires up and talks about all the times he was too hurt to wrestle but he did anyway, before teasing Shane. Foley is having the time of his life running the show. 

Michael Cole asks The Rock if he’s going to show sympathy for Shane McMahon. Did Shane show sympathy all those times he hit him with a chair, or helped beat him down five on one, or left him laying in a pool of his own blood? No, The Rock plans on showing Shane no sympathy. That match is next.

The main event is officially for the WWF Championship and Shane enters first. Once The Rock is in the ring, Shane grabs the mic and says that he has an injured knee and cracked ribs and that if he was 100% he’d win the WWF title but since he isn’t 100% he knows The Rock doesn’t want to fight him. He says that they should be allies. Vince and Linda are gone, the McMahon-Helmsley era is over, its time for them to lead the company into the new millennium. He holds out his hand but The Rock simply calmly walks towards Shane and knocks him down. He prepares to give Shane the People’s Elbow until he’s attacked from behind by Chris Benoit! Benoit hits The Rock with a chair over and over and over before locking him in the Cripple Crossface. With The Rock being stretched and torn at, Shane lays in with slaps and punches and kicks to the ribs and even holds the referees at bay with a steel chair so that Benoit can punish The Rock for as long as possible. Shane hits Rock in the shoulder with the edge of the chair too while Benoit holds him until finally, after an extremely long time in the Crippler Crossface, Commissioner Foley comes to the ring and stops the beating. Raw ends with the question - what is Shane and Benoit’s relationship? 

Chris Jericho and Triple H

Before the Raw intro even plays, backstage Triple H accuses Stephanie of “letting” Jericho kiss her at King of the Ring. He then corners commissioner Mick Foley and demands both a title shot, and a match with Jericho. Foley says that he’s happy to give Triple H a match with Jericho but it's so big it will have to be at the next PPV. He then offers Triple H a title shot tonight - a match with Rikishi for the Intercontinental title.

Triple H challenges Rikishi for the Intercontinental title. It’s a good match but the fans steal the show by directing multiple vulgar chants at Stephanie, including “Stephanie swallows”. Rikishi dominates with a superkick and a Samoan drop but as the two fight on the outside, the referee counts to ten and they’re counted out. Jericho attacks Triple H from behind and throws him into the ring where Rikishi squashes him from behind, and gives The Game a Stink Face as Stephanie screams and Jericho laughs. Rikishi is joined by Too Cool and they victory dance.

Backstage, Triple H confronts Mick Foley and demands payback. Foley calms him down by saying he’ll put Jericho in a handicap match against Roaddogg and X-Pac, as long as Triple H promises not to interfere. If he does, the match at Fully Loaded is cancelled. Triple H is happy with that.

D-Generation X enters and JR explains about Tori’s bad shoulder injury and how her career might be over. It is. Chris Jericho looks nervous as he enters for this handicap match but Commissioner Foley comes out to say that he misspoke and this will be a handicap match but it’s not two on one, it’s three on two and Jericho has tag team partners. It's The APA. DX gets an early jump on Jericho but Bradshaw and Faarrooq rush down to stop it before long. The APA brutalises DX and Jericho pins X-Pac with a Lionsault to win the match. Triple H is shown destroying his dressing room in a rage and then leaving the arena in a limo right after, furious about the whole situation.

Kurt Angle makes enemies

Edge and Christian defend the Tag Team Championships against The Undertaker and Kane. Edge and Christian’s pre-match promo features an apology for hitting Kane with chairs on Smackdown and the five second pose is their hopes for the end of the match - Edge in a Kane mask, shaking hands with Christian. Taker and Kane dominate the champions and have the titles in hand but Kurt Angle runs down and hits The Undertaker with his sceptre in front of the referee to get Edge and Christian disqualified to save their tag team titles. After the match, Edge takes a huge elevated-powerbomb from The Undertaker and Christian takes a chokeslam. Afterwards, Michael Cole asks him how he feels about upsetting The Undertaker. It seems only now dawn on Kurt what he’s done and he apologises if he’s offended The Undertaker.

Kurt Angle - carrying his crown and sceptre but no longer wearing his royal robes - enters with his new pyrotechnic entrance and JR talks about Kurt’s smug attitude and how little he cared about breaking Hardcore Holly’s arm on Smackdown. Kurt Angle has a mystery opponent, who turns out to be the Brooklyn Brawler. Kurt believes that this is him being disrespected by Commissioner Foley. This is an unworthy opponent for him. That brings out Foley who agrees with Kurt and says that the Brawler isn’t his opponent, he’s his partner. Kurt’s opponents are The Dudley Boyz. The Dudleyz dominate the Brawler and then Kurt refuses to tag in and just leaves. Bubba and D-Von finish him off with a 3D and then driving the Brawler through a table for good measure.

Other Happenings

• Jeff Hardy, alongside Lita faces Val Venis with Trish Stratus. It’s back and forth and Jeff hits  Swanton and has the match won but Trish distracts the referee. Lita gets into a fight with her and while the ref tries to split them up Tazz runs in with another sneak attack to choke out Jeff Hardy. Val follows up with a Money Shot to win the match.
• Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko enters. It seems that last night on Sunday Night Heat he issued an open challenge which was accepted by Jacqueline. There’s a replay of him brutalising and submitting Jackie with a Texas cloverleaf. Dean has a couple of ladies on his arm as he is now a “ladies man”. He says he wants to redeem himself and defend his title against anyone tonight, which is accepted by Crash Holly. Dean wins a short match with a roll up and as he celebrates he’s attacked by Jacqueline and Ivory who give Dean a double suplex and pummelled him with punches until Dean’s able to escape. 
• The Godfather (and four hoes) takes on Test. The Godfather gets distracted when Steven Richards (who now has the more familiar Right to Censor theme song, which is a loud blaring car-alarm) comes to the ringside and puts large sacks over the hoes, hiding their bodies. Test wins with a running big boot to the face, which he’s adopted as his finishing move recently. Later, Kevin Kelly interviews Steven Richards who preaches about his crusade to bring morals to the WWF.
• Backstage, new Hardcore Champion Steve Blackman is approached by Al Snow. Snow talks about how it's time for their relationship to properly end. He then reads a poem to Blackman oblivious to the fact that wave after wave of wrestlers attack Blackman to try and win the Hardcore title as he easily wipes them out with kendo sticks and nunchucks. 

Smackdown! - July 6th, 2000

The Rock seeks revenge

Commissioner Foley heads down to the ring and says that while he had a great night on Monday during Raw, the end of the show ruined it for him. He demands that Shane McMahon and Chris Benoit come to the ring and explain themselves. Chris Benoit does come out and before he can speak, Foley explains that before Raw Chyna was playing with dolls with his little girl and that she’s a close friend of his and Benoit saw fit to lock her in the Crossface and torture her. He says that Benoit makes him sick. Then he moves on to what he did to The Rock and shows that footage. Foley says that while Benoit is one of the best wrestlers he’s ever seen, he doesn’t have any empathy, compassion or a sense of humour so why did he smile after what he did to Chyna and to The Rock? Benoit agrees that he lacks all those things and says he is the best technical wrestler in the world, debuting his “prove me wrong” catchphrase. He says the only thing on his mind is WWF gold and he wants a match tonight with The Rock for the WWF title. Foley says he’ll think about it and then, to everyone’s surprise, the Tag Team Champions Edge and Christian come out. They say that they’re really proud of Benoit and what he did on Raw and say that he “reeks of awesomeness” which is another catchphrase debut. He makes them proud as a fellow Canadian and says that the Crossface rules (and high five). They basically throw their weight behind Benoit and say that he should be WWF Champion. Foley books a six man tag team match for the main event - Benoit teams with Edge and Christian against Eddie Guerrero, Chyna and The Rock. 

Kevin Kelly interviews Eddie and Chyna ahead of the main event. Eddie says that he and Benoit’s friendship is over and the war has just begun. Chyna says that men who mess with her usually end up needing an ice pack down their tights. MIchael Cole interviews The Rock who tells Benoit he has no idea the world of pain he’s unleashed and that while he may technically be the best wrestler in the world, The Rock is technically going to kick his candy ass. Great, fired up Rock promo. 

In a championship filled main event, WWF Tag Team Champions Edge and Christian team with Chris Benoit against Chyna, European Champion Eddie Guerrero and WWF Champion The Rock. This is a short, wild match and as The Rock takes the other men off the apron, Chyna spikes Christian with a powerbomb to win the match for her team. Shane McMahon appears and The Rock sprints after him, leading Eddie and Chyna prone for a three on two ambush by their opponents but The Rock heads back down to stop that and Smackdown ends with he and Benoit staring down from the ring and stage respectively.

Y2J is a thorn in Triple H’s side

Triple H storms into Mick Foley’s office and demands Jericho tonight, threatening Foley. Mick stands up and fires up at Triple H telling him that if he lays a hand on him he’ll bury him and book him at the bottom of the card until no one knows who he is. He’ll ruin him. But he does give Triple H a match tonight - a handicap elimination match and if he wins, he can get Jericho on Monday on Raw instead of having to wait until Fully Loaded. 

Triple H enters for his elimination handicap match. His three opponents are Taka Michinoku and Sho Funaki of Kaientai, plus The Brooklyn Brawler. Triple H laughs when he sees them coming but they swarm him and get the early advantage. Triple H easily defeats Taka and Funaki with a pair of Pedigrees to eliminate them and as he looks to do the same to the Brooklyn Brawler - after knocking the referee down - Chris Jericho runs in with a running bulldog and a Lionsault which allows the Brawler to pin Triple H!

The absolute humiliation of losing to the Brooklyn Brawler is too much and Triple H beats him senseless in the ring. Up on the titantron, Jericho heads backstage and tells Triple H and Stephanie’s limo driver that they said he could take him and head out for a night on the town. Jericho cost Triple H the match, and then stole his limo!

A Title Change

Val Venis faces Rikishi for the Intercontinental Championship. This very intense feud began a few weeks ago with those two very entertaining, weapons filled brawls. This match starts in similar fashion fighting to the outside but Rikishi stops short of using a steel chair, not wanting to lose via disqualification. The referee gets knocked down accidentally, and Trish calls T&A down to the ring. Albert lays out Rikishi and Test hits him with a big top rope elbow drop. Val crawls into a cover but Rikishi kicks out, knocking out the referee again in the process. Too Cool comes down to the rescue and fights with T&A and the tag teams fight to the back. Rikishi sits down on Val and has the match won but there’s no referee to count. Tazz runs down to the ring and for the fourth show in a row, engages in a hit and run attack knocking out Rikishi with one of the TV cameras. Rikishi is down and out and Val follows up with a Money Shot to win the Intercontinental Championship. Backstage, Val celebrates with T&A and Trish as Test pours champagne over his head.

Kurt Angle Infuriates The Undertaker

Kurt Angle opens the show and issues some apologies. He apologies to the people in Tampa who are stuck living there, and to all the old people who will die soon and miss seeing him win the WWF title one day. He ends by apologising to The Undertaker and Kane for costing them the Tag Team titles on Raw. His intentions were only to help his friends Edge and Christian and says he knows The Undertaker has enough integrity to forgive him. Angle’s opponent is Chris Jericho. He says that Angle should apologise to the people for boring them, and then issues his own sarcastic apologies to Stephanie and Triple H. Stephanie does come to the ring to watch this match up close and cheers on Kurt as he beats Jericho up on the outside. With some help from Stephanie and a low blow using Kurt’s sceptre, Angle wins with the Olympic slam.

After the break as Kurt is backstage celebrating a little too enthusiastically and throwing around milk, he splashes it all over The Undertaker’s motorbike. Angle leaves the arena and hops in a taxi and gets as far away as possible.

Later in the show, we’d eventually see Undertaker reacting to the damage.

Other Happenings

• The Dudley Boyz take on a newly formed team of D’Lo Brown and Chaz (Mosh from the Headbangers) and they wrestle in matching white track pants and come out to the same theme music so they are an official team and not just two people thrown together. The Dudleys try to use a table but Steven Richards is quick to run to ringside and steal the table, censoring The Dudleyz violence. The distraction almost costs The Dudleyz the match but they rally and finish off Chaz with a 3D to win it. 

• Dean Malenko continues his ladies man/war on women gimmick in a handicap match with Ivory and Jacqueline. It’s nice that these three are being given something to do but this is more late 1999 battle of the sexes stuff. Malenko shows no mercy and wrestles Ivory and Jackie like they’re men. Crash Holly - who lost a Light Heavyweight title match to Dean on Raw - runs down to the ring and trips Dean as he goes for a suplex and holds his ankle helping Ivory pin him. The women celebrate with his title belt after the match and when he rushes them, they hit him with his own title belt. 
• The Undertaker and Kane face Test and Albert. The Undertaker isn’t on his motorbike after Kurt Angle soiled it with milk and other snack foods at the start of the show. The brothers win a short hoss match with a Kane chokeslam on Albert, and then The Undertaker hammers Test with an elevated powerbomb which Michael Cole finally gives its name - The Last Ride. After the match, Kane grabs Trish by the hair and pulls her into the ring and lifts her for a chokeslam too but Val Venis and an Intercontinental title belt shot to the back of Kane’s head saves her. 

• The Big Bossman challenges Steve Blackman for the Hardcore Championship. I always said that Bossman was built for the Hardcore title with his body armour and gimmick allowing him to carry multiple weapons like handcuffs and a nightstick but it’s true for Blackman too who carries a bag of martial arts weapons with him. This is an entertaining fight and as they brawl on the outside, Blackman’s former tag team partner Al Snow comes through the crowd with a cheap shot to Bossman with a concessions tray. Blackman picks up the win. 

Raw is War - July 10th, 2000

It’s been a while since I mentioned WCW and so you might be wondering what they’re up to, and how former WWF head writer Vince Russo was getting on? Well this episode of Raw takes place the day after Bash at the Beach 2000. If you know, you know. But if you don’t, I’ll tell you. Vince Russo was, by now, fully established as an on screen character and was giving himself a ton of top storylines and attention as one does. He loved his “worked shoot” storylines, where he would acknowledge on TV that wrestling wasn’t real in order to then do scandalous things that would appear to be MORE real by comparison. It didn’t work, as all his “real” shenanigans fooled no one and so all it did was water down and damage the rest of the show by reminding viewers - over and over - that wrestling wasn’t real. During a wrestling show. At Bash at the Beach there was a whole series of scripted “shoot” events that resulted in Hulk Hogan leaving the company because while Russo told him some of the plan, he didn’t tell him ALL of the plan so Hogan ended up feeling double crossed for real and filed a lawsuit against WCW for defamation of character. So it wasn’t real, but then it became real? It was a mess and is pretty well remembered for all the wrong reasons. The “Dark Side of the Ring” documentary series dedicated an episode to it, and you can read more about the incident here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Russo#Bash_at_the_Beach_2000_incident

The Rock is losing it

Big plot point to open up Raw this week. Commissioner Foley is NOT here tonight. He is in fact 10,000 miles away (which doesn’t sound right?) in South Asia promoting the WWF. 

In the arena, Shane McMahon and Chris Benoit make their way to the ring. Shane finally explains he and Benoit’s relationship. They’re “just friends” apparently, which probably isn’t as weird as it sounds. Shane says that he respected Benoit but has lately grown to admire him as a person before listing all of his accolades (ruthless, merciless, etc) before showing footage of Benoit’s assault of Eddie Guerrero and Chyna and then later on the same night coming out to rescue his friend Shane from The Rock and giving him a wicked, vicious beating as well. The fans are intermittently chanting “Shane’s a pussy” and “Rocky” as he speaks.

Shane shows footage of the main event of Smackdown and humorously twists The Rock chasing after him as The Rock running away from Chris Benoit. Benoit calls The Rock a coward and challenges The Rock to a non-title match tonight, and says that if he wins then he wants a WWF title match at Fully Loaded. That actually sounds fair enough. Benoit also says that he hopes Commissioner Foley contracts dysentery while touring Asia. Gross. That brings The Rock out onto the stage. He assures Benoit that he is wrong, and accepts the challenge for tonight. Interestingly The Rock doesn’t crack any jokes and is taking Benoit very seriously. After he leaves, before Shane and Benoit leave the ring Eddie Guerrero and Chyna come through the crowd with chairs and hit Shane in the back, sending both he and Benoit packing out of the ring. 

In the main event, WWF Champion The Rock faces Chris Benoit in a non-title match. They go back and forth until The Rock sets up Benoit for the People’s Elbow. Shane pulls referee Earl Hebner out of the ring and knocks him out, revealing his own referee shirt. Benoit takes advantage of the distraction to clamp The Rock in the Crippler Crossface and as The Rock reaches to grab the bottom rope and misses, his hand hitting the mat, Shane declares that a tap out and rings the bell. Benoit technically wins by submission but it's hard to imagine commissioner Foley letting that stand when he’s back.

Original referee Earl Hebner reverses the decision anyway and The Rock is declared the winner by disqualification. That probably wasn't scripted and Hebner just wanted some attention. Benoit and Shane go back to the ring to confront Earl bringing more referees down to the ring, but The Rock is back up and attacks. He’s a wounded animal and as Shane and Benoit escape he plants an innocent referee with a Rock Bottom in anger. 

Triple H’s master plan

Backstage in a segment with Triple H, Roaddogg and X-Pac, they lay out the exposition that commissioner Foley has said that if any member of DX interferes in Jericho’s matches or attacks him backstage then Triple H loses his match with Y2J at Fully Loaded. That leads us into Jericho vs. Roaddogg and Roaddogg jumped Y2J during his entrance and beat him down to the ring and around ringside before starting the match properly. Weirdly Roaddogg goes for a moonsault for the first time in his life but misses, and Jericho follows up with a Lionsault (which hit Roaddogg in the face and might have legit hurt him) to win the match. Roaddogg really does look like he’s knocked goofy but he’s alright after the commercial break. Triple H gets in Roaddogg’s face and shoves him, furious that he didn’t take out Jericho. X-Pac plays peacekeeper and it seems like there's serious issues within DX.

Backstage as Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley consoles her very angry husband he smiles instead and says he has a “full proof plan”. After a little promo for The Kat at WWF New York, Stephanie heads out in the arena. She says that Jericho kissing her at King of the Ring has awoken something in her and she wants him to come to the ring now. Jericho appears on the titantron and sarcastically says she’s making his dreams come true, even calling her sugar muffin. His theme song hits but when the lights come on, its Roaddogg, X-Pac and Triple H who were waiting seemingly to jump him. Jericho then appears back on the titantron who mocks their terrible plan and calls Stephanie another string of brutal, disgusting insults. Jericho says Triple H is upset because he got more action from Stephanie at King of the Ring in that one kiss than he’s gotten from her in 10 months of marriage. Triple H says that tonight might not be the night but he’ll get him at Fully Loaded. JR and King agree that it was a terrible plan and that Jericho has gotten under The Game’s skin so much that he’s lost his touch! Backstage, X-Pac calls him out on the same thing which leads to anger and a shoving match. Triple H challenges X-Pac to a match tonight! Later in the show, Roaddogg tries to talk X-Pac and Triple out of the match before leaving the arena, wanting nothing to do with the fight.

Triple H enters first for his match with X-Pac while JR and King talk about how Jericho has single handedly destroyed D-Generation X. Neither man is even dressed to compete. They wrestle for a bit and it seems quite heated but as Triple H spills to the outside, Chris Jericho runs to ringside and attacks Triple H. At that point, Roaddogg returns with a big smile and a sledgehammer over his shoulder and the plan unfolds. This was all a setup and Triple H and X-Pac immediately attack Jericho. They were banned from jumping him backstage it seems that by attacking Triple H first, Jericho has given them away around that rule. The three members of DX beat Y2J senselessly and lay him out with a Pedigree and an X-Factor, hold him for Stephanie to get some slaps in and then Triple H finishes with a sledgehammer blow to the gut. Jericho is bleeding from the mouth, fighting back to his feet and so Triple H hits him right in the head with the sledgehammer, something that would become his trademark move with the weapon. The fans loudly chant “Rocky” even though he has nothing to do with this storyline. I guess they just wanted someone to rescue Jericho from the beating but no one did. 

American Hero vs. American Badass

The Undertaker, after driving his motorbike through the backstage and terrorising assistants and office staff, heads down to the ring. He says that he’s not here to talk too much, but he hates someone who’s afraid of a fight. He turns his attention to Kurt Angle and recaps that he cost him and Kane the tag team titles, and then “accidentally” threw milk and food all over his motorbike and ran away rather than try to clean it off. Taker says that if Kurt has beef with him, he needs to come and say it to him and he refuses to accept Kurt’s apology. Angle really doesn’t have an issue with Taker he just keeps….accidentally crossing him. Kurt then comes out and issues another apology. He says that he has no issue fighting The Undertaker but a main event level match like that would be a waste tonight and should be saved for the PPV. JR mocks Kurt for saying “motorbike” and I’m not sure why? What else would he call it? “A hog”? Lame. Kurt says they shouldn’t wrestle anyway because no one wants to see them fight (the crowd disagrees). Kurt tells Taker that he needs to clean up his act and his image and then goes to the back to get him a gift, returning with a little motor scooter. He even has a helmet on, and he slowly rides it down to the ring and around it while Undertaker watches in disbelief. King seems to think this is genuine but JR is positive that Angle is intentionally mocking Taker with all of this. It works because I’m honestly not sure which it is! He might just be THIS oblivious. Kurt runs away but his scooter stalls at the top of the ramp. Angle escapes and The Undertaker rolls the scooter off the entrance ramp and down to the concrete floor.

Other Happenings

• The opening match is Too Cool taking on T&A (with Trish) and The Hardy Boyz (with Lita) in a three team elimination match. T&A and The Hardyz rivalry has heated up mostly because of Trish and Lita. Trish attacked and choked out Lita last night on Sunday Night Heat and they’ll face each other later tonight in the first ever women’s street fight. A decent match and after a little bit of double teaming behind the referees back, T&A eliminated The Hardyz first. Lita attacks Trish, but Albert manhandles her until Matt Hardy makes the save. In the ring, Scotty looks ready to hit the Worm on Test but Tazz appears from nowhere to choke out Scotty and allow Test to hit a top rope elbow drop to win the match for T&A. Tazz is painted as a man who is attacking anyone and everyone but in reality he does seem to be targeting people during Trish Stratus’ stable’s matches. That’s not mentioned. Afterwards Kevin Kelly catches Tazz as he leaves the arena and tries to get information from him but he’s saying nothing.
• Lita and Trish head down to the ring for the first ever women’s street fight after a pair of backstage segments where The Hardyz and T&A and Val make it clear they won’t be at ringside to help their ladies. Even though this is a street fight based on a heated feud, King is making this very sexual and squealing like they’re already in their underwear. This is pretty historic as it’s the first ever match between two women who would define each other's careers. It's hard to think of one without thinking of the other. Lita beats up Trish and hits a moonsault before asking the fans if she should strip Trish. He pulls her top off as the crowd screams like Stone Cold just returned. Before it can go any further, Steven Richards arrives with a towel to cover up Trish and put an end to this match. He’s censoring the partial nudity! Richards cuts a promo about it afterwards as JR makes a whole “this is America! We don’t censor people!” stand which is honestly hilarious. America censors EVERYTHING! Google "banned books in America".  Half of them are books that kids read at school in the rest of the world. 

• Val Venis defends the Intercontinental Championship in a triple threat match against Kane and Rikishi. Val debuts a new, short haircut and he’d have that for the rest of his career. This match is messy and Val uses the IC title belt as a weapon in front of the referee which ends the match via disqualification (triple threats all being No DQ is a modern thing as it took them time to realise that while Val may have lost, who won?) Val keeps the title, but Kane plants him with a big chokeslam after the match.
• Edge and Christian are supposed to defend the tag team titles against number one contenders The Acolytes. Christian has the sniffles and can’t compete tonight and with no Foley here to call them out, change it to a singles match for Edge with no tag team titles on the line. Edge takes on Bradshaw with Christian and Faarooq at ringside. Weirdly everyone is calling them The Acolytes again and during their entrance there’s zero APA branding or mentions either so it seems like they might have quietly dropped the Acolytes Protection Agency gimmick and gotten serious again? Bradshaw easily dominates and throws Edge around for a bit but a cheap shot from Christian and the ring bell behind the referee’s back gives Edge the victory. 

Smackdown! - July 13th, 2000

Triple H and Kurt Angle get in each other’s way

Triple H and his wife, WWF Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley head down to the ring. He’s carrying his sledgehammer that he used to beat Jericho lifeless on Raw. He talks about how Commissioner Foley is still trying to screw with him from 10,000 miles away. He always got the best of him whether he was Dude Love, Cactus Jack or Mankind and he’ll continue to. He got the best of him on Raw too. He says Mick Foley is still trying to screw with him and has booked him against The Undertaker in a no disqualification match tonight. Triple H recaps all the issues he’s had with Jericho and how Foley is protecting him because he knows how dangerous The Game is. He then over-explains his plan from Raw and how “genius” it was. I didn’t think it was needed but apparently the King needed it explained. He shows the footage of Jericho being loaded into an ambulance too. He was very bloody.

In another match setup remotely by commissioner Foley, Kane faces Kurt Angle. Angle’s match with The Undertaker at Fully Loaded is now official too. Backstage before he enters, Kurt asks Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley for a hug for moral support. Stephanie clearly liked it but when Triple H asks her about it, she tells him that Angle forced himself on her!

Kane dominates Kurt for a bit but as Angle is on the outside, a jealous Triple H comes to the ring and throws Angle into the ring steps for hugging his wife. Kane polishes the Olympian off with a chokeslam to win the match. 

When Triple H enters for the main event, he’s already carrying his sledgehammer. After The Undertaker enters the match starts in earnest and gets physical right away. They fight to the outside and Triple H uses a steel chair and the ring steps to take control. It’s amazing reflecting back on their interactions in the summer of 1999 as part of the disintegrating Corporate Ministry and how Triple H was never put on Taker’s level. He’s his equal here and more - he has spectacularly moved up the card. It’s insane to me that here in this match, The Undertaker was a year younger than I am now sitting watching it. Jesus. The finish comes when Kurt Angle heads down to the ring seeking revenge on Triple H for jealously costing him his match with Kane early but when he swings the sledgehammer for the back of Triple H, he instead hits The Undertaker right in the head! Triple H pins and defeats the Undertaker and once again Kurt Angle has accidentally enraged The American Badass. 

The Rock gets sneak attacked

Chris Benoit faces European Champion Eddie Guerrero and Chyna in a handicap match. The Rock was shown angrily watching on from backstage. The action is very crisp between the two former Radicals, while Chyna gets the odd cheap shot in to help her man. The fans break out a loud “Mamacita” chant which I loved. Shane McMahon comes to the ring and attacks Chyna, causing a disqualification. Benoit locks Eddie in a Crossface and when referee Earl Hebner breaks it up (stealing focus again, surprise surprise) Benoit locks him in the Crossface too. The Rock sprints to the ring and fights Shane and Benoit of the ring but the Tag Team Champions Edge and Christian - who’ve had a loose friendship with both Shane and Benoit before - run down to try and help. The Rock plants both of them with Rock Bottoms while Benoit and Shane escape. After a commercial break, Kevin Kelly tries to speak to The Rock who pushes him away. The Rock is pissed off, and calls Benoit the biggest “chicken shit” he’s ever seen. He accepts Benoit’s challenge for Fully Loaded, not because he’s earned it or deserves it, he’s just made it personally. This is the angriest The Rock has ever been, but he’s still very entertaining. As he goes into his “If ya smell…” Benoit attacks him from behind and locks him in the Crossface on the concrete backstage. Shane McMahon grabs the mic and trash talks to the WWF Champion while Benoit wrenches and tears at his neck and shoulder (the Crossface itself looked pretty terrible, he didn’t have it locked in properly). 

Other Happenings

• In the opening match, Rikishi and Too Cool take on Intercontinental champion Val Venis and T&A. Trish is at ringside. It’s a chaotic and fun match in front of a loud crowd. Scotty hits the Worm on Val, which leaves him easy prey for a Stink Face. Trish gets up on the apron which brings Lita down to attack her. Test and Albert get Trish to safety, and Rikishi pins Val with a Banzai drop to win the match for his team. Afterwards, Rikishi and Too Cool invite Lita and The Hardy Boyz to join in the victory dance with them. 

• Backstage before their tag team match, Roaddogg makes a pass at Lita and gets slapped in the face which leads to a shouting match between DX and The Hardy Boyz. In the ring before the match, Roaddogg cuts a very angry promo calling Lita a dog. That simply isn’t true. Trish attacks Lita which distracts Matt Hardy and allows X-Pac to pick up the victory with an X-Factor on Jeff Hardy. 
• WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko (who Michael Cole calls “James Bond like”) enters with two women on his arm. He’s facing Al Snow who brings a couple of blowup dolls dressed up as hoes to the ring with him to mock Dean. Steven Richards comes to the ring and confiscates both the real and blow up women, deeming them unacceptable. Dean wins the actual match by reversing a superplex into a roll up. 

• Bradshaw and Faarooq get the tag team title match they were denied on Raw due to Christian’s totally legit head cold. Mick Foley made them go through a battery of medical tests to ensure they were ready for tonight but as Edge limps and holds his back, they explain that due to The Rock’s actions they are medically unable to compete. Edge has suffered a bad back injury. The way they talk is hilarious, I really can’t do it justice. Edge and Christian have hit the peak of their comedy genius with their made up words. Christian does offer, because they’re the most fighting champions in history, to defend their honour in a singles match with Faarooq. Just like on Raw, Edge and Christian try to use the ringbell but Bradshaw puts a stop to it this time and Faarooq pins Christian with a spinebuster. Edge manages to fight off Bradshaw and they do use the ring bell to knock out Faarooq before they leave. 
• Crash Holly faces Steve Blackman for the Hardcore Championship. Blackman has really found his niche with the Hardcore title as we’ve seen when groups attacked him and he wiped them all out with his martial arts weapons. Blackman wins a short match with a trash can shot and a martial arts kick on the outside. 

Raw is War - July 17th, 2000

Triple Main Event

Raw opens with the WWF Commissioner Mick Foley, fresh from his tour of South East Asia. He gets his cheap pops by saying the name of the town and even leads the fans in a “USA” chant. He says that Chris Jericho isn’t here tonight, but Foley has spoken to him and after Triple H beat him up so badly last week he now wants a Last Man Standing match at Fully Loaded. Before Mick can turn his attention to the WWF title match, he’s interrupted by The Undertaker. He doesn’t want to wait until Fully Loaded and wants Kurt Angle tonight. That brings out Kane, who threatens Foley and tells him to give his brother what he wants. Angle appears on the titantron and apologises for hitting Taker with a sledgehammer on Smackdown. He was aiming for Triple H!

Foley says that tonight, Kane and The Undertaker face Kurt Angle and Triple H in a tag team match. Triple H pops up on the titantron and says that as much as Mick might hate him, he can do anything he wants to him and put him any kind of match he wants but he begs with him not to make him team up with Kurt Angle. Taker and Kane leave, and Triple H tells Angle he better hold up his end of the match. With those two matches dealt with, The Rock heads down to the ring. He also wants his Fully Loaded match early and wants the WWF title match tonight. Benoit, flanked by Shane McMahon and the WWF Tag Team Champions Edge and Christian come out to the stage. Benoit also wants the match tonight and says he loves to make The Rock squeal. Shane makes the match for tonight, but Foley overrules him and says that HE makes the matches, not Shane. He instead books Benoit, Edge and Christian against The Rock and The Acolytes. The Rock is way too fired up to wait and heads up the ramp to fight all four men single handedly. They overwhelm him but referees do manage to separate them all.

Chris Benoit, flanked by Shane McMahon enters first followed by his tag team parters the Tag Team Champions Edge and Christian. They are the fightingest champions in history, apparently. Christian hilariously has to ask Lillian which city they’re in during the promo, and then Edge says that there will be no five second post and they’re going to forfeit it to “the next WWF Champion” and strike a pose, pointing at Benoit. The Acolytes are out next and once again I’m struck by the lack of APA mentions. They’ve gotten serious again. The Rock is laser focused on Chris Benoit and isn’t his usual jovial self lately - he hates Benoit and wastes no time, charging across the ring to attack Benoit before the bell even rings. It amuses me to see The Rock and Faarooq together on the apron as when I started this journey they were at odds and feuding over The Nation and the IC title. There’s no mention of that history and rightfully so as it feels like a million years ago but in truth? That was only two years! Everything moved so quickly in the attitude era. The match breaks down and Benoit blasts The Rock with a steel chair to the head on the outside, and then hits Faarooq in the back with it too as he runs the ropes allowing Edge to pick up the victory with a DDT. The Canadian trio wins. After a commercial break, The Rock rampages around backstage carrying a chair and calling out for Chris Benoit. He finds his locker room and busts in, clubbing Benoit in the head with the chair and then being mobbed by Shane, Edge and Christian. He fights them off and pursues Benoit! He’s bleeding badly and being helped by Shane but The Rock shows no mercy and attacks Benoit - he has lost his mind and keeps the assault going, slamming him into the wall and into metal lockers. He goes back to the locker room and retrieves his steel chair to continue the beating. He chases off the referees and officials and catches up with Shane and a bloody Benoit in their car. He hits Chris with ANOTHER chairshot to the head and finishes with a Rock Bottom on the hood (or bonnet if you’re British) of he and Shane’s car, crumpling the metal beneath him!

A wild, intense fight where The Rock shows a new, angry side and seems to be trying to kill Benoit! 

Michael Cole asks Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley what the basis of her relationship with Kurt Angle is. She gets offended and denies being attracted to Kurt in a way that makes it obvious she is attracted to him. 

Kurt Angle goes to Triple H’s locker room to talk strategy about their tag team match. Triple H doesn’t want to hear it and tells him to stay out of his way, and not to screw up this match. Kurt sarcastically offers The Game a hug, and smirks to himself after Triple H walks off. Maybe Angle isn’t as innocent and oblivious as he seems. 

The main event is The Undertaker and Kane against Kurt Angle and Triple H. JR has mentioned it a few times tonight but he really hammers it home during this - Fully Loaded has a triple main event of Angle/Undertaker, Triple H/Jericho and the WWF title match between The Rock and Chris Benoit. The Undertaker and Kane enter together, united as a team. They had such an up and down relationship in 1998 and 1999 but in 2000, they were just brothers and friends and united with no drama. Yet. Kurt Angle does what Triple H said and stays on the apron and out of the way as the brothers dominate Triple H two on one. The Undertaker goes go after Kurt, who continues to insist that their issues and recent run ins have all been a misunderstanding. Triple H gets Kane down and tags in Kurt much to his disbelief and the two show flashes of teamwork isolating Kane. It doesn’t last long and The Undertaker loses his temper and goes after Kurt. Angle focuses more on running away than fighting back and The American Badass puesues, leaving this as one on one between Triple H and Kane. Chris Jericho fights his way to ringside, being held back by multiple officials. The distraction allows Kane to hit a big chokeslam and win the match officially for he and The Undertaker, and then Jericho breaks free and rushes the ring attacking Triple H. His ribs are taped up and he has a big bandage on his head. Jericho impressively rushes and dives over the top rope to the floor landing on The Game. 

Lita vs. Trish Escalates

Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley take on Matt and Jeff Hardy (with Lita). This match has the official TV debut of Bubba shoving D-Von and loudly shouting “Get the tables!” which gets a big pop and would become a trademark spot. As The Dudleyz set up a table in the ring, Steven Richards runs down and steals the other. D-Von runs after him leaving Bubba all alone for a moment. Jeff sets up a ladder in the ring and jumps off it, onto Matt and both Dudleyz and then T&A run down to attack Lita and The Hardyz, causing a DQ. They lay Lita on the table and encourage Trish to jump off the ladder onto her. Lita gets off the table and climbs up to meet Trish and as the two fight, Trish shows Lita backwards off the top of the ladder and crashes through the table which gets a strong reaction from the crowd! Matt and Jeff tend to her as T&A and Trish celebrate together.

Other Happenings

• The Godfather heads down to the ring with five hoes. Most notably, the two at the front are Victoria and Mandy who will become regular on screen characters for the next little while and Victoria would go on to much greater fame as a multiple time WWF and WWE Women’s Champion. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Godfather’s pre match promo is interrupted by Steven Richards, who’s having a busy night. Steven rants about morality and censorship until Godfather has heard enough and chases him and runs into Bull Buchanan, who’s dressed just like Steven. He fights Godfather to the ring and flattens him with a scissors kick as Richards corales the hoes to the backstage. 

• Roaddogg and X-Pac face Too Cool. This is a decent little match and Too Cool looks like they’re going to win but then DX just…wins clean. Again. These guys are booked stronger than Hogan in the 80s They NEVER lose and if they do, it's due to cheating or a fluke. Bizarre. It is mentioned during this that Too Cool’s buddy Rikishi is challenging Val Venis for the IC title at Fully Loaded in a steel cage match.
• Dean Malenko - the ladies man - enters with two very pretty women on his arm and offers an open challenge for the Light Heavyweight title. It’s accepted by Chyna, along with European Champion Eddie Guerrero. During the match another former Radical, Perry Saturn makes his way to the ring and attacks Eddie. He hammers him and drives him into the metal entrance ramp with a suplex into a powerslam and celebrates with Terri at the top of the ramp as Chyna tends to her Latino Heat. Dean Malenko wins the match via countout. 

• Tazz comes down to the ring to explain his recent actions. He doesn’t really explain, but lists a bunch of people that he’s attacked recently including Kane, Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty. He does hammer home a selection of new catchphrases. “Just another Victim”, “Thug Life Born, Thug Life Bred and when the time is right I’ll be Thug Life Dead”. That brings out Commissioner Foley who says that he’s sick of watching Tazz interfere in matches he makes and says that he wants to put Tazz in a match at Fully Loaded. That brings out Al Snow who does some really funny stuff about how true misery is teaming and spending time with Steve Blackman. Mick isn’t sure but Tazz chokes out Snow and drops him which prompts the commissioner to make it official. 

• Rikishi takes on Test. Albert and Val get involved, Too Cool get involved and during the big brawl Scotty gives Albert a Worm at the top of the ramp. Val responds by throwing him off the top of the entrance ramp with a big flipping back bump onto the floor. After the commercial break, Scotty is stretchered out. Kevin Kelly asks Val why he has targeted Rikishi so much and Val cuts a good, fired up promo about how Rikishi makes him sick and is everything he used to be, dancing and gyrating for the fans instead of doing things for himself. He promises to beat Rikishi senseless at Fully Loaded.

• Live from WWF New York, Kaientai is getting drunk with the fans. I love Taka Michinoku.

Smackdown! - July 20th, 2000

Main Event Tag Match

The show opens with a recap of The Rock’s wild beating of Chris Benoit on Raw. They’re really hammering home that Benoit has gotten under his skin, that The Rock has changed and is unhinged. The Rock isn’t himself, basically.

Commissioner Foley opens the show (the cheap pop this week is a big one - they’re in his hometown) and addresses The Rock and his actions. He says that he’s concerned about The Rock’s mental well being and how much he has snapped and how much he hates Chris Benoit. He says he is worried that The Rock is more concerned with hurting Benoit than defeating him and so in order to make sure the WWF fans get more than a cheap disqualification finish at Fully Loaded he’s going to make The Rock obey the rules by saying that the WWF title can change hands on a disqualification. That’s a big deal. Smart too, even if it’s unpopular. Chris Jericho then comes out and he’s all business. He talks about how his hatred for Triple H has changed him too and now he wants to beat Triple H and leave him in a pool of his own blood. The promo isn’t much - he does mock Stephanie too - but basically it’s just him promising to kill Triple H at Fully Loaded and not wanting to wait until Sunday. He wants Triple H tonight. Before Mick can answer, Chris Benoit and Shane McMahon come down to the ring. Benoit says that while The Rock might need weapons and violence to win, he only needs wrestling holds like the Crippler Crossface. He taunts Jericho about the last time he made him pass out to the Crossface. Shane repeats Mick’s rule change about the title changing hands on a disqualification and thanks Mick for making a smart decision. Shane also doesn’t want to wait and says he wants the Rock and Benoit match to happen tonight too. That then brings out Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley onto the stage. While Jericho is watching them, Benoit takes him down into a Crossface. Triple H turns to the ring and while Foley argues with Benoit and Shane in the corner, Triple H gives Jericho a Pedigree and hammers him with punches. The Rock runs to the ring and fights Benoit out of the ring and sends Triple H packing too. That all gives Foley the idea for tonight’s main event - a tag team match. Benoit and Triple H against Rock and Jericho.

Backstage a security guard asks Triple H for his autograph and if he can get one from The Rock for his son. Triple H initially blows him off but comes back later and tells him to go and get his son and he’ll arrange it. He does and after having Howard Finkle take them to meet The Rock it’s revealed to be a setup where Chris Benoit jumps the WWF Champion again and locks him in the Crossface in front of his young fan while Triple H swaggers in and high fives Shane McMahon. Another sneak attack by Benoit, and another genius plan by Triple H.

In the main event tag match, it breaks down as both PPV matches pair off and fight all around the ringside. Shane McMahon comes in with a cheap shot on The Rock which allows Benoit to take control, and Triple H hammers Jericho’s bad ribs and throws him over the announce desk and into Michael Cole! The match does fall into a proper tag team match shortly after that. After several minutes of isolanting Y2J and beating him down, The Rock snaps and attacks, shoving the referee and losing the match for he and Jericho via disqualification - something that will cost him the WWF title if he does it at Fully Loaded. Jericho takes down Triple H into the Walls of Jericho and won’t let go as Stephanie screams for help and The Rock takes down Benoit into his own Crippler Crossface, pulling back with his eyes wild like a mad man. Smackdown ends with referees trying to get both Jericho and Rock to release their respective submission holds.

Kurt Angle gets Brave

Kurt Angle has very bravely challenged Kane to a match tonight ahead of his match with The Undertaker at Fully Loaded. Kurt speaks to us before the match and says that he’s had an epiphany. He is an Olympic Gold Medalist and here he is, scared of a man who rides a bicycle! He is no longer afraid of The Undertaker and he’s not afraid of Kane either. In the match, Kurt expertly works on Kane’s left leg and the strategy is very effective. This is the most of a mean streak we’ve ever seen out of Kurt. Maybe it’s because he’s not used to selling but back on his feet, Kane sells the wrong leg. Kurt goes and gets a steel chair and shoves the referee and starts to brutalise Kane’s leg with the chair. He’s trying to break Kane’s left leg. It seemed like Undertaker might have made the save - he was shown watching the match backstage - but he didn't and Kurt just stopped on his own steam.

The Undertaker faces The Big Bossman. Before the match even really gets going, Kurt Angle comes down to the ring and pours a bucket of something all over Undertaker’s motorbike! It sizzles and steams when it hits the bike and Undertaker abandons the match and follows Angle backstage. He’s lying in wait and jumps Taker from behind with a large metal wrench, hitting him in the back and then hammering on Taker’s knee with it! In truth, the wrench looked very fake - huge and thick rubber - and that wasn’t helped by the comedy “dink” sound affects added, or the fact that The Undertaker barely makes a sound despite the fact that Kurt is seemingly hammering on his knees with a giant metal object. Kane limps into frame to try and help his brother and that’s when Kurt takes off running.

Edge and Christian take a cheap shot

Edge and Christian are at a local bar and order sodas rather than beers. Back at the arena, the debut of “Just Joe” as he enters the APA’s office to tell them about Edge and Christian. Joe E. Legend’s Just Joe character didn’t last long and he has a sort of “don’t shoot the messenger” gimmick where he spreads gossip and tells on people. He tells the APA about Edge and Christian. Later in the show Edge and Christian mingle with some locals who are played by trainee wrestlers. The main one is future WWE Superstar and Tag Team Champion Charlie Haas! 

Just Joe returns to the APA’s office and once again tells them about Edge and Christian’s unkind words and claims they could take them in a bar fight. Bradshaw and Faarooq aren’t riled up, but decide to go and see the Tag Team Champions. I mentioned it on the last couple of shows that they seemed to be phasing the APA gimmick back out and turning this team back into the serious Acolytes so it's nice to see the APA office and poker playing back on this show. 

The APA show up at the bar and ask where they can find “two long haired sissy pretty boys” and the locals from earlier - led by the unnamed Charlie Haas - approach them and get into a fight. Bradshaw and Faarooq easily dispatch the goon squad and head back outside where Edge and Christian jump them with a pair of 2x4s, breaking the wood over their backs before escaping in their car. 

Other Happenings

• Eddie Guerrero defends the European title against two former Radical buddies in Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn. This stems from their interactions on Raw of course. Much like then they did in this match at Judgment Day the action is very good and Eddie wins with a roll up on Malenko after Saturn did the hard work. After the bell, Saturn beats up Eddie and even holds him for his new manager Terri to slap Latino Heat in the face. Chyna gets in the ring to help her man and she’s attacked and laid out with a suplex into a powerslam on Chyna. She’s wearing the same gear she had on at Wrestlemania and just like they did AT Mania, they split open at the side revealing her underwear. Saturn tries to hit an elbow drop on Chyna off the top but Eddie crawls in the way and takes the bullet for Mamacita. Perry does lay in a stiff kick to Chyna’s head for good measure as he and Terri leave the ring.

• Rikishi teams up with The Hardy Boyz against Intercontinental Champion Val Venis and T&A. The match breaks down when Rikishi and Val focus on each other and fight up the ramp and disappear leaving this as a straight tag team match. The Hardyz get the victory with a Swanton Bomb on Test, but Albert keeps the fight going after the match. Test steals the referee’s belt and chokes Matt and Jeff and the beating is quite vicious but King ruins all the drama by focusing entirely on Trish Stratus and her cleavage. As the beating continues Lita limps down to the ring still selling going through the table on Raw. Her ribs are badly hurt. She shoves Test off the top rope and dives at Albert but she’s caught and he holds her in position for Trish to whip her across the back. It's all pretty violent but the fans are too busy screaming and catcalling Trish when she takes her jacket off. Lita’s screaming went right through me watching this - it was upsetting! 

• Steven Richards and Bull Bucanan, white shirts and black pants with black ties, head down to the ring and Richards provides another sermon on how there is too much nudity and violence in the WWF. He has been very focused on The Godfather and his hoes lately but also Trish and Lita on Raw. I’ll talk a lot more about the Right to Censor in the next couple of articles. The gimmick is working though - the fans hate this guy. He says that the people will thank him for this in the long run. The Godfather along with ten hoes comes out onto the stage. In the crowd is once again Victoria and Mandy - they haven’t been acknowledged or named on TV yet but you know they’re someone because this is the first time he’s used the same hoes for more than one show. This leads into a match between Bull and The Godfather. It ends in chaos when the hoes chase Steven around the ring, the referee gets distracted and Steven gives Godfather a superkick and helps Bull pick up the win. 

• Steve Blackman defends the Hardcore title against his former tag team partner Al Snow. It’s a messy brawl with some fun weapons including Al putting on a bowling shirt and rolling a bowling ball into Blackman in the corner. They fight up to the ramp where Crash Holly appears and dives onto both of them using the 24/7 rule to turn this into a triple threat. They fight back to the ring until Tazz - Snow’s opponent at Fully Loaded - appears and chokes him out with the Tazzmission allowing Blackman to pin him and win the match to retain his title.