Raw is War - May 22nd, 2000

The Rock picks apart the regime 

As JR talks about the controversial title change last night, the scrutiny of Shawn Michaels’ officiating and the return of The Undertaker, Vince McMahon struts to the ring with a big smile on his face. He says that Judgment Day is supposed to be about people getting what they deserve and the McMahon-Helmsley faction got what they deserved. Roaddogg and X-Pac put The Dudleyz through tables, his son Shane (the giant killer) defeated The Big Show and his son-in-law Triple H proved that he is The Game and won the WWF Championship even though The Rock cheated and asked The Undertaker for help. He says that The Undertaker walked out and so isn’t under WWF contract and if he turns up tonight he will be arrested on the spot. He ends by saying that The Rock probably won’t show his face tonight but if he does, he’ll face Roaddogg, X-Pac, Shane McMahon and Triple H in a four on one handicap match. Vince proudly makes his way backstage where he is jumped by The Rock who lays the smackdown on Vince McMahon. He hammers him with punches and slams his head into metal shutters, hitting him with metal sheets and trash cans all while Vince basically no-sells, flailing around and begging for mercy. The rest of the McMahon-Helmsleys aren’t here yet! The Rock throws Vince into the back of a limo and tells the driver to “get this asshole out of here!” After a commercial break, The Rock paces in the parking lot awaiting the arrival of DX and the McMahons.

D-Generation X arrives in a long black limo where the Hardcore champion Gerry Brisco is waiting to tell them what The Rock did to Vince. Before he gets a chance, The Rock attacks them from behind with a metal pipe and after hammering X-Pac and Roadogg with it, locks them in the back of a huge truck trailer. Tori and Brisco did manage to escape. 

Another black limo arrives and this time it’s Shane McMahon. He’s too excited and worked up to listen to Brisco’s warning and he just charges off in a good mood after his victory over The Big Show and heads right out into the arena. Shane talks about how he’s the giant killer and while showing stills from his match with Show and crowing about his victory we learn that Big Show has suffered a serious knee injury and a concussion. He does the whole thing in rhyme, all while the fans chant “Shane’s a pussy”. He wants everyone to call him “Shane the Giant Killer” from now on. The Rock’s music hits and the former WWF Champion marches to the ring. Shane tries to talk him down but The Rock isn’t here to talk and without speaking starts laying into Shane. He beats him to the outside of the ring and through the crowd and backstage. 

Backstage, Gerry Brisco paces waiting for Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley who remain the only members of the gang to have not arrived and been taken out by The Rock. He’s still wearing his Hardcore title belt too. He’s shown waiting a few times and tries to contact Triple H on his cell phone but loses connection. Hilariously, having no cell phone contact is a very 2000 problem for them to have. 

Finally, WWF Champion Triple H and WWF Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley show up in their limo and their good mood is ruined as Brisco finally manages to explain to them everything The Rock has done tonight. They head to their dressing room and we listen to Brisco’s goofy accent re-tell the entire ordeal. Triple H fires up and goes off to look for The Rock and after they leave the room, he emerges from the shadows. He was listening the whole time.

There’s footage of a Shawn Michaels interview that was conducted moments after the ending of the Judgment Day match where he explains his call at the end of the Iron Man match to disqualify The Rock in the closing seconds, which handed Triple H a 6 - 5 victory. It’s pretty clear in the images that Shawn saw a chokeslam before the time limit expired and it was a fair call. 

The Rock heads out into the arena. He’s not dressed to compete so it seems that the main event isn’t happening, but then he has also taken out three of his four opponents already. He is fired up and says that at Judgment Day Triple H brought everything including his father and brother in law, Roaddogg and X-Pac and even “that $2 slut you call a wife”. Triple H is the champion but he never beat The Rock. He tells Triple H to enjoy the title because he guarantees to get his title back. He then turns his attention to the return of The Undertaker. He says that he did the right thing, but he did it at the wrong time. He could have taken out Triple H backstage but he wanted to do it now, here, in front of everyone. Four on one is now one on one, and calls Triple H out right now. Triple H does come out and tries to get serious but is easily distracted by the crowd chanting “slut” at his wife. He talks a lot about the match, and his being the champion but The Rock is too angry to verbally dance and instead invites The Game to “just bring it”. Triple H doesn’t need to be asked twice and loses his jacket and heads to the ring and after a tense staredown, the two come to blows! The Rock easily dominates and hammers him with punches and clotheslines until Roaddogg, X-Pac, Tori and Shane McMahon rush the ring. They’re all back up and as The Rock fights them all off single handedly, Vince hobbles to the ring. There’s a hilarious botch as Vince is supposed to stagger into a Rock Bottom but he crumbles and The Rock has to awkwardly pull him back to his feet to give him the move. The distraction lets the McMahon-Helmsley faction get the upper hand and with a five on one advantage, they beat up The Rock until finally….the spooky girls monologue plays and with Kid Rock’s American Badass blaring, The Undertaker rolls to the ring on a motorbike to save the day! Or at last in reality that’s how it happened. On the WWE Network, it’s Undertaker’s 2003 theme song that plays instead due to copyright issues, and a timing problem has Undertaker’s bike stall at the top of the ramp. The faction still rushed him and get laid out one by one. He drags Vince McMahon into position and then tries to run him over with his motorbike! He would have too but again, there’s weird botchy timing issues and it looks pretty terrible. Taker chases everyone off, and that leaves Triple H and The Rock alone in the ring. Triple H tries to Pedigree The Rock onto the ring steps in the ring, but The Rock backdrops out of it and fights The Game to the outside. The fight ends with a Rock Bottom through the announce table and hilariously there’s ANOTHER botch as The Rock struggles to get his shirt cuff off and awkwardly struggles with his shirt at his wrist for a bit before taking it off. On paper, a very cool, dramatic ending to Raw that lost its edge due to multiple timing issues and botches. 

Intercontinental Mayhem

Chris Benoit defends his Intercontinental Championship against Val Venis. This match was set up on Smackdown before the PPV with Val challenging the winner of the submission match. Benoit’s knee is heavily braced and taped up. This is a lengthy match with both men trading big moves and getting near falls and with both men down after a superplex. Hardcore Holly walks to the ring with a steel chair and hammers Benoit and Venis in the head with a pair of disgustingly stiff shots to the head. As Holly tries to leave carrying the badly dented chair, Chris Jericho’s music plays. Hardcore waits for him, but Jericho appears behind him with a chair of his own and knocks out Holly (with a much safer looking chairshot).

Edge, Christian and Kurt

WWF Tag Team Champions Edge and Christian, along with their new best buddy Kurt Angle face Rikishi and Too Cool in a rematch of the six man tag at Judgment Day. They’re wearing basketball jerseys and making fun of the local sports teams. It works and the fans give them an intense booing. They do a five second pose making fun of some local sports memory. It's a reference I don’t get. Too Cool and Rikishi have quietly become one of the most popular acts in the entire company. E, C and K jump them during their entrance and the six man starts in earnest. In the midst of the chaos, Edge gets a Stink Face and as Scotty sets up the Worm on Angle, he’s hit in the face with one of the tag team title belts allowing Angle to get the victory for his team.

Other Happenings

• Trish Stratus leads Test and Albert to the ring and says that she is unimpressed by The Hardy Boyz and tonight her men will end the boys. That brings out Matt and Jeff for a tag team match with T&A. The fans love The Hardyz but not as much as they love loudly chanting “we want puppies” at Trish at ringside. There’s a scuffle on the outside and Trish actually shoves Matt into the ringpost. That leaves Jeff easy pickings for a double team and T&A pick up the victory. 
• Eddie Guerrero (with Chyna) defends his European title against D’Lo Brown. The action is good and D’Lo has tons more personality as a heel again, barking insults at Eddie between moves and showboating for the crowd. He builds up a ton of momentum and might have the title won until his former partner The Godfather along with a bunch of hoes come down to distract him. That lets Eddie roll up Brown to retain the title, and then Godfather attacks with a hoe-train in the corner and a Pimp Drop on D’Lo, leaving him laid out. Godfather then dances with his hoes.
• Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley face The Big Bossman and Bull Buchanan. A physical big man vs. big man match that ends with a 3D on Bossman and a victory for The Dudleyz. The fans explode - they are crazy popular now. 
• Crash Holly goes to see the APA and screams at them and tells them off for letting Brisco pin him in his sleep and steal the Hardcore title. Bradshaw and Faarooq hilariously stare at him in wide eyed disbelief, before offering him a lollipop. He says that if they won’t give him a refund then he’ll take it out of them the hard way before pouring a beer on Bradshaw’s head! “Don’t hurt him too bad, he’s just a boy!” - Faarooq. Crash wheels a shopping cart full of weapons to the ring for his match with Bradshaw. The big Texan looks very angry on his march to the ring. Crash uses weapons right away and puts up as much of a fight as he can but Bradshaw just hammers him with lots of stiff, unpleasant weapon shots. It’s a one sided beating that goes on a little too long for my tastes. Bradshaw “wins”. 

• The Godfather teams up with Esse Rios. Lita seems pretty unimpressed that her man - Esse - is so interested in the hoes. Their opponents are the Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn. Godfather offers the hoes to Malenko rather than fight. He accepts and leaves with two of the ladies, much to Saturn’s chagrin. He attacks Rios to start the match and it seems this is now a two on one match. Godfather knocks out Perry and as Esse takes aim with a moonsault, his jilted girlfriend Lita pulls him off the top rope! Saturn hits a brainbuster and shockingly wins the two on one match, and Lita has seemingly kicked Rios to the curb for giving the eye to the hoes. 

Smackdown! - May 25th, 2000

Rock and Taker terrorise the McMahon-Helmsley faction

Smackdown opens with a large contingent of police officers waiting in the ring. Vince and Shane McMahon as well as Gerry Brisco arrive in a limo and as they get out, The Undertaker roars past on his motorbike forcing them to have to jump up onto the limo to avoid being run over. He terrorises them, rolling around the parking lot as they scream for mercy and dive out of the way to avoid being run over, eventually making their way out into the arena. Vince looks around in wide-eyed panic, limping from all that jumping around. After berating the officers for not protecting him, he calls The Undertaker out to the ring. On the WWE Network he comes out to his 2003 music and all mention of the Kid Rock song he actually had is scrubbed. Vince gets bold and right in Undertaker’s face, saying that before he has the police drag him away he wants to say some things to Undertaker. We get a really good look at his new appearance here with his hair now being its natural ginger, dressed in denim and a long black trench coat. Vince says that Undertaker cost The Rock the WWF title, but Triple H would have won anyway. That gets “bullshit” chants. Vince says that Undertaker isn’t under contract, and that Taker walked out on him last September.

He calls Taker a trespasser and asks that he be arrested but Undertaker snatches the mic. Undertaker talks a little “jive” and might be the whitest man in America. He confirms that Linda McMahon signed him to a big contract right before Judgment Day. “Lots of years, lots of zeros”. Vince says that the officers can now arrest him for attempted vehicular manslaughter, for trying to run him over. One of the officers says that if they arrest Undertaker, they’d have to arrest him too for assaulting a police officer (Vince shoved him). He tells them to work it out themselves and the police all leave and as Vince screams and shouts at them to do their job, he realises he’s now all alone in the ring with The Undertaker. The fans break out in a deafening “kick his ass” chant. He grabs Vince by the throat for a chokeslam but Shane McMahon is there with a chair shot to save his dad! It doesn’t even phase the deadman, but it does distract him so that Vince and Shane can escape together. 

Backstage, Shane and Brisco try to calm down Vince McMahon but he’s too worked up. He sends Brisco off to wait in the parking lot and let them know when The Rock arrives. Later in the parking lot, Triple H and Stephanie arrive and Brisco takes them to see Vince.

In the McMahon-Helmsley locker room as Vince complains about his headache, Brisco informs the group that The Rock is on his way. Vince insists on handling The Rock by himself. Sure enough, Vince and Brisco head to the parking lot and stop The Rock’s car from entering. He pleads with The Rock to show some understanding for what he’s been through tonight already and asks that The Rock focus some of his anger on the man who actually cost him the title, The Undertaker. He then tells The Rock to take the night off. The Rock smiles and gets back in his car, but before driving off he calls Vince over to tell him something, and slaps him hard across the face! 

Vince sits with the rest of the McMahon-Helmsley faction and says now that The Rock is gone, they need a plan to deal with The Undertaker. Triple H suggests a man who isn’t afraid of a man the size of The Undertaker. They need a giant killer. They all look at Shane, and encourage him to take out Taker just like he did to Big Show!

Shane McMahon comes out for the main event and once again shows his (assisted) destruction of The Big Show’s leg with a speaker and then head with a concrete block at Judgment Day while bragging about being the Giant killer. It’s crazy that this is The Undertaker’s first match in nearly 8 months. Shane jukes and jives around the ring but is flattened by a fight right hand by The Undertaker. He doesn’t even take his leather trench coat off as he lays into Shane with punches in the corner and knocks him down. He hits Shane with a massive chokeslam and that brings the rest of the McMahon-Helmsley faction to the ring.

The Undertaker is mobbed and overwhelmed until The Rock returns to even the odds. He fights off everyone with Undertaker, clearing Triple H out of the ring last as The Undertaker spikes Shane with a Tombstone Piledriver, leaving Rock and Undertaker in the ring. The group up on the ramp and The Undertaker hops on his bike and chases them all up the ramp to end the show. 

Intercontinental title

Chris Jericho comes down to the ring to compete in a number one contenders match for the Intercontinental title. He says that seeing as he never actually submitted at Judgment Day, he should already be the number one contender. He's interrupted by one of his opponents - Hardcore Holly. Val Venis is also in this to make it a triple threat. This is a really good match and in a bit of an upset, Jericho has the match won with a Lionsault on Val Venis but the pin is broken up by a top rope leg drop from Holly allowing him to pin Val instead and win the match. Hardcore Holly gets an IC title match on Raw.

Kurt Angle enters first and after talking about the fun he has preaching abstinence and doing five second poses with his friends, says its been far too long since he had championship gold around his waist. He’s facing Chris Benoit for the Intercontinental Championship. They’ve given Benoit the “fighting champion” gimmick where he just keeps defending it despite his knee injury. An odd choice for a heel character. This is a very good match and as both men are down following a superplex, exactly the same as on Raw, Hardcore Holly comes to the ring and hits Angle with a stiff chair shot. This time, Benoit sees it coming and stops Holly and hits him with one of his own. Benoit retains, despite losing via disqualification. Benoit defends against Holly on Raw.

Other Happenings

• Edge and Christian defend their Tag Team Championships in an open challenge against any team they haven’t already beaten. As they mock the rest of the divsion and claim to have beaten everyone their challenge is accepted by the team of European Champion Eddie Guerrero and Mamacita - Chyna. Everyone remembers that Chyna won the Intercontinental title, but no one remembers how many titles she challenged for including the tag team titles here and the Light Heavyweight title previously. This is a lot of fun and Chyna and Eddie look pretty close to winning the titles on more than one occasion but a Spear from Edge and a double team from both champions leads to the referee disqualifying them for refusing to get out of the ring. Christian tries to hit Chyna with one of the tag title belts but Latino Heat and Mamacita fight them both off. The champions retain by virtue of a disqualification ending.
• Backstage, Crash Holly stews about the APA. He’s still mad at them for losing his Hardcore title. He says that he and Bradshaw are both warriors and have mutual respect, so tonight he wants “the little guy” and sprays Faarooq with beer! That leads to Faarooq vs. Crash Holly in a hardcore rules match. Bradshaw comes to ringside and joins commentary for it. Much like on Raw with Bradshaw, Faarooq quickly and easily demolishes Crash. 
• Matt Hardy (with Jeff) takes on Esse Rios, who still has Lita with him despite her costing him a match on Raw after getting upset at Rios cosying up to The Godfather’s hoes. The two fight to the outside where Esse Rios uses Lita as a human shield to try and get advantage of the match and she’s knocked down during it, and then knocked off the apron by Esse too. Matt Hardy wins the match with a Twist of Fate, and as The Hardyz leave they stop to check on Lita who’s down at ringside. Rios in a fury over losing throws her into the ring and plants her with a stiff powerbomb, and then a moonsault. Matt and Jeff come running back to the ring and attack him (little too late guys, she’s already taken a beating her) and beat up Rios before taking Lita with them to the back. This is the birth of what would eventually be known as Team Xtreme, and a sensationally popular trio. 

• Too Cool team up with The Dudley Boyz to face Roaddogg, X-Pac and T&A in an eight man tag team match. I mentioned it at Judgment Day but it doesn’t sit right with me that Test is all friends with DX now after all he went through with them and Stephanie at the end of 1999. That was only a few months ago! The fans loudly chant “tables” as the teams take their positions. This is chaotic and hard to describe but everyone gets their moves in. The referee goes down which allows Rikishi to slip to ringside and help out his buddies, leading to a 3D on X-Pac for the victory. DX were SO protected in this era - even when they lose, its because the good guys cheated. After the match, Bubba and D-Von join in with Too Cool and Rikishi’s victory dance. They actually did this spot at the UK exclusive PPV as The Dudleyz put on Too Cool’s shades, and Too Cool put on The Dudleyz glasses. The fans absolutely loved this. 

• Al Snow (who is still the “serious’’ version, mimicking his partner Steve Blackman) takes on Bull Buchanan (who has Bossman with him) in a battle of men who just copy their tag team partners’ look and music. A cheap shot from Bossman’s nightstick leads to victory for his protege. 

Raw is War - May 29th, 2000

A Big Red Return

The Undertaker opens the show but before he can even speak, the entire McMahon-Helmsley regime heads down to the ring lead by WWF Champion Triple H. It’s been a while since we’ve seen them all together, including Pat Patterson who has missed the last few shows for personal reasons. Triple H sarcastically welcomes The Undertaker back and actually gives him the “American Badass” nickname. Triple H says he’s happy Undertaker is back, because he’s already done him the favour of helping him win the title back. After letting him talk for a bit, The Undertaker says that he doesn’t do anything for anyone but himself, and promises that he will lay his hands on any one of them if he gets the chance. He then says that the WWF title belt belongs to him. The fans miss that because they’re too busy chanting “slut” at Stephanie.

The Rock then comes out and Vince doesn’t let him speak either, cutting him off and saying that this is “the buddy system” about 40 times before explaining what he means. The Undertaker and The Rock keep rescuing each other. He does twist the knife again, mentioning that The Undertaker cost The Rock the title (he didn’t). The Rock makes fun of them all, and says he wants to be the WWF Champion again. That gives Vince the idea of a match between The Undertaker and The Rock tonight. 

Backstage as Roaddogg walks around singing to himself (which is probably something he does anyway, he was always high) he’s lured into a dark room and beaten up by an anonymous source. 

Backstage as Vince promises his daughter that The Undertaker and The Rock have another big surprise from him tonight, the lights go out and Stephanie screams. A mystery figure has assaulted Vince McMahon.

Michael Cole interviews The Rock and Kevin Kelly interviews The Undertaker and while both promising victory and talking about the WWF title, basically say its not them that attacked Roaddogg or Vince McMahon tonight. The Undertaker has totally dropped his old style of talking and gimmick and talks like a regular man.

Backstage as Pat Patterson gets Mr. McMahon his coffee he’s attacked by the same anonymous assailant as Roaddogg and Vince himself.

It’s been removed from the WWE Network version of this show of course, but Kid Rock performed American Badass live during it. They advertise his album during The Undertaker’s entrance but even that’s blurred out. He enters first for the main event, and Vince McMahon has still promised these men a surprise related to this match and sure enough, he comes out after The Rock is in the ring. Because neither man will confess to being the one who launched all those sneak attacks he’s going to punish them by making this a lumberjack match, and then bring out DX, Bossman, Bull, T&A and a bunch more heels. They surround the ring and the match begins. The Undertaker does at least take his jacket off for this one. They circle each other, not wanting to come to blows as they’re surrounded by enemies and then give each other the nod and get out of the ring, attacking the lumberjacks instead! It’s a chaotic scene as Undertaker and Rock fight off  double-digit odds against them. The numbers are too much for them and the ring fills, beating down The Rock and The Undertaker in opposite corners. Triple H hits both men with a pair of title belt shots, as Kane’s pyro explodes and the big red machine returns. They rush him one by one and he easily shuts them down with uppercuts. Kane enters the ring and spikes Test, X-Pac and finally Triple H with three awesome looking one-armed chokeslams and then holds the WWF title belt high above his head to signal his corner pyro. Triple H is on his back in the ring as Kane,The Undertaker and The Rock stand tall over him. 

Cool title Change

There’s a very funny little backstage skit with Edge, Christian, Kurt Angle and Joe C, who is the kid that travelled with Kid Rock back in the day. I can’t do it justice. 

Edge and Christian defend the Tag Team titles against Too Cool. Before the match, the five second pose is mocking “midget rappers” like Joe C, who they had another altercation with on the way to the ring. As the match progresses and both teams fight on the outside, Rikishi and Joe C come down to the ring. Christian tries to use the tag title belt as a weapon but Joe C hits him low with a hockey stick! Grandmaster Sexay uses the tag belt as a weapon instead and Too Cool wins the Tag Team Championships! Scotty 2 Hotty and Grandmaster Sexay with their new title belts, and Rikishi and Joe C, victory dance in the ring. 

Later in the show, Edge and Christian stuffed Joe C into a trashcan and hit it with chairs and slammed it into the wall (I’d imagine he wasn’t really inside). 

King of the Ring 2000

In the first of two King of the Ring 2000 qualifiers tonight, Shane McMahon faces Rikishi. They’re really hamming up Shane’s giant killer nickname and just like last week, he speaks in rhyme and says he’s going to become King of the Ring. Triple H quickly makes his way down to the ring and distracts Rikishi and the referee allowing for a low blow from Shane. Rikishi fights back but Triple H saves him from a Stink Face, and Shane hits Rikishi with a pair of chair shots to the head in front of the referee. Rikishi advances via disqualification, and then Triple H gives him a Pedigree on a steel chair. Shane pins Rikishi and counts his own meaningless three count, to keep his Giant kIller moniker alive. 

In another King of the Ring qualifier, Bull Buchanan faces Steve Blackman. They have their tag team partners with them (Bossman and Al Snow respectively). The fans are so into this match that they chant “we want puppies” despite there being no women anywhere near the ring. Bull wins a short, unintesting match with a top rope scissors kick. Bossman and Bull try to attack after the match but Blackman gets a hold of the nightstick, and he and Snow fight the men in black off.

Other Happenings

• The Raw intro has finally been updated! All the current stars including American Badass Undertaker (who hasn’t been named as such yet) and removing Ken Shamrock, a mere 8 months after he left the company. 
• In a mixed six person tag team match, The Godfather teams with The Kat and Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko (who he’s friends with after giving him a couple of hoes on Smackdown to face D’Lo Brown, Terri and Perry Saturn. So this is three feuds in one match. Weirdly JR comments on how D’Lo Brown has a “bad attitude lately regarding his lack of a push, and some people need to look in the mirror” which felt like a shoot and him taking a dig based on some real life conversations. D’Lo has been totally forgotten since Vince Russo left the company as head writer and it's a shame because he felt like a big deal in 1999. Saturn wins this short match with a nice top rope elbow drop on Malenko, and after the match Terri and Perry get a little cosy. That’s the start of a pairing that would last for a while.
• Kurt Angle’s quest to once again hold WWF gold has him challenging Eddie Guerrero for the European Championship. They’re in Canada so Kurt says that since Canada has no Olympic heroes of their own he will be the North American Hero. The two have some crisp exchanges as you’d expect given that they are both legendarily good wrestlers, and as Eddie is on the outside, Angle baseball slides into Chyna. That brings her into the ring and causes a distraction and gets the referee knocked down. She takes advantage and gives Angle a low blow and Eddie follows with a top rope hurricanrana and gets the three count even though Kurt’s feet are under the ropes. 

• Backstage, Stephanie McMahon pairs T&A up with Val Venis to take on The Hardy Boyz and Chris Jericho. She does draw attention to the fact that Trish has had her eyes on Val and seems to want to manage him too. Test does at least call Steph a bitch after she leaves the room which is a nice bit of continuity I appreciated. That match is next and Y2J once again gives Stephanie some verbal abuse before the match. He says that she must have a crush on Y2J after paying so much attention to him. Trish takes off her boot to use as a weapon and stops Jeff Hardy from hitting the Swanton, and that distraction allows Albert to finish him with a powerbomb and Test to get the winning pinfall. 

• Hardcore Holly challenges Chris Benoit for the Intercontinental title. Hardcore says that Benoit chose to do things the hard way by giving everyone a title shot before him. He accuses Benoit of being afraid of him. The short, physical match ends when Hardcore Holly hits an undetected low blow and goes to get a steel chair. Chris Jericho arrives and takes the chair from him, hitting him with a stiff chair shot and getting Benoit disqualified. Benoit has words with Jericho and Holly gets up and the three of them fight and chase each other up the ramp.

Smackdown! - June 1st, 2000

Three Number One Contenders

Kane comes out at the conclusion of the opening tag team title match (see Other Happenings) and is still carrying Triple H’s WWF title belt. He plants Jeff Hardy and then Scotty 2 Hotty with a pair of chokeslams and then gets a mic, much to everyone’s shock. There’s no mention of Paul Bearer or where he’s gone. Kane says that if Triple H wants his WWF title belt back, he has to come and get it. Triple H does come out and says he could beat up Kane but he won’t and instead just tells Kane to return his property. Kane says no, so Triple H asks Kane what he wants. Kane asks for a title match. Triple H says that Kane doesn’t deserve a title match, but because he’s a fair man he’ll give him a chance to earn it. Triple H will fight him tonight in a non-title match, and if Kane wins then he can have a championship match. With the deal mad, Triple H sends a referee down to the ring to get the belt for him. Kane tells him to enjoy the belt while he can. 

In the parking lot, Vince McMahon arrives in a limo with X-Pac and Roaddogg. The Undertaker arrives and again tries to run him over so he hides in the limo. The Undertaker pulls alongside and demands a WWF title match. Vince says that he can have a title match at the King of the Ring PPV, if he can beat Roaddogg and X-Pac in a handicap match tonight, and he has to beat both of them.

After the commercial, Triple H, Stephanie, Vince, X-Pac and Roaddogg meet up in their locker room and discuss how they have now both given people number one contenders matches tonight. Vince and Triple H argue.

Elsewhere in the parking lot, Shane McMahon arrives with Edge and Christian who he is apparently friends with now. They’re badgering him for a shot at the tag team titles so he kills two birds with one stone - them vs. The Rock in a handicap match, and if The Rock wins he is the number one contender for the WWF title but if Edge and Christian win then they can have their tag title match. When Shane gets back to the McMahon-Helmsley locker room he’s given the silent treatment.

Vince McMahon along with Tori accompany X-Pac and Roaddogg to the ring for their match with The Undertaker. Vince joins commentary and watches on in horror as The Undertaker easily beats DX from pillar to post. They try to leave but The Dudley Boyz are there to make them go back to the ring. The Undertaker easily finishes off X-Pac with a chokeslam and is officially number one contender for the WWF title. D-Von Dudley is a bit over eager getting in the ring to taunt X-Pac and so he gets a chokeslam too for good measure.

Shane McMahon gives Edge and Christian a pep talk before their handicap number one contenders match with The Rock. Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock about The Undertaker being the number one contender. The Rock says that it doesn’t matter, and that he was promised that if he beats Edge and Christian then HE would be the number one contender at King of the Ring so that’s exactly what he’s going to do. Shane accompanies Edge and Christian to the ring for the match as well. The referee goes down in the late states of the match. Christian tries to use the ring bell but The Rock ducks and Edge gets hit instead. Shane blasts Rocky with a chair shot and Christian pins just as the referee revives but he kicks out. The Rock avoids a Spear and hits a Rock Bottom to win the match. The Rock wins and is now ALSO the number one contender for the WWF title at King of the Ring.

Triple H reads the riot act to the McMahon’s after they “screwed up” and blames the entire faction for there now being two number one contenders. Triple H demands that everyone stay in the back and let him fight Kane one on one and stop there from being a third. 

Kane enters first for the main event as Michael Cole slowly figures out that it was Kane who did all the sneak attacks on Raw. Well duh, yeah. After Triple H enters, Kane gets out of the ring and gets on the mic and demands that the referee leave. He says there is a special guest referee - Earl Hebner. Triple H is furious. This is the first time we’ve seen him since he was beaten up by Triple H and co after Backlash. Kind of. He was on the UK exclusive Insurrexion PPV too. The match goes back and forth and they brawl in and out of the ring as Triple H gets desperate and grabs a steel chair. Earl Hebner stops him from using it, and the distraction allows Kane to grab him by the throat. One big chokeslam later, Kane pins Triple H to become the third number one contender and just like on Raw he holds the WWF title belt high above his head to signal his pyro in victory.

King of the Ring 2000

Kurt Angle addresses the fact that he’s been in a bit of a slump since Wrestlemania, failing to recapture WWF gold multiple times, and so he vows to win the King of the Ring tournament. His qualifying match is with Bradshaw of the APA. Kurt Angle wins with an Olympic slam but celebrates a little too enthusiastically so Bradshaw lays him out with a powerbomb. 

Crash Holly faces Albert (with Trish Stratus) in the second of tonight’s King of the Ring qualifiers. Everyone has already written off Crash due to the massive size difference but he puts up a good fight and counters a powerbomb into a roll up for the three count! Crash wins, but is immediately shoved into the ring post by Trish, and then flattened by Albert with a spinning torture rack in the ring. 

Later in the show, they show highlights of the finish of all the qualifying matches so far and are actually putting some real weight into the KOTR tournament this year. There’s two more qualifiers set for Sunday Night Heat - Chyna vs. The Godfather, and Val Venis vs. Al Snow. Chyna and Venis won those matches.

Other Happenings

• Much like the Raw intro, the Smackdown intro has finally been updated to include the new crop of superstars. 
• Too Cool defended their newly won WWF Tag Team Championships against The Hardy Boyz in the opener. Lita is shown watching from the back. The Hardyz had an interaction with her last week, kind of saving her from Esse Rios but not really because they waited until she’d already taken a beating before coming back down.This is an energetic match between two super popular tag teams but as Jeff Hardy hits  Swanton and has the match won, Kane interrupts and causes a disqualification.
• Chris Benoit continues his “fighting champion” gimmick and defends the Intercontinental title against D’Lo Brown. Benoit retains in a short match with the Crippler Crossface and a submission victory.
• Jerry Lawler gets into the ring to oversee an arm wrestling contest between The Kat and Terri. This is the exact segment they did at the UK exclusive PPV Insurrextion, but without Moolah and Mae Young this time. They’re both wearing very revealing outfits which is the whole appeal of this. They do the exact same spots as at Insurrexion where Terri keeps stalling and finding excuses not to start the contest. When they finally start, Kat is about to win until Terri spits water in her face. Terri wins, and then Kat attacks her and gives her a Bronco Buster. King goes and sits down in the corner and asks for one too. Kat refuses. This was all dreadful. 

• Hardcore Holly faces Chris Jericho. They keep hitting each other with chairs and ruining each other’s IC title matches. There’s a really nasty, dangerous looking botch early in the match as Jericho hits the ropes too low and his head catches on the top rope and whips violently. Thankfully he’s alright. Chris Benoit comes down to the ring with a chair and helps Jericho pick up the win with a Lionsault.

Raw is War - June 5th, 2000

McMahon-Helmsley Dissension

After a recap of Smackdown and the outcome giving us three men with rightful claims to being number one contender, Michael Cole catches Vince McMahon and the stooges entering the arena. He asks Vince how Triple H feels about the situation and Mr. McMahon says he doesn’t care and it’s all Triple H and his ego’s fault that Kane, The Undertaker and The Rock are all number one contenders.

In the arena, the WWF Champion Triple H and his wife, still the WWF Women’s champion Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley enter. Triple H talks about the importance of the WWF title and how desperate everyone is to hold it and win it from him. Being the champion makes you the absolute best. He runs through his three number one contenders (with The Rock getting the loudest cheer) and says he loves the competition and that it turns him on. Ego turns him off though. He says that he should have the biggest ego in the world but he doesn’t - the chairman of the WWF, Vince McMahon, has the biggest ego. He says that maybe he and Stephanie should just take over, and that brings Vince McMahon out to the ring. Vince says that Triple H’s best two accomplishments were entering the WWF, and marrying his daughter. He says that while Triple H’s time may come, “I made you, so I can break you”.

The tension ratchets up between father and son-in-law. Triple H shoves Vince, Vince takes off his jacket and they’re about to fight as Stephanie tries to keep them calm. Shane comes running to the ring to play peacemaker which gets loud boos. Shane points out how huge both their egos are, and suggests that he should be running the company and gets sucked into the bickering too. Shane man’s up and challenges them both to a fight. Triple H punches Shane. Steph slaps Triple H. Then Vince. Then Shane! The Rock’s music hits to draw the attention of the feuding McMahon family. After throwing insults at all four McMahons in the ring, he says that while there might be two other number one contenders he wants his title shot tonight. The Rock gets sick of watching them argue and starts walking down to the ring. That brings out Kane who says that he is THE number one contender because he pinned Triple H and so he wants his title shot tonight. That brings out The Undertaker who also wants his title shot tonight and even suggests they all do it at once. Vince likes that idea and says that tonight there will be a triple threat match to decide the undisputed number one contender, and the winner will get their title match tonight too. 

After interviews with The Undertaker and Kane separately where they both say that there are no friends in a triple threat match (and The Undertaker chews and spits out his disgusting chewing tobacco) Triple H joins commentary to watch the three number one contenders do battle to see who faces him later tonight. The audio is basically totally gone for The Undertaker’s entrance as his Kid Rock music is dubbed out and the commentators go silent. They did forget to blur the on screen ad for the Kid Rock album during this entrance though. The Rock is last. The Undertaker and Kane initially team up, and all three men trade their finishers early for near falls. The fans are absolutely electric.

As the three men fight on the outside, Triple H jumps The Undertaker and slams his head over and over into the announce desk before rejoining commentary. The Undertaker retaliates so Triple H hits him with a steel chair, and then Kane which leads to a Rock Bottom and a victory for The Rock. He gets no time to celebrate as Triple H blasts him with a chair shot too and leaves all three men laid out but that means that later tonight, The Rock will face Triple H for the WWF title. 

In the McMahon-Helmsley locker room, Triple H demands that none of them come to ringside or help him in his match with The Rock. He needs to prove he can do it fair and square. After that, he’s interviewed by Michael Cole where he restates it. He is going to prove to the world how good he is and that he can beat The Rock one on one. Cole asks if he’s still confident knowing the referee is Earl Hebner. Before they leave, Cole asks Stephanie when she’s planning on defending her Women’s Championship. She is offended and says that she doesn't have a number one contender, which brings Ivory and Jacqueline into the screen screaming about a title shot so Stephanie says that there will be a women’s battle royal on Smackdown and that she’ll defend her title against the winner.

The Rock challenges Triple H for the WWF title in the main event. The Rock starts hard and fast and sends Triple H to the outside early. The Rock beats him around the ring and into the ring post and announce table and backdrops him up and over the table too. The Rock uses a blatant low blow right in front of the referee which doesn’t cause a DQ but Triple H fights back with a neckbreaker and gets the match back into the ring. The fans are so hot they pop big for near falls off of Samoan drops and backdrops. With Triple H in danger, the McMahon-Helmsley faction comes to ringside. The Rock hits a People’s Elbow but X-Pac pulls the referee out of the ring and with Earl Hebner down, DX and the McMahons swarm The Rock. That brings The Undertaker and Kane to the ring and they fight everyone off, clearing out the ring. Triple H gets a chokeslam from Kane and as The Rock swings for Shane McMahon with a chair, he hits The Undertaker in the back by mistake. The Undertaker chokeslams The Rock and as the fighting spills to the outside, Triple H crawls into a pin and defeats The Rock to remain WWF Champion. Raw ends with the triumphant faction on the entrance ramp and a furious looking Undertaker, Rock and Kane in the ring.

We Want Tables

Kurt Angle teams with Edge and Christian to face Chris Jericho and The Dudley Boyz. Before the match, Angle says that he, Edge and Christian are defending the honour of Stephanie McMahon. Edge and Christian aren’t so bothered about that but do want to get a rematch for the tag team titles. The fans don’t so much pay attention to the match as they loudly chant “we want tables”. Jericho is worked over until a hot tag to Bubba who hits a string of moves on everyone in sight. Edge saves Christian from a 3D and Angle coms from behind with an Olympic Slam on Bubba to win the match for his team. They’re attacked after the match and Jericho gets Kurt in the Walls of Jericho while Bubba and D-Von get a table from under the ring. Jericho releases Angle and he takes a 3D through the table to an explosive cheer from the crowd. The table might be the most over performer on the entire show. 

King of the Ring 2000

Roaddogg (with X-Pac and Tori) faces Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit in a King of the Ring qualifying match. X-Pac tries to help his buddy win, but The Dudleyz come to ringside and provide the distraction. Benoit pins Roaddogg with a German suplex.

In a King of the Ring qualifying match, Hardcore Holly faced Faarooq of the APA. In somewhat of an upset, Holly counters a Dominator attempt and lands on his feet and uses his Falcon Arrow suplex to get the victory and advance.

Other Happenings

• WWF Tag Team Champions Too Cool and Rikishi face T&A and Val Venis in a six man tag team match. Both Val and Rikishi have qualified in the King of the Ring tournament, and Val is now officially managed by Trish too. Val uses one of the tag team title belts as a weapon behind the referee’s back to win this match for his team but afterwards Too Cool and Rikishi clear T&A out of the ring and Rikishi tries to give Val a Stink Face. Trish stops him and slaps Rikishi, so he shoves her into the corner and gives her the Stink Face instead! Too Cool and the big man then victory dance. 

• Backstage, the McMahon-Helmsley faction all apologise to each other and make up. Triple H and Vince even argue over who is the most sorry. Crash Holly runs at Brisco with a steel chair, trying to win back his Hardcore title but the door gets closed in his face.
• After costing Roaddogg his match, The Dudleyz try to put Tori through a table. Bubba wants to powerbomb her from the ring to a table at ringside but a low blow from X-Pac saves the day.

• Michael Cole interviews Brisco and Patterson about whether the Hardcore title has changed their friendship. Crash Holly tries to attack again but gets Patterson instead. Crash then heads out to the ring and challenges Gerald Brisco to a match for the Hardcore title! Patterson comes out first and provides a big introduction to his fellow Stooge, who comes out to Real American. Crash runs after him and attacks on the entrance ramp. Crash gets him into the rind and grabs a bunch of weapons. Gerry uses a fire extinguisher and breaks a kendo stick over him but then walks into a trash can shot. Holly gets a steel chair set up in the corner as Patterson comes to try and save his friend. It’s ineffective and Brisco is run into the chair. This is all pure comedy as Patterson brings his skidmarked underwear to use as a weapon. Brisco kicks a stop sign back into Crash’s face, and then the two stooges lay ontop of Crash together and the weight is enough for a three count. Gerry Brisco retains the Hardcore title.

• The Godfather and Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko (who are now seemingly a full on team, based on Dean’s love of hoes) take on European Champion Eddie Guerrero and Chyna, who beat Godfather to qualify in the KOTR tournament last night on Heat. The action between Eddie and Dean is very good, and Eddie wins it for his team with a small package rollup. 
• Matt and Jeff Hardy face The Big Bossman and Bull Buchanan. Much like on Smackdown, Lita is shown watching the match from backstage as King and JR speculate that she has a crush on one or both of The Hardyz. Which in 2000 was a fair bet given the way the crowd screams and squeals during their matches but still feels quite reductive. A Swanton bomb from Jeff on Bull after some miscommunication between him and Bossman wins the match for the Hardyz. After the Hardyz leave, Bossman and Bull get into a shoving match and Bossman knocks Bull out with a nightstick shot to the back of the head. 

Smackdown! - June 8th, 2000

“The Faction”

Triple H leads the McMahon-Helmsley faction (who everyone has taken to just calling The Faction, which is certainly a lot easier for me to type) to the ring. Everyone except Vince McMahon. They have pyro and green and black balloons and are celebrating eliminating all three number one contenders on Raw. None of them are in title contention anymore, it seems. As Triple H crows and brags about being the best, The Rock, Kane and The Undertaker are all shown separately in the back watching on. Triple H goes around the entire group thanking them all one by one.

Eventually, The Rock interrupts. The Rock says he’s going to throw his own party but the only thing he’s serving is payback. Tonight isn’t about taking Triple H’s title, its about giving him the ass kicking off a lifetime. The Rock has his sunglasses off so he looks way more serious than normal. Triple H continues to try and drive a wedge between his opponents, and shows footage of The Undertaker costing The Rock the title at Judgment Day, and again on Raw. It was all just miscommunication. The Undertaker seems to have had enough too and comes out on his motorbike, doing a lap of the ring, removing his coat and glasses and heading towards The Rock…before changing his mind and rushing the ring, single handedly fighting off the entire Faction. The numbers do eventually overwhelm him, and that brings The Rock down to help out. The Rock and The Undertaker do their best to clear the ring but when Undertaker swings with a chair for X-Pac, he hits The Rock right in the head. More miscommunication. The Faction leaves, so Taker hops on his bike and chases after them.

After the break, The Rock goes backstage looking for The Undertaker but finds Kane instead. Kane refuses to answer The Rock’s questions and the two exchange unfriendly words which quickly turns into a brawl and fist fight, broken up by referees.

In the McMahon-Helmsley locker room, delighting in seeing Rock, Taker and Kane fight each other, Shane books them in a six man tag team match against Triple H, Roaddogg and X-Pac. 

Backstage, The Undertaker and Kane talk about tonight’s six man tag and Taker wants to know why Kane made no efforts to save him earlier. Kane owes him nothing, but will help him tonight in the main event. Kane is just talking and cutting promos like a normal person these days.

In the main event, WWF Champion Triple H and the rest of DX face Kane, The Undertaker and Kane in a six man tag. Kane enters first for his team and goes right on the attack fighting all three members of DX by himself. The Undertaker slowly makes his way out second to join in and back up his brother and then finally The Rock arrives to make this an even three on three fight. DX does have Shane McMahon and The Stooges at ringside with them. It’s a chaotic brawl that finally breaks down to Undertaker and Roaddogg in the ring. Kane and The Rock tag themselves in aggressively and the big babyfaces have fun picking on Roaddogg until finally Triple H and X-Pac get some shots in from the outside and let Roaddogg take over on The Rock. He gets worked over by DX until he mounts a comeback on Roaddogg and gets a hot tag to The Undertaker (kind of. Taker actually tags himself in). It breaks down and as Kane fights with Roaddogg on the outside, Undertaker battles X-Pac in the ring, drilling him with a chokeslam. The Rock goes after Triple H as Undertaker gets the cover and the victory. Rock, Taker and Kane didn’t quite work together but they got the job done and won the match. There’s a tense staredown which is interrupted by a DX ambush. Shane McMahon introduces a steel chair and once again there's a miscue as The Rock accidentally hits Kane. Triple H gets in a cheap shot which The Rock blames on Taker so he knocks him out too! The Rock gives chase to Triple H with the chair, and Smackdown ends with The Undertaker and Kane in the ring staring daggers at The Rock

A Women’s title defence

Jonathan Coachman interviews WWF Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley who just confirms the situation tonight where she will defend her title against the winner of a women’s battle royal tonight. Stephanie leads Coach into the women’s locker room to see if they’re ready/embarrass them by getting their undressed bodies on camera. What a feminist icon.

Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley heads out in the arena along with Tori, who’s dressed as a referee. Steph joins commentary to watch and the competitors are The Kat, Terri, Jacqueline, Ivory and Lita. Lita has changed up her ring gear since losing Esse Rios and is in her much more famous cargo pants and vest combo. That’s kind of a debut? Kat and Terri are both dumped out pretty quickly (because neither of them are wrestlers) followed by Jackie thanks to a head scissors from Lita. Ivory misses a dive off the middle rope and Lita follows with a suplex and a moonsault. She pins Ivory? Tori counts and Lita wins this five woman battle royal via pinfall? They didn’t explain the rules.

Tori immediately attacks Lita from behind and lays her out with a sort of inverted powerbomb. Stephanie gets in the ring and pins Lita. Tori counts and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley officially wins her first title defence, retaining the WWF Women’s title over Lita. Stephanie wasn’t even in ring gear. She had high heels on! After a commercial break, Coachman interviews Lita where she gets to show a bit of personality, and anger at not getting a fair title shot. 

King of the Ring 2000

Smackdown opens with a King of the Ring qualifying match in Chris Jericho vs. Test (with Trish Stratus). Jericho counters a pumphandle slam and with a running bulldog and Lionsault advances to the next round.

European Champion Eddie Guerrero faces Matt Hardy in a King of the Ring Qualifying match. The action is decent and Eddie picks up the win to advance with a diving headscissors off the middle rope into a roll up. 

There’s a recap of all of this week’s King of the Ring qualifying matches including the ones on Raw. The next two matches are D-Von Dudley vs. Perry Saturn, and Bubba Ray Dudley vs. The Big Bossman, both on Sunday Night Heat. Perry and Bubba Ray won those matches.

• Other Happenings

  Too Cool defended the tag team champions against the odd couple pairing of The Godfather and Dean Malenko. The action is good and when Scotty is thrown to the outside, the hoes pay some attention to him. The distraction of The Godfather allows a top rope leg drop from Grandmaster Sexay and Too Cool retain their tag team titles. 
• Val Venis warms up for his match with Rikishi while a furious Trish Stratus paces on the spot and demands that Val make him pay for giving her the Stink Face on Raw. Val says that all he and Trish have in common is that they want to see him as a champion so he promises to take out Rikishi for her as long as she promises to live up to her end of the bargain. Val then enters for his match and debuts a new theme song - it’s a sort of techno nightclub remix of his previous theme. Val goes on the attack as soon as Rikishi enters and the match starts fast. The big man dominates early and gets Val down in the corner for a Stink Face but Trish gets into the ring and throws white powder in his eyes. That causes a disqualification but Val takes advantage and goes on the attack. He uses the steel steps to bust Rikishi open and even throws the referee in the front row to stop him from helping. He continues the beating with a pair of shots to the head from the ringbell, all while more referees try to stop him. Rikishi gets back up on his feet and when Val sees that, he goes back and the fight continues up the entrance ramp. Rikishi drives Val’s face into the metal flooring and after a leg drop, superkicks Val off the stage to the floor below, finally diving from the stage onto Val with a splash! This was a super intense brawl out of nowhere, over something as silly as giving Trish Stratus a Stink Face. 

• Chris Benoit defends the Intercontinental Championship against Jeff Hardy. This is a really good match where Jeff in particular really shines with a lot of amazing dives and flips. He has the match and title won with a Swanton Bomb but Benoit gets his foot on the ropes to break the pin, and quickly counters into a Crippler Crossface for a submission victory. Benoit actually offers Jeff a handshake after the match…but then hits Jeff with the IC title belt instead! 
• Kurt Angle enters with Edge and Christian for a three on two handicap match with The Dudley Boyz. Their pre-match promo has a lot of local sports references making fun of New York. It’s probably be funny if I got it. The “rumour” is that this match was set up by Stephanie McMahon as a favour to Kurt Angle, and to punish The Dudleyz for trying to put Tori through a table. Edge accidentally Spears Kurt on the outside, and The Dudleyz hit a 3D on Christian in the ring to win the match.

Raw is War - June 12th, 2000

Linda McMahon throws her weight around

A great opening recap of the last few weeks as The Undertaker, The Rock and Kane all chase the WWF title and keep getting in each other's way, hitting each other with chairs and costing each other WWF title shots. That leads us into The Rock in the arena to a thunderous ovation. He says that he’s heard all weekend that when he shows up on Raw he’s going to have hell to pay from The Undertaker, Kane and The Faction. He says that it's Raw, and they can all “Just Bring It”. Kane is the first one to take him up on that challenge and heads down to the ring. Before they come to blows, The Undertaker comes out on his motorbike. It’s hard to tell how popular he is or isn’t due to the audio distortion on the WWE Network due to the theme song change. The crowd might be cheering, or they might not. The Undertaker is about to fight too, but then another song plays (on the WWE Network, whatever it was has been covered up by the Raw theme song, this is a mess) and its WWF CEO Linda McMahon. She basically calls the three of them stupid for fighting each other and being manipulated. The Faction are using divide and conquer and its working. She tells them they need to join forces, at least until King of the Ring.

That brings Vince McMahon out. “Who the hell do you think you are?!” He tries to put his wife in her place, and this is the build up of a storyline that’s been running since Wrestlemania where Linda continues to undermine Vince, and they clearly aren’t speaking. The fans keep interrupting him with “Shane’s a pussy” and “asshole” chants. While they talk, Triple H, Stephanie and Shane come out to join him. Linda then books the main event of King of the Ring - a six man tag, with The Rock, Undertaker and Kane against Triple H, Vince and Shane. Vince accepts, while Triple H and Shane look at him like he’s crazy. Vince gets so riled up by his wife he tells her she can make any kind of match she wants then, or tonight, or any other night. Linda calls his bluff and makes a match for tonight - Triple H defends the WWF title against an opponent of her choosing. She then tells Stephanie to defend her Women’s championship against Lita and if anyone from The Faction gets involved, she’ll be stripped of the title. Her final announcement for tonight is that Vince and Shane will face The Dudley Boyz in a tag team tables match tonight. 

After the commercial break, Triple H and Stephanie stop Linda before she leaves the arena and want to know who his opponent tonight is. Linda refuses, and tells Steph to go and get ready for her match.

After a suggestive shot of Lita stretching before her match, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley complains to her husband about having to defend the title. Triple H doesn’t have any ideas for how to help her. She enters the arena first for her second title defence since winning the title before Wrestlemania.

Stephanie cuts a promo before the match saying she knows that she knows the fans all really want her to continue her historic reign. Lita charges and Stephanie fakes a knee injury. She the referee is distracted checking on her, Kurt Angle slips into the ring and flattens Lita with an Olympic Slam, allowing Steph to pick up the easy pin and retain her title. Angle and Stephanie embrace after the match, while Triple H looks on with jealousy from the back. 

Backstage, Shane McMahon leads the charge as Triple H, Vince, Roaddogg, X-Pac and The Stooges rush Kane’s locker room with a steel pipe and beat him down! He’s knocked out with the pipe, and The Faction steal Kane’s mask. Pat Patterson even takes a picture of the unmasked Kane while he’s being held down. In the next segment, Vince explains the plan - Kane is on their side now, or they’ll show his face to the world. He then books Kane vs. The Rock in a no holds barred match tonight.

Vince and Shane McMahon face The Dudley Boyz in a tag team tables match. The match begins with no interference or bells and whistles and Bubba Ray and D-Von beat the McMahon boys senseless around the ring while the fans loudly chant “Shane’s a pussy”. They take a beating as D-Von bodyslams Vince on the ringside mats and Bubba gives Shane a superplex in the ring. Vince takes the top rope headbutt to the groin, and Shane gets a 3D. The fans are electric and Bubba and D-Von get a table each and set them up in the ring. They lay Shane across one table and prepare to powerbomb Vince through him but Roaddogg, X-Pac and Tori arrive at the last moment to save the day. There’s a really scary botch as Vince loses his balance and falls from the top rope to the floor, taking Bubba with him. Thankfully they’re both alright and Roaddogg puts D-Von through a table with a slam, and then they lay Bubba on another so Tori can put him through it. Kind of. The table cracks but doesn’t break and it falls over. Bubba does his best to rescue the moment and fights back a bit until DX shuts him down and they repeat the spot and break the table the second time. The McMahons officially win this table match thanks to DX.

Triple H walks through the table with Patterson and Brisco and they discuss getting the photo of Kane unmasked developed. They then talk to Bull Buchanan and say that The Undertaker refused to face him because he wasn’t in his league and he would beat him in two minutes, before goading him into stealing Undertaker’s motorbike. Taker sees it happen and steals a car so that he can chase Bull. Triple H feels pretty confident that whoever his opponent was supposed to be tonight, they’ve taken them out. 

Triple H enters alongside his wife to defend the WWF Championship against a mystery opponent. All we know is that Linda McMahon picked them. It’s Chris Jericho. This is a lot of fun with a ton of near falls. Stephanie distracts the referee but it backfires and Jericho is able to use the title belt as a weapon for a close near fall. The referee goes down and Jericho gets Triple H in the Walls of Jericho. Steph gets in the ring to slap him but he blocks it and puts her in the Walls of Jericho instead! Triple H blasts Jericho with the title belt and covers just as the referee revives to retain his WWF Championship.

Backstage, Kane is in a fury destroying his locker room. He is furious at being forced to do The Faction’s bidding. He’s being blackmailed.

Before the no hold’s barred match main event between The Rock and blackmailed Kane, The entire McMahon-Helmsley Faction heads down to the ring lead by Vince McMahon and Triple H. Vince gets on the mic and brags about how Linda’s plans backfired and they are winning 3 - 0 in the matches she set up. He promises that he, Shane and Triple H will be victorious at the King of the Ring. Vince repeats their promise to expose Kane’s scarred, burned face unless he does as he’s told and beat up The Rock in the main event. Kane enters first and even with him on a leash, the Faction still clear out of the ring before he arrives. When The Rock comes out, Kane jumps him before he’s even done with his entrance. As the match continues and the two trade big moves, GTV intervenes and reveals Brisco and Patterson in the back - it seems that their photo of Kane’s face didn’t work!

They don’t have anything to blackmail him with. Kane sees all this and immediately stops fighting The Rock and the pair of them turn their guns on the Faction at ringside! They try to leave but The Undertaker returns having got his motorbike back, and they’re trapped between him and the ring. As the brawl continues, The Dudley Boyz come out with a table to join the fray. It’s a chaotic scene at ringside as it’s a major brawl, and in the ring The Rock plants Vince McMahon with a Rock Bottom. The fighting comes into the ring and leaves Triple H trapped between his three King of the Ring opponents. Kane and The Undertaker spike Triple H through a table with a double chokeslam to end Raw with the good guys on top. 

King of the Ring 2000

In the first of tonight’s King of the Ring qualifying matches, X-Pac faces Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko (who has a couple of The Godfather’s ladies with him). A distraction from Tori and a cheapshot from Roaddogg leads to an X-Factor and a victory for X-Pac. This would have been an awesome match but was too short to be good.

Jeff Hardy faces Christian in a King of the Ring qualifying match. He’s still in the ring and looks very groggy after Chris Benoit hit him with the IC title belt moments before. King points out that Jeff’s head bounced off the lower rope as he went down and whipped back which may have injured him. He’s right. It looked ugly. Christian runs to the ring and starts the match as quickly as possible, not wanting to give Jeff time to recover. Christian gives Jeff a superplex but he holds on and turns it into a roll up giving him the win. Jeff Hardy advances in the King of the Ring tournament.

There’s a recap of the King of the Ring qualifiers from Sunday Night Heat. Bull Buchanan cost his now former partner Big Bossman his match to Bubba Ray Dudley, and DX’s Roaddogg and X-Pac cost D-Von Dudley his match to Perry Saturn. 

Other Happenings

• T&A, with Trish Stratus, challenged Too Cool for the WWF Tag Team Championships. Trish tries her best to help her men, even distracting the referee so Test can use a weapon but Scotty 2 Hotty kicks out. Too Cool mounted a comeback until Trish’ other client, Val Venis, rushed the ring and used the ring bell to knock out both members of Too Cool. They showed footage of Val and Rikishi’s intense brawl before this match and speak of the devil, the heavily bandaged Rikishi gets to the ring to help out his buddies. He clears out Test and Albert and goes after Val but Trish distracts him. That leads to her almost getting a Stink Face again but Albert rescues her at the last moment. 
• Still in the parking lot, Crash Holly attacks Patterson and Brisco, still obsessed with getting his Hardcore title back. Patterson goes down and Gerry makes a run for it! Crash chases him all the way out into the arena and down to the ring. Crash beats up Brisco for a bit until his buddy Pat Patterson comes to save the say - he misses with a stop sign shot and hits his fellow stooge and Crash Holly regains his Hardcore Championship! Crash runs off to celebrate in the back and leaves the arena.
• Chris Benoit defends the Intercontinental Championship against Matt Hardy. A long (by 2000 standards), crisp match. Matt looks good with top rope dives and has a chance to win after Benoit misses his top rope headbutt and suplexes Benoit out of the ring all the way to the floor which looked painful. Much like Jeff on Smackdown, Matt looks really good in this match. Benoit weathers the offensive storm and counters a Twist of Fate into a Crippler Crossface for the submission victory. He refuses to break the hold and continues to wrench on Matt until Jeff runs down to save him. Benoit hits him with the Intercontinental title belt again. 

Smackdown! - June 15th, 2000

The Faction Play Games

Backstage, Vince McMahon calls Shane’s helping Edge to advance in the KOTR tournament “phase one” (See the next section) and that they’re going to have some fun tonight. Vince then leads the rest of “The Faction” out into the arena and to the ring. Shane starts and says that Edge and Christian have challenged The Dudley Boyz tonight. It’s implied that this is a favour to Shane, as thanks for him helping Edge. Vince recaps the events of Raw, and then discusses the King of the Ring PPV and the six man tag team main event. Triple H says he’s extremely confident that he and the McMahon boys will win. He then says that since no one is sure who the number one contender is, if The Rock, Kane and The Undertaker’s team wins, whichever one of them scores the victory will be the number one contender.

His plan is clear - they’ll stab each other in the back and turn on each other, all wanting to be the one to win and become number one contender. Vince ends by targeting their various enemies and says Chris Jericho, The Rock, Kane and The Undertaker will all be in matches tonight but refuses to name their opponents. 

When The Undertaker arrives, Vince McMahon and Bull Buchanan are waiting for him. Vince has Undertaker arrested for stealing a car to chase after Bull on Raw, and as he’s led away in handcuffs Taker spits tobacco juice onto Bull which is absolutely gross. Later, Vince leaves the arena and tells Shane he’s in charge.

Kane enters for his match with a mystery opponent, who turns out to be Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit. Benoit works over Kane’s arm and shoulder trying to lock in the Crippler Crossface but Kane’s too big and powerful. Benoit gets frustrated and uses his IC title belt as a weapon but Kane sits right back up so Benoit just leaves. Kane wins via disqualification. 

In a funny backstage skit, Edge and Christian discuss whether the group in charge is called the Faction or the Regime. They believe that by doing Shane a favour against The Dudleyz they’ll be given a Tag Team title shot. That match is next and Edge and Christian give the Chicago crowd their now trademark promo ripping on the local sports teams and a five second pose. The match doesn’t last long before both teams brawl up the ramp to a double count out. The Dudleyz spot some tables on the floor at the bottom of the ramp and want to powerbomb Christian off onto them but Roaddogg and X-Pac arrive with steel chairs to save the day. DX and Edge and Christian stuff Bubba Ray and D-Von into a dumpster that Tori wheeled out behind them and after sealing the dumpster up and trying it closed, push it off the entrance ramp and crash to the concrete floor below seemingly badly injuring The Dudley Boyz. The fans were deafeningly chanting “X-Pac sucks” during this entire beat down and spot. 

WWF Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley comes down to ringside and joins commentary for the next match. It’s Chris Jericho against his mystery opponent. In his walk to the ring, Y2J rattles off his list of insults at Stephanie until his opponent interrupts. It’s the massive Bull Buchanan. Jericho spits water into McMahon’s face at ringside so she retaliates by hitting Jericho in the head with a water pitcher while he attempts the Lionsault and Bull wins the match. Triple H quickly rushes to the ring to continue the beating and as referees try to stop him he continues to hammer Y2J for insulting his wife, finishing him off with a Pedigree. 

Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock before his main event match against a mystery opponent. The Rock makes Kevin assure him that he is not The Rock’s opponent before going on a funny tirade about how it doesn’t matter.

When The Rock enters, Stephanie and Triple H are shown watching eagerly from backstage. His opponent is Kurt Angle. The Rock cuts off his prematch promo to tell Kurt to “Just bring it”. The match starts fast as in a picture-in-picture segment, Stephanie encourages her husband to go and help Kurt. He’s reluctant because of their whole “crush” thing but does relent in the end and moments later they come to ringside to watch the match up close. Triple H gets some cheap shots in behind the referee’s back to allow Angle to dominate The Rock and showcase his skills. The Rock overcomes the odds of interference from Stephanie, Triple H, Shane McMahon and Bull Buchanan to hit the People’s Elbow on Kurt but Triple H breaks up the pin. The match ends via disqualification and as they fill the ring and beat down The Rock, Kane’s music hits and he arrives to save the day. Kane fights them all off until Chris Benoit comes down to join in and help out The Faction. 

King of the Ring 2000

Smackdown opens with a King of the Ring qualifying match. Grandmaster Sexay (with Scotty 2 Hotty) against Edge (with Christian). The match breaks down with the men on the outside getting involved but shockingly as the referee is distracted, Shane McMahon comes to the ring and hits Grandmaster with a steel chair, helping Edge win. Edge advances.

In the final King of the Ring qualifier, Scotty 2 Hotty faces D’Lo Brown. It’s a decent but short match and D’Lo misses the Frog Splash which leads to a Worm and a victory for Scotty 2 Hotty.

There’s a recap of the other King of the Ring qualifiers, and confirmation that the next round begins on Sunday Night Heat. 

Other Happenings

• The Hardy Boyz face Test and Albert, with Trish Stratus. It’s a good match, and thanks to a distraction from Trish, a shot from her boot and a double team T&A win it. After the match, Lita gets in the ring and slaps Jeff and Matt while Test and Albert hold them at bay until Lita runs to the ring to attack Trish and save the day. This is the official formation of Team Xtreme after several weeks of teasing it. The crowd goes crazy for Lita diving off the top onto Trish. After going through Michael Hayes, Gangrel and Terri, The Hardyz finally have a manager that works for them. 
• There’s multiple skits where Gerry Brisco and Pat Patterson hunt for Crash Holly around New York city to get the Hardcore title back and keep missing him. It culminates in Crash tracking down Shaft (played by Samuel L. Jackson!) to protect him. They were promoting a new movie. 

• After a replay of the intense brawl between the two last week on Smackdown, Val Venis in the ring says that Rikishi tried to end his career and so he wants him out to the ring for another fight right now. Rikishi comes out and Val rushes to meet him on the ramp and the two fight again. It’s intense again and Rikishi bodyslams Val through the announce table. Referees try to stop them from using various weapons and try to separate the men. Val rallies and blasts Rikishi with a couple of shots to the head from a TV monitor and then a very stiff steel chairshot to the head. 

Raw is War - 19th, 2000

The WWF Title gets added to the King of the Ring

The McMahon-Helmsley faction (minus X-Pac and Tori who have a match later) head down to the ring. Vince was handed a fax from Linda by Brisco and Patterson before he walked down to the ring and seemed a little shaken by whatever the news was. Triple H starts by reading the riot act to Brisco and Patterson for screwing up last week and not getting the photo of Kane’s face. He then talks about the King of the Ring main event and how the three opponents in the six man tag may seem united now but because only one of them can win and become the number one contender, they’ll turn on each other and lose the match. Shane takes the mic and says the same thing while hammering home his new Giant Killer nickname. He shows replays from Smackdown too. As all this is going on, Vince is very distracted in the background and talking to Brisco and Patterson. Vince does tell us what's in the fax - Linda accuses the McMahon-Helmsley faction of being cowards and being unfair and goads Vince into putting the WWF title on the line, rather than the number one contendership.

Triple H is furious but Vince says that to get the championship stipulation added, The Undertaker, Kane and The Rock have to win their matches. Kane faces The Hardy Boyz, The Undertaker faces Bossman and Bull Buchanan and The Rock faces T&A. The faction are very divided as Triple H and Shane get in Vince’s face about this new ruling. Vince has been totally goaded into putting the title on the line by his wife calling him a coward. These storyline elements are hammered home in a furious argument in the Faction locker room.

Backstage, Triple H rallies up Bossman and Buchanan and makes sure they know the importance of this match. He needs them to beat Undertaker and protect his WWF title from being on the line. That match is next and Bossman and Buchanan enter second, bickering as they aren’t officially a team anymore after their fall out. Undertaker fights off both men but Bull gets a chance to show off some pretty amazing athletic feats, flipping over Taker and landing on his feet. Taker gives Bull a big chokeslam to win the match as Bossman walks out on his own partner. 

Backstage The Undertaker makes sure Kane knows he HAS to win his match next. The Hardyz don’t yet have Lita accompanying them to the ring but she is very much part of the group now as they’ve interacted a bunch of times over the past month and she helped them out against Trish Stratus and T&A on Smackdown. Kane is a babyface but his “murderous monster” character allows him to face other babyfaces, like The Hardyz here. Matt and Jeff use a spectacular array of double teams and dives to the outside but Kane continually sits up and comes back including with a flying clothesline on Jeff which gets amazing height. Kane absorbs all of their big moves, kicking out and eventually finishes Matt with a chokeslam to win the match.

Backstage Triple H is furious that two out of three of his opponents have won their matches and if The Rock wins his WWF title is at risk. Vince tells him to calm down, and Triple H continues to rant to his wife. 

Backstage before the main event, Triple H and Stephanie give T&A a pep talk and Test disrespects his former fiance Steph which causes a bit of a scuffle. It is nice they’ve acknowledged the history there! Michael Cole then interviews The Rock and he knows that he has to win his match. He isn’t going to win for Kane, or for The Undertaker. It’s not even about the Faction, he is the People’s Champion and so he has to win to get the WWF title on the line and once again be the WWF Champion. The Rock works hard to isolate one man but with frequent tags and a lot of distraction from Trish, T&A beat him down. Albert manages to use the ring bell behind the referee’s back but The Rock kicks out. Test takes a Rock Bottom but Albert is there to break up that cover too. The Rock rallies and sends Albert to the outside and finishes Test with a spinebuster and People’s Elbow to win the match. The Rock wins, and the WWF Championship is now on the line in the six man tag main event at King of the Ring. Triple H flips out backstage and gets into a loud shouting match with Vince, who tells his son-in-law to wait until Smackdown. A subdued end to Raw as The Rock is able to celebrate in peace.

King of the Ring Final eight and a pair of Hardcore title changes

In the first of six King of the Ring qualifying matches tonight, Kurt Angle faces Bubba Ray Dudley. Kurt has a very insulting pre-match promo about rednecks and their abuse of the welfare state. Cheap. Bubba is selling his ribs after DX shoved he and D-Von off the ramp inside a dumpster on Smackdown. Bubba puts up a good fight and gears a near fall with a very nice looking powerbomb but Kurt preserves and picks up the win with an Olympic Slam to advance to the quarter finals. Val Venis and Bull Buchanan have both also advanced last night on Sunday Night Heat. 

In the second King of the Ring qualifier, Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit faces X-Pac (with Tori). This is a good match where they go counter for counter but after Benoit misses his headbutt, a distraction from Bubba and D-Von Dudley chasing Tori around the ring leads to X-Pac getting locked in the Crippler Crossface for a submission. Benoit advances to the next round. Roaddogg runs down to help out X-Pac and with The Dudleyz still badly hurting after their dumpster ride, DX is easily able to beat them both down, including Tori getting some stiff kicks to Bubba’s injured ribs. In a backstage segment, DX demanded a match with The Dudleyz at the KOTR PPV. Vince continually says “in the interest of fairness” as he has obviously let Linda’s words get to him and books DX (including Tori) against The Dudleyz in a “handicap table dumpster match”. I’ll explain the rules on that later.

In the next KOTR tournament, European Champion Eddie Guerrero faces his girlfriend, Chyna. Backstage Eddie tries to keep things light as Chyna tells him he has to take this seriously and face her fair and square.

In the ring he gives her hugs and kisses her hands and tries to keep things playful but Chyna slaps him and that starts the match properly. The match does descend into comedy as they both play with each other and show affection but in the end as Chyna hesitates before a low blow, Eddie rolls her up in a tight small package to win the match and advance to the quarter finals. Backstage, Chyna sulks about the loss and Eddie begs her for forgiveness. He gets it when he offers her a puppy. Funny stuff.

Next up in the King of the Ring is Chris Jericho against Edge. Before the match, Christian says he won’t be at ringside because he has a meeting with the editor of Tiger Beat magazine. This is a great match as both men pull out all the stops and Edge shows what he has as a singles performer. Y2J manages to roll Edge over into the Walls of Jericho for a submission victory and advance to the quarter finals.

The next King of the Ring qualifier is another “friend vs. friend” encounter as Rikishi faces one half of the WWF Tag Team Champions Scotty 2 Hotty. They enter separately, but to the same theme song. Before the match there’s replays of Rikishi’s pair of very intense, violent brawls with Val Venis on the past two Smackdown episodes. Rikishi wins a short match by crushing his little buddy with a Banzai drop to advance. Before he can celebrate, he’s attacked by Val Venis. Grandmaster Sexay rushes out to save his friend but Val sees it coming and bails out rather than continue the fight as three on one.

In the final King of the Ring qualifying match, Hardcore Champion Crash Holly faces his cousin Hardcore Holly. As the match continues and Hardcore is in control, Gerry Brisco and Pat Patterson head down to the ring and Brisco hits Crash with a 2x4 to cause a disqualification. Crash advances, and as Pat fights with Hardcore, Brisco slides into the ring and pins Crash to win the Hardcore Championship back. Backstage Patterson and Brisco celebrate, and Patterson pours champagne over the head of the new Hardcore Champion before hitting him with the bottle! Patterson knocks out his fellow Stooge and pins him to win the Hardcore title! 

Smackdown! - June 22nd, 2000

King of the Ring main event Preview

Smackdown opens with WWF Champion Triple H, WWF Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon. As of Raw, their six man tag team main event at King of the Ring will now have the WWF title itself on the line. I have many thoughts on the build for that match which I’ll save for the PPV article. Triple H is pretty furious about the situation and reminds us of the rules - if any of The Rock, Kane and The Undertaker pin even Vince or Shane, they win the WWF title. But that won’t happen. Triple H is very confident that The Undertaker, Kane and The Rock will turn on each other and stop each other from winning because they all want the WWF Championship. It’s a fair point. Vince McMahon preaches about his family values, and about the power of love. Linda McMahon has gotten so under his skin. He says he loves his wife enough to forgive her for meddling in their business. Vince then books tonight’s main event - the same six man tag team match as at King of the Ring. Triple H and Shane walk out in disgust, so Vince says that he’ll fight all three of Kane, Undertaker and The Rock all by himself if he has to. The Faction seems to have totally splintered due to Vince’s ego, and letting Linda goad him into situations.

Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock who doesn’t care about Vince McMahon’s masterplan tonight or at King of the Ring but he knows that The Faction are going to get their asses kicked twice. The Rock promises that at King of the Ring his allegiance with Kane and The Undertaker is over, The Faction will be over and that his era will begin with The Rock as the WWF Champion. 

In the main event, Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon and WWF Champion Triple H enter first. They all still seem to be bickering over the fact that this match is even happening. Once The Undertaker, Kane and The Rock have entered Vince pulls the rug out and says that this is actually a no disqualification handicap match and brings out the first in their series of opponents as Bull Buchanan, Roaddogg and X-Pac run to the ring. They’re quickly dispatched so that brings out Edge, Christian and Kurt Angle. It’s now six on three and that seems to be too much for a bit but The Rock, Undertaker and Kane fight them off too with Rock Bottoms and chokeslams. Vince then calls out more opponents - Test, Albert and Val Venis. It’s now nine on three. Triple H and the McMahon boys join in and in what is now officially a twelve on three handicap match, Kane is driven through the announce table as Kane is beaten down with steel chairs and ring steps. The Rock fights off Vince and Shane but its all too much as Triple H drills The Rock with a Pedigree. Shane follows with a nice looking top rope elbow drop and in the final indignity, Vince McMahon does the People’s Elbow on The Rock to pin him and officially end this no disqualification, twelve on three handicap match. Vince McMahon pinned The Rock as we head into King of the Ring. 

A surprising title change!

Chris Benoit defends the Intercontinental Championship against Rikishi. This is a King of the Ring preview as they’ll also clash in the quarter finals of the tournament at the PPV. Benoit impresses and dominates Rikishi and even drops him with a series of back and German suplexes but misses the top rope headbutt and walks into a Samoan drop and superkick. He counters a Crossface attempt into a belly to belly suplex and follows with a Banzai drop and Rikishi wins the Intercontinental Championship! He sells the arm which Benoit worked on during the match as Too Cool joins him in the ring. For tonight at least, all three men are champions.

Benoit, a sore loser, gets back in the ring with a steel chair and after taking out Scotty and Grandmaster, uses it to wear out Rikishi’s arm and shoulder and locks him in the Crippler Crossface until referees put a stop to the beating. 

Jerry Lawler shines in his hometown

Backstage Dean Malenko is getting a massage. His new gimmick is that he’s the “lady killer”. Terri Runnels goes to see him and asks if he’ll help her out with a mixed tag team match against The Kat later. It’s all a bit cringey. Later Terri tells Kat about the match, and then she goes to get her own partner, picking Taka Michinoku. 

The Kat teams with Taka Michinoku to face Terri and Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko. Before the match even begins, Dean attacks Taka and suplexes him on the entrance ramp. He’s helped to the back and that leaves Kat in an handicap match. Dean shows no mercy for The Kat at the behest of Terri, which brings Jerry Lawler off of commentary to help out his real life girlfriend. That’s never been confirmed on TV, but they’re in King’s hometown so he gets a loud “Jerry” chant as Malenko beats him up. KIng comes back, Dean tags out and so King lifts Terri into the ring so Kat can roll her up and win the match. Terri gives King a Bronco Buster (he comes up with a big smile on his face) as Kat drags her off by the hair and throws her out of the ring. This was all a bit messy and pervy but King got a big pop in his hometown. 

A Hardcore addition to King of the Ring

In a series of backstage skits, Gerry Brisco hunts around backstage for Pat Patterson who stole his Hardcore title on Raw. We find out Patterson is hiding in the women’s locker room dressed up as a woman. Howard Finkle lets Brisco know, so he dresses up as a woman himself so that he can sneak in and attack Patterson. He does, and as the two brawl and fight and roll out into the hallway in dresses, Vince McMahon comes across the scene and after expressing his disgust books them against each other at King of the Ring in a Hardcore Evening Gown match. That ended up being famous for all the wrong reasons.

Other Happenings

• In the opening match, T&A team with their manager Trish Stratus in her first ever match against The Hardy Boyz and Lita. Lita isn’t with The Hardyz full time yet but she will be soon. The match breaks down and Lita copies Matt’s Twist of Fate and stacks her on top of Test, and Jeff hits a Swanton Bomb across them both. That feels like the finish but Albert breaks up the pin. Michael Cole mentions here that both these teams will challenge for the tag team titles alongside Edge and Christian against Too Cool in a Fatal four way elimination match at King of the Ring.  Lita hits Trish with a moonsault and has the win but Albert flattens her with a chokesbomb behind the referee’s back allowing Trish to get the cover and win the match. 

• Edge and Christian enter dressed as Elvis Presley, in huge sumo suits. Smackdown is in Memphis y’see. They offer a brand new five second pose, and this is one of their more famous poses from this era. This is a one on one match between Christian and Grandmaster Sexay ahead of the fatal four way WWF Tag Team title match at King of the Ring. Christian does lose the Elvis fat suit for the match sadly. Edge tries to help his partner but there’s a little bit of miscommunication and he hits his own partner. Grandmaster wins the match.

• Eddie Guerrero defends the European title against The Big Bossman. Bossman was a big deal through most of 1999 but has very much fallen by the wayside in 2000 with all the new debuts and the midcard being flooded with fresh faces. He really shouldn’t have turned on Bull Buchanan basically. Bossman uses his size to bully Eddie around the ring and on the outside, he no-sells a shot from Chyna and knocks her out in return. As Bossman and the referee argue outside the ring, Val Venis runs to the ring and hits Eddie with Bossman’s nightstick. They’re opponents in the King of the Ring quarter finals. Bossman covers and looks like he might steal the European title but Chyna breaks up the pin to cause a disqualification officially and end the match. Eddie keeps the title just barely.

• Backstage Kurt Angle is very pleased to be on the front cover of this month’s WWF magazine and bumps into Stephane McMahon-Helmsley who tells him how handsome he is. He thanks her and says after he wins the King of the Ring he’ll beat her husband for the WWF title. Not in a confrontational way though, he’s just a bit oblivious. 
• Hardcore Holly - debuting a new theme song as up until now he’d been using the same theme song as Crash Holly - faces Chris Jericho. On Sunday Night Heat, Holly faced Triple H for the WWF title and during it, Jericho ran down and knocked Stephanie off the apron followed by hitting Triple H and Holly with the title belt. Holly cuts a pre-match promo recapping all of this where he also debuts his “How do you like me now?” catchphrase (which didn’t really catch on, but I remember it). This is a decent match and as they fight on the outside, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley comes to the ring and hits Y2J in the back of the head with her women’s title belt. Hardcore Holly capitalises but Jericho kicks out. Jericho rallies with a Lionsault to win the match, while Stephanie throws a little temper tantrum on the ramp. 
• Roaddogg (along with X-Pac and Tori) faces D-Von. Before the match Roaddogg cuts a loud, energetic promo promising to win at King of the Ring as DX are “kings of the Dumpster” which…ok, cool. X-Pac promises that they’ll never put Tori through a table. Bubba Ray and D-Von are carrying a table with them when they come out. The rules for the Table-Dumpster match at the PPV are given at the bottom with the match card. A distraction of the referee and an X-Factor helps Roaddogg win this match. The outcome doesn’t matter as the brawl begins and Bubba gets close to driving Tori through the table until Roaddogg breaks a 2x4 over Bubba’s back. DX escapes and as ring announcer Tony Chimmel struggles to get the ring announcement out, Bubba goes and punches him in the face. Hearing him say that Roaddogg won three times was too much for them to take and The Dudleyz drive Chimmel through the table with a 3D in frustration. 

Five weeks of build to the King of the Ring PPV but because of the size of the tournament this year and so many people being tied up in the brackets, the rest of the card didn’t fill out until the last minute. The flip side of that is that this is the most important the King of the Ring tournament itself has felt in years. The 2000 King of the Ring is the blueprint for how the King of the Ring should be booked honestly and the final eight is a good mix of potential winners and future World champions. I’ll talk more about that and the booking of it during the show itself but here is the card heading in;

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

Handicap Tables-Dumpster match

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

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

For DX to win, they must lock both Dudley Boyz inside a Dumpster.

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)

Evening Gown match for the WWF Hardcore Championship

Pat Patterson © vs. Gerald Brisco