Raw is War - January 24th, 2000

Wrestlemania Main Event

The show is opened in the arena by the WWF Champion Triple H and his wife, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. His head is heavily bandaged up after the Street fight last night at the Royal Rumble. He has stitches in his head, his calf and even in his ear from all the wounds inflicted by Cactus Jack and his barbed wire. Something I’ve never seen before - he isn’t even in the ring, and his music is still playing and the fans are already chanting “asshole”. Triple H paces around the ring and when Stephanie tries to speak, she’s immediately drowned out by boos and “slut” chants. She crows about her husband having beat Cactus Jack at his own game and still being the WWF Champion. Triple H calls Cactus the most sadistic freak he’s ever been in the ring with, but even with all his tricks and weapons he still couldn’t get the job done. He says Cactus Jack forced him to go to a level he’s never been to in his life, but he liked it and he is still the man, The Game, and the WWF Champion. He also says that as he was leaving the hospital, he saw Jack was still there so we shouldn’t expect to see him tonight. He then turns his attention to Wrestlemania, which gets “Rocky” chants right away. He tells The Rock he has ten weeks to get himself in the best shape of his life, because Triple H will be at the top of his game. He continues but is cut off by The Big Show’s theme song and he walks to the ring looking very serious. He gets in the ring and in Triple H’s face, but then asks for a microphone. He again points out that he’s never had a rematch (which is true) and that he doesn’t like Triple H. He says a crime has been committed and that last night at the Royal Rumble he was robbed. He says that The Rock’s feet touched the floor first. He says he’s a nice guy and never lies, and he asks for a one on one match with The Rock with the winner going to Wrestlemania.

Triple H tells him that if he can show him proof that The Rock’s feet touched first then he can have his match. That brings The Rock out onto the stage. He tells Triple H he’s going to kick his ass at Wrestlemania, and turns his focus to The Big Show. He says it doesn’t matter if his feet touched the floor first (which it does) and that he won and he’s going to Wrestlemania. Triple H tells The Rock to get a partner and face him and Big Show tonight but The Rock says he doesn’t want or need a tag team partner and he’ll fight them both two on one.

Backstage, Michael Cole asks The Rock if he has found a tag team partner. The Rock says the only partner he needs is himself! 

Triple H and The Big Show discuss strategy backstage and seem quite friendly, laughing about how The Rock has no partner. Big Show is definitely a heel now! 

In the main event, The Rock enters first and much to my surprise, The Big Show enters last. Little bit of a push for the big man. The Rock seems to have meant what he said and will go it alone but looks stunned when Rikishi’s music plays. He is volunteering to be The Rock’s partner. The fans are lively for The Rock and it is amazing how quickly Rikishi has shot up the card and is getting great reactions. The Rock and Rikishi have easy control of the match until The New Age Outlaws run down and attack the big man, causing a disqualification. They beat him down on the floor as The Big Show and Triple H double team The Rock. He is rescued by Cactus Jack, running to the ring with a heavy limp and carrying a 2x4. He hammers on both Show and The Game and along with The Rock, doubleclothines Big Show over the top rope and the good guys hold the ring! Triple H looks utterly amazed and baffled that Cactus Jack is even standing, never mind here! 

X-Pac makes his move

There’s a great emotional video package for Kane vs. X-Pac tonight. This feud was more or less dropped after Armageddon but after Tori was forced to spend Christmas with Pac and shockingly said that he was “a perfect gentleman” and with her odd behaviour ever since, it seemed unlikely that this story was over. Kane enters first with his girlfriend Tori. X-Pac is the man who opened up Kane’s heart and made him feel human feelings - his one and only friend. And Tori is the first woman to show Kane affection and kindness. JR and King talk a lot about Tori’s odd behaviour since spending Christmas with X-Pac.

X-Pac moves fast but keeps stopping to taunt and pose so Kane just no-sells his kicks and brutalises him. X-Pac is the one who asked for this match. X-Pac and Kane fight to the outside so Tori gets in the ring for safety. Pac counters Kane into the ring steps, and then spanks Tori and forces a kiss on her. Tori sells it like she’s had acid thrown in her face, flailing around on the mat. Kane goes to check on his girlfriend and while he holds her in his arms, X-Pac hits him in the back with a steel chair. X-Pac runs off and Kane is too busy checking on Tori to chase him. After a commercial for the Wrestlemania 2000 video game, Tori and Kane burst into the McMahon-Helmsley office demanding a match with X-Pac who had already left the arena.

Enemies turned friends

Backstage, Crash Holly tells Hardcore that he’d be the Intercontinental Champion if not for Chyna and dares him to go into the women’s locker room and get her. He goes in, there's a lot of screams, and then chases him out and tells him he needs to respect the women. Holly punches Chyna in the face, and then he’s jumped from behind by Chris Jericho! 

Chris Jericho defends the Intercontinental Championship against Hardcore Holly. As Holly is on the way to the ring, Crash tells him he doesn’t want to be his partner anymore and goes off to find his own partner. Jericho is fired up and looks very angry with Hardcore. The fight is physical, and Chyna comes out to watch at ringside. The match is really stiff, and they don’t seem to be working very well together. I don’t know if it's just clunky and not smooth, or if they're trying to make this look like a shoot-fight. Chyna trips Hardcore so he goes and gets a steel chair and wants to hit her, but Y2J saves her again. With Jericho tied up in the ropes, Chyna uses the distraction to Pedigree Hardcore right onto a steel chair. Y2J follows up with the Lionsault and retains the Intercontinental title. After the match, Chyna hands him the belt and raises his arm. They seem to have finally made friends. 

The Dudleyz go too far

Michael Cole interviews Matt and Jeff Hardy, who will challenge The New Age Outlaws for the tag team titles tonight. They’re interrupted by Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley who offer The Hardyz respect for beating them last night. They shake hands, but then pull them in close and tell them that if they do win the titles tonight, The Dudleyz want the first title shot. Bubba also ominously says that tonight they’ll do something that has never been done before. 

WWF Tag Team Champions Roaddogg and Mr. Ass, The New Age Outlaws, defend against Matt and Jeff Hardy who must be very beat up after their amazing tables match at the Royal Rumble. Right after the match starts, Bubba Ray and D-Von head down to the ring after their shocking show of respect for The Hardyz earlier. They casually and calmly set up a table at ringside as the tag team match continues. The Hardyz use a Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb on Roaddogg and have the titles in hand but Bubba pulls the referee out of the ring, and then The Dudleyz lay both of them out with 3Ds. Terri Runnels gets in the ring to plead for her men and try to save Matt and Jeff but it backfires and D-Von grabs her by the hair. Bubba stops his half brother from punching her in the face. “Why would you punch her in the face when we could put her through a table?”. The Dudleys do the unthinkable and in a spot that would make them famous, Bubba hits a top rope powerbomb through the table (kind of, Bubba’s butt goes through first, it was very safe for little Terri) The fans react strongly to the spot and chant “asshole”. 

Other Happenings

• Even though he left the company in September 1999, Ken Shamrock is still in the Raw is War intro. I wonder if they thought he would come back at some point, or they just haven’t edited it?
• There was a nice little moment where they showed footage of Droz coming to visit backstage and all the WWF superstars out of character saying hello and giving him some love. JR and King are lovely about him and I actually got a little teary-eyed watching it. 
• Backstage, Al Snow talks to Steve Blackman about how they need a tag team name and gimmick and puts a cape and wig on him. He then suggests that Blackman carry some cheese and they can be “Head cheese” which Steve also isn’t keen on. Blackman’s suggestion is that they are just “Al Snow and Steve Blackman” but Snow suggests he carry a board game so they can be “Head Games”. They are in tag team action against Edge and Christian. Edge’s current storyline is that he is engaged to Val Venis’ sister, but continues to get a lot of attention from other women. Snow and Blackman enter separately. The fans do actually chant “head cheese” a bunch of times during this match, as JR and King mostly discuss Blackman’s total lack of personality or charisma. The match ends abruptly when Snow and Blackman hit a double team on Edge and the referee rings the bell and waves off the match because Edge is injured. Val Venis runs down to check on his future brother-in-law, as does medical personnel BB, who gives Edge mouth to mouth for some reason. That’s so stupid. It works though and Edge wakes up. He’s groggy and Christian and Val help him to the back. 

• Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty of Too Cool take on Crash Holly and his new tag team partner, Viscera. Big Vis’ massive size advantage is too much to overcome and he wins it for him and Crash. Holly celebrates like they just won the tag team championships. 
• As Terri is being stretchered out of the arena, Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle heads to the ring. He disingenuously says that what happened to Terri was bad, but what is much worse is the way he “lost” at the Royal Rumble. He has documents and written letters from wrestling officials, doctors and even members of the Olympic committee that confirm that Angle’s opponent used an illegal hold last night and so his undefeated streak should not be considered to have ended. Tazz lacks integrity, which is one of his three Is. He says no apologies are needed, and that we need not worry - his undefeated streak is still alive and well. He hasn’t been pinned, to be fair. Tazz then comes out (to a good reaction) but not dressed to compete. He tries to attack Tazz, but is locked in the Tazzmission again and just like last night is choked out! The fans loudly chant “ECW” as referees and officials work to separate Tazz from Kurt. 

• The Godfather, D’Lo Brown and an entourage of five hoes head down to the ring for a tag team match with Bradshaw and Faarooq who are no doubt in a foul mood after being cheated out of the tag team titles last night. The Acolytes win a short match when Bradshaw almost decapitates D’Lo with a clothesline from hell that sends him spinning inside-out.
• Jerry Lawler gets into the ring for the official crowning of the winner of the Miss Rumble 2000 Swimsuit contest. He brings out all the contestants  Ivory, Luna, Jacqueline, BB and WWF Women’s Champion The Kat. No Terri Runnels of course, she's at the hospital after going through a table earlier. Luna is back to using her familiar theme song tonight after it was badly dubbed by another song at the PPV on the WWE Network. Very odd. Finally, accompanied by her friend Fabulous Moolah, its the winner of the contest Mae Young. King makes a joke about Mae’s puppies and she says at least hers are real. That turns into a cat fight between the women over who’s boobs are real or fake until they’re split up by referees. Given that the WWF Womens’ Champion is out there, you’d think someone would issue a challenge for the belt but they’re too busy fighting about who has the nicest fake boobs? Mae wants to flash her puppies again and starts to strip until her boyfriend Mark Henry stops her.
• WWF Hardcore Champion Test faces The Big Bossman in a non-title match but the match is immediately ruined when Stevie Richards - dressed as Test - attacks Bossman with his own nightstick. He gets a pumphandle slam and top rope elbow from Test as a thank you for costing him the match.

Smackdown! - January 27th, 2000

Cactus Jack isn’t done with Triple H

Cactus Jack comes out to the ring and after giving Triple H credit for winning and keeping the WWF title, he didn’t live up to his promise to end Jack’s career. At the end of the match, Triple H looked like he’d barely survived and Cactus looked like he’d had a really good time. He says the people want more and calls The Game out right now. The fans chant “Foley” as Triple H’s music plays. It’s Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley instead. She calls Mick pathetic and says he’s just bitter after Triple H beat him at his own game. He’s already proved that he’s just as sick and crazy as Cactus Jack. He says that Triple H is a heel of a man and she’s a hell of a woman but they might never have kids since Triple H has no testicles. She slaps him and Jack says his instinct is to slap her back but instead we’re going to play a game. “Slap me again and see what happens”. He demands she slap him again and starts screaming in her face. She looks terrified of him and backs out of the ring as he squeals and begs her to slap him again.

He says he might follow her back to whatever hole she crawled out of and beat the hell out of her husband but seeing the pair of them makes him feel sick so instead he’s just going to pack his bags and leave. Whenever Triple H feels like finishing what he started, Cactus Jack will be waiting. After the break, Cactus was shown to have left the arena.

The Big Show makes a powerful friend, and Kane gets his heart broken

The Big Show goes to see Triple H. He was promised that if he provides proof that The Rock’s feet hit the floor first then he gets a chance to win the Wrestlemania title shot from him. He provides blurry photos, which Triple H isn’t happy with. He wants an eye witness instead. He also books The Rock against his seemingly new friend Rikishi tonight, and tells Big Show to go and get ready to wrestle because he needs a favour tonight. 

In the McMahon-Helmsley office, Triple H comforts Stephanie who seems shaken by Cactus Jack’s words earlier. Kane explodes into the room and demands a match with X-Pac. Stephanie tells him he can have it on Raw if he can beat The Big Show tonight. Later The Big Show tells Triple H that he’s working with him to try and prove that he should have won the Royal Rumble and he better not abuse the privilege.

Kane takes on The Big Show and they have very different motivations. Show needs to butter up Triple H and Stephanie as he tries to prove that The Rock’s feet hit the floor first and he should have won the Rumble match, and if Kane wins this then he gets his hands on X-Pac. As the two big men beat each other up, X-Pac comes to ringside and puts his hands on Tori again. Kane grabs him and gets him up for a chokeslam but The Big Show rescues him and then in a scene that was unthinkable a couple of weeks ago, The Big Show along with the rest of DX beat down Kane. Triple H lays him out with a hard chair shot to the head, and then Big Show drives him down with a massive chokeslam. Billy Gunn and Triple H tie Kane up in the corner in position for the Bronco Buster which X-Pac delivers all while Tori looks on, horrified. X-Pac grabs her by the hand and gets a microphone and tells Kane the “X-Pac - Tori - Christmas story”. He basically tells Kane that Tori seduced him. He shares plenty of graphic details (the fans ruin the moment by cheering for the evil villain) and tells Tori she can do anything she wants. She smiles and embraces X-Pac. Poor Kane flips out and tries to break free and his first and only love has abandoned him and betrayed him for his nemesis. Tori and X-Pac are together and Kane is heart broken. After the break, Kane was shown leaving the arena looking devastated. 

The Rock enters first and says that while he appreciates Rikishi helping him out on Raw, tonight is a different night and it’s his show so that means he’ll have to lay the Smackdown on him. He then turns his attention to The Big Show and calls him a whiner and that he can investigate whether The Rock’s feet hit the floor first all he wants, it doesn’t matter because The Rock is going to Wrestlemania. To be fair to Big Show, he is right. If The Rock’s feet hit the floor first then he should have won the Rumble and go to Mania. He’s not even being that whiny about it lately, but he has teamed up with former rival and all around bad guy Triple H so that makes him in the wrong. The commentators have talked all night about how this match was booked by Triple H because he doesn’t want The Rock to have any friends and this is to nip this budding friendship in the bud. Rikishi and The Rock show respect for each other before the bell. Rikishi gets the advantage early as he’s a lot…not bigger, The Rock is taller but..thicker? Heavier? He plays the big man in this match either way. This is a competitive match and The Rock gives Rikishi a lot of the offence. Rikishi has gotten so high up the card lately. Rikishi actually might have the victory with a banzai drop on The Rock but the referee is out of position to count and The Big Show runs in to attack them both and end the match via disqualification. The Rock and Rikishi start to fight back which brings out Triple H to help. Too Cool runs in too to try and save Rikishi but they both get chokeslams from Show and Smackdown ends with Triple H, Stephanie and Big Show celebrating over a fallen Rock, Rikishi, Grandmaster and Scotty. 

The Holly Family

Backstage, Hardcore Holly tells his cousin Crash that the family wants to see them back together. Crash says he has a new partner - Viscera - so Hardcore says he’ll take out his new partner instead.

Viscera goes one on one with Hardcore Holly. Viscera seems quite happy being Crash’s new partner too, but Hardcore wants to “take him out” and get his cousin back. Viscera pretty easily defeats the much smaller Hardcore Holly, but then after the match Crash attacks his new tag team partner and reforms his cousin team with Hardcore and they double clothesline the 500 pounder out of the ring.

Crash Holly (with his cousin Hardcore, now that they’re happily back together) challenges Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship. Y2J has Chyna with him and she actually enters first on her own. This is the debut of her pyro gun - a big silver bazooka looking tube that fires sparks into the crowd. It’s pretty cool. Chyna’s relationship with The Kat has been quietly dropped it seems and she and Y2J are now friends based on mutual respect. Hardcore hits Y2J in the head with the title belt as he goes for the Lionsault but he’s able to kick out of a close near fall. Chyna takes out Hardcore on the outside and Jericho retains his title via submission with the Walls of Jericho. Chyna hands him the title belt and celebrates with him after the match as King implies there’s a romantic element to this new found friendship. That has never been implied by anyone else during this.

Other Happenings

• There’s a couple of adverts for Stone Cold Steve Austin’s first TV interview since his neck surgery, which will take place during Halftime of the Superbowl on Sunday Night Heat. That’s quite big! 
• One half of the Tag Team Champions Mr. Ass faces Al Snow to open the show. Roaddogg isn’t here tonight - he’s ill apparently. Before the match, Al Snow talks to Steve Blackman backstage who is happy that Snow is focused on getting them into the tag team title chase (if he wins this, they’ll get a tag team title match on Raw) but still isn’t happy with Al’s attempt to name the team. Head Cheese seems to have stuck (eugh). Blackman tries to help Snow win with a kendo stick but Billy Gunn cuts him off and uses the kendo stick himself in front of the referee, getting disqualified. Blackman and Snow get a tag title match on Raw.

• Edge and Christian take on The Dudley Boyz. Before the match there's some seemingly out of character comments from Edge and Christian where they send their well wishes to Terri - who was put through a table by Bubba and D-Von on Raw - and The Hardyz who are with her in the hospital. Terri apparently suffered whiplash, as well as some emotional trauma and won’t be back for a long time. In a bit of an upset given the storyline, Edge pins D-Von quite quickly with a spear and wins the match fair and square. The Dudleys, like sore losers, go on the attack after the match and after laying Edge across a table on the outside of the ring, powerbombs Christian off the apron through Edge and through the table to the floor! That looked brutal and Edge’s mouth was badly bloodied - Christian’s elbow caught him in the face and bust his lip. 

The Godfather and D’Lo Brown (with about fifteen hoes, there were too many to count this week) take on Too Cool. Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty aren’t quite as popular as their friend Rikishi but they still get a great reaction. The match doesn’t go long as The Godfather stops the match and says that these guys shouldn’t be fighting and should dance instead. He calls the hoes into the ring and both teams and even the referee all dance and boogie with the ladies. The dancing is cut short when Mark Henry and Mae Young come out onto the stage and announce that Mae is pregnant! Mark and Mae seem delighted about the news but everyone else looks disgusted. She is 79 years old.

• Backstage as Tazz walks around he’s accosted by the Mean Street Posse. They make fun of his height so he challenges all three of them to a match tonight. 
• Gangrel (with Luna) challenges Test for the Hardcore Championship. Gangrel goes out to meet Test on the way to the ring and they fight around the ramp and into the stands. Luna gets in Test’s face and spits the fake blood in his face but Gangrel’s advantage doesn’t last long. Luna snaps a 2x4 over Test’s back but he no-sells it and dumps her into the bed of a pickup truck full of snow. They fight back into the arena (it’s freezing outside, I don’t blame them) and Gangrel uses a fire extinguisher as a weapon. Luna tries to hit Test with a shovel but hits Gangrel instead and he calls off the loading dock. Test powerbombs Luna onto the lid of a piano (I don’t know) and jumps onto Gangrel with an elbow drop to win the match. This was fun. Nice to see the hardcore title make a comeback.

• Joey Abs, Pete Gas and Joey Abs entered together and debated who should fight Tazz first but this will be a three on one handicap match. Tazz gets a decent reaction. Tazz’s gimmick is that he’s a killer submission and suplex expert and an animal. King actually does a good job on commentary putting him over too. Tazz throws the three of them around and easily makes Pete Gas tap out to the Tazzmission chokehold. As he leaves, he’s jumped from behind by Kurt Angle! He throws Tazz back into the ring and plants him with the Olympic Slam and then locks him in a submission hold of his own - it’s Bob Backland’s old finisher, the crossface chickenwing. 

Raw is War - January 31st, 2000

A huge medical update

They showed highlights of Jim Ross’s sit down interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin which aired on Sunday Night Heat during the superbowl halftime. He has a hard neck brace on but he takes it off to show the scars on his neck. His voice is hoarse as they had to go in through his throat. He’s pissed off that its hard for him to drink beer but is otherwise in good spirits. JR asks why he’d risk his health to come back at all. He says as happy as he is at home, he misses being on TV and in front of the crowds. He wants to get in the ring with The Rock, Triple H and The Undertaker again. He loves the WWF and loves beating people's asses and drinking beer. The fans in the arena cheer. He promises that he will be back, but not for three or four months at least. He also revealed during the interview that he is engaged to Debra.

The roster gets a Radical upgrade

WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws defend the titles against Al Snow and Steve Blackman who earned this title shot by virtue of Al Snow’s disqualification victory over Mr. Ass on Smackdown. Al Snow and Blackman have another chat backstage about what their tag team name should be on the way to the ring but when they get there, Snow is immediately distracted greeting some familiar faces in the front row - Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko, all from WCW. Benoit in fact was the WCW World champion at the time and had walked out of the company forcing the title to be vacated. You know they’ve signed because JR mentions them all by name. JR mentions the word “radical” multiple times, calling their quitting WCW and being here tonight “radical” actions. That would end up being their collective group name. This match is decent and the four men work well together. Snow and Roaddogg fight to the outside and Roaddogg ends up going into the front row in front of the four former WCW wrestlers. He gets in their face and pushes them so the four of them swarm him and beat him up. Perry Saturn gets in the ring and lays out Mr. Ass, which Eddie follows up with a frog splash. The four Radicals get in the ring and Malenko lays out Roaddogg with a suplex and Benoit follows with a top rope headbutt! Officially, the Head Cheese team win the match by disqualification but the big story is that Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko and Saturn just laid out the WWF Tag Team Champions and then walked up the ramp and backstage!

After the break, the four of them meet up with Cactus Jack and the five men laugh about how much fun they just had and how much fun they’ll have all night. Cactus gets some good jokes about “performing in front of a full crowd for once” which was good. The four men are here because he invited them, it seems. All four Radicals are well known for being incredibly polished and gifted in ring performers. 

Backstage, Roaddogg and Billy Gunn protest to Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley about The Radicals actions (Roaddogg being the one to officially give them the name) and so Triple H says that they don’t work here so they can just go and beat their asses and handle it themselves. 

Backstage Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz interact with Cactus Jack and the four Radicals. They all seem very friendly. The Mean Street Posse approach and act tough, saying they’re not to be messed with. With a little encouragement from Cactus Jack, Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn and Malenko attack and beat Joey Abs, Pete Gas and Rodney up all over the loading bay with intensity. 

Cactus Jack leads Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn and Malenko through the back and says he wants to go and see the McMahon-Helmsleys to see if we can make their one night only appearance a permanent thing. Triple H takes issue with their appearance and them going through Cactus Jack rather than coming to see them first. They attacked the New Age Outlaws. It’s kind of odd seeing Jack and Triple H stand two feet apart given their blood feud. Triple H ends by saying that he will consider giving them an opportunity if they’re good boys.

Backstage as Cactus Jack says goodbye to The Radicals, Triple H and Stephanie approach and say that after considering it, he’s decided that they aren’t good enough for the WWF. He has security escort them out as Dean Malenko says that they’re used to walking out of companies. They were smart to make sure everyone knew these four men quit WCW and weren’t fired.

In the main event, Triple H defends the WWF Championship against Kane. This is not the night or the time to go messing with Kane after what X-Pac, Tori and the rest of DX did to that man. If we ever needed crazy, setting people on fire, “doesn't know right from wrong” Kane that we saw in late 1998, it's now. Kane’s music plays but he doesn’t come out. Eventually Triple H gets on the mic and says that he knows Kane is backstage crying and shaking like a leaf because he’s afraid of Triple H. He makes some jokes about his manhood and says X-Pac is a real man which is why Tori dumped him. He says Kane needs to come out and be a man, or he’ll come backstage and get him. Earl Hebner really gets on my nerves here, being really distracting as he gets involved with Triple H. Cactus Jack comes out and says that Triple H had the gaul to kick his invited guests out of the building and lists their names again. He sings their praises as performers and as men. Cactus says he’s been thinking long and hard about forgiving Triple H and forgetting but it's never going to happen. Cactus attacks Triple H in the ring while Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley on commentary whines about how unfair it is and cheers on her husband. Triple H fights back and tries to use the title belt as a weapon but Jack cuts him off and takes it from him. Triple H bails out of the ring and tries to leave but he’s jumped by Benoit, Saturn, Malenko and Guerrero. They take him back to the ring and The Game takes a beating from all five men, being thrown into a title belt shot by Cactus Jack! Raw closes with Cactus Jack and these four former WCW stars in the ring. They could have made so much more of a big deal that Chris Benoit is there - he won the WCW World title on PPV only two weeks before and walked out of the company without ever losing the title. 

The Rock and The Big Show one-up each other

Kurt Angle enters the arena, and mimics The Rock’s “finally” promo. They’re in his hometown, but he gets loudly booed anyway. He says he is STILL undefeated (which isn’t technically true, but he hasn’t ever been pinned). Tonight he will face The Rock. He reminds us all that he beat The Rock before (by disqualification). Kurt Angle looks in amazing shape here too - he’s put on some muscle mass since his debut and looks both huge and shredded. 

The Big Show comes into the McMahon-Helmsley office (sporting a new haircut and facial hair combo which makes him look like Gomez Addams) He has Jim Dodson the security guard with him as the eye witness who confirms that The Rock’s feet touched first. Triple H says he can’t just believe the security guy and needs video proof. 

Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty, Too Cool, come out for a handicap match with The Big Show. Rikishi isn’t here - he badly sprained his ankle on Smackdown. The Big Show looks utterly ridiculous with the hair style and facial hair he’s chosen. He wins easily with a pair of chokeslams. Before he leaves the ring, The Rock appears on the titantron and after making fun of his new haircut and tells him to stop whining and complaining about the Royal Rumble, and then promises he’ll beat Kurt Angle tonight. It’s funny stuff.

The Rock takes on Kurt Angle. It's competitive and Kurt looks strong against Rocky, beating him down and even stopping mid match to chastise his hometown fans for daring to boo him. Kurt is on the back foot and tries to leave but he’s stopped by Tazz and thrown back to the ring and one spinebuster and People’s Elbow later, Kurt Angle’s unbeaten streak is officially over. He has been pinned. Tazz tries to clothesline Kurt after the match but Angle ducks and it’s The Rock that goes down! Tazz chases Kurt backstage.

A new WWF “women’s” champion

The Kat defends the WWF Women’s Championship in a “lumberjill, snowbunnies match”. The girls fight in a pool full of snow, while its surrounded by other women. The lumberkills are Ivory, Luna, BB, Jacqueline, Moolah and the pregnant Mae Young. The Kat defends against newcomer “Harvenia” (Its Harvey Whippleman in drag). The Kat has stopped wearing her black Chyna wig and is back to her bleach blonde look and “wrestles” in white underwear complete with bunny ears and a bunny tail. Harvenia is wrestling in a brown wig and full padded ski gear. Jacqueline hits The Kat and she's pinned. Harvenia wins the WWF Women’s Championship. Michael Cole interviews “her” and he quickly drops the pretence and reveals that Harvey Whippleman, a man, is the new women’s champion. Cole laughs at him so Harvey shoves him and that leads to a fight with all of the women dog piling Cole, the referee and the new women’s champion. 

Other Happenings

• Christian (with Edge) faces D-Von Dudley (with Bubba Ray). JR seems really angry at The Dudleyz, calling them “the damn Dudleyz” and very clearly cheering on Christian and Edge to get some payback on them here. He’s furious about their treatment of Terri. Edge has stitches on the inside and outside of his mouth and needs braces as he almost lost two teeth thanks to The Dudleyz on Smackdown. With a little help from Edge, Christian wins with a roll up. The Dudleyz attack after the match and set up another table, which has very much become their gimmick. They give Christian the double team headbutt to the crotch from the top rope and then get a steel chair too. Matt and Jeff Hardy run in to make the save and Matt spikes D-Von off the middle rope with a DDT through the table! The four men set up a table on the outside and lay Bubba across it so that Jeff Hardy can hit a Swanton Bomb from the top rope to the floor driving Bubba through a table too! Matt, Jeff, Edge and Christian leave both Dudleyz laid out with their own tables. 

• Backstage The Mean Street Posse go to see Bradshaw and Faarooq and offer to pay them to protect them from The Radicals. Bradshaw has the idea - The Acolyte Protection Agency! He suggests to Faarooq that they can take money to protect people all the time. Later in another segment, Bradshaw shows Faarooq his idea for his logo. The Dudley Boyz walk in and have somehow already heard about the APA and they also want The Acolytes protection from Edge and Christian and The Hardyz. Bubba suggests paying with a check
• Later, Matt Hardy accompanied by Jeff Hardy takes on Bubba Ray Dudley. Bubba not only has D-Von with him but also has Bradshaw and Faarooq who they have paid to protect them from the other tag teams they’ve wronged lately. D-Von throws a chair to Bubba but he throws it too high and Matt Hardy catches and uses it, getting himself disqualified. The Hardyz try to attack Bubba and D-Von but the APA are there to earn their money and save them. Edge and Christian run down too to try and get their hands on The Dudleyz too but Bradshaw and Faarooq do the job they were paid to do and help them out again. Matt Hardy and Christian both take 3Ds and then Bubba asks his hired help to help him self up a pair of tables at ringside. Bubba gets in the APAs faces and keeps reminding them that they’ve been paid to help. They build a pyramid out of three tables at ringside and lay Matt Hardy on the top table, and then using the ringsteps as a platform in the ring, powerbombs Jeff from some height through Matt which breaks two of the three tables in a great spot. There’s been a LOT of table breaking tonight between these three teams. Bubba goes into a trance afterwards as JR speculates that he gets off on putting people through tables. 

•  More segments of Cactus Jack taking Eddie, Chris, Perry and Dean around backstage to meet and greet the rest of the WWF roster as they make friends with Test, D’Lo Brown and The Godfather.
• X-Pac with his new girlfriend Tori challenges Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship. Y2J has Chyna with him again who enters separately first to her own music with her big pyro cannon. Tori looks very happy with herself after breaking Kane’s heart. Jericho says that he’s happy X-Pac is with Tori now - he finally got to kiss a girl! Plus he found the one woman that’s even stupider than him. There’s a lot of story here and while these two have a really good match for the IC title, JR and King talk a lot about X-Pac’s relationship with Tori and what they both did to Kane and the budding friendship between Chyna and Y2J based on mutual respect. King still thinks its romantic. Chyna trips X-Pac and Y2J is able to lock in the Walls of Jericho. Tori hits him with the belt and X-Pac follows up with an X-Factor and wins the match! It’s only now that we learn this was a non-title match - I was sure X-Pac had just won the title. That was confusing, it was definitely portrayed as a title match right up until the finish.
• Viscera faces Hardcore and Crash Holly in a handicap match. With a bit of teamwork, The Hollys win with Crash actually being the one to pin the 500lbs Viscera. The big man throws Hardcore out of the ring and gives Crash a big splash, all while The Hollys theme song continues playing which is pretty funny.
• Lillian Garcia from WWF New York hypes up a big press conference that will be there on Thursday relating to the WWF and pro-football. It’s the NFL, and i’ll talk about it on Smackdown.

Smackdown! - February 3rd, 2000

Four official WWF in ring debuts

The show opens with a recap of the debut of The Radicals as they are now collectively known on Raw. Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko have set themselves up as babyfaces right away, being friends with Cactus Jack and beating up The New Age Outlaws and Triple H on Raw. The fans are excited to see four important wrestlers from WCW jump ship to the WWF too so it was smart to make them good guys on their arrival. 

In the arena, Cactus Jack opens the show properly (wearing a WWF New York hockey jersey which feels very out of character) and is accompanied by Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn and Malenko. They’re all dressed “smart casual”. He introduces them all properly and I'd say Benoit got the biggest cheer. Cactus says they aren’t WWF employees yet but he wants to change that tonight. There's loud boos at the mention of their previous employer in “Atlanta” and he says that there people are rewarded for sitting around and collecting their paychecks and these four want to compete and test themselves against the best which is why they want to be here in the WWF. He says that they’ll stage a sit down strike until Triple H comes out and gives these four men a fair shot. The D-Generation music plays and the entire group - WWF Champion Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, X-Pac and Tori and the WWF Tag Team Champions Roaddogg and Mr. Ass - come out onto the stage. Triple H says that if he wanted to he could beat up all five of them, or he could get twenty armed security guards to throw them out of the building. They’re all trespassing. Triple H’s stitches from the Royal Rumble still haven’t healed and he has a big bandage on his forehead. Triple H says he and DX love competition. Stephanie McMahon calls them average. She also proves that she’s Vince McMahon’s daughter by saying “quite frankly” three times in less than 90 seconds. Triple H says that even though they’re average, he’ll give them a shot to earn a job. Dean Malenko will face X-Pac, Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn will face The New Age Outlaws and Chris Benoit will face Triple H himself. If they win two out of the three matches, The Radicals will all receive WWF contracts. Triple H does at least make mention of the fact that Benoit was a champion the last time he was in a ring - it’ll be the undefeated WCW Champion vs. the WWF Champion tonight, which should be a massive deal. This was a decent segment but Cactus and Triple H did all the talking - none of the four newcomers actually got to talk for themselves. Cactus says that he’ll be standing guard backstage with his 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire to make sure none of DX interfere in each other’s matches tonight. 

X-Pac faces Dean Malenko in his WWF debut. Dean has some generic theme music and pumps himself up on the way to the ring. Cactus and the other Radicals gave him a pep talk before the match too and are watching backstage. Tori is at ringside. This is a short but very good match. Dean is a very smooth, crisp performer. Tori distracts the referee which allows X-Pac to use a low blow and the X-Factor to win the match. The Radicals are 0 - 1. 

Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn make their WWF debuts against The New Age Outlaws. The tag titles are not on the line in this match. Eddie and Perry got another pep talk just like Dean earlier and must win this match to keep their hopes of getting a contract alive. Saturn and Guerrero work so fast and smooth too. All four Radicals are well known for being incredibly polished and gifted in ring performers. This is a good but short match which ends abruptly when Eddie Guerrero dislocates his elbow when he lands a frog splash. He’s basically unable to move after that and his elbow looks grotesquely misshapen. Roaddogg quickly pins him and The Radicals go 0 - 2 and lose their chance to win a contract. I think the original plan was for The Outlaws to lose this match but the real life injury changed the plans.

Backstage as DX celebrates their victories and shutting down The Radicals, Triple H says that out of the kindness of his heart he will still wrestle Chris Benoit tonight.

WWF Champion Triple H faces Chris Benoit in the main event. Triple H has given Benoit this match “out of the goodness of his heart” (but I think in reality Eddie and Perry were supposed to win their match to keep their contract hopes alive). There’s nothing on the line in this match now, but DX wants the clean sweep against The Radicals, and The Radicals want to at least win one match of the three for pride. All four Radicals have come out to the same generic production track which is actually an altered version of the pretty awesome song they’ll eventually use as their theme song proper. Michael Cole has shown good knowledge of these men all night, knowing which holds are their finishing moves and Benoit tries to lock in his Crippler Crossface submission but The Game scrambles out of the ring. King puts all four of them down and says he’s glad they aren’t sticking around. They work really stiffly together and the action is good. Benoit hits a bunch of German suplexes and looks like he might win this match to save face for The Radicals but the referee is knocked down when Benoit locks Triple H in the Crossface. The champion taps out but there's no referee to call it.

He follows up with his toprope headbutt (another of his WCW finishing moves) but Triple H kicks out and after a low blow, spikes Benoit with a Pedigree to complete the clean sweep and end The Radicals night on 0 - 3 to DX. 

The Rock vs. The Big Show 

As DX celebrates X-Pac’s victory, The Big Show comes in to provide his final proof which is slow motion footage of the final Rumble elimination which shows that The Rock’s feet did indeed touch the floor first. The Big Show should have won the Royal Rumble. Triple H makes it official - The Rock vs. The Big Show at No Way Out with the winner going to Wrestlemania for a WWF title shot.

Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock and asks his thoughts on the No Way Out match with The Big Show. The Rock tells Kevin to go get himself a nice tall glass of “shut up juice”. He calls Big Show a whiner and a complainer again. Not to be “that guy” but The Big Show is right. He should have won the Rumble. A singles match is probably the fairest way to settle that though - The Rock was declared the winner after all. He also addresses his match tonight which is a triple threat with Kurt Angle and Tazz. That’s a weird match but he did end up in the middle of their mini-feud on Raw. 

Kurt Angle enters first and talks about the local sports teams. His undefeated streak ending doesn’t seem to have affected his confidence. Tazz is next and they start fighting it out before The Rock even gets there. It’s wild and they fight around the ringside area and into the crowd. Tazz particularly looks strong, locking the Tazzmission in on both men but having it broken up by the other. The Rock dominates and hits a Rock Bottom on both men and has Kurt pinned but The Big Show pulls him out of the ring allowing Kurt to roll his arm over onto Tazz. The referee counts and Kurt officially wins. The Big Show plants The Rock with a chokeslam on the ringside mats. He still looks a bit like Gomez Addams with that facial hair. 

A proper women’s champion

Backstage, Patterson and Brisco are somehow in charge of the women’s title situation and make all the women draw straws to see who will face new WWF Women’s Champion Harvey Whippleman. Jacqueline wins and then the women all fight with the pregnant 79 year old Mae Young taking a tumble.

In the next segment, Mae Young explains to her boyfriend Mark Henry that she wants to be WWF women’s champion. Mark says she needs to focus on being pregnant with their love child. Mark goes to get some baby stuff and says he can feel the baby kicking. So I guess that means she’s months pregnant? In other segments, Mark gives her a series of gifts including flowers and hemorrhoid cream. There’s a lot of these segments all through the show where she’s also given chocolate and a breast pump.

Jacqueline challenges Harvey Whippleman - a man - for the WWF Women’s Championship. Jackie attacks and very quickly pins Harvey to become a 2 time women’s champion. She strips him to his underwear after the match and he runs away in disgrace. It’s nice to see that title held by a real wrestler and a real woman for the first time in months. It sadly won’t last, but we’ll get to that.

Other Happenings

• Chyna comes out and fires her pyro bazooka into the crowd. I do try not to be all Jerry Lawler about the women during these articles but I think Chyna looks incredible during this era. She’s out to accompany Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho for his title defence against Gangrel. Jericho gives a thank you to Chyna and shows a little appreciation to her. She smiles and the two look very chummy, whispering and laughing together in the ring as Gangrel makes his entrance. At no point has either of them or anyone else implied this is more than a friendship but King continually talks about how their relationship HAS to be sexual in nature. The joke of course is that they did not like each other at all behind the scenes. Gangrel has Luna with him. Y2J wins a short match with the Lionsault to retain the title.
• Michael Cole told us all about the press conference at WWF New York where the NFL was announced. This is Vince McMahon starting his own pro-football league. It will pop up periodically in the news and on WWF TV so I’ll mention it many times I’m sure but the NFL has become a long running joke among wrestling fans.
• Backstage Steve Blackman reluctantly agrees to wear a large cheese-shaped hat. It seems like Head Cheese is set to be the official name of his team with Al Snow, which Al is very pleased about. After the break, they are wrestling Hardcore and Crash Holly. Before Steve even gets to the ring, he throws the cheese hat down. The fans have actually been chanting “Head Cheese” during their matches. Al Snow has new ring gear here - it's a long blue singlet replacing his short black one, and it has a cartoon witch on it I think? Not great. The Head Cheese joke isn’t as funny as they think it is but the fans do start chanting it again. King, as he has during all of this team's matches, talks pretty openly about the need for a gimmick to “get over” in the WWF and how Blackman has no personality. Al Snow manages to win this match for his team with a top rope crossbody on Hardcore, but Crash wasn’t there to save him. Hardcore turns on Crash and kicks him in the face and throws him into the ring steps. The Hollys have broken up again.
• Rikishi (with Too Cool by his side) takes on The Big Show. When they get to the ring, Rikishi sends them to the back. He wants to face Show one on one. Rikishi shows some impressive strength with a samoan drop and a belly to belly suplex but Show kicks out and plants Rikishi with a chokeslam (kind of, he doesn’t get him very high) and Rikishi kicks out. Show gets frustrated and gets a steel chair and blasts Rikishi in the head. Too Cool runs in to help their buddy and are both given chokeslams. He wants to continue the steel chair assault on Rikishi but The Rock runs in and with some right hands and a steel chair is able to plant him with a Rock Bottom and leave him laying.

• There's a video package showing us how evil and vile the “damn Dudleyz” have been lately, with Bubba Ray and D-Von’s campaign to put everyone through tables. It’s mostly been Matt and Jeff Hardy, as well as Edge and Christian so far. Their worst action was of course putting little Terri Runnels through a table but it’s been Edge who suffered the worst injury from it all. The slow motion replays of the Terri table break were a bad idea as it's very clear she didn’t touch the table and it was 100% Bubba’s butt that went through.

Raw is War - February 7th, 2000

The Radicals do what they have to do

The show opens with a recap of the failed attempts by Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn and Malenko to gain jobs in the WWF. D-Generation X completed a clean sweep against The Radicals and Eddie Guerrero actually dislocated his elbow. Ouch.

X-Pac and Tori head down to the ring to open the show and JR mentions that thanks to his and Tori’s actions, Kane has been institutionalised. The four Radicals come down to the ring and Saturn is the one who speaks first. They didn’t come here to cause trouble and they just wanted jobs. They’re sad about having blown their chance and are just happy they got to compete in front of the WWF crowds. Benoit calls Cactus Jack down to the ring to thank him personally for getting them the chance. Right after that, WWF Champion Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley came out onto the stage. She gets “slut” chants. Stephanie says all this respect makes her sick, and calls all five of the men in the ring failures and losers. Triple H says his patience is running thin and he will give Jack his rematch in the match of his choosing. After some tense building, Cactus picks Hell in a cell! Triple H looks terrified but after a little chat with Steph, he agrees to it but he wants his own stipulation - he will go into hell in a cell and put the WWF title on the line but he wants Cactus Jack’s career on the line. If Triple H wins, Mick Foley retires. He is very specific. No more Dude Love, no more Mankind and no more Cactus Jack. Cactus agrees but on the grounds that if he wins the title then there’s no more defences - he is garnered to go to Wrestlemania, the one thing he’s never done. The main event for No Way Out is set. As he taunts Mick about his career possibly ending, he makes his way down to the ring. It seems that he’s about to get beat up five on one, but offers The Radicals a deal - if they show some appreciation to the man who gave them their contracts. And with that, Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn and Malenko attack Cactus Jack! Triple H and X-Pac join in and all six of them attack and beat down poor Mick Foley. Backstage, Triple H says that The New Age Outlaws are already in action but in the main event it’ll be Triple H, X-Pac and the three healthy Radicals against Cactus Jack and whatever four partners he can find.

Michael Cole interviews the four Radicals. They say that their gratitude to Mick Foley was sincere but friendship isn’t more important than business. He has no stroke so they did what they had to do and changed allegiances over to someone that could actually help them in Triple H.

Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock for his thoughts on Cactus Jack and Triple H’s No Way Out match, his own match with The Big Show and tonight's main event. He is very confident that he is going to Wrestlemania, hopes he faces Cactus Jack and steps up to be on Cactus’ team tonight so it’s now five vs. two. He has some fun making fun of Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn and Malenko’s names too.

In the main event, Triple H and X-Pac enter first to the DX theme followed by Benoit, Saturn and Malenko. They don’t have their proper theme song and aren’t officially known as The Radicals yet but its all JR and King call them. Cactus Jack enters next, followed by The Rock. It seems like it’s going to be a two vs. five handicap match but before the bell rings, Rikishi and Too Cool run down to the ring to make up the numbers and make this five on five. Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley joins commentary and screams about how unfair this is as the fans are electric for every move. The cameras can barely follow the action cutting all over the arena to follow the fighting. The fans are electric when it settles down, the commentators can hardly be heard.

The Radicals take turns showing off nice suplexes and get time to shine, including Benoit hitting a gross looking German suplex on the massive Rikishi that spikes him right on top of his head. Everyone is crazy over but The Rock especially gets an insane reaction when he tags in. Its a chaotic brawl but in the end a Pedigree on Grandmaster Sexay followed by a Benoit headbutt wins it for the DX and Radicals team. The brawl continues after the bell and The New Age Outlaws run down to make the odds uneven again. At that, the lights go out and Paul Bearer - who looks like he's lost a ton of weight - walks out onto the stage in a red jacket followed by Kane! Kane is back and apparently is done feeling sorry for himself, with his dad here to guide him.

Kane shows no fear and even with the odds being seven on one, gets into the ring and clears everyone out with uppercuts and clotheslines. Perry Saturn and Mr. Ass both get drilled by massive chokeslams and the show ends with Kane’s pyro and the good guys in the ring. 

Other Happenings

• Roaddogg and Mr. Ass defend the tag team titles against Edge and Christian. Before the match even begins, Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley head down to ringside. They’ve been terrorising The Hardyz and Edge and Christian with tables for a couple of weeks and as they go to join commentary, King teases JR about him calling them the damn Dudleys. Bubba gets in JR’s face. The fans are electric for Edge and Christian’s offence in the ring while The Dudleyz bully Jim Ross. The match is decent but it's hard to focus as Bubba and JR scream at each other about how sick The Dudleyz are. If we all agree that they’re sick, maybe they need to calm down and watch the match. With a little help from Bubba, The Outlaws retain the tag team titles. Bubba just keeps screaming and screaming in JR’s face until finally, thankfully, Edge and Christian attack him and run him off. King acts like JR was too scared to call them the damn Dudleys to their face but I swear he said it a bunch of times.

• Kurt Angle enters for his match with Mark Henry. He lectures Mark on “living in sin” with the 79 year old woman he impregnated. Mark tells Mae Young to stay backstage and out of harm's way when he heads down for the match. Mark dominates but as Kurt manages to regain control and hits a massive suplex on the outside, Mae Young comes down to check on her man. She attacks Angle from behind in the ring so he spikes her with the Olympic Slam and then celebrates like he just won the world title! Mark checks on his fallen pregnant lady in the ring as Kurt runs off. Backstage after the commercial break, Mae seems absolutely fine and sits up on the stretcher and wants to show everyone her puppies. One of the medical staff looks utterly traumatised. 

• Hardcore and Crash Holly take on The Acolytes in a hardcore tag team match. The Acolytes Protection Agency is up and running and Hardcore challenged them to this match as a means to get back on top with one big impressive victory. As the two teams brawl and fight through the backstage area, Viscera appears and breaks a 2x4 over Bradshaw’s back allowing The Hollys to win the match! 
• Chris Jericho defends the Intercontinental title against Viscera. Chyna isn’t with Y2J this week as she’s off filming an appearance on the show 3rd Rock from the Sun. That’s one of my all time favourite sitcoms and she made a few appearances over the years. Y2J weathers the storm from the 500lbs man but as he hits the Lionsault, Hardcore and Crash Holly run down and attack him! The Hollys weird connection to big Vis continues. That brings The Acolytes down to the ring and Bradshaw and Faarooq clear the ring and hit a massive double suplex on Viscera and stomp him out of the ring. 

• The Godfather and D’Lo Brown (who has now gone full Godfather) along with eight Texas hoes take on The Dudley Boyz. The Godfather goes down with a leg injury and is tended to by the hoes but that leaves D’Lo going it alone in the ring. He is defeated with the 3D and then Bubba Ray wastes no time in getting a table from under the ring. Bubba wants to put D’Lo through the table but instead D-Von grabs BB, the female medical person. She struggles and tries to slap D-Von but Bubba blocks it and prepares to drive her through the table at ringside but thankfully Edge and Christian along with Matt and Jeff Hardy arrive just in time to save the day and run them off. 

• Video package for Tazz which hypes up his violent, thug past.

• Jacqueline defends the WWF Women’s title against Luna. Before the match a furious Luna rants and raves to Gangrel about how angry she is that Jackie hit her with a steel chair last week. Jacqueline wins a short match with a roll up and then after the match, Gangrel gets in the ring and spikes her with a DDT. This has been a big night for man on woman violence. 

Smackdown! - February 10th, 2000

DX and The Radicals try to divide and conquer

Backstage the assembled mass of D-Generation X and The Radicals talk strategy. Stephanie says they need to divide and conquer and lists all their enemies as Too Cool, Rikishi, The Rock, Cactus Jack and Kane. Perry Saturn will face Grandmaster, Dean Malenko will face Scotty and Chris Benoit will face Rikishi. The New Age Outlaws will face The Rock and Cactus Jack (in a non-title match) and finally Triple H and X-Pac will fight Kane in a two on one handicap match.

Grandmaster Sexay vs. Perry Saturn. Saturn comes out to what will become the recognisable Radicals theme at last. The group has a titantron video now too. A surprisingly competitive match and after a referee bump, Grandmaster has the match won with no referee to count. Saturn recovers and locks in his brutal looking Rings of Saturn submission hold for the victory. 

In the second match of the McMahon-Helmsley regime’s making tonight, Scotty 2 Hotty faces Dean Malenko. I have a lot to say about both these guys but I’m going to save it for their match at Backlash 2000. This is a really good match and after a Worm (which isn’t his finisher yet) Scotty goes to the top rope. Eddie Guerrero, arm still in a sling, runs down and shoves Scotty off the top rope and Dean locks in the Texas Cloverleaf for a submission victory. Eddie and Dean continue the attack after the match until Grandmaster runs down and clears them off. Eddie is already showing way more personality as a bad guy. 

The New Age Outlaws face the kind of Rock n’ Sock Connection of Cactus Jack and The Rock. The Outlaw’s tag team titles are not on the line. Before the match, Cactus says that No Way Out is the biggest match of his life and he may only have 17 days left but he promises that his career will not end. Once The Rock enters, the crowd is mental for this match. The Rock has it won with a Rock Bottom but Billy Gunn knocks down the referee and hits Rocky with one of the tag title belts for a very close near fall. In the end, Cactus wins it for his team when he knocks out Roaddogg with a weapon and covers, but then breaks his own pin and finishes him off with a piledriver to win it. 

Rikishi takes on Chris Benoit. None of the four Radicals have been presented as the leader or “main guy” of their group yet but Benoit was the WCW world champion less than a month prior and never lost the gold so you’d have to assume it’s him. Benoit hits a couple of very impressive suplexes on the much larger Rikishi and locks in his Crossface submission but Rikishi gets to the ropes to break it. Rikishi rallies and sets up a Banzai drop which brings the rest of the Radicals running down to cause the disqualification. Rikishi is then rescued by Too Cool who clears the ring and the three men dance in sort-of victory. 

In the main event, X-Pac (with Tori) and the WWF Champion Triple H (with Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) take on Kane (with Paul Bearer). It feels like Triple H hasn’t come out to My Time for ages. He's always with the rest of DX these days. Before the match, X-Pac is concerned with Triple H’s lack of a plan but his plan seems to be massive overconfidence that they can take Kane two on one. Kane easily overpowers both men and spikes X-Pac with a chokeslam. Triple H hits him with a chair which causes the disqualification but Kane shrugs it off and hits Triple H right in the head with the chair too! As referees try to help and the rest of DX bail, Paul Bearer gets a hold of Tori and feeds her to Kane who grabs her by the throat. The fans explode, wanting him to hit her. He releases her…but its a fake-out and he spikes her with a Tombstone as X-Pac looks on helplessly from the ramp. The fans are so unbelievably loud for this whole exchange! They’re blowing out the mics and you can barely hear the commentators. Kane tombstoned Tori! 

Olympic Gold turns to WWF Gold

Kurt Angle opens the show and after showing no remorse for his slamming of Mae Young on Raw, talks about being European champion like he’s already won the title. He is challenging Val Venis for the European title and Val has done next to nothing since winning the title so it's just nice to see it back on TV! Kurt Angle wins a short back and forth match with the Olympic Slam to win his first championship. He celebrates like this title belt is the most important thing in the world which is also nice to see. 

Other Happenings

• A video package for the XFL, where they play the audio of Vince saying that this league isn’t for “panty-waists or sissies” over and over. He makes a lot of big promises. The XFL will come up periodically, but I’ll talk about it properly at a later date. 

• Edge and Christian face The Dudley Boyz. This feud has gotten really intense and personal so I’m surprised this hasn’t been saved for the PPV. You might think that given they put Matt and Jeff’s manager through a table we’d see The Hardyz and The Dudleyz at the PPV instead but that also doesn’t happen. But we’ll get there. This is a good match but after Bubba goes down with a suspected leg injury, Edge and Christian are able to pick up the win. After the match, the medical staff come to the ring to help Bubba with his bad leg but it turns out to be a ruse! Bubba was faking as bait so that he and D-Von could get their hands on BB again! Bubba grabs her by the hair as D-Von sets up a table in the ring! They scoop her up and, just like they did to Terri Runnels, Bubba drives BB through the table with a powerbomb from the top rope! It looked much more impactful than when they did it to Terri. Edge and Christian come down to try and fight but D-Von cracks them both with stiff, brutal chair shots. In a fun little cameo, one of the medical staff is played by a very young looking future wrestling legend Bryan Danielson. 

• Another scary video package for Tazz, this one in a junkyard. He smashes car doors with a sledgehammer. 
• Luna and Gangrel team up against WWF Women’s Champion Jacqueline and Prince Albert. Jackie and Luna are the ones feuding, but Gangrel did spike her with a DDT on Raw. This goes less than two minutes and Luna wins with a roll up. Albert gives Gangrel a big choke-bomb slam after the match.
• The Hardy Boyz take on Al Snow and Steve Blackman. They haven’t had any little backstage videos this week, but the Head Cheese name seems to have somewhat stuck. The fans chant it anyway. This is a good match and the Hardyz seem to have the match in control. Jeff Hardy climbs to the top rope which brings Bubba Ray and D-Von running to the ring. Bubba cracks Jeff with a chair shot and Al and Blackman win the match. Later in the show, we’d learn that Matt Hardy separated his shoulder during this match. Ouch.

• Y2J has challenged both Holly cousins to a handicap match, with one arm tied behind his back. Hardcore and Crash don’t seem to believe it. He wants it to be no disqualification too! It seems too good to be true. Chris Jericho comes out with his arm already behind his back. The natch begins but it doesn’t take long for The Acolytes to run down and demolish both Hollys. Y2J appears to have paid for the services of the APA. He picks up an easy victory, and Bradshaw and Faarooq pick up an easy payday. 

Raw is War - February 14th, 2000

DX and The Radicals try to divide and conquer…again

The show opens with the four Radicals - Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero - making their entrance with their full titantron and proper theme song at last. Before they can speak, D-Generation X come out - WWF Champion Triple H and his wife Stephanie, the WWF Tag Team Champions Roaddogg and Mr. Ass, and X-Pac with a neck brace wearing Tori. Kane spiked her with a tombstone on Smackdown! It’s some collection of talent to be fair. The fans are all over Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, drowning her out with boos. She shows us Tori’s altercation with Kane on Smackdown. I cannot describe how loud the crowd was watching this woman be tombstoned. She got what she deserved. Stephanie blames the fans and their reaction for causing it.

Triple H says that he thinks they’ve been too soft on their opponents and that ends tonight. He books Grandmaster Sexay (which is a hard name to say when you’re angry) against Roaddogg and Scotty 2 Hotty against Billy Gunn. He added Saturn and Malenko in a handicap match against Rikishi. He rounds it out with adding The Rock vs. Chris Benoit and saying that Kane can have X-Pac at No Way Out in a no holds barred match if he can beat Triple H and “a partner of his choosing” tonight. Rikishi and Too Cool come down the ramp, followed by Kane and then The Rock and the five men rush the ring and clear both heel factions out of the ring! They did this same thing of pairing up all the feuding faction members on Smackdown too but they are at least going for totally different pairings each time which is cool.

Grandmaster Sexay faces one half of the tag team champions, Roaddogg. This is a good match where both guys know their gimmicks and play well off each other. The crowd is really into Too Cool and it’s quite cute hearing King laugh and be a big fan of his real life son. Roaddogg wins surprisingly cleanly with the pumphandle slam. 

The Rock takes on Chris Benoit. The WWF is really leaning into his Crippler moniker and catchphrase. They must have had to wait to make sure they could legally use it after WCW. This is an objectively huge match. Benoit gets a near fall from a chair shot behind the distracted referee’s back. With the referee down, The Big Show heads down to the ring and beats up The Rock and sends him into a waiting Benoit who pins The Rock with a German suplex! The Big Show’s return is a big shock as JR and King have been talking about how he's on vacation in Hawaii all night. The Rock runs after Show and fights him but with Benoit and Guerrero there to help him, he has no chance and The Rock takes a wicked beating in addition to his pin fall loss. This was a huge win for Chris Benoit. After the break, The Big Show tells Michael Cole that that was just a taste of what The Rock will get at No Way Out and that he is going to Wrestlemania.

Roaddogg accompanies Mr. Ass to the ring for his match with Scotty 2 Hotty. Billy takes firm control but misses a big splash in the corner and Scotty turns it into an inside cradle to win the match! Scotty wins! The Outlaws are not happy.

Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko face Rikishi in a handicap match. Rikishi easily dominates and throws both men around before breaking out another debut tonight - the stinkface in the corner! It doesn’t have its name yet but he grinds his massive butt into Dean and Perry’s faces. He sets them up for a double Banzai drop but Eddie Guerrero is there to hit Rikishi in the ankle with a pipe! It causes a DQ and after more shots to the ankle with the pipe, Too Cool eventually makes the save.

For the main event Kane enters first with a smiling Paul Bearer. Triple H is next and they tease the reveal of his partner for this handicap match. X-Pac’s music plays and he and Tori join Triple H and Stephanie but the music stops and it was a fake out - his partner is actually The Big Show. Kane has to beat the WWF Champion and the 500lbs Big Show to get his hands on X-Pac at No Way Out. Kane puts up a good fight but the two on one odds overwhelm him. It’s also no disqualification so X-Pac is able to pass a chair to his buddy Triple H to use. Just as things look bleak for Kane, The Rock runs down to make the save but it doesn’t help as Big Show catches him and immediately drills him with a massive chokeslam. X-Pac gets into the ring and all three men beat down Kane in the corner until Cactus Jack arrives to make the save! He runs to the ring and even takes out Tori with a shoulder tackle! He takes the right to Triple H out of the ring and with the match breaking down, The Rock cracks Show with a steel chair! Kane follows up with a massive chokeslam and pins him to win the match! Kane gets X-Pac at No Way Out in a no holds barred match. JR gets over excited and screams about how Big Show is the winner instead. With everyone paired off with their PPV opponents, The Rock goes for a People’s Elbow on Big Show but Triple H stops it. Cactus gets back up and knocks out all three men with a huge metal wrench and sends them packing out of the ring. Cactus Jack, Kane and The Rock stand tall to end Raw. 

The future of the WWF

The new WWF European Champion Kurt Angle comes to the ring and shares some facts and stats about how much life has improved in Europe since he won the title. He wants to spread that to the United States and so he challenges Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship at No Way Out! Y2J comes out and obviously takes issue with Angle’s claims that the US has gotten worse with Jericho as champion and it turns into a fight. Y2J’s friend Chyna returns after taking last week off to film a couple of TV appearances and she drops Kurt with a DDT on the floor! Jericho and Chyna celebrate together in the ring.

Other Happenings

• The Raw intro is now desperately due an update. Ken Shamrock is still in it, but there’s no Kurt Angle, Tazz or any of The Radicals who have all become major on screen characters. There’s also hardly any Triple H or Big Show! 
• Edge meets Jeff Hardy and D-Von Dudley in a triple threat match with the winner getting a tag team title shot at No Way Out for his team. These three teams have interacted so much over the past two months and they will continue to do so. D-Von Dudley picks up a surprise victory with a roll up and he and Bubba now get a tag team title match! 
• Mark Henry and Mae Young check into the honeymoon suite of a local hotel to celebrate valentine's day. That’s romantic. There was multiple segments about their hotel shenanigans all night. 

• The new WWF Light heavyweight Champion Esse Rios defends his title against Crash Holly. Esse won the title on Heat this past week, ending Gillberg’s over one year long title reign. More important than all of that is who is with Esse Rios - the gorgeous redhead Lita. This is a huge debut and she went on to become…well, Lita. She’s one of the biggest women’s stars of all time so I feel I’m doing her a disservice hyping her up! I’ll finally get a chance to talk a lot more about the light heavyweight title and division soon. Lita gets a pretty huge reaction by giving Crash a diving head scissors takedown from the ring steps on the floor! Esse wins clean with a nice moonsault and after the three count, Lita gives him one too! Hardcore Holly was on commentary during this match and spent the whole time talking trash about his own cousin. After the commercial break, The Hollys are still in the ring. Hardcore gives Crash a dressing down for embarrassing their family. Hardcore wants to show Crash how it’s done so he has a match with Tazz immediately afterwards. Tazz quickly locks in the Tazzmission. Crash attacks him from behind which causes a disqualification and Tazz wipes him out with a brutal suplex. Hardcore drags his cousin to the back and the family feud continues.

• The Godfather and D’Lo Brown (with four lovely hoes tonight) take on Al Snow and Steve Blackman. Snow and Blackman are actually still undefeated as a team. Godfather offers them the ladies before the match but Blackman wants to fight. The fans chant “head cheese” and Al Snow’s main event heel run lasted about a month. He’s just a goofy well meaning babyface again now. Snow gets distracted by the hoes and D’Lo pins Blackman with a roll up. That ends their undefeated streak.

Smackdown! - February 17th, 2000

The DX Express

At the top of the show, after a recap of all the events on Raw, a large coach pulls into the parking lot. This is the debut of the “DX Express” and while the DX theme song plays, DX all file out of the bus one by one. The music keeps playing and they all head into the arena too.

It’s an interesting historical note that Tori and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley are both considered full fledged members of DX here but they haven’t been referred to as such at any point in the two decades since this period. Roaddogg and Billy Gunn aim their verbal barrage at The Dudleys, who they’ll defend against at No Way Out. X-Pac is furious that he has to face Kane in a No Holds Barred match and blames Triple H for losing that handicap match on Raw to make the match. Triple H reminds Cactus about how they almost killed each other at the Royal Rumble and went through hell but at No Way Out Hell will be contained in a cell. The fans disappointingly start loudly chanting “Rocky” even though he isn’t feuding with anyone in the ring. It seems that the fans just aren’t as interested in Cactus Jack’s title chase as they are in The Rock’s. He promises to end Mick Foley’s career at No Way Out. He then apologises to X-Pac and offers to make it right by facing Kane one on one tonight. X-Pac still isn’t happy, and tells Triple H to put the title on the line! I guess so that if Kane wins then he’d get a title shot himself at No Way Out? Triple H agrees and that does impress X-Pac so he says that he’ll return the favour and fight Cactus Jack tonight. Now it’s Triple H’s turn to say he’s not impressed! He shows the footage of Cactus bumping into Tori on Raw, and then says he should fight him in a hardcore rules, falls count anywhere match. X-Pac agrees to that. Triple H then says it's The New Age Outlaw’s turn to impress people by defending the tag team titles against the team of The Rock…and The Big Show! That draws boos from the crowd and agreement from The Outlaws. Triple H ends by promising Kane that after tonight he’ll feel like he was hit by a bus.

Triple H defends the WWF Championship against Kane. Kane is motivated and throws The Game around and slams him on the outside. In the ring Triple H comes back with a DDT but Kane quickly sits up and then no-sells his punches. Kane has reverted back to the monster Kane, impervious to pain. He should have gotten back with Paul Bearer months ago basically. Kane hits the flying clothesline and sets up for the chokeslam but the rest of DX run in and attack Kane and beat him down. X-Pac gives him a low blow and an X-Factor. The fans AGAIN chant “Rocky” even though he has nothing to do with this. X-Pac attacks Paul Bearer and DX drag him backstage and out into the parking lot. Kane follows and with the odds being four on one, Bearer and Kane are stuffed into the luggage compartment of the DX Express bus, which then drives off with them still inside.

Cactus Jack faces X-Pac (with Tori) in a falls count anywhere hardcore match. So this is a warm up for both of them. Tori doesn’t come to the ring and stays backstage. It’s a wild brawl around the ring which leads backstage and just like earlier with Kane, the rest of DX is laying in wait. They beat down Cactus and stuff him into the DX express just like they did to Kane and Paul Bearer earlier and the bus once again drives off. 

Kevin Kelly interviews The Rock. As always he's very funny making fun of The Big Show and tells him to not even bother showing up tonight to be his partner because he has the people as his partner. He is supremely confident that he is going to Wrestlemania. 

In the main event, The New Age Outlaws defend the tag team titles against the team of No Way Out opponents of The Rock and The Big Show. Big Show initially takes The Rock’s request seriously and doesn’t come to the ring leaving this as a handicap match. It really does seem that they’re going to have the old “feuding main eventers win the tag titles” trope here especially with The Rock going it alone. The Rock does well and has the titles won single handedly with a Rock Bottom but when Big Show’s music plays he releases his own cover and goes to fight him instead. Big Show and The Outlaws beat up The Rock three on one and then Show carries Rocky up the ramp over his shoulder and out to the parking lot. They want to stuff him into the DX Express just like Kane and Cactus Jack. The Rock fights back as best he can but with Triple H and X-Pac also waiting outside, it’s five on one and The Rock is stuffed into the DX Express too. With The Rock inside, Triple H and Big Show high five and DX load into the bus and drive off leaving Show alone in the parking lot. The camera pulls back to reveal that The Rock escaped out of the otherside of the bus and he breaks a 2x4 over the back of Big Show’s head to leave him out cold at the end of Smackdown! 

Kurt Angle aims for double gold

WWF European Champion Kurt Angle comes to the ring and reassures us all that after Chyna DDT’d him on Raw, he is fine. He talks about all the parents who contacted him because their kids were having nightmares about Chyna hurting him, and them as well. He also talks about all his adoring fans all over Europe. We needed more of the European Angle. He faces Chyna tonight ahead of his Intercontinental title match with Y2J at No Way Out. Chyna actually dominates and a frustrated Kurt hits Chyna with the European title belt to cause the disqualification. He sets up to hit her again but she’s rescued by Chris Jericho but it's not enough and Jericho gets an Olympic slam! Chyna low blows Kurt to send him out of the ring as Y2J and Chyna check on each other. 

The APA is in business

Backstage, Hardcore and Crash Holly make some nasty comments about Mark Henry’s romance with the pregnant 79 year old Mae Young. So Mark shoves them and it turns into a fight where The Hollys beat down Mark. 

Backstage, Mark Henry pays Bradshaw and Faarooq - now set up with their familiar Acolyte Protection Agency office - to look after Mae Young for him. She sits down to play poker with them. Mark has a score to settle with both Hardcore and Crash Holly. We’d cut back and forth and see Mae winning money off them a couple of times and smoking a cigar.

In the final Mae Young and the APA segment she smoked all their cigars, drank all their beer and won all their money. She offers them their money back if they follow her and do as she says. After the break, Mark Henry faces Hardcore and Crash Holly in a no disqualification handicap match. The APA rush to the ring on Mae’s order and beat the daylights out of The Hollys allowing Mark Henry to pin Crash and win the match. Mae celebrates with her boyfriend afterwards.

Other Happenings

• Tazz takes on Gangrel. It’s an easy win for the human suplex machine.

• Lillian Garcia interviews Cactus Jack. It’s a great promo where he doesn’t guarantee victory at No Way Out but he does make some promises about the brutality of the match, and that he will again fly off the top of the cage but this time it’ll be Triple H’s body he lands on rather than a table. Some pretty huge promises! 
• Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty take on Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn. I like that The Radicals have always got matching colours on their ring gear. The Radicals will face Too Cool and Rikishi at No Way Out, and later tonight Eddie Guerrero (who still has a dislocated elbow) has challenged Rikishi, who’s ankle was badly hurt by a steel pipe attack on Raw. Eddie Guerrero slips to ringside and using the same steel pipe he had hidden in his sling, helps Dean and Perry pick up the win. Rikishi limps to ringside to stop the three on two beat down but it backfires and Guerrero, Saturn and Malenko use a steel chair and the ring steps to seemingly break Rikishi’s ankle! After the commercial break he’s loaded into a stretcher. Afterwards, Eddie Guerrero comes down to the ring for his “match” with Rikishi and insists on being declared the victor by forfeit. The referee raises his arm as he celebrates the victory! 

Edge and Christian take on the team of Big Bossman and Prince Albert. There has been zero explanation given for their friendship having healed. When we last saw them on TV they hated each other and were having regular pull apart brawls. Albert does at least stare at Bossman like he doesn’t trust him. The fan chant “shave your back” at him which is fair - he is very hairy. Edge and Christian win a short but good match using their speed and then afterwards Albert and Bossman pulverise them like sore losers with big slams and Bossman’s nightstick. They really hammer them.

Raw is War - February 21st, 2000

Six Man Main Event

The DX Express bus arrives at the arena and it appears to be an entirely different bus to the one on Smackdown. I thought it was silver but this one is bright red. DX filed out and into the arena looking very pleased with themselves. They then enter the arena to a new version of their theme song. It sounds a bit like the Run DMC version from the Aggression album without Run DMC’s bits. Stephanie gloats about packing Kane, Paul Bearer and Cactus Jack into the DX Express on Smackdown. That brings out The Rock who makes fun of the way Triple H speaks which is always funny. Even Triple H has a hard time keeping a straight face while he talks which I did enjoy. He makes fun of The Rock’s shirt for looking like a pyjama top (which it does). Triple H reverts to the classic thing everyone does when they don’t have a comeback and he pretends The Rock isn’t funny despite the 40k people laughing at his jokes.

Triple H says tonight will be a DX night because The Rock has no backup. That brings out Cactus Jack. He once again promises to jump off the Hell in a Cell onto Triple H, and tells the story of how a trucker named Big Earl picked him up after the DX express abandoned him by the road. They also picked up two more passengers, which brings out Kane and Paul Bearer too! He suggests a six man tag team match and then the three of them charge the ring and fight with all four members of DX until The Big Show runs to the ring to save the day. He hits Kane and then The Rock with chair shots to the head and Triple H lays out Jack with a Pedigree. JR and King act like they don’t know about the six men which makes me think Mick Foley just misspoke and revealed something he wasn’t supposed to yet. It is official though - Big Show, Triple H and X-Pac vs. The Rock, Kane and Cactus Jack tonight.

Michael Cole interviews Cactus Jack who makes him lay down and shows him how terrifying it is to have Cactus looking down at him. He says he's more obsessed with jumping off the Cell onto Triple H than he is with winning the title. He is also obsessed with main eventing Wrestlemania and says he’ll do anything it takes to win and go to Wrestlemania even if he has to show up with a walker. 

In the main event, WWF Champion Triple H teams with X-Pac and The Big Show against their respective No Way Out opponents. The fans in the Georgia Dome are electric and LOUD and this match is as chaotic as it gets with everyone trading big moves and near falls with their partners always there to break up the pin attempts. All night long they keep showing the DX Express out in the parking lot and that the luggage compartment is open, reminding us that Triple H promised someone would take a ride tonight. The Rock is by far the most popular man in the building and the finish comes as everyone pairs off with their PPV opponents leaving Triple H and Cactus Jack in the ring. Triple H uses a fire extinguisher as a weapon behind the referee's back, knocking out Jack long enough for a three count. Triple H just keeps beating Cactus Jack. Triple H takes off running to help The Big Show subdue The Rock and help X-Pac with Kane. Cactus follows and the six men fight at the top of the ramp and use trash cans as weapons. Stephanie hits Cactus with a trash can lid which he no-sells but it does distract him enough for Triple H and the rest of DX to escape to the DX Express. Cactus follows outside and he runs a huge steel beam on wheels through the windshield of the bus, smashing it. The bus drives off and leaves Jack throwing weapons and steel after them.

Rikishi battles The Radicals

Backstage Rikishi’s ankle gets heavily taped up while Too Cool shows their concern. Rikishi is very focused on getting revenge on Eddie Guerrero and has challenged him to a no disqualification match tonight. Too Cool heads out to the ring for their match with Al Snow and Steve Blackman. Al Snow tries to convince Blackman that they should dance too and gives Steve sunglasses and suggests new theme music that they can dance to. The Radicals are shown to be watching this match from backstage. Eddie still has his arm in a sling with a dislocated elbow. Too Cool are so popular with the live crowds. Snow finally manages to convince Blackman to dance and he does, but the distraction leads to a roll up from Scotty and Too Cool wins! 

Rikishi limps to the ring dressed to compete but on crutches for his ankle which is heavily taped and seemingly badly injured by The Radicals. Eddie Guerrero comes out with his arm taped and taunts Rikishi about his injury and his weight. When Eddie turns his back, Rikishi drops the facade and hits him with the crutch! His ankle isn’t that bad. He lays Eddie down with his injured arm across his chest and splats him with a Banzai drop! Rikishi wins and his trap works. That brings the rest of The Radicals down, followed by Too Cool also carrying crutches and they clear all four Radicals out of the ring and they dance the night away in victory. 

Tag Team Division

Matt and Jeff Hardy team with Edge and Christian to face Roaddogg, Mr. Ass, Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley. Both teams are comprised of opponents for the PPV as The Dudleyz challenge The New Age Outlaws for the tag team titles but also Edge and Christian face The Hardyz for the number one contendership for the tag team titles.Those four men have a friendship build out of respect after their tag team ladder match in October but they’re still super competitive and want the tag team titles. The whole tag division is full of hungry, young, very popular teams. Even The Acolytes have found new life as the APA. Every team that is apart from the champions themselves. The Outlaws wore out their welcome a few months ago now and not just because they’re heels.

This is a wild match where every team gets a chance to show off and use their double team moves. It breaks down when the teams turn on each other and Bubba even hits Mr. Ass with a steel chair. The worst referee in wrestling history Earl Hebner blows the finish as it was obvious that Jeff was supposed to hit the Swanton bomb on Billy, which he did, and then Christian was supposed to pull him out of the ring so Edge could steal the pin but Earl just counted anyway even with Jeff mostly out of position by the time he got to two. Just awful. But the match was good. I hate Earl Hebner.

Other Happenings

• The show this week is in the massive Georgia Dome in Atlanta which is cool because it is a monstrous 40k person crowd but also a massive statement as it was very much WCW’s home arena at the time. The WWF had been dominating WCW in the ratings for well over a year now - in fact, WCW was violently imploding. Maybe i’ll write some articles about that too…
• Chyna teams with Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho to face European Champion Kurt Angle and The British Bulldog. This is the first Bulldog appearance in weeks! Angle says that nothing good has happened in Atlanta since he won the Olympic gold medal here. He explains his ungentlemanly actions on Smackdown - he hit Chyna with the title belt because he heard that Chyna was going to steal and sell his title belt to pay for more plastic surgery! Jesus. A short match and a shot with the Intercontinental title belt leads to an Olympic Slam on Y2J and a victory for Kurt Angle! 

• The Godfather and D’Lo Brown have 10+ hoes with them this week. I honestly lost count. There’s so many women in skimpy clothes. The crowds LOVE Godfather and he consistently gets one of the loudest reactions of the night. He is deep into his “I love weed” era here. Their opponents are Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn. The Radicals win a short back and forth match with a very nice top rope elbow drop by Saturn onto D’Lo. 
• Mark Henry teams with the APA after paying for their services on Smackdown. Their opponents are Hardcore and Crash Holly and their sometimes- friend, sometimes-enemy the 500lbs Viscera. The match is short and the APA win it for the team with a double powerbomb and one armed cover on Crash. They leave and afterwards Mae Young gets in the ring and kicks at Crash. Hardcore Holly blasts her with a clothesline from behind which gets a strong reaction (and laughs from King) but then Viscera goes one further by splashing her! There is grave concern for the fate of her baby as she’s loaded onto a stretcher while Mark cries for his fallen woman. 

• Chris Benoit faces the WWF Hardcore Champion Test. I actually totally forgot about Test and the Hardcore title which is pretty sad but he took some time off to finally properly heal his broken nose. Eddie slips down to ringside and hits Test with his steel pipe again, which allows Benoit to pick up the win with a diving headbutt.
• Tazz takes on The Big Bossman, who has seemingly mended fences with his old protege Prince Albert. They’re back to being a team. Tazz quickly locks in the Tazzmission and Bossman uses his nightstick to break the hold and get disqualified. Albert and Bossman beat down Tazz after the match.

Smackdown! - February 24th, 2000

Cactus Jack says goodbye

In the ring, Jim Ross introduces Cactus Jack for what could be his last ever promo or interview as an active WWF performer. His career ends if he can’t beat Triple H at No Way Out. He runs through all of his career accompaniments and tells an honest story about how he went to Vince McMahon months ago because he thought he was done - he was a little embarrassed by his in ring performances, and the injuries were finally catching up to him. This is a great Foley promo that I can’t do justice. He passionately speaks about his dreams and desires and how he doesn’t want to go down unless he goes down swinging. He passionately wants to main event Wrestlemania. In truth, Mick Foley wasn’t actually that bothered - he talked about this in his second book. It makes for a great storyline and a great feather in the cap of the evil Triple H if he gets to not only end Foley’s career but stop him from living his dream. He talks all about the last hell in a cell and all the injuries he suffered but he always got back up. In a moment he’d live to regret he bad mouths all the wrestlers who “prostitute themselves” and lose retirement matches but come back six weeks later. He says he only has his word and if he loses then he’ll be gone forever. He gets emotional and thanks the fans for supporting him and cheering him on. It’s a lovely moment which is a little ruined by Jerry Lawler’s constant need to stay in character and make snide comments between lines. Just shut up King! He ends by firing up and promising once again that he is going to jump off the cell onto Triple H win, lose or draw.

Before he can leave the arena, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley comes out onto the stage. She has him arrested for the damage he did to the DX Express on Raw. This is classic Mick Foley, giving his last moment to getting Stephanie McMahon over as a villain. Losing every match to Triple H on the way out the door. Beyond giving. After the break, we see that Foley has been placed into a holding cell in the arena and then later they give the keys to Triple H who taunts Cactus with a pizza while he tries to grab at The Game. It seems like they had the security staff/police officers in their pocket. Later in the show, Triple H kicks down the walls of the security office and reveals that none of it was real. Cactus Jack is instead locked inside a tiny cage that’s chained to the back of the DX Express! 

Triple H and Stephanie prepare to drive the DX Express all the way to Hartford, the site of the PPV, and drag Cactus Jack all the way behind the bus. He actually does it too and drives off and amid sparks and screeching from the metal cage on the concrete, Triple H really does drag Mick Foley in a cage behind the bus and out of the parking lot! 

DX and The Radicals try to soften up their PPV Opponents

The DX Express is out in the parking lot - it's back to being a silver one. We actually see inside this week and all of DX is assembled with The Radicals. Triple H makes some matches - Billy Gunn vs. Bubba Ray Dudley and Chris Benoit against Kane, plus Triple H, X-Pac and Roaddogg against Too Cool and Rikishi. He says that Cactus Jack is off limits because he wants to handle that himself. 

Kane, along with Paul Bearer takes on Chris Benoit. A match set up by Triple H to soften up Kane for X-Pac at No Way Out but unlike most heels, Benoit showed no fear when it was booked. It’s weird to me that as good of a promo man as Bearer is, he hasn’t spoken on TV since he returned alongside Kane. I feel like we were due a big emotional speech from him about how X-Pac and Tori broke his boy's heart and now he’s going to help his son end them both. He’d have been really good with the emotional stuff. Benoit has the other three Radicals with him for this match and the four of them swarm Kane before the match and give Benoit an early advantage. The referee does eject the other three and the match starts properly as one on one. Kane and Benoit fight on the outside to a double count out and Tori comes down and slaps Paul Bearer so he pulls her hair. She lures Kane up the ramp where a waiting X-Pac blasts Kane with a big pyro gun, wiping him out with a wall of flame which Kane sells strongly, rolling and writhing around on the ramp. Later in a medical update, Johnathan Coachman says that Kane suffered 2nd degree burns to his neck and some vision issues.

Rikishi and Too Cool face the oddly assembled DX team of X-Pac, WWF Champion Triple H and one half of the tag team champions Roaddogg. They come out to their new, rubbish version of the DX theme song. DX isolates and focuses their attacks on Rikishi’s injured ankle. He finally gets a hot tag and Too Cool get to show off - the fans explode for Scotty doing the Worm on X-Pac and have started chanting along and syncing their crowd noise up with his movements. Classic Worm, if you will. Rikishi aims for a banzai drop on X-Pac but a chairshot from Triple H behind the referee’s back stops that. He hammers his ankle with the chair on the outside too for good measure. Despite the now three on two odds, Too Cool hold their own but an X-Factor on Grandmaster Sexay wins it for the DX team. 

One half of the tag team champions, Mr. Ass Billy Gunn faces one of his challengers at No Way Out, Bubba Ray Dudley. The rare heel vs. heel match, but it's a sort of box filler of a feud as there’s a lot of moving pieces to get us to where we need to be in the tag team division. Billy really is in phenomenal shape. D-Von tries to get involved and Billy fights them both off. The fans don’t really know who to react to in this match and I’m sure it’ll be the same at No Way Out. The Dudleyz get themselves disqualified and try to put Mr. Ass through a table but Roaddogg runs in and makes the save, low blowing Bubba which lets Mr. Ass perform an amazing vertical leap and Famerasser Bubba through the table! It's not mentioned but it seems like as he landed, Billy Gunn might have injured his arm. I’ll talk a bit more about that at No Way Out. 

Big Show gets the upper hand before No Way Out

The Big Show heads down to the ring to cut one of the most reasonable heel promos in history. The fans turned on him because The Rock insulted him and he refused to let him get away with it. He lost the WWF title but never got a rematch. He won the Royal Rumble match and once again shows the footage of The Rock’s feet touching the floor first! He is right about everything he’s saying but…he’s a whiner, and he’s made this deal with Triple H, and The Rock is the most popular man in the entire company so he gets booed. He even shows the Royal Rumble footage in slow motion and zooms in to confirm that he should have won the Rumble. He should go to Wrestlemania, and calls The Rock a loser.

As he continues he’s interrupted by the European Champion Kurt Angle! This is a surprise. He’s here to shake Big Show’s hand and agree with him! Kurt gets a lot more boos than Big Show did to be honest. He starts to tell a story about a time he was wronged but he’s cut off by Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho and Chyna (who looks incredible here, just because I haven’t mentioned it for a few shows). Jericho mocks Kurt, who he calls Kirk Angel and The Big Show for whining and Kurt challenges him to a tag team match, if he can find a partner. That obviously brings out The Rock who gets a deafening reaction from the crowd. The Rock does concede that Big Show is right that his feet touched first, and that he did call him a jabroni. He is absolutely right. But the people still boo him anyway because he absolutely sucks. He shows footage of his own (it's him mocking The Big Show, it's very funny). And promises to lay the smackdown on him and go to Wrestlemania.

In the main event, European Champion Kurt Angle teams up with The Big Show against their No Way Out opponents - Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho and The Rock. Y2J has Chyna and her amazing looking abs with him too. There’s no reference to Y2J and Rock’s altercations when Jericho first debuted and they work fine as a team. Big Show throws Jericho around using a massive gorilla press which is very impressive. King continues to push the narrative that Jericho and Chyna’s relationship is romantic or sexual in nature and he continues to be the only person doing so. Neither of them have so much as hinted at being more than friends who respect each other after their bitter feud.

The action is chaotic and after Show drills Jericho with an awesome looking chokeslam, Chyna hits him in the back with a steel chair. He teases a chokeslam on her too but The Rock saves the day and hits a Rock Bottom. Jericho actually manages to put the Walls of Jericho on the huge Big Show. The Rock and Big Show fight to the back as Jericho puts Angle in the Walls of Jericho in the ring. In the loading dock, The Big Show throws The Rock through a glass window! That looked incredible. 

Other Happenings

• I always comment on the Raw intro but the Smackdown one needs an update even more badly. I’m sure they’ll both get it soon! 
• Opening the show is the Hardcore Champion Test against Crash Holly. Before the match, Hardcore warns Crash and he seems to have finally had enough of his older cousin’s bullying and shoves him down! Test’s run as Hardcore Champion has been nothing but this is the start of most people’s favourite era of the Hardcore championship. This match is physical and Crash jumps off the ring steps into a brutal chairshot. Test is much bigger than the “allegedly over 400lbs” Crash but he’s much quicker than Test and uses that to his advantage. Hardcore Holly heads down to the ring and tries to blast his own cousin with a steel chair but Crash ducks and Test takes the brunt allowing Crash Holly to be the new Hardcore champion! Hardcore changes tacts and congratulates his cousin, while taking the credit. This is the start of a really fun era for the Hardcore Championship

• I haven’t mentioned it but at some point in the last month, Edge added a fuzzy black cowboy hat to his entrance attire. It looks stupid. They have thankfully stopped talking about his engagement to Val Venis’ sister. Edge and Christian team up with their No Way Out opponents for another eight man tag, this one against Al Snow and Steve Blackman (head cheese, which Blackman still isn’t on board with) and Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn who they seem to be positioning as the tag team of The Radicals. This is short and chaotic and Perry Saturn pins Jeff Hardy to win this match for his team. After they leave, Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz get into an argument and shoving match, blaming each other for the loss. Matt Hardy slaps Edge hard across the face and that turns into a brawl with all four men fighting! Their drive to become tag team champions has killed their friendship it seems.

• The Godfather and D’Lo Brown (with four hoes) take on The Big Bossman and Prince Albert. They demolished Tazz on Raw and seem proud of themselves for it. Michael Cole tries to explain their relationship and suddenly teaming back up by saying they were teacher and pupil but now after their feud they’re back together more as equals. Ok, I’ll buy that. Tazz runs down to the ring and runs Bossman’s head into the ring steps and sticks his thumb in Albert’s eye which leaves him easy pickings for a Godfather and D’Lo victory.