Unforgiven 2000 - First Union Centre, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, September 24th, 2000

The opening video package for Unforgiven last year was one of my favourites of the year, mostly based on the music alone. Excitingly this year uses the same music and the package is even better. Goosebumps guys. 

Kevin Kelly is shown out waiting in the parking lot for the arrival of Stone Cold Steve Austin who officially returns tonight on the hunt for the man (or woman, but probably a man right?) that ran him over last November. Shane McMahon told us on Smackdown that he knows who it was, and earlier tonight on Sunday Night Heat claimed to have video footage to back it up! 

Right to Censor (Steven Richards, Bull Buchanan, The Goodfather and Val Venis) vs. The APA (Bradshaw and Faarooq) and The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley)

Off to a hot start with The Dudley Boyz, followed by their new drinking buddies The Acolyte Protection Agency. This union was pretty well formed really as they bonded and made friends and THEN all crossed paths with the Right to Censor setting up this eight man tag team match. Steven Richards cuts off Howard Finkle’s ring announcement to make his own introduction - the show is in his hometown. It unsurprisingly doesn’t get a cheer. The RtC aren’t quite undefeated as a unit but have won a lot more than they’ve lost including beating both these teams. 

The match moves at a rapid pace with a lot of tags in and out - Bubba gets the first near fall when The Goodfather misses his corner charge that used to be called the Hoe Train and Bubba follows up with a back suplex. The good guys have control in the early going until big Bull Buchanan hits his impressive springboard clothesline on Bradshaw allowing the RtC to isolate the big Texan for a bit. That doesn’t last either as he overpowers Val Venis and the good guys remain in control. 

Thanks to a cheap shot from Richards on the apron, Val takes over on D-Von Dudley and that allows the Parents Television Council Right to Censor to work him over for a bit, tagging in and out. 

The finish comes from nowhere as Richards hits a sneaky superkick on D-Von allowing Val Venis to get the cover and the victory for the RtC. But that isn’t as important as the afters.

The APA fought off the RtC at ringside while Bubba and D-Von hit their Wazzup low blow headbutt on Richards and set up a table. The eight men continue to fight and despite Bull, Goodfather and Val’s best efforts Richards takes a very stiff slap to the face by Bradshaw, a double team spinebuster from the APA and then finally is powerbombed from the top rope by Bubba through the table which gets an enormous pop from his hometown crowd. “Censor that!” was a good line from JR. 

I did mention the stiff slap but Bradshaw also laid in a couple of kicks on the mat to Steven’s back which sounded unnecessarily stiff. Loud thud. Bradshaw was always a bullying prick. 

Backstage in the McMahon-Helmsley locker room, Stephanie and Triple H discuss tonight’s match with Kurt Angle. Steph is concerned about The Game’s ribs and angrily assures her husband that she has his back tonight and that she regrets ever being friends with Kurt Angle after what he did on Smackdown. Despite her agreeing Triple H is right, he continues hammering home (pun intended) the point with his “I told you so”s. Stephanie looks very pretty here as she has her hair straightened rather than her usual “in the style at the time” 2000 soft curls. This PPV took place on her 24th birthday as it happens. 

Strap match

Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. Tazz

This is a “classic” strap match with a twist as you can win by touching all four corner turnbuckles in succession, but you can also win via pinfall or submission. 

Tazz gets a bit of a pop when he comes out, being in Philly. This was ECW’s spiritual and physical home for pretty much the company’s entire existence. 

Tazz takes control early and beats down the aging commentator. He fights him to the outside and gets distracted talking trash to Jim Ross which allows King to get a little comeback which doesn’t last. 

Tazz whips and chokes King with the strap in the ring until he comes back with more punches. He easily pulls Tazz into a piledriver - his old finisher - which Tazz no-sells and stands right back up. King looks shocked, and gives him a second. Tazz once again stands right back up. King gives him a third which Tazz once again no-sells standing up….and then collapsing, face first. That was a good spot. 

King drags Tazz around the ring touching the turnbuckles and gets three but Tazz blocks the fourth. King wraps the strap around Tazz’s throat and drags him but while Tazz flails and kicks, he knocks down the referee.

With the ref down, Tazz’s fellow ECW alumni Raven makes his WWF debut/return, sliding into the ring and spiking King with a DDT!

Raven takes his leave just as the referee wakes up and Tazz locks Lawler in the Tazzmission submission. King is out cold and the referee stops the match and awards it to Tazz. Tazz wins via submission, thanks to Raven.

Tazz refuses to break the hold and so the ring fills with referees and officials to end the attack. King has been choked out, and JR talks about the shocking arrival of Raven. He is not on the WWF roster, so says Ross. He was legit the head of talent relations in real life at the time so he’d ironically be the man who signed Raven to his contract.

Backstage the Hardcore champion Steve Blackman warms up with his martial arts weapons, and out in the parking lot Kevin Kelly is still waiting for the arrival of Stone Cold. Perfect timing as the man himself drives up! Stone Cold! Stone Cold! (I’m excited, can you tell?)

Austin tells Kevin that he doesn’t want to answer questions, he’ll be asking the questions and throws him into the metal shutter. Michael Cole takes a seat at ringside to fill in for the injured King for the rest of the show. He repeats what Austin said word for word which instantly annoyed me. 

Hardcore Battle Royal for the WWF Hardcore Championship

Steve Blackman © vs. WWF European Champion Al Snow vs. Crash Holly vs. Test (w/Trish Stratus) vs. Perry Saturn vs. Funaki

This match has the same rules as the 13 man battle royal at Wrestlemania where it has a ten minute time limit, and there can be as many title changes within the 10 minutes as there may be. 

Al Snow enters first and continues his love affair with Europe, this time from Italy. I love Al Snow. He has a framed picture of Italian-American actor Tony Danza and a dead fish (which is a Godfather reference).

This match is only open to former Hardcore champions - Funaki won the title for 30 seconds at Wrestlemania.

Commissioner Foley has said that the 24/7 rule will be paused for 24 hours at the conclusion of this match to give the winner a break. That’s smart.

This is impossible to call. They brawl on the outside and Test throws Funaki from the ring in a military press position onto the group which was a cool spot. 

Snow tries to use Head but Terri grabs it and stops him. Saturn confiscates it and swings for Snow but hits Trish Stratus off the apron. Test grabs Head and swings for Saturn and hits Terri off the apron. That takes the women out of it. 

The first proper near fall of the match comes from a top rope cross body by Funaki onto Blackman.

Michael Cole and Jim Ross spend most of the match talking about the dominance of Blackman and how he is the greatest Hardcore champion of all time. 

Saturn hits an impressive moonsault from the top rope to the outside which looked great.

Test boots a trash can into Blackman’s face, and then Crash Holly hits Test with a trash can lid and steals the pin, winning the Hardcore title from Blackman! Crash grabs the title belt and runs trying to keep his distance but runs right into a stop sign shot from Saturn at the top of the ramp and Perry Saturn wins the Hardcore title. The first continues at the top of the ramp near the stage as Blackman dominates the field but doesn’t go for any covers. 

They pair up and fight through the crowd and Blackman smartly stays with the “reigning” champion.

Back at ringside, Saturn grabs a kendo stick and slides into the ring and tries to keep everyone at a distance running down the clock. Blackman grabs a couple of his own sticks and while the other men trade weapons shots on the floor (including Snow hitting Test with a pizza box because Italy) Blackman disarms Perry Saturn and cracks him with a pair of kendo stick shots to the head - the second one was especially brutal. He fights off Snow, Crash, Funaki and Test too in between, and Steve Blackman pins Perry Saturn with only 62 seconds left on the clock to regain his Hardcore Championship. He tries to just leave with the title belt and his five challengers all chase him. There’s a mad scramble on the entrance ramp as they all fight and hammer him with shots and weapons, fighting over who gets to cover him. It’s not enough and the time limit expires with Steve Blackman leaving as the Hardcore Champion. 

Backstage, Stone Cold interrogates his first suspect - he stops Kurt Angle who nervously introduces himself. He’s sure Austin must have heard of him. Angle presents him with a ceremonial gold medal - it’s a lot smaller than Kurt’s. He puts it on the Rattlesnake, all while patronising him. Austin snaps and beats up Angle with right hands and stomps him down in the corridor, throwing the “gold medal” at him as he leaves. Great stuff.

Chris Jericho vs. X-Pac

D-Generation X is no more so you might wonder why X-Pac is still coming out to his DX music, wearing ring gear covered in the DX logo. Your guess is as good as mine but I suspect drugs. JR even comments on the same thing during this match. 

This match actually feels like a big step down for Y2J. From an in ring talent standpoint this one could steal this show but given that he’s spent his year working with the WWF champion and feuding with Triple H, a PPV match with low-down-the-card X-Pac which was thrown together at the last minute is a shame. 

The action starts fast when an angry Jericho forgoes his usual entrance to rush the ring. X-Pac takes control with an undetected low blow, throwing Jericho to the outside and following out with a somersault plancha before throwing Y2J into the announce desk. He takes a moment to taunt the crowd in the ring and looks like he’d be happy with a count out victory but Jericho crawls back inside. 

X-Pac controls the match with a long sleeper spot wearing down Jericho, and then countering the attempted counter with a back suplex for a near fall. 

Jericho does finally come back with a spinning back elbow and a heel kick and gives X-Pac his own version of the Bronco Buster. The backfires as Jericho rallies and sends Jericho to the opposite post before retrieving his new favourite weapon - the nunchucks - but Jericho stops them from being used and the referee throws them to the outside.

They go back and forth and Pac hits his X-Factor out of nowhere but Jericho kicks out! 

They run the ropes and X-Pac goes for a dropkick which is caught and turned into the Walls of Jericho but Pac crawls to the ropes to break the hold. Jericho walks right into a big spinning heel kick after stopping to argue with the referee.

Jericho shrugs it off with a running bulldog but X-Pac counters the Lionsault by getting his knees up. He tries to follow up with a diving dropkick off the middle rope but Jericho catches his legs and turns it into a second Walls of Jericho and X-Pac quickly taps out to give Y2J the submission victory. 

As Jericho celebrates in the ring, sore loser X-Pac grabs his nunchucks and hits him in the back of the head multiple times. Jericho wins the match but doesn’t look like a winner from all those nunchuck shots to the head. Something that would kill a person in real life. 

Kurt Angle goes to see Commissioner Mick Foley in a fury about his being attacked by Stone Cold earlier. He says he’s not 100% but he will still compete tonight. At the Olympics, Kurt had a head cold and IBS and still won a gold medal! Foley says that as referee he doesn’t plan on doing a lot and letting Angle and Triple H kick each others asses, but now he’s going to do even less and adds a no disqualification stipulation to the match.

As the WWF Champion The Rock prepares for his match tonight Stone Cold Steve Austin goes to see him! The fans explode for the stare down, and get even louder as the two most popular men in wrestling shake hands and talk like friends who’ve been in contact during Austin’s absence. Heart warming. As they talk, “Just Joe” the rumour spreader comes in and tries to tell Austin what he’s heard and gets a Rattlesnake ass-whooping for his troubles. 

Steel Cage match for the WWF Tag Team Championships

Edge and Christian © vs. The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy)

The first highlight of this match comes during Edge and Christian’s entrance as Howard Finkle badly trips over his words and struggles to explain the rules. This match can end by pinfall or both members of a team escaping the cage. 

The two teams go at it quickly, trading punches and kicks and this is very much tornado tag rules with all four men in the ring at once. 

The Hardyz slam Christian into the cage and leave him sitting on the top rope for their random Poetry in Motion double team. They make the first escape attempt but are stopped and brought back inside by Edge and Christian.

Jeff does manage to climb all the way to the top of the cage and teases a Swanton but is shoved by Edge and he bounces and falls out of the cage.

So this opens up the big major flaw in the booking of this match. Jeff Hardy has technically put The Hardyz halfway to victory but with him being out of the cage this is now a two on one match. Edge and Christian can easily dominate and beat down Matt and just pin him when they’re ready. It makes no sense for Edge and/or Christian to try and escape.

Matt does his best to fight them both off and tries to climb out but he’s stopped and Edge and Christian bring him back down from the top of the cage with a double superplex. Matt Hardy manages to kick out of the pin attempt.

Jeff Hardy tries to climb back into the cage a couple of times to help his brother as Edge and Christian easily knock him off to the floor.

He’s had enough and knocks out the referee, stealing the keys to the door. Edge blocks him at the door and slams it on Jeff’s head. Christian takes the chance to leave the cage and get a couple of steel chairs before locking the door and Edge hides the key in his own tights.

Jeff is down on the outside and Matt is now bleeding heavily as Edge and Christian have steel chairs, the keys to the cage and full control of the match.

They take aim and set up a con-chair-to but Matt ducks and follows up with a double clothesline!

Matt tries to climb out and as Edge and Christian scramble to stop him, Jeff throws a ladder at Christian knocking him off the cage and on the outside leaving this as one on one between Matt and Edge in the cage.

Jeff smartly sets up the ladder and starts to climb, wanting to come back into the cage with Edge powerless to stop him. Jeff climbs to the top of the cage and loses his top before diving onto Edge and Matt with a somersault flipping moonsault which he calls Whisper in the Wind, crashing to the mat (and only kind of getting Edge and Matt, they did a rubbish job of catching him) but it looked awesome.

Christian tries to follow Jeff up the ladder and back inside but Lita arrives to low blow him and climb the cage before hurricanrana-ing Christian off the ladder to the mats at ringside which gets a huge pop and a “Lita” chant. That looked awesome.

Edge inside the cage rallies with a chair shot to Matt and starts to climb looking to retain he and Christian’s tag team titles. The Hardyz stop him and follow with the steel chairs and in a great looking spot give Edge his own con-chair-to on the top of the cage, sending Edge falling back into the ring and crashing to the mat. 

From there, it's academic as Matt and Jeff climb down the cage together to win the match and the WWF Tag Team Championships! Lita has tears of joy as they grab their belts and celebrate. An awesome happy ending for The Hardy Boyz in a very good steel cage match, even if the booking was slightly flawed.

I want to make special mention of Michael Cole here as he gets full credit for naming all of Matt and Jeff’s trademark moves like Poetry in Motion and Whisper in the Wind. Even Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb were named by him. It was nice to have him on commentary for their big moment. Jerry Lawler does return and replace Michael Cole again before the next match. 

Stone Cold goes to find Triple H but instead finds Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. She gives Austin the hat that he was wearing the night he was run over - she’s been keeping it for him this whole time. He is unimpressed. She tells him not to waste his time interrogating people and just go and see what Shane McMahon has to say and to show him.

Triple H wasn’t there because he’s elsewhere talking to Mick Foley. They remember their history and do show a little affection - they’ve bonded lately over laughing at Kurt Angle. Triple H makes sure that Foley will call the match later right down the middle despite his past with Triple H.

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Eddie Guerrero © w/Chyna vs. Rikishi

The video package for this one kind of glosses over Eddie winning the title from Chyna but does show their fall out, mostly over Chyna’s Playboy spread. It’s fair enough that they focus on Eddie’s issues with Rikishi. 

Chyna looks incredible on this show and JR and King talk a lot about her Playboy spread, which came out the day after this PPV aired so I’m sure there will be a ton of chat about it on Raw tomorrow too.

Eddie is quickly overpowered by Rikishi and so he grabs his title belt and tries to leave. Chyna is having none of that and shoves Latino Heat back towards the ring and throws him back inside. She wants her man to be a man, but he’s continually dominated by Rikishi.

The big man squashes the Intercontinental Champion in the corner and sets up for a Stink Face but thankfully for him, Chyna is there to pull Eddie out of the ring to avoid it. Rikishi is unimpressed, and when he follows to the outside Eddie uses Chyna as a human shield and follows up on the distraction with a top rope crossbody to the outside and sends him into the ring steps. 

Eddie’s being on control doesn’t last long as Rikishi counters with a Samoan drop and a Banzai drop. He obviously has the title won but Chyna gets in the ring and stops the count, pleading with the referee not to count.

Rikishi and Chyna are friends but that seems to be enough to piss Rikishi off and he angrily questions Chyna before throwing her into the ring and then shoving her. He gives Chyna a stiff superkick and the referee rings the bell for a disqualification. 

He follows up with a Banzai drop on Chyna and this is all very out of character for Rikishi. He has shown an angrier more serious side here and leaves without dancing.

Is this perhaps them testing the waters for a heel Rikishi? What could possibly be going on that would result in such a serious change in attitude? (hint hint). 

Eddie goes to check on Chyna - but stops to get his Intercontinental title belt first. Is the title belt more important than his new fiance? A lot of rhetorical questions coming out of this finish. 

Jonathan Coachman interviews The Undertaker. I’ve mentioned this a few times but his new habit of always talking with a mouth full of chewing tobacco and stopping to spit it out periodically is absolutely disgusting and utterly loathsome. This promo is classic “I’m going to win” stuff but he does debut his “the ring is my yard, and I’m the big dog that runs the yard” shtick during this promo which he’d keep for the rest of his run as the American Badass.

Trish Stratus goes to see Kurt Angle and she’s quite flirty with him, but he’s too worried about Triple H and Stephanie to notice. He must be focused.

No Disqualification match

Triple H (w/Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) vs. Kurt Angle

Special guest referee: Commissioner Mick Foley

Another tremendous video package for this match recapping this twisting and turning table of unrequited love. Or is it requited? That’s probably not a word.

When Kurt makes his entrance, King makes a bunch of homophobic comments about shemales in regards to Angle’s “sensitivity”. 2000 was not an inclusive time. With Angle in the ring, he tries to lead the crowd in a rendition of “happy birthday to you” for Stephanie. Even King finds it a bit pathetic. 

Triple H’s ribs are heavily bandaged after the sledgehammer attack on Smackdown and Stephanie is wearing a scowl on her face. She is very angry at her “friend” Kurt. 

Here I’ll take a moment to discuss the real world’s reaction to this storyline - it went mainstream! This very much cemented the WWF’s status as “soap opera for men” and this love triangle got a lot of coverage on TV shows and in magazines. In short - men wanted to see Triple H beat up the “effeminate” Kurt Angle and women wanted Stephanie to choose the sensitive Kurt Angle over her brute of a husband. That is rumoured to be what the plans were for the finish of this story with Steph picking Kurt but as the story goes, Triple H used his by now considerable backstage power (he’s dating the boss’s daughter, who herself was on the creative team) to overrule that. No woman in her right mind would ever dump The Game y’see? 

The match starts fast with Kurt getting quick shots in on Triple H’s injured ribs. The fight to the outside and The Game gets distracted clearing off an announce table to injure Kurt a la Summerslam but Angle capitalises and goes on the attack in the ring. 

Angle gets the first proper near fall with a nice bridging German suplex and takes a moment to argue with referee Foley. Their shoving match gets a “Foley” chant. 

Triple H’s comebacks are shut down by Kurt’s array of nice looking suplexes.

Even with injured ribs, Triple H doesn’t sell for long and dominates with stomps and kicks in the corner, getting a near fall of his own after a knee to the head. 

Angle reverses an Irish whip to the corner which sends Triple H tumbling to the outside but once again Angle’s offence is shut down as Triple H sends him to the ringsteps and starts to clear off the announce desk again.

He blasts Angle across the back with a steel chair and lifts him up onto the announce table trying for a Pedigree just like at Summerslam but Kurt reverses that with a low blow and delivers an overhead belly to belly suplex from one table to the other, sending The Game crashing through all the way to the concrete. Angle even landed on his feet because he’s a super athlete. 

He drags Triple H back into the ring and drives his shoulder into his ribs in the corner. He keeps the pressure on and hammers Triple H’s midsection as Foley checks on him and asks if he wants to submit. 

With Triple H bleeding from the mouth a ruthless Kurt Angle delivers a huge suplex from the top rope, but lands awkwardly and is slow to cover so Triple H can kick out which is lovely psychology. He locks in an abdominal stretch and has firm control..until missing his moonsault from the top rope (standard) and Triple H mounts a comeback with punches and a face buster off the knee. He’s now selling his left arm in addition to his ribs and so when hooking up a Pedigree can only do it with one arm and so it doesn’t look impactful enough.

With both men down, Triple H calls his wife into the ring and the camera catches him asking her to choose - this is the moment. She has to decide once and for all which man is her man. She hesitates…before giving Angle a stiff kick downstairs! He stumbles into a second Pedigree and that gives Triple H the victory. 

This win was at the time viewed as a burial of poor Kurt as the heavily injured Triple H still managed to defeat him but don’t you worry - he has big things in his immediate future. Stephanie doesn’t seem happy about what she’s done to Kurt, and Triple H forces a big kiss on her which she looks a little put off by. That wasn’t affection, that was him marking his territory. This story doesn’t feel like it’s over but in truth…it is. 

Before we get to the main event, the familiar “No Chance in Hell” music plays and Shane McMahon heads down to the ring. He says he didn’t want to do this in public but as Stone Cold has yet to come and see him he has no choice. He says he has conducted his own impartial investigation and knows who ran over Stone Cold Steve Austin. He shows his video evidence - it is a clip for Raw in July 1999 when Steve Blackman reversed his car into Ken Shamrock ahead of their Iron Circle match at Fully Loaded that year. The fans boo as it’s painfully clear that Shane is pointing his finger at the Hardcore champion as retribution for their match at Summerslam last month.

As Shane tries to leave, Blackman comes out to confront him and then it happens…

The return of Stone Cold Steve Austin! The glass shatters and we get the debut of his new theme song - the Disturbed remix of his classic song - which I think might have quieted a little bit of the fan reaction as it threw the crowd off. It divides opinion but I always thought it was awesome. 

The Rattlesnake poses on all four corners and it’s so good to see him back. The fans explode every time and then he drops Steve Blackman with a Stone Cold Stunner! Is that the end of the whole investigation? Shane McMahon grabs a cooler of beers and the two toast and celebrate for the fans with beers while JR protests that it can’t have been Blackman and King blindly trusts Shane. 

Stone Cold isn’t buying it as he stops Shane and drops him with an awesome looking Stunner! This segment gives Shane his rep as one of the all time great Stunner takers. He keeps a mouth full of beer and dramatically sprays it in the air after Austin drops him.

Shane stumbles to his feet and slowly turns into a second Stone Cold Stunner which gets an even bigger pop! Austin leaves but stops half way up the ramp before charging back to the ring to pose again and give Shane a third Stone Cold Stunner! 

This must have been the happiest night of Austin’s life being back in front of the crowd with a clean bill of health, toasting with beers and dropping people with Stunners. The Rattlesnake is back. 

Before the main event, Michael Cole interviews The Rock. I actually included the promo in the video package capture below. Enjoy some classic Rock!

Fatal Four Way match for the WWF Championship

The Rock © vs. The Undertaker vs. Kane vs. Chris Benoit

A nice straight forward story for this match. The Rock is the WWF Champion and with a crowded field of challengers who deserved title shots and desperately wanted to be WWF Champion here we are. 

The Undertaker enters first which surprises me because I can’t imagine they thought he was the smallest star in the match.

When Kane enters, JR speculates about who might be teaching Kane to speak as he’s been more vocal in the past two months than he had been in the previous three years. It's a good question and I wonder if it was planned to go somewhere? It never did. 

In another nice touch to give this match a sense of grandeur and chaos as the ring is FILLED with referees. Basically the entire referee’s locker room is there to make sure no one comes to blows until the bell rings.

And it does, and they do. 

Rock and Kane pair up in one corner as Benoit and Undertaker pair up in the other. It leads to a stare down between Rock and Taker but the heels are back on the attack before they come to blows. 

Rock and Benoit fight to the outside, with Benoit in control driving Rock into the announce table as Taker gets a couple of near falls in the ring with a DDT and then a big boot on Kane. In a nice bit of psychology, as Benoit and Rock fight on the outside they’re both shown to be glancing back at the ring constantly to make sure neither Kane or Undertaker are about to steal victory. 

Kane re-enters and after Rock and Taker double team Kane for a bit they finally come to blows.

The Rock counters Undertaker’s attempted top-rope walking old school move by yanking him off the top rope. Kane gets back in the ring and knocks down The Rock before turning right into a big steel chair shot from Undertaker.

Taker then turns around and gets blasted in the head by Chris Benoit who pins him and…gets the three count? Chris Benoit wins the WWF title by pinning The Undertaker after a chair shot. 

Benoit grabs the title and leaves, being announced the winner and his music playing but Commissioner Foley appears. He doesn’t announce it to the live crowd and so it’s left for us to figure out but Foley restarts the match because Undertaker’s foot was on the ropes. So for the second time in as many months, Chris Benoit has been declared the new WWF Champion only to have it be reversed by Commissioner Foley. 

Benoit turns around to find all three opponents waiting for him and they attack him anew. All four men brawl up and down the ramp and as Kane has Benoit pinned in the ring, Rock breaks it up. The champion hits Undertaker with the ring steps and resumes a one on one fight with Benoit in the ring. Between his winning-but-not-really-winning and both JR and King singing his praises and talking about how good he is, it’s clear that this was his biggest push to date.

Benoit controls The Rock with suplexes and follows up with his flying headbutt but The Rock kicks out. Benoit knocked himself a little goofy off the headbutt and so Rock locks him in his own Crippler Crossface, but Undertaker breaks that up before there can be a submission.

Kane plants The Undertaker with a chokeslam but The Rock breaks up that pin too. The Rock gives Kane a spinebuster and tries for a People’s Elbow but it’s intercepted by a Benoit clothesline which draws a lot of boos.

The Rock rattles Benoit with punches and sends him to the outside but turns right into a Last Ride and The Undertaker has the title won..but Kane breaks that up! He sends his brother to the outside, but Taker drags him out after him. Benoit hammers the pair of them with stiff chair shots before locking The Rock in a Crippler Crossface! He has the match won now, surely as the fans loudly chant “Rocky”. 

We’ll never know if The Rock would have tapped out as Undertaker breaks up that hold and spikes Benoit with a massive chokeslam. Kane drags Taker back out of the ring before he can cover. Kane and Undertaker trade huge punches on the outside as The Rock and Benoit both stagger to their feet in the ring. Benoit turns into a waiting Rock Bottom and while Undertaker and Kane are too busy fighting each other to break it up, The Rock gets the three count and retains his WWF Championship in a very good main event. 

This was another awesome PPV in a year full of them. The main event and steel cage matches were great, dramatic title matches and Triple H and Kurt Angle had a very good, emotional match to end their story. It was a fun undercard too with the debut of Raven adding to an already stacked midcard. 

The highlight though was the return of Stone Cold Steve Austin and his investigation and man hunt will dominate the next couple of shows. He’ll find who ran him over quickly enough, don’t you worry.