The Year in PPV- 2000, Part I

When I first started subscribing to the WWE Network, there was really only one place I wanted to start in terms of binge watching a year of PPVs: the year 2000. With 30 years of PPVs available (not counting ECW or WCW), I bet many are wondering why I would choose that year overall as one I was looking forward to most. The answer is very simple: variety. These shows during the year offer an insane amount of star power and top quality matches. Some of the best storytelling in wrestling history takes place during this year, along with a plethora of hardcore matches, one of the most iconic tag team divisions in company history, and even a fair share of comedic matches meant to purely "entertain" the fans.

Also put into perspective that this year was very important for newer talent to break through into the main event, since Stone Cold Steve Austin spent most of the year on the injured list. Guys like The Rock and Triple H stayed atop the main event scene, newer stars like Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero made their presence felt in their early WWF careers, and even a legend like the Undertaker needed to reinvent himself with a new gimmick to stay relevant atop the WWF food chain. With so many all-time favorites featured in this year, it's no wonder why so many fans are fond of this year. So let's begin the year 2000... 


1. Royal Rumble

The year 2000 gets started in a HUGE way with one of the greatest overall shows I've ever seen in my life. Does that mean every match is a five star classic? No, but there is a TON of variety throughout the show that makes this show feel like a big deal. From Tazz's debut against Kurt Angle, The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz in the first ever elimination tables match, to the Miss Rumble 2000 bikini contest (proceed with caution. YOU WILL SHUDDER!!!), and even short but sweet title matches for the Intercontinental (Chris Jericho vs. Chyna vs. Hardcore Holly) and Tag Team (The New Age Outlaws vs. The Acolytes) Championships. Those matches build up an already stacked midcard, and then it's time for the WWF Championship match. In one of the bloodiest matches I've ever seen, Triple H and Cactus Jack leave it all on the line in a gruesome Street Fight in front of an energized Madison Square Garden crowd (gotta love a good MSG show).

I will say that the Royal Rumble match is lacking a little star power, and EVERYONE knew who was winning the Rumble, but I'm ok with it since the company gave the fans what they wanted. The fans knew who it needed to come down to: Big Show and The Rock in a modern day Andre the Giant meets Hulk Hogan encounter. The finish of the match is one of the most memorable endings in Rumble match history, and gets the Road to WrestleMania off on a very high note.

Highly Recommended


2. No Way Out

When it was time to sit back and reflect on my viewing experience for this show, I honestly had difficulty remembering a lot of what happened. A lot of the midcard is basic PPV filler for stars who were preparing to work bigger programs heading into WrestleMania. Don't get me wrong, there are some very well done matches, particularly a six-man tag match between Too Cool (Rikish, Scotty 2 Hotty, and Grand Master Sexay) against The Radicalz (Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko), that are able to save this show from obscurity. One of the best wrestled matches of the evening was actually the opening contest for the Intercontinental Championship between Chris Jericho and the European Champion Kurt Angle. I'm not sure why Angle's title wasn't on the line, but based on the action displayed here, I think they missed out on a great unification match that could've been saved for WrestleMania.

Speaking of WrestleMania, the two main events are focused on setting up the main event for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania 2000. Thanks to the controversial finish of the Royal Rumble match, The Rock (whose feet actually hit the ground first) defended his number one contender's spot against Big Show (who technically should've won the Royal Rumble match). The main event saw Triple H put the WWF Championship on the line against Cactus Jack inside Hell in a Cell, with an added stipulation that if Cactus Jack lost, he would have to retire. I've often called this match underrated in terms of greatest Cell matches, but it's nowadays getting the recognition it deserves. It combines a bloody spot fest with tremendous storytelling and delivers it in a fast paced environment. And the ending of this match is the definition of iconic, and will leave first-time viewers (and even a lot of repeat viewers) in complete shock.

Recommended


3. WrestleMania 2000

It's easy to see why this is the WrestleMania that is known as the one with all the tag matches. On a WrestleMania card with 9 matches, only 1 is a traditional "one on one match" and FIVE of the matches are tag team matches. There are three that are complete filler (Big Boss Man and Bull Buchanan vs. The Godfather and D'Lo Brown, T & A vs. Al Snow and Steve Blackman, and D-Generation X vs. Kane and Rikishi) and really feel like odd choices for matches to take place on the grandest stage of the year. There is a fairly entertaining six-person intergender tag match between The Radicalz (Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko) against Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty and Grand Master Sexay) and Chyna, but it's still pretty forgettable on the side of history.

There is one historical tag match involving three teams, as The Dudley Boyz defended their WWF Tag Team Championships against The Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian in the first ever Triangle Ladder match. These teams would go on to have 2 more ladder match encounters (that also feature tables and chairs), but my favorite is right here in the match that allowed these guys to shatter the glass ceiling that tag team wrestling and ladder matches had established. While on the subject of extreme matches involving tag teams, the Hardcore Championship was defended in a "battle royal" that featured a lot more tag team competitors. Crash Holly defended his title against The Mean Street Posse (Joey Abs, Rodney, and Pete Gas), The Acolytes (Bradshaw and Faarooq), The Headbangers (Mosh and Thrasher), Kai En Tai (Taka Michinoku and Funkai), Viscera, Hardcore Holly, and Tazz in a match that is a lot of fun, but is also a pretty big mess (especially with the botched ending).

Kurt Angle was forced to defend both his European and Intercontinental Championships in a two-fall Triple Threat against Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. These three performers were making their WrestleMania debuts, and the match is fine, but I think is boosted by fans given the popularity of all three wrestlers. It's not to say that the match is bad, but it definitely deserved more time for these guys to have something monumental. To me, the match ended before they could even get out of first gear. The main event of this show is also a mess, as the WWF Championship was on the line in a Fatal 4-Way elimination match with a McMahon in each corner. Triple H (with Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley in his corner) defended the title against Mick Foley (with Linda McMahon in his corner), Big Show (with Shane McMahon in his corner) and The Rock (with Vince McMahon in his corner). Really, Foley should have stayed retired, Big Show could've been in the hardcore battle royal, and the main event should have been the match we got at the NEXT PPV. The ending also feels like something we would see on an episode of Monday Night RAW, not WRESTLEMANIA. This WrestleMania just feels like a big waste of time.

Skip It


4. Backlash

This PPV is collectively a much better show than WrestleMania. There's a lot more variety to be had, thanks to great wrestled matches (Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship), high flying matches (Eddie Guerrero vs. Essa Rios for the European Championship), combinations of the two (Dean Malenko vs. Scotty 2 Hotty for the Light Heavyweight Championship), hardcore matches (Crash Holly vs. Hardcore Holly vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy vs. Perry Saturn vs. Tazz for the Hardcore Championship), and even comedic matches (Kurt Angle vs. Big Show, who was dressed as Hulk Hogan).

The most important part of Backlash is that it gave us the WrestleMania match we SHOULD have had: Triple H vs. The Rock, one on one, for the WWF Championship. With Shane McMahon as guest referee, the deck looked stacked against The Rock, but he had one thing ready to combat the McMahon-Helmsley era: STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN! For the first time since he was run down at Survivor Series the previous year, fans were ecstatic to see the Texas Rattlesnake return to PPV and wondered what kind of an impact he would leave during the WWF Championship match. Of course the match is overbooked, but it's also a textbook example of storytelling with the proper payoff and makes me wish that THIS was the main event of WrestleMania 2000.

Highly Recommended


5. Insurrextion

If you recall some of my previous comments about UK PPVs (see Insurrextion 2002), I think the benefit of the doubt could be given to this show in saying that it probably wasn't that great overall, but there was a lot that entertained me. Watching Big Show dress up as Showkishi and team up with Rikishi against the Dudley Boyz is hilarious enough, but then to see Showkishi, Rikishi, Too Cool, AND the Dudley Boyz do the Too Cool dance at the end is something needed to be seen to believe. To look at that comedic match and immediately have Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle follow it up really paints that variety show essence that these 2000 PPVs have been like. Also put some championship matches on the card like Edge and Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz for the Tag Team Championships, Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho for the European Championship, and The Rock defending the WWF Championship against Triple H and Shane McMahon in a triple threat and you have the makings for a memorable PPV. So why isn't it that memorable?

At the end of the day, the most entertaining quality of the PPV is that it has a very stacked roster of talent on the card, but that's as far as it goes. While the main event match and some matches on the undercard are solid enough, there isn't any real historical value to the show. But if you're the type of fan that enjoys personality over wrestling quality, then this could very well be a good PPV for you to watch. It's also just interesting to see how international PPVs differ with traditional American shows in what the crowds like, most notably through a Hardcore Championship match between Crash Holly and hometown favorite The British Bulldog.

Mild Recommendation


Initial Thoughts: I think a lot of the year's earlier success can be chalked up to the shows offering variety and also having a very stacked roster of superstars. However, I'm a bit disappointed that the only setback was its biggest show of the year, but apart from that, we've already had iconic and revolutionary matches that really foreshadow things to come while also retaining the status quo. I like to think that it's a transitional period between the Attitude Era and Ruthless Aggression Era, in which wrestlers were able to wrestle great matches AND have outrageous characters. Things look pretty bright, and I'm hopeful that they can only get better (or at the very least, stay constant).

Continued in Part II...
 

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