WWF Wrestlemania 2000 4/2/2000
Note: I originally reviewed this in 3 parts with gifs. I wanted to get this into one post. Here is the original 3 part review:
Part 1 - https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/wwf-wrestlemania-2000-review.html
Part 2 - https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/wwf-wrestlemania-2000-review_31.html
Part 3 - https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/wwf-wrestlemania-2000-review_9129.html
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We are in Anaheim, CA.
Welcome to my review of Wrestlemania 2000. Wrestlemania 2000 aka Wrestlemania 16 was one that I always enjoyed that others didn't. Sure, it wasn't Wrestlemania 17, but that is one of the top 5 shows of all time. It was sure as heck better than Wrestlemania 15 though and there was some good stuff on it.
Like Wrestlemania 17, this was hard to find in the era before video on demand. Unless you knew where to look online or wanted to pay huge prices on ebay, you weren't going to find this one too long after its release date. I think I dropped about 60 bucks on the DVD version of this but hey, youtube was only a dream at that point in time.
Lillian Garcia sang the national anthem.
Ice T came out with The Godfather and D'Lo Brown. He sang, "Pimpin' Ain't Easy, Man".
The Godfather and D'Lo Brown vs The Big Boss Man and Bull Buchanan
Bull Buchanan won with a top rope legdrop. The match was actually pretty good which surprised me. Bull looked great here. He was so athletic and seemed to be able to do anything and the crowd liked the faces. Fun stuff overall here but it could have been a minute or two shorter. Rating:***
Triple H and Stephanie McMahon bragged a little in the back about Wrestlemania.
They had a meeting for rules about the hardcore battle royale. The match would be 15 minutes long and there could be a million pinfalls or none at all.
WWF Hardcore Title - Hardcore Battle Royale
This goes 15 minutes and anytime someone pins the current champ, they become the champ. Crash started out the champ but Tazz pinned him seconds in to become the champ.
Hardcore Holly won with some type of glass shot on Crash. The ref never counted three but Hardcore Holly won anyway. Awful match here with people getting legit injured and probably more concussions in one match than ever before. This wasn't even remotely interesting but at least some people got WM paydays.
Al Snow was talking to someone in the men's toilet and Steve Blackman told him no shenanigans tonight. Someone flushed, Al made a face and that was it.
Head Cheese (Steve Blackman and Al Snow) vs T&A (Test and Albert)
Test won with a top rope elbow. This one was pretty much a fail. WWF was interested in getting the piece of cheese over and Trish's tits with the match being secondary. The match wasn't bad but this was really Trish's tits vs Chester McCheeserton. They also ran the storyline of Chester McCheeserton making unwanted advances at Trish. Test and Albert made a decent team but the name killed them.
Head Cheese beat up Chester McCheeserton after.
They did the Austin Powers skit with Mae Young grabbing things to cover up the naked Kat.
Devon said the WWF was against them as they had to defend in a ladder match, but they said they would win. Bubba Ray said thou shall not f**k with the Dudleyz.
WWF Tag Team Titles - Triple Threat Ladder Match - The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D'Von Dudley) vs Edge and Christian vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy)
Edge and Christian won the match after grabbing the belts. Great match as you would expect. Tons of big and memorable spots here and there was no shortage of action. While this wasn't as great as TLC 2, it was very good. The bumps were so big here that even the smaller bumps were still pretty rough. I thought Jeff getting tossed onto the outside floor from the ring had to be one of the worst of the night along Christian/Matt going off the ladder to the floor. Jeff's swanton also looked brutal as he hit the ground hard. The final bump was really cool as it looked like Matt Hardy walked the plank to his execution. This was a classic and one that you won't forget if you ever see. Rating:****1/2
Mick Foley was interviewed with Linda McMahon. Foley said it was like a fairytale to him to be in the main event and he wanted to make the main event one people talk about for the next 10 years.
Cat Fight - The Kat vs Terri Runnels
Moolah pulled Kat out of the ring so Terri could win. This wasn't really a match and was by and large, stupid. The big story here was Mae Young making out with Val Venis. Mae Young hit a Bronco Buster on Moolah after and Kat stripped Terri.
Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero were interviewed. Dean said they'd break the legs of Too Cool and Eddie Guerrero was talking about laying the latino heat on Chyna.
2 Cool and Chyna did a promo. 2 Cool said it was time to kick it.
2 Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty and "Grandmaster Sexay" Brian Christopher) and Chyna vs The Radicalz (Eddie Guerrero, Saturn and Dean Malenko)
Chyna won with a sleeper into a drop. The match was pretty good but Chyna's pants broke at the worst time - the finish. Still, there was a ton of action, the crowd was hot and the storyline was fun. Chyna and 2 Cool were both pretty underrated, well I guess everyone in this match was pretty underrated. Good stuff here though with a great crowd. Rating:***
Big Show said to Shane McMahon that he would unplug the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, retire Foley and make Triple H do a game over.
Bob Backlund apparently came out during Heat and revealed that he made Kurt Angle put both belts on the line. Angle wasn't happy and put him in a chickenwing.
Angle talked to Tommy about being the Euro-Continental Champion (IC title + European title) and asked for extra security tonight as the women and children will be all on him and he wants to celebrate in the crowd.
Before his match, Jericho said he couldn't guarantee victory but he would make sure his opponents would get a beating.
Triple Threat Match - 2/3 Falls - 1st Fall is for the Intercontinental title, 2nd fall is for the European Championship - Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho
Chris Benoit won the IC title with a top rope headbutt and Chris Jericho won the second fall and the European title with a lionsault. There was no third fall for some reason which was confusing since it was supposed to be a 2/3 falls match. That part was confusing but the match was good. Benoit hit lots of stiff chops and did most of the cool stuff here. The match was kind of short though for these three. It only went about 15 minutes or so without intros and could have used more time for nearfalls and stuff. The match felt like a piece of a story, but not the end of it. Rating:***1/2
Vince McMahon was interviewed. Vince hinted at interfering by saying, "I guarantee, I'll get it right".
Triple H talked to Steph in the back and said he would show the world who the man is tonight and won't allow himself to be beaten.
X-Pac and Road Dogg vs Kane and Rikishi Phatu
Kane got the win with the tombstone. This was all about Rikishi hitting the stinkface in this short match. Once he did that on Tori, Kane hit the tombstone and that was it.
2 Cool came down with The San Diego Chicken and got Rikishi up for a dance. The Chicken turned out be Pete Rose. Kane chokeslammed Pete Rose after the match and Rikishi hit a stinkface on Pete Rose.
The Rock was interviewed. The Rock basically just said he waited a year to return to Wrestlemania and said he would win the title.
WWF Title - Fatal Four Way Elimination Match - Triple H vs The Rock vs The Big Show vs Mick Foley
Triple H won here after Vince hit The Rock with a chair at 36:28.
This match was awful anyway you look at it. First of all, this match with a love letter to The McMahon Family from The McMahon Family. Yeah, there was a match here but most of the focus near the end wasn't on it.
Let's start before the first elimination. The Big Show had Triple H up for a chokeslam to eliminate him and Mick Foley nut shotted Big Show. Why? I have no idea at all. Then it got worse. Triple H interrupted a pin on The Rock later again for no reason at all. Mick Foley then turned on Rock, for no reason at all to JOIN THE MAN WHO RETIRED HIM, TRIPLE H. Triple H then eliminated him of course because he's The Game and Foley came back to hit him with a barbed wire bat. Why? I don't know but the only explanation I can find is that he's a sore loser.
Then, we got to the real crap here with The Rock and Triple H remaining. The McMahon's all get involved. Vince goes after Triple H and throws him in the ring to be pinned...for some odd reason. Vince and Shane have a long fight where they didn't cut to the ring for about 2 minutes. Shane attacks Vince and then Vince comes back later and attacks him. The Rock and Triple H fight around the crowd for no reason at all right before this. Vince then gets a chair later and naturally should try to brain Triple H. Instead he hits The Rock. Why? Again, I don't know. And if that was the plan all along, why did he try to get Triple H eliminated? Triple H then OF COURSE gets the pin, because he ain't doing a job and Vince and Stephanie hug.
The ring work was fine but the match went on forever. 35 minutes, plus intros, felt like a good hour and wasn't far from it. The match would have been a fine 20 minutes or so, but they really stretched it out and did stuff just cause. Foley not getting enough air on his dive hurt the match and caused Triple H to move around awkwardly for a few minutes until he came up with another solution to somehow break the table.
Take away 15 minutes, the McMahon crap and the stupidity and the match would have been in the *** range.
After the match, Steph and Vince hugged and The Rock cleared them plus Shane out to end the show.
Overall thoughts: The show was pretty good up until the main event. The hardcore battle royal was the worst thing next to the main event. The main stunk though and one bad main event even with the best of undercard matches brings down the show.
The best match was easily the ladder match with probably the threeway for the titles not being far behind. Yes, I know there were tons of multi-man matches here but the roster was so huge at the time that I guess they wanted to get more people on the show. I don't think it hurt anything to be honest and in some cases, it made things better. Steve Austin not being on this show in any way, shape or form kind of hurt the show though. It didn't feel like a Wrestlemania with Steve Austin and I think he should have been the special referee in the main event at worst. I guess it wouldn't have made a huge difference in quality but it at least would have gotten the biggest star in the WWF on the show.
As a whole, I'd recommend checking the show out. It's pretty good minus the main and the battle royal. Kat/Terri wasn't that good but I'd rather watch two girls in thongs have a bad match than two guys in underwear have a bad one. Nothing is really great though minus the ladder match.
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