Emanating from the Freedom Hall in Louisville, KY

Your commentators are Jim Ross and Jerry “the King” Lawler

 
- We being with the McMahon-Helmsley faction chatting in the back. Gerald Brisco, the current hardcore champ, announces Patterson isn’t here tonight (aww) and then takes everyone’s coffee order. Vince then runs down the matches his men are involved in and predicts victory for all of them. Suddenly, we cut elsewhere in the arena and see the Headbangers attacking Brisco. However, he manages to escape before being pinned. Still elsewhere in the arena, we see the referee for the main event tonight, Shawn Michaels, walking around, already dressed in his banana shorts. Will somebody please think of the children!!

Newly established heels, Edge and Christian, have been teaming up with Angle recently and having a lot of fun at everyone’s expense. Tonight, they come out with a hilarious promo before the match that involves them cracking on the pronunciation of Louisville and their latest “5 second pose”: The Jug Band. It’s funny, cuz it’s true. The heels jump Too Cool and Rikishi for an early advantage, but the faces quickly recover. Sexay drops Edge with an enziguri. A poke to Scotty’s eye by Edge slows his momentum. Scotty suplexes Christian and then dances (ugh), but then is attacked by Christian (yay). Edge and Christian try to double-team, but Too Cool stays one step ahead of them. As the heels regroup on the floor, Sexay dances and in doing so, his pants fall down. Good lord, do you have any dignity? While the faces have fun, Christian hits Sexay from behind. Christian then dances in mockery, but Rikishi is tagged in and nails him. Angle comes in and tries a sunset flip. Rikishi tries to sit on Angle, but he thankfully moves out of the way. Scotty bulldogs Christian and goes for the Worm, but Angle clotheslines him. Crowd boos, but I cheer. The heels have now isolated Scotty and are making quick tags to work over him. Scotty looks to give Christian a powerbomb, but instead turns it into a hot shot. Both men tag out and Rikishi comes in and cleans house. Angle is knocked down and Rikishi gives him the Stinkface. Christian and Angle hit Rikishi with a DDT, but he no-sells it. However, Edge then nails him with a Spear. Edge tries to do the Worm, but in the process, Scotty knocks him down and gives him the Worm. As Rikishi goes for the Rikishi Drop on Edge, Christian comes in and hits him with the ringbell. Edge covers, but Sexay comes off the top rope and hits him with the Hip Hop Drop. Rikishi rolls over and covers him for 3, despite Edge’s shoulder seemingly coming up at two. Since we’re short on time tonight, nothing comes out of Edge’s apparent kick out.

Postmatch: However, we do have enough time for Too Cool and Rikishi to do some more gay dancing. Give me a break.

Bottom Line: I’m going to do my best to put aside my Too Cool hate for a minute to rate this match. Despite my loathing of the faces, the action was pretty decent. The only problem was the somewhat rushed nature of the match, but that was because of the main event. Crowd was super duper hot here and it really added to the atmosphere. I can’t stand seeing talent like Team ECK get jobbed out like this, but at least the action was good. *** ¼

- Michael Cole asks Shawn Michaels if he’ll be impartial tonight. Shawn no-sells Cole’s question and says we’ll just have to wait and see if he’s biased or not. Cole ineptly tries to probe Shawn further by saying there are rumors on WWF.com that Shawn is jealous of The Rock. Again, Shawn doesn’t give much credence to the question and says (cue sarcasm) that if it’s on the Internet, it must be true (end sarcasm). Take that smarts!

- Earlier on HeAT, Eddie Guerrero and Chyna arrived to the arena and were confronted by Dean Malenko, who warned Chyna not to get involved tonight. Then Perry Saturn pops up and woodenly delivers a line about how he’s winning the European title tonight. I love how Benoit is called robotic when Saturn is quite the charisma vacuum himself.

Well, it didn’t take long for the Radicalz to explode, did it? Early on, Saturn and Malenko team up to attack Eddie. However, as Malenko charges at Eddie, Saturn clotheslines him. That gets 2. Malenko saves Eddie from being suplexed by Saturn, but then Eddie lowblows both of them with one kick. Malenko reverses a hurricanrana by Eddie into a sidewalk slam for 2. A tornado DDT by Eddie gets a nearfall on Malenko. Saturn audibly calls a spot for Malenko to hit him. Eddie reverses a powerbomb attempt into a sunset flip, but Malenko rolls through it and begins to put the Texas Cloverleaf on him. As Saturn comes over, Malenko releases the hold and clotheslines him. Saturn gives Eddie a hot shot, which in turn crotches Malenko, who was on the top rope. Eddie climbs up with Malenko, but Malenko grabs him and delivers a top rope gutbuster. Wow! Saturn frog splashes Eddie and covers, but Malenko breaks it up. Saturn puts Malenko in the Texas Cloverleaf, but Eddie grabs him and gives him a brainbuster. Eddie ducks out of the way from a charging Saturn, who ends up falling to the floor. Malenko goes to suplex Eddie, but Saturn comes over and suplexes both of them at once. Cool. Saturn goes to the floor and gets nailed by Chyna’s lead pipe, hidden in the bouquet of roses. Chyna climbs on the apron to hit Malenko, but he grabs them from her. However, she trips him and he falls face-first onto the pipe. Eddie then rolls up Malenko and picks up the victory.

BL: Aside from the handful of cool spots, this one underwhelmed me. These three just couldn’t find a decent flow to the match. I don’t know if it was because they were rushing or what, but they ended up being sloppy at times. The crowd also didn’t know what to make of the match as there was no clear-cut face to cheer for. ** ¾

- We’re shown how Brisco won the Hardcore title last Thursday on Smackdown by pinning a sleeping Crash Holly (exhausted from defending the belt 24/7). Brisco’s silent victory celebration is pretty funny. We then cut to live action and see Brisco lurking around the bathroom, afraid of who might jump out and attack him. He’s so paranoid that he gets frightened by his reflection in the mirror. Poor Brisco. If Patterson was there, he could have someone there to hold and protect him.

This came about as a result of Shane’s growing frustration with the Big Show; both with his poor showing at Wrestlemania and in his latest desire to want to have fun and goof around. As Show comes down the aisle, Shane does a no-hands plancha, but Show catches him. Show then rams Shane’s back repeatedly into the post. After abusing Shane around ringside, Shown press slams Shane into the ring. As Show signals for the chokeslam, the Bossman comes out and attacks him with the nightstick. Show quickly recovers and disposes of him. Now T & A are out with chairs, but Show fends them off too. Trish Stratus tries to lowblow Show, but it has no effect. Show picks her up and throws her onto T & A on the floor. Show catches back up with Shane near the entrance. Show grabs a piece of the set, but Shane lifts himself up using the titantron and dropkicks him. Now T & A are back and beating up Show some more. Shane rams a gorilla case into Show and covers, but only gets 2. Show is back up and takes out everyone. As Shane climbs up the Judgment Day sign, Bull Buchanan comes out and attacks Show. Shane then dumps a big speaker box on Show’s leg. With Show trapped, Shane takes a cinder block and smashes it over Show’s head. Shane covers and gets the upset win!

Postmatch: The Usual Bunch of Idiots come out and help Show to the back.

BL: It’s hard to consider this a match since it was more just a gang beating. The finish was designed to write Show out of storylines for a while, but I can’t recall if it was for surgery, to lose weight, or both. Shane’s bumping and a couple of unique spots prevent it from being completely forgettable, but there just wasn’t a whole lot to this. **

- In the back, Brisco goes into the referee’s lockerroom to try and get some rest. As he begins to fall asleep, one of the referees tries to pin him. Brisco wakes back up and yells at the refs for trying that. Oh come on, you can’t blame a referee for wanting to raise his own hand just once in his life.

- Still backstage, HHH and Shawn are doing some small talk and then HHH begins to make fun of Shawn’s shorts. It’s a shame no one made fun of Shawn for wearing a women’s blouse a few months ago. That thing was rife for mockery.

After the crappy finish last month at Backlash, these two still needed to settle things and will do it with a decisive submission finish tonight. It’s the Crippler Crossface vs. the Walls of Jericho. The match begins with both men slugging and chopping it out. Jericho quickly hits his crappy bulldog on Benoit and then goes back to chopping. Jericho goes for the Crossface, but Benoit escapes. Benoit gets Jericho up for a tombstone piledriver, but Jericho reverses it, only for Benoit to reverse it back and give Jericho a shoulderbreaker. Benoit follows that up with a diving headbutt on the shoulder. Jericho goes for the Walls, but Benoit kicks out. A springboard dropkick by Jericho knocks Benoit to the floor. In the back, Val Venis watches the match and has challenged the winner for a match on RAW tomorrow night. On the floor, Benoit throws Jericho’s shoulder into the steps. But then, Jericho rams Benoit’s knee into the steps. Back inside, the two exchange chops. Jericho charges at Benoit, but misses and rams his shoulder into the post. Benoit removes a turnbuckle pad and repeatedly rams Jericho’s shoulder into the exposed corner. Now Benoit locks on an armbar, but Jericho won’t quit. As Benoit runs toward Jericho, he misses and rams his knee into the corner. Jericho begins to work over that knee and then removes Benoit’s knee brace. Jericho takes the brace and beats Benoit with it. Jericho dropkicks Benoit in the knee and then does a Lionsault onto said knee. Jericho locks Benoit into the Walls within the ropes. Awesome! Benoit gets a hand free and fights out of it. Benoit comes back and hits two German suplex. As Jericho tries to get Benoit into the Walls again, Benoit nails him with the knee brace. Then Benoit slaps on the Crossface. As Jericho gets cloes to the ropes, Benoit pulls him back into the middle of the ring. After failing to get out of the hold, Jericho apparently passes out. The referee sees this and calls for the bell.

BL: I didn’t think it was possible, but they somehow gave us another crappy finish. Nobody wants to see this end by having someone pass out. Once again, the finish mars an otherwise outstanding contest. I loved the physical dissection of each other’s key body part. Crowd didn’t seem as into it as I would have liked, but screw them. This was some damn fine wrestling. Now if only they could give these two a decent finish. **** ½

- Cole interview Brisco, who once again reiterates how paranoid he’s become since winning the Hardcore title. Two indy workers dressed as concession workers begin to talk to a referee. Brisco spots them and makes a preemptive strike, knocking them down and their sodas and popcorn as well. So much food gone to waste.

- The Rock chats with Shawn and tells him he better call it down the middle or else they will throw down. Now why must they tease something that they know they can’t deliver on?

The Dudleyz run into the ring and the heels flee. Nothing much happens early on as everyone gets a chance to get their shots in. As the referee is tied up with Tori, D-Von delivers diving headbutts to the nether regions of both Road Dogg and X-Pac. That forces the heels to regroup on the floor. D-X decides to leave, but the Dudleyz run and stop them. As Bubba gets mesmerized by Tori, D-X is able to double-team D-Von. X-Pac connects with the Bronco Buster on D-Von to put him in real trouble. D-Von manages to tag Bubba, but the referee didn’t see it, so D-Von remains in. D-X tries for another double-team, but D-Von clotheslines both of them. D-Von tags Bubba and he cleans house. The Dudleyz set a table up in two corners of the ring. As D-Von sets up another table on the outside, Road Dogg attacks him. Road Dogg gives D-Von a pump handle slam through the table. D-X only needs to put Bubba through a table to win. X-Pac sets D-Von up against a table and tries for the Bronco Buster, but Bubba stops him. X-Pac tries to give Bubba a hurricanrana, but Bubba reverses it into a powerbomb through a table. We’re tied at 1. As Bubba and Road Dogg slug it out, the referee yells at them. So together they throw the ref through a table! The Dudleyz then give Road Dogg the 3-D through a table, but the referee didn’t see it. Meanwhile, Brisco has come down to ringside. Tori comes into the ring, but Bubba grabs her. As he goes to powerbomb her, Brisco comes in and stops him. Then, X-Pac climbs up and gives Bubba an X-Factor from the top rope through the table. Brisco wakes up the referee, who sees Bubba go through the table and awards the match to D-X.

Postmatch: As Brisco tells Bubba to “suck it”, D-Von grabs him. The Dudleyz set up another table and give Brisco a 3-D through it.

BL: This was more entertaining than I recall. I was surprised they actually started off by doing a traditional tag match. Things really became fun, once the tables were introduced, however. D-X shouldn’t have gone over, but the Dudleyz were over enough that a cheap victory like this doesn’t hurt them. Chalk this up as a pleasant surprise. *** ½

- We get a creepy video promo that proclaims “His Judgment Day is here”. Hmmm, I wonder who that could be referring to? The announcers are just as clueless as I am.

Before the match begins, HHH gets on the mic and tells the McMahons that he wants to do this on his own and asks them to go to the back. What a man! All right, there’s the bell, let the hour begin. The two jaw at each other before locking up. Crowd is popping for a lock up…crazy. Nothing much happens in the early minutes as both men try to gain an upper hand. Three quick nearfalls by The Rock force HHH to bail to the floor for a time-out. The Rock gives HHH some rough turnbuckle treatment. HHH elbows The Rock as he charged at him and then clotheslines him to the mat. An armbar takedown by HHH gets 2.

50 minutes left. HHH charges at The Rock, but The Rock catches him with a Rock Bottom. The Rock covers and gets 3. The Rock 1, HHH 0. The fight heads outside and down the aisle. HHH drops The Rock across the guardrail to stop his momentum. HHH charges at The Rock, but The Rock moves and HHH rams his knee into the guardrail. The Rock suplexes HHH back into the ring and gets a nearfall. The Rock now begins to abuse HHH’s leg against the post and on the steps. HHH’s knee is really getting worked over now. The Rock slaps a figure four leglock on in the middle of the ring. HHH manages to withstand the pain and reverses the hold. The hold is released and the two begin battling on the outside again. Soon, the fight heads into the crowd.

40 minutes left. Back inside, a couple of elbows by HHH give him a nearfall. The Rock tries fighting back by kicking HHH in his bad knee. HHH sidesteps The Rock and tosses him to the floor. The Rock reverses a whip and sends HHH into the steps. Back inside, The Rock continues to work on HHH’s leg. As The Rock goes for another figure four, HHH boots him off and into the turnbuckle. HHH follows that up with a Pedigree. HHH covers and gets the pinfall. The Rock 1, HHH 1. HHH quickly gets The Rock in a small package and gets another 3 count. The Rock 1, HHH 2. The two begin to slug it out again. HHH grabs The Rock and throws him outside. Down the aisle they go and soon they’re brawling by the entranceway. In the aisle, HHH suplexes The Rock. As they head back to the ring, The Rock stops and gives HHH a back suplex.

30 minutes left. In the ring, HHH hits The Rock with a facebuster. HHH connects with a piledriver and covers. That’s enough to get another pinfall. The Rock 1, HHH 3. The Rock fires out of the corner with a clothesline. HHH comes right back with an elbow and gets 2. HHH climbs up top, but The Rock throws him off. The Rock wins a slugfest as he tries to comeback. The Rock gets HHH in an Oklahoma roll for 2. HHH elbows The Rock down to stop his momentum. HHH catches The Rock coming off the ropes with a sleeper. The Rock drops to the mat and HHH begins to put his feet on the ropes for leverage. Shawn sees it and puts a stop to it. HHH tries to put the hold on again, but The Rock escapes and hits HHH with a belly-to-belly suplex. He covers and gets a long 2.

20 minutes left. The Rock nails HHH with a DDT and gets the 3 count. The Rock 2, HHH 3. They head back outside and The Rock drops HHH on the timekeeper’s table. HHH tries to use a chair, but Shawn takes it away from him. The Rock hits HHH with a swinging neckbreaker. Both men are down and looking fatigued. HHH gets the chair again and this time nails The Rock with it. Shawn sees it and calls for the disqualification. The Rock 3, HHH 3. However, HHH covers The Rock (and puts his feet on the ropes) and gets a pinfall. The Rock 3, HHH 4. The Rock has been busted open. HHH puts The Rock back into a sleeper. The Rock’s arm drops twice, but not three times. The Rock escapes, only to have the hold be put right back on him. This time The Rock’s arm drops three times and Shawn gives HHH another decision. The Rock 3, HHH 5. Shawn forces HHH to break the hold and they get into an argument. The break allows The Rock to start a comeback. He punches away on HHH and then throws him outside. A DDT by HHH gets 2.

10 minutes left. HHH goes up top again, but The Rock crotches him. The Rock climbs up and gives him a superplex. The Rock covers, but only gets a long 2 count. The Rock clotheslines HHH to the floor. On the outside, The Rock catapults HHH into the post. HHH covers back by whipping The Rock into the steps. HHH takes The Rock onto the announce table and tries to give him the Rock Bottom. The Rock fights out of it and then Pedigrees HHH onto the table! HHH is busted open. The Rock crawls back into the ring, but HHH doesn’t make it back in before the 10 count. The Rock 4, HHH 5. We’ve got less than four minutes to go. We now see the McMahons walking down to the ring. HHH rolls back in just before another 10 count. The Rock connects with a DDT and then has to knock Shane and Vince off the apron. The Rock nails HHH with a spinebuster and then goes for the People’s Elbow. Nice job by Shawn for making it seems like he might superkick The Rock, like he did in the past, refereeing a Rock match, but ultimately didn’t. The People’s Elbow connects and The Rock scores the pinfall. The Rock 5, HHH 5. Keep in mind that unlike the Wrestlemania 12 Iron Man match, if this one ends in a tie, The Rock remains champ. 2 minute warning! Shane pulls Shawn out of the ring. Shawn is having to fend off both McMahons. As Shawn gets back on the apron, HHH throws The Rock into him and Shawn goes crashing into the barricade. Road Dogg and X-Pac are here now attacking The Rock. Suddenly, that creepy music plays again and out comes the Undertaker!! Taker comes in the ring and takes out the entire McMahon-Helmsley faction. With 10 seconds left, Taker chokeslams HHH. Time expires and Taker tombstones HHH. The match is over, but what’s the decision? Shawn goes over to the Fink and tells him The Rock has been disqualified. HHH wins the decision and the match. We have a new champion!

Postmatch: It was revealed later on that Shawn saw the chokeslam and thus he made the right call.

BL: That was a hell of a match. I’m exhausted just watching it. There was a lot of concern that these two couldn’t pull off this type of match, but they proved the critics wrong, big time. The action was consistent throughout, yet they paced themselves so as not to burn out. I also loved the multiple decisions this one had. They really added to the psychology of the match. Some people don’t care for the finish, but I thought it worked for the match. It adds to the title scene as HHH is the champ, but The Rock and now the Undertaker are going to be vying for it. Big ups to the crowd here too, who were hot from bell to bell. I may catch some flak for this, but I have to give this one *****.

Final Thoughts: I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but the WWF scores with another great show here. Both the World and Intercontinental title matches are fantastic. On top of that, there isn’t a clunker to be found in the undercard. A show like this seems so effortless in its greatness, that you wonder why they can’t have great PPVs every month. This show seems to be forgotten in the grand history of the WWF, but it is worth it for every WWF fan to make the effort and check out this show. You won’t be disappointed.

Next time, it’s Patterson vs. Brisco. What a drag.