retained the title in that crazy 6-man tag match at KOTR. However, since Rock won it, that stipulation went out the door. This had been all part of Linda trying to screw with Vince and Co. at that time. That seems like an odd stipulation to add on, but I’ve got no proof to dispute it, so we’ll go with that. Thanks for the help!

- Secondly, Jerry sent me an email saying, “At Fully Loaded in July 2000, Bradshaw said that Texas had won a Championship in every major sport. My question is this: What championship did a Texas team win in baseball before July 2000? The Rangers had only been to the Playoffs three times (and were beat by the Yankees each time in the Division Series) and the Astros had never won a Playoff series. I think Bradshaw should check his facts before making comments like that.” I think Jerry’s right on this one. I’m sure they’ve won a college baseball championship or something weak like that, but I think this is a case of a Texan once again elevating Texas’ greatness to fictional proportions.

Finally, I got a great question from Venkat, who asked, “How can two guys who put up one of the greatest matches at No Way Out 2006 not perform well when they were still fully active in 2000?” He is, of course, referring to the Undertaker and Kurt Angle. This is a very good question, and I could probably spend an entire column talking about it, but let me see if I can give you a quick and dirty version. You could look at this from two perspectives: First, you could look at it from a storyline point of view. For their match in 2000, Angle had done a lot of pranks to the Undertaker (spilled milk on his bike backstage, then poured some corrosive pancake batter on his bike at ringside, etc). Basically, Angle had become a thorn in the Undertaker’s side. As a result, Angle deserved to be soundly beaten in retribution (ignoring the fact that Angle just won KotR the month before). In 2006, the storyline was basically, “who’s the better man”. You had two veterans fighting for the title, wanting to prove they were the greatest. In order to do that, they put on a well-worked, evenly fought match. The other way you could look at it, is from a backstage politics perspective. In 2000, Angle was still seen as the new kid on the block. Taker felt threatened by the rising star and wanted to knock him down a few pegs. Taker was out to prove that he still had all the stroke. By the time they fought in 2006, Angle had earned his status. He took his lumps and emerged as a legit main-eventer. Now that Taker’s in this semi-retired status, all he’s concerned about is looking good when he decides to make appearances. There’s no better way to show you still have it than to go toe-to-toe with Angle. So that’s it in a nutshell, but it’s also just my opinion. Readers may feel to disagree with me or chime in with their own thoughts, if they are so inclined.

All right, that’s it from the mailbag. Now let’s check out what the WWF had to serve at their summertime classic from 2000.

Emanating from the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena in my new hometown of Raleigh, NC

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

- The show opens with an operatic video package, which oddly works, given the tragic love story taking place in the main event storyline.

The Right to Censor (RTC) is a new faction that is trying to clean up the filth in the WWF. At this point, the group consists of Steven Richards (the leader of the group), Bull Buchanan, and the Goodfather. Interestingly, the faces come to the ring with two of the Godfather’s former hos and one of the ladies is current WWE diva, Victoria. As the faces dance, RTC tries to jump them. However, the faces quickly recover. Things settle down to Scotty and Bull. Scotty gets a nearfall on Bull after a high crossbody. Sexay is in now and he dumps the Goodfather to the outside. The hos chastise the Goodfather, so he shoves both of them to the ground. Big heel heat for that. Now the crowd begins to chant “Save the hos”. RTC have isolated Sexay and make him this match’s Ricky Morton. A powerbomb by Richards gets 2 on Sexay. Richards goes up top, but Sexay crotches him. Sexay follows that up with a superplex. An enziguri by Sexay allows him to make the hot tag to Rikishi. Rikishi easily handles all three members of RTC. Now everybody’s in and the referee has lost all control of the match. Soon Scotty bulldogs Bull to set him up for the Worm. As he goes through the motions, Richards comes up and superkicks him. Everybody else is brawling on the floor, so Richards is able to cover and pick up the victory.

Bottom Line: While Too Cool and Rikishi are not my favorite workers, this was an effective opener. You had an easy heat magnet in RTC going up against a very over trio. In the brief amount of time that they had, everyone hit their shots to get the crowd excited. I’m also very partial to the finish, as I always love to see people pay for wasting time by doing stuff like dancing. This was too short to be rated highly, but it did the job perfectly of getting the crowd amped up for tonight. ***

- Earlier tonight on HeAT, Jonathan Coachman tried to talk to both Kurt Angle and Stephanie McMahon, but neither seemed to be in the talking mood. Now back live, Michael Cole interviews Shane McMahon about Stephanie’s situation, but he barely says anything before running away, upon seeing Steve Blackman stalking him. It hasn’t been a good night for the interviewers thus far.

This began as a “friendly rivalry” between the two buddies, but grew in intensity over the past few weeks. Now if only the audience cared about either guy, this might actually be a decent feud. We begin with both men doing moves to try and get a psychological advantage over the other. X-Pac goes for the spinning heel kick, but Road Dogg catches his leg and clotheslines him to the mat. After Road Dogg misses a charge, X-Pac kicks him down in the corner. X-Pac goes for the Bronco Buster, but Road Dogg bails. Now X-Pac connects with a spinning heel kick and gets 2. X-Pac hits the Bronco Buster, but Road Dogg no-sells it and comes back with some juking and jiving. Then he connects with the shaky legs kneedrop. That gets 2. X-Pac escapes the pump handle slam, but when he tries for the X-Factor, Road Dogg reverses it into a spinebuster. Road Dogg tries for the pump handle slam again, but X-Pac kicks him low. A follow-up X-Factor allows X-Pac to make the cover for the win.

Postmatch: X-Pac gets on the mic and says the better man won. X-Pac tells Road Dogg, “no hard feelings” and then offers him a hand. Road Dogg takes the hand, but then kicks X-Pac in the gut and gives him the pump handle slam.

BL: As I said at the beginning of this match, this might have been a cool storyline, if anybody cared about these two. Instead, the crowd is forced to pick sides, when they’d rather choose none of the above. There was nothing wrong with the match, except that it consisted only of each man’s hackneyed moveset. This would have been fresh in ’98, but now it just feels like a repeat. **

- There is this really weird moment where J.R. takes a few seconds to plug a local Raleigh steakhouse and as he does, they actually show the logo of the place. This restaurant wasn’t sponsoring the show, so I’m not sure why they did that plug. It was really weird and random. But at least I have a new place to check out down here in Raleigh. Thanks J.R.!

- Eddie Guerrero and Chyna are shown backstage talking about their upcoming match. The segment ends with Chyna telling Eddie that one of them will be getting lucky tonight, which Eddie likes the sound of. It takes a really good actor to appear to be enticed by a line like that when it’s delivered by someone like Chyna.

- Meanwhile, Val Venis chews out Trish Stratus for being preoccupied with her looks, instead of Val’s upcoming Intercontinental title defense. I miss the good ol’ days when all Val was concerned with was Saving Ryan’s Privates and making sexual innuendos with hot dogs.

Intergender Tag Team Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: Val Venis (champ) and Trish Stratus vs. Eddie Guerrero and Chyna

Whoever gets the pinfall in this match will be the Intercontinental champion. Val and Eddie start and get off to a fast-paced start. Chyna makes a blind tag and she comes in and clotheslines Val. As Chyna manhandles Val, Trish comes in and gets a cheap shot on her. Chyna grabs Trish, but Val attacks her from behind before she can attack her. A suplex by Val causes Chyna to have a wardrobe malfunction, however she quickly fixes it before anything naughty is seen. Val goes for an elbow from the second rope, but misses. A DDT by Chyna allows her to tag Eddie. Eddie comes in and takes it to Val. A hurricanrana by Eddie gets 2. Val launches Eddie into the turnbuckle and then powerbombs him. Both men go for crossbodies and end up clunking heads. Trish tags Val to let herself in and covers Eddie for 2. She puts up a brief offense before Eddie trips her and tags Chyna. Chyna easily takes care of Trish until Val trips her from the apron. Val dumps Eddie to the floor and then the heels try to double-team Chyna. However, Eddie grabs Val and Chyna no-sells a Trish clothesline. As the men brawl on the floor, Chyna press slams Trish and covers her for 3. New champion!

Postmatch: Eddie celebrates with his mamacita, while Val bitches out Trish.

BL: They had a unique concept for this match, I just wished they had played it up more. There should have been more tension between Chyna and Eddie. They also should have shown more of Val withstanding fatigue so he wouldn’t have to tag Trish in. I would have preferred Eddie going over, but given where they went with the storyline, I understand why they did it that way. As for the action, it was ok, but again too short to be anything remarkable. ** ½

- Janet the Makeup Lady and Stephanie have a little “girl talk” backstage about Kurt and Stephanie admits that Kurt is a good kisser. Man, is there anything that guy can’t do well?

For some reason, to put some added heat on Tazz, they decided to have him start verbally abusing J.R. Lawler decided to stand up for his announcing partner, which led us to this match here. Tazz comes out pretending he’s blind after he nearly blinded J.R., when he bashed in a car window that J.R. was being held in. As he mocks J.R., Lawler gets up and punches Tazz to get this match underway. The two head into the ring and it’s all Lawler to begin. Lawler hits his patented fist drop from the second rope, but a second one misses. Tazz now comes back with some punches and clotheslines. Outside, the two brawl with Lawler getting the edge. Tazz tries backing off and then suckers Lawler in for a shot to the abdomen. Tazz goes for a somersault senton, but Lawler moves out of the way. Down goes the strap and Lawler goes back on offense. Lawler connects with the piledriver, but Tazz no-sells it. Tazz grabs Lawler and throws him into the referee. Tazz locks Lawler in the Tazzmission and drops him to the mat. All of a sudden, J.R. gets up and busts a candy jar over Tazz’s head, which draws a huge pop from the crowd. Lawler crawls over and gets the pinfall.

BL: I go into full mark mode every time I see that finish. Between J.R. finally getting revenge for the abuse Tazz put him through and the crowd pop, you can’t help but love the ending. As for the rest of the match, that wasn’t so great. Way too much punching and kicking for my liking. It’s a shame that upon his return, Tazz got stuck in such a limited feud like this one. * ¼

- Lillian Garcia approaches Shane McMahon and again tries to get him to talk about Stephanie and again Blackman chases him away before he can answer. In fact, Shane runs right out to the ring, which leads us too…

Blackman tosses Shane his kendo stick and offers him a free shot. Shane is reluctant, but eventually goes for it. However, Blackman grabs the stick, takes it back and then chases Shane. Shane heads into the crowd, but Blackman catches up to him and nails him with a trash can. Blackman takes Shane back into the ring and abuses him with a trash can lid. It’s been all Blackman thus far. Now Blackman puts a strap around Shane’s neck and tosses him around the ring by it. As Blackman chokes Shane, T & A come out and attack him. After doing a number on Blackman, T & A hold him up for Shane to get some shots in. Shane bloodies Blackman’s nose with a street sign to the face. Everybody heads to the entrance now. T & A try throwing an electrical box on Blackman, but he moves out of the way. Some heel miscommunication allows Blackman to attack everyone with a kendo stick. Shane begins to climb up the Summerslam sign and Blackman follows him. They get all the way to the top (!) and Blackman begins to hit him with the kendo stick. After a third shot, Shane falls all the way down onto the staging. Hol-lee Shit!! Then Blackman climbs down a bit, leaps off and drives an elbow into Shane. Blackman rolls over and gets the 1-2-3. New champion!

BL: Once again, we get a memorable finish to a somewhat lackluster match. The match was just too uneven, with first Blackman dominating and then getting beatdown, to be decent. In addition, none of the offense was very innovative. However, no one will remember that, as the finish is the lasting image in their mind. Once again, Shane does something crazy that everyone remembers. Big props go out to him and Blackman for doing those spots. It’s just a shame the rest of the match couldn’t have been as good. ** ½

- Backstage, Stephanie is looking on in horror at the TV after seeing what happened to Shane, when Kurt comes into her room. Angle takes advantage of Stephanie’s distraught state and begins to console her. All of a sudden, Mick Foley barges in and breaks up their hug. He then tells Stephanie, that he thinks Shane may have landed on his “kisser”. Oh that Mick Foley, he’s a master of subtlety all right.

Neither man had any outstanding feuds heading into this show, so the bookers decided to renew their rivalry. No complaints here! Benoit enters and the two immediately slug it out. The referee tries to break it up and in the process, all three men tumble to the floor. On the floor, Jericho charges at Benoit, but Benoit grabs him and sends him into the post. Back inside, Benoit gets Jericho in an STF. Jericho escapes and tries to put Benoit in the Walls of Jericho. Benoit fights it, so Jericho catapults him into the turnbuckle instead. A follow-up release German suplex by Jericho gets 2. Benoit comes back with a shoulderbreaker. Jericho hits the crappy bulldog, but when he goes for the Lionsault, Benoit gets his knees up. Benoit then locks Jericho in the Crossface. Jericho has nowhere to go, so he taps fairly quickly. Benoit immediately puts the hold right back on Jericho. This time Jericho makes it to the ropes, however. Benoit remains on offense and continues the focus on Jericho’s shoulder. Benoit gets Jericho in a tree of woe and then pulls Jericho’s arm back. Ouch! Benoit is giving Jericho’s shoulder some rough turnbuckle treatment. Jericho tries to comeback, but Benoit stops him with a German suplex. Benoit tries for a second, but Jericho reverses it and puts him in the Walls of Jericho. Benoit almost gets to the ropes, but Jericho pulls him back. With nowhere to go, Benoit taps out. We’re all tied up at one. A backbreaker gives Jericho a nearfall. A great sequence where both men try for powerbombs on the other and then exchange pinfall attempts. The whole thing ends with Benoit giving Jericho a full nelson German suplex for 2. Simply awesome! Benoit goes up top for the headbutt, but Jericho crotches him. Jericho climbs up and delivers a top rope hurricanrana. Wow! A spinning heel kick by Jericho gets 2. Jericho nails the Lionsault, but cannot quickly cover Benoit. Jericho comes off the ropes and cradles Benoit, but Benoit reverses the pin, grabs the ropes and holds Jericho down for 3.

BL: Now we have the reverse problem. A fantastic match marred by a lousy ending. These two, once again, just had a phenomenal match with all kinds of creative moves and good psychology. I’m having so much fun rewatching their matches, as I forgot how great they were. If only there could have been a stronger finish. I also felt like they were rushed out there. The match might have been better served with a slower, more drawn-out pace. But those are just nitpicks on an otherwise stellar match. **** ¼

- We cut to the back and see HHH finally arriving. Somehow I don’t think any of the interviewers will be asking him about Stephanie and Kurt’s kiss.

All six men brawl quickly with the Hardyz using chairs to their advantage early on. Edge brings a ladder into the ring, but Bubba throws it in his face. A second ladder is brought in and set up. D-Von and Jeff climb up, but soon Edge joins them and takes them down with a double Russian legsweep. Christian goes up, but Bubba takes him off with a full nelson bomb. Edge knocks Jeff off a ladder and as he falls, it causes another ladder to smack Matt in the face. Two for the price of one! Edge and Christian go for a Conchairto, but miss. Now Bubba takes out everyone with a ladder. D-Von sets the ladder in the corner and does the Wassup drop on Edge. The first table enters the ring and Christian gets put through it with a 3-D. In the aisle, the Dudleyz set up four tables 2 x 2. Bubba tries to powerbomb Matt through the pile of tables, but Edge nails him with a chair. Matt takes down Edge with a Twist of Fate. Then, from the ladder, he hits a legdrop. That’s followed up by Jeff leapfrogging over the ladder and giving Edge another legdrop. Matt puts Edge between the ladder and then throws Christian, who had climbed up top, onto the ladder and Edge. On the outside, Jeff sets Bubba on two tables and then climbs up a ladder. Jeff goes for the swanton bomb, but Bubba moves and Jeff just hits the tables. Wow! The tall ladder gets set up and four men try to climb it. However, just as quickly, they all get taken down. The only one left is Bubba and he begins to climb. However, Edge and Christian are back up. They tip the ladder over and Bubba falls from the ring through the four tables set up in the aisle. Holy shit! Edge and Christian climb up, when all of a sudden, Lita comes out and dumps the ladder over, causing Edge and Christian to crotch themselves on the top rope. Matt climbs up, but now D-Von dumps it over and Matt takes a backwards bump through two more tables that were outside the ring. How many tables are there?!? As Lita checks on Matt, Edge comes around and spears her. Very weird to see that now. Jeff and D-Von climb back up. Both men begin to grab a belt when Edge and Christian pull the ladder out from under them. The two are now swinging from the pulley that is holding the belts. Jeff kicks D-Von down and the Edge and Christian knock Jeff down with a ladder. Edge and Christian then climb up, grab the belts and win the match.

BL: I could go on at length about how amazing it was, but everybody already probably knows that. Simply put: Great spots, great effort, great match. If you haven’t seen it, get on it now! *****

- Backstage, HHH reams out Stephanie and makes it clear that she is to stay away from Kurt. Somehow I doubt that that edict will stand.

The rules her are that a winner is declared when they give their opponent a stinkface. The Kat is seconded by Al Snow, for some reason, and Perry Saturn is accompanying Terri. Saturn keeps trying to cover up Terri with a towel. The Kat takes the towel away and then slams Terri. The Kat sets Terri up in the corner, but Saturn pulls her out of the ring. Snow stops him and throws Terri back into the ring. The Kat weakly tackles Terri and then they roll around the ring. The Kat rides Terri bareback and then gives her the Bronco Buster. As she tries for the stinkface again, Saturn gets up and shoves her down. Terri then does Jericho’s crappy bulldog. After slamming Terri, The Kat tries a butt splash, but misses. Terri goes for a stinkface, but The Kat boots her into the referee. With the referee down, Snow tosses Head to The Kat and she blasts Terri with it. The Kat then drags Terri over to the corner and delivers the stinkface for the win.

BL: Let’s face it, this is no mat classic. However, it’s not as bad as it could have been. It was a fun, cool-down match after the hot TLC match. Bonus points for having it also set up a future feud between Snow and Saturn for the European title. ½ *

- Over at WWF New York, the APA are playing bartender. Sadly, they would drink more than their worth in tips. It’s no wonder the place went bankrupt.

Just like with Benoit and Jericho, these familiar foes had no other feuds and thus were pitted against each other. However, this feud is more baffling. Both men were faces when Kane inexplicably attacked Taker. Then, in his explanation, the only reason Kane gave was because he was a “monster”. Huh? This goes down as one of the more confusing heel turns. Taker meets Kane in the aisle and begins brawling with him. Taker grabs Kane’s mask, but then Kane drops him across the top rope. Kane gets a chair, but Taker attacks him before he can use it. Now Taker nails Kane with the chair. No bell is called and it is unclear if the match has even officially started. Taker gets on top of Kane and partially rips off Kane’s mask. The two go to the outside and brawl some more. Kane tries to ram the steps into Taker, but he does a sidestep and Kane rams them into the post instead. Now Taker throws the steps into Kane’s face. Back inside, Kane gives Taker a lowblow. We now see that the exposed part of Kane’s face is bleeding from the steps. Kane punches away on Taker, until Taker comes back with a spear. Again, Taker tries to take off the mask, but is unsuccessful. Kane tries for a chokeslam, but Taker kicks him low. Taker then shoves Kane to the mat and in the process, Kane’s mask comes off. Realizing that, Kane gets out of the ring and leaves. Taker’s music plays and I guess that is it. Match was a no contest.

BL: I have no idea what the purpose of that was. Even to this day, I still don’t know what the purpose of that was. I mean, if it had led to the permanent unmasking of Kane, I could understand this. But this led to nothing. Instead, we just had these two throwing punches at each other for five minutes with no conclusion. To me, this seems like a weak excuse to get the two of them on the card without any proper planning for what to do with them. Since this wasn’t an actual match, I shouldn’t give it a rating. But if I must, let’s say…* ¾

- Backstage, cameras conveniently catch Kurt dialing his cell phone and then also catch Stephanie answering her phone and pretending like it’s her mom calling because HHH is there with her. There are so many logic holes with that segment (are we really supposed to believe Kurt has Stephanie’s cell phone number?) that it makes my head hurt. They’ve done a nice job with this storyline thus far, but sometimes they are better off just sticking to wrestling.

Oh yeah, The Rock’s in this match too. You could have fooled me given the focus on the love triangle storyline. Before the match, Angle gets on the mic and says he’s sorry. Sorry for not kissing Stephanie sooner. Oh snap. That draws HHH out and those two go at it before The Rock even comes out. The two head outside and continue their fight. HHH throws Angle into the steps and announce table. Now HHH put Angle on the Spanish announce table and attempts to Pedigree him, but the table breaks early and both men fall down. HHH gets up, but Angle appears to have been knocked loopy. As HHH grabs the sledgehammer, the Rock’s music finally plays and this match can finally begin. HHH swings at The Rock, but misses. Now The Rock takes it to HHH. The Rock and HHH battle by the announce table, as EMTs check on Angle. HHH elbows The Rock to the mat and Angle is getting wheeled out on a gurney. HHH tosses The Rock outside and then chases down Angle. HHH grabs the stretcher and wheels it back towards ringside. Suddenly, The Rock runs down and clotheslines HHH in the aisle. Now The Rock catapults HHH into some of the steel that makes up the staging. As The Rock and HHH battle around the ring, Stephanie comes out to check on Angle. HHH throws The Rock into the ring and now Stephanie has come down to ringside to cheer on her husband. HHH catches The Rock coming off the ropes with a knee and gets a 2 count. HHH tells Stephanie to get the belt. Stephanie gets and tries to hit The Rock, but accidentally nails HHH instead. The Rock gets a nearfall out of that. The Rock then grabs Stephanie, but HHH lowblows him before he can do anything to her. HHH then tells Stephanie to go to the back. Geez, he’s awfully bossy, isn’t he? HHH grabs the sledge and manages to nail The Rock in the midsection. Now HHH begins to work over The Rock’s abdominals. The Rock tries for a comeback, but HHH stops him with a facebuster. That gets 2. HHH, putting his head down, allows The Rock to deliver a neckbreaker. HHH goes up top, but The Rock stops him and then superplexes him to the mat. All of a sudden, we cut to the back and see Stephanie coax Angle into going back out to the ring and help HHH. Back at ringside, a belly-to-belly suplex by The Rock gets a 2 count. Now we see Stephanie dragging Angle down the aisle towards ringside. HHH whips The Rock and Angle trips him. HHH grabs The Rock and delivers the Pedigree. HHH covers, but Angle pulls him out of the ring and throws him into the steps. Now Angle crawls in, covers The Rock and gets 2 ¾. Angle catches The Rock with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex and gets another nearfall. The Rock comes back with a DDT on Angle and gets 2. The Rock whips Angle, who collides with HHH, as he was trying to get into the ring. The Rock nails Angle with the Rock Bottom and covers, but HHH pulls The Rock out of the ring. HHH tells Stephanie to get him his sledge. Stephanie tosses it into the ring and HHH and Angle fight over it. As they vie for it, HHH accidentally hits Stephanie. Then Angle nails HHH with the sledge. Angle covers, but The Rock breaks it up. The Rock tosses Angle out of the ring and then nails HHH with the People’s Elbow. The Rock covers and gets the victory.

Postmatch: As The Rock celebrates, Angle grabs Stephanie and carries her to the back.

BL: This is a tough one to call. It appears that Angle was legit knocked out, which meant The Rock and HHH had to do a one-on-one match on the fly. The fact that it wasn’t pre-planned showed, as that portion really dragged. However, once Angle re-emerged, things really picked up. It makes you a little sad thinking about what could have been. Still in the end, the right guy went over, as the HHH/Angle feud needed to continue and not for the title. Overall, a good match that could have been a whole lot better. *** ½

Final Thoughts: Very little to complain about here. You have three great matches that would give any card an easy thumbs up. Everything else, while not necessarily high on star ratings, was either fun or possessed a memorable moment. I highly recommend this show and it may be a bit easier to find, given that it was actually released on DVD. Trust me, this show doesn’t disappoint.

Next time, somebody better get J.R. an oxygen tank because Stone Cold, Stone Cold, Stone Cold is making his grand return.