And with that out of the way, we can now get to reminiscing…

Emanating from the First Union Center in Philadelphia, PA

Since last month, Right to Censor has gained Val Venis as a member to fill out their team. It is D-Von and the Goodfather who start things off for their respective teams. As per usual with these multi-person tag matches, everyone gets tagged in briefly to hit a spot or two. J.R. claiming that Val resembles Mr. Wrestling II is an obscure yet funny reference. Steven knees D-Von in the back from the apron and now RTC begin to work him over. The Ricky Morton sequence is short, as D-Von tags Bubba and he takes it to the heels. Bubba tries to attack Steven, but Val stops him. Everybody is in now and we’ve got complete chaos. The Dudleyz connect with the Doomsday Device on Val. Bubba covers, but the Goodfather breaks it up at the very last second. As everyone continues brawling, Steven comes in and superkicks Bubba. Val covers and gets the lame victory.

Postmatch: The faces clear out all of the heels but Steven. The Dudleyz give Steven the Wassup Drop and then get a table. When they try to put him through the table, the RTC come back in and stop them. Once again, RTC is thrown out of the ring and now Bubba is able to powerbomb Steven through the table.

Bottom Line: A pretty “meh” opener. It was extremely textbook, yet in double-time. They never developed a decent Ricky Morton sequence, nor a creative finish. Having RTC in the opener is always a sure bet to get the crowd involved, but this one was sorely lacking in action to make it any good. * ½

- Triple H and Stephanie are backstage watching the action and Stephanie says she’s concerned for him tonight. HHH tells her not to worry and wants to make sure she’s ok with what he’ll do to Kurt Angle tonight. She says she’s behind him and that she’s sorry for ever thinking Angle was a friend. Careful HHH, when they say they are behind you, that’s the easiest place to stab you in the back.

- Backstage, Kevin Kelly is still WAITING…

You can win by touching all four corners or by pinfall/submission here. As soon as Lawler is strapped in, Tazz yanks him to the mat. Tazz dumps Lawler outside and then chokes him in front of J.R. As he taunts J.R., Lawler reverses things and begins to choke him. Now Lawler begins to whip Tazz with the strap. Tazz kicks Lawler low to regain the momentum. Lawler comes back and hits Tazz with the piledriver. Tazz, however, gets right up. Lawler hits a second and gets the same result. After a third one, Tazz gets up again, but then falls right back down. Tazz is getting a mixed reaction here, given that we’re in ECW territory. Lawler touches three turnbuckles and goes for the fourth. As Lawler tries to drag him, Tazz accidentally kicks the referee down. From out of nowhere, Raven appears and gives Lawler a DDT. Crowd pops huge for that. As the referee stirs, Tazz puts Lawler in the Tazzmission. Lawler’s arm drops three times and Tazz wins it.

Postmatch: Tazz won’t let go of the hold and it takes a slew of referees to get him to release it. Lawler is then carried to the back.

BL: An unnecessary addition to this feud. This would have worked with anyone as Tazz’s opponent. For this to have been more effective, they would have needed to introduce the idea of ECW more. It was barely mentioned on this show and afterwards Tazz and Raven weren’t really aligned. This was a wasted opportunity in my opinion. * ¼

- Finally, Kevin Kelly waits no longer as Austin drives up in his truck. Kelly asks him if he’s glad to be at Unforgiven. Austin says he’s asking questions, not answering them tonight. Then he throws Kelly into the garage door and walks off. I wonder if Kelly is regretting waiting there all that time now.

- Oh lord, Michael Cole has come out to join J.R. on commentary. It’s going to be a whole lot tougher for this show to get a recommendation from me now.

Al Snow brings the funny with his entrance. As European champ, he’s modified his theme music to ask “What does everybody want?” in various European languages. He’s Italian tonight, so he brought out a photo of Tony Danza for Michael Cole and a pizza for the Spanish announce team. This is quite an eclectic group for the match, but as J.R. notes, they’ve all been Hardcore champion at one point in the past. Who hasn’t? There are ten minutes for this match where as many title change can occur. At the end of the time, whomever is champ, stays champ. Saturn does a suicide dive through the ropes and Blackman nails him in the head with a trash can lid. Then Test press slams Funaki onto Blackman on the floor. In the ring, everyone tries to pin Blackman, but the attempts keep getting interrupted. Terri steals Head away from Al Snow and gives it to Saturn. He swings and accidentally hits Trish. Test takes Head, swings and accidentally hits Terri. This gives J.R. plenty of “giving head” jokes. Everybody is flying around hitting someone else. This has been crazy. Crash and Funaki somehow clear everyone out of the ring and celebrate. Then Funaki turns on Crash. Some men begin to brawl down the aisle as Snow and Crash fight in the ring. Blackman grabs a trash can and Test boots it in his face. Crash hits Test with a trash can lid and then pins Blackman for three. New champ! Saturn hits Crash with a garbage can and covers him for 3. New champ! We’re halfway through the match. Now a handful of the guys fight in the crowd. Everybody heads back to the ring and Blackman takes control using his karate sticks. Blackman nails Saturn with a kendo stick and covers him for 3. New champ! With a minute now left, Blackman begins to walk away from the ring. Everybody chases after him and begins attack him. As time ticks down, everyone tries to pin him, but the others stop them. Time runs out and Blackman survives.

BL: This started off very well. A lot of high-risk stuff and just good constant brawling. In the second half, things tapered off a bit and was mostly kicking and punching. Keeping the title on Blackman was the logical choice as they were trying to build the title up again. The finish was also smart as you would figure everyone would try to cover yet no one would allow it. Good effort here! ***

- In the hallway, Angle bumps into Austin. Angle says he’s impressed with Austin’s comeback and would like to give him an honorary gold medal (a smaller one than his real ones, of course). Austin looks at the medal and says he’s got a special place for it…up Angle’s ass. He then proceeds to attack Angle until the Usual Bunch of Idiots pull him away. Funny stuff here.

X-Pac just started randomly attacking Jericho a couple of weeks ago for no apparent reason to set up this match. Jericho runs into the ring and X-Pac quickly bails. Some fast-paced action early on with neither man gaining an advantage. Now the two begin exchanging chops. X-Pac goes for the Bronco Buster, but Jericho fires out of the corner with a clothesline. A spinning heel kick by Jericho sends X-Pac to the apron. Jericho goes for the springboard dropkick, but X-Pac shoves him to the floor. Then X-Pac connects with a somersault plancha. Back inside, X-Pac gets a nearfall with a spinning heel kick. A sleeper is applied by X-Pac. Jericho escapes, but is then hit with a back suplex. That gets 2 for X-Pac. X-Pac hits the Bronco Buster, but as he celebrates, Jericho powerbombs him. Jericho begins his comeback and caps it off with a Bronco Buster of his own. Jericho charges, but he misses and rams his shoulder into the post. X-Pac grabs some nunchucks and swings, but he misses and Jericho rolls him up for 2. Jericho goes for a German suplex, but X-Pac gives him a mule kick. X-Pac follows that up with an X-Factor. X-Pac covers and gets 2 ¾. As X-Pac goes for a hurricanrana, Jericho reverses it into the Walls of Jericho. X-Pac makes it to the ropes before tapping. Jericho argues with the referee and when he turns around, X-Pac nails him with a spin kick. That gets 2. Jericho boots a charging X-Pac and then gives him the crappy bulldog. Jericho delivers the Lionsault, but X-Pac gets his knees up. X-Pac tries for a high risk move, but Jericho catches him and puts on the Walls again. This time, he’s in the middle of the ring and X-Pac has no choice but to tap.

Postmatch: X-Pac attacks Jericho with the nunchucks again.

BL: I really can’t find fault in this match, yet I didn’t really love it either. I’m not quite sure why. The best I can come up with is that X-Pac’s moveset just isn’t as entertaining as someone like Benoit’s. I’m glad to see Jericho win clean here, but the postmatch antics lead us to belive we’re in store for another unnecessary X-Pac push. *** ¾

- We get a funny conversation between Angle and Mick Foley about Angle playing through pain. He tells Foley that before the Olympics, he had a head cold and IBS. I guess Angle wasn’t legitimate enough yet to say the truth that he had a broken freakin’ neck. Either that or he had those things on top of the broken neck. In which case, Angle somehow became more “the man” than he already was before.

- Elsewhere backstage, Austin and The Rock meet. Before Austin can do much in the way of interrogating, “Just Joe” walks in. Holy shit, I totally forgot about that guy. Anyways, you know the drill. Joe says something and Austin beats him up. Anybody have any clue what this guy is up to nowadays?

Ways to win here: pinfall or both men climbing out of the cage. As soon as the Hardyz enter the cage, Edge and Christian attack them. The Hardyz quickly recover and do some double-team moves on the champs. They set Christian on the top rope and against the cage and then do Poetry in Motion. Cool. Both Hardyz climb up, but the heels stop them. Jeff gets to the top, but Edge gives him a shove. Jeff tries to hang on, but ends up falling to the floor. Cole seems to indicate that Jeff is out of this match now. Matt hits a Twist of Fate on Edge and gets 2. J.R. contradicts Cole’s statement and then Cole backpedals. Idiot. Matt sets Christian on the top rope and then catapults Edge into him. With Christian in a tree of woe and Edge tied in the ropes, Matt begins to climb. The heels quickly recover and from the top of the cage, suplex Matt to the mat. Nice. Edge covers Matt and gets 2. Edge and Christian now give Matt some rough cage treatment. Jeff has now been trying to get back in, but Edge and Christian won’t let him. Now Jeff attacks the outside referee and takes his key. Jeff opens the door, throws in a chair and attempts to climb in. However, Christian comes over and slams the door on his head. Christian goes out, gets another chair and then locks the door again. Meanwhile, Edge has busted Matt open. Christian gives Edge the key and he puts it in his tights. Edge and Christian go for the Conchairto, but they miss. Then Matt clotheslines both Edge and Christian. Matt begins to climb out now. Edge and Christian chase him down, as Jeff has brought out a ladder. Jeff throws the ladder at Christian and he falls to the floor. We’re left with Edge and Matt in the cage. Jeff now tries to get back into the cage using the ladder. As Edge tries to stop him, Matt suplexes him back to the mat. Now from the top of the cage, Jeff does a corkscrew moonsault onto Edge and Matt. Wow! As Christian tries to get in the cage, Lita comes out and gives him a lowblow. Then she gives him a hurricanrana from the ladder. Edge begins to climb up the cage. The Hardyz follow him and brings chairs with them. On top of the cage, the Hardyz hit Edge with a Conchairto and he falls to the mat. At this point it is academic, as the Hardyz climb down to become the new tag champs.

BL: Another cool spotfest from these two teams. With each new environment, they come up with unique spots to entertain the fans. This match loses some points for having a lot of it be a glorified handicap match due to Jeff’s early exit. However, in the end, the finish was solid as the Hardyz finally got comeuppance on Edge and Christian. It’s just a shame it didn’t happen last month when they were in the Hardyz hometown. **** ¼

- We get more Austin antics as he now confronts Stephanie. Stephanie has a gift for Austin…the hat he was wearing when he got hit last November. She had been holding on to it all this time, hoping he would return someday. OMG continuity! She avoids a beatdown by reminding Austin that Shane has video proof of the culprit.

- Meanwhile, HHH confronts Foley and they go over their past. HHH then informs Foley that he intends to beat down and retire Angle, just like he did to Foley. If this were real life, that would be a strong statement. But given the way people “retire” in pro wrestling, that really isn’t much of a threat.

- Lawler has come back down to ringside to rejoin the commentary team. Cole says he’s happy to see him back, but you can hear the disappointment in his voice. It’s so sad, it’s funny.

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen the reemergence of EVIL Eddie. A lot has dealt with Eddie not wanting Chyna to pose for Playboy. However, he’s also done a lot of sneaky things to Rikishi as well, which is the reason for this match. Despite their problems, Eddie got Chyna to agree to marry him last Thursday on Smackdown. So for now, they are on the same page. Rikishi attacks Eddie quickly and then tosses him to the floor. Back inside, Rikishi tries for a butt splash, but Eddie avoids it. Eddie decides to take a walk, but Chyna forces Eddie to get back into the ring. Rikishi knocks Eddie down in the corner, but when he goes for the Stinkface, Chyna pulls Eddie out of the ring. Eddie uses Chyna as a shield and then, as Rikishi questions Chyna, Eddie attacks him from behind. Then Eddie throws Rikishi into the steps. Eddie goes for the frog splash, but misses. Rikishi hits an ugly looking Samoan Drop and then delivers the butt splash. The referee counts, but Chyna comes in and stops him. Rikishi gets up and approaches Chyna. He questions what she’s doing and then shoves her. She gets right back in his face and Rikishi superkicks her. For some reason, the referee disqualifies Rikishi for that.

Postmatch: Still not done, Rikishi takes Chyna to the corner and gives her the butt splash. Eddie goes over and helps Chyna up, but not before grabbing his Intercontinental belt first. Ha ha!

Bottom Line: The finish sort of works given where Rikishi’s character was heading in the next few weeks, but in the here and now it was really stupid and nonsensical. The rest of the match wasn’t much better. There wasn’t a whole lot of action given that Eddie was playing the chickenshit heel. They may have tried to improve Rikishi’s cred with this match, but this did nothing for Eddie. Between looking weak here and being stuck in a stupid romance angle with Chyna, it was a rough time for Eddie. **

- Taker talks with Coachman about some nonsense of how the ring is his “yard” and how his opponents will be taking “rides”. I’m really not quite sure what his point was. It’s easy to see why his promos in the past usually just consisted of “Rest in Peace”. Simple and to the point.

- Angle is distraught backstage, as things haven’t been going his way lately. Suddenly Trish Stratus walks up to him and lets him know that if he ever needs a friend, she’s there for him. Angle ignores what she says because he just came up with a great idea. Man, what a missed opportunity. They could have been a bigger power couple than Brad and Angelina. I even have their cute couple name…Strangle!

Angle gets on the mic and asks the crowd to join him as he sings “Happy Birthday” to Stephanie. The gesture doesn’t go over well with the crowd, nor Stephanie. Angle immediately attacks HHH’s ribs, which he injured with a sledgehammer shot last Thursday on Smackdown. HHH backdrops a charging Angle to the floor. HHH attacks Angle on the floor and then starts clearing the Spanish announce table. Back inside, Angle blocks a double ax handle and gives HHH an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. A DDT by HHH gets 2. HHH argues with Foley about the count, which allows Angle to shove HHH into him. Angle then delivers a German suplex and gets a nearfall. Now Angle argues with Foley and shoves him. Foley then shoves Angle right back. HHH goes for a neckbreaker, but whiffs. Then they redo the spot and hits it. Not a pretty sequence. HHH catches Angle with a knee as he came off the ropes. Angle reverses a whip and sends him to the outside. On the floor, HHH whips Angle into the steps. After bashing Angle with a chair, HHH sets him up for the Pedigree on the announce table. Angle, however gives him a low blow and then does a belly-to-belly suplex, which sends HHH through the Spanish announce table. Back inside, Angle goes back to focusing on HHH’s ribs. Angle charges at HHH, but misses and rams his shoulder into the post. Angle perches HHH on the top rope and does another belly-to-belly suplex. That gets a long 2. Now Angle locks in an abdominal stretch on HHH. Angle goes up top and does the moonsault, but nobody’s home. HHH starts to make a comeback. HHH delivers a partial Pedigree to Angle, as he couldn’t hook him with both arms due to his injury. HHH calls for Stephanie to come into the ring. HHH tells her to make her choice. She reluctantly walks over to Angle and kicks him in the balls. HHH gives Angle another Pedigree and covers him for the victory.

Postmatch: Stephanie claps for her man, but still appears concerned for Angle. HHH then walks over and gives Stephanie a very rough kiss.

BL: You have to chalk this up as a major disappointment. I mean in a vacuum, the match works better. However, given the build and anticipation surrounding this match, the audience can’t feel very satisfied. Foley wasn’t a factor in the match. Stephanie was barely a factor in the match. And at the end of the night you feel like you’ve gotten neither an advancement in the storyline, nor closure to the angle. This was pretty sound from a technical standpoint, but that is forgotten because you wanted so much more from the storytelling. ****

At this point, Shane McMahon comes out to show us the video proof that he claimed he had on HeAT earlier tonight. The proof? Steve Blackman running over Ken Shamrock with a car from an old episode of RAW. Evidently Shane’s still a little sore from losing to Blackman at Summerslam. Blackman comes out, pissed off at this false allegation. However, before he can say anything, CRASH, here comes Austin. He gets in Blackman’s face and immediately stuns him. Pleased with this turn of events, Shane gets a cooler of beer to celebrate with Austin. The two chug beers, but soon enough, Austin stuns Shane too. Shane does one of the coolest sells to the Stunner ever, as he sprays his beer out when hit with the move. Austin keeps drinking and gives Shane a couple more Stunners before leaving the ring. This was a pretty funny segment, but again, you have to be disappointed if you paid for the show, as we got nothing new revealed about who ran over Austin.

No real story here. All three opponents claimed they deserved a title shot, so Foley made all of them the #1 contender. The four pair off quickly with Kane taking on The Rock and Taker battling Benoit. The Rock and Benoit head into the crowd to brawl, while Kane and Taker remain in the ring. A top rope clothesline by Kane gets 2 on Taker. The Rock gets a nearfall on Kane after hitting a Samoan Drop. On the outside, Taker press slams Benoit on the guardrail. Now The Rock and Taker team up against Kane. After dumping Kane to the floor, the two faces go at it. Taker goes for the ropewalk, but The Rock pulls him down. The Rock avoids a Tombstone and shoves Kane into the referee. Taker nails The Rock with a chair, but then Benoit comes in and blasts Taker with a chair. Benoit covers and gets 3!! We have a new champion. Benoit leaves with the title when Mick Foley comes out and takes the belt from him. Then he says that the match must continue. Benoit’s been robbed again. OK, so I left out the detail that Taker’s leg was on the rope during the pinfall. Big deal. Benoit should still be champ! Now all three guys come after Benoit and attack him near the entrance. Back at ringside, The Rock nails Taker with the steps. Inside, The Rock catches Benoit with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Benoit comes back and hits the Hat Trick on The Rock. That gets 2. Benoit connects with the diving headbutt on The Rock and gets another nearfall. Somehow, The Rock gets the Crossface on Benoit. However, Taker breaks it up before Benoit can submit. Kane chokeslams Taker and covers, but Benoit breaks it up. The Rock gives Kane a spinebuster and goes for the People’s Elbow, but Benoit stops him with a clothesline. Big heel heat for that! Taker delivers the Last Ride to The Rock and covers, but Kane stops him. As Kane and Taker battle on the floor, Benoit bashes both of them with a chair. Now Benoit comes in and puts The Rock in the Crossface. The Rock is in the hold for a long time before Taker eventually breaks it up. Damn. Taker chokeslams Benoit and covers, but Kane pulls him out of the ring. As Taker and Kane brawl on the floor again, The Rock gives Benoit the Rock Bottom. The Rock covers and gets the three count.

BL: Without any expectations here, this one delivers nicely. On one hand that’s good because it’s a very enjoyable match, but on the other hand, there should never be a throwaway main event on PPV. Truly, the star of the match was Benoit, who worked well with everyone and looked strong despite being pinned. I’m surprised nothing more came out of Foley screwing Benoit out of the WWF title twice in a matter of months. That’s a shame. Still, this is a solid effort that has been forgotten. **** ½

Final Thoughts: From a pure wrestling perspective, the WWF delivers another winner here. However, it is not a satisfying show, given all the potential it had. There were a lot of big angles going on at this point that did not progress properly. It’s as if the WWF accidentally got caught in a holding pattern. Watching the show now should be enjoyable for most. However, I probably wouldn’t have been as kind to the show had I reviewed it back in 2000.

Next time, Los Conquistadors muy reek of awesomeness