Sunday, August 11, 2019

WWF Summerslam 2000


It's the year 2000; the year some would argue was WWF's best year in terms of creative and wrestling. And so we have Summerslam 2000, home of the "first" Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match as well as another edition of Shane McMahon: STUNTMAN! on display and a triple-threat WWF Championship title bout!



Right To Censor (Steven Richards, Bull Buchanan & The Goodfather doing a knock-off of the Parents Television Council group that lambasted WWF for its content) defeated Too Cool (Rikishi, Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty) in the opening contest that happened.

X-Pac defeated Road Dogg with a lowblow and face buster in a thing that happened. Road Dogg then got his back by attacking X-Pac and I guess that's the end of this pseudo-DX team that was still going on. I remember at some point, X-Pac joined with a couple other guys to form his own faction while Road Dogg paired up with the future R-Truth in a rapping gimmick, but I didn't think they'd still be doing the DX thing this far in, especially with Hunter doing his own thing around this time.

Chyna & Eddie Guerrero defeated Trish Stratus & Intercontinental Champion Val Venis when Chyna pinned Trish to win the title. Yes, the Intercontinental Championship was on the line in a tag-team match and that meant Chyna got her second run with the title. And then two weeks later, Eddie would steal it with a hug during a match. Oh well... this was a thing that happened, but at the very least, it went by quickly enough.

Jerry Lawler defeated Tazzzzzzzzzzzzzzz with an assist from Jim Ross smashing a candy jar over Tazzzzzzzzz's head in yet another thing that happened. I remember when Tazzzzzzzz coming to WWF was something of a big deal despite my limited exposure to ECW and they preceded to do nothing with the guy, which is a bit of a shame, really. Going back to watch his older ECW stuff made me appreciate the kind of wrestler Taz was back in the day and I kinda wish he got a better run... but hey, he made up for it by being a dick to Michael Cole on commentary, which made me very, very happy.

Steve Blackman defeated Hardcore champion SHANE MCMAHON to win the title in a match that included Shane falling off a set. Backstory; Shane summoned a bunch of jobbers to take down Blackman and steal the title for himself, but Commissioner MICK FOLEY booked a hardcore match and rescinded the 24/7 stipulation until then. And this is what separated the Hardcore title from the modern 24/7 title, because while the Hardcore title was widely known for the 24/7 high jinx of CRASH HOLLY, there were also some fun hardcore title matches that took place and this was one of them. Shane might not have been that great of a wrestler, but when it came to taking big risks as well as the big hits, he got that part nailed. And Blackman wasn't too bad either.

And then we get to the good stuff... though to be fair, that Hardcore match was pretty fun.

Chris Benoit defeated Chris Jericho in a Best-Of-Three falls match winning two falls to one. Benoit got the first fall with a Crossface submission, Jericho got the second fall with a Walls of Jericho submission, and Benoit finished with a countered roll-up with rope leverage. A great fucking match between these two, who always worked so well together and always made it feel like two guys clawing their way to the all-important final fall. I could watch these two wrestle all day and I'd be happy... and then feel sad afterwards.

WWF Tag-Team Champions Edge and Christian defeated The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz in the first ever Tables, Ladders, Chairs match to retain the titles. Basically an evolution of their triangle ladder match from Wrestlemania 2000, the idea was that each of the three gimmicks represented the gimmick of each team. The Dudleyz were known for putting people through tables, the Hardyz used ladders, and E&C would often El Kabong a hapless fool with two chairs. It was a match stipulation tailor made for these teams that somehow became a recurring gimmick that has lost all meaning over the years.

WWF Champion THE ROCK defeated Triple H and Kurt Angle (who didn't spend that much time in the match due to an errant attack from Hunter that took him out for the short term) in a Triple Threat match to retain the title. Good match to end an otherwise 50/50 show.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Keep it real and keep it clean.