This is the final WWE pay-per-view to bear the Fully Loaded name, as there was originally scheduled to be at least one more version the following year, which was replaced by the Invasion pay-per-view. At least it went out with a bang, as this was definitely the best Fully Loaded of the three, with a stacked card and several big highlights. Let's get into it.
- Fully Loaded 2000 comes to you from the Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas, which is the one and only WWE event to take place in the venue, at least to my knowledge. The crowd here is very hot for virtually everything on the card, definitely one of the better crowds for a 2000 show, which is really saying something.
- We open in style, as Team Extreme(The Hardy Boyz and Lita) take on Trish Stratus and T&A in an intergender tag match, where women and men are allowed to wrestle each other. As is often the case during this time, the women are the focal point of the feud, with Trish taking multiple opportunities to get physical with Lita, including whipping her with a belt and pushing her off a ladder through a table. This match is excellent, as T&A and the Hardys have a ton of chemistry together and the power of the heels and high flying daredevil style of the faces makes for a perfect matchup. The crowd goes into a complete meltdown for anything involving Trish and Lita, as Lita is put over as an absolute megastar here, wrestling circles around Test and Albert before getting her revenge on Trish by pinning her with the moonsault. Afterward, Trish continues their feud by once again whipping Lita, setting up for more interactions between the two later in the night.
- Tazz took some time off to heal an arm injury during the summer, returning a few weeks ago as a heel, attacking random members of the midcard for seemingly no reason. One of the men he attacked, Al Snow, wants revenge and got a match here with Tazz, which is by some distance the most forgettable contest on the night. Both men are capable wrestlers and have a solid match, but there's just no heat as Tazz really hasn't been presented as a true dominant force, and having a competitive match with Al Snow, a pure comedy guy in the WWF, does him no favors. The Tazzmission earns the "Human Wrecking Machine" the win.
- The European Championship is on the line in our next bout, as Eddie Guerrero defends against Perry Saturn. Once again, the story is focused on the women, as Saturn cost Chyna a chance to win the Light Heavyweight title from Dean Malenko, before his valet Terri got to slap the "Ninth Wonder of the World" around for a bit. Eddie and Perry have a very competent match, as Eddie takes some big bumps to try and put Saturn over as a real powerhouse. Chyna gets involved multiple times throughout the match, and gets put through a table by Saturn for her troubles. Terri gets involved for the finish, as she distracts Eddie and hits him with a low blow, allowing Saturn to hit a flying elbow drop to win the belt. Nothing terrible to be found here, a solid enough midcard match.
- One of many running threads throughout the night is Christian's food poisoning, as he and Edge try to worm their way out of a tag title defense against the APA. The ruse fails when Commissioner Mick Foley sees through it, and sends the champions out to compete. The two teams have a short match mostly dominated by the challengers, before Edge and Christian get intentionally disqualified to save their belts. The match may not have been anything special, but the skits before hand were great, Edge, Christian and Foley were always entertaining together, so it works out to a positive in my book.
- Val Venis has finally gained a more serious side to his character, and he defends the Intercontinental Championship against Rikishi inside of a Steel Cage. The opening minutes are nothing special, as both men take turns slamming the other into the cage, but the action really picks up when Trish, Val's manager, gets involved, shutting the door on Rikishi's head. Val gets a close near fall off the Money Shot, before Lita runs down, stripping Stratus of her top and whipping her the belt Trish was using earlier. The crowd ate all of this up, and the Lita-Trish brawl is quickly followed with one of the best spots in WWE history, as Rikishi climbs to the top of the cage, pauses, and leaps off of it to deliver a diving splash! That was absolutely insane, and the crowd rightfully comes unglued. All the props in the world to Val for taking that, a big man like Rikishi crashing down on you from that height has to hurt. Before the crowd has a chance to breathe, Tazz runs down to bash Rikishi with a TV camera, allowing Venis to steal the win and retain his belt. This is definitely one of the better cage matches in WWE history, especially for that Rikishi dive, holy sh** that was something.
- Another of the feuds being progressed throughout the night sees Kurt Angle attempt to gain an advantage on The Undertaker, attacking the "American Badass" with a wrench before their match. This is the first of the billed triple main events, and it's definitely the weakest of the three. Undertaker does everything in his power to make Angle look well beneath him, from completely no-selling the wrench attack to lifting Angle off the mat several times during pinfall attempts like he's some kind of jobber. This is an absolutely terrible way to present your newly crowned King of the Ring, and the man who, spoiler alert, will be fighting for the world title next month at your second biggest show of the year. Even though I didn't like much of this match, mostly because it's so one-sided, but the finish was very impressive, as Undertaker delivers an emphatic Last Ride to Kurt for the win. I don't know how controversial of a take this is, but I've always preferred the Last Ride to the Tombstone Piledriver, it's looks so damn impressive and the sound of Kurt hitting the mat is quite something. JR compares it to the sound of a car wreck, and I can't disagree.
- Chris Jericho and Triple H have been engaged in a bit of a simmering feud for most of the year, not really having any big matches except for Jericho's phantom title win back in April. It's definitely picked up in the last month, after Chris kissed Stephanie at King of the Ring, leading to all out warfare between the two escalating to a Last Man Standing match. This is one of the gimmick matches that can be difficult to make interesting, since it depends so heavily on stopping the action for a ref count, but these two men put together a fantastic, brutal encounter here. Triple H even uses the count to draw heat, pausing for a kiss from his wife which was just brilliant heeling. The violence just slowly escalates, with some big shots to the head for both a steel chair and TV monitors, and Hunter gets to blade. Jericho get a massive pop for putting Triple H in the Walls of Jericho, before getting a size-ably bigger one for putting Stephanie in the hold. The finish comes when Y2J is attempting to hit a Lionsault on Triple H through the announce table, I think that was what he was setting up for, but Hunter does let him get a chance to try whatever move he was thinking of. Triple H hits a back suplex that puts both him and Jericho through the table, and is able to just beat the count, though he falls back down immediately. I thought that was a perfect little touch to really put Jericho over, even in defeat, as Triple H only won because he was the one aware of the count, not because Chris had delivered any less punishment. This was an outstanding match, as both men just beat the Hell out of each other and the had the crowd hooked the entire way, and it's definitely a sign, if anyone needed one, that Chris Jericho was ready for the main event.
- Speaking of which, it's main event time, as The Rock defends the WWF Championship against Chris Benoit in a bit of a weird match on paper, but a great one in execution. I thought both men's styles meshed perfectly, and both sold really well for their opponent, especially Rock, who really put over the more deliberate offense of Benoit and made him look like a truly worthy title contender. Shane McMahon hovers around at ringside, drawing the ire of the crowd, which helps get a ton of heat on Benoit. I really loved the way Rock sold the Sharpshooter from Benoit, screaming in agony and contorting his body. I also loved Benoit selling after hitting the diving headbutt, because that's a move that both in kayfabe and shoot could definitely hurt the person delivering the move, and I just love the idea that a finishing move carries some risk for a wrestler, so they would have a reason to not just go for it a million times a match. Benoit nearly falls to the People's Elbow, but is saved by Shane, who gets involved for the finish, smacking the ref, Earl Hebner, in the back with a chair. That decision seems nonsensical initially, as Rock traps Benoit in the Crippler Crossface and seemingly retains his title when Hebner calls for the bell. But the stipulation for the match is that if Rock is disqualified, he would lose the belt, and Earl believes that Rock was the one who struck him with the chair, making Chris Benoit the new champion. But as Benoit and McMahon make their way up the ramp, having seemingly screwed The Rock out of the title, Mick Foley heads down to ringside to a massive pop. Foley gets the match restarted, and this whole sequence is the reason why I love face authority figures, as it makes everything seem so much more even and forces heels to be incredibly clever when cheating. Benoit does gain an initial advantage after the restart, but eventually falls to a Rock Bottom to close the show. This was a quality main event, a straight wrestling match that takes very few shortcuts and really gets Chris Benoit over a legit headliner. Great way to close a great night.
9/10
Sure, Fully Loaded does contain some forgettable matches, but this show never once fell off the deep end and was consistently entertaining, from the hot opener all the way through to the main event. The segments backstage between Kurt and The Undertaker, Triple H and Chris Jericho and The Rock and Chris Benoit all added to their matches, plus the ongoing story between Trish Stratus and Lita was the best women had been presented in the company to this point, and set up some incredible matches down the line between them.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: SummerSlam 2000. See you soon.
- Henry
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