We kick off this review with a very sad fun fact, as this just about marked the one year anniversary of Owen Hart's death, off by just two days. Of course, the Over the Edge pay-per-view name had to be changed after that tragedy, so Judgment Day got it's spot in the lineup instead and would turn into one of the WWE's long-running annual events, going for the next 9 years straight. The most heavily promoted match leading into this night was the Iron Man match between The Rock and Triple H, a major upping of the stakes from Backlash and the main reason I wanted to cover this show, as I also reviewed the first televised version of the gimmick at WrestleMania 12. That match was received in somewhat of a controversial fashion, mostly due to Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels not scoring a single fall in the entire 60 minutes. Let's see how the second attempt would change the formula.
- Judgment Day 2000 comes to you from Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, the one and only WWE event ever held in the venue. This crowd was definitely a bit more muted than the one at Backlash, but still provided an excellent atmosphere for certain matches, which I'll get to later.
- Actually, I'll get to that now, as the opener sees Kurt Angle, Edge and Christian take on Too Cool and Rikishi, in a match that was definitely designed to use the crowd as much as possible. The heels draw big heat for their pre-match promo, showing off Louisville's greatest cultural achievement, the jug band, which was hilarious, to be fair. This match includes a lot of shtick, with the faces staying one step ahead of the action for the most part, with Rikishi really being put over as a future star, getting a huge pop for his hot tag, tossing folks around the ring and no-selling moves. Christian attempts to win the same way they got the tag titles at Backlash, hitting Kish with the ring bell, but as he's getting the cover, Grandmaster Sexay puts him out with an impressive diving guillotine leg drop. This match isn't quite to the standard as what the members of Too Cool could put together with the Radicalz, but it was still very enjoyable and got the show off to a strong start.
- Up next, Eddie Guerrero defends his European Championship against Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn in the implosion of the aforementioned Radicalz. The crowd just does not care about Malenko and Saturn, and to be fair, they've been given no reason to, as Eddie and Benoit are the obvious stars out of this group and the WWF has pretty much already given up on pushing the other two. This match is pretty dull considering the talent in the ring, and I unfortunately do need to attribute at least some of that to my boy Saturn. He's very clumsy and completely out of time with the other two men, who could've probably had a good match if they were on their own. To prove it, Malenko and Guerrero combine for the biggest highlight of the match, a top rope gutbuster that was executed to perfection and looked absolutely brutal. I suppose it's only right that Perry takes the fall, which he does after being knocked out with a lead pipe that was hidden in Chyna's bouquet of roses.
- Shane McMahon has put together some incredible hardcore wars in his career, but this match against the Big Show was certainly not one of them. It features a whole ton of run-ins, mainly by the T&A trio, with Trish once again drawing all the heat, taking a big press slam onto Test and Albert. Those two, plus the Big Boss Man and Bull Buchanan get Shane the win, trapping Show's leg with a speaker box and allowing Shane to KO the big bastard with a crumbly cinderblock.
- Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit put together a fantastic clash at Backlash for the Intercontinental Championship, and we get another one here as they face off in a Submission match. Both men spend a lot of time just picking each other apart with ruthless offense, Benoit focusing on Jericho's shoulder and Jericho on Benoit's knee, which was injured in a steel chair assault by Hardcore Holly. The crowd is a little muted at the start, but come alive for a chop-off between the two, always a fun spot. Jericho gets in a rope assisted Tarantula, which is a bit strange to see anyone not named Tajiri perform but looks great and really fits the narrative of the match. Benoit cheats to score the win, knocking Jericho down with his knee brace, before choking him unconscious with the Crippler Crossface. That's definitely an uncomfortable visual given what this maniac would go on to do, but I can't hold that against this match. This is an absolutely brutal affair, much more vicious and personal than the type of matches that Bret Hart would construct but still able to match the tight psychology and clever offense that Bret would add. Another great match between these two.
- Tori is the newest female valet in the sights of Bubba Ray Dudley, but this tag tables match between the Dudley Boyz and Road Dogg and X-Pac in no way compares to what the match and angle Trish and Bubba were involved in last month. Bubba and D-Von do at least make the match entertaining, but there's really nothing too interesting to comment on before the finish. With Bubba and Road Dogg the only two yet to go through a table, they get into the slugfest, which the official unwisely tries to interrupt and he gets sent flying into a table. That allows Hardcore Champion Gerald Brisco to get involved, as he's being mostly just wandering around backstage all night, hiding from possible pursuers of his gold and literally terrified of his own reflection. Brisco saves Tori, whom Bubba was attempting to powerbomb through a table, and X-Pac scores the win by sending Bubba through the wood with an impressive Super X-Factor.
- Main event time, as it's an Iron Man match scheduled for one whole hour, as The Rock defends the WWF Championship against Triple H, with Shawn Michaels as special guest referee, though he doesn't have much of a role to play here. The first thing I should not is that this is a very different match from Bret-Shawn at 'Mania 12, much more choreographed with tons of spots and lots of falls, provided a much more chaotic feel as opposed to two athletes battling for dominance. That makes sense, these are two very different wrestlers, and I personally enjoyed this match a lot more, though that was mostly because of important point number two, the incredible performance of Jim Ross on commentary. Jerry Lawler is actually pretty solid here as well, but JR has an absolute stormer, putting over just about every single offensive move by both men, breaking down the psychology of the match and really just selling the concept and why you should care. I think that's a lot of what the first match was missing, an incredibly intelligent commentator who gets wrestling and can explain to the fans at home what you're seeing and why it matters. Even when Hunter hands over a fall by getting disqualified hitting Rock with a chair, JR and the King are so quick to point out that Rock has been busted open, meaning Hunter sacrificed one decision to pick up two more, pinning Rock for a fall and also passing him out with a sleeper hold. I also love just how deadly finishing moves are in this one, there is not one finisher being kicked out of here and once one is hit, the other man is out of it for several minutes. Definitely the biggest highlight of the match comes when Rock hits Hunter with a Pedigree on the announce table, scoring a count-out, as the tally is now 5-4 in favor of the challenger heading into the final couple minutes. This is where the match starts to get a bit overbooked, as the McMahons make their way to ringside so Rock can knock them silly for a bit, before pinning Triple H with his float-over DDT to even the score. Here, The Undertaker makes his grand return, now on his new bike and in the American Badass persona, as the crowd pops huge for him cleaning the ring. Unfortunately, the finish is very dumb, with 'Taker hitting Triple H with a chokeslam inside of the final 5 seconds, which leads to a DQ to crown a new champion. That wasn't the best way to bring back a returning star, but at least he was over, and they set up a controversial ending that could've led to another great title match betwen the two which unfortunately never happened.
8/10
When so much of one show is designated to a single match, that match better deliver, and luckily, Triple H and The Rock passed with flying colors. Their Iron Man match was a little overbooked at points and maybe didn't need 11 falls, but I enjoyed it a lot more that Bret-Shawn because there was significantly less downtime and rest holds, plus JR on commentary was a massive upgrade from Vince. Add in another great Benoit-Jericho match and a hot opener and you've got a really entertaining show, even with a couple forgettable matches in there.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: It sure as Hell won't be King of the Ring, and if you want to know why, just look at that card, it's absolutely horrid. Instead, I'm going to something far better, Fully Loaded 2000. See you soon.
- Henry
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