The Road to WrestleMania 16 continues at No Way Out 2000, where Cactus Jack/Mick Foley, the two names are used interchangeably, gets his last shot to main event a WrestleMania as he challenges Triple H for the WWF Championship inside Hell in a Cell. Not much to talk about in the build to this one, Hunter offered Cactus another title shot in a stipulation of his choosing if Foley agreed to put his career on the line. It's worth noting that about a week after the Royal Rumble, the Radicalz jumped ship from WCW to join the WWF, which was really the nail in the coffin for the slowly dying WCW, especially seeing that Chris Benoit was their champion when he left. That group, with help from the dynamic tag team division and the likes of Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, would stabilize the WWF's midcard, which had been the company's weak point for many years. We'll see more of the impact of all of these wrestlers on this night, another great one for the WWF.
- No Way Out 2000 comes to you from the Hartford Civic Center(now XL Center) in Hartford, Connecticut, which had previously hosted the 1990 Survivor Series and WrestleMania 11. I do like the set for this show, which is mostly just the one used for episodes of Raw, but includes a little cage corridor that wrestlers enter through. It's a great way, along with the Hell in a Cell hanging above the ring, to remind the fans of what is to come and also give the show a unique feel.
- No better way to open any pay-per-view than with Chris Jericho defending his Intercontinental Championship against European Champion Kurt Angle. This is a really good clash of Jericho's speed and athleticism against Angle's tenacious limb based offense, and the crowd is really into it, exploding for everything Jericho does. Chyna is in Chris's corner after they found common ground, and gets involved in the finish, as Kurt shoves Chris into her and she crashes into the steps. As the official tends to Chyna, Angle gets the win in creative and sneaky fashion, hitting Jericho with the IC belt before Chris can complete the Lionsault. Not the greatest match of either man's career but still a really good way to start the night that continued Kurt's meteoric rise up the card.
- The tag titles are on the line in our next bout, as the New Age Outlaws defend against the Dudley Boyz. This is a heel versus heel match, which creates a bit of a muted atmosphere, as the crowd isn't really willing to support either team. It ends in just 5 minutes, as Bubba Ray hits Billy Gunn with a lead pipe outside the ring, before sliding back in to catch Road Dogg with a 3D for the win. The pipe shot was used as a way to write Gunn off, as he needed rotator cuff surgery and was working through a lot of pain.
- Everything about the following Mark Henry and Viscera match is just embarrassing in hindsight, and probably was at the time, too. This is part of the much maligned pregnant Mae Young storyline, with the infamous moment that saw her give birth to a hand coming the very next night on Raw. Viscera attempted to injure Mae during the build, so she gets involved to help Mark pick up the win after a very slow, clunky match.
- Now for something significantly better, as Edge and Christian take on the Hardy Boyz in a rematch of their classic at No Mercy 1999. No ladders involved this time, as this is just a straight wrestling match that goes just over 15 minutes, the second longest contest on the card. This match doesn't really measure up to their first but it still has some great action in it, with Jeff and Matt hitting some very creative double team offense and Edge and Christian coming up with some unique counters to stay alive. The biggest highlight is unquestionably Edge catching Jeff in mid-air with a Spear as the Hardyz attempted Poetry in Motion, that was absolutely vicious. Terri, who was making her return to managing Matt and Jeff after being attacked by the Dudleyz, turns on her clients by shoving Jeff off the top rope and slapping Matt, allowing Christian to score the win with an Unprettier. Afterwards, the APA, whom Terri hired to protect her from Bubba Ray and D-Von, attack Matt after he grabs Terri by the hair, and they beatdown both Hardy Boyz, with Faarooq hitting Jeff with a very scary looking Dominator.
- The crowd in Hartford absolutely does not care about Tazz, as his star is already on the fall, getting involved in an uninspired feud with the Big Boss Man. The two men have a match here that ends in about 90 seconds when Boss Man's ally Prince Albert starts throwing hands, a really terrible way to end a match but probably necessary given Boss Man's physical condition at this point.
- X-Pac and Kane have completely fallen out over the past few months, with Waltman turning on Kane after the reformation of D-Generation X, before really rubbing salt into the wound by stealing Kane's girlfriend Tori. They're put in a No Holds Barred match on this show, but this one really fails to capture the intensity suiting of the tag team breakup storyline. The only real crowd pop is for Paul Bearer, who attacks X-Pac a couple times and even goes after Tori, who earns her night's pay by taking a Tombstone Piledriver from Kane. X-Pac manages to steal the win after dropkicking Kane while Kane holds a set of steel steps, as the steps fall onto Kane and pin him to the mat, letting X-Pac jump on top. This team may have been incredibly hot last year, but this feud already appears to be dead in the water, unfortunately.
- As mentioned at the top of the review, Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero all jumped ship from WCW to the WWF a couple weeks ago, forming the group known as the Radicalz. They debuted as faces, supporting Cactus against D-X, before turning heel after every member failed to earn a WWF contract, joining up with "The Game", though that alliance was also quickly dropped. They put on some incredible matches with the trio of Too Cool and Rikishi during the first couple months of the year, and have another stormer here. Saturn, Benoit and Malenko are just the perfect foils for their fun-loving opponents, all bringing a level of intensity that almost no one else on the roster can match. The Radicalz all work to wear down Rikishi's ankle, but the big man still prevails, planting Malenko with the Rikishi Driver and finishing him off with a Banzai Drop. Afterward, Too Cool celebrate with a dance, which is always super over and was no different here. Look, Benoit, Malenko, Saturn and Guerrero may not have come out victorious very often to start their WWF tenures, but their great wrestling made them invaluable to the company, always able to provide highly entertaining and well-worked matches on the undercard, which is always more important, and would eventually lead to Chris and Eddie picking up world titles in the years to come. That's all to say that it's not always necessary to get wins to be booked well, not if you posses something that almost nobody else does.
- The Rock may have technically won the Royal Rumble, but a botch at the end of the match saw "The Great One" actually touch the floor first, a big enough mistake that the WWF was forced to acknowledge it in storyline. The Big Show used video footage to earn himself a chance to take The Rock's title shot in this match, which he does with assistance from Shane McMahon. Shane hits one of his great leaping chair shots on Rocky during the People's Elbow, beginning the build towards the "McMahon in every corner" match that would main event WrestleMania. The actual match prior to that point was fairly dull, and Rock comes off looking like a heel in this storyline, completely brushing off a clean loss while Show was the wronged face. It's safe to say that none of this was at all befitting of two of the top stars in the company, and the WWF have to count themselves lucky that none of this nonsense hurt The Rock in the eyes of the fans.
-Main event time, as Mick Foley steps back into the Hell in a Cell for what is really the first time since his death-defying match against The Undertaker at King of the Ring '98, though he did have one random no-contest with Kane inside the Cell later on in '98. He's back in the Cactus Jack guise to take on Triple H in another brutal war, as their rivalry continues to be one of my favorites in WWE history. This match is a slight step down from the Street Fight at Royal Rumble, mostly due to the first 15 minutes or so being contested inside the Cell, where they're limited in just how much they can do. There's some interesting brawling to be found, especially when Cactus leaps onto Hunter with a chair, but it only really gets good when the champion throws a set of steel steps into the side of the Cell, breaking the panel wide open. They fight to the outside and begin climbing, before Foley takes his first big bump, as Triple H is able to keep Jack from following him to the top of the Cell, instead using a barbed wire 2x4 to send Cactus plummeting through the Spanish announce table, a great call-back to the 'Taker match. This bump doesn't look quite as dangerous as that one, but it still massively pops the crowd and Jack is once again put over as a warrior for rising to his feet. This time, he's able to reach the top of the Cell, beginning to brawl with the champion. It really starts to feel like a true Cactus Jack match when he lights the 2x4 on fire, a shocking visual to see in a WWF match, though it actually didn't have much of a role to play in the match. Jack looks for a piledriver on Triple H, who backdrops him through the roof and crashing into the mat, forming a giant crater in the ring. It's a truly stunning moment, on par with Foley being chokeslammed through the roof by 'Taker, though that was an accident and nearly killed Mick. This time, the spot was planned and Foley took a pretty safe bump onto crash mats, and it worked perfectly, as the crowd absolutely explodes and the camera shot of Cactus laying in the collapsed ring is iconic. Jack still manages to get back to his feet, just to be put down immediately by the Pedigree in a real gut-wrenching moment for the fans, who got that very brief moment of hope.
- After the match, Foley looks completely defeated as he makes his way up the ramp, before stopping to turn back, which earns one of the loudest pops I've ever heard. This is the perfect story of Foley's desperate final bid for the gold, and the match, while slow at first, definitely reached classic level by the end for me, especially after that fall through the Cell's roof. I should also give some props to Stephanie McMahon, who was hanging around at ringside and added quite a bit to the match with her reactions, including jumping for joy after that moment, which was terrific heeling. It's a shame Mick's retirement was reversed almost immediately so he could compete in the WrestleMania main event, which really didn't need him, to be honest, but that didn't stop me from getting emotional at the ending. This is still the end of Foley's full-time run, as he transitions to other non-wrestling roles with only an occasional match after this point, and I think it was the perfect way to end his wrestling career, more or less.
8/10
There's no all-timers on this card, but there's still a lot of good stuff to be found, from the final two tag matches, the opener and the main event. No Way Out provided a perfect set-up for WrestleMania, and could've been even more memorable if the company had had the guts to let Mick Foley's retirement last more than just a few weeks.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Despite everything I did in this review to build up to WrestleMania, I'm not actually planning on covering that show, as nothing on the card feels like something I need to see. With that said, up next is Backlash 2000. See you soon.
- Henry
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