Tonight, the love triangle between Kurt Angle, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon comes to a head, as the two men face off with Commissioner Foley as the referee. Hunter, for the first time in a couple years, is sort of working face at this time, as Angle is so disliked that just about anyone could get over against him. Triple H got some big cheers in a segment that has not aged well when he cast doubts on Angle's sexuality, causing Kurt to snap, affronted at the implication. The Attitude Era, ladies and gentlemen. In addition to the Angle-Triple H grudge match, we will also see The Rock defend his WWF title in a fatal four way against brothers Kane and The Undertaker, plus old nemesis Chris Benoit, who almost took the belt away from Rocky back at Fully Loaded. Coming off a pretty well regarded SummerSlam, with a stacked card, how did Unforgiven fare?
- Unforgiven 2000 comes to you from the First Union(now Wells Fargo) Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, home of the 76ers and Flyers. The WWE loves going to Philly, as this is just one of many pay-per-views hosted in the arena and the first since WrestleMania 15. This is far from the hottest crowd of the year, though that is admittedly stiff competition.
- Right to Censor are once again opening up the show, now with added Val Venis, as they face the Dudley Boyz and the APA. This one is a pure slugfest that just never gets into second gear, ending in just six minutes after Steven Richards, who never tagged into the match, interferes to hit a superkick on Bubba, allowing Val to make the cover. Afterwards, the four faces corner Richards, as Bubba gets his revenge, hitting yet another powerbomb through a table.
- I really don't know why the Tazz and Jerry Lawler feud kept going after their terrible outing at SummerSlam, but they're back again to face off, this time in a strap match. This match mostly just features Tazz no-selling the King's piledriver, which is a great way to bury one of wrestling's ultimate finishers. After a ref bump, Raven makes his WWF debut, hitting Jerry with the Raven Effect DDT, as Tazz needs outside interference to get his win back. The Raven-Tazz team makes very little sense to me, as they don't have much of a history other than both being employed by ECW, and the finish made Tazz look extremely weak once again. This feud is just the absolute pits.
- The first title match of the night is for the Hardcore Championship, defended on this night in a hardcore battle royal. Champion Steve Blackman is facing Test, Perry Saturn, Funaki, Crash Holly and European Champion Al Snow, who has just begun his European stereotype gimmick, which is gold. He's representing Italy here, complete with a pizza box and a dead fish, terrific. Not much to say about this one, it's pure carnage as all six guys brawl all over the arena. Blackman does lose the belt to Crash and Perry over the course of the match, but gets it back near the end and manages to exit as champion after his challengers get distracted fighting each other.
- Time for some actual wrestling, as Chris Jericho faces X-Pac. There's not a ton of heat to this match, but the crowd really loves Y2J and hates X-Pac, so that covers for it. These two can pretty easily put on a fast-paced, entertaining match, and that's exactly what they do. Jericho gets the win when X-Pac almost immediately taps to the Walls of Jericho, but Chris doesn't have long to celebrate his win, as X-Pac gets in multiple shots with a set of nunchakus.
- The feud between the Hardy Boyz and tag team champions Edge and Christian now enters a steel cage, with the belts on the line. At least as far as I've understood it, the rules of a tag team steel cage match are pretty simple, as both members of the team have to escape the cage to win. But this match is very confusing at points, which isn't helped by Jim Ross and Michael Cole on commentary. Early on, Jeff Hardy attempts a big dive off the top of the cage, but it backfires when he's knocked out to the floor. Ross and Cole keep insisting he can come back into the match, which makes no sense, he's already escaped, why should he be allowed back in. Then later, Jeff does actually manage to get back into the cage, and then he need to escape again alongside Matt, for some reason. Either way, if you can get past the bizarre rules, this match is so much fun, with some wild spots. Jeff manages to get back in using a ladder, hitting a Whisper in the Wind off the top of the cage, which is a terrific visual but unfortunately didn't quite connect properly, as it's only a glancing blow. After Christian is knocked out to the floor, he tries to re-enter via the ladder but is stopped by Lita, who hits a hurricanrana off the ladder to the floor. What a moment that was, massive respect to both Lita and Christian for being willing to take that bump, which had to hurt. Edge tries to escape but is stopped by Matt and Jeff, who give the champion a taste of his own medicine with a vicious Con-chair-to, before they both drop to the floor to win the titles for a second time. In terms of action, this may have been better than the TLC match at SummerSlam, but the winning objective for that match was at least a little more clear. Still, this was a terrific encounter, brutal, strategic and exciting all in equal measure, and the crowd went absolutely nuts for all three members of Team Xtreme.
- Eddie Guerrero and Chyna's relationship is beginning to fall apart, as Eddie managed to steal the Intercontinental Championship away from her, before his insecurity over her Playboy photo shoot seemed to drive a permanent wedge between the pair. In a last ditch effort to smooth things over, Eddie shot for the moon, proposing to Chyna, and now they're engaged heading into his title defense against Rikishi. This whole melodrama is significantly more interesting than the actual match, which is very slow and isn't helped by Eddie and Rikishi's lack of in-ring chemistry. Rikishi has the match won after a Banzai Drop, but Chyna costs him the title by distracting the official. Rikishi, who had been friendly with Chyna, absolutely loses it, hitting a Banzai Drop on her as well in a pretty vicious attack that stuns the crowd. Obviously, the WWF is setting up Rikishi's heel turn against the recently returned Steve Austin, but this comes so far out of left field that it's really difficult to buy into. There just wasn't any middle ground between the dancing, fun-loving version of Rikishi and this sadistic monster that it seems like two entirely different people. Rikishi's heel run might be the worst in WWE history, and this just wasn't the proper way to start it.
- Time for Kurt Angle and Triple H to settle their differences in what promises to be a highly personal grudge match, which is now a No DQ match thanks to referee and WWF Commissioner Mick Foley. For the most part, this match just doesn't quite reach the level of brutality that was promised. Don't get me wrong, there were parts of it I enjoyed, like Kurt's belly-to-belly suplex through the Spanish announce table, and his ruthless attack on Triple H's injured ribs was a good way to earn some sympathy for "The Game". But it just didn't quite click, perhaps because the crowd weren't really willing to cheer for either guy, as Kurt is a home-wrecking egomaniac and Hunter has spent the last year attempting to cripple pretty much every beloved babyface on the roster. In the end, the result comes down to Stephanie, who decides to stay loyal to her husband, kicking Angle in the groin, allowing Triple H to put the match away with a Pedigree. This wasn't terrible, but it's a very unmemorable match from a very memorable angle.
- As mentioned previously, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin is back, on the path for vengeance against the man who stole a year of his life by running him down with a car at Survivor Series 1999. Shane McMahon claims to have found the guilty party, pulling up footage of Steve Blackman running over Ken Shamrock last year. Blackman takes a Stunner, before Shane attempts to celebrate with Austin and takes three Stunners of his own, which the crowd absolutely eats up. Everything about this segment was terrific, and Shane is once again the absolute MVP. I love him framing Blackman to get revenge for their SummerSlam match, and his mimicking of Austin's trash talk to Blackman was great heeling. Shane is really coming into his own as a great character around this time, a very good heel that only gets the advantage on faces when he has help. Even though you can appreciate how good he is, absolutely no one is going to cheer for him, which the best kind of heel in my opinion. It's a shame his more recent work has soured a lot of fans on him, because he was probably the best heel in the company at this time.
- Main event time, as The Rock enters a no-win situation, with two monsters and a tenacious former rival all gunning for his gold. The early few minutes of the match are nothing special, just a lot of brawling, before Benoit brains Undertaker with a chair, and covers him to win the WWF title. Good night everyone!
- Yes, I was kidding, but can you imagine if that was the finish? I can't, no WWE pay-per-view main event would end in less than ten minutes, isn't that right, Mr. Goldberg? Once again, Benoit has the top prize taken away from him by Mick Foley, who reverses the decision after Undertaker's leg was very obviously in the ropes. From here, the match steps up a notch, as Benoit and Rock showcase more of their incredible chemistry with some great exchanges. Benoit is able to hit Rock with his triple German suplexes, before laying out both Undertaker and Kane with chair shots. Rock does a tremendous job putting Benoit over with his selling here, and after the Crippler Crossface is applied, he's the perfect face in peril as Benoit wrenches back on the hold and claws at his face. The crowd comes unglued, desperately cheering "The Great One" on, but Rock doesn't manage to escape on his own, which is a great way to get the move over, as he needs Undertaker to interfere or the title was lost. Undertaker hits a chokeslam but Kane gets revenge on his brother for the unmasking at SummerSlam, pulling him out of the ring and brawling on the outside. With both Benoit and Rock now on even keel, the champion is able to strike, connecting on the Rock Bottom to retain. This was a perfectly booked match, taking advantage of all the moving parts available to create a gripping main event.
8/10
Unforgiven 2000 earns the same grade as SummerSlam for me, as both were enjoyable but very flawed shows. The Angle-Triple H match was good, but it didn't quite live up to expectations, while the tag team steel cage match was an incredible spotfest with some very confusing rules. I loved the Stone Cold and Shane segment, and after the Dusty finish, the main event was a really good finale, a huge step up from SummerSlam's triple threat match. If you haven't watched this show yet, I would definitely check out the cage match and the main event, they both deserve to seen.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: No Mercy 2000, where Kurt Angle won his first world championship. See you soon.
- Henry
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