As the New Generation drew to a close and the Attitude Era kicked into high gear, the annual King of the Ring tournament continued to decrease in importance for the WWF. Long gone were the days of ring technicians like Bret and Owen Hart, who were able to tell nuanced, show-long storylines with unique match-ups as they advanced through each round. 1999 saw the most irrelevant "King" crowned in Billy Gunn, who's push up the card immediately stalled in a one-sided feud with The Rock, so it's fair to say that the tournament no longer carried with it the promise of creating a new main event star in the winner. But the departures of some of WCW's standout midcarders had the potential to breathe new life into King of the Ring, as the field was now more stacked than it ever had been before. The 2000 edition featured 32 competitors, whittling all the way down to 8 to start this night, with those remaining featuring the likes of Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Kurt Angle, any of whom would be an excellent choice to go the distance. On paper, this event had all the makings of a classic, as the prospect of seeing a card stacked with multiple matches from these workhorses seems almost too good to be true.
- King of the Ring 2000 comes to you from the Fleet Center (now the TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts, the home of the Celtics. We've been here a couple times before in my reviews for WrestleMania 14 and Royal Rumble 2003. Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler are on the call.
- Our opening contest kicks off the first round of the King of the Ring tournament, with Rikishi taking on Chris Benoit. These two men have met recently in a match where Rikishi won the Intercontinental Championship, and that added history adds some fire to this one, which opens with both men throwing strikes at each other. They cycle through a few spots, the most impressive being Benoit hitting a German suplex on the big man, and Benoit takes control after that, working on Rikishi's neck and shoulder to set up the Crippler Crossface. Benoit does get the Crossface locked in, but Rikishi finds the ropes, and an incensed Benoit loses his grip on sanity, walloping Rikishi with a few chair shots that get him disqualified. During the post-match attack, Benoit locks in the Crossface again and hits a diving headbutt, doing a significant amount of damage to Rikishi's right arm, an important plot point for the rest of the night. Considering these two were only booked to go 3 minutes, I thought they did as much as they possibly could, packing the short match full of action before the cheap finish.
- Val Venis and Eddie Guerrero now meet in a first round match, with both men accompanied out by their female cohorts, Val with "business associate" Trish Stratus, and Eddie with his "Mamacita" Chyna. Both men put on a really solid match, as they work well with each other and the action just flows, really helped along by the artistry of Eddie. Eddie shows off his speed and intelligence by evading a powerbomb and hitting a hurricanrana, then getting his knees up when Val attempts the Money Shot. Eddie follows up with a top rope frankensteiner, but can't get the win as Trish has hopped up on the apron and has the referee's full attention. Chyna steps in to help her man, sending Trish tumbling to the floor and then blasting Val with a big forearm when he grabs Chyna by the hair. A narrow near fall follows when Eddie rolls Val up, but Val recovers to hit a fisherman's suplex to advance. The decision to take Benoit and Guerrero out of the tournament in the first two matches seems highly curious, as they surely would've provided more in matches later in the night than Venis and Rikishi.
- Crash Holly has been set-up as the "Cinderella story" of the tournament, the ultimate underdog who just about made got through his first few matches to advance this far, and now he needs to pull off another upset against Bull Buchanan, or at least that's the way it's presented in kayfabe. In reality, Bull hasn't been much of a threat thus far in his WWF career, nor would he ever be, and it doesn't seem like the crowd really buys into a possible win for him. Bull's offense is nowhere near as impressive as what he pulled off at WrestleMania, as it's all just basic power moves with none of the jaw-dropping athleticism. The only real athletic Bull attempts is the axe kick, which misses, and Crash rolls Bull up to move on.
- The fourth and final match of the first round has by far the most promise, as Kurt Angle takes on Chris Jericho. This was probably the match of the night, not that that's much of a surprise when you see what's coming, with some fast-paced action and a few dramatic near falls. It's still not as good as I'd hope for given the talent of both men, and I'll chalk that up to Kurt's mediocre offense, as he still has a lot of growing to do when it comes to developing his moveset. Jericho is all over the place in this match, almost winning early on with the Lionsault, and after Y2J kicks out of a bridging German suplex, he knocks Kurt loopy with a frankensteiner and a big spinning back heel kick. Angle shows off his incredible sense of timing during pinfalls, just peeling his shoulder off the canvas before three, enraging the pro-Jericho crowd. Angle counters a running bulldog with a stiff a** clothesline, but the Angle Slam can't connect as Jericho locks in the Liontamer. Stephanie McMahon, a constant target of Jericho's demeaning insults around this time, makes her way to the ring, distracting referee Teddy Long, who doesn't see Jericho tap. Jericho accidentally takes out Long with a forearm, and Steph enters the ring, setting up a shot on Jericho with her Women's Championship. Jericho ducks and Angle takes the belt to the face, and Jericho gets the biggest pop of the night by grabbing hold of Stephanie and planting a big ole sloppy kiss on her. Yeah, I have a feeling this moment might be portrayed a little differently if it happened today, although karma immediately comes for Jericho after that bit of sexual assault, as he falls prey to an Angle Slam and a defeat.
- Scotty Too Hotty are now the WWF Tag Team Champions, defending in a match that seems custom built for a title change, as they must fend off Edge and Christian, T&A, and the Hardy Boyz. This is an elimination match, and mostly just progresses as if it's a tag team gauntlet, with each team taking it in turn to work two versus two until one pairing is eliminated. It starts with Matt and Jeff Hardy working against Test and Albert, and the two brothers manage to take out their much bigger competitors with a little help from valet Lita, who prevents Trish Stratus, manager of T&A, from having too much involvement in this one. Test is the one pinned after taking the Swanton Bomb from Jeff, and Edge and Christian are now in. Lita gets a big pop for hitting a diving hurricanrana on Edge, those two always seem to be in each other's orbit, but the two arrogant blondes scheme their way to an elimination, with Edge preventing a Swanton Bomb by grabbing Jeff by the hair and spiking his throat into the top rope, allowing Christian the time to pin Matt after an Unprettier. The two teams left have some fun working the crowd, as Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty Too Hotty wave Christian's arms around while delivering a beatdown, and Christian trades back by mocking their dance moves. Sexay hits a very impressive sit-out powerbomb on Edge, be jealous, Batista, but Edge and Christian send him flying with a double flapjack. The heels attempt to perform a double Worm on Sexay, but Scotty emerges from out of nowhere to drop them with a double bulldog, then he hits the Worm on both. Scotty holds Edge up so Sexay can hit his big diving leg drop, but Christian sneaks in with one of the tag belts, braining Sexay with it, allowing Edge to roll over and make the cover, as Edge and Christian are tag champions once again. This match didn't include as much action as you would expect given the teams involved, but it wasn't too bad, and Edge and Christian were really at the top of their game when it came to drawing heat, the skit mocking Bill Buckner before the match was very fun.
- We return to King of the Ring tournament action with Rikishi taking on Val Venis. This was another short tournament match, with very little remarkable about it. Val does some work on Rikishi's right arm, including a running DDT on the arm, before he gets stopped attempting a move off the top rope, and Rikishi hits a belly-to-belly suplex for the win. Afterwards, Trish Stratus throws a temper tantrum and starts slapping away at Rikishi, who easily fights her off and scales to the second rope, potentially setting up a Banzai Drop that would probably result in murder given Trish's diminutive size. Val stops that with a low blow, then hits Rikishi with the steel steps, and a chair shot to the arm on the steps. Rikishi will not be anything close to full health moving forward, but he's now in the finals.
- Kurt Angle and Crash Holly then meet to determine Rikishi's opponent, and go right after each other in a rush of different moves. Kurt looks great here, smoothly applying an inside cradle for a near fall, then pulling off an arm-locked dropsault, one of the coolest suplex variations in wrestling. Angle again gets the crowd invested with a dramatic near fall after a missile dropkick from Crash, dropping the younger Holly cousin on the top rope with a Stun Gun and nailing the Angle Slam to punch his ticket to the finals.
- There are few wrestling matches I've watched in my life as embarrassing as the "Hardcore Evening Gown match" between Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco, a painfully unfunny 3 minutes of transphobic jokes and clothes ripping. At least Crash Holly had the decency to end this abomination by smashing both old coots in the head with a trash can, winning back his Hardcore title. The fact that neither competitor ended up winning this match is true karmic justice.
- The first and thankfully last "handicap tables dumpster match", what a name, as the Dudley Boyz face D-Generation X (Road Dogg, X-Pac, and Tori) in a match where Bubba Ray and D-Von must put all three of their opponents through tables to win, and would lose if they are both tossed into a dumpster and the lid is shut. Even though the stipulation seemed very thrown together, the match was highly entertaining, with the crowd totally behind Bubba Ray and D-Von, who are on the best run of their careers at this point. Bubba and D-Von bulldoze their way through the heels here, with a trio of "Wazzup" headbutts to X-Pac, Road Dogg, and Tori, the crowd going nuts to see Tori finally receive some comeuppance. Bubba and D-Von escape a loss after being thrown in the dumpster, as the ref is checking on Tori, and crawl under the ring to emerge from behind X-Pac and Road Dogg brandishing chairs. X-Pac and Road Dogg go down to shots from the steel, those damn Dudleys always delivered some of the most nasty chair shots I've seen. Road Dogg is powerbombed through two tables on the outside by Bubba, and D-Von sends X-Pac crashing through a table with a big superplex, as Tori is now on her own. She scrambles out of the terrifying situation and takes refuge in the dumpster, and with Bubba and D-Von distracted while savoring their inevitable victory, X-Pac and Road Dogg sneak in to deliver a couple receipts, multiple chair shots that send the two Dudleys toppling into the dumpster, with the lid being slammed shut afterward. It was a big surprise to me that X-Pac and Road Dogg were booked to win this match, especially considering the two didn't have much of a future as a team, but they don't end up being conquerors on this night, as they only realize too late that Tori is now trapped with the two psychopaths. X-Pac and Road Dogg try to make the save for the hapless Tori, but each take a 3-D, and Bubba gets to powerbomb another member of the fairer sex through some wood.
- The penultimate match of the night is the finals of the King of the Ring tournament, as Kurt Angle and Rikishi wrestle one more time with the cape and the crown at stake. Neither guy has much left to give by this point, although there were a few highlights in this sub 6 minute match. Kurt works on the arm of Rikishi, who still has enough power in his left arm to lift Angle up for a Samoan Drop. A beautiful Sunset Flip by Kurt is countered by Rikishi dropping all of his weight down, and Angle again just about survives in another heart-stopping near fall. The finish is an iconic moment in the early portion of Angle's career, as manages to hit Rikishi with a massive top rope belly-to-belly suplex for the win. The elevation of Kurt Angle on this night was handled splendidly, as he narrowly pulled out victory after victory while continuing to showcase his wrestling prowess.
- Main event time, as WWF Champion Triple H teams with Shane and Vince McMahon to do battle with The Rock and the Brothers of Destruction. The stipulation of this match is if Triple H's team wins, he retains his title, but if any member of Rock's team wins, that man would become champion no matter whom he pins. With a third of this match featuring non-wrestlers, it's not much of a surprise that it was far from the best main event of the year from a workrate perspective, but it was still entertaining to see all of these diverse characters interact, and the psychology provided intense drama. Early on, the match consists of a lot of McMahon involvement, specifically from Shane, who starts feuds with all three faces by just being the most annoying little gnat. Though Undertaker, Kane, and Rock all have a common enemy, thanks to their individual desire to be champion, there isn't a whole lot of teamwork coming from the three faces, who turn on each other fairly quickly as none of them want the other two to be able to make a pinfall. The heels, meanwhile, have nothing to fight for and family pride binding them together, and they form a somewhat effective fighting force, albeit one that is no match for the raw power of the Brothers of Destruction. Kane is the first of the two to get his big moves in, preventing Rock from hitting the People's Elbow and nailing his partner with a chokeslam, then rejecting a heel turn by planting Triple H with a Tombstone Piledriver. Undertaker, who has already been the recipient of some of Kane's rage earlier in the contest, stops his little brother from winning and brains Kane with a chair shot, Undertaker was another guy who always delivered the sickest chair shots. With the WWF Champion down, Shane McMahon is next to meet his doom, via a top rope chokeslam from Undertaker through the Spanish announce table, the spot of the night by a considerable distance, Shane's big bumps will never not be over. Rock and Vince are the only two men left in the ring, very fitting after the WrestleMania betrayal. Vince wants to end it with the People's Elbow, but the ultimate insult comes up empty, as Rock springs up to hit the Rock Bottom and regain his title.
5/10
King of the Ring has been the subject of a lot of retrospective criticism, and I absolutely understand why. The decision to take Benoit and Guerrero out of the tournament early led to a noticeable dip in quality for the matches that followed, and that Patterson/Brisco match likely ranks up there as one of the worst pay-per-view matches WWE ever broadcast. That said, the story told with Kurt Angle was compelling, and all three tag matches delivered plenty of entertainment. I think King of the Ring ended up in same boat as WrestleMania for me, a solid but underwhelming effort for the WWF at a time when most expected much more.
If you'd like to see my reactions towards the events that took place over the next year and a half of WWF programming, and have the time to really dig into some reading material, here are my reviews for: Fully Loaded 2000, SummerSlam 2000, Unforgiven 2000, No Mercy 2000, Survivor Series 2000, Armageddon 2000, Royal Rumble 2001, No Way Out 2001, WrestleMania X-7, Backlash 2001, Judgment Day 2001, King of the Ring 2001, InVasion, SummerSlam 2001, Unforgiven 2001, No Mercy 2001, Survivor Series 2001, Vengeance 2001, and Royal Rumble 2002. Lots to get into there, if you're interested.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: No Way Out 2002, where the New World Order debut in the WWF, and Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho defends against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. See you soon.
- Henry
Comments