I don't think I've ever seen this show in full, although I'm sure I've at least seen Rock-Benoit on a DVD at some point. Boy have video packages gotten better over the years - this one peaks with a wacky image of Steph screaming and/or crying all wackily. This could not have a more bland set - it's just a crucifix of video walls. A fan has an awesome Rock logo inside the Superman logo sign. Trish and T and A are out to face Lita and the Hardys. Trish's ass looks quite fine in these hot pink shorts. The video for this shows Lita doing the worst legdrop off the second rope ever to Trish, oh and hey guys are in this video too. Lita's bump off the ladder through a table has held up really well. I've seen this within the past few years on a DVD. More close-ups of Trish's ass, less shots of Albert. Wacky lucha armdrag off the top from Matt. Nice spot there. Jeff and Test work well together. It's a shame Test didn't get further, because he was a super-athletic big man and never quite reached his potential. Crowd's going crazy for Lita here. Test sold an accidental slap from Trish hilariously - doing a wacky selljob for it. A missed elbow from Trish lets Lita come in...BUT TRISH TAGS OUT! Hardys save Lita from Albert. Test and Trish get suplexed by Team Extreme! Press slam from Albert to Jeff TO THE FLOOR. Crazy. Hardys take control against the heels and Lita comes in to take Test out with a tornado DDT. DIVE OFF THE TOP TO THE FLOOR TO ALBERT. Wow. LITACANRANA to Test gets a 2.9. This is a better X division match than anything in the X division in a while. Powerbomb lets Trish come in for a 2. Bulldog gets 2. Superplex from Lita gets 2 thanks to Albert. Moonsault gets the win, but Albert attacks her afterwards. Test's big boot ruled. Trish is whipping Lita with Albert's belt, but the Hardys save her. This was quite good and a perfect choice for an opener.
Edge met with Mick and his weird-looking shaved head. Christian's got food poisoning, poor guy's like totally puking. Taker's chasing Kurt through the building without a helmet. Boy does Kurt look odd with hair. Taz's theme hits showing off the triple main event graphic. They showed Tazz attacking random mid-carders because he's pissed off. Well, he's facing Al Snow, so that's understandable. Al's in good shape - very slim compared to how he looked even during his Euro title reign. Moves. Moves. Moves. Nothing really going on here. Al gets the arm-trap headbutts that bring the crowd to life to some degree. Head and arm tie suplex leads to AL SNOW COUNTERING THE TAZ-MISSION. Taz gets it the second time and wins. Why on Earth you'd have Al Snow counter his finisher in this, I'd have no idea - it's supposed to be Taz's big return and AL FREAKING SNOW is able to avoid his finisher. Christian is sick and Mick believes him. YAY ANOTHER SKIT, with Steph and HHH in the back. HHH's black and silver getup rules. She's got flowers, but they're not from Hunter. Kurt sent them, and he's none too pleased.
Eddie's out with Chyna in his awesome red, gold, and black gear. That's some of his best-looking stuff ever, and it fits the title too. Shame it's not the even better-looking black and gold on each side instead of one side having old and the other black. They showed Chyna and Saturn getting into it from SD. Saturn's flying elbow ruled. Terri's hard nipple act ruled. Saturn bumped for Saturn on the floor. King made a Uranus joke about Saturn, and then Eddie hit a nice flying rana off the top to Saturn mid-ring. Saturn got busted open a bit from something. Saturn misses a really sweet moonsault leading to a brainbuster from Eddie. He did the frog splash counter tumble, then Saturn leapfrogged and they messed up a victory roll attempt in theory, but saved it with a quick electric chair drop for 2. Saturn attacked Chyna and clotheslined her over the SAT. Terri kicked Eddie in the balls leading to a gorgeous flying elbow to the back for 3. Hot damn was Saturn's elbow amazing. Saturn got his first WWF Title win here - shame he never quite got to the IC Title-level - I always kept him there WM 2000 and No Mercy, although I thought he would've made a fine World Champion in WCW at some point. He always seemed to have traction there. E and C were caught saying Christian wasn't sick. The bit with Christian TOTALLY BARFING and getting exposed was here. "Hey Mick, I don't know who put that bucket in there!" Christian was great. Another wacky brawl with Kurt and Angle before E and C face the Acolytes. The heels flew around and were fine chickenshits. Bradshaw WENT UP TOP and hit a flying tackle to Christian. Edge got DQed using the belt. Well, the skits were better than the match. Yet another skit with HHH and Steph...God these are like Dixie skits.
They showed clips hyping up Val Venis-Rikishi, with Val going on a tear with cameras and tossing Scotty off the ramp. Bland Val with no gimmick, no color in his gear, and just a blah look overall with a generic techno mix of his theme came out for this cage match. He's managed by Trish...V, T, and A...okay then. Val's taking awesome bumps for Rikishi here. Low blow counters the stinkface. Now they're brawling on the top rope leading to a flying elbow from Val off of it. Didn't look good, but still better than Punk's. More top rope brawling and now Val's busted open off a cage shot. Trish recreates the Flair-Kerry cage match finish to give Val an upper-hand. Money shot off the top gets 2. Lita's down to take Trish out with a belt...and to strip her of her shirt. I'm fine with this. More top rope-cage brawling led to the memorable Superfly dive OFF THE TOP OF THE CAGE BY A 400 POUND MAN. He landed that perfectly - his kids definitely got the dive from him. Now Tazz is out to attack Rikishi with a camera...boy does that ever sound like a random match. And Val retains. Yikes. The title went from feeling like a possible big deal with Rikishi holding it to Val just being a dude with a belt.
Another backstage brawl with Kurt and Taker. Yet another Hunter skit with him being pissed. Hunter bullied Harvey Wippleman. Jericho sent the flowers and of course kicked Hunter's ass off-screen. Shane came out for an opening Raw promo and called out the Rock. And then Benoit cut a promo and tore up Rock's clothes. Well, this sure doesn't exactly scream main event build. Recap of the Angle-Taker feud being caused by Angle accidentally hitting Taker with a hammer. "I'VE BEEN AFRAID OF A MAN WHO RIDES A BICYCLE!" Kurt attacked Taker with a giant wrench he apparently got from Double Dragon on SD, and came out with it here. Crowd brawling to start. About a minute in, they did a tease where Taker could have won but picked Kurt up. Taker's inaudible "fuck you" was shown. Taker whooped some ass in the corner and J.R. apologized for the cussing. Kurt did a wacky comedy sleeper and got rammed into the corner. Angle's finally going for the knee and they're not really doing a ton. Basic kneebar from Kurt gets countered into a knee smash on the canvas. Body shot>uppercut combo gives Taker an edge leading to a chokeslam, but he doesn't want a cover - he wants to send Kurt on his last ride. That got the win, and getting that over as a finish probably extended Taker's career quite a bit since he didn't have to do tombstones all the time. Recap of the clothes-tearing...we saw earlier ON THIS SHOW, and Rock lamenting the loss of his clothes.
Jericho-HHH recap gets some awful narration by Kevin Kelly. Brooklyn Brawler pinning HHH was shown. Lots of talking from HHH about "wanting Jericho's ass". The sledgehammer and DX played a big part in the video, teasing them as part of the finish. Steph came out with the women's title and wow was Hunter's physique completely different here. HHH's "My Time" theme was quite great. JR hyped this up as only the second last man standing match in WWF history, with the first being between HHH and Foley. Wow. Nice brawling to start, leading to holds later - like an abdominal stretch. Lionsault led to the knees going up. Well, that's just a stupid move to try with bad ribs. Jericho counters a pedigree with a low blow. Protected chairshot to the head from Jericho. HHH gets a gusher on that one. Facebuster to the chair leads to another count and a great shot of HHH's hair being coated in blood. HHH took the wacky over the top corner bump. A pedigree tease on the steps leads to a backdrop. Walls are locked on, and HHH is chewing gum during it. HHH got the ropes, but there aren't any rope breaks. This led to Steph breaking it up, but getting the walls and a brief underboob shot because of the top she's got on. The original angle had a lot more of that, but a bit made it through here. Sledgehammer to the gut from Jericho. Shitty back suplex off the barricade through the announce table leads to a victory for HHH. HHH gets helped out by medics.
A Benoit video on him being callous and cruel is sure uncomfortable to watch now. Rock saying that Benoit doesn't deserve a title shot is just stupid. They brawled, and brawled, and brawled and brawled and brawled. Benoit came out in a weird cut up long-sleeve shirt looking like a Euro douchebag in a club. Ah, it's one of the Rock's shirts...looks ridiculous on him. Shane in wacky shades makes it impossible to take this seriously. They started this brawling, and then Rock attacked Shane. This is really just Rock-Shane with Benoit as Shane's surrogate. Super back suplex from the Rock fairly early on. Floor brawling...stairs...I'm really numb to the stuff on the show that's been done to death since this era. Rock got a figure four, BUT THANK GOD SHANE WAS THERE TO SAVE THE GUY HYPED UP AS THE GREATEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER IN THE WORLD. Spine on the pine leads to the People's Elbow, BUT THANKS TO SHANE, Chris is saved. THANK HEAVENS FOR SHANE. Good God is he a detriment to this match, and Benoit as well. They have no chemistry together at all. Shane takes the ref out, because that's a logical thing to do when you want your charge to win the world title. Rock got the crossface, which looks terrible because the Rock's arms are too long. They're saying Benoit tapped, but not playing Rock's theme. Benoit apparently wins via DQ, and gets the title as a result...for some reason. The ref DQed Rock because he thought he hit him with the chair. Wow. Benoit winning the title this way would've been terrible for many reasons, so it's a good thing Foley restarted this. Triple Germans lead to the crossface, but Rock makes the ropes, so he just pulls him back. Rock gets the ropes again, punches him, hits a Rock Bottom and wins. This didn't do much for me. It was overbooked to hell and Shane hurt it in so many ways.
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