Wrestlemania XVI
April 2, 2000
Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, CA

The sixteenth Wrestlemania was actually called ‘Wrestlemania 2000’ but in future years tradition would prevail with the events being numbered as before. As the first Wrestlemania of the 21st century came about, the WWF returned to the site of the spectacle four years earlier in Anaheim. This would be the last Wrestlemania to go for the standard PPV three hours, as in future years the event would go for four, which to be marks the point where Mania really became the special event we know today. Anyway, the main event tonight is a fatal four way for the WWF Championship, with a McMahon in the corner of each competitor. Facing off are Triple H, The Rock, Big Show, and the returning (for one night only) Mick Foley. As always, share your thoughts with me on Twitter at @Mpmcc91. Lets get this one going.

We kick the show off in the arena with Lillian Garcia singing America the Beautiful before we go to a video package which looks at the history of Wrestlemania before focusing on our main event tonight. Great stuff as usual. We then head back into the arena where our usual announce team of Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler get this one under way.

The Godfather & D’Lo Brown w/Ice T vs Big Bossman & Bull Buchanan
There wasn’t a whole lot of build to our opener as its really just to get these guys on the show. Bossman has picked up a new partner after going he and Albert (who we shall see later) went their separate ways following No Way Out. That new partner is Bull Buchanan, who is the former Recon of Truth Commission. D’Lo & Godfather are of course the fun loving faces and they come out with the hoes as well as Ice T rapping them to the ring. Anyway, the faces start out in control to the delight of the crowd. Bull Buchanan eventually turns the tide for his team as he takes the fight to D’Lo. The heels double team D’Lo until he manages to get the hot tag to the Godfather. He delivers the Ho Train to Bossman, whilst D’Lo looks to come off the top. Bull knocks D’Lo off the ropes though, allowing Bossman to respond with a sidewalk slam. Buchanan follows with a top rope leg drop and covers Brown to pick up the win at 9:05. A pretty basic match to get the show going. I get the idea was the showcase Buchanan here, but I probably would have given this one to D’Lo & Godfather if it was opening the show. The Bossman/Buchanan duo would not have great success in the loaded tag division.
Grade: *1/2

We now see Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley relaxing backstage with their respective championships. Stephanie had won the WWF Women’s Championship from Jacqueline about a week before this show, whilst Triple H was of course the WWF Champion. JR says they look awfully relaxed considering Triple H has a 75% chance of losing the title tonight. King suggests the power couple have a plan.

WWF Hardcore Championship – 15 Minute Hardcore Battle Royal:
Our first title match of the evening is for the WWF Hardcore Championship. When we last saw this title on PPV it was around the waist of Test, however he was defeated by Crash Holly on a February episode of Smackdown. Crash would become the focal point of the division as the Houdini of Hardcore, courtesy of the 24/7 rule which was enacted. The rule stated that the title was up for grabs every hour of the day so long as you brought an official to count your pin on the champion. This led to a series of memorable skits and numerous title changes down the line. The first of these was Pete Gas pinning the champ on a recent episode of Raw is War, but Crash quickly regained his title the same night and entered as champion here. The rules of this match state that the title is up for grabs for a fifteen minute time period, with the man holding the belt at the end of that time being recognised as the champ with the 24/7 rule being waived off from then until the following night. Now the participants in this one are Crash Holly (the reigning champion), Hardcore Holly, Tazz, Viscera, Bradshaw, Faarooq, Taka Michinoku, Funaki, Mosh, Thrasher, Joey Abs, Pete Gas and Rodney. Yeah, I’m not even attempting to do play by play on this. Tazz pins Crash seconds in and from there we get a whole bunch of title changes over the course of the match. As far as the action goes, it spills around ringside and into the back as Hardcore rules allow. Of course there are plenty of weapons involved. With mere seconds to go, Crash nails Tazz (who had regained the title after numerous swaps came about) with a cookie sheet and pins him to gain the title. He has to survive for about 20 seconds though. Tazz gets back up and locks the champion in the Tazzmission, but before he can tap, Hardcore Holly grabs a glass jar from the announce table and smashes it over Crash’s skull. He covers and is announced the winner at 15:00, but the referee never actually counts to three before the time limit expires. The announcers talk about the controversy which makes me think it was supposed to happen this way to lead to more issues between the Holly Cousins. Anyway, Hardcore Holly is your new Hardcore Champion after a typically fun Attitude era style Hardcore brawl.
Grade: **

We now get a brief video showing highlights from Fan Axxess, the WWE fan festival that has become a Wrestlemania tradition. I’ll be there in a few weeks and I cannot wait! Anyway, back in the locker room Al Snow & Steve Blackman are talking about their upcoming match. They are the odd couple named Head Cheese, with Snow being the goofy one whilst Blackman is all serious without a personality. Snow says he has a surprise for Blackman tonight. We then see T&A being led to the ring area by the beautiful Trish Stratus

Head Cheese w/Chester McCheeserton vs T&A w/Trish Stratus
Another really weird match for Wrestlemania here as two new teams go at it without any real feud going in for the most part. Snow’s surprise for Blackman is a midget dressed up in a cheese outfit named Chester McCheeserton. On the heel side we have the newly formed duo of Test & Albert, going by the name of T&A. Test hadn’t been doing a whole lot since losing the Hardcore title, so he abruptly turned heel and the duo were taken on by the debuting Trish Stratus as their manager. She’s as beautiful as ever and she would of course go on to become arguably the greatest female performer of all time. That’s a while off though, as this is all about the two teams in the ring, and to be honest, the match is pretty bad, with JR busting out the “Bowling Shoe ugly” line. T&A start out in control as they double team Snow. He eventually tags in Blackman to no reaction whatsoever. We get some back and forth until the faces take over and work over Albert. After a whole lot of uneventful action, Albert takes out Snow with the Baldo Bomb, whilst Test follows off the top with an elbow drop on Blackman whom he covers to pick up the win for his team at 7:02. Trish is impressed, but this was really basic stuff. The right team won though as T&A would serve as a decent team over the course of the year. After the match, Snow apologises to Blackman and says its time to cut the cheese. They beat up the midget because they’re such good babyfaces and all.
Grade: *

Back in the dressing room we see the Kat and Mae Young. Kat is preparing for her cat fight later on and is naked save for objects blocking the view, a gag taken from Austin Powers. Elsewhere Michael Cole is standing by with the Dudley Boyz. They are the reigning tag team champions and promise lots of violence in the upcoming triangle ladder match. Oh yes!

WWF Tag Team Championship – Ladder Match:
Dudley Boyz (c) vs Hardy Boyz vs Edge & Christian
The Dudley Boyz defeated the New Age Outlaws last month to win the tag titles and since then have been on an absolute tear throughout the WWF, constantly driving their opponents through tables. Most memorably, they even powerbombed Mae Young off the stage on Raw is War through a stack of tables below. Meanwhile, Edge & Christian and the Hardy Boyz faced off in a number one contender match last month that had a very controversial outcome following Terri turning on her former team. Edge & Christian distanced themselves from Terri’s actions so are basically tweeners here, whilst the Hardyz are the clear cut fan favourites. With both teams having a claim to the tag title hunt, a triple threat ladder match was signed here and the rest was history. This was the match that revolutionised the ladder match leading to many multi-person matches of the kind in the future. The tag titles are suspended high above the ring so the Dudleys come out without their belts. Meanwhile the announcers talk about this match being the Wrestlemania debut of all six men involved. Boy are they going to enter with a bang as well. Simply put, the match is an epic spotfest. All six men are fighting on the floor in seconds and going for ladders. I’m not going to do much play by play here – its one of those matches you have to watch rather than read about as these match types tend to be. A memorable spot sees Christian hit a diving cross body off the top of the ladder inside the ring onto Bubba and Matt on the outside, drawing a Holy Shit chant from the crowd. Moments later, Edge spears Jeff as the Hardy attempts to climb the ladder to the titles. Eventually we get three ladders set up in the ring so all six men attempt to climb up and fight amongst one another atop of them. Jeff and Christian take the biggest bump of the six men as their ladder is knocked and they go all the way to the floor. Ouch that had to hurt! The action breaks back down again as the Dudleys deliver a 3D to Edge and answer the crowds chants of We Want Tables. They do indeed get the tables and set one up atop of two ladders in the centre of the ring. The Hardys come back and take the fight to the champions, and Bubba powerbombs Matt straight through a table on the outside. D-Von also goes through a table when Jeff moves out of the way of a dive, but Bubba takes the other Hardy out by throwing a ladder in his face when he attempts to run the barricade towards him. At this point, Bubba gets an even bigger ladder out from under the ring and sets it up in the aisle. Meanwhile Christian recovers and whacks Bubba with the ring bell, which allows Jeff to put the Dudley upon a table, ascend the massive ladder and deliver an incredible swanton bomb and taking himself out in the process! Back in the ring Matt and D-Von are going at it, but Matt takes out his opponent with a Twist of Fate. Christian and Matt then climb the ladders on each side of the makeshift table platform and trade blows, only for Edge to climb up as well and send Matt crashing down through another table below! This leaves Edge & Christian upon the wooden platform and they grab the titles at 22:31. Edge & Christian are the new WWF Tag Team Champions! Wow, what an incredible match! All six men went out there and threw caution to the wind to put on a match that stole the show. I would consider these three teams to be the three greatest of all time, and its matches like this that allow me to say that. And guess what? This was only the beginning as they would have even better matches going forward! Simply incredibly match and the crowd knows it as they give everyone involved a standing ovation.
Grade: ****1/2

After all that awesomeness, we go backstage to hear from Mick Foley and Linda McMahon. Mick Foley says that tonight he fulfils his dream of main eventing Wrestlemania in his last ever match. He thanks Linda for the opportunity to go out on top.

Cat Fight:
The Kat w/Mae Young vs Terri w/Fabulous Moolah
Special Guest Referee: Val Venis
Alright its filler time. The Kat is no longer the WWF Women’s Champion as I alluded to earlier. She actually lost the title to Hervina (Harvey Wippleman in drag) in a lumberjill match on Raw is War shortly after the Rumble. That reign would not last long as Hervina would drop the belt to Jacqueline later that week on Smackdown, only for her to lose the title to Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley on the Smackdown before this show. Alright now that we’ve dealt with that, back to this match. Terri turned heel at No Way Out as previously mentioned, whilst Moolah turned following Mae Young being powerbombed through a table by the Dudley Boyz. When asked about Mae’s condition, Moolah said she didn’t care about her and was sick of her hogging the spotlight. Yep, these two are feuding in 2000! Anyway, Val Venis is the guest referee since he loves ladies and has nothing else to do. You win this one by throwing your opponent out of the ring. The two girls start getting catty with one another, so Val steps in to separate them, and ends up getting a kiss from both women. Terri goes after Kat some more whilst Mae gets on the apron and decides she wants to show her puppies. Val stops her, but as he is distracted he misses Kat throwing Terri to the floor. Moolah puts the “she-devil” back in the ring and Mae chases her fellow old timer. The old folks end up back in the ring and Mae forces her tongue down Val’s throat whilst Kat again eliminates Terri without the official seeing. Moolah again proves to be a factor, pulling Kat out of the ring and putting Terri back in. Val sees Kat on the floor and declares Terri the winner at 2:25. Yeah pretty bad comedy here. The Mae thing was running its course with them on TV each week. After the match, Mae goes after Terri and Moolah, delivering the Bronco Buster to Moolah to get her revenge.
Grade: DUD

Backstage three members of the Radicalz – Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn – are talking about their upcoming match. Eddie is more preoccupied with Chyna. Elsewhere in the arena, their opponents, Too Cool & Chyna are looking on via TV. Chyna is disgusted by Eddie and wants to get some payback up next.

Chyna & Too Cool vs Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn
The gist of the rivalry here is between Eddie and Chyna, as we just saw prior to the match. Basically, Eddie had been making flirtatious advances towards Chyna over the weeks heading into this show. Chyna was not impressed and wants to shut him up here. Meanwhile the Radicalz have also had issues with Too Cool basically since arriving in the company, as we saw them face off in a six man tag at No Way Out. By the way, Dean Malenko enters this match as the reigning WWF Light Heavyweight Champion. We have not seen that belt in quite some time, but it was on Gillberg for essentially all of 1999 until he was defeated by newcomer Essa Rios on an episode of Sunday Night Heat in February. Malenko would defeat Rios to win the forgotten title on an episode of Raw is War a month later. Chyna and Too Cool both get a pretty good pop from the crowd here. Eddie and Scotty start this one out, but Eddie wants Chyna, continuing to wink at her during the match. Chyna obliges and tags in, but Eddie plays mind games by quickly tagging in Malenko. From there we get some back and forth action until the Radicalz end up working over Grandmaster Sexay. Scotty eventually comes in and delivers the Worm to Malenko & Saturn with the crowd loving it. It was one of those moves that always got a reaction despite being ridiculous. After some more action and attempts by Eddie to avoid Chyna, the Ninth Wonder of the World eventually ends up in the ring with Latino Heat. Eddie goes for a cheap shot as Chyna is dealing with Malenko & Saturn, but she comes back and hits him with a powerbomb. Chyna follows up by grabbing a handful of Eddie’s balls before following up with a slam and a drop sleeper to get the cover at 9:38. A decent enough match for what it was, although I was surprised to see the Radicalz lose their second PPV match in a row since arriving on the scene. The story here was all about Chyna and Eddie. Eddie would actually break away from his fellow Radicalz after this match, but thats a story for next night. Decent enough stuff here with the crowd loving the face team.
Grade: **1/2

In the back we hear from Big Show & Shane McMahon about the main event tonight. They aligned last month. Show talks about regaining the championship, whilst Shane talks about the tension in his family. Before our next match, we see highlights from Heat, with Kurt Angle attacking Bob Backlund.

WWF Intercontinental & European Championship – 2 Fall Match:
Kurt Angle (c) vs Chris Jericho vs Chris Benoit
Kurt Angle defeated Chris Jericho last month to win the I.C title whilst already the European champion, to become the self proclaimed ‘Euro-Continental Champion’. Here he puts both titles on the line against two excellent athletes. I believe this was originally just going to be for the I.C title, however Angle had taken on Bob Backlund as his advisor since winning that title. Wanting to test Angle’s limits, Backlund had the match changed to a two fall contest, with the I.C belt up for grabs in the first fall, and the European title on the line for the second. Angle would snap when he found out Backlund was behind this, as we just saw on Heat. Jericho is obviously looking to get some revenge on Angle from last month here, whilst Benoit just wants the gold. Lawler is totally behind Angle on commentary here despite Benoit also being a heel, claiming this match is unfair on the Olympic Hero. The match gets under way with some great technical moves from all three men and a number of near falls being broken. Its pretty even, with the pairs rotating out in triple threat fashion. Jericho actually takes a pretty sick bump early on when Benoit knocks him off the top rope face first into the Spanish announce table. The crowd dies a little when Angle and Benoit then go at it, with neither guy being a face, but they get right back behind Y2J when he gets back into the thick of things. Angle eventually locks Jericho in the Cross-Face Chicken Wing which he was taught by his former mentor. Benoit tosses Angle off him and out of the ring though, then follows up with the Diving Headbutt on the downed Jericho. That allows the Wolverine to win the first fall and the Intercontinental Championship at 7:54. Angle is pissed and the next fall instantly starts up. He takes Benoit out with a suplex but ends up trading moves with his two opponents. Angle misses a moonsault from the top rope which leads to all three men being down. Jericho and Benoit recover, fighting for control of the match from there. Benoit actually makes Jericho tap to the Crossface, but the referee doesn’t see it, having been bumped earlier by Y2J. Meanwhile Angle comes back into it by whacking Benoit with the title belt, but Benoit doesn’t stay down by the time the ref recovers. Benoit takes Angle down with a back suplex, but misses a subsequent Diving Headbutt. That allows Jericho to capitalise with a Lionsault to Benoit, who he covers to win the European Championship at a total match time of 13:35. Overall there was some memorable action in this one leading to a solid match, but looking at the talent involved you would expect more from these guys. A lot of that has to do with the short amount of time they got. With an extra five or ten minutes this could have been great. As it was though, something was missing. All three men would go on to have far better matches over the years. The big story here is that Angle lost both his titles, but was not involved in the decision for either. He’d rebound just fine, but for now we have new I.C and European Champions in Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho respectively.
Grade: ***1/4

Backstage Michael Cole is with Mr McMahon who had returned a few weeks before this show to be in the Rock’s corner tonight. He talks about the issues in the McMahon family since Stephanie married Triple H, but tonight, he is going to make everything right.

Kane & Rikishi w/Paul Bearer vs X-Pac & Road Dogg w/Tori
After countless matches between X-Pac and the Big Red Machine over the past few months, the culmination of their rivalry comes about at Wrestlemania in tag team action. There’s really not much to talk about in the development of the feud since last time, as this is really all about Kane finally getting retribution against his former tag partner and “that jezebel” Tori. X-Pac teams with fellow DX member Road Dogg here, and they had become regularly partners following the injury of Billy Gunn marking the end of the New Age Outlaws last month. Kane meanwhile partners up with the popular Rikishi. Road Dogg does his usual stuff on the mic and the crowd is into it as always despite DX being heels. Anyway, Rikishi starts this one out with Road Dogg, and we see the Stinkface in the early going to a big pop. Tori gets involved and almost gets a Stinkface herself, only for X-Pac to make the save. The dominance of Rikishi & Kane leads to DX attempting to flee, but they are stopped by their opponents. X-Pac begins to build momentum following a Bronco Buster to Rikishi, and the heels briefly go on offence before Kane is tagged in. He cleans house and ends up coming face to face with his ex-lover, Tori. DX makes the save, but Kane fights them off. Paul Bearer eventually throws Tori back into the ring, and Kane puts her in the corner, leading to her getting a taste of Rikishi’s giant ass. Following the humiliation, Kane puts X-Pac away with a Tombstone Piledriver to pick up the win for his team at 4:16. A short match here to pop the crowd with two popular babyfaces and to allow Kane to get his revenge against X-Pac & Tori. Nothing wrong with it in that regard.
Grade: *

After the match, Too Cool run down to the ring to celebrate with the faces. They convince Rikishi to dance with them, whilst the San Diego Chicken also comes down and joins in. Remember last year Pete Rose dressed up as the Chicken to attack Kane. Throughout the whole dance, Kane is staring at the chicken, and he rips the costume head off afterwards. Its not Pete Rose though! Rose himself rushes out with a baseball bat and goes to jump the Big Red Machine. Rikishi stops him though and this lets Kane chokeslam his old nemesis. Paul Bearer hilariously does the DX chop over Rose and Rikishi follows up with the stinkface to the baseball star. A memorable moment that would sadly be the last of Pete Rose’s interactions with Kane at Wrestlemania. It was fun while it lasted. Pete is a deserving member of the celebrity wing of the Hall of Fame.

We then go to Kevin Kelly who is backstage with the Rock. The Great One runs through his usual catchphrases and talks about his quest to regain the WWF Championship which he lost at this event last year. Typical great Rock promo. The main event is up next.

WWF Championship – No DQ Elimination Match:
Triple H (c) w/Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley vs The Rock w/Mr McMahon vs Mick Foley w/Linda McMahon vs Big Show w/Shane McMahon
Based on the results of No Way Out, this was supposed to be Triple H vs Big Show for the WWF Championship. Both guys were heels though, so that wasn’t going to happen. Due to the controversial outcome of the Rock/Show match following the interference of Shane McMahon, the two men faced off once more a few weeks before this show on Raw is War. The stipulation of that match was that if the Rock won, he would also be in the Wrestlemania main event. As it turned out, the Rock was indeed victorious, thanks to the assistance of Vince McMahon, making his return after being defeated by Triple H back in December. It looked as though a triple threat was set for Wrestlemania, however surprisingly that match took place the following week on Raw! Triple H would come out victorious in that match, but his celebration was interrupted by the returning Linda McMahon. Linda stated that Triple H would be defending the title at Wrestlemania against the two men he just faced, and one more challenger – Mick Foley, making his return for one night only to realise his dream of main eventing the biggest show of the year! Foley announced that his return was a one time deal and if he won, he would surrender the championship the following night on Raw leading to a tournament to crown a new champion. Meanwhile, the McMahon family drama escalated, with Stephanie even slapping Linda on a recent episode of Smackdown prior to this show. That brings us to the match at hand. All four guys are in the ring at the same time and its elimination rules. Last man surviving will be the WWF Champion. In the early part of the match, Big Show asserts his dominance, courtesy of his power advantage. He chokeslams both Rock and Triple H, but Foley hits the big guy with a low blow and all three other men work together to team up on the largest man in the match. This strategy proves to be successful for the most part and leads to Shane intervening, only to be taken out by the Rock. Meanwhile Foley whacks Show with a chair to the back and the Great One takes the giant down with the Rock Bottom. That scores the pinfall and Big Show is eliminated only about five minutes into the match. This would be the end of his main event run for quite a while. With the match down to three men, Triple H attempts to form an alliance with the Rock, but the People’s Champion responds by decking the Game. From there, the no DQ rules really come into play as the three men brawl outside the ring and Foley gets his hands on his old barbed wire 2×4. Triple H takes it off the Hardcore Legend and pummels him with it instead, but Foley comes back and locks in the Mandible Claw with Socko. Rock whacks the Game with the title belt and goes for the People’s Elbow after, but Foley instead goes for Socko on his former partner! From here we get some back and forth action with the three guys going at it and the crowd going crazy. Eventually Mick and Triple H decide to work together to take out Rock so they can settle their issues alone afterwards, but Rock fights them both off. Rock and Trips go at it outside onto the announce table, but as the Game looks to put him through, Foley comes diving off the middle rope towards the table, but doesn’t make it and breaks his rib in the process. Triple H ends up putting Rock through afterwards, and drags Foley into the ring. He connects with the Pedigree, but Mick refuses to stay down as JR goes nuts. The Game is livid and gets a chair, whacks Mick and then pedigrees him a second time onto it. That scores the pin fall and Mick Foley’s career is over after about 20:00. The crowd gives him an ovation as he waves goodbye. Now its down to Rock and Triple H, the main event everyone was expecting back in January. With Rock still down on the outside though, Foley rushes back with the 2×4 and does a number on the Game to a huge pop. Rock recovers as Foley leaves, and he and the Game brawl back and forth, up to the set and back. After some more action, Triple H gets into it with Vince, and Shane McMahon runs back out and hits his father with a monitor! Stephanie looks on in shock as the McMahon men fight on the outside, and Shane busts his father open with a sick chair shot which leads to him being helped away from ringside. Meanwhile Rock looks to be closing in on victory as he fights off Trips and the interfering Shane. He hits Triple H with the Rock Bottom, whilst Vince rushes back out and beats the hell out of his son. The chairman then picks up a chair and teases hitting the champion, only to double cross his man and nail the Rock. JR is screaming as only he can as Triple H makes the cover – but the Rock kicks out! Vince delivers a second chair shot the Rock’s skull, busting him open, and this time Triple H picks up the victory at 39:42 to retain the WWF Championship. He’s the first heel to walk in and out of Mania as world champion. The match is actually pretty good despite all the overbooking, but what do you expect with a McMahon in every corner? They got rid of Show early and the remaining three men put on a very good showing. Its not like we were really robbed of that Triple H/Rock singles match either, as they got about twenty minutes once Foley was eliminated. Its a little long overall, and they probably could have cut 10 minutes or so to give to the triple threat match earlier, but for what it was, its enjoyable. Vince is always better as a heel and now he’s aligned with the rest of his family (except Linda) as Rock’s adversaries. The rivalry is far from over.
Grade: ***1/2

After the match, Vince hugs Stephanie as the fans pelt the ring with garbage. You’d think the nWo were here! He reconciles with Shane as well as they celebrate Triple H’s victory. The Rock meanwhile recovers from his injuries and takes Shane and Vince out with a Rock Bottom each. He then does the same to Stephanie and fights Triple H off. The Rock follows up with a People’s Elbow to the Billion Dollar Princess, drawing a huge pop to send the crowd home happy despite their favourite coming up short. JR wonders when the Rock will get another chance at the WWF title and thats where we send it to a recap package of the event before going off the air.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
This was a really strange show in that the only singles match was the filler between the Kat and Terri. Every other match was either a multi-person contest or involved teams. The fact that a card like this was at Wrestlemania makes it even stranger to me. I imagine the reasoning was to get as much of the loaded roster on the card as possible. In future years they would achieve this by adding an extra hour to the biggest show of the year which benefited the event greatly. What we got here was a relatively average show, which would have been fine as a regular PPV but a little underwhelming for Wrestlemania. There’s the awesome triangle ladder match here though, so its not like there’s nothing to get excited about. The main event was also really good even if it was a little long, and I’ve already said that they probably could have shortened this to make the I.C/Euro triple threat match better than it was. The rest of the show was filled with relatively basic matches that wouldn’t be remembered down the line, but the Pete Rose stuff after the Kane match was fun as always. A drop off in quality from the last two PPVs but the product is still kicking in high gear.

Three Stars of the Night:
1. Hardy Boyz – they didn’t win the triangle ladder match, but thanks to Jeff in particular, they were definitely involved in the most memorable spots. That swanton off the huge ladder is amazing to watch to this day.
2. Edge & Christian/Dudley Boyz (tie) – Edge & Christian came out victorious, marking the beginning of their dominance of the tag division. I have to credit the Dudley Boyz as well being involved in a great deal of fun moments in the match.
3. The Rock – the crowd were strongly behind him here, and he went on to have a solid performance against Triple H following the eliminations of Foley and Show. He probably should have won the title here with the McMahon double cross the following month, but I can understand why it happened here instead.

I feel like I should mention Triple H here as well as Mick Foley. Foley definitely did not look bad in his final match for quite some time.

FINAL GRADE: 5.5 out of 10

ALL TIME PERFORMANCE TALLY:
What I do here is add the three stars of the night with each review so as to keep track of who we can say overall is the greatest PPV performer to any given time. First place scores 3 points, second 2 and third 1.

Steve Austin = 84
Bret Hart = 83
Shawn Michaels = 67
Mick Foley = 38
Triple H = 35
The Rock = 34
Randy Savage = 28
Undertaker = 25
Owen Hart = 21
Hulk Hogan = 18
X-Pac = 18
Diesel = 15
Ultimate Warrior = 13
Vader = 13
British Bulldog = 12
Ted DiBiase = 10
Razor Ramon = 10
Vince McMahon = 10
Ric Flair = 8
Matt Hardy = 8
Jeff Hardy = 8
Jim Neidhart = 7
Jerry Lawler = 6
Christian = 6
Dynamite Kid = 5
Arn Anderson = 5
Roddy Piper = 5
Mr Perfect = 5
Marty Jannetty = 5
Bob Backlund = 5
Chris Jericho = 5
Edge = 5
Ricky Steamboat = 4
Ax = 4
Smash = 4
Bobby Heenan = 4
D’Lo Brown = 4
Bubba Ray Dudley = 4
D-Von Dudley = 4
Greg Valentine = 3
Tully Blanchard = 3
Tanaka = 3
Bam Bam Bigelow = 3
Sato = 3
Jake Roberts = 3
Hakushi = 3
Yokozuna = 3
Savio Vega = 3
Ken Shamrock = 3
Shane McMahon = 3
Chyna = 3
Brutus Beefcake = 2
Paul Orndorff = 2
Andre the Giant = 2
Rick Rude = 2
Sgt Slaughter = 2
Jeff Jarrett = 2
Jesse Ventura = 1
Texas Tornado = 1
Tito Santana = 1
Virgil = 1
Scott Steiner = 1
Rick Steiner = 1
Lex Luger = 1
The Roadie = 1
Billy Gunn = 1
Bart Gunn = 1
Marc Mero = 1
Flash Funk = 1
Animal = 1
Hawk = 1
Taka Michinoku = 1
Test = 1
Big Show = 1
Kurt Angle = 1

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter at @Mpmcc91. Thanks for reading.