The show kicks off with an old-fashioned six-man tag pitting Right To Censor - Steven Richards, The Goodfather, and Bull Buchanan - against the team of Rikishi and Too Cool. The crowd is into this match because, in 2000, the live crowds were still into just about everything regardless of whether it was actually any good. The match goes under 6 minutes and my biggest takeaways are that "The Hos" were more over than Too Cool and I totally forgot how long Bull Buchanan was with the company (and that he was Recon in Truth Commission). Other than that, nothing to really mention. (1/5)
This is followed by Road Dogg vs. X-Pac, who were stablemates and tag team partners and both heels, though X-Pac gets booed and there's a loud "X-Pac Sucks" chant during the match which makes me think that Road Dogg was already teasing a pseudo-face by this point. X-Pac wins a rather pedestrian match with a low-blow followed by his signature X-Factor facebuster finisher. I've never been any sort of fan of Road Dogg, so this match was practically guaranteed to not engage me before the bell even rang. Fortunately, it goes under 5 minutes - which earns it another half-point in my book because there was no way these guys were going to do anything good with more time. (1.5/5)
The Intercontinental Title was on the line in the next bout - a tag match pitting Chyna and Eddie Guerrero vs. Val Venis and Trish Stratus. This is one of those matches that is more interesting than good. Trish was not yet a regular in-ring performer, Eddie was not yet a main event player, Val Venis was a few weeks away from joining Right To Censor, and Chyna, while probably not at her peak, she had certainly broken out at this point as a babyface standing on her own without DX, a big enough star to carry her own segments and storylines. Unfortunately, Chyna couldn't really work all that well, especially compared to the women of today, and Val Venis, while passable in 97'/98', hadn't improved much, was wrestling in a gimmick that had proven to be very one-dimensional, and went on to be one of the most loathsome wrestling personalities on the planet 20 years later, further limiting any amount of enjoyment that I could get from this. Despite Chyna being booked as a very credible, worthy competitor, its still weird to see her and Val Venis do straight-up wrestling exchanges, with Venis booting Chyna in the ribs and at one point delivering a back suplex. Just another example of how truly unique Chyna was compared to any other woman in WWE history in that I can't think of a single other performer who truly competed in intergender matches where that "gimmick" was barely even played-up. Chyna ends up winning the Intercontinental Title too, a crowd-pleasing moment she celebrates with Guerrero. (2/5)
Tazz vs. Jerry Lawler is next. You gotta give credit to Tazz for giving his all to get this feud over and the same could and should be said about Lawler, but Wrestler vs. Commentator angles are a real dead-end to me as the basic premise almost requires at least a little bit of fuckery and there's really no way to "end" feuds like this. On one hand, if the heel antagonist (Tazz) wins, he hasn't really beat a true competitor. On the other hand, if the face commentator (Lawler) wins, the actual wrestler has been emasculated. Now, to me, the former is a much better situation than the latter because you haven't emasculated a wrestler, but guess which option Vince went with? We get a ref bump in this match and Jim Ross eventually smashing a candy jar over Tazz's head to give Lawler the pin in under 5 minutes. That was pretty much it for Tazz's WWE career as an in-ring talent. (1/5)
The first match that can be even partially recommended comes next - Shane McMahon defending the Hardcore Championship against Steve Blackman. Blackman comes across as a real badass in this match, even if he was void of charisma and not all that great of an actual wrestler. Shane gets his ass beat for awhile until Test and Albert show up and help him out. The 3-on-1 works well for awhile and they drag Blackman towards the entrance to set up the big spot of the match. Albert unintentionally hits Test with a kendo stick, which allows Blackman to regain the upperhand and take out the two goons - which doesn't make total sense, but hey, at least Blackman looks like a terminator. Shane climbs up the lighting rig and Blackman chases him. Blackman strikes him in the back with the kendo stick and Shane, after noticeably looking back down to make sure he was in the right position, takes an absolutely insane fall off the top of the lighting rig and through the stage (where there were certainly crash pads). Regardless, this was an absolutely crazy height to take a fall from and the crowd goes insane over it. Blackman, to his credit, takes a plunge too, dropping onto Shane (or where Shane had landed and then rolled out of the way, I'm guessing) with a legdrop from quite a ways up the rig himself. This match was all about the stunt, but it was captured well by the camera crew and the crowd went bananas for it. Plus, at the time, this sort of bump wasn't happening on every show or in every Shane match...but those days would come and these moments would lose their uniqueness. (3/5)
The next match is one where individual's mileage may vary as Chris Jericho takes on Chris Benoit in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match. The first fall happens relatively quickly once Benoit locks in the Crippler Crossface. I like the psychology there of Jericho opting to tap quickly before he suffers too much damage. The second fall sees Benoit continue to dominate a bit, working hard on Jericho's shoulder. Again, if you're not into Benoit's methodical, ruthless style because...well...you know...there's really nothing to enjoy or admire here aside from the hard-hitting action, which always his bread n' butter. Jericho ties things up by applying the Walls of Jericho, forcing Benoit to make the same choice that Jericho had to minutes earlier. During the third fall, Jericho and Benoit both busted out even rarer moves - especially for the WWE in 2000 - including a top rope hurricanrana and a dragon suplex. Jericho landed the Lionsault but couldn't capitalize. Instead, Jericho attempted to schoolboy Benoit, but Benoit countered it into a pin of his own and grabbed the bottom rope to get the 3rd fall in just 13 or so minutes. I liked the finish and the match but felt like it could've gone a tad longer. These two had good chemistry, no doubt, but this wasn't the best match either man had ever had or even the best they had together. (3/5)
The next match needs minimal introduction: The Dudley Boys vs. The Hardys vs. Edge & Christian in the first ever TLC Match, though it was clearly based on some of the wild matches that ECW had been having in the 90s and we did see basically a precursor of this same match at WrestleMania XVI. What's most remarkable about this match is that, even 20+ years later, it still stands up as arguably the best official TLC match ever. I was genuinely surprised that some of the spots in this match came from this match and weren't developed later, for example, the see-saw ladder moment that sends some steel directly into Matt Hardy's face (I was certain that spot came along in one of the later iterations). The Dudleys are as over here as they ever were and far less stale than they would become over the next few years. The Hardys are incredibly over (unsurprising considering the locale). Edge and Christian were despised by the crowd. Unlike future TLC matches, which became Edge's "signature" match and then the basis of an entire PPV rather than the justifiable, storyline-fitting end to a long-simmering feud, this one also feels like the legitimate blow-off to a three-way rivalry that had last many months, with the chairs representing Edge and Christian, the tables being the Dudleys' weapon of choice, and the ladders symbolizing the Hardys' hopes to ascend to the top of the tag division. One could rundown the list of insane, career-shortening moments in this match but it would get tedious and not do enough justice to how different and exciting this match, and the WrestleMania XVI match, was for their time in the WWE. (4.5/5)
A Thong Stinkface match pitting The Kat vs. Terri Runnels is next. This match was designed to "break up" the show and, for that, it works...but its still awful, awful stuff. It lasts well under 5 minutes and contains no actual wrestling and the "Bronco Buster" that The Kat delivers is noticeably bad (as is Terri's "selling" of the move despite there being no contact at all). The crowd is obviously into seeing two beautiful women in bikinis jumping around in a ring so I won't deny that this was effective time-filler. A half point because it could've been even worse if this had been stretched for even 30 more seconds. (0.5/5)
The Undertaker vs. Kane followed. According to the rumors at the time, this was supposed to be a Taker/Big Show match (they'd been a tag team the previous year) but Big Show had been pulled off the road to lose weight so Kane was quickly turned heel, setting up this match. This is more of a brawl than anything - in fact, as JR notes on commentary, I'm not positive the bell ever rings - and Taker targets his attack on unmasking his brother. This was better than having to watch these two work through an actual match but is still inessential viewing. (1.5/5)
Main event time - The Rock defending his WWE Championship against Triple H and Kurt Angle in a triple threat match. Angle comes out and cuts a pre-match promo about how he should've kissed Stephanie McMahon even sooner than he did, which leads to Triple H's arrival and the two immediately coming to blows. For some unexplained reason, The Rock doesn't come out for several minutes as Angle and Triple H duke it out, eventually making their way out of the ring. This is when we get the infamous spot where Triple H attempts to hit the pedigree on Angle on top of a table (which, when you actually think about it, is an insane move to do anyway) and the table gives away, bringing both men down to the floor and legitimately concussing Angle. The Rock finally made his entrance at this point and the match began in earnest, though Angle would spend the bulk of it being attended to by physicians and brought backstage, which is one of those funny ironic things where I believe 100% that Angle being "knocked out" was always the plan of the match but what they didn't count on was that it would actually happen. With Angle out, this match becomes just another Triple H/Rock match, which is not necessarily a bad thing but, even at the time, I remember thinking that this was a bit of a bait-and-switch as Angle was the freshest main eventer on the scene at the time and we'd seen Triple H and The Rock wrestle at least a dozen times over the previous year, including at six previous PPVs in 1-on-1 matches over the previous 2 years, most of which were built up through tag matches and multi-mans involving them on TV. Eventually Angle makes his return and we get some good false finishes and the crowd goes wild for all of them. Like so many other matches on this card, its hard to judge this match too harshly as - if you're listening to the audience - they absolutely loved every minute and were solidly into the proceedings. The actual finish is totally wild with Triple H inadvertently punching Stephanie and then Angle catching him with a sledgehammer to the head only for The Rock to break up the pin and hit the People's Elbow on Triple H to get the victory. Some people consider this an all-time classic but I don't think it holds up all that well and I would've much preferred to see these three actually have a "real" triple threat match with all three guys involved in the bulk of the match. (3.5/5)
SummerSlam 2000 is a show representative of its time - for better and worse. On the plus side, the crowd is hot all night, even for matches and segments that I would consider garbage (the Stinkface match, Kane and Taker's brawl). The TLC match is a terrific stunt fest, the main event is super heated, and Jericho/Benoit is good if not a bit underwhelming. Plus, even the bad matches are kept short. On the negative side, those "bad matches" still make up the bulk of the show. Even for a "nostalgia watch," I'd look elsewhere (as the 2.15-out-of-5 Kwang Score indicates).
FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver
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