WWF Judgment Day (May 2000)

From Louisville, Kentucky; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

Opening Six-Man Tag Team Match: Too Cool v Team ECK: This is the source of the infamous 'jug band' skit from Edge, Christian, and Kurt Angle. And they try to jump Too Cool during the pre-match funk session, but get overwhelmed by Rikishi's ass, and knocked out of the ring. Grandmaster Sexay starts with Edge all official-like, and they do a quick criss cross to put Sexay in control with an enzuigiri and a 2^nd rope dropkick. Tags to Scotty 2 Hotty and Christian, and they get into their own criss cross - Scotty controlling with a snap suplex. E&C try a double-team, but Too Cool have it scouted, and the tag champs end up on the floor to allow the faces to dance - with Sexay's pants falling down. Christian tries to turn that into a cheapshot, but Rikishi steps in, and cleans all of Team ECK out. Sit-down splash for Kurt Angle, but he manages to roll out of the way, and toss Rikishi into the ECK corner for some abuse. Rikishi shrugs it off and tags back to Scotty, but the Worm gets cut off by Edge, and ECK cut the ring in half on him. Christian tries to finish with a powerbomb, but Scotty manages to counter it into a stungun, and he gets to Rikishi. He's a house of arson, and Angle takes the stinkface out of the deal. God, we were into some weird things as fans in the Attitude Era. Driver for Edge, but Angle saves, and Edge attempts to do his own version of the Worm, but Scotty cuts it off, and gives him the real thing, baby! Sexay adds a flying legdrop, and Rikishi pins Edge off of it at a brisk 9:47. Perfect opener, as it was non-stop action to get the crowd into things, and didn't overstay its welcome. **

WWF European Title Triple Threat Match: Eddie Guerrero v Dean Malenko v Saturn: Everyone gangs up on Eddie at the bell, and they cream him with a sleek backbreaker/flying kneedrop combo. Sign in the crowd: Who Booked This CRAP?! Really? For this? They add some more tandem stuff in the corner, but Saturn quickly betrays Malenko with a lariat for two. He adds a fireman’s facebuster, and a press-slam for a charging Guerrero. Eddie fires back with leg lariats for both, then a round of ranas. Headscissors for Dean, but he counters into a tilt-a-whirl slam on the way down for two - broken up by Saturn. Just non-stop so far, with everybody hitting high impact stuff, but getting their counts broken up by the third guy! Eddie with a tornado DDT on Saturn for two. Malenko with a sitout powerbomb on Eddie for two. Eddie with a sunset flip on Dean, but Malenko turns it into the Cloverleaf - only to have to release to deal with an incoming Saturn. Just great stuff, illustrating that they need to incapacitate one of the guys before anyone is going to win this. Guerrero tries to superplex Malenko, but Saturn sneaks up behind him with an electric chair, and an overhead suplex, THEN he goes up to finish the superplex on Malenko - which Dean blocks by shoving him off. Eddie runs over to capitalize with a rana off the top, but Dean counters into a super-gutbuster instead - in a wild, wild spot! Saturn rushes over with a flying frogsplash onto the champ, but Dean breaks up the pin, so Saturn puts him in the cloverleaf - Eddie breaking it up with a brainbuster on Saturn for two. They trade a few cradles, and Saturn ends up getting tossed to allow Malenko to side suplex Guerrero in peace. He adds a flying splash, then tries a German suplex, but Saturn sneaks up, and German suplexes him AS he's suplexing Guerrero. Eddie tries a slingshot sunset flip on Malenko, but he grabs the ropes to block it, so Chyna whacks him with a loaded bouquet of roses, and Eddie pins Dean with a magistral cradle at 7:58. Awesome! Just none stop, intense action from bell-to-bell, with lots of neat psychology over the falls, and true battles over every damn spot. This was what ECW was constantly going for with their chaotic three-way dance brawls, but instead of relying on weapons and blood, it was built around chemistry, and crisp ring work. This was a workout just to type! ****

Falls Count Anywhere Match: Big Show v Shane McMahon: Shane tries attacking with a tope suicida as Show makes his way down the aisle, but gets caught, and rammed into the post. Whoops. Show destroys him on the floor with various go-to weapons, then press-slams him in for a literal ass-kicking. Big boot, but Big Bossman runs in with the nightstick to stop the Chokeslam. He gets killed, so Test and Albert run in with chairs. That backfires, so Trish Stratus tries blowing him low. THAT fails, so Show throws her over the top onto T&A, in a visually impressive spot. Meanwhile, McMahon is crawling up the aisle, but with his henchmen neutralized, Show is free to stalk him - catching up, and launching him into the entrance set. Show rips off a piece of the set to beat him with, but T&A knock it away from him, and triple-team him with Shane. That's still not enough to finish Show, however, so Shane starts climbing the set to evade Show. Cue Bull Buchanan with a nightstick to take Show down, and Shane uses his elevated position to shove a giant speaker onto him. He finds a cinderblock to break over his head next, and that's enough for the pin at 7:11. Much better than it had any business being, with McMahon always reliable to go out there and bump like a madman. Best use of Show, too, as this allows him to look like a complete monster, without exposing his weaknesses. **

WWF Intercontinental Title Submission Match: Chris Benoit v Chris Jericho: First lockup goes to a stalemate, so Benoit cracks him with a few chops to soften him up, but Jericho slides between his legs on a criss cross, and bulldogs him before returning fire with some chops of his own. He teases another bulldog to lure Benoit into a fujiwara armbar, but Benoit escapes and tries a tombstone - reversed by Jericho, and reversed again by Benoit into a shoulderbreaker. He capitalizes with a flying headbutt onto the shoulder, then goes for the kill with a submission, but the challenger escapes. He tries for the Walls early, but Benoit hasn't been softened, and easily blocks, so Jericho knocks him to the floor with a springboard dropkick. He follows for a whip into the steps, but Benoit reverses - Jericho crashing into it right with the shoulder. Benoit tries a follow-up with the steps, but Jericho counters into a kneebreaker onto them - hitting Benoit's previously injured (and braced) knee. Inside, Jericho fires off a butterfly backbreaker, then tosses the champ into the corner for some more chops. Cross corner whip, but Benoit dodges the incoming charge, and Jericho hits the post - shoulder first. Benoit rips the top turnbuckle pad off to ram his shoulder into a few times, then takes him down in an armbar. Jericho won't submit, so Benoit cracks him with some more chops (their chests bright red at this point), and adds a snap suplex for good measure. Bodyslam sets up a kneedrop to the shoulder, and a short-clothesline sets up a cross-armbreaker. Jericho strains to make the ropes to escape, so Benoit tries propping him up in the corner for a running kneesmash to the shoulder - only for Jericho to side step, and Benoit to hit the corner with the bad knee! Jericho quickly capitalizes with a flapjack to stun the champion, then adds a legwhip, but Benoit refuses to allow him to go for a submission hold - punching and clawing at him as he does. Great little touch there. Jericho is forced to unload a flurry of rights before he can try a leglock, then decides to punish him by taking off the knee brace, and whipping him with it. Figure four, but Benoit is still too feisty, and kicks him off, so Jericho dropkicks the knee, and adds a springboard moonsault onto it. He decides to disorient Benoit with a tarantula - which is another nice touch, as he goes to more obscure submissions to avoid Benoit's defenses. Benoit escapes, and dodges some more leg shots with the three-alarm rolling German suplexes - Jericho blocking the third alarm, and sweeping him for the Walls! Benoit manages to grab the knee brace to whack him with, but Jericho refuses to stop trying to apply the hold, so Benoit frustrates him, then counters into the Crossface! He wrenches it on, and Jericho is finished at 13:26. Brilliant match! Not only was it a stiff, hard fought, psychological battle - but it was a completely different stiff, hard fought, psychological battle than they had the month before! It's not flawless (Benoit, for example, was using the bad knee a bit too much), but it was absolutely brilliant despite its flaws. **** ¼

Double Tables Match: The Dudley Boyz v X-Pac and Jesse James: The Dudley's clean house to start, and D-Von Dudley starts with Road Dogg once the dust settles. Dudley controls with a few diving shoulderblocks, but ends up in the wrong corner, and gets double-teamed by DX. Tag to X-Pac, but he quickly takes a diving shoulderblock for himself, but manages a spinkick on Bubba Dudley. He goes for a table, but Bubba cuts him off, and hits a 2^nd rope clothesline. Wassup Drop for X-Pac, and DX bail to the outside to regroup. They decide to walk out, so the Dudley's go after them, but Bubba gets distracted by Tori, and DX double up on D-Von in the ring. They cut the ring in half (kinda weird that they're bothering with formality of tags for this, since it's no holds barred), but Bubba gets the tag after D-Von takes them both out with (you guessed it) diving shoulderblocks, and he brings a bunch of tables in. Unfortunately for the Dudley's, D-Von ends up cornered by James on the floor, and takes a pumphandle-slam through a table on the outside. That puts DX up 1-0, but D-Von is still in the match, and they have to put Bubba through a table to win. The Dudley's even things up when Bubba powerbombs X-Pac through a table moments later, then go for the Death Drop on James to finish, but the referee is down. Thinking they've won, they decide to put Tori through a table instead, but it backfires, and X-Pac drives Bubba through a table with the X-Factor at 10:55. Definitely the low point of this show thus far, but hey, this is still on track to be one of the best pay per views ever if the main event can deliver. ½*

Main Event: WWF Title Sixty-Minute Iron Man Match: The Rock v Triple H: Shawn Michaels is the special guest referee, in a nod to the famous Iron Man Match with Bret Hart from 1996. He's also wearing the gayest shorts humanly possible, but we'll let it slide since I think we've all long since given up on Shawn's fashion sense - outside of his awesome ring gear, of course. Big staredown to start, and they go into a hard fought battle over the initial lockup - ending in a stalemate. They fire right back into another one, but neither man is willing to let the other control, and they end up having to break on the ropes. Rock takes control with a standing side-headlock, but HHH counters into an overhead wristlock - Rock using an impressive bridge to try and reverse, then shifting back to the headlock once he gets HHH off balance. Rock with a pair of shoulderblocks for two, and a cradle gets two - HHH quickly bailing to the floor to break the momentum. He milks the count out there, and inside, he manages a side-headlock of his own, but when he tries the shoulderblock trick like Rock did, it backfires, and the challenger ends up on the floor again. Nice, old school sequence there. Back in, Hunter out maneuvers Rock to get him into the corner, and he starts going after the arm, slapping on an armbar, and hitting a single-arm DDT when Rock tries escaping - then going right back to the hold. Rock fights up, so HHH tries for the single-arm DDT again, but walks into the Rock Bottom to give the champion the first fall at 10:44. HHH rolls to the floor in hopes of breaking the momentum, but Rock is now energized, and follows - whipping him into the rail a few times. One thing I will note about this match is that they're doing a very good job of keeping the crowd into the slower style, but the production guys really blow it by not putting a clock on the screen at all times. Triple H tries to fire back with a high knee against the rail, but Rock dodges it, then suplexes him back into the ring for two. He goes after the knee by wrapping it around the post a few times, then slapping on a figure four. Hunter fights to reverse it, but it's in the ropes, and they spill out to the floor again - Rock bouncing the challengers head off the announce table. Into the crowd for a bit (I hate it, but I guess they just couldn't resist using everything they could think of to fill the hour), but it's a really short bit. I mean, I've seen them do longer crowd brawl segments in fifteen minute main events.

Twenty minutes in, and Hunter rolls Rock back inside for a couple of elbowdrops for two - forcing Rock to expend energy by kicking out of several pin attempts. With Rock weakened, HHH tosses him over the top, but a whip into the steps is reversed - HHH hitting them with the bad knee. Inside, Rock goes after it, wrapping the knee around the middle rope, and hammering it. Leglock, but HHH rakes the eyes to escape, so Rock quickly puts him down with a kneebreaker. Another figure four, but Hunter shoves him into the corner with the free leg to block, and the Pedigree evens the score at 25:30. HHH catches his breath for a moment, then immediately capitalizes on the still finisher-worn champion with a series of hard rights, and an inside cradle for another fall at 26:31. Good booking there, as it not only makes logical sense, but now it puts the heel up, and gives the crowd an extra something to root for. HHH tries to go for another, but Rock slugs back, so the challenger dumps him out to the floor again, and rams him into the rail. Over to the entrance, Rock reverses a shot into the set, but HHH reverses a vertical suplex out there - as we hit the halfway mark. Well, we're now at the point that they so struggled to make it to with the thirty minute draw at Fully Loaded in 1998, and I can tell you it's already light years ahead of that match. Back in, HHH fends off a recovering Rock with a kneeling facebuster, and executes a nice piledriver to put him up 3-1 at 32:27. Hunter is too fatigued to try for another pin, and by the time he does, Rock is recovering, so he dumps him into the corner for some stomping - only for Rock to barrel out with a lariat! HHH puts him back down with a high knee for two, but a trip to the top rope is stopped when Rock slams him down - Michaels nearly counting both men out. They stagger up at nine for a Rock-won slugfest, and he grabs the battered challenger in a magistral cradle for two. Hunter fires back with another high knee for two, and tries a sleeper - which really works within the context of the match, since Rock is already very worn down. He even uses the ropes for leverage, but Rock refuses to give up the fall.

Forty minutes in, HHH gives up on the hold, and Rock snaps off a belly-to-belly suplex to fend him off - getting an arm across the chest for two, then adding a DDT at 40:38 to pull himself up to two falls against Triple H's three. Hunter rolls out to prevent another pin attempt, but Rock is on him with a whip into the steps. HHH tries grabbing a chair, but Michaels pulls it away from him, and Rock delivers a swinging neckbreaker on the floor. Back in, Rock goes for the kill, but HHH grabs the chair Michaels pulled from him earlier, and blasts Rock with it for a disqualification at 43:43 - tying the score at three apiece, and busting Rock open. Good spot there, as yes, it costs HHH a fall, but it's better to lose a fall with something that damages Rock too, rather than getting pinned when Rock moves in for the kill. Proving my point, Hunter simply covers the champion (with two feet on the ropes for good measure) to score a fall at 44:10. Back to the sleeper, and now Rock is properly worn down - Hunter able to score a 5-3 lead with it at 47:29. Triple H doesn't want to release the hold, however, and so Shawn is forced to pull him off, and they get into a scuffle over it. The interlude allows Rock to recover, and a corner whip sends HHH bumping out, over the top! Rock quickly rolls him back in to try and score a fall off of it, but HHH grabs him in a single-arm DDT for two. Back to the top rope, but again it backfires - this time with Rock crotching him up there, and superplexing him down. That leaves both men looking up at the lights, but Rock manages to get an arm across the chest for another dramatic two count. Big clothesline puts Hunter back on the outside, and Rock is on him with a slingshot into the post. Over to the announce table, and HHH takes a Pedigree onto it to trigger a bladejob of his own - Rock wisely rolling back in and scoring a fall via countout at 56:09, rather than wasting time trying to move HHH's limp carcass into the ring. With only three minutes left, and Rock only one fall behind a now bloody challenger, the McMahon's head down to ringside. Meanwhile, Rock nearly scores another fall by countout, but HHH just makes it in - a re-energized Rocky on him with a flurry of rights, and a clothesline. DDT triggers a McMahon group run-in, but Rock fends them off, and hits a spinebuster on his challenger - the People's Elbow scoring a fall at 58:04! With less than two minutes left, we're in danger of a tie! Michaels gets taken out by Shane on the outside, as a Rock Bottom cues a run-in from X-Pac and Road Dogg, and the McMahon's join in for a beat down! Pedigree for Rock, but here comes the Undertaker (making his dramatic return - on a motorcycle) to take out all the henchmen. Chokeslam for Triple H, but Michaels recovers as he hits the Tombstone, and disqualifies Rock over it right at the buzzer - Triple H winning the title 6-5 at 60:00. Hell of a match here, and one people were openly doubting that they could deliver at the time (especially given the last time they tried to go to a thirty-minute time limit draw two years prior, they completely exposed themselves as limited), but they not only surpassed all expectations, but delivered an absorbing main event. It's not the type of match that lends itself to tons of rewatches, but unlike the Hart/Michaels Iron Man from WrestleMania four years prior, it is a lot more exciting because both guys were willing to trade falls. This was also a radical change of pace at the time, as even though they were actively reconditioning the audience to appreciate wrestling again throughout the year, there hadn't been a main event with this much focus on mat wrestling in YEARS. That said, it’s far from perfect. While it is a major achievement for both men, and while both reached deep down into their arsenal with unique combinations and spots we don’t often see from these two, the overall psychology was quite spotty (all the knee and arm work from the early going was completely ignored in the later portions, for example), and it relied a bit too much on going in-out-in-out of the ring. They also had major issues with the flow of the match, and the overbooking towards the finish was superfluous, and took away from the match – unlike the month before at Backlash, where it accentuated the story being told. It’s flawed, but still an admirable effort from everyone involved, and well worth seeing at least once. *** ½

BUExperience: From a workrate perspective, this is easily one the best pay per views of all time. It’s not as historically significant as shows like WrestleMania X or X-7, but the overall work was out of this world, with only one match under two stars, and two matches at four stars, or higher.

Usually with an Iron Man match headlining, that’s sort of the make-or-break of a card (ala WrestleMania XII), but even if that had sucked (which it didn’t), this show would still be in my good graces because the undercard was so ferociously on target.

*****