WWF King of the Ring 2000

King of the Ring 2000 was held with two main goals in mind: elevate Kurt Angle to main event player (the WWF’s next choice as World Champion), and get that same title on The Rock to drop to Angle. In addition, the tournament itself was the largest in history – though only the last three rounds were featured on pay per view.

From Boston Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.


Opening King of the Ring Quarter Final Match: Chris Benoit v Rikishi: Benoit charges into the ring for a slugfest at the bell, but gets overpowered by Rikishi, and hits with a backdrop driver. Benoit bails to the floor to regroup, but Rikishi is right on him with a whip into the stairs. Inside, Benoit tries a German suplex, but Rikishi counters by dropping his weight, so Benoit drives a forearm to the back of his head, and then executes the hold for two. Cobra Clutch wears Rikishi down for the Crippler Crossface, but the big man makes the ropes to break. Frustrated, Benoit goes for a chair, and gets himself disqualified at 3:24. Too short to go anywhere, though Benoit managed to work some nice wear down psychology in before the silly ending. ¼*

King of the Ring Quarter Final Match: Eddie Guerrero v Val Venis: Val has Trish Stratus with him, and Eddie has Chyna. Life's just not fair. Excited to get to the back and put it in Trish's ass, Venis wastes no time unloading on Guerrero in the corner. Eddie slows him down with a headscissors to the floor, but walks into a press slam onto the rail out there from Venis. Inside, Val goes to the top rope, but Eddie meets him up there with a super-duperplex for two. Drop-toehold leaves Venis in position for a surfboard, so Venis rakes the eyes to break. Eddie takes the still weakened Val into the corner with a dropkick, but a criss cross ends in Eddie getting flapjacked. Backelbow/elbowdrop combo gets Val two, and a backbreaker submission looks to crack Guerrero in half, but he won't submit. Val tries throwing him into the ropes again, but gets countered with a rana, and Eddie follows with a side suplex. Flying Swanton bomb, but Venis dodges it, and tries the Money Shot - but Eddie lifts the knees, and hooks a magistral cradle for two. A battle over a backslide ends in Val hitting a Russian legsweep for two, but Eddie brings him off the top rope with a rana. That gets Trish on the apron to distract the referee, and Venis finishes Guerrero with a fisherman's suplex at 8:04. A really nice, fast paced, back-and-forth match - a pleasant surprise, because I was expecting nothing. **

King of the Ring Quarter Final Match: Crash Holly v Bull Buchanan: Crash tries to match the larger Buchanan in a slugfest, but gets predictably killed (he's a bull!), and leveled with a lariat. Pair of backbreakers hit, and he throws Holly into the corner for a little abuse. Hanging vertical suplex gets two, so he dumps Holly to the floor to properly abuse him. That is, if 'properly' meant just a few of the same punches he was doing inside the ring. Back in, more punches (Though they're not as effective as when done on the floor! What is he, stupid?), but an axekick misses, and Crash cradles him for the pin at 3:52. TV level match, but no one expected (or wanted) more than that out of these two. DUD

King of the Ring Quarter Final Match: Kurt Angle v Chris Jericho: Slugfest goes Angle's way with an eye rake, and a belly-to-belly suplex gets two. Criss cross ends with Jericho hitting a diving forearm, and a missile dropkick gets two. Bulldog sets up the Lionsault for two, and Angle tries to bail to the floor, so Jericho blasts him with a springboard dropkick. Whip into the rail out there, but Kurt reverses, and hiptosses Chris into the crowd. Back to ringside, Angle whips him into the steps, and hits a snap suplex on the way back in for two. Chinlock, but Jericho powers up, and hits a double-underhook backbreaker for two. Dropkick, but Angle holds on to the ropes to block, and fires Chris into the corner with a slingshot. Side suplex gets two, and a German suplex for two, so Angle starts beating him in the corner out of frustration. To the 2^nd rope, but Jericho dropkicks him into a sitting position on the top turnbuckle, then follows him up to bring him down with a rana. Chris with a spinheel kick for two, but another bulldog gets countered with a lariat, and Kurt tries the Angle-Slam, but gets countered into the Walls of Jericho. That draws out Stephanie McMahon, but she accidentally nails Angle with her Women's title belt, but Chris makes the mistake of stopping to force a kiss on her, and Angle hits the Angle-Slam for the pinfall at 9:52. Certainly felt rushed, and quite disjointed, but still crisp, well executed stuff from both men. * ¾

WWF Tag Team Title Four-Corners Elimination Match: Too Cool v The Hardy Boyz v Edge and Christian v T&A: Jeff Hardy starts with Albert (A!), and quickly walks into a press slam and a backdrop. Another press slam, but Jeff impressively lands on his feet, and lures Albert into a chase - passing to Matt Hardy for a double-team along the way. Albert manages to swat Matt down with a clothesline, and tags Test (T!) for a double-team flapjack. Big boot, but Hardy counters a pump-handleslam into a DDT - only to get distracted by T&A manager Trish Stratus. That leads to a catfight with Hardy manager Lita, and Jeff catches Test with a Swanton Bomb for Matt to pin at 3:42. Scotty 2 Hotty comes in to face Jeff Hardy next, but spends most of his time dancing, and moonwalks right into Christian tagging himself in. He tries to catch Matt by surprise, but ends up taking a 2^nd rope legdrop - triggering a four-way brawl amongst the challengers. Lita gets involved with a flying headscissors on Edge, but Jeff gets thrown off the top rope, and a double-team finishes Matt at 7:57. The fresh Grandmaster Sexay comes in for a criss cross with Edge, and quickly takes over. He and Scotty hit some of their dance oriented double-teams, so Christian fires off a cheap shot from the apron, and the challengers cut the ring in half on Scotty. A double knockout ends in Sexay starting a nightclub of fire, but Too Cool's general goofiness does them in, as they get more focused on adjusting their shades than retaining the titles (fools - that's their greatest accessory!), and Christian whacks Sexay with the title belt for Edge to pin at 13:48. Well paced, but just a lot of spots - with very little selling, and too much goofiness for a title match. *

King of the Ring Semi Final Match: Rikishi v Val Venis: Venis tries to jump him before the bell, but Rikishi blasts him with a savate kick, and dumps him to the floor for a whip into the steps. Inside, Rikishi hits a legdrop, but walks into a single-arm DDT, and Val works the shoulder. Another DDT, but a flying axehandle gets caught with a belly-to-belly suplex, and Rikishi moves on to the finals at 3:17. Val tried for some psychology on the shoulder Benoit injured during the opener, and Rikishi sold it nicely (not using that arm during his comeback), but the match was too short to properly build into anything. ¼*

King of the Ring Semi Final Match: Crash Holly v Kurt Angle: Crash stupidly tries to match Kurt on the mat to start, and just as when he tried to trade fists with Buchanan earlier, it doesn't go well. Angle with an overhead suplex and a cross corner clothesline before hitting a vertical suplex for two. Chinlock, but Holly fights up to a vertical base, so Angle gives him a swift kneelift to slow him down. Crash tries a sloppy backdrop, but Angle doesn't appreciate the botch, and hits the Angle-Slam to go to the finals at 3:57. Way too high on the card (or in the tournament) for the squash this was. DUD

WWF Hardcore Title Evening Gown Match: Pat Patterson v Gerald Brisco: The (bad) idea here is that Patterson and Brisco both dress in drag. Patterson offers to allow Brisco a finger poke to get the title, but when Gerald goes for it, Pat blows him low at center ring. Slugfest goes Brisco's way when Pat gets distracted with his wig, and Gerald hits a Bronco Buster. Both guys tear at the dresses, but Crash Holly runs in with a trashcan, and whacks Patterson for the title at 2:48. I'm sure this was funny for their co-workers, but this had no place on pay per view. Embarrassing in more ways than one. DUD

Intergender Handicap Tables Dumpster Match: Jesse James, X-Pac, and Tori v The Dudley Boyz: If this match had anymore stipulations, it would have to headline WrestleMania by default. Oddly though, they still require tags. Jesse James starts with Bubba Dudley, but quickly makes the mistake of wasting time dancing (how anyone ever got around to wrestling in 2000, I'm still not sure), and the Dudley's double-team him. Tag to X-Pac to spinkick D-Von Dudley, and DX triple-team him in the corner. D-Von manages a jumping clothesline to pass to Bubba, and he slams around his male opponents - triggering a four-way brawl. Tori gets involved to get hers too, and the whole things ends with the Dudley's blasting both males with chairs. They set up a two-table stack on the floor for Bubba to powerbomb James through, and D-Von superplexes X-Pac through a boring old regular table. They go for Tori next, so she just throws herself in the dumpster to avoid punishment. Not satisfied, the Dudley's go to drag her out, but get clobbered from behind with chairs, and shoved in for DX to win at 9:46 - the referee not noticing that Tori was in the pile with them. This had 'bad idea' written all over it, and it was probably misspelled, too. DUD

WWF King of the Ring: Rikishi v Kurt Angle: Rikishi has his shoulder bandaged up from earlier, and Kurt goes right for it, but gets caught with a pair of cross corner clotheslines. That leaves him slumped for the Stinkface, but he manages to come back (I'd have tapped out right there, so good for him), and stomps Rikishi into the corner. To the floor, Kurt whips his shoulder into the steps, but he walks into a clothesline on the way back in. Samoan drop sets up a cutter for two, and he adds another Stinkface for gay measure. Sick of that shit (literally, Rikishi had a habit of not wiping), Kurt runs over with the Angle-Slam - but it only gets two. Belly-to-belly superplex, and that's enough to crown King Kurt at 5:58. Pretty boring, drama-less finale - the ending a foregone conclusion, though they at least tried to make you believe Rikishi had a chance by having him kick out of Angle's finisher. DUD

Main Event: WWF Title Six-Man Tag Team Match: Triple H, Vince McMahon, and Shane McMahon v The Rock, The Undertaker, and Kane: Triple H is the WWF Champion, and if anyone on the opposing team pins anyone on his team, that man wins the title. The heels spend a long time arguing over who starts (which makes sense, as Triple H wants to be protective of his title, but can't work three-on-one), until Shane ends up getting to play with Kane. Kane offers him a free shot, and Shane takes it, but Kane shrugs it off, and throws him across the ring. Shane bails, but Undertaker meets him on the floor to throw him back in, and Kane clotheslines him. Press slam sets up a chokeslam, but Vince runs in to break it up, and the McMahon's try a double clothesline, but get reversed. Tag to the Rock, so HHH climbs through the ropes to slow him down. The distraction allows Shane to beat Rocky into the neutral corner, but he gets too cocky, and tossed over the top. Undertaker tags himself in when Rock tries to follow-up, and hits a chokeslam for two - broken up by the Rock. That allows Shane to pass to Hunter, but he walks into a backdrop and a cross corner clothesline. Big boot gets two, and a jumping DDT for two - broken up by Kane. Undertaker comes over to confront Kane, but that allows Rock to tag himself in, and he pulls a reluctant Shane McMahon into the ring, so HHH pulls down the top rope on a criss cross, and the heels triple-team the Rock on the outside. That triggers a six-way brawl all around ringside, and HHH hits the Pedigree on the Rock in the chaos, but it only gets two. That looked like the Undertaker was supposed to break up the count there, but he failed to make it back over to the ring in time, forcing the Rock to kick out of HHH's finisher. Everyone goes back to their posts on the ring apron, but Rocky refuses to tag to one of his 'partners,' and gets pounded in the heel corner. The heels have their way with him, but he manages to drop Triple H like a Samoan for two. Another six-way brawl breaks out, and Rock goes for the People's Elbow on Hunter - only to walk into a chokeslam from Kane. Tombstone for HHH, but now the Undertaker breaks it up, and throws Kane into the steps. He puts Shane McMahon through a table for good measure, and in the chaos, Vince goes for his own People's Elbow on the Rock, but gets countered into the Rock Bottom at 17:55. The match was the usual kick-punch overbooked Attitude Era stuff, with the promotions most coveted title changing hands without the champion even in the ring. Pretty boring stuff, outside of watching the faces Marxist alliance falling apart. ½*

BUExperience: A really forgettable show (really forgettable – I’ve seen it before, and I couldn’t remember a thing about it), time and perspective has not been kind to it at all, as it was a chore to sit through. One good match may have been enough to save this, but odd booking choices in the tournament didn’t make for very good pairings, and the time constraints didn’t leave the guys left much to work with either. DUD