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Canvas Critiques #10 – WWF Judgement Day 2000

August 15, 2013 | Posted by Nick Sellers
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Canvas Critiques #10 – WWF Judgement Day 2000  

Canvas Critiques #10 – WWF Judgement Day 2000

Quick Results

Too Cool & Rikishi beat Team ECK (Kurt Angle, Edge & Christian).

Eddie Guerrero retained his European title against Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn.

Shane McMahon pinned the Big Show after interference from Test, Albert, Bossman, Bull Buchanan, Trish Stratus and God knows who else.

Chris Benoit kept his Intercontinental title after Chris Jericho passed out from the pain in the submission match while he was locked in the Crossface.

DX (X-Pac/Road Dogg) won a tables match against The Dudleyz.

Triple H won the WWF title in the Iron-Man match. DX were attacking The Rock when Undertaker made his return and cleaned house. But special referee Shawn Michaels only caught ‘Taker interference, and thus DQ’ed The Rock giving Triple H the deciding fall and victory.

Irons in the fire-Rock/HHH go the distance

In an era of fast paced action and fresh, intriguing and dynamic content, the announcement of a rather old school concept being brought into play for the next instalment of The Rock/HHH rivalry raised a few suspicions.

The last one took place at Wrestlemania 12, where Shawn Michaels boyhood dream famously came true in the main event against Bret Hart, also for the WWF title. But even though it was actually only four years prior, the two respective eras seemed like they were light years away.

The stipulation was seen more as something of a relic in many cases, with old workhorses such as Ric Flair, as an example, often wrestling in similar hour long matches throughout the 80’s. But the product was now seeing matches played out at a blistering pace, and many argued that HHH and The Rock wouldn’t be able to keep the interest up in their match for that sheer length of time.

In a true testament to both men and they’re standing in the industry, they pulled it off spectacularly. They took an old-school concept and effectively modernised it, sparking great results. Some were surprised at the finish, which saw HHH win the title back just a month after losing it, but it just meant that they got to saw The Rock chase the title again and see his star grow even more in the process. The Undertaker’s return, (or perhaps you could say his re-debut as the American Badass) was a great moment to finish off with, and it raised a number of questions about what would happen next as they built up to the next PPV.

The critics were out in force again because of Undertaker’s return, with many arguing he didn’t really have a place on the product today. But as a young’un, I remember going crazy when he appeared again. It was another big star thrown into the proceedings which had been dominated by Rock and HHH. As brilliant as their rivalry was, and continued to be, there was no harm in adding an extra dimension to it.

And giving ‘Taker a different dimension to his character and straying away from all the hocus pocus for once totally modernised the character and allowed him to grow. That break from all the mystical, super-powery stuff, which lasted around 4 years, made the audience salivate the “old school” ‘Taker more and more, and since 2004 he’s never looked back in that regard.

The match itself is largely as expected- Full of twists, turns, falls being collected and building up to the hot finish nicely. Adding HBK to the mix as the guest referee was as much a nod to the last Iron-Man match if anything else, but with the added caveat that we didn’t quite know how he’d go about being the man in the black and white stripes. Would he be fair? Would he be in cahoots with HHH again? Who knew?

Some of the falls are admittedly a little sloppy, but I appreciate their attempts to at least try and add a bit of variety in them, even if it wasn’t always the prettiest. But it’s some effort from both men. Regardless of how you try to pace yourself through such a bout, and obviously there’s more rest spots, it’s still an hour of intense performance art/athleticism.

Result-wise, there wasn’t exactly a “wrong” winner, and it wouldn’t have mattered a great deal in terms of how they built up the next PPV match. If Rock retained and HHH lost, as a result of Undertaker’s interference, then it would’ve just added to HHH’s misery and bitterness and his promos would’ve been great as a result.

As it was, it wasn’t bad either, because The Rock was the chaser, and as we saw the following month, he pinned the chairmen of the company to win his fifth strap.

So, all in all, superb.

The Submission Mission- Jericho/Benoit go at it again

This was another stipulation bout which wasn’t really so prominent in the modern WWF product, yet with two excellent workers in this era they were able to put a contemporary spin on it. Both had a unique submission finishing move that was doing a lot to get both men over in the company, so the match was tailor made for them to play to those strengths.

This is also exactly how something like the Intercontinental belt should be effectively utilised and represented; at this point, it was very much the workhorse title in the promotion. One for the fans of the real scientific style, hence the submission theme, and delivering great results. It didn’t just matter if you were technically gifted though; If you worked your bollocks off, regardless of style, then this is the belt you should’ve had bestowed to you and that’s what the fans would recognise.

Most of us will know the history these two already had in their locker, and they could both wrestle excellent matches and vary it up in terms of style. Jericho’s natural microphone ability and charisma, combined with Benoit’s ultra intensity (Which, in effect, was his own version of charisma, and it worked), fans were hooked. The physicality in the build-up with various backstage attacks and applying painful holds to each other was simple, yet effective booking which we just don’t see enough of in the modern product.

Also, when it really boils down to it, what was this rivalry actually about? Simple; One wrestler challenged another to see who they thought was the better man. There wasn’t any need to add any fancy gimmicks or any soap opera nonsense. Just straight up, man to man, first to make the other submit gets the gold. This is a great example of how to book a feud as simpley, effectively and as purely as possible. I’m not saying we need everyone to learn a million new holds and run around like lunatics attacking each other backstage every week, but from a booking perspective it was so criminally simple that it does make you wonder why a similar strategy isn’t a more regular occurrence now.

The finish is also perfect, quite honestly. Benoit looks like a tough bastard for effectively choking Jericho out, but the latter loses no face because he didn’t technically submit, instead constantly fighting and flat out refusing to quit if he could help it. Also, as you can probably tell by now from previous Canvas Critique entries, I like seeing a good chase from a babyface for the title, so to me that just meant Jericho would likely keep going after him until he got it back. They went in different directions for a bit, but eventually we’d see more bouts from these two, and even an unlikely alliance the following year.

Judging the midcard- More from the PPV

Team ECK didn’t have all that many outings together in matches, especially on PPV. They’d interfere in each other’s bouts or appear together in some ridiculously memorable backstage segments (“Hey, my chicken suit!”), but to actually see the holy trinity themselves in action together was all too rare. Rikishi & Too Cool on the other hand were no strangers to 6-man tag affairs, which benefited the three of them tremendously. To this day, I actually wonder if a 6-man tag title belt/division could’ve been created. Sure, they had enough titles as it was, but some of the matches and intertwined stories on display made for brilliant television. Actually, more often than not, it still does today. Usually they aren’t quite up to the standard of some of the Mexican promotions’ “trios” matches I’ve seen in my time, but the equivalent in the American companies, when done well, is usually one of the highlights on a wrestling show, even now. This one was a lively, hot opener and you’d expect nothing less. Each and every one of those six were in rude form at this point, and in the case of Angle and Rikishi you’d certainly argue that they deserved a look-in for pushes up the card.

Next, a match that sounded mouth-watering on paper for the purists, as Eddie Guerrero defended his European title against Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko. Seeing as it was three of the four Radicalz who came to the company together to escape the evil clutches of WCW, you can bet all three had a point to prove in that not only could they have great matches as a unit, but also with each other to show the old workplace what they were missing. The match itself isn’t a classic, but in terms of tempo it follows up nicely from the opener and there’s some crisp, sleek sequences just as you’d expect from the athletes involved. The finish (Loaded roses) might not cater to everyone’s taste, but it was another part of the “Mamacita” angle that worked really well. Chyna admittedly wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but she was a unique DX attraction in their original run and the stuff with Eddie worked brilliantly, so she certainly had it in her to make positive contributions to WWF programming.

Shane McMahon and Big Show’s match was made fun thanks to Shane’s traditionally eccentric bumping, but it was also a good excuse to give some exposure to other characters like Trish Stratus, Test & Albert and so on. The reasoning behind it was a good way for Show to get to grips with his natural, giant like tendencies again. For the last couple of months he’d been impersonating other wrestlers (like Hogan for instance, at Backlash), and Shane ridiculed him for this. Thus a new feud was born. This was fine, albeit ultimately it didn’t accomplish much for any of the people who’d interfere. Actually, aside from the official combatants themselves, it was actually Trish who’d go on to have the most successful career.

Last but not least, a forgotten tables outing between DX (Road Dogg and X-Pac) and the Dudleyz, there for the soul reason that the Dudleyz were fixated with putting another woman (Tori, in this case through some wood (pardon the expression). See, even though the DX brand itself had faded considerably by this point, X-Pac and Road Dogg were still very much lackeys to Triple H, so to me having the Dudleyz as a thorn in their side wasn’t a bad thing at all. Also, this was very much a story centered around the Dudleyz and exposing them more in their babyface roll as opposed to something which had more benefit for the heels, or at least that’s how I’d read it. The only problem is the faces should’ve gone over here, because they were more over and at this point had much more left in the tank then “Smoke and Ashes” as Scott Keith once called them in a PPV recap for this show. The match is ok, nothing special, nothing offensive.

The 411: In many respects you'd argue that this was a one match show, what with the Iron Man match taking up such a big chunk of time. But even before the main event we've got a blistering 6-man tag, a tidy little triple threat and even the tables match was watchable. And the Submission match was very, very good indeed. But even if it's just a one match show after all, it's a top match all the same. Another decent PPV from WWF in 2000. No shock there.
 
Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]  legend

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Nick Sellers

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