Fully Loaded 2000
Hardy Boyz & Lita vs. T&A & Trish Stratus
T&A is, of course, Test and Albert. This was back before Jeff traded his talent for some cans of paint and a bag of coke. Matt carried the team in psychology and matwork, while Jeff carried the team in terms of overness and insane spots and bumping. The story here is that Trish had been attacking Lita in the weeks before the show, including Trish knocking Lita off a ladder, through a table, and lots of whipping with a belt. Matt started off a bit sloppy when he blew a ropewalk maneuver, though it was edited off the commercial release, for good reason. I think he also blows a "backdrop me over the ropes, but I land on the apron" spot. The crowd reaction is just AMAZING for Lita. When she first got tagged in, the place was ready to explode, no lie. A neat spot happens when Team Xtreme do a 3-on-2 suplex spot with Trish and Test. T&A get a rather nasty-looking double-team on Jeff when they do a double flapjack-type maneuver, and Jeff lands right on his side. That looked pretty cool. Matt comes in off a hot tag, and hits his usual on T&A, and also hits a tornado DDT. Lita follows suit by hitting a VICIOUS tornado DDT on Test. She then hits a plancha on Albert Train, and a jumping hurricanrana on Test. She is ON FIRE~ here. She takes Test's gutwrench diving powerbomb, as I wonder why Test never does that anymore. Well, if I was feuding with someone who's as much dead weight as Scott Steiner, then I wouldn't try that, either. Trish takes about half an hour to hit a bulldog, which shows that she is one of the most improved wrestlers today. Lita hits her ugly moonsault for the win. A T&A beatdown occurs afterwards. Damn fine opener, which fired the crowd up, and the effort was great to boot. ***1/4
Tazz vs. Al Snow
This was Tazz's return match after a biceps injury. This is Al Snow, post-Head Cheese and pre-Tough Enough, so he wasn't really that over. Snow gets in some good offense, like his sitout spinebuster variation. Tazz blocks a Vaderbomb with an Alabama Slam. Ouch. Snow hits a top-rope legdrop, brother, and he actually lands the moonsault. How often does THAT happen? Snow attempts to give Tazz Head, but Tazz stops Snow short of that offer. Awesomeness happens when a Snow kick is blocked, and Tazz gets a capture suplex. YEAH~! A Tazzmission attempt is blocked the first time, but not the second, as Snow taps. Tazz didn't show a lot in this match, though Snow was quite game. **1/2
European Championship: Eddy Guerrero vs. Perry Saturn
THE RADICALZ EXPLODE! Chyna was with Eddy, while Terri Runnels was with Saturn here. Eddy has the early advantage, hitting a tope con hilo, a dropkick, and a top-rope hurricanrana on Saturn. Eddie hits a plancha, and another rana. Saturn gets a powerbomb, and Eddie hits a tornado DDT. Saturn then follows up with a couple of faceplants, and Eddie gets another rana. Saturn responds with another powerbomb, but misses a moonsault, which apparently is the move of the night, like the superplex was with Backlash 2000. Eddie gets a brainbuster, and Saturn hits that butt-ugly suplex-to-front powerslam. The best part of this match happens when Saturn clotheslines Chyna through an announce table. That'll make up for his somewhat crappy performance in this match. Terri extinguishes Eddy's Latino Heat with a low blow, and an top rope elbow finishes, as Saturn gets the title. Well, I can see why they'd take the belt off of Eddie to move him to bigger things, and give the belt to Saturn to try to get him over. This match was disappointing, as Eddie didn't seem to be feeling it, and Saturn was way off his game. *3/4
Tag Team Championship: Edge & Christian vs. The Acolytes
Throughout the night, E&C tried to get out of this match due to Christian having food poisoning, but was revealed to be faking his vomiting. Funny stuff, and a reason why E&C were so goddamned cool. Pre-match E&C promo sees them going after Dallas' sports teams, and going the extra mile, and making fun of the JFK assassination. Whoa. Major heel heat for that. Bradshaw gets ultra-cheap face heat by praising all of Texas' sports accomplishments and noting that Canada is only known for high-octane beer (DAMN STRAIGHT~!). Lots of brawling in this one, as Faarooq makes good use of the stairs on Christian. Bradshaw hits a middle-rope fallaway slam, which reminded me of the old Razor Ramon-1-2-3 Kid matches. Bradshaw plays incoherent pro-Bush loudmouth-in-peril, as E&C work over him. Bradshaw gets a nice shoulderblock off the top rope, and Faarooq gets the hot tag, who hits a spinebuster. Faarooq gets a Dominator, but Edge grabs a bell, makes sure the ref is looking, and clocks Faarooq for the DQ. That was a lame finish to a semi-okay match. *
Intercontinental Championship Cage match: Val Venis vs. Rikishi
This was actually a pretty intense feud back then, as they attacked each other over and over, and just beat the shit out of each other. Val beat Rikishi for the IC belt before this match, and the blowoff to the feud is here, in the cage. The cage is 2000's equivalent to the ladder match in 2001, where the gimmick was being way overused, and seemed to become less special and momentous. This is "escape or pin". They do some standard cage stuff in the beginning, like thwarted escapes, ramming into the cage, and such. Val gets in a really good ropewalk elbow, which he should do a lot more often. Val is rammed into the cage while trying to escape, and looks to be busted hardaway. Rikishi comes back with his usual, and tries to go out the door, but Trish slams the door into his head. Lita gets revenge for the beatdown earlier by ripping Trish's shirt off and whipping her. How strangely erotic. Val is knocked off the cage again, and takes out the ref on the way down. Then, in one of the best finishes to ANY match I've seen, Rikishi climbs to the top of the cage, looks into the camera, and hits a SPLASH OFF THE TOP OF THE CAGE! Holy mother of fuck, that was amazing. No matter how much I crap on Rikishi nowadays, he'll have my eternal respect for that one spot. That was one of those moments where I kept rewinding the tape about 7-8 times and going "HOLY SHIT!" everytime I saw it. Tazz hits Rikishi with the camera, and Val, who is shockingly not dead, gets the win. Match itself was pretty pedestrian, but that splash needs to be seen. ***
Shane McMahon segment
Shane's feeling frisky, and claims that he's not a pussy, and challenges Rock to come out. Rock does come out, but suspects that Shane and Benoit are setting him up. Indeed, they were, as Benoit absolutely trashes Rock's collection of $500 shirts. That bastard.
Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle
Throughout the night, Taker was chasing Angle around with his motorcycle, but Angle got the upper hand by clipping Taker with a giant wrench. Before Taker comes out, he erases the number off a sign that said "__ Work Days Lost Due To Accidents". Cute. Taker goes after Kurt during his entrance. Here's the match: Taker dominates. Taker pulls Kurt up after two TWICE. Taker mouths "Vaccuum" (in Stewie Griffin's words) to the ref. Angle clips Taker with the giant wrench. Kurt works on the knee in "Superstars" jobber fashion. Taker tries chokeslam, but Kurt goes after the leg. Continues working on it like a jobber. Taker comes back again with a chokeslam and a Last Ride. Taker hits a Crossfire and a Red Star Press. Taker wins in about seven and a half minutes. Taker does the Riverdance to "American Bad Ass". You think Taker was bad with John Cena at Vengeance? Watch this, as he makes Kurt Angle look like Barry Horowitz, except with less offense. Yet, Kurt got out of this unscathed, and actually main-evented the next PPV, and won the title in about three months after this. Just goes to show that Taker making someone look useless might not matter if the bookers intend on pushing you anyways. Match was a total pile of shit, of course. DUD
Last Man Standing: Triple H vs. Chris Jericho
Just by looking at the participants, you could tell who was going to win :P. In case you're wondering, this was HHH when he was GOOD. Very good. Before the match, Steph got mysterious flowers, and HHH, being an idiot by NOT saying that the flowers were from him, is infuriated when he read "It's True! It's True!" on the card. HHHe goes after Kurt Angle, but is attacked by Jericho instead. This is the blowoff to the feud where Jericho caught HHH's ire by calling his wife dirty names. Pretty understandable on HHH's part. Jericho's ribs are bandaged after a sledgehammer attack on Raw the week before. "It's all about the hammer, and how you slam her". Some good, token brawling to start, as HHH goes after Jericho's ribs after a slingshot into the barricade. Jericho is suplexed on the concrete, but gets up at 5. HHH gets the abdominal stretch, which is terrific psychology, given the injury. Jericho manages to hiptoss out of it, and sells the ribs. Lionsault, which would not have been a smart move on his part, hits knees. DDT gets 7 for HHH. HHH gets the sleeper and bodyscissors, which is another brilliant move in this type of match gets 9. Pedigree gets 9, as HHH lays on the top rope, ala Shawn Michaels. Great story being told here, as HHH tries everything he can, but Jericho keeps getting up for more. HHH tries a Pedigree on a chair, but a low blow thwarts that plan. Jericho then takes HHH's head off with the chair. ROCK ON~! HHH gets a terrific bladejob, as he bleeds all over the place. God, this match rules. Jericho comes back, and gets 4 after giving HHH a facecrusher on the chair. HHH takes his trademark over the top bump, and they ram monitors into each others' heads simultaneously. Both are up at 9. Jericho gives the Walls (back when it was the Liontamer, not the Boston Crab) to both HHH and Stephanie, as the crowd goes nuts. On the floor, HHH gets the sledgehammer, but Jericho hits him in the gut with it. Jericho goes for a moonsault off the railing through the announce table, but HHH gets a back suplex, putting both of them through the table. HHH uses every last ounce of energy he has to get up before the 10, wins the match, and collapses. God, what an awesome match. I just can't go the full monty here, but this was damn close. While HHH didn't job here, Jericho looked like a true star here, and should have been made a star because of this match. ****3/4
WWF Championship: The Rock vs. Chris Benoit
The storyline going in saw Chris constantly putting Rock in the Crossface, and Rock getting revenge by Rock Bottoming him onto a car hood. Just a good, old-fashioned wrestling feud. That's all you need. Shane accompanies Benoit to ringside, as he comes out to big heel heat. Commissioner Foley made the match so that Rock could lose the title by DQ, so that Rock concentrates on winning, and not on killing Benoit. Benoit is slingshotted into Shane early on, and Rock actually goes for his version of the Crossface, which actually doesn't suck. Benoit avoids it, though. Benoit hits Rock with the belt, but only gets two. Benoit goes for the Sharpshooter (GO BENOIT~!), but Rock escapes. After some outside brawling, Rock gets a dragonscrew legwhip and a figure four. WOOOOOOOO!!! Rock brings the moveset. Shane takes Rock out, and Rock and Benoit fight in the crowd for a bit. Rock is suplexed back to the ringside area, and hits a DDT in the ring. Rock goes for a powerbomb, and falls backwards, and Benoit hits the ropes. Awesome spot. Benoit hits the swandive headbutt, but Rock comes back with the Pinebuster (which he named in honor of Pat Patterson's poor grasp of English) and the People's Elbow. He only gets two, for Shane was distracting the ref. Benoit hits the superplex, and they trade lariats. What a SWANK~ match this is. Benoit takes Rock out with a chair, and Shane blasts Hebner with one of his own. Rock chases Shane out with a chair, but the ref sees The Rock with chair in hand, and thinks that Rock hit him with the chair. Rock gets his version of the Crossface, but the Hebner DQs Rock, and Benoit wins the titleÉnot. Foley comes out and orders the match to continue, as Rock didn't actually hit Hebner with the chair. Darn. Triple German suplex gets two. Crossface is unsuccessful, as Rock makes the ropes twice. Rock gets a last-ditch Rock Bottom and retains the title. Another terrific match, only losing a bit for the Dusty finish. Another match that should have made a star, but didn't. ****3/4
Verdict: Two near-***** matches, and some decent undercard matches gives this a glowing recommendation. The UT-Angle match was pure and utter crap, but doesn't take a lot from the show. The Rikishi splash is also worth checking out. Very much recommended.
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