Chris Jericho vs. Kurt Angle
May I just say that the opening video with Cactus Jack and HHH FUCKING RULED. It's really great stuff that adds more to the story of the main event. Jericho gets a cool spot early on, when he reverses a whip to the stairs with a Lionsault. Angle gets in some pretty nice suplexes, including a German and an overhead belly-to-belly. Angle then works on the arm, showing some good psychology, not unlike Charlie Haas earlier in his WWE tenure. A great reversal occurs when Jericho hits the double powerbomb, and Angle manages to turn it into a vicious-looking armbar (Move #190). Kurt gets two with the Olympic Slam, which actually looked slightly different back then, and I think this is the first instance of JR calling it as such. Angle is pissed and goes for the IC belt, only to get trapped in the Walls of Jericho, but Angle makes the ropes. Lionsault is countered in a mondo-cool way, with a belt shot to the face on the way down, and Angle wins the IC title to go along with his European title, in what was considered back then to be a big upset. Angle's night-long, arena-wide celebration was damn funny. Good opener, and got some good time to work with. ***1/2
New Age Outlaws vs. Dudley Boyz
Billy fucked up his shoulder doing a nice FameAsser on Bubba through a table on Smackdown the Thursday before. DoggAss was also getting really stale at this time, while the Dudleyz were getting red-hot with the table gimmick. Now the Dudleyz are the stale ones on RAW. The Dudleyz pretty much owned this match from bell-to-bell, with Bubba hitting the Bubba Bomb, before it was established as a lethal, career-shortening finisher, and the Wazzup spot, with no Wazzup. Road Dogg got in maybe one or two moves, and Billy got in a few before getting hit with the lead pipe in the shoulder to explain Billy's injury. 3D, and the Dudleyz are champs in a fairly quick squash of the Outlaws. Totally correct booking here, though. 3/4*
Viscera vs. Mark Henry
Fuck Cactus vs. HHH. I bought the tape to see THIS! What could be better than seeing a big fat sex addict wander around clubbing a big fat dude wearing a garbage bag to defend the honor of a 77-year old woman who gives birth to a hand? I canŐt think of a single thing. Nope, no I can't. Mae Young runs down to the ring (thus showing more athleticism than both the guys in the ring), and almost gets splashed again. Mark Henry ends the emotional rollercoaster, in which the crowd showed their enthusiasm with a ŇboringÓ chant, with a BODYSLAM for the win. Why not splash him to make it more definite, instead of jobbing a 500-pounder to a slam? Why am I giving this much thought to MARK HENRY vs. VISCERA?!? I'll keep the match out of the negative stars territory because it was less than four minutes. DUD
Edge and Christian vs. Hardy Boyz
This should wake the crowd up. Terri comes out with the APA, to keep her protected from the Dudleyz. A seriously whomp-ass match ensues, with Jeff hitting most of his moves with crisp precision and breathtaking execution. This was when Jeff was *good*. Edge and Jeff have a kick-ass segment, where Edge kills Jeff with a piledriver, then Jeff kills Edge (and himself) with a rana, then Edge counters another rana attempt with a SWANKBURGER WITH EXTRA SWANK FRIES~ sit-out powerbomb. I mean Edge just fucking SMOKED Jeff with it. Matt gets the hot tag and unloads on E&C with several neck-breaker variations, and a really cool double-pin spot gets two. Hardyz go for Poetry in Motion, and Jeff gets speared in mid-air by Edge, a spot that still looks sweet no matter how often they did it. Terri turns on the Hardyz, and Christian gets the Unprettier for the pin. Just an awesome match that gets better with more viewings. APA kills the Hardyz, who went after Terri after the match was over, with Faarooq hitting a sick-looking messed-up Dominator on Jeff. Fucking wicked match, though I could have lived without the ending. A great blend of highspots and tag team wrestling. ****1/4
Tazz vs. Big Bossman
I think the crowd needed to be calmed down after that last match. Absolutely nothing noteworthy about this segment (I'm not even calling *this* a match) whatsoever, except for Bossman shattering the nightstick over TazzŐs head, getting a nice "oooohhh" from the crowd. That was pretty cool. The rest is total garbage that went on and on, and onÉand onÉand on. It was mostly filler to get Tazz over as a bad-ass that won't stay down, so I won't rate it.
X-Pac vs. Kane
This had a pretty damn good backstory, with Kane getting backstabbed by his best friend and his first love, sending Kane to the asylum. Paul Bearer then leads Kane back as an ass-kicking machine on a rampage. Doesn't sound like much, but I liked it. This was pretty much a lot of brawling mixed in with some legwork by X-Pac. This was pretty decent, though it was fairly quick. The ending was quite nifty, though, with Kane going after X-Pac with the steel stairs, and X-Pac dropkicking them into his face and sitting on them for the pin. Pretty smart psychology there to keep a big man down. Not a bad little match whatsoever. **2/3
The Radicalz vs. Too Cool and Rikishi
This is the PPV appearance debut of the Radicalz, and Too Cool and Rikishi were getting mighty over around this time. Eddie (who was injured at this time, thus acting as "moral support") is gone early after Rikishi uses EddieŐs lead pipe against him on his dislocated elbow. Too Cool start off quick against Saturn and Benoit, but Dean clips Rikishi's injured ankle, and some awesome work on the ankle results. Scotty is in, and Dean (who is just being a dick here) blasts him pre-Worm. Some great double-teams happen after, including a killer-looking Decapitation by Dean and Saturn. Some more work on Scotty happens, until him and Benoit smack heads, and Rikishi gets the mighty-hot tag, and Rikishi shows a lot of fire here. Vicious-looking Rikishi Driver and Worm follows, to a big pop. Dean clips Rikishi twice more to be an asshole, and I'm loving it. Rikishi does a great selling job with the ankle. RVD, take notes. Cool sequence follows, with Sexay hitting the Hip-Hop Drop, then Benoit hitting Sexay with the Swandive Headbutt. Pretty anticlimatic finish follows, with 'Kish hitting Dean with the Rikishi Driver and Banzai drop for the three. Another fantastic, hot match. Too Cool dance afterwards. ****
Rock vs. Big Show
Show gets some good heel heat here. For the four people that care, this is the PPV debut of the short-haired look that Show has today. Match was mostly brawling, with Big Show in control for most of it, though Rock gets in some offense, including a floatover DDT. Some outside brawling, with Rock backdropping Show over the railing, which looked pretty cool being done of a guy Show's size. Big Show used some of the laziest Irish whips ever here, but this was good for a Big Show match back then. Shane comes out to a big pop, then hits Rock with a chair in mid-People's Elbow, and Big Show, shockingly, gets the win. Quite the swerve there. This was plodding, but didnŐt really suck. *3/4
Hell in a Cell: Cactus Jack vs. Triple H
Great way to start the story of the match, by having the door completely chained shut, thus negating Jack's promise of going to the top of the cell. Jack often made attempts to find a way out in between beatings on HHH. Some brutality follows, including HHH kneeing Cactus off the apron into the cell, and HHH hurling the stairs into Jack's face. Damn, that would hurt. HHH goes to school on Jack inside the ring, including some chair shots and a DDT. Jack comes back with a double-arm DDT on a chair for two, and a Russian Legsweep on the chair. HHH is seated in the corner by Cactus, but HHH pulls a Raven and drop-toe holds him onto the chair. HHH then rams Jack into the cell a few more times, then HHH takes a slingshot into the cell, and he bleeds like a fucking pig. Not as good as his Royal Rumble 2000 bladejob, but still great. HHH ducks the stairs tossed by Jack, and they rip open a hole in the cell, adding to the story by having Jack finally find a way out to fulfill his promise. Foley noted in Foley is Good that he expected the wall to break after about 3-4 hits with the stairs. Jack also has a nasty cut on his arm, which is bleeding nearly as bad as HHH was. Piledriver on the announce table follows, fails to climb the cage (because Stephanie held Jack's foot), and goes for the barbed-wire 2x4, with REAL barbed wire this time. He hits HHH with it, and HHH climbs to the top to escape the monster, and so that Cactus wouldn't jump onto him, like he promised. Crowd reaction picks up, understandably, as Jack follows, only to be knocked off the wall and through the Spanish table. Crowd is all over HHH for that, first giving a "HOLY SHIT!" chant, and giving him the anatomy chant. Jack rises from the heap bloody and fails to toss a chair to the top, which actually makes sense, because he could have been weakened by the abuse and loss of blood. Jack climbs and HHH destroys Jack with the 2x4, with the wire getting stuck in Jack's clothing. HHH nearly falls through the cell in the corner (and could have fallen to the floor, resulting in a nasty bump, and possible injuries). Cactus lights the 2x4 on fire, getting a HUGE reaction from the crowd (and an audible f-bomb from JR), and HHH gets a shot to the face with that. Jack tries to piledrive HHH onto the flaming board, but is backdropped through the cell, resulting in a SWEET visual of the ring breaking. Thankfully, Mick only had the wind knocked out of him in this fall. HHH is in shock when Foley tries to rise up, but Mick eats Pedigree for three, and Foley is gone...for two weeks. I almost got teary-eyed this morning seeing Foley walk out with blood on his face and tears in his eyes, as the crowd gave him a great ovation. This one is my favorite Hell in a Cell match, because of the story, the feud, the brutality, and the sick bumps. AWESOME MATCH, and a total must-see. *****
Verdict: Awesome PPV, and not just worth the tape for the main event, as the undercard also delivered well, with some seriously underrated matches like Hardyz vs. E&C, and Too Cool/Rikishi vs. Radicalz. Huge thumbs up for this one. GET IT NOW IF YOU HAVENŐT SEEN IT.
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