WrestleMania 2000
WrestleMania 2000 | |||
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World Wrestling Federation | |||
Date | April 2, 2000 | ||
City | Anaheim, California | ||
Venue | Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim | ||
Attendance | 19,776[1] | ||
Buy rate | North America: 824,000[2] | ||
Tagline(s) | A McMahon in Every Corner[3] | ||
Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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WrestleMania chronology | |||
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WrestleMania 2000 (also known as WrestleMania 16) was the 16th annual
The
Production
Background
Storylines
The event included nine matches that each resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by writers of the World Wrestling Federation,[8][9] while storylines were produced on WWF's weekly television shows, Raw is War and SmackDown! along with its supplementary programs, Sunday Night Heat and Jakked/Metal.[10]
WWF Championship
The main feud heading into WrestleMania was over the WWF Championship and involved two feuds that had become intertwined over the previous two months and eventually drew in the McMahon family.
On the January 3rd, 2000 edition of Raw,
Meanwhile, after Big Show's loss, he began showing signs of disdain toward The Rock in interviews. Shortly thereafter, he abandoned The Rock in several tag matches featuring the two and eventually attacked him, turning heel and declaring his intent to win the Royal Rumble match and regain the WWF Championship. Big Show and Rock both entered the Rumble and were the last two men left in the ring, and Rock apparently won the match after pulling himself back into the ring before Big Show tumbled to the floor.[11][12][13][14] However, Big Show protested Rock's victory, and insisted that he did not lose the match. Big Show then proceeded to produce video footage that showed The Rock had in fact touched the floor with both feet before Big Show did.
Heading into No Way Out on February 27, a double main event was signed. Triple H would defend the WWF Championship against Cactus Jack in a Hell in a Cell match, with Cactus being forced to retire from wrestling, should he lose. The winner of that match would face the winner of a match earlier in the night between The Rock and Big Show, for the right to go to WrestleMania and face the champion.
During the #1 contender's match, Rock had hit the Rock Bottom on Big Show and was about to deliver the People's Elbow when Shane McMahon, who had not been seen on WWF television since he left the company in December 1999, came to the ring and laid The Rock out with a steel chair shot, enabling Big Show to get the pinfall victory and earn the title shot.
Later in the night, the bout between Triple H and Cactus Jack would spill outside of the cell and end up on the roof, where Cactus lit a 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire ablaze and attempted to deliver a Piledriver to Triple H onto it. Triple H reversed it by backdropping Cactus, causing him to fall through a panel in the cell's ceiling and hit the ring with enough force to break the ring mat. Once back inside, the champion hit the Pedigree on the challenger to win the match, retain his title, and send Cactus Jack into retirement.[15][16][17][18]
The night after No Way Out, Triple H informed the defeated Rock that he had to start all the way at the bottom of the pecking order since he was no longer the number one contender, and forced him into a match with
Two weeks later, Rock challenged Big Show yet again and this time agreed to put his career on the line in order to get to WrestleMania. Shane would go on to appoint himself as the special guest referee, but during the course of the match, Vince McMahon returned from his own exile following Stephanie's betrayal of him at Armageddon the previous December. He knocked Shane out with a chair and counted the pin for Rock, who won his way into the WrestleMania main event, making it a Triple Threat match.
The following week on Raw, Vince announced that the Triple Threat match between the three men would take place that night instead of waiting until WrestleMania. Triple H reluctantly agreed on the terms that the match not take place at WrestleMania under any circumstances. With Stephanie in his corner, Shane in Big Show's corner, and Vince in Rock's corner, Triple H would emerge victorious and retain the championship after pinning Big Show with the Pedigree. After the match, however, Linda McMahon appeared and informed Triple H that he would indeed be defending the WWF Championship at WrestleMania against not only The Rock and Big Show, but a newly reinstated Mick Foley as well in a Fatal-4-Way Elimination Match. Foley then immediately came out and attacked Triple H. Linda would then announce on the March 24th edition of SmackDown! later that week that she would be in Foley's corner for the match.
Other storylines
Another major feud that had been developing going into the show featured Chris Jericho. At No Way Out in February, Jericho lost his Intercontinental Championship to then-European Champion Kurt Angle after Angle hit him with the title belt behind the referee's back, causing Angle to become a double champion. Over the following weeks, Jericho would make several attempts to regain the championship, with all attempts being unsuccessful, largely due to Angle's sudden partnership with WWF legend Bob Backlund, who had briefly returned to the company. While feuding with Angle, Jericho also started a rivalry with The Radicalz, as Chris Benoit was also trying to win the Intercontinental Championship, while Eddie Guerrero was subsequently trying to woo Jericho's valet Chyna. Eventually, a two-fall match between Angle, Benoit, and Jericho was signed for WrestleMania. The first fall would be contested for the Intercontinental Championship, and the second fall would be contested for the European Championship.
Another major feud heading into the event was between
Another unique storyline that was developing around this time revolved around the
Event
Role: | Name: |
---|---|
English commentators | Jim Ross |
Jerry Lawler | |
Spanish commentators | Carlos Cabrera |
Hugo Savinovich | |
Interviewer
|
Michael Cole |
Kevin Kelly | |
Ring announcer | Howard Finkel |
Referees | Earl Hebner |
Jack Doan | |
Jim Korderas
| |
Theodore Long | |
Chad Patton | |
Mike Sparks | |
Tim White
|
Preliminary matches
Before the opening video,
The second match was a
The next match was a tag team match between the team of Al Snow and Steve Blackman against the team of T & A (Test and Albert).[24][25] Back and forth action between the two teams towards the end of the match, where Albert delivered a Baldo Bomb on Snow, while Test delivered an Elbow drop from the top rope onto Blackman into a pinfall for the win.[29][23]
The fourth match was a
The fifth match was a
Next was an
The seventh match was a two-fall triple threat match for both the WWF Intercontinental and WWF European Championship, involving Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, and Chris Jericho.[24][25] The first fall would be for the Intercontinental Championship, while the second fall was for the European Championship.[29][23] At the beginning of the first fall, all three men exchanged pin attempts leading into midway into the match where Benoit broke up a Chicken wing submission by Angle onto Jericho.[23][26] The situation allowed Benoit to climb to the top turnbuckle and delivered a Diving headbutt on Jericho into a pinfall to win the Intercontinental Championship.[7][28] During the second fall, Jericho delivered a double powerbomb onto Angle, which proceeded into Benoit delivering three German suplexes onto Jericho.[29][26] Afterwards, Benoit attempted to deliver another diving headbutt onto Angle, however, Angle moved out of the way, resulting in Benoit hitting the ring mat. This situation allowed Jericho to deliver a Lionsault into a pinfall to win the European Championship. Therefore, Kurt Angle lost both titles without conceding to a single pinfall.[29][30]
The final match on the undercard was the tag team encounter between Kane and Rikishi against D-Generation X (X-Pac and Road Dogg).[27][30] Shortly into the match, Rikishi delivered a Stink Face to both the Road Dogg and almost to Tori, DX attempted to leave the arena but were stopped by Kane and Rikishi. The Match ended with Kane delivering a Tombstone piledriver to win by pinfall.[7][23] Afterward, an in-ring dancing segment involving Rikishi, Too Cool, and the San Diego Chicken was interrupted by Kane, who thought the chicken was Pete Rose, who had tried to attack Kane the previous year. Rose then snuck into the ring and tried to hit Kane with a baseball bat, before being chokeslammed by Kane and getting a Stink Face from Rikishi.
Main event match
The
Reception
WrestleMania 2000 was met with a mixed critical response. John Powell of
In 2009, Rob McNew of 411Mania gave the event a rating of 5.0 [Not So Good], stating, "This show was so disappointing, because the WWF for most every show in 2000 could do no wrong, but they managed to screw up the biggest show of the year by making the main event an after thought in the McMahon family drama. There were some high points on this card, and the main event was very solid action wise questionable booking aside. There is still no explanation for what happened at the end. You can't even blame Russo because he was already in WCW running them into the ground."[32]
Aftermath
After the event,
Also the next night on Raw, Eddie Guerrero defeated Chris Jericho to win the European Championship with help from Chyna who turned on Jericho, and aligned herself with Guerrero.[43]
Video ban in Ireland
The Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO) banned the video release of the event, owing to its use of realistic weapons, including metal chairs, timber wrapped with barbed wire, shinai and sledgehammers. Deputy censor Audrey Conlon also cited the "gladiatorial bloodlust" of the crowd baying for increasingly extreme violence. Clear Vision Ltd., which released material from the WWF under its Silver Vision imprint, lodged an appeal (the result of which is unknown) and claimed that "our fans love the wild soap opera element", but the IFCO countered this by stating, "This is one of the most dangerous and pernicious aspects of the entire business. The universal distinguishing feature of all soap opera is that the storylines are regularly made more explicit and, in many instances, more violent, simply to keep audience share."[44]
Results
No. | Results | Stipulations | Times WWF Championship 38:00 | | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Hardcore Championship battle royal title changes[45] | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | New Champion | Method | Time | |||||||||||
1 | Tazz | Pinned Crash Holly after a Capture Suplex | 00:26 | |||||||||||
2 | Viscera | Pinned Tazz after a Powerslam | 01:00 | |||||||||||
3 | Funaki | Pinned Viscera after a flying shoulderblock by Bradshaw | 07:51 | |||||||||||
4 | Rodney | Pinned Funaki after throwing him into a backstage wall | 08:11 | |||||||||||
5 | Joey Abs | Pinned Rodney after a Gutwrench Suplex | 08:24 | |||||||||||
6 | Thrasher | Pinned Joey Abs after a clothesline
|
08:46 | |||||||||||
7 | Pete Gas | Pinned Thrasher after hitting him with a fire extinguisher | 09:29 | |||||||||||
8 | Tazz | Pinned Pete Gas after a T-Bone Suplex | 10:17 | |||||||||||
9 | Crash Holly | Pinned Tazz after hitting him with a cookie sheet | 14:20 | |||||||||||
10 | Hardcore Holly | Pinned Crash Holly after hitting him with a candy jar | 15:00 |
Fatal four-way match eliminations[46] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elimination no. | Wrestler | Eliminated by | Elimination move | Time | |
1 | Big Show | The Rock | Pinned after a Rock Bottom | 04:50 | |
2 | Mick Foley | Triple H | Pinned after a Pedigree onto a steel chair | 19:40 | |
3 | The Rock | Triple H | Pinned after two Chair shots to the head by Mr. McMahon
|
38:00 |
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