Mike Reviews WWF Unforgiven 2000

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We’re watching WWF Unforgiven 2000 today as I haven’t watched it for ages and I was interested to see how the Main Event held up because I used to enjoy it quite a bit back in the day. The Main Event sees Rock defending the WWF Title against Kane, Undertaker and Chris Benoit in a Fatal Four Way, whilst we’ve got Stone Cold Steve Austin returning to pay per view following his injury in 1999 when someone ran him over.

Hey, I just realised that we’ve got ANOTHER show Main Evented by a multi-person match this week after we reviewed NXT Takeover Fatal Four Way last weekend. WWE likes shoving lots of people into one match I guess. From memory, the rest of the Unforgiven 2000 card is okay but not great, with Triple H and Kurt Angle having the biggest issue going on in the undercard, due to Kurt Angle having lust in his eyes for Tri’s wife.

You can view the full card for Unforgiven 2000 by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=2163&page=3

The event is emanating for Philly, PA on the 24th of September 2000

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, with Michael Cole showing up at points as well

We get the usual dark and foreboding intro for Unforgiven, with a woman actor who could easily be a Power Rangers villain of some kind handling the narration.

Opening Match
The Right To Censor (Steven Richards, Bull Buchanan, Val Venis and The Goodfather) Vs The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) and The Acolyte Protection Agency (Faarooq and Bradshaw)

The RTC were the WWF’s attempt at spoofing the Parent Teacher Council, who caused a lot of bother for them around this time by complaining to the sponsors about how smutty the show was. The WWF would eventually defeat them in court, because Jerry McDevitt could have probably won the court case at the end of To Kill A Mockingbird thanks to his incredible lawyering powers.

This one is a slugfest, and it’s fought at a reasonable pace, with the quick tags allowing guys to get in and out in a pacey manner. It’s mostly just punching and kicking, but it’s energetic punching and kicking that the crowd is into, so it works for what it is. Richards eventually cheap shots D-Von and that leads to the cut off from Venis. D-Von sells well in the heat, whilst RTC switch in an out regularly enough to keep it from getting boring.

Bubba gets the hot tag in short order and runs wild on the Heels with some nice looking power moves, although Venis prevents Bubba from getting Richards in a good bit of cheap heat. Things breakdown following that, with all eight wrestlers going at it. The Dudleyz look to have it won with The Dudley Devestation Device on Venis, but Goodfather breaks up the pin and that allows Richards to catch Bubba with a sly Steven Kick to give Venis the three count.

WINNERS: THE RTC
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This was fine for a quick opener, with there being little resting and the crowd mostly being into the action. It was mostly just blokes punching each other, but it worked for what they were going for

Steven Richards gets tableised by The Dudleyz following the match, although the worst part of it was probably Bradshaw just outright slapping him in the face prior to the move taking place. I know Richards didn’t actually mean to brain Bradshaw with that chair shot in 2005, but I’m quite happy that he did.

Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and Triple H are backstage. Stephanie is worried about Triple H’s ribs tonight, but Tri says that he’s going to leave Angle laying in the match tonight regardless. Stephanie seems on board with that and says she doesn’t consider Angle to be a friend anymore.

Kevin Kelly is awaiting the arrival of Stone Cold later.

Match Two
Leather Strap Match
Street Bully Tazz Vs Jerry The King Lawler

Tazz had been very rude to Jim Ross by making fun of his bells palsy, so Lawler had come to his fellow commentators’ aid and secured a victory at SummerSlam thanks to Ross clobbering Tazz with a jar of sweets. This is Tazz’s shot at revenge, with it being pin fall, submission or dragging your opponent to all four corners. Lawler is surprisingly over in Philly considering how anti-ECW he was during this period in time.

Tazz gets the better of things in the early going but stops to taunt Ross and that allows Lawler to get back into things with some strap shots. This match is mostly the two wrestlers taking it in turns to hit one another with the strap whilst doing some brawling in-between. The crowd doesn’t really care that much about Tazz, but they do like Lawler and tend to get into it when Lawler is on the offensive.

Lawler does throw some fantastic punches at one stage, as was his speciality, and even delivers some trademark Piledrivers as well, although Tazz no-sells the first two like he’s Road Warrior Hawk until finally doing the old Japanese delayed sell for the third one. Lawler almost touches all four corners following that, but Tazz manages to bump the ref before Lawler can touch the fourth one. This is Raven’s cue to return to the WWF (WHO THE F### HIRED HIM?!?!) and attack Lawler so that Tazz can win.

WINNER: TAZZ
RATING: *1/4

Thoughts: Raven’s debut got a decent pop, and the crowd liked it when Lawler was on offence, but aside from that the match kind of just meandered and wasn’t that good. I’ve seen worse though

Tazz chokes Lawler out a bit more following the match until the referees break it up.

Steve Blackman is backstage with his ninja sticks.

Stone Cold Steve Austin finally arrives and Kevin Kelly welcomes him, only to get thrown into a nearby metal door whilst Michael Cole joins Jim Ross at the commentary table.

Match Three
10 Minute Time Limit Bout for the WWF Hardcore Title
Champ: Lethal Weapon Steve Blackman Vs Crash Holly Vs Perry Saturn w/ The Horny Little She-Devil Terri Runnels Vs Sho Funaki Vs WWF European Champion Al Snow w/ The Head Vs Test w/ Trish Stratus

The gimmick here is that the match will last for 10 minutes and whoever holds the belt at the end of the time limit gets to keep it. You become eligible to win the Title by pinning someone in the match, and I’m not sure if it counts as a proper Title reign or not. I’m sure Wikipedia or CageMatch could confirm it one way or another, but I really can’t be bothered checking. Al Snow was doing the “dress like you’re from a European country” gag here, and he’s dressed as an Italian here tonight. Sadly he didn’t bring Tracey Smothers along with him to complete the act.

Honestly I’m not sure why they needed the 10 Minute stipulation for this, they could have just done a six pack challenge with hardcore rules and it would have worked just fine. All this really does is ensure a bunch of extra pin fall losses for folk that don’t need to be eating them with it only diminishing the importance of finishes in other matches. Stratus and Runnels both get hit by Head early on in the match, mainly because it allows the commentators to make a dirty joke I think, which leads to Snow clearing the ring.

Crash and Funaki unleash some Light Heavyweight offence on the rest of the competitors to clear the ring, but then Funaki ends that brief alliance by clocking Crash. He should have probably kept that going as they were having some joy with it. Runnels has recovered from her run-in with head and throws some slaps around at Saturn’s opponent’s, which leads to Saturn and Funaki brawling to the back for some reason. Meanwhile, Crash clobbers Blackman with a metal bin lid to score the pin and the belt.

Crash Holly pins Steve Blackman to win the Hardcore Title – Metal Bin Lid Shot

Crash tries fleeing following that, but he stupidly runs up the entrance way and finds Saturn waiting with a bin of his own for the three count.

Perry Saturn pins Crash Holly to win the Hardcore Title – Metal Bin Shot

So we’re roughly half way through the match and the belt has changed hands two times. All the wrestlers continue to hit one another with different objects whilst brawling in the aisle, as the crowd doesn’t really care that much but I suppose it’s entertaining for what it is. I just saw SO MANY of these walk and hit one another with plunder Hardcore Title matches during the Attitude Era that they’ve kind of lost the ability to really entertain me that much. Interestingly though I bet if WWE did a match like this today I’d probably get a kick out of it because it’s been so long since they did one. Life is weird I guess.

Everyone eventually fights out in the crowd, as it’s honestly starting to feel like they’re filling time and running down the clock here, which wouldn’t really be the case if it was a one fall wins it bout. It’s not even like there’s much haste or urgency from the wrestlers who aren’t Champions to try and win the belt either. Everyone is kind of just walking around and brawling to the next designated point of the arena that they need to fight in. It’s like watching people exploring the different places you can fight to on a wrestling Video game without really caring about winning.

Blackman ends up finding his wacky martial arts sticks and uses them to destroy everyone in the match before getting a stick assisted suplex onto Saturn and adding some shots with a Singapore Cane to everyone else in the match in order to win back the belt with about a minute left.

Steve Blackman pins Perry Saturn to win the Hardcore Title – Singapore Cane Shot

Everyone tries piling onto Blackman in the entrance way in an effort to win the belt, but they all keep breaking up each other’s pins and that leads to Blackman running down the clock and retaining his belt.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: STEVE BLACKMAN
RATING: *

Thoughts: This did nothing for me really. I guess if you really enjoy wacky WWF Attitude Era styled hardcore matches then you might have fun with this, but that’s a genre that I’ve had my fill of for the most part

Kurt Angle tries to give Stone Cold Steve Austin a medal backstage for coming back from injury, but Austin isn’t impressed and lays a whupping on Angle.

Match Four
X-Pac Vs Y2J Chris Jericho

They didn’t really have much for Jericho to do during this period, so they stuck him in two placeholder feuds, this one with X-Pac and then another with Kane in order to see out the year. The X-Pac feud was based around X-Pac attacking Jericho with weapons because he was bitter about losing a match, whilst the Kane feud was because Jericho spilled coffee on him accidentally. No, I’m not making that up. X-Pac was staler than week old bread in Skegness at this stage in his career and fans were generally just sick of having to watch him, hence the term “X-Pac Heat™”. He could still work when motivated though at least.

X-Pac was still pretty young at this stage, especially in comparison to the age top wrestlers can be today, but he’d been a star on TV for major federations for going on 7 years at this stage, so it felt like he was an old guy even though he clearly wasn’t. They start this one hot, with both wrestlers going at it and Jericho showing some good intensity. This show has been pretty meh thus far so we could do with a good match to pick things up, so hopefully this is that match. It’s had a promising start thus far.

X-Pac eventually manages to get some respite from Jericho’s onslaught by shoving him off the top rope to the floor, and then follows with a TOPE CON HILO for the proper cut off. X-Pac ends up flinging Jericho into the poor timekeeper outside the ring at one stage, which looked very unpleasant for the poor fellow. Jericho sells well whilst in the heat and X-Pac looks good on offence for the most part and takes opportunities to antagonise the crowd when he can. X-Pac busts out a few chin locks and sleeper holds, but Jericho at least makes it look like he’s trying to fight out of them, which makes them feel more like a working hold than a rest hold.

Jericho eventually makes the comeback, looking good whilst doing so, with X-Pac taking some nice bumps for it. There are some good near falls following that, with Jericho dodging a nun-chuck attack with a roll-up for two, whilst X-Pac gets a low blow and an X-Factor for a two of his own, with the crowd biting on quite a few of them. Jericho eventually manages to catch X-Pac in THE DREADED YOUNG LION BOSTON CRAB, and that’s enough for the instant tap out from X-Pac.

WINNER: CHRIS JERICHO
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: This one had good wrestling and some decent energy to it, with the crowd getting into the near falls towards the end, so I’ll be generous with the rating as this show needed a good match and I’m glad we finally got one

X-Pac attacks Chris Jericho with the nun-chucks following the match in order to keep the feud going, whilst the commentators wonder why he’s acting like this. Err, he’d been a snide little Heel for nearly a year at this point, why was this sort of behaviour suddenly a surprise for them?

Kurt Angle complains to Commissioner Foley about what Austin did, leading to Foley stating that he won’t be getting too involved as ref tonight so that Angle and Triple H can settle their issue.

Stone Cole Steve Austin greets The Rock in his locker room, and things are respectful between them, although Austin wants to know if Rock can think of anyone who could have taken his keys seeing as it was Rock’s rental car that mowed him down. Before Rock can answer Joe…Just…Joe, shows up with some tasty backstage gossip that’s too hot for even Rajah.com, but Austin isn’t interested and gives Joe a brutal beating. I was actually watching HeAT a lot at the time as it was shown on Channel 4 here in the UK and I didn’t have Cable or Satellite, so HeAT was my only way to get a WWF fix every week. Anyway, Just Joe was on that show quite a bit during this time and I was actually kind of stoked to see him show up on a pay per view as he was kind of becoming my favourite lower card enhancement guy.

Match Five
Steel Cage Match for the WWF Tag Team Titles
Champs: Edge & Christian Vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff)

E&C had been retaining the belts by hook or by crook for most of 2000 since winning them, with Too Cool having a quick run with them at one stage until E&C won them back. This was supposed to be the final blow off in the long running feud between the two teams, with the cage there to settle it, but that ended up not being the case. You can win this one either by pin fall or by having both members of the team escaping the cage. E&C had made fun of The Hardyz on Smackdown by showing old childhood movies of them, leading to them laying The Hardyz out with chair shots in the backstage area.

This is a good brawl to start, with all four wrestlers going at it inside the cage, with no one bothering with tags, which makes this a bit different from NWA cage matches with tag teams where they’d normally just do a tag match inside the cage so that no one could interfere. Jeff preps for some kind of wacky high flying move off the top of the cage, but Edge knocks him down to the floor, meaning that if Matt can escape then The Hardyz will win the belts. However, it also means that Matt is now in a handicap situation.

Matt fares pretty well considering the odds, but eventually the numbers game proves costly as The Champs suplex Matt back into the ring when he tries to escape, leading to E&C working some heat on Matt whilst preventing Jeff from getting back in. Matt tries doing a blade job, and I believe he wrote in his book that Mick Foley actually made the gig for him and talked him through what to do. Matt actually manages to get a decent flow going, so it’s not bad for an early attempt.

Matt does sell very well whilst getting beaten up, whilst Jeff takes out the referee and uses the key to open the door. However, Jeff still can’t fight his way in as Christian thwarts his plans and then locks the door again, but not before bringing some chairs into the cage with him. Oh Jeff, you silly bollock. Matt manages to dodge the impending Con-Chair-To from the Champs at least and then clotheslines them down before attempting to escape and only JUST being stopped by E&C.

Jeff finally finds a ladder and uses it to knock Christian off the cage down to the floor, meaning that if one of Edge or Matt escapes then we’ll have a winner. Edge tries to get at Jeff outside the ring, but Jeff is climbing the ladder and not the cage itself, meaning that Edge can’t actually get at him in a clever spot. This leads to Jeff doing a Whisper in the Wind off the top of the cage onto Edge and Matt in the ring, although he kind of misses them.

They shot that in a way that kind of hid the fact that Jeff missed at least. Christian tries getting back into the cage following that, but Lita gives him a rana off the ladder to the floor, as everyone is taking big bumps in this one and the crowd is loving it. Edge tries escaping, but The Hardyz cut him off and then take him out with a Con-Chair-To before climbing out of the cage to win the belts for the monster pop from the crowd.

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: THE HARDY BOYZ
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: Honestly they should have just had The Hardyz win them the previous month at SummerSlam seeing as that show was held down the road from where they grew up and it would have been a great moment. That being said, this match was much better than I remembered it being, with the brawling being on point, the match telling a good story and the crowd being really into it from start to finish. TLC would have been the better way to crown The Hardyz, but this ended up being pretty good too and it was nice to finally see The Hardyz win the belts after trying for over a year to secure a second run with them.

The Hardyz and Lita celebrate following that.

I tell you what, this show had a pretty lousy start but those last two matches have finally got us moving in the right direction. So long as the Main Event delivers then there might just be enough for a thumbs in the middle, which would be an improvement on the thumbs down I thought it was going to be initially. It depends on how much Angle Vs Triple H annoys me I guess.

Stephanie Mc-Mahon-Helmsley is inspecting her wedding ring when Stone Cold Steve Austin stomps in looking for Triple H. Stephanie has Austin’s hat from Survivor Series 1999 and hands it over to him before saying that Shane McMahon has proof of who did it.

Triple H visits Commissioner Foley and wants Foley to call it down the middle, which Foley says he will do. It sounds like he’s basically there to count the pin.

Jerry Lawler re-joins us for commentary.

Match Six
WWF Intercontinental Title
Champ: Latino Heat Eddy Guerrero w/ Mamacita Chyna Vs Rikishi

Chyna had been the IC Champ but had ended up losing it to Eddy when Eddy “accidentally” won it, beginning a Heel turn for Eddy. Eddy is wrestling Rikishi here because Eddy battered Too Cool with the IC Title and had then sprayed some mace in Rikishi’s eyes a couple of times. It looked like Chyna was going to leave Eddy, but then Eddy proposed and she said yes, so they are still together although they would soon split. Rikishi’s “You Look Fly 2 Day” entrance music actually got used on quite a few TV shows as its license free production music, with it showing up in some re-dubbed episodes of Daria on the DVD collection.

Even in my younger days I remember thinking this match was junk, but maybe time has been kind to it? Rikishi bulldozes Eddy to start, getting the big babyface shine until Eddy decides that he’s had enough and tries to flee. Chyna prevents Eddy from leaving though and demands he fight, leading to Eddy getting beaten up even more. Chyna does prevent Eddy from taking a Stinkface though by dragging him to safety, which lead to Eddy using Chyna as a distraction so that he can come off the top rope with a forearm. I think Rikishi was either out of place, Eddy jumped too soon, or both there, as that looked kind of sloppy.

Rikishi manages to dodge the Frogsplash back in and continues to dominate the bout, as Eddy has barely got anything here and he’s been made to look pretty weak as a result. I get that Eddy was supposed to be a conniving Heel here, but making your secondary Champion look so foolish probably wasn’t the best tactic in 2000. We were past the days of Honky Tonk Man drawing money with that stuff in 1988 by this point. Rikishi ends up getting annoyed at Chyna trying to talk him out of hurting Eddy, so he beats her up for the apparent DQ. Why Rikishi attacking Chyna would be a DQ I’m not sure, but at least it meant this match came to an end.

WINNER BY DQ: EDDY GUERRERO
RATING: DUD

Thoughts: This was as rubbish as I remembered, as Eddy basically got squashed until it was time for Chyna to get beaten up, leading to the nonsensical finish. The finish did at least give Rikishi a harder edge in preparation for his upcoming Heel turn

Eddy helps Chyna to the back following that, but not before getting his belt first in a fun example of snide Heel behaviour.

Undertaker chews tobacco and tells Jonathon Coachman that he’s going to humble all three of his opponents tonight. Camel Clutches all around then I guess!

Kurt Angle is really worried ahead of his match next, leading to Trish Stratus coming in to encourage/hit on him. Angle is oblivious though and leaves for his match.

Semi-Main
No Disqualifications
Special Guest Referee: Commissioner Foley
Olympic Hero Kurt Angle Vs The Game Triple H w/ Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley

The story here was that Angle was being a smarmy jerk in trying to woo Stephanie away from her husband, with Triple H getting increasingly angrier about it until a big grudge match was booked to settle things. This storyline was a big hit in the ratings, especially with female viewers, and all roads seemed to point to Stephanie hooking up with Angle and Tri then being forced to hunt both of them down for violent revenge. Yeah, about that…

Angle had given Triple H a sledgehammer attack on Smackdown in order to injure Tri’s mid-section ahead of this one, and he tries to butter up Stephanie by singing happy birthday to her, which goes about as well as you’d think it would. It’s actually a decent brawl to start, as both wrestlers do a good job of getting across the hatred and intensity of the feud. Triple H’s big weakness are the ribs though, so whenever Angle is struggling he targets them with attacks and that puts Tri on the defensive. Triple H’s selling of the ribs is a little bit spotty at points, which you don’t really expect from him as he’s normally good at that stuff.

Both wrestlers have a spot where they can complain about Foley’s count, with Triple H just questioning it verbally whilst Angle threatens to get physical, leading to Foley shoving Angle down for a nice pop. When I say Triple H’s selling is spotty, it’s that the ribs don’t seem to really effect his performance too much when he’s on the offensive, with them only really being a hindrance to him when Angle directly attacks them. You’d expect Triple H to come up selling them every time he does a move like a DDT or a suplex, but he kind of just does the moves without really acknowledging the fact that his mid-section should be in agony.

The crowd is actually quite flat for this one, especially when you consider how big a feud this had been at the time. I’m not sure if the fans didn’t buy Angle as a real threat to Triple H or if they weren’t on board with how the storyline itself was progressing, but they just don’t seem that into this. Triple H teases the Pedigree through a table at one stage, which gets the crowd on their feet at least, but Angle blocks it by clocking Tri right in his sledgehammer before suplexing Triple H through the other announce table to really put The Game in jeopardy.

Angle does a good job of viciously targeting the ribs back inside the ring, with Triple H bleeding from the mouth in order to simulate an internal injury of some kind. Triple H does seem to have an issue of some kind taking some of Angle’s suplexes at some points, with him seemingly needing to bump to the side rather than going all the way over with some of them. We of course get the big mid-section destroying Abdominal Stretch spot, although sadly Gorilla Monsoon isn’t handling the call and thus can’t complain that Angle hasn’t applied the hold correctly.

Triple H doesn’t really do much of a comeback, as he dodges the Moonsault and then gets a one armed Pedigree due to his other arm having to shield and support his ribs. This is Stephanie’s cue to enter the ring and finally choose between Angle and Triple H, as she kicks Angle right his Olympic podium and that allows Tri to follow up with a proper two handed Pedigree and that’s enough for the three count in a really flat finish.

WINNER: TRIPLE H
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: The actual wrestling wasn’t terrible here, but the crowd never really got into the match and the finish seemed really abrupt. When they were going at it and brawling then it kind of achieved what they were going for with the match, but Triple H’s spotty selling of the rib injury meant that story thread never really hit the mark it needed to in order to really add anything to the match. Like the end of the storyline itself, this match was disappointing when you consider the promise it originally had

Triple H gives Stephanie an unpleasant bloody kiss following the match to assert his dominance, and basically kill off the storyline.

Shane McMahon joins us and tries to frame Steve Blackman as the man who ran down Stone Cold Steve Austin back at Survivor Series 1999 because Shane was feuding with Blackman at the time. Austin joins us to deliver a Stunner to Blackman, but he clearly doesn’t believe that Blackman actually did it as he gives Shane a Stunner as well for wasting his time and then drinks some beers. This was very much a filler segment, but the crowd enjoyed watching Austin dishing out the Stunners at least.

The Rock does his usual promo with Michael Cole, and he’s over like rover as you would expect. Rock being mean to Michael Cole and delivering his catchphrases whilst the crowd sings along is always fun.

Main Event
WWF Title
Champ: The Rock Vs The American Badass The Undertaker Vs The Big Red Monster Kane Vs The Crippler Chris Benoit

The story here is that all three challengers have a claim to the belt and have beaten Rock up in some form or another in the build to this, meaning the deck is stacked against The Champ. Indeed, the pre-match video package is all about how Rock has a target on his back in this one. Rock and Benoit are usually always good value when it comes to match quality, whilst Kane and Undertaker are both over with the fans and they’ll usually be in there with one of Benoit or Rock, so this one has potential to be an entertaining show closer.

Sadly Kid Rock clearly costs more than Limp Bizkit as they dub out “American Badass” on WWE Network/Peacock for this one whilst “Rollin” usually remains intact. They actually try and keep Taker and Rock apart from one another as long as they can, what with them being the two babyfaces in this one, with one of Kane or Benoit always breaking it up before it looks like they might fight. That’s standard booking in a match like this, as two top babyfaces duking it out is usually a rarer occurrence and thus the fans likely will be excited to see it.

The match tends to follow the usual formula for these sorts of matches, with two guys fighting or selling outside the ring so that the other two can wrestle in the ring. That keeps things moving and the action is generally fun thanks to Rock and Benoit being involved in the match, so that keeps things entertaining. Taker and Rock eventually clear the ring and go at it with one another, with it being okay but not great either as these two just never really had the sort of chemistry that they had with other opponents for some reason.

Referee Earl Hebner ends up taking a bump at one stage, which means he can’t count when Rock has Kane pinned and that leads to Taker and Benoit swinging chairs at everyone. Benoit gets his shot onto Taker last and makes the cover for the three, but Taker actually had his foot on the ropes when the pin was made and that leads to Commissioner Foley restarting the match. Are rope breaks even a thing in Fatal Four Way’s? Oh well, I guess they are in this one. It does lead to a very funny sequence where Benoit tries to flee to the back with the belt, but Foley stops Benoit and then all three of the other wrestlers batter Benoit in the entrance way.

Things head back to the ring following that, leading to everyone having a chance to win it during Finisher Madness™, where each wrestler hits one of their big trademark moves with one of the other wrestlers either kicking out or someone coming in at the last moment to break up the victory attempt. Benoit and Rock do a little back and forth during this period and it’s great, with Rock even locking Benoit in his own crossface hold at one stage. Benoit interrupts The People’s Elbow on Kane at one stage, drawing some of the most Heel heat we’ve heard all night in a funny moment. Eventually Kane and Undertaker fight on the floor and that allows Rock to snap off the Rock Bottom on Benoit OUTTA NOWHERE for the three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: THE ROCK
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: These sorts of matches are usually entertaining if done correctly, and they did a good job putting this one together. It never really approached the 4 star territory in my opinion, but it was still a good outing and a strong ending to the show. The crowd was really getting into the near falls and saves at the end, which is usually a good barometer as to whether what you’re doing is working or not. This was the second fake out Title win Benoit had in 2000, which makes me think they were testing the water with him to see whether people would buy him as a possible Champion and they might have possibly gone somewhere with it in 2001 if Benoit hadn’t suffered a serious neck injury

The Rock celebrates with his belt whilst his three dejected opponents slink off.

In Conclusion

This is a tough one to rate overall, as half the matches on the show were in the 1 star range or lower, with one of them even being an outright stinker in the form of Eddy and Rikishi. However, X-Pac/Jericho, E&C/Hardyz and the Fatal Four Way were all differing degrees of good, and whilst Angle/HHH was a disappointment, it wasn’t actively bad either.

I think in some ways Unforgiven 2000 suffered as a result of the shows surrounding it. In 1998 or 1999 Unforgiven 2000 would be one of the better pay per views the WWF would have put on all year. However, in the year 2000 the bar had been raised considerably when it came to what you expected from the WWF on pay per view, so Unforgiven 2000 ended up being a comparative disappointment.

Viewed through 2023 eyes though, Unforgiven 2000 isn’t a bad show overall and the good matches are genuinely entertaining. None of the three good matches are ones you particularly need to go out of your way to see, but there’s a good chance you’d have fun watching them if you did.

As a result I think I’ll have to go with a thumbs in the middle overall, with the recommendation depending on whether you particularly enjoy this period of the WWF or not. If you do then there’s probably enough here for you to enjoy the show. If not, then you can easily skip this one and be none the worse for wear for it.