Live Feed Mania – WWF Monday Night Raw 07/17/00

WWF @ Albany, NY – Pepsi Arena – July 17, 2000

We’re a week away from Fully Loaded so let’s see what the God of Satellite Feeds has brought us this harvest!

The live crowd get a little hype video of The Rock meeting Mike Piazza of The Mets who was having a very good year and about to be on the front cover of Sports Illustrated. Mike praises the athletic ability required for wrestling but jokes about the lack of hand-eye coordination involved which has The Rock responding all serious as he explains why that isn’t the case while Mike chuckles. Calm down Rock, jeez. Anyway two icons of sports made better by steroids.

A lovely dramatic video recap of Triple H vs. Cactus Jack from No Way Out 2000, which broke child Maffew’s heart. Nice way to warm the crowd up.

The Fink introduces the crowd to the Pepsi Arena aka The War Zone! Oh every arena is suddenly the War Zone when Chimel is around, I see.

Dark Match!

The Dupps (Bo Dupp & Jack Dupp) vs. Mean Street Posse (Joey Abs & Pete Gas)

Oh God not The Dupps.

Powerslam Magazine would hype them up and wonder why they weren’t on TV. It’s because they were crap. The Posse aren’t wearing undershirts but still look more professional than their opponents.

The Dupps work face against a mystified crowd who wonder why they’re watching this. Crowd are so thrilled by the array of scoop slams and punches that a brief “Joey” chant breaks out. Pete obliges them by barely being able to pick up Bo on a gutwrench. Pete remembers to do something to get the crowd into this by choking Bo behind the ref’s back. Crowd cheer it. This match outstays it’s welcome as The Posse aren’t used to going longer than four minutes so look like they’re trying to remember what comes next. Joey tries a Pump Splash but meets knees so Jack tags in so he can land a backdrop suplex onto Pete’s massive head. Joey busts out a nice Splash Mountain before The Dupps land a double team spinebuster to finally end it at 8:21 to a sigh of relief from the crowd.

Exactly what you’d expect from a long Posse match against a nothing tag team.

Dark Match!

Scott Vick vs. Joe E. Legend

Hey it’s Sick Boy! He still has lovely hair but sadly is wearing normal short tights as expected of WWF. Joe E has been bang average his entire career yet has an insane 8.37 rating on CageMatch.

Crowd immediately starts chanting “Boring” as soon as the bell rings. Vick misses his springboard crossbody but lands a springboard elbow successfully. Legend big boots in response before locking in a weird ankle-assisted armlock thing that doesn’t work so he stops. Legend is trying really hard to be cool with his floatover duck downs but Vick is notably slower as a result as he has to figure out what Joe’s doing. Legend at least gets heat as he leans on Vick in the corner while posing. A blatant dirty pin has Legend proclaiming his innocence. Vick comes back with a rubbish tornado DDT before dropping Legend awkwardly on a kind of tilt a whirl thing. C’mon Vick I’m trying to defend you here. Legend at least gets booed as he counters another tornado DDT into a Flatliner to bag this rubbish at 5:55.

Well at least Legend looked trained compared to Vick who was a bag of nerves despite his amount of experience on the big stage (losing to Goldberg).

Headbanger Thrasher vs. Rodney

Aired on WWF Jakked 07/17/00

The reaction from the fans as they hear Rodney’s music and realise they’re getting two Mean Street Posse matches tonight is amazing. “AH COME ON.”

Backslide nearly puts Rodney away early while the crowd chant very offensive things at Thrasher. Rodney lands a neckbreaker and when it only gets a two-count, Rodney yells “c’mon ref I want my first win!” which no-one reacted to but I thought was funny. Crowd are absolutely silent now, like Mox vs. Cope levels of quiet. Action is so basic you could run an IBM PC on it. Thrasher is working serious for some reason because when you’re wearing facepaint and a skirt and call yourself Thrasher, you should definitely wrestle seriously. Rodney misses a dodgy swanton off the top and Thrasher cradles for the victory at 2:51.

This was Thrasher’s last televised match for WWF, ending a run that started in November 1996. Mosh is still around as part of Lo Down so maybe Thrasher got the better deal there.

Jonathan Coachman, Michael Hayes, Tom Prichard & Kevin Kelly head out to Kid Rock’s Roving Gangster (Rollin’) which is an interesting choice. Wait no it isn’t.

The Big Boss Man vs. Gangrel

Aired on WWF Jakked 07/17/00

Hell yeah, I love mid card matches you can do on WWF Attitude for the N64. Gangrel’s entrance definitely wakes up the crowd and the “Boss Man Sucks” chants are crazy loud.

Boss Man lands his solid punches in the corner. I forgot how good his punches were. Boss Man clotheslines Gangrel down and yells “who’s the man?” and one loud guy responds in a deadpan manner “YOU are.” Gangrel begs off and uses the ropes to stun Boss Man. Why is he working heel? Boss Man tries to escape the curse of the vampire by running outside and sending Gangrel into the guardrail. Boss Man heads back inside but forgets Gangrel doesn’t need permission to enter the ring like in the books so the match must continue. Even by the low standard of Gangrel matches, he looks particularly rough here. He’s not able to do anything other than punches before simply walking into the Boss Man Slam at 4:17.

Well the entrances were nice.

Chaz (w/ D’Lo Brown) vs. Crash Holly

Aired on WWF Jakked 07/17/00

Lo Down are still figuring out their gimmick and are just two guys wearing baggy tights who had nothing else going on. Giant pop for Crash Holly, as it should be. He’s carrying the scales which prove he’s well over 500lbs.

Crash is so distracted by the “Elroy” chants that he can’t lock up. Chaz calls one of the fans “a little queer” which is British for “I have a cold.” Crash manages a tilt-a-whirl headscissors before taking a decent reverse suplex. Chaz rides him in the ropes like Seabiscuit with D’Lo helping to choke Crash which annoys the crowd into booing. Hayes on commentary remarks “wow they loooove Crash” before going back to drinking. Crash comes back with dropkicks before Brown sneaks in to land a giant flapjack behind the ref’s back to aid Chaz in delivering a BURNING HAMMER (done very safely) for the win at 4:49. Lo Down was a waste of D’Lo but this was solid action compared to the rest of the show.

D’Lo Brown (w/ Chaz) vs. Essa Rios

Aired on WWF Jakked 07/17/00

Weird pacing for the live crowd to have Lo Down leave and immediately come back out. Rios gets a lovely pop.

D’Lo is so much more animated in his offence and mannerisms than the rest of the wrestlers we’ve seen so far. Rios connects with a lovely smooth jumping-on-the-top-rope-and-then-into-a-headscissors that sends D’Lo outside, with Rios deciding to follow with an over the corner flipping plancha to…nothing, because Lo Down move.

Oh wow. D’Lo mocks Rios with Chaz joining in on the outside. D’Lo barely connects on a springboard moonsault but he doesn’t care. Rios connects with his own huge moonsault for a close two, with D’Lo’s lovely calf kick putting Rios down long enough for Brown to mouth off at fans. D’Lo misses a big back senton which allows Rios to deliver more headscissors before a turning-on-the-shoulders-Frankensteiner-like-what-Ultimo-Dragon-used-to-do gets polite applause. Rios then stupidly does a blind dive directly into a Sky High which easily sets up the Low Down finish at 5:22. Crowd were tapped out which was a shame as D’Lo’s posturing and effort were appreciated as he kept Rios from looking sloppy out there.

J.R. and Lawler head out to heroes welcomes. Ross is happy to see a “J.R.’s BBQ” sign in the crowd.

Lilian Garcia sings The Star Spangled Banner in case people forgot which country they’re in. No-one boos so we know it’s not Canada.

And that’s it.

Also happening but not recorded:

The Dudley Boyz fought Matt & Jeff Hardy to a no contest at 3:17

X-Pac & the Road Dogg defeated Too Cool at 3:52

Chris Benoit, Edge & Christian defeated WWF World Champion the Rock & the Acolytes at 5:06

WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko defeated Chyna via disqualification at 2:33

Rikishi pinned Test at 1:46

The Undertaker & Kane defeated Triple H & Kurt Angle at 5:13

Overall: Like this feed, I’ve got nothing this week.

I’ve been Maffew