Live Feed Mania – WWF Monday Night Raw 08/07/00

WWF @ New York City, NY – Madison Square Garden – August 7, 2000 (13,236)

It’s the world’s most famous arena and it’s a Satellite Feed so it must be interesting!

Dark Match!

The Dupps (Bo Dupp & Jack Dupp) vs. The Haas Brothers (Charlie Haas & Russ Haas)

Sadly Russ like the Dupps would sadly never make TV. Giant catapult swanton over the ropes by the Haases wows the crowd because Ruus got all the height on that one. Russ manhandles Jack Dupp with a fireman’s carry before sadly dropping him directly onto his head on an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Jack got lucky with that one. Jack distracts Russ so Bo can headbutt him in the chest like Zidane. Crowd politely claps for the Haases because they look like they’ve had a wash recently. Russ makes a firey comeback before Charlie lands a Dudley Boyz esque elbow-to-the-groin-off-the-top (getting a very big reaction) before distracting the ref and pinning Russ with a double spinebuster at 5:17.

Both teams were trying and outside of the scary overhead, this was alright.

Dark Match!

The Mean Street Posse (Pete Gas & Rodney) vs. Low Ki & Vince Goodnight

Oh this got uploaded on the WWE The Vault’s YouTube channel. Low Ki would wrestle twice more at MSG in squash matches for WWF. MSP’s amazing theme gets a very guttural reaction from the crowd.

MSP dressed in not-very-Greenwich gear bum-rush their opponents but immediately run away when they strike back, resulting in an insane Phoenix Splash to the outside by Low Ki during a fucking dark match.

Crowd rightly chant “Holy Shit”. Pete Gas reacts by slamming Ki on the mats outside. Double backbreaker onto Ki lets us all realize how much smaller he is than his opponents. Ki takes an Irish Whip and seems to have little control over the speed he’s going. Meanwhile, the Posse are wrestling like they’re trying out for the APW King Of The Indies as they’re busting out sit-out slams and springboard leg-drops. What happened to the doofuses who struggled with Briscoe & Patterson? Crowd switches off as Ki gets battered by the guy who nearly bled to death at Wrestlemania 2000. Goodnight gets the hot tag but I think he slipped on his way in because the crowd laugh. Ki’s kicks get a nice reaction before Pete lands the Gas Mask (sit-out powerbomb) and Rodney lands High Society (Blockbuster) to end it.

Hey do you want to watch Posse when they’re trying to wrestle? What do you mean “NOOOO”?

As we get Jakked ready, crowd chant “Turn The Light On!” as they’ve been lowered for TV due to people still filing in.

Michael Hayes, Kevin Kelly, Jonathan Coachman & Tom Prichard head out to commentate. Hayes starts yelling about wanting “gimmicks.”

Jakked – 08/12/00

WWF Light Heavyweight Title

Dean Malenko (w/women) vs. Essa Rios

Kelly spots the white gauze on Essa and tells us he’s hoping the skin grafts take. Dean gets a very positive reaction but it could be because he has women with him. Kelly likes his new Bond theme. Malenko defeated Essa for the title back in March and I always forget Essa was the one to end Gillberg’s reign of terror. Malenko is remarkably basic and basically remarkable as he makes even something like pressing down on the top half of the body for a pin seem smart and interesting because no-one else was doing it. Dean lets Rios look pretty by delivering a monkey flip that lands him on his feet as well as taking a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Crowd sadly chant for “Lita” and stop caring about the match when they realise she ain’t coming. Rios gets planted with an almighty powerbomb before Malenko gets fed up of not knowing what Rios is going to do next, gets his knees up on a moonsault before retaining at 4:21 with the Texas Cloverleaf.

Malenko was game until he wasn’t.

The Big Boss Man vs. Taka Michinoku

The groan-pop for Boss Man is amusing. Once the match starts and Boss ploddingly plods, the crowd shuts up. TAKA attempts a plancha but Boss Man side-steps so he eats shit like it’s Rumble 2000. TAKA takes over with his flying kicks before running directly into the Boss Man Slam at 3:29 with Boss pinning TAKA with one finger.

Nothing here. It’s crazy that Boss Man was around and on TV until November.

Fink shills WWF sucker cups and gets booed.

WWF Hardcore Title

Steve Blackman vs. Mideon

Mideon is wearing a black singlet. That’s as interesting as he gets. Blackman suplexes Mideon on the ramp to start, with Mideon sending Blackman into a guard rail and causing it to move and scare the fans. Blackman kicks a bin lid into Mideon’s face before landing a roundhouse shot with one, causing Mid to gob onto the front row. I was going to GIF that but after thinking about it, I’ll do a line break instead.

Bin lid-assisted Indian Deathlock is a hilarious idea in practice but Mideon counters it with a fire extinguisher shot. A loud fan asks Mideon why he still has a job here. Answer the man. Blackman throws a bin into Mideon who catches his home, allowing Blackman to Pump Kick him half way across the ring to retain at 3:36.

It was a Mideon match.

Gangrel & Crash Holly vs. Lo Down (D’Lo Brown & Chaz)

Gangrel’s full entrance is always a pleasure and the pop for Crash is massive. D’Lo slams his partner onto Crash immediately but misses an elbow off Bret’s rope. Gangrel sticks to basic stuff because he’s wrestling with frigging New Rocks on. It’s amazing he can even do his entrance. Lo Down land a leapfrog/dropkick combo but Crash makes what I guess is supposed to be the hot tag but no-one reacts. Jeez, Gangrel and Crash really were guys who were only over during their entrances. Crash delivers Frankensteiners before Boss Man walks out to crotch Crash on the top setting up the Ode To Power & Glory Superplex/Frog Splash at 3:21.

Inoffensive quick tag match between four guys with zero direction.

Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler make their entrances to giant reactions. Lilian Garcia sings the National Anthem with the crowd show their appreciation by chanting “Save The Hoes.”

A brief “Rocky Sucks” chant breaks out which confuses the commentators before a much louder “Rocky” chant drowns it out. Who the fuck was booing The Rock in 2000?

Raw is War 08/07/00

The video package to start the show breaks down the HHH/Steph breakdown along with Kurt Angle’s growing friendship with Steph. The selection sound effect from Doom gets used a lot and I was not ready to hear that. Steph threatens to batter Trish because HHH got KO’d and fell onto her to end Raw. Commish Foley makes a six-person match vs. The Dudleys on Smackdown, with Angle saving Steph from a Bubba powerbomb and helping her win the match while HHHusband watches on furiously. This was all great stuff with the Steph/Angle/HHH triangle doing a lot of heavy lifting during this time.

WWF Champion The Rock saunters out, very unhappy at getting pinned by Chris Benoit on Smackdown (thanks to Shane O Mac’s flying chairshot). The Rock wonders if Shane thinks that Benoit should be WWF Champ or have a title shot at Summerslam but Rock wipes a rat’s ass with what Shane thinks. But he offers a title shot to The Crippler right now. Benoit heads out with Shane, with the frigging Chyron putting Shane’s name first.

Benoit reminds us that Benoit defeated Rock at Fully Loaded but Foley reversed the decision. Shane is worried that Rock may not remember Smackdown because of the chair shot he gave him so we get a video replay. I’m sure Benoit needed reminding too. Crowd remind Shane that he’s a pussy. “That is not true.” Shane reminds us that he has a mini-stable going on because Big Show is here and he chokeslammed Kane through the entrance way. So because of that, Shane reckons tonight’s match should be No DQ. Huh? Well Rock doesn’t care about logic because he’s not going to lose to either of their candy asses IF YOU SMELALALALALA. Shane took forever to get to his point but the heat was there so eh.

Backstage, Angle confronts Commish Foley (who is using a forklift as a mobile office) about that match that just got made. Foley is fine with it. Angle reminds Foley he won his gold medals in the summer so he should get a title shot at Summerslam. Foley loves Kurt’s enthusiasm, especially when he was holding Steph up last week! Kurt’s adamant they’re just friends, it’s true it’s true. I could watch Kurt segments all day.

Steph is waiting for HHH to show up so she can clarify why she embraced Kurt. HHH advises her he needs “some space” which the crowd laughs at. Quick segment because HHH doesn’t like being on TV too much.

X-Pac vs. Rikishi

X-Pac is in the middle of a feud with Road Dogg while also teaming with him. Giant pop for Rikishi while X-Pac oversells everything. X-Pac avoids the butt drop so he can land the Bronco Buster while J.R. gets him mixed up with Road Dogg. All these white guys running around in black and green, who can blame him. Rikishi lands the One Man 3D before setting up the Stinkface which blows the roof off the place. Road Dogg/X-Pac/The Hurricane/Finlay/Misawa is shown laughing at this backstage. Oh but then he runs out and low blows Rikishi for the DQ at 2:57 because X-Pac didn’t like losing they’re friends. Yeah no wonder I barely remember this feud.

Backstage, HHH mentions “some guy named Joe” told him about the Rock vs. Benoit match. Unsure if that was the understated debut of Just Joe but I also don’t care. HHH wants the WWF Title shot so Foley brings up Kurt’s request and HEY REMEMBER WHEN KURT HUGGED YOUR WIFE HA HA THAT WAS FUNNY. Before HHH explodes, Foley says he’ll think about it. HHH when he was secure enough to look vulnerable was a blast.

Earlier tonight: A few of The Godfather’s Hoes (including Victoria) help the crowd in a chant of SAVE THE HOES. The kids love it.

HHH doesn’t want to talk to Steph and then decides he does, but only to bitch about Kurt. Steph doesn’t see the fuss about him but HHH vows to kick his ass tonight. Crowd approves.

Steven Richards and the worst theme song of all time head out. Steven gets cheap heat by saying good things about Mayor Giuliani and his desire to clean up NYC. Remember Giuliani’s first heel run? Steven says he will continue to censor scantily clad women in WWF. Ah these segments are too vague, I wonder if they’re a thinly veiled attack on someone.

The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von) vs. Right To Censor (Bull Buchanan & The Goodfather w/ Steven Richards)

The Duds vow to put Steven through a table and charge the ring. Deafening chants for tables as Bull gets bounced. Steven trips D-Von to turn the advantage while J.R. talks about Bubba having wood on his mind. Goodfather sets up The No Train but misses, allowing D-Von to WASSSUP both groins. 3D lands on Bull but this is 2000 so The Duds can’t win on TV against a new team, so Steven interferes for the DQ at 3:24.

Steven also gets WASSSUP’D as J.R. mocks Steven’s white socks. “What a nerd!” D-Von sets up a table only for The Goodfather to break a club over D-Von and prove The Right To Censor are “no good damn hypocrites” as Goodfather brutally powerbombs Victoria The Ho through a table instead. “What type of human beings can these people be with their double standards!” yells Vince via J.R. As always, the meta commentary of RTC was more interesting than anything they did in ring.

Backstage, Steph fondles Angle’s medals while he strokes her WWF Women’s Title. Kurt is livid at HHH raising his voice to Steph and suggests he undergo sensitivity training. Or he can wait until 2024 and blame it all on Vince.

Smackdown Your Vote! Vote in November! Tunney or Monsoon!

Just Joe (oh there he is) expositions that the locker room thinks that Angle can take HHH. HHH tells him to get out and tell Gerald Brisco to shut up.

Too Cool (Grand Master Sexay & Scotty 2 Hotty) & Eddie Guerrero w/ Chyna vs. T & A (Test & Albert) & WWF IC Champion Val Venis w/ Trish Stratus

J.R. is still seething about these right-wing cults like RTC running around. Unrelated, here’s Val Venis! Val during his serious phase in between porn star gimmick and joining RTC sneak attacks Eddie and piledrives him on the outside to take him out of the match.

Everyone carries on regardless as the crowd are unsure how to react because they’d just seen Victoria The Ho die and also want to cheer Hotty’s worm, which connects on Venis very quickly. Chyna gives up on helping Eddy and replaces him so she can batter Venis and crotch T & A. All while wearing heels! Venis clotheslines Chyna to shocked boos before Test’s Big Boot also worries them kids. Sexay crotches Venis and it all breaks down on the outside leading to Venis landing the Fisherman Suplex on Chyna, leaving him wide open for a Frog Splash from Eddy, allowing Chyna to roll over and pin Venis at 3:50.

Just a bunch of good stuff to remind everyone that there’s a tag match at Summerslam coming up. Also Venis still had taped ribs from when Rikishi splashed him off the cage. Good.

Just Joe the shit-stirrer tells Angle that HHH said he could take him, making Angle milky mad.

Stephanie McMahon Helmsley heads to the ring as the crowd chant for someone called “Slut.” Steph apologies to HHH for what happened on Smackdown between here and Kurt. Crowd don’t believe her claims of only being friends. HHH heads out with his uber-serious face on making him look like Steven Seagal trying to remember his lines. Steph says she’s been jealous of seeing HHH with other women but admits she loves him while the crowd loudly chant “BULLSHIT.” HHH gives her a HHHug and everything’s OK…until Steph requests Angle come down too. Kurt saunters out, barely able to hide his grin. Kurt explains the concept of In The Heat Of Battle. “New Yorkers get it when they’re running from the cops.” Grinning Kurt tells HHH that when Steph jumped into his arms on Smackdown, he could only think about their friendship. HHH says he knows Kurt was full of “SHIT” (uncensored) but Steph stops it from breaking down and asks HHH to shake hands. Kurt’s happy to do so but HHH frowns even more lines into his forehead so here’s Foley to make his entrance as we hit the second hour of Raw. Foley describes this as a “threesome” and shows video of Kurt hugging Steph because he’s coming for Just Joe’s job. Foley makes tonight’s main event a three way match, winner gets The Rock at Summerslam.

Another hot segment to stop people from switching over to (let’s see) WCW Triple Champion Lance Storm vs. WCW World Champion Booker T?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghUtJnWMxjc

Oh wait it’s the match that focused on Fat Chick Thriller Mike Awesome sat at ringside, never mind.

Slam Of The Week Brought To You By Snickers: Big Show slamming Kane to Hell. It’s a bit harsh giving Show snack endorsements just before he gets airlifted back to OVW.

WWF World Title

The Rock vs. Chris Benoit w/ Shane McMahon

The Rock Pearl Harbours Benoit to start as he emerges from the crowd cos it’s No DQ and he strongly dislikes Benoit and his little dog too. Dragon Screw Leg Whip sets up The Sharpshooter on Benoit with Shane saving the day with a flying clothesline. Benoit takes over with good o’ Canadian chops with Shane assisting to keep Rock down. It’s all well and good but all the heat is on Shane, just like the 2001 feud with Booker T. Rock blocks a backslide by shoving Benoit into his own Crossface before Chris is able to land two rolling German suplex before Rock converts THAT into one of his own. Benoit was very giving with The Rock, he flew for that German.

Shane removes the ref, causing Rock to chase him and run right into Benoit. Rock looks dumb here agreeing to this match with no backup. Air Canada lands on Rock’s runway with J.R.’s serious voice kicking in. Rock whips Benoit into Shane. Rock lands The People’s Elbow but surprise surprise Shane breaks up the pin. Rock lays him out and again takes his eyes off Benoit, leading to Benoit applying the Crossface as the crowd gets worried until a shiny leathered trousered Jericho runs out to land his Double Powerbomb on Benoit on a chair before chasing Shane off. Benoit recovers quickly enough to walk right into a Rock Bottom to retain at 8:12.

Gave all the thrills and spills of a Raw title match but felt like a chapter in The Rock vs. Shane feud rather than The Rock vs. Benoit book. Still, Benoit was bumping for ten men out there and it was much appreciated.

Benoit moans to Foley. Mick shoves Jericho into the main event Number One Contender match, annoying Shane.

Tazz is here! It’s his hometown! Oh no that isn’t good. Tazz says he’s better than them cos he’s succeeded and the natives are still struggling to feed their fat kids. Tazz turns his attention to J.R. because at Fully Loaded he called him “a piece of gawwwbage.” J.R. resents being called a redneck so stands up to Tazz! And over him because he’s taller. Tazz knocks his hat off and gives us the immortal line “I was going to slap you across your face but I see God already beat me to it!” Christ. J.R. slaps Tazz causing the Orange Goblin to dare him to do it again. Lawler can’t take it anymore and punches Tazz ten yards down the ringside area. Refs break it up and even though I guess it got heat, I hated seeing Tazz resorting to picking fights with commentators in what I can only imagine was designed to please Vince.

Meanwhile, Drew Pearson will be the GM of the XFL. Also the ball is black and red. Thrilling stuff.

The Big Show & WWF Tag Team Champions Edge & Christian vs. The Acolytes (Bradshaw & Faarooq) & Matt Hardy

Jeff Hardy is recovering from a concussion from E & C last week and Lita is looking after him. I bet Jeff with a concussion is like Flowers for Algernon. Matt lands a quick tornado DDT on Edge before Big Show punches him down. “Don’t go bear hunting with a switchblade” yells Lawler. E & C land big moves on Matt quickly leading to hot tag Bradshaw. The APA double shoulder tackle Show and he responds by grabbing one of the tag title belts to KO them both at 1:38. Oh.

Show slams Matt Hardy for good measure and BY GOD THAT’S THE UNDERTAKER’S KID ROCK MUSIC. Him and his push bike take out E & C before clotheslining Show but fortunately for him, Shane runs out to take a pasting because we haven’t seen enough of him this evening. Undi then chases Shane with his bike, with Shane diving onto the set to escape. Show eventually catches up, so Undi sends him flying off the stage and through some tables.

It’s so funny that Big Show had two months off after the Shane match at Judgement Day, showed up on TV to get reignited by aligning himself with Shane’s new stable and was presumably heading towards a match with Undi at Summerslam but then got sent to OVW a week after this, only returning at Rumble 2001. Anyway I’m surprised they didn’t just do Undi vs. Shane instead cos all the focus is on him.

During the break, Show is helped to the back.

Oh then Jericho attacks HHH in his locker room to build more heat than just “Jericho is in this main event now.” Which is what we got in 2002.

The Summerslam advert with Chyna clotheslining a fat guy before mocking him which almost assuredly awakened something in a few people.

HHH tries looking for Jericho but bumps into Angle who tells him to wait until they get in the ring. Why, what else do we have on the show?

Oh J.R. shills WWF New York and the post-Raw after party featuring Eddie Guerrero and Chyna. J.R. tells Lawler that “the soft drinks are on me.” Ha.

Linda McMahon heads to The Republican National Convention, presumably liking what she sees. We also get the weird sight of The Rock sat alongside George Bush Sr.

#1 Contenders match

Kurt Angle vs Chris Jericho vs. Triple H (w/ WWF Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon)

Jericho starts by spitting into Kurt’s face but as HHH hhheads out, The Rock’s music starts as he’s decided he wants to commentate. Yeah I bet he’s feeling cocky after seeing that video package. Kurt and HHH have a stare off allowing Jericho to attack them both. Jericho dives onto both because they hate each other so much they can’t focus on the Canadian. Jericho lands on his feet on an Angle Slam to set up a Walls of Jericho, with HHH watching for a few seconds in glee before breaking it up. Neither Angle nor HHH can stop attacking one another so Jericho gets a good showing here while the Bizarre Love Triangle goes at it. Crowd kinda dies for a bit which is surprising but we have had a lot of these guys on the show so far I guess. Lionsault gets cut off by a well-timed knee. Pedigree is set up but Jericho slingshots him into the corner, managing to land the Lionsault on both lads for two. Angle and HHH retaliate by landing a double back superplex off the top and both pin Jericho at 6:46 to absolutely no reaction. Oh boy.

Action was fast-paced but The Rock at ringside took away from the match. Plus it was all spot-spot-spot with the fans waiting for the result, which the crowd then hated.

Steph gets in the ring to stop the lads from from fighting, leading to The Rock landing the Rock Bottom on HHH, Angle…and finally Steph for the hell of it. Crowd cheers for that and that’s your lot, no post-show stuff!

Overall: There was a lot of love triangle on this show but it was still fun so I was alright. Outside of that, there was the usual mid card stuff you forget about (X-Pac) and try to forget (RTC) and the rest was gravy.

I’ve been Maffew