Live Feed Mania – WWF Smackdown 12/23/00

WWF @ Gaylord Entertainment Center, Nashville, TN – December 23, 2000 (10,805)

It’s the day before Christmas but Richard Land is breaking protocol to give us all a gift early.

Dark Match!

Russ McCullough vs. Flash Flanagan

I feel like I should know more about Flash considering how long he’s been going. But I don’t. Russ is a head taller so Flash bumps around like prime Hennig for Atomic Drops and getting crotched. Russ lands a decent flying leg drop from half way across the ring for two. Russ misses a Patera Charge to absorb a springboard dropkick and a wild springboard swanton off the top to the outside. Crowd stop chanting “BORING” long enough to cheer that. A really sloppy and scary powerbomb ends it for Russ after around four minutes. Russ would retire in 2001.

Dark Match!

Just Joe & Joey Abs vs. Slash & Seven

I swear to God if I have to watch another Just Joe match where he teams up with someone that doesn’t fit him…anyway, Slash is Wolfie D of PG-13 fame, and Seven is Kevin Thorn. I forgot Wolfie D went goth to escape the white rapper image. Production team uses this time to prepare the replays from Raw rather than pay attention to the match. We do get to see a hilariously indie double team move that would take me a paragraph to describe and got no crowd reaction so thank God for GIFs.

The Goths repeatedly whip Joe into the turnbuckle before Slash happily stamps on his belly like he’s playing DDR before Abs gets the mild tag. He back body drops Slash high enough for him to yell “oh shit!” before he lands. Joe lands a superkick into a jack knife roll up for the pin. Perfectly cromulent dark match that the crowd at least reacted to.

Fink hypes up the XFL’s Memphis Maniax who are in attendance tonight and can be reached for autographs at the concession stands. I’m sure they’d sign autographs or job offers at this point.

Michael Hayes and Jonathan Coachman make their entrance to commentate Heat, with Hayes milking all the pops. Coach is impressed with the size of the crowd two days before Xmas.

Sunday Night Heat 12/23/00

Billy Gunn vs. Val Venis

Val’s RTC music immediately wakes up the crowd. I mean it’d wake up the fucking dead with all those sirens blaring. Gunn gets a biiiiig pop when he’s in the opener and not the main events. Val has switched to black tights instead of the white ones that made him look like an evil ice cream man. It doesn’t help him as Gunn lands the Fameasser early but it doesn’t end the match to the crowd’s confusion. The One & Only could never replace that. They brawl outside as the crowd is well mic’d and very loud. Billy gets whipped into the ring steps and sails over them which was nice. Val misses an elbow off the top while Coach and Hayes discuss their travel arrangements. Billy lands a sloppy Jackhammer as Hayes says this match is good. Val’s Dirty Pin attempt is spotted by the ref, so Val complains which leaves him wide open for The One & Only. Solid short opener with a hot crowd with Billy taking a wild bump just because.

Perry Saturn (w/ Terri) vs. Hardcore Holly

Crowd don’t appreciate Holly as much as Gunn because there’s no accounting for taste. Coach says something about the pop being half-assed. Suplexes are traded before Holly gets crotched on the top rope. Perry loses his mind and low blows Holly in front of the ref for a warning. Ah we’ve got tapped-out Perry tonight. Holly gets his leg worked over before Perry stops to kiss Terri so this match can have a little heat. Crowd are mostly cheering for Perry regardless. Holly lands his sometimes-a-low-blow-but-sometimes-not kick before The Best Dropkick In The Business gets the crowd on his side. Oh but then Terri distracts Holly so Perry wins with a wonky superkick. Unmotivated WWF Perry Saturn is sad to watch, like watching Rodman play for the Dallas Mavericks.

Tazz vs. Taka Michinoku (w/ Funaki)

Tazz tells the commentators they suck because he can do their job better. When you’re right, you’re right. TAKA (“from Japan”) does the bad dubbing intro which gets the crowd cheering for Tazz. Wait was that the idea? I mean I know they’re evil but they were comedy heels.

Tazz armbars TAKA while calling him a S.O.B. Hayes doesn’t approve of the cussing. Or maybe it wasn’t offensive enough for him. TAKA lands a low dropkick on Tazz because a normal one would have sailed over his head. TAKA celebrates which causes Tazz to overhead him. Tazz hears the lack of crowd love and mocks TAKA with a bow. Crowd appreciates the racism. Gargoyle Tazplex somehow leads into TAKA taking over until a backflip off the top sends him directly into a Tazzmission insta-tap. The train had long left the Tazz station but the crowd enjoyed him winning.

Tazz then does the bad overdubbing big right back to TAKA. Ha! TAKA isn’t impressed and tells him “as Confucius says: if future so bright then why wear shades? Ha ha ha ha”. Hayes reacts to all this with a dead-pan “was there a pot party we weren’t invited to?”

Steve Blackman vs. Crash Holly (w/ Molly Holly)

Battle of the two best Hardcore champions of 2000. But it’s not for the title. They only had one match for it and it was way before Blackman got over.

Hayes and Coachman do their introduction to the camera with Hayes mockingly asking afterwards if it was possible to be more generic. Blackman beats up Crash on the outside. He grabs Crash’s face and Hayes wonders if he’s going to squish him like an apple and kill him. Crash uses his agility to land a fast crossbody but crowd have switched off because there’s no clear face. This show peaked with Billy Gunn. Crash blocks a Pump Splash with a kick to the face before Blackman blocks something with a spinebuster as this is going nowhere. Blackman throws off Crash as he tries the Bulldog into a Dragon Sleeper for the insta-tap. I don’t remember that being a finish for Blackman but if it was in matches like this then no wonder I don’t remember.

Fink shills merch, and Coach is impressed at the amount of people heading to the stands. “What a salesman!”

K-Kwik vs. D’Lo Brown (w/ Tiger Ali Singh)

Oh no we’re bollock-deep in the Singh era of Lo Down, complete with push-derailing Arabian gear for D’Lo. Singh says he refuses to acknowledge the crowd and will instead speak in his native tongue. That would have been a good set-up for him to start speaking English. “Oh you thought I was going to start speaking Tamil? I was born in Toronto you fucking racists!” Sadly instead we get good ol’ Foreignease to get the crowd booing because U-S-A U-S-A. Kwik’s entrance is at least getting fans dancing in the seats which was not occurring a few weeks earlier.

D’Lo wrestles with the headwrap on. That’s the traditional neon green headwrap you see people wearing all the time. Kwik lands a lovely spinning headscissors as the crowd are loud because there’s a definable heel and face, even if D’Lo looks silly and isn’t doing any of his cool moves. Crowd chants “Slushie” at Singh, with Hayes having to explain why that’s funny & racist to Coachman. “And you went to fucking college? Jeez.” Hayes didn’t need to go to college for racism, he’s got that natural talent. Kwik comes back with a Downward Spiral and a Frankensteiner. A second attempt gets converted into a Powerbomb which allows D’Lo to miss a swanton off the top, with Kwik capitalizing with a front suplex into a facebuster to end it. Kwik showed promise but this was the wrong time for him. D’Lo was stuck in a horrible gimmick with cheap-arse gear.

The canvas and ropes get changed to Smackdown but nothing gets shown on the Titantron to entertain the fans in the meantime which doesn’t usually happen. Lawler and Cole make their entrances, Fink shills the new Kane mask.

SmackDown!

Cold open sees Stephanie McMahon-Helmsey invite J.R. into a room. We’ve all seen videos that start like this. Steph says she wants J.R. to echo her voice because she knows he’s got a big mouth to deliver her message. She runs down the card that is designed around pleasing her and no-one else. That doesn’t sound like a McMahon thing to do. Jericho’s name-calling ways will be put to the test against Edge & Christian, Angle will defend his WWF Title against Buh Buh Ray Dudley, oh and The Rock & The Undertaker can batter Rikishi.

WWF Tag Team Champions Edge & Christian vs. Chris Jericho

Lawler laughs maniacally at Jericho’s predicament. “He opens his mouth and inserts his foot!” Ah he’s been listening to his podcast. Jericho promises his new year resolution is not to call Steph names ever again. But it’s not new years yet and he’s already screwed in this handicap match so he might as well get his money worth so he reminds us Steph is the the most filthy, dirty, disgusting, brutal, bottom feeding HO HO HO. Crowd cheers as the camera shows lots of kids chanting along because the PTC were right.

E & C charge the ring as they’re mates with Angle and he’s mates with Steph so they’re vicariously doing the Ho’s dirty work. Match is still under tag rules so Jericho is able to dodge a Poetry In Motion to DDT both brother-friends. Edge eats a Lionsault but Christian breaks it up. Christian gets bounced off the apron so Jericho can lock The Walls on Edge, so Steph runs down to distract Jericho which allows Christian to land The Unprettier to win at 2:37.

The tag champs needed help to beat someone in a handicap match?? Christian delivers another Unprettier as Steph gets some slaps in. Jericho was very over here but there was too much Steph for my liking.

After the break, Steph thanks the tag champs and says she hurt her hand doing that but it was worth it. Three Steph segments back to back? YOU’RE WATCHING STEPHDOWN.

WWF IC Title

Chris Benoit (c) vs. Matt Hardy

On Raw The Radicalz took on The Hardy Boyz which ended with Lita wandering into the ring which saw her take the Crossface from Benoit. I mean, if you enter the ring in a match you’re not booked for then you deserve everything you get. Later on in the show, Matt brawled with Benoit after he decided to mock Lita’s injury so we have this.

Even though this is for the title it’s all about revenge as Matt charges and immediately has to avoid a sneaky quick elbow from Benoit. Matt looks like a proper singles wrestler with the (m)attitude and urgency he’s showing here, complete with a crossbody off the top to the outside and continued pin attempts back inside. Matt stays on the attack with chops until he pauses to yell, with Benoit dumping him on the ropes while he has the opening. As Benoit chops Matt around, Cole lets us know HHH is still in traction because of the Armageddon Hell In A Cell match. Lawler says the only good thing about that injury is Mick Foley getting fired over it. Lawler is so engrossed with this match he busts out some “unwrapping” jokes regarding The Kat’s panties. Benoit looks to finish with Air Canada but Matt moves. A swinging jumping DDT sets up Matt’s AAAAHHHHH leg drop which only gets two due to a rope break. Matt doesn’t learn from earlier and again has to yell as he sets up the Twist Of Fate so Benoit is able to twist it unto the Crippler Crossface in a beautiful moment. Matt surprisingly makes the ropes quickly so the ref has to threaten to DQ Benoit for not releasing. An angry Benoit unwraps the top turnbuckle pad, but ends up getting sent into the ring post for another close schoolboy roll up. Matt fights out of another Crossface attempt to attempt a Tornado DDT which is again beautifully countered into the Crossface with Matt unable to escape and taps out at 6:14.

Wow Benoit decided to do everything he could to give Matt some credibility here, and the result was maybe his best singles match in the company up to that point. Benoit gave plenty but also let us all know he was still way above Matt with those wonderful Crossface counters. Good stuff!

Undi arrives at the arena looking like your Dad attending Ozzfest wondering when Canned Heat are performing. Coach tells him he’s in a handicap match tonight so Undi spits tobacco and says “payback’s going to be a bitch.” Wow he’s so cool.

To keep things up-beat, we get clips of Chyna in a neckbrace crying because she can’t wrestle anymore and she hates Right To Censor for taking that from her. The commentators treat it like it’s super serious but her crying voice makes her sound like Stan Laurel.

Cole lets us know we’ve been sent a VHS that we shouldn’t watch. The Roast Of Wrestlemania? No, it’s Ivory impersonating Chyna and mocking the segment we just saw. Venis as J.R. tells her she deserves her injury for appearing in Playboy, posing nude and appearing on Third Rock From The Sun. I like how that third thing was included as a sin. Ivory realises she can make a change and be a better person now, no more nudity again. And then the segment ends prematurely as I don’t think they were building to a punchline here as everything RTC does exists so the commentators can call them evil, mind-bending hypocrites over and over again. So….that was the bit? Crowd didn’t give a shit and this was some very weak writing, let’s move on.

Kurt Angle is backstage re-watching his brother Eric take a Powerbomb from The Dudleyz on Raw. “He didn’t deserve that, he just wanted Christmas!” Kurt is adamant about giving Buh Buh a title shot just so he can get his hands on him. Kurt was typically great here.

Cole and Lawler hype up the new show UPN is going to cancel as soon as they can: Gary & Mike! Apparently they called in to the show last week. Well I mean if Cornfed from Duckman can ring into the show then I guess claymation characters are fair game.

Anyway Chyna is guest-starring in an episode so she joins the illustrious UPN cameo ranks of Austin in Dilbert, Big Show in Shasta McNasty, and The Rock in Voyager.

WWF World Heavyweight Title

Kurt Angle (c) vs. Bubba Ray Dudley

“You may have rose to prominence putting people through tables but I rose by winning Gold medals and World Titles! I hope you’re satisfied, mister!!” Kurt’s amazing ability to be both a nerd and a bad-ass may never be replicated. Bubba knocks him off the apron before he can even enter the ring so Kurt lands backwards onto the floor to present Bubba as a threat. What a star. They trade blows with Kurt realising he needs to suplex Bubba as he can’t win a strike battle. And that’s the simple story of the match, with Angle sticking to moves and Bubba landing hard chops on Kurt’s bare chest. Steph is shown watching (take a shot) as Kurt misses a moonsault. As he tries to recover from that, Bubba gets a close two count from a friggin clothesline. An even closer kick out comes from a sidewalk slam as the fans are biting on these. In a World Title match against a tag guy. Angle overheads Bubba so he can go grab his shiny belt, which is kicked away with ease so Bubba can land a DDT. Bubba manages to put a hand over Kurt and I believe this is the Smackdown debut of the Kurt Angle Kick Out as Kurt lifts his shoulders up *just* as the ref counts three and the crowd’s reaction is one of shock and annoyance as they stand up to tell the ref that was three, dammit. Bubba gets that funny look in his eyes and instinctively tries swinging the belt at him but Kurt hits him low and rolls him up to retain at 4:37.

Bubba continues to beat down Kurt so E & C run down. D-Von cleans house and then they land the WASSSSUPPP on Kurt before setting up the table. Sadly for them, E & C recover enough to distract the Duds so Kurt can get his revenge on Bubba by landing the Olympic Slam through the table.

Really hot match considering Bubba had as much chance of winning the title as I did. The furious crowd reaction to The Kurt Angle Kick Out was a joy to behold and I remember watching this as a kid and rewinding that moment and yelling “BUBBA SHOULD BE CHAMP!” like I was Dixie Carter in 2013.

Meanwhile, The Rock arrives to the arena and also Steph is still here (take a shot).

Steph heads to the ring AGAIN (take a shot) oh come on now. Steph says she’s changed her mind (with Lawler stating “women are famous for that”) as she’s decided to share her new year’s resolutions with everyone after all. Steph reminds everyone of who her Dad and Husband are as this goes on and on and on as she’s the Queen of exposition. Thankfully Steve Austin’s Disturbed theme plays to interrupt this never ending story.

Oh in an exclusive bit that didn’t make air, Austin has to go through two or so microphones as none of them are working. Even when he launches them to the floor, which usually works when mine stop working.

more live feed highlights from the smackdown live satellite feed vs aired tv version 12/23/00

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— forever botchamania (@maffewgregg.bsky.social) 3 April 2025 at 00:11

Austin isn’t here to raise Hell, but he will until he gets his title shot against Kurt. Crowd chants “slut” which isn’t fair to Austin. Steph says Austin doesn’t deserve one. The crowd disagree but Steph says she doesn’t agree and she’s the boss so there. Austin understands but asks that he drown his sorrow with a few beers. Steph looks disgusted (yuck Bud Light) but Austin tells her just cos he hates his family doesn’t mean they can’t have a sociable drink, toasting Steph’s can and covering her in booze. Austin pours more on her and leaves. Wait I’m confused, Steph insulted the whole roster and then someone did something to her in retaliation? Pffft, that’s nuts. Anyway this a lot of filler.

Smackdown is presented by WWF Shopzone, Sony Playstation 2 and Chef Boyardee.

Meanwhile, Steph is soaked and mad. Take a shot or just lick her dress.

Right To Censor (Bull Buchanan, The Goodfather, & Ivory) vs. The Acolytes & Jackie

On Raw, Right To Censor triumphed over The Acolytes due to interference so we’re doing a six person match to reduce the odds of that happening. Makes sense.

Bradshaw vs. Bull in the battle of 1997 guys you didn’t think would be repackaged successfully start this off. Faarooq takes a beating but as soon as he comes back, Goodfather tags out to Ivory. It all breaks down as Jackie spears Ivory to start a brawl with all the lads on the outside. Ivory then grabs something resembling an O’Connor Roll with a handful of tights but with Jackie’s shoulders nowhere near the fucking mat as the ref rings the bell at 2:16. Oh that was horrific. Oh, so horrific in fact that they redo it seconds later as someone must have yelled “do it again, now!” with the ref making sure Jacky’s shoulders are down this time. Absolute shite.

Billy Gunn runs out to attack Steven Richards as Goodfather takes a Bradshaw lariat to end a bunch of kicking and punching and nothing.

WWF Home Video presents Kurt Angle: It’s True, It’s True! Here’s a 411 review cos I don’t think it’s been reviewed on here.

T & A bicker backstage with Test taking issues with Albert kissing up to Steph on Raw. Why wouldn’t Test like Steph? Anyway Test insinuates Trish isn’t here because she’s shagging Vince. Stay classy.

Lugz Christmas Shoes presents Steve Blackman retaining his Hardcore Title on Raw against Hardcore Holly by way of German Suplex on a car bonnet. That was cool but I wonder if he was supposed to do it on the boot to co-promote Lugz. That pun isn’t going to work in USA but whatever, I liked it. Anyway Raven attacked Blackman afterwards to win the belt to start his first reign of many.

WWF Hardcore Title

Raven (c) vs. Jeff Hardy

Mild take: Raven’s WWF theme sucked. Raven tells us that The Raven Effect was the thing that took out Holly and Blackman. Raven says 2001 will be known as The Year of The Raven before Jeff’s music thankfully interrupts because the man was dying out there.

Raven tries to Pearl Harbour with a bin but Jeff dropkicks it into his face. Jeff bulldogs Raven into a stood-up bin (called “a DDT” by Cole) before Jeff The Plumber shoves a mop in Raven’s face and starts telling him about his deepest fears. A legdrop mop drop off the top misses so we get Raven’s Moves Of Doom: Russian Leg Sweep into the guard rail, drop toe hold onto a weapon. Jeff crotches with the mop so he can dump a ladder on his opponent to leg drop off the second rope. Nice splat there but it only gets two. Jeff goes all the way up top which Raven avoids by simply heading outside…and walking near Jeff who bounces off the ropes to land a crossbody. Jeff heads up top of the ladder again but jumps directly into a fire extinguisher for the DDT finish at 4:41. Jeff was busting his arse out there for a random Smackdown match even if Raven and the nature of the WWF hardcore division meant this wasn’t much as a match.

Kevin Kelly is the lucky one to tell Rikishi he’s stuck in a handicap match tonight. Rikishi says he should have died at Armageddon but he didn’t, and he doesn’t need to be made famous by Undi cos he’s already famous for nearly killing Austin. Rikishi was pretty decent as a heel on the mic but it was never going to work with him still wearing a thong.

On Raw, Too Cool defeated T & A after Steph (take a shit) grabbed Test’s foot. Afterwards, Albert said “Thanks Steph, let me know if we can help in any way!” so Test had a point earlier. So it’s rematch time.

T & A (Test & Albert) vs. Too Cool (Grand Master Sexay & Scotty Too Hotty)

T & A batter Too Cool until Albert immediately falls out the fucking ring ahahahaha.

Test gets crotches around the ring post until Test decides to stop selling for the smaller wrestlers because that’s what he’d do. Commentators talk about anything else other than this. Hotty gets manhandled until he hot tags to Sexay who manages to back suplex Test onto his mop. Albert takes the W-O-R-M which leaves him open for the Hip Hop Drop. Test follows with his Big Arse Elbow however, meaning Albert gets the pin at 4:44. Crowd didn’t care about T & A but they love Too Cool so that was nice.

Test checks on Albert who is out of it after that devastating W-O-R-M. Albert responds to that moment of kindess by blasting Test with a Pump Kick to officially end T & A. We see Steph (take a shot) watching this backstage as the crowd is stunned into silence. Why would you care about a heel turning on another heel?

XFL’s new analyst is Jesse Ventura, who says the NFL sucks because you can’t afford to go to the shows so you should take your Dad to the XFL instead. I can’t relate to this idea of sports tickets being too expensive, please explain.

Royal Rumble recall: Vince wins it in 1999. Thanks for that reminder.

Kelly interviews The Rock backstage who immediately silences him so we can all listen to the crowd lose their mind over The Great One’s very presence. Of course he starts by mentioning Steph (glug glug glug) before vowing to become champion in 2001 so he can raise enough money for Kelly’s sex change. Hey come on now Rock, there’s only one person in this segment that’s had to have tit surgery and ain’t Kelly. Rock lets us know he used to live in Nashville but he’s not here to sharpen pencils although he will take Rikishi to school IF YOU SMELALALALALALALALA a 6/10 Rock promo.

The Rock & The Undertaker vs. Rikishi

We get clips of Rikishi attacking both The Rock and Undi on Raw to set up this weird main event “in the interest of fairness.” They’ve finally realised Undi’s theme should cut right into the Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ chorus rather than the start of the song. Oh wait here’s Rikishi accompanied by Steph (drink the whole fuckin bottle) lets us know that out of spite for the fans who enjoyed the Austin segment from earlier she’s adjusting this handicap main event.

The Rock & The Undertaker vs. Rikishi, William Regal & Kane

Ahhh they got me. In fairness, I was drunk.

Undi sells for the European champion. Lol of course he doesn’t, I’m just making sure you’re still paying attention. Undi tags in Kane who no-sells everything so Rock tags in to uhhh also get beat up. Rock only sold in big matches like this when teaming with Undi because someone had to sell. Rock’s flying clothesline stuns Kane long enough for Undi to tag in to yell “Old School!” before immediately eating a big boot from his brother. Rikishi tags in while the commentators talk about Rikishi’s “bruised spleen.” Oh man, I love Born To Run.

Anyway, Rock saves Undi for a beating by delivering a spinebuster to Regal which causes the match to break down. Rikishi sods off when he sees the match not going his way so Rock knocks him down on the ramp and punches him in the dick. Rikishi spots Undi and yells “oh shit” very loudly before taking a chokeslam. Rikishi attempts to come back by swinging a chair but it strikes Regal who sadly doesn’t yell “Bloody hell” very loudly. I think we’re way over time because Rock suddenly DDTs Regal and pins him. From a DDT?

Kane is still mad so he continues to batter everyone so the bad guys all get their shots in. The show ends with Rock taking a massive chokeslam from Kane as Steph is again shown backstage watching the show (move into a keg and be done with it).

Bonus After Show Stuff

Undi and Rock make their comebacks by landing their finishers on the bad guys before Undi drives away on his push bike. Rock at least hears the crowd’s chants of “elbow” and decides to tease leaving before heading back in to deliver it before the satellite has enough and goes to bed.

Overall: A limp way to end the year 2000 with the whole show seemingly focused around Steph. The Benoit vs. Hardy match was nice, as was the crowd reaction for the Angle vs. Bubba match but even with the earth-shattering end of T & A this was a skippable show. Unless you love Steph and hangovers.

I’ve been Maffew