Live Feed Mania – WWF Smackdown 08/01/00
By Maffew Gregg on 4 June 2025
WWF @ Birmingham, AL – Jefferson County Civic Center – August 1, 2000 (sell out)
We’re on the road to Summerslam with another live satellite feed! And the quality is really bad!
Right To Censor head out, oh goodie. They insist they’re trying to help the people as the cameras show the people holding up SAVE THE HOS signs. It just goes to show that no matter how good WWE is, there’s always someone that sucks. There’ll always be a Brian Adams or Harris Twin or Luke Gallows or Austin Theory or Right To Censor, it’s just how it is.
T & A (Test & Albert) (w/ Trish Stratus) vs. Lo Down (D’Lo Brown & Chaz)
For those keeping track, Lo Down are at the showing-promise stage of wearing long tights and having no manager. Test starts off by D’Lo a big ol’ Uncle Slam. Albert misses a second rope leg drop, which allows Chaz to tag in and use Albert as a pommel horse to attack Test on the apron. Both lads remember they’re big and keep sending Chaz flying with power moves and big boots. Albert steps on Chaz’s body as he tags out Test. T & A looks halfway impressive when they’re bouncing smaller dudes around. Brown hot tags in bit Trish distracts so Test can lay him out allowing Albert to land the Baldo Bomb at 5:32. Not bad.
Kevin Kelly and Michael Cole head out for commentary but these non-Richard Land feeds don’t contain their audio. What’s the point in even living?
WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Dean Malenko vs. WWF Tag Team Champion Christian (w/ WWF Tag Team Champion Edge)
It’s not shown to the crowd, but Edge has been assisting Christian in trying to get rid of half an ounce so he can meet the Light Heavyweight weight limit. It worked out for Chris Eubank Jr. but Christian looks knackered already and asks for a time-out as soon as the bell rings. Malenko doesn’t care and armdrags him around. Dean keeps on making him run around to the point of collapse as the crowd doesn’t react to any of this as they haven’t seen the videos explaining it. They pop for Edge attacking Dean with a towel.
But then Deano catches Christian with a small package at 2:02. Oh. Edge chair shots Malenko afterwards as he assists his brother-friend to the back. Well this was quite the non-match without context.
Crash Holly vs. The Big Boss Man
Boss Man is heavily booed and they are boos of disappointment. Boss Man beats on Crash like it’s 1988 and he’s taking on Sam Houston. Crowd quickly die. Boss Man tries for the knockout after a Samoan Drop but Crash gets up at eight so Boss Man hits him with his stick for the DQ at 3:26. Fucking hell.
Lilian Garcia sings The Anthem while the ring skirt gets changed. Sadly it’s not the one by Good Charlotte.
Recap from Raw focuses on Triple H apologizing to his beloved wife Stephanie after she caught him practicing holds with Trish. Wow where did Vince get these ideas from? HHH insists there’s nothing between him and Trish and there never will be, here’s some roses. Steph forgives him and they kiss. Commissioner Foley appears while crying his eyes out like he’s had to pay for something to tell us he’s had it with them and books a husband and wife tag match for later.
Trish and Steph make up backstage and HHH is happy…until Steph insults Trish after she’s left because WOMEN, AM I RIGHT? Steph wants HHH to demonstrate those same holds he put on Trish but he accidentally calls her “Trish” which causes her to leave the arena. Foley is extra dick-ish so he books Trish as her replacement. The Rock and Lita finish them off with Lita’s scary moonsault ending it. After the match, The Rock twats HHH with a chair to he falls into a compromising position on top of Trish because HHH is booking. J.R. loudly exclaims that he hopes Steph isn’t watching right now and it would be funny if she’d missed it because she was watching Sting get attacked and shoved into the KISS coffin by The Demon.
Anyway this was all frigging fantastic. I’m glad I can still remember a time when HHH allowed himself to look vulnerable.
X-Pac (w/ the Road Dogg) vs. Scotty 2 Hotty (w/ Grandmaster Sexay)
This is straight out of 1993 WWF Superstars. Dogg is commentating but you can barely hear him over the “X-PAC SUCKS” chants. Solid goodness here with Hotty getting to bust out all his dancing based offence until X-Pac clotheslines it off. Crowd loves Hotty which enables him to no-sells shots to the turnbuckle because of all the spray in his hair. I think. Hotty dodges the Bronco Buster and nails the W-O-R-M with the camera shaking from the pop! And then of course X-Pac lands a low-blow and the X-factor to win seconds later at 4:12 because that was the formula for Hotty singles matches: Hit the W-O-R-M, instantly lose. Hot start to the show anyway.
Backstage, Steph arrives and tells HHH to giver her space. Kurt Angle shows up to say he’s there for Steph and he’s a good listener. Steph thanks him and goes for Trish. The pop as the crowd realizes Kurt is That Guy was wonderful, like everyone knew at the same time “oh this is where we’re going with this huh?”
Meanwhile, some Hos (including the future Victoria) get the crowd to chant “SAVE THE HOS, DOWN WITH CENSORSHIP” with the camera showing a lot of kids joining in to make the PTC’s point for them.
The CONSPIRACY group (who aren’t called that) of Shane McMahon, Chris Benoit and The Big Show head to the ring. What would Benoit know about conspiracies anyway? Shane puts over his crew before moving onto putting himself over which is always his M.O. Crowd chants for “Rocky” and Shane’s like “yeah we’ll get to him.” Show explains why he returned and attacked The Undertaker on Raw, it was because he was sick of recovering at home and hearing about how bad and big the new version of The Undi is. We get clips of Show turning on Undi as well as attacking him backstage immediately afterwards. “You’re the American Dumb Ass!”
Benoit says Chris Jericho mouthed off before realizing a chair to the head will shut anyone up. Hey a good Benoit line! Write that down. We get replays of Jericho listing who is a better technical wrestler than Benoit, and it was at “Lita’s better than him” that he got attacked so I’m with Benoit there. Shane then reminds us they’re friendly with Edge & Christian too. I guess he needs goofy friends now that Mean Street Posse have left. So we get clips of E & C smacking Jeff Hardy with chair shots at the same time. That needs a snazzy name. Shane announces it’ll be Benoit & Big vs. Kane & The Rock. AND THE POP FOR THE ROCK IS THE BIGGEST DAMN THING you ever heard, with Show putting his fingers in his ears to block it out. Shane ends this promo with a weak “yeah and we’re gonna end them both tonight” to leave flat. Meanwhile The Big Show pretends to be a gun.
It’s for the best this group didn’t last long as Shane made sure to give himself all the focus, but at least Show was very caffeinated.
Backstage, Steph shows up to T & A (and Venis’) locker room to yell at Trish. Steph did indeed see the end of Raw so she makes it clear that she’ll batter Trish if she comes in between them again. Test ends the segment by saying “Phew, thank God I didn’t marry that woman!” which doesn’t get a pop from the crowd but it should have.
We get an advert for Freedom, a thirteen episode sci-fi series that UPN would only air seven episodes of because UPN loved cancelling any show that wasn’t WWF or Voyager.
HHH & Steph bicker some more but Foley wants to see ’em both so they stop. OK.
Eddie Guerrero (w/ Chyna) & Rikishi vs. WWF IC Champion Val Venis (w/ Trish Stratus) & Tazz
We get a lovely replay of Rikishi’s incredible splash off the steel cage to Venis at Fully Loaded. Which he then lost due to Tazz interfering, hence this match. Both men have taped ribs because of course.
Michael Cole asks everyone to stick around after the show because on MTV, Mick Foley will be taking on Ernest Hemingway on Celebrity Death Match. Huh, never seen that one. I found a FaceBook video link for it if you’re interested.
Eddy and Venis go at it until Rikishi can’t wait anymore and attacks him at ringside with Chyna throwing a clothesline in so we can be reminded she has a Chaos Comic coming out soon. God those comics were crap. Rikishi tags in for real and annihilates both of them. Venis prevents the stinkface but then Rikishi clotheslines them both away so he can batter Tazz at ringside. Tazz saves Venis from a pin and then Rikishi squishes them both in the corner so Eddy can pin the IC Champion with a Frog Splash at 2:03.
This was as a definitive a victory as you’re ever going to see, presumably to make it up to Rikishi for not winning on the PPV. He was sensitive about those things.
(I went and checked and they removed even more from this match for the TV airing which is hilarious as it means the TV version had even less offence so it turns out you *can* divide by zero).
Also, this was Eddy’s first Frog Splash since returning from his elbow dislocation.
Backstage, Foley says Steph left her match on Raw so she’s fined for not showing up and will be stripped of her title if it happens again. That’s a valid point. King Kurt shows up and Foley knows they’re more than just good friends….they’re tag partners tonight against Lita and The Dudley Boyz in a No DQ main event! Foley was perfect for this role as he could be a dick to HHH and still be face because of all the shit HHH put him through months ago.
WWF Whack of The Night: The Hardys getting more CTE courtesy of E & C.
Backstage, Matt is concerned with Jeff’s concussion because he wants him to have a job after wrestling. Well that’s a bit sad in hindsight.
Matt Hardy vs. WWF Tag Team Champion Edge (w/ Christian)
Matt immediately attacks Edge because of what he did to Jeff. Otherwise he’d never have a reason to have issues with him. Matt sends Edge outside so he can dive onto both long haired Canadians. Christian repeatedly attacks Matt outside to allow Edge to land a sweet running Powerbomb for two. Matt keeps coming back despite Christian repeatedly sneak attacking him…oh then Matt slips off the top rope to the outside and then very quickly pretends he didn’t. Pretty sure they removed that.
(Yup.)
Matt Hardy slips on a superplex on Edge and lands outside, which is easily fixable for the pre-taped Smackdown (August 1st 2000)
— forever botchamania (@maffewgregg.bsky.social)2025-05-02T23:35:38.663Z
After Matt manages a move without messing up, Jeff shows up with a ladder to twat Christian. Jeff then climbs it but then wobbles off and bounces off the ropes because he’s dizzy from all the concussion juice he’s been drinking. Matt is concerned for his brother’s head but Edge doesn’t want Matt to feel left out and delivers a stiff chair shot for the DQ at 4:36.
I mean on one hand, it’s good to see them acknowledging CTE and concussions as being dangerous. But on the other, it was done in such a way to make Jeff look as stupid as possible so I don’t know if this achieved anything other than making future people like myself feel awkward and want to move on.
The Rock and his absurd amounts of heat are backstage to answer Kevin Kelly’s questions. He sure likes to ask them, especially online. Rock hasn’t forgot his wars with Benoit but he also knows anyone can beat Benoit. Jericho can beat Benoit, The cameraman can beat Benoit, hell even Kelly can beat Benoit. Rock then paints Kelly’s tooth black so he resembles Benoit. Rock’s going to beat Benoit and then make him stick his tongue through his tooth hole so he can lick a wolverine’s anus. Rock yells at Kelly so he runs off to yell at Chris Charlton lick anus.
Now he’s gone, Rock goes back to doing his Big Show slow-mo chokeslam impression that killed his push quicker than cheeseburger addiction. Rock had so much energy here it’s likely this promo would dissolve an Amish family if played near them.
RC Edge Maximum Power Cola presents Big Show putting Kane through a table last week. They sure gave that big fat guy a lot of TV time.
Chris Benoit & The Big Show (w/Shane McMahon) vs. WWF World Champion The Rock & Kane
Kane starts off prematurely so Rock can delay his entrance for a bigger pop. Rock’s pop is so intense I’m surprised Benoit didn’t bump for it. Benoit slugs away until he lands a neckbreaker with his little arms. Show attacks Rock so Kane tags in as there’s so much heat I’m surprised Kane isn’t having flashbacks. Benoit sneak attacks so Shane’s Stable can wear down Kane in the corner.
Rock gets the very hot tag, nails a dragon screw legwhip and locks in the sharpshooter on Benoit cos Rock’s MegaMan and absorbs his opponent’s move set. Rock tries the Rock Bottom but Show sticks his oars in so Kane clotheslines him out the ring. Crowd are yelling “boom” with every one of Kane’s shots. People’s Elbow is attempted but Shane lands his trademark flying chair shot to enable Benoit to land Air Canada to win at 7:11. Nothing much as a match but as a spectacle it was lovely, even if the focus was on Shane and not the Superstars.
Shane tries the same on Kane but he’s not taking that shit and chases him up the ramp. Show follows but thanks to Shane’s interference (urgh), Show is able to press X and rip the grill off the floor before chokeslamming Kane into the void below.
That’s a hell of a moment and a great way to wipe someone out for a while but uhhh Kane would be back after a week. I assume Big Show was supposed to wrestle Undi’ at Summerslam but WWF realised Show was too fat so they sent him to OVW and so Kane had to awkwardly turn heel to fill the gap.
Right To Censor go see the APA but only after making sure they’ve left their office. And they still go through the door! RTC empty all the beer and cigars into a cardboard box marked with a red censor. And they still make sure to leave via the door too. The door bit aside, this didn’t work as it looked like RTC were cleaning up the mess and disposing of their empties. Thanks?
WWF Hardcore Title
Steve Blackman (c) vs. WWF European Champion Perry Saturn (w/ Terri)
Perry halts a Blackman dive off the apron with a superkick, with Terri assisting with a fire extinguisher. She blows it in his face, she doesn’t batter him with it like in Irreversible. Blackman kicks the bin but Perry crossbodies for 2. Crowd quietens as despite the nice moves and bin shots, there’s no flow. That was a big problem for a lot of Perry’s WWF matches. Blackman goes after Terri so Perry dives off the top rope to the outside before landing a Jackhammer style move on the ramp…for two. Then Al Snow smacks Saturn with Head to help Blackman win at 1:40.
Oh my god, are the WWF ready to acknowledge Head Cheese??? Uh no, I don’t think this went anywhere. Like the match we just saw.
The APA find their stash gone. “We’ll kick their asses and we’ll find our beer!” This how Donkey Kong Country started.
Stacker 2’s Burn Of The Week: HHH forgetting his wife’s name on Raw.
Backstage, Steph refuses to change into her wrestling gear in front of HHH so she asks him to leave. “Are you ribbing me?” he says.
Right To Censor (The Goodfather & Bull Buchanan (w/ Steven Richards) vs. The Acolytes (Faarooq & Bradshaw)
RTC try talking to the crowd (twice in one night?) but the APA bumrush ’em. Bradshaw clobbers his foes while the crowd chant for The Hos. Steven distracts the ref so Goodfather smashes a 2×4 over Faarooq to set up Bull’s scissors kick at 1:23. Uh-huh.
Backstage, Dogg is talking to Mideon.
Mideon: So I says to Mabel…
Dogg: No his name is Viscera now.
HHH comes in and bitches about having to change with the plebs. Mideon asks a disgusted HHH if he can borrow his toothbrush. Mideon’s best work was when he was doing nothing.
XFL Update: Birmingham gets a XFL franchise. Franchise? CUT THE FUCKING MUSIC. Anyway Vince says players will be paid a basic salary but will get more if they win and states “That’s The American Way.” Thanks son of one of the most successful promoters in wrestling.
The Road Dogg (w/ X-Pac) vs. Grandmaster Sexay (w/ Scotty 2 Hotty)
Sexay batters Dogg around for a good minute until he gets sent flying over the ring steps. Dogg jumps into a Flying Nothing so X-Pac decides to assist but Dogg accidentally knocks him off the apron. Sexay lands the Hip Hop Drop but as the ref is dealing with an interfering Scotty 2 Hotty, X-Pac’s kick is enough to pin Sexay at 1:58. I’m sensing a formula to Too Cool’s singles matches.
Rikishi makes the save with Dogg and X-Pac ending up in his arse like it’s Kirby’s mouth. DX will do anything other than lose on TV. This surprisingly didn’t build to a Too Cool vs. DX match at Summerslam.
Backstage, Shane shows up to put himself over and tells HHH & Kurt to form a truce so his sister doesn’t get hurt. They do so because Shane is a bad ass.
Summerslam 2000 commercial. Come for the titties, stay for the fat blokes.
“Attention Politicians!” Oh no. A pathetic advert says 14 million eligible voters watch WWF so will they elect you? Rock The Vote! You can smell the desperation through the screen.
Kurt tries to reason with HHH as only Kurt can (“IQ is better than DQ”) but HHH rejects his help so a hurt Kurt tells him he’s not showing much team spirit. How did WWF survive as long as they did without Kurt?
No DQ Match
Triple H, Kurt Angle, & WWF Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon vs. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von) & Lita
Lita is crazy over. HHH starts with Bubba, who does a good job hanging with the Cerebral Assassin. HHH roughly tags in Kurt who takes exception and is taken apart by D-Von as a result. HHH tags in and takes shots from everyone, including Lita! What happened to this version of HHH post-2001? Kurt stomps Bubba but then tags in Steph like a gentleman. HHH disagrees and tags her out and gets backdropped by Bubba as a result. Kurt works over Bubba as the crowd demand tables. Hot tag to D-Von who cleans house (no, really) and lands his reverse DDT on HHH. WAAAASSUP headbutt connects on HHH and Kurt as Steph protests but it’s no DQ babyyy.
Oh that means it’s table time as the crowd go nuts, especially when Bubba makes his O-Face regarding Steph. HHH prevents more male-on-female violence as the crowd boos and the PTC make more notes. Lita tags in and throws Steph around with her safest offence. HHH moves Steph out of the way of a moonsault and then Pedigreees Lita so he can drape Steph on top of her. However, the ref is busy outside and doesn’t notice it. D-Von drags HHH outside, leaving creepy Bubba alone with Steph, but Kurt saves her from some tabling. Kurt gives Lita the Angle Slam and Steph pins Lita at 9:15 with Kurt and Steph celebrating in the ring as a furious HHH fumes from the ramp.
Big stupid dumb ass fun that I couldn’t get enough of as a kid. Even with the table not breaking.
Post Show Live Feed Stuff
Kurt continues to pose and celebrate with a very happy Steph, leading to HHH coming down to the ring. The Duds attack Kurt for the hell of it and give him a 3D…and then HHH one too. Why not? Chekov’s table finally gets broken via powerbomb to Kurt and the crowd cheers…but not half as loud as they do for when Bubba spots Steph and demands another table. Doesn’t matter, as both HHH and Steph get the fuck outta there so Bubba glares at her like a NXT UK wrestler walking past a school.
Kurt’s music plays as he hobbles out while Chimel reminds the fans to buy merch on the way out. OK but only because you said please.
We get some wildlines of The Rock adding “and The Rock, the WWF Champion” as I guess he forgot to state that in his interview earlier.
Oh and then for some fuckin reason:
Tazz vs. Eddie Guerrero
No I don’t know why this is at the end of the feed but the crowd are hot for Tazz. Eddie slams him immediately and then lands the over-the-ropes swanton because he knows this isn’t going long cos it’s for Heat. Tazz chokes Eddie a bit. Eddy lands a flying elbow. Well I say flying, more like hover because of Tazz’s low centre of gravity. Trish runs out (what?) to distract Eddie who uhhh ignores her as I can only assume something got messed up there as Venis lands a Stungun behind the ref’s back and then Tazz locks in the Tazzmision at 2:51. The hell was that finish? Was this at the end of the feed because the editors had no idea what to do with it and hoped it would be forgotten about?
Oh and then the version I have cuts to The Iron Sheik vs. Bob Backlund, complete with Vince McMahon calling Sheik “an Olympic medalist.” THAT’S NOT TRUE VINCE, STOP ENABLING HIM.
Overall: The bad stuff was good and the good stuff was great. Shame The Big Show had to ruin a small portion of it by not knowing what small portions are but thems the breaks.
I’ve been Maffew