This has to be one of the WWF's best outings in recent months. Surprising, considering that on paper, tha card didn't look all that spectacular. The theme for the night seems to be, "It's pesonal!"
wwf.com- It's like staring at a fat guy's butt crack.
I'll give some credit to Chyna. That's two months in a row she's mananged to get up to the top of this review. Same goes for Jericho, though I knew it was a matter of time for him anyway. If nothing else, this match had great psychology, with the crowd divided over the two, the women cheering for Chyna, the guys for Jericho. Chyna took the early advantage and then it spilled outside, where Jericho rammed her into the steps. They went back inside, where Jericho attempted a move off the top rope, but Chyna caught him with a low blow. She hit a DDT for a two count. Jericho tied up Chyna in the ropes, where he dropkicked her injured thumb. Yes, JR's right, that is the first time I've ever seen a dropkick to the thumb. Jericho took the advantage, and also took off the turnbuckle padding. Before he could use it to his advantage, Chyna hit a high cross body for two. Jericho tried a springboard Asai moonsault, but Chyna brought her knees up. She slingshotted Jericho into the exposed turnbuckle and hit a clothesline for two. She tried to roll up Jericho, but he countered into the Walls of Jericho. Chyna fought it to the ropes, but Jericho pulled her back to the center of the ring. Finally, she tapped out.
Rating: ***
So I'm a mark for battle royals, so what? Rodney was the first one gone, but he was replaced by Joey Abs. When Pete Gas was thrown out, Rodney returned. Finally, both members were thrown out at once and were gone permanently. Mosh was the next one eliminated, and then the Acolytes eliminated Mark Henry. Too Cool were the next team gone. D-von Dudley eliminated Edge, leaving The Dudleys, Acolytes, and Hardys. The Hardys eliminated the Dudleys after they hit 3D on Faarooq, Faarooq, Faarooq is on Fire. Matt hit a hurricanrana on Faarooq, and they went out at the same time. Though Faarooq obviously hit first, the ref was busy elsewhere and didn't see it, so he ordered them back in. Faarooq was thrown over again, but the ref didn't see it this time either. Matt tried for a Tornado DDT on Faarooq, but he muscled him ino the ropes. Bradshaw came over to help his partner. Jeff launched himself at Bradshaw, who saw him coming and heaved him over the top rope and into the guardrail. The ref saw it and declared the Acolytes the winners.
Rating: **3/4
This would have been better if not for all the screw ups by D'lo. Venis and the Bulldog took the early offense, double teaming D'lo. D'lo fought back and hit a tope outside the ring. Back in the ring, Val slammed the other two's heads together and suplexed the Bulldog. When Val tried to superplex D'lo, he countered into a sunset flip powerbomb. The Bulldog came back with his Running (Take Two Steps) Powerslam on Val, but D'lo draped Val's leg across the bottom rope. D'lo screwed up a Sky High on the Bulldog and then hit the 'Lo Down. Before the ref could make the count, Val hit the Money Shot on D'lo and covered the Bulldog for the win.
Rating: **1/4
A decent match despite the fact that Blackman can't seem to find his charisma and Angle is relatively new and doesn't have a whole lot of heat yet. Blackman started with martial arts chops and kicks, and hit a missle dropkick. Angle came back with a moonsault attempt, which missed. Blackman applied a bow and arrow. When he got up, Angle hit a DDT for a two count. After a few minutes of Angle offense, Blackman hit a drop toe hold and a snap suplex. Blackman took too much time getting to the tope rope, and Angle caught him. He hit a double underhook suplex and a German suplex and bridged, pinning Blackman.
Rating: **
Kane turned this into a cage match, but X-pac made some stipulations: Kane could only win by pinfall, and X-pac could win by pinfall or go over the top of the cage. X-pac went after Tori before he got into the ring and Kane got out to chase X-pac, who hit him with the bell. They got into the ring and Kane hit a gorilla press slam. X-pac caught him with a spinning heel kick. After Kane hit a tilt-o-whirl backbreaker, the Outlaws came down to unlock the door. They slammed it onto Kane's head, knocking him out. They tossed a chair in, and X-pac delivered the X-Factor on the chair. He then handcuffed Kane to the ring and kaboshed him with the chair repeatedly. Tori got involved and X-pac gave her the X-Factor. Kane broke the cuffs and tore into X-pac. He climbed to the top of the cage and executed the Holy Crap! move of the night, which was his flying clothesline from the top of the cage. He then tombstoned X-pac and got the win.
Rating: **
This was one big personal brawl, but it was a lot better than some of the other stuff on the personal card. Shortly into the match, Mankind walked out with a shopping cart full of things for Vince to use. After hitting each other with garbage cans, a turnbuckle wrench, a 2x4, and personal brooms, they fought to the set, which was laden with an airplane, mounted gun, and army jeep. Say, this resembles a New Jack match. They rammed each other into those personal things for awhile and then went outside, where the most notable part was Triple H trying personally to run over Vince. They went back into the arena where Vince started to climb one of the towers. HHH went up after him and personally sent him thirty feet to the floor. Hey, this is a New Jack match! All we need is Natural Born Killaz playing. HHH hit Vince with a personal gas can, which busted him open. Oh my God! He just stapled Vince McMahon IN THE EYE!!! Okay, I made that last part up. Back in the ring, HHH hit Vince with a pipe, but decided he wanted to end the match with the sledgehammer. Vince got in a low blow and hit HHH with the pipe. Vince backed him into the corner where he wanted to hit him with the sledgehammer, but Stephanie personally stopped him, saying that she wanted to do it. She couldn't bring herself to do it, however. HHH took the hammer, hit Vince in the stomach and hit him again. He personally got the three count. Stephanie went to check on her dad, but Triple H looked like he was about to use the hammer on her. Instead, Stephanie turned around, smiled, and hugged HHH. Well, there's something I didn't personally expect.
Rating: *3/4
More of the same stuff from everyone, except with Mankind and The Rock playing faces. Al Snow came in to interfere, but The Rock beat him down the aisle. The Rock hit a Rock Bottom on Billy Gunn, but Al Snow broke up the count, DQing the Outlaws.
Rating: *1/2
Rikishi must have a big head because all the other's heads shrink in comparison! What do you call Mabel drooling? Mabel Syrup! (Credit Cheesecake for the Mabel Syrup reference) This actually wasn't all that bad, but didn't have any sort of storyline leading into it and was short. Mabel stayed out of the match for most of it, which was a big part of why I liked it. When Mabel did get in, he was dropkicked by Hardcore. Crash tried a sunset flip, and Mabel sat on him. Rikishi then hit the sitout piledriver. Boy, that really made a difference! Mabel accidentally laid out Rikishi and Hardcore pinned him for the win. But who cares? That Rikishi is the Sultan of the sitout piledriver!
Rating: *1/2
Awful, but at least it was short. Punches, kicks, AAAggghhh! Chokeslam on Prince Albert and Oh My God! You killed the Spanish Announcing Table! You bastards! AAAAgggghhhh! Chokeslam on Bossman. Pin.
Rating: *1/4
This was held in a pool for some reason, and Moolah and Mae Young were the refs for some reason. What's there to describe? Miss Kitty won after a few minutes and stripped down anyway. Then she took off her bra and flashed the camera! THIS IS THE GREATEST PPV IN THE HISTORY OF OUR SPORT! Sorry. The Chin came out to cover her up, and a drunken Mae Young decided to follow Kitty's lead. In the words of Joey Styles, "Go wide! Go wide! Go wide!"
Rating: *
Random Sound of the Night: this is an award that goes to the most inexplicable sound of the night, which the PPV Squad has been keeping track of for about a year. Past awards include a clearly heard "Oh, no!" an announcer saying "Wow." during the pyro, a drunken "ECW" chant, a hyper "RVD!" chant, and Billy Gunn saying "Son of a bit!" while selling a move. Tonight's goes to a fan during the Vince/HHH personal match, where he jumped in front of the camera and yelled "What's up!!?" before disappearing again.
Overall PPV Rating: ***