This was not that good. After all the promise of it being a potentially great card, the WWF bookers decided to botch the entire tournament and make the matches all short to give way to the big clusterf*ck main event. This won't be pretty.
This was one of two good matches in the tournament. Yes, read that again: TWO out of seven matches in the tournament were actually good. Since this will be brief and brutal, let's do a Nykk Fast Forward to the end, where Angle goes up top, and Jericho dropkicked him in the stomach. Jericho executed a beautiful hurricanrana from the top rope. Kurt clotheslined Jericho as he was going for a bulldog. Angle went for the Olympic Slam, but Jericho wiggled out of it and put him in the Walls of Jericho. Stephanie McMannequin then made her way to ringside. Angle taps, but the ref is looking for the big distracting thing that Stephanie's pointing at. Jericho confronts the ref, but Angle attacks, knocking the zebra out cold. Stephanie entered the ring, swung her belt at Jericho but nailed Angle. Was it an accident!? Jericho grabbed Stephanie and following every other face wrestler when alone with a heel female valet in history, he smooched her in the middle of the ring. Angle gave Jericho the Olympic Slam and the ref woke up and counted to three.
Rating: **3/4
This wasn't part of the tournament, but was the best of the non-tourney matches. The Hardys and T & A started the match, as Albert and Test viciously pounded on Jeff for awhile before he made the tag to Matt. Test went for a pumphandle powerslam, but Matt dropped back and went for the Twist of Fate. Matt let go when he saw Trish Stratus on the apron. Lita soon took care of her. Matt executed the Twist of Fate on Test, but Albert broke it up. A brawl broke out, and Test powerslammed Matt for the cover. However, Jeff flew off the top with the Swanton Bomb and dropped Matt's arm over Test. Test was pinned, and T & A were eliminated. Edge & Christian and Too Cool finally got involved, each team working over the Hardys. After Lita came off the top with a hurricanrana on Edge, he tagged in Christian. Matt went for the Twist of Fate for about the MILLIONTH TIME, but it was broken up and Christian gave Matt the Moritano to pin him. Too Cool jumped in and wrestled Edge and Christian for awhile, and were able to execute the Hip Hop Drop. The ref tried to get Scotty out of the ring, and while he wasn't looking, Christian nailed Grand Master Sexay with a tag belt and put Edge on top of him for the three count.
Rating: **3/4
They really tried to put on a great match, but with the time-frame they were given, were only able to make it decent. When Trish Stratus got on the apron (which seems to be the popular thing at this PPV), Chyna pulled her off and gave a forearm to Val. Eddie rolled Val up, but only got a two count. Val came back with a fisherman's suplex on Eddie to win the match.
Rating: **1/2
This probably could have been really good, but again, they were given about two minutes to actually wrestle. Crash gave Angle a missle dropkick, but Angle rebounded with a hotshot, and the Olympic Slam for the win.
Rating: **1/4
I hate X-pac and Road Dogg, I really do. But I couldn't help but be more interested in this match than just about anything else on the PPV. The rules were the Dudleys would win by smashing all their opponents through tables, and DX would win by putting both Dudleys in the dumpster and shutting the lid. Road Dogg took a brutal bump when Buh-Buhlicious powerbombed him over the top rope and through two stacked tables. Tori got thrown to the outside, where the ref went to check on her. The Dudleys were placed in the dumpster and the lid was shut but no ref was around. The Dudleys climbed out the sides of the dumpster, and when the ref got back in the ring, he opened the lid to find no one inside. The Dudleys went to work on X-pac and Road Dogg with chairs. D-von superplexed X-pac off the top through a table. Tori tried to hide in the dumpster, and the Dudleys raised the lids to get her out. But X-pac and Road Dogg came from behind with chairs, knocking them in. They closed the lid and X-pac and Road Dogg refused to job AGAIN. They left, thinking Tori had crawled out the side and made her way to the back, but she was still in there. The Dudleys brought her out and DX threw their hands up in horror, being helpless to prevent anything from happening and all. Eventually, they remembered how to walk, but each were met with a 3D. Tori was then powerbombed through a table by Buh Buh.
Rating: **
This was a punch-fest all the way. Someone on tOA recently did a percentage of The Rock's arsenal, and 86% of it was punches! 86 freakin' %! The only person who looked good in this match was Shane, who transformed from Shane "Skippy" McMahon to Shane the Spot Machine of Death. HHH didn't get a chance to shine with The Rock in there, and a screw-up by a lazy Undertaker when HHH Pedigree'ed the Rock, who had to kick out, since UT was so slow breaking it up. Near the end of the match, The Rock/UT/Kane team started fighting over who would get the pin and the championship. Shane tried for something off the top, but UT grabbed him by the throat, winged him across the freakin' floor, and Oh my God! They killed the English announcing table! You bastards! Back in the ring, Rock Rock Bottomed Vince for the pin, and we have a new champion. Despite the awful match, the crowd was into it, and the spot by Shane earned a few extra points.
Rating: **
You'd think the wrestlers would learn by now NOT to fall in the exact position for a Stinkface. Rikishi went for it early, but Angle escaped. Angle hit the Olympic Slam out of nowhere but Rikishi kicked out. Rikishi then had flashbacks to thinner days and headed up top, but Angle stopped him. He hit a belly to belly suplex from the top for the three count.
Rating: *3/4
Another short match that could have been decent, but Benoit pulled off some of his miracle offense in just a few minutes. He actually gave Rikishi the German suplex, and worked on the shoulder. He applied the Crippler Crossface, but Rikishi reached the ropes. Benoit got a chair and hit Rikishi, drawing a DQ. He then pummeled Rikishi's shoulder some more with the chair and the Crossface.
Rating: *3/4
Boring anti-climactic match, where Val came off the top rope right into Rikishi's arms, who belly to belly suplexed him for the three count.
Rating: *1/4
Buchanon sucks. He really does. I still can't understand why Jim Ross and others are so high on him. After the possibility of a Benoit vs. Eddie semi-final was shot deader than a doornail (what the heck is a doornail anyway?) I was ready to give this PPV * if Buchanon won. Thankfully, he didn't. Crash upset Bull for the win and gave the PPV Squad an underdog to root for.
Rating: *1/4
Aren't comedy matches supposed to, you know, have COMEDY? This was just disturbing. Not as disturbing as Mae Young flashing the crowd, but almost. Thankfully, Crash Holly came to ringside, hit Patterson with a trashcan, and pinned him to become a 10x Hardcore champion.
Rating: *
Overall PPV Rating: **
Not really that good. Tournaments can worked if booked properly, but the WWF totally dropped the ball. The only people who ever had a chance of winning it were Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, and Chris Benoit. With Benoit eliminated, everyone knew that Angle vs. Jericho would decide the king. The second thing that pissed me off was no Benoit vs. Guererro. Welcome to King of the Ring, wrestling fans, and F*CK YOU! Too many non-tournament matches took up time, which forced some of the better matches of the tournament to be shortened. I never really expect a first round match to last long, because realistically, they only have fifteen minutes and have to get that decision. The semi-finals and the finals are supposed to be when the longer matches come out, as the wrestlers know they're close, so they start trying to outdo one another. They should have changed the brackets after the non-PPV matches. The brackets were like this:
Angle vs. Jericho
Crash vs. Buchanon
Rikishi vs. Benoit
Val vs. Eddie
I would have booked it like this:
Jericho vs. Buchanon
Angle vs. Crash
Fairly straightforward, with Jericho getting a clean win over Bull, and Angle going over Crash clean.
Rikishi vs. Benoit
Eddie vs. Val
Okay, Benoit goes to work on the shoulder (just as he did), but Rikishi is just too tough to go down. Enter Val Venis, who hits Rikishi with the steps in the shoulder while Trish distracts the ref. Benoit applies the Crippler Crossface, and Rikishi puts up a valiant effort to fight, but has to tap out. In Eddie vs. Val, things are going pretty much the way they did, but Rikishi comes down with his arm in a sling and gives him the avalanche in the corner while the ref separates Trish and Chyna. Eddie gets the pin.
Jericho vs. Angle
Benoit vs. Eddie
Jericho and Angle put on about ten minutes of wrestling before Stephanie McMahon comes down and the screwjob happens as originally planned. Benoit and Eddie go for about twenty minutes, leaving the announcers to wonder if a time limit draw will happen and Angle will be king. Minimal interference by Chyna, but when Benoit gets up in her face and shoves her down. Eddie gets into it with him, and Benoit eventually puts him in the Crossface for the tap out. However, Benoit won't let go after Eddie taps out. Officials try and pull him off but to no avail. They end up reversing the decision, and Eddie goes to the finals, with an injured shoulder.
Eddie vs. Angle
Angle focuses on the injured shoulder and Eddie attempts to fight back, but after about twelve to fifteen minutes, Eddie is finally caught in the Olympic Slam, and our King of the Ring is Kurt Angle!
Well, enough of my fantasy booking. See ya after Fully Loaded.