Good, good match. Angle wrestled what was probably one of his best since coming to the WWF. For a large part of the match, Angle worked on HHH's ribs, and toward the end of the match, we saw him develop a mean streak as he belly to bellied Hunter from the English announcing table to Oh my God! They killed the Spanish announcing table! Tu bastardos! Angle hit a nice belly to belly from the top rope also, and utilized an abdominal stretch. Angle went for a moonsault but HHH moved. Kudos to Jim Ross for pointing out that the last time Angle used it, he broke Bob "I'm Hardcore, and if you don't believe me, I'll smack ya" Holly's arm. HHH hit an inverted Pedigree and called Stephanie McMannequin-Cube into the ring, telling her to choose eithe him or Angle. Steph low blowed Angle, and HHH hit the Pedigree for the win.
Rating: ***1/4
This one met expectations but didn't really exceed them. It was still a really good match. As Matt tried to escape, Edge and Christian gave him a double superplex from the top of the cage. Jeff looked to do the Swanton Bomb from the top, but Christian shook the cage, causing Jeff to fall to the outside, making it two on one against Matt Hardy. Every time Jeff tried to get back in, Edge or Christian would knock him off. He finally punked out a ref and got the key to the door. He ran in with a chair, but Christian got it and slammed the door on Jeff's head. He retrieved another chair from ringside and got back in the ring, locking the door behind him. Matt tried to escape, but Christian intercepted him. Jeff pulled a ladder out from under the ring, clobbering Christian with it, sending him to the floor. Matt was brought back in, and Jeff climbed the ladder to the top of the cage. He hit a corkscrew moonsault from the top, taking out both Edge and Matt. Lita stopped Christian from climbing back in by hitting a low blow, then scaling the cage and giving him a hurricanrana to the floor. In the ring, Matt and Jeff climbed after Edge to the top of the cage with the chairs. They hit the Con"chair"to on Edge, causing him to fall all the way back to the mat. They climbed out and won the tag team titles. This had some good psychology for a spotfest, with the heels' main objective being to focus on one Hardy and keep the other out of the match. Then at the end, the faces got revenge for months of chairshots by defeating the heels with their own move.
Rating: ***1/4
This really wasn't that bad, although I definitely would have preferred a Rock/Benoit singles match, and left UT and Kane out to suck on their own. When UT brought a chair in, Benoit grabbed it and hit him with it from the top rope and made the cover, winning the title. However, Commissioner Mick Foley came out to reveal that Benoit did NOT have a Bingo, since UT's foot was on the rope during the three count. With the match restarting, everybody targeted Benoit. UT and Kane broke off to brawl, while Benoit wore Rock down and slapped on the Crossface. UT broke it up and chokeslammed Benoit. Kane and UT sucked some more, and then Rock hit the Rock Bottom out of nowhere to win the match.
Rating: **3/4
This was good, but I didn't think it was as good as everyone made it out to be. Since X-pac blows, Jericho had to carry the match, which he doesn't have the talent to do. Why the hell is Jericho feuding with a midcarder anyway? He was wrestling the company's top heel just two months ago! X-pac brought the nunchukus in eventually, but never got to use them. He hit the X-Factor, but Jericho kicked out! Jericho locks in the Walls of Jericho, but X-pac reached the ropes. He tried for a Lionsault, but X-pac's knees came up. Jericho slapped the Walls back on, and X-pac tapped out, JOBBING CLEAN! I'll let you read that again, while Satan goes to buy a winter coat................. okay. They used the "X-pac never jobs" spot well in this match, and I'm sure everyone thought it was over when he hit that X-Factor. X-pac then manages to cancel out my praise by getting in the last word, hitting Jericho with nunchukus after the match, leaving him laying.
Rating: **3/4
When Rikishi came back a year ago, his moves looked crisp, and he actually moved when he was in the ring, somehow managing to almost break the fat guy look. Then he just got lazier... and lazier... At least they finally have Eddie back to wrestling as the heel, which is what he does best. Eddie was the only thing that made this watchable. He pulled out the Frog Splash, which we haven't seen from him in awhile, but missed. Rikishi hit a Samoan Drop, but Chyna broke up the count. Rikishi gave her a superkick, and the ref DQed him. Huh? Shouldn't Eddie be the one disqualified for Chyna interfering in the ref's count? How do you justify DQing a wrestler for hitting his opponent's VALET? A far cry from when all Eddie had to do was stand around and get heel heat... get Chyna away from him as soon as possible.
Rating: **
This wasn't good by any means, but was good for an opener, because it got the crowd really pumped. Not really very long, and Richards eventually hit the Steven Kick on Buh Buh for the win. Afterward, the faces cleaned house and powerbombed Steven through a table.
Rating: *3/4
Another short one, mostly consisting of the participants whipping each other. My biggest problem was Tazz's continuous no-selling of Lawler's piledrivers. After the third one, Tazz got up AGAIN and... TIIIIMMMMBBBEERR! fell over, which I found enormously funny for some reason. As Lawler was about to win, Raven ran in and DDTed Lawler, allowng Tazz to lock on the Howeverthehellyouspellit Tazzmission for the win.
Rating: *3/4
Basically, they hit each other with things. It wasn't even good "hitting each other with things" like the hardcore matches the Hardys were in, or Blackman using his martial arts combinations. At one point, Crash and Saturn both held the Hardcore Belt, but Blackman pinned Saturn for it and lasted through the rest of the match to retain it.
Rating: *1/2
The Austin Stuff: Did Austin forget how to memorize lines somewhere along the way? "I'm not here to answer questions................. I'm here to ask questions!" The Angle stuff was kind of funny, but not as gut-splittingly funny as Tazz falling over (screw you, I laughed). Austin buddying up with the Rock shouldn't have happened. He should have treated him just like any other suspect. Not having any friends is part of what got Austin over in the first place. The Steph segment dragged on too long for the sole purpose being to tell him to "go ask Shane." Shane showing the footage of Blackman running over Ken Shamrock over a year ago showed more good WWF continuity, and Austin stunning him over and over was kind of funny too. On a side note, where does Austin get his beers from? Does the palm of his hand have a magnet implanted on it that attracts aluminum? What if he held out his hand and a diet soda flew into it? Speaking of which, I wonder how Stone Cold feels about TNN having pop...
Overall PPV Rating: **3/4
The match quality was actually pretty decent, with half the matches being good and the other half at least being watchable, with no one star matches for the first time I can remember. The crowd was hot too, and everything made Unforgiven seem like one of the other big PPVs like Survivor Series or SummerSlam instead of a former In Your House.