Posted in: The Classroom The Classroom - History Of: WrestleMania Part 16
By Sean Taylor
Mar 5, 2009 - 4:59:30 AM
“Mrs. Skittlez, your son was caught hiding inside a snowman and yelling ‘Suck My Carrot!’ to people as they walked by.”
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to The Classroom. By the time this column gets posted, Mark Henry will already be officially announced as one of the competitors in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania XXV. I don’t want to go into too much detail since I don’t want to spoil a later edition of the Classroom, but I just wanted to say one thing: MARK HENRY HAS NO BUSINESS IN THE MITB MATCH!!1!!1 HE’S A FAT SLOB WHO WILL PROBABLY BREAK THE LADDER ONCE HE TRYS TO CLIMB IT!!! SANTINO WAS ROBBED!!1! LOLZ :P:P:P
Ahem. My apologies. I kind of lost it there for a second. Regardless, this time around we’re looking at the events and happenings of WrestleMania 2000. I can hear what you’re saying. What happened to WrestleManias 16-1999? No, no. This was the cool way of making things cool around the end of the millennium. Just add 2000 to the end of it. WrestleMania 2000, NHL 2000, Macaroni & Cheese 2000, 2000 Flushes, etc. Nevertheless, there’s a lot to cover today so let’s get started.
WrestleMania 2000
Date: April 2, 2000
Venue: Anaheim Pond (Anaheim, California)
Commentators: Jim Ross & Jerry “The King” Lawler
Attendance: 19,776
At the turn of the millennium, the WWE was in the middle of a 110 week ratings winning streak. WCW was falling way behind in the ratings as WWE firmly re-established itself as the number one North American wrestling promotion. Storylines and characters became more edgy and seemingly more real. When fans tuned into Raw, they never knew what they were going to see and they couldn’t wait to find out.
As a promotional tool, the WWE offered a special to those who were ordering WrestleMania 2000. Fans had a choice. They could order just the pay-per-view for the standard $34.99 or for an extra $15.00, they could get “WrestleMania All Day Long”. “WrestleMania All Day Long” started at 12:00 noon EST and chronicled some of the most memorable moments in WrestleMania history up to that point followed by the live WrestleMania 2000 broadcast. It seemed like a great deal, but in reality it was widely considered to be too much wrestling in one sitting. The promotion was never repeated.
Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy
WrestleMania 2000 opened with newcomer Lillian Garcia singing “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The opening match featured the Big Boss Man and his protégé Bull Buchanan against crowd favourite The Godfather and D-Lo. The Godfather was a pimp character and always had his “hoes” with him. The hoes were local women usually employees from strip clubs who would “escort” the Godfather to the ring. At WrestleMania 2000, rapper Ice-T joined the Godfather and D-Lo to the ring as well while performing the Godfather’s new theme song appearing on the new WWE Aggression album. Unfortunately Ice-T and the hoes did not help their charges that night as Boss Man and Buchanan picked up the win.
Hardcore Chaos
The WWE Hardcore Championship was originally only meant to be a means of further a storyline between Mankind and Mr. McMahon. But it was eventually defended and became an official title. During this time period, the rogue organization Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) had grown and attracted a different audience than WWE or WCW. ECW’s main draw was violent, hardcore matches where wrestlers more often than not left the ring bleeding profusely. With many of the ECW superstars transitioning from ECW to either the WWE or WCW, the hardcore wrestling style was becoming more and more popular and commonplace.
The WWE Hardcore Championship eventually fell around the waist of Crash Holly, the kayfabe cousin of Hardcore Holly. Crash proclaimed himself the greatest Hardcore champion of all even boasting that he could defend the title against anyone at any time of day. Thus the 24/7 rule was brought into effect. The 24/7 rule stated that as long as someone (wrestler, fan, announcer, etc) had an official WWE referee with them, they could attack the champion anywhere in the world. This led to skits where wrestlers would break into Crash’s hotel room but attempt to pin Crash but he would always escape with the title. What the 24/7 rule allowed for title changes on WWE house shows which drew many fans into the shows.
For WrestleMania 2000, a Hardcore Battle Royal was announced. The 24/7 rule was put on hold for a week until the start of the match. The rules of the match stated that the title would change hands an unlimited amount of times during the fifteen-minute time limit as long as the champion was pinned. Whoever was the champion at the end of the match, would be declared the Hardcore Champion (although all of the other title reigns during the match also counted as an official reign). During the match the title switched ten times between Crash (twice), Tazz (twice), Viscera, Funaki, Rodney, Joey Abs, Thrasher, Pete Gas, and finally Hardcore Holly who ended the match as the Hardcore Champion.
Headcheese or Headcase?
In early 2000, comedic wrestler Al Snow had begun to team with the “The Lethal Weapon” Steve Blackman. In an attempt to liven up Blackman’s character, Snow started calling their tag team Head Cheese. Just before the match at WrestleMania 2000, Snow introduced their new mascot, Chester McCheeserton – a Latino man dressed in a giant foam cheese costume. Their opponents, T & A (Test/Albert), walked to the ring with their sexy manager, a newcomer by the name of Trish Stratus. T&A defeated Head Cheese in just over seven minutes when Test hit a top rope leg drop on Blackman. After the match, Snow blamed the loss on Chester McCheeserton and then Snow and Blackman beat up the “cheesy” mascot.
Not A TLC Match
In 1999, the WWE had an explosion of great tag teams. Three of the most prominent teams competed for the WWE Tag Team Championships in the first ever Triangle Tag Team Ladder Match at WrestleMania 2000. Going into the match, the titles belonged to former ECW hell-raisers The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray/Devon). The challengers were former Brood/Ministry of Darkness members Edge & Christian and The Hardy Boyz (Matt/Jeff). Edge & Christian were in transition of ditching their silent “tortured souls” gimmick in favour of surf-talking cocky heels who used words like “awesomeness”, “heinosity”, and “stinktitude” and also created the “5 Second Pose”. The Hardys were high-flying specialists who had turned on their manager, Freebird Michael P.S. Hayes. The Hardys and Edge & Christian had set a new standard for tag team wrestling in a ladder match at No Mercy in October of 1999 and ever since then, all three teams strived to top the last effort.
Like Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon had six years earlier, the three teams showcased their abilities and created a ladder match unlike any other before then. Personal injury seemed to be a non-issue with the six men as they threw each other and themselves through tables and into ladders repeatedly. When the fans thought someone had finally taken themselves out of the match due to injury, they would pop right back into the match and hit another high spot. In the end, Edge & Christian walked out on a table that was balancing on two ladders and grabbed the tag belts to win the match.
Both that night and the next night on Raw, all three teams received prolonged standing ovations from the appreciative crowds. But little did anyone know what future matches the trio of teams would compete in.
And The Claws Come Out
After losing the Women’s Champion to Hervina (aka Harvey Whippleman in drag), The Kat had begun a feud with Terri Runnels. The two met at WrestleMania 2000 in a Catfight, refereed by Val Venis. The object of the match was to throw your opponent outside the ring. The elderly yet spunky Mae Young cornered Kat while former Women’s Champion Fabulous Moolah backed Runnels. During the match, Runnels was repeatedly thrown out of the ring but Venis was always distracted. Then, Young pulled Venis into a lip-locked kiss and Moolah pulled Kat to the outside. Venis turned and saw Kat outside the ropes and awarded the match to Runnels. After the match, the Kat stripped Runnels to her underwear.
Much to the fans’ overall apathy, the feud actually continued until SummerSlam where the two met in a Thong Stinkface Match.
WCW’s Loss Is The WWE’s Gain
In late 1999 and early 2000, there were a lot of young superstars in WCW who were frustrated with the politics backstage. They were being held down due to the aging stars like Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash who monopolized the main event spots in the company. After constant complaint meetings, WCW officials offered an unconditional release to any WCW superstar who wanted it. Five superstars took him up on that offer. One was Shane Douglas who immediately went back to his home promotion of ECW until returning to WCW a short time later. The other four went straight to the WWE.
They were called The Radicalz when they debuted on Raw. Mick Foley announced that he was bringing in four friends. That night, Chris Benoit, Eddie Geurrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn walked to their ringside seats. The following week, they were given WWE contracts and turned on Foley, aligning themselves with the McMahon-Helmsley Regime to establish them as heels. The alignment soon faded but the group remained heel. The first storyline to come out of the Radicalz was Guerrero’s affection for Chyna. Guerrero claimed that Chyna couldn’t resist his “Latino Heat” but Chyna was repulsed by the Latin lover. The tag team of Grandmaster Sexay (Brian Christopher) and Scotty 2 Hotty (Scott Taylor), known as Too Cool, came to Chyna’s rescue. This set up a six-person Intergender Match for WrestleMania 2000 – Chyna & Too Cool versus The Radicalz (Guerrero/Saturn/Malenko).
Guerrero spent most of the match taunting Chyna and then tagging out when she was tagged in. Eventually Chyna and Eddie met face-to-face and Chyna dominated “Latino Heat”. She combined a press slam, powerbomb, and rear naked choke drop before pinning Eddie and picking up the win for her team.
The Wolverine vs The Olympic Champion vs The Y2J Problem
The next match featured three of the best wrestlers in the WWE - all of who had joined the company within the previous year. The first to arrive came in on August 9, 1999. For months prior, Raw was interrupted by a “Millennium Clock”. No one knew what it was or what it meant but those who could tell time knew that the clock would run out long before New Year’s Eve. During an interview segment with The Rock, the lights went down and the clock counted down to zero. Strange music played until the TitanTron showed giant letters spelling the word “JERICHO”. The crowd went crazy. Chris Jericho had been a shining diamond in the rough in WCW and was mysteriously absent from television. When he first entered the WWE, Jericho played a heel calling himself “the Y2J Problem” but quickly changed to a babyface and shortened his nickname to simply “Y2J” Chris Jericho.
The second to debut was a former legit Olympic champion. Kurt Angle competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics in the freestyle wrestling event. After injuring his neck in an earlier round, Angle won the gold medal. Prior to his WWE debut, vignettes aired touting him as an American hero. Angle was supposed to debut as babyface but the harden Attitude Era fans rejected the idea of cheering Angle just because they were supposed to. Angle quickly adapted to the fans’ negative reaction and became an annoying, arrogant heel. He bragged that his success was due to his 3 Is – Integrity, Intensity, and Intelligence. In February of 2000, Angle won both the Intercontinental and European Championships and dubbed himself the WWE’s first “Eurocontinental Champion”.
The third man was “The Rabid Wolverine” Chris Benoit. Before leaving WCW, Benoit won the WCW World Title so when he entered the WWE, it was understood that he was going to be the first breakout star. So it wasn’t a surprise when Benoit, along with Jericho, were named top contenders to both of Angle’s titles. Rather than have two separate matches at WrestleMania 2000, the three men were booked in a Two-Fall Triple Threat Match for both belts. The winner of the first fall would be the Intercontinental title and the second fall would be for the European title.
With the combined talents of Angle, Jericho, and Benoit, there was no chance that a triple threat match between them wouldn’t be an instant classic. Each man was quick to break up pinfalls and submission holds. About halfway through the match, Benoit broke up Angle’s chicken wing submission hold on Jericho. Benoit then hit Jericho with his Diving Top Rope Headbutt and pinned Jericho to become the new WWE Intercontinental Champion. Benoit immediately covered Jericho again in an attempt to win the European title but Angle broke up the pinfall. Soon, Angle rolled out of the ring to avoid another Diving Top Rope Headbutt from Benoit and then Jericho hit Benoit with Lionsault. Jericho covered Benoit and became the new European Champion. Angle lost both titles without ever being involved in the decisions.
Backing The Phat Ass Up!
After being betrayed by Chyna at WrestleMania XV, Kane sought retribution and teamed with X-Pac and unofficially joined DX along with Road Dogg (Billy Gunn had left the group and become “Mr. Ass”). Kane even learned to talk with and then without the help of a voice transponder. But when DX reformed into the McMahon-Helmsley Regime, Kane was betrayed again and sought out solace in the arms of a sympathetic Tori. In December of 1999, Kane lost a match to X-Pac and according to the stipulations, Tori had to spend the holidays with X-Pac. After the Christmas break, Tori revealed that she was leaving Kane for X-Pac and Kane, now back with his father Paul Bearer, set out for revenge.
At WrestleMania 2000, Kane teamed with Samoan superstar Rikishi to take on Degeneration X’s Road Dogg and X-Pac. After Rikishi delivered a Stinkface to Tori, Kane dropped X-Pac in a Tombstone and picked up the win. After the match, Too Cool ran to ringside followed by the San Diego Chicken. Announcers speculated that Pete Rose was in the Chicken costume, since he was on Sunday Night Heat carrying a baseball bat. Kane and Bearer stood in the corner and watched as the Chicken joined Rikishi and Too Cool in their post-match break dance celebration. After the dance, Kane grabbed the Chicken around the throat and walked him into the corner. From behind, Pete Rose attempted to attack Kane, but Rikishi took away his bat. Kane Tombstoned Pete Rose in the middle of the ring for the third year in a row. To add insult to injury, Rikishi delivered a Stinkface to Rose before the group left.
Family Dysfunction & A WrestleMania First
During the summer of 1999, a group of wrestlers formed The UNION, a stable to counter Shane McMahon’s Corporation. After winning an eight-man tag team match at Over The Edge, each member of the UNION (Mick Foley, Big Show, Test, Ken Shamrock) won one opportunity for anything they wanted. While his teammates asked for matches with foes, Test chose to have a date with Vince McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie. Stephanie was an innocent, young woman who fell in love with Andrew (Test’s real name). Soon a wedding was planned for Raw. During the ever ominous “Does anyone have any reason . . .” portion of the wedding, Triple H’s music played. He showed a video of Stephanie who had been drugged at her bachelorette party sitting in the passenger seat of Triple H’s convertible in downtown Las Vegas. Triple H took Stephanie to a drive-thru wedding chapel and married her. Furious at Triple H for traumatizing his daughter, Vince challenged him to a match where if Vince won, Triple H would be forced to annul the marriage. At the end of the match, Stephanie turned on her father and revealing that she had been in on it the whole time. She claimed she did it to get back at her father for having her kidnapped by The Undertaker.
Vince left television shortly after, leaving Women’s Champion Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and WWE Champion Triple H in charge of the WWE. Combined with Degeneration X, the couple formed the McMahon-Helmsley Regime. The Regime ran roughshod over the WWE superstars and especially picking on Mick Foley. After Foley was fired by the Regime, all of the superstars led by The Rock threatened to quit the company unless Foley was rehired. The Regime conceded and rehired Foley. At No Way Out, Triple H defeated Mick Foley in a Hell in a Cell match forcing Foley into retirement.
Meanwhile, The Rock and Big Show were in the midst of a feud themselves. At the 2000 Royal Rumble, The Rock and the Big Show battled until they were the last two in the ring. When The Rock clotheslined Big Show over the top rope, Rock went over the top rope with him. But Rock held onto the top rope and climbed back into the ring. The next night on Raw, Big Show accused The Rock of touching the floor with both feet before he did.
The other major storyline affecting this match was the McMahon family. Since Vince was revealed as the “higher power” that the Undertaker was taking orders from, all four members of the McMahon family feuded with each other. Whether the lines were drawn between the sexes or between the parents and the children, the McMahons were constantly at odds. When WrestleMania 2000 rolled around, they all wanted their hand in the main event. Vince backed the Royal Rumble winner The Rock. Shane cornered the Big Show who said that since Show defeated The Rock at No Way Out, he should take The Rock’s place. Linda McMahon brought Mick Foley out of retirement for one more match so that he could attempt to achieve his dream of winning the main event at WrestleMania. The match was eventually made into a Fatal Four Way Elimination Match and all four McMahons vowed to stand in their charge’s corner.
Each competitor walked to the ring with their McMahon beside them. The match started out with Rock, Foley, and Triple H triple teaming the Big Show before turning on each other. Rock and Show fought inside the ring until Shane reached under the ropes and tripped the Rock. While the referee was distracted, Foley hit Big Show with a chair sending him into a Rock Bottom. The Rock made the cover and quickly eliminated Show. The Rock and Foley then turned their attention to Triple H. They double-teamed the champion but a miscue allowed Triple H to fight back. With The Rock on the outside of the ring, Foley made a heroic attempt to defeat Triple H alone but The Rock came back in and the match became every man for himself. Soon after, Triple H nailed Foley in the head with a chair and followed up with a Pedigree on the chair to eliminate the hardcore legend. As Foley left the arena, he was given a well-deserved standing ovation from the crowd.
Down to two men now, the match spilled out to the entrance area. They then battled through the crowd and back to the ring area. After The Rock suplexed Triple H through the announce table, Vince attacked Triple H which brought Shane back to ringside. Shane attacked Vince leading to Vince being taken to the back for medical attention. Shane stayed at ringside as the match continued in the ring. Shane soon entered the ring with chair but Vince ran back out and took out Shane. Vince picked up the chair and shocked everyone by striking The Rock. Triple H covered but Rock kicked out. Vince hit Rock with another chair shot and Triple H gained the pinfall to retain the championship.
As fans threw sodas and other debris into the ring, Vince, Shane, and Stephanie reconciled in the ring before The Rock returned to the ring. Rock took out the three McMahons with a series of Rock Bottoms and dropped a People’s Elbow on Stephanie. The McMahons slowly regrouped as The Rock’s music played. Triple H, while not the first to retain the WWE Championship, became the first heel to win a WrestleMania main event.
Sixteen WrestleManias were now in the books. The WWE was a runaway train that couldn’t be stopped. They were constantly signing new talent and new acquisitions. But the following year, the WWE would make its biggest acquisition the company’s history. The newest member of the WWE family . . .
. . . WCW.
Folks, I apologize for the lateness of this column. I know I promised it out two nights ago. But as you can see, there was a lot to pack in. Was the wait worth it? Let me know by emailing me here or, if you’re a member of the Columns Forum, posting here. I’m going to starting work on Part 17 tomorrow to keep my mind off of Mark Henry’s MITB involvement. Ugh, maybe I’ll start now.
Pop Quiz
The answers from the last quiz were 1) Gorilla Monsoon was a judge in the Brawl for All Match and 2) Michael spoiled the main event by announcing that new champion Steve Austin would appear on the Home Shopping Network or QVC after WrestleMania XV. Congratulations to Brandon B, Mr. Z, Geoff, El Mitcho, and Matt S for getting both questions correct. I had a lot of close ones too. Keep them coming. Here’s this week’s quiz: 1) At the same time as WrestleMania 2000, the WWE was in the midst of what other endeavour?
2) WrestleMania 2000 was the only WrestleMania card in history not to feature what?
