[2000-01-10-WWF-Raw] HHH & X-Pac & New Age Outlaws vs The Rock & Mankind & The Acolytes

[soup23]

After the general sludge of 1999 WWF tv output, it has been refreshing seeing some of these matches get time this early in the year. Foley is now embedded to face HHH at Rumble and DX keeps teasing the tension with HHH. In a pleasant This is 2000 moment, Mr. Ass has a choker necklace on. Nice opening sequence with Rock cleaning house and being paired off with Mr. Ass. The Acolytes and X-Pac have good chemistry as they work together. HHH had been inauspicious so far in the match and they set up him and Foley interacting to get a big pop from the crowd. Foley beats HHH down in the corner as the crowd erupts. HHH goes for a tag but DX betrays him as they refuse to tag in. DX leaves and gets chased away by Rock and the Acolytes leaving just HHH and Mankind. Mankind gets the double arm DDT and goes for Socko. Stephanie gets teased with Socko and I’m glad they didn’t pay that off right away. HHH again shows nice viciousness here on top with Foley bumping around as he hits Foley with the bell that has him tumbling over the announce table. HHH hits a pedigree through the table in another big spot that gets OHHHHS from the crowd. Foley eats another pedigree inside the ring to win the match for HHH. Knowing that this leads to Mankind calling on Cactus Jack, I thought this was a great angle advancement and the match was fun as hell to boot. ***1/4

[Loss]

We haven't even really scratched the surface of 2000 WWF yet, but a consistent theme is already emerging that the company knew how to do fun TV matches at the time and this definitely falls into that category. Rock brings so much energy to every match he's in. DX walks out on HHH due to dissension in the ranks and the Acolytes and Rock follow them out. The brawl between HHH and Mankind turns ugly with HHH giving him a pedigree on the announce table, rendering him a bloody mess, before securing the pin back in the ring. The post-match brawl is better than the match itself since the hatred has escalated by this point, but all of this taken together is excellent, and once again, really good TV wrestling. ***1/4

[Laney]

This was a load of fun. The tag match basically breaks down into HHH vs Mankind and the two have some nice exchanges. Eventually HHH escalates the violence, busts Mankind open, and gets the win. The aftermath of the match is a thing with beauty as Foley snaps, takes off his mask, and beats down HHH. Foley even throws in the Cactus Jack signature bang bang. The show ends with HHH backing down the ramp with a look of fear on his face. Beautiful tv wrestling.

 

***1/4 for the match, but the whole angle surrounding this gets a higher rating and should definitely be watched.

[Chess Knight]

I adore both the 2/7 ten man and the 2/21 six man so finding out there are more early 2000 WWF multi-man tags I never even thought to look for, was a bit of a Holy Crap moment. I love this type of wrestling so much. Even when the work isn't totally brilliant there's just something awesome happening at every moment. Faarooq did a crotch chop! If I have to take away anything in particular from this it's that I need to see X-Pac get beat up by wrestlers more, because I don't remember his selling being this fun to watch beyond the 1-2-3 Kid run. I don't think Foley is a very good puncher, nor do I think HHH is very good at selling punches, but for some reason they click really well when Foley starts punching HHH. DX abandoning HHH was really well done, and HHH's mini tantrum bumps his 2000 up more than half of the PPV matches he had. JR: "oh that's just too bad." I love that you get a little glimpse of Steph arguing with Gunn, too. If you told me before I watched it, that this would turn into basically a Foley/HHH singles match, I'd probably express a bunch of disappointment, but that actually turned out to be the best part. One of Foley's knees looked like it took a hell of a hit against the monitors during the announce table pedigree. Foley being out-brawled only to rip his mask off and get the leg up on the post-match is the kind of thing you wish happened in front of a late 80s WCW crowd because the pop'd probably give you goosebumps. Really awesome build to the Rumble overall. This isn;t amazing or anything but it's really really fun, and I almost can't believe it's as under-the-radar as it is.

[Kronos]

Everything you guys said, and more. This is a fantastic segment.

 

One of my favorite moments happens before the match. During the video of The Rock book signing, they show a girl who is about to start sobbing because she's so excited to meet him. Despite my comment from other videos from this month about what a jerk his character is, the dude definitely knew how to get over with the fans.

 

My big takeaway here is that I feel like I need to be watching this 2000 weekly TV. I believe it's all on the network, so I may have to get after that. Even if I'm just watching selected segments for discussion, I need to be watching them in order.

 

After watching this segment, I pulled up the clip from a few days later where Cactus Jack is introduced for the Royal Rumble (instead of Mankind). I haven't seen that one in a while, and it's just as fantastic. HHH has had his moments of treating others like crap, but he sells this angle beautifully.

[GSR]

There’s dissension in the ranks with DX seemingly reluctant to team with HHH, while Hunter is trying to stress togetherness. Hot opening with Rock blocking a right and then unloading on Mr Ass. Gunn ducks a clothesline, takes him down with a neckbreaker and measures him with some rights of his own. Samoan drop on Mr Ass, spinebuster to the Road Dogg, ‘Rock Bottom’ on Gunn and X-Pac is in to make the save, however he gets clotheslined over the top rope to the floor for his troubles. Road Dogg with a forearm on Bradshaw but he ends up running into a big boot. Bradshaw misses an elbow drop and Dogg tags out to X-Pac who is immediately met with a knee to the mid-section. Huge whip to the turnbuckles, X-Pac avoids the charge and nails Bradshaw with a series of kicks. Fallaway slam by Bradshaw. X-Pac ducks a lariat from Faarooq and comes back with a spinning heel kick. Faarooq with a backbreaker for two. Dominator attempt, but X-Pac is able to escape. DDT and he tags in HHH whilst Faarooq makes the tag to Mankind. Awesome flurry of rights from Mankind and Hunter collapses in the corner. Mankind telegraphs the backdrop, HHH with a facebuster, he goes to tag one of his partners, but every one of them drops down from the apron refusing the tag. They retreat to the dressing room, leaving HHH all on his own, The Rock and the Acolytes go after them and this is now a one on one contest. Mankind with a double armed DDT and he pulls out Socko. Stephanie grabs his ankle, but he pulls her up onto the apron and is about to put Socko on her when HHH comes to the rescue. He puts the boots to him and Mankind falls out of the ring to the floor. Hunter rams Mankind’s head into the ring steps and again into the announcer’s desk before clocking him with the ring bell. Pedigree on the announcer’s table! A second pedigree in the ring and HHH gets the win for his ‘team’. He attacks Mankind after the match but doesn’t get the better of him for long. Foley rips off the mask to reveal a bloodied face and fires back. He throws him to the outside, launches the ringsteps right to his head and hip tosses him through a section of the announcer’s table. Cactus clothesline and the show goes off the air with HHH staring at the bloodied Foley with a look of “what have I got myself into on his face”.

 

Great stuff. Fast paced action and even the Acolytes bought it here and didn’t drag things down. Electric crowd who were hot for everything and then turned it up a notch when HHH and Mankind faced off. Can’t say I was enamoured with Mankind doing the job to the pedigree this close to the Royal Rumble, but a strong post-match and I’m guessing the taking off of the mask (along with the Cactus clothesline) signals that Mankind is now Cactus Jack and the look on HHH’s face is that he’s realised it himself.

[Tim Evans]

I don't remember this DX dissension angle but it seems to be working for the story. Fun match with a better angle. Foley is moving around gingerly but he's still got a buzz about him. That pedigree through the table looked brutal. Looking forward to the Rumble match as I haven't seen it in a while and remember it being great. Stephanie still looks awkward out there with HHH.

[Matt Franklin]

I agree with the rest that this is a fun tv match that is made even better by the end beatdown and post-match angle. I had never seen this before, and while I knew Foley makes the transformation to Cactus Jack around this time period I didn't know the angle surrounding it. It was really cool to see them step up the violence once the rest of their teams left to the back, the pedigree through the table looked especially brital.and while I'm not a 'PG sux' guy, I do miss these types of angles used sparingly.

***1/4 sounds right for the match, but ****1/4 if taken as a whole.

[aethelred]

This show started with the angle where all the WWF wrestlers threaten to leave the company unless Mick Foley is reinstated. Not only did this give them a good storyline reason to bring back Foley, but it also got The Rock over as the ace of the company as he is the one leading the protests. It's almost as if Austin's absence made no difference whatsoever!

 

Anyway the finishing portion of this was really good - a preview of the epic street fight coming up. With Triple H going over (relatively) clean, it also gives the impetus for Foley to return as Cactus Jack later that week on Smackdown. The whole Triple H vs Cactus Jack story is one for the ages.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

This blood was almost garish. Holy shit, I thought I was watching CZ Dub for a few minutes. I don't have anything to add to what has already been said about this segment. WWF 2000 TV is a blast to watch.