[2000-09-24-WWF-Unforgiven] The Rock vs The Undertaker vs Kane vs Chris Benoit

[soup23]

Another match like the previous one that was good but disappointing. They had done such a good job showing how targeted Rock was that I would have liked to have seen at least some cohesion from the other three to get Rock out of the way. Instead, we get paired off action which while fine, it seemed disjointed. I did like Benoit and Taker going after it and really think they could have had a 20 minute submission match around this point. Adding to the problems was the finish where we get Benoit announced as the champion again in a retread for Fully Loaded. They announce that Taker got a foot on the rope on commentary but the crowd is a little miffed as it wasn’t announced for them. Rock then sneaks out the win and doesn’t look that strong coming out. I had thought we might have had a hidden gem on our hands with how good the simple build up was IMO but this barely scrapped the “good” level. *** (5.8)

[AstroBoy]

This was just too disjointed and suffered big from people just pairing off and killing time until it was time for them to start going through finishers and near falls. The crowd brawling seems a little wandering and time-fillery while Kane and Undertaker weren't that inspiring paired off in ring. The Benoit announcement/false finish is a cool nod to his ever-growing frustration but it should have been clarified for the crowd. This picks up a good deal in the final few minutes with some hot nearfalls and Benoit especially starts to really shine as this really kind of was set up to make him look like a worldbeater. Finish is kind of anticlimactic with Rock hitting the Rock Bottom pretty much out of nowhere on Benoit.

 

***