[2000-10-09-WWF-Raw] The Rock & Rikishi vs Kurt Angle & Kane

[soup23]

Foley gets a mixed reaction in the wake of his suspension of Austin. HBK is brought out and Mick points the finger at him. HBK clears his name by telling Mick what he did the entire day. Mick takes all of that into consideration but then provides some motive on why HBK would run over Austin. This is a great back and forth. Michaels ends the promo saying if he was responsible he would admit it because he thrives being in the spotlight. Shawn says he has suspicion on who it was. Someone that loves the spotlight more than HBK. Shawn then puts the blame on Rock and walks out. A strong segment to start. Foley doing his investigation is teetering into JJ Dillion bringing a contract for Sting to sign as far as incompetence goes on his part but at least they are finishing that up tonight. Afterwards, we get segments of Mick talking to Debra and Linda McMahon. He vets both of them and lays out reasons why they would have run over Stone Cold. HHH busts in after his match and wants a match with Benoit. Mick grants that at No Mercy. E&C have some jokes based off “The Game” nickname. Back again, he talks to Snow who is wearing a blonde wig but he is only representing Sweden. Crash Holly and Scotty 2 Hotty also get questioned and everyone seems to be pointing towards The Rock.

 

Angle comes out for the match and gets attacked by Kane. That is his partner. Kurt is standing at ringside and not helping Kane as he goes it alone up against Rock/Rikishi. Crowd is still hot for Rock even amongst the allegations that he ran over Austin. Kane is doing a good job working the handicap and this continues to be his best in ring run. He even stops a Rock flurry with a sidewalk slam that had the crowd reacting. Stephanie is looking at a monitor backstage. Rock hits a spinebuster and is able to tag Rikishi. Rikishi has a bit of offense but Kane is actually able to come back with a DDT and chokeslam. Kurt now wants the tag and Kane chokes him out to cheers from the crowd. Kane leaves after the chokeslam. Both men get to their feet and Angle lucks into an Angle Slam but as he celebrates, Rock comes in for a Rock Bottom. Rikishi hits the butt drop and they win. **1/4

 

Foley comes back and says that all evidence points to Rock. It was his rental car, fingerprints of Rock were found in the car. Rock’s sunglasses were in the glove box and no one had as much to gain for running over Austin as Rock. Foley concludes that Rock is not guilty but Rikishi is. Foley lays out that Scotty said he was hanging out with Rikishi. The car was also configured to fit a large man. This is all good work from one stand point in that Rikishi debuted right around this time. Rikishi admits to doing it and the crowd is stunned along with Rock. As we know, Rikishi did it for The Rock and is never the same again. Rikishi’s reasoning is a race issue that honestly plays much better long term now in reasoning than in 2000. Im kind of complexed with this whole thing watching in retrospect. They have teased things with Rikishi but it came out of left field a bit. I guess a wait and see approach is appropriate.

[AstroBoy]

Of course the angle is the forefront but the match is fun enough.  I am starting to think that Kane and the Rock have really good chemistry.  The way they play off each other really makes Kane's best attributes come out and vice versa.  Angle is kind of an afterthought here but his character work is good for a laugh as Rikishi gets the pin on him after the Kane chokeslam.

 

**1/4