Wrestling

WWf Raw is war: Monday 6/19/00

Straight to the opening montage.
KURT Qualifier- Bubba Ray Dudley v. Kurt Angle
Come on, take one guess at who's going over here. Angle does some mic work for the Nashville crowd, basically breaking out all of the Jeff Foxworthy redneck jokes. Bubba walks out selling the ribs from the dumpster ride he and D-Von took on Smackdown. Match starts out with Angle in control as he hits a belly-to-belly. Bubba fights back and uses a nice Bubba-bomb as Angle goes for the backdrop. Angle ends up tossing Bubba to the floor, and then follows it up with a suplex on the ramp. Bubba still sells the ribs. He climbs back in and eventually takes control over Angle, only to get hit with the belly-to-belly from the second turnbuckle. Angle tries to go luchadore as well, but he gets nailed with the superplex. Bubba keeps the upper-hand until he goes for the Bubba-cutter, and Angle throws him off, and nails the Olympic slam. Match was good, but Angle was absolutely exhausted by the end, and he will have to work on his endurance if he is really getting pushed to the top of the card.
Winner- Angle in 4:41
Vince McMahon chats it up with the Regime, but is handed a fax from Linda, by Gerald and Pat as he walks away. He doesn't look happy, and the Stooges look concerned as well.

Commercial

The Regime's music hits. Hunter berates Patterson and Briscoe for botching the "Kane photo" angle. Hunter and Shane cut a meaningless promo on the faces for the PPV. You know these promos would mean so much more if they didn't do them every single show. Vince begins cutting a promo on Linda where he basically says that he's not whipped. Vince says that Linda's fax questioned whether or not Vince's grapefruits had shrunk to the size of raisins. Okay, that was good. Vince made the six man tag match at the KURT a title match, meaning that if one of the faces wins the fall, he wins the title. He then says that for that to happen, they will all have to win their respective matches, tonight.
Kane v. Hardys
Rock v. T&A
'Taker v. Bull & Bossman
Vince says that the Regime can not interfere, and asks Linda "how's that for grapefruits?" I'm enjoying this little game of Vince acting irrational due to the interference and challenges of Linda. It's a slight twist and kind of fun. Still, this didn't deserve a ten minute promo.

Commercial

Hunter yells at Vince for making the stipulations.
KURT Qualifier- Chris Benoit v. X-Pac (w/Tori):
Match starts out with X-Pac giving a chop to Benoit in the corner, but Benoit uses one of his own, and X-Pac bumps, and cowers in the corner. I love that kind of psychology. X-Pac ends up coming back with a spinkick, and throws Benoit into the steps. X-Pac takes control in the ring with a headlock, but Benoit comes out of it with forearms to the ribs, only to be hit with another spinkick. X-Pac goes for the Bronco Buster, but misses. Benoit with a nice snap-suplex. Tori tries to distract Chris, but X-Pac runs into her. Benoit with a German-suplex, but it only gets two. He locks in the Crippler Crossface, but X-Pac gets the ropes. The Duds come to the ring and distract X-Pac, he tries for the X-factor, but Benoit counters with the crossface. Another good match.
Winner- Benoit in 4:52
RD makes a save for X-Pac and the heels give a beatdown to the Duds.
Chyna tells Eddie to take her seriously in their match.

Commercial

Vince makes a "Handicap, Table, Dumpster match at the KURT, with DX + Tori v. the Duds.
KURT Qualifier- Chyna v. Eddie:
Eddie tries to hug Chyna and play the boyfriend role, but she slaps him. He acts like he's going to hit her, but slaps a headlock on. She counters with a hip-toss, a clothesline, and then powerbomb. Eddie gets mad, Chyna calms him, and then nails him with forearms in the corner. She follows with the handspring elbow. End comes when Chyna has the chnace to low-blow Eddie, he talks her out of it, and then rolls her up for the win. Not a good match technically, but they kept it short, and it was fun for what it was.
Winner- Eddie in 2:26
Christian tells Edge that he can't stay for his match because he has a meeting with the Tiger Beat people.
Christian: "That cover is so ours."
Good stuff.

Commercial

Eddie begs for forgiveness and appeases Chyna with a puppy.
KURT Qualifier- Edge v. Chris Jericho:
Jericho insults Edge by saying he had hair like Hanson, and basically said he masturbated. They go at it to start with a lot of intensity, Jericho hits the springboard dropkick early, and follows with a baseball slide. Edge uses a spear on the outside and both end up in a heap. They go back in where Edge is in control, and ties Jericho to the tree of woe, and dropkicks him in the nuts. Edge drops Jericho face-first after having him on his shoulders. Jericho comes back with the forearm and running facebuster. He tries the Lionsault, but Edge gets the knees up. Jericho uses the double-powerbomb spot, but Edge gets a sunset flip on the second one. Jericho then gets the Walls and it's over. Again, good match, and clean finish.
Winner- Jericho in 5:29
Hunter tells Bossman and Bull not to screw up in the match against 'Taker.

Commercial

Undertaker v. Bossman & Bull:
Undertaker comes out to a huge pop. However, the heat dies when he actually wrestles. Nothing match. What else did you expect? Bossman leaves Bull, for 'Taker to hit a chokeslam. I thought these two already broke up. Some very Russo-esque booking there.
Winner- 'Taker in 3:08
The heels worry about Kane and Rocky winning their matches.
Scotty and Rikishi promise to go all out in there match.

Commercial

KURT Qualifier- Rikishi v. Scotty 2 Hotty:
Rikishi actually bumps from a Scotty superkick early on. Then the little man just bumps like crazy for the big man. Rikishi tries the ass-avalanche, but misses, and Scotty nails the facebuster leading to the worm. Scotty gets the worm, but Riksihi throws him out of the ring on the attempted cover. Rikishi wins it with the Bonzai Drop soon after.
Winner- Rikishi in 2:53
Val Venis comes in for the beatdown on Rikishi, and Too Cool eventually make the save.
'Taker gives a pep talk to Kane for his match against the Hardys.

Commercial

The Hardys v. Kane:
The Hardys do a lot of bumping, and flying around on offense, while Kane is just sort of immobile. Absolutely sick gorilla slam that Kane gives to Jeff. They all end up on the outside where Kane backdrops Matt into the ropes, but he bounces off and catches him with a DDT. Jeff with a somersault tope for Kane. They take him back in the ring and manage the double-legdrop spot. A couple of more spots from the Hardys. Jeff tries a moonsault that's supposed to hit Matt by accident, but he slips on the ropes. Matt sells it anyway, though. Kane chokeslams Matt for the win. Too long, Kane looked like he kind of lumbered around, and the ending was sloppy.
Winner: Kane in 6:19
HHH cuts a promo on Vince.

Commercial

HHH bitches to Steph about Vince.
KURT Qualifier- Crash Holly v. Hardcore Holly:
Crash starts out on offense and uses a nice cross-body from the top, and turns an attempted hip-toss by Hardcore into a roll-up. Hardcore uses a powerbomb on an attempted 'rana by Crash. He then works Crash over, very slowly. He beats him up outside a little, as well. Patterson and Briscoe wander to ringside with a ref, and Patterson distracts Crash. Briscoe comes in and nails Crash with an object, drawing a DQ. Lillian Garcia announced the decision way too fast, but Crash wins by DQ.
Winner- Crash in 4:17 by DQ
Briscoe covers the fallen Crash for the win.
Winner- New Hardcore Champion Gerald Briscoe
Hardcore nails Crash just for kicks.

Commercial

Patterson celebrates with Briscoe and the official. He pours champagne on Briscoe to blind him, and then breaks a bottle over his head.
Winner- New Hardcore Champion Pat Patterson
Steph and Hunter try to talk to T&A about their match with Rocky, but Test replies with "Whatever Steph." A huge pull-apart ensues.
The Rock cuts a brief promo.

Commercial

T&A (w/Trish) v. The Rock:
Not much of a match. The Rock sold a lot up until the end, where he beat Test with the People's Elbow. Sort of anti-climatic. Funny how we saw two tag teams lose cleanly to one man, tonight.
Winner- The Rock in 6:06
The Rock celebrates while the heels are in the back and Vince says, "Wait until Smackdown." End of show.

Bottom Line: I loved the wrestling (especially the first hour), the fact that they added a cool stip to the KURT main event, and the fact that they pushed the tourney as meaning something. The "Linda pushing Vince's buttons" is a nice addition, but there were some questionable booking decisions tonight (Hardys + T&A job to one man, Bull + Boss as a team, etc...). I guess I'll say the show was leaning more towards the thumbs up side, especially the first hour.

By: jiggerman and artjunk