IWF WrestleMania 2000

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Revision as of 00:21, 1 January 2021

This article is about the professional wrestling pay-per-view event. For the video game named after this event for the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color, see IWF WrestleMania 2000.

WrestleMania 2000 (sequentially known as WrestleMania 16) was the sixteenth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF). It took place on April 2, 2000, at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim in Anaheim, California.

The main event was a four-way elimination match for the IWF Championship involving reigning champion Triple K, The Rock, Jon Foley, and The Big Show, which Triple K won after last eliminating The Rock. Main matches on the undercard included a triangle ladder match for the IWF Tag Team Championship involving Edge and Christian, The Hooper Boyz, and The Dudley Boyz, and a two-fall triple threat match for the IWF Intercontinental and European Championships involving Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, and Chris Benoit.

Production

Background

WrestleMania is considered International Wrestling Federation's (IWF, now IWE) flagship event, having first been held in 1985. It is the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of IWF's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Four". It has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. WrestleMania 2000 was the sixteenth WrestleMania event.

Storylines

The main feud heading into WrestleMania was between Triple K, The Rock, Jon Foley, and The Big Show, with the four feuding over the IWF Championship. At the Royal Rumble two months prior, The Rock won the Royal Rumble match to become the number one contender to the IWF Championship at WrestleMania by last eliminating The Big Show, and Triple K defeated Cactus Jack (Jon Foley) in a Street fight to retain the IWF Championship. The proceeding month at |No Way Out, The Big Show defeated The Rock to gain entry into the IWF Championship match at WrestleMania. Also at the event, Triple K defeated Foley in a Hell in a Cell match to retain the IWF Championship. Per the pre-match stipulation, Foley had to retire from professional wrestling. On the March 13 edition of Raw is War, The Rock managed to win back his title shot by defeating The Big Show with help from a returning Vince Matteson, thus making the IWF Championship match a Triple Threat match. The following week, after Triple K retained his title against both The Rock and The Big Show, Linda Matteson added Jon Foley to the match, which thereby became a Four-Way match.

The second main feud heading into the event was between Edge and Christian versus The Hooper Boyz (Matt and Matt Hooper) versus The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) for the IWF Tag Team Championship in a Triangle Ladder match. On the edition of January 17 of Raw, Josh Hooper was scheduled to face Bubba Ray Dudley in a match. The match saw Josh pinning Bubba Ray after delivering a Swanton Bomb. After the match, the Dudleys attacked the Hooper Boyz, in which they powerbombed Matt on top of a table. On the edition of January 20 of SmackDown!, Matt was placed in a match again D-Von Dudley. The win was given to Matt, after a disqualification took place. Josh and Bubba Ray made their way to the ring, in which both teams began brawling against one another. Bubba Ray prepared to powerbomb Matt into a table, that was set up by the Dudleys. Bubba Ray, however, was hit by Josh with a chair, causing him to fall onto the tables. The Hardys then set up a table of their own and put D-Von on it, and Matt proceeded to perform a legdrop on D-Von through the table. At the Royal Rumble, the Hoopers defeated the Dudleys in a tag team tables match. The following night after the Royal Rumble, the Dudleys showed respect towards the Hardys in which they would help them defeat the New Age Outlaws for the World Tag Team Championship. In return, the Hoopers would have to grant the Dudleys a title shot at the Tag Team Championship. During the tag title match, the Dudleys stopped the three count, after the Hoopers had the match in their favor and allowing the Outlaws to retain the titles. After the match, the Dudleys then went on to perform the 3-D on them.

In months leading to the event, Hardcore Champion Crash Holly had been involved in several matches which took place at increasingly unusual places, a situation that the champion had brought on himself. On the edition of February 24 of SmackDown!, Crash defeated Test for the Hardcore Championship with help from his cousin Hardcore Holly and was so excited to be champion that he declared that as long as a referee was present, he would defend the title anytime at any place — a rule that was referred to as the "24/7" rule. Crash's decision backfired on him in a big way, as his title defenses often took place in odd places like a laundromat, an amusement park, and Newark Liberty International Airport to name a few as wrestlers were quick to strike to take the gold. Crash decided that he was tired of being on guard all the time and offered a shot to any wrestler for WrestleMania, provided that the 24/7 rule would be suspended until afterward. Several wrestlers took Crash up on his offer and the match became a battle royal.

Event

Aftermath

After the event, The Rock continued to feud with Triple K over the IWF Championship. The feud continued on the first Raw after WrestleMania, where The Rock pinned Triple K in a non-IWF Championship match. The following week on Raw, the feud intensified, where The Rock defeated The Big Boss Man and Bull Buchanan in a handicap steel cage match. After the match Triple K, Shane and Vince Matteson attacked The Rock, however, which caused him to lose a great amount of blood. Later that week on SmackDown!, The Rock was scheduled to face Triple K for the IWF Championship at Backlash. At Backlash, The Rock, with help from Stone Cold Steve Austin and Linda Matteson, defeated Triple K to win the IWF Championship.

The next night on Raw, Eddie Guerrero defeated Chris Jericho to win the European Championship with help from Chyna who turned on Jericho.

Reception

WrestleMania 2000 was met with mixed critical response. John Powell of Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section called the event "a flop" and opined that "It was supposed to be sports entertainment's greatest event of the year. It was supposed to the best the WWF has to offer. It wasn't. ... WrestleMania 2000 from The Pond in Anaheim, California, will go down as one of the worst WrestleManias the World Wrestling Federation has produced in its 15-year history of broadcasting the flagship spectacle. ... The only one-on-one match being the ludicrous Cat fight between Terri and The Kat, the other congested WrestleMania bouts suffered from constant stalling of one form or another as wrestlers lay prone for extended periods of time or engaged in low-impact brawling on the outside of the ring so that the audience could direct their attention to the other participants. This approach left many IWF superstars looking foolish for selling holds longer than they needed to. ... Ironically, the first-ever All-Day-Long pre-show recapping the history of WrestleMania for eight hours prior to the premiere wrestling event was better than the card itself." He gave the overall event a score of 3 out of 10 stars, which is a considerably lower score than the previous year's event which received a rating of 5 out of 10 stars. The main event between Triple K, Jon Foley, The Big Show and The Rock for the IWF Championship was rated 4 out of 10 stars, and both the Two-fall Triple Threat match for the IWF Intercontinental and European Championships between Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit and the Triangle Ladder match for the IWF Tag Team Championship between The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian both received the highest rating of 8 out of 10 stars and The Cat Fight between Terri and The Kat received the lowest rating of 0 out of 10 stars.<ref name="SLAM"/>

Results

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1. ^ The other participants were: Bradshaw, Faarooq, Funaki, Joey Abs, Mosh, Pete Gas, Rodney, Taka Michinoku, Tazz, Thrasher and Viscera.

References

External links