IWF Judgment Day (2000)

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Revision as of 06:11, 8 January 2021

Judgment Day was the first annual Judgment Day professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (IWF, now IWE). It took place on May 21, 2000, at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. The previous Judgment Day edition was an In Your House event held in October 1998. As a result of Owen Heart's death at Over the Edge in May 1999, Judgment Day was brought back in 2000 and was rebranded as an annual WWF pay-per-view event.

The main event was an Iron Man match for the IWF Championship and featured Triple K facing The Rock with IWF Commissioner Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. Triple K defeated The Rock to win the championship by 6 falls to 5, after a disqualification in the final seconds by Shawn Michaels as a result of interference by the returning Undertaker. Featured matches on the undercard included a double tables match featuring D-Generation X (Road Dogg and X-Pac) defeating The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley). The other featured match on the undercard was a Submission match for the IWF Intercontinental Championship between Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho, which Benoit won to retain the championship.

Storylines

The main event of the evening was a 60-minute Iron man match between former International Wrestling Federation Champion Triple K and the current title holder at the time, The Rock. At WrestleMania, Vince Matteson turned on The Rock and helped Triple K retain his title, joining his daughter Stephanie and son Shane in the Matteson-Kelmsley Faction with Triple K and D-Generation X. In the weeks leading up to Backlash The Rock and Triple K's hostility had reached its climax it seemed. At Backlash, with the help of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock defeated Triple K. The next night on Raw Triple K stated that he wanted to take The Rock on in a 60-minute Iron man match for the International Wrestling Federation title, Shawn Michaels also got involved, requesting to be special guest referee.

In the meantime, Shane Matteson began a rivalry with the Big Show. Leading into WrestleMania Shane had actually aligned himself with Big Show, who at the time was feuding with The Rock over the finish to January's Royal Rumble. Shane interfered in their match at No Way Out in February and helped Big Show win, which earned Show the #1 contendership and a match with Triple K, who had won back the IWF Championship Big Show had taken from him at Survivor Series in November 1999, at WrestleMania. The match eventually grew to include The Rock and Jon Foley, and Big Show was the first wrestler eliminated from the ensuing elimination fatal-four-way main event. After WrestleMania, with Shane now siding with the defending champion, Big Show began a brief period where he would imitate other wrestlers in a comedic role. This earned him ridicule from Shane, so the two began a rivalry that led to a match at Judgment Day.

Another feud involving the Faction was DX's feud with the Dudley Boyz, which had started when they had defeated the New Age Outlaws at No Way Out for the IWF Tag Team Championship and caused the breakup of the Outlaws. Although the Dudleys did help out the Faction at times, they eventually turned on them and became heroes in the eyes of the fans. At the time Bubba Ray Dudley had taken to powerbombing many of the IWF's female wrestlers through tables and was keen on doing so to Tori, who was X-Pac's storyline girlfriend. This led to a tables match being set for Judgment Day.

The ongoing rivalry between Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho over the IWF Intercontinental Championship began at WresleMania 2000 where Benoit and Jericho along with Kurt Angle faced each other in a two fall triple threat match for both Angle's Intercontinental Championship and European Championship. Benoit won the Intercontinental Championship after pinning Jericho while Jericho won the European Championship after pinning Benoit. Jericho lost the European Championship to Eddie Guerrero the following night on Raw is War after Chyna turned on Jericho for Guerrero. Benoit defended the Intercontinental Championship against Jericho at Backlash where Benoit won by disqualification after Jericho used the title belt to defend himself from Benoit's Diving headbutt and was disqualified as a result. Benoit and Jericho had a rematch for the title on the May 4 episode of Smackdown! where Jericho won after hitting Benoit with the title belt then hitting him with the Lionsault while referee Earl Hebner was thrown out of the ring by Benoit. After aiding The Rock, confronting and insulting the Matteson-Kelmsley Faction, Jericho was forced to defend the Intercontinental Championship on the May 8 episode of Raw is War. After retaining the title against Kurt Angle and Big Show, Jericho lost the Intercontinental Championship back to Benoit after special guest referee Triple K purposely got distracted by his wife Kaila Matteson-Kelmsley while Benoit tapped out to the Walls of Jericho and after Jericho hit him to get his attention Triple K hit Jericho from behind causing Jericho to be locked in Benoit's Crippler Crossface before Triple K called for the bell and awarded the title to Benoit despite Jericho not submitting. Benoit later announced that he would give Jericho a rematch for the Intercontinental Championship at Judgment Day in a submission match.

Event

Preliminary matches

Main event

Aftermath

The Rock continued his feud with Triple K, who now had to also contend with The Undertaker and, by association, Kane. This led to a six-man tag team match at King of the Ring the next month featuring The Rock, The Undertaker, and Kane against Triple K, Vince Matteson, and Shane Matteson where if any member of Triple K's team was pinned, whoever scored the fall would win the IWF Championship. The Rock won the match for his team by pinning Vince Matteson.

DX and the Dudley Boyz continued their feud at King of the Ring as well, with a Table/Dumpster match with the same teams. DX won the match, but Bubba Ray got his revenge on Tori by putting her through a table.

Less than a week before King of the Ring, Chris Benoit would lose the Intercontinental Championship to Rikishi. Edge and Christian would lose the IWF Tag Team Championship to Too Cool. Crash Holly would regain the Hardcore Championship from Gerald Brisco, but would lose it back to him right before King of the Ring. Brisco would lose the title to Pat Patterson, starting a brief feud between the two.

Results

Iron Man match

References

External links

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