Grilling JR - No Mercy 2000 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

No Mercy 2000 

No Mercy 2000 happened on October 22, 2000 before 14,342 at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York. It was the third time an event had been held named No Mercy.

The event did a 1.35 pay per view buyrate, which was about 550,000 buys. That was slightly down from the month before at Unforgiven - but the event went up against the World Series and did better business in just about every market except for New York, so they had a good excuse. The WWF share of the PPV revenue was estimated in the $6.76 million range.

From a storyline perspective, Stone Cold returned the month before from being hit by a car and he’s looking to get revenge on Rikishi. The other two big rivalries going into this event are Triple H vs. Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle vs. The Rock for the WWF championship. It’s a loaded show!

Before we get to the event, let’s revisit some news from around this time.

News:

There were settlement talks on 10/13 in Kansas City with Vince and Linda McMahon, Stu, Helen and Martha Hart and attorneys for both sides regarding the Owen Hart wrongful death case. Both sides came up with substantial offers but started off far apart and didn't end on an amicable note. During the settlement talks, Martha's furor at Vince was evident and she cut a major promo on him and the talks disintegrated from there. It appears the case is going to trial, which I don't think is in anyone's best interest, except for maybe the lawyers, at this point. There is no trial date

Do you recall hearing about these conversations and the tensions involved?

Vince McMahon made some trade press in Variety and Hollywood Reporter after a Hollywood Radio and Television Society luncheon on 10/11 saying that Hollywood should fight the government rather than be conciliatory after the recent talk among officials, including Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman, regarding Hollywood marketing adult entertainment to children and that if they don't stop, the government will enact laws to make sure it stops. Meltzer reported McMahon promised to go after the jugulars of his detractors and asked "Where's your chutzpah” McMahon was there with Ross, HHH, Chyna, Rock, Austin and Debra. He also talked about buying WCW as a possibility, which would be the first place that I'm aware of that anyone in the WWF publicly indicated they were at least talking about such a thing. McMahon also announced WWF would be producing a television show called "Manhunt" about hunters stalking human beings.

A few things to ask...Do you remember attending the event and any memories from it?

Also...the show “Manunt” was a reality television series that aired on UPN in the summer of 2001 for six episodes. The contestants on the show posed as fugitives who tried to escape actors who pretended to be bounty hunters. The one who eluded the bounty hunters the longest would receive a cash prize.

One of the reports was that a deal collapsed with WWE to use superstars on the show. Did you ever hear about WWE stars appearing on that show and what may have caused it to fall apart?

USA Network chairman Barry Diller, in releasing the company's quarterly financial report, downplayed the loss of WWF programming and also indicated a lack of interest in the future of wrestling on his station, which was bad news for ECW fans. Diller also said that USA Network has no interest in buying WCW. "I don't want to be misunderstood about WWF. Yes, we would have liked to renew it. It gave us great claiming rights because it had a huge audience of young males. That audience came for a couple of hours--they weren't there before wrestling went on, and they immediately left thereafter. I also think wrestling has been at its high. I think it is on a long decline." Diller said he thought interest in wrestling was going down while interest in the arts is going on an ascent

Do you remember hearing about this statement? What made the USA Network relationship sour?

Chyna made some really negative comments on a taped edition of TSN’s "Off the Record" which aired on 11/1 in Canada. She ripped on Trish Stratus, saying she had no talent or ability and was hired just based on her looks. It was immediately duly noted by everyone that the same could be said for her three plus years ago when she was hired, based solely on her unique look, and the lengths she's gone to change that to yet another unique look. She took a 180 when the subject of Stephanie McMahon came up, smartly praising the boss' daughter. She also admitted being concerned about not being another of the women kind of phased out of the WWF when their run is up. Although they talked about the spat she had with Rena Mero on the Gallagher show, she really didn't criticize Mero other than say her problem was that they thought she was bigger than the business

Why was Chyna burying Trish Stratus? Did she get heat for this?

In the Billboard Magazine rec sports video charts for this week, 18 of the 20 videos on the list were pro wrestling. WWF had the top four with Rock: The People's Champ; Tables, Ladders and Chairs; Eve of Destruction and WWF Divas.

Did you have a favorite WWE home video release? Was there ever talk of a Good Old JR DVD?

The Event:

We’ve arrived at the event itself.

Readers of the Observer gave it mostly Thumbs up, (65.9%), with 20.3% Thumbs down, and 13.8% In the middle.

It’s very rare we hear that someone is a dead man in the WWE. Austin basically says he will permanently end Rikishi tonight in the pre-event promo.

Can you explain to fans why wrestlers don’t usually say they’re going to kill their opponent?

The event graphics appear with a very distracting car skid sound effect.

The show opened with what was billed as The Dudleys table match elimination challenge, which was four gauntlet style matches where the winners advanced. Lawler asks why Finkel has to read the rules. “What’s he been doing all day?”

The late Grandmaster Sexay is out with Scotty 2 Hotty as part of Too Cool. They begin against Lo Down, which is the forgotten tag team of D-Lo and Chaz. D-Lo has white pants and Chaz has black pants.

What do you remember about the decision to put these two guys together?

Meltzer said “The four matches were all very short in duration, none of which were particularly good or particularly bad. Heat wasn't really there except for when guys did their signature trademark spots (Dudleys doing "wazzup," Scotty 2 Hotty's worm, etc.). They seemed okay except for one embarrassing miscue when in the second match, Grandmaster Sexay actually broke a table when he wasn't supposed to, and it was just ignored as if it didn't happen, eliciting a "you f'd up" chant from the audience.”

But it actually wasn’t ignored. As Grandmaster Sexay goes for a sunset flip on Raven to the outside, Raven blocks. Grandmaster Sexay’s feet hit the table and it crumbles. Technically, that should have eliminated him. But JR is quick on the call to cover it by saying his feet went through the table but that’s not his body and the referee didn’t see it anyway. The camera obscured the ref’s vision, so it’s a good call! Tazz and Raven put Scotty through a table to advance.

Here’s what Meltzer said about the matches

A. Too Cool beat Lo Down in 3:54 with a double table breakage finish. Scotty pushed Chaz, who was standing on the ropes, backwards through a table, while Brown went to frog splash GMS, but he moved, and Brown went through the table. The match made little sense since they had tables set up early in the match, and the wrestlers worked spots around the tables instead of planting guys on the tables which would have finished the match.

Next out is Tazz and Raven, carrying a table. Lawler causes JR to crack up! He says if Tazz brought the table with him from Brooklyn, it must have bullet holes in it.

King says JR isn’t feeling too well. Then he says something about the sniffles.

Were you sick?

B. Raven (Scott Levy) & Tazz (Peter Senerca) beat Too Cool in 3:16 when they gave Scotty a double superplex through the table. The messed up spot was GMS doing a sunset flip diving over the top rope to the floor, and in going over, his foot went through a table stationed on the floor. They couldn't use it as a finish because Scotty still had to get in the worm spot. So they did the worm and then went right to the real finish.

Was there any heat on Brian Lawler for this spot?

The Dudley’s come out to a big pop. Not long after that, DVon leg drops Tazz and eliminates him.

C. Dudleys beat Tazz & Raven when D-Von did a legdrop off the ropes onto Tazz through a table in 2:08.

D. Dudleys beat Buchanan (Barry Buchanan) & Goodfather (Charles Wright) in 3:00. They chanted "Save the ho's" at Goodfather (who they are already talking about turning back to Godfather, the real question being when). Shouldn't they be chanting that at Too Cool since the women were gone? Speaking of them, they are sending Victoria to Memphis to train her to be a woman wrestler. They did a teased screw-job. Buchanan clotheslined ref Jack Doan. Buh Buh then put Buchanan through a table with a power bomb. Goodfather then hit Buh Buh, pulled Buchanan away from the broken table and put Buh Buh on the broken table. Doan turned around, saw Buh Buh, and called for the bell and it was announced as if the RTC won. Ref Mike Sparks ordered the match re-started, and the Dudleys won quickly with a 3-D on Goodfather through the table. **

What did you think of the match?

Rikishi is backstage staring at the camera. JR seems legitimately afraid. Rikishi had destroyed Austin’s Ford truck on Smackdown leading up to the event and after Austin went to chase him, left JR being at the arena. Rikishi walks into frame - and attacks JR who is almost seriously injured before Commisioner Foley stops the attack.

Great work here. Did you enjoy getting to be part of these angles with Austin?

We’re supposed to have an inter gender match next, but that doesn’t happen.

Meltzer wrote…. The scheduled match with Acolytes & Lita vs. T&A & Trish Stratus never took place. They did an angle backstage where T&A took out the knees of both Acolytes, hitting Faarooq with a tire iron and then dropping a file cabinet on Bradshaw's knee. This angle was created since Bradshaw suffered a legit broken rib recently and Faarooq's knee needs arthroscopic surgery. All three then confronted Lita in the ring and Stratus attacked her, including doing a bulldog headlock that was a million times better than the one used by the legendary Cowboy Bob Ellis (trust me, I just spent the weekend watching hours of classic wrestling footage doing voiceover work). Albert also snapped her neck on the middle rope until the Hardys made the save.

Could you tell Trish really wanted to improve yet?

There’s a cringe worthy promo up next by Edge and Christian. They were sick earlier and had to avoid the tables match. But their “nuts” are okay. They offer Lillian their nuts and pull out peanuts. JR instantly goes back to business when the segment ends.

Did you hate this?

Chris Jericho is out next vs XPac, who is probably about to peak with what was dubbed “XPac Heat.”

Chris Jericho (Chris Irvine) beat X-Pac (Sean Waltman) in a cage match in 10:40.

Meltzer said this was a very innovative cage match in that they did a lot of spots never done before in that cage, but it, like a lot of matches on the show, was hurt by a lack of crowd heat. X-Pac slammed the door on Jericho's head early and did some nice kicks. X-Pac was on the ropes and Jericho did a springboard dropkick to his ankle and he crotched himself. This was the first of 500 crotchings on this show. X-Pac was thrown into the cage, and seemed to make a head-first landing which isn't good for anyone, let alone someone with a previous broken neck. Jericho did a missile dropkick and a lionsault, but X-Pac got his knees up. X-Pac threw Jericho into the cage. Typical guys trying to get out and last minute saves. X-Pac used a chair to the head and was standing on the top of the cage on a platform in the corner. Jericho climbed up and eventually took a big bump off the platform to the mat, which was a legit nine foot drop. X-Pac seemingly had the match won, climbing over. They opened the door as he climbed down, so he stood on the door as Jericho shook the cage and X-Pac crotched himself on the door and Jericho got out for the win. ***1/2

There’s a moment on commentary where JR says XPacs legs must have been honor students. King says XPac was an honor student! Yes. Because he said “Yes your honor, no your honor.”

It really seems like JR and King are having a lot of fun working together here. Is that fair to say?

We’re live from WWE New York tonight. Steve Blackman is there and, as JR points out, has his shirt off and is fired up. He’s doing a martial arts demonstration with some sticks.

We get some backstage segments including an extremely young Jonathan Coachman. Val Venis and Steven Richards of RTC are facing Chyna and her “rectally-obsessed” friend Mr. Ass, as Richards says on promo. Chyna comes out first. She’s on Playboy it his month and looks as good as she ever would here. Lawler gets JR to laugh by saying “Mama Cita has some nice maracas!”

He also points out that RTC can keep their shirts tucked in while wrestling while he barely can while walking around.

How did they do that?

Val Venis & Steven Richards defeated Chyna & Billy Gunn in 7:16. They did a weird spot where Chyna pulled Venis' head into her implants. They worked on Gunn's left shoulder. Chyna did a handspring elbow on Venis, but her landing was a little short. She did a low blow on Richards while Gunn did a famouser on him. Buchanan and Goodfather came out to distract the ref while Chyna set up a pedigree on Venis but Eddy Guerrero ran in and hit Chyna with the dreaded loaded flowers and Venis pinned her. *1/2

Too much RTC?

Also, their music was pain on the ears!

We go backstage to hear Stephanie ask Triple H if she can help with tonight’s main event - but Hunter says no. Stephanie gives Hunter a tape on Benoit and then says she has to go handle business. Triple H says if something happens to Stephanie, he will destroy Angle.

Rikishi is out next, carrying a sledgehammer, to his “Bad Man” theme. He calls out Austin, who has still not arrived. Commissioner Mick Foley comes out. He stalls for time. Then, Austin’s theme song hits! It’s the version by Disturbed. We cut to a camera at one of the entrances to the arena and Stone Cold’s black Ford F150 comes in at about 60 miles per hour. The crowd reacts like a Oprah gave them a car.

Steve Austin (Steve Williams) and Rikishi (Solofa Fatu) went to a non-decision in what was billed as a no holds barred match in 9:21. They had shown Rikishi with a sledge hammer stalking the entrance way waiting for Austin. He then got in the ring and they teased Austin wasn't going to show up. Austin made the entrance in his truck and drove to the ring. They had a fast-paced brawl. The jury as to how much Austin can do, is still out as it was just punching and stomping and he only took a bump or two. They brawled into the stands. Rikishi threw a drink on Austin and he took a backdrop on the floor but his feet landed first. Both guys got thrown all over and around the spanish table. Austin choked him with the rope. Rikishi threw some stiff shots to Austin back. Rikishi tried to use a chair but Austin moved and the chair hit the post. Austin then hit Rikishi with several chair shots and he juiced. Austin was destroying him with the chairs and smashing him with the tailgate of the truck as well. Austin deposited Rikishi in the back of the truck and drove out of the building, it should be noted, opening up a beer and drinking while driving, which for a lot of reasons, even though it has been done before in wrestling, totally was a repulsive portrayal because it tells people that doing so is cool. He then put him on the ground and prepared to run him over. As he went to do so, at the last minute, a police car blocked the attempted murder attempt and Austin smashed into the car. He smashed into it a second time when a hoard of officers showed up. Austin was "arrested" and taken out. The police officer in the car was taken out on a stretcher and they talked about Austin being in real trouble because he had injured a police officer in attempting to kill Rikishi. **¼

Let’s talk about the match…

How did Austin chugging a Budweiser while driving get on TV?

Now, if this were real life...first of all, they probably would have shot him. Trying to run over a police officer is as bad of an idea as pointing a gun at them. If not, at a minimum, he would have been ordered out at gunpoint.

Then he would have been charged with:

Aggravated Assault or quite possibly Attempted Murder (for the attempted vehicle attack on Rikishi);

Aggravated Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer times TWO (for each hit) IF he’s lucky - possibly attempted murder, since prosecutors don’t show leniency with people who hurt cops).

He would have gotten a DWI.

And a citation for improper headlights because one of his headlights was busted out.

None of that includes what happened in the arena.

As the crowd is stunned from Austin being arrested on what will likely be a prison sentence lasting decades, William Regal comes out smiling and waving, which has a certain aura of comedy to it.

William Regal (Darren Mathews) retained the European title beating Naked Mideon (Dennis Knight) in 6:10. Clearly, positioned after Austin, they had no chance. But with the whole match nothing but a tease of Mideon taking his clothes off, and Survivor already being passe, nobody seemed to care at all. He was wearing little but a fanny pack after he disrobed late in the match and the crowd didn't react as if they found it appealing on any level. Mideon kissed Regal after he disrobed. Regal went to do his Regal stretch, but because Mideon smelled so badly, or he was grossed out by having to put his hands all over his body, he refused to do the move, and instead pinned him after a neckbreaker. -1/2*

What can you tell us about the match?
What can you tell us about Naked Mideon?

We see a replay of Kurt Angle’s hilariously edited interview with The Rock from Sunday Night Heat. Meltzer said the work involved in putting this together was impressive but it had already aired on Heat.

What did you think about this?

Edge and Christian, dressed up as the Conquistadors, do an interview with Kevin Kelly where they no speak English.

The Conquistadors (Adam Copeland & Jay Reso) won the WWF tag titles over the Matt & Jeff Hardy in 10:52. Second straight totally dead match in a row. The Conquistadores, who Jim Ross kept referring to as Edge & Christian, which I guess they were in this case, Ross said weren't Jose Estrada and Jose Luis Rivera (the original Conquistadores from circa 1988 in the WWF). I didn't think it was possible for these two teams to have a bad match, but this was it. Aaron Aguilera & Christopher Daniels looked a lot better in the gimmick on the previous Raw, and the crowd was pretty dead for them as well. Hopefully this gimmick ends this week. Christian suffered an apparent stinger, as part of his body and one of his arms went numb after doing the dive outside the ring. There was a problem in further testing with his bicep, but it wasn't thought to be serious and the tentative thought was that he would be able to wrestle this coming week after being kept from wrestling at the TV's after this show. Earlier Matt did a plancha on all three, and somehow only hit Jeff. After Matt hit the twist of fate and went for the mask, unmasking one of the guys, only to reveal a second mask, Christian did a messed up tomokaze, due to his injury, on Matt for the pin. 3/4*

On commentary JR pointed out that the crowd was still in shock from what happened to Austin to try to help cover for the lack of heat.

What did you think of the match? And...What did you think of the angle with Edge and Christian being the Conquistadors in disguise?

We see a review of what led us here tonight to Chris Benoit vs Triple H. At Unforgiven, Triple H defeated Angle in a No Disqualification match and Rock retained the WWF Championship against Benoit, The Undertaker and Kane in a Fatal Four-Way match. On the September 28 edition of SmackDown!, Angle and Benoit defeated Rock and Triple H in a tag team match. On the October 2 edition of Raw is War, Benoit helped Angle in defeating Triple H to become the number one contender for the WWF title at No Mercy. As a result, Triple H and Benoit began feuding. There’s a moment in the build where Benoit headbutts Stephanie and then asks her how her head is backstage. Mega creepy, especially now...

Triple H comes out to a baby face’s reaction with the fans booing Benoit. Funny thinking about how opposite that would be by Wrestlemania XX.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Paul Levesque) pinned Chris Benoit in 18:43. This was a tremendous match and would have been a near classic had it not been for the disappointing crowd heat. Benoit came to the ring with almost too much of an "I'm doing a job look." Both guys were even more muscular than usual, noticeably. HHH worked over Benoit's knee and even did a combination deathlock chinlock move that Hiroshi Hase and Keiji Muto popularized in the 90s but has rarely been seen in this country. It was the old-style slow build. It was a very New Japan style singles title match. Benoit got a near fall with a Northern Lights suplex and later did a hot shot on the announcers table. He did a diving head-butt onto HHH's bad arm. HHH did a reverse suplex, a high knee and a neckbreaker followed by a superplex while standing on the top rope. Benoit came back with a rolling german suplex and a dragon suplex but HHH made the ropes. Benoit did a second dragon suplex for a near fall. Benoit that put on the crossface. The tragedy of all this is that you could see the crowd totally didn't believe HHH would ever tap out, no matter how long Benoit kept him in the hold, the crowd intensity in the crowd never built. HHH broke it, thanks to Stephanie's messages in the tape, and used a death valley driver. Stephanie then came out to save the day, even though she was told not to. She slapped Benoit. They did a Japanese sequence where Benoit was going for the crossface and HHH for the pedigree, and the two kept blocking and reversing each other before HHH hit a low blow and got the clean pin with a pedigree. This was more of a Benoit style match, complete with the clean loss after making the match great, which he did for years in WCW and is working on continuing that talent in WWF big matches. HHH had a bloody nose, and there was some concern it was broken, although at TV the next night he didn't show the usual broken nose signs (blackened eyes). ****

Backstage, Edge and Christian have Coronas for the Conquistadors.

Now time for our main event!

It’s been a helluva year for Kurt Angle. This year, he’s won the European and Intercontintental titles and he won the King of the Ring tournament as well. On the October 2 edition of Raw, Angle had defeated Triple H (with help from Benoit) to become the number one contender leading us to tonight’s main event.

Angle pinned Rock (Dwayne Johnson) in 21:01 to win the WWF title.

Meltzer said, “This was announced as a no DQ match, which was because they were going to do tons of outside interference and put it over like Stephanie out thought everyone again. They showed HHH watching the match again with ice on his shoulder to get over the Benoit crossface spot, which is one of those little touches that makes the difference in moves getting over or not. It also guaranteed he'd be out before it was over. Rock threw Angle threw the set twice. Angle threw Rock into the speakers. Rock crotched Angle on the post and hit him with two chair shots. Rock used a dragon screw into a sharpshooter. Angle was tapping like crazy but no ref. Lawler than made the stupid comment of the night, saying the submission wouldn't count because it's a no DQ match. That was worthy of Schiavone. Crowd was far more into this match than any of the others. Rock threw Angle into the ring steps, which may have busted Angle's eye as it was starting to swell pretty bad by the end of the match. Rock also bounced his head on the announcers table and spit water in his face. Rock blocked a belt shot after Stephanie threw the belt into Angle, and Angle blocked the rock bottom. Angle then hit the belt shot but Rock kicked out, although Angle hit him hard enough that Rock's head was busted open, which appeared to be hardway. Angle hit a german suplex and at this point it was evident his eye had been busted. Angle missed a moonsault. He does a really nice looking one, but after Bob Holly, I don't know that anyone is going to lay there and take it, as he's only hit it once in his career and that had bad results. Rock got a great near fall with a float over DDT and did a belly to belly suplex and a spinebuster. Stephanie ran in to save Angle, but Rock gave her the rock bottom. He went to do the people's elbow on Stephanie, but Angle grabbed his leg to stop him. HHH came out and attacked Angle, seeing as if anything happened to Stephanie, it was Angle's fault. HHH also gave Rock a pedigree, pulled Stephanie out and carried her to the back. Rock kicked out of the pedigree and Rock hit a DDT for a near fall. Rikishi came out but at this point, Rock gave Angle a rock bottom and Angle kicked out. Rikishi went to squash Angle in the corner, but Angle pulled Rock in front and instead he squashed both guys, but more Rock selling it. Rikishi then went to kick Angle, but he moved and he kicked Rock. Angle did the Olympic slam first on Rikishi, which was a huge guy to do it to, then to Rock, and scored the pin to win the title, to a big face pop. ****¼”

Angle drops to his knees in the aisle crying!

Tell us your thoughts about this match!

Would you have booked it differently looking back?

Were there skeptics to the idea of putting the belt on Angle so quickly?

That’s the end of our PPV event!

BEST MATCH POLL Kurt Angle vs. Rock won with 83, but HHH vs. Benoit were close with 80. The WORST MATCH POLL wasn’t even close with Steven Regal vs. Naked Mideon winning it.

Most creative signs of the night:

I’ve been drinking since 3:16

I drove from Mexico to see the conquistadors

Fan Questions:

Stevehateswrestling asks... naked Mideon!! Who booked this shit and what was the end game with the former Phineas, was there plans on a naked Henry Godwin ?

Stevehateswrestling also asks...why did wwe try and make a star out of Chaz, breaking him away from thrasher, to give him the beaver cleavage gimmick and then this lo down team, why didn’t it work out for Chaz

Owen wants to know...Were any of the other wrestlers who been there for a while at this point upset about Kurt winning the world title just 10 months into his career ? 

A Wrestling Historian asks...What was it that sold Vince McMahon on making Kurt Angle the WWF Champion almost one year after his debut?

Matt asks...Was Kurt Angle ready to carry the load as WWF Champion?

Brett asks...Did you guys tell Kurt Angle to cry like a baby when he won the title or did Kurt improv that himself?  Kurt crying when he won the title made this one of the funniest post win title celebrations I ever saw

Rob asks...Why was Austin/Rikishi, the biggest storyline-based match of the night, randomly put on fifth? Why not end with it, or better yet start the ppv with it (as to not overshadow Angle's win)?

Tyler asks...Hey JR. Around this time, a wrestling video game called No Mercy came out on the Nintendo 64 and most say it's the greatest wresting video game of all time. Did you ever play it? Or any wrestling game?

Austin says...Big fan of the show, guys! Albany, NY has been the host of many memorable WWE/WWF moments (Stone Cold beer truck, Edge cashing in MITB, debut of the 24/7 Title, Flair winning the ‘92 Rumble), what’s your favorite? Also, any good stories from your time in Albany?

Stevehateswrestling asks...was anyone else considered to join the right to censor, I always thought billy Gunn, roaddogg or xpac would have made great fit as a complete 360 on their characters at the time and why is RTC Conrad’s favorite faction ever

Jeremy Priest asks...IMO HHH's best year was 2000. To me he was just on another level being promos, in-ring work, story telling etc. Jim do agree or disagree on 2000 being his best year.

JIm asks...If not Rikishi or Triple H, who else was considered for the man who ran down Stone Cold?