Judgment Day (2000)
| Judgment Day (2000) | |||
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 Promotional poster featuring Kane | |||
| Promotion | World Wrestling Federation | ||
| Date | May 21, 2000 | ||
| City | Louisville, Kentucky | ||
| Venue | Freedom Hall | ||
| Attendance | 16,827 | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| Judgment Day chronology | |||
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Judgment Day (2000) was the first annual Judgment Day professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). (Although there was an In Your House event named Judgment Day in 1998, this was the first annual.) It was presented by 3DO's Army Men: World War and took place on May 21, 2000 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.
The main event was an Iron Man match for the WWF Championship and featured Triple H facing The Rock with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. Triple H defeated The Rock to win the championship 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 and D-Von). The other featured match on the undercard was a Submission match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship between Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho, which Benoit won to retain the championship.
Background
The main event of the evening was a 60 minute Iron man match between former World Wrestling Federation Champion Triple H and the current title holder at the time, The Rock. At WrestleMania, Vince McMahon turned on The Rock and helped Triple H retain his title, joining his daughter Stephanie and son Shane in the McMahon-Helmsley Faction with Triple H and D-Generation X. In the weeks leading up to Backlash The Rock and Triple H's hostility had reached its climax it seemed. At Backlash, with the help of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock defeated Triple H. The next night on Raw Triple H stated that he wanted to take The Rock on in a 60 minute Iron man match for the World Wrestling Federation title, Shawn Michaels also got involved, requesting to be special guest referee.
In the meantime, Shane McMahon 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 H, who had won back the WWF Championship Big Show had taken from him at Survivor Series in November 1999, at WrestleMania. The match eventually grew to include The Rock and Mick 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 WWF 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 WWF'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.
Main event matches
In the main event, Triple H and The Rock had wrestled to a 5-5 tie with less than four minutes left. After Michaels was taken down accidentally, DX and the McMahons interfered to try to help Triple H incapacitate The Rock and score the victory. While the assault was going on music began to play in the arena, and after a few seconds The Undertaker entered the scene, making his return after suffering an injury in October 1999. He immediately began attacking everyone in the ring, finishing with Triple H. While he was attacking Triple H, Michaels got back up and went into the ring trying to get Undertaker to stop. Undertaker followed with a chokeslam and a Tombstone Piledriver as time expired, leaving Michaels with no choice but to disqualify The Rock. That proved to be the decisive fall, and Triple H regained the title with a 6-5 victory in the match. The Undertaker confronted Michaels after the match, as it had not been his intent to cause Triple H to win.
In the other main event matches, Shane McMahon defeated the Big Show with help from Bull Buchanan, Chris Benoit retained his Intercontinental Championship against Chris Jericho, and DX won the tables match with the Dudley Boyz.
Aftermath
The Rock continued his feud with Triple H, 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 H, Vince McMahon, and Shane McMahon where if any member of Triple H's team was pinned, whoever scored the fall would win the WWF Championship. The Rock won the match for his team by pinning Vince McMahon, who promptly disappeared for several months to be a "genetic jackhammer" for his wife Linda McMahon.
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.
Results
Iron Man Match
Triple H defeated The Rock for the WWF Championship with Shawn Michaels as special guest referee. Had it been a draw after 60 minutes, The Rock would have retained the WWF Championship.
| Score | Point Winner | Decision | Notes | Times |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–1 | The Rock | Pinfall | The Rock won the point using a Rock Bottom | 10:42 |
| 1–1 | Triple H | Pinfall | Triple H won the point using a Pedigree | 25:28 |
| 2–1 | Triple H | Pinfall | Triple H won the point using an inside cradle | 26:27 |
| 3–1 | Triple H | Pinfall | Triple H won the point using a Piledriver | 32:23 |
| 3–2 | The Rock | Pinfall | The Rock won the point using a DDT | 40:35 |
| 3–3 | The Rock | Disqualification | Triple H was disqualified for hitting The Rock with a chair | 43:43 |
| 4–3 | Triple H | Pinfall | Triple H pinned The Rock immediately after being disqualified | 44:08 |
| 5–3 | Triple H | Submission | The Rock was unable to continue whilst being in a sleeper hold | 47:28 |
| 5–4 | The Rock | Count out | Triple H was counted out following a pedigree from The Rock on the announcer's table | 56:09 |
| 5–5 | The Rock | Pinfall | The Rock won the point using The People's Elbow | 58:03 |
| 6–5 | Triple H | Disqualification | The Rock was disqualified due to outside interference by The Undertaker | 59:59 |