I do not offer subscriptions to a mailing list! I do not e-mail images! ______________________________________________________________________ - The WWF had Judgment Day on this past Sunday, 05/20/2001. On paper, once again this seemed like a show with one match for me: Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit. This time around, they were scheduled for two-out-of-three falls in different gimmicked falls. At least the gimmicks weren't outrageous in the first two falls. But why would they want to offer up yet another ladder match on PPV. One of thefew gimmick matches that has remained over is the Royal Rumble, and that is because it only happens once a year. The main event matches featured Austin vs. Undertaker and HHH vs. Kane in a chain match. Ugh. They've totally killed Austin in the past few weeks. He runs from Undertaker. He sneaks out of challenges. He, gasp, called in a fake accident report on Undertaker's wife. I can't believe that everybody sold that as a tremendously evil thing. They made it seem worse than HHH engineering the hit-and-run on Austin in another lifetime. Austin's charm used to be that he was a kickass SOB. Now he's losing steam by the day. And the fact that these four guys are headlining yet another PPV, with a HHH vs. Austin program down the line, means that there's no room for anybody to get elevated. It's WCW all over again. And when they finally decide to use the legendary status of Mick Foley to help get somebody over, it's that young superstar worker, Rikishi. I'm in WCW mode: watch and enjoy the great wrestling match (sometimes matches) on the undercard and try not to get too annoyed by the headlining matches/wrestlers/politics. * Steve Regal beat Rikishi: Regal gets really strong reactions for his pompous shtick. But a match with Rikishi is hardly the vehicle to showcase Regal's ability. The back story for this match was that Rikishi came in with an injured shoulder. Yep, Regal can't even beat Rikishi cleanly. Worse yet, before getting the win in a RAW-time of ~7 minutes, Regal even bladed. A nothing opener. * Kurt Angle beat Chris Benoit in a two-out-of-three falls match: Angle was trying to win back his gold medals by winning this match. The first fall was pinfalls only. They started off better than the long match on the previous PPV, hitting suplexes to get the crowd into it. In a totally weird scene, Benoit scored a pin in what seemed like two minutes or less, using Angle's own suplex to get the pin. Not only do they jam these guys on second, just in case we might think they are actually upper echelon players, they seem intent on squeezing three falls into 15 minutes. Benoit tried for a crossface at the start of the second fall, which was submissions only. They ended up brawling outside the ring for a while, which isn't their strength, but the WWF audience needs that in every match, I guess. Some nice mat wrestling when they got back into the ring. Paul Heyman seemed more in Angle's corner than usual and Jim Ross seemed more in Benoit's corner than usual, since it seems like this series is supposed to establish Angle the heel and Benoit the face. As the Observer pointed out, Benoit seems better suited to be a heel working opposite the less-than-stellar-in-the-ring faces, with the quality of the matches helping everybody out and eventually making his babyface turn just happen because the crowd respects him. But, hell, that might require that he beat some of the guys on top, since fans don't want to get behind an impotent babyface. In WCW, there was largely deadwood on top stopping the young guys from getting spots; in the WWF, the guys on top aren't deadwood for the most part, but they will nonetheless kill the chances of the young guys getting over huge unless somebody in charge finally lays down the law. Benoit tried for a crab and a figure four, but Angle reached the ropes. With all of the hype for the third fall under ladder match rules, nobody believed that Benoit had a chance in this fall. Benoit hit a dragon screw, which Jim Ross called a leg lace takedown. Angle sold his knee for just one step after all of those leg-related moves. Sigh. Well, hell, he hasn't been in the business all that long, and it's not like the WWF is filled with Bret Hart types who actually respect the idea of selling accumulated damage. Like the young guys in WCW when it shut down (Thrillers, for example), Angle has learned some lazy habits from the guys on top. Angle hit his suplex and got a submission with the ankle lock. Angle sent Benoit to the steps and pulled a tiny ladder from under the ring, even though a big ladder was set up in the entryway. "I climb the ladder, you knock me off; you climb the ladder, I knock you off." I'd much rather see those cool reversals and suplexes. Angle tried to torpedo Benoit's head with the ladder, but Benoit ducked and Angle and the ladder went out of the ring. They seemed to try some goofy spot in the corner, with Angle climbing the ladder, stumbling, and Benoit dunping the whole mix. It just looked awkward. In a ladder match, it seems to me part of the charm should be the selling of the accumulated damage of the bumps, right? Well, once again, like the tag ladder matches that earned so much praise, there was no effort to sell in that way. Oh yeah, they acted groggy after a bump, but there was no sense that the damage mattered ten seconds later. As Benoit had the crossface on a tapping Angle, Edge & Christian ran out to attack Benoit. Angle climbed to the top and pulled down the medals while Benoit was brawling with E&C outside the ring. I think it's pretty fair to see that this was the worst ending ever for a ladder match. Hey, they've killed the cage match gimmick, so why not do the same to the ladder match gimmick? And there are some people, I'm sure, who wonder about the fairness of the comparison to WCW. * Rhyno beat Big Slow & Test to win the Hardcore Title: Yeah, these guys certainly deserved a higher place on the card than Benoit & Angle. Slow & Test started before Rhyno came out. I kind of wished that Rhyno wasn't in this match. A Test vs. Slow singles match has tremendous comedic potential. Even in the build up to this threeway match, the Test vs. Slow stuff has been just atrocious. They went into the crowd and walked. This is what wrestling is all about. They brawled to the back. It was that really bad hardcore stuff with no crowd noise to fool you into thinking it was at least interesting. Big Slow took the Nestea plunge in a set up area. Test & Rhyno went back to ringside to brawl some more. Test kicked out after a DDT on a garbage can lid. Slow came back in, selling nothing. He choke slammed Rhyno, took a kick to the face from Test, and kicked out at two. Rhyno gored Slow, but we sort of missed it. Test pulled out the fire extinguisher, standing there forever. Even Jim Ross had to say "if you're going to hit him, hit him." Rhyno did a Van Daminator style finish: he tossed a garbage can at Slow, who caught it, and then gored Slow. I was so glad it was over. * Lita beat Chyna to win the Women's Title: In the TV leading up to this PPV, Eddy Guerrero, seemingly in the midst of a face turn, worked his way into the story line. Would he help Lita beat Chyna? Lita came out to a great reaction. Chyna came out weating a godawful peacock feather fan around her neck, sprouting up behind her head. That had to be somebody's idea of a practical joke: "Yeah, Chyna, that looks great!" This match promised to be a mess. They hugged before the bell. Chyna overpowered Lita, while Lita outquicked Chyna; you know the clasic story: strength vs. skill. Chyna started kicking Lita. She nailed a clothesline. Well, it was the storyline I expected. Lita rallied with a swinging DDT. She went to punches, which Chyna shook off. The commentators didn't tell the story, at this point sputtering that something has upset Lita. Yeah, maybe those kicks and stiff clotheslines that you didn't get excited about. Chyna hit a neckbreaker that would have looked horrible if the camera shot didn't switch in mid-move. They did that a lot during this match. Chyna did a cocky cover and then lifted Lita up. Lita hit a cross armbar out of nowhere, which Chyna barely reacted to. Really, Chyna lay completely still while mildly screaming, sort of a like 10-year veteran hooker. Eddy Guerrero came out. Chyna didn't even think about selling anything. Chyna went for a power vomv, but Lita hit a rana that Chyna barely went over for. Chyna hit the power bomb after all, scoring the three count pin. Eddy shook his head mildly. It looked like a Karate Kid (and many other movies) storyline, with Eddy likely training Lita for the rematch. * Kane beat HHH to win the IC Title: This bout was a chain match involving the cerebral assassin. Don't you think some fan should have a sign saying "Cerebral Assasshole"? In the storyline, Kane worked the match with a broken arm. That just goes to show you why this youngster is the future of the WWF! Hey, I'm just repeating Jim Ross. The bell rang before the chain was attached, and the wrestlers brawled without the chain. It's just like the cage matches where they brawl outside and on top of the cage. HHH put the chain on Kane and himself. Kane rallied, using the chain. The gimmick was that HHH just had to yank on the chain and it would jerk Kane's bad arm, causing him to buckle in pain. Yup, all HHH had to do to Kane was yank him. HHH bladed as Kane laid into him outside the ring. Kane took control. "He's not a man, he's a monster!" As long as they don't say he's a wrestler. It dragged for a while. HHH tried a pedigree, but Kane powered out. As Kane seemed set to go for the finish, Steve Austin ran in. Austin went to chair Kane, but mistakenly hit HHH. Kane scored the pin. There you go: HHH did the job, but he set himself up for a WWF Title program coming out of the loss. As the song says, "It's all about the game." You start to see why they didn't want this match close to the Angle vs. Benoit match; they wrote all of the finishes on the same match book cover. * Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho won a "tag team turmoil" match to earn the number one contender's spot: It opened with Bradshaw & Faarooq vs. Malenko & Saturn. Well, gee, guess who went over? Dudleyz came in next. The action wasn't particularly engrossing. The crowd chanted "We want tables!" or, as one of the signs in the crowd put it, "tabels." Faarooq took the wassup head butt before they won their second match. Out came Justin Credible & X-Pac, with Albert at ringside. Man, the Accolytes started to get messy, he wrote sarcastically. With Albert's assistance, X-Factor went over. Hardyz came in next. More cheating for another win from X-Factor. Next came Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit, his surprise partner. They drew heat on Benoit, who finally tagged in Jericho.