08/14/2000 WWF Raw

The Rock & The Dudleys NC Kurt Angle, Triple H & Shane McMahon in about 7:00

I try to mix things up and throw in more 2000s wrestling for you, the readers, even though it’s not my go-to or preference. Since this match happened twenty-six years ago to the day, I figured I’d give this a whirl. This episode of Raw was the Summerslam 2000 go-home show, so a lot is going on here. Rock, Angle, and Trips were facing off in a three-way for the WWF title at that show, with a lot of teasing of Angle and Stephanie being a couple. This wasn’t much of a match and was more of a story-advancement tool than anything else. Shane played chickenshit heel when it came to the Rock, so at least he sold fear of that professional wrestler. It was fun watching pre-quad injury Triple H. He was still so agile, taking a couple of really good bumps as he glided through the air with ease. Hunter and Angle teased that they couldn’t coexist to build the upcoming PPV main event. When there was an accidental ref bump, the Dudleys set up a table outside, bucking their tradition of setting one up in the ring for reasons to be deciphered soon. There were multiple teases of different ways of Shane going through the table until Bubba settled on a simple powerbomb with his back to the entrance, so Edge could come out and blast both Dudleys with chairs to help push their TLC at SummerSlam. Leaving the Rock to face all the heels, the show ended with Hunter pedigreeing Rock and all three men standing tall in the ring to SHANE’s music because of course it did. The action itself was fine, and we thankfully limited Shane, but it wasn’t a well-wrestled match or anything. **

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