King of the Ring 2000: The WWF's Great PPV Run Finally Hits a Wall

The tournament starts with a match that barely has time to become one. Benoit immediately gives the bracket a serious wrestling tone by attacking Rikishi's arm and using the Crossface, but the story turns almost as quickly into a disqualification angle. Benoit uses a chair, loses the match and then continues attacking the shoulder afterward. The injury matters later because Val Venis and Kurt Angle target the same area, so the match has useful connective tissue. As a quarterfinal on pay-per-view, though, three minutes is far too little for the talent involved.

This is one of the more complete early-round matches because eight minutes allows Eddie Guerrero and Val Venis to build an actual contest. Guerrero's speed and timing give Venis something to react to, while Chyna and Trish Stratus add the expected ringside tension. The finish uses that tension when Chyna prevents Trish from interfering and the distraction creates the opening Venis needs. Eddie leaving the tournament this early is disappointing given the field, but the match itself is competitive enough to avoid feeling like bracket maintenance.

Crash Holly winning by roll-up is logical underdog booking, but the match never rises above its function. Bull Buchanan dominates with size, Crash survives, and one mistake ends the match. The problem is not execution; it is that another four-minute quarterfinal makes the tournament feel increasingly small on the night it is supposed to crown a king. Crash advancing gives Kurt Angle an easy semifinal path, which becomes more useful to Angle's story than to this match.

This is the first tournament match that feels worthy of the pay-per-view. Jericho controls enough of the early action to make Angle look vulnerable, and the Walls of Jericho creates a believable finish before Stephanie McMahon's distraction changes the result. Angle tapping while the referee is occupied gives Jericho a legitimate grievance, but the match still ends with Angle hitting the Angle Slam rather than stealing a roll-up. The interference is unnecessary for the wrestling quality, yet both men move fast enough and create enough near-finishes to make this the clear quarterfinal highlight.

The tag division is deep enough to make a four-team elimination structure work. T & A provide power, the Hardys supply speed, Too Cool bring crowd connection, and Edge and Christian are increasingly comfortable as opportunistic champions-in-waiting. The eliminations come quickly enough to prevent the match from becoming repetitive, and the final stretch between Too Cool and Edge and Christian gives the audience a clear rooting interest. Christian's belt shot creates the decisive opening for Edge to win the titles. It is not a classic, but it is one of the few matches on the card that feels properly sized for pay-per-view.

The shoulder injury from the opener gives this semifinal a ready-made story, and Venis sensibly spends most of the match attacking it. The problem is time. Three minutes is enough to communicate the target but not enough to create a compelling struggle around it. Rikishi wins with a belly-to-belly suplex, then Venis attacks the injured arm after the bell to keep the damage relevant for the final. As tournament storytelling, it connects the rounds. As a semifinal on a major event, it is barely substantial.

Angle's semifinal is essentially a controlled sprint. Crash Holly gets enough movement to avoid becoming a pure squash, but the outcome never feels uncertain. Angle dictates the pace, lands the Angle Slam and advances in under four minutes. That brevity protects Angle for the final and makes sense from a tournament-endurance perspective, yet it also reinforces the event's recurring problem: the bracket is being processed rather than celebrated. Angle looks efficient. The match is disposable.

There is no meaningful wrestling case for this match. The stipulation is built around humiliating Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco in evening gowns while the Hardcore Championship and 24/7 rule provide an excuse for interference. Crash Holly eventually enters and pins Patterson, turning the nominal match into another title switch. The segment is short, but that is its strongest quality. It reflects a strain of Attitude Era comedy that has aged badly because the joke is almost entirely the degradation of the participants rather than anything they do as performers.

The stipulation sounds more inventive than the match ultimately becomes. The Dudleys are outnumbered but control enough of the action to make their specialty feel dangerous, while DX and Tori use numbers and weapons to create openings. DX eventually wins by putting the Dudleys in the dumpster, which is another result that delays the obvious audience payoff. The real payoff comes after the bell when the Dudleys escape, destroy Road Dogg and X-Pac, and powerbomb Tori through a table. The post-match angle is more satisfying than the official finish.

The final has a better story than its six-minute runtime suggests. Rikishi enters damaged from Benoit's chair attack and Venis' continued work on the shoulder, so Angle has an obvious target and a conditioning advantage after a shorter semifinal. Rikishi's power creates a few believable momentum swings, but Angle survives and wins with a super belly-to-belly suplex. The finish is decisive and the winner is excellent. The match itself feels smaller than a tournament final because the event has spent the entire night training the audience to expect short bracket bouts.

The main event is more compelling as a stipulation puzzle than as a wrestling match. The Rock, Undertaker and Kane are technically partners, but each man can become WWF Champion by scoring the decisive fall, which creates distrust whenever Triple H is vulnerable. The McMahon side uses that tension to survive, while Triple H works as the only full-time wrestler on his team capable of matching the babyfaces directly. The closing stretch embraces chaos: Kane attacks Rock, Undertaker attacks Kane, Shane goes through the announce table, and Vince tries to steal a People's Elbow. Rock catches Vince with the Rock Bottom and pins him to win the championship. The crowd gets a major title change, but Triple H never loses a fall, leaving the match more memorable for its mechanism than its wrestling.