Unforgiven 2000: A Hot WWF Year Finally Produces a Merely Average Pay-Per-View

The best decision is the Hardy Boyz finally taking the WWF Tag Team Championship from Edge and Christian in a match that feels like a real payoff. The cage provides a logical obstacle, both Hardys must escape, and the finish gives them a decisive visual victory rather than another technicality. Chris Jericho forcing X-Pac to submit is similarly useful because the match produces an actual winner before the post-match attack preserves the rivalry.

Triple H defeating Kurt Angle is more complicated. The stipulation and Mick Foley's presence promise a conclusive end to the Stephanie-driven feud, but Stephanie still becomes part of the finish by low-blowing Angle before the Pedigree. The result gives Triple H the win without fully resolving the triangle.

The main event is the clearest example of overbooking. Chris Benoit initially pins The Undertaker after a chair shot and is announced as WWF Champion, only for Foley to reverse the decision because Undertaker's foot was on the rope. The restart eventually leads to The Rock pinning Benoit. Eddie Guerrero retaining over Rikishi by disqualification creates a similar problem lower on the card: the story moves, but the pay-per-view does not deliver a satisfying wrestling conclusion.

Philadelphia gives the show a louder floor than the match quality always deserves. The First Union Center crowd responds strongly to the major stars, the Hardy Boyz title win and Stone Cold Steve Austin's return, which keeps the event feeling important even when the undercard struggles. The crowd is especially useful during the cage match because every escape attempt has an obvious consequence.

The Austin segments are the event's strongest non-wrestling presentation. WWE treats his return as an investigation rather than a simple entrance, letting him confront wrestlers and staff throughout the night. His presence adds anticipation between matches and gives the show a narrative thread separate from the championships. The beer celebration with Shane McMahon turning into multiple Stone Cold Stunners gives the audience a release the card itself rarely provides.

The weaker presentation choice is the repeated use of short matches and interference. The first three bouts never create sustained momentum, and Eddie-Rikishi feels especially flat after the cage match raises the event's level. Unforgiven looks and sounds like a major WWF pay-per-view, but too much of the card is structured like television designed to push stories one week further.

Unforgiven 2000 is historically important first because Stone Cold Steve Austin returns to regular WWF television after nearly ten months away. His investigation into the person who ran him down becomes a major fall storyline and leads toward Rikishi's confession and Austin's No Holds Barred match at No Mercy. The return gives this event lasting significance even though Austin does not wrestle.

The Hardy Boyz also win the WWF Tag Team Championship from Edge and Christian in the steel cage, adding another important title change to a rivalry that had already produced WrestleMania's ladder match and SummerSlam's first TLC match. Kurt Angle's loss to Triple H does not halt his rise; Angle becomes number-one contender soon afterward and defeats The Rock for the WWF Championship at No Mercy.

The event drew a reported 605,000 pay-per-view buys, a strong commercial number that contrasts with its more modest critical reputation. Later reviews generally place Unforgiven below the strongest WWF events of 2000, while the cage match remains the portion most consistently praised.