WWE WAR ZONE - The Tombstone


Wrestlemania XVI in 2000 featured a first in Wrestlemania history, there was not even one regular one-on-one matchup on the card. There was a triple threat match, loads of tag matches, a cat fight, a battle royal, and of course the four-way elimination match for the title, but no regular one-on-one match.

Wrestlemania 2000 featured the Hardcore Battle Royal for the Hardcore title. This was a fun match to watch in my opinion, even with the botched ending. Hardcore Holly walked away with the belt, even though Crash was clearly supposed to.

Another fun match to watch was Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho. All of those three awesome wrestlers were making their first ever Wrestlemania appearance. This was a two falls match, with the first fall being for the Intercontinental Title and the second fall being for the European Title. Chris Benoit walked away with the Intercontinental Title, and Jericho walked away with the European title. Angle walked away with nothing despite never being involved in the pinfalls.

Kane and Rikishi teamed up to face X-Pac and the Road Dogg. Not exactly a classic wrestling match, but it was fun to see Pete Rose get his from Kane for the third year in a row. It’s too bad that trend didn’t continue after this Wrestlemania. Maybe Pete could get dumped on his head again at Wrestlemania 20? I guess we’ll see.

Everyone seemed to be giving the main event win to the Rock. He won the Royal Rumble and was the big face of the day, as Austin was out with his neck surgery. It was practically a given it seemed that the Rock would defeat Big Show, Mick Foley, and Triple H to become the WWF Champion again. However, that was not the case. Triple H retained the belt and is still one of only three men to ever retain the belt at Wrestlemania, and the ONLY heel to ever do so (the other two were Diesel and of course Hulk Hogan). I was thrilled with that match, not only the outcome but I thought it was an excellent match as well. WWE (F at the time) did a great job getting everyone a spot on the card this year, and delivered a solid show. Wrestlemania XVII was even better though…

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