wwf armageddon

Wrestling Recap: Kane vs. Jericho (Armageddon ’00)

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The Date: 10 December 2000
The Venue: Birmingham–Jefferson Civic Center; Birmingham, Alabama
The Commentary: Jim “J.R.” Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler
The Referee: Theodore Long
The Stakes: Last Man Standing match to conclude rivalry

The Build-Up:
On October 5th, 1997 (the day after my twelfth birthday, which sadly clashes with Global James Bond Day), Glenn Jacobs made his dramatic debut as Kane, the scarred, monstrous younger half-brother of the Undertaker. Following this, Kane ran wild throughout the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a monstrous “tweener” who attacked bad guys (“heels”) and good guys (“faces”) alike, primarily brawling with his brother and being embroiled in WWF Chairman Vince McMahon’s vendetta against “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Although Kane always received his fair share of cheers for the amount of ass he kicked, he cemented his status as a face after suffering a betrayal at the hands of his friend and tag team partner, X-Pac, which led to him firmly setting his sights on the WWF Championship, held by Triple H, after returning from an injury in mid-2000. However, while a team up with his brother was teased, Kane would turn on the Undertaker, don a bad-ass new vest attire, and embark on a renewed path of destruction, bolstered by his newfound ability to vocalise his hatred of the world and all things beautiful. Eventually, this led to him crossing paths with “Y2J” Chris Jericho, a high-flying former WWF Intercontinental Champion who earned the Big Red Machine’s rage after accidentally splashing him with hot coffee in a backstage segment. Despite swiftly enacting revenge on Jericho, and coming out on top in their last two pay-per-view bouts, Kane’s anger at Jericho only exacerbated when Y2J cost him the WWF Hardcore Championship and attacking him with a steel chair the month before. Having found a fury awoken inside himself, and frustrated with Kane’s constant attacks, Jericho went to then-WWF Commissioner Mick Foley and out-right demanded one last match with the Big Red Machine here, a Last Man Standing match, to finally put their differences aside once and for all.

The Match:
Of course, Armageddon 2000 was also the night of the infamous six-man Hell in a Cell match for the WWF Championship. That match, and this one, would (in storyline) cast a great deal of controversy onto Commissioner Mick Foley, since Vince McMahon wasn’t pleased that Foley had sanctioned eight of his top stars to compete in dangerous and potentially career shortening matches. However, both the video package and J.R. and The King emphasise that Jericho not only wanted this match, he literally begged for it; pushed to the edge by Kane’s constant assault, Jericho was eager to put an end to the Big Red Machine and had become increasingly violent, attacking Kane with repeated steel chair shots in the build-up to this match, and the story heading in was that Y2J was the plucky underdog and Kane was the unstoppable monster, and that something naturally had to give in this Last Man Standing match. This match also came when both men were, arguably, at the peak of their careers; Jericho was still riding a wave of popularity and early success following his memorable debut, and Kane was absolute hench as fuck at this time, sporting probably my favourite look of his and apparently reinvigorated by his recent main event push. Fittingly, given the intensity of this feud so far (which, despite quickly escalating into Kane wanting to disfigure Jericho’s face, we’re constantly reminded all started over a hot cup of coffee), the two begin the match by brawling on the entrance ramp. With no disqualifications or count outs in effect, both men were free to do whatever they wanted in order to pummel the other until they were physically unable to answer the referee’s ten count, and Kane immediately took full advantage of that to batter Jericho out to the backstage area where (after a brief, awkward period of dead air) he tried to end Jericho’s life by hurling an equipment box at his head!

Chris Jericho was constantly on the back foot thanks to Kane’s raw power.

Luckily, Jericho dodged out of the way (and similarly avoided having his head caved in from a massive shovel shot) and (after the two take pot shots at Mideon, who randomly wandered into the fight), Jericho threw sawdust in Kane’s eyes and slipped out of a running powerslam to send the Big Red Machine into the ring post. Jericho quickly followed up by slamming Kane’s face into the steel steps and then rolling him into the ring, where (oddly, considering the stipulation) the majority of the main action took place. Constantly on the defensive thanks to Kane’s sheer size and strength, Jericho pressed his advantage by knocking his opponent down with a back elbow off the top rope, countering a back body drop, and even clotheslining Kane out of the ring. However, Kane, nimble as a cat, did that awesome spot where he landed on his feet and then caught Jericho in mid-air, clamping down on a bearhug and running Y2J spine-first into the ring post before finally dumping him on the thin outside padding with a running powerslam. Kane then gave Jericho a receipt for smashing his face into the steel steps, and then continued to work Jericho over in the ring, focusing on the spine with stomps, backbreakers, and shoulder thrusts into the corner. Despite the brutal assault, Jericho not only refused to stay down but also scrambled and clawed his way back into the fight, desperate to mount a comeback; Kane easily shut him down with a huge one-arm toss and then applied that awesome choke hold where he held his opponent by the throat and stretched him across his back. While J.R. rightly pointed out that submissions are irrelevant, Kane’s strategy was clearly to punish Jericho and to choke him out so he couldn’t make it to his feet. This led to the first ten-count of the match; Kane stalked the ring, stunned that Jericho managed to beat the count, and the crowd was suitably worked into a frenzy as they cheered for Y2J to get back into the fight. However, when he tried to do so with a back spinning heel kick, Kane snatched him out of the air (almost dropping him) and slammed him to the mat and had his Lionsault rudely interrupted when Kane got his knees up and then fell victim to Kane’s mental top-rope diving clothesline.

Chris Jericho enduring Kane’s assault and ultimately overcame him using his feisty wiles.

After milking the ten count, Kane continued overwhelming Jericho with huge haymakers and, when Jericho defiantly got to his feet and asked for more, Kane delivered an absolutely massive One-Handed Chokeslam and was driven to a frenzy when Jericho somehow staggered to his feet as the referee counted to nine. Incensed at Jericho’s tenacity, Kane snatched a steel chair from ring side, rammed it into Jericho’s ribs, smashed it over his spine, and signalled his intention to put an end to Jericho’s insolence with a Tombstone Piledriver to the chair. However, Jericho escaped and blasted Kane with a low blow before felling him with a DDT. Seizing the chair for himself, Jericho finally turned the tide with a sickening shot right to Kane’s unprotected head; he with a flying forearm, a top rope missile dropkick, a bulldog, and then finally hit the Lionsault onto Kane after laying the chair across Kane’s abdomen (which, naturally, hurt Jericho just as much as Kane). However, Kane did his trademark zombie sit-up at the count of nine and then shut Jericho down with a big boot to the face and military pressed Y2J out of the ring. The two brawled back up the ramp towards the cars and stage decorations surrounding the entrance; there, Jericho was (eventually) able to cause Kane to crash onto (but not quite through) a nearby table with a facebuster. Hurt and desperate from Kane’s brutal and relentless assault, Jericho resorted to utilising his surroundings to his advantage; as Kane staggered to his feet, Jericho caused a wall of barrels to come crashing down onto his opponent, effectively burying and pinning him down and ensuring that the Big Red Machine couldn’t answer the ten count. Although Kane’s gloved hand popped out from between the barrels (and he could have easily just crawled out the other side), Jericho kicked it away and was declared the winner, finally overcoming his monstrous opponent and putting an end to their rivalry.

The Aftermath:
I was well into this feud at the time; I’d only been into wrestling for just over a year by this point but Kane had firmly become my favourite wrestler and I loved seeing him absolutely manhandle Jericho in this rivalry. The actual match wasn’t really anything that great; it was a fairly standard big man vs. little man match that was designed to put over Kane’s immense strength and Jericho’s tenacity, but it did this very well and I think the two worked pretty well together. Despite the fact that Jericho had been on the losing end of their matches and most of their segments prior to Armageddon 2000, this match marked the end of their heated rivalry. Over the next few weeks, both men went their separate ways, with Jericho restarting his epic rivalry with Chris Benoit over the Intercontinental Championship and Kane switching back to being a fan favourite soon after. This feud, and match, also marked Kane’s detour into the Hardcore division, which led to a pretty entertaining triple threat match for the belt at WrestleMania X-Seven following Kane’s mammoth performance at that year’s Royal Rumble. This wouldn’t be the last time Chris Jericho and Kane crossed paths; the two would battle one on one a couple of times in random, throwaway matches and often face off for the Tag Team Championships, but they would never again enter into a prolonged feud with each other. Instead, each man pursued their own individual World Championship goals but, despite competing in Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank ladder matches, never went head to head for the company’s top prize.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

What did you think to the bout between Kane and Chris Jericho at Armageddon 2000? How would you rate it compared to their other bouts and what did you think to their feud in general? Were you a fan of the ending to this match? What did you think to Kane’s look and presentation during this time? How are you celebrating Kane’s debut this year, what are some of your favourite matches and moments from Kane’s long and complex career, and what dream match would you have liked to see him involved in? Whatever your thoughts about the Big Red Machine, leave a comment below.

Wrestling Recap: Kane vs. X-Pac (Armageddon ’99)

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The Date: 12 December 1999
The Venue: National Car Rental Center; Sunrise, Florida
The Commentary: Jim “J.R.” Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler
The Referee: Tim White
The Stakes: Steel cage match, personal rivalry between for tag team partners

The Build-Up:
After the relationship between Paul Bearer and the Undertaker broke down, Kane made a dramatic debut in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on October 5th, 1997 (the day after my twelfth birthday, and which sadly clashes with Global James Bond Day) at Badd Blood: In Your House. In an effort to goad his older brother into a confrontation, Kane went on a rampage, attacking and disrupting WWF programming at every opportunity until the two finally clashed at WrestleMania XIV. Having made an instant impression of the WWF audience, Kane was quickly booked more as a no-nonsense “tweener” who attacked bad guys (“heels”) and good guys (“faces”) alike, to the point where he simply did what he wanted, setting stagehands on fire and even briefly capturing the WWF Championship from white-hot champion “Stone Cold” Steve Austin as part of an alliance with WWF Chairman Vince McMahon’s super stable, the Corporation. After being betrayed by his brother following a short-lived alliance between the two, Kane found himself at odds with the Corporation and allied with D-Generation X, a stable of reprobates whose childish antics clashed with McMahon’s sensibilities. Although D-X soon parted ways, Kane formed a tag team with D-X’s scrappy underdog, X-Pac, who helped him to open up, speak without the aid of his voice box, and even secured him a girlfriend in the form of Tori. However, despite the two winning the WWF Tag Team Championships twice, their partnership tragically dissolved when X-Pac turned on Kane to re-join D-X. Kane turned into a sympathetic face in the process and this not only led to a series of escalating matches between the two (with this match being the second after Kane won by disqualification at the previous month’s Survivor Series) but also earned X-Pac a lifetime of hatred from the WWF fans for his actions.

The Match:
Prior to the match actually kicking off, X-Pac laid down a few additional stipulations for the bout in an interview with Michael Cole: basically, Kane’s only method of winning would be via pinfall, whereas X-Pac arranged it so that the cage door would be chained and padlocked shut and that he could either climb out of the cage or pin his opponent to win, and he also ended the interview by mocking Kane and asking him to get Tori to stop badgering him for sex. The crowd was emphatically pro-Kane as he made his trademark dramatic entrance alongside Tori and garbed in one of my favourite outfits of his (where it’s more black than red); Tori remained outside of the cage and at ringside, where she distracted the lecherous Jerry Lawler from his commentary throughout the match. Ever the embodiment of arrogance and smugness, X-Pac sauntered to the ring with all the confidence in the world, but the crowd was having none of it; their hatred towards him, as J.R. elaborated during his entrance, was only exacerbated by the fact that X-Pac had struck Tori a few times in the build up to the match, which went a long way to destroying his previous persona of a plucky underdog.

Kane dominated the early going until X-Pac crotched him on the top rope!

Rather than get into the ring and put his money where his mouth is, X-Pac lingered on the outside and made lewd advances towards Tori, so Kane clambered up the cage and went outside to put a beating on his former friend and tag team partner. Though initially overwhelmed by Kane’s size and strength, X-Pac briefly turned the tables by blasting Kane in the face with the ring bell but Kane quickly recovered with his patented zombie sit-up and chased X-Pac into the ring by once again climbing up the cage wall. Interestingly, J.R. pointed out that X-Pac could actually use his lead to his advantage and simply clamber up the other side of the cage before Kane even made it back into the ring; however, the match wouldn’t officially start until both men were inside of the ring and X-Pac decided to rush right into Kane’s trademark uppercut rather than try and escape. Once the match was officially underway, Kane manhandled X-Pac and no-sold X-Pac’s punches to his masked face; although X-Pac was quick enough to avoid Kane’s clotheslines and big shots, it backfired massively when he flew off the ropes looking for a spinning heel kick and got caught with a big slam. Kane followed this up with a military press and, naturally, J.R. began to relate the story of the match being that X-Pac is at a huge disadvantage and needs to think of some way to incapacitate his larger opponent and get the hell out of there, while Lawler simply cracked jokes about the size of Kane’s penis.

Kane overpowered X-Pac at every turn, leading to his D-X team mates coming down to interfere.

After weathering a methodical attack in the ring corners, X-Pac delivered a boot to Kane’s face and tried to hit a cross body off the top rope but Kane caught him and tried to ram his head into the steel mesh; however, X-Pac managed to slip off, push Kane into the cage wall, and finally downed the Big Red Machine with a spinning heel kick. X-Pac clambered up to the top of the cage and desperately fought off his pursuer with his “educated feet” and only managed to save himself from being hit with a big Chokeslam from the top by causing Kane to slip and land crotch-first on the ring ropes. X-Pac pressed his advantage by repeatedly slamming Kane’s head into the cage and then landed a big leg drop from the top rope, but Kane powered out and sat up once again. X-Pac was able to shut down Kane’s attempts to take control of the match with a stiff-looking tornado DDT but, while X-Pac was again able to weasel his way out of a Chokeslam, Kane finally shut the little bastard down with a big tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and then repeatedly tossed his former friend into the cage walls. Kane looked to be in firm control and prime position to hit his signature top-rope clothesline when the New Age Outlaws (“Road Dogg” Jesse James and “Mr. Ass” Billy Gunn, the WWF Tag Team Champions) ran down to the ring with a pair of bolt cutters; despite Kane’s best efforts (which amounted to pathetically reaching through the gap between the cage door and the cage wall), Road Dogg was able to break open the door, which Mr. Ass then slammed into Kane’s head and then tossed a steel chair into the ring to his D-X comrade.

Kane survived the X-Factor, hit a huge clothesline from the top of the cage, and won with a Tombstone.

Both men scrambled to their feet at around about the same time but X-Pac was able to surprise Kane with an X-Factor right onto the steel chair! Rather than go for the cover, though, X-Pac used a pair of handcuffs that the Outlaws also tossed into the ring to cuff Kane to the cage’s wire mesh and deliver two unprotected chair shots right to the Big Red Machine’s head! As X-Pac moved to climb out of the cage (why he didn’t use the door is beyond me), Tori rushed into the ring to stop him and also got hit with an X-Factor for her troubles. Kane managed to avoid another brain-scrambling chair shot by kicking the steel chair back into X-Pac’s face and then ripped his handcuff off, slipped out through the cage door, and intercepted X-Pac as he was making his way out of the cage! Kane then manhandled X-Pac back into the ring, slammed the cage door right in his face, and then clambered up to the very top of the cage to hit a massive diving clothesline! Kane then scooped up X-Pac, hit a Tombstone Piledriver, and scored the three count for the victory. Triumphant, and with the crowd finally woken up, Kane then left the ring alongside his girlfriend. Overall, this was an okay match; the crowd started hot but soon became a bit restless and bored with the slow pace and lack of excitement. The story of Kane dominating X-Pac and X-Pac having to use his quickness and wiles to counter Kane’s strength wasn’t told very well; Kane would go down pretty easily from a kick or a trip into the cage wall, which seemed to contradict how easily he shrugged off X-Pac’s other attacks. The highlight was clearly seeing Kane break his handcuffs and then perform that massive dive from the top of the cage but I think their follow-up match at No Way Out was probably a better overall contest.

The Aftermath:
Following Armageddon, the landscape of the WWF changed quite considerably; Triple H and his wife, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, were revealed to have been in cahoots to usurp Vince McMahon’s control over the WWF and, together, they started a reign of terror that saw Triple H capture the WWF Championship and matches being booked in favour of himself and his D-X comrades. X-Pac’s issues with Kane only escalated following their match; Tori dramatically turned on Kane and sided with X-Pac, becoming his valet and lover in the process, and Kane was so heartbroken by the betrayal that he returned to the mental hospital where he had spent much of his youth. Kane made a dramatic return in the build up to No Way Out, however; once again accompanied by his father, Paul Bearer, Kane furiously attacked X-Pac and his D-X cohorts. Although Kane was able to exact a measure of revenge against Tori by Tombstoning her, he lost to X-Pac in a No Holds Barred match at No Way Out. The feud between the former friends was finally put to anti-climatic rest at WrestleMania 2000, where Kane teamed with Rikishi to defeat X-Pac and Road Dogg in a tag team match. However, their rivalry was shortly reignited in 2002 when X-Pac joined the briefly resurrected New World Order (nWo); alongside the nWo, X-Pac attacked Kane and stole his mask, which he would often wear to the ring, though it appears as though this was merely a way to write Kane off of television following an injury and X-Pac left the company before their issues could be properly resolved upon the Big Red Machine’s dramatic return.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think to the contest between Kane and X-Pac at Armageddon 1999? How would you rate it compared to their other bouts and which of their feuds, matches, and moments is your favourite? Were you a fan of the team and friendship between Kane and X-Pac back in the day? Did X-Pac turning on Kane sour you on the plucky underdog as it did so many other fans? How are you celebrating Kane’s debut this year, what are some of your favourite matches and moments from Kane’s long and complex career, and what dream match would you have liked to see him involved in? Whatever your thoughts about the Big Red Machine, leave a comment below.