2000. Although Mania was relatively disappointing, the rest was largely great:
Rumble - Cactus Jack V HHH - brutal match, but entertaining, also a good tables match between the Hardys & Dudleys. The Rumble itself was decent as well, with Rock winning for the only time (though this was later revoked). Loses points for Mae Young getting her knockers out, mind.
NWO - Another good match from cactus and HHH, arguably the last top-class performance of Foley's career - maybe barring the match he had with Orton - a top-class match with Angle & jericho, E&C V Hardy Boyz, dudleys winning the gold - good solid PPV
Backlash - bettered Mania by quite a bit, great story in the main event between Rock and the whole McMahon-Helmsley faction, Rock getting his overdue title win, alas with Austin's help. Also a great match between Jericho & Benoit, E&C's slow heel turn continuing with a dirty win over DX (who were laughably being cited as the best tag team in WWF history at the time, farce, would be bad enough if they said it about the Outlaws, anyway...). Also Guerrero had a decent match with Essa Rios, and Malenko & Scotty 2 Hotty went to a good one (had forgotten about that til I read about it in another thread yesterday)
JD - BRILLIANT Iron Man match between Rock and HHH. Can't believe it never made it onto Rock's career DVD. In the build-up to the match everyone on the web was saying that there was no way Rock could have a decent iron man match yet IMO he was the star of the match. It was a fascinating contest with an acceptable ending. Jericho & benoit had another cracker, Shane 'injured' Big Show which got him off TV for about 7 months, quite the relief.
KOTR - This was one of the weaker PPVs, hated the 6-man tag idea for the main event (which was almost mirrored last month of course). Just knew that Rock wouldn't go over HHH clean, ah well. Angle was top class, though I couldn't help but feel that he should have faced off against Benoit/Jericho in the final, rather than earlier on. I think E&C won the tag belts from too Cool here, don't remember much about that one, and Pat patterson & gerard briscoe had an evening gown match IIRC...oh dear
Fully Loaded - Awesome, one of my all-time favourites. As a huge Jericho fan, I loved the LMS with HHH, in fact I got the chance to meet Y2J a few years ago and told him it was my favourite match ever. Rock-Benoit was good as well, didn't like the finish mind. E&C and APa went to a surprisingly good match, loved the whole 'Christian is sick' angle they tried to pull on Foley all the way through, then they come out for the match and Edge says, "the ironic thing is, Christian really is sick. sick of being in Dallas, Texas!" Rikishi & Val Venis looked set to be a stinker but at least had a decent spot in it, despite the 3rd of the main events, Angle-Taker, being disappointing it was a great PPV overall.
Summerslam - Brilliant, arguably the best summerslam ever. Great main event, especially considering how much Rock and HHH had to improvise. The first TLC match was immense, and jericho and Benoit had one of the most underrated matches of all-time, it was fantastic. Shane0Mac & Blackman's match was really enjoyable, loved shane's bump, followed by angle playing the injuries down whilst trying to get in Steph's knickers. There were no really poor matches, if you exclude the thong stinkface match, but I didn't mind that at all!
Unforgiven - Enjoyable main event, even if it did repeat the ending to Fully Loaded in a way. I was pissed off that jericho had to fight X-Pac after being in great matches pretty much all year, but they went okay. E&C and the Hardys had a decent match, if not one of their classics (it was in a cage). Angle and Triple H had a good match, and steph staying with HHH was a swerve of the highest order. And of course, this saw the return of stone Cold Steve Austin, in classic style:
kevin Kelly: Stone cold, welcome back to the WWF!
*Austin beats the hell out of KK*
No Mercy - Angle's first championship, in a good match with Rock. Benoit and Triple H had a good one, and Austin-rikishi wasn't much to watch but was epic in its build-up and intensity. Also featured the humourous E&C-Hardys-Los Conquistadores angle.
Survivor Series - My memory of this one isn't as great as the others (as someone else said, it was the first 10 that were special). However I enjoyed HHH-Austin and Angle-Taker had a better match than they did at Fully Loaded. Don't remember much about Rock-Rikishi.
Armageddon - The HIAC is often called a disappointment but in all reality it was never likely to amount to much, it was a bad idea from a viewing POV although it made sense from a storyline POV. Jericho & kane was good, though, can't remember much else.
