3 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE WrestleMania 2000

Millennium Bugged.

by Michael Hamflett
The Rock Mick Foley WrestleMania 2000
WWE

It was the best of times.

2000 was a year so utterly f*cking fabulous for WWE that they too succumbed to the marketing strategy du jour and hoyed the number on the end of the event title. Far from just panicking those that prefer a neater sequence, this promised futuristic flights of fancy something such as Sports Entertainment can almost always deliver. Not least this version of Sports Entertainment. Sports Entertainment - pro wrestling via Vince McMahon - at its commercial and critical peak.

The company continued to crush WCW in something that could barely be considered a "war" anymore, whilst January's Royal Rumble and February's No Way Out kicked off a year that would comprehensively go down as the company's best ever on pay-per-view.

There wasn't a shred of cynicism implied in the opening line of this intro. It was the best of times. This was not the best of WrestleManias.

(Want more WrestleMania Ups & Downs? We got 'em: I, 2, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, 13, 14, 15)

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett