The debut of the famous Backlash hooks set. Once again, Mania 2000 was used more as part of the bigger picture rather than its own bonafide special event. Looking back, there are three main selling points to Mania 2000, which included somewhat of a clusterf**k, as Stone Cold Steve Austin would put it, main event pitting Triple H, The Big Show, The Rock and the returning Mick Foley against each other. The first was the hardcore battle royal which included no less than 10 title changes. Something different. The second was the triangle ladder match between The Dudley Boyz, Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian. Something ridiculously jaw dropping. And the third was the Two-fall Triple threat match for the WWF Intercontinental (first fall) and European Championships (second fall) between Chris' Jericho and Benoit and Kurt Angle. Something from the wrestling textbook, if there is one. Other than that, the event was all filler. Really disappointing by the standards of the day. Backlash however saw things return to their brilliant best as a number of matches were worthy of being labelled 'show stealer'. The six man hardcore match between Crash Holly, Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Hardcore Holly, Perry Saturn, and Tazz stepped the near farcical level of violence in the product back then up to another outlandish level. Eddie Guerrero vs. Essa Rios and Jericho vs. Benoit for the European and Intercontinental Championships, respectively, were pure wrestling masterclasses while The Rock vs. Triple H was nothing short of wrestling drama at it brilliant best. Perfection. One match you need to watch as no words I type could possibly do it justice.
