Judgment Day 2000

Judgment Day 2000 was the second annual Judgment Day professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on May 21, 2000 at the Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.
The main event was a Iron Man match for the WWF Championship and featured Triple H facing The Rock with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. Triple H defeated The Rock to win the championship 6 falls to 5, after a disqualification in the final seconds by Shawn Michaels as a result of interference by the returning Undertaker. Featured matches on the undercard included a double tables match featuring D-Generation X (Road Dogg and X-Pac) defeating The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von). The other featured match on the undercard was a Submission match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship between Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho, which Benoit won to retain the championship.
==Background==
The main event of the evening was a 60-minute Iron man match between former World Wrestling Federation Champion Triple H and the current title holder at the time, The Rock. At WrestleMania, Vince McMahon turned on The Rock and helped Triple H retain his title, joining his daughter Stephanie and son Shane in the McMahon-Helmsley Faction with Triple H and D-Generation X. In the weeks leading up to Backlash The Rock and Triple H's hostility had reached its climax it seemed. At Backlash, with the help of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock defeated Triple H. The next night on Raw Triple H stated that he wanted to take The Rock on in a 60-minute Iron man match for the World Wrestling Federation title, Shawn Michaels also got involved, requesting to be special guest referee.
In the meantime, Shane McMahon began a rivalry with the Big Show. Leading into WrestleMania Shane had actually aligned himself with Big Show, who at the time was feuding with The Rock over the finish to January's Royal Rumble. Shane interfered in their match at No Way Out in February and helped Big Show win, which earned Show the #1 contendership and a match with Triple H, who had won back the WWF Championship Big Show had taken from him at Survivor Series in November 1999, at WrestleMania. The match eventually grew to include The Rock and Mick Foley, and Big Show was the first wrestler eliminated from the ensuing elimination fatal-four-way main event. After WrestleMania, with Shane now siding with the defending champion, Big Show began a brief period where he would imitate other wrestlers in a comedic role. This earned him ridicule from Shane, so the two began a rivalry that led to a match at Judgment Day.
Another feud involving the Faction was DX's feud with the Dudley Boyz, which had started when they had defeated the New Age Outlaws at No Way Out for the WWF Tag Team Championship and caused the breakup of the Outlaws. Although the Dudleys did help out the Faction at times, they eventually turned on them and became heroes in the eyes of the fans. At the time Bubba Ray Dudley had taken to powerbombing many of the WWF's female wrestlers through tables and was keen on doing so to Tori, who was X-Pac's storyline girlfriend. This led to a tables match being set for Judgment Day.
The ongoing rivalry between Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho over the WWF Intercontinental Championship began at WrestleMania 2000 where Benoit and Jericho along with Kurt Angle faced each other in a two fall triple threat match for both Angle's Intercontinental Championship and European Championship. Benoit won the Intercontinental Championship after pinning Jericho while Jericho won the European Championship after pinning Benoit. Jericho lost the European Championship to Eddie Guerrero the following night on Raw is War after Chyna turned on Jericho for Guerrero. Benoit defended the Intercontinental Championship against Jericho at Backlash where Benoit won by disqualification after Jericho used the title belt to defend himself from Benoit's Diving headbutt and was disqualified as a result. Benoit and Jericho had a rematch for the title on the May 4 episode of Smackdown! where Jericho won after hitting Benoit with the title belt then hitting him with the Lionsault while referee Earl Hebner was thrown out of the ring by Benoit. After aiding The Rock, confronting and insulting the McMahon-Helmsley Faction, Jericho was forced to defend the Intercontinental Championship on the May 8 episode of Raw is War. After retaining the title against Kurt Angle and Big Show, Jericho lost the Intercontinental Championship back to Benoit after special guest referee Triple H purposely got distracted by his wife Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley while Benoit tapped out to the Walls of Jericho and after Jericho hit him to get his attention Triple H hit Jericho from behind causing Jericho to be locked in Benoit's Crippler Crossface before Triple H called for the bell and awarded the title to Benoit despite Jericho not submitting. Benoit later announced that he would give Jericho a rematch for the Intercontinental Championship at Judgment Day in a submission match.
==Results==
* Sunday Night Heat: The British Bulldog defeated Joey Abs (4:28)
* Sunday Night Heat: Essa Rios and Lita defeated Kaientai (Taka Michinoku and Funaki) in an Intergender tag team match (5:02)
* Sunday Night Heat: The Godfather defeated D'Lo Brown (3:40)
* Rikishi & Too Cool (Grandmaster Sexay & Scotty 2 Hotty) defeated Team ECK (Edge, Christian, & Kurt Angle) in a 6-man tag team match (9:46)
* Eddie Guerrero (c) (w/ Chyna) defeated Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko in a Triple Threat match to retain the WWF European Championship (7:57
* Shane McMahon defeated The Big Show in a "falls count anywhere" match (7:12)
* Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit (c) defeated Chris Jericho in a submission match (13:27)
* D-Generation X (Road Dogg & X-Pac) (w/ Tori) defeated The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley) in a Tag team tables match (10:55)
* Triple H defeated The Rock (c) 6-5 in a 60 Minute Iron Man match to win the WWF Championship (w/ Shawn Michaels as Special Guest Referee) (60:08)
**The Rock pinned Triple H (10:42)
**Triple H pinned The Rock (25:27)
**Triple H pinned The Rock (26:28)
**Triple H pinned The Rock (32:24)
**The Rock pinned Triple H (40:35)
**Triple H was DQ'd (43:44)
**Triple H pinned The Rock (44:07)
**Triple H KO'd The Rock with a sleeper hold (47:77)
**Triple H was counted out (56:06)
**The Rock pinned Triple H (58:02)
**The Rock was DQ'd after outside interference by The Undertaker (60:08)
==Other on-screen talent==
;Commentators
*Jim Ross
*Jerry "The King" Lawler
;Interviewers
*Mark Lloyd
*Jonathan Coachman	
;Ring announcer
*Howard Finkel
;Referees
*Earl Hebner
*Theodore Long
*Tim White
*Jack Doan
*Mike Chioda
*Chad Patton
==See also==
*List of WWE pay-per-view events
*WWE Event History
*Judgment Day
==DVD release==
* Judgment Day 2000 on DVD
==External links==
* Judgment Day 2000 Official Website
* Judgment Day 2000 at CAGEMATCH.net
* Judgment Day 2000 at Online World of Wrestling
* on WWE Network
Category:Judgment Day
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events
Category:2000 pay-per-view events
Category:Events with Falls Count Anywhere matches
Category:Events with Iron Man matches
Category:Events with Intergender matches
Category:Events with Falls Count Anywhere matches
Category:Events with Submission matches
Category:Events with Table matches
Category:Events with Guest Referees