27th February - 4th March: This Week in Wrestling History

Sunday February 27th 2000

WWF No Way Out 2000 - Cactus Jack vs. Triple H for the WWF Championship in HELL IN A CELL

Via therealwrestle

At the turn of the new millenium the WWFs road to Wrestlemania was ablaze with intensity as Cactus Jack and Triple H took the spotlight leading into the promotions first pay-per-view event of the year, the Royal Rumble. In a brutal, violent Street Fight the defending champion retained against a valiant Cactus Jack after an assault littered with chairs, barbed wire, baseball bats and thumb tacks wasn't enough for the challenger to climb to the top of the mountain.

HHH was very much the man at this time. After breaking out of Shawn Michaels' shadow in mid-1998, he cemented his place as the top dog, the WWF Champion and, wife Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley in tow, lead the company into the post-attitude era hangover. Mick Foley had been to the top of the pile, somewhere many thought he would never be, capturing the WWF Championship on three seperate occasions. After dropping the Mankind persona in favour of the character that brought him his initial success in the pro wrestling business, the hardcore legend Cactus Jack, the WWF audience was again treated to his trademark violence and brutality. The match at the Royal Rumble is one of my favourite matches and Mick has stated himself that it was one of the very best he ever had. After a pedigree into the thumb tacks, the battered and beaten champion limped from the sell-out Madison Square Garden and you could have been forgiven for thinking that another chapter to this story was not to be unfolded. You would, however, have been wrong.

On an episode of RAW Triple H confronted the tenacious challenger and, expressing his desire to rid himself of Mick Foley for good, proposed one more encounter - at Februarys No Way Out event. The champion even gave the challenger the choice of match but stated that it would not involve any of Foleys trademark "toys" and weaponary. Hunter looked visably shaken as Cactus Jack said the four words that really popped the crowd and got the fans excited for what could potentially be yet another epic - 'Hell in a Cell'! The Game wasn't quite done yet however. After accepting his challenge, he would shock the WWF audience once again by laying down the most important stipulation - that should he retain the title Mick Foley would be forced to be retire.

(Please use the links above to watch the promo, split into two parts, for yourself!)

The rematch took place February 27th in Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Conneticut. Lower on the card that night Kurt Angle, the WWF European Champion, defeated Chris Jerichio, the WWF Intercontential Champion - and declared himself the Euro-Continental Champion in his prompt rise to the top in his rookie year. Mark Henry met Viscera in a collision of monumental proportions (size-wise that is, not quality), Edge & Christian went for another round with The Hardys - Matt & Jeff, in what promised to be another volume in their classic series of matches and The Big Show defeated The Rock to become the #1 contender for the winner of the main event.

Whether or not the main event rematch was able to reach the heights of their earlier match and the very high bar set that night or not I'm not sure but it certainly was not a let-down. Mick Foley always wanted to entertain fans by endangering himself and his health and as his match in the structure in 1998 with The Undertaker proved, he is a dangerous man when he has such a high, impressive structure to play with. The match was always going to be visually impressive and as they often did, HHH and Cactus Jack brought out the very best in one another.

Looking to get yourself in the mood for The Undertaker and The Game inside the cell at Wrestlemania? Or maybe just looking to relive a poignant moment in wrestling history? The engaging, violent and bloody second chapter in a gripping feud between two of the WWF/Es modern greats could be just what you need.