For over three decades, WrestleMania has been the most prestigious event in wrestling lore as it has shaped careers and provided the WWE Universe with some of the most memorable matches and moments in the history of sports entertainment.
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As we countdown the days until WrestleMania 31 on March 29 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., Sports World News will delve into the greatest moments at each of the first 30 events in the history of the legendary event.
After 15 successful years of WrestleMania, the new Millennium was on the horizon and the WWE opted to embrace the change, going with WrestleMania 2000 instead of calling the event WrestleMania XVI (16) and it bucked tradition in the main event by having a Fatal 4 Way bout instead of a standard singles match. This was also the only WrestleMania to not have even one standard singles contest on the card.
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WrestleMania 2000 emanated live from the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim in front of 18,034 people and took place on April 2, 2000, with the tagline "WrestleMania All Day Long" and "A McMahon in Every Corner."
Here are our three best moments from WWE WrestleMania 2000:
3) Game On: While the main event of WrestleMania 2000 was controversial, there is no denying that the almost 40-minute bout was a highly entertaining affair.
Triple H was on top of the WWE as its biggest heel and WWE Champion, but he was forced to defend the championship in a Fatal 4 Way elimination match at the biggest show of the year.
Triple H's opponents were 2000 Royal Rumble Match winner The Rock, The Big Show, who defeated The Rock in controversial fashion at No Way Out to win the title of No. 1 contender before losing it back on RAW and Mick Foley, who was reinstated by Linda McMahon after being forced to retire at that same event after a brutal match with Triple H.
To add to the drama, the WWE paired a member of the McMahon family up with each participant.
Triple H and had his wife Stephanie McMahon by his side, The Rock was partnered up with Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon formed an alliance with The Big Show and Linda McMahon seconded Foley.
The match was fun as short-term alliances formed and all four Superstars mixed it up simultaneously, but over-booking was about to rear its ugly head.
The Big Show was the first to go followed by Foley and it appeared that The Rock was poised to finally have his WrestleMania Moment by closing the show with the gold.
That wasn't the case, however, as Vince McMahon turned on The Rock, helping Triple H successfully defend the gold in what was yet another turn in the overuse of the McMahons in WWE storylines during that era.
The crowd was livid and peppered the ring with garbage as for the first time since 1993, a heel won the WWE Championship match in the main event. Though this time, Hulk Hogan wasn't coming out to turn things around.
2) Eurocontinental Championship: The WWE was doing very well against the competition of WCW and ECW at this point and had one of the most stacked rosters it ever boasted heading into WrestleMania 2000.
Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit all made their WrestleMania debuts at this event, fighting in a highly entertaining two-fall match.
Angle had everything to lose and nothing to gain as his Intercontinental Championship was up for grabs in the first fall and his European Championship was on the line in the second.
In the first fall, after a great series between all three men, Benoit hit Jericho with the flying head-butt to win Angle's Intercontinental Championship.
In the second fall, Benoit missed a flying head-butt on Angle, but was nailed with the Lionsalt by Jericho and subsequently pinned as Jericho won Angle's European Championship.
In a great bit of booking to conclude a fantastic match, Angle came in with two titles, was never pinned, and lost both.
1) Triangle of Terror: After Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz stole the show at No Mercy in 1999 in their tag team Ladder Match, the Dudley Boyz burst on the scene from ECW and got involved in the storyline as well.
These three teams revitalized the WWE's tag team division and began a series of matches that would change the landscape of tag team wrestling forever.
The first epic encounter took place at WrestleMania 2000 as the teams went head-to-head in a Triangle Ladder Match for the Dudley Boyz's WWE Tag Team Championships in what was a precursor to their classic TLC matches.
The six men nearly killed each other and put their bodies through hell to entertain the audience in a fantastic match filled with memorable spot after memorable spot, including Hardy infamously hitting his Swanton Bomb on Bubba Ray Dudley through a table from a giant ladder.
In the end, Edge and Christian stood tall after a match that spanned over 22 minutes, to become the new Tag Team Champions in a classic encounter that the six would somehow go on to top in the future.
Looking Ahead: The WWE was beginning to put on some of the best shows ever as its talent pool continued to grow. By 2001, the WWE would officially win the Monday Night Wars from WCW and go on to put on one of the best cards in wrestling history at WrestleMania X-7. We'll delve into that epic show on Sunday.
Rank-O-Mania: As we go through each year, we will rank each WrestleMania as it comes along. WrestleMania 2000 is an odd show because the WWE had so much talent and put on so many good shows in the year 2000, but this one just didn't stack up. Despite a great two-fall bout and an epic Ladder Match, the main event could have been better and was overtaken by the McMahon drama. There were also too many bad matches on this card (See: Head Cheese vs. T&A, Terry Runnels vs. The Kat in a catfight) and it just didn't hit on the level it could have. WrestleMania 2000 finds its place between WrestleManias XV and XII in the middle of our rankings.
1) WrestleMania X
2) WrestleMania VI
3) WrestleMania III
4) WrestleMania XIV
5) WrestleMania VIII
6) WrestleMania VII
7) WrestleMania V
8) WrestleMania XV
9) WrestleMania 2000
10) WrestleMania XII
11) WrestleMania IV
12) WrestleMania 13
13) WrestleMania I
14) WrestleMania XI
15) WrestleMania IX
16) WrestleMania 2
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