The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog #5
Watching
WWF in 2000 (Heat & PPV’s)
Hey there guys & girls,
I’m Andy
Mac, AKA The Blue Brand owner and creator (@The_Blue_Brand) on X / Twitter. I
thought I would delve into the world of blog writing and what better thing to
write about than my favourite pastime Professional Wrestling.
Today I
thought I’d discuss my earliest memories of watching professional wrestling. In
particular WWF Heat throughout the year 2000. In the UK, RAW is WAR and
SmackDown were on Sky television, a satellite service my parents didn’t pay for
as it was expensive for the time. Thankfully Channel 4, a free to watch channel
on UK television would air WWF Sunday Night Heat every Sunday afternoon after
Football Italia would finish. Later on, Channel 4 would air Heat during the
early hours of Monday morning, thankfully my dad would record these episodes
for me. I’d get up early before school on Monday mornings, turn the television
and VCR on and check out the episode before school.
You might think ‘poor Andy, only getting to watch Heat back then’ well, yes and no… Heat would often feature Edge & Christian, The Hardys (With Lita), The Dudleyz, Too Cool, T &A (Test & Albert with Trish Stratus) Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero and occasionally Chris Jericho. I even remember them giving us a random Triple H match once (The opponent escapes my memory) and even a random Kurt Angle Vs Crash Holly for the WWF Championship match which I still vividly remember as a kid.
On top of that, they would usually also feature the two best segments or matches from the previous WWF RAW is War and WWF SmackDown. These were great ways of finding out what was going on with the ‘big’ shows regarding the WWF Championship. Quite often these segments included your usual main eventers from the time – The Rock, Austin, Undertaker, Triple H – Kurt Angle – Stephanie McMahon (Love triangle), Kane, Benoit, Foley etc…
As an added
bonus to this, Channel 4 would usually air around four PPV’s a year for free.
If my memory is right, it would be January (Royal Rumble), May (Backlash), July
(Fully Loaded / Invasion in 2001) and December (Armageddon / Vengeance in 2001)
I remember
my first PPV being Fully Loaded 2000, an absolutely stacked show that to this
day I still love. Advertised were three main events – WWF Championship, Rock
& Benoit. Triple H & Jericho in a Last Man Standing match and The
Undertaker & Kurt Angle in a feud over Angle destroying the Undertakers
motorbike by accident! (Haha)
But my
favourite match from this show as a kid was Val Venis with Trish Stratus Vs
Rikishi inside a steel cage for the WWF Intercontinental title. As a kid, I
loved Rikishi, I was so invested in his run as Intercontinental Champ. Him
jumping from the top of the cage on to Val before Tazz screwed him over when he
tried to escape the cage blew me away. I guess this just proves that everyone
on WWF television during this time was over and had a character that nearly
everyone was invested in.
Anyway,
that was just a quick insight into my WWF viewing as a kid in late 1999 into
the year 2000. I might at some point watch and review WWF Fully Loaded 2000 and
Armageddon 2000 (I was so excited for the 6-man Hell in A Cell match!)
Anyway,
I’ll stop rambling on now. Thanks for checking this fifth blog out. I’m a
self-confessed WWE fanboy, always have been since I started watching WWE as a
child. However, as you can hopefully and probably tell I’m trying to broaden by
Professional Wrestling palate and horizons. If there is anything
else you can recommend, I’m open to suggestions. I’m taking a break from my 9-5
office job at the moment and trying to fill my time!
Please
leave feedback, if it’s constructive then I’ll always appreciate it. I’m always
happy to learn and to become better. Please keep it respectful though, everyone
is entitled to an opinion.
Take it
easy guys,
Andy