Background: Looking to regain his World Television Championship, Rob Van Dam returned from a leg injury to take on “The Rookie Monster” turned “Man Beast”, Rhino.
Anarchy Rulz
October 1, 2000
St. Paul, MN
Rhino vs. Rob Van Dam
Rhino jumped the challenger at the bell, leading to a fight around ringside that spilled into the crowd when RVD attempted to perform a springboard moonsault, only to be shoved into the front row. Rhino was dragging Van Dam from one end of the building to the other as the fans chanted for the challenger to fight back. When the former TV champ did he got punched & slammed. Van Dam’s manager Bill Alfonso ran a play, allowing RVD to hit the Van-Daminator on Rhino when the champ tried to jump over the guardrail to return to ringside. Somersault plancha by RVD connected as Rhino scrambled around the ring. The action finally returned inside and Van Dam was kicking the life out of “The Man Beast” including a chair-assisted dropkick. Rhino recovered, countering the rolling monkey flip with a flying shoulder tackle. The champ started working over Van Dam’s abdomen with shoulder rams while the fans tried to get him back in the fight. The champ had other things in mind by retrieving a table both in the ring and out. Placing a table in the corner, Rhino ended up chin locking his opposition to stop him from fighting back. Van Dam kicked his way off the mat, only to get crowned with a chair when going for a second Van-Daminator. RVD refused to be stopped, ducking a wild chair swing to hit both a moonsault and the Five-Star Frog Splash … that gave the challenger a near fall!
RVD couldn’t believe what just happening, unintentionally allowing Rhino to recover and unleash the Gore! Rather than go for the pin, Rhino pulled RVD onto the apron to hit a piledriver off the apron, through the timekeeper’s table! Rolling the lifeless body of RVD into the ring didn’t help Rhino get the three count he believed would come from such a devastating maneuver. Alfonso ran in, hitting Rhino in the back before tossing the chair to an infuriated Rhino. Van-Daminator out of nowhere. Like Rhino after hitting a big maneuver, RVD wanted to execute something bigger with the Van-Terminator. Justin Credible ran out, swinging that Singapore cane to distract Van Dam long enough for Rhino to pull Alfonso into the path of destruction & take the Van-Terminator. Stunned, RVD couldn’t avoid the Gore through the table or the piledriver on a steel chair for the three count in Rhino’s favor.
Winner: Rhino (12:43)
Is It A Classic: This was a highly anticipated match that should’ve rocked some socks off, but felt like a strong TV main event with the screwy finish to make you question, “What will happen next week?” – which is incredibly ironic considering ECW’s last episode on TNN would air the Friday after this show and ECW was forced into syndication yet again.
