Kurt Angle vs. The Rock vs. Triple H

[7.0] "This was hurt a little bit by the Kurt Angle concussion before the match started as it was essentially just Rock and Triple H paint by numbers until Angle returned to the match."

[7.0] "A solid main event mostly remembered for the infamous pre-match brawl that resulted in Angle getting knocked out after that botched commentary table spot. The silly love triangle angle is pretty fun, Triple H and The Rock did alright while Kurt was out but things really got good when he returned. *** 1/2"

[7.0] "Pretty solid match from three all time greats. May have been a little slow at times, but enjoyable. The love triangle between Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Kurt Angle only added more to this match. Angle was hurt most of the match, making it basically a 1 on 1. I was entertained throughout, and there ending up being a good finish to finish off a good match."

[9.0] "Really entertaining SummerSlam main event. The big love triangle storyline was one of the hottest I can ever remember in wrestling and it really helped Kurt Angle become a true main eventer and I think his professionalism in this match also put him there as he somehow returned to the match after that horrific spot where the announce table gives way before impact when Triple H pedigrees him on top of it. Most of the match was another Triple H vs Rock match and despite the fact they wrestled each other so often in the earlier part of the year, they still do an amazing job here. Rock fights from under for most of it because Triple H takes advantage of the no DQ rules and hits him with a sledgehammer and looks really good in how he relentlessly targeted Rock after that. Angle returning to the match to the finish was some awesome soap opera stuff and there was some good teases he might even win the match as well! Steph gets heavily involved, Triple H accidentally strikes her and Angle knocks him out with the hammer and Rock finally takes advantage of the situation while Angle walks away carrying Stephanie and JR's call at the end was just gold."

[8.0] "My uncle has always said WWE is just a soap opera for grown men, and this storyline proves that. Personally, I love it. A fitting end to a mostly entertaining PPV"

[9.0] "Angle was knocked for most of the entire match which made the match itself feel less like an actual triple threat, but the everything between Rock and Triple H was really amazing and their in ring work and chemistry helped the match from falling to pieces completely."

[8.0] "About as Attitude Era-esque as a main event can get, but it works for the most part. A triple threat with Angle involved through its entirety would have almost certainly been better, but the crowd are super into the love triangle and it's just grounded enough to work. Hot angles and over wrestlers make for a good main event."

[6.0] "So, the main focus surely was Angle-Stephanie interactions. Rock-Triple H part of match was just adequate. When Angle returned the investment in this match heavily grow for me. Nice dynamic in the ending. But I think they could have offered more."

[8.0] "Triple threats can be hard to do. They often don't make much sense with one guy being out for long periods of time. This is one way to do it. Slightly overbooked, but everything made sense."

[8.0] "This was a very fun Attitude Era main event. Angle and Triple H start brawling before the match even begins, leading to Kurt being carted off backstage and The Rock coming out to fight Triple H. Angle then comes back and fights with his life, but its not enough and The Rock retains."

[4.0] "This match is so boring, unsurprising because Triple H is involved so of course the match has to be him boringly kicking everyone and occasionally hitting them with a sledgehammer. Add in an unfortunate table collapse that legit knocked Angle loopy and you get a real bad match. It's almost impressive that Triple H's powers are so big that he can make a match with Kurt Angle and The Rock boring. When it's just Kurt and Trips before The Rock comes out, I guess he had to use the bathroom or something, the crowd is at best cheering for The Rock, and at worst dead."

[4.0] "I get it that Kurt got knocked out so they had to improvise, but I don't know if it would have been much better if he didn't. It was all about Angle and Hunter to the point that The Rock felt added to match by force even though he was the champion. Nothing worth mentioning happens for the most part and when Kurt gets back to the ring it gets a little more interesting, but still not SummerSlam main event worthy."

[8.0] "Good news for us Rock and Triple H had such good chemistry they carried the match that was for the most part a one on one match between Rock and HHH due to Kurt beginning legitimately knocked out. Good match and probably my favorite match between Rock vs Triple H. Which it is essiantally because Angle gets knocked the fuck out."

[8.0] "Another slugger thanks to the impromptu exit of Angle following the botched Pedigree. Lots of drama and emotion, but sadly it's also largely lost when Angle leaves. So, we end up with a straight title match between two guys with limited move sets. Goes from 120 to 30 over the middle 10 minutes where they largely trade punches and knees. I'll tell you, though. They really sold punches back then. They need to turn those ring mics up these days. Angle returns and things pick up again, with a high-octane dynamic finish, and some development to the HHH/Angle storyline. Good stuff overall, just a shame about the middling... middle."

[8.0] "The two guys fighting over a woman story is overused and outdated, but it was done decently well here and at least made for a good pre-match brawl, unfortunately Angle was legitimately knocked out during it. He probably shouldn't have continued the match, but times have changed on that. HHH especially did a great job of carrying him through the match, and presumably him and the Rock had to improvise a lot of what happened. Great work all round, and a very good main event."

[8.0] "Weirdly enough, The Rock is the least important person in his own title defense. But at least it was a very good match. The Angle/Triple H/Stephanie Love Triangle is the focus of the match and it could have been derailed early as Kurt picked up a concussion, I believe before the match started, but someone he pushed through and helped to add new blood in the Rock-Triple H feud that could have lost too much steam otherwise. I really liked Triple H working on Rock? s ribs to make him look in peril until he somehow, someway, found a way to win. Pretty satisfying main event."

[8.0] "This match is famous for the botched pedigree on Angle that knocked him goofy and he had to miss a few minutes of the first half while HHH and Rock carried on. The botch became part of the "Don't Try This At Home" PSA before every WWF PPV on home media. Angle comes out first and insults HHH who doesn't wait for The Rock to show and brawls with Angle. HHH tosses Angle and sends him to the stairs. Historic moment follows, HHH sets up for the pedigree on the Spanish table, but it collapses out from underneath them and Angle takes one nasty face plant into the table top on the floor and is legitimately knocked cold. HHH grabs his sledgehammer and Rock makes his way out. Samoan drop for HHH and lariat, and they brawl on the floor. The EMT's fetch Angle who looks to be done for the night which is really unfortunate but in a morbid way, it does work well in that HHH got his revenge on Angle for making passes at Steph. HHH goes after Angle on the stretcher and Rock jumps him and they brawl in the aisle. Steph comes out to attend to Angle. In the ring, HHH with the "Harley Race like knee drop" for 2. HHH tells Steph to get the belt, she takes a slow motion swing at Rock and bops HHH by mistake, oops. Rock goes after her, but takes a low blow. Rock hits a neckbreaker on HHH. HHH grabs the hammer and it's a gut shot. Facebuster gets two. HHH attacks the ribs with wear down tactics then Rock comes back with a swinging neck breaker. HHH knees him down and goes upstairs, and they fight there. Rock wins and gets a superplex. Yay! Steph convinces Angle into coming back and helping. Rock belly to belly gets two. Steph drags Angle out. He trips up Rocky and HHH hits the Pedigree but Angle pulls HHH out at 2 and throws him to the steps and the crowd roars. He covers Rock himself for two. Angle's belly to belly gets 2. Rock comes back with a DDT for two. He whips Angle into the dazed HHH and hits Rock Bottom for 2. vHHH pulls Rock out and posts him, while Steph slips the sledgehammer to Angle. HHH charges and runs down Steph by accident. Angle KO's HHH for two, then Rock dumps Angle, and polishes off HHH with the peoples elbow. What a crazy roller coaster that was! Great way to end the show!"

[8.0] "This match was never really a triple threat besides a couple of pin break ups here and there. Triple H and Kurt Angle had an intense brawl up until the table buckled and Kurt legitimately got concussed. Triple H and Rock would then go at it and Triple H would work on Rock's mid section, Rock's selling and comebacks were great, even when HHH wasn't the most interesting. Angle shows up to break up a pin, him and Rock had better wrestling exchanges then the Rock/HHH ones. There's some drama with Stephanie down the line but Rock ultimately wins.****"

[8.0] "This is a really good match the only thing that would make it better is if kurt didn't get hurt this would've help the match but still for them calling and audible and helping kurt through the match it turned out pretty good. ****1/4"

"Decent match. Was an Angle fan so Steph working her magic for his return had me hype. Lots of chaos even though an injury occurs. Good psychology after Angle's return. Love the finish. (7.5/10)"

[8.0] "Fun main event. The Angle/HHH/Steph Love Triangle is the focus of the match and I love it. It's a shame Angle gets injured early on in the match, since it then becomes a one on one with HHH and Rock and it doesn't have that special feeling that their previous encounters had. That said once Angle comes back into the match, that's when the love triangle hits a boiling point. Great end to the show."

[4.0] "Overbooked and no memorable action, really boring match with a fairly boring story and honestly nobody looked good here"

[8.0] "This was another really good match on this show. The soap opera shit with Stephanie McMahon I didn't appreciate, but aside from that these guys had a really good match that had the crowd thoroughly invested. The match essentially boiled down to HHH vs Rock for the most part, after HHH took out Angle at the start. They worked very well together as always, and although this was not their best war together, it was very enjoyable. When Angle returned, the intensity heightened and led to a satisfying finish with the Rock winning. A great match that is well worth a watch. ****"

[6.0] "Not a big fan of this match. The focus is on the love triangle between HHH/Kurt/Steph, and oh by the way The Rock is also in the match. Angle gets taken out early by HHH when he attempts a pedigree on the announce table but it breaks and looks silly. Rock and Game then fight for 75% of the match, and it's pretty stale as everyone just waits for Angle to return. The only excitement is when for a second you think Kurt is going to win, but to no avail. Similar to WM2000, another overbooked main event with the focus on a McMahon storyline and not wrestling."

[8.0] "Great triple threat with great performances from all three men (and Steph) involved, especially considering one of them HAD A GODDAMN CONCUSSION BEFORE THE BELL RANG. How Kurt managed to work through that and still put in an almost seamless performance is testament to the absolute beast he was. The attitude era style chaos near the end is honestly a bit refreshing after so many classic matches with different styles throughout 2000 and it's super fun, but there are also elements of psychology in there with Triple H targetting the Rock's ribs after a sledgehammer shot. This match had a bit of everything and while it doesn't quite excel in any area, it's still great fun from start to finish. Also credit to HHH, Rock and even Steph for keeping Angle on track when he got back into the ring, there were some sloppy slow bits like when Angle ducked a shot with the title from Steph in not necessarily the smoothest of fashions, but there were no massive botches in the match itself and after that monstrosity of a concussion at the beginning, that's an achievement. ***3/4"

[4.0] "One of those WWF matches where the focus is on "sports entertainment" more-so than actual wrestling. I thought the whole story with Angle and Stephanie having a relationship was stupid, and all the 'blurred' moments with HHH and Stephanie were way too obviously telegraphed and poorly executed. The in-ring was also very, very bland. Angle being taken out early via injury was a massive blow to match's potential . HHH worked over The Rock for the majority of the match, and while I find HHH's smug bruiser character fun, his in-ring grew stale after remaining the same for so long. Rock was fine as the fiery babyface surviving all of HHH's moves, but again his performance lost its charm after remaining the same for so long. Angle and Rock had some fun exchanges once Angle returned, but they were still quite short. The HHH x Stephanie x Angle story kept finding its way to stealing the spotlight as well, which was annoying. They threw in some near falls in the final few minutes but I didn't find any of them very convincing. The only big thing I enjoyed was Rock hitting the People's Elbow for the win, since that's something that was always exciting to see. Apart from that, there was very little to entertain me. **1/4"

[9.0] "If you can't appreciate the world class soap opera drama of this match, then you and I aren't on the same page as wrestling fans. The dramatic developments drove the crowd wild and I was loving every minute of it. The action itself is fun but this is top notch storytelling of a certain style, and I love it."

[8.0] "Great match and a good feud, this is a solid Summerslam main event, with a big rivalry between Triple H and Kurt Angle, but both want The Rock's title. It's unpredictable because anyone could win at this point. ****"

[8.0] "For the most part of this match i had it at ***3/4 but by the end it was up to ****. A good match, the crowd were red hot and all 3 men were so over, I think it would have been better if Angle was maybe not out for as long but even so the match was very enjoyable. I know angle won the title 2 months later but I couldn't help watching this match and thinking it should have been sooner and he should have won it here because the main story was between Angle and HHH whereas the Rock (the champ) was more of an after thought so I think maybe to put more light on the title it should have been put on Angle and the order of the last two matches at unforgiven the next month could be swapped around. Anyway my rating ****"

[8.0] "A very good match given the chaotic circumstances at the beginning with Kurt suffering a concussion. Definitely weird to see him come back and finish the match (especially since he wasn't the winner) given how there's no way that would happen today. They did a good job of keeping the match going and were able to keep the flow for the most part."

[7.0] "Half of this match wasn't even or felt like a triple threat match. But.... it was still a decent match, Kurt Angle could hang with the "big boys". I found the Angle-Steph angle hilarious, but I didn't appreciate Triple H's attack on Angle before the match even happened. The aftermath made me wonder what was next for the Angle-Steph angle."