Kurt Angle & William Regal vs. Steve Austin & The Rock

[9.0] "What a stacked time period this was... WCW was all but defeated and ECW was less than a month away from closing, though I'm not sure anyone but Heyman knew it (I guess he probably stooged it to the WWF, but not the point). Here we have four world class talents main eventing on the B-show of the time, though they generally treated Smackdown pretty well in this era. On one side a team of champions, European champ Regal teaming with WWF champ Angle. Absolutely hilarious pre-match segment where Angle approaches Regal backstage and earnestly apologizes for America beating Britain's ass in the Revolutionary War. Young, funny Angle remains my very favorite portion of his career. Regal's frozen look of bewildered cringe should be framed and put in a museum. They are facing two of the biggest stars of all time in Austin and Rock, two guys who never got along over the years but here looking to team against common enemies. Another hilarious pre-match segment as Rock tells the crowd in Little Rock (where the event is held) a story about "Little Angle" and "Little Regal" which predictably but amusingly ends up with something turned sideways and stuck up a candy ass. God, peak Rock is just insanely charismatic. The crux of this match is the question of whether Rock and Austin can work together, with the added twist of Kane appearing at ringside and acting as an unexpected ally for Kurt Angle. I credit all these intersecting threads working together to the masterful Chris Kreski, who meticulously tracked wrestler relationships in order to create interesting scenarios for them beyond the stock "face and heel" dynamic. He was of course in time replaced by Stephanie McMahon because why not, but I believe he deserves some credit for the WWF reaching their biggest success in the year 2000. The match itself is fast paced, chaotic, and doesn't overstay it's welcome like almost all great Attitude Era matches. It was obvious from the start the Regal was there to take the pin and that's exactly what he eventually does, but he gets some good shots in as well and plays a spectacular heel role as always, what a legendary star. This has all the goodness you'd expect from these four in this era, there are better matches but the energy of this whole era is truly top tier."

[7.0] "An exciting TV main event, channelling an electric atmosphere with chaotic, spirited action. For much of the already modest runtime, Austin and Rock run wild, with the latter only being halted by a 3-part cutoff. They certainly don't lose any momentum at that point either, with Angle producing a typically unhinged bump and feed for Austin's hot tag. Very breezy piece of business. ***1/4"

[8.0] "Very entertaining main event. It's just really good to watch Rock and Austin as a tag team as the crowd are just really hot for everything they do and the surprises addition of Kane managing Angle and Regal was fun as well as he swings the odds slightly in the heels favour and his involvement in the match after the ref takes a bump was well done. The pacing is really good, Regal takes most of the offence which is good because it protects the champion in defeat and there's just really good chemistry. Austin's hot tag was great and the match is a breath of fresh air, especially on a show with very limited ring time like this one."

[7.0] "A strong SmackDown main event with great chemistry and a hot crowd elevating the action. The dynamic with Kane added intrigue, making it a fun, underrated gem."

[7.0] "4 Great wrestlers in the main event of smackdown for a tag team bout which makes for a fun 3 and a half star match for me and a hidden gem lost amongst the time of the atitude era"

[8.0] "This was actually quite a good match. I was not expecting it to be this good. Honestly a hidden gem (***3/4)"

[7.0] "This was a good main event with the dynamic of Kane being on Regal and Angle's side. The action isn't breathtaking or anything but the way the crowd pops for everything Austin & Rock does is fun, especially during Austin's last hot tag.***1/2"

[7.0] "The heels are just getting destroyed apart from the few occasions when Kane interferes on their behalf. Regal takes the brunt of the beating and makes the faces look great in the process. The crowd is reacting wonderfully to all of it and is so hot at times they are overloading the audio equipment and causing distortion. A very entertaining match."