Raw is War

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
April 10, 2000

This edition of RAW IS WAR was live from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., so it was only appropriate that South Florida's own The Rock came out as the show began. The Rock said that even though he had had his way with Vince, Shane and Stephanie McMahon over the last few weeks, he wanted more. He wanted a shot at the World Wrestling Federation Championship. The man who could grant him that title shot, Vince McMahon, appeared. The owner was carrying a steel chair - perhaps the same one that The Rock had clobbered him with on SmackDown! Vince said that The Rock would earn a title shot if he could defeat an opponent to be named later in a steel cage match on RAW! Mr. McMahon then proceeded to try and convince the People's Champion that it was Vince McMahon who turned The Rock into a superstar. Furthermore, Vince never got one "thank you" for all his trouble - and that is why Vince McMahon did what he did at WrestleMania. Just when it appeared that The Rock was about to snap, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and Shane came out, but their appearance was only a distraction. Vince tried to hit the "Great One" with the chair, but The Rock caught him in the nick of time, took the chair away from him and slammed him across the spine. Shane, Triple H and Stephanie had to assist the owner back to the locker room.

In the first match of the evening, Edge and Christian defended the Tag Team Championship against the Road Dogg and X-Pac, seconded by Tori. When Tori distracted the referee, Road Dogg clobbered Christian with one of the Tag Team Titles; X-Pac made the cover and we appeared to have new Tag Team Champions. However, senior official Earl Hebner came from the back and explained what happened to referee Mike Chiota, who ordered the match to continue. Seconds later, Edge speared X-Pac, and pinned him, so Edge and Christian retained their titles.

After preaching to the crowd about the joys of abstinence, Kurt Angle defeated the Godfather, accompanied by some fine Ft. Lauderdale ladies, with his Olympic suplex.

With Grand Master Sexay out nursing an injured knee, two-thirds of Too Cool (Scotty Too Hottie and Rikishi Phatu) teamed up with Tazz for six-man action against Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko. Scott locked Malenko into his own Texas Cloverleaf maneuver, but there was pandemonium in and out of the ring, and the referee was distracted. Saturn clobbered Scotty from behind, and the Radicalz ended up stealing the victory.

There had been rumors all night that Triple H would defend his Federation Championship, but his opponent was unknown. Those questions were to be answered as the champion, accompanied by Stephanie and Shane, came out dressed in his ring attire. Backstage, Taka Michinoku and Funaki walked through the doors, and Triple H could be seen grinning; however, when the Acolytes walked through the doors immediately after the members of Kaientai, Triple H's emotions changed into shock. It was Taka that was to be Triple H's opponent, but Taka and Funaki had clearly paid for the services of the Acolyte Protection Agency. Before the match got underway, Bradshaw and Faarooq chased Shane back to the locker room. Moments later, Shane reappeared, this time with Vince. While Shane and Vince distracted the Acolytes, Bull Buchanan and the Big Boss Man came from behind and knocked Bradshaw and Faarooq unconscious. Back in the ring, Triple H finished off Taka with a Pedigree. As Shane, Vince, Stephanie and Triple H retreated to the locker room, they pummeled the fallen Acolytes with a couple of kicks for good measure.

On SmackDown!, Buh Buh Ray Dudley attempted to put Trish Stratus through a table. Looking for revenge, an angry Trish ordered Test and Albert into the Dudley Boyz locker room on RAW. T&A did just that, and put quite a beating on Buh Buh Ray and D-Von. After the break, T&A was in tag team action, as the duo took on the Hardy Boyz. Test and Albert clearly had the size and power advantage, but Jeff and Matt used their quickness and finished off Albert with the Twist of Fate and the Swanton bomb. After the match, the Dudleys attacked T&A, and set up a table. But instead of playing a helpless victim, Trish gave Buh Buh Ray a seductive glance. Buh Buh stood in awe, which gave Albert enough time to recover, throw D-Von out of the way, but drive Buh Buh Ray through the table with a double-handed chokeslam.

Next up, Val Venis was in singles action as he took on the Big Show, who had dressed up like … Val Venis! Big Show came to the ring with a long blonde wig and a towel around his waist. He soon removed the towel to reveal a pair of hot pink "V" trunks so large that Guinness had to be informed. The Show encouraged all the ladies to pick the "Big Show Titantic" over his tiny "SS Minnow" opponent. Val upset the Show, however, when he informed him that the Titantic sank - and it wasn't an iceberg that sank the ship, Val said, but the Big Show's large posterior. The Show was so enraged that he attacked Val, and went on to get himself disqualified after choking Val with his wig! Even though he lost the match, the Show still gyrated for the ladies before making his way back to the locker room.

In a grudge match for the European Championship, new champion Eddy Guerrero, accompanied by his "mamacita" Chyna, took on Chris Jericho. In a virtual repeat performance of what happened last week, Chris Jericho had the match won, but the referee had been inadvertently knocked out. Chyna entered the ring and dropped Y2J with a low blow and DDT. A revived referee administered the three count, and Guerrero once again won the match thanks to his woman.

Earlier in the night, Terri walked into the Kat's dressing room. Terri offered to bury the hatchet by treating the former Women's Champion to a day at the beauty salon. At the salon, however, Terri slipped something into the Kat's drink. When Kat woke up, she shrieked in horror upon realizing she had been sabotaged. Her hair had been given a terrible cut and dye, and her face had been made up like a clown.

For the final match of the evening, a steel cage had been lowered from the ceiling and The Rock emerged from the back. All that was left to determine was his opponent - or, as it turned out, opponents. After Triple H and the McMahon family came from the back, Bull Buchanan and the Big Boss Man appeared, and they were named The Rock's opponents. Even though he was facing two men and he had four enemies watching at ringside, The Rock still had to score a victory if he wanted a title shot against Triple H. And victory was just what The Rock achieved. As Boss Man lay recovering, the People's Champion quickly hit Bull with the Rock Bottom and pinned him for the victory. After the match, Vince, Shane and Triple H ganged up on The Rock, busting him open with brass knuckles. While The Rock lay in a pool of blood, Triple H said that he was done playing games and he was going to make life a living hell for the "Great One." As the McMahon boys and Triple H attempted to Pedigree The Rock on a chair, the Acolytes came out and went after Bull and Boss Man, who were standing outside the cage, and then turned their attention to the McMahons and the champion. Bradshaw and Faarooq succeeding in running off The Rock's enemies, but the damage had been done.