#FiftyMatches: Taking It To The Next Level

Dudley Boyz v. Hardy Boyz v. Edge & Christian

WWF Tag Team Championship

TLC

SummerSlam 2000
August 27, 2000

"How do you learn to fall off a damn ladder? You don't!" -Jim Ross

Feels like we were just here, doesn't it?

One thing these three tag teams definitely had not learned since their first encounter, less than five months earlier at WrestleMania 2000, was how to have a safer ladder match.


Given the opportunity to cut loose once again and ramp up the carnage, the Dudley Boyz, Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian did exactly what they did the last time they shared the same ring on pay per view - they stole the show and took professional wrestling to a place it had never been before.

The TLC concept was solid gold, and it lives on today. It's become such a staple in World Wrestling Entertainment that it's almost surprising to realize that the match concept is little more than a decade old. The ground rules for the match really were nothing dramatically new, but the labeling of the match is simultaneously clever and fortuitous.

So, if the match concept is the same, what's different to make this match between the three dominant tag teams of their era any different for fans? Sitting here for the second time in a month and writing about what is essentially the same match is tough enough. Actually putting on the match and creating something unique in the ring? Now, that's really hard.

The biggest change since WrestleMania 2000 was the tag teams themselves. What's easy to forget today is how all three continued to evolve in the months that followed their breakout performance in Anaheim. It wasn't enough that they stole the show at the biggest wrestling pay per view of the year. They got better, and the World Wrestling Federation wisely did what it could to keep them away from one another, and preserve the spectacle of their future meetings. This was period of tremendous depth in the WWF's tag team division, and a host of other teams were thrown into the title mix between WrestleMania and SummerSlam.

Edge & Christian came into their own after their victory in that historic triangle ladder match. They embraced their treacherous nature and treated fans to the glory days of "Reeking of Awesomeness" and "5 Second Poses For The Benefit Of Those With Flash Photography." The titles briefly slipped from their grasp in May 2000, when they were defeated on Raw by Too Cool, but Edge & Christian regained the belts a month later at King of the Ring and set off on an even longer title reign.

While Edge & Christian were exploring and expanding upon their evil ways, The Dudley Boyz were abandoning theirs. Any hope of the once "Damn Dudleys" drawing the ire of fans was gone at this point. So, what was once one of the most hated tag teams on the planet changed up its game, treating fans to all the "WHAAASSSSUUUPPPPP!!!" and "D-Von, get the tables!" they could handle.

The most obvious change for the Hardy Boyz is the addition of Lita. Her arrival was the start of a third person arms race that neither the Dudley Boyz nor Edge & Christian were yet ready to combat. They would both come up with a way to counter Lita's presence later, but at SummerSlam, she was a difference maker when it comes to outside interference.

Lita only increased the popularity of the Hardy Boyz, who were as popular as ever as they competed for the tag team titles in their home state of North Carolina. That's really true for all three teams. WrestleMania 2000 was one thing. By this point, stealing the show wasn't just a possibility in the eyes of fans. It was expected. That may seem unfair, but these teams invited it, encouraged it, and in the end, thrived on it.

It's incredible that after everything WWF fans had seen up to this point, these three tag teams were able to push themselves and this new match creation to the level that they did.

I like the fact that Jeff Hardy missed the Swanton Bomb off the ladder. This time, Bubba Ray Dudley got out of the way, only to suffer perhaps an even worse fate later in the match.

The backwards, no-look spill Matt Hardy took, tilted from the top of the ladder and down through two tables on the arena floor, is terrifying to watch, even today. That moment really stuck with me as I watched this match live as it happened in 2000. It still plays out for me like something completely unacceptable under even most the twisted rules of professional wrestling logic.

The final moments are clever, certainly an upgrade from the end of the triangle ladder match at WrestleMania 2000. In the end, this match was a big success. It built upon what had already been done and improved upon it. The six men involved established a new specialty match in the WWF/WWE which would become so popular and essential that it was eventually dedicated its own pay per view.

After this match is over, Jerry "The King" Lawler tells Jim Ross, "I think we've seen it all now." I think a lot of people watching at the time probably agreed, but even after this spectacle, which once again raised the standards for ladder matches, the best was still yet to come.