WWE Rebellion 2000 & Insurrextion 2001 review (DVD) ★★★

The WWE headed to England for an action-packed tour back in December of Y2K and began the holiday season in style with a pay-per-view live in the jam-packed Sheffield Arena in Sheffield: the second annual Rebellion, a stacked two-and-a-half hours of in-ring destruction called by Jim Ross and Tazz, complete with his annoyingly goofy laugh, and featuring a total of nine matches and five championship defenses.

Elimination Tables Match: The Dudleyz vs. Edge & Christian vs. T&A ???
And so the show was kicked off with a three-team Tables Match under elimination rules. No titles were on the line, only piece of mind for the victors in that they didn't have to taste some wood on the night. Test and Albert were quickly eliminated after a Powerbomb off the second rope and a Dudleyz vs. E&C bout quickly ensued. There was some nice action here in an actual tag team wrestling capacity rather than the Superstars purely going for the tables, which benefited the match and sweetened the victory for those damn Dudleyz after they sent Christian crashing through one of their four-legged friends with a rather anti-climactic 3D.

Women's Championship: Ivory (c) vs. Lita ??
Remember when the crowd wouldn't be utterly dead in their seats when the Divas entered the ring? Remember when women's wrestling was actually entertaining? This was a brisk little match at just under three minutes in length with Ivory retaining the gold thanks to the assistance of her Right to Censor cohort Steven Richards, but they certainly took it to each other and put on a show, albeit a very quick one.

Hardcore Championship: Steve Blackman (c) vs. Perry Saturn ??
This would have been fun for the live crowd with all the bells and whistles of a Hardcore Match, but for those watching at home it really wasn't anything more than your run-of-the-mill, near generic Hardcore Title encounter. It wasn't a bad match as you can see by my star rating, but Saturn's unsuccessful attempt to dethrone “The Lethal Weapon” wasn't much more than a six-minute thread of cookie sheet, trash can and kendo stick shots.

European Championship: William Regal (c) vs. Crash ?
Aside from randomly spotting actors Daniel Radcliffe and Matt Lewis in the crowd obviously enjoying a break from shooting the first Harry Potter film, this wasn't the most entertaining of bouts. Regal came up short against Crash after the match was restarted as the champ pinned his opponent when his foot was on the bottom rope, and Molly Holly decided to get involved by landing a Missile Dropkick from the top to give her cousin the win. Despite losing his gold however, Regal was having none of it and left ringside with Crash's title after stomping a mudhole in both of the Holly cousins.

Mixed Tag Team Match: Dean Malenko & Eddie Guerrero vs. Billy Gunn & Chyna ??

Chris Jericho vs. Kane ??
This rivalry began after Jericho inadvertently spilled hot coffee over the Big Red Monster. That was indeed one incredibly stupid and uncreative way to start a feud, but at least it lead up to a relatively decent match at Rebellion, which was the stepping stone to their Last Man Standing clash at Armageddon later in the month.

Tag Team Championship: The Goodfather & Bull Buchanan (c) vs. The Hardy Boyz ???

Chris Benoit vs. The Undertaker ???

WWE Championship Fatal 4 Way: Kurt Angle (c) vs. The Rock vs. Steve Austin vs. Rikishi ???
After Commissioner Mick Foley made the main event a no disqualification, no count outs match at the top of the show with Debra at his side, Kurt Angle managed to successfully defend his WWE Championship gold against three top contenders, but not without the help of a few of his cronies. With the assistance of the Radicalz and Edge & Christian, Angle retained his title in a solid, fast-paced match that went less than 10 minutes. But the crowd's boos at the Olympian's win quickly turned to huge cheers as The Rock and Austin teamed up to clear the ring of the conspirators as Angle hightailed it from sight clutching his belt, leaving only room for the brewskis to make an appearance and for Austin to have a bit of a beer bash in England.

Insurrextion – May 5, 2001 ???

Tickets for Insurrextion went on sale a few days following Rebellion, and six months later, the WWE returned to England – this time at Earl's Court in London – for another filled-to-the-brim event that saw a particularly weak first half chased with a consecutive number of thoroughly enjoyable bouts.

Grandmaster Sexay vs. Eddie Guerrero ?

Tag Team Match: Hardcore Holly & Crash vs. Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn ??
This was originally scheduled to be a six-person mixed tag with Terri teaming up with the Radicalz to take on Molly Holly, Crash and Hardcore, but according to Miss Runnels' apparent inability to find wrestling boots in the UK, she decided to give up her place in the match to prevent competing in a short skirt. This seemed more like a case of her losing her gear at the airport as Molly Holly, although never tagged into the match, was on the ring apron for the duration of the contest, so really I don't even know what this bout officially was, but let's just call it a straightforward two-on-two tag clash which happened to be somewhat decent and ended when Saturn hit his patented spinning Fisherman's Suplex on Crash.

The Big Show vs. Bradshaw ?
Thanks to the interference of the rib-injured Test, who The Big Show dismantled before the match following the running of his mouth throughout Earl's Court, Bradshaw defeated the World's Largest Athlete a few minutes after accepting his challenge for anyone in the back to have a crack at toppling him. This was essentially a dud, and a filler dud at that, but these two were main eventing pay-per-views with the WWE Championship on the line just a few years later.

Four-Team Elimination Match: Edge & Christian vs. X-Factor vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz ???
Just like at Rebellion, Insurrextion's card featured an elimination-style tag team match, but with four teams instead of three. It certainly wasn't music to my ears – pun intended – to hear the old X-Factor theme song (by Unkle Kracker) as Justin Credible and X-Pac made their way to the ring accompanied by Albert, but at least I never had to listen to it again as they were the first to be defeated. With the Hardyz taken out just a few seconds later, it was left down to the Dudleyz and Edge & Christian, again just like at Rebellion, and although this wasn't a match where you had to put your opponent through a table to eliminate them, Rhyno took a 3D through the wood (hey look, another Rebellion flashback) after the Dudleyz got their post-match revenge for his Gore on Bubba Ray to help E&C pick up the win in the nation's capitol.

Best 2 out of 3 Falls: Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle ???
Six days removed from their 30-minute Ultimate Submission match at Backlash back in the States, Angle and Benoit took it to each other once again in a Best 2 out of 3 Falls Match where both pinfalls and submissions would decide the victor. There never was a boring match held between these two, but there was a sense that this encounter was underwhelming and simply because it only went two falls. Benoit defeated the Olympic gold medalist two straight falls to none. The attraction of such a stipulation in the first place is that you know you're going to witness a match go the distance, and it's extremely rare that you do not see that happen, but indeed here is an example of just that. It was a satisfying technical performance, but I was left wanting more. Of course, these two would have a superior rematch just a couple of weeks later at Judgement Day with Angle's medals on the line, and that bout did actually go all three falls.

Queen's Cup Match: William Regal vs. Chris Jericho ???
I have no idea of the value of the “Queen's Cup” – although it looks just like the current Bragging Rights trophy – but this stipulative excuse for yet another Y2J/Regal in-ring conflict wasn't something that I complained about a decade ago and is not something that I'd complain about now. A month after they opened the greatest WrestleMania of all time (WrestleMania X-7) and less than a week since they met in a rather ridiculous “Dutchess of Queensbury Rules Match” at Backlash, the Commissioner and Jericho put on another meaty wrestling display.