Triple H vs Cactus Jack (WWF, 1-23-2000)

WWF Royal Rumble, New York, NY

This is a request via Ko-fi. This whole storyline was great, one of the best things WWE has ever done. The McMahon-Helmsley Regime, or whatever they were calling themselves at the moment, had fired Mick Foley, who was working as Mankind at the time. Then The Rock gathered a resistance of every WWF Super Star and threatened to quit, so Foley was reinstated.

DX abandoned HHH during an eight-man tag against Rock, Mankind, and the Acolytes. HHH was still able to give a furious beating to Mankind, beating and bloodying him on RAW. His mask came off, and something changed. And then on Smackdown in Chicago, HHH ran down Mankind and had Mideon doing his Mankind impersonation, so Mankind in his bloodied shirt from RAW came out.

“I’ll be honest, when I stepped into that shower and I let the cold water run down on my head, and I looked down at the blood as it swirled around that shower drain, I started thinking a little bit about what Mankind was.

“Mankind is an entertaining son of a gun. Mankind is a pretty damn good author. Mankind is one tough SOB. And Mankind is one hell of a fighter. So it saddens me to say that after the beating you gave me on Monday night, one thing Mankind is not is ready to face you in a streetfight at the Royal Rumble in Madison Square Garden. Because you are without a doubt The Game. You are the best in the business right now. And as you said, well, Mankind in some ways is nothing more than a beaten up, pathetic fool.

“But I think the WWF fans deserve a substitute in that match. What I’m gonna do, Triple H, is I’m gonna name him right now. As a matter of fact, I think you know the guy…

[Mankind takes off his mask and rips open his button-up shirt to reveal the familiar t-shirt.]

“And I think you know him pretty damn well! His name is Cactus Jack! And his first official act as part of the WWF is to kick your teeth all over the city of Chicago!”

So Cactus did get a few shots in on HHH, who to his great credit sold the “transformation” with absolute, true fear. Hunter did know Cactus Jack well, from a 1997 match on RAW at Madison Square Garden, a pretty terrific match in its own right. It takes a really special performer like Foley to have Michael Cole yell, “The metamorphosis is complete!” and not have it come off stupid.

At the VERY least, don’t watch this match without the pre-match video package.

Stephanie accompanies HHH out through the short MSG entrance, all decorated up for the streetfight theme of this match.

They stare each other down to start, with Cactus talking plenty, looking to get into HHH’s head. And it’s clearly working to some degree. Jack with a right, right, they’re trading to get going after the bell. HHH rammed into the corner, but he comes back with a series of right hands. Jack with a clothesline. Series of rights in the corner from Jack, HHH bails to the floor before a knee can connect. Cactus slides out and hits a swinging neckbreaker.

HHH coming back in through the ropes, Cactus hits a legdrop to the back of the head. The fight stays on the floor as a result, Cactus kicking away then smashing HHH off the ring steps, then into the timekeeper’s table, where HHH hits a live mic and the ring bell, but he picks up the bell and cracks Jack to the head.

HHH with a chair in the ring, Cactus just walks right in for it. JR remembers the chairshots from Royal Rumble ’99 that Foley endured, and Cactus moseys on over to get smashed with the chair. HHH undoing the top turnbuckle, but Cactus is up and clotheslines Helmsley down.

Jack with some right hands, has the chair and places it over the face of HHH on the canvas — legdrop onto the chair! Cover, two. Jack in control with simple brawling stuff. Two more kicks and HHH falls to the floor again. JR calls HHH “maybe the greatest technical champion that we’ve ever had” and I vomit.

HHH coming back a bit, but charges toward the barrier and gets backdropped over into the crowd. They fight in the crowd, Jack getting the better of it. They come out by the entrance, which is dressed up like a city alley, and HHH gets sent into some bricks. Two wooden palettes set up and HHH is slammed onto them. Jack with a trash can, shot to the skull.

Jack clawing away at the eyes, then sends HHH into the big metal door on the entrance. Slams his head into it repeatedly. They make their way back toward the ring, HHH grasps at a garbage can, and suddenly hits a back suplex onto the can. HHH has a nasty wound on his leg at this point, a big fuckin’ hole right in his calf, which they showed on the VHS as a special thing being stitched up after the match.

Jack with a series or right hands with HHH against the steps, then he charges with the reckless knee, crushing HHH’s head against the steps. Cactus finds a 2×4 wrapped in barbed wire! They’re back in the ring now, and dopey referee Earl Hebner steps in between and prevents HHH from being hit with the board. He doesn’t try so hard when HHH gets the board and hits Cactus in the stomach, back, and stomach and back again. It catches on Jack’s shirt.

Jack with a right hand, then he hits HHH in the nuts with the board. Referee takes the barbed wire and hides it, because apparently that’s his job. He put it under the Spanish commentary desk. Jack covering in the ring, but Hebner is busy not doing his job and it only gets two.

Cactus wants the board again, and finds a totally and noticeably different one from under that table, a board with phony barbed wire. Which is fair, mind you. I don’t expect every wrestler to take real barbed wire shots. HHH gets hit in the head and then Jack drops an elbow with it, basically. HHH bloodied now. He tapped a good one here.

HHH on unsteady legs, hit in the face again with the barbed wire. Jack rakes him across the forehead with it. Outside the ring again and Cactus pounds away at the wound. HHH trying desperately to get away from Cactus, to no avail. Over to the commentary desk now, and Jack goes for a piledriver on the table, but gets backdropped over. The table doesn’t break so much as crack and collapse under their weight after the impact.

Back in the ring, HHH has the advantage, and goes for a pedigree. Cactus sweeps the legs and slingshots him into the corner, then drives his head into the barbed wire board again. Cover, two. Back up and they head back to the floor thanks to a Cactus clothesline.

Out there, Cactus charges again and gets hiptossed into the steps, smacking his knee. Then he takes the whip into the steps, smashing his knee good again. HHH struggles back into the ring, Cactus behind him. HHH with a chop block to the bad leg. Hunter gets the board again and cracks Jack in the knee.

HHH gets something from Howard Finkel — it’s a little sack with handcuffs. I have no idea why Howard Finkel had that at ringside, but he did. HHH looks to cuff Cactus like was done at the ’99 Rumble in the match with The Rock, and gets one cuff on. Cactus breaks free, but HHH goes back to the knee and locks him up, hands behind the back.

Right hand from HHH, and another. A third. Cactus can’t defend himself. Fourth. Jack goes down. HHH brings a piece of the steps into the ring, and Jack takes him down with a legs-only drop toehold. HHH charges the corner, Cactus gets a boot up and falls into HHH’s balls with a headbutt. Cactus now biting the bloody head of HHH.

Cactus up, but HHH drops him with a clothesline. HHH with chairshots, one of them busting the chair over Cactus’ back. Jack hobbling into the entranceway, HHH chases with the chair and busts him over the head. Jack calls him on from his knees, a mouth full of blood. Suddenly, The Rock emerges with a chair and drops HHH.

A cop comes in and unlocks Cactus’ cuffs. Probably wise. HHH crawling backwards in fear now that Jack is back with two hands. Right hands from Cactus as they move back toward the ring. HHH on top of the Spanish table now, and this time Cactus hits the piledriver he wanted earlier. The table doesn’t give.

HHH sent back into the ring, Jack goes under the ring and finds a bag. “Sandbag. He’s gonna hit him over the head with a sandbag,” Lawler says. “I dunno, King,” JR replies. It’s thumbtacks. A big ol’ sack o’ tacks.

Stephanie comes down to ringside now, and that provides a distraction, but not enough of one. Jack with right hands, but he charges and gets backdropped onto the tacks. Stephanie is pleased, but with great distress. She just wants this to be over more than anything. Pedigree from HHH! One, two, NO!! Pedigree onto the thumbtacks! One, two, three! HHH retains!

After the match, Hunter is put on a stretcher and taken away, but Jack follows right behind and drags him back to the ring. An army of referees and officials surround the ring, but HHH is hit with the barbed wire again, and Cactus Jack is the one standing when it’s all over, keeping this rivalry going strong.

Rating: 5/5. One of my all-time favorite matches. It’s HHH’s best match and one of Foley’s, full of drama and high stakes and tremendous character work on both sides. HHH probably thinks his best stuff came with Shawn Michaels, but it was Mick Foley who made him seem like a legitimate main event talent first and best, giving HHH’s woeful early title reigns the juice they desperately needed. HHH is a creation of mythology more than anything, but he was great from this point until the quad injury. That doesn’t make up for his dull reign on top for the next forever and a day, but it’s worth being fair about.