RAW is at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim on October 9th, 2000, the same building that hosted WrestleMania 2000. Mick Foley has promised he will name the person who ran over Steve Austin. He comes out to a mixed reaction, booed and cheered, which Tommy Blacha says has nothing to do with Austin. That is the audience booing the writing. Foley brings in Shawn Michaels, who points the finger at The Rock and leaves. William Regal on commentary agrees. Tommy was in attendance at this show and remembers the crowd already feeling the weight of a year of stalling.
The reveal comes after the main event. Foley exonerates The Rock and then points to Rikishi. The crowd gives him nothing. Rikishi repeats himself. He explains he ran over Steve Austin for The Rock because WWF was always about the great white hope and his people were always held back. Rob and Tommy dismantle this immediately. The Rock had already been world champion. He was once the corporate pick over Steve Austin. Yokozuna was a world champion. The logic is broken on every level. Rikishi later said he was unhappy with the angle, hated memorizing a long scripted promo he did not believe in, and felt the company killed the hottest character he had ever had.
Tommy explains what was happening backstage: too many writers, new people cycling in every few weeks, no script supervisor, and a bottleneck at Vince producing whatever survived to the last minute. Rob notes Foley reportedly turned down being the driver because his Christmas book for children was coming out. Tommy says they should have had Rikishi say he did it, attack someone, and powder. Save the explanation for later. Instead they got the Scooby-Doo ending and burned Rikishi's momentum at the same time.
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Other major discussion points include:
0:00:00 Cold Open
0:00:28 Welcome / RAW 10/9/00
0:01:49 Austin Hit-and-Run Origins / Everyone Pitched to Be the Driver
0:07:13 Sunday Night Heat Promotion / Marketing Missed Opportunity
0:08:42 Ratings / Anaheim / WrestleMania 2000 Arena
0:14:08 Risk-Averse Booking / The Machine Growing
0:18:10 Foley Opens to Mixed Reaction
0:19:13 Main Event Booked / Jericho & Triple H vs X-Pac & Benoit
0:21:08 Shawn Michaels Brought In / Points to The Rock
0:25:00 Lita vs Jackie (Hardcore Title)
0:27:17 Chyna & Deborah Backstage
0:29:50 Deborah Interrogated by Foley
0:32:17 Triple H / Stephanie Backstage
0:35:43 Linda McMahon Limo Arrives
0:36:35 Raven vs Blackman / Lillian Garcia Botch
0:41:40 Linda McMahon Interrogated
0:46:18 X-Pac & Benoit vs Triple H & Jericho
0:49:15 Triple H Demands Benoit at No Mercy / Edge & Christian
0:50:01 Hardys vs Low Down / Conquistadors Debut
0:51:13 Al Snow (Greece/Grease) / Regal on Commentary
0:55:33 Eddie & China / GTV Shower Reveal
1:01:42 Michael Clark Duncan / Vince's Definition of Huge
1:03:20 Crash Holly / Scotty Too Hotty Interrogations
1:04:51 China Breaks Off Engagement / Billy Gunn
1:07:48 Main Event: Rock & Rikishi vs Angle & Kane
1:08:45 Rikishi Reveal / "I Did It for The Rock"
1:17:22 Listener Mail / Rikishi Quote / Meltzer
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