Crazy, PPV quality ladder match on free TV. This ain't the WWE I grew up watching. Eddie takes a while to introduce the ladder, and you can hear JR and the King getting fidgety on commentary, but once the ladder gets involved, Eddie takes some crazy ass bumps. I always fear a bit for Eddie with that smaller frame of his taking vicious bumps. The ladder portion of the match is better than the Edge No DQ match, but unfortunately Van Dam blows his big ladder spot at the end, and Eddie has to call a a finish on the fly. Then, after all the punishment they took, the match was overshadowed by an Austin run-in and Benoit turning heel. Not sure why they turned Benoit heel in Edmonton. Despite all that, the match had to have given Eddie a major confidence boost after his return to the WWE in April. It's too bad we never got to see Eddie vs. Austin. That might have been one of the highlights of the year if it had gone down. 

I get the appeal of these car-crash spectacles, and back when this happened I would've LOVED this, but these matches don't hold up for me anymore. It's hard for me to look past the contrived high-spots, erratic selling, and illogical sequences like Eddie doing a Sunset Flip Powerbomb off of the ladder instead of grabbing the fucking title. 

**1/4