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[1999-10-04-WWF-Raw] The Rock vs Chris Jericho


Loss

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  • 1 month later...

Infamous match Jericho writes about in his book where he keeps having the worst luck possible, including picking up a drink from a ringside fan to throw in Rock’s face only to discover that it was chewing tobacco. Rock gets the win. This was the first show after Russo left and Russo booked Jericho to win when writing the show on the way out, but Vince changed the finish and this is when the real problems for Jericho in the WWF began. I think this is worth including in full for a few reasons: it’s the first match ever between the two, it pays off Jericho’s debut verbal sparring with Rock and it is a good representation of Jericho’s political problems at the time. I watched this thinking about what he wrote in his book and he described the problems with how he worked this match perfectly.

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  • 8 months later...

Lots of weird things happen in this match. Curtis Hughes interferes very liberally but everytime seems to miss his cue. Even during the beginning when he's kicking Rock, he's waiting for Jericho to run in. Then mid way through the match, the lights go out. I'm guessing the power really went out and it wasn't an angle? Reminds me of the Raw from the mid 2000s when they had to have a couple matches in the dark cause the power went out. After the match, Vince runs in and throws Bulldog back into the ring for Rock. Interesting match and you can see why Jericho had problems. He was way over his head here.

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  • 2 years later...

For two guys that will go onto have great chemistry, that wasn't the case here. I guess someone had talked to Jericho about the stiffness because his opening kicks here are really weak. The stuff on the outside is unfortunate between the tobacco cup and the lights going out. Even Hughes timing feels off. That is the best word to describe this match. Off. Rock wins which certainly doesn't help Jericho as I would have done a schmozz finish if Jericho wasn't going over. **

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  • 2 months later...

"Off" describes this very well. Not all of it is Jericho's fault (like the lights), but some of it is. The first "uh-oh" sign for Jericho's early run came at Unforgiven when he wasn't given a pinfall win over X-Pac on his PPV debut. Now he does a more-or-less clean job to the Rock--not a career killer of course, but I agree there probably should have been a schmozz finish here instead. Bulldog's run-in afterward is pretty pathetic, and Rock doing these programs with Billy Gunn, Bulldog, and later Al Snow reeks of 1995 Bret Hart.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1999-10-04-WWF-Raw] The Rock vs Chris Jericho

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