[2000-01-06-WWF-Smackdown] HHH vs Rikishi

[soup23]

First things first, I know Stephanie hasn't been in the heel position for long, but she was absolutely atrocious on commentary. Her sound effects for moves were groan inducing and her commentary quips weren't menacing or intriguing in the slightest. That said, early into 2000, HHH is having himself a nice run. This was the perfect match for the big heel vs. the hot commodity face in the promotion. Rikishi's rise to this much popularity was a shock to many and you certainly don't want to squash that. However, HHH is being built as the main heel focal point so in the end he also needs to be presented as strong in the close. This was achieved in all fronts. Rikishi and HHH have some heated strike exchanges and some nice around ringside brawling for WWF standards. These spots are staples of the attitude era but they felt like a way to present the narrative here instead of just being shoe horned in. We also get a bit of added layering with DX watching backstage but commenting how they aren't going to bail HHH out. The chairshot nearfall is really effective and the crowd goes crazy when Rikishi kicks out. The belt shot DQ was the perfect way to go as the finish here and this was another match where I was satisfied at the output but left wanting more. HHH looks menacing and Rikishi looks like more than a comedy character for the fans to get behind. ***1/4

[Loss]

This was before the HHH push was so overdone that it was ten times harder to get fans to bite on false finishes, so they have a much easier time getting Rikishi over as a worthwhile challenger. Rikishi was hot at the time anyway, and the work was good, so I don't mean to put it all on that, but I think sometimes people look back at 2000 WWF like the ring work was better. I don't think that's the case. I just think the matches seemed better because even the top guys, while still the favorites to win, seemed beatable, and people really were into their favorites climbing the ladder and believed they'd get there. This is one of many examples we'll get into of that phenomenon. One of HHH's better performances in making a challenger look good, and the time and place were right to get it over. I'm with soup on Stephanie's awful commentary. I think she improved quickly as a TV personality, but it took her some time to become a decent heel. ***

[Strummer]

I can remember Dave always pointing to this match to put over HHH's talent and deserved position on the card. Rikishi was over to a good degree here but the people believed he had a shot at winning which was due to Hunter making him look good and the well timed near falls. IIRC these two had a brief house show run around this time that drew surprisingly well. In fact it might have been one of the shows Dave attended and made this conclusion about HHH

[AstroBoy]

Rikishi arguably should have had a bigger main event role. He walked the line between lovable and credible with great precision here, never losing the fans as he and HHH have a very fun TV match. Agreed that HHH was in the zone here looking vicious and dangerous while not appearing unbeatable. I thought it was a brilliant finish where HHH doesn't have to go over Rikishi but still looks good in the process and Rikishi doesn't win clean but seems destined for that possibility. Both guys came out of this looking better.

[Laney]

This match is a lot better than what I would have expected. They do a great job of making Rikishi appear to be a legitimate championship contender. HHH was doing a great job bumping for Rikishi and gave him a lot of offense. The finish here kept Rikishi strong and made it look like he could challenge for the title in the future. Fun TV match for this time period where both guys look great.

 

 

***1/4

[KB8]

I already mentioned in another thread that it was around this point that I got back into following WWF after checking out for most of '99, and I remember being pretty stunned at how over Rikishi was - and to a lesser extent how Too Cool were as well - when I started paying attention again. I took to Rikishi almost right off the bat, though, and I was gutted when Helmsley managed to slink away with the belt after the DQ. I don't really remember him going very deep into the year with the same kind of momentum he had here, but for the first couple months of 2000 Rikishi was as over as anyone in the company not named The Rock.

 

Loss touched on it in this thread already, and he's brought it up on twitter as well, but it's super refreshing to see crowds legitimately biting on HHH nearfalls in sub-ten minute TV matches. I thought the booking of this was really strong overall. And I'm a bit less down on Stephanie doing commentary than our PWO2K founders. She wasn't amazing or anything, but I didn't think she was outright awful, either. She definitely improved a good bit as a character over the course of the year, though. Watch her during Helmsley's Last Man Standing match with Jericho at Fully Loaded. So, so hateable.

[Karl]

Enjoyable TV match. Kept Rikishi strong, while making HHH look like the bastard heel. ***

 

Match loses all *** for the Too Cool & Rikishi dancing bit....always hated that and was a huge part of me stopping watching.

[Childs]

Yeah, this was a really good TV match. Felt way bigger than the title change from earlier in the week. Rikishi was crazy over, and Hunter, to his credit, sold for him like he was a major threat. It's interesting how our memories have flattened Rikishi into a pure comedy act. Because he definitely came off as a guy who could've had a run with the belt at this point.

[WingedEagle]

Really refreshing to see the lengths they went to to put Rikishi over as a threat and credible challenger. Even today the interference shenanigans at the end were enough to bring this down for me, but just a touch. A shame we never got fully fleshed out title match here.

 

**3/4

[Matt Franklin]

This was a fun TV match that had some really well-timed near falls. I also found Stephanie to be distractingly horrible on commentary, her robotic delivery and lack of emotion actively took away from the presentation as a whole. I have a feeling that seeing hard chair shots to the head is something that we'll have to accept when watching footage from this era, but it is still disconcerting. HHH drills him with a shot straight to the head towards the end, which did produce a nice near fall, but in hindsight seems like something that really shouldn't e done just for a near-fall pop on a TV match, title or not. Rikishi looked good in this, and seems like he fits right into the main event scene, though doing his dance after being screwed out of a title match and attacked afterwards seemed a bit off.

 

Fun match. ***

[GSR]

Rikishi walks out accompanied by Too Cool, however he has a quick word with them and they return to the dressing room as he wants to do this one on his own. HHH jumps Rikishi while he’s removing his Sumo skirt and hammers away on him with a series of right hands. He fires back dropping the champion, and after a backdrop Hunter rolls to the outside. Rikishi follows him out and rams him head first into the ring steps. Big bodyslam on the floor and a legdrop. He goes to whip HHH into the steps, but a reversal sees Rikishi crash into them. Hunter slams his head into the announcer’s table before tossing him back into the ring. HHH with a shot to the mid-section and a facebuster as DX watches on from the monitor backstage. Clothesline with Rikishi taking a flip bump off it for a two. Hunter throws him to the floor, this time however its Rikishi’s who reverses the Irish whip and HHH goes careering into the barricade. Samoan drop and HHH kicks out at the last split second. Belly to belly and Rikishi drags Hunter over to the corner for the Bonzai splash. Great near fall as he hits the splash and HHH only just gets his shoulder up before the referee counts three. Rikishi Driver attempt, however HHH escapes and tries to counter with the pedigree, only for Rikishi to backdrop him and nail him with a thrust kick. Sit down splash, but Hunter moves and Stephanie leaves the announcing desk saying she’s got to do something. She passes her husband a chair and then distracts the official allowing him to level Rikishi with it. Even better near fall as he gets the shoulder up and Steph and Hunter can’t believe it. She then hands him his World title belt, and in full view of the referee clocks Rikishi for the DQ. HHH lays him out with a chair afterwards, but it’s not enough to keep Rikishi down and Hunter decides to get out of there.

 

Really good match and HHH put Rikishi over huge here. He bumped and sold for him and by the time this was over he looked like a serious and credible threat to the World title. Just listen to the crowd reaction on those near falls. Even the finish, which could be construed as cheap, came across as a man who had thrown all he could at his challenger, couldn’t put him away, so had to get himself disqualified to keep his belt. The lone negative was Stephanie who was on announcing duties, and personally I would’ve preferred her to be at ringside so I didn’t have to listen to her.

[Tim Evans]

The heat between this and the Rock/Angle match is night and day. That said, this was another good HHH performance. He and Rikishi had good chemistry. The near falls were insane given how close it was to 3. Felt like sometimes that the ref had to hold back cause HHH was too late raising the shoulder. I agree about Steph on commentary. The Mcmahon kids were never good on commentary. I guess they got it from Linda.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

I enjoyed this quite a bit, commentary aside. Rikishi was good at this time. HHH worked hard and made him believable. Crowd was quite with it and probably really would have gotten hotter if they fleshed the match out a bit more. Not really necessary, though, since it's just a Rikishi match. As everyone else has said, Steph was wretched on commentary.

[Zero]

The only negative for me on this is Steph's commentary. So bad. I almost wanted to put it on mute. Match was very well booked, and enjoyable. Rikishi kicking out of the chair shot felt like a huge moment. Didn't see that coming. Rikishi was kept very strong.